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15 augustus the rant about How about ‘Badgers on a Hovercraft’? - MOVIE OPINIONS - MSNBC.com
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11 juli the rant about The Core/suspension of disbeliefContinuing a previous rant on movies which change/ignore the laws of Physics I bring to you The rant about The Core: the movie that had Geologists all over the world cringing. The plot of this movie is basically a modern day Journey to the Center of the Earth... except that nowadays we know that we can't do that, it's impossible! Elementary school children are taught that underneath the earth's crust is magma. Magma is liquid rock, rock so hot that it melted. Now I don't know if I need to spell this out to most people but apparently the writers of this movie missed the important fact that basically all types of metal melt at a lower temperature than rock, thus the ship they travel in would melt into a puddle upon contact with said magma. Fortunately the crew of the ship would never have to worry about this because their ship would be crushed into the size of a pop can by the immense pressure long before it reached the magma. They decided to invent a metal that doesn't exist, call it "Unobtainium", and build a ship out of it because this metal has magical properties and will survive the trip. I actually don't have *that* big a beef with this particular idea. I actually have to laugh out loud at the unoriginal name! Unobtainium. Well, the apparently obtained enough to craft a ship... so shouldn't they rename it to Obtainium? Or what about Foundsomeium or Gotplentythanksium?
*shakes head sadly*
People who have heard me rant about this movie have said "Why can't you suspend your disbelief and just enjoy a cheezy movie?" I have said this before, suspension of disbelief can only get you so far. There are almost rules to how far a movie can go before someone's disbelief is shattered. If you have a movie set in a fantastical place or time, such as another planet or in the distant future it is far easier to suspend one's disbelief on such things as physics because any flaws in that area can be chalked up to advances in technology or different laws of physics on a different planet. Movies about fantastical subject matter, such as magic or mythical beasts, are also generally easier to believe in. On the other hand if you have a movie about a true historical event or something set in modern times you cannot stray far from the facts surrounding that era. Cars of today cannot fly. Fact. Medieval warriors did not invent gunpowder. Fact. If you are aiming for scientific accuracy in your movie, or wish to give your audience the impression that your movie is scientifically acurate, you cannot turn around and blatently shatter the laws of physics. You really need to introduce some sort of fantastic element if you want people to suspend their disbelief. This is why Back to the Future was good and Timeline was bad. The problem with The Core and movies like The Core is that they pretend to know what they are talking about. This is why I can suspend my disbelief on movies like Star Wars (which if you were to nitpick the physicality of their universe... you would talk yourself into an early grave) and I cannot for this movie. Star Wars does not take it's science seriously, it does not try to explain itself of make excuses, it leans more into the fantasy genre in this aspect; and this is why it is easy not to think about all the impossible crap that is happening. The Core is set in the here and now, therefore we must judge it based on what we know here and now. When the audience knows more about what's beneath the earth's crust than the writers of the movie do, then you have a big problem.
A tidbit of information about this movie I found at the IMDB:
At the University of British Columbia, Canada, an Earth and Ocean Science course (EOSC 310) uses this film as a learning tool by showing the film to students and then analyzing the bad science behind it. Ironically, at least one of UBC's professors was consulted during the shoots that were done in Vancouver.
If you wish to learn more about some of scientific innacuracies about this movie you can follow this link. 30 april the rant about stupid people 4I just read an incredibly stupid story the other day. I'm not allowed to reprint it but I can give you a link to it here:
Seriously? If it isn't dumb enough to leave your 3 children home alone, all of whom are under 4 years old, you did it so you could watch Jerry Springer??? Were you a guest? If not you should be. Jerry Springer is one of the people I loathe simply because he panders to the lowest common denominator just to get ratings. The more outrageous or trashy the guests are the higher his ratings go. It's shows like this that lower the IQ of the people who watch it until the viewers are so dumb they leave their 4 year old children home alone to go see the catfights and drunken slobs in person.
Another stupid person strikes again: Now it's men like this who should be sterilized. The guy goes into a strip club with his 4 year old son sitting in the back seat of his car. He left the boy alone in the car and told him that if he got out of the car monsters would eat him. Then he goes inside to watch strippers. The car doors were unlocked, it was cold and raining out, and the car was parked a few meters away from a 4-lane street. Eventually the boy gets out of the car to look for his dad and wanders into the strip club, and guy gets arrested. He posted $500 bond and was released from the Tulsa Jail. I think he should have gotten his nuts ripped off. I can't even begin to list off the myriad things wrong with what he did. $500 dollars is totally not a big enough fine for him. The complaint he was arrested for was encouraging a minor child to be in need of supervision but I don't see it that way so much as child endangerment. Some people just do not get it that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MUST YOU EVER LEAVE A CHILD ALONE IN A CAR FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME!!!! I don't give a fuck if you just ran into the corner store to grab some milk and you were only gone 30 seconds. The safety and life of your child is more important than the extra 10 minutes it will take to undo/redo the safety harnesses and all the extra hassle of bringing them indoors with you to grab that milk. I want to smack that man in the head and ask him "What's wrong with you? Where are your brains, in your ass? What were you thinking?" and of course his answer will be "I wasn't thinking". Of course you weren't. Obviously watching strippers is more important to you than your son, therefore you don't have to worry about him anymore. Congratulations, you have lost visitation rights for your son. You are an unfit parent, you filthy pervert.
