The Price Doesn't Have to be Right

On a Wednesday morning four years ago I made my way up the 405 from Laguna to LA to stand in line for "The Price is Right." I had a plan. An ingenious plan. If I could just get a yellow price tag with my name it, and impress the producers enough to call my name to "come on down," I was certain to make it on stage and spin that wheel. If the first four people on contestants row just make a pact to overbid each other by $1 every time it guarantees them all a chance at the wheel! Brilliant, right? Well my ingenious plan didn't account for the 405 morning traffic and I was 2 hours late, and the 255th person on standby to get inside.

The Perfect Kayak for You

I was recently asked by two completely different demographics of people for kayak purchasing advice, and my response was exactly the same to both. Whether you are married or single, a man or woman, physically fit or obese, on the ocean or on a farm - the Malibu 2XL Ocean Kayak is the perfect kayak for you. It is a long tandem kayak that can comfortably seat 2 adults plus a child in between, and can also be paddled solo on a calm creek or in 20ft swells. I bought mine from AustinKayak.com and couldn't be happier with my purchase. They even offer a bundled package on sale with seats, paddles and life jackets all delivered directly to your door. It's a great deal and the best grand I ever spent.

Surviving Survivor

It always amazes me that contestants on the reality TV series "Survivor" can't keep cool long enough to make it to "the merge." It's the only thing you need to do to survive longer than half of your competitors. Maybe I am just speaking for myself, as a level-headed long-fuse - and granted the producers cast the most dramatic personalities they can find - but for a million dollars? C'mon! Then again, I do get pretty cranky when I haven't eaten.

Should I Buy an iPad?

Hm... some background on how I use my iPad might help.

I've had mine for just over a year now. At first, I used my iPad for everything - read, write, consume and create. I never even turned on my computer at home (though I still needed a PC between 9 and 5). My iPad was my coolest newest toy.

It is not anymore.

Today, I have found the perfect balance between iPad, computer(s), AND iPhone. This is a key point, because if you don't have an iPhone (or smartphone for that matter) you will use the iPad more often and much differently than I do.

Today, I use my iPad almost exclusively to consume: read news, check Facebook and Twitter, surf the web, do research (aka Google stuff), and shop online. If I didn't have an iPhone I would probably use it to listen to music (iPod, Audible and Pandora) and watch movies (iPod, Netflix, Hulu, Slingbox and YouTube) as well. And I don't read many books, but if I did, I am sure I would use it for that as well (Amazon just announced a milestone that they are now selling more eBooks than print books).

The iPad is not a great tool for creating: typing is awkward, functions aren't intuitive, apps don't exist, and file management is a mess. If you want to write documents, edit spreadsheets, create presentations, or edit photos and movies, your computer will still be your main tool (though the iPad can add some cool new features to this process). I will say that my iPad has completely replaced pens and notepads in my life - which I used to have beside my bed, on the fridge, and on my desk. At the office, I ONLY need my iPad for meetings - no need for a laptop or a notepad, and it often comes in handy to quickly look something up that someone forgot to bring or wanted to know.

I can't really speak to how you might use it, because our lives are likely so different, but as a multi-tasking millennial and early-adopter of all technology, I love my iPad. It has simplified and and streamlined so many processes in my life - and am quickly nearing a time and place where, like my iPhone, I can't imagine living without it.

May the Fourth Be With You

May 4th is Star Wars Day. And this year, fanboys around the world anxiously awaited a “big” announcement from George Lucas and co. This was going to be the “Luke, I am your father” of announcements. A Jabba the Hutt-sized surprise. It turned out to be a Jar Jar Binksish disappointment - the Star Wars trilogies were coming to Blu-ray in September - old news to anyone with an Amazon.com account or any blog-reading cinephile or techie.

In the days leading up to Star Wars Day - aka May 2nd and 3rd - my mind was optimistically pod-racing with ideas. Was George going to announce he’d finished the script for Episode 7? Was the live-action TV series finally coming to FOX this fall? Did he decide to release the original films, un-re-mastered? Maybe the films were finally going to be available as an official iTunes digital download - instead of ripping your copies with HandBrake or downloading the files via LimeWire? I would have even been more excited about an official timeline for the 3-D re-releases in theaters. But once again, as per usual with the Star Wars universe lately, I found myself - as many fanboys did - disappointed. Fingers crossed for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game!

555-FILK

Thank you Cosmo Kramer! You inspired me.

In an episode of “Seinfeld” titled “The Pool Guy,” Kramer receives numerous “wrong number” phone calls, and soon learns that his new phone number (555-3455 or 555-FILK) is just one number off of the MovieFone phone number (555-3456 or 555-FILM). He embraces this ironic mishap, and becomes an uninformed movie critic, advising random people whether to see or skip the movies currently playing in theaters.

Student Athletes Should Be Paid

After watching last night’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” I side with Jason Whitlock and most of the roundtable (except former Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez - surprise, surprise, as I am a Buckeye) that the NCAA system is broken and corrupt. Not only are the student athletes “employees” driving a billion dollar “business,” they are also the “product” being sold for 100% profit. The argument that they are already being“paid” with an education in the form of scholarships is not valid because half of these “student” athletes aren’t prepared to use this “payment” and are never graduating. So the question is, what is a valid payment? The issue is obvious, the solution is not. But I have faith that the men and women running these higher educational systems are smart enough to find an answer to this growing problem. Hopefully they will prove that their million dollar higher education salaries are valid payments for their “knowledge.”

