LX49Z 3RMT2

That's what I found under my Diet Mountain Dew cap today.

Yippee, another cryptic code that I will never use.

Does anybody remember the days when you could open a pop and actually win something? You could win money, a trip, a new bike, a new car, all kinds of cool things. Of course, I personally never did win but that's not the point.

Remember looking at the inside bottom of your pop can every time you were finished drinking it? Remember looking regardless whether the side of the can said anything about a contest or not. Remember how, as you tried to get the perfect light as you peered into the inside of that can, for that one single moment there was that rush of joy and excitement. Did you see something? Wait that could have been something? Just turn the can a little more to get some better light. There it is. You can make out some words......"Please play again". Darn.

Nowadays there is no such thing. And even if there were you look inside the can and see LX49Z 3RMT2.

Soda manufacturers have gone the way of new technology. They use these codes to get you to go to their web sites and register to win prizes. By doing this they are making sure they get something out of giving you something. "Hey buddy, look at this shiny new Xbox. It could be yours. Just come over here and give me all of your info and you will have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of winning."

Boring. I don't want to go to your stupid web site. I don't want to take the 5 minutes to register and then play your dumb little game. Or worse yet, I don't wanna collect your stupid points so that maybe in 30 years when I've drank 47,000 Diet Cherry Cokes I might be able to afford that sweet Coke Fanny Pack with reflective material for jogging and headphone jack for my discman that you've been teasing me with.

I think what's even more disappointing is that cereal and candy bars have gone on the cheap as well. You rarely see a cereal box with a prize in it anymore. Most times that there is a prize featured on the box you get the cereal home only to read further and realize that you need to collect 20 box tops to redeem it.

Come on all you soda and food manufacturers, I implore you. Please bring the back the real games, the real prizes. Enough of this cryptic code nonsense on the inside of my bottle cap. I want the creativity back! I want my pop to be fun again. I want a $100 bill to jump out of my coke can like the contests from the early nineties! Those were the days! Of course some idiot woman drank the water that was left in her $100 can and the sued you, but that's not the point!

No, I'm not giving anything away.

But, some neighbors of mine down the street are.
This always cracks me up when people do this.

My neighbors lawn pile cracked me up so much so that it inspired me to write this blog because it had such wonderful items that they just needed to be disected in written from.

Let's break them down...

1. A ratty office chair that looks like it was bought in the 80's. Reddish/orange material with various grease stains all over. A fine addition to any cheap skates filthy office.

2. A fairly large aquarium. No cover, no attachments just a glass box. Perhaps the best item of the lot.

3. A older than dirt barbecue grill. All the paint has been faded and chipped off. The sign reads "Works great! Just needs a burner and a propane tank." I couldn't thelp but think to myself..."Well, then it doesn't work great!" Pretty much what makes a grill work is the burner and the propane tank. Take those two things away and you just have a shell.

4. A wooden cabinet. A wodden cabinet sitting outside, over night, in the summer, next to the lawn sprinklers, collecting dew, baking in the sun. Sweet! Well I guess if it's free. Oh wait, what's this? The sign on this lovely item says $10 or best offer. So, let me get this straight. You want to get rid of this thing so bad that you are willing to let it sit on your curb. But, you still see some value in it so you write a $10 price tag on it. Yeah good luck on collecting that. I'm sure the people that ride up and down suburban streets picking up free junk in the middle of the night will just slip the 10-spot in your mailbox.

5. A hope chest. There appears to be nothing wrong with it. Despite the same issues of the wooden cabinet...sitting outside next to the sprinkler system, baking in the sun etc. But this item has a $25 price tag on it! So apparently this has turned into a makeshift garage sale all of a sudden. I see what's going in on. You lure in the suckers with a bunch of free junk and mix in a couple of pay items. Clever technique, I don't have much faith however that it's gonna pay off for them. Best I do wish them the best of luck.

This morning when I walked in to the office I was appauled to see the headline on the front page of the Pioneer Press.

It read, "KG's Gone. So, What?"

So what?

So what?!

I can't believe what I'm seeing.  Who do these yahoos and Pioneer Press think they are? 

Minnesota just lost one of the best sports stars we've ever had. A 10 time All-Star, a top 5 all-time NBA power forward, one of 5 players in NBA history with at least 19,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists.

Garnett was the real deal, is still the real deal. And he played here right in our backyard.

It's sad for me to see him go. I have always looked up to Garnett. To me he is much more than just a great basketball player.  He is an icon. He's a role model.

In today's world of sports where the headlines are more about sex boats, steroids, shootings, marijuana, and dog fighting Garnett is a person that you can be proud to have your kids admire.

KG was very active in the Twin Cities community and beyond. He opened a Technology Center at Washburn High School in Minneapolis through his 4XL foundation, whose mission is to connect minority high school kids with business leaders. He contributed $1.2 million to Hurricane Katrina victims to build one new home each month for 2 years.

KG this city has suffered a tremendous loss with you leaving. Maybe the idiots at the Pioneer Press don't think so but those us who have watched you and cheered for you for the last 12 years know so.

Good bye, good luck and you will be missed. 

Tonight we had our 1000th member join!

Not bad for being online for 2 weeks and struggling with server speed issues for most of that time.

Thanks to all of you for joining and spending time here with us. It's awesome to watch this site grow. Imagine what we can do with another 2 weeks.

If you haven't noticed the Invite feature yet, check it out.

http://www.fm1071.com/lol/account/invite/

You can use this tool to send a message from this website to your friends to encourage them to join our online community.

The more the merrier!

-J

LOLers,

I have received some questions from a few of you regarding points. Well...not really, the questions were more like this "What is up with that half blue star on my profile page with that random number next to it.

The answer is this - That is the LOL points system.

That's right, just like elementary school all over again you earn gold stars for doing chores...exciting huh.

Here's how points are scored.

The activity points are awarded when a user posts any item to the site.

If you:

• Post a picture
• Post a blog
• Post a thread in the forum
• Post a poll
• Post a comment in a profile of someone else
• Invite a friend

These activities all earn you one point each time.

And once you reach a certain amount of points such as:

- Once reached 600 points ( 5 blue stars ) you start to get a yellow star.

- Once reached 1500 points ( 5 yellow stars ) you start to get a red inner star.

- Once reached 4000 points ( 5 red inner stars ) you have reached all the stars

with the max 4000 points.