Hopwood.. Always Up To No Good

Anything crazy been going on? Hopefully something out of the ordinary has been happening in your neighborhood. It's been over a week, so of course I'm going to have some stories to mention. I'll branch all of the place. Some things you're going to enjoy, some you'll probably hate like no other, but you'll still keep reading, that's the goal anyways.



Last Saturday it was a trip to Red Lobstah in Uniontown with the bunch. We rolled 12 deep: Me, Mudcat, Spank, Fortney, Abbey, Ozzie, Maria, Kari, Cakes, Mills, Darren, and Darren's chick. It's always a trip worth making and I'm never one to pass down food trips, even if I'm a little guy. I loaded up with the lobstah skewers, grilled shrimp skewers, baked potato with sour cream and butter, salad, and a bunch of high quality biscuits. Unfortunately, there were leftover biscuits, not acceptable, but I did my part. My food received a big thumbs up though, I was happy.

I get my bill at the end of the night and me and Spank get fired up. How so? They put gratuity on there. I realize it's on there since some bums won't tip, but that's just an insult to my face. I always tip nice since nobody gives the waitress any credit and wants to complain about everything. It's nothing major, but I just like to hook them up for a job well done. If I get gratuity on the bill, they get that exact amount and not a penny more. I know what you're thinking, why let it bother me and why not just add my normal tip on there to begin with? Because they probably looked at us, rolling in with regular dirty clothes and figured we wouldn't pay up. Their loss I say, our money is just as good as the rich guy sitting across from us. Not like it would've been a ton more of a tip, but it's just the principle. We can't be the only people that think this way.



Road trips are always fun. On the way back, with my superb driving skills, I get lost. Imagine that. I drove and in my car was Spank and Mudcat, so we had a fun time regardless. We missed our exit and then took the next one, the right thing to do, correct? Well, we get off the ramp and there's no opposite bound on-ramp to get back where we were. We ended up having to drive around through the city of Hopwood in the mean streets. I'm not sure how mean, but we drove around a good half hour through the city to backtrack to Uniontown and then start the journey again. I randomly asked how many Shinnston people my boys thought have ever been in Hopwood. Spank comes back with 7 as his guess. A few seconds later, Mud is calling Fortney on the phone to tell him we missed the exit and Spank did the same with Ozzie, letting them know we are fools. Ozzie ends up telling Spank that he bought a car in Hopwood before, the irony around here. Hopwood, always up to no good, throwing up H's.

Now we jump into two weeks worth of Kid Nation. First off, even if you're not a fan, I think you'll like this section. Maybe you can even give it a try like some I'm about to write have, for good or bad. At least an edition we're showing this week after my writeup, The_Freak's Advice on Crying Kiddies. The oldest of the two episodes we'll talk about, November 7th started with the kids getting bored. It's weird how we're just now seeing some kids that we haven't seen all year until this episode. Who is Natasha and Migle? And what kind of name is Migle? The showdown has the teams chewing gum. Then they spit the gum out into the hand of their leader and they make a collage of gum with a color key. Strange I know, but I just write about it. Green gets first class for the only time ever. Gold star to Kennedy the Kentucky wacky girl. She was the first to call her parents and they actually seemed excited the kid won $20,000. The other families are rich kids and their parents treat it as pocket change. Divad gets pissed she hasn't been given the start yet. Next week, the teams get changed around.



Next week is here and what happens? The council leaders are giventhe option to pick another person from the opposite teams they want. Nate Dogg, who we think likes boys, goes to the red squad. Emily (Fattie Chicken Pants as The_Freak would call her) is traded to blue. Blaine, one of the big kids, he's sent to yellow to be the work horse. Green team doesn't pick any changes since they feel their team is rock solid. The challenge this week is a fairness deal. They have four groups and have to try to carry 1 ton of rocks over the line. To get the reward, they need to get the 1 ton. The first to get to the line will win the challenge, but if they did that quick, the other groups would turn on them for being selfish. No group tries to be selfish and they still don't get the reward. Randi taps out and wants to go home. Blaine wins the gold star. Re-elections next week and it looks like big drama.

A short thing on new people giving the show a try. Cakes admitted the other day at Red Lobstah that he tried to watch a few episodes. He said after that, he couldn't do it anymore and didn't get into it. That's an honest dude right there, I have to respect that. Then my girl Jas watched last week's episode online and was hooked right away. It's worth a try. With that quick intro, it's time to delve into The_Freak's Advice on Crying Kiddies, for those with virgin ears, beware, we're going uncensored:

The_Freak (8:20:19 PM): They need a damn fight

The_Freak (8:25:08 PM): Isn't that the broad that loses every week?
The_Freak (8:25:13 PM): ...every single week

The_Freak (8:42:17 PM): Yeah Zach, you're a pimp with your jeri curl and mullato dick sucking lips

The_Freak (8:52:03 PM): Why are they crying?
The_Freak (8:52:07 PM): Does she have AIDS?
The_Freak (8:52:21 PM): Bitch ass motherfuckers crying

The_Freak (8:55:53 PM): It's hard to take a guy seriously when he wears a yellow ski hat.

