(10) Songs to Listen to - 11/15/08

1) Ohh Child - The Five Stairsteps
2) Huddle Formation - Thunder, Lightning, Strike - the Go! Team
3) Y Control - Fever to Tell - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4) Soma - Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins
5) Gospel Song -Howl - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
6) War or Hands of Time -Nuggets II - The Masters Apprentice
7) Neighborhood #3 - Funeral - Arcade Fire
8) Central Standard Time - Eudora - The Get Up Kids
9) Let's Move f/ Big Pooh - Connected - Foreign Exchange
10) Runaways - Personal Journals - Sage Francis

Beware

This is probably less relevant now. Saw this last month in CA. I thought it was funny and worth a photo. The Bullwinkle-esque moose looks deranged...

Panda Day

They call me panda. So amongst certain people, there are running panda jokes and exchanges of youtube panda videos. My friend Laura sent me this one today.

CEO Beats Jordan in a One-on-One Game....

of first to 3 points. yeah, three whole points.



but dude definitely got buckets on him with a few clever layups. Not many can say they beat Jordan one-on-one

(5) Songs to Listen To - 11/13/08

1) House of Cards - In Rainbows - Radiohead
2) Victory f/ Notorious BIG and Busta Rhymes - Puff Daddy
3) Gimme Shelter - the Rolling Stones
4) The Dream of Evan and Chan f/ Ben Gibbard - Dntel
5) Eternal Sunshine (the Pledge) - What the F is a Jay Electronica - Jay Electronica

DHL Did What?!

DHL apparently decided to pull out of the U.S. market....

ABX Air, which handles packages for DHL Express in the United States, faces 6,000 or so layoffs and an uncertain financial future after the German shipping company decided it would pull out of the domestic US market.

The DHL contract generates almost three-quarters of sales for parent company Air Transport Services Group, worth about USD$280 million in the second quarter.

Deutsche Post's decision on Monday to pull its DHL Express unit means that ABX Air will likely have to lay off most of its 7,000 or so employees.

"A substantial majority of our employees dedicated to DHL's domestic package network will not be required by DHL after January 2009," the company said in a statement on Monday.

ABX Air may yet handle DHL's international business in the United States, a spokesman for Air Transport Services said, but that would depend on whether DHL agrees on a plan to use rival United Parcel Service to handle its US packages instead.

ABX Air and Air Transport Services are still assessing the impact of DHL's move on their business, the spokesman added, and will likely release their delayed quarterly financial report later this week.

(Reuters)

wow. guess things aren't going so well. source

Ya' Think?!

In an interview, Bush cited some of his regrets throughout his Presidency.

``I regret saying some things I shouldn't have said,'' Bush said. He cited comments he made after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he said of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden: ``I want justice. There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'''

He also said he regretted telling Iraqi insurgents in 2003: ``There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on.''

He went on to cite a few other regrets, but there are some glaring omissions. So I thought I'd help out.

1) the war in Iraq. - Umm.....are you ready to admit we shouldn't have gone there? Maybe, I dunno, you wanted bin Laden, so you could have gone to....uhhh what's that place called? Afghanistan!!!

2) the inability to master the English language and understand that the meaning of a sentence is based on the placement of words

Here are a few:

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."

"I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency."

source

Get Away from Me, You Smell Like Old Spice

Old Bond vs. New Bond

(5) Songs to Listen to - 11/12/08

not in a blogging mood today. But I'll still give you some gems

1) Nude - In Rainbows - Radiohead
2) Devil's Pie - Voodoo - D'Angelo
3) Oh No - The Carter II - Lil Wayne
4) Baba O'Reiley - the Who
5) Us - She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge

Rick James of the Animal Kingdom

"Charlie Murphy, I propose a truce....the stickiest of the icky."

via Brooke

Ron Artest: The Greatest Team Player. EVER

Against the Clippers, Ron Artest set the new record for assists in a game. The NBA, where amazing happens.

Or where really bad on-screen errors happen. I forget.

The Absurdity

As the housing crunch continues, people are struggling to make ends meet. In Mountain House, California many are having trouble even paying their mortgages. Declining housing values are setting in fast.

The Martinezes bought their house in early 2005 for $630,000. It is now worth about $420,000. They have an interest-only mortgage, a popular loan during the boom that allows owners to forgo principal payments for a time.[emphasis added]

But these loans eventually become unmanageable. In 2015, Mr. Martinez said, his monthly payments will be $12,000 a month. He laughed and shook his head at the absurdity of it. [emphasis added]

Umm....excuse me!? $12,000 A MONTH!? First of all, why did you take an interest-only mortgage? Second, what is this "absurdity" you're laughing at? Hindsight that taking an interest-only mortgage was a bad idea, or are you laughing because you think it's ridiculous that these things even exist. Martinez goes on to say,

But Mr. Martinez acknowledges that it has entered his mind to turn his house back over to the bank. “By next June, if things aren’t better, I’m walking,” Mr. Martinez said.

Ummm, I'm pretty sure it's not going to turn around that fast. Now, while I feel for these people, it's hard to validate buying a $600k home using an interest-only mortgage. Why are you trying to forgoe the principle payments?! They're still going to be there. Again, not a finance major, but I'm pretty sure interest is structured based on the principle amount of the loan.

All I can say is, I'm glad I left California. The American dream seems to be dying there.

source: NY Times

(5) Songs to Listen to - 11/11/08

1) Back Like That (Remix) f/ Ne-Yo - Kanye West
2) The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - Weezer
3) The Meantime - Spacehog
4) Take Me to the Hospital - The Faint
5) Cheated Hearts - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Carmelo Might Get Fat

Melo's personal chef may be going to the House. The WHITE HOUSE

Currently, Daniel Young waits amongst three other chefs to possibly serve as the White House Chef. That must be awesome, regardless of who the president is. Apparently, he cooked for President-Elect Obama during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Chef: Daniel Young

Young cooked for Obama at the Democratic National Convention.

Current Job: Personal chef to Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony.

Signature Style: Young is a fan of using spices to bring out the flavor in low-calorie dishes. His signature dish is seafood stew with crab-stuffed chicken breasts

The good news, he sounds like a good chef (seafood stew!? crab-stuffed chicken breasts!?). The bad news, Melo will probably put on more pounds. But then again, I don't care.

On a side-note, the other two in the running currently own and operate restaurants in the Chicago area. So if Obama really wants change, he goes for Young. Right?

source: Daily News

Get Your Starbucks

Stock.

Starbucks isn't doing so well. Maybe it's because they charge exorbitant prices for coffee. Just a guess.

Net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended September 28 dropped 97
percent to $5.4 million, after Starbucks took $105.1 million in charges related
to its restructuring and turnaround efforts.

No, that's not a misprint. Ninety-seven percent drop. Wow. Maybe you need to drop your prices and close the Starbucks located on every other block and inside the mall in between those two blocks. Not that I'm some whiz of a financial advisor, but I think you've over-saturated the market a-la MF Doom, who dropped 5 albums in 2004 and 15 total since 2001. So, in summation, Starbucks is to coffee what MF Doom is to indie rap (I never was good at those analogy sections on those standardized tests).

I Would Like the Be This Panda

It's having a freakin BLAST

via fellow Panda, Laura

A View to an Appetizer (or side-dish)

Finally, they got it right. Bacon > Fries. EVERYTIME.
In other news, Orthodox Jews are not happy with the results.

Digital Conversion

thank you jackie.

Got SWATTED!

How does a 7'6" dude get swatted by a 6'6"/6'7" guy?



That's how kids....

(10) Songs to Listen to - 11/10/08

1) Because They Made It That Way - Sleepyheads - Mr. Lif
2) The Narrow Path - Below the Heavens - Blue and Exile
3) Superconnected - Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
4) Slow Country - Gorillaz - Gorillaz
5) February Stars - the Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters
6) Exchange - Mezzanine - Massive Attack
7) Those With Big Egos - The Chronic 2001 - Dr. Dre
8) Somebody to Love - White Rabbit and Other Hits - Jefferson Airplane
9) Sympathy for the Devil (live cover) - David Byrne
10) Fire - Put it on the Line - Ghostface and Trife da God

What A Bummer

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6104542.html

An elephant at the Houston Zoo died this past weekend. He was 2.

Mac, an Asian elephant whose birth was a cause for celebration at the Houston Zoo scarcely more than two years ago, died Sunday night after a brief battle with the elephant herpes virus, zoo officials said this morning.

"The entire zoo staff is absolutely devastated," said zoo spokesman Brian Hill. "It's difficult to put into words and describe the attachment that has developed over the past two years.

"This is a terrible loss, especially for the elephant keepers and veterinary medical staff who cared for Mac during his time with us," Hill said.

Sad day. Here are some photos of Baby Mac.