Dune Day

Ant mega colony taking over the world
Chip in soap causes panic
Man uses nail clippers in DIY circumcision

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I'm at the Beach Day

Parents keep child's gender a secret
Invention allows pregnant women to hold models of their unborn babies
Bottoms up for winning artist

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Ha Ha

Teen hits tree after turtle rescue
Pot plants found with dead body in traffic stop
Doctors baffled by girl who doesn't age

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End-of-the-Month Media Day

See more Cat Pictures
See more Ella Pictures
See more Food Pictures
See more May Festivities

See more Maryrose Pictures

This weekend, I'll be dropping off the cats at Grandma's house and heading to the Outer Banks and the "Shore Thing" beach house. Although I will have my laptop, the better to keep up the continuous flow of illegal armaments through Amazon Marketplace, I cannot guarantee that there will be any updates. The only exception might be a big picture of the beach to mock everyone stuck in an office.

Enjoy your Independence Day Week! Updates will resume on Doobie's birthday.

Monkey pees on Zambian president
Reporters find Northrop Grumman data in Ghana
Michael Jackson dies at 50

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Capsule Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews, although I do mention that Jurassic Park had dinosaurs.

Combinations by Eisley:
This is Eisley's sophomore effort, and there's definitely improvement here. The vocalist sisters still sing a little too much, in terms of voice to instrumental balance, but they now have more technique and vocal chops. A few of the tracks make them sound like less annoying versions of the Cranberries, and a few others try to be hardcore, but fail because of the light quality of their voices. You can listen to samples here -- the first three on the album are particularly catchy.

Final Grade: B

So Sudden by Hush Sound:
I was immediately drawn to one of this band's later songs on Pandora, but I like to start from the beginning when I actually purchase albums. There is a ton of potential here, but it's not as good as their later stuff. The guy sometimes strays into bad frat rock territory, and the girl doesn't have any confidence when she sings, but there's plenty of room to grow -- I'll probably buy the next album as well. The most detracting part of this CD is actually the sound mixing / producing -- it's mostly flat and doesn't do anything to bring out the vocals, as if someone recorded it on a Minidisc player in a club. You never really know how much a good sound engineer can do until you hear an example of bad mixing.

There are no samples for this one, but here's one I got off the CD:

Hush Sound - Crawling Towards the Sun (363KB MP3)

Final Grade: B-

Jurassic Park I and II:
These two movies have actually aged pretty well over the last decade -- even in hi-definition, you can't tell that the dinosaurs are made of Cheese Whiz and toilet paper. I really prefer the second movie over the first -- it's nonstop action and people getting eaten by dinosaurs. The first has a boring first hour followed by a great thirty minutes, as if anyone going into the movie theatre did NOT know that dinosaurs were somehow involved (SPOILERS!) I am scared to watch the third movie out of fear that it might sully the Jurassic branding.

Final Grade: C+ / B+

Sinkholes swallow up the unwary
Man blares porn to scare off kids
Crop circles made by stoned wallabies

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