Rick Warren

So if you haven't been following recent political news, there has been a firestorm of negative reaction circulating regarding President-Elect Obama's choice to have Rick Warren, the mega-church evangelical, give the invocation at the inauguration. It is a pretty fascinating piece of news and I want to share my thoughts on it.

First off, just as an informative baseline, Rick Warren is the founding pastor at the Saddleback Church, this megachurch in Cali that boasts 23,000 members, making it the largest church in Cali, and the 4th largest in the US. He wrote a book, "The Purpose Driven Live," which has sold 20-some million copies. He is ultra socially conservative, but has managed to focus his churches efforts on usually untraditional evangelical causes like poverty or AIDS. In August during the election cycle, he hosted both Obama and McCain for a forum on faith. Safe to say, this guy is a big deal.

So this firestorm that has erupted comes (obviously) from the liberal and progressive side. They cannot fathom how someone so liberal and progressive like Obama, who built his platform on inclusion, positivity and hope could tap someone like Warren who holds these divisive and conservative social views to give the inaugural invocation. There have been articles upon articles written in newspapers and in the blogosphere about how Obama "conned" liberals and has made the worst decision ever.

Everybody just needs to calm down.

Obama made a GREAT decision. And this is coming from someone who is ultra socially liberal. I could not disagree more with Warren's views on abortion, gay marriage and a plethora of other social topics. But guess what? I recognize that a vast percentage of this country does NOT hold my views. I recognize that there are millions of evangelicals who will call Obama their president come January 20th. I recognize that if we truly want real "Change," that we will need to start working with people who we have never worked with before!

Liberals keep slamming Obama on the "Change" message. How can he select this Warren guy if he based his political platform on changing the way things are done? Well you know what? This IS change! It would have been very convenient for Obama, a liberal, to select someone who is also a liberal and who holds exactly the same views as him. That has been done before by almost every president. That is NOT change. Change is being able to admit that "hey, this guy does not hold the same views as me, but I still respect him and recognize that tens of millions of Americans look up to him. And I DON'T CARE what my base has to say about this because I know this is a good decision."

Obama has balls.

Like seriously. This is a huge slap in the face of people who thought Obama was just going to cater to the liberal left. Again, I AM a part of that left, but I do not want him to govern from here! Things just will not get done that way. Concessions need to be made. Compromises need to be reached. And to me, selecting Warren is a necessary concession, a worthwhile compromise. And I applaud Barack for doing it.

3 more? Try 5...

All of my private school teacher friends (not mentioned any names but on Backwards Day they would be Esoj and Sirhc) keep flaunting on their blogs that they have "3 more days." My extremely amazing deductive reasoning skills lead me to believe they are talking about their winter breaks, as in "3 more days" until winter break starts.

Well you know what, fuck THAT! I've got 5 more days! That is because in public school land, break doesn't start until next Wednesday. That's Christmas Eve Wednesday...

---digression alert---
When I was little and even now, I always thought "Christmas Eve" referred to the NIGHT before Christmas, not the whole day before Christmas. To me, the word "Eve" is short for "Evening" and thus should entail "night." I refuse to call the WHOLE day before Christmas a type of "Eve." I mean does anyone else feel the same way I do?? So OK, I wake up December 24th and think to myself, man, toDAY is Christmas Eve. Hell no! I wake up December 24th and then wait until dinner time and THEN I think to myself, man, toNIGHT is Christmas Eve! Don't you?
---digression terminated---

...a small detail I know, but exemplative of a much larger annoyance I experience when benchmarking my teaching experience with that of my peers. Private schools get so much more time off! And I am going to hate on that fact until I die. C'MON! You already sold out by deciding to work for privileged Jewish kids. Why should YOU get the privilege of getting more time off. Bullshit motherfucker! I disapprove wholeheartedly. Take your 3 days and shove it up your goyim asses!

TMZ

Have you ever watched the show "TMZ" on one of the basic channels. It's on I think every night at 7 or 7:30. Anyway, this show pisses me the fuck off. It's a bunch of pathetic ass losers standing around in a room talking about and jerking off over the most minute embarrassing celebrity details that are caught on tape. ARGH. Not only that, but they seem so satisfied in humiliating them. I don't get it. This unfortunate looking loser clique really pisses me off whenever I channel surf through them.

The thing is, sometimes you can't help but watch them talk about a photo of Miley Cyrus picking her nose. Or Kim Kardashian having a fat ass. Or Mickey Rourke being irrelevant. All of this serves to piss me off even more because I catch myself selling out to this the lowest form of entertainment. What the fuck does TMZ even stand for?

Great. Just looked it up. It stands for "Thirty Mile Zone." That is awesome. Awesomely annoying.

"Wanna Know How I Know You're Gay...?

Because you listen to Coldplay"



That being said, here are my top 5 Coldplay songs:

1. Amsterdam - A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)

2. Fix You - X&Y (2005)

3. Swallowed in the Sea - X&Y (2005)

4. The Scientist - A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)

5. Shiver - Parachutes (2000)

Jizz In My Pants

I Can't Believe It

I had a dream last night that I was in the studio with T-Pain laying down a verse for a remix of "Can't Believe It." I pretty vividly remember the start of my verse:

"I can take you for some dancing and some fun yo, all the way up to Moscow
Have you hanging out with the honchos."