A local fucktard story: I read a story on the front page of the local newspaper this morning that made me want to both cry and rip someone's spleen out through their right nostrel at the same time. The story was about a poor little kitten that someone had performed one of the worst mutilations on that the president of the local SPCA had ever seen. The few month old kitten was alerted to by a neighbour who had heard his screams and upon arrival the SPCA had found the baby with his testicles and part of his penis cut off with a pair of scissors. The kitten's genitals were so swolen and infected veterinarians who were trying to save his life were unsure if he would make it. If he did survive he would have to be hooked up to a catheter for the rest of his life. The suspect arrested claimed that he just found the kitten like that, he didn't do it. Riiiiiight... you just happened to find a suffering and maimed kitten and don't take it to the vet WHY?? Mr. Shit-for-brains also didn't think that his story would be investigated but shortly after he made that statement a woman contacted the police claiming he had just adopted that kitten and his sibling from her home a few days before. She had advertised that she was giving away kittens free to a good home and he adopted two of them. Unfortunately to her, he was not the caring individual he appeared to be when she met him. This man is a waste of skin. He does not deserve to have the daughter he claims to have adopted the kittens for, let alone have any living creature of any kind. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life, but only after I am through with him ;-) If I could have my revenge I would love to cut his balls off with a pair of rusty scissors and ask him how it feels? Does it feel good? Does it hurt? Awww poor baby. How do you think that baby kitten felt when you did this to him, huh?!?!?! Fucker. Seriously, some people do not deserve to live. Um, scratch that... no people deserve to live.
Here's a two-parter for you that I found hilarious:
Oh My Gawd. When I read those I laughed my ass off. I can't believe that she actually tried to sue the store, as if the store has control over wild birds. She just shouldn't go outside. I mean I think it's stupid when people try to sue stores if they stub their toe on the doorway or trip going up a staircase. It's not the store's fault you're clumsy and you're not looking where you're going. Seriously though, this woman takes the cake. In the US you know that this suing everybody epidemic they have has gone way too far when you see things like this. Why doesn't she sue the park ranger for the grass stain on her pants, or the beach lifeguard because a crab pinched her foot. It's people like her that necessitate those ridiculous warning signs we see on just about every product that tell you not to do seemingly ludicrous things to them.
Anywho, now the obligatory dumb stories from work:
If you work in the service industry long enough and see a lot of customers you begin to wonder how any of them managed to get through elementary school. One woman today asked for one of our specialty burgers and I asked her if she would like the quarter pounder or the half pounder version of that burger, because it was available as either one. She then said "Well, which one is bigger?" I paused a second because I couldn't believe an adult asked me that. The education system has failed her.
I saw a small charicature once that depicted the average food service customer. It was an average looking cartoon man saying something along the lines of "I want extra stuff but I don't want to pay for it." I thought to myself that this cartoon hit it dead on the money. A prime example was a young man who came through drive thru the other night and asked for a medium smarties blizzard. Then he said "... and can you add a little bit of extra smarties in there for me." "You want extra smarties?" I asked. "No... I just want a little bit more because last time I got one with no smarties in it."
I rolled my eyes at that point because I seriously doubted that he ever got a blizzard with NO smarties in it. Yeah, right buddy. We gave you just a cup with some icecream in it and no toppings whatsoever. I don't think so. Nobody on our front counter staff is *that* incompetant and I can guarantee that. So he pulls up to the window and the Assistant Manager has just finished making the blizzard. I take his money and he says "So can you just add a little bit extra smarties to that blizzard for me? Sure you can. You can do that for me. You've great customer service." I was kind of taken aback by the pushiness of this manipulative little prick. I had no doubt whatsoever that this blizzard contained the exact correct measurement of smarties and was the peak of blizzard perfection, as it was made with the expertise of the Assistant Manager. I explained to him that I couldn't add "just a little extra" smarties because our dispenser dishes out measured scoops, it's not possible to get a little, I'd have to add a whole extra scoop. Then he says "So go ahead, you do that." Infuriated by the ballsiness of this smug asswipe I walked around the corner where he couldn't see me and stood there a moment as a wicked grin spread across my face. I waited another moment, holding the blizzard, and walked back over to the window. With a smirk, I handed him his blizzard and told him to have a nice day, all the while relishing my tiny bit of vengeance ;-) No, I will not be pushed into giving you extra toppings for free today.
