Ben is in Venezia

Ahh... INTERNETS!

Grace and I just settled in our room at the Hotel Bella Venzia near San Marco Square.

It is an amazing place, but I'll finish that thought later.

I am extremely upset that I bricked my Canon 5D with a cheap backup Compact Flash card and it no longer works. One of the contact pins was bent due to a misalignment and the pin shorted the camera.

Looks like a common problem, I will send it to Canon when I get back to fix it.

Enjoy a pic of the Trevi Fountain in Rome that I took with it and was able to transfer before I killed it.

See you all in a week!

Ben is distracted.

I SHOULD be finalizing my packing for our trip.

However I am playing Fight Night Round 4 for the Playstation 3.

Got it "early" today as it technically comes out on the 25th.

Got my ass KO'ed by Ali TWICE (I was Tyson)

Started a career with my created character Benny Wood.

Ben is Spurred.

I love the trade the Spurs made today.

Officially it is for SF Richard Jefferson (Bucks) for PF Kurt Thomas, SF Bruce Bowen and PF Fabricio Oberto.

It looks like Bowen and Oberto will be offered contract buy outs by the Bucks, so there is a great possibility they will be back in Spurs uniforms after their waiting period is complete.

Jefferson will add what was missing from the Spurs the last 2-3 years. An athletic swingman that can take some of the pressure off of Parker, Ginobilli and Duncan. Finley had this role, but anyone can see that he is declining or even done. Jefferson is an aggressive yet smart basketball player and he will be a great third or fourth option on the Spurs. Jefferson can also drain the 3pt, we all know Pop likes to station the 2 or 3 at the corners to hit the long ball from an interior pass or a swing from Ginobilli.

I think if the Lakers fail to re-sign Lamar Odom, this move puts the Spurs in serious contetion for the best team in the West. The Lakers are probably going to stick with Ariza, and they don't seem to be looking to change their core. The Spurs are still looking into a secondary big man to help Duncan out (Think: Kaman, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Gortat)

In the past two seasons, only two players have averaged at least 20.0 PPG while playing in every game: Richard Jefferson and Kobe Bryant.

I wish the Chargers made out with a great trade like this (WE NEED A INSIDE LINEBACKER)

Go Spurs!!!

Ben is packing.

48 hours left!

Sometimes I can't believe it when I look up in the mirror
How we out in Europe, spendin Euros

-Yeezy

Ricardo Beverly Hills 30" expandable upright

The North Face RECON tactical backpack

...

Acer Aspire One x Supreme netbook

Sony MDR-XB500 Extra Bass Headphones

Canon EOS 5D (sans battery grip)

Canon EF 17-40mm F/4.0L

Canon EF 15mm F/2.8 Fisheye

Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II

SanDisk Extreme III 8GB CF card (x 2)

Canon Powershot G10

Apple iPhone 3G (international roaming and data, activated)

...

Nike Free 5.0 V4

Rainbow flipflops

New Era San Diego 5950 fitted (blue, wool)

Man Panties (several flavors)

Foot Locker no-show socks

Kirkland White Ts

Hypebeast Ts

Camo shorts

...

Did I forget anything?

Ben is hoping Hotel Bella Venezia is pager friendly!

OMG why am I still thinking of this movie.

I will have to see it again.

How about that ride in?
I guess that why they call it Sin City... HA HA.
You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner.
I tend to think of myself,
as a one man wolf pack.
Though when my sister brought Doug home I knew he was one of my own.
And my wolf pack, it grew by one.
So there was two of us in the wolf pack,
I was alone first in the pack and then Doug joined later.
And six months ago when Doug introduced me to you guys,
I thought,
"wait a second could it be?"
and now I know for sure I just added two more guys to my wolf pack.
Four of us wolves running around the desert together in Las Vegas,
looking for strippers and cocaine.
So tonight,
I make a toast!
*takes out knife and cuts hand....
Blood Brothers!

Ben is Supra, thanks for asking!

Went to the Murrieta pad with my Dad to celebrate Father's Day by sweeping out the garage.

Found this shiny black thing sitting in there, maybe you remember it:

iPhone photography!

Ben is a fan of Fat Jesus and Chicken Parm.

Went to Macaroni Grill at Otay Ranch Mall with Grace, Vinji, Monica, Jill and Q for dinner tonight. After that we decided to catch The Hangover and boy, I know I hype shit up sometimes, but that was the funniest movie I have seen since The 40 Year Old Virgin. In fact the BIG laugh in the movie is probably the biggest laugh you will ever have in a movie theater.

Earlier in the day I found myself quite a deal. At Sun Diego in Plaza Bonita I scored a pair of "Newcastle" Dunk SBs for $30. That's right. It was the last pair in the store, and damn it I am glad I didn't buy 'em back when they released.

Ben is trespassing.

Vinji and I went on a mountain bike ride today in the time I had between work tasks (yes, on a Saturday)

We decided to check out the trails and stuff that is Northeast of San Miguel Ranch. Namely the trails that are at the foot of Mt. San Miguel and on the coast of Sweetwater Reservoir.

We ended up getting lost and having to walk our bikes up some crazy steep horse trails and we ended up by Proctor Valley.

Next time we will plan our route. We panicked a bit as we got lost. We trespassed on some private land and were told to leave by it's owner.

To top it off we had to ride back up Mt. Miguel Road from Proctor Valley aka the biggest hill in East Chula.

Oh well, at least we didn't get murdered at the murder shack we rode by.

Enjoy the shots from my Powershot SD870IS

Ben is fishy, again!

Behold the magic of fisheye (EF 15mm F/2.8)

I re-purchased the lens, I sold my first fisheye in a moment of weakness. =(

Sorry for the mess!

Ben is in his backyard.

Not the prettiest bird, but the only one in my backyard.

EOS 10D + 70-200mm F/4.0L

Ben is bored.

Haven't used the 70-200 in a while so I decided to go shoot some macros with it after my short bike ride today.

The 70-200 is my favorite lens. It's extremely versatile, quick to focus and sharp is an understatement.

Coco and a friend snuck in there too.

Ben is wondering...

Did you riot?

To quote the almighty Philip Rivers:

"Act like you won a game before!"

Ben is a proud owner of a MacBook Pro.

With the announcement of the new MacBook Pros I decided I needed a new Mac.

My iMac is great and all, however I always wanted a MacBook Pro.

So yesterday after I met up with a cool dude to sell my 50 1.4 I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 15" sex machine.

I was going to get an old end of lifecycle model or refurb from Apple.com, but long story short I didn't.

I've connected my 1TB External HD and 23" Samsung LCD monitor and everything I need to be productive is installed (Adobe CS4 Premium Suite, Photomatix, Office).

Enjoy these tripod shots with the 5D/17-40 combo of the unpacking!

I am typing this blog entry from the hotness herself.