Crazy Lotto News: Lotto fever burns in Italy for C131.5 million jackpot; lucky Germans flown in to buy tickets!!

Oh, God, why wasn't I born in Italy...?

ROME - Germans, Austrians and other foreigners are heading into Italy to play the lottery ahead of a record C131.5 ($186 million) jackpot, including some who flew into Milan for a few hours just for a chance to win Thursday night.

Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper said 140 passengers aboard a chartered Air Berlin jet won a phone-in contest for free airline tickets aboard an early afternoon flight from Berlin to Milan's Malpensa airport.

Besides the free seats, the winners were being treated to a heaping plateful of pasta, a cup of espresso and the opportunity to buy Superenalotto tickets at a smoke shop at the Milan airport.

Later in the afternoon, without ever leaving the airport, the passengers were flying back to Berlin, "just in time for dinner and to find out if they've won," said Italy private Canale 5 TV.

The six-number combination will be announced by about 8:30 p.m. No one has picked the winning numbers since January, and now the Superenalotto jackpot is Italy's biggest ever - and, according to Italian news reports, the biggest in Europe, as well. Drawings are held three times a week.

Austrians, Croats and Slovenes living close to Italy were "storming" across the border to try their luck, the Austria Press Agency reported on Thursday.

Many of them were packing restaurants and hotels in Italy's German-speaking Alto Adige, or South Tyrol, region, which borders Austria.

French visitors have also been driving into neighbouring northwest Italy for a chance to play the numbers lotto, many Germans have been sighted in resort towns of Lake Maggiore buying tickets, and Superenalotto tickets appeared to be as popular as postcards in many Venice souvenir shops.

Other foreigners catching lotto fever were enjoying already planned vacations in Italy. Nicola and Peter Minchella came from Edinburgh, Scotland.

"I never thought to play in another country before, but since it's making headlines, we'll probably buy a ticket," said Nicola Minchella, as the pair dipped into gelato and sipped coffee at Castellino's, an outside cafe at Piazza Venezia in the heart of Rome.

At a counter inside the cafe, customers waited in line to buy lotto tickets. What if Peter Minchella picked the winning numbers?

"I'd travel the world and keep buying lottery tickets," he said, smiling.

The cost is C1 ($1.42) for the chance to choose two combinations of six winning numbers.

In places like Naples, where a favourite pastime is interpreting dreams in terms of numbers, many people prefer to choose their own. But players can also purchase tickets with two random sets of numbers already printed on them.

With many smoke shops closed in Italy for vacations, those open bustled with players. At Castellino, one customer spent C2,000 (some $2,800), a drop in the bucket against the 1 in 622 million odds, said manager Stefano Menchetti.

Not all have dreams of riches only for themselves.

The mayor and some of his employees in one small town in northeast Italy have chipped in to buy tickets, pledging to use any winnings to build a theatre for Ceneselli's 1,900 citizens.

"We've played our ages, our birth dates" as the lucky numbers, said Mayor Marco Trombini in a telephone interview. "There's no logic in luck anyway."

I know that the chance to win this is actually, really, really small, and with so many people going crazy over buying a ticket, it's probably going to make the odds even smaller, but still, people are flocking to Italy from ALL OVER EUROPE just for this.

I don't know whether to find it sad or exciting.

Find the original article here.

Dane Cook VS Vanessa Hudgens: LOL!

I don't really care enough about the Teen Choice Awards to watch them, but stuff like this makes me wish that I did...



Now, I don't really think Dane Cook is that funny, but I have to aplaud him for doing this. That was AWESOME! LOL! I seriously laughed hard when I saw the video on YouTube. That was really, really funny, in a really, really cruel way.

That being said, though, I have to look at it from the other side, which is Vanessa Hudgens. Seriously, even though I think it is ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT her fault for, you know, taking nude pictures of herself, AGAIN, I still can't help but feel a bit sorry for her, because, even though at this point it is more of a slut alert rather than a pitiful mistake, it's still not something you want to bring about on national television, in front of millions of teenagers.

And yes, I know this didn't really air, but dude, it's on YouTube, and the media's talking about it, so naturally EVERYONE KNOWS BY NOW.

All I can say is, Dane Cook, nice going, even if it is a little douchey of you, and Vanessa Hudgens, I feel sorry for you, but hey, next time you ought to think twice before taking nude pictures of yourself with your BlackBerry, especially since this is the SECOND TIME this kind of think has happened to you. It's already bad enough that you're playing Zac Efron's beard.

Just saying...

