Thee Reviewer

So many different toddler safety harnesses out there for children

2010-06-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

In this day of age, with the world being so dangerous and all, many parents have opted to use child harnesses when taking their young children out into crowded places. Child harnesses strap around the small child's shoulders the same way a backpack would, but unlike a backpack the harness has another end that the parent holds on to that prevents the child from wandering away to far. Most toddler harnesses are recommended for children 18 months and up. They are especially useful for children when they are 2 or 3 years old, seems like this is the age where they really like to explorer and wander on their own. The straps on most toddler harnesses will grow with your child. You can easily adjust the straps to fit your child as he/she gets bigger.

Toddler harnesses come in many cool styles today, this makes it easier for your child to accept wearing a child harness because they will actually enjoy wearing it when it is of a character they love. Harnesses of today come as almost any animal that you can think of such as butterfly harnesses, dog harnesses, elephant harnesses, frog harnesses, monkey harnesses, rabbit harnesses, or anything else that you can think of. These toddler harnesses even come in characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Nemo, and so many more. Because of this it would be wise to know what your child likes before you get them that harness. You are going to want them to like the harness they have because it will be like their best friend going with them everywhere they go. If you wanted to you can even have them choose one when you are shopping for one either out in a retail store or online. That's right, if you find some cool toddler harnesses online, you can ask them which one they like and you will then know. Unless of course you already know what they like.

If you are interested in getting a fun toddler safety harness for your child, we have included a few pics below of some of the most popular animal toddler harnesses. These are not the only ones, just a few examples of what's out there to give you an idea. Clicking on the link below will show you even more toddler harnesses.

Child safety harnesses to me are in general a great invention to help keep your child safe. Anything that comes to child safety will always get a great grade from me, unless of course it is a useless piece of junk that does not keep the child safe. Child safety harnesses definitely are not junk. STAY SAFE!

Grade - A+

Power Player Super Joystick Power Striker Review

2010-03-06T01:44:00.000-08:00

The power player super joystick is simply a joystick that you plug into your television and are able to play the video games that are directly built into the joystick. There is no need to load any cartridges or disk because all of the games are built in already. The video games that are included in the super joystick are old school games such as Galaga, Defender, Burger Time, Millipede, 1942, dig dug, Mario Brothers, super Mario Brothers, and so many more.

I was certain that I would have to write this post and share my experience with the power player 76000. It was so cool playing all of the video games that I used to play at the arcades when I was just a little kid. Here I was, a grown man still enjoying these old school video games just the same as I did a long time ago. The video games on the power player striker are exactly the same as you remember them. The power player comes with a second joystick that can be used in games where two players can play at the same time such as Mario Brothers. You remember the original Mario Brothers don't you? Not Super Mario Brothers, I'm talking about the original one where Mario and Luigi play at the same time.

Everything about the power player is great except for one thing. The A/V wires that come with the super joystick kind of suck. They will last you a while, but chances are that they will end up messing up on you, but it is alright as you can pick up a good set of wires for only a few bucks at one of your local stores. This little thing should not even be a deciding factor in deciding if you want the power player or not. The A/V wires will work that come with the game, my point is that if you don't take complete care of them to the fullest, they will end up messing up on you.

The power player goes by various names such as the power player super joystick, power player 76,000, or power player striker. The power player is a great thing to buy if you are into the old school games. Simply put, it is a great purchase!

Below you will find a link to a place I know of that sells the power player super joystick. The regular ongoing price is usually $30 to $50.

Power Player 2010 at Amazon

Grade: A+

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

2010-03-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

Logan Lerman plays Percy Jackson, the main character in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. If you like the Harry Potter movies, you are going to love Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Now let's not even try to compare this movie to Harry Potter because the Harry Potter movies are classics, but the point here is that those who like Harry Potter, will like Percy Jackson.

Percy Jackson is a regular high school kid who seems to have problems with dyslexic. In school he is studying Greek mythology but Percy has no idea of what an important role he will play in the future of the universe. Brandon T. Jackson plays Grover in the movie, he is Percy's best friend in school but knows a little more about Percy than Percy does. Percy in reality is half god, he is the son of Poseidon and he has been accused of stealing Zeus's lighting bolt. Percy's first strange encounter happens when he is at school being taught by Mr. Brummer, who is later revealed to be Chiron. While there, Percy is attacked by one of his other teachers who is a evil and turns into a monster while trying to get the stolen sword from Percy. Grover then explains to Percy that he is a half blood and then takes him to the land of the Gods. Once there, Percy discovers who Mr. Brummer really is and also discovers that Grover is part lamb. This is why in the real world, Grover used crutches and is also the reason that Mr. Brummer had to act like he needed a wheelchair due to him really being a centaur, they had to hide their identity. Alexandra Daddario also plays a big role in the movie as Annabeth Chase, who is the daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. She sets out on the quest and becomes part of the threesome dual of Percy, Grover, and Annabeth.

It is later in the movie discovered that Luke(played by Jake Abel) is the real lighting thief. Luke is another halfling blessed with his father's unequalled speed, the son of Hermes takes Percy down on a rooftop and corners him, picking up the stolen thunderbolt. He questions Percy's heritage as son of Poseidon. Percy sees several water towers atop nearby buildings and concentrates, breaking the tanks open and gathering the water to deluge Luke. Gathering some of the remaining water and shaping it into a trident, Percy says that he must be the son of Poseidon after all. Hurling the trident, he catches Luke between two of the prongs and casts him into the river.

Annabeth and Sally meet up with Percy at the Empire State building. Annabeth activates a hidden secret elevator that goes up, far past the roof of the building, to Olympus. Sally, as a mortal, is unable to venture forth onto the divine ground. Annabeth and Percy rush to the hall of the gods.

Inside the hall, Zeus and Poseidon are anxiously watching a time-dial as the other deities of the Greek Pantheon sit around them. Zeus announces that midnight has come and the deadline is passed. Just as he is about to pronounce judgement of war, Percy and Annabeth rush into the hall bearing the thunderbolt. Zeus demands its return, and Percy gives it to him, and then reveals Luke as the true lightning thief, explaining that Luke resented all the gods for not caring about their children, and he wanted them to destroy each other so the demigods could rule Olympus. Zeus accepts Percy's explanation and declares peace.

Percy mentions that he and Annabeth escaped the Underworld only because Grover stayed behind. Zeus realizes that Percy wants him to return Grover to the living. He is cynical toward the request, but agrees. Zeus declares the convening of the gods to be adjourned. Poseidon asks to speak to Percy, and Zeus agrees.

Percy is naturally resentful that Poseidon was never around, and that he never got to even meet him. Poseidon acknowledges that Percy was only seven months when he left him and Sally. He says that being with Sally and him made him start to forget his duties and become human, which Zeus didn't approve of, leading him to pass a divine rule prohibiting the gods from having any contact with any children they sired. Poseidon manages to come to terms with Percy, saying he never wanted to leave him or Sally, and was in fact with him in heart and spirit, even if Percy didn't know he was near. He promises that while Percy might not see him again, Poseidon will always be there with and for him-- in his heart, in his thoughts, and in his dreams.

Sally brings Percy back to Camp Halfbreed, where he can fulfill his destiny as a demigod. Although she will miss him, she says it's where he belongs. She also says that she is finally kicking Ugliano out of the house, now that he has served his purpose and she doesn't need him anymore.

Percy is welcomed by everyone back at the camp, and Grover shows him that he's finally gotten his Satyr horns. Chiron starts to admonish Percy for disobeying his orders and leaving camp without permission, but then says that this is why Percy is now his favorite student-- many times he simply has to follow his own instincts. He then sends Percy to suit up for more training.

Final review:

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a great movie for those who like fantasy type movies. The movie will really entertain those into Greek mythology as it displays characters such as Zeus, Hades, Athena, Poseidon, Medusa, and many others. I really liked the movie and the only complaint I have about it is one character in the movie. Though he did a decent job in the movie, Brandon T. Jackson did not do a overall great job playing Grover in the movie. Why? Because I noticed throughout the movie that he was supposed to be the funny guy in the movie, but in reality he was not funny at all. He was supposed to be the one who would bring humor to the movie but it was just not there. I believe that someone else could have filled this role way better. Overall, a decent movie to see.

Grade: 7/10

Anytimetrafficschool.com Review

2010-03-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

For those who get a traffic ticket, the last thing that they want to happen is to have the ticket reported to their auto insurance company and having their insurance premium rates raised, this is when traffic school comes handy. Traffic school is offered to those who receive a traffic ticket. Once the traffic school is completed and the courts receive a certificate of completion, the ticket will not be reported to the DMV, which of course means that your auto insurance company will not know about it.

Those who wish to participate in traffic school can either complete the class at a physical location, or do it online. There are many different traffic schools that one can use to complete their traffic school online. My review of traffic schools is not common, as I do not get many traffic tickets, so hopefully this will be the only traffic school review I ever do. Your local court house can supply you with a list of online traffic schools, or you can find them online. I personally found a list of online traffic schools from my local courthouse website. There was a long list of online schools to choose from but I ended up choosing one called anytimetrafficschool.com.

Once I registered with anytimetrafficschool.com, I was able to read chapter by chapter and take the test for each chapter once done reading.For example, read chapter 1, then take the test for chapter 1. Read chapter 2, then take the test for chapter 2, and so on. You can do all of this before you ever make your payment to anytimetrafficschool.com, which will be around $20.00. Once you are done with the 8 chapters and have passes the test, you are required to make payment to anytimetrafficschool.com. You then have to take the finals test and once you pass this test, you are all done. Anytimetrafficschool.com will then fax over your certificate of completion to the proper court house and you are done. It is best to check with your local court house a few weeks later to make sure that they received your certificate of completion. Most traffic schools will deliver as promised but if there is a problem, just contact them and they will surely correct the problem.

You should know something about online traffic schools, this is not limited to only anytimetrafficschool.com but all traffic schools. When you are required to read a chapter, there is a time limit set where as you can not just click on the tab to take the chapters test. If you are a fast reader, you will have to wait for some time before you can take your test. What I did was just browse real quick through the chapter, leave my browser open, and just do other things I needed to do on the Internet while waiting. Then I'd go back and take the test, finish and pass, then open up the next chapter. The test are not really hard, they were really easy for me. I didn't really have to do a deep study of the chapters. that's just me though, I have been driving for almost 20 years and certainly know how to drive. Then why did I get the ticket that I received? Because I was running late to work and going 95 MPH on the freeway, a costly mistake on my part. Trust me, I had to pay harshly and think I have learned my lesson.

For those who need a great and uncomplicated online traffic school. I would highly recommend anytimetrafficschool.com.

Grade: A

Evony Game Review

2010-03-04T00:21:00.000-08:00

I have been known to play online games such as checkers, monopoly, and others but have never been involved in online reality games. I don't know why but a couple of months ago, I registered with Evony and began playing. Once registered, I had a town that I had to name and build up. The game first reminded me of the old Sim games, where you had to build up your population and build the population by keeping residents happy. I would soon discover than Evony is much more than that though. One thing that really lures people into Evony is that it is free to play. Yes, absolutely free, though paying for tokens can really enhance your game experience and speed things up. I have not paid a penny though playing, and though I may getting things done a bit slower than a player who pays for tokens, my towns and military have been growing at a decent pace.

Your goal on Evony is to build up your city and army in order to expand your territory and conquer other enemy players or NPCs. Just as you can attack others though, you can be attacked also. The three main screens of interface is separated into three parts, the world map, the town and the city. In the world map, you’ll find other NPC & player cities, valleys (resource fields) and empty slots where you can conquer to progress further into the game. The city is where you can build farms, sawmills, quarries and iron mines to increase your resource production. The town is where you’ll construct most of your buildings for advancement. Military training and research is also constructed here.

The game starts you off in a random (usually the newest) server in an empty town with only a Town Hall and your job is to build up the stranded city, army and slowly conquer your way through. Building new facilities, researching, and training troops requires an X amount of time to complete. The lower level the facility, the quicker it will take. The first building you’ll develop is the cottage which takes 1 min and 15 secs, but the second level will require twice as much time and as more levels are acquired, the longer it will take. Some buildings can even take over 12 hours.

Each city in Evony is limited to constructing 1 building at a time. You cannot set a queue to build a second or third building when one is finished. This requires a player to come back and check on the progression very often. Its not about how much time you spend on the game once but how many times you spend on it through out the day. As you acquire more and more cities however, you will have more than enough tasks to spend your whole day playing.

Other than gathering resources, consistently upgrading buildings you’ll also need to manage your taxes, population and the loyalty of your citizens. You’ll also need to appoint a mayor which we’ll get to shortly. Unlike most RTS games you’ve played, the ideal tax rate for Evony depends on two major factors, idle or actively playing. The population will effect the amount of gold you’ll receive from taxes, production, and how many units you can recruit into your army.

Always having enough resources to continuously construct new buildings may get difficult, thus you’ll need to put good use of the market place. In the market place, you can buy & sell food, lumber, stone and iron. You can even create offers or bids and wait until your price is met. However, there is a small auction fee.

Once you’ve created an inn and a feasting hall you can hire a Hero to lead your army or become a Mayor. Each Hero has 3 stats, politics, attack and intelligence. Politics will decreases your cities construction time and resource production. Higher attack increases your combat and how fast your units will be trained. Intelligence shortens the time required for research and scouting ability. Your heroes will acquire experience points through combat, mayor duties or through items. There is an hourly fee for maintaining a hero, and the salary will vary depending on their level. You can dismiss and replace heroes at anytime. A hero is also required to lead your troops into combat.

There are a variety of military units available ranging from infantry, archers, cavalries, mechanical units and transporters. All units has a maintenance cost of X amount of food. Their movement, health, attack and defense can be upgraded with research. Training new units will require taking away civilians from your overall population.

Once you’ve developed your army and have a hero in place, you’ll need to go to the World Map screen to conquer new lands and territories. There are 3 basic types of land that can be conquered, valleys, empty lots and cities. Valleys provide additional resources, empty lots are used to build new cities and cities can be plundered and if attacked enough times you can even take it over. However, if you are attacking a player city, and if that is their only city, you will not be able to take it over.

The combat in Evony is calculated through their algorithm, no actual fighting is visible. Its either a win or loss and the results are reported in writing. You lose x amount, they lose x amount and etc. Attack, defense, health and even movement is factored into the calculation. For example, you’re attacking with warriors, cavalries and archers, the archers will start off in combat because of their range followed by cavalries and then warriors last. In result, if your archers do enough damage, you may win without even going into melee range. Or your cavalries will take more damage than your warriors because they arrived in melee combat first. The rally point has an exercise option which servers a skirmish for battles and will calculate the results. Your research and hero attributes are not factored but it does give you an idea of what to attack with.

As your city grows, you will gain Prestige points which is basically a rating of how well you are doing. There is an overall ranking that is compared among all other players in your city as well. As you progress, you will be able to acquire new titles and ranks. Some ranks are extremely difficult to acquire, it requires gold and medals (which are very rare to find). The medal drop rates on new servers are about .1% or less. The easiest way is to spend a few dollars and purchase the medals you’ll need. The higher the rank, the more cities you can control, up to a total of 9.

