Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 11th

There's nothing in life like a 2 day work week!

My vacation begins on Wednesday.  As a matter of fact, I was tempted to go all out and take Monday and Tuesday off too.  Odd otherwise, right?  However, it's usually easiest to go this route because you fall way less behind if you at least get in Monday.  Tuesday was just one of those deals where I said I don't even leave until Wednesday, so no point in wasting a vacation day for nothing.


Ok, there's no doubt about it: I'm pumped up.  I wrote off the Kings after the first week of the season.  I wrote the Lakers off the face of the Earth after that Knicks game in December!   Would you believe both teams roared back to prove me wrong?

The Kings are the Kings, and I wasn't bothered so much by their bad start, so I shrugged and said "all right, let's see this play out and they won the Cup last year anyway so no big deal."  Suddenly, Jeff Carter goes bonkers and does hat tricks and scores in every single game.   Unbelievable!  The Kings had and *are having* a monster home stand to make up for the enormous road schedule they had last month.  It's been nuts.  They went from 11th, maybe 13th, to 4th, but one loss will dump them all the way back to 15th again.   The short season keeps all the teams on their toes.

Now..... how about those Lakers!  COTDAYUMN!!  I'M HAPPY ABOUT THIS TEAM!   I can't believe it!

Let's be honest... they've been beating some bad teams during most of this run, and the one good team they played, OKC, ran them out of the gym.  I think the Lakers are burnt toast against any young/athletic team in the West, which is, effectively, the upper half of the Western Conference.  LAL has no chance against the Thunder, zero.  None against Denver.  None against even the Clippers.  Well, that's almost four teams!  However, the fact that they fought so hard and played so well defensively to get to 8th place is tremendous.  Now to see if they can parlay that into a playoff berth.  We'll see.

Very dull weekend for yours truly.   I was home for 90% of the weekend.   Crazy story on Friday though.  I was driving to Culver City to attempt to get a cheap ticket to the Lakers game that night.  It rained the whole day in Los Angeles, so I thought the tickets would go down a lot in the open market, but it never happened.  But I did see it go down to 30-35 bones.  That would have been all right for me.  Even so it wasn't a slam dunk.  Nonetheless, I was in the car driving down to Culver to hit the train stop to Staples and L.A. Live.   I'm only half a mile from Sony when no other than my friend calls me on the telephone.

She was stranded!  She locked the keys in her car and needed a ride home... so, seeing my fortuitous timing, I happened to be only blocks from her workplace.... Sony Studios!   So I explained where I was and went right over to pick her up.   Boy was she ever grateful... so we're driving back to her apartment and in the meanwhile I check stubhub on the phone to see if the tickets went down much.  My friend had a rough day so she was in no mood to go to a Lakers game... I dropped her off for the moment while she got her spare key at her pad.   She comes back, and since we needed to get her back to her car, we drove back to Culver.

Then, we had the idea to go to the nearby sports bar called "Rush Street."  Now I don't want to disappoint Chicagoans here, but Rush Street has almost nothing to do with Chicago.  No Chicago Styled pizza, no Vienna Sausages, no mentions of the Cubbies or Harry Caray.  They had a great oak flame broiled hamburger though, do the dance.

So here in Culver we had a meal at "Rush Street" and I got to see the Lakers anyway on the many flat screen TVs.   BY THE WAY, on the way in, there was this Vegan Restaurant called Lyfe Kitchen or something and there was a huge stage and bright lights and over 500 people there.  We were like "what on earth was this?!"  We had our dinner -- she ordered a fig pizza, which is a lot better than it sounds, it was tremendous.  I offered her my fries, she offered a slice of her pizza, I thought it was a good trade.  We ate -- then scoped twitter to get the scoop on the Vegan Restaurant next door.  Turns out both Janet Evans and Troy Polamalu were on site to welcome everyone to the grand opening that night.

After dinner, we both went over to Lyfe to see if Janet Evans was still there.  Deep in the back of my mind I hoped my boy Troy was in there too.  Hey, he's an SC *and* a Steelers great.  Why not?  We went into the new restaurant, and by then, the bright lights were off and the stage was taken down.   The place was still packed though.  Scoped the restaurant, no sign of Janet Evans... that was disappointing but expected.  Expected, it was, because it was about 90 minutes into the Grand Opening Gala, so I figured, ah well.