Boredom and life...

God, I'm spending more time online than I wish I did. It's probably because the summer is winding down and most of my friends have gone back to full-work, or are getting ready to go back to school, so... Gah...

Sometimes I wish I was going to school. Sometimes I wish I was working on my education, but then I have to wonder, what the hell am I going to prepare for, when I can't yet decide what the hell I wanna do with my life? When I graduated high school, everyone around me seemed to have a plan. Everyone was either going to be a doctor or a lawyer, or some kind of engineer, or a business manager, or an architect, or even something as boring and depressing as an accountant, and I remember being one of those people.

I wanted to become a lawyer when I graduated high school. The idea of it made me feel rather enthused, and thinking about it rationally, it was really something that made sense, and I never thought it would be difficult to me, something that I was able to confirm a few months later, when I actually went to college and started working towards my law degree. Rationally speaking, it was a good choice. But then I realized that reason and emotion don't go hand-in-hand. I realized that I didn't really wanna a be a lawyer, and I dropped out.

And ever since then, this is what I've been doing. Working, wasting time online, living a life that I don't really want to live, but what else am I to do? If I could decide what I want to do with my life and say "hey, this is what I'm going to work on and I'll like it", then that's what I'd be doing, but my mind doesn't really work like that. I can't decide on anything. I like a lot of stuff, but I can't say I feel especially passionate about something, and I don't wanna waste more college tuition fees on aimlessly testing the waters, so to speak.

So instead, I'm sitting here on a late summer night, typing this blog. And it sucks, because I feel like I should be doing something. I should be working towards something instead of having a half-assed job that I don't care about. Maybe I should travel to see if that clears my head.

What do you think?

One month later: Michael Jackson is still news!

So today I was reading the news online and I must've found like two thousand different articles on Michael Jackson. If it wasn't some freaking audience to determine the fate of some movie deal, or some random paternity claim from some dude, it was some recycled biographic story that most likely everyone has read at least ten or twenty times already. It was weird, because, you know, the dude has been dead for like, what, more than a month now?

I understand that he was the king of pop and all that shit, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was exposed to his music when I was little, but seriously. My first reaction was to blame it on the money-hungry media, because this is exactly the kind of thing they'd milk for all it's worth, but then I have to remind myself that, well, it is the media... this is what they do. And if they're doing it, there's a reason for it, and it all became clear when I checked iTunes and other music sites and saw that MJ's record sales are going through the roof!

So, clearly, it's not that the media is obsessed with Michael Jackson. It's that WE are obsessed with Michael Jackson and the media is just being the good provider/crack dealer that it's always been, and spoon-feeding us these news because they know we'll take it with a grin. So it's clearly not their fault. It's ours.

Seriously, world. Sometimes I wonder how we've survived so long and invented stuff like cars and the internet when our attention span is oh! so limited! If this is all that matters to us right now, then what does that say about us as a whole? Is humanity really this shallow? Because if we are, then we're really, really lucky that we've made it this far.

Now, I don't hate Michael Jackson. I think he was a great artist, and as far as the allegations go, to me it's innocent until proven guilty, which he never was, so I have no reason to judge him on that. But it's a damn shame that he had to DIE for people to remember again how incredible he really was. It's just sad. But I guess that's the way it goes, right? You never know how great something really is until you no longer have it.

Greek woman sets man's penis on fire!

A 26-year-old woman is being hailed as a national hero after belying the conventional wisdom that revenge is a dish best served cold.

The unidentified female from the Mediterranean island of Crete set fire to a drunk 23-year-old Briton's genitals after he allegedly tried to sexually assault her in a crowded bar, London's Daily Telegraph reports. She earned further accolades from her countrymen for turning herself over to the police following the incident.

According to a police report, the intoxicated party-goer had taken down his pants and was waving his genitals at women in the bar. He then "forcefully fondled" the 26-year-old woman and asked her to take hold of his genitals.

She responded by soaking his genitals in a liquor. When this failed to cool off his advances, she reportedly grabbed a lighter and set his nether-region on fire.

The alleged sex assailant is hospitalized with what the Telegraph describes as "considerable damage" to his penis and testicles.

The woman will face a magistrate this week to determine if her case will go to court. She asserts she acted in her "right to self-defense." A magistrate and prosecutor both agreed to let her free remain free pending a trial, a possible sign they agree with her self-defense claim.

The incident, the police report says, took place in Mallia, a spot notorious for attracting young Britons eager to turn the seaside resort into their own 24-7 Bachanal.