There are many different types of items available in Evony which can help speed your production, moving your city location, experience points and much much more. When you first start, you’re given a TON of items to try out and help enhance your gameplay. Items can also be acquired by quest rewards and using real money.

Alliances are what most MMO players know as guild or clans. By joining with other alliances, you can have friends who can offer assistance through knowledge, resources, raids and much more. Possibly even scaring another player from attacking you if they know you’re in a well rounded alliance. Each alliance can only have a maximum of 100 players and have a ranking of their own.

Final Review of Evony:

Evony is a very addictive game so whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, one has to judge themselves. I really enjoy the game as I usually am doing other things on the Internet and always keep a browser open with Evony. Lately, my towns had really been building up lots of resources in the millions but then it finally happened. I was attacked by someone with a way stronger army than mine and all of my resources were taken. My goal now, to build up a strong military and get revenge on this guy. Will take some time though! Evony is a very good game, if you are willing to fork over a few dollars, you can really get a upper hand in Evony.

Grade: B+

Samsung Freeform Cell Phone Review

2010-03-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

The Samsung Freeform cell phone is a popular cell phone offered by Metro PCS and others. Here we will give our review on the Samsung Freeform cell phone and let you know if the phone is worth buying or not. This cell phone comes in red and dark grey (which almost looks black.) Features on this phone are web access, navigator, pocket express, mobile IM, email, the 1.3 megapixel camera, memory card support, bluetooth technology, the MP3 music player, and much more.

The Samsung Freeform cell phone offers a cool keyboard for quick and easy text messaging, there is no need to hit a certain key a number of times just to get the letter that you want. You just use the keyboard to type just like you would on a regular computer keyboard. This keyboard feature is a very important feature for those who text alot.

The big and wide screen of the Samsung Freeform cell phone is really cool on this cell phone. It is especially pleasing to those who get this phone after using a cell phone that has a small screen. The big wide screen is cool for you to display your customized wallpapper picture, which can be any pic you want. The big and wide screen is also great when viewing things on the Internet or using the navigator feature.

Pocket Express is a cool feature that these phones come with that will give you instant access to things such as current sports scores and schedules, the local weather, entertainment, maps, stocks info, and late breaking news.. This is a great little feature that will keep you up to date with everything.

The 1.3 megapixel camera is a really great camera that comes with the Samsung Freeform cell phone. Pics come out nice and clear and it is easy to send and receive pic messages with others. Using a memory card, pics are easy to transfer to and from your computer.

The MP3 player that comes on this phone is great. Load up your music on your Samsung Freeform cell phone and listen to your jams. Listen with earphones, or let your phones speakers play your music. With your earphones you can also use bluetooth technology to use hands free cell phone use while driving.

The $80 price on this cell phone is by far one of the best cell phone deals out there.

Grade: A

Sprint Air Card 3G Network Review

2010-02-27T19:41:00.001-08:00

Being that I am constantly on the Internet and always on the go, I decided to give the Sprints 3G network aircard a try a few months ago. I was completely ignorant to how these things work, though I had heard much about them. I walked into the Sprint store and inquired and the Sprint associates helped me out. The Sprint 3G Sprint air card plan would cost me $59.99 per month and I would have to pay a one time $50.00 fee for the actual air card. I was so glad that I was going to finally have this. I remember years ago that I used to wish that I would be able to get the Internet wherever I wanted. You remember those days don't you? Sitting around wondering how to get the Internet anywhere. Well, in recent years it became possible. Here is a picture of what the air card looks like, you just hook it up to your USB port and you are hooked up.I was happy that the Sprint 3G network aircard came with a $50.00 rebate, thus making my aircard actually free. I sent in my rebate and received a $50.00 rebate check about a month later. So far, so good. I was completely satisfied with my Sprint 3G network aircard and service. The Sprint 3G service is great and is fast enough for you to be completely satisfied with. The whole time I start thinking why I hadn't gotten this a long time ago. You can do anything, and I mean anything, that you can do with a regular Internet connection from home.

When my first bill came, I had no problem with it as my bill was for almost $70.00. Sure, the plan is $59.99 but let's not forget all of those pesky taxes that are added on. No problem! The following month the second bill rolls in and it is for $148.00. What the hell! Why so much? I call up Sprint customer service and they tell me that I have been charged with over usage. What! I thought it was unlimited use! They explain to me that you are supplied with 5,242,880 KB as part of your monthly subscription but will get charged extra for going over that. Well this was news to me! No one ever told me this, I just assumed it was unlimited which was a mistake on my part. Sprint will charge expensive fees when going over the 5,242,880 KB. I used 6, 745,667 KB and you can see how much I paid for the little extra that I used. I was a pissed off person about the large bill I had to pay, but like I said, it was my fault for assuming it was unlimited. I do think though that Sprint should make an effort to have their associates explain these things to you when you walk into a Sprint store.

My goal here is not to tell you how much the Sprint 3G network air card sucks, because it actually doesn't. The Sprint 3G network air card is actually great for anyone who needs to access the Internet anywhere at anytime. I would have so much trouble if I gave it up now. I get great connection to the Internet wherever I'm at. The only thing I want people to know about the Sprint 3G network air card is that it is not unlimited. Please know that you only have 5,242,880 KB free each month. This is enough for most people who spend a few hours a day on the Internet, but for those who are extreme Internet users, caution should be used by checking how many KB you have used on a daily basis at Sprints official website. This is a useful tool to keep track and not go over.

Grade: B+

Tooth Fairy Review

2010-02-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

Tooth Fairy features Dwayne Johnson (AKA the Rock), who plays Derek Thompson, a has been professional hockey player who is dating Carly (Ashley Judd), the mother of two children. Though once one of the greatest hockey players in the game, Derek is nearing the end of his great career after suffering a shoulder injury years ago, Derek keeps his names in the sports headlines though by becoming known for knocking opposing players teeth out during hockey games instead of scoring.

Derek goes through a tough time being accepted by Carly's son who is around 11 or 12 years old, but is openly accepted by her daughter who is probably around 4 years old. when Carly's daughter has a tooth fall out and has dreams of the tooth fairy taking her tooth at night and doing what tooth fairy's do, Derek almost spoils her dreams by telling her the truth about tooth fairy's before being stopped by Carly. This act leads to a visit from those in tooth fairy land who accuse Derek of destroying dreams which leads to Derek being assigned as a tooth fairy for a specific time. Though unwilling to carry on his duties as a tooth fairy, Derek realizes that he must carry on through.

Review:

Tooth Fairy is a great family movie that the kids and any open minded adult will love. If your a guy who is looking for a tough action movie with the Rock in it, you are not going to like Tooth Fairy. The movie has a terrific sense of family humor in it and will make you chuckle a few times here and there. Tooth Fairy also has a great moral story to it as it teaches a lesson that if you never try something, you will never know if you will succeed at it. This is a lesson that Derek tries to teach Carly's son during the movie, but then realizes that he has to take his own advice. Tooth Fairy also introduces lots of tooth fairy tools that kids will love such as shrinking paste, invisible spray, and the cat away. Tooth Fairy is not going to be the movie of the year or anything but it is definitely a great movie to see unless your a tough guy who says that a movie sucks unless their is some tough guy action going on.

Rating 7/10

Bukisa Review

2009-11-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

If you enjoy writing and want to make money in the process, one might want to consider writing for Bukisa. Bukisa is a freelance writers website were writers get rewarded for their articles. You can write an article about almost anything on Bukisa and share your knowledge with others. No previous writing experience is needed to write for Bukisa and registration is free. If you are already a freelance writer you will definitely want to give Bukisa a try. If you have not written before and think that you may have a hidden talent in writing articles and want to earn money for it you are also encouraged to check out Bukisa.

Unlike many writing sites that pay their writers on pay per click ads or some other ad revenue method, Bukisa simply pays on page views. The more people that view your articles, the more money the writer will earn. Bukisa will pay you according to their index which at the time of this writing is 3.53, what this means is that for every 1000 page views you get for your articles you will earn $3.53. Bukisa's index changes each month but as the site gains more popularity, expect the index to grow. 1000 views may seem like a lot of views to some people but if you have lots of articles on Bukisa, 1000 articles is not so hard to attain. For instance if you had 100 articles on Bukisa and each article were to get 500 page views per month then you would earn $175 per month. It may not sound like so much to some people but this is just an example of earnings. There are people who make thousands of dollars each and every month writing for Bukisa. Some of your articles may get very little page views and some may get thousands and thousands of page views month after month all by themselves.

If you are interested in joining Bukisa or want to learn more about their great opportunity, a banner link has been provided for you just below here, after going to the site click on the join link to become a Bukisa member. After joining and learning more you may want to set yourself a goal by writing 3 articles a day. Do you realize that by just writing 3 articles per day that you can have around 90 articles up in one month. Continue this for 6 months and that is 540 articles! The earnings are limitless if you just put the effort into it!

Bukisa gets an A+ rating as this website delivers to its writers and has proven to be a great source for freelance writers to earn.

Discountadvances.com review

2009-11-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not a person who usually goes out and gets payday loans or cash advances but recently I needed a payday cash advance and was confused at what cash advance or pay day loan company I should use. I had heard some horror stories about people getting pay day loans from companies before and didn't want a horror story of my own.

A friend tipped me off on a cash advance company called discountadvances.com and highly recommended them to me. I checked out the website and noticed their low interest charge that allows you to only pay back only $8.75 for every $100 borrowed from them (this is great compared to others)! The amount of money that you can borrow can be anywhere from $100 to $1500. All I needed was $100 for a bill that that I had to pay so that I could avoid late fees that I would accrue, so I decided to apply for the $100 cash advance loan from this company.

I applied and the process was really easy. The application just asked me for my basic information and discountadvances.com only requires that you are employed, whether self employed or an employee at a job, it does not matter as long as you have a regular and stable income. Also you must have a checking account, this bank account is so that after you get approved for your loan, the money is deposited straight into your bank account the very next day after you apply. When you pay back the loan, the money will be automatically debited from your bank account on the day you say so, so no need for you having to worry about paying your cash advance loan back.

Your credit is not a factor when applying for a payday loan from Discountadvances.com. All that matters is that you work and have a bank account. I received my loan and was impressed with this companies cash advance service and would like to recommend it to anyone who's looking for a payday loan. This company is not a rip off scheme or anything of the sort. They lend out short term loans to those who need it and can pay them back.

Please know that Discountadvances.com does need to verify your work status when you first apply. They will call your job to make sure you work there and once this is verified, the money is transferred to your bank account.

If you decide to apply for a cash advance loan through this company, please be sure to let them know that theereviewer.blogspot.com referred you by using referral code EDZNBT during your application process. I guarantee you that you won't find a better payday cash advance loan company with rates better than Discountadvances.com.

This company gets an A+ rating

Discountadvances.com - Be sure to use code EDZNBT

Vineland Drive In Theater - Review

2009-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

The Vineland Drive in is located in the Industry / La Puente area of the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only drive-in that is still in existence in Los Angeles County. There used to be hundreds and hundreds of drive in theaters in the 60's and 70's. I can remember years ago when I was a kid (the 80's), going to drive-in theaters in Azusa, Van Nuys and one over on Whittier Blvd in the East LA / Montebello area to name a few, but over the years all of these drive-in theaters have shut their doors.

I took my kids to the Vineland drive-in about a year ago and they loved it. They had no idea what a drive-in was and had to ask me what that was when I offered to take them there. It had been such a long time since I had been to a drive-in that I was looking for the little thing that you had to hook up onto your antenna. I quickly learned that with satellites and technology, all of that is not necessary any more. All you have to do now is just put the correct radio station on and your set. Might I mention on FM radio too! There was not a lot of people there but my kids didn't care at all about who was there or not, we had a good time.

A few months later, my kids wanted to go to the Vineland drive-in theater again. We went and the place was packed, there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. I couldn't believe it! It was the scenery that I remember the drive-in theater being like as a kid! I might add that it was the weekend and it was the opening day for a big movie. I can't remember the movie, but I'm thinking that it could have been the Transformers. My kids really enjoyed themselves again and with the place being so crowded, it seemed to make it even more exciting for them. For me, heck I was just happy that so many people still appreciate the good old classic drive-in theater.

For anyone who wants to get out for an evening, the drive-in theater is still a cool place to go. Yes, even here in the 2000's. Since drive-in theaters are not on every corner anymore, you may want to do a Google search to find if there are any drive-in theaters in your County. Los Angeles County residence will have to visit the Vineland Drive-In. For directions and general information you can call 626-961-9262.

District 9 review

2009-09-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

PLOT: In 1982, a very large alien spaceship stops above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth, nowhere to be found. After cutting their way inside, an exploratory team discovers a large group of unhealthy and leaderless arthropod-like species. These alien creatures, derogatorily referred to as prawns, are taken from the ship and housed in a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9, which soon turns into a slum. In the first decade of the 21st century, Multinational United (MNU), a private military contractor, is placed in charge of policing and relocating the now 1.8 million aliens to District 10, a new camp 240 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg.

Wikus van de Merwe is the MNU field operative assigned to lead the relocation, which begins with the serving of eviction notices on August 9, 2010. As the eviction continues, some nearby aliens are shown distilling a liquid from a piece of their technology into a small canister. In raiding one of the aliens' hovels, Wikus discovers the container, but accidentally sprays some of the liquid onto his own face. The other alien, named Christopher Johnson by MNU, is served his eviction notice by Wikus. Christopher questions the legality of the eviction and demands his rights. That night Wikus falls ill and is taken to hospital, where his left lower arm is revealed to have mutated into an alien appendage. He is overpowered and taken into custody by MNU guards. MNU intends to vivisect Wikus before he fully transforms into an alien, in an attempt to replicate his ability to operate alien weapons, initially only operable by aliens. With his new strength, however, Wikus overpowers his captors and escapes.

Now a fugitive, Wikus takes refuge in District 9 and returns to Christopher's shack. Initially hostile towards Wikus, Christopher eventually reveals that the canister Wikus confiscated contains a liquid which would allow him to activate the mother ship and leave the planet. After revealing that the lost command module is hidden under his hut, Christopher agrees to help reverse Wikus' genetic transformation if Wikus, in turn, retrieves the canister. Wikus agrees and tries to buy weapons from the local Nigerian gang. Their leader, the paralyzed warlord Obesandjo, seizes Wikus seeking to gain his power to operate alien weapons, which he believes he will achieve by eating Wikus' mutated arm. Wikus again manages to escape and takes some alien weapons with him.

Wikus and Christopher break into the MNU offices using alien weapons and retrieve the canister. They then fight their way back to District 9, but Christopher, having just learned that MNU is performing medical experiments on his race, informs Wikus that he has decided to return to his homeworld to seek help for his people before he cures Wikus, which would take three years. Frustrated, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and powers up the command module with the help of Christopher's son. However, soon after its takeoff, the spacecraft is shot down by MNU, causing it to crash nearby.

