Things were going really well for me yesterday. It was really strange. After staying up a good three hours after the time I would have usually been asleep to take photos for a class, I woke up a little late for another class in the morning. I thought my day would be going downhill from there. But it didn't. My commute in the mornings is by way of Topanga Canyon to PCH to get to Santa Monica rather than taking the 405, which is substantially slower; but in order for the TC trip to be faster, I have to leave by a certain time or else the light on PCH and Topanga becomes much too long and it becomes a parking lot. And it did become a parking lot.

I show up to class a good thirty minutes late, which is pretty bad considering this professor takes points off for tardiness and absences in a course where each point equals one percent of the final grade. But as soon as I walked into the class, I noticed there wasn't even a trace of a teacher. Well there was, a jacket was on his chair. I sit down in my own chair and ask the dude behind me where the teach had disappeared to, he replied that the professor had come rather late and was getting his morning coffee. I was astounded. Coffee, in the morning? I'm joking, I was astounded by the lateness on the teacher's part. But then I thought and realized that the other two meetings we've had so far in this class, he was also a little, but by five minutes, not by thirty. That was luck. It was my day.

The rest of the day was thrown off because of me waking up late that morning, as I showed up late to my second class as well, but only by a minute or two. That professor was late as well! My first class' professor was late, which isn't anything strange in and of itself, but two professors in the same day? That's just strange. So I head home for my regular three hour Tuesday break, I have to get those photos ready from that morning because they're do that night, and I get caught up in the NBA season opener and such. But after getting drowsy just by reading the word "Spurs" I decided I would organize my Winter schedule. I soon lost track of time. RateMyProfessors.com is a great site to just read. I ended up leaving my house in the Valley a good twenty minutes after I normally do. But things were going my way that day, so I felt pretty confident I would get to class on time. Early in fact. I wanted to also, not because the teacher marked down if you were late, he didn't, he didn't care; but because if we were late, we could not show our photos in class if they were due that day. I love being able to participate in these photo showcases, the teacher makes it extremely fun.

click here to find out how else my day was amazing... I talk about the Lakers as well....

I don't mean to brag or anything, yah right, but I called Week 8. Like Week 7 (again, not bragging), I was dead on with my predictions for the NFC South. The first game for the day was an obvious one, so I can't take all that much credit for it, the Panthers lost to the Colts, leaving the Colts undefeated. Jags beat the Bucs, but I don't know if it was easier said than done, during the Saints game I was nervously looking up at the other scores because it was close the whole way through - Colts' defense disabling the Jags quarterback seemed like they did nothing because they won without him, it mostly stayed on the ground though like it always does with the Jags, it was the 3 interceptions from Garcia that let the Jags win it. Falcons were in their Bye and the Saints whooped the 9ers, like I said they would. So the NFC South is as follows, Panthers are 4 - 3, Bucs are 4 - 4, Saints are 3 - 4, and Falcons are 1 - 6; the Saints are in third, but they're one game away from being tied for first!

I said that Los Angeles' Fox affiliate (which I guess is only technically an affiliate because it is owned by Fox) KTTV would be broadcasting the Saints/49ers game. Well I was wrong. The guide said that it would be on for Los Angeles, but commercials said otherwise. I ran across this site, tvweek.com, that showed which affiliates are getting what games. This great guy Chris makes up a US map, only for Fox because CBS has things against giving out broadcast schedules, and it said 82% of America would get the Redskins/Patriots game while only 8% would get the Saints/49ers game (the rest would only have the first Fox game at 10 AM PDT). This totally bummed me out because I was getting all ready to watch my Saints pulverize San Francisco, even though I love it up there. But because Chris shows what affiliates get the game, I was able to use that information to try to find the stations on my dish, he said that Santa Barbara up to Medford, Oregon were getting the game on the West, while all of Louisiana and Mississippi got it elsewhere in the country. So I started looking around and I came across the Fresno Fox affiliate, KMPH (I love those call letters, haha), who were broadcasting the game. I only missed the first few minutes of the first quarter. Now, I wasn't able to watch it in Hi-Def, but I didn't mind because at least I was getting the game - and besides, that Pats game was way too one-sided, usually Fox throws on another game if it gets that one-sided, but I guess the Pats are too marvelous to do that too, instead they waited for the game to go out before KTTV got the game. The Pats game was about six minutes ahead of the Saints so I was able to watch half of the fourth quarter in Hi-Def on KTTV-HD, but by that point all the subs came in the game (Reggie Bush went into the locker room early too, but he's fine), which wasn't too bad because Pierre Thomas came in, only for a couple of plays though.

click here to continue reading this post; warning, it's all about football....

