It is a sad day in the history of the great country of the United States of America when October 31st, the date of the greatest holiday ever (Halloween), reminds a high school senior not of candy, costumes, and fun, but that Early Action admissions are due the next day.

That is all.

- Colin Kennedy

So, I guess this could be considered the inaugural blog post for the LIP Board of 2007-2008. I know I’m back to posting when I should doing homework, now that school is back in session. Anyway, I have found an intriguing trend lately. It appears that campus police all over the country are becoming much more strict with their security, especially with regards to the use of tasers. It first started November 2006, when a UCLA student named Mostafa Tabatabainejad (note the Arabic name) was tasered when he refused to leave the library quickly enough. At least, that’s what appears to have happened, but the video is a bit grainy and unclear, which is understandable, as it was shot by a cell phone. This incident had mostly slipped from the public’s consciousness, but with the recent tasering of another student, Andrew Meyer, the issue has been pushed to the forefront once more, again with another accompanying video. This time, it appears that John Kerry came to visit Florida University and the student in question got out of line with his questions. The police asked him to leave quietly and then, apparently when he didn’t, they decided to taser him, and now he’s in county jail. It seems a bit drastic, but, again, it’s hard to know the details of the case. Of course, he did coin the new phrase, “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” so how bad could he be? I just think the current trend is interesting and a bit worrisome. Seeing as I’m going to be in college next year around this time, I hope they keep campus police everywhere on a tighter leash, so I won’t have an opportunity to be tasered.

- Colin Kennedy

Now, I know it’s been a while since anyone, even Joe, wrote a blog entry. But I don’t think this blog entry should wait, and this can kind of be a new inaugural blog entry for the 2007-2008 LIP Board.

Now I would say that there is a sort of trend, spreading over the internet, or perhaps over YouTube. Many comedians now acheiving success, even on Saturday Night Live, such as the guys who did the movie “Hot Rod,” got their start on YouTube making funny videos for fun. One such group I stumbled upon is the user “derrickcomedy”, which is the online account for the comedy troupe named Derrick Comedy. Their particular videos always have my friends and I cracking up, no matter which video they watch. They appear to have hit the comedic gold mine with their irreverent humor and parodies. The first Derrick Comedy video I ever watched was “Bro Rape”. Not only was this one of the funniest sketches, it turned me on to other Derrick Comedy gold, such as “Girls Are Not To Be Trusted”, “National Spelling Bee”, and “Keyboard Kid.” All of these videos had me rolling on the floor laughing, and I highly recommend them.

WARNING: These videos do have some “adult themes” as the official raters would say, and a fair amount of swearing, so be careful.

- Colin Kennedy

Now, I don’t know how much you follow sports, but this is a pretty huge deal. The event was on the front page of both the Chronicle and the Times. And the event was this: for the first time in 13 years, the Golden State Warriors have not only made the playoffs, but they also got past the 1st round of play. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but consider the statistics: the Warriors are an 8th-seeded team who were playing the 1st-seeded team of the Dallas Mavericks. They are the first 8th-seeded team to ever upset a 1st-seeded team in the new 7-game format the NBA adopted in 2003, and only the 3rd 8th-seeded team ever to upset a 1st-seeded team. In Round 2, the Warriors will either play the Utah Jazz or the Houston Rockets, depending on the outcome of their Game 7.

Now those are the facts. But what you don’t get from those is the feeling of the atmosphere at the recent Warrior’s games. Now, obviously a team’s fans are going to be pumped over a huge upset such as that one. But Warrior’s fans? They are arguably the loudest and most intense fans in the NBA. The long-suffering Warriors have finally overcome a 13-year playoff drought, and the fans are draining the frustrations of many seasons with their immense volumes of sound and bright yellow “We Believe” shirts. Coming off of their amazing defeat of the Mavs, neither the Rockets nor the Jazz wants to play the Warriors right now, because they have so much momentum.

Now, I have never been a huge fan of the Warriors, if only because I never really was into the NBA, but when I heard about how they could possibly get into the play-offs a week or two, I jumped on the bandwagon. Knowing the Warriors horrible history in terms of the postseason, I started to root for them to do well, even though it looked like they didn’t have a chance against the solid Mavs.

But know they’ve won in one of the most highly unlikely situations. And they have tons of momentum. So I hope they go all the way.

Go Warriors. I believe.

- Colin Kennedy

So. I was recently on Facebook. (Actually, I’m on facebook quite often.) Anyway, as you know if you have a Facebook (and if you don’t have one, you need to get one RIGHT NOW or you’re not cool AT ALL (that was sarcasm)), there is a little menu type agenda thing that you are taken to every time you sign on. It is appropriately called “Home.” It’s not part of your profile, so you don’t edit it or anything, but you basically get a newsfeed of what’s been going on with your friends lives in several categories: events, groups, photos, notes, relationships, friends, wall posts (similar to comments on the inferior Myspace), profiles, status, and posts. Basically for the non-facebook user, you can learn what events are going down, what groups people have joined/left, what photos people have uploaded or commented, what notes people have posted, what people’s social lives are like, what other people are saying to them, what they changed in their profile, what there doing currently, and what they announce to the Facebook world.

However, I didn’t write this blog post to introduce people to Facebook. I think that I have unlocked the secret to why Facebook is steadily becoming more popular than other such networking sites, including Myspace. It is because on your wall, you get to spy on other people. Yes, that’s right, Facebook essentially tracks your friends’ every online move and reports it to you. With an ad or two. And, knowing the curiosity of most people, this is definite plus. You will be told the very SECOND that Sally and Jimmy break up. Oh No! Bobby joined the “Super Cool Kids Club” group! You must do it too this very moment, or you might be left in the dust! What??? Joe uploaded that crappy picture of me that I told him not to! I must go comment it with insults right now! All Facebook is doing is further fragmenting our digital society, already based too much upon internet interaction. We need to learn to break away from this electronic voyeurism that is so appealing.