Why is it that some people when they have a complaint, feel the need to yell and scream and curse until they get what they want? It is so much easier if you talk to someone in a calm, rational voice and you are far more likely to have your complaint taken seriously. I mean if there is a big problem I can see why you might be angry but yelling and screaming about it isn't going to solve anything any faster. For example a customer came in the other day with a bag containing some burgers and fries, asked to see a supervisor/manager and demanded his money back for his burgers. One of the other supervisors, Kris, handled the complaint as I was serving customers in drive-thru at the time. Kris asked the usual questions such as "What was wrong with the burgers? Did you come through drive-thru or front counter? Would you like a replacement?" and other questions to try to determine where we might have gone wrong and to try to find out which order was his... stuff like that. He ranted and raved instead that he wanted his money back and didn't really answer any of the questions... I didn't remember serving him and neither did Kris and we didn't see his order on any of our cash registers, we couldn't figure out what went wrong. Every passing second the guy stood there he got angrier and angrier until our manager came upstairs and the guy started yelling and screaming at her when she started asking the same kinds of questions Kris had. He just continued to yell and curse and get angrier with every passing second as my manager also tried to figure out which order was his to try to determine how much she was supposed to refund him for. It was around this time that the manager was able to pry the important information out of him that his girlfriend had purchased the burgers four hours ago. Four Hours!! Well duh the food is cold, genius! Any food is going to be cold after FOUR Hours!
04 april the rant about Deep Blue SeaOk I saw this movie once years ago and i friggin hated it, it was stupid. It was recently on tv and I got sucked into watching it again. I had forgotten how much I hated the movie and I feel the overwhelming urge to rant, yet again. C'mon, you know me I gotta let this shit out.
The reason for my hatred of this movie isn't so much the acting or the visual effects or anything like that, it's the blatant smack in the face of lack of biology. I mean this movie's cast of characters consists of marine biologists and scientists and other supposedly smart people but I guess they didn't think to consult any real ones before making this garbage. I usually don't have too much of a problem suspending my disbelief for movies, I'm a fantasy fan and you can't get much further from reality than that. When it comes to some movies that try to look educated and scientific but make very large mistakes in simple Physics or other areas of science, I can't ignore those kinds of gaping plot holes and enjoy the movie. The basic plot is that apparently a shark's brain contains a chemical which can cure Alzheimer's disease, so they make the shark's brain bigger so they can mine more of the chemical. As a side effect the sharks got smarter. Well, DUH! What, they increase the creature's brain mass and they didn't expect any side effects? That's some pretty crappy science work there. Rule number 1 is always map out any possible side effects. Best case scenario: nothing happens, worst case: shark dies. I guess they didn't think of the grey area in between? Besides the tremendous DUH moment there which had me rolling my eyes the worst part was yet to come. At one point later they show a shark swimming backwards. Yes, you read me right, it swam BACKWARDS! My eyes flew open in disbelief when I saw that. I sat there saying "Tell me I didn't just see what I thought I saw." Then one of the characters says "I didn't know sharks could swim backwards" and I shouted "That's because they CAN'T!!!" It is physically impossible for a shark to swim backwards and no amount of boosted intelligence will change that. You could clone Einstein's brain and transplant it into a shark and it still wouln't change the fact that they are physically incapable of backwards locomotion. The same way a fish can't ride a bicycle or an elephant can't climb a ladder a shark CANNOT swim backwards. Their tail, their only source of propulsion, swishes side to side, driving a shark forward and only forward. A shark cannot make it's tail move in any other direction which would enable it to move backward. To prove my point you can try this simple experiment at home (and I hope I can explain this part properly). Make a fan out of a piece of paper (or if you have a hand fan already you can use that) and fan yourself with it. See how it blows the air directly towards you. Now, with the fan still facing you, make the fan blow the air in the opposite direction, away from you. It can't be done. You'd have to change the position of the fan so that it was facing away from you. The same is with a shark, for it to be able to swim backwards it would have to remove it's tail and attach it to it's nose. It would of course suffocate quickly because the water would be flowing over it's gills backwards and it wouldn't be able to breathe. If this movie's writers had bothered to do any actual science other than what would look cool they would have figured that out. Plot holes like that one ruin a movie for me. /sigh The worst part of this is that there are many other movies out there that have a huge hole in the basic science. There are other things that a movie can do to be more exciting and shocking without changing the laws of physics. 21 maart the rant about "You have to know these things."Under no circumstances must you ever say to me "You have to know these things." I will be forced to punch you in the face. At the last two jobs I've had both of my bosses have told me "You have to know these things" whenever there was something I didn't know. Well, duh, tell me something I don't know, like what "these things" are? Excuse me if my psychic abilities haven't fully developed because the last time I checked the only way to "know these things" was for someone to actually tell me "these things" so then I would know them. It's incredibly irritating to know that it would be far simpler to just tell me "these things" outright than to say "you have to know these things." I'm not stupid, I already know that there are lots of things I'm supposed to know but until you actually tell them to me I'm not ever going to know them now am I? If people took a second to think about that you could be a more effective boss and your employees would actually know more about their job. I mean, you wouldn't send a first year med student into an OR to perform open heart surgery and then tell the kid "You have to know these things" when he/she asks you what to do. Why should it be any different at any other place of work? Most employees are at least smart enough to know that there are things about their job that they are supposed to know, like where we keep the extra things, particulars about the products they sell, what to do at opening/closing... Unless they're told what they are they aint gonna know, and to just say "You have to know these things" is simply a cop out. Maybe they say it because *They* don't know the answer... /shrug
16 maart the rant about poverty*squeals with joy* Some nice person gave me some suggestions for some new rants. I love it! I accept your challenge! I'm gonna start off with poverty because it's something I personally know a fair bit about since I live in it! ugh. Yes, poverty sucks. Yes, there is a staggeringly large percentage of the globe that live in it. Yes, it's inhuman and cruel and it shouldn't be this way. Yes, there is no easy solution to this problem and it is currently getting worse. The rich are steadily getting richer and the poor even poorer. It's stupid and it's senseless and it should stop. Enough for me stating the obvious.
