My favorite video game villain.

Bullet Bill is the villain. He has this stare of a madman. He tries to take his enemies down with explosive power. I think Bill is easily provoked into attacking others. Usually if you video game character is standing on the launching pads where Bill will take off from, he won't come out.

Bullet Bill has recently been a helper to characters in last place of the Mario Kart racing games. Thanks a lot, Bill. I'm going to win the race when I should be losing, but I'll be in first place because of your awesome speed.

If only Bullet Bill were a good guy or someone you can rely on instead of him attacking you with his speed, this would be a huge help to Mario. The games would be finished much faster with your character riding his back and smashing all enemies in sight, like sort of that effect you get with a star that makes your video game character invincible.

That is my take on Bullet Bill.

What is flaming?

Flaming is interaction between internet users that is hostile, menacing, defaming, and the purpose is to insult, drag, or otherwise bring down fellow internet users. Why does flaming exist? People generally disagree on topics, however people's strong beliefs on certain things may cause that person to act hostile or angry towards another person that disagrees on a certain subject. Many websites and forums have set up rules that disallow flaming and members disobeying the anti-flaming policy have their profiles and or memberships disabled/deleted/banned.

Where does flaming occur?

1. Internet chat rooms.
2. Instant messaging.
3. Social networking sites
4. Blogs
5. News websites.
6. Video game chats
7. Forums
8. E-mail.
9. Video hosting websites.

Basically any site that allows feedback and comments is where flaming occurs.

What can you do about it?
1. If you're angry, and you're online and you're interacting with others, just stay away from your computer or device for now.
2. If you disagree, do it respectfully, no need to be hostile.
3. If others are giving you insults, do not fight back, and do not return messages.
4. Practice self restraint.
5. Report bad posts to administrators and moderators.
6. If any topics or conversations you are engaging in are making you uncomfortable, then tell your chatting friends to switch the subject.

That's all I'll say for now.

My proposal for improving National Pro Fastpich

These are my thoughts on improving the National Pro Fastpitch league, the only Women's Professional softball league in North America, (at least that's what I know)

1. Every MLB team should adopt a sister softball team and have them play in the NPF.
2. The games should be extended to at least a 100 game schedule.
3. The venues must fit at least 2,000 people.
4. Better promotion to spread out the game of softball.
5. Raise the salary cap or just banish it so women can earn more for their great style of play.
6. Television coverage would be great too. People still have the impression that NCAA softball is the highest level of play.
7. The game is played more frequently in team play than any other sport, both recreational and for competition. This includes schools.

For once America's past time dreams can finally be achieved by women and not just men.

Studying tips for the Spring.

Greek art, philosophy and computers will take over my life for the next four months. In this case I won't be blogging as much, but I would like to share a few tips on studying!

1. Read and reread the material you are responsible for.
2. All arithmetic must be practiced everyday.
3. Taking good notes is essential.
4. If you are a slow reader, take it slow, don't rush.
5. Cramming is no good, especially if you have to memorize formulas.
6. If a tutor exists for your class, go to him or her, it really helps a lot.
7. Balancing extracurricular activities and academics is hard, especially if you are a student-athlete. Time management is key. If you can't do, just focus on your studies.
8. Keep pace with your classes, if you fall behind, get help fast!
9. No cutting class.
10. Study for exams at least two weeks in advance so you have time to absorb all information.
11. Papers are fun and so is research, but remember, do your own work and give credit where credit is due; if you don't that's plagiarism!
12. Hands on work in classes require extra attention, know your work beforehand and objectives.
13. Group work requires that everyone be on the same page. Anyone wandering off and that's big trouble!
14. Avoid all distractions such as television.
15. Have confidence.

Softball is great because...

Softball is great because...

1. It is played by 40 million Americans.
2. It is played by both men and women.
3. Mixed genders can play this sport.
4. The game is shorter than Baseball.
5. Women can showcase their talents.
6. It is not considered corny to hit like a girl.
7. It is played by many other nations around the world.
8. It is the most popular sport outsed by the Olympic Games thus far.
9. You don't hear too much drug issues associated with this sport.
10. The game is faster than baseball.

