Although I am very much out of Chicago (currently in St. Louis, but you of course knew that because you have been faithfully e-stalking me), I will quickly write about our stay and post some photos from the trip now because I had to get to sleep early the night before we left. So ignore the fact that I have since left Chicago, stayed a night in Lenexa, am currently in St. Louis, and plan to drive down to New Orleans in a few hours so that you can enjoy this post!

I feel bad for Chicago. Not for the people or anything for having such unattractive accents - in fact, when my aunts and uncles first immigrated to America, Chicago was where they all lived for many years. No, the reason I feel bad for Chicago is because I went to New York first. If I had gone to Chicago before New York, I probably would have liked it, but instead, I kept comparing it to the great city of New York. I was supposed to go up to Chicago two Februarys ago for my birthday, but the plans didn't fall through, perhaps then I would have appreciated it (the city and the snow). But please, don't get me wrong, Chicago is a great city, but as far as big cities are concerned, New York hails in comparison, no question. One of the things that makes it great is all the free attractions around the city, mostly in the downtown/loop area.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Chicago was for Millennium Park. Originally known as Grant Park, Millennium Park sits next to Lake Michigan and can be somewhat compared to New York City's Central Park (though very poorly, New York hails, remember?). Within Millennium Park sits a few beyond-amazing monuments, one being Cloud Gate, or simply The Bean. The Bean (pictured in the graphic) is what made me want to visit Chicago, but more about The Bean in a moment. Another great part of the park is the Crown Fountain, two opposing fifty foot LED blocks that spout water on the children playing below. Those are the two things that interested me the most. There's also the BP Pedestrian Bridge and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, but those are a little more boring to me (no offense guys!). The park is just great. When we were there, Taste of Chicago had just started. The Taste of Chicago is a food festival, the largest in the world, that takes place for two weeks at the end of June every year in Grant Park. Besides the food, the Taste of Chicago is most known for its fireworks displays around the fourth of July. I of course won't be able to catch the show (don't worry, I've already cried), but hope it'll be great.

click here to continue reading about Chicago and to check out some photos....

I'm updating tonight for two reasons, one because our DC hotel's Internet went dumb last night (which was the original time I wanted to post up these DC photos), and two because I am in Ohio. There's nothing to do here. Don't get me wrong, it's an alright place, Columbus is pretty cool, but there's nothing really here. This was the first city, Dayton, my Dad lived in when he came to America thirty or so years ago, so that's why I decided we should stay a night; we needed a pit stop between DC and Chicago so this seemed appropriate.

We spent all day in DC yesterday, and I think we covered most of it, haha. Three weeks is definitely not enough time to jump into every city thoroughly, but I think we're doing pretty well so far by skimming over the most important parts. DC is very impressive. The whole city is one huge landmark. The White House is kind of guarded off from the streets, you have to walk there pretty much, and very close by are the Washington Monument, the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial; which in turn are very close by to the Jefferson Memorial and the Iwo Jima Memorial. The whole city pretty much revolves around these monuments, which makes it a very small area, but extremely beautiful.

The place is so damn clean and the roads are just beautifully organized. I have never seen so many roundabouts in one place before! It's great during the day, but at night, the monuments are just breathtaking. Everything is open to everyone for free and for all hours of the night. And although they don't allow tripods everywhere (I was asked to not use mine next to Lincoln), this city is a great place for night shots. And with the architecture of this city, who wouldn't want to take photos?

