One of the blessings about being brown is we have an extra chromosome in our bodies that enable us to find awesome deals.

It’s a proven fact.

If you’re thinking about switching over to Verizon or renewing your contract there, now’s the time to do it. Starting Friday, the company is offering a Buy One Get One Free sale on all its Blackberries until the end of March.

Not a bad idea if you want to land yourself a Blackberry Storm, probably the closest thing to matching the iPhone.

Me, I’m on Sprint because I make poor decisions in life. But I’m looking forward to Sprint’s mid-March release of the Palm Pre, a phone that gets me excited in certain areas I choose not to mention.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

I’ve been a nervous wreck all day.

Yesterday, as I was watching the Super Bowl on my beloved 120-inch HD projector screen, I watched the trailer for the G.I. Joe movie coming out this summer.

G.I. Joe was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. What on Earth is all this high-tech slow motion Matrix crap that they’re trying to infuse into the movie?

Cleavage, Marlon Wayans as Ripcord and knocking down the Eiffel Tower with moss? Seriously Hollywood, that’s all you got?

(It should be noted, that I am a strong fan of one of those items).

To be fair, I was a HUGE skeptic of the Transformers movie, which remade another baller cartoon from my childhood. And that movie was a whirling dervish of awesomeness. So I guess I’ll have to wait until summertime. Until then, I remain skeptical.

All right ladies. Let’s say you’re with a guy for the night and he’s playing his cards right.

Candles by the bedside, caressing you in all the right places, so far so good.

Then all of a sudden, he opens a drawer to put on an electronic headset ahahahahaha.

For only $80 bucks fellas, you can be the proud owner of the Love Trainer. As you’re getting your groove on, the Love Trainer softly whispers things in your ear to get you in the mood such as “The foreplay, will now begin!”

Wow. I’m a gadget nut, but this has to be one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen.

It would be cool though if the gadget had the voice from the Mortal Kombat games. Can you imagine, as you’re gettin it on, all of a sudden you hear, “ROUND ONE, FIGHT!”

He’s the co-host of two radio shows, a producer for the Opie and Anthony show, and the current wrestling trivia champion of XM 202/Sirius 197.

If before your 26th birthday you’d accomplished all that (in front of a potential, international, satellite audience of millions, no less), they’d probably call you “Prime Time” too.

If you saw “Prime Time” Sam Roberts on the streets of his hometown of Mamaroneck, NY, you might mistake him for an average 25-year-old kid from Westchester County. He’s a college graduate with a serious girlfriend, a day job, hoodie collection, wrestling obsession and a huge Afro.

But on Saturday night, this local boy will put on the headphones and be heard all across North America when he co-hosts the 4th installment of “Special Delivery Starring Sam and Dave,” live on The Virus XM 202/Sirius 197. Sam Roberts sits along side “East Side” David McDonald of “The Ron and Fez Show”

Today’s inauguration of Barack Obama is of historic importance for many reasons, an obvious one being he’s the first African American president.

But as a proud nerd, to me Barack Obama’s swearing in today will make him… the first video gamer in the White House.

Obama recently bought his family a Nintendo Wii, which apparently he’s been playing a lot of Wii bowling on.

Now I’ve been very critical of Obama’s stance on video games, about how he bashed video games during his campaign yet found them important enough to advertise in.

But even though he’s not a hardcore gamer, he’s a gamer nonetheless.

Nobody could be prouder during this moment than the main character of Atari Basketball, who broke the video game color barrier in 1979 by being the first black character featured in a video game.

If he was still around today, imagine what he’d say. Thank you Obama, for making the Atari basketball guy’s dream come true.

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

You’re welcome.

Taking your car into Manhattan for a night on the town by yourself to visit a Chinese massage parlor always results in the hassle of finding a good parking spot.

And if you’re like me, after driving around for miles trying to find a free spot, you sell your soul to the dark side and park in one of those garages — only to find out that you will be charged $3 fafillion zillion for an hour of parking.

But now, Central Parking, which has garages on just about every block, is running a promo where you can get 6 hours of parking for $15.

That’s a freakin steal dude. You’re lucky to find a place that charges you less than $15 for an hour (THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!).

Anywho, click here to find a garage that you want to park at, and print out the coupon.

( Photo by Stephen Schmitt / The Journal News )

I think Florida has hit the jackpot with stupidly awesome criminals. First, there was news about police in Palm Beach County looking for a fat guy robbing ATMs in a ninja outfit.

Now we got news out of Orlando in what could be the most stupidly awesome case of domestic violence ever.

A woman named Dena Moir was calling her son Zachary downstairs to dinner, but the 19-year-old refused because he was playing Xbox. So Dena got gangster, went upstairs and unplugged the system (GASP!).

