UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

You might have noticed the way I am now labeling my Office reviews (S05E02 = Season 5, Episode 2, e.g.).

One of these days, I’ll go back and fix all my Office-related blog titles to reflect this change.

(No I won’t :P)

- Here’s all I have to say about Game Two of the Dodgers/Phillies series:

BRETT F**KING MYERS??? THREE FOR THREE, THREE RBI, AND TWO RUNS??? ARE YOU SERIOUS???

(Bye, Manny.)

- I love Costco. My wallet might not, but I love Costco. One of the most underrated aspects of Costco has to be their excellent customer service. Most of the cashiers I’ve encountered at Costco were very friendly to me. Sure, there was the occasional cashier that would half-heartedly say “Bye” to me at the end of my transaction, but this was the exception and not the rule.

However, yesterday I got to deal with the most inconsiderate Costco cashier of all time! Rather than repeat what happened, I’ll let the email I fired off to Costco speak for itself:

Hi,

Let me start by saying that several members of my family are frequent shoppers at Costco Wholesale warehouse locations throughout Southern California, and for the most part, we have had few (if any) customer-service related issues with your stores. Most of the cashiers we have encountered have been genuinely friendly to us, usually offering greetings of “How are you today?” followed by “Have a good day!” at the conclusion of our transactions.

On 10/10/2008, however, I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with cashier [cashier name, register #, store #, city, state, zip, and time]. It appeared that I had lined up right around the time that [name] and two other cashiers decided that it would be more important to converse with each other than to do their jobs. One of the other workers was manning a cash register of his own, and the other was responsible for putting scanned items back in to my cart.

When I lined up, I was not at all greeted by [name]—she didn’t even glance in my general direction! Furthermore, while scanning my purchases, there was at least one moment where she completely stopped what she was doing in order to speak to her coworkers! Each time she did this, I was tempted to say “If you don’t mind, please scan my items, and then you can chat when you’re done with me.”

After I paid for the items, [name] handed me my receipt, again without even making eye contact; apparently she still needed to converse with her coworkers! I felt like filling a complaint right then and there, but I thought better of it.

As I mentioned before, my family frequently shops at Costco, and I do not recall a customer-service related issue as atrocious as the situation discussed above. I sincerely hope I will not have to find another Costco to shop at in the future.

Thank you for your time,

I already got a reply from Costco, saying that my email was forwarded to the local manager.

(I know what some of you might be thinking: why would I waste my time filing a complaint? Cashier jobs are horribly thankless jobs, and most cashiers could care less about their customers! I will not dispute this point; however, like I said earlier, I would not have expected such rude cashiers at Costco. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if something like this happened at VONS, Ralphs, Rite Aid, WalMart, etc., but Costco? Not a chance.)

- Time for my Office review:

My opinion of “Business Ethics” might change if I watch it a few more times, but I just couldn’t really get into the episode. Sure, the whole bit with Jim, Dwight, and Andy was ridiculously funny, but the episode really felt like a chore to get through. As far as “storyline” episodes go, this was one of the least impressive ones.

Thank goodness Jim and Pam immediately announced their engagement! The last thing I needed was a drawn-out, winter break cliffhanger over when they would actually make that announcement. However, when is Pam coming back to Scranton? And what will happen to Ryan when that happens?

Have I mentioned how much I now love Holly’s character? She’s perfect for the show! She’s quirky enough to stand Michael, while, at the same time, you can tell that she wants to do her job well. I like how we got more insight as to why Michael is perfect for running the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin; the process (actually going through the Ethics binder) isn’t nearly as important as the results (getting signatures from the office). Will Michael continue to mold Holly into a female version of himself? Or will Holly continue to butt heads with Michael over office matters?

(Or both?)

So Meredith has sex for discount paper and steak, huh? And Holly wanted her fired??? Give her a promotion! You just knew that Meredith wasn’t going to get punished for her actions, but I thought it was Michael that was going to defend her, not someone at corporate! The writers should continue this storyline throughout the season; maybe we can discover that Dwight traded away some beets for discount paper?

Hopefully next week’s episode will be better.

Tags: brett myers, business ethics, costco, idiot cashier, los angeles dodgers, philadelphia phillies, The Office by Peter
2 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Boy was it COLD today.  Cold, chilly, windy…can I have summer back?

Oh well…cold weather means I can go have pho again!  Yum!

(And yes, I did have some today.  Gosh I missed that stuff.)

- A new toy arrived at my doorstep a few days ago, delivered by USPS (more on that later):  an LG Shine!

Too bad it was for my sister.

Nevertheless, I ripped open the box, popped the battery into the phone, popped the backplate onto the phone, and then immediately plugged it in.  I hit the power button, and it immediately asked me for a SIM card.

Nooooooooooooo!  A new toy, and I can’t even play with it???

Then I remembered…I used to have an AT&T Prepaid plan.  Would the SIM card work?  I rushed to my desk, dug through my desk drawers, and somehow found the little SIM card buried between some manuals.

