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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No quick-hitters tonight.

- So as my loyal readers (all none of you) know, I’ve got idiot neighbors.  The neighbors upstairs, though, are especially rude and inconsiderate.  Everyone up there seems to enjoy constantly running around their condo with absolutely no regards for us downstairs.  I used to wonder if there were nine or ten people in that condo, or if the residents there were just all really…um…lead-footed?

Well, according to my sister, part of the reason why they are so noisy is because there are at least TWO families that share the condo!  Additionally, my sister, being awfully gratuitous, pointed out that several of them are…well…lead-footed?

(Hank—where are you???—might dub some of them “heroically portly.”)

Form your own conclusions; I am just speaking the truth!  Wouldn’t YOU get riled up about being forced awake at 5:30AM to hear what sounds like the National Jume Rope Competition going on upstairs?

- Shot-Online update:  I made it!  I am now a Semi-Pro—thanks to a -8 on Gladsheim—and I absolutely LOATH it.

I hate losing EXP just for making bogeys.  I hate the Pro courses!  Can I go back to being an amateur?

So, because only I care about how I got to Semi-Pro, here’s a brief recap of my Gladsheim round:

• Birdie on 1 (-1)
• Lip-out for birdie on 2
• Birdie on 3 (-2)
• A medium-length (3-7yd; the hardest putt to make consistently) double-breaker par save on 4
• A similar par save on 7
• Another birdie somewhere between 3 and 7 (-3)
• Chip-in birdie on 8 (-4)
• Birdie on 9 (-5)

And then…

• A 2yd putt for par broke unexpectedly, and rolled 4yd back.  A tough putt for bogey kept me at -4
• Pars on 11-13
• Birdie on 14 (-5)
• Par on the toughest hole on the course (IMO):  15
• Birdie on 16 (-6)
• Thinking I needed “insurance,” I made birdie on 17 (-7)
• Birdie on 18 (-8)

Further proof that I’m a Shot-Online dork, right?

- Reason #9080329483242342 why I hate Fantasy Football:

My sister somehow blonded (please save the hate mail!) her way to a 2-2 record, while I’m 1-3 in one league and 1-2-1 (I absolutely stole a tie against a 3-0 team, thanks to Pittsburgh’s DST) in the other.

It’s not fair!

Amazingly enough, Le’Ron McClain was available as a FA in both of my leagues, as well as popular pickups as Lance Moore (WR - NO), Steve Slaton (RB - HOU), and Muhsin Muhammed (WR - CAR).

Hopefully this is the week teams start quitting, so I can start rallying towards respectability

Other, non-fantasy, football thoughts:

- No, the big story of the weekend was not T.O. remembering that he is T.O.  It was not the whole Al Davis-Lane Kiffin ordeal.

Tampa Bay K Matt Bryant playing one day after burying his infant son has to be the story of the week, if not the entire NFL season:

“The biggest thing for me, I wanted to honor [son] Tryson’s name,” Bryant said. “I mean, I don’t think it was very fair for his life to end so short. This is the best way I believe I could get out and honor him. I miss him and wish he was here, but he was here with me. He helped out.”

Prayers go out to the Bryant family.

That being said…

- Thank you, T.O., for remembering that you, not Tony Romo, are the most compelling figure on the Dallas Cowboys’ roster.  Seriously, complaining that you weren’t involved enough in the offense?  By everyone’s count, you were involved in 20 of 58 plays, or over 1/3 of all the Cowboys’ offensive plays!

Should we expect to see T.O. lined up as QB and/or RB sometime next week?

(And nice job, T.O., giving absolutely no credit to Washington DB Shawn Springs, who was in your back pocket all day.)

- Boy…what to make of the entire Al Davis/Lane Kiffen situation?  I certainly don’t know all of the facts, but if anyone has a case against the other, it’s Kiffen for everything Davis has done to him!  Remember the resignation letter Davis drafted for Kiffen to sign?

I sincerely hope Kiffen gets the money left over on his contract.  Should this be his one and only NFL contract, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind having to “settle” for a college football job.

Also, who the hell would want the Raiders’ coaching job, after this entire episode?

- Ninety-one points combined for Arizona and New York (Bretts)?  Crazy.

And I guess the “Greatest [QB] of All Time” can still play.

(Yes, that remark was made tongue in cheek.)

- Speaking of Diva Favre…are Packers fans seriously panicking now that the Packers are 2-2 and Aaron Rodgers might be hurt.

