Serena Flying in the Air with her iPad

The new year is almost done with its first month. Classes are solid, getting the schedual is becoming accustamery, and news is int he air...
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First off, I was watching the Australian Open, and wow, haha. I was talking to my roomate albert, who is a powerlifter and looks huge for hsi size, and I was telling him how Serena Williams could probobly kick his butt. He was like, yea, she is big, but naw, no way. Then I turned on the TV and there she was...playing and swinging her raquet...her huge body in glory. She is so huge. Her quadricepts is like the size of Albert´s core, and his core is huge. Holy Cow. So I just want to make all yall aware...that dont take Tennis Female players lightly, they will likely rick your butt. Starting with Serena Williams.




And Guess who won the Austrelian Open this year? You´re looking at her. 12 Single´s Grand Slam Titles and 11 Doubles Grand Slam Titles...her nickname might as well be Miss Grand Slam.
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Something else that is pretty big news...at Least I think so. I got up one morning in Chicago getting ready for the Northwestern game (of which we will not speak of) to find the USA today outside my hotel door. On the front page, I see something detremential. Sure, it is one news story, but it is the mentality that we must be aware of. During the past six years, millions of passengers have flown on at least 65,000 US Air flights that should never have left the ground due to maintainance problebmes, the USAtoday 6 month investigation found. This is a mentality issue. How can we target so much attention on screening tecnology, no fly list, cockpit saftly, and terrorist issues when we have issues of our own! We have piles and pile sof problems, but instead of taking care of what we can do, we focus on what we cannot do and put our efforts and attention on it. This is the problem with politics on a national scale, this is a problem in our local businesses and schools, and even at the house. We need to focus on what we can handle and work on dealing with the larger issues. If you let it slip by at home, then it makes sence that 65,000 flights with mecanical problems that you could have been onboard, have flown in the last 6 years.
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So the iPad came out...now what? Is this gonna be a revolutionary tecnological advancement? Or is this just a pretty boy toy from the pretty boy of all boy companies, Apple. Yes, I am writting this on my black mac book. Yes I have a unlocked and jailbroken iPhone 2G. And yes I use apple software and recomend it. But why on earth create something like a large iPod touch and give it the hype of a $45 million blockbuster hit movie on 3-D? Steve Jobs says it was supposed to hit the gap between phone and laptop. Is there really a gap? Is there a need to fill that gap? What can it do...surf the Web, play games, watch high-definition movies, listen to music, dispatch and receive e-mail and read electronic books and newspapers. Alright, that is everything that the iPod touch can do. Ok. What can it do better?
-It has a bigger screen...ok, not bad. 10inches. Ok. Anything else?
-It has an ibook application that can read books and magazines and newspaper like a Kindle.
-Can it play flash? No
-Does it have a high speed processor to run different applications? No
-Does it have a camera for web conferenceing? No
-BUT, geuess what? ...it has WiFi...so you can get online as long as there is a internet wireless port in your vecinity. OR you can buy the 3G upgrade capability for $130 extra along with a AT&T $30/month plan to get data anywhere


...here is my big problem. It is not Creating New Media, or creating anything new in any sence of the word...it is only about Consuming. And that is the problem I have about it. There is nothing new. Sure, we will see how much of the market it will take from the ebook market, considering the iPad is 2-3 time more expensive than the other competators, such as Amazon Kindle and Sony-s ebooks. Why carry along a laptop, a smart phone AND some big pad. I mean, it looks good, but lack of physical keyboard, no video camera, and limited internet because of disabilities such as Flash leave the iPad as a only so-good type of player. Its good, but only at a few things...that can already be done on your iPod Touch. Yes, you iPod touch. Alright. My iPhone can do everything that that sucker tcan do (minus having to pay for books through the iBook application...I just do it for free). So yea, not me, not my dollars. I wonder to see what happens int he market. This was the worse kept secret for Apple EVER, since people have been expecting it for like up to 2 years. But it is finally here now. And lets see what happens. We will surely be talking about this again in the future.
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Last thing, the Basketball team has not been doing well. Losses after lossses. Some have been close, some have been blow outs, such as the Northwestern game. We hope to change things around. Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State have not been pretty losses. Infact, Michigan State hurt SO much because we barely lost, at the very very end of the game. Peedi almost had the out of bounds play of the year, but barely missed. Lets see what we got left.
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Federer and Wimbledon 2009

