Wednesday, March 21, 2007

AOL Times

Every once in a while, I have a night li,e I did last night where I just sit in front of the computer talking to many people online. What made it even better was that the two ladies I talked to are two that I haven't talked to in a while, Jenna and Courtney (Yes, the same one that is my arch-bracket rival). Courtney is talking smack on me for most of the time about my bracket and while Gary and Courtney are plotting the scenarios to get me to lose in our bracket pool. That's just incredible there is a plot against me to have me lose this bracket. I don't usually root for the Gators, but this year they need to win to save my sanity! Courtney aslo quoted a line from Lord of the Rings and was flabbergasted to learn I had never seen it. I was then assigned to "get a date with my couch and watch it."

I really cracked Jenna up too and she said I was nuts contributing sage advice from my Chinese fortune cookie. The one I had from the last time I went was "Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby." I found it rather ironic that someone who acts so crazy outside at school thinks that I'm a nutjob. I was actually in a happy mood and it was late and I hadn't got a ton of sleep that day. I promised Jenna I would write her encouraging things to prepare for Rocket Thursday. Now to just figure out what to say..

The last few days I try to as inspirational and uplifting because I'm getting a lot of positive feedback on the subject. Hey, even sometimes I can be optimisitc too. So that's all until next time, talk to those online ladyfriends and make their day!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Why Talk When You Can Text?

I've noticed that this is the latest trend among younger people with cell phones. One person I know (sorry K) is especially bad at this, and will text multiple times during the day. Texting is like the third thing people do besides tinkering with their MySpace page all day or playing World of Warcraft. I like to text too and in my funny moment of the day I text non-sensical messages such as "Moo Moo Milk" which got a nice laugh. Those are the thoughts you get when you come in and proof in the morning after getting 4 hours of sleep.

I've gotten quite a lot of great texts over the years which range from "Hocus Pocus" to "Aww, hope you feel better soon." My inbox only has so much space in it so I had to delete some of the less interesting and unimportant ones. I think it's kind of funny seeing someone using their phone like a Playstation 2 controller. Today, a phone is used for about everything else except for um, actually calling people up and having a converstation on the phone. You would think I would enjoy the text messaging trend because of the lack of human communication it requires, which would be a definite plus for me. But, it just takes too long to type a couple of sentences. I'm not a fan of getting the calluses on the thumbs either. People texting look like they're playing a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo and dealing with the issues those controllers could have, especially the Sega Genesis. Texting has its own language because of the sheer laziness it entails. For example "How r u doin" or "C Ya Later." It's like talking online without the computer or charges.

So, texting has become the new version of AOL, and I guess a bunch of people do it. It's fun and I like it. In other news, I guess SGA is holding elections for next year's presidency (Ghost riding not included.) I'd like to thank Facebook for keeping me involved with the process. I guess there's the Cornerstone Party, the B-E-S-T party and the Poplar Party. I always love the names of the party because every year there's one that goes with the acronym (HAHA like the B.E.E.R. party in 2002-2003 which was hilarious). The Poplar Party reminds me of those Penn State commercials (Maybe they should be named the pupular party, all that's missing is u, get it?) It looks like there will be some new issues dealt with this year and most of the same issues too, like Happy Bus stuff and diversity among the party members.

So that's all for now, I got quite a lot accomplished at work today so I'm not feeling too bad about that. Let's see if tomorrow will bring much of the same.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

All About The Hoops

March Madness is finally heating up as I predicted it, it really now starts in the second round with the competitive games. As of this point, I stand tied for first with Gary however UNLV threatens to push my arch-bracket-rival Courtney into the lead (She has UNLV, the rest of us schmoes have Wisconsin) I legitimately want to thank CBS for creating March Madness On Demand. Now I can go and watch a game that is out of my area. That means I can watch two games at the same time and maybe three if the two CBS affiliates are showing different games. A basketball junkie's fix for sure.

It went from spring back to winter in about a day in Ridgway. Around Wednesday or Thursday it was great out, especially Wednesday I think, Friday wound up with six inches of snow and me not even attempting to dig the car out hoping that warm weather will return and do that job for me. I think it will.

My sister is into March Madness and asked me to fill out her bracket. So far she is fourth and could be right in the mix if things continue strongly. She even asked me why Pitt is in the West region this year. (The quick answer is because the next two rounds, Pitt will play in San Jose, which is located in the west. I could get into more detail but my fingers would get too tired). I've also learned a lot from the commercials that play. For instance I now know that Buffalo Wild Wings seems like a cool place to go even though I've never been there, V-cast is a great phone and Pizza-Hut is selling that cheezy bites pizza. Yummy. Winter better end soon, I'd really like to not freeze while watching baseball.

All right, that is it for now, let's keep it warm until next time.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

So What If You Can't Draw

While doing the lovely morning duties at work today, I got to see some of the lovely children's weather graphics we put in there. The graphics are done by elementary school kids and some of them are funny and quite humorous. The object here is not make fun of their creations, it's to compare.