I sense that Diva Favre is quietly celebrating by himself right now.

- I hear there are plenty of job openings available in Pittsburgh’s backfield.

- With Kansas City out of the picture, that leaves my Rams as the only team winless.

The fact that they came from ahead to lose to Buffalo gives me hope!

- I guess Chicago’s defense is for real.  Same with Pittsburgh.  I guess Buffalo is really for real.  I guess L.T. is just fine.  And is Carolina for real?

Until next time!

Tags: aaron rodgers, al davis, diva favre, fantasy football, gladsheim, lane kiffen, semi-pro, shot-online, stupid neighbors, t.o. by Peter
2 Comments »

Four days between updates? Yikes!

Let’s get to it.

One quick thought about the Dodgers, before I get started…

- If that stolen base, by a PITCHER (the Giants’ Brad Hennessey!!!), who came in as a pinch runner, who stole second because our All-Star catcher—Russell Martin—wasn’t paying attention on the play, costs the Dodgers the National League West crown, I am going to be royally pissed off.

That is all.

- For the love of ***, I am going to flip if I see one of those stupid Mercury Insurance commercials again!!!

(Have you seen these abominations? In one, some douchebag wants to call heads and tails on a coin flip. In other, some woman wants to send a packages to two places. HILARIOUS!

Or not.)

Speaking of dumb commercials, what’s with the new “I’m a PC” commercials??? Seriously, is Microsoft trying to out-douchebag Apple?

- Shot-Online update: I’m now at level 44, thanks to Shot-Online giving us a triple EXP/NG day for apparently forgetting to turn on double EXP/NG on Sunday, along with the daily evening double EXP/NG times. A healthy supply of Mageias doesn’t hurt, either. Seeing as how triple EXP/NG day is going to run until 8pm tomorrow night, and seeing as how I have lots of Mageias left, I could probably get to level 50 by tomorrow :P.

As far as my semi-pro quest is concerned, I was also able to shoot -6 on Gladsheim from the semi-pro tees. That’s fairly reassuring to me, considering that one of my guildmates passed the semi-pro test with the exact same score.

(Tangent: As you might recall, I am a Shot-Online Auction House whore. Well, I’ve moved on from flipping Werdandis, Sagittariuses, and Capricornuses, to eight-figure Mageias! In preparation for the events of the past few days, I’ve been flipping Mageias purchased for at ~ 10-10.5 million for nearly 12 million each!

Well, I should have thought about selling the Mageias during the triple EXP/NG times, because they are now selling for ~ 15 million NG each! Whoops!)

Time for this week’s NFL thoughts:

- Is it bad that I got a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of satisfaction out of watching Brett Favre look completely lost in the NY Bretts’ 48-29 loss against the previously unbeaten San Diego Chargers? I laughed hysterically at every terrible pass, every duck, and every pick he threw, especially the Pick-Six!

I wonder if Diva Favre is re-thinking his decision to play this season. Would it surprise anyone if he retired tomorrow?

- How in the hell did Miami put up 38 points on New England???  Was that Ronnie Brown in the Fins’ backfield, or freaking Jim Brown?

Speaking of lots of points, Atlanta (???) scored 38 against KC, Denver and NO scored a total of 66 points, Seattle put up 37 (well, that one’s not THAT surprising), and of course, there’s the 77 point explosion by the Jets and the Chargers.

Fantasy football dorks, rejoice!

- What a backbreaking loss for the Colts against the Jags on Sunday!  A great rally—including a gutsy bomb on fourth and two—only to be stymied by a bad pass interference penalty and a game-winning 51-yard field goal!

Look at the Colts’ remaining schedule.  Is a 4-7 record before Thanksgiving really that far out of the question?  The Colts have no running game, they can’t protect Manning, their run defense is AWFUL, and Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning don’t seem to be clicking at all.

- If Dallas goes 16-0 this season, how much buzz would THAT generate?  It should generate at least as much as the Patriots did last year, right?  Between Terrible Owens being a model citizen, and the whole circus that is Tony Romo, this team has just as much intrigue as the Spygate-infested Patriots of last year.

I don’t see them going undefeated, though, as they have quite a few tough matchups left.

My head hurts, so I’ll stop here.  Until next time!