Wow. Take a second.

What a WACK ASS LINE!!! I remember just trying to get something to rhyme with Moscow. T-Pain seemed to like it a lot. Ugh. Embarrassing.

Four Christmases

I saw Four Christmases the other day, and to be honest with you, I was not particularly impressed. This movie had all the making of a classic comedy - Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, a pretty good plot, a semi-annoying girl - but unfortunately, it did not live up to its potential. They just could have done so much more with it. I did not find myself laughing all that much throughout the movie which I totally expected to do. I am not going to spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it, we can save that for the comments section.

On another note, what the fuck is up with the poster above?? They really took photoshop to the extreme. Vince's head is waay to big and Reese Witherspoon looks like a midget. What, they couldn't have taken the time to get the two of them together and take a real photo? Why do they always do this with movie posters. They never look realistic.

True Blood

I guess this is pretty late for me to make this posting, but considering that I have been MIA with this blog, I guess I have to catch you up on things. This show on HBO which actually just had it's season finale (last night) is amazing. Initially, when I saw previews of it, I saw that Anna Paquin was in it and I was very not looking forward to it. That is because I hate Anna Paquin. I find her to be very very annoying. Plus people with gaps in their teeth piss me off. Get some braces motherfucker.
Anyway, I started to watch it and got addicted. It is still on HBO so you should check it out on demand if your cable has that hook-up. Here's the trailer:

I'm Still Here

Hey. I'm still here. I haven't forgotten about my blog. It hasn't turned into a blah-g like some of my friends'. I just have been doing other stuff, working a lot, sleeping a lot. Reading about politics a lot. Don't worry though. I'll be back soon with awesome new posts that will keep you entertained for 23 seconds of your day. See you soon!

This Is It

Well, it's almost over. So much time spent following this election cycle. I must admit, I have gotten a tad obsessed with it. I really do not know what I am going to do after tomorrow. I think I average at least 10 political articles a day, and that does not count checking countless polling sites. I guess I'm afraid of "Post-Election Depression."

I am so FUCKING excited for tomorrow. Pardon the cursing, but it needs to be there. I'm getting up early and heading back to my first American school for my first American vote. How ironic (and circular). I hope there aren't any lines because for all the excitement I am going to have, I also am going to be shit tired.

My channel of choice for tomorrow night's festivities is CNN. They do, simply put, have the best political team. I would totally like to f to the uck Campbell Brown. Maybe also Soledad O'Brien. Definitely David Gergen.

I want a magic map. I want to have a magic map in my room that I can walk over to and play around with, acting like I have an audience in front of me. It's the shit!

I hate McCain's one liners. "Joe the Plumber". "The Mac is Back!" "We're a couple of points down, but..." I wonder what he's going to be up to after all this. Probably will retire in a year or two.

I'd like to point out a that I predicted an Obama victory back in early January. Granted, it was an Obama-Edwards win over Romney-Giuliani... but an Obama victory nonetheless!!

Speaking of which (witch), FUCK RUDY GIULIANI!! What a piece of dog shit. Even his ugly-ass son hates him. Bitch.

Anyway, that's it. Go out and vote!

Ho the Plumber

Top 10 Things John McCain Cannot Do

10. Play on monkey bars

9. Answer questions in my classroom

8. Rope a horse

7. Shoot a free throw

6. Eiffel Tower

5. High Five (only medium or low)

4. Jumping jacks

3. Raise the roof

2. Reach across the aisle

1. Win this election

Jingles

These commercial jingles have really been killing me recently. Specifically, there are two that I hear all the time that annoy the shit out of me.

1) Five Dollar Foot Long

Clever campaign by Subway, but just so damn annoying. Plus, leaves so much room open for inappropriate innuendos. I heard one of my kids singing it to herself while doing work. That's when you know the jingle has really penetrated pop culture.

2) Saved by Zero

Just plain annoying by Toyota. Mostly because this one really gets in my head, also because I have seen this commercial probably 7 times to day while watching football on CBS. Make that 8 times. ARGGHHH.

What jingles (present and past) just kill you?

Buzzkill

Bringing Out The Worst

Going off of a great post from Victoria, I want you all to check this out:



I mean, in the words of the aforementioned blogger, WHHHHATTT???

This election is bringing out the worst in some Americans. And it's not McCain's fault, it's the fault of his racist supporters. Not all of them, but definitely these in the video. Palin's got in her the holy spirit, Obama is anti-white, like WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? People think racism is dead or its so much better than before and then you see something like this. And these people are so dumb they would share their racist views with a camera. Think of all those who share these views but would never say them out loud.

Obama's potential presidency has showed us that we have come a long way in our history. But think, could it have happened anytime else then on the heels of the worst 8 years ever and during the biggest financial crisis ever? Is that what it takes to elect a non-white male to the highest office? True, it's not like many non-whites run for president, but still. Many will say that if Obama is elected, that's it, the blacks got what they wanted, not they can stop complaining and screaming "racism." But that is just not true. These people in the video showed that we are a LOOONG way from true tolerance, true acceptance, and true intelligence.




