Editorial & Opinion
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Hear that sucking sound?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 2, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008That’s the sound of trillions of imaginary dollars sucking the real dollars out of my bank account. Why is it that in spite of almost everyone I know being either broke or strapped down, laid off or about to be, or at least in a mild panic, that the media keeps kind of saying “hmm, [...]
That’s the sound of trillions of imaginary dollars sucking the real dollars out of my bank account. Why is it that in spite of almost everyone I know being either broke or strapped down, laid off or about to be, or at least in a mild panic, that the media keeps kind of saying “hmm, looks like things could get bad. Are they getting bad? Looks like they might. Check those numbers again. Hmm. Things look kind of bad, but are they really? Let’s go over those figures one more time…” It feels a little like people not really talking too much about Obama being black until the election was over, because they thought it would jinx things or something. The media’s spin on the economy (notice even I didn’t say “economic crisis”?) leaves me feeling like I’m on a huge airliner that’s about to crash. The ride’s still okay, I’ve got my in-flight snack in hand, but I have no idea that any minute now I’ll be dead. Not to worry though, in the big picture: it’ll be a gentle crash in the desert with a few survivors, not a headlong plunge into a mountainside in the jungle. I keep having a fantasy that world leaders will make what I consider a rational leap in thinking and say “You know, this whole money concept is a bit archaic. Getting off the gold standard wasn’t so hard, let’s get off the currency standard. Who needs a silly depression anyway”. That’ll be the day. In the meantime I’ll be rediscovering my best ramen recipes while jerkoffs like Hank Paulson keep figuring out ways to hang onto the extra houses they don’t live in.
Top 10 List of Best of 2008 Lists
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 30, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Sunday, November 30th, 2008Time for the annual list of best of lists…
 George Bush Could’ve Benefited From Better List-making Skills |
I like a good list. If I’m going to the store, I make a list. If I have problems, I make a list. Years ago though, a Chinese fellow I worked with said to me “You know, you Americans are funny. Everything has to have a numbered list. Who are the top five teams, what is the best music? Why is this?” I made up some answer about how prioritizing things makes us the most productive country on Earth. He ironically countered with a list of things China invented that makes them great. The Internet is toxic with lists. Why, for instance, are there 22 Most Sensational Midgets ? Why not 10 or 20? The most annoying top-whatever lists are on sites like Wired.com, where they put one item on each page to generate ad revenue from extra page views. But I digress. It’s that time of year again. Fimoculous will do a decent job of rounding up the top lists of best things in 2008, but their list is a little thin right now. Any suggestions? I’m partial to the longer, larger view, things like The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948 or the Top 10 Reasons Why Sex At The Speed Of Light Is Not An Advisable Form Of Procreation. But I’m open to ideas. Help me out.
War and Peace in Fifteen Hours
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 21, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Friday, November 21st, 2008Fill your brain with useless information faster!
Growing up in a smarty-pants college town (okay, only third smartest), I received what I later realized was kind of an unusual public school education. As well as oddities like explicit sex ed in first grade (I’d love to do followup research with my peers to see how that turned out), we also benefited from things like speed reading being mysteriously integrated into our standard seventh grade English curriculum. Oye. Poor Mr. Bigler. Before I go on, I’d like to pause for a moment and apologize to the mild-mannered and patient Mr. Bigler for all the paper airplanes, thrown erasers, and smart-ass remarks. Forgive me. Phew. I feel much better now. Perhaps he can rest in peace knowing that 500 words-per-minute felt incredibly slow to me using the tool at spreeder.com. Try it for yourself. Cut and paste a body of text (just use some news or something) into the box and hit play. The default setting is 500wpm. I felt pretty comfortable at 950 (neener neener). What feels natural to you?
Monday Demotivators
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 17, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Monday, November 17th, 2008Monday not going so well for you? Don’t worry, there’s another one next week.
 This could be you…except you’ll never be this cute. |
It’s Monday, and maybe you’re having a hard time getting motivated to get back to the grind. So why bother? There are so many other things to do. Like sleeping more. Some claim sleeping in will actually boost productivity. After you sleep in, waste some time playing Mirror’s Edge 2D Beta. Apparently it’s a 2D Flash version of EA’s Mirror’s Edge
which (as a non-gamer) means almost nothing to me, but it’s amusing, and pretty slickly executed. After realizing you’ll never get past that one ramp, give up and get annoyed by the fact that a computer can beat you at 20 Questions (they claim an 80% chance). Although that site’s been around for a long time, the handheld version
Is Your Cat PlottingTo Kill You?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 13, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Review this simple guide to find out.
Review this simple guide to find out.