That Phone is Off

Soon after he left college, Dave found one of his uncles who was very rich and had no children of his own died and left him a lot of money, so he decided to set up his own real estate agency.
Dave found a nice office. He bought some new furniture and moved in. he had only been there for e few hours when he heard someone coming toward the door of his office.
“It must be my first customer” Dave thought. He quickly picked up the telephone and pretended to be very busy answering an important call from someone in New York who wanted to buy a big and expensive house in the country.
The man knocked at the door while this was going on. He came in and waited politely for Dave to finish his conversation on the phone. Then the man said to Dave; “I am from the telephone company and I was sent here to connect your telephone”

Nasreddin's Coat

One day Nasreddin had been invited to the dinner party. He went to the party by wearing old clothes.
When he arrived in the party, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him a seat. He got no food in the party so he went home and change his clothes
Next he put on his best clothes. He wore his newest coat and went to the party again. The host at once got up and came to meet him. The host offered him the best table and gave him a good seat and served him the best food
Nasreddin sat and put off his coat. He put his coat and said; “Eat the food, Coat!” the hosts and guests were very surprised and asked Nareddin; “What are doing?” Nasreddin replied calmly; “When I came here with my old clothes, nobody looked at me. Then I went home and put on my best clothes. I came back in my newest coat and you all give me this best food and drink. So, you give food to my coat instead of me”. Getting Nasreddin's answer, they just shook the head.

Goat Jumping into Deep Hole

Two men were walking through the woods and come across a very big deep hole. "Wow...that looks deep." One replied,"Sure does... toss a few pebbles in there and we will see how deep this hole is." Then they pick up a few pebbles and throw them in and wait... no noise "Geeez. That is really deep... here.. throw one of these great big rocks down there. Those should make a noise." After that, they pick up a couple football-sized rocks and toss them into the hole and wait... and wait. but no noise they heard.Wow.. They were really impressed with how deep hole it was. They look at each other in amazement. One gets a determined look on his face and says, "Hey...over here in the weeds, there's a railroad tie. Help me carry it over here. When we toss that sucker in this hole, it's must make some noise."The two men drag the heavy tie over to the hole and heave it in. But, not a sound comes from the hole. Suddenly, out of the nearby woods, a goat appears, running like the wind. It rushes toward the two men, then right past them, running as fast as its legs will carry it. Suddenly it leaps in the air and into the hole. The goat disappeared into the deep hole.The two men are astonished with what they've just seen. How could a goat jump into the hole? Then, not long after that, out of the woods comes a farmer. He seemed to seek something and asked to the two men, "Hey two guys... have you seen my goat out here?"Feeling amazing with what they saw of a goat jumping to the hole, they answer straightly,"You bet we did! Craziest thing I've ever seen! A goat came running like crazy and just jumped into this hole!"The farmer thought a moment and said, "That could not have been my goat. Because my goat was chained to a railroad tie." Then he left the two men.

Cinderella

Once there was a widower who married a proud and haughty woman as his second wife. She had two daughters who were equally vain. By his first wife, he had had a beautiful young daughter who was a girl of unparalleled goodness and sweet temper. The Stepmother and her daughters forced the first daughter to complete all the housework. When the girl had done her work, she sat in the cinders, which caused her to be called "Cinderella". The poor girl bore it patiently, but she dared not tell her father, who would have scolded her; his wife controlled him entirely.
One day the Prince invited all the young ladies in the land to a ball so he could choose a wife. As the two Stepsisters were invited, they gleefully planned their wardrobes. Although Cinderella assisted them and dreamed of going to the dance, they taunted her by saying a maid could never attend a ball.
As the sisters swept away to the ball, Cinderella cried in despair. Her Fairy Godmother magically appeared and vowed to assist Cinderella in attending the ball. She turned a pumpkin into a coach, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen. She then turned Cinderella's rags into a beautiful gown, complete with a delicate pair of glass slippers. The Godmother told her to enjoy the ball, but return before midnight for the spells would be broken.
At the ball, the entire court was entranced by Cinderella, especially the Prince, who never left her side. Unrecognized by her sisters, Cinderella remembered to leave before midnight. Back home, Cinderella graciously thanked her Godmother. She then greeted the Stepsisters who enthusiastically talked of nothing but the beautiful girl at the ball.
When another ball was held the next evening, Cinderella again attended with her Godmother's help. The Prince became even more entranced. However, this evening she lost track of time and left only at the final stroke of midnight, losing one of her glass slippers on the steps of the palace in her haste. The Prince chased her, but outside the palace, the guards had seen only a simple country wench leave. The Prince pocketed the slipper and vowed to find and marry the girl to whom it belonged. Meanwhile, Cinderella kept the other slipper, which had not disappeared when the spell had broken.
The Prince tried the slipper on all the women in the kingdom. When the Prince arrived at Cinderella's villa, the Stepsisters tried in vain. When Cinderella asked if she might try, the Stepsisters taunted her. Naturally, the slipper fit perfectly, and Cinderella produced the other slipper for good measure. The Stepsisters begged for forgiveness, and Cinderella forgave them for their cruelties.
Cinderella returned to the palace where she married the Prince, and the Stepsisters also married two lords.

Snow White

Once upon a time, as a queen sits sewing at her window, she pricks her finger on her needle and three drops of blood fall on the snow that had fallen on her ebony window frame. As she looks at the blood on the snow, she says to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony". Soon after that, the queen gives birth to a baby girl who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They name her Princess Snow White. As soon as the child is born, the queen dies.

Soon after, the king takes a new wife, who is beautiful but also very vain. The queen possesses a magical mirror that answers any question, to whom she often asks: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?" to which the mirror always replies "You, my queen, are fairest of all." But when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day, and when the queen asks her mirror, it responds: "Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true, but Snow White is fairer than you." Though in another version, the mirror simply replies: "Snow White is the fairest of them all."

The queen becomes jealous, and orders a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods to be killed. She demands that the huntsman, as proof of killing Snow White, return with her heart. The huntsman takes Snow White into the forest, but after raising his knife to stab her, he finds himself unable to kill her. Instead, he lets her go, telling her to flee and hide, He then brings the queen the heart of a young deer, which is prepared by the cook and eaten by the queen.

In the forest, Snow White discovers a tiny cottage belonging to seven dwarfs, where she rests. There, the dwarfs take pity on her, saying "If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want." They warn her to take care and let no one in when they are away delving in the mountains. Meanwhile, the Queen asks her mirror once again "Who's the fairest of them all?", and is horrified to learn that Snow White is not only alive and well and living with the dwarfs, but is still the fairest of them all.

