blog

Especially spam.  I was initially enraged after upgrading Wordpress awhile back and not being aware of a new feature that broadcasts updates to a bunch of blog aggregators.  It wasn’t until several months passed and I upgraded again did I become aware of the fact that it existed, and was on its default setting of ‘on’ for my blog.  During this time period I started seeing an increase in spam comments from about three or four a week to two an hour.
A couple of posts ago I enabled something called Wavatars which autogenerates a humorous little geometric face based on the e-mail address provided by the commenter.  Oddly enough now I sometimes look forward to lulls in baseball-box-score-watching so I can take a look at my moderated message queue to see who’s been spamming me.  So here’s to recognizing the anonymous spambots who’ve left 160 messages over the last 76 hours (name used is what was in the name field):
aSports
Befideostesek
Begoescowkknd
berttwigreekkn
boarding
Buy ambien cr no perscription
Carieffirenog
cedGresiacirm
Cheeweede
Cialis and alcohol
climbcibe
cyncMymnmes
enroteone
essectweniz
falsenenift
farddeamemy
flelloferyday
furnGelaenuri
furnGelaenuri (perhaps hes schizophrenic)
geasiastage
gowThirwermig
Hmamonov
jelsocrero
JeorieAmese
Jullie williams big tits
knamemz7
lisgurf
maxpayday
Ordering adipex in missouri
PraltyJat
priorbranda
reoclarkeladO
StawnTank
ThafeWadaygah
tusreaferma
Valtrex and pregnancy
veilfephecofe
What is tramadol ultram
zeskApessemuhfgxc
веб_web
картинки
новости
создание интернет магазина

Despite how common it is, I must say I’m a fan of Jullie williams big tits myself.  Hopefully the hieroglyphics at the end don’t mean anything that can get me in trouble.

Back in high school Andy introduced me something called Korealink that had message boards sectioned off for a bunch of major cities in the US.  I assume this was true of all of them, but the Chicago one lent itself to be flooded with anonymous AzN e-thuggery/shit-talking which were hilarious to read at the time.  The most interesting thing to me were the 411 requests, basically someone spotting someone ‘foine’ on the bus or at the mall and asking for more information about that person.  Internet time was precious back then on 56k, so my time online was quite brief.  So maybe once or twice a week I would look at a couple of pages of the latest threads to see if I were mentioned.  I only actually recall one post requesting 411 on someone that could’ve been me, the primary elements consisting of a Filipino kid with a Discman on the 49B.  At the time though, most people guessing my ethnicity thought I was Chinese or Mexican.  But deep down inside I know that post was in fact referencing me, no doubt about it.
A few months ago Rachel had a birthday event at Sangria.  While there I remember being accosted by a woman with the camera, saying she was taking pictures for the establishment.  This wasn’t unfamiliar to me; usually I look up whatever club/bar we’re going to if I’ve never been there before, and spend a nominal amount of time looking at the most recent pictures to see if there are any attractive females.  And I usually bump into one of these photographers at least a couple of times a night.  I don’t think I had ever had one of them take my picture before though (or was sober enough to recall that happening).  So the woman took a couple of pictures of our group and went on about her business.  The next morning I actually woke up thinking about the pictures, and decided to see they were uploaded.
They weren’t.  I ended up checking once every couple of days but the most recent thing was from March 21-22.  They also required you to enter an e-mail or phone number to get to the picture page, so I just added the page to my Favorites for future perusal.  And like everything that gets added to my Favorites, it was promptly forgotten about.
So looking through my Favorites recently, I notice a link ‘Continue to photos…’  Looking quite suspicious, I was going to delete it but then decided to see where it linked to, and not surprisingly it led to photos.
Sangria photos:

While navigating through the slideshow, there’s a little Sangria logo in the lower right or the photo.  Unfortunately when you click on a picture to get to a savable full-size version, the little logo/watermark doesn’t exist.  Damn Flash overlays.  Why do I care?  Like with Korealink, I get a kick out of knowing that someone outside of my microcosm recognizes that I exist.  And I guess not having a (granted, easily producable) little watermark in the corner just seems to make the club/bar photos less authentic to me for some reason.  Am I just crazy?
Source of photos here>Month of April 2008>photos 39, 57-60
Probably.

