Make the Hurting Stop!

I am fucking sick of all this crap over Anna Nicole Smith! Yes, it's sad that she died and that her son died and all that. But let's face it, where she's buried really has no impact on my life. And I couldn't really care less who the baby's father is. Why is this shit still news? I'll tell you why. It's like a car accident or a train wreck. People can't help but watch. It satisfies some deep, perverse sense of humor. We want to see celebrities crash and burn. It's like watching some yuppie-fuck's expensive little sports car get demolished by a dumptruck. Admit it, you see something like that, you just sit back with a big grin, thinking "Boy, we're having some fun now!" Sure you have. This is fun shit! But when it reaches that point that your camped out, still watching as some poor guy is sweeping away the broken glass and the yuppie-fuck is crying to his insurance agent, you've become obsessed. That's where we are with the whole Anna Nicole Smith drama. We're down to sweeping up of the glass and crying on the cell phone. Not literally, of course, it's hard to physically cry into that damn little blue-tooth ear piece he just has to have, but you get my point!

Ah shit . . .

I have firmly decided that there are few things more depressing than waking up thinking it's Friday, only to realize that, no, you're wrong. I'm so ready for this week to be over and done. Nothing real bad or stressful, it's just seemed incredibly long. Well, at least I can take consolidation in that fact that, while not Friday, it is at least Thursday. I would have been in real trouble if I woke up on a Tuesday thinking it was Friday. Come to think of it, I have done that. And yes, it really really sucks!

It's Amazing

It's amazing to me sometimes how easy it is to make someone's day a lot better, simply by taking a few minutes to help them out. It could be taking 10 or 15 minutes to help a professor set up some tech so they can deliver an old lecture in a new way. They're grateful for the help, and their students may become more involved than they might be otherwise. This is not a big commitment, either in time or effort, so it does not seem like a big deal to you, but it is to them. Or it could be loaning a friend a spare set of old speakers so they can listen to music in their office as they work. It's not like you're out anything - those speakers have been sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, for months - but to them it's the difference between a long, boring day in a little, poorly lit cube in silence, and at least being able to listen to the radio or their MP3 player for a while. Or it even could be as simple as telling people they are welcome to help themselves to a cup of coffee from the pot in your office. Never mind the fact that there's only the little pink packages of fake sugar* - the fact that it's good coffee and they can get a quick caffeine fix for free (even if there is a donations cup) is enough for them.

And do you really expect anything back for doing these things? No, not really. It is simply the fact you have made their day better. And karma has a way of coming around when you least expect it.

*Personally, I won't touch that crap. Pretty much the only thing I add to coffee is either whiskey or Irish cream, and even those I don't add very often.

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What prompted this? I really have no idea. Yes, all the things I described above happened today, but things of this nature happen on a pretty regular basis, so I don't think that's it. This was triggered by something else, I think, but I'm not sure what.

There are probably times I seem to be overly cynical and angry. This is really only partly true. True, I do get angry at times, but it rarely lasts long, and more often than not, it's less true anger and more plain annoyance. This is how you know I'm not a pessimist. If I really didn't have any faith in humanity, I would either be far more angry or simply apathetic. As far as being cynical is concerned, in general, I am. But I'm a happy cynic. I may decry the breakdown of society, but I'll have a rueful smile on my face the whole time. As the Grateful Dead said in one of their songs, "I may be going to Hell in a bucket, but at least I'm enjoying the ride!"

Next Time Consider Your Demographic

I was flipping through channels just now and came across a show on new video games. They were blathering on about voting for the best game of the year. I have no problem with gamers voting on which game is their favorite of the year. I have no interest, but equally a lot people have no interest in the things like the NHL All-Star game which I vote for every season. They vote their thing, I vote mine. So it was not the fact that the hosts of this particular show were trying to galvanize the vote which caught my interest. But rather it was the way they were going about it. They were trying to make jokes about fucked up voting practices in Florida and Ohio, and how people would be able to decide the best game of the year unless the Supreme Court decided to make the choice for them. Now I picked up on these references to (relatively) recent elections and all the shit that surrounded them. But my first thought was to question how many gamers would actually get them as well. Of course, I'm not saying that all gamers are idiots or anything of that sort, but I have noticed a correlation between excessive game play and a being oblivious to the outside world. Wouldn't it make more sense to pick a reference more directly related to interests of their specific demographic? Of course, I have no idea that other reference might be as I'm not a gamer myself, but I'm sure there must be something for fitting. I mean, it's kind of like trying to convince yuppie-larva to buy the latest MP3 player by talking about classical music on wax cylinders. Yeah, on some level it makes sense, but let's face it, how many yuppie-larva are going to even know that music used to come on things called "wax cylinders"?

Randomness for February 1, 2006

Random Quote: "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." ~Douglas Adams

Question of the Moment: What are all the factors which go into the crafting of a narrative?

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Steve Earl, "Copperhead Road," The Definitive Collection, 1983-1997