By the way, the Florida Marlins are visiting Iraq, their blog is a great read:
http://marlinsvisitthetroops.mlblogs.com/

It's been awhile since...

1. I attended a New York Mets game, last one coming in 2007.
2. I went to a circus
3. I went to see the Knicks, last one in 2001.
4. I last saw a whole group of high school friends.
5. I last played a basketball game.
6. I played volleyball.
7. I was an assistant head coach in a Volleyball team.
8. I last purchased a baseball cap.
9. I went to other cities.
10. I did go to Philadelphia for a field trip (in over 6 years)
11. I last rode a ferry.
12. I went to an amusement park to ride a cyclone.
13. I caught a foul ball in a baseball game.
14. I played basketball.
15. I played football (not the American one)
16. I went to an airport.
17. I was walking in grass.
18. I last petted a dog.
19. I ate fried crabs.
20. I last attended high school.

These are my 20 top things it's been awhile since doing them. Whatever came to my thoughts I just wrote down.

I didn't get to do the following:
1. Go to a sporting venue outside New York.
2. Go to the West Coast.
3. Touched California, I hope I can do that someday.
4. Ridden an airplane in years!
5. Ridden the subways, other than Boston, Newark, an New York.
6. Drove an automobile yet.
7. Go meet a baseball player in person.
8. Go meet a softball player in person.
9. (If I were still younger) attend a baseball/softball clinic to better my playing skills in those sports.
10. Basketball camp to help me play basketball.

What is football?

Football as a sport has two different meanings. I'll go with the most popular one worldwide.


1. Football involves kicking and dribbling a rounded ball and kicking it towards an opponents' net to score one goal, which is one point. 11 players are in a team, including the goalkeeper who usually is there to prevent opposing goals from scoring.

The game usually is cut into two halves of 45 minutes each. There is usually extra time if the game is tied after 90 minutes of regulation have passed.

Here is the playing field:



Rules of football:

The ball is out of bounds if the ball crosses the entire line. The opposing team places the ball back in play either by kicking it, throwing it,

Misconduct in football usually results in a yellow card, and a red card for more serious offenses.
Penalty kicks can occur after a foul is committed allowing the opposing team to easily score a goal with only the goalkeeper blocking the goal line.

Here's another football.

This is known as American Football

Like football, American Football has 11 players. This football is somewhat similar to rugby.

Football has several different scoring methods.
A touchdown is worth 6 points. Extra points are 1 (for a extra kick field goal) or 2 (for a extra touchdown)
A field goal is worth 3 points.
A Safety point is worth 2 points, and is done by the defensive team knocking an offensive player down in his own end zone.

The game lasts about 60 minutes and cut into four quarters of 15 minutes each.

Here is the playing field:



This is the player's diagram:


The Offensive line consists of
1. A Quarterback who receives the ball from the center and hands it off to a running back, or wide receivers.
2. Wide Receivers line up near the sidelines and runs to catch the ball.
3. Running backs line up behind the quarterback, handed the ball and runs forward.
4. The offensive line protects the quarterbacks and enables blocking of the defenders to allow wide receivers or running backs to run.
5. Tight ends can act as wide receivers or offensive blockers.

The Defensive line consists of
1. Three to six linemen to counter the offensive line.
2. Two cornerbacks to counter the wide recievers.
3. Linebackers attempt to disrupt the quarterback's progress.

Special teams are used during kickoffs and punts. Their job is to hand the ball to the opponent on their side of the field as close to their end zone without hitting it (otherwise this is a touchback) The Punter kicks the ball to the opponent after a three-and-out.

The return team, receiving the ball tries to return the ball as far as they can, sometimes for a touchdown.

Horoscopes and signs

I just found this interesting image:


Here's another interesting one, actually this is based out of our solar system.



I just thought these were interesting.

Dumb Test Questions

I just found this site with the Dumb Test. Here are the first seven questions.

1. In Baseball, how many outs are in a inning?
2. If there are five apples and you take away three, how many do you have?
3. Lee's parents emigrated from China. They have five children. The first four are named La, Le, Li, and Lo. What did they name the fifth?
4.A red house is made from red bricks, a blue house is made from blue bricks, a pink house is made from pink bricks, and a black house is made from black bricks. What is a greenhouse made from?
5. The Spanish Civil War, which began July 17 of 1936, was fought between:
6. Do they have a Fourth of July in England?
7. Are girls dumber than boys? Or is it the other way around?


