I'm so old...

I don't have a good time going to gross Indiana dance clubs anymore. The great deals at the bar can't even get me out there anymore. Some people think this shouldn't upset me but it does.

I guess Mario Party was always more my scene anyway. Mario Party and Backgammon. Told you I was old.

I think this blog should have a countdown clock to Community Day. Only problem is I don't know when Community Day is.

8 months or so to Community Day. Get Pumped.

Alone in the Blogosphere

Dear internet,

Today I wanted to talk about bad things (mostly in numbered lists), but first I recall the words of the great ethicist Latarian Milton (at 0:48):



You know how they say Socrates was wise because he admitted to knowing nothing - there's a quote behind it, but I'm not sure on the exact phrasing. Well could we also say, "I consider myself a good person because I know I do bad things?" A tenet of Roman Catholic ethics perhaps, but I also think a majority of people might accept this idea. Maybe this is obvious, but try it:

1) I think most anyone considers him/herself to be a good person,
2) I think one would probably consider most other people to be good people, and
3) I think generally when we call someone "bad" it is because we assume they don't consider their actions to be bad, and so we know they will keep doing them.

Now it probably isn't really fair to call anyone a bad person, especially after determining that the only reason I would do so is because they have different morals from me, but it certainly helps me in deciding with whom I want to spend my time. In trying to be a "good person" myself though I have some problems.

1) I know I have done bad things - particularly said things I'd like to take back - but apologizing for things just seems so Alcoholics Anonymous, you know? Or maybe I just don't like doing it, okay? Also:
2) I often find its difficult to forget things that other people said that I thought were offensive. I wouldn't want them to remember the things I said though! Not that I hold a grudge at all, it's just easy to remember some of those things. Luckily Total Recall is just a few decades off.

There's no real resolution to this. I guess what I wanted to say is: you're all jerks and so am I.

Yours in EFK

When you think Tim McGraw...

Just finished The Blind Side. I have to think that there aren't too many people who saw that movie and came away saying "meh." I tried to think of how I could be a really mean critic on this one - like titling the post "The Hind Side" or "But it finished in the 98th percentile in sucking" - and just generally how much of an jackass I could be, because this was a movie where I feel like not only would that not represent my opinion but it might actually offend people's sensibilities. Regardless, I loved it. I feel totally inspired.

The Blind Side, the story of the salvation of Michael Oher, is worthwhile because it presents such a hopeful view of humanity. We can think that people like Oher only have the power to help themselves, and choose not to, or we can think that people like Oher are hopeless cases, so jaded by life that they can't do what it takes to be happy. Realistically though, through the charity and action of others these kids can get a second chance, and Oher is living proof of that. It's really an incredible story. Kicks the crap out of the "golden-voiced homeless man" phenomenon, I'll tell you that.

That being said, this was a weird movie. For the first 45 minutes I felt like I was on the verge of balling over this kid. Before the end there's a lot of silly comedy and some sports too (I would have to say it wasn't really a sports movie though). Highly recommended.

I guess this blog title didn't really have enough to do with the post to justify using it. It just makes me think of Taylor Swift anyway.

A lot of things happened in sports today...

not the least of which is that commercial where Carlos Boozer jumps out of the RV. I must have laughed for like 5 minutes straight.

Auburn fans may rejoice, Ducks fans (and Alabama fans) may cry themselves to sleep, but I think the most important thing for us all to realize is that TCU will not be and should not be national champions. And it was good.

That's all for now.

Two Things I Hold Dear

Ah! My first post. I feel like I need to write an introductory piece before I really jump into the more erudite material that will be discussed in this blog. So here it is. For me, this blog is a place where I can share two important things with you. I want to share my views on that chaotic place referred to as “The City,” and I want to offer you different way to look at the world.

On the first aspect, I feel like I explore the depths of Manhattan enough to show you a side that most people don’t know. I make it a personal goal to find the great and horrible things Manhattan has to offer, and I feel the scale tends to lean toward the horrible. Although Manhattan has lots to offer for the average tourist, I feel like the real beauty lies in the hidden eateries and nightlife. My experiences along the way always leave with me a bad taste in my mouth. This is the venue on which I choose to share those interesting anecdotes. Don’t worry though. You won’t be disappointed, all the stories and information I provide about New York might just be useful.

The second aspect, which I find will have more import and occurrence in this blog, is my outlook on life. I won’t go too much into now because it takes some time to explain, and I’d rather present my views gradually in order to guide you through my process. But basically, experience plays a large role in Truth. One cannot really know something until he as experienced it. A fellow accusing blogger will constantly attack this aspect of my writing, but that’s why this blog is worth reading. We will talk about many worthy subjects that have intellectual value, and each blogger may present his different view. It’s up to you to choose your own view, or just follow one of us (since come on, how could we be wrong). The one crucial thing this blog will do is present interesting problems that have many different answers. All of which may be true.

Better posts to follow,

The Accused

So the Fifth Element was a Woman?

