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Nerds? Nerds. Nerds!
I’m a big fan of Halloween, and now that we own a house in a neighborhood full of kids, I can fully indulge in my love of the holiday. This year, our treats on offer were: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (full size), Snickers, Milky Ways, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, Bottle Caps, Runts, gummy body parts, and skull and spider rings. I like to think we make a good showing, particularly by allowing two selections. No need to be stingy.
My sister-in-law, who helped us hand out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters this year, made an interesting observation at the end of the night. Whenever someone sees Nerds, they will, seemingly without fail and not even necessarily with any overt emotion, say “Nerds.”
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Hello in There.
This image is almost exactly a month old now, but there she is, our baby girl.* That’s her at 20 weeks. I haven’t ever been this excited to meet anyone, ever. Expect a lot more baby-centric posts around early February.
*We’re close to 100% positive the baby is a girl.
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Seriously, Does This Even Qualify as a Rational Response?
ABC News is reporting some terribly important news. My friend Adam passed along this thrilling article to point out what has to be the absolute perfect quote from Sean Hannity. Why am I repeating something that this slack-jawed puppet is saying? Because it precisely communicates why he should be ignored and then we can all move on.
Apparently, Senator Barack Obama stopped wearing his American flag pin.
Thrilling, right? Glad we’re focusing on things that are of any importance. Oh man, what if he’s secretly a terrorist now? We should totally ask him:
“You don’t have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?”
I did not make that question up. Obama responded, “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”
All of this is pretty expected, right? Silly question that he knew would be asked is asked. He answers it. What’s so mind-bending is Sean Hannity’s response:
“Why do we wear pins? Because our country is under attack!”
I could not make stuff like this up. Is this really what masquerades for political discourse these days?
Now, with all that free time you have now, you can go read some real news.
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I Remember…
Waking up at my parents’ home in rural Pennsylvania, coming downstairs for coffee and seeing the TV on, with a picture of one of the towers pouring out smoke. Sitting and watching the coverage in my parents’ living room. Watching the second strike. Hearing about the Pentagon. Wondering if this was the start of a war on American soil. Suddenly fearing just how large the world is.
Coming into New York City this morning for work. Idly wondering if something terrible would happen. Tasting the mild tinge of fear. Disregarding it.
Listening on the radio in the car to Gen. David Howell Petraeus talk about the war. Listening to Iraqi exiles lament the kidnapping, the torture, and the ransom their family paid. Wondering where I’d get fresh water if our plumbing stopped working.
Noticing a sticker in Penn Station stuck on a billboard that read roughly: “I blew up the Twin Towers and all I got was away with it.”
Realizing that the rest of the world keeps waiting for us to notice we’re not alone, or unique, in our suffering.
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Lord Have Mercy
In case you didn’t know, the best potato chips of all time are Kettle Spicy Thai Chips.
Eating one of these chips is like getting socked in the mouth by a delicious Thai dish. Kapow! The chips tend to get spicier at the bottom of the bag, as the oils carry all of the fiery goodness, so the first few handfuls can be deceptive. They will draw you in with their feisty flavor then teach you about the wonderful burn of Thai food.
I’m going to eat some at lunch today. Can you tell? They’re quite hard to find, particularly in Philly, but worth the effort.
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Monsanto Whines as Consumers Opt for Hormone-free Milk
Monsanto, the wonderful people who’ve brought genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone into every virtually every household in the U.S. and elsewhere, are now complaining to the FTC that “ads mislead consumers into thinking that milk from cows not treated with rBST are healthier or safer than dairy products from cows treated with the hormone.”
If you aren’t laughing scornfully at Monsanto, you should read up. Monsanto’s responsible for some good and some bad things in this world, but that’s less the point than that this move is so ridiculously hypocritical. Monsanto is a very large, very powerful corporation which has, as corporations must, defended itself and pursued its interests very aggressively via lobbying and marketing. It is laughable when they whine about an ad that says:
“We work exclusively with farmers that supply 100 percent of our milk from cows that haven’t been treated with artificial hormones. So, who do you trust when it comes to your family’s milk?”
I hope that rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin) is eliminated from all milk everywhere. It makes it into the milk and it makes it into your body. End of story.
Hey, maybe Monsanto can get back to focusing on selling farmers seeds that yield sterile plants, so they have to keep re-buying all of their seed each year. That’d be nice for Monsanto.
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Medal of Honor: Airborne
This weekend, I was lucky enough to get some time with the newly released Medal of Honor: Airborne demo and it really impressed me. After being unseated by Call of Duty as the premiere WWII shooter, then sliding into the dumps with the terrible Pacific Assault, the MoH series was hurting in the eyes of gamers. This new installment may put them back in the race.
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Resident Evil 5: Is It Racist to Kill Black Zombies?
So, Capcom is developing the fifth Resident Evil videogame in the series. The Resident Evil series is about various misdeeds of corporations and cults that lead to zombies. In the fifth installment, it appears that there’s an outbreak in Africa, and the lead character who you play as has to kill African zombies in Africa. This worries a woman named Kym Platt, who writes a blog that focuses on African Women’s issues. She writes:
The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity. “I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through.”
This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.
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Matt Baldwin on the YouTube Debates, ROTFL!
In case you hadn’t heard, the Democratic hopefuls fielded questions from from YouTube users via YouTube videos in a weird sort of awkward lurch of traditional media and politics into the user-centric land of the web. I heard some excerpts from the debate, and I have to imagine that the candidates all saw visions of themselves never working in politics again, but it all seemed to come off okay. There were a few song questions and bizarre voice questions and silly leading questions, but it was just a political debate (or Q&A, whatever), in the end.
I found the whole thing a little silly and gimmicky, but I think Matthew Baldwin really hits the nail on the head when it comes to my views on the YouTube community. You should really just bookmark his site. It’s in my sidebar, people. I can only assume you overlooked it while enjoying my wayward prose.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
It’s done. And it’s great.
Spoilers warning: while I do not give any true spoilers or plot specifics, I describe the book in a general way. And for some, even that’s too much.
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