I’ll be the first to admit that hockey is not my favorite of the major sports.  I’m not sure which is, it varies depending on my mood.  But it’s not hockey.

But that having been said, dang, playoff overtime hockey is amazing.

It’s so, so tense.  Knowing that the next goal could come in 5 seconds, or it could come in 20 minutes.  It’s up and down, fast-paced.  It’s a real battle, and every possession is a hold-your-breath-nail-biter.  One little odd skip of the puck on an uneven piece of ice, and the game (and possibly the season) is over.  One misplay.

NBA overtime is tense.  NFL overtime is tense.  But in the NBA, it’s a full quarter — so each possession is huge but you can give up a couple of baskets and bounce back.  And in the NFL, the game rarely ends on a deep pass or long run.  It’s usually a slow, methodical drive to the 25 yard line that results in a field goal.

NHL?  Sudden death, and the goalies take their game up a notch.  Amazing stops on huge scoring opportunities.  Up and down, and anything can happen.

Too much typing.  I’ve got to get back to focusing on the game.

Go Stars!

But then there are the run of the mill banner ads.  Ones that have very little or no relevance to the content and whose sole method of gathering attention is being annoying.  Previously, this meant garish colors, annoying Flash animations or animated GIFs.  But, for some reason — perhaps file size limitations, perhaps content providers refusing to break a certain threshold of annoyance — sound had been blissfully missing from the majority of banner ads.  You saw it every now and then, but it wasn’t that widespread.  (At least, it wasn’t that widespread at the sites I was visiting.)

But now there’s a series of banner ads pointing out that I’ve won an iPod or a computer or a boat or something.  I don’t actually remember.  Nothing new, really.  The same ad has been around forever in some incarnation or another (which means it must actually be effective, which makes me worry about the IQ of the human race).

But this ad has added voices, now.  Sometimes, a perky female reads the copy to me, telling me I’ve won.  Sometimes it’s a fresh-sounding male.  Either way, it’s annoying.  Very annoying.

So, I’m sitting here listening to some tunes and reading a website that will remain unnamed and unlinked because it carries this ad.  Then the perky female starts reading the ad out loud while I try to read some content.  The ad runs its course while I’m reading and find a link that I decide to follow.  I click the link, a new page loads, and the ad reloads.  Which means… guess what!  I may have won!  I repeat this process one more time before running away from the site with my speakers muted.

To recap: I click on the ad exactly zero times and leave the site and am very reluctant to go back.  Was it worth it, content provider?  I’m probably not the only reader thinking this.  Remember content providers — make sure the ads on your site won’t cost you readers.

I was awakened a few minutes ago by the sound of something pitter-pattering across the hardwood floor.  I had my suspicions, so I turned on the light and sure enough, there it was: a cockroach.

Now, a little background about me.  I’m terrified of roaches.  My top five fears, in order goes something like this:

1. Nuclear armageddon
2. Death by asfixiation after being buried alive
3. Roaches
4. Complete global economic meltdown resulting in return to hunting and gathering society
5. Destruction of the universe via rogue science experiment

I had to summon all my courage to go to my closet for a shoe with which to try to take care of the problem.  It would be my luck that my adversary would foresee my manuevre, and run over near my shoes.  The roach was clearly saying, “You have to get past me first.”

Luckily for me, I had forgotten to put my sandals with the rest of my shoes.  I grabbed one and methodically stalked my prey, waiting to strike until he was away from areas where he could hide and potentially escape.

I attacked with a single, potent strike, and felled my foe.

That is, of course, the easy part — cleanup is even more challenging.  I had to gather all my fortitude again, and made a makeshift broom and dustpan out of some junk mail sitting on my desk.  (But not until I did some extra prodding, to make sure there would be no surprises from a playing-possum counter-manuevre from the roach.)

A flush of the toilet was the sound of official victory.  I had handled the first roach situation in my house, and did it without screaming once and without calling for my roommate Mike for tactical backup.

That got me to thinking, how do I define success?

Life-wise, that’s a tricky question.  But career-wise?  Easy.

Flexible hours, an office with a door AND a window, and the ability to afford furniture made out of real wood instead of particleboard.

I’ll get there one day…

Of course, calling tax time an annoyance is like calling a leg amputation a minor medical procedure.  But the point stands.

The current system of taxing, deductions, and 9,000,000 pages of tax laws on the books is arcane.  Do I have a better solution?  Probably not.  OK, no, definitely not.  But I’m tired and grumpy from doing my taxes, so really the point here is to complain, not to fix things.  I’ll let people much smarter than me fix things.

But, on the bright side, I do live in Texas, so there’s no state income tax.  But I am paying 8.25% sales tax.

And on another bright side, there is the federal economic stimulus package.  I think that since over the past year I have proven that I will not be wasting my money not stimulating the economy and sticking it in savings accounts but instead driving business by purchasing critical items such as Rock Band for the PS2, I should get a bonus stimulus package. 

After all, if you get taxed more based on your income, you should be rewarded more for your frivolous purchases, right?  I think the logic there is as sound as any.

(Note: This originally was going to be a well-thought-out post discussing the economy, taxation, and solutions to an outdated system.  Or as well-thought-out as any of my blog entries. But instead you have this drivel.  And I apologize for that.  I encourage you, dear reader, to bring some intelligence to this topic in the comments section.)

But, rules are made to be broken.  And I have to share this important NCAA basketball update:

I won my office pool, picking not just the final two but the champion, Kansas.

It was quickly pointed out to me that this wasn’t such an impressive feat, since I picked the top two ranked teams to finish one and two, in that order.  And that the office pool had a total of five people in it.

While those minor details may be true, I still have finally broken my tradition of losing heartily in NCAA bracket office pools, dating back to an internship with Micrografx in 2001.

So, I’ve decided to go ahead and brag to every soul I can find.  Didn’t play in the office pool?  Don’t care.  Don’t even work with me?  Don’t care.  Don’t even know the difference between NCAA and NBA basketball?  Don’t care.  If I run into you, I’m going to brag about this for a little while.

I think I earned this one.  And if not, fine.  I’ve never claimed to not have a hypocritical side.

Feel free to consult with me for my opinion on the NBA playoffs, 2008 NFL football season, and eventual World Series Champion.  My crystal ball is nice and polished.

For example, a few days ago I decided that it probably wasn’t going to be cold anymore here in Dallas this season, so I folded up my heavy comforter and put it away in the closet.  I jumped the gun a little bit, though — because last night it was chilly and I woke up in the middle of the night cold with only my sheets and a light blanket.

Now, had I had my thinking cap on, I would have gotten up, walked five feet to my closet, pulled out my comforter, and resumed my slumber.  This would have taken all of 20 seconds, probably.  If that.

Instead, I decided the better decision would be to stay in bed, rather cold.  And laying awake thinking, “Hrm.  I’m rather cold.”

So, I’ve decided I have to come to grips with my stubbornness and better learn when it is an asset and when it is just silly.  I started by pulling that comforter out of the closet this morning.

He went ahead and proved that he is as tough as they come — and, as John Hollinger of ESPN Insider wrote, “a freak of nature” by bouncing back from a high ankle sprain after an unheard of 5 games off.  That type of injury can take months to heal, not days.

Dirk wasn’t 100% against Golden State, but the way he made the surprise start really woke the Dallas basketball world up.  The crowd was more electric than it’s been since the 2006 Finals run.  And most importantly, the players had a swagger I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Dirk’s inspiration was the MVP of the game.  Jason Terry played with hustle and energy we haven’t seen from him, and Josh Howard was being a good garbage collector inside.  The Mavericks were just getting to more loose balls.

This season will come down to how well Josh Howard, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry will play.  Against Los Angeles tonight, Dirk was spectacular — but Howard, Kidd, and Terry all disappeared down the stretch.  The Lakers were able to double and triple team Dirk, and Howard and Terry missed badly on some open shots.  And Kidd wasn’t able to get out in the open court and orchestrate in space like he’s so adept at doing.

Dirk’s defense is better than it’s been: he’s getting a lot of key blocks coming helpside and he’s rebounding well.  And Dirk’s toughness can’t be questioned.  And he’s playing efficient, spirited basketball.  But the team keeps losing close games.  They need to figure out how to win these close games — when the open court game shuts down and things tighten up at the end, the Mavericks tighten up and take bad shots.

They’ve failed at getting to the free throw line late, and I think that will help them.  Of course, referees are more reluctant to call that foul late in the game, but you’ve still got to drive the lane and try to draw that content to have a chance late.

I feel like this team is close to figuring it out.  But they’re running out of time this season to get it figured out.  The playoffs are around the corner — and if the Mavericks aren’t careful, it could happen without them.  I don’t think that will be the case, but it’s possible.

I think Dirk will be able to get this thing on his back and carry them into the playoffs.  He’s shown he’s tough enough.

I understand that when two celebrities date, the paparazzi will show up and everything the couple does is “news.”  Fine, whatever.  I think the coverage is overblown, but people are eating it up, so it will continue being covered.  I can understand that.

Tony Romo made his choices, and it’s his right to do what he pleases in his free time.  I don’t think the city of Dallas, or the rest of the country, should criticize what he does in his free time.  I know that if it were me, I wouldn’t appreciate the media and every Joe on the street telling me what they think I should do with my free time.

Which brings us to the Tony Romo / Jason Witten / Simpson family weekend in Mexico.  Yes, Tony’s job is to be prepared for the Giants — and it’s his coach’s job to help him get prepared.   That coach told the entire Cowboy team, including Tony Romo, to take a couple of days off and re-energize.  Tony works hard to prepare, and every teammate that’s gone on the record about the subject has said as much.   He earned the break.So, what he did on the break doesn’t matter.  No one is criticizing Jason Witten for going to Mexico, so why criticize Romo?

The city will blame Jessica Simpson and Romo’s relationship if the Cowboys lose vs. the Giants, no matter how irrelevant the subject is.  In a way, I feel for them — I know I wouldn’t want that scrutiny on my relationships.  And I know I’d feel awful if my girlfriend was blamed for any shortcomings I might have.Which means Tony has put a lot of pressure on himself to win this game.  If anyone can handle that pressure, it’s Tony Romo.  He is who he is, and has confidence in his abilities and his team’s strengths.  I wouldn’t be comfortable with that pressure, but that’s reason #18931 I’m not an NFL player.  (Reasons #1 - #18930 have a lot to do with my athletic ability).

The only solution to this situation?  The Cowboys winning the Super Bowl.  Go Cowboys! 

I did eventually find a house, after roughly six months of looking (not all six months were spent in full-tilt-house-hunting mode, but a lot of it was).  I learned plenty along the way — and as a peace offering for my absence from you, readers, I’ll share what I’ve learned.

• It helps to have a good realtor.  My realtor, Stephanie, did a great job, despite the fact that I am indecisive, picky, inconsistent, and, all in all, probably the worst client ever.  To make a long story short, we looked at so many houses that if you calculated her commission into an hourly rate, she probably made about 38 cents per hour.  She did do a great job — and also does apartment locating.  Check her out at www.citilandapartments.com .
• No really, it helps to have a good realtor.  Besides Stephanie (who is, not coincidentally, married to one of my former roommates), I have other friends in the Dallas real estate business — and they also do great work.  You should also check out Rogers Healy at www.rogershealy.com (full disclosure: I designed the website) and John Angell at www.eastdallasliving.com .
• If they’re having an open house, it probably means it doesn’t need much work.  Which means I can’t afford it.
• There are a lot of investors looking for a flip out there.  Bargains are hard to come by.  If you wait a day to put in a bid on a bargain, you’re out of luck.
• I got into a lot of bidding wars with investors.  I always lost.
• Some people should not be allowed to purchase paint.  I’m talking to you, person who painted the living room orange.  And to you, person who painted the bedroom puke-green.
• Some people just don’t seem particularly interested in selling their house.  These people are hard to work with for showing and bidding.
• The more I like a house, the less likely it is I can afford it.
• Remember… you’re not just buying a house, you’re buying a location.  This isn’t always easy to remember when bidding more for a house that needs a lot of work than for a house that’s more move-in ready.
• People have trouble keeping their garages clean.

