Bottom Of The Barrel: March 2006

Word up, Gangsta Style

I know that hip hip music [and the lifestyle] has reached out into everything but this is rediculous...

Fo shizzle my nizzle!

Xbox ad you'll never see

Check out this Xbox ad that was to be used to promote their online gaming however it seems like the layers but the kybosh on the ad before it hit the airwaves. Wouldn't it be great to see Rachel with her double barrel finger guns in this???

[Click the image above to play the video]

Thanks to my main man Joel for showing me this video gem. [Framework Media Rules! Take a look at his work, it is quite inpressive.]

Running Music

Randomly I heard Running on Empty by Jackson Browne and it got me thinking to other "Running" songs. Here are a few that I found online in other lists that I like:

Always on the Run - Lenny Kravitz
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Break my Stride - Matthew Wilder
I Ran (so far) - Flock of Seagulls
Long Run - Eagles
One Last Run - Nickleback
Run to You - Bryan Adams
Runaround - Blues Traveler
Running Away - Hoobastank
Running Blind - Godsmack
Running Down A Dream - Tom Petty
Running with the Devil - Van Halen
She's a little Runaway - Bon Jovi
Take it on the Run - REO Speedwagon
Take the Money and Run - The Steve Miller Band
Where are we runnin' - Lenny Kravitz

Any other "running" songs tickle your fancy?

big boy... BIG BOY!

I get the biggest chuckle every time I see that guy in the Citi Credit Card's "Press Zero" advertisement trying to speak his password [big boy] to a automated phone system.

Ironically around the same time this ad campaign was launched, Paul English published The IVR Cheat Sheet. The IVR (interactive voice response) Cheat Sheet is intended to help customers quickly navigate past all the prompts and get to a live person, something that is not always easy these days. Note that Paul's list and Citi's advertisement were not co-developed, their timing just happens to be coincidental.

The response to this list was so great [over one million consumers] that a new website has been created called Get Human which has the most current database of companies and how to contact a human representative. So if you need to call AT&T, Bank of America, Cingular Wireless, GEICO, Hewlett‑Packard, Netflix, Samsung, US Airways or any of the other 402 companies currently listed in there database, I would check out the Get Human website first so make your call more efficient. Happy calling!

Sunday Afternoon Wine Tasting

Pop N Kork had it's annual wine tasting today with over 100 wines from around the world and food from Restaurant 45 to sample. Let me start with the food, it was excellent. I really liked their Morenga Pizza, Sausage with Peppers and Onions and I especially loved the Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders. As for the wine, there were several nice wines with a couple stand outs. Here is my list of notable selections:

Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon [$55] - Smooth and bold but not over bearing with the tannins
Bodegas Agapito Rico (Carchelo) [$8] - Bold and rich red blend made from Mourvadre with Syrah and Merlot
Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon [$60] - Good heavy Cab but could use at least one more year in the bottle
Frogs Leap Chardonnay [$24] - Very well balanced oak and fruit flavored Chard
Gundlach Bundschu Pinot Noir Block 13 [$16] - Excellent and easy drinking Pinot that would match with almost any meal
Oyster Bay Merlot [$11] - New wine to the US and it is a great Non-California style Merlot
Rodney Strong Sonoma Chardonnay [$11] - Nice semi sweet Chard with some oak flavor
Waterbrook Melange [$12] - Nice and smooth red blend of mostly Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc which is wellbalancedd and easy to drink

The 3 big finds for me are the Bodegas Agapito Rico (Carchelo), Oyster Bay Merlot and Waterbrook Melange. Happy Monday.

So Proud

Lisa ran her 2 miles at the Milford High School track and completed all 4 miles of the first week of the training program. I'm so proud of her...

Blonde Joke

Since it's Friday I thought I would give you the best Blonde Joke ever!

Have a nice weekend.

First outside comment

Bottom of the Barrel has received it's first comment from outside the "Circle Of Trust". Thanks K for reading my random thoughts.

When spell checkers attack...

or when they fail us miserably because, after all, it's just a computer and it can not think for you. Now most of you know I am not a great speller [but getting better] but the email I got today actually made me laugh out loud.

I am researching a IT services company for a friend of mine and today I get a proposal today by email with the usual pleasantries and a word document attached with their quote. Not more than 40 minutes later I get another email from the same salesperson [with an updated quote] with this as the body of her message:

"Ed, I apologize, I picked up on a typo lease use this proposal instead"

Now I am just waiting for another email that states she found a typo in her follow up email message to me and to disregard the first two messages. Too bad outlook doesn't understand that lease is a miss spelling of please and not just a "contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified period in exchange for a specified rent".

