One Down!

In case you were under a rock last night.... and your power was out... and you didn't talk to anyone on your way in to work today....

PHILLIES WON GAME ONE!

It was an amazing performance by Cliff Lee on the mound. Those Yankees just could not get on base very much... I so badly wanted to text my Yankee fan friends the following question:

"so.. just how many pitchers will it take to try to take down the Phillies? Because right now it is at four..." The final count was six. That's right ladies and gentlemen, S-I-X! And Cliff Lee pitched the entire game!!!

Tonight, Game 2, Pedro Martinez is pitching. Now, Pedro does not have the best history with the Yanks (I'm sure everyone remembers the Zimmerman incident.. yikes), but he is also good in this atmosphere. I am so looking forward to see how this goes tonight. The first game jitters are over and its on to battle!

Ok boys, make me proud! GO PHILLIES!

Phillies Phever! Bring it on, Pinstripes

So here's the thing... I am a born and bred PROUD Philly fan (as I have said in previous posts). I also have a special place in my heart for the Big Apple - I work here, I have friends here and it is a fantastic city.

that being said

I am OVER the claims by certain newspapers (and I use that term v-e-r-y loosely because I am speaking about the NY POST) when they tap some Yankee fans for quotes like like "It's a nothing city - it is insignificant in comparison to New York" or " "The big meal there is a steak with cheese and onions on a hero, but they don't even call it a hero. It's a hoagie. What the hell is a hoagie?" Don't get me wrong, I have been known to talk some trash myself, but I keep it related to the GAME. I just find it funny that all these NY fans say that Philly fans are "bitter", "whiners" and "unruly" - I prefer the terms "boistrous", "passionate" and "determind". Yes, we had jail at the Vet -- extreme? maybe... but I also have to wonder if it kept violent behavior down.... but back to the topic - if you are going to sling some mud, keep it relevant... stick to the game! To me, it sounds like Yankee fans are nervous because Philly has quite the talented line up and let's be honest -- it is not like the Yankees swept the Angeles... they BARLEY squeeked out that win... unlike the Phillies who CRUSHED the Dodgers in a few games... 11-0, 8-0 .... I'm just saying....

So BRING IT YANKEES! I think this will be a battle, no doubt, and I am excited to watch how it unfolds!

Phillies Phever!

I have been a Philadelphia sports fan since before I was born (the Phillies and Eagles were in their respective championships in the 1979-1980 season and I was born in March of 1980. ) my Dad has made me a proud fan! I have stood my ground over the years when the teams were crappy, when I was a bartender in Giants territory (and wore my Eagles jersey PROUDLY) and even now when we have some talent in our line ups and the North Jersey crowd still gives me a hard time - that's fine, I can take it! I bleed Red (or Green or Orange, depending on who I am defending! lol) and right now I am extremely excited that my Phillies are KICKING TAIL!! I stayed up last night to watch them pull off the 5-4 win over the Dodgers at just moments to Midnight. AMAZING! They have one more game until WORLD SERIES time!! Normally I'm not a huge follower of baseball, but playoffs are always fun to watch and when its my boys? forget it.. I'm In!

I won't use this particular post to talk smack on other teams- as much as I cannot stand the Yankees, I would like to see a Phillies-Yankees World Series!

I also won't use this post to talk about how the Phillies put up more points than the Eagles did on Sunday against the Raiders... WOW... I mean, it was the RAIDERS. Andy Reid - if by some wacky chance you catch my blog (... you never know) PLEASE get some cajones and try something NEW! If Donovan is having an off day -- PULL HIM -- lord knows you stacked up your QBs! The only good thing was the Giants choked too, so at least it wasn't a total bummer of a day!

CATCH PHILLIES PHEVER!! GO PHILLIES!!

Stay Away from Spirit Airlines!!!

This blog is not big enough to really support how incredibly upset I am with Spirit Airlines. I don't think any space is big enough... they are shady, terrible at customer service, their website is riddled with sneaky ways to get MORE money out of you and just when you think you haven't purchased that airline ticket? check your bank account because as soon as you enter your cc info and click "next" - the money is already gone. At least, this is what happened to me! Those jerks took $666.40 for the two airline tickets I did NOT think I had bought. When I got to the screen that allows you to pick your seat (which, PS, they charge extra for if you want to guarantee a seat in advance... apparently spending almost $330 isn't enough to get a damn seat) and learned it would cost anywhere from $7-20 PER SEAT I decided this was silly and wasn't going to proceed. Boy was I wrong... I went into my email and saw a "your confirmed itinerary" email from Spirit Air (what?) and that's what prompted me to check my bank account... and there is it was, in pending transactions "debit card purchase of $666.40" .... now I know you may be saying "why did you put it on your debit and not a credit card?" because I had the money to spend and why rack up more debt when I could just pay for it? I spent an hour on the phone with SpiritAir's customer service -which I'm pretty sure was recorded and I'm probably an example of an irate customer... yah, it was not cute.. there was yelling... lots and lots of yelling. After the rep told me his name (Jim Edwards) and his client ID ("my location: India" - that's a direct quote) I called my bank to put a stop to the charge and applied for a fraudulent purchase request form. This whole thing is still pending (I won't get into a rant about TD Bank - right now the most Inconvenient bank -- COME BACK COMMERCE!) and I am losing faith I will get the refund. I have since read scathing reviews from other blogs -- really wish I had read them before.... Mr Ben Baldanza, the CEO of Spirit Air (click here) , will be getting a call from me. He already got an email but knowing it is so easy to ignore emails or "lose" them... I'll go the old-fashioned route and get on the phone...

