Lent

Jesus proved resisted the temptations of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Without water or food, the tale of his survival would prove the power of faith and prayer. Now, it is your turn, as a pious Catholic, to present your strength of self-denial through lent. Although I am not religious, I do believe the idea of lent, abstaining from a desire to prove that you can sacrifice your own indulgences, is a very powerful lesson. 

But honestly guys, I am not impressed. I don't think you're going to get your "Get out of Hell Free" pass for giving up soda and jellybeans. Oh, you quit gummy bears for forty days? Heaven needs someone like you. Because abstaining from Call of Duty makes you Mother Theresa or at least Gandhi. 

Complacency

It seems like everyone is satisfied in their dissatisfaction. There are two unpopular wars going on. Everyone complains about the price of gas. No one trusts the government. We complain about how the environment will suffer the effects of pollutants and emissions, but drive just as much. Everyone, like I, complains and then continues to not do a single thing about it. We look back at the 60's Anti-Vietnam War movement and the African American Civil rights and then do not believe that we can recreate something just as momentous.

We could do something more for the environment than driving to the store to buy "green" products. We could do more than complain about gas prices. We could do more than complain on a blog.

Superbowl Sunday

Today's the day when all the people who don't normally watch football pretend that they like football and that they've been following the two teams all season and root for the team their friends like most and then they "We won!"  when their team choice wins because everyone knows that sitting on a couch eating potato chips brought the team to victory and then brag to all their friends about how that was their team and feel happy as if they were the ones who won the Superbowl and then continue to not really like football until next Superbowl.

Westboro Baptist Church

If you haven't heard of the Westboro Baptist Church, you're lucky. Don't read this post and don't research them. But, if you have, then you're most likely equally disgusted in them as they are disgusted in... everything. 

They're the guys, equipped with signs "GOD hates GAYS" and "AIDS cures FAGS," who picket funerals of those who die from AIDS. They picketed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young man killed for the sole fact that he was a homosexual. 

I wouldn't feel bad punching any of these people. 

I don't really have to explain why they suck.

Check out their websites:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/

http://www.godhatesamerica.com/

I can only find solace in the youtube videos of people counter-messing with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8cN2pB3MCE#t=1m54s

The Office

I know like everyone loves The Office. But really, I don't find it that funny.

Half of the punchlines are like not really punch lines but saying something and then looking at the camera.

Let's say Jim just pulled some HILARIOUS prank on Dwight, like moving a pencil or something.

Dwight: Have you seen my pencil?
Jim: No. [Looks at camera]

There you go NBC, you can have that one for free.

And the "That's what she said" joke isn't that funny when the things the people say are scripted.

Here NBC, I'll give you another for free.

Dwight: Has anyone seen my pencil? It's long, thin, and green.
Michael: That's what she said.

It's not like a character can say any string of adjectives and then be followed by a "That's what she said." Oh wait, it is like that.

For example, I typed in adjectives in google and the first link brought me here, I'll use their adjectives.

Dwight: It's tall, lugubrious, and solid.
Michael: That's what she said.

Oh god I'm the funniest show on TV.

And how about we add in some footage of like Pam and Jim far away, but the camera is zoomed in and shaky, and we watch them have a secret intimate, but awkward, scene. But do the same with Dwight and Angela too in another episode. And Michael and that lady. And with Oscar and some dude. Or with Pam and her old husband. Or with Jim and Catherine. Or with some character and some other character.

Apple iPad

If you're like me and you like being up-to-date on technology and gadget news, you've probably already heard of Apple's tablet a couple months ago. If you're normal, you probably just heard about it today. Makes sense, because they just officially announced the Apple iPad this morning.

You're probably going, "Oh my god, this iPad is so tight." And let me tell you why you're wrong.

Well, the rumor was that Apple was creating something to compete with the popularity of netbooks, which are cheap, portable, minimal power laptops. The tablet was going to be the new idea of portable computing, like a normal tablet PC, but with Apple's innovative spin on it. And when I heard this, I was excited. I thought to myself, "Maybe this could replace my laptop or be a second, more portable one." However, when looking at the release pictures this afternoon and reading about the product, I was entirely underwhelmed.

Not only did it look like an outrageously large iPod touch, it was an outrageously large iPod touch.

What does it do? It runs the apps in the App Store. And it also...

Actually, it also doesn't do anything more than that.

Well the official site boasts multi touch, a built-in speaker, wifi (or 3G on contract), and an LED-backlit screen. Oh yeah, so does the iPod touch and iPhone.

What doesn't it do?

It doesn't have a camera, so that leaves out taking pictures, taking video, and all the apps in the app store which have to do with the iPhone's camera. It doesn't multitask, so that means you can only run one application at a time, unlike any netbook or laptop, where you can listen to Pandora, surf the web, and chat on AIM simultaneously. It has a sim card, but it doesn't take calls and there's no SMS (text messaging) application.

And though I'd like to play around with one, I would have to say I would never buy one. And I read some uninformed people were saying "I'm going to replace my laptop with this; it's so cool!" And I have to ask if they've even made ANY research on the product or do they impulsively buy anything Apple shoves in their face? How do you set up this to a printer? Does it even have a USB port for all your important devices (I see that they're selling little dongles for a single USB drive or a single SD card slot, which means you'll be paying $$$ if you ever want to do anything with your camera and you'll be bringing these little adapters around everywhere)? Is there some way you can plug in a disk drive? Do you really want to type an essay on a touch screen? How are you supposed to type? All the pictures I've seen shows a person holding it with one hand and controlling with the other; imagine typing on that huge screen with one hand all the time. You're going put it down on your lap and type on a completely flat surface? Did I mention that you can only do ONE thing at a time?

So for a minimum of $499 (+ any monthly fees you accumulate from the 3G subscription), just buy a damn iPhone.

EDIT: Imran reminded me of Flash, something else that the iPad is missing. Which means no youtube, no hulu, no streaming pornography sites for you disgusting people.

"I'll donate $X.XX to [X] relief for every person who joins/reblogs/etc."

You've seen these guys. The person that creates a group on Facebook and for "every person who becomes a fan, [they'll] donate one cent!" And the person on Tumblr who makes a post and for "every person who reblogs, [they'll] donate ten cents!"

What do these guys have in common?

They care more about you knowing they donated than actually donating. Because really, if they were going to donate their ten thousand dollars or whatever the actual calculated sum they promised to donate, they would have done it, without the need of your re-blog or group join or whatever. Because really, what are these people getting from this? Rather than the benevolent fundraising it is masked as, it's more of a self-aggrandizement to get their fifteen minutes of fame. Why not donate all the money they can afford to? Do you gain something when you tell others about how much you will help?

Imagine that a person is getting raped in an alleyway, and while you walk by, you notice.
Do you
a) prevent further violent action and fend off the attacker before calling the authorities? or
b) tell everyone in proximity that for every person who tells others about your future help, you will spend 1 second helping the victim?

Now don't get me wrong, you're probably going to help a whole lot more than I will, but how incredibly vain do you have to be to only donate when in the instance that you are advertised and publicized?

Newspapers

Why are they outrageously big for no reason? How can you read something when the Sports section is constantly falling into your lap and loves to be blown around by the wind?

Magazines and books have the idea right; a single fold in the middle of about 8.5" by 11" pages. Newspapers, on the other hand, have at least two folds: one in the center like the books and magazines and another to make turning pages hell. I asked someone and they said, "Maybe it's because it costs less to make them bigger." Maybe, but I think the machines that cut it and fold it could have been used to cut it to a more reasonable size and fold it once rather than more than once.

The size of newspapers really don't bug me that much, I just want to know what benefits come with the huge pages.

Newspapers are going out of style, anyway. With the popularity of the internet adding to the twenty-four hour news networks, newspapers are just quaint. The internet and television broadcasts can give us live news, giving us news as it happens. Newspapers only tell the "news" of yesterday. On September 11, 2001's edition of the newspaper, I don't think you'll find anything about the attacks; you'd have to look at the 12th's issue.

People say it's sad how newspaper businesses are going out of business, but wouldn't it be sadder if we held on to the obsolete means of getting the news, rather than moving on to better ones?

Gay Marriage

One of the main arguments against the legalization of homosexual marriage is that it will "destroy the institution of marriage." What does that mean exactly? Is it kind of like when a heterosexual male is forced to marry his heterosexual girlfriend due to their accidental pregnancy? That seems to be detrimental to the sanctimony of marriage. What about when Anna Nicole Smith marries Howard Marshall, 63 years her senior. That doesn't seem like genuine love either. When Britney Spears and Kevin Federline married, in Las Vegas, for a whopping 55 hours, no one ever accused them of ruining the idea of marriage. However, when two gay men or two lesbian women want to be given their right to marry one another, they are not allowed to. Why? Because "traditional marriages are between a man and a woman."

Traditional marriages you say? What does that mean? I've heard people say "For 5000 years, marriage has been between a man and a woman, why change it now?" Well, 5000 years ago, marriages between a single man and many women were generally accepted. And the idea that the man now owns his wife, like cattle, was popular too. Before fifty years ago, blacks and whites were prohibited to marry, should we revert to that discriminatory idea just to keep "traditional marriages?"

I've also heard the argument that gays should not be allowed to marry as they are anatomically not made for reproduction, making their union unnatural. "It's their choice to be gay." Even if being homosexual was a choice, which it's not, is it your right to take that lifestyle choice away from them? Let me ask some questions. Where is the malice in homosexuality? and when did you CHOOSE not to be gay?

Some people say the polls have decided; Proposition 8 was voted upon and passed and the majority rules. However, I don't believe this is very fair at all. Why would such a large majority ever vote for the rights for such a small minority?

And to the people who want to take away a whole group of people's right to marry just because you think "it's gross", your intolerance is so much more disgusting. To be honest, it's none of our business who gets married to who.