Well Wimbleton was here again and it was awesome. It was really exciting to see. Venus and her sister Serena went at it and unfortunately Venus broke down int he end and Serena took it to the end. I felt like Venus could have competed soi much better but it happens. It was still fun to watch, but left little of an impression compared to the men's final.


You can check out the video and article of the match here


Then the men´s finalys...oh what a game. The significance was huge too. Pete Sampras is a legend, he is the one who defined all odds at 19 in the US Open and along the way, he defeated sixth-ranked Thomas Muster in the fourth round and third-ranked Ivan Lendl in a five-set quarterfinal, breaking Lendl's streak of eight consecutive US Open finals. He then defeated 20th-ranked McEnroe in a four-set semifinal to set up a final with fourth-ranked Agassi. Sampras beat Agassi in straight sets to become the US Open's youngest-ever male singles champion at the age of 19 years and 28 days. What else does Sampras have for him?...14 Grand Slam champions, which is the record that has been unreachable...until Federer started his all-star career. Federer has just tied Sampras at 14 a peice and if he wins this game, not only will his combeack be official and not only wil be he chiziled in history for one of the best ever, but if he wins this and takes the lead at 15, he will become the best Grand Slam Tennis player in Men´s History.
I started to watch at the third set and Roderick was holding his own. I was really impressed and kept waching and watching as the two would battle it out. It was amazing to me to see that Federer, in all his glory, could not break Rodderick´s serve, at all! He couldnt and didnt all game long. And I kept wathcing and watching and we got to the first set, oh that dear 5th set. But they kept at it, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, no one could break the other´s set. Then 5-5, 6-6, 7-7! But Alas, I had work! I had to go to freakin work! I left at 7-8 and arrived and they were sitll playing! It was 8-9 when I got here but since I was opening up I had to run aroun and get the window open and then I turned on the tv but that was at the front and I had all these people calling and comming to the window for some reason. I set up the interent radio for it but the one by the window didnt have speakers so I was watching the scoreboard live and its going and its going 13-13, 14-14...and I am ust waiting for someone to break the other´s serve. Now Federer had his serve first, so he would go up a lot by one game, but then Roderick would win his serve and tie it up. So it gets to 15-14 Federer, and there were so many close calls, and I am helping this large guy at the window and he gives me these stupid vouchers to redeem for tickets, and right then the score changed...16-14...and I was like NO!!!! And I slammed on the table really hard. I was like "Sorry, sir, it has nothing to do with you." And then I was like NOOO!!!! again and slammed on the table again as I pulled out the tickets. "History has just been made and I missed it. I had to watch it on the freakin screen." He looked at me and walked off. Looser. Hahaha Dangit I missed one of the biggest moments in history and had to wach it on the freakin screen. I couldnt even watch it or even hear it! Ahhh!

Video and Article here

But yea, Federer won and it was glorious. Sampras was there to witness it and yea, summer 2009 at Wimbledon will be talked about for ages, and I was stuck at the freakin ticket window. Kinda cool, right?

Super Bowl Weekend and Austrelian Open Champion

This weekend was awesome. First off, the Australian open was going on, and I was really hoping for Nadal to win. Well, the story book ending happened, when Nadal and Federer squared off. The match was so so so intense. Nadal won the first one ever though he was down 4-5, won 3 strait to win the set. Federer won the second set, Nadal won the third in tiebreaker, then Federer convincingly won the 4th 6-2, and then Nadal for the finish. It was Nadal´s 1st win at the Australian grand slam, and it was so cool to see.



