18 August 2009

Old York Style?

Cheesecake is some pretty good stuff. But people are always calling it "New York Style." What is non "New York Style" cheesecake? Does that mean it has fruit or something? I feel like I've seen "New York Style" with strawberries. Maybe I'm wrong. That answer seems too easy though. I will never doubt the capacity of the English language to completely obfuscate things/make things confusing, particularly in subjects where things can change, like the culinary world. So my hypothesis is that at some point in our recent history, we had cheesecake that was not "New York Style" and thus we needed that phrase in order to delineate between the two. Or perhaps it truly is a regional thing, and I've just never ventured to an area where another style is predominant.
Why do informercials claim to introduce their products several times in the middle of the spot? I've been listening to your idiots-I mean experts-yammer on about this thing for a while.
(Okay, maybe I need a life, but sometimes I start using the computer and forget to turn off the TV and then infomercials come on and I occasionally hear them in the background.)
Another possibility-"New York Style" is a fancy way of avoiding calling something "plain" cheesecake (related to my above theory regarding fruit, etc.).


So, Steven Segal. His movies are hilarious. I mean, they're so bad, it's amusing to watch. In my senior year of high school, I was part of a film for class. If we had, say, oh, any small fraction of the budget that one of those films had, we could have made vastly better movie than any of his.
Not that I blame him. He's a pretty nifty guy-the living realization of the Great White Ninja. Chris Farley, RIP.
Something interesting I noted while watching, I believe, "Out of Reach", the type of hero he portrays is similar to the kind of idealistic bulletproof good guys I myself imagined as a child. A heroism untainted by the reality of the world. This is intrinsically part, I believe, of why his movies suck. Plus the plots take weird jumps. Plus dialogue is uninspired. Plus the acting sucks.
The fight scenes are pretty cool though.
But really, Liam Neeson in "Taken" is much more believable, much more enjoyable to watch. He doesn't care a whit about the whole trafficking system-he just gets his daughter. He doesn't avoid killing people. He just gets his daughter. No one who could possibly give him some kind of traction towards that goal is innocent.
The more I learn about the ugliness of human nature, about the ways of the world, the cooler I find somebody like the Comedian or Ozymandias and the more ridiculous and disappointing I find Superman. It's a dark part of the soul that still longs for a figure like that, not dark because of the feelings that lurk there, but dark because experience snuffed out the light of hope that used to shine bright, the candle of man's benevolence and caring for his fellow man.


That's pretty uplifting, is it not? Yeah, people suck. That's basically what I'm trying to say.
All you can do about it is survive, and do your best to make sure those around you are affected positively, I guess. Life's a game we all lose, because no one can agree on how to win. Also, once you're dead, what does it matter? Opinions on the subject ring hollow when they come from a casket.

16 August 2009

All a-flutter

First off, waking up/sleeping is dumb. I think we shouldn't have to do it because sometimes I find it annoying. That's right. I reserve and exercise my right to protest a basic (not to mention necessary) restorative function of our bodies because I'm annoyed. Hey, I never said I wasn't American. But yeah, sleeping is one of the greatest plagues visited upon humanity.


Bismallah, I hope you know I'm kidding.


Let's talk about Twitter. I use it myself, based on the same reasoning I express in my header. (^look^up^) However, complaining does not follow logic here, so although I use it, I will still express that it's silly. Why? Because of the people who have morphed it into their only source on information. There was an article that I read, oh, when was that, maybe the beginning of last week, when all those hackers were attacking Twitter and Facebook, do you recall this? Anyway, there were some people who, when Twitter was down, were all "OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING TO EVERYONE" and I think that's kinda sad. Now, I know I'm being hypocritical, because I also use the interwebs to stay connected to life, the universe and everything, but seriously, receiving all the information you need through something as shallow as Twitter? Whose very nature, indeed, limits and filters the amount of useful information one can actually receive? Gah, I mean, c'mon people.
Then there's stuff like this which just makes me chuckle, although it's not terribly scientifically based, as the article points out.
Basically I guess what it all comes down to is that the interwebs is nifty and you can do some really shiny things with it, but there is such a thing as taking it toooooo far. I suppose we need those people who do take it that far, because without them, development would stagnate. But I don't think we all need to be pioneers of rearranging cultural mores in our head to the point where 140-character updates become more important than everything else.
Another thing about Twitter-what is it with the sexbots? Am I alone in having those? I mean, I can't say I'm surprised, but it's just weird.


Ah well. Time to get up.

LOL F1RST P0ST!

So here I go down the path of Internet fame. Haha. I'll be honest, I don't read any blogs. I just complain/think enough that I feel that I can produce vaguely regular updates. I'll try to keep the cussing to a minimum and all that. Also I will avail myself to not treat this a private journal-type-thing. That will end...badly. Recognizing the small possibility that people I don't know will read this, I'm not always going to be entirely frank about what I feel.
So, if you're interested in reading the ramblings of a oft-frustrated, occasionally humorous, fairly intelligent, extremely modest and foolish young man as he observes the flailing failings of the world around him, read on. I can't promise you'll always enjoy, but I will promise...uh...nevermind. I'm not going to promise anything.