Is Facebook that desperate??

Now I don't want to give this website any more publicity than it's already trying to attain, but I've been back on facebook for about a week now and there's been this one facebook-sponsored ad that has been consistently bothering me. It's for a site called Gayborhood.tv. Now I haven't actually looked at the ad past its name, but I feel like it's safe for me to assume the content of the site and that I definitely wouldn't wanna click on it.

Before I abstained from facebook, I don't remember seeing these types of ads, but now I swear this ad shows up 1 out of 5 times. Is facebook that desperate for ad revenue that they've taken it to this level? I don't wanna see this! It's gotten so bad that some times when I'm about to get cracked out on facebook ("hmm lets check out these two people's wall-to-wall"), I just decide to close out facebook instead.

I just don't understand why I have to see it. I mean facebook has targeted ads, so they could just target it at males who have listed in their profiles that they are interested in men right? I guess they don't want to miss out those that are still "in the closet" or on the downlow (booooooooo). Whatever the case, I need to holla at some friends who work at facebook and see if they can give my profile some sort of doesn't-like-to-see-dudes-other-than-himself-with-their-shirt-off exemption. haha

Duke Nipple Grabber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K49QPNiOlPM

This video is hilarious! I can't understand why Duke's Kyle Singler would grab West Virginia's Darris Nichols' nipple in the middle of a game. That's kind of questionable, Bob. I mean there was only a few seconds left in the game and Duke was losing. I dunno what he hoped to gain out of pinching another man's nipple. I guess that's the Duke way of having your teammates back. Hahahahahahaha.

Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke Duke!!

Another Tijani gem...

Giving new meaning to "Paternity Leave"

At first I thought this was some photoshopper's idea of a twisted joke. But it turns out that this is completely real! I'm not even sure how to react to this picture. I'm disturbed, shocked, and grossed out... among other things. Thomas Beatie recently provided the Advocate, a magazine targeting gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals, with an exclusive about his situation. He is transgender, legally male, legally married to his wife Nancy, and five months pregnant!!! Apparently the state of Oregon acknowledges him as a man even though he still has all the reproductive organs of a woman. BabyCenter.com defines paternity leave as "the time a father takes off work at the birth or adoption of a child." I guess that would still hold true for Thomas.

Aside from the obvious morality issues I have with Thomas' "situation," I still disagree with their decision to have a baby together. I don't want to downplay the human desire to procreate and nurture your own offspring. I don't want to insinuate that Thomas & Nancy wouldn't be good parents. In fact, it's likely they'll be more loving and caring than lots of parents out there who don't give a crap about their kids. But despite all that, I don't think it's a good idea because I don't think that they are taking into account their child's future well-being. They can't be.

I mean kids are cruel enough -- picking on you because you wear glasses, have teeny ears or have a funny name (middle school was a rough time). But now this girl's daddy used to be a woman and it wasn't her mommy who gave birth to her, but her daddy?? You don't think that her peers are gonna have a field day with that? I can already picture her coming home with tear-filled eyes because the kids at school teased her for having 1.5 mommies and half a daddy. I won't go as far as saying that the couple is being selfish, but they definitely are not thinking about their daughter either...

Full story: Thomas Beatie is pregnant: world’s first pregnant man!?!

Shout out to Tijani for the story. I'm not gonna even ask how you found it.

Yup, this is the world we live in...

As if Facebook wasn't crackish enough

So according to Techcrunch, Facebook is going to be launching instant messaging (IM) within the website sometime in the near future. From the demo video, it looks like it'll be similar to GChat (IM inside GMail) in its functionality. You will be able to chat away with all of your Facebook friends while you are getting more and more cracked out browsing around the site.


Just when I thought Facebook was already too addictive and occupied too much of my time, now they are adding IM?? I mean I had to fast from it for 40 days just so I couldn't be classified as having a mental disorder. Remember when Facebook first launched and all you had was one profile picture, a list of a few things about yourself, and a "wall" that somebody else could completely erase? Remember when the only schools on it were the Ivys and Stanford so you ended up adding that super nerdy kid from your HS just so your friend count could crack 25? No??? Well maybe that was just me then...

