Useless Information

Rating Systems

2005-07-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

An issue that has bothered me for quite some time is how our nation is obsessed with sex, yet we despise it. I’ve never really been bothered by all of the sex in the media. It’s always been there; I’ve grown up with it. I don’t know where people got the notion that sex is such a terrible thing. If no one had sex, no one would be here. Sex is human nature, it’s why all of us are here. Nature’s goal for us is to grow, reproduce, and die. That’s pretty much it. I may be beating a dead horse (or however that expression goes) but, a perfect example is the Janet Jackson slip. Who really cares? If you breast fed your child, it’s seen a nipple a lot longer than the .5 seconds Janet’s nipple was on TV. Why shelter your kids to such a great degree. I’m not saying that kids should be allowed to watch porn but, I seriously don’t believe that Janet’s half second nip-slip constitutes pornography. Have these people ever been to Europe? European TV is slathered with boobs. And over there, no one cares. Not even the kids. The kids over there don’t all seem to grow up to be sex crazed maniacs. Because they have grown up with it, it’s not a big deal to them. They weren’t sheltered from sex and the ultimately feared ‘boob’. It’s just not that big of a deal, it’s a part of the female anatomy, big deal. TV is bad enough for your children, boobs or no boobs. If you really want to get rid of the evil in America, make your kids go outside and play instead of sitting on his ass for 19 hours a day watching cartoons and eating cheetos.

Back to the point: If you read any news past your local news or STORM WATCH you probably heard about the hidden sex game in the Grand Theft Auto game. Apparently, you can mod the game to unlock hidden scripts that unlocks a mini-game where you can have sex with your girlfriend. The ESRB (the people who rate video games) is all up in a flurry because when they gave the game an M-mature rating, they didn’t know this secret code existed or they would have given it an AO-adults only rating. What a dumb statement. GTA crossed the line way before the new impossible to get to sex mini game. How about how you go kill people for 72 hours straight until the army comes and blows you up with a tank? I’d much rather the children of America have sex than replicate that. Or even the 750 times the main character says ‘Fuck’ or ‘Nigger’. I think all this should have given the game an AO rating long before the new source code that takes at least 2 hours of your time, an extra 50 bucks, and a lot more playing of the game, to unlock. It’s not just the ESRB though; the MPAA does the same thing. Passion of the Christ was one of the goriest movies ever and yet it got an R rating. Yet, when a movie has more than 4 sex scenes it gets an NC-17 rating. I’m just disappointed as always with the group of people we give power in our country.

Just to clarify, I’m not condoning sex in the media and saying that we should all become nymphomaniacs. I’m not even saying that we should become more lenient with the youth of America and our cultural standards for sex. I simply wish that we could have a more balanced system in which these people decide who is old enough to see this. If someone is old enough to say ‘Nigger’ and ‘Fuck’ 700 times while killing old people with a chainsaw, they’re probably old enough to play a sex mini-game if they so desire. Likewise with Jesus being beaten and stabbed and tortured for 2 hours, I think we can let a nipple fly every once in a while.

Links:
News about GTA

Snopes: more urban legends, rumors and people putting smut where it probably shouldn't be. Check out disney for a kick.

Sushi is delicious

2005-07-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I seem to be writing about thing I dislike quite often so I decided to have a change of pace. Although, this discussion will probably lead to me complaining about something, but we’ll see how it goes.

Let’s start with sushi. I love sushi; it’s one of my favorite things to eat. People that say they don’t like it don’t know what they’re talking about. You have to start off slow, you have to eat the egg and the snapper and all the cooked stuff first. Then you are free to move into the big boy leagues. Once you acquire a taste for it, oh my, it’s good. In fact, I would go as far as to say it’s great. The strange thing about people that eat sushi is they can be divided into 4 specific groups.

