Going back in time to prevent X

Terminator. Heroes. There are probably other shows on TV right now where this is a plot point.

Has anyone considered the possibility that the Large Hadron Collider is damaged due to the sabotage of a time-traveler from a future where it caused a black hole to begin eating the earth from the inside? And, in true TV show fashion, will this sabotage only make it worse??

Chicken sandwiches

I've always been a fan of Chick-Fil-A. When I was a kid, they were only in malls, but later on, when I was in college, they started popping up as regular fast food places with a drive-thru and all. Their chicken sandwich and chicken nuggets are the best you can get from a fast food joint, plus they've got other unique things like the waffle fries and lemonade. I think Chick-Fil-A is a chain that you can only find in the South (but I think they are expanding into other areas now). The part I don't get is why it's taken so long for another fast food chain to make a Chick-Fil-A style chicken sandwich. McDonalds has one now, their "Southern-style" sandwich. I tried one the other day, prepared to be disappointed, but I wasn't. It was the buttery bun, the crispy/juicy chicken breast, and 2 pickles, very similar to Chick-Fil-A, and certainly good enough considering I have no idea where the nearest one is. They've also got a chicken biscuit for breakfast, but I haven't tried that yet.

Now, if only a national chain would rip off Braum's....

Why Netflix doesn't have The Wire at my local distribution center

This is really annoying.

I've read in so many places how great a show The Wire is, and after watching Deadwood and thinking it's one of the best things ever on TV, I decided to give it a try. So I put the first DVD from the first season in my queue, and it showed "Long Wait" so it took a few tries to get it. That's fair enough. But, when it finally moved up into the "Shipping" part of my queue page, it said they expect to ship it tomorrow. Hmm. That's very unusual. And then I got an email that said it would be shipping tomorrow from a distribution center in another state. That never happened before. Well, I watched the DVD, and I thought it was interesting, so I put the 2nd DVD (which did not say "Long Wait") at the top of my queue. The exact same thing happened. It would ship tomorrow from another city. And would you believe that the third DVD is shipping tomorrow from a city halfway across the goddamn country?!? I do not live in Jericho, Kansas, people. I live in a major metropolitan area on the west coast. There must be at least two distribution centers within this major metropolitan area, and probably several more within the same state. Why do none of these centers have any of The Wire available?

Over the past few months, we've gone through more DVDs that usual, around 10-12 each month. It is possible that this is a form of throttling, but why with these DVDs, which do not show "Long Wait"? Why is it that most new releases which I put at the top of my queue ship right away, even if they do say there is a wait? I've never had any problems with Netflix before, so I'm not thinking about ending our business relationship over this, but it's annoying and I don't get it at all.

Why people don't clean up after themselves

This is one of my pet peeves. People can be so entitled, can be so unaware of what's going on around them and how other people manage to take care of their own business, plus that of slobs, that they never even realize it. Earlier today, there was birthday cake for a coworker, and the leftovers were put in the break room. Just now, walking through the break room, I noticed that the cake was all gone, but the platters were left out, full of crumbs and icing-covered plastic knives. Is it too much to ask that the person who takes the last piece of cake throw away the paper platter it was setting on? I asked this, rhetorically, of another coworker who was getting some coffee, and he sighed, and pointed to the half-full single serving container of creamer someone left on the counter. Are they trying to conserve resources in the hope that someone else who only wants half a cream will take it? Cause that will never happen. Or, more likely, they're just too much of a slob to bother to throw it away.

My SO said to me last night, "Hey, tomorrow's trash day, you better take the trash out." I gave him a dirty look, and he laughed, cause he knew I knew he was just playing asshole. It got me to thinking though, which would be worse, an SO who tells you it's trash day, and you better take the trash out, or an SO who has no idea when trash day is?

Buca di Beppo

I just went there for dinner for the first time. I got a $10 promotional gift card in the mail, and we figured we should give it a shot. It was pretty good. The gift card basically let us get a free dessert, and the bellini was very strong. There's nothing I don't get about the menu, it's your basic Italian-American favorites served family style. However, if you are not dining with your family, there is a small selection of single-serving dishes. They generally cost about $2 less than the "small" family portion (serves 2-3 people). I totally get why they put it on the menu, but why would anyone order it? For $2 more, you get to take half of your entree home for lunch tomorrow. Sounds like a bargain to me.

We had the baked pasta sampler (the small portion), a caesar salad (with real anchovies on top), and the chocolate vesuvio for dessert. All of it was fine. I'm not sure we'd go back if it's just the two of us, but I think it would be a nice place to go with a group, so that way everyone could try a lot of different things.

Million dollar bonuses for sucking

Dear Board of Directors of Large Investment Bank,

I do not have any experience in the finance industry, and my education had nothing whatsoever to do with business. However, I am confident that if you gave me the opportunity, I could run your company into the ground and reduce the share price by a significant amount. I believe it would be in your best interest to let me do this for a period of one year, for which I will be paid a total of one million dollars. If, after this one year period, you decide that you want me to stay on leading your company into a financial crisis, we will need to renegotiate to a higher salary. Since I am offering to do this for only a million dollars, I don't see how you can afford to refuse.

Thanks for your consideration,
Apsalar

Morning Radio Shows

Why do morning radio shows only come in 2 flavors: boring and awful? Sometimes I listen to the boring shows, and they start to annoy me really fast because the hosts have the most stupid banter with each other, and with callers, and they never say anything interesting or funny. They trip over each other with their sucking-up laughter, and their pointing out the obvious. So dumb. So I get bored and switch to one of the other types of shows. They never use the word "woman" when "bitch" or "slut" or "chick" will do. I live in the Bay Area, which is overwhelmingly liberal, so of course the morning talk show people have to say antagonizing things so that people will call in to either be indignant (and entertaining) or even worse (and entertaining). I don't find this entertaining. I find it trollish. So then I switch back to the other show, the boring one, and remember why I don't listen to it anymore. The whole thing is terrible. I like Morning Edition on NPR, but it goes off usually while I'm in the car on the way to work, followed by Fresh Air, which I don't really like. There are no good solutions.