Before I got MGS4 for the PS3, it seemed like everytime I turned it on (roughly once every six weeks) a new firmware version had come out and I had to go through a 10-15 minute install process just to access the PlayStation Store to download videos I already had gotten off of the Xbox Live Marketplace.  While I like the new speed/streamlined interface of the the PS Store, the one thing that XBL has over it is that you can see what you’ve downloaded already (a little checkmark appears over it; in the PS Store you only get the little bag icon for things that cost money or demos it appears).
Anyways I think most of my posts over the last few months have coincided with me getting around to upgrading the version of WordPress being used for this blog.  As it is, I’ve just upgraded to 2.6, so forecast calls for at least two or three posts over the next week or so.  However once SoulCalibur IV comes out next week all bets are off.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed in this version is the option to have something called Wavatars instead of that generic legoman silhouette next to commenters names.

Naturally, the monocle sealed the deal for me.  I may have missed it when I first went to 2.5 or 2.5.1, but not anymore.  I have no idea how one would get to create/choose their own avatar though.  Maybe I have to enable subscribers?

That Jacob typo was much better than Bellistic is/was supposed to be.  Two weeks ago we met up at the Globe pub over by Irving Park/Lincoln/Damen.

Top row: Kyle, me, Michael
2nd row: Jonny, Shaun, Rosie, Nick, Lora, Nik (doesn’t belong), Greg
Bottom row: Katie, Nar, Sam, Megan, Tania, Pablo, Amy, Heather
If I got everyone right, then I’m extremely proud of myself.  I don’t think I spoke to the last two all evening.

Lora looks ghostly here

Dunno who’s idea it was to get the DJ to play that Beatles song we had to sign/sing at graduation.  And since LaToya and Yonina weren’t there for me to watch and crappily mimic their signing a few moments later, I was lost.  Also the DJ later would call us out for not dancing, when we probably accounted for half of the bar’s revenue that evening.

Jonny smiles?!?!

shortly before leaving the bar

I kept mixing up Kyle and Nick all night, even though they’re nothing alike.  But we ended up at one of the two’s place afterwards, and all I remember was that the kitchen was very very nicely furnished, stainless steeled and marbled out.

All in all a great night, and for those of you who RSVPed on facebook and no showed (union of that and readers of this blog=Wesley) you missed out.  People were asking about you all night.

Battle with pilonidal cyst combined with trademark laziness=me being later than usual.  I’ll prolly briefly write about this and the Bell reunion with a few pictures and then post the lot on (the) facebook.

Anyways a couple of weeks ago we celebrated Nar’s birthday at Lionhead’s Pub.

^photo with the most people in it

Earlier in the week Nik was at Walgreens and saw ‘eye protectors.’  Much like when we saw ‘tie rags’ for sale back in high school, Nik had to cop one.  Two, actually.

Somehow conversation with Nik and Mary delved into breast support, and Mary was saying something about how girls use eyepatches with strapless dresses.  Or something to that effect.

Since I doubt those photos of Will passed out with that potpourri snack mix pretzels over his eyes (Mary cannot be trusted!) from his birthday will ever surface, this will have to do.  Also Nar as Morgan as pirate.

Nar rocking the Fukudome jersey that Roh, Chris and Andy (and possibly others) got him, eyepatches worn by all.  Interestingly, when I would see Nik two days later for the Bell thing, I asked him about the whereabouts of the eyepatches, and he said that he left them at home because he came down with conjunctivitis.

While part of me is disappointed that the last remnants of my fantasy team didn’t make it to the Finals (Ginobili, Tay Prince and Rip), I can still take pleasure in watching the max alien intensity of Garnett/Cassell for an entire series.

Garnett took off at the half-court line to save this ball, which was immediately followed by a Cassell jumper.  I don’t think the over-and-back rule is like the sideline/receiver rule in the NFL (where you become ineligible if you willingly set foot out of bounds), but still an impressive heads-up play.

Pierce after receiving a catfight scratch from Odom

“Everything looks good down there”

This wasn’t a foul, but Gasol had a similar call go against him at the beginning of the game.

Gasol had no chance.

Gasol owned

I was thinking after the announcers expectedly mentioned the play as ‘posterizing.’  How many of these awesome dunks actually end up being made as posters?  If I were at the arena when such a dunk occurred, I would absolutely purchase the poster on my way out if one were available.  I’m sure the NBA would be capable of finding a printer that can do large-volume work in short notice.