I rushed back to the phone, stuck in the SIM card, and it worked!

I played with the phone for about ten seconds, before putting it away :P.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  ~$1300.

With the fall season comes new TV shows, the MLB Playoffs, NFL football (of course!), and the NBA regular season on the horizon.  For me, I like to add “2009 Rebate Deals!” to that list!

Yeah, I’m a rebate degenerate, as well as a gambling degenerate, and a fantasy sports degenerate.

- My USPS carrier has NEVER left a package on my door.

(I’d argue that she never actually knocks, but who knows?)

The package could have been torn apart to reveal a t-shirt inside, and she still wouldn’t have left the package in front of my door.

So you could imagine how absolutely shocked I was to see a USPS Priority Mail box sitting on my front door, containing my sister’s cell phone!!!

(clears throat)

YOU WON’T LEAVE ANY OF MY PACKAGES ON MY FRONT DOOR, EVEN IF I FILL OUT THAT STUPID POSTCARD PERMITTING THIS, BUT YOU DECIDED THAT THIS ONE PACKAGE WAS WORTH LEAVING ON MY DOORSTEP??????????????????????????

(I need a throat lozenge.)

- To my loyal readers (all none of you), I present an UngsungBlog PSA.

If you have attempted to order from Frys.com lately, you might have run into a situation where adding an item to your cart leads you to a webpage asking you to enable cookies.

If you run into that problem, there’s an easy workaround:

1. Copy the seven-digit Frys.com item number.
2. Enter the item number into the search field.
3. When the item shows up, click on the “Buy” button, and the item should show up in your cart.

Hope that helps.

- (Yeah, I should have posted this yesterday.  Shoot me.)

Andre Ethier at first, none out, and the Dodgers played hit and run.  James Loney hit a grounder to short, and oops!  SS Ryan Theriot, running to cover second base, overran the grounder, and stuck his hand out to try to barehand the ball.  It glanced off his hand, trickled into left field, and all of a sudden, it was first and third with none out.

You could just feel Cubs fans fearing the worst.  Even after Matt Kemp struck out looking, you could hear the nervousness in the crowd’s response.  Once Blake Dewitt hit that grounder directly to 2B Mark DeRosa, though, you could almost hear the crowd breathe a heavy sigh of relief.  4-6-3, inning over, right?

Whoops!  DeRosa kicked the ball, and then tried a desperate flip to Theriot.  Loney beat the throw, Ethier scored, and you just had the feeling the the Cubs were in deep trouble (and members of the crowd were probably calling their therapists).  But then, Casey Blake hit a hard grounder to 1B Derrek Lee, and the Cubs had ANOTHER chance to get out of the inning!

So close!  Derrek Lee booted it, everyone was safe, and now the Dodgers had the bases loaded with only one out.  At this point, you almost felt sorry for Cubs fans.  But wait!  Chad Billinsgley was up, and down he goes on strikes!  Two outs now, and Carlos Zambrano only had to get Rafael Furcal out to escape the inning!

Of course, Furcal ends up burning the Cubs by laying down a perfect drag bunt—it would have been terrible, except for the fact that Mark DeRosa was playing on the outfield grass!—and all of a sudden, it was 2-0 Dodgers, and Zambrano had to face Russell Martin.  The rest was history; Martin lined a double into the left-field gap, and the rout was on.  The crowd was ABSOLUTELY DEAD by that point.

I could spend some time explaining how the Cubs aren’t close to being done in this series—Harden could quickly shut down the Dodgers’ roster, and so could Lilly, and then the Dodgers would have to win a Game Five at Chicago, possibly facing Zambrano!—but I’m not going to waste my time.  It seems that Cubs fans are so certain that their team is cursed that Peter Gammons couldn’t convince Cubs fans otherwise, much less a stupid blogger.

One parting topic about this series:  can people stop arguing that the Cubs are choking this series away more than the Dodgers are winning it?  Sure, Ryan Dempster was crazy wild in Game One, but Loney still had to hit a 1-2 pitch into the center field seats, right?  Sure, the Cubs’ infield defense looked like they were using frying pans as gloves, but the Dodgers still had to make contact with Zambrano’s pitching, right?

Sorry, Cubs faithful, but the Dodgers are winning this series 2-0.  However, THEY HAVE NOT YET WON!

(Never mind.)

Other Division Series-related thoughts:

- How are all four DSes 2-0?

- How did Brett Myers (????) draw two walks against C.C. Sabathia?

- How are the Rays doing it?

- How are the Angels not?

One parting thought about the Angels:  as an Angels “hater,” I was mildly amused with watching K-Rod give up the game winning bomb in the Los Angeles Angels nowhere in Los Angeles’ loss to Boston tonight.

Then I realized who hit the game winner.

Damn that unnamed right fielder.

Until next time!

