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Like to throw things? Like to throw things a really long way? Then play the “Ultimate Game of Catch”. This exceptional flying product which has amazed even NASA experts is a unique flying gyroscope which can be thrown over 600 feet. That’s a really long way! It has even received a rating of `BEST` in MIT tests!

X-ZyLo™ is the incredible flying gyroscope that has been thrown the length of two football fields! It’s flight is simply unbelievable–the ultimate game of catch! Rated the best flying toy in a Christian Science Monitor field test, the X-ZyLo™ has flown onto the outdoor recreational scene as one of the most exciting games of catch. It was invented by Mark Forti, a Baylor University student, and refined within the aerospace industry.

This deceptively simple device commonly flies in excess of 100 yards when correctly thrown. X-ZyLo’s world record throw is 218 yards or 655 feet!! Nothing so light has ever been thrown so far.

I recently purchased a X-zylo from REI and it is amazing. I have not taken it out to a field to really tests its capablities yet, but needless to say I have very high hopes to break the world X-zylo throwing record.

With the close of 2008 upon us I thought what better way to end it then with a BANG of the gorgeous Jessica Alba. Without a doubt she has always been on my short list with her exotic look complimented by her perfect body she is a no brainer “I’d Hit That” for me.  She is also another one of the lovely women who have made Derek Jeter’s All Star cast of ex girls he has slept with. Not a bad notch to have in your belt. We’ll start off with one the greatest ass shots you’ll ever see in your life which is not a bad position to start in:

From Dark Angel to Sin City Jessica is just one of those girls who looks good holding a whip and wearing black leather. Without a doubt after the birth of her daughter this year she because one of the top MILFS currently alive. Here are a couple more for you to think about as we exit 2008 i just love this picture of her and the lollipop it creates such a nice visual!

When the zombie apocalypse comes, major media will crumble and society will turn to the Internet.  Or at least that’s what George Romero’s Diary of the Dead showed us.  In the scheme of things, the Internet is a network, a system, a living organism that will be very difficult to shut down.  And aside from the obvious “bad side” of a zombie apocalypse, the upside is that I won’t have to listen to or read anything from major media sources anymore. I’ll get it from you…real people with real stories. 

I’m not some conspiracy nut or anything.  I just simply hate the “spin” that major media puts on stories to get peoples attention.  I also simply hate the irresponsibility that they have when it comes to how their stories impact society. 

I dare you to turn on the news right now.  Seriously, go do it.  I’ll bet a billion dollars some talking head will be there explaining how the world’s financial backbone is broken, the bail-outs aren’t working or Christmas retail sales have hit an all-time low. 

Why?  Why is this all they talk about?  Because people can’t take their eye off a train wreck.  If you live in a big city like I do, try to drive past a car with their blinkers on sitting on the side of the road without it causing a traffic jam because of all the gawkers.  This is what big media counts on.  Gone are the days of “feel good” stories to strengthen the American family.  Gone are the days of excessive good news.  Nobody wants good news these days, and the big media outlets know it. 

So what do they do?  They put the nasty spin on every story.  They make it so that even during the holidays when we should be talking about tickle-me-elmos and the playstation 3, all we get to hear about is how the American consumer isn’t spending their money because they either already lost their jobs or probably will next year. 

So how much of this economic gloom is media driven and how much is actually a reality? Who knows? I’m not an economist.  I know that a lot of people have been impacted by this downturn.  Or at least, I think I know it because I heard it on the news.  However, I’ll take a quick poll using my closest friends as an example.   I don’t know anybody who has lost their job.  I do know that everybody is scared of losing their jobs.  Does that make sense?  Why are they scared?  Why the mass-hysteria?  I’ll take this moment to blame the media. 

Two months ago, nobody talked about losing their jobs.  Then, overnight, EVERYBODY suddenly was afraid.  It wasn’t gradual….even though according to reputable economist, we’ve been in a recession for around a year now.  The job thing just suddenly happened….and I believe that its partially economy driven, but mostly fueled by big media needing the next big story to talk about.  Now people really are losing their jobs.  People really are getting pay cuts.  Is it possible that it’s media driven?  I don’t know what proportion is media driven and what isn’t, but I’d be willing to bet that the media isn’t innocent. 