But now on Facebook you can post unlimited pictures, videos and news articles. You can send private messages, write on public walls (wall-to-wall is clean though), compose your own blog entries, form groups with complete strangers, and invite people to events that they wouldn't want to go to even if they didn't live 3,000 miles away. Even the super crackish & stalkery folks (not you but other people I know) can keep tabs on all of their friends and stalkees with the much complained about Newsfeed. I dunno about you, but I kinda like knowing that Jack superpoked Jill. And to top it off, every conceivably annoying application is available for you to add to your profile page so that you can get hacked ("Hey, why is Billy Bob sending me messages about Viagra??").

Unlike GChat though, it appears that Facebook IM will only allow you to talk to other Facebook users. GChat recently leveraged OpenAIM to allow their users to also IM all of their AIM buddies. I haven't opened my AIM client since. But I don't think I'll use Facebook IM all that much because anybody I'd want to talk to, I'm already talking to on GChat. But if they could somehow integrate all of that (yay, more apps!) then maybe I'll become a user...

Don't call it a comeback!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpm7oXKJOZY

The validity of this video is questionable. It definitely seems sort of staged giving Sisqo's super quick negative response, but the video is hilarious nonetheless. My favorite part is the end when Sisqo's driving a way and dude is like:

Aye yo! Aye yo! You ain't even supposed to be driving yo! You ain't supposed to be drivinnnnnnnnn!!!

Hahahaha... definitely seems very publicity stunt-ish.

Shout out to my manz Sol for the video.

Ladies what would you do???

Seriously, sometimes I wish I were making some of these stories up. This is just straight ridiculous. 21-year-old Centava Dozier is suing American Airlines for $200,000 for improperly handling a situation after another passenger allegedly masturbated in the seat next to her and ejaculated in her hair. Her hair!!

So Ms. Dozier was sitting in an empty row and fell asleep shortly after take-off. She woke up with a foreign substance in her hair (hmmmm...) and a man masturbating in the seat next to hers. Her suit claims that she asked the flight attendants for help, requesting that the man be escorted back to his seat, but the American Airlines staff did nothing. AA officials are saying that the proper action was taken as the man was arrested when the plane landed.

WOW!!!!

I can only imagine what was going through her head when she woke up to her head stuck to the seat and hearing some dude moaning & groaning next to her. That's jbeyond disgusting. Can you not control yourself long enough to wait until you get to your hotel room? Me and my boys were talking about how supermaning a female was one of the most disrespectful things you could do to a woman, but this surpasses that by far. Ejaculating in her hair while she's asleep? And you don't even know her??? Words can't even describe. I wonder why kind of charges he could face.


Yup, this is the world we live in...


Source: Texas Woman Sues American Airlines After Flight Turns X-Rated

In de face!

I think the funniest part about this video (aside from Kobe sonning that poor old lady) is the dude's commentary over the video. I can definitely imagine watching that happen with the homies and clownin' hard using TiVo for many, many slow-motion replays.

I don't think Kobe was actually tryna throw the towel at the lady. He had another towel in his hand when he was walking away. My guess is he reached for what he thought was one towel, accidentally picked up two, and the top one just went flying into the lady's face. He didn't even turn around after it happened so it seems unintentional. Either that, or Kobe's cold-blooded on and off the court. I wish they had more video footage so you could see the woman's reaction. Now that would be priceless...

Honey what happened to your eye?!?!

Wall Street securities trader, Stephen Cheng, is suing the Hot Lap Dance club for serious personal injuries he sustained during a lap dance from one of the club's strippers in November '07. According to his lawsuit, during the course of being pleasured, the stripper suddenly swung around and pierced him in the eye with one of her stripper heels (i knew those thangs were dangerous!). The manager of the club says that they didn't receive any reports about anyone being injured that night, and that they would've had attended to him medically or called him an ambulance.

When I first heard about this story I thought it was another bogus lawsuit, but now that I think about it, why would Mr. Cheng make it up? He's definitely putting himself on major blast with the lawsuit, jeopardizing both his marriage and his job. My guess is the reason he didn't report the incident to the club when it happened is because he was probably embarrassed about it. He most likely went to the bathroom to check out the injury and it didn't look too bad. Maybe it got progressively worse and he had to seek medical attention which cost a lot of money. Someone (perhaps his wife?) suggested that he could sue the club for liability and come up real quick. That's what I think happened.

