Wednesday, August 31, 2005Free Running - ParkourWell I have been fascinated by Parkour as you can tell by my earlier post on Parkour. A couple of interesting notes. I found an awesome photo blog that follows closely the escapades of The Urban Free Flow Guys. The site Kiell.com is really well put together and is an interesting view of Parkour or free running as its called in the UK. Another note Adidas has jumped on the free running and Parkour bandwagon by releasing a new shoe and slapping Uraban Free Flow guys all over the site Fly Free Forever. The shoes have a nice look and currently are only for sale in Europe. Its interesting to see how the founder of parkour didn't want to have it become commercialized for fear it would destroy the sport. Lets hope for parkour's sake that the commercial buildup doesn't indeed destroy it. I found out today that David Bellefounder of Parkour and his organisation PAWA are coming to California to help develop the sport in Los Angeles sometime in mid September. Lets hope I go get to check them out. posted @ 04:36 PM PST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)] Tuesday, August 30, 2005Current Network PaysWell I know I ve been rambling a lot about current. Well I was curious how they paid for there infamous viewer created content. Well it turns out you upload your pod and then agree to leave it up for 3 months for review. During that time it is locked up. If they choose to use it they buy it from you. 1st pod they pay $250, for your 2nd and third you make $500 a pod, 4th and 5th are at $750 a pod and the 6th on is $1000 a pod. Doesn't seem like a bad scale for people who are basically trying to break into an industry. Not to mention if you are fairly prolific at getting your pods bought you could probably get a pretty decent set of equipment together. Basically it amounts to turning the blogging generation into producers of content. The top creator I hadnt seen that she had anything on tv yet so i dont know that producing a lot is necesarily a good thing but had put 13 pods together in 2 months. If they all were able to make it on tv she would have made $11,750 not bad change? posted @ 02:05 PM PST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] Monday, August 29, 2005Ultimate Fighter 2 Epsiode 2The episode was awesome as they started the team picks and the challenges. This week it was the middleweights who had a Randy Couture designed challenge where they essentially had to rugby a heavy bag over to one side of the field. Matt Hughes Team won the challenge and got to pick their battle. Josh Burkman of the Hughes team chose to fight Melvin Guillard the Chris Leben of season 2. These were two of the stronger fighters and you could tell Dana wasn't thrilled with the posibilities of losing one of the better candidates early after the torment that week 1 proved for him. Josh who is a team Quest member took Guillard dowm for the ground and pound but definitely got walloped a lot. Guillard was quick and explosive and got his licks in almost choking josh out twice. Josh was saved by the bell in the first round and continued the g n p all match long. Later we found out Guillard had broken his hand in the first round which slowed down his attack limiting him mostly to kicks which couldn't get the job done. Josh got the decision and our first fight victim fell. It was a great fight and a great episode. posted @ 11:52 PM PST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] Pride Final Conflict Well the Final Conflict show was good but not great. I enjoyed most of the fights but as was expected unimpressed by the undercards. One thing I have found that I dont like about Grand Prix tournaments is that the fihters tend to fight to stay alive rather than to win as they do in most normal matches. An example of this was the Silva Aron bout which left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt like Silva held back. Maybe it was just Arona taking him out of his game but I felt Silva didn't take the chances he normally does to win a fight. On the Contrary Rua fought like a guy who had nothing to lose and it showed. He worked through Alistair Overeem and the Aron in the final to take home the grand prix belt and $200,000. It will be interesting to see if Pride still thinks that sending Ninja to the UFC is a good idea as they had earlier claimed would happen. In the heavyweight championship Fedor did what Fedor does best and ina hard fought bout took Cro Cop out of his game and won in a decision that there wasn't much doubt in. I was impressed with cro cop though he did improve his ground game by leaps and bounds and wouldn't be surprised to see him back in the title