Basketball is heating up

As the NBA season starts to heat up we take a look back at past All Star games and look at what has changed. Can you predict who will be in the All-Star game this year and which athletic shoes will be featured the most?. The greatest all star events from the professional sports world are the NBA hands down. They really put on a show all weekend long and starts with the celebrity game. This year’s game will feature Lisa Leslie, Harlem Globetrotter players, Clyde “the glide” Drexler, Terrell Owens, Chris Tucker, Rick Fox, and my favorite celebrity Dominique Wilkins. Other celebrities will battle it out on the court with a East .vs. West game of basketball.

The West Team was  coached by Magic Johnson and the East Team had Dr. J at the helm for them. After the celebrity game wraps up on ESPN; NBA fans  switched over to TNT to watch the Rookies face the Sophomores in the double header action in Phoenix, Arizona. The Rookie Team will feature players like O.J. Mayo from the Grizzlies and Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls where Adidas shoes had the center stage. Kevin Durant will try to lead the Sophomores with Thadeous Young from Philly and Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks helping him. This might be a good game for Eric Gordon to show off his skills for the Rookie Team, since not much noise has been coming out of L.A. from this promising rookie.

The weekend wraps up on Sunday with the main event. It’s the best basketball players in the East going against the best talent the West has to offer. If you are a true fan and want to get up on the latest gear without shelling out hundreds of dollars you can search for discount athletic shoes online at retailers like shoebacca.com. They even offer a selection of skateboards shoes for those that are into boarding. This is always a great game to watch and I think the East will win on Sunday in Phoenix. The NBA has certainly figured out this All Star thing and the NHL, MLB, or the NFL doesn’t have anything close to the NBA All Star Weekend entertainment. A great opportunity for all basketball fans across the globe to see the best basketball players in the world having fun and competing against each other.

Time is ticking

seiko_SRL001Since the watch is one of the most used accessories that men have it goes without saying that having a nice reliable watch is an essential part of the wardrobe. I know this because I busted my watch about a month ago while playing in the yard with kids and there is not a day that goes by that I do not look at my wrist to see what time it is. The seiko diamond watches series from bluedial.com are a great option and one that would be a great gift sitting under the tree for Dad. (hint for my kids)It has become a natural habit over the years that when I do it now and there is no watch there people must think I am checking my pulse.

Direct TV is making their push

What company is better when it comes to satellite tv? You have two major companies that are out there, Dish Network and Direct TV. Which company has the best signal when it comes to bad weather, or just keeps the picture on your tv longer? I was just wondering these things, as I was thinking about satellite tv. I was wondering if one company was truly better than the other one. I do know good customer service is hard to find these days. Dish Network has horrible customer service. They have no idea and how to give the customers what they need. Dish Network really needs to put more money in their training and customer support. I’m not sure how many people they have lost, due to poor customer service. I haven’t heard anything on DirectTV, but would have to give them the edge on customer service.
It used to be that you had only one option for a cable provider in most areas and now that appears to be going away as several companies are expanding their reach. The nice thing about DirecTV is that is available anywhere and with the latest push to drive their customers to more costly digital services the cable companies are creating an easy path to satellite. If you only have access to 1 cable company, then that could be bad. No one there to compete with them. So they get to set all the rules and the prices. At least with having a dish tv, that you have 2 major companies competing for your services. So they will be in a war to beat one another, and the customer can usually have the best rates possible. Monthly tv charges are going up all the time. You can help fight these, by taking the company with the better deal.

A new watch for Dad

movado_800 Luckily the watch that I had on was more a sports watch that I had been using for both casual and business wear. So my wife was looking on line to find a better watch and one that was a little more up to date. I had looked at the Movado line of watches and she found the movado series 800 at bluedial.com where they have a number of styles.

