For the past 2 months, we have seen steady growth. Hopefully, more and more people will visit the site and like what they see.

I've archived my MSN Spaces blogs to http://tan.dorksandlosers.com.

Dorks And Losers is almost on-line. I'm currently uploading the files necessary to blog the way I think would work with the 3 people that are going to comprise of its bloggers. I plan to use Wordpress and there are a bunch of files to upload and it's taking super long. It should be up before July 1. So please prepare for its grand opening. Thank you.

Yes. Man, was this week boring. My days consisted of 10 minutes studying for each of my finals. The rest of the time - I have no idea where the time was spent. Oh well, time for summer school. I will get at least one week of vacation time to rest and relax before school and work start again. June 26 will be the day before school starts and it is the same day that I turn 21. Whoa. A little over a week, and I turn into a full adult. Yea! More after I sleep...

I didn't want to seem sexist, so I wanted to also mention my top 5 on-screen hunks. These men make my blood boil and my heart beat fast. I must admit that I have man-crushes and if I was gay, then I would definitely want these men.

This list includes more classic hunks for the simple fact that there really aren’t that many hunks in our current generation of leading men.

1. James Dean – This man achieved icon status after only appearing in three films, only one opened before he died in a tragic car crash. His movies include the great Rebel Without A Cause, East Of Eden, and Giant. Often referred to as the greatest actor of his generation, it is hard to distinguish as “the” greatest since he only appeared in three films, but he is among the greats of that generation, which included Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.
2. Montgomery Clift – That last line brings a nice segway into No. 2. This man was really handsome. His career is more defined than Dean, but his life was also derailed by a car accident. His great movies were From Here To Eternity, Alfred Hitchock’s I Confess, and Judgment At Nuremberg.
3. Rock Hudson – He made a name for himself by appearing in many Douglas Sirk melodramas like Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. He also created a nice on-screen couple with Doris Day in Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers. Rock Hudson defined what a manly man is. And he was gay, so it’d be alright for me to have a crush on him. Well, that applies to Montgomery Clift as well.
4. Paul Newman – He was really good looking as a young man. Even when he got older in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and The Sting, Paul was very rugged. Call me old-fashioned but I’d take Butch any day.
5. Brad Pitt – Have you seen his body? Man, he has abs of steel. I must admit that Brad Pitt is pretty hot, and I would not be afraid to say that in public. In fact, I have.

Honorable Mentions: Elvis, Humphrey Bogart, Jude Law (although he’s more sexy than hunky), Clive Owen, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford.

As on BlogCritics...

Here is the link from walmartstores.com.

Wal-Mart has been named one of “The 30 Best Companies For Diversity” by Black Enterprise magazine. This is the most recent recognition for Wal-Mart’s continuing efforts to diversify its work environment - both the commercial and corporate environments. It has also received praise from DiversityBusiness.com, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, and Asian Enterprise magazine.

Wal-Mart should be recognized for its diverse workplace, but that is one of the relatively few pluses for the No. 1 Retailer to go along with its many more minuses.

+’s

1. Diversity among its many, many employees.
2. Diversity among its many, many items that the company sells.
3. Low prices on its many, many items that the company sells.
4. Friendly personnel, or at least the ones that I have dealt with.

-’s

1. Low hourly wages for its many, many employees.
2. Destroys local businesses and merchants with its incredible low prices.
3. Huge Supercenters are ugly.
4. Much traffic caused by the many customers looking to save an extra $1 on soap.
5. 5. Devotion to appeasing the family crowd by banning CDs with explicit lyrics in favor of “safe” versions and pretty much only selling FULL FRAME DVDS!
6. The cheapness feel when entering one of the stores.
7. The untidiness of shopping at its stores when shopping later in the day when everyone has picked the store twice over for that soap that’s on sale that will save them an extra $1.
8. The huge square-footage needed for a Wal-Mart, which causes their the stores to be built miles from the cities and to the suburbs, or in some cases to the middle of nowhere, where urban sprawl and more traffic become worser problems.

