Post-IMBC Entry #1: The Future of UngsungBlog, And Baroid Bonds Visiting LA,

- It was nice to not have to blog for nearly 36 straight hours. I gotta thank Hank for allowing me to partake in the IMBC, as well as his kind words about my blog (you really enjoyed reading my Michael Vick rants, eh?)

And Amy, don't doubt the Ung-hex! Just because I'm on a "cold" streak lately--the Yankees have been hot recently, and the Dodgers have not--that doesn't mean the Ung-hex is a fluke! Stop doubting the Ung-hex before your negative energies begin to cancel its effects out! :P

- I said I was going to go into detail about what caused me to be eliminated from the IMBC. That will have to wait.

(I promise it won't have to wait as long as my poker story, or my thoughts on Tom Donaghy.)

- So in the next few days, I'm probably going to kick Blogger to the curb, and I'm going to start using Wordpress. Let's hope I don't royally screw up!

Also, I'm trying to figure out a consistent format for the UngsungBlog. Do I want to make it a pure sports blog, or should I keep it the mishmash of random thoughts and random topics that it currently is?

- One other thing before I get to the big topic at hand: it was very sad to hear, this morning, of the passing of San Francisco 49ers HOF coach Bill Walsh to leukemia. He was 75. Walsh won three Super Bowls with the Niners in only ten seasons, and his name is synonymous with the West Coast Offense. Perhaps his biggest contribution to football is the number of current and former coaches linked to Walsh and his 49ers teams:

Even a short list of Walsh's adherents is stunning. Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet all became NFL head coaches after serving on Walsh's San Francisco staffs, and Tony Dungy played for him. Most of his former assistants passed on Walsh's structures and strategies to a new generation of coaches, including Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Steve Mariucci and Jeff Fisher.

I was never a 49ers fan; in fact, you could probably go ahead and say that I hated them. However, I could not help but respect the 49ers and what they accomplished during the 80s and early 90s.

- It looks like Baroid Bonds is heading to LA and SD, one home run behind Hank Aaron for the record. Let me be brief by saying this: Grady Little, don't you dare pitch to this guy! He better not break the record here in LA!

Now, this is not a racial issue. Believe it or not, this is not a steroids thing; even with all the "evidence" we have on the guy--the fact that he got better in his late 30s, the rapid increase in size of his body, the lack of neck, etc.--I'm of the opinion that Bonds is probably guilty in the minds of many, but until he is officially indicted, I will consider him the record holder (once he breaks it, that is). This is about Barry being a member of the San Francisco Giants, and a world-class jerk, who only deserves the record because he's been a damn good player for a number of years.

If he does break the record here in LA, I would love to see the Dodger fans in attendance turn their backs on him as he rounds the bases. For some, that could be their way of not acknowledging a record that appears to be obtained via cheating. For me, and maybe some others, it will be my way of respect (of which there is none) of a guy who I really don't want to see break Aaron's record.

Of course, knowing Dodger fans, they're going to boo the living hell out of Bonds, and there's a possibility that some fans might do some really stupid things. I can hope all I want that that does not happen, but I can't help but expect some fan to do something really idiotic to make the other contingent of Dodger fans (those with some class!) look really bad.

I wouldn't mind so much if Bonds get a single home run, but please, please, Grady, don't give him a chance to break the record. I don't care if it's the ninth inning of the last game of the series, and we're up by 10 runs! Do not let Bonds break the record here in LA! Let San Diego deal with the guy.

My IMBC Journey Officially (Finally!) Ends Here

So apparently my olive branch/three-way-tie plea/cop-out didn't work :P

Yes, after three or four near-eliminations, I am finally officially out. And it was totally worth it.

(Details later.)

Now if you'll excuse me, the food coma is kicking in.

Until then, I'm out (in more ways than one).

BTW, congrats Amy! The Ung-hex ought to kick in sooner or later!

ESPN Insider, An IMBC Plea, And My UPS Guy Is A Comedian

Quick-hitters:

- Boy is it hot here! If this keeps up, I'm going to have to start sleeping in a tub full of ice cubes. Or, maybe I should pitch a tent in my patio and start sleeping outside.

- Have I ever told you that Amazon Prime is evil?

(I might have, in an earlier blog or twenty.)

I've now made eleven orders, since I signed up with Prime. And I have about eleven months of service left.

- ESPN must be desperate for subscribers. One day after having my ESPN Insider + ESPN The Magazine subscription auto-renewed for $39.99, I called in to cancel my service (I had intended on doing so a few days earlier, but as the story of my life goes, I forgot to do it).

Immediately after reaching a rep, the guy offered me a subscriber "special": $14.99 to continue my Insider subscription for a year, though I'm not sure if I get to keep the magazine subscription or not. I really don't care for the magazine, though; I don't think I've read a single issue. As long as I get my Insider subscription, I'm good.

- Hey, remaining IMBCers! We've been going on with this competition for ~120 posts now, and I don't know about you two, but I'm starting to get sick and tired of blogging every single day. I mean, it's been fun, but I never expected this competition to go on for nearly four months!

So...anyone up for calling the competition off? I don't have a need for the top prize, and I remember hearing that Amy recently got her own domain and hosting. So why don't we shake virtual hands, and call the whole thing off?

(If you think this is a cop-out, out of fear that I'll probably next to be eliminated from the competition, then you'd be right.)

- So my UPS guy is a comedian, apparently. Every time I see him--and I see him a lot, due to my inability to pass up a hot deal--he has some joke for me. Whether it's a heart-felt "Are you running your own office supply store?" to a "Oh...I wonder what's inside this box," he's always got a quip up his sleeve. Today was no exception: I got a huge box, and he inquired as to what was inside the box (never mind that the box was clearly labeled "Bubble Lined Mailers.")

Of course, I told him that they were, indeed, bubble mailers, and of course, he didn't believe me. Moron :P

(That :P should make it obvious that the last topic was posted in complete jest. Now if only I knew what his name was. And I can't just ask him for his name, because I've already had to twice before. Yes, I'm really really bad with names.)

Happy blogging!

Pizza Hurts, Cover Songs, And Dad Leaves Kids In Car to Play Poker

Argh! Brad Penny just hurt himself running down first base! Lowe got hurt a couple days ago, and now this?!?!

We're screwed! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

- So I lost the flyer to the best non-chain pizza place around me, forcing me to satisfy my pizza cravings with (ugh) a pizza from a chain restaurant. Fortunately (?) for me, Papa John's had their B1G1 for 99c deal, so I went with a Chicken Alfredo, Spinach, and Tomato Pizza, with a Pepperoni thin crust pizza.

(I like getting lots of extra pizza, so that I can freeze it away and have it on a later date. It comes out quite good, provided you reheat it in the oven, and not the microwave. I also had a Papa John's gift card, so I figured now would be a good time to use it.)

I was pretty happy with the pizza, but not at first. You see, the two pizzas cost $21.xx before tip!!! Among other things, there is a $1.75 delivery charge!

(I know, I know; if I want to avoid paying a tip + a delivery fee, I should just go pick up the pizzas myself.)

Good thing the pizzas were kinda tasty today. For a chain restaurant, I'll take kinda tasty any day of the week.

- I am of the opinion that 99% of all song covers are crap. I'd like to go ahead and modify that statement, after visiting this page (from Digg) of the 100 Greatest Cover Songs of All Time.

My statement, regarding song covers, shall now read as follows: 99% of all song covers done in recent times are crap.

(Notice that many of the songs on that list were remade years ago.)

- Finally, do you suppose this guy has a gambling problem? A 36-year-old Florida man is accused of leaving his two kids in his car while he went to play some poker in a nearby race track:

Police arrested Terrence Davis for child neglect after a passerby spotted the children at the St. Johns Greyhound Park.

Davis said he left the car running with the air conditioner on while he went inside the track. He said he had only intended to peek inside the park, but got talked into playing a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. He told police that he was only inside for about 15 minutes.

Well, at least he left the A/C on! No word on whether or not the guy got his buy-in back, though. It would be pretty cool (for the other players, at least), if the guy wasn't given his money back, and the casino would just blind him off as the game went on.

Here's my question, genius: what are you doing leaving your kids unattended in the first place?!? I don't care if you went in to the race track for sixty seconds! You went in there to take a peek, and you got "talked into playing"? What did the people around you say? "Oh, go ahead and leave your kids in the car. This will only take a few minutes"?

I sincerely hope this guy got his aces cracked by 7-2 offsuit right before he was apprehended.

That's all I've got for now.

Meals Out Of Leftovers, And I Am A Jinx to Sports Teams

- It's a sad day here in the ungsunghero household.

We finally finished the corned beef today! *sob*

I chopped up the remaining corned beef, chopped up some of the remaining roasted potatoes, and fried them in a little bit of oil to make a cheap corned beef hash for breakfast. It came out quite tasty, and I served my makeshift-hash with scrambled eggs and buttered toast.

(Damn, I think I'll whip up some pancakes tomorrow.)