Zachary retaliates by coming into the kitchen and throwing a taco at her! She called the cops and the boy was charged with assault. Here’s what Dena told the Fox affiliate in Orlando:

“He went ahead and hit me with the taco and I got taco all over my shirt and kitchen,” she said. “I’ve threatened to call police before. But anyway this time, I thought he went too far so I called police and he’s in jail now.”

HAHAHA! Kudos to the mom. Can you imagine the convo this kid is having in jail?

“Hey man, what are you in here for?”

“Me? Oh, I robbed a liquor store and shot a cop in his leg. What about you?”

“Oh, I got mad at my mommy and whacked her with a chalupa.”

I think even the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at Bush is probably at home thinking “Hmm, now that was a bit much.”

Florida, thank you for continuing to be so stupidly awesome.

Last year, I met Jaime Jeffrey, an assistant pastry chef at Connie’s Bakery and General Store in Mount Kisco. Jeffrey, 30, was a  homeless single mother at 28 and became a chef in the bakery’s one-year apprenticeship program while living in a shelter.

She has accomplished a great deal in the last two years, but what she is most proud of is that she is going to take part in an historic event.

Jeffrey will distribute 10,000 brownies at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington for Inauguration services.Connie’s Bakery donated 20,000 brownies to various Inauguration events. Jeffrey will take part in the “Day of Service” event on Martin Luther King Day. 

“I am a big Obama fan,” said the Tobago native. “I am excited and I remember saying in November that I will go to Inauguration in January.”

She said that she cannot believe that she is living in these historic times.

“When I get down there, I don’t know how I am going to react,” she smiled.

Jeffery said that after all she has been through, she is finally very content. 

“My life is better,” she declared. “I get up everyday and I make a difference. I love my life. I thank God for it. I am not just living.” 

Caption: Jaime Jeffrey,30, will distribute 10,000 brownies in Washington for Inauguration Services.  Once homeless and unemployed  Jeffery became an assistant pastry chef through a one-year baking apprenticeship program (Danielle De Souza/The Journal News).

You go through your day thinking in terms of status updates.

I’ve noticed — and I’m not proud of this — that I have been boiling basically everything I do during the day down to 140 characters in my mind. Anyone else with me on this one?

“Diana Costello is…” keeps running through my brain like an annoying song you wish would just get out of your head!

And it doesn’t help that I recently added the “Twidget” to my Mac Dashboard here at work. Do you know what this is?

It’s a Twitter widget that I can access right from my dashboard, with just a simple flick of the mouse to the bottom-righthand corner of my screen, because that’s how I set up my user preferences. The Twidget is synced up to automatically update my Facebook status, making it waaaaay too easy for me to post all day long.

It’s such a fascinating phenomenon, really, this whole status update thing. Deep down, are we trying to confirm our existence or something; putting ourselves out there as proof that we are actually here, living, doing, status updating? Are we longing for friendship; looking for a response to let us know we’re not alone? Are we self-absorbed; thinking that every little thing we do is worthy of broadcasting to every person we know?

Ok, maybe that’s a little over the top. I don’t know. But still, I’m hooked and I know from the frequency with which some of my Facebook friends post that I’m not alone. (So don’t even try to front!)

“Notorious,” the story of the life and death of rapper the Notorious B.I.G. will be released tomorrow and I must say that I am excited.

I love films, especially biographic films. I enjoy watching the lives of celebrities and political figures and learning how they overcame poverty, their struggles and rose to fame. Some of my favorite biographic films include: “What’s Love Gotta Do With It” about the life of Tina Turner, “The Buddy Holly Story,” “Frida.” “The Jacksons: The American Dream” and my most recent favorite, “Milk,” a beautiful film about the life and death of gay activist Harvey Milk.

Even though I enjoyed these films, I never knew what it was like to live during those time periods.

Well tomorrow, however, I can say ‘I remember that.’ Many people in their 20s can say that they know who the Notorious B.I.G. is and that his music was present in most of their teenage years.

I remember when I was 15-years-old, waking up a Sunday morning, turning on the radio and hearing that he was murdered the night before at 24-years-old. I remember going to school the next day and everyone talking about it. I remember kids planning to ditch school to attend his public funeral in Brooklyn. I remember kids rushing to the music store to buy his album “Life after Death” that was released two weeks after he was murdered. And what I remember most was his music.

The music our parents called garbage, but us teens loved. The music that played at our school dances, the music that I listened to as I gossiped with my cousins, the music that was fun, vulgar, and spoke to us.

He was the most successful rapper during those times. The times when we were young, carefree and naive.

Tomorrow, some 20-somethings may be taken back, hearing songs that were the soundtrack to their young lives.

Caption: Notorious B.I.G. accepts 1995 Billboard Award for Best Rapper (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan).