I don’t think I have ever been amped up for a direct-to-video movie until now. This show was a whole lot of fun. It pre-dated “Reaper” which I love now, but it is the same basic concept, except with a girl. And she is the impossibly cute Ellen Muth, which doesn’t hurt at all.
The reason that I feel like writing about this at all is that as the media cycle has come around on this Cavs vs. Wizards first-round matchup, and the prevailing opinion that Darius Songaila should not have been suspended for game 6 has now become an unarguable fact in the media. I heard Steve Czaban talk about it this morning on Fox Sports Radio. I heard commentators talk about it during the Cavs’ game 6. I heard commentators talk about it during the Celtics vs. Hawks game 6. It seems that everyone talking about this suspension is now referring to it as a great travesty - an injustice of epic proportions - the proof that the NBA is at worst fixed, and at best in favor of protecting their meal-ticket LeBron James to whatever lengths to ensure that he succeeds.
I have heard quite enough of this.
Yes, the NBA has a vested interest to protect LeBron James. As a fan of the Cleveland Cavs, I would argue that they didn’t do a good job at all. All series long the Wizards talked about hitting LeBron when he drove through the lane. And the proof was there that the Wizards were no longer looking to play basketball. Instead they decided to commit fouls and try to physically intimidate one of the game’s best players by hitting him rather than playing tough defense and double-teaming him.
What is the NBA supposed to do when a team like the Wizards is so blatant and unapologetic about their tactics? They don’t have a right to beat up one of the game’s best players and tell the world that they plan on doing it without some reaction from the NBA executive office. It isn’t in the league’s best interest to let any of this stuff happen. Ever since the Ron Artest fight in the stands, the NBA has been quite proactive about keeping fights under control and the Wizards basically said that they were going to push the limits of this series by hitting LeBron James when he came into the lane.
And this is where the Darius Songaila situation unfolds. The reason that the NBA suspended Darius Songaila was because in their view he threw a punch at another player after the whistle. This is the NBA’s definition of fighting. And just look at the replay. Songaila’s hand comes up and hits LeBron James in the face after the play. They were tangled a bit, but his hand flies up and hits LeBron.
Now, whether it was intentional or not is up for debate by you, me and everyone else. Stu Jackson from the NBA has the final verdict and he determined that it was intentional by Songaila. I don’t know if it was truly intentional or not. It could go either way from my viewpoint looking at the video in a completely unbiased manner. The thing is that nobody should view it in an unbiased manner. This series was defined by the trash talking of the Washington Wizards. It was backed up by 5 games worth of hard hits and hard fouls to LeBron James including a push while he was in the air, two shots to the head, and finally Songaila’s “punch.”
So, please, someone tell me why the Washington Wizards and Darius Songaila should have been given the benefit of the doubt by Stu Jackson and the NBA? In a world where it is in the NBA’s best interest to keep fights out of their games and protect all players from harm, why shouldn’t they send a message after five straight games of premeditated rough play and fouling?
If anything the Wizards were lucky that Brendan Haywood wasn’t suspended for his push of LeBron early on in the series. To a lesser extent they should have felt lucky that they didn’t lose DeShawn Stevenson after his hard foul to LeBron’s head in another game. How many times do the Washington Wizards think they deserve the benefit of the doubt when they talked all series long, basically calling their shots against LeBron before they even occurred?
According to Stu Jackson and the NBA they didn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt any longer. I don’t understand how anyone else could disagree either.
Granted there were worse fouls in the series. There were worse fouls in other series. None of that matters. With the consistent evidence provided by the Washington Wizards to the NBA of how they were going to play this series they finally put the NBA to a decision with something that looked like a punch after the whistle. And that hints of fighting. The NBA can roll with the punches (pun intended) on hard plays if they feel like it, but they will not roll with it when it looks anything like a fight.
The short story is this. The Cavs played the Wizards in the opening round of the playoffs. The Wizards despite pussying out on the name “Bullets” felt that it would be a good idea to beat the crap out of LeBron James and then call him a crybaby when he said he wasn’t going to bend from all their shots that they were throwing his way.
Papa John’s in Washington thought it would be a fine idea to print some Crybaby t-shirts with the number 23 on them for the sixth game of the opening round where LeBron scored a triple double and sent the Wizards to the golf course for the season. Didn’t you all look silly with those t-shirts on as you left early due to the pounding that LeBron gave you in your home arena?
