Stagga Lee

Based on Dan's recommendation, I downloaded the song "Roll With MVP" by Stagga Lee. It's a pretty good song actually, good beat and rap. Plus, the distinguishing feature of the song is the girl in the background going "lalalalala... lalalalala". It reminds me of this Visa NFL commercial from a couple years ago, where the guy in charge of music at the football stadium cant buy a "Jock Jams" CD or whatever with a check, and the fans and Jerome Bettis end up having to listen to this flamish song "looooo--ving you is easy cause you're beautiful... lalalalala.... lalalalala.... aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Chras does it better in person.

Anyways, since I was curious to see who this Stagga Lee character is, so I looked him up on Google. It asked me "Did you mean: stagger lee?", but still linked me to the official site run by his record company. Boy, was I surprised to see what he looked like. I thought he was on the St. Lunatics, but I think I was thinking of Murphy Lee. But yeah, if anyone has a few minutes, I highly recommend you read through his bio on the official site:

http://stagga-lee.com/whosstaggalee.html

I found it to be very, VERY entertaining. It reminds me of the articles P writes about Stork, kind of the same style. Except the people writing this article are serious, so it ends up being what Sports Guy would call "Unintentional Comedy". Either way, it made me laugh pretty hard to read it. My favorite part was when he was talking about changing "forget the bullsh*t" in his lyrics to "forget the bull, kid".

Traitors

So Jason Kidd loses in the NBA Finals to the Spurs, and now everyone expects him to leave New Jersey and sign with the Spurs so he can win a championship next season. Nothing personal against Jason Kidd, and I know he hasn't left yet, but it bothers me that this kind of thing happens so much in the sports world today, and seems like it's widely accepted.

Karl Malone might do the same thing this year. Charles Barkley did it twice in his career, first from Philly to Phoenix (where he failed haha), then from Phoenix to Houston. Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, and many others have bolted for the Yankees in recent years. Ray Bourque got traded to the Avalanche a few years back from Boston, just so he could win a Stanley Cup. A good story, but big deal. Every season, Deion Sanders wants to sign with any team that looks like it will win the Superbowl. Phil Jackson refused to coach once the Bulls were broken up, until he got a team with Shaq and Kobe, almost a guaranteed championship.

What's so special about ditching your teammates so you can win a championship with a team that's already good? I don't respect that, and it cheapens the value of a "championship" too. Jordan and the Bulls sucked for many years in the 80s, but they got progressively better as a team. Eventually, they won 6 NBA titles as one of the greatest sports dynasties ever. That's the way it should be done.

Friday the 13th

I'm not really superstitious and I don't believe in Friday the 13th, but I might as well talk about it. For some reason I was listening to Carlos Mencia (comedian) and he was talking about different people having bad days. Like if you sold fishing equipment for a living, and you had a REALLY bad day, it would be like teaching someone to use a fishing pole and then accidentally gouging someone's eye out with a hook. On the other hand, if you were the President of the United States, and you had a REALLY bad day, everybody dies.

So I was thinking about how my idea of a "REALLY bad day" has changed throughout life. Like when I was 5 years old, a really bad day was probably wetting my pants while not wearing diapers. 10 years old, probably something like forgetting my lunch, missing the bus, getting into a fight with other kids, etc. High school/college, things like failing a final, getting into an accident on the road, or arguing with your girlfriend.

As expected, the concept of a "really bad day" gets more serious and affects more people around you as you get older and more "important". Right now, I have a relatively little role at my job, so if I pork up, probably not a lot of people will suffer. Also, if I happened to be laid off, it wouldn't be the end of the world, at least I don't have to support a family and stuff.

But still, compared to life before graduation/working, I'm feeling more like something is actually at stake if I screw up or have a really bad day. Like if I forgot to pay taxes, bad stuff will happen. If I decided to drive drunk, I could end up with a DUI, thousands of dollars in court fees, and a mark on my record for many many years to come. Worse yet, I could hit and kill someone because of my recklessness (including myself). A far cry from the old days, when the worst thing that would happen was a detention or getting suspended from school.

Years from now, say I get married, have 3 kids, and become the CEO of a large company. If I seriously mess up then, hundreds or thousands of people could lose their jobs. My wife might leave me, and my children would be psychologically messed up for life, then go on to have kids of their own who will be messed up too. That's a lot of people riding on you, some big time pressure to say the least.

