Global Wandering

Maggie gets into the holiday spirit by eating the top of the Christmas tree, which had to be cut off in order to fit the tree in the house.

Posted by jd at 10:58 PM | Permalink

According to Wikipedia, the phrase Black Friday as applied to the Friday after Thanksgiving was first recognized in the press in a 1975 New York Times article referring to the term coined by the Philadelphia police department for the heavy traffic on that day.

I personally don't recall hearing the phrase Black Friday until this year. Perhaps I live in a cocoon, but I just don't remember it being commonly used. A look at Google trends shows the number of web searches for Black Friday has spiked at this time for the last several years.

Before researching Black Friday's history, I thought they called it that because it is dark when everyone lines up outside the stores at 3AM in order to get the best deals like Camden and I did last year in order to procure a WII.

This year I stayed home and slept in. Only around noon did I venture to Wal-Mart with Bret to purchase Christmas lights. We swapped our indoor and outdoor incandescent lights for LEDs this year. I highly recommend the switch. LEDs are brighter, last longer, our cool to the touch and use 80% to 90% less electricity.

I was highly motivated to hang my own outdoor lights this year after I got a $250 quote from a local outfit that hangs lights professionally. Being charged $100 an hour for something that requires little skill seemed egregious.

Posted by jd at 7:07 PM | Permalink

Golden Garden Park, Seattle via iPhone

Sorry for the lack of posts and the inability to comment. I updated to the latest version of Movable Type, and I haven't figured out the best mechanism to prevent comment spam.

I was packing to fly home from Walla Walla this morning when I happened to catch the game show The Price is Right. This year Drew Carey took over as host after Bob Barker's 35 years at the helm. I haven't watched this show in depth since I was kid. The premise of the show is to have the contestants guess the prices of various items, which conveniently gives the producers the opportunity to showcase their advertisers' wares. I would be awful at this game.

Watching Drew Carey reminded me of an investment manager I know that got into a bidding war with a prospective employer and his current firm. He stayed at the new firm for a week and then returned to his old company. He said that with all the back and forth negotiating he realized after the dust had settled he ended up on the wrong side of the aisle.

Drew Carey is in the wrong job and I think he knows it. I suspect in the heat of all the salary negotiations Carey forgot to consider how confining the show would be. During the show, Carey had a smirk on his face much of the time as if he couldn't believe how stupid the show is and how ridiculous the contestants act. The saddest part is Carey's comic mind is so quick, yet he's not allowed to say what he's thinking. The producers are too busy cajoling him to get the contestants to stand in the right place or screaming the rules for whatever silly game Carey has to explain. At one point, a contestant had to choose whether a $4,567 price tag matched the price of a dining set or some fantasy jumping game. Carey could barely get through the segment, because he was trying to stifle a laugh. Clearly, he had come up with with a joke about the fantasy jumping game - which cost over $6,000 by the way - but was unable to tell it.

There is nothing worse than having a job where you can't be yourself. I don't think Carey will make it more than one season. He won't be able to tolerate working in a straitjacket.

Posted by jd at 7:51 PM | Permalink

Dinner of Cobra and Stilled Water

Can Tab Convention

Posted by jd at 2:11 PM | Permalink