ESPN.com: Daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69
Wow…it looks like Kanye resolved the feud just in time. Unless Kanye dies of an incurable lung disease within the next six months…then he’d be Biggie to Evel’s 2Pac.
RIP, Mr. Daredevil.
I don’t know if this is a big story outside of the realm of CNN.com, but I just became hip to the story of poor little Youssif. Youssif was (well, is) a 5 year old little boy in Iraq who, for whatever reason, was picked up in the street by five dudes who poured gasoline on him and set him on fire. Which, you know, isn’t cool. So CNN wrote a story about it, the kind that says, “Just look at the horrible toll of war. Just horrible. … Please click on our banner ads.” Then people who read CNN.com felt rightfully ashamed of having laptops and high-speed wireless connections while this poor kid sat in Baghdad with horrible scars across his face.
The story is horrible. The guys who did this are jerks. There’s never any reason to hurt a 5 year old, unless you’re another 5 year old and he stole your Tonka truck and you give him a wussy child-like slap-punch on the shoulder before crying about it to your mommy. He deserves all the sympathy and monetary support he has gotten. I hope that he gets better and can return to having a normal life.
All that being said…here are a couple of things from the article about him that sort of struck me as inadvertently and inappropriately funny:
From today’s article, “Surgery over; Youssif’s biggest scar removed”:
Youssif entered the operating room around 6:30 a.m. PT for the three-and-a-half hour surgery.
Just before the surgery began, Youssif began crying.
“I can’t do this. I can’t do this,” he said.
Sedation then set in, he relaxed and Dr. Peter Grossman, the plastic surgeon with the Grossman Burn Center who is donating his services, began to operate.
The writer conjours the image of a poor, injured boy (from a country with medical facilities that rarely has pain medication) crying about how he doesn’t want to do a round of surgery…following that right up by, “Sedation then set in.” For some reason, this seems like it should be followed by, “Dr. Grossman tilted his head back, syringe in hand, and let out a long, slow cackle. “Mwuah-hahahahaha!”
Maybe that’s just me.
Later in the article:
Living temporarily with the balloons is never an easy process for burn survivors because they look much worse — like a “science-fiction creature” in Grossman’s words — before they can get better.
“We try not to traumatize the patients emotionally with this too much,” he said.
It might decrease the emotional trauma if you stopped using phrases, “science-fiction creature” when describing them. Genius.
The topper is from the first article on Youssif from August:
“They dumped gasoline, burned me, and ran,” Youssif told CNN, pointing down the street with his scarred hands where his attackers fled. Photo See photographs of Youssif before and after the attack.
As he sucked his thumb, he repeated, “I was burning.” He tried to put the flames out himself.
…
“He’s become spiteful, I am not sure why,” said his mother, Zainab. “He is jealous of everyone. If I say the slightest thing to him, he cries. He’s sensitive.”
Wow. You don’t know why he’s become spiteful? You’re all heart, Zainab. “Yeah, his face is horribly disfigured and we have very little chance of doing much to change that. But I don’t know why he’s such a crybaby. Maybe that was pansy gasoline they poured on him. Pansy.” I guess we know who’s not going to win the Baghdad Ms. Having-A-Clue contest.
I’m sure this was just a poor Iraqi-to-English translation. And some mediocre, overwrought journalistic stylings. Still…it had to be commented on. Get better, Youssif.
Another month, another mix. This is divided into a very clear Side A and Side B. Side A has the regular bunch of songs from new albums, shows during the month, and songs that bubbled up into my frequently-played list. Side B is the get-me-fired-up mix put together for the Red Sox ultimately successful playoff run. It was songs to listen to on the walk down to Harry’s, or the drive into work the next morning. I’ll be honest, it’s not as definitive as the one I had for the ‘04 run…but then again, things were more crazy unique then.
And since I don’t want to make a whole other post for it, I’ll just put this here: Sean, I’m sorry I didn’t make it down to your bachelor party this weekend. I wanted to get my ass down to Philly, but it just wasn’t going to work out, even with your valiant efforts to find me the cheapest route possible. I’m sure it will be amazing…have an extra round at Smoke’s for me. And by Smoke’s, I mean Wizzards.
On to the mix:
Those Doors Weren’t Locked (WPTM October 2007)
01. East Bound And Down – Jerry Reed
02. Bodysnatchers – Radiohead
03. Good To Sea – Pinback
04. 5 Times Out Of 100 – Hot Hot Heat
05. The Girl I Knew Somewhere – The Monkees
06. Wild Mountain Nation – Blitzen Trapper
07. Show Your Hand – Super Furry Animals
08. Who Can It Be Now? – Men At Work
09. Fett’s Vette – MC Chris
10. Get It To Go – To My Surprise
11. It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock ‘N Roll) – AC/DC
12. I Predict A Riot – Kaiser Chiefs
13. Here It Goes Again – OK Go
14. Lose Yourself – Eminem
15. Back In The Saddle – Aerosmith
16. I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys
17. Party Hard – Andrew W.K.
18. Dirty Water – The Standells
Standard disclaimers apply.
Vegas was great. LOVE was amazing. Details forthcoming. For now, though, it’s time to focus on this:
GameSpot: Ghostbusters to slime consoles, PC
Wow. Monumental. I…don’t know what to say. The next gen consoles meeting one of the greatest films of all time. This will either be the greatest thing that’s happened in the past decade…or the worst.
Do I read correctly that there was a plan of this being a movie, but instead they’re making it a game? Or is that implication just clunky writing on the part of the GameSpot scribe? And what kind of game will this be? A shooter? An RPG? Action-adventure? Will this be the final revelation of the alleged GB3 plot where the Ghostbusters go to hell?
