Why do the people of Tennessee have to battle stereotypes? That they are backward and racist and dumb? Because of people like Mayor Danny Crosby of Coopertown. How are they going to get rid of these types of stereotypes? By trying to remove people like Mayor Danny Crosby of Coopertown from office. Here is an excerpt from the CNN.com article that, if true, is pretty unbelievable:

The complaint accuses Mayor Danny Crosby of frequently using racial slurs since his election in 2004. In one instance, the complaint said Crosby swore in a new police officer on Martin Luther King Day and said, “Happy James Earl Ray Day,” a reference to King’s assassin.

Wow. Again, if these accusations are true, then removing this guy from office sends a message that Tennessee is trying to change and progress. Good move.

Superman Returns.

Should I or shouldn’t I?

I’m wary of seeing it after watching some of the trailers. Problems I have:

- Lois Lane has a kid
- Spacey looks to be playing “campy” Lex Luthor
- The Marlon Brando thing

Maybe this will all work FOR the movie, because at this point I’m kind of expecting to hate it. The real dilemma is this: if I try and see it within the next week so I can avoid the inevitable spoilers, I’ll also have to fight off the first week crowds. Damned if you do…

Anyone else going to see this? Already seen it? Feel free to leave a spoiler-free comment.

Finally, after many years of waiting, Yellowbeard is available on DVD. This makes me happy. I placed my order yesterday and can barely wait until it arrives. It has pretty much everything that makes a movie good: Monty Python alumni, pirates, Madeline Kahn…you get the idea. Yellowbeard is one of those “high school” movies that I watched over and over as a young man, but haven’t been able to get a hold of as an old man. Better Off Dead is another in this category (though it was finally released a couple of years ago) as is Dudes. Someday I hope to make my DVD collection a recreation of the Berrien Springs Radio Shack Video Store. Someday…

Last time I wrote from the coffee shop, I had the J103 radio remote behind me. Today, it is a high school car wash outside. I have just got to quit coming to this place.

The car wash is quite a production too. It is NOTHING like Bring it On led me to believe it would be like. I don’t see a Kirsten Dunst in the bunch, let alone an Eliza Dushku. What is out there? About 1700 kids, and all of the guys look like Kevin Federline. I’ve never seen so many wife-beaters and mesh ballcaps in my life. Lots of towel snapping, running around, and cursing, not much car washing. I had to glower my way through the giant obstacle they presented on the sidewalk. That was kind of fun though–it was like the parting of the Red Sea.

In my mind, I’m shaking my fist and yelling for them to get off my lawn. I’m old.

Yesterday:
Got headed toward work a little early as I had an early service call that morning. Stopped at the coffee shop, ordered an iced coffee at the drive-thru. “Um, OK…pull around.” After the first genius tried to give me money back (I had given him exact change) another service worker asked me, “Uh, did you want an Iced Mocha?” I explained that I wanted, you know, exactly what I had ordered–and ICED COFFEE. She looked at me blankly for a moment, then said, “like coffee, with ice?” If I hadn’t paid already, I swear I would have driven off right then. How the hell are you going to work in a coffee shop and not know what the hell an iced coffee is?!?

Today:
I had been tasked by my ever-vacationing sister to let her dog out after work because her house / dog sitter had to work late. Fine. Not my favorite thing to do in the world, but not that big of a deal either. So I head that way, fight traffic, and pull into her driveway to see a van parked there. OK, I think to myself, maybe she still isn’t here. I get out of the car and hear the dog barking from the porch. Nope, she’s here, otherwise he would be inside in his crate. I walk up to the house and this nice young woman comes out and says, “I got off work early today. Your sister left a number for you but it looked like a cell phone so I didn’t want to call it.” So, let’s follow the thought process. Put the options on a scale if you will. Which thing would tend to make a person more upset: getting a call on their cell phone (that is why we HAVE cell phones lady) telling them that they DON’T have to detour after work and take the dog out? OR not getting a call on their phone, having them drive out and make that detour only find out that there was absolutely no reason to do that. Seems simple enough. Right? RIGHT? Wrong. She chose…poorly.

My sister is just lucky that I would never use this as an excuse to guilt her into stopping at a 7-Eleven to bring me a bunch of Better Made Red Hot BBQ Potato Chips back from Michigan…

Ultraviolet

This was the most incomprehensible movies I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. Seriously, It made ZERO sense. The plot looked to be ripped off from another classic, Equilibrium. Except they took that plot and made it even less sensible. Action scenes were decent, though they also borrowed heavily from Equilibrium. Milla Jovovich was sufficiently hot, but not hot enough to warrant actually sitting through this. It is just a mess.

Stay away. You might think that you just want a mindless action flick, and maybe you do. But this one isn’t it. Go pick up the Transporter instead. You’ll thank me.

Here is video of Steven Colbert absolutely skewering Congressman Lynn Westmoreland on The Colbert Report. The really good stuff really starts at about 3:25 minutes in.

These are the idiots that are trying to JOIN church and state instead of keeping them separate. You know, separate like our founding fathers actually intended as opposed to what these religious zealots and political blowhards will tell you.

One of the pitfalls of being a computer tech is the “contagious” nature of problems in an office environment. Case in point:

I go onsite this afternoon to look at a user’s PC that isn’t playing sounds properly. No sooner do I walk in the door, then Wilma McWhiney tells me that her sound isn’t working either, and neither is So-and-so’s. OK fine, I’ll check it out. So-and-so doesn’t have a sound card and never has. So it makes perfect sense that her sound isn’t working. I go to Wilma’s office, look at the speakers, then proceed to turn them on. Problem solved. Idiot.

This is an epidemic whenever any work is done onsite. When you get there, EVERYONE is having the same problem. After you leave, NOTHING works. I don’t care if all I do is change out a light bulb, it is almost a certainty that within an hour someone will call claiming, “Ever since you were out here nothing works.”

I don’t know if these people are lazy or just stupid. Perhaps a little from column A, a little from column B…

My (no longer) Secret Shame of the week:

Panic! At The Disco

I know that it is a short-lived facination and I’ll be done with this CD in about a week but for now, well, I like it. So shut up. Those Vegas emo-boys write a catchy song dammit.

Courtesy of the Chattanoogan we once again see an example of the fun and games that Riverbend brings:

What the hell? I want to push her off a bridge just to save her from herself.

Coffee may cut alcohol liver damage

Finally, my vices are working together! From the article, it seems like the more coffee you drink, the more it helps the liver. So I’m pretty much on easy street.

Jason Bateman
Alyssa Milano
Mr. Belvedere
and
A Nintendo Themed Ice Capade Show

Is there anything YouTube can’t do?

Over at Deadspin, Ohio TV news reporter Carl Monday has become something of a folk hero. And with a report like this, it is easy to see why:

If you still need convincing, try these gems:

Carl Monday follows a drunk into the bathroom as well as his regional Emmy nomination for a story called Cody The Cancer Boy. Classic stuff.