Stoopid Spel Chekers.

"Famous" Bloggers

There is a new trend in television and that is blogs written in the voice of the character. This allows the show to extend beyond the 30 minute to 1 hour weekly time slot to engage the viewer. Some examples are:

Dave's Diatribe (Dave Groves, Invasion - ABC)
Emerald City Bar (Joe the Bartender, Grey's Anatomy - ABC)
Santos Campaign Blog (Rep. Matt Santos, The West Wing - NBC)
Robin's Daily Dose (Dr. Robin Scorpio, General Hospital - ABC)
Nigel's Blog (Dr. Nigel Townsend, Crossing Jordan - NBC)

My personal favorites are:

Schrute-Space (Dwight K. Schrute, The Office - NBC)
Barney's Blog (Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother - CBS)

These are two of my favorite shows and each blog gives you more insight into the story lines and characters and I have been a faithful reader of both Dwight and Barney's Blogs since their inception. Here are a few gems from each:

Dwight K. Schrute:

The use of paper cups instead of ceramic [at a paper company]
Hobbies can come before dating, especially when you obtain a Crested Heater Shield in WarCraft A coffee maker is a robot, which is not evil
Giving "110%" is virtually impossible
Dwight's theories on Lost
Fact: Men are better at facts

Barney Stinson:

Licking the National Monuments
24 ways in which women are like fish
Get Psyched 2006 Party Mix CD
Brocabulary [Encyclopedia Brotannica - Barney's Guide to Bronunciation]
Recycling - Things we enjoyed in the 90's that are no longer cool [Note props for SBTB]

Now if there was just get a blog for JD [White Shadow] and Turk [Brown Bear] or The Todd from Scrubs I would be in business. Hammock Up!

Thank you #4

A sad day for Patriot's Nation, Adam Vinatieri has signed a deal to play with the dreaded Indianapolis Colts. This, of course, is what happens when you build a winning franchise and we have lost our share of coaches and players since the first super bowl win in 2001-2002 but losing Mr. Clutch is the biggest lost player to date.

Adam Vinatieri is the all-time leading scorer in Patriots history, and is widely considered one of the best clutch kickers in NFL history. Adam has 19 game-winning kicks during his 10 years with the Patriots. He has not missed a game since he entered the NFL with the Patriots and many, like me, had hoped he could have played his entire career at Foxborough. Before we say good bye let's recap a few of his memorable moments:

January 19, 2002 - Patriots 16, Raiders 13. Vinatieri converted all four of his field goal attempts against the Raiders, including a 45-yard field goal with 27 seconds left in regulation through the driving snow to tie the Raiders and send the divisional playoff game into overtime and the game-winning 23 yard field goal in overtime in the game dubbed "The Snow Bowl".

February 3, 2002 - Patriots 20, Rams 17. Vinatieri hits a 48-yard field goal in the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXIX against St. Louis gave the Patriots their first Super Bowl win.

February 1, 2004 - Patriots 32, Panthers 29. Vinatieri kicks a 41-yard, game-winning kick in Super Bowl XXXVIII against Carolina to give the Patriots their second Super Bowl win.

February 6, 2005 - Patriots 24, Philadelphia 21. Although not a "game winning" kick, Vinatieri's 22 yard kick with 6:20 left in the game proved to be the difference and this gave the Patriots their third Super Bowl win, 3 in 4 years.

One could say that without Adam "Mr. Clutch" Vinatieri, the Patriots might not even have a single Super Bowl ring to their name. Thank you for the past ten years and 3 amazing Super Bowl seasons.

American-Ideology

Last week idol hopefully Melissa McGhee received the least amount of votes and so she is off the show. Don't get me wrong, she is not the best singer in the group but certainly not the worst of the 12. Bucky, Kellie and Kevin are lower on the music ladder than Melissa but they remain. I remember hearing about a movement to keep a "bad" singer in the contest as long as possible. A site call Vote For The Worst is calling for an effort to keep Kevin "Chicken Little" Covais in the competition as long as possible. I'm sure that they can not form a group large enough to actually control the final outcome of season five but certainly a few [hundred] thousand votes for a specific contestant would keep them around longer than expected. The site claims they were able to keep the likes of John Stevens and Jasmine Trias [season 3] & Janay Castine and Scott Savol [season 4] in the competition way beyond their talent. I would agree last season Scott Savol went much further than his voice should have taken him and so far this appears to be the same for Kevin Covais.

Isn't this what makes America and American Idol so great? I think so and keep voting for your favorite even if it's to keep the Fox executives sweating each weeks outcome.

