Lebron has copped a lot of negativity over his decision lately, and while I can understand that Cavs fans weren't happy about the way that he did it (a 1hr special was a bit over the top) but cmon.. did anyone really think he was staying in Cleveland when they requested a special show for the announcement? Of course he was switching teams - the only thing I wanted to know was whether he was going to the Bulls or the Heat!
I think maybe I am in the minority, but I am really excited about seeing this big 3 tear it up in Miami next season, Wade-Lebron-Bosh, and with Mike Miller and whatever other veterans they can piece together on limited cash, is going to be a really fun team to watch. I can't wait to see Lakers vs Heat and how they match up in the regular season, let alone if both teams make it to the finals.
Maybe Lebron went a little too far with the special announcement, but I think if anything has been extreme here, it's been Cleveland's reaction to it.. Burning Jerseys, tearing down billboards, of a guy that made your basketball team bearable for 7 seasons is just mental. And although Lebron may have screwed the team sideways by dragging out his decision until all the remaining big names were off the market, I think the biggest douche throughout the whole thing has been the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.
He was willing to throw anyone and everyone under a bus in order to keep Lebron around. The team's coach, Mike Brown was blamed for the Cavs exit from the playoffs and was shown the door in an attempt to keep King James happy. News came out that the Cavs were looking to trade away Delonte West after the rumours came out that he was banging Lebron's mother. The Cavs management in my opinion got what they deserved when Bron left them hanging. They were happy to burn the coach and anyone else that got in the way of Lebron, they showed no loyalty to a lot of the people on their team and in the end they got a taste of their own medicine when Lebron decided to walk.
And it's funny how quickly their tune changed after that one hour special.. Check out Dan Gilbert's response following Lebron's decision to leave the team:
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.
There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.
You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.
You have given so much and deserve so much more.
In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:
"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"
You can take it to the bank.
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
Just watch.
Sleep well, Cleveland.
Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....
I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:
DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....
Dan Gilbert Majority Owner Cleveland Cavaliers
OK.. you're guaranteeing a title before Miami gets one?
That could be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How the hell is Mo Williams and Varejao and the rest of the scrubs going to get a ring before Lebron + Wade + Bosh + others? The only thing he really guaranteed right there, is that Lebron James is going to torch the Cavs for 40ppg next season! :P
So, he spat his dummy over King James leaving Cleveland and comes across like a spoilt baby that didn't get his own way.
The way this whole thing went down was entertaining as hell, and I can't wait to see:
Yeah.. I got bored recently and decided to photoshop myself for a change hahah.. =Þ so for anyone wondering what I look like, this is my face, photoshopped onto a bunch of pics lol
Thumbboy as Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)
Thumbboy as Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
Thumbboy as Shrek
Thumbboy as Keanu Reeves (Speed)
Thumbboy as the big dude from Lost
Thumbboy as Casey Tatum (Tim & Eric Awesome Show)
Thumbboy as Steadman with Oprah
Thumbboy getting KTFO in the UFC
Thumbboy as Homer Simpson
Thumbboy as Jake Sully (Avatar)
Believe it or not - All of the above pictures were made using the same photo of my face.. the power of photoshop =D
It's been a while.. but I decided to dust this thing off and give it another try ^_^
^^ Thumbboy is back in all his photoshopping goodness ^^
Anyway so what's new since I left this blog undefended to get spammed senseless? =P Well, I got a puppy with my wife who's now about 2.5 yrs old (the dog is 2.5yo not the wife.. don't be sick) bought an apartment, recovered from microfracture surgery on the knee and returned to the basketball court (probably will never dunk again but it's still great to be injury free for a couple years now).
What else.. nothing much really just loving life, loving sport and things are going really well!
So.. what can you expect from this blog?
hmmm.. Super fun times with Thumbboy thats what! :D
So if you're looking for some laughs check back often, and feel free to leave some comments.. just not too many 50" vertical leap programs or penis enlargment spams hahah
I'll end this with a pic I recently posted on the forums ;)
Took a few days to edit it all but pretty happy with how it turned out :)
Next episode I've wrangled a few friends to act in it as the baddies, so it should lead to some epic battles, and I hope this isn't going to be too big of a spoiler, but Sam Cassell may just unlock his ability to fly! Filming will start in the park next week and hopefully it'll be up and completed within 2 weeks time :D
Hmmm what else is new? My good friend Lester at work is moving to Perth so the lab is never going to be the same again. We just did some AWESOME pranks on my boss Simon last week too LOL
What we did was made a note saying "To the owner of this vehicle, As I have opened my car door it swung open into yours causing damage to the door of my car. Since both of our cars were involved in the incident, it is only fair that we split the cost for repairs. To discuss payment please call me on (then I put my mobile number). Thanks, -Paul"
So when he went out to lunch, he found the note under his windscreen wiper and straight away called Lester to ask if he did it, of course he acted shocked like "What note??" oh man it was so funny..