Now that I'm all out of corned beef, I guess it's back to my regularly scheduled spaghetti and awesome meat sauce. I'd barbecue sometime in the next few days, but I'll be attending a pig roast this weekend, and two barbecues in a week will probably land me in my usual room at the local hospital.

- The Ung-hex strikes again! A few days ago, I told Krunk that his Seattle Mariners were on fire (and they were; they had recently been only a game back of the Los Angeles Angels somewhere near a huge body of water). Of course, the Mariners have since lost six straight games, and are now 3.5 games behind the Angels.

I also declared that my Dodgers were rolling, and that they will comfortably win the National League West (by 4-5 games, and in the NL West, 4-5 is a pretty comfortable margin). Of course, they have since dropped two consecutive, close, games, both of which were lost by the bullpen. The Dodgers loss today was worsened by the fact that SP Derek Lowe left the game with a groin injury, as if the Dodgers could afford any more injuries to their pitching staff. I can't fathom a potential rotation of Penny-Billingsley-Tomko (shudder)-Hendrickson (shudder)-Houlton/Stults/????? for any substantial length of time.

Assuming Lowe doesn't miss any serious time, I saw screw Mark Teixeira. Screw Octavio Dotel. Screw those crazy ideas of a Jermaine Dye deal. Let's take a flier on a Kyle Lohse or a Jose Contreras! Neither one can be worse than Mark Hendrickson, and neither one is going to cost us much. Granted, Hendrickson's been pitching OK in a starting role lately, but I think his best role is as a long reliever and spot starter.

BTW, I think the Yankees are going to win the next ten games.

(Go Ung-hex!)

Leftovers Are Good, So Is Limeade, And YANT

This blog entry is going to be all over the place, because the longer it takes me to complete this, the longer it will keep me away from Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

(Yeah, I'm a Guitar Hero dork. I also royally stink at it :P)

Speaking of Guitar Hero and my PS2, I can't believe my console still works!

(I should mention that I haven't touched it in months, and it has always been a bit flaky on me.)

I better be careful, or I might just play through the night, and "forget" to sleep.

- There are some foods that are just destined to be leftovers (and I mean this in a good way; some foods just taste almost as good, if not better, the day after). Corned beef is one good example of that.

(Tangent: I can't believe I didn't make myself any cabbage! Argh! I don't care if it's not St. Patrick's Day, and I don't care that I'm not Irish...how could I forget to make cabbage?!?)

I still have some left in the refrigerator, though it may not last much longer *drool*.

Also, day-old roasted potatoes are awesome, especially when used in a breakfast omelet! I had a spinach-tomato-potato omelet--that's all the stuff in my fridge that was omelet-worthy--and damn, that was tasty! If only I had some pepper jack!

(Hmmm...I might make myself one of those, instead of eating the corned beef; that is, if I can pull myself away from Guitar Hero.)

- Who needs a specialized hand workout device when you can get the same workout by juicing citrus fruits?

(Yeah, let's conveniently ignore the 3/4 cup of sugar per pitcher of lemon/lime-ade.)

Sadly, I am now out of limes. Hopefully they'll be back on sale this week, so that I could, um, get another hand workout.

- So I mentioned that I had acquired yet another new toy.

Well, here it is: a Compaq Presario F572US notebook computer. The specs are nice (X2 TK-53 @ 1.7Ghz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 8x DVD+-RW, 15.4" WXGA, 6.6lb), but it is a Compaq. It was also pretty darn cheap, after a number of questionable rebates; the deal involved buying tons of security software that were better than free after rebate, and hinges on whether or not I actually get all the rebates.

I'd say it's 50/50 that I'm going to "keep" it (by "keep," I mean I'm either going to use it myself and sell my Dell Inspiron 6400, or I'm going to keep it within my family, i.e. sell it to a sibling).

Wish me luck on this deal!

*me rushes back to Guitar Hero*

Dodgers' Trade Rumors, And Corned Beef Is Tasty

Quick-hitters:

- My latest toy, the AMD Athlon64 3200+ + mobo combo, has run into a bit of trouble, and I'm betting it's due to the Windows XP repair I did. Now, I've done OS repairs in the past, generally with good results. This time, I guess a full OS reinstall is in order.

Guess I have something to do this weekend...

- Good to see Jon Lester back on the baseball diamond, pitching six effective innings en route to a victory. For those of you not in the know, Lester was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma only eleven months earlier.

In the sports world of Michael Vick, steroids in baseball, refs fixing games, etc., it's good to know that there are still "good guy" stories out there.

- It seems that my Dodgers are front-runners for Royals' relief pitcher Octavio Dotel, according to this source. Personally, I think the Dodgers need a bat more so than a reliever, but as long as don't give up any of our key prospects--Ethier, Kemp, Loney, Billingsley, LaRoche, etc.--I'll be OK with this acquisition.

(Speaking of Billingsley: damn you! One out away from our first complete game shutout since...Jeff Weaver?!?)

The Dodgers could really use a bat, but I don't think Texas 1B Mark Teixeira fits. He couldn't play 1B, unless the Dodgers are crazy (stupid?) enough to part with Loney in a deal to Texas, or if they move Loney. If they move Loney, where would he play?

3B? Not as long as Nomar is there.
LF? Gonzo.
RF? Ethier/Kemp are there.
CF? Damn you, Juan Pierre! *shakes fist*
C? I kid, I kid.

Anyway, if the Dodgers do make a splash before the trading deadline, I'll bet they part with Ethier before any of their other prospects. And if the Dodgers are dumb enough to give up Matt Kemp, they better be getting a superstar NOT in his walk year.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few days.

- Corned beef is damn tasty. I made some today; I found the slab stuck in the back of my freezer this morning, and decided, on a whim, that I would cook it. I made some roasted red skin potatoes--cubed potatoes, skin on, coated in EVOO and Mrs. Dash, baked in the oven at 400F for about 45 minutes--and a salad as my sides. Normally, I'd have steamed veggies with my corned beef, but I decided that it was too hot to have steamed veggies (read: I was too lazy to cut the veggies up and steam them).

The potatoes were a bit bland, so I sprinkled some kosher salt on them, and popped them back in the oven for a few more minutes. The extra kosher salt made all the difference in the world.

(Yeah, I know; my blood pressure is probably infinity/infinity.)

The salad was decent, but the corned beef was absolutely delicious. It might have been a bit too salty, but I didn't care.

Damn, I could go for another plate of food right now :P. And I think it's been long enough since I last barbecued. Drool...

Happy blogging!

Women Ripping Off Little Girls, Do You Know Who I Am?

Quick-hitters:

- My very quick thoughts on the NBA scandal involving referee Tom Donaghy and his alleged fixing of games:

• Not that we needed it (*cough* Lakers-Kings Game 6 *cough*), but now we apparently have concrete proof that some NBA officials fix games. Of course, we thought that the NBA was the one responsible for fixing, and not individual referees. So what's the truth? Do refs fix games for their own benefit? Does the NBA make refs fix games for the NBA's benefit? Or do some fans just imagine that some NBA games are fixed?
  
• Now that we know it happens, how do we know which games were fixed? And how do we know what impact these fixes had on playoff games of the last few years?
• So what happens next? How does the NBA recover from this black eye? Can we ever take another playoff game seriously again, without thinking, "Is one of the referees fixing this game?"

It'll be interesting to see how the NBA proceeds in this entire scandal, and how much the NBA will suffer in terms of popularity (if at all).

- I love watching Man vs Wild. Yeah, I don't care if it's slightly embellished, or totally set up. I'm pretty sure there's still an element of risk and danger running through the Amazon rain forest, or trekking through glaciers on Iceland, set up or not.

Ewww...host Bear Grylls just drank his own piss, clearly desperate for water

- (from Digg) You can file this story in the "Going Straight to Hell" department: two women in Goodyear, AZ, ripped off kids selling lemonade with a bogus $50 bill. The kids were trying to raise money for a trip to San Diego, CA, when one of the women presumably paid for some lemonade with a $50 bill. The girls handed back $38 in chance, apparently thinking they were getting a huge tip. Unfortunately, they only got scammed. Let this be a lesson to the girls: always carry a counterfeit money detector pen.

But seriously, how low do you have to be in your life to scam some little kids out of ~$40? What's next? Are those ladies going to take up collections outside of a department store for charity, only to pocket the money? Or maybe they're going to dress up as homeless people to get free meals from homeless shelters. People who scam social security and the welfare system think these two women are going straight to hell.

- (also from Digg) This is easily my favorite story of the day: a United passenger was angry that his flight was cancelled, and he threw a tantrum at the poor travel agent, screaming "I HAVE to be on this flight, and it has to be FIRST CLASS!" The agent apologized, and the irate passenger responded with "Do you have any idea who I am?"

(Tangent: I thought only rich and famous people use the "Do you know who I am?" blast. Oh well, I'm just assuming that this guy isn't rich or famous.)

The agent, to put it blunty, uber-pwned the moron:

Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. "May I have your attention please?" she began, her voice bellowing through the terminal. " We have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to gate 17."

