Sports Updates

UFC 117- was SICK! Anderson Silva!!! He showed me he wasn't just going to give Chael the belt even though he had lost every round & I almost shit my pants when he locked in that triangle w/ less than 2 minutes left. "Cigano" Junior Dos Santos beat the hell out of Roy Nelson & Jon Fitch, Clay Guida, Stefan Struve & Matt Hughes all had fantastic wins. Fitch dominated Thiago Silva. Guida & Struve both had sweet come-from-behind wins. Matt Hughes choked out BJJ practitioner Ricardo Almeida w/ a wrestling choke.

Atlanta Braves- are only up 2 games against the Phillies, but McCann is one of the best hitters in baseball right now & if we can just keep playing solid ball, we'll ride our NL East Championship all the way to the World Series

Dallas Cowboys- play first pre-season football game against Ochocinco, T.O. and the Bengals tonight, but pre-season football sucks so I don't care. Dez is out 4-6 weeks. Spears is out 4-6 weeks. I'm pissed.

MY DISCUSSION AUDIO QUESTION

due to a computer malfunction I am not even going to attempt to describe, I cannot post my final discussion question. This will hurt my discussion average pretty bad, so in a last ditch effort. I will be answering the question in text, in hopes of some pity points.

Which Web 2.0 tool would be most effective for my business?

I would use all social networking sites. I do not believe we have even began to see how effective social media can be used & I believe websites like Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn can be used to not only help growth of a business, but also to help in the customer service areas that are generally not efficient.
Facebook is a site that could more allow users to become more familiar with what your business is & how it can be used by the consumer. Twitter is one I would use mostly for feedback because it is easier for the user to send you a message & it is just as easy for us to respond to it, either publicly or by direct message.

WarDriving101

more fav vids

Swagger Coach w/ Taavon from Aziz Ansari

Cheap MS Office 2007 Software

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Discussion Question #4

I believe companies can use social media to help them w/ their PR (Public Relations). It allows CEO's of companies to let users send them comments on their business & it gives them a simple medium to respond. In this article, I found that Loic Le Meur, CEO of Seemic, uses much of his twitter to respond to people's comments on his company.

I know from personal experience, that Matisyahu, a musician, was scheduled to play at a festival on the coast of MS a few months ago. My friend missed his act due to weather & she tweeted him that she was very sad he could not play at the festival that weekend. He sent her a Direct Message asking for her address & some personal info & he mailed her 2 VIP passes to a show in Atlanta to make up for her missing his show.

These are just a few examples of how a company or business can use simple measures to ensure the happiness of their customers.

59 days.......

Only 59 days until I get to go to my first LIVE UFC event!!!!!

UFC Fight Night 22 in Austin, TX.

Google Maps tells me the trip is 12 hours. & since no one was willing to commit to going w/ me, I'll be going by myself.

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

The listed fights from MMAWeekly.com are:

-Damian Maia (12-2; #5 Middleweight)* vs. Alan Belcher (15-5)
-Mac Danzig (19-8-1) vs. Matt Wiman (12-5)
-Jim Miller (17-2; #10 Lightweight)* vs. Gleison Tibau (21-6)
-Nick Catone (8-2) vs. Tomasz Drwal (17-3)
-Efrain Escudero (13-1) vs. John Gunderson (23-7-1)

Alan Belcher is one of my favorite fighters to watch & Danzig vs Wiman & Miller vs Tibau are def not going to disappoint.

This will truly be the highlight of my year.

did I mention I got Floor seats? Row 5. Be jealous =)

Sports Review

Atlanta Braves- My Braves finished the 1st half of the season up 4 games in the NL East. We sent 5 players to the All Star game w/ Tim Hudson, Jason Heyward (didn't play), Omar Infante, Martin Prado, & Brian McCann, who hit the 3 run double that won the All Star game for the National League for the first time in 14 years.

The fun didn't end there. The Braves then they traded Yunel Escobar for Alex Gonzalez, who is having a more productive season at the plate.

I will settle for nothing less than making the playoffs & would love Bobby Cox to get a championship in his last year as our coach.

World Cup- Spain, the favorites before the cup started, won their first World Cup against The Netherlands in what can only be described as a battle of attrition that was hard to watch at times. 14 fouls. No goals in regulation. Spain scored the lone goal after a Dutch player was taken off due to a red card.

