When We Were Kids

My big sister and I.

Many moons ago.

Television with rabbit ears in the background.

That’s when we all we had were 4 stations ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS.

We called it the “Zombie Box” because you could just stay glued to it for hours and tune the world out mesmerized at the moving pictures.

Everyone knew what was on every station, every hour of the day and still there was a TV Guide published weekly to check.

When the TV went fuzzy, you had to give it a clop on the side and magically the picture cleared up for a few minutes if you were lucky.

Those were the days. 😉

(Thank you to my sister, Roz, for refreshing a copy of this to me)

Terrible TV

So we bought a new big screen television. 

That’s exciting, right?

We brought it home from Costco. 

And we gave our prior model away to a family member. 

It was a shlep to move that $2,000 Panasonic behemoth from 2007!

By the time we got back home and connected our new LG TV, oy vey what a disappointment. 

It had this brilliant display in “test mode” that when hooked up to the cable box looked dark and worse than lackluster. 

Even when fidgeting with the settings to offset the dark screen, the gorgeous test display mode still came out looking like crap in actual tv mode. 

But the worst part was that there was a black line down the middle right of the screen. 

When we looked it up on the Internet, it was a known error. 

The instructions said to call LG and make a service appointment. 

WTF!  To heck with this sh*tty TV–it’s supposed to be brand new and actually work–so it’s going back to Costco where this crappy product came from. 

I dragged this widescreen TV back to the store and put it on one of their flat wide carts. 

The problem was that the wheels on one side of the cart were busted, and it kept turning into the fence, store shelves, and wall.

When the lady behind the returns desk called me for my turn, I tried to push the cart and it wouldn’t move. 

Not being able to budge this thing,  I gave it shove forward and the TV went flying from upright to horizontal–SMASH!

The lady behind the returns counter goes to me sarcastically:

“So what was wrong with it BEFORE you just knocked it over???”

Well to make a long story short, I returned the lousy LG television and got a refund. 

And instead ordered a new Samsung curved TV from Amazon–hope this one works!

As for the horrible quality control of today’s electronics–it’s a shame that they can’t seem to make them without problems–they’ve only been making televisions for like 100 years or so. 

In fact, we recently bought a Dell laptop and within like 5-6 weeks, the motherboard died.  

As you can see, the vendors are wringing profits from the products they are making at the customer’s expense. 

There is no quality control to speak of–instead be ready to return the junk electronics to the garbage vendors that make them. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Happy Just The Way We Are

Great speaker today at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Mike Reiss, producer and writer for the hugely successful Simpson show–the longest-running series on primetime TV with 30 seasons and over 600 episodes!

The topic was “The Science Behind The Simpsons.”

Whether the guest was Stephen Hawkings or Leonard Nimoy–there was no shortage of scientists and science in this animated, comedy show that taught us much about life.  

The video clip above was a short capture of the Simpsons singing “We are happy just the way we are.”

Incremental change and continuous improvement is so important to our growth and maturation in life.

Yet, there is also a lot to be said for being happy with what you have and who you are. 

There is so much to be grateful for and plenty to enjoy at the moment. 

Many people are on the proverbial roller coaster to nowhere.  

It’s nice to get off the roller coaster and finally be somewhere that makes you happy and fulfilled. 

Mary Poppins get hit by the airplane at the end of the skit, and you know what, she’s not even missed. 😉

(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)

Who’s Gonna Pay For That Wall

So presidential candidate, Donald Trump wants to build a wall on the southern U.S. border with Mexico to control immigration for homeland security and the economy. 

But more than that, he thinks Mexico should pay for it.

Today, on CNN was a response from Mexico’s ex president, who said, we’re “not gonna pay for that f****** wall!”

I was walking around laughing to myself for about 10 minutes–the zany and (un)predictable action-reaction in politics and diplomacy. 

You can’t make this stuff up. 

Just an aside, but wouldn’t you say Ex-President [of] Mexico instead of the Ex-Mexico President –Oops, who was working the captions at CNN today. 

What will be surreal and hilarious after this is if the “f****** wall” would really happen, and if Mexico would seriously end up paying for it. 😉

(Note: This is not an endorsement for any candidate or party.)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The Kardashian Ball-Busters

So despite the immense beauty, fame, and fortune associated with the Kardashian women…if you are a man, you may want to stay far far far away. 

It seems like in the end, nothing good ever turns out for the Kardashian men–who BTW are often ballplayers and even Olympic athletes. 

Kris’s husbands:

– Robert Kardashian (1st husband) – divorced in 1991 after Kris’s affair and lavish lifestyle spending, remained close friends, and died of esophageal cancer in 2003.

– Bruce Jenner (2nd husband) – divorced in 2014, and revealed “excruciatingly painful” transgender crisis and transformation to Caitlyn Jenner. 

Kim’s husbands: 

– Damon Thomas (1st husband) – Messy divorce in 2004.

– Chris Humphries (2nd husband) – Filed for divorce after 1 year, 7 months and divorce completed in 2013.

– Kanye West (3rd husband) – Marriage issues and divorce rumors abound from frustration over Kim’s weight gain to the two sleeping apart. 

Chloe’s husband:

Lamar Odom (1st husband) – Signed divorce paper in 2015, and now in coma after drug overdose in brothel. 

Kourtney’s partner: 

– Scott Disick (Ex partner) – Broke up in 2015 and continues struggling with drugs and alcohol addiction.

What about brother, Rob Kardashian?

– He too is struggling with a weight problem and depression, and is estranged from his family. 

Anyway, it all starts with Kris Jenner, the controlling family matriarch who has been said to be “testy, demanding, manipulative,” and generally narcissistic.  

And how about the Kardashian daughters–who are they as people?–as they air their freewheeling “have it all” lifestyles on the show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians?

Even though they call it a reality show, maybe the real reality–like for most of humankind–is not so “all that” and glamorous after all? 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

I Can Catch You

I gave chase to the ducks. 

In the vein of British Comedian, Alfred Hawthorne, stage name Benny Hill. 

Made the kids laugh. 

Only 3.5 weeks post-op and I am waddling more than the ducks. 

My wife says, “You belong on TV!”

She calls me a natural entertainer. 

How did an introvert like me get like that? 😉

(Source Video: Dannielle Blumenthal)

Andy @ Apple Picking

Practicing my TV skills here…

And enjoying a good apple.

Just picked it at the farm. 

Nothing like being one with G-d, family, and nature. 

Nice time–thank you! 😉

(Source Video: Dannielle Blumenthal)

Put A Screwdriver In It

Took this photo of this character from my desk. 

A zombie from the walking dead…taken care of with a screwdriver through the eye socket. 

Hey, whatever works. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Total CIO Fighting Off The Zombies

I can’t wait for The Walking Dead, Season 4.

It all starts tomorrow night–9 pm on AMC.

Got my bow, ax, shotgun, and friends from the show.

Kill those Zombies! 😉

Fun, The Good ‘ol Fashion Way

This was a funny picture today on the street in downtown D.C.

This guy was getting a cheap ride down the thoroughfare in a bin.

She was pushing and he had his arm raised as the winner of the big race.

It reminded me of when we were kids and used to ride go-karts down the hill–and only after we picked up some speed did we realize that the breaks didn’t work that good.

Oh well, a little flip and some chuckles and no worse for the wear.

Those were the days, young and carefree–nothing to worry about except whose house we were going over to, next, to wreck some havoc.

I remember, one day we were having a huge wet paper towel fight and one kid ran into the garage to escape the barrage, I gave chase and unwittingly pushed against the glass in the door to follow and oops my hand went right through.

Not a pretty sight, but I thank G-d lived to tell my kids about it, and now they got one up on me when they do something a little out of bounds and fun–actually they are a lot better than I was at that age.

And it wasn’t that I was a bad kid, I was actually one the good ones–or so I was told–but before we all had computers, the Internet, social media, and smartphones, we had each other.

It wasn’t the technology that drove us, but rather the evolving web of interactions (today my new best friend is…), the challenges we made up (let’s bike up to Tarrytown in 100+ degree heat), the fun we found ourselves in (from the board game Risk to early gaming on the Atari, or just cleaning out a friends garage for a few bucks)–times were simpler, more innocent, and in a way better.

When we went home at night from work or for the weekend, our time was our own–were weren’t glued to email and always on call.

When we attended an event, we didn’t check our Facebook and Twitter, but paid attention to the company we were in.

When we ate dinner together, maybe the one rabbit-ear TV was going in the background with one of the 3 networks stations, but everyone wasn’t being pulled away for gaming, blogging, or some Internet shopping.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my technology as much or maybe more than the next guy, but I also miss just being me in the physical world with my family and gang of friends, and not just so much TheTotalCIO in the office and in cyberspace. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)