Maybe I *AM* Old...

I finally realized today that I am getting old.

This revelation occured while I was watching a movie I hadn't seen in ages: Wild Things.

I wasn't even that interested in watching the movie, but I noticed that Bill Murray was in it and he is one of my favourite actors.

So I am watching this movie. The main character, played by Matt Dillon, has been accused of raping two young girls played by Denise Richards and Neve Campbell.

A trial reveals that the accusations are all a huge lie. It turns out, the man and the two girls are all in on it for the purposes of getting a gigantic cash settlement from one of the girls' rich parents.

I was actually quite interested in the story.
I watched... entertained... as the movie approached its well-known climax: the lesbian/threesome scene.

It was here that I realized that I was old.

As it got closer and closer to this part of the movie I was thinking, oh shit.. THAT part is coming.. I wish we could just skip that scene and get back to the narrative of the story.

You see, I can recall as a young man skipping through the movie to 'get to the good part'. I could have cared less about the story... I just wanted to see these two, hot chicks get naked.

Fast forward 10-15 years and now I could care less about the scene... GET BACK TO THE STORY dammit! The worst part is that its not like it is an oscar caliber script... I just got interested in the plot.

There must be something wrong with me.

The Sheit-geist (Bowel) Movement

Some years ago, I stumbled across an interesting video on the internet (I know, red flag right away.) It was an independent movie called, "Zeitgeist". I'll admit, at the time, it was entertaining. It certainly presented its dogma in a palatable manner.

An Overview

Part 1 focused on Christianity. Already an atheist, it seemed to resonate with my own negative feelings about organized religion.

Part 2 focussed on 9/11 conspiracies. They were starting to lose me... a good conspiracy yarn is ALSO entertaining, but these people were serious.

Part 3 focused on the US Federal Reserve and the shadowy world of international finance. Meh, but engaging nonetheless. Is it the truth? It presents itself that way.

Still, I liked the beginning.

Now some people would stop here. Those with an axe to grind with the 'establishment' (be they underachievers or underperformers), would think that they had just unlocked all of the secrets to the cosmos. However, when prompted with sensationalism, one should DO SOME RESEARCH.

So, that's what I did. Why quote my own, when I can quote someone else's. No sense reinventing the wheel. (http://conspiracyscience.com/articles/zeitgeist/) (PP)

From the minor to the profound, Zeitgeist just plain gets facts wrong. They misinterpret quotes, assert "facts" that are easily debunked, and generally skip merrily along to their conclusions on a rope of confirmation bias (the sources for the movie seem to be mostly an echo chamber for other conspiracy theorists), all along claiming they are "just asking questions". Whether the leaders of the organization are liars, spectacularly ignorant, or pitiable entertainment, you be the judge. Hey, I'm just asking questions. (PP)

Zeitgeist mistakenly compares the cross of the crucifixion to the cross of the zodiac.
It confuses religious history: misattributing coincidences, incorrectly describing origin stories and creating parallels that don't exist.

Zeitgeist borrows wholly unsubstantiated and proven claims when examining the tragedy of September 11th. See 'Loose Change'.

AND, in the third section, Zeitgeist misquotes, makes gross historical mistakes (again), and tries to use half-truths and lies to convince people unwilling to do any research, that it has all the answers.

One can't base a 'movement' on conclusions that are incorrect. Or can they?
Back to these 'axe-grinders'.. they LOVE their straw men.

A Zeitgeist Movement club started up in my local post-secondary institution. I am ashamed. New students are the perfect disciples for a movement with no basis in fact but with a lot of radical 'theories'. Young students love to rail against the establishment.

The Zeitgeist Philosophy

Power bad, government bad, religion bad. It should be replaced by... drum roll please people with no knowledge or experience in the aforementioned! Yes, the granola eating, new age hippy could CERTAINLY do better than a mature adult who studied political science,law for years and then worked successfully in the private sector for decades. "They're on the take, man!"

The Zeitgeist 'chapter' in my area links itself to other counter-culture and conspiracy idealogues such as 'The Venus Project' and 'Loose Change'. These bedfellows are appropriate. They all stir the pot but offer no legitimate arguments.

Recently a friend became blindly allied to this crap. They described it as 'a religion' and didn't want to debate any of it. Deja vu - bringing me back full circle to the reason Zeitgeist caught my attention in the first place. It would appear that these Zeitgeist disciples aren't as interested in free thought as they espouse. They have merely replaced one pile of 'Sheitgeist' for another.

(Contributory thanks to 'Pazuzu's Petals')

Blogs

People often write a blog to tell people about things they like... who cares I ask?
Is it really interesting for other people to read about your favourite band or a trip you went on? Not really. Isn't that what facebook is for?

I write a blog to tell people about things I hate.
That's where the real dirt is.

Losers throwing gang signs...

