DOSBox Fun, Parago Rebates Are Fun, and Kobe Bryant revisited

Quick-hitters:

- Check out this news story, then click on "Read Related Blogs and Articles."

(Yes, little things like this amuse me.)

- Time Warner continues to piss me off. My connection has gone down twice this morning! I refuse to call them, though, because they'll probably "fix" my problem and somehow jack up my bill by another $20/month.

- My DOSBox is already giving me problems. Frequent BSODs, auto-restarts, and a whirring noise--sounds like a dying CPU fan--occur virtually every time I fire up the system. Of course, I only invested a grand total of $22 for all the parts, so I could care less if the damn thing stopped working tonight.

(Well, maybe not, since I'm playing Chrono Trigger for the 20,000th time.)

- Lately, there have been a number of great deals on Computer Associates (CA) deals, most of them of the Make Money After Rebate (MMAR) variety.

(Tangent: I gotta find my "me-FAQ," a collection of terms I frequently use while chatting/emailing/blogging.)

One "fun" thing about CA rebates is that their rebate processor--Parago, aka Parasuck or Paraslow--likes to reject valid rebate submissions for BS reasons: invalid UPC, invalid receipt, invalid email (???), invalid phone number, etc. Lately, I've gotten multiple reasons for rejection; case in point, I had a rebate rejected yesterday for "invalid UPC, invalid receipt, and invalid email."

(One funny thing about the "invalid email" error message is that they are able to email me a rejection notice. How could they do that if my email address is invalid?)

What's really stupid about Parasuck is that a phone call usually remedies the situation immediately. In fact, here is a transcript of my call to them this morning.

Me: Hi, I'm calling about rebate ID [ID number]
CS: Hi. [spiel about the rebate being rejected for whatever reason] . As a one time courtesy, I went ahead and validated your rebate for you. You will receive the check in 4-6 weeks.
Me: Cool. Thanks.

Why do I continue to deal with Parasuck? How can I pass up MMAR deals?

- How about Jermaine O'Neal possibly going to the Lakers? If you recall, last time, I talked about KG joining the Lakers, and now I'll talk about the Pacers' forward. How about Jermaine O'Neal, Jamaal Tinsley + assorted garbage for Odom, Brown, Farmar, Evans, and a #1. Come on, Larry Legend, how can you pass up this deal? So your team becomes total garbage next year! So what? Play Odom at the point-forward, try to trade Jeff Foster's expiring contract for veteran help, and rebuild the following year! You'll get a top-15 pick next year, as well as the Lakers' #1 this year and your own. Hey, it's not my fault that you accepted that horrible trade with Golden State to get Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr. (Golden State sends many thanks, by the way). Chances of this happening? Not much, unless Indy can couple this deal with another one. Should it happen? I think so. The Pacers need to rebuild, and the Lakers desperately need an established post-scorer while they wait for Bynum to develop. Plus, Tinsley is a decent PG, though his contract is an absolute albatross.

Speaking of PGs, how about Jason Kidd? I'll save that for next time!