I can draw pretty much at the level of those kids. You know the ones that are probably anywhere between 1st and 4th or 5th grade. It's not anything bad, but one thing I hated to do in high school was play Pictionary in Spanish class and shutter when it was my turn. The anticipation of how bad it could actually be was electric. Sadly, that's probably about the most I took out of about 4 years of Spanish in high school.

Wow, what a great weather day today. It felt like spring in the apartment, at least late April last year at school when I would back to class without any type of coat on. That was incredibly great. Since it was also spring break this week, I just have to ask "Where was this weather during my spring breaks?" Usually, spring break meant huffing and puffing through the snow. Daylight Savings Time started like 3 weeks early this week too which means I get to not worry about it getting dark before dinner now. Not too shabby. But it's not that I actually did any of that fun stuff today, a lot of it dealt with me getting a nap in after work and paying some bills, you know doing grown-up things. Tomorrow, I have to chase a couple stories and hopefully get those interviews done as soon as possible so I can least have some sane time on Thursday to watch basketball.

Next Monday, Kristal, Krista, Cari and I are going on this "Reality Tour" which deals with the life of a teen dealing with drug addiction. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. I didn't know about it until I was assigned a story about it Monday and got to talk to two of the people in it about what the deal was with it. It's supposed to be very intense. By the way, for those at are curious, the three ladies I don't really know that well (except for Kristal) and they're all my female co-workers. Interesting. I should also mention that I get a before and after picture taken of what I would like on heroin. THAT is something people will want to see.

I got NHL 2K7 the other day and it's definitely a pretty good hockey game, one of the best I've played in a while. I've definitely been someone who has been converted by the 2K product over from EA Sports. I like the realism the NBA game provide (i.e. not having dunks every 5 seconds on All-Star level) and on NHL where I've struck the right balance of not having too much scoring but not having too few. Sentences like that can make people wonder why the Reedman hasn't found a special lady in forever.

Apparently, one of my compadres saw me on TV in Hershey and I guess I looked legitimately enthralled to be there. Of course, this doesn't mean much considering Q-Tip thinks "Looking Alive" is my example of a good day. I really think the kiddos at work think I'm legitimately boring. Oh well.

Yet another glorious blog entry. I shall return at another time of my choosing. Until next time, keep it cool and get the adequate amount of sleep required to function.

Monday, March 12, 2007

The Crying Girl Syndrome

Editor's Note: Yet again, I deal with girly issues. Nothing happened today to talk about except an afternoon of work and finding out my co-workers like to do "Reedyisms." That is really creepy.

This was something that I have seen probably too much of lately. The title of this entry is pretty self-explanatory. It deals with the crying lady and how guys pretty much don't have a chance of being anything but nice when dealing with the tear-jerker. I've seen a lot of this mainly on TV. In one Seinfeld episode, George tries to move his wedding day back with Susan. However, Susan cries and George caves. So George turns the tables and cries to Susan and promptly gets his wish. Pretty funny stuff. I saw this on Smallville at the hotel in Hershey when Lana was crying to Lex in some happier tears.

For me, dealing with the crying girl is not exactly something I hope to deal with on a regular basis. I have dealt with it over the years though as probably most guys have. It's tough to see your friend in my case just start bawling over the problems in her life or in Heather's case, seeing me leave her after Blairsville (That sotry should still be on the front page) I think one of the gratifying things it does prove is that the handful of ladies that have cried to me over the years have confided in me with personal/sensitive information and they need someone to help them. I had to ask someone what to do after a while and she told me "Just be there for them." And that's what I try to do, just be the rock and get them through it.

Now are all ladies criers? Of course not, I know a lot that I would never think would cry much. But there are definitely some that get much more emotional outwardly. So next time one of your lady friends starts welling up, comfort them and be there for them! I think they appreciate it more than you think! I know that's true.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Hershey Hijinks Yet Again

Yes, I have come back from my second trip to the Land of Chocolate in a month. It was quite enthralling as I got to sit in a 10,500 seat arena effectionately known as the GIANT center. Apparently, GIANT is a food place much like GIANT eagle. It must be an east side thing or something. I was so excited to blog that I even wrote a list of topics down that I wanted to talk about.

Friday afternoon, I got some time to visit K-Mart. It was really refreshing considering how deserted it was at that time. I mean really deserted. Definitely very refreshing. I ended up buying two mega-huge Hershey's mega-chocolate bars for Kristal while there (I was requested prior to this to buy this or risk a woman's scorn, not exactly something I'm leaning towards right there.)

Now the next thing I can talk about is the GIANT center which basically should be called the No Fun Center because of the strict rules placed on the media. No hats allowed on the floor, no food or drink at the press area (I had to go to the bowels of the arena to get cookies and more cookies, yummy, yum there. Not.) I had to wear an orange bracelet at this again. The PA announcer there was incredibly jolly doing his thing. Almost jolly to the point of being fake. I really hate that.

