Sunday, October 26, 2008
Issue #6
I'm too lazy to come up with issue #5, part two so instead I'm just going to move on to issue #6 which quite frankly might be my best issue ever. I mean how can it not be when it features a video that blames me for Barack Obama losing the election and the return of Nushuffle.com!!!! Plus a whole lot more from Halloween costume ideas to scathing editorials. Be sure to check it all out and as always let me know what you think.
Fringe Benefits
JJ Abrams has done it again. He's taken a former tv star in Joshua Jackson and revived his career just like he did with Matthew Fox when Fox became Dr. Jack Shephard on ABC's hit show Lost. Only this time he didn't make Jackson the star of the show. That distinction belongs to Anna Torv, a relative unknown, who plays Federal Agent Olivia Dunham. Dunham, Jackson's character Peter Bishop and his father Dr. Walter Bishop, who just spent 10 years locked up in an insane aslyum, come together to solve a series of crimes that all have one thing in common: they all involve weird occurrences that can be traced back to fringe science.
We're talking everything from reading the thoughts of someone whose been dead for six hours to turning someone into a human microwave. Which is where the comparisons to the X-Files get drawn. But to characterize the show as being something that only a true conspiracy theorist could love wouldn't be fair. It also has plenty of similarities to other shows.
Mostly, it reminds me of crime scene driven shows like CSI in which the characters on the show are given a different mystery to solve each week and have to use their intuition and scientific expertise to figure it out. That element of the show figures to draw in a larger audience than if it was just focused on the X-Files aspect to it but it can also lead to predictability because from here on out we know that every episode is going to be basically the same thing but with a different "pattern" related case to solve.
However, the creators of the show have done a great job so far of delving into larger story lines that destract from the episode specific plot. If their goal was to develop a plot that could engage their viewers while also making it possible to miss an episode and not miss a beat then they have succeeded. The characters, the plot, the CSIesque episodes, the Alias like double crosses, the Lost like mysteries, and the X files like sci fi element, all add up to make for the best new show of the Fall season.
Halloween Costume Ideas
Halloween is upon us which can only mean one thing...time to dress up like a whore!!! Or at least that's what every girl is going to be doing. But that doesn't help me much. Which begs the question what should I be for Halloween?
With everything that's going on with the economy I would love to go with a recession themed costume. I was thinking about going as a giant bucket to represent the bail out. Or perhaps paint myself gold and go as a golden parachute. But those ideas are about as bad as the decision to give out sub prime mortgages.
With everything that's going on with the economy I would love to go with a recession themed costume. I was thinking about going as a giant bucket to represent the bail out. Or perhaps paint myself gold and go as a golden parachute. But those ideas are about as bad as the decision to give out sub prime mortgages.
So I've moved onto my number two choice which is to go as Sarah Palin. Which is pretty much what everyone in the free world is also going to be doing. Heck, even Lindsay Lohan has said that she'll be going as Palin. Maybe a throw everyone a curveball then and go as Lindsay. Shouldn't be too hard to pull off. I'd just go around all night acting drunk.
Speaking of acting, I was also thinking about going as Dr. House. That way I could just walk around with a cane and act like a total ass to everyone, making pithy comments to my heart's content. But if I did that then Halloween would just be like every other day of my life and that wouldn't be any fun.
Which leaves?!??!?! You tell me. What should I be for Halloween?
Should I rock the Palin costume?
Shame(s) on You: Brian Cashman
There are a lot of things that don't make sense. Such as Alex Rodriguez leaving his hot wife for a 50 year old anorexic version of Madonna. Or the Tampa Bay Rays appearing in the World Series one year after finishing with the worst record in baseball. But nothing makes less sense than New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman, not only keeping his job after a year in which the Yankees failed to make the playoffs, but actually parlaying his performance into a three year extension.
Need I remind everyone that the Yankees haven't won the World Series in 8 years. And when they were winning it was because of the foundation that had been built by Gene "Stick" Michael and Bob Watson. Cashman has been riding their coattails for a close to a decade now with nothing to show for it but a littany of bloated contracts, free agent busts, and failed expectations.
What bothers me about this is that Cashman's own ego is to blame for the rapid descend from dynasty to laughingstock. His decision to not trade for SP Johan Santana last off season was not based on the notion that Santana was about to decline nor was it based on a belief that players like Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Melky Cabrera were about to become stars. It was made solely because Cashman wanted to shed the "evil empire" label and proove to the World that he could win with a team filled with homegrown talent. Talent that he assembled. Moreover that he could win without having to go out and buy superstars from other organizations. Sure, winning 4 World Series Titles in 5 years in the late 90's was great. But doing it again, from the ground up and without having to outspend other teams would be even better.
Cashman even admitted to this line of thinking in his media session to announce his contract extension saying that while he may have been tempted to leave he didn't want to go and leave doubt about his legacy. He knew that if he left he would have received little credit for the Yankees success in the late 90's and almost all of the blame for their recent failures even if they weren't all his fault. So he decided to stay and see his vision through. And while that's commendable it also exposes a flaw in his logic.
To succeed in baseball or anywhere for that matter you have to have the courage of your convictions. You can't care about what other people think about you or about what other people say about you. And you sure as hell can't worry about your legacy. Any time you make a decision based on how other people perceive you it's game over. You've already lost. And no amount of championships won from here on out can ever change that.
How is this man still employed?
Need I remind everyone that the Yankees haven't won the World Series in 8 years. And when they were winning it was because of the foundation that had been built by Gene "Stick" Michael and Bob Watson. Cashman has been riding their coattails for a close to a decade now with nothing to show for it but a littany of bloated contracts, free agent busts, and failed expectations.
What bothers me about this is that Cashman's own ego is to blame for the rapid descend from dynasty to laughingstock. His decision to not trade for SP Johan Santana last off season was not based on the notion that Santana was about to decline nor was it based on a belief that players like Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Melky Cabrera were about to become stars. It was made solely because Cashman wanted to shed the "evil empire" label and proove to the World that he could win with a team filled with homegrown talent. Talent that he assembled. Moreover that he could win without having to go out and buy superstars from other organizations. Sure, winning 4 World Series Titles in 5 years in the late 90's was great. But doing it again, from the ground up and without having to outspend other teams would be even better.
Cashman even admitted to this line of thinking in his media session to announce his contract extension saying that while he may have been tempted to leave he didn't want to go and leave doubt about his legacy. He knew that if he left he would have received little credit for the Yankees success in the late 90's and almost all of the blame for their recent failures even if they weren't all his fault. So he decided to stay and see his vision through. And while that's commendable it also exposes a flaw in his logic.
To succeed in baseball or anywhere for that matter you have to have the courage of your convictions. You can't care about what other people think about you or about what other people say about you. And you sure as hell can't worry about your legacy. Any time you make a decision based on how other people perceive you it's game over. You've already lost. And no amount of championships won from here on out can ever change that.
How is this man still employed?
Nushuffle.com Lives!!!!
When I went to college at Northeastern University I had one goal in mind: to met new people and come out of my shell. I was able to do just that by getting involved in student activities and eventually found myself as one of the top student leaders on campus. However, my once promising career as a future school administrator took a precipitious downturn when I met a group of students who were apathetic to say the least. They opened up my eyes to the real Northeastern and eventually they decided to launch a parody website similar in style to the onion that would show students what Northeastern was really all about. That site, nushuffle.com, while short lived will be remembered forever by alumni of NU.
It eventually got shut down but just recently one of the founders of the site was able to archive the back issues. Check out the greatest thing to come out of Northeastern since Napster by clicking on the links below.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://nushuffle.com
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://forum.nushuffle.com
But before you do here's a sample article that I wrote for the site entitled, "student centered?"...
Northeastern officials always maintain that the student is at the heart of everything they do. The motto, "student-centered and practice-oriented" personifies the belief that without these blue-collar, hard working students, Northeastern wouldn't be in the position it is today to move up in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. But the rhetoric that's coming from the University President is painting a different picture.
In the May 28th edition of the Northeastern News, President Freeland graced us with his Top Ten List for 2003. As predicted, the list contained all of the president's favorite rankings from U.S. News to BusinessWeek. It also touched upon the great academic achievements of the incoming freshman class and praised the new additions to campus such as the Behrakis Health Sciences Center.
