[Not Really] Sorry.


Tuesday, February 26, 2008

What I Learned From Disney Movies

I laid in bed nearly all day on Sunday with a nasty chest cold. I think I may have walked twice that day. As you can imagine, there isn't a whole you can do when you're laying in bed sick. As a result, I started to think. (oh shit.) I started to think about all the Disney movies I watched when I was a kid. My parents and grandparents made sure we owned over 70 disney movies by the time I was 16. I thought about how they may have impacted me as a kid growing up. Disney movies are made to have a positive ending story with a good moral behind it. Something that makes the kids happy and hopeful. At first, I thought they had a positive impact; but when I dug deeper I stumbled upon some startling facts and messages Disney has been feeding us. I will go over a few of the classic Disney movies that we all know and love, and expose the hidden messages that have brainwashed us for decades!

Note: If you're thinking "You're stooping to making fun of Disney movies now? That's too easy you witless hack." Yeah..... I know.


Aladdin:

Such a good and classic movie full of fun, comedy, and excitement. Where can you possibly go wrong? At first I thought there was nothing wrong. Then I thought about how it impacted me. The movie lowered my self esteem and self-image by leaps and bounds! Confused? [yes] I shall elaborate. To review, the movie revolves around Aladdin trying to get Jasmin, a princess of a middle east city. Aladdin had to work incredibly hard to get her. What did I absorb from this? It skewed my view on women for years. Aladdin taught me that the only way I can possibly get any attractive woman to like me, I had to have the help of a genie, a magic carpet, and a cute intelligent small monkey. I never had those luxuries. My dating years in high school were as a result, incredibly awkward. I had to try to wing those things. I didn't have a genie so I was empty handed there, I didn't have a monkey, instead I had a dog and a little sister. My only hope was to wing the magic carpet and try to pass it off as "cute." I learned the hard way that women don't like my winged version of a magic carpet ride. I got comments like "this is un-fucking-believable!" "you cheap jackass, do you think this is funny?" Apparently blowing in their face with my mouth and slathering my fingers on their face to simulate the wind passing through them was "fucking retarded." It wasn't until I was 19 that I realized that it was an ineffective way to tell girls that I like them.

Note: If Walt Disney was still alive during the production of Aladdin, I bet it would have been more racist. (Walt was openly anti-semetic) Since it takes place in the middle-east, [even though everyone in the movie was white] The story line would be more true to real life events. The Aladdin movie and following sequels would have been different. Jafar probably would have been Jewish. Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar would have been Aladdin 2: The Return of the Invincible Jew. Aladdin 3: And the King of Thieves would have most definitely been "Aladdin 3: And the Jihad against the King of the Jews.


Beauty and the Beast:

Yet another classic story we all know and love. In summary, a selfish prince is turned into a beast by a fairy for being rude and selfish. Everyone in his castle is punished by association by being turned into random objects. The girl makes him less selfish, true love prevails, yadda yadda, you know the story. Essentially, the point of the story was to scare kids into being nice instead of being unsupervised bratty bastards. It didn't work on me. I took it way too literally. The movie turned me into the most annoying bastard kid on the planet. I would intentionally be rude, seflish, and bratty in hopes that a fairy would turn me into a random object. I hoped to be turned into a car, or maybe a gun. Something destructive. Instead I got ran over by a car and shot with a gun later on. No one explained to me that this could never happen. Disney failed to provde me with a disclaimer that said "Fairies do not exist, and you can't be turned into inadimate objects no matter how bad you want it to happen." The movie ends with a giant fight by which the objects win against the ignorant townspeople. The objects didn't even try to reason with the people. From that point on, I learned that violence was the way to solve everything! After serving 6 months in "Juvi" I further reinforced my reasoning that violence does solve everything, including keeping yourself from being someone elses bitch.

Note: I never went to Juvenile Hall, never got ran over or shot.