Tags: auction house, dallas cowboys, diva favre, i'm a pc, indianapolis colts, mageia, mercury insurance, miami dolphins, nfl, ny bretts, peyton manning, ronnie brown, san diego chargers, semi-pro test, shot-online, stupid commercials, triple exp/ng, undefeated, week three by Peter
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I’m going to try and post two blog entries tonight.

On with it!

- Believe it or not, I am actually going to get my outstanding rebates in the mailbox two days before the 30 day postmark deadline!  The rebate processors won’t know what hit them!

So…anyone wanna bet on the over/under on how many of the ten rebates I just mailed out will be rejected?

Over 2.5  -110

Under 2.5  -110

Current rebate-o-meter:  $1,110.  Got a few hundred over the past few days, and added a few hundred.

- Shot-Online update:  I’m at level 40, and halfway to level 41.  Mageias really help, even at a hefty cost of ten million NG for 250 charges.

(How can I afford such extravagances?  More on that later…)

As far as my Semi-Pro quest is concerned, I just found out what the requirements really are to achieve Semi-Pro status.  Copied and pasted from the Shot-Online site:

Cut Off Standard
- The top 50% of the X number of players who score 68 or under (stroke play)
(The qualifiers must score under 68 in order to be in the selection process. We then qualify the top 50% of the players who scored 68 or under. For instance, if 100 players got 68 or under, we’d pass 50. If there was a tie for the 50th spot, the player with the lower handicap will get the spot. Getting under 68 does not guarantee a pass.)

Damn.  I knew that one needed a handicap of -4 on Gladsheim in order to take the test, but I was always under the impression that all I needed was a -4 during the test itself to pass.  I gotta shoot better than -4 AND finish in the top 50% of all qualifiers?  Considering that I can’t even shoot -4 now—and I’m playing from the amateur tees!—I don’t see myself passing this test any time soon.

That little tidbit about how one’s handicap is the tiebreaker is a bit comforting, though.  I guess I better lower my HC as well.

By the way, I mentioned in the past that I spend way too much time at the Auction House.  I’m beginning to think that that’s an understatement; I’m probably spending more than half of my Shot-Online time at the AH!

Why, you ask?  Well, it probably has something to do with being able to flip stuff purchased really cheap at a huge profit!  You might recall that I was flipping items like Zodiac Leos a while back…

Case in point:  Zodiac Leo 100s (Pwr +6) generally sell for anywhere from 500,000 to nearly 1,000,000 NG.  In the past few days, I’ve been able to score several Zodiac Leos for less than 600,000, and I’ve been able to flip most of them for a “Buy now” price of 850,000.  After the auction fees, that’s an easy 200,000 NG profit!

Well, since then, I’ve been able to flip million dollar items for pretty nice profits.  Here’s just a sampling of my for-profit sales:

• Werdandis purchased for ~ 2 million NG being sold for anywhere between 2.5-4.5 million NG.
• Sagittarius 500s for ~ 1 million NG in profit each
• Capricornus (yes, that’s how the game spells it) 500s for ~ 2 million NG in profit

Last night alone, I flipped a few seven-figure items for a grand total of about 6 million NG in profit.  I used the money to buy yet another 11 million NG Mageia :P.

Yes, I’m a total Shot-Online dork.  In fact, I’m such a dork, that I actually take notes on the sale prices of certain items, in order to figure out what a good deal really is.

(If only I did that back in my high school, trading-card-dealing days.)

I am having WAY too much fun with this game.

- Those of you that love your food might want to turn away from this story…

On Friday night, I decided to fry up some ribeyes and prepare a potato salad.  Unfortunately, I was a bit short on mayo, and the salad wasn’t thoroughly coated.  On top of that, I completely forgot to add chopped eggs to the salad!

(Oh well…it was still damn tasty :P).

Now, if a bad potato salad is a sin, what would you call an extra-fatty, extra-gristly, extra-chewy piece of ribeye steak?  I’m still crying over the horrible piece of steak I had; there was a huge chunk of fat right in the middle of the cut, as well as several chunks of fat in other locations in the steak!  After trimming away all the fat (never mind the gristle that lined one edge of the steak), the 12oz piece of ribeye I had was cut down to maybe four ounces.

I had to compensate by eating even more under-coated potato salad :P.

My Week Two (Fantasy) Football recap is coming…

Tags: auction house, capricornus, gladsheim, mageia, potato salad, rebate-o-meter, rebates, ribeye, sagittarius, semi-pro, shot-online, werdandi, zodiac leo by Peter
1 Comment »

Grrr…another three days gone by without blogging?  WTF?

