2/23/2007

Steal these Thoughts

Two ideas born the past few days.

1. Go into a mall and put stickers on the map of the mall that say things like "garbage" and "more junk you don't need here!"... the problem is that they'd have to look professional enough to blend in for a few hours at the place.

2. Make a new version of Steal This Book for the digital age. Give advice on how to get free things and how to stem the corporate tide. Sections on how to get free entertainment, education, health care, etc. And don't copyright it. Just make it available for download. In a variety of formats.

Also, maybe start up a gossip mag about the paparazzi. But it's hard to do that in Missouri.

Any tips, ideas or comments?

2/22/2007

Reading Rainbow!



If you're trapped at a desk like me, sometimes it seems like the end of the world is the edge of the mousepad. Like they taught us with the Scholastic Book Club, if you want to travel, sometimes you have to do it by reading. My buddy Matt is enjoying himself on a worldwide trip using Oneworld. Check out his blog here.

2/21/2007

Got a Stalker?



Here's a tip on figuring out who's been dialing you all those times. If you know the general area where the person is from*, just go into Walgreens and step up to the "Print your Pictures" machine. Punch in the offending phone number and it will tell you a name if the person has ever gotten photos developed there. And if they are a stalker, chances are they take pictures. Happy hunting!

*Columbia, MO is a small enough area, for example... for help narrowing the geographical area you can use this service.

2/19/2007

The Torch of Invention Still Burns

I don't usually freak out over a new movie... because if you're so wound up and push your expectations through the roof, nothing can measure up to your imposed hype. But Mister Lonely has me bordering on insanity. Just look at this picture.



Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy, and even Kids for that matter, are still as interesting now as they were the first time I watched them. And the man behind all three, Harmony Korine, is making this one too. It should be noted that he's off drugs, which may or may not help with the film's overall aesthetics and coherence (inversely, probably). Anyway, if you're curious as to what's going on in the picture- Diego Luna plays a Michael Jackson impersonator who is living on a commune with other celebrity impersonators (one for Madonna, one for the Pope, etc).

Check it out at Wikipedia or filmpressplus (a little hunting required on fpp)

2/12/2007

\V/ikipedi4

So lately I've been brushing up on cocktail conversation topics on Wikipedia. You know, like cults, serial killers, and drugs. Things that can keep a conversation going after it starts to trail off because no one knows for sure why Ted Bundy became a murderer. Next time this happens, just drop another ice cube in your Manhattan and say, "Well, it could've been the tap dancing grandpa, but my guess it was the fact that he was led to believe his mother was his sister for a good part of his life."


The amount of information on Wikipedia is astounding, many many times any encyclopedia ever, even though you run across lots of "joey blanco is pwnned suxxors" 1337 speak. Don't know what 1337 speak is? Look it up, holmes, right here. And granted, a lot of it is slightly incorrect, as the Onion made light of in this picture.

But as some people know, I have a little illness that is so rare that it isn't in Wikipedia. So what to do? I created a page here, and then linked it another page. You could edit it for some laughs, like Stephen Colbert. But then I'll have to pwn you.

EDIT: as much as I (don't) want to put my face on the page, I've thought about taking a video of myself having an episode next time it happens. Cassidy plans to if she's there, but since they happen once every 3 months, it might be a month or two before you see my youtube video of this linked from the page, haha.

2/05/2007

Redirection... Slippery Slopes Ahead!

I had a post drafted about the Super Bowl and the end of the era of hero worship... but let me just redirect you to this article on No Mas. It captures what I was trying to say exactly.

And vice versa, here's a bit about selling the old to new people. I was in my Marketing and Institutional Advancement (of a Nonprofit) class and my teacher was using an example of how to market sugary cereal to kids. A woman asked, "Are there any ethical concerns about this? It's unhealthy, right, and the kids don't know what they're wanting, and about nutrition." To which the teacher replied, "Well, it's a slippery slope if you start telling advertisers what they can and can't do." Really? Well, see I didn't ask the question because I knew a PR answer would emerge. But using the "slippery slope" argument is just lazy. Sloping to what? Banning advertising? I doubt it. Coming to some sort of compromise about a moral code by which humans should live, and stopping there? Yeah.

The next time a cop pulls me over I'm going to say, "Hold on, Ponch, it's a slippery slope pulling me over, telling me what to do. Next thing you know you'll be stopping me from eating cookies before bedtime. So just a warning, ok bud?"