GREAT MIXTAPE FROM A GREAT WHITE RAPPER!!!

After literally 3 full weeks of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis continually pushing back the release of this mixtape, as of an hour ago it is officially out! This mixtape has had a lot of hype to live up to for those who have every heard his music and it does a pretty good job of living up to it. Macklemore is the rapper, Ryan Lewis is the producer, and together they are a dynamic duo. Macklemore is almost more of a spoken poet on this mixtape and his lyrics are typically exceptional and it makes for great songs.

The album is only 7 songs (3 of which leaked early) so it’s really too much new music but its great free new music. The hit single off the mixtape is “Otherside” which is a tribute to Chad Butler, better known as Pimp C, who died off an overdose of cough syrup and a preexisting sleep apnea condition. The song addresses the current cough syrup epidemic thanks to rap role models such as Lil Wayne or are promoting it. It is a very well done song, and a cover to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Other great songs off the mixtape are pre-released “Irish Celebration” which is a pretty upbeat song and a fun song. “The End” is a slower more serious song with a rap over a piano beat, pretty well done, and it builds up throughout even bringing in some brass instruments. “Life in Cinema” is another good new track off the mixtape, pretty catchy. “Crew Cuts” was the third pre-released single and is one of my least favorite songs on the album probably. “Kings” is a very hit or miss song I guess and is more of a rock slash alternative rap song and is very different than the other 6 tracks. Overall, this is an excellent free mixtape and you definitely need to keep an eye out for Macklemore in the future.

Overall:     8   /   10   MUST HAVE FREE MUSIC FROM A WHITE RAPPER!!!

Best Songs: “Otherside” “Irish Celebration” “Life in Cinema”

Similar Artists: Nyle, 6th Sense, Sam Adams, Chris Webby

One Down Fall: They are not the most catchy songs

FREE DOWNLOAD: http://www.myspace.com/macklemore (just click the link up top that says download)

Otherside

Irish Celebration

So, I’ve been coughing for four days.  On day #3 my wonderful husband located and purchased the famously horrible Canadian cough syrup, Buckley’s.  It’s been at least 6 years since I’ve tasted that putrid concoction.  Man, is that creamy white liquid potent.  It’s a cross between drinking Pinesol and Vick’s vapor rub.  It certainly cleans you out.  But sadly, I’m still coughing.  Enough about me.

Then new ICBF waitlist for adopted children just came out!  It is the Colombian government’s official list of the ages of those kids who went to their forever homes.  It does my heart good to see movement and know those 10+ kids will be home for Christmas.  However, it is truly sad how long these families have waited.  The shortest was 4 months.  That’s just a plain fluke.  Most were between 40 and 52 months.  And that is from the time of their accepted referral.  So add on all of their paperwork, homestudy and fingerprint time!  Wow!  We are at 23 months currently. For the last 5 and 6 year olds that went home, the families waited 12 and 30 months.  So we should be sooner, rather than later.  Whatever that means.  I’m hopeful.

Last night we did the family thing and put up the Christmas tree together while Christmas music serenaded us LOUDLY.  I had not been out of the house for three days and was donning my pink fuzzy jammies and wild bed-head, so I made many threats to those who insisted on videotaping the occasion.  I know they got me when I wasn’t looking… and they’ll pay for it.  Not that I’m into retaliation, but a moms gotta do what a moms gotta do.  We put up the slender Jenny Craig tree in the living room with all the blue and silver ornaments, ribbon, lights and beads.  It’s quick and easy, doesn’t take up much room and looks festive through the front window. 

As I was digging through the ornament box looking for white, blue or silver ornaments, I vaguely remember leaving 60% of the ornaments in the box last year… the red ones… brown ones… green ones.  So, I made an official decision, followed by an announcement that we would have two trees this year.  A fake, skinny blue and silver Jenny Craig tree in the living room and a real, fresh, full pine tree grown in Oregon with all the other colored ornaments in the family room.  My relations were elated.  They begged to head off to Home Depot RIGHT NOW!   Alas, it was too late.  And they don’t have vivid memories of dead pine needles in the shag carpet…. I know the value of waiting until Dec. 19th to buy the real tree!  Freshness is where it’s at, baby.  Plus Rick and I are going away for 5 days, and who would water the tree???

There is much more decorating to be done.  The opened boxes are all over the downstairs staring at me.  But I coughed too much and needed a nap.  They can wait until tomorrow.

i step into the room… bottle in one hand and glass of juice in theo ther… umdress upto my boxers and sit on the bed.. the door is locked, the winows are shut… should i turnthe fan on? later…try to open bottle… having trouble with lid… use my teeth… OwwWhh…a little bit lands on my tongue… bittersweet… mmh…start with half a bottle and see how it goes… ready? set… go.

i finally got my hands on it, not Robitussin DM but something similar… to my surprise, a very pleasant surprise, Ascodex has Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide in it… and that’s pretty much what I was looking for… you don’t need a prescription if you buy it from a roadside pharmacy, but supermakets will ask… i forgot to ask if they had Robitussin, i should remember to ask next time… i could compare trips… mmh… i can’t wait to get home and have it… ‘after meals’… i’ve heard it’s a good idea to have some juice with it… wonder what’s in the fridge… i’m holding the box like it were my child… sweet liberation in a bottle… freedom, here i come.

Cough Medicine containing DXM can be addictive.

