Overrated

Sometimes a reputation exceeds the actual item or event. Here’s are few things I think are overrated.

1. Black Friday - the time where shoppers line up a 5 am or worse, camp out, just to buy a bunch of crap. There’s really no better way to kick off the Christmas season than to have a crowd trample a man, then continue shopping as if nothing happened. There’s gotta be a movie somewhere in there, perhaps Jingle all the way meets John Cusack? Cynical and dark.

2. Nintendo Wii. Yes I said it. Sure the motion sensor wand is fun… for the first 10 minutes. If that’s the only amount of time you’ll spend playing the system on a daily basis then that’s terrific, which I assume half its user base does. For people that want depth, it’s lacking next to the 360 & PS3. Bravo for Nintendo for coming up with a new technology… who are we kidding, it uses some of the same technology as Duck Hunt and the Power Glove. They know how to market.

3. Vampires - HBO’s True Blood. Twilight. What’s the sudden obsession? The idea of vampires certainly isn’t a new one. Before we had Harry Potter, and since that boat set sail, we’ve got the next saga for teeny-poppers. All I know is, no matter how much the girls swoon over the Twilight stars, you can’t beat Interview with the Vampire.

Thirsty Thursday: Turkey Edition

• Sarah Palin is reportedly signing a book deal worth $7 million. Luckily it’ll be banned in 49 states.
• Carson Daly helped host MTV’s TRL’s final episode, where Teens mobbed Times Square to wish it goodbye. Carson said it felt weird to be on a show that actually has fans.
• It’s been officially announced. The pregnant “man” is pregnant again. I’ll let everyone in on a HUGE secret. “He” is a “she.”
• A new study reports that girls are catching up with boys in math and science, closing the gender gap. Guys in computer science and calculus classes across America just did a fist pump. This may be THE year they meet a girl!
• A Rand Corp. study has determined there may be a link between teen-pregnancy and girls and boys who were exposed to high levels of sexual content on TV. To combat this dilemma, its recommended all teenagers be kept to a strict regiment of watching Larry King & Martha Stewart.
• Canadian actress Colby Smulders is expecting a child with American comedian Taran Killam. Those clever Canadians, having babies so they don’t get deported…
  

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everybody has a great day today, regardless that everything looks like its in the dire straits, you’ll have something to be thankful for. A larger than normal Thirsty Thursday will be posted later today to make up for last week.

Good 'ol IMDB

Gotta love IMDB and it’s wonderful user comments sections. I’ve got an account on there myself, but I make coherent, thought out, logical posts. Half the members I’m afraid, do not. Their reasoning always escapes me, that is if I can understand what they’ve written. I just recently watched “Wet Hot American Summer,” and thought hey, lets see what people say about this film. Boy was I in for a treat. Here’s a great snippet from a review about the movie: “All I can say is this, most folks won’t dig it, that’s because they are idiots and have no true appreciation for comedy.” I didn’t know that you could have a “true” appreciation for comedy. What does a fake appreciation for comedy look like? Furthermore I thought comedy wasn’t a one size fits all. After all you’ve got slapstick, screwball, black/dark (not the skin color), spoof/parody, gross out, intellectual… the list goes on.

And if you want to get really specific, you can reference our friends the Greeks, where comedy simply means a happy or cheerful ending. But what do we know? After all, we’re “idiots.”

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

As the economic turmoil continues to build, the unemployment rate continues to climb. With the current state of the economy I don’t know if it’ll be feasible for me to move down in February. Regardless, I thought this article on CNN was entertaining. It discusses the cities that have the lowest unemployment rate, and that if you looked for a job there, chances are you’d land one. Only problem is its in states that NO ONE wants to live in. Shocker there’s jobs available. I mean come on, South Dakota? Idaho? North Dakota? I’d rather have a less than favorable job where I like living than a good job in a place that completely sucks.

Writer's Block

I can’t say there are many times in my life that I’ve quit due to “writers block.” I think there’s always a way to deal with the problem of coming up with fresh, new ideas or figuring out a problem in your second act. Here’s just a few of my methods for dealing with writing if I have any struggles.

