SBC and Cingular become the New AT&T

As a business student, I am interested in how companies rise and fall. Before I saw this video I had a mental picture of how "MA BELL" was divided up and slowly over twenty or so years has come back together. Steve in this video explains the process very well.

Heroes on NBC

Heroes is Rad! I love this show. I love to see the heroes use their powers and I love to meet new characters. Heroes is like a wonderfully drawn out beginning of Spider-man one. Watching Peter Parker discover his powers and master them was cool. I maybe over stating my like for this show... oh well. I decided to use my blog as my outlet for analyzing and piecing the puzzle together of what will happen next.

My thoughts are directed towards Peter and Sylar today.


Peter- He is the little brother of Nathan who is running for a political office in New York. He first discovers his powers by dreams portraying him flying. He eventually finds out that he can fly, but only when his brother who is the real flier is around. Long story short, Peter's power is the ability to mimic the powers of those around him. When he is around the invisible guy he is invisible, get it?
OK, so I first thought that Peter's power was only sustained when the other heroes were around, but I was wrong. An invisible guy (Peter also dreamed about) later teams up with Peter and starts to train him. He tells Peter that his ability not only mimics the powers of others when they are near by, but he also absorbs them permanently. He just needs to learn how to use the new powers without them controlling him. There was one scene where a couple of the powers came out at once and he went all weird. The inviso-man knocked Peter out to get him under control.

Not only is Peter's power cool, but it makes him extremely powerful. I am interested in seeing how much Peter can do. I made a list of all the powers I think he currently has.

List- Absorb powers (obvious), fly, regenerate body, telekinetic, understand how things work (Sylar), read minds, invisibility, control time, paint the future, persuade people (I think he met Eden before she died), and if he absorbed all of Sylar's power he can also take bullets and remember everything. If Peter learns how to control these things, he will be off the charts of coolness.

This jackass is Sylar. Man, I hate this guy. Not because he is a bad actor, I hate it when really evil guys go unchecked. He must be doing his job because we are not supposed to like him. Currently he is the most powerful guy in the show because Peter is only learning how to use his powers. This guy goes around stealing other powers by taking off their brain-caps. His power is the ability to understand how things work by just looking at them. So he takes off the brain cap of a hero and looks at their brain leaving them dead. His is a power hungry retard wanting all the powers he can get his hands on. I won't talk about his other powers because I touched on them earlier and he will be dead by the end of the season.

My prediction- Earlier in the show Hiro (the Japanese time controller) came to Peter from the future. Hiro told Peter that he didn't recognize him without his scar (Peter can regenerate so something big must happen later to give him a scar). He also told Peter, "Save the cheerleader, save the world." I am not sure if that means that the cheerleader will save the world or if Peter is to first save the cheerleader and then save the world. I am pretty sure it is the latter. So if the latter is true here is what will happen. Peter was to first save the cheerleader, which he did. Now he can regenerate (thanks to the cheerleader). At the end of the season he will be having a battle royal with Sylar. These two guys will tear and thrash at each other till one or the other is dead. I bet Sylar kills Peter and he will proceed to take off his head. Peter will regenerate back to life, to the surprise of Sylar, and kick the crap out of the hated one. A scar will be on Peter's head due to the beginning process of his head being taken off. If I am wrong about Sylar giving Peter the scar, then my only other thought is the nuke stuff will give him the scar. I really think the nuke stuff is a red herring to the Sylar vs. Peter melee.

That is what I think. Tell me what you think.

Crazy Asian

Asians are funny

Wii club

This picture is courtesy of Ryan Braman who is an artist for Midway. (Click his name to see more of his work)

A few months ago my wife left me all alone to join her book club that had been meeting for a few months. Shortly after she left something inside me snapped. I wrote about this incident back in October if you want to review it. The result of my break down was the establishment of a video game night the later morphed into Wii night.

The Nintendo Wii came out in November just in time for the Christmas season. I had a few friends looking forward to getting one of these systems but ran into trouble. The lines were long and some people waited over night to get the first ones.

