I have to say that this year's Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament was the best one I've seen. I felt like every single game came down to a buzzer beater until surprisingly, the final four, when every game was a blow out. And who would've thought - Florida, UCLA, LSU, and George Mason? All the "experts" picked Uconn to go all the way and they struggled and every single game before getting knocked out in the heart breaker against the cinderella team George Mason. And how about all the three pointers? It was painful for me to watch that second half of the Uconn vs. George Mason game b/c every time Uconn would score, George Mason would just sink another shot. How about Duke? When Reddick was hot, he couldn't miss from anywhere on the court. A team can't depend on one player like that and expect to go that far. Finally, the Florida Gators, 2006 Champions. What the hell? I think I had them losing in the second round. A solid team, yeah, but they lost to the Carolina Gamecocks, a team that didn't even make it into the tournament, twice in the regular season and barely beat them to win the SEC tournament. And if you didn't know, the Gamecocks when on to win the NIT tournament. I swear they would've done some damage in the big dance. It was nice to see UCLA back in the final four after completely dissapearing for the past decade. And good for LSU, bringing a final four flag back home to the state of Louisiana.

I won't leave out the Women's NCAA Tournament. I didn't watch any of the early games and didn't look like I missed much because the round of 8 was all 1, 2, and 3 seeds. I guess there's a lot less upsets for the women since most of the talent is in the power houses. Things got exciting in the end though - Uconn hitting that hail mary buzzer beater to get into the round of 8 before getting knocked out by Duke when they missed a much easier shot at buzzer. The underdog Maryland, a team full of Freshmen, brought home the championship for the first time in school history.

I hate that so many of the men basketball players leave college early to go into the NBA. Come on, you've been in school for 3 years, what's one more year? It's not like these athletes are living a tough life in school either. Jesus, they get everything they want. And it's not a sport where there's a ton of injuries either. UConn would be nasty next year if Boone, Gay, and Williams would stay. So far Boone has already commited to the NBA ... Rudy Gay will make it or break it for them next year. I really think he could get a lot better by playing college ball for another year before going into the NBA. And I'm telling you, watch out for those Carolina Gamecocks next year too. It's time for them to stop winning the NIT and do some damage in the NCAA.

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If you haven't noticed yet, there's a big "new" trend going on with Generation Y that I don't think is being milked by corporate America as much as it could ... And no, I'm not talking about MySpace or Facebook b/c believe me, that's being milked. I'm talking about college kids taking pictures of themselves and their friends and posting them online. The majority of my friends have a collection of their pictures somewhere on the Internet ... On Web Shots, on Facebook, on MySpace, or even on all three. Look closely and you'll observe something that all of these picture galleries have in common with each other. Have any guesses?


Answer : Everybody is drunk in the pictures! It's not too subtle either b/c for some reason people have the natural instinct to raise their beer brand of choice at the camera when posing for a picture. (I do it too) Chances are, the person taking the pictures is the drunkest one out of everyone! So what's my point? How isn't it being milked? Every major web site is already offering it's visitors free picture galleries so they can sell ad space on them. No, what I'm talking about is the actual camera manufacturers ... Sony, Kodak, Toshiba, ETC. These cameras that they're putting out are NOT drunk-proof. A college kid's camera is bound to be dropped on the ground, stepped on, dropped in a drink, whatever. I've already gone through two cameras in less than a year and honestly they only took a few drops. (as far as I can remember)

What I'm looking for is a crush-proof, water-proof, and all around party-proof camera. I want a camera that can handle a few drops ... And by a few, I mean a few every hour that it's in use. I want a camera that can go underwater with me when my friends throw me in the pool. I need for my camera to be as durable as I am. Because let's face it, not all customers are buying cameras for nice family vacations at Sea World. There's also a fairly large and growing market who is buying your camera so that they'll have some way of remembering what happened at the bar last night or maybe even their entire week in Mexico.

And you know what really grinds my gears ...

I pay $5 every month for phone insurance and I've never broken my cell phone that I carry in my pocket every day, every night. I probably bring a camera out with me a few times a month and I've destroyed two of them in a year. And you can't buy insurance on a camera - only an extended limited warranty that won't do a thing for you. (I tried) Are these cameras just made cheaper than cell phones? I used to work in a cell phone store and I would take our trade-in phones from customers who upgraded and just to find out how tough they were, I would smash the old phones against the wall, drop them in cups of water, etc, and you would be surprised how durable most of those phones were. So, what's the deal with these digital cameras?

If anyone has seen an extra durable camera out there, let me know ... I'm in the market for one.

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I haven't written in over a week because I've been away on spring break. I went to Las Vegas with my girlfriend for the first half of the week and now I'm home in Connecticut until I head back to University of South Carolina on Sunday. So, here's a few thoughts on the "sin city" of Las Vegas.

I like Las Vegas, it's a lot of fun, but don't believe all the "what happens in vegas" hype. It's not THAT crazy. Maybe it is for older adults who have been overwhelmed with their job and raising their children and forgot what it means to have fun, but for me, the scene at Las Vegas wasn't any crazier than what I've seen in a good college bar.

It's all in the marketing, very smart marketing. First there's the TV commercials that I'm sure you've seen. But also once you get to Vegas, you should see the billboards they have for clubs. For example, I remember one billboard that showed a man hooking up with a beautiful woman in an elevator. So, what are you trying to say? If I go to this club, I will hook up with a beautiful woman in an elevator? I've been to a couple of the clubs or 'ultra lounges' as they call them in Vegas, and although they're much nicer and visually stunning than any club I've been to, I don't see why anyone is more likely to get laid by going there compared to anywhere else. There are luxurious couches, stunning lighting effects, and great views of the strip ... But sometimes there's not even a dance floor. Half of the area in the ultra lounges are roped off for VIP who pay big bucks for their 'bottle service' and their reserved seating.

Good looking girls in Vegas will probably have a much better time than guys, unless the guys have a ton of money to blow on reserving a table & bottle service. Here's how it works at the ultra lounges ... There's usually a long line that begins before the club opens. While guys wait in line, the bouncers will pick hot girls out of the line and bring them to the front where they are let in for free. Guys, however, will wait and wait, and if they do get in, they'll pay $20 to $30 for the cover. Once inside, a beer will cost you about $7 and a mixed drink will be $10-12. Good looking girls, however, will usually be asked by the waitresses if they would like to join the guys who have reserved a table where the guys will buy them all of their drinks.

Even if you don't gamble, Las Vegas still manages to rape you. The shows cost between $50 to $120 per person, the cover charges at clubs are between $10 and $30, and drinks cost 2x to 3x as much as you would pay anywhere else. It's sick how much money these casinos are making. What I do like about gambling in Las Vegas is the abundance of tables, the low minimum bets, and the waitresses. There's two huge casinos near me in Connecticut, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, and the tables there are usually too packed to find a seat, the bets start at $25, and the waitresses will only serve you a few small drinks an hour. In Las Vegas, however, you can usually find empty tables, minimum bets as low as $3, and as soon as you finish your drink, the waitress will usually be there to give you another one, for free of course. Not little drinks either, full beer bottles that you can walk onto the street with. Great deal unless you lose, which you probably will, especially in roulette, and then you realize you've really paid $50 a beer.

So, in conclusion, Las Vegas is a fun city - there's tons of bars and clubs, great restaurants, plenty of great shows to see, strip clubs with hundreds of girls, thrill rides, and of course the warm weather. But I wouldn't suggest Las Vegas to college guys for a spring break vacation. Even if you manage to get a good deal on flight and hotel, everything costs so much there. Guys need to have, at the very least, $100 a night to spend if they plan on going to bars and clubs. I don't think it's worth it for guys to go to the ultra lounges unless they buy a table. For girls, if you've got the looks, you might only spend money on shopping, so go for it. I'm sure you'll have a blast!

