The Best and Worst Shoes I own!

If you look into my closet, there are endless towers that look like legos of shoe boxes. My favorite of them all are the Lebron Nike Zoom 20-5-5 because they were the most comfortable to play in and they had air bubbles inside of them that was way better than any cushing on other shoes. These shoes were also the ones that lasted the longest for me even though I played the most basketball with them, indoor and outdoor. I also liked them because they didn't have a strap around the ankle but on the lower part of my foot and that made it very tight and easier to move around.

My second favorite pair of shoes were the Nike Zoom Lebron IV. The only reason I didn't put them above the Zoom 20-5-5 was because they were too heavy for basketball but the wave like pattern that they had made them unique. These were my favorite walking shoes because just like all other Lebron shoes they have such great cuchioning it's like walking on clouds. The material that they were made out of was also different than most ordinary shoes and that's kind of why I bought them.

One worst pair of shoes that I own are the Jordan XX2 PE because I bought them because of the heal cushion that they had and the part that cover the cushion was always ripping. I mean these are nice shoes to have when your going out but not to play basketball. They came with two seperate types of heal cushions, one of them was air and the other was zoom, but to tell you the truth they both felt the same. In case anyone is looking for new basketball shoes to wear don't buys these but if you are looking for going out shoes these are a good choice.

The absolute worst shoe that I have ever bought and regret buying were the Proteges. Of course they only cost $35 but these shoes shouldn't even have been worth $10. The only reason I bought them was because of a commercial that came out on television advertising them. I bought them because I intended to use them as my outdoor shoes but the sole of the shoe was much to hard that it felt like I was walking barefoot. The Starbury shoes were much better than these and they cost $15 at Steve and Barry's. I wouldn't recommend these shoes unless you want to walk in pain as long as your wearing them.

Best Ways to Increse Your Vertical Jump!

Every basketball player's dream is to be able to dunk like Michael Jordan, and there is only one way to do it, increase your vertical jump. Your legs and your core body are the most important parts of the body that help with jumping. Warming up and stretching are also very important when training on your vertical jump because they help prevent injuries. One year that I was training I was on my seventh strait week doing a program called Air Alert and I strained my hip flexor because I didn't stretch properly. Once you are injured your training goes to waste because all the conditioning that you have done is lost.

Squats are a very good excercise for your legs. They can be done with or without weights but remember to keep your feet flat on the floor, shoulder width apart, and don't let your shoulders be in front of your knees. Toe raises is another exercise to help you with leg training. These are done by just standing regularly, or as I like to do it on the edge of a stair, and you raise you foot as if you were standing on your tip-toes. Jumping rope can be used as a warm up or as a regular workout and it helps with both speed and jumping.

Medicine balls are very helpful tools to help you with leg workouts and also core workouts. They can be used to do sit ups, on an declined bench, and the also help when doing reverse sit ups for your lower back. Depending on how hard you want to work there are different weighted medicine balls. Here is a video that shows different execises using a medicine ball.

Dedication is the most imporatant aspect of any type of weight training because it all depends on how hard you want to work. I know that it is hard work but if you want to increase your vertical jump that's exactly what it takes, hard work.

The Secrets of Texas Hold'em Poker!

If you don't know how to play Texas Hold'em poker it's not that hard. You basically get two cards faced down from the dealer and depending on where you are on the table you wait your turn the make a bet, fold, or call. There are three chips passed out; dealer, big blind, and small blind. The big blind has to put in a certain amount and the little blind puts in half of the big blind and any other player who wants to play their cards calls the big bling, meaning they just match the amount the big blind put in, or raise they can raise, which is calling the big blind and raising the amout to play. If a player does not like their hand they can fold, not play their cards. Here is a video to help you learn how to play if you still don't know how to.