While many parents are learning about the dangers of prescription drug abuse, one over-the-counter medication, used for treating coughs, is rapidly becoming a favorite in middle school and high school for getting high.

Ever find any empty bottles of cough syrup in your teen’s room?

What about empty blister packs of Coricidin® or Triaminic®?

The Atlanta Recovery Center Drug Rehab in Georgia warns that this is a clear indication that your teen is “robotripping‘.

What in the world is ‘robotripping“?

“Robotripping” is drinking a bottle of cough syrup at once or popping hands full of cough suppressant pills. Why on earth would they do that? Because they get high.

Cough medicine- to get high? Yes. High. Some temporarily lose their ability to walk. Some have written stories on the Internet: “I felt my soul being ripped from my body,” and, “Are you a vampire? No, I just met God.”

More than 125 commercial cough remedies in the United States contain the synthetic drug dextromethorphan (DXM). This drug is similar to morphine, and when used as directed, can effectively help one with a cold. But abused, as 1 in 10 teens admit to doing, is a central nervous system depressant.

For the full story http://news.wooeb.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=142004&ret

Get the hole truth about the ABCs:

Get the hole truth about the ABCs:

Get the hole truth about the ABCs:

This is a story about cough syrup. Well, actually, it’s a story about cough syrup in Norway.

We Americans sometimes are not all that interested in stories that take place in other parts of the world, but this is one story that we all should hear. It’s got everything: Mystery, doctors in ORs struggling to save patients teetering on the edge of annihilation, dedicated Norwegian researchers, a potential environmental disaster, and a French invention of questionable character. Oh, and of course, cough syrup.

It all began with anaphylaxis, a five-syllable word that doesn’t ring a bell for many people. Anaphylaxis is a rapid, systemic, life-threatening emergency. It is usually, but not always, caused by an allergic reaction to a substance, and if not treated quickly and aggressively, it can kill whoever is unlucky enough to have it.

Now, one of the things that surgeons fear is losing a patient to an anaphylactic reaction to one of the drugs being used to anesthetize him or her. And during the 90s Norwegian anesthesiologists were reporting that there were more and more cases of patients having life-threatening reactions to general anesthesia.

Over 93% of these reactions were to what are called neuromuscular blocking agents, which is most often considerately shortened to NMBA. Since up to half of the patients who had NMBA-related anaphylaxis had never been exposed to anesthetic drugs before, it was a mystery how they had been sensitized to something containing the same QAI epitope — which is a key piece of the same chemical structure as these anesthetics.

Researchers found that of Norwegians who had high blood levels of IgE (the immunoglobulin involved in allergic reactions), 30% had antibodies to a substance containing the QAI epitope.

And the worst part was that when the Norwegian researchers compared how often Swedish doctors were reporting such reactions (the Norwegians felt that it was most appropriate to compare themselves to a country with a similar genetic, cultural and geographic setting), they found that anaphylactic reactions to NMBAs were ten (10!) times higher than in Norway.

And when researchers compared the blood of allergic Swedes and Norwegians they found that none of the Swedes were sensitized to the QAI epitope, whereas a percentage of the Norwegians were.

The initial theory was that Norwegians were being exposed to some environmental substance, unavailable in Sweden, that sensitized them to the QAI epitope. So researchers went to work analyzing 84 household and environmental chemicals — things like skin and hair care products, cough syrups, toothpaste, lozenges, cleansers, and motor oils. A few items did have the ability to sensitize someone somewhat, but it turned out that both Norwegians and Swedes were exposed to roughly the same products, in chemical terms.

However, there was one thing that was different. In Norway, cough syrup contained pholcodine (abbreviated PHO), while in Sweden, the substance had been phased out in the late 80s.

What is PHO? It’s a neutered form of morphine, chemically altered to remove it’s ability to relieve pain or cause addiction. It was created in France back in the 1950s to be a cough suppressant that worked its magic by acting directly on the central nervous system’s cough center.

As you can probably guess, further research and experimentation suggested that the PHO-containing cough syrup was systematically making allergically prone Norwegians become sensitive to the QAI epitope that was part of the NMBAs that might later be used to put them under for surgery.

Because this happened in Norway, instead of in the US, the manufacturer of the PHO-containing cough syrup made the unprofitable decision not to renew its marketing license for the product, and it was taken off the market in 2007. (If this had happened in the US, I’m sure the courts would be litigating the issue for at least ten years.)

So why should we Americans find this story interesting? Well, first of all, it illustrates how arcane and unexpected the connections between things can be. PHO didn’t kill anybody who took it in cough syrup, but it posed a markedly increased possibility of a life-threatening reaction to anesthesia administered to its allergy-prone users.

If Sweden had not, for unrelated reasons, phased out use of PHO in the late 80s, both Norwegians and Swedes might be standing around, scratching their heads, wondering at the surge in life-threatening attacks of anaphylaxis occurring in their operating rooms.

I think there’s a lesson in this story, a cautionary tale. I was born into a world (the 1950s) in which people thought that they had conquered nature, but I hope to die in a world that is aware that we can be too clever for our own good, or not clever enough to see the far-reaching ramifications of the choices we make.

Reference: Florvaag E. The pholcodine story. Immunol Allergy Clin N Am 29 (2009) 419–427.

Copyright © 2009 by Candace L. Van Auken. All rights reserved.

