The Debut Blog

HI ALL -- WELCOME TO KORNY'S KERNELS OF TRUTH.

I have been wanting to have a non-FaceBook outlet for random thoughts, opinions, comments, and general rants. Longing for my college sports-writing days ("Korny's Notes-N-Quotes"), this blog will be Korny's random "kernels" of information. Could be sports, politics, social, pop culture or whatever pops into my head!! Dawn will help me get the "form" and "look and feel" of the site updated in weeks to come. For now, I will write when I can!

I hope you all check it out, join in and help create a lively "buzz" on here!! Is going to be a lot of fun, I promise. Please be respectful when posting -- language appropriate for all please!!!

Here goes -- "The Debut Blog." March 19, 2009.

Today is a happy day in Kornfeld-land. Hence, the inspiration.

A personal day today (bar mitzvah madness continues for both of my 2 boys; oldest's is in 9 days, youngest will be October 2010 and we need a place!). Pretty relaxing. And in the zone.

KENREL NUMBER 1 -- A NEW FEDERAL HOLIDAY

If people take off for St Patrick's Day, President's day, their birthday or when their favorite team wins a sports championship why not "madness Thursday and Friday? I propose something "radical" -- make the beginning of the NCAA tournament, the first two days, a formal legal holiday! No greater sporting event out there, and millions go to bars and their computers to watch as it is. Hence just make it a paid holiday! Give people that Thursday-Sunday off and it will re-charge their batteries as spring approaches. Seriously. Companies and firms give people the day after christmas or new years or july 4th off depending on if it is a Thursday-Friday deal. The tounrament deserves the same elevated treatment. Indeed with President Obama the first President to publicly pick his bracket for ESPN (thereby endorsing some form of wagering, no?) this seems to be the opportune time to get this through Congress! I mean we can all take a break from the misery of the economy, the fight over the social agenda, the pains and losses suffered by the heroes of our military, to ALL rally around this great, so0lely American common cause!

Without doing any kind of socialogical or scientific or economic study, I am sure that productivity of most working adult males goes out the window, people spend hours tracking their teams in "brackets" on the Internet, people spend half the day if not more on espn.com. So why accept the pretense that people are actually working? The loss of productivity (people at their desks not working) could be converted in some way into people spending money or at a minimum not wasting time!

Me and my dad and my buddies usually head to Vegas every other year now (ah old age -- when we were in our 20s, it was every year, but houses, mortgages, kids, wifes and jobs later, its an every other year rite of passage) for the tourney. It has been written about thousands of times but bears repeating -- there is truly NOTHING like the first rounds of the NCAA tounrey in Las Vegas. All normal things go out the window. Sleep. Conscious eating. Money management. Normal speaking tones (people screaming second to second). Cheeseburgers and Jack Daniels at 8am. No sunlight for days. Not to steal from the greatest sportswriter of our generation "The Sports Guy" (I will always pay homage), but Las Vegas for the tournament is "the bomb." There is no equal. Exhileration, misery, sleep deprivation, dehydration, decoloration, and utter loss of self -- the perfect get-away.

If you think NCAA Days 1 and 2 should be a federal holiday chime in. If not, . . . see the prior clause.

Kernel Number 2 -- STARBUCKS

I am late to this party I know but am I the only one who is convinced that Starbucks simply cannot get the drink right no matter what? I go to the same one every day and it takes FOREVER to make. And rarely do they get it completely right. I know the kids who work behind the counter try hard. I know it is hard to be on your feet all day. I know poeple like me who order six things in their drink can gnaw away at you. I am not an obnoious person and have a lot of patience. I appreciate that people are working hard. I do. But still -- please, I beg you please, CONCENTRATE! I want a tall, decaf, 3 splenda soy misto. Not grande. Not skim. Not latte. Not sugar. Not with cinnamon sugar free sauce. What I ordered.

And this leads me to a rant -- very few things in life that bug me. But the one that does the most -- people who hate their job and take it out on you! The people sometimes at the DMV (NOT ALL PEOPLE OF COURSE), the receptionist at the medical facility who takes your insurance information and slams that annoying little window shut after handing you the two million forms to fill out to get your sore throat looked at by the non-doctor, the toll booth person, etc.

Let me be clear -- it is cool if you don't like your job all the time or ever. I have NO problem with it. That's why its "work" and not "fun." But IT IS NOT MY FAULT YOU ARE MISERABLE -- SO DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON ME!!!! TAKE PRIDE IN WHAT YOU DO OR DONT BUT DON'T TREAT ME POORLY BECAUSE YOU ARE UNHAPPY. SERIOUSLY.

KERNEL 3 -- THE PRICE IS RIGHT

How is it that I go into Starbucks and order the same drink 5 days in a row and it costs 3 different prices?

How about the salad place? I bought EXACT same thing two days in a row, same salad, same snapples, same water, and one day $17 bucks, the next $14?

I was just wondering.

KERNEL 4 -- EXERCISING

I know it's important. I know it makes you look and feel better. But do people really "like" it? I have been going to the gym routinely now 2-3x a week for 3 months. I am not a work-out fiend and cannot honestly say that I have ever been committed to going to the gym for any stretch but these 3 months. And it is because I find it a real mental struggle. I know it requires discipline. And I admit I don't mind the alone time where I push myself a little. And I do feel a little better. But there is really nothing "enjoyable" about the experience. It is exhausting. At times boring. And otherwise miserable. And no, doing "classes" or "working out with a friend" won't be "fun." I go to the gym at off hour when all of the beautiful people are working!! I don't want to be the super fat guy all the fit people are thinking to themselves -- wow this is why I do this! I swear, I see this woman at the gym every day -- she does the stairs or some other cardio machine where she is "running" faster than any normal person should inside when not being chased, and is sweating more than Patrick Ewing in a playoff game; and she must weigh 80 pounds soaking wet with clothes. It scares me a little.

It took me 20 plus years to get so ridiculously out-of-shape. So it should be no real surprise that it isn't taking 3 months to be "fit" (by the way in those Bowflex commercials do you EVER see someone in it that looks like me -- rotund, out of shape? Of course not! So the suggestion that I could look like the Mr. Univere's in just 90 days is an insult to anyone with a quarter of a brain!). And that is the DEPRESSING PART! I will solider on but I simply don't believe you health nuts out there who pretend to like exercising at the gym!

KERNEL 5 -- LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- AM I THE ONLY ONE?

5 kernels for this posting will do. I will try and end blogs with some musings:

Am I the only one who wonders whether the market could literally go to zero? Or if Lipstick Jungle will be renewed? Or if the L word Series Finale could have been any worse? If Televsion executives should bring back shows they failed to "end" like "Soap" or "October Road?" Or if Facebook addiction will morph from being a joke on line to something a psychiatrist will actually label one day as some sort of affliction? Am I the only one who is wondering about stupid stuff at such a dire time? I sure hope not!!

Look for hoops, baseball analysis, family postings, pop culture, politics, funny stories and the unexpected in future blogs!

For now, have a great night. I wish all success in not seeing their brackets busted on Day 1.

Korny