KFC biscuits...

...are delicious.

cellphones

I understand that most adults need a cellphone. Honestly, I'd be lost without my cellphone most of the time. I use it for everything. And text messages are especially awesome. I even use it to keep track of time instead of having a watch. But sometimes I think people are a little too obsessed with cellphones.

First of all, cellphones allow people to engage in very antisocial behavior. Instead of interacting with the people that I'm with, I find myself sending texts at the bar and whatnot. And I know people are even worse than me with this.

But I can deal with people using cellphones in these situations. That's fine. Pretty much everyone does it now. It's like it's become a part of socializing.

What really annoys me though is seeing little kids with cellphones. Today I was taking the train from my apartment to my parent's house. I figured I'd get a little reading done on the train.

Wrong. About 5 minutes into the trip, a group of 5 girls aged somewhere between 10 and 12 and their parents get on the train. They're being loud and obnoxious. Man, if kids could only see how annoying they are they might not be so bad. Trust me when I say I didn't want to hear what these girls had to say but unfortunately I was forced to since they decided to sit down in the seats right across the aisle from me. Wonderful.

Anyway, in between these girls' conversations about some penguin video game and chewing gum in school, one of the girls says something to the effect: "Oh. I'm going to send a text to somebody. Who should I send it to?"

And so I'm thinking: why the hell does this girl need to send a text message to anyone? Seriously. It's like the president of the United States asking what country we should bomb. Just because you have the tools to do it doesn't mean you need to do it. But cellphones aren't useful tools for these kids, they're fucking toys.

Which makes me think even more: why the hell does this girl have a cellphone? She's like 10 years old. She really doesn't need it. Parents rationalize it in their own minds. Idiots.

At some point during the trip, another girl picks up her cellphone and calls somebody. The call apparently went to voicemail and went something like this: "Hey Alex, I'm calling you because I'm bored and decided to call somebody and guess what? You're the lucky winner because you're the first person in my address book! You should feel special. Well, ok bye!"

At this point I wanted to turn to the girls and say: "Will you guys turn your cellphones off and shut the fuck up!?" and then turn to their parents and ask: "Why the fuck did you morons give these girls cellphones? And you sit here and listen to their conversation and don't do shit about it? Fucking Christ!"

If I ever buy my kids a cellphone before they hit high school, somebody please beat the living shit out of me.

on a trend today

When I talk to a lot of people about what is wrong with America, one thing everyone always mentions is that Americans don't have a good work ethic. It cracks me up hearing this come from college students who go to class four days a week and are having their parents pay their way through school.

you know what sucks?

Getting around 5-6 hours of sleep, stumbling your way into work with a hangover, not eating a damn thing for breakfast, and having to work 4 hours straight without eating anything. Add to this that almost everyone I know is at home sleeping right now because they weren't stupid enough to schedule classes or work on Friday mornings.

hold it...

What's wrong with people? Nobody holds the door for anyone anymore. It's a common courtesy. It takes about a split second of a person's time to just hold the door. I realize many Americans are lazy pieces of shit that don't feel like getting off their couch for more than 10 minutes at a time but does it really take that much energy to just hold the door for another person?

But what's even worse than the lazies are the people who think they're too damn cool to hold the door for the person behind them. In fact, it decreases that person's "coolness" level (if there is such a thing) and really just makes them look like a douchebag.

And let me just clarify: I'm not talking about holding the door for people who are like 50 feet behind you. That's too much effort. And besides, half the time those people don't even want you to hold the door because then they feel obligated to jog to the door so that you don't have to wait too long. But if somebody is only a few feet behind a person, then that person should hold the damn door.

I should start a new policy where I just punch the person in the back of the head if they don't hold the door for me. I won't do that. But I should.

down with the sickness

So. I am sick. It sucks pretty bad. I've already gone through almost an entire thing of DayQuil and I'm starting to think I might need to go see a doctor. But then again, I feel like maybe I'm starting to feel better, too. I guess getting almost 30 hours of sleep in the past 2 days will do that to you. Unfortunately I haven't gotten any work done and I have a bunch of work PLUS my journal applications to finish. I planned on finishing them yesterday until I ended up taking a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day. Ah well. Hopefully I'm better by Monday.

And oh yeah. Happy Valentine's Day?

Angels sign Bobby Abreu

Growing up as a Philadelphia Phillies fan in South Jersey, Bobby Abreu came to be one of my favorite players. Though his defense was often lacking, it was always a pleasure to watch the guy hit. His SLG has dipped off recently, but he is still close to the prestigious .300/.400/.500 club (.300 BA, .405 OBP, .498 SLG). No matter what way you slice it, those are impressive averages to keep up over a 13 year career.

Getting to the point, Bobby Abreu reportedly signed a one-year deal to be worth slightly over $5 million for the 2009 season.

My immediate reaction: what a bargain.

After taking a few minutes to cool my reaction, I thought about it a little longer. And still, I cannot believe what a bargain the Angels got. There were rumors swirling around last week that Abreu was going to sign a one-year $8 million deal. At that time, I thought whatever team signed him for that would be getting a great deal. But one-year $5 million . . . that's highway robbery.

This is during the same offseason that older, slower, less powerful Raul Ibanez received a 3-year $30 million deal. This is during the same offseason that born-to-be-a-DH Pat Burrell received a 2-year $16 million deal.

And Bobby Abreu, who has the 7th highest active total power/speed number (behind only Bonds, A-Rod, Sosa, Sheffield, Reggie Sanders, and Ken Griffey) gets a measly one-year $5 million deal?

Something is wrong here. Horribly wrong.

Either Bobby Abreu has spent the offseason doing his best Andruw Jones impression and eating himself out of the league or he was in a freak accident severing both of his legs at the knee rendering him only slightly worse than Pat Burrell on the base paths.

Only time will tell. But one thing is for sure: the Angels are god damn geniuses.

Advice for A-Rod

Admit you used steroids and apologize. I don't care if you don't really feel sorry and if you think you were justified because everyone else in baseball was doing it . . . just admit it, apologize, and be on your way.

Sure, people are going to be pissed off for a while . . . maybe some will be pissed the rest of their lives. But the American public are a forgiving people. We recognize that everyone makes mistakes and that if in the same situation, we might have done the same thing.

We've already seen how people reacted to Clemens. Clemens is fighting a losing battle. But what you have the opportunity to do is to choose not to even fight that battle. Surrender immediately. Say that you used steroids, that in retrospect it was an awful decision, and that you are truly sorry to the fans, to your teammates, and to all the other players in Major League Baseball. And then move on.

You're not going to get the same treatment that guys like Pettite or Giambi got when they admitted to using steroids. But still, people will forgive you and then you can move on. But if you deny it or try to fight it, you will lose all credibility and each day that the struggle goes on you will only remind everyone of the fact that you cheated.

I'll be waiting for the apology.