Ten Two-Second Tangents

You know how you have those few things that drive you crazy or leave your perplexed?  Well here are some of mine that have really come to light in the past few weeks.  Here are ten 2-second tangents.

1. Offside/sides:  In sports that require two sides to a field each team is assigned a side for X-amount of time.  The team is assigned one side.  One.  No plural.  When the other team cheats and gets behind the defense they are off their side.  They are NOT off their sides seeing as how they only have one side.  Thus the call is offside!!!!! 

2. People and garbage:  I was tempted to write "the human race" as the actual category, but thought that was a bit extreme.  I HATE going places (i.e. stores, sporting events, concerts, etc.) and seeing garbage everywhere as people leave to head home and on the way  out the door they walk past 8,500 garbage cans.  I seriously wonder what these people do in their homes.  If you eat something, drop something, spill something, clean it up!  I've heard plenty of times,  "people are paid to clean it up!  I'm keeping them employed."  Simply ridiculous.  No one should have to spend hours on end cleaning up after people who are perfectly able to do it themselves!!!  *This really irked me when I went to Consol Energy Center, and its a brand new arena we're all so happy to see, yet as I walked away from my seat I'm stepping over people's garbage everywhere!

3. Bathroom keys with big wooden key chains:  What's the purpose?  Is someone really going to steal the key to a public restroom at a gas station?  Do you really need every customer and passerby on the street to know that you have to No. 1 or 2 as you more or less take a walk of shame carrying a giant slab of wood to the restroom?  Anyone else feel self-conscious carrying those things?... Maybe it's just me!?

4. Magnets- specifically free ones:  I know this has been touched on before, but free magnets a lot of the time drive me crazy.  Even more specifically the calendar ones.  Calendars expire!  I don't need a calendar from five years ago holding my phone bill to the fridge!  And once, I had an acquaintance who collected magnets from everywhere they went, and you couldn't even utilize the magnet to hold something because they covered every square inch of the fridge!  I think it added ten pounds to the door that it took 2 hands to even pry the door open!!  I will acknowledge and give credit to the some magnets.  I like the ones that both clip/hold things as well as keeping it suspended from my refrigerator!

5. 0 vs. O:  If you didn't notice that is a "zero" and an "o."  Notice, they look slightly different when typed. Notice when pronounced they sound nothing alike.  Notice one is a number and one is letter.  In my world they aren't interchangeable.  I acknowledge when talking money, it's way easier to say seven oh nine is the total, however that doesn't make it correct.  And really your phone number isn't eight-five-o-two.  If I were to plug in the "o" and not use the zero, since technically that's what you said, I'd be calling eight-five-six-two.

6. Public bathroom etiquette:  I'm a girl, so for all you guys you might be disturbed to learn that girls bathrooms are not perfectly clean and sanitary, and the fault goes to the women using the bathroom!  I have advice for this number.  1.) flush the toilet when you're done. 2.) if you walk into a stall that isn't flushed... flush it!  You aren't going to get terrible diseases because you flushed a toilet that wasn't yours!

7. Powerful potties:  Sticking with the bathrooms, why do they make the toilets that flush with such great force they could suck a small child down, while throwing enough water out of the bowl to wash the seat, the wall, and the floor surrounding!?  Seriously... not cool powerful potty-maker.

8. Turn signals and brakes:  A long time ago man made cars.  Man made turn signals and brakes and put them in the cars.  Man looked at his creation with bonus features and thought this is good.  Then man drove the car and pressed the brakes and turn signals whenever he wanted causing other drivers to get really really... not happy!  I'm not the best driver in the world, but I take pride in that I know how to use my turn signals and brakes.  Here is what I recall from those days when I was first learning the proper techniques for when you're behind the wheel.

 -When approaching a turn, turn on appropriate signal, then begin to decrease speed.  This will allow for drivers following behind to accommodate their speed for your approaching turn. Don't get to your turn, slam on your brakes, then as you turn the wheel throw the signal on.  Really.  I couldn't have guessed by that point that you're turning!
- Brakes slow a car down.  However, note that removing your foot from the gas can also serve the purpose. Your foot DOES NOT need to be pressing a pedal down at all times.

9. Good vs. Well:  The food taste good.  The kids played well together.  While the word "good" does fit in similar places as well, that doesn't make it correct!!!  Sound just that much smarter when you speak correctly!  "Good job!  You're playing good."  ugh.  no no no.  "Good job, you're playing well!"  Come on people.  There are some cases where "good" is ok where some people will insist on using "well."  Grammar Girl does a nice job of explaining the differences.

