I was planning on redesigning the site's colors today, but I got wrapped up in Fantasy Football. More importantly, I got sick and tired of adding up all of the points, so I created this Yahoo Fantasy Football Calculator. It currently only works for my Fordham league, but I plan on opening it up to other leagues. It'll just take a little more programming. Thankfully, I finished just in time to figure out I lost and am now out of the playoffs.
Good Times.
In other Boylan related news, my car no longer starts. At first it was suspected to be the battery (once it started after a jump, once it started with no assistance, five times it hasn't started), so I brought it to the dealer, where they told me nothing was wrong. Then I drove it home. It hasn't worked since. I tried jumping it again, but it didn't help. Thankfullly, the warranty - which runs out at 36,000 miles - still applies as I am at 35,275 miles. It currently sits in the parking lot of my apartment building, awaiting for my call to the Nissan dealership so I can scream at them and yell until they offer to tow it back for free.
TV Stuff - Survivor was a letdown. The only good news is that Rupert (the hairy dude) will be on Survivor All-Stars, which wrapped up shooting some time in the last week. The premiere of the new season will be after the Super Bowl (winner: New England Patriots over the Eagles), and it will include Richard Hatch, the first season winner as well as other favorites. Want to know more and have your head filled with endless specualtion? Then try Reality TV World.
As I'm sure you've noticed, the man that was the bane of my existence, Giants Coach Jim Fassel was kind of fired. He asked if he was going to be fired at the end of the season, and the answer was yes - so he asked for that to be announced and to let him finish the season. For the next two weeks, he is a Dead Man Walking. I feel no glee from his departure, as he was a nice guy. However, I know that it is for the best, so in that respect I am happy.
As for Delaware, I am referring to the University of Delaware Blue Hens, who are looking to win their first (I believe) NCAA D. 1-AA National Football Championship Friday at 7PM ET. I will be watching the game, but with the sound off. Instead for audio, I will be listening over the internet to my brother call the game for his college radio station. As a man who rode the college radio thing to much sports luck, I wish the same to Brendan and hope he gets to call a win. Maybe he'll even let me post the audio on the site. (He has promised me that he will post some pictures.)
If you want to check out his play-by-play, go to WVUD.org to hear the stream. It is unlikely that there will be any available streams at game time (I'll be tying one up early), but you should be able to listen to WVUD-2 as well, which will be flipped over to a simulcast at game time.
As you may or may not know, on Friday my brother was lucky enough to be doing play-by-play for the University of Delaware Blue Hens as they captured the NCAA Div I-AA Football Championship. They did so in decisive fashion - which would make you think he had a good time. But apparently, he was held up somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 hours waiting for a plane to take him home to school so he could pack and drive the four hours home. The worst part is that apparently, he never really got a straight answer as to the why of the delay - it was a charter hired by U of D. Something involving the football team wanting breakfast, followed by a missing part, followed by an airport security staff that got off work at 9PM - and as a result, he had to be checked in to the airport at 9 when his flight didn't leave until 1AM.
Alright, that's all confusing (especially a security staff that just leaves when its shift is over - kind of defeating the whole purpose of security), but it gives me a great opportunity to wax about my airline experiences/recommendations.
Everybody always hurries to get on the flight as soon as their seat is called. Why? So you can sit longer? They will always find a place for your carry-on - an besides, if it can't fit under the seat in front of you - check it in, don't carry it on. Plus, when you get on last, you can see the clumps of empty seats and then sit where you feel like as opposed to the assigned seat next to Smelly the Magnificent.
There's more here... I just can't find it right now.
Why am I always petrified that if I recline my seat I'm going to wildly offend the person behind me, and yet the person in front certainly has none of the same reservations? I guess I'm just timid.
Wow. This has kind of turned into a Larry King column... For my money, there's no one quite like Ben Vereen... Lord of the Rings? I say Lord of the Box Office Swings!... If I could have a car, it would be a convertible, unless I lived someplace cold. Then I would get a car that would keep my frog-face warm. Like one with a really good heater! (I hate Larry King - he couldn't interview his way out of a wet paper bag.)
Oh, and I got on the plane today to return to my parents' place in Jersey. Happy Holidays.
Christmas has passed, so now I can relay my lovely shopping story. Not that it was paticularly horrific, as I am sure others have had much worse, but since it happened to me, I'm much more interested in my story.
Since I live in Michigan, shopping for my family is a little hard - I can't buy anything that doesn't fit in my luggage and can't come with me on my flight to Jersey for the Holidays. (Background info: Born and raised in Jersey, went to high school and college in New York City. Parents and family still live in Jersey.) Thus, I have to go shopping when I get here, leaving me the 23rd and 24th to go shopping. This Christmas, I knew my dad would love a TiVo (he's a TV Nazi like me, we don't watch what's on, we seek out what is good and record it to watch it when convenient. We even search the TV listing and make schedules to make sure that we catch everything.) and so would my sisters. In addition, the cable they have is a good company (Patriot Media), but the signal is split too many times - leaving the higher channels very fuzzy.
Thus, I bought them a DirecTV dish with installation and two DirecTiVos, one for upstairs, one for downstairs. (If you do not own a TiVo - seriously! What are you waiting for? They're as cheap as VCRs if you have DirecTV. If you don't, you can get DirecTV installed for free plus get a $75 Circuit City giftcard. You make $75 going to DirecTV and it's cheaper than cable monthly. Keep the cable modem, move the TV to DirecTV and you still save money. Plus, the signal quality is better.)
I went to Best Buy, simply because I passed it first on the highway. It was an absolute zoo on the 23rd, with the shelves picked clean. The employees were nowhere to be found, and I could not get anyone to set me up with a DirecTV installation (which they had advertised in their circular). I finally found a guy, and while he pointed me to the TiVos that I had already commandeered from the angry crowds, he insisted, and repeated after checking with his boss that Best Buy doesn't do DirecTV. I should just call DirecTV and they'll do it. "What about this display over here that days 'Get DirecTV from Best Buy!'?" He didn't know and left to go somewhere else.
I called DirecTV and he confirmed that the guy was lying. When I asked if DirecTV was also available at Circuit City, the DirecTV rep told me that they did, and recommended I leave Best Buy because they clearly knew nothing. I love a rep that has distaste for idiocy - usually they are idiots, so it was a pleasant change (In DirecTV's defense - they do have the best reps around. Sometimes they're a bit clueless - but they are always helpful and will ask around if they don't know the answer. That's why DirecTV always wins best customer service awards.)
Thus, I left for Circuit City. They have a two room dish/reciever package with installation that's $99 with a $100 mail-in rebate and $75 mail-in gift card. When I went to buy it, my barely English speaking employee (we'll call him Simon) wanted to ring me up (I presume for commission) and managed to not know how to do so. After fighting with me for a half hour because I understood the Circuity City cash register better than he did, he finally printed out a receipt and handed it to me to sign. I looked and he had charged me $150 for a $99 product. When I confronted him about this, he argued that since I was getting a $75 gift card and the rebate, it didn't matter, I was getting a deal anyway.
After passing out from the lack of reason in my immediate area, I picked myself off the floor and fought with him for about ten minutes. I re-explained the whole thing and brought him over to the display. He then went to check with his boss (apparently located in Outer Mongolia) and disappeared for ten minutes. After I hunted him down (he was at another register, trying to figure out what he did), I found another employee that showed him what he did wrong.
All fixed, right? Wrong. Now I had to go the the front desk, and get my $50 refund, because even though I didn't sign the receipt, my card had been charged. Having no time for explanation, he tried to yell at the desk manager to give me back my money. Clearly confused by the incoherent mumbling of Simon, I explained my plight and the manager glady gave me back the money.
Now we move on. We walk back to Simon's area - when he decides the best move is to give me a full refund and start over - even though the transaction is now done. He comes back to the front and screams at another manager and then leaves me there at the desk. I explain that everything is okay and I don't know why he is doing this - but the manager proceeds anyway - after mentioning that she doesn't even know this guy's name he's so new.
So now owning nothing and having lost the last hour and fifteen minutes to the Circuit City Gods and about 20 minutes to the Best Buy Gods, I take over for Simon and tell him every button to push and scream at him when he makes a mistake. After another fifteen minutes, I finally leave with my two new TiVos and dish plus installation.
How beautiful is shopping on the internet?
Merry Christmas
