Coming to terms with "these tough economic times"

As I’ve been watching the stock market spiral into mid-90s territory – and realizing that my dream of retiring before, oh, 90, is gone – it’s been tough to find any bright spots.  I mean, it’s really been a tough few months.  When Citi can announce that it’s finally profitable and it causes a 300-point jump in the Dow, that’s a testament to the state of the economy.

In fact, the recent economic downturn has even changed the way we talk to one another.  At work, at home or just around friends, we’re continually couching things in terms of the economy.

Meet "Very Loud Guy," i.e., memories of the 2007 UNC football season

This year, as I have since 2000, I had season tickets to UNC football. Why? Well, football tickets are just easier to get than basketball, and win or lose, spending a day in beautiful Kenan Stadium beats a day in the suburbs, hands down.

XM and Sweetmonkeypie: Something's happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear

OK, last night I wrote yet another entry about the bizarre programming on XM radio’s channel 21.  That made this morning’s experience driving experience pretty surreal.

Name that volleyball team

Like last year, I’m playing sand volleyball this summer in the local muni league. Beyond the excitement of potentially facing “That Guy” again, I’m also pretty stoked about one thing: this year, I’m the team captain… meaning I get to name the team.

Need directions to nowhere? Google can help…

** NOTE: leave it to Google to ruin a good time. They’ve apparently fixed this bug. It happened Saturday and Sunday… I posted this on Sunday night. It was fixed by Monday morning.***

We’ve all heard the phrase “middle of nowhere” in connection to a rural, out-of-the-way locale. A place so remote that you can’t recall how you got there. Kinda like my hometown (Rose Hill, NC — pop. 1312).

Long time, no post, pt. 2: The well got even drier

OK, I went an entire month without posting anything. Why? Well, I have no good reason, other than I’ve been working like crazy. And since I’m a writer by trade (aka, a content monkey) in the corporate world, that means that I’m writing like crazy for The Man. So,my brain is a little sapped when I get home each night. The blog, then, takes a backseat.

Don't call it a comeback. OK, it's a comeback.

I’d like to say the Sweet Monkey Pie went down over the past week for a fun reason. Maybe the “ultra-orthodox sex commandos” who have been lurking thought that my site was some form of Internet porn. Perhaps we had too many hits, and the server crashed. Coulda been a vast right-wing conspiracy. Any of those would be cool.

Random slices of sweet monkey pie

The Sweet Monkey Pie revolution continues. OK, it’s going a bit more slowly than I anticipated, but it’s picking up. Here are two recent examples:

Let's jump on the SEO speedwagon

Since I’ve been running (more or less) a website for a few months now, I’m starting to see the importance of search engine optimization – also known as SEO. Of course, I typically write these things without thinking about SEO… or even if they make sense, for that matter. Who benefits? You, my loyal readers. Both of you.

Sweet Monkey Pie is spreading… kinda

I did a quick search for “Sweet Monkey Pie” in Google. We’re not the top page yet (and what the hell is that about?), but the top search result is this really odd online cartoon that’s, 1) about pie, and 2) uses the phrase “sweet monkey Tuesdays.”

It’s a stretch, but I think the SMP craze is on the precipice. Or, we’ll have to change this site to sweetmonkeytuesdays.com.