I had an amazing time with my bestfriend yesterday eating Crumbs cupcake, watching the movie Earth and indulging on pasta, pizza and some amazing spring rolls at California Pizza Kitchen. It was an Upper East Side (and Murray Hill) adventure that was fun-filled, specially because it's also the first time my genius of a bud, Brandon Lori, after more than a month of laboring intensely for school work-involving little or no sleep-was able to unwind and relax. I'd love to share about our UES fun but the pictures are yet to be uploaded, so in lieu of two product reviews and one movie review, below is a video that will give you a good start in your week.

Bad news seems to be the norm of reporting and exacerbating it the most common form of delivering it. It seems that in this day and age, the media's goal is to deliver facts, hard facts that will allow them to capture your attention. And if they will capture your attention the news they should be delivering are hardcore items that will appeal to your emotions. My problem here is, it seems that they always try to appeal to us in ways that would only provoke the negative. Murder, suicide, school shooting, crisis, wrong government decisions, etc. The list goes on and on.

Now it's not that you don't need to report these things but the reporting facts without identifying a variety of facts to report is not helpful either. There is always a bias to discuss the negative. To focus on what was not met, what cannot be done, what went wrong. The deliver of information has been limited on the negative qualities of an event, location or person. True that there maybe some positives once in awhile, but it's clouted by all the wrongs and ills that gets the headlines and front page of newspapers, online media sites and heaven forbid, the majority of blog outlets that may will one day be the source of punditry for all these.

I am not saying that we should start reporting only good news or focusing only on the good things, but am starting to question the intent of news reporters, media outlets and everyone else in between whose reporting seems to weigh only on the pessimistic side of things. Yes, reality must be presented in the most accurate way, but doesn't reality have two sides in it? Doesn't facts have two perspectives? Doesn't opinions vary with a few being optimistic on events?

In the way the world looks, it's not easy to be positive. It's not easy to be hopeful. But when all is down, trembling and shaken-it seems that hope, optimism and a solid resolve to move forward is the only option, the main ingredient in one's quest to survive.

This is not a call for idealism, or a presentation of a broken world as utopia. It is a mere request that maybe, just maybe we can look at news from another perspective. Sometime.

There has been more than once where I needed to ride a cab to go to my destination. Although I'm a subway guy, I had to hail the yellow cab for emergency reasons specially when it involves magically hopping from one neighborhood to another. It's a feat unmatched by any other rush and the goal to hail a taxi ride and be where you are at the soonest possible time is much in line with the New York spirit. And just like anything in New York, it involves money. Thanks for the times when I don't have cash, I can pay credit or debit in our New York cab driver's fleet. All thanks to the genius of Amos Tamam, the person responsible for the innovative payment method available in today's taxi fleet in New York.

An immigrant from Israel, Amos Tamam began life in America servicing taxi cabs in a garage in New York City. Applying his technical ingenuity, made by the fact that he was an electrical engineer student prior to coming to NYC, he develop products and processes for the taxi fleet owners. Success upon success, innovation upon innovation and from milestone to milestone Amos Tamam changed the way people ride cabs.

Now 30 years later, he is now the CEO of Verifone Transportation System, the company responsible for providing the technology and systems that enable taxi fleets to accept credit card payments. An innovation that will forever change the landscape of hailing cabs in midst of Manhattan's hustle and bustle. Finally, you can go from point A to point B faster than ever...without having cash!

A few months ago a friend of mine suggested that I watch the film SICKO by Michael Moore which outlined one of the most pervasive, controversial and for some reason eternally unresolved issues in America today- HEALTHCARE! The fact that the world's richest nation cannot fund nor assist it's people to gain the necessary benefits to receive proper care is just appalling. The movie captured these scenes so vividly, reminding me of the dilemma any person with health issues would face when they decide to receive care from someone.

I wonder how people can just feel protected and enjoy their life. True enough, United American Insurance Company has the same thoughts as I have. With similar words as their motto, the company intends to provide various insurance products. United American Insurance Company  products has a wide variety of affordable policies for anyone under 65. The company is committed  in providing the best claims to policyholders and has an eService center where you, as a policyholder, can view policy details, claim status and even receive email confirmation of notices and payments.

In these tough times where it's not easy to trust and your hard-earned money can only go to the right places, it's good to know that this company- United American Insurance Company can provide a response that a lot of Americans would need.

I'm currently working on my network blog which would be linking my other smaller and niche blogs to this site. It would also be a content marketing medium for entrepeneurs and professionals who has something valuable to contribute in this online space full of noise, garbage and sameness. The site's skeleton was supposed to be live by now but my designer, who I got from Craigslist just told me that he's backing out! So much for expectations, sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to.

So instead, I'm spending my Friday night studying the theme I'll be using (more about this on later post), trying my best to get this blog up as soon as I can!

Anyone who'll be reading this...wish me luck..PLEASE!!