UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Lots to get off my chest, and I promise a full NFL (Fantasy) Week in Review next time.  But until then…

Random thoughts (an HGH-boosted version of Quick-hitters):

- Seriously, what happened to Fall?  Mid 80s to low 90s all week last week, and now AccuWeather says it’s 78 right now.  If it’s 78 degrees outside right now, then I’m the freaking Pope.

Time to make my hot coffee iced.

(Tangent:  I dropped my coffee press!  Now the pot itself won’t stay secured to the round metal base, causing the pot to lean in one direction!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Worse yet, my local 99 Ranch no longer carries this thing.  Bah.)

- Read this article, if you haven’t already.  What an absolutely heart-wrenching story.

(Kinda make my complaining about a broken coffee pot trivial by comparison, huh?)

- After the Boston Red Sox made that improbable rally to upset the Rays in Game Five of the ALCS, I had to brace myself for something that I hadn’t seen since June.

The Return of the Boston Myopians, led by Mr. Myopian himself!

Thank goodness the comeback was squashed by a J.D. Drew half-swing.  And yes, Boston fan, he went around.  Stop complaining.

(And yes, the fact that J.D. Drew was the one to kill the rally made it extra gratifying to watch.  I can’t wait for Boston fans to turn on this guy.)

- Raise your hand if you had Steven Jackson on your fantasy team, and you benched him this past week.

(raises hand)

It’s a damn good thing that I got blown out of the water anyway!  I’m headed for a 2-5 record in one league, and possibly 4-2-1 in the other.  Full recap next time.

- This article caught my eye this morning:  When has a video game ever made you cry?

I could think of one video game example which really got to me.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t go running for the nearest box of Kleenex, but it was pretty heart-wrenching.

I’ll post what video game that was (specifically, what scene) at the end of this blog.

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1222, including a $20 rebate from Norton/Symantec that Parago just refuses to pay out, despite numerous fax attempts.

I hate the rebate game.

- WalMart (groan) rant time!

On the 29th of September, I bought a Philips DVD-RW drive from WalMart, because the item page said it was a ten-pack.

(Anyone who has ever jumped on deals like this already know that this was, more often than not, a description error.  Part of the reason why I decided to take a chance on this deal, however, was the fact that I had a $20 WalMart gift certificate from this ordeal.)

As expected, I received a single drive.  As I am known to do, I waited until the 10th of October to contact WalMart about the “incorrect” item in my order.  I sent them an email that day, and got a reply that night telling me to log in to my account, print an RMA label, and return the package.

Simple enough, I guess.  I decided not to pursue this further.  On Sunday, however, I got this email:

We are writing in reference to order #xxxxxxxxxx. To ensure that we
provide you with accurate information, we are researching the matter, to
see why you didn’t receive the Philips 20x DVD-RW 10-Pack, SATA
Interface. We will contact you with an update within the next 2-3
business days.

What quickly got my attention was that last line.  Two to three business days after that Sunday would have been the 15th or the 16th (that Monday was Columbus Day), both dates being past the 15 day return window.

Again, I had decided not to deal with the issue, and I requested my RMA label that day.

On Tuesday, I got another email from WalMart:

I am writing in regards to your recent order with us for the Philips 20x
DVD-RW 10-Pack, SATA Interface. Unfortunately, due to an error at our
fulfillment centers and on our site, we will not be able to replace the
order at this time. These items are only sold in singles. You may
return the item for a full refund. Please call us at 1-866-625-0507 to
discuss this issue.

“Discuss,” huh?  I liked the sound of that.

I quickly called WalMart, and here’s the gist of our conversation:

Me:  (blah blah blah…error…let’s “discuss.”)

CSR:  Log in to your account, request a return label, and return the item back to us.

Some discussion, huh?  Thank you, CSR, for telling me exactly what the previous email CSR told me to do! What, no apologies?  No “we’re sorry for the inconvenience”?  That’s it?

(Yes, I realize that the last email did tell me to return the item for a full refund.  What irks me is that the CSR is telling me to call in to “discuss this issue,” only to get the same information again???)

- Shot-Online update:  lvl 49, awesome clubs, and unfortunately I am now guild-less.

