Sharks on a Roll; need new "Hat Trick" Hat

First Round Matchup: San Jose Sharks vs Nashville Predators
After a loss in Game One, the Sharks have rebounded for 3 in a row. One more win and the Sharks advance to the 2nd round. After giving up 4 Power Play Goals in Game 1, the Sharks settled down to go 2 straight games without giving up a power play goal or an even strength goal. Nashville responded game 4 with a weak powerplay goal (it bounced off a skate and into the net) and some soft evenstrength goals (due to screens on Goalie Vesa Toskala).
But the highlights were the 2 big guys for the Sharks. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Thornton's line, with Cheechoo and Ekman, have recieved all the attention of the top defencemen from Nashville. that opens things up for Marleau and his line mates Michalek and Brenier. Though Nashville has contain Thornton off the scoresheet, Thornton has DOMINATED the speed, size and strength. He brings the puck in speeding by the defenders. Then he holds the puck behind the net or in the corner for 5-10 seconds as the defenders try to push him away. Eventaully it leads to a penalty because Nashville can't get Thornton off the puck.

Bring Out Line # 2
Marleau is the captain. And in big games you need your superstars to show up and lead the way. Captain Patrick Marleau is leading the way. Game 3 Marleau comes out and scores a goal the beats Mason short side. Mason should have stopped it, but with the Sharks down 0-1 in the game, the crowd was out of it, nothing to cheer for, Marleau took control. The one goal lead to 3 more goals: Brenier, Cheechoo, and Marleau again.
Game 4 he comes out and being down 0-1 and then 1-2, Marleau took over again. Marleau scored the game tying goal (2-2) then the go ahead goal (3-2) then the Hat Trick Goal (5-2) which was the eventual game winner (5-4 Final) Which leads me to...

WANTED: New Hat Trick Hat.
A Hat trick is when a player scores 3 goals in one game. the fans then throw their hats onto the Ice. I've never thrown a hat in. but that's because of 2 things: 1) hats are expensive ($20) and 2) I like my hat. so then becomes the "Hat Trick Hat" the spare hat you throw. So I started bringing Hat Trick Hats. this was the first game that I used a hat trick hat. Now I need to dig into my closet and find another hat that I don't wear anymores. And POOF let it fly.

Whats on Tap: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and a Nashville Predator whooping
Sharks go back to Nashville for game 5. Nashville is on the brink of elimination so I believe they will throw everything including the kitchen sink. But the Sharks keep doing what they are doing and Nashville won't be able to continue on this playoff. Being down 0-3 and 1-3 are hard to come back from.
Lets assume the Sharks win this series. What is ahead? (1) Detroit vs (8) Edmonton tied 2-2, (2) Dallas vs (7) Colorado, Colorado up 3-0; (3) Calgary vs (6) Anaheim, tied 2-2. The Sharks need 2 of the top 3 teams to drop in order to get Home Ice advantage, which is BIG in the playoffs. Dallas is pretty much done; Disappointed in their performance but happy they are gone. I want Detroit and Calgary to lose too. I think Edmonton and Anaheim are "easier" than them. Colorado is a good matchup from 2 years ago. I don't want to face Calgary because they are the harder team; Kipersoff is the Top Goalie and will get that award this year. And Detroit is the NY Yankees of the NHL. Lots and lots of great talent, a lineup where anyone can beat you.

Go Sharks! but then "Go Colorado, Anaheim and Edmonton." If those teams win, the Sharks become the #1 team in the West!

State of Wrestling (RAW)

Well Vince you've outdone yourself. I know lots of people were offended when you started exploiting Eddie Guerrero's Death; having Randy Orton saying he's in hell, having Orton crash the lowrider, JBL saying he's beaten him, etc. But somehow you were able to go further. This whole "God" storyline is borderline blasphamy. Starting a religion "McMahon-ism" outragous. The whole Prayer thing and the Church thing, and the lightening and pyro. Its all so over the edge. And the "Sacrafice" of your son (Shane). Good thing they pulled that one back. As much as I love the feud between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon. I can't help Tivo-ing past this.

Another annoying group is the Spirit Squad. 5 Male cheerleaders? But at the same time it's new blood, new wrestlers. Kenny (Ken Doane) is really good. At first these guys look liked they dreaded the gimmick. But now they are loving it, just dancing around like fools.

Heres one that I don't get. the firing of Rosey and the return of Jamal. Why not put them back together as 3-minute warning? instead you use Jamal and rename him as Umaga. ? ? ? what? Umaga? U-Mag-a? or is it: Ummm... ahhhhhhh gaaaag. Though his manager has mic skills, Alahandro Alexandra emanciapia fernado arolandro cepeda ramalama ding-dong something. Time to shorten this name, like they did to Carlito Carribian Cool ==> Carlito.

