Handwritten sign seen on train "Responsible will drive your car to las vegas nevada. You pay gas, tolls. Call Issac."
TV I watched during the holidays Remember those holidays we had last month? When we were visiting family, we often found ourselves watching TV - sometimes due to food comas. Usually this TV wasn't the type TV we normally watched (the TV we watch consists of all of 5 different shows (3 of which are Law & Order re-runs))
Random thoughts on holiday TV 1. We watched that extreme makeover show. They built a house in like a week or something. OK, first of all, is that a good thing? Would you want a house that only took a week to build? I'd be worried my bathtub might fall through the floor if I filled it with water. Right after that was them Desperate Housewives - this was the first time I had seen this show, thereby making me the last person left in the US who hasn't.
If I was a TV exec, I don't think I would put these two shows back to back. As schlocky as the makeover show can be, the bottom line was that in this particular episode was a father trying to raise eight children after his wife passed away. All the neighbors and friends and local church folk were helping out - and it was pretty hard to find much wrong with the whole thing. I mean, I tried to be snarky.
Right after that is Desperate Housewives with their whole desperate housewifery, which was in stark contrast to the previous show. In fact, maybe it was the cornbread talking, but I thought the show came off even more over the top than I had expected due to the *gasp* heartwarming previous show.
2. Some wife-swapping shit on Oprah We were hanging out a friend's house... I was checking their computer ("Why is my screen blinking like that?!") and watching TV at the same time, and some Oprah shit was on. It was a spin-off or tie-in with one of those "wife/mother person goes to live with another family with hilarious consequences" show. First, the "wives" were all really over the top. There was a woman wearing a feather-boa - as if wealthy women wore those around town all the time.
But, second, and this is my biggest beef, (mmmmm... biggest beef) I find these shows really... um, what's the word? Deplorable. The fact that these poor goofball kids have to be involved with this shit I think could easily be seen as child abuse. Unwitting accomplices. Stupid adults crying on TV is one thing. Young children crying because they want their real mom back is another.
3. Idiot TV News Oh man, I had forgotten how bad local TV news was. The TV news in Charlotte (town motto: cityus suckus) did a whole 5 minute expose on cars being broken into at shopping malls.
"Thieves are breaking into cars in parking lots at shopping malls - places where you and your family might be" Holy shit!! My family!! We go to shopping malls!!! Shopping malls have parking lots!! My family is in danger!!
GAIM I love GAIM. It's the open-soure instant messenger program that can handle AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ. I have abandoned Trillian which I used for a good 2-3 years (is that right?) and now use GAIM full time.
What I like: - very similar interface to AOL's AIM - you can "tab" the IM window with conversations like you can do with Mozilla. - Doesn't contain any of that crap AOL bundles with AIM - Lots of neat features that I am still discovering - The ability to display an "alias". Let's say my AIM username is "Robot1994bigDawg" - you can set it to display your actual name in the dialog window instead of your username. - The 'away' feature works twenty times better than Trillian's does.
Bad things - I am not sure the Mac version is really ready to go.
Max Our web-host and pal Scott has a lovely little family. They were recently visiting NYC and somehow that nutty Mars 2112 restaurant came up in conversation. Being that Scott's son Max loves robots, space, science, magic, and plants with skeletons, they decided to try it for lunch. That night when they got home, I had this IM conversation: 1:36am scott: hey! me: yes? scott: max is sleeping with the menu from that mars restuarant me: ha! scott: he f*cking loved that place to pieces
Mars 2112 So, right. For those who don't live in the Big Stink, Mars 2112 is a mars-themed restaurant, complete with rocketship rides and aliens outside on the sidewalk.
Queers Posters in the subway always get scribbled on. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy/Girl have launched their new campaign for the next season and have plastered their ads all over the place. What makes me laugh is that, especially in the station I frequent, the posters seem to be free of the usual "FAG!" scribbling that every other ad suffers from.
Ad for family healthcare featuring, er, a family. Across the father's head: "I suck dick!" Movie poster featuring guy with gun: "FAG!" Poster featuring Queer Eye gay men: nothing. No scribbled comical genitalia to be seen.
I imagine the folks who normally scribble on these posters to stop and think, "well, these guys are obviously gay... next poster." My plan is to scribble "Straight!" or "I like to date women" on the posters.
Damn Commies I was reading an article about Edgar Ray Killen - the 80-something year old guy in Mississippi that is now being charged and tried for the murders of the three civil rights workers back in 1967 (which is what they based the movie That There Mississippi is Burning and Stuff on). I did a google search for stuff on him and came across a bunch of spooky klan/skinhead/whitey power websites with stories about ol' Edgar. So, spooky that I am not linking to them. (Is that right? Not linking to spooky hate sites? Somehow I feel like I am condoning them by posting a hyperlink.)
The point is, I came across a site where some klanny-type interviewed Edgar about the current situation he's in, and what I found so hilarious was how often the word "communist" came up. I realize that the 'red scare' was a major, um, scare back in his day, but he appears to still be accusing everyone and their mother of being a communist.
2005 Dude, if you're a communist in 2005, more power to you. Good luck with that whole crazy not-gonna-work thing. Send us a postcard from time to time. (start yelling, "happyrobot supports communists" if you feel the need)
Um, what was he thinking? I mean, sure it's all wrong and stuff - but also it's pretty stupid in general. I somehow imagine that skinheads are also thinking, "dude, that's just stupid". I'm not sure what my point is, except that it appears to be stupid on many levels. (not just the obvious stupid)