Random thoughts, a mostly-Olympic variety:

- I was watching the US Men’s Beach Volleyball team of Rogers-Dalhausser play the Brazilian team of Marcio-Fabio…

(Tangent:  How I wish I could just go by “Ung” in my life…)

and man, was the crowd super-annoying!!!  I wasn’t sure if I was watching a beach volleyball match, or a soccer match.

I get it that the crowd can be behind a team, and in most cases, I don’t have a problem with that.  However, can the crowd please save the boisterous chants for between points?  Is that too much to ask for?

Shut up…shutup, shutup, shutup…SHUT UP…SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!

- In a move that should surprise nobody, the International Gymnastics Federation has been asked to look into the ages of the girls women making up the Chinese gymnastics team.  Yes, there is no concrete proof to the contrary, and yes, visual proof isn’t going to suffice, so it appears that no penalties will be assessed on the Chinese team.

All that being said…

WHO REALLY BELIEVES THAT THIS GIRL IS SIXTEEN?

- Briefly, my take on the Greg Maddux trade:  sounds like the deal will not involve anyone of substance (Elbert, McDonald, etc.), though it will cost the Dodgers two low-level draft picks.  I love the deal, especially if Penny can’t give us anything for the remainder of the season.  Maddux allows us to keep Park, Kuo, and Jason Johnson in the bullpen, which is very important considering that the Dodgers must watch Clayton Kershaw’s IP count.

(I haven’t even touched on the mentorship Maddux can offer guys like Kershaw and Billingsley.)

I just hope Maddux can give the Dodgers a quality start to start off a brutal road trip (@PHI, @WAS, @ARI).

- My sister and I went to Souplantation tonight, and apparently it was Couples’ Night.  There was the couple in the other line, directly opposite of us, that couldn’t keep their hands off each other.  Then there was this couple:

Female:  This looks good [looking at the posole soup].

Male (in that whiny voice):  Don’t get that.  It’s a heart attack waiting to happen!  It’s not good for you!

F:  OK.  What about the chili?

M:  That’s so unhealthy.

F:  Ok, I’ll just get the chicken noodle soup.

M: How about the clam chowder?

OK…so a chili advertised as low-fat is less healthy than a soup loaded with heavy cream, bacon, and potatoes?

I felt like pouring a ladle full of hot clam chowder down his throat.

(Yes, I have problems.)

- Current rebate-o-meter:  $1150, though I’m getting royally shafted on at least $55 in rebates.  More on that next time.

- I’m now about a month or so in to my new addiction (Shot-Online) and here’s what I think I think about this game.

1)  Putting in this game is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE.  I could hit a 20yd putt on Hela in one round, and then five-putt a hole on Sosori.  A good round of putting, and I could probably go -10 on Alfheim.  A bad round, and I could go +5.

(I will neither confirm nor deny that the latter has happened.)

2)  Why didn’t anyone tell me how important it was to keep my Impact attribute at or above my Power attribute?

I’ve since fixed this, and now my Imp = Pwr, and my drives are finally going straight!

(Speaking of straight drives, I just bought a Werdandi driver for my main character from the auction house (more on that later).  +2 to all stats, plus a slower gauge, means I better not hit a drive out of bounds any more!  I just have to get used to the slow gauge, now…)

3) I made mention of this before:

…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).

and now I’m pretty sure that my 99% figure is a low-end estimate.  Left and right, I’m seeing high-level players offer millions of NG (game currency) to beginners, and only now have I been able to help out as well.

It’s pretty cool how grateful some people are, even when given a few thousand NG.  You could imagine how happy I made the one player to who I gave four clubs and some drinks.

4) At certain times of the day, foursome matches are almost impossible to set up!  It seems that, during these times, one of the following happens

• A player joins, waits 1 nanosecond, and then leaves
• Only one player joins one team, while three join the other
• Three people are ready to play, but the fourth (usually the room creator) is nowhere to be found
• The room has a glitch, forcing everybody to leave

5) My main character is now a Level 34 Amateur with a handicap of -6.  My secondary character is a Level 21, but I’ll probably ignore that one for now, as I’m trying to get the former to Semi-Pro status.

And finally (for now)…

6) I think I’m spending almost as much time in the auction house as I am actually playing golf!  Why?  I just can’t resist the temptation of buying a bunch of items at low prices and then flipping them later for anywhere between a decent and a substantial profit!