I really love the direction the Trish Stratus vs Mickie James has gone. First Mickie was mimicing her idol Trish. till she turned on Trish and took the Women's Title. And now Trish comes running out dressed like Mickie and is just as annoying as Mickie was to Mickie. Its great! I love this. They did a great job doing this storyline.

The Main Event at Backlash is John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge. I think Cena's time has come to drop the title. He's not entertaining me anymores and maybe thats why the crowd has turned on him. make him a bad guy and make him beat up Triple H, who will be the good guy. And Edge will still be the bad guy because no one has forgetton what he did to Matt Hardy.

Oh yeah... where is the good 'ol Draft? Where each brand drafts the other roster's superstars? It happens after Wrestlemania. However there are problems. 1) No GM at Raw. Unless Vince is the GM. Hence problem #2) Vince is an "active wrestler" so he can't GM as well. He could but it wouldn't make sense.

Until Smackdown on Friday, Latersz

Fantasy Hockey

With the end of Regular Season is the end of Fantasy Hockey. I must say This has been the worst Fantasy Hockey I've done in years. I don't remember being this bad. I think I ended up with alot of underacheiving. Lets take a look:

Team 1: Sliver
(Head to Head format)
Standings: Finished 4th in Standings, 5th in Playoffs
This team I thought was going to make it. BUt it didn't . It slumped in the end, and the end was the playoffs. I was done with 2 weeks left. yuk. So what happened?
Positives: Kiprusoff was unbelievable, Phaneuf is a upcoming player. Solid years from: Shanahan, Marleau and Kaberle
Negatives: Iginla had a bad year. Not the Superstar I thought he was going to be this year. Goalies were sub-par, Huet, Aebischer, and Budaj were really good or really bad.
Best Move: Getting Phaneof. But if that was it, I didn't do a good job... apparently thats it.
Worst Moves: I had Curtis Joseph. But he got hurt and dropped, then he came back and won 32 games. NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo ---- _blink_. Oh yeah I had Selanne too. that was even worse move to drop him. he went nuts this year. Bad bad bad...

Team 2: Team SJ
(Points Format)
Standings: 5th
This team came back from the depths and got as high as 3rd. But I ran out of games and so I fell back to 5th. So I need to manage my players alot better.
Postitives: Kovalchuk came back from Russia and scored 50 goals. Straka got LW eligable, so I was able to put 4 top players at Center and LW. Good D with Lidstrom, Zubov and Visnovsky. Goalie Lundqvist was awesome until he got hurt the last 2 weeks. Svatos and Cole were awesome... til they got hurt. Yuk.
Negatives: Goalies. I love goalies so it hurts when these guys SUCK. Nabokov was a MAJOR disappointment. getting bumped by inconsistant play and dumb penalties and getting an ego. Belfour had a sub-par year as well. He might be at the end of his career. I tried to cover up the rest of the goalies with injury replacements. Offensively better, but not great.
Best Move: Not to many bad moves. Many had to cover up injuries.
Worst Move: Steve Yzerman. But he was injured at the start but became the man at the end of the year.

So that was my Fantasy Hockey Year. Very Disappointed. But I'll learn. Its the NEW NHL so the shift is back on the players scoring more than goalies saving. I'll have to adjust and go for it again next year.

Sharks Enter Playoffs; Fan Photo Award

The Sharks ended their regular season with a loss to the LA Kings. Bittersweet for the Sharks who hosted Luc Robitille's last game. Robitille is the all-time scorer for left wings. He has had a hall of fame career and will definately be a shoo-in for the Hall Of Fame. They did a very classy thing after the game, skating out to Center Ice and shaking hands with this great player. The crowd was great too standing ovations twice, during the game and after.

Now to the part I didn't like. So this entire year, a Promotion allowed Fans to take photos and submit them to SJSharks.com. They would give out cameras and stuff. But every month has a winner. And at the last game of the year they give away a Flatpanel TV to the grand prize winner. Let me say that all the months winners, their pictures were not good. They were of kids and stuff, but not anything award winning. If they weren't wearing Shark outfits, it would be non-hockey related. Give me a break. Not a single picture was near the hockey rink. None were action shots of the game. 5 of the 6 pictures were the SAME THING: Kids sitting in Shark outfits with the look of "Why is that thing pointing at me?" I should just dress up Taylor and give her a hockey stick and let her run around the backyard.

Ridiculous. The winner didn't even think she was going to win and the the crowd reacted with a half-hearted applaud.

-- I'll post the pictures soon --

Next Year, Tisha and I are going to do this. And we are going to blow them out the water. Of course everyone's probably thinking the same thing: "Those aren't that great; we could do that." I'm even going to let Taylor take some pictures. Taylor's taken better pictures of Mr. Monkey.
I'm done Venting. But now I'm determined to win a TV...

