Lemmings is the most addictive game I've ever played...granted I haven't played many games, but this still qualifies. I used to play this game on my old IBM PS 2. Crazy as it sounds, I still remember how to beat some of the levels.

Enjoy playing. I've already beaten all the levels in the Fun & Tricky categories.

The USA men's basketball team somehow won a bronze medal. That can't be right you say, these were the same guys who couldn't get a shot in even if all the greek gods were with them. These are the same guys who don't have a big man. These are the same guys who didn't play defense. And these are the same guys who felt they were above every other athelete in the world and couldn't stay in the olympic village. Did the Americans deserve a medal? No! Will the bronze change the way NBA players view the Olympics? No! Well, that's a bit unfair. We don't know how the NBA players will feel about playing in China in 2008. Maybe they will want revenge and actually form a team that can beat out other teams. As Americans we should be angry that we let the gold slip away so easily.

On other news, everyone should be happy, I celebrated my 25th birthday with a small group of friends and they still managed to get me really drunk. Now I'm ready to start my quarter-life crisis. I feel that I actually have a case for one too. After I graduated from college, the first question my mom asked me is when am i getting married? My answer was, ask me when I'm 25. Well, I'm 25 and still not ready to get married. My mom hasn't asked but I'm putting the betting line at 5 days. If you are wise better, you should pick under -4! I'll let everyone know when she asks.

Not to be egotistical or anything, just a friendly reminder that my birthday is this Saturday, August 28. Turning the "BIG" 25.

Some things that happened on August 28:

475 - The German general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints Romulus Augustus in his place.
489 - Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
1521 - The Turks occupy Belgrade
1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1830 - The Tom Thumb starts the first railway service in the United States.
1833 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes first issue
1849 - After a siege of over one month, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
1850 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres.
1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run- also known as the battle of Second Manassas
1867 - The United States occupies Midway Island.
1879 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
1884 - First known photograph of a tornado is made.
1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the so-called Battle of Heligoland Bight (actually a comparatively minor engagement).
1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
1944 - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
1955 - Black Mississippi boy Emmett Till is murdered for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, Martin Luther King gives his famous I have a dream speech.
1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois during the Democratic National Convention
1972 - During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.
1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
1986 - Stage of siege declared in Bolivia.
1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
1988 - At an air show in Ramstein, West Germany, three stunt fighters collide; 70 people die.
1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.
1993 - A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
1993 - 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
1993 - Teng Cheong elected president of Singapore
1994 - First gay pride march in Japan.
1995 - A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The NATO action against Bosnian Serbs was a reaction to this incident.
1996 - Britain's Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced.
1998 - A new legal system, based on the Koran, is established in Pakistan.

I noticed a lot countries have declared war on my birthday. My favorite thing that happened is Mark Spitz getting his first out seven gold medals in swimming. It's probably my favorite this year because of the Olympics and Michael Phelps.

Some famous people born on the same day as me:

1774 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, first American-born Catholic saint (+ 1821)
1828 - Leo Tolstoy, writer (+ 1910)
1958 - Scott Hamilton, Olympic Games gold medal winning figure skater
1965 - Shania Twain, singer
1969 - Jason Priestley, actor
1971 - Janet Evans, Olympic swimmer
1982 - LeAnn Rimes, singer

Some holidays celebrated on my birthday:

Hong Kong: Liberation Day (1945)
Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Hope you enjoyed learning all this new stuff!

The other day I was watching PTI and Stephen A. Smith was one of the announcers. The topic they were talking about was Philip Rivers holding out to sign a contract in order for him to get a huge signing bonus. Stephen A was on the side of Philip Rivers saying that he can understand with the kid...because this is the NFL and there is no guaranteed money except for the signing bonus. Well, I think this opinion is crap. Philip Rivers chose his career and he has every right to negotiate a salary. But he is holding out over a few million dollars. Let me tell you, in the real world most people wouldn't argue over a few million dollars, they would appreciate the fact that they are getting millions of dollars. Stephen A said that the signing bonus would be his only guaranteed money, well how much money does he need. He is already getting more money than any other college graduate in their first job. I don't care that it is the NFL and not some other corporation, the NFL is one of the largest corporations out there. Well, you could say that these people are one of the best atheletes in the world and deserve proper compensation. I don't disagree with that opinion, but I do believe that we need to look at what kind of salaries the NFL is giving to all their players. Salaries in general for professional atheletes in the major sports are getting out of hand.



