Unsought Input

Look At My Striped Shirt - Confessions of People You Love To Hate
by The Phat Phree
$10.36 @ Amazon.com

First off let me admit that this blog - or at least me - is somehow related to The Phat Phree. I’ll give you 3 minutes to Google it and figure it out. If you can’t, well then it’s of no concern to you. But I did get this book sent to me for free with the understanding that I would review it. Such is the duty of a “Blogger” - we are here to spread the word where no one else gives a damn.

Now let me explain a little bit about The Phat Phree. It’s an online humor magazine that is about two hundred times more popular than Unsought Input. But then again, uhm…we like it that way. The guys from The Phat Phree are those kids who probably beat you up in elementary school, played sports in middle school and by high school they were all of a sudden really in to drama club and the school newspaper because they were slightly too intelligent to stay in football. They weren’t in drama to sing and dance (cuz “that’s be gay, dude”) or on the newspaper to write scandalous op-ed pieces, but because they like when people listen to them talk or read what they write. They’re those guys who fill the large gap between the over-smart introverts and the air-headed extroverts. Now they work office jobs but hope to someday make it big in a way that people will pay money to hear what they have to say.

So, nothing wrong with that. Someone’s got to fill that gap. They’re honing their skills by following the TPP credo: Target. Observe. Ridicule. They’re taking “observational comedy” to a different level than we’re used to - different than the droning of Jerry Seinfeld’s sly jabs at everyday annoyances and not so far as the over-done “people of [my ethnicity] are funny because…” yawn-fest of Carlos Mencia.

Look At My Striped Shirt - Confessions of People You Love To Hate contains 73 essays written from the point of view of all of the quirky lamers you work with, ring up at the cash register, run into at parties and, God forbid, are related to. A Spoon River Anthology for the modern day, if you will. (more…)

Finally the question, “Have you found Jesus?”, can now be answered yes. The tomb of Jesus as apparently been discovered in Israel of all places, well duh why didn’t they look there in the first place. I don’t know why he was in this crappy box either, I mean he’s supposed to be the messiah for christ sakes, get him a nice coffin. Also it was found by Terminator 2 and Titanic director James Cameron. Apparently he has so much money now they only thing left for him to do was find Jesus, literally.

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The last video in a series of podcasts made for Adidas (apparently to celebrate individuality and creativity but also to sell shoes), Black is directed by Saimon Chow, and is for sure the most disturbing of all of short videos, and definitely the best. Check out the other videos at www.r000g000b000.net/

Check out this link. I mean it, watch it.  You will appreciate it. It just might make you smile a little bit.  It was animated by the creators from South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone but actually written by Alan Watts.  Music & Life

So, a few years back when Lost first aired, I didn’t care. I am not much of a TV watcher and so I don’t believe that I even knew it existed until someone else (a friend) told me that it was possibly the “Best Show Ever”. Mind you, I am currently using that previous term in the most loosest and quote-like sense possible. I was told this “quote” back right before the second season was due to air and required upon my friendship with said quoter to watch the entire first season so that I could become a member of her “Lost Circle”.

What can a girl like me do? I gave into the peer pressure because I want to be socially accepted by my peers and I have no life. In the course of five grueling days, I had watched all 26 forty-one minute long episodes of the first season. Five days. Get that through your head. Five days of nothing but watching Lost. Let’s calculate the amount of time i spent on watching Lost in five days:

-the entire watching period covered 1066 minutes

-that means it was 17.76 hours of pure entertainment pleasure

-I watched (on average) 5.2 confusing and beguiling episodes a day

That’s a lot of Lost. And, honestly, I loved it. I hate sitcomy shit. I don’t like the generic comedy shows. I like me some cartoons and some funny weird stuff and I loved me some Lost. Please note the past-tenseness of the last statement.

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One of greatest tragedies of American history is the untimely death of Abraham Lincoln. Having done a great service to us all by ending slavery and preserving the Union, Lincoln had a plan for southern reconstruction that was more moderate than the measures taken after his death.

Although I sympathize with the radical Republicans of the time and their desire to quickly end slavery, give voting rights to freedmen, and crush the power of slavery as an institution, their methods lead to the “redemption” where conservative whites dominated southern politics for decades. This left a legacy of racial segregation and distrust that lingers to this day.
What if Abraham Lincoln had lived? Countless historians and authors have pondered this, but I think the video below gives the most insightful analysis.

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So, as stated previously in the title, this article is supposed to be about entertainment for road trips (and four hour drives). In particular, road trips that I am taking, but these can be applied to all sorts of events, even just short road jaunts, like the family trip to Wal*Mart or the much more anticipated Sunday excursion to The Mall. I mean, most of these games are created to entertain bored passengers at the expense of others, so please feel free to not read these if you are going to be offended when I am making fun of you on the highway. Just trying to help.

Okay, so most of these can be played anytime but some of them are seasonal, which will be decidedly marked as such as we go down the list. Also, and I will mention this again, please feel free to leave in the comments section more ideas for entertaining games for road trips. I will definitely comment on whether they suck or not.

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I love Peter Pan Peanut Butter, make that “loved”. I thought we had a great relationship I mean I’ve been eating you for lunch since 4th grade. Sure every once and awhile I’d have something else but it meant nothing, I was just having fun and you knew that. That’s why after over 10 years together I was so shocked to find out on the internet that you were contaminated with Salmonella.