Here's a sample SAT Question for the day, if you're taking the SATs

Writing > Improving Sentences (taken from collegeboard.com)

Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

British author Charles Dodgson, best known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, is renowned for when he wrote two of the most famous and admired children’s books in the world, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass.

Answer Choices

• (A) is renowned for when he wrote
• (B) renowned in that he wrote
• (C) received renown, he wrote
• (D) is renowned for writing
• (E) was renowned and wrote

Some of these may require thinking.

http://www.quizrocket.com/dumb-test

The Spring

Spring is a good season, probably the best time of the year because that's when the weather heats up. Trees with their leaves growing the flowers that grow, the green grass that dominates the landscape. That is what I call a season.

Baseball and softball can begin too, hurray, as well as football (no, not the American one) I wish I were a baseball player or football player. I would like to hit home runs and score some goals too. I can do that for fun, however if I were to do this as a profession, I'd have to be playing a sport in college, or high school and get drafted into the Major Leagues.

Spring is a transition between the frigid cold and the sweltering heat (depending on where you are living) It's also a transition between bundling up and wearing light clothing. Lots of people tend to buy new air conditioners at this time.

You can put away the boots and wear sneakers and sandals instead.

The knit caps can go back to the closet. Baseball caps can be worn more often.

Winter coats, especially the furry ones can stay home, it's t-shirts and shorts for fashion statements.

More people will hang out in the parks and set up picnics.

Spring is just about less than two months away, unless you're living in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth, then it's autumn for you.

The Austrailan Open and my tennis thoughts.

Right now I'm watching a tennis match that's taking place in Australia. It's midnight while it's around 4pm there. If I'm going to watch their games, I'm not going to get any real sleep. Oh well. ESPN is doing a good job at these games.

It's winter in New York, while it's summer down under in Australia, in the City of Melbourne. The city looks attractive even without those blue tennis courts.

The Australian Open is one of four "Grand Slam tournaments" the other three being French Open in Paris, France, The Championships in Wimbledon, England, and US Open, in New York City (that's my hometown)

I haven't played tennis in my life, but I used tennis balls like baseballs and I break the apart with my wooden bat.

Hopefully I'll go to Flushing to see something besides the New York Mets.

To tweet or not to tweet...

Believe it or not I have a twitter.com account. I have never said anything, written anything, on it. 140 characters and you can use that to chat with others. To be quite honest, I don't know what you can say if you are limited to just using only 140 characters. Wait a minute, I just forgot my username. Oh well guess I'll have to start a new one.

If any of you have one, how useful is it? What can you type in just 140 characters? Like words "Hello World" Gee, I just got that from my computer C++ class.

Anyways I might as well get started with twitter soon, but the whole world will follow my short sentences. The World knows me already with these blog entries, I just made friends who live in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadephia, and Boston. I've been to the last two cities that I mentioned above. They all have twitter accounts.

I will give Twitter another shot, if it's not useful, I won't try it again.

Softball needs more attention than ever...

I enjoy watching baseball. I still think that softball deserves a spotlight once in a while too in the sports section. I hardly hear or read anything about the sport at all. I think it's unfair how this has become such a political issue, the fact that the IOC has decided to cut this sport along with baseball from the Summer Olympic Program. Just thinking about how National Pro Fastpitch isn't being offered any television contracts, wow. MLB players make millions of dollars and have no salary cap while NPF (National Pro Fastpitch)has a salary cap of only $100,000. What is going on here!?

I think it's time for Major League Baseball to step to the plate and give the NPF the economic boost it desperately needs. It is really hard wondering what these women go through, they play their hardest and they don't get enough credit, just like their baseball counterparts. I say that every Major League Baseball team, adopt a sister softball team and have them be part of their organization. Go build high capacity softball parks, or have them share the same field as the baseball teams do. I would love to see professional softball go on at Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Busch Stadium, Citi Field, Wrigley Field and so on. Put those temporary fences on for softball action.

