Blogorrhea

- It's been a while since I watched a movie, the last one was Matrix Reloaded I think. People have told me that Bruce Almighty, Finding Nemo, Italian Job, and 2 Fast 2 Furious are all good, and I haven't seen any of them. Also, the Hulk is coming out this weekend, but I was never really a fan so it doesn't excite me. So, either I will go on a movie-watching spree in the next couple weeks, or I could just wait and in a few months I will be able to have a movie-renting spree. Sometimes it's good to "invest" by not watching movies in the theater when they come out, so that I'll have something to rent in the future.

- I think I could watch any of the Austin Powers movies over and over without getting sick of them. Although I have only seen the 3rd one once, I'm sure I wouldn't mind seeing it many times, especially since Britney is in it. The original AP is my favorite though. "My name is Richie Cunningham and this is my wife, Oprah"... hahahha. Too bad I think only a few people I know of (other than myself) truly enjoy parts like those.

- I don't really use cash anymore, other than at fast food restaurants. It's a good thing in that I don't have to deal with coins and stuff as much, and I can track my spending on my credit card bill and bank statement. But the downside is that I never get to use "benjamins" or "c-notes". Which sucks, because I'm trying to talk and be more ghetto. I mean, what's cooler, writing a check for $500, or pulling out a wad of bills and counting out the money yourself? You ever hear rappers talk about "swiping my debit card at Jewel"? Doubt it.

- I've been trying to figure out a cheap, easy way to play DVDs from my computer to my TV. I thought it would just be a cable with a VGA connector on one end and S-Video on the other. But after looking and asking around, I don't think it's that simple. I think I would need a converter thing, and those all cost around a hundred bucks from what I've seen online. Which is stupid, because in that case I might as well just spend the benjamin on a cheap DVD player anyways. And I think that is what I will do.

- This is an exciting year, because it is the year in which 2Pac is supposed to return. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up "2Pac" and "7 year theory" on Google and you will probably find some very convincing explanations. Me and Chras have been believers since freshman year of college.

- I played one game of craft yesterday, and for the first time in a long time, felt like I was awesome. A 3v3 with randoms, the other team was a clan, one of my partners left for no reason in the first 5 minutes, and the other partner sucked. So I took over and dominated. Maybe it's cause I was playing at around 5pm and only high school kids play at that time after school, but still, I was proud of myself.

- One thing that sucks about work is that I have to remember too many passwords, and then they make you change them every month or two. I always used the same password for everything, but now I have to be creative and sheezy, because you can't repeat any of your passwords in the past 5 cycles or something. Then, I end up forgetting what it was, and I gotta go through all this trouble just to reconfigure my login.

- I like the Michelle Branch song "Are You Happy Now", maybe so much that I will leave a comment on her Xanga site. The only thing is, her voice reminds me a little too much of Alanis Morrissette. It's more noticeable in the song "All You Wanted", but sometimes I swear she must be related to Alanis or something.

- Puff Daddy is getting creative with his sampling. It seems to me that the Bad Boy/Nelly song they are playing right now blatantly rips off its beat from the "Tomahawk Chop". You know, the one Atlanta Braves fans used to do at games, with the ax motion and everything. "OHHH-OH-OH-OHHHHH..... OHHHH-OH-OH-OHHHHHH...."

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)