With the folks behind him laughing in line hysterically, the man glare at the United agent, gritted his teeth and swore "F--- you." Without flinching, she smiled and said, " I'm sorry sir, but you will have to stand in line for that too."

Wow...just wow!

Travel agent eleventy-billion, moronic customer PWNED. The guy deserves to have his seat downgraded to the wing of the plane for that outburst.

(Yes, one trillion Stupid Points for that idiot.)

Happy blogging!

Next time: another new toy?

YANT (Yet Another New Toy), Citibank Hatred Clarification, And We're All Sheep

I'm in quite the foul mood today, so hopefully I can finish this blog entry pretty quickly. I'm sick, I'm tired, and I'm surrounded by (some) stupid people.

- So I got a new (to me) toy today: an Asus K8N-E motherboard and a AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU.

(Tangent: I also got a ton of other toys, including yet another Logitech keyboard/mouse combo. Perhaps, in the near future, I will give a mini-review of some of these new toys.)

(Tangent #2: Yeah, I realize this setup is quite old, but it was dirt cheap, and was bought as an upgrade for my secondary computer, powered by an Athlon XP 2000+ CPU).

It took a bit to actually hook up the "new" parts--I had to fish out a new PSU, due to some stupidity on my part (no, I did not blow up a PSU!)--and for some reason, I had trouble screwing in the PSU to my chassis. After finally getting everything hooked up, I fired up the new computer, and got some strange error.

Long story short, it was simply user error (yes, 10,000 Stupid Points), and after a WindowsXP repair, the new computer was up and running. I tested out the computer by ripping a movie DVD; on the XP2000+ system, DVD Shrink reported a ripping speed somewhere in the 2.5-3MB/s range. With the new parts, I achieved speeds somewhere in the 7.5-8.5MB/s range, surpassing the ripping speeds on my P4 2.4Ghz system.

Yeah, I realize I'm jumping to conclusions just because one test says that this system is blazingly fast compared to the XP2000+ system. Let me enjoy my new toy!

(And yes, I'm VERY happy to also get rid of that ECS board; the fact that it lasted nearly four years is a minor miracle in itself.)

- It seems there was a little confusion yesterday regarding Citibank screwing me over yet again. First of all, I had a Citibank Dividend Platinum Select card. It was recently converted into this new World MasterCard, that I only received last week.

Because this new card no longer reports a credit limit to the three bureaus, my debt/credit utilization ratio will decrease, assuming I have any credit card debt to begin with (which I do). Fortunately for me, this card has a rather low limit, compared to the other cards I own, so hopefully the credit score impact won't be that great.

- BTW, I got an interesting comment about this World Mastercard yesterday. Read the comment, then read the blog, and then check out this "story" linked from that blog entry:

They’ll know where you go, where you drive, where you shop, what you buy, where you run, where you hide–and they’ll be able to turn you off specifically at any time.

We are no longer human—think animal tags for people—we are now officially SHEEPLE.

Um...

I guess I'm getting Extended Warranty Protection, among other features, in exchange for Big Brother being able to pinpoint exactly where I am via the RFID tag in my credit card.

Fair deal, IMO.

That's all I have for now. I'll deal with the whole NBA "scandal" another time.

Citibank Hates Me, And Some More Michael Vick Thoughts

Quick-hitters:

- What's the worst thing you could do, when you already have a cut on a finger?

Get a papercut on the same finger!

Ouch!

(10,000 Stupid Points.)

- I cooked myself some Pad Thai today, straight out of a semi-instant pack (it came with noodles and seasoning; all I had to do was include the veggies, the egg, the ground peanuts, and any meat I wanted--chicken, in this case). I didn't have any bean sprouts or green onion, though, so I used sliced brown onion instead. All in all, the seasoning was far too sweet, and I tasted a hint of freezer burn in the chicken--it had been sitting in the freezer for a while.

The pack wasn't the worst thing in the world, though, and I may try making it again. Or, I might try to make some Pad Thai from scratch.

- So a few days ago, I finally got my Citibank Dividend World MasterCard. I was excited to start milking the Extended Warranty feature of the card, when I stumbled upon this FatWallet thread.

It seems that this new credit card has one major flaw: Citi does not report its credit limit to the three major credit bureaus!

Why is that necessarily a bad thing? Well, one variable that makes up your FICO credit score is the ratio of your total credit card debt to the total available credit (debt/credit utilization); the smaller the ratio, the better. A decrease in the apparent total credit, therefore, increases your debt/credit ratio, and thus impacts your credit score negatively.

Now, if one have zero credit card debt, then a decreased total credit won't affect that individual much. But, for those that do have credit card debt, like me, this will impact one's credit card score somewhat. In fact, someone in that thread reported that his credit score dropped 30 points as a result of the switch!

(Granted, I won't be buying a new car/house/etc. any time soon, so perhaps a high credit score isn't necessary. But still!)

- More quick Vick thoughts: apparently the NFL, NFL Players' Union, and the Atlanta Falcons are urging Vick to take a leave of absence, to concentrate on his federal indictment for dogfighting. I think Vick should leave the team; his presence is only going to be a distraction to the team. Yes, the Falcons' QB options after Vick are crap, crap, and crap, but for the players' sakes, as well as his own, he needs to leave the team until there is resolution in his case.

Here's what I don't get: Pacman Jones got suspended for a year, despite not being convicted of anything (yet). Tank Johnson got suspended for eight games because he owns too many guns (apparently). So why is Vick getting the chance to take a leave? Why hasn't Goddell come down with the hammer yet?

(And yes, I was amused by PETA's protest.)

As usual, more on this next time.

Next time, you'll also get my thoughts on the really big story of the day: the alleged controversy involving an NBA official, points shaving, and gambling. Again, any time the Feds are involved, you know this is a big deal.

Happy blogging!

More Michael Vick Thoughts, And The World Series of Poker Main Event Champ

Quick-hitters:

- Apparently you need a bottle opener to open up MexiCoke bottles. I had one on my Swiss Army knife, and it didn't work too well.

Just ask my finger, which got cut on the bottle cap while trying to open the stupid thing.

(5,000 Stupid Points for that ingenious move.)

- Ooooh! Poker in HD! I can't wait for the Westminster Dog Show to be shown in HD! Or how about a chess tournament? Anyone know if ESPN showed the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition in HD this past July 4th?

- As expected, the main topic on The Jim Rome Show was the Michael Vick/dogfighting indictment. When I started listening, I heard Rome ranting about race; apparently, people were arguing that sports reporters are unfairly treating Vick because of the color of his skin.

(channeling my inner Dan Hawkins)

This is a cruelty to animals issue! This is a horrible judgment issue! It ain't a racial issue!

I guess that I just don't "get it," but how can anyone partake in the world of dogfighting? It's disgusting, it's cruel, and it's totally messed up.

Go play tiddlywinks, brother! Go play tiddlywinks!

Also, I love the argument that Kobe Bryant and the Duke lacrosse kids weren't taking this much flak for their (alleged) actions. Clearly, people don't realize that neither case involved the Feds! Not that I'm suggesting that the CO and NC district attorneys are "easier" to trifle with, but neither hold a match to the Feds!

More on this another time, for sure.

- So your 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event champion is 39 year old Jerry Yang, from Temecula, CA, winner of $8.25 million. During the latter stages of the Main Event, I kept hearing people suggest that Yang would have been the worst champion of all time, if he pulled it off--ESPN Poker columnist Andrew Feldman wrote about a hand where Yang called a raise and a re-raise with A3. Yang also made a huge call of an $8 million all-in by professional Lee Watkinson (blinds $120,000/240,000) with A9, which was a horrible decision IMO.

(If you're at the final table of a poker tournament, and you see pros at the table with decent chip stacks, the last thing you'd want to do is give them more chips, right? Yes, Yang only risked ~20% of his chips for a chance to knock out a strong opponent, but why would you risk that many chips against a pro, knowing that doubling him up is the last thing you want to do?!? Sure, it worked out, but what if Watkinson was holding a premium hand?

And pardon me if I don't buy the argument that Yang had a read on Watkinson.)

Naturally, Yang won the tournament by going runner-runner for a straight (granted, he had the best hand pre-flop, which happened quite often at the final table). Do I consider him a luck-box? Of course? Then again, which recent WSOP Main Event champ didn't have a huge string of luck en route to the title?

All things considered, there's one reason why I really was rooting against Yang to win, and it had nothing to do with his cards or his play: did anyone see his act after winning pivotal hand after pivotal hand?

(I'll update this post if I can find a video of what I'm talking about, but for now, let me describe it below.

Also, let me preface the rest of my rant by saying that I'm not a religious person, so if anything below is offensive to you, I do apologize in advance).

Listen, I know moving up in the cash structure, especially in the Main Event, is awesome, but you do not have to scream like a school girl seeing her pop star idol after EVERY hand! Also, what was with the prayers?!? I'm OK if someone says "Dear God, please give me an ace on the river!" Most of that stuff is done tongue in cheek. This guy was going on with minute-long prayers, asking his Lord and savior for help!

