Superman def King James

Dwight Howard's Magic defeated LeBron James' Cavaliers last night for a Finals matchup with the Lakers. I never thought the Cavaliers would lose the series even when they were down 3-1. I thought James was going to carry the team, but as good as he is... he's not Michael Jordan and his Cavs are not Jordan's Bulls. The Magic looked like the deeper team and did a good job of building last summer. I don't think they're good enough to beat the Lakers though. They have a chance if the hot shooting continues.

I really wanted James to make it to the Finals, but the Cavs loss has a couple of hidden positives to it. It proves that there's no conspiracy to officiate the Cavs and Lakers into the Finals... a matchup that would be the best financial option for the NBA. I'm also hoping it makes James rethink a possible resigning with the Cavs. In a dream situation, I'd love to have him on the Bulls, playing alongside Gordon, Hinrich & Rose.

Tech Deals of the Week (5/31-6/6)

The sales are back! I was expecting something for Memorial Weekend, but the drought just continued. This week looks much better.

Flash Sales
The SanDisk Ultra II models are a little higher than standard because they have a backup button built-in... and likely some special software to go along with it.
- 16 GB SanDisk Ultra II @ OD for $49.99
- 32 GB SanDisk Ultra II @ OD for $99.99
- 16 GB SanDisk @ RS for $39.99
- 2 4 GB SanDisk @ RS for $30

iPod Nano Combo @ BB for $159.97
Since iPods usually don't go on sale, the best buys usually come in combos. This one includes JVC Gumy earbuds and a clear case w/ kickstand... 2 must have accessories.

iPod Touch @ TG for $299.99 + $30 Gift Card
The other way to save on iPods is to get a gift card offer. This one is good if you're a regular Target shopper.

Headphones @ RS for $9.99
There are two sports models on sale... Nike Behind-the-Neck and Sony h.ear.

Targus Mice @ ST for $9.99
- Wireless Notebok Mous
- Wired Optical Notebook Mouse
- USB Laser Mouse

There Goes Everything!

In tonight's Yankees game, CC Sabathia had a ho hitter through the 5ht inning. At the start of the 6th, he gave up the first hit. As soon as that happened, I knew the shutout would be gone as well. Sure enough, it was true. I've seen it happen before and it always follows the same pattern. Pitchers will say that they're not thinking about it, but whenever I see this pattern, I know they're not telling the whole truth. They are very aware when they blow the no-hitter. They become either frustrated or try to hard after it and end up blowing the shutout. Fortunately, the Yankees had enough offense to get the win.

Jeter kept his hit streak going. Posada hasn't missed a beat since coming back from the DL, picking up right where he left off before he got injured.

Figured Out the Clay?

"It’s three matches. It’s a lot better than I’ve done here before. I like my chances maybe more than the other years. I feel like I’m moving a little bit better on this stuff. I’m able to kind of slide into my forehand."
- Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick just won his 3rd round match. So this is the deepest he's been at the French Open. He looked fast and moved well in his match, defeating Marc Gicquel easily in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. This is a good sign US Men's Tennis, who have been terrible in this tournament. While I don't think Roddick can defeat Federer or Nadal on this surface, I hope he stays consistent so he can restore some respect the the US on clay.

Federer dropped a set, but also advanced, as did Jankovic. Serena Williams struggles with illness, but was able to advance as well.

Game 6 There Is!

So... last night, King James and the Cavs stayed alive with a 112-102 victory over the Magic. It wasn't a dominating victory because Orlando made significant runs and took the lead at times. It wasn't a sure thing like any of the 1st or 2nd round games. James and Williams had pretty good games, but they need a bit more from the other guys and some bench points. Orlando's scoring was more spread out. From this, I get the impression that James is trying to will a victory. It was successful in this game, but they need the other guys if they want to win Game 6. Hopefully the slumps that some of the guys are in will translate into a blow out next game. Law of averages, right? Wallace needs to get 10-15 rebounds, Gibson needs 10 more points and Szczerbiak needs 10-15 off the bench. James will get his 40 and Williams will get his 20. They also need 15-20 from Z.