But the biggest game by far was the Superbowl. I was so excited. I ended up doing no homework this weekend; it was so bad. Joe, our friend that works for UCO in Lansing, but who is from Pittsburg and a die-hard Steelers fan, came down to Ann Arbor to watch the game with us. Man Month was over (Nooooo!!!) and so we had a shaving party Saturday night. We all hung out and had a good time. We also filmed footage for the Man Month Video (stay posted for that!). Sunday morning we all woke up and 6 of us ended up going to Christ the King. It was the first time since Easter Vigil that I had been there, and it rocked. It was funny because A couple of us had some scraggy beards that were like weird, haha. So we got a lot of completements because we were 6 big dudes with weird beards...just like we like it. After that we went to Big Boys, second time I have ever been there. It was unusually warm, but that was a good thing. After we chilled there for like 2 hours, Joe me and Ben came back to the Pentadude momentarily and then went to on of the brother´s house.

There at the house they have this sick HD TV that is really sweet. I got to see some of the tennis rerun and it was so cool. Then we played some more Settlers of Catan, and this was one epic game. We played for about an hour and a half, and we stopped with me having 9 points (9 points! I needed one more!). Then the game started, and it was epic. So here is the thing: I dont care who wins. I love Curt Warner, and Breaston and Woodley, so like I was fine either way. And the resceiver for Arizona, Fitzgerald was so so so good. I was amazed. And the interception in the goal line for the 100 yard return by a big linebacker was epic. I was jumping all around having a good time. But then the tides turned when Arizona caught up in the fourth and actually scored with a few minutes to play. And then with just a few seconds on the clock, Pittsburg scored again with a rediculous catch in the end zone! It was so nuts and I was going bonkers! Hahaha.




Then after the football game we watched the special edition of the Office and it was pretty funny. The commercials were pretty good this year. There were a lot of good ones. The highlife commercial was aweomse, haha. This one was one of my favorite ones:


Then we came back to the settlers game, and I was supposed to win but then freakin Ben came back and won! No way! I was supposed to win and lost at the very end! He accumilated 3 points on his turn and came back to beat me. I should have won! Every time I play the expansion set I loose by 1. I always have 9 and am always ruined! Oh well, it was a fun night with the dudes. And I didnt do any homework, so it was pretty sweet.

Summer Keeps going

This is the part of the summer when most of the fun and unusual things end and work and stuff keeps rolling. This is where I am now, and it is not that great.

I am working with the hooks all the time now. Every game, I am there, working down in the tunnel area now. I still like the people there and I think they still like to see my face, haha. Check out the schedual along wit promotions and score updates at www.cchooks.com

I was supposed to help the football team a bit at my old high school as an assistance summer coach, but that hasnt worked out too well thus far. Hopefully I can put more days into it as my baseball schedule waves around.

I started an accounting class at Texas A&M Corpus Christi on the 7th of July. The class is exactly 1 month long, so I will finish it the 7th, giving me plenty of time before going back up to Ann Arbor. It is the intro to financial accounting, acc231 transfer to Michigan. Econ101 just ran me over in Michigan. It was my only C- and it was so frusterating. Accounting is supposed to be 4 times harder. Remember, Michigan has the number one business school in the nation. All the basketball managers told me to take it at my local college during the summer. So that is what I am doing...I ended up having my first midterm on the 16th...it was THE EASIEST test I have ever taken in college! It was rediculous! Super easy! I got there 5 minutes late, everyone had started, and I finished befroe most people...I mean, it took me 10 minutes to do! ¡Dang! But hey....I have no complaints. I really want an A to carry back up with me to Michigan. I have yet to make an A, only a few A-s so it would be nice.


