TWO HANDS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Just over three years ago, Kobe Bryant hit two not one, but TWO buzzer beaters to win game 4 of the first round of the Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns. In celebration of the game-winning shot, Bryant trotted to the center court of Staples Center pumping his fist.

The crowd was going wild, his teammates were jumping on him, it was an amazing individual performance for an OK team that would eventually surrender their 3-1 series lead to the Suns. In the past two weeks, Kobe Bryant has hit two game-winning shots at the buzzer and has celebrated these early, regular season game wins in the same fashion: two hands raised as he walks towards his teammates, and they celebrate together.

These celebrations with two hands are proof that Kobe has changed, he is no longer the player who cared about winning on his own. He is an all around player who might be getting better with a broken finger. His game-winner on Wednesday night in Milwaukee and two Friday nights ago in Los Angeles are mere illustrations of a team player, the two hands up in the air: one for him and the other for his team.

Bill Plaschke said it today in the LA TIMES: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke18-2009dec18,0,4496582.column . There are only so many ways to see this Kobe, he's accomplished so much, yet he's hungrier than ever. He wins at will, and refuses to lose, his obsession for perfection is unrivaled by anyone. Pain is pleasure, and he knows that he can hurt more people with two fists instead of one.

People love to forget

Today the stock market is up triple digits -- a good thing, however the market doesn't seem to care about the unemployment rate of 10.2% announced on Friday.

Inflation is going to destroy the economy, sure you can make money in the stock market now, but that money has very little value as long as unemployment benefits and stimuli are being provided to A GROWING population.

That's all for now.

Has it really been almost 5 months since I last posted something? I guess so. All streaks comes to an end.

I write today regarding the current insider trading scandals rampaging through the Streets of Wall. Legal greed was the demise of the economy, and now illegal greed is being proven to have not done much to the economy at all.

I'm not condoning dishonest actions on any level, I value integrity above all other things, however, it needs to be noted that while illegal activity potentially hurts people the consequences do not reach remotely as far as the legal greedy "bets" Wall Street made on the housing markets along with big banks lending money to people who were not qualified for the loans to begin with.

Venting? Yes I am. Frustrated? Yes I am. Has individual greed been rewarded while public greed has been forgiven? Yes it has. Will it continue? ABSOLUTELY. (UNFORTUNATELY)

Gay Money

Jerry Seinfeld once said, “People don’t turn down money, that’s what makes us different from animals.” So are the canvassers who are raising money for “No on Prop. 8” campaign not people?

Last week I had lunch with a friend on Beverly Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills. As we left our lunch, I approached the people who were holding clipboards in front of the parking lot. I asked them what they were doing. One girl responded to us that they were raising money to get Prop 8, the gay marriage ban back on the ballot so gay marriages can be allowed in the state of California.

I personally am indifferent about gay marriage, and if two males or females want to get married, let them – at the very least it helps the faltering economy of California.

I offered my support of $1 nothing more and nothing less. Was this generous? In this economy or any economy yes. People don’t hand out dollars and try to support any random cause on a daily basis.

This canvasser, saying that she could not accept anything less than an $8 cash donation or a monthly donation from my credit card, rejected my $1 donation. I’m not stupid, I wouldn’t give my credit card information out to anyone in the middle of the street for any cause!

Here, this girl was asking for a symbolic amount of money for the cause, and suggested that my friend and I pool together our money to make $8 and donate that. We politely declined and I offered a dollar AGAIN!

She declined the dollar and I left.

When there is a cause that you believe in and you need to raise money for it, you are going to take every penny that is offered to you! In this economy, with money as scarce as it is, people are turning down money?

I do not hope for Prop 8 to pass again, but I do hope people are now aware of the stupid people who are working to overturn Prop 8. I know that I am not an animal.

The Rule of Settling

"Being your own worst critic," "Over-achieving," and "Never being satisfied are just some of the things that people answer when asked, "What is your worst character trait?"

These are all text-book answers to text-book questions that are asked in interviews for virtually anything. If you are answering truthfully, why not stay true to yourself when it comes to everything in life?

