Some people need to chill out...

The other day, I went down to Papa John's to pick up the Carryout Special ($5.99 for a Large One-Topping Pizza), the best deal in mainstream fast food since Dan's Deal at Del Taco. After walking in to pay for my pizza which would feed me for two weekend meals (three for normal people), I, along with a few other innocent customers witnessed what was one of the more disgusting displays of spoiled customer syndrome I have ever seen.

Let me try and summarize...

"Bro, why can't you just put garlic sauce on the pizza? I called in and I asked for it."

"Sir, I'm sorry, but it is against company policy for us to do that."

"Bro, bro, what's your name? Francisco? Francisco, bro, listen to me. Don't you guys put garlic sauce on the breadsticks?" (a valid point)

"A little bit sir, but it is a different product and I am not authorized to put garlic sauce on the pizzas."

"Francisco, bro, come on. What YOU'RE telling me is that YOU are unable to think out of the box. What YOU'RE telling me right now is that you're unable to make the customer happy. What YOU'RE telling me is that you're refusing to make the customer happy??"

"No sir, I'm just telling you that I cannot put garlic sauce on your pizza."

"Francisco, wait, come back here. Francisco, give me the number to corporate."

After calling corporate, having no one pick up and complaining a bit more about the situation (no one cared). This "bro" in his form fitting, light blue vintage t-shirt opened his pizza box and had the nerve to ask "Francisco" for a favor.

"Hey Francisco? Bro? Hey bro, totally forgot. My boy just can't eat tomato sauce, I'm going to have to get this remade. I should have told you guys, but my boy just can't eat tomato sauce."

A favor. Really. You're going to ask this guy for a favor after you've been ripping on him for almost 10 minutes and making an ass out of yourself to employees who will no doubt urinate on your pizza before putting it in the oven next time and to all the other customers who came into the resturant? Incredible.

Realize you're in Papa John's, not Pizza Rustica in Beverly Hills.

Realize that you probably paid with a coupon.

Realize that you've probably never worked food service in your whole life and that the people who work in chain food restaurants really just want to have you get in, get out, not make you completely happy.

Realize that your next pizza will probably have urine all over it.

People like this make me sick.

For what it's worth, my pizza was good, by the way.

Pointless, but pretty cool.

Since starting my new job, I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of online videos on places like MySpace, YouTube, and more. While user created videos, like the one posted above are fun and are all over YouTube and MySpace Videos, there's also been an explosion of copywritten material finding its way to these websites as well, some authorized, some not. With the recent deal between NBC Universal and News Corp, online video is clearly still the next big thing in media.

Today, pilots that didn't make it to air or were cancelled are finding their way to sites like YouTube so that people can watch for themselves to see if they think the show is worth watching. VH1, along with other networks, have tried and are trying to created television shows that showcase user-generated content as well. Last week, Michael Eisner's online-only series Prom Queen began airing on MySpace and so now, to watch TV, you don't even need a TV.

No TV. No problem.

I still remember when streaming video just came out and I was struggling to watch videos off IGN for Tetrisphere on a 28k connection and now people are watching full TV episode series on their computers or TV's through products like AppleTV or Slingbox in seconds.

Best. Game. Evar.

With the standardization of HDTV in the United States in 2009 and TV monitors coming equipped with HDMI, DVI, and VGA ports to make them easier to hook up to computers, we are truly in a revolutionary time in media right now. With products like the AppleTV, which I checked out last weekend at The Grove, we are so close to being able to just have a high speed Internet connection hooked into a hard drive that can play, record, and store all our favorite shows, movies, and clips. It's pretty unreal! Even on my Wii, I can watch videos online if I feel like it and can get all the entertainment that TV provides, without even using a TV signal.

Let's be real though, I still love TV. And that season finale of The Hills, makes me realize that yes, I do still love a good half hour of TV...as long as I am watching it via DVR. Oh Lauren Conrad...you are a dream.

*sigh*

Checked out USC Football practice on Sunday. Definitely nice to be back, but weird not to know all the names, faces and numbers of the new players. Good luck to Randall, the rest of the student managers and the team this year. Everyone expects the team to get to "the natty" this year, here's hoping that it actually happens.

Otherwise, life has been pretty good. I cannot wait to graduate and just be done with this 5 year Bachelor's/Master's program. People tell me to be proud of that accomplishment and that picking up my two faux diplomas will be one of the proudest days of my life, but I can't help but think that it's just another day. May 11th (pending passing grades in all my classes) will no doubt be a weight off my shoulders, but I feel like grad school has killed any school spirit that remained after four years of undergrad.

Looking forward to having some free time though! More blog updates, jiu-jitsu, surfing lessons, and maybe even a fun weekend job are top candidates to fill the time void that will be there after graduation, but if life tells us anything, it's that things rarely go as we plan. So we'll see!

Idol is on tonight. My new strategy is to check out the AI message boards and see who has the most and least posts (people who post on the boards are pretty huge fanatics...as "Charge your cell phones!" and "Where would Blake take you on a date?" are fairly common message board topics) to see who has the best chance of staying or leaving every week.

According to the boards... The boys have the fanatic fans in a year where the girls were expected to dominate, and it would not be a surprise to see one of the judge's favorites, Lakisha Jones, end up in the bottom two this week.

Top 3

1) Blake Lewis

2) Sanjaya Malakar

3) Chris Richardson

Bottom 3

1) Lakisha Jones

2) Haley Scarnato

3) Phil Stacey

I'm still going with Blake to win this thing. If Sanjaya wins, I worry what it would do to AI as a television series because it could singlehandedly destroy the show's credibility.

Thanks for checking in, all.