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I don't know why the media made such a big deal about Alex Rodriguez saying that 'This is our year' for the New York Yankees. No shit, it should be your year! It should've been your year for the past 5 seasons with a lineup like that. The Yankees offense is basicaly an all star team in itself. Every year they buy the best players out there ... From the first batter to the last batter, the pitcher never gets a break - every batter is a threat.

But notice what I haven't meantioned ... Pitching. I don't understand why the Yankees didn't do anything with their pitching on the offseason. They've got the best closer in the game (unless he's facing the red sox) but they're putting too much faith in Randy Johnson, again. As a Sox fan, I'm pretty dissapointed with Boston's offseason but at least they're in good shape w/ pitching. Because of that - I think next season will be another close one between the Sox and Yanks. Not to menton the battle either team will face once they actually make it into the playoffs. I can't wait.

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So, I have this credit card through Citi ... Normally, I just pay my full balance every month but they were offering me 0% interest for a full year so I maxed it out at $3,000 and put that $3,000 in a high yield savings account (4%+) through ING Direct's Orange account ... That way I'm earning interest instead of spending interest ... My way of sticking it to the man.

However, on my last credit card statement from Citi, I noticed a finance charge, the first one I've ever gotten in my life. I called customer servive to see what happened and apparantly my 0% introductory rate was over and now they were sticking it to me at 17% interest. Alright, you bastards got me for one month, now I'll just transfer the balance over to another 0% card so I don't have to take money out of my savings account just yet.

But here's where things get ugly ... The customer service rep at Citi WOULD NOT LET ME OFF THE PHONE! Mind you, I was on my cell phone using peak minutes ... The lady said that she sees that I pay more than my minimum every month and I'm a valued customer so they're going to offer me a free month of a service that protects my credit ... Well, I don't what that means, I'll get some bullshit service I don't need for a month and then forget to cancel it and end up paying for it for a few months before I notice it and take it off. I've worked in sales, I know that old trick and I hated pushing that crap on people. I kindly said I wasin't interested ... She wouldn't listen. She kept going on and on and on ... Listen, I said, I don't even need to have a credit card, the only reason I use one is so that I have enough credit built up, so I don't need any of your extra services. No no no, you don't understand the value, she says ... Keeps going and going again. Wow, I say, you must have extremely high sales quotas over there, huh? I called customer service, not a sales department. I'm not interested. AGAIN - she keeps going, as aggressive as ever. I interupt her - OK listen, I don't have time for this, I'm going to end this call now, OK? And what did she do? She hung up on ME!

Big mistake Citi! Pissed off customers are bad for business, especially when he has a blog.

DON'T DO BUSINESS W/ CITI

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Somehow this question just popped into my head ... But I wonder who the first person was to say that they were "surfing" the web. Not that there's anything wrong with that phrase ... I like the sound of it and all but why "surfing"? How would one surf a web? Wouldn't "crawling" be the more logical term for what you do on a web. I guess that doesn't sound as good though. "Hey what's up?" "Ah nothing much, just CRAWLING the web". Nope, that's weird. In spanish you would say "navegando la Red". Navegar = to navigate, nothing strange about that. But us crazy Americans have to come up with an arbitrary word for everything. Just like how we park in our driveways and drive on our parkways. And do they still call the highway an interstate in Hawaii? I bet they do. Words are fun.

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YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS ...

This dumb show on MTV, Room Raiders. If you've never seen it, consider yourself lucky and just skip this post. Obviously the girls who have their rooms raided know when MTV is going to come to their house but MTV tells them to act surprised when the Room Raiders people storm into their place and drag them into their van. "Who are you? Where are you taking me!?" Can it get any more cheesy? It's the same thing with Cribs. They open the door and seem so shocked. I think I would notice if Xzibit and a camera crew were in my driveway going through my car.

And another thing about Room Raiders ... It's just a dumb show all around. It's the same thing every time I've seen it. A guy looks through these girls bedrooms ... When the girls first see him on video, they say how cute he is, then they start talking shit about him while he searches through their rooms ... Then the girl who he picks suddenly likes him again. And why would anyone want to be on the show anyway? I would love to be on MTV but definitely not have MTV film some stranger going through my personal things in my bedroom and shining a black light on my sheets. No thanks.

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Stephen and Lauren (LC) came to University of South Carolina to talk about their experience on MTV's reality show, Laguna Beach. I've been in arguments with my friends over whether or not this show is real. A lot of people swear that everyone on the show are actors. I already knew it was real b/c I facebooked a random girl that went to Laguna Beach High and she told me all about how it worked. But, I of course wanted to hear it direct from the stars so here's a few of their answers to people's questions.

As far as casting goes, MTV went to Laguna Beach High School for a week or so and let kids fill out these huge applications that had tons of personal questions. Then, they interviewed the ones they liked and eventually got down to a cast of kids that they would film for the show. Some of their friends didn't give MTV permission to be film them and the high school decided not to let MTV tape inside the high school at all. Also, a lot of other places wouldn't let MTV film so a lot of times the producers would give the kids a list of places where they could go. So, if they wanted to go out to eat while MTV was filming them, they had to go to a place that allowed MTV to film. It sounds like MTV told them what to do a lot actually. They said that the producers would tell them what they want them to talk about ... Like, "it would be great if you could mention blah blah blah when you talk to whoever". I figured they did that b/c sometimes the conversations look so fake. So, I mean, eventhough the people are real and all, it seems more similar to a regular directed show than a reality show. They wouldn't film them all the time either. They would come for a weekend and tell them what the plan was. There was never a script or anything but the producers had a story that they wanted to follow before they started filming. Like for example the love triangle between Stephen, his girlfriend Kristen, and LC didn't actually exist. Stephen and LC said that they're just really good friends and when they applied to be on the show, they wrote about how they hooked up one time and MTV just dragged that on as long as they could eventhough it was over by time they started filming. They said they even exagerated it to MTV while they were being casted b/c they wanted to be on the show.

It sounds like MTV was pretty busy in the editing room. They did a lot of sneaky things. LC said that in the first episode, they show her looking at Stephen with this look of lust but what MTV actually did was bring out this big thing of food and film her face when she was looking at the food and then make it look like she wanted to eat Stephen instead. The night on the beach in Mexico when they show Stephen and LC walking away together ... They weren't going to hookup. Stephen was shitfaced and she was bringing him to the bathroom. They always made them put their beer in cups by the way. When they were in a hotel, they made it look like Stephen and LC hooked up but they had actually filmed her putting the 'do not disturb' sign on the door earlier in the morning. Also, she said that in that hotel scene at one point when she says "Stephen", if you look, her lips aren't even moving.

I asked them when they actually get to watch the shows b/c I've always been curious about that. I figured that they get to watch the entire season before it even goes on the air. Nope ... They said MTV is working on every episode up until a few days before it goes on the air and they usually get sent the tape only 1 or 2 days before it goes on TV. Kristen would lock herself in her room and watch the tape and then be mad at Stephen b/c of the whole LC thing eventhough it was all in the editing.

Both Stephen and LC acted exactly like they do on the show ... They said that Laguna Beach isn't all that different from most places though. They said most kids just drive their mom's cars and most people don't flaunt their money like they do in other parts in the LA area. I read the other day that the residents of Laguna Beach are really sick of the show because it portrays the people there to be rich and snobby and they're not like that. Well, you might not all be snobby but trust me, you're richer than y'all think you are. Um, lets see, what else - LC's favorite ice cream is vanilla ... Stephen never wears underwear ... Neither of them have a facebook or myspace profile ... Both live in Los Angeles right now ... MTV is filming another reality show about LC called The Hills right now ... Stephen is taking acting classes ... LC is dating Jason and says that he seems like a jerk on the show just b/c he's really camera shy ... Kids in Laguna really do those dramatic invitations for prom, it wasn't just for the show ... And LC really does hate Kristen. That about covers it.

