Mirror Self Portraits

What's the deal with people taking a pictures of themselves in a mirror and posting them on myspace and facebook? Usually it's chicks in slutty outfits trying to get attention, but I mean seriously, is this really necessary? Are you so desperate to put up a new picture of yourself that you have to rush into your bathroom and snap photos of yourself? Are you really that vain? I understand that you have great abs and a nice figure, but I don't need you to take a million photos of yourself in the mirror to prove it. Photos on myspace and facebook are supposed to be fun and to share with your friends the activities you have been up to in your life. A photo of yourself in the mirror tells me nothing about what you're doing with your life. Honestly, I don't care that you were so bored with your life that you had to take off some clothes and pose in the mirror. These people need to get over themselves.

Gay School

I saw this article posted in the Chicago Tribune ... take a gander:

Pointing to studies showing that gay high school students are at greater risk of dropping out because of stigma and fear of violence, Chicago Public Schools leaders said Wednesday that they will recommend opening a campus aimed at these students.

Final approval of the School for Social Justice Pride Campus, designed as the city's first school for gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers, along with 17 other schools, is expected to come Oct. 22 when the Board of Education votes.

Schools chief Arne Duncan said he will ask the board to approve the schools, which are expected to open in the fall of 2009 and 2010, to give greater choice to parents and students. "We want to create great new options for communities that have been traditionally undeserved," he said. "If you look at national studies, you see gay and lesbian students with high dropout rates. . . . I think there is a niche there we need to fill."

About 50 people attended a public hearing Wednesday night, with most supporting the school.Supporters said they envision a high school with a maximum of 600 students. It would have the same staffing and oversight requirements as other district schools. Students would be admitted from throughout the city on a lottery basis, officials said. A site has not been chosen.

Chad Weiden, an assistant principal at the Social Justice High School who would be principal at Pride Campus, said the school would incorporate lessons about sexual identity in literature and history classes and offer counseling. The school would be prohibited under state and federal laws from asking about a student's sexual identity, officials said.

A 2003 district survey shows that gay and lesbian youths are three times more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe. On Wednesday, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network released a national survey of more than 6,000 middle and high school students that found that nearly 90 percent were harassed at school and about 61 percent felt unsafe.

At an earlier public hearing, some gay rights advocates said the school would segregate these students and that the district should work to foster acceptance.

I can't wait to see the headlines when "gay school" wins it's first football game. Is there going to be problems if the quarterback and the center start dating? Is there going to be groping whenever there's a dogpile? I can see controversy all over this one.

Hooters III

Definitely went back in again this past Monday and she didn't even recognize me. Guess that solves that!

Max Payne

I can't wait for this movie to come out. It looks sick. Check out the trailer if you haven't seen it yet.

Hooters II

This past Saturday we returned to Hooters to find out if it is really possible for a waitress or bartender to genuinely be interested in an everyday patron. Now obviously if a drop dead good looking rich guy comes in, of course they're going to be interested. The question is whether or not they would be into an average Joe such as myself. Well here's what transpired.

Before we even headed to the bar on Saturday night something happened the night before that must be mentioned. My friend Alex who was with me on the original visit to Hooters when I met this beautiful sports nut of a bartender has a friend who is a bartender at Hooters. It just so happens that on Friday night Alex was out with some friends including Megan who works at Hooters and the subject somehow turned to this particular bartender. Megan said that Patricia had recently dumped her asshole ex-boyfriend and that Alex should tell his friend to hit on her. This leads us to Saturday night.

Alex, his roomie Dave, and I went in after the UNLV game. We sat at the bar and Patricia and Megan both happened to be working. Patricia was closing out her drawer and getting ready to get off, but we still talked for a good while. In fact, Dave and Alex observed that she was talking to me the whole time and barely said a word to anyone else at the bar including them. Not too long after that she got off work and we didn't see her for the rest of the night. Megan came over to us a little later and told us that she told Patricia I was into her. We asked how she responded and all Megan would say is that she smiled. We're guys so of course we don't really know what that means, but she wouldn't give us anything other than that. On our way out Alex said bye to Megan and she told him to tell me that we have to come in again.

So that's where it is. There is still no definitive answer to the question at hand.

The Hit Man Part II

Now Lil' Wayne is blogging for ESPN the magazine? Are you kidding me? He's taking over the world by making one goofy voiced rhyme after another. The interesting part is that I read his blog and although it wasn't very in depth he actually seems to have an intellectual appreciation for sports. He mostly talked about Football, but surprisingly enough he's into tennis and even had a party at his place to watch the Wimbledon finals. Not to be racist, but how many people out there would have thought a black super star rapper would know and appreciate Rafael Nadal? That's what I thought.

