Wednesday, October 01, 2008

A Cubs choke, a fun and simple episode of Greek and problems of the 13th grade

- Hope that was worth it, unidentified Franklin (Ind.) High School senior who is now facing expulsion for the rest of the year and possibly even criminal charges for sending a pornographic picture to everyone in his school. The unidentified student hacked into another student’s account to send a picture of a man's genitals to 2400 students, faculty, and staff last week. Ah ha, good one! Really, really funny…..if you’re 13. Dude, you are a senior, which means you are 17 or 18 years old. By this point, sending out pictures of someone’s junk should not be that amusing to you. Several students who opened the e-mail told their teachers immediately and Principal Craig McCaffrey said his IT specialist was able to quickly retract the emails after only about 100 people had opened it. Once that was taken care of, the specialist was able to track the email to a specific computer, not a tough task, especially on a school system’s server. From there, it was simply a matter of reviewing footage from one of ninety school security cameras that was focused on the student who was sitting at the computer at the time the email was sent. “He didn't deny it and said he just kind of did it as a joke, was his explanation for it,” said McCaffrey. He also said the senior has been suspended for ten days and faces expulsion the rest of the year, which local police are preparing to turn the case over to the Johnson County prosecutor. Prosecutor Lance Hamner said it appears two crimes were committed; computer trespass, and the more serious crime of dissemination of matter that is harmful to a minor. All of that because you think it’s hilarious to send a picture of some dude’s crank to your fellow students and teachers. As sad as it is that a student might be booted from school in his senior year for sending a single image via email, clearly this is a kid who needs a message sent to him and may not get it any other way…....

- Last night, Greek was a blissfully simple episode, one with two man storylines that was both fun and easy to follow. The first of the two was Zeta Beta leadership - Casey, Ashleigh and new pledge educator/former ZBZ president Frannie - traveling to the national ZBZ conference in Orlando. At the conference, Frannie tried a power play by suggesting a revision to the national bylaws that would allow an ousted president to run for the office again despite being booted from it previously. The suggested revision then went before a seven-person ZBZ committee for a vote, with Casey and Frannie spending the next couple days politicking for votes. In the meantime, Casey also got to meet up with Lizzie, the über-annoying, overly perky ZBZ rep who lived with the Cyprus Rhodes ZBZ chapter last season as the recovered from the scandal that ended Season 1. Lizzie is still her effervescent, annoying self, which has led her to run afoul of Teagan, the ZBZ official who has also made a couple of stops at Cyprus Rhodes to chastise and check in on the sisters there. After initially telling Casey she supports Frannie’s idea because Casey went against Teagan in fighting to keep pledge Rebecca Logan from being kicked out of ZBZ, Teagan reveals that it was Frannie who ratted Rebecca out to ZBZ national leadership in the first place. She also says that she’s supporting Frannie unless Casey can “work a miracle” and convince Lizzie to quit. Casey does just that, finding Lizzie drowning her sorrows at a local bar and talking her into telling Teagan off and quitting. That earns Casey Teagan’s vote, but a chance meeting with another convention attendee and ZBZ alumnus named Paula changes Casey’s mind. Paula gives Casey advice on how to handle house politics and when to fight and for what. Casey takes the advice to heart and decides to reverse field, helping Lizzie to change her image and take back her decision to quit. When Lizzie stands up to Teagan, Casey loses the rules committee vote 4-3, but tells Frannie she doesn’t mind because she’s going to kick her former mentor’s ass in the election for ZBZ president anyhow. Another house in trouble, literally, is the Kappa Tau house, which receives a visit from the fire marshal and is hit with a list of eight violations that must be fixed in a month or the KT house will be shut down. After an impromptu yard sale nets no profits toward the $6,000 repair bill, opportunity knocks courtesy of Rusty Cartwright’s engineering major. The honors engineers were looking for a place to hold their annual Galileo party, celebrating the life and work of the famed Italian scientist. Rusty offers up the KT house when the honors engineers can’t find anywhere else for the party and the KT brothers assume that a bunch of dorky engineers will have a simple, boring party that could be the start of a business for KT, hosting parties and events at their house to earn money (Cappie even suggests hosting weddings after he is certified online as a minister). However, the party turns out to be not what the KT’s expected, as the engineers bring their own special alcholic concoction that has everyone falling-down drunk quicker than usual. Furniture is destroyed, walls are damaged and Cappie ends up sharing a deep conversation with an unusual ally - Dale. The dorky, religious, conservative engineer and the goofy, irresponsible frat president strike up a bond over their shared dislike of Max, Rusty’s RA and Casey’s new boyfriend. With Cappie still not over Casey and Dale still hanging onto a big crush on her, both aren't Max fans. A drunken Cappie later pulls Rusty into a dark closet to interrogate him about Max, but Rusty doesn’t take it too seriously. At the end of the night, the KT house is a mess, with even their legendary Vesuvius papier-mâché volcano destroyed. But just when it looks like their mission has failed, Max and a few honors engineers show up to make amends for their rowdy party by fixing all the damage they caused and also doing the necessary repairs to get the house up to code for the fire marshal. So a fun, simple episode, one leading up to what is supposedly “the most romantic night of the Greek year” next week, so tune in then and see what materializes…..

