Once again China is the leader in setting the rules. Beginning Jan 2004 stations can not air "disgusting" adds during mealtime!

"Pitcher of the Year
He's the biggest thing in goggles since Janet Evans. OK, so Eric Gagne won't come out of this amazing season with any gold medals. But if he doesn't get a Cy Young award as a souvenir, he should appeal to the Supreme Court.

What a year: 55 saves in a row -- and 63 in a row over the last 13 months (so far). Almost as many saves (55) as baserunners (60). Exactly 100 more strikeouts (137) than hits allowed (37). An insane 0.24 ERA since the All-Star break (ONE run in three months). An absurd 0.32 ERA in his save opportunities (TWO runs in 57 innings). "

In my 33 years I have never seen a more dominant performance than Eric Gagne gave this season. Probably never will again. All I can say is, "I was alive when it happened!"

Random Acts of Kindness: Every once in a while I read a story and it reminds me...we DO still live in a civilized country.

I know Alaska is a tough place to live, but they have it set up right. Each resident gets over 1000 dollars this year in a payment from the Gov't just for living there. Voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1976 to establish the fund as a savings account for part of Alaska's new oil revenues. The fund began paying annual dividends to residents in 1982. Alaska abolished its personal income tax in 1980, and there is no statewide sales tax.

For all those women who only need a man around to do the dirty work (take that wherever your mind leads), they've got the right idea in Russia where you can rent a husband by the hour. Nice to see capitalism is alive and well for our comrads in Russia!

Want a chesseburger? How about some Fries? How about both combined? The new Cheeseburger Fries are catching on in the Midwest and will be coming soon to a burger joint near you!

Ever wondered what it would be like to walk in Muhammed Ali's shoes? Or perhaps Dale Earnhardt Jr is your fav! You could even own the Size 22 of Shaq! Just fork over some dough and the rug-cutting can be yours....if the price is right!

Remember that "do not call list" that was supposed to magically solve all of our telemarketing problems? Well you can throw it out the window and, rest assured, The calls will be pouring in!

I can finally start talking about Survivor again! That is the best show ever produced! It's not the "original" reality show (that honor goes to The Real World - at least amongst reality shows as we have come to know them), but is by far still the best. The concept, execution and presentation of this show is just awesome. That said, I was disappointed with last night's opening episode. I liked it, I just didn't’ LOVE it like I have in the past. I thought they really tried to cram way too much into a 90 minute opening show. I know most of America has a short attention span, so you have to be quick-hitting, but I think Survivor has built a strong enough fan base that they could have broke this first part into two episodes. One 90-minute intro of the first two days (bartering, setting up camp, building relationships, no Jury vote)….Then started next week with a typical one hour show and the first challenge/jury.

I'm thinking banning e-mail at work won't catch on here in the U.S., but it is an interestig concept. How many time has someone mis-interpreted the "tone" of your e-mail? How about that person that always seems to be the shy person, but sends out harshly worded e-mails all the time? With this approach, it forces co-workers to actually talk out their isuues. Still not something I'd like to see happen, but the concept is interesting.

It may not have been a spectacular debut, but the return of a football player to Division 1-A college football, three years removed from having his leg amputated, is truely one of the most inspiring stories of 2003. Every time you start to feel sorry for yourself or wonder why certain things happen to you, you should remember some of these inspiring stories that happen every day. This is just one example of why people love sports. There are so many examples like this one that, "keeps the dream alive."

In the, "it's only a matter of time" department, Our Congress has decided to continue the "no tax on internet connections" legislation of a few months ago. While this is a good thing, I know it is only a matter of time before they figure out a way to take our money there as well.

Wow! A $100,000 SUV. Ok, Actually it's only just over 96K...but it sounds cooler to say you bought a 100k SUV. Cant; wait to see the first Porsche SUV out on the road. Oh, and by the way, you better save some money for gas...it only gets 13 MPG.

I knew the job market was tough, but this is nuts. Eight people are actually LIVING at an ad agency and competing (survivor style) for a job. They have to perform ad-agency type tasks and get voted off until the agency widdles it down to one "employee/survivor."

According to this test you can take....I'm gonna live to be 68 years old. Which means I will live about 10 years longer than either one of my grand fathers and 18 years longer than my dad. The only problem is I don;t know if my wife can put up with me for another 36 years!

Last night I watched with a heavy heart as ABC aired a special remembering John Ritter. As a big fan of comedy on TV, I wasn't the biggest John Ritter fan. His sudden death, however, struck a personal chord with me and my family. It also symbolized a move into a new era for me. At 32, I've started to see some of my boyhood idols & memories pass on. John Ritter's death symbolized the start of a time for me in which I will read more and more of these types of stories. I will be able to relate to a time when my father mourned when his heroes passed. Then, I will look at my son...and while still only three years old, he soon will start having heroes of his own. We'll argue about whose heroes were better. He'll pretend to be those heroes. And all the time I'll watch him...and smile.

The people have spoken: Do not TAX our coffee. Seattle-ites love their coffee...and just as I stated below, they realized there are better ways to get the money than more taxes. This was not about "sparing a dime for education" as the supporters of this tax would have you beleive...it was about more taxes...and how we don't want to take it anymore! Learn how to spend the money the Govt allready has and then maybe we'll talk about giving you more!

Well...here is a wasted $53 million our govt is spending. Every time I check the box on election day to vote down ANY tax increase....I just remember things like this. $53 million over the next five years to "market" the new 20 dollar bill....ridiculous.

Remember that birthday boy pitching against Randy Johnson, in a playoff race, for the LA Dodgers on his 20th birthday, just two years out of High School? Well, All he did was pitch 6 innings, strike out 4, give up 4 hits, didn't walk a single batter and only gave up one run in getting the win in his Major League debut! I'll say it again....Happy Birthday!

In the story that won't go away for a long time, Kobe's preliminary hearing may not even happen...they might skip right over it because the prosecuter did not file the paperwork in time. There are some theories about whether this was done intentionally or not. Kobe's defense has issued a subpeona to try to get Katelyn Faber to testify (Kobe Bryant accuser - Katelyn Faber - photo's)), but it sounds like the prosecution will block that from happening. I personally think that is BS. If you are going to file charges, you need to be able to answer the tough questions. What happened to a defendant's rights to face your accuser?

How about this for a birthday present. Your 20-years-old, toiling in AA in the minor leagues of baseball and you get the call. You are going to be the starting pitcher for the big club...the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not only are you going to start, but you are going to start on your birthday. Not only are you going to start on your birthday, but you are starting for a team that is 2 games out of the Wild Card playoff spot. Not only are they two out of the Wild Card, but they are facing Cy Young award winner Randy Johnson......HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Is it just me or do you see problems with this as well? Disney plans to sell (for a MSRP of $6.99) a DVD that will self destruct once opened in 48 hours. Disney (affectionately known by me as "the Evil Empire") is trying to crowd in on the DVD rental business. I can see some significant issues with this, though. What if the package accidentaly opens before you want to view it? Can you return it? If you can, doesn't that defeat the purpose? Buy one of these things, watch it, then return it saying it was defective. Plus, for $6.99 you could almost rent the thing twice from Hollywood Video and you could keep it for 5 days at a pop. Disney is banking on Good old-fashioned American Laziness.

Talk about "profiling." Airlines are actually thinking about "color Coding" their passengers based on threat level! How is this level measured? Purely by race! This is a ridiculous attempt to hide behind "security" to cause people to give up their freedoms.

For those of you Search engine freaks....Tech TV did a spot on some great Google Hacks. I tried a coupe of these, they are pretty cool.