I believe that if MLB doesn't do anything to help the NPF softball league anytime soon, they won't last forever. If the WNBA can get help from the NBA, why can't NPF be helped in the same manner from MLB?

I say that the NPF salary cap be lifted so these female players earn what they deserve. I just hope that MLB will do something about it.

A movie about a musician

I just finished watching a movie about a man named Jay who was living with family violence in Parkchester, Bronx. He is a daily commuter of the Lexington Avenue 6 line he takes to City Hall. He goes ahead and meets this woman who lives in Park Slope via the Culver F Line. Jay lives with his parents, his dad acting angry too much at him for being a slack off. His brother Eddie, discharged with the Marines living without a job.

He obtains a pair of sneakers which supposedly cost about $1,000 dollars at his work. Jay goes to a party where another man, I can't remember the person's name, but he threatened to take Jay down if he didn't surrender his sneakers. He leaves after a fight breaks out in the Bronx, New York. Jay has enemies now.

Jay goes to City Hall, in the borough of Manhattan and plays his guitar. He then meets this woman, named Alexandra. She lives in Brooklyn. She's impressed by Jay's guitar skills. They go to Brooklyn.

The violence that Jay has to deal with, later catches up with Jay when he is ambushed by a group of three men who attack him and his friends. Jay is injured from the attack. Eddie just stands outside and doesn't help. Jay's guitar is destroyed later in the melee.

Jay later confronts the group in the Bronx, and beats them up, with the help of Eddie.

Jay ditches his home in the Bronx to hang out with Alexandra.

The Story ends. I know this was hard to follow, but that's all I can remember.

Conan O'Brien gets the boot by NBC

Conan O'Brien is one of the funnies comedians a network can ever have. He has done well with his Late Night with Conan O'Brien show. He finally gets his chance to shine with the Tonight Show replacing Jay Leno. Jay Leno moves into the evenings. Jimmy Fallon replaces Conan's time slot in the late night telecasts on NBC. Then came the really bad news.

Jay Leno's current evening show is getting low ratings in terms of TV viewership. NBC decides to give Jay Leno's evening show the big ax. What happens now, where will Jay Leno go?

As it stands Jay Leno will take over the Tonight Show, where Conan O'Brien is. Jimmy Fallon will be unaffected. Jay and Conan have taken this situation in a joking manner, but in the end Conan has to face the axe and move out of NBC with a $45 million dollar bailout!

I say NBC has been unfair to Conan O'Brien during this whole ordeal. Honestly, it should have been Jay Leno to get the axe and move on to the other networks, not Conan. This is a bad example of revamping your television lineup, I understand a show not doing well, but does someone else deserve their television hosting jobs to be taken away because another one is suffering. This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. Wow.

As for NBC, they are making a big mistake. If I were the executive producers of the Tonight Show, I'd keep Conan O'Brien in the show and have Jay Leno go somewhere else. No need to ruin another person's job because of someone else's misery.

That's all I'm going to say!

Earthquake

Earthquakes happen not too frequently, and sometimes they cause serious natural disasters. Haiti just experienced a earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter Scale. Just to give you a sense of how powerful that is it is a major quake.

I'll go lay out the Richter scale and it's intensity.

Earthquakes less than 2.0 are not felt at all.

Earthquakes with the range between 2.0 -2.9 are recorded but you don't feel much.

Earthquakes in the range of 3.0-3.9 are considered minor, indoor shaking may occur.

Earthquakes in the 4.0-4.9 range, indoor noises are louder. Light damage occurs.

A quake in the 5.0-5.9 range is moderate and major damage to some buildings may occur. Strong buildings may sustain little damage.

A 6.0-6.9 Earthquake is strong and causes major damage to buildings.

A 7.0-7.9 Earthquake causes substantial building collapses, (ouch!)

A 8.0-8.9 Earthquake causes great damage, which stretches for hundreds of miles.

Quakes in the 9.0-9.9 range can cause destruction even thousands of miles away...

Just to give you an idea of how strong these earthquakes can be, an earthquake of 4.0 is 32 times stronger than that of a quake with a strength of 3.0

Today, you hear these ranges because the Richter Scale is being used. It was invented by Dr. Charles Richter to measure the magnitude of the earthquake by recording the seismic waves onto a scale.