Then I want one too!

Although, I don’t believe I could bring the same ’sizzurp’ and cannabis induced haze that Dwayne “Lil’ Wayne” Carter brings when he stars in a documentary about himself. We never really imagined that there was much behind the music of Lil’ Wayne, yet they proved us wrong with Behind The Music: Lil’ Wayne. Now its gone a step further. Oh yeah! That’s right, The Carter is a documentary about Lil’ Wayne and he’s not exactly endorsing it.

Yikes! This thing is framed like a eulogy.

He greeted the concept and its film crews with open arms, but after actually seeing the finished version of the documentary, he retracted his support. But could you blame him? Lil’ Wayne seems to be an individual that forgets things he says/does 5 minutes after they are said/done. Not only did he retract his support but he got legal and tried to block the release of The Carter, which contains candid moments with Lil’ Wayne where he is seen repeatedly drinking syrup. A hot button issue that has friends and family worried about what is in his cup.

His lawsuit was rejected, however, and the film was showcased earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it received high honors and praise from several media outlets. In fact I haven’t read any bad press about it and this week, it went straight-to-DVD.

In an effort to promote The Carter the producers have released the first 10-minutes of the project exclusively on YouTube.

Take a look at the first 10-minutes of The Carter

–Here–

****

Update: Late last night, I found a link to the entire documentary streaming online (shhh…). So naturally I watched.  Critically Acclaimed? I’m not too sure about that. But it certainly offers an interesting look into the life of someone who makes “beaucoup money” and a candid glimpse of Dwayne “Lil’ Wayne” Carter.

If you have time you can check out The Carter documentary in its entirety –HERE–

Between a Lil Wayne documentary screening and an Excene Cervenka show at Alex’s Bar, I experienced the full spectrum of the art/artist-reality/celebrity conundrum in under 6 hours last Wednesday.

First, Quincy Jones III’s renegade documentary, The Carter, was screened in a subterranean auditorium on USC’s campus (with Ice Cube’s student son and Tupac’s first manager in attendance). Filmed with no scripts, plans or interviews (in accordance to Lil Wayne’s wishes), the film eschews traditional rock-doc babble for intimate reality show-worthy footage of the 27 year-old rapper (then at the tipping point of mainstream success) smoking joints, drinking cough syrup and recording impromptu songs out of a bag of studio equipment in his hotel room.

Although the hourly drug use and jetset lifestyle could easily get him lumped in with a hip hop hoodlum stereotype, Lil Wayne’s spontaneous creativity, unabated output and raw, uncensored lyrics (he once compared himself to Russel Crowe from A Beautiful Mind, but it’s probably more like Bob Dylan circa 1965) set him apart from the rest of a genre that is increasingly overrun with prefab “rappers.” While The Carter gives a more personal look at what it’s like to live in the unorthodox realm of “Wayne’s World,” it fails to give new insight to the rapper’s hinted-at deeper emotions and instead demonstrates the ease at which popular musicians avoids internal conflicts by slipping under the cover of celebrity bravado.

Because he would not sit down for direct questions from the producers (and gave vague responses to journalists featured in the film), lyrics splayed over artful live footage served as the closest thing to self-reflective commentary from Lil Wayne. But the rapper’s words are a jumble of pussy-eating semi-rhymes and crack-day reminisces that (like the late MJ) mask sadness with a public persona and prove Wayne is not ready to take off his diamond-crusted teeth and confront some damning truths.

Hours after the documentary’s credits rolled, Alien Lord (and veteran artistic onion) Exene Cervenka (in a move more Tupac than Weezy F. Baby) stripped away another emotional layer by roaring through a batch of subdued folk songs to a surprisingly thin crowd at Alex’s Bar. Flanked by musician-friends Wolfmaiden, Conquering Lion and Black Scorpion 35, the 53 year-old multi-medium artist set aside the last of her angry-punk bombast and presented a set of raw electric-acoustic tunes, many from her latest solo album, Somewhere Gone. Inspired by the last four years of living in Missouri, Cervenka’s new lyrics tackle subjects such as loneliness and isolation with such poetic honesty that there is no need for her signature snarling vocals.

Instead of keeping convention by writing songs in line with her other, louder music projects, Cervenka’s Midwest epiphany helped her do what Lil Wayne could not in The Carter, fearlessly emerge from behind the mask of public expectations and expose your soul to a bunch of drunk Long Beach fans. Somewhere in a pot-and-sizzurp stupor, Young Money is jealous.

Since Thursday morning, I’ve been sufferring from some viral ailment. Started off with the harbinger of doom: The Sore Throat. . . Here, in this global climate of flu pandemic paranoia, I give you the stages of the “Viral Ailment”!

Stage 1 – Denial!

Like any good American, at the onset of the grippy sore throat, I denied any trace of illness.

“What’s that? A sore throat you say?”

“Neigh! Neigh! ‘Tis a hairball!”

" 'Altering the Deal' for 1200, please?"

Stage 2 – Paranoia!

(Written in Second Person, but you fuckers know it’s me.)

You start to question if you got it from that kid who ran into class a couple of days ago to proclaim his forthcoming leave of absence in light of being successfully diagnosed with pneumonia.

You start avoiding the bird seed patch that you usually step on; in case there are any remnants of the Avian Influenza strain that started its process of infecting you a couple of weeks ago – Wait! It’s the fucking pork steak I had a couple of days ago!

