As you know, the Playstation 3 price drop of $100 or 100 Euros was caused by the official announcement of the PS3 Slim at Gamescon 2009 today. The PS3 Slim will be sold for $299 for a 120 gigabyte harddrive version. While it is good component prices are getting cheaper, as is with all technology, I suspect Sony still loses money selling the consoles but makes up for it by selling the games that go with it. That did not mean that Sony tried to pass on as much of the cost as they could to the customers, us, which is why the console retailed for such a high price. With this price reduction and the new PS3 Slim coming out soon (no announce date yet but I’d expect it to be within a month or much less), this will hopefully make some big profits for Sony and the video game industry that just recently found out that sales of video games has dropped for the 5th straight month. The once recession proof video game market has proven that it too is not immune to the global economic crisis, and this cheapening of prices will add further downward pressure on prices as companies struggle to get people to buy their wares. If you go on certain major website retailers, you can pre-order the Playstation 3 Slim, and the particular website that I favor almost always ships the items I pre-order within 2 weeks, max 1 month. So if you’re looking for a new Playstation 3, the price drop that was caused by the PS3 Slim is your chance to get yourself this fine gaming console, that was up until now, out of the reach for many people

As mentioned earlier on a previous post, there is a Playstation 3 price drop effective between now and tomorrow. The reason for the confusing price drop is because Sony has given the go ahead to reduce prices by $100, $100 Euros, and the Yen equivalent, so it is going to take a short for the various merchant websites out there to adjust the pricing. Right now on Amazon you can pre-order the new PS3 Slim for $299 USD or $299 Euros, while the non slim Playstation 3’s currently sell for $299 for the 80 gigabyte (GB) PS3 and the 160GB version is $399. So if you’re willing to wait just a little while it is best to get the new PS3 Slim but for those who can’t wait, cash in on the price reduction now. I suspect the PS3 Price Drop will help boost the popularity of the Playstation brand because one big factor why I did not get a PS3 is because it was just too damn expensive, now there is no real excuse – buy up folks!

Sony presented the PS3 Slim specs at GamesCon 2009. This new version of the Playstation 3 features about half the size of the original PS3, 120 gigabytes harddrive, and retails $100 dollars cheaper than the original Playstation 3. Due to the smaller, compact size of the PS3 Slim, power consumption has been reduced TO 34%, which will go nicely in saving on your monthly electric bill for all those 14 hour gaming sessions that you will no doubt have. The internal hardware inside the PS3 is virtually redesigned from the original Playstation 3 model, featuring lightweight components, a better cooling mechanism (so it will crash less due to over-heating), to brand new cpu and semiconductor chips. As a result of this new model of PS3, Sony will drop the price on original playstation 3 models by about 50 dollars or euros (and the equivalent currency exchange in yen). At GamesCon 2009, in addition to annoucing the PS3 Slim Specs, Sony said they are releasing a much needed firmware 3.0 for all PS3 models, but the release date is not final yet, but they promised it will be soon. If you live in Europe, the pricetag is 299 Euros and in Japan, the cost is 29,980 Yen. You can pre-order the PS3 Slim now on Amazon and other retail websites. I for one will be buying a Slim PS3 when I get the chance after seeing the PS3 Slim specs.

Wow ok I thought at first this was a hoax but it is not. I saw a censored version of the Kari Ann Peninche, Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane censored video at gawker dot com. Even though the publicist for these actors and actresses have threatened to sue anyone showing the tape, gawker seems so far unfazed by this threat. Gawker states that the website fleshbot (it’s an adult site) will post the The Kari Ann Peninche, Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane Uncensored Video tomorrow morning on August 18th, 2009. This video has surfaced because apparently Kari Ann Peninche is running an illegal escort business, possibly sex-for-hire. The video was leaked by someone with connections to the Los Angeles Police Department. The video itself was a 3minute and 24 second censored video clip. I apparently do not see anything illegal going on but you do see one video clip where Kari Ann is apparently reading off a credit card number to someone on the phone. No doubt that something fishy is going on here.

The Kari Ann Peninche, Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane Uncensored Video shows Rebecca pretty high, walking around naked and in some weird looking red fiesta style dress, and in a jacuzzi. The 3 of them talk about what porno names they would have and Eric himself suggests either “Rambo” or “Cocaine”. Ouch. Kari Ann Peninche can be seen mostly naked most of the time but my info only comes from seeing the censored version. I can guarantee you I will watch the Kari Ann Peninche, Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane Uncensored Video to report more, and if only tomorrow morning would come though there might be a chance it will be removed from the internet before then, only one way to find out…