The two of us were in the back just to get one last look and still no Evans.  BUT... in the back next to some buddies of his:  Troy Polamalu!   Now *that* was cool...   I am a clown... you'd never guess I was this shy but I was and even for a gentle dude like Polamalu I couldn't get the nerve to say hello, and he looked exasperated anyway, chatting with his homies.  So I quickly looked over and moved on.

That was still pretty cool -- got to see one of the better all time Safeties in Steeler History in person.  I took my friend home and that was that.

What a fun Friday night!  Now, just imagine what would happen if some other jokers I knew saw Polamalu in the back of a Vegan restaurant.  I couldn't even think of it... haha!

I bit the inside of my lip about a week ago, but the wound won't go away.  I wish I knew of some ointment or other solution that can ease the pain or heal it more quickly.  It's better than it was in the beginning but its a bit of a nag.

My teeth are prone to these problems.  I made the bonehead move many years ago not to get braces.  I didn't want to get made fun of in school, and I didn't want to weigh my parents down w/ the expenses, but it was stupid.  My teeth aren't a trainwreck or anything, but there are a couple of them that are subtly out of place and it lends to occasional biting of the lips or tongue when I'm asleep.

You know, if it's any help, to those of you out there who didn't get braces, Marv Albert, Jewel, and I'm betting you Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, never made the move to get braces and they're very good presences in the media.  All is not lost.

Speaking of Marv Albert, I was going through Lakers clips all weekend on the computer and I came upon the clip of Robert Horry's buzzer-beating 3 in game 4 of the 2002 West Finals.  He actually tried to keep talking but the crowd at Staples that day was so loud that after the game winning shot, his voice was totally drowned out.   Staples was a real powder keg during that series... those were good days.

Marvelous is still doing a great job for TNT doing those NBA games.  Hopefully he'll be able to do playoff games that are as good as those.


Weather is really picking up in Los Angeles!  I love it... here's to warmer days and longer afternoons.

Congratulations to Tiger Woods for winning the WGC Golf tournament at Doral in Miami.   Great performance and so many birdies!

Boston folded.  Chicago folded.  The Knicks folded to OKC.  We might as well just award the Heat the Eastern Conference trophy.   Don't you all think they could pull a fo' fo' fo' sort of deal as Moses Malone predicted for his Sixers in '83?  That would only put the Heat in the Finals, and they'd be in for a better series there.

I wanted to go check out some event at the old Forum, but I forgot that MSG bought the place and started extensive rennovations of it, so no dice.

You see that?  You want to get a stadium together, you can get it done for just about any stadium out there, but not the NFL.  JUST STOP IT WITH THE ENDLESS STIRRING OF THE POT.  Enough!   I'm sick of all the bull-bleep rumors about some exciting NFL stadium being built in Los Angeles.  Even *with* the proper referendum, some joker decides to drop the ball.

Read me loud and clear Los Angeles, City Council, and prospective NFL owners coast to coast:  Los Angeles Pro Football will *NEVER* happen.  It hasn't happened, there have been nearly a dozen proposals, and this endless foreplay is a joke.  Just stop.  Sam Farmer, go find something else to write about.  If the Cow has made this proclamation 12 years running and it still hasn't changed, pretty much *nothing* is going to bring an NFL team here.  SO LET'S MOVE ON ALREADY!

It makes me upset because the media continues to buy into this story every time we see it.  They all go after the cheese like hapless mice.  This dog and pony show frustrates me to no end.  Will America never learn?

Two things I did learn last night:  1.  Take the Pledge.  2. Make the Switch.

...and as Jim Valvano said twenty years ago, if you do those two things -- you've had a pretty good day!

That's all from here.  I'm so glad to have you all as readers and hope things are well.   Take care for now!

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 8th

What is UP fellas?  Do I have a story to share with you!

You ever hear of the Pizza Flyer scam in San Diego?  You go to a hotel, any hotel, especially those in Hotel Circle, and you get these renegades who send pizza flyers with NO ADDRESS on them!   Total scam... in fact the way I found out was such a riot.

The last time I was in San Diego, which might have been 3 years ago, I decided to give them a call.  So I went and asked them "Hey can I get your 18" inch pizza with this and that and the other thing?"

