UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Nope. No quick-hitters tonight.

- It probably has something to do with the Fourth of July weekend coming up, or it might just have been a slightly atypical Sunday afternoon crowd, or it might have been because we went to a different Costco than the one we usually go to—Northridge—but boy was Costco packed today!

So what does a packed Costco mean? Stupid kids running around, coming nano-millimeters from hitting your cart with their faces, idiot adults constantly blocking aisles with themselves or their shopping carts (remember this?), and the huddled masses blitzing from free sample to free sample.

What was really strange, though, was the fact that our wait that the checkout line was pretty damn short. Either Costco had every register working (I wasn’t paying attention), or everyone was just taking their sweet time shopping while we quickly grabbed what we wanted.

As for the assault to my wallet, I bought some cheese danishes, trail mix, and yogurt. I’ll set the over/under on how long it’ll take me and my sister to finish all three at two weeks.

(Don’t be a fool and take the over :P)

- So I sampled the new Carl’s Jr. Prime Rib Six Dollar Burger on Saturday.

(Those commercials made the sandwich look really tasty!)

I can sum up the review of the burger in two words: IT SUCKED. You know a burger sucks when the best part of it is the (Ciabatta) bun.

(OK, that’s not fair. The meat patty was typical Six Dollar Burger good.)

The three or so pieces of Prime rib that found its way on top of my burger made dirt-cheap Vegas buffet Prime rib taste awesome by comparison. Honestly, I couldn’t tell what was Prime rib, and what was grilled onion. And don’t get me started on the horseradish sauce; it was so sweet, I thought they topped my burger with yogurt! Not to mention, the sauce had as much of a kick as shrimp cocktail sauce.

The worst thing was, the combo costs $8 here in the valley! Can I do a chargeback, on the basis that the item was significantly not as described?

- So let me get this straight. The Los Angeles Dodgers Actually in Los Angeles got five three hits on Sunday and lost, but they got zero hits on Saturday, and won? How crazy is that?

After the seventh inning, I was rooting for the Dodgers to go hitless the rest of the way, just to see history happen. Needless to say, I was elated when Dodgers’ closer Takashi Saito finally got the last out.

(I will neither confirm nor deny that the fact that the Los Angeles Angels Outside of Los Angeles were on the wrong end of history didn’t make the moment a bit sweeter).

By the way, just as I will never call the Anaheim Angels that ridiculous moniker that they choose to go by, I will not call the Angels’ performance anything other than what it should be: a no-hitter. I don’t care what the rule book says; the Angels held the Dodgers hitless for an entire game, and that should be counted as a no-hitter. I couldn’t agree more with what MSNBC’s Mike Celizic wrote:

A pitcher throws a six-inning shutout and gets the win when rain ends the game, he gets a shut-out. If a batter is working on a hitting streak and loses it in a five-inning, rain-shortened game, baseball doesn’t say that doesn’t count because he should have had two more at-bats. So, why this silly rule about no-hitters? Why is a six-inning, rain-shortened game a complete game for everyone else but not for the guy who throws a no-hitter?

And for the record, Scioscia made the right call in pulling Weaver in the top of the seventh. He had to find a way to manufacture a run! Also, I completely disagree with the official scorer on the booted ball by Weaver that led to the Dodgers’ only run. That has to be ruled a base hit; it was much too bang-bang for it to be called an error.

Until next time!

Tags: anaheim angels, carl's jr, cheese danish, costco, evil, los angeles dodgers, no hitter, prime rib, six dollar burger, trail mix by Peter
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My head hurts.

And I hate stupid people.

Quick-hitters:

- Office fans, rejoice! According to Office creator Ricky Gervais, Carell has signed a three-year contract extension to continue making episodes of The Office.

W00h00!!!

- (Thanks, or maybe no thanks, Krunk) Do women REALLY like douche-y a-holes like this clown?

There are guys that think they’re the greatest, and then there’s this guy.

My head is still reeling from listening to the clip…ONCE!

(BTW, if you want to talk “douchebag,” look no further than Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.)

- I’m surprised that Chase, Citibank, and Discover haven’t called me up lately, inquiring as to why I haven’t bought anything lately.

How will these companies ever stay in business?

- Have you seen a commercial for the “Guitar Idol?”

(Warning: an obnoxious, insipid, and possibly traumatizing commercial, the same one that is shown on TV, appears on that site. You have been warned.)

Basically, these devices are oversized, rubberized (I think) guitar pick-shaped devices with a built-in speaker. Each pick is programmed to play two songs, and apparently you’re supposed to “strum” the pick up and down along with the music, adding your own guitar riffs.

