UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

- Quick thought: does it count as “found money” (you know, like when you find $20 in your jeans pocket right before doing the laundry) when you receive a rebate check for an item you purchased, but you completely forgot that you filed in the first place?

I think so. I just “found” a $10 rebate check today! W00t!

- Don’t you hate it when you spend hours trying to get something to work, and then you realize that you’re not going to get anywhere close to a full return on investment once the darn thing works?

Yeah, me too.

I’ve been trying to get this K-World PVR-TV2800U working on any of my four computers. I got this thing working before, about a year ago, but that was on a laptop that I no longer own.

(Tangent: Why am I doing this? To tell you the truth, I’m not sure. In fact, I forgot I had this thing until I dug it out of my junk computer part drawer. I guess I couldn’t resist the challenge…)

To put it bluntly, getting this thing to work was an absolute nightmare. First of all, the K-World drivers are known to be awful; they crash a lot, and that’s assuming you can even get the drivers properly installed. Even with the drivers installed, it seems that there’s a good chance that the hardware won’t even start up properly (which is exactly what happened to me).

I used four different versions of the driver for this piece of crap…er…hardware: the version included with the item (it took me a while just to locate the CD), and three others I found online. I tried all four versions, even uninstalling and rebooting before I installed a new version, and I got nowhere!

Several HOURS later (5,000 points to me for being stubborn enough to stick to the project), I ran into some trouble with an installation step; at this point, I had no idea which version of the driver I was using. I was forced to reboot, and somehow, someway, the darn thing worked!

(Of course, right?)

Several hours invested, and I’m not 100% sure why I wanted to install this piece of garbage in the first place. All I know for sure is that I’m never going to get enough utility out of the device to warrant investing as much time as I did trying to get it to work.

- (thanks Krunk) Here’s a list of seven “nasty” grammatical errors that commonly befall bloggers.

(This is actually the second list; the first list can be found here.)

The errors:

- Loose v. Lose: I can’t stand it when people screw this up!
- Me, Myself, and I (using I instead of me): Guilty. I’ve done this on occasion.
- Different than vs. Different from: Ditto.
- Improper Use of the Apostrophe: Jim Lampley, guest hosting on The Jim Rome Show, said it best, in regards to the misuse of apostrophes. Paraphrasing, he said that if the misuse of apostrophes might as well lead to anarchy and the total destruction of society.

(Yeah, a bit of a stretch there…)

- Parallelism (verb forms/tenses): Guilty. All the freaking time, at that.
- i.e. v e.g.: Guilty, though I try to minimize my errors using these terms simply by not using them whenever I can.
- Could of, would of, should of: I cannot believe people actually make this mistake! These errors rile me up more than the rest of the list combined!!!

In poker, when you go hand after hand without getting much, you’re considered card-dead. I guess you can say I’m word-dead.

Until next time.

by Peter
No Comments »

- Citibank notified me, about a month ago, that they were upgrading my existing Citibank Dividend Platinum Select (1% cash back, 2% at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, convenience stores, and utilities including cable) to a Citi Dividend World MasterCard (same as above, but with Retail Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, and Price Protection). To do this, they had to close my existing account and issue a new card, with a new account number.

That was all fine and dandy, but they closed my account on the same day that my cell phone bill was to be auto-paid! Fortunately, I found that out early enough in the day to make a payment with another credit card.

Worse, Citi told me that I would get a new card within two weeks of the closure of the old account. Two weeks passed, and I got a package in the mail from Citibank. It was my “welcome kit,” containing a ton of documentation, but no credit card! It turns out, the welcome kit said that I would be getting my card in another week or so! Of course, I find this out one day before my cable bill was to be auto-paid.

Thanks, Citibank.

- So the NBA Draft was held yesterday, and there are some clear winners, as well as clear losers. Since I’m in a bit of a food coma–Korean BBQ, again–here are my quick thoughts about the draft results.