LA is something crazy, last week was that 5/14 accident, this week it's all about fires (and that Santa Clarita area got its fires too!). I had to take a different route to class today because of the fires, and it was jammed - but at least I got to class on time. And LA isn't the only place with its fires, all over Southern California. I hope you guys aren't affected by it.

I would've written this post on Saturday, but I had a midterm paper to write and then after I wrote it I took a nap, haha. I basically slept through most of the USC/Notre Dame game (good thing too cos it was sucking; luck of the Irish? More like suck of the Irish. haha, sorry), but I somehow was awake for pretty much all the touchdowns (USC was the only side to score). College football sucks nowadays. Even NBC thought so, they kept bringing back the "Bush Push" clip from two years ago (I'm not complaining)- USC just isn't the same since those guys left. No matter, we only have to wait until Sunday instead to watch them now. Except for Leinart of course, cos he's out for the season (which I'm bummed about, but I think it'll be good for the guy). They don't like Jarrett too much in North Carolina, and we got to see LenDale and Bush a few weeks ago on Monday night, as well as Tatupu and Bush last Sunday. That's pretty much it from those recently great USC years, right? And obviously, the only one who really matters from those guys is Reggie Bush. Los Angeles didn't broadcast the Falcon/Saints game yesterday morning, but what I do when that happens is read it, on ESPN.com. It's so much more suspenseful reading it because the only thing you base your thoughts on are what this computer has in front of you, and it's not exactly real-time, so it's intense! Fox is great because what they do sometimes is if the broadcasted game finishes early (or if it's a blowout like the 49ers and Giants), they switch to another game (which is only good sometimes. There was an Eagle/Saints game last year that they stopped because the Saints were whooping and I was pissed). They did this two weeks ago with the Panthers, but yesterday they wanted us to watch the Cardinals and Redskins. That ending was pretty good too, but I'd much rather have watched the Saints at home. I love the Superdome, the lights are so shiny, makes rings on their helmets, haha. Anyway, the Saints didn't have that great of a game, but that was okay because the Falcons didn't either. Bush seemed to be pretty good in the red zone, he even sumo wrestled his way in for a touchdown! That was fun to read. In the end, the Saints ended up winning and now they, oh my goodness, have a win streak! Who would've thought, right?

So at the end of the week, the NFC South is just like I said it would be, not to boast or anything, but I called it perfectly - Falcons lost to the Saints, Bucs lost to the Lions, Panthers in their Bye (that was a hard one to call, I gotta admit). Next week the Panthers welcome the undefeated Colts, the Bucs welcome the Colts' rivals tonight, the Jags, the Saints venture to San Francisco to take on the 9ers, and the Falcons are in their Bye (who cares about them anyway, they're only going to have probably 3 wins the whole season). Fox is going to air the Saint/49ers game at 1 PM in LA, so watch it. If you don't remember what I called, I said Panthers are losing to the Colts (that's a stretch), Bucs will lose to the Jags, and the Saints will beat the 9ers, making it 4 - 3, 4 - 4, 3 - 4, and 1 - 6, respectively, in the NFC South, but remember that I'm biased. Oh, and before I proceed to another point of interest, Louisiana has a new governor in January (after losing four years ago, he won this time around), he's Indian. Not "How" Indian but "Namaste" Indian, but he's Catholic, converted as a teen - stupid America taking away people's heritage, haha.

click here to finish reading this post, or else you will regret it later in your life....