Three times the Queen disguises herself and visits the dwarfs' cottage while they are away during the day, trying to kill Snow White. First, disguised as a peddler, the Queen offers colorful stay-laces and laces Snow White up so tight that she faints, causing the Queen to leave her for dead. However, Snow White is revived by the dwarfs when they loosen the laces. Next, the Queen dresses as a different old woman and brushes Snow White's hair with a poisoned comb. Snow White again collapses, but again is saved by the dwarfs. Finally, the Queen makes a poisoned apple, and in the disguise of a farmer's wife, offers it to Snow White. When she is hesitant to accept it, the Queen cuts the apple in half, eats the white part and gives the poisoned red part to Snow White. She eats the apple eagerly and immediately falls into a deep stupor. When the dwarfs find her, they cannot revive her, and they place her in a glass coffin, assuming that she is dead.

Time passes, and a prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He strides to her coffin. The prince is enchanted by her beauty and instantly falls in love with her. He begs the dwarfs to let him have the coffin. The prince's servants carry the coffin away. While doing so, they stumble on some bushes and the movement causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her. The prince then declares his love for her and soon a wedding is planned.

The vain Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, once again asks her mirror who is the fairest in the land, and yet again the mirror disappoints her by responding that "You, my queen, are fair; it is true. But the young queen is a thousand times fairer than you."

Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth.

As punishment for her wicked ways, a pair of heated iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is then forced to step into the iron shoes and dance until she falls down dead.

Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins, Jr.

Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins, Jr. (March 13, 1933 - September 6, 1991) was an American serial killer

Early life

Donald Henry Pee-Wee Gaskins was born on March 13, 1933, in Florence County, South Carolina. Gaskins spent much of his youth in reform school. In adulthood, Gaskins' small, slight build (5' 4" tall, hence his nickname) would make him a target for physical and sexual abuse in prison.

As a youth, Gaskins was both a poor scholar and a criminal, committing a number of petty thefts. During one burglary, he hit a woman on the head with a hatchet and left her for dead, though she survived. For this crime, Gaskins served his first custodial sentence at a reform school. Gaskins married for the first time in 1951, at eighteen, and fathered a daughter the following year. Upon his release from reform school, Gaskins took to committing insurance fraud, and was arrested for attacking a teenage girl with a hammer whom he claimed had been insulting him and was charged with attempted murder. Gaskins was sentenced to six years' imprisonment at the South Carolina State Penitentiary. During this incarceration, Gaskins' wife divorced him.

First Murder

Gaskins committed his first murder whilst serving this first prison sentence in 1953, when he slashed the throat of a fellow inmate named Hazel Brazell. Gaskins claimed he committed this murder to earn himself a fearsome reputation amongst his fellow inmates. He was judged to have acted in self-defense, and sentenced to a further three years' imprisonment. Gaskins escaped from prison in 1955 by hiding in the back of a garbage truck and fled to Florida, where he took employment with a traveling carnival. He was rearrested, remanded to custody, and paroled in August, 1961.

Second Arrest and subsequent murders

Following his release from prison, Gaskins remarried but soon reverted to committing burglaries and fencing stolen property. Two years after his parole, Gaskins was arrested for the rape of a twelve-year-old girl; he absconded whilst awaiting sentence, but was rearrested in Georgia, and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. Gaskins was paroled in November, 1968. Upon his release, Gaskins moved to the town of Sumter and began work with a construction company. In September 1969, Gaskins began killing a series of hitchhikers he picked up whilst driving around the coastal highways of the American South, he classified these victims as Coastal Kills: people whom he killed purely for pleasure, both male and female, whom Gaskins killed on average approximately once every six weeks, when he went hunting to quell his feelings of "bothersome-ness". He would torture his victims and mutilate them, but attempt to keep them alive for as long as possible; he confessed to killing these victims using a variety of methods including stabbing, suffocation and mutilation, and even claimed to have cannibalized some of them. He later confessed to killing ' eighty to ninety ' such victims, although this figure has never been corroborated.

In November, 1970, Gaskins committed the first of his Serious Murders: people whom he knew and killed for personal reasons. Gaskins' first Serious Murder victims were his own niece, Janice Kirby, aged 15, and her friend Patricia Ann Alsbrook, aged 17, whom he beat to death after attempting to sexually assault them in Sumter, South Carolina. Other Serious Murder victims were killed for a variety of reasons: because they had mocked Gaskins, attempted to blackmail him, owed him money, because they had stolen from him, or because Gaskins had been paid to kill his victim. Unlike his Coastal Kills, Gaskins simply executed these victims, usually by shooting them, before burying them around the coastal areas of South Carolina.

Final Arrest

Gaskins was arrested on November 14, 1975, when a criminal associate, named Walter Neeley, confessed to police that he had witnessed Gaskins having killed two young men named Dennis Bellamy, aged 28, and Johnny Knight, aged 15. Neeley confessed to police that Gaskins had confided in him to having killed several people who had been listed as missing persons over the previous five years, and had indicated to him where they were buried. On December 4, 1975, Gaskins led police to land he owned in Prospect, where police discovered the bodies of eight of his victims.

Imprisonment

Gaskins was tried on eight charges of murder on May 24, 1976, found guilty on May 28 and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life in prison, when the South Carolina General Assembly's 1974 death sentence ruling was changed to conform to the United States Supreme Court guidelines for the death penalty in other states.

On September 12, 1982, Gaskins committed another murder, for which he earned the title of the "Meanest Man in America". Whilst incarcerated in the high security block at the South Carolina Correctional Institution, Gaskins killed a death row inmate named Rudolph Tyner, who earned his sentence for killing an elderly couple named Bill and Myrtle Moon during a bungled armed robbery on the store they owned in the Burgess community.

Gaskins was hired to commit this murder by Tony Cimo, son of Myrtle Moon. Gaskins initially made several unsuccessful attempts to kill Tyner by lacing his food and drink with poison before he opted to use explosives to kill him. To accomplish this, Gaskins rigged a device similar to a portable radio in Tyner's death row cell and told Tyner this would allow them to communicate between cells. When Tyner followed Gaskins' instructions to hold a speaker (laden with C-4 plastic explosive, unbeknownst to him) to his ear at an agreed time, Gaskins detonated the explosives in his cell and killed him. Gaskins later said, "The last thing he [Tyner] heard was me laughing."

Gaskins was tried for the murder of Rudolph Tyner and sentenced to death.