(You really need to see the video to understand what I'm talking about.)

I wonder what would have happened if an atheist at the table complained to the Tournament director that Yang's prayers were offensive to him. Just wondering...

Happy blogging!

MexiCoke Rules, And Quick Vick Thoughts

Quick-hitters:

- Despite getting some really really sweet (read: icky!) tomato sauces last night, I threw a few cans together with my usual mix of ingredients: one onion, chopped and browned; a few cloves of garlic, ditto; some olive oil; a bit of black pepper; some dried basil and oregano; and ground turkey meat--I was out of beef--the sauce came out pretty damn good.

(Drat! I forgot to put spinach in the sauce! Oh well, it's not too late!)

Anyway, why do some tomato sauces insist on putting corn syrup in their product???

- Speaking of corn syrup: I forgot how awesomely good MexiCoke (Coke imported from Mexico, sweetened with sugar instead of that high fructose corn syrup crap) is! It tastes crisper than its American sibling, and it seems to go down a lot smoother as well.

I bought a couple bottles yesterday ($1 each), thinking I was getting 20oz bottles. It turns out that I bought 12oz bottles instead. Oops! Still, even at $1/bottle, it was kinda worth it.

Why, oh why, must we Americans suffer with HFCS-sweetened sodas?

(Don't answer that; I'm aware of, at least somewhat, the reasons why.)

- I'm not sure of all the facts surrounding the whole Michael Vick/dogfighting indictment situation, but here are my quick thoughts on the situation.

• I don't know if Vick deserves to be kicked out of the league indefinitely, as some people have suggested. Yes, an indictment spells huge trouble, but last I checked, he hasn't been convicted yet. Don't forget, a felony conviction will take care of Vick's NFL career anyway.
  
• Should Atlanta take this opportunity to cut Vick? I say yes! Ignoring this entire legal situation, Vick is nowhere near worth the huge contract he signed a few years back (I believe the contract is in the vicinity of $130 million over seven years). Yeah, he's probably the most electric QB in the league, and yes, he's easily the most popular athlete in Atlanta today. But he's not producing, and does Falcon fan really think Michael Vick can lead them to a Super Bowl title? Yes, the Falcons' options after Vick are crap, but I hear there's a QB on the market that was recently released from Miami...
  
• I wonder what Vick's teammates think about the whole situation. If I were a player, I don't know if I could deal with the distraction of Vick's indictment during the season. All the questioning that is bound to happen, all the "what ifs?" surrounding Vick's fate during the season...and what about the fact that Vick may have to leave his team during the season to stand trial?

You'll have my thoughts on the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event tomorrow.

Happy blogging!

Grocery Store Fun, And How To Deal With Poor Cellular Service

Quick-hitters, Grocery Store edition:

- I really hate leg injuries. I always find myself compensating for the leg injury by stressing out my left leg, and, of course, I end up hurting my left leg as well. It didn't help that I had to carry a five-gallon bottle of water from the parking lot to my place.

Oh, the humanity! Maybe I can find a wheelchair I can commandeer. Or a Radio Flyer.

(Actually, I've always wanted a Radio Flyer, for those trips to Costco. Have I ever mentioned that Costco was evil?)

- In my continuing quest to find the perfect canned tomato sauce to use in my spaghetti sauce recipe, I dumped about four different brands of sauce into my shopping cart.

(Tangent: I realize that "perfect canned tomato sauce" is a probably an oxymoron. You'd be surprised, though; with a few added ingredients, even a crap can of tomato sauce can be made edible. Adding some $1.99 Chuck Shaw white wine--yes, from Trader Joe's--also helps to add a distinct flavor to otherwise crap sauce.)

Anyway, the problem with some of these crap tomato sauces is that they add corn syrup (!!!!!!). Why on Earth they'd do that is anyone's guess. I found some decent Hunt's tomato sauce a few weeks back, and that actually made quite a good sauce; unfortunately, I couldn't find that exact sauce today.

One of these days, I'm going to find the perfect canned sauce!

- Limes were on sale at three pounds for a dollar, so I got a whole bunch of limes to make limeade. My recipe:

• One cup lemon or lime juice (about 4-5 lemons, or closer to 10 limes)
  
• Simple syrup: 1 cup cold water and 3/4-1cup sugar, heated slowly until all the sugar is dissolved
• Cold water (6-8 cups will do), ice, and lemon or lime slices, if desired
  

I've got some frozen strawberries in the freezer, and some ice as well. Maybe I'll make myself a strawberry limeade.

- I saw this article a couple days ago, and am still laughing about it today. What do you do when you're dissatisfied with your cellular phone service? Commandeer a military vehicle and destroy cell phone towers, of course! No word on whether or not he was let out of his existing contract.

Then again, the article made no mention that the guy even had cell phone service. Maybe he was high, and he was one of those tinfoil-hat wearing conspiracy theorists who think cell phones are a means for the government to spy on citizens. Or maybe he really really hates the Verizon guy.

(Yes, I realize this incident happened in Australia. Sorry, but I don't know what the mobile phone carriers are there.)

Here's my question: how the hell did he get a hold of an APC in the first place?!? Did an army soldier leave the keys in the vehicle when he stopped to get some coffee? Did the driver leave the emergency lights on to go into his apartment really quickly, because he forgot something? Or is Australia that dangerous, that people are now buying APCs to protect themselves?

Well done, sir.

Random Thoughts, And A Beach Story, Continued

Quick-hitters:

- Well, I'm no longer sore all over. A very good night of sleep, and a handful of Tylenol, will do that.

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with serious knee pain. It hurt so much that I could barely walk on it. And I don't have any pain relief ointment!

Woe is me...

- Damn, I love dried apricots!

I really, really hate Trader Joe's. Such an evil store...

- I'm even richer! Another three clicks and another $2 via Google AdSense today!

Only $87 and I can request a check!

(Maybe I should put up a running tote board of my Google AdSense earnings, kinda like a telethon! We'll call it the "UngsungBlog Webspace Fund.")

I hope I'm not violating any Google AdSense rules by openly discussing my earnings :P

- Continuing with my beach story, from yesterday: Unlike Saturday, we actually arrived at the beach at a decent time (1:00pm). The water was really nice; if I recall correctly, the water temperature was an awesome 66F.

(Now you see why I could spend hours in the water.)

After getting pounded by the brutal waves for an hour, taking a stroll across the beach (the sand was HOT), and repeating ad nauseum, I got a chance to take a short break. Then, we jumped back in the water for a while, strolled across the beach again, played some frisbee, lathered, rinsed, and repeated.

(Tangent: Of all the projectiles out there, why is it that I cannot throw a frisbee??? I can throw a football, I can throw a baseball--I have a mean slider, and a wicked changeup--hell, I could probably throw a javelin well. But there's something about a frisbee that absolutely befuddles me!

I hate frisbees.)

We spent a good four hours at the beach, of which three and a half were spent doing something other than chilling out. Now you see how I woke up in as much pain as I did this morning.

That being said, I wouldn't mind going to the beach again next week.

I had more to talk about, but my knee is still hurting, and I'm sleepy.

Happy blogging!

UngsungB-Day Fun: Can't Stand The Heat? Get Out Of The Kitchen (And Go Eat Out!)

- If there's one thing I hate about my parents' place in Monterey Park (and trust me, there are a lot!), I hate how hot it gets here!

I should mention that the MPK house is a West-facing house, which is nice in the late morning/early afternoon. Around 2-3pm, though, it gets unberably hot, as the sun shines directly on us. It also makes television watching difficult to enjoy, due to glare.

At around sunset, the entire house gets extremely hot, as the heat absorbed by the walls starts being released. My sister's JVC RA-P10 said that her room temperature last night was 88F, and I thought it was lying; it felt a heck of a lot hotter than that!

The combination of the ultra-hot room, the shut windows--the neighbors around here don't understand what common courtesy is--and my sore legs after yesterday's excursion to the beach caused me to get very little sleep.

Too bad for me; we're heading out to the beach AGAIN today. I better be careful, or I might get sick of the beach eventually.

(Eh, not likely.)

(EDIT: I am so sore from the trip to the beach. Between the constant beating I took from the waves, to the trips across the beach numerous times, I'm hurting. Where the heck is my BenGay?

At least it was very nice and warm there, until 4pm, when the sun finally hid behind some clouds.)

- Ugh, I'm in a serious food coma AGAIN. Trader Joe's is evil, and so is Korean BBQ!

After the trip to the beach, we stopped by Trader Joe's. I walked in, telling myself that I wanted only a single item: a bag of veggie chips.

(Tangent: Veggie chips are chips made out of potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, and I forget what other veggies. I absolutely love these things!)

As usual, I walked out with a few other things: a bag of dried apricots, a bag of banana crisps (think banana chips, but thinner, crispier, and a tad sweeter), some caramel popcorn, those veggie chips, and a bottle of Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey.