There are rumors swirling around right now that Kari Ann Peniche, former Miss Teen USA, is seen doing questionable acts with Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart in a video that is circulating around the internet and piracy channels. The three are allegedly drunk and having a 3-way going on (no not the 3 way lanes on highways…). I’m also pretty sure it is not really true since nobody would risk making such a tape and then have it leaked out (it’s bad press). Kari Ann Peniche was stripped of her Miss Teen USA for violating the no-pornography clause of her pageant contract and posed nude for Playboy. Supposedly Kari Ann Peniche offers her services as a “Hollywood Madam” (citation http:// wow-legs.blogspot.com/2009/08/ kari-ann-peniche .html). Celebrity Rehab featured Kari Ann Peniche, where she was being treated for a sex addiction but was booted off the reality program because of misbehavior (Why are the reasons always so general and vague?). Kari Ann Peniche allegedly stole objects from her room mate Mindy McCready on the show, though there are no real reliable details of this supposed theft of items or whether or not it really took place (editor’s note: sorry for the bad picture but I had a very difficult time finding a non-pornographic photo of Kari Ann Peniche that fit the orientation dimensions of the image box, she is the woman on the left).

The definition of nugatory is something that has little or no value. It has come to my attention that there might be a nugatory sale at either Linder’s Furniture store, Ashley Furniture Canada, or Lee Furniture. While I’ve checked some of their websites for a sale, and couldn’t find any out in the open, that does mean there isn’t a sale. Since the fall season is approaching, that means Labor Day holiday is coming soon (in about 2 weeks to be precise) and these stores need to clear inventory to have their labor day sale. Why it’s call a nugatory sale I’m not too sure but it’s a strange word indeed. It’s probably a good idea to search out other furniture outlets that also might have such sales going on because the Labor Day sale is always a big occasion in the United States, especially because of the profits these furniture stores will book when they sell their sofas, tables, chairs, and such.

If you love cake, then you must know about Carlo s Bake Shop, the site and location of the famed show “Cake Boss” where family members are constantly baking cakes, ranging from party birthday cakes to wedding cakes. The main appeal of this show is it’s very family oriented, since after all this show is run by a family, with Valastro as the “Cake Boss”. The Food Network has launched a competitor show “Ace Of Cakes” and TLC, who produces “Cake Boss” responded with yet another cake show “Ultimate Cake Off”. This comedy features Valastro, a proud, colorful Italian with a funny attitude and an accent to give his words a lot of punch. He also happens to be quite the comedian. Valastro himself doesn’t realize how real his show has become, in which he stars, when he witnessed a bride to be deface her own cake by squirting it with some unmatched colored icing. He told her that she “has got to be kidding” but later turned out the bride just thought it would be funny for the audience. Valastro says he meets all sorts of “crazy” personalities out there.

The most difficult part of running Carlo s Bake Shop is the long work hours and hectic schedule. He works 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week. He normally wouldn’t mind such hours but he misses his wife and 3 kids, which is what really hurts him the most. The bake shop belonged to Valastro’s father, who bought the store from somebody else. Valastro’s father came to America when he was 13 with nothing but his shoes for possessions. Valastro says he is what the American dream is all about, and he’s right. Valastro is an avid baker, and he treats his profession like a science, referring himself jokingly as a mad scientist. While other people just mix, match, and shove something in the oven, Valastro does test batches of cakes until it comes out just right. His cake making skills command a hefty fee, he once made a rhino cake for a museum in New York, charging $8,000 for the job. What makes it so expensive is the precise, fine details that goes into the roses or indents, or creases on the cakes. Some call him a sugar artist but Valastro insists on calling himself a baker first, since baking after all is his passion. The large popularity of this show has TLC (The Learning Channel) signing this bake shop on for another season, and families all across America are tuning in every week because of the show’s characters, the family aspect of it, and of course, the colorful cakes. The personality that is reflected in each cake, is also within each baker, and the family togetherness of the show has enchanted many families throughout America. Carlo s Bake Shop is located in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Today’s a pretty hot day, which of course is typical considering it is the middle of a late-starting summer season (go global warming). I decided to take a break today and research a side hobby of mine that has recently become an obsession, the business of search engines, namely Microsoft + Yahoo and Google. I had recently tried to comment on Matt Cutts’s own blog (www dot mattcutts dot com) but I felt perhaps that for the sake of objectivity, I would write my views here since I do not want people to say I’m for one side or for another. For the record I am for one side, myself and you, the user.

As many of you are aware, or at least not yet aware, Microsoft finally has struck a search deal with Yahoo. This deal involves giving all Yahoo searchers over to Microsoft, where now 30% of all searchers will now use Bing, versus Google’s 68%. According to Matt Cutts’s own blog, Google Caffeine is not a response to Microsoft Bing, but was a project that was in the works months ago (more on all this later). My personal view is that Jerry Yang, Yahoo founder and now Ex-Ceo of yahoo was the one person responsible for not allowing a search engine deal with Microsoft. It was well known that Jerry wanted a lot more money for Yahoo and this was right before the recession came in. At one point Microsoft was willing to pay up to $47.50 a share for Yahoo to buy out the company, which Yahoo rejected. Yahoo flounders around $14.56 a share at 4pm EST as of this writing. Needless to say, Yahoo shareholders must be really pissed off and well, that is why Jerry was outed (among other reasons).