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Danny, Wes, Nehemiah, Melinda, & Johanna from The Real Word Austin came here to the University of South Carolina to talk about their experience on the show. It wasn't sponsored by MTV so they were free to talk about just about anything. I've always been curious about what goes on behind the cameras and in the editing room on these reality shows. It was pretty interesting and it was also nice to look at Melinda for an hour. Here's a few of the questions they answered that I can remember.

You know those "casting tapes" that MTV shows of the people who got picked for the show? They are suposedly tapes that people record of themselves and send to MTV hoping to get picked for the show. Well, MTV actually had them record those tapes AFTER they talked to them at open casting calls. (When MTV comes to a city and does interviews for the show) So, don't waste your time recording a tape if you want to get on Real World. Actually, Johanna said that after she got picked for the show, MTV told her to record a new tape b/c hers was too boring and they wanted to portray her as the party girl. Sneaky sneaky.

The cast had a lot of rules that I didn't know about too. One big one is that they had a 1:30am curfew every night. Crazy shit huh? I guess MTV wants them to come back to the house early so that they can tape them being drunk and stupid at the house. Also, they said that wherever they went people would yell at them or throw things at them and if they fought back, the producers would yell at them and tell them to ignore people. Oh, and whenever they break things in the house, they actually get charged for it. They buy all their alcohol too. I was surprised to hear that. I figured with the way marketers are paying big bucks to have their products shown in TV shows and movies, beer companies would supply free alcohol.

The people acted a lot like they were portrayed on the show eventhough they all swear that MTV chooses a type of character that they want each person to be portrayed as and only show them like that. For example, they said that Lacey went out a lot but she was never shown partying while Wes and Johanna said that they really don't party that much but were only shown on the show drinking and partying all the time. Wes was kind of an asshole. He was really heated that people see them on the show and assume that they know them and can judge them and hate them. I guess that would piss me off too but in the future, Wes might not want to say fuck you to an entire auditorium of people that came to hear them talk.

So, in conclusion, there's a couple shady things that MTV does but nothing too crazy. I guess the show is still pretty "real". Laguna Beach on the other hand, is a different story. LC and Steven came to USC last night for the same kind of Q&A. My next blog post will be about what they said. I now know more than I ever needed to know about Laguna Beach .... Stay Tuned.

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You know what, thanks but not no thanks Johnny. I don't think that I can ever forgive you. Didn't Johnny Damon once say that if he ever left the Red Sox, he would never go to the Yankees. It just isn't right. I know, the Red Sox organization hasn't exactly jumped at the opportunity to renew the contracts of any of their players, including Johnny Damon. For that, I'm a lot more pissed off at the Red Sox management than at Johnny Damon but C'MON ... the YANKEES? He was the face of the Red Sox. He was the one Red Sox player that New York fans hated the most and a lot of them still do! This is the guy that hit the grand slam for the Red Sox in game 7 against the Yankees to pretty much clinch their series victory. And now he's playing for the enemy. No way. If I could actually get tickets to the first game at Fenway against the Red Sox, you better believe I'll be joining in the boooos the first time Johnny Damon is announced.

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You know what really grinds my gears ... All these commercials on TV for ab machines.

"12 crunches to the right and 12 crunches to the left. In 90 seconds I got a great workout"

It amazes that people are dumb and lazy enough to buy that kind of shit. You know, if you want to lose weight, why don't you try putting down your whopper and actually go for a jog or something. People need to understand that, generally speaking, the easier an exercise is, the less effective it will be at burning fat. I don't even break a sweat from doing ab exercises. Save the room in your closet where that useless ab machine would sit. Instead, dedicate 15 minutes every morning to a light jog around the block before your shower. You'll get much better results than any dumb ab machine could give you.

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• Jokes Site
  
  I decided to redesign the whole site. Not a major change, but it's better and more flexible for when I need to add new content. I also added some more pick-up lines, a couple new Q&A jokes, ETC. It's not done yet though. Later this week I'll be done with two new web pages for the jokes site. They are Pictures & Videos. I think these new features are going to be really popular. I have a few exclusive videos that me and my friends have recorded and I also have all of the classic videos that have been floating around the net.
  
