This Seems Foreign To Me

Green Day should do a cover of Foreigner’s “Blue Morning, Blue Day”

Aside from making your little imaginary world a more whimsical place to be, why would they do this?

For the sheer amusement factor, of course.  I think they should make this project an Urgent priority.

You know...I think you did a Sametime Status message like this before, but I can't remember.  It still Feels Like The First Time.

I did do something like this not too long ago.  I fact, That Was Yesterday.

Yesterday was Sunday, you didn't have a Sametime Status.  I know because every day you don't have a Status makes me want to kill myself.  Basically, I Don't Want To Live Without You.

There's no need to get all Hot Blooded about this.  There's no need to get all Hot Blooded about this.

Weird...I read that line twice.  It's like I have Double Vision or something.

You should take your temperature.  If you're Cold As Ice, that could be indicative of a problem. 

I don't have a thermometer here.  I'm a Long, Long Way From Home.

Well, not to play Head Games with you, but I have to get back to work.  I'll be back tomorrow with more Sametimey Goodness.

Do you promise you'll have something tomorrow?  Say You Will.

Uhmm....I don't know how to segue into Juke Box Hero. 

Soon Followed By April Ambivalence and May Melancholy

But they always seem so happy when they’re playing basketball

Jeremy if, of course, referring to the NCAA basketball tournament, which, while it's sorta been going on for two days now, truly begins in earnest today. 

Right you are.  It seems to me that if it's called March Madness, that the people involved would at least appear to be mad, or sad at the very least.  Either way, the tournament starts today, and my pick to win it all, Murray State, has already won their first game.  Go Fightin'....uhmmm...what's their mascot?  

That would be the "Racers."

What kind of a mascot is a Racer for a basketball team?

That's not important right now.

Right again!  Anyway, since nobody is going to be paying attention tomorrow anyway, I'll be on vacation, so there will be no Sametime Status update until monday.  I know how Mad you all are about that, but apparently, it's the season. 

Mmmmm....Cherry

So when is “A La Mode” day?

I'm a little surprised at you, Jeremy.  Sellout.

Yeah, I know...I really shouldn't do that, but whatever.  So for those unawares, I was coerced into today's Sametime Status by a Loyal Reader who insisted I do something specifically for "Pi Day" because I occasionally post nerdy stuff on the Blag here.

Don't be so modest...you very often post nerdy stuff on here.

So despite my aversion to accepting input into my Sametime Statuses, I've allowed it for today only.  The main reason I avoid this sort of thing is financial, of course.  If today's Blag Entry ends up selling for millions, I don't want loyal readers everywhere claiming their, for lack of a better expression, slice of the pi.  

Regardless, today is March 14, known as "Pi Day" to people who write the date in the American fashion as 3/14, similar to the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius (Of course, that ratio being 3.141592653589...etc.  Yes, I typed that from memory...what up?).  I felt this was a good opportunity for not only some wordplay, but also a lesson on linguistics and history.

The phrase "A La Mode" is a french term used to refer to ice cream being placed on top of a dessert.

Thus ends the true part of this lecture...

 
Translating the original french gives us the expression, "of the Ice Cream," which makes perfect sense given how popular vanilla ice cream is in France.  They even have their own specific flavor, or Fashion, of it, but I forget what it's called.  You may recognize the french word "Mode" from the Fashionable electronic band "Depeche Mode" who ironically are an English group.  Early band members worked day jobs as ice cream truck drivers who would Fashion and then deliver, or "dispatch" ice cream, from which the name of the group "Depeche Mode" or "Ice Cream Dispatch" originated. 


Seriously, Jeremy...people are going to stop taking this stuff seriously.


 But as long as I'm having fun edutaining them, does that really matter?  

They're Pretty Ugly

How did people ever discover that potatoes were edible?

 Well, you take a bite of one, and if you don't get sick, you're in business.

I suppose that's true, but the fact remains...people eat some weird crap.  There are plenty of vegetables available at your local grocery store that you probably don't pay much mind to amid the standard fare of onions, peppers, bananas etc.  Some of these things look like they come from another planet.  