The problem with Papa John’s opportunistic promotion was that Cleveland is a decent market for Papa John’s. Clevelanders eat a lot of pizza, apparently. I counted on the website and there are at least 10 locations that come up when I search my zip code. That means that there are ten within striking distance of Cleveland and LeBron fans. How does that guerrilla marketing plan look now?
Boycotts were mentioned. Cleveland fans were riled up. You will remember that this is the same sports town that sent John “Big Dawg” Thompson (right) to testify before congress after Art Modell and the NFL stole our professional football team.
Well, Papa John’s was scared so they have apologized and are going to offer large one-topping pizzas to Cleveland residents on Thursday for a small price of 23 cents in honor of LeBron James’ number 23. The big joke will be when they only offer the food to “Cleveland” residents. You see, the way we draw the lines for our cities and towns around here means that almost nobody actually lives in “Cleveland.” Out of the 10 stores listed on the website as being near my home, only 3 are actually in the city of Cleveland. Are the near suburban residents out of luck? We will see.
After getting my MacBook Pro a couple months ago, the band started laying down audio tracks in my basement. I have been spending a lot of time figuring out what kinds of mistakes I have made in our initial round of recording so that we can get a polished product together. As a result, I haven’t really written anything lately on this website. I know that is bad, but there it is.
It has been a lot of fun, but at the same time, it is unnerving. I am pushing forward because, quite frankly, I have never been afraid to try something and fail, but I am really nervous that I am wasting my time and that we should just go into the studio to get an expert to put the sounds together.
And this should be interesting. Let me just tell you the things that I have been thinking about.
We all listen to music, but how loud should the drums be? Drums are an integral part of any recording, but they are a bit more of the focus in certain bands like Tool, Dave Matthews Band and others. The drums aren’t the focus of our band. After I answer the volume question, should I pan different sections of the drums to different sides?
How loud should the guitars be? Should I put Todd’s guitar on the one side and mine on the other? Should they work together on the same side? If I pan one guitar to the side, and the other guitar to the other side, where do I put the bass guitar?
Should I leave the lead vocals centered? How much delay and/or reverb should I put on the vox? How about backing vox? how high should they go, and how many effects should I put on those?
These are the questions that I have been asking myself, and what I am running into is that their are so many different ways to do things that I need to just come to a conclusion sooner rather than later, because I can’t afford the time it would take to experiment with every variable.
Maybe I will post some samples to let you hear what I am hearing.
At least that is the only conclusion that I can come up with after a few pieces of evidence have come to light.
I read this article from ArsTechnica today about a proposed “Amazon tax” that seems to only affect Amazon.com and other Internet businesses that sell items to New Yorkers over the web. The law states that Amazon must collect sales tax for all orders sold to New Yorkers even though the online retailer has no physical presence in the state.
Right now, I am rooting for Amazon to win their forthcoming legal action against the state because of my own interactions lately. My family’s business is attempting to get licensed in the state so that we can take care of a few token properties and situations that affect some of our Ohio-based customers. We are not going to open an office in New York state, but we would like to sell a couple of insurance policies that cover the state of New York. So we started the process of getting a license in New York.
Well, after 5 (count’em 5) iterations of mailing our application along with a check and having that paperwork get returned, I am officially pissed off at the state of New York. You see, every time they send it back, they send the same form letter not really explaining what was wrong with the current application. Also, they will stop reviewing your application when they find the first mistake. So, in a complicated form I can fix one mistake, send it back and then have it returned based on another mistake that wasn’t called out the last time I updated the form.
On top of that, the Ohio department uses a Certificate of Good Standing as their standard form to give people incorporated in the state of Ohio. Then New York state claims that a certified copy of that Certificate of Good Standing is UNACCEPTABLE for their application.
No matter what, I have officially deemed the State of New York relatively hostile to new business. I would think that the state would prefer to make it easier, not harder, to do business in their state. I realize that what we are looking to do in the state isn’t exactly high profile and high reward for the state of New York, but that shouldn’t matter.
But I guess this is indicative of the state of customer service in this nation today. People use call centers in India as the example of bad customer service today, but I am here to tell you it doesn’t stop there. The government, state, local, and federal, have lost any sense of customer service too. From the post office, to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, to the IRS, there is absolutely NO focus on customer service by the people who are employed using tax dollars. That shouldn’t be the case, and I wish someone would change the culture starting at the top.
I tried to make a soup from scratch this weekend and it turned out really well. I kind of made it up as I went along after looking at my mom’s hamburger soup recipe. Anyway, here is taco soup which is like a tortilla soup with ground beef (or in my case ground turkey.)
