FUCK

Seething, right now. I know there are plenty of intelligent people out there, a part of any group. But, there are times when I just want to throw my hands up in despair and deride all members of certain groups, knowing that that is completely unfair. What justifies my hatred for this group is that its members volunteer to be brain-bleached into unending ignorance. Right-wing nuts who have clearly adopted their ideas through mere legacy--repeating words and morals they heard from their conservative kin in their formative years--are formidable nuisances. That is, they are adept at completely baffling you and stopping you from being able to believe that they are saying the stupidest shit right fucking now. FUCK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E

The comments are filled with the most sexist and ignorant spew I never thought would ever come from the minds of rational human beings.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I'm not going to be dense and dismiss these people as crazy. That's unfair. Everything that has happened has contributed to the opinions that they now claim to hold. I feel that most conservatives just fail to look deeper into issues and the long-term effects of any policy. I'm not saying that lefties have a perfect vision. It's just that nothing's black-and-white and this tendency to see things that way have completely ruined our conversation (ah, damn it Denby!).

Name-calling, subject-changing, getting attention by performing with apoplectic rage. Pitiful tactics, I say. I'll stop here for now. So tired of trying so hard to make a difference while the ignorant remain ignorant due to minimal effort to expose themselves to the realities of American life today.

Indulge

if i lived in fresh water, would i ever have to drink water?

if i lived in chocolate cakes, would i never have to eat again?

A mouse drenched in oil

It's the sound of metal rubbing on metal. Or maybe a frustrated teacher impatiently rephrasing new notes onto a blackboard. It could be the heater kicking on on this frigid day. Oh, it's a mouse stuck in a trap.

A mouse was struggling to free itself from one of the office glue traps. It's whole left back was stretched and flat against the side of this newfound shelter. Like a furry little carny, taking a ride on the Round Up, having the centrifugal force smushing him against the wall.

I sympathized for the two beady eyes that stared back at me. Frightened but ready to fight, his paws stood firm. Although that may have been the industrial grade glue forcing him to maintain such poise in the face of an intimidating human. His fierceness was lessened by his left cheek being stretched and attached to the wall. Was this one of nature's scare tactics? The hissing of a snake, the bright colors of a poisonous tree frog, the dilophosaurus ready to spit in my face? His face was just glued to the wall.

I bought a small 16 oz. bottle of Red & White Premium Quality vegetable oil at the corner bodega. I brought the mouse outside and sat on the curb with the mouse problem in front of me. He started freaking the fuck out when I poured vegetable oil on him. I gently rubbed and he tried to bite me, his teeth grabbing only the latex gloves I had put on. The oil worked itself in and he was saved from a slow death. He quickly sprinted straight across the street. I was afraid he might get smushed by a car. I discarded the gloves and now useless mouse trap.

You have a little something on your face

Recognition and acknowledgement are pretty cool things. Being rewarded for the time and effort you put into a project creates one of the few sensations that pass under the radar, yet continues to fly (Was that corny? Did it make sense?).

A co-worker of mine was recently snacking on puffed rice. As she stuffed her stupid mouth, she was commenting on how her diet was keeping her from eating the foods she loves. Health concerns are the primary reason and I could sympathize. I was trying to do my work and she was keeping me from it. A puffed rice piece managed to sneak its way onto the corner of her mouth, hanging solely by a film of spit and near-weightlessness. Her nerves didn't fire and I enjoyed the few minutes of platitudes, now made interesting by the homely source; a face slightly stained by a lost grain. Shady as fuck? Maybe.

I took pleasure in this tableau. The feeling of coming into work or school in an outfit you were unsure of a few hours ago, confronted by a mirror that won't let you be content. That's her. If she knew about the rice.

She rubbed it off when I wasn't looking. But at the corner of my eye I saw her do it.

[I'm so fucking despicable.]

reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA uses those CAPTCHA human verification codes you see when you sign up for sites nowadays to transcribe unreadable words in books they've attempted to scan. It's pretty clever when you think about it.

http://recaptcha.net/

We are good people zombies.

Left 4 dead is a great online, multi-player co-op, first-person shooter set in a zombie apocalypse. The tension from moment to moment is visceral; I have never been so immersed in the game world before. My (over)use of voice communication might be part of the reason for my fervent, often irate, involvement. Yelling at people online presents otherwise inaccessible insight into gamer psychology. My own included, of course.

But let's talk about other psyches. On the No Mercy campaign, which follows the survivors' escape from street-level start to helipad-atop-a-hospital finish, there is a sequence where you have to activate an event and fight off a horde of zombies. BUT, the ever-diligent crowd of gamers found that they could skip this event completely with a tempting exploit. In Versus mode, you take turns doing the same scenario. My team went first and we decided not to exploit and play it fair, fighting off the horde. Their turn. They started trying the exploit. I tried guilting them into playing it the same way we did. Surprisingly (or not?) it was easy to guilt them into doing the right thing and playing legitimately. ("How?" you might not be asking. I took the low road and called them "pussies" and more boorishly "VAGINAS." Sexist, but on the Internet it is ridiculously practical and effective to get the guilt stream going.) Their team shortly died after they started playing fair. Awesome.

I had to explain the basics of the game to make that story work. But that story didn't really work, since I came off sexist and glib, instead of profoundly observant and hopeful for humanity.

I aim high and shoot myself in the foot.

All the single ladies

Do I get a treat of some sort, noticing what I think are the awesome ironies and apropos silliness of things that happen now and then?

This lady deserves so much more in life: So my underappreciated coworker is enjoying "Single Ladies" on the radio. She sings along but instead of boldly leading the "call" of the call-and-response chorus ("All the singles ladies!/All the single ladies"), she sings the later "response" only, wistfully affirming her identity as a single female. Life can be frowny-face sometimes.

Truck drivers

Sparks has decaffeinated itself. What a concept, though: caffeine and energy drink chemicals in an alcoholic beverage. I wonder what effects on the liver binging on Sparks might have.

Energy drinks! You drink to keep your day in a stereoscopic focus. A patch for the mistakes you have made for the night before. Plan B for your sleeping habits. They're looking out for you, bro.

And this...

Thought you might want a little bit of this.

via MetaFilter

Sasha Grey Nude in American Apparel Ads

I disagree with the blog's point that the ads should not incite outrage from feminists. I think that's what she's saying. But yeah, it's a strange situation when you have a revolutionary like Sasha Grey posing for these American Apparel ads. She's pretty darn savvy when it comes to navigating the treacherous social, reputational, and legal realms of the porn industry. She takes control of her career and does everything on her own terms, people say. That's cool.

The ads themselves definitely give out a bad vibe, despite the tough chick at the center of them.

I think anyone visiting the store's site either gets the creeps or gets a hard on (which one did I get, dear readers? Ho ho!). Either way, the woman being positioned just rubs me the wrong way (or do I rub myself... the position.. the right way... Ho ho!). It's art, perhaps. Surrendering your curves and pelvic bones to a clothing company's marketing campaign. You draw attention to Ms. Grey's body and the consumer associates the feeling of arousal with the company name.

Just note that the ad campaign is limited to a few websites.

I think my incoherence is worsening. Night classes at the local community college, here I come. (Ho ho!)

Sasha Grey nude in AA ads (via fimoculous)