But before I bust out a few photos from the trip, I want to quickly mention where we went before DC. We were coming from Niagara Falls (which I totally skipped photo wise, I'll put them up on some off night, like when we're in Grand Prairie, Texas or some place), so we passed through Philadelphia before entering Washington DC. We were short on time, so we could only check out a few places, but there was no chance I'd skip one place in particular. I had no idea where it was or what it looked like, but I was determined to locate it. Luckily, the GPS we bought for this trip is really great (a Garmin Nuvi series GPS) and found it without any problems. The only thing left to do was to physically go there. So we headed out. We left Philadelphia and quickly entered the ghetto area, which still looked alright (by the way though, I was really disappointed by Philadelphia, not at all like how I imagined it - I'll blame it on the short time we spent in the city though). We drove through that area for a bit and then almost instantly, the ghetto turned into one of the most upscale neighborhoods ever! It was surprising to see how quickly it changed, but not shocked because it made sense, the reason I wanted to go there was because a real rich person used to live there, how could that person live in such a ghetto? But he didn't, and I think I kind of lost a little respect for him I gained while in the ghetto, haha. But it's alright. Anyway, we finally showed up to the place I wanted to go to: (I apologize for the crapiness of the photo)

click here to check out some Philly and DC photos....

I'm going to sit here and act like the reason you haven't heard from me in one whole week has been in respect of the Lakers' death (and I guess now George Carlin's), but that is in no way the truth, so don't believe me!

So it's been one week since the Lakers blew (and I mean totally blew) the Finals. What the hell team was that? Sure as hell not the Laker team I've been rooting for all year. But I don't want to spend my time talking and crying about the Lakers, you've probably had enough of that, that's last week's sadness, instead let's talk about happier things, like how cold it has been on the East coast and about my stay in New York City!

Let's see, the last time I wrote, we just made it through a Missouri thunderstorm and just nearly missed a tornado - there were no tornadoes in New York, I can assure you. The real reason I didn't update for so long was because New York had taken a lot out of me; the only time I spent in our room was for the very short hours in which I spent sleeping, we were in the city for most of our stay. Overall, I walked about 30 miles more than I wanted to walk those four days, which was about 0 miles, haha, but I decided going in that I did not want to drive in New York, I wanted us to live like real New Yorkers. And we did, so I am not at all complaining, it is an extremely beautiful city.

I really wish I had spaced this post out through the four days we stayed because there is a lot to say about New York. I cannot exactly call myself a traveler yet, as I have not been to enough places I think, but there has never been a city I enjoyed more than New York... not even LA. It is such a great city. I went into it thinking that everything we hear about it is nonsense, it's all hype and it doesn't mean nearly as much as they make it out to mean, but damn, New York really truly is amazing. I have no idea how that city functions! Complex beyond complex subways working at all hours, crazy taxis roaming the streets while disobeying most road laws, and pedestrians running wild disobeying almost all road laws! But somehow, it all works! Whoever designed this city was a damn genius, because it is truly amazing, I'm surprised the whole place didn't blow up the second the "on" switch was flipped! It's just beautiful to see the huge skyscrapers being surrounded by yellow taxis around a body of water, and then a few miles inland, it is green as if no people have ever set foot on that island!

click here to continue reading about me talk about New York in my sleep....

No, that isn't a photo from the set of a Claritin commercial, that's actually a picture I took yesterday (Sunday) in... get this... Oklahoma. I know! But more on that, and my run-in with a tornado a few hours ago, in a little bit. Oh, and I'm trying something on this site I've never done before. Also, I don't want to link, because I'm on a laptop I'm not very comfortable with in a town that is too far away from home, so just stay with me! Oh, and the time zone of this post is Central!

I want to apologize for not putting up a post Saturday night. I said I would try and post a photo every night, but I ended up not doing it the first night! I underestimated the magnitude of 800 miles and we ended up showing up to Albuquerque almost two hours late. Don't worry, it didn't hurt us too much, actually it helped: we couldn't get our original room, so we got promoted to a two bedroom suite for free, haha. Showing up late is genius. And the wireless connection in our room was just horrible - would you believe me if I told you it was a 1Mbps connection? I know!

