Thursday, November 29, 2007

What's Wrong With NFL.com

So tonight was the biggest, most talked about games in the NFL this season. The Dallas Cowboys vs. the Green Bay Packers. Everybody is talking about it. So what is the problem? At least 60% of America could not watch the game. You had to have NFL ticket to watch the game. Are you serious? Why, yes I am! Unfortunately, I am one of those 60%.

So NFL.com puts out an advertisement that states that they have tried unsuccessfully to get cable companies to air the football game. I really wonder how hard they tried. I'm sure that ABC, CBS, and NBC would have been more than willing to cancel one of their programs so that the biggest season could be watched. I'm sure that their airing of this particular game would have drawn in millions of viewers. So how hard did they try, really?

The advertisement also said that they would be airing the game on NFL.com/live for free. I thought that was awesome. But did they? Sure for a few minutes at a time. Most of the game was done by two guys just talking about the teams and the players and the factors of the game. More time was spent watching these two guys talk than watching a live game. I couldn't believe that NFL.com would tell people that they would air the game for free and then not do it. This was a chance for the NFL to make so major bucks. How? Let's look.

If NFL.com had done what it said that it was going to do, then next year more people would have bought the NFL Ticket. NFL Ticket is a program that you can order from your local cable company that shows every single game of the season so you won't miss a game. One like Dallas vs. Green Bay. The NFL could have boosted sales next season. Instead, NFL.com deceives people and more than likely, the NFL fan base is so disgusted with this lie that they put out there, that next season, I'll put money on it that the NFL Ticket will go down. It always happens that way. When people trust what you say, then your sales go up. When they think that you have deceived them or they know that you have deceived them, then your sales go down. What's bad about deceiving people is that when you tick people off, they tell everybody what a big jerk you are and then their friends don't want to have anything to do with you either. That's the way the world works. If you provide good service to your fan base, chances are they are not going to tell anyone. But if you screw them over, then the will tell everybody they can, even people that they don't know.

So way to go NFL.com. I'm sure that you have royally pissed off more than half of the NFL fan base. Personally, out of any major sport out there, the NFL fans are the ones that I would not want to piss off! I'm sure that your sales will be thriving next year and I say that in the most sarcastic way possible! Keep up the good work.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Oh My Gosh

Did you hear about this guy named Sampson Parker? He's a farmer in South Carolina.

So recently he's just doing the farm thing and he notices a piece of cornstalk stuck in one of his machines. He tried to release the cornstalk from the machine, however, when he did so his hand got stuck in the machine. So this guy is just yelling his lungs out for help, but help never comes. After about an hour or so his whole hand goes numb. So what does he do? He takes out his pocket knife and starts to cut off his fingers so that he can be free. Yeah, gross I know but that's not even the worst of it.

So Mr. Parker is just sawing away at his fingers when the machine catches on fire. The fire starts to cover his arm so then he realizes that he is in trouble. "My skin was melting. It was dripping off my arm like plastic, plastic melting." he said. "I realized I was in trouble." So what does he do then? He decided that he'd better cut off his whole arm otherwise he may never see tomorrow. With no time to spare, Mr. Parker went straight for his arm, cutting away from the bone as fast as he could. Once he severed his arm from his body, he managed to drive himself to a road where a firefighter helped him with the injury.

Now you have got to have some huge gonads to cut off your own arm. Especially with a pocket knife. I just wonder what type of pocket knife can cut through bone that fast! Must of been one of those ones with the mini saw in it. He probable used the saw, they just don't tell you that so that the story will be more dramatic! I guess if anybody were in that situation the might do the same thing. After all, it is human nature to try and stay alive. Still, I got to give props to Mr. Parker. That was a very brave thing that he did.

Where Do They Get Their Ideas

I'm not sure if you have heard this or not but a British woman, Toni Vernelli, 35, had an abortion 10 years ago. The reason that she did it...to help save the environment. At least that's what she is claiming. Toni says that she hopes her actions would ensure her carbon footprint would be kept to a minimum. Yeah, that's right. She doesn't want her family to be carried on. Or yours for that matter. Toni is an environmental advocate. After Toni had the abortion she was sterilized. Why was she sterilized you might ask. Well according to Toni, she believes pregnancy is bad for the environment. I really would like to know where these people come up with these things.

