The first time I read about something tiling an entire room with pennies, it was a tattoo/body art shop somewhere. I thought it was kind of cool, definitely different, and at least something constructive involving those worthless ass fucking pennies.

Then I found this story, about a Chicago couple who tiled their whole bedroom floor with pennies. Sigh. See, it starts off as something cool, then the hipsters get their hands into it, and it all starts turning to shit.

The chick wasn't entirely sure about the idea, then she came home and he had started without her, so it was 'I guess we're doing it,' according to the chick from the article. Allow me to throw a flag on the play for bullshit. I can't even change a channel without clearance from my significant other, let alone start a major, time-consuming (the article said this took four months), and expensive (little over a grand) home improvement project without an 'okay' or a thumbs up. This chick in the article sounds like the kind who just rolls over wordlessly and bites the pillow when he comes in wearing his gimp mask.

So, after four months of putting down special glue, putting down the pennies one by one, sanding it down a bit, and applying a clear coat to cement everything down, they finished the floor you see in the above pic. You can see more photos, learn more about the project, and maybe even read an interview with some of the loose change involved at ThePennyFloor.com

An estimated 59,670 pennies were used to completely cover the floor, including some rare finds, like a 1944 WWII 440 steel penny, and a 1873 Indian head penny, either of which were worth enough to cover the cost of the project.

Allow me to throw yet another flag for bullshit, this time pretentious bullshit. You find rare coins, valuable enough to cover the tab for this shiny happy bedroom quest, and you just glue them down, sand them up, and clear coat them for all eternity? That's just stupid. That's like cutting a fine painting from a frame cause you want the painting for an edgy collage you're working on. Where's your sense of history, just trashing rare antiquities for use as floor tiling? The chick said it had turned into a fun party game, where they challenge guests to find the rare ones.

*Facepalm* See, that's how it starts...a couple of drinks, then you are face down on someone's bedroom floor, looking for rare coins as someone enters wearing a gimp mask. See a penny, pick it up for luck, indeed...

Ah yes- the kind of Sunday where I really didn't accomplish a whole lot...at least not yet. The recent unseasonably warm spell we've had in the Ohio Valley has left, bring high 30s and rain in its wake. Guess it had to get back to January eventually. As long as precipitation, wet or fluffy, is not falling from the skies, I could get more worked up about other things...

And then there were four...Atlanta will host San Francisco to decide the National Football Conference Champion, and New England vs. Baltimore will try to keep Ray Lewis' career alive one more week when they head to Foxboro to face New England in the AFC Championship Game. I want to go with Atlanta, although they are hardly a safe playoff bet. Sure, they did get the monkey off their back (and finally secure future Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez a playoff win), but I somehow doubt they got it in them twice in a row, and I doubt I am alone in that. Also, the 49ers are in my division, and for that, fuck 'em. San Francisco has gone as far as they need to go. I gotta take Baltimore over New England, but I'd take Rhode Island School for the Blind's JV over New England. Yes, I am a hater. It's football, fucking deal with it...

Saw a headline from USA Today's website on the Golden Globes: Jennifer Lawrence's bust is a bust. Something about her dress or some shit. This is why I don't particularly pay much attention to award shows.

Lawrence, who has been racking up nominations and awards almost the second her career started, picked up the Golden Globe for actress in a motion picture comedy or musical for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. She even managed a great line in her thank-yous: "Harvey (Weinstein), thank you for killing whoever you had to kill to get me up here today!"

But tomorrow morning, I'll bet a quarter of the radio hosts and entertainment bloggers will be continuing to ask "what's up with Jennifer Lawrence's tits?" Then again, I don't want to speculate what percentage of the Internet is already dedicated to the subject of Jennifer Lawrence's tits...

Since my fiance has a criminal justice degree (and continuing forward with her studies), we watch a lot of Discovery ID. They way they rotate a lot of their stuff, we see quite a bit of stuff on stalking. Friends stalking friends, exes stalking exes, strangers stalking strangers, the whole gamut. One could then imagine my surprise and amusement to learn today that January is National Stalking Awareness Month. I know, every month is a thousand National something or other months.