• Even though I predicted it a couple of days ago, I was a bit surprised that Atlanta took Horford and Law at #3 and #11, respectively. That being said, I don’t blame Atlanta for not trading these two picks for Amare Stoudemire, as rumored. I’d take my chances with Horford, who should be a double-double machine, and Law, who should be the Hawks’ starting PG for years to come.
• Boston, what were you thinking? You’d rather have a 32-year-old, injury prone shooting guard (even if it IS Ray Allen) than the #5 pick (Brewer? Noah? Yi?)? Yeah, you got Seattle to take Wally off your hands, but you also threw in Delonte West?!? At least you guys also got Glen Davis, right?
• I like the Zach Randolph trade…for Portland. They needed to clear the logjam up front, they got rid of a locker room cancer in the process, and they got Channing Frye as well! Yeah, they had to take on Steve “Chemistry Killer” Francis as well, but they could just buy out his deal. Meanwhile, I thought Isiah was done taking on bad contracts and poisonous (to a team’s chemistry) players.
• The Jason Richardson to Charlotte deal is great for Golden State. I thought it was terrible at first, but the more I thought about it, the more impressed I was by the deal. They get an interesting prospect in Brandan Wright, they no longer have to (over)pay for Jason Richardson, and they get a $10 million trade exception! Could a KG-to-GS deal be in the works? Not likely, but one can dream, right? Meanwhile, at least Charlotte now has a big time player on their roster otherwise filled with young players.
• I can’t believe the Clippers got Al Thornton. I can’t believe Julian Wright fell all the way to New Orleans.
• I can’t believe Aaron Afflalo actually got drafted in the first round. Same with Alando Tucker.
• I can’t believe Gabe Pruitt, Marcus Williams, Nick Fazekas, and Glen Davis dropped into the second round. I also can’t believe some GM didn’t pick Josh McRoberts in the first round.

Of course, the really BIG draft story is the Los Angeles Lakers! They got a superstar guard in the making, a superstar Chinese player, and Gasol!

(OK, so that superstar guard in the making is years away from doing anything, AND he can’t shoot. In addition, the Chinese player is NOT Yi, and the Gasol is Pau’s younger, fatter brother, Marc.)

How has Kobe not issued a YouTube-exclusive video, totally trashing the entire Laker organization? Why didn’t the Lakers take a flyer on Jason Smith in the first round? How about Chris Richard out of Florida instead of Sun Yue? And Marc Gasol? They might as well have gone for Aaron Gray.

The Lakers better hurry and trade Kobe, or they’re only going to get 30 cents on the dollar in any Kobe trade.

More draft thoughts to come later, as they come to me. Damn food coma.

That’s all for today.

by Peter
1 Comment »

It looks like the second half of my poker story might have to wait another day, as well as my NBA Draft Thoughts.

Hell, that could be two separate blog entries.

(I suppose my readers that aren’t sports fans will like that.)

BTW, I just realized that the Fourth of July is going to be on a Wednesday this year! I can’t wait! Barbecues, fireworks, booze, tons of food, and family (I guess).

Also, since the Fourth is going to be on a Wednesday, that means employers will have to deal with seven straight business days of little or no productivity:

* We all know nobody does any real work on Fridays.
* The same goes for Mondays.
* Next Tuesday precedes the Fourth, so workers will treat that as a Friday.
* Thursday follows the Fourth, so that is like a Monday.
* Then, of course, there’s Friday, and the following Monday.

In that case, enjoy the nine-way “weekend”

- I’ve got so many TV shows to watch! In no particular order, here is the list: CSI Season 7, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (yeah, one day, I plan on watching ALL episodes of this show), The Riches, and Psych. Worse, that list will probably grow as I continue to find shows to add.

Too many shows, and not nearly enough time to watch everything. Maybe I should just stop sleeping.

(It IS a nine day weekend, after all…)

- So the reigning Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Champion, Takeru Kobayashi, is doubtful with an arthritic jaw (or, if this was a for a football game, his injury would read Kobayashi (doubtful, jaw)).

I don’t know what the best part of this story is. Is it the fact that there’s speculation that Kobayashi is ducking his biggest “rival,” Joey Chestnut? Is it the fact that the six-time hot dog eating champion is in danger of not even being able to defend his crown? Or is it the fact that ESPN is comparing this injury to “like Tiger Woods tearing his rotator cuff, or LeBron James blowing out his knee”?