I was cruising through my favourite website the other day when I noticed this phenomenon occurring over and over. The fact is I see it so often it has become almost subliminal.

This is the "white boy throwing up gang signs" phenomenon. I see it all the time, and it finally registered as absurdly ridiculous to me.

The whole purpose of gang signs for urban, street, youth is to identify themselves as belonging to some affiliation. It is used in many situations where other identifiers may not be possible or appropriate, and it can also show that a gang member is in the area to "do business" as opposed to just passing through.

Part of me thinks this spectacle arose from drunken girls trying to be ironic when mugging for photographs. The white guys simply didn’t get the joke. This would seem a logical beginning.

Who knows, maybe some of these kids are actually IN gangs but I am pretty sure the skinny, white, wimpy-guy that I have known for years, who lives in suburban, white-only, small-town, Ontario is not a member of the 'Crips'. He isn't nor ever has been hardcore!

My ‘example’ isn't of my generation. He is of the next one. My ‘example’ is in his mid twenties and he is less hardcore than my 14 year-old niece. What is he trying to prove? I know HE’S not trying to be ironic. He really BELIEVES he looks cool as he throws the ‘East-siiide’ gang sign. (Does he even live on the east side of our small city...? I don’t think so... Probably not.)

Maybe I don’t get it. Is this the all part of the same popular culture engine that has kids wearing their pants down at their knees? Maybe it is a generational thing and I am out of touch... again. This is possible.

I know one thing, if most of these hand-sign throwers had to spend 5 minutes with people that legitimately were gang members they would probably wet themselves. Most have never been to New York, L.A. or any American city with a large gang population. They certainly have never met a gang member because they wouldn’t have the gall to throw up their poser hand signals in their face. Ridiculous.

Anyways, enough venting from me, peeps. Peace out!

This and that...

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, I saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in I know did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are stupid.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on yahoo and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

Psychic Pslime

I hate 'psychics' . They are the charlatans, the bottom-feeders and the slime of the 21st century.
Strong words? You bet - but I couldn't think them more aptly placed than on this group of people.

You ever see these people? They usually appear to be the misshapen freaks of society: ugly, dull-looking, ridiculously-dressed. Most of us wouldn't want them to bag our groceries and yet some of us will share our most personal information with them. Well, you can't judge a book by its cover (even if the 'cover' contains all of the kitchy pseudo-mystic bobbles one could imagine.).

Typically, people go see a psychic when they are at their worst in life; down on their luck financially or socially. A psychic is all too happy to give them vague and inaccurate information - for a large fee of course. One would think that if their powers of prestigidation were so accute, that these 'gifted ones' would just go win the lottery. Then, they could proceed use their god-like gifts to Help Humanity.

Has it happened? Of course not.

The worst cases of pyschic deception are subjucted to those who have lost or are missing a loved one. It is at this time that psychic scum pounces. The Sylvia Brown's of the world often claim to talk their loved ones... they claim to know where their loved one's bodies lie or whether they are alive or dead at all. People in their greatest anguish grasp onto whatever straws they can, in the hopes that their loved ones are at peace. They will even pay Ms. Brown the monstrous fees she charges for her 'consultation'.

But maybe there IS something to psychic abilities and phenomenom. After all, we cannot know all of the mysteries of the universe.

James Randi, a.k.a. The Amazing Randi, magician and author of numerous works skeptical of paranormal, supernatural, and pseudoscientific claims has for about ten years offered "a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power."
His rules were little more than what any reasonable scientist would require. If you are a mental spoon bender, you couldn't use your own spoons. If you claimed to see auras, you'd have to do so under controlled conditions. If you claimed to be able to do remote viewing, you wouldn't be given credit for coming close in some vague way. If you were going to demonstrate dowsing powers, you would have to be prepared to be tested under controlled conditions. If you were going to do psychic surgery or experience the stigmata, you would have to do so with cameras watching your every move.

Who has succeeded in claiming the million dollar prize? NOT A SINGLE PERSON - and many have tried.

There are many like Randi that offer rewards for proof, and in no case has proof ever 'materialized'.

Sylvia Brown and many of her ilk refuse to be tested. They don't want to be exposed like their peer Uri Geller was. None want to lose their cash cows.

Penn and Teller have debunked them better than I ever could in their Season 1 Episode 1 of their program, 'Bullshit'. Check it out - it will open your eyes. All three of them!

Blog

Lately, I have found the need to write things down; sort of a personal history or something.
Pen and paper is becoming a thing of the past and a diary is just too risky.

So, I figured I would start this blog. Who will read it? Probably, no one.

Nevertheless, if other people can be self-important enough to start a blog, so can I.

With a blog, I can more or less be anonymous, and so can those I write about. Win, win, right?

Well, we'll see.

I have read the blogs of Maddox and Tucker Max with laughter and glee and while mine won't likely be as funny or irreverant, what the hell!