After all, there’s nothing better to get people glued to the TV’s then a story that messes with their livelihood…..or maybe a Zombie Apocalypse, in which case big media will crumble and I’ll be just a little happier. 

Vent Over.

Gaslight Anthem’s sophomore album “The ‘59 Sound” came roaring out of the Jersey Shore this summer as if they were “sprung from cages out on Hwy 9″. If you did not know any better i could tell you that the lead singer was the bastard child of the boss himself Bruce Springsteen and all you would say is well that makes a lot of sense now i understand why they write similar songs and sing like each other. To classify them as strictly a rip off band though is a misconception. Similar … yes, but hardly a rip off.

The band is a four piece with Brian Fallon handling guitar/vocal duties, Alex Levine on bass, Benny Horowitz on drums, and Alex Rosamila on guitar. As you have probably already guessed they are from Jersey and draw from the bustling Hardcore punk movement that has been prominent over the past several years as well as the Godfather of all things Jersey Bruce Springsteen. A little folky, a spice of punk rock, and some good old fashioned rock seem to be the recipe they strive for here. They never go too far to any of the extremes. Just when you think they take punk rock to the verge of emo they come right back at you with soulful rock that can’t be denied. I’m impressed by the crispness and flow of the album. The songs never linger too long which is good for a band like this. They are writing bar rock songs that get their point across in three to four minutes. There sound seems to feel like it would be at home in your local bar down the road, but they hint at having greater ambitions to take on arena rock anthems in the future with their sound as well.

The songs are about coming of age in the tough times we all face currently, falling in and out of love, and living for the moment. Many are stand outs but for me the album finishes strong with the run from “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, “Meet me by the Rivers Edge”,”Here’s Looking at you Kid”, and The “Backseat”. Not to be missed earlier in the album though are the expertly composed title cut and “Miles Davis & the Cool”. My favorite track being “Even Cowgirls get the Blues” which unfortunately is not a song based on the brilliant Tom Robbins book, but is still a very good tune nonetheless.

This album garnished a lot of praise this year and it is deservedly so. It is an easy listen that is catchy enough to jump out at you. I wish i got this album in the summer when it came out. I can see how this is a spring or summer album to blast on your way down the shore or to the boardwalk. Many may scoff at the comparisons to Bruce Springsteen and write them off as an unoriginal new band. Indeed  they have a lot of ground to cover to be considered on the same level as the Boss, but I’m willing to give them a shot and see where they go after this.  I would recommend this album to fans of another often compared to Bruce band the Killers. 

I’l rate this one a 3.25 out of 5 stars. I would go ahead and give it the 3.5 but the slight lack of orginality bumps them down a little. That said i kept waiting for a Derek Jeter or Yankees reference and I might have been forced to give up the 3.5 ranking! This album was a pleasant surprise that came out of nowhere for me this year.

3.25 Stars out of 5

Myspace

Here they are ealier this month doing the title cut from their album on Conan:

Hybrid or no-hybrid…is it really more expensive to buy a hybrid than to go with a “regular” car?  This was the question that came up around a camp fire after a few beers this past weekend.

You’ve probably heard that it’s more expensive to buy a hybrid right now, and that it’s simply not practical to buy one because you’ll never really see the benefit. 

Well, that was my stance on the discussion, but rather than just blindly stick to my guns without looking anything up, I figured I’d give this a deeper look…after all, some of the arguments posed by the others were good, and made sense.

Hybrid vs. Non-Hybrid

The discussion we had was comparing a new car purchase of a non-hybrid to a hybrid.  Here’s what we were working on:

We’re buying a new car for some reason.  The new hybrid will cost $25k, and a similar non-hybrid costs $20k.  The MPG are 35 and 25 for the hybrid and non-hybrid, respectively.  The gas tank holds 15 gallons, and we’ll assume light driving of 1 tank per week.

