Hours Wasted for Little Gain, And Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write?

- Quick thought: does it count as "found money" (you know, like when you find $20 in your jeans pocket right before doing the laundry) when you receive a rebate check for an item you purchased, but you completely forgot that you filed in the first place?

I think so. I just "found" a $10 rebate check today! W00t!

- Don't you hate it when you spend hours trying to get something to work, and then you realize that you're not going to get anywhere close to a full return on investment once the darn thing works?

Yeah, me too.

I've been trying to get this K-World PVR-TV2800U working on any of my four computers. I got this thing working before, about a year ago, but that was on a laptop that I no longer own.

(Tangent: Why am I doing this? To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. In fact, I forgot I had this thing until I dug it out of my junk computer part drawer. I guess I couldn't resist the challenge...)

To put it bluntly, getting this thing to work was an absolute nightmare. First of all, the K-World drivers are known to be awful; they crash a lot, and that's assuming you can even get the drivers properly installed. Even with the drivers installed, it seems that there's a good chance that the hardware won't even start up properly (which is exactly what happened to me).

I used four different versions of the driver for this piece of crap...er...hardware: the version included with the item (it took me a while just to locate the CD), and three others I found online. I tried all four versions, even uninstalling and rebooting before I installed a new version, and I got nowhere!

Several HOURS later (5,000 points to me for being stubborn enough to stick to the project), I ran into some trouble with an installation step; at this point, I had no idea which version of the driver I was using. I was forced to reboot, and somehow, someway, the darn thing worked!

(Of course, right?)

Several hours invested, and I'm not 100% sure why I wanted to install this piece of garbage in the first place. All I know for sure is that I'm never going to get enough utility out of the device to warrant investing as much time as I did trying to get it to work.

- (thanks Krunk) Here's a list of seven "nasty" grammatical errors that commonly befall bloggers.

(This is actually the second list; the first list can be found here.)

The errors:

- Loose v. Lose: I can't stand it when people screw this up!
- Me, Myself, and I (using I instead of me): Guilty. I've done this on occasion.
- Different than vs. Different from: Ditto.
- Improper Use of the Apostrophe: Jim Lampley, guest hosting on The Jim Rome Show, said it best, in regards to the misuse of apostrophes. Paraphrasing, he said that if the misuse of apostrophes might as well lead to anarchy and the total destruction of society.

(Yeah, a bit of a stretch there...)

- Parallelism (verb forms/tenses): Guilty. All the freaking time, at that.
- i.e. v e.g.: Guilty, though I try to minimize my errors using these terms simply by not using them whenever I can.
- Could of, would of, should of: I cannot believe people actually make this mistake! These errors rile me up more than the rest of the list combined!!!

In poker, when you go hand after hand without getting much, you're considered card-dead. I guess you can say I'm word-dead.

Until next time.

Citibank Nearly Screwed Me Over, Hours Wasted For Little Utility, And Some NBA Draft Thoughts

- Citibank notified me, about a month ago, that they were upgrading my existing Citibank Dividend Platinum Select (1% cash back, 2% at supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, convenience stores, and utilities including cable) to a Citi Dividend World MasterCard (same as above, but with Retail Purchase Protection, Extended Warranty, and Price Protection). To do this, they had to close my existing account and issue a new card, with a new account number.

That was all fine and dandy, but they closed my account on the same day that my cell phone bill was to be auto-paid! Fortunately, I found that out early enough in the day to make a payment with another credit card.

Worse, Citi told me that I would get a new card within two weeks of the closure of the old account. Two weeks passed, and I got a package in the mail from Citibank. It was my "welcome kit," containing a ton of documentation, but no credit card! It turns out, the welcome kit said that I would be getting my card in another week or so! Of course, I find this out one day before my cable bill was to be auto-paid.

Thanks, Citibank.

- So the NBA Draft was held yesterday, and there are some clear winners, as well as clear losers. Since I'm in a bit of a food coma--Korean BBQ, again--here are my quick thoughts about the draft results.

• Even though I predicted it a couple of days ago, I was a bit surprised that Atlanta took Horford and Law at #3 and #11, respectively. That being said, I don't blame Atlanta for not trading these two picks for Amare Stoudemire, as rumored. I'd take my chances with Horford, who should be a double-double machine, and Law, who should be the Hawks' starting PG for years to come.
• Boston, what were you thinking? You'd rather have a 32-year-old, injury prone shooting guard (even if it IS Ray Allen) than the #5 pick (Brewer? Noah? Yi?)? Yeah, you got Seattle to take Wally off your hands, but you also threw in Delonte West?!? At least you guys also got Glen Davis, right?
• I like the Zach Randolph trade...for Portland. They needed to clear the logjam up front, they got rid of a locker room cancer in the process, and they got Channing Frye as well! Yeah, they had to take on Steve "Chemistry Killer" Francis as well, but they could just buy out his deal. Meanwhile, I thought Isiah was done taking on bad contracts and poisonous (to a team's chemistry) players.
• The Jason Richardson to Charlotte deal is great for Golden State. I thought it was terrible at first, but the more I thought about it, the more impressed I was by the deal. They get an interesting prospect in Brandan Wright, they no longer have to (over)pay for Jason Richardson, and they get a $10 million trade exception! Could a KG-to-GS deal be in the works? Not likely, but one can dream, right? Meanwhile, at least Charlotte now has a big time player on their roster otherwise filled with young players.
• I can't believe the Clippers got Al Thornton. I can't believe Julian Wright fell all the way to New Orleans.
• I can't believe Aaron Afflalo actually got drafted in the first round. Same with Alando Tucker.
• I can't believe Gabe Pruitt, Marcus Williams, Nick Fazekas, and Glen Davis dropped into the second round. I also can't believe some GM didn't pick Josh McRoberts in the first round.

Of course, the really BIG draft story is the Los Angeles Lakers! They got a superstar guard in the making, a superstar Chinese player, and Gasol!

(OK, so that superstar guard in the making is years away from doing anything, AND he can't shoot. In addition, the Chinese player is NOT Yi, and the Gasol is Pau's younger, fatter brother, Marc.)

How has Kobe not issued a YouTube-exclusive video, totally trashing the entire Laker organization? Why didn't the Lakers take a flyer on Jason Smith in the first round? How about Chris Richard out of Florida instead of Sun Yue? And Marc Gasol? They might as well have gone for Aaron Gray.

The Lakers better hurry and trade Kobe, or they're only going to get 30 cents on the dollar in any Kobe trade.

More draft thoughts to come later, as they come to me. Damn food coma.

That's all for today.

A Nine Day Weekend, (I've Got) Too Much TV On My Hands, And A Competitive Eating Injury

It looks like the second half of my poker story might have to wait another day, as well as my NBA Draft Thoughts.

Hell, that could be two separate blog entries.

(I suppose my readers that aren't sports fans will like that.)

BTW, I just realized that the Fourth of July is going to be on a Wednesday this year! I can't wait! Barbecues, fireworks, booze, tons of food, and family (I guess).

Also, since the Fourth is going to be on a Wednesday, that means employers will have to deal with seven straight business days of little or no productivity:

* We all know nobody does any real work on Fridays.
* The same goes for Mondays.
* Next Tuesday precedes the Fourth, so workers will treat that as a Friday.
* Thursday follows the Fourth, so that is like a Monday.
* Then, of course, there's Friday, and the following Monday.

In that case, enjoy the nine-way "weekend" :P

- I've got so many TV shows to watch! In no particular order, here is the list: CSI Season 7, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (yeah, one day, I plan on watching ALL episodes of this show), The Riches, and Psych. Worse, that list will probably grow as I continue to find shows to add.

Too many shows, and not nearly enough time to watch everything. Maybe I should just stop sleeping.

(It IS a nine day weekend, after all...)

- So the reigning Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Champion, Takeru Kobayashi, is doubtful with an arthritic jaw (or, if this was a for a football game, his injury would read Kobayashi (doubtful, jaw)).

I don't know what the best part of this story is. Is it the fact that there's speculation that Kobayashi is ducking his biggest "rival," Joey Chestnut? Is it the fact that the six-time hot dog eating champion is in danger of not even being able to defend his crown? Or is it the fact that ESPN is comparing this injury to "like Tiger Woods tearing his rotator cuff, or LeBron James blowing out his knee"?

I wonder where the "sport" of gluttony...er...competitive eating now ranks in terms of popularity here in the States. It sure sounds like competitive eating has passed hockey. Has it passed baseball as well?

I'm sure many people have already covered this, but how is an American, being part of the fattest nation in the world, not the champion of competitive eating??? And how are there not more big-boned Americans involved in this sport? When will colleges start offering scholarships to individuals that want to pursue competitive eating?

If this idea hasn't been patented yet, I'm going to create the World Series of Competitive Eating: a 14-day affair, being held in a Vegas buffet, with each event involving a different food. Or how about the World Competitive Eating Federation? We can break it down to different weight classes, and even introduce Tag Team Competitive Eating. Like in wrestling, you could tag in your partner whenever you need a break! How is this not a good idea?

Does anyone have Vince McMahon's phone number?

Until next time!

Three Left In the IMBC, AnandTech Access Problems, And Quick NBA Draft Thoughts

- Yes! One of my comments finally got posted on an ESPN chat:

Matt (Las Vegas): What are the chances Portland takes Durant over Oden? I live in Vegas and plan on betting on this (since gambling IS legal... here). Can we consult Janet Gretzky?

Bill Simmons: (4:59 PM ET ) I'd put the odds like this:

Oden (-150) Durant

Bill Simmons: (4:59 PM ET ) Last week before their workouts, it was Oden (-350) Durant.

......