I don’t know. What I do know is that Bill Murray is involved, which I would have never thought possible. Maybe selling his soul for those two Garfield movies did have an unsuspected side benefit. As long as Winston and Louis are around too, and they include proton packs and Ecto 1 and Slimer…the circle will be complete. And I’ll have a nerd-out the likes of which have rarely been seen outside of theaters showing long-awaited Lucasfilm pre-/se-quels.
For now we just have to hope the story and the gameplay are well designed, well integrated and well worth the anticipation that is bubbling over within me. They have a high standard to top…very high indeed.
On a personal note, Lisa and I are packing (well, Lisa is sleeping and I should be packing) for our trip to Vegas tomorrow. This is my first visit ever to the Sin City…and, frankly, I don’t know what to expect. I’m sure it will be surreal and awesome…but I don’t drink and I don’t gamble (for both reasons attributed to both fundage and ability). So it might get kinda old kinda fast. I don’t know. We’ll see.
Our plans, as it stands for now: landing Friday around 10pm local time. Going out around the immediate area of our hotel (Harrah’s…thanks, Hotwire), checking some places out and getting a late dinner. Saturday night we’re meeting a friend of Lisa’s from college for dinner. Sunday evening we’re going to see LOVE, the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles show. Monday evening flying back on a red-eye. So during the day and late-night hours, we got no plans. Lisa wants to check out the free pirate show at Treasure Island. We plan on walking up and down the strip and checking out the decor of the different places and just the craziness of it all.
But…we didn’t do a whole lot of research and don’t have a plan of attack mapped out. Anyone have any advice to offer? Must sees? Must avoids? Comment away…although do so before 2pm tomorrow, as that’s when I leave work to head to the airport.
*insert “What happens in the comment section stays in the comment section” joke here*
Let’s dabble a little with some recent news stories, shall we? Yes…yes, we shall.
1. The Guardian: It’s not fair to ask Mukasey about waterboarding, Bush tells senators
I know this story is a week or so old, but…seriously? This is what it’s come to? It’s “not fair” to ask the prospective attorney general whether he thinks that torture is a bad thing? “He doesn’t know whether we use that technique or not?” Well…when are you going to let him know? Is that part of the employee orientation after he gets sworn in? “OK, we have three different retirement plans. There’s two different Fidelity packages and a new one from ING. People seem to be taking to that. What else? Oh, right…we occasionally tie hooded prisoners to boards, hold them upside down, and pour water on them so they feel like they’re drowning. It’s a good way to get answers…not necessarily right ones, but still, answers. And you also get two 15 minute coffee breaks during the day.”
Jesus. Plus there’s this:
“We are at war and we cannot win this war by wishing it away or pretending that it does not exist,” he [Bush] told the rightwing Heritage Foundation.
How on earth could we possibly forget we’re at war? It’s on the news every night…because it’s a total clusterfuck. Anyway, going to the translation machine…does this mean that wondering if our government is using (or condoning the use of) inhumane, torturous acts that we are pretending that we aren’t fighting people? Doesn’t it seem more like asking such probing questions is very much validating the fact that we are at a war, and are just making sure our civil and military leaders aren’t crossing the line in fighting that war? I mean…seriously?
As for this statement:
“The American people must know that whatever techniques we use are within the law.”
Is it just me, or does that sound like he’s planning on having Congress retro-actively make waterboarding legal, just like he did with the wiretapping? When will we have secret waterboard courts set up? Can we get it ready by the March thaw?
Ugh.
2. boston.com: Georgia plans service to pray for rain
This is from the spokesman for the governor of an entire state:
“The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power.”
Higher power meaning low-pressure areas, cold fronts and the jet stream. I guess a plan of prayer and water conservation is a decent drought defier…I mean, at least water conservation is on the list. As for the several faiths that will be represented, I have a feeling it will be a handful of Christian denominations, with maybe a priest or rabbi thrown in. I would love it for a Native American medicine man to be there, a-dancin’. Love. It.
Seriously, do you think God is all that interested in whether or not it rains on your constituents, governor? He’s much more interested in Rudy’s stance on abortion and helping college kids win football games.
3. Sky News: Stripper Spanks Teen In Surprise Blunder
England is a crazy place. I just like that the teacher was OK with the Britney song and the collar-and-leash combo. Whenever that teacher meets with the principal, it will be one of the funniest performance reviews ever.
4. boston.com: Priest faces charges of stalking TV late-night host O’Brien
Amazing. What else can you say about this? Amazing. Way to go, St. Patrick’s of Stoneham…you’ve done us all proud.
Things have gotten way too lax around here. We all got very excited about the Red Sox, and then they won the World Series (aaaaaaaagain!), and we celebrated. And it was good. Then, some of us had midterms to deal with. And others of us have much more arduous classes than “Philosophy of Education” and almost never post here anymore anyway.
In addition to our respective book learnings, we also have other things on the hopper. I am looking into MFA programs (for real, finally), re-starting a few dormant writing projects (hopefully not too many at once), lamenting the lack of NaNoWriMo participation (aaaaaaaaaagain!), and attempting to finally sit down and get myself to be proficient on Guitar Hero’s Hard setting. (I know, I know…I’m so far behind.) jz, on the other hand, is busy thinking about how great his professors are, volunteering at an animal office, dreaming of his upcoming Christmas break, and dreading the milestone birthday that looms on the other side of it.
So…yes, we’re making excuses. And, yes, this is yet another apology post. We’ll pick up our slack, though. For real…finally.