It eventually got shut down but just recently one of the founders of the site was able to archive the back issues. Check out the greatest thing to come out of Northeastern since Napster by clicking on the links below.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://nushuffle.com
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://forum.nushuffle.com
But before you do here's a sample article that I wrote for the site entitled, "student centered?"...
Northeastern officials always maintain that the student is at the heart of everything they do. The motto, "student-centered and practice-oriented" personifies the belief that without these blue-collar, hard working students, Northeastern wouldn't be in the position it is today to move up in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. But the rhetoric that's coming from the University President is painting a different picture.
In the May 28th edition of the Northeastern News, President Freeland graced us with his Top Ten List for 2003. As predicted, the list contained all of the president's favorite rankings from U.S. News to BusinessWeek. It also touched upon the great academic achievements of the incoming freshman class and praised the new additions to campus such as the Behrakis Health Sciences Center.
However, conspicuous by it's absence on this list was any mention of students.
With Northeastern relying so heavily on student-based tuition payments to afford those aforementioned campus improvements, it's a little odd that the University president would fail to mention the accomplishments of the university's lifeline. It's about time Freeland and the rest of the suits in the administration got their heads out of their asses and opened their eyes to the real Northeastern.
How about instead of trying to knock down the African American Institute to build West Village Z, taking the time to reflect on the accomplishments of this staple of campus life. If the Freeland Administration only took the time, they would realize that the AAI celebrated its 35th anniversary this year and have helped to make Northeastern the center of diversity that it's brochures claim it to be.
What about a mention of SGA's groundbreaking achievement of getting the Student Activities Fee Referendum passed? Having over one million dollars to plan programs and events with next year will improve Northeastern's campus life ten-fold. That's something that should make Freeland happy, but after reading his Top Ten List you wouldn't have known it.
With Northeastern relying so heavily on student-based tuition payments to afford those aforementioned campus improvements, it's a little odd that the University president would fail to mention the accomplishments of the university's lifeline. It's about time Freeland and the rest of the suits in the administration got their heads out of their asses and opened their eyes to the real Northeastern.
How about instead of trying to knock down the African American Institute to build West Village Z, taking the time to reflect on the accomplishments of this staple of campus life. If the Freeland Administration only took the time, they would realize that the AAI celebrated its 35th anniversary this year and have helped to make Northeastern the center of diversity that it's brochures claim it to be.
What about a mention of SGA's groundbreaking achievement of getting the Student Activities Fee Referendum passed? Having over one million dollars to plan programs and events with next year will improve Northeastern's campus life ten-fold. That's something that should make Freeland happy, but after reading his Top Ten List you wouldn't have known it.
Or what about a shout out to all of the students that give up their free time for extra curricular activities like the Northeastern News or for student groups. Those students have worked around the clock, taking their respective groups to new heights and yet if you only got your information from Freeland you wouldn't even know they existed.
In fact if you lived in a bubble and relied on the administration to get a feel for what Northeastern was all about, you would think that the campus only consisted of state of the art flat screen Dell computers, operated by award winning landscapers, inside a recently renovated library, that sits adjacent to the new residence halls, that help attract incoming students, to a school that's number one in co-op.
But the last time I checked you needed students to live in the residence halls and operate the computers and go on co-op. Without students there wouldn't be a Northeastern and yet they're treated like statistics and not real people. The legandary NU shuffle is the perfect example of the mistreatment of students. Customer Service is a joke because Northeastern doesn't really care about the students. They could care less if students transfer because they know that as long as the campus looks pretty, some other unassuming sap out of high school will jump at the chance to go on co-op. The bottom line is that a school can survive without being student-centered if it is practice-oriented.
The NU shuffle will always live on and Northeastern will probably never be a student-centered institution. We all know that and have now grown accustomed to it. I have now been numbed to it all. But when the university president tries to take credit for the students' accomplishments without recognizing them, then that's where I get upset. So Freeland, why don't you leave the Top Ten Lists to Letterman and get back to watering the flowers.
My arch rival nemesis
Is Bush the Worst President Ever?
