Entries Tagged as 'The Office'

The Office “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” Review, Symantec Rebates Are A Scam, And Craigslist Personals Pwnage

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!

The Office Season Premiere (Warning: spoilers!), Week 3 (Fantasy) Football Thoughts, And URL-Less Spam

- Wow, did The Office season premiere deliver or what? There were several LOL moments, and I still couldn’t believe how the episode started!

(spoilers to follow…you have been warned!)

  • I was thinking that Michael was going awfully fast, when he turned the corner into what we found out was the Dunder Mifflin parking lot.
  • I wonder how many takes it took Pam to say the entire foundation’s name correctly.
  • Who didn’t see Michael cramping up during the run, after carbo-loading minutes before the episode, then passing up on the water?
  • I want one of those “Support the rabid” wrist bands!
  • I did NOT need to see Pam walking into Michael’s office and seeing his (as Pam called it) “dangling participle,” nor did I need to hear Andy talk about his chafing nipples. *gag*
  • My favorite moments of the episode:
    • Kevin: “Are you kidding me?…Are you KIDDING me?”
    • Michael: “I’m not superstitious, but I’m…I’m just a little stitious.”
    • Michael: “Occasionally I’ll hit someone with my car. So sue me! No…don’t sue me!”
    • Angela’s hip check into Dwight.
    • The flyer saying that the run was 5,000 miles, not 5 kilometers.
    • Seeing Creed, Oscar, and Stanley (of all people!) running to the taxi. I figured Kevin would have been there, not Stanley. And I loved how the taxi drove them right to the finish line, not a few hundred yards before it.
    • Dwight: “I put Imodium in Toby’s coffee before the race.” Michael: “Excellent…wait…Imodium, or Ex-Lax?”
    • Toby: “He couldn’t have made it a circle?”
  • I was actually surprised that the writers touched on the Jim-Pam relationship as much as they did in this episode. I thought they were only going to make mention of it once, and only at the end of the episode, while playing the whole “Oh, we’re not together” angle throughout.
  • What??? No Jim and Pam picking on Dwight today? Where was that?

All in all, I was very happy with today’s episode, and I’m really happy that there will be three more hour-long episodes coming up in the following weeks!

- In the BargainShare Fantasy Football league, I needed to avoid a big day from Drew Brees and Reggie Bush to win. Bush did his part to hurt me, but Brees had an abysmal game, and I held on. I’m now 2-1 in that league, but bad news for me: Rudi Johnson is out for the NE game!

In the other league in which I was 1-1, I needed a single point from Vince Young to win there. I’m now 2-1 there, but I have Rudi Johnson in that league too. As for the first of my two 0-2 teams, I rode Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook to an easy win, and now i’m 1-2 there. As for the other 0-2 league (aka the “LDT is letting me down” league), my opponent needed nine points from Drew Brees. So now I’m 1-2 there as well. Hopefully I can report four more wins next week :D.

As for actual football, here are my Week 3 thoughts:

1) Another week, another dominating Patriots win. Now they’re 3*-0, and facing a horrible Bengals defense next week. Fortunately, I don’t face Brady or Moss in any of my fantasy leagues next week!

2) What’s more surprising: the Packers at 3-0, or San Diego, Chicago, and Cincy at 1-2? And was that Brett Favre, circa 1997?

3) Didn’t you used to be the Chicago Bears’ D? Crap, my strategy of taking the Bears Defense/Special Teams early looks really bad right about now. And boy did Dallas look good last week! Looks like they’re the favorite to finish second to the Pats, Colts, or Steelers in this year’s Super Bowl.

4) Can we go back to calling New Orleans the ‘Aints? Boy was that a horrible performance, especially at home, and the loss of Deuce McAllister has to be crushing.

By the way, people can stop calling Reggie Bush a bust. No one ever said he was going to be a between-the-tackles, power rusher. Also, this is only his 19th regular season game! Give the guy a break!

At least people can stop with the “Mario Williams has more TDs than Reggie Bush has” comments.

5) How in the world did Indy (-6) NOT cover against Houston???

Next time, more thoughts about sports, but I’m getting tired. So I’ll end today’s blog with this:

- For your bloggers out there, have you ever seen URL-less spam among your blog comments? This is a must-read article about this not-so-new phenomenon, and the two points mentioned in the article make total sense to me.

I used to allow some of these URL-less spam comments, until I noticed that all of these comments were vague; they did not point to a particular subject covered in the blog entry in which these comments appeared. That’s when I figured that these comments were suspicious, and I began blocking them. I mean, why else would a spammy commenter leave an otherwise harmless comment on one’s blog?

Clever, eh?

Happy blogging!