Under these assumptions, there’s a $5k difference we’ve got to make up from the hybrid’s gas savings.  Based on the 10 extra miles per gallon, and 15 gallons per tank, we’re working with an extra 150 (10*15) miles per week, which comes in at an even 6 gallons per week savings for the hybrid (150 / 25 MPG of the non-hybrid).  This comes to an estimated 312 gallons saved per year (6*52).

I’m going to expand on this a little bit further than we did around the campfire (just so you don’t think we’re complete nerds).  Gas prices have dropped significantly over the recent months (I just filled up at $1.36 per gallon), but we wanted to compare the costs now, as well as in high gas prices—we all know gas is more than likely going to go up again.  For this example, I used $1.50, $2.00, $3.00, $4.00 and $5.00 as benchmarks.  Here are the results:

So, under our assumptions, at the current gas prices of $1.50, you would have to drive over 10 years to make up the extra cost of the hybrid car.  But, we were willing to concede that gas prices weren’t going to stay at this low level for a long time.  Once you get into the $4-$5 per gallon price range, it starts to look pretty good with only a 3-4 year break-even point.  Not too bad, especially if you’re going to buy the car and drive it for a while.

But, this example shows that unless gas prices are consistently above the $4 range, it won’t make much sense financially to buy a hybrid.  And, this example excludes a few other things you’d want to consider when making a purchase, or doing a complete cost comparison:

·         The future value of the lost $5k.  If you’re spending the extra $5k on the car, we’d ideally want to assume that you could invest this money, so we’d want to add any earnings into the equation.  (Even if we’re in a recession, you could still get 2-3% interest in a CD.  Doesn’t sound like much, but we’re not exactly dealing with high dollar figures here.

·         The cost of a comparable used car vs. the new car replacement.  New cars take a huge hit when you drive them off the lot.  A comparable used car that’s 1-2 years old and in great condition would cost significantly lower than its newer counterpart.

·         Tax credits.  There are some tax credits you might qualify for if you own a hybrid vehicle.  I haven’t looked into a lot of these recently, but they used to only cover American hybrids and not foreign hybrids.  I honestly don’t know, and don’t claim to be an expert, but I know they’re out there.

·         Interest costs.  Not paying cash?  Don’t forget that you’re paying more for your car!  The added interest if you finance or fleece…oops!—lease…your car will also adjust this equation (more so in the second example below)

Now, personal finance has as much to do with emotions as it does numbers.  Often times purely financial analysis doesn’t equate well in personal finance because it’s your money, and your emotions help drive your decisions.  Let’s not go too far out there with this, because you can’t ignore what’s financially responsible just because it makes you “feel good,” but suffice to say there are external factors at play that affect our decisions.  For example, even though it might not make sense in the above example to buy a hybrid at $2.00 per gallon gas prices because it will take 8 years to recover the $5k of extra spending, the emotional satisfaction you get from “helping the environment” could outweigh the extra costs.  Of course, this assumes that you can afford to buy the car.

When we changed topics at the camp fire, we agreed that at $4.00 per gallon, the idea that hybrids are too expensive to buy didn’t really make sense.  And, I think the above shows that.  We also agreed that at current prices, i.e. $2.00 or less, the extra costs of a hybrid didn’t really make sense if you were going ONLY trying to save money on gas.

Prius vs. Xterra

This all looks fine and dandy, but we’re running off a bunch of assumptions here — Most notably the completely made up costs of a hybrid vs. non-hybrid.  Why not take this discussion to the next level?  What if I wanted to buy a hybrid?  How would our little exercise pan out in that case?

To start with, I currently drive a 2001 Nissan Xterra.  Yes, a dreaded SUV that’s old and gets crappy gas mileage.  It’s still in decent shape, has 140,000+ miles on it, and I’m planning on driving it until it falls apart.  But, what if I wanted to upgrade to a hybrid?  Let’s assume that I don’t wreck my car, and it doesn’t completely die…basically that I’m going to get rid of my car today and buy a new hybrid.

And if I’m going to buy a hybrid for gas prices, I’m going to get one of the best ones out there:  the Prius.  Yes, the Prius clocks in at around 46 MPG compared to my Xterra’s crummy 22 MPG.  A modestly equipped Prius will set me back around $22,500.  KBB puts my Xterra’s value at $5,080 based on private party sale, features, mileage, and “good” condition.  Let’s assume that I can sell my car for what KBB says it’s worth, and I buy a new Prius.

So, if we compare my Xterra to the Prius in the same way we compared the hybrid to the non-hybrid, this is what we come up with:

Wow, those numbers changed a good bit…on both ends.  The 24 MPG difference causes the gallons saved and estimated money saved per year to really jump up there.  But, this is mitigated by the fact that there’s a huge difference between what I’ll be paying for the Prius and what I’m getting for the Xterra.

This might seem a bit extreme, but I could easily see a scenario where many people would be faced with a high cost to recover like I’m facing if they have a newer car that’s old (say 4-5 year old car) and are looking to purchase a new hybrid that’s a little more sporty and pricey than the Prius (think sell for $15k and buy at $30k).  If this is the case, and you typically switch cars every 3-5 years, it probably doesn’t make sense financially to buy a hybrid.  And that’s assuming gas stays around $4-$5 per gallon. 

One mitigating factor is that I typically drive cars into the ground.  I’ve only had 2 cars in my 15 years of driving.  I mention this because this personality trait would make it almost certainly a wash to buy a hybrid because I’m the type of person that would keep it and drive it into the 6-10 year range in order to receive the long-term benefits of the hybrid’s gas savings.  However, this trait also makes me more likely to wait and purchase a hybrid only after my car dies, which will most likely be 3-5 years from now, and this example we’ve gone through won’t be applicable due to advances in technology.

Conclusion

So where does that leave us?  Right now it’s more expensive to buy a hybrid than a non-hybrid…but by not as much as you probably thought.  Even with higher gas prices, you’re still looking at a 3-5 year window to recouping your additional expenses, but these additional costs could be mitigated by the personal gratification you receive from driving a hybrid.

One good thing is that there are more hybrids on the road today than ever before, and the technology is evolving.  As the prices for these cars go down, they should eventually replace non-hybrid vehicles.  The only problem they face now is that the cost of these vehicles really need to be the same as their non-hybrid counterparts so they make sense to purchase no matter what gas prices are.

During the holidays, I have the pleasure of spending time with Mrs Admin’s family in Columbia, SC.  For a technology junky who thrives on video games, the Internet, TV, computers and movies, this annual week-long visit typically presents a series of challenges.  We stay at a house that has NO technology….except for a set of rabbit ears on a relatively nice flat screen TV. 

I have learned (through trial and error) that it’s best to prepare for this week of gluttony by picking up some games, DVD’s and making sure to find the closest WIFI spots to the house.  So on-top of having to cut a couple of extra knotches in the old’ belt, I’ll typically play a new game or two.

Imagine my surprise when I came across a Nintendo DS game titled Little Red Riding Hoods Zombie BBQ.  I certainly haven’t heard of it before, and my thought process was that the title would likely be the best part of the game…..but I couldn’t resist.

So I picked it up, and busted it out yesterday.  To my pleasant surprise, the game is actually pretty fun.  The plot goes something like this:  

“Once upon a time, after saving her grandmother from the clutches of the wolf, Little Red Riding Hood is on her way home when suddenly Zombies begin rising from the dead and attacking the fine folks of Fantasy Land.  The only person to stop them is Little Red and her arsenal of weapons.” 

Now this isn’t the innocent Little Red Riding Hood from the fairy tails. This rendition of Little Red is scantily clad and has all the right curves.  She will have you asking yourself questions like “is it wrong to want a computer animation?”

As the game begins, Little Red immediately decides to head to Grandma’s house to make sure she is ok.  On the way, she battles zombie hordes intent on eating her brains.  There are big bosses, lots of different types of guns including a flame thrower and a shot gun and multiple types of undead trying to kill her.

The game play is different then what I’ve seen in the past for a DS game.  The best that I can compare it to is something like the old Atari games like Centipede or Space Invaders, where the character is at the bottom of the screen, and scrolls back and forth horizontally shooting upward.  The view is top down, so you see Little Red’s head and the heads/faces of the zombies coming toward her.  With the DS, they integrate the touch screen so that you use the stylus to aim your weapon as you run back and forth across the screen. 

Although the game play, controls and graphics are relatively simple, this game is actually not the let-down that I expected.  I had a few good hours of fun trying to hone in my zombie killing skills, and the plot is full of laughs and keeps the game interesting.

Over-all, if you like zombies, are looking for a simple game to fill some time I would highly recommend this one.  You can find it for fairly cheap at your local game stop.

Xtra Medium is back again!!!

We are playing this Friday, Jan 2nd at Smiths Olde Bar in Atlanta.  There are 2 opening bands, so we will probably start around 10-10:30.  All proceeds from the shows go to Habitat for Humanity. 

Come out, see a moderately decent band, and benefit a great charity. Hope to see you there (Those of you who are not about to drop babies any day now.)

It’s official Eric Mangini was fired this morning after heading up one of the worst collapses I’ve seen in quite some time. Leave it to the Jets to excel at failing epically. Sitting at 8-3 with a cupcake schedule the last five games we looked like we were in the drivers seat for the AFC East. How do you go to the west coast 4 times and lose all four to teams who ended the season .500 or worse? I don’t know the answer to that question but I bet Eric Mangini has some time and he somehow came up with a game plan to do it!

The poor coaching and poor execution on the part of Eric Mangini and Brett Favre destroyed all the positive moment built in the first 2/3rds of the season. It’s not easy being a Jets fan. We lose a lot more then we win. Generally I hang my hat on beating Miami. If we can beat Miami I’ll be happy that is the saying in my head. Well this time we lost to Miami and handed them the division gift wrapped.

Brett Favre might as well have gotten on a sled yesterday and put bows on the footballs he was throwing to the Dolphin players. It is not surprising though Favre did what he does best and that is throw interceptions. He led the league this year with 22 (great pro bowl stat). This coupled with the amount of attempts he was asked to make is a pretty telling statistic of how much he hurt this team this year. Everyone said Brett will stretch the field. Well his effectiveness pass the 20 yard mark was no better then the guy we ran out of town for him Chad Pennington. It burns me to say this but I’ve always liked Chad and a part of me is happy for him and what he did yesterday.

So long Eric I thought you might be the one to lead us but you will go down with all the others who came and failed. I can only hope that Favre retires and saves me the agony of watching him next season in the new stadium.

Usually, any movie with Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson would signal that a fairly good movie is in the works.  Throw Frank Miller, the writer of Sin City and 300, into the mix and that should signal a fairly awesome move.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have had my own series of disappointments in life.  But nothing could have prepared me for this gigantic glob of stinking dog crap.  I genuinely think this is the worst movie to be put into wide release this year.  All the marketing that went behind it, a release on Christmas day and the all-star cast only adds insult to injury.

Without creating any spoilers, I’ll briefly dive into why this movie sucked so bad.  First and foremost, the writing was atrocious.  No matter how great a thespian you have on screen, you just can’t make a stupid line sound good….and the Spirit was full of them.  There were a number of instances where people in the theater were laughing (when they shouldn’t be) because of very silly, juvenile dialog.   Make note, Frank Miller, best known for his visuals, wrote the movie script based off of another guys comic…I’m not even going to waste my time looking up the other guy…it doesn’t matter to me who he is. 

Second, the “Sin City” style filming where they digitally use a lot of reverse black, white and red colors to add “style” to the film was just plain bastardized by Frank Miller.  He took the very best parts of Sin City and made them stupid. 

Third, the plot was just plain ludacrise.   The plot is less interesting then if a monkey wacked off, rubbed his hands in his own shit then rubbed all together against the glass wall at the zoo for all to see. 

Frank Miller does not equal awesome.  Cinderella’s shoe has finally fallen off.  My advice:  Only see this movie if you’re with a bunch of friends, on some serious drugs and want something to laugh at …

GRADE:  F-