My Apologies to Everyone

Dear faithful Matt is Blogging readers,

What can I say. I screwed up big time. Might as well call me the Tiger Woods of blogging. I have not posted since February 4th, 2009…that’s bad. No, not bad, terrible. I don’t know what happened. Stuff happened. It all snowballed. There is no excuse, I’ve let you all down.  I don’t expect you to take me back right away.  I swear I wasn’t off writing other blogs, I’ve stayed true to this one. Don’t come after me 2AM swinging a golf club. I missed out on a lot of writing. I missed out on a lot of news. I missed the comments. I missed this.

However, I am back. I hope I can gain back your trust. I just need to gain some momentum and I should be able to post regularly. I hope this does not happen again. I will try my best, I can promise you that.

Sincerely,

Matt of Matt is Blogging

We Did It!!!

We have amassed 2,009 blog hits by the year 2009! In fact, we surpassed our goal by quite a lot! I discovered we accomplished this feat around 8:30 last night. Matt is Blogging has had a great week: Mike Birbiglia thinks we are reputable, Matthew Zellman (http://matthewzsucks.blogspot.com) wrote a nice piece about us (go check out the Think Pound at UCB January 15th!) and we reached our goal of 2,009 hits. I was a little worried on Monday night that we weren’t going to make it. I want to thank everyone who checked the sites multiple times per day, told their co-workers, friends and family to visit the site and for those first-time readers who made this all possible. Have a great New Year’s Eve and be safe! See you in 2009!

Love,

Matt

THE QUEST FOR 2009 BY 2009

Hello my loyal readers,

Here is the deal. As can be seen on the left side of your screen, I currently have 1,901 “Blog Hits” (hopefully it has increased since this post). For my own selfish, egotistical reasons, I want my blog stats to reach 2009 but the time the clock strikes 12AM on Thursday, December 1st 2009. This is a reach, but I believe this is possible. However, I need your help. Please spread the word about “Matt is Blogging,” to your friends, family and co-workers. Perhaps there is something on the page they find interesting. Maybe they like the Mets, Jets or Rangers? Maybe they like music? Maybe they wan’t to read something humorous? Maybe they wan’t to recap the 2008 election? It’s all here, there’s something for everyone on this blog. So what do you say? Let’s make Matt is Blogging up to the date with the year 2009. Let’s start spreading the word.

Thanks,

Matt.

Update 12:04AM

Thanks to Jack’s comment (visit his blog @ http://notaplumber.blogspot.com) we now have a name and new plan: Mattrolling. We all know “Rick Rolling” when you send someone an appealing link they are interested in only to have them see a youtube video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Well hide http://mattisblogging.wordpress.com in your links. Tell your friends it’s porn, or new article about Mariah Carey’s and Nick Canon’s baby, do whatever you need to do. Let’s hit 2009!

Ticketmaster: The Epitome of a Monopoly.

I was buying tickets to see my favorite comedy trio “Stella” last night when Ticketmaster decided give a me a fresh punch in the gut…

At this point in our lives, we are all used to the non-sensical surchage that they add on to tickets…even if you go to buy tickets in person at the arena the event is being held in. That’s bad enough. But when I went on to Ticketmaster.com last night they added a new charge: Order Processing Charge(s). What the hell is that?  They added on an extra $5.10 to my order for no apparent reason. Why do you have to charge me to process the order all of the sudden? PROCESSING THE ORDER IS PART OF YOU JOB, THAT’S WHAT THE SURCHAGE IS FOR. I’ve never had this charge before, so I am assuming this is new. 

But can I do anything about this? No, because I want to see “Stella,” I have to pay the stupid charge to get my ticket. The face value of the ticket was $27.50, but when you add on the surchage and order processing charge it comes out to $38.50. An extra $11 bucks; thats 40% of the ticket value they are adding on. This is sickening and wrong. How rich is ticketmaster from doing all of this? The consumer can’t do crap because ticketmaster sells tickets to all major events. They are a modern day monoply. They are no better than the railroad companies of the early 20th century that ripped people off because there were no other modes of transportation.

Even LiveNation is owned by Ticketmaster. As a consumer, we can’t decide to go to another ticket broker to get tickets because they are none: if we go to stubhub (which is owned by ticketmaster anyway) the prices are above face value. How are they allowed to do this to people? De-regulation much?

I demand that Ticketmaster explain these ridicolous charges in a time of economic peril. People are loosing money and Ticketmaster wants an extra $5.10 per order? They have so many transactions per day, I can’t even imagine how much they are making off this scam. But until then, I have no other way to buy tickets rather than to feed the beast of this evil monopoly.

What’s The Deal With…The Elevator At Work?

How lazy are people? You work on the 8th floor and you have to go to the 9th floor, so you take the elevator? What the hell? Why can’t you walk one freakin’ flight of stairs? How difficult is that? It’s good for you to take the stairs. It’s good cardio. Everyone on the elevator gets pissed because they have to stop on two extra floors to pick you up and drop you off. Stop being so inconsiderate. I understand that some people actually have mobility difficulty and need to use the elevator, but 98% of us do not need the elevator to go move on floor. Do they do this in other countries? Maybe in other countries people realize it’s good to walk. I mean exercise is effective in keeping stress levels low. Instead of taking the elevator one floor to get a piece of cake because your stressed, maybe you should go for a walk. I’m for the creation of elevators that refuse to stop on consecutive floors. Even if, for example, you hit the 6th floor button and someone else hit the 5th floor button. Get off on the 5th and walk, it’s healthy (before you try to shut down my idea, if three floors consecutive floors are pushed, then the elevator will stop at every other floor). And if you have mobility difficulties then you will be given like an EZ-Pass type contraption that will allow the elevator to stop at consecutive floors. We need to fight obesity, I’m tired of people taking advantage of the elevator.