Tags: chicago cubs, cold weather, comedy of errors, cookies, frys.com, lg shine, los angeles dodgers, rebate-o-meter, ungsungblog psa, usps by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- Once again, I have allowed two rebates to go right up to the 30-day postmark deadline.

I guess this is a sign that I better start using MS Outlook or something :P.

- If I hear It’s Not My Time by 3 Doors Down one more time on Sirius Internet Radio, I might have to throw something through my computer screen.

Seriously…enough already!  I almost miss the days where Sirius was (seemingly) contractually obligated to play one Coldplay song on one of its stations at all times.

Contrary to what you might believe, this is not a rant against Coldplay or 3 Doors Down.  It is simply a rant against Sirius.

- So as many of you deal hunters probably know, Amazon has started swinging the ban stick at a number of individuals recently.  Everyone who got banned got this rather vague email:

Hello from Amazon.com.

A careful review of your account indicates you’ve experienced an extraordinary number of incidents with your orders and corresponding shipments.

In the normal course of business, the occasional problem is inevitable. The rate at which such problems have occurred on your account is extraordinary, however, and cannot continue. Effective immediately, your Amazon.com account is closed and you are no longer able to shop in our store.

Please know that any accounts related to yours have also been closed. If you were to open a new account, the same will result and it will also be closed. In the event that you attempt to do so, we will not accept the return of any additional orders, nor will we issue further refunds in connection with any future orders. We appreciate your cooperation in refraining from using our web site.

If you require additional assistance, or have any concerns, feel free to contact us directly at account-appeals@amazon.com.

Please do not contact regular Customer Service again, as they will no longer be able to assist you.

If you read through the thread, apparently Amazon.com CSRs can’t offer a thorough explanation of what “an extraordinary number of incidents” really means, though speculation is that this is referring to a large number of returns and/or price matches.

I understand that Amazon.com has a right to choose who they want to do business with, but they couldn’t offer a warning?  Also, reports are that not only are people unable to even log into their account to check their invoices, but individuals with outstanding gift certificate accounts may be SOL as well!  Furthermore, some individuals with both buyer and seller accounts are getting both locked because of the activity on their buyer account!

I was surprised that it took nearly a week for this story to hit The Consumerist, and I can’t say that I’m surprised by the reactions of the readers there, though I do not agree with what most of them are saying.  Yes, people that open multiple accounts to take advantage of the same promotion multiple times should be banned.  Yes, people that have a ridiculously high return rate—and the number of actual returns, not just the percentage, should also matter!—should be banned.  Nevertheless, shouldn’t these people be warned?  Is that too much to ask for?

For the record, my account has not been banned.  It would not surprise me in the least, though, if I find that email in my inbox in the coming days.

(The statement above is NOT an admission of guilt.)

- Quick thoughts on Monday’s Vols/Bruins’ game:  did somebody replace QB Kevin Craft with Peyton Manning in the second half?  How do you go from a guy throwing passes that a Pop Warner QB wouldn’t throw, to gunslinging passes into tight coverage to rally your team back from not one, but TWO second-half deficits?  How does a team lose both its starting QBs in the preseason, and then lose three senior starters during the game, and yet muster enough to hold off a ranked opponent?

And how must Tennessee be feeling, knowing that the game was lost on a missed chip-shot field goal in OT, minutes after their kicker bombed a 47-yard kick to tie the game in regulation?

Unfortunately for Bruins fans, this game did not end without some controversy (what else is new?).  Did Raymond Carter really get in on that 3-yard TD run?  Also, wasn’t the pass to Ryan Moya that set up the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter an illegal forward pass?

Finally, who knew that the Bruins’ defense would be THIS good?  Sure, Tennessee is no USC or Florida, but the Vols’ offense looked really bad for three quarters against the blitzing Bruins’ D.

- I know we’re only talking about a four-game sample size.  I know two of the four games were played against a really young ( = bad) Padres team.  I know we ran into a pair of struggling aces (the D’Backs’ Webb and Haren).

However, do Dodger fans realize that the Boys in Blue are 4-0 since Jeff “Vin Scully talks too much” Kent went on the DL with a knee injury?

(Tangent:  Yes, Kent is an idiot for saying that Vin Scully talks too much, even if he thinks he’s right.  I realize that he might have been saying it in jest, but it still does not make it OK to slander “some guy” [his words, not mine] like Vinny.)

Sports enthusiasts always talk about chemistry and how important chemistry is to a championship.  The Giants won the Super Bowl last year because Tiki Barker and Jeremy Shockey weren’t around to ruin the team chemistry, people might say.

(I’d argue that the Giants’ D-Line mauled Tom Brady and the Pats’ O-Line).

Could it be said that the Dodgers might actually be better without Jeff Kent?  One would think not, seeing how well Kent has played since the Manny deal (despite what Kent might argue).  Secondly, Kent’s replacement—one Blake DeWitt—does not exactly strike fear into opposing pitchers the way Kent would.

I cannot, with a straight face, say that the Dodgers are definitely better without Kent.  However, if the Dodgers should string together a couple more victories—a 3-1 record to finish the homestand is not exactly a stretch!—I might have to entertain the thought.