I have to back track a few weeks ago to the Wimbledon Finals. That was THE MOST AMAZING FINALS I HAVE EVER SEEN! Federer is always the man. His stroke is so smooth and he can place it just about wherever he wants. Nadal is the come up kid, the fresh legs, still working his way up the ranks, and in this case, is #2 in the world...Nadal won the first 2 sets, needed 1 more, but in tiebreaker in the 3rd, after winning in the tiebreaker, Federer comes back and wins the 3rd. In the fourth, same case...Nadal needs one more, is doing excellent, but Federer manages to grab his second set with the tiebreaker win. It is amazing to consider how somone so dominant as Federer only won his 2 lone sets by tiebreaker. But in the 5th set...it was beautiful. Nadal just wisking his way, win point by point until his biggest challenge, the All-England Club, was finally his for the record books. Truely an awe-inspiring match. Amazing. I will never forget this one. And let me tell you, neither are the fans or the sport junkies...this one was all over ESPN after it was over. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/wimbledon08/news/story?id=3475473


Well, people, I want to hear your words...what do you want to talk about? Table tennis? The Olympics? Team USA Basketball? What do you want?

End of school maham

Well Fokes....I was so busy these past 2 weeks that I didnt even have time to stop by and say hi! It was terrible! Work coming out of my nostrils and all other bodily openings! Its wasnt even funny! But alo, I am here now. And so we begin

School was nuts. My Movement Science 110 final was pretty good. Hard, but I got a B. Overall in the class I got a B. Thats great at Michigan. I studied a lot for my econ101 final. Of course I should have studied more, but I picked up some extra shifts on friday and saterday...I wont tell you how much I worked those days, but I will tell you that they were a lot. So of course when those days were gone, I killed my butt studying for econ101 all sunday, monday and tuesday. I worked and worked, and it seemed I was getting the concept down...and I really was, really, but then that blasted last exam came around tuesday night and the rest was history. It was so hard. I didnt know what was going on. It was definitely harder than the last exams covering the same material. There were 33 questions. 10 were true/false, and the rest were multiple choice. I had to guess on 6 of them, completely guess b/c I didnt know what the heck was going on. They would show you a graph of the marginal cost tell you the average total cost was at minimum, and expect you to advise the monopoly whether they should increase or decrease output, increase or decrease price, and that was if you said stay open in the first place! Baaa! So essentially I guessed 6/23, thats like freakin 25%! It was terrible! I wanted to kill someone! But I was too tired and brain dead to do so! I turned in my exam to my GSI and told her it was butt hard. She said it was surprisingly hard for her too...which tells you something....

After the exam that tuesday night I went strait to the St Mary end of year dance thingy. It rocked as usual. I went to the Christmas one and had a blast, and this one was swell as well (thats a rimmer!). At first I was so frustrated about the exam, so my friend Devon took me up stairs and we wrestled to get the frustration out. I beat him real fast, but it did a great job of getting that frustration out. I was going crazy in the dance again. My dancing skills have improved leaps and bounce since last year, no joke, really, like I can actually dance kinda now. You have to believe me (Arce and Casey). I have been working diligently to get some some, natural moves down, and I am at the level were I can just hit the floor and not worry about how undanceful I am any more. Good stuff

Weds they had a barbecue at my dorm, and when they do something like that at Bursley on North Campus, its a big deal, cause we have over 1000 students living there. So in stead of getting there when everyone else would, I went to lift and came back at the end, and there was still a huge line. But I played some football and stuff...you just had to stay out there cause the weather was so good! Finally Michigan turned sunny! Finally Ann Arbor came to its amazing spring self! I mean, sure the leaves were not out yet, but hey, the temperature was a perfect 72 degrees, with the sun out not too bright, with a smooth breeze, and I could go on and on, cause it was perfect. So I spent a little too much time with my friends, but it was worth it.

(Me and Marc, my buddy from Cameroon that lived right next to my room)

So I did finish classes and my last final on tuesday, the 15th of April. But I had 2 papers due at noon on friday. I also had to pack all my storage boxes and my boxes shipping back home for the 3-5 pick up on friday. So I was flying, trying to get through this paper as fast and as good as I could. I had the great idea of playing tennis with on of my buds there, Eugene, and we played out in the sun from 11:30 to 2pm. I lost the first set 6-2, it was pathetic. But I lead in the second match starting 2-0. We tied 2-2, then I lead 4-2, then we tied 6-6. We fought back and forth and then I finally lost 9-7. It was crap. SO close! It was my first game in ages. But the sun killed me as I always does, and Im not just talking about the sun burn. I got a massive head ache. It was terrible. I wanted to do nothing but sit around the rest of the day. But I had to work. And then I had to write my papers. I ended up taking an hour and 1/2 nap b/c everything felt so weak. Then I wrote some more and more until I finished at 2:30 am. Then Eugine came back to taunt me cause he beat me and b/c I looked so tired and weak and he only needs 3 hrs of nap time a day. And with that I began to clean! And Pack! and Clean! And then I died at 5:30. I got up at 7, packed a little more, then took a 1/2 hr nap, packed packed packed, and then I left at 10:30 to go to my meeting. I dropped of my 2 papers and went to my meeting at cottage inn with the St Mary NCSA (Newman Church Student Association). Then I went back, packed like a freak, cleaned and was done by 3:45, just like I needed to. I had 3 boxes for shipping, 2 of storage, 1 plastic container of storage, and a cleaned refrigerator for storage. I had way too much crap with me. After that, I went to drop off some stuff, picked up my suitcases from a friends house, and went to the Briarwood mall with Annika before she leaves forever back in Germany. I was lucky enough to borrow a friend of mine's car. Matt is awesome- just for the record. He wants to start his own gaming developing firm, so all you should buy the games he makes, cause he is a great guy. I will remind you guys in the future, so dont worry about it too much now. So I did all my errands, got back and packed my bags, or tried to squeeze everything that was left in those bags, and then died again. I was kinda sick cause of the sun/lack of sleep, so that night was not pleasant. But considering it was more than the last few days combined, it was nice. I was sleeping on a bare matrice cause everything was already shipped. I stole Pete's blanket, my roommate (no, pete is my roommate, not the blanket silly!) and that helped a little. I did wake up a few time drenched in sweat. I was sleeping in the same clothes I wore all day cause thats all I had. I got up that morning, tried to figure out what to do to sign out, and finally left with Miriam Torrez, my awesome Godmother who took me to the airport. This was the first time American Airlines has ever been good to me. I actually got to Corpus on Time and with all my luggage! A miracle indeed!

W3ll, being back in the hot, humid Coprus was strange, but kinda nice. My dad and two younger bros, Christopher (AKA Skunk...dont ask) and Michael (Aka Sumo/Mega Wario) were jumping up and down to greet me. Michael even had a shirt that said "MR. HAPPY" and had a smiley face on it, haha. We went back home to see my mom and Carlos (AKA HotDog), oh, and the dog (Pepper, the only other female in the house). My dad finally decided to complete his Texaness and bough a grill. He loves grilled food, he just doesnt like the smell afterwards on his clothes and hair (Weak Sauce!), but he finally got one. So we grilled and ate outside by the pool and fountain and chatted the night away. Then of course we watched basketball together. Thats kinda my imprint on the family. I love to watch NBA, especially the playoffs, and since the playoffs began this saterday, we watched some of the first few games to come. Those darn spurs! GRRRR! I give Tim Duncan credit, but looser Manu Ginobli had to make the game winner to lead the Spurs over the Suns by 2 points in double overtime. And then the rockets just flopped. It was ugli. We will see what happens in the future.

Ok guys, I think I have spoken long enough. I had a lot to fill you in. Upcoming is my first week in Texas, including my new job with the Corpus Christi Hooks, so we will see how that goes. Also, more playoff action ahead, and who knows what else! Adios! -DP