Settling on a mate for anything from a fling to a long term relationship is not something that anyone would recommend, but it is something that people do on a daily basis. The terrible choices that are made, are often made when nobody is watching, because we care what other people think so much. WHY DO PEOPLE CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK? People should be making better choices whether they are home alone or out in an amphitheater.

I have seen my friends become victims of their own bad judgment while also victimizing others. When I say "victimizing" I do not mean anything immoral or illegal I mean causing an unfortunate chain of events to unravel.

I might be on the theme of doing in what is best for one's self, but it is the most crucial theme in today's world. The economy has been destroyed by greed, but in a way that was not selfish. Now how is this possible? Isn't greed by definition selfish?

Greed is defined as excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves or avarice: reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins.)

While heads of companies were taking risks with other people's money in order to acquire more wealth. The greed was not selfish in the way that it was SOLELY for one person's benefit, it was for a group of upper management and potentially their shareholders' benefit.

BACK TO MY POINT OF SETTLING.

When someone settles on a mate for any amount of time, he or she is harming themselves and not performing an action that is enhancing one's life. I truly believe that everything that I choose to do is enhancing my life at that point in time (hopefully with as few consequences as possible). The bottom line is that if you sell yourself short, you not only have not given yourself a fair shot at success, but you are also lowering future expectations that can and should be high.

If a guy settles on a girl (it works both ways), he is lowering his total utility. Even if the girl is a vehicle for a means to an end, one would rather use a nice car instead of a crappy car to get from point A to point B.

When you find yourself about to settle on anything, think twice and ask yourself the interview question.

Hopefully you will get the right answer.

If the answer is

Selflessly Selfish

I figured it out. People who claim to be selfless are lying. Selfishness is what keeps the world going. As wonderful as it may seem to have children (something I disagree with), parents will often do everything in their power to make a child’s life miserable.
Keeping a child happy is not an easy task, but when one has a child, they are automatically burdened to keeping this child clean, fed, and sleeping normally.
I feel that people who rush into marriage, and make it their life’s objective to get married and have children often find themselves trapped because of the commitment that people fall into.
There are several issues in this action of rushing into marriage, or relationships for that matter. When someone decides to date someone, the beginning is great! There is not a flaw in the world with the other person, everything is new and exciting, and then you get to know the other person.
Getting to know someone is one of the most interesting things in the world, I get to know myself everyday. I realize my strengths, weaknesses, fears and ambitions. The older I get, the more I realize that nothing scares me except commitment itself. I am committed to myself. I am selfish. This is not a bad thing, selfish has a negative connotation, but if you look for synonyms for “selfish” you will find “self centered”, “self-seeking”, “self-interested”, “egotistical”, and “egotistic.”
Yes! I want to take care of myself. In this world, nobody is going to do you any favors. If I do something and it benefits somebody else, I don’t want to be thanked, I don’t want recognition, I wasn’t trying to get anything out of it, I was merely seeking an objective. As funny as it may sound, I find myself making more people happy by making myself happy.
It was easier for me to treat my friends to something because I want to do that “something.” I don’t see this as wasteful, because it is something I want to do, I am not getting conned into doing something. I am voluntarily spending my time/money/ effort on pleasing myself; the fact that my friends are present is a mere casualty of my selfish efforts.
As much as I don’t care about what other people think about me, I do things that seem selfless, generous and even outright insane, because it makes my selfish actions look that much more socially acceptable.
Children Are Selfish, it’s not their Fault
Nobody chooses to be born, nevertheless, once we make the journey out of the birth canal; we are now dependent on other people for a long time until we can wipe our own ass, buy food and dress ourselves. Even then, those are utter basic necessities for our day-to-day lives that are taken for granted when we are older.
A baby cries when he or she is hungry, tired or needs their diaper to be changed. Parents who show disgust at the basic daily “chores” of taking care of a child are victims of their own actions. The responsibility of taking care of a child are so huge that parents don’t actually realize the vastness of the task until they are in too deep, so to speak.
Children are not responsible beings, and why should they be? Parental units need to display a sense of altruism towards their children whether they like it or not. If a parent does something that society deems bad parenting the parent could be deemed unsuited for parenting.
Parents need to be the role models for their children, which makes life so complicated, balancing everything in order to stay under the radar, yet effective. I feel like I have achieved this balance, yet I am not satisfied. Having said that, I do not want children; I just want to be happy by doing what I need to do in order to be successful in everything.
Be Proud, but don’t Flaunt it
As mentioned above, staying under the radar while being successful is key. If you start showing off your success, people begin to suspect something is up, but if you stay low-key and keep a close circle of friends who you can trust, and not have to ever worry about. It is all too often you hear about close friends who ruined another close friend’s life by stabbing them in the back.
If you are going to drive a Ferrari, know what the consequences will be. Be prepared to prove that your Ferrari is yours and not the proof of some illegal activity that will surely land you in jail or even worse, dead.
Remember that if you are generous, people will question your motives. That’s why everyone should live within his or her means not go into debt, pay bills on time, and everything will be OK.
There is nothing for wanting the “finer things in life,” but the price you pay for those things will sometimes come back and haunt you. People are always trying to get that nice watch, nice car, mansion in Beverly Hills, etc.
How it Ends
The world is all supply and demand that forces people to do things. Hot girls are limited in supply so they have a higher price, the healthier food is more expensive; thus taking care of yourself by spending money is selfish; there is nothing wrong with that.

The Lakers Don't get Bailed Out

Yesterday the Los Angeles Lakers did not care about anything work related, sure they showed up, put on their purple jerseys, laced up their shoes and stepped foot onto the court at the Toyota Center in Houston; but that was it.

The Lakers played as is it was not the playoffs, a sin that still is not excusable in a regular season game; yet far more reprehensible when it comes to pro basketball games in May. The lackluster approach is kind of like the approach that the government’s stress tests showed: nobody really cared too much.

The government cheated on this test by helping each one of the student aka banks in their efforts to pass these tests. In the event that a bank was not sufficiently capitalized to withstand financial panics, make sure that enough capital is raised, and last week the Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley issued $15 billion in common stock and bonds in order to close the potential gaps.

The problem with the teacher’s help here is that the students do not learn anything from these actions, they now know that someone will always give them a hand even at the brink of failure, and better yet a real second chance after a complete failure.

As the Lakers played with no sense of urgency, or with the prospect of taking a dominating 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets; the banks teetered through the stress tests with flying colors. Sounds like a paradox? Well, it is.

When it comes to the playoffs, it is win or go home. In this economic era, the private investors have the same option to win or go home, whereas the big banks have only one choice: to win.
Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, said, “We're a little bit of a team that needs to have sometimes a spark put in us to play,” The Lakers lacked a sense of the necessity to win this game, because it was not absolutely necessary! The Lakers will show up on Tuesday night, and play like the game has some importance, and they will prevail in the series.

Makes you wonder how much more the economy can prosper if the government let’s the banks be like the Lakers were yesterday, let them fail, just for a day and then see them come back stronger than ever.

The Performance of Performance Enhancing

When things are going badly around you, that is when you start looking for people to blame, for example, Bernie Madoff was exposed during the worst economic times seen in most people's lives.

Today, Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers was suspended for 50 games for violating the league's drug policy. According to Manny's agent, Scott Boras, the substance was not steroids, it was a substance that was in a medication that was prescribed by a doctor.

It sucks, but you know what? Manny should have known.

Is it a coincidence that this happened a day after the Dodgers broke the record for most home wins to start a season? Probably not. In sports, when things can't any get better, they usually don't. This has occurred on several occasions from the 2004 Laker "dream team" whose season ended in a nightmare in Detroit all the way to Mike Tyson getting KOed by Buster Douglas in 1990, and many other times throughout history.

Why is it that when you are at the top, you have nowhere to go but down, and when you are at the very bottom, as I wrote last night, you have nowhere to go but up.

