What is supposed to happen in this designated area? Am I supposed to be washing my hands or flushing my hands?
Jeremy Dixon
Sent From My Wireless Handheld
I would have to say that I am thoroughly impressed by the numbers revealed in this video. It makes me think that the embracing of, and figuring out, the influence of social media on consumers might be the ticket out of this recession. Take a look:
For the record, I am still on Twitter and loving it. You will no longer see my feed on this blog because I have made it private. No one needs to know if I am going to be out of town that I don’t approve of. Even though we do have an alarm system, several pit bulls, and an arsenal that even the NRA would envy.
My wife and I have gotten into this habit every Saturday morning of watching Property Ladder on TLC where people attempt to flip houses. We thoroughly enjoy watching people’s stubbornness and complete disregard for professional advice to see if they succeed or not. My how times have changed. Walk with me for a second down memory lane.
There have been numerous occasions I have checked out the programming for the major networks on a Saturday morning only to wonder, “What are kids watching these days?” Just check out their Saturday morning programming:
What is there for them on Saturday mornings? Now I know a lot of people think TV will “rot your brain” but I beg to differ. I turned out fine.
Regardless of your outlook on TV, you have to admit that the selection of cartoons, or child friendly programming, was exponentially better in the 80’s and early 90’s. Check out what the options were in 87:
You might have to squint.
Since it may be hard to read let me point out some highlights: Smurfs, Muppet Babies, Berenstain Bears, Gummy Bears, Pound Puppies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mighty Mouse, Real Ghostbusters, Bugs Bunny and Tweety, Alf, Punky Brewster,…I could keep going. And I didn’t even mention Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra, or G.I. Joe!
Check out 1990:
Saved By The Bell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, New Kids On The Block, Garfield, etc!
How was one to choose?!?!
Just think about what would happen if the major networks brought back most of these shows for Saturday morning. Their viewership would definitely increase! I would also predict that they would even have the kids of those times sitting down with their kids to watch these shows with them because they would enjoy reminiscing.
Below are just a few of my favorites that were unmentioned from back in the day.
M.A.S.K.
These guys basically combined Transformers and G.I. Joe
Voltron
Airwolf
This didn’t air on Saturday mornings but it was so good I had to give it a mention.
It is a beautiful day indeed. My dad has a blog. He has had it for a few months now and he does a lot better job keeping up with his than I do mine. You should def check it out. His writing is pretty witty. I mean, just check out his bio on his blog. Here is a screen capture of the bio.
Def check out his blog. Click HERE.
His first post is the toast he gave at my rehearsal dinner and a lot of people have been wanting to read it so scroll all the way down on his blog to the first post.
After traveling to Chicago where people seem to walk everywhere and my times in the airports during my travels, I figured I would post some helpful hints on walking etiquette. Trust me, this is needed.
- When walking in crowded areas you should adhere to similar guidelines as when you do driving. Always walk on the right side. This keeps if from looking like an old war scene where the battle lines charged each other. We are not at war. We just want to get to our destination with the least amount of obstacles.
- If you find yourself the faster walker then you should pass those slower than you on the left hand side of everyone walking the same direction. This could be tricky because you might come to a wall of people walking slower than yourself which means you might have to venture over into oncoming traffic. If this should happen, then you should view this as passing a car on a road with the intermittent yellow lines. You have to time this perfectly as to not hit someone coming the opposite way because they have the right of way. Which leads me to my next piece of advice.
- Establish a line and commit to it! If you want people to respect your walk then you need to seem like an unwavering train. Don’t worry, people will see commitment in your eyes and get out of your way. Do you see people asking trains to get out of the way? I didn’t think so. There is nothing more frustrating than being behind someone walking a lot slower than yourself and swerving back in forth in front of you like a drunk driver. It is almost impossible to pass that person in crowded areas. Perhaps you are not sure where you are going and if that is the case then please see #4.
- Pull over to regain your bearings or if you need to come to a complete stop. You don’t stop in the middle of the highway or freeway so why stop in the middle of a busy sidewalk or airport concourse. There are very few legitimate reasons for this and the most common would have to be if you dropped something. At which point, one of your fellow walkers should assist you in your recovery to get you back on your way.
- Lastly, if you have to exit from your committed line to go to the bathroom, stop at a store, or if you are simply at your destination then plan your exit carefully. Make sure you look behind you as to not cut someone off.
These are not hard facts but I promise it will make walking a lot easier on you.
