Boredom Relief

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Good Time to be a NHL Hockey Player
2008-04-11 04:41:00
As a hockey fan I was very disappointed when the owners decided to kill an entire season over the salary dispute. As a wannabe capitalist pig, I understand the reasoning behind it. So they held true, shut the doors in 2005 and got what they wanted. A salary cap. Without going into all the sordid details, the cap that the NHL ended up with was based on previous years revenue with the assumption that the league should do as good if not better in the next season. To hedge against a bad year the players would put 10% of their salary away just in case the figures did not work out. For the first year the cap was set around $39 million with a floor of 21.5 million. A lot of money for us fans to fathom for sure but a major blow to the players when one player was making $11million a year plus just a year prior more than 25% of the max for a team.Well here we are going into the 07/08 playoffs and some interesting numbers have been released. For the 2008/09 season the cap is expected t...
More About: Time , Hockey , Player , Good

Dish Network Putting Call Center in Arizona
2008-04-04 05:37:00
If you read my little rant back in December about Dish Network then you know where I am going with this. I guess they are going to put a call center in Ahwatukee which is a part of Phoenix Arizona . I just who the 400+ employees are going to take calls from. When I called back in December because I was having a problem I talked to people in the Philippines which had no clue how to handle my problem nor were they able to duplicate it because they don't have access to the channels on that side of the world to see what I was talking about. Dish Network has made so many mistakes where I am concerned that once the NHL season (we have the NHL Season Pass) that we will be switching so they wont have to worry about me posting my complaints. And I am pretty sure that they have enough customers that my $120 a month that they will be losing is a drop in the bucket and they wont even miss me or my email's and phone calls to complain. I am not sure if whoever we switch to will be better, ...
More About: Putting , Call , Center

Thats Just Wrong
2008-03-23 01:51:00
*Disclaimer* The site I found may be offensive to some due to language used.Justwrong.net is an online store that i found using Google's "Feeling Lucky" button. They sell shirts with off color statements that we see people wear. If you are like me, you wonder where they found the shirts. Well, this is definitely one of the places. Some of the sayings are funny while some are just down right offensive. I probably would not be caught wearing a few of the choices, but as a fan things that are NOT politically correct, I enjoyed viewing what they have to offer. I would check to see if the company is still in operation if you plan on ordering anything. The copyright date at the bottom of the page was last updated in 2006. But for a little fun viewing the site fits the boredom relief standards.
More About: Wrong

My Health Insurance Saved Me 99 Cents!
2008-03-22 03:26:00
Went to the doctor yesterday. Got a prescription for a muscle relaxer for my back. Went to fill the script to find out that my insurance does not cover it and there is no generic equivalent. Oh great. So the pharmacy calls the doctor to get this problem resolved. Otherwise it was going to be $400 out my pocket. Well, needless to say, that became a whole night thing with the 2 faxing and calling back and forth. I ended up not getting anything and spent the night in pain again. Well today all is well. I got my new prescription. A generic of another muscle relaxer that even without my insurance is only $15.99. So with my copay I saved 99 cents and only had to suffer another 24 hours to do so. This is not a rant about how bad health care is in the U.S. I personally think that while things could be better, that I have a decent health care. I don't want to see it turned over to the government being I have seen how well it runs itself. I just thought it is funny/sad how thing...
More About: Health , Insurance , Cents , Health Insurance

106 Posts!
2008-03-17 03:31:00
When I started this blog, it was to be a way of sharing with friends, both existing and ones picked up while blogging, places on the web I found interesting or useful. While I still try to do that, I have noticed that this has become my place to rant. Its hard to believe that I have been blogging for over 8 months now, 7 on this blog alone. So I would like to thank the people that stop by and read what I have to say. I would still do this even without an audience of any kind, but it is great to know that others enjoy stopping by whether you agree with me or think I am just plain nuts.
More About: Posts

