Good way to wake up

Have you ever waked up one morning and said to yourself, "I am the Kwisatz Haderach. I am like unto a God."?

I think today is going to be a good day.

Weekly downer

Almost on a weekly basis, I know I have something to say that sucks a little bit of joy out of the lives of the people around me. Whether it is a story about somebody burning a mouse alive, or beating a cat with a baseball bat, something I read or think about will make people want to shun me just a little bit.

On one level, I'm not sure I can help it. I tend to feel a bit guilty when I feel good because I know that there are other people out there who are feeling badly due to grave injustices in the world, and I could be using the time I spend feeling good to be doing something to help them out. Not that I typically do, of course, which makes me feel all the more guilty for being selfish about the whole affair.

For those of you who are having an awesome day, and don't want any of the endorphin buzz to go away, you might want to stop reading this here.

Ever since Kansasgirl introduced me vicariously to Flickr's photo galleries, I've become engrossed in the stories that some people tell through pictures. I get little glimpses into people's lives that are private and special, and that aren't casually shared with others. That's one of the reasons why I like blogging and reading other people's blogs, in fact, since it gives me a forum in which I can share details about myself that I wouldn't otherwise manage to discuss.

About a month ago, I was going through some of the pictures in Flickr's 'interesting' section, and came across an adorable picture of a baby goat in a laundry basket. A woman living in the United States raises a cute type of goat, and one of her goats had just birthed. One of the kids however was weak and doing poorly right after birth, so she and her husband took it into their home to care for it.

This set of pictures tells the story of that little goat, which is named Freddy. Freddy is adorably cute, has long ears which I wish I could reach out and rub, and an almost unbearably cute face.

Warning: The tale told by the photographs is moving. And coming from someone who can lose it to his emotions as much as I can, that says something.

Questionable Content

Monday is almost always a good day for me. Because I have evidence early in the morning (8:00 am), I get one of my class periods out of the way for the week right off the bat, and then have the entire rest of the day to do whatever the heck I feel like doing. Having no other classes on Monday rules. Hardcore.

Most Mondays, these other things include naps, movie watching, and lots and lots of video games. Why, last week, I probably spent about 10 straight hours on my computer playing my World of Warcraft Priest (He's almost to lvl 59 - which rocks). Today, however, I spent time reading a web-comic. There are a lot of talented web-comic cartoonists out there, and I thrill to discover a new one of whom I've never heard.

Well, some people that I know (sort of) introduced me to a cartoon called "Questionable Content," and I spent several hours this afternoon reading through the comics from the very first to the most recent. I urge all of you to check it out, since it is one of the more endearing comics that I've ever read.

The main character, Marten Reed, is a pseudo-emo young twenty-something, who lives with a adorably cute little robot (actually his computer) named PintSize. The continually developing story revolves around his love-life, and the scads of attractive ladies who keep him company on his trip to find happiness. I know that the story is good because I found myself laughing out loud in my apartment while reading it, and wishing that I could be Marten. I suppose that I am, in a small way, only without the cute computer, the coffeeshop, and my lady friends aren't secretly setting me up with each other or scheming over my life. In the interest of fairness, I also should admit that I have a mild crush on basically all of the female characters in the series. Fascinating stuff, and all I can say is that this is one comic that just made it into my daily group of websites I check each morning.

Bravo.

Go back to your demographic charts, dude. Trust me.

I’ve always been a little uncertain about the minds of people involved in commercial marketing enterprises. Sometimes they seem to be operating on an acceptable scientifically oriented basis. They’ll study demographics, gather data, run focus groups and analyze responses to questionnaires.

Other times, however, they tend to be quite off their rockers. I was reading an article on CNN.com just a moment ago about the risqué direction that the CNN staff feels online video games are taking.

In the section of the article from which I am about to quote, the author is discussing a new type of game that will be a multiplayer online game where individuals can meet, flirt, go on dates, and have sex (all in apparently graphic detail).

Says a business expert in the field about this new game, “Why would I want to log on to a game just to have sex with people? It’s kind of a nice ideas, but I see it as difficult as a sustainable business model.”

Perhaps I’m being a bit too cynical, but does this guy have any clue about basic human nature? Particularly the natures of men (the primary consumers of video games)? Particularly the natures of men who are unlikely to get laid elsewhere (or even those who get laid quite a bit)? It isn’t too hard to describe the internet as a massive database for storing pictures of naked people with a little bit of extra information on the side in other less scandalous websites. I’m lost as to how a successful businessman in marketing might think that an online game devoted to pornographic encounters would fail to find a large following of people, far more lecherous than me, who would never admit to owning or playing such a game.