The rest of these were capped from a Hancock commercial tie-in shortly after the fourtch quarter began.  “Heroes of the Game” indeed:

Pierce

I wonder if camera height on the hoop post is determined by some photographer hierarchy, or if it’s just first-come first-serve.
Initially I hadn’t set up my PC to record the game, but then when I saw this at halftime (there’s a trophy logo on the foam that Garnett sized up moments before butting heads) I was like ‘Fuck, this is why I bought a tuner card in the first place!”  And then I had to move some data to a external drive since I still had 100GB of Bulls losses games that I wasn’t motivated to do anything with, but I didn’t want to delete since I’m sure there were some Ty Thomas or Larry Hughes moments I wanted to preserve.  As it is, I was only able to capture the last ten or so minutes of the game, but luckily enough to have the Hancock guys give me a second chance at this.

Garnett pleased with this week’s burnt offerings.

Kobe Face 2008?  (link to original below)

All in all, a satisfying Boston victory.  Kobe is the only Laker I tolerate, and only because of, in the following order:
1.  The adidas Kobe I.  There was a dope colorway that was like the white ones but instead of the gray/black trim it was a light or carolina blue.
EDIT: Initially I had the Kobe IIs linked there, but I’m pretty sure (but still not 100%) now it was the first ones.  When they came out I think I the SLIIs were my then-most-expensive shoe purchase at $60 or $70 and paying $125 for shoes was absolutely out of the question for me/family who would fund it.  Especially since all the gym shoes I had gotten since the Converse KJs with REACT juice for my 11th birthday up until that point were hand-me-downs from by older brother.  But damn if I didn’t dream with the Eastbay catalog in hand.
EDIT 1.5: Now looking at the IIs from this angle I’m not as certain.  The first ones do look a tad better in my current opinion.
EDIT2:  Damn it’s hard to find anything on the SLIIs online.  An archival of a Foot Locker banner and an abandoned page is all I could find.  (Photo yanked from the latter)

But damn this is one fine shoe.  I think I was working by the time the SLIIIs came out so I was able to cop those shortly after release, but they were longer/narrower and replaced the soft leather with some sort of polyurethane upper.  Thumbs down on that one.
EDIT3: Note for later to myself, as I’m still modifying this post three hours later: A good post idea/project would be to create a photographic timeline of shoes I’ve worn.  I think I intermittently started taking pictures of my new shoes shortly after getting my first digital camera in 2002.  Ok that’s the last edit.  Now I sleep.
2.  His PS1 AF1 reaction.  Back when I was shoe-crazy and before fantasy sports brought back my interest in the NBA, Kei found this link and Kobe became my favorite NBA player.
3.  The Nike Zoom Kobe I.  I ended up getting the Flint-Gray/White/University Blue ones for $30.  Man, Nike was a great company to work for.  Haven’t had a chance to break them in as I’m still working on a pair of Pippen IIs.  But yeah, this shoe is probably my favorite non-retro Nike basketball shoe of the last several years.

Back to the game, it was interesting to see that three guys that were supposed to end up being traded to the Bulls in the last two years in the Finals, but perhaps Rose or Beasley will turn out to be a beast and not end up like their last #1, Elton Brand>Tyson Chandler>Ben Wallace>Larry Hughes’ slightly less horrifying contract.  Also I don’t know what was up with the Lakers not fouling down eight with a minute left.

One last thing from the game:

Garnett=Always Watching

Thursday 05/15
Played tennis with Nar for about an hour in the late afternoon.  Good long-sleeve dri-fit weather; it was upper 50s and overcast.

Friday 05/16
Occasionally (maybe once a month, if that) I’ll get a fleeting, sharp/stabbing pain in my left side.  It usually occurs when I’m up but not doing anything strenuous, so in the past I’ve ignored it since the pain was very brief.  However in the evening when trying to nap I got one of those pains, but it lasted maybe 5-10 seconds, much longer than it ever had previously.  I had just eaten a large 10-piece nugget meal with an extra junior cheeseburger deluxe from Wendy’s (only meal of the day), so I was concerned that I may have had some heart trouble.  A google search for “sleep chest pain” eventually led me to this site:
http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_chest_symptoms.html.
I didn’t read it thoroughly, but I felt satisfied that my issue wasn’t heart related and then took my nap.

Saturday 05/17
Woke up with tightness in my chest.  This was the most common symptom for angina, which was usually the top choice in my google search the night before.  So I dug up my insurance card and started to look up providers and ER benefits.  I think I would’ve gone to Lutheran General had I ended up going, but I ended up passing after confirming that my HDHP has a $5000 deductible.

An aside: Three years ago when I first decided to get health care at Target (by then I had been around numerous ‘close encounters’ throwing the truck/taking down pallets put up in the air by idiots) I just got the cheapest plan so that I would have something in the case of something catastrophic.  I was surprised to later learn that the ~$10 I was paying each paycheck went into a HSA that was set up automatically, so in the end my entire premium went into an account I could pull out of (and it gained a nominal amount of interest).  The one negative was that the HSA prevented me from doing a free e-file with H&R Block the next year, so when it came time to re-elect I was like ‘Fuck the HSA’ and chose the cheapest plan, which was only $6 a paycheck.  Not sure if it didn’t exist the year before or just wasn’t available to me due to tenure, but I jumped on that in an instant.  I found out this year that the HSA would still screw me since Target’s benefits year starts around April, but H&R Block didn’t appear to need the 5498-SA (aside #2: I just received my 5498-SA for tax year 2007 in the mail this month in an envelope postmarked May 5.  Way to go, Optum Health Bank!), pulling the info from one of the option boxes in the W-2 (I made no withdrawals from the account).  Looking back Target had some great benefits, as now I’m paying $50 a paycheck for the HDHP coverage from Advocate (benefits get considerably cheaper for 3-year/full-time associates and then I think continue to drop at increasing tenure intervals) which I had assumed at the time of election would go into my HSA like it had at Target.  When tax time came around, I finally read the fine print and saw that the only contributions to my HSA would come from my own pocket, so there would be none.

Back to the story: by the time I had looked up my insurance information and kept looking at heart health websites, the tightness had begun to subside.  And many of the sites ended their angina info pages with tips for 50 year-old men and post-menopausal women.  Thinking I was in the clear both physically and demographically, I decided to take a nap.  And when I woke up, I felt like a new man.  So I had a McDonald’s double cheeseburger and two McChicken sandwiches, and later on went out for Nik’s birthday, where Nar gave me a clean bill of health, confirming the age stuff I had seen online earlier.
Before we got to Uncle Fatty’s, my first time playing quarters led to many shots of whiskey, and we all were sufficiently drunk before leaving Andy’s place.  Me and Nar were displeased at waiting at least 20 minutes at the front bar to find out that the blender broke and there would be no mixed drinks served from there.  In the end I did get to try one of the tropical drinks, although I don’t remember if it was any good.  All I can recall about the experience was the following:
-wait time at bar=unacceptable
-sports bar in back almost like a second establishment
-^had a moderately attractive unkempt DJ
-quality cover band
-that 30 year old in front of us was something

Generally though, I thought it was a cool place with the beach decor.
A couple of pictures, not enough for a facebook album, so they go here:
^I’m almost positive that the only thing that could’ve been in Nik’s line of sight at this moment was the (admittably very good) guitarist of the cover band, who I would instantly classify as a bum if seen outside of cover band duties.

Before Golden Nugget, Nar was pointing out how he thought his brother messed up his Civic somehow by smoking:

They were all trying to illuminate it, and Nik’s swiss army light is pointing directly at a hole in the turn signal cover on the side mirror.  Something that we could not discern in person.  Also Nik, if that knife has a USB drive in it, that’s the shit.

Sunday 05/18
Slept most of the day.

Monday 05/19
From Sunday I was up until maybe 5 or 6AM.  When I tried to sleep though I was unable to since my arms felt sore, something I hadn’t noticed earlier.  The arm soreness messed with my usual sleeping-on-the-side position, and I couldn’t have slept for more than 15 minutes before being forced to readjust.  It was probably all mental, but whenever I tried to sleep on my back I would just feel some sort of vibrating/tingling sensation somewhere in my body after a few seconds.  Despite this, I ended up going to work at noon, not feeling fatigued at all.  After work, I felt like Burger King, but I decided in advance that I would limit myself to a cheeseburger, small onion rings, and pie of the moment.

(cropped from BK website)
Unfortunately Burger King didn’t agree.  Appealing to my interest in new fast food offerings, mayonnaise, and lottery, I had to get the meal and King size it to maximize the number of game pieces.  I was displeased to find out that the game pieces are scratch-off (their Spiderman tie-in had the same type); if you let them idle on a fry container or drink cup the oil/condensation will seep through and make it significantly more difficult to scratch off, and they already have a low-quality scratch-off surface to begin with.  One thing I need to take a picture of next time around was the two-ply nature of the game piece, as the second layer has the online code you can enter for a second chance game like with McDonald’s Monopoly.  As for the burger?  I took the image from the website since mines was no good:

To be fair, it would have turned out better if BK’s lettuce were more consistent.  I’m not a big fan of BK’s or McDonald’s lettuce, although I would choose the latter over the former if I had to.  Wendy’s is ok since I think it’s usually one big slice of lettuce, but Steak’n'Shake is probably my favorite since it’s also one big slice but of the leafy variety.  But like most things, in the end I approve of the sandwich as a whole, although I wish they offered it in a single version, just so that I could feel healthier by not eating their most artery-clogging one.
I did think very highly of the wrapper as well:

I like how they switched up the font and modified the flavor text to match up with Indiana Jones.  Also I never really paid much attention to the whopper type logos, although I don’t think I’ve had a whopper since the chicken tendercrisp came out.

Tuesday 05/22
On Monday i didn’t notice the arm soreness at all during the day, and it only popped up when I was trying to sleep.  Yesterday I felt it a little bit during the day, and it wasn’t as bad at night, but I was eventually able to sleep once I committed to sleeping on my side.  Despite initial skepticism, I’m assuming the soreness can be attributed to tennis on Thursday, although I’ve never had it settle in more than two days after the causal event before.

Wednesday 05/23
Haven’t tried to sleep yet, and I haven’t decided yet if I should go to the Y in an hour or so to spend some time on the elliptical, or wait until 8 to see if Nar wants to play basketball.
I guess I should document my attempts to modify my lifestyle, maybe this will motivate me.
-when not eating, can only drink water (already started this on Saturday, we’ll see how this holds up in cooler weather)
-no super-sized meals with exception of BK/Indiana Jones promotion (this failed last time one week in, I can’t cut fast food completely or probably even partially out of my life)
That’s all I’ve got at the moment.  Not sure how I want to quantify the physical activity element, so I’ll pass on that for now.  I know the two things above are minor, but ‘crawl before you ball’ has been my health-improvement motto for at least a year now.  And now?  I’m still in Pampers.

Usually I’m not fond of these types of things, but I just came across this:
http://www.nba.com/playoffs2008/nicknames/

It’s continuing with the ‘Where _____ happens’ tagline for the year, which spawned some of the best league- sponsored commercials I’ve ever seen with the black-and-white background and player (in color) popping out of the image. Of course the supreme popularity of the MLB and the NFL probably require the NBA to spend more on marketing. Even so, I can’t even recall any memorable sports commercial that wasn’t a Nike ad.

Anyway, when I first did this I was given “BLOWOUT.” This was my second nickname.

I then tried Joe instead of Joseph and got “XCALIBER.”

But I like “THE AIR CONDITIONER” the best.  Never mind that a proper link to basketball is not possible.

no double LP, but still excited

Yesterday Nhat had an apartment-warming party for his new place that’s close to the border of Bridgeport and McKinley Park.
I ended up seeing a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in several years, including but not limited to the people in the photo above. I think the last time I saw all these guys together was before Girard left for Iraq again several years back.
Shaun and Amit I still see once in awhile, it would be more often if I hadn’t become sloth-like.
Sarath I see only on special occasions, and on said occasions he just arrives with a Crave Case and then passes out on Shaun’s bed.
Nhat needs to buy cheaper video cables for his PS2. Also the step leading into his bathroom could kill someone one day.
Sean is owned by student loans. And he is looking for someone on this continent to play GTAIV online with (his online experiences on the PS3 have been with Britons)…it’ll be a 360 purchase for me if I ever get it.
Alfred likes Batman. And also left the earliest to go someplace with a group that I was told included KwokTactiCz. But he has a fancy business card, so all is forgiven. I’d have to write in my name and the last four digits of my phone extension if I were to give out business cards, as they’re intended for the psych interns/post-docs who only sign on for a year.

Also my memory may be faulty, but I once remember Nhat and Sean as being some of the least photogenic people I knew.

AIM chat I had with Shaun a couple of weeks ago (edited out talk of fantasy sports), touching on NBA playoffs and new burger at Burger King: