G*d is why you're fat?

Maybe it's all the church socials, but a new study finds that those who attend religious activities are more likely to gain weight than those who don't go to church as often.

Via Time

There cannot be a correlation, can there be?

This is your chance...this is your time

Five hours.

In five hours, Union will play their (our) first NCAA tournament game.

I would be lying completely if I said that I wasn't nervous and that I did not want to be in Bridgeport today.

But...I have things to do.

The game will be streaming live on ESPN 3 and is available on ESPN U.

Let's Go U!

One of the reasons I love the ocean

My father lives in Florida now, and he loves it down there. I love it down there.

I would love the idea of being able to live there if it were not for certain things.

That being said, he sees some amazing things, including the dolphins in this video that he sent me earlier.

Yes, that is him talking...

To say that I was jealous would be...accurate.

Devestating

I am a big fan of The Moth and especially of their weekly podcast.

This past week was a story by comedian Anthony Griffith telling about his first three appearances on Carson while dealing with a family tragedy. When he starts crying, I started crying. This was interesting because I was on a very full bus.

Anyway...

I suggest you download the podcast, give it a listen, and then call a loved one and let them know how you feel.

Because being thrice divorced is embracing family values.

Republicans like to cast themselves as the protectors of "family values." But that mantle properly belongs to President Obama and the Congressional Democrats committed to ending this atrocious law.

Denying same-sex couples and their families the significant savings of filing joint tax returns, Social Security survivor benefits, and about 1,130-plus other spousal benefits and protections granted other married couples is not a family-friendly policy. It is discrimination, plain and simple.

Same-Sex Marriage and Real Family Values - NYTimes.com

New York's Senators for Same Sex Marriage

New York's Senators have recorded messages of support for the Human Rights Campaign and their campaign to legalize same sex marriage in New York State.

From HRC's Press Release:

“The two Senators from New York join the ‘New Yorkers for Marriage Equality Campaign’ at a pivotal moment in the fight for equal rights,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “The Senators’ messages of fairness and equality represent the views of their constituents, the fair-minded people of New York. With an increasing number of lawmakers in New York supporting marriage equality, full equality is on the horizon.”

I wish I could properly express how proud I am to be a New Yorker right now, and more importantly, proud of my Senators. While their positions may have changed (meaning they have become more enlightened over the years) they are still supporting their constituents and the will of the people.

A Siena College Research Poll from January had 57% of New Yorkers in favor of legalizing Same Sex Marriage.



H/TCapital Tonight

You're...Twitter Famous!

Last night, my friend Ashley and I went to the All Over Albany Birthday Party at The Point. While there, we ran into @JonathanRNash and we had a great time talking, people watching, and enjoying good food and beer.

At one point in the evening, a young man and woman came up to Jonathan and asked, "Is your name Jonathan?"

I answered for him in the affirmative.

They then followed up with his middle initial and last name, in unison, and it made me squee a little.

Jonathan is Twitter Famous!

Don't they look delighted to meet him?

It was a great night.

And a special thank you to All Over Albany. They are one of my favorite web sites, and one of the best local blogs. Here is to a great future!

Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards

It's Friday, Friday...



Yeah, this song had existed on my periphery since last week, when there was a definitive backlash against it. It is what it is. It is a fairly conventional pop song sung by a teenager and Auto-Tuned to death.

I paid more attention to it while listening to Slate's Culture Gabfest where they had an interesting conversation about it, backfilling some information for me, like that the song and video were a present from Ms. Black's parents.

Then...The Awl did a close reading of the video, identifying it as a radical text.

How cool is that? Let me tell you...Very.

Three girls march single-file into the house, eager for introductory lessons to chemical abuse, sexual politics, personal branding—the sickly trinity of numbness that will see them through whatever non-lives the data banks ladle out to them.

We return to the computer graphic calendar sequence, the litany of days: Ms. Black’s image flickers across the screen, now doubled, fractured, schizophrenic, threatening Kleboldian frenzy—as we cut to an African-American man in his early thirties.