Peter (Tarzana, CA): Oden (-150) as the #1 pick, huh? Can I parlay that with Atlanta not taking a PG at #3 or #11 (-200)?

Yes, I know. VERY unimpressive!

- So there are only three of us left in the IMBC, with the shocking elimination of Finley. When we were down to four entrants, I figured that he was going to win for sure. I guess you can say I jinxed him.

(In my circles, this phenomenon has been dubbed the "Ung-hex"; if I pick a player/team to win anything, they undoubtedly find a way to lose. This partially explains why the New York Yankees have not won a championship in years, why the UCLA Bruins didn't win an NCAA Basketball championship, and why the Indianapolis Colts didn't win a Super Bowl until last year. It also explains why the LA Dodgers lose just about every game that I attend.

So, if you want a particular sports team to win anything, tell me to root for the other team!)

So of the three of us that are left--myself, Amy, and Hank--who's the favorite to win now? Or, who is next for me to Ung-hex?

To stick with the theme of gambling and sports odds, here are the odds that each of us remaining will win (in order from most likely to least likely to win):

• Hank 2:3
• Amy 5:2
• Me 15:1

Ok, the Ung-hex should eliminate Hank from contention, and I don't expect myself to win. So congrats Amy!

- I could not access the Anandtech Forums for about a week on three of the four computers in this house (my laptop excepted).

That's when I noticed, while surfing AT on my laptop, this little message near the top of the Forums main page:

Clear your cookies... - 06/24/2007 01:17 PM
We recently updated our forum software to fix a number of issues. As a result, some users are having problems using FireFox on the forums.

The fix for this is to delete your forums.anandtech.com cookies.

We recommend that all members delete their forum cookies, though we haven't run into any technical issues with this in other browsers.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to improve the forums.

In my defense, had my laptop not been able to access the forum, how would I have known to do this? Also, I did not clear my forum cookies on my laptop, and I was able to see the forums just fine.

The least AT could have done was to send out a mass e-mail to all forum users, so that I could ignore it and still wonder why I couldn't access the forums :P.

- So the NBA Draft is tomorrow! We all know that Oden and Durant will be the top two picks, and I expect them to be picked in that order. But who will go after those two?

I think the following will happen tomorrow:

• Atlanta will not take a PG at #3; they'll probably take Al Horford.
• Boston should take Corey Brewer, but they'll probably take Yi Jianlian.
• The three Florida players will be drafted in this order: Horford, Brewer, Noah.
  
• Atlanta won't be stupid and trade #11 for a point guard. They'll draft one here (despite what I said above).
• The Lakers make a stupid pick and take a project, and Kobe Bryant will be all over the news, critiquing that pick.

And one long-term prediction: Kevin Durant will prove to be the best player in this draft.

(Yeah, I know. Talk about going out on a ledge!)

I would have predicted Al Horford to be the best player in this draft, if not for the fact that he'll be stuck in Atlanta for the first few years of his career.

I'm too tired to talk about the end of my poker tournament. That will come tomorrow or the day after, depending on whether or not I blog about the NBA Draft results tomorrow.

Until next time!

Add CompUSA to "The List," And A Poker Story, Part 1

- Well, I can add CompUSA to my list of horrible customer service experiences.

Background: I bought a copy of Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 back in November 2006, advertised with a $60 and a $40 rebate. The $60 rebate went through OK, but the $40 rebate disappeared. When I inquired about the $40, I was told that the rebate was posted in error, and that it would not be honored.

I was aware that some people got the rebate honored anyway, so I pressed forward. I filed complaints with the BBB, and later, my state attorney general. In March of 2007, I got a letter from Mr. Kevin Hain, Escalations Supervisor of CompUSA. He said that the rebate was posted in error, but he would see to it that I would get the $40 rebate as an "accomodation."

I heard nothing from CompUSA again, so I filed a second complaint with my state AG. I got another letter from Mr. Hain yesterday, saying that I would not get the rebate after all; the letter claimed that my purchase was made outside the original dates of the promo. This was not true, by the way; the original promo dates were 11/5-11/11, and I had placed the order online--for in store pickup--on 11/5, and picked up the item on 11/11 (this becomes important later on).

I phone Mr. Hain's office, and got my call returned this morning. He told me that the date in which I picked up the item was my true order date. Had I known that this was CompUSA's policy, I would have picked up the item on that day (I know, I know; ignorance is not an excuse). He also said that the true promotion dates were 11/5-11/6, and 12/2-12/3, regardless of what my receipt said.

I explained to him that I was unaware of that policy, and began searching through CompUSA.com for similar language. I wanted to inquire as to why I was sent a letter back in March, saying that I was going to get the rebate as an accomodation, and why the valid promotion dates on my rebate receipt said "11/5-11/11." Before I had a chance to do this, though, Mr. Hain began speaking in a menacing tone. He explained that I had already filed three separate complaints, and that I could continue to file complaints if I wanted to, but CompUSA was not going to pay me the $40. He then said "Thank you" and quickly hung up.

I guess his returning my phone call caused him to be late to his tee time at the local golf course.

Congrats, CompUSSR, for shooting up to second place of my list, which now reads:

1. Time Warner
2. CompUSSR
3. Buy.com (thanks Krunk)
   
4. ...
5. (tie) Parago/USPS/etc.

(As bad as this latest fiasco was, it pales in comparison to the way Time Warner has jerked me around in recent months.)

Non-poker players, feel free to stop reading here.

- So I played in a No Limit Hold'em poker online tournament yesterday, with a buy-in of $5+$0.50 ($5 goes into the prize pool, and $0.50 goes to the site as an administrative fee). A little over 100 players took part in the tournament, and there was a special prize for first place: not only did the winner earn the biggest piece of the prize pool (~$200), but he would also win $1,000 to spend on tickets to an NFL game, transportation, hotel, and spending cash! Second place would get only ~ $100, a slight drop-off. Fifteen places paid out, starting at $11 for 15th-11th place, but with such a big top prize, most players were gunning for the win. In fact, the bubble--the part of the tournament where just a couple more eliminations need to happen before everyone left earns money--lasted all of two hands; sometimes, the bubble could last 20-30 hands, if not longer.

I should preface my story by mentioning that not only have I never won a big online poker tournament before, I have never even made the final table (usually, the final 10 players). In the early stages of this tournament, it didn't look like I'd come close to sniffing the final table; I had 62, 82, 82, and T2 as the first four hands of the tournament. In fact, it was several hands before I actually played a pot. I had AQo and won a nice pot when I made a pair on the flop. A few hands later, I picked up QQ and beat a guy who had 22, getting all of his chips in the process. At that point, I had about 2200 chips--we started with 1500--and I was slightly ahead of the average chip stack.

A few hands later, I picked up AKs, and raised. A guy re-raised me all-in--he had more chips than I did--and I was thinking about calling, when something weird happened. For some reason, my hand got folded! Usually, in an online tournament, you are given 15 seconds to make a decision. Should you exceed that, you start using extra time from a "time bank," which usually has 60 seconds in it. For some reason, though, my time bank didn't kick in, and my hand was folded. I lost 25% of my chips due to that mistake!

I won a couple small pots to stay afloat, as the blinds got huge really quickly. I also reluctantly folded a couple of hands that I could have logically raised with. In both cases, I got really lucky, as my opponents had hands that had me in big trouble! However, I was soon left with 1300 chips and blinds at 100/200 with a 25 chip ante.

(Anybody will tell you that if you're down to less than 10 big blinds--in this case, 10x200 = 2000--you're in real trouble).

After a guy with 400 chips went all-in, I reraised all-in myself, and got very quickly called! I figured I was in big trouble, but the two guys showed A-x (where x is less than ten) and Q-x. I was the favorite to win the hand, but was deflated when the flop had a queen in it. Needing an ace to survive, a third heart hit on the turn, giving me the only flush draw--I had the ten of hearts. When the Jack of hearts hit the river, I knew I got lucky, but I reminded myself that I had the best hand before the flop.

(As you will see, this will be a recurring theme throughout the tournament.)

I went from 1300 in chips to 3000, a much more comfortable position at that stage in the tournament.

I'll finish up the story tomorrow. Until next time!

BigCrumbs Credits Me, SportsCenter's My Wish Series, and Kevn Garnett to the Lakers (WTFBBQ???)

- I've already earned $5.94 from using BigCrumbs.com! I'm rich!

(I talked about BigCrumbs.com in a blog entry last Monday.)

Now let's see if I actually get paid.

- SportsCenter started their My Wish series yesterday! For those of you that don't know what this is, ESPN has teamed up with the Make-A-Wish foundation to grant five kids their sports-related dreams, and each night (Sunday-Thursday), SportsCenter will devote a few minutes to each story.

This is the second year of the My Wish series, and some of the stories last year were absolute tear-jerkers.

(Yes, I will admit that I shed a tear or two; stories that reflect on the human spirit always get to me, especially when they involve children.)

- I was going to start talking about the poker tournament that I played in on Saturday, but I couldn't resist this little tidbit of news this afternoon: Kevin Garnett could be moved to the Lakers in a four-way deal?!?

Chad Ford of ESPN offered this trade scenario (ESPN Insider subscription required):

The Wolves send Kevin Garnett and Marko Jaric to the Lakers.

The Lakers send Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Pacers and the No. 19 pick [and Kwame Brown] to the Wolves.

The Pacers send Jermaine O'Neal to the Celtics.

The Celtics send the No. 5 pick, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair to Minnesota.

Ford touched on the potential impact of these deals for each team involved; I'll expand on his thoughts below.

Lakers: Kobe gets his superstar that he needs to contend for a championship, at the expense of their salary cap (unless KG or Kobe opt-out of their contracts early). Plus, they have to swallow Marko Jaric's horrible contract, lose Kwame's expiring deal, and give up on Andrew "Big Project" Bynum.

Assuming they re-sign Walton, does a Jaric/Kobe/Walton/KG/??? starting lineup (with a Farmar/Vujacic/Evans/Turiaf/Mihm?/Cook or Head bench) contend for a championship? Probably not. Would they be better than last year? Absolutely. And no, Laker fan, just because Chauncey Billups is now a free agent, don't expect him to come to the Lakers. How would they get him? Sign-and-trade? For what? Mid-level exception? Not a chance.

Pacers: The Pacers get the two players they wanted in a Jermaine O'Neal deal--Odom and Bynum--but they don't get the #19th pick that they also wanted from LA. I still think this is a pretty good deal for Indiana, because Odom's deal expires one year earlier than O'Neal's. They didn't really expect the Lakers to give up Odom, Bynum, Kwame AND the #19th pick for Jermaine O'Neal and the rights to badly overpay Troy Murphy, did they?

Celtics: So what if Boston doesn't get KG? They are still getting a big, AND they don't have to part with Al Jefferson (the centerpiece of any KG-to-Boston deal)! In the (L)Eastern Conference, I'd go to war with Pierce, O'Neal, and Jefferson, even at the expense of the #5 pick and Theo Ratliff's expiring contract. The only problem with this deal is, re-signing Jefferson after next season puts the Celtics close to luxury tax territory.

Wolves: Minnesota will get tons of cap space in this deal: Kwame's $9 million deal and Ratliff's $11 million deal come off the books next year. Also, Ricky Davis and Eddie Griffin come off the books; that's almost another $10 million. They also get three top-20 picks: #5, #7, and #19, which they could use to draft two top prospects from the Noah-Green-Horford--if he were to still be on the board at #5, Minnesota would take him in a half-second--Yi-Brewer group, and a guard (Pruitt? Crittenton?). Conley could fall to them at #5, but it looks like Minnesota wants Randy Foye at the point. Yes, the Wolves would be in super-rebuilding mode, with Gerald Green, Randy Foye, and their three picks probably seeing major minutes.

Ford says that this deal may not appeal to Minnesota. I don't see why it wouldn't. Two draft picks, one intriguing player--Gerald Green--and tons of cap relief after next season has to be a better offer than anything the Knicks can offer, right? As long as Phoenix doesn't chime in with a package revolving around Amare Stoudemire...

If I had to pick a winner in this deal, I'd pick the Lakers. Indiana gets Odom and Bynum, but their team probably won't contend for a title unless the entire team overachieves next year to a great degree. Boston could be stuck in cap hell for a while, with Pierce and O'Neal's deals and the pending pay raise to Al Jefferson. Minnesota gets tons of young talent and cap space, but cap space doesn't do you any good unless you can use the cap space efficiently. And who knows how many of those draft picks will pan out? The Lakers, on the other hand, get a super-duperstar to pair with Kobe. And I don't want to hear how KG's on the downside of his career. He's only 31, for crying out loud! If I had to pick a loser in this deal, yes, it would be Minnesota for the reasons mentioned above.

EDIT: So much for this trade rumor. Apparently the Los Angeles Times has reported that the deal will be a two team deal, between only LA and Minnesota. More on this tomorrow.

Next time: I'll begin talking about the poker tourney, unless something else comes up.

Over/Under Quandry, and Lunch At Wat Thai

Tomorrow's blog will be spent talking about an online poker tournament that I took part in last night. First prize of the tournament was ~$200 plus $1,000 to be used on two tickets to a National Football League game, transportation, hotels, and spending cash. Second place was $100, and third was $50. There were a number of other prizes, but I was definitely aiming to win the tournament.

Did I win? Will I be taking a trip to an NFL game this fall? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

- One quick-hitter: I enjoy betting on the over/under of a game or event (ex: Over/under of the number of hot dogs Kobayashi will eat during this year's Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest: 50. I think he'll eat more than that, so I'd bet the "over." If he eats more than 50 hot dogs, I win!).

That got me thinking: say I made a bet that some guy will finish "over" fifth place in some contest. Am I betting that he will finish better or worse than fifth place? In this case, I believe that "over" means "better," so I say that betting the over means that I am expecting the guy to finish first, second, third, or fourth.

Apparently, the exact opposite is true, to the best of my knowledge: if I bet on the over, I'm predicting that the guy will finish worse than fifth. That makes no sense to me! I know Krunk has my back on this one; does anyone else agree with me?

- We spent the morning at the Wat Thai (Thai Temple) of Los Angeles, located in North Hollywood. My sister likes to go there every now and then, and she especially felt the need to go today to pray. I, on the other hand, enjoy going there for the food: skewered chicken and pork, duck noodle soup, spicy papaya salad, beef and pork meatballs, and a delicious dessert made with tapioca, water chestnuts, jack fruit, coconut, coconut milk, and a simple syrup (sugar + water). They also serve sweet sticky rice and fresh mangoes, which are to die for.

I noticed something strange at the Temple today: banners were all around the place, asking people to not take food off the premises; I forget what the actual wording of the sign said. I thought that was weird, and especially so after ordering some food, when the servers asked if I wanted the food to go. If they didn't allow food taken off the premises, why could I opt to take the food to go?

We thought nothing of it, took our food, and sat down to eat. Maybe it was just me, but the food was exceptionally good today.

(Tangent: It's a good thing that it wasn't terribly hot today! Another mid-90s day, and I would have just stayed home.)

Afterwards, we went back to get some food to go, again wondering why the servers let us order food to go if the signs said otherwise. Of course, nobody stopped us as we got to the exit, and we were on our way.

That's all I've got for now. Apologies if the blog entry sounds rushed; it was :P

Starshine Flash Game, Murder/Torture Suspect "Not A Monster," and Miguel Cabrera to the Dodgers?

Quick-hitters:

- Losing when you have a full house hurts. Losing when you have a full house to four of a kind really hurts. Losing when your opponent flops quads, and you "catch up" by hitting your full house on the turn, REALLY hurts.

(No, Krunk, I was not involved in that hand.)

- According to accuweather.com, it was only in the mid-80s today. Hopefully it stays this cool for the next couple of weeks.

- I saw this game originally on Newgrounds, and I immediately got hooked on it: Starshine (link from Digg). Fun little game; you gotta fire a shooting star to start a chain reaction; the goal being to light up all the stars on the screen. The music's pleasant, and the gameplay is very simple. Some of the levels are much tougher than the others, though, and it can get aggravating when you set off a huge chain reaction and miss a single star. On those levels, I just started randomly clicking, and eventually I was able to stumble upon the solution :P.

Also courtesy of Digg, here's a cheat sheet if you should get stuck on a certain level.

By the way, Desktop Tower Defense 1.5 has been released (also from Digg)!

- A Madison, Wisconsin woman implicated in the murder of a woman and the torture of the victim's 11-year-old son declared that she was "not a monster." This passage speaks for itself:

[Candace] Clark denied involvement in the killing of 36-year-old Tammie Garlin, whose body police found buried in the yard.

As for the other charges she and three others face, Clark said, "No one's innocent in this."

All four -- Clark, Sisk, Michaela Clerc, 20, and a 15-year-old girl -- are charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, mutilation, hiding a corpse, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, three other felonies and a misdemeanor. The three adults are also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a child.

So let's see...you say you're not a monster, yet you all but admitted you were involved in all those other charges? I guess you're definition of "monster" ever so slightly differs from "mine." Actually, you're right; you're not a monster. Monster isn't good enough to describe you.

Oh wait! Apparently she wasn't abusing the kid! It was only discipline! "Others in the group took turns beating and torturing the boy, Clark said, calling him unruly. He would bite, kick and punch, and even Tammie Garlin said he had to be disciplined." Beating, torturing, and burning a kid; is that what constitutes discipline nowadays?

What an absolutely sickening story.

- If the Florida Marlins' star Miguel Cabrera would be made available in a trade, the Dodgers would be one team interested. The price seems to be a bit steep, though:

Figure three from the Dodgers' group of Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Andre Ethier, Tony Abreu, Andy LaRoche and Clayton Kershaw.

Yikes! As much as I love Cabrera, that's an awfully expensive price to pay. Then again, I've heard comparisons that he might be the next Manny Ramirez; if that's true, then we must have him! If I can't have the real Manny, I'll take the second coming of him, as long as Cabrera starts picking up Manny's antics: cutting off throws from the center fielder, hiding behind the wall (maybe Cabrera can hide in the Dodgers' bullpen), listening to an MP3 player built-in to his sunglasses during play, and, most importantly, insisting that he needs to be traded every year, only to forget that request and mash the hell out of a baseball.

I love most of those players on that list, but we must go get Cabrera!

That's all for today.

LAPD Crime Map, And The Doug Christie Autobiography

Yet another Kobe Bryant-free blog entry today. Let's get started!

- So it was a cool 102 degrees today...nothing I can't handle, though.

(My kidneys, on the other hand, feel otherwise. Also, 102 was the "ReelFeel" temp; it was really only about 92 today. I know, I know, I should stop whining.)

Accuweather.com says it's only 74 degrees right now; it sure doesn't feel that cool.

- Yesterday, I had a McFlurry for the first time in my life. For those of you that don't know, a McFlurry is nothing more than vanilla soft serve topped with M&M minis or Oreo cookie bits. Anyway, for some reason, I found the dessert to be extremely tasty.

(Might it have something to do with the heat?)

What was really fun was seeing the colors off the M&Ms bleed into the ice cream. Yes, simple things like this entertain me.

(Hmmm...it's not too late to get another McFlurry, is it?)

- So apparently I don't live in a very safe neighborhood, according to this LAPD Crime Map. In the past week, there were 35 serious crimes within a 5 mile radius of my residence (nine violent robberies and seven aggravated assaults; fortunately, there were no homicides). No reports on how many stolen barbeques, welcome mats, or car registration stickers, though.

Good...I have yet another reason to move out of this damn residence.

- OMG! The Doug and Jackie Christie autobiography, entitled "No Ordinary Love: A True Story of Marriage and Basketball," is out! I must go get this book! I hope they covered how Jackie started designing purses, and how she enlisted Doug's "help" with the business (and by help, Doug actually helped Jackie design some of the purses!). I hope the book also went over what was going through Doug's head as Jackie chased and beat down Rick Fox with her purse during that one Lakers-Kings exhibition game. Now THAT's a sign of true love, is it not? Chasing an opposing basketball player, screaming obscenities and going whack-a-mole with your purse just screams dedication!

(I'm guessing the purse that was used in the beat down was a Christie original, or whatever the brand of purses was named.)

I'm actually surprised there wasn't a purse on the cover of the book. Maybe there's a 10% off coupon on the inside flap of the book, good on the purchase of a Christie original.

I love the People Magazine quote, by the way. Role models for young people? Role models for women who want to utterly dominate their men, maybe. Maybe there's a how-to guide on how to accomplish this, with visual aids included.

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

A New (Albeit Broken) Toy, Ten Reasons to Put Off Retirement, And Tower Defense Games Destroy Productivity

Let's see if I can get through today without talking sports.

By the way, why is it so hot?!?

- So yesterday, I got some "as-is" computer parts: an Athlon64 3000+, an Abit KV8 Pro motherboard, and a new Cooler Master heatsink/fan (the latter from Newegg.com). The seller told me that he had sold the board to someone else, and that the parts wouldn't boot up, so I figured I'd take a chance on them. At worst, I was only out the $35 or so in parts, and I could always try to resell the parts as-is to someone else.

Unfortunately, I could not get the parts to work, and I'm pretty certain that the board is toast. Oh well, guess I'm stuck with my Athlon XP 2000+ for a bit longer.

- (from Krunk) I thought this list was a bit peculiar, especially since it was found at IRS.gov: 10 Reasons to Put Off Saving for Retirement. Assuming this is not a joke, what the heck is this article doing here? I'm guessing this is one IRS employee's way of killing some time, by going David Letterman with a "Top 10" list. Anyway, I love the first three reasons, especially #3:

Maybe I won't live long enough to retire. Life is so uncertain. Why should I miss out on the high life now when I might not even need to have money put aside for my old age? (If married, change pronouns in this reason to the plural.)

and #4 made me LOL. I've heard of 5-8, but I've never heard anyone seriously say #9:

I might get lucky. You never know, I may win the lottery. Or I may be remembered in the will of a long lost relative. Or I might find that my house is right in the middle of a diamond field.

or #10:

Taking care of me financially will provide wonderful character-building opportunities for my children. And so many chances for me to feel warm gratitude toward them.

though #10 was damn funny!

- Talk about a Time Waster: Desktop Tower Defense (TD) has been played, according to this article, 12 million times in April and May! For the record, I have played it a couple of times, and still have not been able to beat the game on Normal difficulty. I remember the first flash-based tower defense game I played--Flash Element TD, based off a Warcraft III map--and immediately got hooked on to that game.

According to the article, the game has "brought in more than $12,000 in ad revenue and donations...even though the hand-sketched game started as a hobby project with few costs." And the guy's got cubicle geeks all over the world to thank!

Damn, my blog queue is so full...one of these days, I'll get around to clearing it out, before finding new stuff to talk about :P.

IMBC Drag, And Unfortunately, Even More Kobe Bryant Talk

- Hank said it about a week ago, and Amy said it last night. Now it's my turn: I'm starting to get sick and tired of blogging every day. I really wanted this blog to be a four-to-five times a week blog, consisting of 3-4 shorter entries and a longer weekend commentary.

(I know, I know...why don't I just quit? Because I wanna win, dammit!)

I think next year--assuming there is a next year--the IMBC should increase the minimum word count to 500 or so, and give every blogger one "pass" (in case s/he should forget to blog one day, or just didn't feel like blogging that particular day).

Sometimes I wish Hank didn't reinstate me back into the contest, after that little "technicality" :P

- Ok, I gotta make a couple quick comments about the latest wrinkle in the Kobe Bryant/Lakers saga, if only because the story is too ridiculous to not talk about for a second straight day. Ripped from SI.com, here is the transcript of that amateur video I referenced in my last blog entry, where Kobe ripped the Lakers and Andrew Bynum:

"Andrew Bynum? What the f---?" Bryant says in disgust. "Are you kidding me? Andrew Bynum? F---ing ship his ass out. Are you kidding me? We're talking about Jason Kidd. But they didn't even want to do that. Now we're here in this f---ed up position."

Wow. This is something I'd expect to hear from an out-of-control teen on the Maury Povich show, right before it is announced that s/he has been sent to teenage boot camp.

Back when the trade demand was first announced, I had Kobe's back. I said that I wanted to see Kobe leave with guns blazing:

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!

but never would I have expected this whine-fest! Cursing about the Lakers brass and your young center behind their backs? And what, exactly, is Kobe going to get out of this? What team is going to be interested in taking this baby off the Lakers' hands?

(Probably fifteen teams or so...)

Talk about completely obliterating all your bridges! Couldn't Kobe have waited until after he got traded to start taking shots at the Lakers? Randy Sklar, forum panelist on Jim Rome is Burning, made an awesome suggestion today: he said that the Lakers should trade Kobe to the Clippers. A trade to the Clippers accomplishes the following:

1. A Lakers-Clippers swap will keep Kobe in LA, to face the wrath of angry LA fans 43 times a year.
2. Such a trade will send Kobe to another awful team--once the Lakers gut the Clippers for talent in exchange for Kobe--forcing Kobe to eventually whine and cry about another franchise.

Of course, this will never happen, since Kobe has a no-trade clause, and I doubt he'll go to the Clippers.

What's really stunning about this whole situation is the fact that he had to spend years to rebuild his image after the rape trial in Colorado, only to obliterate it again! The guy's image restoration was remarkable; he was labeled one of the NBA's good guys, he was able to reconcile with Phil Jackson, and he finally seemed to have grown up. And now this? Paris Hilton's whine in court thought Kobe was acting childish.

I couldn't say it any better, JT the Brick. The headline and the sub-headline say it all. Kobe, don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Tomorrow, I swear I will not blog about sports :P

Domain Registry of America, Diabetics Avoid Insulin to Lose Weight

- I really really want to talk about the whole Kobe Bryant/Lakers situation, especially with the news that there is amateur footage of Kobe ripping the Lakers and Andrew Bynum.

(Tangent: What is it with famous people and "amateur videos?" And when are we going to find amateur footage of a political figure doing something stupid?)

(Tangent #2: Not that I'd care for it, but where's the amateur footage of Paris Hilton crying in prison?)

Alas, I will try to avoid the subject today (you're welcome, non-sports fans).

- So I finally beat Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars yesterday. It only took me two months to do it :P.

(And it's not because I suck at the game, even though I do. I installed it about two months ago, played it for a couple hours, and didn't get around to it again until only recently.)

I have no idea what's next on my gaming queue. Hell, I don't even know if there is a queue to begin with.

- A few days ago, I got a letter from the Domain Registry of America--I refuse to link to their site; you'll see why soon enough. It was a courtesy "Domain Name Expiration Notice."

(My domain name expires in November 2008. Close enough, I suppose.)

Check out the first paragraph of the notice:

As a courtesy to domain name holderse, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to the Domain Registry of America, you can take advantage of our best savings. Your registration for: ungsunghero.com will expire on November 01, 2007. Act today!

Now, all three domains I own were registered via namecheap.com with WHOISGuard protection (basically, it anonymizes the WHOIS information, keeping it away from potential spammers and/or scammers). So how the heck did DRoA get my mailing address? Well, I had initially registered ungsunghero.com via Microsoft's Office Live Basics Beta, and transferred it to namecheap a month or so later. During that time, DRoA must have harvested my information.

Here's the great thing about this DRoA letter: they want $30 to transfer and renew my domain with them!!! Compare that to namecheap's $8.88/yr domain name registration/renewal, and I have to wonder what these guys are smoking. However, if I transfer my domain and renew for five years, it's only $95!

I'd call these guys an outright scam, but I wouldn't want this to happen to me (click on the "cease-or-desist" link found in that blog entry.) I'll let the Google results for "Domain Registry of America scam" speak for themselves.

Here's an FTC article about the DRoA.

One aside: while reading up about this company via a Google search, I stumbled upon the WHOIS information for techtv.com (now G4tv.com). Please tell me that techtv.com got their domain registration for free in exchange for advertising DRoA on their programming!

- Some Type I diabetic women have avoided taking their insulin shots (seriously endangering their health) in order to lose weight. The process, known as "diabulimia"--named so because the mass exodus of glucose in the blood resembles what happens to someone with bulimia--may cause many of the same problems as uncontrolled diabetes: organ failure, loss of limbs, a coma, etc.. The most chilling statement:

One expert who has studied the phenomenon estimates that 450,000 Type 1 diabetic women in the United States -- one-third of the total -- have skipped or shortchanged their insulin to lose weight and are risking a coma and an early death.

Wow...scary stuff. It's sad that these women would rather look good than care about their long-term well being.

That's it for now. Happy blogging!

UngsungBlog, Random Thoughts Edition: Froot Loops, Cash Back on eBay

Oh man, I got sunburned pretty good yesterday! Where's my aloe-vera-anti-sunburn lotion?

