Pop Corn Love

What do you really know about corn and it’s affect on today’s economy? Since the thought of going “green” late last year, corn has been one of the main components and has steadily affected the our nations and world’s economy. Corn is a major staple for everything in agriculture and things related to it. It’s a primary feedstock for livestock and poultry, thus it is now consumed in high amounts by the new production of ethanol. This has caused a trickle down effect by raising the average price of milk and its bi-products, which include crème, butter, cheese, etc., Ethanol production requires many bushels of corn which were earmarked for livestock as feed. To combat this, more savvy growers may allocate more acreage towards the corn, or try and get an extra growing season by utilizing a 60-day corn invented by Pima Indian tribe of Arizona, compared to the traditional 90 day corn.

What does this mean for the consumer and the economy? You will soon notice an increase in price of your Starbuck’s coffee, Wendy’s hamburgers, and Dannon yogurt all due to the new consumption of corn. These companies in-turn have cut their earnings forecasts for the quarter amid the higher that average costs of their ingredients used to make their goods. Their shareholders will notice a lower than average return on their investment. Some in the short run may panic and cash in their shares and look for other investments.

The auto industry, which will be a bigger beneficiary from going “green”, should see higher revenue when their “green” products hit the market. No doubt that they will be expensive, but with the push for lower consumption of fossil fuels and the certain tax break given to the consumer as witnessed over the years by buying more energy efficient cars, should make for an interesting next couple of years.

Get off Barry’s Jock!

The only people that can really talk stuff about Mr. Bonds are the people that he has done dirty consistently over the years i.e. the local and national media beat writers and sports casters. Otherwise, everyone can just shut up. All of a sudden he’s Mr. Steroids, but if you look at his home run totals for the past ten years he has average about 45 homers a year except for 2001 when he hit 73. He basically got tired or the juiced ball, lack of pitching, and all of the 20 home run averaging guys hitting 40 homers or more that year. People act like all of a sudden he got big. Barry is an yr older than me and I can tell you that I was the same size he was in his rookie season, since then, I have put on 80 pounds. That is roughly 3.8 pounds a year for 20 years. Some put weight on and some don’t. Sammy Sosa was rail thin with a curl back in the late 80’s and look at him now...it’s called getting old.

I think Barry took something and really don’t care because everyone is on something while in competition believe that. Some golfers might have, dip or snuff in the lip...a stimulant. Some runners might dope their blood, football players my just need pain killers all of the time. So if Barry was just keeping up with the Jones’ than what’s the point of getting mad? Is because Barry is black? Or is it old school predominately white sports fans like tradition a lil too much and won’t accept or don’t like to accept that sports records are set to be broken no matter how long it takes by the most capable athlete that thee is at that time. People were hatin’ on Roger Maris something fierce when he went after Babe. Maris, a Caucasian man got no love from mainstream America and that’s a damn shame. Henry Aaron, a southern gentleman got hated on even worse, we know the reason why back then too. I bet you have people hatin’ on thoroughbred horses trying to win the Triple Crown. No one is safe. So this brings us to Barry, is it more of the record being broke or is it the person breaking the record? You decide when we get down to those final dingers. I tend to think that this time it a whole lotta one and a little bit of the other. Regardless of the clear or the cream the man had mad game before that and after that he does as well.

Daddy's Day Respect

Far too often we bash fathers instead of respecting them. Today is the day that they are supposed to get treated to dinner or lunch by their families. Unlike Mother's day fathers tend to get a six pack of bear and the remote to kick up their feet and watch TV. Is this because of the male mentality of being manly men or is it because fathers are a lost aspect in today's family structure?

the Open championship

Angel Cabrera comes through at the Open and puts on a great show this weekend. I like his game and style as well. Good to see the USGA put the tour to the test and provided a wonderful test of golf. Not as penal as Olympic club but a brute of a test and that's why it's ranked in the top 10 every year among the best courses in the world. Cabrera tamed the course better than anyone else over the weekend and stayed fairly consistent except for yesterday's minor hiccup. Hopefully he will have a great fairing at the British Open next month. He was a favorite pick of mine in previous majors over the years.

