Sabathia the Great....I'll explain

Every year around this time, Major League Baseball (MLB) general managers and owners throw around enough cash to jump-start the Dow Jones. Lets be clear, I am not predicting a turn around from our recession right now, that is NOT what I am doing! I'm just going to play devils advocate and present a way the richer spending some of their hard earned time and money on well...... the rich, can help the not so rich.

Confused about that last sentence? We all are, but bear with me...

In an economic time that is being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930's; C.C. Sabathia, the strong left-handed pitcher is going to receive the largest contract any pitcher has ever seen in baseball. It seems to be a four-team race for this years hot-commodity on the free agent market; the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers are all in for C.C.

The poker match is being ran by the Yankees, who like always have the big stack at the table, and aren't afraid to use it. But the Dodgers and Giants have location on their side, C.C. likes the west coast, and nobody can forget the success Sabathia had in Milwaukee last season. The 260 lb. lefty dominated the National League (NL) with an 11-2 record and single handedly dragged his dead and lifeless team on his back into the playoffs.

He is one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball and he is going to get paid like it. The Yankees have already made a 6 year, $140 million offer to Sabathia and he will deserves every penny he gets.

Not because... get ready brace for this...

Not because he is such a dominant pitcher, but because it is star players like him, that allow baseball organizations and the communities around them to thrive so much. C.C. Sabathia is a pitcher capable of putting fans in the seats at any stadium around the country. Not only will he energize any fan base he is sent to, but he might energize their local economy as well.

Wait a second, What?

Yes, when fans are excited about a team, they buy apparel, tickets and concessions. All of these items need to be sold, and in order for them to be sold, someone has to sell them. Increased sales lead to the employment of vendors, salesman, parking attendants, security guards, advertisers and much more. All these jobs can greatly help stimulate a local economy, because when people are making money, there spending it too, and that's what this economy needs.

Increase Your Metabolism!

I knew it was possible to increase your metabolism, but after some more research I realized that you can actually increase it by a significant amount! I thought just eating smaller meals more often would speed it up by a small amount. However, there are more ways than just eating smaller amounts more often throughout the day to speed up your metabolism even more.

...and you don't have to understand any complicated diagrams to know how to relatively control your metabolism.

A slow metabolism means the food you are eating gets converted into calories slower, therefore forcing your body to store the food as fat instead of using for energy. Getting older is the main cause of a slowing metabolism, but there are many other factors: Skipping meals, extreme fasting, lack of physical exercise, excessive dieting, bad sleeping habits and eating too many foods with too many sugars.

Now for some ways to increase your metabolism! I was most surprised by the statistic below:
Increasing your lean muscle mass is the single most significant thing you can do for your metabolism. Muscle burns calories up to 90% faster than fat! That is an incredible difference.

Most people know that metabolic rates increase during exercise, however did you know that it stays up for several hours after the fact? Things like taking the stairs and parking further away in the parking lot are little ways to help keep yourself moving during your daily routine.

Eat more often, and never skip your meals. Your body will go into 'starvation mode' if you skip a meal and store the calories as fat. This takes less energy than keeping up your metabolic rate. This also happens because your body is trying to preserve itself and have food for later when it 'thinks' you are going to be starving still. In the above link, Tom Venuto talks about starvation mode in his blog.

Drinking lots of water encourages your body to burn instead of storing calories. So that your liver focuses on metabolism instead of water retention, make sure to stay hydrated. There are many different hypotheses about how much water intake you need per day. An article from CNN.com explains one way to figure out how much water you should be drinking and cautions about certain complications due to dehydration. Snopes.com is a site which addresses rumors, one of them being the "drink eight glasses of water per day." Drinking the appropriate amount of water can apparently also affect your chances of getting colon or breast cancer!

Eating certain kinds of foods can also increase your metabolic rate.

So for any weight and health conscious people out there, here is one more aspect of your health which you can learn to control...at least relatively!

If you are interested in the science of metabolism at all, Steve here can explain it in pretty simple terms:



ATP=ENERGY (some of that highschool AP Bio knowledge actually comes in handy!)

Black Friday bargains already??

The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, is probably the most popular shopping holiday of the entire year. The deals you can find on Black Friday are amazing, and people go crazy, waking up at 3 a.m. to get to the stores as early as possible to get the best deals on the hottest items of the season.


Because of the economic crisis currently affecting our country, this year retailers are beginning sales early in order to motivate shoppers with tight wallets. It seems as if technology and electronics will be hot items this year. I saw this in an article from Yahoo.com regarding sales currently happening at retailers across the country:


Wal Mart - Starting Nov. 8, the retail giant has been featuring in store specials starting at 8 a.m. These include specials on laptops, Walkmans, digital cameras and HDTVs.
Kmart - Kmart also has special deals happening right now, including sales on Wii fitness and HDTV's.
Circuit City - Because of this retailer's recent money losses and store closings, there might be even more deals here this year. Sales happening right now include marked down prices on BluRay players and more.