First of all, let me start by saying that the guy totally deserves it. It doesn't matter how drunk you are; if you harass a woman by flaunting your junk around, you most likely deserve whatever you're getting.

That being said, I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. I mean, Damn! Talk about karmic punishment!

Now the girl is facing charges and whatnot, but honestly, she shouldn't go to jail for this. That girl is a fucking hero as far as I'm concerned, and this should serve as lesson to all drunken fratboys all over the world. Next time you might wanna think it over before deciding to act like a douchey rapist at a bar, because you might just get your schlong burned off.

Read the original article here.

I watched G.I. Joe and my brain didn't die!

My friends are really judgmental about a lot of stuff, and I can't really blame them because I'm kind of like that too about some things, so when we decided to go watch G.I. Joe today, I knew we weren't going to do it for the entertainment value of the picture, but rather, for the laugh-inducing experience that usually comes from going to the cinema together and completely eviscerating a movie as it progresses through a plethora of snarky remarks and small jokes.

This time it wasn't quite as easy to to do due to the theater being packed, but as usual my friends don't really care if they're alone or surrounded by a crowd. When they feel like ranting they'll rant, and so will I, to be honest. And we did. Boy did we?

The most striking thing to me was the parade of cheesy lines that takes place throughout the ENTIRETY OF THE MOVIE! "That redhead is really starting to annoy me" or "This is just the start" made me laugh really hard. It was all recycled from almost every action movie since the 90's.

Next came the CGI's. This movie was riddled with them. I can understand a movie like Transformers being riddled with CGI's because, well, it's giant transforming robots from outer space. But G.I Joe is glorified Black Ops at best, so really, it's not that imperative.

It was also very unrealistic, with the suits that turn you into superman and the nanites that eat through metal and destroy cities, and massive industrial plants and secret bases beneath Paris and the Arctic Ocean and the Egyptian Desert, and the submarines and the planes and the helicopters and the crazy japanese ninja kids that kill their own masters and the western kids that drove them to that who are now black-clad, silent killer-types, and mind-contro,l and explosions, and blah blah blah blah!

I think It shouldn't be hard for anyone to conclude that I found this movie terrible, but actually, that wouldn't be entirely true, because the same could be said of almost any movie that has come out every summer for the past three years or so, and even though it is most certainly true, there is something that you have to accept about this kind of movie and that kind of justifies the way it is: it is a popcorn movie!

It doesn't need to be deep, or plot-driven, or even coherent, or even have good acting. It just needs to be entertaining, and this movie... well, it does have its entertainment value, but it's not really mind-blowing. It is a good movie in those terms, but let me tell you, it's no Transformers, it's no Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, and it's definitely no Iron Man. It's just a typical, rather forgettable popcorn movie, that will most likely do well, and we'll likely see a sequel of in a year or two, but that's about it.

If you can deal with that, go ahead and waste your ten dollars. And if you can't, then hold on to them a little longer and maybe something better will come out next week.

G.I Joe is "the BEST movie ever!!"

... According to Heidi Montag. LOL!



Yes, now that SHE'S saying it, I'm definitely making a run for the theater!

I suppose you can argue that this sheds some light on the reasons why Paramount has been so coy about allowing any critics to review the movie prior to the opening, because when you have people like Heidi "I found Jesus in the Jungle!" Montag saying it's "the BEST movie ever!!" it can't be a good sign.

Twitter got DOS'd!! OH NOES!!!

Why, oh why?! LOL! I know this sounds pathetic, but I really want to check my Twitter and it makes me really frustrated that I can't. It's stupid, but I guess it has become a big necessity to me. I use my twitter mostly to stay in touch with my friends and my family, just like everyone else, really, but still, even though I don't check it all that often, just knowing that it's not working is making me feel really pissed off.

Mind you, this happens to me with everything, not just Twitter or internet sites. Whenever my internet connection decides to die on me, or my cell phone, or my TV, or anything, really, I get angry and frustrated. I just like to know that the things that I have are working, and it gets to me when they don't, even if I'm not really using them. I know, it's kind of sad, but that's just the way I am.

Anyway, if you want to know more about Twitter's current status, you can go to http://status.twitter.com/

P.S: Also, apparently Facebook isn't working all too well either. Superb...

EDIT: Okay, now it's kind of working again. But it's not fully functional yet.

76-year-old man tased by policemen for recklessly driving a tractor...?

GLENROCK, Wyoming - A 76-year-old U.S. man shot with a Taser by police while driving an antique tractor in a small-town parade says it hurt but he's OK.

Retired truck driver Bud Grose of Glenrock told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he has a heart condition but didn't require any medical attention.

Investigators say police in Glenrock used a Taser on the man after he disobeyed orders. They say the tractor may have hit a car.

Two officers were placed on paid leave and state agents are investigating, but the police chief says it doesn't appear any policies were violated.

Grose wouldn't discuss specifics of the incident until he speaks to his attorney.

I'm kind of torn on this one. It's kind of hard to tell who's to blame for what happened here because, on the one hand you have these officers trying to prevent a potential accident from occurring at this parade thing; but then, on the other hand you have a 76-year-old man! I think anyone with a bit of sanity will agree that tasing old people is not a good idea since, you know, there's a good chance they might just die on you.

But then again, that also begs the question of why a 76-year-old man was allowed to drive this tractor in the first place. Old people and vehicles don't really go hand in hand, even if it's an experienced truck driver like this guy. It's just logical to assume that their reflexes and their attention span won't be the same as they were when they were younger. Furthermore, most people know that operating any kind of motor vehicle is regarded as an activity that entails a certain amount of perilousness, so one could argue that it's almost like carrying a gun.

So I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't trust someone so old with a gun, or a vehicle, but then, I wouldn't go as far as tasing them over it.

Link to the article here.

Work Rant!

So today I got pretty close to turning unemployed. I mentioned this in a previous entry, but I feel like it should be said once more: at the moment I don't perceive my job as anything other than a means for me to pay my bills and you know, afford my life in general on my own, without having to resort to other sources of money like, oh say, my parents. And that's fine to me. I don't really feel any kind of compromise or attachment to my work. And I'm not stupid, I know that my employers expect me to be all "Yay! I love my job!", and I do put up a pretty good front, but today was just one of those days that almost had be go "Fuck this shit!" and walk out.

Luckily, I have enough self-restraint not to let my impulses get the best of me; but still, the fact remains that today I felt really exploited at my job. They basically had me working 'till just about an hour ago, because there was this big thing that needed to be done and I had to be there in order for it to be carried about, and to me that sounds totally bullshitty because, c'mon, am I really that indispensable?

There isn't much responsibility involved in my position. There are some things that I have to do and that I'm good at that are the reason why I have the job that I have, but they're all stuff that can be done, and that is done within the regular nine-to-five schedule. What they had me do today not only forced me to stay overtime, but it is also not at all one of my responsibilities. It is not something that I have to take care of! It isn't even something that I know much of, for crying out loud! That being said, it was a pretty simple thing, but it was repetitive and tiresome, and it's something that anyone else could have done, so right now I feel like this got dumped on me because whoever got this assignment didn't really want to do it.

Now, I'm not going to quit my job over this, even though I did get pretty close to just walking out, but no. I'm just going to take a deep breath, shake this feeling of annoyance off and go back to work tomorrow, because, again, I'm just doing this right now because I need the money; this isn't my career choice, it's just a source of income. And I'll do it hoping that what happened today will just be an isolated occurrence that isn't bound to repeat itself.

If it does, however, I'll quit. It's not even that they're not paying me enough to do that shit. It's simply that they're not paying me to do that shit!

Unemployed Graduate Sues College

NEW YORK (AFP) - A US student who recently graduated from New York's Monroe College said Monday she had filed a complaint with the school accusing it of being responsible for her inability to find work.

Trina Thompson, 27, who graduated with a degree in information technology in April at the school in northern Manhattan's Bronx district, asked the state supreme court to award her 70,000 dollars to reimburse the tuition costs.

The former student said she had been unable to find employment to support herself since graduation.

"I need full-time job placement and that's what they said they were going to help me with and they didn't," Thompson told NY1 television.

"The IT career counselor sent me about three emails saying 'Oh, I have this job opening, you should apply for it.' That's it."

A Monroe College spokesman said the lawsuit was "completely without merit."

Honestly? That's one giant act of desperation right there. Seriously, it's pretty pathetic. I've heard of people who blame their financial troubles on W, on Obama, on illegal immigrants, on the War on Terror, on Wallstreet, on the Banks, even on Europe and Asia. But this has got to be the first time for me that I find a person with the nerve to blame their situation on their education, and the institution that provided it for them.

To me it feels very ungrateful, because first of all, your ability to find a job depends solely on yourself, degree or no degree. And second, her school has absolutely no obligation whatsoever with her after graduation (yet, they were still trying to help her somehow, which is nice, really, and all they got was a slap in the face).

Seriously. Instead of wasting time filing lawsuits she should be filling résumés. This girl needs a reality check.

You can find the original article here.

Hilarious PSA's

I just found this on another site, and I had to put here. It's just too funny! lol! Be sure to watch it.

Obama's 'Kenyan Birth Certificate'

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So, people all over the internet are fretting over this right now, and, truth be told, if I were a complete n00b without a single shred of knowledge of photoshop I'd probably be fretting as well... well, actually, no. Because, even if I didn't know my way around image editing software like I do, I'd still be able to notice with fair ease that the image was most definitely tampered with.

I have to wonder who made this, because I just can't imagine any of the crazy right-wing nutjobs nowadays referred to as 'Birthers' making the conscious decision to open their Photoshop and alter a picture of Obama's birth certificate; then again, the work is shitty as most of anyone can tell, so yeah, I'd be willing to concede that they're just that desperate to 'prove' that they're right and that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.

Either way, if this did come from some crazy Birther, then this is just a whole new level of low, proving yet again that the right wing should never be allowed in power again as long as the U.S. has some sanity. But right now, I'm more inclined to believe that this may be some type of internet troll, in which case, all I can say is "Well done, sir!"

Work to live or live to work?

I know today's entry is kind of a late one, but I was busy all day doing stuff, and no, it wasn't work-related stuff, I was simply hanging out with a few acquaintances I hadn't seen or heard from in a while, as well as with my parents. In fact, the only reason why I'm home right now is to take a shower and change into something more fitting for the nightly atmosphere that I'll be diving into with the aforementioned friends in about an hour. If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't have been able to write a blog today and my thus far perfect record of writing at least an entry a day would've been ruined, so yeah... random, much? I don't really know how I got here, as this isn't really what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about comes from something that happened just a few minutes ago. I was driving home, just a few moments away from my doorstep, when I got a call from one of my oldest friends. I haven't seen him in a while due to our hectic schedules, so he wanted to know if I could spare some time to hang out with him sometime this week. My response, of course, was to tell him that we should hang out now, seeing as I was bound to meet all the guys tonight. I had expected him to say yes, buy as it turns out, today, Saturday, he was working, and he's still working; his shift won't be over 'till around midnight, at which time he will take an hour-long drive to get to his home, to sleep for around five to six hours, get up, shower, dress and head back out to work half a shift tomorrow morning.

When he told me that, I asked him right away if he was short of money (I know it's a bit rude, but that's the way me and my friends are with each other), but again, while expecting confirmation I was sorely disappointed. It's not an extra shift, it's just the way his work... well, works.

Obviously he gets a couple days off during the week and whatnot, but still, this got me thinking. I wouldn't take a job, no matter how good the pay may be, that precluded me from having some time to hang out with my friends and family every once in a while. Because the point of having a job, at least from my perspective, at this point in life, shouldn't be regarded as nothing more than a means to an end, a way to get by. If you want to have a career, that's fine, but you have to allow yourself some time to just live. For most people that's college, but my friend chose not to go to college, instead getting straight into working, and I feel like he's missing out on some things.

The age that we're in right now -- our early 20's -- is supposed to be a time of self-discovery. And I know it sounds a bit corny, but I really do believe that. This is the time when we learn who he are and what we want to become, and I feel that by constraining yourself with tight work schedules and routine, you risk stifling that process, and while you might not think much of it right now, ten or fifteen years down the line there's a very good chance you'll wake up one morning and realize that the life that you have is not the one you wanted, and then, it might be a bit too late to do something about it, and you're going to have to live with that.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to have that kind of regret. So instead of living to work like my friend seems to be doing, I rather see what life is like, and work is just a small part of the equation. There'll be time to chain myself to a career three or four years from now, but at the moment, I just want to work to live.

Reasons

Today has been kind of a slow day to me. Nothing exciting has happened, so I don't really have much to write about, but I still decided I had to do this, even if I didn't really feel like it, basically because when I started this blog a few days ago I promised myself that I would update it once a day. Why, you ask? Because I feel like I have to.

Right now I don't really have anything that is constant in my life. There have been several things that I've had to let go of over the past several months, some of which were really important to me and it pained me to leave them behind, and others that were more noxious to my life in general than anything else, and that were, in fact, the main drive behind walking away from the things that I did. My friends and family I can't really rely on because they have their own lives and their own concerns to deal with. Plus, it kind of goes against what I'm trying to do, which is basically to find my own footing in this world, just like most, if not all of you are doing.

Some people might argue that work can be considered a constant, but I don't really see it that way, because to me, at the moment, work is merely a means to an end. There's really nothing more to it. There's no flavor, no satisfaction to be had from that aspect of my life right now, and I'm really fine with that, because, well, it's just what I do to pay the rent and that's it.

So that leaves me with this.

So why do I do it? First of all, because it's a good way to vent. Pouring your thoughts and ideas into your keyboard instead of keeping them locked up inside your brain is actually very liberating and in a sense exciting, because, like anyone who writes a blog, or a book, or a newspaper/magazine column, I just want people to read what I write. Whether they like it or hate it is up to them; the important part is that it's there for the world to see, and that it is generating a reaction. Positive, Negative, Indifferent. Who cares? What matters is that it's happening.

Second reason why I'm doing this, because it's a good exercise. Dedicating myself to writing someday is an idea that I've been toying with for a long time, both consciously and unconsciously. Now, it'd be pretentious of me to consider myself a perfect writer; i still have much to learn, much to try, and much to live before I can even indulge myself in that notion. So, as a first step in that direction, I decided to start this blog, because no matter how bad I may be at this, if I keep this constantly, eventually my writing is bound to improve, if only a little, and that prospect is good enough for me.

And last, but not least, I'm doing this because, like I said before, I'm in need of something that is constant. Something that doesn't change no matter how strange things may get in my daily life. And this is it.

So do you think any of these is a good enough reason to write a blog?

Stolen' car found 2 years later accidentally parked in neighbour's garage

BERLIN - An Audi sedan written off by an elderly German woman as stolen two years ago has resurfaced - in her neighbour's garage beneath a thick layer of dust.

Police said Thursday the 82-year-old from the northern city of Hildesheim took the car in for repairs two years ago and had the mechanics drive it back to her house and park it in her garage.

She got the keys and papers from her mailbox, but when she went to get the car it was nowhere to be found. So she reported it stolen.

Fast forward to Wednesday when her neighbour went to clean up his unused garage so it could be rented. He found the car under "a centimetre-deep coating of dust."

It didn't take police long to piece together that the mechanics had parked it in the wrong garage.

LOL! I can't imagine the face of the guy when he found the car, or the policemen when they determined that it had just been misplaced for TWO YEARS! How the hell is that even possible? How can you go two years without knowing that your neighbor's car is parked inside your garage?

Original article found here.

Crying Lightning...

One of my favorite bands in the world (in fact, my favorite band at the moment) is a little group from the UK called Arctic Monkeys. If you live in the U.S. or Canada is probably that you haven't heard about them before, but if you live pretty much anywhere in Europe and in certain parts of Asia and Australia, you're most likely well-acquainted with their music.

I've been listening to their music for about three years now, and not once have I found a song or video of theirs that I dislike. I really, really like their work, and one of the main reasons why I do, is because it's very much in your face, simple, and free of any pretensions. And of course, it doesn't hurt that Alex Turner is a lyrical genius. Now, they're about to release a new album in less than a month; however, for some reason, something tells me that this one isn't going to be as good as the previous two.

I've only heard three songs from the album so far, two of which I genuinely liked, and one that I couldn't really get into that much. But even with the songs I did like, I felt a certain air of, I don't know, I guess you could call it "unnecessary artsy-fartsiness" that very much clashes with the way their sound was in their previous records. I was willing to let it go because I got the same feeling from Alex Turner's last year's side-project, The Last Shadow Puppets, which turned out to be actually really good, but then I saw the video for Arctic Monkeys' first single of their new album.

The song is called "Crying Lightning" and I do like it, but from the video I got the same sensation that I got from the song at first. And I have to wonder if this is going to set the tone for the rest of the album, because if it does, then it's going to take a bit of time to get used to, if I ever do.

I understand that bands need to reinvent themselves and try new things all the time if they wish to stay relevant, but is it straying so far away from what made them good in the first place a good idea? Holding on to some of that would be better in my opinion.

Anyway, I leave you with the aforementioned video. Watch it and decide on your own:

Man charged with having sex with horse... twice?!

I've seen and heard a lot of weird stuff in my life, and being so prone to spending time online has exposed me to some freaky things (2 girls 1 cup, anyone?), so it should come as no surprise that I'd stumble upon something like this while visiting one of the many sites I frequent...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal's owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.

Yeah, that's pretty average considering the kind of sick, twisted material that can be found scattered throughout the web. Seriously, it's just like "Okay, so this guy's a freak... Hhmmm, I'm kind of hungry, I think I'll have a sandwich now", because it's very easy to lose one's sense of shock when one's been exposed to so many shocking things over the years. What got to me about it was not the fact this due was doing a horse, but rather, this...

