Can I has a plow?

I am about tired of news companies creating (or trying to) catchy sound bite slogans for every news story. Ugh. It really irks me to no end they way they churn everything into a hype machine to gain views and hits.  Is it really  as if people who are in the affected areas are not going to check the weather? Maybe they want people in Texas to care.

Having said that, if you are in an area like I am where there is 40″ of snow on the ground with more coming then you may feel the same way I do.  After you spent 3-4 hours digging your car out, you then had to traverse the ice compacted roads that feel like you are driving on the dirt roads in back of Hazzard county.

As I bumped along in the snow I wondered what is so important that companies think they should force their employees to come to work evenwhen the government and state officials urge people to stay off the roads.  I mean, do not people already sacrifice their lives and time (Time that they will never, ever get back) in service to the CORPORATION? Is your time really only worth $7.00 USD an hour? How about $50.00? Ugh, don’t get me started on the route of workers’ rights and public education in this country . . . I am jumping off track here.

There are over 500,000 tons of snow that need to be removed. Crews are running out of places to pile it and just being another annoying chucklehead on the road is going to get in their way.

It puts it in perspective how much corporations care about you.

Of course, everyone is driving slow enough that if you hit the likelihood of death is slim, but why not put your property in danger so you can make it to work and file a TPS report, stock the shelves with the no returns of DVDs at the Blockbuster that is still open, or shlep that Ralph Lauren button down to all of the 2 people who will be dumb enough to shop at this time!Well, they make you do it! Why? Profit baby, pure profit. Granted not your profit or salary.  You will not see more money because of things like this. The profits will not trickle down or hit your .25 cent/3% raise this year. Times are tough out there you know . . .

Look, am I not anti-capitalism. (Though maybe I should be.) I understand the bottom line matters and that every penny counts in an Enron/AIG run world. I understand that it’s okay to bone over workers’ pensions and 401k’s and then take the government’s bail out tax money and run into the hills giggling with glee.  I know every penny counts, but when and where should be draw a line of common sense? I am sure you sense my sarcasm there. (And if you didn’t, then you need to go to reading skool. )

AmeriKans seem to have this notion of a “can do” attitude. And it is this blind adherence to things always working out and that leads to a lot of entries on FailBlog.  You know, maybe “Yes we can” but has anyone though that maybe sometimes we shouldn’t? I am not tying to perpetuate the idea that “it takes a villiage.” I really do not conern myself with that. For me, it is more like we are all stuck in this same stupid villiage so we should all behave in ways that do not annoy a lot of other people.

I guess if you work at a Khol’s or a Starbucks then you need to physically be there so people shell out the 2.19 for a cup of joe. If you weren’t there, then people would not buy coffee and you would be out of a job, but it just seems to me that no one is generally thinking on this one.

You know what it is? I hate snow. I hate Frosty, White Christmases, Frost Penguin’s stage in Mega Man, and Level 4 in Super Mario Brothers 2.

Crystal Renn is a well known “plus sized” super model who has been receiving a lot of press. I do not advocate people being all fat an nasty, but I think calling these women plus-sized is an insult. Of course, they are plus in comparison to the women who walk around with feathers and buckets to keep a shapely size zero, but still, it is rather insulting. Of course, I found out that Glamour published semi-nude pics of Lizzi Miller as well and this set off a fire storm of sorts. “Will magazines show real women?!” No. They have yet to show real anyone with the ammount of Photoshopping they do to all pictures. It is sad really that the public things some people look a certain way when they do not.

Then again, I am a man and I should just learn to shut the hell up.

Oh yippie, 360 announced they will have a Dashboard update that will support Twitter and Facebook as well as some other features I could care less about.  With the way the system Red Rings, why would you want to push it by making it do more? Okay, that may have been a bit harsh.

You know, this service is not free, yet subscribers who pay for this are innundated with advertisements for movies and TV shows. Can we get an update where you can opt to turn those things off?

A recent article in the Washington Post discusses a 2008 study that found some youths to be “addicted” to video games. The study claims that children can become so addicted that they will skimp on homework and even lie about how much they play. The study finds that 8.5 percent of children and young adults ages 8-18 show multiple signs of behavioral addition. The findings were published by Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University who runs the Media Research Lab that performed the study.  As I posted before, there is indeed some correlation between aggressive behavior and video games; however, one needs to be more realistic about this topic. One, what are they gauging as aggressive behavior? Two, can they make [ever] a direct correlation between games and aggression? It is not like acts of aggression were miniscule prior to 1972 and they increased exponentially as the years progressed. A correlation can be made between an increase in violence and other cultural factors. - the decline of the nuclear family, the ever increasing divorce rate/latchkey kid syndrome, poor discipline in schools, teenage parents. While it is probably certain violent video games can beget some aggressive behavior, the question remains to how much it actually creates is always left. Gamers say that no such thing while lawmakers and psychologists say that there is evidence. To the psychologists, I say, “Are you, sir or madam, a gamer?” If not, then you do not “get it.” To the gamers I say, cast your mind to your friends when you were 10-14 years old. (If you are that age now, I commend you for even reading this far.) There is a game that all boys play; it is called “let me hit you in the nuts.” Around puberty there is always one kid who, for some odd, homoerotic reason, likes to smack you in the balls. You are just hanging out with a bunch of your friends and – BAM, the kid smacks you in the jewels. Now, you can ignore it and let some alpha kid hit you in the balls or try to hit him back. In essence, he is getting you to touch his junk. This is not unlike the circle game where you play “two for flinching” and punch each other in the arm. You know the games. The one where kids used to erase the skin of the back of their hands with pencils or smack their knuckles with them. Boys are naturally aggressive. We learn it from our friends, fathers, and brothers. Not that I agree with all the ball hitting in a civilized society, but the reality is that Lord of the Cube hitters exists no matter what one does. Some people like to cite that video games do not lead to aggressive behavior. They are clearly incorrect. Games can impact aggression. But this is a slippery slope. No one has any idea what actually causes all aggressive behavior. And, more importantly, what is aggressive to you might not be aggressive to someone else. That dick boss of yours . . .no no, your boss is assertive. Not aggressive. [link]

At this point, two things should probably be noted. One, you are more than likely reading this because of video games. It is how I chiseled my little corner into the internet. Two, I am in no way discounting addiction by any means. Indeed, addiction is a serious problem in many cultures and I am quite certain that there are some people (both young and adult) who are addicted to video games. I do not take issue with that per se. What I begin to take issue with is what psychologists term as problematic for behavioral addiction. According to the article, “According to psychiatric and psychological experts, it has to damage functioning on multiple levels, such as family, social, school, occupational, and psychological functioning.” I, being the old, maladjusted curmudgeon that I am, take issue with every one of those. Exactly why are family, social, school and occupational functions inductive of a healthy person? I guess the issue that needs to be raised is, does everyone need people? Yes, we are a social animal, but not all of us derive pleasure from the presence of all people. Sorry to say, I am one of those people who really do not get my fellow humans. Allow me to clear this up, humans can become addicted to anything. Typically, anything bad is an addiction and anything good is not. You rarely hear people are addicted to Golf, but I know there are plenty of Golfers who knock off work to hit the back 9, who avoid spouses, and neglect children. There are plenty of people who over-eat, watch too much porn, watch too much TV, run marathons, read fantasy novels, comics, or watch loser reviewers on the internet . . .

Thank you for that one by the way.