Faked Out

It always feels a little strange when I wake up unexpectedly. After a deep sleep, sometimes I don't know what day it is or even the time of day. Last night, I woke up and thought it was a Saturday. It took me a few minutes to realize I had work the next day. That was definitely not a good feeling. I think I was thrown off because I slept a little later than usual. At least it's Friday!

I prefer waking up in the middle of the night on a weekend and thinking it's a weeknight. Then I would be pleasantly surprised when I came to my senses that I could relax!

Welcome Back Maria!

She was still a little rusty in the second round, but was able to take out Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6. It was so close and she could've lost it many times. Hopefully she'll be warmed up for the next one.


Ivanovic, Nadal and Roddick also advanced yesterday.

3-1

After last night's games, the Cavs have really dug themselves a hole as they now trail the series 3-1 after a tough loss. they had every opportunity to win, but missed many clutch opportunities. As with many recent Playoffs, I switched my allegiance temporarily to the Cavs after the Bulls got eliminated. they are a division rival, but I just enjoy watching LeBron James and would like him to get a ring soon. He's the best player the NBA has seen since Michael Jordan and I want him to prove that over Kobe Bryant. This Orlando series has been really tough. Their only win was a 3-pointer with 1 second left. They way they ran over the Pistons and Hawks, I really though they would do the same to the Magic. I also thought that if the Bulls drew the Magic in the seeding, they would easily get out of the first round. But it's the matchup that gives Orlando the advantage over the Cavs. Record & players aside, they've played well against LeBron's Cavs during the regular season. It's just one of those weird situations when one team has another's number... like NJ beating the Bulls and Charlotte owning the Lakers.

This 3-1 hole has to spark something in James. He has a chance to make history or waste another golden opportunity.

Long Weekend Sports Wrap Up

I've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been posting daily as I usually do. So here's another quick sports post to cover the weekend.

Baseball
The Mets were more successful in helping out their crosstown rivals as they took 2 games from the Red Sox. the Yankees were only able to get one from the defending champion Phillies. their one win was an exciting one though. Saturday afternoon's game was another walkoff win... and another one for Melky for that matter! A-Rod also got the tying run and had been great since returning from hip surgery. He's pretty much hitting a homer each game! I was OK with the weekend turnout though. The Yankees won the Memorial Day game in blowout fashion against Texas and they're just one game back from the first place Red Sox now. The 9-game streak brought them out of their hole.

Basketball
I didn't think the conference finals were going to be exciting, but a Cavs vs. Lakers Finals is no longer a given with Cleveland down 2-1 and the other series tied at 2. The most exciting game so far was Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Magic had the win when Turkoglu hit "the winner" and left 1 sec on the clock. The pas came in to King James, who calmly hit the 3-pointer to win the game. That's going to go down in history as one of the greatest playoff shots... especially if they end up winning the series.

Tennis
The French Open started over the weekend. I haven't watched any of the smaller tournaments, so I've been away from the Tennis world too long! This year was different because the Bulls played so well during the 2nd half that I watched them all the time. Last year, I deferred to tennis! So far, as expected, Nadal, Federer, Roddick, Ivanovic, Sharapova and the Williams sisters all advanced. Sharapova is back from injury and a little rusty, but she pulled through... and tennis get a rating boost! Both Williams sister struggled as well and went the distance to advance. Blake was upset by Mayer in straight sets, so there goes half of the men's US team I usually root for.

Helping Each Other?

This weekend, the Mets and Yankees will have a chance to help each other out. They're facing each other's rivals. The Mets are taking on the Red Sox as the Yankees host last year's World Series champs, the Phillies. The Yankees look good going in with a 9-game winning streak. Everyone's stats are up and they're all feeling confident. The first couple of games during the streak were nail biters, but the last few were offensive outputs. The Phillies are one of the best teams out there though, so it'll be a tough series. The Mets on the other hand are walking in with a 4-game losing streak and are facing one of the best in the AL. While the Yankees were winning, so were the Red Sox.

I'll certainly be routing for the Mets. I wonder if Mets fans will be routing for the Yankees though. Logically, they should, but their hate of the Yankees is so misplaced that they might want them to lose at the expense of having their rivals move ahead in the standings. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way they are sometimes!