I wonder where the “sport” of gluttony…er…competitive eating now ranks in terms of popularity here in the States. It sure sounds like competitive eating has passed hockey. Has it passed baseball as well?

I’m sure many people have already covered this, but how is an American, being part of the fattest nation in the world, not the champion of competitive eating??? And how are there not more big-boned Americans involved in this sport? When will colleges start offering scholarships to individuals that want to pursue competitive eating?

If this idea hasn’t been patented yet, I’m going to create the World Series of Competitive Eating: a 14-day affair, being held in a Vegas buffet, with each event involving a different food. Or how about the World Competitive Eating Federation? We can break it down to different weight classes, and even introduce Tag Team Competitive Eating. Like in wrestling, you could tag in your partner whenever you need a break! How is this not a good idea?

Does anyone have Vince McMahon’s phone number?

Until next time!

by Peter
2 Comments »

- Yes! One of my comments finally got posted on an ESPN chat:

Matt (Las Vegas): What are the chances Portland takes Durant over Oden? I live in Vegas and plan on betting on this (since gambling IS legal… here). Can we consult Janet Gretzky?

Bill Simmons: (4:59 PM ET ) I’d put the odds like this:

Oden (-150) Durant

Bill Simmons: (4:59 PM ET ) Last week before their workouts, it was Oden (-350) Durant.

……

Peter (Tarzana, CA): Oden (-150) as the #1 pick, huh? Can I parlay that with Atlanta not taking a PG at #3 or #11 (-200)?

Yes, I know. VERY unimpressive!

- So there are only three of us left in the IMBC, with the shocking elimination of Finley. When we were down to four entrants, I figured that he was going to win for sure. I guess you can say I jinxed him.

(In my circles, this phenomenon has been dubbed the “Ung-hex”; if I pick a player/team to win anything, they undoubtedly find a way to lose. This partially explains why the New York Yankees have not won a championship in years, why the UCLA Bruins didn’t win an NCAA Basketball championship, and why the Indianapolis Colts didn’t win a Super Bowl until last year. It also explains why the LA Dodgers lose just about every game that I attend.

So, if you want a particular sports team to win anything, tell me to root for the other team!)

So of the three of us that are left–myself, Amy, and Hank–who’s the favorite to win now? Or, who is next for me to Ung-hex?

To stick with the theme of gambling and sports odds, here are the odds that each of us remaining will win (in order from most likely to least likely to win):

• Hank 2:3
• Amy 5:2
• Me 15:1

Ok, the Ung-hex should eliminate Hank from contention, and I don’t expect myself to win. So congrats Amy!

- I could not access the Anandtech Forums for about a week on three of the four computers in this house (my laptop excepted).

That’s when I noticed, while surfing AT on my laptop, this little message near the top of the Forums main page:

Clear your cookies… - 06/24/2007 01:17 PM
We recently updated our forum software to fix a number of issues. As a result, some users are having problems using FireFox on the forums.

The fix for this is to delete your forums.anandtech.com cookies.

We recommend that all members delete their forum cookies, though we haven’t run into any technical issues with this in other browsers.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve the forums.

In my defense, had my laptop not been able to access the forum, how would I have known to do this? Also, I did not clear my forum cookies on my laptop, and I was able to see the forums just fine.

The least AT could have done was to send out a mass e-mail to all forum users, so that I could ignore it and still wonder why I couldn’t access the forums :P.

- So the NBA Draft is tomorrow! We all know that Oden and Durant will be the top two picks, and I expect them to be picked in that order. But who will go after those two?

I think the following will happen tomorrow:

• Atlanta will not take a PG at #3; they’ll probably take Al Horford.
• Boston should take Corey Brewer, but they’ll probably take Yi Jianlian.
• The three Florida players will be drafted in this order: Horford, Brewer, Noah.
• Atlanta won’t be stupid and trade #11 for a point guard. They’ll draft one here (despite what I said above).
• The Lakers make a stupid pick and take a project, and Kobe Bryant will be all over the news, critiquing that pick.

