Tuesday, January 16, 2007
comfortable and furious
If you've never seen Conan O'Brien's "Recliner of Rage" bit, then you may not understand the title to my blog today. Basically, Conan has a graphic designer that is "comfortable and furious" and simply talks for America about what he is "enraged" about. Normally it's about the stupidest things on the planet, but it's a good laugh nonetheless. Basically, that's how I feel. In a recent conversation with my wife I realized that I am just kind of weird when it comes to certain things in this world. It's usually things I can't control or just don't see changing anytime soon, but let expound (or some call it "venting").- Cell phones - I love being able to call people whenever, wherever I want. It's not that I am upset about that in any way. What it really is-is the stupid contract/service agreement that I have to sign to get a cheaper phone. It's ridiculous. 2 years!! For crying out loud, in 2 years I am going to have a chip implanted in my brain and I'll be on my cell phone all day long. I think it's crazy that at the speed of technology these cell phone companies are still getting me all signed up for the next 2 years. Well, get comfortable for those 2 years, because if you try to get out of the contract you'll be paying up the wazoo! It makes me sick. Everyone has a cell phone now!! Doesn't that mean that my prices should start going down?!? What happened to good ol' competition to drive the prices down and help out the consumer? I'm sick of it. I hate it. It makes me mad. And furthermore. . . what century are we in that my phone calls can get dropped at any time?!! Let me say it again, "EVERYONE HAS A CELL PHONE!" Doesn't this mean that we should be putting up cell towers everywhere so my calls don't get dropped. I mean, I'm paying for those dropped calls as it is!! grr...
- Digital music - Oh man, this is a good one. It's all the rage right now. Digital music sales are up and everyone is downloading anything they can get their mouse on over at iTunes. Well, it's not all for me. I'm not saying that I don't download an occasional cheap record from iTunes, what I am saying is, 9 times out of 10, I'm buying the CD from my local music store, and I'll tell you why. First, the CD cases are rockin'. I mean, some graphic designer and art director spent hours creating something for print inside those cases, so wouldn't I want to see it in it's original form, as the creator intended it? Secondly, buying the CD gives me a backup of the music so I can put it on my iPod and never worry about it crashing or losing my music forever. Finally, CD's are fun for the whole family. Recently Beck came out with a "create your own artwork" CD that included stickers and blank pages so we could make our stuff. The kids downloading that music missed out big time. Oh, and another thing. Right now there are bunch of record stores going out of business because everyone is going digital, but I'm not scared. I still think there are people out there like myself that like to have that case in hand, to see it in all it's glory. Hey, if you want, I'll go with you on Tuesday's and we'll buy music together!
- Target vs. Wal-Mart - I got one word for you: Target. It's so much better! I recently read this blog that lists 10 reasons why Target is better than Wal-Mart. You should indulge yourself. You'll start remembering your own experiences and probably start agreeing with him if you don't already.
- Soccer in America - To be honest, this one hits home for a bit. I'm a soccer player. I even quit baseball to play soccer. And all the time I hear about how soccer will never go anywhere in America. I'm not saying that I completely disagree with the fact that soccer hasn't done much in America, but I don't believe it won't go anywhere. Whether America likes it or not, soccer is the world's sport. We've got our football and baseball, but soccer is being playing around the world, and the last time I checked, we're not the only country on the planet. As many of you have heard, David Beckham (a famous soccer player from England) recently signed a 5 year contract with the L.A. Galaxy. It was interesting that this was the largest contract in sports history, and it was a soccer player. Mr. Beckham isn't doing too bad with his $250 million contract. Maybe he won't attract all the attention to the sport that they hope, but man, it might help. Finally, I must add that in America, soccer is the number 1 most played youth sport. More kids play soccer than any other sport. My thought, start em' young. When they grow up maybe they too can sign a $250 million dollar deal?
Posted by Shay Thomason at 2:51 PM
2 comments
Saturday, January 13, 2007
for my love of soccer
seriously, this is great.Posted by Shay Thomason at 2:26 PM
1 comments
Monday, January 08, 2007
The view from here
I've never been to San Francisco before. Well, that was true until this weekend. My wife and I had the opportunity to see some friends up in the bay area that are starting a church. Those friends were kind of enough to take us down to "the city" (as they call it). San Francisco is an interesting place. Someone used the word majestic to describe it this weekend and I might agree. It just has a chill vibe. It's got it all: big city style, water, big bridges, random parks, old buildings, sweet architecture, and even the random crazy person. We enjoyed our time just driving around the streets and seeing the sights. You can't see all of SF in one day, it's too big. But the part I did see, I loved. And that stinkin' Golden Gate bridge is amazing.We had the blessing of coming on a clear day, which made for a great day to the bridges and the skyline. If you've never been, I strongly recommend taking a drive there or flying in if you have the means. I took some pictures there, but apparently I was having a really bad day with photography. Needless to say my pictures weren't so good. I'll try to go through some and post a few later. Anyways, here's one for the road...
Posted by Shay Thomason at 1:38 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The end of things..
The end of the year marked something a bit sad for me and my family. You see, my dog died. She was a dog of my youth. There have been 2 dalmatian dogs in my life since I was a baby. The first one was Sparky and he lived until I was about 10. Then next came Lacey (pictured left), and she was from about age 10 to 22. Dalmatians are not long living dogs, but their lives are full. Lacey's life was full of running, jumping, and attacking other dogs if they got near my family. She wasn't a mean dog, in fact she was a the nicest dog I know, but she was very protective of us. I was able to see her before she died. When Bethany and I visited my parents over Christmas we got to see Lacey. My mom told us to say goodbye to her because it would probably be the last time we see her.... and it was. I'm a little sad as you can tell, but it's OK. That's a part of life. Dog's die. They feel like a part of the family for a while, but they die like people do. I don't mean to sound cold, I am just stating the facts. But that wouldn't change the fact that Lacey was a good dog.Though Lacey's death marked the end of 2006 for me, it doesn't mean the year was all that bad. In fact the year was great. I got married at the end of 2005, I graduated from college in 2006, I saw Coldplay live, I saw Dave Matthews live, and I even touched the ground of 5 different states. I traveled much this year (especially at the end). Oh, and let's not forget that my one year wedding anniversary was in 2006. Good times, lovin' it.
It really was an enjoyable year... here's to looking forward to another great year.
