In case you were unaware, we are already halfway through National Sleep Awareness Week. Next Monday, April 4th, is the culmination of it all with National Workplace Napping Day. I am posting now in hopes that some companies (including mine) will be made aware and partake in celebrating this occasion. This date was chosen since it follows our return to daylight savings time the day before, which robs us all of a desperately needed hour of sleep.

I discovered all of this while reading this article in my Plain Dealer last Saturday (yes, some of us still actually read actual printed papers). It had some really interesting things, such as a 2002 Harvard University study which showed a midday nap can sharply improve performance on mental tasks. It even mentioned major U.S. corporations such as Nike & Sprint actually have policies that encourage napping! It even mentions one of my former employers, Progressive Insurance, which has numerous "quiet rooms" or "napnasiums" in their buildings. Unfortunately, they did not yet have those when I interned there five years ago. I myself am no stranger to the wonders of napping, though I have never done so (intentionally) at work. Hopefully I will see this practice become more widespread in the near future, because I enjoy my naps.

Well, this past Thursday saw the premiere of "The Office" on NBC. Overall, I thought it was pretty good. A lot of the script was rehashed with a few tweaks here and there to make it more Americanized, but since most Americans have not seen the original BBC series, no real harm done there. It still is going to take me some getting used to seeing the old characters played by new people. Fortunately, it looks like NBC is not going to be in a rush to take it off the air since it was a ratings success as the 3rd highest rated show of the evening (link). If you're in a rush to see next week's episode, the very funny "Diversity Training" episode, you can see a 12-minute excerpt here at MySpace. Otherwise, you can tune in like everyone else at the show's "permanent" timeslot, Tuesday evening at 9:30 EST on NBC (follwing 'Scrubs').

Speaking of 'Scrubs', I read on the Kevin Smith news site, NewsAskew, that "Kevin called ('Scrubs' star) Zach Braff and it looks like they're a step closer to bringing him on board the future Fletch project." While this is nowhere near as cool as Jason Lee being 'Fletch' as everyone but the studio wanted, it might be pretty good. If they ever decide to make one. People have been talking about it for at least 5 years now. But at least there is recent talk.

I ran across some other people talking about the notion that the #1 song on your 18th birthday is your life's theme song. So I went to this site, This Day in Music, to find out what mine is. What did I find?

"Macarena" by Los Del Rio

Ah yes, it all makes sense now.

The much loved and acclaimed BBC series "The Office" is finally being brought overseas and Americanized, courtesy of NBC. When I first heard about this last year, I was very excited. I was a big fan of the BBC series, and it's all-too-brief stay left everyone wanting more. And to hear that The Daily Show's Steve Carell was going to play the main character, how could they go wrong? Not to mention the series creater and star Ricky Gervais signed on as a producer and writer. Well, for those of you who remember NBC's previous attempt to cash in on a BBC hit with "Coupling", things can go very, very wrong. And after reading that the NBC pilot received the lowest pilot ratings from the test audience IN THE HISTORY OF ALL SITCOM PILOTS (link), my hopes were dashed.

However, I finally heard this week that "The Office" is finally going to see the light of day on NBC this week, premeiring this Thursday at 9:30pm EST, following "The Apprentice". If you cannot wait that long (like myself), you can actually catch the pilot here, via MySpace. I don't know if it was my low expectations or what, but I thought it was pretty good. Obviously there are going to be comparisons drawn to the original, but judged on it's own I think it stands up pretty well. Will it last on NBC? Hell no. The test audience said it was "too depressing", and given that there is no laugh track to tell them when they should be laughing, most Americans will just turn it off. It's a shame that intelligent comedies rarely ever last on American TV. It's only a matter of time until 'Arrested Development's critical acclaim isn't enough to cancel out it's poor ratings.

So, I encourage everyone to tune in Thursday night and give 'The Office' a chance. Hopefully some of us will come away as fans.

This story today reminded me of the wonderful quote above, from Bill Clinton's testimony in his sex scandal case. The article tells of a just released study which confirms something I've known for years, that so called "abstinent" teens have been pushing the boundaries of the definition of sex for years. In fact, a good number of the "abstinent" people I knew in high school and college were probably more sexually active than those who did not make such claims, all because of their warped idea of what "sex" actually implies. Well, to me, if it is commonly referred to using a term that has the word "sex" in it, well, it's probably sex. In more simplistic terms, if it involves one or both parties parts that are normally covered by their bathing suit, chances are pretty good that it's sex.