First off there are the little Asian people that think because you’re white, you can’t really eat sushi. Unfortunately, because most Asians are smaller than I am, all they do is scoff from afar as to avoid the beating immediately following the face-full of sushi they would most likely endure from the dirty American dogs. The next two groups I will sum up together. At Chinese buffets, if you walk back with a plate just with sushi on it, some people will give you a look that can be defined with the expletive, “Whoa!” Other people think that because they are also carrying a plate of sushi, you are somehow in a new clique and think that a friendly eyebrow raise or “Nice” is appropriate. It is not however. The last, and my personal favorite group, would have to be the girls that think because you eat sushi you are ‘cool’ or some kind of deep person. Not to say that people that eat sushi are not deep but this is by no means a qualifying factor of deciding who is sophisticated and who is not. This group, along with my love with sushi are the two pros against an eruption of cons that keep me eating this delicious treat. If you don’t like sushi because it’s raw fish, you should reconsider. Half of the sushi around here is cooked anyway and, it’s really not bad for you. If you’ve eaten a hotdog, ever, then you have no argument here. And as a final thought, use Wasabi; it brings out the flavor, and as long as you don’t use a lot, isn’t hot.

Sorry it took so long for another post. I’ve been busy lately and haven’t had a time to write. I’ll try to keep it more on schedule. Thanks for reading

Eat sushi.

News, News, News...

2005-07-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

So much important news in the past few days: London, Karl Rove, London again. Let’s just start from the beginning.

London won the Olympics, who cares? First off, who thought New York was going to get it anyway? The IOC hates America as it is. We just had an Olympics here; they're not going to do it again. Between London and Paris, I kind of wish Paris would have won, especially because of the more recent stuff that's been happening in London. It's always nice to see France lose though. On the other hand, Paris winning the Olympics might have finally made it recognized as the dirtiest place on earth. Win/win situation in my opinion.

London got bombed, which is bad. They're saying it looks like an Al-Qaeda attack but, they haven't really found any full blown evidence, which is worse. I guess the best situation is that they actually find some douche bag terrorist from all of this. Or maybe it will inspire the rest of the world to get pissed off at terrorism now that a country that the world seems to hate 'less' than America has been attacked. Or perhaps it was France, angry about the Olympics. I really do feel bad for all the people in London, especially those who had family in the attack, there won't be anything good on TV there for at least a month. I remember how it was after 9/11. News, on every station 24 hours a day, each with its own cheesy name like, 'operation take down terror' etc.

I really don't want to talk about Karl Rove because the whole thing is stupid. He's a terrible person and should go to jail forever. The sad truth is if he is found guilty which is a 1 in 20 shot, he'll be pardoned and the world will go 'round. So instead we'll talk about cars. Stripping cars down is terrible, but overall satisfying. One would think there would be a way to make cars in which they could easily come apart. This is not the case. Somehow, you are supposed to be made of elastic and stretch your 6' frame into an awkward position and ratchet off a screw that requires 350 lbs of pressure to turn. Once you see the final product though, you really feel as if you had accomplished something.

I'll end with a joke that I think is hilarious. Some people have informed me it's not funny at all and some say that they don't get it. These people are morons, this is the funniest joke you've ever heard:
A man walks by a house that has a dog tied up outside and a sign that reads, "Talking Dog for Sale-- $10."
"What's your story?" the man asks.
"Well," the mutt says, "when my owner discovered I could speak, he signed me up with the CIA which flew me all over the world on eaves-dropping missions. I took down a lot of high profile targets, won medals and retired out here in the country." Amazed, the man goes inside and asks the owner why he wants only $10 for this remarkable animal. "Because he's a liar, "the owner says.”He didn’t do any of that shit. "

The Day After

2005-07-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever realized that the day after can never be as much fun as the night of? For instance, if you have a great party, no matter how good or bad the party was, the day after the party will never live up to the party. There's probably some equation that can show this but, currently physicists have not been able to find it. Yesterday was the 4th of July; I really had a lot of fun, but I hate waking up to the thought that the day is basically wasted no matter what I do. I used to not wake up with this thought but, the more I see it proven true, the more the thought comes to mind. The only foreseeable solution is to have a party that never ends. Since this is pretty much unrealistic, I presume we will have to deal with these boring days, nicknamed ‘afterdays,’ until someone comes up with a better fix than the party that never ends.

Ive always liked the 4th of July but have always been a little ashamed. It’s really pretty juvenile. You sit around, drink, eat BBQ, and watch people blow stuff up. I started to wonder if this was just an American thing. I checked out some places and found out that all people around the world have this desire to watch people escape death to put on a show of exploding lights. But if you never have been the one guy, escaping death to put on a show, I highly recommend it. Seeing fireworks is nothing compared to seeing them and knowing you’re the one that lit the fuse. I can only imagine how people that make the fireworks feel, but I still refuse to download ‘The Anarchists Cookbook’.

