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!