I know I'm behind the times on this one, but that's not atypical from me. Anyway, having just finished The Fifth Element I'd have to say it was pretty good for having such a terrible premise. Frankly I just don't think it makes sense for a person - granted an otherworldly person - to be the fifth element after earth, wind, fire, and water. Am I not thinking this through enough? I mean, I know she has quintuple-helix DNA and all that jazz but what exactly makes her an element? My love-hate relationship with pseudo-science movies goes on.

I also wanted to add a thought for our continued blogging. I just read a quote, something Kurt Vonnegut said to his son: "If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do." You've got to trust a guy with such a good-looking mustache (see below). I figure by writing what I'm thinking up here in cyberspace, I can get some feedback on whether my thoughts have become clear or still require processing.

Vonnegut.com/artist.asp

Wakey Wakey Bloggers

Let's keep this fast start going here, though of course not yet with anything of great intellectual value (these are coming, don't you worry).

This blog is here for many reasons but just a couple main ones:

1) To take uncalled-for shots at the town that raised us from close-range and from a distance (once we escape from this frozen wasteland). I'm glad to see we're hitting this hard already.

2) And more importantly, to share our opinions on many subjects of our choosing.

On this second topic, I should say that much like in philosophy where the idea of an absolute 'Truth' is distinguished from what one might refer to as truth - the uncapitalized being relative to the observer - I would tend to describe the opinions expressed in this blog as Valid with a capital v instead of valid as when I say "yes, I guess your opinion is valid." In fact, I might even say the opinions expressed here are Truth. This may seem complicated by the fact that on some occasions my fellow authors and I will disagree, but that is just an illusion based on the curvature of the universe - again, don't trust your relative "truth", trust us.

With regard to the topics we will be covering, today I had some really Valid opinions on the current state of the New York Yankees, Fighting Irish basketball, women, and Steven Hawking's recent effort, The Grand Design. Expect some lousy stuff and be pleasantly surprised.

Yours in EFK

If only East Fishkill was as apt for Street Fighter related word play.

Also, this is the first thing that pops up when you type in East Fishkill when you run a google image search:

So... I did this on a whim, so I guess this sets the tone?

Hello and East Fishkill: A Brief Synopisis

East Fishkill, whose tagline, seems rather in keeping with the motif of "Blue Velvet's" Lumbverville, "A Great Place to Live" was founded in 1849. Voted the 31st greatest place to live in the US  2005 by MONEY Magazine based on its incredibly low crime rate juxtaposed against an incredibly high rate of economic affluence. Also, possessing the ethnic demography of your average Klan rally probably didn't hurt their ranking. Located close enough to NYC so as to enable wonderful day trips and the local junkies not to have to resort to meth, East Fishkill is a bustling community which falls in a unique area of suburban classification. To some it is a suburb or NYC, for others it is seen as a town which first suckled at the teat of the railroad, then the local farms, then IBM which then left the town high and dry in the 90s. It really depends on where you come from how you define East Fishkill. For people from Manhattan, anything from the Bronx to Niagara is considered to be upstate and most likely a suburb, while I'm sure the people in Niagara complain about some type of sub human mole people as their hicks. As you ascend the Hudson Valley, at each stop of the Metro North those who exit the train construe their stop as the last bastion of metropolitan culture and grace while anyone above it might as well be considered extras in "Deliverance". In this writer's opinion, anyone who is blessed enough to be subject to the whims of the bloated and inefficient bureaucracy otherwise known as the MTA should be considered part of lower New York state. We at least earn that much for paying the same exorbitant tax rates as those "true" lower New Yorkers, though some may tend to disagree. While there is undoubtedly a commuter culture present in this region, as anyone who has had to contend with the wheeled suit case wielding overly entitled business men who race to the train every morning, one can say that this region has enough of its own cultural identity to be considered a separate region. Unlike all those posers in Westchester.
 Too many Chinese restaurants and pizza places, Flat Rock and woods parties, those kids who were obviously buying heroine at the old deli across from John Jay, cops who literally have nothing better to do than purposely try and pull over kids and then freak out when they pull a car over full to the brim with heroine, Victor the police dog playing catch with Officer Bellino outside of the DD, where every person who this writer would not wish to associate with seems to hang out, the blatant misappropriation of funds by the Town and the sometimes rather seedy practices of the leadership, the cool fall nights of Community Day and playing wiffleball every summer at the Rec from when I was 8 until 21, all of these things and more are what this Town mean to me and I love it. But that does not mean that this town and the surrounding area are not ripe for satire and parody as well as thoughtful criticisms.
Here are some of the topics this writer wishes to bring you in the future: "An Average East Fishkill Traffic Stop; A Play in Three Acts," "A Look at the Rather Grisly History of East Fishkill and the Even More Atrocious Self Generated Literature Produced by the Town", "A Look at the Town and its Departments which will tackle such hard hitting questions as whether Denis Miller is a cross dresser and more importantly who the hell is Denis Miller.""Traffic Patterns and Road Issues, such as why the Hell Can No One Master the Concept of the Middle Lane in Hopewell."                            

First Post

This probably seems like an odd first post/link, but:

http://mirror.uncyc.org/wiki/Phlegmatic_Ocean

I've been to Poughkeepsie. That's about right.