Where Everybody Knows Your Name- Year 2

I have been living in Boston for over a year! Here are some scattered reflections about the differences between living in Boston versus the suburbs of New Jersey.

-I live taking the train as my primary mode of transportation. When I lived in NJ, I never really took public transportation anywhere. Occasionally, I would take the bus or train train to NYC, but in my travels throughout the State, I would drive everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere! Now, not only do I take the train to work, I take it everywhere I have to go. There are many reasons why I take the train in Boston and never took public transportation in Jersey. I guess it’s more convenient (parking, traffic) to take the train than drive in Boston, plus the train goes basically everywhere. I wonder if NJ had a better public transportation system (quicker, went to more places) would people take public transportation as opposed to driving their own privately owned vehicles? Is driving in NJ somehow ingrained in the culture? I ponder these questions because places I walk to now I would have never walked in NJ due to distance.

-Boston is cool, relative to Jersey because Boston always has a lot of stuff going on. Everyday there’s all types of shit going on in the city. Plays, movies, bars/restaurants, or just a walk to the park or esplanade. It’s nice to be able to walk outside and do something, without having a planned event to go to.

-The downside of living in Boston is that I miss certain people. I have a lot of aquitances in Boston, but no one I would consider a friend. Most of the people I work with are old (relative to me), and I spend my spare time with my girlfriend (which I enjoy, but I could spend time with her if we lived in NJ). There has been nobody I really clicked with up here. I wonder if that’s my nature, or if people don’t have “friends” like they do when they are younger.

- The bagels suck in Boston as does the pizza! Also, nobody has Taylor Ham (or Pork Roll if you’re from South Jersey). It simply doesn’t exist in Boston…very strange.

-This winter has sucked in Boston! I guess it has sucked everywhere, but it has snowed so much up here, and when you walk everywhere it’s really a pain in the ass. It’s like a fucking videogame to get down the street. On that note, I busted my ass walking to the train the other morning on a patch of ice.

-I wonder if I am going to stay living up here, somewhere else, or move back to the NY/NJ metro area one day…

Classic Post: Right, On Queue?

I haven't had much creativity to write about new stuff recently, yet I felt obligated to the readers to post something recently. So, here's a recycled post from my previous job from several years ago.

Question: Let's say you're waiting on line at a drive-thru bank where there are 4 lanes in operation. All the lanes are being used, and 3 of those lanes have an extra car in them - so, on line, there are 2, 2, 1, and 2 cars in each lane. In this case, it's obvious where you'll drive - in the lane with only 1 car.

However, let's say that all of the lanes have 2 cars in them, meaning the one currently being served and one more car behind them. Here are the questions:



A) Do you have to take your chances and pick a lane? Or,

B) Can you just hang back so that whichever lane opens first becomes yours?



I vote for B). I think it's rude when a person comes to the drive-thru, sees me "hanging back", and rather than line up behind me to be filtered into the next-opening lane, swerves around me to arbitrarily pick a lane.



And, as an extension to this question, let's say you are waiting on a long line at a supermarket, and it's late hours so there are only 2 aisles open, both of which have long lines. Let's say that a cashier opens a new aisle and announces "I can take somebody over here". If you are towards the back of the line, are you morally obligated to offer the people in front of you first dibs at the newly opened aisle?

Here were comments from the original post:  

Matt Dabney said...
Scenario A:

 Hopefully the entrance to the drive thru is only wide enough for one car than fans out to accept the 4 lanes. In that case, I would hang back far enough to not allow someone to swerve around you to cut in front.

 Scenario B: 

Who ever moves their cart the fastest to the new open register wins. Hopefully you see the cashier walking with her till box to the closed register getting ready to open it. Then you can get a headstart and head over to the register before it even opens.
 
Joe said...
Switch to Scenario "A" as soon as someone appears behind you. There's no way they can read your mind.

 If people did that at grocery-store checkout lines, or at toll booths, there would be a freaking mess. I mean what's so specail about the drive-through? 

If I saw someone doing Scenario "B", I would tap the horn. And if they still didn't move I'd be pissed.

Luke said...
i think at the drive through you have to pick a lane but at the supermarket it's first person to the new cashier wins - you have no obligation to those in front of you

kimblog said...
I like Joe's comment on scenerio A. We spend too much time thinking that others can read our minds, while the party opposite us is thinking the same thing.

Is It Racist?

In conversing with quite a few people, as well as hearing a fair amount of commentary about the potential NFL lock out for next season, I have some thoughts. The consensus, of what I’ve heard seems to be that the players are selfish, overpaid, and should take less money to have the regular season start on time next year. Am I the only one who sees that this position as driven in a large part by race?

In order to examine this issue we should not ignore the fact that of active NFL players, almost 65% are black. This is widely disproportionate to the general population in which approximately 13% are back. Of the owners of the 32 NFL teams, 100% of them are white. So, we should note in this labor/owner dispute in this situation, it has white dominated owner represenatation, and a predominantly black labor population.

The most common argument I hear is that NFL players are overpaid. While my inclination is to agree with that presumption, shouldn’t the free market dictate the amount of compensation one receives based on their skill level, and desire of that skill in a free market? If we look at NFL salaries from the free market perspective, then perhaps players are not overpaid. I don’t believe NFL players are anymore “overpaid” than a stock trader, or a financial investor who makes a comparable salary. I don’t believe the skill level of some schmuck who works at Goldman Sachs to be more inherently more valuable than the skill set of an NFL player. After all, NFL players are the best at what they do in a highly desired marketplace. As an aside, is there anyone who makes more than a million dollars a year who is not “overpaid?”

If ticket prices, and the general revenue received by the NFL remain constant, I would prefer to see the players get a fair slice of that revenue pie. NFL owners have very little risk and skill in what they do relative to their workforce. There really is no risk of investment for an NFL owner. Think about it, 100 plus million people watched the Super Bowl! If you had the money and owner rights to a team, continuing to invest in a team, seems to be little risk given the immense popularity of the NFL. The players are the ones training, and risking permanent injury to play. By contrast, the owners watch the games from a box, literally. The owner essentially writes a check, and counts the money he makes from the labor of the players.

It seems to me, that the outcry against the player’s salaries may play into an underlying presumption, that a black labor force, where education and advantage is not the driving skill, should not be entitled to make millions of dollars. But, if we as consumers are willing to pay the price we do to watch the games, shouldn’t the people who put in the real work be compensated to an amount comparable to the profit of the league? We pay to see certain players when we watch a professional game, we don’t care who cuts their paychecks. We go to see Umenyiora slam a quarterback, not watch the rich white owner cut his check. So, we should give a decent percentage to Umenyiora.

If you proclaim that players are replaceable, and is you think replacement players would do little to impact the product of the NFL, trying going to a Nets game. Surprisingly people are able to sniff out an inferior product when it comes to sports. If watching a Nets game is not proof enough and you still think players are easily replaceable, watch a MLS game and then watch an English Premier game. It’s almost a totally different sport! And if you don’t think that’s proof enough, have fun watching Arena football. Also, if there is a lockout, think about the popularity of MLB following the lockout season of 1994 or NBA popularity following the 1999 lockout.

It seems to me that the owners should be willing to pay a fair share of their profit, back to the people who made them that money. Players need owners, but owners need players as well, and any old player will not due if the league is to maintain its popularity. Let’s not undervalue the labor that entertains us, even if they primarily have a different skin color than the people who are entertained by them. And, if we are willing to pay a ridiculous price to go see a game, let’s give the labor their fair share of that. If race doesn’t play a part of most people’s inclination to side with management in this labor dispute, than I don’t know what does.

New York Knicks - An Extremely Quick Look Back on Eddy Curry

Eddy Sandman in his glory days.

Where'd my post go comparing the two?

How quickly things change in professional sports. Check out this post from Where's Luke's own ChuckJerry about the Knicks - dated four years ago, and how it's ancient history already. I don't think anybody he refers to is even on the team anymore!

Among the gems in his post about Mr. Curry:

"I do have hope for the Knicks to improve this year and also the next. The reason: Eddy Curry is unstoppable."

"There have been two bright spots for the Knicks this year in an otherwise mediocre to ppor season. First is that David Lee is incredible.... The second bright spot for the Knicks this year is Eddy Curry. To say that he's turned the corner this season would be a huge understatement."