  
  
• The Party Scene
  
  I added a lot of new features to this section. I made a web page about hangover cures and prevention and "drunk stories" which is me and my friend's favorite stories from our wild nights. I'll also be done with another new page, "Drunk Pictures", by the end of this week which will be a collection of funny drinking pictures that I've come accross. As for my bar/club reviews site, I think I should wait on that and focus on improving the content that I already have. So, it might be a few more months for that.
  
  
  
• What's Next
  
  I'm not looking forward to this but I really need to go through the rest of the old content and update it, add new content, etc. Some of the music sites and sports sites are so outdated that they're actually useless. So, along with finishing up the new stuff on the jokes site and drinking site, this week I'm going to be adding new biographies, new lyrics, more picture galleries, new guest books, etc - to all the music artists and sports stars that are featured on EWS. I shouldn't be embarased of the older content like I am now. I need to get everything on EWS fresh before I start doing some real marketing and get the traffic soaring. Have a good week!
  
  

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You know what really grinds my gears ... Cell Phones

It was bad enough when cell phones became mainstream and everybody started walking around having conversations on their phones and making everyone else listen to them. But now with these annoying push to talk (walky talky) phones - we have to hear BOTH sides of the conversation! When the only people who used Nextel were businessmen, this wasn't an issue. But for some reason, ghetto people love Nextel. And they love to put their speaker on the highest volume in public places so we all have to hear their friends screaming on the other end. Nextel found such a large market segment with ghetto people, that they went ahead and merged with Sprint, the leading service provider with ghetto people. Why's that? If it isn't their flashy phones that catch people's attention, then it's definitely "No credit check - No deposit". Why is push-to-talk such a big hit? I don't know ... Maybe people are too lazy to actually hold the phone up to their ear. Maybe they enjoy the challenge of making out what the other person is saying through all the static. Or maybe they do it just to piss people like me off. Can't we all just quietly text message each other? Ahhhh silence ... Wouldn't that be nice?

And what's the deal with walking around with a headset?

That bluetooth wireless technology is cool, alright. I have a Motorola bluetooth headset for my phone too ... I use it all the time, IN MY CAR! I don't keep it on my ear all the time and walk around looking like I'm on an episode of Star Trek. Put it on your ear when you're having a conversation, that way people know you're on the phone. Otherwise we have no idea if you're talking to us or somebody on the phone with your Star Trek headset. And then there's the people who walk around with a cord headset on all the time too. Are you really getting that many calls that you need to have it attached to you at all times?

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I added a lot more stuff to the EWS homepage ... This is something I've been wanting to do for a while and now it's finally coming together. I'm going to keep it updated and showcase different sections of EWS, like right now I have my 2Pac and Biggie site, Usher site, the Party Scene, and Pick-Up Lines. Then, I have my 'best of the web' section where I'm going to put links for any interesting web sites that I find in my surfing.

The other update of the week is that my Notorious BIG web site got an overhaul as planned. I added a few new web pages there and took down the album reviews until I can find a better program for letting visitors submit album reviews and have them displayed automaticaly. I guess that should be my next project b/c I could do an album reviews page for every artist on EWS.

Next up, my health/fitness site is a little bare right now so I'm going to write a couple new articles and beef that section up. And - I'm on the search for a good program that I can for my bar reviews web site. I want to write reviews and give rankings of bars I've been to, but also allow visitors to submit their own reviews and ranking, and rank the bars in order of their overall score. The states that will be represented for now will be Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Nevada. A little random, huh? Maybe I can start writing off my beer tabs as business expenses for this web site. Wouldn't that be nice.

