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blackberry tour review and my overall impressions regarding sprint. | july 16 at 5:53 pm
so finally the day had come for the blackberry tour to be released on both the sprint and verizon network. verizon was first to set an official release date which was july 12th, then shortly after there were rumors that sprint was set to release the device on july 20th i believe. i was a little tight at first, knowing that i'd have to wait a whole week knowing that anyone who had verizon and planned on getting the phone would have it first. anyway a few days after there was some rumors being spread then to make it official the wall street journal released a small notice claiming that sprint had reached a deal with research in motion basically promising a certain amount of sales to allow the device to be released on their network the very same day as verizon.

so anyway... it's july 11th around 11:30pm, knowing that sprint had released an official statement on twitter claiming that the device will be available via online and telesales at 12:00 midnight july 12th (sunday morning) i took a look at crackberry.com and noticed there was a blog post claiming that some of verizon and sprint's customers were already reporting that they were able to buy the phone a few minutes early so i gave it a shot. i was advised that it still wasn't 'available' in their system but to try calling back again tomorrow at 7am... 7am!? are you crazy i want the phone ordered now.. so with that i hung up. 12:01 am i looked at sprint.com on my blackberry using the bolt browser and i noticed that the device was available for purchase so i logged on to my girlfriends computer and put in my zip code, saw the phone picked the upgrade option, entered my number and got an error message basically saying that because you're on a sprint discounted rate plan you need to call a specific number or visit sprint.com/sero -- so i went to the other website, logged in and went to available devices and sure enough the blackberry tour wasn't listed. i thought at first it just maybe wasn't updated yet but then i did notice they were offering the orange curve 8330, so i started to have the feeling that they weren't going to allow everything plus customers to upgrade as they didn't allow us select customers to upgrade to the samsung instinct (now available) and currently the palm pre. so with that i started to being getting angry and very desperate contemplating even changing my rate plan back to the original plan which was not much more.. but still $10 more a month just to get the phone.. i called four different 800 numbers and by that time all the departments were closed, only thing i could do now is wait.. and pray i'll be able to not only order it tomorrow but pray that it wasn't on backorder because i didn't want to wait a week and a half for a phone i've been waiting for long enough. fast forward to sunday morning.. (was waking up early anyway for the beach but..) it's about 8:30 am i immediately call telesales and after waiting a short while finally spoke to a lady who sounded as if she was overseas.. she was going into stupid questions like what will i use the phone for and if i use the internet? are you serious, i already have a blackberry and i want the new one.. no more questions just order it.. so with that she tells me i'm on a discounted rate plan so she needs to forward me over to a different department.. (this is where i start to get nervous) i speak to a rep who asks me for the last four of my ssn to which i tell him, i'm not a sprint employee i just have a referred discounted plan.. so he says okay and asks how he can help i tell him i just wanted to upgrade to the blackberry tour.. he says okay processes the upgrade and i tell him to charge it to my credit card.. it some how gets declined twice.. mind you it has no pre-set spending limit and i read him off the information twice.. so i say fine just charge it to the account, he does and gives me an order number.. few minutes later i happen to check my bank account and notice there was two $1.00 pending charges from sprint so obviously it went through fine.. (still watching it, hoping that i don't some how get charged three times for one phone.)

so here i have an order number, it's sunday morning and just in time for the beach.. sweet. the next morning i check the order status and it mentions something about order pending manual review which had me a bit nervous because i wasn't sure if my plan was eligible for the phone being that it wasn't offered online and it might get cancelled.. i started reading forum threads about people who claim that after ordering the phone sunday morning it's showing back as cancelled. i looked the alternative way which was instead of sprint.com/myorder it was logging into your account and looking at the billing history which still said pending but showed a different type of order number. fast forward to monday i still see pending upon manual review at sprint.com/myorder but now the other way says cancelled.. i call sprint and they assure me the order wasn't cancelled.. a few hours goes by and i take a look again at the billing history and see a new order was placed so i take that order number and being looking it up at sprint.com/myorder the status now says pending process 2-5 days.. so all of monday passes.. tueday morning still no updates so i call sprint again to check the status and the rep tells me it's been delivered but sure enough the entire time the order status was never updated online.

i get home tuesday night open up the box, logon to sprint.com to activate it.. the site says it needs to be done via online chat.. i give the lady my phones information and she activates it no problem.

so far the phone is great. it's perfect, it does everything the blackberry curve 8330 did now only better. the screen is very sharp, speaker quality sounds good, the camera is over the top compared to the curve 8330. the phone is just simply the truth.

also i just sold my curve 8330 on ebay for $145, and i paid $320 for the tour before a $100 mail in rebate, so in the end final cost to me was $75 a very very very good price.

ive had sprint on and off for probably a total of four years (not including when i was with nextel which was before and then after they merged with sprint) and i really didn't have many issues with them for the most part even though i may have had called a few extra times that i felt i should of my problems were always resolved. there may have had been some issues with there order tracking this time around but i mean, i ordered the phone sunday and it came tuesday. the order was processed and shipped monday and recieved tuesday which is a very good turn around.

also i wll mention that i've had an issue activating my equipment online via sprint.com every single time and i mean every single time and not just for my own account but for my parents and for my friends a few time i never worked once out of maybe eight times which is crazy, this time around it was instantly directed to an online chat specialist who did the activation for me so no complaints there. (so far, and so long as nothing changed on my rate plan/discounts)

again, all in all this phone is the truth. best blackberry i've ever gotten my hands on to date. if you have verizon or sprint and you're eligible and/or able to pay the money i suggest you make that move asap.

p.s i'm the first dude anyone knows with the phone.. ye digggg? lol


some questions and random thoughts for the lakers, magic and around the league | june 16 at 1:06 pm
most likely my very last nba article for the season, again written for the squeeze.

andrew bynum was the one to blame during the 08 finals when the lakers lost to the celtics. this season bynum averaged 17.4 minutes a game and only 6.3 ppg and 3.7 reb. the potential for him to put the lakers into a bracket unmatched with any team in the league is there, all we can do now is wait to see what happens next year. cleveland is looking to make a trade for shaquille o’neal to team up with ilgauskas to get their own version of the ‘twin-tower’ effect, and kevin garnett coming back healthy to the previous champion and the lakers arch-enemy boston celtics. two-peat anybody?

the season has officially ended and hedo is already talking business. hedo's agent has already said that hedo will be opting out this up-coming season. the 30 year old is in the final year of a six year contract and is expected to make 7.36 million. hedo is probably looking for about a five year contract at about 12 million per year i would assume.

dwight howard needs to work on his offensive post game, this man has less moves than a geek on the dance floor. patrick ewing here is where you come in, they extended your contract.. now do something with it. with his team facing elimination the rock of the team was limited to 11 points and 10 rebounds. not acceptable.

marcin gortat is a free agent as well for the magic. expect him to get overpaid. compliments go to him for not bending over for reebok after they told him to cover up that jordan tattoo on his leg. more polska ppower to him.