For As Little As A Cup Of Coffee
2008-03-15 20:46:00
"For as little as a cup of coffee, you can..."Remember these commercials? They still run today but they were made back when you could get a cup of coffee for as little as twenty five cents in some places. And that came with refills. I don't know why I am on this whole coffee tirade lately, but I am. Can you get out of a local Starbucks without paying more than five bucks for one coffee? They announced that they are starting to have a smaller cup that comes with free refills for those staying in the Starbucks, but I wonder just how well it will go over. Most people today don't drink just coffee. They have to add so many things to it, it does not even resemble coffee anymore. And my guess is that the extras are going to cost extra but I may be wrong. Starbucks is trying to bring customers back and this is just the start. Many have been leaving because of McDonalds which from what I hear has a pretty good iced latte for a lot cheaper. Still waiting on my hot chocolate tho.
More About: Coffee , Cup of coffee

Its Not Easy Being Green
2008-03-11 02:39:00
Ok, maybe its me, but this whole green thing seems to be getting out of hand. I am all for doing things to protect the environment but do companies really have to shove the fact that they are trying to be green down our throats? If they are going to do it, then just do it. Besides, I just read an article that got me going. The best example was one on hotels going green by asking the guests to not have their towels washed daily. Yes it saves water but the thing that is more important to the hotel is that it saves them money. So I started to think about it and there are a lot of "things" that companies do that they flaunt as going green but when you look a little deeper you notice that its not just good for the environment but its good for the company and they should have been doing it long before being green became popular. So save the advertising money spent to flaunt going green and to quote Nike "Just Do It."
More About: Green , Easy

Freemont Street In Vegas Wont Leave You Bored
2008-03-05 01:43:00
We were lucky enough to spend this past weekend in Las Vegas for the NASCAR races. For the first time we stayed in downtown Vegas near the famous Freemont Street . If you have never experienced Freemont Street, I have to say for being old Vegas compared to the strip, that it is worth the visit. Freemont is a pedestrian only street that is covered for 3 blocks. Whats really cool is that at night there is a show that is projected onto the street cover every hour. With no cars allowed on the street, the environment feels much safer as you walk along looking at all the attractions. With a outside stage, motorcycles in cages, a stunt bike area and more, there are plenty of free things to do. You can spend an entire evening without giving a casino your money and have a fun time. I know because we did just that one night. Now only if we did that every night we would have come home with a lot more money than we did. When they say "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" they are really talkin...
More About: Bored , Leave

Did Starbucks Ruin Your Day?
2008-02-27 04:49:00
So, Starbucks closed all its locations today for 3 hours so they could "train" employees. Was this a marketing ploy or what? I doubt the 3 hours will do anything to change the way Starbucks operates. The coffee will still cost more than its worth and the wait to get it isn't going to change much. The thing that may change is the barista behind the counter may not ask how many shots you want in your double shot espresso, but I would not put money on that either. I don't drink coffee, so until they start offering hot chocolate, I wont be spending much money there anyway, but look forward to the free wifi that has been rumored to be coming to a Starbucks near me soon.
More About: Ruin

A-Salt and Buttery by Coyotes Mascot
2008-02-23 23:15:00
Howler, the official mascot of the Phoenix Coyotes needs to spend a little time in the pound. At last nights game between the Coyotes and the Colorado Avalanche, he decided to pick on fans. While a little ribbing is fun when it comes to sports, I have to say that choosing to mess with fans that have been drinking is not the best move that the person behind the suit chose to do. The kids nearby really had fun watching and mimicking Howler as the mascot chose to throw popcorn over the railing from the upper section of the arena letting it fall down onto fans in the lower section. The goal, I am guessing, was to antagonize a group of fans that were rooting for the visiting Avalanche team. The problem is that popcorn does not fall straight down and just about all of it missed the mark. Howler caused some major upset with fans in section 108 as many ended up with bits of popcorn in their $8 beer. Luckily, nothing happened last night, but if this is going to happen more often, the...
More About: Salt

Can You Fab At Home
2008-02-22 03:26:00
Ever see something and want to make it yourself at home? How about being able to print it with your own 3D printer? Fabathome is an open source project that is trying to do just that. You can find all you need to build your very own 3D printer. That's right! A 3 dimensional printer. I want to build one so bad just to see how well it works. I have had experience with commercial 3 dimensional printers but at 40 grand or more its not a toy I have have at home. You can get the fabathome printer kit from a couple of places for around 3 to 5 grand or download the bill of materials and build it from scratch. If anyone has bought or built one of these let us know how it went and what you like or don't like about it.
More About: Home