This would be an awesome idea…if Guitar Hero and Rock Band never existed. Well, that, and if air guitar players didn’t look ridiculous.

The best thing about these picks? $19.95 + $8.95 processing and handling!!! I think I would be happier with the money.

- So here are some super-late, and probably already oft-repeated thoughts regarding Thursday’s NBA Draft:

1) It didn’t surprise me that Miami went with Michael Beasley. How he will fit with Wade + Marion, though, is another story. If they click, and Mario Chalmers (great pickup, BTW) relegates Jason Williams to the bench, will Riley mosey (sp?) his way down to the Heat bench next season?

2) I hate the Memphis-Minny swap for both sides. Minny picked up an undersized PF in Kevin Love (don’t they already have one in Al Jefferson?) and traded away a potential superstar in O.J. Mayo in the process. And doesn’t Memphis have enough guards already? And they had to throw in Mike Miller in the deal as well?

What’s next? Is Minny going to trade Al Jefferson back to Boston for cash considerations? Is Memphis going to trade O.J. Mayo to the Lakers for D.J. Mbenga?

3) I am not a fan of the Sonics pick of Russell Westbrook at #4. They could probably have traded down (say, to #7) and still picked up Westbrook. Now, if he learns how to play the point, and develops a reliable jumper, then this is a great pick. As it stands, I thought this was a serious reach (but nothing compared to the Kings’ pick of Jason Thompson at #12.)

If I think of something else to say, I’ll add it later. For now, though, here are my draft winners/losers:

4) Winners: Miami (especially if Chalmers works out), New Jersey (Brook Lopez at #10 was great value, but I don’t particularly like the Ryan Anderson pick), and Portland (Bayless fits the team perfectly, and they now have something like 200 future picks stockpiled). The Clippers are winners if DeAndre Jordan doesn’t flop. And can I put the Lakers in this list for acquiring Pau Gasol for the 28th overall pick, a sack of potatoes, Gasol’s brother, and Javaris Crittendon?

Losers: Sacramento (Jason Thompson? Patrick Ewing, Jr.?), Milwaukee (they love SFs, and sorry, but Joe Alexander has bust written all over him), and honorable mention to Knicks’ pick Danilo Gallinari (was that a brutal crowd or what?).

Final thought: I love the T.J. Ford for Jermaine O’Neal trade for Toronto. They got rid of a redundant player for a high-risk, high-reward player in O’Neal, and the 17th pick (Roy Hibbert) isn’t going to be a game-changer. IF (and that’s a huge IF) O’Neal plays sixty games, and is healthy for the playoffs, look out for Toronto!

As for Indiana, I like T.J. Ford, and Brandon Rush will be a solid pro. But, they had Jerryd Bayless fall to their laps at #11. Why not keep him as an insurance policy for T.J Ford, as well as a guy who can play some shooting guard?

That’s all for tonight.

Tags: commercial, douchebag, guitar idol, indiana pacers, jermaine o'neal, jerryd bayless, kevin love, los angeles clippers, mario chalmers, miami heat, michael beasley, milwaukee bucks, office, oj mayo, portland trail blazers, ricky gervais, russell westbrook, sacramento kings, steve carell, t.j. ford, toronto raptors, voicemail by Peter
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So I cannot believe I just spent the last two hours of my life watching Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show on ABC. I needed a good laugh, and I was hoping to see some awesome, MXC-like wipeouts.

I want my money back.

John Anderson (aka the SportsCenter anchor) was mildly entertaining, though perhaps the producers should have paired him with Stuart Scott or Scott Van Pelt. The other John (whatever his name is), though, was trying WAY TOO HARD to be funny, and of course, he was not even remotely funny. And don’t get me started on the eye candy interviewer Jill Wagner. Was Jill Arrington not available? Stick to the Mercury commercials, Jill.

(That got me thinking: how many takes does a single Mercury commercial take Jill to complete? Ok, so maybe she doesn’t do well with live action. Couldn’t ESPN have loaned the producers of Wipeout Erin Andrews? THAT I would watch.)

Once the debacle that was Wipeout ended, I started watching I Survived a Japanese Game Show…and WTF? The previews showed nothing but crazy Japanese game show action, and, I got to see a short, pudgy woman scream at a bunch of Road Rules rejects?

Twenty minutes in, and I was ready to shoot myself in the face. About the only thing entertaining about the show was the super-hyper host, who should have done all his commentary in Japanese.

(EDIT: Oh great. I just found out that this show will be Survivor-like, where each week, one player gets eliminated. Don’t worry…I see nine eliminations next week, if you catch my drift.)

(EDIT #2: OK…watching Cathy rickshaw around the sumo wrestler was kinda funny. Fine.)

I’ll consider laying 3:1 odds to anyone willing to bet that both shows will last four weeks.

(I know what you’re thinking. If the shows were so awful, why did you sit through both hours? Honestly, I have no idea; I think I went in and out of a coma several times.)

Tags: i survived a japanese game show, jill wagner, john anderson, not funny, waste of time, wipeout by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- I was expecting the high temps to stick around for another couple of days, but it was a comfortable 85 degree day today.

Hopefully the reduced temperatures will mean more sleep for me (more on that later).

- So I’ve got this stick of SO-DIMM RAM (that’s laptop memory, for you non-computer geeks out there), and I am tempted to put the RAM on my keychain as evidence of my geek-dom.

I’ve been told by at least one individual that, if I do so, I should not be seen with said person in public until I remove the RAM from my keychain. Fine.

(What I’m really worried about, of course, are the pointy edges of the stick of RAM that might chew up my pockets. Yeah, that’s it…I’m not at all worried about getting called a dork.)

- I guess there is at least one person who doesn’t buy Shaq’s “It was all done in fun” argument: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who demanded back Shaq’s special deputy’s badge as a result of his rap about Kobe. I can’t say I blame the sheriff.

Shaq’s not going to miss that badge one bit, methinks. He’s not going to be depressed the same way Dwight Schrute was after resigning from his volunteer position (remember the episode where Michael demanded Dwight’s urine to pass a drug test?), right?

- Chase has treated me pretty well as a customer (their inability to retain my email address, as well as changing due dates notwithstanding).

However, after seeing the latest story regarding Chase over on The Consumerist, part of me has to wonder when they’re going to royally screw me over. Cliffs: a “friendly” teller had siphoned about $300,000 out of $400,000 from the bank account of an elderly woman, who currently needs the money to pay her nursing home bills.

Granted, the actions were that of a rogue employee, and not Chase themselves. However, if what the article says is true—”The bank discovered the theft in August 2007″—what is taking so long for the funds to be returned to her? Also, she had been siphoning funds for four years, and it took a tax preparer (and not the bank itself) to catch on to her scam?

In any case, the teller better get what’s coming to her.

- So as all my loyal readers—all none of you—know, I’ve been lacking sleep lately. The oppressive heat of the last few days are largely to blame, and it doesn’t help that my bedroom window doesn’t have a screen on it. I’d sleep in the living room, but our sliding glass door doesn’t have a screen either. I suppose I could sleep without…um…never mind.

While there is absolutely nothing I could do about the heat (turning on the A/C aside), I wish I could throw stuff at my idiot neighbors, who haven’t helped in my quest for a good night’s sleep.

1) At about 5:30AM on Sunday morning, I was in la-la land, probably dreaming about something I wish I had (Money? An expensive car? A girl? A girl in an expensive car with money in the trunk? Whatever.), when I heard a loud THUD from the second-floor of my condominium complex. Either one of my neighbors tipped over a dresser/bookshelf/desk/etc., or one of my neighbors is a tad overweight.

I don’t think an asteroid crashing into “the Valley” would have made a sound that loud. Needless to say, it took a while for me to get back to sleep.

2) Later that morning, around 7AM, I was awoken to a guy sitting on the stairs outside my condo. For the next hour or so, I had to listen to this idiot explain, in a thousand different ways, how women are evil.

He gave classic lines, like “She’s just jerking around with you!” as well as more contemporary lines, like “Bros before hoes!” I also heard “She’s not worth it,” “She’s a b!tch,” and the usual “You can do better!” I could’ve sworn I also heard a “I’m here for you.”

Kudos to his cell phone for lasting throughout the conversation, though! My two-year-old Sanyo Katana can’t go 24 hours on STANDBY without needing a recharge.

3) On both weekend mornings, I was forced up to one of my neighbor’s dog barking incessantly. What really irritates me about the dog—other than its existence—is the fact that the dog barks the same four-bark, descending-tone melody over and over and over again. My sister insists that the owner leaves the dog outside in the patio on weekdays, forcing the dog to deal with the high temps until, presumably, the owner returns…allowing the dog to stay outside in the patio and annoy the holy hell out of his neighbors some more.

People who walk their dogs at 3PM on a 100+ degree day need to be shot. So does this idiot, if what my sister alleges is true.

Until next…zzzzz…

Tags: chase, cooler temperatures, elderly woman, joe arpaio, keychain, lack of sleep, loud dog, maricopa county, ram, scam, shaq, sheriff, sodimm, special deputy's badge, stupid neighbors, teller by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Wow. I actually tossed out an empty tube of toothpaste AND a stick of deodorant on the same day!