"and he wanted us to believe that he didn't want to win one without shaq? he never jumped that high when they won the last three times." -- charles barkley

what team is going to offer lamar odom and trevor ariza top contracts? will the lakers be able to match?

does anyone remember what kevin garnett said just not too long ago. he personally guaranteed celtic championships in 2010 and 2011. how does kobe, and the rest of the league feel about that?

i just read that some crazed fans in la messed up a cop car after celebrating their championship win. unfortunatly shaq isn't there to pay for it like last time.. but will kobe?

after watching kobe win the championship lebron immediatly went awol and we haven't heard from him since.

dwight's on the nba live cover, kobe's on the 2k10 series. 'nuff said for anyone who actually plays basketball video games.. for those who don't the 2k series is much better and has been for quite a while so it's only right to have the best player in the league and mvp of the finals on their cover.... dwight's team is 2nd best.. and so is the game.

how upset is alston for sitting in the fourth in game 5's elimination game.. better yet how mad is anthony johnson for not even playing one minute of the series?

sasha vujacic didn't make one shot this entire series, it's safe to say we don't need him anymore.



lakers magic wrap-up | june 16 at 1:03 pm
written exclusively for the squeeze.

it took seven years for kobe bryant to win his fourth championship and first without ex-teammate shaquille o’neal. phil jackson won his tenth championship to finally surpass red as the ‘coachest with the mostest’. whoever said kobe would never win a ring without shaquille you were wrong. it was a selfish thing to say because everyone who knows basketball knows it takes a team to win a championship not just one person. phil jackson the man now has ten rings. you can say what you want about phil jackson and how each of the teams he’s won championships with has had great players and he’s only coached teams with great players. stan van gundy said it best the game five post game; stan said something along the lines of phil being the all time best coach. “the guy has won 51 playoff series now… check your record book and see how many coaches have even won 50 playoff games. it’s fewer than 20, and the guy has won 51 playoff series. it’s incomprehensible. you look at the guy’s record and it’s undeniable.” and just as a side note i believe he’s 43-0 when winning the first game of a playoff series. phil jackson is a god amongst men in the basketball world.

my hat goes off to the orlando magic for being able to overcome their underdog status through most out the playoffs, to turn heads and make most people believers. this is a very up and coming team and i look forward to watching them in the future. on a side note i believe dwight’s post game interview after game 5 was very solid and this coming after lebron went m.i.a after their ‘surprising’ defeat my compliments go again to dwight for being truly a good sport.

congratulations to the los angeles lakers for bringing home their fifteenth title and fourth in the last decade. this is without a doubt the best nba franchise in the last ten years and through thick and thin overcoming unnecessary controversy, battling egos, tough losses to the pistons and celtics in 2004 and 2008 respectively they were able to overcome defeat and bounce back and make it to the finals six times in ten years.

i’ll break down the series with something short and sweet about each game.

starting off with game one; which was an absolute blowout. the lakers came out at set the tone defeating the inexperienced orlando magic 100-75. what you were able to see in this game was that the lakers were hungry. kobe was not going to be denied a fourth ring and dropped 40 points along with 8 rebounds and 8 assists. orando’s highest scorer that night was mickeal pietrus who actually came off the bench with 14. orlando shot just under 30% that game and for a team who relies on their jump shot more than anything you already know that’s a setup for failure.

game two was a little different, a lot closer to say the least. it took a rookie to miss a failed ‘ally-oops’ as i say to take it into overtime instead of the magic tying the series at one a piece. i believe that this is where experience came into play once again, not to mention the home court advantage and the fact that the lakers had the best closer in sports kobe bryant. lakers went on to win in overtime fashion 101-96. kobe scored 29 along with 8 assists and pau gasol had a great game with 24 points and 10 rebounds. on the other side rashard lewis had his best game of the series scoring 34 points and going 6-12 behind the arch.
game three; lakers up 2-0 at this point and this would be the first home game for the magic of this series not to mention i believe the very first finals home game in franchise history. no better time to win their first game of the series and is exactly what happened. the orlando magic shot an astounding 75% at the half from the field and set an nba record for any half in the finals. the magic ended the game shooting around 62% for the game and edged a victory winning 108-104. believe it or not even shooting 62% for the game they still were only able to win by four points and at one point with a little more than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter they were only up two points at which point a mix up between gasol and bryant turned over the ball, pietrus was able to gather it up and hit two free throws opening the game up, extending the lead by four with not much time to go.

game four; derek fisher comes up big again. i can’t even count how many times this little guy has made the impossible actually happen. fisher forced overtime with a 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left in regulation and then drilled another with 31.3 seconds remaining in overtime to go as the lakers were able to overcome again in overtime fashion extending their series lead 3-1. kobe poured in 32 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists basically cementing his mvp finals award once the lakers ends the series wither it was in game 5, 6 or 7 at this point. orlando played huge in the first two quarters and most basketball fans thought this series was going 2-2, but then finally in the third quarter the dynamic duo of trevor ariza and andrew bynum!! that’s right! you heard me correct was able to score about 20 points total, out scoring the magic 30-14 in the third eventually tying the game in the fourth and then destroying the magic 12-4 in overtime.

game five; i actually said lakers in 5 all series long from the very beginning. i gave the magic the benefit of the doubt and figured that they’d come up with the hot hand which no matter what la did still wouldn’t be able to stop them and it happened in game 3. the magic had the edge in the first quarter leading by two but the game opened up in the second where la was able to outscore the magic by 12 dropping 30 points in the second quarter and really putting the dagger in this series. i felt this way because the magic were young, inexperienced down 3-1 in the series knowing that if they win they’ll still have to win two more in los angeles none the less and pretty much just gave up all together.

shout outs go to kobe bryant for winning his fourth ring and first without shaquille. trevor ariza you are a great player, hope to see you back next season in the purple and gold. pau gasol both you and kobe were the true key to the lakers this season you were able to overcome and improve on your game yet again and i look forward to watching you next season as well. andrew bynum you disgusted me pretty much all through the series where you fouled more than you scored; however i do realize you were matching up against dwight so you get a temporary pass because you guys won it in the end anyway. derek fisher you are the ‘rudy’ for basketball, small in size, not the fastest but you have experience, your game is mature and you’re a true leader. you kept with your game and your shot and everyone believed and trusted in you. you’re just as big of reason that the lakers won this championship as any other. lamar odom you wanted that title just as much as kobe and you proved it pretty much all through out the playoffs and specially this series. creating plays to get to the basket not to mention some key three pointers that put you over the top. lamar you played good enough for both you and bynum. luke walton youre game was well played this series, you took a limited amount of shots but none of them had me biting my nails and screaming at the tv asking “why in the world did you just take that f$%#$% shot?!?!” congratulations. jordan farmar i can’t say much but the limited amount of time that you did play was played well, a great role player and i can tell that you’re game is improving. sasha vujacic… lol man i bust on you so much on twitter but you still haven’t responded. you didn’t hit not one shot all series. please get to the gym this summer, or figure something out because i’m pretty sure the lakers will be looking for a backup sg this up coming draft.

once again i got bragging rights for the summer.



are you serious teleflora? | june 9 at 6:50 pm UPDATED on june 10 at 12:19 pm and 1:35 PM
alright so let's be clear, i generally don't order flowers for my girlfriend or anyone for that matter just randomly not to mention for special occasions. i'm not a true fan of flowers and i feel like their overrated and entirely too expensive for something that dies in less than a week. however, with that being said being the gentleman that i am i actually decided to order some flowers for my girlfriend and boy did i get fucked. the flowers were no where near what i expected and here is the email i just sent the company:

from glenn reno
to service@teleflora.com
date tue, jun 9, 2009 at 6:49 pm
subject extremely disappointed
mailed-by gmail.com

to whom it may concern,

i recently decided to purchase some flowers randomly for my girlfriend and was looking for same day delivery. i generally purchase either locally or through proflowers.com and with proflowers i've never had any issues other than that they come in a box and require some time to be setup so i decided to go a different route. i didn't have the time to go somewhere locally so i began to search online for same day florists in the area which i came upon your
website.

the quality of the flowers and the vase along with the style do not meet any of my expectations let alone the price that i had paid. i've included pictures of how the flowers were advertised and how they were received.

now granted i understand that the product advertised was most likely the 'premium' and the one that i had ordered was only the 'standard' but for the difference to be that much it's just simply not fair.

the pink colored rectangle vase is what made me choose this arrangement to begin with, and what did my girlfriend get? some type of no-frills transparent circle vase, the ribbon was a lot smaller and not even of the same quality, there were red roses in an arrangement that advertised as what should of been pink and the green leaves that were used to fill the gap wasn't even from the same plant as in the advertised picture it looked more like a weed than an actual plant.

this is seriously an embarrassment both on your behalf as well as mine. surely i can understand a minor substitution as it was mentioned on your website but for literally everything to be substituted except for the daisy's why even bother sell this product? i should have had received an email letting me know that these items are not available at the location who took the order and either the job needed to be forwarded to somebody else or cancelled entirely.

i also asked my girlfriend to estimate how much roughly i paid in total including shipping and tax and she said $25-30 dollars i didn't want to tell her that i paid $47.95 and that was with a $5.99 discount.

thank you for your time,

glenn

and here is the picture for the advertised product, and the actual. i just sent the email out just now, so let's see what they respond back with.. i'll keep you up to date.

