According to this article on ABC.com, French men would like to take a crack at pregnancy. There is nothing I can add to that statement.
Category Archives: Popular Culture
This is the Morning Report…
Good morning! I had a great and lazy weekend. I hope that all of your were as lucky. Although I sat on the couch all day Saturday I did manage to catch up on (and even finish) some reading.
I finished Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner. What a great book. It delivered what it promised by causing me to look at the world, experts, and conventional wisdom with a skeptical look and a wink. Go get this book.
I began reading David McCullough’s 1776 on Sunday. Hey, my dad’s a history teacher. Back off!
This morning (6/13) I picked up a copy a CD with my morning coffee. Starbuck’s music partner Hear Music has a excusive deal to sell Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill Acoustic: 10th Anniversary Edition until July 26th. The album sounds great. It is the decaf Alanis for you morning commute.
For those about to “Slurp”
Living in this small southern state is ok.
We have a Best Buy and a Barnes and Noble. We have 2 (count ’em 2) Starbucks. We have a Moe’s. We have a couple of malls. We have a great park. We even have a good movie theatre.
The one thing I miss about Dallas is… a 7-Eleven. I loved having that orange convenience store right down the block from where I lived. If it was 104 degrees in the shade there was a nice Slurpee in my hand. Tired after a long day at work? Have a Big Gulp. Brrrr… It’s cold. I think I’ll have a cup of joe. The possibilities for refreshment were endless. Now it seems that Apple and the Slurpee are combining their powers to bring people music with their beverage (a la Pepsi Co).
Apple and 7-Eleven have kicked off a new promotion to give away 8 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. According to the official rules, specially-marked 32 oz. Slurpee fountain cups at participating 7-Eleven locations will have a 12-digit alphanumeric code redeemable for one free song from the iTunes Music Store. It appears every cup is a winner.
So, if anybody out there in bloggdom needs to quench their thirst with a great big Slurpee and doesn’t have iTunes, drop me an email and I’ll tell you where you can send your winning tickets. Enjoy your summer everyone!
The Variables Rock
Coldplay‘s latest album, X&Y, is a classic. It starts with an awesome track entitled, “Square One,” and resolves exceptionally with “Twisted Logic.” My favorite tracks (“Fix You,” “Swallowed By the Sea,” “Talk”) will no doubt go down in Coldplay history as defining moments. I cannot wait until September when the wife and I will celebrate our 4th anniversary with thousands of our closest friends listening to these songs live. A great band and a great album.
Simpsons Movie Not Unpossible
Nada and Compare
I have been absolutely worthless since my wife left to visit her family. Not as worthless as a friend I had in college but still I feel lazy. This friend was the worst (or best depending on your perspective). His wife left for a summer long internship in another state. He went to Wal-Mart and purchased a couple of power strips and extension chords. When he returned to his apartment he plugged his refrigerator, microwave, an fan and the TV into the power strips and plugged the extension chord in the community outlet in the hallway of the apartment complex. He then turned the power off in his apartment to avoid paying for electricity while his wife was gone. I would try that but I think my neighbors would notice my bright orange extension chord plugged into their back porch.
I haven’t completely let the house go to pot but it is a far cry from being acceptable to her. Tonight I’m going to have to clean hardcore!
I feel like I have not accomplished anything this week even though I have done a lot. I am teaching a class next school year entitled “Leadership in Action”. I am so excited and have been working very hard on making it a great class. This week I laid out a basic outline for the year and I detailed the first 2-3 weeks. I have done a lot of work on it. I’ll share more on it later.
On the pop culture front, I am eagerly anticipating the new Coldplay album X&Y. I read on the CNN ticker last night that it was leaked on the internet yesterday. I just checked iTunes and they still have it listed as pre-order. I guess I can wait until Tuesday. I am excited also because of all the U2/Coldplay comparisons. Although I think that they are two completely different bands I still get excited when I read things like this:
Coldplay’s third opus takes on the reigning champ, U2, and doesn’t so much dismantle Atomic Bomb as blast right through it, like a mile-wide meteor, hurteling across the heavens toward the Beatles themselves.
Whoa! That was written by Bud Scoppa in the June/July issue of Paste Magazine. For my money, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is my favorite album of the past 12 months. I know I’m biased but so what! It is a near perfect album.
If Martin and Co. can “blast” through that album my ears say, “Bring it on!!!”
Podcasting
2 or 3 months ago I picked up an issue of Wired because there was a great article on podcasting. For those who don’t know, podcasting, in a nut shell, is independent radio in the form of a .mp3. For me, this new social phenom could have endless possibilities. I could record my classes and post them on my site. I could record my student speakers and email their message to them and their parents. I could record meetings and archive them. Exciting possibilities. I have been messing with Audacity, a user-friendly podcasting software. Maybe by the end of next month I will add a podcasting feature here. What do you think?
What was the #1 song on your brithday?
Spielberg Wept. (Wookie 11:35)
I was already eagerly anticipating the opening of “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” next week and now I’m even more intrigued. Apparently Steven Spielberg has been overcome. He burst into tears at the screening he was a part of last week. Spielberg should know that Jedi are supposed to keep a tight reign on their emotions but I guess he forgot. I don’t expect a unbalance in my force to cause the old water works to kick on during the movie but we shall have to see.
UPDATE: I purchased my tickets for the midnight showing last night. I’ll be going with a handful of my students. A couple of them said that they will be dressing up. Oh brother!
Your Inner Child Lives On
Awesome!!! The Complete Calvin and Hobbes will be released in October.