Drew Brees' finger says it all, Saints won! One! (Or is he about to hit it into the outfield?) It's Tuesday so perhaps the shock of Sunday night's game has worn off, but I'm still excited about it. It was a great game. Going into it I was thinking, Seahawks, well, they were at the Super Bowl two years ago, they lost to the Steelers last week (the winners of Super Bowl XL), and the Cardinals a few weeks ago as well, but they're 3 - 2, and they have Shaun Alexander, but he's been sucking major lately, so the Saints could definitely win this. But the game's away, and the Saints couldn't beat the Titans nor the Panthers at home, so how could they beat the Seahawks away? Earlier in the day, all the ESPN NFL chaps said that the Seahawks were going to win it, even the cool Boomer who always says, "so you're ALL going with the - " and then goes with the opposite team, didn't go with the Saints. That really made me angry that they didn't have faith in the Saints, looking at them like they're a winless team. I know, they were a winless team at the time, but you have to admit they're not a bad team like the other winless or one-win teams. You got the Dolphins and the Rams who are in way too much trouble, oh so much trouble; and the Jets, the Bengals, and the Falcons who are also in a mess of trouble even with one win. And the Bears suck too and they have two wins! The Saints are not supposed to be in the same category as those guys at all. Even with Deuce out they had 120 rushing yards on Sunday... Bush had almost 100 of those! (Which is saying something because he's only had one of those games before, and if he didn't lose the ball in the third quarter, he would've definitely surpassed 100 Sunday night as well.) Last week, they had almost 100 rushing yards, that was without Deuce as well, but they lost the game by a field goal. Three weeks before that when Deuce played a full game (against the Bucs, before their Bye), the team as a whole had 100 yards rushing, Deuce had half of those yards... and now they're getting 120 without him? In no way am I saying that they've replaced Deuce, they can't, but they've certainly figured out how to win without him. And they quickly learned from their mistakes from last week's game and took it to the Seahawks this week, a place where the odds of going in as an away team and winning are very low, something like only five Seahawk losses at home in the last two and a half regular seasons (in their Super Bowl year they were 8 - 0 at home...), until Sunday of course, when it became six losses at home. A loss for the Seahawks that was quickly started by my man rookie Pierre Thomas of the Saints, who scored on a horrible punt fumble in Seattle's first drive. And because of last night's Giants win against the Falcons, the Saints are third in the NFC South. Yippee! Next week Carolina has their Bye and the Bucs play the Lions who are coming out of their Bye after being demolished by the Redskins. We play the Falcons next week, the horrible-defense Falcons that allowed almost 200 yard rushing and 300 yard throwing against the Giants! Harrington was sacked 4 times, in part due to two first-years on the offensive line... we had five sacks Sunday night against a good offensive line, just pointing it out. In Week 8, the Panthers come out of their Bye to play the Colts, haha - go ahead mark that as an "L" already - and the Bucs play the Jaguars who are also a pretty good AFC South team (Colts play Jags Monday Night next week by the way - isn't it fun how all the schedules interconnect?), the Falcons are in their Bye; and we have the 49ers, whose only wins are from Weeks 1 and 2 against the Cardinals and Rams (which was a 1 point win) - their losses were from the Steelers, Seahawks, Ravens, and soon to be Giants after Week 7, haha. So coming out of Week 8, I got the Panthers at 4 - 3, the Bucs at 4 - 4, the Saints at 3 - 4, and the Falcons at 1 - 6, which means everyone in the NFC South has lost but the Saints - but remember I'm biased, haha. Then in Week 9 the Saints play the Jags... so I won't comment on what'll happen there, haha. What I'm basically trying to say is that the Saints are not going to be last (or third) in their division for very long, especially since their biggest threat is a team with a quarterback who is just a few years away from being eligible for Social Security. The Panthers have a tough schedule... but the Bucs don't... so we'll see. Isn't football fun?

click here to read the rest of this long winded post....

Eid Mubarak everybody, and more rain! I know I already half said it Thursday night, but I wanted to say it again today as it is officially Eid. To those of you that may not know, Eid means "celebration" or "festival" in Arabic, and Muslims have two in a year. The first of the two is Eid-ul-Fitr, the Eid after Ramadan ends (the first day of the next month, Shawwal) and the second is Eid-ul-Adha, the celebration of Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismael (Ishmael). So two, and today's the first (the second is in a little less than two months). Not too much confusion this year as to which day Eid should be, North America (and most of the Western part) had 30 days of Ramadan (lunar months can either have 29 or 30 days, but not 31), which meant the day after must be Shawwal 1, which also meant one extra day to fast, which is always good. So anyway, I just wanted to say, Eid Mubarak! Oh, and the Empire State Building will be turning green until Sunday to celebrate Eid, for the first time. It'll be a yearly ritual like it is for Christmas and Hanukkah. Thanks, New York. haha.

