UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Shhhhh…don’t remind me of what I’ve yet to post this week.

(And with the way the week is shaping up, don’t expect it any time soon.)

Quick-hitters:

- I might have mentioned this before, but there is nothing like going to the Post Office, seeing the huge line, and then dropping off your packages in the drop-off box because you were smart enough to pay for postage online :D.

- Somehow, I walked into Costco, and walked out with a sub-$40 bill!

I’m going to get a phone call from AmEx, for sure, asking me if I really made that small of a purchase :P.

(BTW, I bought some Ruby Red Grapefruit juice today. When the heck did they make this stuff so sweet? It was actually quite tasty!)

- (Warning: beware of The Office spoilers!)

I gotta say that I was quite disappointed in tonight’s episode. I understand, unlike some people I know *cough, cough*, that some episodes have to be utilized to continue existing story lines, or create new ones; clearly, this was geared for the latter. That being said, the episode really felt like it was simply dragging on and on. Not much in the episode particularly amused me, and I almost wanted the episode to end about halfway through it (the scene with the supposed Mr. Dunder absolutely bored me to tears). Seriously, if the writers needed a story line-driving episode, why did they waste an hour-long episode to do this? If today’s episode was split into two episodes, I would have been very satisfied with each episode separately.

Also, WTF was with Toby revealing the Jim-Pam relationship so quickly? I figured the writers were going to drag the secret Jim-Pam relationship a bit, and then Toby went and blew everything out of the water?!?!

Fortunately, the episode took off at about 9:48PM, when Michael took that right turn right into the lake! I swear it reminded me of a scene in Fear Factor.

(I ROTFLMAO’ed there, admittedly.)

Even with the scene where Michael and Dwight attempt to reclaim the second-to-last gift basket (which was really annoying, but clearly that was the point), the last twelve minutes definitely saved tonight’s episode. And who didn’t love Jim saying, “I guess he [Ryan] can’t get…any…girl he wants,” followed by that trademark grin of his?

One thing that bothered me about tonight’s episode were the number of “I knew this was coming” moments. For example:

• I knew Michael was going to reveal some transgression that happened between him and Jan once the memo was issued.
• I knew Angela was going to break up with Dwight as soon as she invited him to dinner that night.
• I knew the car was going into the lake as soon as Michael took the wrong turn. I also knew that Michael didn’t buy renter’s insurance.
• I knew Ryan was going to ask Pam out as soon as he went up to her, asking for help with the Dunder Mifflin Infinity logo.

These moments are the reason why The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is virtually unwatchable now; I can usually get the punchline to three or four of his jokes during each of his monologues.
My favorite moments:

• Dwight releasing the feral cat into the Vance Refrigeration office.
• Toby: “Let’s just wait and see what happens.” (The look on his face rivaled the look on his face in “Beach Games” when he found out that Pam was wearing a two-piece bathing suit.)
• Phyllis explaining to Pam that she (Pam) should not base who gets new clients on who she’s sleeping with.
• Ryan and Jan’s first meeting (”Hello, elephant-in-the-room!”)
• Pam: “I now find you…repulsive.”
• Michael: “You can’t be on the team. You can’t move on to second grade.” (LOL!!!)
• Michael: “I would like to see a web site deliver baskets of food to people.”

Oh yeah…Creed, Kevin, and Andy were great, as usual. The writers need to give Andy more lines!

- The problem with being a rebate-monkey is that you, sometimes, have to deal with rebate centers and their HORRIBLE customer service. Case in point: I filed ten separate rebates on Symantec products over the past few weeks. For each rebate, I made sure to include everything required; I even highlighted any pertinent information on the rebate form and store receipt, to the point where a blind monkey could properly process my rebate.

Apparently Symantec’s rebate processor hired a bunch of dead monkeys, because they found a way to reject NINE of my ten rebate submissions!

(Tangent: Symantec’s rebate processor is Parago, and they’re known for rejecting rebates for no good reason. For every ten rebates I legitimately file with these guys, I expect anywhere from 2-5 rejections. I have never, though, had any more than half of my rebates rejected at one time.)

Now, I don’t want to hear “Well, you’re playing the rebate game, and you crapped out!” or “Well, now you know how rebate companies stay in business!” I’m fully aware of these facts. But, what really is bugging me is the fact that I have sent Parago a bunch of emails, inquiring about these rebates, and they have yet to respond to my inquiries (and it’s been over 72 hours; usually, it takes 24 hours to get a response).

I hope I don’t have to file a claim with the BBB, FTC, or my state Attorney General.

- Finally, if you haven’t seen this fantastic example of intarweb-uber-pwnage, please take the time to read it.

Cliffs: A supposed “spectacularly beautiful” and “articulate and classy” girl wants $500k/yr man to leech off buy her whatever she wants sweep her off her feet. She goes so far as to ask where these guys hang out, and what a girl has to do to find such a guy. Like she says, at least she’s being upfront about it. Guy responds, using a bunch of economic and financial terms, putting the woman in her place. Hilarity ensues.

Best line of the article:  “By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.”

Enjoy!

by Peter
8 Comments »

Quick-hitters (a food coma induced version):

- So I’ve got my sister’s fried computer in front of me.  Too bad I can’t move, or I’d consider fiddling around with the system right now.

- I hate Fantasy Football.

(more on that another time)

- While grocery shopping today, I experienced a terrible case of deja-freaking-vu.  You might recall my blogging about…ahem…”wide” shoppers and how they love blocking aisles with their…um…gifts.  Well, as I left the produce section, and turned my cart into aisle #2, guess what I saw?  Yeah, another big-boned individual blocking the entire aisle!

(The first time I saw this incident last week, it was also in aisle #2, at almost exactly the same place.)

Unlike last time, the woman wasn’t alone!  While she was blocking the aisle with her presence, she was talking to a friend, who was facing me as I was waiting for them to move!  I decided to only wait 10 seconds, this time, before skipping that aisle and moving on.

