This is like deja vu all over again.

For the second year in a row, the New York Mets were eliminated from the playoffs at the last game of the regular season at Shea Stadium by the same team. At least they don't have to worry about a three-peat. Shea Stadium will be torn down soon. I wonder what's worst, that or not making the playoffs after being in the post-season for 13 seasons in a row. Yes, I am talking about the Mets' cross town rival Yankees. Before the just-ended playoffs run, the Yankees didn't make it into the post seasons for 13 years in a row. I wonder how many seasons the Yankees will miss the playoffs this time around. And yes, I don't wonder the same thing about the Mets since I have given up on them.

Saturday Night Live

I liked the season premier of Saturday Night Live so much that I stayed up the next week to catch the show. I was disappointed that the show wasn't that good. So I didn't bother to stay up this past weekend. I figured I can always catch anything worth seeing afterward either on YouTube or nbc.com. Well here it is:

Amy Poehler will be leaving the show after this season. I wonder if this means the beginning of the end of SNL.

Deal Or No Deal

First we have a deal, then we didn't. What's going on? While we wait for the government to come up with a bail out plan, yet another financial institution has gone under. This time it is Washington Mutual, the largest savings and loans in the US. As usual, the law makers are busy pointing fingers at each other rather than coming up with a solution. I wasn't too thrill about the government bailing the financial firms with the people's hard earned money. I think people need to learn from their mistakes. You reap what you sow. But the current crisis is affecting not just the people who sow the bad seeds. I know someone who used to work for Lehman who is now unemployed. I wonder how many financial firms have to failed before the law makers will get their act together.

Goooooal! x 82

It is old news by now but I just can't get it out of my head. Slovakia defeated Bulgaria in the women's ice hockey European Olympic pre-qualifying tournament by the score of 82 to 0. The Bulgaria men's ice hockey team did much better and only lost to the Slovakian by a score of 20 to 0. I wonder why the Slovakia women team had to run up the score like that. What were they trying to prove? That they are just that much better than the Bulgarian?

Welcome back, SNL

I stayed up Saturday night to catch Saturday Night Live because Michael Phelps was hosting the show. I got a very present surprise from the opening segment:

It reminds me of SNL during its golden age when I watched every week. The show is nothing like what it used to be so I don't really watch it now. I wonder if we are witnessing the rebirth of SNL.

Same Old, Same Old

I was wondering if the presidential election would really be difference since both candidates claim to be the candidate of change. Judging by the campaign ads, it is politics as usually. So far all the ads that I have seen are negative attack ads. Why can't candidates tell us why we should vote for him/her instead of telling us why not to vote for the other person? I really would like to see a law banning negative campaign ads.

Bursting Bubbles

I am sure at least some, if not most, of you remember the dot-com bubble. And everyone I know has been affected, in one way or another, by the bursting real estate bubble. It looks the the oil bubble may be about to burst as crude oil price is down to just over $100 a barrel. I wonder if the bursting of this particular bubble is good or not. Sure we can all use a break in the rising gasoline price. But I sure don't want this to stop the much needed energy conservation and environment protection that people are finally starting to pay attention to.

I wonder where will the next bubble be?

Tour de Dope

Another Tour de France, another doping scandal. I guess we should be used to it by now. I guess the question isn't is any riders doping but how many riders are doping. I wonder if the riders are learning the wrong lesson from what happened to Floyd Landis last year. It looks like they are learning that you increase your chance of winning by cheating. After all, riders are caught doping every year. Last year it just happened that the one caught doping was the winner. I wonder if we would ever see a scandal free Tour de France again.

Wounded Knee

Pretty much everyone knows that Tiger Wood won the US Open with an injured knee. But it turns out that he also has torn ACL and a double stress fracture on his left tibia. That shows why he is probably the greatest golfer the world has ever seen. But I wonder if his drive and determination is sending the right signal to the millions of kids who look up to him. Playing through pain is one thing, but doing so to further injure oneself, especially for kids when they are still growing, could result in some permanent damages. There has been a lot of talks about how fragile race horses are. I wonder if professional athletes should be put in the same category. Afterall, Yankee pitcher Ching Ming Wang injured his foot by simply running the bases.

The Fat Lady Is Singing (I Think)

It looks like the long, interesting, and historic Democratic presidential primary is finally coming to an end. Most news outlet are now reporting that Hillary Clinton will be suspending her campaign this Saturday. I wonder why she stay in the primary till the end when she has little chance to winning the nomination, and now she is only suspending rather than ending her campaign. Some say she stayed in to raise money to pay off her campaign debt. Others say she wants the Vice President slot. But why would someone who has already been co-President for 8 years want to be Vice President?

Mega Fat Breakfast

I guess I should have seen this coming. After Mega Fat sandwiches and Mega Fat fast food, you will soon be able to get a Mega Fat muffin in Japan. I wonder if fat will become the new tobacco. Do McDonald's really think that the Japanese are too thin?

Public Affairs

Shortly after being sworn in to replace Eliot Spitzer who resigned due to a sex scandal, NY Governor David Paterson has disclosed that both he and his wife had extramarital affairs. I guess he is just being proactive and wants to preempt the chance of another resignation due to a sex scandal. I am more shock by his act of revelation than what he revelated. I wonder how many capable folks have stayed out of public service due to the face that they have skeleton in their closet. After all, on one is prefect. Where do we draw the line?

How The Mighty Have Fallen

J.P. Morgan Chase is buying Bear Stearns for about $2 a share, which is the cost of a subway or bus wide in New York City.
Bear Stearns had closed $30.00 on Friday, after dropping almost 50% since it was running out of money. The dropped had seemed to have stabilized after Bear Stearns got an emergency injection of funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve through J.P. Morgan Chase. I guess $2.00 is better than nothing. Just ask people who had Enron stocks. For those curious minds, here is a chart of the stock price dating back to 86:



It looks like the subprime mortgage crisis may actually be a lot worse than what people have been willing to admit. Afer all the CEO had said on Wednesday that he was not aware of any imminent threat to Bear Stearns' liquidity. Oh how things had changed in just a couple of days. I wonder what he was smoking. More important, I wonder if Bear Stearns is just the first of many domino to fall. I certainly hope that's not the case.

Magic Mirror

Have you been avoiding being in front of a mirror lately since your weight is not what you want it to be? Check this out. No, it is not yet another fad diet or weight lost gimmick. It is a mirror that will actually cut unwanted fat. So you can look like this:



Here is the product page for those interested.

I wonder if anyone is working on a mirror that would enlarge certain body parts. Judging from the spam that I get, there mighty very well be a big market for that.

Racism Vs Sexism

Geraldine Ferraro is standing by her comments about Barack Obama which are considered racist by many. Here is what she said:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

For those of you who had forgotten about Ferraro, she was the only woman to to be selected by a major political party for the position of vice president of the United States. I wonder if she was a man, would anyone care about what she has to say now since in that case she most certainly would not have been chosen as a vice presidential candidate back then. I wonder if Hillary Clinton would be a contender for the nomination if she was a man.

I also wonder if Ferraro and Clinton would consider what I just wrote sexist.

Client 9

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been linked to a prostitution ring. I was a little surprise when I heard the news even though politicians involved in scandal is quite common in the US. After all, New York's neighboring states New Jersey and Connecticut both had their governors resigned due to scandal in recent years. But Eliot Spitzer was supposed to be a clean politician. He made a name for himself while he was an attorney general. He even prosecuted prostitution cases. Everyone now is expecting him to resign but he has not make any announcement. I wonder what is he waiting for. Some say that his offer to resign as governor could be part of any package over what criminal charges the governor could face in a plea negotiation. Does it really make any difference to the prosecutors in this case if they are indict a sitting governor or an ex-governor?

Go Ahead, Make My Day

Have you ever considered carrying some personal protection with you? Something inconspicuous but yet effective? Check this out:

I didn't think this was real until I after I saw the video. I wonder if this would ever be released as a product. If so, I guess some folks would not have a need for their trench coats anymore.

Positive Energy Building

masdarhq
Originally uploaded by gundammsz010

More and more buildings are now being designed with a small or zero energy footprint. So it is just a matter of time before someone design a postive energy building. No we are not talking about good karma here. This building will actually generate more energy than it will consume. This building will be the centerpiece of the eco-friendly zero waste, zero carbon emission Masdar City, which is a $22 billion development outside of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi also happens to be one of the world's largest producers of oil. Recently it has started to diversify its economy through investments in financial services and tourism. If an oil-producing country is doing that, the rest of the world should seriously think about alternative, renewable energy. I wonder if I would see such a shift in my lifetime.

Higher and Higher

Oil hit yet another all time high again today. This is more than just another news item since most people (myself included) do feel the pain of the ever rising gasoline price. It now costs me more than $40.00 to fill up my car. When I bought my present car, I was also considering another model with a higher gas mileage. At that time gas mileage wasn't really a factor but it looks like it will be the next time I buy a car. $40.00 for a fill up is pretty bad. But at least I don't drive a huge SUV, some of which will cost twice as much for a fill up. I have always wonder why people would buy a huge SUV with space for nine adults and towing capacity of more than 8000 lbs when they mainly use it to commute to work all by themselves. I see plenty of these lone SUV drivers during my commute to work. I have actually been seeing less lately. I guess people with more than one car are leaving their SUV at home. So it looks like every cloud does have a silver lining. The only way to get people to change is to hit them where they hurt. Maybe now people will stop buying huge SUV that they don't need and stop polluting the environment.

What kind of car do you drive?

Shame On Who?

Just days after saying "Shame on you, Barack Obama", Hillard Clinton has hinted that she is open to a possible joint Democratic ticket with Barack Obama. She said on national TV

Well, you know, that may be where this is headed.

when she was told that people would like to see them both on the ticket.

When asked about the same the subject, Obama responded with

I think it is very premature to start talking about a joint ticket … right now.

One thing that Obama did comment on was the negative attack Clinton has unleashed on him recently, saying that they had some impact and that he will push back against Clinton.

I wonder if we will ever have an election where the candidates tell us why we should vote for him/her instead of why we shouldn't vote for his/her opponent.

Worse Than A Woman Scorned

Whoever said Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned has obviously never met a woman who is behind in the US presidential primary. Just two days after praising Barack Obama in a debate with the words:

And, you know, no matter what happens in this contest — and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored.

Hillary Clinton unleashed her sharpest attack on Obama so far, saying:

Shame on you, Barack Obama.

I wonder what pissed her off more, Obama's mailings in question or the fact that she went from the sure thing to trailing in both delegates and polls.

Who would you vote for, Cliton, Obama, or none of the above?