UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

So even though JD Drew–the Dodgers’ Right Fielder–said he would not become a free agent, ESPN reported that he opted out of his contract (and $33 million) yesterday. I could whine about team loyalty, and going back on one’s word, but then it dawned upon me that this is a blessing! Yes, $11 million for a .280+, 25HR, 100RBI guy with good defensive skills is a bargain in this day and age, but this guy is one misstep away from being shelved for the season with his gimpy knees. Also, this isn’t the first time Drew has pulled this crap; when he was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, he refused to sign with them and eventually got signed by the St. Louis Cardinals instead. So I say, good riddance to Drew and his agent, Scott Boras, and bring on the next overpaid, overrated free agent (Carlos Lee? Alfonso Soriano? Aramis Ramirez?)

(By the way, is it bad to wish a season-ending knee injury on Drew in 2007? Not that I’m bitter, or anything…)

So my fantasy football playoff hopes lie in the arm of Jon Kitna, and the hands of Chad Johnson (top 5 fantasy bust?), Donte Stallworth (a guy who has played 2 effective games this year…his first two), and Anthony Thomas (a guy who hasn’t started in 2 years). I gotta pray that Donovan McNabb forgets to show up for the game this weekend…

Can’t think of any random-ness today, so until then…happy blogging!

by Peter
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If it’s November, then why the heck is it so hot? Not that I’m complaining…I hate cold weather; but for it to be THIS warm this late in the year?

Just wait until the temps drop 20 degrees, and then I’ll be blogging about how freakishly cold it is then.

Speaking of which, where the heck did 2006 go? It feels like six months have passed since the year started, and we’re already two weeks from Thanksgiving, and less than 2 months from 2007!

K-Fed and Britney broke up for “irreconcilable differences”??? Feel free to file that divorce under the “Water is Wet, The Sky is Blue, and The Dodgers are Underachievers” portfolio.

Random-ness of the day:
- Proof that the entire sports scene in 2006 has been messed up: The Atlanta Hawks are 3-1, The Philadelphia Sixers are 3-2 (they were 3-0), The New Orleans/OK Hornets are 4-0, and the Utah Jazz are 4-1, while the Dallas Mavs, Phoenix Suns, and Detroit Pistons are a combined 3-11. I know we’re two weeks into the season, but I wonder how soon these “experts” will change their NBA Finals predictions.
- Everybody should own a powered toothbrush; these things are the greatest dental-hygiene-related invention since minty floss.
- If you buy someone a gift that had a rebate on it, how do you explain the missing UPC? I would always make the purchase, give the gift, volunteer to open it, pretend to toss the packaging, and then remove the UPC when I have the chance. But what if you bought the gift months in advance, and have to remove the UPC before giving the gift away? Oh, well I bought the item off eBay, and the darn seller didn’t tell me the UPC was removed! Do you think anyone would buy that excuse?
- Go download FireFox if you are somehow still using Internet Exploder (and, sadly, I still know people that do…)

by Peter
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“…but the only position we’re interested in is the position between (holds up fingers) there…and…there. One nano-millimeter between extremely [bleep]ing hot, and fantasticly freezing!” (Eddie Izzard in Glorious)

Does anyone have a shower head that doesn’t “lie”? Take my shower, for example. For the first couple minutes, the only way I could get anything close to lukewarm water is by turning the knob all the way to Hot. A couple minutes later, though, the water becomes unbearably hot, and the only way to get back to warm water is to turn the knob all the way to Cold. By then, all the hot water is used up, and I can’t get warm water again for a while.

By the way, Krunk notified me that the Turkish lira, which was once so weak that 1,000,000 lira was worth about a buck, is no longer the official currency of Turkey. Apparently they now use a “new” lira, (1 new lira = 1,000,000 old lira). I used to offer people 1,000,000 turkish lira to do favors for me, and I suggested that somebody should tape a Turkish version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” It’s a good thing I stopped cracking that joke…

Some more random-ness:
- Did anyone catch that televised Pop Warner football game yesterday? Wait…was that the Raiders??? What’s amazing is that, despite their awful performance yesterday, I don’t believe the Raiders are even the worst team in the league!
- Further proof that this Fantasy Football season is ridiculous: the team that was in last place in my league–he started the season a whopping 0-6–is all of a sudden tied for 6th, and only two games behind me for the last playoff spot with four to play! What’s worse is that his schedule is much more forgiving than mine, and he could theoretically win out while I lose out (case in point, I am depending on Jon Kitna–Lions’ QB–and Anthony Thomas–Bills’ RB and a non starter for years–to carry my team this week) ! Of course, it helps that he has LaDainian Tomlinson, the LeBron James of Fantasy Football.

by Peter
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So I was working on a pair of computers today. One of them was used by a friend’s kid, who uses Limewire (500 points if you see where this is going).

The system was a Celeron D (not too bad, actually), with 256MB of RAM, 16MB of which was shared! Between that and the 400+ spyware instances that I found on the computer, the system slowed to a crawl…upon boot. I gotta dig up an old 256MB stick of RAM to slap into that machine.

