Now that the Red Sox won the World Series, some people have to pay up...

(Video clip is a little over a minute long.)

My Saturdays over the course of 2004:

January to August:
-Sammy Sohn would come over, and so a bunch of us would always play poker and video games.
-Random events such as snowboarding, BBQs, Monterrey, biking across Golden Gate bridge, KCPC softball tournament, Mejeld and Gower's wedding, etc.

September:
-Museum of Modern Art, watching baseball, being lazy.

October and November:
-Going to Cal football games.

December:
-Being lazy, doing some reading.

From Time Magazine:

"Taking work home from the office may crimp your lifestyle in more ways than one. Researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook say the heat from a laptop computer--when used on the lap-- can disrupt sperm production and affect fertility."

For all you want to say about Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta, they've certainly made the last few days as a baseball fan very interesting.

For one, it appears that other baseball GMs are starting to get a clue and that Beane isn't able to rob most other teams the way he did at the beginning of the decade. Certainly he didn't rob the Braves or Cardinals.

In fact, it seems that he should've gotten more for Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder. However, only he knows what circumstances he faces (ie, ownership demands to slash payroll) and what he has up his sleeve. Label me a Billy Beane-apologist if you want, but he has earned the benefit of the doubt.

When a baseball team diversifies their risk with a large number of high quality prospects, it's extremely likely they will earn great returns on their investment. Yes, that is a comparison to stocks, and that is what the A's are planning on with these 2 trades. Considering they have a very strong player development program, it's very possible that no one will be complaining about these trades 10 years from now.

But more to the point, I can't complain because I'm an Angels fan, and the trades don't appear to help the A's in 2005.

I just bought Jon Stewart's America (The Book), which was named book of the year by Publishers Weekly.

One excerpt:

"With recent travel bans, a slumping economy, and our nation's love affair with xenophobia, your exposure to other systems of government is limited at best. In fact, odds are you could name five fictional US presidents more readily than one foreign prime minister. Quick, try it. See?"

I've done about 10 minutes worth of work today, and I've been here for 6 hours.

You can also check if you have any medical records that have affected the cost of your health insurance. Only 20% of people have such records, and these records are supposedly very accurate.

Nevertheless, I called the disclosure phone number, (866) 692-6901, and it took about 10 minutes to give them the info they needed. It'll probably take 3 weeks for them to mail me back. It's an automated system, so you don't get to talk to a live person.

For more info, you can check out the MIB consumer website.

Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers have won the right to access their credit report once a year from each of the 3 major credit bureaus.

Access was granted on December 1st for people in Western states through the Federal Trade Commission.

I pulled up my report yesterday, but I was only able to access 1 of them online (my TransUnion report). It did take a few minutes, and there were some verification steps that didn't seem to work well (it didn't recognize my American Express account number).

But credit reports are notorious for being inaccurate, so it's definitely worth checking to see if there's something wrong on your report.

Here are some things I noticed when I pulled up my credit report:
-Because I consolidated my student loans, I have a bunch of closed student loan accounts.
-My credit report has an account that I co-signed with my sister a few years back, that I totally forgot about. (If you have mysterious accounts on your report, it might be that a family member has included your name on the account.)
-I have a Discover card currently open that I didn't know about either.

I should add that requesting your credit report doesn't affect your credit score (which isn't free). The free credit scores you may see in ads are only estimates of your FICO credit score. Your FICO score can be purchased at www.myfico.com

Thanks to James' suggestion, I'm going to become a member of www.audible.com's audiobook download service.

I get 2 books for $22 each month plus $100 off an Ipod (which will be used for my brother-in-law).

Some books I'm looking forward to reading in the near future:

-America by Jon Stewart
-The Art of War
-The DaVinci Code
-Eight Men Out
-Fast Food Nation
-The Five People You Meet In Heaven
-I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It by Charles Barkley
-More Than A Game by Phil Jackson
-Seabiscuit
-The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

More Cal football links:

Cal/Texas vote distribution shift in the ESPN coaches' poll

California (number of voters this week, last week)
2nd: 0, 0
3rd: 1, 0
4th: 27, 39
5th: 17, 16
6th: 10, 6
7th: 4, 0
8th: 2, 0

Texas (this week, last week)
2nd: 1, 1
3rd: 3, 1
4th: 18, 8
5th: 23, 33
6th: 8, 10
7th: 5, 6
8th: 3, 2

Considering that all Big 12 teams share the BCS money that Texas got for going to the Rose Bowl, I have a few guesses on who voted Texas #2 & 3, and bumped Cal down to #7 & 8...

JJ Arrington for Heisman video
This 3 minute clip features some of Arrington's best carries of the season.

These last 2 days have had a lot of mixed emotions about Cal football:



But coach Tedford is staying!

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: I hate the BCS.

It’s wrong that the #4 team in both polls didn’t make a BCS bowl even though there are 8 teams playing in BCS bowls.

And it’s just amazing how college football is about politics and lobbying instead of what happens on the playing field.

Texas coach Mack Brown spent Saturday calling his buddies-- coaches who have votes in the ESPN poll— and pleaded with them to move Texas up in their ballot.

Cal coach Jeff Tedford would have none of that—he refused to run up the score in the last seconds of the Cal-Southern Miss game and didn’t beg his friends for votes in the polls. He has too much class to do that.

But I can’t really blame Mack Brown for lobbying—that’s what this system is about: handing out $15 million to teams because of some people’s and computers’ opinions, instead of giving teams a chance to prove themselves on the field.

Just ask Auburn about that.

Link of the day:

Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy! clips