"It might be an overstatement, but I think [Curry]'s the most underrated offensive player in the league. He throws down alley oop passes better than anyone this side of Dwight Howard and is better than anyone I can ever recall with his back to the basket."

... and...

"Quentin Richardson... does everything at an above average level without really being a star."

"Renaldo Balkman is pure energy and no focus at this point. He might be a David Lee Lite type of guy eventually."


Note: this is not to pick on ChuckJerry at all - again, this just illustrates how quickly things change in sports. I've said / written identical things in the past as well. Case in point: my Quad Who point from this past off-season, discussing why the Knicks are god-awful, when infact they have proven to be decent.

BOTG's NBA All Star Team

Here are my picks for this year’s NBA All Star game, starters and reserves.

East:

PG- Rondo
SG- Wade
SF- Bron
PF- Amare
C- Howard

Reserves:

Rose
Ray Allen
Joe Johnson
Paul Pierce
Carlos Boozer
Kevin Garnett
Andrew Bogut

West:

PG- Chris Paul
SG- Kobe
SF- Melo
PF- Kevin Durant
C- Tim Duncan

Reserves:

Deron Williams
Ginobili
Blake Griffin
Dirk
Pau Gasol
Kevin Love
Steve Nash

I think Griffin and Love both deserve a spot. Also, I think Rondo is ahead of Rose, as the Celtics are better than the Bulls and Rondo leads the NBA in assists. BTW, it’s very whack that Yao was voted as a starter for the actual all star game. On that note, it may be time to stop letting the fans vote, if they are going to do things like vote in Yao.

What are your picks?

More on Governor Krispy Kreme

I still loosely follow New Jersey politics since moving to Boston. NJ’s Governor is a man named Chris Christie; however, I call him Governor Krispy Kreme. Governor Kreme has been the Governor of NJ for approximately one year. I truly do hate this fat sack of shit! Here are some of the many reasons why Krispy is a fuckface and just a bad Governor! (Click on links for actual news stories)

1) He failed to secure federal education dollars: The federal government sponsored a “Race to the Top” in which States were able to apply for federal education dollars based on innovative ideas in education. Krispy’s appointed Education Commissioner improperly filled out the form, and poof, 418 million dollars in educational aide from the fed was gone. Krispy blamed “government bureaucracy” because the evaluator of the applications didn’t tell him that NJ forgot to fill out a section of the application. Hey Krispy, it’s called a *competitive* grant, meaning, an evaluator scores your application. If you don’t fill out a section, the evaluator can not give your State an unfair advantage by assisting NJ to get more points on the application. Despite not securing these funds he bitches about teachers salaries every 2 minutes, and that really is every two minutes, no exaggeration.
2) He cancelled a tunnel that would connect NJ to NY: Not only was it bad enough that Krispy cancelled a construction project that would have created many jobs in a bad economy, and would have helped to ease congestion between NJ and NY, he was apparently unaware that he would have to pay back the federal dollars that he took for this project. So, poof, good bye to another 271 million in federal funding for the project.
3) Created a ton of new advisor positions in the Office of the Governor : This is not a big deal in the abstract, but coming from a guy whose whole platform is the government spends too much, adding bull shit positions for your wife’s friends seems to be hippo-critical. (get it, Hippo?)
4) Complains about excessive government spending every two minutes, but stayed illegally at five star hotels when he was a federal prosecutor. Not much to say about this, but his excuse for staying at five star hotels while staying in Boston and D.C is that he was “not familiar with the area.” It’s called Google, Krispy!
5) Bitches about the Union for spending too much but wants tax breaks for corporations: This is a personal hatred, but I hate it when rich fucks complain about spending, and then want tax breaks for themselves.
6) He appointed a woman as Commissioner to the Department of Children and Families who advocated for sex with children: Granted this is an oversimplification, but Christie ousted a Commissioner who had great statistical success with the Department in favor of a new Commissioner, not knowing that some of her research including the impact of adults having sex with children, and finding that the impacts were not that detrimental to children. Not someone who you want having as your Commissioner in a Department charged with protecting abused and neglected children.