SHARKS CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH!

Uh sorry I'm hella hung over. The Sharks clinched the playoff spot so the party began. to think in November, a 10 game losing streak, and now we can't finish lower than 7th, and we are a team no one is looking forward to playing.

Joe Thornton = Dominant. He carried the team last night with 4 points. After falling down 2-0, Thornton hit the home run pass to Grant Stevenson for a breakaway goal. Then on the PP, he drew 2 guys to him and set up Nils Ekman for the goal to tie it. Then down 3-2 Thornton again skates down to the goal line, passes it back and WHAM, Scott Hannan with a Game Tying goal with less than 3 minutes left. Overtime, Thornton is not done. He wins the face off. The D-man hands off to him and he goes coast-to-coast, drawing men to him. He finds Christian Erhoff in the slot and GOAL!!!! VICTORY!!! SHARKS CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH! Thornton leads the comeback... TWICE! for the WIN!

M V P! M V P! M V P! M V P!

What did you do this weekend?

Well you know, rode 30 miles on a bike, went to a baseball game, saved my neighbors life. thats all.

After the baseball game, my dad and I came home, I noticed that my neighbor's garage was open. She is an elderly lady who lives alone with her dog and bird. I didn't think much of it because sometimes she goes out for "drives" in her wheelchair.
About a half hour later I had to run out to the store. I looked over and the garage was still open. hmm that's odd. I went to the store and came back about 10 minutes later. Still open, and no activity (there were newspapers on her driveway). So I decided to go pick up her paper and give her a call to make sure everything is alright. no answer. but the Moto-Wheelchair is still here. So I called my mom to see if she had any of her kid's phonenumbers. Mom suggested I ring the doorbell. No answer. I didn't hear her dog either, which kind of says that maybe she's out but forgot to close the garage.
Mom calls my neighbor's daughter who lives in the area. She decides she'll check up on my neighbor. She arrives about 10 minutes later. But I figure she'll just let me know what happens. I waited about another 10 minutes before going over. I rang the door bell, then knocked. the Daughter opens the door and gives me a hung. in a urgent voice she says, "Thank you! She has low sugar; when this happens she is 'out of it'. She doesn't recognize anything she sees or hears" This is a symptom of diabetes and having low sugar in your body.
The next day I hear that Mom and Dad visited my neighbor, so I know that she is ok. Ive been given instructions on how to act if something like this ever happens again.
After a while of thinking of it, I realized that I saved my neighbor's life. If I didn't check up on the garage door, no one would have known about her low sugar symptom. and my neighbor would have died. It was a crazy domino effect of the garage door, to calling people to find her incoherent, to bringing her back to life. I am glad I checked up on her at that time. We were lucky that the garage door was open. It will always be a worry now. What if the garage door isn't open and everything looks fine outside? Will I know to go inside? Will I be aware that something has happened to her?
For now I will rest knowing that I did the correct action on something that was out of place. And my Neighbor is still alive.

Office Depot 3: Final Resolution

This really isn't adding to the complaint, but is adding to the fustration and commentary.
So Friday arrives and UPS would NOT pick up the package. There is no information on the package and they won't pick it up. Great. ok. So I call Office Depot back and tell them to find out what the problem is. They said they would call me back. (sure...)
Around lunch time, Shipping tells me UPS picked up the package! It turns out UPS had the shipping label. They stuck it on, and gave me the bottom portion of the label that has the tracking number. FINALLY IT'S OUT THE DOOR!
An hour later I get a phone call. It's office depot. i tell them that UPS has picked up the package. Knowing that the person speaks perfect English (compared to some of their CSRs) I ask them "What is your position in the company?" and she goes "Dispatch, we connect your calls to call centers." So then I tell them, "Well I've had a horrible time getting this thing resolved. and one of your customer service reps even hung up on me." she was shocked. She was also shocked that there were not to many orders, yet many notes on my account. Then she ended the conversation with an apology.
I checked UPS with the tracking number. and it has been delivered back to Office Depot. Hopefully in pieces...
Nothing much I can do about it now. but I need to keep checking my CC to make sure they refund my money!

Office Depot 2: delivered the cancelled order

This issue started here

Office Depot rep told me that since the order was over $250, it would NOT be left on my porch. So what did I find when I came home? An LCD monitor on my porch. Whats worse is that it is NOT in a box, it is the LCD Monitor box. so anyone can tell what it is.

