UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

- So we decided to head out to Dockweiler Beach today, in an attempt to escape the valley heat.

Bad idea, but not for the reason you might have expected.

As soon as we reached LAX, the sun decided to disappear behind a slew of clouds. When we finally arrived at the beach, the winds and the lack of sun made the weather unbearable. Never mind the fact that the water was COLD, so much so that we didn’t spend more than a few minutes in the ocean itself. To keep warm, we started jogging back and forth in the sand.

(Tangent: I forgot how hard it is to run on the beach, and it doesn’t help that I’m not exactly at a high fitness level.)

We only spent a couple of hours on the beach–most of us were napping or reading a book–before we decided to pack up and leave. That was money well spent, eh?

So what does one do when a trip to the beach gets ruined by a lack of sunshine? Easy! One goes to the beach again the next day! No word yet on which beach we will be going to…

- After the trip to the beach, we went to Alhambra’s Summer Jubilee to see Pat Benatar in concert! In short, the concert was quite an enjoyable experience*.

* - except for the following:

• the idiots occupying two rows in front of me, tossing popcorn at each other, crying because the ushers were only doing their job, talking and giggling throughout the concert, and basically not giving a damn about people around them. Did I mention they had two little kids with them, who did nothing but squirt water and toss popcorn at each other, causing the adults to act like children and retaliate?
• one woman in said group that wore a backless shirt, when she really shouldn’t have (if you know what I mean)
• another, ahem, “heroically portly” woman who kept leaning backwards, jabbing my knee every five seconds
• the #1 Pat Benatar fan screaming “Sing Heartbreaker!” after every freaking song, and then screaming “Sing Heartbreaker!” even after Benatar sang it.

Benatar sang a bunch of songs I’ve never heard of, but she also sang Invincible (awesomely good, btw), We Belong, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

(Tangent: I should mention that a song can only be considered “awesomely good” by me if I’ve actually heard it before.)

Of course, at the end, she sang “Love Is A Battlefield” to the delight of the crowd. Yes, that was awesomely good too.

With regards to the morons in the stands: all we needed was a beach ball, a fight in the stands, overwhelmed security guards, a USC v UCLA debate, and a “Joan Jett sucks!” chant, and the experience would have matched that of an LA Dodger game in the cheap seats. Any true Dodger fan knows exactly what I’m talking about.

(I know, what should I have expected from a free concert?)

That’s all for today. Happy blogging!

Tags: "heroically portly", alhambra summer jubilee, cold weather, dockweiler beach, heartbreaker, hit me with your best shot, invincible, love is a battlefield, pat benatar, stupid people, we belong by Peter
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Yep, another scorcher today. I think a trip to the beach is in order.

(I have to fill myself up with coffee before I leave, though. I was up until 4am this morning, playing random songs on my Winamp playlist, and singing to them. I started this “game” at about 11pm, and didn’t realize that five hours had passed until I looked up at my living room clock.

Oh, how time flies when you’re having fun!)

- Citibank still sucks. I am still without my brand new card that I was promised three weeks ago. Usually, Citibank sends me a new card BEFORE I get the welcome kit, so I wonder what the delay is.

I need a new TV, dammit.

(This card, as I stated before, includes Extended Warranty coverage and a Price Protection Guarantee. Knowing the high fail rates of lower-tier TVs AND how precipitously they drop in price, both benefits would be nice to have on the purchase of a brand new TV.

Besides, this Sceptre TV is really pissing me off. I know, I know, why don’t I just go return it NOW? If I did that, what would I do in the meantime sans TV?)

- This Time Warner packet shaping is getting ridiculous.

(Yes, I know I mentioned that it had not yet affected me. Clearly, it has now.)

I was downloading podcasts of The Jim Rome Show last night–a perfectly legitimate use of my bandwidth, no? With a 5Mbps download rate, it would not be unreasonable for me to expect a download speed somewhere around 300-400kB/s. Yet, I was lucky to reach 70kB/s, and this was at 11:00pm (not exactly peak hours)!

I’m here in Monterey Park right now, using AT&T DSL, and even on a 1.5/384 connection, I’m getting nearly 250kB/s down! In fact, I’ll let the Speedtest.net results speak for themselves:

(Tangent: I believe this is the first picture I’ve ever included in a blog entry! Hooray for me!)