I really really hate stupid people!

- How much does it suck right about now to be a NY Mets fan?  They had a seven game lead with less than a month left in the season, and then they came from ahead to tank big time, capping the tank job with an 8-1 loss to the Florida Marlins.  Couple that with the Phillies’ win over the Washington Nationals, and the Mets will be watching the playoffs from home instead of taking part in them.  And what a way to blow it!  Tom Glavine couldn’t even get out of the first inning, giving up seven runs in a third of an inning!

*gag*

How huge was the meltdown?

No major league team had owned a lead of seven games or more with 17 to play and failed to finish in first place. New York, which had that margin on Sept. 12, matched the largest lead blown in September.

On Friday, Mets 3B David Wright said something to the effect of “We’re right where we want to be.”  I chuckled when I first heard that, and now I’m really laughing.

(What can I say?  I love epic meltdowns much more so than unbelievable triumphs.)

- Before our grocery store/trip down memory lane, we hit up CVS for an awesome CVS run.  I picked up tons of cough medicine (I’m not sick, but think preemptive strike!), tons of shampoo, Tide detergent (with Downy; only the best for me!), tissues, Dawn dish washing soap, and some other junk (including a bottle of cleaner on clearance for a buck).  After my huge stack of coupons, and the one Extra Care buck ($3) in my wallet, I ended up spending $50, but I got back $19 in ECBs + a $5 MIR.

Now THAT’s a hot deal!

(Tangent:  I was aware that drugs that contained pseudoephedrine were not stocked on drug store shelves.  However, I didn’t know that you had to provide an ID to buy them.  Actually, not only do you have to show ID, but CVS actually took my ID, swiped it into their system, and made me sign something swearing that I wouldn’t use the medicine for illicit purposes, or something like that.  According to my receipt, one is allowed to buy no more than 3.6g of pseudoephedrine a day; that comes out to about 120 tablets of cold medicine…)

- I don’t know if you know this, but I love BBQ.  We had beef short ribs, pork, orange bell pepper, and Italian squash on the grill tonight.

(If you’ve never had grilled Italian squash, you are totally missing out.  Apologies if I’ve said this before, but I’m convinced that BBQing would make a pine cone taste good.)

My mom bought some Korean BBQ marinade for the meat, and OMG.  Top that off with a salad and a huge bowl of potato salad, and you can understand why I’m food coma-tose right now.

Ugh…

- And finally, I have to admit that I am now a huge women’s soccer fan.  Well, at least I’m a huge Hope Solo fan.

(She is the US Women’s Soccer Goalkeeper, or at least she was their goalie.)

After being benched for the team’s semifinal match against Brazil, and after being mopped off the floor by a score of 4-0, here’s what Solo had to say about her coach’s decision to bench her for 37-year-old Brianna Scurry:

“It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it’s not 2004 anymore. It’s not 2004. And it’s 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can’t live by big names. You can’t live in the past. It doesn’t matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game in the Olympics three years ago. Now is what matters, and that’s what I think.”

Now THAT was a smack down!  BTW, she was wrong; don’t drag your teammate into the fray!  Direct your hatred at your coach!

Here’s a YouTube clip, for your viewing pleasure.

Apparently, Solo had issued an apology, but she didn’t do it by conventional means.  Not by a press conference.  Not by a one-on-one talk with her teammate.  Not even a phone call.  She did so via her MySpace page!

“I have felt compelled to clear the air regarding many of my postgame comments on Thursday night. I am not proud or happy the way things have come out,” reads a statement attributed to Solo on her MySpace page. “In my eyes there is no justification to put down a teammate. That is not what I was doing.”

I have to admit that this got me just slightly interested in women’s soccer!  The WNBA should take note; maybe it’ll take some mudslinging between players on the same team to get me interested in their league.

(Ok, not really.  And no, I still don’t care about any form of soccer.)

Next time, I will do something that I haven’t done in a while:  a product review!

(YAY!)

by Peter
4 Comments »

This will be a two-part blog entry, and to satisfy all my loyal readers (all none of you), I’ll split today’s blog into sports- and non-sports entries.

Quick-hitters, part 1:

- The Office is back tonight!!! YAY!!!!!

Sadly, I missed Heroes, but I’ll catch it this weekend. No spoilers, please! I also missed my new favorite show: Law & Order SVU.

- Stupid me. I almost missed a payment on a credit card! It is due 10/2, and I just realized that yesterday. Worse, I won’t be able to get money into my checking account in time to make an e-payment! D’oh!

(Fortunately, I have money in my other checking account to make the payment, but that will require me to mail in a check. You people remember what a personal check looks like, right?)

- Another trip to the PO, and another bit of sheer ridiculousness. Another woman decided to hold up the line, filling out her damn forms. Unlike last time, this woman’s act was FAR worse: she had her back facing the registers, filling out her forms, and preventing others from going ahead of her, even when the clerks called on the next person!

She was acting so ridiculously that I decided to make a drawing of the situation, using my 1337 MS Paint skillz

(Tangent: I don’t have any “skillz,” as the drawing below will indicate.)

I’ll ask again: WHAT PART OF “PLEASE HAVE FORMS READY BEFORE GETTING IN LINE” IS SO FREAKING DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND????????

You should have seen her reaction when one of the clerks demanded that the next customer be helped before her. Damn stupid people…

- Congrats, Bank of Freaking America. You have finally topped my list.

(I can picture Hank thinking, “What could BofA do to top Time Warner?” Read on.)

In need of funds to pay off my credit card (the same one mentioned in the quick-hitters section), I ran off to BofA to withdraw some money from my checking account. I got to the ATM, inserted my ATM card, entered my PIN, punched in the amount of money I needed, and stuck my hand out by the cash dispenser, waiting for my cash.

That’s when the ATM spit out my ATM card, and said something to the effect of “Screw you; you can’t use this card.”

The account will be closed as soon as I get my lazy a$$ to a BofA branch to empty out the account. I would have closed the account over the phone, but apparently I need to empty the account first.

The list now looks like this:

1. BoFA (the “F” is capitalized for a reason now)
2. Time Warner
3. Citibank
4. CompUSSR
5. (tie) Parago, USPS, Buy.com, etc.

- I don’t know if you people know this, but I love food. My sister and mom came by this past weekend because their computer was on the fritz, so naturally I asked insisted begged my mom to cook us some food. She made us a huge pot of curry for lunch, and like the spoiled children that we are, we also got a special meal for dinner. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s made with crepes filled with ground chicken, chopped long beans, peanuts, shredded coconut, and shrimp. You’re supposed to peel off pieces of the crepe, wrap it in a piece of lettuce, and dip it in a sauce.

Abso-freaking-lutely-delicious (sorry, no pics!). I have got to get the recipe for this stuff!

Oh yeah, the curry wasn’t half bad either. It was a bit thin, but who am I to complain?

- As for the computer on the fritz, my sister told me that the computer would turn on, but nothing would display on the monitor, and the hard disk LED would stay a solid red. I took the PSU out of that computer and stuck it in my secondary computer; the system turned on, but the monitor LED was flashing yellow ( = no input). So I figured that the power supply was shot, and figured that the entire system was as well. To test this, I stuck my spare PSU–a cheapy, FAR Raidmax PSU that weighed about as much as a can of soda (seriously!)–into their computer, and as expected, the system turned on, but no display.

I advised my sister on her options–build a brand new one or build a cheap one using some of the parts I had lying around–and she decided on the latter. I installed what used to be my primary computer–a P4 2.4Ghz on an Asus P4PE–into her case, hooked up all her drives, and the system fired up. To my amazement, I didn’t even need to repair Windows XP! I ran a few tests while my sisters were playing Guitar Hero, and handed my sister her newly-working computer. She offered to pay me for the parts, which I gladly accepted.

(Tangent: Was it not cool for me to enjoy beating the snot out of my sisters in Guitar Hero? I know that older siblings love doing that to younger siblings, but I, as the youngest sibling, really enjoyed the beatdown :P. I don’t remember ever talking that much trash after winning at anything before.

me <– can be a bad sport)

I got an IM from my sister that night, telling me that the “new” computer didn’t work! She told me that it had exactly the same symptoms as before! Argh…

Just for kicks, I hooked up the shot PSU to my DOSBox, and amazingly, it worked! I’m beginning to think that the surge strip, or the outlet itself, might be causing all the problems. Or maybe it’s the computer case…in any event, the computer will be back here this weekend. I hope it doesn’t rain; I feel like having a BBQ this weekend.

So now I have a dilemma. The computer left my possession in working condition, so am I allowed to charge my sister for the parts?

Later tonight, part 2 of this blog entry, including my Week 3 (Fantasy) Football thoughts.

by Peter
2 Comments »

I do apologize to all my loyal readers (all none of you), as I’ve been quite occupied lately. I went to the UCLA-Washington football game on Saturday, and spent all day Sunday fixing my sister’s DOA computer.

I’ll talk about those, and offer my Week 3 NFL (Fantasy) Football thoughts another time.

Quick-hitters:

- What part of “Please Have Forms Ready Before Getting In Line” is so freaking hard for some people to understand?!? And don’t you sneer at me, stupid lady, for not allowing me to go ahead of you when the PO clerk called for the next customer, forcing us to wait for your stupid ass to finish filling out the forms! If you had either had your forms already filled out, or (novel idea!) fill them out BEFORE you get in line, we wouldn’t have this problem, would we?

I swear that was not a rant towards older people. It was simply a rant towards f**king stupid people.

- Speaking of shopping cart carelessness, my mom is guilty of this! On Sunday, we went grocery shopping, and I was pushing our cart towards the car. I looked into the cart, and noticed there weren’t that many bags of stuff to carry. As we passed the shopping cart corral (or whatever you call the area that the shopping carts are housed, in the front of the store), I stopped to grab most of the groceries.

(I was basically born to be a two-legged pack mule :P)

I asked my mom to push the cart back into the corral, and watched, to my horror, as my mom just left the cart right where we pushed it!

(Tangent: you know how some stores have the corral walled off? We were just on the other side of that wall. Five paces backwards, and the cart could have been deposited back into that area.)

I told my mom to push the cart into the corral, and what did she do? She pushed the cart towards the corral, and instead of turning right, in the direction of the corral, she turned left and pushed the cart besides a trashcan!

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFF????

- Time Warner sucks. I’ve been struggling to access simple web sites for over an hour now, and I only recently figured out why. Check this out:

)#(*#)($*#)(#*(!!!!!

(I assure you that today’s blog isn’t all negative.)

- On Thursday, I got a tip from SlickDeals about Norton 360 being on sale at Office Depot for $80 - 30 MIR - 30 MIR - 20 MIR = $0 + tax. With decent resell value, I decided to hit up as many Office Depots as it would have taken to find two copies of Norton 360.

I went down the street to my nearest OD, where they only had the display box on the shelf. I took the display box to a cashier, who checked her computer to find three copies of 360 available. I asked for two, and she jokingly called me greedy :P.

Of course, the computer wasn’t updated, and all three copies were gone. She then told me that the system showed seven 360s in stock at another OD, and she called that OD to verify stock. She handed me the phone, and I stayed on hold for a good ten minutes! At that point, I just hung up, thanked the woman, and headed out towards that OD (I had to go to the bank anyway; more on that later).

When we reached the second OD, I found two copies of 360 on the shelf, so I quickly grabbed both. After browsing around the store for a bit, I asked my sister to purchase one copy for me, and we headed to the register. The cashier rang up my purchase, and kept making comments like “Oh! This comes with a rebate!” and “This is a good deal!” While doing that, she accidentally rang up my order as purchased with cash, so she had to undo and redo the order.

During this time, the guy behind us in line grabbed the copy I was purchasing, and said “How much in rebates do you get?” I just ignored him, and then he noticed that we were each buying a copy. He then asked, “Hey, [pointing to the box] do you know that this software is good for three users? Why are you buying two copies?” I ignored him, finished my transaction, and walked off while my sister was paying for “her” copy.

(Yeah, like I was going to tell him that I was buying these for resale.)

- I’ll end the blog with this gem: We swung by a Wamu that I’ve never been to, and walked into the lobby. There was a real nice guy there who held the door open for my sister and me, not realizing that we had to walk in one at a time. After she went in, he held the door open for me, and I insisted that he should go in first. He, in turn, insisted that I should go first, and we were going back and forth for a few seconds, until I gave in and walked through the door.

(Sound familiar, Krunk?)

(BTW, this story is a bit hazy; I pieced this story together based on what I heard, and what my sister saw.)

Once we got in, I heard a woman talking to a guy at the front of the bank, asking if she could go to the safe deposit box area. He said no, pointing out that her sister was already in there.

(Tangent: Is it a rule saying that only one person could be in the safe deposit box area at a time?)

She threw a hissy fit, and then demanded that she be allowed to go to the bathroom (no, this bank did not have public bathrooms). When the guy said that he couldn’t do that, the woman had none of it; she walked towards the safe deposit box area, right past the security guard! The guard stopped her, and she demanded to be let go, again reminding the world that her sister was also in there. She continued trying to walk past the guard, and the guy at the front told the guard to escort her to the bathroom.

A couple minutes later, I heard her screaming into her cell phone “I hate this branch! They’ve got only two tellers working here! I don’t know why I bother coming to this branch!”

Did I mention how much I hate f**king stupid people?

Au revoir.

by Peter
1 Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- Another trip to the Post Office, another moron running a red light. This time, it wasn’t even close! The light was red for a good five seconds before the car (heading Southbound, just like the ***** who nearly killed me earlier in the week) sped right through the intersection, forcing the two cars going Westbound to slam their brakes and sound their horn.

That one could have been really ugly.

- Hey Amy, I recall you blogging about this horrible movie called “Sunshine.”

Check out this mini-review of the movie, done by ESPN’s Gregg Easterbrook (search for “Sci-Fi Complaint No. 2″). I think you’ll enjoy it ;-).

- Anyone wanna make a bet on the number of years that O.J. will serve in prison for his latest escapade? I’ll put the over/under at 3.5 years, and I’ll gladly take the under.

- Damn you, Hank! Why oh why did he have to talk about the game Peggle? I’m freaking addicted to the damn game now, so much so that I nearly purchased the game a night ago!

- So I took a trip to Costco today, but before I did, I set the over/under on how much I was going to spend at $85.00. I made a bet with an unnamed individual, and I confidently took the over.

(I hate Costco. I really hate Costco.)

Even with the beef jerky, the cheese danishes, and the multiple quantities of juice that I bought, I managed to stay under $85.00!

(Tangent: There is no way that one bag of this beef jerky contains eight servings. I could easily polish off half the bag, and only have to stop eating because my jaw would start aching.)

Anyway, hopefully that unnamed individual doesn’t try to get a steak dinner out of me for winning the bet.

- After the trip to Costco, we swung by our local supermarket to pick up a few things. After today’s trip (which only set me back another $30), I don’t know if I ever want to go back to that place. This wasn’t my first trip to this particular supermarket, by the way, but after what I dealt with today, I don’t know if I ever want to go back to that place.

First of all, I do not understand why people like to obstruct the aisles with their shopping carts either at the ends of the aisle, or in the middle of the aisle, next to areas where there are displays of stuff not on shelves. One of these days, I’m bringing a horn with me to a grocery store, so I can honk at people who block my way.

(Yeah, I have grocery store road rage.)

Related to the first point…grocery stores seriously need to widen their aisles. It is nearly impossible now to pass another shopper in an aisle, and it’s not just because of those off-the-shelf displays being all over the place. Between stupid kids constantly running around, to, um, wide shoppers blocking off the entire aisle with their cart or, um, their backsides, I now have to go through the store 2-3 times just to make sure I’ve covered every aisle.

(Tangent: I’m not exactly the most svelte of individuals, but I try my hardest to not obstruct people when I’m shopping. If I do, it’s either unintentional, or I do it for a couple of seconds at the most. There was one woman who was bent over and looking at the same freaking can of tuna for a good five minutes? How do I know this? I returned to that aisle a couple minutes later, and she was still there!)

By the way, I don’t want to hear the “if you would just make a list, and go into whatever aisles you need to go to, then you won’t have this problem!” argument. I always go through every aisle, in the off-chance that I find a very good deal that I can’t pass up.

As if the experience inside the supermarket wasn’t bad enough, what I saw outside was even worse. As I got to our car, I noticed two shopping carts stuck behind a van parked one aisle from us.
(clears throat)

WHO THE **** THINKS IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO LEAVE THEIR SHOPPING CART BEHIND SOMEONE’S PARKED CAR???

The amazing thing is, there was a shopping cart return area about three parking spots away from these two carts! As I finished loading my groceries, I noticed the owner of the van started loading her groceries. I heard her curse about the carts (understandably so), and I decided to go put away my cart and take the two obstructing her van at the same time. She was very grateful for the help, and I was glad to see that she also took her cart to the cart return area.

As we drove out of the parking lot, we saw a woman driving a Dodge Ram leaving her shopping cart in the next parking spot. Was it cruel for me to have wished for the cart to roll right back into her truck? Seriously, the parking spot is rather tiny, and there are several cart return areas scattered all throughout the lot. Is is that freaking hard to take your cart to the return before you leave?

I was going to talk about football, but now I’m pissed off again. Until next time…

by Peter
10 Comments »

So I’m typing this blog while snacking on some French fries and celery sticks. Why celery sticks? I ran out of ketchup, and only had some ranch dressing in my refrigerator. Why not pretend to have a healthy snack by adding celery sticks to my plate, right??

And yes, I realize that the ranch dressing is probably the worst part of my snack.

(As of this moment, I’ve eaten just about all of my celery sticks, and none of the fries. Maybe I’ll just finish the celery and toss away the fries.)

Quick-hitters:

- Just when I thought summer was unofficially over, it got hot again this past week. Today, it was quite nice (83/87), and I hope it stays that way through the weekend. I think I’m going to BBQ this weekend; I gotta grill as much as I can before the rainy season starts kicking into gear.

- My poor UPS guy came by here four times this past week. I gotta get him something really nice this Christmas. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

- I cannot believe I’m going to type this, but I actually had a very positive experience at the Post Office a few days ago. The Automated Postal Center (APC) was down, so I had to wait in line with my three packages. The line was about 15 customers long, so I figured I was going to have to be in line for a good half-hour.

Five minutes later, I was out of there. Sweet!

Well, not really. You see, the intersection that the Post Office is on seems to be a haven for drivers that like to ignore street signs. On my way home from the PO that day, I was at the corner, ready to cross the street going East. About one second after the “Walk” sign flashed my way, I looked both ways, and then got ready to step off the curb. That’s when some ***** and her nice Bimmer came barreling through the intersection going South at about 30mph, hooking a right turn right past me. Did I mention she was also on her cell phone?

It was a good thing she was a good 8-10′ away from the curb when she made the right turn, or I could very well have been plastered on her windshield.

(Tangent, sorta: I love it when people do something wrong, and then stare at you, as if you were the one at fault.

No, this didn’t happen this time; clearly the woman was too busy chatting on her phone to see a 6″, lumbering individual attempting to cross a crosswalk. Clearly she was too busy to see the red light too.)

- I’ve been trying to sell a laptop on Craigslist for four weeks now, with no luck. I’ve had several people flake out on me, even after scheduling a time to come by and take a look at the laptop. I also dealt with a woman that kept stalling, until she eventually said she could find a better deal if she waited.

(Tangent: OMG I hate it when people say, about [electronic device], “If I wait long enough, it’ll go down in price!” NO FREAKING KIDDING!!!!!!!!!11111!11!!!!! A Core2Duo laptop, if you wait long enough, will drop down to $100, right?)

So, to the flakes on Craigslist out there, I have a letter for you:

To whom it may concern:

Lately, a bunch of you flakes have decided to get in contact with me with interest in a laptop I was selling on Craigslist. Now, I understand that things happen, and sometimes people can’t keep their appointments.

(clears throat)

IF YOU CAN’T KEEP AN APPOINTMENT, IS IT TOO MUCH TROUBLE TO ASK FOR A PHONE CALL OR AN E-MAIL, EXPLAINING WHY??? Seriously, you can’t take five minutes out of your busy life to give me a ring and say that you won’t be able to make it?

And to the individual that flaked on me THREE times, you couldn’t call me ONCE to explain that you couldn’t (or wouldn’t) drop by??? Not even ONCE???

Ah, that felt good.

(By the way, I should mention that I had this written up yesterday…right before a guy came by and purchased the laptop :P)

- OK, I desperately need a new TV. This stupid Sceptre TV is really pissing me off. It seems that the buttons on the side of the TV don’t work at all any more.

(I know, I know…why would I care that the buttons on the TV don’t work? Isn’t that what a remote control is for? Shush.)

Couple that with the occasional non-responsiveness of the remote, the dead pixel, the noise that is now coming from the TV, and the fact that I love getting new toys (:P), and it’s about time I take my TV back to Costco. Besides, I have a $300 Circuit City GC to use up!

Speaking of TVs, I have a pretty funny story to share about my TV. I brought my Sceptre into the living room, and used it as a PC monitor for my secondary computer (I also brought it outside so that my sister doesn’t have to crash my room to watch football games in high-definition). Both the PC and the TV are about ten feet from my entertainment system, housing my Sony Trinitron 27″ TV.

I noticed a strange phenomenon where the Sceptre would mysteriously turn on for whatever reason. I thought nothing of it until Wednesday, when I noticed that the Sceptre turned on when I turned off my Sony TV. For a few minutes, I was thinking, “WTF?”

That’s when I remembered that I had to program a Sony TV code into my universal remote in order to use it with my Sceptre TV, which explains why turning one of my TVs off turned the other one on, and vice versa. And here I thought I had ghosts in my living room!

I was going to blog about the controversy regarding the Patriots, and the fine that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell slapped them with, but I’ll save it for tomorrow.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
1 Comment »

Yeah, I know, I haven’t blogged in forever.

me <– slacker

I’ve got so much to talk about, I’m going to split this blog into (at least) two parts.  Today’s entry, unofficially sponsored by Baked Lay’s potato chips, will be completely sports-free!

Quick-hitters:

- Don’t you hate it when you talk to someone about a product, then go to the store later, see the product on the shelf, and have to buy some of it?

An unnamed individual asked me about which flavors of Sobe I enjoy–Orange Carrot, Energy, and Tropical something-or-another, thank you very much.  I dropped by the store later today, and, of course, they were on sale ($1/bottle), and I had to get one of each.

Stupid unnamed person

Oh yeah, at the supermarket, I somehow willed myself to pass up on a box of powdered donuts!  The same couldn’t be said for the bag of Baked Lay’s, beef jerky, Gatorade, and Club crackers that I saw.

(At this point, I should mention that my sisters are going on a cruise this week, meaning I will be home alone.  Take lots of pictures!)

- Where the hell did summer go?  Last week, it was ridiculously hot, and this week, it’s been ridiculously cold!  Dammit, I want the heat back!

(Yes, I know, I am impossible to please.)

- I cannot believe that I have never heard this song before.  Damn that was funny.

- My current rebate-o-meter is at a cool $2,500.  Something tells me that this figure will hit $3,000 by the end of September.