With election day right around the corner I think it's important to reflect back on the last eight years so that we can successfuly move forward. So to help me do that I've dipped into the archives to bring back an article that I wrote previously about the Bush administration. It was on February 23rd, 2006 that I published a post entitled "Bushwhacked" that listed some of the 'highlights' from the Bush Administration to date. Here is some of what I wrote:
"Shadily becomes President despite losing the popular vote after the hanging chad fiscal in Florida. A state governed by his brother Jeb by the way.
9/11 attacks occur under his watch and after getting informed of the attacks does nothing for ten minutes while continuing to read to first graders in Florida.
Goes after Saddam Hussein just to one up his dad who was never able to get him out of power during the Gulf War.
Congress and the public are deceived to believe that Saddam Hussein has access to WMD's.
Claims victory in Iraq on board an aircraft carrier. Death toll has steadily climbed ever since.
Abu Ghraib prison scandal with allegations of abuse towards detainees including desecration of the Koran.
Thousands of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay prison with more allegations of mistreatment.
Reports of secret CIA prisons throughout Europe.
The horrible national response to Katrina where thousands were left for dead in New Orleans.
Bush himself admitting that he invaded Iraq because God told him to. Keep in mind that people who usually hold conversations with God are locked away in mental institutions and yet Bush is still the President.
And now as Iraq is about to plummet into a Civil War word comes out that he didn't even know about the deal that would give up control of six major U.S. ports (including New York, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans) to an Middle Eastern firm until after it was finalized. Could someone please explain to me how this man is still the President of the United States?"
I've been thinking about this post lately as I get ready to cast my vote because I think that it's obvious that change is needed in this country. Just think about all of those things that I mentioned a few years ago and then go ahead and add the recession that we're about to enter into on top of all those other things. It truly is amazing that we could go from a hegemony, a true world power, with an economic surplus, to a country that's in a recession, fighting a war in Iraq that we can't win, all the while losing our place as a World Leader.
Maybe there have been Presidents who have been worse but I think you would be hard pressed to find one that has done this much damage in such a short period of time. My only hope at this point is that Bush doesn't get inspired by NYC Mayor Bloomberg and try to change the term limits to three terms.
"Shadily becomes President despite losing the popular vote after the hanging chad fiscal in Florida. A state governed by his brother Jeb by the way.
9/11 attacks occur under his watch and after getting informed of the attacks does nothing for ten minutes while continuing to read to first graders in Florida.
Goes after Saddam Hussein just to one up his dad who was never able to get him out of power during the Gulf War.
Congress and the public are deceived to believe that Saddam Hussein has access to WMD's.
Claims victory in Iraq on board an aircraft carrier. Death toll has steadily climbed ever since.
Abu Ghraib prison scandal with allegations of abuse towards detainees including desecration of the Koran.
Thousands of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay prison with more allegations of mistreatment.
Reports of secret CIA prisons throughout Europe.
The horrible national response to Katrina where thousands were left for dead in New Orleans.
Bush himself admitting that he invaded Iraq because God told him to. Keep in mind that people who usually hold conversations with God are locked away in mental institutions and yet Bush is still the President.
And now as Iraq is about to plummet into a Civil War word comes out that he didn't even know about the deal that would give up control of six major U.S. ports (including New York, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans) to an Middle Eastern firm until after it was finalized. Could someone please explain to me how this man is still the President of the United States?"
I've been thinking about this post lately as I get ready to cast my vote because I think that it's obvious that change is needed in this country. Just think about all of those things that I mentioned a few years ago and then go ahead and add the recession that we're about to enter into on top of all those other things. It truly is amazing that we could go from a hegemony, a true world power, with an economic surplus, to a country that's in a recession, fighting a war in Iraq that we can't win, all the while losing our place as a World Leader.
Maybe there have been Presidents who have been worse but I think you would be hard pressed to find one that has done this much damage in such a short period of time. My only hope at this point is that Bush doesn't get inspired by NYC Mayor Bloomberg and try to change the term limits to three terms.
Obama's Loss Traced To Shames
Check out this breaking news story from CNNBC that says that I'm the reason Obama loses to McCain!!!!
http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=_9rOXjOqQYTAHCYpAL2A3TM5NDIyNzE-&referred_by=11268150-1Tjoqdx
http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=_9rOXjOqQYTAHCYpAL2A3TM5NDIyNzE-&referred_by=11268150-1Tjoqdx
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