UFC- I am hoping to get tickets for UFC Fight Night 22 in Austin, TX on September 15th. Alan Belcher (one of my favorite fighters), a middleweight from Biloxi, MS, is fighting Demian Maia in a fight in which a win would send him to the upper echelon of the middleweight division. Not only am I am fan of Belcher's, but I am a HUGE UFC fan & going to my first live UFC event would be something I would never forget. I will update when I learn more.

Movie Reviews

I'm not going to go real in depth on the reviews for these movies. Just gonna give my 2 cents. I'm a huge movie freak, so don't be surprised if in the future you see me giving out lots of high grades. I LOVE movies.

Toy Story 3- 10/10. I find it amazing that they could improve upon the already impressive first & second movies. Pixar has done it again.

Despicable Me- 10/10. Highly original plot & I never got bored.

The Box- 7/10. Not quite sure why a bunch of my friends gave this movie such a bad rating. Although frustrating at times, I found it quite enthralling. I'm almost certain most people who end up hating it, do so because it is fairly depressing.

Chloe- 6/10. Interesting plot, but can never give a high grade when i guess the end in the first 30 minutes. Has a good moral though: Communication in a relationship is PARAMOUNT.

Predators- 8/10. Many will disagree w/ this, but I did enjoy it.

On a more serious note.....

lots of people could learn a lot from these videos

I LOVE INTERNET VIDEOS!!!!!

& I WILL BE POSTING SOME OF MY FAVORITES ON MY BLOG.

beginning w/ these....



the truth hurts, but it's good to find some humor in something so awful




best reaction to a rainbow ever?

The Button - watch more funny videos

died laughing when I first saw this spoof of The Box




Wanda from In Living Color....Classic

WORLD CUP WEEKEND!!!!!

It's the weekend we have all been waiting for. And by all, I mean a few million Americans, the rest of the world and me. IT'S WORLD CUP CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND!!!!!

Saturday, we get our fix with the 3rd Place game between Germany & Uruguay. I personally see Germany winning this, especially with The Germans many 3rd Place finishes in the Cup in previous years, but I am not so confident to count out Uruguay due to their stingy defense & Diego Forlan.

Then, Sunday, we get the Main Attraction. The Netherlands vs Spain. Paul, the soccer predicting octopus, has only been wrong once (Germany vs Spain 2008) so he has about a 90-95% accuracy rate. He picked The Spanish to win it all. I can't disagree. They tore apart The Germans who appeared to have the best TEAM in the Cup.

I expect it to be a highly contested game & the only result that would surprise me would be a blowout. This one should go down to the wire. But what do I know?

All I do really know is I am glad I picked both in my World Cup bracket, which I won already by picking both teams to make the finals, so I can sit back, relax, & watch the beautiful game played between two of the top 4 ranked teams in the world (Dutch #4, Spain #2).

But I did pick Spain 3-1 in my bracket. So I'll stick w/ that since I've done so well with all my other picks. But realistically I'd say 2-1 Spain.

Everyone Else Is Talking About LeBron. Guess I Will Too

So LeBron James went to Miami.

Can't really blame him. They got beautiful scenery. They got Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh, 2 high quality consistent double-double guys. They got a President/Coach in Pat Riley that has proven he can win championships.

So why the backlash?

I don't think anyone really blames him for leaving Cleveland. I think it's how he did it.

Why did he do it the way he did? Couldn't he have just held a presser in Cleveland or Miami or Connecticut & said it was his time to go? Did he have to give everyone the run around?

Rumors say that in '08, the Miami Three & Chris Paul all became such good friends, that they decided they would all play together whenever given the opportunity. Well now we got 3 of them together.

LeBron is getting a lot of bad PR and deservedly so. He appears to have tried to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, forgetting that everything he has done has been made public since he was in junior high and people rarely forget when 4 of basketball's greats make a pact with each other.

Oh well. He better win. And I'm not talking about win games. They better win CHAMPIONSHIPS. Soon. They have a team that people cant wait to play with on their Xbox 360s and Playstation 3s. He left his home town that did nothing but worship him and call him a "King" without ever winning them a championship.