And one long-term prediction: Kevin Durant will prove to be the best player in this draft.

(Yeah, I know. Talk about going out on a ledge!)

I would have predicted Al Horford to be the best player in this draft, if not for the fact that he’ll be stuck in Atlanta for the first few years of his career.

I’m too tired to talk about the end of my poker tournament. That will come tomorrow or the day after, depending on whether or not I blog about the NBA Draft results tomorrow.

Until next time!

by Peter
3 Comments »

- Well, I can add CompUSA to my list of horrible customer service experiences.

Background: I bought a copy of Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 back in November 2006, advertised with a $60 and a $40 rebate. The $60 rebate went through OK, but the $40 rebate disappeared. When I inquired about the $40, I was told that the rebate was posted in error, and that it would not be honored.

I was aware that some people got the rebate honored anyway, so I pressed forward. I filed complaints with the BBB, and later, my state attorney general. In March of 2007, I got a letter from Mr. Kevin Hain, Escalations Supervisor of CompUSA. He said that the rebate was posted in error, but he would see to it that I would get the $40 rebate as an “accomodation.”

I heard nothing from CompUSA again, so I filed a second complaint with my state AG. I got another letter from Mr. Hain yesterday, saying that I would not get the rebate after all; the letter claimed that my purchase was made outside the original dates of the promo. This was not true, by the way; the original promo dates were 11/5-11/11, and I had placed the order online–for in store pickup–on 11/5, and picked up the item on 11/11 (this becomes important later on).

I phone Mr. Hain’s office, and got my call returned this morning. He told me that the date in which I picked up the item was my true order date. Had I known that this was CompUSA’s policy, I would have picked up the item on that day (I know, I know; ignorance is not an excuse). He also said that the true promotion dates were 11/5-11/6, and 12/2-12/3, regardless of what my receipt said.

I explained to him that I was unaware of that policy, and began searching through CompUSA.com for similar language. I wanted to inquire as to why I was sent a letter back in March, saying that I was going to get the rebate as an accomodation, and why the valid promotion dates on my rebate receipt said “11/5-11/11.” Before I had a chance to do this, though, Mr. Hain began speaking in a menacing tone. He explained that I had already filed three separate complaints, and that I could continue to file complaints if I wanted to, but CompUSA was not going to pay me the $40. He then said “Thank you” and quickly hung up.

I guess his returning my phone call caused him to be late to his tee time at the local golf course.

Congrats, CompUSSR, for shooting up to second place of my list, which now reads:

1. Time Warner
2. CompUSSR
3. Buy.com (thanks Krunk)
4. …
5. (tie) Parago/USPS/etc.

(As bad as this latest fiasco was, it pales in comparison to the way Time Warner has jerked me around in recent months.)

Non-poker players, feel free to stop reading here.

- So I played in a No Limit Hold’em poker online tournament yesterday, with a buy-in of $5+$0.50 ($5 goes into the prize pool, and $0.50 goes to the site as an administrative fee). A little over 100 players took part in the tournament, and there was a special prize for first place: not only did the winner earn the biggest piece of the prize pool (~$200), but he would also win $1,000 to spend on tickets to an NFL game, transportation, hotel, and spending cash! Second place would get only ~ $100, a slight drop-off. Fifteen places paid out, starting at $11 for 15th-11th place, but with such a big top prize, most players were gunning for the win. In fact, the bubble–the part of the tournament where just a couple more eliminations need to happen before everyone left earns money–lasted all of two hands; sometimes, the bubble could last 20-30 hands, if not longer.

I should preface my story by mentioning that not only have I never won a big online poker tournament before, I have never even made the final table (usually, the final 10 players). In the early stages of this tournament, it didn’t look like I’d come close to sniffing the final table; I had 62, 82, 82, and T2 as the first four hands of the tournament. In fact, it was several hands before I actually played a pot. I had AQo and won a nice pot when I made a pair on the flop. A few hands later, I picked up QQ and beat a guy who had 22, getting all of his chips in the process. At that point, I had about 2200 chips–we started with 1500–and I was slightly ahead of the average chip stack.

