Sorry, Bob (but not really)

And the apologies just keep on coming.

First, I was unduly rough on Canadians. Now I owe Bob (er, NBC) an apology for getting upset about the Visa commercial they played. Turns out it didn't give away the ending after all. I got an email from Richard Sandomir, a reporter at the New York Times, who asked NBC about it. (Yeah, I roll with the big boys.) According to NBC, the Visa commercial congratulated Michael Phelps on winning his 10th Olympic gold medal, making him the most decorated gold medalist in Olympic history - not tying the record for most decorated gold medalist in one olympiad.

Still, I'm not letting Bob entirely off the hook. Even a mental super hero like me has a hard time keeping all the records straight and Bob doesn't help any with all of the hype and promotion.

"Phelps is now only one win away from becoming the first left-handed athlete from North Baltimore to simultaneous break a world record and expend 1392 calories in the second 50m of the 400m individual medley relay. Let's get back to all of the action at the Water Cube."

I ask you, how am I supposed to keep it all straight?

Comments

Helped or Had

I feel uneasy tonight. I'm not sure if I helped or was had. In what has become something of a Thursday-evening-post-basketball tradition, I drove to Walmart for some late night shopping. Two weeks ago it was new shorts and an exercise shirt. Last week it was another exercise shirt (because I liked the first one so much). This week it was new insoles and laces for my basketball shoes. (Thelma, who has thoroughly documented her distaste for shopping at Walmart has driven me to these shopping trips under the cover of night.) Approachable is not how I would have described myself as I trudged across the Walmart parking lot in my wife-beater sleeveless shirt, shorts and coordinating fleece vest. Sweaty, yes. Beleagured, perhaps. Approachable, no. But a woman did approach. Something told me to stop and wait for her. She was caught somewhere between out-of-breath and verge-of-tears. I could see she was nervous talking to me. She tripped quickly over some desperate story that I co...

Driving East

I will wake up tomorrow morning, on Father’s Day, alone in Cheyenne without my family. I say this matter-of-factly. Designated days have only a light hold on me. An unexpected business trip that means being gone on Father’s Day? No problem. I'm not much for ceremony. More than once we have marked Father’s Day by splurging for a hotdog at Costco while filling up the minivan on a road trip. (Surely, Cheyenne has a Costco.) If I wake up emotional tomorrow morning, it's not because I'm alone on Father’s Day. It will be because of the cocktail of emotions I drank today. —— Driving across Wyoming was beautiful. Everything below the horizon looked groomed and green. The grass, the hills. the forests. A sea of green dusted with flecks of distant snowfields and antelope. (So many antelope.) Above the horizon, wild white and stormy black scratched across brilliant blue. The kind of sea and sky that softens your heart and tricks your mind. I pulled off the highway at Little America f...

Block Facebook Ads with CSS

(This is my experience evaluating Facebook for my daughter. It turned into a technical exercise in CSS. If you want the full narrative, read on. If you just want the steps for using CSS to block ads on Facebook, jump ahead .) Emma asked permission to create a Facebook account so she can keep in touch with some of her cousins and friends. Emma has been very responsible using our family computer and does a good job keeping our rules about what to do and how to behave online. So, Thelma and I decided that it was probably OK once I had a chance to check out and become familiar with the privacy settings and parental controls. Even though I work for an online business and Facebook is a frequent topic of conversation when it comes to reaching out to and retaining online customers, I have to admit that I have rarely used the service. I created an account for business purposes to become a "fan" of a client so I could keep tabs on some social marketing campaigns. That's it. ...

Mowing the Lawn

Search This Blog