Final Truth

Whilst on death row, Gaskins told his life story to a journalist named Wilton Earle, confessing to having committed between 100 and 110 murders, one of them being that of Margaret "Peg" Cuttino³ (1957-70), the 13 year old daughter of then SC state senator James Cuttino, Jr. of Sumter, SC, near Florence, SC, (about 130 miles from the "Fort Sumter" of Civil War fame). However, law enforcement sources found it impossible to verify all of his claims. In his autobiography, Final Truth (published posthumously), Gaskins wrote that he had "a special mind" that gave him "permission to kill."

Execution

Gaskins was executed on September 6, 1991 at 1:10 a.m. He was the fourth person to die in the electric chair after the death penalty was reinstated in South Carolina in 1977. Reportedly, his final words were "I'll let my lawyers talk for me. I'm ready to go".

Mike Dirnt

Mike Dirnt (born Michael Ryan Pritchard on May 4 1972 in California, United States), is an American musician who is currently the bassist and backing vocalist for the American punk rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise: "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt," so his schoolmates started to call him "Mike Dirnt."

Biography

Mike Dirnt grew up in California. He was adopted by a Native American mother and a European American father. He has one sister, Myla. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. His mother remarried a few years later. When asked about his stepdad, he says, "We didn't get along for years." The one thing my family did give me is blue collar morals. But he died when I was 17." Dirnt had left home when he was 17 to live out of his truck, but later rented a room in Billie Joe Armstrong's house. He attended Salesian High School (where he briefly played with the band Helder and the Heldernauts), John Swett High School, and ended up graduating from Pinole Valley High School in 1990, and Green Day went on their first tour the day after graduation.

Tré Cool

Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III; December 9, 1972) is a German-born American drummer for the punk rock band Green Day. He replaced the band's former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990.

Biography

Frank Edwin Wright III was born December 9, 1972 in Frankfurt, Germany, making him the youngest member of Green Day. He lived in Willits, California with his father and his older sister, Lori. His father, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, decided to move the family there to insulate them upon his return to the United States.

Wright's closest neighbor was Larry Livermore, who at the time was the singer of the punk band The Lookouts. At age 12, Livermore recruited Wright to join The Lookouts and gave him the name of Tre Cool relying on both the French word très (meaning very) combined with the word cool. However, the silent "s" has been incorrectly dropped in the spelling.

When Green Day's drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the band they recruited Cool to play drums. Cool decided to drop out of high school in his sophomore year. Instead, he passed an equivalency test and earned his GED, and began taking classes at a nearby community college. He had to drop out of college, however, when the demands of Green Day's touring intensified.

Cool's father, who owned a small company, overhauled a bookmobile and even served as the driver on three separate tours. "I watched them go from a bunch of kids to a group of musicians with work ethic," he later recalled. "On their first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, 'How in the hell did they make it?' They used to practice in my living room here - a lot of the songs they did on Dookie. You hear it coming together, and you don't expect people are going to go out and buy it. But when it does, you just say, 'Wow that's so cool.'"

In 1998, after Green Day won a "Moon Man" Trophy at the MTV Music Awards, Tré Cool famously scaled the Universal globe at Universal studios, but escaped with no punishment - only compliments and cheers. Cool has been the only person to ever do so.

Tré was once notorious for burning his drum kit, on stage, upon completion of every set on the "Warning" tour. He has a tradition also that if he cracks a cymbal during a concert, he gives it away at the end.

Singing and songwritting

Tré sings and plays guitar on the tracks "Dominated Love Slave" and "All by Myself", from Kerplunk! and Dookie, respectively, both of what he wrote and composed. He wrote and sang the subtrack "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" from the medley "Homecoming" featured on the album American Idiot. He also sang and composed the track "DUI" ("Driving Under the Influence"), which was recorded during the Nimrod sessions and was due to be released on Shenanigans (a compilation of B-sides), but it was omitted and can only be found online.

During a radio interview at Washington DC's alternative station DC 101, Tré sang and played the guitar to a short song titled "Like a Rat does Cheese," a song about the pleasure of fellatio. This song was acoustic.

Several live tracks also exist, usually from early dates around 1993, such as "Food Around the Corner." a song from the 1943 Elmer Fudd cartoon "An Itch in Time." Another live track, "Billie Joe's Mom" was also recorded.

Tré had also recorded a version of Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain." It was posted on YouTube on August 1, 2007. His cover was mentioned in several news journals.

Personal life

Tré married his long-time girlfriend Lisea Lyons, a photographer, in March 1995 and had a child, Ramona Isabelle Wright, born January 12, 1995. They divorced sometime in 1998. In May 2000, he married again to a woman named Claudia. They split up in 2003 and had one son together, Frankito ("Little Frank"), was born on February 14, 2001. He is currently dating a girl named Ruri.

Equipment

Tré has used the drums of different companies. He currently uses Leedy drums and Zildjian cymbals. In the past, he used DW, Ludwig and Slingerland drums. Currently, he is still listed as an endorser in Ludwig's website.

Drum kit: Leedy custom maple set in White Marine Nitron with Remo heads

• 18"×22" Bass drum with a Clear Powerstroke 3
• 9"×13" Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 16"×16" Floor Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 16"×18" Floor Tom with a Coated Emperor on batter and Clear Ambassador on reso
• 6.5"×14" Leedy Broadway Standard Snare with a Coated Emperor x on batter and hazy snare side Ambassador

Cymbals: Zildjian

• 14" K Constantinople/Z Special hi-hats
• 19" K Dark Crash Medium Thin
• 19" A Medium Thin Crash
• 22" A Deep Ride
• 21" A Sweet Ride
• 20" Oriental Classic China

Drumsticks: Zildjian Tré Cool Signature

Mark Hoppus

Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American musician and record producer. Hoppus is one of the founding members of the pop punk band Blink-182 and the alternative rock band +44. He plays bass guitar and provides vocals for both bands. As of late, Hoppus has produced albums for groups like Idiot Pilot, New Found Glory, The Matches, and Motion City Soundtrack. He is known for his lower voice and, in Blink-182, usually sings either lead or provides harmony and backing vocals for fellow singer Tom DeLonge. He is also known for his concern over the environment and global warming.

Tom Delonge

Thomas Matthew "Tom" DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is the guitarist and one of the two lead vocalists for the pop punk band Blink-182 as well as the guitarist and lead vocalist for the alternative rock band Angels & Airwaves. In addition, he started the band Box Car Racer with his close friends Travis Barker and David Kennedy.

