Entries Tagged as 'shaq'

Chase Teller Scams Elderly Woman of $300,000, And Lack of Sleep = Bad (Idiot Neighbors Don’t Help)

Quick-hitters:

- I was expecting the high temps to stick around for another couple of days, but it was a comfortable 85 degree day today.

Hopefully the reduced temperatures will mean more sleep for me (more on that later).

- So I’ve got this stick of SO-DIMM RAM (that’s laptop memory, for you non-computer geeks out there), and I am tempted to put the RAM on my keychain as evidence of my geek-dom.

I’ve been told by at least one individual that, if I do so, I should not be seen with said person in public until I remove the RAM from my keychain. Fine.

(What I’m really worried about, of course, are the pointy edges of the stick of RAM that might chew up my pockets. Yeah, that’s it…I’m not at all worried about getting called a dork.)

- I guess there is at least one person who doesn’t buy Shaq’s “It was all done in fun” argument: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who demanded back Shaq’s special deputy’s badge as a result of his rap about Kobe. I can’t say I blame the sheriff.

Shaq’s not going to miss that badge one bit, methinks. He’s not going to be depressed the same way Dwight Schrute was after resigning from his volunteer position (remember the episode where Michael demanded Dwight’s urine to pass a drug test?), right?

- Chase has treated me pretty well as a customer (their inability to retain my email address, as well as changing due dates notwithstanding).

However, after seeing the latest story regarding Chase over on The Consumerist, part of me has to wonder when they’re going to royally screw me over. Cliffs: a “friendly” teller had siphoned about $300,000 out of $400,000 from the bank account of an elderly woman, who currently needs the money to pay her nursing home bills.

Granted, the actions were that of a rogue employee, and not Chase themselves. However, if what the article says is true—”The bank discovered the theft in August 2007″—what is taking so long for the funds to be returned to her? Also, she had been siphoning funds for four years, and it took a tax preparer (and not the bank itself) to catch on to her scam?

In any case, the teller better get what’s coming to her.

- So as all my loyal readers—all none of you—know, I’ve been lacking sleep lately. The oppressive heat of the last few days are largely to blame, and it doesn’t help that my bedroom window doesn’t have a screen on it. I’d sleep in the living room, but our sliding glass door doesn’t have a screen either. I suppose I could sleep without…um…never mind.

While there is absolutely nothing I could do about the heat (turning on the A/C aside), I wish I could throw stuff at my idiot neighbors, who haven’t helped in my quest for a good night’s sleep.

1) At about 5:30AM on Sunday morning, I was in la-la land, probably dreaming about something I wish I had (Money? An expensive car? A girl? A girl in an expensive car with money in the trunk? Whatever.), when I heard a loud THUD from the second-floor of my condominium complex. Either one of my neighbors tipped over a dresser/bookshelf/desk/etc., or one of my neighbors is a tad overweight.

I don’t think an asteroid crashing into “the Valley” would have made a sound that loud. Needless to say, it took a while for me to get back to sleep.

2) Later that morning, around 7AM, I was awoken to a guy sitting on the stairs outside my condo. For the next hour or so, I had to listen to this idiot explain, in a thousand different ways, how women are evil.

He gave classic lines, like “She’s just jerking around with you!” as well as more contemporary lines, like “Bros before hoes!” I also heard “She’s not worth it,” “She’s a b!tch,” and the usual “You can do better!” I could’ve sworn I also heard a “I’m here for you.”

Kudos to his cell phone for lasting throughout the conversation, though! My two-year-old Sanyo Katana can’t go 24 hours on STANDBY without needing a recharge.

3) On both weekend mornings, I was forced up to one of my neighbor’s dog barking incessantly. What really irritates me about the dog—other than its existence—is the fact that the dog barks the same four-bark, descending-tone melody over and over and over again. My sister insists that the owner leaves the dog outside in the patio on weekdays, forcing the dog to deal with the high temps until, presumably, the owner returns…allowing the dog to stay outside in the patio and annoy the holy hell out of his neighbors some more.

People who walk their dogs at 3PM on a 100+ degree day need to be shot. So does this idiot, if what my sister alleges is true.

Until next…zzzzz…

More Annoying Commercials, And Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

I have a headache. Let’s make this one a quick one.

Quick-hitters:

- So I’m snacking on some of the yogurt snacks I ordered from Amazon.com earlier in the week, and I noticed that the front of the Harmony snack bags stated that their snacks were an “excellent source of calcium.”