The other system I worked on was this friend’s business machine…and yet it contained a Celeron 2.8 and 256MB of RAM as well! I didn’t have time to service that computer, but I would imagine that system would take minutes to load up Internet Exploder as well.

I know, I know…ranting about WinXP on 256MB of RAM just weeks before Vista? I forgot to mention, the computer had a 14″ Packard Bell monitor…and a keyboard with a half-sized backspace key and extra large enter key???

In other news, I crushed my opponent in my Fantasy Football league, but I play the fifth place team next week, who’s a half-game behind me and has a pretty strong team. If I win that game, I could just about punch my ticket into the playoffs. A loss, and I’m in pretty big trouble, since I still have to play the top two teams.

Today’s random-ness:
- Ok, I was close…Farmar and Cook both scored in double figures, but neither scored 18 as I predicted. Not surprisingly, the Lakers lost. I’m wondering if Vegas has a bet on who the leading scorer would be for the Lakers when the season ends. I’d bet $20 on Lamar Odom, and a $10 longshot bet on Andrew Bynum.
- Raider Karma nearly kicked me in the butt, as I nearly lost to the Raiders in my video football season. Good thing they reverted back to the Raiders before it was too late.
- I defy anyone to tell me a better way to cook a steak than with cracked black pepper, kosher salt, and butter…which reminds me, I gotta get a cast iron skillet. And while you’re at it, tell me a better way to cook a turkey than via deep fat frying.
- Trail mix is horribly, horribly addictive. So is sleep. I’d still rather have trail mix, though.

by Peter
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I know I’ve heard of this before, but at the Samsonite Factory Store in Camarillo, CA, I finally saw, in person, a self-rotating marshmallow roaster (flame sold separately). What was hilarious was that this device was next to the battery-operated grill brush, and the automatic turning 5-hot-dog cooker (again, flame sold separately).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I own an electric razor, and a battery-operated toothbrush, and I think neither idea is a bad one; in fact, I love both inventions. I think the Roomba is a great invention as well. However, a self-rotating marshmallow roaster??? Are we that lazy nowadays to turn our skewers when one side of our roasted marshmallows are done? Or is “even roasting” of marshmallows that important to some people?

Actually…I wonder if anyone’s ever tried roasting marshmallows in a Ronco Rotisserie…

In other news, this week could make or break my Bargainshare fantasy football season. At 4-4, a win puts me in great shape to make the playoffs, while a loss puts me in great danger. Even though I’m a St. Louis Rams fan, I gotta cheer for Larry Johnson to run all over my Rams. Either that, or I gotta hope Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer gets lost on the way to his game, and Cincy’s backup QB goes off for four TDs, all to Chad Johnson or TJH (I’m not even going to try to spell his last name).

Some random-ness for today:
- From the makers of the Self-Rotating Marshmallow Roaster, we bring to you the following innovative products:
- The Restaurant Waiter Tipper
- The Luggage Carrier Pusher
- The Automatic Tie Tier
- The Halloween Candy Giver
- and my personal favorite, The Battery-Powered 4Pc Cutlery Set, featuring a self-scooping spoon, a self-pronging fork, and a self-cutting knife. Set also includes rubber gloves to avoid accidents.
- If these companies are going to make stupid inventions, can they at least make something useful? For instance, if a company made a device called The Telemarketer Telemarketer, a device that could sign up telemarketers for telemarketers, wouldn’t you buy one? The company could also make The Spammer Spammer, and make a fortune!
- The Los Angeles Dodgers of Chavez Ravine–not to be mistaken for the Los Angeles Angels Somewhere Near Garden Grove And Santa Ana, Peculiarly Located In Orange County, Not In Los Angeles County, But They Use Los Angeles In Their Team Name Anyway–are interested in signing Jason Schmidt, but they say they may not have the money to re-sign essentially a player-coach in Greg Maddux? Why don’t they just trade Chad Billingsley for Ronnie Belliard?
- Am I crazy for thinking that it’s 50-50 that Peyton Manning will win a Super Bowl ring before the Los Angeles Clippers win an NBA title?

by Peter
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Yeah, I know…100webspace? Couldn’t afford a few bucks a month for legitimate hosting? Exactly! After all, the more I see that Sharp AQUOS HDTV at Best Buy ($1200 on Black Friday), the more I can’t resist! I haven’t been this tempted to make a foolish, impulse buy since…well, yesterday. You don’t know how hard it was for me to resist this $160 Canon Powershot SD600 deal today.

By the way, I added a link to Krunk4Ever’s blog on the left. Back in college, I used to read his blog religiously (sad, huh?), so much that I jokingly referred to his blog as my #1 source of daily news.