I start Googling that shit. . . No, it’s not transferrable through cooked pork – but, ah! ‘Tis good to be on the watch for mutating viral ailments.

Maybe it’s that fucker who rubbed the remnants of his oatmeal breakfast on the bus “Stop” button that you had to press.

Gah! So many possibilites! So few diseases!

I actually start to narrow down the diseases via the Dr. House method. It’s either H1N1 from the pork (always chances!), the regular Influenza, the Avian Influenza, Pneumonia, or the Common Cold!

Google -> Wikipedia Treatment -> Viral Diseases

All the symptoms are fucking identical!

Stage 3: “Eye of the Tiger” Phase

Play on Survivah!!!

You start coughing, feel cold enough to think you’re having a fever, but nothing shows up on your thermometer. You’re tough as nails. You got a 90 in Ms. Mathias’s class. You’re going to pull this shit off!
The shortest of stages: I present to you the “Eye of the Tiger” Phase!
Clad with a 200mg big pack of Flu Tylenol, Advil, Shitty Cough Syrup and Vicodin for kicks -

Unrelated Painkiller Pile

You start going “YEAH! Imma Salt Water that shit!”

Imma let you finish! Imma let you finish! But the Spanish Flu was the best flu of all time mothafuckaz! *Pops ‘em painkillers good.*

Stage 4: Defeat.

You’re fucking defeated you miserable shit. Bus yourself to the doctor with a runny nose, and everyone giving you awkward looks. You pat your cell-phone holder threateningly – Scary old lady who sits opposite you on the Public Bus mistakes this for a sexual advance. On any other day, you’d tear her pussy up. But you want Tamiflu, and prescription painkillers strong enough to put an elephant to sleep. Your bones ache. You feel this impending doom at laying off your homework till the last minute – Ah! You get off the bus. Phat doctor gives you a face-mask that doesn’t fit you, you start drawing threatening looks from parents with vulnerable, sweet vulnerable little babies. It might be the flu, but there’s no fever. Wait till Monday, and then get Tamiflu – The Flu’s New wonder drug that unfortunately doesn’t do much than dent H1N1.

It’s Saturday night, you’re supposed to be out chilling at a friend’s place, he calls, you tell him that you’re at funeral. Then you cough the alveoli out your lungs. Nobody must know! I need my four hour shifts and I can’t afford to cut school!

Homework piles up, nothing tastes or feels good anymore – not even Johnny Cash. You sleep like a passed out drunkard, you wake up and you’re not the shit anymore. You iz a sad, undiagnosed kitty with no zeal for life.

You’re pretty sure atheism is the way to go by now, and you search for random funny videos all day long on youtube until you feel good enough to do homework.

Dear Mr. Toilet, I withdraw my post as “The Shit” until further notice.

- Regards,

Viral Victim

I’ve been sick with the flu since Wednesday night, when I felt a bug slam into my chest like something out of “Alien.” For the last four days, I’ve risen out of my bed mainly to hand out Halloween candy — with sanitized hands at a protected distance — and to continue to photograph the ratty degeneration of my appearance as I pad around the house in ancient pajamas.

Being ill allows you to obsess on small outrages, because you don’t have the energy or money to remedy the big ones (a crumbling roof or current medical insurance deductible). About all you’re really capable of doing is lying flat on your back while watching a movie and becoming increasingly and irrationally irritated over the fact that an actress is playing exactly the same character in your newest Netflix flick rental as she did in the completely different film in which you last saw her (Kelly MacDonald in “The Merry Gentleman” and “The Girl in the Cafe”).

I’m too tired to write her agent, but Kelly really needs to start challenging herself more in her roles; even the hats in both movies are the same. And Bill Nighy and Michael Keaton are playing almost identical repressed, older male love interests opposite her in the two films.

Today, after I stopped fuming over the characters in two movies that almost no on has seen, I staggered downstairs to ponder the state of my record albums, about which I keep saying I am going to copy and transfer over to CDs or my iPod. I had to pack a couple of hundred of these suckers up up when I was painting several rooms of my house this summer. As I boxed and cataloged them, I realized that there were several albums missing.

Only one of the vanished really bothered me, because I can probably live the rest of my life without listening to the third album of “The Association” or the waste of vinyl released by one-hit wonder, Johnny Nash (“I Can See Clearly Now”).

But what is gnawing away at me is the loss of “Hot Rats,” by Frank Zappa, a post-Mothers of Invention work that was the only record I ever purchased solely for the album’s cover design. I am infinitely more galled about Frank’s disappearance than I am about Kelly MacDonald’s acting career choices, because the album was in flawless condition. This is due to the fact that I only once tried to listen to Zappa’s weird instrumental foray into jazz, and just planned to eventually frame the endearing psychedelic pink 60s-era photograph of him crawling out of a crypt.

Now I suppose I’ll have to go crawling myself, only this time over eBay, to look for an equally pristine version of the album that has inexplicably vanished. That is, unless I forget all about it in an hour or so, and begin obsessing on some other aggravating bit of minutiae that briefly grabs my attention in between swigs of cough syrup.

A friend had told me that she had to rush her husband to the hospital when he was experiencing heart problems.  It turned out that he was actually using Sudafed to get high and was experiencing signs of an overdose.  While he was buying it at their local store many other people turn to the internet.  Websites like “Chemical API” that sold Dextromethorphan (DXM) the active ingredient found in drugs like Sudafed.

That website alone was found to cause the death of five teenagers!

Sourcehttp://www.fda.gov/downloads/ICECI/EnforcementActions/EnforcementStory

/EnforcementStoryArchive/UCM090866.pdf

Mary

From facebook, immediately after the event happened:

I couldn’t remember the name of some guy who saw me earlier today and he dispensed a monologue at me over it.

“You just don’t give a living fuck about anything, and it’s obvious to everyone that you just sort of live in this bizarre, overecstatic alternate universe that nobody else understands. Whatever man, sit on the floor in the hallway with no shoes, huge sunglasses, and your headphones on just hanging out, waiting for it to be announced that the apocalypse really is going to happen in 2012 and you can start a three-year acid trip until Jesus comes… for everyone else!”

So apparently, I’m going to hell. What gives?  lol

#   #  #

In honor of my eternal damnation, and because the last last list seems to be the only post that drives traffic to this website, I have decided to compile a new list:  ”Stuff Other People Don’t Like”.  Please hate me for it.  According to lunatics who wander the hallways of the upper storeys of the engineering buildings on campus, the world is going to end before I get my college degree, which implies that I need a new life plan that doesn’t require one.  I’m looking into trying to secure employment doing PR for hell, and I want to be able to squeeze a few bullet points for that resume out of this blog.

#   #   #

STUFF OTHER PEOPLE DON’T LIKE

1.  Diet Sodas, Cough Syrup:  We here in America love our high fructose corn syrup so much that we do “scientific” studies to prove that it’s better for you than asparatame.  Artificial sugars get such a bad rap in our disgustingly obese country, that a couple of semesters ago I hastily unlocked my dorm room door and jumped over my pile of dirty laundry in a frantic hurry to get to the refrigerator:  ”Asparatame!  I need to get some more asparatame in me or there is absolutely no fucking way that I will ever be able to stay awake for this fucking class!”.  My roommate absolutely flipped shit.  ”Are you doing drugs in our room!?  Drugs are baaad for you.”

I found this whole scenario to be more ironic than a cargo plane bound for Panama with ten tons of bananas; I, the lowly computer programmer, was explaining to the 4.0 junior in biochemical engineering that I was really just craving the artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas, and trying to do it without implying that I thought that the overprocessed sugars found in the beverages she consumed might be partially responsible for her constantly-expanding waistline.

As far as cough syrup goes, no, I’m not talking about robotripping; our nation’s college students lead the world in robotripping talents, though I suspect that Germany and the Netherlands could give us a run for our money on that one.  I’m talking about how much real, gritty sugar cane sugar we put in the suspensions and cough syrups that our nation’s children consume at the slightest hint of a cough.  When I went to Russia, my host family saw me taking Claritin and a multivitamin in the morning and assumed that I was ill; I wasn’t, but Holida came out of nowhere with a mug filled to the brim with a pink, sugary syrup and said, “YOU.  DRINK,” so I did.  I saw this happen elsewhere travelling within the country as well, and came to the conclusion that Russians believe that cane sugar is a perfectly legitimate cure for everything.  I like this idea.

2.  Calculus:  When I told my high school physics teacher that I wanted to become an engineer, his response was, “Good luck with that.  Calculus will be your life.”  I’ve had some pretty miserable experiences taking it, but I still hold the subject in pretty high esteem.  Newton’s calculus helped him to develop the laws of mechanics that Kepler later used to prove that the sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth, which, Satan, if you’re reading this, is pretty much a Christianity-shattering idea.  I <3 calculus!  =D

3.  Cops on Segways:   Stop making fun of them, people!  When I’m doing illegal things, it’s a comfort to know that dodging the police can be as easy as finding the nearest staircase.

4.  Ads:  There’s nothing I love more than a good ad.  I don’t read Vogue for the articles.  I don’t read Vogue at all.  I skip over all of the articles, and go straight to the dramatic photos of striking redheads in 8″ heels with their hair blowing in the fan-provided “wind”, or, better yet, shirtless male models lying on sandy beaches without the clothing they are supposedly modelling.  It makes for a much more pleasant experience.

Besides, advertising is the lifeblood of the internet; for all of the shit nerds like to give marketing majors, your favorite toy is funded mostly by money from advertisers, with Facebook and Google being the most famous and successful examples.

5.  People Who Smoke:  I was just reading the other day in Slate about some guy living in an apartment complex whose neighbors were trying to sue him for smoking, when it wasn’t even a no-smoking property!  Jesus Christ people, lay the fuck off.  I don’t smoke, but I don’t know why it has become so acceptable to harass a group of people that is doing something legal.

For the record, I thought “Thank You For Smoking” was a wonderful movie.  If I wasn’t already working on becoming Satan’s PR woman, doing one of the jobs the sleazy blonde guy’s friends had would also be a highly desirable position.