Oh, but she's not the only one! Another woman, 31-year-old Sara Irving, also underwent sterilization because she felt "a baby would pollute the planet." Irving became an environmentalist as a teenager when she realized saving the environment was her top and foremost priority in life. After going through several boyfriends she finally found her now husband, Mark Hudson, who shares in her "no kid’s policy."

Ok, so someone please tell me where in the world having a baby makes the world a polluted place. How can that be possible. These people were once babies. Why don't they just kill themselves? After all, they are about 10 or 12 times the size of a baby. They have got to be polluting the world far more than babies are.

There are stupid people in this world, but this is three of the stupidest people on planet Earth. Come on people. Get real. If you think that having a baby is polluting the world, then come prove it to me! Until then, you should just get your head checked or something.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Frank TV

I know that most of you have heard about the new TBS Series called Frank TV. It has been on all the stations being advertised.

This past Tuesday was the first episode. While it looked funny, the very first episode was actually very boring. At least to me. Why? With all the hype about how good of a series it was going to be, the producers showed a lot of clips of the series. The only problem was that Every clip that they were showing was from the very first episode. So when I tuned in to watch the first episode, what I was really watching was the same thing that I had already seen before. I felt like I was watching a re-run. With the exception of the Clinton Library part, I had seen the entire first episode. You can say that I was a little bit disappointed.

I really wonder how long this series will last. I know that Frank can impersonate about 12 people or so, but how much material can he come up with to keep his series on top?

Friday, November 23, 2007

The Pocket Taser

If you are looking for a great laugh then click here.

I'd Like To Be Ripped Off Please

You know, the last time I checked, I thought that I lived in America. I thought that this was the best Nation on Planet Earth. Not that it isn't, I just seem to have found out that everywhere you go, people are only after one thing, and that's your money.

I ordered a box of checks, some deposit slips, and a new check book cover since mine was on the verge of breaking in half. I did this online through Bank of America. The total was like $54 dollars total. Cool right? The thing is that this order posted to my account in 3 separate transactions. What's wrong with that you might ask? Here it is.

I have been with Bank of America long enough to know how they are beginning to do their dirty work. They used to be a good bank, but over the years they have turned against their own customers and began to rip them off. So what really is wrong with the 3 transaction thing? Here's why they do it. For fee's. That's how a bank gets a good chunk of money that they bring in. And it's not from non Bank of America customers either. It's from their own customers. That's right. You see when I ordered the checks, deposit slips, and checkbook cover, the total for all was $54 dollars. My account has 3 transactions. One for the checks, one for the deposit slips, and one for the check book cover. Now, lets say that I was just plain broke. What were to happen if just one of those transactions were to put me over the limit? I would get a fee for going over my limit. Now, what would happen if I was to go over and then do two more transactions. Both additional transactions would get me a fee each. However, in this case, if I was over and this caused me to go over, I shouldn't be charged three fee's because it was one transaction, they just decided to put it on my account as three fee's.

Now, I can see some poor person or some high school student getting into trouble in this manner. I personally pay all of my bills by electronic checks. That is one of the coolest things that is out there. When I first started it, what would happen is that when ever I would send out an electronic check, it would be deducted out of my checking account right then and there. The very second that I pushed "send", it would be out of my account. Then Bank of America changed their policy. They changed it to where they would send out the check, but they wouldn't take it out of your account until the person you sent it to accepted it. If you had a company that didn't accept electronic checks but you still had Bank of America mail a check to them for you, that check had to be cashed just like a regular check. It used to no be that way as I said before. When this all started I was very confused. I could see someone getting themselves into serious trouble when this all started by not letting them know and then they think that the money was already taken out of their bank and then they see that they have a lot more money than they really do.

I have a friend that over drafted her checking account. She did it on purpose. Why? Well her dog was hit by a car. She had to take the dog to the vet and the cost was more than she had in the bank. She knew this so she wrote a check knowing that it would bounce. She thought that her bank would give her one fee. Instead her bank charged her a $35 dollar fee for everyday that she was over.