Famous Sunglasses

This clip on youtube is hilarious. The kid is a total D-Bag, but funny none the less. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWj4gQivR3o

I can't believe how cocky this kid is. Some of my favorite quotes are "I'll apologize, but I won't take off my glasses." why not, "because they're famous." Seriously? Who thinks of this?

I also loved that he told kids they should call him to plan their parties for them when the lady asks what he would tell any kid thinking of throwing a party.

The best of all though was at the very end when the lady tells him he should go away and take a good long, hard look at himself. His response was, "I have ... everyone has ... they love it."

To top it all off this kid has a shirt made in his honor. I couldn't believe it ... take a look:

http://www.bustedtees.com/sunglasses

I'm sure there are some people out there rocking this shirt and totally idolizing this kid. It's really a shame.

Hooters

Is it ever possible for a waitress or bartender to truly be interested in one of their customers? Are their intentions in conversing with you solely to get a better tip out of you? These are questions I ask my self occasionally and found myself asking again on Saturday night. 95% of the time when I experience a waitress or bartender being friendly or slightly flirtatious I can immediately tell that they're just working me for a better tip. I'm ok with this. They're going to get 15-20% out of me regardless unless for some unforeseen reason they decide to hook it up with a free drink or two. There are those rare occasions, however, where I cannot tell if the flirtatious vibes are authentic or not.

Saturday night was just such an occasion. First of all, we were at Hooters, which automatically tipped off my suspicion radar. These ladies are trained professionals at personalizing their way into your wallet. Anyways, I was sitting at the bar with my friend Alex enjoying some wings and a beer, when the bartender broke down my wall of suspicion in a matter of just a few minutes. A true southern bell in orange shorts stood in front of me recapping all the highlights of college football from the entire day. Needless to say I was infatuated at this point. It wasn't until after we had been there for an hour or so and she had stopped to talk on a number of occasions that I began to wonder "what if". Eventually it was time to go and of course I was too big of a pansy to ask for her number, but in hind sight the effort would have more than likely been futile.

Maybe she was just trying to up her tip by talking to me. Maybe we were the least creepy guys at the bar. Maybe I had some funny things to say and it livened up her night about. But could there have been a small chance that she was actually interested? When do you know? How can you tell? These are answers I need. If not to go back and talk to Patricia, at least for future reference when this rare occasion might happen again.

The Hit Man

Lil Wayne is the man. I know he's been on the charts with his past couple of albums, but honestly, did anyone see this coming? I remember when he first came out with The Hot Boys when Juvenile was the man at Cash Money Records. Juvenile's not even with Cash money anymore. Wayne was pretty clever with his voice affects in his rhymes, but I never thought that teenager would turn into the star he is today. The guy has topped the charts for a while now and his record sales for The Carter III are ridiculous. I mean he's selling records at a pace that hasn't been seen since The Slim Shady LP. And considering how easy it is to download music for free now that's pretty impressive.

I actually think it's pretty sad though. There are so many artists out there struggling to make it that probably have more talent than this guy. I'm no music genius, but it seems pretty absurd that someone who can fluctuate their voice in some cool ways while they're rapping can sell more records then someone with amazing vocals that actually plays instruments. Now Lil Wayne probably has great talent when it comes to producing and mixing sound affects with base lines and what not, but could he get on a guitar or piano? My guess is no.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lil Wayne and his songs are cool, but I just don't see how he can have one of the top selling albums in recent American history. Is this a reflection of music appreciation in our country? The only music class I ever had to take was once a week for a year or two in elementary school. Now I know not everyone can be a musician. I can attest to this first hand, but shouldn't everyone be taught how to appreciate music and recognize when an artist has just done something incredible with an instrument? I think so. I'm not trying to say that rapping isn't music because it is. It takes a lot of talent to come up with a rhyme and match it to a beat as well as make it relevant to the audience. But society's dominant appreciation for Lil Wayne (or rap in general for that matter) over all other types of music reflects a laziness. It is a lot easier to bob your head to a catchy beat and laugh at some clever lyrics than it is to appreciate a difficult guitar riff. One must have a knowledge of the difficulty it takes to be a talented guitarist to appreciate something like that.

What's the point of all this? I don't even know. All I know is that I was in shock when I heard Lil Wayne's album was selling at a pace not seen since the Slim Shady LP dropped. I didn't see that one coming at all.