And what happens when Kent returns?  What if the Dodgers start losing games again with him back?

Whatever happens, this will be a very intriguing rest of the season in the NL Minor League Division, aka the West.

Tags: 3 doors down, amazon.com, banning accounts, consumerist, it's not my time, jeff kent, kevin craft, knee injury, los angeles dodgers, postmark deadline, rebates, sirius, team chemistry, tennessee volunteers, ucla bruins, vin scully by Peter
2 Comments »

So I’ve had quite the horrible last few days.  Idiots galore, topped off by McAfee/Parago rejecting a rebate of mine for $65 for a missing UPC (they said I have to mail in the original UPC…too bad I SENT IT WITH THE ORIGINAL SUBMISSION!!!), and now, there’s an eerie light outside of my window.

Relax, UFO folks, it’s not an alien.  It’s just a bunch of cops, flashlights in hand, probably looking for some suspect hiding in our apartment complex.

Wait a sec…

(me hides under my blanket)

- I got an email from Time Warner yesterday, saying that my latest bill was ready.

Oh great, I thought to myself, how much higher is this month’s bill going to be compared to last month’s?

You could imagine the utter shock and surprise when I opened the email, and saw that my bill actually went DOWN.

(You know…the opposite of UP.)

- It’s not official yet, but apparently the Dodgers are nearing a trade for veteran P Greg Maddux.  No details have been released yet, but speculation is that the Padres have not yet decided on what player(s?) to accept in a deal.  It’s pretty clear that the player will not be anyone on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, because of the fact that such a player would have to clear waivers first before he could be included in a deal (and there’s no way that a team like the Rockies wouldn’t claim that player first, effectively killing the deal).

I just hope McCourt…er…Colletti isn’t throwing in a high prospect or two middling prospects just to get the Padres to pay most of Maddux’s remaining salary.

Full thoughts on this deal will come as soon as the details of the trade are released.

- I was watching women’s beach volleyball—May-Treanor + Walsh versus a Brazilian team—earlier today, when the announcer told us a story of something that happened earlier in the day.  Apparently, the Americans were on the best practice court, when the Brazilian team came by and demanded that the Americans leave the court.  The Americans obliged, though no word on whether or not the Americans cursed the Brazilians under their breath.

So how did the Americans respond? 21-12, 21-14, and to quote Brett Myers, “BOOM…outta here!”

(Tangent:  I’ve used that phrase no less than 50,000 times in the past few weeks, and I expect to use it another 500,000 times before the year is over.  Every Dodger HR or pitcher’s strike out, for example, is greeted by one.  Thank you, Jim Rome.)

But seriously, I gotta ask:  why the hell do people insist on slighting the best in their sports?  Exactly what are you going to accomplish from doing so?

(Right, “Alain”?)

You have crybaby Mark Spitz—GREAT article, by the way—Ian Thorpe, and Alain Bernard dropping jabs on Michael Phelps.  You have Rory Sabbatini and Stephen Ames famously ripping Tiger Woods.  I’m certain people have ripped Lance Armstrong (Jan Ullrich?)and Michael Jordan in the past.  And now we have the Brazilian women’s beach volleyball team allegedly disrespecting the Americans?

Let’s call it the Rory Sabbatini Corollary (in honor of Sabbatini, for this reason):

Sabbatini made waves at the Wachovia Championship in May 2007 when, after leading the field by one stroke after day three and then giving up five strokes to Tiger Woods to lose the tournament on Sunday, he proclaimed that Tiger was “more beatable than ever.” Rory went on to lead the field by one after day three at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2007, but ended eight strokes behind Tiger Woods.  (source)

and declare that no athlete, bystander, legend, or team shall never again insult, question the ability of, doubt, disrespect, or do otherwise to annoy, tick off, and/or fuel the fire of the best athletes in the event in question.

(Unless, of course, the athlete wants a swift, “BOOM…outta here!” moment.)

Tags: bad week, beach volleyball, bill, boom...outta here, eerie light, greg maddux, kerri walsh, lance armstrong, los angeles dodgers, mcafee, michael jordan, michael phelps, misty may-treanor, parago, rory sabbatini corollary, san diego padres, tiger woods, time warner by Peter
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It’s hot.

Quick-hitters:

- Is it just me, or do Reduced Fat Oreo cookies taste disgusting compared to the original variety?

Methinks it’s time to do a double-blind experiment.  Any volunteers?

(My experiment will be BYOOs, by the way.)

- It’s that time of the year…FANTASY FOOTBALL TIME!!!

(W00t!)

If anyone is interested in joining the Bargain$hare Fantasy Football league, please let me know.  We have only 2/12 spots filled as of tonight.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,070.

I can’t wait for the 2009 software to come around.

