chriswong.org

I’ve been trying to sell my extra laptop for the past month.  I’ve been posting ads on craigslist and Facebook.  However, almost all of the responses I get are from Nigerian scammers.  I have a few options when dealing with scammers.  I either ignore them.  Or I pose as an interested buyer.  Or I simply call them out on it.

The image I used below is the first image I found when I searched for “grandma” on Google images with moderate filtering.  Maybe it’s this result just in Belize.  It is crude, but fitting nonetheless.

Between You and Sindri Joe

 Sindri Joe February 25 at 1:01am

hi
i am really interested in buying this item for my Grandson in west Africa as a Birthday gift and i will be offering you $570 including the shipping cost to west Africa kindly get back to me with your pay pal email address, so that i can send out the payment as soon as possible.
Thanks and Stay Bless

 Christopher Wong February 25 at 9:43am

Your grandson? Wow. You can’t be more than 20 from your picture. You should really find a new picture that reflects your age.

 Sindri Joe February 25 at 11:11am

what do you mean by that?

 Christopher Wong February 25 at 10:56pm

If you’re going to pose as a grandmother, perhaps you should use a photo that doesn’t look like you’re 16 years old. Technically, it is possible at that age to be a grandmother, but highly improbably. Like in a million if not worse odds. That’s like you having a child at 8 years old. And then having your child having a baby at 8 years old.

If you are that one in a million, I’ll send you my computer free of charge. You’ll need all the help you can get. That’s got to be psychologically and emotionally damaging.

However, I’m assuming you’re a male Nigerian scammer, who hasn’t had much luck scamming people via Facebook. The least you can do is use a picture of an actual grandmother.

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http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi

Google, come to Duarte, CA, please!  I think I should forward this to my city council members.

I’m eating pizza here at the office for our from Pizzamania.  It’s a local joint down the street that I’ve never been to, mainly because of the review/response from coworkers who’ve been there prior to me working here.  It’s good.  It’s better than Papa John’s.  But it ain’t fantastic.  It ain’t great.  Far from it.

I started thinking about Zachary’s Pizza, and how I miss that great pizza.  Yvonne and I, when we visit up north, would make a trip out to Zachary’s and bring a half-baked home.  The TSA would hassle us (in a friendly/joking way) about our pizza, but it was always worth it. (That’s also the time I saw Jerry Rice waiting in the security line immediately in front of me.  He played for the Seakhawks at the time.  I think they won that day.)

So I figure someone from Chicago must say this type of pizza online.  And certainly they must be better than Zachary’s, right?  So I found a place called Giordano’s.  They claim to be world famous, but I’ve never heard of them.  But then again I haven’t heard of a lot of world famous restaurants even here in LA.  But Giordano’s offers shipped half-baked stuffed deep dish pizza to anywhere in America!  Look at that picture.  It looks like some Zachary’s pizza.  I go through the checkout process, and the price of the pizza is reasonable.  Only 20 bucks for a single topping 12 inch pizza.  I figure the shipping should be only another 10 bucks or so, right? Oh no.

$52.20 for shipping.

I think I’ll pass on this Pizza.  The place got good reviews on Yelp, but some reviewers compared it to Zachary’s and the majority rated Zachary’s better.  Now I’m not going to pay $50 bucks to get an inferior pizza from Chicago.  But maybe a friend, or Cal student can hook a brother up?

(I looked up the score for that game.  Seahawks won. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200411070sfo.htm)

Image reused under Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/davefayram/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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http://www.bucksketball.com/2009/12/milwaukees-frustration/

That’s me too.

Stupid refs.  My only hope in the future is to get a superstar of my own.  Hopefully Brandon Jennings will be that superstar.

Here’s more on Kobe & the game yesterday, from http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/11587/kobe-bryant-in-a-nutshell

Conspiracy theorists
The Lakers won by one point in overtime. They got three points in the final minute on a play that appeared to most observers to feature both a Bryant charge and a travel, when he made himself into a bowling ball and Andrew Bogut into a bowling pin.

The NBA says there are no such things as superstar calls, but was anybody surprised by that? Can you find examples of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant getting whistled for offensive fouls with the ball on the way to the hoop with the game on the line? This is not new. If it happens at all, it happens very little. It’s evident superstars operate with a certain impunity. You could argue it’s a reason to have a superstar — so you don’t have to worry much about offensive fouls with the game on the line.

Even on the next play, Bryant’s game-winner, he gathered the ball, and then hopped noticeably with both feet before pivoting.

It’s not alarming or even all that disappointing to me. The game is hard to referee in real time, and everyone wants to see plays like the one above.

And in a way, wasn’t last night’s game perfect? Kobe Bryant fans, stat geeks, conspiracy theorists … Just about everyone got what they wanted.

I kind of wished I never got that into basketball.  The NBA is rigged.  The NBA tells officials how to call the games.  Officials give the superstars all the calls.  It is what it is.

Did you watch the Lakers/Bucks game tonight?  Did you see the stupid and 1 call that Kobe got before he hit the game winner?  Did you see the travel on that play?  Or how about the charging?  Either one could have been called, but to call it blocking and the and 1?!  Are you kidding me?!  You’re going to give him continuation off of 3 steps?  If that’s Charlie Bell making that move, he ain’t getting that call.  I hate this game.

I hate Kobe.  I hate the Lakers.  I hate the NBA.  My team will never succeed because greater unseen forces are against them.

This brings up old bad memories.  I still hurt after reading this.  I knew they were shafted then.  And I still know they were shafted now.  Sad thing is no one cares the Bucks got the shaft, cause it’s Milwaukee, and no one wants to see the Bucks in the Finals, especially the NBA.  That was my last and only chance to see my team in the Finals, and it got stolen from us.