I will admit. I will not be pulling for the Miami Heat, but I will be watching.

Lohan Gets 90 Days In Jail

I usually don't find celebrity news entertaining, but when someone who breaks the law over & over again & thinks they are above it & will never be punished, I am highly entertained.

Sports Updates

Atlanta Braves- My Braves have been rolling as of late. They are 14 games over .500 & are 2 games above the Mets in the run for the lead in the NL East. They are not over-powering in any certain category, but strong outings from the pitchers & clutch hitting is the main reason for their success. Let's just hope they keep it up after the All-Star break.

UFC 116- BEST fight card I've sen in years, if not ever. The prelims began w/ (11-1)Ricardo Romero submitting Petruzelli, the Kimbo Slice Killer by armbar, the TUFfer Brendan Schaub TKO'ing mma veteran Chris Tuchscherer & then Gerald Harris knocking out Dave Branch with a powerful slam to the mat that won him Knockout of the Night Bonus of $75k.

The main card fights were equally as entertaining. George Sotiropoulos defeated Kurt "Batman" Pellegrino by Unanimous Decision which was the least entertaining of the aired fights. Then came the "money fights". Stephan Bonnar had a great come from behind win against Krzystof Soszynski when he landed a strong knee in the 2nd round. They both received a $75k bonus for Fight of the Night award. Then, Chris Lytle defeated Matt Brown with a crucifix that turned into a straight armbar. Although Lytle did not win a Submission of the Night bonus, Dana White later said he would compensate Lytle for his fine performance.

The Co-Main Event was Yoshihiro Akiyama vs Chris Leben. Leben was a huge underdog, having just fought 2 weeks prior & taking the fight on short notice, but he refused to leave without the win. He lost the 1st round, but came out throwing in the 2nd & at the end of the round, it was clear the winner of the 3rd would win the judges decision. But Leben refused to let it go to the judges & he beat Akiyama the entire round & forced him into a triangle choke with a mere 20 seconds left in the fight. This fight also garnered a Fight of the Night award, giving both fighters a $75k bonus.


The Main Event was a battle between the Interim Heavyweight Champ, (12-0) Shane Carwin and the current Heavyweight Champion, (4-1) Brock Lesnar. Shane had won the Interim title in his previous fight when he KO'ed Frank Mir while Brock Lesnar was recovering from diverticulitis &mono. In the 1st round, Shane jumped all over Brock & hit him with bomb after bomb & it appeared he was going to win the fight, but he gassed. He had nothing left & before we knew it, the 1st was over & Brock was still there. Shane, who had never been out of the 1st round, appeared to have no cardio. In th 2nd, Brock took Shane down, & in a couple of minutes sunk in an arm-choke triangle & forced Carwin to tap. Brock won Submission of the Night. The undisputed UFC Champ Brock Lesnar will now fight Cain Velasquez for his next title defense.

Dallas Cowboys- small bit of news can be summed up in 3 words.......SUPER BOWL BOUND!!!

LeBron James- I don't think anyone really knows where he's going to end up. The "news" is that he should announce Thursday where he will play, but last week they said it would be Monday. As tired of it as I am of hearing about it all the time, I'm still highly interested.

World Cup- The Netherlands defeated Uruguay 3-2 to reach the Championship game. Tomorrow, the Germans face the Spanish to see who will meet the Dutch in the Final World Cup match.

Drinking Death at Ruben's Causes a Stir Within Community

In case you haven't heard, on May 31st, at Ruben's Catfish House in Columbus, MS, a 46 year old man, who was an regular patron of the bar, died after being involved in a drinking contest w/ an off-duty employee.

The off-duty employee and the bartender who was on duty during the incident, have been arrested and charged for selling/furnishing alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person. The maximum penalty for each, if convicted, would be a fine of $500 and six months in jail.

The hot topic around town is not what should be done to ensure something like this never happens again, but how can we punish these two men, one who participated in the game and the other who allowed it to go on under his watch.

Now, I am fairly certain there is no argument over there current charges, as we can all pretty much agree that allowing a drinking contest of this nature (taking straight shots of Crown Royal until one person quit) easily falls under the charges of "selling/furnishing alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person".

The real arguments are coming from people who believe these two should have manslaughter added to their lists of charges. This is where I sincerely disagree.