When he came back to work he called my mobile from the office and I was like "Gday mate this is Paul Speaking" in a totally different voice. And then he goes, whats this note you left on my windscreen? and I'm like "oh so YOU'RE the owner of the silver car.." and went on to say how he owed me half the cost because his car was just as much at fault as mine, trying to be as obnoxious as I possibly could. I kept saying things like "Oh, cmon be fair mate.." He started to get angry and said "No, look mate you've lost the plot, if I come up and kick your car I don't ask you to pay half if I damage my shoes" At that point I think he heard me and Lester laughing and caught on to it being a prank :)))
We still acted like we didn't know what he was talking about but he came up and dialed my mobile while he was standing right next to us and heard the ringtone hahaha I was covering it in my pocket with my hand to block the noise but eventually it was too loud :o))
Anyway thats all form me, check out the new video if you like, I am planning to do some more soon too, I've got a whole bunch of episodes planned ;)
This one has 10 differences in it that I have edited into the pic on the right, see if you can spot them all! :D
You may need to click on it to get the full sized image to see them, some are small differences :)
I like these types of games myself! there's an arcade game where you have to do them within a time limit that was really cool too.
Anyway if you enjoy this I made a bunch of them over on the forum, check em out if ya like! I find them relaxing, except when I make the image I already know where all the differences are :( kinda takes the fun out of it hahaha
here's the rest of em, and answers if ya can't find em or just wanna check if u were right:
I'm quitting pokies! far out, today they gave me the shits to the maxxxxxxxxxxx I was playing this dumbass machine and it wouldn't give me the feature AT ALL! I kept feeding notes into the dirty bastard and it wouldn't come up.. I won $400+ the other day but this machine today really rubbed me the wrong way. I am quitting!!!!!!!!! :))))
I saw this other dude today too, he got 5 trains on the link in the middle line and came up with mostly 8's and 9's he only got the 'minor' jackpot! I would have thought 5 trains you're a shoe-in to get amajor jackpot (which was up to $6K+) or at least the 2nd top prize which was around $600. If I was that guy I'd be spewing, seriously..
A few days earlier I saw someone playing the pyramids machine on $2 hits and on the feature he got 5 PYRAMIDS! paid out HARD! He got $2400 for that alone, so I'm guessing he'd have gotten close to 3 grand on the spins all together.
Anyway, I'm done with all this crap. While I'm still in front after my big few wins I'm going to call it a day, no more pokies! :D
This offseason I've been doing a lot of thinking about head to head comparisons of which players are better. Malone Vs Stockton, Hakeem Vs Barkley, Nique vs Drexler.
There's one I'm going to look at right now and that is Larry Bird Vs Magic Johnson. These two guys helped define the NBA up until the point that Michael Jordan became The Man.
So which of the two was better?? Well, lets take a look at the stats!
Both players were awesome, here's what they did:
Magic: 19.5ppg, 11.2apg, 7.2rpg, 1.9stl, 52%fg
Bird: 24.3ppg, 6.3apg, 10.0rpg, 1.7stl, 49%fg
So overall pretty even there, with Bird having an edge in pts and rebs, and Magic having the edge in assists and slight edge in steals and fg%
Both guys won 3 NBA MVP awards. Magic has the edge with NBA titles (Magic won 5, Bird won 3).
It is very difficult to split these two players as they played different styles. One the playmaker, and one the hard nosed scorer/rebounder. Both guys were clutch shooters and were successful at what they did.
If I had to choose though, I would say Magic was slightly better, because of how flashy and unpredictable he was with the ball. He made the game exciting while winning many NBA titles!
People talk about how well rounded Chris Paul is as a rookie, well consider this, Magic Johnson in his rookie season averaged 18.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 9.4 assists throughout the playoffs as a rookie and went on to win the title and get the Finals MVP award.
Both players were special! But Magic gets my pick! :D
I still can't believe it really. Yesterday was a huge day for my beloved family portraits. They made it into Melbourne's MX newspaper with a huge double page spread of the pictures. And then, later at night they were also shown on The AFL footy show with the host Sam Newman laughing at them too! :) And if that wasn't enough, the pics made it into the Herald Sun newspaper today with a big full page of various AFL family portrait images :o)
If anyone's interested in seeing them here's some scans some of my mates in Melbourne did for me :)
The MX newspaper spread:
(they put the link to my blog site as well! wooooot) :)
and the Herald Sun paper here too:
So to celebrate I've made a bunch of new pics.. here's a couple of my favourite ones from the new lot:
The Trevor Marmalade family:
And the Akermanis family portrait:
Thanks to everyone for the complements and kind words I've been receiving on the pics! If you made it to my site based on the newspaper or tv show thing please drop me a line in the comments section or somethin it would be cool to hear from you! :) -THUMBBOY
Now, I'll admit I'm not a huge AFL footy fan, but these guys pull the skitzest faces of all! A few of my forum buddies are into AFL and asked me to do some pics for them so I made a whole thread of AFL family portraits :)
Check em out if you need a good laugh. Even if you don't know the players there's some funny lookin heads amongst them!