The poverty problem is a lot more widespread than a lot of the financially endowed people would think. When rich people think of poor people they think of third world countries where people barely have clothing and water.They might have the mental image of the old bum living in a box in some back alley far away from their posh mansions. They have no idea of the camoflaged poor that are everywhere, all around them. Even in their own backyard there are working poor, people who work full time jobs but make so little money they can't afford a place to live. I've seen it, people who could only get hired at a minimum wage job and can't afford the rent of a one-bedroom apartment so they have to live in their car. That's just wrong on so many levels. I work in a supervisory position in the food service industry, I make barely above minimum wage, and if I didn't have a roommate sharing rent with me I would never be able to afford this small one-bedroom apartment in the not-so-nice part of the city. What is wrong with this picture??? It takes two people working full time to raise enough money to have a roof over our heads and food on our plates? Thinking back to the 1940's/50's the image of the old family when father came home from a hard day at work to find mother in the kitchen cooking supper in her pretty dress and high heels, the daughter in her poodle skirt and the son in his sweater-vest doing homework... very 'Leave it to Beaver'. It's a classic image but what's gone wrong since those days? It takes two people to make ends meet today whereas then it took only one? Oh, and if this dual income household has a child they then have to shell out even more money to pay for daycare because both parents are too busy working to look after their baby. Day care is expensive, you almost need three people bringing in full-time wages to be able to afford that. The working poor should be an oxymoron but there are far too many, people living paycheck to paycheck, never seeming to get ahead and not because of poor budgeting. That's me right there: a full time job in management, living in a modest apartment, no car payments sapping my bank account, and I live in poverty. That's enough to make me puke. Some of my friends are even worse off that they need financial help from social assistance because they don't make enough at their full time jobs don't cover rent, medical bills, and day care. Gone are the days of the ideal '50s single income family.
Why is this? Capitalism, commercialism, inflation, politics, the government, giant corporate conglomerates, the blame does not lie on just one culprit. I wish I had a solution for this, I really do. Increasing the minimum wage would only cause businesses to increase their prices for goods and services to cover wage costs. I see it all too often, after the government finally agrees to increase minimum wage the prices of food, electricity, clothing and everything else goes up as well, and this ends up nullifying the pay increase. Sad, very sad. The prices of the food at my work is going up the second time this year... and it's only March. It's friggin ridiculous. There needs to be some way out there for those people who have like billions of dollars to have some of it taken away and given to people who need it more. Make those uber rich people donate a percentage of their yearly income to charities for the homeless and poverished, like the Salvation Army or something. Seriously, no one person in the world needs more than a hundred million dollars, I don't care who you are. The number of people who fall into that category of wealth is mindblowing. Ugh. The worst part is there is no easy solution and there never will be one, this problem will just get worse and worse until the Earth gets so polluted we need to migrate to a new planet. Of course the poor won't be able to afford seats on the shuttles...
21 februari the rant about the Muhammad cartoonsLet me start by saying that I have seen these cartoons and I don't find them funny in the least. If you don't know what cartoons I am referring to I recommend not going to search for them as they are a waste of the paper they were originally drawn on. I'm not a Muslim but I was offended by them.
Some Danish cartoonists for some reason felt the need to draw a dozen or so caricatures of Muhammad and print them in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. One of the cartoons depict Muhammad with a large bomb in his turban, another shows Muhammad on a cloud telling two newly arrived dead suicide bombers "Stop, we have run out of virgins." These cartoons were then circulated around the globe, causing riots and violent protests everywhere, especially in the Middle East.
All I have to say is :
DUH!!!
