Thursday, February 28, 2002

Another update: It only got worse. After Perry Mason was elected mayor of the parallel universe, he introduced the former president - Elvis. 4:16:11 PM

Update: Never mind, this show has returned to the stupid, viewer-patronizing garbage that turned me off the first time around. First off, Tempus, the bad guy, is watching video of Lois stand on a shaky ledge, and says "The only thing that could ruin this is a commercial". Guess what happened next? Second, he tells H.G. Wells "I'm the bad guy, of course I have a plan". I appreciate speaking to the audience as a theatrical device, but it was poorly executed and, for some reason, insulting to me as a viewer. When Mel Brooks does it, it's funny (not sure why). In this case it just didn't work. 3:59:12 PM

Okay, so this is kinda cool. My TiVo picked up a rerun of Lois & Clark (not something I've ever watched, but that's what I get for watching SciFi/Action), and there were two references that I wish were made by a show I cared about: - The military guy talking to the bad guy is Major Domo. - H.G. Wells needs a flux capacitor to get back to his correct time line. 3:33:54 PM

<rant> Our current President is about as big a corporate whore as possible. He's still pushing the "drill in Alaska" thing because it will, get this, ease our energy problems. First off, what energy problems? We can't possibly retrieve oil from Alaska cheaper than we can buy it from OPEC. It'll create jobs, but not long-term. It won't have a significant impact on the environment, unless you consider detroying thousands of acres of national preserve an impact. What it will do is give the people that own logging and petroleum companies a quick, easy, government-subsidized source of revenue. It will return a favor to the campaign contributers and friends of W. I'm not a tree-hugger by most measures - I drive a gas-guzzling car (21 MPG, which is better than most SUVs, but lower than it could be), leave lights on when I don't really need to, turn on my heat and open windows to get fresh air... I just hate to see resources wasted for no good reason. To me, trashing Alaska to retrieve oil we need to relieve an energy crisis that doesn't exist so that some rich people can make money isn't a good reason. </rant> 2:45:13 PM

So statistically (and 90% of statistics lie), 15% of the population consume 25% of the alcohol. Here's a list of age requirements in the United States: - You can become a contributing member of our capitalist society (meaning a worker) somewhere around 16. - You can drive a car at 16 (I think this varies from state-to-state) - You can vote at 18. - You can marry at 18 (also state determined?). - You can join the Army, with the potential to travel to far-off lands and kill people, at 18. - You can consume alcohol at age 21. - There is no age requirement for parenthood. I realize that if you join the Army, you can drink on base at 18, which acknowledges "You're old enough to kill people, so you're old enough to drink". I also realize that, in general, it's more difficult to control parenthood than drinking. But what this tells me is that we're responsible enough to choose the "leader of the free world", propel 3,000 pounds of steel 65 MPH taking our wife and kids to work and school, and shoot things, but we can't handle a beer. Something doesn't seem right. What surprises me is that our President is a huge corporate whore (see my rant), but he hasn't taken the obvious step: legalize drinking somewhere around age 16. Think A/B would appreciate that? Damn right. 15% of their sales are going to illegal buyers. Imaging what they'd get if it was legal! 2:25:10 PM

Here's an interesting statistic: teenagers account for 25% of the alcohol consumed in the US. Source According to the Nov 2000 Census Data, there are about 39.8 million people between 10 and 20 years old. That's about 15% of the population. In other words, 25% of the alcohol is consumed by 15% of the population. 2:12:44 PM

Okay, I've finally found a use for blogging besides purging the stupid thoughts I have all day. I've created a Humor category, to which I'll post the stupid jokes I receive in my email box. At last, and archive of jokes I've heard 30 times before! 10:59:25 AM

Okay, now that's depressing. I chose the name Blah Blah Blog because I felt it reflected what I had to say - nothing of consequence. Now I find I'm not even original in that thinking. Wired has published an article by nearly the same name: "Blah Blah Blah and Blog". Of course the controlling theme of the article is that most blogs suck, and frankly they do (I include myself in that list). The article quotes John Dvorak as saying 'They were "wannabe writers" who were looking for "ego gratification"'. Well no shit. I'm not a wannabe writer, and I get more ego gratification from real masturbation than from creative masturbation, but I'm just here to vent. It's an outlet for thoughts that aren't important enough to anyone that I'd bother sitting down and talking about them. I don't care if anyone reads this, I probably won't read it myself unless I'm on some drunken trip down memory lane. The point is there are plenty of people writing decent, informative blogs. I'm not one of them, and probably won't be. Sure, I might say something interesting once in a while, but it probably won't be interesting to anyone else, and two days later I won't remember why it was interesting to me in the first place. My participation, however typical, doesn't reflect the contribution many blogs do make. 10:51:10 AM