Tuesday, January 30, 2007Barack ObamaWhile most of the focus on the democratic side of the ball has been on Hilary Clinton, I am hedging my guess that the Democratic Presidential candidate will be Barack Obama. He is a charasmatic speaker who is very polished and I am guessing while it might be a stretch that the United States might elect a woman, especially Hilary, it might not be a stretch to elect a african american male. His inclusionary talk is really a breath of fresh air but not surprising form a man who is half black, half, white and was raised for a few years with an aisian stepfather in asia. Check out his website at www.barackobama.com. posted @ 07:58 PM PST [link] Friday, January 26, 2007Malachi RitscherI watched the above video because it was ranked high on Current's website of submitted pods and it amazed me. Malachi Ritscher's suicide may not have been as neat as a protest of the war. I read a through the comments of an article on his death where many of his family say he was mentally ill and this was just another suicide. There has even been a website dedicated in his memory called I heard you Malachi because many didnt realize for several days that what he had done had been in protest of the war. It really is a fascinating story of, depending on your view, a historic martyr or a dilusional mentally ill man. posted @ 05:16 PM PST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] Thursday, January 25, 2007inMotion Portable Audio Player I picked up an inMotion Audio Player for my iPod at work. Its a simple little speaker setup which is more than adequate. I had been borrowing one from my boss for a while but he borrowed it back and kept it. No biggy this one is just as good and actually looks a little slicker. I was sorely missing my music at work and I picked it up for $45 instead of the suggested retail of $99. posted @ 02:04 PM PST [link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] Wow not just arranged marriage how bout Premeditated? Found an article on Yahoo news where young brides were being murdered to be ghost brides for unmarried men who had died. Apparently this is a custom in China but now people are buying women for what they are believed are prearranged marriages and then are murdered to be ghost brides. check out the article here! posted @ 11:01 AM PST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] Samsung U740  I cant help but be excited about this phone. Basically its a Razr sized dual hinge with a typical clamshell design which you can also flip for text input as indicated in the photo above. I'm a little worried about durability with the design but the text input option is a nice feature. It's also coming to Verizon which is the best network. It also has mini sd card expansion and claims it can be synced with a pc. posted @ 05:19 AM PST [link] Monday, January 22, 2007Western Digital Passport Hard Drive O was eyeing one of the Western Digital Passport Hard Drives today. Now normally one wouldn't get too excited by an external hard drive but this product is pretty cool. First off it runs off the USB for power, has USB 2.0 transfer speed and has built in security and encryption. But beyond all this the thing is just plaon cool looking and it packs 160gb of storage space. While not as portable as a thumb drive it is very portable and it has a very clean look to it. Very much a post iPod product and it should have enough space for all your personal backup needs. posted @ 09:37 PM PST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] My Yosemite Trip 01-14-07 to 01-19-07 Spent my whole last week off line chaperoning a trip in Yosemite for my 6th grade daughter and her classmates from Dodson Magnet. It was a very rewarding trip but also a lot of work. We left Dodson Sunday morning at 7:30 am and it took most of the day to get to Yosemite. After we arrived we got everyone into the cabins and had dinner. Monday started with a bang as we had breakfast at 7:00 and then headed out to ampitheatre to meet our instructors. Our instructors name was Scott and then we took a bus out to the valley where we would start our hike. The theme for learning for the day was blueprint. We learned the major sites of the Yosemite Valley and how the valley was formed over a few million years. The hike amounted to a total of like 6 miles from where we were dropped off in the valley back to Curry Village. We had dinner and then did a night hike to a clearing outside of Curry Village in the dark with no lights which was an interesting experience as you had to get over the whole being in the dark thing but you actually could make out quite a lot once the night vision kicked in. Day 2 we hiked out to Yosemite Falls and went to Spider Cave which is a little cave used by the Awanichi indians of Yosemite. The cave was fascinating because it was pitch black inside and in order to pass we all had to work together as a team. Everyone in our group made it through ok and it became a highlight of the week for most of the kids. After that we hiked to the base of Yosemite falls where we took some pictures then had lunch and later hiked back to Curry Village. After dinner the night hike was from Curry Village to the Yosemit Information Center for a presentation on Astronomy. It was a long day after all. Day 3 we took a bus up to Crane Flat where we did a tough hike through steep hills and over a creek before stopping for lunch. After lunch we took a short hike down to the Seqouia groves and took in the huge trees. We visited Dead Fred a fallen hollowed out Sequoia that you can crawl through from its base to the top. We then hiked through the Redwoods back to the YI camp and caught the bus back to camp. The night hike was back to the Yosemite Information Center for a presentation on bears which was amazing. The presenter was a wild man who was also very entertaining. Day 4 was another bus trip out to Yosemite Falls where we hiked up the Yosemite Falls trail which is almost all uphill through switchbacks about two and a half miles or a half mile above columbia rock to what the instructor called Oh My Gosh rock. It was a challenge but the kids toughed through it. We hiked back down and caught a bus back to the village and had the kids start packing up before dinner for the next day departure. The chaperones or at least most of us got the night off and went to the Ahwahnee for drinks where it became obvious we had been cooped up to long with the kids as we had a serious case of the giggles. We had a fun well deserved night out. Day 5 was a short day as we met the instructor at 8:30 and hiked out to a spot at the bridge over the Merced river where we threw