Kobe Brings Down The Hammer...Then Reverses, and NorCal Trip Day 2: (Burnin' Bridges)

One day after I busted out of the IMBC, and now I feel like replying to a TotD.

Oh well, off to more pressing matters!

One quick hitter:

- After "typing" out a comment on my blog entry for (what was supposed to be) Tuesday on my cell phone, I was tempted to enter a full blog entry via my cell. Then I crunched some numbers. Assuming a blog entry is 400 words; at 5 characters/word (I believe that's how wpm is measured), I'll need to "type" about 2000 characters. Also, since I don't have a QWERTY keyboard on my cell phone, I'd have to hit certain keys multiple times to get the letters I want; never mind the capitals and punctuation. At that rate, I better hire the girl who won that texting competition, if I ever want to complete a blog entry via my cell.

So, Kobe Bryant finally demanded a trade from the Lakers, only to reverse position later in the day. When the story first broke out--I first heard about it on The Jim Rome Show this morning--I was fully in support of Kobe. If everything that has been alleged is true (a Lakers' "insider" saying that Kobe pushed Shaq out of town, which was followed by Kobe's adamant denial of the story and finger-pointing at Dr. Jerry Buss, exacerbated by Shaq agreeing that Dr. Buss was at fault, and topped off by the allegation that the Lakers planned on a slow rebuilding process of the team after the Shaq trade, without letting Kobe know of their plans), then Kobe has every right in the world to want out of Los Angeles.

That being said, it's pretty clear that Kobe is badly overreacting, and judging by how quickly he backed off his trade demands, I don't believe he was ever seriously considering leaving the Lakers. Clearly he was frustrated; wouldn't you be if it appeared that your team pissed on the previous three seasons of your career?

Rome brought up an interesting point today: given how badly the Kobe-Lakers relationship has deteriorated, can you bring the guy back and act as if nothing happened? What if you make a bunch of deals, and he's still not satisfied? What if he asks for a trade again, a couple of weeks from now? What if he changes his mind again tomorrow? Clearly, the entire situation is a huge mess (and Shaq's siding with Kobe definitely cannot help), and it should be interesting to see if the situation resolves itself in the upcoming weeks.

I'll definitely have more on this in the coming days.

- Day 2 of the NorCal trip was highlighted by visits to the SF/Oakland Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a huge detour to Santa Rosa, CA, site of the Charles M. Schultz Museum and Research Center. The coolest part of the museum was a gigantic mural of Peanuts comic strips that, when seen from afar, show the image of Charlie Brown trying to kick a football being held by Lucy. Of course, anyone who knows anything about Peanuts knows what happens when the kick is attempted...

We made it to Elk Grove--where my nephew lives--at around 6:30pm, and we ate dinner there. Fast forward to right now, and I'm on my laptop, about ready to sleep at another hotel. At least this one has free Wi-Fi internet!

Next time: Day 3 of the NorCal trip!

(BTW, to answer the IMBC TotD, it would have to be New York Strip steaks, IF I am permitted to age them, and cook them with butter, kosher salt, and fresh cracked pepper.)

My IMBC Fate Sealed On a Technicality, How to Spot a Tourist, and NorCal Trip, Day 1 (Burn, Baby, Burn!)

D’oh! What a way to bust out of the IMBC! Darn Blogger and their timestamps!

Oh well, I’m rooting for fellow newcomer Amy to win!

- How do you spot a tourist? Well, if you’re a NorCal’er, and you see the following:

1. A woman wearing a pair of LA Dodger sandals
2. An older woman constantly whining that “It’s colder here than in LA”
3. Said women holding maps, hotel guides, etc.
4. Said women declaring “yeah, we came up from Los Angeles today, and it was a LONG drive!”
5. A guy, walking slowly behind them, shaking his head

then you could be fairly certain that they are tourists, and the guy behind them is about ready to kill himself. All we needed were the visors, huge sunglasses (oh wait, my mom did wear those), disposable cameras, and stupid grins, and we would have been 100% tourists.

(Tangent: My sister just realized that she also brought her LA Dodger T-shirt. If I make it out of here alive, that would be a minor miracle.)

- So Day 1 of my NorCal trip ended with a whimper, and a ton of snoring, mostly from my mom, who proceeded to wake us all up at 7am (hotel check out time: 12pm). The trip got off to a horrible start, as Hertz screwed up our car rental. We wanted a “premium”-sized car (~a Toyota Camry), and were only offered a “standard” (~a Corolla). Angrily, my sister stormed out of Hertz, and went to Enterprise instead, where we got a Toyota Avalon for about the same price as the Corolla would have cost us at Hertz!

So we—my mom, my sister, my nephew, and I—loaded up the car and took off from Monterey Park at 1pm, already running an hour late. I tried to find the cigarette lighter jack in the car, and found that there were two: one in the center console, between the front seats, and one in the “rear” console (which should really be named the center console). Also, the jack in the center console was angled, making the DLO Transpod we brought—if you’ve ever driven up from SoCal to NorCal, or reverse, you know there are huge stretches of nothingness, and scattered radio reception throughout—tough to plug in. I removed the power adapter from the Transpod, and tried to attach that to the center console jack. It went in, but I could not find a way to hook up the Transpod itself, so I yanked the power adapter from the cigarette jack. At least, I tried to; most of the adapter came out, but the metal tip and some surrounding plastic remained in the jack.

Frantic, I stuck my finger into the jack to try to remove the broken-off pieces—smart, I know!—and quickly felt a white-hot burning sensation. I removed my finger, to see a bit of skin burnt right off! I eventually was able to remove the pieces, and found the tip intact, with a bunch of plastic melted off. Worse, neither cigarette lighter jack worked (I tried plugging in both my and my sister’s cell phone charger in both jacks, and neither turned on). I hope I didn’t ruin the jacks…

We pulled off the 5 Freeway around Santa Clarita to go find a cassette adapter for the iPod.

(Tangent: Yes, it was imperative that my sister and I had something to listen to for the trip. Either that, or we would have to listen to our mother…)

We found a Kmart, hopped in, and then I remembered that my sister brought her iPod FM transmitter as well. I also remembered that it could be powered by either the cigarette adapter OR by AAA batteries! We ran into Kmart, grabbed some AAA batteries—fortunately, they were on sale—and were on our way. At this point, it was already 2:30, and we hadn’t made it out of the Valley yet.

Not much happened during the remainder of the trip; my mom fed my nephew some doubly disgusting cereal (doubly disgusting because it was horribly sweet stuff, so much so that the kid didn’t go to sleep until almost midnight, and also because it smelled nasty), we had dinner at Denny’s, and we ended up in (believe it or not) Berkeley, to spend the night at the Golden Bear Inn.

(Tangent: I knew a bunch of people from high school that came up here for school, and yet this is the first time I’ve ever been up here.)

Tomorrow: Day 2 of the NorCal trip…and I gotta make another post about the whole Kobe/LA Lakers situation.

Kobe Bryant Trade Drama

(Note: the timestamp of this post has been changed to reflect the fact that it was supposed to be posted on Tuesday; I had completed the post at around 1am on Tuesday, but as mentioned in the comments to this blog entry, Blogger reports the time the post was started, not the time the post was completed.)

- The big news here in the Los Angeles sports scene, of course, is the news that Kobe Bryant wants Jerry West back in some capacity for the Lakers. Obviously frustrated by three years without making it past the first round of the playoffs, and fueled by the lack of help he's been getting--unless you consider Chucky Atkins and Smush Parker "help"--Kobe clearly is going to drastic measures to get himself some help. The ESPN article also says that Kobe will seek a trade if he doesn't get the help he wants; I don't see a direct quote suggesting that, though.

Now, I was one that bashed Kobe back in 2004, when he "chased" Shaq and Phil out of town. I called the Lakers "the LA Kobes." I was screaming that Kobe was the GM, and not Kupchak, and that Kobe was ruining the team I cheered for.

(As an aside, I also hate it when NBAers whine about wanting to be traded, as if they are the ones in charge, not the GM. They demand the big bucks, then quit on the team, forcing the team to trade the star for fifty cents on the dollar. The star then gets exactly what he wishes, while leaving his old team in a heap.)

All that being said, I'm on Kobe's side. Call me whatever you want, but the Lakers' front office has had three full years to get the guy help, and all they were able to do is sign superb athletes like Aaron McKie, Vlade Divac, Vladimir Radmonovic, and then compound the pretty awful trade for Shaq by trading Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins for Kwame Brown. Then, they had a chance at Jason Kidd, but decided to keep superstar-in-waiting (maybe) Andrew Bynum, ignoring the fact that you no longer need a true center to win in this league.

When Allen Iverson whined his way out of Philly, he did so while insisting that it was best for everyone to go their separate ways. I hope Kobe doesn't offer the same BS; I want him to demand a trade, pointing fingers at Kupchak on the way out the door!

People who say that Kobe chased Shaq out of town--myself included--need to stop. If Dr. Jerry Buss had given Shaq the huge extension he wanted (I believe it was somewhere in the vicinity of $25-30 million/season), the Lakers would probably be in worse shape than they are now. Never mind the fact that his contract would have become absolutely unmovable (as opposed to tradeable for fifty cents on the dollar, which is exactly what the Lakers did get); does this look like a player worth a max contract today? Worse, if the Lakers had extended Shaq, would they have re-signed Kobe? Probably not; we would probably have had to overpay a second-tier free agent, not anyone even close to #24.