I probably have other observations, but they’ve melded into the vague memories of dozens of houses and buried under the mountain of stress that is home ownership.  But hey, at least the house hunt is done.  Until next time, of course.

But, after that first listen, I forced myself to listen again… and then I wanted to listen to it again… and then I was hooked.

The song hearkens back to the earlier days of Smashing Pumpkins, the Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins.  Shredding solos throughout the song, incomprehensible Billy Corgan lyrics, and loud, pounding drums.  This isn’t Mellie Collie and the Infinite Sadness or Adore Smashing Pumpkins.  This is Billy Corgan being loud and not trying to be a pop star.  (See Zwan and Billy Corgan solo project.)

Ironically, the harder Billy tried to be popular, the less popular he became.  There’s a life lesson, here.

But, back to Tarantula — when I first heard it, I thought to myself that it had a definite AC/DC pace to it.  James Iha’s trademark Digitech Whammy is missing, but Billy’s distorted guitars and Jimmy Chamberlain’s pounding beat are present.  The lack of James gives it a different feel than many Pumpkins songs, but in the end, Corgan is always was the main driving force — and I bet the crowds will pack the arenas to see them, with or without Iha.

As well they should, if the album sounds like Tarantula.  The song is strong throughout, once you get over the initial hit of the pounding sound and pulse (assuming, of course, you got used to later-era, softer Pumpkins).   The breakdown at 2:55 is an honest nod to Siamese Dream — the softly strummed, non-disorted electric guitar is an exact replica of the unmistakable Mayonaise sound.

I’m excited to hear the rest of this album, and I look forward to getting to a show on the reunion tour.  But I’ll be bringing my earplugs — it’s going to be loud.

But, you have to hand it to ABC for managing to mismanage the number of plotlines differently in each show.

Grey’s Anatomy has too many plotlines that it tries to use in every single episode.  It makes the episodes have little cohesiveness and instead turns them into a big mush of different topics. In last week’s (”Testing, 1-2-3″) episode alone:

… Meredith is stressed because her dad hit her after blaming her for killing his new wife, which was untimely not just because her funeral is on the day of the important intern exams but because Meredith was starting to like the spunky gal who was determined to make Meredith a part of her family, which Meredith sorely needed after the death of her mother, who happened to date the chief of medicine.  When Richard tries to console Meredith, she snaps that he is not her father — an interesting response to your boss trying to be nice, who is having his own post-separation hard times, which are exacerbated by his wife (who happens to have gotten pregnant) showing up at the hospital.  But Meredith tries to suck it up and take her exams, but doesn’t write anything on her paper.  George tries to help, but he’s up to his own ears in his own doo-doo because he has to sort out his feelings for Izzy, who he slept with, despite his being married to a woman he just discovered he doesn’t love.  His solution is to move to a lesser hospital, which pisses off Bailey because she’s put a lot of work into his development, but to move hospitals he has to pass his intern exams which the interns are studying for while also preparing for Christina’s wedding which is… tomorrow!  Who would schedule a wedding for the day after the biggest test of their life is beyond me, but they did, and Christina isn’t being the proper bride — she’s more interested in her career.  So Burke is stressed out while he has to tend to the medical drama of the day — a bunch of climbers coming in off a mountain, one of whom happens to have a pickaxe stuck in his head, while the climbers argue about whether or not they should have rescued him.  Alex, of course, has better things to worry about — namely, the identity of the Jane Doe from about 90 episodes ago, who announces she has in fact recovered her memory but doesn’t want to go back to her boring life as a housewife.  Meanwhile, Addison still can’t get pregnant, because she is barren, and thus everyone around her is having babies, including the gay bar owners who are trying to adopt a baby.