One of the things I have learned about MMORPGs—Shot-Online is the first MMORPG that I have actually spent more than a week playing :P—is that, at some point in the game, it becomes a social setting first and a game second.  I learned that the hard way after a recent ordeal with one of my now-former guildmates.

An innocent comment about club selection somehow escalated into a vicious attack on my character and intent, and I got so pissed off over the whole affair that I had no choice but to leave the guild.  I had even entertained the thought of quitting the game altogether.

I told my guildmaster what happened, and I could tell that he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the situation, acknowledging how much I had done for his guild.  Some of my friends in the guild weren’t too pleased as well, acknowledging how much I had helped them with the game to that point.

Part of me then realized, “I’m getting worked up over a GAME!  WTF?”  So I decided to discuss this situation with another friend of mine, and I asked him:  “At some point, does an MMORPG become more of a social setting than a game?”

He explained that people play MMORPGs for the social atmosphere first and foremost, and that everything I was feeling—guilt, frustration, anger, etc.—was perfectly normal, and, unfortunately, part of the “appeal” of the MMORPG genre.  He did agree with my decision to leave the guild, as others did, and that I should have expected drama like this to happen, he explained; after all, MMORPGs boil down to glorified chat rooms full of strangers.

Now I know that an MMORPG isn’t just a video game.

Will I still be playing Shot-Onlne?  Hell yes!  I want the Tour Pro title :P.

- So what was the video game moment that was so emotional to me?

Easy:  The scene in Final Fantasy VII where that bastard Sephiroth killed Aeris.  Be honest!  Who didn’t scream “F**K YOU SEPHIROTH!!!” at the TV when that happened?

(OK…maybe it was just me and a couple friends.)

Tags: boston myopians, cry, csr, fall, fantasy football, hot weather, jd drew, lost kids of willows, mmorpg, rebate-o-meter, shot-online, steven jackson, video game, walmart by Peter
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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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My living room thermostat says it’s 86 degrees in here right now.

It’s 12:45AM.

- I swung by CVS for the first time in nearly two weeks, and all I had were ECBs!

(NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!)

The sales this week were pretty crappy, with the exception of some FAECB energy shot-thingy.

(Tangent: Here’s a sampling of some of the crap I’ve purchased at CVS over the last few months, for no other reason than to use/rollover ECBs: flaxseed oil gelcaps, multivitamins, energy shots, bandages, small bottles of pain medication, some immunity booster, loads of TUMS, and even pantiliners!

If a bottle of homeopathic crap ever happens to find its way into my basket, that might be the end of my CVS deal-hunting days…unless the deal is FAECB, and I have a coupon, and the item comes with a money-back guarantee…)

I also picked up some Propel, as well as some “flavored sparkling water.” Quite the disappointing trip, I know, but I had to roll over my ECBs.

- My sister and mom came over today, and we decided to have Korean BBQ for dinner tonight.

Too bad I ruined my appetite with a late lunch of leftover El Pollo Loco chicken, followed by a snack of Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar potato chips.

(Drool…)

Usually, we are able to polish off four helpings of meat:  two servings of jumuluck, and two of bulgogi.  Today?  No thanks to my late lunch/snack, we struggled through two and one, respectively.  Service, though, was actually quite good; waiters came only a few seconds after one of us pushed the call button, and we got our food rather quickly.

Good stuff.

- Labor Day is Shot-Online Double EXP/NG day!

(Guess where I’ll be spending most of my Monday :P)

Shot-Online update:  my character is at level 36, and only yesterday did I find out that one needs a -4 handicap on Gladsheim to even attempt the semi-pro test!  All this time, I thought you only had to sign up for the test and shoot a -4 to become a semi-pro.

As it stands, I can’t shoot better than +1 on Gladsheim, and I scored that only playing nine holes!  Sure, I’ll get a bit of extra power, impact, and skill once I get to level 41, but I’ll also be pushed back to the semi-pro tees!  Furthermore, it took me almost a week just to go from level 35 to 36.  How much longer is it going ot take for me to get to 41?  Double EXP day can’t come soon enough!

