Mishmash Musings

I just read an interview with Neil Diamond today in which he finally revealed who was the inspiration for his No.1 single “Sweet Caroline”. It was none other than Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy and former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

Apparently, Diamond had once saw a picture of Caroline (as a child) in a news magazine, and was so struck by the image that it stuck with him until years later when he penned the now-famous lyrics to his hit song. The song was released on June 28, 1969 and has pretty much been popular ever since then.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I watch a lot of television. Whether it’s network series, sports events, or movies on my DVD player, I consume at least 3-4 hours of programming per day. The funny thing is, even though I have a very nice, full featured Sharp Aquos LCD flat-panel TV, I often end up watching stuff on my computer monitor, thanks to my TV tuner card and DVD drive.

Why would I do that?

Simple. My desk chair is far more comfortable than the cheap couch I have in the living room, so I prefer sitting here in my office. Maybe if I had some nice home theater furniture, it would be a different story, but as things are now, I’ll likely continue doing things this way for the time being.

Does anyone else prefer watching TV on their computer, or is it just me?

I usually don’t go out of my way to try new products at the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping to begin with, so I just try to cruise in and out as quickly as possible, grabbing all my regular weekly items without stopping to check out the new stuff. But I’d been seeing Diet Coke Plus for a while, and finally decided to buy a bottle the last time I was at the store. I shouldn’t have bothered!

Diet Coke Plus is marketed as Diet Coke plus some vitamins and minerals. After looking at the label, I saw that there was just a smattering of B6 and B12 added — not really worth going out of my way for.

I didn’t like the taste of Diet Coke Plus at all. It’s supposed to taste exactly the same as regular Diet Coke, but as an avid DC drinker, I knew right away that there was a huge difference. DCP tastes flat and gross, not at all refreshing like regular Diet Coke.

So let’s just say I won’t be buying this nastiness again anytime soon!

Coke Zero, Diet Coke Plus… what gives? Just stick to the stuff that works!!!

We usually don’t put up our Christmas decorations until December, but I think this year we might try to get it done over Thanksgiving weekend. We’re not traveling anywhere and we’re going to hit a few stores on Black Friday just to see what’s out there, so that will leave Saturday and Sunday free.

Another reason we want to get our decorations up earlier this year is that we’re actually thinking about doing up the exterior as well. We’ve never done that before, which means I’ll probably probably have to read up on some christmas decorating tips so we can see what kind of effort that project will involve.

Who knows, maybe we’ll just pay someone to string up the lights for us!

This is the type of story that, as a parent, makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. These events apparently happened in 2006, but is only gaining national attention now because of a story published by a St. Louis newspaper.

Anyway, a 13-year-old Dardenne Prairie, MO girl named Megan Meier allegedly committed suicide because of the way a person she met on MySpace treated her. The story is a bit convoluted, so I’m going to try to sum up here as best I can.

Megan became friends with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans who contacted her on MySpace. Josh was originally from Florida, had just moved to a nearby town, and was being homeschooled. Furthermore, his profile picture was cute, which was just another enticement for the overweight, unpopular Megan to add him as a friend.

The two began chatting on MySpace, and Megan viewed Josh as a true friend. Her parents report that she started making positive changes in her life because of her new friendship.

But then everything took a turn for the worse. Josh started sending Megan mean messages, saying that she treated her friends poorly, calling her “fat” and a “slut.” Then one day, he said that she was a “shitty” person and that the world would be better off without her.

Megan hanged herself in her closet shortly after that.

Later on, Megan’s parents learned that Josh Evans never even existed. It was a fake profile created by the parents of one of Megan’s former real-life girlfriends so those parents could find out what Megan was saying about their daughter online.

Can you believe this crap? It would be bad enough if Josh was actually a 16-year-old boy that bullied Megan into suicide, but for it to be the work of adults who should supposedly know better? Unbelievable.

What’s worse is that no charges will be filed against the idiotic adults involved in this case because they haven’t broken any clear-cut laws.

This whole story makes me so angry and sick that I can barely even type out what I feel here. I can’t believe that adults would stoop to this level and relentlessly bully a girl that hadn’t even done anything to them. Let’s face it, Megan was an easy target for bullies, what with being overweight and all. Kids are so damn insensitive that that’s enough to get them ostracized for their entire school careers. Megan certainly didn’t need the adults to pile on here.

The newspaper articles didn’t publish the names of the bullying adults in this case, and that was probably a good move. I can only imagine the kind of retribution that people would want to mete out to those assholes.

I’ve been using the same credit card for the past seven years or so. It’s just a standard card with a medium-range credit limit that doesn’t have any of the bells and whistles that most of the newer credit cards come with. I never really gave much thought to the type of credit card I used (I figured just having one was good enough), but I’m getting sick of hearing my friends talk about all the cash back and other bonuses they receive through their cards. So now I’m considering making a switch.

I spent some time searching the Internet for the Best Reward Credit Cards, and found a website called CreditCardSearchEngine.com. This site lists a bunch of different credit cards based on a number of criteria, and then puts the results in a table format for easy comparison. So if you’re looking for rewards programs, airline mileage cards, gas cards, business credit cards, or student credit cards, you can find the leading offers right there on the site.

I hope to get a new cash back card in time to use it for holiday shopping, so I guess I better go apply for a few right now!

Baseball superagent Scott Boras has long been a polarizing figure in the sports world. He’s most widely known for brokering huge multimillilon dollar contracts for his clients, deals that effectively change the game as a whole. For example, he’s credited with negotiating Alex Rodriguez’s record-setting 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers seven years ago.

But recently, it seems that Boras has been on the outs with a couple of major clients. By now everyone knows that A-Rod went around Boras to negotiate with the Yankees on his own (or with some help from a friend at Goldman Sachs).

In addition, I just read that pitcher Kenny Rogers of the Detroit Tigers fired Boras over disagreement about how to proceed with his next contract. Apparently, Rogers wants to stay with the Tigers, while Boras was pressuring him to test the market as a free agent.

I hope the actions of these two players start a trend among the rest of Boras’ clients. I think the people who say agents like Boras ruin the game with his outrageous contracts ($70 million for J.D. Drew; $50 million for an unproven Daisuke Matsuzaka) and make it impossible for teams in smaller markets to get quality free agents.

It’ll be interesting to see who else (if anyone) leaves Boras’ agency this offseason.

Things have been so stressful for me lately that I just need some time to myself to decompress. What with PageRank updates affecting my online income potential and the holidays being right around the corner, I feel like I’m really under the gun right now. I want to earn as much money as possible in the next few weeks so I can fatten up my checking account for Christmas shopping.

But thanks to this whole PR fiasco, it looks as though I’m going to have to do twice the work for half as much pay, which is why I’ve been on edge all week. Hopefully I can keep plugging along until Christmas without getting burned out!