Category: Uncategorized

Or should I say, he looks like me.

Last August, I went to Canada for a week. When I came back, I had a beard. Which I still have to this day:

Okay, this picture was actually taken last week, but you get the idea.

So this morning, I fire up the DVR and start to watch the first new episode of Late Night With Conan O’Brien in a few months. Conan’s been away, on hiatus since the WGA strike started in November. I was quite surprised to see Conan O’Copycat’s new look:

It actually looks good with him. He looks somewhat rugged. While, in the picture up above, I look bloated. So score one for Conan. But just remember the first tall, gangly, somewhat pale guy to start the beard thing. That’s right, Abraham Lincoln:

Tonight, the Civee and I walked to the nearby Giant Eagle to get some things for tonight’s dinner (turkey burgers).

We were mostly done getting what we needed when I wanted to stop and get a bottle of Orangina (the best soft drink ever). I reached for a bottle, but it slipped out of my fingers and broke on the floor, spilling and shattering glass all over aisle 1.

The Civee went to go tell the store staff of the spill (and broken glass) as I stood by, letting people know of the broken glass and liquid on the floor (and when people in a grocery store are on a cell phone, they really aren’t paying attention to anything else). She came back, saying that the manager said they’ll send someone. We agreed to stand there until someone showed up, figuring it was our responsibility to do so.

The thing is, it took ten minutes for someone to show to clean it up. By this point, I had gone to the front to tell someone (as we thought they forgot about us). It was an ethical quandry for us–yes, the broken glass and spilled liquid was our responsibility, but how long were we supposed to wait there to let our fellow shoppers know to be careful?

And by the way, I did apologize for my clumsiness. Instead of signing my name on the receipt, I wrote ‘sorry ’bout the Orangina.’

My new favorite wrestling gimmick:

il Cartographer!

Tomorrow, the Civee and I are planning on being in Columbus for Thanksgiving evening. Neither of us are fans of turkey, and I think we may be doing something different: steak for Thanksgiving.

It’s something I’ve always dreamed of doing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Ten years ago today, the course of wrestling changed forever in an arena up in Montreal.

Vince McMahon, owner of the (then) near-bankrupt WWF let one of his star wrestlers, Bret Hart, out of his contract to sign with rival WCW. Hart was the federation champion, with a month left to wrestle for the fed, and was willing to lose the belt to anyone but Shawn Michaels in anyplace but Canada. But McMahon feared WCW announcing that it signed away its champion.

With an injured future savior (Stone Cold Steve Austin) sidelined due to a broken neck, transitioning the title to Michaels was the only way that McMahon saw he could keep his company creatively afloat until Austin’s coronation. So McMahon had Hart lose a scripted match that was supposed to be a draw, effectively kicking Hart to the curb.

Even more genius, McMahon used the negative karma to make himself into an evil foil for the blue-collar Austin when Austin won the belt.

Hart’s time in WCW was forgettable, and he was out of the business within a few years. Austin, who was already one of the industry’s biggest stars, became even bigger and the near-bankrupt WWF bounced back to dominate American wrestling.

While Hart was the center of an excellent storyline earlier that summer, he was slowly losing relevance. By his own admission, he didn’t agree with the direction in which the company was headed. Because Austin was injured, it wasn’t the right time to transition the title to him. And regardless of how McMahon handled the Survivor Series, the WWF needed a credible champion, not some joker like Ken Shamrock.

The ‘Montreal Screwjob’ might not have had a happy ending for Bret Hart, but for Vince McMahon and the WWF, the result was more than worth it.

For an extremely detailed look at what went down in the weeks leading up to the 1997 Survivor Series, check out Dave Meltzer’s recap.

For an excellent look at the big historical picture, check out Scott Keith’s essays King Lear and Lazarus.

Tonight is the first Election Night in seven years that I don’t have to work.

I should have celebrated in some significant way, but other than going out to dinner with The Civee, it was pretty much life as usual tonight. But dinner and the company were good.

I enjoyed having the night off for a change. But I have a feeling that I’ll be back at work for this night next year. I actually enjoy it. It’s (now) the one night of the year that I get to work past midnight and then come in the next day after noon.

I spent some time yesterday (Saturday) buying a new cell phone.

The Civee and I already have a “house phone” so it’s not like I need this to be my main phone, just something in case of emergencies or if I want to call someone while I’m on the road.

The thing that took up the most time was trying to understand all the pricing stuff. For some reason, whenever I asked about how much it would cost a month, the salesman kept on telling me about all of the special messaging plans and extra video features. And he knew how much those cost. But not the basic price of the phone and just making regular phone calls.

Once he finally figured out I wasn’t interested in all that other stuff, he gave me a price and I have to admit, I was even more confused by all the “rollover” and “hours” terms. But I gave in and got the phone.

The phone has Tetris. So there’s one thing about the phone I understand.

On a side note, downtown Columbus would be a lot more fun if it had a working cab system- one where cabs drove around and you could hail them in the street. Yesterday afternoon, the Civee and I were going to an afternoon Blue Jackets game and then to the Statehouse for a the “Haunted Statehouse” tour. But we had to pick up the tickets at the Statehouse first. We drove to the Statehouse, picked up the tickets, drove to the arena, saw the game, then drove back to the Statehouse. Would have been a lot easier if we could have just taken cabs back and forth and stopped for dinner somehere in the middle. But between the game and the tour, it was fun, so I guess I can’t complain.

This past Saturday, while most of the rest of Columbus was busy watching some football game, the Civee and I went walking for a few miles in Darby Creek Metro Park. One of the most fascinating things, to me, was this Praying Mantis we saw in the parking lot. I took a few pictures, but only one came out good.

Looking at it this way, I can see why humongous insects are a staple of bad science fiction movies.