But before I go get ready for Eid prayer (8:30 salaat at Tampa Masjid, Insha Allah), I wanted to quickly talk about the Sunny episode from Thursday night. I wanted to say that... it was probably the best! Seriously, I'm honestly not just saying that. It was supposed to be about Sweet Dee going out with this white rapper who everyone said was retarded, but the side story about Charlie, Mac, and Frank trying to start a band of their own was even more hilarious. I can't say enough how hilarious the episode is. And because Charlie is my favorite character, it makes it even greater because Charlie is hilarious in this one! He creates two songs, one on his own (which is disturbing), and one with the help of Dennis and some metallic paint in his apartment building (which is beyond hilarious), "Night Man" and "Day Man", respectively. You probably have to be a fan of the show to really appreciate the songs or how the characters react, but maybe not. All I know is that it was hilarious. I have "Day Man" as my ringtone now, haha, perhaps I'll put an .MP3 up later today or tomorrow. I also put "Day Man" on YouTube (someone else put "Night Man") and they've become hits. "Day Man" is beating "Night Man" (meaning I'm winning), but only because "Day Man" is extremely hilarious. And I'm not just saying that they've become hits out of nowhere (nor am I boasting in any way!), they really have. In one day mine has received nearly 20,000 hits, 274 favorites, 123 ratings, 76 comments (only 1 spam), and 8 honors! That's the most I've ever gotten. Granted I've only had two other successful YouTube clips (a Brian Regan peanut butter and jelly joke, which was taken off; and last week's South Park tourette girl), but this is really exciting! Some honors are, #3 most favorited Comedy today, #13 most viewed Comedy today, #14 top rated Comedy today, and #22 most discussed Comedy today. And since it's been up for a little over a day, I have weekly honors (never received that, ever)! It's all pretty exciting for me to say the least, but I'm even more happy that others were able to jump onto YouTube an hour after the episode aired to find the hilarious songs by typing in two simple words into search. That's great. I even got a few new visitors from YouTube (hello to you), and a few new subscribers (never gotten those, haha). Check out the pages and the clips, YouTube's all really fun (except of course if you get suspended like Imadul, but they're just doing they're jobs), no doubt about it. And if you missed the episode, you can download it from the Sunny page, here. Alright, I'm going to go get ready. Lakers lost Thursday night (badly, and the stats aren't looking too hot) and the Saints play the Seahawks tomorrow night on Sunday Night Football on NBC, hopefully they'll win their first game, 0 - 4... and they're away. We'll see how it goes. So go eat your sweets and take your showers and get your money from older people now, Eid Mubarak again. Oh, and Happy Birthday Sacha. Take care everyone. see u.

You know, I think this month is quickly going to become the month with the best graphics. Just try to look at Ronny without laughing... or running in the other direction. Alright, the Los Angeles Lakers started their preseason Tuesday night in Hawaii, playing the Golden State Warriors. Because it was in Hawaii, it was broadcast at 10 PM Pacific - which means it was 1 AM on the East, but no one (unless you play with your satellite) gets KCAL on that side anyway. Besides the long-over-due redesigning of their site over the offseason (and adding this huge, huge static Kobe photo on the right), the Lakers have signed some new kids. I didn't get to watch the whole game, hardly any of it, I had an eight o'clock class the next morning; but from what I did see during the last few moments of the first, we were sucking. It isn't about points of course in the preseason, but the Warriors had us down by about 20. The only thing I can remember from what I saw is this new kid from the D-League's Los Angeles D-Fenders, Andre Patterson, miss a layup. But that shouldn't mean anything because we ended up losing by only a point. So in other words, I have no idea how this new team is doing, haha. I saw Mihm suited, Fisher is back, and we got a couple new kids. Don't know if that will get us out of the first round, we haven't been in three seasons, but it does seem like this is going to be a great, fun season, even if Kobe does decide to keep his mouth shut (I liked to hear him go on and on...)! The second preseason game is tonight same time, same channel, same team, same location (10 PM KCAL9 versus the Warriors in Hawaii), I'll try to watch the rest of the half after Sunny, and maybe stay on more, who knows.

South Park's second episode aired last night and it was a doozy! First off, this episode seemed like they meant it for the opening season, but ended up having the curse-filled ep open them up. I only say that because it gave references to their Emmy win a few times in the episode. At first it seemed like it was one of those things networks do when they try to congratulate themselves, but then I noticed it always came on during the worst times, meaning it always came up at certain times to make it seem like they were mocking the Emmys, like when Randy is on the toilet. haha. Well if you don't know what last night's episode was about, that last sentence is probably pretty startling. It's basically about Randy, Stan's dad, getting into the Guinness Book of World Records (why'd they change the name?) after he releases a multi-Couric sized piece of feces. The world is stunned! But the original record holder, Bono from U2, can not take the news sitting down. Well he does anyway because he then releases some more feces to break Randy's record and then a fecal war commences. It's all fun and games from there, as you can imagine, haha. There are hardly any kid involvements in this episode, sadly, but it's still a good one. If you missed it, you can download it from the South Park page, here. Enjoy.

Pushing Daisies' second episode was also last night, and while I felt it wasn't as amazing as the first, mainly because I love the characters more than the investigation portion of the show; it was great. Last night got us to know more about that annoying little neighbor of Ned's, Olive; and it also allowed the characters to grow a little bit more, which is always fun! We learn a little bit more about Ned, Chuck, and Emerson, but I'm sure we'll learn a lot more in the following episodes, the ending of last night basically guaranteed it. And while last night's episode was great, it could've definitely been better. It's a really weird show - this mixture of crime and mystery with fantasy and humor, it's all really strange, haha, but I love it. If you missed it, run by ABC.com, they have a really great HD stream (they have a bunch of their shows via stream, all look great no matter what size monitor!). And tomorrow everyone, in the USA at least, is the last day of Ramadan; 30 days it took - the maximum amount of days a lunar month can be. That means that tomorrow is the last fast and tonight is the last Taraweeh prayer. So don't pray it tomorrow night as tomorrow night will officially be Shawwal 1st and therefore Eid, Insha Allah! I hope you guys all had fun! Now we can all get some sleep! Alright everyone, I'm going to go break my fast. (Oh, and how is Amitabh Bachchan so old?! Happy Birthday anyway.) Take care everyone! see u.

