Thursday, August 6, 2009
Episode 7: The Rise and Fall of Rising and Falling
Michael Jackson died
OK now that that's over with we can move on to more interesting topics....unfortunately i cant think of any at the moment, so lets just go with Michael Jackson.
Ill start with a brief history that i just made up on the spot. Michael Jackson was a moderately popular singer / crotch grabbing dancer during the 1980s (the time that taste forgot). He was beloved by all for some reason and soon topped the charts with music i never listen to. His popularity continued to rise, until one tragic day while filming a commercial for Clorox Bleach, he tripped over a microphone wire (occupational hazard) and fell into one of the open vats of bleach a worker had carelessly left open after filming an episode of "How its Made" a week before. By the time they were able to pull him out it was too late, the damage was done, his skin was permanently bleached white. Doctor's told him he would never dance again, and suggested he learn how to do the robot or line dance. But Jackson refused to give up, training every day to regain his lost moves, but then several months later a second crushing blow came. During an underground break dancing competition while Jackson was attempting a sextuple head spin, he accidentally rolled off the cardboard and onto the cement with such force that his face was completely squished to one side when they brought him to the hospital. The best plastic surgeons in the word were then called in to try and fix his face. They planned out every detail of his face and recorded an instructional video of what his face would look like after the surgery to make sure it would be realistic. Unfortunately the lead doctor on the case rented "Scream II" the night before the operation, and accidentally got the tapes mixed up. It wasn't until week later when they took off the bandages that they realized their mistake. When the pictures of Jacksons new face hit the press, a riot started outside the hospital. The mobs called for the creature to be destroyed as they waved their torches and pitch forks. Jackson in a fit of rage started throwing babies out of the third story window at the crowds of insane fans. But then just as Jackson was running back to the maternity ward to get more babies he was met by several policemen, who frown upon that sort of thing. Just as they were about to handcuff him he leapt out of the window and dashed off into the night.
Several years went by and Jackson now a ghastly shell of a man, swore vengeance against the fans that had pushed him to this point, and he would soon have his revenge. "Ill teach them all a lesson they wont soon forget" he cackled madly. In a secret laboratory under Neverland ranch which he called "The Crocodiles Den" he concocted a plot to destabilize the economy of the entire world. The plan was called "Project Greenspan" and its effects are still being felt worldwide today. His reign of terror continued until 2009 when he was defeated by Batman. May he rest in peace.
Oh yeah and he touched a whole bunch of little boys.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Episode 6: Three wishes
(more likely not)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Episode 5: The story of a world (part 1)
Part 1: July 2003 - March 2004
I suppose the point where it all began was during the summer of my junior year of high school. I had been looking for a summer job and my mom suggested I go to CompUSA to apply for a job there. So one afternoon in July I drove to the store in Manchester to get an application. After about 15 minutes of waiting for the woman at the customer service desk to find the application form I finally received one and then decided to browse around a bit and see if they had anything on sale. I was walking through the area of the computer games section I had become so familiar with over the past 3 years, when I saw something lying on the bottom shelf in the "bargain area". It was a box proclaiming it contained not one but 4 games in one package. It was covered with stickers indicating it had been marked down several times to its current price of $8.99. Upon further inspection I noticed it contained one game that had gotten good reviews in my latest copy of PCGamer magazine, a game I gladly would have paid $8.99 for by itself. However this box had 3 more game in addition to this one so without a moment’s hesitation I grabbed it and five minutes later I was outside congratulating myself on being such a savvy consumer.
When I got home I installed the game I had purchased it for: a superhero game called "Freedom Force" that had gotten an editor’s choice award in PCG. After about an hour of villain smashing I decided to inspect the other games that had come with it. The first one I pulled out was a racing game: one of the "Need for Speed" titles I had never had any interest in. "Boring" I said tossing it aside and thinking about giving it to Adamo since he was the only one I knew who liked that kind of crap. The second one was a first-person-shooter type game that I had heard of before. It was an adaptation of a real-time strategy game in the command and conquer series. I installed that next and played it for a little while before getting bored again and going down stairs to find something to eat and to call Nate and see what he was up to. A short while later Nate was on his way over and I decided to pull out the last game in the box. It was something I had seen an ad for in my PCGamer magazine but was never really interested in. The game was called "Earth and Beyond" and it announced it was a Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG for short) that was based in the distant future where everyone gets a free spaceship somehow. Anyway I had never been really interested in playing one of these games, especially since it required a monthly subscription of $12.99 (big bucks in those days) to play. But because it came with the first 30 days free, and because I had only paid about $2.25 for it I figured, what the hell. I installed the game and it told me I needed a credit card, damn, I didn’t have one yet. I went downstairs and after only about 20 minutes of lobbying my dad relinquished his. So I was up and running, I entered the number and selected a server; Pegasus, and created my first character; Golan, the Progen warrior. I poked around in the tutorial zone for about 5 minutes where I learned how to use the chat box and that was about it. I finally warped into the newbie zone where I tried in vain for about 20 minutes to figure out how to shoot things and finally got bored and quit. So that was my first MMORPG experience, unimpressive at best.