I don't really have any photos from our Day 1 trip. Why? Because it was through freaking Arizona and New Mexico! Nothing against those states, especially New Mexico, but they're worthless. New Mexico is a waste of space. We already love the old Mexico, why on earth would we want a new one? The only things I have to say about those two states are the speed limits. 75! Wow. I had no clue. That is an amazing idea. Put the speed limit high enough that people won't want to speed. I usually go 80 in LA, but I didn't feel comfortable going a lick of 75 most of this trip so far. Maybe it's the van we're driving in, or maybe it's the fact that we're going cross-country, but I felt so strange being forced to drive over 75. I say forced because I didn't want to be one of those rejects in the slow lane, behind big-rigs! I wanted to be the cool California guy with a Laker flag in the fast lane. But guess what, some big rigs tried to pass me on that damn I-40 freeway. Which is another thing I wanted to say, New Mexican big-riggers are freaking insane. They're driving like 90 the whole way. Damn dopes.

click here to continue reading about Days 1 and 2.

So I figured out why the Lakers lost last night, because today is Friday the 13th. They weren't the only ones to be affected by this day, M. Night Shyamalan's film sucked on multiple levels. I'm not sure why I went to go see it, in fact, I'm not sure why I actually saw any of his last five films, but I'm going to keep going back. I know this guy can do better, I just know it! And Indians gotta stick together, right? Otherwise, who knows what'll happen when botanic chemicals are released in the air and spread through the wind. All will be lost! Maybe if he didn't write his own movies, he might do well. The Happening was written soo horribly. What's happening? M. Night's career is being destroyed, that's what's happening. But it was mildly (I stress mildly!) fun. Good movie to watch if you want to laugh when you're supposed to be scared. Wait no, I have rephrase that because there were times where I was genuinely scared. I'm not going to sit here and write about the movie because I have more important things to do (and it's getting late), so if you want to know what I think about M. Night, look up my Lady in the Water post from two years ago, my thoughts haven't changed. I still support you though Manoj!

I'm sure that you're wondering about that title, that graphic, and that huge map of the US. Well, let me quickly tell you what's going on. I'm going on vacation. I don't go on vacation too often – well actually I do, almost as often as Bush, but let me have my fun. School just ended, so my family and I decided to take a trip out to New York. But instead of flying like normal people do, we decided to drive there, because we're insane! Well, we're driving not just because we're insane, but also because we want to see more than just New York. I know what you're thinking, "Albuquerque and Springfield? You want to see that?", well no. But those points are just the cities we're going to sleep at on our way to New York. When we come back, we're going to hit loads more cities, like Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, D.C., Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, and the Grand Canyon to name a few. Tons of places, I know! And the best part is? I've never driven farther east than the Grand Canyon, and have never been anywhere east of Kansas City in my life, so almost every place we hit is going to be brand new to me! Not to my folks though, they used to travel a lot before I was born, they say I ruined their lives, but I know they're only joking!

So how about some stats? The trip is going to be 22 days long and we plan to drive at least 7,699 miles. I say at least because the miles driven are just the miles we will drive on the highway getting from one point to the next, not for driving within the city. We are staying at 13 different hotels and we will use up at least 350 gallons of gas (we will single-handedly pollute all of America!). The 350 gallons stat is pretty staggering, I know, which is why our original plan was to rent a Prius (we'd only use 150 gallons with that baby), but it was too small for us and we didn't want to feel cramped for three weeks, so instead we're taking our own car, our beautiful 2003 Honda Odyssey. Only 22mpg, but the most luxurious and spacious car ever made (no really, the Maybach's got nothing on this puppy). And if you look at the Odyssey graphic above, not only will you see my head sticking out of the windshield, you'll also see a Laker flag fluttering in the wind; we have to represent LA driving cross country you know!

