I guess blogging is officially one of my hobbies. My last post was back in August before I dove into a time suck called full-time work and school. Now that the semester is over I've come up for air and have some free time until I do it all again in January.

Some random thoughts about school:
- The internet is truly my friend. Doing research is so much easier these days compared to when I was doing my undergrad degree several years ago.
- The internet has become too friendly. I'm so easily distracted by headlines on my iGoogle and my Facebook feed when I should be writing papers.
- There's always that one person in the class that loves the sound of his/her voice.
- Textbooks are a true necessary evil.
- Experience (life & work) goes a long way.

I'll try to cram in as many blog posts as I can before the new semester starts and all my writing will be in formal APA format.

I hit the mall earlier this week to look for some new clothes to bolster my wardrobe. My old pants are feeling and looking a little too loose and I need to up my wardrobe before I start my new job and go back to school. Going shopping in the middle of a Thursday meant I would be shopping by myself and the mall generally will be on the not-so-busy side.

It only took ten minutes to realize that I really don’t like to shop in a mall by myself. Why? I have my reasons:

1. There’s just way too many things that I notice, that if someone was with me, I’d stop to comment on. I wasn’t about to start talking to myself, so I had to keep my comments in my head. The best part of going to a mall to shop is taking in the atmosphere. The little kids nagging their parents, the teen couples on a date, the older couples with guys carrying ten shopping bags for their ladies...it’s all part of the experience. To make random comments to a friend about those things just adds to the joy of shopping.

2. Shopping with others gives you a buffer between you and the kiosk sales people. In a span of ten minutes, I was called beautiful, asked to see the latest in cell phone technology, offered a back massage, told that I have beautiful hands that can be even better and offered yet another massage. In the background, I heard guys being called handsome, questions of “Is your phone doing it for you?” and “Don’t you want to step-up your game?”.

I know it’s their job to push the product, but when you’re by yourself, there’s fewer options on how to handle the onslaught. Some of the things that I've employed: a) Keep walking straight ahead and pretend you’re ignoring them. This is an effective method but I often feel guilty for being rude. b) In the event that I’ve made eye contact, politely say “no thank you.” Here, I’ve tried to be nice by acknowledging their effort but I still get to stay on course. c) Take out my cell phone to either call someone, pretend I’m calling someone, text someone or pretend to text someone, or actually answer a phone call/read an incoming text  in an effort to look too busy to engage in a conversation with the sales person. d) Walk along the side closer to the stores and further away from the kiosks. This works pretty well if the mall is bustling with people. But in the middle of the day with uncrowded walkways, it’s not really an option when trying to avoid being seen by the sales person.

If I had someone with me, I could use that person as a buffer. Walk on the side away from the kiosks and let the person I’m with deal with the sales people.

3. Shopping with someone gives me a second opinion on things I’m thinking of buying. There’s really no point in asking a salesperson whether they think a particular top will look good on me. If the person is doing his/her job, the top will of course look great and oh look, here’s a pair of jeans that would really make a great outfit. Eeek...that’s trouble.

I have another week or so of available afternoons before going back to the working world. I may end up at the mall again during that time so we’ll see which option I pick when dealing with those pesky kiosk sales people. How do you deal with them?

In the last couple of weeks there's been news of a new basketball league forming; the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA).  The commissioner of the league, Don "Moose" Lewis, says only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league. He says the intent of the league is to give white players a league where they can play "fundamental basketball" instead of "street-ball" played by "people of color." Check out this interview with Lewis done by a CBS affiliate in Atlanta.

I was so thrown by this that I had to blog about it, but having said that, I don't really want to spend too much time on it. There's way too many things wrong with the whole premise that I don't know where to start. Could you imagine if games were actually played? It would be a blast back in time. There would likely be demonstrations and picketing outside. Maybe the novelty of such a league would draw some people to watch the games. But in the end would people latch on to it? Could these types of games draw larger crowds than the NBA D-League or WNBA? Or even a recreation league game? Are there players already lined up for the league?

I have no interest in seeing a AABA game but I am interested to see what will happen to this league.

For better or worse, I've been a long time Golden State Warriors fan.
The team has been a soap opera the past several years and although I
know that with the ownership in place the warriors are bound to mess
up even more, I still choose to follow them. For the most part they
are still an exciting team to watch. They play fast, they can run the
other team off the court, when their shooting is on, they simply can't
be stopped. But then there are the lulls during the game when
turnovers, missed rebounds and careless fouls creep in. When the
players turn to the ref after every play because they're convinced
they didn't get a call and the the frustration sets in. The players
are confused and it's ugly to watch.

It's at those times when I notice the little things. Things like:

- The growing tattoo mural on Monta Ellis from when he first came into the league a few years ago to now is amazing.

- How Corey Maggette pouts his lips when he shoots free throws. He
also has a go to stance when he complains to the refs - In the
slightly knees bent, but hands out in the "what did I do" look

- Watching Chris Hunter run up and down the court slightly reminds me
of watching Erick Dampier as a Warrior. Except Hunter has way better
hands.

- Baby faced Anthony Randolph is starting to look more like Will Smith.

- That sharp shooter Anthony Morrow could be a stand-in as a villain
on a TV show. His facial expressions somewhat remind me of the hyenas
in The Lion King.

Even with Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis gone, there's some
interesting characters on the team to watch. Hopefully, I'll also see
some good wins along the way.

(download)

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New_Dimension_to_Watching_Gold.zip (310 KB)

My rip-off thought of the day: bag clips vs. binder clips

In my current state of budget consciousness, I've become annoyed with
products that I feel have no true added value to consumers. Let's look
at the blatant rip-off that is the bag clip.

The problem: Keeping snack food bags shut to retain some freshness.

Solutions:
- Tape: Some packages have those strips of tape that they urge you to
use to keep packages closed. It's pretty handy but again, the
stickiness may fade if you get the snack food grease on the bag or on
the tape. And tape isn't as reusable, so it loses some value.

- A rubberband: It'll close the bag but also crush the contents
inside. On the bright side, you'll get more pieces of the snack.

- A clip: It will keep the bag closed and it's reusable!

So a clip is the winner. Nothing wrong with that other than the fact
that all a person needs is a clip!

The bag clip or the chip bag clip is ju st a clip that is marketed as
something to keep your chip bags or snack food bags closed. Some
companies may slap on some rubber on the clip to make it more
comfortable. But think about it, if you are using it to keep your
greasy chip bag closed, it's likely you'll get grease all over that
rubber, so what's so great about that? If you don't have arthritis or
some other ailment affecting your hand strength, then do you really
need a rubbery clip that will take all of two seconds to take off and
put on the bag? Some companies like to make the clips colorful.
Nothing wrong with that, it probably helps when you have people over
and run out of small talk. "Hey that purple click you got there is
nice. Where can I get one of those?" In some cases, the clips are made
up of cheap plastic.

To all the chip bag clip users out there, why not use a binder clip?
They're strong and sturdy and even now they come in different colors.
They can also be 13 times cheaper per clip than using a bag clip. Even
a close pin would probably work as a bag clip if you already have
those.

The Bag Clip
Here are a few bag clips found on Amazon.com:

The Binder Clip
A couple of binder clips found on Staples.com