JWP vs BPP

It's going to happen again... John Wayne Parr is going to take on Buakaw por Pramuk on 6/26 in Montego Bay. It's Muay Thai rules this time, which could give JWP a good edge. Buakaw has fought mostly K-1 over the years. It'll be especially good if he's in the same shape as his last match against Zambidis. That was JWP in top shape. He'll need to be 100% to fight Buakaw, who is one of the greatest fighters in the world.


In their last match, Buakaw won the decision in a close match that went to an extra round. If JWP can come up with a win, he'll be starting some payback streak, cleaning up past losses!

HE's a Winner

Back in December, I picked the MSI Wind as the best netbook. That's changed now that the N280 processor is available and many manufacturers have not jumped on it. The original netbook company, ASUS got on it right away with the Eee PC 1000 HE. You can find it on sale for as low as $350. It has the new processor and about 7 hours of battery life. The rest of the specs are the same old 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD and 6-cell battery. The design is also better than the other with a spill-resistant chiclet keyboard that's surprisingly comfortable to type with. It's close enough to full size that typos are minimal. The touch pad is multitouch. It's a bit heavier than most 10" models, but that favors the durability of the system. The internal speakers are pretty good as well. I credit that to the solid case material. Laptops that are lighter and made from cheap plastic often vibrate when volumes get too high. The Eee PC 1000 HE has it all right now. I don't see any competition coming up either. Many new netbooks are going for thin and light, but sacrifice battery life. If there's a system that has 7 hours, I can't shop for one that lasts only 3 hours... no matter how thin it is.

Didn't Get the Memo?

I'm watching the Magic vs. Celtics right now and there's a person in one of the front rows wearing a Dirk Nowitzki jersey. I see this sort of thing a lot in all sports. There's always someone in the crowd wearing a completely irrelevant and unrelated shirt. I always wonder what people are thinking when they get dressed to go to the game. Dirk has no connection to either team... in fact, it's even the wrong conference. If I go with friends to watch a Knicks game and they're playing someone other than the Bulls, I'm not going to show up wearing a Ben Gordon shirt! If I'm not for either team, I'll wear plain clothes. Jerseys other than the 2 teams playing that are OK to wear are... former jersey of one of the players, college jersey of one of the players or Olympic jersey. Everything else just doesn't make sense!

Why Not One More?

The Yankees just finished the 3rd game of their series against the Twins. The first two were walk-off wins. Why not another? Today's ended with a Damon homer in the 10th! I thought it would end in the 9th because we had Gardner on 2nd with 1 out. Cabrera had a nice bunt to get him there. Gardner tried to go from 2nd all the way on an infield base hit. He almost made it too, but Twins catcher, Joe Mauer faked a throw to first and then dove for the plate, tagging out Gardner. Strategically, it looked like a bad play on Gardner's part, but I thought he was caught by Mauer's fake. If Mauer threw it to 1st, Gardner would've scored easily. It was a risky play that could only be executed by Gardner. Mauer made an amazing play to get him out.

The bullpen also came through. Rivera shutout the 9th and Aceves shutout the 10th. Rivera will always be lights out, but it's good to see the other guys perform in pressure situations.

Walking Off

After a 5 game losing streak earlier in the month, it seems like the Yankees woke up and started putting together a winning streak. They won their 4th straight yesterday. The last 3 of the streak have been come-from-behind victories late in the game.

Off the DL
Jeter and Matsui returned from their injuries on Thursday and both played important roles in the game. Jeter got the game tying hit. How many times has he done that? Later in the game, Matsui had the game winning homer. Without these 2 guys, they would've lost the pitcher's duel to the Blue Jays.

Flash & Milk Man
Friday's game against the Twins was probably the first home game that got the fans into it. It looked like a sure loss of the Yankees, but the crowd really got into it when Gardner hit an inside-the-park home run. It was fly ball down the left field line that the outfielder misjudged. The thing is, he didn't dive and miss (which is usually the cause of an in-the-parker), but Garner was just so fast. For any other player, it would've been a triple. Once he hit the homer, I had a feeling the Yankees were going to win. A play like that really pumps up the team. Sure enough, Melky Cabrera got the walk-off hit in the 9th.

