Alright So Maybe I Did Get Lost

The RPR will be on hiatus for an undetermined period of time. Work is busy right now, my commute is longer than it was, and as a result, I just don't have as much time to sit in front of the computer at night (after sitting in front of the computer all day long).

My apologies to all of the fans out there, but I hope you understand. I'll try to get it back up and running at some point in the near future, so be sure to check back every now and again.

In the meantime, be sure to take a look at the trailer for the new Christopher Guest mockumentary, For Your Consideration.

I haven't gotten lost

Contrary to popular belief, I have not gotten lost. This has been a busy week, so not much time for blogging.

I missed commenting on exciting items in the world like the Whitney Houston/Bobby Brown divorce, the birth of Britney's second kid, and crazy pictures of Suri Cruise on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. Of course, none of these items are all that important, and I'm sure you've heard or read enough coverage -- of course this assumes that you take a liking to the world of celebrity craziness. If not, you are probably better off.

The Notre Dame thrashing of PSU is a distant memory at this point, and rightfully so. It was a brutal game to watch, so let's not mention it any further. However, the Eagles are looking promising, and I look forward to the "big Week 2 showdown" against the Giants. I love when games in the early part of the season end up being "showdowns". If the Eagles fall 1 game shy of winning the division in January, I'm sure the media will find 20 other reasons for it, rather than if they may have slipped up in Week 2. File this under 'things I'll never understand'.

Not much else to report on. I'll try to make the updates as consistent as possible.

Bizarre Moment of the Day

In the hallway where my office is at work, we have a clock on the wall. It's a typical clock -- black perimeter, white background, large block numbers. So I'm standing outside of my office and talking my co-workers who sit next door, and I notice that the clock isn't correct. In fact, it's not moving at all. The hand that tracks the seconds (what is that called? the 'third' hand?) is trying to move forward, but isn't going anywhere.

What time is the clock stuck on?

8:46. (Of course, no distinction as to whether that's AM or PM.) It's a little odd because of the significance of 8:46am on this day -- the time when the first airplane hit the World Trade Center five years ago to the day.

Very bizarre. Very creepy.

The Sports Guy's NFL Season Preview

In true Bill Simmons fashion, the Sports Guy provides his Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down NFL Season Preview, with the excellent mixture of sports insight, humor, and variety of off-the-wall analogies. My favorite passage relates to what he had to say about the Eagles:

Meanwhile, everyone's counting out the Eagles, who absolutely REEK of Ewing Theory potential after T.O.'s departure and everyone acting like they were a 6-10 team last season, when the reality was this: Their defense was decimated by injuries; they lost McNabb in Week 7 and Westbrook in Week 8; and the T.O soap opera and residual bitterness from the Pats' Super Bowl destroyed what was left of their season. Well, who has an easier schedule -- @Hou, NYG, @SF, GB, DAL, @NO -- over the first six weeks? With the exception of Dallas and Chicago, who has a better defense in the NFC? Why is everyone so willing to count out a team with a quality coach that's loaded on the offensive/defensive lines? Couldn't they do a reasonable impression of the 2005 Bears, only with a much better QB? I love the Eagles this season. More on this later.

(Another reason to love them: After hitting rock bottom last winter, Philly seems to be in the middle of an under-the-radar resurgence, between Ryan Howard putting the Phillies on his back, the success of "Invincible" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," Billy King somehow avoiding a mindless Iverson trade (although there's still time), the upcoming Rocky movie, the hysterical M. Night Shyamalan book … I mean, all we're missing is the reunion of D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince at this point. I'm feeling good things ahead for the Eagles. Can't explain it.)

Other quick notes:

- Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been watching MTV's Two-A-Days to supplement the fact that I have skipped the newest season of Laguna Beach. The show is basically the same as that show they did when Dick Butkus became the coach of a high school team, except this team is one of the top squads in the nation. Same old nonsense... relationship troubles, trying to get recruited for college, 2 players who were friends get into fights, the team searches for their identity... blah, blah, blah. And yet I haven't missed an episode.

- For the Penn State crowd out there, set your TiVo's and DVR's. Thursday night, Sept 7 at 6:30pm - the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will feature a segment on Joe Paterno and Penn State University. Apparently it's less sports-related and more focused on principles and values within the university and its athletics program. If JoePa is involved, then it's worth watching.

- That's it for now. Back tomorrow.

Labor Day 2006

In honor of Labor Day, I seemed to have taken off the past couple of days. As I mentioned last year, it's rather ironic that the working citizens of the United States honor "Labor Day" by not working. I always loved that idea.

Couple of quick items from the weekend:

- I went to my first Yankees game on Friday night (Thank you to Alexis for the tickets!). Since I've been in the NYC area, I thought I owed it to myself, as a baseball fan, to make it up to the 'House That Ruth Built' to check out the historic ballpark. The stadium seems a lot smaller in person than it looks on television. The age of the stadium also shows: the aisles are very narrow, the seats are very close together, and the concession stands have only the basics and nothing spectacular. I have to say that the vendors did a nice job of covering the stands with a wide variety of food -- the hotdogs, beer, pretzels, soda, ice cream, peanuts, Crackerjacks, and frozen lemon ice guys all made it to our section. Very impressive. As for the game, it was drizzling the whole time, and the Yankees ended up defeating the Minnesota Twins, 8-1.