I was hanging in my room the other day and Mom comes up and says, "You have a message from Mario." I was thinking, Mario who? So I check the phone messages and it's from Super Mario himself, she thought that was something else, cracked me up too. It's a message telling me to pick up the game. I already had it on reserve, but was funny I got a call for that from a recording. "It's me, it's-a Mario!" Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. I know I'm a Wii biased person, but this game is very addicting after the first few days. The controls are smooth, nice storyline, game play is easy to get hooked on, no complaints yet.



The English group at my school was reading The Outsiders over the past few weeks. At the end of it, they got to watch the movie, old school style, circa 1983. Anyways, that movie is really good for those who haven't seen it in a while. The storyline is worth it alone. The thing that surprises me is the star power that movie had. In it you get the likes of Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph "Daniel San" Macchio, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, and C. Thomas Howell just to name a few. That's big time. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

It's time for an update on CDs to see what we can add to the collection. We go all rap with one R&B this time. Most of these I just got and haven't had time to listen, so can't give a full review.

Chris Brown: Exclusive. I start off with some pimpin' R&B. Sure, he's a kid, but he's still talented I think. As far as dancing goes, and this has nothing to do with whether the CD is good or not, he's about as good as it gets. Michael Jackson is still the best to ever do it, even if he likes little boys and turned himself white, but Brown does a nice Jackson impression.

Cassidy: B.A.R.S. (The Barry Adrian Reese Story). Some quality lyrics on this, Cassidy can spit with the best of them. The thing I'm not quite as big with him is that he tries to do too many club songs. Then again, that is what sells, so I guess I can't argue his theory. Cassidy's best stuff is probably his freestyle battles against Freeway, legendary. Speaking of Freeway, he has a CD coming out soon and I'm way pumped for that.

Daz Dillinger: Gangsta Party. Yep, that same Daz you're thinking of. Daz from the DPG. He has several solo projects and most seem to be good. It doesn't line up with his mid 90s work with Kurupt, but that's a tough level to make it back to.



Jay-Z: American Gangster. I never was a Jay-Z guy. People are all on his nads like he's one of the best ever, I just don't see it. He's good, but I just think he's overrated. An excellent businessman, but not elite as far as rappers go. That's just my opinion. Then again, I'm saying this and have all of his CDs, go figure. This one here has a lot of the American Gangster movie influences in it. I'll give credit where it's due here, this CD is pretty good. Plus, you can't go wrong with Nas and Lil Wayne on the album. Weird how Nas dropped what is possibly the greatest diss track ever in Ether against Jay-Z years ago, and now they work together.

Playaz Circle: Supply & Demand. These are Ludacris' boys and have been around for a minute, but haven't really been mainstream till recently. The song you know would be Duffle Bag Boy featuring Lil Wayne. That's one awesome track by the way. Members of this group? Tity Boi and Dolla Boy, go figure.

RBX: Broken Silence. If you're a fan of the greatest album ever made (Dr. Dre's The Chronic), you'll know RBX for sure. A few lines of his voice and you know it's him right away. A few famous lines the rap fans know of his? "I drop bombs like Hiroshima" and "Seven execution style murders, I have no remorse because.." Solo he doesn't really made a name for himself, but he's still living like it's 1992 all over again.

JR's Rant of the Week: "Wait a minute! What the hell.. Finley is getting in the ring! That's too much! Mysterio! And MVP in! Kane in! And Big Daddy V on the outside! My god! This is a barroom brawl! This is completely out of control here!"

Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/kidder12

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This is a find from ManDingo. Sports fans will appreciate this. Football announcer Verne Lundquist cranking dat Soulja Boy. http://youtube.com/watch?v=DS3ky9SSMF4



3 Quick Thangs:

1. We haven't had birthdays in a good while. In that case, let's go Friday, November 16th: We didn't pick a good day, one of the worst ever. No huge star on this one. Golfer Corey "The Rat" Pavin, 48. British boxer Frank Bruno, famous for getting rocked by Mike Tyson, he's 46. Doc Gooden, he's all coked up somewhere while being 43. Cosby Show girl, Lisa Bonet, 40. Skater Oksana Baiul, 30. Rough times on this list.

2. I don't get this Tila Tequila chick at all. People, guys and girls alike, think she's actually hot? She's a mess I think, maybe I'm in the minority thinking that. She doesn't do a thing for me.

3. Conversion! I've gotten on rants before on how many WVU football fans act in my area. It's not all, but I don't have to explain myself. In a nutshell, every single year they think they can beat the world and let you know about it. Yet they schedule the School of the Deaf and Blind and teams like that on much of their schedule. No, I'm not arguing that Notre Dame is better, my boys would get creamed by WVU this year. My guys are one of the worst in the entire nation. Still, a lot of them just keep whining on how great they are, blah blah. My boy Spank had enough the other day and finally realized what I've been saying for years. This week? He's loading up on Notre Dame gear, good times. And with those good times, I'll see you in a week or two for more action!