Gossamer's blog: "HOLY SHIT"

It's Saturday, as usual, I'm not doing anything with my weekend except watching TV. I'd just sat through the original 1971 version of "Shaft", with Richard Roundtree, when the channel surfing began. If you've read through my other blogs, you'd know of my disdain for modern television. This thought process has led me to my current rambling. I'm not sure if it's just me or if I'm just overly cynical about television producers, creators, writers, station heads or anything else like that. It seems that the better technology gets, the more things that can be done with computer graphics, the worse television shows get. For example: Sheer boredom forced me to stop on the Sci-Fi channel while a lovely little home video called "Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill". Picture if you will something like the "Resident Evil" movies only taking place wild west ghost town. The hitch is that the zombies are all lead by a single cowboy zombie. Enter the fodder for the murderous rampage that predictably ensues. That's right, the young tourist types. You know the story, so I wont bore you any further than I was. Anyway, there were some pretty neat effects scattered throughout this waste of film. As is the case in most of today's television. The thing that kicks my ass about all of this though is that the effects probably cost more to do than the whole movie cost to make. I guess what I'm wondering about is: Were cheesy movies from 20 years ago better because they were blatantly cheesy and made no real effort to hide it, or are the films being made now that try to hide the cheese with computer generated effects and thus becoming more cheesy the better ones? Does the Hollywood machine think that we're all a pack of drooling morons? Is that why they insist upon putting this dreck out? Or is it that the viewing public generally is a pack of drooling moron?

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/hallsofvalhalla/WTHMumm.html It seems that everytime I try to voice an opinion, I get shut down by the powers that be here. Lets see if it happens now

Those of you who know me, know that I'm a combat veteran of the first Gulf War. I served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. We all know that there are a lot of soldiers, seamen, airmen and marines here on fubar, and generally, those people are supported. Every once in a while though, something comes up, someone "opens their mouth" and I just want to reach through the screen and jerk a knot in them. Case in point: This mumm came from a young marine. I'm leaving names out simply out of respect. I’m a Iraqi war vet with PTSD, and I’m haunted by nightmares that terrify me to the point that I don’t want to sleep. Like right now for instance… I try not to nap in the day time and I was doing ok till tonight, so should I go back to short naps in the day and not sleeping at night as much? Or get so doped up that I sleep the night away and half way into the day? Anyone who's ever visited the mumms knows that the posters in there can be vicious. I personally like it that way, it's fun. HOWEVER, there comes a time when the snide remarks need to be put aside and we should offer support to the people who need it. Unlike these clowns KEN heroine. goat_man42 go back to Iraq lifesez well thanks for helping to find those weapons..ooops there were none...well thanks for bringing freedom to them..ooops they are in a civil war and it sux there...well just let me say thanks then? Granted, people like this marine, myself and countless other service members over the years have stood up for the rights of these people to make these kind of brainless comments, and that's fine. I guess what really chaps my ass is the lack of gratitude that they exhibit. The lack of compassion. The lack of common sense, decency and courtesy. I would like to offer the people who bash on our troops the opportunity to trade places with them; even for a day. The men and women over seas generally don't want to be there any more than they're wanted there. I'm sure that they'd love to see their friends and family again. My stand on this has always been clear, and just in case you've missed it before, I'll repeat it now. You don't have to support the war You don't have to support the cause. You don't have to support the leaders. But GOD DAMN IT, support the troops.

Why is it that Joe Arpaio can do this in Arizona and it is not done anywhere else? Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) who created the "tent city jail": He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. He took away cable TV! until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs." He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back." He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place. More on the Arizona Sheriff: With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 year. "It's inhumane." Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!" Way to go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

This is something that I think about from time to time. Actually, more often as time goes on. How many of us know where we come from? I mean REALLY know. Yeah, yeah, the smart ass out there is gonna say "I came from my parents. Yuk yuk yuk" Screw off dick stain. What I'm talking about is your heritage. I know that my ancestors were primarily Vikings. I know that there is some American Indian floating around inside of me somewhere, and all this is all cool to me. My issue with this is that I don't know shit about any of my ancestors. This is becoming frighteningly all too common. As our civilization continues on, rushing about on it's course to whatever, our children are missing out on the most important of lessons. The lesson that lets them know just exactly where they come from. How often have you heard the term, "Dead language"? Why is that? Because kids were too busy doing whatever to learn Aramaic or Latin or Navajo. Personally, I think it would be cool as shit to learn German. Not from a teacher or a CD or anything like that, but from my great-grand mother (R.I.P.). I'd love to learn the Creek or Cherokee tongues from my great or even great great-paternal grand parents (R.I.P.). I have no idea where my lineage comes from after my Gramma and Grampa Wilson. I don't know names or faces or anything. I can't ask my father any of this. He died some years ago, and after doing all of this research on his own, decided to die on me before he could pass it down. My mom isn't a whole lot of help here either. Though she has knowledge of her grand parents, I think their parents died when she was young. Really, I'm pretty lost after two generations back. So much culture, heritage and history are lost here. It's sad. There should be a conscious effort on behalf of all parents to sit their kids down and teach them their family history. Make the kids learn their heritage. Teach them the languages of their ancestors. Give the kids something to really be proud of, something priceless to pass on to their kids. Don't let the past die. Not like this.

Is anyone else out there sick of television advertisers insulting out intelligence? Case in point. In a nice apartment in a city somewhere, a young man introduces his girlfriend to his parents who come from a different country. The father, in broken English, asks the son if he can use the bathroom, and while in there, discovers his son's body spray and accidentally sprays some on himself. Upon returning to the living room where the family is gathered in conversation, the young woman sniffs, turns and starts with this ridiculous dance and going "bom chika wah wow". Come on people, How annoyingly stupid can you get. The novelty wore off of those commercials after the first one. These are almost as annoying as the one with the young woman in a doctor's office in a neck brace. The doctor tells her that she has beautiful hair and then wants to discuss how she got herself in a position to have said neck brace on. Change scene to some women in a waiting room of some sort, and one flip of the hair leads to another leads to a toss of the head, leads to the first woman acting like she should be on stage at a Pantera concert or something. Her head's going, and the hair is flying around and all of a sudden there's a little crack sound, and the girl puts a hand to her neck in pain. Look, if a shampoo would give me that much hair, I'd use it. My fucking hair is falling out faster than it's growing in for Pete's sake, but for hair so thick it throws my neck out just swinging it around? I'm sold. Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a rubber crutch people...a little reality in advertising here? Or do the marketing big wigs think that we're all a bunch of barely verbal troglodytes who'll fall for anything?

Well, I was laying there sound asleep when out of the blue, I'm bolt upright in my bed, damn near on the floor. I got two dogs looking around on full alert and the whole house is shaking. Here I am reaching for my rifle (which I no longer carry) with one hand, my mask (which I no longer wear) with the other, all the while I'm trying to figure out who's not accounted for, which way the rounds are coming from and who's on radio to call for support when the fog finally lifts. Living in the mountains like I do now, I'm 4500 feet or so ABOVE sea level as opposed to 30 some feet BELOW sea level. That just means that when thunder rolls around here it doesn't have so far to roll. Mother nature is a royal bitch when it comes to practical jokes like that. I think I'll go change my pants now.