They were all very excited and were happy to set it up and then I said "Ok so, where are you guys located?"

THEN they got really evasive, they were like "Oh I'm sorry we can't do pickup" etc etc.

And I was like "Nooo!  It's ok, I don't mind, I'll just pick it up so you guys don't have to go out there or anything."

No dice... those jokers were had so I just cancelled the order.  Then I looked carefully at the Flyer and realized it had *no* address on it!   NEVER ORDER FROM THOSE STUPID HOTEL PIZZA FLYERS!

The reason I brought it up was because my buddy Coach and his g/f were going to San Diego for the weekend, you know with Sea World and all the good stuff.   I had to *coach* him not to go after those pizza flyers.  I think I've seen them in other cities too, but San Diego gets a whole lot of 'em.

Onward...

I had a waffle for breakfast this morning.  Nothing scandalous about that!   Very good, in fact.

Went for a swim this morning as well... I haven't done sprints in almost a month... I kept missing it because I overslept.   This time, I got it right on.  So pumped to get in that fast swim!

Los Angeles is in the midst of a thunderstorm.  We happened to be rain-free from 6am through now, but another wave of rain is bound to hit us.  Last night, at 1am, a HUGE thunderclap slammed LA and it woke up everyone in the city.    It was *loud!*  Thankfully there was only one of them.

I checked the price of Lakers Tickets on Stubhub just in case the rain would have made a lot of guys give up their seats, but nothing so far.  The *lowest* ticket cost was 70 bones, oi.

I'll give it another shot at 7pm tonight, but it doesn't look good.

I'm so glad to have a nice weekend ahead.  Hope your weekend is good too.  See you all on Monday!

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 7th

I should be ashamed of myself today.

I have not had a good last 36 hours.  The whole day yesterday I was tired and I think I was doing some really bufoonish things.

I just didn't have much energy that day.   The podcast went fairly well although our scheduled guest was too sick to do the show so I got Jacob Rosales to fill in.  He did an admirable job... he knew quite a bit about the AL Central... enough to surprise me, in fact.  I was really thankful for his efforts last night.

I honestly have no clue why I struggled with energy yesterday.  I went to bed at 12:30 which isnt that good but isn't *that* late... I even slept through to 7:10am.  How I went from that to about to pass out at work is beyond me.

The only thing I did differently from other days was avoid the coffee.  I'm starting to worry about my physiological health.    It might be an added amount of stress... could the lack of cable TV contribute to this?  I'm just not sure.

I hope none of you ever go through that.   I feel like I was being overly critical of certain people, whether in my mind or otherwise, yesterday.  It wasn't fair.  I feel like a real jerk. 

To all of you on planet Earth, I'm sorry.

I think my alarm schedule is contributing to this issue.  I have the alarm go off at 5am each morning.   I go to bed around 11:30pm or 12am.  Sometimes it's 11, but I set it up for all that so I could go swimming... yet, I have been missing all the swims anyway!   I can't get it together.  I think I need to move the alarm up to 6am for tomorrow to get back some of my sanity.

Remember that one day on tmf.com where I was just angry and ripping everybody?  I think that was one of the days when I didn't get enough sleep.   I'm hoping I can overcome this and become a slightly more normal human being again.  If that means quitting swimming, so be it.

I *am* glad to report I didn't lose my car!  Nono's Garage saved me!   I mentioned that a week ago... In fact, the financial damage was minimal.  Such a huge sigh of relief.

I was too hard on the Lakers last night.  I was bagging on them for having to come back from 25 points down to beat the Hornets, but they went ahead and did it!   A win's a win!  I gotta give it up to them.

That's actually a good example of where having no cable/satellite is killing me.  I feel really out of the loop with sports now.  It's as if I know the outcome but I don't know how they got there.  Really makes me feel so lost out there.  As if I'm blind or something.

Maybe that's psychologically playing with my head which leads to these other scenarios.  It's possible.  I may have to consider getting help... or at least, getting a new cable subscription.

At any rate... I'm really glad to still be alive... I'm glad to have all my friends... and I hope that I can do whatever it take for all of you to remain my friends.  You all mean so much to me and I hope you all are doing well.