I think I better go to CVS to restock

- File this under the “It helps to read carefully” department: I got an email in my GMail Spam folder, with the all-too-subtle headline:

Win from benefits of hidden secrets of pornstars!

What I found mildly comical was the sender of the email: hijo.

In my sleepless state, and for a split second, I thought Hank was starting his own Canadian pharmaceutical company or something

- (from Consumerist) I think I ranted about this before, but I can’t seem to find when I did so. Anyway, apparently I am not the only one that has had Chase change around their credit card due dates in an effort to scam customers out of money.

(You tell me what other possible reason there is for doing this.)

The only reason why I caught Chase doing this to me is the fact that I log on to my Chase.com account almost weekly, whether I do it for a check of my credit limit, a check of my due dates (and whether or not the accounts are paid before the due date), or a random check of my purchases. If I wasn’t such a frequent visitor of my Chase.com online account, I’m almost certain that I would have been late on a payment at some point.

(By the way, Chase, why do I still get paper statements in envelopes that say “Sorry, but your email address was rejected, so here’s your statement”? I have changed my email address several times, and for some reason, you guys decide it would be funny to change it right back!

Either that, or maybe…nah.)

- Boy has it been HOT here in recent days! Over the latter three days of the past week, temps have gone well over 100 all three days, and Friday night, it was 83 degrees…at 3AM!!!

How hot has it been? In a span of six days, my sister and I have polished off eight gallons (out of ten) of water from our cooler!

(Thank goodness for Crystal Light.)

So on Saturday, my sister and I decided to soak in all the free air conditioning we could get by swinging by the Northridge Mall. We arrived at the mall at about 3:30 (I didn’t officially get up until 1; the heat had something to do with that), and we spent the first few minutes of the trip at Sears, looking for some cheap clearance stuff (no luck). After visiting a couple other stores, we headed across the mall to Borders.

Over at Borders, I grabbed two books that piqued my interest: Paul Shirley’s Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond, and Jim Nantz’
Always By My Side: A Father’s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other. I heard of Shirley’s book from ESPN’s Bill Simmons, and Nantz’s book intrigued me after his excellent interview on The Jim Rome Show on 5/30/08.

I got through the introduction and a single chapter of Shirley’s book, and now I’m hooked. I love his dry, sarcastic wit, though some of his cracks are a bit borderline offensive. Nantz’s book, on the other hand, grabbed me right at the end of the first chapter (anyone who read the book knows what I mean).

I think I’ll have to order both books.

The rest of the day was spent at Circuit City, where my sister was playing around with a Nikon D40. I was browsing for something to spend my ~ $200 GC on, and I couldn’t find a damn thing.

(We returned to the mall on Sunday, however, to take a look at an LG 32LG30 HDTV. After a AAA 8% off coupon, the TV comes out to about $650, or $450 after my GC. Tempting…)

- Finally, you must have seen by now the freestyle rap about (rip on?) Kobe by one Shaquille O’Neal. Here are my thoughts on the video:

1) When I first saw it, I pretty much asked “WTF are you thinking, you fat idiot?” I thought your so-called “feud” was completely over, and then you go on and do THAT? Like Shaq should be running his mouth; he had Nash and Amare and couldn’t get out of the first round!

(Tangent: When we talk about Shaq’s career, we always talk about the guards he played with: Penny, Kobe, D-Wade, and Nash. Why don’t we ever talk about the two HOF coaches that led him to rings—Phil Jackson and Pat Riley—and compare them to the two that couldn’t do so—Brian Hill and Mike D’Antoni?)

At best, Shaq’s jealous. At worst, he’s an arrogant ass.

2) After listening to Stephen A. Smith talk about freestyle rapping, and how Shaq’s rap is considered pretty mild by rapping standards (as you can expect, I am no expert on this subject), I guess I could give Shaq a bit of leeway. However, to say that his rap was not at all premeditated is ridiculous at best. Does this line

Kobe [expletive], tell me how my [expletive] tastes.

sound anything but premeditated? What about the line that Kobe caused Shaq’s divorce?

(quoted from the MSNBC.com article) I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced. He said Shaq gave a (woman) a mil. I don’t do that ’cause my name’s Shaquille. I love ‘em, I don’t leave ‘em. I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em.”

How can he rap about something that personal and still try to convince people that his rap was done in jest? Plus, if the feud with Kobe was, indeed, over, why would an attack on Kobe be the first thing on Shaq’s hit list? I don’t buy it one bit.