As an aside, weird to have a white guy reporting for Al-Jazeera. I guess those are my stereotypes acting up.

Come Up With A Caption For This...!!

[EDIT: I found a much better one!]

When It Rains It Pours

OK so this did not happen to my car last week to yesterday, but it sure felt like it. I start with last week.

Thursday - I take my car to get it's annual inspection and an oil change. The guy informs me I need my two front tires changed. I'm skeptical at first, but find that the front two are in fact very worn out, the left one being down to the metal wiring of the tire. I get pretty paranoid that my tire will blowout and I will die. I then change my plans for the weekend to drive my car to my parents place and take my dads car for the 4 hour drive.

Saturday - I wake up at 7am and proceed down to my car. As I walk up to it, dreary eyed, I notice a hole in my roof. Let me repeat that: I walk up to my car and see a FUCKING ripped hole in the passenger side of the front. Some asshole took a knife and sliced through my roof. He then proceeded to go through my napkins apparently, might have taken my aviators, some pens, and THATS IT. He missed the EZPass in my glove compartment, my quarters, CDs, iphone charger. I mean, thank God he missed them, but cutting through my roof for that?? WHAT THE FUCK!!!

Tuesday - I am coming home from dinner with my taped roof and I get stopped at a po-po checkpoint. I am informed that because my front headlight is out, I will be getting a summons which requires me to immediately to get it changed in order not to pay the fine. He then takes 20 minutes to fill out 10 lines of basic information. Maybe cops are not the brightest spots in the gene pool? Fuck the police.

Today - I GOT IN THE ZONE! AUTOZONE! I took my car to Autozone to get a new headlight. Some dude who shadily worked there checked out my car and I turned on my lights for him and all of them worked! So he played around for a bit and decided it was a short circuit issue. I decided to pay him 20 bucks for the info which I know regret because I think I totally unjewed him (i.e. paid him way too much). Afterwards I took my car to the 42nd precinct in the Bronx and got a cop to fill out a form saying my headlight was OK. Later, it went out again.

What The F*ck Is Up?

What the hell is going on in the stock market? One day it's down 700 points, next day its up 900 points. The Dow is like a bipolar girlfriend. She gives all of these mixed signals and what are we supposed to think??

Whats the public supposed to think now. Is everything OK now that the Dow is back up? Obviously not but this huge jump today makes me think stuff isn't that bad. It probably is and I have no clue. We'll have to wait til tomorrow.

Sarah Pal(es)in Comparison

I used to not like Sarah Palin just based on the fact that my ideology did not match hers. Also because I though she was dangerously inexperienced for the office she was running for. I still think that. But this past week, I realized that on top of being inexperienced and wrong-viewed, she is just plain dumb.

I don't know if any of you have seen her piece with Katie Couric. I will give you a less than two minute snapshot of her "foreign policy experience." Watch:



Um. OK. WHAT THE FUCK??? This woman is dangerous in her retardedness. Like wow. I'm going to leave that clip at that.

I am really looking forward to this debate on Thursday. I just hope Biden is humble and not overbearing. I hope he lets Palin do the fucking up on her own. He needs to tread carefully. Because all the conservatives will be quick to pounce and call ANY criticism sexist. The funny thing is, and this was in a CNN article by Campbell Brown a week or two ago, the ultimate sexism has been exhibited by the Republicans and McCain by NOT letting Palin out of their sight for any interviews. They did that and now look at her. She is like a deer in the headlights. In Alaska.

Alas.

(Ka)

Notorious

Why?

Why do I do this to myself? Every day my alarm sounds at 6:00AM. I spend the next three 10-minute snooze cycles promising myself that I would go to bed earlier that night. I curse myself when I finally rise. "Why did I go to bed so late? Why do I procrastinate sleep?"

And yet here I am. Again. Always again. In front of my computer. CNN on. Browsing the same sites minute after minute. CNN.com. ESPN.com. Facebook, Gmail, missinfo. Other blogs. Over and over and over.

I go from my bed to my computer. From my computer to my bed. I am exhausted. And yet, I do not go to bed. I procrastinate sleep. I concrastinate being awake.

Another tired day to look forward to tomorrow.

The Jonas Brothers

Who the hell are these people? The brunette Hanson? I just kept hoping they would go away but they're still here, like your kitchen cockroaches. God damn it. I heard they wear little rings on their left hands to symbolize saving themselves for marriage? What the FUCK???

It Ain't Trickin If You Got It

So I've come across this phrase that I have heard a ton recently and I had no clue what it meant. Hopefully this won't be like my previous encounter with unknown jargon which all my readers seemed to know already.