first update - june 10 12:19 pm:
they responded back last night just a few hours later.

dear glenn reno,

thank you for contacting teleflora. please accept our apology for the
poor quality of the arrangement delivered.

i have reviewed your order and the matter has been discussed with the
florist. words cannot express our regret for your dissatisfaction. to
convey our apologies, we would be happy to have the arrangement picked
up and redelivered by a different florist or issue a 30% credit to your
credit card.

please advise if you feel this is an acceptable resolution.

if you have any further questions or concerns, please don?t hesitate to
email us at this address or contact us via phone at 800-835-3356.

we look forward to hearing from you.

sincerely
lisa
teleflora

--

so what do you think i did? had the arrangement exchanged? or took the 30% well again being the gentleman i am i left it up to my girlfriend to decide. in all honesty i wanted to have it exchanged and re-done by somebody else because no way in hell did it live up to my expectation. however the damage had already been done; as i always say you only get one chance at a first impression and in any event my girlfriend just wanted to keep what she had already gotten. so i took the 30% discount. what's good bar moneyyyyyyyy. i'll be getting a $14.38 credit.

second update - june 10 1:35 pm
just had a brief conversation with @teleflora on twitter. they read my blog entry and i received a second call back shortly after accepting the 30% discount, turns out the truly understood where i was coming from and how upset i was about what was received. i'll be getting a full credit after all. thank you again. it's very nice to see that a company such as teleflora stands completely by their products. i will defiantly consider them again the next time i look to purchase flowers. thank you.



the hangover review | june 9 at 1:26 pm
movie review written for the squeeze. check it out....

warning this review includes spoliers.

forget old school, forget wedding crashers, and forget super bad forget all of that! the hangover is the ultimate party/comedy movie of this decade! i only wish that i was able to see this movie before my vegas trip rather after because now i feel sorry for myself. these guys did more in one night than i did a week in vegas… i’m so ashamed of myself it’s leaving me with only two options, book vegas in october, or die. i think i might crawl into a ball and hibernate until october because i don’t deserve to live anymore.

four guys about to enter upon quite possibly the best weekend of their lives; doug (justin bartha) who is the recently engaged soon to be married bachelor who has no idea what to expect but very open to having a good time. stu (ed helms) who is the softy of the group tries to show off to everyone he meets as if he’s a doctor when in all reality is only a dentist. c’mon... dentists aren’t doctor’s lol. this dude is so whipped it’s not even funny, he had to lie to his long time girlfriend that he wasn’t going to taste wine rather than telling her the truth about going to vegas for the night with his three friends. next we have phil (bradly cooper) this is the good looking, easy going, and always positive glue of the group without this guy they all would have probably folded under the pressure. last but defiantly not least was doug’s future brother-in-law and who i’ve dubbed the biggest bawse that you seen thus far alan (zack galifianakis) this man is a fucking genius if i had this guy’s number he’d be getting an invited every single time i went out for a drink.

what do you call destroying your father-in-law’s mercedes, stealing a cop car, getting married to a stripper you met the very same day, pulling your own tooth out on a bet, kidnapping a tiny flamboyant chinese man (who’s in the mafia and which by the way was fucking hilarious!) who you forgot about in your trunk not to mention stripped completely naked, losing your best friend somewhere during the night, to then wake up realizing that not only was your luxury suite completely destroyed but there’s a damn tiger in your bathroom and you just found a baby crying in a closet and you can’t remember shit about how it happened due to alan lacing the jager shots to begin the night in vegas with roofies which he originally was lead to believe was ecstasy to enjoy the night much more.

these four guys called it a bachelors party. if this is anything like what i have to look forward to when i get married i think i might be taking the plunge sooner rather than later and i’ll defiantly be including some roofies! haha..

this movie was over the top, but be prepared for potentially offensive material, some child molestation + masturbation (yes together at the same time lol), throwing around a used condom (aka snake skin.. lol) and some very dark humor that only a person with a good sense of humor can enjoy. the ending credits are what i call the cherry on the top where you finally get to see some pictures of what actually happens during the night. they literally show alan’s penis in some girls mouth. if that’s what we got in the movie release i can’t wait for the unrated dvd release.

this movie gets an a- only because i wish there was more female nudity. instant classic.

my only question is who’s coming with me to vegas in october? oh and if anyone has the contact information for the wedding band at the end.. let me know.. i need to book him for my next event.



brett favre comeback? | june 8 at 8:10 pm
brett favre was bred for football, had an arm unmatched in the league for many years and the heart and desire to never give up. it was a recipe for success which brett had plenty of during his 18 year career in the nfl.

now the question is will he come out of retirement to play for the minnesota vikings. brad childress and the vikings needs their answer this week from the aging 39 year old pro-bowl quarterback and you really begin to wonder how much of a chance there really is for him to come back and to play for a team just a year ago put just about ever thing they could into the deal with the jets to prevent him from playing with. you have got to believe even at the age of 39 there has to be something left in that cannon-arm of his but is it really enough to carry the vikings deep into the playoffs? i’m a true fan of football and have always respected and held brett favre in high regard and without a doubt would i love to see this man come out onto the field just for one more season and to see what he’s still capable of.

we’ve saw what brett favre even in the later years of his nfl career is capable of specially most recently with his stint with the new york jets. the jets went 8-3 in the first 11 games of the season brett’s arm was holding up and his qb rating was somewhere in the high 90’s with 18 touchdowns and a favre like 12 interceptions, then the team lost 5 out of 6 favre’s qb rating was around 55 and he threw only 4 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and most fans could only blame it on one thing and that was brett’s age or was it his shoulder? brett without a doubt could have seriously aggravated his throwing shoulder to make him go from all-pro to all-dud overnight.

brett’s now fresh off and recovering from a late may shoulder surgery and has been in some heavy discussions returning back to the nfl with the vikings arm’s spread welcoming him open handily maybe even praying for a one year return because tavaris jackson just isn’t cutting it.

so what do you think? will brett come back for one more season to play with the vikings? if so, how well we he do both on an individual level and how well will the vikings do a team with their upgraded quarterback? better yet how will the packers feel?



national words association (n.w.a) | june 8 at 12:41 pm
my third article for the squeeze. enjoy.

i’m just going to get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ as some would say. you obviously don’t want a post game review that’d be like telling you yesterday’s weather. we already know who won. lakers 101-96 in overtime fashion. compliments go to hedo for that behind the back block on kobe bryant, if they would of somehow won that game with the .6 left, kobe would have had gotten his face posted on the internet with either the words “fail” or “own3d” and my blackberry messenger status would be listed as ‘unavailable’ and most likely this article wouldn’t have had even been written.

but that didn’t actually happen; the magic lost yet again and are now down 0-2 to the god-like los angeles lakers, but you know that already as well. this is a best of seven series, this is basketball and we have a championship at steak anything is possible. the miami heat lost the first two games in dallas two years back and then didn’t win another after loosing to the heat 4-2, but out of 30 teams to take a 2-0 finals lead, 27 have won the championship, not to mention since moving to the two-three-two format, 11 of the 12 teams to win the first two games at home have won the series. phil jackson is 43-0 when winning the first game in a playoff series and 19-0 with the lakers. i’ll throw in that the lakers have the best basketball player in the league and probably the best coach the league has ever seen and you start to begin to think that it was really over before it started.

instead of actually going into a review of the game as i said earlier i wouldn’t do i’m actually going to do something a little different. i’m going to play a little word association game with the players in regard to how i think they’ve been playing so far in the last two games.

rafer alston – struggling severly
courtney lee – not even an option at this point
hedo turkoglu – playing just as good as he’s played all season (but it’s the finals.. time to step it up)
rashard lewis – scary. stepped his game up majorly in game 2; only reason the magic we’re able to keep it close.
dwight howard – quietly getting his numbers, but still not making a difference he needs to make in the game.
mickael pietrus - pretty good game one, but nothing from him in game two.
marcis gortat – decent big body off the bench.
jameer nelson – it’s a nice showing that he wants to play but he may be doing his team worse rather than good.
anthony johnson – an angry man. (no playing time)
j.j. redick – please keep him in the game for the lakers sake.