Google is coming out with a next generation search engine codenamed “Google Caffeine” and it is currently in beta phase for United States google only, though Matt himself has openly declared that anybody can help beta test it. Google caffeine may be found at www2 dot sandbox dot google dot com. I myself have already performed some preliminary tests but I’d rather wait until it’s undergone more changes before I perform more tests. There is some debate that Google is rolling out Caffeine as a direct response to Bing (and it’s a pretty strong and good response mind you) and Matt himself said that it wasn’t because Google Caffeine was already in the works months ago, which I believe. Either way you look at it, it’s very good that Google had a product to solidify its core business, search.

But this isn’t about Google per say, as so much about Microsoft. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have a huge archrivalry with Larry Page, Sergei Brin, and Eric Schmidt (founders and ceo of Google respectively). While I do not know the specifics of how this rivalry started, I do know that Google actively headhunts Microsoft’s employees (basically going up to Microsoft employees and offering them better a job, stock, environment if they come to Google) so Microsoft is always having to replenish their talent due to Google. Not only that, Bing is actually a good search engine, which if you’re in the internet marketing world, means a lot. Live and msn dot come use to be TERRIBLE for search, I could never find a damned thing there. It had recently gotten better and then Bing comes out, which is a lot better. The most startling is that some results are actually as good as Google’s and the Bing bot not only indexes more pages in some cases (take search word dog for example as of last week) they also have really increased the speed at which they spider and index and crawl websites, which is another big surprise.

And I know it’s not about the money for Microsoft because Yahoo will receive a whopping 90 something % of all the advertising revenue from searchers on Yahoo dot com; Bill and Steve are just after that all valuable market share. The United States Justice Department is also not very happy with Google at the moment so Google’s attempts to label Microsoft as “anti trust” will be much harder here in the states, if not backfire, so Google will have much bigger trouble blocking this deal.

When I was researching this deal, and allowed time for the internet’s users to chime in their 2 cents, what struck me the most surprising, aside from Bing actually being a good search engine, was how much Google hate there was. If you go to any authoritative blog or website with a lot of users, about 40% of all the comments are complaining and hating on Google, mostly because of the “oppressive” Adwords campaign prices. I haven’t used Adwords myself in about 5 years but I still do have my account which I use for keyword research mostly (great tool by the way), and I know that when keywords cost 5 to 10 dollars as your minimum bid despite putting in 1 penny, that has businesses livid. Many complain that Google is hiding behind their Adwords “auction rules” without explaining why keywords cost so much, even when there are no visible adwords ads on the keyword term, and because Google is so dominant in search, Adwords is the only real way to get your site traffic (if you cannot do seo). Many complaints I’ve read stated that they can’t rank for the words they want and that Adwords is all they have, and with the recent changes and the way they’ve been treated by Google Adwords, they’re going to lose a lot of money and their business. With this recession going on, I guess everybody is losing money and tempers are flaring left and right.

This is a prime opportunity for Microsoft, and they’re no doubt happy to accommodate these businesses, but they still need to provide the one thing companies need, organic search users. Shocking, Bing does just that. Even I find myself searching both Bing and Google, which is something I thought I would never do. It does however give me diversity of results to help me with whatever I’m doing at the moment. Which brings me to you, the user.

While I highly doubt Google will die or get killed or whatever some crazy opinions say, I can confidently say that Google is actually in trouble, which they can and probably will deal with. If they do slip up though, Microsoft is going to take at least 50% market share. I say 50% because if both search engines (which are basically all that there is, at least here in the western world) produce basically the same, relevant results, which they do, then users will keep using whatever search engine they’re comfortable with. That puts Google at a disadvantage because all Microsoft has to focus on is stealing users from Google. As time goes on all users realize that using either Bing or Google will net no real difference in search results (because both search engines will ideally be very good and very relevant) so they will just use whichever service they feel more comfortable with. People are lazy, like me, and we’re also generally quite smart, so if I were a disgruntled Adwords user, I would definitely switch to Bing because one, I would have felt ripped off and wronged by google due to my losses on Adwords, and two if search results are just as good, it’s best to help out Bing since my Bing-equivalent ads are running and I need to help contribute to the search engine that will get me paid the most and treats me the nicest, which in this case is Bing, not Google.