As I mentioned earlier, the patron who died was 46 years old. Old enough to know better. Old enough to know consequences of binge drinking. He may have been one of those drinkers that could drink a lot and had drank for so long he seriously thought he could beat the odds.

Why do people always look for someone to blame in scenarios similar as this? Why are the cigarette companies sued when people die from using their products for years and years knowing the consequences? Why are people saying these two young men deserve to be charged with manslaughter when they were not forcing this man to drink?

Don't get me wrong. I do think there are some other actions that should be taken with them, first of which is that they should NEVER be allowed to serve alcohol or work at a place that serves alcohol ever again. I don't think that needs explaining. I also believe these men should be forced to go through a series of alcohol related education courses, because they have obviously shown that they were never taught the rights and wrongs and the consequences of their actions when alcohol is involved, one consequence being that the owner of Ruben's will in all likelihood lose his business and possibly every penny earned and more because of this poor, immature lack of judgment, and for that, I would expect a possible lawsuit against the two men for ruining this man's name and livelihood.

As for the people looking to place blame in the death of this patron, in my opinion, the only person truly responsible for this alcohol related death is the man who died. This is a very taboo thing to say and I mean it as no disrespect to the deceased, but he is the one to blame. He was a grown man. He was never, in any way, forced to consume a single bit of alcohol that went down his throat and he agreed to the moronic contest.

We, as a society, need to learn to stop looking for ways to place blame on others in accidental deaths like this and start looking for ways to ensure this does not happen again, not just within the next year, but for generations to come.

A Day Of Upsets

USA loses to Ghana.
Fedor Emelianenko submitted by Fabricio Werdum.

USA losing is an upset, but not a surprise considering the level of talent that Ghana has & the home field advantage, but NOBODY thought that Fabricio Werdum would defeat Fedor, much less submit him in 1 minute & 9 seconds.

WHAT A DAY IN SPORTS!!!!!!

June 19th- TOOL at UNO Lakefront Arena

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of seeing one of the best bands of my generation. TOOL. They are doing a small Summer tour to help prepare for their new album coming out next year. I had never seen them before, but from talking to friends, I knew I was going to see something special.

Let me first say that I've seen some decent bands in my life, although not as many as I would like. I recently saw Govt. Mule, Drive-by Truckers, Widespread Panic (also saw them in Gulf Shores, twice in '08, thrice in '09), North MS All Stars, Five Finger Death Punch, and Earth, Wind, and Fire at Memphis in May. I have seen System of a Down (my personal favorite band) in Atlanta in 2005. I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd open for The Allman Bros in Tupelo. In 2007, got to see The Smashing Pumpkins in Memphis on a Thursday night, then drove 8 hours to VooDoo Fest in New Orleans to see Kings of Leon, Galactic, and Rage Against The Machine Friday night followed by Ben Harper and The Pumpkins yet again on Saturday night.
But I had NEVER seen TOOL.

Going to a TOOL show is hard to describe to anyone who has never been. The intensity of the musicians of something that I've only seen once (RAGE) and the light show/video spectacle is something that can only be described as "Pink Floyd + Generation X". The use of lights is something that is not duplicated in other shows. The lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, lurks in the shadows, knowing his popularity takes away from the other highly skilled musicians in the band. His voice sounds better than any TOOL album I've ever heard. There are LED screens moving from the top of the arena to the stage where the guitarists are playing. The overhead lights sway back and forth as if the arena is shaking. The show was 2 hours. It seemed like 40 minutes. The BEST 40 minutes (2 hours) of my life.

I recommend any lover of music to go see this show.

Blog Updates

I've made some solid updates to my blog. Instead of linking you to Facebook & Twitter, I decided to link you directly to my profiles. Also, I added a link to my IMDB ratings page so you may look & get an idea of what kind of movies i like. I also decided to update my blogger profile to let you know a little more about me.
Also, I intend to be adding more personal blogs along with my school work and hope to have 10-20 followers by the end of next month (I know that isn't much, babysteps....)

U-S-A ! U-S-A !

The USA National Soccer Team has advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup! With a goal over Algeria in extra time, The Yanks have advanced to the round of 16. USA now has a match against Ghana Saturday afternoon and if they win that match, they will face the winner of Uruguay and South Korea on July 2nd.