The boys are back! Two posts in one day! Sunny's on tonight! Seinfeld's on 30 Rock! Things are looking good. Just look at that graphic and stare Cartman in the face and try not to laugh. It's way too hilarious! The original image is from the Willzyx episode from Season 9 Episode 13 when the boys steal the whale to send him back out to space... haha. Anyway, in the ep, the cops go after them and there's a criminal sketch drew up of the four and this is what it is. Well not quite, it was not colored and someone was holding the sketch in the episode. This great guy named James Brewer colored it (I give him credit on the bottom right) and put it online somewhere, I found it via Google from a girl who also used it without permission; oh how the world goes round, haha. But I'm giving him credit so it's all good. Oh, and I never hotlink (the person I got it from changed the filename so many times because of people hotlinking, one is this haha; hotlinking sucks! But I don't care on my site... too much, haha)!

But I didn't start this post to talk about the funniest image ever! I started this post to talk about the mid-season premiere of South Park last night. It was pretty hilarious. Cartman, being the little devious devil angel that he is, learns that people that suffer from Tourette Syndrome can get away with saying pretty much anything, and since he loves saying things that people hate, he loves the idea. He starts to curse all he wants and no one can do anything because all he's doing is being brave. So brave that he gets to go on TV! But Kyle isn't too happy about all this, no no. Kyle knows that he is faking it and tries to screw his plans up, he also meets other Tourette kids, like this girl, haha. Well the show gets pretty crazy from there, as you can expect. One thing to note about this show is the amount of curse words, Comedy Central let them say "shit"! They've said it on the show before, but only in two other episodes: an old school episode in Season 2 (Episode 4) when Ike gets a briss and then in Season 5 (Episode 2) when the show says "shit" 162 times. I don't know if this will be a regular occurrence with South Park now, as so many other shows allow words like this on the air because cable networks don't answer to the FCC, but I won't be surprised because South Park has long been known for these kinds of things. It deserves it too. Last night's episode was really hilarious. In case you missed it, I uploaded it to the South Park page; you can get to it here.

Also last night was the Series Premiere of Pushing Daisies, this new show on ABC that I totally though Tim Burton had a hand in at first, which goes to show you either what this show is like or what Tim Burton is associated with (as if we didn't know what he was associated with, haha). I saw a few advertisements in the past, two movie theatre commercials in both Knocked Up and Superbad (I think), and then a few television commercials. It wasn't the highest on my list to watch, but sure was I glad I saw it. It was in HD, but I saw it in SD in my room because my parents were watching the tube (I can't call it that can I?). But I'm glad I saw it. I was watching it with Imadul, which is kind of hard as he's in Santa Barbara now, and I think he enjoyed it too. If you don't know what it's about, it's about this guy named Ned who has these powers to bring dead things back to life, and if touches them again, they drop dead as quickly as they rose the first time. And if he doesn't touch them within sixty seconds from when they first come back to life, someone else in close proximity dies instead. Pretty clever I think. Well let me tell you that the description is in no way where the originality ends. The show is filled with things that, like I said before, would be coming out of a Tim Burton flick - the British narrator for some reason screams Big Fish to me which helped so much. And the show's main characters are very, very enjoyable. There's Ned, the main character who brings people back from the dead, his big, black buddy Emerson who is everything a big black guy needs to be; his short and annoying neighbor Olive, and his crush from childhood, Chuck, whose father, by the way, died sixty seconds after Ned saved his own mother when he was a kid after she died and he touch her again to kill her (Chuck doesn't know about that). Oh, and Ned and Chuck are so adorable together. Well the little thing missing from this setup is the introduction of the series, Chuck gets killed near the beginning of the episode and Ned finds her and brings her back to life, but doesn't kill her again so some fat guy dies. Well, now she's alive forever, unless Ned touches her - so they can't touch. They're in love, but can't touch. So they do little things like pretending to hold each other's hands while holding their own hands to show their affection. The narrator, the saturated color, and the off the wall, dry comedy makes it such a nice show. I'm an instant fan. And I'm sure you will be too if you're a fan of Big Fish or Amélie! ABC.com has all of its shows online for viewing, but a re-run is tomorrow night at 8 PM. It's on every Wednesday night at at 8. Only six episodes were taped, so lets hope for more, eh?

