Real Men Wear Cardigans.

Here is an exerpt from Esquire Magazine's style article called "This Is Not Steve McQueen".

The Shawl-Collar Cardigan

A shawl collar is the only manly way to do a cardigan. Midway between knitwear and tailoring, it offers all the versatility a man of action requires. Layer it with a T-shirt or turtleneck or sub it in for a blazer when company calls, but don’t ever let a woman try it on. You’ll never get it back.

Here are actual photos of Mr. McQueen himself wearing the heck out of cardigans.

Alexander Graham Bell Would Be Disappointed

There is no denying that mobile phones are almost an essential piece of equipment these days. I have a newish phone in order to, as they say, stay connected. I did a bit of research prior to selecting this phone. I went with a brand that I've had a few times before since I have had very few problems with their mobile phones in the past. You'd expect a new device to function properly - this is after all why I would buy something new instead of looking for a used product. Though in the case of this particular model, it's a disaster.
The phone is an attractive looking one. It's got all of the features that I was looking for. I wanted a phone that had push-button keys rather than the full-on touch screen only keys since the touch screens tend to find it hard to identify my fingers. I don't know if it's because my finger tips are completely calloused over from playing guitar or if they just doesn't like me. I went with the slidey type phone that also has touch screen capabilities since the flip-style has been just about phased out entirely. I'm not sure why people prefer this slidey phones. It's almost like a sliding rear door on a van as opposed to the standard open and close door. No one I know prefers the sliding rear door. To the best of my knowledge I don't mingle with any kidnappers. Though that might make my house parties more interesting. "Aw, you've spilled wine on my ransom note!"
Now, with any new technology you'd expect some glitches. Perhaps the internet connectivity? Nope, it's spot on. Perhaps the touch screen? Wrong again, it works quite well even with my fingerprintless digits. It's the buttons. Yes, a technology that has been around since the early 1960's. Push buttons on a phone seems like a difficult thing to get wrong. You see, when I press a key while texting or dialing it either doesn't register that I've pressed a button, or it thinks that I've pressed it two or three times. "I'm on my way"? Surely you meant "Iimonnn y wway". As if this collapse in functionality of the phone wasn't bad enough, the alarm feature also is rubbish. Setting the alarm is easy as pie. You set the alarm putting at ease your anxiety of forgetting something or being late. Then you wake up at 7:15 AM to realize that your alarm didn't go off at all and you're scrambling to get ready for work. It seems that if you do not turn the phone off and on every few days, it disregards any alarms that you've set. The only thing that is preventing me from smashing the phone into the wall is probably because I'm running late as the alarm has failed to sound and I just don't have the time to when I think to do it.

Nerd Alert

My work is hosting an early screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 on Thursday the 18th at 6:00 PM. Pretty amazing! Sure beats standing in line for hours to go to a midnight showing 6 hours later.

WWVD (What Would Venkman Do)

So my lovely wife and I were enjoying a dinner out together at an Italian restaurant. We elected to sit at the bar to avoid a 20 minute wait, which turned out to be a great idea. We had great service and friendly wait staff. The only catch was that we were seated directly in front of an unidentified pink goopy substance kept in a plastic bin on the counter behind the bar.

It was sitting right next to the espresso machine and seemed mostly harmless. When we asked our waiter what it was, he was unable to identify it even after he bravely put his face down close to it and sniffed it. I am certain that in doing so he may have caused irreparable harm to his olfactory system. Permanent damage his nose hair follicles at the very least.

He even went as far as to ask two other wait staff members. They also had no idea what this pink slime was. My best guess of the identity of this blob comes not from a scientific background by any means - it is purely speculation based on my nerdy affinity for science fiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwiH3ktcNfY

Yes... I do believe we have a highly dangerous ectoplasm sample here. I'm absolutely sure of it. If you poured this substance into that espresso machine and blasted some Parliament, it would start bouncing around like it was pogo dancing at a Sex Pistols show in 1976 and start spewing hot espresso around like nostril propelled milk.

You have been warned. This is either the beginning of a paranormal assault by ghosts, or a nicely played viral marketing attempt by the producers of the upcoming Ghostbusters 3 film. Either way, it was well timed to the spooky holiday.

Be grateful that no one is snagging your Swingline.

So let me begin with one of my biggest pet peeves. This morning on my drive to work I saw a compact car driving in the left lane decide that they needed to be in the right lane. This normally isn't a problem, but in this case the driver thought it wise to speed up to cut off a bus despite the fact that there was a red light up ahead. Needless to say, the bus driver had to jam on the brakes in order to not slam into this careless driver.

Unfortunately I see this happen fairly often and not just to buses. It happens to almost any large mass vehicle. It could be an 18-wheeler tractor trailer, bus, garbage truck, what-have-you. I've even seen someone cut in front of a fire truck. Mind you that I have nothing against getting around slower traffic, but zipping in front of someone who has a hard time stopping a heavy vehicle right at a red light is just reckless and in Sir Cardigan's America would be punishable by a good tar-and-feathering.

What makes this grade-A thoughtlessness is that these large vehicles are almost always people who are currently on the job. I'm fairly certain that you'd be annoyed if these truck drivers decided to impede your duties while at the place of your employment. It's not as if they're coming into your work and snagging your stapler from your hand as you're trying to bind a couple of documents together or holding your arms down to your sides as you try to flip a burger.

It may come as no surprise to you that this is not the only pet peeve I have with fellow drivers that I must share the same roads with. Another one that I consider most heinous is the lane change without proper directional signal indicator usage. This would also be a punishable crime in Sir Cardigan's America. You shall be lashed and banished to Texas, a place where I never plan or wish to travel to. Is it really that hard to flick a single finger down to hit that lever protruding from behind your steering wheel (where you hands ought to be anyway) to show some common courtesy to other drivers? It might be if you've got a danish in your hand or, God help us, chatting on a mobile phone. Which by the bye will also land you on a one-way trip to the Lone Star State.

I wish this could be the end of my rant, but alas there is another that must not go unmentioned. This would be of course improper lane merging etiquette. When there are two lanes full of traffic merging together it should go without saying that the lanes should take turns with who takes the lead. For example, if you are merging onto the freeway and as you come to the end of the on-ramp the car in front of you just scooted in front of a car to take the lane, you should then merge into the area behind that second car. Much like how the teeth of a zipper fit together. It makes perfect sense to do it this way and would perhaps at least create a partial remedy for some of the traffic.

So in conclusion, just show your fellow tarmac travelers basic courtesy because as it turns out everyone is trying to get somewhere. It may come as a shock to some, but you are no more important than the next guy, regardless of how much your Mercedes SL cost.