- And finally…I have to imagine that the LA Dodger bandwagon is near-empty, after that horrific eight-game losing streak.  Seriously, four to Philly, and then three to FREAKING WASHINGTON, and then a blowout against Arizona???

(Good thing we won today, although it helps when Manny Ramirez is single-handedly carrying the team again.)

What’s incredible about that horrible streak is that, if we somehow beat Arizona tomorrow, we’ll be only 2.5 games behind Arizona!  How laughable is that?  Of course, we face Brandon Webb tomorrow, so a win isn’t terribly likely.

Until next time!

Tags: Arizona Diamondbacks, cvs, double exp day, ecbs, el pollo loco, kettle cooked chips, korean bbq, los angeles dodgers, losing streak, propel, semi-pro, shot-online by Peter
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It’s hot, and it’s the humid hot, not the dry hot!

Help me.

Quick-hitters:

- To fight off the heat, I am enjoying some canned Thai Tea.

At least, the label says it’s Thai Tea.  It sure tastes like anything but Thai Tea!  Blech!

- It was quite a hallmark day in the world of sports today.

We had the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games.

We had the Little League World Series match, won by the team from Hawaii (no, I did not watch it).

We had the Redeem Team winning gold against Spain.  We had the Men’s Indoor Volleyball team win an emotionally-charged final against Brazil.

(Tangent:  You people can pick Michael Phelps as the most memorable aspect of the Olympics.  Go ahead and pick the opening ceremonies.  Usain Bolt was (pardon the pun…sorta) riveting, and I won’t argue if you think he was the most memorable part of the Olympics.

What is my pick for the most memorable part of the Olympics?  It’s gotta be the Men’s Indoor Volleyball gold medal match against Brazil.  Watching coach Hugh McCutcheon break down after the victory was somewhat hard to watch, considering the ups (a gold medal-winning team) and downs (his father-in-law being killed by some coward) he has experienced over the past two weeks.

Jason Lezak’s running down—or should I say swimming?—of Alain Bernard is a distant second on my list.  Without Lezak’s historic heat, Phelps doesn’t come close to eight golds.)

Anyway, today was a pretty sweet day filled with sporting events.  Too bad the last thing I saw last night was the Dodgers’ bullpen choking away yet another victory!

Yeah, I understand that the Dodgers could have provided more than two runs, and yes, the Dodgers’ offense left many opportunies on the table.  However, a team that is built on solid pitching HAS TO hold a lead, even a one-run lead!

That’s now four blown leads that have led to losses in the past couple of weeks!  Grrrr…

- Back on Friday, while at my desk, I glanced over at the clock on the lower right-hand corner of my screen.  Hovering over the clock, I noticed that Friday’s date was August 22.

For some reason, that date stood out in my head.  Was it my Dad’s birthday?  No; that was on the 16th.  Did I have to be somewhere that day?  I didn’t think so.  What the hell was so important about the 22nd?

Eventually, it hit me; I bought something on July 23rd, and knew that the rebate attached to the item had to be postmarked by the 22nd!

Just to make sure, I called the rebate center (it was 4:10pm when I initiated the call).  About ten minutes later, I was thinking to myself, “These guys are going to keep me on hold until 5pm, to screw me over on the rebate!”  Finally, a guy picked up, and I quickly explained my situation.  He put me on hold (*gulp*), and returned a minute later, saying that the last postmark date was, indeed, the 22nd.

I got to the post office at 4:45, fifteen minutes before the last collection.  Whew.

One of these days, I’m gonna miss a postmark date entirely, and not even realize it until a week or so afterwards.

- Either I am in training for a marathon, or I just couldn’t control my eating today.  We stopped by Olive Garden for lunch—soup and salad for $5.99 FTW—and I ate the following:

(Tangent:  Apparently, it was Plaid Shorts day at Olive Garden.  While waiting for a table to free up, I saw no fewer than seven or eight people—only one lady—wearing plaid shorts.)

• 2.5 bowls of soup (two bowls of the Zuppa Toscana, and a half bowl of Minestrone)
• several (four?) breadsticks
• a huge helping of salad
• and peach-raspberry ice tea; I have no idea how many glasses I ultimately had

As if that wasn’t bad enough, for dinner, I had a HUGE bowl of chicken with rice.  The grapes I had right before dinner didn’t help matters at all.