What the hell did you think was going to happen??? You take a religious icon that is very important to a large percentage of the globe and make insensitive, insulting, and blasphemous cartoons... and you didn't expect people to get angry?? Are you stoned or stupid? First off I'm going to let you in on a little bit of information that apparently these Danish cartoonist didn't know: In the many Muslim traditions it is considered sacrilege to draw/paint/create a likeness of Muhammad. It may seem odd to a lot of people who are used to having seen many pictures of people of worship (eg. painting of Jesus Christ). So mistake #1 was just drawing Muhammad. Mistake #2 was drawing an insulting charicature of Muhammad. Mistake #3 was printing this in a paper where many Muslims will see it. Denmark does have a substantial Muslim population and they were obviously furious. I mean it was the worst possible thing to draw at the worst possible time. Presently a large percentage of the rest of the world is trying hard to create peace in the middle east, you just hit a hornet's nest with a baseball bat. Mistake #4 was picking the worst possible time in history to unveil these drawings. Your mama must be damn proud of you.
I'm not all for censorship or anything but this really isn't about censorship... this is more about stopping a hate crime. I am all for freedom of speech but there is a difference between freedom of speech and promoting hatred and bigotry. If Hitler were alive today would we give him his own column in the newspaper to write about whatever he wanted? Hell no! He would write anti-Semitic propaganda. That is a hate crime and hate crimes are not freedom of speech. These cartoons constitute a hate crime. They were drawn to deliberately provoke, offend, and aggravate Muslims during a time of great strife and turmoil for those people.
Hypothetical situation... lets say I work in a large newspaper in the southern USA. Right after 9/11 happens I draw a few cartoons in the newspaper. One cartoon depicts the Pope sodomizing Jesus Christ dressed as an altar boy while the Pope shouts "Yeah, take it bitch! I'm gonna make you squeal like a pig!" and Jesus is crying. Another cartoon depicts a trailer trash couple with the barefoot and pregnant wife crying telling the drunken husband "Honey, I've lost the baby." and the caption underneath reads "God loves abortions."
Can you imagine how many Americans would come to my house and lynch me? Cartoons like those would never have been printed, especially at that point in time, and it's not because of censorship, it's the stopping of a hate crime. Those example cartoons have no merit, there is no message in them, other than hatred. The same is true for the Muhammad cartoons. To be entitled to freedom of speech you must have something worthwhile to say. Most of the Muhammad cartoons have the feeling as though they were drawn with a poison-filled pen. This is not freedom of speech, this is slander, this is bigotry, this is a hate crime.
Locally a university professor posted a few of these cartoons on his office door sparking protests from Muslim students and some of that professor's colleagues. You'd think a supposed educated man would know better than to do something so stupid.
A high school student posted a few of the cartoons in the most recent copy of his school newspaper. The newspaper has been terminated and the boy was told to write an apology. He said in an interview that he doesn't believe he did anything wrong and doesn't feel he should apologize. His parents should smack some sense into that kid. Racism should not be tolerated. Bigotry should not be tolerated. Oh how I wish I had that kid's email... I'd send him this rant. I hope that he learns to open his eyes and see the destruction and anger things like this can cause. This is the reason that there are a few limitations to freedom of speech. I don't mean that everything that might possibly offend someone needs to be censored, far from it. What I mean is that something that OBVIOUSLY will enrage a large population and does nothing but breed more hatred and bigotry should be censored. It does nobody any good to be the cause of violence. This kind of stupidity gives me a headache.
I hope that those of you who read this can see what I'm trying to say... I don't like censorship any more than most people but there is a point where you have to draw the line to stop an inevitable violent outbreak. There were more than 40 Danish cartoonists contacted to submit drawings of Muhammad and only 12 responded... those who didn't should be congratulated that their "Bad Idea" alarms are in working order. Thank you.
A final note to Muslims and to the rest of the world: Please, please, please calm down... violence does nothing but beget more violence. Please use words, not fists, and be constructive. An intelligent, thought-provoking rebuttal will go a lot farther than you think.
13 februari the rant about EminemOk, right off I'm going to say that this rant is not about my dislike of his music.
He divorces his wife. Then he writes songs about beating her up, killing her, and stuffing her body in the trunk of a car. Then he remarries her. WTF?? I feel bad for her, does she have no self esteem? This makes no sense and I just had to get that out of my system.
He has a sense of humor that I am not a fan of. He seems more to want to aggrivate those he "pokes fun". I get the feeling of maliciousness whenever I see one of his videos where he is making fun of someone. Then he tells people who get angry to lighten up and get a sense of humor.