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So, the general manager that lead the Sox to three consecutive post seasons is back on the staff. Now all the Red Sox have to do is get back all the players they traded away and they'll be ready to win another world series! I just don't understand the business behind baseball. The Red Sox finally win a world series ... Now, after only 1 season, almost the entire team is gone! For non-pitchers, they kept Nixon, Veritek, Ortiz, and Ramirez (for now). That's all that's left now! What are they doing!? Two years ago they made trades to get a better defensive infield ... Now, they have NOBODY left in that infield. Even the little guys, like Mirabelli, who was the best back-up catcher in the league, has been traded, which I never even heard about it until I went to the Red Sox web site and looked at who's still on the roster. Meanwhile, the Yankees still have everyone and more but something tells me that they still won't win the world series next year. And - despite all of the Red Sox's offseason screwups, they'll be battling the Yankees until the end just like every year.

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My project of the weekend was to do an overhaul of the Usher site on EWS Music. Previously, it was just a biography and a few pictures. I've started from scratch and developed one of the bigger sites on EWS Music for Usher. Hopefuly the search engines will rank it well. I added a guest book to the Usher site that I think will be a nice addition on any music artist site. Maybe if any guest book I create gets a lot of traffic, I'll turn it into a discussion forum instead. The next overhaul I'll be doing will be for the Notorious BIG site which has hardly any content right now. This site will probably be even bigger than the Usher site and have a whole new layout too.

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I completed the new health/fitness section by updating the recommended accessories, book reviews, and links. Now I just have to keep writing articles and that site will be rolling. I really want that section to be a success b/c I'm really passionate about nutrition and fitness. I know there's a ton of other health/fitness sites out there so I'll try to write my articles with a twist to create some shock value. I'll also make it more personal by answering visitor's questions about creating workout splits or improving their diets.

Last week I also added more drinking games to 'The Party Scene' section. I've still got a lot of work to do with that section but there's endless opportunities for it so give me time. There's a lot of drinking web sites out there, but a lot of them suck b/c they just rely on their user submissions and they end up with 10 different ways to play asshole and drink a long island iced tea. I think this is a good way for me to reach my target too -- college kids. I'm really pumped to set up a reviews section for bars and clubs and allow visitors to submit reviews and ratings.

I also created a new Calvin Klein web site in the Fashion section and temporarily took down the Nike and Perry Ellis web sites b/c they suck so bad. I'm kind of stuck with what to do with that section. When I first created it back in 1998 or so, it was a huge hit b/c most designers didn't have their own web sites and nobody even offered online ordering of designer clothing. Can you imagine? So people were satisfied coming to my site and just looking my scans of the designer's advertisements or reading the designer's biography. Now that's not good enough. So, last summer I gave my Tommy Hilfiger web site an overhaul, deleting the scanned pictures and adding links for online ordering of the clothes on Amazon. I thought it looked great and I sold a few thousand dollars worth of merchandise on Amazon within the next couple of months but then my Tommy site suddenly dropped out of Google. The word is that Google updated their algorithm to exclude affiliate sites, getting rid of the middle men and giving sites like Amazon the premium rankings. So, that really sucked. I added content and got penalized for it. I think I'll stick with the basics - make informative profiles of popular designers and then creating a few other sub-pages with pictures of the clothing line.


Coming Soon ...
I'm going to add and update a couple more fashion designer sites to make that section a little better. Then I'm going to dive into the music section and the sports section and clean some of those sites up, adding new content wherever I can. I'm looking into adding message boards onto the music sites like 2Pac and Biggie's, so people can post there instead of writing in the crappy guest book or e-mailing me what they think about 2Pac's death. I would have one giant message board but I think that EWS is way too diverse to do that. The last time I tried that it somehow it became one giant high school gossip spot. Weird.


I haven't gotten a comment yet so is it safe for me to assume that nobody is reading this? That's OK ... But I'll feel a lot better if I could get a comment here and there! =)

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I've been thinking of new ideas for this web site faster than I can actually finish implementing my older ideas. I have a really good vision of what I want EWS to be but I need my content to catch up to where it needs to be before I can really expand anything. As it is, I probably shouldnt have added new sections to EWS when some of the older sections of EWS are still crappy and outdated but I get so excited about my ideas that I cant wait to implement them. Plus, I dont want to forget about them! A lot of times over the last few years, I would feel some motivation to dive back into web publishing, but then I would become busy with something else and forget all about it.