6.  Douchebags.  On Friday night, I got drunk with my pretentious intellectual nerd friend, and the leftover booze is still sitting in my refrigerator.  He was telling me that for Halloween, he was going to go out with his hair spiked up wearing shutter shades, an unbuttoned cotton shirt, and pants with his boxers hanging out.  I thought this was hilarious at the time.  Then on Saturday night, he was doing homework.  I was crossing the street back to my apartment with a bag full of groceries and one of the people he was describing that I didn’t even know asked me if I wanted to go out to the clubs with them, and I said no, mostly because I didn’t even have my purse or anything with me.  I chatted with them for a while, but eventually wanted to get back and eat, because I was very hungry.  ”Douchebag” A asked for a hug.  Well whatever, I was okay with that.  I leaned in to give him a hug and he picks me up and twirls me in the air.  Guess who’s winning the nerds vs. douchebags war now?  Not the people doing homework after 9 p.m. on a Saturday night.

7.  Huge Auditorium Classes:  I’ve never understood why private schools hype up their small class sizes.  In small classes, you have to pay attention, because by the end of the semester, the instructor knows you.  If it’s a subject that I am completely disinterested in, which is most of them, I don’t want that to happen.  I want to be able to walk in with 30 seconds left until the start of the lecture and spend an hour and fifteen minutes on the Internet, with the only interruption being the occasional clicker question.

8.  TV Preachers and Salespeople:  Why do people think they need to watch intentional comedy?  There is a reality far more real than any of the contrived ‘reality’ programming on VH1, and far more hilarious than any generic sitcom ever could be. You can find it on any network that airs religious broadcasting, especially late at night, or QVC and its many less-famous clones.  Sunday afternoon is usually the most fruitful time to scan the TV networks for irate Southern Baptists and people selling useless kitchen gadgets.  Tune into Food Network on a weekday to see the best of both worlds.

9.   Projects; Specifically, Alan Parsons and Manhattan.  One day my boss went on a tear about how much he hates his Technology and Society class.  It was YouTube worthy.  ”I’m so tired of hearing people talk about how the world would be such a wonderful, awesome, and magical place if only we could uninvent the nuclear bomb!  WE CAN’T UNINVENT THE NUCLEAR BOMB! Do these people understand what other technology has come out of all of this weapons development, and how much worse the Cold War probably would have been without them?!”  Short answer:  No, people do not understand why nuclear stockpiles are necessary.  Except maybe Rush.  Maybe Rush understood.

On that note, just because The Alan Parsons Project is a terrible band name, doesn’t mean that all of their music was bad.  They had some pretty good stuff.

10.  Muammar al-Gaddafi:  This man gets a bad rap for being tied to the bombing of a German disco, but if it was merely an assault on poor taste, I have a hard time finding a problem with it.  Besides, Gaddafi was rocking the whole “I’m On a Boat!” look waaay before it was ever cool.  Truly, a man who has proved to be far ahead of his time.

11.  Airports:  Okay, paying $10 for fake Chinese food sucks, but overall being in airports is generally a pretty cool experience.  Moving sidewalks!  Cool people from obscure foreign countries!  Long layovers in random cities you will never see much else of!  Exposure to weather outside of Phoenix, however briefly!  Lots of well-dressed, interesting people about to leave and go elsewhere!  Shops selling all sorts of weird, overpriced, gimmicky stuff!  Copies of SkyMall that people have accidentally stolen from the planes and left in the seating areas!  … What could be better, honestly?

12.  Messy Rooms:  I just don’t understand our society’s collective paranoia about messy people.  Things can be disorganized without also being dirty.  Whether or not a room is messy has very little to do with the value of what is being produced therein.  I am blogging on the floor with several dirty coffee cups, a Russian dictionary, my cell phone, a mountain of CD’s, papers, binders, cookies, and a box of paperclips.  My roommates are polishing up their pristine little boxes they call bedrooms and listening to awful music.  When I am finished with this, I will do math homework, and they will probably still be working on finding new surfaces to clean.  Barf.

13.  Unaltered Dairy Products:  This is sort of like item #1.  We do everything we can to squeeze the pleasure out of drinking milk by making it with soy or turning it into ’skim milk’, and for what?  America is still fatter than it ever has been.  People in foreign countries don’t have 20 different ‘percents’ of milk to choose from at the grocery store, yet they are still skinnier than us.  I’m going to continue to drink whole milk until the stores quit selling it because I’m the only one who buys it.

14.  Jazz, Obnoxious Saxophone Solos:  What do you think I write depressing blog entries like this to, Lady GaGa?  No, fucking Birdland.  (Actually not really Birdland, I just know that it’s quite possibly the only jazz song you would ever recognize by its title.)  Jazz is awesome.  I find the idea that people can be just making stuff up and it still sounds good to be fascinating.  I like all varieties of jazz, from cheesy ‘Weather Channel Jazz’ all the way to the most avant free jazz fusion stuff.

I don’t actually know any of these songs, but this article infuriates me:  10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined By Saxophone.  I think more pop music type songs should have sax solos.  The world would be a better place if they did, I’m sure of it.

15.  People Who Just Don’t Give A Shit.  If you have failed to adequately vex your intended targets with the other items on this list, fear not, you have one final recourse; simply quit caring.  Even people who are clearly raving lunatics will despise you if your apathy exceeds theirs.  There’s nothing more fun than just not giving a shit.  The mad hallway wanderer was right, I just don’t care.  He told me his name again, and I still don’t remember it, because I don’t care.  It doesn’t matter.

I would attempt to persuade you to pursue a life of hedonism and irrationally-driven accomplishments, but that would violate my apathy and make my previous statements logically inconsistent.

- sf1

The NBC video alerts teen parents about the rise in use of over the counter drugs to get high.  Over the counter drugs common to treat colds are used to get high when consumed in very high doses. Robo tripping and DXM are common terms used referring to Robitussin and dextromethorphan (found in Over the counter syrups). These drugs are so easy to get and they are legal which is why they are so common.

Two college age Shawn and Shannon individuals discuss their experience with DXM, it nearly destroyed their lives.

http://www.dxmstories.com/watch.html

The problem is that many OTC drugs contain the active ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM), when taken in high doses it produces the sensation of “high.”  DXM is found in more than 120 non-prescription cough and cold medications such as Robitussin, Vicks, and Coricidin HBP

Mary

Sources

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16311712

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/16067400#16067400

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048796.pdf

Sara read an article that stated honey was more effective as a cough suppressant in young children than actual cough medicine. I’m not sure if this is the same article or not, but I did find this link, which I assume refers back to the same study.

This is a pretty good tip since A) we already have honey, B) honey has no side effects, C) honey is bound to taste better than cough syrup, no matter how many artificial flavors they jam in there, and D) I’m assuming honey is cheaper than cough syrup (though I’m not sure). Also, the article points out that the FDA has recommended you don’t give cough syrup to kids under 6, but honey is okay for kids over 1.

In short, why wouldn’t you give your kid honey instead?

So, is it true? Well, Evie has been sick lately and we gave it a try. We’ve had mixed results. The first time it worked really well, and her cough more or less disappeared for a couple of hours. The second time, it didn’t seem to do anything at all, though maybe her cough would have been that much worse with nothing. The third time it seemed like she was coughing less, but it’s hard to tell.

So I guess it’s just one of those things; until we can invent a time machine and go back and try it both ways, once with honey and once with cough syrup, we’ll never really know if she would have coughed less with the syrup. I will say this though, Evie was begging us for more “medicine”. Somehow I don’t think that would have happened with the cough syrup!

Last week, Fall break had arrived with promises of fun and freedom for the students. For the students minus me. I caught a nasty cold on Friday and stayed at home sick during the rest of the break. It was super fun.

 Then, on Monday night I took some cough syrup so that I could sleep without coughing every two seconds. However, that syrup kept me from sleeping all night. And in the morning, I was feeling dizzy and still strangely hyper. I went to my first two classes and found out I could not concentrate on anything. I then decided to go home for the rest of the day. I paced around the house, unable to sit still or do any schoolwork until about 8 or 9 pm. Later, my mom got on the Internet and did some research. She found out this particular cough syrup is used by some people as a substitute for drugs. I will point that this medication was an over-the-counter thing; this proves that doesn’t make them safe.

I hope you had a great Fall Break. Be careful with medication!

Well, as we all know the H1N1 flu is running rampant…especially in college kids. Eh, I don’t have H1N1, but I wish I did right about now. Anything OTHER than a viral illness would be great right about now. I’ve been so sick the past couple days; coughing to the point where I think I have fractured my own ribs. UGH! My doctor’s diagnosis is “significant viral illness”. Stay home from class. Rest. Take some cough syrup we’ll prescribe you.

I laid in bed for two days and missed classes. I went to work last night and got sent home early for sounding like I was dying (I guess it was scaring costomers..considering I work with food). I’m in class today and honestly, I’m so hopped up on cough syrup right now I”m not even really functioning. I don’t know how I’m doing anything right now. My chest hurts so bad and my throat is on fire. I want to go home. I can’t though. If you miss more than one class you’re pretty much dropped from the course…even if you’re not you fall incredibly far behind and you would have been better off dropping yourself from the class. Sad, isn’t it?

And as for my diagnosis?…thanks for wasting my time and money.I wish I had the swine flu right now. At least then they could DO something about it

In an interview with Larry King, our old friend and gum connoisseur Chris Brown did some spectacular PR work, working hard to repair his image after being sentenced to “clean stuff” as punishment for beating Rihanna.  It’s good to know that society works like a bad sitcom pitch; you commit a felony, you get to become the public’s maid.

Oh, and it bears mentioning that this is what he was wearing on the show:

Jesus; he looks like the gayest member of the Nation of Islam.  Wait, wait…I’m getting off track here.  Let’s refocus.

Chris Breezy had this to say:

“When I look at it now, it’s just like, wow, like, I can’t believe that that actually happened.”

I’m not entirely sure what the context of this quote is, but I can only assume that Chris is talking about allowing some Smurf version of Tucker Carlson to dress him for a national television talk show appearance.  Get it together Brown!

Hello, my dear friends and loyal Friesen Pointers.  I come to you today with good news, which may not be news to some of you.  I have officially launched my new podcast, The Worst of Both Worlds.

The show is conceived as a fun comedic conversation between myself, my co-host Ryan Beck, and a different guest each week.  It’ll also serve as the new home for my ever-popular Top Five (now Top Six) Lists, which it turns out are more fun when discussed.

We’re still working out the schedule of production here, so we may end up posting two episodes in a week, then nothing for two.  Or maybe we’ll get our shit together and do it how we’re supposed to and put out exactly one a week.  To paraphrase Enya, only time will tell.

Be that as it may, the website where you can find the podcast is http://www.friesenpoint.libsyn.com.  So far, we have three episodes up, which are as follows:

Episode 1: Ryan Beck, my roommates Swearngin and Fox, and I chat it up and discuss the Top Five Real World/Road Rules Challenge Cast Members.

Episode 2: Nick Gifts, Fox, and I get together to talk about knives.  The list in this episode was deemed not worth posting, so was edited out.

Episode 3: I was lucky enough to corral two of the premiere comedians in Columbia, Kyle Ayers and Brian Sturgill into my studio, where we basically just discuss food the whole show.  Included is the Top Six Subway Sandwiches List.

I hope that at least some of you will check some of these out, and if you like it, please help spread the word.  I’ve really appreciated all the support you’ve all given me over the last few years, and I hope we can take this next step together, or something else that sounds equally queer.

Thanks again, and happy listening.

Ladies and gentleman,

It looks like I took Friday off–some life came up and I didn’t get it done.  I’m hoping to catch up by the end of the week.

For today, I was hoping to capture the spirit of Whiskey Headed Woman and Canned Heat Blues, two classic blues songs, and I think I’ve done the form justice.  I’m not in love with the chorus, but for a one-day project, it’s not bad.

NyQuil-Headed Baby
She don’t drink liquor and she don’t take dope
She don’t use cocaine and she won’t smoke rope
There’s only one thing for when she needs a little something
She ain’t satisfied until she’s had some Robitussin

She’s my NyQuil headed baby
She’ll drink Dimetapp, too
and if she’s feeling fancy she could go for
the Theraflu

Her eyes may be bloodshot, her hair may be a mess
But you can be for certain that her cough is supressed

Chorus

Don’t bring her any eucalyptus cough drops
Don’t you rub no camphor oil on to her chest
Just bring her a bottle of that syrup, boy
And she’ll take care of the rest.

by sylvia

Ahh – it’s Friday.  Finally, the end of a boring, stressful, can’t-wait-until-we-get-our-own-show-and-get-out-of-this-place work week.

Bianca and I have been bachelorettes this week – well, both of our husbands have been out of town, and despite Bianca’s unnecessary speculation that maybe they are having an affair, they are coming back tonight, and our stint as “single ladies” has come to an end.

How did we celebrate our week without mates?  How can you achieve the greatness we achieved while said life partners are out of town?

I’m glad you asked!

1. Avoid the gym- yes, Bianca and I skipped YET ANOTHER week of strength-training class.  What did we do instead?  uuuuuuh……………………………………………………………………………? ( Shots?? – Bianca)
2. Clean the kitchen- ok, this is what I did, can’t really speak for Bianca on this one, she ain’t got the Domestic Goddess in her (Yeah, I didn’t clean shit. I offered my husband a blow job to do it when he gets home - OH YES I DID!!- B)
3. Play Video Games Without Interruption – so, I gotta admit, I was a little excited about playing the XBOX alone, without interruption or help from the hubs, but it turns out that I don’t enjoy nearly as much as when he’s around.  Ain’t that cute? (You are such a dork! I caught up on Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood- B)
4. Sleep With a Night-Light- yes, even though we are grown women who are independent, we also get scared at night when the hubses ain’t there.  So a little light in the room goes a long way. (Night light? I sleep with all three lights in the master bathroom on – I’m a scaredy cat – B)
5. Cook Dinner for One – what is surprising to me is that the entire week the hubs was gone, I didn’t order out one time.  I actually cooked – a meal - and ate it.  Of course, it was something my main squeeze wouldn’t eat, which is why of course I made it. ( What’s this cooking crap? Take out all the way! – B)
6. Eat the Obligatory Family Meal – for whatever reason, when I’m out of town, my parents invite my husband over for dinner (he never goes) and when he is out of town, they basically ask me to move back in with them for the week.  I compromise, and go for dinner one night, and only one night, because if I go more, they will probably start asking me for rent money.  My dad loves to cook, but apparently my appearance alone isn’t enough for him to make something from scratch, so I get frozen foods and boiled noodles.  I’m such an ingrate. (Thanks for the invite sugarglider! – B)
7. Paint Pottery  – yes, me, Bianca and the crumb painted pottery and didn’t make a huge mess, like I was anticipating.  What better way to spend an evening? (Umm, with Matthew McConaughey? – B)
8. Eat, Drink, Drink and then Drink Some More- so we painted pottery and then ate.  And drank.  And drank.  And ordered Bananas Foster, which neither of us had had before.  When the cook came out to flambe the foster, he yelled at the waitress for not turning down the ceiling fans.  I suppose that is why the bananas foster made us drunk.  Or was that all the wine?  Nah – it was the bananas. (It might have been the cough syrup we chugged in the car – B)
9. Clean the House Up as Quickly as Possible – this is just to give your husband the appearance that you worked hard all week AND took time out of your evening to clean the house JUST FOR HIM.  You might also want to get his pipe, slippers and martini (2 olives, dear – no more, no less), and make sure your hair is perfect! ( See #2 – B)

So yes, we missed our husbands.  We’re glad they are coming back!

Especially since we need a designated driver for our next drunk fest.  I just wish Bianca’s crumb would get her dang driver’s license already!  Sheesh, the nerve of some 12 year olds…… (Actually, she’s only 11. Way to go auntie Sylvia - B)

Donald’s Designated Driver analyzes the bizarre Texas law that declares possession of cough syrup without prescription to be just as bad as rape, and how it could affect Johnny Jolly.

Texas sure have a creative criminal justice system.