MNU forces take Wikus and Christopher prisoner but Obesandjo's gang ambushes them on the way out. The Nigerian gang captures Wikus and prepares to sever his mutated arm for Obesandjo. From the command module, Christopher's son activates the mothership and a mechanized battlesuit that kills Obesandjo and his men. Wikus then gets into the suit and rescues Christopher from MNU mercenaries, allowing him to get to the command module. Promising Wikus that he will return to reverse his transformation, Christopher returns to the mother ship. Heavily wounded and in a much more advanced state of his mutation, Wikus crawls out of the battlesuit and is confronted by Venter, the sole survivor and captain of the MNU squad. However, before he is able to kill Wikus, aliens in the camp dismember and eat Venter.

Christopher activates the mother ship's engines and Johannesburg's residents celebrate its departure. A series of interviews and news broadcasts are then shown, providing various opinions on the events. The aliens are successfully moved to District 10, said to have a population of 2.5 million and growing. MNU's illegal experiments on aliens are exposed. Some people theorize about Wikus' fate, while others hypothesize that Christopher Johnson might return for the refugees, or even to declare war on humanity. Wikus' wife reveals that, having found a small metal flower on her doorstep, she has hope that her husband is still alive. In a scrapyard, an alien with a bandaged left arm and human right eye crafts a flower out of metal.

REVIEW: District 9 was one of the few movies that I felt like wanting to walk out of the theater on. The movie just plainly sucked. That's right, District 9 sucked and I would not recommend my dog to go see it. Though the movie had a storyline that could have made for a great movie, it was juust not made right. It felt like I was watching a documentary during most of the movie and the filming was horrible. I debated with myself the whole time to walk out and get my money back but kept thinking to myself that the movie had to get better, boy was I wrong.

Grade - F

Walmart

2008-12-27T04:37:00.000-08:00

I don't care what anyone says about Wal-mart. It is the greatest store that exist! I know, I know many have criticized it before and some have fought to keep the giant store from coming into their town, talk about the union subject has been going on for years but I am coming at this from a consumers point of view.

While I was doing my Christmas shopping this year I first stopped at 'Best Buy' to get a laptop vehicle charger for my brother, you know the one where you can charge by plugging it in a cigarette lighter socket. I was surprised at how much they cost. I paid $65.00 for it. Didn't have it planned to spend that much on my brother but oh well, that's what he's been wanting.

A few days later I go to Wal-Mart with my wife. My wife goes there often and always tells me how inexpensive they are and the great prices you can find there. I always thought to myself "OK, I'm sure they are cheaper at some things and other stores are cheaper at other things, I doubt they are so much cheaper".

While in Wal-Mart I learned to always listen to the wife when it comes to these things because you know what, she was right (Like Always). I found great deals on many items and we actually did 80% of our Christmas shopping there.

Remember that laptop vehicle charger that I bought for my brother at that other store. You know, the one I paid $65.00 for. Well It was in Wal-Mart for $29.99. Yes, I felt like an idiot. I mean, it wasn't a couple bucks cheaper or anything. If it had been $60 or so at Wal-Mart it would be no big deal to me but you are talking over double the price here!

Also purchased a couple kids bikes for my daughters at Wal-Mart. Great deal there too because for the same bikes at Toys'R'Us it would have cost me $40 more out of my pocket.

We found many, many and I mean MANY deals there and for now on I will always do most of my shopping there. I don't have one in my town, the closest one is 12 miles away a couple cities over but the drive will be well worth the savings. For those who I used to see on the news who didn't want a Wal-Mart in your town all I can say is "YOUR CRAZY"! If I don't want to take the 12 mile drive - NO PROBLEM! - I'll just go to their website, you can too with the link below. Happy Shopping!

Hancock Review

2008-11-17T00:02:00.000-08:00

All I knew about Hancock before I watched it was that it stared Will Smith and that he was some kind of super hero. I know the movie received a lot of hype before it was released.

The film starts out with a high speed chase going on. Hancock is shown as a bum sleeping at a bus stop bench intoxicated. A little kid wakes him up and tells him that a crime is going on as if to say "ain't you going to do anything about it". Hancock zooms in the air and starts crashing into all kinds of things, even crashing into some birds while in the air.

For some reason I was thinking to myself that this is going to be a terrible movie.

He takes care of the villains but the film lets you know that the population isn't too crazy about Hancock. Even though he helps fight crime he is pretty messy about it and the public don't like it. Hancock also ignores all of the court subpoenas from the city of Los Angeles for all of the property damage that he has caused.

Later in the film Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman)becomes trapped on railroad tracks with an incoming freight train. Hancock saves Ray's life, but he causes the train to derail and nearly injures another driver. Hancock lets everyone know how stupid they are for blocking the intersection but Hancock is also jeered by other drivers for causing more damage, but Ray steps in and thanks Hancock for saving his life.

At this point I started enjoying the movie. It seemed kind of funny to me how the super-hero of the movie would talk crap to the people.

Ray offers to improve Hancock's public image, and Hancock grudgingly accepts. The spokesperson convinces the alcoholic superhero to permit himself to be jailed for all of the outstanding subpoenas so they can show Los Angeles how much the city really needs Hancock. When the crime rate rises after Hancock's incarceration, the superhero is contacted by the Chief of Police. With a new costume from Ray, Hancock intervenes with a bank robbery, rescuing a cop and stopping the leader of the robbers, Red Parker. Hancock is applauded by the public and even tells the police "Good Work". Sometimes he seemed to be trying to hard and was over polite.

Ray later discovers that Ray's wife has superpowers like he does, though Ray nor anyone else knows about it. She tells Hancock that they have lived for 3,000 years with their powers, having been called gods and angels in their time. She explains that they are the last of their kind and that their kind are paired.

Hancock meets Ray and Mary back at their house. Mary explains that Hancock is technically her husband, explaining that they were built in twos, and that they are drawn to each other over time and great distances. Hancock is later shot twice in the torso when he intervenes in a liquor store robbery. After being hospitalized, Mary enters and explains that as the pair of immortals gets close, they begin to lose their powers. She also explains that Hancock was attacked in an alley 80 years prior, his skull was fractured, causing amnesia. Mary deserted him then in order for him to recover from his injuries. After her explanation, the hospital is raided by the bank robber Red Parker and two other criminals that Hancock had encountered during his incarceration. Mary is shot in the process. Hancock is able to stop two men but is further wounded by them. When Red attempts to finish Hancock off, Ray comes to the rescue and stops the bank robber with a fire axe. With Mary nearly dying, Hancock uses the last of his strength to flee from the hospital so that their parting would allow her to heal with her powers. He later winds up in New York City, working as a superhero.

Though many so called professionals movie reviewers gave mixed reviews, Hancock did not turn out to be the terrible movie I thought it was going to be. I really liked this movie and think Will Smith was the perfect guy to play the part of Hancock. Charlize Theron as Mary and Jason Bateman as Ray also filled their rolls to near perfection. I found the movie to be quite funny at times, even though it is not a comedy flick. I guess that will happen whenever Will Smith is in a movie. The super-hero effects were pretty good too. During the making of the film, to give a realistic appearance of superhero flight, Smith was often suspended by wires 60 feet above the ground and propelled at 40-50 miles per hour. I was fully entertained and I think it is a must see movie for everybody.

Hancock Rating 7/10

100 Million BC Review

2008-11-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

In 100 Million BC we meet Dr. Frank Reno, a brilliant scientist who many years ago as a young man took part in a failed wormhole experiment, or as it can be referred to as the Philadelphia Experiment. Over the past 60 years or so Frank has been feeling real guilty because he sent a team of soldiers to the Cretaceous Period with no chance of rescue. Luck finally comes his way as some scientist discover in some ancient caves writings that say "FRANK, IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT". This proves to Frank that the soldiers survived. Erik, his older brother had been one of the ones stranded in the past as well as a pretty nurse he'd had a thing for.

Frank is now going to try to go through the worm hole again with a group of 2008 Navy Seal team. They are going to go to a time that is 6 years after that 1940,s team arrived there. They take their trip and when they arrive in 100,000,000 BC they are welcomed by acid-spitting plants, dinocrocs, pterodactyls, and raptors. Much of the team gets killed, many used as munchies for dinosaurs. Frank and his surviving crew end up running into his brother Erik and the nurse he had a thing with and a few others. Frank also finds out that most of his original 1940's team are dead. This pretty much summarizes the first half of the movie.

The second half is mostly made up of a T-Rex running around loose in Downtown Los Angeles. When Frank rescued his brother and everyone got sent back to 2008, the current year. The T-Rex (known as Big Red) accidentally with through the wormhole. A lot of chasing and running around LA to trap the big monster!

Clearly 100 Million BC was a B-movie and despite the slam that many critics have given it, it really wasn't that bad to me. I mean, I know we can all make fun of the cheap dinosaur animation but it was way better than Land of the Lost wasn't it. OK, I know, for 2008 the animation sucked. I'll put it this way though, the movie kept me entertained. It's a great movie to watch on a Sunday afternoon when you don't have anything else to do.

100 Million BC gets a 5/10 rating

Raging Waters Review

2008-08-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

I recently took a trip to the Raging Waters water park in San Dimas, California. I hadn't been there for about 17 years or so. I took three of my children ages eleven, eight and five. Going there I knew that the adult price was $35.99 for adults and $19.99 for kids so I knew I was safe with $100.00 to get in the park. When we got there I was told that the child price was judged by height, not age. If someone was 48 inches tall or taller then you have to pay the adult price for them. Child price is only good for anyone under 48 inches. What if I was a freakin midget! Would I get the children's admission price for Raging Waters? What if you had a giant three year old kid? $35.99? Luckily I had some extra cash because it's cash only! Right away my day did not start out good but it got better.

The first ride we went on there was Thunder Rapids and the ride was great. We all got on a raft and right away it went down into the dark. I got to admit if I knew it was as wild as it was I wouldn't have gone on it but afterwords we all loved that we got on it! You could see now that I'm not a big thrill seeker? I am, but not when it comes to water. I never learned how to swim so I have a reason here. Next up was the Ragin Racer and then the Black Hole. Both where exiting rides and the kids loved it. A relative of mine then went on the ride called Drop Out. He wanted me to go on but there was not a chance in hell. It's basically a tall water slide that you just come down on. The thing is really high! Someone told me there that it is seven stories tall. For water thrill seekers you would love it. Time was running out as we arrived there really late so we weren't able to go on many rides but we wanted to check out the more mellow kids rides. The kids enjoyed Kids Kingdom and the Little Dipper but they enjoyed most Splash Island.

On a side not here I just want to say about the Raging Waters entry fee. Luckily when we went they had a buy a day and get a day free special going on so we will be returning soon. That makes the entry fee only about $18.00 for each of us. To me this should be the regular price because even though Raging Waters was real enjoyable it was not worth $35.99.

Would I recommend Raging Waters to anyone? Heck ya! The place is fun!

Kung Fu Panda Review

2008-08-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Plot: Kung Fu Panda starts out with Po having a dream about being a heroic kung fu fighter. Po the panda is the biggest fan of kung fu on the planet even though he is a lazy slacker who enjoys eating more than anything else. His father has dreams of Po one day taking over the family's noodle shop but Po wants to be a kung fu master but dosen't want to tell his father this and risk hurting his feelings. When Oogway (Master of Masters) foretells of Tai Lung, a villainous snow leopard escaping from prison, he consults Master Shifu that the Dragon Warrior must be chosen to stop Tai Lung. News of selecting the Dragon Warrior is sent out from the Jade Temple, and the whole city along with Po, go to the celebration. The competition is between the Furious Five: Tigress, Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis. Po accidentally enters the contest and is named the Dragon Warrior. Master Shifu must find a way to train Po and make him a Kung Fu Master. He realizes that it is almost impossible but finally finds a strategy that just might work to train Po. Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything.

Review: Kung Fu Panda was honestly a great movie that any adult can get into and as well as kids of course. The movie has a good educational tool for children as well. Through out the movie the Dragon Warrior has a destiny to be the one who opens up the sacred Dragon Scroll, which promises great power to the possessor. When Po opens it, he finds nothing but a blank reflective surface. Stricken with despair at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Shifu orders his students to lead the villagers to safety while he stays to delay Tai Lung for as long as he can. As Po participates in the evacuation, he meets his father, who tries to cheer him up by telling him the secret ingredient of the family's noodle soup: nothing his father says. Things become special, he explains, because people believe them to be special. Po now seen what the Dragon Scroll really meant. If you believe in yourself you can do anything you want to do. That turns Po into the unlikely hero in the movie.

Kung Fu Panda gets a B grade. Great family movie that didn't need any improvements.

Want to watch Kung Fu Panda right now on your PC? The link below worked at the time of this posting.

Watch Kung Fu Master

Pandora Radio Review

2008-08-08T03:39:00.000-07:00

What is Pandora? Pandora is internet radio at your finger tips with the music that you want to listen to no matter what style of music you are into. Pandora let's you create your own radio stations. For example let's say you create a music station named Michael Jackson. Music for that station you created will all be music that is very similar to Michael Jackson music. It's also a great way to discover some new music and artist that you probably didn't know. To me, this website is a bloggers dream come true or anyone who spends a great amount of time on the internet. Since discovering Pandora I always have it playing in the background. I mean, if you are spending four hours or more per day on the internet why not hear some great tunes while you do your thing.

After creating your radio station and your first song starts playing you can:

1. Give it a thumbs up - which tells Pandora to keep playing more like this.

2. No response - do nothing and Pandora does nothing and will not change your preference.
(Note - This is usually what I do since I'm doing other things while listening).

3. Give it a thumbs down - which tells Pandora to not play this track again or any that are similir to it.

Almost forgot to mention that you can create more than one radio station. You can have 100 stations at any given time!

You can get this super great online radio now and the best part is that it's absolutely free! Check them out at:

pandora.com

Pandora radio easily gets a A+ grade!

Havoc - Movie Review

2008-05-23T04:06:00.000-07:00

Review:

Havoc was a movie that I could barely say was OK and I mean barely. The ending to this movie was one of the worst endings they could have come up with and leaves many unanswered questions that were probably the main plot of the movie. The movie main character is Allison Lang (Ann Hathaway) who lives in a upper middle class neighborhood. The movie reveals her and her friends relationship at the beginning of the movie. They are a group of white high school kids who are infatuated with the hip hop culture and are pretty much wanna be gangsters. Some from the group are what some would call wiggers, they even have a name for their wanna be gang. One of the no-no's in the movie was that during the movie there is a high school student who is doing his own documentary on this gang of kids with his camera. Real point less for the movie unless you'll enjoy seeing Allison in a kind of sexy scene. Allison and her friends decide to go buy drugs on the other side of town from some East L.A. Chicano real gang members. After buying the drugs Allison's boyfriend Toby (Mike Vogel) realizes that he got burned, he decides to confront the drug dealer named Hector (Freddy Rodriguez). Hector then punks Toby and puts a gun to his head, making Toby urine in his pants out of fright. Even though she was worried about her boyfriend Allison can't help but to be intrigued by the lifestyle of the Mexican gangsters so the next night Allison and her three girlfriends go back to the location were they bought the drugs. There, she and her friends are invited to a party and she starts a relationship with Hecor. They have a good time at the party and after leaving can't believe what they just did. Later Allison and her best friend Emily (Bijou Phillips) go to a hotel party that the gang is having. While there they are having a good time playing cards and taking shots. Emily then wants Allison to ask the gang if they could be in their crew. Allison ask and the gang laughs at them realizing that these girls have no idea what a real gangsters lifestyle is all about. Hector and his home boys then decide to let them in their varrio but tell them that they have to get in the way other girls have. They have to row a dice and whatever number they get is how many guys they have to have sex with. Allison gets a one and chooses Hector, Emily gets a three. So entry into the gang begins but Allison has seconds thoughts in the middle of it and says she can't do it. For Emily things are going good at the beginning but when multiple guys are all over her she gets scared and starts screaming. Allison goes in the room to get her and they leave. Emily then charges them with rape and Hector is arrested. Allison then tells Emily's parents that it was consented and how they wanted to join the gang. When Allison's wanna be gang learn of the rape Toby and his boys decide to act like real gangsters and go to East L.A. with guns looking for revenge on the Mexican gangsters. Meanwhile, Hectors homeboys go to the wealthier neighborhood looking for revenge because of the false claim. They both have no look finding anyone. As Toby and his boys are driving home they notice the Chicano gangsters going the opposite way on the street. They notice the 16 tattoo in the back of one of their heads. The screen then goes black and we hear gun fire. That's the end of the movie! Who got shot? Who shot who? We will never know! Have to make up your own ending. What happened to Hector? They never mention him again. Even though I said that this movie is O.K. (barely) it really gets a low rating.

