This Month At Dontmindme.com — February 2002

Song of the Month: Bob Geldof is probably best known for starting the whole idea of music benefits with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" and Live Aid, but before he was knighted for his charity efforts he was lead singer for Irish new wave/punk band The Boomtown Rats. The Rats never made it big on this side of the Atlantic, but in the late 70s they had a number of UK top ten hits, including two straight number one hits. The second of these was their only song to chart in the US, and is the February song of the month, "I Don't Like Mondays." Based on a 1979 school shooting in California, the song is at once touching and disturbing, and well worth a listen.

Album of the Month: And now for something completely different. Larry Norman is considered the father of Christian Rock, and although many critics consider his Only Visiting This Planet to be his best album, I have to go with In Another Land. It feels almost like a concept album, but at the same time contains some of Larry's singles. And when I saw him live in concert a few years ago he performed several songs from this album.

Book of the Month: Most people are familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his many Sherlock Holmes story, but he also wrote a lot of historical fiction. Now, I've only read one of his historical novels, but it's one of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read (that's a lot of novels, if you're wondering). The book in question is The White Company. It's not a short or an easy read, but it's filled with colourful characters, exciting action, and a dash of humour. What's more, it gives an interesting historical perspective to an interlude in the Hundred Years War.

Chemical Element of the Month: One of the most overhyped metals in recent years is Titanium. It's a lightweight metal with an atomic number of 22 and a symbol Ti. It's often used in making particularly strong steel alloys. I have no idea why it's getting so much attention lately, with stuff like titanium credit cards now being the top of the line above platinum cards, especially since titanium is common, not expensive, and hardly a precious metal. It's not really all that cool.

Game of the Month: I've been playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein all month, and it's been a blast (shooting hundreds of Germans always is). The graphics are unbelievable, the gameplay is highly realistic, and the weapons have a very authentic feel. This is a great game for any fans of first-person shooters.

Fun Link of the Month: This isn't so much fun as it is odd. And very, very funny if you have a twisted sense of humour (so many on-line comics are). The comic is Red Meat, and if you don't find the front page overly disturbing, read on and peruse the five years of archives. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you find headlines like field guide to the underside, lincoln logs on the roosevelt recliner, or scented aspirin for perfume headaches intriguing, check it out. And yes, it's really rather strange.

Fun Fact of the Month: Apparently termites eat through wood 2 times faster when listening to rock music. I was unable to find the specific study that backs this up, but I've seen it repeated enough to suspect that it's true. I have a few questions, though. First, how heavy was the rock music used for the study? Are we talking the Police or Black Flag here? Also, who on earth funded this?

Useful Link of the Month: This isn't a typical useful link but if you enjoy The Family Guy, which has apparently been cancelled by Fox, go sign this petition to help save the show. There's over 24,000 signatures as of now, but every one helps.

Quote of the Month: "You shut up, you sack-bellied strumpet!" Stewie on The Family Guy.

Prank of the Month: Here's one for the university students out there, in particular grad students, or people old enough to pass for grad students (you probably aren't going to be able to pull this one off if you're only 18 or 19). If you know a prof that's often late for class, or if you can come up with way to delay a prof for 10 minutes just before a class, make up a fake pop quiz for the class. This works best if its a big class of first year students and the test is unbelievably hard. Simply show up, preferably dressed well and announce that the prof is going to be very late, and you're in his graduate seminar and he sent you to proctor this test. Tell them to drop the test on his desk at the end of class. Distribute the test and leave just before the prof arrives. End result is nervous class of frosh and a rather confused instructor. A tip: don't try this on a prof if you're actually in one of his classes.

Joke of the Month:This one is a really bad joke that I made up myself, so don't say I didn't warn you. Did you hear about the dyslexic Metallica fan? His favourite album was Master of Puppets.

DVD of the Month: There's only one choice for the DVD of the month when I end up posting Stuff on February 2. I'm going to promote that movie that this time of year makes me think of, that movie with Bill Murray and that attractive, tall, thin woman who was in all those movies. No, I'm not talking about Ghostbusters, I'm talking about Groundhog Day. An intensely clever offbeat comedy wrapped around an unusual premise, Groundhog Day is a movie I usually watch every year about this time. If you haven't, you should.