(Note:  I typed this before discovering $300 in rebate checks in my mail box from Saturday.  I was in MPK for the weekend…more on that later.)

I think I am way past being “addicted” to hot deals.

BTW, I think I’m completely addicted to CVS’ hot deals.  I know have ten sticks of deodorant, and six tubes of toothpaste.  Combine that with the twelve bottles of body wash, and I better start taking three showers and brushing my teeth six times a day.

- So I have been a customer of Bank of America for about three weeks now, and as soon as I get my $100 bonus for opening up a BofA checking account, I’m going to kick them far beyond the curb.  Maybe I’m overreacting; you be the judge.

I opened the account online, and funded the account via a direct transfer from my ING Orange Savings account.   BofA took my money rather quickly, as I waited for correspondence from them to come in the mail (ATM card, welcome kit, PIN, etc.)

A few days later, I got a package from BofA, which included brochures and a signature card that I had to sign and return.  I did so, and waited a few days for additional mail.

And a few more.

And a few more.

Nearly two weeks had passed, and I saw nothing else (which I mentioned here).  I’ll just copy and paste what I had already wrote there:

I opened a Bank of America checking account a few weeks ago, and I have yet to see my ATM card or a welcome kit.  I called BofA and asked what was going on.  The nice lady calmly told me that “Whoops, we have your address on file wrong!”  The rep assured me that no fraudulent activity has shown up on my account yet, and that she would expedite another ATM card ASAP.  She also assured me that the ATM card and the welcome kit will probably show up returned to sender.  Thank goodness that my signature card (which has my SSN on it) and my temporary online passcode somehow made it to me!

Well, the old ATM card magically showed up the next day.  I tried calling BofA “support” to see what I should do with this new card.  On my first calling attempt, it took a whopping 1:20 for BofA’s machine to answer the call!  WTF???   Once the machine answered, it kept asking me for my bank account number (you know, the account number that I did not have!).  Frustrated, I kept pounding 0, #, and some other keys, to see if I could reach an operator.  Nothing worked, so I went with my tried and true method of screaming “Get me to a f**king operator!”

Yeah, it worked

Of course, when I got to the operator, and began talking to her, the CSR told me that she could not hear me at all.  She, Speedy Gonzalez-like, quickly gave me a number to call back, and hung up, before I even had a chance to think about picking up a pen and paper to jot the number down.

I found out that hitting 00 was the key to getting to an operator, so I used my cell phone, called back, and hit 00.  After the “you’ll be transferred to an operator” message played, I waited on hold for all of a few seconds.  Then I heard another recording:  “Your call cannot be completed at this time.  Goodbye.”

At this point, I was going to throw my laptop through a wall.  Granted, this may not necessarily have been BofA’s fault, but that’s not the point.

Totally frustrated, I called back, dialed 00, and connected with a live operator.  He immediately asked me for my checking account number, and I explained that I just needed to ask him about my ATM card.  He explained that I should wait for the second one, and asked if I had any other questions.  I then mentioned that I was never sent my online login ID to access internet banking.

Guess what the CSR asked me for?  If you said “the checking account number that you did not have,” pat yourself on the back.  I had to hang up on the guy, and decided to just wait for the new ATM card to arrive.

A couple days later, the replacement card showed up.  I attempted to activate it, using the phone number on the sticker on the front of the card.  When it got to verifying the last four digits of my SSN, it didn’t work!  At this point, I was fearful of identity theft, or some other royal screwup.  I got ahold of a live operator, who was able to manually activate my card.   I then asked again about my internet banking online ID, and the rep was able to give me the ID pretty quickly.  I also asked about not yet receiving my PIN; the rep told me to go to my nearest branch to set one up, since I never received my original PIN in the mail.

I went to the branch the next day, waited a few minutes, then set up my PIN.  When I was done, the woman that was helping me out said “Good luck!”  I replied, “Too little, too late,” and walked off.

Nicely done, BofA.

- Quick-hitters, a customer service (or lack thereof) edition:

• Screw you, Consumer Depot, for sending me a DOA Guitar Hero controller.  It’s going to cost me $40 just to ship back the damn paperweight!  Good thing I only spent $25 on the controller; I hope the one I ordered from Shop4Tech works.
• Screw you, Web-rebates.com, for BSing a bunch of rebate rejections, not responding to my customer service request emails, and dragging your feet weeks after I sent you my resubmissions.  Parago thinks you guys stink.
• Screw you, Fedex delivery person.  How many times do I have to kindly ask you to NOT leave packages at my front door?  Yes, I understand that these packages were sent w/o requiring a signature.  However, is it really that hard to go to my neighbor and ask her to accept my package, instead of leaving it on my doorstep?  More on this later.
• Screw you, Time Warner.  No, no reason in particular for this rant.

Ok, I’m going to end this blog entry on a positive note.  While in MPK this past weekend, FedEx dropped off a package at my front door on Saturday morning.

(Tangent:  Unlike UPS, FedEx Home Delivery does ship on Saturdays, but only if the package is in the local hub by Saturday morning.)

I was completely unaware of this delivery attempt, until I got back home late last night.  I noticed a note on my front door from my neighbor, saying that she accepted a package on my behalf.  I went to knock on her door, but there was no response.

I returned about an hour later, and she finally answered.  Before I had a chance to say anything, she took a few steps backwards, grabbed a box sitting on a shelf, and handed it to me.  I asked her if the delivery person had asked her to sign for the package, and she told me that she heard the driver knock on my door once, say “Fed-Ex!,” leave the package on my door step, and walk off, all in a span of a few seconds!  My neighbor, realizing that a package left at my front door was just asking to be stolen, went ahead and took the package off my front door, holding on to it until I returned.

