Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts

Monday, June 16, 2008

The Latest From the WTF Desk

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T+125 hours (or: That's Five Days People!)
And still the urges come. (Stop. You know what I mean.) And I'm starting to realize how many times a day I used to reach for the pack by reflex or just habit. First thing in the morning: light up. Coffee? Without a cigarette?? Take the dog out to pee: grab a smoke for the trip. Finished eating? Nicotine for dessert. How many times a day was this just "what was done" rather than a response to any kind of chemically induced dependency? Ten? Twenty? And I didn't recognize this when I was doing it. But now I catch myself at it, and wonder what I'm going to do to "fill in" those spaces.

So that's the latest from the Mojo Air Quality Board. Let's see what else is new.


Who's my Mystery Date?
This is a little spooky... I was checking out my SiteMeter stats, and came across this visit:
Domain Name: (Unknown)
IP Address: 98.26.54.# (Unknown Organization)
ISP: Unknown ISP
Location
Continent: Unknown
Country: Unknown
Lat/Long: unknown
Language: English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System: Microsoft WinXP
Browser: Firefox 2.0.0.14 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14

Who is this hiding behind the subnet mask, I ask? FBI? CIA? DIA? NSA? BVD? STP? LSD? PCP? This is somebody who really doesn't want me to figure out who he/she/they is/are. Almost every other (unduplicated) visitor I've figured out now based on where they are, what site (or link) referred them, there's almost always some clue for someone of slightly above average technical proficiency. But my technical prowess isn't developed enough to decipher a handful of "Unkown's". And this visitor doesn't even leave a trail showing what continent he/she/they is/are on.

Maybe it was actually ET...



Isn't this taking exclusivity a little far? "Limited Edition" M&M's?? No, I am not kidding. I got some from the vending machine at work. Apparently there's a "new flavor" out that they're test marketing called "Wildly Cherry". And actually they don't suck in a chocolate-covered-cherry kind of way. At least the "cherry" component isn't sickeningly sweet.

So I opened the package very carefully with my handy key-ring-mounted Swiss Army knife to preserve it as intact as possible. That way once the "Limited Edition" is out of print I can sell the wrapper on eBay for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

You scoff at my strategy? Consider this: A few weeks ago, Jay Leno reported that an empty Fritos bag fetched $565 on eBay. And this was not a Limited Edition. It wasn't even a special flavor, just ordinary Fritos corn chips. The only thing special about the bag is that the seller (some guy from L.A.) claimed he had held it through the entire game as the Lakers won... some playoff series or other. If I remember it right, he was even including a Certificate of Authenticity along with the bag.

And that last bit really made me wonder. (I know, like the rest of the story is so very normal right?) But seriously, never mind that he took the time to design the certificate. Anybody who has the stones to sell an empty Frito bag on eBay would do something like that. What I want to know is just who the hell he got to attest to the bag's authenticity? Who would be willing to testify to the provenance of an empty fucking snack food wrapper??? The snack bar cashier that sold it to him? The drunk ass fan sitting next to him? The F&B manager at Staples Center?

And how do we know this is the actual bag he clutched in his sweaty palm while the Lakers were battling... whoever they were battling? Does the bag say "Sold at Staples Center" on it somewhere? Did he get a receipt to prove that this wasn't just a bag that his mom put in his lunchbox one day? And even if one of those things is true, is the bag stamped with a date/time stamp so we know for certain that it was sold at the game in question? And even if that much is true, how do we know the guy actually held it in his hand for the duration? Couldn't he have simply picked it up from among the half a ton of garbage left behind by the arena patrons?

This is a whole new brand of absurdity people. But the most mystifying part of all is that he.actually.sold.it!! For $565! Some idiot bid five hundred sixty-five dollars for an empty snack food wrapper of at best questionable provenance. By contrast, My M&M's bag says "Limited Edition" right on the front of it. So now all I have to do is go find some historic event to witness, take the bag and perhaps an auditor from Lloyd's or Barclay's along with me and I should be able to clear a few grand easy!


So if you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?Stumble This!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Stuff I found on Amazon

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Amazon may be one of my favorite bookmarks. Where else can you find music, movies, and a nail gun -- and a compressor to run it -- all in one place? So having recently discovered the band Good Charlotte, I decided to see what kind of deals I could get on their music and merch.
So I used the search terms: good charlotte (Well? What would you use?)

Some of the items you'd expect. CD's, the odd DVD, MP3 downloads, T-shirts... you know, the usual. But it appears that someone actually wrote a book on these guys and the startup of the band. Impressive since a disturbing percentage of pop stars these days have reading skills that might be called "questionable".
Story Of Good Charlotte
Story Of Good Charlotte by Doug Small (Paperback - Jan 1, 2004)

Good Charlotte Riot Girl Air Freshener
Then came this gem; the Good Charlotte Riot Girl Air Freshener by Old Glory. (Makes agreat gift! Because we all know that nothing shows you care better than a gift that says "your car stinks".)

Further into the list we find what may have been the inspiration for the band's name. I guess we have to read the other book to find out for sure.
Good Charlotte by Carol Beach York and Victoria De Larrea (Paperback - Feb 1994)

Charlotte's WebAs we progress through the list, the search terms start to break down. I might have expected to find Charlotte's Web in the list somewhere, but I wasn't prepared for Charlotte's Web by Sega of America, Inc. (Nov 21, 2006) (Windows 2000 / 98 / Me / XP) I mean come on... Charlotte's Web: The Video Game? I know merchandising is where the real money is made, but isn't this a bit much?


After that things got downright "homey" for a guy from North Carolina. Or for some guys it would be anyway. Like the NBA fan.
Charlotte Bobcats NBA Men's "Coaches Series" Watch
Charlotte Bobcats NBA Men's "Coaches Series" Watch by Game Time
Or the baseball fan (for those who didn't know, the Charlotte Knights are a baseball team in the AA Southern League. Or were anyway.)
Charlotte Knights Extreme Neon Baseball
Charlotte Knights Extreme Neon Baseball by Bmore Sports (Division of PTC Intl)


But then came the coup d'grace.


Good Sex: A Woman's Guide to Losing Inhibition by Charlotte Kane.
Good Sex: A Woman's Guide to Losing Inhibition
Guys, pay attention here. This does not make a great gift. Unless of course you don't care about never getting any from the girl you give it to ever again.
Too bad Amazon didn't put a Look Inside! link on this one...



Is This Thing on?
I started tweaking my layout today and added a Sitemeter tracking device just to see how many guests I entertain with my blistering wit.
Within hours I noticed that my traffic had doubled. That's right, a 100% increase.


I had two. And they were both me.


Now you might think I'd find this disappointing. And it is, in one way. But it's also very liberating. Because it means I can pretty much write anything I feel like, and nobody's going to be offended.


Stumble This!