Case in point:  Zodiac Leo 100s (Pwr +6) generally sell for anywhere from 500,000 to nearly 1,000,000 NG.  In the past few days, I’ve been able to score several Zodiac Leos for less than 600,000, and I’ve been able to flip most of them for a “Buy now” price of 850,000.  After the auction fees, that’s an easy 200,000 NG profit!

Flipping stuff on the auction house reminds me of my Senior year in high school, where I bought and sold tons of trading cards to the tune of a nice little profit.  Ah…memories!

Until next time!

Tags: annoying chant, annoying couples, chad billingsley, Chinese gymnast, clayton kershaw, fabio, greg maddux, los angeles dodgers, marcio, olympics, phil dalhausser, shot-online, souplantation, todd rogers, underage, werdandi driver by Peter
2 Comments »

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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As usual, I misremembered to blog in the past few days.  My apologies.

Quick-hitters:

- Retail renting should be called “short-term stealing,” says NetworkWorld’s Paul McNamara. I like that a lot more than “retail borrowing.”

(Tangent: Did Mr. McNamara really use the term “doofus?”)

- Holy crap!  Akismet caught 52 spammy comments on my blog in the past two days!

I love the attention :P.

- I ordered a Canon Imageclass D320 from Quill.com a couple days ago, and with the order, I got some freebies:  a tin of Mrs. Fields nibblers (small, chewy cookies) and a tub of Mrs. Fields Butter Toffee popcorn.  I figured that the cookies (28 half-dollar sized cookies) would last us about three days.

It’s been two, and I’m down to three…

(Make that two…)

- Quick update regarding my XG/MGE rebate fiasco:  my state Attorney Genera’s office sent me a letter, saying that they have sent a copy of my complaint to XG, and they’re awaiting communication.  The BBB also closed my complaint, citing the fact that XG offered a satisfactory resolution; apparently, promising a rebate check (even if it’s the third or fourth such promise) is satisfactory.

3/14/08 is coming up real soon…let’s see what happens.

- So I added a few toys to my video game collection this past week.  To recap:
1) I picked up Rock Band for the PS2 (game only) once I discovered that I could use my Guitar Hero guitars to play the guitar/bass portions of the game.  After a bit of research, I then discovered that the Logitech USB Microphone for PS2 worked with Rock Band as well, so I began hunting for one of those.  I figured that I could form three-fourths of my “band” for a heck of a lot less than the $159 MSRP for the entire Rock Band set.  When the Wii version of Rock Band comes out, however, I will probably pick that up; I’d much rather lay down $159 on the Wii version of Rock Band (when it’s released, that is) than $159 for the PS2 edition.

(Tangent:  I love games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc., not so much for the gameplay, but the fact that I get to discover new songs as well as songs that I knew but never knew the name of!  In fact, the only reason why I started playing the Grand Theft Auto series—Vice City was the first, followed by San Andreas—was for the music, not the violence!  I never really got in to GTAIII, mostly because there was no real music on the radio stations, and I thoroughly enjoyed San Andreas, even though the plane-flying missions were a royal PITA.)

I found that no local stores around me had the microphone in stock, even though Target.com, Bestbuy.com, and Toysrus.com all had the mic available (@ $19.99) for ordering online.  I then found out that Frys.com had the item in stock for $24.99, so I called my local store to check their store inventory.

(If any of you have ever called a Fry’s B&M, you’ll know exactly how well THAT went.)

2) On Sunday morning, someone on SlickDeals reported that the Woodland Hills Best Buy had the Nyko Wii Wireless Sensor bar marked on the shelves for $6.xx, but it actually scanned at $2.49!  He said there were three left in stock after he picked one up.

Later that afternoon, I figured that the three would be gone, but I decided to take a stroll down to Best Buy anyway.I also intended on going to Target—right across the street from Best Buy—and Fry’s—a couple blocks down from there—on the hunt for the microphone and possibly some cheap Wii games.

When I got to Best Buy, I found two Wii wireless sensor bars, and I was overjoyed!  That’s when I realized that I had accidentally picked up the MadCatz version.  Somewhat dejected, I walked over to the Wii games section, and that’s when I noticed a pair of cylindrical tube-shaped packages on the shelf beneath the Wii games.  Remarkably, there were still two Nyko sensors left!  I grabbed one and then strolled over to the PS2 section, looking for the microphone.

