Finally, the month of trilogies has ended with a movie about a monkey, a parrot and a wooden eyeball. It seems like the movies get worse as the summer goes along. Not "oh dear, why did I see this", but "this could have been so much better". Take a look at the Pirates 3 review to find out what's good and bad about the movie.

Time for another Mouthin' Off Friday. I managed to find a nice flash player I liked which works a lot better than what I was doing. This week, I'm pulling out a song from one of their earlier albums. It's pretty slow, but very pleasant on the ears. Every rock band has to have some slower stuff, especially with a melting pot of musical backgrounds like these guys have. Here's Any Little Bit from the Word of Mouth CD.

Snow White is a real bee-yatch. I just wanted to smack her in Shrek the Third. For those of you interested, the review has been posted.

ramada (ruh-MAH-duh) noun

An open shelter roofed with branches.

I'm not so sure I want to stay at a hotel like this.

The mayor of Smithville (population: 1) has decreed that today is video game day. For the next 11 hours, video games will be played and played and played until either my eyeballs fall out or I pass out. (or have to go to bed).

It's Friday and I feel like starting something new. Something hit me yesterday that I should share my fanaticism for Cowboy Mouth. Cowboy Mouth is very upbeat most of the time and a great way to get you ready for the weekend. So I'm starting a (hopefully) weekly series every Friday by posting a Cowboy Mouth song. If you like them, go support them. Go to CowboyMouth.com and check them out. Buy a CD, find out where they will be in your neck of the woods, join the board and chat with all the rest of the fans.

This week I start out with Light it on Fire from the Live at the Zoo CD. This wasn't entirely planned. It was just the first song that popped up when I did a shuffle. But since most shows start with it and it's a live cut, it seemed completely fitting. Just press the play button below.

It has gotten absolutely ridiculous with DJs getting suspended/fired over talking. First Imus and then JV and Elvis were fired over jokes that floated out over the airwaves. Now Opie and Anthony have been "suspended" for 30 days. In radio, suspension = fired in most cases.

Opie and Anthony allowed a homeless man to make rather crude comments about Condaleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth. Allegedly, there were a large number of complaints which forced an apology from the duo a couple of days later. XM claims that Opie and Anthony were instructed not to talk about the incident on air, but a few days after the apology, Opie and Anthony questioned the current scrutiny that all DJs are getting now (never addressing the apology or the previous incident directly). XM didn't believe the guys understood the seriousness of the situation and were promptly "suspended".

It's easy to see that CBS was scared of the potential lost ad revenue when they fired Imus and JV and Elvis. But why would XM "suspend" Opie and Anthony? Opie and Anthony was the highest rated show on the radio. It's not free FM, so there shouldn't be a concern of ad revenue. Listeners are paying to listen to the service. The show is advertised as being uncensored, yet the duo is suspended for saying what they want to say. When they were hired for XM, they were told to "go crazy" and do whatever they wanted.

I find it hard to believe that so many people called in to complain about what was initially said on air. The majority of people that listen to the show are fans. Why would fans of the show complain about anything said on the show, especially when they pay for the privilege to listen? It just doesn't sound logical. Many are speculating that it has more to do with XM putting on a nice face for the FTC to approve the merger between Sirius and XM. I think the backlash from the fans has turned that against them. XM has lost at least 10,000 subscribers. It's thought that number could be up to 50,000 with cancellations continuing to build.

XM has tried to keep subscribers by offering up to 6 months of free service. They've gone so far as to tell subscribers their service was canceled but not canceling it. Slowly companies are pulling ads in support of free speech.

I am proud to say that I took a stand for free speech and Opie and Anthony. I had a chance to make my voice heard by canceling my subscription. The listeners of Imus and JV and Elvis did not have that luxury with free FM. They could gripe all they want, but the advertiser dollars spoke louder than any irate listener. I am making myself heard along with every other fan of the show by removing my money from XM. It might not get Opie and Anthony back on the radio any quicker, but it will certainly hurt the XM bank account if enough subscribers cancel and companies continue pulling ads.

If Opie and Anthony actually come back in 30 days, I'll pay my money to listen. Until then, if I listen to XM at all, it will be through their generous trial accounts.

I'm done with talk about families, balls and spaces. After four months I am finished with topology. I'm not sure which ancient quack came up with this ridiculousness, but with all the talk about families and balls, you know it had to be some Greek guy.

Kudos to my teacher who is more than brilliant. He knows this garbage forwards and backwards. I assume he knows what he is talking about, but I guess that is debatable. I constructed some pretty crazy answers in my homework that sounded just as good as anything written in the textbook or on the chalkboard.