I was looking at what other countries do and I thought the British’s excuse to blow up stuff was a little funny. Since they have no independence because they’ve been in power since a little after the dawn of man, they celebrate how they stopped this guy named Fawkes from blowing up parliament. I think it’s kind of an honor for him, having a whole day about how they stopped him. Seems a little silly to me, but it would be entertaining to see them burn a dummy with ‘Fawkes’ written across its chest in a bonfire; those crazy British.

For once AOL did something un-douchie and maybe even commendable. They put the entire Live 8 concert performance online for free. You can even select it down to the artist and song, pretty nifty. Too bad they still charge triple what everyone else does for sub-par internet. But hey, baby steps. There's a link to it below this.
Links:
Live 8
Here’s some more on that Fawkes guy
I thought this was interesting- 25 questions scientists still can’t answer

Ikea and more

2005-06-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've always admired Ikea. They make cheap furniture that actually looks good, great concept. I think the creator of Ikea, is a genius. Unfortunately, I will now be weary to enter another one of these stores. I had wondered before how Ikea became such a large business worldwide (they have stores in something like 35+ countries). Even a great entrepreneur with a great product can have his business easily fail. I am pretty sure there is something special in these big businesses that keeps them running and, I believe I have found Ikea's. My friend and I were downtown looking for something to do so, we decided we'd go to Ikea, why not? It was meant to be a quick 20 or 30 minute trip but, it turned into an hour an half long excursion. The store lures you in with it's cool revolving door and trendy furniture. Once you're done though, you realize you're lost; there is no distinction between the different rooms, it's all just rooms filled with trendy furniture. So you finally figure out that there is a map and arrows on the floor, easy right? Wrong. I swear the arrows led us in circles around the store. There was a supposed 'shortcut' to the checkout we tried taking at least twice, with no success. When you finally find your way around the enormous store to their alleged exit, you enter the brain of the Ikea store. Boxes, boxes, and more boxes of affordable trendy furniture lines the walls in all directions. There is no more trendyness here. All the cool carpets and wall paintings are gone. All there is here is an uncovered floor and ceiling full of girders. By this time you have no more energy to think or walk you just wander in the general direction they say the exit is. The store was so malicious, we were actually scared the 'exit' would be a conveyer belt from which we would emerge with a yellow polo and a new Swedish name. After meandering through the hallways of boxes, you see your first glimmer of light. Do not be fooled, these are just windows and are not the exit. Once you find a way past the cash register line, you can see it, a big sign hanging above, "EXIT" Salvation at last. This is the time you must stay strongest however. The final allure comes from the store to keep you within it, 49 cent hot dogs. It's so tempting, the picture looks delicious, and it's only 49 cents. Luckily my friend stopped me from giving into the stores treats. As a last resort the store offers you sparkling cider in champagne bottles. Bursting through those doors was a pretty great feeling. On the upside, you feel as if you've accomplished something, escaping from store. On the downside, though, you wasted 2 hours of your day wandering around a furniture store.

So, that's it. I have no problem with their furniture, I like some of it. But, I think next time I feel like I need some cheap trendy furniture, I'll order online or get a friend to go buy it for me. As an added bonus we saw the Jesus mobile as we were leaving, I tried to get a picture but my cell phone died.

Another thing I saw in the news that people seem to be talking about is the Saddam/Sun Lawsuit. Apparently, Saddam didn't like The Sun publishing pictures of him in his tighty-whities. The sun decided to counter-sue him. I don't really know what they could sue him for. Lots of people want Saddam to win, because Rupert Murdock is in the top 3 on the list of biggest media assholes. I really think it's a win/win situation. I don't like either of them. Whoever loses it's a good day for me. I guess the perfect situation would be that Saddam wins and then is executed the day after.

On a lighter note, over the past few days, I found out that people actually read this. I genuinely thank anyone that reads this. I really appreciate it. If you have any comments, feel free to leave one here or email me. Thanks again.

Here's some links:
Here is a fairly unbiased look at the Saddam case.
And here is The Sun's take on the matter.
A step closer to Hell (and trendyness)

The man bringing' us down

2005-06-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have noticed in several articles and forums lately that Wal-mart keeps coming up. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with Wal-mart; they found a way to buy in such large quantities they were able to lower there prices below everyone else's. Last time I checked that was business. Yet, for some reason everyone seems to hate Wal-mart saying they're willing to pay a little more for Target because of Target's apparent elegance compared to Wal-mart. The only category this applies to is clothing. Target's clothing line is substantially more pinache than Wal-mart. But the food? The paper cups? Those little umbrellas that you stick in mix drinks? All of these products come from suppliers who sell them to places like Wal-mart or Target in massive bulk. So, my question is why does everyone hate Wal-mart so much? I think a big part of the answer to this question is that people see Wal-mart as the man bringing' us down. Just how people view Microsoft compared to Apple, or Starbuck's compared to their local little struggling coffee shop. The reason these companies lord it over their competition so much is because they earned it. Maybe I'm wrong but, I'm pretty sure these companies didn't start off saying, "Hmmm well we're going to need some scientists to figure out how to brainwash everyone to shop at our store." No, they made wise business decisions and that's why everyone shops at their store. I keep seeing this issue pop up everywhere and it's starting to bug me. Just because your favorite unheard of music group becomes popular doesn't mean you can't like them anymore, it means they really were good. You put your money on the winner. I'm tired of all the asshats thinking that just because something is popular it must be part of some giant scheme to destroy the economy and the consumer world. We call these people, ass-hats.

Also, Firefox is not a better tabbed browser just because it's not IE based. Try Slimbrowser and stop being an ass-hole.

Oh, and in other news, Tom Cruise's mid-life crisis has shown it's head on TV again, this time with a video. You don't understand the history of psychiatry!... spiffy

Some new stuff

2005-06-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while. I'm not really sure why. I've been busy dealing with some drama, some boredom, and some fun times. There are a few things I think I should mention just to express what's on my mind (other than my social life of course.) I think a list is a fitting way to show these ideas, mostly because it's much less boring than sentences:

1. Christopher Walken is a 'G'
2. Cinderella Man is the best movie of the year, no matter what else comes out
3. My conspiracy theory of the middle-aged-generations cartoon characters was proven right when Mickey Mouse died.
4. All Grecian-Canadian are hilarious (in a good way)
5. Tom Cruise is insane
6. So is Scientology
7. Lists are the coolest things since sliced bread even if it may have come before
8. People that think they are better than America because they were born overseas anger me

Anyway, those are some things I have come to realize. To elaborate on the last one, the group of people I am mentioning actually are a sub-category to a much larger group of people. People who think America is beneath them and live here anger me. I understand if you live in another country; you have an excuse. It's the middle aged people that purposefully moved over out of choice and then tell everyone they meet how terrible it is in America. If you don't like it, move, or at least be respectful. I may talk about other countries 3000+ away but if I went to France, I wouldn't call them pussies to their face. I find it rude and ignorant.

Well that's it for now; I'll have more later on. I really must start writing more.

The hotter it gets, the more I hot-tub.

Episode III

2005-06-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why all my friends would play such a cruel joke on me. I went into Revenge of the Sith thinking, "This is going to be better than the last two." because that is what my misleading friends had told me days before. What I saw was not better by any stretch of the imagination. What I saw was several otherwise good actors in a tornado of terrible writing, and what I perceive to be directing.

It's the only explanation I can come up with. With a few exceptions, Revenge of the Sith's cast was pretty esteemed. Samuel Jackson has been nominated for an Oscar and yet, in this movie his lines could have been read better from a nine year old. I think Lucas or maybe someone else on the staff was telling him to talk like that. The same is true with Natalie Portman.

I had realized the movie had gone sour when I heard Yoda say, "Not if anything to say about it... I HAVE!" This is when I wished I had gone home and flushed $6.50 down the toilet instead of wasting it and being forced to sit in a sticky theater for well over two hours.

The effects in the movie was the one thing that was actually above par, and it was well above par. Unfortunately, effects don't make the movie. I would have much rather had terrible effects and good acting than what they dealt out.

There is much more I could and would like to complain about but I won't. I feel cheated thinking the movie would be good or at least better. I will now no longer talk about Star Wars directly here, or in real life.