*shakes fist at Trader Joe's*

After the trip to Trader Joe's, we had dinner at Manna Korean BBQ, for the umpteenth time. As usual, we all ate way too much meat, and paid the price for it afterwards. It got so bad that, on the car ride home, everyone nearly fell asleep (driver included!).

I'm sore, in a food coma, and really really tired all over. Zzzzzzz...

I'm Rich, I Love The Beach, And The Creation of Stupid Points

- So I got an email today, saying that an urgent package was en route to me via DHL Express.

(Before you assume that this is some scam, it is not. It's a package that I was expecting for some time.)

That was nice of the company in question to send me an email regarding the status of my package. Too bad that I had received said package two weeks ago!

It was the thought that counts, right?

- I'm rich! My site is finally making some money, thanks to Google AdSense! W00t!

(Ok fine, so I had a mere two clicks, out of thirteen impressions, which paid a cool $1.91. However, considering that I had earned $6 since I signed up, back in October of last year, I have nothing to complain about. Hey, I just increased my AdSense income by 33%! At this rate, I'll be at a hundred bucks in no time!

I need the money to pay my domain + webspace bills!)

- I love the beach! I could stay in the ocean for hours on end, frolicking (sp?) around, especially when the water is nice and warm.

(Yes, readers, you can totally disregard what I wrote last week. I hate to admit it, but I love the beach.)

It's a shame we got there so late, though; we left the house at almost 2:00pm, thanks to somebody *peers over at the guilty party*. Unlike last week, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, even though it seemed a bit cooler than last week was. The water temperature was absolutely perfect.

We must be crazy, because we're probably going to go back to the beach tomorrow. And there's a possibility that we'll be having some Korean BBQ tomorrow. No word yet on whether or not there's an available bed at my local hospital, for the angioplasty that I'm certainly going to need tomorrow.

- If you've ever watched Whose Line Is It Anyway?, you've seen Drew Carey (or Clive Anderson of the UK series) award points to the players, pointing out that the points don't matter. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had a particularly bad day, screwing up just about everything I did. It got to the point where I started awarding myself "Stupid Points" (SP) for every foul up I had.

Since then, I have found myself liberally offering SPs to people left and right.

Case in point: I just awarded myself 5,000 SPs because I came home (MPK) with my laptop, sans laptop charger.

Does that mean I hang around stupid people all the time? Definitely not!

Anyway, just like the points in Whose Line...:

• The points are just a gag and don't really matter
• At the end of the day, the person with the most points wins nothing
• The points are completely arbitrary; if one event scores more SPs than another, that doesn't mean the former event is necessarily more idiotic than the latter.

Why did I come up with Stupid Points? Because I live a sad, sad life.

(That last line was not meant to be taken seriously. If you did take it seriously, you just earned 5,000 SPs.)

Happy blogging!

(I nearly misspelled "Happy," which would have been worth 10,000 SPs.)

Self Birthday Present, And I'm Sick of Craigslist

Quick-hitters:

- Have I ever mentioned how evil Amazon Prime is? I've now placed six orders on Prime since signing up!

- So my poor mom had some teeth pulled out earlier today. My sister called me up to let me know that she wasn't feeling too well.

I started sympathizing with her, and then my sister dropped this line on me:

"Yeah, she's worried that she won't be able to go out to eat this Sunday."

Moms...can't live with them, and it's awfully hard to be alive without them.

- So I think I found my self-birthday present: a pair of Oakley RazrWire glasses! I've got a pair that look similar to these, and am pretty happy with them.

(Tangent: I don't recall ever getting an actual gift for my birthday when I was younger; I'd usually get loads of cash, though. It took me a while to realize that, if I wanted a gift, I'd have to purchase one myself. I coined the term "self-birthday present" a few years after coming to that realization.)

Unfortunately, I've got a big head, and my glasses aren't the most comfortable pair for my frame. I only got them because they were dirt cheap (yeah, bad purchasing strategy, I know).

I tried the RazrWire out at the mall a couple weeks ago, and was impressed with how lightweight they were, even with the BlueTooth headset built-in. Most importantly, they felt very snug on my face--the pair I have tend to move around a bit every now and then. I could not believe the MSRP on these glasses, though: $285?!?

$94.99 after a $15 coupon for these glasses? I'm game! The best thing is, even if the BlueTooth headset turns out to be absolute crap, it is also removable.

So...anyone wanna pitch in for my self-birthday gift?

- Craiglist is really starting to piss me off.

(The users, not the site itself, though an unnamed individual might disagree with that statement.)

For the past couple of weeks, I've been getting tons of lowball offers, promises to meet to purchase an item (and not following through), and morons that obviously can't read (I thought eBayers are the only ones that can't read). I long for the days of the different flavors of the 419 scam, such as:

• I'll send you a cashier's check for $1000, and you send me $500 back, with my item.
• I use this escrow site, and it's SAFE!
• I'll send you a Western Union money order (followed by a fake WU money order confirmation).

I wouldn't mind a pathetic "oh, my [relative] is sick, and I need the part! Can you sell it to me for [10% of cost]?"

Stupid Craigslist.

(No, this is not list-worthy.)

Happy blogging!

Logitech Z-4i Speaker Mini Review, And Won Ton Soup Is Delicious, Even In The Summer

I know, I mentioned Rashard Lewis in yesterday's blog, and never got around to the topic.

My apologies.

(A heads-up to my non-sports-fan readers: the next few blogs will be spent discussing NBA free agent signings, the MLB trading deadline, and tons of other sports topics.

I'll try to sprinkle in a blog about a barbecue every now and then :P)

- So I got a new toy a couple days ago: a Logitech Z-4i speaker system.

I bought these speakers with the intention of reselling them, but after finding out how little of a market there is for these speakers, I decided to try them out. I have not yet regretted the decision.

I should point out that my current speaker system is this cheapy Altec Lansing 2.1 setup, with a paltry 35W RMS (the Z-4is sport an 80W RMS). These Z-4is absolutely blow them away. The Z-4i's subwoofer puts the Altec Lansing's to shame, and I love the wired remote. The wired remote has an on/off switch, a volume control knob--as opposed to up/down volume control buttons on the Altec Lansing--and a number of features absent on the Altec Lansing remote: a bass knob, a headphone jack, and an auxiliary input jack.

If there's one thing to complain about, it's the fact that these speakers are white. I would have preferred black speakers. Oh well. For $29.99 after a $40 rebate, I shouldn't be complaining at all.

In any case, I finally get to get rid of my super crappy 2.1 system--which will be replaced with the Altec Lansing speakers--which probably spits out 0.5W of power :P.

- I made some Won Ton soup today. The broth was made with powdered chicken bouillon, garlic, chopped onion, ground black pepper, and a touch of soy sauce (yes, soy sauce and chicken bouillon seem redundant in the salty department, I realize). The meat was just ground pork, black pepper, and soy sauce.

(Tangent: My mom insists on using ground pork tenderloin for the filling. I don't care to use $3/lb meat, especially if it's going to be ground up and used for soup. Every time I see her approach a butcher, order a cut of pork tenderloin, and then ask the butcher to ground it up, I cry a little. I'm sure the butcher agrees with me.)

Anyway, the one thing I hate about making Won Ton soup is the preparation. Someone (Ron Popeil?) needs to invent an automatic Won Ton maker!

Damn...I could go for some more soup right about now.

Happy blogging!

Dangers of Refilling a Laser Printer Cartridge

Quick-hitters:

- Apparently lots of people found my blog via a Google search of "Pat Benatar" and the "Alhambra Summer Jubilee."

(It wouldn't surprise me if my sister was responsible for all of those hits.)

This saturday, Kool & The Gang will be performing. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to attend.

- We've had two straight overcast days here in Tarzana. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I miss the hot weather!

- I don't know what's worse: the stupid dog that keeps barking outside my window, or the idiot neighbor that has never heard of an "indoor voice."

- About a year ago, I refilled the toner cartridge in my Samsung ML-2010 laser printer.

(Tangent: It's actually a piece of cake to refill this cartridge. All you have to do is remove two screws, pop off a plastic cap, and pour the toner into the cartridge. Fill, cap, re-attach the screws, wait a few minutes, then run a couple test prints, and you're done!

It's very difficult to screw this up, but as you shall see, I found a way to screw up.)

Unfortunately, while finishing up the refill, I dropped the cartridge, denting the drum in several places. I kept using the printer, anyway, because it still printed well (if I ignored the white spots where the dents on the drum were).

Today, I got an empty Samsung ML-2010 printer cartridge in the mail, with the intention of pouring in the toner from the dented cartridge into this brand new one. I had a plan: I would use a paper funnel (made out of a 24#, 8.5x11" sheet of paper, heavily taped to make sure that the toner wouldn't spill anywhere), latex gloves, and I would do this all in my bathtub, in case of a major spill.

Needless to say, my idea was disastrous. I got toner dust all over my bathtub, and the paper funnel didn't work nearly as well as I expected it to. The transfer also took a heck of a lot longer than I expected it to (those ML-2010 cartridges sure hold a lot of toner!). Oh well, I needed to clean my bathtub anyway.

