Not the best way to start off your NFL career...

Sorry Geno Smith. You were not picked #1 overall in the 2013 draft. Sorry Geno, you were not even picked in the first round. In fact, you got drafted by the New York Jets, so you might want to put up your middle finger instead and point it straight at the Jets ownership, management, and coaches.

They will probably figure out a way to under utilize you throughout the season. You're probably going to outperform Mark Sanchez in the preseason, but for whatever reason, Rex Ryan has a hard-on for #6 (Mark Sanchez) and will start him in every game even if they are 3-11.

Will this happen? Probably not. Why do you ask? Because Geno Smith has just fired his agent. What did the agent do exactly? We're not entirely sure at this point, but from what I read, Geno thought he should be the #1 overall pick even though there were clear signs that he wasn't going to be and when he wasn't chosen in the first round (he left the green room where all potential first rounders sit), he almost didn't come back for the second round. Luckily he was picked and didn't have to sit in the same room as Manti Te'o, but is that any reason to fire your agent?

We'll see if this is just a blip on the radar or of more drama to come. If you see him holdout of training camp, then you might as well write him off. Good luck to the New York Jets. You deserve all the hardships that are awaiting you this upcoming season. It's not going to be pretty and hopefully, somewhere, Tim Tebow is laughing at you with another team.

While I can't confirm, I believe this is how Geno Smith fired his agent:

What are pictures doing on pieces of paper?

So I was cleaning out a box of old junk that was sitting underneath my bed. Luckily, the people who robbed my house didn't get to it, otherwise, they would have found where I hid Noah's Ark, the truth about Area 51 and Roswell, New Mexico, but also to the most important question, who really killed JonBenet Ramsey?

 So as i was cleaning out the box, I found A LOT of old photos that I have saved over the years. The photos ranged from high school, college, and trips overseas. It was great reliving these moments through flipping through all the old pictures and then having to send them to friends by taking pictures of the pictures using my iPhone.

That's right. To show my friends pictures of us doing goofy stuff, I had to take a picture of them using my camera phone. Sorry, but I don't have a scanner at home and wasn't going to buy one just for this. It turns out using the camera on my phone and WhatsApp proved pretty effective as I got a lot of 'oh boy' and 'please don't show that to anyone else'. Of course, it didn't help that when I sent some of the photos, I broadcast it to a few people, so sorry about that! You know who you are!

So that leads me to the question I posed in the title of this post. In a few decades from now, we probably won't have pictures that we can print out and throw into a box for over 20 years and then pull them out to look at later. We'll miss the feel of flipping through hundreds of photos and then pass them along to the next person to flip through.

In this day and age. We look at our photos through a mobile phone, a laptop, or tablet. I know there are some of us who still take our rolls of film and have them developed at the local CVS, but one wonders how long that will last.

So while we still have them stored in our closets or underneath our beds, I would try to find them and take a look at some old memories with friends and see what was and laugh about it now because in the future, you won't be able to find a box with a bunch of old pictures. Instead, you'll probably find old hard drives that you will have to boot up and look for those photos stuck in some random folder on your C drive.

What are they actually trying to sell here?

You may or may not know this, but the world is in the middle of two major wars. What are they? The war in Afghanistan? The war in Syria? The war against terror? No. In Star Wars, we had the Clone Wars, but in our galaxy, we have the:

The Phone Wars

The Tablet Wars

This war is fought not on the battlefields of Europe or Asia. South America or the Middle East. It's fought in the media and they are trying to win our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks.

Who are the factions? While there are many globally, here in the United States, the last Super Power in the world, they are Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft.

You may ask, what about BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion)? Well to be honest, BlackBerry is like Canada. No one really cares about them. They will just listen to whoever is in charge.

One of the mediums you will see this battle played out on a daily basis is on our televisions. If you don't have TIVO and don't DVR everything you watch, you will eventually see a commercial or two with these competitors trying to convince you that you should buy their product.

However, how these companies go about trying to convince you is what is most surprising. Let's take a look how each company does it:

SAMSUNG
First up is Samsung since they are the global leader in 'market share' in smartphones.

Here is the most well known commercial for the Galaxy S3:

So in this commercial they spend almost 1/2 the time making fun of customers they are trying to convince to switch to their product. If there is one thing you can count on, it's that a loyal customer of an Apple product would find this commercial offensive and almost denegrating. There is a reason for those long lines and that's because of its popularity and functionality.

Here is a commercial for their Galaxy Tab 10.1:

Here is an example of a commercial where they sprinkle in the uses and features of the product, but they clutter it with a lot of what I call clutter and 'noise'. Can't you just show the product and features without trying to distract us from what it actually does?

While these two commercials are not representative of all of Samsung's commercials, there is an underlying theme. I will say that while researching their commercials, there were some that showed more features of their products, but in the end, they all had some story to tell and you're almost drawn into that than finding out what their product actually does for you.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft is the biggest abuser of trying to hide the fact that their phones and tablets aren't what they claim to be. Here are a few smartphone examples:

Once again, a high production value commercial where they take you to many different locations and what do they show you? A person holding up a phone and showing you the screen, but what does it actually do? What are the features? Granted, Microsoft is dependent on other manufacturers for building the hardware (think Nokia Lumia), but seriously? Just show me what the phone actually does.

Here's another one that shows a high production value, but what does the phone do?

However, their biggest and most confusing commercials are reserved for the tablets, the Microsoft Surface:

     

I've seen these commercials more times than I can count and I still don't know exactly what they are trying to sell here. Something that clicks? The removable keyboards? A trailer to the sequel to 'Step Up' or 'Stomp the Yard'? The new season of 'So You Think You Can Dance?' Utterly confusing!