So I first heard the phrase on Lil Wayne's "A Milli":
"And it ain't trickin if you got it,
But you like a bitch with no ass, you ain't got shit"

Then again on Weezy's "Got Money":
"Bitch ain't shit but a hoe and a trick
But you know it ain't trickin if you got it"

Then again on T-Pain's "Believe It":
"I can put you in the log cabin, somewhere in aspen
Girl ain't nothing to the pain aint trickin if you got it what you askin....for "

And then again on T.I.'s "Whatever You Like":
"Hundred K deposits, vacations hit the tropics
Cause errbody know it ain't trickin if ya got it
Ya need to never ever gotta go to yo wallet
Long as I got rubberband banks in my pocket "

So of course I kept thinking about what that meant. Finally googled and found the following:

"Trickin is when a dude gives ridiculous amounts of money and gifts to women to try and gain their affection. Tricks spend their last dime and run up all their credit cards on women. You usually call a guy a "trick" in a demeaning way... A lot of dudes, when they're being cocky or want to express how wealthy they are, will say it's not really trickin if you have more than enough money to do it."

Then I went, ooooooooooooooh.

But it is kind of a double standard. So you can only pay for girls stuff if you have the money to do it, and if you don't you're "trickin"? You both have the same goal in mind. Man, if that's true, then I have been a trick my whole life! It would be, "it is trickin cause I don't got it!"

Anyway, what do you think, is it actually not trickin if you got it?

The Game

Why does The Game name-drop ALL THE TIME in his songs? This is always a question I had and it's very annoying.
In his most recent song, "My Life" with Lil Wayne, he name dropped 12 different people!!! (Kurt Cobain, Biggie, Kanye (twice!), Beenie Sigel, John Lennon, Erick Sermon, Jesse Jackson, Mary J Blige, Common, Chris Paul, Don Imus, Suge Knight).
In his first single ever, "Westside Story," he name drops 9 people, including Dre 3 times.
In "One Blood" he name drops another 8 people.
On "Hate It Or Love It" he shares the rapping with 50, so only gets to name drop 5 people.
And I'm only talking about actual people he name-drops, not the cars or clothes or neighborhoods or gangs that are ever-present in his music. Sheesh.

Look Alikes: Korean Airlines Logo and Pepsi Logo

Back From Vacay

Aww, isn't that cute?
So I'm back from my blogging vacation and, consequently, my summer vacation. Tomorrow (later today) marks the end of my 1.5 months of worthlessness. I guess I am a little excited to get back to work, but I know I won't be in a week or two.
Let's see, in other news:

-Michael Phelps won 8 golds on the Olympics that started on 8-8-08. Kind of weird. I watched none of his victories. He's pretty ugly for the best Olympian ever. And now we have to see his face all the time.

-The Yankees have really really sucked ass recently. I will be very upset if they don't make the playoffs. Ugh.

-Very happy about gas going down in the past month. It's almost under 4 dollars. I guess we shouldn't have drilled, huh McLame?

-Both "Step Brothers" and "Pineapple Express" are hilarious. I think I am going to go see Tropic Thunder, even given my reservations. I can't believe the outrage over the movie isn't about Downey, Jr. in blackface, but about the profane making fun of mentally disabled retards (Ha! Thought I was going the politically correct route, huh?). I admit, knowing that is what kind of makes me want to see it.

#100!, or, Happy Birthday To Me!

Today marks the one year birthday of this here blog and this post marks my 100th time spitting you the truth. I started this little diddy called concrastination.blogspot.com or "D to th'AT" exactly one year ago. I guess it's time for a little reflection.

I really have enjoyed using this site as my creative outlet. It's cool to see how my posts progressed (or some may say regressed..ahem..Vicky..ahem) since that first one. I had my dips in posting as all bloggers do but I always came back strong afterwards.

I want to give a couple of shout-outs. First of all to my immediate blogging family of Chris, Jose, Vicky and Vinson. Some of you post often and some of you don't post at all and one of you is in the middle, but nonetheless I keep your sites shortcutted on my Firefox browser and visit them almost everday.
Shout out to my other (regular?) readers - Patterson, Eleanore, Andrew M., Natalie. If I haven't mentioned your name it's because I don't know if you read or not because you leave me NO COMMENTS. Which, by the way, I would like more of. if. possible.

So, one year down, 100 blog posts down, how many to go? I don't really know. But as long as someone keeps reading, I'll keep blogging.

Thanks.

Yellow Cab Drivers

A big problem I have been having recently is the attitude I have been getting from yellow can drivers for using my credit card to pay for the fare. I mean, c'mon, wtf?? The service is there for a reason and frankly, I don't want to pay in cash all the time. I hate that they have to make some snide comment whenever I choose to use it. All it does is encourage me to not tip them, which makes them even more mad.

A Problem I Have. Do You Have It Too?

Here's the trailer for Tropic Thunder:



I mean, it looks entertaining. Actually kind of funny. But I have a pretty big problem with Robert Downey, Jr. for all intents and purposes going blackface for the movie. Does anyone else have this problem? Should I just overlook this and watch the film? And hope for some put-in-your-place jokes at the expense of Mr. Downey, Jr. during the movie? Or should I just not see it at all?

Thoughts?

(Man I am on a blogging ROLL!!)

W.

Looks interesting.

The Greatest RnB Song of All Time

Usher - Moving Mountains

Yea, I said it. This song had been on repeat in my head and in my car for months. I remember I downloaded it back in February. It was the advance version and thus wasn't as edited as much as the album version. Still though, I loved it immediately. And still do.

...?

What a dumb fucking advertisement.

I remember I saw this last year. Immediately I thought, "Wow, only 1,944?" Then I did some research. "Research" means I went on Wikipedia and searched "nyc subway." What I discovered is what I thought all along. The yearly ridership for the MTA is about 1.45 billion. BILLION. That's 1,450,000,000. So out of those BILLION people, only 1,944 saw something and said something. Now I'm no math teacher(oh wait...), but that comes out to a mind-blowing (get ready for this)

0.0001 % of all riders

My calculator couldn't even handle that low of a number. Why the hell would the MTA advertise this?? It's embarassing.

Anyway, anytime I see it I get pissed off. I will now leave you with some awesomeness I found on Google images when searching for the above pic. This makes me feel better.

Another Reason I Want To See This

The Dark Knight

On Friday, I saw the Knight. Better yet, I saw the light.
I went to the IMAX showing in New Roc City. Got there early enough to have excellent seats in the middle-center. There really isn't a good way to describe the movie because it will not do it justice, but I guess I will try.
I was truly blown away. Never has a movie that has been so hyped up, so talked about, so marketedly exposed lived up to all of it. It was 2.5 hours and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to go see it again.
I believe the acting on everyone's part was amazing. Obviously, Heath Ledger stole the show but we all knew that going in to the movie. But he really just hit a grand slam. I found myself laughing at these horrible images of violence because of him. His facial expressions, that sucking thing he did with his tongue, the voice, everything was just so good. I think second after him was Aaron Eckhart. He had to convince everybody of his characters transformation and I think he got the job done. Plus, the make-up on him as two-face was amazing, wasn't it? After him came Bale's performance, which is consistently good and has been in all of his movies.
I know this movie is way over-hyped and there will be many haters that come out of the film (I can think of a few right now). But this is truly an epic film and will be remembered so for many, many years to come.

What did you all think of it?

Question

A question pose I:

Is leaving your newspaper on the subway littering?

I believe the answer is NO. Here's what I think. If I am leaving my paper on my seat when I leave the subway (which I do often), then I believe someone else will pick it up and read it, thus deriving use from my action.

Personally, I always look for a left newspaper to pass my time on the train, so I assume at least some other people do as well.

What do you think. Is it littering? Or a simple act of kindness?

WTF!

You've heard of drinking and driving, talking on your phone while driving, and most recently, texting while driving.
Well what about lying down and texting while driving... your motorcycle?!?!
Watch this shit:



This is how your people do, Victoria?

My Drink of Choice

For awhile now, my alcoholic drink of choice has been the

Vodka Gimlet

Simply "stir 1 1/2 oz. Rose's Lime Juice and 2 oz. vodka with ice. Add a wedge of fresh lime and strain into a cocktail glass."

I've always been a fan of vodka (naturally), and my good friend Nicholas introduced me to the Gimlet back in college. Ever since then, I have preferred it to other vodka-based drinks when I am at a bar. I even introduced to my dad this past December on our cruise and even he was surprised at how good it tasted and he's a life-long vodka drinker!
I guess the only drawback is that if you find yourself drinking Gimlets all night (like I did last night until 4 in the morning), the citrus from the lime juice bothers your throat a good amount in the morning. Then again, if you find yourself drinking all night, I guess that will be the least of your worries ;)

An Open Letter

Dear Rite Aid,

Why do you look like you're always closed in the city? Why don't you have nice big windows like your friends CV or Duane? Nice big windows I can see into to make sure you are, in fact, open for business. Why is it that anytime I pass by you on 165th street I hesitate and have to pull my car up to make sure that I can go in and purchase my regular pharmaceutical-type products? Why is it that when I actually do make it in and make my consumer choice, I have to wait in a long line because there is only one check-out clerk? Even though I see like 5 of your reps giggling and shooting the shit in the back room? Then, on top of that, once I've waited 15 minutes and I get like 3 people behind me, one of your workers comes out and opens the register in time for those 3 people to get in that line? And leave me as the last person in both lines again?
But that's neither here nor there. I guess my main issue is your lack of looking like you are open. Your outside walls look like the grates that store owners pull down when they close their business up for the day/night. There are maybe like 3 narrow windows up high. You look like a fucking prison. Start trying.

Sincerely,

Concerned Consumer

You're Welcome

Old, but still a goodie.

Wet Paint

What do you do when you see this sign? I'll tell you what I do, what I ALWAYS do... I touch the surface in question. I actually think I get excited when I see a "Wet Paint" sign. Will it be wet? Won't it? You never know!... Until. You. Touch it!
Most of the time it's already dry and I am left with a severe sense of disappointment. But sometimes, just sometimes, I am left with a tiny smear on my curious index finger and warmth on the inside of my heart.

Summer!

I don't know why I chose the pic above, actually, no I do.. but the point remains:

SCHOOL IS OUT!

