Top 5 reasons why American Airlines thinks it's 1985

My amazing girlfriend and I just arrived in Miami. We're currently sitting/sleeping on a sofa in the lobby of the Cadet Hotel in Miami Beach - quite a nice place, i might add. It's 6:33 am here, our flight landed at 5, and I'm typing this out on my iPhone while we're …

On Web Video

Every Internet marketing fanatic loves videos. Video ads, video tutorials, video blog posts -- hell, let's put videos all over our Web site. Why waste people's time with written stuff when we could tell them to sit down, get comfortable and watch us explain the process …

There are only about 8 posts on FML

It's pretty much established that most people on FMyLife.com are in high school and mostly have issues with relationships, jobs and parents. But it can be narrowed down even more than that.

These are the six major categories under which about 75% of the posts on FML …

Google's Homepage Speed Bump Trips Me Up Once Again

Google is the biggest website in the world, and also happens to have the most basic, spartan layout of any web page (with the sole exception of ZomboCom, which is even more genius). But despite this, it also has a royally aggravating design flaw, which manages to trip …

Learn to be a Southerner in One Easy Step

My buddy Jim is from Alabama, and hence, he always knows the right thing to say in any given situation. He made this amazing contribution to my blog. Thanks, Jim...

Awesome sayings from a Transplanted Southerner in LA:

Well, shit fire and save matches

Why, I'm …

On Interviewing Police Officers

It seems like cops hate to be interviewed. I've been in the position a few times in my journalistic career to interview police officers, both over the phone and in person, and their responses to requests for an interview always fall under one of three …

Expedia.

Here's some general advice for any major company that happens to have a monopoly on any particular market. Just speaking in general, no specific companies in mind.

1. Do not outsource your customer service department to India, and if you have the nerve to do that, …

It wasn't really that surprising, for some reason.

www.gif" style="float:right;" width="250" />I was at a Jack-in-the-Box near my work, the one everyone calls "Crack-in-the-Box," on account of the clientele it consistently attracts. I was eating my dollar chicken sandwich and two tacos while watching a homeless guy hassling a couple that had just walked in and …

Should we call them Yippies?

Observed this morning:

A guy and a girl decked out in hippie garb, including baggy hemp pants, decorative, renaissance-style vests, dreadlocks, unkempt beard, organic jewelry, basically everything a hippie can do. Except they were in a Coffee Bean, she was on a …

Coffee conversation

I was in the break room a couple of mornings ago, grabbing a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. It's one of those cool contraption-style machines you put a cartridge into, and it squirts out a single serving. Since I hate the taste of coffee, I was using the French …

Creating a blog. A different one.

Since my main outlet for music writing, CinemaBlend, is shutting down their music section, I'm starting up my own music blog. It will probably be called something like Monitor Down, but I've also toyed with ideas like Screw Nickelback and Screw She Wants …

Scruffy = nirvana

When observing people, it seems like a pattern exists out there -- especially when it comes to fashion, personal habits and personal hygiene.

On the surface, it appears certain people are at higher levels of stylistic, fashionable "awareness" than others. This is …

5 Badass Movie Roles Nick Cage Would Actually be Convincing In

Nicholas Cage is not really an action hero. He's trying hard, but look at him. His long, stringy face, his nasal voice, and his gaunt, nervous hands always make him look more like a 45-year-old account manager or a tax consultant than the tough, chiseled badass he …

Crappy Band Names Trump Indie Appeal (from my CB article)

We know about physical, people-type overpopulation. That's when there are too many new neighbors moving in all at once - then their cars use up all the convenient street parking, grassy fields turn into slum hives, and suddenly one-bedroom apartments with no washer or …

My Weezer Hootenanny experience (from my CinemaBlend article)

I closed my e-mail and stared at the monitor. What was I going to do now? I hadn't actually counted on it working. I glanced over at my acoustic guitar, propped up on the arm of the couch. I hadn't changed the strings in about six months, and I didn't have enough time …

A new take on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (from my CinemaBlend article)

I know what you think this song is about. It's about the frustrations of teenager-hood, not being old enough, and having to wait to get what you want - a peaceful, sedentary American life with the sweetheart of your dreams. Right?

Sorry to smash your pretty little …

Stang Your Ground: An Impassioned Tribute to the Fender Mustang (from my CinemaBlend article)

(From my article at Cinema Blend)

Your sultry, smoky voice is like a siren's call, and the graceful curves of your body speak to the talents of some unknown sculptor. Your dark mystique can't be defined - what is it about you? We don't know, but we are somehow …