So, given the large amount of angry Adwords users, they will definitely switch to Bing, and with it their content, products, and services. Then Microsoft can come up with cheap tricks to steal google users, such as the ads you see for “use bing and get a free xbox 360 controller” or “buy windows 7 when it comes out at yyy% off if you use bing for z amount of time using this tracking software” etc. There are also some businesses who have been indexed in Google for the longest time and find themselves being deindexed for some reason. While they probably violated some of the Google’s Webmaster’s Terms Of Service, they likely will still be very angry, and will look for an alternative, which is Bing. I’ve personally seen stats and data on 1000’s of websites and pages that are indexed that show Bing is actually a big contributor of traffic where in cases Google give little to no traffic, and that is frightening.

And that brings me to the point of this post. If Google continues to do whatever it is that keeps pissing off a certain segment of their search users, they will most definitely migrate to Bing, if they haven’t done so already. They haven’t had much choice to vent their frustrations because Google was basically the only game in town with their great search engine. But now that Bing is actually good, these frustrated people now have a choice once again (Google is technically a monopoly in the search market). You might say that these users are either spammers or small in a number, and while that is a very crude way to look at it, it is probably true, excepting that some people who are getting hurt are legitimate website owners. This is probably contributing to the rise of people thinking of Google as more and more of an “evil” company rather than the benevolent underdog that we all saw it as almost a decade ago. Once this sentiment spreads, it’ll affect other people who will change their behavior patterns and ultimately actions, as a result. That action will be to use Bing and Microsoft knows that, and they are absolutely capitalizing on it. While I enjoy competition and Google, I feel a little better knowing that I can ultimately have my choice of either Google Caffeine (when it launches) or Microsoft Bing.

Terrell Owens kids, or T.O. for short, has come out with his own cereal, courtesy of PLB sports. It’s apparently only being sold in Buffalo (because of course he’s now in the Buffalo Bills) and it is selling out, fast. Even though Terrell Owens is not married, he does have two kids, which he aggressively makes sure he keeps them out of the public eye, and understandably so. Public life is very hectic and high-stress, and children just simply cannot understand what is going on around them and what people do to them, so it is best to leave them out of the public eye so they can lead normal lives.

Terrell Owens is very ambitious, and since he is a daddy, he understands the value of having a family so everything he does and his ambitions is to promote the well being of other fellow families and of course, his children. Terrell has his own clothing or fashion line, and if this sellout of cereal continues, soon a food business, specifically healthy low-fat cereal food. You may think how little money cereal generates but at a retail price of 3 or 4 dollars per box, times 10 million sales in 1 week (that’s about how fast this is flying off shelves, and this is a rough estimate because demand is too strong and supply too low), that’s 30 to 40 million dollars gross. Not bad for a breakfast cereal with a giant guy smiling and spinning a football (well holding it in his right arm). In an interview with PLB sports (the producer and owners of the cereal), CEO Ty Ballou states production is being ramped up to meet demand, he told a major media outlit. When you think about others, magical stuff happens, and for Terrell Owens kids, well, they have a rich, loving daddy who makes what appears to be great cereal.

As a student of marketing, there are many ways to generate traffic to your business or store, or if you’re Banff National Park, well, your park, a squirrel vacation picture to be precise. You can do flyers, word of mouth, tv and cable commercials, banner ads on the internet, pay per click on major search engines, or anything you can think of really. One of the best ways, though, is humorous word of mouth, as taught by Seth Godin. Since the recession has taken its toll on everyone, Banff National Park has seen its visitor counts dwindle. Rather than complain and whine, like many people do, they decided to do something funny. They posted a picture of a squirrel that “interrupts” a family photo moment. For some reason it has taken the internet by storm. Suddenly everyone wants a squirrel block their camera view of their most fun, treasured family moments, and of course there is no better place to do it than at Banff National Park.

While the source of the original squirrel picture was submitted to National Geographic’s Website, a new commercial website awkward family photos dot com has built its business around showing off funny family pictures, such as the squirrel vacation picture (which it now hosts). As with most novel ideas, they may or may not make any money unless the people behind the business know marketing and correct monetization. While squirrel vacation pictures are probably a very niche field, it is part of the larger humor market, and it brings in an audience from family oriented people (usually adults or parents). While I am not sure if this business will succeed, I wish the website founders the best of luck. I do know for sure that the people benefiting most from this squirrel vacation picture phenomenon is Banff National Park, and they no doubt could use the extra publicity boost for their business (which is actually run by the U.S. government in some form, go tax revenue).