1. Write whatever comes to mind and put it on the page. First drafts are typically the puke drafts anyways, so just getting something out there often helps me create better ideas, and see where the weaknesses are.
2. Switch Projects. I’m not suggesting just quitting a project to work on another one, since you’ll just end up never finishing anything. You should have another project where you are at a different stage, such as just outlining. While you work on something else, a solution for your first project might arise.
3. Do an activity. Sometimes I suddenly get inspiration while taking a nice hot shower. For other people it might be going for a bike ride or a walk.
4. Use a random book of ideas. I have The Writer’s Book of Matches, but there are other books out there as well that have hundreds of writer’s prompts to get you thinking. It never hurts to see if reading about one thing helps spawn a new idea in your head.

What Happens in Vegas… Is on my Blog

Although it may appear on the contrary due to a lack of posts, I’m still around. After being delayed out of Portland to fly home, I finally arrived Saturday evening and was pretty exhausted, so I didn’t have the energy to bust out a long blog post. During my trip I got a chance to see a lot of stand up, among other things, so I’ll break it down by day.

Wednesday: Walking around Vegas you could tell what time of year it was. A combination of the slow month of November and the current state of the economy, the streets weren’t too full. I got a chance to lose some money at the Poker room at MGM, so that was great. During my whole time in Vegas I never got too hot at Poker, was up the most by $20, but I never really play Poker so I guess its not too bad.

Thursday: Our first show was at Caesar’s Palace, part of TBS’ Comedy Festival. The performers were Danny Bhoy, Mitch Fatel, and Jamie Kennedy. My favorite was definitely Mitch; I’ve seen him do segments for Leno on The Tonight Show and he’s always good for many laughs. During his stand up he’s got an indisguishable voice by almost whispering/murmering into the mic. As a writer you are always told that you need to develop your own ‘voice’ and its clear the way Mitch delivers his jokes what his voice is.

That night as we walked backed to our hotel I was hit on by a midget (or little person) prostitute. DEFINITELY made my night.

Friday: That evening we spent the most time attending shows. The first one was at Harrah’s Improv, based off of Hollywood’s Improv. I saw that Gary Valentine would be headlining, and I knew him as Cousin Danny from King of Queens, and that he’s also Kevin James’ big brother, so you couldn’t really go wrong. Also at the show was Mark Curry, better known from Hanging with Mr. Cooper, and he was surprisingly very funny as well.

Later at night was what made us stay an extra night — Dane Cook. I’ve never really heard a lot of his stand up previously, I just knew that he was generally pretty funny, and he did not disappoint. His opening performers were good, but Dane rocked the Colosseum. He made it clear why he’s able to fill seats.

Friday Night I also had my best luck at gambling — by playing an eBay slot machine. Never would have guessed. One woman near me won $700 off hers, then by the end of the night, we walked by and noticed she had fed it all back into it. I couldn’t believe it.

During the entire trip I got my fill of gambling — played at several poker rooms, craps, blackjack, and slots. My luck was never that great, but I only lost a couple hundred gambling, so it wasn’t bad. It’s good to be home, back to my writing!

Leaving (for) Las Vegas

Later this afternoon I’ll be flying out to Las Vegas, where the alcohol is plentiful and the casino’s line up at taking your money. Of course I’ll be sure to avoid the later. I’ve had a strategy if my luck is bad, to move on to another game/table to minimize loses. Usually works pretty well. Wish me luck.

Live Your Life

With the complete advertising overload everyone suffers these days, companies often try to throw slogans or messages that they hope sticks and reels people in. My ‘favorite’ has been American Eagle’s fake inspirational quote, “live your life.” T.I. has also released a recent song with this title, and it’s been climbing the charts. This all leads me to the question, is this an anti-suicide slogan? Live your life? What other options do I have? Can I live yours? If I’m living my life why would I necessarily shop more at American Eagle? Since this is an anti-suicide slogan, will there be a pro-suicide slogan in the future? Brought to you by Halliburton - Kill yourself. I guess it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Election Is Over

I’d just like to use today’s post to make an announcement to the voters whose candidate did not win: the election is over. I’ve heard/read of Republicans who have made a pledge to question every judgment or decision Obama makes. Heck, they’re judging him already and he hasn’t even been sworn in. So I’d like to address that. First, people may think they are ‘getting back’ at people who judged Bush. But even Democrats did not criticize Bush before he took office (at least on the grounds of his judgment, the hanging chad thing was a different thing). I also hope people don’t wait in the wings, ready to pounce on Obama if he does make a mistake. Obama is going to be the president of the United States, not the president of the blue states. It’s in every citizens interest that he succeeds, because we’re in a deep hole that needs rescuing. So put down the pitch forks and let the man work.