Things I Think About on the Drive Home from Work

I like to keep myself entertained on the drive home from work.  Today the Ice Cube song "It was a Good Day" came on.  As I was singing along I started thinking that there is a generation of kids who would probably be very confused by a few of the lines in the song.  For instance, "The Lakers beat the Supersonics."  I bet they're wondering who the Supersonics are.  I guess it hasn't been that long since they existed, but still, I wonder how many kids are aware of their previous existence.  The other line that I thought might be puzzling is, "My pager's still blowing up."  What's a pager?  Seriously, these kids have grown up in a world where cell phones do everything.  Pagers must seem like the stupidest invention ever.  I bet they wouldn't even know what to do with one.  Although, in all seriousness, any kids who are listening to this song are probably surprised that Ice Cube is a rapper.  They most likely know him as the police captain from the 21 Jump Street movie, which they are probably unaware is a remake of a television show.  Kids these days.  Well, that's just a small glimpse into my head during a typical drive home.  Enjoy a classic Ice Cube video now.

Get your act together, Federal Government!

Ok, I get that the government has differences of opinion when it comes to the budget.  I don't exactly know all the details, but I can appreciate the debate.  What I don't get is this whole, "I'm taking my ball and going home" attitude.  An entire government shutdown, really?  Is that the only solution they could come up with?  And why exactly does the whole government have to shut down to resolve this issue?  Isn't this just Congress' issue?  What really gets me is that all the National Parks are now closed because of the shut down.  Why the hell do the National Parks have to be shut down because Congress is acting like a bunch of babies?!  We are now depriving people of seeing the great beauty and history of our country.  How many field trips were planned to National Parks that had to be cancelled?  How many family vacations have been ruined because they can't fulfill their American dream?  How many foreign tourists came all the way over here only to be disappointed, thus going back home to further bad mouth America?  This isn't good.  This may have been the only chance for some people to see one of the parks.  And now they can't because the government can't work out their differences.  And in an ironic twist, Tuesday, the first day of the shutdown, marked the 123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park.  Google even celebrated the anniversary on their homepage.  But nobody could actually go to the park and celebrate the milestone.  What a joke.  I have a trip planned to the Grand Canyon next month, so all I can say is, "Get your act together, Federal Government!"

Disney Costume Ideas

With the calendar turning to October it's time to start thinking about one of my favorite holidays: Halloween!  And Halloween means costumes.  A couple years ago I wrote a post about obscure costume ideas.  This year I'm focusing my attention on Disney costume ideas.  And anyone who knows me knows they will be pretty obscure.  These are costumes inspired by Disney characters and movies.  I present them in no particular order, just a list of ideas that I think would be fun.

Robin Hood disguised as a Stork
This one is tricky because it's like two costumes in one.  First you have to dress up like Robin Hood, a fox, and then don his stork disguise from the archery tournament scene.

Darkwing Duck
"I am the terror that flaps in the night.  I am the surprise you find in your cereal box!  I am Darkwing Duck!"  Seriously awesome!

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
This would be more of a group costume, but another fun throwback to Disney afternoons.

Tale Spin
Another group costume idea from Disney afternoons. Seriously, I miss these shows!

Steamboat Willie
Complete with ship's wheel and everything.  Gotta love the old school.

I'm sure there are many other great Disney costume ideas, but these are my favorites.  I like them mostly because they remind me of my childhood and bring back happy memories.  Plus, I think they would get the best reactions from other people because they are a bit random.  But which ones do you like?  What other ideas do you have?

I've never seen that before!

I saw something yesterday that I can only assume is pretty rare.  While keeping tabs on the final day of the MLB season and watching games with playoff implications, it was announced that Henderson Alvarez of the Miami Marlins had a no-hitter going through 7 innings.  Naturally, I put that game on to watch as well.  (MLB.tv lets me watch four games at once!)  The one issue Alvarez was facing, though, is that his team had not scored a run for him yet.  The game went to the 8th inning and he continued to hold the Tigers hitless, but his team was still scoreless.  So to the 9th inning we went with Alvarez looking to continue his no-hitter and possibly ending up with a no decision if the game went to extra innings.  He got the first two outs, walked the next batter and then finished off nine innings of no hit baseball!  Now all his team had to do for him to secure the no-hitter was score a run in the bottom of the ninth.  I have to admit, I was pulling hard for a walk off no-hitter.  I mean, how often does that happen?!  I've never seen it.  The Marlins managed to get runners on second and third with one out and it was looking good.  An out, a walk, and no run later, we had bases loaded and a pretty interesting scene shaping up.  Alvarez, the pitcher, was now on deck.  Now, it would be impossible for him to actually come to the plate as either the winning run would score or the third out would be made, but it was still pretty surreal.  Sure enough a wild pitch was all it took and the Marlins won allowing Alvarez to celebrate his no-hitter while coming from the on deck circle instead of the pitcher's mound.  A rare occurrence indeed.

