8.31.2005

Everyone's crying about gas prices!!! Stop the insanity!!


How many times did I hear people complaining about gas prices today at work? Too many!!! Shut your mouths people! Maybe if you were not buying that $4 carmel-frapaccino-mint-soy milk-macchiato every day or eating your $12 California Pizza Kitchen lunch, you might have some cash in your pockets to fill up the 35gallon tank in your Land Rover. Morons! We don't even drive SUVs. Mid-size V6 sedans for Libera and I.
Don't get me wrong, I am pretty salty about the whole $3+ for a gallon of unleaded, but I realize the game being played by the government and the whole hurricane situation has added insult to injury to the rest of the US, but in the grand scheme of things, if you spent $18 to fill your tank two weeks ago and now you have to spend $26, rethink your other silly expenses and control your budget. Get a grip mofos!!!

8.29.2005

Diddy in the mix again....

On the heels of the recent MTV Video Music awards, I was reading up on the situation that occurred with the white hot feud between Fat Joe and the Terror Squad and 50cent and G-Unit...Wow. If you did not see the VMAs, you should try to catch one of the 1000 replays they will have on MTV. Anyway, I have no intentions on reseting that situation. What I do want to comment on is that Sean Combs, aka, Puffy, Puff Daddy and now......drum roll..... DIDDY has recently joined mogul empires for a joint venture with Emilio Estefan to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Latin hip-hop market. More specifically, the emergence of the Reggaeton genre. For those of you not in the know, Reggaeton is a fusion of salsa, reggae and rap. It floods the radio airways in US urban markets such as Los Angeles, New York and Miami and is a fixture in the airways in Puerto Rico. Believe me, when I have a conversation with my 60-something great aunt who has been staying with my mom for the past few weeks and she mentions that she does not like Reggaeton becaus the kids are always blasting it too loud in Puerto Rico, but does like Daddy Yankee because she feels that he is good for Puerto Rico, I would say that is a force (economic and social) in society that someone was going to capitalize on sooner or later. Leave it up to Diddy to make himself more money and put Reggaeton on a bigger stage....

8.24.2005

Is public speaking THAT difficult?!

Oh brother....I went to a "professional development" event this morning. What that really means is that I had to sit through 4 hours of several speakers discuss issues and situations that are related to the industry that I work in. I work in IT. I have had some really good experiences in the past with some of these events, but today's was not on my top 10; far from it....Imagine a room full of geeks; Asian geeks, Indian geeks, Anglo geeks, Jewish geeks and this Puerto Rican geek. I learned plenty of interesting information. Don't get me wrong, but 2 out of the 7 speakers were an ABSOLUTE bore!! Oh man...My mind was drifting to lands and galaxies far, far away....Sheesh..I would rather have listened to nails on a chalkboard or crying babies or something else horrific like that. What's worse than taking time (ok, work time) from your life to listen to someone who thinks they are doing a great job capturing the attention of the audience with a subject that the audience knows about and expects to be treated to some aspect of that information that will streamline their business, allow them to correct mistakes and increase their profits and overall knowledge? I mean, I looked over and saw two middle-aged men hunched over in dreamland...What made these two speakers even worse was that the various (3 out of 4) demos they attempted did not even work. "Uh, I tested this on the same type of computer and I don't understand why it would not work now." Murphy's Law? Who cares! You lost the crowd. You did NOT win the crowd and you did NOT win your freedom!! Needless Gladiator reference...They tried to hype it up and the audience was eager with anticipation to see the results and POW, the house of cards gets toppled...I have spoken many times in a public forum (school and work situations) and deep in the back of my mind is that whole aspect of steping out of myself and listening to me speak and making sure I am not a complete nimrod. Most of that is just being prepared and that thought would rarely cross my mind. Public speaking is crucial to one's success in the professional world; I really believe that. Although many studies have proven that some people equate public speaking to dying. Most people would rather soil themselves then stand in front of a group and speak. Oh well, I look forward to developing myself professionally in the near future.....