But this wasn't the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state's sex offender list.

I'd be willing to concede that some people... strange people, feel sexually aroused by horses, and even that some of them will feel inclined to act on such... urges? What I cannot grasp is what in the name of all that is sane would possess a person to go after the same horse twice, after being caught and sentenced for it just a year before? You have to be really stupid to go after the same horse, because after having such a bizarre experience, the horse's owner has to have learned a thing or two about keeping his or her animals safe. And that's exactly what happened.

Now the dude's little misadventure is caught on tape and he's most likely facing jail time (because, by the way, the first time he just got probation. lol!). Why couldn't he just go after another horse? What's so special about this particular one that he had to risk going to jail?

Love...? God, I hope not.

And to finish, another quote from the article that made me laugh:

"I couldn't believe that there were two guys going around doing this to the same horse."

You can find the full article here.

Old School Gaming

So, I've been spending a lot of time lately playing WCIII. I know, it's not exactly "old school" considering it only has like, what, nine years? But, you know what? Game years are like dog years, so in truth it's actually kind of old now. Still, even though I've had this game pretty much since it came out (I can't believe the CD's still working. :|), and I've played it more times that I'm capable of counting, let alone remembering, I still find it incredibly entertaining. My friends, of course (those that do the game thing anyway), like to give me a hard time over it, claiming that WoW, the MMO successor of WCIII , is much better and more enjoyable.

Now, I have played WoW. I even went as far as buying the game, and the first expansion a couple of years back, and, even though I did find it amusing for a while, like with many things in my life, the novelty eventually wore off, I got bored, and couldn't be bothered to keep paying the monthly fees. Whereas WCIII's still there, keeping me going whenever I have nothing better to do.

The truth is that ever since I first played WoW, even when I did it the first time and it was "OMG SO AWESOME!", I did find it a bit repetitive. Basically it's your character running around, killing things, and picking things up, with the occasional, albeit rare, killing of the character itself. The dynamic may vary throughout the game, and the context in which it unfolds is bound to change, but the pattern always stays the same, and unless you're really small-minded it's not hard to notice. In WCIII at least you get to build stuff, and command your own army instead of playing with just the one character, and the game itself was much richer in terms of lore than it's successor (and that's one thing that Blizzard hasn't handled very well -- killing Illidan? WTF?!). But my friends, of course, still think that I'm just old-fashioned and weird. Oh well...

And WCIII is not the only old game that I love. I've played every single Final Fantasy game that has come out, from the original NES one to the latest FFXII for the PS2 and it's spin-offs for the NDS and the PSP. Not all of them were good (FFTA anyone?), not all of them were bad, but there is one that stuck with me, and that I still play from time to time, and regard as the best of all Final Fantasy games so far. And no, it's not FFVII, I don't have a mancrush on Sephiroth or Cloud. It's VI.

I love, love, LOVE FFVI. It's one of the most incredible games I've played in my life. It has an incredible plot with lots of lore in it, each and every one of its characters is well-rounded and endearing, and its villain, Kefka, is most likely one of the most awesome video game villains of all time. But the most incredible thing about it is that, no, this does not come with shiny 3D graphics or awesome cinematic sequences, or mind-blowing character maneuverability. It's just a SNES game. And it's because it's a SNES game that it's so great, because there's no smoke and mirrors, no flashiness, no nothing that will distract you from the game itself. And if you think that's not good enough in today's world, well, let me tell you, today's world is not what it used to be.

So yeah, my friends call me old-fashioned because I play old games, but that's okay, because these old games that I play will probably still be with me by the time MMOs have become a thing of the past.

Smoking is bad for you. Smoke pot instead...? What...?

So, let me start this blog by stating that I'm a smoker. I know, I know, it's not exactly the healthiest of habits, and I'm most definitely shortening my lifespan every time I do it, and perhaps even affecting a few of the people around me by doing it -- mind you, I don't smoke around people when I know they'll be made to feel uncomfortable in any way by me doing it or when they so manifest it to me.

I try not to smoke too much, but some times I get a little carried away with the pack. Normally I smoke with disparity. If I buy a pack I'll smoke around three to five cigarettes from said pack daily until I'm out, but then it normally takes me around three to five days to even think about buying a new pack. That, however, goes out the window when I'm with friends.

