Adam J. Choit

What’s a stamp cost these days, 44 cents?  Although the price of stamps has gone up steadily over the years, it’s still pretty amazing to think that one can send a letter from Miami to Seattle, and it costs so little.

Nevertheless, I still had a ridiculous idea for some postal shenanigans (I’m sure I’m not the first person ever to think of doing this).  I’ve never actually tried this, but I wonder if anyone has actually done the following: 1) Put the address you actually want to send a letter to in the left corner of an envelope, as if it’s the return address.  2) Put pretty much any address you want in the middle portion of the envelope 3) Do not put a stamp on the envelope.

Shouldn’t the letter then be sent back to the return address — like if someone attempted to mail it without postage?

I suppose someone might catch on to this, but it’s not as if people don’t mail letters to one another from places other than from where they live.  If I need to send someone a letter, but I’m on vacation far from home, I would still put my actual home address as the return address, not a hotel or anything like that obviously.

I mean, if you put a letter out to be mailed from a residential address, and you stick it in your mailbox to go, the mailman might just leave it there — but what about with public mailboxes, and mailboxes at the post office?

I don’t know.  This whole thing seems like a great (terrible) idea that would just be too easy, and thus would never work.

If this actually did work, I’m pretty sure everyone would already be doing it…

Surely you’ve seen in person or on TV, images of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which are basically engraved stars on the ground in Hollywood.  Engraved inside each individual star is the name one famous person.  This is supposed to be some sort of honor when someone gets his/her own star, marking a significant achievement(s) in the person’s career.

The same goes for really all halls of fames, whether it be baseball, football, or even a hall of fame that isn’t related to sports.  Speaking of sports, one shred of credibility that sports halls of fames have that the Hollywood Walk of Fame doesn’t, is that at least with sports, they don’t induct the athletes until after they retire.  Sports will actually wait until the body of work is complete and can be assessed before giving the distinct honor of induction.  The Hollywood Walk of Fame is always giving away stars to relatively young people, such as actors who are seemingly in their 30′s.

Now, if you remember a few years back, the NCAA passed down heavy sanctions on the USC football program, for improper benefits that former running back Reggie Bush received during his college days.  Technically, the Heisman wasn’t taken away, but amidst outside pressures, Bush opted to return the award.  I say he shoulda kept it.  I mean, despite breaking the rules, it’s not as if he was busted for performance-enhancing drugs.  In other words, whatever benefits Bush received, those benefits didn’t give him an obvious unfair advantage on the field.  He didn’t cheat in that regard.

So anyway, in a world where we can take away Heisman Trophies, why can’t we take away people’s stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?  How come once someone is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, why must his induction be permanent?  Whether it’s a post-induction discovery that the person was guilty of highly immoral/illegal behaviors, or a realization that the person just really wasn’t deserving of the honor, why can’t we take away these honors?

Whatever.  Besides the incredibly long list of people we’ve never heard of having stars on the Walk of Fame, it’s worth noting that Ryan Seacrest and Ricky Martin have stars as well. I mean, how much of an honor could it really be if those two guys get stars?  While Hollywood has it’s Ricky Martins and Ryan Seacrests, baseball has it’s own Don Suttons and Bert Blylevens (guys that should not be in the Hall of Fame).

I say there’s nothing that says these honors should be permanent, forever.  Sure, it shouldn’t be easy to get someone kicked out of any hall of fame.  But there could be a process.  Signatures to nominate someone to get removed.  Once the magic number of signatures is obtained, then a voting process could come shortly thereafter.  To make things tougher, just make the number high — like it takes at least an 85% vote to kick someone out of a hall of fame.

Sports and athletics are a significant part of all cultures.  Regardless if the sport is baseball, soccer, or cricket, every sport is going to have it’s fair share of followers that are known as “traditionalists.”  These are people who have an obsession with history and continuity, and are often super-hesitant to alter anything about a sport — sometimes even if proposed changes will make the sport itself better.

Ya know what sport needs an alteration?  Pool/Billiards.  That’s right.  Don’t consider pool a sport?  I guess you’re not watching enough ESPN2 at 11am Saturday mornings.

Anyway, 8-ball tends to be the most popular game for casual pool players.  Basically, in a game of 8-ball, one player tries to hit solid-colored balls into the pockets, while the other goes for the striped balls.

I’ve always thought that “stripes” gets to play with an unfair advantage.  Pool is a game that requires accuracy and precision, and when you’re stripes, you can more easily mark where on the ball you intend to make contact. You can say to yourself, “Ok, I need to hit this a little to the left of the stripe.”

With solid balls, there are no visual markers to use as a guideline.

My solution?  Put white stripes on the solid colored balls.

Suck it all you pool traditionalists — wherever you are.

Disclaimer: The following is not something I’d ever follow through on, and is not reflective of how I feel about my current work, or any past employment.

I wanted to pass along an idea my friend had…

At my friend’s office (workplace), someone left a graduate school application in the printer.  The person didn’t really have immediate plans to leave the company, but the boss found the application, and spoke to the employee about it.  Things got straightened out, but this gave my friend an idea.

