inherently different

Archive for July, 2004

Wow. Just walked out of the theater after watching The Village and I have to say that M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most gifted storytellers working in Hollywood today. I hope that no one gives away the trademark “surprise” ending Shyamalan is renowned for.

Some will find it tediious and I’m of the mindset that if you’re among them, you’re a jackass. In fact, I’d suggest that you have no idea what “good” is and would also suggest that you should have someone else pick your clothes for you before you go outside in public.

UPDATE 010804: Here is some recent data that contradicts many of the ACLU’s claims.

When opponents of the death penalty argue their case, you’ll invariably hear eight reasons why the death penalty should be illegal. These eight “objections” to the death penalty are part of the ACLU’s crusade to abolish the death penalty. Despite the Supreme Court’s 1976 ruling in Gregg v. Georgia in which the court found the death penalty constitutional, the ACLU and others continue to oppose capital punishment on moral, practical, and constitutional grounds. The eight objections are as follows:
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I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It took me about five days, in between writing for the publishing company I freelance for and writing a marketing plan for a small business I’m trying to get off the ground with my pal Gunda. As far as the book is concerned, I found it pretty interesting that many of the ideas presented by the protagonist in the book I was already familiar with. I went to catholic school as a boy and spent hours picking the brains of the church elders. Anyway, its a good book if you have a few days to spare.

I’m 38 and unmarried. Some may opine, not unreasonably, that the fact that I’m not married has more to do with the fact that no woman is willing to put up with my shit. Not completely true.

It is my belief that there are certain paths a man must walk before he walks down the aisle. I like to think of the time before you get married as a game called manbingo (not to be mistaken with mandingo which is a game white women play with rather large black men).
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The whole Overblog thing got me thinking about why I blog, whether or not traffic matters, and who I believe is an overrated member of the bloggerartti. For what it’s worth, here’s what I think:
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On the right you’ll discover a new list of blogs. The “barrel of monkeys” will grow in the future, but for the time being, it’s a small collection of blogs that are not only similarly named, but feature excellent writing. At the minimum, they have great links. Of particular interest should be Flying Space Monkey and Selfish Monkey.

Flying Space Monkey recently gained notoriety for the great Denigrating the Overblog 2004 debacle. Simply put, a joke poking fun at the self-serving, self-promoting link whores that blogging seems to attract spawned a series of hateful, vicious attacks against the bloggeratti (the elite, high-traffic generating bloggers out there in the blogosphere) which in turn caused some of the targets to cry foul. Personally, I found it entertaining to see how bent out of shape some people got when someone nominated a blog favorite as being overrated.

Selfish Monkey features the kind of self-deprecating blogging that I seem to enjoy more than the usual self-promoting, narcissistic monkeyshit that is typically found on most blogs. Recently the writer of Selfish Monkey has stopped blogging. Sad really because the writer is as funny as anyone whom I have come across on the world wide wasteland. Read his stuff, then email the writer at (ed at selfishmonkey dot net).

Good morning America! Here’s what’s happening on your Monday!

Happy Talk Covers the War: Does fictional anchor Ron Burgandy have more in common with modern day reporters than just deep voices and bad hair?

Bush Beats War Drum Yet Again: When in doubt, start a war! No one does it better than Dumbya Dumbya Bush.

Dangerous & Anonymous: What kills me is that no other legitimate legal action can be undertaken anonymously except in cases where a woman alleges rape. Once again, ALLEGES.

Am I Blue?: Man plays god, yet again. I love technology.

Affirmative Inaction: Yet another reason why I believe Affirmative Action is a worthless response to ancenstoral guilt.

There are tons of bugs here on Maui. More bugs than you can shake a stick at. I’ve tried. I’ve used various sticks, big and small, and the bugs have yet to be detered from surrounding me like moths to a flame, or butterflies to a flower.

This picture (click on it to enlarge it) was taken just before we moved from San Francisco to Maui, during a hike on Angel Island. I’d take a picture of the huge ass cockaroach staring at me from beneath the TV stand right now but my camera went swimming and now refuses to take pictures.

Personally, I like bugs. The bigger the better… it is easier to squash them flat with your flipflop.

Iran joined the fight against Al Qaeda and now it begs a question. How much money has the US spent in the war on terror? I wonder if that money wouldn’t have been better used by just putting huge bounties on the heads of the Al Qaeda organization. Think about it… let’s say that the US has spent $166 billion (mentioned in this source) waging war on Al Qaeda terrorists and there are 12 Al Qaeda members who are listed on the most wanted list. If the US had just said, “Look, these are the 12 men we want. For each head, certified as one of the members of the list, we’ll pay you 13 billion.

I can pretty much guarantee that Osama bin Laden would be in custody. There wouldn’t be a terrorist cell in existence and we could, as a country, focus on more pressing matters. Like finding a viable cure for the aging process to prevent Bruce Willis from getting older!

This Land is Their Land is a flash animation that presents both candidates as idiots. Probably the only piece of truth that you’ll ever see in this electoral campaign can be found within this satirical cartoon.