After the transfer of toner and the reassembly of the cartridge, I gently shook the cartridge back and forth a few times to loosen any stray toner. I also had to very gently clean the drum, as some toner dust found its way there. After all that, I did a few test prints, and to my utter amazement, it worked quite well! There are still a couple minute spots on the printouts, but it was not nearly as bad as the old, dented cartridge.

By the way, is it bad that I'm coughing up black powder? Someone please remind me to wear a mask the next time I even consider refilling another cartridge.

I had another topic I wanted to get to (unfortunately, it was sports-related), but I'll save it for tomorrow. Happy blogging!

iPod Shuffles Are Ridiculous, Interesting "Scam," and People Should BBQ Everyday

So I've got half a watermelon in front of me, and a big spoon.

Who wants to bet that I'll finish off the watermelon by the end of this blog entry?

(The watermelon has been refrigerated, making it even more tempting to finish.)

- I got a brand new toy in the mail today!

(Brand new to me, that is.)

It's an iPod Shuffle!

(It's really my sister's, but I get to play with it first.)

It's pretty interesting how Apple integrated the dock connector into the headphone jack, which also serves to charge the Shuffle. Also, the on/off and shuffle switches are located on the bottom of the Shuffle, while the headphone jack is located on the top. I would have liked a scroll wheel on the Shuffle, but then I realized how unnecessary that would be (considering that the Shuffle does not have a display on it).

I am amazed at how ridiculously small the Shuffle is! Clipped on, I could barely feel the Shuffle on my shirt.

(Off topic: I just got started on that watermelon. I probably won't come anywhere close to finishing it by the end of this blog. Maybe that's a good thing.)

I'm wondering when Apple will create the iPod pico. I can't wait for them to release an iPod that is embedded into your skull, powered by intracellular reactions, and with built-in WiFi for transfer of music.

- (from Consumerist) Here's a typical "scam" that's out there today: you cash a check, which enrolls you in a trial membership with some discount membership/credit protector/etc. After xx days, if you don't cancel, you get charged a monthly fee.

(I say "scam" in quotes because, most of the time, the companies make it fairly obvious that you will be charged after the free trial period. It's up to the consumer to cancel the subscription before the trial ends.)

So what's so interesting about this particular "scam?" Well, it costs $119 for the first year, and $129 thereafter. For your money, here's what you get:

• 2% cash back on up to $5,000 in purchases ($100)
• $40 in "seasonal" coupons for use on gas and groceries ($10 each)
• "Prearranged deals and discounts," which are essentially useless these days (with all the deal sites out there)

So for $119 in year one, and $129 every year thereafter, you have the privilege of earning up to $140 every year! And check out the wording on the cash back refund: "You can look forward to receiving a check for up to $100.00 each year you keep your refund privileges." Sounds like you only get the check if you keep the service active for at least one year...

If making $20 off your $120 (and $10 off your $130 after year one) is your idea of a hot deal, then by all means, go ahead and sign up!

(Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the $9.25 check you get when you initially sign up @@).

- Last night, I grilled rib eye steaks (what else is new?), roma tomatoes, and had a tossed salad and some mashed potatoes and gravy. Unfortunately, my steak was a tad overcooked, and by a tad overcooked, I mean it was medium instead of medium-rare. My sister's steak was perfect, though; a pretty reddish-pink interior, and extremely juicy.

(Off topic: All-Star game color commentator Tim McCarver just said that, if anyone needs a big bat in their lineup, it's the San Diego Padres, because their pitching staff is excellent. Hey moron, what about the Dodgers?)

(Off topic #2: I just found this site, via a Google search for "Tim McCarver." LOL!!!)

The tomatoes were unbelievably tasty too.

I plan on BBQing again, later this week; I've got tons of chicken wings and beef short ribs in the freezer. All I need is some asparagus and some more tomatoes, and I'll be set.

If only I could BBQ every day.

That's all I've got for now.

Google Analytics Fun, I Hate The Beach, and ESPN's Coverage of The Home Run Derby

- Time for some Google Analytics fun!

For the previous week (July 1-July 7), the #1 keyword hit on my site was "Kevin Hain."

(For those of you that don't know who Kevin Hain is, he's the "Escalations Supervisor" of CrapUSSR. Here's my rant on Mr. Hain and CompUSA from almost two weeks ago.)

I wonder if Mr. Hain actually Googles his own name and reads what people are saying about him. If he is, hello Kevin! *waves*

Other common keywords from the past week:

• Tammie "I am not a monster" Garlin
• Time Warner (naturally)
• Citibank (naturally)
• BigCrumbs.com

- I hate the beach. I really do. I'm not even sure why I keep going back.

Maybe it's the temperatures in the mid 70s. Maybe it's the warm sand, or the crisp, lukewarm water. Or maybe it's the sights and sounds of the beach (emphasis on "sights," if you know what I mean).

Anyway, I hate the beach. If there's even a little bit of sunshine, I'll get sunburned, no matter how much sunblock I use. I could probably use an entire bottle and still end up medium rare. And don't get me started on the waves; they were absolutely brutal yesterday.

(Yes, yesterday's return trip to the beach was much better than the day before. The sun was out, even though it was still pretty cloudy, and the water was very comfortable.)

I hate the beach. That being said, I think I'll go back next weekend...

- ESPN aired the MLB Home Run Derby today, and Vladimir Guerrero took the crown in an anti-climatic final round against Alex Rios. A few thoughts:

• I picked Prince Fielder to win. Nice job showing up.
• My sister picked Albert Pujols to win. I thought he was going to win for sure, watching him effortlessly smack homers in his second round. Too bad he ended up a single homer short.
• Hey ESPN, next year, how about more Erin Andrews, and less Peter Gammons?
• Speaking of ESPN, their coverage of the Derby was awful. If you're going to interview Bonds and A-Fraud, could you have the decency to do so between hitters, and not during a hitter's round? By the way, why did ESPN need six hosts for the Derby (the three at the stadium, and the three on the Baseball Tonight studio)? Last I checked, this was the freaking Home Run Derby!

Eh, who am I kidding? The Home Run Derby is still leaps and bounds better than any pre-all-star game event that the NBA or NHL showcases.

I BBQ'ed again today, and yes, I'm in a food coma. Details tomorrow.

Happy blogging!

Day At The Beach Ruined, And Pat Benatar In Concert

- So we decided to head out to Dockweiler Beach today, in an attempt to escape the valley heat.

Bad idea, but not for the reason you might have expected.

As soon as we reached LAX, the sun decided to disappear behind a slew of clouds. When we finally arrived at the beach, the winds and the lack of sun made the weather unbearable. Never mind the fact that the water was COLD, so much so that we didn't spend more than a few minutes in the ocean itself. To keep warm, we started jogging back and forth in the sand.

(Tangent: I forgot how hard it is to run on the beach, and it doesn't help that I'm not exactly at a high fitness level.)

We only spent a couple of hours on the beach--most of us were napping or reading a book--before we decided to pack up and leave. That was money well spent, eh?

So what does one do when a trip to the beach gets ruined by a lack of sunshine? Easy! One goes to the beach again the next day! No word yet on which beach we will be going to...

- After the trip to the beach, we went to Alhambra's Summer Jubilee to see Pat Benatar in concert! In short, the concert was quite an enjoyable experience*.

* - except for the following:

• the idiots occupying two rows in front of me, tossing popcorn at each other, crying because the ushers were only doing their job, talking and giggling throughout the concert, and basically not giving a damn about people around them. Did I mention they had two little kids with them, who did nothing but squirt water and toss popcorn at each other, and the adults? By the way, the adults were also throwing popcorn at each other.
  
• one woman in said group that wore a backless shirt, when she really shouldn't have (if you know what I mean)
• another, ahem, "heroically portly" woman who kept leaning backwards, jabbing my knee every five seconds
• the #1 Pat Benatar fan screaming "Sing Heartbreaker!" after every freaking song, and then screaming "Sing Heartbreaker!" even after Benatar sang it.

Benatar sang a bunch of songs I've never heard of, but she also sang Invincible (awesomely good, btw), We Belong, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

(Tangent: I should mention that a song can only be considered "awesomely good" by me if I've actually heard it before.)

Of course, at the end, she sang "Love Is A Battlefield" to the delight of the crowd. Yes, that was awesomely good too.

With regards to the morons in the stands: all we needed was a beach ball, a fight in the stands, overwhelmed security guards, a USC v UCLA debate, and a "Joan Jett sucks!" chant, and the experience would have matched that of an LA Dodger game in the cheap seats. Any true Dodger fan knows exactly what I'm talking about.

(I know, what should I have expected from a free concert?)

That's all for today. Happy blogging!

Time Warner Rant, More Overused Word Discussion

Yep, another scorcher today. I think a trip to the beach is in order.

(I have to fill myself up with coffee before I leave, though. I was up until 4am this morning, playing random songs on my Winamp playlist, and singing to them. I started this "game" at about 11pm, and didn't realize that five hours had passed until I looked up at my living room clock.