And tonight, besides episodes 7 and 8 of Sunny, 30 Rock's Season Premiere has Seinfeld guest starring! I've never seen Jerry Seinfeld in HD before! I've never ever seen an episode of 30 Rock, but it's supposed to be funny and I like Tina Fey, so maybe I should watch this (I hardly ever watch broadcast television, to low on the numbers for me to approach it). This thing that they're doing of putting Seinfeld on the premiere is definitely working. It's on at 8:30 PM tonight (that's in like five minutes!) so watch it (haha, sorry if you rely on me for television air times). Oh, and speaking about HD, I'm so, so excited right now. It might be late news, but I was flipping through the channels about an hour ago before I settled on Jeopardy when I saw a new channel on Time Warner Cable High Definition... 417. What's 417? I don't remember seeing 417 before. I remember it going from 416 to 419 (or was it 420?) in the Los Angeles area! Well guess what. It's TBS-HD! Yipee! I love TBS! But I think they do the same thing TNT does with their SD stuff, upscale it and stretch it. Ugly. We'll see later, all that was on was baseball and that was in HD. Let's hope for the best, HD rules! Take care everyone. see u.

Those are looking hot! In fact, too hot! The graphic to the left shows three Zunes, two of them are new. Zune 4/8, Zune 80, and Zune 30 from left-to-right (new names corresponding to their hard drive sizes), the first two are new of course. I mentioned these a few weeks ago, so all the info is out there except now we know a few more things, a few more great things. First of all, we know some dimensions. The new dimensions of the Zune 80s are 2.4 x 4.25 x .5 in, that's comparable to the original Zune (which will now be called Zune 30) which is 2.4 x 4.4 x .58 in, so just a tad bit smaller in height and a sixth smaller in depth, which is great. The weight has also been reduced from the original 5.6 oz to the new 4.5 oz. Remember the squircle? Well at first glance you'll notice there is no center clicking button like on the older Zune 30s, why is that? Because the new pads, the Zune Pads, are four-way touch sensitive which creates the ability to do a kind of flicking motion to navigate through the new UI. There are some demo videos on line (one being here, scroll down a bit) and it looks pretty awesome. Which brings me to the new UI, it's different. Looking at the video, it doesn't seem drastically different, but it looks great. And because the Zune 30s currently have the old UI, Microsoft is giving them the new UI too as an update, so basically everything that the new Zune 80s, Zune 8s, and Zune 4s have, the new Zune 30 will have, minus the hard drive space and Zune Pad and dimension, and hotness, haha. The Zune 80 also has a slightly bigger screen at 3.2 in compared to the original 3 in screen, but the resolution is still listed as being the same 320x240, though that may not be totally final (not all specs are final even yet, it doesn't come out until next month they're saying). Battery life is still a question, but Engadget secretly put up some numbers after first saying they didn't know, 20 hours audio with Wi-Fi off and 5 hours with video. That's almost a 50% increase from the Zune 30! The Zune Marketplace is also getting tweaked allowing non-DRM music to be downloaded, almost 1 million titles (which is half as much as Amazon MP3 is advertising and a sixth of what iTunes is advertising), and a new UI for that too. And lastly, it still has the 3x3 rule for the sharing of music through Wi-Fi, except the first 3 is gone, it's now only 3 plays for it to be useless (why not the other way around?). The videos are now not only .WMV, but they can also read H.264 and other MPEG-4 files! And now Podcast support! And now we get Zune Cards, like Xbox Gamertags! But wait, I'm forgetting one of the hottest new things besides the Zune Pad. Wireless syncing. Oh damn! Who saw that one coming! Putting the Wi-Fi to better use! Now all Zunes (even 30 via the firmware update) will be able to connect to their computers to sync everything. And they come with the premium headphones (the Zune 80s), so overall these Zunes are looking hot.

I didn't even mention the Zune 4 or Zune 8s! Those are pretty much the same as the Zune 80s except in dimension (obviously) and space (obviously). These Zunes will be flash-based, leading to their miniature size. They will both be 1.6 x 3.6 x .33 in, which is pretty small, about the size of the older Nanos, not these new fatter ones which are 2.8 x 2.1 x .26. They weigh 1.7 oz and have a screen size of 1.8 in, with the Zune Pad. The battery life is also listed as being 20 hours with Wi-Fi off for audio and 4 hours of video. Everything else is exactly the same as the Zune 80s except for the headphones, they come with the normal earbuds. Oh, and prices are the same as what I said earlier, $150, $200, and $250 for Zune 4, Zune 8, and Zune 80, respectively.

This announcement is pretty damn exciting. Zune, second generation. The first was real good, but it had its flaws and it didn't do too well with the competition, but I think this time around they're doing much better. There are a few things though that have me complaining about these new Zunes. First off is the Zune 4 and Zune 8s. Why these sizes? Why not 8 and 16? or even 4, 8, and 16? Apple has 4GB and 8GB Nanos, what's the difference? There's not much going for those flash-based Zunes when set side-to-side next to a Nano, except for the beauty of the slip Zune compared to the fat Nano. Nanos can stay on longer for a few more hours (but they charge slower)... and that's about it. So wait, maybe the Zunes are more appealing. The only other thing that the Nano has going for it is it comes in Blue and Silver, and it's both Windows and Mac compatible. But who cares about Mac right? It takes up less than 10% of the world. So then what else is the difference between the Zune 4/8s and the Nanos? Or scratch that, what's the main difference between the number one selling MP3 player family and this newbie from Microsoft? Zunes have wireless all around, Apple only has it on the 8 and 16GB touch, but that also lets you download wirelessly. Microsoft is newer, new ideas, new Pad, bigger screen, better UI, better in sizes; Apple hasn't really done anything too fancy since the video iPod, the touch is just an iPhone without a phone, nothing innovative there if you ask me. So it looks like Microsoft is kind of in the lead right now, especially this week as Apple is getting hit left and right with all these lawsuits over that stupid thing they did about bricking so many of the iPhones for unlocking them. Wow! So many people are unlocking other phones these days, and as soon as it happens to an Apple product, a company who has a reputation for not letting its users have access to anything, the company has hissy fit and makes all the users who paid anywhere from $400 to $600 for their phones (via an early price drop) have to toss their gadgets in the garbage! Meanwhile, the only bad thing about Microsoft is the Blue Screen of Death. Ahh!

But, these new Zunes don't come out until November 13, the second Tuesday in November. Which as a side note is a surprising date if you ask me. Almost nothing from Microsoft comes out on Tuesday in November, haha. But that's a month away! Who knows what can happen in that time period. But if you ask me, and these are my honest feelings unaffected by my dislike of Apple lately, it seems the Zunes are kind of leading the iPods, even when the iPod has the touch and the Shuffle. This Zune will definitely not throw Apple off its thrown (made of shinyness), but it will definitely make Apple sweat, which is adding to a whole lot of other sweat Apple has been perspiring lately. That smells shiny too! haha. I'm probably forgetting a lot I wanted to put up in this post since Tuesday night, but it'll do. I had class during the day Wednesday and then Wednesday night had Pushing Daises (an awesome, awesome show) and South Park so I didn't get time 'til today to write this. You'll hear back from me later tonight with South Park, Insha Allah, so hurry back! Until then, take care everyone. see u.

New month, and as with every new month comes tweaks to the site. Yet again, this month does not yield a huge change, just minor things. I have been thinking about said huge change for a week or so, but I designed it and frankly, it looks ugly. I wasn't feeling it. I basically wanted to separate the header from the body, but I love this connected version way, way better. So that'll be a lost design. I doubt you'll ever see it, or rather, I hope you'll never see it. But just because I don't drastically change the months layout doesn't mean that I can't change it just a little. Remember how last month I said I tried to make the corners better and I failed? Well I did it this time. If you look closely at two of the three rounded edges on the site (the upper ones) compared to last month's, you'll notice that it's smoother. I'm not sure how it wasn't before, I using a few layers to cast that funky black and white and color shadow type color on the header and it seemed that it somehow got out of its lines. Not sure how. But it makes sense because I could never color in the lines as a child. Still can't. The other change I did is very unnoticeable, it's to that gradient in the body. There's a very subtle gray gradient back there that before was just vertical, now I added this little blocker that makes it look like it arches. Not very noticeable on these words so don't worry about it, I just did it to make me sleep better at night. I also changed the layer order on the .PSD file, but that doesn't affect you so throw it out of your head. So that's it, those are the changes for this month, we're at v.3.4.4. Another huge change, for slow-speeders, is I decreased the file size of the header by almost 150KB! I changed the quality from PNG-24 to PNG-8 (no transparency in some parts of the header), hardly noticeable differences, only noticeable in the dark spots - I can only notice it when I arch my head up looking from under the monitor - I'm sure it won't make a difference in looks... I hope. The last change I did was to the favicon. I made this favicon for the site back in July, but I guess I just forgot to link to it. I realized my stupidity earlier today and linked to this 'm' that you might see is familiar to one of the Index images. Re-favorite this to let it show up in your bookmarks, haha. Oh, and the bottom's "last month" works too! And lastly, I never used to do this, but I guess I'll start with this month as it is officially our 26th month, not sure what that has anything to do with anything though. Last month, Site Meter says this site received its highest amount of visitors in a long time, 298. That may not seem like much, but it's a big accomplishment to me because it means that there were about 10 people a day visiting this site, even more of an accomplishment because I don't go around the Internet telling everyone about my site. But that isn't the big news, the big news as that the site received its most amount of page views - ever. A whopping 2,247 page views! And if you whipped out your calculator just now, you could've saved yourself some time because that's more than 7 pages per visit. The last time the site had these numbers was back in June because of the Grad Nite stuff. I think last month's other Disneyland visit yielded a high amount of traffic and I'm sure Sunny had a lot to do with it as well (maybe South Park will be the catalyst for this month, who knows), this all happened at the beginning of the month while June's Disneyland happened closer to the end. Summer months always suck so this is a big up for me. And, Imadul's site only received 178 visits and 478 page views last month, the lowest since his site started back in November of 2006, but then again, he hasn't been doing much to it since high school ended. But I'm not dissing the guy, when he was at his height, he was getting 3,000 hits a month by over 600 different people! That gave me some higher traffic too I'm sure! Ima! Add some stuff from SB man, we all want to see how it's going!