APPLE

Finally, we have Apple. While they did have commercials during the late 90's and early 2000's with the PC and Mac guy, their commercials as of late are simplistic and to the point. While they do have some high production commercials like the latest one touting that more people take photos with iPhones, a lot of them look like these:

This one looks similar to Samsung's Galaxy Tab commercial, but the big difference? Other than a few instances where in the Samsung commercial where they show instances of use of someone playing a game, this one actually shows people using the feature where they take actual photos and use the panorama functionality. They also have a person editing a photo after it was taken. It shows functionality in how a person would use it in real life.

Another commercial where it simply shows you how the phone functions. Simple and clean.

Finally we have a few iPad and iPad mini commercials:

So there you go. A few Apple commercials that don't show a lot of clutter and noise. Shows you the products and what they actually do.

While I will admit that I am an Apple fanboy and loyal to their products, it's up to you to make up your mind.

As for who's winning this war, only time will tell. Do you win with market share as is Samsung is doing? Or do you win with the most profit made as Apple is doing (with over 70% in profit made on phones)? Microsoft is clearly losing and I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually use a Surface out in the wild.

So good luck to those companies. You know who I am rooting for!

Would you like some radiation with that x-ray?

So a friend of mine went to the dentist recently and had a root canal. He also had to take some x-rays of his teeth.

This got me thinking of my past visits as well. One of the things I always wondered during the x-ray procedure is when they put that heavy lead vest over your entire body, but then proceed to shoot x-rays into your head.

What's worse, the person taking the x-ray leaves the room in the safety of a probably heavily shield room. I guess you're not taking x-rays enough times during the course of a year that it really matters, but the person who is taking them is probably there every day.

Still, it makes you wonder how safe it is and is the x-ray's fault for all the voices I hear in my head.

George W. Bush - Governor, President, Painter?

 That's right folks! George W. Bush is still POTUS. Nope, not President of the United States, but Painter of the United States.

While some ex-Presidents are still active (i.e. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton) on the world stage, others such as George W. Bush has decided to take the low key approach. In fact, he's practically non-existent. In the end, who can blame him. He didn't exactly leave office with the highest approval rating and the last thing we want is to be reminded of him on a daily basis.

It's also telling that during the last Presidential Election, no one called on him to get his endorsement. I will say that I am not his biggest fan when he was office, but have said that while I wouldn't want him as my President, I wouldn't mind having a beer with him in a bar. He'd probably be pretty cool to hang out with and chew the shit.

I heard rumors and it seems to be confirmed now that he's become quite the painter in his retirement age. He also seems to be quite good at it. I saw him in a brief interview on the news this morning and I will admit it was nice seeing him on TV. I'm just thankful that he can't make any decisions that will affect the lives of thousands.

I leave you with my favorite painting he has done. Let's just hope he wasn't in the tub too long or shrinkage might occur.

Gwyneth Paltrow the world's most beautiful woman??

So People magazine just announced the 'World's Most Beautiful Woman' and that person is Gwyneth Paltrow.

Wait what? Yes, Gwyneth Paltrow. I will honestly say that yes, she's beautiful, but the most? in the world? Here she is on the cover of People magazine:

I actually think this is a very nice shot of her. Doesn't look like she's wearing too much makeup and pretty natural. However, I don't think she looks the best every time out and there are some much better looking people that could have been chosen.

For example, if Gwyneth is the most beautiful in the world, then Olivia Culpo is the most beautiful in the universe? Why? She won 'Miss Universe' for 2013.

Olivia Culpo

I remember when I first saw Gwyneth Paltrow in a movie. It was called 'Shakespeare in Love' and at the time, I thought, wow! Who is this woman? I'm not saying age matters and some women age beautifully. I think Gwyneth is still pretty hot, but I think the voters (whoever they are) at People need to take a revote

My vote goes to Olivia Culpo!

Why George Lucas sucks and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy will always be better than the Star Wars Prequel Movies

I hate George Lucas. I'm sure many of you who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies and then had to sit through three crap-filled prequel movies over the span of six years made you feel the same way. You knew something was wrong after watching the first prequel: The Phantom Menace, when Lucas introduced Midi-chlorians to the world and explained how Jedis are 'discovered'.

I'm pretty sure everyone's reaction was, 'What? What the fuck just happen?' Yet we continued to watch each movie get progressively worse. The dialogue getting so ridiculous that award winning actors and actresses like Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, and Ewan McGregor probably had to cringe when they were going over their script. The only person you probably couldn't forgive was Samuel L. Jackson who begged to get into the movie. Then again, what movie isn't he in? They probably wasted tons of footage because he kept swearing reading his lines and Lucas had to remind him that you can't curse in a Star Wars movie.

It got so ridiculous, the audience was laughing during the 'love' scenes between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman!

 Now Lucas is in the middle of converting the prequel movies into 3D! As if any sane person would pay another $15+ to watch a movie you can watch on Spike TV on any holiday weekend.

However, the biggest crime Lucas perpetrated in making the prequel movies is that he relied too heavily on CGI. It's almost as if he didn't want to use any real actors. Storm Troopers in real costumes? What's that? Every scene was filled with CGI characters. One wonders how the actors actually acted when all they were told is, 'This ball hanging on a string is going to be an alien you're trying to get information from, so act like he's there'.

Now take the Lord of the Ring Trilogy. Peter Jackson did the shocking thing of putting actors/stuntmen into real orc costumes and had them run around in a forest and perform fight scenes! He had extras wear real costumes carrying swords and axes fight against other extras using swords and axes.

The epic shots of the New Zealand countryside and mountains were breathtaking and REAL. Everything in Lucas' film was fake and it clearly showed.

All I have to say is thank god Disney bought the rights to Star Wars and took away (hopefully) all creative control away from that man.

Finally, I attach a link to a video I found on youtube that best describes what most fans feels about Lucas.