Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Big Ticket in Boston


KG, one of my favorite players in the NBA is leaving Minnesota and taking his game to Boston. This is big news; this makes the Celtics instant contenders in the East and the NBA at large. It is reminiscent of Shaq going to Miami and bringing home a trophy that first year. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen already formed a formidable back court, now anchor that team with Big Ticket and you have on paper a very difficult team to beat. If the 3 of them mesh well I can easily see them taking the East and winning the Eastern Conference finals. I should buy some Lakers and Clippers tickets soon... would be awesome to see KG, Allen, & Pierce play together (that is almost like an All-Star team). On a side note; K and I did see KG up close and personal when we went to a game in Philly. It was one of the last games that AI played before being deported to Denver. We payed $15 for nose bleeder seats but eventually found ourselves down at courtside. We were 6 or 7 rows right behind the Timberwolves bench; best $15 ever spent. KG is my idol.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Original 300



Watching the original "300" made in 1962.
Best line:

Spartan: . . . They are drinking the rivers dry; and at night there are more of their camp fires then their are stars in the sky.

Leonidas: Good. When I was a boy, I always wanted to reach the stars with my spear. (laughs)

Spartan: (laughs)

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

7.4 mile commute in 45-minutes

Actually, the last 5.15 miles were relatively painless; probably took about 6-8 minutes. So that means the first 2 miles took me over 35 minutes. What was the cause of this absolute nonsense; a car somehow went up in flames near the on-ramp that I take, blocked off the two slow-lanes for I don't know how long. I can't believe that one idiot could ruin the commute for so many thousands of individuals. Everyone going 57-N would have suffered because of this idiot.

And everyday I drive to work I notice people doing their make-up; reading a book, etc; all while driving. Are you F*$%@!!! kidding me; these are the idiots that get into accidents; you are not only a menance to the public but a danger to yourself as well as your loved ones.

Please drive carefully. Don't hold me up from my business because you are stupid. Be stupid on your own time.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Food for Thought.. the Future.

I know statistics are always skewed and manipulated to make whatever point the report is trying to prove. Even if that is the case, the following information is pretty interesting; take it for what its worth.. some of it is actually pretty scary.

Sometime size does matter.
If you’re one in a million in China there are 1,300 people just like you.

In India, there are 1,100 people just like you.

The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ’s is greater than the total population of North America. In India, it’s the top 28%
[Translation for teachers: They have more honors kids than we have kids.]

Did you know?
China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world.

If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped is to China it still would have a labor surplus.

During the course of reading this:
60 babies will be born in the U.S.
244 babies will be born in China
351 babies will be born in India

Did you know?
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor 1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company for whom they have been employed less than 1 year.

More the then 1 out of 2 are working for a company for whom they have worked less than 5 years.

According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

We are currently preparing students for jobs that currently don’t yet exist; using technologies that haven’t yet been invented in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.

Did you know?
The U.S. is 20th in the world of broadband Internet penetration.

Nintendo invested more than $140 million in research and development in 2002 alone.

The U.S. Federal Government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.

1 of every 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met online.

There are over 106 million registered users of MySpace (as of September 2006).

If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world (between Japan and Mexico). The average MySpace page is visited 30 times a day.

Did you know?
We are living in exponential times.

There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.

To whom were these questions addressed B.G. (before Google)?

The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeded the population of the planet.

There are about 540,000 words in the English language, about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time.

More than 3,000 new books are published daily.

It is estimated that a week’s worth of New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.

That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years.

The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.

For students starting a new technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.

Third-generation fiber optics has recently been tested by both NEC and Alcatel that pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber.

That’s 1,900 CD’s, or 150 million simultaneous phone calls, every second.

It’s currently tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years. The fiber is already there. They’re just improving the switches on the ends, which means the marginal cost of these improvements is effectively $0.

Predictions are that e-paper will be cheaper than real paper.

47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year.

The $100 laptop project is expecting to ship between 50 to 100 million laptops a year to children in underdeveloped countries.

Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.

By 2023, when first-graders will be just 23 years old and beginning their (first)careers it will only take a $1,000 computer to exceed the capabilities of the human brain.

And while technical predictions farther out than about 15 years are hard to make predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.

What does it all mean?

Shift happens.

Now you know.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Pictures from 07/07/07

The view from dinner at the Montage in Laguna Beach. There would have been a beautiful sunset if not for the clouds.



Appetizers on the patio of the Loft. Nice presentation. Interesting pairing of foods. $$$.

On the beach a few minutes before both our lives would change.


Hmmm... I guess not much has changed except for that big ring on her finger. Love forever.

Monday, July 9, 2007

yes!

she said yes.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Transformer with Heart


So we ended up watching Transformers on opening night. I have to say it was a pretty cheesy movie but definitely one of the best movies I've seen all year. The movie had everything you need for a summer blockbuster; it had a hot female lead, it had fast cars and robots, it was visually stunning, and the story line was actually pretty decent. As you can see from the pictures, my favorite character from the movie was Bumblebee. I actually want one of the toys now, it looks hot (above). And check out the picture below; it is a life size model used in the production. Thinking about the movie, I think Transformers should get an Academy Award; if In the Bedroom can get best picture, so can Transformers. If Halle Barry can get a best actress award for showing her boobs, then so can Megan Fox. Transformers = Good. In the Bedroom = Bad. Megan Fox = Good. Halle Barry = Bad.


Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Losing, Transformers, & Baby-sitting


What happened between my last post and today's post? Losing. Our basketball team is on a 3-game losing streak (not very good considering it is a 10-game season). I am very disappointed in defeat; at my own sub-par performances as well as the team's performance in general. Oh well, there are 6 weekend games for us to redeem ourselves.

On a different note, I plan on watching Transformers sometimes this week; it definitely looks good and I am excited to see how it turns out.

Also have a very important duty to perform on Saturday. K and I will be baby sitting. It will be a fun filled day hanging out with my favorite nephew. Maybe I should take him to the mall; I'm sure the little dooooooood is a chick magnet.