Shouzer

Since Scott posted about joining Facebook recently, I figured I’d link this article.  Basically, it’s a study that says Facebook users tend not to do as well in school.  Admittedly, the researcher herself admits that it might be some other third variable, but there is definitely a correlation.

I have no clue whatsoever how Twitter stays afloat.  They’re basically like, “Hey, everybody!  Why don’t you come use our bandwidth?!  w00t!”

Now sure, as a user, I love the business model–I just don’t understand how it’s going to last, especially as it gains more and more attention from the media. Quake Live just went into public beta, and as they’ve been adjusting to the demand, they’ve frequently gone offline with only a link to their Twitter page available. Basically, they get crushed for bandwidth, can’t handle it, and send it all to Twitter. And Twitter doesn’t have ads, so what do they get from it besides a bill? Oh well, that’s not my problem.

You know you want yourself some Tiberius.  You gotsta get you some of that Star Trek lovin’.

Seriously, though…  This type of stuff is crazy to me.  I’m sure it’s got it’s market, and it’ll sell, but come on now.  Is it really necessary?  Couldn’t you get by with regular cologne?  Any who wants the Red Shirt?  “Oh great, now I smell like somebody who’s going to die within the hour.  Sweet.”

Chad Johnson legally changed his name to Chad Javon Ocho Cinco.  I don’t care what anyone says, that’s just awesome.  Still, I hope that he gets back to focusing on the Bengals a bit this year, after some of the stuff that went on this offseason.

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to try going to a meetup group in an attempt to make some new friends in the Detroit area. I went to my first meetup last night in my movie lovers club. There were about 4 people RSVPed yes to go to this movie, and I figured if I couldn’t find them, I could just watch the movie.

I left a little late, and the drive took a bit longer than I expected. I was driving entirely too fast trying to make it there on time. I finally get to this theater, and I can’t find a parking spot. I found a parking garage, and I had to drive to the very top of it to get a spot. I ran down 5 flights of stairs, practically pushing over this woman carrying her baby girl. I get there about 5 minutes after the scheduled meeting time, and there is no one at the meeting spot. I ran into the theater, and it was completely empty. I thought that I was late and everyone was already in there. Yeah, turns out a rushed for nothing.

So I walked back out to the meeting spot, and I saw a guy moving towards it. I went up and introduced myself. He was from the meetup group, and he seemed like a nice guy. I made small talk, and he gradually came out of his shell a bit. The guy basically didn’t stop talking after that. I realized about 10 minutes later that no one else was coming, and I was essentially on a blind man date with a 40ish librarian that I met on the internet. I pretty much freaked out at this point and shut down. I wasn’t interested enough in what this guy was saying to ask follow up questions, and I tend to close down when I am uncomfortable. This only led to make the situation more uncomfortable.

I was pretty relieved when the movie started. It was a French movie which was sold as a thriller. It was not thrilling, but it was interesting. I would say I enjoyed it. I calmed down a bit during the movie. I chatted with the dude for a bit after the show, and then we took off. Yeah, that was weird.

I’m not really sure if I should give this thing another chance. The movie club is having a BBQ type thing at some guy’s house this weekend. I’m definitely not going to risk doing that at someone’s house. I am in another meetup group that goes out to eat at international restaurants. They had 19 people RSVPed for their last meetup. I think I might try going to one of those. Surely more than one person will show up. That doesn’t mean it won’t be really weird though….

None of my Fruity Pebbles would fetch nearly this much.

Check out this new ad campaign for MSN (click “Watch Videos” on top and pick from the bottom three). I’ve got to admit that I really enjoy these commercials. In general, I think Microsoft has been doing a great job advertising lately. To help my case there, I present for your viewing pleasure Exhibit B.

Mark Steele really reminds me of the news dude from Penny Arcade. He’s awesome.

I know I’ve been absent from the blogging world lately (*cough* Juvers *cough*) I’ve been studying hard for finals, but this deserved a post. I know Steph and Megan will appreciate the irony of this. Turns out that our chorus teacher that lasted one year was a contestant on ABC’s The Bachelor: London Calling. If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is. This woman was always complaining about having to leave “upstate New York” and move to southern Illinois. I had to check out the shows web site since I obviously did not catch the episode when it aired. Here’s a screen shot of her. I can only assume by the look on her face this is when she met “The Bachelor.”

Obviously since she is on this show her marriage to the classical saxophone player did not work out. Honestly, I’m glad. He was a real ass. Though, she must be happy out in LA now. Not in the simple, small town, rural southern Illinois. She always seemed to complain about that every day.

Anyways, gotta get back to studying. Last final is in two hours.

So I’ve been thinking of playing World of Warcraft. Yes, this is an idiotic notion, considering I enjoy my life. But I wanted to share a review of the game I read this morning. I wonder if this is how all your writing starts to look once you become trapped in the game…

Pros: fun, addictive, yes, its a good thing, awsome graphics, fun, realistic if we lived in a world with night elves and such,
Cons: NONE, RAN OUT OF ROOM FOR PROS, ppl have personality, there nice and you can talk to them, dis/enable language filter

“and acts as a second life.you wont need friends if youi have WoW friends, they have personality, its fun to talk to ppl cause its not all game like in runescape.you can do quests wich widly vary, unless there the first quests.if you dont like quests and just want to lvl, you can just talk to ppl, its fun, and then grind, wich is killing monsters a little lower lvl then you for max exp.there are also dungeons, with hard bosses that drop items that will make you want more,if they idnt, it be boring.the graphics are awsome, best iv ever seen, and theres alot of detail.plus, if you wanna have fun, you can just spend alot of money on beer and kegs, the screen will look wavy and move with your camera.but watch out!if you fight you will get knocked back and fall to the ground.The language filter is disablable,lol, so you can see words like ***** and know what ppl are talking about.the guilds you can stay in, be promoted, have fun, kick anoying ppl, and have guild events.if you dont like these then you can just pk, or player kill, in many of the battlegrounds, if its in an enemy city, its not a battleground, its a raid.If there was a smoker who got WoW, hed quit.remember.WoW, saving lifes everyday.and all words in cons thing arent cons…wasnt enough room for all pros.sry for riting so much.”