A few hands later, I picked up AKs, and raised. A guy re-raised me all-in–he had more chips than I did–and I was thinking about calling, when something weird happened. For some reason, my hand got folded! Usually, in an online tournament, you are given 15 seconds to make a decision. Should you exceed that, you start using extra time from a “time bank,” which usually has 60 seconds in it. For some reason, though, my time bank didn’t kick in, and my hand was folded. I lost 25% of my chips due to that mistake!

I won a couple small pots to stay afloat, as the blinds got huge really quickly. I also reluctantly folded a couple of hands that I could have logically raised with. In both cases, I got really lucky, as my opponents had hands that had me in big trouble! However, I was soon left with 1300 chips and blinds at 100/200 with a 25 chip ante.

(Anybody will tell you that if you’re down to less than 10 big blinds–in this case, 10×200 = 2000–you’re in real trouble).

After a guy with 400 chips went all-in, I reraised all-in myself, and got very quickly called! I figured I was in big trouble, but the two guys showed A-x (where x is less than ten) and Q-x. I was the favorite to win the hand, but was deflated when the flop had a queen in it. Needing an ace to survive, a third heart hit on the turn, giving me the only flush draw–I had the ten of hearts. When the Jack of hearts hit the river, I knew I got lucky, but I reminded myself that I had the best hand before the flop.

(As you will see, this will be a recurring theme throughout the tournament.)

I went from 1300 in chips to 3000, a much more comfortable position at that stage in the tournament.

I’ll finish up the story tomorrow. Until next time!

by Peter
5 Comments »

- I’ve already earned $5.94 from using BigCrumbs.com! I’m rich!

(I talked about BigCrumbs.com in a blog entry last Monday.)

Now let’s see if I actually get paid.

- SportsCenter started their My Wish series yesterday! For those of you that don’t know what this is, ESPN has teamed up with the Make-A-Wish foundation to grant five kids their sports-related dreams, and each night (Sunday-Thursday), SportsCenter will devote a few minutes to each story.

This is the second year of the My Wish series, and some of the stories last year were absolute tear-jerkers.

(Yes, I will admit that I shed a tear or two; stories that reflect on the human spirit always get to me, especially when they involve children.)

- I was going to start talking about the poker tournament that I played in on Saturday, but I couldn’t resist this little tidbit of news this afternoon: Kevin Garnett could be moved to the Lakers in a four-way deal?!?

Chad Ford of ESPN offered this trade scenario (ESPN Insider subscription required):

The Wolves send Kevin Garnett and Marko Jaric to the Lakers.

The Lakers send Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Pacers and the No. 19 pick [and Kwame Brown] to the Wolves.

The Pacers send Jermaine O’Neal to the Celtics.

The Celtics send the No. 5 pick, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair to Minnesota.

Ford touched on the potential impact of these deals for each team involved; I’ll expand on his thoughts below.

Lakers: Kobe gets his superstar that he needs to contend for a championship, at the expense of their salary cap (unless KG or Kobe opt-out of their contracts early). Plus, they have to swallow Marko Jaric’s horrible contract, lose Kwame’s expiring deal, and give up on Andrew “Big Project” Bynum.

Assuming they re-sign Walton, does a Jaric/Kobe/Walton/KG/??? starting lineup (with a Farmar/Vujacic/Evans/Turiaf/Mihm?/Cook or Head bench) contend for a championship? Probably not. Would they be better than last year? Absolutely. And no, Laker fan, just because Chauncey Billups is now a free agent, don’t expect him to come to the Lakers. How would they get him? Sign-and-trade? For what? Mid-level exception? Not a chance.

Pacers: The Pacers get the two players they wanted in a Jermaine O’Neal deal–Odom and Bynum–but they don’t get the #19th pick that they also wanted from LA. I still think this is a pretty good deal for Indiana, because Odom’s deal expires one year earlier than O’Neal’s. They didn’t really expect the Lakers to give up Odom, Bynum, Kwame AND the #19th pick for Jermaine O’Neal and the rights to badly overpay Troy Murphy, did they?