Did it Feel Like A Super Tuesday to You?
2008-02-06 03:18:00
I don't know about everyone else, but today felt like any other Tuesday to me. Here it was Fat Tuesday and Super Tuesday and I really would have had no clue had no one told me. We even had a Presidential primary here in Arizona. Sunday on the other hand felt like a Super day with the Super Bowl in town. We even got to see both teams caravan down the freeway toward the stadium. It was hard not to miss it, being they were only going about 45mph down the interstate. Yesterday was pretty interesting with hail snow and sleet here in Metro Phoenix which probably does not help this Tueday, the 5th of February 2008 feel super in any way shape or form. So if you had a super Tuesday today, let me know and why, someone had to have had one.
More About: Feel , Super Tuesday

Is It Time For Chirstmas Decorations?
2008-02-03 04:39:00
Wow, with the way stores have been putting Christmas decorations out in recent years it seems like it should not be that very long before we seem them in the stores this year. Last year it was just around August that the stuff started to show up. We had just had the Christmas in July sales end. So why not have the displays show up in February? We have already had a month off right. Well not really because many people have yet to take down their lights yet this year. Maybe there is a corolation between the amount of time that mus lapse between lights being taken down and the decorations showing up back in the stores. At the rate things have been going it wont be long before there will be no time without something in the stores. Well thats true if you have ever been to Frankenmouth Michigan, home Christmas 12 months a year.
More About: Time , Chirstmas , Decorations

What To Do With That Old Gadget Collecting Dust in the Closet?
2008-01-27 04:31:00
If you are like me, you have an area in your house that you keep all those old gadgets (PDA's, cell phones, computer crap, games) that are out of date or broke. These things are just collecting dust and taking up space. You could trash them, but that's not really legal or environmentally friendly. You could donate them but odds are good that if its stuff you don't want, others may not want it either. Well Buymytronics is a place on the web that right now paying for game systems and Ipod gadgets. They are working on other things such as laptops, pdas, and cameras hopefully to be open shortly. What they offer may not sound like much depending on the item you want to sell, but its better than nothing and it gets the crap out of the closet or garage making room for that new and improved gadget that will takes its place next year!
More About: Gadget , Closet

Women Are From Venus, Men's Heads Are Hard
2008-01-23 02:32:00
Ok. I will give you a moment to get your mind out of the gutter. Another moment for the guys. My wife and I were talking this weekend and it just amazes me how much the cliche's really stick well. Women look for a man that they can change, but usually find one that wont. Men look for a woman that they hope will never change only to find she does. Women vent just to vent sometimes and do not want someone to tell them what to do about it. Men hear venting and assume its an invitation to give advice on a subject. And when you assume well you probably know that one as well. As a guy, I have to admit that I don't disappoint when it comes to being a cliche sometimes. The thing is ladies, you need to let us know and not assume that we understand unless its broken down for us. Remember, we are men.
More About: Hard , Venus , Heads

Gizmodo Enjoyed The CES Conference A Little Too Much
2008-01-15 04:15:00
The zany people over at Gizmodo went to CES this year and took with them a little IR transmitter that they used to have some fun. They got more than a hand full of the TV monitors to turn off in the middle of presentations and caused quite a bit of havoc. And to top it all off, they took video to capture their attack on CES.
More About: Conference

Twins Marry Years After Seperated at Birth...OOPS
2008-01-14 03:17:00
Appropriately filed under "Oddly Enough" this story out of London England is funny but sad. This is the kind of story that you would expect to find in some twisted plot of a movie rather than real news.
More About: Twins , Birth , Years , Marry

Junk Mail.. What to Do With It.
2008-01-10 02:50:00
Everyone gets junk mail. If your like me, you probably can toss two thirds of your mail away before you even get to anything that's worth opening. Well, what can you do with all that junk mail. A common option is to just toss it but that's no fun. A better thing to do is to open it up and shred it and send it back to them in the convenient self addressed envelope they sent you. For years we would write on the crap to remove us from their list and send it back to them. It never seems to work. It probably would cost them more to actually have a list of people that don't want their junk than it does to pay someone to open the letters.This brings me to something I heard on the radio this morning. Not 100% sure just how legal it is to do this but a local radio station suggested printing new address labels (both return and new recipient) and use the postage paid envelopes to send a friend or relative a letter. The post office complains that no one uses snail mail anymore. Why...
More About: Mail , Junk , Junk Mail

What is a Billion to You?
2008-01-08 04:05:00
Over at Purple Cat's blog a couple of days ago she posted a great little piece simply titled "A Billion ". With all the political stuff that is in the air, it was a great post to read. Give it a look, and the next time you hear a politician talk, you may think a little differently. OK maybe not because we all know that all politicians.... not going to say it but cant stop me from thinking it. How long will it be before we think of the trillion like we know do of the billion? It wasn't that long ago when a million was considered a lot. I would still take a million if offered.