In the end, I received a B for my efforts. All I had was effort because I didn't understand 95% of that class. I think I'll stick to lower level classes for the rest of my class selections. I really don't feel I need to develop the theory of how a circle becomes a doughnut. Just let me work with numbers. If I want to exercise my imagination, I'll play a game or read a book, not write down mathematical drivel.

If you crawled under a rock and somehow forgot that Spiderman 3 was in theaters, shame on you. Most likely, if you are a fan, you've already seen it. If you can't make up your mind, check out my review.

The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, while visiting a primary school
class, found themselves in the middle of a discussion related to words and
their meanings.

The teacher asked both men if they would like to lead the discussion of the
word "tragedy". So the illustrious Rev Jackson asks the class for an example
of a "tragedy".

One little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a
farm, is playing in the field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks
him dead, that would be a tragedy."

"No," says the Great Jesse Jackson, "that would be an accident."

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove
over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy."

"I'm afraid not," explains the exalted Reverend Al. "That's what we would
call a great loss. " The room goes silent. No other children volunteered.

Reverend Al searches the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an
example of a tragedy?"

Finally at the back of the room little Johnny raises his hand. In a stern
voice he says: "If a plane carrying the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton were
struck by a missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy."

Fantastic!" exclaims Jackson and Sharpton, "That's right. And can you tell
me why that would be a tragedy?"

"Well," says little Johnny, "because it sure as hell wouldn't be a great
loss, and it probably wouldn't be an accident either."

I used to look at the TV schedule every night and wonder why they show the crap they do on TV. Now I just shake my head and wonder how they managed to come up with yet another stupid idea. But people keep watching these stupid ideas, which lead to more stupid ideas.

But, these stupid shows are a good thing; they help to balance out the universe. It has become clear that everyone has at least one show that they watch regularly that they wouldn't want their coworkers finding out about. I know I've watched enough Sabrina, the Teenage Witch episodes while getting ready for work in the mornings to counter the last three seasons of Rescue Me. These shows are necessary to balance out the numerous good shows on TV. If people only watched good TV shows, the earth would rotate backwards causing us to devolve into cavemen and lose our TV. No one wants that to happen, so we continue watching crappy TV.

American Idol is the biggest contributor to cosmic harmony. It's necessary to match the numbers of shows like 24, Heroes and CSI. Who knew that Simon Cowell holds the key to universal progress? Watch your trashy TV and watch it proud. You are helping society from reverting back to the days of the dinosaur.

I'm out. No, not the closet kind of out. I'm out of yet another organized entertainment endeavor. It has been suggested to me twice within the past 24 hours to leave a fantasy football league that I enjoyed. It's not that I did anything wrong in the league except voice my opinions on how the league could be better. Unfortunately, those opinions were always different the the majority of the league. Apparently, my strong desire for a fair and balanced playing field is one that very few people uphold. That seems to be the case with any type of gaming league I become a member of. I've already expressed my frustrations in playing in a baseball league at the local gaming store.

Ever since I graduated from college, I've had a problem trying to find a competitive, balanced gaming league. I've tried different games, different stores, different people, but most all end the same way, deserted after a year or so for some reason or another. I chalk it up to my mutant power. Want to watch something crumble, let me be involved. I can't count the number of card or miniatures games I've tried to get into only to have the community disintegrate. I was thinking just the other day that I should try to sell most of that off on ebay. Maybe I could make a little something for my troubles.

What ticks me off the most about the fantasy football league is that I knew a couple of the members. They were friends I had in high school, one of which I considered a close friend at one point, but not so much now. Not becaue of the league, but because I moved away to college and then Cleveland and Tuscaloosa. He found a whole new group of people to hang out with and I'm merely an acquaintance now. I thought this league would be a great opportunity to meet some new friends, but such was not the case. Everybody in the group knew everyone else; I was just a name on a computer screen. Nobody cared what I had to say. If the four vocal members of the group decided something was good, the rest of the league followed like sheep. It seemed that I was the only one that added any comments about how the balance of the league would be affected. Nobody else really cared.

The latest event was the discussion of raising the fee from $20 to $50 (or more). This money would go to pay for the cost of the league, providing larger monetary prizes and buying a trophy and "gag" awards. It seemed like a waste of money to me, but everyone else thought is was the best idea ever. I think I'm the only one who disliked the idea of paying so much money. I could take that $50, buy the next Madden game and play it for many years to come.

The league itself costs $150, yet the same league could be played on a free service. $150 just so the members can see real-time stats and scoring? You can accomplish the same thing on a free service. The people that want the extras can buy them without driving up the cost of the league. Apparently this was unacceptable.

So here I am, wading through the dust, wondering why I care. I guess I wanted a lot more than I got out of it. It also bothers me that so many people only play to win. They don't care how it affects the balance as long as it puts them in a better position to come out on top. I guess it's back to my video games. At least I can change the game if it starts to cheat without causing an argument.