A-Bomb
A-Rod returned to the lineup 2 nights ago, but it was this game that really marked his return. The Yankees were down 3-4 until Matsui hit a double in the 8th. Pena pinch ran for him and Jeter sac bunted Pena to 3rd... small ball at its best. Tex hit Pena in for the tie. A-Rod hit a 2-run homer in the 11th to win the game. Hopefully this brings back the clutch A-Rod from 2 seasons ago.

X-men Origins: Wolverine

As usual, I waited a couple of weeks after the opening weekend to see this Summer blockbuster. Many of my friends saw this on opening day. From what I've heard, most people were a little disappointed. Maybe there was too much hype about this one. I actually thought it was pretty good. Of the recent X-men movies, I liked the 1st one the best, followed by the 2nd. I didn't really like the 3rd one at all and would place Wolverine above it.

I knew going into this one that it wouldn't follow the comic book. the movie franchise already departed too far from it. So I kept in mind that it would be a new story that's somewhat based on the original. I thought the plot was pretty good and was consistent with the story arc of the trilogy. It took place way before the movies, so naturally they got younger actors for all of the characters. Wolverine is ageless, so he was still played by Hugh Jackman... frankly, there's no one else that could do it. Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine. He did such a great job in the movies that renditions of Wolverine in comics, video games and artwork often use him as a template.

The action was pretty good with classic battles between Wolverine and arch rival Sabertooth (who are brothers in this story). There's nothing like 2 super strong mutants who heal after getting hit rumble around and destroy the area around them! *Scott Adkins, who played the Weapon XI version of Deadpool had some great martial arts sequences at the end.

The special fx were naturally good. The opening title/credit sequence was full of it, inserting Wolverine and Sabertooth into scenes starting from the Civil War through Vietnam. There's of course the mutant powers... retractable claws, teleportation and kinetic energy. One thing I wish there was more of was screen time for Gambit. He really only had one scene, but is one of the most popular characters. I also wanted to see more of him tossing the charged playing cards.

Other X-men characters they worked into the story included Silverfox, Johnny Wraith, Blob, Bolt, Agent Zero, Cyclops, Professor X and Emma Frost. There's also an X-men Origins: Magneto and Deadpool movie slated for 2011.

*Note: Wade Wilson/Deadpool was played by Ryan Reynolds at the beginning of the movie. The martial arts sequences and flips in the final scene are done by the much more skilled Scott Adkins (Unleashed and Undisputed II.

Related Links: Official Site, IMDB: Deadpool 2011, IMDB: Magneto 2011

Zach's Latest

What happened to Contender Asia this season? By this time last year, the finale was already done. It must be really delayed this year with all of the qualifiers. Here's a little taste from another match from last week. It features Zach from last season's tournament:


This was overshadowed by JWP's fight, but Zach's been putting together a pretty good streak lately.

Friday Night Fights Results

Here are the full results from last Friday's boxing event:

- Ognjen Topic def Tim Amorim (decision after 5 rounds)
- Lasheem Richardson def Samuel Teak (decision after 3 rounds)
- Jen Szecker def Laurie Cahill (decision after 3 rounds)
- Joel Shogreen def Mike Adams (decision after 3 rounds)
- Omar Douglas def Angel Garcia (decision after 3 rounds)
- Chris Kwiatkowski def Dino Lopez (KO in 2nd)
- James Clark def Rafael Justice (KO in 2nd)
- Osvaldo Dominguez def Liam Tarrant (decision after 3 rounds)
- Travis Lerchen def Eric Utsch (KO in 2nd)
- Rami Ibrahim def Justin Grekiewicz (draw after 5 rounds)
- Joe Sampieri def Ben Yelle (decision after 3 rounds)
- Chris Romulo def Andy Zerger (decision after 5 rounds)

Next month's event is full Muay Thai. Hopefully I can make it, but I'll wait around to see the fight card first.

Related Links: Friday Night Fights, 69th Regiment Armory

Weekend Sports Wrap Up

Muay Thai
Aside from Friday Night Fights in New York City, John Wayne Parr also faced off with "Iron" Mike Zambidis in Australia earlier in our day. This was the long awaited rematch of one of JWP's controversial losses in K-1 MAX. In my opinion, the first match was a result of bad judging. Parr blocked most of Zambidis' moves and as the shorter man closed in, he hit him with several knees... most of which were not blocked. So last Friday's rematch was promoted as "Payback." And JWP didn't disappoint the hometown crowd as he convincingly won the decision. I'll have to wait for the replay in June, but from what I've read, JWP dominated all of the rounds and cut Zambidis twice. Zambidis got some solid hits in, but they didn't appear to do any damage as Parr continued to advance his attacks. JWP was really focused for this one. He trained hard and I've never seen him in better shape. Don't let his age fool you. This fighter is made of steel!

