Managing Expectations

People rarely look beyond their own expectations and evalute the objective evidence of a certain scenario on their own and come to a reasonable conclusion. If you give people an expectation, they will take that expectation and run with it, even if the empirical evidence suggests otherwise. Why? Well, there's an easy way out: if things don't go the way they wanted, it's always easy to blame the pesron who gave you the expectation in the first place, right?

Despite my bitter tones about this, I think the expecters have a right to do the expectin'. In an ideal world, everybody would be ultra-attentive and would not resort to relying on others' responsibilities. But we live in a practical world, not an idealistic world, so it seems perfectly reasonable to use people at the face value of their words.

Lesson learned. Managing expectations pays off in the long run...

British Accents

Does every American talent-based reality show have to have a judge with a British accent? What up with that?

Crazy Things

I don't think people think much about war machinery and exactly how powerful they are. Our conception of guns is fairly clear: it's a high-tech way of throwing something REALLY fast. Our conception of cars are pretty clear: it's a thing which can move which carries people. But combine those two and jack up the power and its power potential goes through the roof and becomes a bit more than the sum of its parts.

So, realization of the day: Tanks are absolutely crazy. In the context of war, they're not unstoppable, though they are fairly powerful. But imagine a tank on the loose in a city. There is literally nothing in the arsenal of any SWAT team or police department that can stop a tank. It can run over cars. It can run through cars. It can take down buildings. And that's without firing a single shot. God forbid it starts firing its shells the size which are, literally, the size of a small RV. And since it's so damn mobile and powerful, there aren't any effective barriers that will stop a tank. You either get at the driver, which is not so easy to do, or you get at the tank and only the army/airforce has enough power to do that. Or you wait for the tank to run out of fuel, by which time it will have caused multiple millions of dollars of damage should it choose to do so.

War machines are damn scary yo. They're none too slow either...

Tasty Beverage

I go downtown to study sometimes. It's a nice change of scenery and helps me stay on track. Perhaps it's spending the energy to drive downtown that makes me want to not waste that investment and actually study for a bit, or maybe it's because these little outing invariably turn into a night at a restaurant I like or haven't tried before. Who knows!

In any case, I usually study at Java Jones, a nice little coffee shop on the main drag. It's not too quiet, not too loud, has some comfortable seats, and (important) has free wi-fi! Excellent.

I don't drink coffee though. So every time I do go to Java Jones, I'm usually confused as to what to do: submit to my guilt and buy something over priced to drink or stick to my guns and only buy a drink if I feel like it. The result tends to be that I buy a drink half the time I'm there. Coffees and mocha drinks don't excite me all that much and Italian Sodas seem kind of retarded conceptually.

But today, glorious day of days, I've found a coffee shop libation I actually rather enjoy: Iced Raspberry Earl Grey tea lemonade! Refreshing, not too sweet, and pretty reasonable for $2. I guess I'll start succumbing to guilt and buying iced tea lemonades now...

Things Long Forgotten

There should be a site called "The Annals (hehe, I said annal) of Forgotten Things" and in this site should contain icons of yore such as:

• The Dell Dude, pre-ganja -- "Dude, you're getting a Dell!"
• Sinbad -- "Sin! Bad!" "No no. It's Sinbad! One word, and it's alll good."
• The Noid -- Voiced by equally weird-named Pons Maar, a skilled puppeteer.

For some reason though, probably because it's more obscure, perhaps, I think the Noid holds its own better than either Sinbad or the Dell Dude, . Referencing Sinbad or Ben Curtis doesn't give anybody street cred but referencing the Noid (Adam West notwithstanding), well, that's just classy.

Moon Bloodgood

So how does one go about getting a last name like "Bloodgood" and, furthermore, how do parents with such a last name decide to call their daughter "Moon"? Moon. Blood. Good. It's some kind of crazy trifecta of double O words all strung together to form a name!

I can do that too. Let's see here: School ... drool ... cool. Drool and cool already match their counterparts (drool and blood are liquids and cool and good are value judgements). School isn't a celestial body, though it is a location, but let's let that slide.

So, the name of my child?

School Droolcool.

Obviously, it's a boy.

Memorable Quotes...

"Your ego is writing checks your body can't cash!"

As heard in Top Gun, said to Mr. Couch Jump Death Rays.

Annoying People

I can't decide who needs to die first in a more ideal world: Tucker Carlson or Richard Roeper.

Finish This Limerick

There once was a man who napped
and while he napped he crapped.
You feel for the sap
who crapped while he napped...

Rules:
1) The last line should preferably contain the word "crap".
2) The last line should preferably be witty, and contain the word "crap".
3) Points awarded for the use of the word "crap".

I came up with: "and in his own crap was he trapped."

Anybody with a better ending line?