Bragging

So on New Years Day I went bowling with my family. It's sort of a tradition that we've been doing for the last little while. I figured it'd be a good opportunity to spend time with the fam and roll a few games. I had no idea I was going to bowl the best game of my life.


Yes, I had the girl behind the desk print out the scoresheet. You have to have proof of things like this or nobody will ever believe you. Along with being my highest score ever it's also my first clean game ever. For the 98% of you out there that don't know the term, a clean game is when you have a strike or spare in each frame, so basically no open frames.

Anyway, I'm done patting myself on the back now.

Murder suspect poses with possible murder weapon on myspace

In another example of stupid criminals metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot with social networking sites, Deamonte Tavaris Brooks, 18, charged with one count of murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury stemming from a November 8 shooting, is helping investigators to build a case against him by having previously posed with the potential murder weapon in pictures featured on his myspace page, according to Michael Blesecker of the Raleigh News & Observer.

According to Blesecker, "The page is titled "Crip Swag" and makes numerous mentions of Brooks' affiliation with the Crips street gang."

Sounds like an upstanding member of the community to me.

Police covered their bases and obtained a search warrant to document any potential evidence found on the myspace page. The warrant was executed December 18th and Investigator M. Soucie noted that "Upon further investigation it was discovered the suspect had a MySpace account and had photos of the possible murder weapon along with comments and messages that may be related to this crime, the MySpace account was viewed and did in fact contain photos of the suspect holding several weapons."

I decided to check Mr. Brooks' Myspace page for myself to see if it is as self-incriminating as Blesecker makes it sound. He wasn't exagerrating:

The first two pictures are of what police believe to be the murder weapon. The other two are of an automatic rifle and a sawed-off shotgun.

It continues to amaze me with how stupid some people can be when it comes to Myspace and Facebook. Do you think these photos and "cryp swag" layout are going to shave any years off when it comes to his sentence? What amazes me even more is that it keeps on happening. You'd think that if you've dedicated yourself to a life of crime, or at least decided to dabble in the "thug lifestyle" that you would think twice about advertising your misdeeds and/or weapons arsenal on a website accessible to anybody with two thumbs and the IQ of a speed bump, let alone the COPS. Deamonte may not be the sharpest gangstrrr on the block, but at least he went down in style.

Social networking sites have turned into a real asset for investigators trying to put away criminals that are more concerned with looking good than not getting caught, it makes it easier for them to get these boys off the streets and make life safer for the rest of us, plus it gives me something to write about. It's unfortunate that this kid had to go and kill somebody to make a name for himself.

Hockey Night in Raleigh

I went to the Carolina Hurricanes game against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight. My mom scored some sweet tickets so I went along with my family. It's the first time I've been to a game so far this season (I'm poor and tickets aren't cheap). But the cool thing about going out with your parents is that you don't have to pay to get in.


I know, I'm cheap, but it's okay for me to be cheap right now because I'm in school. I'll remember my parents kindness thirty years from now when I put them in a real nice old folks home.

Anyway, I'd forgotten how much more fun hockey games are when you are actually there as opposed to watching on TV. You see so much more when you're in the arena. My favorite part was when during a brief altercation after a whistle, while the refs were paying attention to a different group of players pushing and shoving, Tim Gleason shoved a Thrashers player's head into the glass. Canadians showed good taste in choosing a national pastime.

My least favorite part of the game was before the game started. I dropped my beer and spilled it all over myself and the seats of the people sitting in front of me. I felt terrible, but the guy was cool about it. The girl he was with wouldn't look at me.

Anyhoo, back to the game


The Hurricanes looked well-rested and their forecheck was outstanding. The 'Canes responded to Ilya Kovalchuck's wrister that went by Cam Ward in the first period with three unanswered goals. Sergei Samsonov was a manimal, picking up two goals and an assist in the 3-1 win.

My inner sportswriter is starting to take over... I'll try to pace myself from here on out.

One last note about the game. The three stars were 1) Sergei Samsonov 2) Tuomo Ruutu and 3) Joe Corvo. All players acquired last season by GM Jim Rutherford (Samsonov was picked up off waivers from the Blackhawks while Ruutu and Corvo were acquired via trades with the Blackhawks and Senators, respectively) so cudos to Mister Jim on picking up players that have been solid contributors to the team.

Remind me to NOT advertise my underage drinking party on Facebook

Gaston County Police used a Facebook posting to help them find a party Saturday night where they found at least 31 underage drinkers.

WCNC of Charlotte is reporting that 47-year-old Steven Haney and his girlfriend, 39-year-old Melissa Wilson, were charged with aiding and abetting underage possession/consumption of alcohol.

Here's the kicker though, turns out the police were tipped off by somebody that was spying information from the popular social networking site. WCNC says it was a "diligent adult who was monitoring the internet and found a note about the party."

I like to think it was somebody that didn't get an invite, hell hath no fury like somebody that gets left out int he cold while everybody else gets to have fun. Payback is a bitch.

Anyhoo, this is yet another example of people getting burned for what they think is anonymous on the internet. While facebook is slightly more secure than myspace, a lot of people leave their profiles, pictures, or events open to the public. Beleive it or not, people are searching for information about you, "google" is not just a noun, so avoid having anything public out there that you wouldn't want your boss taking a look at.

Fake ID case points to NCSU Students, Frat member

In a case that's been brewing over the last few days since finals have ended, two currently enrolled NCSU undergrads have been identified as middlemen to a NCSU alumn who is accused of selling fake ID's to NCSU students. This according to search warrants attained and reported on by WRAL and the Raleigh News & Observer.

Robert Wayne Bullock, the aforementioned NCSU alumnus who is(was?) a Duke grad student was arrested this week and was soon-after released on bond from the Wake County Jail.

Apparently the authorities had been aware that something was up for a few months when they started confiscating several high-quality fake id's from clubs and bars in the Raleigh area.

They were high quality because Mr. Bullock had procured himself a printer and laminator from the DMV, along with laminating paper with those nifty holograms and whatnot.

The most recent development is the indication by these search warrants that current (and, I'm assuming, soon to be former) NCSU students were helping to distribute the fake ID's to State students. These guys seem to have used the "autobahn of innovation" in a direction not foreseen by State's marketing and recruiting staff.

Here's an interesting tidbit not yet being reported anywhere that I know of: one of the NCSU students implicated in the search warrants happens to be an active member of one of NCSU's more prominent greek fraternaties. I'm not going to disclose this kid's name here since he hasn't been formally charged that I know of, and I also wont name the frat, because lets be honest, I don't have a readership, and twigs in the forest don't make a noise if nobody is there to listen.

Anyway, back to the frat angle. It's entirely possible that his being a brother at a very active campus frat is consequential, or it may turn out that his fraternity connections gave him this opportunity for criminal mischief. Either way, this isn't the kind of publicity you need if you're one of the more prominent social organizations on campus.

Srsly?

I was randomly perusing a semi-popular test-taking/social networking site (hell, it's 4 a.m. and I can't sleep, give me a break) when I found this profile. I just had to share (that's what she said!)

Artwork was added for those unable to find the funny.

Self-deprication