I watched all the games in that series that year, mainly cause that’s one of the last years they still showed the Conference Finals on network television.  We should have gone to the Finals that year.  And we could have gone if Big Dog makes that gimme 5 footer, or if Ray Allen gets that goaltend called on Dikembe.

I keep waiting for my team to get back into contention.  It’s a long road for Bucks fans.

From Bill Simmon’s latest article:

10. If crooked NBA playoff series were heavyweight boxers, then the 2002 Western finals (Lakers-Kings) was George Foreman and the 2001 Eastern finals (Bucks-Sixers) was Earnie Shavers. Translation: People remember only George, but Earnie was almost as memorable. To briefly recap, Philly’s wins in Games 1 and 4 swung on a controversial lane violation and two egregious no-calls. The Sixers finished with advantages of 186-120 in free throws, 12-3 in technicals and 5-0 in flagrant fouls. Glenn Robinson, one of Milwaukee’s top-two scorers, didn’t even attempt a free throw until Game 5. Bucks coach George Karl and star Ray Allen were fined a combined $85,000 after the series for claiming the NBA rigged it. In that game, Milwaukee’s best big man, Scott Williams, was charged with a flagrant foul but not thrown out, only to be suspended, improbably, for Game 7.

The defining game: When Philly stole a must-win Game 4 in Milwaukee despite an atrocious performance from Iverson (10-for-32 shooting), helped by a 2-to-1 free-throw advantage and a host of late calls. How one-sided was it? When an official called a harmless touch foul to send Sam Cassell to the line with two seconds left and the Bucks trailing by seven (maybe the all-time we-need-to-pad-the-free-throw-stats-so-they-don’t-seem-so-lopsided-afterward call), the subsequent sarcastic standing ovation nearly morphed into the first-ever sarcastic riot. And this was Milwaukee, the most easygoing city in the country! Nobody remembers this. The real loser was Allen, who exploded for 190 points in the series, including a record nine three pointers in do-or-die Game 6. Nobody remembers this, either. Even I didn’t remember it. Crap.

We received our new refrigerator yesterday.  I must mention that I like it.  It’s got nice blue lights.

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Yvonne was humming Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer yesterday, and it got me thinking about the this special reindeer.  So prior to Santa appointing Rudolph as the head of the reindeers, Rudolph was not liked.  He was despised by the other reindeers.  They laughed and called him names.  They never let him play in any reindeer games.  But then all the sudden Santa appoints him as leader of the reindeers.  And then the other reindeers turned around and starting cheering for him.

Does this seem right to you?

You telling me the other reindeers were okay with Santa appointing the annoying kid to the lead the pack?  Yes, they may unfairly picked on poor Rudolph, but I highly doubt they would shout with glee for Rudolph.  I think something is quite fishy here.  I don’t think we’re getting the whole story.

Jesus may command us to love one another, but I don’t think that reindeers must adhere to this commandment, and I don’t think they’re believers anyways.  Rudolph may be the chosen one like Neo or Chandler Jarrell, but even they had their doubters.

I can’t imagine the reindeers standing up for this, and I think this story ends badly for Rudolph.  As in “Rudolph is no more” badly.  Poor Rudolph. 

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Back a few years ago, I remember McDonalds having their “McRib Farewell Tour.”  According to press releases they were going to remove the McRib permanently from their menu.

Some of you may know that I actually enjoy eating this abomination of a food item.  So during that farewell tour, I made sure to eat some of my last McRibs ever.  Or so I thought.

I see posters lined up across McDonalds.  I see billboards promoting the McRib.  This is outrageous.  You give the McRib a farewell tour and lie to me about permanently removing the McRib, but don’t do it.  I’m glad it’s back, but I’m not glad you lied to me.

Image reused under Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/canfood/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

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It’s a streak that has been going on for over 19 years.  This streak was longer than the 7 years no throw-up streak that was broken in college, and the subsequent 5 year no throw-up streak after that.  This streak meant something, although the importance of it probably matters none.  Since the summer of 1990, I have bowled probably over a thousand games.  And in each of those game I have successfully bowled over 100.  Yesterday, that streak ended.  Gone are the days of my 150 average.   Gone are the days where 100 was a given score.  At my advancing age, my body aches after bowling.

There were a few games where I had to step in the clutch and get a mark in the final frame in order to get my 100 score.  But yesterday I got off to a bad start as normally given my rust from bowling only a few times a year.  The lane was dry yesterday making it more difficult to find the line I wanted.  And when I finally found the line I wanted in the 6th frame, I had a lot to make up.  I only have an 89 entering the 10th frame.  I need a mark to keep my streak alive.  I roll the ball and hit my line thinking I got my strike, only it hooks too much and leaves me a 367 split.  My hopes of keeping my streak alive are fading fast.  I’ve picked up this split numerous times before back in the day, but those days were long ago.

I attempt to go for my spare and it fools good coming out of my hand.  The ball is rolling exactly where it needs to go for the first 45 feet.  That last 15 feet, the dry lane shows its ugly head again and I barely miss picking up the split.  Final score 98.  Streak over.

I haven’t seen such a low score from me in decades; not since I was a little kid.  There could be numerous reasons why I scored so low.  Dry lane.  Invisible arrows on the dark lanes.  Not having my own bowling ball.  Lack of practice.   Regardless, it has come to end.

The streak is now at 1 game and 1 day.   Let’s keep it going.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.  And thank you for those who came bowling with me.  It was fun.

Image reused under Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/a4gpa/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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