Anyone See Roger Ebert Lately?
He is going through some rough shit right now and the first pictures of him were released on the 24th. The Chicago Eightandfivers may know this already, but I just found out and was shocked. I knew he was going through an illness, but I had no idea. According to the Ebert-penned article, this is how it all went down:
What happened was, cancer of the salivary gland spread to my right lower jaw. A segment of the mandible was removed. Two operations to replace the missing segment were unsuccessful, both leading to unanticipated bleeding.
A tracheostomy was necessary so, for the time being, I cannot speak. I make do with written notes and a lot of hand waving and eye-rolling. The doctors now plan an approach that does not involve the risk of unplanned bleeding. If all goes well, my speech will be restored.
The article is a good read and he is facing his disfigurement and illness with great strength…
“Settlers” Goes Live
The big news for XBOX Live this week is Settlers of Catan will become available Wednesday, May 2nd. No Xbox? No problem. Unlike the Nintendo Wii, you can stroll down to your local Target and pickup an Xbox. You can even accessorize…but most importantly you will need an XBox Live subscription…plus, you will need to be willing to shell out an extra $10 bucks to download Catan.
First person to port it to PC for a Linux version wins a cookie. If anyone finds a torrent of this I would be interested.
Of course, it just doesn’t have the same appeal to me of sitting across from human beings and drinking and joking all night.
Then again, I have a level 70 ‘toon in WoW so I can’t really say I need human interaction to enjoy a video game.
I do enjoy video games more when I know a human is controlling the “other team” as opposed to just trying to figure out a really hard puzzle.
Go buy an Xbox kids! The Wii is sold out forever!
House Resolution 333 Impeaching Richard B. Cheyney
Masterdebaters
Ok kids. We all knew it was starting. I just can’t believe they already narrowed the field to eight candidates for the Democrats. If you care, you can watch it all on MSNBC. I will be watching NBC prime time instead.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night!
Scientists have announced that a new rock floating through space, Gliese 581 c may be a habitable planet. If this is the case, we will need to start thinking about ways to get there. Hell, we’ve been thinking about it as a species for years but we need to put aside social and political differences and really work toward finding a way to migrate to a new habitable planet. We don’t even need to live there really. We just need to be able to grow food on the planet until we find more planets capable of sustaining life.
Once we discover a planet capable of supporting farming, we can send our robo-workers to do do all the heavy lifting and humans will make future livings as Teamsters. Only we’ll all be piloting space ships delivering foodstuffs and repair parts back and forth. Ice Pirates anyone? It may have been an entertaining farce in 1984, but if we as the human race want to go out with a bang, not a whimper, then we really need to start making real progress into deep-space exploration and migration.
We need inter-galactic spaceships capable of traversing millions of miles a la Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek.
Think of it as science fiction if you must…but things change. Sometimes, fantastic stories that were once considered fiction lead to discovery.
MN YOUNG DEMOCRATS CONVENTION THIS WEEKEND!
Since we’re a little political around here, because this guy is a good friend of mine, and because I built him a website to support his campaign, I am posting a mass mail to eightandfive. This mail will go out to people who’ve participated in the Minnesota Young DFL in the past, but the convention is open to anyone who is a Democrat and under the age of 36. We’re just trying to get as many people to this event as possible. Also, I haven’t sent this out yet so if you see any errors in it, let me know:
Dear Young DFLer,
As a young Democrat your opportunity to help us determine the future of youth organizing in the DFL party is here. This Saturday, April 28th the College Democrats of Minnesota and the Minnesota Young DFL will hold joint conventions to merge our organizations. At this convention we’ll be choosing new leadership for the new organization. The College Convention is at 11am at Edison High in NE Minneapolis. The MYDFL convention is at noon at Edison High in NE Minneapolis.
For directions go to our website listed below. Come and help us build our new organization into a strong organizing tool to elect Democrats in Minnesota.
I am running for chair to put my six years of organizing experience to work for the MYDFL to build our core competencies to help elect Democrats. If you believe it is time for us to get serious about organizing young people now then join me on Saturday, April 28th at 11 and let’s build this new organization.
Thank you so much for your help,
Shaun Laden
612.718.9070
http://victory2008.mn
P.S. If you can make it please bring a friend with you. To win we’ll need lots of people and you can help us double our support by asking someone you know to help us out. Let me know if you can bring someone.
IDK Billy Boy
Beware the ides of March he says. Well maybe in your lifetime Billy, but in my life I beware the ides of April more. Today is a day to be wary. Happy 420 all! And an unhappy anniversary of so much more. I have always heard 420 is the day it is because 420 is the police code for marijuana possession. But we must take the good with the bad I’m afraid so here’s a little list of what to remember to forget about today.
- April 20, 1792 France declares war on Austria beginning the French Revolutionary War.
- April 20, 1889 Adolf Hitler is born.
- April 20, 1961 A debacle knowns as the Bay of Pigs takes place.
- April 20, 1997 An inferno begins in Grand Forks Minnesota as a result of massive flooding.
- April 20, 1999 12 students and a teacher are massacred at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO.
- April 20, 1999 The largest single bombing by the US of Kosovo in the Kosovo War.
- April 16, 2007 The single largest mass murder in US history takes place at Virginia Tech.
- April 15, Always:Tax Day
Do me favor, enjoy your holiday and forget what you’ve seen here today, but remember to be careful. And to smoke with a special friend today.
HAPPY 420!!!