Dodgers marketing

Guy just showed up at my office from the Dodgers... wanted to sell tickets for the last stretch of the season. He was a Dodger employee so he was legit.

Dodgers are also giving an incentive to send in a deposit for 2009 season tix by not having any price increase.

Is it marketing, the economy, or both?

I know, I know.. I should have told the guy once they start beating the Washington Generals...er...Nationals of the world maybe his job would be easier.

Seinfeld the Microsoft pitchman

Does anyone find it somewhat funny that Jerry Seinfeld signed on as a pitchman for Microsoft to do battle against Apple?

Didn't Jerry have an Apple Mac in his apartment for the entire run of his show? And wasn't that Mac updated every season with the newest model? From what I've read, Jerry had such a firm control over that show that he was involved with every minute detail. His love of Superman and racing is evident... he had the caped hero and a Skip Barber Racing School magnet on his fridge, so I have to assume he was a Mac user too.

I'd love to say "not that there's anything wrong with it" here, but I can't. Seems like a bit of a sellout.

What happens to Beijing?

One event I really enjoyed watching was the marathon, because it gave me a chance to see the city of Beijing. Most think of Beijing as being a bunch of old pagoda-style buildings, and Tiananmen Square with that big picture of Mao.

But, watching the marathon gave us a chance to see the new Beijing, with modern buildings and a cosmopolitan look.

But, once everyone is gone, will China "revert" to it's somewhat authoritarian state or did the Olympics make this country "turn the corner" into modern openness?

Comment on what you think...

Olympics gold medal winners

Why don't more U.S. gold medal winners sing the words to the Star Spangled Banner when they were on the podium? Do they not know them? Kobe Bryant was singing, but I think he was the only one on that team and I didn't notice many others from other sports.

I don't like that stuff. I think all future Olympians should be forced to learn the song in order to make the team, dammit.

Obama's choice

Is anyone interested in the election? Let's see what you're thinking. Take a look at the newest poll and vote. Add your comments too.

Scam credit card collection phone calls

I've been getting calls on my cell phone over the last few weeks from these phone numbers:


505-797-6333
904-954-3071

It's a recorded message that says they need to speak with you regarding your credit card account. They give you a toll-free number to call. I called that number, and while they said it's Citi Cards, I can tell that it's not. I then called the number on the back of my credit card and they had no record of needing to speak with me.

Take a look at what comes up when I searched for these phone numbers:


Just a word of caution to beware!

Home Warranties

In one word... suck. We've had one on and off (mostly on) since we've owned our home. In a nutshell, you pay the man about $450 a year (started out around $250) and, you supposedly are covered for just about everything in your house that could go wrong. There is a $55 deductible per service call. We've been with American Home Shield but there are others out there that work pretty much the same way. The whole thing is a big racket. They will always find a loophole and not cover you and pay the claim.

You don't want to read the details, but after two worthless visits from... ahem... "experts", they determined that our a/c system's compressor stopped working because of poor maintenance on our part. And this after the first guy told us that we didn't have a filter installed. Uh sir, the unit doesn't take a filter, but as they said in Airplane, "that's not important right now."

Long story short we brought out our own guy and he said those other two companies are full of shit and the item was properly maintained.

The end result is we had to buy a new a/c system and canceled the American Home Shield service. I figure we either broke even or came out slightly ahead on the years and years of premiums, but the whole thing did leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Funny end to the story. Less than a week after canceling, a fan in our refrigerator went. Another $250 down. Don't take me to Vegas with you anytime soon.

If anyone else has had an experience like this, comment on it.