Goose Day!

So, I grew up in the small town called Lewistown, Pennsylvania, where the population is displayed in people and livestock. The way this works is that there is a borough with about 5 villages, the biggest being Lewistown. The population is actually for the 5 villages and as of 2000 was almost 9,000 people. Yes, I realize some of the people I know and love went to high school with just as many people.

In a town so small, you expect it would be off the map for most Google searches that don't include the words "Lewistown", "Pennsylvania", "PA", or "tremendous amounts of rednecks and cattle". However, guess who just made the map? Look at the third search result!

Oh yea, just by typing in "Goose Day", I found my town. However, I also found no information on Goose Day. Hence, I will just try to describe this in my own terms and from my own memory.

Overall, the holiday involves eating geese as a meal on September 29th of every year so that good luck will follow you all year long. Why? I have no idea. Did I learn about it in school? Yes, I did, but they were just copied pages from a textbook that was so old it was hand-illustrated and typed (so there's like 1 copy ever).

My first memory of Goose Day is back in 1993 at Strodes Mills Elementary School in kindergarten with Mrs. Fields (an old grouchy lady with big poofy white/grey hair). We were making Goose Day hats - yes they were lame, even for five year olds. I really had to go to the restroom and Mrs. Fields told me to wait. But I really had to go. Like bad. Of course the memory is a little hazy, but I got in trouble a lot in kindergarten, so I assume I kept asking or something, and she got annoyed. "Sit in that chair and don't move until it is time to leave" I was told. Well, I sat in that chair. I also peed in that chair.

My second distinct memory of Goose Day took place at the church in my town that my neighbor attended. Basically, Goose Day is celebrated by churches and firehalls hosting huge dinner buffet style. There is essentially a Thanksgiving meal, with goose as the meat instead of turkey. I got all my food and my family sat down to eat. I had a weird piece of meat that my dad said must be the goose liver. I tried it. And immediately threw up. At least I made it to the bathroom this time. Honestly, I have not eaten liver since. I have eaten goose, because it's pretty good. Think duckchicken.

Since then, I have only celebrated Goose Day a handful of times, although my family and friends go every year. I guess living in a place that doesn't believe in holidays that no one else anywhere celebrates, dictates that I have no time in my schedule for Goose Day. However, depending on how the year goes, I might have to eat goose in about 362 days.

Brinks Marketing Blows

So, last night, I was chillin' and watching television with Liz. I was making fun of shows like "Intervention" and "One Man Rehab" - if that tells you anything about my state of mind. Amongst all the television shows, this commercial came on for Brinks Home Security System, now Broadshit Security. And Liz and I - true to our business major selfs - starting picking apart the horrible marketing, aka bullshit, that Broadview Security spewed in our faces.

For those of you who didn't watch the video (I hardly ever do on blogs because professors don't take kindly to you sticking in headphones in the middle of class), I will briefly describe. Good looking girl gets walked to the door after a date, she shuts the door, and DUH DUH DUN, her ex kicks in the door and the alarm system goes off. He bolts and she answers the phone with "OHMYEFFINGGOSH MY EX JUST KICKED DOWN THE DOOR" and the operator says "FEAR NOT FAIR MAIDEN, we hath just doth called the po-leece."

Okay, let's start with the biggest, most glaring fault of this commercial. One, the guy didn't go inside with her. Just kidding, she's probably not a whore.

First of all, look at that house. It's a 2 story house with at least 3 bedrooms. No single woman, under the age of 30 normally owns/lives in a house that big by herself, especially with an apparently psycho ex-boyfriend. It's intimidating to have that much space with no boy to fill it.

Second of all, it took her all of 15 seconds to close the door and put her stuff down. Maybe she reset the alarm, maybe. But she's still hanging around the door even though her date has long since driven away? I mean, it must have took him at least 1 minute to put on his seat belt, turn on the lights, back up a little, pull out of the parking space, etc. Did she watch him? Did she just hang around waiting for her ex to come kick in the door?

