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!