Horseradish is ridiculous.  There's the "Uniq Fruit" formerly known as "Ugli Fruit" before they changed the name because they didn't want the produce to feel bad about itself (or some giant citrus conglomerate trademarked the name "UGLI," I forget which).  Do yourself a Google for Romaneso, Mooli, or Celeriac.  I was also fairly recently introduced to the Hubbard Squash.  Why anybody would set eyes on these abominations and decide to put them in their mouth is beyond me. 

A lot of the strangest vegetables are in the Root family, which means they grow in the ground.  At some point in our human history, somebody not only had to find these things, but then dig them up and go to town on them.  I don't think I'd want to be the first cro-magnon who bit into a nice chunk of horseradish.  Or the one whose friends were jerks and convinced him that this dirty, rock-looking thing sitting on his plate was called a "potato" then laughed when he bit into the rock.  Man...cro-magnons were jerks. 

Squeeky Fun For All!

Pick Jeremy’s 12-5 Upset!  VCU, Long Beach State, Harvard, or the winner of the California/South Florida Play-In

It's that time of year again!  Time for Jeremy to dazzle us all with his ineptitude at picking winners of 67 college basketball games.  He's so bad, he's enlisting all of you for help.

 I'm not as bad as all that.  I do, in fact, know a couple things about the NCAA tournament, and I've even seen two games this year.  

And of those teams that you saw, how many of them made it to the final 68?

Well...one...but that's beside the point entirely.  

What is important is that my knowledge of college basketball has not exactly increased from last year.  I know two indisputable facts about the tournament:  A 16-seed has NEVER beaten a #1, and the #5 seed is a statistical outlier, being ousted by the #12 seed more often than you'd think they should.  I actually did a graph once, which you can find on the Blag here pretty easily if you'd like.  The first-round winning percentage by seed tracks a pretty straight line, except for 5, which actually wins less often than the 6 seeds.  Some say it's a curse.  I say it's an opportunity!  

So as is tradition here, you get to pick my 12-5 upset.  At least one of these 4 teams is statistically likely to win their first-round matchup later this week, and I leave my decision to the Internetz.  Whichever team gets the most votes will be listed as the winner on my official bracket for whatever pool I participate in.  Just for the record, you don't get any prize money or anything if you're right...just the satisfaction of knowing you did your best.  So...who's it going to be?  Virginia Commonwealth, Long Beach State, Harvard, or California/South Florida?  VOTE NOW!!!

They're Pretty Important

I find it ironic that I don’t need Essential Oils

You don't use extracts of anything?  Thought you were something of a baker in your spare time.

The main times that I hear the phrase "Essential Oils" is when it's used in terms of perfumes and scented crap like shampoos and lotions and whatnot.  I tend to have very little use for that sort of thing.  I'm amused by the fact that something I don't need is called "Essential."  Leave alone the fact that "essence" in this case means something entirely different than what pops into my mind.  That's not important right now...I made comedy, and I'm not letting little things like definitions get in my way. 

Who Knew He Was This Into Ponies

All joking aside, I liked my old password better

I'm sorry, Jeremy.  It's too bad you had to change it.

You know that feeling when you have a comfortable pair of jeans, or a nice sitting spot on the couch, and you have to get rid of it/them?  It's like that will passwords, too.  Over the last few months, I had come to appreciate my old password.  It was nice.  It was a good combination of both hands, an easy number to remember, it made logical sense (at least in my swirling miasma of a mind), and I had gotten used to typing it.  Now, in the aftermath of Password Day, I have a new password, and it's just not the same.    

Don't get me wrong, I like my new password, too...but there's something just a little off about it.  When the login screen comes up, it's not the first thing that comes to mind.  

That's like when people used to write checks and the year changed.  They'd write the old year own for the next three months.  You'll get used to it.

 I'm sure I will, but even when I remember that I'm supposed to type something different than I used to, I have to think about it a little.  It doesn't roll off the fingertips the way the old one did.  

Well, can you change it again to something that will?

I guess I could...but like finding that one perfectly comfortable pair of jeans, it's never quite that simple.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to chalk it up to pure luck that I found a password that was as good as the last one and move on with life.  Farewell, little buddy.  I'll be allowed to use you again in 3 1/2 years.