(I wish there was a better font to express my heartfelt emotion than Lucida Grande..something. Why are there so few fonts on Blogger?) Anyway, I am obviously very excited. I am off until late August. That means late nights, late mornings, late everything to come. I'll be honest, my summer break feels A TON better knowing that the rest of my friends are at work at their 9-to-5s. Does that make me a bad person? Who knows..

I have some goals. I want to go to the gym very often (I'm not going to say everyday because that will not happen). I want to get a lot of planning out of the way for the upcoming school year. I want to make the Road Trip movie based on the road trip I took in the summer of 2006 with my friends Tim and Mickey. Here's the trailer I made:



I kept saying I was going to make it last summer but obviously never did. I want to play basketball a lot. And I want to BBQ and go to the beach.

Lofty goals, I know. But having them is better than having work! Zing!

Superman that Phone

Funny story. So today I went to Six Flags with my 8th graders for their senior trip. Very fun, very long today. Here's a highlight.

If any of you have ever been on the Superman ride at Six Flags, you know they strap you in and then lift you up 90 degrees. My usual protocol is to push every in my pockets down and then push the protective harness (or whatever its called) down. So that's what I did, excitement building because I love roller coasters. We started our ascent, slowly going up and up. The first drop was great, but as we got out of it, I felt a shifting in my pocket. More shifting. More. All of a sudden, my iPhone was falling gracefully in front of my eyes from the coaster, down, down, sunlight glistening, looking exactly like the villains in that glass thing in Superman 2:



Really, all I could do was laugh. I just thought how ridiculous it was that I was one of those (dumb) people whose phone fell out when they were on a roller coaster. People getting of the ride muttering, "Did you see that phone falling?"... "Yea, that was mine."

Luckily, when we got off the ride, there was a nice Six Flags worker who looked around for the phone and found it (I gave him a twenty for the help. Thought that was only fair. I did hesitate because I don't really know if giving a tip is patronizing or acceptable in certain situations. Like would the guy get offended by my insulting the duties of his job or would he be appreciative. He was the latter). Amazingly, my phone, albeit a little scratched up on the back, still worked.

(In the back of my mind I was already justifying the potential loss by promising to buy myself the newest iPhone).

Tiger

I just watched Tiger sink a birdie putt on 18 to send himself into a playoff for the US Open championship.

Damn.

He is so good. It's really awesome to see someone so good at his craft. I like to watch golf sometimes. It's pretty calming. I especially like to watch gold when I can see Tiger play. He is just so good. Who else comes close to him in such an individual sport? Federer? He's just too boring.

Look Alikes: Mike Mussina and Jack from "Lost"

Now This Is Something I Want To See

C3!

Pretty excited for tomorrow's release of Weezy's highly anticipated "Tha Carter III." I've held off on downloading the CD early. Here are some thoughts on the tracks I've already heard.

1. "Got Money" featuring T-Pain is growing on me rapidly. When I first heard it I thought it was garbage. Today it is my go-to track.

2. The Lollipop remix, although not on the album, has given me my go-to verse of the moment. I am thinking about sharing it and having a little lesson on it with my kids:

Safe sex is great sex
Better wear a latex
Cuz you dont want that late text
that "I think I'm late" text

3. Amilli or I'm illi?: OK, so first off, I assumed the song was called "Amilli" as in short for "a million." That's was during the original version with Cory Gunz. Then when the album version came out with just Wayne, I still thought it was "Amilli." Then my friend Jon James emailed me and told me "I'm illi" was his favorite track. I immediately retorted and stated that it was called "Amilli" and felt good about myself because he's the one who usually knows more hip hop things. Then after countless listens I got to thinking that maybe it is "I'm illi." That's due mainly to the fact that Wayne keeps saying "I'm ill" and then finishes of his last verse by saying "I'm illi." What do you think?

4. Who's better, Mr. Carter or Mr. Carter?: So who killed who in that song? I mean Jay's verse was pretty good but he only had one. I liked Wayne's first verse but the last one was weird. Regardless I think the song is great.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Obama vs. McCain... Speech!

This is pretty hilarious and very true. Embarrassing when a conservative network like Fox puts a Republican down.

Obama!

This is big.

Pause

My students come up with the darnest things! Slang flows freely in my classroom, and I of course am privy to the latest of jargonic trends.

So the newest thing is to say "pause" after anything uttered that may be deemed by any one listener as un-heterosexual. As in, "Damn Mr. Terekhov, this is haaard!! Pause." Or, "Mr. Terekhov, Antonio keeps poking me with his pencil!! Pause."

You can consider this to be the equivalent to the Caucasion's use of "That's what she said," or the bastard child of the ever popular "No homo." Nevertheless, it does provide me with a lot of mental laughter.

Laughter that is deep in nature and extended in length. Pause.

I Can Taste It

I am having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I've done pretty much everything - partied, slept, relaxed, movied, bbq'ed, and it's not even over yet. The only problem is, I have to go back to work on Tuesday.