I should go run a half-marathon now.  It’s the only way I’ll ever burn off all those calories.

- Injuries happen in sports, of course.  However, I don’t recall the last time so many big name players have been hurt in the PRESEASON.  Just look at this list:

• The Giants’ Osi Umenyiora will miss the entire season with a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee.
• The Redskins’ Jason Taylor will miss 10-14 days with a knee sprain.
• Shawne Merriman’s season (and possibly career) might be over because of two torn knee ligaments (though who knows if the injuries were sustained and/or aggravated during the preseason?)
• Summarizing the NFL front page on ESPN.com…Carson Palmer has a broken nose, Brian Dawkins strained his ankle, the Cowboys lost LOG Kyle Kosier for a month, and the Raiders lost two members of their offense for the season.
• And finally, we have learned that Brett Favre is dealing with two twisted ankles, both of which occurred from all the about-faces he had done during the offseason.

(OK…I made the last one up.)

The only logical thing to do, it would seem, would be to shorten the off-season.  And why not?  Teams suffer through injuries over sixteen games in seventeen weeks as it is; it’s only logical to assume that an extra four games will cause more injury.  Also, it can be argued that extra preseason games give players who may not make an NFL roster more chances to deliver a harder hit on a star player, in an attempt to make an impression on all 32 NFL teams.

Why not have a four week, three game preseason, with one bye week for teams to have non-contact drills?  Or what about three weeks, followed by a week-long gap before the regular season?  Or how about three preseason games and one full-contact, intra-team scrimmage?  Scrapping the entire preseason would be too extreme, in my opinion.  On the other hand, reducing the preseason by a game or two might spare some players from the injury bug, saving them for the regular season.

Tags: bullpen, closing ceremonies, deadline, hugh mccutcheon, implosion, injuries, los angeles dodgers, men's volleyball, nfl preseason, olive garden, olympic games, postmark, rebate, shortened off-season, thai tea, zuppa toscana by Peter
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Quick-hitters:

- 92/101F today, and fortunately, only 27% humidity.  A few days ago, it was only 95F with about 45% humidity.

If it ever hits 100F with 45% humidity, you won’t see any new blogs on this site for a while

- The Olympics opening ceremonies start in two days!

Yawn.

- Tomorrow, I will be attending Eddie Izzard’s new show, Stripped, at the Kodak Theatre!

One might say that I’m so excited, I cannot hide it.

Since his first stage appearance on London’s West End in 1993 in the one-man show “Live at the Ambassadors”, there’s been a succession of sell-out and critically acclaimed International tours including “Glorious” in 1997, “Dress to Kill” in 1998, “Circle” in 2000 and the record breaking “Sexie” in 2003. Now Eddie’s “Stripped” and he’s coming to you.

I have five of his shows on DVD—everything from “Unrepeatable” to “Circle”—though I’ve only seen “Glorious,” “Dress to Kill,” and “Circle.”  I plan on doing a marathon session of Eddie Izzard tonight through tomorrow morning…sleep is overrated, right?

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,020 and still falling.

(Speaking of which, I have about $200 in rebates that must be filed in the next couple of days.  Oops!)

- Yesterday, we went errand-running at the usual hotspots.  The first stop was RiteAid, where, as expected, I missed out on all the good FA(SC)R deals.  I was only able to score some cheap body wash and bug spray for ~ $2 after coupons and rebates.  Meh.

Next stop:  CVS.  Unfortunately for me, I had run out of ECBs, so this entire trip was going to be paid for with…CASH!!!

(AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!)

My sister, on the other hand, at least had a single $2 ECB.

(Don’t ask me how we used up all our ECBs.  The story is too painful to retell.)

Needing to reload on ECBs, my sister and I each bought three FAECB items—Tums, Excedrin, and Extreme Energy shots—and she bought a couple packs of lip balm.

My total:  $18 (ouch!).  Her total:  $23 (WTF).  We both went into cardiac arrest after paying what we owed.

Finally, we stopped by Costco, where we were certain we were only going to buy a “few” things.  Clearly we were delirious at the time, probably from the CVS fiasco.  We got our usual fare—romaine lettuce, cucumbers, some snacks, and a rotisserie chicken for dinner—and we couldn’t resist another box of pluots, which were marked down to $5 for 15!  My sister also had to buy a bottle of wine for a get-together this weekend, and I couldn’t resist a tub of seafood salad (which I totally regret buying now; I didn’t expect it to be sweet!).  We also bought a bag of frozen breaded chicken tenderloins, which was priced at $12.99; I could’ve sworn that this stuff costs $15+.

Total bill:  $70 or so.  With the wine purchase, that bill was pretty reasonable.  Try convincing my sister of that, though :P.

- So I know I said I was done with the whole Diva Favre situation.  I know I said that the whole saga was probably coming to an end.

Double play.

Hey Diva, what happened to you wanting to come back to play for the Packers?

Favre seemed resigned to a future elsewhere, telling ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Tuesday morning that the “best thing for this team is for us to part ways.” (source)

And you Favre myopians still insist on rooting for the guy?

“They told him, ‘We’ll trade you, but not within the division,’” Favre’s agent, James “Bus” Cook, told USA Today for Wednesday’s editions. “His first desire was to play here. Their first desire was for him not to play here.”

I believe the Diva’s first desire was to screw over the entire Packers’ organization.  Something tells me he had no intention on wanting to come back.

Favre told Mortensen he doesn’t have a problem with competing with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job, and can “truly understand” why McCarthy would make Rodgers the starter. But Favre also said a competition “probably isn’t going to work” and that “the problem is that there’s been a lot of damage done and I can’t forget it.”

What a bunch of baloney.  This guy has sh!t all over Aaron Rodgers, from the day Rodgers was drafted!  Does anyone recall the day Favre said that (to paraphrase) that he was not responsible for grooming Rodgers?  And why wouldn’t a competition work?  You’re the better quarterback!  Take the job away from Rodgers, and put the final nail in his Green Bay coffin!

And as far as “damage,” I’m sure the Diva thinks he’s done little wrong.

And now I just heard on my TV that Favre is not exactly keen on a trade to Tampa Bay.  WTF?  I’ve said this several times before, and I’ll say it again:  YOU ARE NOT THE GENERAL MANAGER!  YOU DO NOT GET TO DICTATE WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO BE TRADED!!!

Please, please, please, trade Favre to the Jets!  I would pay to see the New England Patriots pummel Favre into the ground twice a year.  Hell, I’ll turn into a Pats’ fan for those two games if a deal to the Jets happens!  I will cheer on the Pats’ D to score 4-5 Pick-Sixes (INT returns for TD), even if I’m playing in a fantasy league where my opponent has the Pats’ DST!

(Did I REALLY just say all that?  Do you see how much I cannot stand this story?)

Two parting thoughts:

“The football team’s moving forward,” McCarthy said. “The train has left the station, whatever analogy you want. He needs to jump on the train and let’s go. Or, if we can’t get past things that have happened, I have to keep the train moving.”

My sister responded to this with:  “McCarthy can conduct the train, as long as Favre is tied to the tracks.”  Yikes!

Finally, Yahoo! Sports’ columnist Michael Silver is now my new favorite columnist.  Finally, someone who isn’t in love with Favre, telling it exactly like it is!

Tags: brett favre, circle, costco, cvs, definite article, diva favre, dress to kill, ecbs, eddie izzard, glorious, green bay packers, hot, live at the ambassadors, new england patriots, new york jets, olympics, opening ceremonies, rite aid, sexie, stripped, tampa bay buccaneers, unrepeatable by Peter
1 Comment »

I’ve decided to stay away from the latest Diva Favre news.

And the story about my horrible computer build will have to wait.

(Yeah, I’ll manage.)

Quick-hitters:

- I think I figured out the secret as to why diet drinks and protein shakes either work spectacularly, or not at all:  they are intentionally made to taste disgusting!

(Have you ever tried Strawberry Milkshake flavored Muscle Milk?)