Commercialization Gone Wild

I know this is a recent (10-15yrs) concept in our society, but it does not mean that I have to like it. EVERYTHING is so friggin commercialized!!; mostly in the world of entertainment. I must lump athletics into that statement as well because the true essence of sports has been gone for a very long time. It's definitely annoying to be forced to associate some conglomerate with your favorite sports team or some aspect of a bowl game or tournament or even some meaningless skills competition event. Take my beloved Detroit Tigers as an example. They play in Comerica Park. Comerica is a nationwide bank that offers personal, small business, and corporate banking services. The company paid several million dollars to have their name on the park. For some stupid reason, "Tiger Stadium" just sounds so much better than a bank name....Here's another one for all you college football fans: The FedEx Organge Bowl. Geez!! It's ridiculous. I'm all for sports teams and the NCAA trying to boost their respective products with "help" from companies, but do I need to see the company name front and center? No! We've all seen the occasional idot show up on ebay trying to "lease" space on their forehead or other highly visible portion of their body for advertising. I know people will do anything for money, but it's just something I happened to feel like ranting about today...By the way, if any reps from Goya or Banco Popular happen to read this, lets negotiate some ad space on my thorax...

8.21.2005

The more things stay the same, the more they GET WORSE!!

And what I mean by this is the constant news stories about soldiers getting killed in Iraq. Man, I'm not to the point of being numb to it like most people (idiots!) are, but I am getting to the point of being very sick of hearing about it. In no way is the tide shifting and I am going to turn this blog into a constant political rant; it's not my style. In case anyone did not know, I have "No Preference" as my selection on my voters card. Am I Independent? Not really although I feel some Independents have good ideas as well. I like ideas from Republicans and I like ideas from Democrats. Is the state of politics today evil and corrupt? Yes, very much so. Do I vote? Yes, since I have been of age to do so. Do I think a select group of men run this country? Yes, I believe it. Do I want to live in another country because of what's going on in Iraq? If I did, I would. That should answer that question. I appreciate the freedoms the United States has, but it's tough sometimes to grin when there is so much happening outside of the US and human beings are dying for "something". Part of my frustration comes on the heels of reading a story that the US Army has projected another 4 years in Iraq. Are you kidding me?! I was under the impression that early next year troops would be out of there and the constant fighting of several thousand years ago would continue. Frustrating man! Sheesh...If any troops happen to read this, I hope they know they are supported. They are following orders. I am not stupid enough to think that every soldier there "wants" to be there or believes in the cause, but I am glad there is a US military and I wish them a safe return sooner rather than later.....

8.18.2005

Am I an Audioholic?


No, but if I were I would drop $3,300 on these cups. Behold the Sony QUALIA 010 Headphones. Man, those things look absolutely sweet. Married to my Shuffle, it would be a match made in audio_heaven....Oh well, it's just another example of wasted R&D by Sony.....

8.15.2005

Screw you, Pepe Le Pew!


This is one for the ages. Well, it did not escalate to the point of no return....yet. I was outside cutting the grass tonight (I say 'tonight' because the days are getting shorter and night comes sooner.. :( ) and was finishing up when I was outside talking with Libera and she looks over my shoulder into my neighbors yard and says, "Look, it's that skunk!" Of course, I did what one should never (I mean NEVER) do when a skunk is in the vicinity......I made a very quick movement since we were in the back of the house near our sliding door. I grabbed Libera's shoulder to move her towards the door and out of the way of that potential blast of odor....She said, "Don't move like that or that thing is going to spray us." Well, I regained my faculties and realized she was right. The animal was really docile. Seriously, it was just like a ferret waddling along the side of my neighbor’s house. I watched it was trepidation thinking it would be on to me and turn around and inflict its smelly wrath upon me. Well, it didn't. I still needed to ensure that it was not going to make a return run back to my area since I still needed to put the lawnmower away. Plus, one of our cars was outside of the garage and it needed to get back in so that we could close the door or that Frenchy was about to reek havoc on both of our cars and bring the pain inside the garage...Again, I was like a trained sniper peering around the corner from the back of the house watching this thing head towards the street. Then I'm thinking to myself, "Oh no, how about if one of the many children on our street rides their bike toward this thing?" It has one of three options: #1-Spray them or #2-Come back without me knowing it and I get sprayed or #3-Walk past me and act like I don't exist. With my luck, #3 would never happen. As I mentioned above, it was getting dark fast. When Pepe made the left towards the front part of my neighbors garage, I rocked a West Side Story dash along the side of our house to the front ready to shield my eyes (they can spray 15ft) and pivot and run to the backyard if Le Pew was about to raise up on me. He was no where to be found. I called Libera to come out and park the car. I walked to the street and went to the other side of my neighbor’s house. The funny thing was I had metal rake in my hand because I was raking some dirt around the garden and some other areas in the backyard. Fortunately, my other neighbors were not outside thinking I was going to put that rake upside someone’s cranium. Anyway, I noticed that the coast was clear and went back to the driveway and you would not believe it, but the skunk started to cross the street. It was about 30ft away from me. "Sheesh, I thought." Libera parked the car and I told her to hurry up and check out the skunk from where I was standing at. It walked to a neighbor’s house across the street. It paused as if it were going to come back to our house, but did the right thing for everyone's sake and disappeared into the night.....Whew!!! We have smelled this skunk before, but it has been a few months since we have seen it. Normally it just sits in my neighbor’s backyard and then moves away. I hope it's not pregnant....Oh man, I need to find out how to score some skunk birth control. I don't know if that will be enough to stop a love-starved Pepe Le Pew though..... :( Whatever, crisis averted this time.

