Meta-Made

I have blaaged before about my love of MTV reality shows. So, imagine my joy when I came home today and found a Made mini-marathon on TV. Which got me to thinking, naturally.

I want to be a made coach.

I don't care in what. It could me "Made: I want to be an insightful blogger" or "Made: I want to be a salty bitch." I don't care. I want to be a made coach. More than anything else in the world. I want to do it to develop my confidence and help other people out.

I want to be made.

Bein' sick makes me all crotchety

So, imagine my enjoyment when I found this:

The Failblog. The blog dedicated to failure in all its many forms. Brightened my day considerably.

(Via BoingBoing.)

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Please enjoy a surprisingly sprightly rendition of this classic Kris Kristofferson song.
(not, however, the classic Kris Kristofferson song mentioned in the title of the post)

Existential Horror

"The church at Westboro which he leads has 71 confirmed members, 60 of whom are related to Phelps through blood or marriage or both." (from Wikipedia's article on Fred Phelps)

You know what the scariest fucking thing about that is? Eleven other human beings, unrelated and therefore without obligation to this nutjob, have joined that church.

Misplaced Priorities

I should probably be writing about the wicked sweet ska show I went to tonight, but instead I'm drinking a 40 and wishing to appraise anyone with Comcast Cable of the fact that 1.) you have MTV on demand and 2.) MTV on demand has "My Super Sweet 16."

For those of you previously unaware, "My Super Sweet 16" is a 23 minute recap of everything that's wrong with America. In this, it is the direct opposite of "Made" which features everything that's right with America.

On edit: there is nothing about my show that does not fill me with either spite or rage.

That's not strictly true. Immediately after the birthday girl told two of her friends that they couldn't come to her party because they didn't want to audition to be in her "entrance," she bit it breakdancing. That filled me with schadenfreude.

Generously Angry

I've been reading a bunch of George Orwell recently, and seeing this, one of my favorite songs, reminded me of his essay about Charles Dickens. It's a very long essay, but it really comes down to the fact that Dickens' mantra was basically "It would be a better world if people were less beastly to eachother." Orwell points out that this is not as simplistic as it appears.

Which loops me back around to Billy Bragg. "Between the Wars" is one of my favorite songs because, at heart, it's about human decency. "For theirs is a land with a wall around it and mine is a faith in my fellow man," was written 20-odd years ago, but given what we're doing on our southern border, still works. The lines about raising a family in times of austerity are also still moving. "Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand" is as good of a rallying cry as I've heard in a while, and at least, I think, as good of a basis for a political philosophy as Dickens' mantra.

Great things to do on a friday

Parkland College, the C-U area's community college, produces a high school quiz show, in which teams compete for bragging rights, called the Parkland Challenge.

It's truly great, you have two teams of kids answering some questions, and if you watch enough you get to see the same teams and get a sense of their personalities, figure out who to root for, and who to make fun of. It's also fun to play along.