Weekly Recap - November 27, 2010

General/Intro:
It is amazing to me every now and then to realize that I have a magic box where I can type in almost any question and get an answer, instantly. Most of these answers are even correct! The rest, of course, come from Wikipedia.

This week's D&D game went great. No character deaths, and they talked their way past a goblin fight, took down a sleazy treasure hunter and got his treasure map *and* avoided being turned to stone by an angry medusa. They also broke another captive's fingers, which I think is going to give them a bit of a reputation in Sharn.

My wife took both kids to the grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving. She may be more of a daredevil than I give her credit for.

I am *far* too excited about .38 Special coming to Rock Band 3 next week.

Everyone should see this: Grandma's Superhero Therapy

Loving Call of Duty: Black Ops so far. The period is one I don't think we've seen a lot of games set in, and the gameplay is in the same mode as the Modern Warfare games I've enjoyed previously.

TV:
Caught up on Boardwalk Empire, and after the cliffhanger of that last episode... I'm wishing I could go on to the next episode immediately. Terriers is still my favorite new show, but Boardwalk Empire is close.

Speaking of Terriers... last time Sepinwall did this, we got two more seasons of Chuck. I hope it works this well for Terriers. Btw, if you have cable and you're not watching Terriers, start. Now.

The more I thought about "Professor Professorson" the funnier it got. #community

Is it me, or is 30 Rock becoming one of NBC's best comedies again? Last week's episode cracked me up repeatedly.

Did they change showrunners on Brave and the Bold? I've been disappointed in every episode of season two thus far.

Last week's episode of The Walking Dead was easily my favorite since the first one. The scene from the final minutes was one of the big shocks on my first read-through of the series, and it was executed very well.

Catching up on Castle, and it looks like David Grae has written most of my favorite episodes. There are plenty I've liked, but all of Grae's have been above-average or better.

Caught up on nine episodes of Dexter Season 6. Still like the show, but you do have to view it with a *huge* suspension of disbelief to get through it. That said, as long as the contrivances in the writing don't bother you, it's a fun ride.

Movies:
So, the Green Lantern trailer. Not as *terrible* as folks were making it sound, but it's decidedly mediocre. Does not have the "must see" vibe that the Iron Man movies did. Actually, not even as strong as the Thor teaser from San Diego.

Whedon brings a little perspective. Yes, the Buffy without Whedon movie is a terrible idea, and yes, everyone involved should probably be a geek pariah for a while, but... it's not life-ending, or even really life-affecting, for most of us. Just another shitty movie we're not going to see in the theater.

I mean, it's not like Zack Snyder wants to cast a complete stiff as Clark Kent and CGI Superman in his increasingly-shitty-sounding Superman movie, right? Wait, what's that?

Thanksgiving Travel Tips (a.k.a. Making Fun of the TSA):
Make sure and flirt with your appointed TSA pat-down specialist. Never break eye contact, and moan suggestively throughout.

Nobody loves pranks more than the TSA. When going through the new body scanner, use metallic tape to create a sign. I suggest "The guy behind me is ticking" or "My other car is a car-bomb."

Remember, it is not inappropriate to ask your TSA pat-down specialist for a "happy ending." It is, however, customary to tip.

It is considered polite to fake an orgasm while your TSA pat-down is going on... no need to make the guy feel bad he couldn't get you there for real. The louder, and more obscenity-filled, the better.

That TSA agent is bound to get bored while fondling your junk. Make sure and tell him or her all about your favorite D&D character while they're doing the pat-down.

It is not technically illegal to bring two large frozen turkeys, one as your carry on, and the other as your "personal item."

Blank keys and fobs reading "Hotel Room #" are cheap. Hand one of them to your TSA agent and say "Meet me later tonight. Bring the gloves."

By The Way, Fuck The TSA:
For fuck's sake, Obama... can you be on the right side on *one* of the easy ones? Just one?

I honestly don't think I'd have the patience or the collected head to do this... but I'm glad somebody does.

SNL addresses the new TSA guidelines

Politics:
Westboro Baptist Protesters get their tires slashed. This makes me laugh with devilish glee. From the article: "Police say that they were unable to find anyone in town willing to repair the vehicle." Karma's a bitch, you hate-mongering bastards.