3) Speaking of attacks on NBAers, what was with the attack on Ewing and Kareem? Sure, Ewing has no rings, but what did he do to deserve getting blasted by Shaq? And Kareem? The top scorer (total points) in NBA history? The guy with six NBA rings and six MVPs?

Nice try.

If Shaq did this to draw interest to the first Suns-Lakers matchup of the 08-09 season, then Mission Accomplished. Personally, yawn…

Until next time!

Tags: always by my side, bookstore, borders, can i keep my jersey, chase, consumerist, credit card, freestyle, gmail, hot, jim nantz, kareem abdul-jabbar, kobe bryant, northridge mall, patrick ewing, paul shirley, rap, shaquille o'neal, spam, statement by Peter
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I wish I were sitting in a bucket of ice right now.

(EDIT: This blog entry was going to contain two or three additional topics, but I decided to cut it short because I’m freaking tired. More on that next time.)

- I just heard from my cousin that comedian George Carlin passed away early Sunday afternoon of heart failure. R.I.P., and prayers go out to his family.

In remembrance, I think I’ll go watch one of his stand-up routines (You Are All Diseased might be my favorite one.) I just can’t believe I missed out on a chance to see him perform recently.

- So we swung by CVS this morning, and while checking out, I paid attention to the credit card scanner machine/price thingy (you tell me what they’re called!) as my items were being rung up. I handed my cashier my ECBs, and as she scanned them, I noticed something peculiar: the ECBs were reducing my after-tax total!

(From my experiences, ECBs always are deducted from one’s pre-tax total, thus also reducing the sales tax amount.)

“Was this a new policy?” I thought to myself. As my sister went to the checkout counter, I watched as the cashier rung up her items. When her ECBs were scanned, her total dropped as expected; her sales tax was reduced as well as her subtotal!

It took me about five minutes to realize what happened: I had purchased nothing but food!

- So I really hate it when I get terrible service at a restaurant that I really enjoy dining at. Case in point: on Friday, my sister and I went to the local Korean BBQ restaurant, where we got pretty ridiculously horrible service. Our waitress took our order about two minutes after we sat down—it’s a good thing we had already decided on the all-you-can-eat BBQ—and took several minutes to get us our drinks, which came AFTER most of the food had arrived. I say most because we didn’t yet get our rice or steamed egg dish.

Worse yet, after she brought us our drinks, we didn’t see her at our table for the rest of the night (we saw her at other tables, though)! I pushed the call button on our table three times, and nobody responded! We were forced to flag down another waitress, who quickly got us the missing parts of our dinner. She even thanked us profusely for her tip, which we demanded that she keep for herself.

So what to do? We frequent this place often, and this is the first time we really got terrible service. We’ll probably go back, and hopefully we don’t encounter that horrible waitress again.

Tags: cvs, death, ecbs, extra care bucks, george carlin, korean bbq, terrible customer service by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- 99 degrees (102 RealFeel) yesterday; 103 (108) today.

It’s only June! Help me!

It’s so freaking hot that I have to turn on the A/C…at 8pm!

(More on the heat later.)

EDIT: We just had our first lights-flickering moment of the season! Rolling blackouts, here we come!

- The Dodgers are on a three-game winning streak! W00t!

Oh wait…they swept Cincinnati. Never mind.

(Now I hear that Rafael Furcal won’t be back until the All-Star Break. Sigh.)

- So after a several-month long absence from eBay (8.25% final value fees + 3% PayPal fees!!!!!), I posted a few things for sale that I couldn’t move on Amazon.com.

Two days after listing the auctions, nine eBay-related messages showed up in my inbox. Of the nine, two were legitimate questions about my auctions, four asked for shipping costs to a foreign country (obviously, these bidders missed the boldfaced part of my auction description that says that I will not ship to international bidders), and three were emails that looked something like this:

Subject: [eBay user] thought you might like this item on eBay

Body: We’re a big shipping company in China [blah blah blah] We specialize in wholesale electronics [blah blah blah] cell phones, laptops, computers, LCD TVs, plasmas, etc.

[blah blah blah] [contact info] We hope to conduct business with you.

One week later, and I got a total of nine or ten of these stupid emails. Never mind the number of phishing emails from fake sites like signin-ebay.com, e.g.

(Tangent: Every time I log on to my eBay account, I see an ad for a discount offer on an eBay symposium. Yeah, like I am going to pay to hear eBay explain why they need to raise their fees even more.)

- So I think my family is officially addicted to Crystal Light. Armed with a $15/39 coupon (SUMBEV39), I ordered the following flavors of Crystal Light for my sisters:

• Crystal Light On the Go, Immunity Pomegranate Cherry, 10-Count Box (Pack of 6)
• Crystal Light On-the-Go Metabolism Plus Green Tea Peach Mango, 14-Count Packets (Pack of 6)

If the temperatures around here stay in the low-100s, these Crystal Light packets probably won’t last more than a month.

- At about 7PM last night, my sister asked me to assist her in installing her Sirius satellite radio antenna in her car. When we started the install process, we noticed something immediately: it was freaking hot!

(Her car thermostat reported 84 degrees, although I don’t think it was that warm. It was still really warm, especially for 7PM, though.)

So the installation of the antenna involved attaching above the rear windshield—the antenna itself is magnetic, and there’s a small piece that is adhesive-backed, which further helps to secure the antenna to the car, as well as protecting the antenna cable from kinks. The antenna wire is then to be fed under the rubber molding that surrounds the rear windshield, followed by threading through the trunk, into the back seat, along the floor, and eventually to the radio itself. Sounds easy, right?

We had three different plastic putty knives (the instructions suggested that we use a putty knife), and a small pocket blade (and by that, I’m talking about those “blades” on a Swiss Army knife), and had nothing but trouble threading the cable underneath the rubber molding. That’s when my sister got this great idea to use index cards to push up the rubber molding, allowing us to push the cable underneath the molding.

The idea was brilliant, although I think I punctured the antenna anywhere from one to a hundred times when I used the putty knife to force the antenna underneath the molding. Once that was complete, we fed the wire through the trunk, down the back seat, along the floor of the passenger side of the car, and that’s when we ran into another snag.

There was enough wire to connect the radio only if we kept the radio near the cup holder. There went any ideas of sticking the radio on the dash! However, my sister loved the idea of leaving the radio near the cup holder!

(Whatever floats her boat, I suppose.)

Overall, installation of the antenna was relatively painless. I just fear that someone is going to rip off the antenna. And if you think I’m crazy, recall that I live in a complex where our “Welcome” mat was stolen…right in front of our front door.

Next time, I’ll mention what else happened with my sister and Sirius customer “support.” Until next time!

Tags: antenna, blackouts, cincinnati reds, ebay, heat, installation, los angeles dodgers, rafael furcal, real feel, satellite radio, sirius, spam, stratus 4, sweep, temperature by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Boy was it HOT today!  84 with a RealFeel of 95?

Today was NOT a good day on which to run errands.  Not to mention, it’s only June!  Wait until August rolls around!

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1594.  That number will go up soon, I promise

- We can debate over whether or not Tiger Woods is an elite athlete.  We can debate over whether or not golf is a sport.  We can debate, until we’re all blue in the face, over how much a balky knee could possibly affect one’s ability to hit a small round ball with a curvy stick.

However, any true sports fan would have a hard time denying that what Tiger Woods did in the 18-hole playoff + extra hole at Torrey Pines was nothing short of incredible golf.  To go three strokes ahead after 10, to down one with three to play, to even after another clutch birdie on 18…absolutely incredible.  Add on the balky knee, and all the pressure in the world (sure, Rocco played with a ton of pressure under him too, but it was hard to tell from watching his free-swinging ways), and that might have been the most compelling golf tournament I’ve ever seen.

(Too bad I had to watch the replay on ESPN Classic; I would have loved to see the drama live.  And, why was I not at all surprised to see the tiebreaker go an extra hole?)

I hate it when people say “it’s too bad [the runner-up] had to lose,” but that couldn’t apply more to Rocco Mediate.  And anyone who argues that Tiger’s dominance on the sport isn’t a good thing should be forced to watch the entire US Open to see how important to the game he is.  Does anyone think Torrey Pines draws half the crowd they did on Monday if Tiger wasn’t there?

Well, Phil Mickelson, maybe.  But that’s about it.

If Tiger shuts it down for the rest of the golf season, I wouldn’t blame him one bit.

- I did not watch Game Six, nor did I really care to.  All I know is that Boston finally finished off the Lakers, and they did so with the second-largest margin of victory in an NBA Finals game ever.  Fan-freaking-tastic…Boston myopians have yet another thing to brag about for the next few months, on top of their Game Four comeback and their Game Five near-comeback.

If I can survive the next couple of days of Boston myopians flooding talk radio, as well as the East Coast Sports Network (aka ESPN) kissing all sorts of green-colored ass, consider it a minor miracle.  I hope I don’t have to hear a minute of someone calling Paul Pierce’s performance as among the best ever in NBA Finals’ history, and I’m sick and tired of hearing about Kevin Garnett’s “passion” for the game.