Celtics: So what if Boston doesn’t get KG? They are still getting a big, AND they don’t have to part with Al Jefferson (the centerpiece of any KG-to-Boston deal)! In the (L)Eastern Conference, I’d go to war with Pierce, O’Neal, and Jefferson, even at the expense of the #5 pick and Theo Ratliff’s expiring contract. The only problem with this deal is, re-signing Jefferson after next season puts the Celtics close to luxury tax territory.

Wolves: Minnesota will get tons of cap space in this deal: Kwame’s $9 million deal and Ratliff’s $11 million deal come off the books next year. Also, Ricky Davis and Eddie Griffin come off the books; that’s almost another $10 million. They also get three top-20 picks: #5, #7, and #19, which they could use to draft two top prospects from the Noah-Green-Horford–if he were to still be on the board at #5, Minnesota would take him in a half-second–Yi-Brewer group, and a guard (Pruitt? Crittenton?). Conley could fall to them at #5, but it looks like Minnesota wants Randy Foye at the point. Yes, the Wolves would be in super-rebuilding mode, with Gerald Green, Randy Foye, and their three picks probably seeing major minutes.

Ford says that this deal may not appeal to Minnesota. I don’t see why it wouldn’t. Two draft picks, one intriguing player–Gerald Green–and tons of cap relief after next season has to be a better offer than anything the Knicks can offer, right? As long as Phoenix doesn’t chime in with a package revolving around Amare Stoudemire…

If I had to pick a winner in this deal, I’d pick the Lakers. Indiana gets Odom and Bynum, but their team probably won’t contend for a title unless the entire team overachieves next year to a great degree. Boston could be stuck in cap hell for a while, with Pierce and O’Neal’s deals and the pending pay raise to Al Jefferson. Minnesota gets tons of young talent and cap space, but cap space doesn’t do you any good unless you can use the cap space efficiently. And who knows how many of those draft picks will pan out? The Lakers, on the other hand, get a super-duperstar to pair with Kobe. And I don’t want to hear how KG’s on the downside of his career. He’s only 31, for crying out loud! If I had to pick a loser in this deal, yes, it would be Minnesota for the reasons mentioned above.

EDIT: So much for this trade rumor. Apparently the Los Angeles Times has reported that the deal will be a two team deal, between only LA and Minnesota. More on this tomorrow.

Next time: I’ll begin talking about the poker tourney, unless something else comes up.

by Peter
No Comments »

Tomorrow’s blog will be spent talking about an online poker tournament that I took part in last night. First prize of the tournament was ~$200 plus $1,000 to be used on two tickets to a National Football League game, transportation, hotels, and spending cash. Second place was $100, and third was $50. There were a number of other prizes, but I was definitely aiming to win the tournament.

Did I win? Will I be taking a trip to an NFL game this fall? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

- One quick-hitter: I enjoy betting on the over/under of a game or event (ex: Over/under of the number of hot dogs Kobayashi will eat during this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest: 50. I think he’ll eat more than that, so I’d bet the “over.” If he eats more than 50 hot dogs, I win!).

That got me thinking: say I made a bet that some guy will finish “over” fifth place in some contest. Am I betting that he will finish better or worse than fifth place? In this case, I believe that “over” means “better,” so I say that betting the over means that I am expecting the guy to finish first, second, third, or fourth.

Apparently, the exact opposite is true, to the best of my knowledge: if I bet on the over, I’m predicting that the guy will finish worse than fifth. That makes no sense to me! I know Krunk has my back on this one; does anyone else agree with me?

- We spent the morning at the Wat Thai (Thai Temple) of Los Angeles, located in North Hollywood. My sister likes to go there every now and then, and she especially felt the need to go today to pray. I, on the other hand, enjoy going there for the food: skewered chicken and pork, duck noodle soup, spicy papaya salad, beef and pork meatballs, and a delicious dessert made with tapioca, water chestnuts, jack fruit, coconut, coconut milk, and a simple syrup (sugar + water). They also serve sweet sticky rice and fresh mangoes, which are to die for.

I noticed something strange at the Temple today: banners were all around the place, asking people to not take food off the premises; I forget what the actual wording of the sign said. I thought that was weird, and especially so after ordering some food, when the servers asked if I wanted the food to go. If they didn’t allow food taken off the premises, why could I opt to take the food to go?

