Random Observations

While bouncing around from day to day, I find myself noticing a few things about our society. I tend to jot these down either as something of note or in hopes of writing a long piece about said observation. Oftentimes, many of these are short observations and do not have enough substance by themselves to support their own post. But I keep them around just the same, since you never know what you may do with them. However, I have collected quite a few, and I thought it would be a fun idea to just throw out a potpourri of these random thoughts and observations. Some are funny, some annoying and a few have actual import. So peruse through them, have a laugh and enjoy.


There seems to me to be an inordinate amount of ads and commercials lately for sleep aids. Many have a litany of rather unappealing side affects. It seems we may not need so many ways to help us fall asleep, if we just stopped drinking a gallon each of coffee and energy drinks a day.

And speaking of coffee, there is a coffee on the market for those with sensitive stomachs. If your stomach is that sensitive, maybe you shouldn't be drinking coffee. And did anyone ever stop to think that maybe their stomach got into that situation from drinking too much coffee?

Cigarettes are bad for you, highly addictive and can cause a multitude of long term problems and lead to early death. However, the real addiction problem that is going unchecked in this country, and one no one will talk about, is Starbucks and coffee in general.

If a period piece, fantasy or science fiction film has a modern music soundtrack with rock or pop songs, even if they just appear in the trailers, the movie will suck.

Quippy one liners in movie trailers = bad film, especially if it is an action film.

I loved the movie Disturbia, when it was called Rear Window.

If an action/adventure or science fiction/comic book film is released early in the year, chances are no one who made the movie has faith it could compete over the summer, and it probably sucks.

Those dolls that eat the fake food and then mess their diaper and you have to change the doll. I do not get those. Are they really fun to play with, or are they a conditioning tool for girls for later in life?

Now that the furor has died down, a small note on the entire Anna Nicole Smith debacle. No one involved in that entire ordeal, and I mean no one, ever gave a damn about Anna, nor do they give a damn about her daughter. Everyone, from Howard K. Stern to that nimrod Prince, her mother, the supposed father, the judge, the lawyers, the news media, the tabloid media and everyone else in between quickly forgot that there was an actual human being involved in this story. All they saw was publicity, fame and money. Anna was a troubled human being who only managed to gleam onto people who never saw her as a person, they only saw her as a meal ticket and stepping stone to fame. Every single person involved in this travesty should be utterly ashamed of themselves, but unfortunately they are not. This entire situation, to me, represented the very worst of our culture. The money grubbing, attention seeking, sensationalized parts of our society that we try to deny are there, or feel above, yet soak up like we are all sponges and this is one more big spill. And like a good sponge, we never seem to be satiated.

This idea is quickly devolving into a Larry King column, I fear.

Adam Sandler's appeal – He plays the same character, with slight variations, in every movie. Although, I am willing to give his latest foray into drama the benefit of the doubt.

Paris Hilton's appeal - sure she's rich, but she is not that attractive, she is dumb as a post and had done absolutely nothing of any consequence to garner her fame or fortune. And it is doubtful that if you took away the money and the fame that she would be able to survive.

Cameron Diaz's appeal – The last time she looked attractive was in The Mask. Since then she seems more interested in keeping herself at a weight where we can discern her skeletal structure. That's a long time to be running on one trick. Nor is she that funny, either.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Sure, it is mildly amusing, but I have trouble seeing where the great appeal is found. I think I have to be high to get it, although I know a few cats who vehemently disagree with me.

Angelina Jolie – Yes, she does have an appealing body, and her work with the UN is to be commended. Very few celebrities use their fame for the betterment of the world. But she just seems to have this skanky vibe to her, and I think I may be one of the only few who feels this way. Plus, what is with the world wide adoption? Sure, those kids will definitely have a better life than they had before she adopted them. But with her constant global hopping for causes and filming, will those kids ever have an actual mother?

Not too long ago, I saw a commercial for an episode of Dr. 90210 on E!, the reality program centering around a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. This episode focused on a couple who were there to have surgery for saggy balls for the gentleman and droopy labium for the lady, if those adjectives can really describe the pair. What is wrong with you when your biggest concerns in the world are about the appearance of body parts that the only people who should be seeing such things are yourself and your partner? If that is all you have to worry about, and spend your money on, you really need to get out, get a pulse on reality and the outside world, and find something far more productive to do with your time, money and those last two brain cells you keep harboring. But I believe the next episode featured the pair removing those pesky brain cells that kept itching inside their heads.

There are only two types of employees at Subway. Those that throw together your sandwich with the accuracy of a kindergartener coloring between the lines, and with an identical attention span, or those who take the term “Sandwich Artist” far too literally.

The Nintendo Wii is one of the most amazing pieces of technology I have ever seen. The commercial where they show the real Tiger Woods control the actions of a virtual Tiger Woods with just a plastic stick with buttons blows me away. That your own movements could control a figure on the screen shows that we are getting ever closer to full fledged virtual reality. But it also begs the question, if I can stand in my living room and swing a piece of plastic and pretend to play golf, why don’t I just go outside and play golf? One of the biggest selling points of the Wii seems to be sports games and how you can play all these different sporting events. Now, I know there is a draw to playing as a famous athlete against other athletes, but that is nothing but a hook. If I really wanted to play baseball or golf or tennis, I could just go outside and do it. If Wii really wanted to suck me in and get me to drop coin on a new gaming system, make a few games where I do something I could never do. How about piloting a moon lander, or dating a supermodel or even exploring the Marianas Trench? No way could I ever do those things in real life, so my best option would be a game. Make that game, and you might have me.

I caught the latest California tourism advertisement. Two things strike me about this ad. One, does California really need to advertise for tourism at this point? And two, I doubt I will ever get enough of hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger pronouncing the word California.

Why is it that every time I see or hear about something related to American Idol, the following thought runs through my mind: “Thou shalt not put any false idols before me.”?

And speaking of Idol, at this point the only thing that seems to drag on longer than this show is baseball season. Watching Fox the other evening, I saw that they were down to the top 8. Is it just me, or did they finally narrow it down to the top 12 like 2 months ago? Although I will probably be shunned by elders and spit on by children for disparaging American Idol.

New Jersey is looking to pass a law that will ban text messaging while driving. You should not need a law to tell you that, common sense should tell you this is dangerous, reckless and just plain dumb. Jesse Ventura was right, you cannot legislate common sense.

People need to wake up and realize how bad of an idea it is to put those family caricature stickers on the rear windows of their cars. I know you are proud of your family, and love to show them off, but do you realize when you put them on, you are advertising information about your children to potential predators? I saw one the other day that not only had a caricature of each child, letting me know the approximate age of said child, but also had their first names and above the entire thing the family surname. Everyone now knows the names of all the children of that parent, and has an idea of what the child may look like. I fear that one day we will hear a chilling story of a child abduction that began with some psychopath using these stickers as a base. Please everyone, take them off your cars before some nut does something horrible.