Poker, a game of skill or luck?

http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/poker-showdown-between-luck-and-skill-649/

Clearly, they've never been to a GPG tourney, :).

What happened to great R&B music?

As I take a break from cleaning my house, the following post was born.

What happened to great R&B music and espically CD's? I fully understand what happened in rap music (not enough fans, labels creating/promoting/advancing disposable ringtone artists, Radio1/Clear Channel dictating what folks want to hear, etc....), but what happened to R&B.

Here's the list of R&B albums on my computer that came out since 1/1/08.
Janelle Monáe - The Audition
Day26 - Day26
Mariah Carey - E=MC2
John Legend - Evolver
Chris Brown - Exclusive
Keri Hilson - In A Perfect World
Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson
Al Green - Lay it Down
Lloyd - Lessons in Love
Raheem DeVaughn - Love Behind The Melody
The-Dream - Love Vs. Money
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
Estelle - Shine
Robin Thicke - Something Else
T-Pain - Thr33 Ringz
Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
Ne-Yo - Year Of The Gentleman

The best album on that list by far is the Al Green joint, which would be a mediocre album in the rest of his discography. I'm not expecting to hear a "What's Going On" or "Extension of a Man" every year or so, but why are none of these albums as good as R. Kelly's 12 Play, Shai's - If I Ever Fall in Love, Mary J's - What's the 411?, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite, etc..... Where are the songs as good as Jodeci's - Come and Talk to Me", Musiq - Just Friends, or even Goapele - Even Closer.

Steve Harvey on Women...... Necessary Evil

Is Steve Harvey breaking the "code" pulling an Eddie Murphy in boomerang which would lead some to question their orientation (O) or is he doing what is necessary to get women to raise their pathetic standards?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/03/23/o.steve.harvey.love.advice/index.html

Quick Hits

• No sex before 90 day probation period
• Don't let a guy communicate with you solely through text/email
• Know where you stand

Steve Harvey dropped some hints that a lot of simple-minded individuals of the opposite sex would not be able to pick up on i.e. how he introduces you or if a female makes us put in work we won't just run away. Now some females know this but clearly most don't.

I can't lie, when I was at Howard I was amazed at what some people were able to get away with just because there were only so many guys that weren't gay, were attractive and were doing something with their lives relative to the number of women who were doing the same.

My take is that this is a good thing. We discussed the fact that 71% of Black children are born out of wedlock which quite frankly pisses me off. Now these two issues are not directly corelated, but it doesn't help. Some people are going to think that Harvey sold us out, I think this is a very necessary evil for our community. But there is also the problem of some females reading his book and thinking far too highly of themselves which will inevitably happen also.

Maybe what we need is a universal rating system in our community so that people should know what they can expect based on what they bring to the table. This would combine physical attributes with smarts and intelligence, mental stability, personality, home training, etc. That way deserving women aren't selling themselves short and those who think too highly of themselves get a taste of reality.

Mad Money Cramer is a fraud just like the rest of them

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 1
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 2
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 3
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

first they compare CP3 to magic and now king james to his airness

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090324

i haven't even read all of it yet but i know this is premature....anyway i figured this was coming...last week i heard a sportscenter broadcaster pose the question whether lebron can ever avg a 3x-2x (most ppl say NOOOO!)....then he said if the big o is the blueprint lebron is avg'ing a 3x-2x now because in the big o's timeframe they shot like ~35% more shots...the game was more up and down...if you extraploated/normalized lebron's numbers based on mere shot attempts, he would be avg'ing ~50, 10, and 10...i can hear otis now saying "look how ppl continue to fudge data to meet their claims." i think in this case otis would be absolutely right though....you can't have it both ways....times are different; extraploate who would be the youngest player to reach all those milestones kobe and lebron keep getting due top the deterioration of the college game. either do a straight baseline comparison all the time or an asterisk based on changing times all the time but don't intermix them when convenient.

Vegas Trip?

Test blog.... But also asking a real question.

What is the Vegas date???? I can do any weekend from April 10th through the end of May.

Test

Testing 123