trevor ariza – the dark knight, this man steals candy from babies.
pau gasol – a genius, plays with you mentally rather than physically.
andrew bynum – overpaid this guy is a foul machine.. getting me angry just writing this
kobe bryant – god.
derek fisher – a battle proven warrior with great experience.
lamar odom – a bawse in game two, making up for the lack of bynum this year. pay him his money.
luke walton – been taking smart shots. good size he fits the lakers bench well.
jordan farmar – struggling this series.
shannon brown – not really a factor so far.
sasha vujacic – not really a factor right now either.


enjoy game three.



the title of this article is... no title | june 4 at 2:30 pm
i as a side note i actually wrote this article again for the squeeze, you can check out brandon's blog where he swag splashed the article and added some colorful commentary and threw in some pictures for those who don't actually read.

the title of this article is… no title by glenn reno (http://www.glennreno.com/)

warning: this is actually a rant mixed with stats, truth and option.
to brandon: go ahead and add all the pictures and colorful commentary you’d like.

game one is set in stone and the basketball god’s have spoken.
ladies and gentlemen welcome to lakers basketball.

when the lakers play ‘laker basketball’ there is no team in the league who plays better ball for 48 minutes. wither or not you want to criticize the way the lakers have played basketball during the playoffs they’ve always seem to the give the impression that they can turn it on and off at any given time from getting blown out in houston by a team nobody expected to give the lakers such a hard time taking the god-like team to a full seven games to then loose by 19 in the deciding game of the series.

it’s a switch, sort of like something from that movie with sylvester stallone in ‘over the top’ you know when he turns his hat backwards he’s unbeatable… yeah exactly like that.

alright so it’s only one game maybe i’m getting ahead of myself but to the fans who enjoy numbers the lakers under phil jackson’s supervision (yes.. pun intended) are 19-0 when winning the first game of a series and mr. phil jackson himself is 43-0 career when winning the first game of a playoff series. the lakers out rebounded the magic by 14 which as a lot of people have clearly said is the best way to win a series.

kobe bryant is a machine. an executioner as one might say (brandon mcleod) because i’ve been using articles and metaphors all article… i’m in a metaphorical mood… kobe is like a train.. the fastest train you’ve ever seen before you can stand in front of it, you can close your eyes, your can put plugs in your ears to lower the noise but you’ll still hear it, you’ll still feel it and you still can’t stop it and if you haven’t realized by now you saw it your self in the 3rd quarter. we’re all witnesses no longer to lebron but to kobe bryant as it always should have had been. there has been countless comparisons to kobe and lebron this entire playoff run but now that lebron is out of the playoffs most people are pushing the topic that the lakers have a better squad but how is that possible the the cav’s had a better season? (maybe this answer could be that the lakers have a switch as i mentioned earlier?)

let’s backtrack to the orlando magic vs cleveland cavaliers series there were three games decided by two points or less and cleveland only won one of those games? how the hell is that possible if lebron james is the best player in basketball? put kobe bryant in that position and it would have been the cav’s in the finals not the magic. simple as that. cavs win game 1, 2, loose three in orlando, win game four and their already up 3-1 with the series heading back to cleveland for game 5… how do you blow that when you have the best player in the league???!!??!!

omg i’m stressed out. i’ll see you game two on sunday. enjoy.



los angeles lakers vs orlando magic positional breakdown | june 3 at 3:00 pm
this is actually an article i wrote for my friend Brandon over at the squeeze, check his blog out for some good sports articles from a true fan rather than who works for the love of the game, not the actual check.

written exclusively for the squeeze in conjunction with glennreno.com

los angeles lakers vs orlando magic : a positional breakdown for the 2009 nba finals
by: glenn reno


the nba finals are here, and there is no better time to talk about some of the key matchups between the two teams. it’s been joked many times before that the nba is just a one man sport where one player can make the difference between the team winning or loosing and in a sense it’s absolutely right. don’t get me wrong you need a solid 1-2 punch and a deep bench to get your self thru the playoffs but to make sure you come out ahead in a best of 7 series you need to have a difference maker, a player who is so clutch even if you’re up 10 at the start of the 4th you’re still nervous and impatiently waiting for the next 12 minutes to finish up, or if you’re on the other side of the ball down 10 in the 4th quarter with plenty of time remaining you’re not even anxious more so calm than anything.

starting off with the point guard position, as always the lakers biggest weakness has been quick point guards but keep in mind has never been the difference maker between a series won or lost. looking back on the regular season the magic are 2-0 vs the lakers, and jameer nelson was the leading scorer in both games. now nelson has been out for quite some time now but there have been rumors that nelson plans to suit up and play some minutes but as brandon has said and i believe it’s more of a confidence boost for the magic rather than a true threat to the lakers. rafer alston who in my opinion has been the biggest injury replacement in the league and a savior to the magic’s season can shoot the ball a bit better than fisher and defiantly has the speed advantage but fisher has an unlimited amount of experience and leadership and has the determination to never quit. anthony johnson is third string at best and you throw in shannon brown and jordan farmar and you have to give the lakers the edge at the point guard position.

point guard: lakers 1 – magic 0

at the shooting guard position there really isn’t a comparison. i’d be lying if i said there was kobe bryant is the absolute best player in the nba currently and if you disagree then you don’t know basketball. you’re team could be up 10 at the start of the 4th quarter and you’re still sweating the seconds out impatiently hoping that some way some how it doesn’t get closer and come down to a last second shot and the ball is in kobe’s hands. the guy is the mariano rivera (in his prime) of basketball. courtney lee and mickael pietrus will have their shot at kobe but it’ll be nothing but a speed bump to mr. kobe, throw in j.j. redick and that’s nothing but a tiny pot hole for kobe’s 18 wheeler (no homo). pietrus is a solid defender and between the two they pretty much split the position 50/50. i believe pietrus is a better defender and shooter but lee is a better free throw shooter. coming off the bench the lakers have vujacic due to a three point guard rotation, sasha plays a limited amount of time because kobe is generally in for the majority of the game he’s came up big a few times but as long as he plays smart he’s doing his job.

shooting guard: lakers 2 – magic 0

the forward position is there things start to look promising for the magic. hedo turkoglu and rashard lewis are tall players who play perimeter basketball, this will be a key matchup where lamar odom will need to step up his defensive game and stick around outside rather than midrange or in the paint and trevor ariaza will have to continue to make amazing plays on the defensive end to make up for the shots hedo and rashard are bound to make. rashard lewis is the best three point shooter in the game until the fourth quarter comes around and kobe just seems to swag splash on everyone. pau gasol will be a major player in this series because he tends to play low in the post on offense and that’s where he scores most of his points, and hedo and rashard are opposites.

forwards: if hedo and rashard can continue to drain three’s like crazy it goes to the magic, otherwise it’s lakers all day. lakers have too much depth in these two positions between gasol, odom, ariaza and walton. lakers 2.5 – magic 1.5

the center position for the lakers is some what questionable, the only true center they have on the team is andrew bynum, some say he was the key reason the lakers lost the finals last year vs the celtics. i believe this as well, i would of liked to have had bynum in last years series vs the celtics and seen what he would of done vs big baby and perkins who seemed to somehow score at will every time the game got close. dwight howard has without the advantage at the center position, this man is the best center in the league and he does his job well, however this will be the first time howard is tested in the playoffs. if bynum and gasol are together in the paint they’ll have the advantage but this isn’t going to happen all the time and the lakers can’t let it because a double team on howard means that hedo or rashard are probably going to be open. this is going to be a big difference maker and a great matchup to watch, will it be the matchup that decides the series? not really sure but i can at least say it’ll play a big part.

center: magic 2.5 – lakers 2.5

the lakers have the better bench with or without jameer nelson playing for the magic, at any given time they have solid backups at every position plus the lakers have been here before, they have some season vets, and the majority of the team already knows what it feels like to loose a championship. throw phil jackson in the mix who will absolutely son stan van gundy and you have a recipe for a championship.

