Annoying, But They Know Old Greg

I have to admit something. As annoying as it is when the summer school kids don't do their work and set their sights on annoying me and Jen (the other teacher)? They're pretty damn entertaining.

Today, for example, Shawn was admonishing his neighbor Danny for not only doing badly in class, but also for not knowing who Old Greg was. Something my biffle Brian would be pretty proud of.

Now if only they could pass high school.

"Maybe You're A Window Licker"

Ugh, summer school essays.

So the kid two down from me is having issues deciding what senses to talk about for his essay. He has to describe the smell of something ("I smelled his finger! Oh!") in traffic, and the following conversation ensued:

Ms. Short: Maybe you smell the burning gas.
John: It's Delaware, it always smells like burning gas.
Ms. Short: Well, yeah, but you're at an intersection in traffic, so you might smell that. And it doesn't just say "smell," you can use your other senses like taste.
John: I taste the window! Heh heh!
Ms. Short: I guess. Maybe you're a window licker. I don't know.

Only Twitter Can Prevent Forest Fires

Sorry, Smokey, but you might be out of a job.

Sort of like how California has those late summer/early fall wildfires, Australia is in the midst of some crazy brush fires and people's homes are being engulfed. Now here in the US, the National Weather Service will alert people about horrible weather via TV or radio with that crazy annoying testing beeping that they always test but never seems to get used.

Except for that one time I was down the beach and there was a Tornado Watch, or when we were in Ithaca and it was snowing wicked hard before we all went home for Christmas.

Anyway, Australia is deciding against just using traditional National Weather Systems and has now turned to...Twitter. And Facebook.

So stop LOLing and check your homepage to make sure @Australia isn't experiencing some fires near you.

Good News, My Caffeine Addicts!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist the picture)

In my daily BBC Skim, I found this little nugget. And since I'm surrounded by coffee drinkers (Dad?) most of the time, I thought I'd share. Apparently, coffee turns your teeth yellow but may reverse Alzheimer's.

"The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease.

Previous research has also suggested a protective effect from caffeine.

But British experts said the Journal of Alzheimer's disease study did not
mean that dementia patients should start using caffeine supplements. "

Now the bad news here is that the mice who just drank water did not do as well as their hopped-up counterparts.

Which means if I have Alzheimer's later in life, I'm absolutely screwed.

Boy Scout Entertainment

As you may/may not know, I'm heading north of the border in a few weeks (not as fun as South of The Border, but whatever) to Corolla in the Outer Banks. Laura, Corinne, Sarah, Mom, and Dad and I are heading down on the 18th, and we found out that the Outer Banks, well...

...there's not much town there. There's an aviation museum (for the Wright Brothers), the beach, restaurants, more beach, golf, and more beach.

So I've decided (with the help of Matt Biddle) to hold a beach photo scavenger hunt. You try to find as many of the things listed on or around the beach or town you're staying in, take pictures of them, and then upload them to Facebook.

I just need ideas to take pictures of on the beach.

Dear God, They're Breeding

Morgan Pepper, if you're reading this, please sit down.

Just found out that Ugly Jonas (can't remember his name, it's the oldest one) just got engaged to his girlfriend. I question this decision on a few grounds.

First of all, Ugly, you're making a good portion of the psychologically underdeveloped and/or disturbed female tween population that inexplicably find you "dreamy" and "hot." Morgan Pepper being one of them.

Second of all, you're what, 22ish? I mean, you're old enough to drive, drink, and vote, but I would personally wait a little bit before you got married. I know the purity ring is starting to burn and you want it NOW, but really, do you want to get married at 22 when you have (screwed up) groupies throwing themselves at you? You could totally have a fling with Demi Lovato or whatever the other one's name is right now! I would suggest Miley to slut it up, but she's otherwise occupied with your younger (cuter) brother.

Third, I take pity on your fiancee. You've been dressing like an ugly version of JC Chasez, and it's not working for you (JC? You can dress as dandy as you want, because you're the most eloquent judge on America's Best Dance Crew, and I love you for that and your white boy bowties). You have a voice higher than my sister Corinne and more annoying than Aaron Carter (which...wow). I have heavy suspicions that you are an undercover brother. I give you 5 years before we find you making out in Les Deux with Lance Bass.

Don't give them water after midnight, they're breeding already.

SNL and Politics: A Match Made in Minnesota

We've probably all seen Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, Jason Sudeikis as Joe Biden, Darrell Hammond as John McCain, and Fred Armisen as Barack Obama.

And if you haven't, you totally should go YouTube.

But according to the BBC today (yes, I troll it daily, I like staying informed), the courts have finally decided that Al Franken is the new junior senator from Minnesota.

Go Al!

I also discovered that the word "Filibuster" comes from the Dutch word for "pirate." Go figure.