10.  Ignorant:  I think most of the human race has grown to understand the actual definition of ignorant... however, possible there is a direct correlation to small town, partially redneck neighborhoods, and the use of ignorant meaning rude or mean.  Again, I acknowledge most people know that ignorant is not a synonym with any of those words, however it drives me crazy so to review: (according to Meriam-Webster)

Definition of IGNORANT

1a : destitute of knowledge or education <an ignorant society>; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified <parents ignorant of modern mathematics> b : resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence <ignorant errors>

2: unaware, uninformed

All in all, I recognize that it probably took you longer than 2-seconds to read each of those tangents, BUT hey wouldn't you rather read it than listen to me go off on a tangent in discussion which I guarantee would take longer than 2-seconds?! 

First ever... well preseason!

Just a few days ago I was lucky enough to attend the first ever hockey game by the PENS at Consol Energy Center.  Now granted it was a pre-season game, it was the first.  The first puck drop, the first time the penalty box was used, the first time a fight occurred, the first wave, the first kiss cam, all in front of the first sell-out crowd...  All for a measly pre-season game!!  But I made some observations on the atmosphere and the event itself (because that's what sporting events really are any more, a full out event, not just a game). 

Pro- for PR Mare; Con- for fan Mare,  Everything is sponsored:  We have the "Powerball Powerplay," the "GNC Penalty Kill,"  each intermission was sponsored, heck even the Star Spangled Banner was brought to us by someone!  I do recall some of the sponsors, so the advertising/marketing was effective to an extent.  But I feel by both PR Mare and fan Mare, that they are saturating the game/event.  There have always been sponsors, other then on the boards and ice and Ice Time game program, but now having everything sponsored seems like an overkill to me.  It was to the point I was annoyed to hear another sponsor, and was waiting for each puck drop to be brought to me by someone.  Both Mare's understand that this beautiful new arena isn't possible without sponsors, but something a little more subtle needs put in place.  Being the fan that I am, I know with or without First Niagara, the second intermission will take place, and by golly you try and stop Jeff Jimerson from gracing us with our National Anthem!

No Pro- No Con,  Marketing theme "Destiny has a new home." : Only thing that hasn't had me buy into this completely is part of me feels like it's marketing the new arena more then the team.  Yes the destiny is that of the PENS, but I get caught up on the "new home" part and get the image of just the arena stuck in my head.  However, the commercials I've seen so far definitely have me excited.  So I can't claim it as a pro or a con, just an observation!  *Tiny disclaimer: I REALLY loved "A Great Day for Hockey" campaign so all other campaigns for me really have to attempt to compete with that, and I haven't found one that really does!

Pro/Con Scoreboard:  Having a scoreboard that's bigger than a house is ridiculously awesome (tiny exaggeration but for real.  It's huge.)  Add in there that the footage is shown in HD is simply the coolest thing ever.  The Con comes from the tiny placement of the penalty player and time, as well as the shots on goal and time outs.  These appear above the big screen that shows the game, on a long skinny board, but I felt those few info things could be up sized a bit.  It was hard to read the category that was being displayed (TOL especially.)

Con, but can be easily fixed, acoustics:  Turn Katie O'Malley's mic down or at least the high button.  She was spiking lots.  Not good.

Pro, seats:  Seriously, while I haven't set in them all (although I did the little tour a few weeks back and walked around a lot of them) there is not a bad seat in the place.  While at Mellon, I sat in a lot of sections, and really there were some awful seats.  One game I spent more time trying to find a new place to watch from then even seeing the game.  I sat in section 232, Row J, (section only goes to M or N) and the view was perfect!  These guys really knew what they were doing when they put this together!  The only con I had on any placement of seating is that with the runway going right to the players bench, the players didn't run out like they used to and I couldn't see players go down the runway during game time.  While it was a preseason game and they might just have not felt like running, I like being able to always see what's going on with the players, and simply couldn't.

Misc. 
- The Ice Crew which used to be the PENS Patrol I do believe, is now made up of both males and females and aside from throwing out shirts and dancing around they clean the ice during game time stoppages.  My thought is, do the older guys who have been cleaning the ice all these years feel sad and displaced, or are they still making the same amount of money so enjoying relaxing during the periods and only having to tend to the ice on intermissions now...?
- I love efficiency and I am confident the routes the Zamboni's take (and always have been taking since I've been going to PENS games) is the most efficient.  I see other routes at other arenas, and well, I think they're not accomplishing the job nearly as effectively time wise, then what the PENS Zamboni drivers do.  So shout out to the Zamboni drivers on a route well taken.
-  Bathrooms are huge. This should be moved up to a Pro list because I was pretty impressed to experience no lines at the women's restroom before or after the game!
-  Finally to touch on the play of the PENS.  Obviously you have lots of guys playing during preseason that you'll never see again during the season.  But all in all as a team I thought passing looked good, accepting passes which always seems to be a problem was decent, and all in all I thought the PENS came out ready to play, while the Red Wings must have hired some kids down the street to put on their uniforms for the first 2 periods.  Definitely didn't resemble anything that looked like the Red Wings to me.

