so I think the new hip thing is to leave out vowels in words. For example, there's the hip electronic group MSTRKRFT, there's the online record label RCRDLBL, and so on. I always see "yr" for "your" in emails and press. It's evrywhr.

so my Gmail has the little ads that show up above the page. I just saw this one:

Full Body Waxing in DC - www.qispadc.com - DC Day Spa Full body waxing Waxing for the hoties in Georgetown

Good, I was looking to wax some hoties.

so I decided to do brief CD reviews of discs I get in the mail, I'm going to call them "Unsolicited CD Reviews."

The very first Unsolicited CD Review is "Beautiful Targets" by Hopewell. I'll listen to any band whose name I think is referring to archaeology, so hey.

The songs are big-sounding, high energy, choppy, and keyboard-driven. The latter makes sense as band leader Jason Russo used to play keyboards for Mercury Rev. A lot of the songs start of quiet but get loud and insistent - the instrumentation almost becomes too much at times, like on "Windy Day (Giant Dancers)," where it sounds like Trans-Siberian Orchestra/prog. At other times it sounds like the score from a musical, but done in rock.

Album opener "In Full Bloom", "Monolith," and "Over and Over" are the most interesting to me because they're catchy and busy but don't go as overboard as the rest. The vocals on "All Angels Road" are kind of annoying, and "Bethlehem" sounds a little Teenage Fanclubby, but with somewhat unpleasant vocals. Those vocals are a theme of the album - high but not quite falsetto and a little annoying at times.

I think if you like big, insistent, over-the-top semi-indie rock (later Smashing Pumpkins, for example), Hopewell is for you. Although with this photo, I can't help but like them.

I give "Beautiful Targets" three unsolicited CDs out of five.

so I entered a LOLCat contest. The contest is for a trip to Vegas, they have all these poker themed cat pictures and you add captions. Here's my entries. Click on them to vote. I can't decide if I'm being ironic or not.


More on the online Poker Cats Contest


More on the online Poker Cats Contest

so sometimes it seems like such an easy job to be a scientist. For example, this study: "Next plague likeliest to emerge from poor tropical countries."

No way! You mean the next plague won't come from Geneva or Connecticut or the Yukon Territory? What a shocking development.

so this is pretty funny - an article about sending the New England Patriots Super Bowl Champions shirts to Nicaragua. They maybe didn't used to do this, my buddy picked up a Tennessee Titans Super Bowl Champs shirt, back when they lost to the Rams, at a dollar store in Maryland. It's an awesome shirt. People are like "nice shi... wait a minute."

so it's Valentine's Day. Time for the annual "Valentine's Day is stupid" post. To me, it's a dumb attempt by restaurants and crap salesmen to have people buy crap they wouldn't otherwise buy (chocolates, bears, etc) and buy overpriced meals to tell somebody you love them. Because nothing says love more than forced and expected purchases. And then they try to guilt you in to doing it, if you don't, you don't love that person.

Maybe I'm a grouch, but I'd rather be told that somebody loves me randomly, not on some day when people are supposed to do it. To me it's just another day, but with more balloons on the Metro.

so Wikipedia deleted the Corey Worthington article again and refused to revisit the deletion. I think a lot of the arguments were flawed, personally. Here is the actual last Corey Worthington Wikipedia page with links, sources, etc. The superscript numbers are the actual references from the article, the links go to the Wikipedia pages that were linked. Enjoy.


Corey Worthington (born March 21, 1991¹, and also known as '''Corey Worthington Delaney''' and '''Corey Delaney''') is an Australian, best known for holding a large party that was reported worldwide.

Worthington hosted a party at his family's house in the Narre Warren area of Melbourne on the night of January 12, 2008 while his parents were away on holiday at the Gold Coast.² The party eventually had 500 attendees and there was subsequent vandalism around the neighborhood. Thirty police officers were called in, including a police helicopter and the dog squad.³

The BBC reported that police were attacked with bottles and stones, and that police blamed alcohol consumption on a lack of adult supervision.⁴

After appearances on Australian news programs, such as an A Current Affair interview by Leila McKinnon,⁵ Worthington became an internet phenomenon.

The Sydney Morning Herald called the interview "farcical", that Worthington "comprehensively steam-rolled" McKinnon and that "Within minutes of going online, McKinnon's tabloid TV tut-tutting had backfired, transforming Corey, who was interviewed shirtless with his pierced nipple on show, from naughty schoolboy to international hero."⁵

Some saw his celebrity as symbolic. The International Herald-Tribune wrote an article on Worthington's rise to fame, saying his "rise from obscurity is a modern morality tale, but it is one that reverses traditional values, rewarding disrespect for parents and property with the holy grail of Generation Z endeavors: celebrity" and saying he is "one of the world's most famous teenagers."⁶ A Sydney Morning Herald columnist used Worthington as an example of why "the letter i will define this decade," and joked "Oh hell, let's call it the decade of Corey."⁷ Radar Magazine called him "a legend" ⁸ while other news sources called him "the face of teenage rebellion,"⁹ a "moron,"¹⁰ and a "brat."²

Worthington lives with his mother, Jo Worthington and stepfather Steve Delaney.¹¹ Worthington had left school and was working as a trainee carpenter before the party.¹² He said his "real name" is Corey Worthington, not Delaney as has been reported.¹³

==The party==

Worthington sent out the invitation to his party via text messaging,¹⁴ Myspace and Facebook, reading:¹⁵

Oh yea party at Mine Saturday 12th Jan.
BYO chicks and grog
No knives, rents will cracK it at me

An estimated 500 people came to the party, and Worthington said many were strangers and that he had no part in the ensuing "melee" as the BBC put it.⁴

==After the party==

After the party, Worthington appeared on numerous television programs, and it was reported that his parents may be fined up to A$20,000 for the party.¹⁶ He was unapologetic during the McKinnon interview on ''A Current Affair'', appearing with an open jacket and no shirt, refusing to take off his sunglasses because they were "famous," and responding to the question "What would say to other kids who were thinking of partying when their parents were out of town?" with "Get me to do it for you. Best party ever so far, that's what everybody's been saying."¹⁶

Following the party, the Police Commissioner wrote an open letter asking young people to be aware of the power of SMS and the internet.¹⁷

Since his news appearances, Worthington has hired an agent, Max Markson,² and has gone into party promoting,¹⁸ going on an international DJ tour¹⁹ including stops at British resorts Brighton, Torquay, and Blackpool.²⁰ He has also been "earmarked" to host the Big Brother television series on Network Ten in Australia,¹⁸ signed a deal with Zoo Weekly which could be worth up to A$10,000, has signed a deal to host a party called "Not So Narre"²⁰, and has been offered a deal to run underage clubs.¹⁸ He gave his sunglasses to Zoo Weekly who are holding a contest for them, calling them "most famous item of clothing in Australian history."²¹

He also received the "Best Week Ever" award from the Best Week Ever television show.

Live News in Australia reported Worthington was attacked outside a shopping mall a few days after the party,²² but other news sources are considering that the fight may have been a hoax.²³

A take-off on Worthington has been used in advertisements in Australia as well.²⁴ There have since been Corey Worthington impersonators at parties as well.²⁵

Worthington's notoriety also spawned the creation of Slap Corey, a website game where users can "slap" a picture of Worthington. The site had been accessed nearly a million times as of late January.^{26 27}

==Sources==
*"Corey Worthington Starts to Pocket Riches"
*"Teen brat Corey Worthington just loves the world's attention"
*"Legend, moron or just a naughty boy"
*"Weekend at Corey's: An Idiot's Guide to Fame"

[[Category:Australians]]
[[Category:Living people]]

so Corey Worthington is back on Wikipedia (for the time being, at least, it's nominated for deletion). The Wikipedia ordeal is the subject of a second news article, too.

so a couple days ago I wrote about how I created a Corey Worthington page on Wikipedia. I thought that was pretty cool, it was a funny topic and inexplicable to me that there wasn't already an article for him.

Well, the page was deleted about 6 hours later, which I think is crazy. The kid's all over the news, even now, weeks later. Try doing a Google News search for "corey worthington." (He explains that his name is Worthington, not Delaney, which was in the Wikipedia page, but hey.)

To me, he clearly deserves an article. Wikipedia people are saying he's only notable for one event, which 1. Is dumb, tons of people are only notable for one event, and 2. I would argue he's more famous not for the party but for the appearances on the media and people's reactions to them. Tons of people have parties and get busted, not many become international phenomena because of it - BBC, AP, International Herald Tribune, Best Week Ever, all over Youtube, Facebook groups, a website where you can slap him, and locally, a card for a 9:30 Club dance night which I happened to see today (and which I scanned, at right).

To me it seems like people don't like the kid, so they're trying to get the page erased. That's actually in Wikipedia policy as "arguments to avoid when deleting something". The page was deleted once before pretty soon after the Youtube video came out, and that even spurred news coverage.

Here's the discussion about whether the page should be undeleted or not. I'm "AW".

so my buddy Max got to do the "Cash Crawl" at the last GW basketball game, where you spin around on a bat and then try to grab money off the ground. That's fellow Colonial Hoops blogger Brendan yelling about "the pivot," which was our advice to Max - keep your foot in the middle then pivot around to get all the money. Unfortunately it didn't work too well, Max got a grand total of $22. He also wrote about it at the blog. Pretty funny stuff.

so sometimes I think the TV media is wrong on purpose. The Super Tuesday primaries are a big example, they've been saying for weeks that after today it's all settled, the end. Then lo and behold, it's not! Big story! What happened! And they have a suddenly lot more to talk about. It's happened a bunch of times before, seemingly after every primary. Obama won Iowa! Huge! He's president! He's going to win New Hampshire! No wait, Clinton won New Hampshire! She's back! Etc etc, on and on.

I think they jump to conclusions too quickly so they'll have something for all the talking heads to talk about, then when their conclusion is wrong, they have even more to talk about.

so this is awesome

so here is my proudest moment ever. I just recreated this page: Corey Worthington.