But this should be a lesson for him and other married men out there. Why go out to the strip club and spend over $100 of the family's money to get a lap dance from a naked stranger? If you treat your wife right, I'm sure she'll definitely be down from whatever enjoyment you're receiving from that girl trying to pay her way through med school. That way you have your fun and you stay married. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Yup, this is the world we live in...


See more: Trader sues over 'lap dance injury'

How much is your life worth?

Apparently an Australian man's life is worth about $385,000. He is auctioning his life after his wife left him so that he can start his life completely over with just his wallet and passport. The auction, which begins June 22nd, not only includes his house, car, motorcycle, jet ski and spa, but also includes his job and "great friends." He works at a rug shop in Perth. The house, jet ski, and spa sound cool, but I'd definitely pass on his job and so-called "great friends." I wonder what he valued them at. hahaha

Yup, this is the world we live in...


See more: Man auctions his life

Videos: Day 26 - Got Me Going & Danity Kane - Damaged

Day 26, the new boy band from Making the Band 4, has released the video for their first single, "Got Me Going", off of their self-titled album. The song, co-produced by Bryan Michael Cox and Mario Winans, is definitely hot. I can't wait for their album to drop next Tuesday. Judging from the snippets of songs from the show, it'll definitely have some hits.

In related news, sister group Danity Kane (from Making the Band 3) released their sophomore album, Welcome to the Dollhouse today. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 and was RIAA-certified platinum. The first single on their new album is entitled "Damaged", produced by the Stereotypes. Not nearly as tight as "Got Me Going" from the boys, but I'm sure their demographic will like it:

But my question is what happened to Donnie J's album? I haven't heard any news about a release date as of yet. He was making it at the same time as Day 26 & Danity Kane. I guess he really didn't get enough studio time. Or maybe it would just be bad for Bad Boy Records to release all three albums at the same time. Yeah... maybe that's it. haha

Paterson replaces Spitzer as NY governor

David Paterson was inaugurated today as New York's 55th governor, following Eliot Spitzer's resignation after allegations tying him to an international prostitution ring. Paterson, 53, is making history becoming the state's first Black governor as well as the first to be legally blind. Blind? Hmmm... maybe he should be a New York Supreme Court Justice instead of governor.

At the age of 31, Paterson was elected to the New York State Senate in 1985 where he predominantly represented the Harlem district. In November 2002, he was elected New York State minority leader (no pun intended), becoming the highest-ranking elected Black official in the state. The previous highest-ranking Black person was actually his father, Basil, who was Secretary of State from 1979 - 1983. David Paterson became lieutenant governor after he and Spitzer won the November 2006 election. He is now assuming the role of governor as stated by the New York Constitution.

Is this a bit of foreshadowing for who will be the next President of the United States? Paterson became the first Black governor of New York, which is one of the biggest states in the Union. Is Barack Obama next? Hilary Clinton, one of New York's state senators, was in attendance at Paterson's inauguration. I wonder what was running through her head...

See more: Paterson sworn in as New York governor

Sittin' on 22s...

On January 29, 2008, when the Houston Rockets began their winning streak with their first victory against the Golden State Warriors, they were in 10th place in the Western Conference, and projected to miss the playoffs. Earlier this afternoon, the Rockets took sole possession of 1st place with a 104-92 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. With the win, the Rockets extended their winning streak to 22 consecutive games. Since Yao Ming's season-ending foot injury 10 wins ago, Tracy McGrady has carried the Rockets, averaging 24.3 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 5.3 APG. Tonight, however, due to tenacious defense from Kobe Bryant, T-Mac needed his teammates to step up in order for them to extend the streak. Rafer Alston did just that dropping a career-high 31 points including eight 3-pointers (also a career high). McGrady finished with only 11 points, but recently-acquired Bobby Jackson added 19 points, and Shane Battier & Luis Scola chipped in 14 & 13 points, respectively. It was definitely a team effort. Battier, who logged 46 minutes, also held Kobe to an 11-33 shooting day and 24 points. Houston leads the head-to-head match-up 2 games to 1.