Memorial Day Weekend provides you with a taste of that summer that is so close, and yet, so far. As I am sure my educator friends can attest, summer break is a long time coming if you are in that field. A LONG time coming. But, if it is anything like this weekend, then I am definitely looking forward to it.

Jury Duty

As I write I am sitting in the jury assembly room in the Bronx county hall of justice. Yes, that's right, jury duty! Many people fear getting called for jury duty due to its burdening qualities. Not I! This gives me an official day off from my annoying middle schoolers with the potential for more to come. Plus, I've always thought of serving on a jury to be kind of a cool and interesting thing to do. I got called two times before, last June and then December but had to postpone both times, first for my lateness and then bc of school. So today has been a long time coming. Let's hope its worth the wait!

UPDATE (8:53am): The sign, actually all four of them, clearly say "cell phone usage is not permitted in this room." And yet, who do I hear loudly jabbering away but a f--king Russian!! This is always what happens. They have no regard for rules and regulations. Same thing happens when a plane lands and the fasten seatbelt light is still on. Who gets up before it goes off?? You guessed it, some Russian asshole. God theyre disgusting.

UPDATE (11:49am): Haven't been called yet, been sitting around dozing/reading online articles/listening to music. I admit it is kind of boring BUT MUCH better than being at work. Much. Better. The clerk calls peoples names every 20 minutes or so. Its like a draft or a lottery or getting chosen for a team. Either way you feel kind of sad if you're not called :( So far though in the last name competition its "Vargas" and "Rodriguez" ahead a combined 58 to 0 over "Terekhov."

UPDATE (3:56pm): So got out of the Duty at half-past three. Did not get called AT ALL. It's kind if disappointing. But... I get to try again tomorrow :)

Chris Rock on Hillary Clinton

Took this straight from missinfo.tv. Blog plagiarism. Its too good not to take though.

Fire Hydrants

Let's get something straight here: fire hydrants are completely outdated. I mean, how long have we had them for? Wikipedia says since the late 1800s. Here's my issue: I hate the rules regarding hydrants, and, specifically, the fact that you can't park in front of them. The complete worse is when you've been looking for a parking spot for like 25 minutes and repeatedly keep getting your hopes up by seeing these vast open spaces only to realize in a few seconds that it's a hydrant. I mean, our telephone/cellphone technology has skyrocketed even in the past 10 years, and yet fire hydrants have remained the same for 100 years.
Can't we get them somehow underground, or away from the curb, like maybe out in the middle of the road but flat like a sewer? Why do sooooo many parking spots need to be taken up by this thing. I have an area near my place where two hydrants are separated by about 200 feet. Is that really needed??

Sorry, Couldn't Resist!

Paint That Shit Gold

Awesome site I came across, gives you the opportunity to tag up other sites.

Here's a little example:




Also a great soundtrack to whatever site you're messing with.

Give it a try: paintthatshitgold.com

Barack

So... good night for Barack, huh? I'm happy that he finally came through with what looks like the deciding victory. I loved his speech versus hers last night. He seemed more general-election focused while she seemed conciliatory.

Here is something I want and have been wanting to mention though. I am SO tired of Hillary supporters and many political pundits arguing that she is a better pick because she has won the "battleground states" such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and "Florida." Florida (and Michigan) aside because that argument is pointless... I don't understand how we can equate Hillary winning those states against a Democratic candidate with her winning them versus a Republican one in November. Am I alone here??? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! These primaries she has won have been ALL with DEMOCRATIC voters!!! What battleground are we talking about?? If a Democratic voter is truly such then why wouldn't they vote for a Democratic candidate in November, no matter what?

Help me out here if I am way off!

Awesome Stewie Quote

Stewie: Hey Dylan? Hey, come on in here for a sec.

Dylan: Stewie, why are you nude?

Stewie: Oh just a little something I do once a week around here called a "naked tea party." Got my teacup here, now all I need is a tea bag. That something that interests you my friend?

Dylan: You're weird.

Stewie: Yeah, and you're attractive. Now take your f***ing pants off!

Dylan: I'm outta here.

Stewie: Huh, did you see that Rupert? "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Seconds" starring Stewie Griffin huh? Gee whiz.

Over Under

Let's just get something straight right here, right now: installing toilet paper so that it rolls over the top is the RIGHT way to do it and installing it so that it rolls under is the WRONG way to do it. Period. End of story. I HATE going to the bathroom, one of my last places of refuge left and then realizing that some dolt (not mentioning any names like that of the person I share a living space with, rhyming with matalie) left me something that looks like the picture on the right. I mean, why does this happen? Can anyone explain it to me? Reaching underneath the roll is uncomfortable and just unnatural. It's inhumane. It's savage. And yet, I see it done time and time again.

I'm sure I'll have some Repundercan readers out there. I, however, am proud to be a Demovercrat.

Lost

OK, so I am officially obsessed with Lost. Well, "officially" beginning sometime in the past month. I got into it after starting to watch Season 4 this year. Then, after the show took a break for a couple of weeks, I decided to get the other seasons and catch up. I bought Season 1 on April 8th. Today I am on Season 3, episode 5. That means I have watched 53 episodes in 27 days - an average of just about two episodes a day. That's 2226 minutes, about 37 hours.