NBA
I've been writing less about basketball over the past week because I just got off a high with the Bulls games, but I've still been watching every other one. I'm paying the most attention to the Rockets series against the Lakers because I really wanted to see Yao lead his team to the Finals. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst on Friday as Yao fractured his foot and will have to take the rest of the postseason off. They lost that game, but more importantly, they lost their best player. No Yao... and no Motumbo, the centerless Rockets actually bounced back on Sunday and tied up the series 2-2 behind great performances by Battier and Brook. I thought the Lakers would have a free ticket to the Western Finals, but it looks like they'll still have to earn it.

Although I'm rooting for LeBron's Cavs on the Eastern side, I haven't been into their series against the Hawks as much. The Cavaliers have just been blowing out their opponents since Game 1 of the 1st round. The games haven't been close. The only nice thing about watching them was the demo reel James has been putting together.

The Mavs who eliminated the Spurs easily in the first round are having a hard time with the younger, faster Denver Nuggets. After the weekend, the Nuggets have a 3-0 lead. Game 3 had a controversial ending though. The Mavs had the lead in the final seconds. It was Nuggets' ball and Melo dribbled around the right side. Naturally the Mavs went for the foul as they had one to give. Melo's arms were slapped... no call! He continued to play after everyone stopped, thinking it was a foul and he nailed a 3 to win the game. This one will be talked about for a long time. One call that made the series 3-0 instead of 2-1 could've turned the tide.

In the other Eastern series, I thought Boston would have an easy time with Orlando, but it seems like the round 1 marathon with the Bulls took something out of them. Orlando had a 2-1 lead after Friday's blowout. Last night's game was more exciting with Orlando leading into the final seconds. Davis nailed a last second jumper to take the lead with no time left. It's all tied instead of a 3-1 deficit.

Yankees
The big news for the Yankees is A-Rod returned from surgery rehab over the weekend. They also ended a losing streak by taking the series with the Orioles 2-1. A-Rod just had an impact in the first game with a signature homer, but I think his presence helps the team. Players can move back to their comfortable spots in the lineup and on the field. This is the normal team. Though the series was against a poor team, I hope it restores some confidence in a slow-starting Yankees team.

Tech Deals of the Week (5/10-5/16)

Flash Sales
- 8 GB Verbatim @ OD for $24.99

PC Accessories @ OD for $9.99
- Cyber Acoustic Speakers
- Targus Retractable Mouse
- Logitech Classic Keyboard
- 4-Port USB Hub

8 GB iPod Touch @ BB for $224.99
This is a rare Mac sale. It's only $5, but as usual, any amount is worth noting for the overpriced Apple products.

Friday Night Fights

I went to my second Friday Night Fights in a row last night as they've been doing a great job with the Muay Thai lineup. It wasn't all-MT this time around, but the matchups were great. I just took breaks during all of the regular boxing matches. So all of the pictures below are just from the MT matches.

Just Go

HELMET: Good. Let's get moving.

SANDURZ: Yes, sir. Driver, prepare to move out.

HELMET: What are you preparing. You're always preparing. Just go!

SANDURZ: Just go.

DRIVER: Yes, sir.

That was from an old classic, Spaceballs, but it reflects project management in the business world. In the movie, Dark Helmet's men are always following orders and give a play by play of what they're doing. Before they actually do something, they announce that they're preparing to do it. If someone did that in real life, they'd be wasting valuable time that adds up. This happens all the time in the office. Instead of just gutting it out and doing the job, teams often overprepare with paperwork, meetings, project management software, to do lists, etc. How about just doing it? That's the only way to accomplish anything. No one wants to say it, but most project management positions are just bull#$%^. If the team is made up of self-motivated, skilled workers there's no need for a project manager.