(Tangent:  I have an agreement with my neighbor and my UPS guy, where he is to leave packages for me with my neighbor if I’m not home, and vice versa.  As I stated before, my Fedex guy doesn’t care to listen to my requests.  Yeah, I realize this incident involved a different driver, but she acted the same way my normal delivery guy would act; a quick knock, followed by a hasty exit.  This is why I tip my UPS guy with drinks, and I don’t bother even acknowledging the presence of my FedEx guy.  Don’t even get me started with DHL…)

I thanked her profusely, and then asked her to trade phone numbers, just in case we needed to get in contact with each other in the future.  As I got ready to head on out, I noticed her little daughter started following me.

(Heh…)

I am going to hate the day my neighbor moves out on me.

Happy blogging!

by Peter
6 Comments »

Man, I really have to start blogging more often!  With (fantasy) football season starting in two days, basketball season around the corner, and the baseball pennant chase in full swing, I don’t have an excuse to NOT blog at least once a day!

(Can I blame the lack of blogging on the heat?)

- How hot has it been in recent days?  It was so hot on Sunday night/Monday morning, I woke up to find white lines all over my black shirt.  I had a pretty bad headache that morning, and my tongue was really dry.  Now I see why Gatorade made Gatorade AM.  I must have gotten three hours of sleep that night (at best), and probably no more than ten total hours for the entire weekend.

I don’t think I’ll be going back to Monterey Park any time in the next, oh, three months

On Monday, my dad decided to cook for Labor Day.  What did he make?  A huge pot of curry!

Now, I love my curry.  I usually don’t eat spicy foods, but I don’t mind a spicy red curry.  Heck, even a mild to medium yellow curry hits the spot.  Well, curry’s great…when it’s not a billion degrees outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ate my bowl of curry right next to a fan.

- Later in the day, our automatic ice maker went on the fritz!

(Didn’t I mention I was having a bad few days?)

We had to make an ice run, and the local 7-11 sold out of ice.  We swung by CVS and got some, and stupid me forgot my ECBs!  I could have bought another stick of deodorant, or a tube of toothpaste!

(Tangent:  I went through some of my old coupons, and found more coupons for Adidas deodorant, Colgate toothpaste, and Speed Stick deodorant, the last of which will go on sale next week!  Yay for even more CVS freebies!)

On the way home, I spotted my aunt walking on the sidewalk.  We U-turned, headed back, and guessed that she had gone into the CVS.

(Tangent:  She had some guts to walk around in that heat!)

We went back in, spotted her, realized how nice the A/C was in the store, and followed her around for a few minutes.  We then left, dropped her off, and went back home with the slowly-deteriorating ice.  As soon as I brought the bag of ice into the house, it was pretty much all horded by everybody.  That glass of ice water that I had might have been the best tasting glass of water that I’ve ever consumed.

Fortunately, it appears that temps are starting to drop.  Hopefully this will be the end of my heat-related rants.

- So I’m signed up for five Fantasy Football leagues (one being the BargainShare league), and I’ve drafted in two of them.

Here’s the draft results of my latest draft, held at Yahoo! Sports.  I’m quite happy with my first two picks, and pissed off that I was pretty much forced to take a WR with my third pick.  I also don’t like the idea of having to depend on Donovan McNabb, but I was VERY happy to land Chicago’s defense in round 6 (thanks to those few picks that were ahead of me…Shayne Graham?  Indy’s Defense???)

By the way, please ignore my 13th pick

Until next time!

by Peter
No Comments »

where would I be without my computers?

(Hey, it sounded good in my head!)

As usual, I said I was going to talk about something (my extended stay in MPK), but I’m going to change up on my loyal readers of none once again. I’m only doing this because I’ve got way too much stuff floating around in my head right now.

Let’s get to it.

- Accuweather.com reports that it is currently 106F, with a RealFeel temperature of 109F (current as of 2pm). In other news, I have just lost 20lbs, mostly from sweat. And I thought yesterdays’ 102F/109F was bad! I got a couple hours of sleep yesterday, and it appears that I will not get much sleep tonight either. Maybe I should sleep outside on my patio tonight.

On Tuesday night, my dad was nice enough to pack a lunch for the next day. The thought was noble, but he packed me shark-fin soup! The soup is now sitting in my freezer; he’s got some nerve to serve me SOUP, with temperatures approaching a buck-ten!

(That’s not going to stop me from making won ton noodle soup with the steamed chicken my mom packed for me later tonight.

And yeah, I realize I’m freaking ungrateful.)

- I’m happy to report that my AMD X2 system is running at a very decent 40C/39C (CPU/system temps), especially considering the fact that it’s a billion degrees outside.

(I could hear my sister screaming “It is not a billion degrees outside!” in a Dane Cook-esque voice.)

When the weather cools down, I might try over clocking my CPU. One of the big positives about the Gigabyte motherboard I bought is the ability to overclock using software in Windows. I’ll probably have to buy a more powerful heatsink/fan and some Arctic Silver thermal grease, though.

(Tangent: the only thing I hate about this Gigabyte motherboard is the crap thermal monitoring software–EasyTune5–that is included. The monitoring software that came with my old Asus motherboard–PC Probe–gave me instant readings with a single click on the system tray icon; a window pops open, showing me CPU/case temps, voltages, and fan speeds immediately. The Gigabyte software requires me to double-click the tray icon, click on “PC Health,” then on “Hardware Monitor” to get the temps/fan speeds/voltages. Also, the Gigabyte software takes forever to load!

This reminds me…I haven’t done a product review in a while, and there are a few products I could talk about. Maybe another day…)

- For those of you keeping score at home, I’m already on my second 32oz. bottle of ice water. I started the first bottle when I started typing this blog…

- Quick fantasy football news: the Bargainshare fantasy football league draft occurred a couple days ago, and I got shafted by our league’s auto-draft. I prayed, one day before the draft, “Please, please, please, don’t give me Travis Henry in the first round!”