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Is this really on Nickelodeon?  Keep in mind this is the network that brought you Ren and Stimpy and The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

Joe Rogan is an animal. After years of being pissed of that Carlos Mencia has been stealing from other comedians he finally had enough and confronted him on stage. It is just brutal. Joe totally takes him apart and Carlos’ only comeback is to call Joe a “little bitch” ten times. To add further credibility to his argument Joe shows various clips showing Carlos stealing material. Joe Rogan is definitely the last person I would want in my face like that. He could easily kick Carlos’ ass but instead he just totally verbally destroys him. Joe was banned from the Comedy Store where this took place afterwards showing just how much free speech is respected in comedy clubs. Visit joerogan.net for more info and to give Joe your opinion on whether you think he was right or just being an ass.

I know a little bit about Mormons.  Do you?  Did you know that if you play your cards right, Mormons will shovel your driveway for free?  In the middle of a snow storm?  Let me tell you a little story.

So, today is my day off of work.  I decide since it is snowing a lot, I should probably shovel my driveway.   So, I don’t know, it’s probably around 11:30 and I get all ready and go out and to shovel.  I see two girls across the street and I figure they are probably are selling something.  And, I am cool with that since I used to have to do that crap for band when I was in high school.  So, anyway, I am prepared to buy a band card or whatever magazines they are selling.  I can see that I am in their targets as they make a beeline across the street to where I am dutifully shoveling my driveway and sidewalk that I share with my neighbor (I live in townhouses).  By the time I realize it, I am too late.

These girls don’t appear to be Mormons, which was my first mistake.  I mean, these girls are attractive, one would say cute.  I didn’t know what Mormons looked like before today, but now I know for future reference.  They are going to send out the best looking of their flock to bombard potential brainwashees.  I don’t’ know what I thought Mormons were supposed to look like, but they aren’t supposed to be that attractive.  It’s really a good selling point when you think about it.

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I saw this mentioned in ScienceBlogs and had to share. We’ve talked about the War on Christmas before, but really that war is part of a larger issue: how do you cope when you are part of an over-represented majority? When the majority of Americans share your faith, and your religion dominates the culture and all three branches of government, it’s doesn’t leave you much to complain about.

Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t complain. Instead, the few things left should be complained about ad nauseum. So when the Faith & Values section of the Columbus Dispatch wrote a few stories about Islam and Buddhism, they got letters from unhappy readers:

A couple of critics wanted to know why we were wasting ink on these “false” beliefs when Christ is the only path to salvation. Another caller said he was tired of having “that Islam religion … shoved in my face.”

Mark Fisher, editor of that section, decided to take a look at their coverage. He tallied up the subjects of all the front page articles and compared it to the demographics of their readership. It turns out that one group was being left out, but it wasn’t the Christians:

Although Faith & Values isn’t ignoring Christians, my tally does suggest that we are giving nonreligious people less attention than they deserve. We’re already taking steps to correct that.

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Super heroes. We see them in movies, watch them on TV, and if you’re a nerd, read about them in comics books. The Internet is home to countless arguments over which super hero has the best powers, whom could beat up whom, and what would happen if Lois Lane and Superman finally did hook up.

It used to be that the life of a super hero was predictably unrealistic. Most super heroes are more likely to travel through time and fight dinosaurs than run out of toilet paper. In the past decade there have been a number of comic books that took on this dichotomy and tried to depict what life would really be like if you were invincible, but otherwise just a normal guy. This hasn’t really filtered down to popular television and movies, with the possible exception of the TV show Heroes and to some extent the Spider-Man movies.

That’s why today, we’re going to look at some of the rare depictions of the real life of super heroes.

There is nothing more real than the Real World, so we need look no further than Real World: Metropolis:

[youtube]C1Ic1eaUVOE&NR[/youtube]

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Steve Jobs is right again. In a post on the Apple web site he reacts to calls for Apple to open their Fairplay DRM system to licensing with an interesting (and insightful) proposal:

“The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.”

This has gotten a lot of coverage today, from Business Week to the New York Times. Jobs’ post was prompted by a number of European countries examining (and in some cases declaring illegal) the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses with the iTunes music store and the iPod. The system is there to make sure that if you cough up $.99 for a song, you don’t spread it around the internet for free. These countries say the effect is to lock customers in to iPods and iTunes so they can’t buy another player without forfeiting their music.

Jobs’ response? He never wanted to have a DRM system in the first place. He would gladly dump the whole thing, and let you buy music anywhere you wanted and use any player you wanted - but it’s not up to Apple. Although you might buy your Ben Folds from iTunes, Apple doesn’t have any of the rights to that music - the vast majority of the time, the rights are owned by a major record label, with just four labels dominating the market. They require DRM.

That said, why wouldn’t Apple like the idea of DRM? A naive observer (or record company executive) would say it’s good for Apple, too, since it means iPod buyers will use the iTunes store and vice-versa, and it forces people to buy songs instead of pirating them. This is why Steve Jobs has been so successful. He thinks more people will pay for free music than music tied up in the rules and inconvenience of DRM. And he’s right.

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In July 2006, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a ban on gay marriage in part because

limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation, essential to survival of the human race…. Allowing same-sex couples to marry does not, in the legislature’s view, further these purposes….

and

…DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act] bears a reasonable relationship to legitimate state interests—procreation and child-rearing.

I just read in the Slog that the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance (WA-DOMA) is seeking signatures for Initiative 957, the Defense of Marriage Initiative. If I-957 passes, married couples in Washington would be required to file proof of procreation within three years of their date of marriage or have the marriage annulled.

Of course, WA-DOMA doesn’t really expect I-957 to pass, and if it somehow does, the Supreme Court would no doubt strike it down as unconstitutional immediately. But I really hope this initiative passes.