Click here to learn more about the system.

Since the time our game night had become Wii night, we have met two times. The first Wii night was about a month ago. We had a great time playing the free demo games that come with the system. Games like tennis, baseball, golf, and boxing. There was about 5-6 of us playing that night. Last Friday during our second Wii night the only ones in attendance were Ryan B and I. All the others had lame excuses. "I can't come because I got teen-pregnant," or "I have dysentery." You know what guys and hopefully girls (wives of the guys), whatever!! With you not there gives me more Wii time.

I hope the next Wii night has more people.

That means you:
Matt C
Mike W
Geoff G
CJ F
Danny P
Benny P

And bring other with you.

Charlie the Unicorn

Turned over trailer.

On Christmas eve-eve I was driving do my G-pa's house in northern LA. On the freeway traffic started to get congested and we noticed on the other side that there had been an accident. If you look at the top right of the picture you will notice a trailer with wheels on top of it. Well, that wasn't the top of the trailer it was the bottom. The trailer and the SUV were upside down and backwards. I don't know how they did it, but is sure was a good trick.

How have cell phones changed society?

On occasion, I have thought about how cell phones have changed society in small ways. Often when a new technology, like wireless internet or traction control, is introduced into the market, the new product will increase convenience and or safety. Not many things I can think of have changed the way we do thing like cell phones have.

Wiki describes a cell phone as, “A mobile or cellular telephone is a long-range, portable electronic devices for personal telecommunication over long distances.”

As of late, the cell phone has become more then just communication device. (Click this link to see what I mean.)

Back to reality though, here are some examples I am referring to when I say cell phones change the way we do things.

Meeting friends at a place you have never been:

Before a cell phone- I would ask for directions and write them down.

Now- I say, “Just give me the off ramp and I will call you when I get there for further directions”

If I was lost:

Before a cell phone- I would either go home out of frustration or look for change and find a pay phone.

Now- call for directions from the car

Going to store to pick up something on the way home (this mainly applies to men at the grocery store):

Before a cell phone- look and look for the things. When it is found, there are a million choices. Then hope you picked the right one.

Now- call home and say, “Honey, there is this, that, and the other on the shelf. Which one do you want again?”

What time is it?

Before a cell phone: “I don’t have a watch. Look that person does, ask them”.

Now- “Let me check my phone”.

What is your phone number or what is so and so’s phone number?

Before a cell phone- I would have it memorized or written down in a book.

Now- Most of the time I tell the person who is asking my number to give me a call after I give them my number. My number will be in their phone and there number will show up on my caller ID. I don’t memorize numbers anymore.

I need to wake up early at home or on vacation:

Before a cell phone: Set the alarm clock for home. On vacation I would bring a battery operated alarm clock.

Now- my phone is my alarm at home and on vacation.

Cell phones also have taken away our need to use our memory in some aspects. The phone has become our notepad, calendar, calculator, alarm clock, memory, reminder, spouse, best friend, and lover. Instead of have a plethora of phone numbers in our memory, we now only have 911, 411, and the time lady (853-1212) dialed into our heads. I am not saying this is good or bad, I’m just saying what I see.

Cell phones aren’t only replacing all the things I have previously mentioned, they are becoming so much more. I have been looking into a new phone company called Helio. The ads say something along the lines of “Don’t call us a phone company" or "Don’t call it a phone.” After looking into the services, I understand why they say that. The top of the line phone called the Drift has GPS Google maps, a 2.0-mega pixel camera, e-mail, IM, internet, picture messaging, video messaging, video playing, mp3 player, Bluetooth, and a phone. The screen is big as far as phones come, yet the phone is very compact. Yesterday I went to the Helio store in San Diego and used the GPS system. I wanted to use the directional function, so I pinged my current location as the starting point and put in my parents old address as the desired destination. I won’t go into detail because it will take to long to write. I will say it worked as well as Google maps. Super Rad!

Five years ago I knew that cell phones were a hot commodity, but I never imagined it could change how we function as people or integrate so many different technologies.

I like it all. What is next?