Rivers finally agreed to terms, here is the article.

I saw Outfoxed on Thursday. The Avalon Theatre was really nice, plus there's a Ben & Jerry ice cream shop right next door! The movie itself was very funny and definitely showed how right wing the news channel it is. At one point of the movie I was reminded of the book 1984. One thing that I had a problem with is anyone can say this movie is proproganda, that they got clips that showed "their" point of view. I think the movie would have been a lot stronger if they showed comparisons of Fox News Channel and another news channel to clearly highlight the extreme right point of view of Fox News Channel. But, it is opinionated movie and how do you prove an opinion wrong. I can not say that we get any news without some kind of bias. I'll end this post with this one particular stat: The question was asked, Are there WMD in Iraq? 65% of Fox News Channel viewers said yes. 5% of NPR/PBS listeners/viewers said yes.

I've been playing around with the backend of my blog and decided that I'm going to host my blog now. The new web address is blog.anjalivora.com. You shouldn't notice anything different if you just go to anjalivora.com, but if you do have any problems let me know.

I've been thinking of redesigning my webpage, that is if I can ever think of anything creative. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Outdoor movies are cool! Sorry I didn't post this earlier...but there are still some good movies left. Follow this link .

This is for anyone in the DC area. I'm going to see Outfoxed on Thursday at a theatre near Friendship Heights. Outfoxed is a documentary on how "Fair and Balanced" Fox News Channel is. Many people regard Fox News Channel to be extremely right and rarely report news that is demeaning towards Republicans. The website above has more details, show times, other theatre locations, etc.

This past weekend I went to Williamsburg, VA. I'm a dork, I like looking at historical stuff. It's not too far from me, about 3 hours and the drive is real easy. Colonial Williamsburg has some pretty cool stuff, including the Governor's Mansion. I definitely recommend the ghost tour at night, it's not as corny as it sounds. I didn't get a chance to go Busch Gardens because of Hurricane Charley, but I've been there before and it's lots of fun. Of course, one of the oldest colleges in the United States is in Williamsburg, William & Mary. It looked like a really pretty campus.

Best thing about the above trip is that I only paid $45/night for the hotel room at the Raddison. Priceline.com for hotels is the best way to go. You tell them where you want your hotel, how many stars it should be and the price you want. If you need to book a hotel room, I recommend taking a look at Priceline.

I'm refusing to talk about the USA Basketball loss to Puerto Rico, enough people have already said enough. Plus, I really thought the US team had a good chance to medal. B. Hepp though, is smarter than me, and looks like will accurately be predicting that US will not win any medal.

NFL Preseason is not worth talking about, it's just a bunch of hype and usually incorrect. Once the first week of the season has started I will talk about the NFL. Who cares about how much T.O and Jeff Garcia hate each other?

Baseball, wild card races look interesting, but it's not the post-season yet. Excitement isn't really there yet.

Hockey...presumably dead.

Olympics, swimming seems to be the biggest deal right now. Michael Phelps being the biggest story (besides US basketball loss), but is anyone else out there annoyed at the media portrayal of him and Ian Thorpe. They are just trying to make it into a bigger story than it really is. There is no animosity between these two guys, they just like competing. I thought it was a little outrageous of everyone thinking Phelps could win 8 gold medals but it wasn't over the top outrageous. I was interested to see if he could do it. I watch a bunch of the Olympics on Saturday but haven't really watched much more than that. I even fell asleep during the Opening Ceremonies, right before they lighted the torch. I wonder if I will ever get really excited about the Olympics ever again.

So, what I'm really trying to say, is there isn't much to talk about sports, so I will probably cover other stuff the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be somewhat interesting.