Yuwie Contest with $25 prize
2008-01-05 05:45:00
Boredom Relief is going to run its first contest and its going to be on Yuwie.com. For anyone who has not created an account on Yuwie, all you have to do is sign up as a referral to desertredwing (it's free) in the month of January to be in the running. The person with the most views and referrals by the end of February (numbers will be checked by Boredom Relief on Friday, February 29th) will be the winner. The winner will receive a $25 gift card*. People with existing Yuwie accounts will not be considered for this contest but depending on how well the contest goes, there may be other contests in the future.*Gift card will be for a store or restaurant as agreed upon between the winner and Boredom Relief. This contest is not affiliated with Yuwie.com and the judging is at the sole discretion of Boredom Relief. Yuwie is a growing social networking site that revenue shares with members.
More About: Contest

Oh Yeah, It's an Election Year
2008-01-04 01:59:00
If you have been hiding under a rock, you may not have noticed that we will be electing a new president of the United States. The Iowa Caucasus are here finally. Finally as in damn its about time something will actually be happening after months and months of political rhetoric and debates. Is it me or is this election year like Christmas was just recently. I swear that the stores near us had decorations up in August this year. And it feels like the debates started two years ago. I am just ready to get this election year over with. Politics in my dictionary is the combination of poli, meaning many, and ticks which are blood sucking parasites. I don't have any front runners when it comes to who I think may be the best (read that least of the evils) candidate but I know it will (like it hasn't already) be the focus of the next 10+ months leading up to election day.
More About: Election , Year , Yeah

New Year Resolutions
2008-01-02 01:23:00
Its day one. Has anyone made and broken their resolution yet? Resolutions can run from the typical lose weight or quit smoking to the wishful of winning the lottery. This year we here at Boredom Relief have decided to give ourselves until the end of the year to write a book. Pretty simple and very broad because we have not decided on what kind of book but that's half the fun. For some people writing a book comes easy. For me, not so. Just coming up with what to say on a simple blog which is really about nothing takes a lot of effort. With this I wish good luck to all the readers on their resolutions for 2008 and hope that we all stick to them and reap the rewards of having done so.
More About: New Year , Year

Going Green?
2007-12-28 04:44:00
All this talk lately about what we can do to protect the environment and help curb global warming is down right mind boggling. Latest news in on getting bio degradable coffins. I'm not gonna say what I am thinking on that one. What really has me thinking is global warming. Here in Phoenix when its usually in the 60s during the day and 40s at night in December, we have had a major cold spell for us with 30s that is supposed to last out the week. We had to break out with the travel jackets because we normally don't need them here. Weather all over for the last week plus probably has more than just me wondering where the global warming is right now. It sure does not make me want to go buy some carbon offsets from Al Gore so I feel better for sure. But come July when its 115 here, I wonder it the carbon offsets will cool down the city of Phoenix.
More About: Green , Goin

What does your Phone Number Spell?
2007-12-23 05:14:00
Simple question with a simple answer over at phonespell.org. I have to say that this site has been a lot of fun for our friends and family. Without giving away to much information, I found out that the last 4 digits of our phone number spells DICE. Pretty cool. There was over 80 suggestions found when we put the area code along with the number. It works well with many numbers, but struggles with numbers with a lot of 1s and 0s. This is for the obvious reason that those numbers do not have the standard 3 or 4 letter associations. The site will try to find word combinations for anything from a 3 to 16 character code. That's right I said character code. So if you have a sting of letters and numbers and would like to see if it can be turned into a phrase the site will work on that to. I guess the Nintendo Wii has a 16 character code for friend codes which they suggest you try out if you have one. Either way it kills a little bit of time!.
More About: Phone , Number , Spell