(Don’t ask me why I didn’t pick up both of them.  I’m an idiot.)

Over at the PS2 section, I noticed several boxes of the game Boogie, and immediately noticed the words on the left side of the box:

Logitech Microphone Included!

Score!  Best of all, the sticker price was $19.99!

3) After the success at Best Buy, I went across the street to Target to pick up some cleaning supplies and to look for some Wii games.  Specifically, I heard good stuff about Rayman Raving Rabbids, and I knew that my local Target had the game for $19.99.

Knowing that I’ve seen the game before on the shelves outside of the glass cases, I browsed through that aisle.  To my dismay, I couldn’t find the game.   I then went over to the Wii games section, and I found the one and only copy of RRR locked up!  I had an employee grab the game, and it scanned at $19.99!  Yay!

(Tangent:  I have yet to successfully say “Rayman Raving Rabbids.”  In fact, when the associate asked me what game I was inquiring about, I started pointing at it.  When it was obvious that he couldn’t tell what game I wanted, I had to attempt to say the game title.  I didn’t come close.)

RRR is a heck of a lot of fun, though it can get really repetitive rather quickly.

(Yes, the alliteration was intentional :P).

The only drawback to the game is that it requires one Wii-mote + nunchuk per player; I only have a single Nunchuk.  I guess I gotta go pick up another one of those.

Whew!  That was a long post!  TTYL!

by Peter
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I hate rain.

Sorry, no quick hitters today.

- Thank you, Citibank.  Thank you for not closing my last statement until five days later than normal, even though the statement officially closed around the time I expected it to.  Thank you for not sending me my usual email saying that my statement is ready.  Thank you for not notifying me that I can’t make an online payment for 30 days after making a flubbed payment (yes, my fault), leaving me just four business days to mail you out a check.  Most importantly, thank you for reminding me why (shudder…) Chase gets the bulk of my business.

Thank You Points?  You guys should offer Screw You Points.

- After playing some Wii Tennis today, against computer Pros with obscenely high ranks (1400s, I believe), I wrote the following Haiku.

Wii Tennis is lame.

The computer cheats so much

My Wii-mote got chucked.

Awful, I know

(Tangent:  Yes, I am now in possession of a Wii!  I have no games–Wii Sports excluded–but with the mileage I’m getting out of Wii Sports, I may not need to buy a game any time soon!

Fellow Wii owners:  shoot me your Wii Friend codes!)

My sister then took the Wii Fitness test–she really stinks at it :P–and it was determined that her Wii age was 68!!!  That inspired me to create another Haiku:

[She] is sixty-eight

according to Wii Fitness.

She needs some fiber.

I’m a dead man.

- Here are my Week 15 (Fantasy) Football thoughts:

1) Fantasy Football Playoff Update:  The best team in the Bargain$hare league is OUT, after losing last week, 61-50.

It doesn’t help that Tom Brady scored three points; then again, his opponent had Tony Romo (3 pts).

I also got ousted, 112-95.  Looks like I’m headed for another fourth-place finish, after the best team in the league gets through with me, in the third place game.

In the only other league where I made the playoffs, I was also one-and-done.  Looks like I’ll finish fourth there too.

2) I share Jim Rome’s sentiment in being very very very pissed off at the Miami Dolphins.  Three more losses and you guys would have made history!

Stupid Brian Billick (for not going for it on fourth and goal at the 1).  Stupid Matt Stover (for missing the FG in OT).  Stupid Miami Dolphins.

Grrrr…

3) I know that this joke has been made eleventy billion times already, but Tony Romo really needs to keep his attractive, um, guests, away from him during games!  At the very least, try a brunette!

4) LaDainian Tomlinson is running the Chargers towards a huge playoff push, while the NY Giants are (again?) choking away the season (though they should make the playoffs, barring a mammoth gag), while Eli Manning continues to regress.

5) Speaking of San Diego, that sound you hear is teams fearing the possibility of facing the Chargers, Browns (yes, the Browns), and the Vikings (or even the Saints, should they somehow make the playoffs).  Isn’t momentum great?

6) Screw you, Baltimore.

See ya.

by Peter
4 Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- So I am here in MPK still, helping my dad out with a banquet-style lunch/prayer deal.  Think tons of Chinese food, burning incense, candles, and some Hennessey.