While I do not like making generalizations, most of the "abstinent" people I know are Christians, and were taking such a stance because of their religious beliefs. Being an agnostic, I do not claim to be a religious expert, but the whole "no sex before marriage" thing seems pretty clear-cut to me. I can't see any obvious loopholes in there for things you can get away with but still be in the clear. And if you really believe that abstinence is a big deal and you might be in a whole lotta trouble if you don't abide, it would probably be a pretty good idea not to try to wander into those grey areas of what "is" and "is not" sex. I know if I believed in all that stuff, I wouldn't try to press my luck, because one slip-up and there is no turning back, and I wouldn't want to argue my case because I think the judge would be pretty hard to argue with.

Amazon first caught my attention with their A9.com search engine by giving users a 1.57% discount (or, pi divided by 2) on all their Amazon purchases just for using it. So, I am sure to try to use it once a day to keep my discount in place. And in all honesty, it's really actually a pretty cool search engine, with a lot of the same features as Google, along with some unique ones. It just takes a little getting used to the different layout.

Well, they really impressed me today with this new feature. That's right, they're on a mission to drive up and down every street in America with their camera, and take a picture of the storefronts, so you can almost literally walk through the Yellow Pages as if you're walking down the street, and see all the storefronts up and down each city block. I know, it's rather grand in scope, but still very cool nonetheless. It's only completed in a few select cities so far, including Portland, Oregon, which I tried out here to find the coolest bookstore ever, Powell's Books. Keep up the good work Amazon!

I ran across this interesting study today about what people actually even bother to look at when they're viewing Google search results. This study is pretty interesting because it actually because it actually tracked the eye movements of the participants to find out what they are physically looking at. Turns out, the top 3 ranking results always get seen, while those ads which fall below the first screen, start at 50% viewing and drop to 20%. And those ads on the right side? Only 50% of people even bother to glance at the top one, and it drops by 10% with each additional ad. So it just goes to show why people go to such great lengths to get to the top of the search results.

Since I don't do a good job of keeping this site up-to-date, I figured I'd go out and create yet another blog. Don't worry, I plan to keep this one going as my main destination for my random ramblings. The new site is sort of a novelty act, dedicated to the always interesting phenomenon known as the "Next Blog". The new site, appropriately titled The Next Blog is a collection of some of the more interesting sites I have run across via Blogger's 'Next Blog' button. Some people I know have spent hours wandering through the randomness found via this method, and personally it has provided plenty of amusement every now and then at work..So check it out when you get a chance, and yes, I am always interested in hearing your thoughts on my finds, and sharing some of the sites you feel are worthy of notice.

Last night, I went to the second day of the ten day Cleveland International Film Festival. The first movie I wanted to see was a film from Norway called Monsterthursday. Being a Saturday night, movies were in demand, so I had to purchase a "stand-by" ticket, which basically means it was sold out, but you'd get in if there are empty seats. Fortunately, a couple minutes before it started, they called my number, and Kristy & I were able to get two seats, albeit front-row. Well, anyways, they always have one of the festival people come up and give their spiel about the film, the festival, and the sponsors. So he's going through his talk, and is like "oh yeah, please note, we were unable to get the actual print of the movie as it was lost at Sundance, but we do have a video copy which we're going to present. We screened it yesterday, and I think only one person walked out." OK, let me just note that Sundance was TWO MONTHS AGO! It's not like it was last week and you didn't have time to secure another print. Plus, I find it incredibly hard to believe that there might only be one print in existence and it is now lost. This is 2005. I'm sure it cannot be that hard to secure something other than a video copy. The movie was good, but the video was not the best. I assumed it was a pretty low-grade independent thing, but I watched the trailer online today, and it was much better quality than what I saw last night.

