Why I Love Groundhog Day!

With my favorite holiday less than a week away, I thought I'd share exactly why it's my favorite holiday.  People always ask me why I love Groundhog Day so much.  They say it's such a silly, stupid holiday.  And that right there is why I love it so much!

Groundhog Day represents all that is silly and goofy in the world.  It allows us to put an otherwise insignificant rodent on a pedestal for a day and celebrate its predictive abilities.  And more than anything else, it gives us a reason to smile.  For one morning a year we watch in anticipation as men in top hats with silly titles, like Thunder Conductor and Sky Painter, read a proclamation of the most famous groundhog in the world.  And even though deep down we know the animal has no control over the coming weather, we believe that he does, because we have no reason not to.  There's nothing evil or offensive about this celebration.  It is simply fun.  Fun that we need in this world.  Look at the stories that dominate our news: school shootings, lying athletes, political corruption, economic dismay.  We need more reasons to smile!  And Groundhog Day gives us a reason to smile.  It doesn't matter what race, gender, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation you are.  Everyone can partake in this celebration because it's for everybody.  Punxsutawney Phil has been on Oprah, met Presidents, supported causes, and inspired people around the world.  There have been songs written about him, games about him, and stories galore.  And what do all those things have in common?  They make people smile.

And unlike some of the more popular holidays, there's no stress or family obligations centered around Groundhog Day.  In fact, most of the time it gets overlooked and passed over with little to no acknowledgement.  There are no Groundhog decorations in the stores, no special sales, no television specials.  There is simply a groundhog and a town that has kept a centuries long tradition going as a way to help our society smile.  I could go on forever about my love for Groundhog Day, and I could share countless facts and anecdotes.  But the fine people of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club have done that for me.  So I encourage you to visit www.groundhog.org and learn a little more about this holiday.

The Missing Sock Conundrum

We've all been there before.  You take the clothes out of the dryer, start folding, and you're left with one lone sock.  You retrace your steps from the laundry room, thinking you may dropped it, check the dryer again and the laundry basket, but it's no use.  The sock is gone.  You continue to look for it over the next few days, but still find nothing.  You wonder to yourself. "Where could it have gone?"  But maybe the question you should be asking is, "WHEN could it have gone?"  (I wish dramatic music could start playing right now.)

Imagine this: Socks are all part of a quantum leap/time travel experiment which periodically sends them on super secret sock missions.  (Say that 10 times fast)  So when your sock goes missing it is actually traveling through time solving worldly problems.  I know what you're thinking.  Time travel should allow the sock to return exactly when it left without anyone knowing.  You are correct.  But what if the sock, let's call him Sock Bakula for fun, is stuck in a perpetual quantum leap, leaping from one time to another, unable to come home until he fixes another problem.  At any given time your sock could be in the old west, communist Russia, ancient Rome, etc.!  It's all very exciting.  Imagine how many heroic socks are sitting in your drawer right now.  But, eventually, Sock Bakula gets out of his perpetual leap and returns home.  That's when out of the blue, we find the sock and are overjoyed to pair him up with his lonely partner.

But that's just a theory.  We'll probably never know for sure.

My Common Courtesy Pet Peeves

As I was sitting in my CPR/First Aid class today I was inspired with a new topic to write about.  It appears that there are a great many instances in this world where common courtesy seems to fly out the window.  I don't quite understand why people can't be respectful in regard to these simple instances.  Therefore, I've decided to compile a list of pet peeves I have in regard to common courtesy.

1.  Return your shopping cart to the proper location in the parking lot.  This bothers me more than anything else I see.  The cart returns are no more than ten yards apart.  They are not that far from your car where you shouldn't be able to easily return it.  Instead, people feel the need to leave in the middle of a parking lot thereby taking away parking spots and making other people, like the employees, go out of their way to collect the carts.  It's just rude.

2. When in a grocery store, mall, amusement park, etc., please don't stop in the middle of an aisle or walkway where other people are walking.  And, if you do, don't get mad if the people behind you run into you after stopping.  You wouldn't stop your car in the middle of the street, so why stop your feet?  Pull off to the right!