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON

The questions of the week will be whether interest rates will rise and if the oil companies are slow rolling their inventory right now. Late last week the price of sweet crude oil role to 67.00 per barrel a high for the year while processed petroleum held steady at 1.13 per gallon. With the fourth of July just weeks away I am sure that the gas prices will rise about a week before the fourth.

Man vs. Wild

what a great show airing on the discovery channel coming back for it's second season. An ex-British Special Forces officer takes you on a journey into real life situations in the wild and how to survive them. Tonight he is in a familiar place for me the Florida everglades. in the last 15 minutes I've watched him navigate a sawgrass grove, cross a small river, sneak past two grown alligators, catch a baby alligator and deduct that because the lil gator was around that larger ones weren't, him catch a small frog and eat it quickly, catch a large turtle, kill and eat it...tastes like chicken. This show is highly watched by the male population.

Brown sugar

One of my favorite movies was on VH-1 Brown Sugar starring Tay Diggs and Sanaa Lathun. This is how it should be done...love, music, and fun. if you haven't seen it go check it out on DVD.

what's on my mind

life and death, light and dark, do or don't... is the world going to get better or is it going to correct itself? how will this take place? will it be man induced or naturally? will we survive or die? Will war do it or will natural disasters be more frequent? A betting man says that a little bit of both will be our fate...hope not.

have a wonderful week...

another day another way...

Our lives are forever changing and adapting to the new obstacles and challenges presented to us. We must over come whatever, whenever, and however in order to grow and learn. Many times we stagnate and get comfortable with our settings and environments. What in life do we get comfortable with? Our wives and husbands, our children, our jobs, our hobbies, and our since that we take life for granted? Whatever the case may be, it is time to wake up from the norm and bring a little flavor, change, switch, and variety in your lives.

Where do you really want to go this year and why? I want to go to Halifax for a month, Barbados for another, and top it off with the NY for the fall. All of these places are special in their own way and highly related to each other. Barbados was a stop on the slave trade, NY way the last link to total freedom by crossing a skinny bridge not too far from Niagara Falls. The final destination was Nova Scotia where a very high concentration of now free slaves lived and raised families, it is here that the game of hockey as we know it may have started. Ironically, the first players of the sport on ice were those same black families that settled in those areas.

Stock trends

I love picking stocks to watch or just industries that will prosper over the course of the year. Will it be the railway industry that has been rollin on all year? Is it going to switch back to big oil or pharmaceuticals? Could the textile industry rebound and get bullish in the fall? I always bank on my necessities when it comes to stocks. I enjoy electric companies, the food industry, and lumber. Hi Tech is too cyclical for me but every once in a while you'll find a great tech company that will get snatched up by big biz.

Watch your tail

If your driving through Texas you might want to watch how close you are driving behind the person in front of you. Lawmakers are experimenting with a new laser gun that can measure if you are driving too close to someone. Now we all know that they really need this in the valley for real.


Tonight's the night

The Spurs should close out one of the most boring championship series in all of sports. This about as boring as the Bears Patriots Super Bowl, Tiger Woods' victory at the 100Th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and the New york Yankees and anyone in the World Series. Oh well, LaBron enjoy it cause it will be the last time you get to the Finals kinda like Dan Morino get there once and never see it again.

Eat your oatmeal

It does the body good. Drops your collesteral and blood pressure. No need in croaking too early in your life.


Housing

Did you know that people are so upside down in the homes they bought as investments or more like to flip that you can rent big brand new home in the valley for under 1000 a month. Many of the homes are in Queen Creek, Gilbert, Mesa, and some in Chandler. They range in square footage from about 1500 to 2,400 ft. Crazy!!!!! Damn apartments this is the ticket right here and if you chips are right you might eventually be able to buy the home from them.