Before you head out on Black Friday, be sure to check out the deals first and find the store nearest you with the best sales. Check out Blackfriday.info, TheBlackFriday.com and BFads.net to find lists of special deals on specific items from stores such as Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Dicks, Macys, Kmart, Kohls and many more. Ads and deals are updated daily, so be sure to plan ahead before you head out on your deal-hunting Black Friday shopping spree.

This is Music News

Hello everyone and welcome to Monday. Another week has gone by, and a whole lot has gone down in the music world. Some of it was cool, and some of it was lame; but most of it was just weird. In other words, it was just like every other week in entertainment.
Well I'm even boring myself now. Let's get to it.


The biggest story in music this week was the news that a Paula Abdul superfan committed suicide right outside the pop singer's home. Paula Goodspeed, who auditioned for and was featured on American Idol in 2005, died of an apparent drug overdose. She had been accused of stalking Abdul in the past, changing her name to Paula to match the American Idol judge. Godspeed was heavily ridiculed during her audition, which aired on national television. The show is being criticized now for humiliating some psychologically unstable contestants.
I would make a joke about Paula Abdul not having any fans left, but that would be inappropriate.

In completely and totally unrelated news, a poll conducted by Rolling Stone magazine has named Aretha Franklin the greatest singer of all time. Ray Charles came in second, followed by Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and John Lennon.
I don't really want to get into this, folks, because I could go on forever, but BOB DYLAN RANKED IN AT 7!!!!!! That can't be right. Don't get me wrong, Dylan is the greatest individual songwriter in all of history, but singer? No. Bob Dylan is not a better singer than Freddie Mercury, Paul McCartney, Tom Waits, or countless others. Oh yeah, and how did Janis Joplin miss out on the top five? One could argue for Aretha, but Janis should be at least number 2. She didn't even make the top 25!
I'm done with it.

This might cheer you up. Ray Davies says the Kinks are writing new material for a possible reunion! You know I hate reunions, but it's tha Kinks. I'm trying to keep my hopes low for now, since Dave Davies still says he wants nothing to do with it. If he's on board, though, so am I. You'll hear more as I do.

Kanye West is still beating up paparazzi, this time in England. He did get arrested after this one, but was released without charge shortly after. I don't like Kanye or paparazzi, but I'll consider this one a win.

Now for the weekly obits. I'm warning you, the following sucks.
Mitch Mitchell, legendary drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead Wednesday morning. He was 62. So far theyre chalking it up to natural causes.
Jimmy Carl Black, drummer for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, died Saturday of cancer.
I guess it was a bad week to be a great drummer.

Michael Jackson gave up his Neverland Ranch, blah blah blah. He gave the deed to a company he partly owns. What a giver. I couldn't once make the sacrifices he makes every day.
I'm sick of him, really. Unless he's becomes the first man on Mars or singlehandedly solves the world's econimic crisis, I don't want to hear about him anymore. Ever.

It looks like the Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia is finally going to get his own biopic. The film doesn't have a cast listed yet, but I'm crossing my fingers for Leo.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've saved the very best for last. Paul McCartney is trying to drop a 14 minute long track the Beatles recorded in 1967 but never released. That's right, a new song from the '67 Beatles, and it's epic. All he needs is permission from Ringo, Yoko, and George Harrison's widow.
If this happens, I'll take back everything I ever said about Yoko. I promise.


Until next time, Barcelona!

Healthy Eating for the Holidays

Thanksgiving is just around the bend! The smell of turkey roasting, stuffing cooking, yams sizzling, grandma's apple pie sitting on the table, just begging to be eaten. Yes. This is what I have waited for all year...not to mention all 47 of my crazy cousins will be running around, the 14 aunts and uncles catching up and grandpa making the babies cry.

With such a big family, its only natural to have bountiful food during this holiday time. But even small families celebrate Thanksgiving with all kinds of delicious entrées. It's difficult to control yourself and not over eat! But the end of the year is a time to be especially watchful as to what and how much you are consuming. Halloween just ended and everyone is filled up with candy and here comes the feast!

Some tips for controlling yourself during the holiday season, are:
1. Use a smaller plate! If your dish is smaller, you can't get fit as much food. But don't resort to going up for thirds and fourths because of this! Research studies at Cornell University help to prove this actually works.
2. If you absolutely have to have more, allow yourself only seconds...and only seconds of your absolute favorites. Don't bother filling up on foods you don't even enjoy as much!
3. Eat slowly! For several reasons: You won't eat as much, you will be less stressed, have better digestion, among other proven facts.
4. Desserts don't have to be "off-limits." Eating healthy for the whole day, may actually mean a dessert is in your near future! And there are plenty of healthy Thanksgiving recipes out there.
5. Just don't hang out around the food all day! Go sit and talk to everyone in another room before and after the meal, away from the food and resist the temptation altogether.

Before we know it, Christmas will be here and it will be a feast all over again! Don't forget all these tips and follow through with them on Christmas Eve and Christmas, too!