- I mentioned to Krunk a couple weeks ago about how I only recently--a few years back, maybe--was informed that Froot Loops were spelled with four O's instead of two. It was during a grocery store trip in college that I realized that "Froot" was spelled as such.

To my surprise, Krunk didn't realize this at all, until I pointed it out! In fact, he told me early this morning that a couple of his friends weren't aware of that fact either! LOL!

I'm snacking on some right now, and I forgot how ridiculously sweet these things are!

- So I noticed that FatWallet Cash Back now offers 1% cash back at eBay (1% taken from the final bid price before S&H). I don't buy much on eBay anymore, but I think that's pretty cool.

Earlier today, I stumbled upon BigCrumbs.com, another Ebates/FW Cash Back clone, it appears. One thing quickly caught my eye about this place: they offered 36% cash back on eBay purchases!

I looked further, and sure enough, it was too good to be true. BigCrumbs pays back 36% of the seller's fees for any auction you win. That is just slightly better than FW's 1% cash back, if you do the math:

• If you buy an item that costs between $0.01 and $25, the seller's fees will be 5.25% of the final price. By buying through BigCrumbs, you'll be getting 5.25% * 36% = 1.89% back. On a $25 item, your cash back would be ~$0.47.
  
• If you buy an item that costs between $25 and $1,000, the seller's fees will be $1.31 (5.25% of $25) + 3.25% of the excess. For example, a $100 final bid results in seller's fees of $1.31 + 3.25% of $75 = $3.75, and your cash back would be ~$1.35 (1.35%).
  
• I won't bother going into items that are over $1,000, as I've never spent more than $150 on a single eBay transaction.
  

(I know, I know...all this for what will probably amount to be a few cents here and there.)

Anyway, these guys have a pretty decent selection of stores as well, seen here.

I'm going to go ahead and give these guys a try. (Warning: the following may contain a shameless self-promotion!) If you're going to sign up for this service as well, please sign up using this link.

I've got lots more to talk about (surprisingly, not about sports), but I'll save them for another day.

UngsungBlog: SoS Edition: Father's Day Cookout Fun

Ok, Hank, I'll try to go sports-free today :P

(BTW, "SoS" = "Sick of Sports," because I'm kinda tired of blogging about this whole LA Lakers ordeal too.)

Oh crap...fifty-five minutes, and I haven't even started on this blog entry! Let's hope I make it!

(Being in a food coma, and researching the effects of a bee sting on WebMD.com at the same time can't help, either.)

- Our Father's Day BBQ had so much food, we had to refill the BBQ with additional coals! And since we were using Match Light charcoal, we couldn't have just added the coals as we were cooking. I know some people out there think that Match Light coals are blasphemous, and only original Kingsford charcoal is acceptable. To that, I say shush. It still grills a damn fine piece of cow.

(I should point out, if I hadn't mentioned it in an earlier blog entry, that my weapon of choice is a Weber 18.5" One-Touch Silver charcoal grill. We were cooking for six people with big appetites, so I wasn't that surprised to have to use a second load of charcoal to finish all the cooking.)

We grilled spare ribs, chicken wings, and drumsticks with both a simple marinade--soy sauce, garlic, green onion, and a bit of sugar--as well as some cheapo BBQ sauce. I'm not really a fan of liquid marinades--I prefer dry rubs, and good ol' kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper over liquids--but you really can't go wrong with such a simple marinade as soy sauce. And you really can't go wrong with barbecuing meat; even a steak cooked to the consistency of shoe leather still tastes OK when cooked on a grill.

We also had beef short ribs marinated in teriyaki sauce, beef meatballs, and BBQed corn. Because we had to change the coals once, I ended up in front of the grill for almost three hours, sneaking a bite of meat, salad, or a quick sip of Diet Sierra Mist every now and then.

(Tangent: Diet Sierra Mist is pretty damn good! In fact, there are a number of diet sodas I can drink that taste close enough to the original to satisfy me: diet root bear [diet root beer floats FTW], diet citrus sodas, and Coke Zero, which is tremendous.)

By the time most of the meat was cooked, and we were ready to sit down and eat, we were all stuffed!

We started cooking at around 6PM, and didn't finish until nearly 9:30. And yeah, we were pretty much eating the whole time; hence the food coma.

I've got enough leftovers to last two or three more meals, and I took only about 25% of the leftovers. I can't wait for next-day BBQ; it tastes almost as good as fresh-off-the-grill meat, IMO.

Sorry, Hank...no pictures :(.

(praying that this blog contains over 300 words)

Kobe Bryant Un-Undemands a Trade, and The Jermaine O'Neal Deal May Be Dead

- Tomorrow is Father's Day, of course, and we're celebrating with a BBQ! Ribs, chicken, beef short ribs, two types of sauce, mixed greens, potato salad, and French bread...I can't wait!

(There's a 50/50 chance that I will not be able to blog tomorrow, due to the impending food coma.)

- So, the big story of the day involves the circus that is the Los Angeles Lakers and their star player. According to an anonymous report, Kobe met with Dr. Jerry Buss in Spain, and reiterated his request to be traded from the Lakers. According to the source,

Buss wanted to appeal to Bryant, reassuring him that winning remains the team's focus and that trades take time to engineer, but that Bryant remained concerned about the team's direction and did not budge from his desire to leave L.A.

The Lakers still do not plan on trading #24, but if he keeps pushing, they may have no choice.

What a disaster for the Lakers! If they break down and decide to trade Kobe, there's no way that they'll get close to equal value for the guy. Chad Ford (ESPN Insider subscription required) discussed two possible three-way trade scenarios for the Lakers. Either Gilbert Arenas or Paul Pierce goes to the Lakers, Chicago gives up Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, P.J. Brown, and the #9 pick (only the pick goes to the Lakers; the rest go to the third team involved), and Kobe goes to Chicago.

Setting aside the huge impact that Kobe will have on Chicago, the Lakers aren't going to get anywhere close to equal value in either trade. Both players are shoot-first guards, neither of which match the explosion and dominance on the offensive end as #24. Also, neither one is a particularly good defender, a characteristic that is often overlooked when people talk about Kobe's game.

If I was forced to take one of the two, I'd take Arenas. He fills a need (PG), he's five years younger than Pierce, and I'd argue that he's a more marketable player than Pierce.

- What might have triggered Kobe to once again demand a trade from the Lakers? Perhaps it's the Pacers' insistence that Andrew Bynum AND Lamar Odom be included in any deal for Jermaine O'Neal. In fact, the Pacers want Bynum, Odom, and Kwame Brown for Jermaine O'Neal and Troy Murphy! That trade is absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion; Indy can't realistically expect the Lakers to give up their two tradeable chips and a big expiring contract, AND take on the mammoth contract that Troy Murphy has.

(Troy Murphy, of course, only got badly overpaid after a pair of double-double seasons, when his Golden State teams were full of players that were allergic to rebounding.)

The Lakers have to give up on a Jermaine O'Neal deal, and try to look elsewhere for help. Meanwhile, the longer they wait to pull a deal, the angrier #24 will get. Boy, what an absolute mess the Lakers are!

(Hey Minnesota, are you sure you don't want to trade Kevin Garnett?)

More Time Warner Fun, All Your RAM Are Belong To Us, and Ways to Waste Electricity

- Yes, I have even more Time Warner news to share. No, this time it is actually good news!

Starting 6/19, ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD will be free HDTV channels, with an HDTV digital cable box rental (which I already have)! Woohoo! Sunday Night Baseball and SportsCenter on HDTV!

Just kidding, of course...at least about the SportsCenter part.

I can't wait for Monday Night Football on ESPN-HD! Speaking of which, can you believe football season is less than three months away?!? That means one thing, of course: fantasy football season is upon us!

- A Federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that computer RAM can be turned over in a lawsuit, in the fight against the piracy of films. The ruling stemmed over a battle between the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and TorrentSpy, a popular torrent site. One major concern of this decision is the potential for invasion of privacy:

"I think that people's fears about a potential invasion of privacy are quite warranted," said Ken Withers, director of judicial education at The Sedona Conference, an independent research group. "The fear is that we're putting in the hands of private citizens and particularly well-financed corporations the same tools that heretofore were exclusively in the hands of criminal prosecutors, but without the sort of safeguards that criminal prosecutors have to meet, such as applying for search warrants."

Of course, there's another glaring issue with this ruling: what good, exactly, will RAM be, in the hands of a prosecutor? Last I checked, data in RAM is lost once your computer is turned off:

But on the technical side, Dean McCarron, principle analyst at Mercury Research, said the judge erred by defining volatile computer memory as "electronically stored information."

Oops! I saw this article on Slashdot, and there were some really funny comments. One guy said something to the effect of "oh no, once TorrentSpy gives up their RAM, the prosecutors will bust them for unlawful destruction of evidence!" :P

Oh well, at least the MPAA attorneys seem to be satisfied with the ruling: "'The courts have long considered computer RAM as "electronically stored information,' [MPAA lawyer Lauren Nguyen] said." Also, "to prove that TorrentSpy was making it easier to share files, the studios told Chooljian that it was necessary that they obtain records of user activity. They convinced her that the only way to do this was to obtain the data from RAM."

I'm guessing the judge and the lawyers meant "Hard Drive" when they said "RAM."

- I found this article really interesting: there are certain devices that drain much more energy--even when idle--than you think! Of course, most people know that a personal desktop computer is a big culprit of wasted energy; even if a PC draws 100-150W on idle, running said computer 24x7 sure adds up.