I can only dream of seeing these speeds on Time Warner during “peak” hours, if by peak hours, I mean from 12:01AM to 11:59PM, of course.

Thank you, Time Warner, for making me a more satisfied customer by packet shaping the hell out of my internet connection. You’re still #1 on the list, for sure!

- So the “most overused word in English” discussion prompted more of a debate than I originally anticipated. A few bonus thoughts on the topic:

One thing that I really tried to emphasize is that I wanted the most unnecessarily overused word in the English language, which is why I ruled out articles, pronouns, and most verbs. I was looking for a word that is too often inserted into written and spoken English, often unnecessarily. That’s why the word “that” came to mind. For example, I could have rewritten a previously written statement like this:

I was looking for a word too often inserted into written and spoken English…

Doesn’t that retain the original meaning of the sentence, even without the words “that is?”

Hank’s got a good point with the word “and,” though. I’d agree that “and” is pretty overused (especially in lists, e.g. “I like cake, and pie, and cheesecake, and…”), but probably not to the extent that “that” is horribly overused.

Maybe more on this later. For now, keep the suggestions coming!

Happy blogging!

by Peter
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Yes, I’m aware that I still have not yet posted part 2 of my poker story. No, it will not appear in this blog.

I’m pretty sure it’ll show up somewhere between now and 2009, though.

- I called my mom earlier today, and got her voicemail. She returned my call, and shouted “Happy Birthday!”

Too bad my birthday is still nine days away. It was the thought that counts, right?

- Accuweather.com says that it was about 85F today.

The RealFeel temp, though, was a crisp, cool, 99F.

I think it’s time to go visit my relatives in Vancouver. Or maybe I should spend the weekend at a bookstore or a library. Free A/C + literature + (in the case of a bookstore) iced coffee FTW!

(Tangent: I went to Borders a couple days ago, and while I was there, I ordered a “ColdBrewed Vanilla Latte.” Two complaints: one, the “ColdBrewed” coffee seemed to be nothing more than a pitcher of coffee stored in their refrigerator, leading me to suspect that “ColdBrewed” meant “instant coffee mixed with water and refrigerated”; two, my receipt, for some reason, was about two feet long, for one cup of coffee! Circuit City thinks that Borders is wasting paper with that long of a receipt.

(Sub-tangent (?): Why is the shortened version of refrigerator fridge? I’m going to revolt, and start spelling it “frige” from now on.)

Ooooh…my first ever tangent-within-a-tangent! One day, I’m going to have a blog entry full of nothing but sub-tangents. I suspect that it will go about five levels before I either finish the thread, or pass out from the headache.

- Amazon Prime is absolutely evil, in the same way that Costco is evil.

(Tangent: For those of you that don’t know, Amazon Prime gives you free second-day shipping on any item that is offered by Amazon. It costs $79 a year, but you can share the subscription with up to four people in your household. Assuming it costs $10 to upgrade each order you make from free Super Saver shipping to second day, you’ll get your money’s worth with just eight orders.)

At the rate I’m going, I’ll blitz through those eight orders in the next two weeks. I’ve had the service for about a week now, and I have already placed three separate orders. And I’m about ready to place a fourth one. And I almost placed a fifth.

(Did I mention that I’ve had Amazon Prime for about a week?)

Damn you, Amazon *shakes fist*!!!

(Actually, damn the unnamed individual who wanted to share his Amazon Prime account in the first place *shakes fist*. I wonder if I can file a lawsuit, citing “psychological and financial pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional suffering.”)

(Warning: the following may contain grammar-like substances. You have been warned.)

- Over my lunch of spaghetti and homemade meat sauce, I was thinking to myself, “What word, that is often used, is the most overused word in the English language”? I figured that I would rule out all pronouns and articles (a, an, the). Then I started slashing the list down considerably; I figured that the most overused word in the English language could not be a verb; even though “to be” and its conjugated forms are quite often overused, I could not say that “to be” is the most overused word out there.

After kicking some words around in my head for a few minutes, I arrived at the answer that I’m going to stick to. The most overused word in the English language? The word “that.” Just look at how many times I used it in the last two paragraphs! The word “thing” would probably have come second, but I’m sticking to my answer.

I did an awful lot of research on this subject matter, by the way, browsing through lots of grammar-related sites. By the way, I am not a grammar Nazi, if that’s what you’re thinking.

(Oh look! I just used “that” again!)

Happy blogging!

by Peter
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- Apparently BigCrumbs.com charges a 2% “processing fee” when sending commission payments out to members. From the FAQ:

Yes. A processing fee of 2% of the payment amount with a $1.00 cap will be deducted from each payment that we send to you.

This is the fee that PayPal charges BigCrumbs.com. We do not make money from this fee.

I never knew that it costs money to send money via PayPal. Drat! There goes $0.16 off my commission payment!

At least BigCrumbs.com is quick with crediting me for a purchase. The longest they took to credit me for a transaction was a week. I can’t say that about the other cash back sites I currently use.

- (from Digg) Can you name all 43 U.S. Presidents?

I didn’t come close. I got 28 correct out of 43–even less, when you consider that typing in “Adams” or “Bush” earns you two points each–and there were a few gimmies I completely missed (how in the world I forgot about Dwight D. Eisenhower is beyond me).

I’m ashamed of myself. Either that, or I didn’t care to remember the names of every freaking President. In fact, I don’t recall ever having to do this in school!

Now, if the test was to name all fifty states and their capitals, that’s a different story. I could probably do THAT in ten minutes.

- USA! USA! USA! The reigning six-time Nathan’s Hot Dog eating championship, Takeru Kobayashi, has gone down to American Joey Chestnut! Chestnut downed a record 66 hot dogs and buns en route to the title of “Biggest Glutton.”

In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world’s hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

Well written, I must say. No, I did not get up early this morning to watch the event. And no, I don’t know if it aired on ESPN-HD. All I know is that we can put this victory alongside the USA Hockey team’s triumph of 1980, Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series, Michael Jordan’s “Shot” in 1998, and New England’s upset victory over the Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl.

(Tangent: Ugh, that last statement made me throw up a little in my mouth.)

I have a feeling that the author of the article had lots of fun writing it; just check out the last paragraph:

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut, the veins on his forehead extended, put away the final franks to end Kobayashi’s reign.

The writer makes the event sound more exciting than the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl! Damn, now I wish I woke up early enough to catch the event live! Oh well, that’s what SportsCenter is for, right?

(If it isn’t painfully clear, I have ZERO interest in watching the highlights, or a taped broadcast, of the “event.”)

That’s it for today. Happy blogging!

by Peter
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(This blog entry needs to be posted now, for I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to post it on Wednesday. I’ll probably be out late, or in a serious food coma, or a combination of both. Lunch time BBQ + dinner time BBQ + snacking on leftovers in between = certain death!

Gluttony on holidays FTMFW! What can I say? I’m “heroically portly” [thanks Hank].)

Happy Fourth of July!

Accuweather.com reports that the RealFeel temperature will be 95F tomorrow in Agoura Hills, and a cool 100F in Monterey Park. It’s a good thing I won’t be doing any of the actual cooking tomorrow. Although…maybe I could sweat off a few pounds before each meal.

(Time for some NBA talk, with the official start of free agency right around the corner!)

- Rashard Lewis will leave Seattle, after agreeing to a 5-year deal worth somewhere between $75 million and $85 million. Fifteen million a year for Rashard Lewis? Not to mention, signing Lewis probably costs Orlando the services of Darko Milicic. Yeah, Lewis a nice player–you can’t teach 6′10″, right?–with a nice shooting stroke, but does a Jameer Nelson-Rashard Lewis-Dwight Howard core get Orlando close to championship contention? I’d say no. I can’t see Lewis or Turkoglu playing SG (replacing Grant Hill, who will probably go to Detroit), and the Magic have a woefully thin bench. Lewis should, however, cause teams to double team Howard less, and Howard’s gotta be happy with that.

One other concern: will Orlando be willing to extend both Howard and Nelson? Of course Howard will get a max extension. But will they be able to extend Nelson, and have enough cap space to get veteran help for the Nelson-Lewis-Howard trio? Also, is Orlando really ready to give up on Darko after one year and a lost draft pick?

Clearly, Orlando is overpaying for Rashard Lewis, and I’m not sure how happy Orlando will be with their investment.

- An earlier report stated that Chauncey Billups and the Detroit Pistons had agreed to a 5-year deal worth $60 million, but Billups’ agent called the report a “vicious rumor.”

(Tangent: Wow! I didn’t know that “invalid” was a synonym for “vicious.” There goes my rant asking about how vicious a $60 million contract signing could possibly be!)

That being said, Detroit has to get this deal done. Personally, I think $12 million a year is too excessive for the guy–he’s still living off his performance in the 2004 Finals, after all. However, the Pistons absolutely need Billups, if they plan on contending for a title next year.

As an aside, I don’t see how Grant Hill helps this team that much. He’s not going to crack the starting rotation, unless Rip Hamilton leaves the team, and I’m not sure I’d pay the mid-level exception for a sixth man with injury risks.

- Finally, Kobe Bryant is getting help, as the Lakers made a huge free agent signing!

(Ok, ok, Luke Walton isn’t huge at all :P)

Has Kobe bought a house in another major city yet?

by Peter
3 Comments »

So I got a nice, big, bubble mailer yesterday. It was a package shipped from Buy.com.

Nothing special about a bubble mailer, right? You’re right. Unless that bubble mailer arrived to me unsealed.

Yes, somehow, some moron at Buy.com forgot to seal the envelope, which contained a pair of software titles. The only thing holding the bubble mailer together was a piece of USPS “This parcel arrived damaged and we’re not responsible for any damage to the packet” tape.

Well done, Buy.com. You have cemented your spot on my list.

- We have a new addition to my list! Congrats, Chase!

(Background: I like to my off my credit cards as soon as possible. Sometimes, I’ll make the payment the same day that the online statement is released. I’d rather pay a credit card really early than risk missing the due date and incurring a late fee.

When paying off a Chase card online, you have four options: paying the statement balance, paying the minimum payment, paying the current balance [statement balance + any charges made after the statement closed], and paying some other amount.)

Yesterday, I logged into my Chase account to pay my Chase Freedom Visa card. I went over the online statement, and noticed a finance charge!

(It was a $1 charge, but still!)

I quickly glanced over the statement, and noticed that the amount I paid was exactly the same amount as the statement balance of the previous statement, not the one that was due. I then clicked on “Pay Card,” and noted that the listed statement balance was equal to last month’s statement balance!

I called Chase to report this site error, and was referred to Chase’s Internet Services department (or something like that). All they told me was that I should wait 3-4 business days after the statement is due before paying my statement. Fantastic…instead of fixing their problem, I have to inconvenience myself by waiting to pay off the credit card each month on their terms.

I know, I know…what a weak rant!

- I love Rite Aid. Single Check Rebates + coupons FTW! Having two addresses to file SCRs? Even better! I went there with my sister, and we picked up a whole bunch of cheap stuff. I got two tubes of Crest toothpaste for MMAR (Make Money After Rebate), two bottles of hair gel @ BOGO (buy one, get one free), and two bottles of Pantene for a buck a bottle.

(Tangent: I have no problem using “women’s” shampoo. Aside from the smell, as long as it does a good job, I don’t care. And Pantene’s a good shampoo, is it not?)

Ice cream was also $1.99 a box, so I couldn’t refuse. I got some mint chocolate chip, and a box of cones to go with it. My sister got some FAR deodorant, a bottle of some shampoo, and a bottle of some conditioner. She couldn’t pass up ice cream either

All that junk for $20 and change, after the rebates. Not bad!

Excuse me while I go take a shower…

by Peter
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Wow, the Accuweather RealFeel temperature today was supposed to be 99F.

It sure as heck felt a lot hotter than that! And it’s only early July!

Is it safe to sleep in a bathtub full of ice cubes?

- Before I get started, prayers need to go out to Derek Fisher, his young daughter, and his family. Fisher requested, and was subsequently released, by the Utah Jazz, in order to seek medical care for his 11-month-old daughter. If you recall, his daughter has retinoblastoma, a serious, and rare, cancer of the eye.

Good luck, D-Fish, and let’s hope you are able to return to the league real soon, after your daughter beats this horrible disease.

- One other note: that Russell Martin guy is pretty good, no? Four more hits today! M-V-P!

- So after sweltering through the Wat Thai, we went to 99 Ranch, to get some stuff for a Hot Pot.

(Tangent: Why, oh why, did we have a Hot Pot on such a hot day? Because we’re stupid?)

99 Ranch, btw, has an awesome drink bar. Their watermelon juice slushie-thingy is to die for! We spent a good hour and a half at the supermarket–grocery shopping when it’s really hot is always fun–picking up all the ingredients we needed for the dinner: thinly sliced chuck steak, enoki mushrooms, beef meatballs, shrimp, spinach, watercress, rice noodles, tripe (ewwwwww), bean curd, and the soup base.

The food was good, as usual, though we were all sweating by the end of the meal. We had the A/C on full blast, and that didn’t help much. It also didn’t help that we all badly overate–we’re a bunch of gluttons, I know! As usual, we bought way too much stuff; there was probably enough food to feed ten more people!

When my sister, mom, and aunt were ready to leave, I demanded that they take some of the groceries back. My mom took a couple of items, and my aunt didn’t want anything. I insisted that most of the food would be tossed eventually–we were never going to be able to finish it all–and said to just take whatever.

Big mistake…my aunt decided to take just about everything she got her hands on. She ended up filling about three grocery bags full of stuff she didn’t really want (so she said). At that point, I started cracking jokes about her wanting to take my wallet, my laptop, my sister’s cell phone, etc. She ended up talking about 2/3 of the leftovers we had!!!

An hour after they left, I then realized that she didn’t even pay for any of the groceries!!!

Damn my family…full of freaking freeloaders!

It’s really hot, and I need some ice cream, assuming my aunt didn’t take that too. Happy blogging!

by Peter
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So, today was quite an event-filled day. I’ve got (yet another) food coma, so let’s hope I can get through this blog entry.

(Yeah, the poker story is going to have to wait another day.)

- My sisters, my mom, my aunt, and I had lunch at the Wat Thai, where we enjoyed skewered pork and chicken, papaya salad, noodle soup, and I ordered a plate of Pad Thai, which was a bit dry. As you shall see later, I should probably have passed on lunch.

(Tangent: My sister bought a couple bags of noodles that could be best described as “Pad Thai-in-a-bag”: noodles with a Pad Thai seasoning packet. I hope it makes a decent dish, even though I don’t have any bean sprouts.)

By the way, Accuweather.com reported the RealFeel weather for today at 92F. There is no way that it felt like 92F today. It had to be at least 100F today, if not higher. It was HOT.

- On the way out of the Wat Thai, I noticed a bunch of cars trying to park on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. There was a single “No Parking” sign there, and a bunch of workers (named Wat Thai Monitors) were on the street, notifying people of the sign. One moron, apparently, argued with a Monitor over the validity of the sign. Although I didn’t hear their conversation, it was pretty clear that the guy was intent on parking there; after a five-minute discussion or so (we’re slow walkers), we noticed that the moron went ahead and parked there anyway.

This got me thinking: Is there a more black-or-white street sign than “No Parking?” I mean, you could argue with a cop if you ran a red light, saying that it was yellow when you went through the intersection. But other than “oh, I didn’t see the sign, because it was blocked by trees,” how else could you argue a No Parking sign? Last I checked, the sign didn’t say “No Parking, please.” I’m now convinced that all street signs/lights/indicators in the state of California have an implied “please” at the end of them (Stop, please; Yield, please; Speed Limit 65, please; etc.).

My head hurts, so this story will continue tomorrow. One quick rant, though: Diet Pepsi is absolutely disgusting! I thought it would taste pretty good–I like Pepsi more than Coke, so I figured that Diet Pepsi would be better than Diet Coke. Boy, was I wrong!

(Note to self: avoid buying Diet Pepsi again, at all costs!)

Tomorrow: no poker (:P), Hot Pot goodness (why we were eating this on such a hot day is anyone’s guess), and my freeloading aunt (:P)…as well as whatever else I happen to stumble upon.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
3 Comments »