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Monday, June 28, 2010

Drinking Death at Ruben's Causes a Stir Within Community

In case you haven't heard, on May 31st, at Ruben's Catfish House in Columbus, MS, a 46 year old man, who was an regular patron of the bar, died after being involved in a drinking contest w/ an off-duty employee.

The off-duty employee and the bartender who was on duty during the incident, have been arrested and charged for selling/furnishing alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person. The maximum penalty for each, if convicted, would be a fine of $500 and six months in jail.

The hot topic around town is not what should be done to ensure something like this never happens again, but how can we punish these two men, one who participated in the game and the other who allowed it to go on under his watch.

Now, I am fairly certain there is no argument over there current charges, as we can all pretty much agree that allowing a drinking contest of this nature (taking straight shots of Crown Royal until one person quit) easily falls under the charges of "selling/furnishing alcoholic beverages to an intoxicated person".

The real arguments are coming from people who believe these two should have manslaughter added to their lists of charges. This is where I sincerely disagree.

As I mentioned earlier, the patron who died was 46 years old. Old enough to know better. Old enough to know consequences of binge drinking. He may have been one of those drinkers that could drink a lot and had drank for so long he seriously thought he could beat the odds.

Why do people always look for someone to blame in scenarios similar as this? Why are the cigarette companies sued when people die from using their products for years and years knowing the consequences? Why are people saying these two young men deserve to be charged with manslaughter when they were not forcing this man to drink?

Don't get me wrong. I do think there are some other actions that should be taken with them, first of which is that they should NEVER be allowed to serve alcohol or work at a place that serves alcohol ever again. I don't think that needs explaining. I also believe these men should be forced to go through a series of alcohol related education courses, because they have obviously shown that they were never taught the rights and wrongs and the consequences of their actions when alcohol is involved, one consequence being that the owner of Ruben's will in all likelihood lose his business and possibly every penny earned and more because of this poor, immature lack of judgment, and for that, I would expect a possible lawsuit against the two men for ruining this man's name and livelihood.

As for the people looking to place blame in the death of this patron, in my opinion, the only person truly responsible for this alcohol related death is the man who died. This is a very taboo thing to say and I mean it as no disrespect to the deceased, but he is the one to blame. He was a grown man. He was never, in any way, forced to consume a single bit of alcohol that went down his throat and he agreed to the moronic contest.

We, as a society, need to learn to stop looking for ways to place blame on others in accidental deaths like this and start looking for ways to ensure this does not happen again, not just within the next year, but for generations to come.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

A Day Of Upsets

USA loses to Ghana.
Fedor Emelianenko submitted by Fabricio Werdum.

USA losing is an upset, but not a surprise considering the level of talent that Ghana has & the home field advantage, but NOBODY thought that Fabricio Werdum would defeat Fedor, much less submit him in 1 minute & 9 seconds.

WHAT A DAY IN SPORTS!!!!!!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

June 19th- TOOL at UNO Lakefront Arena

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of seeing one of the best bands of my generation. TOOL. They are doing a small Summer tour to help prepare for their new album coming out next year. I had never seen them before, but from talking to friends, I knew I was going to see something special.

Let me first say that I've seen some decent bands in my life, although not as many as I would like. I recently saw Govt. Mule, Drive-by Truckers, Widespread Panic (also saw them in Gulf Shores, twice in '08, thrice in '09), North MS All Stars, Five Finger Death Punch, and Earth, Wind, and Fire at Memphis in May. I have seen System of a Down (my personal favorite band) in Atlanta in 2005. I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd open for The Allman Bros in Tupelo. In 2007, got to see The Smashing Pumpkins in Memphis on a Thursday night, then drove 8 hours to VooDoo Fest in New Orleans to see Kings of Leon, Galactic, and Rage Against The Machine Friday night followed by Ben Harper and The Pumpkins yet again on Saturday night.
But I had NEVER seen TOOL.

Going to a TOOL show is hard to describe to anyone who has never been. The intensity of the musicians of something that I've only seen once (RAGE) and the light show/video spectacle is something that can only be described as "Pink Floyd + Generation X". The use of lights is something that is not duplicated in other shows. The lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, lurks in the shadows, knowing his popularity takes away from the other highly skilled musicians in the band. His voice sounds better than any TOOL album I've ever heard. There are LED screens moving from the top of the arena to the stage where the guitarists are playing. The overhead lights sway back and forth as if the arena is shaking. The show was 2 hours. It seemed like 40 minutes. The BEST 40 minutes (2 hours) of my life.

I recommend any lover of music to go see this show.

Blog Updates

I've made some solid updates to my blog. Instead of linking you to Facebook & Twitter, I decided to link you directly to my profiles. Also, I added a link to my IMDB ratings page so you may look & get an idea of what kind of movies i like. I also decided to update my blogger profile to let you know a little more about me.
Also, I intend to be adding more personal blogs along with my school work and hope to have 10-20 followers by the end of next month (I know that isn't much, babysteps....)

U-S-A ! U-S-A !

The USA National Soccer Team has advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup! With a goal over Algeria in extra time, The Yanks have advanced to the round of 16. USA now has a match against Ghana Saturday afternoon and if they win that match, they will face the winner of Uruguay and South Korea on July 2nd.

With FIFA ranked #5 Italy, #9 France, and #13 Greece being eliminated, and teams like Croatia, Russia and Egypt (ranked 10,11 & 12 respectively) not making the tournament, rankings are obviously not important, but I do find it interesting that between USA, Ghana, Uruguay, & South Korea, The Yanks have the highest ranking of all these teams (USA-14, Uruguay-16, Ghana-32, S Korea-47).

At this stage of the game, no match will be easy, especially playing Ghana on their native continent of Africa, but without being put in a bracket with the likes of Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Spain, Germany, or The Netherlands, I see this as the best opportunity for the US National Team to make a run to the semifinals.

People have said our team is not that good & mention our 2 ties as evidence, but I have another piece of evidence for the naysayers. WE HAVE NOT LOST A GAME YET. I am not saying we will make a run to win the World Cup, but I am saying this is our best chance, on the world's biggest stage, to take soccer in our country to another level and bring a new found respect to a sport that every other country already sees as the greatest sport in the world.

Google AdSense

Due to my lack of initiative to do my assignment in a timely manner, my AdSense account will not be registered until after the due date for the assignment. This is not only a lesson in procrastination, but also a lesson in preparation. Had I prepared properly for the assignment (read the assignment when it was given to me), I would have known that this would take 1-2 days to register and I would not be in this predicament.

Sorry Dr. Tollison

Update 5:53PM: I got my AdSense updated, but now it will not let me save my options to add a toolbar, and keeps giving me an error saying, "Error while trying to save your AdSense for Search settings. Please try again later."

I have to go to work soon so if I do not get a chance to fix this problem, I'm sure it will let me finish it tomorrow.

Discussion #2

When a person puts a company's ad on their web page, they usually will receive some sort of monetary compensation for the amount of clicks on that particular ad they receive within a certain time period.
Click Fraud is when a person, automated script, or computer program abuses this by clicking on their own ads by creating a legit web user and manipulating their site visits and receiving more money than they should.
Google has reportedly lost over $1 Billion due to click fraud & have been working on measures to fix it including sharing information with other ad companies about users they suspect may be doing this and creating online forums to discuss other ways ad companies can work together to help fix the problem.
I believe Google should fight this as much as possible because it is dishonest and unethical for anyone who attempts to abuse this.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Discussion Question #1

I believe the pros of a blog outweigh the cons. I think it is convenient for anyone to be able to have the opportunity to post whatever they want on the world wide web. It takes freedom of speech to a whole new level. People can make comments on world and local events, give reviews on restaurants, movies and plays, or they can keep an open diary to share their thoughts and feelings with whomever chooses to read the blog. It also allows the user a channel to vent, or just let their brain be free of things they've been wanting to share, but were neve given the opportunity to share in the real world.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

New To Blogging? Watch This Video!

If you are not sure what a blog is or how it works, the video called Blogs in Plain English will help. This video explains why blogs are such a "big deal." To view the video, just click on the large arrow in the middle of the video window below.

Whole-House Surge Protection


It's important to protect all your electronic devices, not just computers, from surges. Printers, televisions, appliances and computer peripherals all require protection. However, it can be inconvenient to use individual surge protectors on all devices that need protection. One solution is to install a whole-house surge protector as shown in this photo. The device is installed by an electrician and is attached to your circuit breaker panel. Whole-house surge protectors function like other surge protection devices, but they protect all electrical devices in the house at once. The typical cost of $200 to $300 (installed) is generally less than buying individual surge protectors for every electrical device in your home.

H4M7ZDV5JVYK is a special code that will have me hooked up w/ Technorati.com

Friday, June 11, 2010

Microsoft Office 2007 for Students - Cheap!

Microsoft is running an offer especially for college students called The Ultimate Steal. For a limited time, students can obtain a copy of Microsoft 2007 Ultimate Edition for only $59.95. To qualify for this offer, you must be enrolled at a US educational institution and have a valid e-mail address that ends in the edu domain. Considering this package is available at retail for around $500, this is a fantastic deal for students. So check it out and save some $$$ today!

Even though you can download the software from the Web site, you should also consider purchasing (for an additional fee) the software on DVD. This will make reinstalling the software much easier in the future in case you have a problem (such as your hard drive fails).