Courtesy of NI Intern Brian F., here's a delightlfully unbiased review of Coolio's website

I don't know what everybody experienced during grade school and middle school, but one thing I experienced was the music of the great Coolio, pronounced Cool-e-o or if you are Will Ferrell, Cool-e-oo-le-oo-le-o. Such hits as Fantasic Voyage and Gansta's Paradise were cornerstones in my life during those years. With lyrics like:

• "I'm a loc'd out gangsta set trippin' banger; and my homies is down so don't arouse my anger, fool,"
• "slide slide slippity-slide; with switches on the block in a '65,"
• and finally,
• "I'm tryin' to find a place where I can live my life and; maybe eat some steak with my beans and rice, a."

I learned to love steak, beans, slides, and set trippin' bangers (whatever those are). Weird thing though, never liked rice.... hmmm.. So why now do I profess my love for Coolio? Because he has just released a new music video and frankly, he is taking rap to new levels.... even if they are levels down. His new song, entitled "I don't want to die" seems to be a little late since he is pretty much dead to me. However, after doubting him, I came across his newly revamped website. And in case you thought that Coolio was broke, no way man... this website is done in FLASH, no static html for this OG. Highlights include:

1. The Bio link that ends on page 2, mid sentence
2. Constant background music of Gangsta's paradise acoustics
3. Coolio's Choice link that shamelessly promotes Madden 2004, and claims that when Coolio plays as the Raiders, he is unbeatable... I don't doubt it since he hasn't put out a decent song in 10 years
4. Coolio's awards link that simply says "Coming Soon" which is just a way of saying, "I don't have any....... but I saw this link on other websites and thought it would be cool." Maybe he is looking for a sympathy award?
5. A chance to join Coolio's Fan Club so you can get spammed with tour dates in Europe.
6. Finally, the most sophisticated part of his website, the "store" link. Which is simply a link to Amazon.com......... I never knew he owned Amazon.com, but it explains his disappearance over the past decade. Instead of developin tight rhymes and bomb beats, he was busy learning html tags and marketing yo... cuz that is how you get the scrilla in the new economy.

So check it out, you already know the address: www.coolio.com

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of notice -- but I will be coming back to Colorado this weekend using my frequent flyer mileage from Frontier. Trip cost me $5, just the amount of money left in my travel budget at the moment.

Meet me at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Downtown Denver Friday night at 9:15pm if you'd like to have a late dinner/snack and then hit the town! Marsha has kindly offered to pick me up from the airport (my flight gets in at 8:20pm). If you wanna meet up later, call me at my same 303 cellphone number. Come celebrate St. Jean-Baptiste Day in style!

Ladies -- Click here to read about the Magic Cone and how to buy one.

Magic Cone is a means through which females can urinate in standing position.
Magic Cone helps you to be less undressed, while urinating, comparing to the ordinary ways.
Magic Cone is very practical while you are flying, traveling, hiking, boating and camping.

This a real, patented invention. Do check out the animation of how to use it for a good laugh as well :)

Source: Ramiro R, www.magic-cone.com

New Photo Album Posted

The trip to Bonnaroo was a success -- in that we all survived. The bands were fantastic, the camping was glorious and the memories? well the memories are all lost -- but here's a few pictures to help us remember. See inside: Matt and Jim the identical twins, the Vanderbilt Crew with their U-Haul Van, The Closer vs. The Franchise in a flip-cup battle for the ages, and hippis climbing trees. Quote of the weekend: "Welcome to Bonnaroo, diggin the hemi!" If only the guys that jumped our Magnum's dead battery would pose for a picture -- I had to blow a valid breathalyzer value before they could start their car. Oh the stories... oh the stories...

Click here to read about the hostel we are thinking about staying at over in Baja, 5 hrs south of San Diego in Mexico.

General Plan: Hexar and I are flying into LAX Friday 7/1/05. We are meeting up with Hexar's friend Ashley and staying the night in San Diego. After that, we will either a) get a ride with Ashley to the border/Coyote Cal's or b) get a bus from San Diego to Coyote Cal's. Meanwhile, the driving group from Austin will leave on Friday and start the 20 hour journey to Baja. We will probably meet up sometime late Saturday.

Then, Hexar and I will leave sometime Tues/Wed 7/5 or 7/6 and head back to the states. My flight leaves LAX 5pm on Wed 7/6. Hexar is staying in LA until the 10th. The driving guys will leave sometime that makes sense to them probably Monday or so?

Original MSNBC article is here.

It's that time of the year again, time to start eating healthier and working out. I take my cues from Sesame Street -- and the government is pressuring them to start advocating healthy eating in order to address the childhood obesity epidemic that plagues the USA.

They are telling the cookie monster that "Cookies are a sometimes food" while other things like fruits and vegetables are an "anytime food". I especially like how they are introducing new characters shaped like carrots and eggplants...

Source: George M, msnbc.com

There was this guy at a bar, just looking at his drink. He stays like that for half of an hour.

Then, this big trouble-making truck driver steps next to him, takes the drink from the guy, and just drinks it all down. The poor man starts crying. The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another drink. I just can't stand to see a man cry."

"No, it's not that. This day is the worst of my life. First, I fall asleep, and I go late to my office. My boss, outrageous, fires me. When I leave the building, to my car, I found out it was stolen. The police said that they can do nothing. I get a cab to return home, and when I leave it, I remember I left my wallet and credit cards there. The cab driver just drives away."

"I go home, and when I get there, I find my wife in bed with the gardener. I leave home, and come to this bar. And just when I was thinking about putting an end to my life, you show up and drink my poison."

Source coolfunnyjokes.com

This is great, check out this article about a HS basketball player that declares himself eligable for the NBA draft after not even making the college basketball team. No one has ever heard of the guy, now he's listed next to other famous college players in Sports Illustrated:

Apparently, LSU has lost another basketball player to the NBA draft. First Brandon Bass, and now Curtis Heroman. Actually, Heroman declared first, back on April 15.

Only Heroman never played basketball at LSU. Well, actually he has. But he never played basketball for LSU, where he is a student. He played intramural ball.

Source: Ramiro R

Tickets for the latest grand adventure have been chosen! Time to start learning Japanese, because I'm flying into Tokyo Sept 2nd - Sept 12th. Planning on meeting up with Mandy in Shinjuku and touring the country a bit! I have loaded up on Japan travel books, started a Japanese class yesterday, and purchased the tickets on priceline.com an hour ago. I'll throw some crazy hatakana characters up here once I learn them so you anime fans can read what I'm up to haha. Anyone interested in joining us? Let me know. Kanganwa, jumphook readers!

Warning: Tickets were hard to find and expensive; they ended up costing $875 and that was the cheapest I could find by 250 bucks or so.

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry La Prise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at age 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.

Source: Ramiro R

So for those I don't talk to regularly, know that I have been ultra-busy the past 2 weeks with various enterprises. First and foremost of which, was moving from downtown Austin to uptown Austin. Along with this, my current ghetto Sprint phone was terribly outdated and would not get reception in the new apartment. Enter the PM-A740 Samsung phone. So this is the 2nd one now, the first one was apparently malfunctioning and wouldn't stay on! Just means I have to reenter my numbers again and take a few pictures over (too bad I won't get the Spears short-shorts picture over again!) But hey, a working phone is worth 2 in the bush... or something. Anyway, I'm open for business w/ regard to text messaging and phone picture mail; so send me something!

Update! Links to free Sprint Stuff here - Sprint PCS Page added to wiki page :)