Finding equilibrium is the key to everything. Consistency toward winning, proving yourself day after day, and ultimately you will get to the top, but the competition should be as tight as possible to keep you honest.

Mr. Cuban has a point...

When you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up.




http://blogmaverick.com/2009/05/06/the-problem-with-the-stock-market/

Time to make WEE

Ever wonder what people are thinking by blogging? Is it self gratification? Is it to pass time because you are bored? Or is it to publish something to use as a future reference. I recently read a paper written by a talented senior at USC, and in the paper, one of the works cited numerous times was her blog.

This was such a revolutionary idea, that I had to blog about it. There is a lot of opportunity out there, and I would like everyone to know that I will be the name in the ranks of billionaires. Just trust me, follow me on Twitter, Facebook me, and blog about me.

Just do it. Nike.

The Facebook Update

For anyone who does not know what Facebook is... what am I saying? Everyone knows what Facebook is. So when I log on to Facebook one of the many times a day i do, I see the new developments in my "friends'" lives.

While I have welcomed Facebook with open arms, and utilized the many REAL benefits of it such as reaching out to people to come to a fund raising event, or party or just to hang out. The truth remains that Facebook legitimizes the way human sexual behavior takes place. I am not going to go into detail about my personal life or anyone else's for that matter; however, when I see girls and guys constantly updating their profiles, pictures, or status's several times a day, it becomes somewhat of an advertisement for that person.

The key to advertisement is that if you say something enough, it starts to become true. This is true about 99.9% of things out there in life. I don't need a Snuggie, but because I've seen the commercial more than several times, it seems like an item I absolutely cannot live with out.

On Facebook, the same concept exists, except that it is about relationships. People are programmed to see and respond. If you are logging onto Facebook for 2 minutes 10 times a day (you know it's at the very least that), and you see the same 3 or 4 girls or guys in your news feed, they are now for sale in your mind and to everyone else who is seeing them.

These people may or may not be "bad" products, however, they are not necessarily "good" products, they are merely available. To relate this to the importance of sexconomics, these people are in large supply and thus cheap. The more pokes, comments, messages sent to them increases the demand and thus increases their value.

If and when the right amount of supply and demand is met, translating into "social equilibrium," we are all free to proceed to frolic.

Rules

Shocking that it's taken me this long to get back into the world of blogs. November of 2008! Really?

So now the question is, where have I been? What have I been doing? Oh I wish I could tell you... I've noticed that people use their blogs to pontificate their "sense of humor" or give the world their take on something. That is fine, in the world wide web, you can find anything you want, and that is why most blogs are boring.

I would like to talk about rules. Society is made up of people who live their lives by waking up, going to work, interacting with co-workers and colleagues, going to the gym, eating, paying bills, watching TV and going to sleep.

The major part that I left out is that people always have one or more things on their list of daily activities that may or may not be disclosed. This is where the rules come in: I really don't care to hear about why you have been rejected so many times by a "certain" type of girl. I especially don't want to hear about "your" reasons for not going out with "certain" girls (we all know that you are now being passive aggressive by giving us your reasons).

Back to the rules. Guys should always have their friend's backs, literally and figuratively. You do not go into unknown waters without someone who you can trust, otherwise you may never return. A guy can never let his or her guard down, doing so can be detrimental, which means always bring your A game, or don't come out at all. One of the worst things a "friend" can do is be your wingman for the night, but decide to not drink and then complain to you the whole night. Not only is that not cool, but it's totally... well, uncool.

Last week, one of my friends called me and told me about his "terrible night." I figured it was a night that consisted of him being rejected by 1's and 2's... it was much worse. My friend was dragged to a party filled with a bunch of hipsters (read losers) where his friend who dragged him refused to drink. Now I fully understand someone who doesn't want to man up and drink, but if you aren't going to drink, then sit back and enjoy the ride... this was the party you wanted to go to, it's not like anyone put a gun to your head.

Also, guys, if you didn't do anything wrong, never apologize. It doesn't help.