These drinks are so disgusting that you’ll either not want to eat anymore ( = instant weight loss!) or you’ll immediately go back to eating junk food after one day on the diet

- File this one under “Quick ways to earn tons of stupid points.”  Do you remember how your high school chemistry teacher always told you to never sniff the chemicals in a beaker/test tube/flask/whatever, and that the proper thing to do is “waft” the odors towards you?

I should probably have heeded that advice.  Yesterday, while cleaning my bathroom, I found a nearly empty bottle of Tilex.  Thinking that my sister might have added water to it (you know, add a bit of water in a nearly empty bottle of cleaner, shake it around, and you have a decent quantity of a dilute cleaner that could be useful for 1-2 more cleanings), I unscrewed the spray, and sniffed the contents of the bottle.

I have no idea what happened in the next 10 minutes.

(Fifty thousand stupid points.)

- So I finally have a serious gripe about my Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard + mouse combo.  The way my desk is set up (opposite the single torch lamp in the room), the media keys—next, previous, volume up/down, mute, play/pause, etc.—are virtually impossible to distinguish!  Am I going to have to buy a small lamp for my desk just to make sure I don’t hit next instead of play/pause???

Too bad this keyboard doesn’t have a built-in backlight.

(Whew!  That was long!)

Before I get to my customer service rants and raves, can you guess which of the companies I listed above are going to get rants, and which are going to get raves?  Decide, and then read on.

- Time to rant and rave!

1) Thank you, Time Warner.  Seriously.  Three rate hikes in three months wasn’t enough?

I got an email from Time Warner saying that my next month’s bill was ready.  That’s when I immediately noticed the amount due:  ~$80.  FOUR rate hikes, and we’re only in July???

It turns out that Time Warner is now charging a “Digital Programming Fee,” bundled into the cost of the monthly HD Set Top Box (STB) rental (now $9.00).  They also, I believe, raised the rental fee of a regular STB to $6.00.

I’m probably going to have to cancel HBO.  I wonder what fees they’re going to try to charge me this time.  I know the downgrade fee is a given.  Will I get hit with a “Live Operator” fee?  How about a “Dial Tone” fee?  Who knows?

(If you put Time Warner in the “rave” category, you must be smoking something.  Can I get a hit of that stuff? :P)

2) So I ordered some free after rebate (naturally) software from J&R a couple of days ago, and two days later, I got a shipping confirmation.  Unfortunately, J&R could not provide me any tracking info, or so their shipping confirmation stated.

The USPS Delivery Confirmation number on the address label of my padded mailer says otherwise.

(Huge drop-off from the first story, huh?)

3) I ordered a Belkin surge protector from Newegg.com a couple days ago.  It was advertised for $9.99 - a $5 coupon - a $5 mail in rebate and free shipping.  When I placed the order, I noticed that I was charged $8.25 for shipping and handling.

I immediately fired off an email to Newegg customer service, requesting a refund of my shipping and handling charges.  That was three days ago.

I eventually found out that the free shipping was a misprint, a Newegg Live Chat CSR explained.  The rep offered me a refund on my shipping charges anyway, and soon after, I got an emailed “invoice” from Newegg granting my credit.

(We’ll score that a half rant, half rave.)

4) OK…this one is neither a rant nor a rave; it’s just a funny story.  I got a letter in the mail about a 0% balance transfer option with Discover, and for kicks (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it), I called in to inquire about it.  I had intended on doing a transfer in the $2,000-$2,500 range, and explained this to the CSR.

The CSR, who sounded overly cheery for a phone CSR, answered all my questions quickly and adequately.  Right when I was about to hang up, though, she offered me a reduced cap on the balance transfer fee, which was 3% capped at $99; she offered a reduced cap of $75.

It took me half a second to point out that a 3% balance transfer fee on a $2,500 balance was going to cost me $75 anyway.

All the rep could do was chuckle and say “Whoops!”

(OK OK, we’ll score this one a rave anyway.  So if you guessed rant, rant, 50/50, and rave, congrats!  You win 50 Ung-bucks!)

Whew!