I've been working in Suitland, Maryland for the last month. I have been commuting each day to get to the site. The place is approximately 40 miles from my house and with traffic it takes me about an hour to get there and about the same to get back home. It has not left me much time to write in my blog. Hopefully the following story will make up for the lack of posts.

A few weeks ago I was in the airport waiting for my plane and I had a bit of time to spare, so I went to the bar to have a beer and watch some tv. While I was enjoying my tall Sam Adams, this guy struck up a conversation with me. The conversation started innocently enough with him asking me what book was I reading (Beloved) and then the conversation turned towards basketball. It turns out this person, Nathaniel 'Nate' Fields, has played some college basketball. Immediately I became really interested in Nate and started asking him a few questions. First one, obviously, what school did you play for. Bowie State, a Division II school in Maryland. He tried to hype up the school, saying even though it's small, they were really good in basketball. I told him, it doesn't matter to me how big or small the school was, as long as the players enjoyed playing and competed hard everyday. I then explained about my time as a spectator at Bucknell and the amazing basketball I saw there, in order to show that I can understand what it is like to play for a small school. At this point, Nate told me how much the fans at Bowie State loved him and how he went into the stands after each game to thank them personally for attending. He also told me how he single handedly helped his team to the Division II Championship Game. And if the other team did not play with an ineligible player Bowie State would have been the Champs. At this point, I'm nodding respectfully and understandingly. The point at which this conversation tipped me off that he was lying was when he told me how LSU was recruiting him to be the next coach for the women's basketball team. I think he must have thought I didn't know anything, so when I started saying that they already have a coach and dropping names, he stopped talking about LSU wanting him. At this point, I asked him why would LSU, a Division I team that has had a strong women's basketball program for the last 20 years or so would want someone who has no coaching experience and played for a Division II team. He explained to me that he is widely known in the basketball circles from when he was a counselor at various basketball camps. Now, I'm just plain bored with this conversation because he couldn't stop talking about how great he is. I told him it was great meeting him and I guess that meant to him to give me his name & phone number(s). After taking them, I left the bar shaking my head how someone could think they could easily lie to someone.

Well, I like the internet and I love researching on the Internet, you never know what you can find. First thing I did was put Nate's name in google and the search results showed that he did play for Bowie State. I went to a few links and managed to get his stats. (http://www.bowiestate.edu/bowieweb/athletics/mbasketball/teamcume.htm#TEAM.TEM)

SUMMARY GP-GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G
FIELDS,Nathaniel.... 18-3 12.7 .661 .000 .684 4.5 0.4 11 1 5.1

Well, we can't blame injury for the poor numbers because he played in 18 games, it looks like he didn't get to play too many minutes. Which is very unusual if you are the star player.

Next I looked up the Division II Men's Basketball Bracket. And it looks like Bowie State didn't even make it out of the 2nd round. Nate, if you ever read this, don't lie about something anyone can find on the Internet! Bowie State lost to Francis Marion.(http://images.sportsline.com/images/ncaasports/brackets/d2_bkc_bracket_2004.pdf)

I guess the reason I find this story so amusing is that Nate was so convinced that I thought he was the greatest basketball player in the world and I think even he thought he was a great basketball player. I guess most people who meet him wouldn't google him. What I also found astonishing was how easily he was able to lie about everything, what kind of player he was, who was recruiting him and so forth. Any guys reading this, here's a suggestion, you can fib a little but not so much where you can obviously get caught. This kind of seems normal to me, but I guess there are some people out there that think it's all right to completely lie.

Nate was a black guy, this is just some info, not trying to be prejudice or anything. A few weeks later I was a party and this guy Mike, another black guy, and I were talking. And as he was leaving the party he gave me his phone number and said we should get together for a movie or dinner. Just out curiosity, is there something about me that black guys find interesting. It seems like the last few months every guy I talk to, it's the black ones that are giving me their phone numbers. I don't get it. Once again, not trying to be prejudice here.

Well, hopefully I will be able to start posting regularly. Hope you enjoyed a little update on what's going on in my life.