World of Warcraft… Better than a nicotine patch.

I’m not sure how many of you folks have heard, but Stephen Colbert announced he’s running for president (…in South Carolina, heh). According to Jordy, he plans to run as both a democrat and republican, which makes it just that much better.

I happened to be flipping through the channels the other day, and I caught O’Reilly talking about it. He had some “behavior analyst” person or something on, too. It was hilarious. The conclusion good ‘ol Bill came to was that Colbert is “just trying to be hip.” Oh thanks, Billy. I guess that’s your attempt to belittle him, eh? He must be doing something right…

So, yes, I’m still alive and I still visit Shouzer and try to stay current on everyone’s happenings. Unfortunately school hasn’t been allowing me the time to post much. Luckily though I can actually take a bit to fix that.

I just finished my midterms this past Friday. That was the first thing, being in the sixth week of a 10-week quarter this fast was a wake up call in terms of time management and study habits. Having spent my whole life in semesters, this was a huge adjustment. Second, working has been kicking my ass and not in the fun way of long days in a busy ER with multiple traumas. Don’t worry Harlow, no more gruesome stories from me anymore.

I traded in fun in the ER for fun running a simulation lab for medical students and residents in the anesthesia program at Rush. It isn’t what I wanted to do–I really did want to work in an ER up here–but I had to take what I could get. I have learned more about anesthesia though by working in their simulation lab, and it has presented me with some great networking opportunities so I suppose it isn’t all that bad, right?

A few weeks ago I had a run in with the vacuum cleaner in the dark hallway of my apartment. It resulted in a fracture and dislocation. Thankfully, Al came over the next day and reduced my toe. I would have done it myself, but hey, it hurt like a bitch to touch so there was no way I could make myself do it. Al did great, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I was his first live patient he treated all on his own. Great job, Dr. Abalos! It’s healing well, by the way.

In some exciting non school/work news, I did do something entertaining last night. Scott and I went to see Kathy Griffin live at The Chicago Theatre. Her stand up was awesome! I don’t know if any of you watch her show on Bravo Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, but I highly recommend it.

Kathy has been in the news a bit recently for her “controversial” Emmy acceptance speech. I think her speech is great and dead-on. Here’s a clip of it and her subsequent interview on Larry King, in which she goes on to explain the meaning of her speech…but that meaning apparently fell on deaf ears to some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbziBwi489Q

As I said, her routine was excellent. I think anyone that can make a crowd laugh as much as she did last night for 1.5 hours straight through deserves major props. In my mind she isn’t on the D-List (and hasn’t been for some time, I might add). She has great sass and a rapid-fire wit and knows how to use it.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I’m outta here!

This post is actually directed at Jared. Normally, people do these sorts of things over email, but Jared and I just don’t communicate much through email. The rest of you are just going to have to deal with it.

Jared,

What are the chances of you sending me one of these T-shirts? Come on, you know you want to. Plus, we all know you’re making fat bank over there in the US. Forget that it costs a fortune to live in Seattle.

Oh, and you’d better go ride that SLUT when she opens for business.

Scott

I think it’s delightfully obvious that only the Japanese could have invented this. You’d be a fool not to be impressed by stupidity of that bad boy right there. That’s about all there is to that.

It’d be a horribly bad idea in the first place, but on top of the normal level of craziness, it’s USB-powered. You really could only wear it while you’re sitting at the computer. And sure… You’ve got to look good while you’re on the computer–I’ll grant you that. (Not a problem for me. I always look good. Booyah.) But seriously, what if want to look awesome and and stay cool when you’re not sitting in front of the monitor? Well then you’re out of luck, and that’s just sad.

I happened to catch Michael Moore on The Daily Show the other day.  It was ok, I guess.  I don’t really care for Michael Moore as an interviewee.  Mind you, I happen to thoroughly enjoy his movies.  Crazy fuckin’ communist or not (as Team America seems to make him out to be), I think he makes some good sense.  Bush == Bad.  Hurray, I agree!  I guess it doesn’t take much…

That being said, I don’t think he makes for a great interview.  He tries to be funny, and he’s really not.  That alone ruins it.  Despite this, his new movie SiCKO should be something most Americans can rally behind.  I find it hard to believe there’s a lot of people out there (particularly those in the middle class) who think the healthcare system in the US is as good as it should be.

So I have to admit I was surprised to hear from Moore that he was bumped from Larry King for Paris Hilton.  Paris fucking Hilton.  That’s just sad.  Probably more than healthcare, that’s the thing wrong with America.  She shouldn’t be news.  Ever.  EVER.  Apparently the interview brought in the highest ratings Larry King has ever gotten, so I guess I can’t blame him, though he’s basically feeding the monster.

Whatever.

Ronald McDonald performing the Thai Wai, used to show respect as a greeting. I do it all the time as well when I go to the schools to teach. I just thought it was really funny to see an American icon in the pose.