Third of all, the Ex kicks in the door, hears the alarm, stares at her, and decides to run away. If he went to all that trouble, would he not grab her and force her into the car? It's not like the company has a GPS system on her. Like, you already kicked the door down, now you are in trouble because she saw/knows you. So why don't you just grab her?

Also, she didn't throw the deadbolt down (or else he wouldn't have been able to kick down the door). And what woman who lives alone doesn't do that immediately upon walking in the door. And, how did the security system know the door got kicked in if it wasn't even deadbolted? Oh, and she runs up the stairs to answer the phone (odd) and leaves her back turned towards the stairs where her ex may or may not run up and kill her at any second. Anyway, the whole sequence of events just doesn't quite do it for me.

Interesting side note: My brother has Brinks and he has to deactivate the alarm within 30 seconds or so after they walk in any door with a key or else it goes off. On day, my father was looking for coffee and opened up the basement door thinking it was a closet, the alarm went off at like 5 a.m. - hate alarms.

I'm sure there is a lot more wrong with this commercial (maybe her shoes don't match her purse or something) but I think since the most basic premises have now been throughly thrashed by Liz and I - I think I can call bullshit on this advertisement AND Brookview Security.

What's the Weather?

Sunny, windy, and a perfect temperature. Not too hot, not too cold.

I have weather class. It's my senior year, in the 6th ranked entrepreneurship program in the nation (thanks Drexel, my $50,000,000,000 a year finally paid for something) and I have weather class Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Today I did learn several interesting things today however:

1. Clouds make the earth stay warm at night. I.e. cloudless night = nipply out

2. Floods kill the most people out of the weather catastrophe category

3. When it's windy, playground fights increase

4. The Santa Ana winds correlate to higher murder/suicide rates

5. My teacher has played with mercury for years

Normally, when a BS class has to be taken, the students take it out on the teacher. The teacher turns into this horrible creature that cannot relate to students and they suck and blah blah blah, all because the class is A WASTE OF TIME.

This is an unusual case though.

Dr. Frederick House.

The name already had me intrigued. Just the thought that I may show up to class, and the professor may be a sardonic version of Hugh Laurie made me happy. As did the DU Review page which told me not a lot of work and easy grading was in my future. However, nothing prepared me for what I saw:

An old man, could be anyone's grandfather. Probably 68-75 years old, Air Force Veteran (probably served in WWII, not kidding), little stooped man, white hair (but bald on top), always nice clothes, and really cares about what he is teaching. Been teaching at Drexel for almost 40 years.

Which is why when he decided that last Friday's class would be devoted to telling us how to invest money for our future (picture Finance 101, lecture from 1985) and NOT about weather, no one got mad at him! We were frustrated, but everyone sat still, acted like they were paying attention, and quietly left at the end.

I feel like this is because he admits freely that the lecture was from 1985, and kept repeating that he just didn't want to see us old and destitute. Okay, valid reason. I forgive you. But, I just got outta Finance 301 and I'm still licking my wounds. Stop rubbing salt in them!

The other reason we respect him - other than "he's my grandfather" vibe - is because he says genuinely funny things. Like today, he was talking about thermometers and mercury. "You know, before mercury was declared "bad to touch" or whatever, we used to break thermometers and have a lot of fun just rolling those balls around with our thumbs."

How could you not love an adorable old man who still thinks it is really okay to play with mercury and that the world is just trying to take away fun by saying it is bad?

Hmm...long time no see

So, it's been awhile since my last blog post, although there has been a lot to post about.

I don't know why I keep putting it off, probably because blogging makes me think honestly about things and I just haven't had the energy lately. But here's some things you need to know about life.

1. See Inglorious Basterds...even if you hate it, it is a GREAT movie.

2. ...

Okay I'm having trouble coming up with more things. In other news, the neighbors came over today. I invited them for a little get together we were throwing for Nelly's birthday/Andrea got called off work day/let's just play beer pong and forget about life day. We bought a keg, everyone chipped in, and we had a great time! Gosh, I love this city.

Tomorrow, I will try to do better than this lame post, but it's vacation, so I promise nothing.

Peace.