I was originally going to run down each city we were going to hit and what we were planning to do, but there's no time. I'm supposed to leave in less than eight hours and I still haven't completely packed! But don't worry, you won't be left in the dark. Want to know what I'm going to do while I'm gone? I'm going to still update. You heard correctly folks, I'm going to update this site in a different time zone. I rented this lens, see, a Canon 10-22mm wide angle beauty from LensRentals.com (best place online to rent a lens, and they're not even paying me that much to say that!) and I plan to take a bunch load of photos. Every night, before I go to sleep in a different time zone, I will pick one or two pictures (or maybe even three if you're lucky!) and post them on this site for you all to look at and feel jealous of my parents because you're not on the road with me. But wait, that's not all folks! Every night, I'm going to update that map above so you can keep track of where I am at every hour of the day. It's like e-stalking, only cooler, because you're e-stalking Asim! And don't worry, I'll have a TV available for every night of the Finals that are left. We're staying in Springfield on Sunday, and New York for Tuesday and Thursday. And yes all games will be played and I'll be representing the Lakers on the East coast like no one else. And when the Lakers win that trophy, I might even drive up to Boston and throw salmonella tomatoes at everyone! It'll be fantastic.

So that's my first post of this New York Trip 2008. Remember, e-stalking me is very simple, just check back every night from now until July 6th (unless you get sick of me by then, but how could you!) to catch a photograph (or three) from the day, and perhaps leave a comment about how stupid I am to be driving cross country and wasting so much gas! So check back tomorrow night, June 14th; in 808 miles, I'll be in Albuquerque, Insha Allah. Have a good summer folks! Oh, I forgot to say good-bye to Tim Russert. You were a good man, Tim. We'll miss you. Take care everyone. see u.

Before anyone reads this (assuming you are reading this and not crying in the bathroom as I was just a moment ago), I apologize if I come off sounding extremely sad and negative, but can you blame me? The Lakers were up huge in the first quarter, ending it ahead by 21 points, the largest lead in the NBA Finals through the first. But if you turned the TV off after the opening seconds thinking that the game belonged to us, you missed our meltdown. The Celtics broke a Finals record of their own by coming back from the largest deficit in NBA Finals history to win, and they were on the road. It was our first home loss of the Playoffs, and the first since we lost to Memphis on March 28 (I know, I know, sorry for bringing that game back up) where Kobe scored 53 points.

Tonight, however, Kobe scored only 17 points, shooting 6-19 from the field. But looking at the first half's stats, you probably would have been okay with that one because almost everyone else on the team was doing fantastic. That first half was undoubtedly the best half of these Finals for the Lakers – that second half from Game 2 was nothing in comparison – and if we had managed to continue it through the second half, this Game 4 would have definitely been the game that turned us around this postseason. Unfortunately though, it was not and the Lakers ended up blowing that huge lead and ultimately losing the game by 6.

I honestly cannot even say we put up much of a fight; those last few minutes were just terrible. Most of our defensive mistakes occurred because we didn't stay on our men. There were a couple times where Sasha or Jordan would screw up, causing Kobe to leave his man to rush to the shooter, or him not getting to the shooter fast enough. And that last Sasha defensive error against Ray Allen didn't help either. During Phil's timeout immediately after that play, while a Laker was tapping Sasha on the shoulder, he flicked it away in anger. Sasha was pissed. But it didn't keep him from stepping inside the arc to shoot a 2 instead of a 3 in the final seconds that he missed anyway!

Pretty much, there was nothing good about the second half. No one helped out with anything, at all. The wrong players were on the floor for most of the fourth, and none of our huge Lakers could stop their small Celtics. I don't want to get into specifics because frankly, I hurt with sadness. This was an agonizing defeat. When questioned after the game why the meltdown had occurred, Phil and the players all said the same thing, whatever it had been, they knew it was not due to laziness from having such a large lead. I cannot completely agree with that because I remember a couple of times in the third quarter where it was obvious that they just were not paying much attention to their offense as much as they should have been. This defeat was real bad, so bad in fact Greg Anthony of ESPN even compared it to two years ago when the Mavericks had a chance get back in the series against the Heat, but lost... "and they haven't recovered since". I really like Greg, but ouch. That line made me shake with fear.

But there is no way that same thing can come true for these Lakers, our Lakers. This series is not over, as Phil tried to explain to you when you got on this site. It is far from over. Game 5 is on Sunday, Game 6 will be on Tuesday, and the final game, Game 7, will be next Thursday, Insha Allah. All games will be played, and all games will be won by the Lakers. If there's only one team that can come back from being down 1-3 in the NBA Finals, it is these Lakers, our Lakers. Coached by Phil Jackson, captained by Kobe Bryant, and supported by the best cast in the NBA. If you're losing confidence, get the hell out of town because we don't need your negativity. The Lakers won't take this fight sitting down. They'll be standing up at the end of Game 7 hoisting the most beautiful basketball-shaped trophy ever created above their heads. Lam Lam will hold it up the highest, whose sweat-line will be shining brightly, and every Laker, and Laker fan, from all over will have the widest grin on his or her face.... These Lakers, our Lakers, are going to win.

Boy, was that one of the ugliest games or what! But no matter how ugly it was, I was shaking in fear the whole time! Before I say anything else, I want to thank my professor for letting me cut class to watch tonight's game, haha. I had to turn in my Final, and he said I could just mail it to him instead and stay home to watch the game – how cool is that? Thanks, Mr. Somers (but I bet you'll never ever read this).

First of all, didn't everyone say that Paul Pierce was going to be awesome in LA? I mean, the kid's from Inglewood of all places. But the second he stepped on the floor, he started to suck hard: 2-14 from the field, 0-4 from three-point land. He wasn't the only sucky Celtic, Kevin Garnett also was pretty horrible. I think at a point late in the first half, both guys combined for something like 1-13 shooting; that may not have been the number, but it was just as horrible. KG ended up with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but he was 6-21 shooting, and almost all of his rebounds came in the first half. The only guy who did anything for the Celtics, and for the Big Three, was Ray Allen, with 25 points off 8-13 from the field, 5-7 in three-pointers.

But, of course, with KG and Pierce doing so badly, we had to match their struggle by having Odom and Gasol not make their first field goals until the fourth quarter. I sound like it was planned, but come on, have we learned nothing from our previous games? We learned that Kobe can't take on the Celtics on his own, and that if Lamar and Pau won't help Kobe attack, the bench would have to step up. And thankfully, the bench did. Well not all of them, just Sasha in particular. He ended with 20 points off 7-10 shooting and 3-5 from behind the three. In the first quarter, his presence was felt quickly when both Odom and Vlade got in foul trouble, he came in and it felt like he shot 10 consecutive free throws. The guy was fierce tonight. So fierce in fact, he even had this Israeli fan during the post-game interviews, and I'm not talking about Stephen A. Sasha was our savior tonight; of our 87 points, he and Kobe combined for 56 of those points. They were the only two in double-figures. The only other Laker close to double-figures was Pau with 9 points, though he did have 12 rebounds. But he was the worst at the free-throw line tonight, Pau was, going 3-8. He has been off on his free-throws as of late, but it seemed like the whole team sucked there tonight. The refs turned the calls around for the most part tonight and the Lakers had more chances at the line, though clearly not as much as the Celtics did in Game 2, but we still could not do anything once we got there. Kobe alone missed 7 of his 18 shots at the line and the team as a whole was 21-34! It was an ugly game tonight, but we ended it beautifully, with a 'W', and that's all that matters right now.

click here to continue reading about tonight's game....

In Game 1, we lost because we weren't running our offense as well as know we could have: messing up easy shots and not attacking the paint as much as we normally do. Game 2, instead, could be blamed on our defense: not enough effort in all aspects of the game. But that is what the players and coaches would tell you, because they don't want to get fined by the league. What they really want to be telling you is that the refs were f*&#ing killing them, haha (they would've gotten bleeped on TV if they said it). Some say that the Lakers were just not as aggressive enough on the offensive end tonight, but don't give me that. How does it make sense that in Game 1 when the Lakers got 20 points in the paint, they got 28 free throw attempts, but in Game 2 when they get 40 points in the paint (congrats by the way), they get only 10 free throw attempts? That's double the amount of scores near the basket, but a third of the opportunities to get to to the line. Something was definitely afoot, and David Stern was in the audience too! The one obvious error in that stat is that we could have just been hitting our shots in the paint better tonight – I'll give you that, because I have no way of getting access to analyze our shot breakdown from Game 1 to compare. But you cannot deny that the refs were hurting us in every part of the game. I mean, when was the last time Kobe got into foul trouble in a game? In fact, a better question would be how many times does he get into foul trouble during the season? Off the top of my head, I can honestly only remember five or so this year, and that's out of a hundred games so far (the last time he got into foul trouble I think was Game 1 of the Nuggets series when just everybody got into foul trouble). And the fouls he supposedly made weren't blatantly obvious grab-a-guy-on-his-way-to-the-basket fouls. They were instead positioning-yourself fouls and trying-to-get-around-a-screen fouls. Even the technical called on him was pretty lame; you could read his lips, he didn't curse at all (surprisingly), just yelled "that's a foul!". Wow.

If you're in LA and you watched the post-game, they showed a bunch of interviews from the players and Phil Jackson (ESPN had Phil too). Those interviews showed all too well how much these fouls got in the players' way of playing the game, except they couldn't really say much in fear of fines. I decided to put up a highlight of Phil Jackson's post-game interview at the podium (streamed below), because there was nothing really game-highlight worthy. Well, there was this one Lamar dunk that got us all riled up, but that was near the beginning of the game. I would've definitely had that 24-point comeback, if it happened, as a highlight, but it didn't. How cool would that have been though? Biggest Finals comeback in NBA history, probably breaking the most 3-pointers in a quarter record for the Finals too. And not only that, it would've been the third time this Playoff where we came back from a large deficit, 15+ down. 24 points in seven minutes! Damn man, that would've been great.

click here to continue reading about tonight's game....

It turns out the Lakers won't sweep this time after all, but no one really expected them to. While the majority thinks that the Lakers will go on to win this series, no one thought that the Celtics would just sit down and let the Lakers steamroll right over them. In Game 1 tonight, they proved it.

Though the Lakers did play as good, if not better, throughout the majority of tonight's game, they just couldn't finish the Celtics off. We were leading by 5 points at the half, but that Laker lead quickly turned into a Celtic lead in the third quarter when Paul Pierce came in and single-handedly brought his team back into the game within the first minute. Pierce just owned the third quarter, hands down. He scored 15 points in the quarter, and he wasn't even on the court for a few minutes because of how bad Perkins beat him down! While Kobe had 12 points of his own in the third quarter, there is no question that Pierce canceled that out entirely.

In the fourth quarter, the game was in our hands for the taking quite a few times. Both Cassell and Garnett could not make a shot if their lives depended on it. Phil has been notoriously known to not call timeouts to get his team back into rhythm or to put full trust in his bench, we saw him do it in the San Antonio series, and the same happened tonight. Kobe went to the bench with about eight and a half minutes left in the fourth, with the Lakers down 8 points. He returned just three minutes later, but those three minutes felt like an eternity. With seven minutes left in the fourth, Sam Cassell idiotically turned the ball over with a shot clock violation, the Lakers were down by 6. When we got the ball into our court, Sasha scored a quick jump shot to bring us within 4. Soon after that, Garnett blew a turnaround jumper over Ronny and he caught the rebound. With six and a half minutes left in the game, we were within 4, we had the ball, and Kobe was still resting on the bench. But then, this is where, I felt, we quickly went downhill. In the next 47 seconds, the only thing we were able to produce was one offensive rebound – it was the longest 47 seconds of the game. Sasha brought it up court, passed to Walton, who then passed to Ronny, who then passed it back to Sasha, who then gave it back to Ronny. Ronny then took a couple seconds to try and drive for a lay up but pulled it up for a jumper with a second left on the clock and missed. Pau ended up getting that subsequent rebound, but ended up doing almost nothing with it. After he rebounded the ball, he quickly passed it to a cutting Ronny, who went up with the ball hoping to get fouled. After no foul was called and he lost the ball, Walton retrieved it and dribbled it for a few moments. Then the passing circus happened once again. Walton passed it to Fish, who quickly passed it to Sasha, who then passed it to Ronny, who then passed it to Walton, who then gave it back to Ronny, who then gave it back to Sasha, who then tossed it inside to Pau, but then the ball was mishandled and it went out of bounds off of Boston with 2 seconds left on the clock. Then Kobe came back in the game. Was there any doubt who the ball would be going to with 2 seconds left on the clock? Didn't think so. Kobe ended up missing the shot, and I don't even think he got it off in time, so technically this 47 second disaster could have easily been 48 seconds.

click here to continue reading about tonight's game....

Only a little more than three more hours until the pregame! That means it's Laker time!! And because of that occasion, I hope you don't expect me to run down the matchups for tonight's game or talk about the historical significance of this series, you can turn to ESPN to catch all of that and more. Instead, I want to tell you a Laker story. So go put on your reading glasses, turn out the lights, sit back, and read away. And, I will try my hardest to make it sound as narratively as I can.

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Santa Monica, two days before Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals. It was about one-thirty post meridian and I had just finished my final test in Astronomy, I was on top of the world. The instant I entered my car, I looked down at the cluster and noticed my gas needle was creeping much too close to 'E' for me to feel comfortable. I pulled out of the parking garage and attempted to ignore the needle, and the blinding orange light that had just started to emit from above the needle, when I stopped at a red light. I looked to my right, at the gas station. $4.13 for unleaded gas, it read. I was in shock. I filled my car up just last week and I paid a scrawny $3.89. How did the gas raise so quickly? We cannot survive like this, I thought. Then I thought to myself, it was probably the area, Santa Monica gas must be far more expensive than Valley gas. So I decided I would fill it up at my favorite gas station in the Valley off of the 405 freeway and Victory, at an ARCO gas station. I assured myself that my car would make it that far without any complications.

After about thirty minutes, I pulled into my favorite ARCO station. The line was tremendously long; I thought to myself it must be due to how cheap the gas is at this location, then I looked up at the sign. $4.11, not much cheaper. I was stunned yet again. When I looked down at my car's cluster, I found that not only had my needle hit 'E', but it had eclipsed it entirely. But it did not bother me, not even the slightest, because I was in line for gas. The only thing that could stop me now, I thought, would be if my gas ran out while standing in line. When my turn finally came, I filled the tank up as quickly as I could, I wanted to be more courteous than the other people at the station. As my wallet thinned by the second, I looked over to the passenger side of my car where my Laker flag was blowing in the cool breeze. The gold color looked so pristine in contrast to my car's vibrant red shine. It was quite a sight. I then looked down to the back window on the driver's side, where I had stuck a Laker logo sticker for all to see. I designed my car in such a way that any passer-by would figure out I was a Laker fan from either direction they passed me: if they passed on the right, they would see the flag, if they passed on the left, they would see the sticker. Such creativity Laker fans possess! Unity as well. Every time I pass a fellow Laker fan with a flag blowing proudly, I would do a quick double honk and smile. Such a great feeling it was.

click here to continue reading my Laker story....

With less than twenty-four hours to go until Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals, I decided I would like to sit here and talk to you about something other than basketball – go figure. This week, two of the my most anticipated shows of the summer had their premieres, and boy am I glad to see them back. The first show to air was Monday night on ABC, The Mole; this show hasn't been on since 2004. The second show to air was last night on FX, 30 Days; it went on only a one-year hiatus, probably because Morgan got married and had a kid; he's been a busy guy! While it is way too early in either season to decide how each will perform, I think it's safe to say they will be loads of fun.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Mole, no one blames you, its first episode was in January of 2001 and hasn't been on TV since February of 2004 when it was in its stupid phase. You would think that because it has been gone so long, ABC would advertise the heck out of it to bring back not only the fans from before, but new fans as well. But I guess that's why I'm no TV exec, ABC did nothing of the sort. Sure they advertised, but even I, a fan from before, found out at the last second. It is now officially in its 5th season, its first two seasons were occupied by anonymous contestants while they were hosted by Anderson Cooper (now how cool is that?). Its second two seasons were "Celebrity" editions hosted by Ahmad Rashad (cool, but they blew in comparison). Then the show went on a four year soul-searching mission and it's back for a fifth season, hosted by Jon Kelley of Extra and FSN, either because the show found itself or ABC had nothing better to do during the strike.

