I am actually not attending this expo but did get a few snap shots of some of the models on display for this expo. Hope you enjoy all the pictures. Click each thumbnail for the full size image:

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I recently watched a movie called ‘Flakes’, it is a comedy love story trying to over come all odds.  Go rent it, its a pretty good movie.  I found the most interesting part of the movie was the business concept on a breakfast store serving ONLY cereal.  So simple yet how come there aren’t franchises yet?  This is the next business opportunity that could explode like what Starbucks did for coffee.  Coffee was something you could have prepared to drink at home, at the office or picked up at any mom & pop donut store.  Starbucks took coffee to the next level; offering multitude of choices and alternatives.  From cappuccinos, lattes, frappacinos to now even iced tea varieties.  The pure convenience of having coffee anytime of day to any where you live and marketing it as the trendy thing to do became a phenomenal money maker.  No more is coffee constrained for the morning or the typical sleep depraved coffee fanatic.  It is available to all!  Worse of all, coffee is not even supposed to be healthy for you.

At least cereal has nutritional value being that fiber is an essential part to a healthy food diet.  Same as having breakfast.  Instead of coffee, have cereal!  Come by the local Flakes store.  A cereal novelty breakfast store can really catch on.  With the right business model, it can definitely take off.  Cereal doesn’t need to be a private affair in your own apartment any more.  You can have cereal can be cool!  Think of all the Gen X and Gen Y people now working, not eating breakfast, downing coffee - what they lack is cereal!  Plus, there is that nostalgic factor in it.  What’s your favorite cereal?  Cap’N'Crunch?  Apple Jack’s?  Coco Crisp?  I for one grew up on this and remember watching Saturday morning cartoons eating a bowl of Cookie Crisps.  I remember searching for the hidden toy inside the cereal box, do you?

As a business model, if marketed right, targeting the right demographics and located at the right area, it can definitely work.  Consider this, if you can pay for $5.00 coffee from Starbucks, couldn’t you spend $5.00 on a bowl of cereal.  I can even make it fancy for you, mixing two types of cereals and give it a special name so you feel the love.  So if you did miss breakfast, head on over to your local Flakes! (It does not exist, but it should!)

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The changes are minimal but the overall feel is considerably more vibrant. The little fixes made this quick snapshot photo of her almost professional. Take a look at the before and after photos and let me know what you think.

Before:

After:

There are many ways to retouch a photo and often times, not much needs to be done. I only worked on her face and hair so her neck and hand is still a bit bland.

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My feelings are that the Lakers gave up.  They never had any sort of control in any of the games.  No rebounds, reactive defense and no effort.

Look towards next year?  Sure, but its an 82 game season, a lot can happen.  And no matter how good Andrew Bynum is, he is still returning from injury.  I hope for the best though.

I was bored and thought I photoshop Sasha Vujacic.  Problem is the ‘Machine’ nickname is a bit absurd, he’s more like a broken machine.  Like a fax machine that can only send and not receive.  And even when sending, it isn’t consistent because you need to dial out several times.  His game is like that; his offense is very streaky and defense is almost non-existent, with the exception of being a pest.  But once you ignore him, he’s practically ineffective.

Take a look, only if he lived up to his nickname the Machine.  This would be a worthy poster or signature image… don’t you think?

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The Lakers riding on all their emotions came out tremendously.  Especially the once thought to be ‘confused’ Lamar Odom, came out going 6 of 6.  Once again, the Lakers had peaked too soon running on all cylinders too early in the game.  It went so smoothly that Kobe Bryant did not even have a field goal in the first half.  Perhaps all that distribution made KB24 too passive and when it came time to require his rhythm, he could not shoot at all.  (I got to give it up to the Boston defensive intensity and the never give up mentality).

These Lakers were not built for defense; and they so lacked effort as well.  They may be an offensive force running on all cylinders and capable of blowing any team in the league out; they are not able to hold their league.  This tends to remind me of the Phoenix Suns… big bummer.  Hate to say it, but the better team won out in Game 4.  It was a pure mental breakdown on the Lakers part, a lack of on the defensive effort as well in key plays of letting the Celtics get back into the game.  Another key is the Lakers did not play smart to keep their huge lead.  Instead of slowing the game down, running their plays, they kept shooting 3’s.  It did not fall for them any more and ball movement became stagnant, the crowd was quiet and Boston took advantage.

Time and time again, Kevin Garnett outplayed Gasol in the post.  Gasol cannot guard Garnett.  Period.

Ray Allen blew by his defender to get to the rim for easy layups.  Paul Pierce got to the line.  The Celtics found their touch in the end and the Lakers could not match the baskets nor get stops.

It is a huge upset.  The Lakers need to drain those wide open shots.  Gasol needs to make his freethrows and open jumpers.  If not, he needs to be somewhat effective in the post as opposed to trying to lay it up to feet from the basket and missing.  What happened to Odom?  He must have gotten confused again.

No more excuses; the game is played for 48 minutes, not the first 12.  There is no blame on why the Lakers lost and the Celtics did a wonderful job to win it.  I give it up to them.

The only blame here I can find is to blame it on broadcaster, ex-coach, Jeff Van Gundy for calling the game and series 2-2 after the first quarter.  He jinxed us and hope ABC takes him off the air.

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The film is currently available on YouTube and here is the first part to get you started:

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Times like this, I am thankful for blogging because only this way we can see all these wonderful recipes and fabulous photos of the finished product all collected on a site. If you have any great recipes, share it!

http://www.tastespotting.com/

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Now that was an unbelievable return! Came back and made two threes which pretty much changed the tempo and final outcome of the game; especially with the arena’s fans intensity rising. I am sure Paul Pierce was in an insane amount of pain but was all that drama necessary? Was being carried off court necessary? Several blogs even noted that if indeed his knee was blown; wouldn’t being carried off cause more damage than good? Shouldn’t a wheel chair been immediately carted out?

None of that happened. Instead, you got the whole arena’s emotion full of gasp as if Pierce experienced a career ending injury to only comeback several minutes later to contribute at a high level. Not only is he not injured he is expected to start game 2. The Celtics staff even found it unnecessary to do an MRI or X-ray on the supposed injury. This is no Willis Reed moment. This is just a grown man in a lot of pain who thought more than there really was; sad to say but the way he got carried off the court is just pure comedy and an Oscar worthy performance. To tap that much emotion through the pain he felt to touch millions of fans.

In the end, I will just remember this as the day where if someone is lying or exaggerating as ‘busting a Paul Pierce.’

*Sidenote - Who was boxing out Kevin Garnett on the follow up put back dunk with 2 minutes to play? Paul Gasol? Any other Lakers? At such a crucial moment and you just do not protect your own backboard. Even if you didn’t get the rebound but prevented that put back dunk all would have been fine. The effort was just not there.

Here’s the clip:

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