So I call back Office Depot and tell them that they delivered the box even though no one was there to accept it. Then they gave me a Return Sales Order number. And said that they would be picking it up from my house! Well hello, no one was there to receive it, what makes you think someone would be there to give them the box? I told Office Depot that that was unacceptable. So the CSR did what "any" CSR would do. Hang up on the customer. Yes that's right. Office Depot customer service hung up on me. Great. Unfortuneately this still isn't resolved so I have to call them back.

I start off by telling the guy, Its been a week, and this isn't resolved so I am extremely fustrated at Office Depot. We work it out and he says he can give me a new Return Sales Order to my work address (Which was the original shipping address that the 2nd order screwed up on). So now I wait for tomorrow to see if UPS will pick up my package.

Screw you Office Depot!

If you have been in this situation please leave a comment or e-mail me. Already myself and my friend had this problem. If more people have this problem we can really rattle Office Depot's cage. The main problem is them putting us on Credit Hold and not selling us the product.

Office Depot fouled up my order

Last week (march 29, 2006) I found a great deal online. A Viewsonic 17" monitor for 279.99 - $40 online coupon, - $40Rebate - $60 Rebate. So it is now $139! Pretty good deal. so myself and Tisha decide to order one. Lo and behold that was the worse decision of the month...

March 29th: Ordered the item; ETA, March 31st. The item is in Fremont. We are in milpitas. We decide to have the items delivered to Milpitas.

March 30th: Order is on Hold; "Held for Credit Review" ok, maybe they are reviewing the Credit card information.

March 31st: Order is still on "Held for Credit REview" Item never ships, never arrives to work. We check Tisha's order, same problem.

April 2nd: I call Office Depot Customer Server. Where is my Order? They verify the shipping and Billing addresses are correct. They are. They say that they will e-mail the department to get this order shipped. I inform Tisha of what happened.

April 3rd: Still not off of "Held for Credit Review"; won't ship out.

April 4th: Tisha and I are still waiting for the Office Depot order. So we decide to call up Customer Service again. I told them that this is the 2nd time I'm calling to get this order released. They tell me that they will have this escalated and someone will call me. in an hour someone calls. This person sounds incompetent. She doesn't know whats going on. She can't tell me whats wrong with the order. She verifes the Billing&Shipping. then she suggests that it is the credit card company that has the problem. OK no problem.
I call my CC company. After a few moments they tell me that the order has been approved and there was no problem with this.
I call back to Office Depot. "this is the 3rd time i've call you guys to get this order released" the CS guy reviews the order. Reviews allllll the notes from the previous 2 calls. He asked, "did you call the Credit Card Company" and I tell him YES I did and its fine. So he suggests that we cancel the old order and re-enter the new order. OK fine. as long as I get my $40 coupon too. BOOM ok. there it is. So I go and check the order. Cool its in. Except its going to the wrong ADDRESS. ARG! DIDN'T YOU COPY IT STRAIGHT OVER? DAMMIT

And now I'm looking at the rebates. offer valid from march 26, 2006, through april 1, 2006. Oh great. $100 on expired rebates. Guess I'll have to call them again...
DAMMIT OFFICE DEPOT! YOU SCREWED ME!

04/05/2006: Just to followup. I called them back and asked if they would honor the rebates b/c of their screw up. They said "maybe". I then proceeded to tell them to stick it... actually now I told them, "ok forget it, i'm canceling my order." so I did. I told them I was unhappy, and fustrated. And that was that. Tisha on the otherhand did not cancel her order. In fact she now has her order being investigated on why it is not happening.

I'll update you on that later.

This is continued here

If you have been in this situation please leave a comment or e-mail me. Already myself and my friend had this problem. If more people have this problem we can really rattle Office Depot's cage. The main problem is them putting us on Credit Hold and not selling us the product.

Tetris DS hits the Nintendo DS!

One of the best portable games comes to the Nintendo DS. Let me just say it is pretty good. Overall the game is the same, put little blocks in lines and eliminate the lines. But they made new modes for the game. While those are nice and dandy, actually really good modes for single player, the game REALLY excels multiplayer.
I haven't done local multiplayer game which can have 10 people playing at one time. I have done the Wi-Fi gaming. With Wireless networking the DS goes out and finds opponents around the world. THis really excels in the game. it is really awesome.
There is the one-on-one game, then there is a 4 player game, where you can use items like mushrooms and turtleshells to mess up the other person's blocks. Then there is Push. (Push is a single player game too.) it is like Tug-o-war. You build lines. Every time you get multi-lines it pushes all the block closer to your opponents's line. when they cross the line with blocks then it ends and you win! It has taken some time to get used to it, but I'm enjoying it.
4 out of 4 stars! Tetris DS rules! Its Fun kicking people's asses around the world!
Too bad there isn't voice over (aka smack talk) like Metroid Prime Hunters has. hahahaha. that'd be great!