Memphis plays host to the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest each year as part of Memphis in May. The event itself spans three days and is open to the public, but none of the teams are allowed to sell barbecue (health concerns I’d imagine). So, the only point in going is if you know someone with a tent.

All hope is not lost, however, as last year’s championship team Natural Born Grillers has a restaurant here in Southaven. I just recently heard about it and decided to give it a try yesterday with Keith, Airica, Matt and Laura. I was so impressed that I went back again tonight with Josh, Adam and Kiwi for round 2.

Since there were three of us (Kiwi showed up later), we decided to try the BBQ Lovers Feast which consists of a full rack of ribs, 1/2 pounds of pulled pork, three wings and four side items (barbecue beans, cole slaw, potato salad and french fries). The meal was supposed to come with chicken legs or something but they were out and gave us more pulled pork instead, but I think they short-changed us there because what we got in the package was certainly not 1/2 pound.

Either way, the food was really good. I used the extra pulled port to make a nice sandwich with sweet and spicy sauce. The meat was extremely tender and absolutely delicious. The ribs were also good, although the ones Keith had the night before were a bit better I believe. Potato salad is hit-or-miss but thankfully I really liked their offering.

I’m not entirely sure I would order the group meal again as it seems you could get more for your money buying separate meals, but it was nice to get a sampling of everything. Individual meals only come with a single main course and two side items. After tax and tip, each of us chipped in $15 which isn’t too bad for some world class barbecue! I will certainly be going back here again as it is closer and better than Cork’s IMO.

Oh, and dessert at Baskin Robbins

Enough said.

But seriously, everyone has been to the movies enough to know that you should turn off your cell phone before the film starts and not talk the entire time. The fact that messages like this are still even displayed is pretty lame, but maybe people just can’t read?

Two of my more recent trips to the local theater were pretty much ruined by dumb ass people. The first was a few months ago when Josh and I went to check out a movie (I can’t even remember which it was because I was so pissed). The show starts and there are a few people behind us just talking it up… not even whispering, just flat out talking in their normal voice, acting a fool. This goes on for several minutes before someone asks them to be quiet. They just laugh it off and carry on, before more people get involved. Josh even spoke up once.

Eventually someone decided to go report them to the manager, which didn’t seem to do much good. After a bit, however, a security guard came into the theater and of course everyone shuts up. Not wanting them to get away, Josh blurts out, asking them to please be quiet or leave. This was enough to trigger the security guard to come up and investigate. Thankfully, they shut up from that point on and I believe they even left the movie before it was over.

Fast-forward to today, when Keith, Airica, Matt and myself went to check out the new Wolverine movie. The theater wasn’t too crowded so I had high hopes for an enjoyable time. NOPE, no such luck.

Not even two minutes into the movie, the guy behind Matt gets a phone call and answers it. WTF! He turned around and asked the guy “did you really just answer that?”. The guy just keeps talking so Matt asks if he is going to hang up and the guy just stares at him. Matt gets mad and is like “hang up the f*ing phone” to which the guy replies something like “I’ll hang you up”. Matt then says he wishes he would, but the guy never does anything. Then some lady a few seats down from the guy pipes up and is all like “You don’t need to be talking like that in front of my children” - or something along those lines. Matt then has words with her too. Then she says something about how the guy on the phone “wasn’t even that loud” and he was being louder than him. At this point I’m bracing for a riot lol.

Things quiet down after this but there was another idiot near the front row that would open his phone every 20 minutes or so which was really bright and distracting. Disaster.

Should Matt have been so vulgar? Probably not. Am I glad he said something? Yes.

This crap happens all the time at our local theater and 99% of the time, people are too scared to stand up and say anything. So, it just goes on and on. Pretty much all of my friends hate going to the movies because of this and I know we aren’t alone.

I don’t really know what can be done, but the theater staff should at least try to limit this kind of activity. It’s sad when the thought of having someone monitor the crowd for behavior is appealing.

Have you ever had a less-than-pleasant experience at the movie theater?

I finally caved in and signed up for Twitter, something I said I would never do! Why did I finally give in and do this?

Unlike most people, I plan to primarily use it as a business tool. Social networks are very powerful and as I have said many times before, the majority of business (especially online) is based on who you know. It is this exact reason that I am a member of sites like LinkedIn.

My first day with Twitter was frustrating, as it appeared their service was having technical issues and I couldn’t do simple tasks like update my profile picture… or at times, even refresh my page. But that has all been cleared up now and I am starting to get the hang of things. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to mess around with it just yet but I do have a handful of followers already. With some more dedication, I am sure I can get a lot more followers in the near future and really harness the power of this social networking tool.

Feel free to follow me and check out what goes on in my daily life, and of course I will return the favor

Yay, I just got my TV back from the repair shop a few minutes ago. Props to the shop for getting the unit back to me in a timely fashion and having excellent communication. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Sanyo. They gave me the run-around for nearly three weeks, didn’t return my calls as promised on more than one occasion and just seemed to take their time with things.

I tried searching Google for the model number of the part replaced, but I couldn’t find an exact match. It appears as though they replaced the power supply or some other control board inside the unit.

The good thing is I now have my TV back as good as new and since it was still under warranty, it didn’t cost me anything. Hopefully it will last more than 8 months this time!

One of the best ways to stay productive is to be organized. I know this can be a challenge for many people, especially if you are pressed for free time. But, having everything nice and neat makes your overall work area that much more enjoyable.

Up until recently, my work area had always been kinda tidy, but underneath the desk was a total rat’s nest! This wasn’t a huge issue as I had my recliner on the backside of the desk blocking most of the mess, but it still bothered me when I looked under the desk from the front. Something had to be done.

Keith and I took a trip to Office Depot about a month ago in search of a solution. I had an idea of what I wanted, but of course the moment I get there, I find two other workstation desks that I really liked. I was looking at over $200 for a nice L-shaped desk, but really, that wouldn’t solve my problems. Plus, I didn’t want to spend near that much money for what I had in mind. I stuck to the Dave Ramsey philosophy and ended up with a simple $40 adjustable wire shelving system.

It was exactly what I had in mind before going shopping and as you can see, it worked out great! My desk is only large enough to hold my two monitors, and since I need the computer and virtually everything else level with me, the shelf works great. The bottom shelf holds my printer and Western Digital My Book. The second shelf houses my APC battery backup, cable modem, router, camera battery charger, mouse battery charger and an additional surge protector. My PC sits on the top shelf. All of the cables are zip-tied and kept nice and neat.

Since my TV is still broken, I moved my cable box and Xbox over to the workstation as well. Each of the computer monitors I am using has an HDMI port, so I have the cable box connected to one and the Xbox connected to the other. It’s a bit cluttered with everything, but it’s really not as bad as I anticipated (watching TV and gaming on the monitors).

I think this was a very wise investment as my workstation looks much better without a ton of wires dangling everywhere. I can now easily reach everything, where as before it was on the floor under my desk. A win-win situation!

Keith, Airica, Josh and myself all decided to try something new for dinner. After pondering for a bit, we decided on Crescent City, a casual New Orleans style restaurant. I had never even heard of this place, and furthermore it has a horrible location in the middle of a shopping center facing away from the main road. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much.

When we arrived, the parking lot was a ghost town and we had our doubts if it was even open, as there was nobody inside either. But fortunately it was open and all I can say is WOW!

We started out with three different appetizers:

The first was fried okra, which if you aren’t from the south, odds are you have never heard of it. Crescent City served it with a great seasoning that made it some of the best okra I have ever had. Oh and the size of the bowl was huge.

Airica ordered the fried green tomatoes, another southern classic. Again, some of the best I have ever had and more than enough for an appetizer.

Josh went with the crab cakes, which were pretty expensive considering only two were included. I sampled a piece and while it was really good, I don’t think it was worth the $14 asking price.

For my main course, I selected the Creole Tour, which is a sample of any three gumbos. From left to right, I picked the seafood gumbo, jambalaya and shrimp gumbo. The jambalaya and shrimp gumbo were fantastic but I didn’t care for the seafood gumbo at all. It had a really fishy taste and wasn’t anything like the other two.

My total bill with appetizer was only $16.24, nearly as much as Josh’s appetizer lol.

Crescent City is like a well-kept secret among local dining options. The place was totally dead at dinner time and not a single person came into the restaurant while we were there. This was good as we got prompt service but bad because well, a restaurant can’t survive without customers! Let’s hope this was simply because it was a Sunday evening and maybe people were at church.

If you like New Orleans style food or are looking for something different, I would highly recommend Crescent City.

I spent some time the past two weeks taking a few more HDR pics. All but one were taken at the Memphis Motorsports Park back on March 8. The other Mustang pic was taken last week at a local park. Each picture is clickable for a larger version. Enjoy!

As my luck would have it, I am watching TV three weeks ago when all of the sudden, it turns off as if I had pressed the power button. Odd, because I didn’t. Maybe Jacinta did on accident? I tried turning it back on. The unit clicked on like normal, the green LED light lit up like normal… but there was no picture. After about 10 seconds, the TV turns itself back off. Yay, now I have a new black mirror in my living room!

The TV is only 8 months old and was manufactured in the same month I purchased it. I had the TV connected to my APC Battery Backup so there is little chance it was an electrical issue with the power it was being fed.

On the bright side, the TV is only 8 months old which means it is still under the 1 year manufacturer’s warranty!

The Warranty Process

I called Sanyo tech support the same day it broke and was told that I wouldn’t have to pay for anything and it would be fixed under warranty. He told me that a technician would call me the next day. He did, but he needed the serial number which I didn’t have access to at the time. Two days later, I called back with the serial number and again was told that a technician would return my call (I was calling “after hours” apparently and was getting a foreign phone rep).

The technician called the next day, I explained that I had called previously but didn’t have the S/N at the time. He tried to look up my information but couldn’t find it. So, I gave him all of my info. again along with the S/N and explained that if possible, it would be great if someone could do an in-home repair as it would be difficult for me to take the TV somewhere myself. He said he would check around and call me back the very next day. Of course, he never did.

A few days later, I call back and speak to the same guy. They had no record of me in their system, nice. After repeating my story for the third time, he said he would print out the info. and put it on his boss’ desk and that there shouldn’t be any problems getting this taken care of. He assured me someone would call me the next day. Guess what - they didn’t.

I was busy the next few days and never got around to making the return call. Last Friday, however, I finally called them back and talked to the same guy once again. He said he couldn’t find my info. at first, put me on hold then magically returned with it. He gave me the number to a local shop and told me to call them in an hour to schedule the in-home repair. Now we are making progress!

I did as I was told an hour later but Sanyo still had not contacted them. The lady at the repair shop said she would call me when they got the info. from Sanyo, which she did about 30 minutes later.

I explained what had happened and she said they couldn’t fix it in-home but would come and pick the TV up and take it back to their shop. That’s fine, I suppose and everything was scheduled for today. I was told they would call before they came to verify someone was at home.

Today rolls around and still no call around 3pm, so I call the local shop. She said they tried to call me earlier - nope! Turns out, Sanyo gave them the wrong number for me and now, they can’t make it back out until Thursday.

Gah, what a headache! Three weeks in and the TV is still sitting here staring at me. If only all companies were as good as Apple about replacing broken equipment. Their 3 day turnaround was mind blowing!

Fortunately, I have still been able to watch television and play Xbox using a 24″ computer monitor with HDMI that I reviewed earlier this month. Strangely enough, I really haven’t missed not having the big TV all that much.

Have any of you had nightmare stories trying to get work done under warranty?

Well, not yet, but that is the budding plan.

One of my goals in life is to go somewhere with white sandy beaches and clear (or blue?) waters and just relax. Maybe the Caribbean, Bermuda, Jamaica or Mexico. I’ve always found these places to be extremely beautiful in pictures and on TV and have always wanted to see it in person, but it never seemed like a reality because nobody I know would want to go.

So, about a week ago, Keith, Josh and myself were out eating and we somehow got on the topic of cruises. None of us have been on one, but I have heard a lot of good things about them through Kiwi, as her family takes cruises pretty often. Again, something that sounds like fun, but I never saw myself doing because I didn’t figure anyone I knew would be interested. But strangely enough, both Keith and Josh were all about it. This has potential.

I’ve done some research the past few days and it really seems like an awesome idea. Prices aren’t too bad for a 5-7 day cruise to most anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. I’d expect to spend around $700-800 for a week’s trip, which includes everything on the boat except alcohol. Yes, unlimited food - I’m sold!

If you have never been on a cruise, basically you sail out of your port at 4pm, are out at sea for a day or two then spend the next few days visiting different ports. Some of the more popular ports include Beliz, The Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and the Cayman Islands. While at each port, there are several different activities to choose from. Everything from touring the city/island, riding in a submarine, scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, riding dune buggies, etc. Each of these activities is an additional fee, however. But then again, you could just tour the city on your own, check out some shops, restaurants or just chill on the boat and do your own thing.

We really haven’t done much more than talk about it at this point, but early indications are that we will be doing it sometime in the summer of next year. It’s still too early to tell, but there could be anywhere from 4-8 of us going… maybe more lol.

Have any of you been on a cruise before? If so, could you share your experience and perhaps offer up some tips for a first timer?

I found something very strange when checking the mail the other day. The flyer you see above was in my mail box - burnt!

Did a mail truck catch on fire? Why would a postal worker deliver a half-burnt piece of mail? In all my years, I have never received something in the mail that apparently went through a fire. Keith and I were kinda shocked but then when Josh took a look at it, we began to question it more…

Something about this seems fishy. It almost seems like the burns are too perfect. Looking at the whole flyer again, only a small segment of text from the center is “burnt” away - all of the other text and necessary information is still intact. And that small section that is missing only contains the first letter of the street name and the first word of the city, both of which are common knowledge if you live around here.

We also noticed that the pre sorted postage paid area was not damaged and the only address, both to and from, was ECRWSS Local Postal Customer. ECRWSS stands for Extended Carrier Route Walking Sequence Saturation, which is a type of saturation mail where someone mails out to every customer in a specific area or ZIP code instead of to each named individual.

We came to one of two conclusions. Either this piece of mail was actually burnt and still placed in my box, or this is a clever marketing scheme. After all, it’s sure to garner attention (see, I am blogging about it!) and as we saw here, no vital piece of information was missing from the “damaged” flyer.

I am personally leaning towards marketing. What do you think? Have you ever received anything like this before?