(Yeah, I know...the Lakers replaced Shaq with Odom, Brown, and Vlad, if you do a strict comparison via salaries. Am I suggesting that Shaq is less valuable than Odom, Brown, and Vlad? Maybe.)

(EDITED due to some strange errors)

So what do I think will happen? I think the Lakers will be mediocre next year, playing for a lower playoff seed. If they make the playoffs, they'll be another first round exit. They'll then re-tool in the following offseason, and maybe Kobe will finally be surrounded by players he can trust.

Or, maybe Kobe will never sniff another championship again, until he leaves the team to ride the coattails of an up-and-comer, kinda like a former Laker did...

Hope this all makes sense. Until next time!

Shoe Leather Goodness (aka A Well Done BBQ), Barry Bonds Won't Share, How to Blow an Interview

- So, for the third straight day, I had BBQed food. Visiting my dad--we came to Monterey Park so that my mom and sister could pack for our trip to NorCal--he decided to cook roast beef. He bought a huge beef roast into his trusty Ronco Rotisserie, similar to this one. Unfortunately, he badly undercooked it (he threw in a 6lb. roast for about an hour, when beef roasts generally take 18min/lb. to cook), so he decided to slice it up and finish the roast on a small, portable grill.

Unfortunately, he proceeded to cook the hell out of most of the remaining slices--nobody in my family, save for my sister, likes their beef with even a hint of pink--and he enjoyed his delicious shoe leather for dinner, along with the rest of the family. I salvaged a couple of slices, grilled it for a few seconds, and enjoyed my medium-rare roast beef, with some salad, bread, and this delicious feta cheese spread.

- Barry Bonds may not share mementos of his historic home run chase with the MLB Hall of Fame. Oh noes! It's not as if Bonds already has few people actually cheering for him; is he on a mission to be booed by the entire MLB, outside of San Francisco? " "I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me," " whined Bonds. This is exhibit A as to why Bonds is hated; it's not a race thing for me, it's a jerk thing.

Then again, maybe Bonds doesn't really owe the Hall of Fame anything, not with the witch hunt the MLB has employed in order to bust people for using performance enhancers. Yes, we have no concrete evidence that Bonds cheated--his growing melon and the fact that he got much better as he got older aren't concrete enough, apparently--but I wonder how many people out there really believe that he did not cheat.

Anyway, Barry, you're in desperate need for some positive PR. Do the right thing, and at least offer that gigantic piece of armor you wear on your arm to the HOF, when you finally hit the record-breaker. Just don't expect many people outside of San Francisco to cheer.

- Finally, here's a list of ten ways to blow a job interview. Browsing quickly over the list, is there anything there that is surprising? Don't be rude to the receptionist? Don't use inappropriate language? Don't be late to the interview? Did this article really need to be drafted?!?

Maybe someone should write an article entitled "How to make a sandwich" and put in such important rules as "Put your meat, veggies, and condiments between the bread" and "Never cut your sandwich horizontally."

Later tonight, I will blog about this entire Kobe Bryant/LA Lakers situation. That will serve as Tuesday's blog entry. As for the rest of the week, we'll see if I have a chance to blog, or if it's bye-bye for me and the IMBC.

Leftover BBQ Goodness, Russell Martin = MVP, Sleuth Hired to Find Missing Dog

One thing I love about barbecues is the leftover food. Leftover BBQ is nearly as good the day after, as it is fresh off the grill. We had some leftover chicken, spare ribs, and some extra steak that was abused from a couple days ago.

Today's getaway day; I leave for my parents' place in Monterey Park for a couple of days, and then it's off to NorCal. I just hope I don't get any sicker!

- Call it West Coast bias, or call it LA Dodger bias, but Russell Martin is my early favorite for National League MVP.

(Whoa! What a catch!)

.315 batting average, 33 RBI, 31 Runs, clutch hitting, and don't forget the fact that he's a second year player manning one of the best pitching staffs in baseball! Of course, because he's playing in Los Angeles, he'll get zero consideration for MVP. Congrats, Carlos Beltran.

(Ok, I'm not serious about giving Martin the MVP. Sure, he's playing out of his head, but even I wouldn't really give him the MVP...at least, not unless he starts hitting for power.)

- A rare, valuable dog has gone missing, and now his owners have hired a detective to locate the missing pooch, as well as a publicist, presumably to get the word out about the doggy. The owners have also put up a $2,500 reward for information about the whereabouts of the pooch. The dog was lost on a routine walk, and the owners believed the dog was either stolen or killed by coyotes.

(By the way, I find it hilarious that the dog has his own agent, and now his own publicist. I'm guessing he also has his own masseuse, and a weekly appointment at a doggy spa.)

One question, though: if the dog is so special, why such a small reward?!? $2,500? Come on, that dog should have a reward worth at least $10,000, right? By the way, I think it's time for me to go down a new career path; I bet there's lots of money to be had in the doggy detective field. If doggy spas, doggy water, and doggy hotels, people are gonna pay for doggy detectives, right?

Actually, this gives me a great television idea! CSI: Pooch!

That's all I've got for today.

A Memorial Day BBQ Delight, and My IMBC Future More Defined

- So we had our Memorial Day BBQ a couple days early, and I am stuffed from all the food. I'm also a bit tipsy from the red wine *hic*.

New York Strip steaks, coated with a bit of oil, with black pepper and kosher salt; italian squash, seasoned the same way; pork spare ribs and chicken wings, marinated in soy sauce and garlic; roasted corn; and potato salad! Ugh...and after that, we went out to get some ice cream!

- Speaking of my New York Strip, I bought myself four thick, juicy New York Strip steaks from my local supermarket on Wednesday, and was planning on freezing them overnight--yeah, I know, that's a sin in itself. On Thursday, I pulled the steaks out of the freezer, to find one steak intact, in a zip lock bag!

I asked my mom (who's up here, visiting for the week) about the steaks, and she said that she had "prepared" them for me. By prepared, I found out that three of the steaks were cut up, fileted (sp?), and frozen. Some of them were even already marinated! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

(Fortunately, I had a couple extra steaks, but they were in the freezer for a while. They still came out OK, though.)

Also, I had purchased a rack of pork spare ribs, which I planned on slow-cooking (a la baby back ribs). I had also found those cut up and marinated.

- My mom, stubborn as she is, kept insisting that the best way to cook with a charcoal grill is to cook with the lid off.

For the record, I have this Weber grill; I'm pretty sure the lid is included for a reason :P.

After scorching the first batch of food that she was in charge of--I was responsible for the steaks, and boy, did my piece turn out excellent--and subsequently blaming me for putting too much charcoal in the BBQ, I insisted that she needed to cook the food with the lid on. She claimed that I was insulting her intelligence, and proceeded to scorch another batch of food, shouting once again, "you put too much charcoal in the grill!"

A few minutes later, after cooking the third batch of food--I told you we had a lot of food, didn't I?--she walked back into the house with a slight grin on her face. She told me, "if you put the lid on the grill, it cooks better!"

(me bangs head on wall)

Yes, being the childish person that I am, I enjoyed my moral victory over my mother for the remainder of the day. And yes, that third batch of food was quite tasty.

- A little non-BBQ related item: it appears that I will be going out on a trip up to NorCal starting Tuesday. Whether or not I'll be able to blog every day during my trip remains to be seen. If I can't do it, I've enjoyed my run!

Food coma's kicking in...zzzzz...

Another Buy.com Update, G4TV Hotness, How to Tick People Off, Cell Phone Cameras = Weight Loss?, and Really Thin TVs

- So Buy.com continues to impress me. They emailed me back today, saying that the $18 credit was a "courtesy" to me, and they would continue to process my RMA once the item was received. A little problem with that, though; they received my item on the 21st. A few hours later, I got another email from Buy.com, saying that they received my return, and will process the RMA within 5-7 business days.

I have since started a dispute with PayPal (how foolish of me, I know, to pay via PayPal instead of a credit card!), and will escalate it to a claim, assuming I don't see the rest of my money back in my account by next week.

- Damn, talk about doing Princess Leia's bikini costume justice!. Too bad I don't get the G4 Network, and no, I'm not paying $15 a month for access to that channel.

BTW, check out picture #5. LOL @ the Storm Trooper!

- (stolen from somewhere) Here's a nice, compact list of ways to tick people off. I have personally done #2 to friends a number of times, as well as #8 over the phone. I've also done #14, and #24, and I used to do #32 while working in a lab, except I said it was for "research."

- Japanese patients at risk for diabetes, obesity, and those with heart problems are using their cell phone cameras to photograph their meals, sending them to health experts for analysis and recommendations. Talk about a novel way to use existing technology! Quoted from the article:

Osaka is using a system developed by Asahi Kasei Corp., a Tokyo-based chemical and medical equipment manufacturer. The system is operating at about 150 health care providers and local governments around the country, company official Naoki Yoshimura said.

Nutritionists can work with photos from one day's meals to several weeks' worth, he said. Results come back in three days. Participants also can log onto a Web site to get further dietary information and upload photos from digital cameras.

I gotta ask one question, though: do these guys really need a physician to tell them that a slice of banana-cream pie is unhealthy? Is it really necessary to send a doctor a picture of that fourth slice of pepperoni pizza, so that he could tell you what you already know? And whatever happened to the taste test for healthiness of foods: if it tastes good, it's probably bad for you, and vice versa?

(Tangent: Yeah, I know, there are a number of healthy, good tasting foods.)

Actually, maybe the Japanese have something here. They should work on making all doctor visits done via telecommunication. I'm sure lots of people out there can't stand the annual visit with "Dr. Jellyfingers."

(That last sentence made me curl up in the fetal position, by the way).

- Sony is in development of a new television screen that is so thin that it's flexible. Sony has yet to decide what to do with the technology: ""In the future, it could get wrapped around a lamppost or a person's wrist, even worn as clothing," said Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa. "Perhaps it can be put up like wallpaper.""

I wonder if people would pay for a TV screen on one's sleeve. If people pay for TV-quality video on cell phones and iPods, why wouldn't people pay for displays on clothing? Of course, I wouldn't want a coaxial cable running down my clothes, hooked up to the display on my shirt sleeve :P. Actually, the idea of using this stuff kinda like wallpaper would be a great idea; projector-sized displays without the need of a standalone projector, with television-like quality. If they could implement touch-screen technology with this super-thin display, now THAT would be incredible!

(I know...me, pimping that evil company, Sony? I must be crazy!)

That's all I've got for today. Happy blogging!

Going Down Memory Lane: Weekday Afternoon Cartoons and Trading Cards (Upper Deck Buying Out Topps?)

Today's blog will take me on a trip down Memory Lane. Pardon me if I get a bit emotional *sniff*.

- (from Krunk) Here's CRACKED.com's list of 15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs. My thoughts on this list:

• Haha, I completely forgot that Steven Spielberg is the genius behind Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. I may be in the minority here, but I actually liked Tiny Toon Adventures more than Animaniacs.
  
• Speaking of Tiny Toon Adventures, why is that at the beginning of the list?
• The second and third comments are spot on! How are Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck not on this list? And what about Conan the Adventurer?
  

I remember, back in elementary school, coming home every day to catch The Disney Afternoon; more specifically, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck, as well as Tiny Toon Adventures and, eventually, Animanics on FOX. I recall never starting on my homework until 5pm.

(Yeah, as a kid, I watched too much TV. Don't get me started on how much TV I watch now.)

And yes, I'll admit it; when the show first came out, I watched Power Rangers. What can I say? Lots of my friends watched the show too!

(Wow, I never noticed how ridiculously cheesy the intro to that show was! Actually, what's really sad is that I remember a show similar to Power Rangers, called VR Troopers. Now that was a cheesy intro!)

In my defense, the only reason why I watched Power Rangers was because of the Pink Ranger. Didn't every adolescent male around that time watch the show for the same reason? Didn't they???

- Trading card company Upper Deck is trying to buy out the last major trading card company out there, Topps. This is terrible news for an already dying market; dying because trading cards have gotten so unaffordable, only adults could afford packs these days. Back in the early 90s, I would often visit this card shop with my cousins--I forget the name--and usually spent $10-20 per visit there. I remember getting a whole assortment of stuff; some cheaper $1 packs, and a couple of the "premium" packs that went for $3-5 each. I remember opening each premium pack as if it was a Christmas present, being careful not to harm the foil packaging.

(Of course, I had to open the packs carefully, for fear of damaging the fancy cards that were stuffed inside.)

I remember back in 1993, buying a pack of Fleer Ultra Basketball for $3--Shaq's rookie year--and pulling out an insert card of Shaq. That card was worth $75 at the time, and it's still one of the top five insert cards I've ever pulled out of a deck of cards. I still have the card today, even though it's probably not worth $5, just because of the sentiment behind it. In 1998, when my interest in trading cards was waning, I pulled a Ken Griffey Jr. card numbered to 100 (there were only 100 copies of that card in existence). That card, valued at $100-150 at the time, was probably the coolest card I've ever pulled out of a pack, and it was nothing more than a regular card with the letters in gold-colored foil, with a stamped number on the back (also in gold).

I stopped collecting as a hobby years ago, when the prices of premium packs got ridiculous; premium packs now range anywhere from $25-100 each. Back in the day, a rare card was a limited-print, glossy looking card. Today, only cards have a piece of memorabilia or an autograph on it--swatches of jersey, pieces of ball, shoelaces, nets, sticks, etc.--have any value in the market. What made getting rare cards back in the day so much fun were the improbable odds of getting one; the odds of getting one card similar to the Shaq card I pulled in 1993 was 1:72 (if there were 10 cards in that set, that would make the odds of me pulling Shaq's card itself 1:720). Nowadays, with these expensive packs, the odds of pulling inserts are sometimes 1:1. What fun is that to guarantee yourself a card with a piece of memorabilia on it in every pack?

(Tangent: Between 1999 and 2001, I realized that trading cards was an affordable investment, rather than just a fun hobby. Between Yahoo! Auctions and eBay, I made about $2,000 during my senior year in high school (1999-2000) buying and reselling trading cards. While I don't regret making that kind of money, I do have to point to that time period as the time when I stopped looking at trading cards as a hobby.)

I'll still buy a pack every now and then, but I won't touch those ridiculously expensive packs with a ten-foot pole. I hope, if Upper Deck does acquire Topps, they use the Topps brand to reintroduce affordable, marketable packs for the collector (in the form of $1-2 packs), while keeping the Upper Deck brand for the investor (the more expensive stuff). Bring back the days of holograms, parallel sets, and fancy (non-memorabilia) inserts for the casual collector!

I have the urge to swing by Target and pick up a box of cards, just for fun.

NBA Draft Lottery Thoughts: Big Winners, Celtics Got Screwed (?), and Possible Lottery Tweaks

One quick rant: Buy.com finally issued me a refund on my order! I'm still not through with them, though; instead of crediting me $29.98, they came up with the idea of refunding me $18 instead!

I gotta contact their "support" yet again tomorrow.

- Anyway, the NBA Draft Lottery happened yesterday, and three prevailing themes arose from the proceedings in Secaucus, NJ:

1. Portland, Seattle, and Atlanta (even though the Hawks missed out on the top two picks) are the big winners.
2. The Celtics got screwed! If you don't believe me, go ask a Boston Celtics fan.
3. The lottery system needs a fix. If you don't believe me, go ask a Boston Celtics fan. However, perhaps the system can be tweaked slightly.

Portland gets to add Greg Oden to a lineup including this past year's ROY (Brandon Roy, who was fleeced from Minnesota last year), skilled big man LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, and Jarrett Jack. Even in the loaded Western Conference, I wouldn't be surprised to see this team contend for a title in the next few years. Yes, Greg Oden can be that good in the pros, assuming he develops a consistent offense.

As for Seattle, not a bad consolation prize in Kevin Durant, eh? First of all, Durant allows the Sonics to let F Rashard Lewis go. Also, Durant may be the big name that will keep the Sonics from leaving Seattle. Atlanta wins as well, even though they will miss out on Oden and Durant. By landing the third pick, they get to keep the pick (had the pick dropped outside the top three, it would have gone to Phoenix). Also, they get Indiana's pick, giving the Hawks two top-15 picks. Hopefully Atlanta doesn't blow these picks, the same way they have blown their high picks in recent years.

By the way, Celtics fans, YOU DID NOT GET SCREWED BY THE NBA JUST BECAUSE YOU DID NOT GET A TOP TWO PICK! A lottery is just that; a lottery. There is an element of luck involved! Just because a coin is supposed to land on heads as often as it is supposed to land on tails doesn't mean you can always expect one of each result with two coin flips. And no, just because you guys got "screwed" by the NBA lottery doesn't mean the lottery needs to be fixed next season. More on fixing the lottery later...

If anything, the fact that the Celtics tried to intentionally lose games this year, only to miss out on a top-2 pick, is simply a case of bad karma (please don't deny the tanking your team did, Celtics fan). All is not lost, though, Celtic fan; just because Oden and Durant are clearly the two best prospects in this year's draft, they're still nothing more than prospects. Who says Oden and Durant will pan out? Besides, you still have the #5 pick; you are still likely to get a nice player (Horford, Brandan Wright, Jianlian, etc.).

Don't worry, Celtic fan: Bill Simmons feels for you.

(As an aside, thanks Bill for realizing that the announcement of Milwaukee picking #6 sealed your Celtics' fate at #5, unlike some people who wrote that the Celtics' nightmare was made official when the Celtics were announced at #5).

Personally, I think the NBA Draft Lottery doesn't need to be changed; people whining that it's unfair and stupid don't offer enough compelling reasons for me to change my stance. One idea that's floating around is to give the worst team in the league the #1 pick, the second worst #2, and so on. That's nice and all, but how does that prevent tanking? In fact, I see no feasible solution that will prevent tanking.

That being said, I think the lottery could be tweaked a bit. Right now, the lottery is weighted in favor of the worst teams; I think the NBA should weigh it even more in favor of those bad teams. Yeah, this won't prevent teams from tanking, but it'll give the worst of the worst a better chance at getting the help they need.

Another suggestion I was kicking around is to have two different lotteries for all non-playoff teams. The first lottery could be held for, say, the first five picks, and the odds of winning could be heavily weighted in favor of the teams with the worst records. A second lottery could then be held to determine who picks 6-14, again heavily favoring the worst teams. This will add a bit more excitement to the lottery, as well as offer the best of the worst teams (the teams that didn't tank) a chance to get a better draft pick. As it stands now, the best of the lottery teams has only a 0.5% chance of winning the lottery; with my suggestion, the best team has a decent shot at any pick from 6-14.

I'm feeling a lot worse than I have felt in the past couple of days, so I'm going to go to bed early tonight.

Happy blogging!