The Mystery of the Metairie Mets Shirt

Sadly, the Mets AAA affiliate has left New Orleans. The cute little rat-wombat-possum thing called the Zephyr will no longer be the property of the New York Mets. New Orleans residents are devastated they have seen their favorite rarely-called-up to the majors outfielder, Ben Johnson play again (although I think he was released in the middle of the season). AAA has packed up their bags and for some reason will play their games in Buffalo next season (good luck keeping warm in early April). I understand that the Mets wanted to move their AAA team closer to New York and out of the Pacific Coast League, but Buffalo is a little extreme.

Now the New Orleans Zephyrs don’t really play in Nawlins. They play in the next town over, Metairie, Louisiana. The last time I was down in NOLA was in May for the Jazz Fest. While walking around Jazz Fest, I saw a guy wear a shirt that looks like a Mets shirt. However, instead of saying “Mets,” it said, “Metairie.” The shirt was awesome! I wanted one, and still do. When I heard the Mets wereleaving New Orleans, I immeditially thought of the shirt and went online to try and buy it. However, it is nowhere to be found. All I can find is another blog stating that it was sold at a souviner shop at Zephyr field [1].

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN BUY THIS SHIRT!?!?!?!

References:

[1]: http://blogs.trb.com/sports/custom/business/blog/2007/04/

This May Take A While…

The Mets lost today, their season is over. This means that Shea Stadium has officially closed its doors forever. I have so many emotions running through me right now. I’m crushed…I’m devastated…I’m nostalgic. The post-game ceremonies were touching and very well planned. My next post will be my goodbye to Shea Stadium. This is going to be hard for me to write and I want this to be perfect. It will take a while for me to write this. It is not going to be up for a few days, but when it is up I promise that you will want to read it. See you in a few days.

-Matt

Gee Golly Thanks!

Today marks the one week anniversary since the start of “Matt is Blogging.” Personally, this results from this week have been astounding. I have received over 350 hits in one week…wow! It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy that so many people reading this stuff. If you do the math, over 350 hits in 7 days comes out to over 50 hits per day. I can’t even get 50 people to pay attention to what I have to say in one month. Maybe this blogging thing is the most effective way to get people to pay attention to me. I have enjoyed blogging thus far. It feels good to get these ideas in text. I find myself looking froward to writing my latest entry everyday. New ideas are always popping in my head: in the car, on the train, watching tv, laying bed. I have enough ideas to last me a few weeks now. Like I said in the first post, I have a lot to say and plan on getting it all out. As long as you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

So I would like to thank everyone for visiting the site and reading. And a special thanks to those who visit the site more than once a day to increase my blog stats! Remember, add this site to your bookmarks, subscribe for updates and make sure to leave comments and feedback if you like what you see. There are many more good things to come…including new segments like the observational humor “What’s the Deal With…?”  reader polls, and my tearful goodbye to Shea Stadium. Stay tuned!

I’m Crushed…

The Mets suffered an extremely painful defeat in extra innings tonight to the Cubs. They are now tied with the Brewers for the wild card. I’m almost speechless at this point.

When Daniel Murphy hit a leadoff triple in the 9th inning, I was sure the Mets would win. Heck, I was sure the Mets were going to win the division. I even had a blog entry ready about overtaking the Phillies. Well that’s not going to happen this year. I have that first draft of that entry saved as a reminder that I should never assume success in anything. This game has left my confidence in this team shattered. How can you not get Murphy across home-plate given the circumstances? Besides that, they had the leadoff hitter in scoring position the previous two innings and could only muster one run? Are you kidding me? That’s pathetic.

Ugh. Shea doesn’t deserve this kind of sendoff. It doesn’t deserve to have its last weekend to be dreary, rainy with a team that is going to miss the playoffs.

The first post

Hi world,

Welcome to my blog “Matt is blogging.” I’ve always thought about creating a blog (because I like to give my opinions about things) but I figured that no one would ever read it. Well, I still think that but I have decided I have a lot to say and need an online account of the inner workings of my mind. If people read it…great! If they don’t read it, then they will be missing out on the most important blog in the last 20 years (The Killers reference).

So what’s this blog about? Well to answer your question, it’s about everything and nothing. There will be no limits to the blog (again stating its overimportance), but. But if you had to put a gun to my head I will say the most popular topics would be sports, music (album and concert reviews), movie reviews, politics (especially the current election which has memorized me), comedy stories and random occurrences in my life.

To point of this blog is not to entertain you. I would like for you to enjoy this blog, but that’s not why I am writing it. I am writing in order to provide my ideas and opinions a window…and maybe to educate you a little bit (yes I am now overconfident in my teaching ability). I welcome all comments, good and bad and will make all efforts to respond to you. No matter which way you comment, I am grateful and appreciative that you have decided to take time out of your day to pay attention to what I have to say.

With that said…here we go…