I mentioned last week that I put new rims on my car. Here's one of them. Click it to see a pic of them on the car.



These rims were made by Toyota Racing Development as an option for the Lexus SC430. They don't make this rim anymore and back in the day, they sold for anywhere between 2k to 5k a set. Naturally, with my excellent negotiating skils, I picked them up for $3.40 a wheel. Not really but I did get a good deal.



I think they look good on a small car. At first I thought they carried a little too much attitude and I missed my 5 spoke rims but these are different and more interesting.

Today so much stuff happened!
- I played tennis with Michelle this morning. She swears I'm the next agassi.

- I put new rims and tires on the car. Now I can pretend to be a famous rapper with my bling bling chrome rims.

- I celebrated Brian's bachelor party and played two games of poker with friends. I won 2nd place in one and 1st in the other. We all went to Jillians and I found a ton of tickets to turn in for prizes. I played a basketball game where I won another 1,000 tickets and bought up stupid prizes for everyone. Woooooo!

I went to discount tire today to check out prices on tires. They almost charged me $154 a tire when in fact, the tires are $137 on their web site. That's a big difference!

Make sure you check the prices of your tires online before going to the store!!

tires.com << which is also discount tire.

I just saw something really disturbing.

I was at Starbucks and noticed bottles of water being sold by the counter. The bottles of water were branded as "ethos" and the idea behind the brand is that they will donate money for every bottle sold to helping people in underdeveloped countries where they cannot get clean water.

This is all nice and all however the prices just don't add up right.

The reason why I say it doesn't add up is because Ethos gives 5 cents for every bottle sold to help the cause of bringing water to these underdeveloped countries. The problem is the bottle of water cost $1.80 each!!!

I don't know if you remember but I had an excel chart that illustrated the cheapest cost per unit that I could find for bottles of water. The chart shows that I can get bottles of water at 17 cents each and I'm paying RETAIL PRICES!

Know what this means? It means the Ethos brand of water is bullshit!

Check out the chart.

Because you've always wanted a toy honda...

2 things:

1) I became a godfather yesterday! Woooo hoooooooo - Moses Kartler was born at 11:58 yesterday afternoon.

2) Not to belittle the imagination and intellectual horsepower of Andre Agassi but he just isn't in the limelight enough to share his thoughts on things other than what happens on the tennis court.



July 11, 2004

ANDRE AGASSI TRANSCRIPT
Presenting His Wife, Stefanie Graf, for International Tennis Hall of Fame Induction Sunday, July 11, 2004

"I truly consider it a rare honor to stand here today before so many of you that have done so much for our sport and have meant so much to me and Stefanie. Looking out across this audience filled with warm friends and great champions I am overwhelmed with the history and the tradition of this moment."

"As I attempt to find words worthy to introduce the person that has changed my life, I realize that the words have yet to be invented that are large enough, colorful enough or true enough to express the heart and soul of this woman that I love."

"Stefanie, I wonder what can I possibly say to do justice to the way you've lived your life and to the lives that you have changed."

"I began several years ago on the small chalkboard sitting in our kitchen, a tradition that I've carried on every night. At the end of each day I have picked up the chalk and tried to express the many things you mean to me. Sometimes just a brief line, sometimes a short story, but always just the overflow from a grateful heart, and yet after these months and years of writing to you each night I have never been at a shortage of ways to reflect the light you've brought into my life. And now how ironic that in these few short moments I need to capture in words these things I so deeply appreciate in you. Maybe I can say it to you this simple way."

"Not long ago we were on the road and I looked out our hotel room window from the upper floor of a very tall high rise. I could see the rooftop of an old and beautiful cathedral. It was stunning with its carved stone and marble - all done so perfectly. I could not believe the work of art I was seeing and I wondered how many years did they take to create this and what drove them to be this committed? Then I began to appreciate something greater. I realized that when this rooftop was built it was by far the tallest building. In an age long before airplanes or skyscrapers these artists believed each day as they went about their work that no human being or one set of eyes would ever see their creation. How could they not have cut one corner?
How could they consider no task routine? I can only think it came from a place deep inside - the need to be true to themselves was their reason and their reward."

"All of this has helped me to understand you just a little better, never needing applause to be your best, only needing to give the best your soul could give to feel complete."

"From the roar of voices inside the lines of center court to the quietness of a child's bedroom that generous soul that unbending strength that soft spoken integrity has not been shaken. The arena of tennis simply gave you a platform and an opportunity to refine those inner qualities even more."

"You have always been about the action not about the words. You have never defined yourself by what you have achieved, rather you have achieved by how you define yourself. And even now, it has taken my breath away to see how you've quietly laid down your racket to pursue love and motherhood with the same zeal and high standards you have always demanded of yourself."

"No, no one has ever known you to be infatuated by your own accomplishments. In fact, as I have often said, anyone who speaks with you will most likely forget the great things you have done within the first thirty seconds, but they will feel cared for, their feelings engaged and you never let go of their heart until they know that they are completely understood."

"The history books will record for posterity your ability to embrace and rise above adversity, to play through injury and to win again, and again and again."

"Far in the future people will analyze and discuss your place as the greatest of your time. And as those future generations hear of your strength and dominance they may be tempted to think that they know you, or the real heart of a giant that beats inside of you. But for those blessed enough to actually see first hand your quiet humility, to watch you represent your sport with unmistakable dignity and for those of us who are even more blessed to be lifted out of ourselves by your laughter, to be on the receiving end of your always generous heart, we will have etched forever in us something a statistic could never contain."

"We have been touched deeply by your life. You have made us better and we will never be the same. Stefanie, you have spent many years of your life competing, but right here we stand in the ears of your children and right now in my heart, you have no rival."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the greatest person I have ever known."

I am a human lollipop:



Oh yeah, ran across a few more photos of Katrina. Here are the old ones that look so cool.

It's amazing how something so cool can ruin a state.











The damage:

I miss being close to the beach. In Montara right now it's partly cloudy, 64 degrees with a 15mph breeze. I used to live where the balloon is...

What do you do when you stop by your friend's house and they're not there?

Leave him a note with the spare tile in his patio of course!

Some cool photos of Katrina.

It's amazing how something so beautiful can make something so terrible...

Recognize this photo?



This is the girl.



How does Yahoo get away with showing off the chest of a young girl??

From an MSNBC article...

To make matters worse, the chief of the Louisiana State Police said he heard of numerous instances of New Orleans police officers — many of whom were from flooded areas — turning in their badges.

“They indicated that they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,” Col. Henry Whitehorn said.


So sad...

Remember that murder trail that was going on in Hong Kong when I was visiting?

The verdict just came out - guilty.

Thank God!

This woman was crazy!!

Some tidbits of the trial:

The defendant said she found refuge during her summers alone with the children in the United States, where she had an affair with an electrician who worked on the couple's vacation house in Vermont in the summer of 2003.

She is accused of giving her husband a milkshake spiked with sedatives before beating him to death in their bedroom in a luxury residential complex on Nov. 2, 2003. The body of the former New York resident was found bundled in an expensive carpet in a storage room near their residence.

The prosecution says Kissel had planned to tell his wife he wanted a divorce on the night he was killed.