Heroes Season Finale, and Why Being "The Computer Guy" Sucks

- After seeing the season finale of Heroes a second time, I can safely say that the finale was a pretty big letdown. It didn't help that I was thinking the episode was two hours long (and it turns out, I wasn't the only one that thought so).

(Warning: Spoilers to follow.)

To see the big confrontation between Peter and Sylar consist of nothing more than a couple punches was downright disappointing. Couldn't they have had one long, extended, fight? And, assuming Sylar was able to crawl down the manhole, how the heck did he survive the stab by Hiro?

"Save the cheerleader, save the world" happened alright, but not necessarily the way I expected it to. I (and probably many others) believed that Claire's survival ensured that Sylar could not become immortal, but one can argue that it was Claire that finally convinced Nathan that what he was doing--allowing NYC to get destroyed for his own benefit--was wrong.

Speaking of the Petrelli family, something tells me neither Peter nor Nathan is dead. I'm thinking that Peter did not actually explode; he just radiated an immense amount of energy. I'm also thinking that Nathan had escaped before Peter went off. It would surprise me if they were both dead after this episode. By the way, I wonder if Nathan and Peter's mom is under the influence of a darker individual. I wouldn't be as surprised, though, if either Officer Parkman or D.L. were dead at the end of the finale.

I wonder who this guy that's "worse than the Boogeyman" is. Maybe it's the Haitian! Most likely, though, he will be a new character.

All in all, the finale seemed rushed, and somewhat disappointing. I think they spent entirely too much time on the Petrelli family back story that it just didn't leave enough for the resolution. If anything, the producers should have split this last episode into two. The first one could have ended with Claire's jumping out of the window, and the second could have built up towards the final battle. If only the producers were given a full two-hours for the finale!

Don't get me wrong; I love the show as a whole, and I'm definitely going to watch next season's episodes. The season, as a whole, was quite excellent, and it really picked up speed in the later episodes, especially starting with "Five Years Gone." The finale, though, left quite a bit to be desired.

- One non-Heroes topic: check out this list of the 10 Reasons It Doesn't Pay To Be "The Computer Guy." One major reason seems to be left out: the fact that, if you fix someone's computer, and something goes wrong later (even if it's completely unrelated to whatever you fixed before), you conveniently become the scapegoat. Reasons #3 and #4 sorta touch upon this, but I feel that this should have its own entry on the list.

Reason #8 is another favorite of mine; I hate having to give product recommendations! And I'm not talking about comparisons that actually require me to do research--the Intel Core 2 Duo E4320 v the E6600, e.g. I'm talking about those horrible apples and oranges comparisons, like "Should I get the 4GB iPod Nano or a Creative blah blah 60GB player?"

Also, I LOLed at reasons #5 and #7.

Korea Reacts to Starcraft 2, Buy.com Still Sucks, and The RIAA Needs Money

I slept for about a good five minutes last night, after coughing non-stop. I'm high on cough syrup right now; I hope I don't fall asleep as I type up this blog entry.

Ooooooh...the season finale of Heroes just started! I better not doze off!

(Actually, I don't even know why I'm bothering with this blog entry right now; I know I'm not going to finish it during the show.)

- Korea's reaction to the Starcraft 2 release is a bit over the top, don't you think? I can't make up my mind as to which panel is the funniest. 3v3-BGH? Record sales of pants? North and South Korea reforming into a giant hard on? LMAO!

(Fifty minutes into the Heroes finale, and I barely got this far! :P)

- My RMA with Buy.com is going smoothly (of course, by smoothly, I mean I'm getting a headache). Apparently USPS attempted to deliver my package to Buy.com on Saturday, but no one was available to accept delivery. A pickup notice was left, however, at Buy.com's "doorstep."

I fired off an email to Buy.com support, letting them know that there was an attempted delivery of my RMA request. I also gave them the tracking number, in case they wanted proof of what I said. Their response? Something to the effect of "Sir, as of yet we have not yet received your shipment."

No freaking duh! I only said the package hadn't yet been delivered!

The folks at Time Warner think that Buy.com has horrible customer service.

(Hmmm...I could've sworn that the Heroes finale tonight was supposed to be two hours long!)

- (from Consumerist) The crazies that make up the RIAA want radio stations to pay royalties, because it's not good enough for the RIAA to get free promotion for their music labels. Says Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village, sponsored by the RIAA):

Given the many different ways to promote music now that didn't exist as effectively when this original exemption was made," he said, "the logic of that I think is more dubious.

I can't say I disagree with the guy; it's not hard to fathom that online advertising can be more effective than TV or radio advertising (users of Firefox's Adblock might argue otherwise). That being said, I wonder what would happen if these royalties have to be paid, and radio stations were forced to close up shop because they couldn't afford the royalties. How bad would the RIAA look if they were involved in destroying their major source of advertising?

Go RIAA! Bury yourselves!

That's all I've got for tonight. I'm coughing like crazy!

Online Word Count, My IMBC Future, The Dodgers Got Pwned, Turning $10 Into A Million, and Baby in A Microwave,

I get sick frequently, and usually, the symptoms last for a day or two. Whatever pathogens are taking residence inside me this time, however, refuse to go away! I'm so drugged up right now that I'm not sure what I'm typing...hopefully, I am able to get through this blog entry, to remain alive in the IMBC.

Damn immune system of mine! I think it's time for my body to start unleashing the immunological equivalent of nuclear missiles.

- Speaking of the IMBC, my survival in the contest may only last for another week, as I may be taking a trip up North to visit some relatives. If that's the case, I'm going to need to pray for a hotel with free WiFi, or find an open WiFi connection somewhere. Hey, if Hank can do it, so can I, right?

(Of course, Hank has the luxury of wardriving in familiar territory; I've got to do it without a "home field advantage." Either that, or I gotta figure out how to use my Sanyo Katana as a dial-up modem.)

- As an aside, I usually check the number of words for every blog entry I complete using MS Word. I've since been informed, by Krunk, that online word count tools like this one exist. I should have known such a tool existed; heck, there are even online coin flippers!

- The Dodgers finished a series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim near Disneyland, and the Boys in Blue got swept. Ouch. Does that mean I have to issue a self-moratorium on insults about the Angels of Anaheim in Orange County?

- A gas station attendant found a $10 bill in her store, and used it to buy a lottery ticket. She ended up winning a $1 million prize:

Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.

"I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said.

This time, her advice was no joke.

I wonder what the guy who passed up the winning ticket is thinking right now.

Ms. Schneider took the 20 annual payments at $50,000 a year, claiming that she would have been "broke again within five years" had she taken the lump sum. While I understand the reason, I gotta say, taking the annuity is a horrible decision. Take the lump sum, hire a financial advisor, and make the money work for you! Life insurance, retirement accounts, even mutual funds; any half-decent investment vehicle will serve you better than taking an annuity!

(And no, the fact that my sister is a financial advisor has zero bearing on my opinion above.)

By the way, I've heard of lucky pennies, and even lucky $1 bills; I've never heard of a lucky Hamilton. I did find a $5 bill at a gas station once, and I used it to buy 5 Lottery tickets. All I won is a single free ticket :P.

- Days after a 19-year-old man was indicted on charges of injuring a child by putting his baby in a microwave, the baby's mother blamed the devil and not her husband. Quoted from the article:

Eva Marie Mauldin said Satan compelled her 19-year-old husband, Joshua Royce Mauldin, to microwave their daughter May 10 because the devil disapproved of Joshua's efforts to become a preacher.

"Satan saw my husband as a threat," Eva Mauldin told Houston television station KHOU-TV.

As strange as the above passage sounds, it pales in comparison to this gem: "Police said Joshua Mauldin told them he put Ana Marie in the microwave because he was under stress. Eva Maudlin denied it."

I was planning on commenting on this article, but instead, I'm going to pass. After all, I do not have a kid, and I am not a religious man, so I can't possibly understand what was going through the mind of the husband as he microwaved his kid, and the mind of the wife for defending her husband. I'll leave this topic with a single comment, though: in no way should the couple be allowed anywhere near their kid again.

Finally, I leave you guys with this video. The ending is hilarious!

A Blogger Technicality, Starcraft 2, More Brett Favre?, MORE Roger Clemens???

No thanks to my two-year-old nephew, everyone in this house is horribly sick, including myself. I've slept all day--tons of medication will do that to you--and I just woke up a few minutes ago.

I shall be making this post while munching on my dinner of Ritz crackers, slices of American cheese, and sliced turkey breast.

- So apparently Blogger timestamps each new entry based on the time the entry was drafted, not the time the entry was actually published. Case in point: the blog entry that I created on Thursday, which did not go live until Friday (because of the review of The Office) was initially timestamped Thursday ~8PM. Had I not woken up a few minutes ago to check my blog, I would never have noticed it, and would have been eliminated from the IMBC.

To remedy this, I changed the timestamp on the blog entry in question to Friday. You can check the RSS feed to verify that the entry for Friday was indeed posted AFTER the entry about The Office.

Nevertheless, Hank, if you're reading this, I'd like you to administer a ruling on whether or not what I did was kosher. If it's not, then I guess my run in the IMBC is over at 57 blog entries (and, personally, that would be 30 entries or so more than I would have anticipated).

- In the worst kept secret of the week, Blizzard has announced production of Starcraft 2: The Fight for More Money.

(Tangent: Yeah, I watched Spaceballs a few days ago, for the 25,000th time.)

In other news, nerds everywhere are already lining up in front of EBGames, Gamestop, etc., waiting for the release of the game. I'm surprised these stores aren't already taking preorders.

One interesting passage from the article above: "As for initial StarCraft 2 impressions - the game looked very similar to SC1 - nearly identical user interface - graphic styles and unit proportions nearly the same - more flashy lighting effects but it seems like Blizzard didn't want to mess with SC's underlying formula very much." On the one hand, why change what worked for one of the biggest and best RTS (Real Time Strategy) games of all time? On the other hand, StarCraft was released in 1997; I would have expected some sort of major graphical changes between the original and the sequel (kinda like the difference between Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3).

I just hope Starcraft 2 turns out a heck of a lot better than Command and Conquer 3. C&C3 was pretty abysmal, IMO; I just recently played the original C&C, and thought the storyline AND gameplay in the original were a heck of a lot better than C&C3. I only played the GDI campaign in C&C3, and have no real motivation to play the NOD campaign. C&C3 was better than the second iteration of the series, though, but that's because Tiberian Sun was complete and utter crap.

- Yeah, Brett Favre is yapping again. And yeah, Roger Clemens is getting way too much media attention. Rather than talk about either of these attention whores, I'll leave you with this article, and remind sports fans around the country that, as bad as your team may be, your team isn't the Royals (ripped from Bill Simmons' blog).

Until next time!

Hold'em Fun, Screwed Are The Suns, More Time Warner Fun, and Wrongfully Accused

Here is what should have been blog entry #100; it was pushed back only after I watched the season finale of The Office.

- The term "bad beat" is a poker term referring to a hand won by a player despite a holding a terrible hand, and then making the best hand by the turn or the river. There are bad beats, and then there some absolutely sickening bad beats (which I shall, from now on, refer to as "donkey sh!t").

Case in point, from a hand I saw a couple days ago (I am player Quintaces):

Hand #1135011766000819: Munich 11766
Seat 2: MCRAIGA (6.25 in chips)
Seat 3: Vatson (25.15 in chips)
Seat 4: Quintaces (8.40 in chips)
Seat 5: GivMeDaMoney (25.52 in chips)
Seat 6: slick sammy (46.55 in chips)
Seat 7: SkunkEBuds (7.40 in chips)
Seat 9: TL1127 (21.49 in chips)
Vatson: posts small blind $0.10
Quintaces: posts big blind $0.20
Dealt to Quintaces [ Kh Ks ]
GivMeDaMoney: raises to $0.40
slick sammy: calls
SkunkEBuds: folds
TL1127: folds
MCRAIGA: calls
Vatson: folds
Quintaces: raises to $1.50
GivMeDaMoney: calls
slick sammy: calls
MCRAIGA: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 9s Qc As ]
Quintaces: checks
GivMeDaMoney: bets $5.80
slick sammy: calls
MCRAIGA: is all in
Quintaces: folds
*** TURN *** [ Qd ]
GivMeDaMoney: is all in
slick sammy: folds
GivMeDaMoney: returns uncalled bet $18.22
*** RIVER *** [ Tc ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GivMeDaMoney wins $2 with Two Pairs, Aces and Queens
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MCRAIGA wins $19.35 with Straight, Queen high

MCRAIGA held a jack and an eight. Calling before the flop was a horrible play enough, but then he called an all-in bet with just an inside straight draw (needing a ten to make his straight)!

There were a couple other horrendously bad beats, like the guy who flopped three queens and lost to four deuces on the river, or the guy who went all-in with absolute crap and got help on the turn and river to make a flush.

Online poker, it's FAN-tastic!

- The Suns ran out of gas last on Wednesday, and lost to the Spurs to go down 3-2 in the best of seven series. As if that wasn't bad enough, noted dirty player Bruce Bowen hit the game winning shot: a 3-pointer from the corner. Think the Suns could have used Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw yesterday? If the Spurs go on to win the NBA Championship, some votes have to go to Robert Horry, right? The Suns were totally gassed at the end of Game 5, and they had only a single off-day to recover for Game 6, AND they have to win tonight or go home (and it's not looking good)!

I am praying for this series to go to a Game 7, for the following reasons:

1. I can't rule out the possibility of a Suns' retaliatory cheap shot, this time on the Suns' home floor (I kid :P).
2. I want to see how the Suns' fans treat Robert Horry. Maybe a fan will throw a towel at him.
   
3. Most importantly, this is the most compelling NBA Playoffs series to come around in years. I'd like it to go the distance.

- (from Consumerist) I should really stop complaining about how much Time Warner sucks. I don't have it nearly as bad as these guys do. My favorite story is this one; ghetto-rigged "repairs" are nice if you're doing it for yourself or for a friend, but not when you're a technician for a major cable company!

(Tangent: I love the pictures that Consumerist uses in their articles, like the guy smoking crack in the first article linked above.)

- Finally, a Harford, CT, man will be paid $5 million nearly a year after he was released from prison, when DNA evidence proved he did not commit a rape he was convicted of in 1988:

Tillman, who was 26 when he was arrested, was sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of raping and beating a woman in Hartford in 1988. The victim identified him, but Tillman was exonerated last summer after DNA tests showed he could not have been the attacker.

Tillman's lawyer, Gerard A. Smyth, said his client believes the $5 million is fair compensation.

I hope I don't hear that this guy has agreed to a book/TV movie deal in the next couple of weeks. In all seriousness, I hope the guy is able to life a normal life after being (wrongfully) imprisoned for so many years. Sure, $5 million would probably be enough for the guy to retire on, but is any amount of money enough to pay the guy back for losing eighteen years of his life?

Kudos to the guy for being so humble, and kudos to the CT legislature for their decision as well as their subsequent standing ovation to the guy.

The Office Season Finale!

Well, I had an entire blog entry typed up for today, but after watching the season finale of The Office, I just had to share my thoughts on the episode.

(Warning: Mega spoilers to follow!)

This episode (entitled The Job) was at least as good as last season's finale (Casino Night), if not slightly better! Ok, who am I kidding? The ending alone makes this finale a heck of a lot better than last year's!

(Call me sappy, but seeing Pam's smile at the end of the episode was great.)

From Jan's "big" surprise--LITO reported that Melora Hardin, in an interview, said there was going to be a "big" surprise between Michael and Jan--and her subsequent actions after finding out about her pending termination (was it just me, or was Jan acting a lot like Michael once she found out that she was going to be fired?) to Dwight's taking over the branch for a day, to Michael's usual hijinks, to Ryan's acceptance of the corporate job and his subsequent breakup with Kelly, the episode was probably the best Office episode to date.

(Of course, there was also that little storyline about Jim and Pam.)

Some thoughts about tonight's finale:

• I really wish the producers of the show ended the episode before the scene where David Wallace formally offered the position to Ryan. It would have left us wondering if Jim got the job or not; for all we know, he could have asked Pam out on a date just to break the news to her (not likely, I know).
  
• What will happen to Karen? It's pretty clear that Jim and Karen are through, but is it safe to assume that she will quit her job? Again, had the producers cut out the very last scene, it would have left open the possibility that Karen got the corporate job, and who knows what would have happened? Maybe she could have screwed around with Jim.
• HTH is Ryan qualified for a corporate job? My sister thinks that Ryan wasn't offered Jan's old job, but another job at the corporate office. Assuming that she's wrong, I hope that doesn't mean Ryan will be written out of the show. I love his character, and I hope he still appears on the show, even if it's in a limited capacity. Maybe he'll start getting back at Michael (remember Business School?) By the way, the way he non-chalantly broke up with Kelly was absolutely hilarious.
• With the members of the Scranton branch unchanged (save for Karen?), Jim and Pam can now go back to picking on Dwight. I hope we also get to see more Office-related "functions" that involve the whole cast, like the gambling that happened in Safety Training.
  
• The best thing about this episode is that it leaves so many avenues that the show can move on to for next season. I've always said that one of the great things about The Office is the fact that the show is so open-ended; this episode ends one storyline (now that Jim and Pam are together), but it leaves so many other possible storylines. Will Karen return? Will Jan remain in Michael's life? How long will Jim and Pam last? What about Dwight and Angela?

(By the way, I love seeing Angela's character develop in recent episodes; I wonder how she took Dwight's "demotion").

The one major drawback of the finale? I gotta wait four months for the next episode!

(By the way, reports have it that The Office will be moved to 9PM starting next fall. WTF is NBC thinking, putting up The Office against CSI and Grey's Anatomy????? I hope this doesn't lead to the eventual end of The Office).

Suns v Spurs, More Brett Favre, Wendy's, and Baby's Got a Gun (Permit)

- Quick thoughts on the Suns v Spurs series:

• The suspensions to Boris Diaw, Amare Stoudemire, and Robert Horry were correct; in no way were they fair. The rules state that one can't leave the bench during an altercation, and that's exactly what the two Suns' players did. Therefore, the suspensions were properly levied. However, this sets a dangerous precedent; why can't more teams send out thug players with the sole intention of baiting the stars on another team to get themselves ejected/suspended? Robert Horry could easily have been suspended for the remainder of the series, by the way.
• I've seen the video of the foul, and the subsequent actions of Diaw and Stoudemire, and although "rules are rules," it appeared that the two Suns were running towards Nash to make sure he was OK. Sure, we don't know what their true intent was--the fact that Stoudemire suggested that he went to the scorer's table to check back into the game was ludicrous--but it didn't look like they were going to do anything flagrant.
  
• The Spurs no longer have a squeaky-clean image, says Yahoo! Sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski. I wouldn't be surprised to see neutral fans rallying against the Spurs as the playoffs continue.
  

