Sick

Well I was lucky enough yesterday to get that stomach bug that Payton had earlier in the week. I guess even washing my hands religiously doesn't prevent every illness. This is the third stomach bug I've had in the past year. Before that, I hadn't had one in over ten years. Blech.

Remembering the 80's

Back in the 80’s I actually watched commercials.  For some reason, today I started recalling a lot of old products from the 80’s that I remember from their commercials.  A lot of them happen to be breakfast cereals.

• Croonchy Stars cereal.  This one didn’t last long, but I thought the commercials were hilarious.  Ryan got me a box of these for my birthday one year and this had to be the most entertaining cereal box ever made.  It’s hard to tell from the pictures in the link above, but I do remember having to find how many times the word “RUTEBEGA” appears on the box.  Then it said that occurrence didn’t count, and then every other time you find it they have some funny reason for why that occurrence doesn’t count either.  I wish all the text in those pictures was readable.
• Nintendo cereal. “Nin-ten-do, it’s a cereal for breakfast!  Nin-ten-do.”
• Crispy Critters cereal.  “Hello my name is Crispy, how do you do?  Crispy Critters cereal is entirely new.  It’s indubitably, indubitably, indubitably, DELICIOUS!”
• Mr. Gameshow.  I remember in the commercial a family playing and Mr. Gameshow saying “Correct-a-mundo J. J….”  Anyone remember how the rest of that went?
• It’s probably sad that I can still recite the whole McDonald’s menu song from memory.  Remember that one with the campaign where they put a square record in the newspaper and if your copy made it all the way through the song you win the grand prize?  “Big Mac, McDLT, a quarter pounder with some cheese, Fillet o’ Fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Happy Meal, McNuggets, tasty golden french fries, regular and larger sizes…” etc.  It’s not as impressive to type it out and you probably just think I found it somewhere on the web.  Ask me to recite it verbally sometime when you see me.

Quick Thoughts 9/27

• Is it just me, or does anyone else find the Burger King commercials with their “King” mascot rather disturbing?  The football ones were kind of funny, but the rest of them just leave me scratching my head.
• Payton has been battling a stomach bug this week.  It looks like he’s over the hump now, but man those are never fun.  It made me remember the time when my dad took my sister and I to a movie when my mom was out of town.  My sister was acting a little funny, but said she was fine when my dad asked her if she was okay.  Not more than two minutes later, she turned to my dad and ralphed all over him.  It’s pretty funny when you think about it now, right Dad?
• It looks like ABC is going to be broadcasting the ISU/Nebraska game on Saturday. 
• Here are today’s song lyrics: “You know our love was meant to be, the kind of love that lasts forever.”  Should be an easy one.

Bear with me

So after getting my hopes up after last week’s game against the Lions, they came crashing down yesterday when the Bears fell apart against the Bengals.  Yesterday’s game was the first one I’d actually been able to see, and there wasn’t much about it that I liked.  For the most part, I thought the defense did pretty well.  They were put in some tough positions after some turnovers, but for most of the game, they really didn’t do that badly.  They kept the running game in check, but I don’t think they were able to put enough pressure on the QB.  Things fell apart at the end, but they had been on the field for most of the day.  The defense can’t do it all.

The Bears’ offense, well that didn’t look any different from what I’d seen last year.  Something is definitely wrong when I find myself happier when the Bears are on defense because I think they have a better chance of scoring than when on offense.  Orton had a horrible game and threw five interceptions.  At least he is a rookie, and Harrington and Culpepper can’t use that excuse.  It’s now Favre’s turn to throw five picks in a game.  Most of Orton’s interceptions were a result of bad decisions, and only one was really not completely on him.  The first pick of the day probably should have been caught, but it was slightly behind the receiver, and ended up getting tipped up in the air, and dramatically caught by the Bengals.  The good news is that Orton really can’t do much worse, it’s still early in the season, and the rest of the division is struggling just as much.

I guess the Bears are a Jeckyl and Hyde team this year.  One week they play great and rack up 38 points, and the next they fall off a cliff and can’t even get a first down for most of the game.  If they play bad like this in their next game against the Browns, I’m going to have to back off my prediction of at least 9 wins, but for now, I’m going to stick with it. 

Quick Thoughts 9/23

• Iowa State plays Army tonight at 7PM on ESPN2.  I’m not going to say much about this game because it really should be an easy game for the Cyclones.  My prediction is ISU 38 – Army 10.
• The Bears play the Bengals on Sunday.  I’m excited because the local CBS affiliate is airing that game, and it will be the first one of the season I get to see.  I doubt Chicago will put up 38 points again this week, but I’m still predicting them to win.  The Bengals have done well so far this year, but they have not played very good teams yet.  I expect Chicago’s defense to tone the Bengal’s offense down a notch.  I predict Bears 24 – Bengals 17.
• I just added a poll to yesterday’s post.  Be sure to go back and cast a vote.
• Usually, I listen to music when writing my blog entries.  From now on, in my “Quick Thoughts” entries, I will post some lyrics from a song and if you know the song it’s from and the artist, post the answer in the comments.  Please try not to use search engines to figure out the answer though.  So, with that, here is today’s lyric: “Maybe I’m just blind.” 

Wash Your Hands!

Yes, I’m a bit of a germophobe.  I don’t take it to extremes, but I always make a point not to touch the door with my bare hand in a public restroom.  That’s why I  prefer paper towels over those air dryers.  With the air dryers you have to either suck it up and touch the door or wait for someone else to open the door for you.  I hate making that decision.  It just amazes me that some people will come out of the bathroom stalls and proceed directly to the door without washing.  I sure hope that extremely thin toilet paper found in public restrooms did its job.  That is just the absolute worst.  I’m never as surprised when guys don’t wash after using the urinal, but it still disgusts me.  Luckily, I’d say over 95% of the people I see in the restrooms at work, wash their hands.

Anyway, a study was released that found only about 75% of men wash their hands after using public restrooms.   I found a lot of in-depth statistics from this study on the washup.org website.  They said the worst results were at an Atlanta Braves game where only 63% of men washed their hands.  I think that’s a surprisingly high result actually, and would have expected it to be under 50%.  You just don’t see many people washing their hands after using the “trough” at stadiums.  The same goes for bars.  There is no way the percentages would be that high if they had monitored bars and other places that serve alcohol.  I think back to some of the college dive bars in Ames and what they had for facilities.  Most did not have soap, and I can recall one that had some problems with the toilet one night, so people were using the sink instead.  In that case, it was probably best not to wash.  I theorize that number of hand washers at an establishment is inversely proportional to the amount of alcohol being served.  What do you think?

Do you wash your hands after using the bathroom?
	Yes, always
	Sometimes
	Only after a #2
	Never
Free polls from Pollhost.com

 

Pluck

I’m trying out a new RSS feeder today called Pluck.  Does anyone else use this or any other RSS feeder software?  I’d like to hear your thoughts.  So far it seems decent, but it annoys me that some sites update their webpages, but their RSS XML feeds are very stale.  That kind of defeats the purpose of using the RSS feed.