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December 07, 2007

Are They Really This Stupid?

I wish I knew what store this was....

December 05, 2007

Kitty Wig


Please for the love of god don't do this to your pet. And is it just me or is there a curiously strange resemblance to one of the Tori Amos personae on her latest album?



Random Questions

Cheney has a heart? Who knew.

I always suspected Mary Poppins was a horror picture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

After Star Wars I, why did anyone let George Lucas continue to write dialog for II and III?

November 28, 2007

Enough

Enough already with the phrases that should have been banished a long time ago. For starters....

(only) time will tell: Yeah, and all babies must eat. Injecting this nugget into any discussion is far from sounding wise and sage-like. It just says "Hi! I'm Captain Obvious!"

we shall see: as above, but also regularly used as ominous warning in postings on extreme right and left wing blogs.

At the end of the day: a sorry excuse of a linguistic crutch.

Each and every: direct to you from the department of redundancy department.

September 18, 2007

Language Abuse

In the Deseret Morning News there was an article about underage drinking and, specifically, parents giving their kids alcohol and even sponsoring parties (where they take all the car keys from the kids - the assumption that a controlled environment without driving keeps the kids safer). But the unintended hilarity was in one of the comments, obviously from an underage drinker:
Drinkers will drink, when they have the chance to do the deed. Why not supply to the inebriated and interested? These are the days of our lives, growing up in a dry state with hyperventilated ethics and murals! When will we all understand that alcohol doesn't kill, and that kids will be teenagers eventually and adults certainly?
Wow! I didn't know our ethics were hyperventilated! And we have murals!!!

September 13, 2007

Be Careful About The Songs You Choose

I'm frequently surprised, sometimes even shocked, at what songs advertising and marketing execs use in their ads. Do any of them actually listen to or even bother to search out the full lyrics of the songs they use? Do they look up the references in the songs? Do they try to understand what the song is actually saying? The most recent one brought to my attention was the use of Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" in Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines current ad campaign. I wonder how the RCCL execs, reveling in the cleverness of the "Lust for life" chorus lyrics, would react if they knew the contents of just one of the verses:
Here comes johnny yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He's gonna do another strip tease
Hey man, where'd ya get that lotion?
I've been hurting since I've bought the gimmick
About something called love
Yeah, something called love
Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens
Sure seems to match well with the Royal Caribbean brand image, doesn't it?

August 17, 2007

From The Delusional Actors File

Steven Seagal (who? remember him?) seems to think that an FBI probe ruined his career:

"False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the Mafia," Seagal told the newspaper. "These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -- and kill careers."

Seagal, 56, was once a major star of action movies such as 1992's "Under Siege," which earned $156 million at worldwide box offices, but now he makes straight-to-DVD releases such as "Flight of Fury and "Attack Force."


Gee, Steven, it's just a wild guess, but maybe your career was ruined because you can barely act and most of your movies just plain suck. (Although the Under Siege movies were OK guilty pleasures.)

August 13, 2007

Stop Opening Attachments From Unknown Senders!!!

For the love of god stop opening email attachments or clicking on links from senders you don't know! It's mid 2007; the fricken Web is well over a decade old. Do people still need to be reminded of this? Really? Are people still not running and/or keeping up-to-date anti-virus + anti-spyware + firewall software? Really?

For the past few weeks there's been an ever-increasing wave of spam claiming "You've received a greeting card from a friend/colleague/worshipper/family member/neighbor/classmate/business partner/random asshole." Click on the enclosed link, often a PDF file, which is sometimes sent as an attachment, and your PC has just contracted the Storm worm and become part of the Storm zombie network that sends out even more spam - or worse. According to security firm SecureWorks, 1.7 million idiots have done just that. The number of Storm attacks blocked by SecureWorks has skyrocketed, from 71,342 for the first five months of the year to 20.2M since June. The scary thing is that computer security experts are concerned that a botnet of that size is capable of an ginormous DDOS attack - one that big enough to bring down a small country or big chunks of the US government.

So do your eyes light up in eager anticipation when you get an email that Ronald Reagan has sent you an e-card and you rush to click the link? Quit being a moron! And make sure your security software is constantly updated. Or at least buy a Mac fer crissakes!

June 04, 2007

May 02, 2007

This Must Stop

White bread geek boys and rap. They Just. Don't. Mix.
Here's the What You Know About Math video. Watch at your own risk. While seated. On an empty stomach.

April 12, 2007

Leadership

There's a new book out: "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?" by Lee Iacocca. In it he shreds Bush for his stunning incompetence. Alas, it will probably get Iacocca placed on the no-fly list. Here's an excerpt:
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.


Read more of the excerpt here