Ok, so lets look at that. One fee for everyday that she is over. If a bank charges you one fee for every day that you are over then all they are doing is helping you stay over drafted. Most jobs pay on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. Hardly do places pay weekly anymore. So depending on when this happened, it depends on when she will be able to bring her account back into the green. If she is charged a fee everyday that she is over, she may never get her account in good standing. Most people do not overdraft their account on purpose. In this case yes, but normally no. What is her bank? Washington Mutual or Wamu as some people call it.

Banks can change their policy anytime that they want to. They never have to tell you either and they don't, believe me. Why can they do this? Easy. You gave them permission to. Don't believe me? If you still have your contract with the bank when you signed up, look through it and you'll find a part in there that states very clearly that they can change their policy at anytime with or without your knowledge. If you do not have a copy of this then go to your local bank and ask for a copy. I'm sure that they would be more than happy to point that out to you. If you never agreed to that, trust me when I say that you would not be a member of their bank.

Now this goes far beyond banks. You seem to get ripped off everywhere you go. If you go to a medical facility for one reason or another, if you don't have medical insurance then your pretty much screwed. The cost of medical or dental is outright outrageous. There is no reason that it should cost as much as it does.

Pro sports is another one. Want to go see your favorite team play? Chances are your going to fork out some money if you want to see them, unless you want to see them from the furthest point in the whole arena. Even then it might cost you $30 or $40 bucks.

Movies. How much does it cost to go to a movie? $10? What if you want popcorn or a coke? $5 for a bag of small popcorn and $4 for a small 20 oz. drink! Are you kidding me?

But I can tell you why this happens. Because we as Americans allow this to happen. We just go with the flow and pretend that everything seems that of the norm. Used to if people didn't like the price of things they wouldn't but them. Over time when no one would buy them, the prices would go down. Now prices keep going up because we as a society keep paying them instead of putting our foot down. If we did, then this country would not be like it is now.

Here's something to think about. Do you think that our forefathers intended this country to be the way that it is now when the Declaration of Independence was written? I seriously doubt that. Justice for all as it says in our pledge. But where is the justice? How come some people can afford to go to the doctor and some cannot?

If everybody would just put their foot down and take a stand then this country would be a great Nation again.

Last Doesn't Really Mean Worst

I guess that each of us learn something everyday. Something that we didn't know before.

For me, it's about Gilbert Arenas. If you don't happen to know who that is, Gilbert is rated as one of the top players in the NBA. He plays for the Washington Wizards and during the '06-'07 season, ranked 4th overall in leading scorers in the NBA. He has made the NBA All Star team multiple times. That's pretty impressive right?

The thing is, that if you just saw Gilbert and the way that he plays, some people would assume that he was drafted. Well, your right. He was drafted. However, the way that I have seen it in the past, if your not in the first 10 or 12 to get drafted, your really not anybody...or at least they don't expect you to be. For some reason, that's just the way that it has seemed to work. For Gilbert Arenas, that's what some people thought of him. Gilbert wasn't even drafted in the first round. That's right. Gilbert was drafted 1st in the second round of the NBA Draft. That means that he was the 31st pick of the NBA Draft. Not really what most people pay attention to. Over the years he has picked up his game and proven that he is one of the best players in the NBA. His stats show it and everybody loves him.

That reminds me of one other player in the NBA who was drafted way down the line and is now considered one of the best in the league.

Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks was almost like Gilbert. Lucky for Josh, he was drafted in the first round. Think that's good? Not really. Howard and Arenas were drafted 1 spot from each other. Howard was drafted the last pick in the first round of the NBA Draft. Once again, probably someone who wasn't really looked at that closely. However, Howard has proven that he is one of the best players in the NBA. Improving in every area of the NBA every season, last season Howard became an NBA All Star as well.

I guess that this just proves that the draft really doesn't matter as long as you can prove that you are worth it. Now if I could only figure out how many players that were drafted in the top 10 or 12 and who never made an impact in the NBA. Now that would be cool.