- What a great plan "Survivor" contestant and former Southwest Baptist University women’s soccer coach Ben Wade has for his life. He had a pretty good gig as soccer coach at SBU, where he had posted a 32-27-15 record in four seasons before deciding that his best career move was applying for CBS’ most popular reality show, landing a spot on the cast and lying to the school about why he needed time off. When Wade left SBU, he did so mid-season and told his players he had health problems. Rather than tell the truth, which would have almost certainly gotten him fired on the spot, he left the team mid-season with a phony excuse according to SBU freshman Rhiane Mitchell. "He said he was going for tests," Mitchell said. "We took it the wrong way. It turned out not to be.” The explanation seemed plausible because previously, Wade was told by doctors that he may have a brain tumor. He tried to explain his side of the story to the SBU campus paper, saying of his team, “I told them 'I've got to leave; you know I would not leave if it weren't an emergency. Then, they jumped to conclusions that it was tied into what I went through with my brain tumor.” He said in another interview that he knew his players thought he was sick, but CBS prohibited him from saying he was on the show. “I haven't let the cat out of the bag," Wade said. "And I could and maybe should with my girls who think that I'm in a hospital somewhere dying, essentially.” Oddly enough, the administration at SBU wasn’t thrilled with what Wade had pulled and released a statement saying its board of regents was beginning the search for a new women’s soccer coach. Although unable to specifically comment on Wade’s case entirely, athletic director Brent Good did say that Wade lied to him about his leave of absence. “He didn't come to me and say, 'I need to leave because I'm going on 'Survivor,'” Good said. “He wasn't truthful to me as the director of athletics on why he needed to leave.” Can you blame him, though? After all, Wade has big plans. He intends to use “Survivor” as a springboard to an acting career, of course. “I’m going to be the next big thing on the big screen,” he arrogantly declared. Either that or you’re going to throw away a good job to be a reality TV loser, get in line with all of the other failed actors and look like a lying, deceiving ass in the process. After all, you did tell your athletic director that you would be gone a week but then didn't return for two months. Nothing like bailing on your team with six games remaining in the season when they’re third in the conference and ninth in the region at the time, eh coach? What’s incredibly ironic and funny is that I caught a few minutes of a recent “Survivor” episode and I specifically remember Wade on camera declaring, “I make a living by getting people to trust me.” Yes, and then you take that living and turn a blowtorch on it by abusing that trust, lying to them and bailing on those who depended on you. But at least players like Rhiane Mitchell aren’t too broken up over the loss of Wade. “I'm still a bit disappointed, but I'll get over it," Mitchell said. I have a feeling you won't be the only one, R…………
- Look at you, angry Mexican truckers and transport drivers! While your efforts might not technically qualify you for my Riot Watch!, it was still impressive to see hundreds of you converge on your nation’s capital yesterday to hold slow-speed caravans in protest of high diesel prices and other concerns. It’s the second transporters' protest in Mexico in little more than a week, so clearly these guys (and gals) are pissed off and I like it. They’ve already staged one heck of a protest, on February 16, when 500,000 commercial and public vehicle drivers took part in a one-day strike that affected 16 of Mexico's 31 states and the federal district. I realize that when those drivers parked their vehicles on highways, choking off the flow of traffic and infuriating motorists, it was a huge headache. Unfortunately, there sometimes must be headaches and inconveniences in order to get The Man to listen. As for this most recent act of protest, it showcased drivers making their way around some of Mexico City's major highways at a blazing 9 mph before gathering in front of the national Capitol in the city's central district. For you whiny, inconvenienced motorists out there, you did have some warning of what was about to take place. Authorities did state which roads and streets would be affected and urged motorists to find other routes until at least mid-afternoon, so if you were paying attention, you had time to adjust. All told, some 300 trucks participated in the display, all of them looking to reinforce demands to drop the price of diesel 7.63 pesos (about 52 U.S. cents) per liter to 5.96 pesos (about 40 cents). But that’s not all these truckers are fighting for, no sir. They are also taking a stand against toll fees and a special tax, plus want the government to do a better job of fighting vehicle theft and to stop allowing junk cars from the United States into Mexico. Just a word of advice for these protestors, since I am somewhat of an expert in this field. You all are off to a nice start, as your strike last week affected about 50 million Mexicans and this most recent act of dissidence impacted many more. But do not rest on your laurels, because the work of a true social dissident is never done. There is always something more to strike back at The Man for, so keep it going………
- Nothing like a new construction project resulting in what will become your state’s oldest standing structure. Where else would this happen but California, where monks in the town of Vina are beginning to piece together stones from an 800-year-old building that will eventually become California's standing building of any kind. Monks from the Abbey of New Clairvaux (in Tehama County) have been slowly putting together stones from a pre-Gothic meeting house built in Spain during the Middle Ages. The stones for the building actually came to California in 1931, when millionaire newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst bought the original building, had it dismantled and shipped to California. It was to be part of Wyntoon, his estate near the McCloud River. Nothing like rich people buying up entire buildings from foreign countries, having them shipped to where they live and re-erecting the building, that’s not wasteful or ugly American-like at all. Thankfully, the Great Depression delivered a nice dose of karma to Hearst and for decades, the stones sat moldering in Golden Gate Park. In a solid gesture in the 1990s, San Francisco gave the stones to the monks. In turn, the monks began trimming the stones, fixing broken pieces and reinforcing the building with concrete and steel to meet modern earthquake codes. Over the past five years, the monks have