Pockets of Sanity

The Cardboard Tube Fighting League

I Know They're Just Kids, But...

...but they still put it online and therefore I must ridicule.

One Versa

I just realized that I got my car exactly one year ago today.  Happy first birthday, you spunky little Versa you!

I'm just under 15,000 miles on it so far, and so far I really have major no complaints.  It runs like a dream and it still feels like a new car, which is weird considering that I've had it a year now.

Maybe this weekend I'll take it out for a nice wash and some detailing.  Cars like that, don't they?

Third Version of Memory Almost Full Hits Stores

A third version of Paul McCartney's latest album Memory Almost Full has been released to stores for the holidays.  Joining the basic CD album and the Limited Edition 2 CD set is the Deluxe CD/DVD Edition.

The CD in this new set contains all the songs from the original release, plus the three bonus tracks from the Limited Edition.  The DVD has the music videos for Dance Tonight and Ever Present Past, plus live performances of Drive My Car, House of Wax, Dance Tonight, Nod Your Head, and Only Mama Knows from the Electric Ballroom in London this past summer.

Gone from the set is the audio commentary track that was included in the Limited Edition set.

Should you pick this up?  If you don't own either of the two previous releases and you enjoy McCartney's work, then yes absolutely.  It's easily Paul's best album in years.  And if you have the standard release, this is a good upgrade.  But you are losing something if you already have the 2 CD Limited Edition set and were hoping to sell that off to replace it with this one.

I wish the audio commentary could have been included, making this the complete Memory Almost Full collection.  I already own the Limited Edition, but the added content here made it a no-brainer for a completist like me.

Ninja Parade

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

What's That Guy Been Up To?

Remember newsman Bruce Hamilton, star of the WJXX ABC25 Blooper Reels?  Have you been wondering what he's been up to lately?  Well he now works for another Jacksonville news station, and recently was spotted in the traveling stage production of The Wedding Singer.

Head on over to Watercooler Films for the video of this amazing performance!

I'm Not a Good Waiter

It's been a couple weeks now since my Xbox 360 bit the dust.  I contacted customer support and have been awaiting the arrival of the "coffin" to send my unit back to them for a replacement ever since.  Once they receive the defective unit, the process can take at least 4-6 weeks.  And I'm wagering that with the holidays it'll take even longer.

So I just went out and bought a new one.

Look, I can't go upwards of two months without my football, racing and Guitar Hero fixes.  Plus there are too many A-list titles out there right now that I have to try.  I have Bioshock, The Darkness, The Simpsons Game, Halo 3, and others just sitting at home begging to be played.  Plus my Xbox keeps blogging about how sad it is, and I can't let that continue.  It is the holiday season, after all.

When my broken unit is returned to me, I'll just sell it or trade it in with a few games that I no longer play.  Since the new system I bought came with two free games, after trading in or selling my old one it'll be like I spent only $20 or $30 to have a "temporary" 360 for a couple months.  Sounds like a deal to me.

Italian Spiderman

So Now Turkey Doesn't Make You Sleepy?

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Feel sleepy after a big Thanksgiving meal? Contrary to popular thinking, it's not the turkey's fault.

While there is an amino acid in turkey that induces sleepiness, experts say it's much more likely the reason you're tired after having Thanksgiving dinner is a combination of simple factors: you ate and drank too much and didn't sleep enough.

So don't blame the turkey.

"The poor turkeys have enough problems on Thanksgiving," said Dr. Carol Ash of Somerset Medical Center's Sleep for Life Center in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

The reason turkey gets blamed for making people sleepy is because it contains tryptophan, an amino acid that produces the brain chemical serotonin, which promotes calm and sleepiness. But as part of a big dinner, the tryptophan has a hard time reaching the brain.

Even if it did, "you'd have to ingest quite a number of turkeys" for it to have an effect, she said.

If the tiredness has anything to do with dinner, Ash said, it would be because of carbohydrates, which studies show are more likely to make people sleepy. And even that would only be a small factor, she said.

There's the travel, working longer days to get things done and lack of sleep, along with the carbs and alcohol, she said.

Overeating also contributes to feeling tired at Thanksgiving, said Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and nutrition professor at Boston University.

"You're just eating a whole heck of a lot of foods and are stuffed," said Salge Blake.

On top of that, she added, you're "often just sitting around afterward, watching football."

This is one of the infuriating reasons why more and more people think Adam & Eve rode dinosaurs and that science doesn't prove anything.  For years we've been told that the reason we get so tired after Thanksgiving turkey is because of the tryptophan.  Now the reason is because Thanksgiving is a big production and we're all tired after the big build up?  That's what we thought before you science people told us that it was the tryptophan!

It's stories like these that make me tune out whenever there are science stories on the news.  For years, chocolate causes cancer, no wait... chocolate is good for your heart, no wait... chocolate melts your brain.

Or wine.  Good lord does the news change on wine each and every day.  Wine's good for your ticker... wine causes impotence... wine cures polio... wine murders babies then uses their stem cells for nefarious reasons.

Seriously science... pick a side on this stuff.  We're confused.  Really we are.

Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am on day two of a northern road trip to visit family folks in North Carolina and eat mucho turkey, or whatever it is they eat up here.  Roadkill, maybe.  Critters, perhaps.  Mmmm, critters.

There will probably be no new blogs until Monday morning, unless there's some wacky breaking news developments in family land that require immediate blogging.

Or if I find a funny video.