Whose car is worth less?
I got into a spirited bout of 'Whose car is worth less' the other day on the way to work. For those that don't know, that's the game you play when 2 people are going after the same piece of road. Merges, lane changes in traffic, etc. If you have a shitty car and they have a nice car, they'll likely back off first. Other way around and you should yield.
So there is a section of the drive to work where people exiting out of a rotary merge onto the road from the right. It's a long, slow merge lane, so you often get into conflicts with the people not yielding like they should. It's fun at 40mph at times. But when there's bad traffic and it's backed up past the merge it's even more fun. You get 2 lanes of people in the merge lane trying to get into only 1 right-hand lane. All while creeping slowly along. And because this is Boston and most drivers are horribly impatient and feel they should never have to be put out, regardless of who has the right-of-way, it's even better. So it came down to me vs. a merger inching along behind a truck. Neither of us wanting to budge. I just didn't want to give up cause I was bored and this is how I get my thrills on the way to work. I know all the little confusing parts of the drive and like to punish others for not knowing them. Yes, I have a problem.
Anyways, I was up against a guy in an early-90s minivan with a banged up front corner. So when it really got down to the point where we were running out of room to be 2-wide, I had to give up. He was clearly going to take it to the point of collision, and had nothing to lose. I had an un-smashed body panel to lose. Thus, I lost the battle of Whose Car is Worth Less. Not really a bad thing when you really think about it.

Armageddon
So while I was in Minneapolis for a wedding (not sure if I mentioned it already, probably not. But I was there with Hayley for her roommate's wedding. Good enough?) I had alot of time to kill. Hayley was in the wedding and her friends were hung over. So I got to just lay around and watch bad TV. And Armageddon falls into this category. It's a great movie to watch, but not of the highest quality. The movie ends and I suddenly have the greatest idea for a terrible ending. So you see NASA and everyone celebrating their victory over the space rock. Jumping around, high-5s, the works. Then suddenly some nerdy tech shouts out "Hey guys! There's a 2nd meteor behind it!!" A 2nd rock hiding in the tail of the first rock is discovered, which then slams into the Earth and kills everyone. It's mean, it's sick, but it's also funny. And a terrible way to end a movie. But wouldn't it be awesome if a movie studio had the balls to do something like that?! That suddenly the 2 hours of movie you just watched, all the trials and heroism you just witnessed, it was all for nothing. People would definately leave that movie feeling awful.

Northwest Airlines
This may be the most ghetto airline I've ever flown. Granted I don't take many non-major airline flights, but I've been on a couple. For starters, they are shoehorned into a tiny little gate area in the corner of Logan. It's an oddly shaped area with things layed out pretty poorly. They obviously didn't have the sway to get a good area. But whatever, I'm not here to judge their gate area. I'm there to fly on the plane.
Then boarding begins. Most airlines like to board in small sections from back-to-front to make things go quickly. You don't want the people in the first few rows blocking the aisle so the people in the back have to wait. Not NWest! The attendant just grabs the mic and says "You may begin boarding." Everyone just heads for the door at the same time. So you get a huge back-up at the door to get in. Then you get another back-up as people fight to get down the aisle while people are loading their bags into the over-head. So then boarding takes at least double what it should.
But wait, there's more. I settle in and notice that all of the armrests still have ashtrays in them. Which takes a few seconds to really click home. These planes are so old that they still have ashtraps in every seat. Then I notice how flimsy the seats are. If anyone in your row moves, you can feel the whole assembly flex. You can see the frame of the seats in front of you and it's not good. It's all fine and good while you're flying along nicely, but if anything happens during take-off or landing, we're all screwed. Luckily nothing happens and I don't get a chance to see if I was right or not.

2 New Cubs Nick-Names
I came up with 2 new nick-names for Cubs players the other week.
Juan Pierre --> Juan --> Juan Valdez --> coffee. But since Pierre has been having an awful season, even with all the tools he has, he becomes....De-Caf!! Cause he looks like he should be great, but then by the time you're done watching the game you wonder what the point was.
Freddie Bynum. This is a bit of a stretch, so bear with me. Bynum --> Barnum --> Barnum and Bailey's circus --> 3-ring circus --> cockring --> which show up often in bad...PORNO! So he's now Porno.
I really like De-Caf, but Porno is clearly not my best work. But I still like it, cause it's funny.

And on that note....
PEACE!!!