Tuesday, August 22, 2006

crofl

My pal and coworker John pointed out that the internet meme "rofl" is being tossed around a little too lightly these days. People very rarely ACTUALLY engage in the act of rolling on the floor while laughing, and he wanted to see the usage tightened up a bit.

To that effect, I have submitted the new abbreviation "crofl" to Urban Dictionary for review. "crofl" is short for "Courtesy rofl", to be used in the instance that one is not really interested in rolling on the floor laughing, but wants to let someone know they appreciate their attempt at humor.

For example, say you receive the following joke via e-mail:
Hey guys, you'll think this joke is great!

What kind of monkey can fly? A hot air baboon!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

-some jerk


If this person is a coworker, you may not wish to strain your relationship by not responding at all, so you could reply with crofl to let them know that even though you are not really laughing out loud, you appreciate the gesture.

EDIT: I am pleased to announce that Urban Dictionary has accepted my submission.

Monday, August 21, 2006

A New Side Project

A couple of buddies and I have started a page for more publicly facing, sometimes politically oriented rants. I do not recommend you view it if offensive language and occasionally offensive opinions annoy you. In fact, if you are a member of my family and wish to avoid Thanksgiving arguments you should ignore this post altogether.

But if you don't mind the possibility of getting annoyed and/or offended, feel free to check it out. If you want to contribute, drop me a line with your rant.

Engagement Cruise

Sorry about the delay in the update, but I was on vacation last week with Jules. It was quite a trip.

First off, the most important news is that we got engaged. Some are probably saying "Finally!", and I suppose after five and a half years there is some justification for that, but we have always done things on our own terms and that hasn't changed.

Second, the whole trip got off to a pretty shaky start. We were scheduled to leave on Monday, and I picked up the ring after a couple months of shopping the Thursday prior. I brought a change of clothes in my carry on bag and put the ring in the pants pocket.

Well, the first thing I did as soon as we got to the airport on Monday morning was spill coffee all over myself. So that meant I had to change my pants. When I went to the bathroom stall to do so, I promptly dropped my sunglasses in the toilet and my driver's license (which was loose in my pocket) went skidding down two stalls next to me to an occupied stall. The fellow in there was clearly, uh, struggling with his breakfast, and my request for him to kick my license back my direction was initially met only with grunts of distress.

After getting out of there sans sunglasses (still resting in the toilet), I sat back down and tried to relax. I kept the ring on me the rest of the time.

When we arrived in Orlando, naturally my bag did not arrive from Philly. After waiting for an hour or so, we simply had to get going otherwise the boat was going to leave port without us. I filled out a baggage claim and resigned myself to wearing the clothes I had on for the next couple of days, my genius change of clothes plan foiled by earlier clumsiness.

Finally, we got on the boat, and I resolved that I would make the proposal THAT NIGHT before anything else untoward happened.

Lucky guy I am, she said yes.

The rest of the cruise we spent relaxing and enjoying being engaged, since we knew once we got back there would be a flurry of activity (phone calls and the like). On Wednesday my bags finally arrived in Grand Turk, and I got my camera and took some pictures. It was a great time, and certainly a vacation I'll never forget.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

See ya Bobby

Looks like I got part of my wish from back in February.

One of my favorite players on the Phillies (and the one whose jersey I own) has been traded.

The buzz is that this is a terrible deal, although I don't think it's as bad as everybody says. This was mostly a cash dump, and Abreu had a back-loaded contract whereby the Phillies would have owed him a lot of money over the next 3 years. Hopefully that money can be used for something good.

But I do think it's typical that Philly fans are going crazy, when just a week ago they couldn't wait to get rid of this guy. Abreu has never been a fan favorite, despite his consistent play. Yeah, his defense was lazy (don't let last year's Gold Glove award fool you), but the goal of the game of baseball is to GET ON BASE, and Abreu was consistently near the top of the league in that category.

At least football season is about to start. Then Eagles fans can return to complaining about McNabb. Good stuff.