See this fellow? Looks like a nice guy doesn’t he? He probably is a nice guy too. His name is Aaron Westbrook and he’s a teacher. He was just sentenced to 240 days in jail for banging a couple of his 17-year old female students. Such activities are so not appropriate for an educator to engage in.

The OC Register has his mug shot attached to their story, I suppose as a warning for parents and as a visual aide for those who are curious. Anyway, the point is this: he probably doesn’t look like he does in his booking photo – all scary and scruffy and and unshaven and menacing. In reality he probably looks more like this – a normal nice looking fellow.

What the point of all this you ask? So the streets are ‘safe’ or whatever for the next 8 months or so… unless he gets early release (no inappropriate pun intended). Either way, it’s a lesson that sex-offending-felons look just like you and I, only you know, they’re all pervy and stuff.

Yup, you can tour a real live guided-missile destroyer this weekend!

The USS Benholm is docked at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, and tours of the ship will be open to the public.

You can visit on Saturday from 10am to 2pm, and on Sunday from 10am to 1pm.

Entrance is through the Liberty Gate off of Seal Beach Boulevard.

Expect LONG lines and lots of people, so if crowds aren’t your thing, this isn’t the place for you. 

Based on our experience of touring the USS Midway in San Diego (which is great, BTW) it should be really interesting to check out an active-duty ship.

So, why is called a marine layer and not fog in Southern California? I’ve been wondering why ever since I’ve moved here 4.5 years ago. I realize the definition of marine is “of or pertaining to the sea.” However, wouldn’t that also be applicable to San Francisco? Granted SF sits on a bay, not the ocean, it is ocean water though.

Yes, I’m being serious when I ask this question. Yes, I drive people nuts with my “only you would wonder that.”

Throw a girl a bone.

This was the best photo I could find, of mine, that kinda represents a marine layer.

The ever informative Fast Food Maven has disclosed that the brand new Bob’s Big Boy at the Stadium Promenade (on Katella by the Honda Center) will open on August 9th!

Squeeee!

Finally, no longer having to go to Baker or Burbank to have a double-decker combo!

Granted, their food may not be the most gourmet stuff around, but I have mucho memories of going to Bob’s Big Boy with my grandparents, where for some inexplicable reason, I would always have the Pappy Parker’s Fried Chicken.

What was I thinking?

What was your favorite meal from Bob’s?

ICME: Mean Cruiser, originally uploaded by suprdave89.

Have you seen the new Dodge Charger police vehicles? Anaheim, Orange and Tustin have adopted them over the last year or so. These things look mean! I think they are a definite ugrade from the
Caprice or the Crown Vic. What are your thoughts??

Believe it or not, there are people out there that don’t know how to behave in public and the beach is no exception. It is really quite astonishing, to me at least, how insensitive, rude and in some cases just plain clueless people can be. During a recent trip to Crystal Cove we encountered a guy that was the epitome of insensitive/rude and his wife just seemed clueless and/or resigned to the fact that she is married to an asshole.

So, I went on a walk down the beach, my husband stayed behind, reading his book. When I returned, this is the view I had from my beach chair. Yes, you are seeing correctly … their skimboards are directly in front of me. And, get this, this is the “better” place for them according to the asshat they belong to. My husband asked if they could move them and they were moved, from in front of him to in front of me, so they were basically moved a few inches. For the record, we were there well before this family showed up.

This brings me to my beach etiquette* lesson, which I really thought everyone knew. 1) Never set-up directly in front of someone else. 2) Try to stagger your set-up from those in the closest proximity to you, especially when they are already there. 3) Do not, especially on a crowded day, take up the space of a horde, when there are just four of you. In other words, don’t act as if you own the beach and no one else is entitled to use it. 4) Don’t let your kids play in front of someone else. We don’t want to watch your kids either. 5) This one is the most important one of all … CLEAN UP YOUR AREA WHEN YOU LEAVE!!!

Garbage

Needless to say “my” family of four broke all of the unwritten rules of the beach. The really sad thing about this is the message the parents are sending to their kids … it’s OK to act like an entitled asshole.

Sorry for the poor photo quality, but I took them quickly using my phone. I didn’t want to use my camera as the dad was a real hot-head. When he moved the skimboards he acted all put-out and offended. He seemed just like the type of guy to start a fight.

All I wanted was a nice relaxing day at the beach. Thankfully they didn’t stay long. They created all of the havoc – getting me all riled up – in about two hours.

It’s really simple, be kind and courteous to those around you all of the time, not just at the beach. Peace yinz guys!

So, my friends, what else can we add to the Unwritten Beach Etiquette List?

* Obviously, if you go to a more popular i.e. crowded touristy beach or as the tide/surf dictates you have to amend accordingly.

Our friends over at Mice Age are fueling the fire that the much maligned beloved short film starring Michael Jackson will be returning to the Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland. While I am personally inclined to say “no way in hell is that ever gonna happen”, I would still add a caveat that I suppose nothing is impossible.

[poll=25]

You can watch the full version of Captain EO after the jump…

(more…)

Hawaii just reconfirmed President Obama’s Birth Certificate. Yes that’s right, they have verified its authenticity two times now because (dumb-ass scrot-boy) Alan Keyes and Pastor (and all around menace) Wiley Drake filed a lawsuit in Santa Ana alleging the President is not a natural-born American citizen. Oy vey.

A message to Alan and Wiley: Stop embarrassing yourselves but more importantly stop embarrassing the rest of the people in this county who have to claim you as fellow citizens of the orangiest place on earth. The horse is dead. The certificate has been authenticated three (yes, count them, three) times now. You should quit while you’re ahead and go back to hating gays and ruining lives on state-wide scale because the national limelight does not agree with you!

Wow, where did that come from? I am just sick of hearing about this garbage and it makes me sicker that the garbage is coming from Orange County.

I can’t seem to stop Disney blogging these. Clearly things seem to come along all at once or not at all – as there is an ebb and flow when it comes to Mouse related news. The lovely little nugget of Disneyana below, appropriately timed during Disneyland’s birthday month, shows some fascinating time-lapse film of the park’s construction (from 55 years ago).

The commentary accompanying the video is equally interesting – at the 1:20 mark they discuss how the opening is just about 3 month’s from that point and the place was a MESS! Boy, did they work fast or what? This is something I feel maybe we could use a little more of in the modern day Disneyland. It seems like the current DCA expansion is taking forever (and it’s just getting started).

If the commentary bores you, just crank up your favorite concept album, mute YouTube and watch it that way. It’s hypnotic…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtPUH6LErMY[/youtube]

[via BoingBoing]

At least she didn’t bring the entire brood to the Mouse House and instead hit up Disneyland with just one of the fourteen children she popped out. Can you imagine when they are all old enough to enjoy the world’s most famous theme park? That is one stroller-jam no one will be able to circumnavigate [via Perez Hilton].