Insert Insight Here...

Signs Your Band is Going Nowhere...Fast

posted by SumThing @ 4:24 PM 0 comments

Seasonal Song Selection

posted by SumThing @ 11:09 PM 0 comments

Men, Women, and Courage

I caught the second half of this program on ABC:

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Health/story?id=1150515&page=1

ABC set up hidden cameras and hired actors to perform several scenarios. One in which a nanny was being verbally abusive to a child under her care, one in which a man was being both verbally and physically abusive to his girlfriend, one in which a random person would be able to see a shoplifter, and one in which a woman was being verbally and physically abusive to her boyfriend. Long story short, the women were more likely to get involved. Apparently women are braver.

The study itself was interesting, but the conclusion is poor, or rather, the notion that men are any less brave. The question of why the men generally didn’t act wasn’t explored enough. A few weeks ago, I was in the car with a female friend of mine. We were at a 4 way stop and someone decided to take right of way, causing me to have to put on the brakes. It wasn’t a near accident. I had control over the car and stopped in plenty of time. My female companion decided she was less than happy and she gave the guy the finger.

Guys generally have to think more carefully in these sorts of situations. Why? Because we know that situations like this always have the potential for violence. Flipping someone off is the best way to incite road rage, and I can guarantee that I would have been the one dealing with the consequences of her actions. This isn’t to say that men are less violent, or prone to anger. Men are actually more violent, and easier to incite. The difference is in how men and women learn to deal with potentially violent situations.

Men are generally thinking something along the lines of “this could get physical. Do I really want to get into a fight with this person?” The pressures for men to avoid fights are even greater when guys are in groups because your friends are obligated to help you, no matter what. Guys who don’t learn to avoid fights are the ones that go to jail and the ones who may be getting their asses kicked a lot. I’m sure women don’t consider this as much, as I see them doing things that fewer men would do.

Anyway, I told the women in my car that the behavior was unacceptable, and I mentioned the guy on my favorite web community who was a victim of road rage. They shot at his van, and I believe the woman he was with lost part of her finger.

posted by SumThing @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

I'm a Thief!

I recently picked up Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition. Coming from mostly Japanese RPG's, I have to say this is quite a change for me.

Japanese RPG’s tell you the story of Tidus, or Chrono, or Ryudo. These are people who are either going to be righteous, sometimes antiheroes, or more recently, whiny bitches who need to have a lvl99 bitchslap used on them. They’re going to be loved by all. People will respect them. The minor details of the story are unimportant. So what happens when you steal something from a local person’s chest? Nothing.

And that’s the problem.

Being a thief works just fine when you’re telling someone else’s story, but when it’s your own story, as it is in Morrowind, theft becomes a problem, as do many other things.

You have to really be the character you want to be. The game isn’t going to stop you from being evil, and unlike games like KOTOR, there’s a huge incentive for it. Most everyone you meet can be killed, and they all have goodies. Sweet, delicious goodies…You define the game. You choose if you’re loved or hated, and it’s oh so hard to be good.

posted by SumThing @ 9:07 PM 0 comments

An Experiment

posted by SumThing @ 7:55 PM 0 comments

Accountants are Sexy

posted by SumThing @ 9:15 PM 0 comments

iPod Thoughts

posted by SumThing @ 8:07 PM 0 comments

There's a Happy Farmer Somewhere...

posted by SumThing @ 10:20 PM 0 comments

I bet he has a Member's Only Jacket Too

posted by SumThing @ 9:05 PM 0 comments

Reunion

posted by SumThing @ 6:38 PM 0 comments

On Attractiveness

I know quite a few people that claim not to be attracted to particular features. Let’s take an imaginary example, Guy.

For pretty much his whole life he was surrounded by nothing but blondes. Those of us who know him speculate that because he saw so few brunettes over his entire life, he just assumed he wouldn’t like any of them. One day he had the displeasure of finding a brunette woman he actually did find attractive. He won a gold medal in mental gymnastics the year this happened. Instead of coming to the realization that he wasn’t attracted to any of the brunette women he had seen in the past regardless of their hair color, he started to believe that he was attracted to this woman in spite of her being a brunette. He wound up going out with her on several occasions, but he ruined everything one day.

Have you ever been told “Hey, I like you even though you’re a brunette”? Anna has. Let’s take a look at the statement: Guy did say he liked her. That’s always good. The problem comes from the “though you’re a brunette” part. We often say more than we intend to. Guy was saying that he liked this girl even though he found some aspect of her unattractive. Anna dumped him because he kept bringing it up. No one likes to hear something about them is ugly.

An odd story, Let’s look at the story again with different facts:

For pretty much his whole life he was surrounded by nothing but people who could walk. Those of us who know him speculate that because he saw so few paraplegics over his entire life, he just assumed he wouldn’t like any of them. One day he had the displeasure of finding a paraplegic woman he actually did find attractive. He won a gold medal in mental gymnastics the year this happened. Instead of coming to the realization that he wasn’t attracted to any of the paraplegic women he had seen in the past regardless of their ability to walk, he started to believe that he was attracted to this woman in spite of her being a paraplegic. He wound up going out with her on several occasions, but he ruined everything one day.

Have you ever been told “Hey, I like you even though you’re a paraplegic”? Anna has. Let’s take a look at the statement: Guy did say he liked her. That’s always good. The problem comes from the “though you’re a paraplegic” part. We often say more than we intend to. Guy was saying that he liked this girl even though he found her inability to walk unattractive. Anna dumped him because he kept bringing it up. No one likes to hear something about them is ugly.

In both cases Guy decided that he didn’t like a particular feature. There’s nothing wrong with finding a person attractive or not, but Guy made his decisions based on one particular feature. When presented with the idea that the feature wasn’t the dealbreaker he thought it was, he ignored it and worse yet he destroyed a relationship.

Just something to think about. Be open to the idea that perhaps you don’t have a well-defined type.

posted by SumThing @ 8:46 PM 0 comments

Killa Beez!

posted by SumThing @ 4:36 PM 0 comments

No Katrina Coverage Here

posted by SumThing @ 8:17 PM 0 comments