I could give more specific examples, but the overall reason I hate this guy is he’s such a blowhard. Tony Soprano had a great line to someone when he described the aggressive nature of someone of the phone as a “telephone tough guy.” To me, this describes Krispy perfectly. An example of this is he rightfully objected to NJ contributing to costs for the Tappen Zee Bridge construction, but then, has to make statements like “I’m telling NY to stop messing with us!” Calm down tough guy. In addition, he’s on TV and in the newspapers everyday talking about superintendent salaries; meanwhile he makes twice as much as most of them. He’s such a grandstander. I would love to get him alone so I could punch him in his fat face!

Old School Nintendo Games

I have a Nintendo Wii, and with it I have several new fancy games that would be inconceivable back in 1986 or so. I have enjoyed these games. Then, I found I could purchase old Nintendo games for the original NES and download them directly to the Wii for $5 each. I purchased several of my old favorites, and they were all fun as well. Two games, however, have proven to be the two that I come back to often, and I don't know why.

One is Bubble Bobble. You are a dragon or something, and you have to go through levels killing enemies by encasing them in a bubble and running into them. The levels get faster, have harder bad guys, and give you less time to complete them.

The other is the original Nintendo Baseball (with came out 27 years ago, amazingly). This is the most primitive of sports home video games, and yet I find it so addictive. I play against the computer, and while I beat it more often than not, I don't feel that I've mastered it to the level I did when I was first playing it.

I've been wondering what it is specifically that is making me so hooked on these two games as opposed to all the other games I have, both old and new.

Governor Chris Christie and the NJEA

Our governor, Chris Christie, gives a good example of politicans "saying one thing and doing another". Pretty remarkable.

Here is a "open letter" that he wrote when he was campaigning against Jon Corzine, obtained from this website.


I am the proud product of our state’s public education system. In fact, my late mother was a dues-paying member of the NJEA. I know firsthand that one of the main reasons many of our schools rank among the best in America is because of our dedicated teachers and educational professionals who work hard every day to give our children the learning experience they deserve.

Like you, I am fully committed to supporting New Jersey’s kids, teachers and parents to make sure our children receive a first-class education so they can pursue limitless opportunities once they graduate. Our state’s teachers are charged with one of the greatest responsibilities one can have, and they deliver each and every day for our kids.

But lately, there has been some misinformation circulated falsely, by supporters of Governor Corzine, suggesting I would attempt to diminish or take away teachers’ pensions and benefits. Let me be clear - nothing could be further from the truth. The claim that any harm would come to your pension should I be elected Governor is absolutely untrue. It is a 100% lie. Your pension will be protected when I am elected Governor.

Right now, the Trenton-based leaders of the teachers' union are literally spending millions of dollars of your union dues to falsely attack me on television and through slick mailers. This is nothing but an attempt to poison me in your eyes so that you will vote for four more years of Jon Corzine and his failed policies. Just so I am clear, what they are saying about my intentions to hurt pensions or lay off teachers is absolutely, 100% untrue.

Here are the facts:
I will be a strong ally for teachers in the classroom. When elected, I will make education funding a top priority and I believe we must ensure those dollars reach our children and the classroom, not the educational bureaucracy. In these tough economic times, we must ensure that the proper resources get to you, the teachers in the classroom. Despite what is said by my opponents, I would accept federal education stimulus dollars to help fund our children's educations. Education is a priority and this money is critical to ensuring we are able to continue giving our children the education they deserve. We must also make sure that education dollars are always a priority and come from stable sources. Too often these grants or stimulus dollars are accepted for programs with no plan on how to pay for them after the money runs dry. It is time for a new era of responsibility in Trenton, and I will work to secure a steady source of funding for all education programs.
I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. In fact, in order to ensure your retirement savings are safe, I believe we must prioritize the protection of pension fund dollars and investigate the cause of Jon Corzine's large investment losses to our pension system. Currently there is a $34 billion deficit in the State's pension fund, which threatens the retirement and lifeline of so many teachers. We must do better for our teachers, future teachers and retirees. As Governor, I will work to close unfunded liabilities and make sure our state lives up to its promises, unlike Jon Corzine. I will not raid your pension fund to cover budgetary shortfalls like previous governors of both parties have done. One of the changes I will bring to Trenton is responsible management, investment, and oversight of state pension dollars.
I will not end collective bargaining and will safeguard protections for ALL public employees, including teachers. Collective bargaining is an important safeguard for public employees and is a part of a long American tradition of self government. We must make sure that the voice of every worker is represented in contract negotiations. I will demand open, honest, and fair deliberations.
It’s true that times are tough. But the truth is that Jon Corzine has handed the NJEA and every student a ticking time bomb in this year's budget. He has funded the new school aid formula with $1 billion in one-shot revenue that will disappear next year. Every school budget and academic, athletic, and extra-curricular program for our kids is at risk because of the Governor’s reckless, short-sighted policy. Governor Corzine has refused to make the tough decisions required to make sure we make education funding a priority for recurring revenue and to avoid the ticking time bomb.

