Entries Tagged as 'greg maddux'

Random Thoughts (Including Stuff On The Olympics), And Shot-Online Thoughts (After About A Month of Time-Wasting…er…Playing)

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! :P

(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!

Time Warner (Oh, Oh), Greg Maddux Back to LA, and Why Must Lesser Athletes Piss off the Best in their Sport?

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

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

Wait a sec…

(me hides under my blanket)

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

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

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

(You know…the opposite of UP.)

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

(Right, “Alain”?)

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

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

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

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

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