So after all those observations, I'm excited for Hocktober (# goes out to the Twitterverse on coming up with that beautiful term! :) ).  The arena is super cool, and while there's pros and cons to both the shiny and new, and the old charm of the old, the new is nice, and for the time being we can still see the old...

Oh Football, I love you yet I hate you

It's officially football season. I count college football (Let's Go State!) on Saturdays as the real start, but as a Pennsylvania resident, Steeler's on Sunday is a way of life. Today though, I've had many mixed emotions about football in-particularly, they started with me being annoyed, then concerned, then back to loving the American game.

The Annoyance: I consider myself a fan of football. While die-hard is long from my repertoire, I tend to understand the game, know a lot of positions, and all in all can be entertained hours on end on Sundays watching. On the other side of things, I also have played sports competitively and I continue to coach. One thing I have always prided myself on, and the athletes I have played beside, and the athletes I have coached, is sportsmanship. Sportsmanship ranges over a variety of actions throughout a game, but the one that really irked me during the Steelers/Titan game was the players continually getting in each others faces talking “smack.” There is obviously a bit of tension between these two teams but really they're all adults. A good heated rivalry is great for sports and competition, but is it really necessary after every run to get in a guys face and say what, “I ran faster than you!!!” “I tackled you, what you gonna do now?!?” Any other comments are completely irrelevant to the game, and those comments make you look like an idiot because it's obvious you ran faster, knocked a guy down!! (*side note/disclaimer, I'm well aware that probably no professional athlete is making the comments I have listed!) As a player, coach, fan I think it's ten times more awesome when a player makes an amazing play, or even when they simply get the job done, and act like it was nothing. Simply walk away. And I could go into a whole other tangent if we discussed how yeah, its your job to tackle him, so do it and be quiet! I don’t know what you want to call me, but the game to me is so much more appealing, and the players get so much more respect, when they're the bigger man. My example player, and you can't even call me biased, just honest, is Troy Polamalu. He flew through the air today over the entire offensive line and sacked the quarterback. He got up and got ready for the next play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gHYBYoIfgg&feature=player_embedded#!

That requires no smack talk.

The Concern: I was reading a column by Michael Rosenberg (SI) about the long-term impact of playing football. His column alone is a great read to really get you to step back and think about the sport America loves and how far until it's too much. But what really came to my attention was the New York Times article on the autopsy findings of Owen Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania football player who committed suicide this past spring. The entire article brings great concern to the fact that 1.) a college player already had the same trauma-induced brain disease that NFL players have been diagnosed; and 2.) the disease is linked to depression and impulse control, and this is a possibility it played a role in 21-year-old Thomas' suicide.

The Love: I'm a sap when I watch TV and movies. One show that gets me every time is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Don't worry, this is going back to football!! I hate when I miss the beginning of an episode because that's what makes you really appreciate what the crew is doing. But of course I missed it tonight. However, I caught enough of the episode for it to bring me back to loving football. Here's why. The Williams Family was the featured family. Without going into all of the details, the Dad of the family, Jeremy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig disease (in short, muscles weaken and aren't nourished taking away those normal everyday functions). Jeremy coaches high school football and the field house is redone and named after him. Jeremy talks about how great it is, and how football isn't his life, but has made him who he is. He talks about the values that we hope and admire in sports. Hard work, responsibility, commitment, time-management, the list could go on. But this man dedicated his life to making these young men better people, not just better athletes.

http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition/episode-guide/williams-family/439851?cid=abccomsearch_results

Football is an American favorite.  Weekends are dedicated to it.  Millions spent on it.  Like everything it has its good and bad and ugly.  It's just determining how to weigh out each and decide if it's love or hate or if there is a way to be in the middle and not falsely elude ourselves and give credit to a game that might not be all its cracked up to be.

It's free?! I'll take it!

People love free stuff.  Does the item have to be useful? No.  Does it have to fit? No.  Does it have to work?  Not really.  Do you need to want/like it?  Not always.  Will people take it if its free, jump up and down, act like they've just been offered their wildest dreams just at a chance to catch the three sizes too large t-shirt? You bet your bottom they will!  But why... What makes us go crazy when something is free, or when there are a limited number being offered?

According to Mac Slocum, in his blog post, he states :

A free product comes with low expectations ("hey, it's free!") and neutral perceptions ("what's the worst that can happen?"). If that product proves useful, expectations are exceeded and perception elevates from neutral to positive ("it's free and it's cool/useful/interesting, etc.").

Along with that I'd add the fact to be one of few.  A member of the minority.  To have the ability to inside your head be thinking you'd like to put your hands on top of your head, wiggle your fingers, and stick your tongue out at everyone who didn't get the free item you did!

This all comes about as I seriously cleaned my room for the first time in.... my entire life.  Moving back home after college was more than a suitcase of clothes.  Thus, to fit four years of college plus all of my high school and middle school and lifelong belongings into one (although I actually have the luxury of two bedrooms seeing as both my sisters are married and their old room is now my closet:)... but that's a minor detail!) bedroom is tough! As I began my serious clean job I was surprised, excited, then eventually annoyed by how much junk I had that was free.  I found a plethora of trinkets that I couldn't even begin to tell what they were,  or why I kept them.  At least a half a dozen of XL shirts from sporting events.  Frisbees, lotions, chapstick, CD cases, CD's, posters, bobble heads, pens, notepads, calendars, magnet calendars (I find these to be one of the dumbest on my list and could devote a whole separate post to magnets in general), baseball caps, water bottles, stuffed animals, and erasers.  All of these things were free and were oddly enough the things when offered to me I thought were worth keeping.  The "better" items (shirts and bobble heads) I know for a fact I stood in lines well before the gates opened (Pens games and Altoona Curve games) to ensure I got what they were offering.  Why... so 5 years down the line I could put them in a box and write free on it at a yard sale!??

What makes this all even more ridiculous is I work (that's actually "aspire to work" but I'm pretending here) in a field where give-aways are common.  Events are planned and free promotions are as common as putting milk on your cereal.  I'm certain though, that my serious clean helped better prepare me for my profession.  Heck I might even put it in my cover letter and on my resume. 

Here is the brief list of useful free things I actually use and would encourage for giveaways:
- A PSU T-shirt that is ACTUALLY my size.
- An Altoona Curve fleece blanket.
- Chapstick. (some insurance company)
- A PENS winter beanie cap.
- And one of those big clip things for paper. 
- To keep my list fully disclosed I would also include food, pens and little notepads, but its only certain pens and notepad... it's got to be cool to be kept.

*Notice the fact I could actually only recall a few of the sponsors associated with the items...

Shorter, longer, go faster either way

Yellow lights get me.  There is such a state of indecisiveness when I am approaching an intersection and the light turns yellow.  Do I step on it and hope to beat it before its red?  Do I slam on my brakes and hope I stop nicely behind the white line or at least not in the intersection?  This is a valid decision most drivers make everyday.  However, what do the drivers that travel in different areas regularly do?! 

After spending majority of the summer in Pittsburgh where driving in the city doesn't allow you to really hit maximum speeds, and when approaching intersections its more common to be closer to a crawl then actually moving, I rarely ran yellows.  And if anything I was the person who stopped to avoid being stuck in the intersection because I despise the idiot who blocks traffic in every direction because they really thought some magic traffic god would make the traffic start going that they would actually make it through the light.   The yellows in the city, while you're crawling through the traffic during rush hour are farely long.  While I have no scientific data and a quick google search provided me with no real estimates, I'd say the yellow lights are closer to 10 seconds. Now though, I'm back in good ol' central PA.  I've run yellows/reds a lot in a very short amount of days.   Yellow lights in Clearfield (again no scientific data) are only 3-4 seconds long.  Now lets think about this.  In central PA traffic can move at decent speeds.  There is no rush hour unless you're going to count a sale at Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning.  Speed limits coming into town are in the 30-40 mph range.  So I see a light turn yellow, I have minimal time to make my decision to brake or not.  Either way, I feel it's a lose-lose situation... I'm running a red or I'm almost in an intersection/have the car behind me on my bumper because they counted on gunning it too. 

There are two simple options...  1.) Lights in the city should be shorter, traffic is barely moving, and lights in the country longer!  This would save a ton of red light runners everyday! I would be certain I'd make it through that yellow!  or 2.) Make yellow lights more universal!  I wouldn't have to accustom myself to a shorter life, and all in all it'd make my life easier! :)