Video beckons California inmates to Tennessee

Thousands of California inmates are getting a daily pitch on the finer side of what prison life could be like in Tennessee.

The video they're watching touts a private Tennessee prison's larger and cleaner jail cells; 79 TV channels, including ESPN; views of peaceful cow pastures; and inmates in the "Dorm of the Week," staying up all night, watching a movie and eating cheeseburgers or pizza.

The video's stars are some of the 80 California inmates who transferred to Corrections Corporation of America's West Tennessee Detention Facility in Mason last fall in what was the Golden State's first export of prisoners to ease overcrowding. Their taped testimonials are being used in an attempt to entice some of their former jail mates to follow them to the promised land of prisons.

"You're not a number here," one inmate says of the Mason prison. "You come here, it's personalized. It's please, thank you, sirs, you got — I mean you really feel like not so much — I wouldn't say equal, but you feel like a human being in here."

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Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest that takes place annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" — that is, deliberately bad. A prize of US$250 is awarded.

The contest was initiated in 1982 by Professor Scott Rice and is named "in honor" of English novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author of the much-quoted first line "It was a dark and stormy night." This opening continues floridly:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

The first year of the competition attracted just three entries from on-campus, but it expanded to gain international attention and may attract as many as 10,000 entries in a year. There are also now several subcategories, such as detective fiction, romance novels, Western novels, and purple prose. Sentences that are notable but are judged not quite bad enough to merit the Grand Prize or a category prize are awarded Dishonorable Mentions.

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Helicopter Game

Hehehehehe... I am evil. This game is addictive. Oh, heck, I won't get addicted. Darn! Let me try that just one more time! Oops! Almost had it. Okay, THIS time for sure...

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Here's mine:

What mythological creature are you?

UR PEGASUS: "No one is listening.Now you may sing the selfsong,as the bird does, not for territoryor dominance,but for self-enlargement.Let something come from nothing....Pegasi (Pegasus) are the infamous winged horses of Greek mythology. Bellerephon is the one that tamed Pegasus with the golden bridle, a gift from Athena. Youu wish to break the chains that bind you. You especially hate love because you feel that it traps you. Your motto is "love is like dying." You love music and dancing. You hate friends and people that weigh you down. You have a poetic soul and an inner child. Yet, you fight like a warrior and never give up. You always put your heart and soul into everything you do.
Take this quiz!

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Eh. I don't agree, let's say I disagree so strongly with some parts of this so as to make the whole thing a bunch of B.S. Too bad. I'm also not a believer in astrology but at least the whole general Virgo type bears some passing resemblance to me.

My RSS "Junk Drawer"

Omigosh, when did I have time to do all this? I checked my email and out of curiosity, clicked the RSS feed button and there must be a kajillion of them in there!!! I guess everywhere I go on the web, if something tickles my fancy and it has an "Add this feed" button, I click it. Too funny.

So, here's a few of the places I've landed in cyberspace. Their RSS-whatever feeds would be available on their webpages.

Okey-dokey, so what have we got here....