Another question that may be raised from earthquakes is where the earthquake stared, this is called the epicenter. The epicenter may be determined by using seismographs. At least three seismographs are used to determine where the earthquake started. The distance between the epicenter and the seismograph is detected and a radar circles around the seismograph. The area where the three radar seismograph circles meet is the area of the epicenter. Here's one image:



Earthquakes don't usually occur that frequently, but when they do, they cause damage from minor to major, and it usually cost millions of dollars to fix damages. Earthquakes in the ocean can cause tsunamis, just like the one in the Indian Ocean in 2004.

The value of a home run

A home run is a base hit in which a person hits a ball and then runs all four bases (first, second, third, and home in succession) either by hoping over the field of play while in fair territory or staying in play without the fielders tagging the hitter out (inside the park home run)

Home runs are undoubtedly the most interesting part of the game. The tape measure shots, the distance how far a baseball (or softball) travels is amazing to the fans, visually. It is usually the pitcher's worst nightmare.

The rate of home runs at-bat is interesting too. If a person hits 30 home runs and has 16 at bats per home run, then that's considered normal, in my view. Now if a batter hits a home run every 8 at bats and collects around 65-70 in a season, then fans might wonder, how is he or she able to hit so far and so hard?

Lots of people assume that the person is either getting enough exercise, building muscle naturally, or taking unnatural means of becoming stronger usually with performance enhancing drugs.

Roger Maris of the Yankees hit 61 home runs in a season. He wasn't accused of using drugs. Mark McGwire of the St Louis Cardinals had 70 home runs and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit 64, both of them hitting in 1998. Barry Bonds of the San Franciso Giants hit 70 home runs in 2001. Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire are accused of being cheaters, well unfortunately, McGwire has confirmed those suspicions. I don't know if Bonds or Sosa were high on steroids either, I'm just hoping that that's not the case.

I feel like the value of a home run is tainted, like that Mark McGwire's shot to pass Roger Maris. However, it's still a statistic, no matter, it's in the record books. I personally don't feel like it would be fair to take his home runs total away, based on the fact that he used drugs. He claims not to have used drugs for a performance enhancement. I don't know.

Barry Bonds refuses to ask questions regarding steroid use. His defiant attitude has made him look like the bad guy in this situation. When he finally hit his 756th Home run to pass Hank Aaron of the Braves, the fans were happy, but the baseball that he hit it, was stamped with an asterisk (*) by Mark Ecko, who brought the baseball from Mets' fan Matt Murphy who caught Bonds' historic ball.

Did Barry Bonds cheat? Only time will tell. For now he is the home run king with 762 home runs. The only time I'll ever believe that Bonds and any other player used steroids is if they admit to it or if news confirms that case.

How valuable is a home run? Today, fans assume that if you hit more than normal, then you must be using drugs. This is the world we live in.

Winter Olympics 2010

We are about less than a month away from the Winter Olympics in 2012, taking place in Vancouver, Canada. While the Winter Olympics feature ice hockey, figure skating, and sleding, the summer Olympics in London, which is about a couple of years from now will feature basketball, football (no, not the American one) and swimming, while baseball and softball will be left out. Last summer, baseball/softball have been bypassed by the IOC in favor of rugby sevens and golf, which will begin play in 2016.

In fact here are some reasons why baseball/softball may not appear in the Summer Games for awhile.

1. Performance enhancing drugs

2. One nation’s dominance of the sport.

3. A lack of fan support.

4. Major League Baseball’s refusal to sending players overseas to play in the Olympics

5. Developing nations’ lack of knowledge of the game.

6. A theory in that the IOC is dominated by European Leaders disliking baseball.

7. Lacking attention from general Olympic fans. Not too many headlines are made with the sport.

The Winter Olympic Games have these sports coming up…

1. Alpine Skiing

2. Biathlon

3. Bobsled

4. Cross Country-Sking

5. Curling

6. Figure Skating

7. Ice Hockey

8. Luge

9. Short track speed skating

10. Snowboarding

11. Speedskating

There may be more than the ones I just listed.

