I may only have 4 months of business school education and 6 years of work experience, but something about this scenario just seems to scream “ridiculously poor business practice”:

Jan 12th: Lose cell phone in the city by the bay-ay-AY-ay. (After the lights… went down… in the cit-ay)

Jan 14th: Stroll into AT&T Wireless store, drop $200 on a “smart” phone. UPGRADE service to include unlimited data usage. In addition to the $49.99 per month I was being charged for voice services, I’m now going to pay another $29.99 for data services. Does my original voice service stay the same? To quote Joey Tribiani, Supposably….

Jan 21st: After numerous SMS messages over the course of a week are lost in the ether, wait on hold for 40 minutes to speak to a service representative while being assured roughly 90 times that my call is important. When I finally speak to a representative, I’m informed that text messaging is not part of my current plan.

“You’re not signed up for a messaging plan.” Of course not! Why would I be? All I did was give you more money to upgrade! I didn’t explicitly say “don’t take away my text messaging”! Why would text messaging be standard these days anyway? Who doesn’t know that when you add unlimited websurfing, it’s standard practice to turn off text messaging… on a SMART PHONE NO LESS? What kind of fool am I?!?

Well, I’ll tell you what kind of fool - the kind of fool that just upgraded again. “Sure, AT&T, here’s another $10 a month for text messaging. Let me know how I can be of further service for the next two years while I’m stuck in another terrible one-sided contract. By the way, I’m only using one kidney.”

And technology marches on!

Bringing Gatorade to Brian Griese…

[Inside the Iggles: Eagles take on “Spygate”]

Rush Limbaugh was trying to insult either Barack Obama or Donovan McNabb, or both maybe, when he referred to Barack as “Barack O’McNabb”. While this makes no sense, I liked the picture from the Inside the Iggles blog. I think Barack could probably win Pennsylvania if he dressed like this from now on.

[Inside the Iggles: Fathead Disses McNabb Again]

It took exactly 24 hours to get from my hotel in Shanghai to my apartment in Boston on Monday. Our trip took us through Tokyo and lovely Detroit, where we spent an hour on the runway before taking off for home. I took roughly 1,000 pictures during the trip, which included stops in Beijing, Xian and Hong Kong. It will probably take a week or so for the other jokers to get me their pictures and to pull together a complete photo album here on the site. In the meantime, here’s a little teaser and a brief synopsis of what went down…

First, if you’re thinking of going to China, don’t go in July. The temperature barely dipped below 85 at night and we had a couple of days with highs well over 100. Add in the humidity and the massive amounts of pollution, and this is the kind of view you’re going to see out of your window every morning…

Cool looking, yes. Hazardous to your health, most definitely.

The locals love seeing westerners, especially when they find out you’re from America. That’s because most of them want your money. But some of them are just wide-eyed and excited over seeing Americans in the flesh, especially blond-haired, blue-eyed ones. They’ll pose with you, take your picture like you’re a celebrity, and even throw their babies at you…

Traffic is insanely chaotic. I can’t even begin to explain it. Do not rent a car here, do not ride a bike here, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

They love McDonald’s (where Mac the Night is still hawking burgers), KFC, and Pizza Hut. And for some reason, Pizza Hut is a pirate-themed establishment (see hostess below).

The Great Wall can only be appreciated in person. This picture is at Mutianyu outside of Beijing.

Mount Hua outside of Xian is amazing, but be prepared to sweat about 20 gallons during the hike to the peak, a steep climb of over 6,000 feet.

And finally, watch out for brain eating devil birds.

I waaaaant the kniiiiiiiiife….. pleeeease

“A local sports-radio host wants the city to celebrate the 10,000th loss with a parade. I think that would be a disgrace. The Phils are my grandfather’s team, my father’s team, my team, my sons’ team and my grandchildren’s team. We fans will endure this humiliation, and then maybe we’ll start on our second 10,000.”

– Ed Deal, 61-year-old ballpark security guard

[SI.com - MLB - Franz Lidz: The Beautiful Losers]

The Fightin’ Phils are in the middle of a division race, only two games back from the stumbling, bumbling Mets. Aside from a woeful bullpen, the Phils are loaded with great young talent all over the field. The starting pitching is solid with a burdgeoning ace in Cole Hamels. The infield is loaded with Young Guns Ryan Howard (last year’s MVP), Chase Utley (this year’s MVP?), Jimmy Rollins (stud), and then I think Frankie Muniz is playing the corner. Our outfield isn’t too shabby either. Aside from Pat “The Bat” Burrell, who is something like 2 for 392 on the season with 3 walks (numbers are inexact), Aaron Rowand is solid and Shane Victorino has roughly 97 outfield assists on the season. Just a few weeks ago against the Cubs, Alfonso Soriano tried to score from second on a single to right and Victorino gunned him down at the plate with a 172 mph throw, flat-footed, into the wind, no hop. They had a radar on it, so you can trust me. It’s science.

So what does Philly.com, “the Region’s Homepage”, advertise every single day on the main sports page? Are they heralding the arrival of the first potentially great Phillies team in 15 years? Are they drumming up excitement for a summer in Philly where the Phans actually have something to root for? Are they highlighting the great play of the youngin’s? No, they’re celebrating what is an unavoidable dubious distinction. The Phillies are soon to become the first professional sports franchise with 10,000 losses.

Guess what, asshats? That’s going to happen when teams play for over a hundred years. Sure, maybe we’re the first, but we won’t be the last. What kind of home team newspaper flaunts this in the face of their team and their fans? This should be on the NY Post’s webpage, not the Philadelphia Inquirer’s webpage. And to make matters worse, it’s not just a countdown, but it’s also a walk down memory lane to relive painful losses in Phillies history. Such an embarassment. Not the 10,000 losses, but Philly.com. Who cares about 10,000 losses when we’re two games back and charging?

I’m organizing a team to ride in the National MS Society’s City to Shore this September for the second year. And that means you should donate some funds. If you need another reason, read this article: Donating to charity is good for the brain, according to study | Chicago Tribune

All the info you need can be found on the team blog: TD Peloton. At least do me the courtesy of visiting the page and reading about our efforts. And here’s a taste of the eye candy you’ll find there as further incentive…

This is a test of your mind. This is a test of your endurance. This is a test of your visual acuteness. This is a test of your medula oblongata (the part that makes alligators ornery). Study each picture closely. This could very possibly “bottle your mind”.

P.S. This movie sucked

[Warning Label Generator]