As you can tell, I’m a little miffed at Facebook. But it’s not their fault. I just waste too much time on the site when I should be doing homework, and writing essays. But it’s OK. Facebook has a solution for me. I have joined the “F*** you facebook, I’m trying to do my homework.” group and the “I Stay Up Late and I Don’t Do Anything Productive” group.

And now I have an essay to go write. And by “an essay to go write,” I mean a Facebook wall to watch intently for every little change in people’s lives.

- Colin Kennedy

Kansas lost. Not only does that game make me extremely angry, it has also permanently screwed up my bracket. In short, I am extremely mad at UCLA, and I’ll be rooting for Florida next Saturday.

This sums up my feelings nicely

- Colin Kennedy

Alright, I don’t know if any of you people reading this follow the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that happens every year in March, but I’m guessing you’ve at least heard about it. Every year, the NCAA has a huge tournament at the end of the College Men’s Basketball season, ending in a single-elimination 64-team tournament of the best of the best. And every year, the tournament ends up being extremely exciting, hence the term “madness.” I find the best place to keep updated on the internet would have to be the ESPN Scoreboard.

Yes, the teams are ranked by their record from the season so far, but often these seatings mean nothing. Upsets are not unusual, which is what makes the tournament so unpredictable and fun. March Madness enthusiasts (including me) carry around brackets, in which they can pick which teams they think will win particular games, especially the team that will win the whole thing.

Now, that was just an introduction, but you want to talk basketball, here’s my bracket. I don’t want to go into a great amount of detail because that would result in an extremely long blog post, but basically I have the team of Kansas going all the way to being the champion. Why, you may ask? Well, in a nutshell, to quote MSNBC sports reporter Ken Davis, Kansas is “a team built on great defense, but the Jayhawks can also score points.” There are numerous other important details, but I’d have to say that’s my main argument also.

So no matter which team you choose to root for as the teams are slowly dwindled down from the 1st round to the 2nd round to the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight to the Final Four to the Championship Game to the Champion, all I have to say is GO JAYHAWKS!

- Colin Kennedy

So in case you didn’t already know, another teenager was killed in Moraga, the first one being, of course, Kyle Morton. Apparently, and this is partially from word of mouth and partially from the Times article, 17-year-old Sarah Rehm was going down Rheem Boulevard at approximately 2:20 AM at about 120 miles per hour (CORRECTION: We don’t really know the speed she was going, just that it was “excessive,”) for whatever reason. Now Rheem Boulevard is a pretty bumpy road itself, so to be going that fast is insane. Right about the point where Rheem meets Fernwood Drive at a T intersection, she seems to have hit a mailbox and become airborne. Across the Fernwood street, she then proceeded to slam into a telephone pole, prompting a power outage, and causing her car to be rent into two pieces. Her driver’s seat was thrown across the street from the vehicle, and when the paramedics arrived, she was already dead.

Unfortunately, I knew nothing about this girl, mostly because she went to a private school and not the main public school of Campolindo in Moraga. At the same time, I feel a compounded sense of remorse for her, coming only a couple of months after the Kyle Morton incident. I especially feel bad for her mother, who, in looking for her missing daughter, came upon the scene of the accident before the police could go to her and inform her of what had happened. Our small town of Moraga cannot handle such tragedies, one after the other. We should really encourage teenage drivers to become more careful when they travel. After all, not two blocks from each other, there have been two fatalities.

And we all know that no one wants another one.

R.I.P. Sarah Rehm

- Colin Kennedy

Despite the fact that this should be a sad entry, I’m tempted to make a few puns. So bear with me while I get them out of my system, and I’ll be serious. I hope the other members “don’t look back” with bad feelings and that Delp died with “peace of mind.” I know I had “more than a feeling” for him, myself.

Alright, now to be serious. Apparently, he just passed away, “untimely,” but there was no suspection of foul play. The sad thing was he was supposed to play with a Beatles cover band called Beatlejuice that night, and they have been forced to cancel the rest of their shows. Boston was also working on another album, but the status of that album is know unknown, with the lead singer having died. The offical Boston website has replaced their homepage with a single sentence: “We’ve just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll.”

True that. Rest in Peace, Brad Delp. I’m just sorry I didn’t know more about you. You know what I’ll be listening to today as a tribute.

- Colin Kennedy

In MTV’s latest move, they have decided to start a bunch of new sites on which internet viewers will be able to watch and even edit their favorite TV shows. This move is the most recent attempt by Viacom to regain the 13-25 year-old media market, which they have lost to such popular sites as YouTube and Myspace. To put it simply, teenagers are watching TV less and less, opting to skim sites on the internet. MTV, and its sister station Comedy Central, are putting in this desperate move to become popular once again.

Personally, I don’t think this move will have much of an impact. Sure, it’s cool to be able to edit TV shows such as “Next” or “Laguna Beach,” but YouTube and Myspace are already controlling this internet niche. MTV is going to have a hard time in persuading teens to move from already-popular sites to new ones they’ve never been to. But I would never underestimate MTV, they probably have some clever marketing ploy up their sleeve. As a teenager myself, this can only end up in a good way. Hey, more ways to waste time never hurt.

- Colin Kennedy