This is one of the reasons why I love baseball.  On any given day you are likely to see something you've never seen before.  Yesterday was one of those days.  And the rarity of a walk off no-hitter got me curious to see how often, if ever, it has happened.  Turns out, not that often.  It has only happened five other times, the last time in 1997.  That game was a 10 inning affair with two pitchers combining on the no-hit effort..  The last time it happened in nine innings was May 15, 1952 when a Vic Wertz home run gave the Detroit Tigers and Virgil Trucks a victory over the Washington Senators.  So in the last 61 years this has only happened three times.  I think it's safe to say I witnessed history yesterday!

What happened to TV?

The topic trending most in my life right now happens to be about a TV show that I don't watch.  It seems like everyone keeps asking me about Breaking Bad.  I understand the final episode airs this Sunday, and people are freaking out about it.  From what I can gather, it's a really great show.  But I don't watch it, and here's why.  First, I didn't start watching from the beginning and trying to start in the middle of the series is near impossible because you would be completely lost as to what's going on.  Second, I don't have Netflix or any of those other similar subscriptions, so I can't get caught up that way.  This makes it difficult to watch any serial-based television program.  And it seems like that is the direction many shows are heading these days.  There has been a decided shift from the episodic-based shows to serial-based.  Think about it, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy.  Not to mention all those premium channel shows that I don't watch because I don't get the premium channels.  But if you don't start from the pilot episode or don't have a way of catching up then you can't really get into these shows.  I feel like I got really lucky randomly catching the second episode of Sons of Anarchy.  I was instantly hooked and have been watching ever since.  In my opinion, it's the best show on TV.

But my question is, what happened to cause this shift?  How did we go from Law and Order and CSI, which were easy to watch just a single episode to where we are now?  And how do people keep up with all these shows?  I mean, you can't miss a single episode or else you're behind and lost.  Plus, you really have to pay attention while watching or you might miss something.  Don't get me wrong, I like many of these shows, especially Sons of Anarchy (have I mentioned that before?), but sometimes I just want to casually watch a show and not worry about what might happen in the next episode.  That's why I'm glad there are still shows like Psych to keep me entertained in an episodic way.

Please, tell me how to do my job

So I got an email today from a parent basically telling me what I should be doing as part of my job.  Don't mind the fact that this is a parent emailing me about their college student.  But this is not the first time something like this has happened in my line of work.  And that got me thinking, why do people feel that it is OK to tell teachers and educators how to do their jobs?  Everybody else seems to know how best to do this job, but they're not willing to actually do it themselves.  And most of the time it's parents telling me what to do with their kids when whatever it is they have been doing at home has put the kid in bad position to begin with.  So what makes people think they are experts when it comes to education?

I don't tell anybody else how to do their job.  And that makes me wonder if there are any other jobs that people feel the need to offer suggestions for.  For instance, I don't tell my dentist how to better clean my teeth.  I'm not emailing my mailman telling him how he should be delivering mail.  So why is education so different?

I know most people will say it's because people are protective of their kids and just feel that they know what is best for them.  Well, if that's the case then maybe they should just home school their kids.  If you don't trust the trained and certified professionals to do their jobs then take your kids somewhere else.  The bottom line is that it's rude and demeaning to tell others how to do their job.  You wouldn't want people to do that to you, so don't do it to them.

They're Baaaaaaackkkkkk!

It's that time of year again, the time every Arizonan dreads.  That's right, the snowbirds are descending upon us again.  I first noticed it this weekend when I couldn't figure out why everyone on the road seemed to forget how to drive.  Then a friend reminded me that they were back.  And sure enough, that explained it.  They come down every winter, clogging up our roads, abusing the turn signal, and misunderstanding normal speed limits.  Even though it happens every year, you never get used to it.  But what's even more disheartening is that my dad is one of them. :(

Recently I was driving with my dad, and I actually feared for my life.  For starters, he cannot carry on a conversation and drive at the same time.  He will miss his turns, veer into other lanes, and forget to brake.  And don't even get me started on his speed regulation, or should I say lack thereof.  Sometimes I'm not even sure he is fully aware that there are other cars on the road.  It's scary.  And, of course, like every other snowbird driver, he keeps his turn signals on for miles.  That's right, keep those other cars guessing as to when you might actually turn or change lanes.

What this means for me and the other good drivers in Tucson, if any of those actually exist, is that we have to be extra careful on the road.  So watch out Tucsonans, they're baaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!