We Thrive on Conflict

So, I started thinking that I spend a lot of time angry. Angry at this nasty, deplorable administration, angry about stupid people and practices, angry about oversensitivity and having a general hatred for most of what mankind has become. Writings like this one by Kurt Vonnegut fire me up, and then I have to deal with stuff like this story, where a girl is being sued for saying “That’s so gay.” How about this wimp puss knucklehead guy who is suing a 7 year old girl for mistakenly rollerblading into his way while he was on his bike. Let’s not forget the most important story in American: the conflict over the final resting place of Anna Nicole Smith trial.

It’s just part and parcel of things – we stupid humans get get worked up about the most stupid things. I mean, seriously …why? Life is way too short for the riduculousness we force ourselves to endure.

We as humans thrive on conflict. We crave it. We hunger for it. We create things just to breed it. Our most revered events are based on competition which is just a more benign form of conflict.

So I am going to do my part and report, at least once in awhile, some GOOD things. Things that are good for the spirit. Things that are hopeful and inspiring. Things that make your feel good on the inside. Things that aren’t just long rants about how George W. Bush has broken America or somesuch.

Here’s the first one: A few months ago, I saw this story about this kid Benjamin Underwood, who lost his eyes to cancer at 3 years old. Since then, he’s developed his sense of hearing so profoundly that he uses a click system, known as echolocation, when found in animals like bats, to “see.” Ben is capable of detecting the most minute changes in frequency and timing, and as a result, can judge the distance to certain objects. He’s so fine-tuned his skills that he can actually pretty close guess what objects are in front of him. It’s really quite amazing. Watch the video, and hopefully you’ll feel as warm as I did.

Video Vault Jan 09, 2007

Worst basketball fall EVER!
Ouch! Luke Whitehead, I do NOT want to be you.

How much would it take for you to kill a puppy with your bare hands? I’m sad to say, for some it’s less than you’d think. For others, it’s more. Either way, it’s WEIRD to watch people process the question.

Fuck the Shit!
The sad part is that I can’t get this song out of my head.

Nicccccccce!
I’ve been saying this for weeks. …And pissing my wife off.

Trigger Happy TV
EVERY TIME I hear this ring, I think of this. THAT’S quality.

User Generated Content Usually Sucks

This goes to show how worthless digg.com comments can be. Nearly every comment is dugg down. C’mon, are these the kinds of comments that people feel they should take the time to type and submit. Do they think other people will get joy from reading them?

Read this comments on this inane, embarassing mess. Folks, this is proof that user generated content is not necessarily anything more than just volume. So is this, by the way.

Sites like Slashdot and OSNews are mostly valuable because their users contribute so much quality in the comments. Slashdot has been better since I moved my threshold to +3. OSNews is pretty good at 0. But most sites that make it too easy to participate are complete crap.

Links 12/11/2006

Here’s a long overdue lists of tasty links for you:

33 things you never knew had a name
Seriously, this really weird – but common – stuff.

Make Ginger Ale
I’m going to do this.

What happens if you drink a Coke right now
Makes you think twice about that Ginger Ale.

Walking Table
This is the kind of ingenuity I like to see. Too bad the table itself it fugly.

Man trapped 4 days behind a wall of his own feces
Holy hell do I wish this were a joke.

Girl, 13, charged as sex offender *and victim*
Does this world make ANY sense at all?

Kids divide by zero
This is interesting, if you’re a math dork.

Family Guy: Osama’s message
Seriously, I laught for two minutes straight watching this.

Family Guy: Brian’s Novel
A classic.

Wii! Wii! Wii!

I am looking forward to getting a Wii. Although I’ve owned a few game systems in the last few years, I’ve only somehow “come across” them, I’ve never bought one new. So really, the last home video game system I was really into was Super Nintendo, and truly, the last and best game system was NES. I still have and use my NES to this day.

I will be excited when I get my Wii, but most definitely not THIS excited:

But you have gotta admit, it is nice to remember how much something like this could make your day when you were younger.

Video Vault Nov 24, 2006

A little humor for your Thanksgiving weekend. I found this clip… uh…. somewhere. I’m not even sure where. But it lead to watching these three clips, which had me laughing out loud. These are fantastci. I don’t know if it makes me a bad person to laugh so much at other people’s embrassment/pain/discomfort, but wow is it entertaining. All links are via YouTube.

Annoying Devil 1

Annoying Devil 2

Annoying Devil 3

One more for the day: We all know this is fake. We all acknowledge that ghost videos like this are the product of a young filmmaker’s imagination. But… this one is actually kind of freaky. Seriously.

Ghost causes car accident
via Google Video

File Under “Misc”

Quote Abuse
Man, this is “funny.” via Flickr.

Claygate
Yikes. This is where we’re gotten as a society. Rosie O’Donnell, who I didn’t mind that much until today, has declared Kelly Ripa – who was, I thought – a friend of the gay community, a “homophobe” because she told Clay Aiken, when he put his hand over her mouth on the air to shut her up and she said “That’s a no-no. I don’t know where that hand has been.” Okay, run-on sentence aside, this is cuh-razy. So, remember kids, if you’re a professional interviewer and you’re interviewing someone live on TV and some lame ass guest host slaps his stupid dirty hand on your piehole, embarassing you and touching your face in one dirty concoction, if you make a seemingly innocuous, possibly but not definitely snarky comment, you’re a gay-hater.

Rosie O’Donnell is a very outspoken voice for the gay community. To accuse someone of bigotry who (a) has no history of it, and (b) makes a VERY cloudily interpreted comment, and (c) is making this comment to someone WHO ISN’T EVEN GAY (admittedly, at least… and I’d add YET to that), she ought to be ashamed of herself. Rosie really ought to apologize.

By the way, ho-ly crap. Pictures of animals … in the womb.
I mean… seriously… check out the picture of the elephant. If this isn’t amazing, I don’t know what is.

Price is Right close finish
Nuff said.

Okay, that’s all for now. Have a great Thanksgiving.