That’s a lot of topics for one hour. And I’m sure I forgot some.

Lost, meanwhile, also has a million topics — but gives each topic an entire episode.  This makes each one really developed, but you can go 8 episodes before finding out something basic, such as what the hell Locke is doing or what the freaking numbers mean.  (Remember the numbers?  They’ve been almost abandoned lately.  The numbers were great — was there anything creepier than them opening the hatch and finding the numbers on the inside?)

Find a happy medium, ABC — have a few, well developed plotlines, then move on to the next.  These aren’t soap operas — but they’re getting close.

There are, however, a lot of drinks I am a fan of — Izze Soda, several different cream sodas, Sonic-style limeades, and well-made lemonade, to name a few. Fresh juices are also great.

You can get these at some delis, markets like Central Market or Whole Foods Store, but never at your chain convenience store like 7-11 or a gas station market.

I feel like 7-11 is devoting too much space to the energy drink segment and not enough to other specialty drinks. Maybe their market isn’t growing as fast, but a few more non-standard choices would be great. It’d really get me in their doors more often, anyway, and I believe there’s plenty of room — I’ve seen smaller delis carry a nice drink selection.

Sonic has the right idea — they have a wide selection of unique drink items. That gets people into their drive-in, where they’re likely to grab a quick meal while they’re there. I think 7-11 (I refer to 7-11 mostly in this post, but I understand in the northern US they’re far less common, and there’s a different dominant convenience store chain — insert your convenience store chain of choice wherever you see 7-11 in this post) could see a similar business boost from carrying non-standard drinks.

Memo to AT&T and Cingular: make up your minds.

Once upon a time, I was an SBC Wireless customer.  They turned into Cingular and wasn’t providing very good service, so I switched to AT&T Wireless.  I liked AT&T Wireless.  They were good to me.  Of course, it cost some to switch over and start over, but whatever.  It was worth it.

Much to my chagrin, though, Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless, so I was back on Cingular.  Sort of.  My bills were sent from Cingular, and I gave Cingular money, but I was still categorized as an AT&T Wireless customer.  Whatever — it was all semantics.

Until I upgraded my phone — at which point I had to switch officially from AT&T Wireless to Cingular.  Huh?  I was already on Cingular, I explained to them.  They said no, I was officially on AT&T Wireless still, and it would cost a nominal $15 fee to switch to Cingular.  This made no sense, but arguing got me nowhere, so I paid the $15.

And now Cingular announces they’ve merged with… AT&T!  Seriously, people.  Figure it out.  If they try to charge me to switch to AT&T from Cingular, then I’m switching to Verizon or something.

Way to alienate customers, guys!  And they probably wonder why people hate the utility companies.

I left my cell phone in my car.

And it’s driving me crazy.

I would just go down to get it, but it’s a bit of a walk to where I parked.  That, and I’m curious to see how long I’m willing to go before giving in.  My goal is to make it to lunch, when I’d be walking around anyway, but we’ll see.  I’m going to have trouble making lunch plans without the phone, so it could go either way.

Every minute or so, I notice something feels off.  I feel around in my pants (no, not like that) and think to myself, “Something’s missing!” (no, not like that!)  I then realize it’s my phone, remember that I left it in my car, and get back to adjusting my hair, messing with a whisker I missed while shaving, or whatever other fidgety thing I’m doing.  A minute will pass, and we’ll repeat the process.

