Hookah Fun

The reason why I'm doing the Friday post on Saturday, once again, is depicted on the left here. I'd never tried it before, so my brother and a couple of our cousins decided that we should go to a hookah bar. We followed the recommendation of another cousin of ours and landed at some teenie bopper place with 14 year old girls freak dancing with each other and a DJ who was never around. When I first went in there I felt kind of guilty, like I was doing something wrong. What's so bad about it though? It's perfectly legal (though some of the people there were underage). Hookah shisha isn't as addicting as cigarettes (or weed for that matter), and it's smoother so it doesn't mess up your lungs quite as badly. Not that it's good for you or anything, but it's much less damaging than cigarettes because it's heated and not burned. If any of you haven't tried it and are planning on it I should mention that one hookah (with one pipe) lasted the four of us for three hours! The girls weren't getting as much smoke as my brother and I were, but I think even if they were it would've lasted us a couple of hours and it only cost $8 (plus $5 cover each for the crappy DJ). Let it be known though that I never have and never will smoke anything else but hookah. Anyway, it was good stuff overall.

I referenced a Wikipedia article above so it's only fitting that I start out my tech news with word that they'll be tightening standards over at Wikipedia. I guess abuse was inevitable. I ran into a really good editorial about how we shouldn't hate Microsoft. I dislike M$ more for their business practices than their products, but that article does bring up some great counterpoint for haters of M$ software. Google is looking for a few good chefs to feed their employees and that makes me wanna intern there even more! That menu is so mouth-watering. BusinessWeek has an interesting article on receipt fraud that makes me wonder why people go to such great lengths to be dishonest. If only they used those talents for something better. Lastly, Economist.com has a surprisingly well-written article about the debate on violence in videogames and is really quite objected. The best line was the following:

"So games are inherently good, not bad? Actually they are neither, like books, films, the internet, or any other medium. All can be used to depict sex and violence, or to educate and inform."

Not too much movie news today so I'll go straight to the good stuff. You may remember a lawsuit filed against Sony a few years ago regarding false advertising for their movies and now the result is a $5 refund to customers of those films. I doubt anyone actually would keep their stubs to such crappy movies, and if you didn't then that's alright because the money will just go to charity. Apparently, we can look forward to another Stephen King movie adaptation from Frank Darabont, but this time it's based on the novella The Mist. Quint finally put up a review of Broken Flowers, and it sounds like a good movie that just too slow. Given that I didn't like Sideways I should probably wait for this one to come out on video. Sin City is out on DVD and VHS for those of you who didn't catch it in theaters (or who absolutely loved it) featuring some collectible covers. For the same reason I'm waiting on Kill Bill though you should wait on this one: no worthwhile special features yet. Lastly, IGN has a set visit for The 40-Year-Old Virgin and it serves as a great preview for the movie, which you should all be excited to see.

Now for the Friday Fiver:

1. Do you play any sports?
All I play regularly is intramural stuff for NSC. I enjoy playing soccer, basketball, football, and racquetball the most.

2. Do you exercise on a regular basis?
As the people on my AIM buddy list know, I go to the gym nearly every day. I'm only there for 40-60 minutes, but I'm usually pretty tired by the end of it so I think I do alright.

3. Name one person that raises your blood pressure:
George W. Bush (for obvious reasons)

4. You need to go up two floors in a building: do you use the stairs or the elevator?
Obviously the stairs unless I'm really hot and the stairs have no a/c. Other than that I don't see the problem using the stairs.

5. One thing that makes you go "Hmmmmm"?
Does 'The Daily Show' count?