We thought nothing of it, took our food, and sat down to eat. Maybe it was just me, but the food was exceptionally good today.

(Tangent: It’s a good thing that it wasn’t terribly hot today! Another mid-90s day, and I would have just stayed home.)

Afterwards, we went back to get some food to go, again wondering why the servers let us order food to go if the signs said otherwise. Of course, nobody stopped us as we got to the exit, and we were on our way.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Apologies if the blog entry sounds rushed; it was

by Peter
No Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Losing when you have a full house hurts. Losing when you have a full house to four of a kind really hurts. Losing when your opponent flops quads, and you “catch up” by hitting your full house on the turn, REALLY hurts.

(No, Krunk, I was not involved in that hand.)

- According to accuweather.com, it was only in the mid-80s today. Hopefully it stays this cool for the next couple of weeks.

- I saw this game originally on Newgrounds, and I immediately got hooked on it: Starshine (link from Digg). Fun little game; you gotta fire a shooting star to start a chain reaction; the goal being to light up all the stars on the screen. The music’s pleasant, and the gameplay is very simple. Some of the levels are much tougher than the others, though, and it can get aggravating when you set off a huge chain reaction and miss a single star. On those levels, I just started randomly clicking, and eventually I was able to stumble upon the solution :P.

Also courtesy of Digg, here’s a cheat sheet if you should get stuck on a certain level.

By the way, Desktop Tower Defense 1.5 has been released (also from Digg)!

- A Madison, Wisconsin woman implicated in the murder of a woman and the torture of the victim’s 11-year-old son declared that she was “not a monster.” This passage speaks for itself:

[Candace] Clark denied involvement in the killing of 36-year-old Tammie Garlin, whose body police found buried in the yard.

As for the other charges she and three others face, Clark said, “No one’s innocent in this.”

All four — Clark, Sisk, Michaela Clerc, 20, and a 15-year-old girl — are charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, mutilation, hiding a corpse, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, three other felonies and a misdemeanor. The three adults are also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a child.

So let’s see…you say you’re not a monster, yet you all but admitted you were involved in all those other charges? I guess you’re definition of “monster” ever so slightly differs from “mine.” Actually, you’re right; you’re not a monster. Monster isn’t good enough to describe you.

Oh wait! Apparently she wasn’t abusing the kid! It was only discipline! “Others in the group took turns beating and torturing the boy, Clark said, calling him unruly. He would bite, kick and punch, and even Tammie Garlin said he had to be disciplined.” Beating, torturing, and burning a kid; is that what constitutes discipline nowadays?

What an absolutely sickening story.

- If the Florida Marlins’ star Miguel Cabrera would be made available in a trade, the Dodgers would be one team interested. The price seems to be a bit steep, though:

Figure three from the Dodgers’ group of Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Andre Ethier, Tony Abreu, Andy LaRoche and Clayton Kershaw.

Yikes! As much as I love Cabrera, that’s an awfully expensive price to pay. Then again, I’ve heard comparisons that he might be the next Manny Ramirez; if that’s true, then we must have him! If I can’t have the real Manny, I’ll take the second coming of him, as long as Cabrera starts picking up Manny’s antics: cutting off throws from the center fielder, hiding behind the wall (maybe Cabrera can hide in the Dodgers’ bullpen), listening to an MP3 player built-in to his sunglasses during play, and, most importantly, insisting that he needs to be traded every year, only to forget that request and mash the hell out of a baseball.

I love most of those players on that list, but we must go get Cabrera!

That’s all for today.

by Peter
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Yet another Kobe Bryant-free blog entry today. Let’s get started!

- So it was a cool 102 degrees today…nothing I can’t handle, though.

(My kidneys, on the other hand, feel otherwise. Also, 102 was the “ReelFeel” temp; it was really only about 92 today. I know, I know, I should stop whining.)

Accuweather.com says it’s only 74 degrees right now; it sure doesn’t feel that cool.