- So I know I said that I didn’t have much interest in the Olympic Games this year, but I couldn’t help but watch the Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay, just to see if the Americans could beat the favorites:  the French team.  What really got me interested in the event was the comments of French swimmer, Alain Bernard:  “The Americans? We’re going to smash them.”

Nice try, Alain.  I think he meant to say that new American hero Jason Lezak was going to smash the French with a world-record 50m split time of 46.06 seconds.  Seriously, though, how the hell did Bernard lose what looked like a half body length lead over Lezak with only the final 50m to go?

I hope Michael Phelps plans on sending the guy a fruit basket or something.

(Note:  Despite the blog title, I am not taking credit away from Lezak and the Americans; they won the race.  The French did not choke the race away.  It’s just fun to see the word “French” followed by the word “surrender” :P)

It was a damn shame, though, that I already knew the results of the race prior to air time.  Thanks, Yahoo! Sports and ESPN.com.

- I will interrupt the sports talk to give credit to Staples for a positive customer service experience.

(A POSITIVE customer service experience?  On THIS blog?)

On Sunday, I acquired a Staples coupon that, I later found out, was already redeemed.  I figured that I could place the order that night, find another Staples coupon to use (which I did on Monday), and then call Staples and see if they would manually add the coupon to my order.

Earlier tonight, I called Staples, and after spending about 30 seconds navigating through Staples’ IVR (Interactive Voice Response), I got a live operator.  I quickly explained that I needed to add a coupon code to my order.  The rep asked me for my order number, followed by the coupon code, and a couple seconds later, she explained that I would be seeing a refund of ~ $27 on my VISA in the next couple of days.

Total time of call:  ~1:45.  Nice.

- Finally, I gotta talk about my Dodgers, specifically the two come-from-ahead losses to the Giants.

(clears throat)

WTF?  WTF???  W T F??????

Two ninth-inning, one-run leads…POOF!  Worse yet, two freaking losses to the SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS???  Two losses that should have given us a half-game lead in the West, instead of the 1.5 game deficit we currently face?

And the losses themselves didn’t really hurt.  It was the manner in which we lost both games!  Leadoff hits, booted balls, poor defensive decisions, you name it!  It was almost as if the 2008 Dodgers were trying to replicate their failures of last year.

(EDIT:  Oh my.  Bases loaded, four run lead, ninth inning, and Chase Utley is up.  Gulp…if Broxton can’t close this one, I might have a heart attack.)

(EDIT #2:  Of course…Utley blooped a single into left.  8-6 now, and Ryan Howard is up.  Yikes.)

(EDIT #3:  Whew.  Grounder to the shift in super-shallow right.)

Hurry back, Takashi Saito!

Tags: alain bernard, bargainshare, coupon, customer service, fantasy football, jason lezak, los angeles dodgers, mens 4x100 freestyle relay, michael phelps, olympic games, reduced fat oreos, relief pitching, san francisco giants, staples, takashi saito by Peter
1 Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- Man-Ram: 2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .500 batting average since the trade.

I’m just sayin’

By the way, what is it going to take for Joe Torre to realize that Ramirez-Kemp-Ethier MUST be his outfield against any RHP??? Does Torre have something against Ethier?

And does anyone want Andruw Jones? We’ll take a bag of sunflower seeds for him!

- (Un?)fortunately, it appears that Sprint has fixed my billing issues from yesterday, and I only owe the correct amount of $31.77.

Drat. I really wanted to yell at them too!

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,300 and still falling.

Big-box-in-living-room-o-meter: nine and rising

- Dear Fedex delivery guy,

2 <– This is a TWO.

3 <– This is a THREE.

1 0 2 <– This says “ONE ZERO TWO,” as in “Unit 102.”

1 0 3 <– This says “ONE ZERO THREE,” as in “Unit 103.”

If a package is addressed to “Unit 102,” you should probably leave said package in front of the door labeled “102.”  You probably should not leave said package in front of the door labeled “103,” and you definitely should not stack three huge, heavy boxes in front of the door labeled “103.”  What if my neighbor couldn’t move the boxes, and, therefore, could not get into his house?

(And you most definitely should not do this on consecutive days.)

I’m thinking about asking my neighbor if I could stick a sign on his door with a huge arrow on it and the words “ONE ZERO TWO is over there!”

- As soon as I found out that Foreigner was headlining the August 2nd edition of this year’s Alhambra Summer Jubilee, I circled this date on my calendar.  That was several months ago.

We swung by Victory Restaurant for lunner—a late lunch/early dinner—and had the grilled garlic with chicken.  In other words, it was a grilled piece of chicken with a crapola of chopped fried garlic on top.  Good stuff, though it was a shame that we couldn’t get there in time for the lunch specials.

We got to the Jubilee at around 5PM, and apparently they now require you to get wristbands before you could sit in the bleachers.  These wristbands had section, row, and seat #s on them; I don’t recall getting assigned seating at last year’s Jubilee.  After we got our wristbands, we strolled onto Main Street where we listened to this “band” butcher GnR’s “Sweet Child of Mine” for 30 seconds, or 29 seconds too long.