Obsessed? Hell yes. Anybody else?

Untoons

Some guy on the net uses Photoshop to create "human" versions of beloved cartoon characters. It's pretty cool. Here's what he's done so far:

Mario______________ Homer________ Jessica Rabbit













Conclusions?: Mario looks like a pederast, Homer is the realest looking based on skin texture, and I would definitely still fuck Jessica Rabbit.

Impulse Buyer

I am prone to "impulse purchases," you know, those things you buy during the last 5 minutes you're in the store, just because you have the urge to do it and without any rational thought. I've bought David Blaine's autobiography "Fearless," a Busta Rhymes greatest hits album, to name a few, as well as countless food items that end up in the garbage.

Now I have a potential impulse purchase I think I may want to make. I guess it will not be impulsive, but the irrationality behind it makes it so.

I think I want GTA IV. (That's Grand Theft Auto Four to put it in layman's terms).

Here's the thing though... it is not available for Nintendo Wii, the only system I have. That means that in order to get GTAIV, I would have to buy either an XBox 360 or a Playstation 3.

Damn.

Buying a whole new system just for one game seems and is very stupid. I guess I need to leave the decision to my impulses.

Are You Happy Victoria?

So I just posted three blogs in a row. And honestly, it was due to a comment a friend of mine on the blog post before these.

I, as well as my fellow bloggers linked to the left, take some time off from blogging. We're all busy, but I think for me, I just fall into a habit of un-creativity. And truthfully, I don't like that. My job can be very mindless sometimes because the stress of it makes me very tired and unwilling to create very creative lesson plans and such.

I remember in high school and college, I would mess around with music and video editing that produced things like this and that. Now though, I don't have time to do that. So this is my creative outlet, and not my preferred one, although still very good.

I don't talk much about myself or my personal life on this site because I prefer opinions and commentary over biography, and plus because there is way more creativity possible in the former. I just need to make sure I am consistently creating. And that's were my blogger readers come in ... ;)

I Want to McLovin This Club

Heard about the Make Love In This Club/Polow The Don/Garageband controversy? No? Well here's an update:




Excuse the drawn out BS of the video. That kid is retarded. Or "Ed" as my kids would say. As in "Special" not "Mr." Anyway, unless those sound effects were planted, its safe to say that Polow jacked some stuff. Honestly, it brings down my appreciation of the song just a tad. And I think it is a great and catchy song. But Garageband? C'mon! It just makes me want Garageband. And I don't like Macs. I hate on Macs. Why? Here's one reason.

But in reality, it was just a good idea by Polow. Like all good ideas, it was simple. I can't hate on that.

Trailer Tuesdays III

I am very excited for the following movie. Mainly because it is based on the last book I read. And whenever I read I book, I feel very accomplished.

"Blindess"




As stated before, this movie is based on the novel by Jose Saramago. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. It's very good. This movie is also directed by the same guy who directed "City of God." Double bonus.

So Seeing It.

Back Finally

Time Warner finally came and my net is back up. It makes me realize though that I waste so much time just browsing the web. Aimlessly sometimes. Just to procrastinate work. Here's my lineup.

1. gmail.com
2. cnn.com
3. espn.com
4. mtv.com/news
5. missinfo.tv
6. concrastination.blogspot.com
7. chrismizell.blogspot.com
8. iwatchstuff.com
9. geekologie.com


What's yours?

Internyet

Sometimes I hate the internet. Mainly because I have become so dependent on it. Since last Wednesday, my Time Warner Road Runner cable modem has been down. Beep-beep. On top of that, the internet has also been down at my school. Doe!

With that said, I am now posting from my Dale dell (my Riverdell). I have had many brainstorm ideas for blogs with no place to vent. I shall let it all out now.

1. Uphill vs. Downhill

This has been bothering me recently. What is the difference between things "going all downhill from here" and then things "going all uphill from here." Aren't they both negative?

2. Miley Cyrus is Hannah Montana???

Honestly, up until about three days ago, I thought Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana were two different people. Like I thought Hannah Montana put Miley Cyrus up and now Miley was getting all the hoop-la. No joke. And the tour does say "Best of Both Worlds." I guess that's bullshit.

3. Self-Talkers

I really do not enjoy people doing personal things in public spaces and using it as a forum to narrate their actions. I was passing by a semi-bum female the other week who was obviously upset about a CD she misplaced in her bum cart. How did I know she was upset about that? Well, because she was loudly letting anybody and everybody within a 10 foot radius know about it. The worst was when she would pause for passer by's for the hope of them offering some sort of recognition and empathy for her dumb ass problem. But no, no one did... because no one gave a shit! Except for me. Enough to write this mini-blog.

Trailer Tuesdays II

Ha! Didn't think I'd get it in this week, huh? On deck is a crazy-ass looking film that teaches you 2 different meanings of... get this... the SAME WORD! English is weird, isn't it? Watch on...






Whew, I need a breath. The mixture of porn and killing is always A+ in my book. This movie looks OK.

I guess I'll see it