Mr. Mathers makes fun of other rappers (eg. Ja Rule), dog puppets, easy targets like Michael Jackson & Madonna, and even Christopher Reeve. Why Christopher Reeve, you may ask? Nobody really knows. He was a humanitarian and an inspiration to many, even before his tragic accident. He brought so much awareness and so much money towards finding a cure for spinal cord trauma. He did a lot of good things in the world before his passing... and eminem for some reason makes fun of him. I don't get it. He, of course, says to lighten up. Another of his targets is a rubber dog puppet named Triumph. This has got to be the easiest thing to make fun of because all he needed was to get a puppet that looked like Triumph and have it do stupid things in his video. Such a simple and brainless way to be spiteful, and the timing of the video was about 3 years after Triumph poked fun at eminem. Little late on the comeback? Of course any two year old can make fun of Michael Jackson or Madonna, another easy target. MJ was pissed an even said some stuff on air saying he didn't appreciate the mockery. Eminem responded again with lighten up.
When the tables are turned, it is an entirely different matter. When someone else is poking fun at him the person is the target of Eminem's anger. When Triumph poked fun at eminem, instead of laughing he retaliated. It took him 3 years to do so but he retaliated. He seems very petty and vindictive when it comes to people poking fun at him. Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of his 8-mile song and eminem got pissed. Anybody who has ever listened to a parody by Weird Al knows that there is no mockery at all for the original artist. Al is the embodiment of the saying "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." If you've heard the song Couch Potato he's not making fun of eminem at all, however he was still pissed off. Seems as though he can dish it out but he can't take it. He really should practice what he preaches.
06 februari the rant about EmoOk can somebody please explain to me what the fuck is EMO? I'd never even heard of it a year ago and now everybody's going around "Oh Emos suck. We hate Emos. We'd never be caught dead at the Hot Topic like a whiney little Emo." I seriously don't get it. The first time I heard of it i was like "Emo Phillips? Who wouldn't want to be Emo Phillips? He's hilarious!"
So anyway I don't get what the difference between Emo and Goth is, and I've been told there is a *Huge* difference. They both wear nothing but black, they both dye their hair, they both like dark poetry, a large percentage are into self-mutilation, dark music, making out with members of the same sex even though they claim to be straight... I am seeing a lot of similarities here but most of them are stereotypes.
One of the differences that I have seen is the age group. A lot of the goths I know are age 20+. A lot of the people I have seen that I've been told are emo or claim to be emo are under 17, with the majority being ~14.
So... emos are wannabe goths in training who just haven't learned the A Simple Plan sucks and Sisters of Mercy are awesome?
I still don't get why they need to be hated so much? Did you forget what it's like to be 14? You weren't the perfect epitome of everything goth were you? No, you were a whiney little wannabe just like everyone else. You were struggling to find your place and your voice and your identity. I mean take all the so-called emo kids and teleport them to 1994 and see how everyone at their high school says "Oooh look at those goths. Goths suck. We hate goths."
When did being goth mean becoming so closed-minded and snobby? Goths used to be so open-minded and tolerant of people's differences because they knew what is was like to be ridiculed. Now they are among those doing the ridiculing? I don't say that you have to like whatever these emo are, I'm asking what good will it do to put them down like you've been put down in the past? What will this accomplish? It reminds me of little brother syndrome... you know "Me too me too!" Do you think that a little education instead of insults would help the situation?
I saw this video about emo and in all honesty I don't get what the big deal is. So they dye their hair black and cut it short... is emo a hairstyle? So they write dark poetry... does that mean everyone who feels depressed and confused during their teenage years and writes poetry as a creative outlet is an emo? I don't think so. I mean, I remember 10 years ago when I was in high school I wore all black, wrote dark poetry, cut myself a lot, listened to dark music, dyed my hair, and was all angsty and broody all the time... did that make me emo?
No. It didn't.
And why is that, you may ask? Because emo didn't exist back then. I looked that way, acted that way, and listened to that music because I was having a hard time in school, I was feeling alienated, and I needed a way to express myself that mirrored those feelings. Doesn't that sound like just about EVERYBODY in high school?!? When I was in school the social outcasts like myself would pick on a few social groups that we felt were deserving of our ire: namely the Preppies, Rapper-wannabes, etc. We hated them. We would make fun of them in our best "Clueless" voices: "Like, oh my gawd! I was talking to Kiersten who was talking to Amber who was talking to Brittany and she said she, like, saw someone wearing the exact same shoes as me! Like, couldn't you just die! I mean, like, who does she think she is? Like, helloooo?"
Or, we would do our lamest (to use a term I generally dislike) 'wigger' voices: 'Sup homie, I gots to go borrow my mom's mini-van and go down to the timmie's for a coffee before fourth period, yo."
Yeah, you were sooo the suburban gangsta.
Why, oh high school goths of the present day, why are you berating these emos when there are far more deserving subjects in the world? Why not the jocks who think that just because they made the team they rule the school? Why not the wanksters? WHY NOT THE PREPPIES?!?! You know they sooooooooo deserve it more than these emos. So they may act like your annoying little brother always copying you and never quite "getting it"? Guess what, you're on the same side! There's always been a war and there will always be a war between the preps, the jocks, and the wanksters Vs. the goths, the skaters & slackers, the nerds & geeks, and the other social outcasts. Now aim your misdirected fire at those Britney Spears cheerleader bitches and those muscle head assholes who always slam you into lockers when passing you in the hall.