How to manage your soccer team

For the past 8 years I have been the coach of my kids youth soccer teams. While I love the chance to coach and teach kids the game of soccer some of the management aspects can be a bit overwhelming once they reach 11 years and over because you start to travel and the parents are more serious. I have been able to manage two of my kids teams this year while my oldest daughter is now part of a soccer club with highly trained coaches and staff that are able to help her and her team mates develop into great soccer players. This upcoming year my son will step up into the club soccer where he will get the attention and coaching that he will need to play at the next level. While I am going to miss coaching from the sidelines and watching the growth and development of my players I will certainly enjoy watching my kids go to that next level in soccer.
teamsnap_titleI was able to stumble across a site called TeamSnap which is an awesome resource for coaches of all organized sports for both youth and adult leagues. Instead of having to keep track of all the paper schedules, dates, pictures for team cards this site is able to keep those items in place online securely along with a whole host of features. TeamSnap – The simplest, easiest way to manage your team or group online. They offer the ability to have various levels of memberships that will enable you the team coach/owner to manage every aspect of the season. They currently have over 17,000 teams and are growing monthly through mainly word of mouth. They even offer a free trial so that you can see what they have to offer before deciding on a membership. If you are one of the thousands of coaches out there helping to shape and train our youth this might be the resource that you have been looking for.

upgrading your family room

furnitureFor years the furniture industry has tried to stay in touch with their customers and always have the latest fashions available. What this caused was an over saturation of stores both brick and mortar and online. As the competition for consumers increased the value and quality of the furniture started to take a hit and customers were not getting what they paid for. When our parents and grandparents purchased living room furniture it was with the intent to hand those pieces down from generation to generation. Now with today’s disposable furniture many companies are not able to develop those long term customers. This is why you see people looking to online vendors to get a better selection and price than what they might see in their local stores. With online shopping you can see a greater selection of sofas and couches than what a typical store may carry. For instance we were looking for a sectional sofa and went online to view all the different styles and types. It helped to see the different styles and materials and shapes that sectionals come in to better plan for our family room.

Playing online games

Whether you like to play poker or other multi-player games like backgammon the one common thread is the ability to talk across different cultures. The online gaming world is filled with multi cultural players and the world of poker is seeing a growing number of international players. There are many variations to poker rules. If you are a die hard online poker player, or like me just get together with the fellas to have a friendly having clear and established poker rules essential for a successful game. We play a lot of variations of guts games and 7 card stud. one guts game we play is called kings and Babies Which means that this is a 5 card draw guts game where Kings and your low hold card is wild. Everyone is dealt 5 cards, then the dealer counts to 3 and says drop. If you think you can win with your hand you stay in, if not you drop. If you the only to stay in, you can draw up to 5 cards, but you must beat the deck. (The top 5 cards are turned over) If you win you take the pot, if you loose, you must match the pot and the game goes on.

Zynga4So if you love the poker, then you will love this online version where you can participate in online tournaments. The world of online gaming has been somewhat limited by the ability to communicate across various languages. With zynga.com new software you can join a growing community where they offer multiple  languages to play and can get Facebook poker chips that will allow you to compete with your friends in your network. . The internet brings millions of people together daily and being able to communicate and interact is the major draw for many people getting online today. You can see this by the growing number of social network sites, and multi-player sites that are coming online every week.

Going gold

gold coinsThis years ads promise to be just as funny and cutting edge even though many companies are watching the budgets with the current economic situation. There will be no car ads which makes sense as they are getting a major bail out package. So there will be some new comers to the Super Bowl ads that are sure to amuse and bring back some nostalgia at least for a some of us. We will still see the soft drink and beer ads and a few advertisers are trying out 3D as a means to showcase their products. There were actually commercials that were talking about gold and its increasing value that make it attractive to have IRA gold investments as well as 401K gold accounts. One of the previews that we saw was an ad for changing in your gold where they are featuring Ed McMahon and MC Hammer. What is great about this ad is that these are two individuals that at the height of their career were making great money and seemed to be set for life. Now both of these stars that take us back to the 1980′s are struggling a bit with their finances and this is the comical part of the ad. MC Hammer is selling all his gold chains that he was famous for wearing in his videos such as the classic ” Can’t Touch This”.

With the economy still sluggish people are looking for ways to help make ends meet and they are finding that the gold jewelry that they have laying around could actually be worth something. This is where gold IRA comes into the picture that allows you to diversify your portfolio. The price of gold has held its value and actually increased over the past few years thus making putting a gold 401K option something attractive. This is normal as people lose faith in the stock market they look to invest in more durable goods and precious metals benefit from this down turn in the economy. You can even find information on put gold in an IRA on sites like Gold Coins Gain where they have taken out the guess work and provided real solutions to the small investor in diversifying their portfolio.

Can we change the course

I was recently reading a story that was featured on the front page of Yahoo and broadcast on NBC. The title read “From CEO to pizza delivery”. Of course it grabbed the attention of many Americans as this was just another story of an unfortunate situation where someone has lost their high paying job in this tough economy. Only to help stir the fear that this crisis was not coming to an end and here is one more story to prove this lasting headline. But wait a minute this story was anything but that. The man in the video in fact had lost a CEO job that paid out over $750K a year and was now trying to support his family as a pizza delivery person. The fact that he actually quit his job over 4 years ago and tried to start his own hedge fund which failed in the first 2 years and it has been over 2 years since he held a job was just barley touched on.

They went onto to show that his family was having to sell most of their high end possession like their boats, cars, and even contemplating selling their made diamond engagement rings you feel sorry for this family. While I have no question that in today’s market it is more difficult to find a high end job the fact the headlines made it appear that this person recently lost their job has to stop. I recommend that anyone who reads the news daily or tunes into the doom and gloom shows that air daily to stop now. What we need are consumers who are willing to stop hanging on the fears that the media wants to keep reporting on and start living their lives again. It is about getting out and living your lives and spending within your means. This is the only thing that will get this great nation back on its feet.

2009 Inauguration security and the use of lanyards

Unless you have been living in cave you know that Change is just a few short days away with the inauguration of Barack Obama. He ran is whole campaign on change so on Tuesday he will be taking the first steps to put his vision in place. There are millions that will be in Washington, DC to witness this historic event which present some unprecedented security questions. There are about 1.5 million people expected to take part in the festivities with tens of thousands of police, troops, and special services guarding the skies, waters, and land around Washington.
It is anticipated that there will be multiple check points as you get closer to the events where badge holders will be allowed certain acces through very specific clearance. They are asking people to arrive early and expect long lines as the security will be very rigorous. There will even be custom lanyards made specifically for this occasion not only for security reasons but they will serve as memorabilia for after the event. To help secure the event and make it one where everyone is safe there will an additional 8,000 police officers, 9500 National Guard reserve and about 7000 active duty soldiers that will be deployed.
You can expect the excitement level to be high as history will be made and the new frontier and direction for this country will be set. There will be many people looking to have specific souvenirs from this event and the breakaway lanyards that will hold commemorative pictures and passes will be sought long after the last bit of confetti is picked up off Washington Ave. So if you are heading to the event or like me plan on watching from home enjoy and take in what is happening for this time will something that we will all remember.

Redemption for Jack Bauer


had to take a moment and comment on a few things about “24 Redemption” that aired on Sunday night. First let me get the product placement ads out of the way. I thought it was very interesting that Hyundai is the major car in the upcoming series as Ford Motor Company had been the mainstay for all the seasons up until now. I would also point out that this show has done one of the best of getting those product placements in the show and they blend in nicely with the overall theme.

Now onto Jack and what lies ahead. The “Redemption” episode was a great lead into the series start in January. I did not realize that this was just a mini- episode and that it was not actually the beginning of the new series. The series promises to be cutting edge in it’s premise and never rely on the same on old story line. I did wonder when the writers were putting this together late last year that they maybe thought that Hiliary would have been President. Of course they did have President Palmer who was an African American in of the first series. By the way love him in “The Unit” as Snake Doc. So take a look at the starting episode just in case you misssed it so that when January roles around you will be ready to enjoy another action packed season with all sorts of surprises.

Has quality gone by the wayside

Lexington Furniture is looking to change those perceptions with their higher quality furniture that meets the customer in the middle combining quality at an affordable price. So if you are looking to update your furnishings this holiday season make sure to look at the company behind the pieces to help you make a better informed selection.