As you can tell, I despise Wal-Mart more than I like it. But you do have to admire the fact that the company has grown from nothing to a more than $200 billion-a-year-in-revenues company. Don’t get me wrong, I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart but there have been rare occasions when I dove into the $4.88 DVD bins or bought some shampoo that I desperately needed.

This list was compiled rather quickly and without much thought. You can tell that it is very superficial. If there are more that I forgot, or ones more detailed that should be added to the list, please let me know how dumb I am.

Here is the link.

Many DUI cases in Florida have been tossed out because the manufacturer of the breath-alcohol tests used to catch them refused to “disclose how the machines work.”

All four of Seminole County's criminal judges have been using a standard that if a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works - its software source code, for instance - and the state cannot provide it, the breath test is rejected, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday.

Prosecutors have said they do not know how many drunken drivers have been ac quitted as a result. But Gino Feliciani, the misdemeanor division chief in the Semi nole County State Attorney's Office, said the conviction rate has dropped to 50 percent or less.

First, I need to praise the person who first got acquitted using this tactic. Although it isn’t that hard to circumvent the judicial system and its process and get away with crimes, this is pretty clever. It needed the manufacturer to not reveal the machine’s inner workings, and for the judge to allow that defense, but somehow the man got away with it. Others followed the man’s example, and rightfully so.

It hasn’t worked it all places. “Judges in other counties have said the opposite: The state cannot turn over something it does not possess, and the manufacturer should not have to turn over trade secrets.” This is the nature of the system, that every judge has a different opinion and perspective on things and it affects how each case will proceed.

But this is also where I think the real flaws of the system do the most damage. Some cases become precedents for further cases, like Roe V. Wade, and change the entire country. Despite what people say about the lack of need for judges - that lawyers and juries decided the cases, judges can determine and guide their outcomes.

Yes, if the manufacturer of the breathalyzers don’t show how test works which proved that the people were driving over the legal alcohol limit, then there is no real case. But the breathalyzer is pretty much a universally accepted method for detecting the alcohol limit. Not knowing a test’s accuracy is one thing, but not knowing how it works is another. These people broke the law and endangered the lives of many people. These people made serious mistakes in driving and driving, and there is a likelihood that they might repeat those mistakes. How can you let them off the hook?

Here is the link.

Archaeologists have revealed that they have discovered Europe’s oldest civilization (4800-4600 BC) in parts of Germany, Austria and Slovakia. The unearthed buildings predate the pyramids in Egypt.

Among the items being excavated is a huge series of temples: “The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming.” Wow. I’ve always asked the question of whether or not humans could have evolved and matured as civilizations without some form or concept of religion. This kind of answers it. I guess all people need some idea of a higher power, and that is what helps to guide their lives.

It’s also amazing to think that despite our efforts to modernize the world, that there are still places where history can be discovered. Germany is a fairly traveled and a fairly modern country. If archaeologists can still roam around Germany and find artifacts of unknown civilizations, then there can still be others.

China comes to mind as a country that has been destroying its chances at excavating its buried history. As the country prepares itself for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, it has found itself in controversy. Beijing is an ancient city with tremendous possibilities of finding historical artifacts. But the government has been razing Beijing’s old buildings to make way for modern buildings. Some of the buildings represent the country’s history and tradition, but the efforts of some to convince the government to spare the buildings went unnoticed.

China is in a unique position to discover and preserve its country’s history. But it chooses to not take advantage of it in order to maintain its course for ascending onto the world stage. The United States is a fairly new nation, and what little history is left from its founding is treasured. But hopefully this new European finding will help open the door for new discoveries.

Anyone who has attended school - grade school, high school, or college - know finals well. It is a horrible series of tests that culminate the quarter or semester of classes. I remember having an easy time with my grade school finals, and even my high school finals. For some reason, taking finals in college is hard. Well, it should be because the depth of concepts and materials in college classes are more complex. But, could there be other things involved that could affect one’s performance?

This Friday was the start of finals week. I’m currently taking four classes this school quarter. In high school, I regularly took seven. That means also had to take seven final tests in high school compared to four this quarter and that’s including the take-home final for my writing class. Yet, my chances for failing each other my finals is high.