101 Cookbooks -- Look at that yummy pasta ravioli salad. I linked to that page.
52 Cupcakes -- Oh, oh. I think I'm beginning to detect a pattern.
A Hamburger Today
A Socialite's Life -- sort of a gossipy take digs at celebs-sort-of-thing.
ABC News: Politics -- well, this link will just take you to that section of their regular website so I guess they have an RSS feed button on it in case you want to get the digest of shortened articles.
ABC News: Front Page (Top Stories)
ABOUT: Children's Books -- I am a writer and this topic did sound interesting.
ABOUT: Freelance Writers -- it seems any links go to their regular webpages (the About folks) but if you want th teeny capsulated RSS feed version, you have to sign up for it.
ABOUT: Home Cooking -- Did I mention I love to cook?
ABOUT: Literature, Classic
ABOUT: Literature, Contemporary
ABOUT: Low-Fat Cooking -- Ha ha, yeah, right after I get done with the cupcakes and the hamburgers up there.
ABOUT: Political Humor
ABOUT: U.S. Gov Info
ABOUT: Women's Health
All Issues -- That's what it says, "all issues," but it leads to the civilrights.org website. I don't mind. I'm very interested in this topic.
AllRecipes
Mother Earth News
Spendfish: Search for Amazon Deals -- Amazon.com is one of my favorite places on the internet. I once made a wish list there and lost track around $600,000 because the thing stopped working. LOL, I broke my wish list!
American Heritage -- a history place
Awful Plastic Surgery -- Okay, this is interesting.
Back Care -- I have degenerative arthritis in my spine, hips, knees, wrists, and sometimes I just hurt all over. But mostly in my lower back. I thought this place might offer some advice.
American Museum of Natural History
Blog News from Topix
Bloggers Blog
BlogHer -- Where the women bloggers are.
Blogpulse
Braingle -- get a daily brain teaser by RSS feed and much more at the website!
CBS News Breaking News -- Aw, shucks, I can't find the "breaking news" page so here's a link to their homepage and I think at the bottom are links to breaking news feeds and other stuff.
Candy Blog -- what a genius idea! A blog all about candy, nothing but candy...
Captain's Quarters - I do believe it is a political blog for conservatives.
Cheap Eats -- LOL, how many food-related feeds and links is this now? This is an interesting little site. Worth a look-see.
CNET News -- A tech site
Concierge.com -- for inspired travel
Cool Tools -- all sorts of clever and useful gadgety things here
CraigBlog -- Craig of Craig's List
Dictionary.com -- I subscribe to the "Word of the Day" and plan to use a few for my Brain Juice blog's writer challenges.
Donklephant -- a political blog
Download Squad -- tech blog, news, commentary
Drink Recipes from iDrink -- Some of them sound really interesting: Brain Hemorage Cocktail Recipe, Hop Skip and Go Naked Cocktail Recipe, Polish Butterfly Cocktail Recipe and more.
DrinkNation -- more drink recipes
Election News from Yahoo
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Entertainment/Gossip/Celebrity News
Epicurious - "For people who love to eat"
Food Museum Blog
Forbes Technology -- and you should also check out Forbes' lists. Fascinating.
Gadget Candy -- Oh, man, if I was a billionaire, I'd get poor real fast buying all the techie goodies there are in the whole universe.
Gallery of the Absurd -- "gossip fueled art"
Gizmodo -- more gadgets
Grumpy Old Bookman - a blog about books and publishing, aimed at both readers and writers. Listed by the Guardian as one of the top ten literary blogs.
Haaretz - Israeli newspaper's website
Harper's Magazine
Hispanic Tips -- A News Revolución - Daily National Hispanic/Latino News & More
Information Week -- "Business Innovation Powered by Technology"
Internet Outsider
Is My Blog Burning? -- "Tracking food events from across the world"
Virus List -- all about internet security
Kesher Talk -- News and views from a hawkish Jewish liberal perspective
Kitchen Contraptions -- "The blog dedicated to everything you need to make your cooking experience better."
Los Angeles Times
MAKE: Technology on Your Time -- for crafty people who like to make things... their current front page features a radio made out of a Ritz cracker box
Malls of America -- Vintage photos of lost Shopping Malls of the '50s, '60s & '70s
MediaBistro - TV News
Memorandum - political blog
Metafilter Community Weblog
Middle East News from AP - well, if you don't mind that they use doctored faked-up photos and made up news stories
Miss Snark, the literary agent
Most "Popular" News Articles
News Photos and Slideshows from Yahoo
Podmatic -- Create, find, share podcasts
MSNBC Environment
Barak Obama News
My Boring Ass Life -- Kevin Smith's weblog
NASA Breaking News -- it's their page for the media to see their latest press releases
NASA's Image of the Day Gallery - mindblowing awesome
NASA's Earth Observatory
National Weather Service
New Urban Legends
News at Nature.com
NYT Sunday Book Review
Obscure Store and Reading Room -- odd bits and pieces. Interesting.
Odd News Photos
Oddly enough news
Official Google Blog
Operation Gadget
William F. Buckley
PaleoJudaica
PC Magazine
Pew Internet
Political Animal
PollingReport.com - very interesting, find out what the polls say... about a lot of different things
PopGadget -- personal technology + innovative lifestyle for women
Positive Fanatics - IKEA's web journal
Powerline Blog -- politics, conservative
Profile America -- from the U.S. Census Bureau
Radio FreeBlogistan -- a personal blog about blogging
RawStory -- news headlines blog
Recent Supreme Court Decisions
Recipe Zaar
Review Finder
RoadFood.com - Great regional meals along highways, in small towns and in city neighborhoods. It is sleeves-up food made by cooks, bakers, pitmasters, and sandwich-makers who are America’s culinary folk artists. Roadfood is almost always informal and inexpensive; and the best Roadfood restaurants are colorful places enjoyed by locals (and savvy travelers) for their character as well as their menu.
Rosemary Goes to the Mall - a blog about a woman who buys lots of things just to collect shopping bags from different stores (she returns the items the next day without the bags).
Salon.com
Science News
Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Watch
Search Engine Watch Blog
SFGate -- newspaper blog
Small Town Misfit -- a collection of police blots from small town newspapers
Sophos Internet/Computer Virus Hoaxes
Space.com - the RSS feed I signed up for was "Image of the Day"
Starbucks Gossip
Strange New Products
Sugar Savvy -- content on chocolate, the latest candy bars, gum flavors and much more in the world of sweets.
SuperSizedMeals.com
Taquitos.net -- snack food reviews
Techdirt
Technobabble from Lockergnome
TechnologyOwl -- The latest technology news from around the web
Entertainment News
The Art of Drink
Celebrities Weblog
The Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan)
The Food Section
The Hollywood Exclusive
The Huffington Post
The Impulsive Buy -- "putting the 'ew' in review"
The Red Ferret Journal -- tantalisingly tasteful, tacky and taut tech trivia
The Trump Blog
The View from Here -- a blog where a man named Harry and a woman named Ziva discuss the important issues of the day. Well, at least the important issues of their day. It's not intended for children, the easily offended or self-hating Jews. Except Woody Allen. He's funny. In an endearing self-deprecating "I hate my Jewish self" kind of way.
Third Party and Independents
Time Magazine
Trashionista -- book readers
Travel Plan Idea Blog
TwitTV -- "newscasts you love from people you trust"
U.S. Congress News
First Amendment Center Online -- comprehensive research coverage of key First Amendment issues and topics, daily First Amendment news, a unique First Amendment Library and guest analyses by respected legal specialists.
U.S. Supreme Court Blog
Underneath Their Robes -- News, gossip, and colorful commentary about the federal judiciary
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
US-CERT -- United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team -- The US-CERT Current Activity web page is a regularly updated summary of the most frequent, high-impact types of security incidents currently being reported to the US-CERT
USGS Earthquake Center
Valleywag -- a tech gossip rag
Variety
Ventura County Star
Village Voice
Washington Post
U.S. Congress Votes Database
Weather News
WebMD
WeSmirch -- digging up dirt on celebrities
Windows Fanatics
WIRED Gadget Lab
Wonkette - D.C. gossip
Woot! - Tech reviews
The Free Dictionary
Writers Write Writer's Blog
Yahoo Buzz Index
The Awful Truth - celebrity gossip
Yahoo News Home
Yahoo Politics News
Yahoo Picks
Yahoo Search Blog
Yahoo Shopping Blog
Yahoo Tech
Yahoo Tech Advisors