began putting many of the stones together and now they stand behind the walls of the Abbey of New Clairvaux. The vaulted ceilings for the building currently sit on wooden supports in a nearby warehouse, but soon they too could be put in place. "There is a spiritual experience seeing it the way it is now," brother John Cullen said. One factor slowing the project is that it’s being funded entirely through private donations. Because of the ongoing recession, the monks aren’t sure when they will be able to complete construction. Sadly, about a quarter of the monks are more than 80 years old, so odds are that not all of them will see the project to the end. "As long as it's finished and we had a start in getting it begun ... that's enough for us I think," Cullen said. Even in its unfinished state, the building is already open for guided tours on Saturdays. Hopefully those visits will spur people to give toward the project, which has raised $5.5 million so far and needs another $1.5 million to finish the building this year. Support the project if you can and help out these monks, everyone, especially Californians. Put off that extra Botox injection or liposuction surgery and chip off a few dollars for something worthwhile……
- Hulu.com billed itself as the place for no-life-having losers to watch Super Bowl commercials after the big game (as if anyone watching those $3 million wastes of time and money needed to see them again), and for a year the site has been working to become the go-to destination for television-watching on the Web. But with ever-increasing numbers of viewers tuning into the Web for their favorite shows, the competition is becoming fiercer and more combative. Hulu is apparently developing a bit of a ‘tude after its run of success, yanking all of its content from CBS's revamped video site TV.com on Feb. 17 removing programming from Boxee, an open source social media player that lets users watch Internet video on their television sets, several days later. With the backing of News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) and NBC Universal, the so-called "YouTube killer" launched a year ago with ten advertisers and a whole lot of doubt from outsiders. In spite of that, the site had strong early growth. Viewers watched Hulu clips 232 million times in January, a 63 percent jump from September. The site's CEO, former Amazon executive Jason Kilar, attempted to create the Internet’s best media player and cram his site with more content than anyone else. He added Fox, NBC and hundreds of other shows and movies. The flow of shows wasn’t just unidirectional, either; Kilar reached distribution deals that allowed Hulu videos to play on other sites. Of course, all of that wasn’t enough to push Hulu any higher than fourth in the web video distributor race, behind YouTube, Yahoo and MySpace (of course, MySpace is still the runaway winner in pervert quotient among its users, not even close). Hulu made its money by pimping out space in the videos on its site to advertisers, who pay top dollar to have their ads embedded in 15 and 30-second clips incorporated into the programming. The estimate for its 2008 profits is $12 million in 2008 profits, but now traditional media content and distribution companies are fighting back against Hulu. Studios and networks are venturing into the online video arena themselves and thus not so eager to partner up with sites like Hulu. CBS is trying to get TV.com to compete as a major video site that would draw the same advertisers who have paid to put their ads on Hulu.com. While TV.com is still far behind Hulu, it did see a 263 percent increase in viewers last month. Personally I just watch videos of my favorite shows on the sites of the networks on which they air, so I have no use for Hulu, but clearly for the networks, their use for it is now as a target……..
- It happens over and over and over, but every freaking time it amazes me. Of course, I’m talking about the phenomenon of teachers (usually female) absconding with underage male students/lovers. In and of itself, it’s odd because for a long time, the image of the lecherous teacher has always been a male educator jonesing for a hot high school girl, but recent examples have shown women are just as capable, if not more so, than their male counterparts. Witness the case of Lisa Lavoie a teacher from Holyoke, Massachusetts, who is in custody after allegedly leaving town with a 15-year-old student. Lavoie and the male student were found in Morgantown, West Virginia, Monday night after apparently being together for a week. Investigators have charged Lavoie with enticement of a child, which just doesn’t seem like enough for anyone who is enough of a creep to get with a 15-year-old student. Ironically, the relationship between Lavoie and her young lover was exposed on February 13, one day before Valentine’ Day, when the student's parents informed school officials of a possible relationship between the teacher and their son. That meeting occurred late on a Friday afternoon, and when officials went to the school to question Lavoie, she was gone for the day. Because the next week was a vacation week for the school, there was a nice opening for Lavoie and the boy to disappear and that’s just what they did. The boy was reported missing on February 16, at the start of the vacation week. It took a little longer for Lavoie to be reported missing, as she is obviously not a minor. She wasn’t officially missing until she didn't show up for school Monday. During the past week, officials believe that the pair were before showing up in West Virginia on Monday. No details were offered as to how their movements were traced, but knowing stupid criminals the way I do, I’m guessing it was because Lavoie and/or the boy were dumb enough to use credit, debit or ATM cards when they needed cash. Investigators still had to wait to take Lavoie and her teen lover into custody until after gathering enough evidence to obtain a warrant from the district attorney's office. They got their warrant Monday and asked police in Morgantown to arrest Lavoie. Weirdly enough, the school has placed Lavoie on administrative leave pending conclusion of the investigation. May I ask why? Just because she was getting after it with a student, she can’t teach other kids? Sure, she could lose her teaching license in Massachusetts if convicted, but that’s waaaaay down the road. Of course, Lavoie could have really helped herself by (well, aside from not having an affair with a student in the first place) waiting to pull this sort of crap until she had been with the school a little longer five months and until her job was protected under contract. Now, she’s just another creepy, pervy teacher who sexed it up with a student and ruined her life. Get in line, L………..
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