3. If you are in a class or training, please refrain from telling personal stories unless a relevant question is attached.  For that matter, unless the question is relevant to everyone involved, don't ask it at all.  Wait until after the class and speak to the instructor or presenter.  They are getting paid to listen to you.  I'm not.  I just want to get the information I need and get out.  Please respect that.

4. If you are driving or walking and someone lets you in a lane during times of busy traffic or stops to let you cross the street, give a courtesy wave.  It's just a simple wave acknowledging your appreciation of the kind act.  You don't even have to lift your arm very high, just enough to show that you are appreciative.  Otherwise, you are just being rude.

Those are just a few things that get under my skin.  Overall, I think there is a lack of courtesy and respect in our society.  Maybe if we went back to doing some of the little things that show respect, we would return to a more courteous society.

Holy Freezing Weather, Batman!

So it has been extremely and unbearably cold in Tucson the past couple of days.  And, yes, I realize that 90% of the country thinks I'm a wuss for saying that because, realistically, our low is some people's high.  But sweet Moses, it's cold out there!  It's one thing to travel somewhere that is cold and you expect it and prepare for it.  But it's another thing when you live in a warm environment and wake up frozen one morning.  I don't really even know how to describe the cold, but I'm going to try anyway.

The past two days I've kind of felt like I live in Gotham City during an episode of the old Batman TV series, and this week's villain is Mr. Freeze.  He decided to freeze out the whole city so that we can't fight back when he starts his world domination plot.  Our only hope to be saved is for Batman to thaw us all out.  Because everyone knows Batman's suit is impervious to freezing.  When I turn on the local news tonight, I'm expecting to see it taken over by Mr. Freeze and have him unveil his dastardly plan.  Please save us Batman.

Will our intrepid blogger survive the night before turning into an Adamsicle?  Will this be the end for our daring hero?  Tune in next blog.  Same Adam time, same Adam channel.

My Hall of Fame Rant!

Baseball Hall of Fame voting was announced today, and much to my surprise, not a single player was elected.  Not the all time home run leader.  Not a player with seven Cy Young Awards.  Not a player with 3,000 hits.  Not the greatest hitting catcher of all time.  Not the player with more 60 home run seasons than anyone else.  And why?  Because the baseball writers of America wanted to send a message.  And what message is that exactly?  That they are the final judges of who cheated the game?  Well, who gives them the right to decide that?!

Jayson Stark wrote an article on ESPN that says what I want to say probably a lot better than I can say it, but what stood out the most about what he said was that we can't ignore that the steroid era happened because it DID happen.  These Hall of Fame voters want to pretend that if they ignore the players from that era and not let them in to the Hall that it would be the akin to wiping out the memories of that era.  Well, it won't.  We all watched it happen.  We all sat by and let it happen.  We all cheered along while it happened.  And nobody said anything about it.  Not the players.  Not the owners.  Not the fans.  And certainly not the writers.  So why now is everyone up in arms about this?  And without definitive proof over who did and who didn't use, how can we judge individual players as being worthy or not?  The answer is we can't.  There are players who still transcended the game, still dominated on the field, and belong in the Hall of Fame because of that.

I don't understand why players like Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell are being penalized simply for playing in this era.  They have never tested positive for anything nor even been accused of anything.  Except playing alongside players like McGwire and Palmeiro.  And don't even get me started about Craig Biggio.  Not only does he have 3,000 hits, but he is the only player in history with a 50 double, 50 stolen base year.  He also reached base more than Ty Cobb, and has been hit by a pitch more than any other player in history.  I just don't understand the reasoning behind the voting.

I could write all night long about the injustice and hypocrisy that went on today.  But I'm going to end my rant here by saying that I feel a change needs to be made as far as Hall of Fame induction process is concerned.  This is not a black and white issue and it needs to be interpreted, not judged.  If you'd like to read a more eloquent response on the issue, here is Stark's article: http://espn.go.com/mlb/hof13/story/_/id/8826383/what-mlb-hall-fame-be

Return of the Golden Adams?

Well, it's movie awards season again!  Time to watch all the beautiful people strut their stuff on the red carpet  and give everybody's favorite cliched response, "I'm just happy to be nominated."  That sounded a little bitter didn't it?  But seriously, I like the awards season.  I like it even more when Natalie Portman shows up.  But that's a story for another blog.  So now the real reason for this post.