Rating: 5/10

Iron Man - Movie Review

2008-05-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

I went into this movie completely blind about this movie. I had heard of the Iron Man but for some reason I kept thinking of the 90's animation movie The Iron Giant. When the movie began I was surprised to see Robert Downey Jr., thought he was in a rehab program still, just kidding. I will say that this movie was OK, not great but just OK. The movie was around two hours long and I'd say that we only got to see about 15 minutes of Iron Man action in the movie. The movie did not suck or anything just not nearly as good as all of the hype I have heard about it. Not that I heard anything of what it was about but just hearing about it so much.

Rating: 7/10

Plot: In the movie we learn about Tony Stark, who is played by Robert Downey Jr. Tony is a really wealthy genius and runs a weapons manufacturing company. Tony goes to the middle East to show the US military his latest invention, a super missile. Tony and his comrades are attacked and when Tony wakes up he is a prisoner in a cave. There is another prisoner there named Yinsen. Yinsen explains that he operated on Stark but was unable to remove all the shrapnel fragments from the bomb blast. Yinsen created a device-essentially a battery-powered magnet- that will keep the remaining fragments out of Tony's heart.The agents who captured Tony & Yinsen enter the room. Yinsen translates; they want Tony to build them a Jericho missile. Tony refuses, so they begin to torture Stark. Tony then has a plan to escape, he plans to build a powered weapon suit that he will wear and use to defeat the terrorists. Tony, fully powered, muscles his way through the cave. The guards try to stop but his suit easily deflects their weapon fire. Halfway out, Stark finds Yinsen, mortally wounded. Tony tearfully thanks Yinsen for saving him, and Yinsen encourages Tony to not waste his life as he dies. Tony turns his suit on the terrorists, igniting flame-throwers. He destroys their stockpile of weapons and uses a rudimentary jet-pack to blast away from the captive zone. The armor is ruined, but he is alive. Stark walks over a sand dune when a couple of US helicopters fly overhead. A group of soldiers, led by Rhody, come across Tony. Rhody is overjoyed to find that his friend is alive. Tony returns to the United States after three months in captivity. Pepper wants Tony to receive medical treatment, but Tony states that there are only two things he wants: an American cheeseburger and a company press conference. Hours later, Tony appears before a group of reporters and announces that he intends to shut down Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing division immediately. At the same time, Pepper is approached by Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement & Logistic Division agency. They want to talk to Tony Stark about his capture. Pepper schedules an appointment for them.
That evening, Obadiah confronts Tony about his actions, furious. Obadiah knows that the stock value for their company (and, by extension, their financial status) is going to take a serious drop because of this announcement. Tony wants Stark Industries to move forward with Ark Reactor technology, but Obadiah thinks that the Ark Reactor is nothing but a publicity stunt. Through the conversation, Tony ends up revealing his prosthetic power-heart to Obadiah. Stane convinces Tony to lay low for a while so the company can sort things out. Pepper watches a news report on the declining value of Stark Industries when Tony asks for her help. He's created an upgraded Ark Reactor but can't install it into his chest without someone to help. Pepper accidentally yanks out the cords for the old reactor too soon, putting Tony on the verge of cardiac arrest. They manage to complete the process in time. Tony tells Pepper to get rid of the old model since h's not a sentimental person. Tony comes to visit Rhodes and asks for help with a new private project. Rhody does not agree with Tony's approach; he thinks Stark is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his capture and needs time to recover.Tony turns to his other best friend- JARVIS, the A.I. program- for help. Tony's plan is revealed to be an upgrade to his armored suit (referred to as "Mark 2," with the suit from the terrorist cave being Mark 1). Meanwhile, the terrorists who held Tony captive are searching the desert, gathering all fragments of the original armor. Tony decides that the first thing he has to do is perfect the armor's flight system. Since the leg-mounted jets prove too unstable, he creates arm mounted stabilizers to balance out the system. Pepper comes in when he is testing the stabilizers and they find that it also creates a powerful repulsion beam that could also be used as a weapon. Pepper leaves a box on Tony's desk. Obadiah visits Tony and reveals that the board of directors have filed an injunction to gain control of Stark Industries. Tony isn't worried; he still maintains controlling interest in Stark Industries. Tony finally manages to perfect his flight system, and is delighted at the prospect of flying. A new armored suit is soon finished, looking like a heavily-streamlined version of Tony's Mark 1 armor. Tony connects with Jarvis to monitor the progress in the suit. Tony decides to take it out for a test flight, and he is thrilled by everything the suit can do. Tony decides to push the limit for higher-atmosphere flying, but at such great heights the suit becomes coated with ice and his power supply shuts down. Tony is barely able to activate his thrusters in time to avoid crashing into the ground. Stark returns home, but the armor is so heavy that it crashes through three floors of the house. As Tony recovers from his crash landing, he opens the box that Pepper left behind earlier. It's his original Ark-Reactor heart, with a special border around it reading "Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart." Tony analyzes more data and decides to rebuild the suit using gold titanium from an old project to solve the icing problem. Tony also instructs Jarvis to add some "hot-rod red" paint to the next suit, codenamed Mark 3. Tony then leaves to attend his annual benefit dinner while the suit is being painted.
At the charity event, Tony meets with Agent Coulson- who still wants to learn about Tony's incident. Tony then leaves to dance with Pepper and they share a moment together in the moonlight. Tony is confronted by Christine, the reporter from an earlier scene. She shows him photographs of his weapons being used by a terrorist group the previous day in the Middle East. Tony confronts Obadiah on the matter, and Obadiah reveals that he is the one who filed the injunction against Tony. Obadiah calls himself an "Iron Monger," and has no qualms about selling Stark Industries weapons to both sides of the conflict. Tony returns home, furious. When the new suit is completed, Stark steps in and essentially transforms into Iron Man for the first time. In a Middle East village, terrorists are rounding up civilians for capture & execution when they are confronted by a mysterious figure in red and gold. Iron Man has arrived. Within seconds, he defeats the terrorists and destroys the weapons they had obtained. As Iron Man leaves the area, two F-22 jets spot him. Col. Rhodes is asked about the status of any new developments. He contacts Tony, who claims that he knows nothing about what is happening. Iron Man tries to outrun the jets but they are too much for him. Tony calls Rhodes and reveals that he is responsible for the "unidentified craft." Rhody is furious about Tony sending in unauthorized equipment, and horrified when Tony explains that the "equipment" is actually himself! Iron Man is hit by one fighter jet, sending him flying into the wing of the second jet. The pilot is forced to eject, but the parachute fails to open. Iron Man, still under fire, manages to fly in and successfully deploy the parachute in time to save the pilot's life. Tony convinces Rhody to pass off what happened with the jets as a "training exercise." As Tony arrives back at home, Pepper catches him removing the Iron Man armor. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorist group is visited by none other than Obadiah. It is revealed that Stane paid the Ten Rings members to kill Stark, but they realized who Stark was and demanded a much higher price. Obadiah takes the remnants of the Mark 1 armor they have gathered. Tony tries to talk Pepper into helping him, believing that nothing else matters but stopping the people who he put in harm's way. Pepper is moved by Tony's dedication, and agrees. She goes into Obadiah's office with a tiny piece of equipment designed to copy files from the computer. As Pepper sifts through stored files, she finds a video from the terrorists proving that Obadiah was responsible for Tony's capture. Obadiah comes into the office just as she is leaving, but Pepper manages to get away. However, as soon as he powers up the computer, Obadiah realizes what she was up to. On the way out, Pepper is joined by Agent Coulson and he agrees to help stop Obadiah with his fellow agents.
Obadiah meets with his team of developers working on his own armored suit. They cannot figure out how to create a power source for the suit. Stane is furious; then realizes that he has one other option. Stane arrives at Tony's house and paralyzes him with a sonic weapon. Obadiah yanks out the power source from Tony's heart, taunting him all the while. After he leaves, Tony realizes that he has only one hope for survival- the preserved Ark Reactor that Pepper gave him in a display case. He gets the power source installed just as Rhody arrives. Pepper, Coulson and several other agents arrive at Obadiah's research facility. They spot the Mark 1 Armor and a storage location where something else was kept. Just then, a gigantic robotic suit comes to life and attacks them- it's Obadiah's counterpart suit, code-named the Iron Monger. Rhody watches Tony suit up, awestruck at the Iron Man costume. As Tony flies away, Rhody looks at the prototype silver suit Tony built earlier... then shakes his head and mumbles "Next time." Iron Man arrives and begins to fight Iron Monger. Jarvis warns Tony that he has only about half power in the suit; the older power source wasn't designed to wrok alongside the newer suit. The two ironclad warriors have a huge battle. Tony grabs the Iron Monger and climbs higher. Iron Monger struggles but before long begins to freeze up- his suit still has the same icing problem that Tony's other suit had. Iron Monger manages to escape from this, and Iron Man is now almost completely powerless. Tony instructs Pepper to overload the building's Ark Reactor, which will generate a shockwave strong enough to knock out the Iron Monger's suit. Pepper is hesitant, believing that Tony could also be killed. Tony manages to keep fighting while she builds up power to the Reactor. The Ark explodes, taking out Obadiah and injuring Tony. But the energy wave from the Reactor also manages to re-charge Tony's heart battery, saving him from death. Days later, Rhody holds a press conference about the incident with the two robots. Tony is impressed with the newspaper's coming up with the name "Iron Man," and plans to adopt it. Agent Coulson has released cover stories about Obadiah and the "truth" about Iron Man (who will be referred to as Stark's bodyguard). Pepper thanks Coulson but cannot remember the full name of the group he belongs to. Coulson just tells them to call it S.H.I.E.L.D. and states that they will be in touch again. Tony goes before the reporters once more, and prepares to comply with the cover story. But, before he can even start, Tony Stark throws away his notes and declares "I am Iron Man." Much later (after the credits), Tony returns home to find a mysterious man in black telling him that as Iron Man, Tony has become part of a larger universe. Tony asks who the man is. He turns around and introduces himself- Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Samuel L. Jackson). He's come to talk with Tony Stark about an upcoming project- known only as "The Avenger Initiative."

Shareapic

2008-05-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

Shareapic is a image hosting and pic sharing site that actually pays their members to host their pictures there. This was unheard of to me until I discovered this site. Now I new of pay per click programs and affiliate programs but pay per click with your pics! Shareapic pays you each time someone clicks on one of your pics to get a better look at them. They don't pay a fortune or anything but what other image hosting service will even pay you anything? They pay you $0.22 per 1000 pic views. I signed up with shareapic a few months ago and every day I see the change adding up. I figured since I used another service to host my images anyways I'd give shareapic a try and it's worked out great. You can post your pics to E-Bay, Myspace, your blogs or whatever and when there is a click on the pic you get the credit. Shareapic even has a referral program that you can earn extra money from but one of my favorite extras is that you can add Bidvertiser ads on your pages. For those who don't know Bidvertiser, it is a pay per click program of it's own. To sign up with shareapic or if you just want to learn a little more about them just click on the link below. I highly recommend shareapic to everyone.

American Soldiers - Review

2008-04-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

Plot Description Listed First - Review Follows

Plot:

Iraq, present day: during a routine sortie a US patrol is ambushed and the young soldiers are forced to put their training and skills into action fast. A determined foe with superior local knowledge, the Fedayeen insurgents soon draw them into close quarter combat and a desperate fight for survival.

Review:

This movie is basically a day in the life of a U.S. soldier in Iraq. The movie starts out early in the morning and ends in the evening with the soldiers getting into a lot of shit for one day. First off, I have never been in the military but a couple of Co-Workers of mine told me that this movie was really fake and how the soldiers didn't use teamwork the way soldiers in real life do. One other point that they said is that we never leave our dead. OK, I don't know because I never been in the military but one has to remember, this is a Hollywood movie. This movie is really different from most movies, it had no real plot and to tell you the truth I was kind of bored with it during the first half of watching it. It got a little better at the end though. One thing I noticed through out the movie though is that none of these guys knew how to aim their weapons. Both sides were missing each other like crazy. I heard that a lot of these actors were criticized for this movie but that is nonsense, did a great job. One thing about movies like this is that they always get me thinking though about Iraq, it's people and Islam and it pisses me off. One guy in the movie mentions Ala and I'm not getting religious here or anything but I just trip out how Ala wants them to kill non Muslims and so on. Hey, Jesus Christ does not order me to kill people from other religions. Don't the Iraq people realize that if the United States wanted to they could just go in there and take over the whole land and turn them all into slaves. Of course that's not the American way but I'm just saying. Oh well, for the good people over there, have mercy. I'm sure there are many good people in Iraq, maybe 10% of them - I don't know! It's just the idiots who give their race a bad name (the other 90%). Oh, I better get back to the movie. American Soldiers is a cool movie to watch if your bored and got nothing to do but I wouldn't make it the planned main movie to watch on a Blockbuster night. I'd give it a C+ grade.

The Marine - Review

2008-04-17T04:29:00.000-07:00

Plot Description Listed First - Review Follows

Plot:

The film centers around former US Marine John Triton (John Cena) who is discharged for disobeying a direct command in order to save three of his fellow marines while serving in Iraq.

After returning home, he finds work as a security guard. Not used to life outside of the Marines, he becomes depressed. His wife Kate (Kelly Carlson) suggests they take a trip to South Carolina to spend some time together and take their minds off of things. In the midst of their trip, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a shootout between police officers and diamond thieves in a gas station. The thieves, led by Rome (Robert Patrick), kidnap Kate and blow up the station in order to facilitate their escape.

Triton commandeers a police vehicle and starts a pursuit of the thieves to save his wife. When Van Buren, a police detective, appears to want to help Triton, he later reveals himself to be another business partner of Rome's. Triton continues to pursue Rome and finds him in an abandoned bar by a lake. There, he kills most of the thieves but before he can save his wife, Van Buren shows up, angered that Rome has cut him loose.

With this distraction, Rome's girlfriend Angela drags Kate out of the bar and puts her in the trunk of their car. Back inside, Rome kills Van Buren and then blows up the bar, Triton narrowly escapes. Rome and Angela steal a truck in order to get rid of their car and then handcuff Kate inside. Triton soon catches up with them and tosses Angela out the window of the cab.

Before he can climb in however, they arrive at a marina and Rome ends up driving the truck into the bay with Kate still inside. He jumps out and attacks Triton. They fight in the now flaming marina until eventually, Rome is seemingly killed when he is crushed by a pile of flaming debris. Triton then jumps into the water to save Kate. He pulls her from the truck, aware that she is unconscious and begins CPR. At first there is no response, but he is determined not to give up. His efforts prove right and Kate comes to, alive and well. The danger is not over however, as Rome suddenly appears, horribly burnt, and wraps a chain around Triton's neck. Triton retaliates by pulling the chain off, putting it around Rome's neck, and flipping him over, breaking his neck. As sirens wail, John comments that they should have just gone to the beach.

Review:

I think WWE wrestler John Cena did a terrific job in this movie especially for this being his first movie, at least I am not aware of him ever making another movie. Don't get me wrong, he will not win any acting awards or anything but it was a great movie and he played his part very well. The Marine is an action movie but has some humor in it that will make you laugh, sort of an action-comedy movie which are usually my favorite type of movies. One example that I could think of off hand is the old action-comedy movie starring Robert De Niro called Midnight Run. In 'The Marine' the bad guys are really funny in the movie, even though they are not trying to be and are serious criminals. They are real sloppy about their whole criminal activity and Cena is trying to rescue his beautiful wife from these diamond thieves. The action in the movie is pretty cool, you do see some of Cena's wrestling skills in one part of the movie when he choke slams one of the kidnappers. There are a couple surprises in the movie, one surprise is when some people are involved in certain things that you had no idea that they were in on. This movie is a movie that I would find hard for anyone to hate unless of course you are one of those wrestling fans who can not help to hate John Cena though you may learn to like him a little bit after you see the movie. Not a must see movie or anything like that but a good movie worth seeing, it will keep you entertained.

Horton Hears a Who - Review

2008-04-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Plot Description Listed First - Review Follows

Plot: In the Jungle of Nool, a caring, imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) takes a dip in the pool. A dust speck floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he places it on top of a clover that he holds in his trunk.

In fact, he finds out the speck harbors the city of Whoville and all its inhabitants, led by Ned the Mayor (Steve Cerell). Ned has a loving wife (Amy Poehler), 96 daughters, and one son named Jojo, who is by Who law in next for the mayoral line, and as such, gives it his best effort to give Jojo enough attention. Ned hopes his son will one day be a great mayor, but unaware to him, Jojo doesn't share his father's wish.

Horton and the Mayor both agree that Whoville needs a more permanent, stable environment, and Horton resolves to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. This outlook earns Horton nothing but ridicule from the inhabitants of Nool, especially from the strict Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), who tries to get Horton to give up the speck, so as not to put ridiculous ideas into the heads of the children. Ever faithful to his motto, "A person's a person, no matter how small," Horton refuses. Also showing disbelief toward Horton are the Wickersham brothers (all voiced by Dan Fogler), a group of bullish monkeys who love making misery.

All the small incidents that Horton experiences on his trek across the jungle have a catastrophic effect on Whoville (as an example, leaving the speck outside overnight will cause it to frost, thereby, making it snow in Whoville, during the summer). Ned has a rough time warning the city council of the unusual occurances caused by the speck being carried everywhere, as nothing in Whoville has ever gone wrong since it was founded. As the other Whos become suspicious, the Mayor finally reveals his outlandish prophecy to them, but the Whos don't believe him any more than the animals believe Horton.

Sour Kangaroo enlists a nefarious vulture named Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck by force. Vlad manages to steal the speck and drop it from hundreds of feet into a valley full of identical clovers. The impact nearly demolishes Whoville like an earthquake, yet Horton finds the right clover, after painstakingly picking 2,999,999 clovers through the field. The earthquake is enough to convince the rest of the Whos that the Mayor is not crazy, and they all tell Horton they believe in him.

Sour Kangaroo finds out that Horton still has the speck, and, as her patience completely runs out, forms a mob by telling lies to get rid of the speck once and for all. They plan to rope and cage Horton, but Kangaroo turns this into a chance for attention, and offers Horton an ultimatum: give up the speck and "admit" he was wrong, or pay the price. Despite a heartfelt speech from Horton that clearly touches the animals, Kangaroo still takes this refusal as an insult, orders them to proceed with the torture, and drop the speck into a pot of boiling beezlenut oil, which is shown to have very hot properties. The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise, so the animals can hear them. At the last second, Jojo (voiced by Jesse McCartney), revealing his musical genius, and learning his dad is proud of him no matter what he wants to be, contributes the last "YOPP!" that breaks a hole in the atmosphere. Hearing their cries, the animals finally realize the atrocity they almost committed. Sour Kangaroo is shocked and ashamed, but she still makes up with Horton, and at the end of the film, everyone helps Horton carry the speck up to the top of Mt. Nool.

I took my children to see this movie. I'd never heard of it before and don't think I've ever read the book. If I did it is buried away somewhere deep in my childhood memories. The only two books I remember from Dr. Suess would be the two that I think are probably the two most famous ones "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham". When the movie started it right away good me in a good mood. The main character of the movie, Horton, is really funny. He actually had me laughing out loud in the theater. He is a loving, peaceful, carefree elephant who you might say is kind of a dork in a good way. After discovering that there is basically a whole world on the speck that he has, he sort of becomes the god of the "Who's" world by having the power to destroy it if he desired. There is a scene where he blows onto the speck and the "Who's" world gets some major wind, to go along with some bad breath. The mayor of Whoville is Horton's contact and ends up having similarities with Horton. Horton is ridiculed for thinking that there is life on this speck by the other animals in the jungle, especially the Sour kangaroo. The mayor of Whoville goes through the same thing when he tries to explain to his fellow "Who's" about Horton, no one believes him and he also gets ridiculed. All the characters in this movie really grow on you. A vulture named Vlad, who is hired by the kangaroo to destroy the speck made me laugh when he tried to play a tough guy and demanded a big payment for his work but then ended up begging for the job, which he ended up doing for free. I had no complaints about this movie and would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to take their kids out to see a good movie and enjoy the movie themselves. GREAT MOVIE, way more laughter than I would have expected! - My kids wanted to go see it again but I told them we got to wait so now my kids are waiting for HORTON HEARS A WHO to come out on DVD.

Morongo Casino Review

2008-03-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

I recently took a trip to the Morongo Casino out in Cabazon, CA. That city, which I had never heard of before is close to Palm Springs. I'm not much of a gambler but wanted to take the wife out there for her birthday, she's not a gambler either so I figured it would be cool since it would be new to both of us. The only other time I had been in a casino was when I was about 16 years old and went to Las Vegas with some other family members. While there, half of the casinos were kicking me out for being underage, the other half were serving me some liquor while I was playing the slot machines. Anyways, on the way to the Morongo we stopped and picked up my mother who loves the casinos, she goes on those buses that take people to casinos about every 3 weeks. She was looking forward to schooling us on the slot machines! It didn't take too long to get there, maybe about an hour and fifteen minutes if I remember right, we are only 100 miles away. I'm one who does not like taking long drives but the ride was OK. I know some make hour drives to their jobs everyday but I don't and don't plan to either, keep my job 20 minutes or less away and I'm OK. When we were almost there you could see the Morongo for a while from the freeway, looks like it's right in front of you but you still have a little ways to go, it is a tall building just standing alone. There was another building that was not tall at all and someone told me that that was the old Morongo building. OK, so how long has this new one been around? I didn't ask much about it. We parked in the parking structure they have there, took the elevator down and when we got out of the elevator you just see all the slot machines everywhere. I was like OK, cool. I didn't plan to spend much money, I took $300.00 for me and my wife to spend on gambling. I didn't figure to win anything so It was money I just had scratched off as a loss. My mom was eager to show us how to use the slot machines and me and my wife still didn't understand much except that you could play pennies, nickels, quarters, dollars and so on. I was looking for the penny machines since I figured my money would last me longer, like I said, I didn't plan on winning anything. The Morongo does not have many penny machines, they did have a couple little sections with penny machines but the majority I seen were nickel machines. I tried to get a penny machine but they were all taken up my the other cheap people like me! So we started playing nickel machines and put our five dollar bills in the machines. I lost my five bucks quick but my wife had something good going, at least we thought she did, see how rookie we are at slot machines! She hit something good because her credits starting going up like crazy. When we first put in our $5.00 bills the machines gave us 100 credits. Whatever she hit gave her 1000 credits. We figured cool, she just doubled her money, we thought that she now had $10.00. We ain't going to complain, she doubled her money! Boy, were we wrong here. She kept playing a little more and her credits started going down, they went to around 700 credits so she cashed out and her ticket came out. The ticket said she had $35 and some cents. We were like - what? Little did we understand at the time that when she had 1000 credits that she had $50 in there! Well, now we know how all of this works. Put $5.00 into penny machines and you have 500 credits. Put $5.00 into a nickel machine and you have 100 credits. Put $5.00 into a dollar machine and you have 5 credits. Now it all made sense to me! I also learned a little bit about choosing the number of paylines you want to play and the number of credits wagered per line. Of course the higher you go the more money you can win, also the higher you play the quicker you could lose. So how did the rest of the day go? Before I get to that I want to note how I was so surprised that people could smoke freely in the casinos. I mean, I remember when people would walk through indoor malls smoking, we had smoking sections and non smoking sections in restaurants and other places but now and days a smoker can't smoke anywhere. I seen people playing their slot machines just puffing away so when I first got on my first slot machine I just lit one up right there, felt like the old days. I really feel sorry for people who can't stand the smoke though, they really can't say anything about it. To be fair the casino had a little section that was non smoking. OK, so how did the rest of my new gambling carer go. Well, the first three machines I played I lost $20. We then went to a new section and I turned my $5 into $15 and felt like I won big. Ha, I know it's nothing but I'm not used of free money! I then went to this slot machine that I feel in love with. I put $5 in and I won $45.00, I cashed out and took my $45. I decided to play the same machine a new again with another $5 bill, that $5 bill turned into $40. I was like "alright", this is pretty cool. Again with the same machine I turned $5 into another $40 and then $50. I was thinking to myself, I could see how people can get addicted to gambling. Since this machine was doing good I threw $50 into it and didn't win anything out of that so I gave up on that machine. I felt good though, I was ahead of the casino. I didn't win anything else during the next 4 hours that we were there but when all was said and done I still ended up ahead of the casino. Me and my wife walked in with $300 of gambling money and we walked out with $310 from that gambling money so we actually won $10 for the day. I was happy, seemed like money we should not have had since I expected to lose it all. Overall I give my experience at the Morongo Casino a 'A' rating. I had a good time there and would recommend it to anybody. For more information on the Morongo Casino there website click here.

American Gangster - Movie Review

2008-03-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

Recently saw this movie that I had heard about from a few people. I heard from them that it was an awesome movie. One guy told me how he compared it to movies such as Scareface, Godfather, The French Connection and other classic gangster movies. Well, let's see if it was that good. First here is the plot, then we will review it.

Plot:

Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, a disciplined and intelligent black gangster, runs much of Harlem and imparts his wisdom onto his former driver turned right-hand man, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). Johnson dies of a heart attack in 1968, at an electronics store. Frank dislikes the new, flashy gangsters and decides to take control. To gain money and power, he travels to Bangkok, Thailand, and with the help of his cousin who is an Army Senior NCO, strikes a deal with a Chinese Nationalist general in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, who supplies him with pure heroin. Starting with a first shipment of 100 kilograms, Frank has the drugs transported back to America via military service planes. His final shipment comprises two tons hidden in the coffins of seven dead U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam war.

Meanwhile, Newark, New Jersey detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), is juggling a failing marriage, late-night law school classes, and his police career. When Richie and his partner, Javier Rivera, discover nearly $1 million in unmarked bills in a car, Richie resists temptation and turns the money in. His rare honest ways make him a hated member of his precinct, causing his partner to be exiled from the force, while Richie's rampant womanizing behavior leads his wife to seek a divorce and custody of their son. After his exiled partner dies from overdosing on Blue Magic, Richie's honesty catches him a break when his superior Captain Lou Toback (Ted Levine) puts him in charge of a newly created task force to stop drug trafficking in Essex County, New Jersey and New York City. Richie handpicks honest cops and gets to work on finding who is supplying Blue Magic.

Frank’s unique drug supply enables him to sell potent drugs (“Blue Magic” heroin) at low prices - undercutting his competition which, the film suggests, is largely heavily cut (diluted) heroin stolen and redistributed by corrupt narcotics police officers. He quickly makes a fortune and buys several nightclubs and apartments. He moves his family from North Carolina to New Jersey, where he purchases a large estate for his humble mother. His five brothers are enlisted as his lieutenants in the NYC drug trade – forming “The Country Boys,” who work together to traffic and sell dope on Harlem streets. During his rise, Frank meets and falls in love with Eva, a Puerto Rican beauty queen. Through his discipline, organization, and willingness to kill those in his way, Frank quickly rises to the top of the Harlem drug and crime scene.

As Frank's business prospers, he makes a point of operating quietly and dressing with a modest conservatism both as a sign of strength and to avoid attracting the attention of the law. However, Frank disregards this habit for his wife for one ostentatious night out, attending a Muhammad Ali boxing match with several known mobsters in a gaudy fur coat and hat, and with a ring-side seat. As it happens, Roberts is on duty observing the event and sees this unknown, but obviously wealthy, person associating with high-level criminals, as well as having better seats than the Italian mafia. Roberts becomes suspicious, and he begins to investigate this unknown (to him) figure in New York organized crime. Even as Frank realizes he has exposed himself to police scrutiny, he must make deals with the Italian mafia and fend off corrupt NYC detectives, such as Det. Trupo (Josh Brolin), who extort and threaten him. Trupo's dislike of Frank is capped when his prized Shelby Mustang is bombed before his eyes. He must also contend with local crime figure Nicky Barnes (Cuba Googing Jr.), who is taking some of Frank's product, diluting it himself, and selling it under Frank's "brand" name. Unidentified assassins try to kill Frank’s wife, further destabilizing him and worsening his unsteady marriage. Things finally turn to the worst when Frank sees the U.S. Military vacating Vietnam, which in turn cuts off his primary heroin transportation.

Richie catches another break when his men witness the driver of one of Frank’s top soldiers shooting a woman. They use the driver’s bad predicament to get him to wear a wire. The wire allows Richie and his task force to discover when a plane carrying drugs is landing. Meanwhile, Trupo leads his band of police officers to Frank's mansion where they take Frank's emergency cash supply. When the plane lands, Richie and his men follow the drugs into Newark's projects and obtain a warrant. A huge group of police and detectives attack the drug apartments en masse and a large shootout occurs. Frank is at church when the bust goes down, but he is arrested after the service ends. Frank and Richie finally meet, and Frank’s attempts to bully Richie are unsuccessful.

With no other options, Frank decides to provide names of numerous other criminals, including his and Richie’s common enemies: corrupt NYC detectives. Numerous corrupt cops are arrested; a distraught Trupo kills himself to avoid arrest. Richie, having passed the Bar Exam, prosecutes Frank, but he leaves the prosecutor's office after the Lucas trial. The first client he takes after becoming a defense attorney is Frank. Because of his cooperation, Frank receives a relatively light sentence of 15 years rather than the original 70. At the film’s end, he steps out of jail to the sounds and era of the 1990s, significantly older and out of place.

Review:

Did I think the movie was as good as I had been told? Not even close. Would I recommend someone to see this movie? Sure, why not. It is a very entertaining movie and was not really that bad. The movie is kind of long, it seemed to be almost three hours long.

I am not a big Denzel Washington fan. He may be a good actor but I just have not been to much into his movies in the past, he is just one of these actors that don't jump out at me. Seems he's always the same bad ass tough guy.

If you are someone who likes realist movies you probably won't like American Gangster. There is one scene were he is talking to his brothers in a restaurant/coffee shop and he sees a drug dealer outside that had tried to tax him in the past. He tells his brothers that he will be right back, goes outside, has a few words with the guy and then shoots him in the head in front of all kinds of witnesses and then marches right back into the restaurant/coffee shop, sits down and continues his conversation. Very unrealistic. The movie may have been wanting to prove what a tough guy he was but really, just to unrealistic.

There are those who like any movie that has to do with gangsters and drugs. If you like this, you will love this movie. They get pretty graphic with the drugs and drug use. This may be why one of the people who told me this was a great movie loved it so much. He is easily influenced when a movie glamorizes drugs, he sort of thinks it is a cool thing.

It may sound like I'm bashing American Gangster a bit but I'm not. I do think the directors and writers could have did more with the story line to make it a little better. If you want to see a decent movie, check American Gangster out. A must see, no, you could live with out seeing it. A Scareface, Godfather or French Connection? Definitely not!

Google Adsense

2008-02-25T02:02:00.000-08:00

Google adsense is a pay per click program that anyone with a web page or blog can sign up for. If you are accepted into their program you will be able to display some Google ads on your web pages and every time one of your visitors click on any of the Google ads a commission is added to your account. The cool thing about Google Adsense is that they display contextual advertising on your site. That basically means that if your website is about cars then the Adsense ads will have something to do with cars, if your site is about health care, then the Adsense ads will be about health, you get the picture. Many have made some serious money by displaying Google Adsense ads on their site but the majority of people have not made a bundle. Why? Well you have to have a lot of visitors to your site and get lots of traffic. The more traffic you get, chances are that more people will click on the Adsense ads. If you already have a popular site then you should see some giant earnings right away by signing up for Adsense. Do I recommend Google Adsense? Certainly! Why not? Even if you are not like the few who make a full time living off of Google Adsense, you will earn some extra money. The minimum payment is $100, in other words, you must earn $100 before they will pay you. If you don't have lots of traffic, it may take a while but there's nothing wrong if it takes you a whole year to accumulate $100 worth of clicks. It's $100 you wouldn't have otherwise. If you want to earn more with Adsense then you should be doing what you would normally do anyways by marketing your website or blog. Besides the Adsense for content ads that you can display you can also slap on a search tool that can search your page, you can also earn from this. Adsense also has a referrals program, video units and much more to offer. Wondering how much you will earn per click? Well, it varies. It can be anywhere from a few cents to dollars, it all depends on what Google Adwords advertisers pay. Adwords is a advertising program that Google runs. So, the higher the advertisers bid against their competitors, the more you will earn. There are more than a few contextual pay per click programs out there but Google Adsense is the king of them. If you want to learn more about Google Adsense and possibly sign up click here.

Freestyle Music

2008-02-18T03:11:00.000-08:00

Are you a fan of freestyle music? freestyle music seems to have been a music genre that never got the credit that it really deserved, even back in it's days of the late 80's. Of course at the time when the music was getting air play it was not called freestyle music, that is just the name that they came up with years later when the music seemed to have gone away and was out of style. Still, there have been many fans of freestyle music who have never let the music die. For those of you who don't know what freestyle music is, please don't mistaken it for freestyle rap which is when a rapper starts rapping straight from the top of his head. Freestyle was music with some groovy beats that one could dance too. The music had some great beats and some of the most popular artist were Stevie B, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Cover Girls, Sweet Sensation, Noel, Cynthia, Seduction and Expose. These are just a few of the most famous ones. I always loved this music even back when it was new music and just loved that the music was dance music but also that they were love songs at the same time whether it was Stevie B singing about his "Spring Love" or Expose singing about "Seasons Changing". Freestyle music will live on forever for freestyle fans and will still pick up new fans as youngsters discover all of those old jams.

Tribute to Freestle Music

Video Game Emulator CD - Old School

2008-02-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

Oh how I loved my childhood days. I use to love playing video games at the liquor stores with all my friends on the way home from school. Of course that was before all of these home video game entertainment systems came along. Those were the days when you could run a successful business with an arcade. Now and days video games are just a perk to your main business. Any ways, I'm getting a little off topic here. If you are someone who enjoyed or enjoys video games, old video games from the 1980's to be specific, then you might be like me and want to enjoy all those games again. I'm not one who has much time to play video games anymore, the last system I bought was the original Playstation 1 when it first came out. I've heard about these video game emulations and have checked them out because I wouldn't find having some of my childhood games on my laptop, just there for me in case I feel like playing them. On these emulation sites though I noticed that you have to download the emulator and I'm one who gets kind of scared to download most things since I got a nasty virus that basically destroyed my last laptop, by the way if was from Limewire or Kazza, I forget which one. I found a site that offered all of these games I was looking for from the 80's like Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers, Spy Hunter, Space Invaders, Mike Tysons Punch Out, RBI Baseball and many more. Way to may to name here, there are hundreds and hundreds of games. I bought the games from this site because I did not have to download anything. They sent me the CD in the mail and it was easy to use. The CD, at least the one I bought, features around 800 games and it is real easy to use. You just pop the CD into your laptop or desktop and the list of games are right there. You just click on the game you want to play and play. I give the sellers of this CD a big thumbs up for offering this CD. If you want to see what the CD has to offer you visit their site with the link below.

Video Game Emulation CD

E-Bay Stores

2008-02-03T03:21:00.000-08:00

Do you sell on E-Bay?
Ever thought about getting an E-Bay store?
Would it be worth it to get an E-Bay store?

Well that all depends on what you want to do.

Do you want to start your own small business?
Do you have a business already and would like to sell through E-Bay?

If so, having an E-Bay store will be great for you. E-Bay stores are easy to navigate, even for a beginner. It's really easy to learn how to list your items and customize the look of your store. If you only have a few items to sell then you probably don't need to have an E-Bay store, just go ahead and sell your items. I have seen many E-Bay stores out there that only have 30, 40 or 50 items in their store. I know that we all must start somewhere and this is OK at the beginning but you must have more items than this to be a real success with your E-Bay Store. Your store should have at least 100 items minimum. Having hundreds or possibly thousands of course is even better. Be sure you have the money though for your listing fees because listing many items can add up real quick even though it is only a few cents to list items.

E-Bay offers three different kinds of stores. A basic store will cost you only $15.95 per month. Premium $49.95 and Anchor Store $299.95. To start out you can just start with the basic store until you need to upgrade later when your orders start coming in. On their site you can read more details about each kind of store and what it offers.

There are many other little add ons that you can use with your E-Bay store. One example is their selling pro manager. You can use their selling pro manager if you want you manage all of your sales. There are also many promotional tools and many more add on benefits you will learn all about after visiting your site.

Many website owners open up an E-Bay store to get new customers. How many sites out there have more traffic than E-Bay? Not many! They make that sale on E-Bay then refer that customer to their website for future sales.

Of course most E-Bay Store owners don't have their own website and run their successful business 100% E-Bay. You can sell almost anything in your store. You can start out with stuff around your house you don't need or want. Some people find stuff for a cheap price at yard sales and resell it for profit on E-Bay! Some purchase wholesale bulk items, of course getting these items at bargain prices and then sell these items in their E-Bay Store.

If you would like to start an E-Bay store but have no idea what to sell perhaps you may want to check out topwholesalesources.blogspot.com - You will find different sources of wholesalers there. Some of these wholesalers even offer a dropshipping service. This basically means that you don't have to purchase up front items, you don't purchase the items until you sell it. Once you make the sale, you purchase the item from the wholesaler at the wholesale price of course and they will automatically ship it to your customer under your name. Most dropshipping wholesalers will even offer you a HTML code to paste in your E-Bay listings that will give a description of the item you are selling and a picture of the item. Some like to use dropshipping and some don't. Some would rather purchase the items in bulk first, have the items in their hands and then sell, it's up to you. Having an E-Bay store can work for you if you let it!

If you need items to sell visit - Top Wholesale Sources

He-Man Season DVD Set

2008-01-28T04:29:00.000-08:00

If you are a child of the early 80's then chances are that you loved the He-Man cartoons and probably She-Ra too. I definitely did and would always look forward to watching He-Man after school every day. Recently I did a search on He-Man and found that a couple of years ago they had put together some He-Man and She-Ra complete season DVD's. I ended up buying He-Man Masters of the Universe season 1 - Part 1. There is a part 2 for season 1 that I will be purchasing later. I have over 30 shows to watch on part 1 first. After I have season 1, parts 1 and 2 I will then go and get season 2, which comes in 2 parts also. Then it will be off to the She-Ra Princess of Power series. Anyhow, I'm getting to far ahead of myself. I've watched the first two disk (About 12 shows); by the way there are 6 disk that come with season 1 - part 1 and it comes in a nice collectors case. I was really taken down memory lane, I actually still remembered some of the episodes. All the characters of my childhood, He-Man, Teela, Orko, Man-At-Arms, the Sorceress, Castle Grayskull, Skelator, Beast Man, Trap-Jaw, Evil Lin, Tri-Clops, Snake Mountain. One thing that struck me was how the He-Man cartoons would always give advice at the end of each episode that always taught kids about making good judgements, not being greedy, trying your best and other things of moral standard. I remember really taking the advice as a kid. Sure wish cartoons of today were like that for today's kids. My wife would have thought I wasted a good $20 that could have been spent elsewhere but I told her it was for my 4 year old son, which it was; kind of but whose to say good old pops here can't enjoy He-Man just as much as his son. My son now wants to watch it 24 hours a day! I have to give this He-Man DVD set a very big thumbs up.

He-Man Masters of the Universe Season 1 - Part 1

Mega Mech Remote Control Talking Robot 48-Inch

2008-01-15T02:19:00.000-08:00

Mega Mech is an inflatable, talking robot that stands 4 feet tall. Yes 4" tall! It takes a whole lot of blowing up once purchased but you are supplied with an air pump to make it easy for you. Mega Mech talks in a robotic voice and you use the remote control to make him go forward, backwards, turn left or turn right. Got this for my little boy for Christmas and he loved it. We took it outside and my son felt so good about all the attention he was getting from other people with his new robot. I was really impressed with Mega Mech and would recommend this giant robot toy for anyone who has a kid from 4-10. Your child will be fascinated.

Tekno Mega Mech Airmagination Inflatable R/C Robot 48-Inch

Zlio Online Store

2008-01-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

Zlio can help you set up your own online store. You pick your online store name and sell many different items, the choice is yours what you want to sell. You can sell books, computers, movies and so many other different items - It's entirely up to you what you want to sell. You pick the items you want to add to your store and they are in. You add things of your liking to your store but it will take you hours and hours to do so, not 5 minutes. The maximum number of items you can add to your store is 1000 items. Zlio let's you open up more than one store if you want. You can categorize your items in any way you want to.

When someone visits your store, finds an item of interest and then proceeds to click on it a page will pop up listing all the different merchants that are selling that product with the price that each store is selling it at. When someone buys you earn a commission of each sale. They also have pay per click merchants were you will get paid per click. You can get all the details by visiting their site here: Zlio online shop.

I thought that Zlio had some real potential but for me personally it was a big waste of time. I opened up 3 different stores and added the widgets that they supply to show off some of my stores products on my personal blogs and websites. In about a years time all I was able to earn was $0.52. I could say Zlio sucks but instead I will just say the program didn't work for me. I have now taken all of the widgets off of my blogs and sites. I know when trying to find information of Zlio on the web many will try to make it sound good so that they can try to promote it because they are trying to promote their store or get you to open up a store where they will supposedly earn commissions for bringing you aboard. I will be honest here and I am going to say it- Zlio sucks! Is it a scam, I wouldn't say that. Maybe some are earning from Zlio but for me, once again it sucked. I just started writing for e-how and in a couple of days earned $4.00. That's right in a couple days! Zlio, 52 cents in a year! It was not the traffic either because I've earned some good commissions from programs that were on the same blogs or websites that I had my Zlio widgets on. If you want to try Zlio yourself, by all means go ahead but I wouldn't waste my time.

Cash Call

2008-01-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

Cash Call is a private loan company that loans money to those in need of some quick cash. The minimum that one can borrow is $2,600 and the maximum is $10,000. For those who need a quick loan and know that they can definitely pay the loan back fast it might not be a bad company to deal with. When I say pay it back fast though I really mean FAST!

For those who plan on making the minimum payments, you are best not to take out a loan with Cash Call. Why? The interest rates will kill you, some people are actually paying 99% interest on their loans. You can't feel good about getting a $2,600 loan and paying back over $9,000 when it's all said and done. That is a bind that many get themselves into when signing the dotted line for a Cash Call loan. There have been many, many complaints against Cash Call and I agree that this company has a usury way of doing business. One must also realize though that this company is not breaking the law, they will let you know the interest rate you will pay back before signing the agreement.

Click here to see Cash Call interest rates.

Now, I am not defending this company but I just wanted to let it be known that they are not breaking any laws. I personally would never ever do any business with Cash Call because I would not be able to pay off a loan in the next couple of months. Especially when there are better loans I can get out there. Many people getting these Cash Call loans have bad credit and feel that places like Cash Call are their only hope.

There are other options though. One of the best is from Prosper. For those who wish to get a small loan from $1000 to $25,000 with a great interest rate check out prosper.com

For some complaints from borrowers on Cash Call take a look here.

I give this company and any company like it (because there are many) a big thumbs down.

The Sandlot

2008-01-02T05:26:00.001-08:00

For anyone out there who is a baseball fan - If you have not seen the movie "Sandlot" you may want to check it out. If you have kids it would be a great movie for you to watch with your kids. The film came out in 1993 but I just seen it again recently and would like to let everyone know what a great movie it is. No,it is not a manly action movie or a feminine chick flick but a movie for the whole family that all can enjoy together.

The film takes place in the early 60's when Scotty Smalls moves to Los Angeles with his family. Scotty is worried that he will have no friends during the whole summer and watches some other kids playing baseball one day. A ball goes to him and he throws it back (not a good throw) and all the kids consider him to be a loser except for one of them named Benny Rodriguez who wants Scotty to be part of their team so they can have a full team of 9 players. Benny eventually gets the others to accept Scotty and with help from Benny he becomes better and an important part of their team.

Like mentioned earlier it is a great film where they have to deal with "the beast". The beast is on the other side of the fence where a home run is hit and stories have been told of this beast that no one returns if they try to retrieve their ball. They also have to deal with another upper class style baseball team and prove their baseball skills. You have them also dealing with their young teen hormones as they all have a crush on the lifeguard.

The end of the film (back in present time) reveals how Scotty and Benny had followed similar paths in life and though doing different things in life are still deeply connected. I'll just say that as I don't want to give it away in case you plan to see the film.

The movie emphasizes on friendship, baseball, heroism and responsibility. This movie gets a big thumbs up from me.

There is a part 2 of "Sandlot" that I have not seen but probably will soon.

Blogspot Help - Tips and Tricks

2008-01-02T04:35:00.000-08:00

Do you use blogger? Need blogger help? For anyone who blogs with blogger, (AKA blogspot.com) and may want some help in getting creative with their blog I'd like to recommend the best help you can get anywhere. You can really learn about the many topics covered there and will be surprised at all the things you can do with your blog that you thought were not possible. There are so many topics there and the instructions are easy to understand. Check the site out and you are guaranteed to bookmark it for future use. Click the below link to go there.

topwholesalesources.com

2007-12-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

If you are a retailer who sells at a physical store or via the Internet you might want to take a look at topwholesalesources.blogspot.com. I found a bunch of links there, mostly banner ads of some great wholesalers. There's not much to write about the site because all it is really is a gateway to all the wholesale sites but just for that reason and the quality of the websites there I have to give topwholesalesources.blogspot.com a thumbs up.

Dear Mr. Jesus

2007-12-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

If you have never heard the song "Dear Mr. Jesus" then you have missed one of the most touching songs that has ever been made. The song is about abused children and is from the album "Shelters from the storm" by PowerSource. The main vocals of the song are by 9 year old Sharon Batts and was made in the mid 80's. I had never personally heard the song until around the year 2001 when a local radio station kept playing it around Christmas time. After Christmas ended though they never played it anymore and I had to get this song. I finally found where to get the CD. Here is the link to where I got it. http://www.songtracker.com/music.html

You can hear the song below. After purchasing the CD I found that I also enjoyed all the other songs on the album too. Very good job also to Richard Klender who wrote and composed the music for "Dr Mr. Jesus".

Agloco

2007-12-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

Many months ago I discovered on the net a program called Agloco. If you joined Agloco you were suppose to download a viewbar that would sit on the bottom of your screen and make some good money by doing what you normally do anyway, surf the net. When I joined you could not download the viewbar yet though as Agloco was in beta and all members were waiting patiently for what seemed like forever to be able to get the toolbar. In the meantime, your job was to recruit others into Agloco which would drastically add to your later earnings. Many people who joined really promoted heavily and got hundreds if not thousands under them. Me personally, after joining forgot all about the program and never recruited one person. I got reminded one day of the program though when I received an E-mail stating that the viewbar was now available to download. For some reason I still did not feel to good about Agloco and passed on it. Plus I didn't really know what I was downloading onto my computer, call me paranoid but I like protecting my investment, don't need any viruses or spyware on my computer. I checked out some forums on the Agloco topic and noticed many critics saying that Agloco would never work, just as I've felt all along. Of course, you also had the supporters of the program giving their views. Some called it a scam, I beg to defer. I don't think Agloco was ever a scam. I mean, usually when a scam is involved people get ripped off of their hard earned money, Agloco was free, so it was not a scam. I think what it was, was just something that didn't work out the way it was supposed to, many of us seen that though way before it happened. Here is how the program was suppose to work. This is from the official Agloco website.

AGLOCO makes money for its Members in many ways:

Search: Every time you use the Viewbar™ to do an Internet search, AGLOCO earns money from the search engine providers. (For example, Google pays as much as $0.10 on average for each search that is directed to its search engine.)
Advertising: The Viewbar™ itself displays ads that are targeted based upon the websites you’re visiting. When you click on an ad and make a purchase, AGLOCO receives a referral fee, which we pass on to our Members. (Please note: Individual members do not receive any compensation for clicking on ads in the Viewbar™, and the Viewbar™ can detect if someone is clicking ads in a fraudulent manner.)
Transaction commissions: Many major retailers pay commissions when you refer customers who make a purchase. AGLOCO collects that commission and passes it on to our members. (For example, Amazon pays an 8.5% commission to most websites who refer customers, and has cut deals for even larger percentages. The bigger the AGLOCO community, the better commission we can negotiate for our Members.)
Software distribution: Numerous software companies pay websites to encourage the download of new software releases (for example, Adobe’s Flash and Acrobat Reader software), and trial versions of new programs. AGLOCO members not only get access to the latest and coolest software, they get paid for it.
Service distribution: Many online service providers will look to the AGLOCO community as a source of new and active users for their services. (For example, eBay, Skype, and PayPal, among others, all pay fees to people who help them recruit new active users to their services)
Product distribution: When Members agree to use a product, such as cell phones, high-tech gadgets, office supplies, new credit cards or financial services, AGLOCO can collect referral fees. Some companies even offer special rebate and cash-back programs.

AGLOCO Members make money in four ways.

Members earn a monthly share of the AGLOCO revenue based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month.
Members earn part of the company based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month (currently a maximum of five hours are rewarded).
Members who use our referral system to help build the AGLOCO network will earn more. (AGLOCO only has significant value as a large network and people who help build it should be rewarded. – We also feel that the early users who told friends about YouTube or MySpace or even Google probably deserved something too, but no referral system was available to record their work).
Members will also get a share of any commissions AGLOCO gets when a Member purchases a product or service from an AGLOCO Sponsor company.

It all sounded good at the time and it was a great idea but as Queen once said "Another one bites the dust". Finally time for Agloco to see it too. Received this E-mail from them recently.

We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO's operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com

We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going.

AGLOCO Development Team

I am so glad that I did not waste my time with this one. Would have been hours and hours wasted!

I give Agloco a big thumbs down.

Prosper

2007-12-10T02:35:00.000-08:00

Prosper is a loaning company but it is unlike any loan company you have ever seen, it is a P2P loaning company. Unlike your traditional lending company like 'Cash Call' (promoted heavily by Arnold of the old show Different Strokes) and others who will charge you a arm and a leg for a loan with stiff interest rates you can actually get a good deal at Prosper. At Prosper, borrowing money from people is fast, safe, and easy. You will borrow money from people just like you. You post a listing requesting a loan, and other people bid for the privilege of lending you money.

You can borrow anywhere from $1000 to $25,000 on Prosper. To borrow money your credit don't really matter, you can still get a loan. Of course if your credit score is better you will probably get a better interest rate. Many people who could qualify for a loan at their bank, credit union or other lending institutes use Prosper because they can get a better interest rate. Others who don't have so good credit and would get turned down for a personal loan anywhere they go can get a loan on Prosper, like mentioned earlier probably with a higher interest rate than those with good credit. Never the less, you will still get your loan and you will not get ripped off by paying back three or four times the amount you borrowed. The interest rate will be affordable. Click on the link below to check out the website for full details.

If you have some money just sitting in the bank not doing anything you may want to earn interest off of that money. Lending money directly to people is a great way to earn a fair return. Prosper provides a lot of credit, employment, and income data, and lets you choose exactly who you want to lend to. Many people are earning money by loaning their money out to borrowers. You can get a piece of the pie! There is a strategy and Prosper will give you a tutorial on the best way to loan. You wont put all your eggs in one basket, you loan $50 here, $50 there, $100 there and so on. Way too much to explain here, you really need to check out their website to get the full details on lending.

I have personally been a borrower and am very happy with the way Prosper works. In the future I plan to be a lender. The guys who founded this company were some real geniuses.

I completely give this site a thumbs up and they get a grade A in my book.

Netzero

2007-12-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

NetZero has kept its name as one of the top Internet service providers despite sticking only to dial up internet access for years while their competitors all moved on to wireless, cable, DSL, and other advanced and faster internet connections. NetZero made their move a few years ago and now offers NetZero HiSpeed for Broadband service and DSL.

I remember years ago before I ever really played around on the Internet I used to see the NetZero - FREE INTERNET - ads all over the television while watching sports events. Sure, it was limited hours per month but you received 10 hours a month free. Well, that offer still stands today. Who else offers free internet service? No one, that's who. I mean, this has got to be the perfect situation for people who just need to get on the Internet once in a while to maybe check their E-mail, pay a few bills or do a little shopping once in a while or whatever else they need to do. If you live on the Internet this deal is not for you, after you use your 10 time up, you can not get back on the Internet until the month is over. NetZero still offers this plan completely free for those who want it. Link is right below.

Get Free NetZero Internet Access for 10 hours per month

If the free internet limited hours plan doesn't work for you and you need way more time on the Internet, NetZero has a great plan for you. If you know anything about the regular NetZero plan then you know that they offer the best price around, charging only $9.95 per month for their regular Internet service. What some don't know is that the $9.95 is not the best price you can get this service for. You can actually get regular NetZero for only $6.95 per month. Compare that with other similar services who charge as much as $24.99.

Get NetZero Internet for as low as $6.95 per month!

NetZero gets a big Grade A. Simply one of the original and best in the ISP business.

'Triple Your Money'

2007-12-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

The 'Triple Your Income' program run by Unlimited Wealth Alliance' claim that you can triple your money over and over. The investment is not big, only $35.00 to join the program. I joined around 7 or 8 months ago not expecting much. The program seemed good so I figured if it works, great! If not, oh well, it's just $35. When you join the marketing plan you are furnished with your own website, which is one way you can build your 2X2 matrix, they will also provide you with links and banner ads to your new site. You also can get hard copy camera-ready material which is used if you want to recruit with circulars (fliers). If anyone joins from one of your fliers Unlimited Wealth Alliance will know that you personally recruited the new member. Besides making money you also will get training material and over 200 classic books and self help books, well worth the price of joining. Don't get me wrong here, I did not join because of these but they are some great perks, I joined because I wanted to make some money. What attracted me to this program was mainly the 2X2 matrix. All it takes is 6 people to fill your matrix. Here is a brief example from the site:

The moment you have 6 people in your 2x2 matrix (two on level 1 and four on level 2) -- whether you personally sponsored them or not -- you'll earn $70.00! PLUS, you get an AUTOMATIC FREE RE-ENTRY under your sponsor ... putting you in a position to get paid AGAIN!

Your Sponsor will also earn a 15% Matching Bonus ($10.00) every time you get paid. You will also earn Matching Bonuses when members you personally sponsor are paid!

Your new position (matrix) under your sponsor can be filled with help from your upline, by new members you personally sponsor or when your personally sponsored members complete their matrices and are re-entered under you in your new position.

Honestly since joining I have not promoted heavily, I have a little but not nearly like I could. I will start promoting more because I truly now know it works. I have been paid numerous times already and remember, I have not tried that hard. Now I'm thinking about what I could do giving 100% effort. Experience speaks and how could I down grade this program. There is a link below for you to look into this wonderful program, there you can get more details on it and check out the pay structure more and all the other details of the program. If you decide to join you can by using your credit card, debit card, check, money order or E-Gold. Where's the Paypal? That's what I was looking for when I joined but they do not take Paypal as of this writing. I don't know why but oh well.

Triple Your Money - Click here - Link taken off due to program going belly up

Grade - A

UPDATE - This program went belly up. Something about hackers messing things up on their system. They refunded my initial $35 start up fee. Seemed like a really good thing.

Amazon.com Afiliate Program

2007-11-28T00:27:00.001-08:00

Affiliate programs are something that can benefit all webmasters and generate some extra cash. Most affiliate programs will at least offer you a 30 day cookie which means that if someone clicks on the affiliate ad from your site and does not make a purchase right away but then decides to go back to the site and purchase within the next 30 days, you will earn your commission. Many affiliate programs even offer 60 or 90 day cookies. There is one popular affiliate program from a company highly recognized and that company is Amazon. Amazon would seem like a great affiliate program because of name recognition and there great ability to target visitors of your website with things they may be interested in purchasing, there lay out for the ads is also quite impressive. The bad thing is Amazon offers only a one day cookie which means that if someone clicks on their ad from your site, does not purchase right away, goes back and purchases in a couple days from them, then you earn absolutely nothing. That's right, you just made a sale for them and earn nothing! Now, Amazon does not need you referring anybody do they, they are a big company that can get by without you. But they should give credit where credit is deserved. But it is their business and if they want to offer a one day cookie then that is their choice. It is also your choice if you want to be an affiliate for them. I would choose to pass on this! The 4% commission they pay isn't so great either, but that would not stop me from being an affiliate for them. The one day cookie with Amazon is the main thing stopping me from ever being and Amazon affiliate.

Grade = F

Lego Land Amusement Park

2007-11-20T09:19:00.001-08:00

Recently took the family to Lego Land in Carlsbad, California. It is one of the few amusement parks I had never been to here in Southern California. Of course it is not as old as the other famous ones we have here like Disneyland, Magic Mountain or Knots Berry Farm for example. I have often heard both good and bad from people about this amusement park. I've heard that they don't really have much there from people who have complained about it. Well, me and the family were about to find out.

One thing I was disappointed in was their operating hours. We went on a Sunday so they opened at 10 AM and closed at 5 PM, I'm used of other parks closing at 9, 10 or sometimes 11PM. I thought, OK, maybe there is not so much to do there and that's why they close kind of early.
Another disappointment was the price to get in the place. $59 for an adult and 47 for a child 3-12, seniors 60+ same price as kids. Now this is expensive! Luckily I had some coupons that if you pay for an adult you get a child in free. It was me, the wife, my mother, my three kids and our baby who is free. So we needed three coupons which I had and paid $177 for us three adults to get in and the three kids were free. Thank god for those coupons, saved a bundle!
Once on the outside of the park we saw a family made of Legos and if it is the first time you've been there like us, you are truly amazed what they can do with Legos. At first glance I thought they were a real family until we got close enough. We then went in the park and saw more cool figures made of Legos. There was Batman, Darth Vader and others. We then took the kids on a few rides, I will not mention every ride we went on there just a few favorites.

Splash Battle Pirate Shores - I'd have to say that this ride was the funnest there. You can say this is a water ride. You board these Pirate Ships and it goes slowly around making turns here and there. The fun part is that you have canons you can shoot and make your best watery shot at other ships. Of course this means that they can shoot you too and they are not the only ones. There are other people, who are not on the ride but outside of the ride shooting water from the canons at you, of course you can shoot them back. After you get off the ride you may want to become one of those people and shoot the riders.

Miniland USA - This is a part of the park where you can walk around and see what it possible with Legos. They have built here Southern California, New York City, San Fransisco, New Orleans. It's really amazing what these folks do here. Oh yeah, Las Vegas is another one they do. I can't think of the rest right now but no matter what you think you have seen before, you have never seen anything like this.

Kid Power Towers is a fun ride were you have a rope and pull yourself up high. To fall you just let the rope go. This is one of the fun rides for the family. For the people who had told me that this place did not have much to do - I think they are crazy because there are so many rides here that we did not even have enough time during the whole day to experience them all. Another thing is all the rides were very enjoyable and they have a little of everything for all age groups. They have the Junior Driving School (kids around 4), Volvo driving school for kids that are bigger (around 7-11), Lego Technic Coaster (8-13). These rides I'm saying are not limited to that age but just an idea who would enjoy what. The kids will also find it pretty cool when they get their drivers license after completing the driving school rides.

Even though Legoland concentrates on children they also have a few rides for the adult thrill seekers. They have here Knights Tournament Knights Fever, it basically looks like a giant robots arm that holds you at the hand part and twist and turns you like crazy. I noticed that some riders were twisting and turning more quickly and their ride just seemed more crazy than others. I later found out that you can pick your intensity level for your ride. I didn't get a chance to go on this one but next time I definitely will.

We saw a cool show called Kevin Johnson's magic show for kids. I thought it would be a little comedy show for the kids to enjoy but we adults enjoyed it just as much as the kids - Honest! The guy was funny as heck and is a gifted ventriloquist. He also does a couple tricks that have you wondering how he did it. I heard that Kevin Johnson has come on the David Letterman show before. This guy has talent!

I will have to say that I had no complains about Legoland and really enjoyed our trip there. My whole family enjoyed it! If I would have to complain about anything it would only be the operating hours and the price, the price being the main thing here. Way too expensive.

Grade B+

Get-Credit-Cards.blogspot.com - Review

2007-11-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

There are virtually thousands and thousands of credit card sites out there and all offer basically the same thing - credit cards. So this makes it kind of hard to judge one credit card sight from the other. I don't land on these sites to often because I'm not one who is ever looking to get a new credit card, believe me when I tell you I have enough. Somehow I ran into this site called get-credit-cards.blogspot.com, ain't all that fancy and has a few credit card offers on it but that doesn't seem to be their main focus there. Seems like the articles are what they want you to read and if interested in one of the credit cards on there then go for it. Anyways, I must really say that some of the articles on there are pretty good and can educate you on credit cards. The articles are not too long and get to the topic real quick. They really show you some tips on how you should use them and raise your credit score the fastest way and what really makes your credit score drop etc., etc. Grade B
get-credit-cards.blogspot.com

Bloggerparty.com - Review

2007-11-08T04:20:00.002-08:00

So you enjoy blogging do you? Most who blog do it because they enjoy writing about the things they love or use their blog as sort of an online journal. Most blogs (not all) are centered on one particular subject. For instance sports, cooking, arts and crafts, cars or any other hobbies you might enjoy. Many bloggers have started to add some Google adsense ads on their blogs to generate a nice little income from it. If you don't know what Google adsense is, it is a program by Google that places relevant ads on your website or blog and they pay you every time one of your visitors click on any of the Google ads. Payment for each click can vary, you may notice a few on my page here. Anyhow, Bloggerparty.com has taken it to another level. You register with them and they set your blog up for you. It's pretty cool as you can choose the look of your blog from various themes. Within your blog some Google Adsense ads are displayed, 50% of them have your google ID tagged in them (meaning when some one clicks on them you earn) and the other 50% have bloggerparty's google ID tagged to them (meaning they get paid when someone clicks on them). Bloggers can greatly benefit from this because bloggerparty has a high PR and gets high traffic meaning you earn more from your Adsense ads. No matter if you are new to blogging or have been in the blogging game a while your sure to like what bloggerparty has to offer. You can check it all out by going to their site here Bloggerparty.com. When you go to the site register by clicking on 'Quick Start' under the main menu. If you don't already have a Google adsense account you can get one after registering with bloggerparty first. Bloggerparty has information on how to get a adsense acoount under *user guide* then *about google adsense*.

Grade: B+

Flyordie.com - Review

2007-11-07T04:07:00.001-08:00

To me flyordie.com is the best multiplayer gaming site there is. They have many games you can play there with other people. Online Chess and checkers are probably their two most popular ones. Other games are 3D Billiards, Four in a Row, Action - Tanx, The Larkinor Quest, Reversi, Nine Mens Morris, Gomoku, Pente, Xudoko, Fodball & Go. If you like playing these games, I highly recommend this site for you. Grade=A
flyordie.com

Gamefly.com - Review

2007-11-07T01:53:00.000-08:00

Gamefly.com is the leading online video game rental service there is and for good reason. They have a wide selection and availability of games for the Nintendo's Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Xbox™, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PSP. They carry new releases as well as some of the classic games, so you will always find what you are looking for. Shipping of your games is always free both ways and there are never any late fees. Just return your games to get some new games. This site is great for those who want to test some games out before purchasing that particular game elsewhere. Shipping to you will never be a problem as they have a west coast and east coast distribution center. In the past they were only in the west coast and some on the east coast thought the games sometimes took to long to arrive but that issue has now been solved. There is a small membership fee to become a member of gamefly.com but they offer a free trial you can try. I'd recommend this site to all video gamers out there but you really need to try it yourself and see how you like it. Learn more by going to their site.

Mailorderbusiness.biz - Review

2007-11-07T01:17:00.001-08:00

While checking out this website you will see many different money making opportunities. I noticed on this site that many of the opportunities are done by direct mail. Lots of the ads you can reply by mail only, not all but many of them, some are Internet friendly. There is a section there called adsheets that has many smaller ads from advertisers who only have a small space to advertise in and want to send you their full information. If you are an advertiser and want to advertise your money making opportunity to other entrepreneurs they have advertising you can do there for as little as $10, I think your ad is up for a year or more. I ordered their "Money Making Publications" offer for $12 and have been receiving many great entrepreneur magazines in the mail all the time. Within these magazines I've honestly found many good opportunities that I have not run into on the Internet before. Well worth the $12 fee I paid. I think people who advertise will also find these magazines useful as they're are some good advertising sources in these magazines (besides that particular magazine of course). The site also offers free articles/reports to read that are very informative. I've noticed many got deleted recently (don't know why - only a hand full right now). I'm sure they will be back up though. Overall, I'd say if you are looking for ways to make money from home this is a great site to visit. GRADE B+
mailorderbusiness.biz

Columbia House - Review

2007-11-07T00:27:00.001-08:00

OK now, most of us have heard of Columbia House. They are a company that sells music CD's and DVD's. You become part of their club by sending for their introductory package. There introductory package for music CD's usually consist of something like getting seven CD's free now (you get charged the shipping though), buy one at regular price within a year and get four more free. The DVD club works very similar, you get a bunch of DVD's at the beginning for real cheap, buy at regular price and then get more for free. Anyways, the reason for this review is not that I'm a member of these music/dvd clubs but for the unwelcomed package I received from them. In my mailbox the other day I received an introductory package from them with seven or eight DVD's in the box. There was a bill in there for like $27 or $28 dollars which is their shipping charge (By the way the shipping charge they charge is way over priced as they use Media Mail - I know because I ship packages myself all the time). The problem here? I never joined their club and have never had any interest in joining their club. On the outside of the box there was no name of who it was from so I neatly opened the box, if there had been a Columbia House return address on the outside I would have never opened it. You might ask why I opened it but I receive packages all the time since I run a small home based business and always receive packages. So I then call the customer service number on their invoice but realize that you can not talk to a live person, they give you recorded options of buying more CD's and so on. You can only contact them by regular mail or e-mail. In my opinion in this day of age, a company needs to have a phone line where customers can talk to a live person, especially a company as big as Columbia House that has been around forever. Anyways, I just taped the little section of the box up where I opened it and wrote on it "Refused - Return To Sender". I'm hoping they don't send it back to me saying "If you refused it then why did you open the box". I recently did some Google research on Columbia House and most of what I've read is not too good. Seems they have a habit of sending members of their club CD's/DVD's that they don't want and billing people's credit cards when they want even after people cancel their memberships. OK, that's a customer relationship though but in my case, I am no member of their club. I will have to say that I really hate them sending me this and me having to spend my time dealing with it so I will have to give their company a GRADE D for their tactics here in trying to get new customers.

WWE Shop - Review

2007-11-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

WWE Shop is the official store of the WWE. OK, if you are not a fan of the WWE this store will not interest you at all but if you are then you are in for a treat. They sell just about anything your interested in (WWE related of course). They have a wide selection of DVD's of all the great wrestling events. You can find all the great Wrestlemania's, Summer Slams, etc. here. I recently purchased the Wrestlemania Anthology set. They actually come in four different volumes but I saved some money by buying the whole set. Now I own all the Wrestlemania's from Wrestlemani I to XXII. Theres twenty two disk all together. I gotta say that this is a true collectors edition. If you have been a fan of the WWE for some time you will appreciate seeing the old, or should I say younger Hulk Hogan going at it with Andre the Giant, "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, Roddy Piper and so on. You really go through a time warp with this collection. I have been watching them in order and am now at Wrestlemania X. It was pretty cool seeing Undertaker go at it with Giant Gonzalez. I had completely forgotten about that one. Another one that got me excited like when I was a kid was seeing the old Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior fight, I remember not knowing who to root for as a kid as they were both well liked. I think I was leaning more for Hulk Hogan but if Ultimate Warrior won I was OK with it. Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Eddie Guerrero, The Rock, Steve Austin, Batista, Jake the Snake, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Million Dollar Man, they are all in here. For anyone thinking about making this purchase, I would recommend getting the complete Anthology Box set that has all Wrestlemania's up to XXII at this time. You can purchase the volumes separately at a time, each volume has like five Wrestlemania's on it. For example, you can get the one with Wrestlemania I-V or VI - X, and so on.

Note: Purchasing the entire complete box set will save you some money if you plan on getting them all anyways.

Besides the Wrestlemania DVD, WWE Shop has many other main event DVD's and many other things any wrestling fan would be interested in. T-Shirts, posters, trading cards, toys, action figures, books, video games and the list goes on. For any wrestling fan who wants to check them out click on the following link. You can even get free shipping! I give WWE Shop an A +.
Free Shipping on $60 & over at WWEShop!

Transformers

2007-11-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

The film begins with Optimus Prime explaining Cybertron's destruction at the hands of Megatron, and his quest to obtain the Allspark. Megatron discovers the Allspark on Earth, but crash-lands in the Article Circle, becoming frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumble upon Megatron's body in 1897. Megatron's navigational system is activated by Captain Witwicky, and Archibald's eye glasses are imprinted with the Allspark's coordinates. Sector 7, a secret United States government organization, discovers the Allspark and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask the energy signal. The still-frozen Megatron is moved into this facility, and is reversed engineered to further advance human technology.

In the present day, the rest of theDecepticons-Blackout, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Scorponok, Bonecrusher and Devastator—have landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles (except Scorponok, who keeps his scorpion-like alien form). Blackout and Scorponok attack a U.S. military base in Qator and try to hack into the military database to find where Megatron and the Allspark are, but fail when the network is manually shut down. While Blackout destroys the rest of the base, Scorponok chases a small group of survivors, but is eventually repelled. After their failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One to hack again into the military database. He finds the map imprinted on Captain Witwicky's glasses, which his descendant Sam intends to sell on eBay for money. Frenzy and Barricade begin tracking Sam's location.

The Autonomous Robotic Organism (shortened to "Autobot") Bumblebee is also on Earth, disguised as a 1976 Chevy Camaro, and looking for Sam. Sam buys Bumblebee, who then helps him try to woo his crush, Mikaela Banes; Sam does not know that Bumblebee is an alien until he sees Bumblebee transform and send a homing signal to the rest of the Autobots. While Sam flees from his autonomous car, Barricade confronts him and demands Archibald's spectacles. Bumblebee, who is following Sam, transforms and defeats Barricade. Mikaela, who is also following Sam, is caught in the crossfire, and leaves with Sam and Bumblebee to rendezvous with the rest of the Autobots. The Autobots—Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchett—land on Earth and take on the forms of Earth vehicles. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home to retrieve the glasses. Although the Autobots manage to get the glasses, agents from Sector 7 arrive and capture Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee.

Frenzy secretly accompanies the group to the Hoover Dam and releases Megatron from suspended animation. Locating the Allspark, he sends an alert to the other Decepticons. Megatron escapes and Sam convinces the Sector 7 agents to release Bumblebee so that he can get the Allspark to Optimus Prime. The Decepticons chase the Autobots, who now possess the Allspark, into Mission City. An ensuing battle results in casualties for both sides: Optimus Prime kills Bonecrusher, Frenzy accidentally decapitates himself, Megatron kills Jazz, and both the Autobots and the military take down Devastator and Blackout. The battle ends with Sam killing Megatron when he rams the Allspark into Megatron's chest. Optimus expresses his gratitude to the humans and takes a fragment of the Allspark from Megatron's corpse. Bumblebee decides to remain with Sam. With the Allspark destroyed, Optimus knows that Cybertron cannot be restored, and sends a signal to any other surviving Autobots in the universe, directing them to Earth. The dead Decepticons are dumped into the Lauentian Abyss. The Secretary of Defense orders the termination of Sector 7. Starscream, the only confirmed surviving Decepticon, flies into space.

My Review:

This movie was actually a movie that I was waiting for to come out at the theater and there ain't too many movies I wait for like that. Me, being a kid in the 80's and a big Transformer fan just had to see some of my re-newed childhood heroes again and the movie did not disappoint. I was sort of too anxious I think to see the actual Transformers when the movie started and it seemed like a long time for Optimus Prime and company to appear but it was just me. At the beginning of the movie (before the transformers appeared on the screen) it was kind of funny as Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is trying to impress a girl he likes Mikeala (Megan Fox). Bumblebee is the first transformer you meet in the movie, then all the Decepticons. Finally, all the Autobots make their appearances. The way they made this movie was great and I think anyone would enjoy it but I think if you grew up as a transformer kid in the 80's you will enjoy it even more.

Rating: 8.8

300

2007-11-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

My Review:

Now this was a great movie. When I watched "300"I had never heard of it or anything and asked the video store clerk to just give me something good. He offered me "300" and some other movie and I said to just give me that one. When I watched it I was so into it from the very beginning. Spartan King Leonidas (Gerald Butler) really played this part better than anyone could have ever. He is the main character of the movie as he leads his 300 Spartans into battle against the Persian King Xerxes who has over one million soldiers. Though this film is based on an actual historical event the film makers of this movie really added to it and you can call it a historical fantasy movie with some creature like characters in the film. From the very beginning it is exciting as a Persian messenger arrivesat Sparta and demands that Sparta submit to the king of Persia, Xerxes. Outraged and offended at their behavior, King Leonidas kicks the messenger into a pit; the other messengers suffer the same fate. The ending is also great as the Spartans show honor in fighting to the death. This I would call a must see movie.

My Rating: 9.5

Click on links below to watch 300

300 - Part 1

300 - Part 2

300 - Part 3

300 - Part 4

(links are working at time of this posting)

Prince and the Revolution

2007-11-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

Though Prince has enjoyed much success with or without "The Revolution", some of his most popular music probably came in his Revolution days which ran from 1980-1986. The group had many hits including "little red corvet", "when the doves cry", "let's go crazy" and many, many others. Prince has been an artist who has been able to change with the times, something that most artist can not do. One of his later hits in the 90's that was really popular was "Diamands and pearls". Prince is truly one of the most respected artist of all time but his best days had to be during the Prince and the Revolution days.

Entertainer: 10
Singer: 9