Flo Rida...

We need to talk about T-Pain for a second. 

Why is he everywhere? Look at this dude. Why does this man command 90 percent of airplay on the radio. Everything he does is exactly the same. For the life of me I can't figure out why I love him so much. For all intents and purposes he is a plight on music. A parasite who is living out his 15 minutes as hard as he can. He doesn't add anything to the world musically, yet I can't get away from it. I turn up the radio every time I hear his synthetic voice. 

His latest debacle (jam) is currently the highlight of my life. No lie. I pray for this song to come on while I'm driving. His collabo with some dude named "Flo-Rida" takes my breath away. The song is called, "Low." You've probably heard it if you ever listen to pop radio, it's been around for months now. This might be my jam of the year. It's so good, it's unbelievable. It sickens me as to how formulaic and preposterous the song it, yet I'm so overcome by the beat and the hook, that I could care less. I can't help but dance. No song has made me want to get drunk, and not just tipsy, but falling over, shots of Patron, make my way to the dance floor and do the robot with some Cougars drunk. It's absurd. 

T-Pain 4 lyfe

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - in case you haven't heard it...

In the News...

Just thought I'd mention some things in the news that I thought were pretty cool and or noteworthy. First was this story I read about the cloning of redwoods to reforest them in california and around the world. Apparently all 'cloning' means is that they clip these branches from the tallest redwoods, dip them in some supped up growth hormone and then replant them. All it takes is 20 of these to replant one acre, which doesn't sound like too many.

"The project was organized by the Champion Tree Project International, a nonprofit group from Michigan that has helped clone many of the largest and oldest living trees, including Methuselah, a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of eastern California. At more than 4,700 hundred years old, it is believed to be the oldest tree in the world." Though I knew the name Methuselah, I don't think I ever knew it was a tree or that there even was a tree that was that old. I just assumed they hit their life expectancy around a thousand years. Who knew? That is pretty killer though.

Also, news from Pakistan that Musharraf (the president) is dropping his military role and being sworn in as a civilian president. I am not an expert on the situation over there but I have been following it in the news for the last several months and it seems that while it sounds like a good step, it isn't going to change a whole lot. If you have been following the story of Benazir Bhutto, she seems to be the best bet over there to take over, and by best bet I mean in the interest of the world. She isn't the greatest person in the world, but she is the lesser of three evils. I was actually going to write about her at the time of her return to Pakistan after her exile because I feared she was going to be assassinated but it looks like her security is pretty tight. Not to say it won't happen by some crazy extremist, but you have to admire anyone who goes willingly into a shit storm of hatred and violence and actually wants to do something to change the social climate over there.

Lastly was probably the most awkward photo-op I have seen in a long time. I don't remember the last time I saw two people looking so awkward as I did when Al Gore went to the White House to meet with the president. He was invited because of his recent Nobel Peace Prize and was actually invited to a one on one conversation with W. What's crazy is that Bush didn't have to do that. Usually they just invite the winners to dinner or whatever. He took time out of his schedule and waited until Gore was free to schedule the meeting. I guess they talked about global warming but who knows.

Strange times. Also I finally picked a candidate for the primaries. More on that later. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Go big or go home. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it. Life's short, live large.

-M, p, z & shredder.

oh ps - I saw Hitman the other day. I was pretty excited to go see it and oddly I have nothing to say about it. To steal someone's review from rottentomatoes, "At one point, the female lead says to our hero that she's "never felt so much indifference in her life." I knew exactly how she felt."

new music - once again, go get the new alicia keys. quit wasting time. also new jimmy eat world is great.

Boys and Girl Club...of Halo?

Recently I had a discussion with my friend's girlfriend (and by discussion I mean I was right and she was definitely wrong) about online gaming. It started because another friend of mine was telling us a story of how he met this chick on World of Warcraft and how after spending a long time getting to know her on WoW, it escalated to myspace friends, then to talking on the phone, then to quasi-dating. Strange yes, but she was actually pretty hot. She contends that online gaming is not actually interacting with people and it is a downfall of society. She thinks people staying in to meet up with their online friends and play WoW or any other game online is a joke and that essentially people need to have real live contact with others to qualify it as interacting.

As an avid player of Halo I disagree. I feel that spending time with people online is just as much of an interaction as going to the bar with your friends if not more so. When I play Halo, I often meet up with real live friends of mine who play and we are put on teams with other people from around the world. You can't tell me that every time you go to a party or the bar or any in-person social gathering that you interact with people from around the world. People that don't even speak the same language as you, but are on your team to achieve a goal.

I bring this up because over the weekend I realized that aside from being the source of hours of endless enjoyment, it's also a haven for some people. My brother and I had a Halo weekend. We probably spent 30 hours playing online from Thursday-Sunday. On Saturday afternoon we met a couple of kids who were hilarious so we teamed up with them and spent the next couple hours with them killing other people. Later that evening when we got back online around 10, they had also happened to just get back on so we teamed up with them again. We started talking about where we were from and just general small talk. These kids, who were 17 and 18 seemed like pretty cool kids. They don't swear or throw around racial slurs like way too many 13 year old punk kids do. They live in Arizona and they might be the funniest high schoolers I have met since I was 17. I told them about me and since my brother isn't very good yet, I told them that he was a girl. After they found out I was 25, they jokingly asked me to mail them some alcohol. I then realized it was Saturday night and asked them why they aren't out at a party having fun doing the whole social high school thing. They told us that they don't live in the best neighborhood and all the people who go to parties are thugs who bring guns and do drugs. They also said there are a lot of gangs so they just stay in and play Halo.

These kids use Halo to stay out of gangs. That's probably the coolest thing I have ever heard. More useful than a Boys and Girls Club of America, Halo is now saving lives. If that doesn't prove me right, then I don't know what would. Go big...



-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - new movies and dvds coming out. movie reviews soon, tomorrow the Futurama Movie comes out, go buy it. It will be hilarious. The Namesake also comes out on dvd so if you didn't get a chance to see it in theaters, hop on netflix or go rent it. If you loved the book as much as I did, go buy it. It's worth it for the last scene in the movie.

Happy Turkey Day...

Best day of the year. Have a good one.

-M, p, z & shredder

Danger...

So the new 'Most Dangerous City' list came out and some may be surprised to know that Detroit has climbed back to the top of the list. Followed by Flint at number 3. 2 of the top 3 most dangerous citites are in Michiga. That's not good. I really feel like some billionaire could come in, revitalize the city and make money off of it. It would be awesome. But that will never happen, mostly because Kwame is a pretty bad mayor and he is part of the crime problem.















In lighter more impressive news, I read that a couple scientists found a way to turn skin cells into stem cells which means that hopefully, if it does end up working, stem cell research would be able to get much more funding. I never had a problem with stem cell research but could understand those that do, much as I am pro-choice but I still don't know exactly when an embryo becomes a person, though I know it's definitely not at conception. Hopefully this will be something that is actually viable and will lead to cures and save the world.

Anyways, slow week thus far for me. I'm pretty pumped for Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday of the year. Any day the Lions play and you are supposed to eat until you loosed your belt and pass out is pretty much the greatest day of the year. Add to that the fact that we have an annual nintendo extravaganza which will be enhanced this year for the first time by the Wii, and I can't think of a better way to spend a thursday afternoon.

Cheers. blah blah blah, go big.

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - lots of movies coming out this week, This Christmas will be awesome, Hitman should be great but the fact that the director was replaced during post production scares me and Enchanted should be a pretty fantastic disney movie.

"How Do We Beat the Bitch?"

Some crazy old republican slut at a rally for McCain asked him this at what looked like an open forum. What's crazy is that this is the type of chick I would think Clinton has locked up. Not all of them, but I feel like Hillary represents those women of power who have all overcome stereotypes and obstacles and remained strong and thrived in spite of all the nay sayers. You'd think some old hag who lived through suffrage and was around when dinosaurs ate her babies would want to elect one of her peers. It's funny because not only does this woman call Senator Clinton a bitch, but McCain doesn't say anything along the lines of, "don't call senators bitches." He does say that he repects her and whatever, but you know he was glad someone called her a bitch on tv.

New poll on the right just to see what people are thinking. No one responded to the last one but this one might be good just to get a sense of the demographic of my readers.

More soon. Check out Ibodera, hilarious post by Brown Guy. As always, yadda yadda yadda.

-M, p, z, & shredder

oh ps - I promise I'm working on new eps of the diaries. Post them soon.

