Caffeinated Thoughts

I’m not opposed to the Big Three automakers going down… unless it causes total financial chaos. Oh, wait. We already had that. Still, if the government is going to bail them out, I’d have to agree with President-Elect Obama and say that the piss-poor MBA’s at the top of those companies need to be on their way out – WITHOUT the gigantic severance checks that too many of the banking idiots got.

Speaking of bailouts, why does everybody think the government needs to be handing over cash to their company/interest? We’re frickin’ built on CAPITALISM. HEL-LO! The strong survive and make money while the weak fail and have a bunch of lousy product left over – isn’t that one of the things they call the “American Way?” You make good products people want, you get to keep doing business. You make crappy products nobody wants, you get a new job.

Ooo… I just saw an article that states that same-sex marriage supporters are asking people to “call in gay” on Wednesday. It’s supposed to show how much the country relies on gays and lesbians. Sweet! I can support a cause I believe in while ditching work. Bolt in 3-D, here I come! Actually, it seems that organizers of “Day Without Gay” are asking people to refrain from spending money while volunteering or finding some other way to give back to society (http://tinyurl.com/6qqyn5). Hmm… So I sneak into Bolt and then make sure to pick up somebody else’s trash on the way out. Cool.

And since we’re on that subject, I haven’t been more ashamed of considering myself Californian than when the voters in this state passed Proposition 8 (ban on gay marriage) a month ago. I’ll say it once, since most people who read this that are older than me will side with the Yes on 8 crowd, I think that the passage of Prop 8 was a HUGE mistake. Believe what you will with regard to gay marriage and its reconciliation with whatever religion you believe in, but this is fact: Proposition 8 denies gays and lesbians the same rights as heterosexuals. It writes into the California state constitution that “marriage” is only between a man and a woman only. In other words, every Californian citizen has the same set of right– oh, wait… unless you’re not hetero. You can say all you want about how GLBT have the same legal rights, blah, blah, blah, as everyone else, but you’re still singling them out because of who they are. To say that because they are GLBT they should not be afforded the same priviledges as other citizens of the state is akin to denying rights on the basis of skin color or ethnic heritage. Okay, leave me alone.

Hey! Do you still watch TV? Critics are calling this the worst season of TV ever… Um, yeah… you need writers to write good stuff. Still, I’m currently watching Chuck (well, it’s paused on TiVo), and I was just thinking that it’s not that shows are necessarily bad – it might just be that people found other things to do. I have to say that it’s disappointing that some shows don’t get more of a chance. If they don’t pull in huge ratings in the first four weeks, they’re dead (see: Pushing Daisies, The Ex-List, My Own Worst Enemy, and my personal fav, Eli Stone). C’mon… give shows a chance. I know it’s a ton of money, but so are new advertising campaigns for new shows. Of course, I suppose if you’re not getting people to watch, you’re not making any money in advertising.

Which I guess would explain the ridiculous amount of product placement in shows these days. Hell, Chuck’s been ridiculous, with the Nintendo Wii featured prominently in shots (that were set up to prominently feature the Wii), and that sub-plot with former New York Giant Michael Strahan playing Madden ’09 the entire episode a few weeks ago? Amusing, but a bit slap-you-in-the-face-did-you-know-Madden ’09-was-coming-out annoying. YES. I DID. THANKS. And I'd buy it if you allowed me to push buttons on my Wii instead of forcing me to use the inane jab and shake and shimmy and wiggle-my-ass-to-make-a-tackle controls. Just because the thing has motion-sensing capabilities does not mean you need to use them to play the game.

Still, however shows make money. I suppose that’s how the RIDICULOUS (I’d underline it, but I don’t want to over-emphasize how much I hate the show) Knight Rider got picked up for a full season. Hell, I love all that 80’s stuff, watched the horrible movie they did last February, watched the first episode this season wanting it to be just decent, and then promptly gave up on it… in the first fifteen (15!) minutes. May not have been that long. Might've been the first scene where the main characters (a guy and a girl) “had” to take off their clothes to avoid being incinarated while riding inside K.I.T.T. as it was on fire. You get the idea of how poorly they executed that little bit of geek heaven if even I thought it was lame. And what’s with the K.I.T.T. design? It looks like a five-year-old slapped some spare parts onto a car. Could we get an actual car guy in here, please? Sheesh. No ugly-ass Ford Mustang mod with crappy acting and lousy plot is gonna get me to watch week-in and week-out.

Speaking of product placement, how about Jon and Kate Plus Eight recently? Their show now revolves around what great resort or adventure they got to go on for free on a particular airline while hauling around a particular set of toys. It’s cool with me – they need all the help they can get with their tribe. I’m thinking about having septuplets just to see if I can get a new video camera or six.

And what’s with that new show Twins, Twins, and Sextuplets? BTW, that’s a *diamond* of a name. It must’ve taken months and months of slaving to come up with that one. Bless ‘em, if I were them, and I saw J&KP8, I’d be screamin’ for my own show, too. Just for the product placement. Too bad they’ll never be as popular as the Gosselins. They’re way uglier. (Yay for Asian-white couples! And not the white-guy-Asian-girl type, either… they’re ubiquitous).

Okay, back to Chuck and figuring out which point-and-shoot camera to purchase.