There's a free staff lunch ahead!  I look forward to that.  Taco Bell will be *on* tonight.  I look forward to that too.  Life isn't terrible.  I hope you all are doing all right.  Til next time.

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 6th

What a huge comeback last night for the Kings!

I was at the game last night with some cheap seats... only ten bones.   I was up in Sec 314 near the Laker banners.  That's not the *reason* I sat there, I just went with the best sight line for the least amount of money.

Just so happens that the section had nearly a row full of Blues fans behind me.   As the game started I convinced myself the Kings had no energy for this game.  Bear in mind, they played the night before at home against Nashville.   Most teams, maybe all teams would be tired for the next night.

But no!   Barely 5 minutes into the game, the Blues started instigating and we had fights breaking out all over the arena!  The Championship bout was Kyle Clifford vs Roman Polak which was already following another fight where two guys got sent to the box.   Clifford lays on this haymaker on Polak that knocks him out solid.

That Clifford kid is scrappy, but he's got energy and heart... dude is a gamer.  Unreal.

Well... one might think that gave the Kings momentum to take over, but not true.  The Blues scored the first goal of the game off a very weird carom past Goaltender Jonathan Bernier.

All right let me fast forward this, the Blues were eventually up 4-1 in the 2nd period and by then all the Blues fans, especially this one guy behind us, yelled "THIS IS OUT OF CONTROL!!!"  Dude was getting into it, going gaga.

Most of us didn't really care... we were just shrugging since this was a "gravy game" anyway after a big win vs Nashville.  Nonetheless, the Kings were getting embarrassed.   Even before the 3 goal deficit, Coach Daryl Sutter switched out Bernier for Jonathan Quick.  I almost wonder if Quickie should have started in the first place.  Goaltenders playing on back to back nights like that is dicey.  Anyway...

After the roof caved in, the Kings scrapped together and got a goal.  2 goal deficit.  Then in the third period, Sutter worked in the Dustin Penner line and the Doughty/Muzzin line who already accounted for the first Kings goal.   Then another goal... and then another and the place went bonkers when the Kings tied and eventually took the lead.  UNBELIEVABLE.   After the 6th goal by Kopitar, most of Section 314 yelled back at the Blues fans "THIS IS OUT OF CONTROL!!"

After the game ended, those Blues fans jokers couldn't leave the building fast enough!   It was hilarious!

That was a good night... well speaking of "jokers" I need not say more about the Lakers.  All right, I read some of the deets of the game last night and I want to give them credit for making a bit of a comeback in the 4th quarter, but the Lake Show is just not that good.

I knew it going in, and they have played very good basketball but their talent presents limits, primarily in limiting backcourt speed defensively etc etc.  We've been through all this already.    Let's just say that if the Lakers were to meet the Thunder in the playoffs, they have to hope they get home court advantage because I don't think they can win a game at Chesepeake Energy Arena.

I'm hungry today.   I tried to take public transportation over and back from Staples Center, and it was a success, but there is a lot of waiting and planning involved.  It didn't give me time to prep breakfast nor lunch with the peanut butter/jelly sandwiches.  Thus, I'll have to go after the cheap breakfast burrito.

It's not a bad consolation prize, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Any other items on the agenda..?

The 28 Metro bus from Century City to Figueroa is KING, fellas.   Not only that, but I could presumably use the same bus to go to some Korean BBQ places if I really needed to, but that seems silly to do unless I planned heavy drinking.  The only issue is the frequency... only every 30 minutes.  You have to time it just right, but last night the buses ran on time.

I'd love to have some Korean BBQ down the road.  It's been a long while.  The primary problem is you usually need a big group to make the most of the tiny grill you use for the meat.  Once you get all that going it's a great scene, but it might be a while before I can get a half a dozen buddies to go to Korean BBQ.

I've been posting a few Lakers clips on Facebook this week and they are getting zero response.    Dang.   I suppose all I've been doing is annoying people with those clips.  Then I see some lady pee and moan about her annoyances and it gets 30 likes.   Go figure.

Hopefully I have more to come tomorrow... for now, time to jet and get some breakfast!  I'll be back tomorrow...

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 5th

Really exciting to see that Jeff Carter got a hat trick last night in the Kings game against Nashville.   Really cool moment.  How about the timing of a hat trick on a HAT GIVEAWAY night!   Is that a do the dance moment or what?

If I was at the game, I would have been happy to throw my hat into the rink, but I would have probably been throwing it from the top level, 10 rows up... I don't even know if it'd make it to the lower level.  What a great game for Jeff Carter!

The Kings won the game last night 5-1.  Tonight, they get the extremely rare back to back home game against the Blues.  All three of these teams are in a jumble for the lower half of the Western Conference Standings.  One point separates about half a dozen teams from 5th to 10th.  It's outrageous!

Even if the Kings lose, splitting these back to back games was big time.   Really happy they got to take down the Preds after being frustrated by them all year.  

This feels like a good day for a sub sandwich, or maybe a hoagie... something like that.   Jersey Mike's could fit the bill, but on the other  hand, I can always wait until the weekend.  

Not much on my mind today.   It got cold again, sadly.  I went for a swim last night in the cold, somewhat breezy air.   That was nuts.

One of the crazy things about music is that your favorite groups never go away, unless one of the members die or some other enormous ego-trip.   Yes, ZZ Top, Styx, the B-52's... a concert program of days gone by, no!  That's who's on the bill at tickemaster.com, coming soon go a stage near you.

When do you get to the point that a group is a has-been in music?  I noticed Weezer and Green Day were also on tour, but I still consider both groups to be relevant.   My thinking is if you go about 15-20 years without a big hit on the pop charts or even a new album, you become a "has-been."

I might even use a smaller litmus of 10-15 years, but either way, a decade plus without a relevant dent in the music scene and I think that qualifies a band as a "former great" and not a "current great."  So far, Weezer and Green Day are safe.  The tricky one is U2.  Has anyone heard a new song from U2 in the last 9 years?

The recent Evernote hack-job really gave me the willies.  Something like millions of people using an Evernote Dropbox account had to re-set their password.  This is serious news for those of us in the I.T. industry.   Especially those organizations, not naming names, with inadequate in-house storage facilities.  Some companies have turned to Dropbox for a convenient easy to use, safe, relatively secure file resource.  It's wonderfully integrated into any operating system, and even mobile devices.   I hope the industry doesn't panic too much and then suddenly bail on Dropbox.  It's been a dream for a number of administrators.

The only issue with Dropbox that I've seen is granular permissions, which I think could be more comprehensive, and the inability to operate more than one dropbox account at a time on the desktop, but usually the latter is addressed by simply sharing a folder from Account 1 with Account 2.

Well.... I'm sad to report that Kansas never got the #1 ranking in College Basketball this year.  With that said, I am undeterred.  They *will* win the Big 12 tournament and you can write that in stone on the top of a mountain.

So!  They may get a good seed in the tournament yet.  I still consider them a nicely balanced team and Ben McElmore is a *fun* player to watch.  The way it's going in College Basketball this year, why *not* Kansas?   Now that they're a bit of an underdog they could be fired up!

You'd think ESPN Radio Los Angeles would be buzzing about the Carter hat trick, but I turned the radio on this morning and all they talked about was Kobe and Ibaka and the Lakers/Thunder game.  On and on with the Lakers.  I like the Lakers, but they can't use 3 minutes to highlight a pretty epic night for Jeff Carter?  Wouldn't that be reasonable for local sports radio?

I don't know what all the fuss is about, the Thunder HAVE THEIR WAY with the Lakers.  The Lakers put together one good game and beat them earlier this year at Staples, but at OKC, no chance.   I'd be very surprised if the Lakers won tonight.  That's why they play the games, though!

People out here have been so excited about the Lakers possible run to the playoffs, only to be quickly sobered by how many of the first round matchups would be abysmal for this old, slow, awful perimeter defensive team.   Already last night we calculated that Denver would be an awful matchup for the Lakers, just awful.  We also concluded LAL/Oklahoma City is as good as a bye week for the Thunder.   The Clippers have manhandled the Lakers in each of their matchups so far.  Really it boils down to this:  If the Lakers can face the Spurs in the first round, they have a chance.  Anyone else they play presents very long odds.

Pretty soon the offseason will provide the answers.  For now, I'll take my peanut butter/jelly sandwich and soak in whats left over.  It's been a good run for the Lake Show!  Interesting, if nothing else.

That's all from here, have a good morning.   'Til tomorrow!