I believe that Texas Hold'em requires a lot of discipline, especially when it comes to betting, skill, strategy, and composure. One of the biggest problems with beginning poker players is that they get too exicted when they get a good hand and raise right away. Hiding your emotions is important that is why the professionals on television wear sunglasses and hats, so the other players can't read them. To be succesful you have to put yourself in your opponents shoes that way you can ask your self what would I do in this situation and with what hand. The Pros are very good at this that's why they are Pros, and sometimes they call out what the other player has.



The worst thing that a player can do is lose his compsure and begin to start betting with bad hands because that's how you lose all of your money. It's all right to be a tight player, most professionals play one in twenty hands, with an ocassional bluff, but it is not good to bluff unless you know what your doing. William J. Florece wrote in his book The Gentleman's Handbook on Poker, "The strong point in poker is to never lose your temper,either with those you are playing with, or more particularly, with the cards. There is no sympathy in poker. Always keep cool. If you lose your head you will lose all your chips." Luck has a lot to do with the game especially when you are bluffing. Here is a video that shows why you shouldn't bluff.

Who's Better, Kobe or Lebron?

If you take a survey on who the best player in the NBA is right now, it would be a close race between Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Both players came straight to the NBA from high school, which shows that they are both very skilled and gifted athletes. If you look at it from the statistics point of view, Lebron does have a higher average of points per game in his career but Kobe has four championship rings to Lebron's none. Three of the four rings that Kobe has were when Shaquille O'Neal was on the team and this season Shaq was traded to the Cavaliers, so is it time for Lebron to win some rings with Shaq? Lebron is also the leading scorer in the NBA and has the highest fieldgoal percentage this year but Kobe isn't to far behind in third place.

It may seem now that the fight is slighty won by Lebron, but when it comes down to the wire who would you want with the ball. On ESPN the experts did a survey asking different questions between Lebron and Kobe and this was one of them. Seven out of the seven sports experts chose Kobe as the player they would want to take the last shot in the game. They also compared the two superstars to two other well-known superstars, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. But who was compared to who because I would much rather be Michael Jordan than Magic Johnson, although he was an outstanding player. Kobe was compared to Michael Jordan because he has more of a killer instinct and Lebron relies too much on his teammates.

The ultimate question is who's better one on one and the records show that Lebron James is. Out of the twelve times that the Lakers and the Cavaliers have faced off with both Lebron and Kobe on the teams Kobe did not play in one of the games. Either way Lebron averages 27 points against the Lakers and Kobe averages 24 points against the Cavaliers. If I had to chose who to have on my team I would go with Lebron.

What's it like to be Samuel Pepys?

Samuel Pepys, born on February 23, 1633, into a family of only five at the time but would grow to be a family of eleven. His birth took place only ten days after the great Italian astronomer, Galileo had been in Rome for trial because of his belief which stated that the earth revolves around the sun, which is true. This goes to show you that he grew up in a time of very intelligent people, in Galileo's case. He is known as England's great diarist because he kept a diary for nine years until he stopped because he thought that his eyesight was being lost.

Samuel Pepys was a smart man himself, if it wasn't for his intellegent plan to tear down the building near the Navy Office and St. Olave's Church in London, the Great Fire of 1666 would have engulf the two buildings in flames. The diary really shows how times were in 17th century London. Pepys shares with us one day that he punched his spouse, Elizabeth Pepys, in the face and her eye was bruised for an entire week. This goes to show that men felt superior to women and that they treated them as a personal possession. Having a black eye for a week is a pretty long time so Pepys must have hit Elizabeth pretty hard, so it certainly wasn't a love tap.

After reading Pepys' diary I think that it is safe to say that he fits the stereotypical rich man who loves his money above all else. I noticed this especially when he writes about the fire in London. Pepys shows how narcissistic he is after he throws a party while the fire was going on. Through the entire book Pepys is either eating at someone else's house or he has company over at his house. At one point Pepys traveled across the river to new clothes just because his were dirty, While the fire was still ablaze. I don't know anyone who would go out shopping while one of the biggest fires in history was going on.