A few years ago, when Ryan was visiting he suggested that we start a blog. I thought it was a great idea, but was unsure that he and I could provide sufficient content to make the site interesting or worthwhile, so I invited a bunch of people that we went to school with to be writers. Dylan and Michelle moved on to another project that requires most of their time, so I invited my sister and Missi St. Pierre to join the staff. Julie Lou and Wythe wanted to be a part of the site, so I asked them on too.

The contributors who make the site run are all some of the most intelligent, funny, interesting people I know. There is a feeling of mutual respect and admiration among everyone who posts here. So why is it that, lately, no one is posting?

why movies aren't
shot handheld by amateurs:
it sucks to look at

unlikable cast
annoying dumb dialog
piece of shit movie

Our philosophy is that we try to make every day special, nullifying the need for extra effort on holidays like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, when the average yahoos of America have to run around compensating for the last three months of ignoring their spouses or taking them for granted. We have pretty high standards for marital conduct and communication, so we don’t have to make up for bad behavior with trinkets and doodads.

Plus we’re so broke that we’ve been eating rice almost exclusively for the last three or four weeks. A production that wrapped in November still owes us almost $800, but I don’t want to talk about it.

We’ve told our parents and family members that we aren’t getting anyone anything for Christmas and that we’d like them to reciprocate, and when objections are raised we inform our parents and family members that we’ve spent the last several months throwing away or ebaying most of the consumer garbage that has accumulated like plaque on every flat surface of our tiny apartment, including the floor, and that we’re quite happy with our now-manageable collection of stuff and that any gifts will promptly wind up either in the garbage or on ebay so they’d really be better off saving their money and just giving us a phone call on Christmas instead, which is all we really want anyway.

My father, the contrarian I inherited my difficult personality from, sent me $170.

My mother, the perfect mother, really, in terms of regularly sending me things I need badly but never think about like towels, new shirts, comforters, etc., sent me a jacket that I immediately wanted to return to prove the point I had made about sending gifts, but once I realized that the Kenneth Cole peacoat she picked out is lighter, warmer, and a better fit than the 30lb wearable workout I’ve been lugging around since last Christmas that is down to just one button, which I am only able to fasten by lightly ripping the stitches on each wearing just enough to wrap the fabric all the way around my ever-expanding bulk, I decided to let her make a liar out of me and kept the damn thing.

in other news, TP main page was blank. Eek.

1. This was a top result, an old lady in Texas who likes racist cartoons and reports, regarding terrorists within the U.S., "We're all probably better off not knowing." Wow. You see, every time I give the far right a chance to make sense, it comes up with racist cartoons and contradictory points about "security" that alternate between nuke-worshipping and head-in-sand-burying. One racist cartoon:

2. A site that's currently down called "BoottotheSkull.com." I mean, does it matter what's on the site, if it's a political blog invoking boots to the skull? One flashes back to curb-stomping in that Ed Norton movie about Nazis, soccer hooligans, Abu Ghraib, The Siege, etc. Let's hope the barbarians who run the site don't read this post and find Steve and steal his cute dogs.

3. This is the worst of the bunch, partly because it's the most reasonable (unreasonable as it is), and it's authored by the youngest blogger - a mere 18 year-old, a kid who hasn't had time to look at all the philosophical positions in America yet. He does have crazy typoesz ("...the election’s still a ways off, and I’m there’s a conservative out there somewhere who’ll step up..."), so that makes him more of a crazy internet kid, right? But he also has a right wing/Christian magazine called "Regenerate Our Culture." (Not currently in print, as the kid's off to college. The homepage invites you to "pursue our archives," lol.) Overall impression: Not so hateful, but not a great source for real educational or political material. These are top results. This means these blogs, for whatever reason, by whatever magic feat of SEO and Digging, have had lots of hits, at least in the last few years. They span from young to old, heartland to coast, but they all seethe with undisguised rage - rage you'd never find here, as Ryan posts about Assassin's Creed or I post about giant scorpions or Harry Potter.

The Republican blogs, these random samples, don't challenge my views via argument or information.

I love what my friend Garrett Heaney at Wishtank stresses about information. It's harder, actually harder, to change someone's mind by arguing simply from an emotional or even an abstractly logical standpoint. And if you personally differ on views ("Well, I was raised as a...;" "I don't think all men are such..."), what can you do besides argue your emotion or lay out an ideal logic? Well, you can provide data. You can back up your words with sources. You can do research and keep telling people "look at these numbers!" or "look at this video!" until someone looks.

Well, or at least not have such crahze typoes whne you'r talingk about infallible dietys and how stupid liberls are.

NC4OM is an obnoxious acronym.  But a great movie.  After the horribly shitty Lady Killers which was a remake - oh shit, Tom Hanks speaking in accents equals a horrible movie!!  That came out of nowhere, but he was in a preview with a Texas drawl and it looks like the aftermath of krystal nacht, and The Terminal is bad, Forest Gump will eventually be remembered as sentimental swill - The Coen bros. are back with an adapted work and did a great job.  Now, if anyone else saw it, I'm curious what you think about some thinks I've thoughted:

 spoilery

Oh, there was something about being a ghost that seemed tied to both characters, and the two sides of a coin thing seems obvious. and i'm firmly stating they aren't the same character but sort of a meta level to the movie. 

 Also, as for home boy above, doesn't he look like an evil Bender from The Breakfast Club?

Why live-blogging? I'm not sure. They, the producers, asked me to do it, and I was/am intrigued. Let's see where it goes.

Viva la revolucion (sp?),

W.

Teehee. Call of Duty 4 has been releasing leaders of the world videos where Putin and Castro review the game. Bla bla. This one is purdy funny. VidJump