(Slightly off topic: I never believed Bruce Bowen was a dirty player, but after seeing his actions during this series--a knee to Nash's calf, among others--I can no longer agree with that sentiment).

• Bill Simmons agrees with most others that the decision was correct, but not fair. I love the soccer comparisons!

Long story short, no thanks to a thug move by Robert Horry--a guy who was very classy when he was a Laker, but is also the same guy who once threw a towel at former Suns' coach Danny Ainge--the Suns v Spurs series has definitely tipped in the favor of the Spurs.

- Brett Favre will skip the Packers' mandatory minicamp this weekend, and part of the reason is because of his daughter's upcoming graduation. I guess that's not a big deal; at least, it wouldn't be a big deal if his daughter's graduation was this upcoming weekend! Quoted from the article,

"They were going to have me sit out anyway," Favre said, in a story that appeared on the paper's Web site on Tuesday. "To be honest, we have [daughter] Brittany graduating in two weeks. Instead of going up there and not doing anything, I will be better off being at home because of graduation parties and banquets."

And I thought Roger "It's not about the money" Clemens was a primadonna. Sounds like there's going to be tons of partying at the Favre home leading up to the graduation! Better off at home? I think you need to spend more time at home; it's not too late to announce your retirement! In Favre's defense, he's not attending minicamp not because of the frustrations he has with the team:

Favre said the move is not related to his frustration with the team's unwillingness to complete a trade for wide receiver Randy Moss.

"I am frustrated," Favre told the paper. "But being frustrated and not going are not related."

As if anyone in the world, outside Packer nation, is supposed to believe this.

Brett, go away!

- (from Consumerist) Wendy's topped Zagat's Fast Food Study in two categories: Top Burger and Top Overall of the "mega-chains." Here are other results:

Mega-Chains:

Top Food

Wendy's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, KFC

Top Overall

Wendy's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, McDonald's

Large and Small Chains:

Top Food

Panera Bread Co., Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Quizno's Sub, Wendy's

Top Overall

Panera Bread Co., Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Sonic Drive-In, Quizno's Sub

Chain Restaurants:

Top Food

Outback Steakhouse, Red Robin, Cracker Barrel, Chili's Grill & Bar, Olive Garden

Top Overall

Outback Steakhouse, Cracker Barrel, Red Robin, Olive Garden, Chili's Grill & Bar

A few thoughts:

• What the hell are Outback Steakhouse, Chipotle, Pizza Hut, and KFC doing on this list??? Of those four, Chipotle has to be the absolute worst, with KFC and Outback Steakhouse a close second (worst).
• As much as I hate McDonald's, I'm not surprised to see its inclusion on the list.
• If In-N-Out was a national chain, would it make the list?
• I could go for a Classic Double or a Spicy Chicken Sandwich right about now.

- And finally, a 10-month-old Illinois baby has his very own a gun permit. Apparently, his father applied for a gun permit for his son, not actually expecting to get one (there is no minimum age requirement to obtain a card). My favorite part:

The card lists the baby's height (2 feet, 3 inches), weight (20 pounds) and has a scribble where the signature should be.

What's even stranger is that the dad's father--the baby's grandfather--bought the kid a Beretta shotgun as a gift! Now that I think about it, why didn't my dad buy me a gun when I was a toddler? I know I would easily have been the coolest kid in my play group! And no bully would dare mess with the kid with his own shotgun, right? Come to think of it, my nephew's third birthday is coming up soon...

In all seriousness, WTF? I guess the possession of the gun permit isn't that bad; it's not nearly as bad the gift of the shotgun! How the heck does a parent think any of this is a good idea???

Tomorrow is blog entry #100!

Inspiron E1505/6400 Thoughts and More Bad Luck with Customer Support (Buy.com's Turn!)

Some quick-hitters:

- While standing in line at the Post Office, a creepy woman sat (yeah, sat) next to me in line. As the line moved on, she would slide herself forward, each time nearly kicking my legs with her feet.

- We dropped by Costco today, and somehow, we walked out with a $35 bill!!! All we had in our cart were some bread, some bananas, a box of croissants, a bag of potato chips, and some juice. I expect a call from Costco tomorrow, asking me what's going on.

- Man, I love this new laptop. Dual-core goodness, 2GB of RAM running in Dual Channel mode, 15.4" WXGA+ screen (1440x900 resolution), and this thing runs a heck of a lot cooler than my old Inspiron XPS M140. A more thorough review will come in the near future.

(By the way, I noticed my XPS, and now my 6400, has a MediaDirect button. I never did touch the button, until last night, when I learned what the button actually does. With the laptop powered off, hitting the MediaDirect button fires up a Media Center-like application that gives you access to your multimedia files. It also gives you access to an Outlook-type program, as well as a Powerpoint-type program. Neat idea, I must say, but probably not something I'd ever use again.)

- Another day, another fiasco with a company's customer service. This time, it's Buy.com. About a week ago, I purchased an item with two rebates advertised. I found out that I could not claim both rebates that same day, so I attempted to cancel my order. The cancellation didn't go through, and I was forced to accept delivery of the package (I couldn't refuse it, because USPS left it at my doorstep).

I called Buy.com today, asking them for a refund on my order. They rep I spoke to gave me an RMA number (the RMA number wasn't correct, as an email I got from Buy.com had a different RMA# from the one given to me), but refused to give me a prepaid shipping label for the return. I demanded one, citing that I only placed the order because of the two advertised rebates. The CSR wouldn't budge.

The CSR said that she would give me a credit for one of the rebates if I could procure a receipt showing both rebates, which was impossible, as one rebate was pulled at around the same time I completed the order. I asked if a screenshot of the item page would suffice, and the CSR said she would accept it. I found the screenshot, and then asked the CSR where to send the picture. The CSR then backed up, saying that she could only accept the receipt.

She then told me that I had to pack the item up and write the RMA# on the outside of the envelope. She made no mention of what else I needed to do to process the RMA: include the original packing slip, and ship using a trackable shipping service. I only found out about what I needed to do when I got an email from buy.com, confirming my RMA request (that's also when I found out that the RMA# the CSR gave me was incorrect).

I sent an email to buy.com support, explaining every way the CSR screwed up. I also mentioned that I shouldn't have had to pay for return shipping on an order for a misadvertised product. Buy.com's response was classic: they never acknowledged the errors the CSR made, and reiterated that I would not be getting a return shipping label. I angrily fired back, asking the next CSR to please acknowledge the screwup of the phone rep. This was their reply:

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We work hard to ensure satisfaction. We look forward to helping you with all your shopping needs in the future. We are sorry you had this experience and want you to know we share your concern. Consumer satisfaction is most important to us, and we sincerely regret your recent experience with Buy.com product or promotion.

Gee, thanks!

(Argh...I just realized...I never wrote the RMA# on the package!!!)

I had lots more to say today, but I'm tired. Happy blogging!

Baby Carrots, Cingular Still Sucks, NBC in 07-08, and Brett Favre, Meet Terrell Owens

- (From Consumerist) Did you know that baby carrots are nothing more than whittled-down carrots? Apparently, the inventor of the baby carrot, Mike Yurosek, stumbled upon the idea while mulling over what to do with tons and tons of carrot culls--carrots that are deformed, twisted, or otherwise unsuitable to sell. With an industrial green-bean cutter and an industrial potato peeler, Yurosek created the baby carrot that we enjoy with dip, peanut butter, or plain out of a bag (all of which I enjoy).

And yes, I used to think that baby carrots were a different species of carrot than a "normal" carrot.

- (Also from Consumerist) Cingular still sucks, it appears. A customer had his Blackjack replaced with warranty replacement. Unfortunately, Cingular/AT&T never received the phone, and wants either the phone back or MSRP ($349.99). It seems that Cingular promised a refund, then reneged, then offered to charge the customer for the phone, only to get the money back in two months. While I can understand the customer's anger with Cingular for providing contradictory information, how can you NOT ship a new cell phone--defective or not--without tracking information and/or insurance?

- NBC's TV schedule for 2007-2008 has been released, and The Office has been canceled! (EDITED 5/17: Link added)

(Just kidding, Hank.)

This quote from the article, however, does alarm me:

The network took a risk by keeping its Thursday night comedy lineup intact. NBC has drawn strong critical praise but few viewers for shows like "30 Rock" and "The Office," leaving the network faltering on a night it once dominated.

I was aware that The Office didn't draw as strongly as I would expect a show that good to draw. I have to wonder, though, how much longer NBC will put up with their Thursday night ratings. I'm hoping this is a case, simply, of other networks dominating Thursdays, and not because shows NBC's Thursday night shows are actually detracting viewers.

I can't stomach the possibility, slim as it may be, of The Office being canceled in the near future.

(Off topic: My mom and nephew are staying here again. My nephew is already driving me insane; it seems that he somehow got his hands on a spindle of DVD+Rs--some of which have data written on them already--and emptied the whole thing. Anyone want some "like new" DVD+Rs?)

Warning: The following topic may contain sports-like substances.

- Brett Favre continues to speak, and I'm really getting tired of it. In his latest whine, Brat Favre (typo intentional) insisted that he never "wanted to be traded" from the Packers, despite speculation to the contrary. I don't have a problem with him insisting that he never wanted to be traded, but he apparently did have his agent issue a trade demand a month prior. In response to this, Favre claimed, "sometimes when I get frustrated, I let my emotions got the better of me." What? No claim that someone took your comments out of context? Weren't you going to deny the comments for months, and then mention, right before the season starts, that you had "conversations" with the front office?

Enjoy an uneventful 8-8 season, Brett. I look forward to hearing you waver over your future once your team gets eliminated from post-season contention.

- Terrell Owens REALLY needs to shut up. In T.O.'s latest outburst, the temperamental wide receiver claimed that he got absolutely "nothing" out of his one season with former Cowboys' coach, Bill Parcells. Easily the best part of the article:

Parcells isn't missing Owens either.

In a New York Daily News column published over the weekend, Parcells said the Cowboys signing Owens last year "was not my decision. I had to do the best I could with him, which is what I tried to do."

Owens said it doesn't matter what Parcells is saying now, and that it doesn't bother him.

"It's funny, people can say a lot of things when they're gone," T.O. said. "It's really not surprising, but why would he say it now? I'm pretty sure you guys asked him that question before."

Clearly T.O. forgot about what he said about one Donovan McNabb, even after T.O. got left on the doorsteps of the Cowboys. Let's see how long T.O. goes before he has something else to say about Parcells. I'll give it five days before he has the need to drop another bomb on Parcells.

(By the way, is it bad to wish a big hit on T.O. every time he comes up the middle of the field to make a catch?)

Somehow, someway, I hope that Brett Favre and Terrell Owens end up as teammates next year. Maybe T.O. will drive QB Tony Romo insane, causing Romo to quit the NFL and play in Canada. Maybe Favre will suck again (hell, this is pretty much a certainty, isn't it?), and the Packers, as a gesture of good will, ship him off to the Cowboys. Who would win that attention-whoring Royal Rumble?

Somehow, someway, this MUST happen!

Google Analytics Fun, IMBC Thoughts, Mother's Day Food Coma, Brett Favre Whining

- I love the avatars in the banner at the top of the LITO (Life In The Office) forum.

- Some random thoughts about Google Analytics:

• As stated before, doing a review on the Logitech MX3200 Cordless Desktop Laser was the smartest thing I could do to drive traffic to my blog. Unfortunately, my blog is no longer the #1 hit for a search of "Scroll Lock MX3200."
• Easily the strangest keyword hit ever (all one word!): "a2ccb71d04d513df9c9202755c95975f 215c775b4e27dad6b85126cd83435119." Other fun searches include some combination of "Time Warner" and "sucks," searches for a review on the JVC RA-P10 portable boombox (for iPods), and another strange keyword hit: "2007 warren buffett vs. champion female ping pong player."
• This past week was the first week in which the number of hits via Google was greater than or equal to the number of hits via the IMBC.
• My blog seems to be quite popular east of the Mississippi, and in Washington and California, of course.

- I can't believe we're nearing 45 days in the IMBC. I was also very happy when I found out that Hank is a big Office fan, and Amy loves Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill standup routine. The latter warrants a spot on my Links section on the strength of that fact alone :P.

(Of course, Hank's blog is already on my list.)

Now if only I could find a poker blog worth subscribing to; one written by a peer would be preferable. William Springer, are you reading this?

- Mother's Day started with a Mother's Day Brunch for my sister's friend at Marie Callender's. Pretty good food--the omelette bar was damn good--and not terribly pricey--$15 per adult. I had to remind myself not to each too much because, for dinner, we're taking my mom and my aunt out to a Korean BBQ place in downtown LA.

If I make it through today, without lapsing into a food coma, consider it a minor miracle.

(Seems like my oldest sister and my mom have already lapsed into food comas. If only my darn two-year-old nephew would fall asleep too...

- One sports topic, if you don't mind: Brett Favre continued to whine and cry about the state of his team, saying this time that he was disappointed that the Packers weren't able to acquire Randy Moss from the Oakland Raiders (Moss was traded to the New England Patriots during the NFL Draft). In full "I'm not saying, but..." mode, Favre stated,

"The last thing I want to do is start any [controversy]...But I think he would have been a great addition. You throw Randy Moss, you throw [current starters] Donald Driver and Greg Jennings on the field at the same time, and go three-wide receiver set ... and I think it's pretty intimidating. And we lost out on that, and I think that it's a shame, because I know we could have had him."

And with that, Brett Favre just lept ahead of Roger Clemens in the "overrated, middle aged, no longer relevant (but likes to think he is), attention-whore" athlete competition. First of all, if you were so ticked with your team's inability to make a move during the Draft, why did you wait so long to say anything? Second, if you wanted Moss so badly, why didn't you make a fuss any time between the end of your season and the weekend of the Draft? You're a Hall of Famer with a Super Bowl ring; I think you earned the right to go to the Packers' brass and demand help. Third, when are people going to realize that saying "I'm not _____, but ______...." is basically an admission that you are (trying to) [blank #1]?

(As an aside, I told my sister yesterday that I'd rather hear Terrell Owens whine than Roger Clemens. I swear, I didn't mean that!)

Until next time, Happy Mother's Day!

The Two-Hour Dinner, Another Idiot CSR, and A Frozen Yogurt Dilemma

- So it took me a bit over two hours to finish dinner tonight, no thanks to my family interrupting me several times.

(Yeah, I'm back home in the 626 for Mother's Day. I wish I could cook about 10% as well as my dad can.)

I was interrupted several times, mostly by my mom and my sister, and I probably got a good 20 minutes of actual eating time during the two hour period. Food was damn good, though: rice, soup, fried eggs, and some really stinky dried fish that was awesome.

During my two hour dinner, I had to watch over my nephew (he's been causing general mayhem more so than usual) help my sister locate a credit card that seemingly vanished into thin air (it turns out that the card, silver in color, ended up besides my sister's desktop computer, also silver in color), and help my dad with some random stuff.

- Speaking of my sister, it was her turn to deal with an idiot CSR today. She had to activate a new credit card, and the CSR she spoke to tried every trick in the book to get her to sign up for a Credit Protector-type service. She even resorted to repeating, nearly verbatim, the same sales pitch again. My sister got so flustered with the pitch that she lept out of her chair, and demanded that the CSR quit trying to sell her anything. Apparently, during that fit of rage, the credit card that was in her hand shot out (Chris "Jesus" Ferguson would have been proud of the effort), and it ended up wedged between a book and her (silver, mind you) computer case. It took us nearly half an hour to locate the stupid card.

The fact that I still had an appetite after that entire ordeal was a minor miracle.

- Which one is worse? Lying about the content of your product, or being in violation of state law? That's the dilemma that trendy California "fro-yo" stand Pinkberry is facing (from Consumerist).

(Tangent: Who in the heck refers to frozen yogurt as "fro-yo"???)

Apparently, there is debate on whether or not Pinkberry's frozen yogurt contains any actual yogurt. Pinkberry has to contend with a lawsuit alleges "that the frozen treats don't have the bacterial cultures that make yogurt good for you." Retorted manager Jamin Katz, "It is yogurt. It's made with non-fat yogurt. It's healthy for you."

Well, if Katz provides evidence that Pinkberry's frozen yogurt is, indeed, made out of yogurt, Katz would have another problem to deal with. Apparently, it is illegal in the state of California to manufacture yogurt anywhere other than a state-licensed dairy facility; Pinkberry manufactures their "yogurt" at each individual store.

So either Katz is a liar, or in violation of state law. If you were Katz, which one would you rather be?

Until next time, happy blogging!

Dual Core Goodness, The Office Fansite, Adolescent Beatdowns, Sat Navs Turned Evil, and Chores

- I opened up the newspaper this morning to see the following deals at Fry's:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ & ECS K8M890-M motherboard for $99.99
• 300GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive for $79.99
• EVGA 7600GS 256MB PCI-E Graphics Card for $69.99 AR

Somebody needs to remind me that my wallet is still bleeding from the purchase of my laptop.

(Speaking of my laptop, Dell finally completed the build, and it's going to be shipped Next Business Day via Fedex. Of course, since Fedex doesn't deliver on the weekends, except in certain situations, I won't be getting my laptop until Monday, or a full two weeks after I initially placed the order.)

Oh man, the motherboard has two IDE connectors--I no longer need to buy a new HDD--and integrated graphics--I don't really feel like/can't afford a graphics card now! With the plumetting prices of DDR2 memory, and the fact that I have a crisp, new 600W power supply en route, I'm having a real tough time passing up this deal. Argh!

- I just stumbled upon this Office fansite, and I gotta say, I love the content! I've gone ahead and added a link to this blog in my "Links" section (which has been re-done, for my pleasure). Speaking of The Office, last night's super-sized episode was, IMHO, the best episode of the season.

(spoiler alert) Michael's line to Stanley about moving to the back of the bus, and Stanley's reaction, were both absolutely priceless, as was Stanley's face when he ran over Jim in the Sumo Wrestling competition. However, nothing beat Toby's reaction when he handed Pam his sunscreen, and Pam mentioned that she was wearing a two-piece swimsuit. I nearly spit water all over my laptop when I saw Toby's face!

EDIT 5/13: How the hell did I leave out the scene where Michael is being interviewed, and you can see Andy floating away in the distance?

Now that Jim, Karen, and Michael are all vying for the corporate job, and now that Pam has finally told Jim about what caused Pam to break off her marriage with Roy, I can't wait for the season finale--an hour long episode, 8pm on Thursday!