Early years

Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother, Connie and his father, Thomas, who is of German & Irish descent, in Poway, California. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari. Tom was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball game. He then went to Rancho Bernardo High School. When he returned to Poway High School during his senior year, the students voted him Homecoming King, despite the fact that he wasn't even on the ballot. ^[1] Becoming a musician was not his first calling. "I was originally going to be a firefighter. I was in the San Diego Cadet Program,” says DeLonge.Some of his influences are the Descendents, Screeching Weasel, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion, NOFX, Pink Floyd and The Cure.

Quick Decisions

A game warden noticed how a particular fellow named Sam consistently caught more fish than anyone else, whereas the other guys would only catch three or four a day. Sam would come in off the lake with a boat full. Stringer after stringer was always packed with freshly caught trout. The warden, curious, asked Sam his secret. The successful fisherman invited the game warden to accompany him and observe. So the next morning the two met at the dock and took off in Sam's boat. When they got to the middle of the lake, Sam stopped the boat, and the warden sat back to see how it was done.

Sam's approach was simple. He took out a stick of dynamite, lit it, and threw it in the air. The explosion rocked the lake with such a force that dead fish immediately began to surface. Sam took out a net and started scooping them up.

Well you can imagine the reaction of the game warden. When he recovered from the shock of it all, he began yelling at Sam. "You can't do this! I'll put you in jail, buddy! You will be paying every fine there is in the book!" Sam, meanwhile, set his net down and took out another stick of dynamite. He lit it and tossed it in the lap of the game warden with these words, "Are you going to sit there all day complaining, or are you going to fish?"

The poor warden was left with a fast decision to make. He was yanked, in one second, from an observer to a participant. A dynamite of a choice had to be made and be made quickly! Life is like that. Few days go by without our coming face to face with an uninvited, unanticipated, yet unavoidable decision. Like a crashing snow bank, these decisions tumble upon us without warning. Quick. Immediate. Sudden. No council, no study, no advice. Pow!

Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling hip hop album in history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project D12 to mainstream recognition.

The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LP's. In 2002, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself" from the film 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running #1 hip-hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Eminem is also ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He was also named the Best Rapper Ever by Vibe magazine. Including his work with D12, Eminem has achieved eight #1 albums on the Billboard Top 200 and 12 number one singles worldwide. In December, 2009 Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. According to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top 5 highest selling albums of the 2000s.

My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance is a Grammy-nominated American rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro and drummer Bob Bryar. Shortly after forming, the band signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major label debut Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in 2004; the album was a commercial success, selling over one million copies.

The band eclipsed their previous success with 2006's The Black Parade, featuring their hit singles, "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers". The band also filmed a live DVD in Mexico City, titled The Black Parade Is Dead!, which was released in July 2008.

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, that formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist-rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, bassist Pete Wentz and drummer Andy Hurley.

With Pete Wentz as the band's primary lyricist and Patrick Stump as the primary composer, Fall Out Boy reached mainstream success with its major label debut, From Under the Cork Tree. Released in 2005, the album won several awards and has achieved double platinum status after selling more than 2.5 million albums in the United States alone. To support the album, the band headlined tours around the world in 2005 and 2006.

In 2007 the band released Infinity on High to major chart success, reaching #1 on the Billboard 200 and selling 260,000 copies its first week. The lead single, "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", reached #1 on the Pop 100 and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. To promote the album, the band performed at the Live Earth concerts and headlined the Honda Civic Tour through mid 2007.

Post-it Notes

The 3M Company encourages creativity from its employees. The company allows its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time on any project that interests them. This attitude has brought fantastic benefits not only to the employees but to the 3M Company itself Many times, a spark of an idea turned into a successful product has boosted 3M's profits tremendously.

Some years ago, a scientist in 3M's commercial office took advantage of this 15 percent creative time. This scientist, Art Fry, came up with an idea for one of 3M's best-selling products. It seems that Art Fry dealt with a small irritation every Sunday as he sang in the church choir. After marking his pages in the hymnal with small bits of paper, the small pieces would invariably fall out all over the floor.

Suddenly, an idea struck Fry. He remembered an adhesive developed by a colleague that everyone thought was a failure because it did not stick very well. "I coated the adhesive on a paper sample," Fry recalls, "and I found that it was not only a good bookmark, but it was great for writing notes. It will stay in place as long as you want it to, and then you can remove it without damage."

Yes, Art Fry hit the jackpot. The resulting product was called Post-it! and has become one of 3M's most successful office products.

From Candles to Soap

In 1879, Procter and Gamble's best seller was candles. But the company was in trouble. Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb, and it looked as if candles would become obsolete. Their fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since they were now sold only forspecial occasions.

The outlook appeared to be bleak for Procter and Gamble. However, at this time, it seemed that destiny played a dramatic part in pulling the struggling company from the clutches of bankruptcy. A forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch. The result? A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

Why was soap that floats such a hot item at that time? In Cincinnati, during that period, some people bathed in the Ohio River. Floating soap would never sink and consequently never got lost. So, Ivory soap became a best seller in Ohio and eventually across the country also.

Like Procter and Gamble, never give up when things go wrong or when seemingly unsurmountable problems arise. Creativity put to work can change a problem and turn it into a gold mine.

Good Charlotte

Good Charlotte is an American pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. They took their name from the children's book called "Good Charlotte: The Girls of Good Day Orphanage," written by Carol Beach York.

History

Early years & self-titled album (1995–2001)

Good Charlotte started out by playing at small bars. They soon caught the attention of pop punk band, Lit, whose song "My Own Worst Enemy" was a chart topper at the time. Good Charlotte lost the opening slot on Lit's East Coast tour in 1999. Soon after, Good Charlotte played some dates with the band Blink-182, who had just experienced mainstream success with their album, Enema of the State. All of this caught the attention of major music labels, and Good Charlotte eventually signed with Epic Records in 1999.

In 2000, they released their self-titled debut album, Good Charlotte. Y100, a now-defunct radio station in Philadelphia spun Good Charlotte's song "Little Things" before it was released as a single. It ended up being a big success on the station, so big that on Y100's nightly "Cage Match" competition (where new songs were pitted against each other and listeners could vote on which was better), "Little Things" won fifteen nights in a row, beating out bigger names, before it was retired to the cage match hall of fame.

Good Charlotte also gained a lot of momentum and popularity from "Little Things" being played by now defunct Washington radio station, 99.1 WHFS. WHFS's annual music concert, the HFStival, hosted a locals only stage and is credited with being Good Charlotte's big break.

"Little Things" was later released as a single in 2001, and peaked at #23 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In the second half of the year, three more singles were released from the album, "The Motivation Proclamation", "The Click" and "Festival Song", which is an ode to HFStival.

Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is the lead vocalist, chief songwriter and guitarist for the rock band Green Day. He is also a guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Pinhead Gunpowder and sings for garage rock band Foxboro Hot Tubs. He's also suspected of being the lead singer for new wave group The Network, though he has emphatically denied it on numerous occasions.

Early life

Billie Joe Armstrong was born in Oakland, California and was raised in Rodeo, California, as the youngest of six children. His father, Andy Armstrong, worked as a jazz musician and truck driver for Safeway to support the family. He died of esophageal cancer on September 10, 1982 when Armstrong was 10. The song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a memorial to his father. He has five older siblings: David, Alan, Marci, Hollie, and Anna. His mother Ollie worked at Rod's Hickory Pit. Armstrong and Mike Dirnt got their first gig at Rod's Hickory Pit during their early years.

Green Day

Green Day is an American rock trio formed in 1987. The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion) for the majority of its existence.

Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned it a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label. Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide. As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States. Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively. Green Day's 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S. The band's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.

Green Day has sold over 22 million records in the United States. They have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".

Formation and Lookout years: 1987–1993

In 1987, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at the time, formed a band called Sweet Children. The first Sweet Children show took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod's Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California where Armstrong's mother was working. In 1988, Armstrong and Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer, John Kiffmeyer (also known as Al Sobrante). Kiffmeyer served as both the band's drummer and business manager, handling the booking of shows and helping the band establish a fan base.

Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early show and signed them to his label. In 1989 they recorded their first EP, 1,000 Hours. Before 1,000 Hours was released, the band dropped the name Sweet Children, according to Livermore this was done to avoid confusion with another local band Sweet Baby. The band adopted the name Green Day, allegedly due to their fondness of marijuana.

Lookout! would release Green Day's first LP, 39/Smooth in early 1990. Green Day would record two EPs later that year: Slappy and Sweet Children, the latter of which included some older songs they had recorded for Minneapolis indie label Skene! Records. In 1991, Lookout! Records released 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the 39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours EPs. In late 1990, shortly after the band's first nationwide tour, Sobrante left the East Bay area to attend college. The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary replacement, and when it became clear that Sobrante did not plan to commit to the band full time, Tré Cool's position as Green Day's drummer became permanent. The band went on tour for most of 1992 and 1993, and played a stretch of shows overseas in Europe. The band's second full length album Kerplunk sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S.

Breakthrough success: 1994–1996

Kerplunk's underground success led to a wave of interest coming from major record labels, and they eventually left Lookout! on friendly terms and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise caused many punk rock fans to regard Green Day as sellouts. Reflecting on the period, Armstrong told Spin magazine in 1999, "I couldn't go back to the punk scene, whether we were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure ... The only thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward." After signing with Reprise, the band went o work on recording its major label debut, Dookie.

Released in February 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks, Dookie became a commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs "Longview", "Basket Case", and "When I Come Around", all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts. That year, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour with queercore band Pansy Division as its opening act. At a September 9, 1994 concert at Boston Esplanade, mayhem broke-out during the band's set (cut short to seven songs) and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and 45 arrested. The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza festival and Woodstock 1994, where they started an infamous mud fight. During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth. Viewed by millions by pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further aided Green Day's growing publicity and recognition, and helped push its album to eventual diamond status. In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for 9 MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year.

In 1995, a new single for the Angus soundtrack was released, titled "J.A.R.". The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was followed by the band's new album, Insomniac, which was released in the fall of 1995. Insomniac was a much darker and heavier response by the band, compared to the poppier, more melodic Dookie. Insomniac opened to a warm critical reception, earning 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, which said "In punk, the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets." Insomniac used a piece of art by Winston Smith entitled God Told Me to Skin You Alive for its album cover. The singles released from Insomniac were "Geek Stink Breath", "Brain Stew/Jaded", "Walking Contradiction", and "Stuck With Me". Though the album did not approach the success of Dookie, it still sold two million copies in the United States. Insomniac won the band award nominations for Favorite Artist, Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996 American Music Awards, and the video for "Walking Contradiction" got the band a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form, in addition to a Best Special Effects nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards. After that, the band abruptly cancelled a European tour, citing exhaustion.

Middle era and fall in popularity: 1997–2002

After taking a break in 1996, Green Day began to work on a new album in 1997. From the outset, both the band and Cavallo agreed that the album had to be different from its previous records. The result was Nimrod, an experimental deviation from the band's standard pop-punk brand of music. The new album was released in October 1997. It provided a variety of music, from pop-punk, surf rock, and ska, to an acoustic ballad. Nimrod entered the charts at number 10. The success of "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video for the song's video, which depicted people undergoing major changes in their lives while Billie Joe Armstrong strummed his acoustic guitar. The song was also used in the second "clip show" episode of Seinfeld and on two episodes of ER. The other singles released from Nimrod were "Nice Guys Finish Last", "Hitchin' a Ride" and "Redundant". The band made a guest appearance in an episode of King of the Hill entitled "The Man Who Shot Cane Skretteberg", which aired in 1997.

In 2000, Green Day released Warning, a step further in the style that they had hinted at with Nimrod. Critics' reviews of the album were varied. Allmusic gave it 4.5/5 saying "Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying." Rolling Stone was more critical, giving it 3/5, and saying "Warning... invites the question: Who wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what used to be snot-core's biggest-selling band?" Though it produced the hit "Minority" and a smaller hit with "Warning", some observers were coming to the conclusion that the band was losing relevance, and a decline in popularity followed. While all of Green Day's past albums had reached a status of at least double platinum, Warning was only certified gold.

At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight awards that they were nominated for. They won the awards for Outstanding Album (Warning), Outstanding Punk Rock/Ska Album (Warning), Outstanding Group, Outstanding Male Vocalist, Outstanding Bassist, Outstanding Drummer, Outstanding Songwriter and Outstanding Artist.

The release of a Greatest Hits compilation, International Superhits!, and an assemblage of B-sides, Shenanigans, followed Warning. International Superhits and its companion collection of music videos, International Supervideos!, sold reasonably well, going platinum in the U.S. Shenanigans contained some of the band's B-sides, including "Espionage" which was featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

In the spring of 2002, Green Day co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink-182. Despite the co-headlining title, Green Day would play each show before Blink-182, who at the time were experiencing more success. The tour was documented on the DVD Riding in Vans with Boys.