(We do something like this four or five times a year, and every time we do this, I get tons of food to take home.  W00t!)

- So my sisters’ Guitar Hero addictions are far past the point of “addiction.”  It’s gotten to the point where I need to buy a second guitar just so I can play!  I’m probably going to pick up this wireless guitar, even though the reviews on Amazon.com aren’t that great.  Oh well; if the guitar’s crap, I’ll use the wired one and force whoever is playing along to use the crap guitar.

- Speaking of my PS2…I love being “handy.”

(Handy, of course, describes someone that is good at “fixing” things that weren’t broken in the first place.)

My PS2’s first controller port had a little problem where the controller would not stay secured on the connector; this wasn’t a huge problem when using the analog controller, but it became an issue with Guitar Hero.  Play too, um, enthusiastically, and the controller would wiggle out of the connector just enough that it would interrupt the game.  I noticed that the problem did not occur with the second controller port, so I grabbed a flashlight to determine the problem.

I discovered that that the PS2 controller ports have a tiny metal “hook” in them; as you push the controller into the controller port, the hook clicks into place on a recess on the controller’s connector, thus securing the controller.  I noticed that the metal hook was bent down on the first port.  A paper clip and some gentle pressure later, and I was able to pry the hook up and out of the way of the controller port.  I attached a controller, heard the click, and patted myself on the back.

(Hey, I gotta give myself some credit every now and then.)

- Michael Vick plead guilty this morning to a federal dogfighting charge, admitting that he was involved in brutally murdering dogs and “supplying money for gambling on the fights,” though he denied actual gambling and profiting from the winnings.  Question:  why would you bankroll a gambling ring if you did not intend on profiting from it?  And what, exactly, is meant by “supplying money”?  Did Vick provide the money for the payouts, or did he offer betting credits to bettors to make these bets?  In any case, aren’t we splitting hairs here?  He was involved, no matter the role, in an illegal gambling ring; never mind the fact that he was also involved in such a disgusting act as dogfighting (which is also a felony, by the way).

Vick finally apologized for his involvement in the illegal dogfighting ring, finally offering an apology to Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank, as well as his Falcons teammates:

“First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that — that I’ve done and that I have allowed to happen. I want to personally apologize to commissioner Goodell, Arthur Blank, coach Bobby Petrino, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, you know, for our — for our previous discussions that we had. And I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least,” Vick said.

I gotta ask:  what took so long?   Why wait until after the guilty plea to offer his apology?  It was pretty clear that Vick was going down the road of a plea bargain weeks ago.  Why not attempt to stop the bleeding as soon as possible, as I suggested last week?  At least the apology seemed heartfelt; that’ll happen when you’re facing one to five years in prison, at least that much time out of the league (if not the end of his NFL career), AND the possible loss of some to all of the $22 million in signing bonuses he received, much less the $100 million or so left on his contract.

Speaking of his signing bonus money, the only reason why Michael Vick is still an Atlanta Falcon is because he must stay on the Falcons’ roster for owner Arthur Blank to attempt to recover some of the bonus money:

In Atlanta, the Falcons said they would not cut Vick immediately because of salary-cap issues. The team intends to pursue the $22 million in bonus money that he already received in a $130 million contract signed in 2004.

“We cannot tell you today that Michael is cut from the team,” owner Arthur Blank said.

“Cutting him may feel better emotionally for us and many of our fans but it’s not in the long-term best interest of our franchise.”

On ESPN’s First Take (their morning sports talk show), Skip Bayless and a pair of ex-football players debated over whether or not Atlanta should get back the $22 million in bonus funds.  Skip argued that Atlanta should be entitled to the money, based on the fact that Vick will not be able to serve the duration of his contract.  One of the two ex-players argued that they did not, and I could have sworn that their argument revolved around the fact that Vick could not serve the duration of his contract.  If that’s true, what kind of argument is that?  Whose damn fault is it that Vick can’t serve the rest of his contract?

In any event, yes, Vick should be forced back to pay, at the very least, a pro-rated fraction of his bonus money.  In fact, I wouldn’t have a problem if Atlanta was awarded the entire bonus.

Vick will be sentenced on December 10, and we should know how long the NFL will officially suspend him soon after that.  Now, I’m aware that even being associated with illegal gambling, under the NFL’s player conduct policy, could result in a lifetime ban from the NFL.  I don’t think this will happen, and I still believe a team would be willing to sign him once he’s eligible to come back into the league, but now I’m not as certain as I once was.