Time for some random-ness:
- So it wasn’t Jordan Farmar today…Luke Walton decided to go off and played like an all-star. I’m going out on a limb here, and I’ll say Brian Cook is good for 18 points in the Lakers’ next game.
- The next time you play a football video game, and you’re on offense, make sure to pause the game before you leave the TV for a while. I was first down and 10 when I went to go fetch my laundry; when I returned, I was first down and 25! Basically, my video game offense was like the real-life Raiders.
- Three blog entries in two days…is that the first step towards blog-addiction?

by Peter
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So I used to love Citibank’s Credit Protector service. I’d get those $15 checks in the mail practically once a month (for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Citibank sends account holders a $15 check which, when deposited, signs the account holder up for Citibank’s Credit Protector service. As long as the service is cancelled within 30 days of depositing the check, the user is not charged, and the $15 is free to keep. The service supposedly covers you from making payments on your account should you lose your job, move, have a death in the family, or some other catastrophic event.) I used to enjoy calling customer service to cancel the Credit Protector service (the Service, from here on), coming up with lame excuses every time. Yeah, I have a sick, perverse addiction to ranting to customer service representatives.

Apparently, the Service is now harder to cancel than AOL!!! I signed up for the Service in September for the $15, which turned out to be a $15 rebate slip. I called Citi in October to cancel the Service, and was offered $50 to stay signed up at a lower cost–the Service initally was $0.85 per $100 statement balance per month, but I was offered a lower tier plan at $0.49 per $100 balance per month. I opted to do that, and, to my horror, was charged this month for the service. I called a Service rep, and apparently the new plan did not offer a 30 day trial; instead, they offered a 30 day money back guarantee. I figured, as long as I had a rep on the phone, I would go ahead and cancel it anyway.

The rep coldly said “the services are worth it, so let’s keep you on!” I said no, and the rep then offered me an even lower plan: $0.19 per $100 balance per month! I said no to that, and the rep pointed out how much money I would “save” by keeping the Service active at the lowest price. After refusing four times, I finally said “Look, I want to cancel!” The rep finally gave in, and half-heartedly wished me a good night.

I still think it was worth it for the (possibly) free $65 :-P. The best part is, I have the Service on another card that I don’t even use. I signed up for the Service on that card for a $100 rebate on gas purchases, so hopefully I can parlay that into another free $150.

At least the $15 I got from the last Service will pay for the pizza I am going to order in a minute.

Two bits of random-ness:
- Imagine if the NFL used a system like College Football’s B(S)CS, and arbitrarily picked two teams to play in the Super Bowl. If they did, Peyton Manning would be the one with three rings, and not Tom Brady. Also, a BCS-like system would reward teams that blow out the really weak teams, so every time LaDainian Tomlinson played a team like the Raiders, he’d have six TDs. That possibility, in itself, might ruin fantasy football for everybody (except those that drafted LT).
- I wonder what the cheapest Citi Credit Protector service is, and what the plan offers. Imagine if they had a $0.01/$100 statement balance/month plan…instead of suspending payments should you lose your job, Citibank will probably send you a “Get Well Soon” card.

by Peter
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So I have finally joined the ranks of those online who have their own blog…

I had planned on creating my own blog over a year ago, as a place to rant and rave (mostly rant) about poker hands. Of course, the recent passing of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) has really curtailed by ability to play any online poker. In fact, I believe I have only $30 in online poker accounts (suffering bad beats at the 0.05/0.10 limit tables don’t hurt that much, to tell you the truth).

So what’s the purpose of this blog? Who knows? At least it’ll give me something to do when I’m not retro-gaming, deal hunting, sleeping, or donking off nickels at UltimateBet.

(By the way, when did these $0.99 bags of chips get so small? I’m munching on some Kettle Cooked Jalapeno chips, and I’ve gone through half the bag already, and I don’t recall eating more than 5 chips!!!)

Some random-ness:
- I can’t stand the 167.5 hours between episodes of The Office, and that’s assuming there’s a new episode next week…I had to wait 335.5 hours for Thursday’s episode.
- Andrew Bynum scored 19 points in the Lakers’ first game…and Ronny Turiaf scored 23 in their second. If Jordan Farmar scores 20+ in the Lakers’ third game, I am declaring the 06-07 Lakers Phil Jackson’s best coaching job ever.
- I was trying to figure out if Sony was going to continue naming their PlayStation consoles by numbers, or if they were going to go the route of Intel and start confusing the hell out of consumers. I can’t wait for ten years from now, when the Sony Playstation Dual Core gaming console comes out, fresh off the heels of the successful Sony Playstation D. Speaking of which, will the PlayStation 10 be called the PSX? PS10 just sounds stupid.
- To demonstrate how much of a retro-gamer I am, I am waiting for the PS4 (PSIV?) to come up, so I can finally pick up a cheap PS2.
- I can’t wait for Daylight Savings to begin again…starting next year, Daylight Savings will begin a month earlier than usual, and end a month later!
- And finally, why didn’t schoolyard pick up games require team captains to pick their players like in a fantasy draft? For example, one guy should get to pick first, and the other guy should get to pick the next two players, then the first guy should get to pick the next two, etc.

That’s all I’ve got for now…happy blogging!

by Peter
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