Music Non Stop: new Limp Bizkit

Gold Cobra was supposed to come out last year and it didn't. I was afraid Limp Bizkit was going the Guns N Roses route of waiting 15 years before releasing an album. Anyway, the new album is supposed to come out this summer, so we will wait and see on that. I have talked a lot about Limp Bizkit in the past and so while I am not a fan of nu metal, I am curious as to how this will sound considering The Unquestionable Truth Part 1 was so good.

It's just one song, it has it's moments...still out on this one.

Video Killed the Radio Star: Ochocinco going for a short ride

How short? About 2 seconds. Whats funny is that he takes more time getting ready than he does on the bull.

The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Two Starbucks

Where was I when this photo came out? I am a huge Battlestar Galactica fan...seriously huge. The new show was great and hopefully the latest spin off Blood & Chrome will be solid as well...hopefully a little bit faster pace than Caprica.

Anyway, apparently this was taken before the new show aired.  The man on the left was the original Starbuck.  The girl on the left, the new Starbuck.  You read that correctly, they changed the sex of one of the two main characters.  Anyway, Dirk Benedict played nice for the promo tour, but then ripped the show when it aired.  I knew he didn't like the new show, which is why I freaked out when I thought this was a current photo and not an 8 year old one.

The original Starbuck was one of my favorite characters of all time, so to turn him into a her pissed me off a bit.  However, much like the new Star Trek movie, if you are able to forget everything you remembered about the original show then the new one was actually pretty good.  I always hoped Dirk would find his way back to Galactica like Richard Hatch did, but alas it wasn't meant to be.

Music Non Stop: new Unearth

Unearth is a mixed bag for me. The Oncoming Storm was pretty solid...for metalcore. It wasn't ground-breaking like Killswitch Engage, it was good. III: In the Eyes of Fire literally had one good song, This Glorious Nightmare. And The March...well...yeah.

Unearth is almost like the Iron Maiden of metalcore. Simply put, when you have heard one Unearth song, you have pretty much heard them all. With all that said, their new song Eyes of Black from their upcoming album, Darkness in the Light, is actually pretty good. Solid drumming, a nice little guitar solo, and of course the trademark breakdown make this song enjoyable. I might check this out.

Thoughts Without Words: I thought teachers were the cause...

...of the budget problems. That's what I always hear on the radio and read online. Teachers are greedy and if they were to take furlough days or pay cuts then all the budget problems could be gone. In our district our new superintendent is getting $20,000 more than our old sup, and she was only there for 2 years. So some people might be shocked by this, but for teachers...it's nothing new.

For a new position, chief of intensive support and intervention, the commission approved a salary of $171,312. The commission, at an April meeting, had previously set a five-step salary range beginning at $137,496. The amended salary is set at the top step of the range. This position will be held by newcomer Donna Muncey.

So an increase of over $30,000, yet L.A. Unified is going through a ton of cuts. And yet when the teachers refuse to take furlough days or pay cuts, they are the evil greedy ones. I love education.

The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Voltron Force

Ahh the 80's. Gotta love em. One of my favorite shows growing up was Voltron. It was awesome. 5 giant lion robots that can transform and connect into one giant robot...with a freakin' blazing sword!! It was awesome. It ranked up their with G-Force (Battle of the Planets) in terms of coolness.

But like Thundercats, the powers that be want to update it. Now this was done once before and it didn't go so well. So maybe this time is different? Apparently the show takes place about 10 years after the original show and there are new cadets...really? Are they really necessary? Anyway here is the first look at the show.

What was that? That animation is something you see on a Flash animation site or worse yet the Nintendo CD-i! This looks bad...really really bad.

Maybe Thundercats will be better.

Music Non Stop: In Flames - Deliver Us

I like In Flames. I can't deny it. They were one of the first bands that got me into the heavier type of metal with Clayman. If I had to describe that earlier sound it was almost like Iron Maiden with harsh/death vocals. Well like other bands, their sound evolved. The band that put out Whoracle & Clayman is pretty much gone. They came close to recapturing that early sound on Come Clarity. Sense of Purpose, their last album, was bland...and I think that is being nice. That was probably their first album since Whoracle that I just couldn't "get into". Reroute to Remain & Soundtrack to Your Escape were solid with Reroute to Remain actually being one of my top 3 In Flames albums.

Well enough rambling about the past. They have a new album coming out, Sounds of a Playground Fading. Not the most metal sounding title, but it's In Flames, I'll give it a chance. Their first single, Deliver Us, came out and it has a sort of Reroute to Remain/Come Clarity feel to it. I know it is one song, but it's not as bad as I was thinking it would be.

Inside Four Walls: Where's the radical button?

So yesterday my students were taking a test and I will loan out a calculator if a student forgot theirs. So during the test a student came up and asked, "Where's the radical button on this calculator?" I thought it was pretty obvious...just sitting there next to the x^2 button. So I pointed it out to the student to which they responded, "that's the square root button, I need the radical button." I must have gave a pretty funny expression because my TA started to laugh a little. I told the student, "you do realize a radical is a square root?" To which the student said "oh yeah...I forgot."

Funny, but at the same time a bit sad. This is a Geometry student. I have had a lot of "really?" type questions and this one is now one of my favorites. It's up there with the student who put in 0 * (-4) because the student wanted to make sure it was 0 and not -0. Good times.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rashard Mendenhall

So as the U.S. and the world are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, Rashard Mendenhall (a running back for the Steelers) decided to share his views;

What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side...

Wow...that's pretty amazing. I wonder what bin Laden's side was? Oh yeah...it's because we are Americans. This genius decides to keep on rolling though into Charlie Sheen type territory;

We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style

conspiracy theorist!!! I know the NFL is in lock out right now, so maybe if Mendenhall isn't too busy he can go ahead and read this Popular Mechanics article that explains how a plane can "take a skyscraper down".

Thoughts Without Words: Bin Laden is Dead

Pretty amazing to say the least. I was turning into one of those people who thought he would die of kidney failure before we got him. I got to give credit to Obama and the CIA who really upped the pressure and the drone strikes that eventually killed him.

Amazing.