I like being a leader. Somebody who has ideas, takes risks, and solves problems. I would rather come up with an idea and then dictate to a team what I need to be done rather than be somebody who is given specific jobs to complete. Not everyone is like me. Some people prefer to be told what to do and then get paid for doing it. Simple. Instead, I get excited thinking about all of the things I could do to make EWS better but when it comes down to it, I get tired of doing all the work required for my ideas to happen. Theres plenty of ways to make EWS better but unfortunately, I dont have a staff so a lot of times Im bogged down doing tedious tasks that could be completed by anyone with basic web publishing skills. The most important aspect of my site is to provide content but I get tired of creating content. Im sure creating content is fun for some people, but I would much rather pay people to do something like that and be responsible for putting it all together in the end and turning the image I have in my head into a reality. I guess until EWS brings in enough advertising revenue that I feel like I can afford to pay for some help, I'll keep grinding out new content.

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I took the 14 hour drive down south for the semester and now here I am - in my apartment at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. When I left Connecticut at 5:00am, it was snow and ice, and when I arrived here at 9:00pm, it was a good 25 degrees warmer and t-shirt weather. It's going to be tough being on my own at a new school and all but I'm already loving this weather. Just seeing palm trees has always made me happy for some reason. The gym here is incredible too - it looks more like a resort than a university gym. Two pools, hot tub, raquetball, basketball, huge free weight and machine areas, and cardio machines with plasma TV screens attached to them. I was a kid in a candy store after two years of Uconn's shitty gym. Classes start tomorrow. I'm taking Personal Selling, Principles of Advertising, Digital Media, and Intermediate Spanish II. Then one more semester at Uconn after this one and I am graduated.

In web site news, there isn't much because I've been busy packing, unpacking, and getting settled here. I've got a ton of work ahead of me and I'll be posting here whenever I update or add anything to EWS.

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Time is flying. I've only been out of school two weeks and now I have to start packing for my semester in South Carolina. I leave on the fourth of January. Amongst all the craziness, I'm trying to finish the new parts of EWS. I'm fixing bugs, adding content, and redesigning the older sections. I think the fitness section will be done soon but I've got a lot to do on the partying/drinking section. I'm getting involved in some good affiliate programs too. Once I have more content, I'm going to change the middle layout of the homepage to have spotlights on the best parts of EWS. I also want to add automatic news headlines to the homepage but I have to figure out this RSS stuff. I'm off to bed now, it's been a long hungover new year's day.

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Well I'm doing just that ... After four years of working for Cingular Wireless, this is my last week. I'm going "full time" with my Internet business. I feel like my job has been sucking the life out of me. Between school, work and my social life, I just haven't had any time to run a business. If I had spent all those hours working on my web sites instead, who knows where EWS would be now. EWS gets about 40,000 page views a day. I feel that I can double, even triple that number. But, honestly, I haven't had the motivation during the past few years. Luckily, my entrepreneur spirit is back now though. After leaving most sections of EWS outdated for years, I'm finally doing an overhaul of the site. As soon as I finished last semester's classes, I started creating a new design for the homepage and decided to add two new sections - health & fitness and the party scene, in addition to this blog that I'll keep updated with web site updates and just about anything else I want to publish. I want EWS to return to it's roots, as being a giant personal web site with content that reflects my interests. There's plenty of music/celebs/jokes sites out there run by corporations, so rather than try to be like them, I want my web sites to have more of a personal touch. That's why I'm adding more original content like plenty of articles written by me. I'm adding a health & fitness section b/c I've become very knowledge about the subject after losing all the weight that I gained in my first year of college and muscle-ing up. I'm adding a section about drinking & partying b/c I've also become very knowledge about that subject as well. After I get these new sections up and running, I'll be adding a TV & Movies section with web sites for my favorite TV shows and movies, as well as web sites for actors & actresses. Of course the existing sections of EWS will all get a face lift and added content as well. So keep checking back for new updates and please e-mail me any suggestions that you may have for EWS.

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