UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Shoot, I can’t believe it has been a week since I last blogged!  I’m going to skip the football talk this week, and explain what has kept me away from blogging for so long.

Tomorrow:  my Office review, among other things.

Quick-hitters, a really long version:

- I hate stupid buyers.  That is all.

- A week ago, I bought a ton of batteries from batteries.com (96 AA and 20 AAA batteries, I believe).  I bought them thinking that I was going to go through them quickly; three days after I received them, I’ve only used two AA batteries–they were used in one of my wireless mice.

Silly me forgot that my two LED flashlights use AAA batteries!  Oh well, I’ll have a lifetime supply of batteries for my remotes.

(Tangent:  Am I the only one out there that “recycles” batteries by using seemingly drained batteries in a remote control?  I don’t recall ever replacing the batteries in any of my remotes with a fresh pair.  And it’s not like I’m being cheap; I’ve seen drained batteries last a good 3-6 months in one of my remotes!  Now, if I had something like a Logitech Harmony remote, I wouldn’t bother with drained batteries; for that, of course I would use a fresh pair when needed.

EDIT:  I just found out that Krunk does this too!  Cool!)

- If there’s one thing I absolutely love about visiting my parents (more on that later), it’s the fact that I always get to take home free stuff!

(In a way, I’m still living like a college student.)

I was able to pilfer an entire bag of oatmeal, some dish washing sponges, a bottle of Dawn with Bleach Alternative–my mom says it didn’t work well–and a huge Tupperware filled with some soup–my sister will eat that.  My aunt also had us take home some steamed banana leaf-wrapped rice, chicken, and Chinese sausage concoction that is absolutely to die for.

I need to get that recipe.

- Hey Hank, have I ever told you how much I dislike you for mentioning Peggle?

- So while in Monterey Park last weekend (more on that later), we swung by Rite Aid, CVS, and (eventually) Costco.  Over at Rite Aid, I managed to pick up some MMAR (Make Money After Rebate) toothpaste, and a box of Pepcid AC.  My math works out to $6.71 after taxes + coupons, with $8.97 in Rite Aid Rebates, and a $2.49 mail-in rebate on one of the toothpastes.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love MMAR toothpaste?

(Tangent:  Boy, was it HOT this past weekend!  It was so hot that Rite Aid sold out on about 20 different flavors of their ice cream!)

We hit up CVS next, where I got some free mouthwash, really cheap candy, more dish washing liquid, and yes, a box of tampons.  After using a $10 ECB and my coupons, my total was -$0.13.  Yes, -$0.13.  I was forced to buy a candy bar–I went with Reese’s Pieces–in order to get my balance above negative.

Speaking of CVS, my sister also bought some stuff, but the cashier she dealt with only let her use one ECB!  WTF is that?  If I were her, I would have had the cashier re-ring every item as a separate transaction, so that I could use each ECB individually.

me <– evil

A day later, we hit up Costco, and in the soda section, I saw something in the distance that caught my eye.  I walked closer to it, thinking that it might have been a mirage.  As I crept closer, the image seemed more and more true; was that really what I thought it was?

When I approached the cases, I nearly let out a girlish-scream, as I waved my sister over to the display.  “I gotta have some!” I exclaimed, as I hurriedly grabbed a case and dropped it in my cart, even though there were at least thirty cases left.  What if some guy came by and grabbed all thirty cases?!?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I got myself a case of Mexicoke!  In fact, I’m about ready to enjoy a chilled bottle right about now.

- So why was I AFB (Away From Blog) so long?  Well, if you remember, my sister’s computer had been (twice!) fried.

Or so I thought.  I hooked up her second, also fried, computer to my LCD monitor, and as soon as I fired it up, I heard a not-out-of-the-ordinary single beep.  Soon after, the display lit up, and I figured that my sister did something wrong.  Just to make sure, I let the computer boot into Windows, and sure enough, the computer got there just fine.  As a precaution, I ran some tests, scanned for viruses, and figured that the computer was working just fine.  I replaced the PSU–some cheapy Raidmax 420W PSU–with an Ultra 400W PSU, fired up the computer again, saw that everything was working, and brought the computer home.

At this point, I figured that the power outlet was the problem, so I brought home a brand new surge protector and two power cables.  I hooked up the computer to a new outlet, and immediately started running into (software) problems.  I figured it was a good time to reformat and reinstall Windows, and that’s when I encountered my next problem.  As I was formatting the drive, a very high-pitched sound started coming out of the computer!

I isolated the sound and found that it was coming from the PSU.  A quick Google search led me to conclude that a capacitor in the PSU was about ready to fail.

On Monday, we went to Fry’s to pick up a PSU.  Fortunately, there was a $10AR Cooler Master PSU, so I picked that up, went home, hooked up the PSU, and found that all was well.  I then helped my sister rearrange her entire room–we moved the computer desk so that the computer could be plugged into a new outlet–and went to work installing software.  I finally finished the install early Tuesday morning.

Now that I think about it, I might have hurt my knee moving all that furniture around.

Until next time!

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