I think that it's time to finish this screenplay very soon. One of my college classmates Will Packer producer of Stomp The Yard is doing a remake of the Big Chill with Regina King. Might as well get this thing on the silver screen.

The Middle East

the Gaza strip is on fire!!! Well, under fire since last week the bullets are flying and people dying. Imagine that in your city bullets bouncing off of concrete and in to your homes and children? It is going to continue hell all it can do is continue. This has been going on for thousands of years. When will it end.


Stay positive stay true.

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The sporting world

Iron Unkind

For all of the bashing going on in sports about ability, execution, and fairness it has come to my attention that almost all sports are watered down in one way or another. Take for instance last night's painful to watch game 3 of the NBA finals. Is it me or was the second half THE most dreadful performance by two teams ever? Not one but two teams that couldn't smack the ass of an elephant if they wee a foot away.

Clank after clank after clank for an entire 24 mins, surely David Stern " The Dictator" was unamused but used that time to continue to push his world wide appeal. The only thing that performance did last night was give all the scrubs who play basketball indoors or out, organized or not, the hope that one day all of the hard work that they put into their games at an early age will not pay off in the long run.

All I wanted to see last night was the TNT crew run the clip of A.I. for the rest of the night...you know the one about practice! The only practice they did last night was to look at Eva in the stands cause they damn sure weren't looking at the box right above the cylinder. Utterly rim unkind last night.

Facilitate

Is it me or did all of the former NBA players who now work for ESPN have a bet as to who would use the word "Facilitator" out of context as much as they have been doing? The word came about from Greg Anthony a very astute and educated ex-player from Las Vegas. He coined the term earlier in the year, the next thing you know he is saying it a lot when speaking of Steve Nash and other dishers of the "Rock". In steps Jamal Mashburn about 2 months ago and he starts using the word along with Mark Jackson, and a couple others. Now we know that something is up because a true journalist like Stephen A. Smith stays away from that word like a Cinnabon to a diabetic. Last week it seemed like they had a side bet on who was going to say it the most and the most out of context. Please quit using that word try supplier, distributor, dime artist, the guy that helps an old lady across the street, Don King you know promotion cause that what facilitating is in a way it's to assist...

The Open

Tomorrow kix off golf's version of National Spelling Bee when the largest field in American golf descends upon Pittsburgh, Pa's Oakmont Country Club to play in America's version of our national championship. Myself personally have tried to qualify for this tourney 4 times twice in Florida twice in Arizona. all four times I shot well but not well enough for advance out of the local qualifier. Those courses were so easy compared to what you will witness tomorrow.

I've played three courses in my life that had a golf course rating of 77 or higher...Oakmont is over 78 so you can best believe that come Sunday night the winning score will be somewhere around plus 3. sure someone is going to go deep and shoot 68 or 67 one day but that will be followed up or preceded by a 79...oh boy is this going to be fun to watch. No prediction on who is going to win, but look out for Tim Clark, Steve Stricker, and Retief Goosen. my dark horse is Jose Marie I lost my ball. If you are a betting person go to Bodog and look for the bets on who will score the lowest in their threesomes that should be fun money there.

On a sad note...

J.R. Smith lost a dear friend yesterday, but the crazy part is you saw it coming. How many violations driving a vehicle incorrectly can you have before you get it? Well, I guess he didn't and paid the ultimate price of basically killing your best friend which in my account is the worst thing that you can do in life. Ever since Derrick Thomas died I've been buckling up even to go around the corner. I'd rather be in the car than out of the car getting ran over, stuck to a tree, getting ate by fire ants, etc you get the picture. Buckle Up!!!!

The new Cincinnati Bengals are quickly becoming the Denver Nuggets...Let's see Demar Johnson who himself damn near died in a car accident back in the day decides to commit the ultimate no no in night club etiquette and that is to break a fight, let alone two women fighting ummmm no! Stay ya butt's up otta that there as I would say. It only leads to more trouble, getting hit by someone, stabbed or shot is not out of the question either. Well, he breaks up a fight, the cops do their best Christmas trees imitation on him by tasering him and arresting him for obstruction. will Denver catch Cinci only time will tell the year is young.