So a lot of these supposed "emo" bands suck. So what? Are they worse than Hillary Duff or Jessica Simpson or 50 Cent? Fuck no! I'm sorry but given the choice between listening to Lindsay Lohan or Good Charlotte I'd take Good Charlotte. There are way worse bands out there than emo bands and there are much better targets of mockery and hatred. Fuck Ashlee Simpson!!! WANNABE FUCKING TWAT LYPSYNCHER!!! Ya make me wanna *stab* *stab* YARGH!!!! KILL PARIS HILTON!! FUCK HER! FUCK HER RIGHT IN THE EAR!! See? Isn't that better?
Oh, and what's wrong with Hot Topic? I don't get why shopping at that store is so wrong? I mean I can see why shopping at the Gap or Old Navy is wrong... but why Hot Topic? I live in eastern Canada and, suprise suprise, we don't have a Hot Topic anywhere within a 2 hour flight from us. I've been to their website and some of their stuff isn't half bad. Some of it is damn fugly but on the whole the store doesn't have the obvious "Preppy" overtones that immediately turn me off like those two other stores I mentioned. I seriously hate all you people when you say "Oh only poseurs and wannabe emos shop at Hot Topic. I hate that store, I get all my gothwear at another store which is waaay better." Do any of you people have any idea how many of you I'd kill to get a Hot Topic to open up in my city?!? Seriously, to get any clothing that's even remotely gothy I have to shop at either the local Comic Book shop or Le Chateau of all places!!! If you can't find anything there you have to MAKE IT YOURSELF or take a chance on not getting ripped off on ebay if you're lucky enough to have a credit card! You have no idea how lucky you are to be able to have a store like that.
I am not emo. I am not goth. I am not punk. I am not... whatever. I try not to be categorized because there really isn't any category I fit into. Such a category doesn't exist and if it did it would be a category of one called "WeirdMetalSlackerGothGeekSarcastibitch."
Yeah. Now THAT's a category. 17 januari the rant about stupid people part 3Oh you know this is gonna be good. I thought I'd start off with an old tale from work... this tale comes complete with a valuable lesson that everybody can learn from.
It was a normal day at DQ, it was mid afternoon and it wasn't too busy. One man came in and wandered over to a cash, staring intently at our meal deal menu. I asked if I could get something for him. He stared at the menu for a moment and he asked for a number 1 and a number 2, an ulitmate meal and a double cheese meal. In my head I didn't think too much of it, he might have a friend joining him later. When I asked him what he'd like to drink with them I became aware that this guy was out of it. He stared at the pop for a bit before he decided on pepsi. At that time the double cheese meals came with a free sundae. I asked him what kind of sundae he wanted. The conversation went a little like this:
"What kind of sundae would you like, sir?"
"What?"
"What would you like on your sundae?"
"Um... what?"
"You know your double cheese meal?"
"Yeah..."
"It comes with a free sundae."
"Yeah..."
"What kind of sundae would you like?"
"Oh.... uhhhh.... uhhhhhhhhh..... uhhhhhhhh.... cherry."
"Ok."
I poured the drinks and got the sundae ready, then I put his two meals on the tray. This was when he noticed the poster for the Macho Meal. He then ordered that meal. I have no idea why, and I don't even think he knew why. Nobody else had come to join him. Now, the macho meal is a triple burger, large fries, and a large pop. This on top of two other meals. I put his third meal on his tray while he stood there munching on his fries. He then pulled a twenty out of his pocket and stared at the menu board. I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with. He took a minute, said no, and continued to stare at the menu board and eat his fries. I stood there a moment, waiting to see if he was going to order anything else as he still had a twenty in his hand. After a few minutes I slowly wandered away to clean something. He still stood there munching on his fries, holding a twenty in his hand. I walked back over and asked again if there was anything else I could get for him. He said no and continued standing there eating his fries on the front counter. I walked away, hoping he'd catch the hint and do the same. My supervisor then came over and asked me if he was waiting for something. I told her no, he had all his food. She asked why he was still standing there with money in his hand. I told her I didn't know but I already asked if he wanted something else. She then walked over and said "Sir, is there something else you'd like?"
He stared at her a moment and replied "Well... I'd like to sit down and eat."
"Ok... go ahead." she said with a look on her face that questioned if this guy was for real.
The man then slowly looked down at his tray, slowly picked it up, and shuffled his way over to a table.
It was everything my supervisor and I could do to keep from laughing.
Nobody ever came to join him.
