The advent of the DVD has created a new world for us, one with sharp picture resolution, fabulous surround sound, a ton of features, and most importantly this fact: It used to take me 2 hours to watch a 2 hour movie, now it takes me 8 1/2 hours to watch a 2 hour movie. Ta-da! DVDs now include so much extra crap and I (and of course I means all males) have a genetic problem that makes me feel the need to watch all 11 1/2 hours in one stretch (including audio commentary, deleted scenes, making of, and a ton of other crap that I can't not watch). I rationalize this behaviour by saying "I owe it to the DVD to watch it all. I wouldn't want to upset the DVD." Erin says I could always "Just watch the movie and not all the extra stuff" but that's crazy talk. Why own 15 1/2 hours worth of movie-related goodness if you're not going to watch all 18 1/2 hours worth of movie-related goodness in one sitting?

I've been using Knowspam.net for exactly one week today to filter out junk email and it has changed my life. By changed my life I mean made me feel so much less important than I thought I was, but in a good way, ya know? I haven't had a SINGLE piece of junk email come through since I've signed up for this, did I mention, free service (at least for the rest of this year). My stats as of today, which Knowspam tells me when I log in:

Knowspam has blocked 988 spams for you!

Amen to that. Side note: as impressive as 988 spams in one week is, that ain't nothing compared to Derek, whose Knowspam account has blocked 12,334 emails in 10 days. Oye!

I have been unsuccessful in my attempts at figuring out how to deduct the Nintendo GameCube purchase as a business expense on my income taxes, but I have not given up hope.

The difference between the south, the mid-south and the north is all in the signs:

• South (say Louisiana): Bridge May Ice In Cold Weather
• Mid-South (say Charlotte): Bridge Ices Before Road
• North (say New York, courtesy of my friend James, from New York): There aren't any signs - usually, the snow and freezing rain is a good sign the bridge has iced up.

I got to thinking the other day about the era we live in relative to sports. Specifically, what I'd be able to tell my kids about the things I've seen in my lifetime when my days are coming to a close. Thus far it's been a remarkable sports era as I've gotten to see:

• Michael Jordan
• Mike Tyson, when he was actually good
• Pat Smith and Cael Sanderson win 4 NCAA wresting titles
• The Iowa wrestling dynasty
• Barry Sanders
• Neon Deion
• Lance Armstrong

I'm sure there's a lot of names I'm overlooking but I think my point is made: the past 20 years have been a great era for sports and that when I'm 90 I'll be reminiscing about the good old days of MJ just like today's 90 year olds probably do about Joe Louis and Babe Ruth.