The Rockets have won 26 of their last 27 games and 31 of their last 34 games to move atop the Western Conference. Despite that impressive record some people still feel that the Rockets' streak isn't at all indicative of future playoff success given the lack of formidable opponents and the fact that in the wins against the good teams, their opponent was missing one of their premier players. The Boston Celtics are still unsure if Ray Allen's sore heel will keep him out of Tuesday's game at the Toyota Center. The Rockets lost to the Celtics in their first game of '08 93-97 in Boston. David West may also still be in street clothes when the Rockets go into New Orleans to face the Hornets on Wednesday.

Despite the somewhat freaky coincidences surrounding the availability of players when facing the Rockets, winning 22 games in a row in the NBA (especially in the West) is still an amazing feat and cannot be erased from the record books by any of the haters. I said yesterday that the Rockets' next 5 games (starting with the Lakers) would be very pivotal in terms of their playoff potential in the West. They've already got one win... 4 more to go...

Tijani, prepare to be impressed... haha


Other NBA News: Nuggets drop 168 points on the Sonics in a blow-out

Rockets make it 21 in a row

The Houston Rockets clinched the second longest winning streak in NBA history surpassing the '70 - '71 Milwaukee Bucks after defeating the Charlotte Bobcats 89-90 last night. They have a long way to go to catch up to the record held by the '71 - '72 Los Angeles Lakers who had 33 consecutive wins. Tracy McGrady and his band of scrappy ball players have surprised everybody by continuing to win after Yao Ming was sidelined for the remainder of the season on February 27th. At that time many people (including a few of my homies) were counting out the Rockets saying that they would be the odd team out of the playoffs by season's end. That was 9 wins ago. During the 21-game winning streak, the Rockets have outscored their opponents by an average of 100.55 - 89.05, a point differential of nearly 12 points. 14 of the games, however, have been at the Toyota Center, and only 8 have been against teams currently with an above .500 record. But hey, you gotta win the easy games too in order to remain undefeated.

Their schedule is about to quickly become quite tough starting with a chance to sit atop the West with a win at home tomorrow afternoon against the Lakers (with whom they are currently tied in 1st place). Kobe Bryant will be playing with out his pal Pau Gasol, who will be missing at least 3 games with an ankle injury. After the Lakers, the Boston Celtics come into Houston on Tuesday. One of the Celtics' big 3, Ray Allen, left yesterday's game against the Utah Jazz at the end of the 1st quarter with a bruised left heel. Chris Paul (left ankle) & David West (right ankle) may also be in question when the New Orleans Hornets host the Rockets this Wednesday after both sustained injuries in win against the Lakers yesterday. The Rockets will be at Golden State on Friday and at Phoenix next Saturday to round out 5 consecutive games against above .500 teams.

My boy Tijani is pessimistic about the Rockets' chances for success saying that he'll be impressed if the Rockets come out 2-3. C'mon now...2-3??? Hater. hahaha. But with all the injuries sustained by the opponents' star players and the way Rockets have been playing as a cohesive unit, I'd say they win at least 3 games, if not all 5. The road will be rough as they'll have two sets of back-to-back games.

After 21 games in a row and tying the Lakers for 1st in the West, it became pretty hard for NBA analyst to continue suggesting that the Rockets would fail to make the playoffs (giving the Denver Nuggets a spot). In fact, the Rockets are now showing up at the top of some analyst's playoff rankings. John Hollinger's NBA Playoff Odds statistical model has the Rockets with a 99.7% chance of making the playoffs and even an 8.1% chance of winning the title. Marc Stein actually has the Rockets at the top of his Power Rankings after week 19.

These next 5 games will be very pivotal for the Rockets -- and not just for the streak. If the Rockets can do significantly well against these 5 playoff-bound teams, not only can they make a claim as an outside shot for the NBA Championship, but T-Mac will also start entering the discussion for league MVP.

Tomorrow's Laker game will air on ABC at 12:30PM PST and the Celtics game will be on TNT at 6:30PM Pacific.

Don't talk about my Brucey!