1 Pound Ground Beef (or Ground Turkey)
1 Packet of Taco Seasoning (I like Ortega, but I have tried others and they are all pretty good.)
1 Large Green Bell Pepper (Diced)
1/2 Onion (Diced)
2 Small Tomatoes Diced
1 Cup Frozen Yellow Corn
1 Cup Uncooked Brown Rice (1 cup of uncooked rice was 4 servings)
5 Cups Water (4 Cups of water if you cook the rice ahead of time)
1 Large Can of Tomato Sauce
1 Can of Black Beans
1 Can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 Tbsp Black Pepper (or to taste)
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder (or to taste)
1 Tbsp Red Pepper Flakes (or to taste)
In a pot, combine the tomato sauce, cream of celery soup, the water and the uncooked rice. Use medium heat, or you can use a large crock pot like I use on the high setting. Stir frequently so the rice doesn’t clump at the bottom.
In a large frying pan, brown the ground beef or turkey, and drain. Put ground beef back in the pan and add the onions, peppers, and corn. Cook at high temperature as you add in the taco seasoning and spices to your tastes. If the mixture is really dry, add in little bit of water so you can cook it for about 5 minutes without it burning.
After you cook the mixture in the frying pan to your satisfaction, mix it into the big pot and cook on medium to low for a couple of hours or until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thick soup. It shouldn’t be as thick as chili, and it shouldn’t be as runny as vegetable soup. Right in the middle is where you want to be.
I served it with some broken up tortilla chips on top, but I would have loved to have it with some grated cheese and possibly even some sour cream on top. That makes the recipe significantly less healthy, though.
Anyway, the soup turned out great for me. Jen liked it too. I probably should have taken a picture, but oh well. We will see how good the leftovers look.
Jen and I are on vacation. I am sure I don’t need to keep reminding you all of that, but it feels so good to say it to myself. So, I will keep saying it.
Anyway, after a brisk workout consisting of running a 5K and lifting weights in the posh exercise center (yes, I am bragging about exercising on vacation,) Jen and I sat down for some breakfast and I saw a super-ridiculously tall woman dining with her husband and baby at the next table over. As she got up to go to the breakfast buffet, it occurred to me that she looked like someone.
Then, it also occurred to me that there is a women’s tennis tourney happening in close proximity to our hotel here in Florida. As it turns out, we were eating next to Lindsey Davenport and her husband. They have a very very cute baby too. No dirt. We didn’t bother them or anything dumb like that. Just kind of fun to have a celebrity sighting.
I am a dummy. I got to the airport today to go on vacation in Florida and the ticket counter woman informed me that my license was expired as of February 10th 2008. WHOOPS!
The good news is that they let me on the flight and word has it they will let me fly back. In the meantime, I have this awful sinking feeling in my stomach because I don’t have a valid driver’s license. Not that it is a really big deal, but I just don’t like it. Apparently, I will have to take the written test when I get back in order to get my license reinstated.
No worries though, I scored a mean 9 out of 10 on the practice test online after misreading the last question.
Until then, I will have to ride shotgun in our rental car in Florida. Jen is distraught to not have a designated driver for the vacation.
I was pushing around YouTube last night and I got on a jag of Canadian rock when it occurred to me that I hadn’t listened to The Tea Party in a long time, while a couple of their albums were favorites of mine for a long time. I started looking for my favorite song by them called Psychopomp. People here in the US never became all that turned on to this song, but you will see by the reactions of Canadian audiences how big the song was.
Then I found out that the band broke up and the lead singer is still out on his own doing solo stuff. Check out the solo version of Psychopomp.
And after watching these two videos, I remembered how much I loved the band Chore, also from Canada. They never hit it huge in the States either, but they have some really amazing songs. Here are two of them, General Warning, and The Hitchhiker.
Every now and then here on FilteringCraig, I have to lose my mind over a product, or a store, or a service, that has been so completely and utterly brutal that it deserves the fire and brimstone from the depths of my angry soul. Home Depot has drawn such ire at this point that I think this puts them at the top of the list.
All this started because Jen and I decided to buy some new furniture. We bought a bedroom set including a king size bed, and a dresser. We also bought a very nice three-piece leather sectional that was uber-comfy in the furniture store showroom. I imagined days upon days sitting on my butt watching sports and movies on our beauteous LCD TV complete with Media Center PC. Cue the needle scraping across the record on the record player (even though most of us are at least on CD’s if not MP3’s. Come to think of it, the needle scratching off the record is something I am going to miss when it becomes completely culturally irrelevant at some point in the future. ANYWAY…)
The couch wouldn’t fit in the house. The knuckle-draggers from the furniture store were unable to get it into our house. Not through the front door. Not through the side door. Not even through the five foot (2.5 foot opening) sliding glass door on the side of our humble abode. Not after taking the smallish feet off of the couch and trying many different angles. The couch wasn’t coming in.
What to do, what to do? See, I had already given away my old couch, which I truly didn’t want anymore. I really wanted this new couch. We had talked about getting French doors put in the patio to replace the nasty old sliding glass door. We called the furniture store and told them to hold the couch in their warehouse. We were getting new doors to spruce up our house and so we could have our new couch delivered through brand new French doors which would open up wide enough to use the full five foot opening in the side of our house.
After a few measurements and a bit of research we headed to Home Depot. We found out that our 60 inch opening was atypical for French doors. We found out that they never keep them in stock. So, we started looking through catalogs at 5 foot wide French doors. And then, armed with information, but still in need of expertise, we started working with a Home Depot salesperson to get some doors.
First things first, we said we didn’t know what we wanted to do in terms of installation. I have access to people who can do things like install doors. That being said, time was of the essence with my couch sitting in a warehouse and not in my family room. So, I asked the sales associate if it mattered if I had installation lined up yet or not. She told me that it didn’t matter at all. “At any point in the process, you can choose to have Home Depot install your doors.” (***Note this phrase.) So, she guided us through all the options with our new French doors on her computer screen. She assured us that the doors and entryways are all pretty standard. She plugged in some approximate measurements and we made some decisions on materials, and away we go. We paid for the door on our credit card and left Home Depot with a sunny disposition knowing that our new doors, and thus our new couch was on the horizon.
After talking to some people about getting our door installed, it seemed to be too much of a hassle, so Jen and I decided to use Home Depot to install the doors. In their store, they list a basic door install price of $349. Being a savvy shopper, I knew that it couldn’t possibly come in that cheaply. I was sure that our door would cost more than that to install. We called and the install company sent someone out to measure the opening. At this point, I assumed that he was just out to figure out how many shims and sealing materials he was going to need for our door. Then, right before he left, he said some magical words to me. “The good news is that the door you ordered is going to fit.”
Cue the scratching record sound again.
You mean there was a CHANCE that our standard sized door wasn’t going to fit? We ordered a door that might or might not have fit in the side of our brick house? Apparently, standard Home Depot door installation process has the install company come out and measure the opening FIRST. Before ordering the door. Apparently the opening sizes aren’t quite as “standard” as they led me to believe. But still, we dodged a bullet because the installer assured me the door we ordered wasn’t going to be a problem.
Now, maybe I should have known the standard process. Maybe I should have logically figured out that a real professional measurement by someone capable of installing the door was in order before you buy the door from the manufacturer. But I never claimed to be an expert. I was looking for advice every step of the way, and I took Home Depot guidance.
So, the installer sent his measurements and estimates back to Home Depot and I got a call from a manager at Home Depot telling me that the estimate for installing the door was in. Including labor, materials and everything else my install price was going to be $811.
Cue the scratching record again. EIGHT HUNDRED AND ELEVEN DOLLARS? I said earlier that the standard listed install price on the sign in Home Depot was $350. I knew that it was going to be more expensive than that, but MORE THAN DOUBLE THE PRICE??!?!??!? WOW. After complaining a bit about the bait and switch that I felt like they pulled on me, they were able to lower the price to $762 by not charging me for some of the molding and materials. I still felt like I was the victim of a robbery at best and a raping at worst, but my thoughts again moved to the couch in the warehouse that I so desperately wanted to place my butt on to watch the Indians and cinematic gems from my media center.
I gave in and said “go” to the install. Keep in mind that after waiting for the door to be shipped to the store and waiting for the measurement and all that jazz, we are about four weeks into the door process. At the beginning, I wanted this door thing to be a two week ordeal before realizing that nobody carries any inventory of 60 inch French doors.
Install day arrived, and coincidentally it was also the Indians’ home opener. I met the installer at my house and he started out by throwing the tape measure around. Then he went to the truck and threw the tape measure around my door. After some time, he started taking molding away to throw the tape measure around some more. Then again, back to the truck.
I don’t think I even need to say it at this point. You all probably know where this is going. The installer claimed that he was 5/8ths of an inch too big for the opening and it wasn’t going to work. He said he was going to take the door back to the store, but that he was sure we would get it all worked out and I would eventually have a new door. I was massively disappointed. My stomach turned to knots and honestly, it was a level of frustration that brought me to a serious level of dejection that I haven’t seen in quite some time.
