Man, I’m glad some politicians in the Senate have some balls and are doing the right thing without partisanship. The Patriot Act should not be renewed in its current form. Most people don’t even realize the kind of power the Patriot Act gives government agencies. Sure, they need some expanded abilities in order to gather intelligence and fight terrorism, but you should not give them such broad powers without some kind of oversight. Freedom in exchange for security? No, I don’t think so.
Year: 2005
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Aeon Flux
I saw Aeon Flux last Friday and it was a pretty good movie. I only vaguely remember some episodes of the old cartoon on MTV, so you don’t really need to be an Aeon Flux fan to enjoy this movie because the movie stands on its own. Some critics are saying the plot is confusing but I thought it was pretty straightforward, so unless you’re an idiot, you should have no problems.
The story isn’t amazing but it is fairly interesting. The cinematography, set design, and overall style of this movie are cool. There are a lot of good shots throughout the film and the action is pretty unique because of Aeon’s style of movement. Even the fashion and architecture are pretty avant-garde so it really creates a different, futuristic environment and makes the movie somewhat artistic. There’s intrigue, mystery, and even love in this movie. I’d recommend the movie to others.
Charlize Theron definitely nailed the part right on the dot – I don’t think anyone else would’ve been able to portray the character with any depth. Plus Charlize is probably the only actress with the physical attributes to match Aeon Flux. She doesn’t have the perfect body but it’s good enough. Plus she did most of her own stunts, what other actress can do that?
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Possible Kevin Garnett Trade
Wow, just a few days ago, I was talking to my housemate while we were watching a horrible Houston Rockets game and I said that Kevin Garnett should just slack off until the Timberwolves agree to end his contract or trade him.
Then KG goes on TNT and expresses discontent about the Wolves and Kevin McHale. And now there are murmurs that KG could be traded to New York or Detroit! That’s really exciting news to me. On the one hand, the Knicks SUCK (I lost faith in my home town team a long time ago with good reason) and could probably use a superstar like Garnett. But then again his talents would be wasted because the Knicks just don’t have enough to be a championship caliber team.
Now on the other hand, Detroit is an awesome team. The Pistons have been my favorite team since they whooped the Lakers 2 years ago. The Pistons are very well rounded with both strong starters and bench players. And they’ve got great defense. Detroit is very likely to make it to the finals again, if not win the championship. The rumors are that Pistons would trade Rasheed Wallace and Darko Milicic. It would be sad to see Rasheed go but he’s being replaced by the 2004-2005 league MVP with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists per game. Those stats speak for themselves.
If KG goes to Detroit, the Pistons would be unstoppable. Garnett perfectly complements the Pistons. It’s not like the former Lakers or today’s Miami Heat, where they have a bunch of stars that can’t play together. The Pistons don’t have to make major changes to their style of play to accommodate Garnett. But right now it’s all speculation, we’ll have to wait and see what unfolds.
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VoIP Engines Are Revving
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is about to take off. This is one of the first times I had a business prediction that was right on the mark. Three years ago, few people knew what VoIP was. Those Kazaa guys were working on something called Skype and no one really took it seriously. At the time, I thought to myself – man, VoIP is going to be big – it’s going to be disruptive and it’s going to seriously threaten traditional land line telecommunications. For my business planning class a year and a half ago, my idea was to create VoIP phone equipment and strategically partner with services like Skype. The idea was not received well because VoIP was just considered too new. Instead we did our project on mass customization of women’s handbags which turned out well (won an award and some money). Mass customization of retail products is an emerging trend too but I digress.
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Now I Understand Where It’s Coming From
Okay, so many of you know I’m a business major here at Cornell, but the major is officially called Applied Economics and Management or AEM. Sometimes AEM majors get stereotyped as a bunch of party-goers who have an easy major. This is also true for the Hotelies here. I can’t speak for the Hotelies but for the most part this stereotype is NOT true. But most stereotypes have some roots in truth right? Well now I finally understand where this is coming from.
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Competitive Strategy Game
So I’m taking this class called Management Strategy and we’re playing a simulation game played by business school students. It was created by a professor in UC Berkeley and basically each period your team or “firm” can build capacity and specify price and quantity for 4 different markets. Each team has different cost structures and each market has different characteristics.
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What She Doesn’t Know Will Kill You
This was an article that appeared in the UMass college newspaper, The Daily Collegian, written by Matt Brochu, dated November 21, 2003. I didn’t write this and just reposted in on my blog a long time ago. Apparently this piece gets passed around a lot and I got a ton of requests to put it back up so here it is:
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US Open – Agassi vs. Blake
Wow, the quarterfinal match between Andre Agassi and James Blake was such a great match. 5th set tiebreaker to decide the match. Agassi was down 2 sets to love and came back to win the match. I was rooting for Agassi because hey, the man is 35 years old and still competing with the best players in the world. Blake definitely played a great match, the guy has a very strong forehand but unfortunately for him, Agassi was able to pull through. To Agassi’s credit, there were really some awesome winners and returns.
Meanwhile, during the match I was locked in a battle of my own, going head to head with Tom in Texas Hold’em. I have the short stack but I’ve repeatedly pulled through on rivers and what not, to Tom’s frustration. We’ve temporarily paused the game until tomorrow. :-?
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The Situation in New Orleans
First and foremost, everyone should do what they can to help:
I keep reading article after article about how the situation in New Orleans is degenerating and how the lawlessness is rampant i.e. people shooting at hospital evacuations. Seriously, what the heck is wrong with these people? There needs to be a serious crackdown on crime in the city – hopefully the increased troop deployments will help (better late than never).
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Overheard in New York
This site is absolutely hilarious:
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com
It’s a bunch of quotes overheard by people in New York City submitted to the website. Seriously, I almost let go a mouthful of water.