No Sleep 'til Brooklyn!

I've been toying with the idea of moving to New York for over a year now, and I think I'm closer than ever to actually going through with it.

And I am terrified.

Looking at places on the apartment sites is like cruising territory in Bangladesh. I have no clue where anything is.

And I always assume that if it's less than a thousand bucks a month it has to be a crummy apartment. If anyone from New York could give me any advice, that would be great. The places I've looked have been on Broadway, and they're like 900 bucks a month. I don't know. It just seems kind of sketchy.

HELP!

Iran Insists on Furthering its Nuclear Program

What a shame. Even the IAEA has stepped in and called for a stop to Iran's uranium enrichment.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President, refused.

The Times Online reports that the deadline passed yesterday, and early indications point to the fact that Iran has not yet halted its program.

The Times also says that

In a confidential report obtained by The Times, it also listed numerous cases of non-co-operation by the Iranian authorities with atomic inspectors. It also reported finding samples of highly enriched uranium at a technical university suspected of conducting military research work.

The findings, set out by Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the IAEA, were seized on by the Bush Administration as evidence that Iran is trying secretly to build a nuclear weapon and should now be punished.

I will not, however, jump on the Bush Administration and make scathing remarks. This is the time for a real look at what's going on, and what kind of action we as a nation should take.

Sure could use some of that worldwide respect from a few years ago, though. Mmmm. Hurts. Sure does.

For the Gamer in You

I've got yet another blog, Video Game Graveyard, if you want to check it out. I just started it up, so there's not much to it.

Free Music...with Advertising and no iPod Support?

What are these guys thinking? An article on News.com.au today states that a new service will allow music listeners - I hate that term - to download free music without paying a monthly surcharge.

The only drawback is that the music can't be transferred to the iPod. Oh, and the songs will feature advertising. But, even if you get the songs downloaded and don't care if you can download them to your iPod, the songs still can't be burned to CD.

What a waste.

Student is Allowed to Wear Anti-Bush Shirt to School

An appeals court yesterday ruled in favor of a student who had been banned from wearing an anti-Bush t-shirt to school in Vermont, News.com.au reports.

Guiles, who as a seventh grader in 2004 wore the T-shirt to Williamstown Middle High School in Vermont once a week for two months after purchasing it at an anti-war rally, appealed the case after a lower court ruled in favour of the school.

The school argued the images were offensive because they undermined the school's anti-drug message.

The T-shirt read "George W Bush" and "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" with a picture of the president's face wearing a helmet superimposed on the body of a chicken.

The back of the T-shirt showed lines of cocaine, a martini glass and smaller print that accused Bush of being a "Crook", "Cocaine Addict", AWOL", "Draft Dodger" and "Lying Drunk Driver".

The court ruled that, while it used inflammatory images and language, it was not patently offensive.

What kills me is that the school said that it violated their anti-drug policy. The shirt wasn't condoning or uplifting drug use. It was actually disdaining it, much like the D.A.R.E. posters we had lining the halls of our school. I'm glad that good sense won out.

Greg Maddux Wins 330th Game

Greg Maddux, former Atlanta Brave, won his 330th game last night.

Congratulations, Greg.

Family Guy Project a VERY Bad Idea

See, I had this idea in which I would list all of the cultural references in Family Guy, all of them, and call it the Freakin' Family Guy Project.

The good news is, I was totally excited about it.

The bad news is, several web sites have already done the exact same thing. Oh well. It was a good idea (when a million other people thought of it).



Oh, and this is my 201st post!

A quote

"Educated dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

It may seem ridiculous, but it's true.

Oh, and I didn't steal this from Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson never actually said it. Howard Zinn did.

But I changed the quote to fit what I believe is correct. Blind or ignorant dissent can result in chaos. Read this.

Educated, however, does not account for everything. But it's the best I could come up with.

Ted Stevens - Senator, Husband, Jerk

According to the Daily Kos - the source article of which is on TP Muckraker - Ted Stevens (R-AK)

held up a bill that would create a free, searchable database of government contracts and grants because he was worried about the proposal's price tag, his spokesman told me this afternoon. Its cost has been estimated at $15 million.

Senator Tom Coburn is the sponsor of the bill and

Sen. Coburn's spokesman John Hart questioned Stevens' motive. "The only reason to oppose this bill is if he [Stevens] has something to hide," Hart said.

Ted Stevens has a history of Pork-Barreling, and this only seems to prove the point of why we need such a database in our lives.

The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that Coburn's proposal would cost "$4 million in 2007 and about $15 million [total] over the 2007-2011 period." By comparison, Stevens -- who's been called the "King of Pork" by one government watchdog -- was recently publicly lambasted for his appropriation of more than $200 million for the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," which would link Ketchikan, Alaska (population 8,900) with its airport on Gravina Island (population 50).

It's insulting.

*Bum *Bum...Reporting from the Girls' Room. *Bow *Bow!

You just have to read this story to believe it. I don't even have any commentary.

Classic NES Video Clip of the Week: Friday the 13th

This is a small clip from the NES game, "Friday the 13th", though it could have been called just about anything, since it has only a passing resemblance to the movies (i.e. the title screen).



...And here's someone beating it in 3 minutes.

BP is in Trouble Again...Maybe

BP is under investigation for tampering with oil and gas prices. Go figures. Is that why I have to eat my own hair to survive? That's a bad poor joke.

