EXCLUSIVE: Cloverfield Monster Revealed

Looks like Barb found the Diamond of Pantheos once again.

Someone call Robert Smith....

Irregardless

Irregardless - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I just couldn't keep myself from laughing at this preamble to the Wikipedia article on the word "irregardless" (which I just searched for to check whether it had one r or two).

Irregardless is a term that has caused wide spread panic and social disorder; it must be noted that this word may result in mental retardation.

Just in case the entry has been corrected by the time you are reading this click here for the permanently (?) stored version of the page that I saw.

Britney Spears vs. Reality

I love comparative research, I don't know why but taking two somewhat unrelated things and comparing them on some common point is really interesting to me. When I heard that Google released a website that compares the traffic of search terms over time I got really excited. Not only because I have kind of a thing for anything Google but also because Trends is actually really cool. Sadly it only serves to support my contention tha most people are idiots.

So lets have a bit of a showdown between stupid celebrity search terms and things that I arrogantly think are important and what people should really be spending their time looking for information about.

Celebrities vs. World Issues

Ok, maybe both of these catagories are too broad and it isn't a fair comparison.

So lets try something a little more specific.





Angelina Jolie vs. Darfur

Wow, well thats kind of sad but also not really a surprise. Most people that I talk to seem far more interested in Jolie's tattoos and relationship with Brad Pitt then what very well might be the first genocide of the millennium.




George Clooney vs. Human Trafficking


It sure would take a big topic to dethrone this Hollywood heartthrob and apparently the global sex and slave trade isn't it.

Although, the popularity of searches for George Clooney might have something to do with some underground "Bring Back Dr. Ross" campaign.


Paris Hilton vs. Global Warming
Look at this and tell me it doesn't make you want to cry.

After the success of An Inconvenient Truth and the talk of Al Gore running for President it looks like Paris Hilton might have a better chance. Actually forget I said that, she might actually try it.

American Idol vs. Democracy
Televised talent contests: the governmental system of choice for the future?






That just about does it for now, maybe I should make my goal for tomorrow to write something that will begin to restore my faith in humanity.

Blocking-Out

I wouldn't call myself a social recluse but I really do enjoy my daily alone time, and no I don't mean it that way...

That said, I find myself surrounded by crowds of people a lot. In the past I always thought that people listening to music, reading books, watching videos, etc. instead of observing and interacting with the bustling world around them were escapist; using every avenue available to to them to block-out reality.

Music instead of sounds.
Words and videos instead of sights.

Certainly music, books, and whatnot have their place but experiencing the simple activity of life among others was something to be valued in and of itself. An experience that can't be replaced by anything.

Lately though I find myself riding the subway listening to my iPod and reading a book about how Ross Perot ended the Iranian hostage crisis. Not because I've forgotten about reality but because I want to block it out, I want to be able to escape it.

Why shouldn't we all have a few moments a day when to can escape the demise of democracy, the pre-emptive wars, the dead-end jobs, the human rights abuses that go unnoticed, the racism, the greed, and the destruction of the world?

I'm not depressed, I love life. But I really think that the world is getting worse faster then its getting better. Is there a solution? Maybe, but I sure as hell don't have it.

When you go out to experience life in the city, unencumbered by headphones, you see good people doing what they need to do to make their own lives and those of their families better. And all of those people making the most rational of choices are helping to deliver the world to hell in a hand basket.

Who wouldn't want to escape that? No wonder Apple has sold over a hundred million little boxes that keep the sound out.

Ethically Neutral

I spent a good deal of time in university studying theories of right and wrong and all of the infinite shades of gray in between. But is there something outside of that spectrum?

Maybe that's what Nietzsche was talking about in Beyond Good and Evil but I haven't read it so I wouldn't know.

If there are activities which fall outside of the spectrum of good and evil; neither benefiting nor harming anyone are they still worth pursuing?

Can I become more productive in things that are in a very real sense empty of meaning?

I'll give you three guesses as to why I'm asking these questions.

Fuck I have to break out of this rut.

Monday Musings

The dreariness of the day and the insomnia compound feeding upon each other to make a morning you don't want to wake up to.

The jobs that can be replaced by a software upgrade.

The irrevocable and necessarily uninformed decisions that can change a lifetime.

The cognitive crisis of what to read, what to learn, what to watch, what to do next.

The addiction to productivity and the impulse to multi-task.

The desire to do something meaningful, the need to earn a living.

Its a good thing this is a short week.

Ask the Nation

Perhaps the greatest "what do you think?" that The Onion has ever done.

But then again slow news days have to make satire so much simpler.