- This next bit of news is the least-surprising development I’ve heard since learning that Rosie O’Donnell is fat, loud and obnoxious. Police in Melbourne, Fla. have arrested a Brevard Community College student Friday in connection with an on-campus explosion. Michael Woodson was arrested and transported to the Brevard County Jail, where he was being held on $15,000 bond. Yes, a community college student was arrested for setting off an explosion on campus. Let me tell you something…..the real surprise would be if someone attending community college, i.e. the 13th grade, didn’t do something stupid and criminal. These are the losers who not only can’t make it into a four-year college or university, they couldn’t score a spot at a junior college either. Thus, they are relegated to community college where they can attend class with other burnouts and brain deads, toiling in an academic wasteland that demands only slightly more from them than a low-level Mad Libs puzzle. This explosion was reported in an elevator shaft of a building on the Brevard Community College Melbourne campus before 11:15 a.m. Thursday. Authorities locked down the campus and cancelled classes, but no one was injured in the incident. “They said that they heard what sounded like a large door slamming and saw smoke coming from the elevator,” witness William Heinz said. “People were unsure what was going on and they seemed confused and panicky.” Initial analysis from the local fire department’s explosives unit indicated that the blast “was from some kind of improvised device,” such as a bottle or glass jar. partner Florida Today reported. One faculty member reported seeing a man fleeing the scene, with that man apparently being Michael Woodson. Not a good day for him, because the only thing worse than attending community college is being expelled from community college…..

- Looking to rep your favorite porn-mag skanks while taking part n your favorite extreme sports? If so, snowboard manufacturer Burton has a new line of snowboards just for you. The line features images of Playboy models in what the company is calling “discrete.” Yeah, because what’s not discrete about silicone-enhanced skanks taking off their clothes for millions of pervy strangers to gawk at? Not surprisingly, the new line is upsetting some people who feel that Burton's 2009 Coalition line of snowboards featuring a model called the “Love” is offensive and tasteless. The board uses vintage Playboy magazine photos as the main design element, which could be a problem given the fact that the models' intended market is 14 to 24-year-old males. In other words, some horny teenage guys are going to be the target for porn snowboards. Predictably, Burton is spinning things in their favor, with spokeswoman Caroline Andrews saying the Coalition line is only sold in certain snowboard shops, there are limited quantities and the boards will be wrapped and sold only to people over 18. Just a thought, but if you need to wrap your snowboard in brown paper and keep them on a high shelf in a sectioned-off part of the store, that’s a bad sign. What, are seedy losers in trench coats going to be buying them as well? For international corporation with offices around the world, this just seems like a dumb move. I doubt that sales of these boards are going to give your bottom line a serious bump, and the negative reaction and attention you’re going to receive from them may just outweigh any profit you can turn……

- Another year, same old Chicago Cubs. Despite having the best record in the National League, it appears the same old Loveable Losers on the North Side will be showing up for the playoffs this year. After being swept out of the playoffs last year by Arizona, the Cubs came back with a vengeance this year, winning more games than anyone else in the National League and earning home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs. So what did they do once the postseason began? They promptly threw that advantage away in a 7-2 loss where starter Ryan “Dumpster” Dempster walked seven batters and couldn’t even survive the fifth inning. The offense, populated with high-salaried, underperforming playoff chokers like Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano, didn’t even bother to show up and were part of a pathetic effort that gives no indication that there will be anything different about this year’s playoff run for the Cubs. They’ve gone 100 years without winning a World Series, and while that history has no affect on this year’s team, that doesn’t mean that this year’s team can’t (and isn't) doing a great job of continuing that legacy……

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