Martial artist Mark Dacascos of Iron Chef fame is going to be part of the cast alongside former House Republican Majority Leader and politician Tom “The Hammer” Delay. Mark is chairman of the hit tv show “Iron Chef” and starred in “Crying Freeman” along with his wife Mrs. Julie Condra. Tom Delay on the other hand, was a politician in the republican party who had to step down due to some dicy legal issues. A short while ago, Dacascos has told his people that he will jump into the tv show, alongside with other famous people such as Donny Osmond, Aaron Carter, Kelly Osbourne, Michael Irvin, and Natalie Coughlin.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Dacascos was a fighter of martial arts throughout his early days and soon created fame and glory himself playing roles of the kung fu hero, similiar to David Caradine or The Karate Kid. His profile on IMDB shows that he has been featured, casted, and voice acted for several movies, tv shows, and video games. 4 years ago, he earned the job of chairman of Iron Chef, a culinary (cooking) competitive show that was originally created for Japanese audiences, adopted for American television. As is custom in every introduction, he is “the nephew” of the Japanese chairman, Takeshi Kaga. While Mr. Mark Dacascos “Iron Chef” knows how to cook, fry, cut, chop, and fly his way in and around the cooking room, he has yet to prove to the world that he can dance in a fashionable way, and of course how this relates to Tom Delay, well, we’ll just have to tune into Dancing With The Stars this fall, won’t we?

Hurricane Bill projected path is so far still forming but early guesses indicate that it may hit the U.S. Virgin Islands by the end of this week. With the world environment changing or out of whack, the hurricane season has started much later than usual. Hurricanes Ana, Guillermo, and Claudette are so far weakening or are in the process of just being a tropical storm. With this side of the world being pretty fortunate in terms of hurricanes, Hurricane Bill is the first serious storm that could damage homes and threaten lives, and we’ve been lucky to not have been hit by anything major the past couple of months. The good news is that it is still too early to tell where Bill is going to go but at minimum residents on the eastern coast of Canada and the United States have more than enough time to prepare. Hurricane Bill currently is clocking in speeds of up to 75ish miles per hour and even though it will likely gain in strength over the coming days, weather experts say there is a good chance that Bill will not hit land. May become a level 3 hurricane in 2 to 3 days and is currently 1140 miles east of Lesser Antilles.

Hurricane Bill’s projected path is west or northwest-ish but the storm is still pretty far from any major land and it could dissipate by the time it reaches land, if it does.

How does David Blaine levitate, you ask? Well the reality is he actually fly or hover off the ground but he can fool you into thinking that he is actually flying or levitating. While the measurements can range from lifting a foot 3 inches or a foot high off the ground, you have your camera operator or person film you from the other side such that the audience looking in at you from that angle shows you to be floating off the ground. It’s just an over-glorified tippy toe maneuver and it’s pretty hilarious and amazing at the same time how many people are fooled by it (I was fooled for sure). I’m always amazed how anyone can make money or put on a show that does all these tricks (pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or a coin/nickel/quarter from your ear or throw darts at a spinning wheel with a lady in the middle – wait that’s the circus…). Still, while I prefer David Copperfield, David Blaine is a fine magician or illusionist, though there was a South Park Episode that was making fun of David Blaine once, portraying him as a fraudster. It’s not that the David Copperfields and David Blaines of the world are con artists, they’re just putting on an entertaining show where what we see is not what is there. People pay good money to figure out how David Blaine levitates but it’s not real secret but who cares, it looks cool, fun, and intriguing, or at least the first few times anyway.

David Blaine’s tricks include: After Drinks, The Hotel, Lazy Magician, Mind Reader, Four Kingdoms, Lucky 13, Spelling Bee, Teleporting Card, Think of a Card, Vanishing Card, 49er Fools Gold, Bottoms Up, Cutting The Ace, Get Money, In My Pocket Psychic Hotline, Poker Trial, Quick Flip, Slap Happy, Not Your Card, and many others. Even though most of us will not be as famous as David Blaine and his levitating magic trick, you can imitate the same tricks he does by buying ebooks that will teach you the secret to performing these tricks and coin and hat magic tricks.

So I’m sure you’ve heard all the rumors that are swirling around, and Chima and CBS are attempting to save face by stating completely contradictory facts in regards to Big Brother’s Chima being evicted from the show. In Chima’s own defense, she released a statement to the public that says quote:

” Hi Thomas. Yes, I did in fact quit the show, although there are reports on EW from CBS to the contrary. Big Brother would like everyone to believe I was kicked off for not following the rules, but I went to the producers repeatedly over the past couple of days wanting to leave….wanting out of that house!

As crazy as that house is, the producers NEVER want the world to think or know that we houseguests DO LEAVE when it becomes futile to stay. I lost faith in the show & my ability to remain committed to this game. All of the remaining housemates know I wanted to leave and that is why any conversation concerning me is cut in the live feed because they don’t want America to hear the truth about my voluntary departure.

Do you really believe that I would be expelled for tossing my microphone when past houseguests have only been kicked off for violence & threats of violence? You know better, as do I.

It’s better that I left. I did what was best for me in this game and that was to leave. When I chose to play & play hard the power I did earn was completely usurped by a game piece never used before in this game and my HOH reign was rendered useless. I have no regrets. As cliche’ as it sounds, until the public is a part of a human pressure cooker, then the judgements should cease.