Tags: advertising error, balance transfer, belkin, cordless desktop mx3200 laser, delivery confirmation, diet drink, digital programming fee, discover, disgusting, FAR, free ship, hbo, high definition, j&r, keyboard, logitech, media keys, muscle milk, protein shake, rate cap, rate increase, set top box, shipping confirmation, sniffing chemicals, stupid points, surge protector, time warner by Peter
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I have so much to blog about!

(I hate the fact that I’m a lazy bastard :P)

I could blog about the horrible time I’m currently having with my latest computer build (and the worst part is, this build’s for my sister!).  I could go into a mega-rant about one of my biggest pet peeves in the world.  I could blog about my Dodgers being in first place in the National League Pee-Wee division (aka the West).

Basically, I could go in many directions with tonight’s blog entry.  Instead, I think I’ll continue with my Fourth of July weekend adventures.

And sorry, no quick-hitters:

- So on Saturday, we decided that we were going to go to the beach.

(Can you believe it?  Early July, and I haven’t yet stepped foot on a beach???)

As we were determining what beach we wanted to go to, I got an IM from cousin David.  You see, I had been helping him pick out a digital camera for weeks now, and he was trying to decide between one of the following (warning:  shameless link-spamming ahead):

• A Nikon D40 DSLR (my personal choice!)
• A Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5k
• A Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18k
• A Canon S5 IS (his eventual choice)

Apparently he wanted to go to Camarillo outlet to go clothes shopping, and he bribed us to go with the promise that we could play around with his new camera.  Moi, passing up the chance to play with a new toy?  Are you kidding me?  Not to mention, Camarillo was about 10-15 degrees cooler than it was here!

We didn’t get to the outlet until about 3PM, and because we hadn’t eaten yet, we stopped by the Food Court and grabbed some grilled steak sandwiches.  Pretty greasy, I might say, but what did I expect?  Very non-filling too, I might add, as I grabbed a Wetzel Pretzel about two hours later.  The pretzel was awful!  I ordered a Jalapeno Cheese pretzel, and for some reason, the Jalapenos were sweeter rather than hot.  And don’t even get me started on the substance on the pretzel that resembled cheese.

- Later on in the day, my sister wanted to go to the Coach Factory Store, and apparently they were having a huge sale…which I figured out when we were about ten stores away from Coach.  We went to the NIke store first while my sister went to Coach, and after a few minutes, we attempted to locate her in the Coach store.

That was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Eventually, she finished shopping, and got in the quite empty line.  Seemingly out of nowhere, a cute little saleswoman came up to my sister, grabbed her purchases (she accidentally grabbed my sister’s wallet, which was pretty funny), and scurried over to the register.

I believe this is a good summarization of what the cashier said to us:

“Hi!Isthatallyouwanttoday?CanIinterestyouinawalletforthirtyorfortydollars?Yourtotalcomesoutto[some-odd dollars]oh!Isthatagiftcard?Cool!I’msohappytoday!”

Seriously.  Someone might want to check the coffeemaker in the Coach Factory Store break room.

David had an excellent response to the girl:  he asked her if she wanted my sister’s phone number.

I nearly cried from laughter the second we stepped out of the store.  To this day, I’m still trying to figure out how the girl could have been so hyper.  It was nearing 7PM, and the only reasonable explanation I could come up with was that the girl works a four-hour shift, which started at 6PM.  David, being inappropriate as usual, mentioned that perhaps she was hiding something…

- After a bit of deliberation, we decided to have dinner at My Brother’s BBQ, on Ventura Blvd. between DeSoto and Canoga Blvd.  I had the Tri-Tip, sliced ham, and sliced pork dinner, and boy was the Tri-Tip excellent!  The ham was average, and the slice of pork I had was a bit too fatty.  The cole slaw and baked potato were about as good as you could expect it to be (namely, just OK), but the garlic bread was incredible!  Super garlic-y, and super buttery.  Yum!

My sister and cousin David split two dishes:  broasted and BBQ chicken, and chicken and ribs.  I tasted a bit of the ribs, which were really really dry.  The BBQ chicken was ok, and I forgot to ask how the broasted chicken was.