Bocca di Bacco

Location: 828 9th Avenue (btw 54th & 55th)
Cuisine: Italian
Hours: Sun-Mon 4pm-12am; Tue-Wed 4pm-1am; Thu-Sat 4pm-2am
Phone: (212) 265-8828
Website: www.boccadibacconyc.com
Prices: About $30 per person
Credit Cards: Amex or cash only

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 9

Visits: 1

Italian food is so common here in New York that it's sometimes considered generic and not exotic, but the food at Bocca di Bacco really stands out. Many say that you have to go to Brooklyn or Queens to get some real ethnic Italian food, but I think this place is a gem in Manhattan. The first thing you'll notice is that the place is a little hard to find given the address. There's no large sign, just a plain storefront. The entrance is a pair of large, ornate wooden doors that look like their floating in the middle of an all-glass wall. The interior is mostly brick with wood accents and decorated to look like a restaurant in Italy.

The food really stood out here. We had their grilled octopus for starters, which was enhanced with celery, red potato salad and herbs. This wasn't a large potato salad accented with bits of octopus. It was a huge tentacle chopped up, so that the main flavor was the octopus itself. I don't remember the name of my entree, but it was a creamy pasta with spinach. The taste was perfect. The spinach was also dried, yet chewy and provided some nice textural contrast to the pasta. I think it was a new item because it's not on the Online menu or Menu Pages.

The place had a pretty good crowd at 7:00, but we were still able to hear each other speaking at a normal volume. Service was pretty good. The only thing that would stop me from coming here frequently is the price. I thought it was a little high for italian.

Rain or Shine

People at work love to complain... any excuse to avoid work. When it's sunny outside...

"The weather's so nice. I don't want to be at work. I want to go outside and enjoy the sun."

When it's raining...

"What a crappy day. I'm not in the mood to work."

Can't work when it's sunny... can't work when it's raining. So then what's a good day to work!?

Fast & Furious (Part 2)

The Cast
Fast and Furious concentrated a lot of Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel). They got most of the screen time as their characters had to regain each others' trust again. After the first movie, Dom had just found out that Brian was an undercover cop. They still worked together to take down the bad guys and Brian let Dom go at the end, but the friendship suffered a blow. Dom had trusted Brian and took him into his own family. The characters are interesting because Dom is essentially a good guy just looking after his family and friends, but he's in the wrong profession. Brian sees this and is caught between following orders and following his heart. While the movie did a great job building up these 2 characters, they sacrificed screen time for the 2 beautiful female cast members... Jordana Brewster & Michelle Rodriguez. I'm pretty sure each had less than the first movie. Letty (Michelle) was a tough character and an integral part of Dom's team. Mia (Jordana) generally stayed clean and took care of the boys, but is also a skilled racer when she's behind the wheel.

The Cars
There was a good mix of imports and muscle cars in this movie. Brian represented the import specialist, putting together an R34 Skyline GT-R from 2 + a Z and later drove a Subaru WRX. Dom went all muscle in this movie. Let's put it this way... the FD3S from the first movie was too small for Vin Diesel! He had a rebuilt 1970 Charger from the first movie as well as a Chevy Chevelle SS & Camaro. The stunt driving was amazing... not just drag racing this time. The truck heists were more complex and the final "race" was something special. It involved off road terrain!

Related Links: Official Site, IMDB

Fast & Furious (Part 1)

I'm going to try this one without spoilers because I thought it was a movie worth watching...

I was in the subway station a few weeks ago when I saw the Fast and Furious movie poster. At first glance, I thought it was for the 2001 movie... either an ad for a Blu-ray release or just an old poster that was at the bottom of the stack and about to be pasted over. But when I looked closer, I discovered it was a new movie... the 4th installment in the series. It was just odd that they didn't give it a different name. They couldn't really call it Fast and Furious 4 though because it takes place at the same time as the third movie.

The main thing they promoted in this film was "new model... original parts" because they were able to sign Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez back from the original. I was wondering how they would work out the story because each sequel was completely different, barely connecting to previous films. It seems like it took place several years after 2 Fast 2 Furious because all of the characters are older and Brian (Paul Walker) is back with the FBI. In the beginning of this film, they also had Han, one of the main characters in Tokyo Drift leaving for Japan.