One thing I didn't quite understand was when A-Rod hit a solo homerun in the 2nd inning to put the Yankees on top, 1-0. The "passionate" Yankees fans wanted him to come out for a curtain call. I mean, seriously. Give me a break. The guy hits a solo homerun early in the game, and the fans want to honor the guy already? You have to be kidding me. If they are so passionate, they need to have higher expectations for the guy, and give him the honor when he hits a big homerun in a game-deciding situation. I found this to be ridiculous. Overall, Yankees Stadium was nice to see, and I'm happy to have gone, regardless of the fact that I hope the Yankees lose every game they play.




- Penn State game on Saturday: I'm liking Anthony Morelli. The kid has a gun for an arm, and can throw a frozen rope to a receiver. The offense looked rather solid, given the rainy conditions throughout the game. The defense is a bit of a concern, as it seemed like Akron had too easy of a time moving the ball down the field. There's no way the defense should have given up 16 points. The only solace is that Notre Dame looked anything but impressive in their 14-10 victory over Georgia Tech. As a result, I feel better about PSU's chances next Saturday in South Bend. More on this game later.

- I have a new barbershop: the Russian guy around the corner. It's this little hole-in-the-wall shop literally around the corner from the apartment, and thankfully they were open on Labor Day. The guy didn't speak too much English, but he knew enough to understand what I was looking for, and they also give the hot shaving cream with the straight razor on the neck and sideburns. That is key. Renaldo's up at the Penn State used to do that, and I thought it was fantastic. Best part -- it was $10! Not much to report on otherwise, but just wanted to pass along the briefing for the new haircut setting.


Enjoy Labor Day!

New Burger King Commercial

I love anything that makes fun of T.O., including the new Burger King commercial doing a parody of last year's three ring circus press conference outside of his New Jersey home. As menetioned in the past, I really enjoy the BK commercials, especially the ones where the King is transposed into an old football highlight. Here's hoping that they come up with some new ones this year.

Side note: Saw Little Miss Sunshine on Tuesday night, and it could possibly be the funniest movie I've seen in months. The acting is great, the storyline is hysterical, and you'll without a doubt be rolling on the floor laughing. Definitely gets the RPR movie recommendation. I'm hoping to see Invincible this weekend. That needs to happen for sure. Anybody who's seen it have comments?

RPR Concert Ticket!

What will they come up with next? I found a website where you can make your own concert ticket. I know the "Make Your Own Subway Sign" from several months back was a big hit, especially with the BBC, so I'm sure he'll be one of the folks who enjoys this one as well. 

What's in the Monday Bag of Tricks?

Couple of quick items:

- Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I live 1 block from one of the NYU dorms. So yesterday (Sunday) was move-in day for the freshman and let me tell you, this could add some humor to my neighborhood for sure. How can you pick the freshman out from the crowd? Actually, that's a trick question since the freshman are the crowd -- they travel in packs of twenty. I found this amusing when they'd all wander up and down College Avenue in State College, PA, but to see them wandering on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, in large groups... that is just priceless. By the way, the parents looked they had a wonderful time dealing with the traffic and congestion of the East Village during the move-in. And we all thought East Halls was bad....

- For what it's worth, I spotted film director Wes Anderson (Royal Tenanbaums, Life Aquatic, Rushmore) walking down 14th Street. He looked just like he did in that MasterCard commercial, but much taller in real life.

- The Jessica sent me an article with some blogger statistics. Let's see how many the RPR falls into:

In case you have been living under a rock or something, blogging is now a
big part of Americans' lives, or so says a survey by Pew Internet & American
Life Project. Here are a few findings from the phone survey of 7,012
people:
· Thirty-nine percent of U.S. Internet users, or about 57
million Americans, read blogs; 8 percent, or about 12 million Americans, write a
blog; and more than half of bloggers are under the age of 30.
· Pew
found that 37 percent of bloggers cite "my life and experiences" as what they
blog about, while only 11 percent cited public issues as typical topics. Sixty
percent of bloggers are white, while 74 percent of the country's Web users are,
according to the data. Fifty-five percent of bloggers write under a pseudonym.
· Fifty-four percent of bloggers say that they have never published
their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44 percent say they have
published elsewhere.
· Women and men have statistical parity in the
blogosphere, with women representing 46 percent of bloggers and men 54 percent.
· Seventy-six percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to
document their personal experiences and share them with others. Sixty-four
percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or
skills with others.
· Seventy-seven percent of bloggers have shared
something online that they created themselves, such as their own artwork,
photos, stories, or videos. By comparison, 26 percent of Internet users as a
whole have done this.

Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost.

- Additionally, in case, you haven't seen this one, Julie sent me a link to a Forbes magazine write-up on America's Drunkest Cities. Not much of a surprise that Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul came in #1 and 2 since there isn't much else to do in those cold areas besides booze it up. Shout-out to Austin, TX, for landing at #5. Also, let's hear it for Pennsylvania, as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia came in at a respectable #8 and 9.

- I'll do a little write-up about this past weekend in an upcoming post.