Doctors

It's so hard finding a good doctor, isn't it? The worse part about turning 18 is that the pediatrician that you used to see as a kid probably won't be your doctor anymore. I got lucky in finding a new doctor after college, as one was referred to me through my girlfriend and her family. However, when I moved recently, I had to find a new eye doctor and dentist. I just couldn't drive 45 minutes to an hour to go to the doctor every few months.

So I started my search. I found a dentist back in Fall of 2006: a small office, privately-owned and operated. They took my insurance and they seemed nice enough... until I got my bill. I needed to get three fillings, two on molars. I found out after they did the work that the white composite filling was not covered for molars under my insurance, a fact that would have been nice to know before getting the work done. Of course, this was partly my fault for not reading the page and pages of documentation that comes with an insurance policy. However, I also put some blame on the dentist's office for not pointing that out to me. When you have insurance, you assume that most typical procedures are covered under your insurance, for instance, fillings. I didn't even know that dentists still did silver fillings, but apparently they do, and they are common practice. I wrote the office a nice letter after partially paying my last bill to them, informing them that I would no longer be requiring service from them and that they shouldn't expect any more payment from me. They didn't.

Around the same time, I also found a new eye doctor. It was close and again, they seemed nice enough. I went and got a refill on my contacts and I got new frames for my glasses as well. They charged me an arm and a leg, but I chalked that up to glasses being really freaking expensive. So, when my vision insurance changed, I was obviously nervous when I had to try and find a new eye doctor. Well I searched around on my insurance provider's member portal and found an office that was, again, small and seemed like it would be pretty personable. Man, was I wrong.

I scheduled an appointment to coincide with my arrival at the train station from work. I got to the office 10 minutes early... and waited 15 minutes to get called back. I had to fill out the old patient information sheet, complete with a questionnaire that asked important questions like: "Do you experience any night blindness?" This was nice because I had never been asked some of the questions on the form before by my eye doctor and they seemed like important questions. Turns out, that was just to keep me busy while I waited because the doctor didn't ask me about any of the questions on the form. (Yes, I do experience a degree of night blindness). Anyway, I figured, what the hey? It's not like night blindness affects your vision or anything. So the doc was doing all his tests and whatnot and gave me the old "yeah you pretty much wasted your time and money here today" by telling me he was going to adjust my prescription for my glasses but not my contacts. Then he did the astigmatism test and found, miraculously, that I did not have an astigmatism, even though I was diagnosed with a slight one just two years earlier by a different eye doctor. Incredible.

Then it was time to pay up. I ordered 4 boxes of contacts since I was clean out of them. When I went out and talked to the (rather bitchy) receptionist, she tried very hard to get me to buy 8 boxes because I would be sent a $40 rebate, which I assumed had to be used on a future purchase which is complete and utter bullshit. I told her I would take 4 boxes and she can keep her $40 rebate, thank you very much. She totaled it up and to my amazement, the total was $40 more than expected. This is due to their "contact lens evaluation". I shit you not. They charge patients $40 to inspect their contact lenses and find out what prescription they are, regardless of whether they change or not. Damn it, I was sure that I inspected my insurance info very closely before I went in there and I even asked if I was covered for an exam and the same bitchy receptionist told me "yes, you are covered." I guess they don't count the "contact lens evaluation" as part of an exam. What the hell is it then?

Whatever, so I ordered my damn contacts and went up to the desk and waited for the receptionist to get them for me. After 30 awkward seconds, she looked at me as if to say "why are you still here?" I asked if she was going to give me my contacts. "Oh we don't have them in stock right now; we have to order them", is what she said to me. Wow, ok. "When will they be in?", I asked. "They should be here within 5-7 business days.", was the bullshit she fed me. Keep in mind, I have only the contact lenses that are in my eyes (which are no longer any good because of those damn diluting drops they put in your eyes), and the sample pair they gave to me. "Ok fine, will you call me when you get them in?" I asked. She assured me they would. As I was leaving the office, she gave me a card with my next appointment on it. The date? One year from the day of my appointment. That's right, they already scheduled my next appointment, one year to the day of my first appointment. How the hell am I supposed to plan that far in advance. And, more importantly, how can I possibly remember this information? I was so dumb-struck that I couldn't even say anything at the time.

So I went home thinking "I'll never go back there again" and waited for my contacts to come in (5-7 business days, right?). On the 9th business day (13 full days later), I called their office to ask if they got my contacts in yet. The bitchy receptionist's reply: "Oh yeah, we just got them." My response should have been something to the effect of "Were you planning on calling me to let me know?" or "By 'just', did you mean 2 days ago?" or "Why would you tell people 5-7 business days if it really takes 9? Vision is important to some people!" But I stayed calm and told her I would come in after work to get them. When I went in, I got my contacts and asked her to please cancel my "next" appointment, which was now 353 days from the present date, because there was no way I would remember the date. She seemed very reluctant to cancel the appointment and reassured me that they would send out a card when the appointment was nearer. And then, I understood. They probably get so many patients that go there once and never come back, so they schedule their next appointment a year in advance so they can hit them with a cancellation fee (which, I believe, is $60) when they forget to cancel the appointment.

In short, I will not be going back to Lansdale Eye Associates and I am writing their name here so that nobody that reads this ever goes there for an eye exam. They will rape you with charges, be rude to you, and mis-diagnose you. And then, they will try to rape you on the back end by scheduling a follow-up appointment a year from your original appointment. It's so hard to find a good doctor, isn't it?

Penn State Recruiting

Two posts in one day!! There must be a break in the space-time continuum somewhere.

Anyway, I'm coming to you in this post to talk about Penn State's football recruiting in recent years. It's certainly been a roller coaster ride for Penn State recruiting since their outstanding class of 2004 that included 5-star recruits Anthony Morelli, Dan Connor, and Greg Harrison. In this class, they also landed 1-star recruit Jordan Norwood, 3-star recruits Gerald Cadogan, Josh Gaines, and Rich Orhnberger, and 4-star recruit A.Q. Shipley. But changes weren't evident until a year later when they landed 5-star recruits Derrick Williams and Justin King. Surprisingly, this class wasn't ranked in the top 25 in the country, despite it also including Anthony Scirrotto (2-star), Mickey Shuler (2-star), Sean Lee (3-star), Daryll Clark (2-star), and Kevin Kelley (2-star). Now, with all of those players looking at a future in the NFL, it seems they all were a little underrated.

The 2006 class turned out even better after a 2005 season in which Penn State went 11-1 and won their first ever BCS bowl game. The class ranked 6th in the nation and included 2 5-star and 11 4-star prospects. But rankings can be deceiving. Both 5-star recruits from that class are no longer with the team, both of them not being able to handle the pressure of Division 1 college football and losing their bearings (Antonio Logan-El and Chris Bell). Of the 11 4-star recruits, 5 have performed very well this season and could be looking at a career in the NFL. That means that less than half of Penn State's big-name recruits from the 2006 class actually panned out.

But it got worse. After an 8-4 season under former 5-star recruit Anthony Morelli, dubbed the savior by many, the 2007 class suffered. It ranked 19th overall and included zero 5-star recruits and zero quarterbacks. Still, it included 12 5-star recruits and was heavy on defense, something Penn State favors when recruiting. Of those 12, only one has made an impact so far (Stefan Wisniewski). Of course, you can't fault the rest yet. The 2009 season is a rebuilding year and many of these players will get their shot to make an impact the way they hoped to coming out of high school.

The 2008 class was even more pathetic, as they only signed 13 recruits through signing day, with a bunch of 1-star recruits filling in the rest of the class. This class was not in the top 25 and some started questioning if Joe Paterno was losing his recruiting touch amidst rumors that he wasn't able to go on the road on recruiting trips with his other coaches because he was too tired.

Which brings us to current-day. After the announcement by former 5-star recruit QB Pat Devlin that he would be transferring effective before the Rose Bowl, most Penn State fans became restless. The excitement surrounding Devlin was huge. He was from the Philadelphia area and was the #1 ranked QB coming out of high school. He broke his leg his freshman year and was redshirted. He sat behind Anthony Morelli and was forced to watch as he struggled to another 8-4 season. And then, an unknown, Daryll Clark, won the starting QB job over Devlin in the preseason. Many fans were worried until Clark led the Lions to an 11-1 season and a Rose Bowl berth, their first since 1994. However, Devlin was the hero in one of those games, the biggest one of the season, on the road against hate rival Ohio State. Many also blame the coaching staff for not starting Devlin over Clark in the Iowa game, the Lions only loss. Clark appeared concussed and threw a costly interception late in the game that led to the game-winning field goal by Iowa as time expired. Devlin obviously felt slighted by the lack of respect and lack of confidence in him after this series of events. Following the Michigan State game that landed Penn State with their second Big Ten title in four years, Devlin called it quits. It is rumored he will be transferring to Delaware to play in the same offensive scheme that made Ravens rookie QB Joe Flacco so successful.

Penn State fans started to grumble. Their savior had left the program. Their hopes now hung on the chance that Kevin Newsome, who some regarded as the best high school QB still available and one of the best in the nation, would commit to Penn State. He had been considering 4 other schools, including Boston College and Virginia Tech, but in the end chose Penn State. One of his decididng factors? The fact that Pat Devlin had transferred from Penn State. Call it luck, but we Penn State fans will take it. The talk turned from "How could the coaches let Devlin get away..." to "Devlin didn't really look that great when he played anyway." Curiously, head coach Joe Paterno received a 3-year contract extension the day before Newsome announced which school he would be attending in the Spring. The commitment jumps Penn State's 2009 class to 11th overall, with some big names still floating out there, including 5-star linebacker Jelani Jenkins, 4-star offensive lineman Pete White, 4-star receiver Justin Brown, and 4-star linebacker Dan Mason still interested in Penn State.