I’m about a block away from my phone — which is as far from my phone as I’ve been in a while.  I wonder if it misses me as much as I miss it.

I keep wondering, am I missing text messages?  Phone calls?  No one calls me this early, but maybe today is the day someone does.  It’s lonely without my phone.

You can probably tell that this isn’t the most well-formed or coherent of posts.  This is because:

1) It’s early. 2) I’m distracted by not having my cell phone.

It’s amazing how attached you can become to technology.  If someone had told me 10 years ago I’d have a phone that was my personal secretary — taking messages, keeping my schedule, keeping my to-do lists — that I would be lost without, I’d have called them crazy.

They have little recipe cards you can follow if you want, or you can just go through the line and grab random ingredients and put it into your bowl.

Being trepidatious and wanting to eat healthy, my original plan was to follow a recipe card.  But none really grabbed my interest… so I decided to throw caution to the wind like the wild man that I am.

And let me tell you — I nailed it.  I NAILED it.  I concocted the perfect Mongolian dish.

Maybe that’s what they always want you to think, and the guys running the grill clean up your mistakes, or something.  I don’t believe it.  I think I’ve got a real talent.  Here’s what I did, as best my memory serves me:

• Meat — went mostly chicken, with just a smidge of beef.  Tried to find the leanest pieces possible.
• Veggies — Heavy on green peppers, carrots, and green beans.  A few mushrooms.  Two tomato slices.  And just a tiny bit of onion. And exactly 2 jalapeno slices (not pickled jalapenos).
• Seasoning — Just a dash of salt and pepper.
• Starch — white rice.
• Sauce — this is where the big secret comes in, that I think really helped make my dish happen.  It’s a secret, though, so I can’t tell you.  OK, fine, I lied.  I don’t really remember what sauces I used — but mixed two, like a pro.  The first one was some thing I couldn’t pronounce that had a “heart healthy” icon by it, meaning it was low fat.  The other one was red.

I gave that to the grillmaster and he cooked up my masterpiece.  And let me tell you, it was a masterpiece.  A taste sensation, if I may pat myself on the back a bit.

So, here’s props to Genghis Grill and to, of course, myself.  I’m not much of a cook, but clearly I have the instincts to be a grade A chef.  I’ll probably start small, cooking for wedding parties and birthday bashes, before moving up to running a restaurant or catering for important corporate functions.

And maybe I’ll even figure out what dragon salt is.

Surprisingly, I don’t find Howie Mendel that annoying.  He plays up the drama a bit, but what do you expect?  He’s normally not over the top, and he’s not smarmified like Regis Philbin or douchetastic like Simon Cowell.  Other than the distracting glare off his bald dome, I have no complaints about Howie.  But I do have complaints:

• The contestants are kind of annoying.  They talk and dance and stuff way too much.  I guess it’s a trend Who Wants to Be a Millionaire started — the whole “talking through your thought process” thing.  Just say what you’re thinking — “Man, I’m probably about to lose a ton of guaranteed money, most of which will be taken away by taxes anyway, on the off chance of winning $500,000, when instead I’ll probably end up walking home with $1.25, $0.98 of which the government will take.  But on the bright side, I am getting my 15 minutes of fame.  Most of which I’m spending being annoyingly smarmy and pretending to be buddy-buddy with Howie Mendel.”  If it were me, I’d march up to that stage, pick my numbers, and be on and off in 15 minutes including commercials — and that’s if I went deep into the game.
• What’s up with the guests?  One episode I saw, they brought out a strangely normal-looking Hanson, all growed up.  While I did find their a capella version of “MM Bop” oddly compelling, what’s the point of bringing them out?  Was Lance Bass not available?  The contestent seemed unphased by the one-hit-wonders behind her, and was even soliciting their advice on what to do.  Call me crazy, but I’m not sure I want my financial advice coming from Hanson.  The second night I watched, they had some not-funny comedian on that I didn’t recognize.  I’m not sure what his role was, other than to tell the contestant they were getting him into Last Comic Standing (maybe this guy is the host of the show?  could be) because he had a dream of being a stand up comic.  Kind of a cool touch, but they should have just told him without stopping down for a guest appearance.  I’d have been, like, “Guys, seriously, just let me pick my suitcases so I can win some cash.”
• The models are annoying.  Apparently, they’re hoping that if, when the contestant calls out their number, it’s an opportunity to show off their entire acting range in the hopes of getting “that really big break, bigger than standing with a suitcase on Deal or No Deal.  Now they even all have to say something after they open the suitcaes and peek in.  It always goes the same way — smiles, glee, slow opening of the suitcase, peeking it, going poker faced, then showing the dollar amount, followed by either such a level of excitement you’d think THEY had won the money inside, or a little frowny face and shrug of shoulders that says, “Hey, you may not have won $750,000 but at least you picked the number of the hottest girl on stage and not one of these other girls who aren’t nearly as pretty as me!”  If I were the producers of the show, I’d tell them to just open the case.  All those theatrics are valuable time they could be using to showcase the karaoke talents of the contestant.  Which they actually do.  But really, odds are the models aren’t about to discovered.  They’re not going to get a phone call that’s like, “Whoa!  I saw the way you opened that suitcase, and the way you went from happy to kind of pouty when the suitcase had a large dollar amount was amazing!  Would you like to star opposite Tom Hanks in his next major motion picture and receive millions of dollars?”  I mean, come on — you’re sharing a stage with Hanson!  You just watched a live performance of “Mm Bop” and it’s 2007!  Egads.
• Too many cuts to the friends/advisors/family of the contestants, who are invariably screaming “no deal!”.  Of COURSE they’re going to tell you to say “No deal” — it’s not their money! (Unless it’s the wife/husband.  But even they usually say “No deal!”)  Generally speaking, they’re going to want a cut, and for their cut to be any good, you have to go all the way.  Standard agent cut of 3%, assuming a winnings of $20,000, which turns into $9,000 after taxes or something,  is $270.  They spent that the night before at the hotel bar trying to impress one of the models.

That having been said, get me on the show.  I’d be all business, and a ratings hit because of it.  I’d even be cordial to the guests.

• First off, you’ll that in the about “the Adventurer” section over there to the right, the employment has changed. I’m now working at my old stomping ground, Southern Methodist University, as a web specialist in the Meadows School of the Arts. (My mother worked for Algur H. Meadows a while back, which is another story for another day — but it’s further proof you never know what’ll happen after 28 years…) Drop me a line if you’re in the area and want to do lunch.
  
  And yes, I am still working for the Mavericks. Go Mavs!
  
  
• You’ll notice the Yahoo Publisher Ads are gone. I might replace them with another ad service, and I might not. I’m kind of undecided right now. Don’t be surprised if you see some experimenting in this space.
  
  
• Since I’m messing with things, you’d expect me to update the “Examining” section over there on the right that’s been there so long Idlewild has recorded and released another album in the same amount of time. You would, at least for now, be wrong.
  
  Many of you have cracked that I must be a slow reader. This hurt my feelings. But not quite enough to update that section.

• The right sidebar is just a smidge too high in IE 7. It looks right in Firefox, though. I could probably find a fix for it, but instead, I’ll just declare that for now, your best Lunar Adventures viewing experience will come in Firefox or Mozilla.

• Hold the steering wheel
• Brush my teeth
• Hold the glass I’m drinking from
• Hold open the book I’m reading
• Hit the snooze button on my alarm (even though it’s on the right side of my bed)
• Use the scroll wheel on my cell phone

Lucky for me, though, I spacebar with my right thumb.  I’d be up a creek otherwise.

So, readers (both of you), are there things you do exclusively with your off hand, and that you struggle to do with your dominant hand?  Or am I weird?