I’ve plugged the science-fiction short story podcast Escape Pod before, but this week’s episode was particularly good, in my opinion.
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Motivation
Recently I alluded to my flittering attention span when it comes to hobbies. I’ll pick something up and be, like, totally into it for a while and then it fades to a second tier status. I’ve made inroads in the past few years to cut back on this tendency, attempting to set aside those things I know I’ll never get back to, disposing of the corpse, if you will.
There’s been a few things in the past year that I’ve made a strong commitment to and am attempting to keep up there on top level priority status. This blog is one, although it slips back occasionally. My Podcast is another, although it, too, slips back. The few things that occupy front and center priority are 1) my wife 2) my job 3) my fitness, pretty much in that order. As things are going, I’m doing fairly well on these three, but we’re about to hit a milestone and/or stumbling block for number 3. (more…)
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Midwest Teen Sex Show
If you are not aware of the phenomenon that is the Midwest Teen Sex Show, you should go check it out at Midwestteensexshow.com. It is a fantastically entertaining videocast focused on issues of teen sexuality and sex education. Even if you are not the intended audience, I guarantee you will be entertained, or your money back.
Seriously, it’s awesome. Go see it.
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Modern Art
With the advent of TiVo, marketeers are forced to expand their lexicon to get people to see their ads. This week, watching “Life” on NBC, we were annoyingly bombarded with product placement advertisements that ate up a good 5 to 6 minutes of the show.
Some people see commercials as a necessary evil on television. Other’s see them as a horrible waste of time, which thankfully DVR’s have eliminated. I see them as a sort of micro-story and, if done with skill and panache, can be worth watching for their own sake, despite whatever they are selling. How many people do you know who only watch the Superbowl for the commercials? Are commercials just chewing gum on our feet, or are they a slick expression of our modern artisitic desires?
I was thinking recently about a Nike advertisement that had an unfortunate debut during a girls gymnastic competition. It was pulled from the air almost immediately afterward. It remains one of the more amusing and clever commercials I’ve seen in recent years. Check it out on Youtube and tell me what you think.
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Police Shut down I-75
Yesterday, Jenn was caught in a traffic jam caused by the Police shutting down I-75 soutbound to look for a bank robber.
Apparently, the bank that was robbed slipped a tracking device into the money that was stolen, allowing the police to locate the perpetrator’s position on I-75. Unfortunately, despite the heartache and congestion caused by this rush-hour event, the robber was not apprehended.
Look for deeper thoughts concerning this and other events soon on Talking Traffic.
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Sick
Today I’m home sick. Bleah.You might think that this would let me catch up on blogging. We’ll have to see about that. Unfortunately, where I really want to be is at work, ’cause I have stuff to do, and limited time in which to do it. I find this unfortunately hard-and-fast hitting cold very untimely. Not to mention that it is playing hobb with my half-marathon training (which is in a week and a half).
If you see a flurry of posts, now you know why.
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People are Dumb Everywhere
MarkCC has a posting linked to another posting about how the British aren’t teaching the
itegersintegers very well. Some subset of british citizens are unaware that -10 is lower than -2. Go, check it out, especially the quote. -
Favorite Photo of the Week
This is an image of a pumpkin, post lobotomy.
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Meme Me Baby One More Time
Through channels, I learned of an interesting meme. Use google image search to run your name and blog about the one that pops up. Unfortunately, when you have a thorough flickr presence and an unusual last name, you end up having all of your own images at the top of the list.
I find it interesting that this beer glass has made such a name for itself. It’s popped up in several places.
But, as I said, that’s boring. Let’s try my initials, WMR. Apparently WMR involves 2.59 grams of MAXI-MAG!
That is also boring. Let’s try BR.
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God Hates Fred Phelps
If you aren’t familiar with the actions of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, go look it up in wikipedia. I won’t link here. To summarize, they feel that America is too tolerant of homosexuality, and everything bad that has happened in the past twenty years is the punishment of god for that tolerance: 9-11; the Columbia; Katrina; dead US soldiers; they are all being punished for our sins.
One of their more recent practices is to bring their protests to the funerals of our Iraqi war dead. They picket outside with signs like “God Hates America” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” This caused some counter-protests, such as the group of motorcycle riders who would go to the funerals that were being picketed and rev their bikes so no one could hear the WBC sing their hateful songs.
Now, a Maryland father has won a lawsuit and been awarded $11 million against Fred Phelps and his “church” for “intent to inflict emotional distress” amongst other things.
This couldn’t happen to a better church. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will do any good. Even if the award is upheld after appeals, I’m sure the church will declare bankruptcy, and other fundies will come out of the woodwork to support their trips around the country. It’s a good first step, though.
I support the first amendment, and I support Fred Phelps’ right to say stupid, hateful things. There are more appropriate places for protected speech than during private funerals, though. This is probably hypocritical on my part, but I cheer the lawsuit, and its result.
The Evil Eyebrow
There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow
Twenty Twenty-Five
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