Now to explain, because at heart I’m a reasonable guy: I have no particular beef with PepsiCo, or at least no more or less so than any other multinational corporation (a topic for another time). My statement is aimed at their namesake flagship product, Pepsi-Cola.
No, this is not going to be a rehash of the “Coke vs. Pepsi” debate (though I suspect the comments section may devolve into one). I do not see beverage preference (or nearly anything else) as a zero-sum game, and the meat my grievance is more of an indictment of certain marketing/advertising practices in general. So if you enjoy Pepsi-Cola more than anything else in the world, without irony I say “good for you”; once you have found her, never let her go.
It’s true that if forced to choose between a Coca-Cola and a Pepsi-Cola, I will choose the former every time. But not because I think that Coke is innately superior, or because it’s officially endorsed by Santa Claus (it’s not), or any other reason that The Coca-Cola Company has spent a lot of money over the past hundred-plus years engraving into the collective consciousness. Read More »
By now you’ve heard that according to Terminator lore (specifically, the “Sarah Connor Chronicles” TV series), on April 21, 2011, Skynet launches its attack on humanity and missiles, missiles, missiles, death, stalking robots, etc.
Hooey.
While there are many real reasons we might experience an apocalypse, I don’t believe the Terminator scenario is cause to stock up on canned foods, weapons and gold. Only an idiot would take that advice.
So in the interest of stemming the panic that I already see in people’s eyes, and can sense from their Twitter and Facebook posts, here are the top reasons not to fret or sweat about Skynet: Read More »
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, they didn’t have PowerPoint. But I do. And I decided that instead of spending a rainy Saturday watching Star Wars again, I’d re-imagine the Battle of Endor briefing scene as if it took place today, in some nondescript suburban office park.
9:45 p.m. Mead. “Honey wine”. Drink of the gods and go-to slaker of Renaissance Festival thirsts.
I hold in my hand* a bottle of said beverage, brewed by same hand. The last time I despoiled a kitchen to produce beer was a year or two after graduating from college, meaning that this particular bottle is probably at least 15 years old.
It is chilled. I have a mug. I am going to open and drink it. Right now. I was never the most fastidious brewer.
Why? I don’t know. It’s just what my brain does. Or maybe because sidekick pets are so fun and lovable! (Okay, maybe not all of them.) In terms of universal like-itude I wouldn’t put them in the same bracket with Mister Rogers or pizza*, but they’re pretty darned terrific. And if you’ll bear with me through this dissertation, you might be surprised to learn how many varieties there are. Read More »
Many of you probably got very excited to see that word; more of you are likely puzzled by it. SPOILER ALERT: he’s a character* in George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) series of novels. The much-anticipated adaptation of the first book, “A Game of Thrones”, will be airing soon on HBO.
I’m not going to go into great detail about why I think the seriesis soterrific, other than to say that Martin has created a swords and sorcery world with incredible depth and integrity. Oh, and that his characters are complex and dynamic, and he has a talent for keeping the reader engaged and guessing without resorting to cheap narrative tricks. But what interests me right now is how deep the universe of ASOIAF will penetrate into the long-term collective geek/nerd psyche.
Of course it’ll depend heavily on the quality of and reception to the HBO series, and its penetration will be tempered by its appearance on a pay channel. But many people will likely be drawn to read the books because of the exposure, even if they don’t watch the series, which would help push it higher up in influence among universes occupying territory in the geek/nerd spectrum.
That’s the short, pithy answer.
< ----begin ¾-baked overwrought analysis---->
[NOTE: I will probably get clobbered for a lot of what I say below. I’m comfortable with that.] Read More »
One of my core geek competencies is constructive obsession. Once a book, activity, food, historical period, or just about anything else catches my fancy, I want to know everything there is about it as well as its primary, secondary and tertiary tangents. As I child it was trains and railroads, followed by science fiction. Most recently it’s been breakfast cereals, their mascots, and circus clowns in American popular culture (much more on all of that another time). But the largest sustained obsessive period in my life revolved around video games, starting from the age of ten or so and lasting well into high school.
I still enjoy video games, but not to the same smothering degree. I don’t know if it was because I was a weird kid who had a difficult time relating to my peers, or because the space/robot/racing game themes aligned so well with the smaller obsessions that were colliding together in my mind at the time. But I was ravenous, especially for arcades and arcade games. Read More »
I’ve already written 1,000+ words today on a short story I’m working on, and I originally intended this entry to be short and sweet, but I feel like this is something that needs to be “on the record”.
Paul and I loooove to play hashtag games on Twitter (if you don’t know what that is, you can go back right now to reddit, Fark, Facebook, YouTube, surfing for porn, or wherevs, and check back again tomorrow.) When we get cranking, we can spit out two dozen #StarWarsInstruments, #DuneSnacks, or #JohnMellencampDescribingHisBreakfast zingers inside of five minutes. Most people tolerate it, and many even follow us for it (and participate themselves, which is awesome). But some people actually get kinda angry that we’re “spamming” their Twitter feed. Read More »
It’s an achievement to be anonymous these days. Everyone and their dog is on Facebook, and a few keystrokes on Google usually turns up the rest. Yet there are dozens of people that we see every day who, for all intents and purposes, don’t really exist.
You see them on sites large and small, perfectly lit and photographed, smiling, and doing things Just Like You And I Would. Often you see them after mistyping a web address like that of the New York Times (www.nytimes.com). A genius move by the web squatters really. Instead of feeling rage because you’ve fallen into their trap, they distract you with a symmetrically-faced human being. Kinda takes the edge off of becoming an unwitting pawn in their efforts to extort money from, in this case, the New York Times (or, for all I know, there’s a band, philanthropic society, or dodgeball team called the New York Tims).
I’ve heard that Miami and L.A. are the modeling capitals of the U.S., but given how the avatars of the stock photography world usually look like they were poured straight from a milk carton, my guess is that they’re actually lassoed down or grown in Utah. But it doesn’t really matter, and I’m sure they’re grateful to get stock photo modeling gigs. And if Chrissie Hynde can stomach her music being used as the audio calling card for Rush Limbaugh, I’m sure these folks can handle falsely shilling for the New York Tims.
So hold your heads high, anonymous stock photo pixies. Hold. Your. Heads. HIGH.