After dinner, we headed to Gelson’s to get some bakery grub.  We decided on a chocolate truffle (quite good), a canolli (very good!), and a Napoleon (awesome, especially because it wasn’t nearly as sweet as some places make it).  The day ended with us chowing down on dessert, followed by cousin David going crazy on SingStar 90s.  Too bad he deleted the video we made of him singing New Kids on the Block’s “Step By Step;” it was quite awesome.

(And by quite awesome…you know…)

Until next time!

Tags: broasted chicken, canon, coach factory store, garlic bread, gift card, hyper cashier, lumix dmc-fz18k, lumix dmc-tz5k, my brother's bbq, nikon d40, panasonic, ribs, S5 IS, singstar 90s, tri-tip by Peter
1 Comment »

Happy Fourth of July!  Hopefully, I’ll actually get to see some fireworks this year (and no, not of the figurative type!)

- Temperature-wise, it hasn’t been as hot lately as it was a few weeks back, when we were regularly getting temps in the mid-100s during the day, and mid-80s at night.  For some reason, though, I’ve been having a hell of a time getting any sleep!

It almost feels like my room is a good ten degrees warmer this week than it has been in weeks past.  Case in point:  I’ve had no choice but to leave my Honeywell tower fan on all night.  Even with the fan on all night, I usually wake up with my pillow covered in sweat.

(Apologies to anyone that got grossed out by that image.)

I can’t wait for October.

(As far as the title is concerned…hot heat?  As opposed to cold heat, right?  See what the heat does to me? :P)

- The more my wallet tightens up, the more frequently I find incredible TV deals, no thanks to SlickDeals.

Case in point:  a 46″ Samsung 1080P LCD HDTV for $1299?  An Element 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $699?  An Envision/AOC 42″ 720p LCD HDTV for $849?  Not to mention, according to SlickDeals, J&R through Amazon had a 37″ Sharp for $699!

I’d love to upgrade from my 32″ Sceptre Komodo, but the little fact that I’m broke is keeping me from doing so :P.  I fear, though, that the closer we get to football season, the bigger the urge will be for me to upgrade.

I think I should put my wallet in a giant block of ice.

- I end today’s blog entry with quite possibly the most selfless act in sports history.  Wizards G Gilbert Arenas, figuring out that $127 million was a tad too much money for his services, happily took a pay cut…of $16 million, meaning he’ll get a paltry $111 million over six years.

Something tells me that Arenas was happy for the dollar figure because it’s palindromic, or something like that.  In that case, why didn’t he ask for $111,111,111.11?

I love this quote:

“What can I do for my family with $127 million that I can’t do with $111 million?” he told The Washington Post.

How noble.  Maybe those ridiculously highly-paid CEOs can take a cue from this guy.

Talking about why he offered a hometown discount, Arenas said:

“I’m basically giving back $16 million,” Arenas told the Washington Times. “This is in line with what I’ve been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don’t wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can’t do anything about it.”

While it’s true that Arenas is giving the team a $16 million “discount,” he’s not exactly freeing the Wizards from the binds of the salary cap.  Here is the Wizards’ current cap situation; factor in Antawn Jamison’s $12.5 million per year contract (assuming he gets $12.5 million next year), and the Wizards are already at ~ $54 million in contracts.

Now, the 2008-09 salary cap figure hasn’t been released yet, but let’s assume it is ~ $57 million (it was ~ $55 million last year).  If Arenas’ new deal starts at $12 million per year, the combined contracts of Jamison and Arenas already put the Wiz way over the salary cap.  So how does this hometown discount help the Wiz in signing another free agent?

About the only thing I could think of is the fact that the discount might lower the Wizards’ luxury tax payments, if they happen to go over the tax threshold (if they use their mid-level exception this year, it appears that they will surely go over the tax threshold).  So in a nutshell, Arenas is, in the most basic sense, saving the team a bit of money.  His contract, though, certainly appears to keep them from improving the team much.

(Now, I don’t pretend to be a cap-ologist, and everything I said above could be completely wrong.  If I am so, I would appreciate any corrections!)

Tags: 1080p, 720p, aoc, element, envision, fireworks, fourth of july, gilbert arenas, hdtv, heat, hometown discount, lcd, new tv, night, samsung, sceptre komodo, sharp, washington wizards 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
2 Comments »

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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