(Don’t get me wrong, the Celtics absolutely kicked the Lakers’ asses for six games, and Pierce and Garnett had huge roles.  And yeah, their stories are compelling.  Keep telling them, though, and three-fourths of the nation are going to start puking.)

BTW, Laker fan, please quit whining that the Pau Gasol trade was a failure.  Like I have said before, the Lakers wouldn’t be anywhere close to the NBA Finals without Gasol, the softie that he is.

Boston, congrats, and let’s hope for a rematch next year.

(And thanks for the $50 I won because I bet on Boston +160 to win :P)

Until next time!

by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- I just realized that my blog could be abbreviated as USB!

(Yes, that probably amused only me.)

I should hire someone to spoof a USB icon for my blog

- You know you order too much stuff on Amazon.com when, browsing your recently placed orders, you have to think about why you ordered a particular item…or five.

That being said, I think this Delta Seven-Spray Hand Shower is a huge necessity, don’t you agree?

- So you might recall that, not long ago, I bought a bunch of “marginally healthy” snacks from Amazon.com.

Save the dark chocolate pretzels, we haven’t come close to polishing off everything. The yogurt snacks are just way too freaking sweet. Well, I think I’ve finally found a way to use up my yogurt raisins: healthy cereal topping!

Yogurt raisins + Total = pretty darn good. I wonder what adding crushed yogurt pretzels might do to a bowl of otherwise bland cereal…

- We had to celebrate Father’s Day on Saturday, because my dad had to attend a wedding the next day.

(Who the hell schedules a wedding on Father’s Day???)

He wanted steak, and I wanted to BBQ, so naturally we came to a good compromise:  grilled steak!  My sister then decided that it would be a good idea to go shopping at 168 Supermarket.

THIS 168 Supermarket.

Two highlights of the trip to 168 Supermarket:

1) While going through the still-narrow-as-hell produce aisles, some stupid woman decided to situate herself right in the middle of the aisle down which I was traveling.  I pushed my cart right in front of her—she was facing the West of the store, while my cart pointed North—and waited for her to move ever so slightly.

She did move, if by “move” I mean she bent forward a nano-millimeter.  I decided that there was enough room between her back and the display of whatever produce was there, so I eased my way through the gap.

(Could I have said “excuse me?”  Sure, but I didn’t want the death stare :P)

A couple minutes later, I noticed her loudly talking to another customer (no longer where she initially blocked my path), and for some reason, they were pointing and staring in my direction!  Seconds later, they both walked over to the produce display that the woman was looking through earlier.

Of course, for all I know, they might have actually been cursing me off.

2) Five minutes later (yes, that quickly), we had already finished our shopping, so we headed down one aisle towards the checkout.  That’s when some woman blitzed right past us on our right, but not before leaning her shoulder to nudge my sister out of the way.

If not for the bright pink sweater she was wearing…or the fact that she was 5′1″, or the fact that she was not exactly in tip-top shape, I would have thought that LaDainian Tomlinson ran right past us.

- Steaks were tasty, as well as the grilled veggies—three different bell peppers, tomatoes, and Italian squash—and the potato salad was quite good too.  Well, two of the steaks were quite good.  The rest of the steaks were dry as hell, which is what happens when you attempt to cook steaks to well done on a BBQ grill.

After 25 minutes, I pulled the other steaks off the grill, and they were still slightly—and I mean slightly pink.  Apparently, they were still too pink for the rest of my family to eat, and my dad and oldest sister MICROWAVED their pieces.

(Note to self:  it takes at least 20-25 minutes to get a well done 1″ New York strip, or twice as long as a medium rare steak would take.)

Seriously, how could anyone eat a well done steak?  You’d have to pour on copious amounts of A-1 sauce just to be allowed to call your steak “dry.”  A well done steak on a BBQ?  That’s Death Valley in terms of dryness.  Beef jerky has more juice in it than a well done steak.

- Raise your hand if you saw the epic sporting event of this past weekend?

No, I’m not talking about the Lakers’ near-second monumental collapse, of which I only saw a small fraction.  I’m talking about the US Open of golf!

(Yes, I watch golf too!  And for the scope of this discussion, let’s not debate over whether or not golf is a sport.)

Who didn’t think that Tiger was going to nail that final putt on 18?  Sure, the ball might have rolled around the cup slightly before dropping in, but the ball certainly knew better!  And what a setup we have for tomorrow’s 18-hole tiebreaker:  Tiger and his balky, surgically repaired knee, versus Rocco Mediate.