Yeesh! U2 Greatest Live Band?

U2, I think, is the most overrated band in the history of music (sorry, Jack Johnson). That's why it's surprising that SPIN has awarded them the title of Best Live Band.

Well, it's not surprising. It's just unfortunate. If you think U2 is a great band, whatever, that's fine.

But a lot of people think that U2 is more than a band and Bono is more of a, I don't know, prophet of modern times, than just an arrogant prick of a lead singer. "Oh, look what he's doing for starving children! He's such a saint."

That he spent Thousands of dollars to transport a hat says many contradicting things about the man.

I don't have a problem with Bono. I just dislike when people think of rock starts as "more than" anything. He's a good singer, but he's taken himself to a whole new level, that's not cool.

Get back to work.

Rumsfeld is Blathering Again

Somebody should really get this guy to shut up. He's starting to make the Bush Administration look stupid, and that's quite a feat.

This article reports on how badly the media is reporting the war in Iraq and blah blah blah. I don't think he even knows what he's saying these days.

P.S. Where are the roses, Don?

P.S. Where are all the people greeting us as liberators?

What are the Emmys?

If anybody needed a reason why the Emmys are so lame, here it is.

Yuck.

Iran President Challenges U.N. - Scary!

Who does this guy think he is, challenging the UN's authority like that? I don't know that a leader who does such a thing can be considered sane. It's like career suicide. The rest of the world is going to think he's a ter...or...ist.

Oh, wait. Bush did the exact same thing when he wanted to go to war in 2003. Different circumstances, but still. Everyone else thinks we're terrorists.

And DOES the UN have that much authority? Should it? What are going to be the ramifications of this exchange?

Write a 2-3 page essay on the topic and have it ready for the test on Tuesday.

Read an article right here.

Here's a short quote from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (he's the president of Iran, guys!):

"Mr. Annan, too, has to move within the framework of international regulations. No one has a special right or advantage," he said.

True. But...

"The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions," he said. "At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to."

"This (veto right) is the source of problems of the world," he said. "It is an insult to the dignity, independence, freedom and sovereignty of nations."

Hmmm...He makes a good point. Is 'yo mama' a correct response? It's all I got.

However, If I am allowed a retort in the form of a chilling quote by, you guess it, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, a new Islamic revolution has arisen and the Islamic revolution of 1384 will, if God wills, cut off the roots of injustice in the world*.

*http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mahmoud_ahmadinejad.html

Hocking My Schwagg

I've added new items to the CafePress store.

Top Fifty Most Viewed Wikipedia Pages

I would definitely think that "pornography" would have been a lot higher on this list. Oh well. I guess most people just can't spell it, huh?

There are a few anomalies in the list right now - JonBenet at #2, especially - but I suppose that just comes with the territory. People's tastes change everyday.

WikiCharts.

Working Cartoon

This is just a test



Here is the cartoon I'm working on. It's only in Paint, but I think it looks pretty cool. Maybe it will eventually become my "style." And see, it's not big enough to read, so I'm going ot have to try again. Damn.

Why I Don't Have 100 Entries Today

I'm working on a web cartoon, and it's taking up a lot of my time (along with the t-shirt store and the book and everything else), so I don't have a million posts for you today.

Maybe tomorrow. And hopefully the 'toon will be done.

Wow!

The blog is...awfully white right now. I'm trying to play around with it. The color schemes get old to me very quickly, so I just go crazy with trying to change it and it ends up becoming all crazy and stuff. Just bear with me. I'm trying to do this thing on a shoestring, after all.

Besides, it's the content, right?

Zombie Site of the Week: Penny Arcade

Okay, so this is cheating, but I've got to highlight the "Dead Rising" parody-ish thing that's going on over at Penny Arcade. It's called Armadeaddon, and I've got you a front row link to the first comic in the series.

If you don't know, Penny Arcade is a gaming site that doesn't take itself too seriously (Phew!).

And then there's the zombies.

America's Drunkest Cities: We Didn't Make It

After all of the hub-ub we had here in Athens last week over the coupon books, we get left out of the Forbes list of the Five Drunkest cities in America.

What a shame.

But, the winners are:

1) Milwaukee, WI
2) Boston, MA
3) Minneapolis, MN
4) Austin, TX
5) Columbus, OH

Congratulations.

Entourage Season Finale *spoiler*

The third season of Entourage ended tonight with *spoiler warning* Vince firing Ari. It was one hell of a cliffhanger, but...what's going to happen next? I don't know that I can handle the wait until the next season.

It's not like with the Sopranos, where I can wait. That may sound repetitive, but it's different. Tony Soprano isn't my friend. I can't have a beer with Pauly.

Turtle, however, I could definitely hang out with, along with the other guys. Not to make this too wistful, but I feel like the summer's over and my friends are moving away for awhile. Cheesy, I know, but I feel more of a connection to the Entourage guys than the characters in other shows. Maybe it's because I'm more like them - or like to think that I'm more like them - and I don't want to see them go away for awhile.

Does anyone ever get like that about their shows too?

Spider Man 3 Trailer

I just finished watching Spider-Man 2, and it put me in the mood, baby, for a menoige-a-trois.



The Spider-Man 3 trailer looks awesome, by the way.