Why you ask? It’s not because I’ve been slacking off the entire quarter. It can’t be. I’m a working machine during the school year. But when that last week of school hits, I falter. You can’t study for finals. You CRAM for finals, and that is one thing that I can’t do. My attention span is too short and my patience is too momentary to sit for hours on end to re-memorize, or for some memorize for the first time, ideas that my professors spent many class periods lecturing.

In my opinion, my finals schedule has so many gaps in-between my tests that it’s impossible for me to stay focused for each and every test. There comes a point when you stop studying completely and take the tests without any preparation so that you can just have the feeling of being finished them. I know that I’m only taking three tests along with a take-home final, but even one is a lot.

For those that do spend days studying for each final, how do you ever know if you’ve fully prepared yourself for it? If there is a point of readiness, what is it? Maybe I just haven’t ever reached it.

And I would be remiss to not mention the current NBA finals that is taking place now. When I originally started thinking about my final tests, I didn’t think about the NBA finals. But it does relate in some way.

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Yahoo! News is reporting that Britian may charge its citizens to drive on the roads.

This is a hardcore attempt to stem traffic. I know all of the studies show that traffic hurts job productivity and the quality of life, but I don't know how this proposal will ever pass. I know the automobile isn't anywhere as essential to the average Britian than it is to the average American, but charging by the mile seems very strict. It sends a message, but I don't see Britian doing more with its public transportation to help remedy the traffic congestion.

Toll roads work, but Britian plans to use GPS to help monitor traffic activity. Whoa. I can see much government outcry, and I can see the US government monitoring Britian's results. I'm sure any option to help remedy the horrible traffic areas in the US would help. Better public transportation is a must. But I fear the situation in the US has as much to do with our culture than with poor city planning.

What would help tremendously is the invention of personal transporters from Star Trek. But alas, I think it's a pipe dream.

It is every man’s fantasy to be able to get with a female movie star (or a male movie star if that’s your preference). Here is my list of the top five (most beautiful) actresses that I would not hesitate to do anything if one of them came up to me and said I was cute. Heck, I’d even settle for a “Do you know where the restroom is?” And at that same moment, I would dump my girlfriend and move into her place.

1. Kate Beckinsale – There’s no one that comes close to her combination of beauty and sexiness. She’s currently filming Underworld 2. She has previously starred in Pearl Harbor and Serendipity. Not many people believe me when I tell them, but Kate did graduate from Oxford University.
2. Natalie Portman – She recently rose from the No. 3 spot on this list last year.  It has a hard decision but the 1-2 punch of last year’s Garden State and Closer solidified her as one of the best actresses of her generation. She captured soul in Garden State and loneliness in Closer. No one doubts this woman’s talents.
3. Sandra Bullock – There are not many women who can look almost better at 40 than they were at 30, but Sandra tops that list.  She recently stated that she would no longer make chick flicks anymore. I was heartbroken when I heard this because Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice helped me fill many lonely hours. But with recent movie Crash, it’s safe to say that her film choices will better showcase her talents.
4. Julie Bowen – Not many people know this incredibly cute actress. She was the female lead in the NBC show, Ed, a few years ago. To Adam Sandler fans, she was the blonde chick in Happy Gilmore. I liked Ed a lot and was sad when it was cancelled.
5. Rachel Weisz – She is an underrated actress made popular from the Mummy franchise. She doesn’t hesitate to do smaller films like Sunshine or The Shape Of Things. She is a very versatile actress and can next be seen in Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain.

There’s my list. Most people can’t believe or agree with my list because there aren’t any “hot” actresses like Jessica Alba or Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. I sometimes surprise myself that the list isn’t filled with blonde women. The only blonde on the list is Julie Bowen, and only 5 people I’ve even known know who she is. I don’t find “hot chicks” nearly as attractive as I do beautiful chicks.

Enough of my drooling and lusting… who’s on your list? I don’t discriminate between sexes. My next list would be, if I was gay, my Top 5 On-Screen Hunks.