So who do I end up with my first pick? Travis freaking Henry. Here’s the rest of my roster (12-team league; numbers in parentheses represent the number of starters for each position):

• QB (1): M. Hasselbeck, M. Leinart
• RB (2): T. Henry, R. Johnson, J. Lewis
• WR (3): D. Driver, M. Colston, C. Chambers, J. Horn
• TE (1): V. Davis, H. Miller
• K (1): O. Mare
• D/ST (1): Bears, Panthers

At least I got the Bears’ D; I set the auto-picker to give me a top-flight defense/special teams before getting a second WR (if I recall correctly, I had the autopicker go RB, RB, QB, WR, DST with the first five picks). I’m also very happy to land Colston with my sixth pick; if he comes even remotely close to matching last year’s numbers, I’ll be satisfied. Besides, I could always go on the waiver wire for another WR, or a better TE/K. I also opted to pick a K last; hopefully I can find the next Neil Rackers/Robbie Gould off the waiver wire. I also chose to pick a TE later in the draft; I figured that, if I didn’t land Gates or Gonzalez, I can always play a TE off the waiver wire every week. And who knows? Maybe Vernon Davis will stay healthy and have a stellar season. Besides, WRs and TEs are so damned inconsistent every week.

I can’t wait for the NFL season to start!

(By the way, I love how a Vegas sports book is now taking wagers on fantasy sports. As if fantasy sports and sports wagering weren’t ridiculous enough…)

- Wow. I somehow managed to go 22 days between orders at Amazon.com!

(I’ve placed three orders since :P)

I now have over $2,000 in rebates owed. Perhaps this is a sign that I’m addicted to hot deals :P.

- How bad has my day been today?

• The chicken that my mom packed for me has gone bad.  Dammit!  I wanted chicken and rice!
• I missed out on a great deal at Amazon.com…after going to the bathroom.  I had the item, in my cart, and I was about ready to check out.  When I returned to my computer, the item went OOS.
• I opened a Bank of America checking account a few weeks ago, and I have yet to see my ATM card or a welcome kit.  I called BofA and asked what was going on.  The nice lady calmly told me that “Whoops, we have your address on file wrong!”  The rep assured me that no fraudulent activity has shown up on my account yet, and that she would expedite another ATM card ASAP.  She also assured me that the ATM card and the welcome kit will probably show up returned to sender.  Thank goodness that my signature card (which has my SSN on it) and my temporary online passcode somehow made it to me!

(As soon as I get the $100 in bonus funds for opening up this account, I’m closing it!  Between this fiasco, and the fact that BofA put two inquiries on my credit report for opening one account, I’m done with BofA.  And to think, I’m not even officially a customer yet!)

• My sister called to tell me that she lost her $200+ sunglasses…a week after she bought them.
• I went to the supermarket to get some water (you know, from one of those machines).  I noticed that the parking lot was kinda flooded for some reason, so I was walking slowly through the lot.  That’s when the velcro on my sandals gave out, and my right foot landed right in a puddle.  I would imagine that sewer water is only slightly worse than the water on that parking lot.
• My brand new computer crashed for the first time!  Hopefully it is just user error.
• A Craiglist’er has flaked on me twice in consecutive days, after promising to swing by to purchase a laptop off me.  After the first flake out (yesterday), the woman didn’t even call to apologize the next morning!  She simply asked me if she could swing on by today.

(Well, it’s only 9:30…maybe she’ll swing on by in the next half hour.)

• Out of frustration, I kicked a football really hard.  I put a freaking dent in the wall.

(That’s the way to cap off a great day, no?)

Hey, there’s always tomorrow, right?  Tomorrow can’t be worse than today!

Happy blogging!

by Peter
4 Comments »

(Note:  This blog entry was supposed to be posted on the 28th; as usual, stupid me screwed up in some way.

10,000 Stupid Points).

- I could count, on one hand, the number of events that are more gratifying than finding money. I mean, if I were to dig through my jeans’ pockets on laundry day, and found five bucks, I’d act as if I won the lottery!

You could imagine my feeling when I cleaned out my luggage from my NorCal trip (yeah, the one all the way back in May…don’t worry, there was just one sweater, a travel-sized bottle of shampoo, and a pair of fresh socks left in the luggage), and found two twenties sitting in one of the front pockets! Man, that feeling was truly awesome. At times, I’ve found dollar bills here and there, and the occasional five really gets the heart racing, but forty bucks??? Talk about ecstasy!

(I know some of my loyal readers–all none of you–feel that I’m overreacting over a mere forty bucks. If you feel that way, then you are wrong.)

(BTW, I just logged in to one of my PayPal accounts, and “found” another $50 and change! Holy crap! I’m rich!)

So how did I celebrate this find? I bought some ice cream, of course!

- Our fantasy football league auto-drafts on Wednesday! W00t!

(Yeah, it’s that time of the year, when my blog switches from a primarily Off Topic-like blog to a (fantasy) sports-related blog.)

I hope I remember to tweak CBS Sportsline’s player rater before the draft starts. I’m shocked that they ranked Marvin Harrison as fantasy football’s #1 ranked WR.

(I’m also super-stunned that Peyton Manning and LaDainian Tomlinson are ranked #1 at QB and RB, respectively :P)

I have also created BargainShare’s Pro Football Pick’em League (you pick the winners for each game of each week). If you’re interested in signing up, let me know! No football knowledge required; flip a coin if you have to!

- One of the big questions floating around the whole Michael Vick incident that I did not get around to last time asks if race plays a factor in the way Vick is being treated by the media.  I’m not too sure about that.  If Peyton Manning or Tom Brady got caught up in dogfighting, would either be treated as harshly?  I have a hard time believing that.  On the other hand, neither player has had the history Vick has had prior to the dogfighting indictment.  Neither player was caught at an airport with a water bottle that had a hidden compartment in it.  Neither player flipped the bird to his home crowd.  Neither player has a sibling who is most famous for stomping on the back of an opponent’s knee back in college.  My point is, sure, race might be playing a role in the media’s treatment of Vick, but I’d argue that race isn’t playing a significant role.

Next time:  my (extended) stay in Monterey Park, among other things!

by Peter
3 Comments »