...and that's not even ALL of them!!!! LOL!!!

Voyeur Camera in Shampoo Bottle

Man, 25, Facing Voyeurism Charges

MANCHESTER -- Water wasn't the only thing running in a shower shared by five roommates, two of them women, police said Wednesday.

Also running, police said, was a tiny camera inserted into a bottle of shampoo to record the women showering.

According to the police report, one of Thibodeau's male roommates became curious Saturday about a large bottle of shampoo that had been in Thibodeau's shower basket for a long time. It apparently had not been moved.

Police said the roommate noticed a tiny hole in the front of the bottle and wires protruding from an opening in the back. He called police.

MORE...

Paper Toys

Paper Toys

Stuff for kids and grownups -- this website is incredible with models of Neuschwanstein Castle and the Taj Mahal and more that you can print, enlarge (if that's your desire), cut out and put together. Comes with instructions. Some more interesting paper "toys" they have:

U.S. Capitol Building

Mississippi Queen Riverboat

DeLorean

Ferrari Testerossa

Mount Rushmore

Paper Doll

Statue of Liberty

Thanksgiving Turkey

...and more!!!

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Matchbook Museum

Like, I could have totally done this with matchbooks I collected since the 1950's but I have no idea where they are now.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

You Are the Artist

Do you feel like teasing someone today? Would you like to sketch the face of one of your colleagues? What are you waiting for? This website gives you a chance to sketch a face and display your masterpiece even though you are neither a fine arts or an IT student.

Just use the database. It is going to be fun. You might be surprised by the results. Go Ahead!

VISIT THE WEBSITE

10 x 10 - 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time

100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time.
This is Now About 10x10 Developer? Press

Instructibles - for all you Do-It-Yourselfers

Instructibles!

So, you like to make stuff? Do things on your own? Figure it out yourself? This is the website for you! Post your latest do-it-yourself project with step-by-step instructions then browse the many other DIY simple (and some very goofy) little projects posted by others.

WARNING: I suspect this website is highly addictive. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Just my observation, but, their homepage's navigation doesn't make it very clear how you get to see the other peoples' projects (with instructions). You have to click just about any link and once you get inside the website, the navigation links are a bit easier to figure out.

Some of their listed projects:

Build a Nintendo NES PC

Invisible Book Shelf

How to open a bottle of beer without a bottle opener

Shake it like a Tic-Tac!
Rechargeable led flashlight powered by magnets housed in the obligatory mints container

How to draw graffiti

Burn Yourself with Big Red Gum

How to make a stencil using Word.

Q-Tip Gun

Air Powered Potato Cannon

How to Make Playdough (Play-doh)

Cooking... with your car

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Does a bear do WHAT in the woods?

For more funny pictures, visit FunLOL.com!

Happy Birthday, Gumby!

DMGI will be posting all 223 episodes of Gumby on YouTube for the show's 50th anniversary. Here's the first, Gumby on the Moon.

15 (Other) Uses for Vodka

Starting with: 1. To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The Solvent dissolves adhesive. READ THE REST HERE. The solvent dissolves the adhesive? And you're drinking that stuff??? Seriously?

ChineseNames.org

Free Chinese Names - English to Chinese Name Translation
Have an English name and want to translate it to Chinese? Or simply want to know what's the Chinese name for Mickey mouse, which is ? Chinesenames.org has the most comprehensive index of translations of English names, over 40,000 names! No matter you want to find a Chinese name for yourself, your baby or your dog and cat, simply browse our Chinese name dictionary to get the English name translated into Chinese and download your Chinese name image written in Chinese symbol for FREE! You can use the image to do a tattoo or just learn how to write your name in Chinese character.

VISIT THE CHINESENAMES.ORG WEBSITE

Also:

Chinese Girl Names

Chinese Boy Names

Chinese Surnames

Chinese Dog Names

Chinese tattoo
Popular Chinese Symbols
Chinese Symbols for Chinese New Year
Holidays Greetings in Chinese Symbols
18 calligraph symbols of Chinese Dragon
Chinese web site translation and web localization service

First Three-Way Tie in Jeopardy History - See It Here!!!

I bet that guy is pissed he didn't wager more money. LOL.

Neighbors That Aren't Neighbors

This post has been on my mind for a while now but I am just now getting around to putting my thoughts into written words. It's sort of stating the obvious and that always makes me feel kind of stupid for having to say something that any normal person would "get," anyway.

I understand that the guy who lives in the house next door on the one side is a nutball so all his nutty antics over the years come as no surprise anymore and nothing he does really gets to me (with the exceptions of how he's endangered my Mother's life).

I'll do a whole Nightmare Neighbor Story on him at some point in the future. Some of his stuff that he's done is just incredible. So alarming, in fact, that the Sheriff's Dept. told me to get a restraining order on this guy.

But enough about him. I want to talk about "neighbors," plural, as in what is a neighbor and what is a neighborhood? And who are these people living in these houses that I see every day and why are they the way that they are?

The one family across the street would be psyched out to know they are living in a house with very bad juju. The original homeowners had a real tragedy -- the wife pulled a Mary Alice and blew her brains out in the living room. I don't even remember seeing police cars or ambulances, but it was the talk of the neighborhood at the time and that's how I found out about it.

If you are a parent who is reading this, I know if you are normal, it is your prayer that your children grow up to be decent human beings with a strong sense of morals - knowing right from wrong and so on. That is your job as a parent... to teach that person how to be a person and how to get along with the rest of the human race.

So the neighbors who live in the bad juju house have a son who looks to be about 12 or 13 years old and who likes to shoot hoops at the basketball hoop they set up on the curb in front of their house.

And what kind of human being are they raising up? Well, when I come home from the supermarket and I can barely stand and walk due to the degenerative arthritis in my spine and hips and knees and just about everywhere, I have a mighty struggle to bring my bags of groceries into the house.

That's not anyone else's problem. That's my problem to deal with and I have no expectation that the man sitting on the tailgate of his truck watching me struggle would ever get up off his ass and offer to help me. My gosh, that would mean acting in a neighborly fashion and we certainly couldn't have that, could we?

What I think is an even greater indicator of character emanating from the bad juju place is that 12 year old son who also sits on the tailgate next to Daddy and laughs as Daddy makes fun of the way I have to walk.

And one day, Son with several of his pals, came halfway across the street just to scream obscenities at me as I walked from my car to my front door. It wouldn't be the last example of such behavior. Sometimes, even in the presence of both parents who never tell their human-being-in-development that's the wrong thing to do.

The same goes for the unfeeling neighbor across the street who is best buddies with this neighbor. And his kids.