Woman stabs partner to death after fight over Bruce Springsteen

I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why wouldn't she just leave or break up with him? Kill him? Over Bruce Springsteen??? Really?? And she stabbed him too. I could possibly begin to understand an impulse shoot-em-up, but stabbing someone is real personal. You gotta get in real close. Come to think of it, I'm trying to figure out how she was able to stab him. He had to have not seen it coming at all. Because if I saw a female who I was just clownin' coming at me with a kitchen knife, I'm out with the quickness.

But I can tell Karen at least one person who doesn't like Bruce Springsteen...ME! If I met you, I'd probably clown you for liking Bruce too. Are you gonna stab me as well? I can't believe she only got 8 years for murder. She must've put on a super sob story about how he emotionally and probably physically abused her.

Yup, this is the world we live in...

Who knew Skittles were so bad??

Student suspended for buying Skittles at school

Here's an excellent example of a good rule gone wrong. The New Haven school district banned the sales of candy bars in '03 as part of it's child-wellness initiative. I can't say that that is a bad idea seeing as how between 16% - 33% of children & adolescents in the U.S. are clinically obese. But c'mon... let's the punishment fit the crime. 8th grader Michael Sheridan was suspended 3 days and stripped of his class VP title for a secret Skittles buy behind the jungle gym. 3 days for some Skittles?? Really?? I say they should've given him detention and called it a day.

Yup, this is the world we live in...

I'm in 2nd place, but you be my #2!

Obama rejects being Clinton's No. 2

There have been some pretty dumb things coming out of the Clinton camp during the Democratic primaries (like a major Clinton donor saying the only reason Obama's in the race is because of his race), but this has to rank pretty high on that list. After winning both the Texas Caucuses (56% to 44%) and the Mississippi Primary (61% to 37%), Sen. Barack Obama has a 1,553 to 1,438 delegate lead over Sen. Hilary Clinton in the race to 2,025 delegates. It's actually pretty funny because Clinton claimed victory in Texas because she won the primary by 4 points (51% to 47%), but Obama actually received more delegates from the state because of his sizable caucus victory. Barack received 99 delegates to Hilary's 94.

So Sen. Obama has more delegates than Sen. Clinton and has won nearly twice as many states as she has (went on an 11-state winning streak too), yet she is calling for him to be her vice-president?? How does that make any sense? That's like the 2nd place finisher in an Olympic event suggesting to the gold medalist that they swap medals. But as usual, Barack handled the situation well, saying:

Sen. Clinton is fighting hard. She's tenacious. I respect her for that. She is working hard to win the nomination. But I want everybody to be absolutely clear. I'm not running for vice president. I'm running for president of the United States of America. With all due respect. I won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I've won more of the popular vote than Sen. Clinton. I have more delegates than Sen. Clinton. So, I don't know how somebody who's in second place is offering vice presidency to the person who's in first place.

Pennsylvania is the next state up for grabs with 155 delegates to battle for on April 22nd. And in case you forgot, please remember:

Barack Obama (Both sides) Stencil Cardboard
by thezeegn

So what would YOU do with $5,550???

Spitzer investigated for link to prostitution ring

So apparently the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer (codenamed Client 9 an the federal affidavit), thought it'd be better to spend Valentine's Day morning with a prostitute named Kristen instead of his wife and three kids. It blows my mind that someone of his position & influence would get involved with high-end prostitutes. I mean If it gets out (which it did), his career is ruined... let alone his marriage, his family, and his friendships. This dude became the governor of New York in January 2007 after being a hard-nosed attorney general whose goal was to weed out all the corruption in public office. Apparently he's also known for shutting down prostitution rings. Ironic huh? I guess that explains how he found out about The Emperor's Club in the first place...

What's most shocking to me actually is not the fact that he was sleeping with prostitutes (because sadly that's what our society has come to) or that he got caught (you'd think a NY governor would be smart enough to know not to pay in credit cards & money orders tied to his own bank account). What really surprises me is that the prostitutes that he was caught sleeping with charged $5,500... per hour! $5,500/hr?!!?!?! That's insane! You know what you could do with $5,550?? Well...you could pay one-month's rent for a 7-bedroom, 6-bath, 4228 sq. ft. San Jose mansion. The only things dumber than wasting $5,550 for sexual relations would be to spend it on a Carl's Jr. combo meal, a floral-patterned shower curtain or a diamond-studded USB key. For one hour of depraved illicit behavior, soon-to-be ex-Gov. Spitzer could have fed nearly 29,000 children living in 3rd-world countries for a day. He's a super idiot. But idiot or not I still gotta pray for him. He definitely needs it right about now...