Oh, how time flies when you're having fun!)

- Citibank still sucks. I am still without my brand new card that I was promised three weeks ago. Usually, Citibank sends me a new card BEFORE I get the welcome kit, so I wonder what the delay is.

I need a new TV, dammit.

(This card, as I stated before, includes Extended Warranty coverage and a Price Protection Guarantee. Knowing the high fail rates of lower-tier TVs AND how precipitously they drop in price, both benefits would be nice to have on the purchase of a brand new TV.

Besides, this Sceptre TV is really pissing me off. I know, I know, why don't I just go return it NOW? If I did that, what would I do in the meantime sans TV?)

- This Time Warner packet shaping is getting ridiculous.

(Yes, I know I mentioned that it had not yet affected me. Clearly, it has now.)

I was downloading podcasts of The Jim Rome Show last night--a perfectly legitimate use of my bandwidth, no? With a 5Mbps download rate, it would not be unreasonable for me to expect a download speed somewhere around 300-400kB/s. Yet, I was lucky to reach 70kB/s, and this was at 11:00pm (not exactly peak hours)!

I'm here in Monterey Park right now, using AT&T DSL, and even on a 1.5/384 connection, I'm getting nearly 250kB/s down! In fact, I'll let the Speedtest.net results speak for themselves:


(Tangent: I believe this is the first picture I've ever included in a blog entry! Hooray for me!)

I can only dream of seeing these speeds on Time Warner during "peak" hours, if by peak hours, I mean from 12:01AM to 11:59PM, of course.

Thank you, Time Warner, for making me a more satisfied customer by packet shaping the hell out of my internet connection. You're still #1 on the list, for sure!

- So the "most overused word in English" discussion prompted more of a debate than I originally anticipated. A few bonus thoughts on the topic:

One thing that I really tried to emphasize is that I wanted the most unnecessarily overused word in the English language, which is why I ruled out articles, pronouns, and most verbs. I was looking for a word that is too often inserted into written and spoken English, often unnecessarily. That's why the word "that" came to mind. For example, I could have rewritten a previously written statement like this:

I was looking for a word too often inserted into written and spoken English...

Doesn't that retain the original meaning of the sentence, even without the words "that is?"

Hank's got a good point with the word "and," though. I'd agree that "and" is pretty overused (especially in lists, e.g. "I like cake, and pie, and cheesecake, and..."), but probably not to the extent that "that" is horribly overused.

Maybe more on this later. For now, keep the suggestions coming!

Happy blogging!

UngsungBlog, Random Thoughts Edition: Heat Sucks, Amazon Prime is Evil, And The Most Overused Word In English?

Yes, I'm aware that I still have not yet posted part 2 of my poker story. No, it will not appear in this blog.

I'm pretty sure it'll show up somewhere between now and 2009, though. :P

- I called my mom earlier today, and got her voicemail. She returned my call, and shouted "Happy Birthday!"

Too bad my birthday is still nine days away. It was the thought that counts, right?

- Accuweather.com says that it was about 85F today.

The RealFeel temp, though, was a crisp, cool, 99F.

I think it's time to go visit my relatives in Vancouver. Or maybe I should spend the weekend at a bookstore or a library. Free A/C + literature + (in the case of a bookstore) iced coffee FTW!

(Tangent: I went to Borders a couple days ago, and while I was there, I ordered a "ColdBrewed Vanilla Latte." Two complaints: one, the "ColdBrewed" coffee seemed to be nothing more than a pitcher of coffee stored in their refrigerator, leading me to suspect that "ColdBrewed" meant "instant coffee mixed with water and refrigerated"; two, my receipt, for some reason, was about two feet long, for one cup of coffee! Circuit City thinks that Borders is wasting paper with that long of a receipt.

(Sub-tangent (?): Why is the shortened version of refrigerator fridge? I'm going to revolt, and start spelling it "frige" from now on.)

Ooooh...my first ever tangent-within-a-tangent! One day, I'm going to have a blog entry full of nothing but sub-tangents. I suspect that it will go about five levels before I either finish the thread, or pass out from the headache.

- Amazon Prime is absolutely evil, in the same way that Costco is evil.

(Tangent: For those of you that don't know, Amazon Prime gives you free second-day shipping on any item that is offered by Amazon. It costs $79 a year, but you can share the subscription with up to four people in your household. Assuming it costs $10 to upgrade each order you make from free Super Saver shipping to second day, you'll get your money's worth with just eight orders.)

At the rate I'm going, I'll blitz through those eight orders in the next two weeks. I've had the service for about a week now, and I have already placed three separate orders. And I'm about ready to place a fourth one. And I almost placed a fifth.

(Did I mention that I've had Amazon Prime for about a week?)

Damn you, Amazon *shakes fist*!!!

(Actually, damn the unnamed individual who wanted to share his Amazon Prime account in the first place *shakes fist*. I wonder if I can file a lawsuit, citing "psychological and financial pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional suffering.")

(Warning: the following may contain grammar-like substances. You have been warned.)

- Over my lunch of spaghetti and homemade meat sauce, I was thinking to myself, "What word, that is often used, is the most overused word in the English language"? I figured that I would rule out all pronouns and articles (a, an, the). Then I started slashing the list down considerably; I figured that the most overused word in the English language could not be a verb; even though "to be" and its conjugated forms are quite often overused, I could not say that "to be" is the most overused word out there.

After kicking some words around in my head for a few minutes, I arrived at the answer that I'm going to stick to. The most overused word in the English language? The word "that." Just look at how many times I used it in the last two paragraphs! The word "thing" would probably have come second, but I'm sticking to my answer.

I did an awful lot of research on this subject matter, by the way, browsing through lots of grammar-related sites. By the way, I am not a grammar Nazi, if that's what you're thinking.

(Oh look! I just used "that" again!)

Happy blogging!

Name All The U.S. Presidents, Hot Dog Eating Championship

- Apparently BigCrumbs.com charges a 2% "processing fee" when sending commission payments out to members. From the FAQ:

Yes. A processing fee of 2% of the payment amount with a $1.00 cap will be deducted from each payment that we send to you.

This is the fee that PayPal charges BigCrumbs.com. We do not make money from this fee.

I never knew that it costs money to send money via PayPal. Drat! There goes $0.16 off my commission payment! :P

At least BigCrumbs.com is quick with crediting me for a purchase. The longest they took to credit me for a transaction was a week. I can't say that about the other cash back sites I currently use.

- (from Digg) Can you name all 43 U.S. Presidents?

I didn't come close. I got 28 correct out of 43--even less, when you consider that typing in "Adams" or "Bush" earns you two points each--and there were a few gimmies I completely missed (how in the world I forgot about Dwight D. Eisenhower is beyond me).

I'm ashamed of myself. Either that, or I didn't care to remember the names of every freaking President. In fact, I don't recall ever having to do this in school!

Now, if the test was to name all fifty states and their capitals, that's a different story. I could probably do THAT in ten minutes.

- USA! USA! USA! The reigning six-time Nathan's Hot Dog eating championship, Takeru Kobayashi, has gone down to American Joey Chestnut! Chestnut downed a record 66 hot dogs and buns en route to the title of "Biggest Glutton."

In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

Well written, I must say. No, I did not get up early this morning to watch the event. And no, I don't know if it aired on ESPN-HD. All I know is that we can put this victory alongside the USA Hockey team's triumph of 1980, Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series, Michael Jordan's "Shot" in 1998, and New England's upset victory over the Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl.

(Tangent: Ugh, that last statement made me throw up a little in my mouth.)

I have a feeling that the author of the article had lots of fun writing it; just check out the last paragraph:

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut, the veins on his forehead extended, put away the final franks to end Kobayashi's reign.

The writer makes the event sound more exciting than the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl! Damn, now I wish I woke up early enough to catch the event live! Oh well, that's what SportsCenter is for, right?

(If it isn't painfully clear, I have ZERO interest in watching the highlights, or a taped broadcast, of the "event.")

That's it for today. Happy blogging!

NBA Free Agent Talk: Rashard Lewis, Chauncey Billups, And The Lakers' Big Signing

(This blog entry needs to be posted now, for I don't know when I'll have a chance to post it on Wednesday. I'll probably be out late, or in a serious food coma, or a combination of both. Lunch time BBQ + dinner time BBQ + snacking on leftovers in between = certain death!

Gluttony on holidays FTMFW! What can I say? I'm "heroically portly" [thanks Hank].)

Happy Fourth of July!

Accuweather.com reports that the RealFeel temperature will be 95F tomorrow in Agoura Hills, and a cool 100F in Monterey Park. It's a good thing I won't be doing any of the actual cooking tomorrow. Although...maybe I could sweat off a few pounds before each meal.

(Time for some NBA talk, with the official start of free agency right around the corner!)