They are also friendly with the nutball neighbor next to me so I guess I know where the hostility comes from. These people don't know me but they teach their children it is acceptable to verbally abuse a disabled elderly person.

The gossip campagn even spoiled a friendy relationship I'd begun with the new neighbors who moved in next door on the other side of me. Their 13 year old son had been polite and friendly with me and I know it was his idea to invite me to his bar mitzvah party in their back yard.

He happened to walk to the front of my driveway to see my address numbers by my front door and yelled them out to his Mom who was on the other side of the hedges that divide our front yard. He saw me sitting on my little camp stool, smoking a cigarette and smiled. When he called out my address to his Mom, she yelled back, "I told you I'm not inviting her!" Mom didn't know I was sitting not more than ten feet or so away from her. The poor kid was embarrassed and hurried back to shush his Mom before she said more.

I do not know what happened there other than this lady joined the clique that began with my nutball neighbor.

The nutball neighbor who shot firecrackers directly at my Mother who was not able to run with her walker. The nutball neighbor who called the police to report that I had murdered my Mother. The nutball neighbor who called the fire department to say my house was on fire when no such thing was true. Oh yeah, Mr. Nutball is a fireman.

But my new friend has no more words for me, no more hello's, no more friendly relationship once the clique got ahold of her. She'd rather ally herself with the firecracker thrower.

These are the lessons these people are teaching their children. These people who live in houses that I see. I just don't happen to see any neighbors.

Flash Games, etc.

NEW FLASH CREATIONS FROM KIZASH
Britney Wigged Out
Math Search
Skyline Urgency
Matchsticks
Crazy Cruise
Mahjongg
Lightning
Bowling Game
Knight Switch
Space Invaders
Hovercraft Racing
Hex Mines
Hangman
Flip It
Disc Battle
Cup Stacking
Coin Weighing
Asteroids
Arrows
Basic Arkanoid

TrafficWars.com

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Overheard in New York

What a great idea. You are out in public, you hear a massive amount of dumbness or meanness or insanity being spewed and you think, "Hmmm... I should start writing some of this down."

That's precisely what the "Overheard in New York" website is doing. They copy down the crappiest crap, the funniest, the strangest things that New Yorkers have been overheard saying and they share it online. Here are just a few examples:

When You're Here, You're Dysfunctional Family Blonde looking in compact: I need a new nose. Boyfriend: I need a new apartment. Blonde, whiny: It's always your needs! What about mine?! Boyfriend: You just spent five thousand dollars on your fucking tits with my money! Server waiting to take order: I'll come back when you two are ready... --Olive Garden, Chelsea

It's All in the Fricatives Granny: Be careful! Man jaywalking with several bags in hand: Ma, I know how to walk the streets in New York. [Car comes to screeching halt in front of him and honks. Man yells to driver] Fuck you! [To granny] See, I'm fine. --Main St, Flushing

Loud grandma tourist blocking crosswalk: What's the matter with these people?! Why are they crossing the street? Can't they see the 'No crossing' sign? Where do they think they're going? --Times Square

Nobody in New York Knows the Difference between At-Home and Outside Conversations Yuppie kid: Mommy shaves her hoo-hoo! Yuppie dad: Okay, honey. Look, do you want your book? Yuppie kid: I came in the bathroom this morning and asked Mommy what she was doing and she said shaving her hoo-hoo. Mommy shaves her hoo-hoo! Yuppie dad: Dylan, remember when we discussed at-home conversations and outside conversations? Yuppie kid: Yes. Yuppie dad: Well, this is an at-home conversation. Yuppie kid: Okay, daddy. [Sings to herself quietly] Mommmyyy shaves her hoo-hooo... Black lady: See, home conversating, outside conversating -- that's bullshit. My kid says shit like that, I smack him. He won't say shit like that again. Yuppie dad: Okay, thank you, but I think our method works just fine. Yuppie kid: Lady, do you shave your hoo-hoo? Black lady: Oh, yeah, that shit is workin' just fine. She's all kinds of polite. Yuppie dad: Okay, Dylan, this is our stop. --R train

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Ann Coulter: New Yorkers would surrender to terrorists

Is she a man? An honest-to-goodness transsexual? Notice (in this and other videos and photos) the presence of an Adam's apple. Or is Annie merely a transvestite?

APOLOGY NOTE TO TRANSSEXUALS AND TRANSVESTITES: I'm not trying to insult you.

Wooden Spoon Prank

Okay, I was going to post something like, "How stupid can one guy be?," but I kind of feel sorry for this guy so, I won't.

What Happens When You Pour Coke On Raw Pork?

Anybody hungry for pork chops? MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!