A few days ago, a customer came into our office to deposit a money order and because of some fluke mistake by me, I didn’t write the account number on the money order. There really wasn’t an option to get the deposit in other than to wait for him to call and complain.

Right on time, he called yesterday wondering where the deposit was. After one of our associates told him the money order was missing an account number, he mentioned that at the time of the deposit, he gave the money order to a Chinaman.

I was shocked when I heard that the customer called me a Chinaman because, well, I’m not Chinese. Nor am I Japanese, Korean, or Thai. In fact, I’m not oriental at all. Why he would call me a Chinaman made no sense.

After I heard it though, I actually felt a little insulted. Who does this guy think he is calling me a Chinaman? Sure I’m not Chinese, but if I was, I’d be pretty pissed off. What an asshole.

The weird part (and this is something I realized much later) is that the customer himself is Chinese. Someone explain me that…

I began my morning commute to work today in a typical fashion. I got in my car and started driving away, making a right turn away from my street and approaching the intersection that followed. Looking left, I saw a car approaching – an old, red Saturn – that seemed far enough away to allow me to make the turn safely without having to wait for the car to pass. However, after I made the turn, I realized the driver of the Saturn was obviously speeding, driving upwards of 60mph on a 40mph road. He had to brake pretty hard to avoid hitting me, and as he did so, I heard a loud screeching noise: his faulty brakes on his car. I looked at my rear view mirror to see if he was ok, and that’s when I saw it:

He gave me the finger.

Upon receiving this furious gesture, I wasn’t sure how to react. Should I be angry? Upset? Humiliated? I was definitely confused. Nevertheless, after realizing what had just happened, the only reaction I could muster was to laugh hysterically. It’s been years since I’ve ever been given the middle finger, and for good reason – it looks absolutely ridiculous. The funniest part was that he looked so angry while he showed me the finger, as if he really was trying to make a statement.

I kept driving, secretly hoping that he saw me ridiculing him in my car. Hopefully, now he’ll slow down and finally realize that the middle finger is a complete joke.

“Two Sisters” by Fiction Plane

Browsing around the internet and wasting time (like usual), I came across a blog by n8 foo where he mentioned a band called Fiction Plane. According to Nate, this band played on The Tonight Show and was awesome. I figured I’d check them out myself and make my own judgment, and sure enough, they’re pretty impressive. The music sounds like a mix between pop and rock. Think a mix between Incubus and Sublime, but without Incubus’ DJ scratching and a little poppier (is that even a word?) and that’s basically what Fiction Plane sounds like.

Another cool fact: the lead singer is the son of Sting, so you know that this band’s probably going to get real popular, real fast.

“Gone Away” by The Offspring

Ok, so the Offspring are a pretty mindless band. Who cares? I heard this on K-Rock the other day, and it was a perfect reminder of why I love the Offspring. It’s meant to be rocked out to, with no thinking necessary. Perfect music for a Saturday afternoon.

“Moving Forward” by Hoobastank

Even though Hoobastank released their newest album a year ago, I feel like it’s worth announcing because apparently nobody got the first message. I haven’t heard a single song from Every Man for Himself on the radio nor have I heard any of my friends play one at all. It really is too bad because, while the album isn’t something groundbreaking or as mainstream as The Reason, it still has its batch of good songs. I particularly like Moving Forward because it’s catchy, but isn’t too catchy…if that makes any sense. It’s embedded below, so click play and listen up.

Passed by the high school graduation in my new town on the way home from work today. From the looks of it, it kind of sucked compared to my graduation. We had a big football field with large, stone bleachers. The one I saw today looked very similar to my sister’s middle school graduation (in other words, pathetic). Family and friends sat on fold-out chairs on the grass, with a few relatives scattered around on the metal bleachers farther back. I’m not saying I’m an expert at organizing this kind of stuff, but even I could have done a better job than what I saw today.

Song of the day is No Rain by Blind Melon. Heard it on K-Rock on the way home and forgot how much I love this song. Was Blind Melon a one-hit-wonder band? I don’t remember any other popular songs by them after No Rain. Maybe I’ll check that out later.

Edit: It just started pouring. So much for that graduation.

Is it just me, or has the summer of 2006 been absolutely crazy in terms of the weather New Jersey has gotten? It seems that nearly every week, my the area near my house gets hit with another thunderstorm. Thunderstorms aren’t anything new, but the ones we’ve been getting have been massive. I feel like the world is going to end sometime soon, and someone’s just giving us an early warning.

And if that’s not bad enough, what about the giant tornado-like storm that northern New Jersey experienced a few weeks back? I felt the aftermath near me (including seeing some intense bolts of lightning through my window), but I had no idea how badly northern NJ was hit until I made a trip up there last night. Apparently, the storm literally ripped apart areas of Bloomfield and Montclair. Just driving around town in Bloomfield, I saw at least four or five (maybe more) houses where their front trees had been ripped out of the sidewalk and collapsed into the house near it. The picture to the left is one example, where a huge tree was ripped out of its roots and narrowly missed hitting a house, instead falling to the house’s right side. Driving by another house, I saw that a tree had fallen onto a car in the driveway!

I really hope this is just coincidence and bad luck. If this becomes a trend, we could be in for some really tough times in the coming years. Mother Nature does not look happy right now.

I picked up NCAA Football 07 during my lunch break yesterday, along with a Datel Transfer Kit and an Xbox Memory Card (do the math yourself; I’m embarrassed to tell you how much I paid for it all). I bought the Transfer Kit and Memory Card so I can import PSXSports.com’s rosters for the game. That’s right – some loser (who I thank very much) actually sits at home and names every player in the game. Then he releases the roster file online for people like me to download.

The main reason I decided to splurge on the Transfer Kit and the Memory Card is this: I don’t know any college players at all. I’ve never really taken to college football (I guess no one in my family was a big fan, so I never became a big fan), but I’m really determined to get into the sport. The first step to doing that is to learn some names and familiarize myself with who actually plays the game, so I figured getting the rosters would be the best way to do so. Plus, if I get the Transfer Kit now, I’ll be able to use it again for next year’s college football game as well as College Hoops 2k7 and 2k8.

Anyways, continue reading to see my first impressions of the game…

The first thing I noticed about the game is that the graphics are phenomenal. I mean, they’re really good, and that’s just on standard definition TV. I can only imagine how they look on high definition. In fact, I would know how they look on high definition if my parents let me use the HDTV once in a while..

The game’s animations are also really, really cool. Madden’s always been a great football game, and the animations have always been good, but I’ve never played football on Xbox 360 before. This really is incredible. During my second game I played with NCAA 07 (Ohio St. vs. Iowa), I caught a kickoff and began running it back. As I was getting tackled, one of the extraordinary things that I noticed was that one of the Iowan players tripped over my Ohio St. player on the field as he tried to tackle me. This is unbelievable. Not only do players exist on the field as objects that stand in the way (meaning you can’t run though a defender on the ground), but you can actually trip over them! How cool!

Being new at college football video games, I’m still learning how to use the option effectively and how to master teams’ crazy formations. However, my first impression is definitely a positive one. I haven’t had time to check out the Dynasty mode yet, but from what I’ve heard it’s going to be good enough for me. The exciting thing for me is that I’ll really be able to have fun with Dynasty mode now that I’ve got all the rosters. I’ll finally get a chance to see how difficult it is to take a struggling football team and help them get to a Bowl Game.

Some of the controls are a little wacky, but I’m slowly getting used to them. One of the other things I love about the 360 versions of EA Sports’ football games is the new playcalling screen. It makes calling plays a lot easier, and there’s a lot more information displayed on the screen when doing so. I love the fact that I can just go to “Inside Handoff” to pick an inside handoff play and still be able to see the formation it’s in.

Overall, I’m very impressed with this game. I’ll see if I can do a followup post once I check out the game on hi-def, because I know for a fact that my crappy 4:3 TV is definitely not doing the game justice.

EDIT: I’m making this edit to point out that one of the things I didn’t like about NCAA 07 was the new control scheme, particularly when hot routing and motioning receivers.  After scouring the internet for some tips on why the controls are how they are, this is what I’ve found out: In Madden 06, the player would press Y, press a receiver’s button, and then choose the direction of the receiver’s hot route.  The simplicity of this allowed a player to completely change a play on the field – that is, assign a hot route to every receiver before the ball is hiked.  I guess EA thought this was a little unrealistic, so in NCAA 07, you now must hold B, use the thumbstick to select the receiver, and then assign the hot route. This takes a few seconds extra to pull off, but it also means that the player will only be able to assign one or two hot routes and still hike the ball before the play clock expires. Definitely a lot more realistic.

Props to EA on this, I guess.  I still preferred the old method because it was significantly easier to hot route or motion a receiver, but if this new thing isn’t that bad either.  My main initial problem was that I didn’t realize you could hold the B button down and use the thumbstick to select a receiver, so I would routinely keep pressing B and just miss the receiver I wanted to motion.  Then I’d just cycle through the players again, and by the time I assigned the motion, the play clock would expire.  Thanks to the users at GameFAQs for pointing this out to me.

Who would have thought that getting a job would mean you’d suddenly have no time on your hands?  Definitely not me, who never really worked at a real job before.  By the time I get home at 6:00pm, I suddenly feel like I have no time left in the day, and therefore just give up on getting anything valuable accomplished at all.  That includes this blog.

Just letting all the readers know that I haven’t totally forgotten about this blog just yet.  I keep meaning to post here.  Hopefully I can get some more content up soon, but for now, don’t count me out.

Galeo is gone.

Yes, that's right.  Galeo (also known as GOLEO VI), the World Cup mascot which we've all come to know and love (or at least me), is no longer the World Cup mascot.  According to Reuters, the German manufacturer who created Galeo filed for insolvency on Tuesday, thus ending possibly the shortest run of a World Cup mascot ever.

If you're not aware, I wrote a loving post about Galeo on my old weblog, The Sports Statement.  How could you not love him?  Galeo is a fun-loving, party-going lion who loves soccer.  He wears a "soccer shirt with the number 6" and "is trouserless".

I guess that since Galeo is no longer around, the same goes for his soccer ball, Pille.  This is very sad news, indeed.

So I guess this means that the World Cup is now mascot-less.  That's just too bad.  I'll miss you Galeo and all your trouserless World Cup fun.