(Who?  The 158th player in the world, with five CAREER wins—Tiger has 13 MAJOR wins, by comparison—and by the way, a great guy, based on the post-round interviews he gave.)

Tiger has to be the overwhelming favorite, despite the wounded knee, but don’t tell me that Mediate doesn’t deserve to get into the playoffs.  He played a hell of a round, and had at least two shots at putting some distance between himself and Woods.  Do you think Mediate is kicking himself over that missed short putt on (I believe it was) 13?

I think Tiger will win, but I doubt he’ll crush Rocco.

Until next time!

Tags: 168 supermarket, amazon.com, bbq, cereal, new york strip, potato salad, rocco mediate, shower head, snacks, tiger woods, us open, well done, yogurt raisins by Peter
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So as mentioned in my previous blog entry, I spent the night at the Nokia Theater L.A. Live with two sports icons (hell, world icons!): Vin Scully and “The Wizard of Westwood” John Wooden.

Random thoughts regarding the event:

1) John Wooden is 97 freaking years old, and sharper now than I am. I’d give anything to know as much as he has forgotten in his life.

Naturally, both he and Vin—Vin wheeled Wooden around in a wheelchair—got a huge standing ovation as the event started. Wooden was gracious enough to point to Scully, apparently trying to drum up an ovation for Vin as well. What a great sign of respect!

Did I mention that Wooden is 97?

2) Before the event started, I told my sister to watch for a “smattering” of boos directed towards the moderator of today’s event, Los Angeles Times’ writer T.J. Simers.

When he introduced himself, he got a HUGE chorus of boos. That was pretty damn funny! The P.R. director of the Nokia Theater L.A. Live saved his butt, though, explaining that it was pretty much Simers’ idea to arrange the talk. That drew a huge applause, though I sensed some people were giving him a “yeah, whatever” applause

Personally, I can’t stand T.J. Simers’ column. He comes off as very arrogant, brash, and an all-world jerk (at least Jim Rome conducts great interviews and is funny.) That being said, Simers did an excellent job as moderator, even though I felt that the mood of the room was a bit too light. I almost felt like I was watching a celebrity roast instead of an inspirational chat.

Too many jokes were thrown around, IMO, though the first one Simers cracked—something to the effect of “Let’s bring those two old men out, if they haven’t nodded off already”—was pretty damn funny. Simers picked on Wooden early and often, but the coach was game; he did an excellent job of trading blows with Simers.

Did I mention Wooden is 97?

Between jokes, Simers asked some excellent questions. He asked Scully about Eric Gagne and PEDs—(paraphrasing) “I remember only what I saw on the field”—and he allowed Vin to tell a great story about how he and Jackie Robinson once competed in an ice-skating race. He asked Wooden about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once declaring Wooden’s famous “Pyramid of Success” as “corny,” and asked about Wooden’s secret to long life.

3) Listening to Vin Scully live was just so much more awesome than listening to him on TV or the radio. When Simers asked Scully his first question (I don’t remember it at the moment), Scully immediately gave a typical Scully answer. Rather than a short, simple response, Scully answered the question using the same elegance and prose he has for over 50 years.

Vin Scully is only 80, by the way.

4) There are two moments that stand out from tonight’s show. Wooden’s recount of how he met Nellie (his now deceased wife), how he writes a letter to her on the 21st of every month, and how he still “talks” to her everyday was very touching; my sister remarked that she almost shed a tear. I can’t say that I didn’t either.

(Nell Wooden died in 1985, for the record, and still he’ll write a letter to her every 21st day of each month.)

The other unforgettable moment was not nearly as emotional. When Simers asked Vin if he was going to retire or announce games “until the very end,” most of the crowd screamed “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Scully gave the perfect non-committal response, saying that he would take things day-to-day. That got a roaring applause.

5) I’m not sure if this made it on the live broadcast—Fox Sports Net Prime Ticket aired the show live—but Bill Walton’s little montage about Wooden teaching him and some other freshmen how to put on their shoes and socks was classic. Minutes later, a kid that survived cancer came out to a huge ovation, and Wooden demonstrated that shoes and socks lecture on him. That must have been a thrill of a lifetime for the kid.

Though I will never forget the hour and a half I spent listening to these two life legends speak, I will also not forget the real reason why this talk was set up in the first place: to raise funds and awareness for those afflicted with cancer. My only regret of the night: I wish I had better seats.

If these two legends ever decide to do another talk, I’m there.

Until next time!

Tags: for the kids, john wooden, la live, nokia theatre, tj simers, vin scully, wizard of westwood by Peter
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