By the way, this is a very interesting article written by Jemele Hill of ESPN.  Why is a dogfighting-loving, illegal gambling ring-organizer taking so much flack, but a DUI/murderer and a person involved in a double-murder take take so little flak?  Obviously one reason for this is the status of the players involved; Ray Lewis may be a huge star in Baltimore, but he is definitely no Michael Vick in terms of popularity.   Is he taking all this flak because we’re a nation of dog lovers?  Is it because he’s such a big star?  Is it because we condemn illegal gambling?  Or is it something else?

We’ll see what happens.  Until next time.

by Peter
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No quick-hitters today!

- So after finishing the OS install on my new computer, I had to install my Syba PCI Controller card to use with my two old IDE drives.  Naturally, something this simple was going to cause me problems.  For some reason, I could not properly insert the card into the PCI slot.  It appeared that the PCI slot was about 1mm too far to the right on the card.

(Tangent:  Normally, when this happens, it’s because the motherboard isn’t attached properly to the chassis; the tip of the PCI bracket either doesn’t fit in snugly to the recessed area of the case [because the board is too far from the left edge of the case], or it can’t go in to the recessed area at all [because the board is too close to the left edge].  Neither was the case here.)

I could not, for the life of me, figure out why the card wouldn’t go into either of the two PCI slots on my Gigabyte motherboard.  It took about ten minutes to finally finesse the card into one of the slots.  That’s when I realized that the card was blocking the floppy disc connector on the board.  I decided to move the card to the other PCI slot, but I could not remove the controller card!  I gently rocked the card back and forth, and the left-end of the card popped out easily.  The right side of the card would not budge, though, no matter how gently I tried removing the card.

(Warning:  Do not try this at home!)

Out of sheer frustration, and with a forceful tug, I ripped the card out of the socket.  I surveyed the damage:  a few scratches on the chassis, and a bit of cosmetic damage on the PCI connector on the card itself.  I then attempted to re-insert the card into the other PCI slot, and it went in without much force at all.  I removed the card and tried inserting the card in the original PCI slot, and it also went in without a hitch.  I moved it back to the second slot, connected my IDE drives, fired up the computer (expecting the PCI card to blow up because of the abuse), and it worked perfectly.  I had to do some re-partitioning, reformatting, and restoring my backed-up files (My Docs, e.g.).

So now I have ~ 500GB of storage space.  Time to fill it all up!

(BTW, for all you AMD-haters out there–and you know who you are–my CPU temps are about 40C idle.  On my old P4–with a superior cooler, by the way–I hit 43C idle.  So there :P)

(Tangent:  Let’s conveniently ignore all the other variables that changed between my old build and this new one:  different PSU, case fans spinning faster, etc.)

(Tangent:  Everyone go spam Hank’s blog and tell him to build a new computer!)

No, I don’t plan on doing any overclocking.  One of these days, I’ll run a few benchmarks on the system.

- Shirin Restaurant was awesome!  Both sisters of mine, one friend, and I swung by Thursday night, and we ordered some baked eggplant dish, the chicken tenderloin plate, and the Shirin Special beef plate:  two types of rice, filet mignon chunks, ground beef, and salmon.  I am a huge fan of the chicken tenderloin, and I can’t help but love filet mignon, but the salmon might have been the best part!  It was so incredibly juicy and tender.

(I could picture my loyal readers–all none of you–drooling right now.  I know I am.)

The bill came out to a perfectly reasonable $50 or so, and we still had tons of leftovers.  One gripe:  I wanted the filet mignon to be about medium, and it came out like shoe leather.  Oh well.

- After Shirin, the four of us returned to my condo, and that’s when my sister’s friend spotted my PS2 and my copy of Guitar Hero Encore.  The next two hours were spent tutoring the three of them on the nuances of playing Guitar Hero…on easy mode.   Then my oldest sister asks if she can borrow the console to (her words, not mine) “rock out.”  I said yes, amid protests from the younger sister, who also got addicted to the game.

(In fact, she stayed up until 2:30AM Friday night/Saturday morning, beating the game on easy, and starting normal mode.  She is normally asleep by 10PM…)

So now I gotta get ready to go home–family function–and I have to pack up the PS2.  I think I’ll swing by on Monday to pick it back up

Next time:  more Mike Vick thoughts!

by Peter
3 Comments »