- Rashard Lewis will leave Seattle, after agreeing to a 5-year deal worth somewhere between $75 million and $85 million. Fifteen million a year for Rashard Lewis? Not to mention, signing Lewis probably costs Orlando the services of Darko Milicic. Yeah, Lewis a nice player--you can't teach 6'10", right?--with a nice shooting stroke, but does a Jameer Nelson-Rashard Lewis-Dwight Howard core get Orlando close to championship contention? I'd say no. I can't see Lewis or Turkoglu playing SG (replacing Grant Hill, who will probably go to Detroit), and the Magic have a woefully thin bench. Lewis should, however, cause teams to double team Howard less, and Howard's gotta be happy with that.

One other concern: will Orlando be willing to extend both Howard and Nelson? Of course Howard will get a max extension. But will they be able to extend Nelson, and have enough cap space to get veteran help for the Nelson-Lewis-Howard trio? Also, is Orlando really ready to give up on Darko after one year and a lost draft pick?

Clearly, Orlando is overpaying for Rashard Lewis, and I'm not sure how happy Orlando will be with their investment.

- An earlier report stated that Chauncey Billups and the Detroit Pistons had agreed to a 5-year deal worth $60 million, but Billups' agent called the report a "vicious rumor."

(Tangent: Wow! I didn't know that "invalid" was a synonym for "vicious." There goes my rant asking about how vicious a $60 million contract signing could possibly be!)

That being said, Detroit has to get this deal done. Personally, I think $12 million a year is too excessive for the guy--he's still living off his performance in the 2004 Finals, after all. However, the Pistons absolutely need Billups, if they plan on contending for a title next year.

As an aside, I don't see how Grant Hill helps this team that much. He's not going to crack the starting rotation, unless Rip Hamilton leaves the team, and I'm not sure I'd pay the mid-level exception for a sixth man with injury risks.

- Finally, Kobe Bryant is getting help, as the Lakers made a huge free agent signing!

(Ok, ok, Luke Walton isn't huge at all :P)

Has Kobe bought a house in another major city yet?

Thank You Chase, And Pillaging Rite Aid

So I got a nice, big, bubble mailer yesterday. It was a package shipped from Buy.com.

Nothing special about a bubble mailer, right? You're right. Unless that bubble mailer arrived to me unsealed.

Yes, somehow, some moron at Buy.com forgot to seal the envelope, which contained a pair of software titles. The only thing holding the bubble mailer together was a piece of USPS "This parcel arrived damaged and we're not responsible for any damage to the packet" tape.

Well done, Buy.com. You have cemented your spot on my list.

- We have a new addition to my list! Congrats, Chase!

(Background: I like to my off my credit cards as soon as possible. Sometimes, I'll make the payment the same day that the online statement is released. I'd rather pay a credit card really early than risk missing the due date and incurring a late fee.

When paying off a Chase card online, you have four options: paying the statement balance, paying the minimum payment, paying the current balance [statement balance + any charges made after the statement closed], and paying some other amount.)

Yesterday, I logged into my Chase account to pay my Chase Freedom Visa card. I went over the online statement, and noticed a finance charge!

(It was a $1 charge, but still!)

I quickly glanced over the statement, and noticed that the amount I paid was exactly the same amount as the statement balance of the previous statement, not the one that was due. I then clicked on "Pay Card," and noted that the listed statement balance was equal to last month's statement balance!

I called Chase to report this site error, and was referred to Chase's Internet Services department (or something like that). All they told me was that I should wait 3-4 business days after the statement is due before paying my statement. Fantastic...instead of fixing their problem, I have to inconvenience myself by waiting to pay off the credit card each month on their terms.

I know, I know...what a weak rant!

- I love Rite Aid. Single Check Rebates + coupons FTW! Having two addresses to file SCRs? Even better! I went there with my sister, and we picked up a whole bunch of cheap stuff. I got two tubes of Crest toothpaste for MMAR (Make Money After Rebate), two bottles of hair gel @ BOGO (buy one, get one free), and two bottles of Pantene for a buck a bottle.

(Tangent: I have no problem using "women's" shampoo. Aside from the smell, as long as it does a good job, I don't care. And Pantene's a good shampoo, is it not?)

Ice cream was also $1.99 a box, so I couldn't refuse. I got some mint chocolate chip, and a box of cones to go with it. My sister got some FAR deodorant, a bottle of some shampoo, and a bottle of some conditioner. She couldn't pass up ice cream either :P

All that junk for $20 and change, after the rebates. Not bad!

Excuse me while I go take a shower...

Food Coma-tosis, Take Two (Part Two): Hot Pot Goodness, And The Thieving Aunt

Wow, the Accuweather RealFeel temperature today was supposed to be 99F.

It sure as heck felt a lot hotter than that! And it's only early July!

Is it safe to sleep in a bathtub full of ice cubes?

- Before I get started, prayers need to go out to Derek Fisher, his young daughter, and his family. Fisher requested, and was subsequently released, by the Utah Jazz, in order to seek medical care for his 11-month-old daughter. If you recall, his daughter has retinoblastoma, a serious, and rare, cancer of the eye.

Good luck, D-Fish, and let's hope you are able to return to the league real soon, after your daughter beats this horrible disease.

- One other note: that Russell Martin guy is pretty good, no? Four more hits today! M-V-P!

- So after sweltering through the Wat Thai, we went to 99 Ranch, to get some stuff for a Hot Pot.

(Tangent: Why, oh why, did we have a Hot Pot on such a hot day? Because we're stupid?)

99 Ranch, btw, has an awesome drink bar. Their watermelon juice slushie-thingy is to die for! We spent a good hour and a half at the supermarket--grocery shopping when it's really hot is always fun--picking up all the ingredients we needed for the dinner: thinly sliced chuck steak, enoki mushrooms, beef meatballs, shrimp, spinach, watercress, rice noodles, tripe (ewwwwww), bean curd, and the soup base.

The food was good, as usual, though we were all sweating by the end of the meal. We had the A/C on full blast, and that didn't help much. It also didn't help that we all badly overate--we're a bunch of gluttons, I know! As usual, we bought way too much stuff; there was probably enough food to feed ten more people!

When my sister, mom, and aunt were ready to leave, I demanded that they take some of the groceries back. My mom took a couple of items, and my aunt didn't want anything. I insisted that most of the food would be tossed eventually--we were never going to be able to finish it all--and said to just take whatever.

Big mistake...my aunt decided to take just about everything she got her hands on. She ended up filling about three grocery bags full of stuff she didn't really want (so she said). At that point, I started cracking jokes about her wanting to take my wallet, my laptop, my sister's cell phone, etc. She ended up talking about 2/3 of the leftovers we had!!!

An hour after they left, I then realized that she didn't even pay for any of the groceries!!!

Damn my family...full of freaking freeloaders!

It's really hot, and I need some ice cream, assuming my aunt didn't take that too. Happy blogging!

Food Coma-tosis, Take Two (Part One): Burning Heat, And Street Signs Are Suggestions

So, today was quite an event-filled day. I've got (yet another) food coma, so let's hope I can get through this blog entry.

(Yeah, the poker story is going to have to wait another day.)

- My sisters, my mom, my aunt, and I had lunch at the Wat Thai, where we enjoyed skewered pork and chicken, papaya salad, noodle soup, and I ordered a plate of Pad Thai, which was a bit dry. As you shall see later, I should probably have passed on lunch.

(Tangent: My sister bought a couple bags of noodles that could be best described as "Pad Thai-in-a-bag": noodles with a Pad Thai seasoning packet. I hope it makes a decent dish, even though I don't have any bean sprouts.)

By the way, Accuweather.com reported the RealFeel weather for today at 92F. There is no way that it felt like 92F today. It had to be at least 100F today, if not higher. It was HOT.

- On the way out of the Wat Thai, I noticed a bunch of cars trying to park on Coldwater Canyon Blvd. There was a single "No Parking" sign there, and a bunch of workers (named Wat Thai Monitors) were on the street, notifying people of the sign. One moron, apparently, argued with a Monitor over the validity of the sign. Although I didn't hear their conversation, it was pretty clear that the guy was intent on parking there; after a five-minute discussion or so (we're slow walkers), we noticed that the moron went ahead and parked there anyway.

This got me thinking: Is there a more black-or-white street sign than "No Parking?" I mean, you could argue with a cop if you ran a red light, saying that it was yellow when you went through the intersection. But other than "oh, I didn't see the sign, because it was blocked by trees," how else could you argue a No Parking sign? Last I checked, the sign didn't say "No Parking, please." I'm now convinced that all street signs/lights/indicators in the state of California have an implied "please" at the end of them (Stop, please; Yield, please; Speed Limit 65, please; etc.).

My head hurts, so this story will continue tomorrow. One quick rant, though: Diet Pepsi is absolutely disgusting! I thought it would taste pretty good--I like Pepsi more than Coke, so I figured that Diet Pepsi would be better than Diet Coke. Boy, was I wrong!

(Note to self: avoid buying Diet Pepsi again, at all costs!)

Tomorrow: no poker (:P), Hot Pot goodness (why we were eating this on such a hot day is anyone's guess), and my freeloading aunt (:P)...as well as whatever else I happen to stumble upon.

Happy blogging!