Here we were about five weeks into a process that began because I wanted a new couch. All this because we couldn’t get this couch in my house during a furniture delivery.
And then my dejection started to turn to anger. Upon leaving, the installer made a flippant comment. “Well at least now I won’t have to miss the Indians game.” I didn’t say anything, but my blood was boiling. I don’t know if he was avoiding the install because of the Indians home opener, but now, with that comment, the installer at least opened up that suspicion. Either way, he took the door back to Home Depot.
And this is the part of the story where we get to meet Jeff. Jeff is a manager at the Home Depot in my area, and I didn’t even change his first name to protect him. Why? I don’t care about him. I have never really gotten into a screaming match with someone on the phone before I met Jeff. He is the reason that I will do everything in my power for the rest of time to keep from giving a dime to Home Depot.
Jeff called me to follow up on the failed installation. One of the first things he says to me is that he is trying to figure out how it is that my measurement came after I ordered the door. I was confused by the line of questioning and finally asked Jeff how, exactly any of this was helpful to me as a paying customer to get my door installed. And he said to me, “Well, I have already talked to my manager and you are supposed to get measured before you order the door. You ordered a door that is too big for the opening and we aren’t going to take this one back.”
CUE 357,863 RECORD NEEDLES SCRAPING, BUT NOT IN UNISON. EACH IS DELAYED FROM THE LAST BY SOME NUMBER OF MILLISECONDS CREATING A RECORD SCRAPING CACOPHONY, THE LIKES OF WHICH THE WORLD HAS NEVER EVER HEARD.
This is when I started screaming at Jeff. “Let me get this straight. You are questioning me in hopes of figuring out an order of events where I am to BLAME so you can get out of having to take this door back into inventory? Do you treat all your customers like criminals? Do you think I went through this process ordering your employees around, or do you think I was following their advice along the way? I was assured that I could choose Home Depot as my installer at any point along the way. I would appreciate you helping me find a solution to the problem we have rather than looking to stick me with building inventory. You are the ones who sell building supplies for a living NOT ME.”
Of course, my rant was interrupted multiple times by him trying to get a word in edgewise, but I lost my shit. I lost it to the point that I actually had a pain in my voice from clenching so badly while I was yelling. I have never been so livid at any store in my entire life. I understand that Home Depot didn’t want to take the door back because I am sure they are graded as a store on inventory efficiency, but don’t be confused. Inventory isn’t Home Depot’s primary business. Customer Service is probably number one, followed closely by building supplies. Jeff was trying to maneuver to the point that he wanted the customer to be so dead wrong that he would have to buy a second door and be stuck with the first door that possibly wouldn’t fit into an opening in his house.
At this point, I start reaching out to those resources that I had in the first place to possibly take over installation duties of this door. If the opening isn’t wide enough then we are going to have to do something about that. I couldn’t possibly eat the money it cost me to buy the door. If I wasn’t going to get anyone to work with me at Home Depot, I would at least try to make the best of it. My uncle came out, measured the opening, and then went to Home Depot with my receipt and demanded to measure the door. By his estimates it is going to be REALLY tight and we might have about a half inch of room width-wise in the opening to get the door in. That is not a lot of wiggle room, to be sure.
Still, it looks like we might have a door installation take place sometime in the next two weeks, and then I can get my couch.
Is it any wonder that I have been playing Call of Duty 4 so much lately? I have been working on gaining experience points based on killing, and more specifically the number of headshots you can rack up. Is it any wonder at all?
But it doesn’t end there. I officially canceled the Home Depot “installation” this morning and they wouldn’t refund the total amount. When you get measured, it costs $30. That money goes toward the installation price, but there is another destination charge in your installation fee which is non-refundable. That fee is $50. So, they weren’t able to refund the $50 destination charge where the guy came and couldn’t install my door after the measurer told me there would be no problem. So, basically they extorted $20 from me at best and $50 from me at worst. And the nerve of the woman on the phone to say, “It’s only $20 because the measurement was $30.” I told her to go ahead and process the refund, but that she shouldn’t say “It’s only $20″ because I basically paid that $20 FOR NOTHING AT ALL.
Congrats to all those of you who made it here to the end of this post. I appreciate you listening to me vent. Hopefully you will learn from my mis-steps and the retardation of the dummies who helped me get to this point in my journey.
Here’s hoping that this story eventually ends well. In the meantime, screw Home Depot. Never again. You are truly dead to me.