I flipped the bag over, looked at the nutrition facts, and nearly gagged. Sure, each serving had 30% of the RDA of Calcium, but each serving also has 7g of saturated fat per serving (35%)!!!

I wonder if Amazon.com will give me a partial refund on the number of bags that I have yet to open :P

- Don’t look now, but my Dodgers have won five straight, and are finally over .500!

Now if only we could dump Andruw Jones on some team for a penny on the dollar, though I fear that that is still asking too much.

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1700. Current toothpaste-o-meter: still 25, but that will be closer to 35 by the end of the week :P.

- Here are some annoying commercials that have caught my eye lately:

1) That stupid KFC commercial with the guy and girl sitting on stairs, with one of them declaring that he took a buck from his friend’s sofa to buy himself a KFC Snacker. “Give me back my buck.” “Actually, I’m eating it.” LOL!!!!!!! (Not.)

(Tangent: That stupid Pizza Hut commercial with the Tuscani pasta taste test just aired again.)

2) The Wendy’s commercial advertising their new chicken wraps…could the girl not wait two minutes to get to her desk and eat her snack? How do you know a commercial REALLY annoys me? Every time I see the commercial, I cheer for her to trip on the phone cord she steps over.

(I have issues. I am aware of that.)

3) Any and all Domino’s commercials with that annoying guy who’s clearly on speed.

(I might have mentioned this before, but I am convinced that these commercials exist only to hold our television shows hostage; once these companies reach a quota of sales, they will stop releasing these super-annoying commercials. Either that, or they exist solely to get us fat Americans to get off the couch and run towards our cars, screaming “Make these commercials stop!” as we drive off to the Drive-Thru to pick up whatever is advertised. If anyone can come up with a better reason for why these stupid commercials exist, I’m all ears.)

Now, the latest Carl’s Jr commercial with the boyfriend crying because of the Jalapeno Chicken sandwich he’s eating…that’s pure genius!

- Two out of three ain’t bad, right? I was impressed with the Rockets staving off elimination, and I couldn’t believe how poorly Dallas played. I expected Avery Johnson to get canned, but not this quickly. I expect D’Antoni to resign early next week as well, despite reports to the contrary.

Re: Spurs-Suns…it’s awfully tough to win a game when your MVP point guard commits four backbreaking TOs late, and then Boris Diaw contributes with a terrible TO of his own. It’s even tougher when you do it against the defending champs. What a way for the D’Antoni era to end.

In defense of the Suns, though, I offer these two points:

1) They say that a single play, even at the end of a game, doesn’t determine the outcome. Therefore, I offer three questionable fourth quarter plays: the fifth foul on Shaq (Duncan might grazed Shaq’s leg, if there was any contact at all, before he tripped on himself), the fifth foul on Amare (it looked like Amare leaned backwards), and the deflection by Bowen off Nash (I didn’t see the ball go off Nash’s leg at all). If even one play goes in the Suns’ favor, who knows what the end result of Game 5 ends up being?

2) I’ll copy and paste what I said last time regarding Shaq and changing teams:

(As far as Shaq is concerned, note that his teams have never done well in Year One of his stay at each stop. I actually expect the Suns to be pretty damn good next year. Now if they could only avoid SA or LAL next year…)

Then again, he is going to be 36 next year, and Nash isn’t getting any younger. Add to that the fact that Suns will probably be playing in a new system next year, and you can’t 100% love their chances. Then again, their starting lineup is intact—Nash, Bell, Diaw, Amare, Shaq—and if they could get one wing defender and a scoring backup PG (I know, MUCH easier said than done), they’ll be just fine.

As far as Dallas is concerned, they are in huge trouble. A $100 million+ payroll for THAT performance? Well, at least Michael Finley is off their books next year. But seriously, the Jason Kidd experiment is not working, and if the Mavs could move Josh Howard for fifty cents on the dollar, they might want to do so. I don’t see how the Mavs fix things in one year; they might have to consider rebuilding.

Yeah, I realize that R word isn’t in Mark Cuban’s vernacular, but unless he can trade Jason Kidd for, say, Jermaine O’Neal, Dallas isn’t going to do a damn thing next year.

Quickly…

1) Who didn’t see Boston blowing out Atlanta tonight?

2) Who wasn’t shocked that the greatest player in the history of the NBA (LeBron) didn’t get the foul call at the end of the Wizards-Cavs game? I’m surprised David Stern didn’t protect his biggest investment from a trip back to Washington with a foul call there.

(Not that NBA games are fixed, or anything…)