- Yesterday, I had a McFlurry for the first time in my life. For those of you that don’t know, a McFlurry is nothing more than vanilla soft serve topped with M&M minis or Oreo cookie bits. Anyway, for some reason, I found the dessert to be extremely tasty.

(Might it have something to do with the heat?)

What was really fun was seeing the colors off the M&Ms bleed into the ice cream. Yes, simple things like this entertain me.

(Hmmm…it’s not too late to get another McFlurry, is it?)

- So apparently I don’t live in a very safe neighborhood, according to this LAPD Crime Map. In the past week, there were 35 serious crimes within a 5 mile radius of my residence (nine violent robberies and seven aggravated assaults; fortunately, there were no homicides). No reports on how many stolen barbeques, welcome mats, or car registration stickers, though.

Good…I have yet another reason to move out of this damn residence.

- OMG! The Doug and Jackie Christie autobiography, entitled “No Ordinary Love: A True Story of Marriage and Basketball,” is out! I must go get this book! I hope they covered how Jackie started designing purses, and how she enlisted Doug’s “help” with the business (and by help, Doug actually helped Jackie design some of the purses!). I hope the book also went over what was going through Doug’s head as Jackie chased and beat down Rick Fox with her purse during that one Lakers-Kings exhibition game. Now THAT’s a sign of true love, is it not? Chasing an opposing basketball player, screaming obscenities and going whack-a-mole with your purse just screams dedication!

(I’m guessing the purse that was used in the beat down was a Christie original, or whatever the brand of purses was named.)

I’m actually surprised there wasn’t a purse on the cover of the book. Maybe there’s a 10% off coupon on the inside flap of the book, good on the purchase of a Christie original.

I love the People Magazine quote, by the way. Role models for young people? Role models for women who want to utterly dominate their men, maybe. Maybe there’s a how-to guide on how to accomplish this, with visual aids included.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Happy blogging!

by Peter
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Let’s see if I can get through today without talking sports.

By the way, why is it so hot?!?

- So yesterday, I got some “as-is” computer parts: an Athlon64 3000+, an Abit KV8 Pro motherboard, and a new Cooler Master heatsink/fan (the latter from Newegg.com). The seller told me that he had sold the board to someone else, and that the parts wouldn’t boot up, so I figured I’d take a chance on them. At worst, I was only out the $35 or so in parts, and I could always try to resell the parts as-is to someone else.

Unfortunately, I could not get the parts to work, and I’m pretty certain that the board is toast. Oh well, guess I’m stuck with my Athlon XP 2000+ for a bit longer.

- (from Krunk) I thought this list was a bit peculiar, especially since it was found at IRS.gov: 10 Reasons to Put Off Saving for Retirement. Assuming this is not a joke, what the heck is this article doing here? I’m guessing this is one IRS employee’s way of killing some time, by going David Letterman with a “Top 10″ list. Anyway, I love the first three reasons, especially #3:

Maybe I won’t live long enough to retire. Life is so uncertain. Why should I miss out on the high life now when I might not even need to have money put aside for my old age? (If married, change pronouns in this reason to the plural.)

and #4 made me LOL. I’ve heard of 5-8, but I’ve never heard anyone seriously say #9:

I might get lucky. You never know, I may win the lottery. Or I may be remembered in the will of a long lost relative. Or I might find that my house is right in the middle of a diamond field.

or #10:

Taking care of me financially will provide wonderful character-building opportunities for my children. And so many chances for me to feel warm gratitude toward them.

though #10 was damn funny!

- Talk about a Time Waster: Desktop Tower Defense (TD) has been played, according to this article, 12 million times in April and May! For the record, I have played it a couple of times, and still have not been able to beat the game on Normal difficulty. I remember the first flash-based tower defense game I played–Flash Element TD, based off a Warcraft III map–and immediately got hooked on to that game.

According to the article, the game has “brought in more than $12,000 in ad revenue and donations…even though the hand-sketched game started as a hobby project with few costs.” And the guy’s got cubicle geeks all over the world to thank!

Damn, my blog queue is so full…one of these days, I’ll get around to clearing it out, before finding new stuff to talk about :P.

by Peter
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