He thought that maybe for the coworkers he doesn’t like, he’d create fake resumes for them, and then plant them into the printer.  Cause all kinds of trouble.  The only thing is, is that he probably should print out the resumes somewhere besides work, in order to avoid this all being traced back to him.

Ya know what though.  Why not just print out resumes for everyone at the company, and then leave ‘em all in the printer.  Let the boss find them, and be concerned everyone might be leaving the company soon.  Did someone say raises for everyone, and 35-hour workweeks?

Everyone has personal tastes and types when it comes to who they like to date.  At the same time though, I don’t really ever discriminate, and am quite open-minded when it comes to this stuff (I can’t really afford not to be lol).  In addition to different races/religions/ethnic backgrounds, etc, I’d have no problem going out a handicapped person, such as an amputee.

Dating an amputee could lead to some challenges, but it depends on the specific case.  For example, I’d definitely have no problem going out with a girl who only has 1 arm.  I’d definitely go out with a girl also who has only 1 leg.

A girl with no legs though, I’d seriously have some reservations about dating.  That sounds like it’d be a lot of work for me.

A girl with no arms though?  Wow.  I’m definitely not mature and caring enough to be ready for something like this.

That’s a phrase I’m sure you’ve all heard before.  It’s important to “live life to the fullest.”  Says who?  Why?  Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually do that?

Living life to the fullest means in every single minute, second, and moment of your life, you must be enjoying yourself, educating yourself, and/or having meaningful interactions with other humans.  In other words, living life to the fullest requires CONSTANT effort, and who needs that.  Now, I bet some people will say that relaxing, or just “hanging out” can sometimes be considered part of living life to fullest.

But then we get into a gray area of what should considered slothfulness and laziness, and what is “good relaxing.”

In order to avoid all this confusion, I’m just not gonna even try to live my life to the fullest.

If someone tells you that he or she is living life to the fullest, you tell them they are full of shit, and that it’s pretty much impossible to do that.

You know what I want to do?  I just want to live my life ALMOST to the fullest.  That’s good enough for me.

This is going to be one those posts that might just come across as tmi, just to warn ya.

At work, there’s a women’s restroom, as well as a men’s restroom.  However, there’s only one plunger, that’s shared.  The question is, “Where should the plunger be primarily stored?”

Just to let you all know, I’ve never really needed to use the plunger before.  Ok, maybe occasionally.  Rarely.  Rarely occasionally.

Not that I’m an expert on the inner-workings of the female digestive system, but I do believe it’s more likely men would need the plunger.  I’m just saying.

You see, there’s a difference between being “treated equally,” and having “equal rights.”  I totally believe men and women should have equal rights, but not always be treated equally.  In fact, OFTEN there ought to be differences in how women and men are treated.

Men and women are different — and one difference is that men are (I’m pretty sure) way more likely to need to use a plunger.

This became an office argument the other day, so I thought I’d spill it over to the blog.  The big question is, How long after January 1st is it acceptable to tell people “Happy New Year” ?

Some people said no more than two weeks after January 1st is acceptable, but I think that’s a bit strict.

I’ll give you all of January.  Once the calendar hits February, it’s too late.  You missed your chance.  Sorry.  Not only is it a new month, all sorts of other holidays are approaching, so New Years’ is really out of people’s minds.  I mean, we got Valentine’s Day coming up, President’s Day, Groundhog’s Day, and of course, my birthday as well.

C’mon, it’s a little strange to blurt out “Happy New Year!” on January 28th.  If you wanna bring things up, you’re better off going with a phrase like “I hope you had a good New Years.”   Or go with it in question form, “Did you have a nice New Years?”

My friend Bozzzy suggested this one.  Some concert venues sell mostly general admission tickets, and are standing-room only in what’s a big floor space.  For example, there’s a venue in NY called Terminal 5, which fits this description.  Also, the Hollywood Palladium here in Los Angles has a similar setup.

I’m not the tallest guy in the world, so sometimes if I’m in the back, it’s not always easy to see the stage over everyone’s heads. That’s when my friend suggested that the floor should be tilted, at a very slight angle, as it moves toward the back, away from the stage.

Of course, the drunkest people should not only be near the front, it’s where they should start.

The really could only work at concert-only venues.  I mean, I can’t imagine a tilted playing surface would work so well in sports like hockey and basketball.

Over the summer I attended a street fair/festival in Los Angeles called “Sunset Junction.”  One of the musical acts was legendary hip-hop artist/rapper, Big Daddy Kane.  I’m not gonna pretend like I know his music, but his performance in my opinion was one of the stand-out ones of the festival.  Anyway, at one point during his set, he urges the crowd to repeat after him in unison by yelling out “I love myself.”

As awkward as uttering the phrase aloud might seem (drinking makes it less awkward), Mr. Kane does make an important point.  Everyone should love themselves.  I mean, the people that don’t suck (me and you) certainly should.  If you suck, then yeah, there’s no reason to love yourself.

If you don’t love yourself, then you’re probably incapable of loving someone else — and you’re also making it a lot harder for them to love you.

But be careful, because you don’t wanna take it too far, either  —— In other words, you shouldn’t be IN-love with yourself!