The Little Mermaid:

Classic, classic, classic. We all know this to be true. To recap, it's about a 16 year old mermaid girl [Ariel] who falls in love with an older man on the surface. Her father King Triton is an old school kind of guy that rules with a polygamist-like iron fist. (Come on, the guy has like 10 daughters, none of them look alike. They can't be from the same mother.) Ariel trades her voice for legs with a sea witch and 2 electric eels. The sea witch [Ursula] is morbidly obese and bent on getting humped by the guy on the surface (What else was her motivation, really? How was she going to take over the ocean kingdom by marrying some dude on the surface. It was all about the sex I tell ya!) The end scene with Ursula being huge and powerful scared the crap out of me as a kid. I wouldn't watch the end scene for years. It warped my perception on fat people forever. As a result being a kid, I had a fear of all obese people thinking that they may destroy me with their tentacles and destroy whole naval yards unchecked. I took the oceanic law into my own hands. I didn't have the luxury of smiting fat people with a trident like King Triton. I improvised and stabbed fat people with a fork! Much to my dismay, I accomplished nothing by doing this. I was grounded to the point where I didn't see the sun for 3 years. My social life was crippled forever. All I took from the Little Mermaid was to marry really young girl, fat people are evil, seagulls are annoying, and mermaid people are in awesome shape. (every single one of them has a six pack!)

Note: I didn't stab fat people with forks.



Now that the facts [lies] have been exposed, I hope you take time to reflect on your brainwashing and where you went wrong. This is all but a short sample of the truths about Disney movies. In time, I will write more and show you more evil truths. I hope you enjoyed this thoughtful [informative] blog.

Note: I'm completely full of shit. :)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Toys of Today and My Valentines Day Concoction

The other day I went to Toy R' Us to cruise around for Valentines Day ideas. I don't think I have stepped foot in the store since I was 11. Maybe 12 at the oldest. Basically, it's been about a decade. I remember how big the store used to seem when I was younger. It seemed like you couldn't go through the entire store in time before your parents dragged you away. Though, the store is still pretty big, it's not as big as it used to feel. I still felt like a kids walking through. I always loved toys when I was a kid. A small part of me still does. I still have a soft spot for Legos. (Who doesn't have a soft spot for legos. I mean come on seriously. Legos!) As I walked up and down the aisles, I was blown away by how cool toys were these days. This totally makes me sound old. But this isn't the part where I start to go on a rant that starts out with the sentence, "back in my day toys were different......" The star wars toys I used to collect are about 5x cooler now than they were a decade ago. Nerf is still going strong with their awesome dart guns of military-standard of destruction. Lego's seemed to just get more awesome by the day. I was half tempted to buy a huge lego set to give me something to do for a while. I resisted in favor of not looking like a huge nerd. Plus being busy with school and work, I don't really have the time to build a kick ass spaceship made of legos. Oh the adventures I could have had with my lego spaceship. With today's video games and toys, how could any bratty bastard kid possibly manage to be bored in this day and age? After about 3 minutes of soul searching, I found the answer to that question. Everyone in America is practically raised to never be happy with what they already have. (You know that's true, don't deny it.)

And yet with all these cool toys, I found a few that would be better off never being in the childhood of anyone. I found a 12 inch plastic Steve Irwin action figure. This begs the question of "How?" and "Why?" What toy marketing executive thought this would be a profitable idea? Another toy I found that was almost equally worse was an action figure of an Oreo. An Oreo. Even kids know thats stupid. Sure it's cute looking, but I can't imagine adventures kids can have with a plastic Oreo. Toys need new edge. I've been a strong and fierce advocate of reality based toys. Nerf should come out with something so brilliantly edgy, that it may make psychiatry seem legitimate again. I propose they make a "Nerf Suicide Kit: For the kids who still want to hurt themselves, but not die, while still making a statement." Teenagers without anti-depressants will eat that shit right up. Nerf's profits will sore while compromising the integrity of their company. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! (If I may say so myself) And lets have the manliest of men action figure out there. I'm speaking of course about a Chuck Norris action figure. The action figure will be capable of bludgeoning small animals/weaker children to death. That would have me sold in an instant!



Valentines day is now upon us. For some it's the dreaded day where they are reminded about how desperately [lonely] single they are. Before I was in a relationship, I used to have plenty of bitter exploits regarding the holiday since everyone around me always made an unecessarily big deal about the "holiday." My main argument was that if it was a real holiday, I would have the day off from school and get paid premium wages for working the holiday if needed. Other people with my bitter frame of mind applauded this. I absorbed all of it with a smile. Now that I'm a little older and [slightly] less bitter about most things in life, I have found other ways to cope with the "holiday" without making fun of it directly.

Allow me to take you back to my reality based frame of mind. I have frequently destroyed astrology in blogs and bulletins in a humorous realistic way. Plus I have destroyed other lame chain bulletins and anything that could possibly have the fun, excitement, and mystery sucked out of them. (I'm a horrible person) Now it has come down to making fun of those [chalky antiacid] candy hearts with the "cute" phrases on them. Many have done this before. But those were all celebrities. I feel it's time for the torch to be passed down unto me for a brief but semi-comical bashing. If I were the guys writing the words on the hearts (and didn't care about losing my job) I would write the following phrases that realistically describe today's shallow American love (keep in mind I'm doing this using the same abbreviations and misspellings they use that drive me insane):

"lose sum weight" (for that special someone)
"get a job" (deadbeat lovin)
"U R dum" (ironic but blunt)
"fat ass" (we're married!)
"give up on luv" (it couldn't be more insulting that a piece of candy says the same thing as your friends and your mom)
"eat more of this crap" (it wouldn't fit, but that's classic)
"I hate u" (I'm divorcing you)
"hopeless 4 life" (just face it)
"virgin 4 ever" (stop trying to change that fact you creepy psycho)
"waste on society" (for the brother that has lived in the basement since 'Nam)
"try again" (you might get it right)
"u lose" (You're not attractive anymore)
"stay inside" (and stop hanging out outside in my bushes)
"word to ur mother" (Happy valentines Day Mom!)
"ur face hurts me" (did the doctor beat you with a hammer directly after you were born?)
"u luv failure" (you'll never succeed.....ever!)
"ur still alive?" (change that soon)
"luv hates u" (if you're reading this and not smiling, it's probably true)
"no more plz" (your love is like being stabbed by a butterknife repeatedly)

That's all I got. But thanks for reading! I hope you are having a splendid wonderful Valentines Day whether you are single or taken. It shouldn't matter either way. A good day is a good day! I love you all (except you)




Peace and love hippie muchachos

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

For Kyle

It's crazy to think we have been friends since 3rd grade. From the distant beginnings of Mrs. Fowles to our present distanced friendship, we have certainly come a long way. We met somewhere along the way in class after you had discovered I had a Star Wars "arcade" under my paper name plate on my desk. Which you would eventually copy in a slightly more artistic way. We vandalized the hell out of those desks with our nerd graffiti even after being caught a couple of times. We didn't really hang out outside of school then.

Fourth grade came and offered new adventures and perhaps the root reason we are friends today. The hand drawn nerd arcade was drawn for months until we ran out of ideas of how to make them work. I vaguely remember you and Taylor jumping off a metal cube to impress girls while I went off to play basketball unsuccessfully. I remember playing blackhole in the slide with dramatic acting that no Mexican soap opera could match. I remember us first hanging out in the beginning of the school year. All I remember thinking is "Wow he is rich because he has cool toys!" I think the one thing we would both remember from that day is when you were on the phone with one of your friends and we were playing with your toy castle. There was a sticker decal for the moat with alligators. I remember using the giant to robot and saying "I'll handle this!" At that point I crushed the gators with the robot foot. We laughed so hard. Towards the end of the schoolyear, we slept over at David's with the goal of digging an underground tunnel that we could all hang out in. We stayed up all night jumping on the trampoline and digging a hole a squirrel couldn't even live in. I won't go in to many details since it's a whole different story, but that sleepover ended with you getting your nose busted open by Andy. After you got your stitches, I went to your house to give you a kit kat. Your unhappy dad answered the door and allowed our visit to take place while in the background he attempted to kill a spider. But the end of our trouble wouldn't end there. We would get caught writing notes about our enemy Royce. Most of our combined crude insults were insanely childish and rarely made sense. (not much has changed) But we laughed till we cried a couple of times. I remember how our faces flushed to white when we were caught. We thought it was the end of our lives as we knew it. As it turns out, we got off easy somehow, where most teachers would have slapped us with a bible and performed an exorcism to save our possessed souls.

That would be your last year in Sandy before you moved out. The crazy thing about it all is that we became better friends after you moved. You lived at your Grandma's for a while, where we had some adventures and one of your birthdays. A few things took place during the rest our elementary school years. We kept in touch even after you left. We would force our parents to drive us to and fro to hang out when we could. We slept in a tent in my backyard and got flooded out. Celebrated a birthday or two. Middle school came where we had a few more adventures. Getting caught running in our boxers, you playing in your "heavy metal" band, boating on your birthday, discovering women and music (almost at the same time) We would go to malls hoping girls would just flock to us. We would go on chat rooms with hopes that hot women would flock to us there too. We were real ladies men back then. We would record ourselves doing odd skits with a video camera for a long time. (in a crappy scottish accent "Why am I so fat? I got enough greese in my titties to feed Africa!") We concocted the idea to be in a band. You played guitar while I slowly saved up for a drum set.

The band was a huge part of our friendship. If anything it made us better friends until the end. Whether it was playing shows or practicing in my inferno basement room, many great times ensued. Me, you and Branden would jam, eat spicy fries at Sconecutter, and dream big. As we grew older, we would get into more childish mischief. From egging in Brandens rapist van, to dragging state street and spraying peoples cars with windshield wiper fluid. There is too many memories to possibly recite in all this. I'm sure this jogs plenty of ridiculous memories. We carried on with this for 3 years with several changes and conflicts. But in the end it became too much. The band broke up and I didn't take it well. I'm sorry for the way things went, not that it matters since there is nothing we can change now. But in a way, it led to us slowly growing apart. Everything changed from that point on. Nothing was the same even after we decided to bury the hatchet months later.

Even after things were solved, we talked now and then. We seemed to go down 2 different paths. In the beginning of 2006, we would start to hang out more often. But under different circumstances. You were a much different person. I'm sure you tend not to reflect on these times as much anymore. However, there was at least some good out of it all. You got me and Matt drunk for the first time (and not the last.We gave an honest effort to stay friends even if the circumstances were not the best. My spring 2006 semester is the best one I've had to date. We would go to class and have fun. We made it fun. Bowling was one of the best things we ever did with our lives.(sad) Eating Mcdonald's breakfast was a ritual. Being smart asses in class was practically expected of us. we even had the brief idea of trying to move out into a house with no success.

After the spring semester, we faded away again. Things were still too different. You were constantly changing where I stayed the same. I started to worry about your well-being and if you were ever going to come out of this spiral. I didn't want to get heavily involved. I figured you needed to find your own way out and what you had got yourself into. It was deeper than I could touch. Perhaps I made it into a bigger deal than it was but I knew it was no longer my place to interfere. I'm glad that you eventually did find your way out. You found yourself. You found your religion. You found what made you happy. It has brought you to where you are now. It has brought you somewhere in life that many in your previous situation will never get to. You pulled it together when you needed to the most. I think it's safe to say that I can speak for your family and friends when I say we are proud of you and what you have done with your life even when life threw you a curveball.

Things have changed for the both of us. I like to think that you are a small reason I am the man I am today. Everyone has played their part in help making me who I am. Some more than others. However, our years of friendships have taken me through adventures I would have never been to if it wasn't for you. You challenged me to take chances when I was mostly a scared tight ass. You helped me see a different perspective on life which has significantly improved my quality of life. But most of all, you cared. Even when I was whiny, sad or bitter, you were there. You were there with optimism and reality. You believed in me when I couldn't stand to believe in myself.

I know this is a bit long and overdramatic for just a 2 year absence, but I find myself wondering how much will change in another 2 years. Look how far we have come in 2 years. We weren't even the same people. In another 2 years, just as much is as likely to change. Though, we will still be friends 2 years from now, we will not be the same. We will haved lived and experienced 2 more years of our adult life that will yet again shape who we are as men. Even as we continue to grow older and become [hopefully] smarter, I know we will remain friends for more years to come.

Cheers to you my oldest friend. Thanks for all the memories!







(take care out there and watch your cornhole)