Lee Abbamonte
Try to become the youngest person to travel to every country in the world
Bond, (Not) James Bond
By Lee | 
3 Comments » 
Bond, James Bond. That simple and legendary line has only been uttered by six men on screen and is possibly the greatest one liner in cinematic history. James Bond is the iconic British secret agent and is the epitome of cool. James Bond is the one guy that all women want to be with and all men want to be. He is smart, witty, tough, adventurous, slick, well spoken and always gets the girl and the bad guy in the end. No wonder why it’s the most successful franchise in the history of Hollywood. The six men who have played Bond are part of a legendary fraternity that will last forever. However, Mr. Bond has taken on lots of changes in the past several installments and I believe for the worst. Now I hear that the current Bond, 43 year old Daniel Craig, is in negotiations to sign on for another five Bond films after the current film wraps. This is a mistake.
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A Tale of Two Concerts
By Lee | 2 Comments » 
When I was a kid my favorite band was Guns N’ Roses (GNR). I would argue still that their debut album, “Appetite for Destruction” is the greatest rock and roll album ever made; even better than Led Zeppelin IV. The trials and tribulations of the volatile band are well known and their break ups and replacing of band members has been scrutinized for years. Axl Rose, the charismatic and talented front man retained the rights to the name Guns N’ Roses and was also the man who wrote almost all of the GNR music. He has recently launched a new US tour with all his new, young band mates playing old GNR favorites and some new music. I saw their show Sunday night in Broomfield, Colorado just outside of Denver. It was pretty awesome.
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LOL OMG BRB BTW WTF
By Lee | 5 Comments » 
Not that this is Earth shattering news but we are getting stupider as a culture and as a people. I am firmly convinced that as great as technology is, it has made human beings lazy and stupid when it thinks it’s making us smarter. I fear for the younger generations who will only know social media and texting stuff like it has been around forever. I fear that I will soon forget how to write properly: meaning using full sentences with actual words, not abbreviations, acronyms and emoticons. However, it seems that abbreviations and acronyms are fast becoming actual words. The Oxford English Dictionary added OMG, FYI and LOL to the dictionary this year. This makes me sick to my stomach. What’s worse? I find myself doing all of these things I hate and it makes me want to scream sometimes.
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Sarah Palin Please Shut Up!
By Lee | 11 Comments » 
I hate writing or talking about religion and politics in general and especially in a public forum like my website. However, I woke up this morning, was reading the news on my blackberry and came across the dreaded political ticker on CNN. The ticker loves to mention Sarah Palin constantly and essentially the stupid things she does on her national tour where she simply criticizes everything and everyone Democratic without any recourse and without any viable alternative solutions. Today they published some excerpts from a recent speaking engagement she apparently did out in Long Island, which is pretty close to where I live in New York City. I glanced over it quickly then reread it because I was in slight disbelief at what I was reading. I couldn’t help but write about my thoughts on this woman who continually embarrasses me as an American.
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A Bunch of Random Stuff
By Lee | 8 Comments » 
I feel as if there are a lot of things going on right now that I want to write about but nothing in particular. Therefore, I will just be mentioning totally random bits about lots of different things that are or have been on my mind in the last few days. From liberation in Egypt to Charlie Sheen saying to America that it’s OK to use crack. From some band who I have never heard of winning album of the year at the Grammy’s to Silvio Berlusconi about to be put on trial for sex with an underage prostitute. From Lady Gaga arriving at those same Grammy’s in an egg to a computer competing with and beating the greatest ever Jeopardy champions, it has been a wacky last few days. Thankfully the Champions League knockout round starts today!
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PassportVisasExpress.com
By Lee | 8 Comments » 
I just wanted to write my sincere thanks once again to the awesome people at PassportVisasExpress.com as they have once again come through and landed me 14 visas to travel to West Africa with over the Winter. They were very knowledgeable, helpful, fairly priced and communicated extremely well. I want to especially thank Sapto Pradonggo for his great work and even better communication with me as I tend to get nervous without my passport in my hands at all times. I highly recommend them for anyone who needs visas and hasn’t an embassy near them or the time to get them themselves. I look forward to using them again soon for Algeria and Libya.
New York Times Article
By Lee | 18 Comments » 
I was recently interviewed by noted travel writer, Rolf Potts, who was writing an article about Charles Veley, the man who’s record I am attempting to break. The article was posted on the New York Times website this morning, click here. My quotes are on page 6 of the story. Additionally, the actual hard copy will be available in the Sunday Times in the travel magazine insert tomorrow if you do not have a subscription. I am very excited to be included in this story in my favorite hometown paper and am looking forward to my upcoming extensive travels to South America and West Africa to inch closer to the record.
Seven Years Later
By Lee | No Comments » 
Seven years ago today was one of the worst days of my life and the worst day in the history of America. For everyone, but especially for those of us who worked in the World Trade Center or knew anyone who passed away on September 11, 2001; today is always a difficult day to get through. For me, it is extremely important to always remember my good friends and countless former colleagues who did die that horrible morning and be extremely thankful for those who are still with us, including one of my best friends. To my man Sterg-I miss you brother, Monique, Billy-the Cubs may actually have a shot this year, Lynn, my eSpeed/Cantor corporate development team, the incredibly brave FDNY, NYPD and everyone else who passed away: you guys are always in my thoughts and will never be forgotten-your spirit lives on forever and touches me each day.
I Don’t Speak Starbucksese
By Lee | 12 Comments » 
I am not a coffee drinker and never have been. However, I did discover a drink recently at Starbucks that I kind of like and if I have an early meeting or something I will stop and grab a $4.82 “Venti Skim Iced Caramel Macchiato”. Now that’s quite a mouthful. I feel like a complete imbecile saying all of that stuff at the counter especially when I don’t know what a Macchiato is and why they just can’t accept that I just want to say large instead of venti, in addition to the fact that I don’t understand why tall is small and grande is medium when it actually means large. This to me is stupid, but that’s not all.
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Shaq Freestyling
By Lee | 8 Comments » 
I am almost embarrassed to be writing about this and I know it’s kind of random but I can no longer take hearing about and seeing the video and the reactions from people. For those of you who may not have heard or seen Shaquille O’Neal’s (NBA basketball player for Phoenix Suns) freestyle rap tirade the other night where he basically makes fun of Kobe Bryant (NBA basketball player for Los Angles Lakers), it was a dispicable display of low class behavior played out all over the Internet. Shaq basically makes fun of everything that he possibly could about Kobe when he is not even there and for really no reason. But that isn’t what bothers me.
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