American Idiot and renewed success: 2003–2006

In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines. After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of 2003, Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring. On February 1, 2004 a new song, a cover of "I Fought the Law" made its debut on a commercial for iTunes during NFL Super Bowl XXXVIII. The band underwent serious "band therapy," engaging in several long talks to work out the members' differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was "the band's Nazi" and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.

The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band's first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album's first single, "American Idiot." The album was billed as a "punk rock opera" which follows the journey of the fictitious "Jesus of Suburbia". American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for "Best Rock Album" and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer's Choice Award.

Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates — the longest tour in its career — visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted 'The Best Show On Earth' in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.

These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except "Kerplunk" and "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours". The DVD featured behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17 respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People's Choice Award for favorite group.

Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007–present

Green Day engaged in several other smaller projects in the time following the hype of American Idiot. Green Day released a new album under the band name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!. In 2008, the Foxboro Hot Tubs went on a mini-tour to promote the record, hitting tiny Bay Area venues including the Stork Club in Oakland and Toot’s Tavern in Crockett, CA. One song, “Ruby Room,” even gives a shout-out to the Oakland dive bar where “the Pabst Blue Ribbon unravels.”

In an interview with Kerrang!, Armstrong revealed that 2008 would "be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album for Green Day." In an interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig would be producing Green Day's forthcoming album. The span of nearly five years between American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown was the longest gap between studio albums in Green Day's career. The band had been working on new material since January 2006. By October 2007, Armstrong had 45 songs written, but the band showed no further signs of progress until October 2008, when a video of the group recording with producer Butch Vig in the studio was posted on YouTube. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on YouTube. In the tour section of the band's official website, the message "World Tour coming soon!" is shown. The writing and recording process, spanning three years and four recording studios, was finally finished in April 2009.

The new album, titled 21st Century Breakdown, was released worldwide on May 15, 2009. It received rave reviews from the likes of Nirvana's Krist Novoselic. The album had mainly positive reception from critics, getting an average rating between 4 and 5 stars. After the release, the album hit #1 in fourteen different countries, hitting Gold or Platinum in each. 21st Century Breakdown achieved Green Day's best chart performance to date. The band started playing shows in California in April and early May. It was their first live show in about 3 years. Green Day is currently on a world tour that started in North America in July, 2009 and continuing around the world throughout the rest of 2009 and early 2010.

It has also been announced that Green Day will be getting their own Rock Band video game entitled Green Day: Rock Band. A trailer of the game was shown during the Spike TV Video Game Awards 2009. It is set to release sometime in 2010.

Band members

Current members

• Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, guitars (1987–present)
• Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals (1987–present)
• Tré Cool – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1990–present)

Current touring members

• Jason White – guitars, backing vocals (1999–present)
• Jason Freese – keyboards, piano, acoustic guitar, trombone, saxophone, accordion, backing vocals (2003–present)
• Jeff Matika – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2009–present)

Former members

• John Kiffmeyer – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1987–1990)

Former touring members

• Timmy Chunks – rhythm guitar (1997–1999)
• Garth Schultz – trombone, trumpet (1997–1999)
• Gabrial McNair – trombone, tenor saxophone (1999–2001)
• Kurt Lohmiller – trumpet, timpani, percussion, backing vocals (1999–2004)
• Mike Pelino – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2004–2005)
• Ronnie Blake – trumpet, timpani, percussion, backing vocals (2004–2005)

Simple Plan

Simple Plan is a French Canadian pop punk band based in Montréal, Québec. They have released three studio albums: No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls (2002), Still Not Getting Any... (2004), and Simple Plan (2008); as well as two widely marketed live albums: Live in Japan 2002 (2003) and MTV Hard Rock Live (2005).

Formation (1993–2002)

Simple Plan began in 1993 with the formation of a band named Reset by friends Pierre Bouvier, Charles-André "Chuck" Comeau, Philippe Jolicoeur, and Adrian White. Reset toured around Canada with bands such as MXPX, Ten Foot Pole, and Face to Face, but only managed to gain modest popularity. The debut album, No Worries, was released in 1998, and Comeau left soon after to go to college. Two years later he met with high school friends Jean-François "Jeff" Stinco and Sébastien Lefebvre who were in separate bands of their own, and combined to create the band. Meanwhile, Reset released a second CD, No Limits (the two CDs would be re-released as a single CD in 2006, with liner note comments from Bouvier and Comeau). In late 1999, Comeau and Bouvier reacquainted at a Sugar Ray concert and Bouvier left Reset soon after to join Comeau. David Desrosiers replaced Bouvier in Reset, but when asked to join the foursome, he too left the band six months later. This allowed Bouvier, who had doubled as the band's front man and bassist, to concentrate on the singing.

The origin of the band's name is obscure. Band members have given various comical responses on this point, including that the band was their simple plan to avoid obtaining a "real" job. However, most likely, the name is derived from the movie "A Simple Plan". The name was only intended to be temporary, but they never thought of anything better, and with shows coming up for the new band, the name stuck.

Pierre Bouvier

Pierre Charles Bouvier (born 9 May 1979) is a French Canadian musician, who is best known as the lead singer for pop punk band Simple Plan. He is also the younger brother of cancer survivor and actor Jay Bouvier. He also hosted a show on MTV called Damage Control, which has since ended its run as originally planned.

Biography

Before and partly during his musical career, Bouvier worked as a cook in a restaurant called St-Hubert in his hometown of Montreal. At age of 13, he founded the punk rock band Reset with his schoolmate Chuck Comeau, in which he was the lead singer and bassist. Reset did not only have Bouvier and Comeau, they also had Jean-Sébastien Boileau and Adrian White. Bouvier, not fully enjoying his life with Reset left the band and Comeau behind. Bouvier met up with old school pal Jeff Stinco at a Reset concert he was attending. Bouvier then talked to Stinco about creating Simple Plan. Stinco agreed and they were joined by Sebastien Lefebvre and later Chuck Comeau, leaving at his turn Reset. In live performance, he sometimes plays the guitar (electric and acoustic) for certain songs.

Role Model Clothing

He is co-owner of Role Model Clothing, along with Chuck Comeau and Simple Plan's webmaster, photographer, and videographer Patrick Langlois.

Role Model Clothing is a clothing line owned by Bouvier, Patrick Langlois and Chuck Comeau (who are often seen wearing the shirts on stage and in the band's music videos). The line mostly markets shirts, which invariably include the words "ROLE MODEL" in the design. Erik Chandler, from the band Bowling for Soup, is often seen wearing Role Model shirts.

Damage Control

Damage Control was a reality television series hosted by Bouvier that first aired on MTV on March 6, 2005. On Damage Control, parents would tell their teenage son or daughter that they would be going away over the weekend, but in actuality, they are just a few houses down monitoring them with Bouvier via hidden cameras and microphones. The teenager would be placed in awkward situations, in which he/she must make decisions. Parents can earn money if they can guess what their teenager will do, and after the parents come back (always with too little time for the teenager to conceal what has occurred), the teenager, still unaware of the filming, can earn money by confessing. Two seasons were filmed before any episodes aired, and no more were planned or filmed, due to the likelihood that once the episodes aired, potential subjects would quickly catch on to what was going on.
He attended College Beaubois, a high school in Montreal along with other band members Sébastien Lefebvre, Jeff Stinco and Chuck Comeau. Bouvier also has a brother, Jay Bouvier. "Save You," one of the songs on the album Simple Plan, was written for Bouvier's brother, a cancer survivor.

The Whole World Stinks

Wise men and philosophers throughout the ages have disagreed on many things, but many are in unanimous agreement on one point: "We become what we think about." Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long." The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius put it this way: "A man's life is what his thoughts make of it." In the Bible we find: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

One Sunday afternoon, a cranky grandfather was visiting his family. As he lay down to take a nap, his grandson decided to have a little fun by putting Limburger cheese on Grandfather's mustache. Soon, grandpa awoke with a snort and charged out of the bedroom saying, "This room stinks." Through the house he went, finding every room smelling the same. Desperately he made his way outside only to find that "the whole world stinks!"

So it is when we fill our minds with negativism. Everything we experience and everybody we encounter will carry the scent we hold in our mind.

Rodney Mullen

John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida), known simply as Rodney Mullen, is a professional skateboarder considered by many to be the most influential skater in the history of the sport. Mullen is credited with inventing at least 39 distinct skateboarding tricks, including the Flatland Ollie (originally called the "ollie-pop"), the Kickflip (originally called the "magic flip") in 1983, the Heelflip, the 360 Flip, and the Impossible. Mullen is credited in numerous skateboarding videos, and has authored an autobiography.

Early career

"I fell in love with skateboarding because it was fun. There were no teams, there were no captains ... it was completely opposite of what I saw in so many sports: It was creative. I could walk around with my skateboard at the skatepark. I love skateboarding" Rodney Mullen, 2003.

Rodney Mullen began skateboarding at the age of ten after he promised his worried father he would stop the first time he became seriously injured. Rodney began practicing in full pads, and hung out with his sister's surfer friends who skateboarded on the week days. In 1977, having owned a skateboard for less than a year, Rodney took third place in the Boy's Freestyle event at Kona in Jacksonville. Bruce Walker saw his performance and sponsored Mullen through Walker Skateboards.

When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Rodney began perfecting his flatground techniques in the family garage. Mullen cites the isolation and lack of terrain naturally influenced him toward freestyle skateboarding. Rodney cites 1979 - 1980 as his "most creative time". Mullen claimed many competitive victories in the late 70s, mostly in his home state, Florida, culminating in a win at the Oceanside Nationals in June, 1979.

In 1980, 14-year-old Rodney Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating world champion Steve Rocco. Mullen soon turned professional as a member of the Bones Brigade sponsored by Powell Peralta. Rodney competed voraciously throughout the 80s—often frustrating both competitors and judges with his consistency and progressive ability. By 1990 Rodney had won 34 out of 35 freestyle competitions that he entered, having been beaten only once by fellow Bones Brigade member Per Welinder. Rodney thus established the most successful competitive run in the history of the sport.

In early 1989, Mullen left the Bones Brigade to form World Industries as a principle investor with longtime friend and former rival Steve Rocco^.

990s to present day

As the popularity of freestyle skateboarding declined, Mullen was often urged to move his style toward street skating. This is hinted at in the World Industries video Rubbish Heap, where Mullen's sequence ends with team member Jeremy Klein 'focusing' (i.e. breaking) Rodney's freestyle skateboard, and handing him a note from Steve Rocco, symbolizing the end of freestyle.

In 1991 Rodney joined the high-profile skateboarding team Plan B. Mike Ternasky, the Plan B founder, influenced Rodney to transition from freestyle to street skating, and showcased the results in the 1992 Plan B video Questionable. Mullen's segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks done on flat ground, but quickly accelerates across public terrain to shift into standard street skating. In relation to obstacles, he sequences tricks, mixes flip tricks with grinds and board slides. Staples of freestyle are taken to new heights as Mullen performs a Triple Kickflip, and originates the Kickflip Underflip. The sequence ends with the surprising darkslide, another trick not seen before.

Mullen's Questionable performance may have marked the beginning of a new era in street skateboarding. His reluctant departure from freestyle to become a street skater was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years. Mullen specialized at this progression in subsequent Plan B videos; noteworthy is 1993's Virtual Reality where Mullen showcases the newly-mastered darkslide.

I can't wait to wake up in the morning... A lot of times I can't sleep because I can't wait to try something new. How many people never really experience that feeling? Rodney Mullen, 2003

Mullen's participation in Plan B dissolved after Mike Ternasky died unexpectedly in 1994. In 1997, Mullen started his own company, The A-Team, with the intent of forming a super team with the defection of Plan B from the World Industries empire. Rodney talked to friend and fellow pro Daewon Song to plan the video Rodney vs. Daewon, which featured each skater competing in segments from trick to trick.

A-Team folded in 2000 and Mullen went from company founder to company rider under former A-Team rider Marc Johnson, who started Enjoi Skateboards. Mullen left Enjoi to head Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, the company which he still helms and skates for. Mullen's role at Almost includes research and development on new designs and technologies, including Tensor truck in 2000 and experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle brands.

In 2002 the World Industries companies, under the holding name Kubic Marketing, were bought out by Globe International for $46 million. Kubic's management remained intact and Mullen began working for Globe International under the Dwindle Distribution brand.

In 2003 Rodney wrote and released his autobiography, entitled The Mutt: How to skateboard and not kill yourself. In late 2003 Rodney Mullen was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown.

2007 - 2009 signaled another transition in his skateboarding career as Mullen worked to erase his riding stance, allowing him to move from Regular stance to Goofy Stance.

Invented tricks

The following is a list of all the tricks invented by Rodney Mullen.