After that horrific experience, we went east of Garfield to a drink shop (I forget the name), where I had a Green Apple Green Tea.  At least, that’s what they said the drink was; it tasted like slightly watered-down Apple Pucker.  It was ridiculously sweet!  I felt like I was eating one of those green apple lollipops.

From 6-7 and 7:30-8:30, we were entertained by 80z All Stars.  They weren’t terrible, but I couldn’t really get into the music, as I was anxiously awaiting for Foreigner.  Finally, at around 8:45 (fifteen minutes later than scheduled), Foreigner finally came on stage, starting off the night with Double Vision.

When the second song came around—I believe it was Head Games—some guy who sat directly to our left returned to his seat, and proceeded to royally piss me off.  He got to his seat, but instead of sitting down, he started singing and gesturing to the band!

Picture this:  Head (gesture) games (gesture)…It’s you (gesture) and me (gesture) baby (gesture)…Head (gesture) games (gesture)…and I can’t (gesture) take it (gesture) anymore (gesture)…

(EDIT:  After a bit of deliberation, this douchebag’s act reminded me of this.  Go to 1:07 in the video, and focus on the guy in green.  Note the gestures, and then realize that the douchebag sitting next to us gestured at Foreigner

Not much later, the guy left again, and thank goodness that he never returned.

As for the rest of the concert (Note:  I’m recapping this off the top of my head; if I made a mistake somewhere, please let me know):

1) The first half of Waiting For a Girl Like You, sans strings, was incredible, as well as their new “remix” of Say You Will.  I especially loved the latter.

2) Urgent got the biggest screams of the night…at least by the individuals near me (and my ears have yet to recover from all that screaming).  Jukebox Hero was S T R E T C H E D out to nearly fifteen minutes, mostly of crowd interaction, and they could have ended the show right there without anyone being disappointed.

Fortunately…

3) After Long, Long Way From Home (a song I’ve heard once or twice before), Foreigner played an amazing rendition of I Want to Know What Love Is, and they could have ended the show after that song.

4) Then again, what better way to end a concert on what started as a hot summer evening than with Hot Blooded?  Right?

Awesome concert overall, and the fact that it was free doesn’t hurt.  And thank goodness that the Lou Gramm Jr. left us after only a few seconds of torture.

Tags: alhambra summer jubilee, andre ethier, billing issue, delivery guy, double vision, fedex, foreigner, head games, hot blooded, i want to know what love is, joe torre, jukebox hero, long long way from home, manny ramirez, say you will, sprint, urgent, victory restaurant, waiting for a girl like you by Peter
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Sunburns are bad.

They’re really bad when they prevent you from sleeping.

Time to apply some more sunburn lotion.

(AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!)

No quick-hitters tonight.

- I got an email last night from Sprint.com, telling me that my next billing statement was ready to be viewed. I said to myself, “Oh great. I get to call Sprint CS again to get my 10% credit manually added to my account!”

That’s when I saw this:

Total Due by August 20 $31.77

OMG. Sprint added the 10% discount to my account AUTOMAGICALLY??? Whoa!

EDIT: WTF? Just a few minutes ago, I logged on to my Sprint.com account, and saw this:

Last Bill Amount $527.01
Adjustments/Credits $0.00
Recent Payments -$118.00
Total Due $409.01
Pay By August 18

Completely horrified, I clicked on “View latest bill,” and saw the correct amount due: $31.77. I then logged on to My Account through my cell phone, and saw that I owe $536.41, due on August 5!

Sprint’s customer call centers are closed right now, but you better believe that I am going to call them first thing tomorrow morning afternoon.

I love you, Sprint.

(Now, I’m just going to assume that this is an obvious error on Sprint’s end. However, we are talking about Sprint here…)

- Manny Ramirez is a Dodger, and the dividends are already coming in!

(Granted, one of his hits was a check-swing grounder, but still.)

The last time I saw a Dodger crowd THAT energized, we had another future Hall of Famer playing on our team: some guy named Mike Piazza. Geez, did you hear how loud the crowd got when Ramirez made a catch on a routine fly ball? And how about when he got his first hit, nearly taking out D’Backs’ SS Stephen Drew in the process?

I heard that the Dodgers sold somewhere around 10,000 extra tickets for the remaining games against the D’Backs once it was official that the Dodgers traded for Manny. Is anyone surprised by that? Did Frank McCourt not realized that trading for a big name was going to increase ticket sales?

(Sigh…what if the Dodgers had traded for C.C. Sabathia???)

As for the deal itself, I absolutely loved it. When the rumors about Manny coming to LA first circled about, I heard Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp’s names. Had the Dodgers dealt Matt Kemp, I (and a number of Dodger fans, I would imagine) would have been royally pissed. At first, I was sorta OK with giving up Ethier for Manny, but then it quickly became evident that another prospects—LaRoche?—would have been involved in the deal.