People on ZAZZLE have decided to take advantage of his unfortunate situation, trying to make money off of products with Spitzer or Client 9 on them. I gotta hand it to them. They were really quick. Here's one of my favorites:

Elliot Spitzer Pimpin Ain't Easy
by cha321

I don't know who exactly would rock this shirt, but it's still pretty funny. You can find links to more shirts on ZAZZLE's blog.

Los Suns vs. Los Spurs???

I'm happy for the Phoenix Suns (41-22, 6th) who beat the San Antonio Spurs (43-19, 2nd) yesterday afternoon 94-87. It was a big win for them because they are currently a 6th seed in the West and are definitely in danger of falling out of the playoffs. Moreover, it was a big morale win because they had been 3-6 with Shaquille O'Neal in the lineup until this latest victory. Being able to defend and beat the Spurs was the main motivation for the O'Neal trade, so after 10 games it's looking like the deal may not have been a bust after all. They held the Spurs to only 87 points, 9 points below their average. Shaq played 35 minutes, scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. He actually played the final 5:55 in the game with 5 fouls.

I guess Steve Kerr can finally take a breath; his job is not in jeopardy just yet. But he better not breathe too deeply because the Suns still have 19 games remaining in the regular season -- 2 against Golden State (39-22, 8th), 2 against the Rockets (42-20, 3rd & on an 18-game winning streak), 2 against Denver (37-25, 9th), 2 away games against East leaders Boston (42-12, 1st) & Detroit (46-17, 2nd), 1 against the Mavericks (40-23, 7th), and another against San Antonio. That's 10 tough games for them mixed in with a number of cupcake games. They had better work out the kinks playing with Shaq sooner rather than later.

But what I'm most intrigued about is the jerseys that the Suns & Spurs wore in the game yesterday. "Los Suns"?? "Los Spurs"?? What's that all about? The Suns were playing at home in Phoenix, which does have a Hispanic population of about 28%, but the jerseys still don't make any sense. If they're going to roll with the Spanish theme, they should at least make it all in Spanish ("Los Soles" & "Las Espuelas") right? Whoever authorized that decision should be slapped in the face... and then fired. They should also burn the jerseys inmediatamente.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my first ever blog! I've written entries on social networking sites like facebook & myspace, but this is my first attempt at a standalone blog. I hope to update this many times a week, if not daily. We'll see how it goes...

You may be wondering what this blog is going to be about. Well... it's about to be about anything & everything. Every day I come across tons videos, articles, and other blogs. Some of them are pretty interesting, funny, ridiculously stupid or otherwise engaging and those are the ones I'll put up here (with some commentary of course). I also have lots of arguments & debates with my friends concerning various topics, so those that are particularly intriguing may also find their way here as well. And the times when I do go out and socialize, randomness always seems to ensue, so it's likely that a few stories will show up here (although the names and places may be changed to protect the innocent haha).

Lastly, this blog will be a place where I'll advertise my designs that I create at ZAZZLE.com. ZAZZLE is the company that I work for, and they let you create all sorts of customized products such as t-shirts (our main product), mugs, posters, stamps (partnership with the USPS), cards, calendars, and many, many more. We actually just recently launched a new customizable product called profile cards (more on that in a later post). You can create these products to purchase for yourself (or give as a gift) for family reunions, sports teams, etc. If you are particularly artistic or have great ideas, you can post your products to the ZAZZLE marketplace where they will be available for anyone to buy. If people like your product and decide to purchase it, you would then a royalty percentage of the sales. Pretty cool huh?

Many people have set up their own stores (called ZAZZLE galleries) where they sell all of their products. I have two galleries: BenMVP which is my personal gallery that I've had for some time & BeneSol (products that are good for your soul) which is a new joint store with a friend of mine. Hopefully I can make a few dollars here and there. Feel free to check out either store; there are lots of products in there that I think are great! haha

In fact, here is one of my designs:

Trust me, I'm (almost) a doctor
by benmvp

So that's about it! Welcome to my blog! Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome.