Month: January 2009

Commercials

What started as a championship game between two distinct football leagues has somehow been transformed into a showcase for advertisements. Everyone watches the game, but everyone pays attention to the ads.

Don Draper: Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.

Tonight there was an hour show just showing famous Super Bowl commercials. They even had some sneak peeks of this year’s ads. If you missed the show, and can’t wait until tomorrow, you can see quite a few of them here: Adweek.com

Roy: So, what do you do, Don?
Don Draper: I blow up bridges.
Midge: Don’s in advertising.
Roy: No way! Madison Avenue? What a gas!
Midge: We all have to serve somebody.
Roy: Perpetuating the lie. How do you sleep at night?
Don: On a bed made of money.

The cost of a 30-second spot for Super Bowl I in 1967 was $42,500 on CBS. Twenty years and 20 games later, the cost had spiraled to $600,000. For this year’s game, CBS is asking $3 million and they have sold out (pun intended.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 104

Mii

After work we drove to Augusta to meet some friends for dinner. Mmmm…ribs. When we were done eating it was decided that the 4 of us should go bowling, so we went back to their living room.

They just bought a Wii a couple weeks ago and have been bowling practically every night. Trust me it showed in the scores. We rolled a total of three games and each game my wife beat me by just a few pins. It is usually just the opposite in the real world, I come out on top there. Incredibly it works that way with the couple we were with too, only she is the better bowler in reality.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 104

Urologist Visit

As men age, we tend to end up seeing more and more of the medical establishment. For example, my family doctor recently referred me to a female urologist.

I saw her yesterday and she is gorgeous. She’s beautiful and unbelievably sexy. She told me that I must stop masturbating.

I asked her why, and she said, “Because I’m trying to examine you…”

Superbad

I watched Superbad on Netflix Instant Watch and enjoyed it. Sometime, if you are just in the mood for some teenage raunch/stupid/low brow comedy, this movie will be for you.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 103

Dr Cuddy?

We popped in the first disc of Season 1 of The West Wing tonight and watched a couple episodes. in the very first one Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) picks up a woman in bar and ends up spending the night with her. In the morning they accidentally swap pagers. Later that day “Sam’s” pager goes off and discovers the swap along with that he also finds out the woman works for an escort service! She looks vaguely familiar, I think I have an idea, but dismiss it as too far fetched.

Donna has the same idea, but is sure who it is, so she says it, “She’s from House.” Now when she speaks I can tell it is her, it is Lisa Edelstein, just 10 years younger than we’re used to.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 102

Achoo!

Last Friday after a couple days off battling the flu, I was not fully back to normal, so I had to take a box of Kleenex in to work to keep handy at my desk. I was given one off the shelf here at home and it was covered in flowers and such, not very manly, so when I got into work I measured the box and drew up a template in AutoCAD. My first cover attempt consisted of dropping the template over one of our part drawings. While initially satisfied with the first cover, it didn’t take long before I had an idea for a better one, behold cover #2. Looks like Jack is running to the box because he has to sneeze.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 102

Tax Man Cometh

The fine folks at TaxCut mailed me a CD again this year. I almost installed it.

I have used a computer program to do my taxes (TaxCut and TurboTax before it) for at least a dozen years. In the beginning they were sort of crude and it was more a novelty and a math check than anything. As each year went by they got better, they asked questions in plain English, you no longer had to read the form, read the explanation in the instructions, scratch your head, guess. It was almost fun to do your taxes.

I don’t remember what TaxCut cost last year, but this year they wanted $50 for the one that includes Federal & State and that apparently was my tipping point because I didn’t want to spend that much. I downloaded the 1040 form and instructions off the IRS site and then because we were out and about yesterday I ducked in the library and picked up a paper copies too (it is so much easier for me to read the instructions while filling out the form instead of flipping windows back and forth.)

Today I investigated the possibility of filling them out online for free, but they were limited to people making less than $53k which left us out. Then I found that both of the major players offered free online software and e-file for federal (will charge for doing the state though ~$30.) I picked TurboTax Free and in less than an hour I was done.

Admittedly ours is a piece of cake, we can’t even itemize anymore because our home mortgage interest is so low now, but I’m sure it will take longer to do the state on paper tomorrow.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 102