A short while later Nate came over, with David and Adamo arriving a few minutes after. After showing them the new games I had just bought we retired to the basement for a few games of Super Smash Brothers. After bragging about having gotten such a great deal on my box o’ cheapware, David, in a jealous rage, challenged me to a bet: if he won the next game of smash I would burn him copies of the games, and if I won he would have to go buy them himself. Now being the undisputed champion of smash (except when adamo uses his stupid camping tactics which we all agree are just cheap) I accepted the bet and we started the game. After about 15 minutes of carnage later while David and I were arguing over the terms of the bet Nate somehow got the upper hand and managed to beat both of us. Having not planned for this event (because it had never happened before) we decided to call off the bet.
(to be continued)....
Monday, November 3, 2008
Episode IV: Episode 4
Instead of "... I came out with a nice little segregated cube." from my story of the battle of the Rubik's cube, I should have said: "...I had the colors separated better than the graduating class of Kansas City high school 1954."
and uh...hmm.....well i guess that's it really. I thought i had more but i cant think of any right now.....uh..... Oh but hey do you remember that time Will and Carlton got arrested? or the time Maggie shot Mr. Burns? those were good right? I thought so, Clips blog, AWAY!!
Ok so I kinda phoned this one in but hey you read it and you cant get the last 45 seconds of your life back so mission accomplished!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Episode III: A beginners guide to being a well cultured motherf**ker
Part 1: Faking it
The best part about art is you can be an expert in something you know absolutely nothing about, the key is to keep your comments vague enough so as not to arouse suspicion. This is much easier then it sounds and, with a little practice, you'll be saying things like "this panting represents the struggle between good and evil" in no time!
Here's a mad lib to help you along:
"I think this (panting/sculpture/poem/jazz music) represents the struggle between (any two different things: man vs. nature, pie vs. Saudi Arabia etc.) you can tell by the obvious symbolism of the (noun) and the way (he/she/it) is portrayed here. This (panting/sculpture/poem/jazz music) is a classic example of the (word ending in -ist) movement."
Try to use this format whenever someone asks you what you think of a piece of art.
Part 2: I like it!
If you see a piece of artwork you like, it is important people around you know why you like it. Saying things like "It has pretty colors", "all the people look funny" or "it would look good over my fireplace" might give you away and would all be things to avoid. Instead try to say things that describe the piece while continuing to be as vague as possible. Try things like "it has a very effective message" or "it invokes strong feelings inside me".
Part 3: Is it good?
The cardinal rule of artwork is that the quality of the work is directly proportional to the fame of the artist. People will wait in line for hours on end to see a piece of artwork a famous artist accidentally made in 30 seconds when they tripped over a coffee table and spilled paint all over a canvas, while paying no attention at all to the painting that took an unknown artist 3000 hours of fine tuning every intricate detail. Its kind of like when you go to buy a pair of jeans, people will lay down $200 for a pair with a famous label even though the ones for $20 were still made by the same Korean children. Basically the rule of thumb here is if you recognize the name of the artist its a good piece of art.
I hope you find this guide helpful during your next art experience. And remember: even if you really hate art museums it could be worse, you could be going to an independent film festival.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Episode II: CNN, the mullet, and the Republican party
I returned 20 minutes later and I was still drawing a blank, when I remembered something that happened years ago that i didnt understand the significance of untill just then. The year was 1992, I was in my first grade elemetary school class and since it was an election year our class decided to do a mock election. As some of you may or may not remember the two major canidates for the 1992 election were Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush. Anyways our teacher explained what an election ment and who the canidates were and wrote their names on the board. We each wrote our votes on slips of paper and put them into a hat that was passed around the room. Now, being 6 years old the only things i knew about the two canidates were thier names, and that one had been president for four years and one had not, so when it was time to pick one to vote for I decided to vote for Bush because he had already been president and he had a silly name. Apparently this line of reasoning was the norm for the entire class (being made up of 6 and 7 year olds) because when the votes were counted Bush won by a land slide. From this experiance I concluded that republican voters have a similar mentality to that of a 6 year old. Keeping this in mind suddenly it all makes sense.