Half an hour later he left and my morbid curiosity made me want to go and see just how much of it he actually ate. He ate most of the triple cheese, half the double cheese, one and a half fries, and half the sundae. The rest of the sundae was smeared aross the table. Only one of the drinks was gone, the ultimate burger wasn't even touched, it was just a horrendous waste. I mean next time he gets that stoned he might as well just flush his money down the toilet, at least he wouldn't have to go anywhere and it might be more entertaining to watch. If he hadn't fried most of his braincells already he might have had the idea to maybe take some of it home for later. Hopefully he will have learned that stoned, hungry, and rich doesn't make a good combination.
I really get pissed off by people who believe that the world revolves around them. No matter what you are doing you have to drop whatever it is and obey their every whim. A prime example of this obnoxious kind of person is a lady who picked an incredably busy lunch hour rush to order an icecream cake. She didn't care that I had a long lineup of people ordering lunches, I had to stop whatever I was doing to help her pick out a picture on her cake. Everybody else had to stand there and wait for her to be finished. At one point she was looking through a book of pictures and I took that moment to serve some other customers who had been waiting patiently for her to finish up. The woman saw this and got irate because she now had some questions and my attention was being diverted from her. She tried shouting her questions at me and I attempted to answer them in between orders, but apparently this was not good enough for her, she needed someone's undivided attention. She tried shouting questions to my supervisor on the other cash but with similar success. My supervisor and I were trying desperately to get the huge lunch lineup moving as quickly as possible. No, I hadn't forgotten about her, I planned to get back to her as soon as I was able.
At this point the woman she had had enough. Other people were coming before her, she couldn't have that. She pushed her way to the front of the lineup and shouted "Would somebody sing to me please!!!"
I stopped a second and stared at her in confusion. What the hell did she just say?? Did she ask someone to SING to her?!?! What the hell kind of weird-ass expression is that? So of course I *had* to drop whatever I was doing to help her with her cake order and leave the rest of the customers standing there waiting for their food. This is not the first time that people have tried to order cakes during busy lunches but the majority of them wait patiently until someone has a free moment to take care of them. We do apologize for the delay and most of them are quite understanding after seeing the long lunch lineup. This woman didn't care in the least.
The other day I was glad I wasn't working because I would have completely blown up at one woman. She came in to order a cake and was served by one of my co-workers, Doris, who happens to be hearing-impaired. She's a really good worker and she's also a supervisor. She has good customer service skills despite the fact she can't hear what customers are saying. She can lip read very well and as long as you look at her when you are talking and don't talk too fast or mumble she doesn't have too much of a problem understanding what you are saying. However, this one woman, if I ever meet her in person I will smack the shit out of her for being such a rude and ignorant bitch. Doris was on front counter and the woman came in and said she'd like to order a cake. Doris proceeded to ask her when she'd like to order the cake for, which kind of cake she'd like, the standard questions we ask first when someone asks to order a cake. The woman stared at her with this horrified and disgusted look on her face and said flatly "I'd like to talk to someone else." Doris, deeply offended, went to grab someone else from the cake department. They came out and continued to take this woman's order, all the while the woman continued to scowl as though she had been somehow dirtied. Every time Doris would come near to the counter where the woman stood, she would immediately move a few feet away. Every one of the staff there that day wanted to say something to this rude and ignorant woman, possibly write something nasty on her cake (ie. Happy Birthday Bitch), or even spit on her cake. She singlehandedly put everyone there in a horrible mood with her blatant bigotry. All the staff there couldn't believe that she acted that way, right in front of everyone, especially Doris. I am serious, I wish I could have been there but not as an employee, then I wouldn't have to feel bad about saying things like "What's wrong with you? It's not like she has leprosy, she's deaf. She's not contageous. Oooooh don't get to close, you might catch Deaf. Bitch." I can't stand bigotry, It just pisses me off.
Anywho, onto funnier things...
I heard a couple of bonehead stories from some friends who work in a call center doing cell phone tech suppport. There was this one woman who kept getting disconnected whenever anybody tried to call her. So my friend asked what she was doing and she said that whenever the phone rang she pressed the "Press When Ringing" button. My friend was like "what press when ringing button?" and she was like "the P.W.R. button". My friend told her it's not press when ringing it's a condensed version of the word Power and every time her phone rang she inadvertantly turned her phone off.
Another customer was calling to complain that he was getting no signal whatsoever from his cell phone. My friend asked the guy where he was calling from and he said "the atlantic ocean." My friend had to bite his tongue as he told him that the reason for the lack of reception was the lack of towers in the middle of the ocean. He wanted to ask the guy if he expected flipper to swim on over to his boat and crap out a tower, but he didn't :-( It would've been funny if he did say that though.
And finally the dumbest of the dumb. A guy with a very southern accent calls up and says that he has a problem with his phone. It seems he accidentally dropped his phone in a bucket of paint. Then he proceeded to dunk his phone into some turpentine to get rid of the paint. Then his phone got sticky so he washed his phone in some water, now his phone just says "Roaming". My friend's reply to this was "Sir, I'm suprised your phone says anything at all."
Duh.
More to come later. |
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