Some figures in the article, though, were really astounding: according to the author, a TiVo uses 30W when idle; a Comcast digital set-top box draws 40W; and an audio system uses 47W. This statement summarizes how wasteful of energy we can be, without even knowing it:

Indeed, the Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says.

I always thought that most energy was used to power absolute essentials: the refrigerator, lights, the stove top (for those who use electric burners/ovens), and heating/cooling (for those that live in extreme temperatures). I'm so glad our electricity bill is somewhere around $60-80 every two months; my parents' bill approaches $100-120 per month, but they have electric burners and an electric water heater.

My main desktop computer needs a reboot, anyway. I guess I can go ahead and shut it down.

Next time, I'll chat about how the Pacers are trying to rip off the Lakers in Jermaine O'Neal trade talks.

Gift Certificate Glut, Spurs v Cavs Game 4 Thoughts (aka "The Sweep"), and The Future of The Cavs

- I have $125 in Dell Small Business gift certificates to use, assuming they're stackable, and I have no idea what to buy with them! I do need a new computer--if by "need," I mean I haven't had an upgrade since 2003--but I don't think I'm going to buy one from Dell, unless the deal is very hot.

Maybe I can find a person who needs a new computer, and purchase it on their behalf. Or maybe I should just buy myself a nice toy, and then resell it a couple of months later. Or maybe I should just sell the GCs for 80-90% of face value, and treat myself to a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris.

Speaking of gift certs, I don't recall the last time I've had this many of them that weren't given to me as gifts: $30 in Walmart GCs, $30 in Staples GCs, $125 in Dell GCs, and $80 in Symantec/Visa debit cards.

Geez. Did I just complain about having money to spend? I expect Krunk to reply to this post with nothing more than "*rubs fingers*."

- Congrats to the San Antonio Spurs, for winning their fourth championship in nine years! Cleveland fans, at least you have this going for you: there wasn't a singular moment that defined this series. I was hoping for this to play out: Cavs down 1 with seconds to go, LeBron drives past Bowen for a dunk to force Game 5, but NO! He hits the back iron on the dunk attempt! Then we could call that play "The Brick," and put it up there along with the other Cleveland sports heartaches: "The Drive," "The Shot," and "The Fumble."

I suppose we can call this one "The Sweep." Come on, who expected the Cavs to get swept?

(BTW, what the f**k was with that stupid McDonalds/Filet-O-Fish commercial??? I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight.

Can I sue?)

Tony Parker might have won the MVP, but Tim Duncan was absolutely unstoppable down the stretch. The diving save of a loose ball, the strip of LeBroom (yeah, that one's going to stick for a while), and that killer offensive board with under two minutes to go probably clinched the game.

(Tangent: Speaking of offensive boards, how about that sequence where the Spurs got four possessions in a row! For the love of rebounding! And how about Fabricio Oberto, of all players, to score on the fourth try, plus the foul?!?)

And where's the love for Manu Ginobili? How about that killer triple over LeBron? Can we just give all three of them--Duncan, Manu, and Parker--the MVP?

Some other thoughts:

• Robert Horry now has SEVEN (7!!!) rings! Is he trying to fill his other hand?
• I'm sure the boos that came when Parker was announced as the MVP was as much for his performance as the fact that he's going to marry Eva Longoria in a month.
• What took so long for the NBA to advertise Spurs championship memorabilia? Didn't they used to run these commercials right after the final buzzer?
• Congrats to Michael Finley, for finally picking up a championship ring.

- The Cavs, despite getting their butts kicked in this series, actually have a very bright future (it helps to have LeBron, doesn't it?)

They're probably going to re-sign Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic, which will push them into luxury tax territory.

(Tangent: It's a shame that Cleveland has so many contracts that expire the year following next year.)

If they can find a taker for the somewhat tradeable Donyell Marshall, or sucker a team into taking the otherwise untradeable Damon Jones or Eric Snow, they could either get immediate veteran help or cap relief for the 08-09 season. Ira Newble's $3 million contract will come off the book by then as well, as well as David Wesley's contract.

It wouldn't really surprise me if the Cavs get back to the NBA Finals next year; they sure have the core to do so, with LeBron, Z, and Gooden on the front line. However, the health of Larry Hughes is going to be a concern--the contract the Cavs gave him is still a head-scratcher--and who knows what Daniel Gibson gives the team in the future? If the Cavs can find a perimeter defender, a true point guard, and/or a consistent shooter, they'll be in great shape for next season.

I'm in a food coma right now--I BBQ'ed some burgers, and they were damn good--so that's it for now.

$54 Million Pants Reaction, Jermaine O'Neal to Lakers Snags, Johnny Buss Mistakens MySpace for the AP

- If you haven't already, check out Krunk's commentary on the judge who wants a ton of money over his missing pants that he loved so much, he cried over the loss in court!

Also check out the 19 (!) replies that came in this morning. I'd like to think that my quip:

I hate to imagine what would happen if he had a non-matching pair of socks.

had something to do with the influx in traffic.

- I can't believe there is controversy regarding Dodgers' Pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo's HR last night, and his subsequent bat flip (video link inside). Look, the bat flip didn't look intentional; so what if he got a bit excited? Not only did he hit his first bomb of his career, but it came at the tail end of a back-to-back-to-back! I mean, it's not as if he stood at the plate for five seconds, admiring his shot.

That being said, would I be surprised if the Mets retaliated tonight? Not really.

- So the big story in the NBA--other than the crap-fest that is the Finals--is the Jermaine O'Neal to Los Angeles rumor. I talked about this possibility in an earlier blog entry, but now that talks between the teams seem to be heating up, let me delve into this topic in more detail.

I offered this possible trade scenario to Indiana:

How about Jermaine O'Neal, Jamaal Tinsley + assorted garbage for Odom, Brown, Farmar, Evans, and [the 19th pick]?

The salaries are close enough to matching: O'Neal and Tinsley make a combined total of $26 million, and Odom, Brown, Farmar, and Evans make a combined total of about $25 million. The Pacers get a pair of expiring contracts (Brown and Evans), a young PG, and a star with a relatively manageable two years and $28 million left on the deal. The Pacers also get to dump a pair of huge contracts.

(Edit: I had previously mentioned here about trading Jeff Foster for cap relief, which was a really foolish statement. After all, an expiring contract, by itself, provides cap relief at the end of the season. In an earlier blog entry, I said that the Pacers could try to trade Foster's expiring contract for veteran help; that's what I should have said in this spot.)

As for the Lakers? They go further into cap hell, pushing all-in with Jermaine, Kobe, Bynum, Tinsley, and a slew of garbage. Even if Radmanovic returns 100%, and Walton is re-signed, the Lakers will still be lacking a consistent shooter, a perimeter defender, and a reliable big off the bench (Chris Mihm?). Not to mention, the trade puts the Lakers at ~$58 million, and that's not including Walton. We know the Dr. Jerry Buss are adverse to paying the luxury tax, and if we assume the luxury tax threshold next year will be close to this past year's amount--$65 million or so--that doesn't leave the Lakers much room to fill out the remainder of their roster. Therefore, I see a 0% chance that this trade will happen.

Some people have suggested "offering" Radmanovic in a package for O'Neal. I think Indy has enough overpaid white guys on their roster (Murphy, Dunleavy Jr.) with totally untradeable contracts. Sure, Odom, Vlad, and the #19 for O'Neal works numbers-wise, but what does Indy get out of the deal? They'll see zero cap relief for two years! And people are talking as if the #19th pick is some gem. Yes, this year's draft class is really deep, but the #19th pick is in the Nick Young-Daequan Cook-Josh McRoberts class. Not exactly jaw-dropping talent, would you not agree?

Laker fans are screaming for the team to not trade Odom and Bynum in any deal for O'Neal, and I gotta agree. Paraphrasing Bill Simmons here, you shouldn't trade two assets (or stars, or a combination) for one asset, unless you're getting a super-duper star. And no, Jermaine O'Neal does not qualify as a super-duper star.

The only trade that makes any sense for both teams is Odom, Brown, and the #19 for O'Neal and David Harrison. The Lakers get their established post-presence, and young player on the last year of his deal, while the Pacers get an expiring contract and a draft pick. The Lakers would be at $52 million for eight players, and have enough room to re-sign Walton and get some veteran help. Most importantly, they would also keep their one remaining bargaining chip--Bynum--for another possible deal.

Does this get the Lakers to the NBA Championship? No. Does it make them much more competitive? Yes, if O'Neal stays healthy, and if they can get veteran help.

- One more bit of Lakers news: apparently Johnny Buss--son of Dr. Jerry Buss--has mistaken MySpace for reputable news sites such as the AP, Reuters, etc. Johnny, on his MySpace page, had this message for Laker fan:

If you've been following the Kobe drama, I want to let you know it's not really drama -- sometimes we all need to make a change in our lives and that's all it is. Popular or unpopular, when it's time, it's time. Good luck Kobe wherever you go!

How old is this guy? Seventeen? I'm surprised he didn't write up a rap or a poem, or respond with "Bye Bye Kobe LOLZZZZOMGWTFBBQLMFAQ!!!!!!!1111111eleventyoneoneone!!!!"

(That last "word" took me about five minutes to come up with.)

If I were Kobe, this ludicrous message would be enough for me to demand a trade. I always thought MySpace was used for friends to keep in touch with each other, local bands to advertise their music, and for people to deceive others by pretending to be celebrities.

(Then again, I do get most of my news from Digg, Consumerist, etc., instead of CNN, MSNBC, etc.)

By the way, to prove Johnny Buss' credibility, he was President of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks!

(I'm just sayin'...)

Spurs v Cavs Game 3 Thoughts, Home Depot Return Fraud Accusation

Quick-hitters:

- Am I reading the Mets-Dodgers box score wrong, or did the Dodgers hit back-to-back-to-back home runs? And is that the pitcher that hit the third one??? LOL!