Trades

Every year at the end of the season I pretty much can tell who will be on what team the following season it's just a great ability I have for guessing and being an astute observer of the league. Well, here we go with the madness...If the Suns are dumb enough to let Shawn Marion go for N E body they not only will shoot themselves in the foot on defense, but also cut loose the true heart of the team. Who in the league do you know that can guard ALL 5 positions on the floor? Answer is none out side of Marion. He plays above the rim, and anyone from the Midwest knows that Chicago ballers never have great jump shots cause most grew up playing outside in the snow, rain, and wind so they tend to be slashers and finishers both Marion does regularly. If you trade Shawn to any team in the league at this young stage in his career his career will be over. His fit doesn't fit anywhere in the NBA but the PHX so he stays put.

Now if you wanna make moves this is what you do...Piakowski gone, Burke gone for a 4th round pick and money, Jalen goes to the Bucks for draft picks, Boris I love you to death but ya gotta go. So Diaw and Jermaine Jones in a package deal for either Hakeem Warrick or Stromile Swift. Snatch up another guard that ids 6'3 and can shoot this could be a draft pick or pilfer the Bobcats cause they have a lot of talent. My push for the off season is to get J.J. Reddick now and ride him like Secretariat cause he is going to wilt away in O-town. You keep the crew Nash, Amare, Shawn, and Leandro. sorry Kurt you gotta go too slow and you don't get off the ground. The Suns have one year left to do this after that the Atlanta's, Charlotte's, Cav's, Jazz, Warriors all sub championship teams are gonna run the league.

Free agents that can be picked up regardless of attitude or ability because they were on a team that didn't use them like they should have. Rasheed get him, Chauncey get, Jerome James GET HIM, Matt Barnes hmmm kinda showed out in the playoffs but reminds me of Doug Christy, Ray Allen been tryin to get him to be a SUN since o5 but they slept on him and he stayed a Sonic, Antwon Jameson, T.J. Ford is ready for another move. So the Suns have options or they can stand pat, but with D'Antoni only playing 8 players in the regular season and showing absolutely no commitment to anyone other than the starters in playoffs, he cost that team a title and basically paid the other guys to sit on the bench as if they were watching MJ play back in the day.

Then there is Kobe, go get him or not? You damn skippy you go get him! KG go get him or not? Hell no, no disrespect but no, Amare for KG hell no!!! You noticed I left Amare out of the mix of trades cause if you cut him loose where ever he goes they WILL win a Championship faster than they will out here.

It's a beautiful day today go hit a golf ball or swing down to the beach, take a long walk, or have hot sweaty work out fun...

Stay in the present and the future will always be in front of you.
-BB

Half Muh Life the other half to come

Today I am 40.5 years old. with being 6-12-07 and my 41st birthday falling on Dec. 24th i find it kinda strange in my mind to think that I am in the halfway point of my life. All that happens after that will be recognized as occurring in the second half of my life. This time will reflect all that is good in life and the determining factor will be how much we really want to be in control of our lives.

This blog will cover EVERYTHING that is everything...no subject or person is off limits. We can get spiritual, political, artistic, bombastic, musically feinin, and relationship issues. Sports will be 27 percent of this blog. Everyday life and other topics will be the remaining 73 percent.

My views will be obsessed, recorded, twisted, and honestly presented in a kind matter. I will keep it jiggy and real and will touch and relate to all cultures and their mores an norms. The lil
mid-western born kid now has grown into the multitalented Big Blacque. Don't get it twisted, I've had this nick name since 98' and represent all that is positive and real in the world.

The world will never be the same once I hit this button. I'll tell it like u need to hear it...on point and on the real.

one...

Blacque