Well anyways thats what I've been keeping myself occupied with other than causing mishief in the deli and in the lab :D
Anyone got anymore restaurants for me to add to the list yet? man I love you people that view my blogs, even though you don't talk to me I can feel the joy in your hearts. Thank you all for being my FRIENDS! :D
Ok, I am becoming a fat bastard but who cares. I've given up on my dreams to make it to the NBA so might as well enjoy myself! :D
If anyone reading this is either from Sydney or going to visit Sydney some day, take notes of these places because they are all worth trying!
Here it is, the Top 10 Thumbboy eateries! :))))
1. Sussex Centre Foodcourt at Chinatown
Nothing beats Sussex Centre for quality and price. Happy Chef chicken laksa is too cool for school, and opposite that is a place that does the meanest Chicken Katsu Curry of ALL TIME! Both dishes can be had for about $7 or $8 each!!! This place is my favourite place to eat of all! A nice combo to get is the chicken katsu curry and this other place sells these crumbed potato balls with either curry or cheese filling. Buy a couple of those and let them soak in the curry sauce and it is super nice! :D
2. I'm Angus
This is the first runner up for good reason. I'm Angus has great atmosphere right on Darling Harbour, the food is awesome. If you go there you have to order the Giant BBQ Pork Ribs! they cost around $23 but they are well worth it, the thing is so huge it often overhangs the plate. Super MEATY and comes with heaps of big potato wedges!
3. New Harmony Chinese Restaurant @ Greenacre
Great little place with super nice fooooooood! They have this salt and pepper calamari/prawns that is lightly fried and has a superb taste to it, just a little crispy and has a hint of garlic and pepper to it. They also do a great sang choy bow there too, which is a nice meat/veg filling wrapped in a lettuce leaf, definitely worth trying as well! Price is ok, not too expensive but could add up if you are getting a big banquet for lots of people.
4. Sushi Train @ George Street Cinema Complex
The food is great there, I'm not into the raw fish ones but they do a really nice teriyaki chicken sushi there. $2.50 per plate which sounds cheap but be careful because it adds up pretty quickly! :) good to sneak in to the cinemas but the plastic container is really crinkly and makes a lot of noise so eat them during the commercials :)))
5. Beyti Kebab @ Smart Street Fairfield, opposite Neeta City
Beyti Kebab is really good. Probably my favourite place to get kebabs from! They do the normal shaved meat kebabs but they also do the chicken shish roll with is excellent, try that if you go there. You may have to wait 5-10 mins while they cook it but it's worth it! :D
6. 'The Best Merrylands Thai Restaurant' @ Miller St. Merrylands
Really good little out of the way place that has pretty good service and food to match. The mas man nua is my favourite thing on their menu, which is this really tender beef in a mild curry sauce, when you eat it with the rice it tastes great. They also have a really rad thai green curry, which is nice and a little spicy too :D
7. Lidcombe RSL Club - They have Great STEAKS!!!!!
Okay, this place is the best kept secret of all! The steaks at this place are SOOOOOOO NICE! always really tender and with great flavour. When you have it with the gravy and chips it nearly makes your eyes water with happiness that fills you with joy! And it is so cheap too! only like less than 10 bucks and you're very full by the end. They have a really nice fried icecream too. I haven't tried much on their menu because I can't bring myself to order anything but their amazing steaks! MUST GO AND TRY IT!!!!!!!!
The food here is GREAT, especially the chicken empire or iskendar or something like that. We stopped going there a long while back because the service sucks and they usually make you wait forever before the food comes out. If you don't mind the long wait then this place is worth trying, the food is super cool.
9. Korean BBQ Restaurant @ George St in the City
Now, I don't know the exact name of this place but if it is on the 2nd level of this building near the Delifrance on George Street. The food is really nice, I started going there about 6 mths back and have been again many times already. The bbq beef and the chicken bulgogi are both cool, I really like the little mini bowls of stuff they bring out, like kimchi and stuff those are really cool :) Prices are surprisingly cheap too! I always expect it to cost about $60+ but the Bill usually only shows around $38 or $40 for the two of us (me and my wife), so good food + great price and good service, go try it! :)
10. Star City - All you can eat Buffet
Nice wide selection of hot and cold foods. Always looks really clean and well laid out full of foods. There probably isn't one thing on there that is a must-try, but as far as all-you-can-eat places go this one would have to be amongst the better ones I've been to. The desserts are really really good. One long big row of them it's good to go with someone else and go halves on them all :D Mounties all you can eat (at a different Club) used to be a really good all you can eat as well but haven't been there for ages, so Star City wins and rounds out my top ten! :)
Anyway thats my list, if you've got any foods in Sydney that you think are worth trying please leave a reply of the place so I can go check it out and maybe even add it to my top 10 list :))))))))))
Grew up on transformers, he-man and thundercats. Went through a weird ninja turtle phase as well. Memorised the lyrics to ice-ice baby and sang it with my friend Charlie at the primary school disco. --> Skip forward about 10-15 yrs and now I'm a married man and wreaking havoc on the internet with my ninjitsu martial arts. I create photoshopped pictures and spend most of my free time on the net chatting in online sports forums or vegging out in front of the TV. Love watching and playing most types of sports :)
