Simply Hilarious

My friend Sam Bradley shared the video below with me. It's simply hilarious.

This clip from the Miss Teen USA pageant shows how ill prepared Miss South Carolina is for the question and answer portion of the event. Instead of asking her why she thinks 1/5 of Americans can't find the U.S. on a map maybe they should have asked her why she thinks the South Carolina educational system left her ill prepared to use the English language.

Another State Down

No too long ago I was begging for blog hits on here. At that time I had received hits to my blog from 46 of the states in the U.S. with only Mississippi, Nevada, Wyoming and Nevada never visiting.

Soon after a kind reader in Wymoing visited a few times.

And now I can report that someone in Alaska came across my blog when searching for the TV CBS program Cold Case and it's upcoming season. (Though I've never written specifically about this show, it did get a mention in my posts about CBS' upcoming season.)

That leaves me with just Mississippi and Nevada. Looks like I may be combing some of their local news sites in a ploy to write about topics of local interest.

Please Stop the Ringing

I’ve now been in Delaware for just over two weeks. I’m getting settled in and starting to enjoy my time and my job.

But I’ve got to tell you something that I’m sure some of you know: Comcast is the devil. Some may say that this is an overstatement, but listen to my story.

Here in Newark the cable television provider is Comcast. Soon after moving to my apartment I called Comcast asking about pricing for both cable and Internet service. At the time I was not looking for a land line telephone. I recently signed a new contract with Verizon that actually was a better deal overall than getting a telephone in my home.

But when I called Comcast they told me about their Triple Play package, which gets my cable, Internet, and phone for one price. Getting all three services in this package was actually cheaper for me than going for just the cable and Internet. So I figured why not. I’ll only use the phone for emergencies, but keep my cell phone as my primary phone number.

I had everything installed on Saturday, August 4. Everything was great and all the services were working fine.

Then it started on Wednesday, August 8. My phone from Comcast started ringing. It was a phone solicitor for some magazine distributor. I could have written it off as the salesman just having my number on a list, but they also knew my name.

I had only given my number to one friend at that point. I knew that it had to be Comcast that had set up my number and then immediately sold my information off to a variety of companies.

I’ve now gotten solicitation phone calls every day. At all times of the day, from 8am until 7pm. People are trying to get me to refinance my home (though I live in an apartment), subscribe to the Philadelphia Inquirer, have someone come in to test the purity of my water, and I’m sure a multitude of other things that I don’t know about since I no longer answer if the call waiting says that it’s a blocked number. It’s ridiculous.

I know that they don’t have to, but it sure would be nice if Comcast had asked my permission before selling my personal information off to the highest bidders.

My next stop on the Internet-the National Do Not Call Registry.

Funny Phobias

I've posted some of these before, but I think that they're worth a second look. It's sad that these people have these phobias; these fears seem so strange. And I can't help but laugh a little when I see them, particularly their reactions when they face their fears, but leave it to Maury to show such phobias like these.

The Beginning

Today is my first full day on my own in my new apartment in Newark, Delaware. While scared about coming here, in many ways I’m excited now that I’m here. I can’t wait to start teaching, and I can’t wait to get back to some research. This really is an excellent opportunity for me.

Now if I can just get over this flu bug that I seemed to pick up today.