I find it interesting that my personal attacks on Russell have been highlighted, but his attacks on me pushed under a rug. Selective portrayals? I think so. Russell did terrorize the house, especially the women in the house. Why America constantly finds men attacking women okay, yet vilifies the woman defending herself, will always confound me. But what’s done is done, now BB fans can find a new woman to hate. I didn’t sign up for what I was exposed to & I left gladly. It was the principle of the matter, the $500,000 prize be damned. That’s all for now! Take Care…”

This was sourced from backseatcuddler . com /2009/ 08/15/ big-brother-11-chima-gives-exclusive-statement-on-her-sudden-eviction/

What do you all think? Was Chima indeed a racist who picked on the person from Lebanon and deserved to get kicked out or is Chima yet another victim of vicious political backstabbing for the ever so important goal of winning five hundred grand. Please tell us your thoughts about Big Brother’s Chima being evicted.

The famous quote “What S The Most You Ever Lost On A Coin Toss” comes from the Fargo creator’s movie, “No Country For Old Men”. The Coen brothers brought us great movies such as “The Big Lebowski”, “Raising Arizona”, and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”. In this horror film is a dramatization of random murder not only told in chilling detail from the original book, but in very graphical violence. While not majorly credited, Tommy Lee Jones plays a local law enforcement official (of course, he always plays the law). This scary horror thriller takes place in both Texas and Mexico, and the story backdrop is about a drug deal gone bad, where a lot of innocent people get murdered by the crazed drug dealer. If this sounds like fiction, I assure you it is not because this is exactly the kind of thing that is going on in real life at the Texas/Mexican border, and the reason why so many residents in Texas are arming themselves and fearful of drug dealers and drug raiders/czars/kingpins. To add to the fear of this movie, the crazed killer flips a coin (much like Harvey Dent from the Batman universe) and if you have “bad luck” you’re going to die.

This film is extremely gruesome and definitely something only strong hearted adults should watch, especially the scenes where the drug dealing serial killer asks his soon to be murdered victims “What S The Most You Ever Lost On A Coin Toss?” If you can stomach and see past the violence, you see that the real point of the view is about how we view and deal with crime, and the ever changing world that is evolving all around us. Because the world has changed so much, so too must our society. Some hold that sheriffs should arm themselves even more (escalation) because despite crime being overall lower today than it was decades ago, there are some very sick people out there and they are extremely armed, and extremely violent, which is what this movie is trying to show. But there are other implications as well to this. Residents have good reason to fear that arming our local police forces may look frighteningly similar to a military force, as if we’re all slaves of a police state. While we are safer and hopefully more secure, it does come at a potential price because when the police are strong, a Hitler may rise to take them over and use them against us. In our efforts to stop drug dealers or other murderers from outside our borders, how far are we willing to go to stop these people, and at what cost? If any of you see “No Country For Old Men”, I highly recommend keeping this in mind while you watch this film. After all, the most you ever lost on a coin toss could be your freedom (and life).

I guess people are still fascinated with Elvis Presley, and the the 1963 movie “It Happened At The World s Fair” is a popular choice amongst Elvis Presley enthusiasts. It is found only on VHS but a major company was able to finally be granted the rights or license to release this classic movie onto DVD format, where the visual quality, sound, and of course sales, will be much better than on the old VHS (as you know VHS players probably aren’t around anymore, even I don’t own any video VHS players). What sets this movie apart from many other Elvis movies is that it shows a humble Elvis (pretty different from other Elvis movies) that is being hooked up with a nurse by a young Chinese girl, and I think that is cute. We also see Elvis as a compassionate, loving man for a lost little girl, much like an adoptive father almost. And it wouldn’t be an awesome Elvis movie if the person playing Elvis didn’t sing his famous songs, such as “Relax”, “Beyond The Bend”, “Take Me To The Fair”, “They Remind Me Too Much Of You”, “How You Would Like To Be”, “Cotton Candy Land”, “A World Of Our Own”, “One Broken Heart For Sale”, “I’m Falling In Love Tonight”, and of course “Happy Ending”. This movie of course has a happy ending.

Another great thing about It Happened At The World s Fair, for women at least, is that the actor playing Elvis is quite handsome and good looking, which is about all I read from all the comments about this movie from all the women movie viewers. I guess being seen as the Elvis in any way has a magical effect on people. This movie takes place at the Seattle’s World Fair in 1964 at the famous landmark Space Needle. These days I don’t hear much about world’s fairs but they were pretty big events back then since communication and technology was still manageable and slow changing (unlike today with conventions for EVERYTHING up the wazoo). Unlike most other Elvis Presley movies, this film is much more family oriented and doesn’t show a lot of women (a very big stark contrast to the other Elvis Presley movies made during the 1960’s), which I’m guessing is why this film still endures even to this day. I suppose the feel good, family message of the movie is something positive everyone can relate to, and no doubt it would probably be a good movie to show children (a comment I read stated that he saw the movie when he was just 12). If you don’t own a copy of It Happened At The World s Fair, I highly recommend seeing it because it is a timeless classic that will probably be popular in another 35 years – Long Live The King, Baby!

