A Pair of “New” Toys, I’ve Gone Back to MPK Too Often Lately, And Jason Kidd To The Mavs Blocked By…Devean George???
I was supposed to post this last night, but I “misremembered” 
(Misremembered is now my new favorite word in the English language, replacing “Traveshamockery.”)
Quick-hitters:
- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,500 and rising, once I get my hands on the President’s Day ads.
Current injury-o-meter: three (sore shoulder, sore knee, sore right pinky). The shoulder is really bothering me; I haven’t been able to move around pain-free in the shoulder for more than a few minutes at a time.
And yes, I’m popping Tylenol like Tic-Tacs.
(Tangent: I’m dangerously close to running out of Tylenol. If I run out, I may seriously consider taking some Advil Cold and Sinus I got from CVS [free, naturally] just because it has Ibuprofen in it. Loyal readers: have you ever taken a multipurpose pill just for the relief that a single medicine in the pill may provide?)
- About a month ago, my sister decided to switch cell phone carriers, from Verizon to Sprint. I signed her up for a Sprint SERO (employee) plan: 1250 min/mo for $49.99, and she opted to get a Palm Treo 755p. Sweet phone, although I hate the fact that you cannot multitask on a Palm OS powered phone.
(I know, I know…it’s my sister’s new phone, so why am I calling it my new toy? Probably because I’ve been playing with it while my sister has been waiting for her Verizon contract to elapse.)
My sister’s purchase of the Treo also meant that she no longer had any use for her PDA: a Dell Axim X51.
(One might argue that she had no use for the PDA to begin with, but I digress.)
She told me to keep it or sell it, and although I have zero use for a PDA myself, I have kept it. I can see why Dell got out of the PDA making business; the PDA drains the battery like nobody’s business, and the PDA lags even with just a single program running. It’s like the equivalent of running Windows Vista on a computer with 512MB of RAM.
I’ll probably sell it soon, but in the meantime, anyone have any suggestions for cool apps to install on the Axim?
- Last week, I returned to MPK twice! The prospects of tons of free food will cause me to do that. Allow me to summarize:
I was home on Tu-W for Chinese New Year. Each parent did their own prayer (my mom first) on a separate day, meaning double the food for me! On Tuesday, while burning money and stuff, my genius sister threw a huge stack of paper on top of the fire. A large piece burned off the stack, and went floating right towards me. If not for my cat-like reflexes, I probably would have been burned in the face.
The near-death experience was worth it, though, for the banana-leaf-wrapped rice stuff my aunt made for us to take home, as well as the roast chicken, stew, steamed buns (filled with pork, egg, Chinese sausage, and shrimp), and a “cake” made out of turnip, dried shrimp, peanuts, and flour. Good stuff.
We were summoned back to MPK this past weekend, because my aunt wanted to go to Manna Korean BBQ for her birthday. Never one to pass up free food, we met up with the rest of the family on Saturday afternoon for lunch. I finally met my cousin’s girlfriend awake (:P), and, as is the norm for Korean BBQ restaurants, I stuffed my face full of BBQ beef and short ribs. After lunch, we went to my cousin’s house and Wii-ed all day. I think that’s how I hurt my shoulder.
On Sunday, my aunt came by to make more steamed buns. Midway through cooking the second batch of buns, I heard a loud POP eminate from my stovetop. I went over and immediately noticed that my parents’ electric stove turned off. I went to their circuit breaker, turned off the stove, and turned it back on a couple of minutes later. I noticed that the lights flickered, and another loud POP came from the stove.
(I was told that, on Monday morning, the landlord turned off/on the circuit breaker switch again—apparently, my testimony was not trustworthy—and declared the stove dead after it popped again.)
I was under the impression that most of the steamed buns were made for my oldest sister to take to work. That was not the case; my mom told me to take half of the batch home. We were talking about fifteen buns or so!
Then again, was I going to pass up free food? Yeah, right.
I think I need to go on a serious diet.
- Finally, how hilarious is it that the Jason Kidd to Dallas trade is being blocked by one Devean George???
(You Laker fans remember Devean George, right? He was the “fifth Beatle” on the 03-04 team that got destroyed by Detroit in the NBA Finals that year.)
The proposed deal, where
New Jersey would have sent Kidd and forward Malik Allen to Dallas for Harris, veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse, center DeSagana Diop, guard Maurice Ager, George, two future first-round draft picks and the maximum allowable cash inducement of $3 million,
the deal is being held up because Devean George may be losing out on a ton of money in the following off-season. George has what are known as “Early Bird Rights,” simply meaning the Mavericks could go over the salary cap to re-sign him next year; he’s a free agent at the end of the season. Of course, this assumes that the Mavs would consider giving George a long-term, big-money deal. And if he puts up any more 0-for-11, 0 pt performances like he did on Wednesday, he might want to consider going under Witness Protection.
How pissed off must Mavs fans be right now? The one guy keeping them from Jason Kidd is a guy averaging 3 ppg, and shot a pathetic 0-for-11 the day after exercising his right to reject any trade proposal! After that game, how did George NOT catch the first flight out of town, headed for New Jersey? Hey George, if you’re going to block a blockbuster trade, you might not want to put up and 0-fer the following night!
The funny thing is, George might actually be doing the Mavs a favor! How is replacing incumbent PG Devin Harris with Jason Kidd going to make the Mavs championship material? Last I checked, Kidd is 35, and he can’t shoot. Is his defense really going to be the difference between an early playoff exit and a ring? And don’t give me the “Kidd’s a triple-double machine” argument. How many strong rebounders has Kidd played with in his career? When you’re playing alongside pivot men like Jason Collins, you’re going to get a few more boards/game than you would normally expect.
In any case, Devean George might want to start looking for an apartment in a city other than Dallas. He’s gonna need it, real soon.