This is the modern GOP in a nutshell. Argue for "the market" when it comes to everyone else, and "special treatment" when it comes to themselves.

This Daily Show piece was... spectacular. I used to respect McCain, but I've long since realized that he'll say and do *anything* to keep his political power, and any principles he might have had are long gone.

I'm thankful that a jury realized what a scumbag Tom DeLay is. And to make it better, he was convicted in Travis County. Where I live. Hells yeah.

DOOM!

Is anybody else feeling like maybe the world is in a death spiral of doom and gloom?

In the past few weeks, several of my friends have lost their jobs. Great jobs, jobs that they loved, and jobs that they were great at and worked hard at. Meanwhile, the shitheels who got us into this mess are making huge bonuses and continue to run the government.

I know of several friends who are dealing with the insanity of our current health insurance "system" and yet it seems that actual reform is being tied up by a congress largely bought and paid for by the various health insurance lobbies.

And pretty much every day, someone is posting on the Internet about how the direct market, the industry that *I work in*, is either dead and/or dying.

Combine with all the usual human foibles and bullshit that shows up daily on the news, and I'm even finding it hard to laugh along with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report anymore. These days, it's more like dark humor about how fucked up the whole thing has gotten.

I would like for a lot of really good things to happen to the various people in my life, and a lot of very bad things to happen to the corrupt mother-fuckers who run our country (and the corporations who own them). Just putting that out there for the universe to process.

Hillary Clinton's Speech

Wow. If she'd given more speeches like this when she was running, I probably would have liked her a lot more then. I mean, Obama was my candidate early on, and everything he did convinced me he was my candidate still. There were few candidates who could have turned me away to supporting them in the primaries (maybe Kucinich, if he'd had a shot in hell of getting the brass ring). But Clinton delivered an amazing speech at the DNC.

And she's got one thing incredibly right: "Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance.

I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come election day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a big impact on your life and on the life of our nation."

This is why I get so angry when I see that nearly half the country is supporting McCain. It's the same frustration and anger I had when Bush and Cheney got re-elected in 2004. I mean, I understand that there are folks out there who vote on whether their taxes will go up... that's about 5% of the country, the incredibly rich who *will* see their taxes increase under a Democratic regime. I understand that there are people who genuinely believe we need to bomb the fuck out of the Middle East, start up another Cold War with Russia. I understand that there are folks so scared about gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action that they won't ever vote Democrat, because they know that the Democrat position doesn't agree with theirs.

But 50% of the country? That many? That makes me sad. And the worst part for me is that I have family, I have friends (good friends, in many cases) who I know are conservatives. And I don't talk to them that much about this, because honestly, all it's going to lead to is not debate but argument, and I don't think either of us are going to change the others' minds. But I don't understand how people who I can otherwise relate to on so many levels are falling for the Rovian attack schemes and bullshit of the Republicans. I don't see how the realities that McCain will continue to give our country away to the rich while screwing the middle class (and God help the poor), that he'll engage us in more poorly-planned military actions that drain our treasury and kill our soldiers for *corporate gain* are escaping these people.

And it's hard not to take their votes personally, because I see them as potentially costing me and my family our future. The economy is in the shitter, and McCain does not have a plan to fix it for people like me. I don't want my son to wind up drafted in some foreign bullshit war because we spread our military too thin making sure that the oil companies and the infrastructure building companies and Blackwater were making larger and larger profits. I don't want to live in a country that I increasingly think is broken beyond repair.

I'm not, at heart, a Democrat. I've got my problems with politicians of every stripe, and I think both parties are far too much in the pocket of special interests and corporations. My dream world looks more like Fight Club than Wall Street, and that's no politician's idea of a good time. But it's clear to me that at this point, in our two-party system, it's one or the other. And I am 100% for sure choosing Democrat.

I'm pretty sure nobody reading my blog is going to be able to explain this to me... and maybe nobody can, maybe I'm just too arrogant and short-sighted to see it, but... what *exactly* does the Republican party have to offer to the people right now? Haven't they proven how *bad* they are at governing over the last eight years?

Holy Crap

TSA Searches, Detains 5 Year Old Boy

Jesus, I hope this never happens to us. Because I know that with me, this story ends with me being tased and arrested after BITING OUT THE FUCKING THROAT of the idiot who tried to take my kid away from me in front of witnesses.

TSA or no TSA.