I'm an ALL STAR... That doesn't mean I'm going to the game.

Today is the NBA All Star Game, an annual mid-season soiree/ entertainment weekend for professional basketball. As an avid sports fan, and a huge fan of basketball, especially the LA Lakers I watch the All Star game for the purpose of being entertained, nothing more, nothing less. I don't really care about the outcome, because it doesn't affect the outcome of the season for any players or teams.

Last year, I went to the All Star game in Dallas, Texas -- I was able to get tickets mainly because there were over 100,000 seats at Cowboys Stadium for a basketball game that normally is watched live by 20,000 spectators. I enjoyed myself at the game, and while it was an experience of a lifetime, it is not something that I need to make an annual event for me.

This year, the All Star game is in LA, at Staples Center - my second home... Over the past few days, people have approached me and asked me if I am attending the game today. My response has steadfastly been "no." And when people respond with a shocked "WHY?!?!?!?" I answer them with the same answer "Because I don't want to spend $10,000 on a ticket to a meaningless game."

Yes, I am passionate about sports and basketball, and YES, it would be an awesome experience, especially because it's at Staples Center, a place I truly love to be, but TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for a decent seat for a meaningless game would be dumb. I am perfectly happy watching from the comfort of my own home on a brand new 55 inch flat screen TV.

It's just funny that people are asking me about such trivial things in my life, when there are so many much more meaningful and exciting things going on in my life. Just ask!

The Coolest Guy in the Gym

A few weeks ago as I was leaving the locker room at a local gym, I couldn't help but notice a crowd surrounding a rather large man with long hair. I had seen this guy before, and being an LA native, I couldn't care less. The crowd of men was surrounding this man known as "Fabio."

Growing up in LA, I have become immune to A-list celebrities, so there was no need to pay any attention to this Z-lister, a person who I have seen at the gym numerous times before. Given the fact that Fabio had a little group of half-dressed men surrounding him, I started to wonder if he was really that cool.

Was this the equivalent to that popular, star athlete in high school who can't add 2 and 2, but owns whatever room he's in? Whatever the case may be, I was eager to hear what these grown men were talking about with this long-haired man. The truth is, all I heard were bits and pieces about random travels to South America. Not that this didn't interest me, but I had no intention of becoming part of this conversation.

I go to the gym for a purpose - to maintain my health and feel good - if I wanted to socialize with other half-naked men, I wouldn't choose the gym as my venue of choice. I have an objective to achieve while in the gym, and as I grow older, my time becomes more valuable. Talking with anyone in the gym extraneously as this quorum of men were doing with this good for nothing has been, proved to me yet again how silly this world can be.

Pop culture is cool, seeing a celeb out anywhere is something one can mention, but NOTHING is going to be accomplished by talking to this guy in the locker room when all I can think about is the food I'm about to consume after my healthy workout.

Fabio probably loves the attention, HIS NAME IS FABIO!!!! You can't blame him for capitalizing on the stupidity of American culture, but there is a time and place for everything... and the men's locker room at the gym is not the place to socialize even with the coolest guy there.

The House Always Wins

People who lose money in a casino will never blame the casino. Someone who has been betting consistently all night, but losing will blame the cards and even him or herself for the bad luck. The winners are never at fault. Over the weekend many articles and blogs were published discussing the collapse in the U.S. stock market on Thursday of last week. The authors of the articles all pointed to the “rigged” game that speed traders and advantages of electronic trading that creates an unfair advantage in an otherwise even playing field.

There are two sides to this argument. Of course if one is legally allowed to take advantage of a rule, shouldn’t he or she take it? On the other hand, if there is an unreasonable advantage that is being used to manipulate the system, shouldn’t there be two separate “games” available to be played?

Wall Street has been compared to a casino for many years, but people have kept quiet about the possibility that critics may be right about this concept. The arguments that are made repeatedly about the advantages always come back to modern technology. Technology improves productivity and increases speed – but how much can a human increase speed and productivity without technology?

If Wall Street is just a playing field without the balls, goals and gloves; then performance enhancing drugs – high powered computers capable of beating the system – should be banned. However, in the increasingly demanding professional world of investing and trading, nobody has ever asked their boss for a slower computer. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and self made technology billionaire called for separate playing fields in the regulated stock market.

If Wall Street is just an arena of fans drunk with greed, they should not be operating the heavy machinery the big major league owners are supplying them with. A collapse of the stock price of a company should come at the hands of a mismanaged company, a peculiarity in the performance of a specific company’s earnings report, or any number of valid mistakes that a company made to affect the fundamentals that people have been taught to invest in.

Something needs to change. Faith in the system has been lost – look how many people are investing outside of the United States. America’s chances of rebounding from this recession were appearing to be on track, but people needed to blame Greece for a pullback in the markets, which could be fine, but the steroid-abusing traders manipulated the system to create profits that could be taken legally.

The losers here walked out of the casino scraping together their last pennies to buy a cup of coffee for one more day on the casino floor today – Monday.

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.