Let Dave Tell It

From the Associated Press --

Oprah, Dave. Dave, Oprah. The cold war between television titans Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman has thawed to the point where Winfrey has accepted Letterman's invitation to appear on the "Late Show" on Dec. 1.

Letterman made the announcement during a taping of his show on Monday. Winfrey's appearance will coincide with opening night of the Broadway musical "The Color Purple," which she is producing.

"What a big night that is going to be not only for us, not only for Oprah, but for Broadway," Letterman said. "You have the big 'Color Purple' Broadway opening, and then right across the street here in this theater, you have Oprah appearing here. I mean, that's what Broadway is all about it's a street of dreams."


Now, Dave pared the city down to an individual street, but the message is all the same.

Philosophy?

Someone literally just asked me: Is "philosophy" useful or pointless?

I responded, "philosophy" (broadly) is useful to the extent that it tells you that most everything is pointless.

Now, I'm sitting here repeatedly processing whether I actually believe that, though I think I do...

One Song Playlist

After circumventing the Big City of Dreams with The Generalist, here is the song of the moment (which always reminds me of the Badlands in GTA: San Andreas)...you need to peep:

Willie Nelson - Crazy

P.S. Ya Life

I Just Know What I Know - Part III

I never really used text messages until Christmas 2004 when I had so many folks who I wanted to get at that I went for quantity vs. quality. Since then, as it has become an extension of my conversation staple, AIM, folks have bestowed the names of Fingaro and Rollie Fingers on me. On two recent occasions, in the midst of sending out about 3 messages in 45 seconds, I had two of my closest boys overreact (as typical) and comment something to the extent of "Man, the way you type messages so swiftly and efficiently." What I discovered in both cases is that neither of my homeboys knew of, or how to use, the T9Word function. That suprised me - a lot.

What is T9Word? It allows you to enter text using a predictive text entering system that reduces the amount of keys that need to be pressed while entering a word. For instance, if you pressed 5 - 4 - 3 - 3, by default you would get "Life" - if you pressed next (0 - zero) then it would automatically show "Lied."

If you want to step your text message game up (like my homeboys needed to do), then you might want to quickly (and easily) learn this little tool. I figured most everyone knew and used it, but I want make sure all of the millions of readers of this blog are well informed and are able to have the best text message game possible. Fingaro does...as he can send a message from inside his pocket given his command of the keys. If I've found treasure for just one reader, this post has been a success.

While I'm talking about it...Why is 3 - 6 - 6 - 8 's default word "foot"? and then "font"? and THEN "dont"? Dont is obviously going to be used more often (especially for my pessimistic self) than the others, I shouldn't have to press next twice. And don't tell me about punctuation, no one needs punctuation in a text message.

Rollie Fingers aka Fingaro

Red Meat

So after I threw up for like 10 minutes last night, I had an ephipany. Maybe I shouldn't eat red meat... Now, I know that this may seem to be a pretty drastic step, but my previous experience was so wretched, and my current condition so deplorable, that I feel like drastic action needs to be taken. Now, the events that lead to the violent upheaval of my morning meal don't need to be descibed in detail, and the most important part is the takeaway. So farewell beef and broccoli. So long double quarter pounder with cheese (which i'm really sad about). Hello other things, which hopefully I can keep in my system...

I Just Know What I Know - Part II

I was originally going to use this space to recommend to folks wanting to get more return on some of their SKrills (money) to consider taking out an inflation protected, government guaranteed I Bond. When I wrote it out though, I thought I might alienate some folks with all of the interest/term mumble jumble, so I'll just say if you are interested in returning over 6.5% (4-5% in the short term) then check out this bankrate article (via Bob Brinker).

Now as for "financial advice" to all my peoples who want something simple and easy to do, I would very much consider going with an online bank that pays a higher rate of interest. The two preeminent banks to consider are ING Direct and Emigrant Direct, paying 3.5% and 4.0%, respectively. I currently roll with ING Direct because they give $10 to me and $25 to you for opening an account of $250 or more (there used to be no minimum for the referral bonus which was ultimate love). If I got a referral a month, I calculated that referral making up for the discrepancy between the two banks' rates BUT I have been too lazy to check whether Emigrant offers something similar. If they do, I need to be switching banks. Is 0.5% that much? Well, it might not seem like that much when I'm earning $65/month but I think its a good habit to always be with the bank that will return the most money such that when a tenth of a point matters, I'll be on the ball.

I know a bunch of my peers just simply put their money in one of the big national chain banks like a Citibank or Bank of America but they aren't going to give you the most interest. Their name sells and because they have actual physical branches with more employees, they have more expenses to cover. Because its all online, ING and Emigrant save on overhead costs (not to mention being some of the biggest companies in the world) and they also need to provide you something to make you not invest with those bigger names - basically, more money.

The savings account links to your checking account, money transfers within 2 days, and there are no minimums or fees, period. So if you are interested, let me know, as of course, I can give you a referral...

Amazing Race

Given the two articles that I'm posting for your reading pleasure, I'll admit I'm proud of this post's title - well not that proud, it fits only if you make it fit.

For this first one, I don't have an opinion mostly because the title seems more dramatic than the content, I thought it might be just interesting enough to merit forwarding to the millions of people who read this site:

Why Race Isn't As 'Black' And 'White' As We Think

But really, I just needed to fill up a little space so that I could make available Scoop Jackson's best written article since he joined ESPN. It's not that I don't universally like Scoop's articles, I just think he tries a little too hard to be poetic sometimes. But on this day, he got into your boy Phil Jackson and was - on the whole - on point. FYI, this is less about basketball and much much more about Jackson's comments about Hip-Hop "prison garb and thuggery."

Zen-aphobic

I Just Know What I Know - Part I

So yea, another hiatus - due to lazyness (story of my recent life) more than writer's block as I actually have had a number of things that I've wanted to post. However, the work grind, computer repulsiveness (eye thing), weekend travel, Madden '06 (still), weekday socializing, and the fact that I have these things all written out in my head on my commute home but lose it when I walk into my apartment have contributed to another prolonged break.

My theme for this week, which inherently suggests that I'm publicly proclaiming that I will have a number of posts in the immediate future which has proven to be my most motivating writing tool, is "advice." I'm no Ann Landers, nor Hov for that matter, but I just "know what I know."

My first part of advice stems from the very nature of this site's existence - Blogging. I had meant to post a comment to the co-con's post "...you saved me" but then too much time had elapsed and I figured I would make the comment its own entry.

My co-con graciously gave me some credit for re-energizing him to get back in the postage game, which, if I have not said explicitly, could be stated in the opposite direction. I bring that up because a few of my friends, including one of my best who at one point clowned this blog as "silly" (just depends on what day you read it I think), said something to the effect "maybe I'll get a blog." I say "of course, why not?" At the least it could be a personal brain release regardless of whether you have loyal readers or not - blogging forces me to think about something regardless of how unimportant that thing is. But, I do think it would be much easier to sustain if you share the space with someone else. The primary thing that keeps me coming back is to see if the co-con has posted something new and then I become motivated when I see a run of 3 or 4 in a row. Your co-con(s) can cover for you during long posting lapses and more importantly keep you interested in your own site. Now you might not find as a perfect a fit as we have in being self-annoited generalists but there may be a friend of yours with whom you could share a theme even if that theme is not sharing anything at all (really, what wouldn't work? it's just a blog). Then again, if you are more disciplined than The Generalist and I, then you're fine, sign up and run with it.

Back to Basics AKA 10 Things Every Single Man Must Own: 7

I thought about writing about the newest episode of the Boondocks (Adult Swim really has the best music intros ever, and if you don't watch Inuyasha or Naruto you should check it out). But then I realized I forgot about the 10 Things Every Single Man Should Own List. So because my co-contributor has taken a hiatus, I figured I'd pull double duty. Here we go:

7. $150+ jeans
Why cough up that much dough when you can find a seemingly-fine pair for much less? Because designer denim does make a difference—and you can wear them everywhere from a dive bar to a five-star restaurant, if paired with the right shirt and suit jacket. Check out stores that carry Diesel, Evisu, Paper Denim & Cloth, or Seven. Since every pair of jeans fits differently, you will need to try a few on: Err on the side of too tight as opposed to too baggy, as jeans do stretch a bit as they are broken in. Choose a pair that isn't too trendy (warning signs include more than five pockets, garish stitching, and too much "distress," like rips or bleaching) unless you're willing to buy into next season's style as well.

The Generalist - Now, I'm definitely not the most sophisticated brother out there, and I like jeans as much as the next man, but $150 dollars? Damn. I'm not saying never (nor have I been to a five-star restuarant, that I know of), but this seems like a little much. On a scale of 1-10, I'm gonna have to give spending $150 for some jeans a 0. Get it outta here. I feel like my guy young hov, "This ain't diesel, nigga these is evisu". Word Hov? Word?

Reading List

From Sara Nelson's So Many Books, So Little Time:

1. Choosing a book is not all different from choosing a house. There are really only three rules: location, location, and location.
2. In reading, as in life, even if you know what you're doing, you really kind of don't. If you want to make God laugh, show him your reading list.