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Finals Week is upon me here in Davis. It sucks. The good news is that I got my poem "ACILEGNA" published in Seele, the English Department literary magazine. I'm exciting, although looking back, it isn't the best poem that I could have written. Maybe the editors and the board of Seele liked it enough to publish it. It made me happy for the brief moment until my day turned crappy like it always does. Eh. Sigh.

Tomorrow for lunch, I'm going for all-you-can-eat sushi. Hopefully I don't eat as much and puke. But that sushi smells good. I can smell it even before it's made. Here's my plan for the day tomorrow: 9:30-11:30 Office Work, 11:30-1:00 Sushi, 1:00-5:00 Network Work, 5:00-6:00 Swim, 5:00-Midnight Nothing!

More to come...

WARNING: AMONG THE MANY FOODS AND DRINKS THAT HELP CAUSE CHILDHOOD OBESITY, MILK HAS JUST BEEN ADDED TO THE LIST.

Here’s the link from Yahoo!.

Well, it hasn’t been added to the list, but this study does try to scare parents into lessening their children’s intake of milk - specifically skim milk and my personal favorite whole milk. The article suggests that people don’t really know the real caloric value and milk and drink too much. In the study, the children who drank the most gained more weight. Duh!

What the article doesn’t point out is what everyone tells their kids that drinking milk builds stronger bones. The weight gain might be corresponding to the stronger bones that the kids are building as they drink more milk. “The take-home message is that children should not be drinking milk as a means of losing weight or trying to control weight,” Berkey said. Weight gain in children is a given because the body adjusts itself and its weight to the quick, normal (height) growth that children go through in puberty. Milk aids that growth.

The researchers further commented that water is the best beverage, and that milk shouldn’t be promoted as a healthy drink. Both are very healthy in my opinion. The article did mention toward the end that a nutrition professor said the study did not clearly show that milk causes weight gain. I’m glad that there was a sentence that showed doubt in the study’s findings.

Even if milk did have higher calories than people think or more fat, I’d rather intake “natural” calories and fat than the processed calories and fats in most of the crap found in supermarkets. What people should really focus on instead of scaring people from eating and drinking healthy foods is the idea of moderation. Is junk food bad for you? You bet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have it, it just means that you need to be able to tell yourself when you’d had enough and to not overindulge in it, and also that you need to eat your fruits and vegetables on a daily basis in order to maintain a healthy diet.

I wouldn’t have a second thought to drinking my daily glass of whole milk. I just have to put off eating my annual Christmas Twinkie for another week.

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Whoa, one of the editors at BlogCritics, Temple Stark, has promoted my review of Howie Day's Stop All The World Now to Advance.net with a lot of readers. Thanks for the appreciation. Click here for the link to it. Yeah!

Awesome, I got the photos of me from Pokerpalooza several weeks ago. Unless you were under a rock, you didn't know that I came in 7th place out of about 113 participants. It's funny because I wanted to go home every two hours, so I went all-in and ended up doubly or tripling up. Oh well. At least UCD gave away free Red Bull. I drank about 13. The dude next to me drank about 15, but that number was probably closer to 20. It was a good night. I might post pictures, or wait until dorksandlosers.com is up and just post pictures there. Whatever is easier on me.

More to come later at work.

One of the least mainstream sports in America is tennis. But this week, the world has enjoyed one of tennis’ Grand Slam events: the French Open. Late spring is the most dreaded of tennis seasons because most of the big tournaments are played on clay courts leading up to the French Open.

Why do tennis players hate clay? One word. Sluggish. Both the ball and the player are sluggish because the clay court is so much slower than any other court surface like the popular hard courts of the Australian and U.S. Opens or the much faster grass courts that will be played in the next Grand Slam event, Wimbledon, later this month.

Top spin is almost negated on clay because the ball kicks up on the dry clay as opposed to rolling on hard courts or grass. This makes for longer points, longer games, longer sets and longer matches. In a two week tournament, it is a [brutal wear-and-tear] both mentally and physically on the player.

American players haven’t fared well at the French Open. The last American man to win the title was Andre Agassi in 1999, and before that Jim Courier winning it back-to-back in 1991 and 1992. The women have had more recent success with Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams winning in 2001 and 2002 respectively. But before that, not one American woman has won it since Chris Evert in 1986.