bench / coaching: lakers 4.0 – magic 2.5

final comments:

kobe will have his championship pinky ring, lebron james will have had gone m.i.a (we’ve already seen it last week when they lost game 6) and shaq will consider coming back for la (i wish)



vegas | june 01 at 4:31 pm
just spent close to a week in las vegas with my girlfriend and two other friends of hers. already plan on making it an annual event. some of the highlights of my vacation was finally getting a chance to see the hoover dam, winning $160 on game 5 and 6 of the lakers-nuggets series, finding a club with recession prices ($100 for a bottle of rum) and ending the trip at club pure in the caesers palace which during the time that i was there played some of the best house music i've heard in a while. i'll try to put some pictures on flickr possibly tonight.



foreclosures in miami | april 22 at 5:10 pm
i i just read an article from the economix blog at the ny times, it was written by david leonhardt and what he went on to say was that the real-estate cycle is still way off, for those of you who thought house prices are on their way up think again. take a look at the average winning bid for a home in miami over the last few months:

auction month average winning bid
dec. 2007 $209,000
april 2008 $180,000
july, 2008 $162,000
sept. 2008 $145,000
dec. 2008 $114,000
feb. 2009 $105,000
april 2009 $94,000

the average fucking price of a house in foreclosure is $94,000!!!! i want a house in miami! holy shit!



found some cool facts about my name | april 22 at 2:32 pm
33% of the letters are vowels. out of one million first and last names we looked at, 60.6% have a higher vowel make-up.
in ascii binary my name would be: 01000111 01101100 01100101 01101110 01101110 00100000 01010010 01100101 01101110 01101111
in pig latin: ennglay enoray
my name's origin is scottish, it's meaning: a secluded, wooded valley
my personal power animal is the european red squirrel (no idea what that means)
my 'numerology' number is '5' which means that i'm adventurous, mercurial, and sensual. i seek growth through adventure and different life experiences. although i'm a critical thinker, i can sometimes over-ponder an issue.

last but not least, according to the u.s census bureau, 0.168% of us residents have the first name 'glenn' and 0.0037% have the surname 'reno'. the u.s has around 300 million residents, so they guesstimate there are 19 americans who go by the name 'glenn reno'

check your own name out at http://www.isthisyour.name/



the future can't come soon enough | april 22 at 11:18 am

check out the rest of the pictures over here.



facebook 1.5 finally available for the blackberry | april 21 at 6:23 pm
it's been heaviliy talked about for the past four to five months, with leaked versions for both the 8900 and blackberry bold but finally it's out and available to the public for all blackberry devices (i assume running o/s 4.5 or later)

direct from blackberry.com:

"Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v 1.5 has officially launched. Visit mobile.blackberry.com from your BlackBerry Browser or www.blackberry.com/go/facebook from your desktop. Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones will be available on BlackBerry App World beginning tomorrow.

The application now allows users to access and manage their Facebook contacts list and integrate it with their BlackBerry address book. Callers from a users Facebook address book will appear with their profile picture as the caller ID and birthdays and events will also be integrated automatically into users' BlackBerry calendars.

Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5, is now available to a greater number of users thanks to additional support for the following languages: French, Italian German Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Czech, Traditional/Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Facebook messages and status updates will also be integrated with your BlackBerry device, with conversations appearing as an IM thread in the application and appearing in your BlackBerry message list. Users will also be able to search Facebook contacts and information using the BlackBerry’s onboard search facility."

i've only been using the application for the past few minutes but from what i've seen so far it's clearly a hell of a lot better.



if you only watch one things today.. watch this! | april 20 at 4:07 pm




this is official. | april 20 at 1:17 pm

check it out for yourself @ http://www.thegreenguide.com/infinite-photograph



top five favorite nba games | april 17 at 11:39 am
#1. blazers vs lakers game 7 2000 / western conference finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY06eaFaplw
on the verge of loosing three games in a row, the lakers down 15 in the forth quarter vs the blazers came back to win in what will go down as my favorite all time game.

#2. lakers vs kings game 7 2002 / western conference finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp19op8uK1E&feature=related
by far the best seven game series i’ve seen to date ended in a game winning three point shot by robert horry in overtime. instant classic.

#3. lakers vs spurs game 5 2004 / western conference semi-finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmo4uFggxbE
derek fisher’s game winning shot with 0.4 seconds left on the clock, went on to put the lakers up 3-2, and then eventually close out the series the next game.

#4. pacers vs lakers game 4 / nba finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Lp5aQq4zI
shaq who had basically done whatever he wanted the entire series, was in foul trouble towards the end of the game and eventually fouled out. the game went into overtime and this is where kobe bryant had stepped up to the plate, added 8 points in overtime to give the lakers a 120-118 win, putting them up 3-1 in the series.

#5. Bulls vs jazz game 5 / nba finals aka “the flu game”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4BswHnf0xM
Jordan put up 38 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block in 44 minutes of playing time, coming near to passing out had to be carried off the court by fellow teammate scottie pippen. this game actually should be my third favorite.. but i’m a laker fan lol.



new kanye west nba playoff promo | april 16 at 11:35 am
just got word that garnett might be out the entire playoffs... and while i do not wish injury upon anyone and hope that he comes back better than ever (next season) the fact of the matter is.. its the lakers season this year...



fix one problem by taking medicine, gain three more... | april 16 at 11:10 am
i thought this article was funny. it's amazing i mean only in today's age can you cure an illness or at least "control" an outbreak by taking medicine, but at the same time the side effects are just as bad if not worse than the actual problem you suffer from. take a look over at http://consumerist.com/5213814/9-legal-drugs-with-extremely-disturbing-side-effects and you'll see exactly what i mean if you don't already know.


retail sales down 1.1% for march | april 14 at 4:50 pm
u.s retail sales are down unexpectedly in the month of march, the first time in three months. declines in car dealerships, to electronic stores and restaurants, the only ones who saw increases were pharmacies and grocery stores (the necessities) said the commerce department in washington. the truth is job losses are too great for the consumer to spring back strongly. march alone reported that a total of 663,000 jobs were lost, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest level in 25 years. many economists believe that the recession could end by the fall of this year but still expecting unemployment will continue to rise until this time next year possibly as high as 10 percent.

i was looking at abercrombie & fitch, my favorite clothing company currently and how their profits were effected in the last month of march as well as how they compare to similar companies:
march 2009 developments:
- total company net sales decreased by 29%
- total company direct-to consumer net sales decreased by 23%
- total company comparable store sales decreased by 34%
- abercrombie & fitch comparable store sales decreased by 32%
- abercrombie comparable store sales decreased by 37%
- hollister co. comparable store sales decreased by 35%
- ruehl comparable store decreased by 39%

can we say discounts anyone? anyone who wears abercrombie or knows their product knows that they never have discounts, the only thing they discount is the items left over at the end of the season or awkward styles like xxs, or xxxl.. sizes the average person will not fit into. finally however starting last month they've been offering a pretty nice discount.. just about two weeks ago i bought two pairs of jeans, two button ups and a hoody jacket for under $175, which is completely unheard of. i for one have been enjoying the sales, and taking advantage of it while i can. how about you?


some random real estate that looks tempting | april 13 at 6:00 pm
with foreclosures at the highest rate of all time and the economy struggling mortgages are now at an all time low and houses are being sold at prices two to three times less than what you could of paid for a house just a few years back. with around 15 to 20% as a down payment, and a mortgage with a fixed rate of just under 5% over 30 years that house that was once a dream can now be a reality. take a look at a few houses that look like good buys in my opinion and these are all houses under 175k.. keep in mind in my area you couldn't find a house less than 300k.. and these houses i'm about to show you blow some of them out the water:
three bedroom, two bath in arizona for $175,000
four bedroom, 2.5 bath in virginia for $175,000
three bedroom, 1 bath in massachusetts for $174,900
four bedroom, 3 bath in nevada for $125,000
four bedroom, 2 bath in california for $150,000


awesome robot.. but would you help him? | april 13 at 11:07 am



extract movie trailer | april 10 at 5:16 pm



if you're a good bank of america customer... | april 8 at 4:07 pm
if you're like me and have been a good bank of america customer since you've been a customer wither it's been two years, or twenty and have been effected by the downturn of the economy either having your interest rate increased or your credit line decreased there is still hope. i mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's been going on not only in the economy but with consumer credit as well. banks are afraid that people will loose their jobs and turn to credit to cover their daily cost of living regardless if you've been a responsible customer or not. it's not personal it's just business as i'm sure you've heard plenty of times. well take a look at my experience the last two days i've had with bank of america, let me show you that there is still some hope for those good customers out there here is what i posted on my experience with bank of america and their credit card products on the credit matters blog:
"I Spoke with David yesterday, he took down my information and then I received a call the very next day (today) by a very nice lady. I have two BofA credit cards, a Platinum Plus Visa with a $15,000 CL and a fixed APR or 16.99% and a BofA AMEX with a $3,000 CL and a fixed rate of 7.9%. I pay down 85% of my purchases in full by the end of the billing cycle but generally use my American Express card more often just because I know that if I ever am not able to make the payment in full I won’t be hit with as much interest charges at the end of the cycle.