Naturally, when I found out that LaRoche was the only key prospect involved, I was filled with glee. Andy LaRoche had virtually zero trade value, thanks to the Dodgers’ terrible mismanagement of his career to date as well as the “emergence” of Blake DeWitt. To flip him and an inconsequential minor league pitcher for two months of a future HOFer, as well as at least one compensatory draft pick, AND the rest of Ramirez’ salary, one has to give some props to Colletti.

(On the other hand, one could argue that Boston REALLY wanted to get rid of Ramirez. I mean, they had to pay the Dodgers to take him, AND trade two of their own prospects, all to get a downgrade in Jason Bay?)

Dodger fans have to be elated by the fact that we know we’ll get two months of the maximum effort Manny; after all, he’s basically playing for one more huge contract. That’s just even more reason to be giddy.

Does Manny guarantee a Dodgers’ NL West victory? Not if they keep scoring one run against Arizona. However, you better believe that I am going to thoroughly enjoy every AB Manny has from here on to the end of the season.

I feel like a kid in a candy store…on Christmas.

Tags: 10% discount, andre ethier, andy laroche, Arizona Diamondbacks, billing errors, blake dewitt, C.C. Sabathia, los angeles dodgers, manny ramirez, matt kemp, sprint by Peter
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My thermostat says it’s 82 degrees in my living room right now.

It’s 10PM!!!

Quick-hitters:

- Time Warner, you’re so funny. One week after I discovered you guys started charging a “Digital Programming Fee,” I spotted one of your commercials still advertising free HD channels!

(Granted, the commercial says you need a set-top box to get the free channels, and I guess you can call it a “fee” to rent said box, but wouldn’t that be a “STB rental fee”?)

Nicely done, Time Warner.

EDIT:  Krunk brought up a very good point, one that I completely whiffed on.  Digital programming does not necessarily imply HD programming.  Any regular STB can offer digital programming; however, an HD STB is what is required to get HD programming.

I’ll have to look over my bill again to see exactly what I’m getting charged for.

- Speaking about bad customer service, it’s almost time to call Sprint again to get my 10% credit. This is assuming, of course, that Sprint didn’t auto-credit me this month, which is a safe bet, no?

I should be careful, though, about calling in Sprint way too frequently. I do not recall where I read it from, but I recall reading somewhere that Sprint cancels contracts of users that call CS way too often. And now that the great deal that was Sprint SERO is effectively dead—it’s now $60 for the cheapest plan—I better do whatever it takes to keep my plan alive.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,290. And yes, I did submit those nearly-expired rebates yesterday.

- Today’s blog will be dedicated to the food that I made this week (sorry, no pics!).

(In no particular order…)

1) I made a New York Strip steak with some roasted red potatoes (coated in melted butter, olive oil, seasonings, and kosher salt). The steak was pan-fried, cooked in butter, and coated (naturally) with black pepper and kosher salt. Delicious, but the piece of meat was far too fatty for my liking.

2) I made California rolls twice, once with brown rice. The latter was a terrible idea; the rice just didn’t stick well, and all the sweetened vinegar in the world couldn’t mask the fact that it tasted like…well…brown rice. Sadly, I also did not have any avocado.

3) My sister Nancy gave me a bottle of buffalo wing sauce from Anchor Bar, the (paraphrasing) Home of the Buffalo Wing, so I decided to make some Buffalo wings.

(She has a friend that lives up there).

I didn’t have any celery or carrot sticks, unfortunately, so I was forced to slice up some cucumbers to go along with the wings.

Note to self: never, ever, use wing pieces from 99 Ranch to make Buffalo wings. Some of those chicken wing pieces sure didn’t taste like chicken! I loved the sauce, though—we got the Suicidal recipe sauce—but I could have used something a tad hotter.

(Did I just say that?)

I have a hankering for some California rolls right now.

Oh yeah, tomorrow is the Woodland Hills Kiwanis Pig Roast. Oh no…

Tags: 10% credit, anchor bar, buffalo wings, california rolls, digital programming free, employee plan, Food, free HD?, kiwanis, new york steak, pig roast, roasted potatoes, SERO, sprint, time warner, woodland hills by Peter
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I don’t have much to blog about, but despite that, I’m going go blog anyway.  So here goes.

(I actually do have something I could blog about, but it’s going to take me a while to arrange all my thoughts on that subject, so I’ll hold it off a bit longer.)

Quick-hitters, a somewhat super-sized edition:

- Lack of sleep = bad.

Lack of sleep + red eyes every morning = really bad.

Lack of sleep + red eyes + a screwed-up sleep cycle = insanely bad.

Speaking of lack of sleep…

- I’ve gotten back to the habit of a cup of coffee or two daily.  Normally, when I brew coffee with my Vietnamese coffee press, I don’t bother replacing the metal lid after pouring the water into the press.

A couple days ago, on a whim, I decided to try brewing the coffee with the lid on.  Wow…what a difference!

