Mostly Safe For Work

Funny Article

I think it would be great to have a job that included research projects such as this.

-T

Good Blogs

This might just be an English teacher thing, but I enjoy both of the following blogs. One deals with misplaced quotation marks found around town and the other with misused apostrophes.

By the way, the worst side effect of being an English teacher is that I now take perverse pleasure in correcting other people's grammar. Obviously, I know how obnoxious this is, so I only do it to people who are forced to put up with me - mainly my girlfriend, who hates me for it. Absolutely hates me. But I don't care.

-T

Read This

For those who haven't heard, the first American casualty in Iraq of 2008 was Maj. Andrew Olmsted, who had previously written and sent to a friend a blog entry to be published in the event of his death. It's remarkable, please read it.

-T

Back From the Dead

Holy hell, it's been a long time since I've written anything. I'm gonna have to figure out this whole typing thing all over again. The past few weeks for me have been one of those miserable ruts that make me wish I was still addicted to painkillers. It started when I got a wave of papers turned in, which always puts me out of commission for a week to ten days, and as soon as I was done with those I caught the plague that has recently engulfed Dallas. At one point four out of the six fifth grade teachers were moderately to seriously ill, which made our meetings a disgusting cacophony of coughs, sneezes, snorts, sniffs, and nose blows. Just as I had reached my sickest point, I got hit with a double whammy of neck cricks, actually one in my neck and one in my back, that kept me from turning my head in either direction and forced me to look at my shoes while walking. I've done some moping around over the past couple of days, which always helps, and I got my new kitchen appliances delivered, so things are looking up, though my dog still hates me because I haven't taken her to the park in three weeks. I have rounded up a few recommendations and observations, however, so here we go...

I read Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline for the second time, and it maintained it's status as one of my top three books of all time. What an amazing writer. The blurb on the back of my edition says something to the effect of "reading Conroy's writing is like watching Michealangelo paint..." It sounds typically hyperbolic for a back cover blurb, but I couldn't agree more.

For awhile now, I've been curious to see The Devil's Rejects. I'm not sure why, as I'm not into horror movies or blood and gore, but anyways, I finally watched it...and it was damn good. Though I feel a bit uneasy about recommending it, since I can easily see someone taking my recommendation then wanting to beat me senseless afterwards. It is probably the most gory and disturbing movie I've ever seen.

With the Cowboys' loss last night in game 14, I feel I should warn fans that we seem to have entered Dallas' tradition final three games collapse. See the third paragraph of this entry from May for details. With games 15 and 16 on the road, will this year be any different?

I have watched this video, in which someone has overdubbed an X-Men cartoon to make all of the characters talk like pimps, at least fifteen times over the past week or so and it hasn't gotten old yet.

I recently picked up Gonzo, the new oral history of the life of Hunter S. Thompson, and though it started strongly, ultimately it has solidified my feelings about the oral history method of biography. Unless I am a crazy fan of the book's subject (such as with Whores: An Oral biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction) I will get bored within 100 pages and the book will become a coaster.

I also just picked up The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Man in the World, and I'm excited to start it when I get home. Once I'm finished, I'll pick up the author's new one, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

And a couple of quick notes on recent TV developments. First, I was extremely disappointed that VJ won the grand prize in America' Most Smartest Model. He was clearly the best contestant, but he was such a douchebag that I was really hoping for the Russian to pull the upset. Oh well, I hope they have a second season. And second, I am dying to recognize someone on To Catch a Predator. I'm convinced it's going to happen, and it'll be freakin' awesome. Chris Hanson, come to Dallas!

-T

What The Hell is Going On?

I just saw something that perfectly illustrates just how crazy the college football season has been so far. Illinois, which had lost 30 of their previous 32 Big Ten games prior to this year, is listed as a 2.5 point "favorite" this weekend against undefeated, #5 in the country Wisconsin. Huh?

And I want to pass on a link to an advertisement that mad me laugh. Enjoy.

-T

p.s. Here's one other video from the same website. This is bizarre.

Segway Polo?

This is very odd.

-T

I'm Sad To Be Blogging About The VMAs

I am disappointed to be giving the VMAs even this much attention, but I just watched Britney Spears' performance on youtube and it was pretty astonishing. Does anyone have any doubt at this point that she is heavily addicted to drugs? Honestly, I feel really bad for her. Watching her "sing" and "dance" at the VMAs, I couldn't help but think that putting her on stage in that condition and with that choreography had to be the work of cynical handlers who couldn't care less about her well-being. It seemed like they collectively decided "We all know Britney's off the deep end, so let's make her as slutty as possible and prop her up with lots of other dancers to try to sell one more album." What a shame.

-T

Interesting...

This brief story is morbid and disturbing and absurdly funny all at once - though I doubt the goats found it amusing.

-T

This Guy Is Incredible

Check out this video about an artist named Phil Hansen.

-T

Poor Commas

A friend at work copied this article and put it in my mailbox. This may be strictly an English teacher thing, but I thought it was very interesting.

-T