I requested that my AMEX card’s CL be increased from $3,000 to $5,000 not so much because I planned on making any major purchases in the future but more so because I knew that credit scores are primarily based on utilization and because I have yet to ever ask for a credit increase since I owned the card in 2006, and knowing during the same time Citi increased my CL by $1,500 with the click of a mouse I figured it was a good time to ask. The response back was far from expected, not only was my increase denied, but I later found out that my Platinum Plus card with a $15,000 CL was dropped down to $5,000.

I sent a tweet over to David Knapp, which later contacted me just a few hours after, he just wanted me to explain my situation, which I did and he explained that he would have somebody contact me most likely tomorrow (today) which I was. I explained my situation to the lady and what she did for me was increase my American Express card from $3,000 to $10,000 based on previous usage she saw that I use my American Express a lot more than I ever used my Platinum Plus Visa (mainly because of the high APR) I also mentioned the high APR and that being the main reason behind the less than moderate usage which she was also able to lower my APR down to 14.99% APR fixed; still a tad too high but overall my experience with Bank of America has greatly been changed. I want to thank David Knapp again as well as Candice who I spoke with over the phone today for helping me out the best way that they could. I understand the economic situation and the difficulties that we’ve already been through but this has been a good experience.

I’ve had that Platinum Plus card since 05 which originally was a Student Fusion Visa card and the APR was always around 16.99% never dropping below, after six or seven attempts finally there was an effort to decrease the interest rate for me.
I would also like you all to know, that with my Citi card, I simply contacted them through their online website and asked that the APR be lowered, to which I received an email back no more than an hour later with an approval to be lowered 2% down to 14.99% as well (it was at one point 9.99% but then there was that interest hike around December 2008.
Things are defiantly looking better."
check out some related links:
http://twitter.com/BofA_help
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123913125063097913.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.creditmattersblog.com/2009/04/have-you-visited-bank-of-americas.html



citi is done | april 6 at 6:06 pm
citi is without a doubt under the gun. they should be shut down and liquidated, but the government is not ready for that just yet (supposedly their working on laws for this). statically speaking businesses need about a 5% equity/asset ratio and citi is at or a little less than 3.8%. credit card balances believe it or not count as an asset to them and it must be reduced for them to survive. (now you know why a lot of other banks are reducing credit card limits) citi can't sell it off anymore, they can't hide it off, and they can't raise new equity because they've already lost all and then some of the equity they used to have. the only way citi will survive another day they must get the customer by any means possible to pay down your entire balance. period. your good behavior as a customer has gone out the window along with high credit limits and low interest rates.




economic stimulus restaurant specials | april 4 at 4:58 pm updated on 4/14/09 at 4:49 pm
for those of you who enjoy eating out, there is no better time to eat out then now. i've compiled a list of restaurants that you can get the best bang for your buck. take a look:
applebees 2 for $20
p.f changs four-course dinner for two $39.95
bennihana 45th anniversary dinner for two $45.00
t.g.i fridays ten dinners for $9.99 / appetizer for 1 cent (with purchase of bar drink) and $1 entree with purchase of a 2nd
outback steakhouse 15 meals from $9.95 to $14.95
chilis 10 items for under $7

those are all i know off of the top of my head... there's some other deals out there that i probably don't know about, hit me up if you know about something good.. also word is out that miller, coors and budweiser are offering mail in rebates on some of their products take a peek over at http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?threadid=1279133



credit | april 2 at 2:06 pm
for some credit cards can be considered the devil, for others something completely different. i consider credit cards to be a very powerful tool. the year is 2009 and in the world we live today you’re nothing without a good credit score. it’s unfortunate to say at the very least but it’s the truth. banks are now denying credit card applications, denying loans and many other products that at one point they were awarding to even the most undeserving. i was recently affected by the ongoing situation where credit card issuers were “evaluating” accounts and decreasing credit limits as they saw fit. my bank of america issued platinum plus card’s credit line was lowered by over 50% as they claimed i had a more than sufficient credit line with their platinum plus product. i take it personally because i know that i would not ever make a decision that would put me in a position where i would take on a heavy amount of debt but from a business standpoint it makes complete sense. unfortunately for myself they know me as a number not a name.

it’s the ones who make the most money and have the best credit scores that are the ones that get the three year loans with an interest rate of 2.9% and for the ones without credit, the ones who have trouble making due with what they have, those are the ones that get stuck (that is if their even lucky) with a loan with interest rates that’ll wind up costing you more than what the actual loan is worth.

americans on average are in debt by roughly $8,000 some due to the fact that they simply cannot afford their life’s necessities such as food, shelter and insurance, others due to the fact that they live way outside of their means. they need buy a new pair of jeans for the weekend that cost $100 or more per pair; they drive a lexus because they can’t be seen in a toyota. these are the people that live the life of a celebrity but make the salary of a fast food worker (no disrespect to those working in the fast food industry).

where is the economy going, where will it be 12 months from now? what do you think?



hottest shows on television | march 11 at 1:16 pm
my personal opinion of course but the hottest shows on television consist of:
lost
entourage
csi: vegas
24
the sopranos (done)

i generally don't watch much tv as i find it hard to always devote my self to a specific time where i'm like shit it's tuesday 7:45.. i have to get home to watch the show... and i never had the motivation to buy tivo for my room as my television isn't anything special... maybe if it was hd i'd consider... but with the new generation of web 2.0 it's as easy as ever to watch missed episodes online.



back on the scene.. you know what i mean? | march 3 at 1:43 pm
after like 3 weeks i'm back... i made a few small changes to the design which include the removal of my entire netflix rental (felt like it was a hassle updating it every time i got a new movie in the mail. i think i may eventually bring it back and just update it once a month if anything. i also made sure that each link is black and when highlighted turns to red as well as i added one more link to my favorite which is the credit matters blog; i love that site.. always has some good articles for those who find credit interesting.

thinking about the future | february 16 at 4:40 pm
i don't know about you, but one of the few things that continually pops into my head is the future; specifically my own. it's easy for some to choose a career path wither it be because their parents own a business or have guided them into a specific direction as a child or it being one particular job or career that they've grown attached to as they've gotten older. it's harder for me because i find so many things interesting and it's always been hard for me to decide. i'm constantly weighing each of my decisions looking at it from multiple angles and taking into consideration every benefit and possible down fall. it's time i go back to school and finish my four year degree. the question is.. what should i major in? i plan on thinking about it long and hard for the next week or so and make my final decision very soon. i see so many people who have graduated from college and i would have a 15 minute conversation or see how they operate a computer or complete a task and i ask my self like... is this guy/girl an idiot or is it me? how the hell did they graduate from college and i'm still stuck half way? the answer is anyone can graduate from college even idiots like the ones i'm talking about and me.. why am i stuck half way? it's because i've made an honest mistake. i've wasted time and some good opportunities.. but now it's time to get back on track.

duoseptuagenuple (seventy-two) stuffed oreo | february 10 at 9:53 am
no i didn't do this myself.. but this is epic. take a look for yourself:



new work schedule among other things... | february 9 at 1:53 pm
it's been quite some time since i've even written anything for my page. i'm also pretty surprised that i haven't changed my design around either but so far so good, i think i'm content with what i'm working with for now. 2009 kinda started off a little rocky and through the entire month of january and a little of feburary wasn't so good for me but these last few days are proving to be a good start. hopefully it'll last.. today i started my new 12-9 monday-friday schedule and i'm hoping i can make the best of it. i woke up this morning at my usual time of 8 am, but this time around i woke up eat a quick breakfast, went off to the gym, did a few minutes of tanning came back home took a shower, ironed my clothes and made a sandwich for lunch... i've been at work for about two hours so far and i'm pretty good.. i don't know what i'm gonna do for lunch though.. will see.. maybe a little boston market or something? the only thing that sucks so far about my new schedule is that i had to park in east bubble fuck... i'll write more later.

the last few days have been shitty. | february 3 at 8:49 am
i've been off the last few days from work, and generally i find things to do to make being off from work fun but absolutely nothing has went my way these last few days at all. i aint really even in the mood to write anything right now, other then as you can see i've taken all my posts from january and threw it into the archive so that if for any reason you'd like to go back in time.. just click the january 2009 link down on the bottom left and enjoy.

it's been a while | january 29 at 9:29 pm
it's been ten damn days since i wrote anything on my website, but here i am none the less. i'm still alive.. just don't feel like writing anything.

the super bowl | january 19 at 9:16 am
thinking about it now i mean in all honesty i knew the steelers were the better team. i believe that their the best teaming remaining in the playoffs as well as the best team in the league during the regular season. hands down the steelers defense is the main event, but the reason why they come as a complete package is because their offense while if you could compare to their defense isn't equally as good, it's still better than most other teams offenses. (if that makes sense to you) a lot of people were denying the arizona cardinals the chance because of their weak schedule and even weaker conference but what people are forgetting is that each and every game is a do or die situation. the nfl isn't like baseball where you play best out of 7 and the team that's better usually wins 9 out of 10. this is win one game and continue on, 60 minutes of funk as i call it lol. kurt warner won the super bowl with the rams with absolutly no defense. he won the super bowl with marshall faulk, issac bruce and torry holt. this year he has similar stats as when he won with the rams and not only that but he has edjerrin james, tim hightower, larry fitzgerald and anquan boldin. you add all that up and man anything is possible. im out ill try to write more later.

quick picks on the teams i want to win today | january 18 at 11:46 am
it's as simple as this. i want the cardinals over the eagles and the ravens over the steelers. however, if the eagles beat the cardinals then i want the steelers to win against the ravens. in the end any team who wins tonight will put up a good matchup on feb 1.

thought this was funny... | january 16 at 6:08 pm


when is enough, enough? | january 16 at 12:28 pm
we the public see it happen all the time, specially in professional sports. athletes who continue their careers and never play up to our expectations nor their own. it also happens in television. i was the biggest fan of the sopranos but it was about one or two seasons too long. what happened in television last night was something epic. csi which is the most watched television show on cable for the last i don't know what like eight or nine years and still in it's prime recently said goodbye to arguably one of the most likable characters i've ever watched and that man was gil grissom. from a television perspective he was a man who knew everything yet never came off as sarcastic or un-liked. from a business perspective he left as one of the highest paid television actors on the most watched television show, how is that not crazy? what this man did was a brave move, and he decision was as im sure not an easy one is something most people wouldn't make. is he stupid or a genius? or a mix of both? check out the latest csi episode and gil grissom's last by clicking here.

my opinion on windows 7 so far | january 11 at 2:34 am
i heard at ces '09 that microsoft planning on releasing a public beta version worldwide to the first 2.5 million people willing to download it and yours truly was defiantly interested. i spent from around 9 am till about 3pm visiting, and revisiting the page and it basically just wasn't happening. microsoft's server wasn't holding up too good and was basically crapping out because so many people were trying to download the beta. eventually i did a little research on my own as was able to locate a direct link to both the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors but still wasn't able to download them as about halfway through the roughly 3gb download it failed... so luckily for me my brother was home from school and i had emailed him the links and he wound up downloading both. the problem was is that we still needed to register with microsoft to get the activation keys otherwise it'll only stay valid for up to 30 days. (this all took place yesterday) fast forward to today and microsoft's servers were back up and running fine and i was able to pick up a key for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. i created about a 21 gb partition on the hard drive and installed windows 7 as a dual boot. i've only used it for about 15 minutes or so and haven't ran any other applications other than what comes standard with the windows 7 installation but so far my thoughts are this:

1. same general look and feel as vista other than the bottom task bar.
2. i don't like the bottom task bar, also known as the "super bar"
3. they've updated the paint application so it seems a bit more capable.
4. updated the calculator application. (who cares?)
5. they've added a snippet tool so that you can take a picture of whatever you highlight on your monitor.
6. and probably the most important reason you'll want to update to windows 7 (aka windows 6.1) is that statically it runs faster. (although i have not been able to prove this yet, but from benchmark tests not only does it beat vista but also xp.)

windows 7 which i said is also known as windows 6.1 and here is why.. a little history of windows courtesy of me: first was windows 3.0, then windows 3.1, then windows 95 (4.0), windows 98 & windows se (4.1), windows 2000 (5.0) windows xp (5.1), windows vista (6.0) and windows 7 (6.1). with all that being said you may now be able to understand just why windows 7 looks basically identical to windows vista... just like windows 95 and 98 looked generally similar as well. the truth is if you're already running vista you won't be upgrading to windows 7 for the looks, it'll defiantly be for the performance. if you're lucky enough to have a computer capable of running vista but still choose to run xp i'm sure you'll be wanting to upgrade to windows 7 as well. i'll post more up later on as my time spent progresses with windows 7.

the dell adamo | january 10 at 3:35 pm
by far the hottest laptop i've seen to date. the dell adamo looks to start at a base price of around $1500. i searched around for a nice little overview video of what should be out soon and you can watch that on my youtube channel by clicking on the link to the left or by going directly to it here. i've also was able to locate a few photos taken of the black version which you can find by clicking here.

nfl playoff predictions | january 10 at 12:52 pm
23 days left until the biggest game of the year and with eight teams left it's coming down to the wire i now feel it necessary to write a little something. i won't predict any wins or losses, nor will i say who i plan on having any big games but more so who i simply want to win. i'll leave the rest of that stuff to espn.com.

baltimore over tennesee
san diego over pittsburg
new york over philadelphia
arizona over carolina

i defiantly would like to see baltimore win against tennessee. san diego at pittsburg is going to be a great game and i think at this point are the two best teams in the playoffs. the only reason why i picked the chargers over the steelers is because i think they'll go on to win the super bowl this year. the chargers ended the season at 8-8 but had won four straight and beat the colts last week as well. i only picked the new york giants over the philadelphia eagles because of my boy alex barchi. if it was any other day and during the regular season i'd go for the eagles hands down.. but barchi.. untill the jets win a super bowl you don't deserve to know how it feels lol. last but not least is the arizona cardinals at carolina panthers. i really like what carolina has put together this season and i'm always a fan of a good running game but it's just something to do with kurt warner, anquan boldin and larry fitzgerald that i would like to see them move on to the conference championship. enjoy the games... i'm out.