Fast & Furious was actually pretty good. It had the strongest story of the series so far. It's also more serious than the others because there's a murer involved. There are different levels of problems to resolve with each character. There's also a strong theme of friendship between Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian who are on different sides of the law, yet share a common code of ethics.

I have a lot to say, so I'll continue this in another post. Coming soon... the cars... the actors...

Pacquiao vs Hatton

Naturally, I was glued to the Bulls vs. Celtics Game 7 last night. So I missed a good boxing match... on paper at least. Manny Pacquiao defeated Ricky Hatton for his 6th title (6th weight division). On paper, both fighters had similar records and KOs. So I thought it was going to be a good match, but it turned out to be so lopsided. Pacquiao never really got hurt and he nailed Hatton with several direct hits.



The final KO in the second round really put out the lights. I hope Hatton is OK, because he looked like he couldn't get up.

Moving On

The Bulls exceeded everyone's expectations by taking the Celtics to a Game 7 in what's being called the greatest 1st round series of all time. A month ago, the Bulls were out of playoff contention. They did what they had to do, winning nearly every game towards the end of the season to not only make the playoffs, but make a serious run for the #6 spot. They did what the Knicks should've done... what the Knicks had the talent to do.

Game 7 wasn't as close as the others, but the Bulls still kept up, creeping within 3, but could never get the 4th quarter lead. Gordon, Hinrich, Rose and Salmons had good games, but the bench production wasn't the same. The Celtics bench had their best game last night. I think Eddie House was the difference maker, hitting 4-4 3-pointers. Even though it was close in the 4th, I still felt the Bulls were missing something. Gordon wasn't hitting those crazy shots like in the previous games. He seemed to spend all of those in the 1st quarter. Noah got into early foul trouble and we didn't get a whole lot out of Miller either.

I still felt this series was a victory for the Bulls organization. With all of the clutch shots Gordon hit, he'll start to get the all-star recognition he deserves. Hopefully in Paxson's eyes, he'll realize that this is the team they should build on. They need to bring all of these guys back for next season. They play well together. If we had Miller & Salmons for an entire year, I think the Bulls are easily one of the top 4 teams in the East. They play their best with Gordon, Hinrich & Rose on the floor, so why trade any of them? There's no NBA rule that says you HAVE to have 2 guards. They should also stop their quest for taller players. It's better to have all short guys that work hard than a bunch of tall guys that stand around. The Bulls' game is about speed and causing confusion... points off turnovers. You can't do that with defensive big men.

Tech Deals of the Week (5/3-5/9)

Flash Sales
- 8 GB Geek Squad @ BB for $24.99
- 8 GB PNY @ ST for $19.99
- 16 GB PNY @ ST for $39.99
- 16 GB Ativa @ OD for $39.99


Targus Notebook Cases @ ST for $19.99
The ad I saw didn't really specify which models were on sale, but the picture showed a Targus Groove, which I wrote about already and another case that looks like one my friend has. $19.99 is not the lowest sale price for the Groove, but still low for a pretty good backpack. Something else to keep in mind is the last sale was almost a year ago. The carrying case is another well-built model with a lot of padding. It's also lightweight. Both items are good for 14-15" widescreen laptops.

50 Pack HP DVD+R @ ST for $6.98
DVD recordables are on sale less and less often. Take advantage of this sale and stock up. I almost missed this one because I'm on autopilot to ignore these listings!

Game 6 + 3

Bulls vs. Celtics is truly a playoff classic and it's probably doing a lot for the NBA. I'm sure everyone in the world except me was thinking of a Celtics sweep. However, the Bulls are right there. As a TNT commentator said, it should be Bulls vs. 76ers in the 2nd round had the officiating been on target.

Game 6 was another classic... triple OT! These 2 teams have already played the equivalent of more than 7 games! The Bulls had 2 10+ leads throughout the game, but that was about it. It was close most of the time. The 10 point leads didn't last long as the Celtics made some quick runs... or I should say Ray Allen made them by himself. Ben Gordon had an off night, but John Salmons picked up the slack, scoring a team high 35. Salmons is truly the missing link. Last year, if Ben Gordon was cold, they had no one to fall back on. Derrick Rose added a "quiet" 28. Miller, who had a terrible start with some quick fouls actually finished with 23 on a perfect 5-5 shooting night.