As I inevitably tweeted: 5:36 PM - 13 Jan 13 ‏@thomaskeister January is National Stalking Awareness Month, but you just now found out because it was hiding in your bushes wearing a helmet cam...

Since you too are probably just now learning of National Stalking Awareness Month despite it's basically being half over already, either good job staying on guard or nice job letting your apathy work for you.

I can't imagine the number is very high at all, but I learned today that apparently you can die while Zorbing.

One man was killed and another seriously injured when the zorb they were riding in veered off course and plummeted off a rock ledge near Mount Mussa-Achitara in southern Russia. The slope at the Dombai ski resort was not properly set up for this type of activity, and violated every safety rule, according to Sergei Loginov, deputy director of Z-orb.ru, the largest supplier of zorbs in Russia. This was confirmed by an eight-minute video shot by a friend on the phone of Denis Burakov, who died in the accident.

As the zorb heads down the hill, it bounced from its intended course and headed straight for a rocky ledge. A man at the bottom of the hill tried and failed to catch the zorb...and off it went. Both men were ejected from the zorb and wound up about thirty feet apart after rolling a mile or so down the ledge. Burakov suffered serious spinal injuries and died on the way to the hospital, and his friend Vladimir Shcherbakov suffered a concussion and other injuries and remains hospitalized.

As federal investigators inspected the Dombai resort, the emergencies minster demanded stricter enforcement of safety rules for winter sports. According to an Emergencies Ministry spokeman, 20 to 30 tourists die every year in the North Caucasus ski resorts, down from "hundreds" of people a year until new regulations took effect in 2006. The regulations have been effective, according to the ministry, but at the same time, local officials will often look the other way if it means bringing in additional revenue to their communities. Because we all know all reliable Russian safety rules are...

Yes, indeed...if it weren't for fucked up European and Third World tourist attractions, there would be a definite shortage of people hurting themselves on video for us to laugh at.

I mean, in all honesty, is it incidents like this that will ultimately prevent zorbing from becoming an Olympic, or even an X Games event? Nah, it's because zorbs are bouncy castles for people who want the Jackass experience without getting covered in strange waste. I wonder how many zorbing enthusiasts envision themselves hurtling down that hillside in England chasing that fucking wheel of cheese...

See this fucking guy? See this idiot? This brainless jerk-off got faced off the duty free liquor he had on him, according to a fellow passenger on the Icelandair flight from Iceland to New York City, and this is how bad he got.

I've heard of in-flight justice, but I thought that was just a taser from a flight marshal highly pissed someone just interrupted that flick with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. They hogtied him with plastic tie-offs and taped his ass to the seat. Even cooler, Icelandair confirmed that plastic ties and tape are standard on board flights for just such incidents, if need be.

This all started after the 46-year-old wingnut tried to choke the woman next to him and screaming that the plane was going to crash, because we all know how well people respond to that kind of nonsense anymore. The above picture is the result. After being escorted off the plane by police at JFK, the guy was taken to a local hospital. However, according to Port Authority of New York & New Jersey spokesman Ron Marsico: “He was not charged ... he’s free to go.”

What the hell is that? How the hell do you get drunk, disrupt a flight, and not get charged? Did this guy buy the optional in-flight diplomatic immunity from SkyMall or something? I call major bullshit. I'm not a very good flyer, so I think I can speak for a good portion of the flyers out there when I say each and every passenger oughta get a free shot if someone's gotta be taped down. One free shot right in the chops. I'm sure the odds of that happening could make a few people forget about some of the fees and other bullshit associated with air travel these days...

Well, that didn't take long at all. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), pictured at left, voted against a $9.7 billion relief package for Hurricane Sandy victims. Rep. Palazzo has represented his Gulf Coast district, one of the harder hit by Hurricane Katrina, since 2011.