(Nice...Fox Sports Net just showed the replay of the trifecta.)

- I told Krunk that I was done with poker, for the rest of the week. Let's see if I make it to Wednesday...

- I can't wait for the NBA Finals to end. I am sick and tired of seeing those stupid David Blaine commercials. John Mellencamp thinks David Blaine is seen on TV too much these days.

- Ok, can we stop calling LeBron James "King," at least until he wins a championship? Heck, if he gets the Cavs back to San Antonio, I'll let him keep the nickname! The Cavs are now on the brink of elimination, after losing a heartbreaker in Game 3. Was it just me, or did it look like the Spurs were trying to let the Cavs win the game? Talk about wasted opportunities! Manu finished with three points--all on fourth quarter FTs--Tony Parker didn't shred the Cavs D, and even Tim Duncan was slowed down, and the Cavs still couldn't pull it out?

(Tangent: Was that not the most unwatchable half of basketball ever? Twenty-seven points in the third quarter, combined? Second-lowest scoring Finals game ever? It looked like somebody greased both rims with Crisco.)

(Tangent #2: During the game, I noticed a bunch of flashing red lights. I thought my TV was on the fritz--Yes! A legitimate excuse to return my TV to Costco! Alas, it seems the fans were wearing these clip-on flashing red LED thingies.)

Some other thoughts:

• Going 3-19 from beyond the arc isn't going to win you many games.
• Boy, do the Cavs need a PG! Daniel Gibson just isn't equipped to handle the point. Too bad Larry Hughes is completely untradeable for the next two seasons.
• That was some pretty awful officiating! LeBron got fouled late a couple of times, and no whistle was blown!
• I should have figured the game was over when the Cavs decided to go to Eric Snow (see bullet #2) down the stretch.

Do I dare pick against the Spurs in Game 4? Hell no. Bring out LeBroom!

(Of course, I've been wrong in Games 2 and 3; what makes me believe that I'll be right here?)

- (from Consumerist) A Home Depot employee accused a woman of bringing in an empty bag + receipt, picking up an item listed on the receipt, and then trying to return the item. First of all, the item was packed in that nearly impossible to open plastic, and the woman said that she "just threw all the parts along with the plastic case into the Home Depot bag along with the receipt and went to the return counter." Pray tell, how did she manage to open the blister packaging, to set up this elaborate scam, inside the store? She must have had some sharp fingernails!

(Never mind the fact that that sounds like an awful lot of work to defraud a company out of a hundred bucks.)

More importantly, I thought Home Depot deemed it illegal for an associate to accuse a customer of shoplifting! I better hear that this kid got fired by HD for his heinous act!

(Also from Consumerist) I'll leave with this little gem: it will be one year ago tomorrow that this (in)famous AOL cancellation attempt was made by disgruntled customer Vincent Ferrari.

Next time: I gotta talk about the Jermaine O'Neal to LA rumors.

Man Amputates Self to Save His Life, and An Unfair Sentence Overturned

- Not long ago, I noticed the clock in my bathroom stopped ticking. I popped the AA battery out of the clock, and went searching for a new one. It turned out that I didn't have a spare, so I just popped the battery back into the clock, and noticed it started ticking again. I put the clock back up on the wall, and thought nothing of it.

That was a month ago...the darn thing has worked since. The next time the clock should stop working, remind me to swap the "dead" battery with one from my TV remote control (we all know how long those things go without needing new batteries!).

- Not that I was doubting Amy, but the guy who screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" when it was announced that Paris Hilton was going to have to serve her entire 45-day sentence has been identified as Jake Byrd, real name Anthony Barbieri, of Jimmy Kimmel Live fame.

- I hate poker. I really do. So why do I keep playing? Because I love losing an entire buy-in against the mother of all hands: the dreaded four-deuce.

- A 66-year-old in Iowa City, California, used a set of pocket knives to amputate his leg, in order to free himself from a felled tree. The man "had been cutting trees last Friday when one fell on him. After freeing himself, he cried out for help, and a neighbor passing through this sparsely populated area heard him." The guy was pinned under the trees for eleven hours!

I remember a similar story, where a guy cut off his arm--pinned under a rock, IIRC--to escape as well. I don't want to know how the guy pulled this off, but I don't think I could ever amputate myself, no matter the situation. And how the heck did this guy chop off a limb with a pocket knife? I better get a chain saw, or a machete, or maybe one of those ginsu knives. All I know for sure is, If I had to choose between amputation to save my own life, or certain death, give me death!

- A man who was sentenced to ten years in prison for consensual oral sex he had with a 15-year-old when he was 17 was ordered to be released by a Georgia judge on Monday. The sentence handed down on Genarlow Wilson, which came with mandatory registration in the sex offender registry, was widely criticized by many for being unfit for the crime. Although the judge has requested that the sentence be reduced to aggravated child molestation--a misdemeanor--without having to register as a sex offender, the Georgia Attorney General has filed an appeal. The A.G. argues that "Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court."

I don't want to hear any of the "rules are rules" arguments; the fact is, the guy had consensual sex, and he did not deserve ten years in prison. Mr A.G., I do hope you get the "expedited" ruling you asked for, and I hope the Georgia Supreme Court rules in favor of Mr. Wilson. Then I hope Mr. Wilson is able to get his life back on track, once he is released.

That's all I've got for today.

Spurs v Cavs Game 2 Thoughts, Time Warner Still Sucks, and A Sub Didn't Really Show Her Students Porn

Quick-hitters:

- I woke up this morning, and went outside to my patio, when I noticed a ton of bird poop all over the place! Apparently, a couple birds have now taken control of my patio, and marked their territory accordingly.

- Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is an awesome show. USA Networks has had an SVU marathon, starting from 11am this morning, and yes, I've seen every episode since then.

- I inserted a DVD-ROM into my DVD+RW today, and absolutely nothing happened. The drive wouldn't read the disc, and it wouldn't even eject it! I used a paper clip to manually eject the drive, and that didn't work either! I tried restarting the computer, and the drive tray eventually ejected.

I found a small piece of Play-Doh stuck to the bottom of the disc, and the tray itself...

- So after two games of the NBA Finals, some people are already calling for "LeBroom" (as in sweep, heh), as the Spurs demolished the Cavs. I only caught a little bit of the game--thanks, SVU marathon--but when I first tuned in, it was something like Spurs 33, Cavs 17. I did catch the fourth quarter, up until Manu hit that killer four-point play to put the game on ice.

I'm not convinced that this series is over, though. Lebron spent a bunch of the first half on the bench, saddled with foul trouble, and the Spurs blew out the Cavs during that stretch. Would it be that far-fetched to see Duncan, Parker, Manu, or Bowen, to be saddled with foul trouble in Game 3?

(Of course, I'm not suggesting that the referees are going to go out of their way to fix Game 3 in the Cavs' favor...)

That fourth quarter push by the Cavs against an obviously bored Spurs team has to be encouraging for the Eastern Conference champs, who now get the next three games at home. I'll pick the Cavs to win Game 3, with Lebron having a huge game.

(Of course, I also picked the Cavs + 7 here in Game 2, and that obviously worked out well...)

- According to a poster at DSLReports.com, Time Warner is announcing a plan to start "packet shaping" on their Road Runner HSI service. Packet, or traffic, shaping, is defined (via Wikipedia) as "an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth. Traffic shaping deals with concepts of classification, queue disciplines, enforcing policies, congestion management, quality of service (QoS), and fairness."

In other words, we can slow down your internet connection whenever we damn well please! As for "peak hours," what's to stop TW from deciding that peak hours start at 12:01AM and end at 11:59PM?

In all seriousness, I can understand why TW would want to attempt this; by slowing down bandwidth hogs, they can ensure that non-hogs will get decent speeds during peak hours. Here's the problem I have with the new policy:

"Packet shaping" technology has been implemented for newsgroup applications, regardless of the provider, and all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony. Road Runner reserves the right to implement network management tools for other applications in the future.

What does that leave? Text-based sites and web mail? Will TW only allow online tic-tac-toe and pong? By the way, TW does sell their own VoIP service; will they be throttling that as well?

- Remember the substitute teacher that was accused of "expos[ing] seventh-graders to pornography on a classroom computer," and was threatened with up to 40 years in jail? Apparently, new evidence "presented belatedly by the state that suggested jurors received erroneous information" has come about, and now a judge has overturned the conviction.

Hooray for justice! In fact, in this sue happy world of ours, where just about anyone can sue for "mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, defamation of character, etc.", I would not mind if this woman countersued for damages. And if she does countersue, I hope she wins, or at least gets a fat settlement.

Until next time...

Roger Clemens is Back, Death By Overdose of Muscle Cream

- Roger Clemens (OH MY GOODNESS!) is back! He got the win today against the mightly Pittsburgh Pirates, going six innings while giving up three runs and five hits.

(Yeah, I don't care either. That pic in the YouTube video scares me, by the way.)

- Scary story here: a 17-year-old female track star died from an overdose of methyl salicylate, the active ingredient in muscle creams:

Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

Newman had been using at least three products--a cream, a pad, and an unidentified third product--containing methyl salicylate, and apparently it was the chronic overuse of these products that led to her death.

What a frightening story! I have, on a couple occasions, used way more than the recommended amount of a product, and far more often than the 3-4 times daily as suggested. I have even used expired medication in the past, without batting an eye. I wonder how often she was using these pain relievers; usually they say to stop using them after 10-14 days and consult a physician if the ailment persists (a warning I also find myself ignoring).

The article also says that she was using anti-inflammatory pads. I wonder if she was using them at the same time as the creams; the creams specifically say not to bandage or wrap tightly.

I wonder: was there someone pushing Newman so hard, that she had to rely on the pain medication to get through her races? I always hear stories of overbearing parents, mentors, coaches, etc. pushing their athletes far past the point of exhaustion (or worse). I don't want to suggest that this is what happened, but one can't rule out that possibility.

- Today's TotD sounds like fun:

A giant enemy crab approaches. What do you do? There is only one right answer.

Correct, there is only one right answer.

(By the way, how do we know it's an "enemy" crab? Most crabs I see are pretty neutral, until I attempt to throw it in a pot of water, that is.)

What would I do? I'd take a stick, stab both its eyes, then take a huge rock and smack the hell out of the crab's exoskeleton. When I'm sure it's dead, I'd go to my local grocery store to get a bunch of lemons, some butter, and fresh peppercorn, and have a feast!

(That is the correct answer, is it not?)

BTW, Cavs +7 over Spurs tomorrow.

Paris Hilton Is Back In Hot Water, Amanda Beard to Pose for Playboy, What to Do Without Internet/Cell/Cable?

Quick-hitters:

- AK is truly an evil hand. I lost three buy-ins today with AK: first against 77, where the flop came K7x; second against T8, when he flopped a flush and I had a chance to draw a better flush; and third against AQ, where he spiked a Q on the river (naturally).

- For some reason, I cannot stop following the Paris Hilton story! What outrageous twist will come next? Maybe the Governator will finally offer a pardon...

By the way, this picture is traumatizing me.

I don't know what was the best scene of the day: there was that guy holding a "Liberate Hilton" sign outside her house, there was that guy screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOO" when it was announced that Hilton will have to serve the entire 45-day sentence (as if that is going to stick), there was a guy holding a "Obama-Hilton 08" poster, and there was the usual scene of rabid paparazzi members chasing the police car as it drove away from her house.

Why do I have the feeling that Hilton's fans (how she has fans to begin with, I do not know) will be outside the facility she's being held at, offering her a standing ovation once she's released from prison? If people did that during the Wacko Jacko case, why not this?

- Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard bared all in this month's issue of Playboy, citing this as a "once in a lifetime opportunity." While there are lots that are happy for her decision--I mean her own family, not the thousands of Playboy subscribers!--she also expects to get some criticism, specifically from mothers of younger swimmers.

I can understand both sides of the argument; would you blame the mother of a young female swimmer if she took offense to Beard--a role model for many swimmers today--posing in Playboy? Also, I can understand how this decision only serves to further demean female athletes. There is such a disparity of respect between male and female athletes as it is; why further this disparity by doing something like this?

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. For one thing, I commend Beard for seeing this as an opportunity to build a career outside of swimming:

Beard is trying to position herself for a career away from the pool, and she sees the magazine spread as a way to attract nonswimming fans.

She envisions developing her own business empire, similar to former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kathy Ireland’s line of apparel and home furnishings.

She's 25, probably going to call it quits after the 2008 Olympic Games, and is already thinking ahead of her next phase of life. What is wrong with that? Sure, maybe she could have thought of a better way to advertise herself, but in this day and age, is Playboy really that big of a deal any more?

Do I believe her decision to pose in Playboy will only serve to further demean female athletes? No; she wouldn't be the first female athlete to pose for Playboy. If anything, I agree that this will bring more attention to Olympic swimming. Unfortunately, I also expect the attention for the sport to wane once she retires.

- Today's TotD:

What would you do without internet access? A cell phone? Cable television?

I should point out that this topic was shamelessly ripped from a thread over at the Bargainshare Forums. I will briefly answer all three questions below:

1. I'd probably keel over, or end up in the fetal position for eternity.
2. I could live without a cell phone; nobody calls me, anyway, except for these voice recordings in Spanish (I found out that these recordings are scams, trying to get unsuspecting people to pay fines they never knew they owed).
3. Without cable television, I'd be in a bit of trouble (no ESPN? AHHHHHHHHHH). However, if both cable television and cable internet are taken away from me, one might as well end my life now.

(Ok, I'm not totally serious about that last statement.)

Spurs v Cavs Game 1 Thoughts, and A Pair of TotDs

Quick-hitters:

- Freaking Dodgers. 5-1, 9th inning, about to beat the best pitcher in the National League, and then they decide to play like a Pee Wee league softball team. Damn I'm pissed.

- You know you're in pain when it hurts just to sit down. I'm probably a pair of Tylenol away from being classified as an addict.

- Did I mention, freaking Dodgers?

- So after Game 1 of the NBA Finals, I can safely say that the Cavs are in a little bit of trouble. They played well for a half, but apparently the Cavs couldn't answer the bell for the second half. A few thoughts on Game 1:

• The Spurs are NOT boring to watch! Watching Tony Parker carve up the Cavs' PGs, and watching Duncan operate down low, are works of art.
• Less Larry Hughes, more Daniel Gibson!
  
• Hey, Lebron, if your shot isn't working for you, it's probably not a good idea to continue throwing up fadeaways.

By the way, did anyone see that weird home video (aired during halftime) of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich visiting Tim Duncan at the Virgin Islands? Am I the only one that thought that the video was kinda creepy, especially the scene where the two of them were on the beach together?

Anyway, the Cavs need to give more minutes to Daniel Gibson, and they might want to think about playing Eric Snow for a few minutes. The first half of Game 1 had to be encouraging for the Cavs, but the Cavs better get that third quarter out of their system as soon as possible. That first half illustrated my belief that the Cavs might, in fact, have a shot at winning the series.

I still think they'll come up short, however. I expect the Spurs to win Game 2, using the same blueprint as they did to outmuscle the Cavs in Game 1.

- Silly me; I finally provided some TotDs for the IMBC, and I went ahead and skipped yesterday's topic. I will now go ahead and answer both of them here. Yesterday's TotD:

Describe how you came up with your blog name/username.

I remember watching my local NBC news one day, when they were handing out that week's "unsung hero" award. I stuck an extra "g" in there--my last name is Ung--and presto!

(Tangent: People on online forums frequently leave out that "g" in ungsunghero. It used to really bother me, but not so much any more.)

(Tangent #2: Once, a guy on an online forum insisted that my name had a typo in it. I assured him that that was not the case, and he insisted that I was the one mistaken. That's kinda like the guy that calls your phone number, asks for [insert name that you don't recognize], and then after you tell him that there is no one by that name, he insists that you have the wrong number. And yeah, that has happened to me on more than one occasion.)

I don't need to explain UngsungBlog, do I?

As for today's TotD:

What is/are your favorite cereal(s)?

My current favorite has to be Raisin Bran Crunch. I absolutely love that cereal, though it is a bit too sweet for my tastes. If I don't have any Raisin Bran Crunch, I'll settle for some Honey Bunches of Oats, no matter the variety. Both cereals are so good that I can eat them as snacks, with or without milk.

Next time: some fun poker hands I've seen in the last couple of days, among other things.

NBA Finals Thoughts, Wiiitis, and 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

First, a quick-hitter:

- The Anaheim Ducks are your 2006-7 NHL Stanley Cup Champions!

Yeah, I don't care either.

(Raise your hand if you even knew that the NHL season started.)

- The NBA Finals is finally upon us! Duncan, Manu, and Parker versus Lebron! Will the Spurs cement their dynasty with their fourth championship in nine years? Will the Cavs be able to ride their superstar to a title? Will the refs, once again, prove to be the deciding figure in who wins the championship (I'm not suggesting that the NBA and their refs fix games, by the way *whistles*).

So, who do I think will win? Here's a better question: how can I pick against the Spurs? This matchup seems to be a bigger "mismatch" than the 2004 series between the Lakers and Detroit (of course, we know how THAT turned out!). Actually, I can see a couple of ways the Cavs can upset the Spurs:

1. If Bowen gets into foul trouble--definitely a possibility, considering that Bowen will have to guard Lebron--forcing the Spurs to use Manu to defend Lebron.
   
2. If Duncan gets into foul trouble--also possible, considering that Big Z, Gooden, and Varejao could be used to defend him--forcing the Spurs to use some combination of Oberto, Elson, Horry, et al., or go small.
3. If Big Z, Marshall, Gibson, Pavlovic, Gooden, et al., all play out of their minds.
4. If David Stern has something to say about the result (kidding!)

That being said, I don't see the Cavs being able to stop Tony Parker on the perimeter, nor will they be able to stop Duncan on the inside. Yeah, Lebron is a super-duper-star, and he could carry his team past the Spurs, but I just don't see it happening this year. It wouldn't surprise me at all, though, if he wins a title sometime in the next five years. Spurs in six games.

- A Boston doctor has coined a new injury he developed after playing too much Wii tennis. The name? You guessed it: Wiiitis. As the story goes, Dr. Julio Bonis woke up one morning with a sore shoulder, and determined that the injury was due to too much Wii tennis. "The variant in this patient can be labeled more specifically as 'Wiiitis,'" declared the doctor.

Will this open the door to a huge Wiiitis-related class action lawsuit against Nintendo? Maybe this will lead to a huge increase in the sales of pain medication. Or maybe, this will be the start of a worldwide Wiiitis epidemic, causing millions of hours of missed work/school time and billions of dollars of health care to be administered!

Or maybe the doctor should have realized that several consecutive hours of just about any activity probably isn't a good idea...

- Finally (from Digg), I leave you with this list of the 100 words that every high school graduate should know. I am proud to admit that I do not know, or have forgotten, the definitions for most of the words on that list :P. In today's world, lacking in self-accountability, I would like to blame my high school for my not knowing most of these words.

Or maybe I should go read the dictionary...