(end spoiler alert)

- A 10-year-old boy was convicted of beating up a homeless Army veteran. The kid, another 10-year-old, and a 17-year-old were all involved in injuring the 58-year-old veteran, John D'Amico, with a concrete block and (presumably) punches and kicks. Feel free to chalk this up as example #10,000,000,000 of why our society is going to hell in a handbasket. It'll be interesting to see what the punishments are for each kid in the attack; it wouldn't surprise me if the 17-year-old got the worst of it.

- A 20-year-old woman was going to visit her boyfriend, when a satellite navigation system she borrowed from a school mate somehow led her onto train tracks. Quoted from the article:

She was trying to cross the line in the dark when she heard a train horn, realised [sic] she was on the track, and the train smashed into the car.

Fortunately, the woman was not in the car when the train crashed into her car; she had left her car to open a gate to cross the tracks, and got out again to close the gate when the train arrived.

I gotta ask one question: how did the woman not realize she was on train tracks the second she got out of the car to close the gates? I understand that it was probably pitch-black at the time--why wasn't the railway lit, by the way?--but I would imagine her car would have given off enough light to illuminate the train track that her car was sitting on.

Once again, technology is great, until it screws us over.

- Today's IMBC Topic of the Day interested me, so I think I will respond to it.

What chore do you absolutely hate?

My least favorite chore is dish washing, and cleaning the bathroom is a distant second. I'm a fairly big and tall guy, and every sink I've ever used forces me to lean over quite a bit in order to avoid splashing water all over myself and the countertop. Not to mention, I'm the only one in the family that requires a pair of XL latex gloves to wash dishes; for some reason, everyone else in the family can fit a M-sized pair. So when it's time to replace the gloves, my family buys M-sized gloves, and I have to go buy my own pair (yeah, I know, I could always wash dishes sans gloves).

I should mention that both of my parents are in the mid-five-feet range in height, and I'm nearly six feet tall. I must have an overacting pituitary gland, or something.

Next time: more Google Analytics fun!

(Hey! I went sports-free without even thinking about it!)

Some NBA thoughts, MX3200 Review Addendum, Now Parago Sucks, Smart Parking Meters, and Donating Pizza As a Last Meal

Quick-hitters, the NBA version:

- I really want to see Golden State beat Utah and make it to the Western Conference Finals--Utah is now up 2-0 in their best-of-seven series--but after hearing about Derek Fisher's ten-month old daughter, who recently underwent emergency surgery to treat Retinoblastoma (a cancer of the retina), I can't help but root for the Jazz. The crowd's standing ovation to Fisher, when he entered the game for the first time--after flying from New York Presbyterian Hospital earlier that day--was very cool, as well as the reception he got from not only his teammates, but also the Warriors.

Great article by Adrian Wojnarowski, by the way.

- Cleveland's up 2-0 on the Nets, and I'm not terribly surprised by that. Detroit being up 2-0 on Chicago? I'm a bit surprised by that. Suns-Spurs tied at one game apiece? I hope that series goes seven games!

- An addendum to my Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser review, the most popular subject (according to Google Analytics) on my blog: One thing I hated about the Logitech SetPoint software--the driver package for Logitech peripherals--is the fact that I had seemingly lost the ability to open/close new tabs in Mozilla Firefox via a click of the mouse wheel. After a few minutes, I discovered that I could open/close tabs using the mouse wheel only if I double-clicked the wheel. I don't know about you, but I have enough trouble clicking the mouse-wheel one time, especially with a mouse wheel that tilts.

That's when I stumbled upon this review on Amazon.com! In order to open/close tabs in Firefox with a single click of the mouse wheel, you have to assign the "generic button" option (the default is Universal Scroll, I believe) to the wheel button in the SetPoint software. No other functionality of the mouse wheel seems to be lost with the "generic button" setting.

Of course, you could also not install the SetPoint software :P

- So my "lost" USPS package was finally delivered to my buyer today! I'm so glad to finally get the transaction over with!

That being said, I am now 0 for 4 with customer service representatives in the last few days. This time, Parago--a rebate processing company that deals with rebates, mainly from Staples, as well as companies as McAfee and Symantec--has screwed me out of $40. Long story short, their CS promised me that I would qualify for a pair of rebates ($20 and $40)with the purchase of an item, and I found out that I could only qualify for one. Also, since I had already opened the item in question, I could not return it, so I was out $40.

I called Staples to witch about Parago's misleading me, and it only took about five calls for someone to finally offer me some resolution: a $20 concession coupon. He said he was willing to go up to $30, but then reneged on that offer, so I accepted the $20.

By the way, my laptop is still not complete yet. Looks like I will not get it until next week.

- Some cities in the US, such as Pacific Grove, CA, are employing high-tech parking meters in the hopes of reducing costs related to ticketing of vehicles: reduced number of "meter maids" and increased ticket accuracy. These high-tech parking meters employ GPS capability to determine exactly how long a car has been parked in a given spot. Some also have the capability of charging a higher rate for longer parking stays, and some have remote sensors that reset the parking meter when a car leaves the spot. One could imagine the costs of the meters themselves: "'Today's meters are little computers,' said Ross Hubbard, a former Pacific Grove city councilman who advocated for the switch. The city now leases 100 meters for $45,000 per year from Duncan Parking Technologies Inc."

And I thought cops hiding behind bushes, billboards, and under freeway overpasses were ridiculous. If a person paid for an hour, and only used half of the time, why shouldn't the next person be allowed to use those minutes? After all, they have already been paid for!

I would love to see figures as to how much extra revenue these new, high-tech parking meters produce. I wonder if those who pushed for the new parking meters took vandalism and maintenance costs into account.

- A Tennessee man requested, for his last meal, that a vegetarian pizza should be given to a homeless person outside the prison in which he was housed. The prison refused, stating that they do not donate to charities. A woman heard about the request, and proceeded to raise $1,200 between herself and her friends to purchase 150 pizzas for Nashville's Rescue Mission, a shelter that services more than 800 homeless people per night. Even PETA got involved: "The president of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals read a news story about the prison denying the inmate's last request and ordered 15 veggie pizzas sent to the Rescue Mission Wednesday morning." I must admit that this is a pretty cool story, and props to all those involved with the donations.

USPS Still Sucks, Genius Parents, and A Mile-High Felony

It's too hot to sleep! Time for another blog entry!

Quick-hitters:

- Hey Amy, thank you for providing me with yet another piece of evidence that bowling is not a sport. Bowling can't possibly be considered a sport if alcohol serves as a performance enhancer :P

- I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one getting reamed by Time Warner Cable. Check out this story over at Consumerist.

- Gosh, I missed the last two episodes of Heroes and The Riches! Does that make me no longer a fan of either show?

- Papa John's is offering a large 1-topping pizza for 99c when you purchase one large specialty pizza at regular menu price! Spinach alfredo, chicken, and tomato pizza + a pepperoni thin crust pizza FTW!

(Did I mention that it was really hot?)

- A bit of an update to my USPS story, from yesterday: after calling back the Lafayette, CA post office a number of times, they were finally able to tell me that the package was "most likely" on its way back to me. It better be "most likely" on its way back, as much as I am "most likely" really upset at USPS for the snafu.

I called USPS' general hotline about possibly getting my money back for the postage on the misdelivered package. Here's a transcript of our conversation:

Me: Hi. [spiel about the mess up]. Would it be possible for me to get my money back on the postage, since it was no fault of my own?
CS: Normally, what we do is try to forward the package to the correct address.
Me: Ok. Well, what if the package does, indeed, get sent back to me?
CS: Normally, what we do is try to forward the package to the correct address.
Me: Well, the Lafayette, CA post office said that they returned the package to the sender, and I am the sender!
CS: Normally, what we do is try to forward the package to the correct address.
Me: (at this point I'm seething) You're not answering the question! Will I be able to get my money back on the shipping, if it comes back to me, as the Lafayette, CA post office said it would?
CS: You can take it up with your local post office! Thank you for calling!

Why didn't the rep say that at the very beginning???

And no, the first three lines the CS told me were not meant to be a joke. She nearly said all three lines verbatim.

- Check out this video, of a baby playing with a cobra. That video is absolutely sickening; I would never let my child play with a cobra; at least, I wouldn't let him play with a cobra unarmed. The parents should have given the baby a gun to defend himself, like any responsible parent would do in that situation. Seriously, how the hell is this a good idea? "Most likely," the parents deserve to be sterilized for this act.

- A man was convicted of a felony for interfering with flight attendants and crew members on a Southwest Airlines flight, and could face up to twenty years in prison. Apparently, he and his girlfriend were getting too affectionate with each other, and that made the other individuals on the plane uncomfortable. The man was asked to stop, and he allegedly threatened a flight attendant twice. On the one hand, twenty years in prison for lots of kissing on a flight? Are you kidding me? Drug trafficking, manslaughter, and assault charges probably don't add up to twenty years combined! On the other hand, in this post-9/11 world, how stupid can the guy be to threaten flight attendants?

Actually, this story gives me a great idea. The next time a kid throws a major temper tantrum on a flight, and acts threateningly towards a flight attendant (we could be real generous with the definition of "acting threateningly"), he should be eligible for jail time. First of all, I'd much rather deal with an affectionate couple for an entire flight than one PITA brat. More importantly, what if a kid was arrested for such an act, and given jail time? Parents all across the country could threaten their kid, saying "if you keep acting up, you could end up in prison!"

I'm genuinely excited at the (miniscule) possibility of something like this happening. Maybe this is what the country needs for our youths to start shaping up.

"Most likely," I'm going to bed. Happy blogging!