(You would think that this is common sense; without the lid, steam can easily escape, rapidly cooling off the water being used to brew the coffee.  Have you forgotten that I am an idiot?)

- Shot-Online update:  my primary character, fdsfdsg, is a level 25 amateur, and I really have to get rid of this driver I’m using (power +5 is nice, but not at the expense of minus-2 points of impact).

I also had two of the worst rounds of my life (yes, even worse than when I was a beginner):  +6 in nine holes on Alfheim (the beginner course), and +8 on six holes on NamChoc CC.

Gosh I suck.

- I filed nine rebates with Parago over the last few days.  Five approvals, four rejections.

AKA par for the course.

Speaking of rebates…

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,400.  However, I have about $300 in rebates that have yet to be filed, and they must be postmarked by TOMORROW.  Oops!

- In the pantheon of douchebag-y commercials, I think McDonald’s might finally be topped by another superpower retailer:  Wal-freaking-mart.

(LOL.  Just as I finished that sentence above, a McDonald’s commercial aired.  I may have to reconsider my stance.)

Case in point:  that stupid commercial with the mom, the kid strapped to her, and the little girl causing general mayhem, including spilling something on her shirt.  Am I the only one that wishes he were in that commercial, so I could trip the kid?

Yes, I have problems.

Do you know why I can’t stand Wal-Mart?  Do you need to ask?  Wal-Mart commercials annoy me so much that they have influenced me to introduce a new category of blog topics:  [bad] commercials!

(As an aside, while Googling another commercial I can’t stand—that Secret one where the girl has her hands raised throughout it—I stumbled upon this site:  CommercialsIHate.com.  Awesome site!)

OMFG!  Another WalMart commercial just aired!  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

That’s it for today.

Tags: bad commercials, coffee, lack of sleep, parago, shot-online, walmart by Peter
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You may have noticed that I have yet to discuss the nightmare I suffered while building my sister’s new computer.

Don’t expect the blog entry regarding this any time soon :P.

Quick-hitters:

- This is either the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while, or the most disturbing.

I’m inclined to vote for the latter.

-For the last few days, I’ve been getting annoying junk phone calls on my cell phone.  Most of the calls are from 818 #s, advertising cleaning and maid services.

Here’s the caller ID# of the last two calls I’ve gotten from these clowns:  818-648-295.

(Um…)

(And please save the “That’s probably caller ID spoofing.”  There’s a good chance that’s the case.)

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,400 on the nose.  About a third of that is currently unfiled

- A couple of days ago, I sold an item on Amazon.com, and the buyer wanted the item shipped to the Radisson Lexington Hotel.  Having never shipped a package to a hotel before, I emailed the Radisson for information regarding shipping packages there.

By Monday—I emailed the Radisson on Saturday—I did not get a reply, so I called the Radisson’s toll free number.  When I got to a live operator, I explained my situation.  Before I could finish, though, the operator told me that I had to contact the Radisson Lexington Hotel directly; I should have known that the toll-free number was the Radisson’s national hotline.  She gave me the direct number to the hotel (the 212 # listed on the web site to which I linked above), and hung up almost immediately afterwards.

I called the 212 #, got to the front desk, and explained my situation to the front desk operator.  About half a second after I finished my question, I heard the muzak again.

When I finally got to the correct department, I explained my situation a third time.  The rep explained what I had to do, and after I told him that that was all the information I needed, he quickly said “take care” and hung up.

Total time spent on the phone:  four minutes, tops.  If only my calls to Sprint could last that long AND be that effective.

- My Nintendo Wii is gathering dust.  My Guitar Hero guitars are buried somewhere in my office.  My PS2?  It’s around here somewhere?  Why am I seemingly avoiding my console games?

Meet my new gaming addiction:  Shot-Online.  Now, I’m a fan of the Tiger Woods series of golf games.  I’m NOT at all a fan of MMORPGs, though, but this game is thoroughly enjoyable.  The game is extremely easy to pick up—if you can click a mouse three times, you can play—difficult to master, and about 99% of the players that play Shot-Online are nice guys (this may be completely untrue, but when I think of MMORPGs, I think of ten year olds that must use an obscenity in every sentence spoken, written, or typed).

(As I was typing up this blog entry, I just got kicked out of a Shot-Online game in which I was dominating.  Stupid server maintenance!!!)

I picked a female character in this game, and I’ve already been hit on a couple times.  You should have seen one guy’s reaction when I pointed out that I was really a guy!  Maybe I should try to use my female character to score some money or loot :P.

EDIT:  So far, I have two characters.  The first, my primary character, is named fdsfdsg.  Yes, it was created when I slammed my fingers on the home row of my keyboard.  I had no intention of playing this game for very long, until I actually started playing.  My other character is named Hospitalsrule, a tribute to my Calculus professor butchering the pronunciation of “L’Hopital.”

Yes, I’m a dork.

Tags: golf, jimmy kimmel, junk phone calls, mmorpg, new york, radisson hotel, shot-online, unnecessary censorship by Peter
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