50 cent is back! and where the fuck is my rebate?| january 09 at 11:08 pm
i've generally liked the majority of what 50 put out his entire career more so before he blew up and up untill get rich or die trying but he's always held it down. the latest single out which is off his up coming album which i can't remember off the top of my head what'll be called. the new single however is called "i get it in" and you can listen to it here:


and as i write this entry i can't stop thinking about mail-in rebates. i'm waiting on four rebates totaling $140.00. i hate the fact that there is even such a thing and i'm sometimes hesitant to buy anything that involves a mail-in rebate. i sometimes find my self finding similar items that say maybe cost anywhere from $5 to $10 more without a rebate so that i don't have no inconvinence my self and wonder if they'll ever show up or not. i've been waiting for a little over two and a half months for one rebate valued at $20 and it said it was to show up by january 8th and i still haven't received it yet. ahhh fuck you rebates!

the official start of my diet and windows 7| january 08 at 6:00 pm
i've been going to the gym anywhere from two to four days a week; yes it varies that much. before i started working at my job i weighed in at about 165lbs, now almost three years later im up to about 168lbs and i'm not going to let it go any higher. i'm basically killing two birds with one stone as i went to the food store last night to pick up some healthier foods to eat, not only will i be eating healthier but i'll be saving a few dollars in the process as buying your own foods cost a lot less than eating out every time. in addition to all that i'll no longer be paying any visits to the vending machine which is less than 20 feet from my desk. here is my shopping list:

1. pull-tab cans of tuna (two packages of three)
2. kashi cinnamon harvest cereal
3. special k cereal bars (i think it was a nine pack of three different flavors)
4. bananas
5. healthy choice fresh mixers (two)
6. can of healthy choice soup (two cans chicken noodle and chicken tortilla)
7. can of fruit (two pear and two peach)

and if i bought anything else i don't remember what it is right now off the top of my head. as of today i ate two yogurts for breakfast, a special k bar in between breakfast and lunch, for lunch i had two cans of tuna fish and a handful of mini crackers, and through out the day i ate the entire can of pears and right now i'm eating a small can of tuna once more before i get out of work and eventually get home later tonight to have something small to eat.. which probably won't be untill around 9:30 or a little later. i'll probably end the day with grilled chicken (hopefully). i'll keep you updated on how i progress through the month.

now on to windows 7 which will be publicly released tomorrow at 3 pm eastern time as one of their "final" beta releases before pushing out a final version which still till this day nobody knows including microsoft i bet. based on the comparisons vs xp and vista it's showing statistically that it's going to be a beast, beating both in almost every single category that was tested. you can talk all you want about the software microsoft has been putting out but the truth is numbers don't lie... and i'm willing to bet that this is the best windows we've ever seen. hopefully i'll have a chance to download a copy tomorrow and eventually install the operating system sometime this weekend.

what would you do? | january 06 at 10:59 pm
i just got done watching a tv show on abc titled "what would you do?" it's basically a 60 minute series that premiers every tuesday at 10 and it's basically a reality show where actors secretly play parts that put random unsuspecting people in awkward situations. an example would be where two non-speaking mexican individuals were trying to order coffee and a bagel at a local bagel/deli in linden, nj and the employee who was an undercover actor wouldn't serve them because they didn't speak english and he assumed that they were here illegally as well, as english customers began to come into the store they would over hear the employee saying how he wasn't going to serve them and that they had to leave; during this time the english speaking customers would either ignore the situation all together, or back the employee or try helping/defending the non-speaking english mexicans. this clip ended with an actual non-speaking english mexican who has been treated in this manor in an uncontrolled environment and he basically broke down crying because he couldn't understand why anyone would treat him or anyone else like that and frankly neither can i.

a second clip was a question that was asked to new yorkers. the question was "if you ate dinner out at a resterurant and the waiter forgot to include the bottle of wine that you had ordered would you mention the mistake and have it corrected, or would you pay for your bill and leave?" the majority of the people said that they wouldn't say anything, that they would pay the bill and leave. then the question was asked and what was also added is, now would you do the same thing if you knew that if they didn't pay for the bottle of wine that it would come out of the pocket of the waiter and i think everyone said that they would mention it and have it corrected. this is actually pretty funny because i went to applebees after work for dinner with my girlfriend (who by the way i love with all my heart.. lol had to add that in there.) and we did the special where you get an appetizer and two entrees for $20, she had a raspberry iced tea, i had a brewtus (applebees name for large) blue moon and we also ordered a second separate appetizer. the bill itself probably would of had came out to i'm guessing around $36 but it just so happened that she gave us a different check with the total of $29. when i got the check i first looked at the total and thought to myself wow that's pretty good considering.. and then i saw the items ordered and i was like wow this defiantly isn't my check... so i did the math real quick and estimated that it was at least $5 cheaper.. lol so i just put my credit card down, paid the bill and left. now that i'm home and thinking about it rather then when i was at applebees and making a quick decision... i think i would of made the same decision any other day. i go to applebees at least once a month and spend a decent amount of money there, so saving a few dollars this time around to me is just a quick little break that i caught.


first day of work after the holidays + took lunch late | january 05 2009 at 4:17 pm
so i was trying to take lunch around 2:45ish but i wound up getting stuck on a call troubleshooting a laptop and a data card that wasn't working. it doesn't bother me actually and kinda works out to my benefit.. because i actually ate my lunch around 1:15 or so and generally when i take lunch later during my shift, the second half always seems to go by faster. today is the first day back officially after the holidays and it's back to business as usual. the last few days that i've worked which were the day before and after christmas and the day before and after new years were dead, i mean completly dead. i think i took one or two calls at the most during the course of 4 days.

so.. here i am on my lunch break, i tweaked the design a little bit i kinda like it better now...


one thing i love, but still dont know too much about | january 04 2009 at 5:19 pm
i've been thinking about it all day. wine. i love wine.. good wine that is, red or white it doesn't matter.. although i think i prefer red a little more. i just know the more it ages, the older is gets and the older is gets the more money is cost. there's nothing like expensive wine. i've never bought a bottle over $30 my self but i've drank bottles that were more than $150 and let me tell you it's like heaven in a glass lol. my favorite type of win is a red wine that isn't on the sweet side and has bold yet no too strong after taste. wine + italian food = the best.


addicted to magazine subscriptions? | january 03 2009 at 2:26 am
so it's about 2:30 in the morning on friday night... or saturday morning depending on how you want to look at it. i mean.. technically it's saturday morning.. ok but anyway i just was on slickdeals.net and i saw how somebody submitted $3.50 men's health subscription for one year and i was like ahh man that's an amazing deal and for a while now i wanted to subscribe because i always found the majority of the articles and hints/tips interesting. so here i am browsing the website and i notice that maxim is $9.79 for a year and esquire is only $7.97, and then i browse through the slickdeals.net forum and found a 20% coupon. so basically i just bought three subscriptions for a total of $17.71 -- a hell of a lot cheaper than purchasing each magazine at a local store and about 30-40% cheaper if i was to subscribe to all three individually and direct with the magazine company themselves. with the addition of these three new magazines, it will bring my current collection up to 14 which include car and driver, motor trend, entrepreneur, forbes, wired, blender, newsweek, autoweek, tv guide magazine, time, pc magazine (just recently switched to digital only) and the three i just mentioned before... esquire, men's health and esquire.

so now the bigger question is why pay for a magazine subscription when most content can be read for free online? well in my opinion a hard copy is always nice to have, it's great to read in the bathroom, or when you're just not in the mood to stare at a computer screen.. it's nice to lay down and just read an article or two here and there and to be honest i think the writers who write in print seem to take their jobs a bit more seriously, and even though content is easy and free to access online these magazines always come out with innovative articles and knowledge that are sometimes not always the easiest to find online.


kobe bryant can't live without dvr or so says the l.a. times | january 02 2009 at 5:20 pm
every game chris bodaken puts together an eight to ten minute highlight reel for kobe bryant so that he can prepare himself his next game. is this one of the reason's why he's top 5 in the league? probably not but it's still kinda cool. how awesome would it be to have a career editing nba highlights for the team you work for, handing off video clips to kobe bryant or any other player for that matter? knowing you had a small part in why kobe bryant was prepared or just own3d richard hamilton has got to be a good feeling.. plus im sure he's caking right now too. check out the full article here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-kobevideo31-2008dec31,0,3226134.story


new years resolutions | january 01 2009 at 6:47 pm
new years resolutions are always big topic around this time of the year. everyone is curious as to what they would like to improve on, or to actually start doing. the problem is they usually never seem to keep with any of them. wither or not you believe in new years resolutions or even plan on sticking with any one of them that you've made for yourself i think it's always good to come up with a few to bring in the new year. so without further ado here is my short yet sweet list of some of the things i would like to change, work-on, or start doing in the new year.

(not in any particular order)

1. hit the gym harder than ever before
2. drink more water, and very little if any soda
3. donate some of my time volunteering
4. finish school, or as much as i can before the year is over
5. budget my time better
6. budget my money (save, and make wiser decisions on spending)
7. enroll into my 401k
8. buy an espresso maker
9. ignore the vending machine at work