- Slow Week – I have been battling what ex-Red Sox coach Terry Francona would call “intestinal turmoil.” I can’t tell if it was a good time for it or not. The weekend was pretty slow with my favorite NFL team not playing, getting used all the pluses and minuses in moving from a webOS to Android smartphone (more minuses than pluses at this point), and the general lack of news that all weekends tend to have.
- Vampire Diaries – One of the bright spots was that I started watching the Vampire Diaries. This would be something like my fourth concurrent vampire show, which shows the sad state of television. If it’s not a reality talent or about vampires its probably not going to last. I wonder how many readers caught that I intentionally aimed to deflect the sad state of me calling watching the Vampire Diaries a bright spot with the sad state of television in general. Overall it isn’t that bad of a show. I haven’t seen Friday Night Lights (that’s on the list), but I would expect it to be something like a mix between that and Twilight.
- Subway Anytober – Is anyone else going to be sad to see the $5 footlong for any regular sub at Subway in October go away? I’m going need a couple of days to begin November in remembrance.
- Bridge School Concert Rocks Again – I wasn’t born for the first Woodstock and I didn’t go to the second one, but there’s an annual concert in San Francisco that I imagine to be a little like Woodstock-lite-lite (yes two “lites”). That’s the annual concert to raise money (yes it’s a charity) for a school that gives hope to children with physical impairments. Last night I got to see Dave Mathews, Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder, Beck, Santana, Norah Jones, Tony Bennett… and it seemed like much of the crowd was there for Mumford and Sons. The most awkward 3 minutes in my concert going history was when Tony Bennett sang, “I Left my Heart in San Francisco.” Tony Bennett is like a roller coaster at this point. One on hand he’s living legend. On the other hand, he’s 85 and that’s not a great age for entertainers. On the third hand, he’s still pretty spry for 85 – he was really good for a few songs. On the fourth hand, there were two that you couldn’t really him for because he didn’t have the mic up to his mouth – including the highlight, I Left My Heart in San Francisco. That’s almost as many hands as a cartoon octopus.
Back to the Woodstock aspect of the concert. If they were to pay narcotics officers on commission, they would either be very rich or very injured from the crowd’s response to them doing their job. On the other hand (I’m wearing out that construct today), you got the feel that just about anyone would give their spleen if you asked nicely – and then they’d apologize for having to ask as if it were their duty to offer it.
- Really Raiders? That Much for Carson Palmer? – The guy hasn’t had an above average season since around 2006 (and his team won as many games as they lost) and he’s had a number of injuries. Now he’s going to an average team, Oakland, in the middle of a season where he’ll have to adjust to a new system. With all those question marks, Oakland gave a first and 2nd? I have to think the Patriots could have gotten about 3 firsts for Brian Hoyer by that logic. Good for Carson Palmer though – at least he gets to play football again. Being one of Evan’s financial heroes is enough for me.
In other footall news, if 6 months ago an NBC executive suggested that the Colts would lose by 55 points to New Orleans and they shouldn’t make the prime time game of the week, it would had to be followed with a letter of resignation. How much do people like football over baseball? The World Series beat the most lopsided game in NBC’s prime time history, but it was fairly close.
ESPN has some brutally bad scheduled for later this year too. It seems like every match-up is a great team vs. a used-to-be-very-good-team-but-is-no-longer-good team.
And now for the Personal Finance Links…
- Digerati Life explains what to do if your big bank gets a buyout proposal.
- My Dollar Plan asks can once a month cooking save you money?
- Money Smart Life posts a checklist for quitting your job.
- Million Dollar Journey discusses surviving a divorce financially.
- Generation X Finance goes over generating income when you are off the grid.
- Free Money Finance blogs and yet another recommendation for the lowly thank-you note.
- The Smarter Wallet shares how to make tasty homemade chips & fries: give them some zip!
- PT Money says it’s okay to spend your money on things you really want.
- Humble Savers gives five ways to save to be a millionaire.
- Scott on MONEY presents how to reduce your monthly bills without sacrificing.
Vampire Diaries? Come on! The Wife watches that and when I am unlucky enough not to have poker on Thursday nights I am forced to sit there while contemplating suicide.
How about trying out Eastbound and down, curb or sons of anarchy
Perhaps it is relative. For example, the wife watches about 16 hours of reality talent shows a week (So You Think You Can Dance, X Factor, American Idol, America’s Got Talent), so I welcome just about anything with a plot. That said my wife did put them on Netflix so it wasn’t like I specifically chose them. That said, I have a long history of liking most teenage shows – The O.C., Pretty Little Liars, stuff like that.
I try not to get into too many HBO shows. I got into True Blood and realized that I was paying about $20 a month year round for like 13 1-hour episodes. I don’t need any “gateway drug” shows. Sons of Anarchy just looks like a bunch of bikers doing something…, but I’m not sure what. There’s no hook in there for me with the biker lifestyle without knowing more about the show. Plus, you get your name attached that stuff and they think you are an anarchist. (That’s an inside joke between a regular reader and myself.)
As a Chiefs fan and Raider hater I was pleased to hear about the Carson Palmer deal. I’m hoping he is the next Jamarcus Russell. It is good to see the Raiders are still making stupid deals even without Al Davis.
“How much do people like football over baseball? The World Series beat the most lopsided game in NBC’s prime time history, but it was fairly close.”
You know, if football being more popular means that I can get Extra Innings at 2/3 the cost of Sunday Ticket – for 10 times as many games – I’m OK with it. I’d hate to pay the NFL per-game rates for my baseball games.
“On the fourth hand, there were two that you couldn’t really him for because he didn’t have the mic up to his mouth – including the highlight, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
I’m not sure Bennett is fully to blame here. If this is a known issue, couldn’t someone have rigged him up with an attachable microphone? I’m not saying that it’s too much to ask for a singer to hold the microphone properly … but you’re paying to hear his voice, not to applaud his microphone-holding skills.
Good point, but then again a lot of Tony Bennett’s “character” is in holding the microphone. It serves as a prop for him as well. You don’t picture Frank Sinatra with a Madonna headset. I think that would have lead to an overall worse show.
Plus he had really good microphone holding skills about 90% of the time he was on stage.
Use a small lapel microphone. He could still hold the other microphone – just don’t have it turned on :)
Smart. Perhaps that’s what they did and the small microphone still didn’t work though ;-).
Sons of Anarchy is like the first season of Sopranos but on bikes and without terrible NJ accents.
Thank you for sharing the list. i will check them later.