He wears diamond earrings, a light beard, drives across the familiar blue-screen cityscape. He alone seems untaken by the false images around him. Is it because he can’t forget American brutality? Does ancient bondage keep him from modern numbness? Is he protected from pharma and plasma by fire hoses and cotton fields?

I know see a local "university" kowtowing to various groups and reintroducing some cultural studies classes with this as the centerpiece.

Long live Friday and the people who are living for it. They are our Lennys and need to be protected.

And this is why you always leave a note...

When slaying victim Johnny Altinger was given "weird" instructions on how to find a girl he supposedly met on an Internet dating site, his friends quickly became worried.

Then, when he failed to show up for a planned outing and strange e-mails arrived saying he had gone on a "nice long tropical vacation" to Costa Rica with an "extraordinary" woman, the concern grew and police were called.

Or (for those of you who don't get the Arrested Development shout-out) this is why you don't meet people via the internet.  Especially Canadians.  They always have an agenda.

Via

Thank you, @AmandaTalar!

@AmandaTalar just tweeted something, and when she did, it made me think of this song.



Why thanking her here? Well, why not? Why thank her for the above song? (As I know some of you are either never going to have heard of Hüsker Dü or you have never heard of them and when you tried listening to them, you have discovered that you hate them) Well, I love Hüsker Dü and I am not going to apologize.

Thanks, Amanda!

I love Victoria Jackson

I love that she has turned one of her lesser know SNL skits, which I believe was called "Ditzy Bigoted Reactionary Has Been", into a career. Victoria Jackson has taken the lesson from Andy Kaufmann about never breaking character to new levels.

Favorite parts: "Secular Humanism rules the airways.", "Homophobia is a catch phrase of the liberal agenda." & "The Muslims hate G*d."

Do you think Glee is encouraging people to be gay, like Victoria claims?

Does this video say...Presidential?

Tim Pawlenty Exploratory Committee for President of the United States Visual Announcement from Tim Pawlenty on Vimeo.

Or does it say...accountant?

Pawlenty has three percent name recognition right now*, and while I am sure his shtick will play with people in flyover country as well as with certain segments of the coasts.

Anyway, it is about time that someone from the GOP threw their hat into the ring.

But...I am waiting for another Minnesotan to enter the race. She will be awesome.


*Per MSNBC 22Mar11

How I Met Your Mat

I love HIMYM.

More than that, I love the idea of a Russian version of the show. A knock off Post Soviet version of the show, no less.



How awesome is this?

Do you think that it translates well? Is Russian Ted still a sensitive douchebag? Are Muscovite Marshall and Lily still as cloyingly sweet with each other? Does this make Robin Belorussian? Is Barney interested in hot American models?

Anyway, watch and enjoy!


Via Salon and Vulture.

In praise of...William Shatner

Author, actor, icon, Canadian, singer, serial monogamist and 80 years old today, is there anything that is not better with a bit of Shatner in it?

While you may know him from some of his more famous television shows like T.J. Hooker, Boston Legal, or $#!T My Dad Says, but I will always think of him as a novelist, and an actor on a couple of very memorable episodes of the Twilight Zone and as the captain on a small cult series from the 1960s called...Star Trek.

But...

He is first and foremost a singer.


Covering Cee Lo's F*** You.

He can also go classic, taking a little know song by an also ran (who remembers Frank Sinatra?) and making it his own.



We was often good about picking music from obscure acts and bringing their music to the public. Like this one.



(For those of you who do not remember, The Beatles were on of those bands that come to prominence after the success of the Monkees, they never toured and eventually broke up.)

Happy Birthday, Bill! May you have 80 more and thank you for all the memories.

This is why we fight

I don't know why I have this song stuck in my head today ("This is why we fight" by The Decemberists) but maybe it is because I made the argument that their most recent album is the best Springsteen album since The Killer's Sam's Town.

Or maybe it was because the song was running through my admittedly odd dreams of last night.

Amazing and very UK

"Oh my actual God... the donkey-botherers are 2-0 up thanks to two of the worst refereeing decisions ever!"

The above is a quote (taken from Facebook) from a Labour Leader from Blackpool regarding a football/soccer match.

For those of you who fail to grok, by "botherers", Simon Blackburn means...well...f***ers.

So, if someone on this side of the Atlantic had called opposing fan donkey-f***ers, what would happen?

The only way I could see this flying is if someone like Rep. King called Red Sox fans "donkey-f***ers" everyone would understand because Sox fans do f*** donkeys.

See the article at the BBC 

Via The Awl

You have seen one of the videos

Remember this from last week?



Casey (the chubby one) power bombs some little punk.

Then there is this...

Mediaite has his interview with the Australian program "A Current Affair".

The interview is twelve minutes long, and some of it, like the reaction of Casey's father, is heartbreaking.

Watching it may not make you a better person, but it may make you (and by you, I mean me) act like less of a superficial douchebag.

How Dumb Are We? Very.

When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America's official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn't name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn't correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn't even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

You can take the quiz here.

Hockey Things

For those of you who can't get to the games, Inside College Hockey has the television lineup for the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament. USCHO also has a listing. And for those who cannot find a television, "All 15 tournament games will be available on ESPN3.com."

As much as it pains me to say this...

Congratulations to RPI for making the tournament as well.

There, I did it.

(Does that make me the better man?)

I find it interesting that the Western College Hockey Blog is picking UMD over Union, already anticipating a game versus Yale.

Here is my bracket

East: Yale over Air Force. Union over UMD. Union over Yale
Northeast: Notre Dame over Merrimack. Miami over NH. Miami over Notre Dame.
West: Boston College over Colorado College. Michigan over Nebraska-Omaha. BC over Michigan.
Midwest: Western Michigan over Denver. North Dakota over RPI. North Dakota over Western Michigan.

Therefore, my Frozen Four is Union, Miami, Boston College and North Dakota.

I then have Union beating Miami and Boston College over North Dakota (but that is a pick 'em, as they are two incredible programs).

In the Final for the Championship...

Well, I am not going to say, because I don't want to publicly pick against Union, however, my hope is that BC will spend a lot of time in the Sin Bin and Union can take advantage of their dominant power play.

That's it, folks.

Is it called dancing when they are skating?

Union is going to the NCAA tournament.

On Friday, Union will play Minnesota-Duluth in Bridgeport, CT. as the second seed in the East Region...

And that mean we will hopefully be playing Yale (the number one seed in the entire tournament) on Saturday night.

(And while I wish I could be there, I have things that I cannot cancel...hopefully I will have this chance next year.)

Regardless of what happens this weekend, I am so proud of the hockey team and proud to be a member of the Union community. We have our first NCAA appearance. We won the Cleary Cup. This has been an amazing year.

Watching the selection show (which has been something that I have not had to watch with much interest in the past) while I was on the phone with Paige, I became distracted for a moment, and my eyes filled with tears.

Let's Go U!

You can see the complete bracket and coverage at USCHO.com.

Why is this a thing?

The above picture is from a site called...wait for it...

Kitty Wigs

I may be late to the party here, and while I do love odd pictures of cats being tortured accessorized, this seems like a step too far.

Wigs for cats? Why? It is not like these cats are bald, or going through chemo and suffering from hair loss. They are cats in wigs that drag queens would rip off, throw away, and bitch slap the person who gave it to them.

The best part...the above wig costs $60 (not including S/H). I am all for committing to a joke, but that seems...more ridiculous than I can properly express.

Here is how you should be wasting time - Qrank

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a trivial person (and you can take that however you would like to) and that I am sometimes obsessed with trivial matters (again, take that however you would like) and there is an app to fill that need.

That app is Qrank. Qrank is a daily trivia game for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch (as well as being on Facebook) that questions you about a number of different topics, most of them "ripped from the headlines" (cue the Law and Order clang). There are now two different quizzes. One is general knowledge and the other is all sports questions.

Here is my suggestion to you:

If you have an iPhone (et cetera), get the app and start playing with me. (You can friend me by using my Twitter account. Speaking of Twitter, you should follow Qrank too.) Like Qrank on Facebook too.

Enjoy the trivial things in life.