So in short... stay away from Spirit Air --- they don't have the best deals - it's a total rip and not worth the aggravation!

"Slippery Rail Conditions"

So I subscribe to to NJ Transit alerts, which is kinda comical in that the point is to keep passengers up to the minute with important info especially when there are delays (which is all to often) and I normally get them a good 5-10 minutes AFTER I learn of any said delays while standing in Penn- side note: thank you to CleverCommute.com for their fantastic communication system- I rely on these MUCH more than I do NJ Transit alerts.... I digress... Today I get an email from NJ Transit with a link to their site for their alert about "Slippery Rail Conditions". It basically goes in to detail that with leaves falling with the change of seasons and the cold weather approaching passengers should be warned that there "could' be delays. They even go into a scientific explanation of how when the leaves fall and are crushed (their word, not mine) by the train wheels it creates pectin which is "an oily residue" that does not allow the trains to keep their grip on the tracks and will render them unable to climb up steep grades. I don't know if I should be thankful for this heads up OR frustrated to know this will inevitably be a new reason (excuse?) for making my commute even longer... then again, it will be nice to hear a different reason than the overused ones like "congestion" or "at a stop signal waiting for a different delayed train to pass" or "due to downed wires, we're being held... thanks for your patience". These annoucements have become the white noise of my commute along with that guy who assumes just because he is in a tie and cuff links we all want to hear him on his cell dissecting his schedule for the day with his poor assistant who clearly got in at the crack of dawn... seriously dude - it's not even 9am... the cuff links don't make you that important! side story-- (yes, I tend to go off on side stories that relate to the original story, but I feel deserve a quick mention) when I used to take a different line (Montclair-Boonton) one of my "train friends" (you know, the people you are buddies with for that 28 minute ride in the morning but probably never see outside of a train car? HI NICK, ROB, MARC and GREG!) told me that one time an especially loud passenger was on their cell and was leaving his number for the person on the other end to call back. So my friend took down the number and woke up in the middle of the night to call this guy -- I believe the convo went something like this:

loud passenger: ... "hello?"
train friend: "yah, how do you like it, being distrubed?"
loud passenger: "what?"
train friend: "no one wants to hear your conversation on the train in the morning so keep it down"
CLICK

BRILLIANT!

So... in summary... watch out for slippery tracks, subscribe to CleverCommute.com and when on a train (day or night) please keep in mind everyone within earshot would rather not know your business so please keep it down :)

HEAD GAMES!

The company I work for, Whoop, Inc, has produced a brand new game show for Discovery Science Channel called HEAD GAMES! Hosted by the hilariously brilliant Greg Proops (go ahead, IMDB him - you totally know who he is) this is a half-hour show that will tickle your noggin with fun, quirky science trivia by way of video clips and make you say "ooh I didn't know that!!" and then you will run and tell EVERYONE you know to tune in and watch... seriously... put it on your Facebook, Twitter, emails, whatever and spread the word...

The big premiere of HEAD GAMES is Saturday, Ocotber 17 at 9pm on Science Channel

so take half hour of your life and relax and learn something! You'll have something fun to talk to your co-workers about on Monday -- be that guy with the cool triva fact :)

First Post!

Well.. this is my first post as a blogger...although I feel funny even calling myself a blogger since I've never done it before... ah well! You may be asking yourself "what's up with the title?" I wanted to start this blog as an outlet to communicate the crazy things that I experience as a commuter in and out of this fabulous city I get to work in every day (NYC). The two most dreaded words I fear to see displayed on the track listing screen is "Stand By", which is generally followed up by an announcement "attention NJ Transit passengers, there is (pick your issue - downed wires/congestion/delays) please STAND BY for further announcement". There are things I see and hear that even the most gifted writers could NOT make up. So in effort to stay sane during my travels to and from the office, I will use this as my forum. I'll probably throw in some non-commuter related stuff too... life has a funny way of playing out and sometimes I wonder if I'm not being followed by cameras...