My First Ryan-Pratt.com Blog Entry

It’s 1:53am and I can’t sleep because Ally is on a cruise. So I just rebuilt my entire website from the ground up. Check it out at www.Ryan-Pratt.com

Speaking of Worried Moms and Opening Straws on Windows

Hey Listers,

I can’t believe it, but its three years since LAL launched! After three years its pretty hard to come up with new topics every month for this newsletter. So I started asking readers for topics - but not just one topic, thats too typical, ordinary, and simple - instead I decided to ask readers for the most random topics they could think of, and I would pick out two completely random ones to try and tie together. Without further adieu, these weeks topics are “worried moms” and “opening fast food straws”:

Everyone has a mom. And every mom worries. And though every mom may not sweat the small stuff, every mom has, had, or does worry. It’s funny how universal these statements are, “everyone has a mom” and “every mom worries”. They’re like “the sky is blue” and “the grass is green”. Despite these universal truths, that seem so obvious to some, not everyone has wrapped their mind around this fact. In fact, this is something you won’t truly realize until you’re a mom (or dad) yourself.

Speaking of worried moms - Summer Vacations and Senior Trips are right around the corner! And just like Spring Break, summer isn’t just about students with worried moms that make their children call them every night to make sure they aren’t jumping from balconies into pools or neighboring rooms. Summer is still for all ages! Now it might not be as exciting as it used to be, you don’t get 3 months off to do nothing by the pool or take that laid back summer job. But summer is still the time when the weather gets warmer and you take a week of vacation, the seasonal winter blues have officially worn off, Spring rain showers come and go, and it’s time to get back in shape for bikinis and bathing suits.

Ugh. Bathing suits. To many, “bathing suits” can be a completely terrifying and dreadful word. It’s unfortunate. Too many people feel this way! And it’s all because people with no self-discipline order two too many dollar double-cheeseburgers at the fast food drive-thru.

You know what my sister’s favorite thing to do with those fast food straws the second they hand it through the window? Lightly pound (I know, that’s like Jumbo Shrimp) it on the car window, rip off the top, and blow the remaining nine-tenths of that straw directly in my still-somehow-unprepared-to-dodge-this-paper-bullet face. By the way, my sister just turned 40! Happy Birthday Sis!

Lists Hidden in This Newsletter

Homemade Recipe Card Holder for Mom

Top Ten 80s Songs Mom and Dad Hated

Top 10 Ideas for Husbands on Mother's Day

Elvis was a Mamma's Boy: Famous Mother Trivia

Ten Songs That Mom and Dad Hated in the 90s

Summer Solstice: How and Why Seasons Change

Top 10 Holidays We Don't Have Off - BUT SHOULD!

Worst Fast Food You Can Eat

Top 10 Healthiest Fast Food Choices

The Funniest Collection of Oxymorons - Made by YOU

ListAfterList Updates and Reminders

Have you tried the new search on LAL powered by Google? It is much more effective. Now you can think of LAL as a place of reference, instead of just a website where you can find randomly cool stuff and interesting trivial lists. Find a bucket list of a die-hard sports fan, or the list of 5 NFL teams that haven't played in the Super Bowl. Even try using LAL when you are looking for cheap do-it-yourself Mother's Day gift idea for Mom (i.e. Homemade Kitchen Pot for Mom).

If there is anything you would like to see on ListAfterList, let us know. And, if you have any friends who might enjoy ListAfterList, let us know that too.

Your Fellow Lister,

Ryan Pratt

Editor

www.ListAfterList.com

LAL Newsletter: Twenty Tens Don't Make Two-Thousand

It's 2010. And whether you call it twenty-ten or two-thousand ten the decade is over.

A lot has happened in the last ten years. And though we don't yet have a name for it - 2000s? Aughties? Double-Zeros? 2-Ks? - it was a memorable and historically significant period of time.

Do you realize that social networks just popped up around 6 years ago, and that was Friendster, which barely exists anymore. Ten years ago Facebook and Twitter didn't even exist. In 2000, most people weren't carrying around cell phones - let alone iPhones and smartphones. Laptops were the smartphones of today. And do you realize it was ten full years ago, on January 1, 2000, that we were worried about Y2K?!

Then in 2001, the world changed forever with terrorist attacks on 9/11.

In 2002, I was just graduating high school! And slightly less culturally significant, Kelly Clarkson won the first ever season of American Idol. But even more shocking, do you realize that McDonald's first launched its Dollar Menu in October of 2002?!

In 2003, Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to take home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Monster's Ball.

In 2004, the first licensed gay marriage occurred in the United States. Followed by the release of Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ" which portrayed the God-born-flesh more as man than many were comfortable with.

It was all the way back in 2005 that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

On May 27, 2006, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt was born. And her highly-sought-after first photos were sold for a reported $4.1 million.

It was in 2007, that baseball's Mitchell Report was released, souring the names of many of the sport's biggest stars, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Later that year Bonds would break Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record. Sports in general had a rough year, with the Tim Donaghy scandal in the NBA, Tour de France and Lance Armstrong doping rumors, the Patriots spygate reports, and Michael Vick's dog-fighting suspension from the NFL.

In 2008, already 2 full years ago, the Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and the first African-American became the President of our country.

And it was just last year, in 2009, a cultural icon for nearly 5 decades, Michael Jackson, died, and in doing so, took down one of the world's most relied on, and trusted sources, Google.


Lists Hidden in This Newsletter
"It was the Best of Times, it was the Worst of Times" and Other Quotes From "A Tale of Two Cities"
10 Animals That Might Be Extinct in 10 Years
Best Reasons to Join a Social Network
How to Extend Your Laptop Battery Life
Some Common Myths about 9-11
List of "American Idol" Winners
Ten Actresses to Win an Oscar for Playing a Hooker
Most Controversial Video Games Ever
Costliest Hurricanes of All-Time
Most Expensive Celebrity Photos
Top 10+ Nicknames for Steroids?
Michael Vick's List of Screw-ups
Top 10 QBs in Madden 10
Who is the Worst U.S. President Ever?
List of Famous Last Words