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 3rd

Happy March!  Tons to talk about today.

First of all, I wanted to commemorate one of the big upsets of the weekend with a new DITCOW Sports Minute, so I posted one last night: http://daveinthecity.podbean.com/2013/03/03/ditcow-sports-minute-dave-recaps-an-upset-for-the-ages-03-03-13/

I hope folks enjoy that sports minute.  My buddy Chris in Syracuse did a *much* better one which precedes it on the podcast feed.   Generally speaking, I've found it odd to script a minute long monologue and then recite it, but hopefully it worked.

I really hate talking about myself like that.   Do you ever get self-evaluations at work?  How the hell am I supposed to judge my own performance?  Wouldn't I be biased?  "I am doing a *stupendous* job at the office.  People should be so lucky to be graced by my presence..."   What would I honestly say?  It's been said that one can be their own worst critic, and I subscribe to that, but in any case, it always feels so uncomfortable to do self-evaluations.   For the record, I never have spoken of myself in such lofty terms as I had quoted.

I feel bad for beauty pageant contestants.   It's one thing when other people are literally judging your character traits, but if you see them oogling at your breasts and legs that must be so damn awkward!  I suppose men are beauty pageant contestants too... yikes!

If that's their thing, then I say, noice, more power to 'em, but I sympathize with those find that situation uncomfortable.

If it's one's LIVING, ya know, showing off the body as a model does, I would think there's less trepidation.  On the other hand, the person in question is amazingly attractive by definition.   That's why they're called "models."  Exact ideas of what you want something or someone to be.   Sports Illustrated would never sell magazines featuring swimsuit facsimiles.


Serge Ibaka is hot stuff.  Where does he get off thinking whacking some guy's nuts is going to be a good defensive play?  Who didn't feel for Blake Griffin when Ibaka pulled the nut-puncher in yesterday's Thunder/Clippers game.  That *almost* sparked the Clippers to win the game but they forgot that after they took a 101-100 lead that there was still over 1:30 left in the game!

The Clippers... I hate to be so smug and simplistic with this, but they are still learning how to win.  Or, perhaps they just aren't a good finishing team.   I'll tell you what though: the Clippers and Thunder would be an amazing playoff series.

The Thunder were pretty bogus themselves in the second half.  Who goes up 19 and then blows the lead in the fourth quarter?  Not impressive.  To be honest, neither team plays good defense.  Both teams are prone to turnovers. 

I had the privilege of seeing the game in person.  Ah, the magic of stubhub.  I waited until about 12:15 local time, or 15 minutes before the game started to land some nice center court seats high above the sideline.  For the price of 28 bones, quite good!

Staples Center is also quite good.  It's an A+ facility.   Excellent staff, excellent design, and frankly, excellent access too with the easy freeway entry, easy parking, and many surface streets.

Oh baby... have you ever had the Staples Center hot dog?   It's so ridiculous to think this but the Staples Center hot dog is my favorite stadium hot dog anywhere.  I don't even know why it's so good!  It's just a regular Farmer John hot dog on a bun, but it's amazing.   I think it's their all-beef dog.   Whatever, its golden.   Just a regular hot dog with regular onions, regular relish, and regular mustard.   All that regular adds up to some PHENOMENAL.  Just try it!  It'll make sense.


At Staples, the Lakers had a game later that night but I didn't feel like spending additional money, so I let it go and went home.

Friday night was spent at this Italian restaurant called Carmine's.   It is *amazing.*  Not that expensive either!  I had the "Gumbi" which is rigatoni with meatballs, mushrooms, marinara, and cheese.   Simply amazing.  The portions are so huge there that I only got to eat about 1/8 of it plus the bread and a side salad.   Carmine's really takes care of you.

Put all together, it was a great weekend.  I'm glad to have had a good chance to relax and catch up on things.   I got in some more Sharepoint training to boot.  All I'm really doing is watching some educational training videos, but they're enjoyable.  I got in quite a lot of sleep!  Hopefully more sleep follows this week.

Hope your week is off to a good start too.  Catch you all tomorrow...

Smog Check Update

Great news everybody!

The repair shop said they just needed to warm up the engine extra, try a retest, and it worked!  DO THE DANCE!!!!

I saved 800 bones!  Woo hoo!