With FIFA ranked #5 Italy, #9 France, and #13 Greece being eliminated, and teams like Croatia, Russia and Egypt (ranked 10,11 & 12 respectively) not making the tournament, rankings are obviously not important, but I do find it interesting that between USA, Ghana, Uruguay, & South Korea, The Yanks have the highest ranking of all these teams (USA-14, Uruguay-16, Ghana-32, S Korea-47).

At this stage of the game, no match will be easy, especially playing Ghana on their native continent of Africa, but without being put in a bracket with the likes of Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Spain, Germany, or The Netherlands, I see this as the best opportunity for the US National Team to make a run to the semifinals.

People have said our team is not that good & mention our 2 ties as evidence, but I have another piece of evidence for the naysayers. WE HAVE NOT LOST A GAME YET. I am not saying we will make a run to win the World Cup, but I am saying this is our best chance, on the world's biggest stage, to take soccer in our country to another level and bring a new found respect to a sport that every other country already sees as the greatest sport in the world.

Google AdSense

Due to my lack of initiative to do my assignment in a timely manner, my AdSense account will not be registered until after the due date for the assignment. This is not only a lesson in procrastination, but also a lesson in preparation. Had I prepared properly for the assignment (read the assignment when it was given to me), I would have known that this would take 1-2 days to register and I would not be in this predicament.

Sorry Dr. Tollison

Update 5:53PM: I got my AdSense updated, but now it will not let me save my options to add a toolbar, and keeps giving me an error saying, "Error while trying to save your AdSense for Search settings. Please try again later."

I have to go to work soon so if I do not get a chance to fix this problem, I'm sure it will let me finish it tomorrow.

Discussion #2

When a person puts a company's ad on their web page, they usually will receive some sort of monetary compensation for the amount of clicks on that particular ad they receive within a certain time period.
Click Fraud is when a person, automated script, or computer program abuses this by clicking on their own ads by creating a legit web user and manipulating their site visits and receiving more money than they should.
Google has reportedly lost over $1 Billion due to click fraud & have been working on measures to fix it including sharing information with other ad companies about users they suspect may be doing this and creating online forums to discuss other ways ad companies can work together to help fix the problem.
I believe Google should fight this as much as possible because it is dishonest and unethical for anyone who attempts to abuse this.

Discussion Question #1

I believe the pros of a blog outweigh the cons. I think it is convenient for anyone to be able to have the opportunity to post whatever they want on the world wide web. It takes freedom of speech to a whole new level. People can make comments on world and local events, give reviews on restaurants, movies and plays, or they can keep an open diary to share their thoughts and feelings with whomever chooses to read the blog. It also allows the user a channel to vent, or just let their brain be free of things they've been wanting to share, but were neve given the opportunity to share in the real world.

New To Blogging? Watch This Video!

If you are not sure what a blog is or how it works, the video called Blogs in Plain English will help. This video explains why blogs are such a "big deal." To view the video, just click on the large arrow in the middle of the video window below.

Whole-House Surge Protection

It's important to protect all your electronic devices, not just computers, from surges. Printers, televisions, appliances and computer peripherals all require protection. However, it can be inconvenient to use individual surge protectors on all devices that need protection. One solution is to install a whole-house surge protector as shown in this photo. The device is installed by an electrician and is attached to your circuit breaker panel. Whole-house surge protectors function like other surge protection devices, but they protect all electrical devices in the house at once. The typical cost of $200 to $300 (installed) is generally less than buying individual surge protectors for every electrical device in your home.

H4M7ZDV5JVYK is a special code that will have me hooked up w/ Technorati.com

Microsoft Office 2007 for Students - Cheap!

Microsoft is running an offer especially for college students called The Ultimate Steal. For a limited time, students can obtain a copy of Microsoft 2007 Ultimate Edition for only $59.95. To qualify for this offer, you must be enrolled at a US educational institution and have a valid e-mail address that ends in the edu domain. Considering this package is available at retail for around $500, this is a fantastic deal for students. So check it out and save some $$$ today!

Even though you can download the software from the Web site, you should also consider purchasing (for an additional fee) the software on DVD. This will make reinstalling the software much easier in the future in case you have a problem (such as your hard drive fails).