rocks at the icy river and were read a book by Dr Seuss that basically talked on the theme of stewardship. We packed it up after the kids gave Scott a mug and a YI bandana that they had all signed. We had a fairly uneventful trip back home where we arrived late Friday. All in all it was a great experience where I developed a great respect for nature and developed a desire to help protect it for future generations. Hopefully the kids got the same message as well. posted @ 05:30 PM PST [link] [Karma: 11 (+/-)] Welcome to DMDewar.com Welcome to my soapbox, well maybe, but not so much. I'm not real preachy I just use this website pretty much for whatever I feel like and have for the last five years. It's kind of like my notebook that I happen to share. Basically I cover anything of interest to me which is mostly tech toys, MMA, alternative music, golf, and occasionally stuff that is going on with me. A little about me? Well my favorite movies are Inside Man, The Usual Suspects, Training Day... My favorite tv shows are Dexter, and Californication. I am a sports junkie following the Dodgers and Lakers religiously and root for the Chargers by default since we dont have a pro football team. Basically any team from the Los Angeles area. I'm been married 16 years and have two daughters 15 and 13! Enough about me though! Enjoy the site! Thanks again! Don Dewar posted @ 08:09 AM PST [link] Thursday, January 11, 2007David BeckhamWell the LA Galaxy announced that they have signed Real Madrid, Manchester United, and England star David Beckham to a five year agreement when the transfer window opens in August. Beckham is a huge aquisition for the MLS and Galaxy but having lived through NASL and the way it dove despite signing some older players I worry that it might be to much too soon. Sure soccer in the US has grown but its not really big enough to support 5 year 250 million dollar deals yet. The deal issupposedly supported heavily by endorsements and has bonuses included according to Yahoo Sports: "The 31-year-old former England captain, married to former Spice Girl pop star Victoria "Posh Spice" Adams, will earn a total $250 million over the five years financed heavily by endorsements and including bonuses based on performance and the future success of the MLS." I hope this doesn't kill my team or its league but I am really excited to get the chance to see Beckham play! posted @ 12:12 PM PST [link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] Wednesday, January 10, 2007Apple iPhone Well today Steve Jobs announced the much anticipated iPhone. Basically its an ipod, smartphone, and internet device in one all with a touch screen. I cant do its description justice so check it out. Pricing is $499 for a 4gb model and %599 for an 8 gb model. posted @ 12:09 AM PST [link] Monday, January 8, 2007Mario DaneloI was shocked to hear about Mario Danelo's body being found at the bottom of our local cliffs. Mario was a local hero as a kicker for the USC Trojans and had played as recently as last Moday in the Rose Bowl where he had an off day missing two PAT's but also hit two field goals. Foul Play had been ruled out leaving suicide or accident which the family believes it must have been because he was not showing any signs of being down. The cliffs there are really dangerous and also are a popular place to hang out for younger folks as well. I used to hang out there myself in my younger days too. No matter what happened Pedro lost a brother this week, Rest in Peace Mario! posted @ 10:44 AM PST [link] [Karma: 14 (+/-)] Thursday, January 4, 2007What a weekend!Wow what more could I have asked for? There were three major MMA shows this past weekend and USC played, and won, in the Rose Bowl on Monday. The first show I saw this weekend was the UFC which was a great card which included the announcements that Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovich were both going to be on the February UFC card. The bad news is that GSP has had to back out of the February card against Matt Serra. The card was pretty good in the opening of the main card Michael Bisping made his return against a very game Eric Schafer managing to get the TKO in what was a tougher fight than we thought. In what was a very strange bout Andrei Arlovski defeated Marcio Cruz by TKO but was strange because Arlovski had illegally kicked Cruz and the ref stopped the bout but CRuz said he was ready to go so he let them go and Arlovski reached over and knocked Cruz into oblivion. I think the ref should have restarted them and honestly Arlovski did wait before throwing the blow but it sure did look like the ref set him up for the knockout. Jason MacDonald took out TUF1 veteran Chris Leben in what was a strange looking guillotine that really put Leben out. Now we hear MacDonald is probably going to face Rich Franklin in March for a quick climb up the ladder. Keith Jardine upset Forrest Griffin by TKO in the first round. Forrest was distraught after the bout and brokedown in disappointment. Im not sure whether he was destroyed over the loss so much as he didnt have a top caliber match. In the finale Chuck Liddell took a lil longer this time to get the job done but get it done he did and remained in my opinion the top 205 pounder in the world. The Pride FC card was top notch, must be to spend the extra $40 in a weekend, In what I think may be one of the most talked about submissions of the year was Shinya Aoki's win by gogoplata over Joachim Hansen. In another great fight Mauricio Rua got the decision over Kazuhiro Nakamura. In another fight which I think might be a candidate for fight of the year Gilbert Melendez defeated Tatsuya Kawajiri by unanimous decision elevating him to the top tier of MMA lightweights. Kazuyuki Fujita brawled his way to victory over Eldari Kurtanidze getting a tapout from strikes from the first time mma fighter. Takanori Gomi shwed he was still top dog at 155 by taking the victory over Mitsuhiro Ishida by tko in a little over a minute. James Thompson took a decisive victory over Hidehiko Yoshida who was without his traditional judo gi and was absolutely brutalised by the Brit who hurt Yoshida so bad he could barely walk back to the locker room after it was over. In one of the most anticipated rematches Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira took a unanimous decision over Josh Barnett after falling to him in the open weight grand prix pushing him back up to number 3 Heavyweight in the world behind Fedor and Cro Cop. Speaking of Fedor he took out a very game Mark Hunt by kimura. posted @ 12:20 PM PST [link] [Karma: 6 (+/-)] |
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