Back in high school and the beginning of college I started my own awards called the Golden Adams.  I had categories for Drama, Comedy, and Action.  I even had a website one year where people could go on and vote for who they thought should win.  Of course, the votes didn't really matter because I just picked who I wanted, but it was still fun.  Granted, I used to see a lot more movies back then which made the process easier.  This year I saw six movies in the theater.  That is actually a high number for me.  So the feasibility of restarting the awards is not very high.  However, I also started giving a lifetime achievement award.  Past winners included Michael Winslow of Police Academy fame, Tina Majorino of Andre fame, and Jonathan Ke Quan of Goonies and Temple of Doom fame.  As you can tell I like to recognize those who probably wouldn't normally get recognized.  I thought it would be fun to at least bring back the Lifetime Achievement Award as a way to continue the tradition.

Here are some people I think might be worthy of the recognition:
Fisher Stevens - star of Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2
Stephen Root - star of Office Space
Judge Reinhold - star of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop

But I want to hear from all of you, my loyal readers.  Who do you think should win the award?  Feel free to comment here or on Facebook.  I will announce the winner the week of the Academy Awards.

Resolution Addendums!

In my last post I wrote about my resolutions and mentioned that I thought there was more I wanted to do but couldn't remember.  Well, guess what?!  I remembered!  So here's a couple more goals for me to achieve.

1. I want to do something every day to make at least one person smile.  I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish this, or how I will even know if I make it happen, but I'm going to try.  So don't be surprised if you get a random message from me or if I call you just to tell you a joke or something.
2.  I want to floss more.  I know we all say this after going to the dentist, but this time I mean it.  I heard that you can add six years to your life just by flossing!  That didn't mean much to me before because I thought the world was going to end this past December.  But clearly that was a hoax, so now I have more reason to floss.

Ok, that's it for now, I hope.

My New Year's Resolutions

Well, we made it to 2013.  Congratulations!  I should start by saying that New Year's is quite possibly my least favorite holiday.  I mean, what are we actually celebrating, the fact that we have to put a new calendar on the wall?  There's nothing overly significant about this holiday.  It happens every year and it's the same every year.  People get stupid and crazy and act like they've never seen midnight before.  Granted, we celebrate all other holidays every also, but most of those carry some sort of importance.  Independence Day celebrates our break from the tyrannical English government.  Christmas celebrates Santa's birthday, I mean Jesus.  Memorial Day honors the troops that have fought for and served our country.  And New Year's celebrates the changing of a page.  Seems kind of anti-climactic if you ask me.

But enough of my ranting.  Like most people, I too fall victim to the curse of making resolutions that I will most likely not follow through on.  As I started thinking about why I never follow through, I realized that I never actually write them down.  So, about half way through January I've already forgotten about all these changes that I told myself I want to make.  That's why this year I'm doing things differently.  I'm going to list my resolutions in this post so I have a record to refer back to as I try to actually follow through on my wishes.  This is the point where I expect most of you to stop reading because I'm sure you couldn't care less about my resolutions.  But for those of you who continue, enjoy.

1. I want to read at least one new book each month
2. I want to write at least 100 blog posts
3. I want to start exercising more.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, so we'll see how this one goes.
4.  I want to stop cussing.  I have no real reason why I want to do this, or how, but I feel like it would be a positive change.
5. I want to cross at least one thing off my Life List.  Obviously, more than one would be great, but I'm not trying to get crazy here.
6. I want to hang some pictures in my home office.  This isn't much of a resolution, but I figure if I write it down here I will be more apt to do it.
7. I want to talk to friends and family more.  Too often I wait for people to contact me, so I want to switch that up a little and be the one to initiate the contact.
8. I want to gain some self confidence and learn to like myself a little more.  This is probably the biggest and most important thing I want to accomplish this year.

I feel like as I was thinking about this post over the past week I had a lot more that I wanted to put on this list.  But of course I didn't write anything down, so I'm sure I forgot things.  Which is exactly why I'm typing this post, so I don't forget the things I want to accomplish this year.  With that said, it's time for me to end this post.  Thank you to anyone who made it this far.  Happy New Year!