My cousin Brendan and I went to see the Rockets play the Nuggets, compliments of my brother-in-law. The Rockets dominated the game pretty well, however i twas basketball, and everyone knows basketball is only interesting during the last part (tenth?) of the season. Still, they were great seats, and we ran into some friends at the game, which was random, though now the last two major sporting events I’ve attended have included randomly running into people. Neat.
My friend made fun o me. What a loser. So I am now liveblogging watching a Russian movie with subtitles, on a projection screen, in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It’s about light and night people, or something. The second of three movies. Also, Pete loves meatballs and bacon. Meatballs of bacon.
From the Jeferson Memorial. It’s a chilly day, so the crowds aren’t what you would expect, especially for a Sunday on a long weekend and Veteran’s Day. The Jefferson is my avorite, especially when the flowers on the trees are blooming. Not happening in November, but still beautiful. Also, it takes a million years to figure out how to get here. Whew.
Charlie Rose talking with Jay-Z. That’s awesome.
Big news! Big news!
Early this summer I bought a Love As Laughter CD called The Greks Bring Gifts and it was good. I mean, really really good. I listened to it about a million times, conservatively. In my car, on the computer, on my iPod working out, whatever. A couple weeks listening to it non-stop. It has been my #1 most-listened to band on Last.fm since I got the cd.
The Mint Chicks have finally surpassed Love As Laughter! Way to go, Kiwis! The most-listened to song is still a song by LaL, however it’s kinda cheating. There are two songs on that album called “Untitled”, so it looks like its more popular than it should be. Also, I didn’t install Last.fm until after my Jeanette binge where I listened to “Porque Te Vas” about 500 times over the course of a week. That song is so good.
Colin says…
“$25 is nothing to me. IÂ am so rich that i use $25 bills to make envelopes out of so I can deposit my $10,000,000 bills at the bank.”
That’s awesome.
Today she goes to her orever home in the ‘burbs. We’ll miss her.
7:15 pm
So I can only watch tv when I unplug the internet. I only have one cable thing in my house, and the tv I have seems to not be able to get broadcast signals. So I am sitting here, live-blogging tv on my phone. Super geek. Anyhow, My Name Is Earl just made a Scared Straight joke. It’s probably been around, but it was well done on Arrested Development. Also, Warden Coach is kinda awesome. Also, I don’t remember when Joy became a surrogate. But she did just make a good gazpacho joke, so who cares…
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7:58 pm
The last scene, with Jim and Michael, was awesome. Jim saw his own metaphysical death. Then he made a “That’s what she said†joke. Sweet.
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8:15 pm
Am I the only one who is annoyed as hell by the weird euro “Music Is My Boyfriend†ipod commercial? Holy crap that makes my skin crawl. 30 Rock is on now, and so far the highlight has been seeing Kenneth and Liz doing the Werewolf Bar Mitzvah dance at Kenneth’s party. But I’m stoked on the idea that Kenny will have a sweet party.
More thoughts: Dotcom is a sweet nickname, and = love how he and Gris are the show’s biggest gossips, especially since they’re not on the show, just Tracy’s entourage. They should have their own show.
I used to like David Schwimmer when he was on friends, even though I was the only one. But no more. I did like the actors-can-change-the-world joke, and that Liz called him a jag. More later.
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9:35 pm
I received a call in the middle of scrubs inviting me to dinner at Kuma’s, the metal-themed burger place up the road. All the burgers are named after metal bands. I usually get the Iron Maiden. It’s about a mile and change from my house, so I walked over there. Unfortunately, just as I was about a block away, the invitation was rescinded as a result of overcrowding at the restaurant. 10 or 15 minutes later, I was safely back at home. I didn’t feel like watching ER, so I channel surfed a little bit. To my great surprise, and chagrin, what did I see on the local PBS affiliate? An episode of Check Please featuring, and lengthily extolling the awesomeness of, yup…. Kuma’s. That was great.
I recently had an e-mail exchange with a friend of mine, in the course of which it came to my attention that not only had I forgotten her anniversary, but also her birthday. Kudos. That got me to thinking about forgetting things and how forgetting (only for a day) my sister’s fifth anniversary made me feel a tiny bit less bad than forgetting a regular friend’s first anniversary. I decided the difference in bad feeling was related to both how bad I felt for doing it and how often I do it. My sister’s anniversary I’ve forgotten probably two times of the possible four, and in general I feel bad, but not awful about forgetting it. With my friend, so far I’ve missed 100% of her anniversaries, but, her status as “friend” and not “sibling” tempers that. That decided upon, I worked up a scale to help me figure out a reasonable level of feeling-bad over certain social faux-pas.
The system is based on taking into consideration, on a scale of 1-10, both how bad I feel about it, and how often I’ve done it. For my sister, I feel about a 7 badness for forgetting, and I’ve done it 2/4 times, giving me a 5 for frequency. 7*5 gives a multiple of 35. For my friend, though I only feel bad at about a 5 (which may or may not make me a terrible jerk, I don’t know), but my frequency is a 10, for a multiple of 50. Just a little bit worse.
Other examples I thought of were forgetting someone’s name in a social situation. I’d estimate my frequency at about 8, which is something I need to work on, but I only rate it about a 3 for feeling bad. 24, or only half as bad as I do for forgetting a friend’s wedding. That feels about right. If I were ever to beat up someone’s mother, I’d feel bad at a 10, however the frequency is only 1, yielding a completely okay 10. Of course, I’ve never beat up anyone’s mother, or anyone at all for that matter, but it’s a 1-10 scale, not a 0-10.
The point of the system is to figure out the best way to react to a certain social event you feel awkward for. Events that register under a 30 are probably not a big deal at all, events in the 30-60 range are worth feeling bad about and probably deserve some apoligizing, but not hand-wringing. 60-90 probably a more heartfelt apology and depending on the circumstances, some sort of physical reparation, like flowers or buying a round of beers. 90+… Well, I haven’t come up with an example, but I’d feel bad about it.
Obviously, this system is basically without any sort of a point, but I think with some more thought, possibly some more variables thrown in, it could be a useful. Say your friend is mad because his girlfriend did X fr the Y time. You could help your friend figure out what to do by figuring out the proper multiples and offering appropriate advice. Let’s say the multiple comes out below 20, you just tell the friend to get over it. Up around 80 or 90, perhaps it’s time they break up.
Thoughts? Any advice on more variables, or a better name, or a wider application of the formula would certainly be welcome.