8.13.2005

Trip to the health food store.


Recently, I was given a gift card for $40 to a health food store near us. It's called the Natural Food Patch. The store is above average. It's not the worst health food store I have been to, but not the best either. They are consistent in what they carry and their prices are ok. Anyway, Libera and I run in there earlier today and I was once again reminded of the irony of the environment in that place....Sheesh, I expect to see HEALTHY people in such a store. I see more unhealthy people in there every time we visit. Of course, there will be hippies, your token vegans, hypochondriacs, young socially conscious vegetarians, older citizens who are trying some homeopathic medicine options and of course people like me (the occasional carnivore). The sights and sounds in this place can really be a trip. One aisle you can walk past a disturbed vegan with atrophied musculature and the next aisle you can try to squeeze past a young overweight female (PETA shirt on, of course) who claims to have been a vegetarian since high school. Ok. Needless to say there tends to be many artists (actual artists who paint, musicians, writers and other right hemisphere - types). Like I said before, I am usually never disappointed by this place, but the people watching is second to none.
Our next chapter in this episode was to figure out how to burn $40 in this joint. Usually we drop $10-$15 on small ticket items (milk, peanut butter, chocolate, fruit leather, small snacks, etc.). The majority of items in this store are Organic and as you should know, that increases the price of the respective item; usually by 20% or more. I am sure it's a psychosomatic thing, but there are certain things that are labeled organic that I really prefer and I can tell the difference. I have tested it--blindly. Milk is probably the main item. We drink skim and I can tell the difference between organic skim and non-organic. Seriously. I don't think it's on the same level as bottled water though. I have a cousin who cracks on me for my preference to bottled water...I can tell the difference betwixt Evian and tap water...Seriously.
That's a different post for another day though. Back to shopping. I usually will never buy produce labeled organic because it is usually much more expensive and I like to think I won't turn into a former resident of Chernobyl by eating non-organic fruit. I eat 6-8servings of fruit a day. I would have to say that organic peanut butter is the other item that we consistently get. Mmmmmm. Good stuff. So.....we bought milk, a few bars of soap, some chips that were made from dehydrated carrots, some tofu ice cream sandwiches (they're good and you cannot tell, really), Thai veggie burgers and some other snacks...Maybe a $6 bar of soap is not the best use of money, but it was a gift card and I figured it might be interesting to try...I suggest you hit a health food store and take in the sights and sounds of the people...

8.11.2005

When did the metamorphosis begin...


..from the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star becoming the apex of footwear for professional basketball players and preferred playground footwear that was worn by the legendary streetballers to that weird anti-social dude in an underground band who insists on no one should hear his bands music because that would be selling out? {Nice, long sentence, eh?} Honestly, I was thinking about this today when I saw a dude who creeped me out when I ran into a gas station today...I held the door open for this dude when I ran in and he reeked of the hippy lettuce. I was thinking to myself, "Self. Why would this shaggy-wannabe endanger the lives of other people and himself because he needed a hit?" Anyway, I paid the attendant and ran back to the ride. I started the car and pulled around the station and to my amazement, this fool was acting like he never pumped gas before and was pretty lethargic; big surprise....sure. I paused for a second to witness the spectacle and just drove out of there...
For those of you who own a pair of Chuck Taylor's....I'm sorry to be the one who breaks this to you, but those are some of the ugliest pieces of fabric stitched to rubber composite on the earth...Sheesh, they are a definite prerequisite to a pair of broken ankles or at least a severely strained one if you intend on doing anything that requires movement of your lower extremities...Give me technological advancements in athletic footwear ANY DAY...Unless your name is snoop, you might as well just hang it up thinking you won't look like an absolute clown with Chuck T's (highs or lows) on....I am also of the opinion that there is a correlation between Chucks and the hippie lettuce.....

8.10.2005

Excessive? Definitely.

On a recent trip down the information superhighway, I run into this gem. It's nothing more than a simple demonstration of excess. I think the Hummer owner in this ad says it all. "Hi, I'm a pig who likes driving a petrol hog and I play basketball to." Sure......This thing can be yours for $550 (H2 not included). Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but if you can afford a petrol hog, then I assume you might have the palatial estate to allow for a legitmate basketball pole that would be cemented into the ground or just run up and down your state-of-the-art full court.

8.08.2005

Curious Neighbors?


Ok, I get home from work today and as I am parking my car in the garage, I notice two milk crates that we have in the front part of the garage are gone. Normally these two crates are stacked on top of each other with a bucket on top. Well, the bucket was by itself and the crates were no where to be found. I figured Libera might have done something with them, but I really did not think twice about it. So, we start eating dinner and she tells me that one of our neighbors (albanian) asked her if she could "borrow" the two milk crates for something. Well, if you have been around any older eastern euro or middle eastern people for any period of time, you know they like to check out what's going on in OTHER people's spaces. So, each time these people walk by our house and our garage door is open, they look into our garage just to look. I see some of my neighbors wearing glasses and most times they don't, therefore, I have to assume they cannot see that well and are just looking into our garage from the street because they may hear that one of us are in there and we wave hello. Back to the milk crates....So, what was Libera suppose to say? She let the lady take the crates and the lady said that she would bring them back tomorrow or the next day. I am the curious one now...I mean, does this lady need these crates to make her taller for something? Is she going to have her husband use them to to change a tire on his car? I have no idea because she could not really communicate that well according to Libera, but she knew enough English to ask to borrow the crates....It was just another day on United Nations Blvd....

8.04.2005

Oh Chappelle, where art thou?

I'm sure everyone has heard that Chappelle's Show is no longer. That's too bad. The sketch comedy that show displayed was hilarious. So many stereotypes, so many characters.
It will go down in comedy history as one of the funniest shows that never reached it's potential. Of course, the conspiracy theorist in my grey matter tells me that this could be a stunt as I believe Chappelle's "spiritual retreat" to the motherland was...Hmmmmmmm. My business sense tells me that the show really is done though because the amount of money that Comedy Central sunk into the future seasons of Chappelle's Show is much too significant for there to not be a show. Well, it was great while it lasted. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't hold my breath.....

8.03.2005

Billiards, anyone?

This is on my wish list if anyone cares to drop some chedda on it for me...Thanks.

8.02.2005

Shuffle Killer? Rrrrrrrrrright....

As many of you may know....well, if you don't know, now you know...I am a fan of Apple. I have been a fan for many years, but never bought one because I had to get away from the cattle mentality that Bill Gates created for PC users. Please don't misunderstand this post. I am in no way a "mac zealot", but I certainly appreciate the design qualities of their products and the great FREE progs that come standards. I have an almost four year old ibook that is still going strong. I also have a mac mini that is like a hobby machine...very cool. So...now that that's out of the way, let's talk about my disdain for all the so called "ipod-killers" on the market...I understand immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but some of the attempts by companies (the Korean ones really crack me up)to dethrown the reign of the ipod are just laughable. My intent is not to discuss the hard drive based ipod; my goal today is to mention the ipod shuffle. I was (and still am) a fan of this product. The Shuffle came out several months ago and I bought one pretty quick soon after all the initial hype and backorders died down. It was absolutely worth the wait and the cash. It is remarkable how good this little device sounds. I am not afraid to say that it sounds just as good if not better than the hard drive-based ipod. It's crazy, but true.

Ok....so, I am scanning the web for some technology news and I come across the following company: mobiBLU. I did some more searching and found out that you can actually get this thing at Walmart. I was surprised this cube comes in 512MB and 1G flavors. Interesting. Shuffle killer? No way! New wrinkle in the flooded flash memory MP3 player market? Yes. I am considering the fact that I might go to Walmart and actually take a look at this thing. It is going to be nearly impossible to unseat the Shuffle in my mind, but I am open to a new gadget....Maybe.