After it was over, we went to see the next movie we had tickets for, Aftermath. Fortunately, it was a little less crowded and we were able to get better seats. So, before it starts, the same guy comes in to do his little talk. And right before he finishes, he gives us almost the same story, that we would be seeing a video copy, as the original was somewhere in Russia. Two movies, two videos. Pretty ridiculous for a "film" festival. And to top it of, this video was much lower quality than the earlier one, and there was an annoying noise that kept popping up in the audio about every 30 seconds. We would have left, but it's one of those things where we really wanted to see the movie, and would probably never be able to see it anywhere else. Plus, we'd planned our evening around it. Now if they had put it on the website beforehand, we could have made other plans. At the very least, they could have told us when we were buying tickets. Yeah, the guy giving the spiel told us we could go see another movie if we wanted, but the other movies had already started, and most were packed. Not a very viable alternative there chief.

So, needless to say, I am pretty disappointed with this year's film fest, and am probably going to rethink all the movies I wanted to see. I don't want to get too many more surprises. But I know that I'm not going to sit through another video again.

Each year around this time, sports fan around the country start watching college basketball, partially because it is the only show in town this time of year, but also the excitement as teams compete down to the last day to make it to the "Big Dance", the championship tournament of 64 teams. Last night, I had the opportunity to see my alma mater, the Miami University Redhawks, play a 2nd round game in the Mid American Conference (MAC) tournament at the Gund Arena here in Cleveland. They are the top-seeded team in the tournament, and handed Bowling Green an 85-65 loss. So tonight Miami takes on Ohio University in a semifinal game, the winner of which will play in the championship game tomorrow in front of a national television audience. The winner of that championship game gets an invitation to the Big Dance. Having the tournament here in Cleveland is one of those rare positives about living here.

Another good thing Cleveland has going is it's International Film Festival, which started last night and runs through next Sunday. The festival, now in it's 29th year, brings together a lot of independent films from across the world, bringing a bit of culture to our not-so-cultural area. Each year, I find myself going to more and more films, and this year is no exception as I've noted about 10 films that I'm interested in seeing over the next week. I'm sure that will be narrowed down based on schedule and availability, but it's nice to know that the festival is getting bigger and better with age. So if you're in the Cleveland area, I advise you to check out the website or pickup a guide, and check out a movie or two that you'll otherwise likely never get to see.

I was able to catch part of a special on NPR this evening, "Gray Matters: Stress and the Brain". Here is a summary from the WCPN website:

"This one-hour documentary highlights new research on how increasingly clear it is that the brain and body are inextricably entwined, and suggests that stress may actually change the physical structure and chemistry of your brain with harmful physical effects. It continues to state that one of the primary reasons stress can be so devastating is that it gradually cripples the body's immune system, hindering its ability to recognize and stave off disease."

It was really interesting to hear about the studies done on people and how their brain affects their immunity. In particular, a very in-depth study showed how people with large/strong social networks tend to live longer/recover better from health issues. For instance, a study of women with breast cancer showed a doubling in the life expectancy of women who attended support groups as compared to those that did not. And people with strong social networks were 2 to 3 times more likely to recover from heart attacks. And the studies just went on and on showing similar findings.

I found out at the end, that this is actually just one part of a 13 part series, sponsored by the Dana Foundation. And on their website, they have the actual programs that can be streamed, along with written transcripts. It was really fascinating, and if you're interested in that sort of thing, I definitely recommend checking it out.

I've been busy recently and have not been taking advantage of my Netflix subscription. But this weekend, I did manage to watch a couple things.

- I watched the 3rd epidsode of Season 1 of HBO's 'Carnivale'. I'm still pretty lukewarm on this series. It has yet to hook me in like most of HBO's other series ('Six Feet Under' & 'The Wire'). In general, the first three episodes were pretty interesting, but there is still this big mystery that hangs over the whole plot, and they have done little in way of keying people into what it is. So it's pretty frustrating that they keep offering hints at a mystery that you have very little grasp about.

- I also watched a movie from Japan, 'Last Life in the Universe'. It is from 2003, but was just released 3 weeks ago in the US. It has received much critical praise, and is oft compared to 'Lost in Translation', a favorite of mine. They both feature characters that are in transition that just happen to come together by coincidence and form a special bond. Despite all the rave reviews, I did not feel very strongly for it. There were a number of scenes where alternate things happened, and it was hard at times to seperate the reality from the fiction. And the plot just dragged for most of the movie after the first 20 minutes, and before the last 5. So, I would not recommend it, and give it only two stars.

I was happy to see this story today about a bill in Congress to increase the minimum wage. It's weird how most salaried workers get a minimum 2-3% wage increase each year, which typically accounts for inflation, yet hourly workers continue to get the shaft because minimum wage holds flat. It has been at $5.15 an hour since 1997! It is inexcusable that our legislators have taken so long to increase this. Assuming an annual inflation rate of 3%, the wage should be up to at least $6.50 by now. At the current rate, workers are making an annual salary of $10,500, which is $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Anytime I hear someone complain about how this is going to raise prices (like at the good ol' local Wal-Mart), I just want to shake them and ask them how is that not worth it to know that millions of families are now a little bit closer to making a living wage.

Of course, as is always with politics in our messed up system, this issue is far from a slam dunk. The Democrats have their plan, and the Republicans have their plan (which, of course, calls for a much smaller increase), and neither side is likely to budge. While I do back the Democratic proposal which calls for a $2 increase (as opposed to the Republican increase of a mere $1.10...which doesn't even cover the inflation since the last increase), I hope the two sides can come together and at least agree to some sort of increase. To me, this definitely seems like a much more pressing issue than Social Security, but this story is getting zero publicity anywhere.

Well, it's now March, but it's never too late to make a wish list, is it? Of course not. So, here is a list of things I would love to see happen in 2005:

- Michael Jackson goes to jail and is never heard from (or talked about) ever again.
- Martha Stewart retires, and goes far, far away.
- Fox News admits it's never quite been "fair and balanced".
- The Pope retires, relieving the world from listening to his hate-filled mumblings.
- Following the cue of Motley Crue, all 80s hair metal bands reunite and give it another go.
- Someone finally dies on a "reality" TV show, ratings fall, and they all get cancelled....and we go back to evenings full of dull family sitcoms, like 'Full House'.
- Cleveland improves to at least next-to-last in the survey of poorest U.S. cities.
- Movie companies stop making lame comic book movies.
- The Backstreet Boys new single goes to the top of the charts.
- People on the news stop talking about blogs.
- I become a millionaire, and retire to a life full of naps and baseball games.

Do I think any of this will happen? Not really. Do I hope it all does? Of course.

I ran across an interesting story here today about the possible next-generation iPod from Apple. While it seems everyone and their cousin has an iPod these days, I've yet to hop on that bandwagon. A big reason is because of the old clunker 40gb RCA Lyra (aka "The Brick") I bought back in the day which I feel I need to run into the ground before I replace it. I've always been one to use things until they are wore out, and the Lyra is still functional, it just might not be a sleek and slim as an iPod.

Well anyways, back to the news story. PortalPlayer announced their next-generation "System-on-Chip" which is believed to be the choice processor for the next generation (fifth) of the iPod. Using simple logic, since PortalPlayer's previous chip is in all of the current iPods, it would only make sense the new & improved chip would power the new ones. And what's so new & improved? How about TRIPLE the battery life? That is just the tip of the iceberg, but all the other stuff is geeky stuff, so read the article for the details. I'm just waiting out for that 80gb iPod Photo...and it would be nice if it could go for under $400.

Remember a number of years back when Pearl Jam took on Ticketmaster and boycotted using them for one of their tours? Well, seems not much has changed since then. I just picked up a pair of tickets off Ticketmaster.con, and my $14 ticket had a $4 service charge, and another $2.65 "processing charge" attached to it. What does that cover which isn't already covered by the service charge? So my ticket essentially had a 50% markup from face value. Quite the racket they have going there.

But in brighter news, the ticket is to go see Iron & Wine perform at the Grog Shop. I saw him perform there last year, and it was an awesome show. So I was very happy to see he is returning, and quite surprised since that show was near capacity, and the band's popularity has grown much since then. In fact, my friend Will told me the other week that they are playing a 1,000+ capacity venue in Kansas City, as compared to the Grog Shop's meager 400 capacity. Usually I wait to buy tickets at the door (since the $1-2 "day of show" fee is much cheaper than Ticketmaster's fees), but I don't expect this show to be available much beyond this week.

In addition to this show, there are a number of other great shows coming up now that Spring is quickly approaching. The one I am most excited about is my first time to actually see Akron's The Black Keys perform in Akron at the very intimate setting of The Lime Spider. Another big surprise since the last time through this area they sold out back-to-back shows at the much larger Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. Other good upcoming shows in April & May, all at the Grog Shop are Crooked Fingers, Q and Not U, The Good Life, and Caribou.