THIS is not good for my fear of crocodiles... or for Captain Hook

I had to read THIS article over and over again just to comprehend what happened. I'm still in a bit of shock and disbelief.

So this is basically what happened. Someone snook a crocodile on to an airplane. This person hid such croc IN their bag that was on the plane with the passengers... not in cargo with luggage. I know. You can already tell how bad this is going to get. Just as the plane was making its descent into Bandundu (The Democratic Republic of Congo) from its capital of Kinshasa, the croc magically escaped out of the bag it was being stored in, and naturally caused all kind of panic and ruckus within the plane. Everyone freaked out and ran to one side of the plane... the cockpit, I believe. Thus, the plane was brought off balance and crashed into an empty home just near its final destination. Yeah. That's pretty much exactly what happened. If I heard the video right, 20 out of the 21 passengers died. And that 1 survivor was not the croc smuggler (who was hoping to sell it?). Whatever happened to the good ol' days of smuggling drugs on to planes. You know, stick a little coke in your vagina, a little heroin in your anus. Maybe swallow a balloon of something... but a crocodile? WHY? Those things are scary and viscious. Even the croc survived the crash. Though, when going through the plane remnants with a machete? (I imagine machetes are used more often than we imagine in Africa) the crocodile was caught in such mess and killed. The one crash survivor promptly told investigators this whole entire story.

Anyways, you can read the full article HERE. And I, of course, must thank Geekologie for bringing this craziness to my radar.

Mix Tape of the Week: Random

I decided to compile a list of 5 songs and share it with You on a weekly basis. Thus we have "Mix Tape of the Week." These songs may be new, old, rock, indie, electronic, hip hop, anything really. They can be from 5 different artists, or 5 songs from the same artist. The possibilities are endless. This is the first MTOTW. Enjoy. Feel free to let me know what you think.

1. Acceptable in the 80s- Calvin Harris

"i've got love for you/ if you were born in the 80s, the 80s/ i've got hugs for you/
if you were born in the 80s, the 80s/ i'll do things for you/ if you were born in the
80s, the 80s/ i've got hugs for you/ if you were born in the 80s/yeah"

2. Take One for the Team- Kanye West (f/ Keri Hilson, Pusha T, and Cyhi Da Prynce)

"she can't clean/ but i bet she got a vacuum mouth"

3. Sun Demons- Stereolab

"sitting at the corner of the heart of paris/ noting the relative common lack
of movement/ where is the noise, confusion, bustle, and hustle/ that one
would associate with the big city?"

4. Lovers Play Dead- Drink Up Buttercup

"the lovers play dead. they dig their own graves. funeral invitations are sent. the
attendance drops every time they die cos everybody knows that they're not really
dead. the lovers play dead, they hop in their graves, no priest to say rest in peace.
time passes by they crawl their way out, they say 'how silly of us'."

5. Art Isn't Real (City of Sin)- Deer Tick

"i am still hanging round and round/ sometimes it's a racket/ but lately not a sound/
in the bowels of history and time/ i have learned to stay back and never shine/ now
i feel stupid when i smile/ for not a journey, but a circus are our lives"

Pet Peeve #1: Socks with Sandals

I'm going to start off by saying that socks with sandals are never acceptable. Ever. I think it's a terrible idea, and unsure why anyone would consider it, and don't even tell me because your feet are cold because that's what closed toe shoes (sneakers, clogs, boots, etc.) are for-- covering your feet! In fact, just about all closed-toe shoes require socks to be worn between your feet and the shoe (unless you want them to smell and be gross). Thus, socks and shoes go together. Sandals, on the other hand, were made for warmer weather, you know, when your feet will not get cold if you're not wearing socks. Many sandals have pieces that go in between your toes (i.e. the flip flop), as well, making it impossible to comfortably wear socks (given it may ever be acceptable to do so in the first place, which it is not). Naturally, bare feet and sandals go together; they were just meant to be. So, if your feet are cold enough to put socks on, do not be a lazy fatass and just put on sneakers, or whatever your preference of shoe may be. And, to spare everyone the aroma of your sweaty feet, wear socks when you wear sneakers.

Socks and shoes. Barefeet and sandals. Got it? Good.

Oh. What does 134 tons of marijuana look like? Just ask good ol' Mexico.

Sooooo. Mexico did the biggest marijuana bust in what they believe to be all of Mexico's marijuana-busting days. However, they don't know the exact record that was previously set (it must change so often that it's hard to keep track). Yet they insist that it has to be the biggest bust. I mean 134 tons is A. LOT. So, I don't doubt it. But it is Mexico.

All of the soldiers who were transporting the bales of marijuana from the tractor trailers to the burning site (I know a lot of people who would have paid to attend that) were wearing masks. Like SARS masks. As if they were going to contract some kind of reefer madness if they inhaled the plant material, which is not toxic. They stacked the 134 bales into the greatest wall I've ever seen. And then they burned that motherfucker down. They said it would take 2 days for the burning to finish. 2 days of burning marijuana. And, probably all of Mexico smells a lot fresher.

You can watch the slideshow from which the pictures above were "borrowed" right HERE.

And, you can read the full New York Times article right HERRE.

If I die from a brain aneurysm or a heart attack, here is why...

I love California. I'm happy I moved. I know it was the right choice. However, there is one part of California that I can absolutely not stand... not even a little. It drives me absolutely nuts. CALIFORNIANS CANNOT DRIVE. It's a fact. I've informally conducted research and it's unanimous. Worst drivers ever. Everyone is in their own world and completely unaware of the fact that anyone else might be on the road. No one signals, and cars just magically float into the next lane-- almost seemingly as if the driver was unaware that he/she switched lanes. Also, California drivers have no concept of when they have to let someone by... they don't get that when I have to get over the 4 lanes to get to the highway I need to be on, and I have my signal on to let you know this is where I need to go, you need to move over, slow down, or speed up. They're all so oblivious. I have seriously never experienced so much frustration and anxiety while driving. Also, back to the point that Californians are in complete La La Land while driving is that they all make sudden decisions- like NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THEY'RE GOING... ever! All of a sudden, you're cut off without signal by someone driving 20mph less than you, and then they just turn, also without a signal. I seriously don't get it. I don't know how any of these people passed their road tests.

I think what bothers me a lot about this is that any Californian I have spoken to about this issue, is 100% aware of how bad they are at driving... and no one seems to care enough to do anything about it. They're just all like, "yeah Californians are terrible drivers." And that's that. They have accepted it and moved on.

Other than innately recognizing Californians' inability to signal when doing anything, this one driving incident had me so scared to drive here. It was dark, yes. And, yes, the driver was a very old woman, in a car filled with equally as old people. She probably could barely see over the steering wheel. Upon making a left turn on to a two-way street split by an island (making it 2 one way streets in opposite directions), the car in front of me turned on to the wrong side of the island! Yes. Driving down a very long stretch of road on the wrong side of the road. I was frightened for this driver. So scared that a car would come speeding down the road and just collide with her. So I drove with her, so to speak. Dropped my speed down to 15mph, and drove along the right side of the road next to her... making sure she was aware she was on the wrong side of the road and that she needed to be really, super cautious. Luckily, the one car that did come driving down her side of the road, saw her, and drove in the other lane. Then we were stopped at a red light. Super nervous me. However, everyone else recognized she was on the wrong side of the road, and when the light turned green, everyone just let her go.

I have driven with aggressively speeding New Yorkers (the true assholes on the road). I have driven in snow in Maryland (where they don't know what the fuck to do when that happens). I have driven in snow and rain in Michigan (who also have no idea how to drive when the weather is a little messy- yes, even in the snow. Every snow, there'd be at least one car in the ditch on the side of the highway). But this. This is the worst I have ever experienced.

I was doing some interwebs research about this topic, and consistently found that based on people's opinions of either those who have visited and driven in California, or those who live in California, pretty much agree that Californians are pretty terrible drivers... maybe the worst. However, there's some test that some company gives to the states or something to see who are the worst drivers. California ranked 4, with New Jersey and New York as 2 and 1, respectively. However, this is simply based on whether people know technical rules of driving, not if they are actually capable of driving. So yeah, maybe New Yorkers don't follow all the rules and are very aggressive. BUT, they know how to drive in various weather conditions and can manage to speed and weave throughout traffic without getting into accidents. In fact, New Yorkers have the tendency to actually signal when they are going to switch lanes or turn.

Well. That's my rant.

Le Origins of Le Sigh

So I've seen more and more recently the use of "Le Sigh" by people online. They're bored, sad, feeling a little melodramatic, whatever, and they express this with "le sigh." I have no problems with this at all. In fact I think it can be rather "cute" or something. Whatever. However, I don't think that most people are aware of the origins of this term. Contrary to popular belief, some super geeky emo blogger did not create this term. Perhaps it was some geeky emo blogger who first started using this term in the blogosphere- though I cannot confirm nor deny this. But I can confirm that the origins of "Le Sigh" is that of the one and only Pepe Le Pew cartoons. Yup, the Looney Tunes cartoon. Well, to be more accurate, it was actually from Merrie Melodies. I do have my overgrown child as a mother to thank for this knowledge. My mom loves these cartoons, so naturally they were a pretty large part of my childhood. In fact, as strange as this may seem, my mom used to pretend she was Pepe Le Pew going after me, her pussy cat. What? It's not creepy. I was little. It was cute. It was a game my mom and I played. No funny stuff. You're just gross.

Anyways, here is a classic Pepe Le Pew cartoon featuring the infamous "Le Sigh."* It's featured in the first 45 seconds of the clip, so no need to watch the whole thing if you don't want to, but I, of course, recommend that you do. This is Mel Blanc we're talking about!

*While searching for the perfect clip, I found that there are tons of these cartoons on youtube and daily motion. Didn't realize how readily available they are.

best direct-to-video movie? maybe!

Okay. So usually movies that go direct to video (or, I guess DVD) are usually pretty terrible. Sometimes they're awesomely bad. Sometimes they're just down right disgusting. However, I found one that is actually good and entertaining. It's certainly not the best movie ever, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I watched it via Netflix Instant Queue, where I have actually found some other good direct-to-video releases. So, the movie I am referring to is: SPRING BREAKDOWN.

This movie stars Parker Posey, Amy Poehler (in all of her greatness), and Rachel Dratch as three 30 somethings who never quite got college (or life) right. So, when Posey's character is assigned the task of watching over the Senator's (Jane Lynch! )daughter and her friends (Amber Tamblyn, Mae Whitman, and Sarah Hagan) during Spring Break in South Padre, TX to assure she doesn't do anything to ruin the Senator's chance of being named Vice President, the three of them decide to go together and do Spring Break the right way. Naturally, funny business ensues, blah blah blah. Additionally, there are some great appearances by Will Arnett, Seth Meyers, and Missi Pyle. Needless to say, how can this not be a great film, right? Well, it was received very well by critics, so I think I've done enough to convince You to watch this movie.

Still unsure? Watch the trailer: