Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

It’s officially started!!  Monsoon Season is here for the next few weeks and it has started with a bang.  Yesterday we had a crap load of rain fall over an hours time.  Some areas of Phoenix received over an inch and a half of rain.  That may not sound like much to some of you but you must remember we live in a desert.  Below is a photo I took outside of my window.  Normally you can see houses across the way, not today!  Also, the YouTube video below is the sound of the rain on my window.  We never have a monsoon rain without wind.  Good times!

The image below is taken from the parking garage at my work.  The fire began yesterday afternoon when a freak monsoon storm blew through the Valley of the Sun.  A lightning strike ignited dry brush in the Gila River (we live in the desert, or rivers are dry) and it has quickly spread throughout the riverbed burning some nice cedar.  The cedar trees, according to the news, burn long and hot so fighting the fire is taking a considerable amount of man power.  My office is located about 6 miles from the fire.

When I arrived at home today, I snapped this photo of a car in the visitor parking spot.  It hasn’t moved all day.  The smoke cloud goes right over my house.  I live about 15 miles from work so the fire is not anywhere near me.  It may be hard to tell but that’s ash all over the roof of this car.  Crazy.

As you may or may not know, I love reading comments posted by users on newspaper websites.  Some people are just crazy and there’s no wonder they have no job and have time to post comments to random stories.  The following comment was posted on AZCentral.com as a response to a truly ignorant comment.  It shouldn’t be hard to figure out what kind of story these comments were written about.  This is probably one of the more amusing comments I’ve ever seen on the site.  Enjoy!

Haran,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

Barack Obama has many icons and graphics available on his website for people to use. When I saw the one that I used at the top of this post, I was thinking “what a waste of time, of course McCain will take AZ.” Now I’m not so sure. A recent poll by the Behavior Research Center in Phoenix shows McCain leading Obama by only 11 percentage points. Now, Arizona doesn’t have that many electoral votes so I guess it doesn’t really matter which candidate wins this state. I think it would say something if McCain can’t even win in his own home state though.

Does Obama have what it takes to turn this state blue?

A bill to add a same-sex marriage ban to the AZ Constitution passed the AZ House on Tuesday. Now the measure goes to the Senate before it can be placed on the ballot this fall. Read the story here and here . Here’s the deal, Arizona voters already turned down a measure like this back in 2006 and, in doing so, made AZ the only state to turn down such a measure that has been placed before voters. How many times will it have to show up on the ballot before the AZ Legislature figures this out? Anyway, Equality Arizona has all the info and will help you find your AZ Senator so you can let them know how you feel about this bill.

According to Google, the temperature in PHX at 1:30pm on 4/29/08 was 104F! WHAT!? Where are they getting this temperature reading? I will have to watch the news this evening to see what the official reading is from the airport. If this holds true, yikes!!

I wake up with a stuffed up nose and I go to bed with a stuffed up nose. I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love the weather, it’s perfect. It’s the reason I love living here in Phoenix.  On the other hand, this is the time when ever plant in the region is blooming. The air is full of pollen and it really wreaks havoc with my nose! Allergies suck and I hate them. At least we’ll only have a few more weeks of this… but by then it’ll be too hot to have my windows open and it won’t really matter that all the pollen is gone. Sometimes you just can’t win!

The weather here in Phoenix this weekend has been great.  The temperature is around 80 degrees and I’ve had the windows open throughout the house.  This is the best time of the year… well, it really goes hand in hand with October weather.  I wish it would be like this year round, but then we’d have 2x as many people living here.

You’d think that I would be spending time outside with this great weather.  Nope, I am catching up on TV and movies.  Next weekend is looking to be just as great.  I’ll be taking advantage of the great weather next Saturday.  For any of you stuck in the cold, jealous?

Baseball season is quickly approaching and the spring training season is just around the corner. I seem to go through these phases with different sports. I get really into one for a year or two and then I switch to a different sport. I have never really been one to memorize stats or things of that nature, but I do go and cheer on the team.

Contrary to what some may think, this is not a fair-weather type of deal. Case in point, I was a season ticket holder of the Phoenix Coyotes for 2 years and during both of those years, they were either last or second to last in their division. Another example, I’m a current season ticket holder for the Arizona Cardinals and they have been mediocre at best (the real motivation for my season ticket purchases was getting a guaranteed seat in the new stadium and seeing my Pittsburgh Steelers these past two seasons).

Back to baseball… Every weekend in March I have tickets to spring training games around the Valley with [Mike]. This will help me to get ready for the upcoming D-backs season. I will not be getting any sort of season ticket package to the Arizona Diamondbacks but I do plan on attending more games. My goal is to go to Opening Day this year against the LA Dodgers. This is the 10 Year Anniversary of the AZ Diamondbacks franchise and to celebrate they are getting a brand new video scoreboard. This thing will be HUGE and will be the largest in the majors. I’m kind of excited to see it (read: “nerd”).

Before I end this post, there’s one more thing that I just thought of while writing this entry. The Diamondbacks have been around for 10 years and, yet, we have not hosted an All-Star game. Why is that?!

So, as you may or may not know, I detest grocery shopping. The stores are always crowded, people are rude and shopping for food is boring (especially if it’s alone). In comes Fresh&Easy. I love this grocery store. It’s minimalist by design. This in itself is appealing but there are other added features that make me happy when I shop there. A small list follows:

1. Not Crowded – You aren’t going to find the moms with 8 children buying 10 carts of food in this store.

2. Food is Fresh - The produce is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time and their pre-made “From our Kitchen” selections are also quite nice. No preservatives or the smallest amount possible are used in all they sell.

3. All Self Check Out – No more waiting in line as someone chats up the cashier about their lives. This store is all self check out and I love it.

4. Limited Selection – You want yogurt? Only 2 brands to choose from. Want bread? You might have 3 brands to choose from. This just makes it that much faster to choose items that may not be on your list or that you don’t care about brand.

So, if you have a Fresh&Easy near you, try it out. I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

P.S. Fresh&Easy won’t replace the regular grocery store completely as they are lacking in unique produce and other items that can be easily found at other grocers. That’s ok though as these unique items are only needed once in a while.