We may disagree on some issues, but I know we agree on what’s most important – delivering the best education we can for our kids. Giving New Jersey's children a quality education is critical to their future and I know we wouldn't be able to do that without the dedication and tireless commitment of teachers like you. I appreciate you allowing me to clear up some of the misinformation being circulated about my plans to support our state's teachers.

Thank you for your service, and best wishes on a great school year.

Toilet Bowl 2010

I don’t think I could ever top the masterpiece written several years ago regarding the magic of the annual Toilet Bowl Game in Teaneck, so I won’t even try. I’ll just provide a summary of this year’s Toilet Bowl 2010 from my perspective…

I arrived at BF North (or is it South?) at around 1:30 pm and a familiar face was waiting in his car, Daffy. Despite the snow beginning to fall and no one else present, I suggested that we make our way over to the field to warm up. Daffy had an arsenal of equipment including: official cones, measuring tape, a football, and a bag with god knows what else.

Then, the ever reliable Chuck Jerry arrived and we began to toss the ball around. Jerry and I were standing on the field, and we saw who we thought was John Strauss approaching the field. No, wait, we pulled an Andy B., as it was the younger Strauss brother, David. After BPG, Hollywood, and Rick arrived we had all the players who would attend this years’ annual Toilet Bowl!

After standing in a circle and drinking beers, we discussed the usual topics of conversation. Anybody who did not come, was of course a bitch for selling out despite their circumstances, everybody playing is out of shape, blah blah blah… play ball! But wait, only Daffy and I were in attendance for non 96ers so we had to make an automatic QB, David, and spilt up teams, Hollywood, Daffy and I vs. Rick, Chuck, and BPG.

The snow began to fall and we played for a good hour or so. Ok, maybe it was only like 20 minutes, but it felt like damn near an hour. We took another break for a beer and Rick wandered off. Speculation occurred as to if Rick was vomiting (which has become a habit for Rick in recent years) but Rick did not vomit, and returned from the trees with a drink, which I think was like a Pellegrino or some sparkling water. We all joked that Rick must have stored the drink in the woods last year and was now retrieving it. Thinking about it… Why did Rick have to go to the woods to get a drink? Also, how did the drink get there? Since when did Pellegrino become a sports drink?

Anyway, we played for about another hour or so and headed to Vinny’s. We drank beers, ate food, and chatted. The real excitement for me at Vinny's was winning a door prize, which consisted of a Yuengling shirt, key chain, and my very own Vinny O’s cup holder. With the snow really coming down, and the Giants getting their asses pounded against Green Bay to all but close their playoff hopes, I left at half time to stay ahead of the weather. It was another great year! The only down side was barely being about to walk for a few days because of soreness, but that’s a small price to pay to be a part of the glory of the annual Toilet Bowl!

Happy New Year! / Evanston Sports Report

Happy New Year to our plethora of readers!

For your viewing pleasure, here is the most recent (and first) episode of "Evanston Sports Report", on which two relatives of yours truly and Beer-on-the-Girl who live in the Chicago area discuss the Bulls and Knicks rivalry. There are references made to the last twenty years or so of said rivalry during which Michael Jordan got the best of our beloved Knicks.

It remains to be seen who will have a more successful decade.

Anyway, enjoy.