Issues vs Electability

I just read this article in the Times about people voting for candidates based on whether or not they could win the general election rather than the issues. Unfortunately, I've found myself doing the same thing. I have been on the fence between Obama and Clinton for quite some time now. Obama has all the rhetoric and idealism of Bobby Kennedy and that is really inspiring, however I'm not sure that he could win a general election over a Republican based on his name and color; sad but true. Clinton on the other hand is also a great candidate, probably the most qualified and clearly a very strong woman and while she does inspire she doesn't have that idealism that Obama has. That may be due to the fact that she knows better, but there is something so wonderfully Jimmy Stewart a la Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that I see in Obama that makes it hard not to want to vote for him. What could happen if he was president? What would he be able to change? How much could it forever alter politics? These are things that I don't wonder about Clinton. I know she will be a great president and the world would be a better place if she was, but I also know there are limits to the change that she would bring. She does not have drastic changes, just your run of the mill Democratic views. Universal health care, higher taxes on the uber rich, better education etc.

I guess my point is that I wish it were possible to not worry about someone losing to an ass clown like Mitt Romney, who for all intents and purposes represents the interests of 80 year old racist redneck millionaires in Texas, much like Bush only more conservative. I don't think I'd be able to live in the states under another abomination of a president. Bush, for all his flaws and how much I hate him, isn't a bad person. A terrible president making terrible mistakes, but I don't think he particularly enjoys knowing that it's his fault thousands of people are dying in what will be the next cold war. I'm not so sure about Romney though. He might just be evil. If politics were just about the issues and who represented the best interests of the country, then everything would be okay.

I would like to vote for Obama but I'll probably vote for Clinton and hope that Obama is either her pick for VP or he runs again in 4 or 8 years. I just don't want another republican ruining this country. Anyways, I hope everyone has registered. The primaries are coming up very soon. I know I mentioned before that I would talk about the issues more and I never did but now that it's crunch time I'm gonna start to so hopefully you can figure out who you want to vote for if you don't already know.

I guess I'm on a blogging tear the last couple days. Be sure and check out www.ibodera.blogspot.com as I'll be splitting time between these two blogs. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Go big or go home. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it. Life's short, live large.

-M, p,z & shredder

oh ps - Please tell me someone took my advice and watched Carpoolers last night? It was hilarious, like the funniest episode of a sitcom not on HBO in forever.

More Randomness...

New collabo: check it out. Team blog with some people you may or may not know but it will definitely be hilarious and you can always at least count on my additions to be worth a read.

www.ibodera.blogspot.com

-m

New Look

Wow. Okay it worked and was actually very easy and I didn't even have to transfer my links. Okay well, this is the new look. Any ideas on color changes or anything? This is strange, I had the old template for almost 2 years. Should I revert to the old one? This is cool because now I can do a lot of new things that I couldn't do before such as polls and what not. Okay I'll blog for real soon.

Hmmmm

Okay, I've been wanting to update my template on this blog for a while but I was afraid that it would delete all of my blogs. I am trying a new minimalist thing for my stay in Michigan (not going very well so far) so if it deletes it I will be sad, but I'll live. If it doesn't then worry not, it will all be here for you to view for eternity.

Cause I'm Back in the 810 now...

Like Eminem said in 8 Mile, I'm home. For now that is. Moving back to the 517 for a hot minute, then back to NYC in May or June I think. I miss the surf but I don't miss LA. It's currently 41, windy, rainy and pretty 'miserable' in general but to me this is what fall is. This is why they make 'fall' jackets. This is what they call football weather. Cali is an anomaly, it's always sunny (unless it's smoggy or smoke covered) and it's never humid. I have never really gotten that winter depression that so often comes with living in a cold dark cloudy place for 3 or 4 months but I was going stir crazy over there. No rain? No jacket? It's November! Anyways, you get the point. I'm drinking a hot chocolate right now and it's fantastic, if I was doing this in Cali, I'd be sweating my balls off.

I've got to go to NY this weekend and get a few of my things that are in storage and it will be interesting what I deem a necessity. Some people think coats and hats and clothes, but the main reason I am going is my cds, stereo and some dvds that I can't live without.

More soon

-M, p,z & shredder

oh ps - more diaries coming soon