When I'm with friends I can easily go through an entire pack in the span of a couple of hours, and when I do, I'll immediately proceed to buy a new one. Now, not only is this habit damaging to my health, but it is also expensive, and I'm more than well aware of what, and that's the main reason why I'm trying to keep it under control. That being said, though, I don't think, or rather, I don't feel as though I should quit entirely. I kind of like smoking. It relaxes me most of the time and keeps me from getting too stressed out about things that most likely don't really matter as much as I may believe. So what I'm trying to do is to rely more on getting a single cigarette to satisfy my cravings instead of buying an entire pack. It really does help, even though it's a bit of a nuisance having to go buy a cigarette every time I want one instead of just picking it out from the pack. But having to do that is what's helping me reduce my daily nicotine intake, and who knows? Maybe it can even help quit altogether eventually. But right now that's not what's on my mind.

What's on my mind right now, is that I get a lot of heat from friends and family, and even people that I'm not well-acquainted with, because I smoke. I can't really say much because what they say is mostly true, no matter how annoying I may find it at the time. However, lately I've been getting from some people that smoking pot is safer than smoking regular tobacco cigs, and that, should it be legalized, it would be a nice alternative to nicotine. Now, a small clarification: I don't do drugs, and I don't find the idea enticing in any way. I draw the line at smoking and social drinking. So even if their claims were true and the time did come when pot is legal, I wouldn't do it.

However, the truth remains that a single joint usually contains as much amonia as an entire pack of cigarettes. So much for healthy. So basically, if I ever decided to smart smoking pot, each and every singly time I did it would be the equivalent of a night out with my friends. Superb! Of course, there are other ways of consumption of cannabis that aren't as damaging, but as everyone knows, smoking is the most generally preferred and if it was ever commercialized, most likely it would be as an alternative to a tobacco cigarette. Either way, I don't wanna try it. The point is that people should really get their facts straight before making comments like "Smoking is bad for you. Try pot instead", because, seriously, to me it seems like they're talking out of their derrières.

So yeah, smoking is bad for me, but I'll take regular tobacco over cannabis every day.

And now, ladies and gentlemen...

I wonder if anyone will ever get to read this. I wonder if anyone will stumble upon this blog and say "Hhhmmm... there goes another douche-y guy without a life trying to make himself feel important on the internet". Oh well. Can't say I haven't found myself on that particular end of the spectrum more than once, and for that very reason doing this right now makes me feel a bit... hypocritical... yeah... sigh.

But you know what? Sometimes, you just have to say "Shove it!". Today I decided that I was gonna give this a chance. Today I decided that I'm gonna take my brain and barf all of its contents for the entire world to see. Perhaps I'll get a few laughs, or perhaps (and most likely) I'll get a few stares and frowns and maybe even a trollish comment or two. And maybe, just maybe (a really big maybe) I'll get one of you to go "Wow, this guy is actually interesting!". I know, that's probably just a glorified wet dream, but hey! A guy is allowed to have some aspirations, no matter how sad and pathetic they may seem...

Yeah... This is starting to sound kind of self-deprecating, so I'm gonna stop doing that. Pity-partying is not funny or enticing in any way, neither for you nor myself. Don't you hate it when people do that? Like "oh yeah, poor me, my life sucks". Because, well, if you have time to blindly spend time sitting in front of a computer screen, chances are you're better off than many, many people, like, for instance, famish kids in the middle of Africa or any one among the millions of people that have caught the Swine Flu (or AH1N1, as some politicians and the pork industry wants us to call it. LOL! Good luck with that!) . So yeah, when you think your life sucks, remind yourself of all the people out there than don't even have resources, time, or even the energy to allow themselves to imagine what it would be like to be typing words for a blog, or reading said blog, as opposed to wondering how the hell are they going to eat tonight, or tomorrow, or the day after that.

Remember, life doesn't suck as much as you think it does. You just don't know that yet because there's still much of the world that's left for you to see.

Soooo... if you're reading this and got to this part, you're probably asking yourself why in hell do I ramble so much because I went from self-deprecating behavior to a pandemic to third-world problems. Well... I don't know. Take it or leave it (You'll probably leave it...). If you do decide to stick around, however, know that this is probably how it's going to be. Why? Because that's how I am. I have the attention span of a fly, and... I kind of like that. Keeps me from getting bored, and if you can appreciate that, it might keep you from getting bored too.

So... I think that's it for now. Writing this was fun! Kind of therapeutic. So I'll try to stick to it. Wish me luck (or not - I'll make my own luck! - movie quote FTW...? No...? Okay....).