Well, I guess one good thing I could always hold onto is that I'm not Neo. It would suck to be "The One" because if you have a bad day, machines will take over the human race. Not to mention, you got a bunch of Mr. Smiths after you, and your girl Trinity is ugly.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Long Week

This has felt like the longest week ever. I haven't even been working overtime hours, but it seems like I am. Then I think about what I've accomplished work-wise so far this week, and it really doesn't seem like I have anything much to show for it either. After work, I can't really think of anything I've been doing that's worth noting. And this has showed blog-wise, as some of you may have noticed, I haven't been writing as much this week like I'm used to.

Maybe I haven't been doing anything because I've done a lot of "spacing out" instead. At my desk, on my bed, while eating, while driving, just about any situation, my head just wanders off to nowhere. My brain is really cluttered these days, but instead of trying to sort out thoughts, I end up just listening to music and letting the time pass until it's time to sleep. Not good.

Oh well, at least one thing I did accomplish this week was to sign up with Dennis at Bally's yesterday. Even though my membership at Powerhouse (or X-Sport Fitness) lasts till September or October, the "2 for 1" deal was too good to pass up. Now I'm set for 3 years. Anyways, I was basically only going to P-house on weekends in Darien, and I'll still probably do that thru the remainder of my membership.

*****

I just got a email from my mom to see if I had any ideas for Father's Day. She wants us to do something "memorable" as a family, but I have no idea what a family like us can do together. Both me and my sister are 20-something now, and other than having dinner with mommy and daddy, what kinds of things are there to do? It's already hard enough thinking of stuff to do with friends. Well, I guess I'm gonna try to think of a gift first, and then hopefully my trusty sister will have some ideas on what to do.

*****

Here is an interesting article on rebates that I read yesterday. I always wondered how and why manufacturers or stores would give rebates that made their products effectively free. Seemed like something shady was going on in that world.

Well, I guess it is a combination of these companies being shady but also people being lazy. And by "people", I guess it means "men". I figured a small percentage of people would always forget or be lazy, but not enough for the store/manufacturer to recoup significant profits. But if read the article right, the numbers suggest that usually at least 10% fail to collect their rebates for one reason or another, and 90% failure is not uncommon. If that's true, there's significant profit right there.

So the lesson to be learned is, be careful and vigilant about rebates, cause it's easy to get screwed out of your money and it happens more than you think. Sales are always better.

*****

Anyone know of a good place to buy checks? I've still been using the temporary ones Anuj gave me when I opened the account, but I'm gonna run out soon. I figure most people just get them from their bank, but Bank One charges too much I think. Plus I wanna see if there are cool designs out there. I'd pay more for those. Email/IM/Post Comment if you have any input, thanks.

(p.s. Josh if u read this, can u send me the name of that tint place again, I accidentally closed my IM without writing it down yesterday and now I forgot the info. thanks much appreciated)

Random Notes

- The "one-year reflection" blog is taking a lot of time. I think I will still do it, but not as in-depth as I planned.

- Happy Birthday to Caddy

- It is too cold to be June. I remember last year even in March/April/May we would be outside all the time, either on the Quad, or playing tennis, or BBQ-ing at the lake. This year, I still haven't put away my winter coat yet.

- Nothing is more frustrating in baseball than when a manager handles his pitchers like a reject and the team pays for it. It hurts even more in the fantasy world when my team pays for it.

- Running is boring, but I think I am gonna do more of it

- I'm going to tint the windows to my car sometime soon. If anyone has done this recently, and/or has any places to recommend, let me know.

- For some reason I really like the Ashanti song they are playing on the radio. I think it's called "Rock Wit U", but anyways it's the one where she goes "oh baby" after almost every line. I have had it stuck in my head hardcore for the past couple days.

- They have been playing "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" a lot on USA lately. I thought this movie was pretty well done, maybe except for a few things. But the reason I'm writing about it is because of the theme music. I am pretty sure I have heard it from at least one other movie too, if not more. Don't know which movie it is originally from. If anyone has time to download it, listen, and see if you recognize it from any movie you know, please tell me because it has been bothering me.

- It also got me thinking about the best movie songs ever. Of course, I am not qualified to do a complete list because there are so many movies I haven't seen, but there are a few that come to mind. The Dragon theme is good, except for a part around the 3 minute mark when they add a cheesy drum beat. Definitely there would be a ton of John Williams stuff on my list, like the Original Star Wars Theme, the Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, E.T., Home Alone (seriously, he did that one), Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, on and on. Also, I like "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile, which I noticed was pretty high up on VH1's list of top 100 songs in the past 25 years too. I haven't seen the Godfather movies, but even so, that song gives me chills when I hear it. And of course, who can forget the all time classic, "Part Of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. Certainly not I.