hunt soon. Really the upper echelon of Pride heavyweights is a small circle with Fedor, Nog, Kharitnov and Cro Cop. The other two matches were Tank vrs Yoshida and there wasn't much doubt in that one as Yoshida was finally able to choke Tank late in the first after what appeared to be more Tank gassing than Yoshida choking. In the alternate match for the grand prix Nokamura got the decision over Vovchanchyn. Fabrio verdum got the submission victory over Zentsov in the other undercard bout. A note of interest is that Fox Sports Net will be airing Pride fights on its network monthly now so we can all tack on some more momentum points for MMA as a whole as the sport gets even better exposure. posted @ 11:42 PM PST [link] [Karma: -3 (+/-)] Scion xB Accessories Well I have been prtty mild on the changes I have made to my scion trying to keep it pretty close to how i got it from the factory. The only non factory items i have on it are the wheels and the sub woofer. I was checking out the scion accessories today and they have changed some things around. The scion led light enhancements now cover the footwells and the cup holders and run 275.00 which is what the cost of one or the other had been before. Another goody I like was the sport pedals which they have priced out at 79.00. One think I am considering is selling my 18 inch akita rims and getting the fcatory 15 inch em 7 spoke wheels as they would definitely be a better ride and while probably not look as good it would be a better trade off. The last thing on my wish list is the Pioneer Head unit with ipod functionality. We'll see what happens next. posted @ 08:54 AM PST [link] [Karma: 9 (+/-)] Saturday, August 27, 2005ParkourWhile I had seen Parkour performed on television before in what I think was a scion ad I had never really grasped it as a sport. I honestly believed it was some guy running around doing some crazy stuff. After seeing a pod on the Current network I was fascinated. Apparently there are two founding fathers of the sport David Belle and his friend Sebastian Foucan. These guys can do some crazy amazing moves. The sport is also known as free running and from wahat I can decipher is based on martial arts in that David's father taught his son about the technique of moving silently through trees, think Crouching Tiger, and David gave it it's urban twist. I also found an awesome video of David practicing Parkour. posted @ 04:44 PM PST [link] [Karma: 12 (+/-)] Motorola and Oakley Razorwire  Motorola and Oakley have always been quite innovative in their respective fields and have teamed to put together this awesome product called the Razorwire which is essentially Oakley O-luminum lightweight frames (complete with Oakley patented XYZ® Optics®) and a motorola bluetooth headset. posted @ 01:27 PM PST [link] [Karma: 15 (+/-)] Motorola Q Phone  Wow talk about a dream come true for guys who carry PDA phones the Motorola Q Phone is awesome. While using characteristics that make the Razor awesome whil also sporting a qwerty keyboard and windows mobile this thing is fully loaded. Im curious to see how thick it truly is and if it really compares to the thinness of the razor. It looksto be , if the photos are life sized, at least half as thick as my tre 600. Aslos of interest it appears that Palm One will be releasing a verion of the the Treo running Windows as well currently rumored to be the Treo 670. posted @ 01:17 PM PST [link] [Karma: 6 (+/-)] Pride FC - Middleweight Grand Prix Well Pride Final Conflict is this weekend and I am really looking forward to it. Not only are Wanderlei Silva, Ricardo Arona, Murillo Rua, and Alistair Overeem going to decide the Middleweight Grand Prix but Fedor Emelianenko is Facing Mirko "Crocop" Filipovic for the Heavyweight title. Other matches are David "Tank" Abbott taking on Hidehiko Yoshida, Igor Vovchanchyn versus Kazuhiro Nakamura, and Fabricio Werdum versus Roman Zentsov. While I am excited about the Middleweight Grand Prix and The Heavyweight Championship the undercard is a little lacking but hey Im going to watch it for sure on Sunday. I expect Silva to defend his Grand Prix title and become the first man to win back to back Grand Prixs and I really doubt anyone can take Emelianenko's belt away even though Crocop has deadly standup ability. The pay per view is Sunday at 6:00 on DirecTV. posted @ 11:47 AM PST [link] [Karma: 14 (+/-)] Friday, August 26, 2005Prefab - The new Fab?Well I was watching The Current Network and they had a lil blip, I know they are called pods but please why ise evrything a pod now days, on a prefab house designer by the name of Rocio Romero and a new design in prefab housing. Her LV home is definitely not your uncles trailer home. Prefab has actually come a long way and looks to have a long way to travel. I have been obsessed lately and really I'm the guy prefabs are mainly directed towards, not much money wants to own house. Another popular design is the The iT House which is almost a complete package for close to 175,000 including the contractor costs, not none of these include the land to build on. One of my favorite designs is the FlatPak House which you can custom build and which includes everything inside the house. I suspect they'll have an online design tool soon to help you get a visual on your potential house. Finally in the I know its ugly but I like it category there is the Quik House which you can complete at around 175,000. Basically its shipping containers reutilized to build houses with and it comes in a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath model. I truly think Flatpak has the best future because it really is a lot more customizable than the rest and is also a complete solution. posted @ 05:52 PM PST [link] [Karma: -1 (+/-)] Runescape Update Well my daughters account was reactivated they say that someone else used her account which due to her rather simple password is quite possible. Now she just has to change her password and she'll be up and running. posted @ 08:53 AM PST [link] [Karma: 12 (+/-)] Sunday, August 21, 2005Current NetworkI was channel surfing on DirecTV when I happened upon a channel called current. It reminded me much of USA Today in taht it had short bursts in its format so I decided to look it up. Current is a new channel which has shows no longer than 5 minutes? Its actually pretty cool though and is easy to follow. It is similar in feel to surfing the web. I'll let Current describe itself. As Current launches, the plan is to depend heavily on viewer submissions, although initially about 75 percent of the content will be made in-house. The channel, which will be carried locally on Direct TV channel 366 and Comcast Digital Plus channel 125, is hard to describe -- in part because there's nothing on TV to compare it to. If HBO, Showtime and the big three networks offer formal dining with a reservation, then Current is a drop-by-any-time tapas bar. The shows, called pods, will be no longer than five minutes, with on-air hosts introducing them. While the pods will be categorized (labeled Current Parent, Current Video, etc. ), the channel will have a random feel, with each video's frequency of play partially controlled by viewers who vote on the Internet. posted @ 10:50 PM PST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)]
My daughter has become hooked on Runescape and was traumatised today when she couldn't log on. Come to find out she was banned because according to Runescape "You have been caught attempting to steal another players password." Now I understand there have to be rules there but I cant believe that my 12 year old was asking other users for their passwords. As per Runescape "Our report abuse system means there is no chance of your getting away with breaking the rules anymore." but doesn't that mean the rely on he says she says form of justice? and then to add insult to injury the offense which can be reported by someone wanting to just get my daughter kicked off results in this "Unfortunately, due to the severity of this complaint, your account has been permanently banned" and they give this weak appeal process with "If you feel you have been banned in error, you may send us ONE appeal. For the appeal to be successful you will need to explain why the ban should be lifted, and will need to convince us there won't be any further problems with this account." UFC 54 Well with the newly well oiled UFC putting on it's top line pay per view after weeks of UFC Unleashed and Ultimate Fight Night, a recent live non pay per view show, now the time between pay per views seems to have diminished. The show was a good one and should provide the desired lead in to The Ultimate Fighter 2. The dark matches were interesting as James Irvin brutally knocked out Tery Martin with a flying knee to start out the 2nd round. Martin had to be taken off in a stretcher. Trevor Prangley was able to get a decision over Travvis Luter. In the last dark match middleweight number one contender Matt Linland defeated Joe Doerkson by decision using his typical ground and pound with the occasional guillotine attempt to dominate the match. The pay per view opened with George St. Pierre dominating Frank Trigg in the opening bout finally finishing him with a rear naked choke in the first round. In the second match on the card Diego Sanchez took it to Brian Gassaway getting the tapout due to punches in the second round. Diego domiated with his ground game much like St. Pierre dominated Trigg. In the third match of the night Randy Couture founght his first 3 round match in quite some time and he handed a very game Mike Van Arsdale a loss by submission in the third round. Van Arsdale despite looking to be in better shape couldn't hang with "The Natural" who at times looked to have difficulty with Van Arsdale. In the fourth match of the night Tim Sylvia violently put Tre Telligman out with a leg kick to the head at the end of the first round. Telligman was carried out in a stretcher something I have not seen in previous UFC's and which happened twice in this show. In the finale Chuck Liddell avenged his first loss of his career by Finishing off Jeremy Horn in the fourth round but Chuck set the tone quickly knocking Horn down twice in the first round and twice in the second. Horn Looked much better in the third but it was back to normal in the fourth when Liddell knocked Jeremy down who couldn't continue because he couldn't see out of his badly beaten eyes. The Ultimate Fighter 2 starts Monday and I'm really looking forward to another season. The UFC is gaining acces to a number of new fans thanks to the reality show and I hope it sees continued success as it relates to the popularity of the UFC. Though it looks like they wont have another Leben this season and will have to rely on Dana White providing most of the antics this season. posted @ 09:39 PM PST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)] Friday, August 19, 2005Online Video RentalI have been toying around with the two major online movie rental companies and actually was surprised with what I had found out. First I tried Netflix and actually found them to be disappointing. The company had trouble getting the videos to me. I ordered my inital 3 movies three times to actually get them to my house and then finally all nine show up at once. Anyways after having trouble getting the movies I tried Blockbuster Online and they were actually much more efficient. I got my three movies within a week and on top of their online service you get vouchers for store rentals as well. So basically you can rent 3 online plus 2 in store movie or game rentals every month. Not a bad deal if you dont want to wait for the online service to catch up or if you are a gamer and want movies and games. For three at a time rentals Netflix and Blockbuster both cost 17.99 so really the big difference maker would be the two in store rentals. posted @ 10:55 AM PST [link] [Karma: 13 (+/-)] Hunter Thompson Well one thing can be said for Hunter he definitely had style. As a fitting going out for him his remains are going to be shot out of a cannon and he will become one with the land he lived on in Colorado. Not only are his remains going to be shot out of the cannon but his buddy Johnny Depp is going to do the shooting. Apparently the game plan is to shoot his ashes out as the moon comes up and then have a wake the rest of the night just as he would have wished. It takes imagination to come up with a unique plan for funeral and that was something Hunter was never short on. posted @ 10:43 AM PST [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] Home Alarm System Well I have been strongly considering an alarm system for my apartment lately, not because I feel there is a high risk but rather because my younger daughter is really concerned about her safety to the point she wants to sleep with mommy and daddy every night. I have basically been looking at ADT and Brinks. After ahving checked them both out I'm leaning towards Brinks since there a little less expensive and otherwise seem to be identical to the offer ADT has out. Basically for $99 installation and 27.99 a month with a 3 year contract I can have my home monitored. posted @ 01:02 AM PST [link] [Karma: 8 (+/-)] Full Spectrum Warrior - Ten Hammers I have been just getting into Full Spectrum Warrior, I forgot what I bought with it that I totally got into but this game is addicting. It is much more strategic in nature than most shooting games. I like the fact that you command thwe troops without relying on your own trigger finger. I just heard that the sequel Full Spectrum Warrior - Ten Hammers is due out next year and won Best Strategy Game at E3 this year. I really look forward to seeing the finished product. posted @ 12:03 AM PST [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] Thursday, August 18, 2005Boost MobileAs far as prepaid phone providers I dont think any hold a candle to what Boost offers. I like the nextel radio feature and now they offer another service that makes it over the top. Telenav which uses the handset's GPS to function as a navigation system. The service costs 5.00 for four trips and you can reup for another 5.00 or just pay 1.50 a trip thereafter. Sounds lika a pretty decent way to avoid buying a navigation system and having a way to find your way if you get lost. Too bad there aren't any other carriers offering it. posted @ 01:04 PM PST [link] [Karma: 9 (+/-)] Wednesday, August 17, 2005KROQ's MoneyI was wondering where Money from Kevin and Beans morning show was heading as they said he was joining the Lakers and i found this article which talks about his joining Xtra Sports Radio to do the pregame and halftime shows for the Lakers radio broadcasts. posted @ 05:58 PM PST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] Tuesday, August 16, 2005Second LifeWell talk about virtual not reality. Secondlife.com is a website/game that allows you a second chance with a virtual life. A basic membership costs 10.00 to setup and for that you get your customisable avatar startout with L$250 and make a stipend of L$50 a week for every week you log on. Now if you go for the premium membership you get the right to own property, in fact for your $10.00 a month you get 512 square meters of land. On top of that you get L$500 to start and L$500 weekly stipend so you have a lot more fake money to start out with. Now I was vurious about this whole concept of land ownership or virtual land ownership so I dug a little deeper. The mothly land use fee can vary from $5.00 a month to $195.00 a month, notice the difference between fake L$ amounts and the very real $ amounts being posted. Now for this $195.00 you get a parcel 128 times the one they gave you for free or the equivalent of 16 acres, but on top of this you must pay a sale price, not sure if thats real dollars or L dollars. Now there is also commerce in this virtual world and you can start your own business and even make real money at it. There are even sites for trading L$ into real $. Sounds interesting I may plop down the 10.00 to check out the action there and in case you were curious the going rate of the L$ is like $3.50 for L$1000.00 posted @ 06:16 PM PST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] Sunday, August 7, 2005System of a DownWent to see System of a Down on friday night and the show was awesome. Opening uo the show was a band called Bad Acid Trip. I had never heard of them or heard them as it turns out but they were a strong opening band. They have a hard charging punk pace but seem to have picked up some of System's style while on the road with them. The next band who would have stolen anyone elses show away from the was The Mars Volta. The played an awesome set. I had only previously heard their single The Widow on KROQ. They have an awesome unique sound that transitions much better to a live show than on album. I really regret now that I didn't get to see them at Weanie Roast now but hey these things happen. If it hadn't been for System of a Down Mars would have stolen the show but once again System proved they are one of the best bands out there. There show was non stop energy and it was lots of fun. I really liked what is coming out on the new album and really am looking forward to picking it up. Another side note on the crowd at Long Beach, It was a little wild especially as we were standing between two pits on the floor but I watched the pits and they were actually quite courteous, looking out for people who fell and girls in the pit. I had a blast all in all. Update Heres the set list. Long Beach, CA - Long Beach Arena - August 4, 2005 SOLDIER SIDE B.Y.O.B. REVENGA KNOW NEEDLES DEER DANCE SUGGESTIONS PSYCHO CHOP SUEY KILL ROCK N ROLL SAD STATUE VIOLENT PORN MR. JACK CIGARO COCAINE BOUNCE ATWA FOREST LOST IN HOLLYWOOD QUESTION! WAR? PRISON AERIALS TOXICITY SCIENCE SUITE PEE SUGAR posted @ 07:58 AM PST [link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] Thursday, August 4, 2005Razor Electric Scooters Well I was at the swap meet the other day and they had a ton of the Razor E100 electric scooters on sale for 25.00 now upon further inspection they all had lil issues so I'm pretty sure they either discontinued the line or these were returns. So I bought one for my daughter Joanna. The next day she and my other daughter were bickering over the scooter and Marianna kept giving me puppy dog eyes. So I headed back to the swap meet and picked one up for her and even got an Razor E200 for me. They are a blast and usually I come home from work and fart around the neighborhood with the girls for an hour. posted @ 09:07 PM PST [link] [Karma: -11 (+/-)] |
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