Last week I got the privilege of going to Chicago for a conference pertaining to work. In the days leading up to the conference my boss and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our free time. We both had been to Chicago and done some of the tourist stuff so we were looking for something a little different. Jokingly, and half serious, he came in to my office and suggested that we retrace the steps of Ferris Bueller from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
I thought that was a great idea so I began searching the interwebs to see if someone might have done this before. I am not sure if anyone has actually spent most of their time in Chicago retracing the steps of a fictional character in fairly popular movie but we did find a website that posts shooting locations of movies. The site www.movie-locations.com had a very detailed page on the movie with pictures and exact locations of all the places the movie used that were actually in Chicago. It was almost too easy.
Upon arriving in Chicago we almost forgot about our mission until we got in front of the Sears Tower. We had already been by the Art Institute of Chicago going somewhere else and we had also stopped by Wrigley Field in search of a hard-to-find Cubs shirt. The Sears Tower pretty much had put us half way through with our somewhat forgotten mission. After deciding that we were not going to throw down $20 to go to the top of the Sears Tower we realized that 4 more of the movie locations were within the general vicinity. It was game on at that point. We got out our trusty iPhones and punched in each location one-by-one. Having not planned this our ahead of time we managed to retrace our steps several times going from location to location. Many of the locations we could not go into because it was after business hours but some would have cost us a fortune to do if we put them all together so you will notice that pretty much all of the shots taken are actually the exterior of places that the cast of the movie actually went in to.
If you click on the individual picture it will detail the significance of the location in the movie.
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- The parking garage where they left the 1961 Ferrari 250GT California
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- The Sears Tower
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- Where Ferris proposes to Sloane and Cameron practices his hand signals.
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- The exterior of the restaurant is actually this house but the interior was a restaurant in LA.
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- This was more of a montage in the movie so there aren’t any quotes for this picture.
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- Abstract sculpture called Flamingo
Save Ferris!
I think it is time for a list of “likes” and “dislikes” from yours truly.
Likes:
- If you have not seen the movie Up then stop what you are doing and go see it ASAP.
- Dunkin Donuts coffee from the Dunkin Donuts store. They add just the right amount of cream and sugar. Amazing!
- Uni-ball Vision Elite pens. My wife and I fight over these bad boys. Mainly, she tries to steal them from me.
- My wifes cooking. This could be related to a dislike but really I just need to put portion control into practice more.
- This one might be a little premature, but the Beatles RockBand coming out 9/9/9. Just check out the video ad for it.
- This photo I recently took with my old Yashica D.
Dislikes:
- Transformers 2. I walked into the movie reverting back to myself as a 7 year old and walked out as a 7 year old with a lot of new words and phrases to get me sent to the principals office. Some people might think I am a prude but I want a pretty innocent movie if it is based on toys. It also could have been 30-45 minutes shorter.
- Music ministers that feel the need to do 98.3% of all the solos in church. I sometimes get the feeling they are doing this because they dreamed of having a music career that never really took off. Of course, I could totally be overlooking something here so don’t peg me as a cynic.
- Foods – Pimento Cheese, Corn Bread, Lima Beans, Mushrooms, Guacamole
- Music – Nickelback, Daughtry, Hinder, almost everything labeled “Country”
- My current physical shape / condition
- Our current mayor of Birmingham, Larry Langford. He is just ridiculous!
This is by no means a complete list but just some things that have crossed my mind as of late. Of course, always on the “Likes” list are my wife and my family.
I know I might be going a little overboard on this whole U2 thing, but I feel as if I said I was going to do something then I should do it. So I am going to continue titling my posts with the name of a U2 song until I see them in concert on Oct 6th. I am trying to make the song title match the subject of the post as best I can. You can be the judge of how I am doing.
Here is a really cool article on Bono and his views on faith vs. karma from Gene Edward Veith.
Is Bono, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group U2, a Christian? He says he is and writes about Christianity in his lyrics. Yet many people question whether Bono is “really” a Christian, due to his notoriously bad language, liberal politics, and rock star antics (though he has been faithfully married for 23 years). But in a new book of interviews, Bono in Conversation by Michka Assayas, Bono, though using some salty language, makes an explicit confession of faith.
The interviewer, Mr. Assayas, begins by asking Bono, Doesn’t he think “appalling things” happen when people become religious? Bono counters, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.”
The interviewer asks, What’s that? “At the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one,” explains Bono. “And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that. . . . Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”
The interviewer asks, Like what? “That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge,” says Bono. “It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”
Then the interviewer marvels, “The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.”
“The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death,” replies Bono. “It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.”
The interviewer marvels some more: “That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has His rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?”
Bono comes back, “Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate.’ . . . So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. . . . The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s farfetched.”
What is most interesting in this exchange is the reaction of the interviewer, to whom Bono is, in effect, witnessing. This hip rock journalist starts by scorning what he thinks is Christianity. But it is as if he had never heard of grace, the atonement, the deity of Christ, the gospel. And he probably hadn’t. But when he hears what Christianity is actually all about, he is amazed.
This is hilarious!
