Indeed. What sort of fun activity can I dream up for a 3-day weekend?

Lawnmower shopping. Owning a home isn’t as glamorous as I was led to believe…

Anyone out there have a suggestion for a decent walk-behind self-propelled gas-powered mower? Or even better, a decent website to research them?

Sorry to all that have posted comments in the last week that thought I was ignoring them. The site got moved to a new server last weekend, and for some reason stopped emailing me when people left a comment. I am so in the habit of being notified by email that I never checked until mid-week whether or not people were commenting. So, I’m sorry. I’m trying to nail down the problem, but until then I will be doing more frequent site checking so that I may add my two cents to the discussions.

Black students ordered to give up seats to whites

Allegedly, some ignorant idiot school bus driver in Louisiana decided it would be a good idea to force the black children to sit in the back few seats of the bus. This individual also allegedly decided to have the smaller children sit on the laps of the older ones, so that the white students had seats to themselves. From the article:

The situation has outraged relatives of the black children who have filed a complaint with school officials.

I don’t think it is just the relatives that are outraged. I’m outraged, and I would hope that anyone else with a brain would be too. I swear I can hear Rosa Parks spinning in her grave.

Another choice excerpt from the article:

A new solution reached Monday by School Board officials has a black bus driver driving across town to pick up the nine black children.

Are these children contaminated or something? Is it really necessary to have a black bus driver to pick up the black children? Can’t they just find a bus driver that isn’t a HUGE RACIST ASS?!?!?

We would have shows like Rock Fujiyama here in the US!

I’ve been watching clips of this show all weekend on YouTube. I’m pretty sure I can’t do a description justice, but I’ll try. Think “Iron Chef” but with heavy metal instead of cooking. It is a rock / guitar jam show starring Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame. There is a “Name That Tune” segment between Marty and Rolly, which is my favorite part. There are also appearances from the Rock Ninja (which is exactly what you think it is), live performances, karaoke, and other assorted nonsense. Andrew W.K. singing “I Write the Songs” by Barry Manilow while being accompanied by Marty Friedman on the guitar–something to see. To top it off, the show is hosted by some guy named Kenny Guy (I’m not making this up, I swear) and “The Original Rock Geisha Girl” Shelly.

I’m not sure what is going on most of the time, but I’m positive that it is awesome.

Why do I want to give Haylie Duff a carrot every time I see her?

Suspect confesses to JonBenet Ramsey killing

Soooo, I’m thinking that lots of people probably owe an apology to the Ramsey family today…

It’s good to be the Prince. (link via The Superficial)

I briefly mentioned la la in my Bookmooch post last week. So far so good, as I’ve been able to dump off five CD’s that I didn’t want. In return I have received:

Def Leppard – High ‘n Dry
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind

Total cost? $3.50. Almost like robbery. How I’ve lived this long without owning High ‘n Dry, I’ll never know. Forget Hysteria–THIS is the Def Leppard CD to own! My Bookmooch-ing hasn’t been so successful. I have yet to ship out or receive anything. I guess to be fair, I’ve only listed four books on my wishlist so far. I’m sure the more books you have on there, the better the chance of getting one. In the meantime, if any of you have a copy of Jumper you wanna send me…

On a semi-related note (CD’s I’ve gotten in the mail this week), my Jonatha Brooke: Live in New York CD / DVD showed up today. If you are a fan, it is great stuff. It is light and goofy and fun. She even dresses up in the outfit from her Back in the Circus CD cover. The often overlooked 10 Cent Wings material was better represented that I would have expected, much to my delight. Hell, even Nick Lachey can’t screw up a song as good as “Because I Told You So.” Good version of the kind of hard to find “Deny” too–this song was featured on a Borders-only version of the Steady Pull CD. I had to drive to Atlanta to buy the stupid thing…I would have liked “What We Are” to have been included somewhere too, but Jonatha didn’t run the setlist by me. Anywho, if you aren’t a fan already, then you don’t care and this won’t convert you. But if you are, you should at least bum it from me and have a listen / viewing.

I challenge any of you to name a song currently playing on the radio that is worse than London Bridge by Fergie. I do not believe it can be done.

Not only is it terrible, it is also stolen. Part of it anyhow, as the verses are a complete ripoff of Tipsy by J-Kwon. Fergie, here is a tip: if you are going to steal a song, steal a GOOD song. And don’t pee your pants when you are on stage.

*shudder*

Posting has been less than regular of late, I know. I’m doing some different stuff at work that is keeping me pretty busy these days, and the result is that I’m a Tired B these days. I assume I’ll get adjusted to the new schedule and workload at some point, which should mean a return to some sort of regular schedule.

June Griffin

Allow me to repost liberally from the story in the Chattanoogan:

The 67-year-old Ms. Griffin, who ran for Congress in the recent election, is facing misdemeanor charges of theft, vandalism and harassment and felony charges of civil rights violations.

Ms. Griffin, who said it is the first time she has ever been arrested, posted a $5,000 bond.

She said on July 18 she had noticed a small Mexican flag at an Hispanic grocery in the former Rogers Drug Store.

She stated, “I went in and there was nothing English in the store. There was one man who could not speak a word of English.”

She said she was outraged about the Mexican flag, saying it was an “act of war” and it “insulted my citizenship.”

Ms. Griffin said as the Hispanic man watched, she tore off the flag from where it was suctioned to the building and left with it.

She said, “Foreigners should learn English or leave.”

Sooo, a Mexican flag that adorns the wall of a Mexican grocery store insults her citizenship? Then let us remedy that. How the hell do we go about revoking said citizenship and deporting her to a raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Lady, you insult me with your lack of sanity. Drop dead.

I’m trying out a new service called BookMooch. It’s works kind of like la la does with CD’s, if you are familiar with that service. Basically, you get a point for shipping a book to someone that requests it from you. All you pay is shipping. After that, you can use the points you get to request books from other users. It is all explained in the FAQ, if you wish some further explanation. I just signed up tonight so I can’t vouch for it, but it seems like a great way for those of us without decent libraries (thanks a lot Hamilton County) to read stuff we want without taking out a second mortgage (have you looked at the price of a paperback these days?!?)

- After a halfway decent year in music (Gnarls Barkley, Muse, etc) so far, we appear to have hit a slump. I had high hopes that the new Jurassic 5 CD would pick up the slack, but I found it to be disappointing. I’ve been trying to fill the silence with streaming stations like C89.5 Worldwide, Hard Rockin 80′s and Smoothbeats.com. Is there anything out or on the way that will pick up the slack?

- Idlewild. I was skeptical of Outkast devoting their talents to a film instead of a new CD, but from the early trailers it looks like they might have done good work here too. Terrence Howard AND Faizon Love? Winner.

- If you aren’t watching “The Venture Bros” then you are missing out. If you have watched it and didn’t like it, then I weep for the death of your sense of humor. Great stuff that just keeps getting better. If you are a local and I like you, feel free to bum the S1 DVD’s off me.

The “journalists” on the vapid morning shows took a couple of shots at Stephen Colbert over his interview with Rep. Robert Wexler. How does he respond? By destroying any credibility they might (but shouldn’t) have with their own idiotic clips. Beautiful.