Oh man the Gina Carano VS Cyborg fight I can’t wait! Cris looks like she’s ready to tear Gina’s head off. The fans are barely cheering Cris as I think everyone is cheering on Gina. But alas, the fight is over but man what a hell of a fight. That went right at the buzzard at 4:59 of round 1. Cris cyborg must have known that she had a disadvantage later on but the advantage early on via raw power which she took advantage of early on.

While I’m not exactly a commentator I can tell you from the get go that both women came out swinging fast and VERY hard. I am guessing they were going for a quick knockout or attempting to take out each other’s stamina to ascertain each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. I think where Gina Carano went wrong was that she spent too many times kicking Cris Cyborg as Cyborg was constantly grabbing Gina’s kicking lags and pounding Gina in retaliation. Cris must have also recognized that each blow she dealt to Gina Carano vs the blows she herself took was way more than the pain she received. Seeing this, she knew if she could beat Gina in an attrition fight, which is where tic for tat, you keep beating each other down 1 by 1 because you know the math and stamina in this case, is on your side if you take enough blows and more importantly, give as many blows, which in strikeforce is known as strikes, and strike Cris Cyborg did.

While I personally doubt this will affect Gina Carano’s career much, her popularity may go down just a little bit, but that is ok. The Gina Carano VS Cyborg fight will serve as a humble reminder to Gina that despite her great looks and huge popularity, she still has a lot to train herself for. Both these fighting women are now at only 1 loss each, which is a ridiculously insane winning record. I bet that the next time these two women fight, the rematch will be furious and hopefully much more longer lasting.

Damn I was hoping the Gina Carano VS Cyborg would go on for 3 or 5 round as I knew every round would have been a hard, bloody, fierce fight every second, as we all saw in round 1. I still can’t believe it went down to the buzzard literally, but like a great sport Gina graciously admitted defeat and cheered her opponent on as Cris Cyborg was crowned the victor in this short but incredible fight. I think what the Gina Carano VS Cyborg fight shows is Cris was clearly more well trained. Given more time, Carano would have been able to train herself into a strength machine like Cris Cyborg was but nope, not enough time for Gina Carano. However, Gina Carano is not only a fighter, but she is also a gracious learner and she is no doubt right now going back to the locker room with her team and father who was present live to watch her daughter fight, and strategizing right now with everybody about what she did wrong, what she has to do to improve, and then take the necessary actions for a rematch of the Gina Carano VS Cyborg fight that we saw tonight (what an incredible fight).

The biggest fight in the history of Mixed Martial Arts and Strikeforce is between two of the worlds hottest, most ferocious women in the world, Gina Carano VS Cyborg (first name Cris). As I write this I’m teething with anticipation as I watch it live online (search strikeforce justin tv online) or showtime. As usual they save the best fight for last as I just watched Werdum beat Fedor with a Guillotine choke hold. Now I’m watching a midweight fight but of course I’m just waiting to see the main event.

Man I hope the Gina Carano VS Cyborg is as awesome as this round 1 fight with Ishida and MeLendez, where it seemed like Meledez was the clear winner but Ishida was able to bring Meledez down with an attack at the legs. Personally I think the fight between Gina Carano and Cybord will last all 5 rounds because both know the stakes are very high and the profile and fame is going to be unprecedented. Apparently maintaining and holding ground at the center of the ring (the black hexagon in the middle of the ring) is very important. Oh man round 2 was great, Melendez just wore Ishida down and made his ear bleed and then kept pounding at him. I think Melendez is going for the wear Ishida down. Of course the strikes and fists seem like they don’t hurt but they actually do. These fighters hit very hard and very fast. The fact that you don’t hear sound is very critical because all the force of the kick or punch or charge is channeled through the target impact area, which in this case is the face or head or poor Ishada’s case his ears. And oh boy round 3 was totally a win for Melendez as he pounds the crap out of Ishada. What a great fight. Melendez beat the snot out of Ishada with 104 strikes versus Ishada’s 21 strikes, almost a 5 to 1 ratio.

What I like about this kind of fight (Gina Carano VS Cyborg) versus UFC is that this is more elegant and about skill and strategy than bruteforce like say UFC. I usually cannot withstand too much blood so I like the stricter rules about fighting. The chat channels are filled right now with furious chat about this fight and the predictions of how Gina will beat the crap out of Cyborg or how Cyborg will smash Gina into a bloody pulp. Right now I’m seeing Cris Cyborg for the first time and oh my god she is scary. She easily can lift a tank or pound it into dust. My guess is that Gina will try to go for either the quick wrestling victory or outlasting Cris. My money’s on Gina because she always uses the power of underestimation to her advantage but Cris doesn’t seem to buy it. Whatever the case may be I will be watching the Gina Carano VS Cyborg fight and will let you know how it goes with my thoughts, after the knockout of course.

Well, does anyone want a spot of Tea And Sympathy? On september 1st, music producer or sing and songwriter Billie Myers will hope the answer is a resounding “yes.” While he has no real incentive to work anymore, he still enjoys music and decided to release a new album to usher in the labor day weekend in the United States (though that may not be intentional). It’ll feature 10 songs though a few may be downloadable on Itunes.

What’s very interesting about Billie Myers is that she first came onto the scene as a female singer and songwriter (who sung her own songs) which was a trend or fad in the 1990’s. Towards the end of that decade, demand for music from such people dwindled, and Billie Myers had to find ways to get her music out. Many record companies and labels turned her down but luckily for her, there was the internet.

Tea And Sympathy will no doubt sell very well simply because Billie Myers promoted the hell out of her songs and album, before it even officially releases in a few weeks. On facebook and myspace, popular people and music hangouts for people, she gave out free pieces of her music from the album to loyal and devoted fans, who clearly want more of her music. This is an important fact that many aspiring singers and bands miss, that the best music alone doesn’t get you heard, but you also need to know how to market, connect with people, and give out music when appropriate. If Billie Myers is popular enough, she can stage live performances and concerts, which most certainly will generate big bucks for the musician.

While there are no estimates to how many albums Tea And Sympathy will sell, with the loyal fan base that Billie Myers has garnered, she will no doubt have a successful selling, perhaps one of her best ever in her entire music career. It’s interesting to note that she did all the promotion independent of the music labels, where if you tried to be in this industry, you’ll quickly learn that the big record labels usually rip you off and take most of your profits.

There might be a movie about Tea And Sympathy, or an actual cafe named Tea And Sympathy, but they are not really related to Billie Myers’s album. Oddly enough there doesn’t seem a copyright problem with this, but then again it will confuse users and customers for all of these establishments. Or perhaps they are all owned or controlled by Billie Myers herself? If so, that would be brilliant marketing and diversification on her part, she certainly isn’t the many starving artists out there that I’ve come to known, like the one I saw on the R line train a couple of years ago. He had a great voice and played the guitar very well but was homeless, but that musician is a story for another day.

Famous baseball player David Wright was hit in the head today and there sure is a big bump on his head where that ball smacked him. We’re all glad that he is going to be alright and at worse suffer a mild concussion. If I got hit in the head with a baseball at 90 miles per hour, I’d probably be in critical condition at the hospital, with severe head trauma and internal bleeding, not to mention a bunch of dead brain cells. I suppose that is why baseball players wear those metal blue helmets, or black if that is their preferred color of choice.

Now I know David Wright is not a ninja or a practitioner of the secret Japanese arts of Ninjutsu, but if he was, he would have been able to have avoided being hit in the head. The way of the ninja teaches you many skills and martial arts, including the ninja’s most prized skill, the art of dodging things, whether it’s baseballs, axes, swords, houses, bricks, gunfire, or rabid beanie baby toys. So if our mythical David Wright was nimble and agile like a ninja, he would’ve been able to dodge or contort his body in such a way that he would have been able to have his head narrowly miss the baseball. Also, do not forget ninjas are very very fast, lightning fast almost, just like the pitcher’s speed when throwing a curve or fast ball.

David Wright getting hit in the head reminds me of this one time when I went to my friend’s place. Now he is a gun fanatic, as many men are, and had a cool looking airsoft bb pistol, which looked almost identical to a USP tactical .45 caliber (counterstrike fans will remember that as simply the USP for CT’s). Anyway, he thought the gun was empty and he always loved pointing it at people’s head. This time the clip or magazine of bb’s was missing but he forgot to empty the chamber which still had one loaded bb pellet in the bullet holder and had it cocked. He pointed it point blank at another friend, Philip, and pulled the trigger, firing a point blank bb at poor Philip’s head. Needless to say Philip got very angry at warren just like David Wright no doubt got super angry at Matt Cain. It left a pretty big bump on Philip’s head and for the next 2 hours I heard Philip whining and angrily bitching about how anyone could be so careless about wielding bb pistols.

I bet this David Wright hit in head story will tell you how David and Philip feel when others accidentally hit them in the hit with objects, bbs, baseballs, glass shoes, books, you name it. But the best remedy for such a big bump on the head is to get some nice bucket of ice, preferably in a bag, and just place it on top of wherever the bump is. It might sting a little and the cold will send chills down your spine, but the swelling will be at a minimum and your bump won’t hurt so much, especially if you’re David Wright who got hit in the head with a big, fast baseball.