No matter which statement you agree with, I think we can all agree that high school rankings are hardly ever accurate. It is so hard to predict how an 18-year-old kid will handle the pressure of playing in front of 100,000 fans every week and how they will be able to balance studies and athletics. How they will handle becoming a celebrity. Because that's what college football players have become. The national championship and the Heisman have gotten so much hype in the last 5 years or so that all the best players in college football have become celebrities. And now it's spilling over into high school. This started a few years ago with Reggie Bush and Vince Young and have only grown since then. Last year, the name Terrelle Pryor was a household name in any household that follows college football. This year, Kevin Newsome is the name that is being thrown around by Penn State fans. Newsome certainly does appear to be a savior for Penn State. They were unable to sign a big-name QB in their 2007 or 2008 class, and their 2006 class featured Devlin and Brett Brackett, who has since converted to WR.

Now, it should be Newsome's show starting in 2010, unless somebody like Clark comes out of nowhere again. Paterno's contract is set to expire before Newsome will be finished with his four years (five if he redshirts next season). I wouldn't be surprised to see the Lions have success in 2010 and beyond for Paterno to have all the chips on his side once again in negotiating another contract extension, if he wants it.

This just goes to show that good ol' Joe really still is in charge at Penn State and he's going to stay as long as he wants to.

SEPTA, Part II

I'll make this one short because I am planning on writing a longer one on a different topic soon. I just had to write this one because I once again wanted to express my extreme hatred of SEPTA. This morning, It was about 16 degrees in Sellersville/Colmar area, -7 with the wind chill. I left for work on time this morning, but after bypassing a broken traffic light, found myself running about 2-3 minutes late. I pulled into the train station at 7:20 (my train comes at 7:21), jumped out of my car, put my quarters in the parking board and walked up on the platform only to find... nothing. No train. Now ok, it's cold and icy and SEPTA has been running up to 5 minutes late in the mornings lately. So I stood there. In the -7 degree wind chill. With no hat. I didn't think I needed one because I figured I would only be outside for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time. So I waited. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. 20 minutes. After 25 minutes, when it felt like my ears were going to fall off, I finally went back to my car and jacked the heat up. It took me 10 minutes just to thaw out. Finally, at 8:02, the train pulled into the station. That's right, the train was 41 minutes late. I didn't get into the city until 9:00, making me a half hour late for work and thus making me stay a half hour later in this godforsaken city.

So, in conclusion, I hate SEPTA. And apparently SEPTA hates me.

My rant on the B.S.C, I mean BCS

Wow, it's been a whole month since I posted. Ok well, here's a quick recap of my last month. I got real busy at work and I did lots of fantasy football stuff for the league that I run while maintaining a team in a separate league. I had a sinus infection for a while there, I got the flu early this week, and now I believe I'm fighting a particularly nasty case of tonsillitis or some such other sore throat condition. Oh, and I watched Penn State blow a chance at the national championship game by losing to Iowa a month ago.

So here is where my rant begins. But where to begin? Let's start with Penn State. They were 9-0 going into Iowa, only to lose on a last-second field goal in blustery conditions. Sure, they played a god-awful game and didn't deserve to win. But didn't they end up 11-1 with key wins over Ohio State and Michigan State? Why don't we throw in Oregon State for good measure, since they beat then-#1 USC to knock them out of the title picture and almost stole the Rose Bowl berth away from them. And PSU didn't just beat the Beavers, they crushed them, 45-14. So, another 11-1 season for Penn State and another non-championship BCS game. Sure, it's the Rose Bowl, which is the most storied bowl of them all with its rich history and USC getting an extra home game every year. But still, a shot at the national title would have been nice.

But enough on Penn State. What I really want to talk about is the BCS championship game. The BCS is what keeps one-loss teams like Penn State and Texas Tech and Texas out of getting a chance to play for the national title on a nearly annual basis. The national championship in Division 1 collegiate football is arguably the most elusive championship in all of sports. More so than the Vince Lombardi trophy, the Commissioner's trophy, the Larry O'Brien trophy, or even the Stanley Cup. Ok, so maybe the World Cup in soccer is more elusive, but no one really plays soccer in the U.S (not well, anyway). But I digress. There are 119 teams vying for the top two spots in the country. So why, then, is Division 1 college football the only American sport that does not feature a playoff system?

One word: money. That's what the head muckity-mucks that support the BCS will tell you. They'll also make excuses like "the schedule would be too long", or "we don't want to pull the athletes out of class or make them miss finals", or even "the holidays would interfere." And they're all bull. Every single one of them, even the argument about money. I have been opposed to the BCS ever since its inception and many people, mostly true fans of the game, share my hatred of the system.

I'll forgo writing a history of the BCS and instead focus on what is happening this season. The 2008 season, like the last couple, have been, to say the least, crazy. Lots of upsets, non-BCS teams going undefeated, and teams worthy of the national title game getting left out of the picture. This year is no different. Going into the last week of the season, there was: one remaining undefeated BCS team; two undefeated non-BCS teams; and six one-loss teams. To complicate matters, #1 Alabama played #4 Florida for all the beans in the the SEC conference and #2 Oklahoma played #20 Missouri for the Big 12 championship. There are a couple of things going on here and I'll detail them below.

First, let's address the Big 12. The Big 12 conference has two divisions: East and West. Each year the best team in the Big 12 East and the best team in the Big 12 West play each other in the (Dr. Pepper) Big 12 Championship Game. It seems like a pretty fair system. Well, the Big 12 West was outstanding this season, featuring three teams with only one loss: Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. Unfortunately, only one of those teams can play for the Big 12 title and since the Big 12 was one of the strongest conferences in the nation this year, the winner would surely end up playing for the national title. To complicate matters, Texas beat Oklahoma, 45-35, when Oklahoma was ranked #1 earlier in the season. They then beat #11 Missouri and #6 Oklahoma State the following two weeks before losing to #7 Texas Tech on a last-second touchdown miracle. Texas Tech beat Texas then blew out Oklahoma State the following week before receiving a beatdown from Oklahoma. Oklahoma lost to Texas early in the season, but rebounded by winning six in a row to end the season, scoring no fewer than 45 points in any game, and scoring at least 60 in five straight. Their signature win came three weeks ago, when they beat then-#2 Tech 65-21 to knock them out of the title picture.

So who goes to the Big 12 (and national) championship(s)? The easy choice would be Oklahoma, since they beat the team that Texas couldn't. But Texas beat Oklahoma, so that should count for something, right? Well, Texas Tech beat Texas so they should also draw some consideration, right? Fortunately, there are tiebreakers in place so we stupid humans don't have to decide. The tiebreakers are:

1) The records of the three teams will be compared against each other

That's no good, they're all the same. Next!

2) The records of the three teams will be compared within their division

Hmm, their division records are all the same too. Next...

3) The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)

Well, that's also the same.

4) The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents

Wow, this is getting interesting...

5) The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of the Big 12 regular season conference play shall be the representative.

Zing! That's it! That makes sense right? Because the computers are never wrong, right? What a horrible system. Not only are you leaving it in the hands of computers, but you're leaving it in the hands of stupid biased voters, just like old times. The Big 12 made a statement last week saying that they are going to "re-evaluate the tiebreaking procedures", but not until March of 2009. Sure, that will help the teams this year. Let's see how long it takes a team like Texas Tech, a non-traditional football school, to recover from this black eye, especially with talk that the head coach may be leaving to take the head coaching position at Washington.

Moving along... Alabama was 12-0 and the #1 team in the land by virtue of one of the most pathetic SEC schedules I have ever seen. They played only 3 ranked teams this season, two of which aren't ranked anymore, the third of which is now ranked #15. Everyone touts their amazing defense, but shutting out teams like Auburn and Arkansas State doesn't impress anybody. But they were the last remaining BCS unbeaten, so a win against Florida last weekend would have sealed the deal. As we saw on Saturday, Saban's crew is a little overrated. Florida beat them, in Alabama, to win the SEC championship. This brings up another interesting issue. Florida finished the season with a 12-1 record and was ranked #4 in the BCS going into the SEC championship game. Texas was ranked ahead of them, at #3 in the second-to-last BCS rankings, but were idle because they got shut out of the Big 12 championship game. Well, the ultimate nightmare for the BCS occurred when #4 Florida jumped #3 Texas to grab the #2 spot in the final BCS rankings with Alabama falling from #1 to #4. Alabama could have saved the BCS a lot of controversy if they had just won on Saturday. Now, the debate rages on once again. If you hate the BCS, you rooted for Florida this week.

This season goes to show once again that you can lose early in the season and still make the national title game. Both Florida and Oklahoma did it, with Florida losing to Mississippi in week 4 and Oklahoma losing to Texas in week 6. Alabama, Texas and Texas Tech all lost after that and it cost them. Why is that? Because voters are stupid. They forget easily. Texas boasted the most impressive resume, in my opinion, having beaten 3 teams in the top 11 in the rankings in 3 consecutive weeks before losing to #7 on a last-second miracle TD pass. Not that what Oklahoma did wasn't impressive, but they were able to spread their games vs. highly-ranked teams throughout their schedule. It also goes to show that voters (and computers) can be swayed by style points. Oklahoma scored at least 60 points in each of the their last 5 games. Impressive, especially when considering that 3 of those games were against ranked opponents.

So instead of Texas playing a team like Oklahoma or Florida, they end up playing #10 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, a game they will likely dominate. And I can tell you this: Texas was pitted against Ohio State because beating Ohio State will prove nothing. Penn State beat Ohio State in Columbus earlier in the season, so it goes to show that Ohio State isn't that great this year. Not that Penn State is a bad team, but they are the one 1-loss team that probably isn't making too many bones about not being considered for the BCS championship game.

Now for the non-BCS teams. Three non-BCS teams were undefeated going into this past weekend: Utah, Boise State, and Ball State. Utah and Boise State both finished undefeated and were off in the final week, but Ball State had to play their conference championship game... against Buffalo. That's right, a team that needed a last-second hail mary to beat Temple was facing 12-0 Ball State in their conference championship. Well, Ball State did the BCS a favor by wetting the bed on Friday night and losing to Buffalo, making them just a pretty good team instead of possibly BCS-worthy. However, that still leaves Utah and Boise State. Utah was the original bracket-buster, beating Pitt in the in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Boise State is the latest bracket-buster, beating Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl on a 2-point conversion, statue of liberty play in the waning seconds of what many call one of the greatest bowl games in history. Both teams have proven themselves to be legit, but only one is allowed to play in a BCS bowl game. Is that really fair?

The problem here is the bowl committees. Each bowl game has a committee that decides who plays in its bowl. The BCS bowls, however, have stricter rules that apply to their bowls. For instance, the Rose Bowl always features the Big Ten conference champion vs. the Pac-10 conference champion. The Orange Bowl always features the winner of the ACC championship. This year, the committees had a chance to buck these old-fashioned trends and go in a new direction. But they didn't. Instead, we will see #19 Virginia Tech play #7 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl, instead of giving a team like Boise the opportunity to face off against a power conference team. What an interesting matchup Boise vs. Texas Tech would present. Instead, Texas Tech will likely blow out the undermanned VaTech. Note to the BCS powers that be: if you want to increase the viewership of the BCS, create interesting matchups like these and throw out your old-fashioned bowl committees.

I read an excellent article last week about the BCS and a plan to implement a playoff system. I've read a hundred of these things and I can't really agree 100% with any of them. With this article, I came close. The writer proposed a system that mirrors college basketball's March Madness. It consists of a 16-team playoff, but with a twist. The twist is that, like in college basketball, the winner of every conference in Division 1-A would receive an automatic bid in the tournament. Think about it. There are 11 conferences in NCAA Division 1 football. That's 11 automatic bids and 5 at-large. The bracket presents some interesting matchups. And before you jump on me and say that schools like Buffalo and Troy don't stand a shot, think of the NCAA tournament. Lower-seeded teams pull off upsets every year. Why should football be any different? The excitement that this system would generate would be great for everyone involved: students, fans, and schools alike. Teams like Troy would generate so much revenue that they could use to fund their football program and expand it and grow it. Some people say there's parity in college football. I say it's just schools becoming more competitive and this would be a great way to advance that.

One argument would be that they couldn't play games on neutral sites. Who cares? Have the higher-seeded team play host. Home-field advantage plays such a role in college football, so why take that out of the tournament? It keeps the atmosphere of college football fresh for the playoff games and gives students of the schools involved more a chance to attend. You could still have the championship game rotate sites and you can even still use the same sites that are currently used for the championship.

Some will argue that the season would be too long. That's just B.S. First of all, the college football season is shorter than any other season. Oh no, some teams might play 16-17 games in a season. How awful! The NFL regular season is only 16 games, so for the masses of players that are thinking of going pro, here's your chance to show that you can endure a longer season. The real problem with college football is that the games run longer because of the game rules. Tweak those game rules a bit to make them more like the NFL and you don't have to worry about players getting worn down.

And to those who say that the season could run through January and into February with the added weeks, I say "nay". What we need is to start the playoffs the week after the regular season ends, this weekend, and run through December. You can even take a week off for Christmas and finish it up the first week of January. To me, taking a month off before playing in your bowl game is worse. You can get rusty this way and it just isn't a good system. The real problem with scheduling is that it's not uniform throughout the NCAA. There are 17 official weeks in the NCAA football season, and yet teams only play 12-13 games. Let's reform scheduling and then we can talk about having a playoff that will end around New Year's.

Some will argue that too many students will miss finals. While it's true that there isn't a Division 1 school that doesn't have finals at some point during the month of December, since when did school presidents care about this? Every year lots of college basketball players miss mid-terms to play in the NCAA tournament. The tourney is about 4 weeks long, depending on how far your school goes in the tourney. Then there are conference championships the week before and those run all week. So don't come with that lame excuse. You can work something out. These kids are making your school a lot of money in revenue. You can find a way for them to take their finals around the playoffs.

The final argument is that having a playoff system would undermine the integrity of the bowl games. I have to say that I agree with this 100%. Kind of. It may undermine the integrity of the BCS bowls (i.e. the more important ones, or the "New Year's Bowls" as we like to call them). I say, keep them. Create an extra game for some teams that lose in the playoffs. Sure, it won't mean anything, but does it really mean anything now? Think of it. Penn State plays USC in the Rose Bowl, for what? What does the winner really get? They have no shot at the national title. Bragging rights. Recognition. And a bouquet of roses. That's all they get. Well guess what? If Penn State and USC both lose in the second round of the playoff and played each other in the Rose Bowl, the winner would still get all of those things. You can keep all the other bowl games if you want. The ones that don't mean anything, like the Meinke Car Care Bowl or the Papajohns.com Bowl, of even the Insight Bowl. Schools relish the chance to play in a bowl, even if their record is only 6-6. To be honest, though, bowl games are such an old-fashioned thing. And it's kind of gotten out of hand, hasn't it? Is there really any integrity in bowl games anymore? Teams that finish the season .500 can, and usually do, make a bowl game. In 2008, there will be 34 bowl games (including the BCS bowls and national championship game) with the addition of the EagleBank Bowl and the St. Petersburg Bowl (really?). That means that 68 out of the 119 Division 1 football teams will be playing in a bowl game. That almost guarantees that schools with .500 records or worse will be playing in the postseason. How much pride, really, does a school get from playing in the New Mexico Bowl? But if they are that important to you, keep them. I guarantee that eventually, every school will play in a bowl game, just so we don't leave anyone out.

The whole point to this overly drawn-out rant is to say that the system needs to change. But the change doesn't just consist of instituting a playoff and getting rid of the BCS. There need to be sweeping changes across the board, from the structure of the regular season schedule to the rules of the game to make games shorter to the conference championship system to the postseason and national championship determination. One line in the article I referenced above struck me. It said that school presidents aren't opposed to a playoff system. They just haven't been presented one that makes sense yet. While I doubt that this system will ever be proposed to the school presidents, I do think that it would work and it's a shame we may never see it in action. Unfortunately, it would require too many broad changes to the game and the stuffy old alumni that run the BCS system would never go for it. Not while they had their money to throw around at it.

Imagine that: me, a staunch Republican, preaching about change.

Election '08

So the election is over and my side lost... not that I wasn't expecting it anyway. I thought it might be a little closer, but the experts were right: it was an electoral landslide for Barack Obama, but the popular vote was close (52%-46%) and the Democrats didn't get their 60 seats in the Senate. So as we get ready to close the book on our 43rd President, I wanted to post a link to an article that I found interesting. This article was written by a former intern on John F. Kerry's legal team during his 2004 presidential campaign.

My opinion of President Bush has changed over the years and I really do think that history will look at him differently 20 years from now. The article is written by a Democrat and I agree 100% with every word he says. The only thing he has left out is the fact that there hasn't been another attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, while numerous plots have been foiled along the way. If you told me 7 years ago that we wouldn't sustain another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, I would not have believed you. I would venture a guess that most people share that belief, whether they want to admit it or not. So while I don't think Bush is the most popular president we ever had or will ever have, I think he has unfairly received criticism from both sides for trying to be bipartisan in his second term as president. It will be interesting to see the reaction to President-elect Obama when he tries to reach across the aisle, if he does try to do that. I think, in the end, we will look at President Bush in the same way that we look at former President Harry S. Truman: someone who faced extraordinary scrutiny in the wake of a national disaster and a war. Someone who tried to unite the country during an economic crisis, but received too much opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, and ended up strengthening the opposition and alienating his own party, of no fault of his own.

The truth is, we should be ashamed of ourselves. This man was still the leader of the free world and he deserved our support. He was the commander-in-chief and he did his job better than 99% of people in this country could. And all we could do was scrutinize and insult him, rebel against him. Read the article; it's short and it just might give you a different insight as to the trouble he faced in his presidency.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html

SEPTA, Part 1

In what is sure to be an ongoing series of posts, I'm writing about the inadequacy of SEPTA. For those of you who might not know what SEPTA is, it stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority. Authority is the right word, because they are the authority when it comes to transportation to and from Philadelphia. For most people, there is no other mass transportation option if you live in the 'burbs.

The problem with SEPTA is that they are horribly inefficient. Years ago, the Live Eight concert came to Philly. There were over 1 million people at the concert and a lot of them had to use SEPTA to get into the city. Let's just say, things didn't end well. We ended up in Villanova instead of Ambler because we took the wrong train. The stations were all a mess. It was run terribly.

Well this past week, the Phillies won the World Series. I'm happy for them. I'm happy for the city. But I knew that either the city of Philadelphia, SEPTA, or both would screw things up with the victory parade. Unfortunately, I work in Center City at the moment. It was cool, because I was able to watch the victory parade and get pictures. The bad part was that everyone started funneling out of the city around 4:00, when I, along with loads of other people, leave to come home. In hindsight, I probably should have just left work after the parade passed my building.

Anyway, the parade started at "noon" (12:30) and was pretty cool, even though the whole parade went by in about 10 minutes flat. I got some nice pictures and saw Pat the Bat riding up front in the Budweiser wagon. After the final float went by, the madness ensued. I fought my way through the crowds to my favorite sandwich place, the "Sandwich Nazi" as it is affectionately known in my work circle. After waiting about 20 mins for my sandwich, I went back to work. I thought I would try to leave a little early to hopefully beat some of the crowd back. I left work at around 3:50 and headed to Suburban Station. What I saw when I got there was complete and utter chaos. The line for every train was overflowing into the concourse and wrapping around pillars in every direction. The estimates said there were around 3 million people in Philly for the parade and when I saw those lines, I started to believe that figure.

I wasn't sure what to do. I called Sarah and asked her to come get me. Then I had an idea. I told her I would walk to Market East Station a few blocks away and check the lines there. What I saw when I got there was, arguably, worse. The line for my train looked to be about 2 hours long. It wasn't moving. I checked the train grid to see if I could take any other trains that had smaller lines. What I ended up doing was hopping in line for the R5 train going the opposite direction. The plan was to take that train to the Villanova Station and have Sarah pick me up there. I called her and she left right away. I waited another half hour or so for the next R5 train while all the other lines came and went. As I stood there, at least two R2s, two R3s, two R8, and two R7s went by. The R5 just happened to be running about 35 mins late.

I finally boarded the train around 5:30 and was on my way. Or so I thought. We went about 100 feet and stopped in the tunnel. And waited. Ten minutes later, we moved about another 500 feet. And stopped. Ten minutes later, we finally started going again and went all the way to Suburban Station. At this point, the train is packed full. There was room for maybe 10 more people in the train car that I was in. When we pull up to the platform, there are about 500 people crammed onto the platform trying to get on the train. After 10 more minutes of people shoving and cramming themselves in the train, we took off, leaving about 400 of the 500 people behind. Finally we were on our way. About 45 minutes later, the train pulled into Villanova Station. It was about 7:00 when I finally got off the train. I normally get home between 5:30 and 6:00. We are in Villanova, 45 minutes from home.

So we decide to go out to dinner on the way home. We hop on the turnpike and head towards home. We get to talking and I look up Texas Roadhouse on Sarah's BlackBerry so I can call ahead for seating. When I hang up, we see a sign for the Allentown Service Plaza. Somehow, we both missed the Lansdale exit. So we get off at Quakertown and turn around and come back the other way. We finally get to Texas Roadhouse around 7:45. We eat, head to the train station and the supermarket and get home around 9:45. The plan for the night was to watch some scary movies, but all we can think about is sleep. So, we turn in early and head to bed around 10:45.

The point of the story is... never trust SEPTA. Every major event that happens in Philly, they find a way to fuck it up. The news outlets were reporting that the city was telling people to take public transportation. SEPTA was telling people they were over capacity and that it wasn't a good idea to take public transportation. But the truth is, SEPTA had no plan. They added no extra trains to their tracks and expected close to 3 million people to just wait and fight for a spot in line for their trains. Some people waited 3 hours or more for a train to go home. Some waited 3-4 hours for a train to come into the city in the morning before they left and went home. SEPTA actually stopped inbound service to the city at a certain point earlier in the day. I had no other option because I work down there, and it was most frustrating for people like me. I think I've learned my lesson, and I won't be taking SEPTA during the next major event in Philly. I think I'll probably just stay home.

Indecision 2008

I probably won't make many friends with this post, if anyone actually reads this. But since the election is coming up and it's the biggest election of our generation blah blah blah, I figured that I have to write a entry on the candidates. I wasn't going to post anything up on here either, but I saw an alarming article today that has me extremely worried about the future of this country.

First off, you should know that I am a Republican. No, I did not vote for Bush in 2004. I actually abstained from voting because I was in college and just didn't follow politics as closely as I should have. For the past 6-8 months, I have been very closely following the election coverage, on both liberal and conservative media outlets. I know the issues, and I have a pretty good idea what each candidate's stances are on those issues.

The thing with elections is, everyone has their pet issue that they are voting for. One person might vote for a candidate based on their stance on education, while others may vote for a candidate based on their military strategy. Others, including myself, favor voting for the candidate that would best be suited to get this country out of the economic mess it's in.

That being said, I will refer back to the article that I read today. The headline showed up on my Google Reader rss feed from Drudge Report and the article title was interesting, so I clicked it. The title was "OBAMA FIRES 'ROBIN HOOD' WARNING SHOT" from the New York Post. What I read was alarming. Last Sunday, Obama spoke in a town outside of Toledo. A small business owner whose company makes more than $250,000 per year approached Barack and asked him about his new tax plan. He asked if the plan would raise taxes for his small business. After Obama responded that it would, the man told him that he works hard, sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day and asks why he should be taxed higher to fulfill the American dream. Obama's response was (and I quote) "It's not that I want to punish your success. I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too." He continued, "my attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

This comment should create concern with every American citizen. What Obama is basically saying here is that he wants to redistribute the wealth of this great country. He wants to tax the rich and give that money to the poor. The Robin Hood warning shot. For those of you who know something about government and politics, Obama's "trickle-up" economic theory is the main pillar of a Socialist economy. Redistribution of wealth. Now, I will say that I am not one of those radical right-wing conservatives that thinks all Democrats are the anti-Christ and the reason for all the world's problems. However, this is an alarming statement. Here is a breakdown of Obama's economic plan:

First off, he says he plans to cut taxes for 95% of all working Americans. This is a flat-out lie, because nearly half of all tax filers pay no income tax at all. So how can he cut their taxes if they don't pay any in the first place? His answer is "tax credits". Here is a list of tax credits that Obama will offer:

* A $1,000 "make work pay" credit.
* A $4,000 college-tuition credit.
* A $6,000 child-care credit.
* A $1,100 bump in the earned-income tax credit

These aren't to become income-tax deductions, which would be worthless to tax filers paying no income tax. Instead, they are checks straight from the government, with the subsidies set to grow to $1 trillion within 10 years. That's a pretty big transfer of wealth. Obama says that it's fair. But that's an interesting definition of the word "fair." Despite many of the wealthiest people in this country paying a lower tax rate than most middle-class workers due to a majority of their income coming from capital gains, the top 20% of earners still pay 69% of our country's federal taxes, and 88% of income taxes.

Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax, which means that these people will be shouldering an even heavier load of tax burden. Now, don't get me wrong; I don't feel sorry for these CEOs and corporate execs getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in terms of doing your fair deed to this country, I believe they have. It's funny how all these Hollywood stars are coming out in support of Obama. Don't they realize they will be taxed to high heaven if he gains office?

On Monday, Obama promised a tax policy that would restore "a sense of fairness and balance that will give every American a fair shot at the American dream." But to the man he spoke with on Sunday, his American is going to become that much harder.

Let me take an aside here to say that I am also not a HUGE McCain supporter, but I do believe that his plans are more reasonable and fair to the majority of citizens in this country. That said, in contrast to Obama's plan, McCain calls for for real tax cuts - halving the capital-gains levy and scrapping taxes on unemployment benefits altogether.

What we have to realize here is that the economic situation cannot be solved in a day, or a year, or maybe even in the next four years. It's going to get worse before it gets better. We are suffering from policies put in place over 8 years ago (yes, I do mean Clinton) and it has put us in a hole. While Obama is so set on radical change for this country, McCain is proposing the level-headed policies that we need for these tough times. You may get roped in with Obama's rhetoric and his call for change, but when was the last time a radical change in this country made anything better?

However, this is where the McCain campaign is dropping the ball. I give Mr. McCain a lot of credit for resurrecting a dead campaign early in the primary season and winning the nomination. However, since then, his campaign team has not done a good job of breaking down Obama's policies and getting the facts out there. The numbers I wrote above are numbers you probably won't see anywhere else. McCain will probably not mention this in the debate tonight and probably will not be aggressive enough in defending his own policies, while pointing out the specifics that everyone is overlooking in Obama's. This is why McCain will lose and Obama will win the 2008 election.

I'll finish up with this. For those of you who were old enough to remember back to 1992 (I wasn't so I had to read about this on the Internet), remember Clinton's pre-election promises. He promised to lower taxes on the middle-class and raise taxes on those earning more than $200,000 per year (sound familiar?). Actually, that is the main thing that won him the election in '92.

After the election and as his inauguration drew nearer, he backed off of that stance. At a Jan. 14, 1993, press conference in New Hampshire, he claimed that it was the media that had played up a middle-class tax cut, not him. A month later, he announced his actual plan before a joint session of Congress. The plan called for increasing taxes of families making as little as $20,000/year. It wasn't until 1994, when a Republican-controlled Congress came into power, that he embraced welfare reform, signed a cut in the capital gains tax, and declared that the "era of Big Government is over." The economy was jump-started thereafter. Funny how McCain's economic plans are in line with those that helped stimulate the economy during the Clinton years. Makes you think, huh?

Mr. Obama is making the same promises that Clinton did, and I'll be interested to see how long it takes him to back down from those promises. To be fair, if he did raise taxes on the middle-class, it would be better than his "trickle-up" (aka redistribution of wealth) theory. At least this country would remain a Democracy and not fall into Socialism.

Sources:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10152008/news/politics/obama_fires_a_robin_hood_warning_shot_133685.htm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122333585431009523.html

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/news/nationalnews/mccain_unveils_52b_economic_plan_133598.htm

Jersey Curse

I have this thing with sports superstitions. If you are even a halfway hardcore sports fan or if you play sports, you know what I mean. The rally towel, or the rally cap. Wearing certain clothes when your team is playing, or being in the room or not being in the room when they have the ball. It's the Madden Curse, or the Campbell's Chunky Soup Curse, or the Sports Illustrated Curse. Are they real? That's debatable. However, I have a personal curse that I bestow upon on my favorite athletes and teams and it deals with buying jerseys of players from those teams.

Just as background, I am a superstitious person when it comes to sports. I believe that the Madden curse is very real. When I play hockey (I'm a goalie) I don't touch any of the lines when I'm skating to my net at the beginning of the game or in between periods. I have lucky shirts, and unlucky shirts. I have noticed a certain trend develop over the last few years, though, that can unmistakably be categorized as a curse, of sorts. I love buying jerseys of my favorite players. It's something I've done since I was a kid. I used to own a Brett Favre jersey (before he was an jerk), Steve Young, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, etc. Only a few years ago did I start to see a trend of bad luck develop whenever I bought a new jersey. Let's start from the beginning:

The first I can remember me cursing athletes begins a long time ago. I have to go back about 10 years for this one. I got an Eric Lindros jersey for Christmas one year. I can't remember the exact year but I know it was around the time of the Flyers' last Stanley Cup Finals appearance, which was the 1996-'97 season. That following off-season, the drama between Lindros and the Flyers front office started heating up. He and Bobby Clarke feuded in the media, and during the 1998 season Lindros's string of concussions started. Then, during a game in April of 1999, Lindros suffered what was initially called a "rib injury." Later that night, his teammate Keith Jones found him in the tub of his hotel room, pale and cold. The trainer was told to send Lindros back to Philly on a plane with Mark Recchi, who was also injured at the time, and get treatment at home. Jones insisted he go straight to the hospital. They did rush him to the hospital and it was determined that Lindros had a collapsed lung caused by internal bleeding of his chest wall and had bled out about half his body's total volume of blood. If he had been put on that team plane, he would have been dead before he reached Philadelphia. More injuries and verbal disputes with Flyers management ensued between then and 2001, when he was finally traded to the New York Rangers. He played three seasons with the Rangers, then one with Toronto before finally retiring as a member of the Dallas Stars in 2006. In all, he suffered eight concussions in his career (all after I bought the damn jersey), a collapsed lung, and a torn ligament in his wrist that he re-injured shortly after returning from.

At this point, I didn't realize what I had done. But even so, I didn't wear jerseys much anymore so I didn't buy any for a few years. Then came my college years. My junior year was an exciting one. A young running back by the name of Austin Scott was turning heads at Penn State. He was a sophomore during my junior year and I swear he knew there was a curse on him the year before this. During my sophomore year (his freshman year), I bought his jersey, #22. The following year, he switched numbers, to #33, which just so happens to be one of my favorite numbers. So I bought a #33 jersey. That following season, he showed up to camp overweight, was hampered by ankle injuries, and apparently displayed a lack of focus and motivation. He lost his starting job to Tony Hunt, who ended up finishing third on the all-time rushing list at Penn State and now plays fullback for the Philadelphia Eagles. In the middle of his senior season in 2007, he was accused of rape after leaving a bar with a girl he met that night. He was acquitted of the charges, but it effectively ruined the rest of his college career. He had a tryout with the Cleveland Browns this past pre-season and got cut.

That same season, the Eagles signed an all-pro wide receiver named Terrell Owens. As you all know, Owens came into the league with the 49ers and exploded onto the scene, running his mouth along the way. When he signed with the Eagles, it felt like a new era was beginning. The Eagles looked like the best team in the league... until I bought his jersey. The Eagles started the season 13-1 and T.O. was on pace for 16 touchdown catches for the season until Roy Williams brought down T.O. with a now-famous "horse collar" tackle that sprained his ankle and fractured his fibula. The Eagles would lose their final two games of the season, but make a run to the Super Bowl, only to lose in a close game to the Patriots. Owens returned that game, catching 9 passes for 122 yards. The following offseason, Owens' agent Drew Rosenhaus demanded that the Eagles restructure his contract and when the Eagles refused, Owens's stay in Philly was done. He sat out the entire 2005 season and was eventually released by the Eagles in March of 2006. He signed with the Dallas Cowboys soon after, and you all know what has happened since then. Hey, at least I helped get a much-needed new rule passed in the NFL, and now NCAA.

The 2005 season was an exciting one for Penn Staters. Penn State had a great team assembled with lots of freshman talent. One of those key freshmen was wide receiver Derrick Williams. Williams was immediately my favorite player on that year's team. So, I went out and bought his jersey a few weeks into the season. The week after I bought the jersey, Williams broke his shoulder in the annual game against Michigan, and Penn State suffered their first and only loss of the season. Williams was forced to sit out the remainder of the 2005 season and never quite regained that magic he showed during his freshman year.

The following season was the big senior year for linebacker Paul Posluszny. Considered maybe the best linebacker in the storied history of Linebacker U, "Pos" had an outstanding season as he broke the all-time school record for tackles in a career at Penn State. I bought his jersey midway through that season. He fell to the 2nd round in the draft and ended up breaking his arm in his first NFL game, missing his entire rookie season.

That NFL season, I decided to try my hand at buying an Eagles jersey again. I was nervous, because I was now starting to realize the horrible trend that was occurring. Nevertheless, I went out and bought another jersey. This time it was Eagles tight end L.J. Smith. I really wanted a Westbrook jersey, but I decided to hold off because of the curse (no, seriously). He was a rising star after his 2005 season, when he caught 61 passes for 682 yards and 3 TDs. He had a strong start in 2006, despite criticism that he dropped too many passes. His final numbers dropped off that year, but that could be attributed to the loss of Donovan McNabb to a season-ending injury. In 2007, his production dropped even more and eventually suffered a season-ending injury. He has battled injuries and dropped passes ever since.

I figure, it has to be just a fluke right? There's no way that a single person can bestow these curses on so many outstanding athletes right? Wrong. In 2005, the NHL had resumed from a lockout that canceled the entire 2004-05 season. The Flyers returned with a bang and Simon Gagne was their leader, scoring 47 goals and recording 32 assists with a +31 rating. The Flyers were knocked out in the first round but who cares? Hockey is back! During the 2006-07 season, the Flyers suffered through the worst season in their storied history. Toward the end of the season, I went to a game and decided to buy a Simon Gagne jersey. Bad idea. When the 2007-08 season rolled around the Flyers were re-tooled and ready to bounce back. Gagne had been banged up during the entire off-season and true to form, suffered a season-ending concussion after playing only 25 games. It was believed that he suffered 3 concussions in 5 months, although doctors told him he only had one. He was originally injured on October 25, 2007 against the Florida Panthers. After sitting out 4 games, he returned on November 7 and was re-injured in that game. He sat out 26 more games before returning against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 10, 2008, only to be re-injured on his first shift. He ended up sitting out the rest of the season.

So, I'm terrified to buy any more jerseys. There are a few that I want, namely Mike Richards or Danny Briere of the Flyers, Brian Westbrook of the Eagles, and Ryan Howard of the Phils. I just can't bring myself to do it though. I know, star athletes get hurt, but with a track records like mine, can you blame me?

Moving

Note: this blog entry was actually written on 9/12 but my camera battery died and it took me a week to find the charger so I couldn't upload the pictures until now. I felt like the pictures really added to this post and it just wouldn't be the same without them. Sorry it's so long (that's what she said) but I had a lot to say, ok?

So, I’m still in moving mode. I woke up at 7:03 this morning and my train leaves the station that is a 15-minute drive from my new place at 7:21. Did I mention that I had a one-on-one status update with a Vice President of my client company this morning at 8:30? Even if I had made the 7:21 train, I still probably would have been 5 minutes late to the meeting. So here I am, staring at the clock thinking out loud “how did this happen?” and spewing expletives. So I got up and emailed said VP, asking hopelessly if we could push our meeting back, but of course he is booked solid until eternity. I end up taking the 8:19 train and doing our meeting over the phone in a cramped train with a freakin’ horn blowing 4-5 times at every goddamn stop. Lay off the fucking horn man! People will get out of the way when they see a damn train heading toward them! Then I got off the train and upon getting to my building, noticed lots of people standing around outside. Apparently a fire alarm has been triggered. It’s going to be one of those days. Luckily, I prepared for this when I got off the train by ordering a giant iced caramel latte with extra sugar.

But what this post is really about is moving. I hate moving. I’ve moved a lot in my life and let me tell you, it sucks. Sarah and I moved out of our old apartment two weeks ago and into a much bigger, much nicer, much newer place just about 10 miles away. It was about a week of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to pack everything in boxes and change all our addresses and clean and paint the old place before we had to turn in the keys. That’s not to mention that two days after our move-in date, we had to go to a wedding in Maryland (thanks Nick and Crystal). But anyone that’s moved in their life knows that it doesn’t end there. The last 12 days have been hectic, unpacking, building furniture, decorating, etc. So let me start from the beginning.

Sunday, Aug. 24: We started packing this night. We had just gotten home from a bachelor/bachlorette weekend in Atlantic City where I won $200 playing craps!! Woo hoo!! Packing sucks.

Monday, Aug. 25: This day was spent calling all the utility companies to cancel service or change addresses. Also, I had to change the addresses of credit cards, bank accounts, insurance, etc. which is a giant pain in the ass. We also continued packing this day. Packing still sucks. We rented a steam cleaner this night as well to try and get the cat piss stains out of the carpet. It actually worked pretty well.

Tuesday, Aug. 26: More packing and changing addresses, canceling and setting up of utility services and coordinating delivery of our new furniture. Sarah went to take the steam cleaner back to Home Depot and noticed that the dog had chewed the cord (these things cost $700). Luckily her dad is an electrical whiz and fixed the cord without anyone being able to tell that anything happened (Sarah would have just wrapped electrical tape over it, which apparently would have done nothing at all). We saved the cord as a souvenir.

This was fun

Wednesday, Aug. 27: I’m freaking out at this point because despite our best efforts, we only have maybe 2/3 of the apartment packed up. I have the semi-finals and possibly the finals of my hockey league tonight, so I am unable to do any packing. I head off for my game(s), and my team wins both games and the championship. We take pictures with the trophy, etc. I get home around 11 pm exhausted after playing two hockey games. I tell Sarah I’m going to stay up all night packing. I last about 1 hour before taking 3 Advil for my splitting headache and passing out in bed.

Thursday, Aug. 28: Today is the day. Most of the stuff is in boxes and ready to go. I wake up at 6:30 to get things together and gas up my car before we have to start moving stuff. Miraculously, we are able to fit about 75% of all our stuff into my grandparents’ vans and trailer and my mom’s van. We are able to move most of the boxes and all the large furniture in one trip. The problem is, it takes us about 4 hours just to load up all the cars. We go and get my keys, I sign some final papers and we start unpacking. This is the worst part. Packing and unpacking, even if it’s just for a trip, is a waste of time. Putting things in boxes or suitcases, just to move them to a different location and take everything out of the boxes or suitcases. It’s something you have to do, but it’s just an annoying waste of time.

Anyway, after some McDonald’s for lunch around 3 pm, we finished getting everything out of the cars. I felt bad, because my 78-year-old grandpa was helping for most of the time. He’s still in great shape for his age, but he got tired midway through unpacking. Next time we move, we’ll have to hire movers I guess. My mom and grandparents leave with Jack (the dog) and Sarah gets back from work (in-service day), and now it’s time to take all of our stuff out of the boxes. Not before we get some dinner though. Sarah, her mom, and I went to an excellent Italian trattoria in Souderton called Caruso, where we got some cheap but delicious Italian food. Next up was a quick stop at the supermarket to get some necessities (i.e. toilet paper, we forgot to pack that in our one big load) and then a stop back at the old place to clean and gather up some more boxes.

By the time we got there it was around 9 pm. Sarah’s mom is vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen while her dad and I move boxes down to their car. The cats are terrified and have been huddling in a corner of the bedroom closet all day. We finally call it a night around 10:45. Sarah and I load the cats into my car, stop at Wawa for some drinks and snacks on the way back to the new place. We let the cats loose in the apartment and their one immediate emotion is fear. Neville doesn’t want to come out of the carrier at first, but then does and promptly hides somewhere in the apartment. Molly, on the other hand, explores the entire apartment and seems to be enjoying the new digs. We go to bed after midnight.

Neville is scurred.

Friday, Aug. 29: We wake up early after sleeping on the couches the night before (our bed wasn’t put together yet). Sarah goes to the old place to help her mom clean, while I patiently wait for the Comcast guy to come and set up the cable, internet, and phone (yay for the Comcast Triple Play). When he gets to the new place, I realize that all the Comcast equipment we have is at the old place. FAIL. He says, “no problem, just bring it back to the local office when you have it all.” He sets up the cable, having to run back to the local office twice for new cable boxes, etc. He is there for about 3 hours setting things up.

Meanwhile, Sarah and her mom are cleaning in anticipation of the head of maintenance coming for a final walkthrough of the old place. When he gets there, he stays for all of 7 minutes, making a comment only on the color of the paint on the walls of the living room, which we tell him we are planning to paint back to white. He mentions nothing of the pet odor or the carpet that the cats have shredded in places. We hope that he was checking things off as he walked through. Then it was more packing and unpacking. We took two more loads to the new place before meeting Sarah’s dad at Ruby Tuesday for lupper, or dunch, or whatever you call the meal between lunch and dinner/supper.

Back to the old place for some more cleaning and one more load of stuff to the new place. Sarah and I are dreading having to paint today because it’s already after 5. We drive back to Sarah’s parents’ place to get a halogen light, stepladder, a drill, and drop cloths. We get back to the old place around 7 to begin painting. It takes us less time that anticipated and actually looks like we will only need one coat, despite painting white over beige walls. We finish around 10 or so and stop at Wawa for subs before going back to our new place to retire for the evening. When we get back, Neville is still hiding God-knows-where, but Molly is loving the new place. We haven’t seen her this happy since before we got the dog. We go to bed late again, but at least we can sleep on the bed, which we put together earlier in the day.

Saturday, Aug. 30: We sleep in a bit and decide that today is an unpacking/watching Penn State football day. Sarah unpacked while I put together the new TV stand. The TV was set to be delivered today after some haggling by me to the shipping company. I told them they could call my cell phone when they were about an hour away so that I could prepare for them to get there. I listened to the PSU game from upstairs while putting together the stand, waiting for the movers to call. The battery of the drill Sarah’s dad lent me dies midway through putting the stand together. I pop the replacement battery in only to find that it also is dead. I have to turn the rest of the screws by hand. I almost had the entire thing put together when I remembered that my cell phone had died the night before because I couldn’t find my charger. Shit. I called my voicemail from the landline and listened to a barely audible Mexican man tell me that my address wasn’t coming up on his GPS. No timestamp on the message. Crap. I called the movers back from the landline and his comment was “that was an hour ago, we’re a long way from you now.” My response was “Ok…” Look, I screwed up but it’s still their job to deliver it today. It just meant that they were getting a bigger tip. After 15 minutes of trying to get my address into their GPS and finally just giving them an address close to where I live, they told me that would circle back after their next delivery and that they were about 40 miles away. Great, this gave me time to finish the TV stand and get it ready for the TV. I actually had some time to relax before they got there.

An hour later and they still haven’t arrived. I call them back. They are about 15 minutes away and will call when they are close. The guy finally calls back and I direct him into my community. There are two guys in the truck, one a hulking Latino with a really high-pitched voice, the other a short, squat middle-aged Latino that looks like he couldn’t lift a box of Pop Tarts without getting fatigued. Let me just preface this next part by saying that the TV I ordered is a 58” plasma that weighs in at about 120 pounds. I had to help the guys get it up the steps outside and into the apartment. Step 1 complete. Now it had to get down into the basement. This was apparently the hard part. After 5 minutes of lifting and turning and twisting, the TV went down the stairs and our walls were covered in black marks, including a nice sweaty buttprint from the high-pitched Latino guy. He asks if he can use my restroom and I show him where it is. I ask the other guy if they can help me get it up on the TV stand, since this is part of Amazon.com’s “white-glove delivery” (neither mover was wearing white gloves by the way, so no, it isn’t what you think). He doesn’t understand a word I say and tells me to ask the other guy, who clearly in charge here. He comes out and has me sign a paper confirming the delivery. He is clearly intent on having me try and lift a 120-pound TV by myself onto a TV stand. I ask him if he can help me and after a long sigh, he heads back downstairs. The two of them unbox it, set it on the stand, plug it in and hook up the cable, and turn it on to make sure it works (all part of the white-glove delivery by the way). He tells me to keep the box (which takes up about half the apartment) for a week in case there are any problems. I tip him $25 so he doesn’t come back and kill me in my sleep and they take off.

We take a quick rest for an hour before heading back to the old place to check on our paint job (not like it matters, because at this points we don't have time to put a second coat on even if it looked like crap). We decide that it doesn’t look professional, but it’s definitely passable, so we load up the equipment that Sarah’s dad lent us and head to her parents’ house to drop it off. We have some dinner and then head back to the old place for one final time. We clean the fridge and freezer and get all the remaining food into a cooler, gather all the cleaning supplies and head for home, stopping to drop our key off along the way. It’s after 10 pm and at this point, I am running on fumes and so is Sarah. Neville briefly comes out of hiding this day, and Molly is still loving the new place without the dog.

Sunday, August 31: We wake up semi-early and start packing to go to the wedding. Sarah is the maid of honor so we have to be down there for the rehearsal at 3:30. We take off around 11:30 and drive for a couple hours before we get hungry. We see a sign for a Wendy’s and get off on the exit. After driving 7 miles, we finally find the Wendy’s and go in to have a quick sit-down lunch. We get back on our way and my GPS shows that we have now lost a half hour by stopping. We get back on 95 and head to Baltimore without any trouble the rest of the way. We get to the hotel and Sarah goes to the bridal suite, while I go to a friend’s room where I will be staying. We watch Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor lose for the first time in over a year while we are waiting for the bus to go to the rehearsal dinner. We head downstairs and hop on the bus and off we go to the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner is open bar so I intend on getting as many drinks as possible in this two-hour timeframe. I have a couple glasses of wine and a couple of mixed drinks with my stuffed flounder. Then Nick and Crystal talk for a bit and give gifts to their parents and then we are back on the bus, headed toward the hotel. My friend Hags snuck (sneaked?) the remaining bottles of wine into a bag before we left, so we spent the bus ride back drinking the remaining wine. Then we all went to the hotel bar, where we drank our faces off. Nick gave the groomsmen their gifts, and we all went to sleep.

Monday, Sep. 1: Wedding day. Yep, you read that right, a wedding on Labor Day. After lounging around for the better part of the morning nursing a hangover, it was time to get suited up (literally) and catch the bus to the wedding site. The site was nice and the wedding was beautiful, as was the open bar afterward. It was a great day for a wedding, but hot, so my coat was off in .2 seconds after the ceremony was done. Then it was off to the bar for a Crown and coke. We grabbed some food, took some pictures, and then sat down for dinner. After eating, it was back to the bar for some more drinks. There were more drinks, some dancing, and a human pyramid (4 tiers, very impressive) and then the reception was over and we headed back to the hotel. Sarah and I had to leave that night because I had to work the next day. We got packed up and went down to the bar for a drink before leaving. We said our goodbyes and congrats before ordering some champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries for the bride and groom on our way out and we got on the road. Traffic was light (thank God) and we got home around 1:00 am. I went to bed at 2 and got about 4 hours of sleep. Sarah’s school is on strike, so she was able to sleep in (just another reason why there should be an IT consultant’s union).

Tuesday, Sep. 2: I am a zombie at work. I have a status update meeting at 1:00 and I have to get myself back into the swing of things. I stumble through the day and get home around 5:30. I get changed and decide to put together our other new piece of furniture, the media cabinet. I open the box and take out all the content, find the instruction manual. This is what I have to go on:

This... also fun

WTF? The instructions are in paragraph format and there are about 8 different directions for each step. Somehow, I put the whole thing together without having any leftover parts and load the DVD’s into it. It’s too small. We have too many DVD’s. I put together the other, cheap DVD rack that we had at the old place and decided that that’s good enough for now. I watch the Phillies blow another sure win behind a strong effort (sarcasm) by Joe Blanton, who sucks. Also, Jack (the dog) is introduced to the new place and loves it. Molly is miserable again and resumes her ritual of peeing on the carpet every day.

Wednesday Sep. 3 - Thursday, Sep. 4: Nothing exciting here, just more unpacking.

Friday, Sep. 5: After I get home from work, we head to the King of Prussia mall to look at Lovesacs. We decide we want to have a Lovesac-type thing in our basement, but think that the actual Lovesacs are too expensive. We buy a Lovesac and head to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. When we get home, we pull the Lovesac out of its duffel and fluff the hell out of it.

Saturday, Sep 6: More unpacking and watching Penn State crush Oregon State 45-14. We leave around 4:30 to catch a train into the city for a concert. The concert is ok, and is made better by beer. We get back to the train station around 11 pm to catch the 11:20 train back home. Problem is, Tropical Storm Hannah had other plans for SEPTA. An official-looking woman comes down and asks everyone standing on the R5 platform if we are waiting for the R5 train (duh) then disappears. Apparently, there are electrical outages south of us that are delaying the trains. She tells us the train should be here in 20 minutes. An hour later, we wake up to her telling us that the train is coming into the station. A short, fat, impatient, white-haired guy ushers us into the train, making sure to let everyone know that this is some kind of “rescue mission” to get us all home tonight. Sarah and I fall asleep on the train, despite some annoying high school girls talking at the top of their lungs. We hop off the train around 1:15 and get home at 1:30.

Sunday, Sep. 7: IKEA day, which also unfortunately coincides with the first full day of NFL action. My reasoning is this: if I want to watch the games on the giant TV, I need furniture. I watch the first half of the Eagles game, which was really all that mattered, and we head to IKEA. We pick out a couch and a coffee table and grab some small necessities. When we go down to get our furniture, they are sold out of the couch but they'll have more tomorrow. Of course. Just when we thought things were looking up for us. We took our coffee table and met Sarah’s parents for dinner, where I got to watch Carolina beat San Diego on a last-second touchdown pass. I love football.

We got home and I put the coffee table together. We watched some of the Colts-Bears game, which was utterly boring, and went to bed.

Monday, Sep. 8: Back to the grind. I remembered I had to change my address on my driver’s license, so I did that today. Sidenote: at this point, we are still without a key to our mail box, after numerous visits and calls to the local post office. I’m not sure what is so difficult about changing a mailbox lock and leaving a key, but apparently our local post office can’t figure it out.

Sarah went back to IKEA and bought the couch while I was at work, and a nice man that helped her load it into her car asked for her phone number. Her dad and I brought the couch into the house later, scuffing the walls that I had just Magic Erasered days ago (the Latino buttprint walls). We watched Monday Night football, during which Jack got excited and peed on the new Lovesac, so that was fun.

Tuesday, Sep. 9 – Wednesday, Sep. 10: Nothing special, more unpacking and decorating. My surround system was delivered on Tuesday so that made me happy

Thursday, Sep. 11: I log into my American Express account online and see that Sarah has used my AMEX card for $225 at Pier 1 and Target. My first hockey game of the new season is tonight, and my team wins, 7-6. When I get home, Sarah has the mailbox keys (finally). I get the mail and there are numerous things from Comcast inside. I open one that looks to be a bill, and it says that I owe $664, due on receipt. This can’t be right, so I call Comcast immediately. It appears they’ve billed my account for equipment that I returned last week. The nice guy I spoke with will check with my local office and get back to me. The fiber optic audio cable came tonight so I hooked up surround system up with DTS 5.1 sound. It’s sweet.

Friday, Sep. 12: I miss my train and have to hold my status meeting with Mr. VP over the phone, on the train, with no headset, with freaking train whistles blowing in the background. I get into the city, buy a large latte and wait for the fire alarm to stop going off and enter the building, respond to a few emails and write this post. When I get home, I get a call from the Comcast guy telling me they are going to credit my account $500 for the returned equipment.

Note: It's now 9/19, a week later, and my account still has not been credited.

In conclusion, moving sucks. When you tell someone “we’re moving next Thursday”, it actually means “we are moving all our stuff to our new place on Thursday, but the moving process will not end for at least 3-4 weeks.” Doesn't it always seem like when it rains, it pours? Well, I was due for a streak like this I guess. This weekend, I’m doing absolutely nothing. And thank God that we don’t have to move again for another 2 years, at least.

Celebrities

It’s been quite a while since my last post and I keep getting yelled at by my girlfriend for not updating this, so here goes:

So now that the Olympics are over and done with and everyone is recovering from their insomnia caused by staying up til 2 am every night to watch gymnastics or swimming or beach volleyball or whatever other crap they put on that late, I thought I would write a post on something ridiculous that I saw. Actually, there are two ridiculous things that I saw, but let me first preface this post with a little backstory. We all watched Michael Phelps break the world record for most gold medals in one Olympic games and also watched as he broke the all-time record for most gold medals in a career. It was a great story full of hope and inspiration and hard work and dedication. We all watched as the USA relay team beat the cocky French team and how he beat Cavic by .01 second to keep his dream alive. Even if you’re not American, you can appreciate the magnitude of achievement that Phelps accomplished in the last couple of weeks. Unless, apparently, your name is Chad Johnson or Jennifer Lopez.

Man, I hate celebrities. Talk about the most stuck-up, arrogant, ignorant pricks on the planet. Let’s start with Chad Johnson. On ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” on August 13, Chad Johnson went off on a tirade about how Phelps really isn’t as good as everyone thinks he is, and that the real reason he is winning all those gold medals is because he has no competition (maybe Chad doesn’t know that the Olympics include all the best athletes from every country IN THE WORLD). He went on to say that he knows “several people” in the Miami area that could beat him in a swim race, including himself. He claims that his pre-teen years as a swimmer prepared him to take on Phelps in the pool, saying that he was “the three-time Charles Hadley Pool champ”, like anyone even knows what the hell that is. Hey Chad, Michael Phelps has won 14 gold medals, and you won some pool championship that no one has ever heard of. Here’s a question for you: if you were such a great swimmer, why didn’t you ever compete in the Olympics, or even the junior games? Congratulations Chad, you just made yourself look like an ass again. I guess you don’t remember when you challenged a horse to a foot race, huh? You got a headstart and still lost. You’re a loser, stick to what you do best, sitting out games due to injury and whining from the sidelines. Oh and FYI, Michael Phelps accepted Chad Johnson’s challenge. Interesting, how we haven’t heard back from Chad yet and it’s been a week since Phelps responded.

And now, for the next dumb celebrity: Jennifer Lopez. This bitch thinks she’s so high and mighty that she should be getting all the attention instead of Michael Phelps. Why, you ask? Because she is training for a triathlon. Unbelievable. Let me get one thing straight here: I think it’s great that she’s doing this. And I think it’s pretty impressive that she is doing it just six months after having a baby. But give me a break. The Olympics happen once every four years, and you just so happened to pick the wrong time to have a baby and train for a triathlon. Get over yourself. Get off your high-fucking horse and take a backseat to something more miraculous than you losing back the weight you gained from having a baby. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that she will be competing in the “Classic” triathlon and not the “Olympic” triathlon. Let’s compare: the classic race is a half-mile swim, an 18-mile out-and-back bike race, and a 4-mile out-and-back run. The Olympic race is a 1.5K Pacific Ocean swim, a 40K out-and-back bike race, and a 10K out-and-back run along the sands of Zuma Beach. Come on, J. Lo; if you want to make headlines, at least do the Olympic course (funny how she compares herself to an Olympian, and then doesn’t even compete with the other Olympians in her own event). This story is arguably worse than the Chad Johnson one because when she said this in her interview on Good Morning America, she didn’t even know Phelps’s name. She just called him “the swimmer”. Michael Phelps has become an icon for the United States of America and we have celebrities that don’t even know his name. At least Ocho Cinco knew that much. The greatest thing the American media can do is to not give these idiots the time of day and to not report on this crap. But unfortunately, this is what sells in this country.

I will be back with another update soon, hopefully in a week from now, when I can write about the horrible experience of moving.

'The Dark Knight' Review

So, this isn't something I'll probably do often, or something I've even really done before, but I feel I should. I am going to write my own little review of 'The Dark Knight', that little flick that has now grossed over $300 million in just 10 days since its release. So here goes, I'll try to make it as spoiler-free as possible (not like anyone reads this anyway).

It's often hard to judge how a superhero/comic book movie will be. As we all saw, many times a film is over-hyped and does not live up to expectations. For instance, Spider-man 3 had enjoyed the biggest opening night and weekend ever in the US (before The Dark Knight, that is) and did anyone actually think that was a great movie? I sure did not. How about X-Men: The Last Stand? All hype. So when I started seeing trailers for The Dark Knight, I really hoped it would not succumb to the same fate. Thankfully, it did not.

Let me just say first of all that this was the best superhero/comic book adaptation I have ever seen on the big screen. Many times directors make the mistake of making these movies too hokey or deviating from the core of the story (see all other Batman movies except Batman Begins). Where all these other movies failed, The Dark Knight succeeds. The movie was long, at two and a half hours, but it kept me interested the entire time. Christopher Nolan is truly a genius at his craft. Just when you think the movie is coming to a close when Batman meets the Joker face-to-face for the first time, you realize there is another 30 minutes left. This, at first, concerned me. But Nolan pulled it off and the rest of the movie did not feel anti-climactic at all.

Now, on to the critiques. I recently saw this movie for the second time and it was just as good the second time around. The pacing is nearly perfect, with not many lulls in the action. There is a great balance of action sequences and informative scenes, with just enough story elements to make the movie interesting but not overdo it. Christan Bale, as in every movie I have seen him in, knocks this one out of the park. His portrayal of Batman is perfect and nobody could do it better. My girlfriend said this about his performance after our second viewing: he never, in any scene during the movie, looks like he enjoys being Batman. That pretty much sums it up. He is the Dark Knight, the hero that Gotham needs. Bruce Wayne has no choice in the matter, he does what he must. And Bale pulls it off perfectly.

But let's get to what everyone is talking about: Heath Ledger. Yes, Heath Ledger was excellent in this movie, his defining role perhaps. The first time I watched this film, I was in awe of his performance. Watching it a second time was downright chilling. And, in a way, sad. Knowing all we know now, you can truly see how this role drove him to the edge. He became the Joker. When he got into costume, he was no longer Heath Ledger, he was the Joker. He was so indistinguishable in voice and appearance that you would not know it was him if you didn't see the credits. But he was spectacular, from his opening scene "disappearing pencil" trick, to the "candy striper" scene, to the very end when he tells Wayne of his "ace in the hole." There was not one scene in which he disappointed, which is amazing because none of his scenes were cut from the final version shown in theaters.

So, to recap, this was an outstanding movie that succeeds not only as a great superhero flick, but also as a great crime drama. But don't go if you're faint of heart. This movie is twisted to the core (I saw people leave the theater within the first 5 minutes) and it will make your heart wrench. It captures your emotions and gives you chills. It's the best movie I've seen in quite some time, and if it doesn't win multiple Oscars, shame on the Academy.

Rating: 9/10

Cell Phone Companies

So I’m writing this blog entry because I need to let off some steam and my girlfriend doesn’t want me to do it while I’m standing at the customer service desk at the Verizon store. So, here goes.

Add to my ever-increasing shit list: cell phone companies. What the hell are these guys thinking? Back in September, I switched from ATT/Cingular/whatever they’re calling themselves these days to Verizon. Because, you know, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. For months, all I heard from friends and co-workers was how much they liked Verizon and how reliable it was. Now I’m starting to think they were all just screwing with me. I’ll admit, my first 6 months or so went without incident. They lost my mail-in rebate on the shitty LG Chocolate phone that I bought, but when I called to complain I received it in two days. I had great service for the most part, and I had a really cheap mobile web plan ($5/month) that gave me 5 MB of data per month, more than I needed. Soon, I too became one of those people ranting and raving about Verizon and how much better it was than ATT.

But before I go any further, let’s flash back for a minute. I bought my first cell phone in 2002 and it was when ATT was still ATT and didn’t need Cingular to save their asses. Well, let’s just say that I had a really crappy phone and generally really crappy service too. I was, of course, locked into a 2-year contract and I hated it. Then something amazing happened. ATT Wireless merged with Cingular. Yay! Rollover minutes for everyone! So I re-upped with Cingular of course. But, rollover minutes are great if you actually use them, but worthless otherwise. I don’t spend my entire life talking on my cell phone so I had about 900 untouched rollover minutes and the same crappy service when I finally left Cingular for greener pastures last September. Cingular customer service was pushy, their service was spotty, and I got pissed every time I saw one of those “fewest dropped calls” ads because I experienced a dropped call at least once per day. Flash forward to today.

So here I am, telling everyone how great Verizon is and telling my girlfriend we should switch to a family plan so she can get off of her family’s plan and we can both save some money. Bad idea. Let me recap what happened:

She wanted a BlackBerry so we went in and told the guy we wanted to start a new shared plan and switch me over. Everything was great while we were in the Verizon store. The guy couldn’t have been any nicer. We got a sweet rebate on her BlackBerry with her teacher’s discount and we are getting 18% off our total bill and 20% off the BlackBerry service with the same discount. We got the unlimited data plan, which gave us unlimited data (duh) every month. He had to switch the account into my girlfriend’s name because of the teacher discount. No problem, he made me an account admin. We even got text messaging plans for each phone for cheap ($5/phone). Even better, I was still up for an upgrade under their “New Every Two” deal next April. Now let’s take a look at all the things they screwed up and/or failed to tell us.

The customer service rep told me that we, that’s plural for I or he or she, got unlimited data. Not so. Really we only got unlimited data for her phone, but not mine. No, I have to pay $1.99/MB for my data. I called customer service the next day and asked them to just put the mobile web thing that I had before back on the plan. They don’t offer it anymore. But they have an unlimited data option for my phone for an additional $15. No thanks.

Ok, that’s a slight annoyance but I can deal. I don’t use that much data. So the next day, I logged into the MyVerizon section of their website to check my remaining balance and update my auto-pay to the new account, since I pay the bills every month. I log in only to find that their website has gone retarded and doesn’t know how to handle an account that’s been canceled or changed. I can’t get the remaining balance and my auto-pay is, to put it nicely, fucked. So I called customer service when I got home and they informed me that being an account admin only applies to in-store and by-phone customer service, but not on the website. Super, we have to share an online account. What’s more, when we got home from the Verizon store, we found out that the guy had added a $10 text messaging plan to my phone, instead of the $5 one we asked for. Another customer service call.

So I am finally able to access my old account online after receiving two different emails from Verizon telling me that I have a balance due and that it’s scheduled for auto-pay. That’s a neat trick, because I turned off auto-pay using my American Express account. So I log in and I’m told that I owe $33.90 on my account. I enter my credit card details and wham! I get an error: “No MTN available. (No MTN available)”. Oh ok, apparently there is no MTN available. This is going to require another trip to the Verizon store. Meanwhile, a guy from work is telling me that with the family plan, you can only upgrade the main line through their “New Every Two” deal and tells me that I’m more or less going to get screwed on my upgrade. This just keeps getting better.

So we trek back to our local Verizon store to sort out this mess. I tell the guy about my billing problem and he takes me back into a special little room with a magical kiosk that tells me that, wait for it… I don’t actually owe any money and I’m due for a refund. Finally, some good freakin’ news. However, he tells me that they will send it by check to an address that I haven’t lived in for almost 4 years now, an address that I never actually gave them. Oh and he can’t change it, I have to call the customer service number. Thanks a lot, jackass.

Then I ask him about the upgrade thing and he explains to me that it doesn’t make any sense to give the secondary lines a cell phone rebate because they (Verizon) are only getting $10/month extra for the extra lines. But he informs me that I’m still due for a $50 credit at the end of April in 2009. So, bad news with a silver lining: I get an upgrade in April that carried over from my previous plan, but after that I have to fend for myself and pony up $400+ for a new phone at the listed retail price if I want a new one. Sweet. I know for a fact that ATT/Cingular offers upgrades every two years for the whole family because my family just got all new cell phones a few months ago. Screw you Verizon.

After thinking about this for a while, I don’t blame the petty customer service rep at the Verizon store. I put the blame squarely on the idiots who come up with these plans. They make everything too damn complicated and they do it for this exact reason. Customers go in expecting the world and the reps that help them give them just that, probably because they don’t fully understand all this crap themselves. Then weeks, or possibly even months, later the customer realizes it and then it’s too late because the contract is already written in stone and signed in blood.

So this is my story about Verizon. I know it’s a long one, but I think it’s worth posting here to try and save other people the frustration that I went through. Please beware when signing up for their service, especially their “unlimited data” and family plans. I think it’s safe to say that in June of 2009, I will be re-evaluating my cell phone options and possibly switching back to another carrier (grass is always greener).

EDIT: So I found out some additional information, and that is that both of us will still get the discounted 2-yr re-up price for a new celly when we are up for renewal but only one of us will get the additional $50 credit that Verizon gives for their New Every Two plan. Sheesh, can they make this stuff any more confusing?