Either way, at least it's back. I usually am not too fond of reality shows, but this isn't like other reality shows. Unlike Survivor and American Idol, this show is not based around any popularity contest, its based solely around skill and strategy. The contestants have to go through missions, much like Amazing Race missions, and they have to do it as one big team. The only problem is, not everyone is working for each other, there is one person from within the group working for the show, and that person is... the Mole. The Mole gets paid to sabotage the missions, but to do it in a way in which no one suspects him or her, because no one is supposed to know who the Mole is, not even the host. The point of the game is to try to figure out who that Mole is, while still continuing to complete the missions and add money to the pot. At the end of each show, a small quiz is given to test each contestant's knowledge to the identity of the Mole; the only time a contestant gets booted off the show is if he or she cannot figure out... who is, the Mole. The last one to stay standing on the show alongside the Mole wins the pot, which is only $500,000 maximum this year (it was up to a million in Seasons 1 and 2).

click here to continue reading about the two premieres....

So, while practically everyone else in America's dream came true, mine did not. The Celtics ended up prevailing over the Pistons and made their way back to the NBA Finals, while chanting, "Beat LA". I love how ESPN kept running clips that night of Pierce and his Celtic chaps chanting that while giving no room for the Lakers to rebut, making the Lakers look far more superior – we are though, so it's all good. The first game will be in Boston, Thursday night at 6PM on ABC, and I already made a beautiful splash, you like?

So if there is one thing better than the Lakers making it to the Finals, it is the Lakers playing the Celtics in the Finals. But it turns out, there is one more thing better than that: the new Google favicon! That's right, Google changed it! If you don't know what a favicon is, it is a site's mini-logo next to its URL in the address bar or on a bookmarks/favorites page. My site currently has a funky "m" from one those splash graphics that I made (we haven't seen those in a long time!). Google's old favicon used to be that ugly capital blue 'G' at the beginning of its "Google" logo, with borders around it in blue, green, and red – though the border hardly looked multi-colored, you could only tell if you zoomed in on it. But now, the favicon uses the beautiful lowercase blue "g" from the same logo with a transparent gradient/shadow in the background. I prefer this new one by leaps and bounds, it is just so beautiful! Playful even. Great job, Google!

But if there is anything better than a Laker/Celtic Final and a new Google favicon, it has to be a hilarious commercial. There was nothing – and I mean nothing – on TV this afternoon, I've been watching Chris re-runs on DVD all day. But after Chris, I decided to turn the channel to USA. The Bourne Identity was on. I can't say I loved the movie, I found it just 'Okay', but it's kind of entertaining if you don't try to figure it out, my head starts to hurt when I do that, but Matt Damon's tight, so I had it on. Anyway, during one of the commercial breaks, a Dairy Queen commercial came on after a promo for USA's new original show with that mom from the Dickie Roberts movie – don't ask me why I used that reference of the dozen other ones I could have used, haha – In Plain Sight. She plays this US Marshal working with the witness protection program, and because she's a woman, she's juggling a family at home too. She went on Conan a few weeks back to promote the show, and seemed nice, but I sure as hell won't be watching it, haha. It's on after this double feature that's on right now of the first two Pirates movies (of all the double feature Pirates movie combinations, why would anyone choose the first two! But I won't complain, any Pirates movie is a good Pirates movie). USA is advertising its airing of the movies as Uncut. I hope they really aren't uncut because an un-edited movie is an ugly movie, how can we see the CGI without editing! haha.

click here to continue reading about that DQ commercial I can't seem to get to....