No Hockey For Me Rant
2007-12-20 02:36:00
I need to vent somewhere. I am an avid hockey fan that does not live in the city of my favorite team. I have Dish Network and the NHL package so I can enjoy most if not all of the games from the luxury of my living room! Awesome right? Wrong. Dish Network on more than one occasion has screwed me over. Tonight (12/19) Los Angeles is in Detroit playing right now as I type this. According to channel 541 which gives the updates and channel listings for the NHL games, the game is on channel 559. Here is the kicker. THERE IS NO CHANNEL 559! I called Dish Network and talked to a Representative that told me it was because the game was blacked out in my area. A game between Detroit and LA blacked out in Phoenix Arizona. Lets just say that I told him he had no clue what he was talking about. Next thing I know I was thrown back into the Dish Network automated system of insanity. After hitting zero about 10 times I got a new person (Rose). I explained my problem and she did not understand. I as...
More About: Hockey , Rant

Just Over a Week Left for Christmas Shopping
2007-12-17 03:45:00
You know how the saying goes. "Time flies when you are having fun." Well I can attest to that statement this holiday season. Since Thanksgiving, we have been on the run just about every day here in the Boredom Relief house. Not a dull moment for sure. With all our activities that we have had going on which included 2 out of town trips and a company party it has been a roller coaster ride for sure. Luckily, I can say that we are about 95% done with our shopping and that what is left can either be bought online and shipped or is not a big deal if we just don't get around to it. Its a good feeling for sure. If it wasn't for the fact that I am to lazy, I would probably be done except I am playing on the blog and reading other blogs rather than just getting my act together and just being done with it. Procrastination, it can be a great thing and a bad thing all at the same time. Got to love it. Now, were did I put my eggnog again.
More About: Christmas , Shopping , Left , Week , Christmas shopping

Rock Band
2007-12-15 07:41:00
Well, we gave ourselves an early Christmas present. It was actually 2 presents. The first was the game Rock Band complete with guitar, drums and microphone. The second, which was required so the first was usable was the Xbox 360. Here is a little background. A few weeks ago my wife and I went to Los Angeles to visit friends. They have Rock Band , and pretty much that's what we did all weekend. When we found out you can play online with friends, that sealed the deal. We went out a few days after getting home and got our gear. I have one word that sums up this game perfectly. Addictive. The drums are really difficult but a blast to play. We haven't found anyone brave enough to give a shot a being the singer but it will come with time. The system works great and playing online with our friends in California just makes it that much more fun. Next on our list of things to do is to maybe download some of the songs available online to add to our repertoire. So if you find t...

Have You Elfed Yourself Today?
2007-12-06 05:07:00
Officemax has brought some holiday cheer to the holidays this year with elfyourself.com. Just like over at JibJab, you can upload a picture of your face (or someone else wink wink) and have a funny little video of them as elves to share with friends. So why wait? Start the elfamophosis today!
More About: Today

Thai Food For Boredem
2007-12-05 03:25:00
Well, we got the chance to visit friends in Los Angeles this past weekend which is the reason for the longer than usual laps in posts. While there we went out for Thai food which was excellent. The one thing that I couldn't pass up though was the name of the restaurant. Phuket Thai Restaurant. Well you know with a name like.... oh wait that's an old SNL skit. Long story short, if you are ever in the area of Redondo Beach and want to try some awesome Thai food, give this place a shot. We highly recommend it.
More About: Food

In the Holiday Spirit
2007-11-30 13:22:00
My wife and I like to do things for others, and the holidays are a great time to do just that. We currently have a soldier that we adopted a while back that we sent a couple of Christmas packages to just before Thanksgiving so that they hopefully arrive on time. And just this week we have taken an angel tag off the Salvation Army Angel Tree where I work. The Angel Tree program is an awesome way to help a child. We have a 5 year old boy that we got to go shopping for knowing that we will help in making his Christmas that much more brighter this year. Its a great feeling knowing that we have the ability to make a small contribution like this and it proves the old proverb that it really is better to give than to receive. Just wanted to share a little of what we are doing this holiday season with you. Thanks for reading Boredom Relief.
More About: Holiday , Spirit , The Holiday