To be clearer, Palazzo joined 66 other Republicans in voting "no" on the relief package, which passed without any problem at all. The 67 "no" votes cast by Republicans constituted the only opposition to the legislation. A yeshole from Palazzo issued a statement in which the congressman hopes the debate over Hurricane Sandy aid will spark a "national discussion on disaster relief reform."

Fantastic. Simply...fantastic. Crap like this kind of puts the Party of No stuff to bed, doesn't it? So, Rep. Palazzo hopes the debate will lead to a national discourse on disaster relief reform? Great, but if I may be so bold, how about you help the disaster first, then we can come back around to talking about reform, for whatever the hell good you think that's going to do. My question for Rep. Palazzo now has to be since you apparently do not feel comfortable voting for hurricane relief with the current systems and processes in place, why don't you spearhead the charge for this reform you apparently believe is so important?

Back on December 29, as the year was winding down and I was making my New Year's plans, I posted the following remark to my Facebook fan page:

"Next time you hear someone bitch about Congress, the Senate, or the rest of our do-nothing federal government, keep this number in mind: 10% approval rating means nothing if 91% of the incumbents are reelected."

Sure would have been nice if that had gone viral. Yesterday, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio was reelected as speaker of the House, and as expected, Republicans have again chosen Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia to be majority leader and Democrats have again chosen Pelosi to be minority leader. The more things change, huh, people?...

So what does the newly sworn 113th Congress have in store for us? I mean, the previous Congress was the least productive in history (or at least since 1948, when they start keeping track of this stuff), so it's not like the new Congress even really has to try that hard to outdo their predecessors. All the political posturing failed to really accomplish a damn thing, other than constructing fake procedural disaster with deadlines to ignore, and you have to wonder if they still can't figure out why they didn't win the White House. It's been like a Mexican stand-off where no one's even got enough in them to load the freaking gun.

And even more importantly, you have to wonder why the hell they are going to go ahead and use the same damn playbook for another two fucking years.

Probably because 91% of them will probably be reelected, and as a result, we're 100% boned.

According to an article on the KTAR (92.7 Phoenix) website, some experts say bad language plays a role in about four out of every ten firings. Interesting. From my best recollection, my data shows that bad language has played a role in roughly like nine, nie and a half per ten of my firings.

Theresa Maher of Jobing.com also mentioned in the article that your choice of words can damage your chances of moving up the ladder at your job.That sounds right, although in my case, it was usually because when I talked, management got intimidated as fuck because they just realized the potential to replace them was in the room.

Maher also warns that profanity could lead to worse than firing, possibly legal issues if the matter makes it to the human resources department. Sage advice, because you will be hard-pressed to find an HR department that wouldn't knot their panties over a ripe enough remark. Me, I was lucky enough to find a company (a company with an international presence and workforce) lazy enough not to care, since they were too lazy to attempt running the company competently. Then again, they have since went out of business, so that point's moot.

In other words, if you are on the clock, watch your fucking mouth. If you are around the bosses, watch your fucking mouth, stupid. If you are self-employed, then know there will still, obviously, be situations where you should watch your fucking mouth. If that sounds too hard, then your dumbass better get used to the shitty end of the stick.

Well, something told me it wouldn't take long for Death to start racking up a ridiculous body count. Hell, from the looks of things, Death just couldn't wait for the ball to drop...

I mean, you know your life is not exactly breaking the way you want it when your New Year's Eve winds up with the actual headline: Sister, 19, accidentally shoots dead brother in the head while posing with gun for Facebook picture. In Phoenix, Arizona, 19-year-old Savannah Ramirez accidentally shot and killed her brother, 22-year-old Manuel Ortiz during a New Year's Eve celebration.

The incident occurred around 6am when Ramirez, Ortiz, and two friends arrived to the home Ramirez and Ortiz shared when one of the friends pulled a gun. Not because there was trouble or anything, but you know, because it's a party and all, which naturally means you gotta pose with the gun, because how else are they going to know you're gangsta on Facebook or Twitter? As Ramirez fooled around the gun went off, striking Ortiz in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the article, it mentions that both Ortiz and Ramirez's Facebook pages feature several photos of them posing with guns and making gang symbols. Indeed. Score one for the Dumbening...(Mortal Kombat voice) Fatality. Ramirez was questioned and released pending further police investigation, which in all likelihood means waiting for the blood tests to come back. Phoenix Police Sgt. Steve Martos said Ramirez would likely be charged with manslaughter if tests conclude she had alcohol in her system.

And remember people, this was at six o'clock in the morning...Death was anxious to get at 'em in 2013. got a little excited, and gave us one last stupid death of the year, just in the nick of time.

I was sitting at my desk, acting in my role as co-host of Inside the Squared Circle, Free Rein Media's long-running pro wrestling news & analysis show when I started typing this up. Myself, analyst Dusty Cheeva, and host Darrell Mays were discussing how the year in mainstream professional wrestling looks for 2013 to kick off the seventh season, and I gotta say, I'm not overly hopeful.

As I mentioned on the show, I want to see wrestling get back from the point where a push does not mean simply feuding with Chris Jericho on Twitter. The bottom line is, the business has gotten lazy as fuck, and it shows in the product, the ratings, and in the stock price. There doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence in favor of WWE or TNA making any changes in the upcoming calendar year, and that's infuriating as both a fan and a businessman.

For WWE, if it hasn't become painfully obvious the boat's still afloat, but has taken on far too much water, then the executives, real and storyline, need a serious re-education. You should be destroying TNA Impact!, yet you are playing down to their level. An expanded three-hour format should have been a gamechanger, yet the ratings have only lost ground, and dissatisfaction with the PG era is growing by the minute. Yes, Vince, we have all figured out Linda is not going to win a seat in the U.S. Senate anytime soon, so put that expensive hobby and the PG boondoggle to rest. You made money hand over fist with the Attitude era, and there was nothing even then that could be considered that far out of bounds, not with the current crop of reality television we get.

Maybe WWE Network could have a show where Hornswoggle tries to raise pit bulls. I wouldn't tune in, except maybe for the episode where he gets fatally mauled. Ah, to daydream...

TNA? TNA Impact has been so bad lately I haven't even bothered watching it, but suffice to say, if Brooke Hogan's career is now resting on TNA, then TNA is a straw away from having its back broken. Everyone expected miracles from Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, but the more time drags on (and when last I saw TNA, time was sure as fuck dragging), two things become obvious:

1. Hulk Hogan may have been a great draw, even a great performer at one time, but the bottom line, plain and simple, is he stinks on ice having sway in creative. It's like Bart Starr- legendary quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, legendarily awful in eight seasons as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Glory doesn't regenerate itself like growing a tail back, it has to be maintained.

2. Eric Bischoff. Yeah, I read his book. Hell, I watched him do those cheesy old-school ringside interviews on AWA Wrestling when they were on ESPN when I got home from school in the 1980s, so I know the guy paid his dues, and then he earned a rep as a genius, and rightfully so, when he put WCW on the map. Same kind of story here, people. Just because your name meant something once upon a time, it doesn't exactly mean the same results every time. There is an expression in wrestling about going to the well one time too many. Bischoff brought the well with him when TNA came calling. Whatever water's left has grown stagnant and unpalatable, yet Bischoff expects you to drink it with a smile, and at the end of the day, he can't figure out why everyone is still thirsty.

Lord knows I'm still thirsty, in spite of everything that was dished up to me last year. I actually had to sit down and make watching RAW, SmackDown, and Impact in 2013 a New Year's resolution. Lord knows I'll probably see another year's worth of John Cena main eventing every thing shy of a Divas pillow fight battle royal, or more whatever the fuck those storylines from TNA are supposed to be.