I leave you with this simple single sentence which I think summarizes all of the above

George Lucas is a douche

Washed up Conspiracy

2005-05-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well a few days ago when the Riddler from Batman died, I thought of mentioning it but decided against it. It's not that big of a deal; I watched Batman but, not in a cult way. Lets face it, Batman wasn't the most intriguing of TV shows even for children's programming.
A few days later I read that Fred Flinstone died. This was a little bit of a bigger deal considering I watched the Flinstones much more then Batman, mostly because of my age. Still nothing sparked in me to form a 'conspiracy theory'.
Today when I came home this afternoon, I looked up the news and saw that Tony the Tiger died. The sole tiger I've ever dined with. No Tony, it's not great. They were all old, but they've all been old for some time now. For all of them to die in the same week is a pretty big coincidence. There can only be one reasonable explanation for why all these children show actors are dropping dead like flies. I was forced to ask myself the question,"Does God hate child show actors?"
I can't be sure of this, not yet. In time I'm sure it will die down and the theory will be disproved or perhaps, God's grown tired of the current middle-aged generation's attitude and disrespect for the world so he has decided to smite their beloved child-hood idols.
This got me thinking of how bad my generation has been. If my theory is right, that means something even worse than what has happened to Tony, Fred, and Mr. Riddler will happen to our adored entertainers.
I'm going to send this one out with a request that we change our evil ways. You can differ over religious thoughts, sacraments, and all that but, whatever force (or lack there of) is out there they probably have the same basic principles. Try to be a better person, not for the sake of yourself, but for the sake of entertainment. If we all try a little harder maybe we can prevent awful things from happening to our wonderful actors; singers; and most importantly, children-show actors.

If anything happens to Christopher Walken, I will set up the Cowbell Ministry.

LINKS:
Riddler
Flinstones
Tony the Tiger

Christopher Walken
Obscure cowbell reference That rivals celebrity Jeopardy as the funniest SNL skit ever.

Star Wars

2005-05-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

I still haven't seen the new Star Wars movie. I plan to sometime this week. I just really hate how George Lucas has a hold on the movie industry. George Lucas could literally put a jar of mayonnaise on the screen for three and a half hours playing the Benny Hill song behind it and gross about 50 million dollars. I'm not saying the new movie is bad, I've heard it's significantly better than the previous two but, the fact is, they're not epics like the old Star Wars or even some more recent movies that have just come out. Look at the weekend box office:
Star Wars Episode III $108.5M
Monster-in-Law $14.4M
Kicking and Screaming $10.5M
Crash $5.5M
Unleashed $3.8M
Those are the top 5 box offices for this weekend. That is ridiculous. Granted, Episode III was the only movie to come out this weekend because everyone else was afraid to go up against it.
I know this is hypocrisy; I want to go see the movie. I will go see the movie. I'm really just complaining about people, including me, and their relationship with George Lucas and his movies.
If you haven't seen the movie, I encourage you to go see it but, instead of going to see Episode III for the seventeenth time, go rent a good movie like Casino or Aviator, which both came out on DVD recently.

LINKS:
George Lucas
Rent Movies
Star Wars

Excommunication

2005-05-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

While looking through some junk, I came across excommunication. I only had a mild idea of what it was but I thought I would post it for anyone who didn't. Excommunication is a religious censure which is used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community.
This is the Catholic church's most debilitating punishment. Essentially it's a free ticket to hell.
There are a few ways to be automatically excommunicated without a ritual, some you couldn't see anyone doing (especially since the creation of the Pope-mobile) A few though, are things people do every day. Here is the list for automatic excommunication:
Apostasy
Heresy
Schism
Desecration of the Eucharist
Physical force against the Pope
One who participated in an abortion
Priest who absolves a partner in adultery
Priest who directly violates the sacramental seal of confession
Both parties to the consecration of a bishop without a Papal mandate

In case you were wondering Apostasy, in this context, is if a practicing catholic became a Buddhist, Lutheran, etc.

If anyone can find a list of everyone formally excommunicated, I'd be interested in that.

Links: Here's what originally made me think to look up more about this subject. Strange site, it has a link to a freemason videogame.

Useless Info

2005-05-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here I'll be posting things I find interesting, whatever that may entail. It might be a definition or it may be a conversation; I'm not sure what this will be yet. Hopefully, in time, this site will evolve. Feel free to email me with useless info at ptk.williams@gmail.com