Friday, August 14, 2009

Feel…So…Good - Update

I’m freshly back from Bermuda people – tanned, relaxed, happy…I give myself until around Tuesday before I’m stressed and angry again, but for now…bliss.

Sorry I’ve been out of touch as of late. Between the vacation, an office change (and I mean an entirely new building – have you ever packed up a couple THOUSAND books in less than a week?), a midsummer cold, and a new boy to flirt with, I’ve been busy. But I’m back, temporarily in a good mood, and ready to babble. So what do you guys want to talk about?

Well until you come up with something, let me touch on a few things that have been on my mind:

-That Baskin Robbins commercial (pretty sure it’s Baskin Robbins…I think…wow, that’s good advertising if I can’t even remember what company it’s for) - you know, the one with the song. The one that goes:
Ice creamy cakey cake!
Ice creamy cakey cake!
Ice creamy cake do the ice creamy cake!
Ice creamy cake do the ice creamy cake!
Ice creamy cake do the ice creamy cake!

I can’t get this fucking song out of my head (and I sing along whenever I hear it, which is ALL THE TIME). Do you know the commercial I’m talking about? Is the song now stuck in your brain too? Yes? Good.

-Why is it so hard to properly apply sunscreen? Why are my knees burned but not my thighs or stomach? Why is the tip of my nose burned but not the rest of my face? Am I a moron? Don’t answer that.

-I love giraffes – I just think they’re the coolest.

-Finally got around to watching Generation Kill – fucking awesome. Get off your ass and Netflix it.

-Alexander Skarsgard (I’m missing some sort of accent in there - he's Swedish...mmm), the star of Generation Kill and True Blood, is my new celebrity crush. He absolutely could not be more my type if he tried. Google him, he's nummy.

-Speaking of True Blood, I have to say that I’m just not that into it. I say that while freely admitting I watch the show and enjoy certain parts, but overall…I think I’m missing something. Why does everyone love it so much? I find the majority of the characters (not Eric, obviously) really annoying. Thoughts?

-And finally, I get this email every Friday from a guy I know – he sends it out to a bunch of people – and in it he always gives us a bunch of random facts he found that week. I figured I’d share the fun today and copy/paste a few:

Percentage of Americans who say that God has spoken to them: 36%

Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%;
Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50%

Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58%;
Percentage of women who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 85%

Number of different family relationships for which Hallmark makes cards: 105

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches

Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90%;
Percentage of mammal species that are: 3%

OK that’s it – Happy Friday everyone!

Update: I have found the greatest blog ever. Please click here - if you don't appreciate this, we can't be friends.

4 comments:

MCBias said...

Agreed on True Blood--and quite honestly, most of HBO's shows. After you get past the fact they can show/do more than most cable, not that much.

My friend was obsessing about giraffes when we went to SD Zoo. What is it about them?

You are so blissful in this post it doesn't even seem like you really wrote it. But I like it! Vaca and new boy must be great.

Bruce Paine said...

The characters aren't developing at a tangible pace. There is no reason to keep coming back because the characters are static therefore fans feel like they can predict how they will react in given dramatic situations. Because of that, viewers aren't going to develop any attachment. It is the surprising actions of a character in a given situation that attaches them to you. It makes them feel less like a lowest common denominator and more like someone you know, which brings it closer. A great example would be Joss Whedon's shows Firefly and Dollhouse. The guy has a huge following. People watch not just one of his shows, but all of them because they attach themselves to the artist and not the art. Fans doggedly defended Firefly in no small part because of its character development. Fans seem to have abandoned Dollhouse somewhat in no small part because of its lack there of. Identifying means something.

In another world... When i was fresh out of high school I worked for a furniture moving business. We did a lot of work for Indiana University, moving offices and whatnot. One day my buddy and I got an assignment that took us onto campus to a building called Morrison Hall. We thought that sounded familiar but couldn't place it. When we got there we realized that Morrison Hall is the home of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex and Reproduction. As it turned out we had been sent to clean out their storage room because they had too much pornography in it for the floors to hold. I should note that the buildings on IU's campus are castles, made of massive stones and steel. Their storage room, however, housed over 25 tons of print pornography alone. We spent all day packing it and moving it across town to a secured storage facility. The next day we went back and moved their dildo and vibrator collection, all 9 tons of it.

Redhead said...

I have had entirely too much to drink tonight (and at a work event...where I almost picked up a random guy...long story), so let's get replying:

mcb: The appeal of giraffes is how cool they look. The long necks, the sweet eyes (and those eyelashes!), the awesome spots, and then you get to their TONGUES! Their tongues are blue dude! Just...so...damn...fun.

Vacation was awesome, guy is...fine (kind of calling too much which I'm finding annoying - yes, I'm fucked up), but right now, yeah, I'm happy.

paine: I've had too much to drink to properly process this comment. I will say this - I LOVE Joss Whedon (Buffy = awesome), and I get what you're saying about static characters. Still, I do like some of them from True Blood - Eric (obviously), Hoyt (adorable), Jessica (makes me laugh), and Jason (only this season - last season I hated him). Basically I like the ones that make me laugh.

I WISH I had been there for the packing up of the dildoes - did you steal any?

Bruce Paine said...

No, the Kinsey Institute tags all of their stuff, like a research lab, so they can reference it and it would have been difficult to prevent my coworkers from seeing a 24" double from sticking out of my lunch box. It was interesting though, because it may be one of the only places in the world that has porn and rubbers (in candy jars) in the lobby and Playboy had just sent them negatives of their 98 Cindy Crawford photo shoot to have them kept in an environmentally sealed container for posterity about two months before the issue came out, so we got to see that (which somehow seemed more socially relevant at the time than it does now...).