But let's put this monthly, obligatory chat to the side and talk about what's shown in that graphic. The other day I mentioned something about skate., something about buying it on eBay. Well, it came on Friday. that's way too fast if you ask me. Shipping was unbelievable. Thank you wholesalebuildingsupply (awkward seller name to be selling more games than tools, eh?)! After playing it half of Friday and all of Saturday, I have to say I am blown away. Now I grew up with Tony Hawk (and since my switch to Xbox almost six years ago have ditched it). I remember sitting back during a nice afternoon and whooping everyone that came my way. That game was awesome. But this game, wow. This game is so much more amazing. The one thing I hated about Tony Hawk was the way you had to do moves, and that was the major part of the game! It was so obnoxious. I used to play people who beat me all due to pressing every single button on the controller. Sometimes they ran out of buttons so they smashed other buttons on other random controllers! I guess there were two things I hated, I hated the missions too, overall they were okay, but some sucked horribly. They were so not about skateboarding. Finding secret tapes and helping people get to their airplane on time? Okay. skate. is the total opposite. Not only does it have awesome challenges, the controls are beyond amazing. That right joystick is quite incredible! In the past I only knew it as where my character's head would look, now it's a whole other joystick! It's like I was awakened to this whole other aspect of the controller! Flicking it up right and then reversing it down right to get a Nollie 360 Flip (my favorite trick by the way) is way too much for me to express. I love, repeat, freaking love this whole photography thing too. I remember Tony Hawk having photo snapping sounds, but I don't remember what exactly, oh yah, showing you how you got that magical tape that was miles in the air. Other than that, nothing. Now, there are challenges to get into magazines, real magazines. And they videotape you too, and you can edit them in-game! And real sponsors. Free clothing and boards if they like you enough. And not only that, free-roaming gameplay! Oh how I hated how Tony Hawk (a third reason!) only let you stay in this one building! What was outside?! I was in Pleasantville! But skate. opened up this whole new world to me. San Vanelona. Beautiful place. Like a mixture between Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York. Lovely city. I could travel from one area to another just by pushing my board! What a though! And not only that, my trusty map has transportal capabilities (unlike in The Godfather, that really got annoying)! So so far, the game sounds amazing right? But wait, what about online gameplay? Oh damn is it freaking great! Not Halo great, but great. You get to play a bunch of types of games, like have a death race or best trick contest or a jam, maybe even a game of S.K.A.T.E.! And while it loads the round, you can go around and skate to warm up on the same map. And the soundtrack is also great! I had this one song stuck in my head for hours, can't remember it now though, haha. And there's even elevator music while you wait for the first and only initial game load, haha! It's just a great, great game. And like a lot of games companies are doing nowadays, you can upload stuff to their servers! Check out some of my videos and images I uploaded, rate it so I can get some points. Everything is great about the game, except for multiplayer. If I remember correctly, Tony Hawk let you do free skate with multiplayer; so far I am only able to do S.K.A.T.E. or own the spot via multiplayer, and we basically have to take turns, so even though you get full screen, it's just not as fun. But since everyone's in college, I'm usually alone, boo hoo. Get the game if you haven't! I need to go do an oil change, but I'll make sure to finish before the game tonight between the Patriots and the Bengals. I thought some Philly fans were going to break Tom's arm? Why hasn't that happened yet? Giants are looking hot, but Cowboys are looking hotter, wow. I'm out everyone. Don't forget new half-season of South Park this Wednesday night, Insha Allah, before Sarah Silverman! Take care. see u.