1. Flatground Ollie
2. 540 Shove-It
3. Helipop (Frontside 360 Nollie)
4. Kickflip (Originally known as the "Magic Flip")
5. Double Heelflip
6. Impossible
7. Casper/Anti-Casper
8. 360 Flip (Also known as the "Tre-Flip" or "360 Kickflip," the board does a kickflip and 360 shuv-it concurrently.)
9. Pressure Flip (Flipping with the same foot you popped the board with)
10. Half Cab Kickflip
11. No Comply (Ollie with one foot)
12. 180 Kickflip (Frontside/Backside)
13. Nosebone
14. Fingerflip
15. Ollie Airwalk
16. Varial Kickflip (A Kickflip and a Backside Pop Shove-It concurrently)
17. Varial Heelflip (A Heelflip and a Frontside Pop Shove-It concurrently)
18. Helipop Heelflip
19. Kickflip Underflip
20. Casperslide
21. Darkslide (Grinding using your griptape)

Complain! Complain! Complain!

It takes a disciplined spirit to endure the monastery on Mount Serat in Spain. One of the fundamental requirements of this religious order is that the young men must maintain silence. Opportunities to speak are scheduled once every two years, at which time they are allowed to speak only two words.

One young initiate in this religious order, who had completed his first two years of training, was invited by his superior to make his first two-word presentation. "Food terrible," he said. Two years later the invitation was once again extended. The young man used this forum to exclaim, "Bed lumpy." Arriving at his superior's office two years later he proclaimed, "I quit." The superior looked at this young monk and said, "You know, it doesn't surprise me a bit. All you've done since you arrived is complain, complain, complain.

Exaggerated? Maybe. What if you were asked to share two words that describe your Life? would your focus be the lumps, bumps, and unfairness, or are you committed to dwell on those things that are good, right, and lovely?

David Philippe Desrosiers

David Philippe Desrosiers (born August 29, 1980) is a French Canadian musician, who is best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for pop punk band Simple Plan. He grew up in Matane, Quebec, Canada.

Early life

At the age of 12 Desrosiers' parents separated, which deeply affected him. His mother (Charlotte) lives in Matane, Québec and his father (André) lives in Québec City. At the age of 16, Desrosiers learned how to speak English. Desrosiers joined the band Reset, after former lead singer, Pierre Bouvier, left the band (ultimately to form Simple Plan). He played bass, and sang the lead in Reset. Desrosiers was involved with Reset for 6 months, although he did not record any studio albums with them. He himself was subsequently recruited to join Simple Plan in 2000, which was originally a four-piece, with Bouvier playing bass thus relieving Bouvier so he could concentrate on singing. It is sometimes rumored that the original four members of Simple Plan almost 'stalked' Desrosiers until he agreed to join their band.

Music

He has been known to briefly play the drums or guitar during shows for Simple Plan as well as for many of his favorite bands such as The Used, Vendetta Red, Green Day (he has two bass guitars with the American Idiot heart grenade), Good Charlotte, and MxPx. David has developed into almost a co-frontman as dialogue between him and lead singer Pierre Bouvier enlivens the show. He guest-starred on Season 3 of The Naked Brothers Band, episode 7, Naked Idol, Part 2.

Desrosiers primarily plays Fender Precision Basses.

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

Add beauty and life to your garden with the inclusion of flowers and plants that attract butterflies. There is a range of specific plants that entice butterflies, are easy to care for and are attractive for the garden. It is important to include "Host Plants" to ensure that the butterfly larvae (caterpillars) have a home and "Nectar Plants" for the butterflies to feed upon.

1. Research first. Find out which butterflies are common in your area. Observation over a few days and the use of a butterfly field guide will help you in this pursuit.

2. Choose "Host Plants" for your garden. Note from your research what the caterpillar (larvae) of the local butterflies eat. Two excellent examples are:

• Milkweed - this attracts the Monarch caterpillar.
• Parsley - this attracts the Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

3. Choose "Nectar Plants" for your garden. Nectar plants serve as the food source for the butterfly. There is a variety of possible plants and some of them are shown here. Excellent choices include:

• A Butterfly Bush - this is suitable for a Swallowtail. Large plant: 4 feet (1.2m) tall, 6 feet (1.8m) wide, make sure it is hardy in your area. Some varieties are considered invasive, so make sure, if you purchase one of these, that you keep it dead-headed to prevent seed production.
• Swamp Milkweed - suitable for the Snowberry Clearwing. This plant grows 3 feet (.9m) tall and 18 inches (.5m) wide. It also serves as the host plant for Monarch caterpillars
• Joe Pye Weed - this is suitable for the Swallowtail. It grows to be a very large plant - 8 feet (2.4m) tall and 4 feet (1.2m) wide. It is a perennial.
• Aster - Asters grow to 3 feet (.9m) tall and 2 feet (.6m) wide. It is a perennial. Butterflies especially love native varieties.
• Bee Balm - this plant grows 2 feet (.6m) tall and 18 inches (.5m) wide. It is a perennial.
• Zinnia - this plant is attractive to a range of butterflies and they especially like the tall varieties. The plant generally grows 4 feet (1.2m) high and 1 foot (.3m) wide. It is an annual and is easy to start from seed.
• Pentas - suitable for Swallowtails. This plant grows 2 feet (.6m) hight and 3 feet (.9m) wide. It is an annual in cold climates.
• Heliotrope - this plant attracts a range of butterflies. It grows to a height of 2 feet (.6m) and a width of 1 foot (.3m), although it is possible to contain it in a pot. It will remain a perennial in temperate zones but is only an annual in cold climates.

4. Plan garden on paper. Draw up a plan, or decide where to add these suggestions to a current garden. Keep in mind the full grown size of plants during this planning stage. Also consider their needs for light and water.

5. Purchase plants or seeds from garden center. You can also get these plants and seeds online. Choose robust and healthy plants to give them a good start.

6. Plant your butterfly garden. Make sure to keep new plants and seeds watered until plants are well-established or seeds germinate. Keep the weeds at bay, to give the plants a good chance.

7. Observe and enjoy the butterfly activity in your garden. Watch for female butterflies laying eggs on host plants. Make notes in a record book of the butterflies that you observe and, if you can, take photographs to add to your record book. A digital record book can be a useful and simple way to do this and can be added to over the years. Observed changes in the types and numbers of butterflies coming into your garden can be information shared with biologists, ecologists and climate change specialists who use local variation information to ascertain species increase or decline, as well as temperature fluctuations and change.