While this year’s competition may not be as big as that of the Summer games, I believe these are just as fun.

The new hybrid bus....

The hybrid buses that are roaming around New York City and Toronto are the Orion 7 Hybrid series. A newer version of the buses called the Orion 7 Next Generation series is being shipped to both cities as well.

This is the Orion 7 Next Generation series bus in Toronto, Ontario.


This bus is the Orion 7 Hybrid



There is also the Orion 7 Compress Natural Gas buses.



These buses are still hanging around, the Orion V CNG. There's also the diesel version of this bus.



You might be asking, why am I into buses. Just like the subways, buses come in different shapes and sizes.

Just last year, I found a Orion 7 NG lying around in the Midwood section of Brooklyn and decided to photograph it.






In case you are curious as of where this bus is based from it is housed at Flatbush Depot near the Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn.

The Orions are replacing the RTS (Rapid Transit Series) buses.

These are the RTS buses that are being replaced.


Since NYCT and MTA bus company wants to have buses good for the enviornment, they're getting rid of these diesel powered ones and replacing them with hybrids.

I will discuss more about the bus models another time.

New York Giants Fan

I am a New York Giants fan, and watched the Giants get off to an impressive five-game winning streak. The Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts, and New Orleans Saints also had a five game winning streak to start their respective seasons.

The Giants would lose their next four games, and win again against the Atlanta Falcons in their 10^th game of the season. They faced the Denver Broncos and coming off their losing streak of four games, they beat the New York Giants, in a Thanksgiving special on NFL network.

The NY Giants played their last ever game at Giants Stadium against the Carolina Panthers and they lose 41-9.

The low points:

Giants lose twice to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The New Orleans Saints faced the Giants in week six in a battle of undefeated teams, the Saints blow the Giants away 48-27, in week six.

Giants have no touchdowns against the Denver Broncos as the Broncos end their slump at the expense of the Giants 26-6.

Giants still had a chance to end their season on a high note and a winning season of 9-7, despite missing the postseason. The Minnesota Vikings put the finishing touches on the season with a 44-7 win.

Some positives:

Giants beat their own division rivals Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins twice in the season. They go 4-2 against the teams within the same division.

Hopefully their next season at Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey will be a turning point.

Speaking of New Jersey, the Nets as of this posting are 3 wins and 33 losses this season. No I'm not a Nets' fan however, despite all the talented players they have, they find ways to lose, blowing leads, losing by big margins, and or coming back and then falling short. This team needs to start finding their ways or they'll be the laughing stock in the NBA

Here's some other things going on in MLB

Major League Baseball isn't starting this month or next month. Here's a list on the things that will keep us busy for the next two months!

1. BCS National Championship between Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas Longhorns. This game is on ABC this week.

2. The NFL Postseason begins this weekend. My favorite team the NY Giants are out, so I'll go root for the Jets to win.

3. This year's NBA All Star Game is in Dallas Texas where the Dallas Mavericks are hosting.

4. The NFL All Star Game, also known as the Pro Bowl, will be in Miami, the first time in two decades. In the previous years they were in Hawaii.

5. The Golden Globes are on in about a week on NBC.

6. The Academy Awards and the Grammy Music Awards are around this time of year,


The Mets have Jason Bay too... I was not going to believe that until I saw this on my e-mail...



Jason Bay leaves the Red Sox while leading them in the home run category. At least the Yankees wouldn't have to worry too much about anymore.


If anything, the Yankees got a cool outfielder on their own.

That would be Curtis Granderson. Photo taken for NY Daily News.


I think the Yankees and Mets are making some progress this winter with each adding these outfielders.

I was wondering what were the Yankees thinking when they decided to cut Hideki Matsui loose?



He played in two World Series with the Yankees, and leading them to a 2009 win over the Phillies, earning the MVP title. In all honesty I do have to disagree and wished the Yankees would have kept him long term. He had three home runs in this series, one in Philly as a pinch-hitter.

If the Yankees are to repeat, they'll have to do it without Hideki, who will be missed. He'll be doing his MVP duties with the Angels instead.


Chris Carlson, AP

This year should be fun!