I visited the outlets in Hershey again. They're much like the outlets in Grove City except I'm pretty sure you're allowed to walk on the grass in Hershey. (That's a slam against Grove City College and the stories I've heard about people visiting that place) I ended up buying a DVD and NHL 2K7 at this music store. Now while I'm on the road for 4 days, I have to go and sample the wide variety of restaurants from the area. When I was there the last time, I ate at this Italian place which was great and had great service. This time I started by eating at the place across the way, "Isaac's" I had this deli sandwich and it wasn't that great. But it was take-out so I didn't care. I also ate at Red Robin Friday afternoon, a Texas Roadhouse style place. Of course, I had a burger and a massive vanilla milkshake which had a refill! I got great service and got asked how I was doing quite a bit. I gave a good tip.

Unfortunately, no tag team titles were on the line at this event. (Coincidentally, I later learned this arena actually HAS hosted a WWE pay-per-view, 2003 Unforgiven.) Also, there was this huge group of students in green sitting in the peanut seats doing the tomahawk chop and stuff like that.

It's March Madness time, one of my favorite times of year and one of my mom's least favorite times of year. "I HATE THAT SQUEAKING, THEY'RE INTERRUPTING MY STORIES, I WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITH (Insert storyline)" I'm already in a Facebook pool but if anyone else is interested in doing another pool or inviting me, I'm definitely interested. I really need to at least beat one person, Courtney. If she beats me again, I get to hear about for quite a while. For those of you that don't know her, she can ride me about one thing for a really LONG time. BTW, if you think I'm being mean, I should say Courtney is definitely one of my closest friends so it's a nice friendly time. Probably not this week though.

Brittney, Kristen and Jill all posted on my wall this week (you can take a look and see what they said). They're all great people, but especially Brittney who I have gotten along with so well for a long time. I've known B for about 2 years and she's great. She got me a little Valentine's Day card last year and has demanded I see her again the next time I come visit.

Wow, that was long. By the way, this blog gets Googled on a regular basis, so let's see how it keeps coming. Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

The Unofficial Reedy Hotel Report

I get to stay at a hotel again for the third time in a month. I'm moving up in the world and the greatest thing is I don't have to pay for it. All this hotel staying made me think of the greatness known as not getting a lick of sleep even though the bed is so huge. Let's do it.

Econo lodge in Hershey (1 past stay, 1 upcoming stay)
I'll be leaving for here tomorrow. The first time I stayed there it was all right except for the stupidity of myself not swiping the key the right way, having to have someone come up and show me once again how to do it made it fun. There's this great Italian restaurant right next to it that I ate at last time with a really nice waitress who was very smiley and who I gave a very generous tip to. She obviously uses a tanning booth. So bascially, it's a nuts and bolts hotel but the best thing is it's not too far from the arena. And I know how to get there, which is huge.

Holiday Inn Express (Sharon or West Middlesex, depending on whether you look at Mapquest)
Mapquest says this hotel is at Sharon while the real address says West Middlesex. My room was pretty sweet. It had a microwave with a complimentary bad of popcorn, coffemaker and there's an indoor pool there. I was up on the 3rd floor in room 308 but wasn't really in the room that much. There was also a pretty sweet breakfast which included donuts, milk and lots of other stuff that I was too asleep to notice.

Days Inn in Brookville (2 stays)
Those were some of the craziest visits. The first visit included playing some version of videogames (likely XBox), staying up really late and taking some time to put shaving cream and other stuff on a counselor's face and hands while sleeping. I also think it's interesting this is the only one I ever stayed at which had interconnecting rooms. That really didn't make too much sense to me. I also remember having a fake love note typed up by one of the ladies on the trip to some of the other guys in the room as well. There were legitimate concerns by the counselors about having an outside balcony near the room.

The HI express in Newark (2 stays)
I believe I stayed here from the 1st NY trip but at the second NY trip (the senior trip) our hotel room pretty much turned into Animal House with about 7-8 people in there watching various movies and basically not sleeping. Our wake-up call in the morning was Mr. Cosgrove pounding on the door until someone responded with something audible. We had to get up extra early to go to the Today show. None of us really wanted to go since we spent a small amount of time there.

The Roosevelt Hotel (New York)
Fancy schmancy indeed. Talk about your high-end hotels. This hotel had our journalism conference inside on the 2nd floor. I stayed on the 14th floor. The room ifself really wasn't that different from any of the hotel room we were at but the lobby was pretty sweet. There's like a gift shop and a mini-bar there. Oh, and we were there on St. Patrick's Day which added to the craziness.

That's about all the hotels I can think of where I have graced my presence. In a total unrelated topic, I think a lot of the ladies are going on the fake n bake circuit getting ready for spring break to show off their redness to complete strangers on the beach. Have fun with the artificial sunlight ladies. March Madness starts next week and word on the street is there will be another Facebook bracket this year with Gary. That will be incredibly awesome.