Week two of this year’s French Open has been astounding after a lackluster week one with Andre Agassi losing in the first round and Andy Roddick losing in the second round. Defending women’s singles champion Anastasia Myskina lost in the first round as well.

My pre-tournament pick to win the title was Marat Safin who lost a five set fourth round match to Tommy Robredo. After beating the unbeatable No. 1 Roger Federer the previous Australian Open en route to his second Grand Slam title, it seemed like a lock for Safin to win back-to-back Grand Slams. But in the fifth set, Safin seemed to just have enough left to keep steady with Robredo. In the French Open, the final set is played without tiebreakers and must be won by two points. At six points all in the final set, Safin hit a few crucial double faults that gave the next point to Robredo. Safin showed his frustration with repeated racquet slams to the ground. Robredo followed through to serve out the match.

On the last weekend of the French Open, Justine Henin-Hardenne proved that she is one of the best players on the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association). She destroyed a rejuvenated Mary Pierce at 6-1, 6-1 in the finals. Henin-Hardenne won her second French Open title and her fourth Grand Slam. Both are coming back from major injuries. Even though Mary Pierce didn’t show it Saturday, she had played great tennis during the two week tournament. At 30, Pierce has shown the world that she can still play top tennis. Most tennis players hit the wall at 30, but Pierce might be one of those rare players who can maintain their competitive forms at such a old age.

Sunday’s final between teenage phenom Rafael Nadal and unseeded Mariano Puerta was more thrilling. But for his 19th birthday, Nadal celebrated it by winning his first Grand Slam of his career and his sixth title of the year. Proving that his success isn’t a fluke, he extended his winning streak to 24 matches, bettering Andre Agassi’s streak by a male teenager. I bet my tennis coach that Safin would win, and he chose David Nalbandian, which wasn’t a bad choice. Neither of us thought about Nadal, and as much as we both love him, we didn’t think he could succeed this fast. Teenagers haven’t fared so well in this modern era of metal racquets (Anna Kournikova anyone?), but Nadal might prove us wrong. He could be that good.

But Nadal’s recent success has all come on clay, so Wimbledon could be the best way to test him and properly gauge his talent. I can’t wait. My pre-Wimbledon pick will still be Safin, but I might have to hold my breath if he faces Nadal. June 20 is the start of Wimbledon. Prepare to watch some great tennis.

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Howie Day is who John Mayer wishes he was musically. John Mayer relies too much on voice inflection and sap to convey emotion through his songs. Howie Day relies on the words and instruments more. Although since John Mayer is more popular than Howie Day is, I don’t think Mayer is going to change his style anytime soon. Day doesn’t change his style, rather he evolves. Even comparing his debut Australia to Stop All The World Now there is a noticeable difference in both mood and tone, which I think is the hardest to do musically. Day is much more mellow and the result is a mature artist who doesn’t need to try hard to express his emotions. It’s all in his words.

Day lets loose with “Perfect Time Of Day” and its dance-inspired rhythms. Day’s centerpiece is “Collide” which shows off his ability to make a heartfelt song it being too sap-filled. “Sunday Morning Song” is an homage to Oasis’s “Sunday Morning Call.” Day includes a left-over from his previous Australia with “She Says.” It’s a good song, but fans would already have his first album, and wouldn’t understand why put the same song on two albums. When you get to “End Of Our Days” you’re wondering if Day can really sing a ballad? Day focuses a lot on the combination of the music with his vocals so I’m not sure if he could handle an acoustic ballad. But Day does have the maturity to try. And most likely he will succeed.

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Today is Ted's birthday. Happy twentieth.

Here's another reason not to smoke. The ground beneath could explode because of the flame. Click here. It's pretty funny. Well, not funny funny, but funny enough.

More coming at you after I wake up.

What do you do behind closed doors? How do you feel? How do you really feel? We all have two lives - a public life, which we have with friends and family, and a private life, which we have only to ourselves. Why do we close off our real selves from the ones who care for us? Maybe we are all alone and we prefer for a part of us to be apart from others. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson intersects the people of Winesburg, Ohio, and explores how and why people live. As different as everyone is, there is a similarity that everyone shares.

The novel is told through the town newspaper reporter, George Willard, who narrates the stories of the diverse townsfolk. From his regretful mother to the confused priest, George describes residents’ personalities and in their most intimate states how they handle life. Two recurring themes in the novel are loneliness and regret: how we come to be lonely and regretful, and how we cope with these emotions and feelings.

George’s mother knows much about regret, which she contents herself to living with. But she’ll be damned if she doesn’t push her son to follow a different path than the one she took: “If I am dead and see him becoming a meaningless drab figure like myself, I will come back.” The relationship between George and his mother is strange. It’s one that doesn’t converge or diverge, it just exists as if they are following some set guidelines on being a parent or a child.

Winesburg, Ohio is a small town that seems to trap people inside its city limits. Growth is stagnant because like all small towns there isn’t much room for making bad decisions, which come to haunt many of the inhabitants. Alice Hindman lives with the decision of not leaving town with her love, Ned Currie, when he left Winesburg to start a fresh life in Cleveland, Ohio. She stayed. She constantly thinks of nothing but him, and refuses to love anyone but him. Years pass, but Alice stays devoted to Ned, where all signs point to him never coming back to her or to Winesburg: “I am his wife and shall remain his wife whether he comes back or not.” Making decisions is a natural part of life, but for the people of Winesburg, Ohio, making one bad decision can mean the difference between a life of happiness or sadness.

The heart of the novel is about making choices. Getting from one place to another requires decision-making. Another way to describe it would be risk-taking. Life is full of risks, but one needs to be able to decide the pros and cons of the risks in order to decide what to do or not to do. Is every action a risk? It depends on how you look at it, and it depends on what you value? If you value your car, you risk damaging it every-time you drive it. If you don’t value your watch, you shouldn’t mind if it gets stolen.

The town’s reverend, Curtis Hartman, jeopardizes his image with his thoughts of another woman he watches from a hole in the church of the woman’s open bedroom window. The reverend is married, yet he still peeps at the woman from his hole. He could lose everything, from his wife to his personal integrity, if he is caught. What Reverend Hartman values over everything else is his devotion to God. He believes that this temptation is a test from God, and that in order to pass the test, he feels that he must continue peeping through his hole: “I am God’s child and he must save me from myself.” To him, the risk of getting caught is insignificant in comparison to the risk of not finding out God’s purpose for him or of suffering God’s wrath.

In Winesburg, Ohio risks can seem so much larger in scale than in reality, which frightens many people into accepting their ordinary lives. To Reverend Hartman, his physical risks were minimal, and his spiritual risks were great. To George Willard, looking at the town from a journalistic viewpoint has taught him that risk is a good thing. The town is a haven for disappointed souls, and the greatest risk would be to stay in such place. Winesburg is George’s home, but the town’s residents teach George that disappointment comes only from inaction. Acting on your desires is what life is about; fulfillment is one joy that people must experience.

So admired are Sherwood’s stories and characters that Ernest Hemingway parodies Winesburg, Ohio in his novel The Torrents Of Spring. I think that sums up how good Winesburg, Ohio is. If it can linger in the mind and heart of a great like Hemingway and inspire him to parody, the book must be good. So innocent is George Willard that he resembles the eager and optimistic person that each of us were at some point in our life. The hardest part in life is deciding what direction we wanted to go from that point on.

As on Blog Critics...

Whoa, I have just been asked to write a few articles on the French Open for Popmatters.com. Man am I excited! I like the website, and I am excited about this opportunity. Hopefully my writing has improved enough to be able to hold up against other writers. I thought that I'd have more free time to myself since I finished most of my CD reviews sans my review on Howie Day, which is almost done. Now I have to finish at least one article by Friday and another by Sunday and then a couple retrospective articles by next week. Grrr. But this is a happy Grrr.

Man, I think I ignored LK again. I let her go, but I guess I still like her. Ahh! Maybe I can drown my girl troubles with candy. Last week it was cookies. This week is ice cream. Next week will be Airheads. Now, only I have to find some mass quanitites of them.