Harpoon 5 Miler or Bust

On June 3rd 2006, Kym, Lisa and Sandy are all participating in their first 5 mile road race. I am so excited and proud of these girls are going to train and push themselves to accomplish this running distance and at the same time assist in raising money for the Angel Fund for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis [ALS] or Lou Gehrigs Disease research. This will be my third year running the course and I have put together a simple running build-up schedule for them to train to, which is:

If you want to run or volunteer for this event, check Harpoon's website - it is a great time and we have so much fun. See y'all at the finish line and make sure there's a cold UFO there for me.

Caribbean Cruise

This trip was all about the southern Caribbean, checking out the beaches and celebrating my 35th birthday [one of the few milestone birthdays left for me, but more on that another day]. Our trip took us to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. We visited some pretty nice beaches and here's the run down:

Magens Bay, St. Thomas - 1 mile of white sand and beautiful water. Pretty busy with visitors but worth the stop to enjoy a very calm bay. Also on our ride back to the ship we stopped to take pictures of the both Magens Bay and the Charlotte Amalie Harbor and both views were spectacular.

Orient Bay, St. Maarten - Great beach for easy body surfing. Unfortunately we only had 1 hour here but I enjoyed a full hour of wave riding. Note: we did not see any "naturalist" at this clothing optional beach.

Miller's By The Sea Beach, Antigua - This was the first time we just jumped in a cab and went to the beach on our cruise. This beach was recommended by our waiter it is was a really great secluded beach. Not more than 25 people there and we really enjoyed the sun and calm waters and it was a nice change from Magens and Orient Bay which were both pretty busy.

Rodney Beach, St. Lucia - This was another of our waiters recommended beaches and again he picked a nice beach. Lisa did not go in the water, which was so refreshing, because the waves were crashing about 2 feet from the shore and they sounded like thunder when the broke. I have to admit some were quite large, about 5 feet high, but since they broke so close it was easy to get past them to just float in the water. It turned out to be a great reading day at the beach.

The Boatyard, Barbados - This was our favorite place onto he whole trip. Ok so The Boatyard is a beach with a bar so what's not to like but really it had the nicest and whitest sand and the most inviting turquoise water we had seen on the cruise. The rope swing off the pier, ocean trampolines, and the ice-berg climb & slide were also a blast. Lisa said it reminded her of a [really big] swimming pool, that's how clear the water was.

Lisa pulled a "Hawaii" and wouldn't get out of the water on our last day but I am so proud that she went off the rope swing several times, swam out to the trampoline and was having fun in the water even though it was over her head!

Also on our cruise we met some very nice people, as always, and in particular was a family from Montreal. Garry turned out to be a musician so we encouraged him to sing at both Rock-A-Rokie [Karaoke with a live band] and Karaoke. He made it to the finals of Idol Karaoke on our final night but unfortunately he did not win. He was robbed because he was by far the best singer there but poor song choice lead to coming in second. Anyway Garry and family are now back in Montreal and he has returned to his rocking ways with the band Loose Change.

All in all it was a great trip which we came home from with nice tans, great memories, some nice pictures and Lisa finally got her birthstone ring/necklace she was always wanted. Wait a minute, wasn't it my birthday?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Ok so who is this St. Patrick and why does he get his own day? Well Saint Patrick (386-493) is the patron saint of Ireland and March 17th marks his Catholic feast day and it is also widely believed that he died this day. So are we celebrating his life or death?

Chicago River colored green for St. Patricks Day

This got me to thinking, about Ireland and the Irish people and the wonderful products they have given us. Here is my short list of great Irish items:

Irish Spring - Good soap, not convinced that an Irish spring smells like the soap though.
Bailey's Irish Cream - Excellent on the rocks or if you want to make a Nutty Irishman!
Norte Dame - Is the term Fighting Irish redundant?
Boston Celtics - For years they seemed to be lucky and good, but not recently.
Lucky Charms - Lucky the Leprechaun is much cooler than that Trix Rabbit. Plus Lucky got an honorable mention by Patty O'Brien in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

So lift your pint of green beer and say "erin go braugh" [which is a Gaelic phrase commonly translated as "Ireland Forever"] !

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone.

BOTB Blog Kick Off

At the encouragement of my beautiful bride Lisa and our friend Liz, I have begun this Blog to store my thoughts, ideas, comments and of course interesting web content. Liz also requested that the picture of us from the Boston Wine Expo appear here, so Liz here you go [notice the sticker on my shirt]:

I will attempt to Blog early and often and for all those out there reading The Bottom Of The Barrel, which might turn out to be more descriptive of a title that I though depending on the quality of my content, do not hesitate to comment on my entries. For now I will just say Cheers for stopping by.

Bottom Of The Barrel