The Facts of Life

I've been lazy with my postings...
Ironically, there have been a lot of things worth posting about in the last few days but today I want you to say: "Fuck the world."

We are all selfish beings, regardless of how you perceive yourself. And to prove the rule you have the few exceptions, I know you know a few, personally the only one that comes to mind is Mother Theresa because lets be honest, the earth friendly hippy will do anything to push their agenda on the world, not allowing or understanding the other side.

Now there's nothing wrong with being selfish, I mean it's a natural form of self-preservation. But in today's connected world, you can't afford to be 100% selfish. Life is a series of compromises between friends, family members, co-workers, colleagues, etc. It's a continual tug-of-war between desires, but which ones should be sacrificed for the common good.

The issue here isn't about how to eliminate selfishness, because lets be honest, that's impossible, and if you say you're unselfish, well you're a terrible liar; The issue here is how to compromise. Spend some time with yourself and think about your priorities and reflect upon what you hold dearest to your heart. Personally, I know I want to bboy for a long time, I want a job that won't tie me down for long hours and allows me to be creative and analytic, and I want to have people around me who are intelligent, have no problem acting like children once in a while, and share my relaxed outlook on life. What do you want? If you can't answer those questions, you're making your life more difficult on yourself and the people in your life.

The Link

It's not about what you know, it's about who you know. Ironically, the latter seems to be the harder of the two. Knowledge is simple, you read a book, you go to class, you can do these things with your spare time, keeping up with people involves a much more invested use of your time. But most people just can't face the fact that they need to put forth the effort to make these relationships work.
These individuals believe that at some point if people want to find them then they will go to them, but all that's really saying is that they're afraid of denial, rejection, and getting hurt. It's one thing if you're putting forth all the effort and the other isn't, because then at that point you're being a fuckin' moron and enslaving yourself to the other person's will, but if you're too lazy, afraid, or whatever to even put yourself out there, you miss out on the majority of life's interesting moment, and being a coward.
In the sad connection to Barbara Streisand, people need people, regardless of what you/they say. Make an effort, make a connection, make your life interesting, because at the end of the day, a life devoid of friends, family, or people in your life is not a life at all.

Shaq Daddy vs. Korean DMZ

After beating the crap out of Jose Canseco, the Korean MMA fighter is getting a lot of flak from SHAQ! Yes... I'm not kidding, the Big Shaq Daddy is calling out 7'2 330lbs Hong Man Choi to an MMA fight... wtf? For comparison Shaq is 7'1 330lbs so this could be interesting. But personally I'm wondering this: HOW THE FUCK IS THERE A 7'3 KOREAN MAN WHO WEIGHS 330lbs???? This isn't China! We don't genetically alter our babies!

New York Mirage

When it was announced that parts of Herald Square and Times Square would be blocked off to create a kind of humongous sidewalk for tourists and New Yorkers alike to wander and enjoy, I thought it would be a cool idea. Maybe give it a new feeling, something more like Parisian sidewalks with the people sitting in little tables enjoying lunch. I wrote an article when this was first announced and if you recall I was very very excited about it... but I was so wrong...

I took a walk in this so called "improvement" and I was completely appalled at the area's uselessness. It's one thing if you have cafes like the one in Bryant Park or Herald Square but if its Times Square, it's really really pointless. On top of that, the "improvement" only causes more traffic in areas where traffic is already a HUGE problem. What is wrong with all the New York Democrats... sigh...

C'mon... Give Credit... part 2

From my prior post you now know I'm a huge Nintendo fan. Just to frame just how big my mother played Super Mario Bros on the NES while I was in the womb and then I popped out and started playing Tetris... go figure. So when it comes to electronics I'm a pretty loyal guy, which makes this next part kind of ironic.

When it came to computers I was a fan of Dell and the Windows Operating System. So when Apple swooped in with their IPods and Macbooks, I put up a serious fight. My mom bought me an IPod for my birthday and I almost forced her to return it, but then I came to my senses and decided to stop being so hard-headed. The IPod was my introduction to the Apple Experience. Similar to Nintendo's new strategy, Apple focused on simplicity, and I thought it was BEAUTIFUL. Sure you can't manipulate things to the high degree like on Windows but for the common man, Apple is the answer. As an engineer you have to understand, I search for, I thrive on, I desire constant improvement, and Apple gave me that wish.

So what? Apple has such stringent copyright and patent laws that they won't let ANYONE use their operating system. So in examining their products you have to see simply their influence. I mean look at Vista. It may have been a complete fuckin' failure... and that's being kind, but there were serious elements of Apple's Leopard or even Tiger operating system present. Then look at the IPhone. Yes it's overpriced and a piece of consumer obsession, but look at what's come about since it's inception. Phones have gone off the wall with features, extras, and possibilities. Blackberry responded with the Blackberry Storm and Palm responded with the recent Palm Pre. Phones are now coming with e-mail capability, web browsing, music capability, and on top of that all wireless carriers are allowing these companies free reign to create and innovate. That's how it should be, companies inventing freely without any limitations.

And at the end of the day the IPhone and the Wii have done the simple task of opening up the world to innovation. And these articles are simply filling the need to acknowledge what these two inventions have given to the world. Props!

C'mon... Give Credit... part 1

This past week was the E3 Conference. Now for those of you who had actual friends growing up and don't know what this is lemme explain. E3 is an annual conference for video game developers to present their upcoming inventions, ideas, games, etc. This particular E3 saw huge focus on motion sensitivity primarily with Microsoft and Sony trying to counter the HUGE popularity of Nintendo's Wii and rightfully so. As of March 2009 the Wii had sold over 50 Million consoles worldwide as opposed to the Xbox 360 and PS3 who have sold the same amount combined. Also remember the Xbox 360 was released a year in advance. But now comes the revolution!

Project Natal:



PS3 Wand:



So these are the two iterations of the motion sensitive controllers that will be released by Microsoft and Sony respectively. I'd just like to point out two things in this article. First Project Natal although exciting is experiencing the same kind of hype as the PS2 EyeToy did back when it was first announced, and we all remember how horribly that experiment turned out. But I think that this has serious potential but also a HUGE potential for failure. As for the PS3 Wand, lets be honest... it looks like a fuckin Wiimote. Sure it supposedly moves 1 to 1 with the wand but at the end of the day Nintendo is doing exactly the same but a year prior, Sony fail.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm very excited about these two companies catching on to the bandwagon. They're pretty much admitting that they fucked up and that Nintendo is the supreme genius of the video game world. Now they're left playing catch up to claim or "reclaim" the new fan base that Nintedo has created known as the "casual gamer." The other great thing about this is maybe now the typical gamer might not be known as a fat pimple faced Dungeons and Dragon nerd who is anti-social and awkward. Here's hoping... Maybe now I can go around proudly with my video game talents?

Football for Good

Steve Nash - 'The Player' from meathawk on Vimeo.

As most of us know, Steve Nash is not only an MVP caliber NBA basketball star, but a summertime NYC football (soccer for the Americans) baller. So it comes to no surprise he's actually doing some football related charity work.

The Football for Good campaign is a partnership between the Steve Nash Foundation and Athletes for Africa to help develop good, ethical world-class youth football academies around Africa as well as “champion of human rights and child protection, and a committed global advocate for African players, families and their communities.” A $5 USD donation earns you a chance to fly to New York and participate in the “Chinatown Showdown” which features world-class football players and basketball players alike in a friendly game. All the information can be seen at Football-For-Good.com.

The Lumberjack Calleth...

I don't understand when or why plaid became a fashion trend. Plaid is associated with lumberjacks and all of a sudden you see plaid as the in design for streetwear and preppy fashion alike... go figure. I can't lie, I own a pair of plaid shorts and they're comfortable as hell, but really WTF? I don't understand how fashion conscious people can wear them.... especially once they make plaid HATS to go with the plaid SHORTS.

Full Force vs. Rivers

Richie doing it up against Rivers, SICK BATTLE