February 2005 - Posts

I know what it is, but I'm not telling.
My wife and I went to the Doctor yesterday for the second ultrasound and to see our unborn child again. We decided this time around that we would go ahead and try to determine the sex of the baby. Well we found out! Wanna know what it is? Tough. I'm not telling. At least not until we've told our family, friends, etc. etc..... Then I'll be happy to share the news.

And on that note.....I was just checking out the Social Security Administrations web site. I was looking at the top 10 baby names for 2003. I like to look there, not for the sake of finding a name I like, but rather to see how popular or non-popular the names I like are. I'm not necessarily bent on being different, but I don't want the poor child to grow up with 47 other kids with the same name in their class. When I was born, my name was Christopher Eric King, but my parents changed it Eric Christopher King. Thank goodness they did, because there were always 5 other kids named Chris in my classes growing up. My wife and I have this little joke between us about how everyone out there is trying to be different, so, in turn we all wind up the same. We think that if you want to give your child a name that will make her unique in her class now-a-days, give her an old school name like "Mary", or "Judy". And I actually like those names. I don't have a problem with them at all. I'm just saying that's what you have to do to be "original" these days. Here's the top 10 for 2003: (via ssa.gov)

Rank Male
name		 Number
males		 Female
name		 Number
females
1Jacob 29195 Emily 25494
2Michael 26991 Emma 22532
3Joshua 24950 Madison 19986
4Matthew 23706 Hannah 17393
5Andrew 21852 Olivia 15982
6Joseph 21265 Abigail 15789
7Ethan 21206 Alexis 14659
8Daniel 20947 Ashley 14402
9Christopher 20781 Elizabeth 13927
10Anthony 19990 Samantha 13733

Posted 22 February 2005 08:52 AM by eking1013 | 3 comment(s)
Little did they know.....

......that "the end of late fee" at BlockBuster Video was merely the birth of the "restocking fee". Nice marketing. So if I rent this movie, and keep it for say.....6 extra days, I won't be charged a late fee? Right. Instead I'll receive a nastygram in the mail informing me that it's fine for me to just keep the movie, and that BBV will just charge the cost of the movie to my credit card. OR I can return the movie and pay a "restocking fee". Good one.

I'd love to see them try to charge it to my credit card. I've never given them a credit card number. I've had the same account since I actually worked at BlockBuster in high school at age 17. And if you think their practices are insane now, it was REALLY crazy back then (about 14 years ago). I remember sending letters to customers telling them that they owed us $170.00 in late fees and that the collection agency would be coming after them. ALL OF THAT for a 19.95 movie!! So I guess at least now they're doing what they should've done back then.

Thank goodness for DVDxCopy....... :)

Posted 08 February 2005 10:03 PM by eking1013 | 1 comment(s)
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