UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

I’m in quite the foul mood today, so hopefully I can finish this blog entry pretty quickly. I’m sick, I’m tired, and I’m surrounded by (some) stupid people.

- So I got a new (to me) toy today: an Asus K8N-E motherboard and a AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU.

(Tangent: I also got a ton of other toys, including yet another Logitech keyboard/mouse combo. Perhaps, in the near future, I will give a mini-review of some of these new toys.)

(Tangent #2: Yeah, I realize this setup is quite old, but it was dirt cheap, and was bought as an upgrade for my secondary computer, powered by an Athlon XP 2000+ CPU).

It took a bit to actually hook up the “new” parts–I had to fish out a new PSU, due to some stupidity on my part (no, I did not blow up a PSU!)–and for some reason, I had trouble screwing in the PSU to my chassis. After finally getting everything hooked up, I fired up the new computer, and got some strange error.

Long story short, it was simply user error (yes, 10,000 Stupid Points), and after a WindowsXP repair, the new computer was up and running. I tested out the computer by ripping a movie DVD; on the XP2000+ system, DVD Shrink reported a ripping speed somewhere in the 2.5-3MB/s range. With the new parts, I achieved speeds somewhere in the 7.5-8.5MB/s range, surpassing the ripping speeds on my P4 2.4Ghz system.

Yeah, I realize I’m jumping to conclusions just because one test says that this system is blazingly fast compared to the XP2000+ system. Let me enjoy my new toy!

(And yes, I’m VERY happy to also get rid of that ECS board; the fact that it lasted nearly four years is a minor miracle in itself.)

- It seems there was a little confusion yesterday regarding Citibank screwing me over yet again. First of all, I had a Citibank Dividend Platinum Select card. It was recently converted into this new World MasterCard, that I only received last week.

Because this new card no longer reports a credit limit to the three bureaus, my debt/credit utilization ratio will decrease, assuming I have any credit card debt to begin with (which I do). Fortunately for me, this card has a rather low limit, compared to the other cards I own, so hopefully the credit score impact won’t be that great.

- BTW, I got an interesting comment about this World Mastercard yesterday. Read the comment, then read the blog, and then check out this “story” linked from that blog entry:

 

They’ll know where you go, where you drive, where you shop, what you buy, where you run, where you hide–and they’ll be able to turn you off specifically at any time.

We are no longer human—think animal tags for people—we are now officially SHEEPLE.

Um…

I guess I’m getting Extended Warranty Protection, among other features, in exchange for Big Brother being able to pinpoint exactly where I am via the RFID tag in my credit card.

Fair deal, IMO.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll deal with the whole NBA “scandal” another time.

by Peter
2 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- What’s the worst thing you could do, when you already have a cut on a finger?

Get a papercut on the same finger!

Ouch!

(10,000 Stupid Points.)

- I cooked myself some Pad Thai today, straight out of a semi-instant pack (it came with noodles and seasoning; all I had to do was include the veggies, the egg, the ground peanuts, and any meat I wanted–chicken, in this case). I didn’t have any bean sprouts or green onion, though, so I used sliced brown onion instead. All in all, the seasoning was far too sweet, and I tasted a hint of freezer burn in the chicken–it had been sitting in the freezer for a while.

The pack wasn’t the worst thing in the world, though, and I may try making it again. Or, I might try to make some Pad Thai from scratch.

- So a few days ago, I finally got my Citibank Dividend World MasterCard. I was excited to start milking the Extended Warranty feature of the card, when I stumbled upon this FatWallet thread.

It seems that this new credit card has one major flaw: Citi does not report its credit limit to the three major credit bureaus!

Why is that necessarily a bad thing? Well, one variable that makes up your FICO credit score is the ratio of your total credit card debt to the total available credit (debt/credit utilization); the smaller the ratio, the better. A decrease in the apparent total credit, therefore, increases your debt/credit ratio, and thus impacts your credit score negatively.

Now, if one have zero credit card debt, then a decreased total credit won’t affect that individual much. But, for those that do have credit card debt, like me, this will impact one’s credit card score somewhat. In fact, someone in that thread reported that his credit score dropped 30 points as a result of the switch!

(Granted, I won’t be buying a new car/house/etc. any time soon, so perhaps a high credit score isn’t necessary. But still!)

- More quick Vick thoughts: apparently the NFL, NFL Players’ Union, and the Atlanta Falcons are urging Vick to take a leave of absence, to concentrate on his federal indictment for dogfighting. I think Vick should leave the team; his presence is only going to be a distraction to the team. Yes, the Falcons’ QB options after Vick are crap, crap, and crap, but for the players’ sakes, as well as his own, he needs to leave the team until there is resolution in his case.

Here’s what I don’t get: Pacman Jones got suspended for a year, despite not being convicted of anything (yet). Tank Johnson got suspended for eight games because he owns too many guns (apparently). So why is Vick getting the chance to take a leave? Why hasn’t Goddell come down with the hammer yet?

(And yes, I was amused by PETA’s protest.)

As usual, more on this next time.

Next time, you’ll also get my thoughts on the really big story of the day: the alleged controversy involving an NBA official, points shaving, and gambling. Again, any time the Feds are involved, you know this is a big deal.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
1 Comment »