Sometimes TV Has A Good Message
May 28th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
So I was watching Scrubs while I was eating my lunch today; a delicious microwaveable steak chimichanga from Jose Ole. Anyway, on Scrubs, Zach Braff said something profound, as he often does, at the end of the show. It was something like:
Sometimes you have to do what’s right for your friends even if it means sacrificing your own happiness.
I mean…that makes a lot of sense. And it’s usually true and I’m assuming all decent,hardworking Americans follow this principle to a tee. But what sucks is that it completely applied to my life…and TV should NEVER ever apply to your life. Neither should song lyrics, books, or movies. Entertainment should not make you question your reality.
When I read books (on those rare occasions), I don’t want them to shift my world or cause earth shattering changes in my perception of my life. I want to be entertained by what the author had to say. Now, this makes me hypocritical because I write because I enjoy it, and because I want to change someone’s, anyone’s life through what I have to say. I just want to make a positive impact on someone’s life, rather than negative as I often do.
Music..well I really despise when people apply lyrics to songs, or hell, entire CDs to their life. The musician wasn’t writing that song to you, he/she/they know nothing about you and your situation, you’re not special, your life STILL SUCKS.
Question: Who cares if you lyrically found a way to show your depression.
Answer: NO ONE.
Once again, I opened my mouth too soon. The exact thing I hate with a passion (see rant directly above this sentence), just happened. Oh well. Thanks channel 914 on Cox Digital Cable…bastard TV station…
But anyway, back to what this was originally about. It was supposed to be about sacrifice, but I feel like that topic can wait til tomorrow. Or tonight if I get really zealous about this. Anyway, that’s all for today. Too much to think about today, you know?
Take care America.
Cody
Writing For a Living
May 27th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Sorry for the absence of a post yesterday, too much to do and too little to talk about. I practically cleaned my room and my house for six hours. I did a lot of…cleaning out my closet so to speak, physically and metaphorically, but that post can wait til another day or possibly never.
ANYWAY
Today during Journalism, we had to draw editorial cartoons (mine is pretty good in my opinion and I am terrible at art) for class. I however, had to rewrite a story about something I knew practically nothing about. So I studied someone elses previous draft of the story, interviews I did, and quotes from the teacher of the class, and twenty minutes later I had a 300+ word story about AVID. I was on deadline, and that’s just what I do. I work well under pressure. I had the story typed, edited, approved, and in the newspaper design all within an hour of Newspaper Studyblock’s start.
So what I came to realize after this slight “emergency” was that I really don’t think I want to be a journalist. I mean, I love the idea of creating something that hundreds/thousands of people read and react to, but I just don’t think I can deal with all the bureaucratic crap that goes in to the typical newspaper. I really enjoy the atmosphere of deadlines though: the air is supersaturated with energy, mostly negative, as tempers flare and people are constantly bickering over completely unimportant things. The panic is stimulating and I love the feel of getting everything done, PDF’ing the paper, and submitting it to print. It’s such a fantastic feeling..but I don’t know if I can handle that EVERYDAY of my life. That’s too much stress because technically, everyday is a deadline day, and that is just too much supersaturation.
I could probably be a novelist though, granted anyone can be a novelist. You just have to have a laptop, an idea, and a need to sit in Starbuck’s while you work so you LOOK like a writer. I mean, if I had a laptop, I’d be typing up this post at the Starbuck’s in Barnes and Nobles on Virginia Beach Blvd sipping a delicious beverage; but I don’t, so I’m not.
Speaking of novels, I’m on page seven of the one I’m writing. Now I know what you’re thinking “Oh wow. Page seven. That takes all of three minutes to read.” right? So all I have to say to you is, “Suck it.” This summer I’ll be writing everyday and I swear I will finish my novel by the time I finish Freshman year at Virginia Wesleyan. Anyway, for those who have read it, I changed the beginning to something else that I hope you will enjoy. End speaking.
So now I’m thinking a degree in History would probably do me better because I think I could probably teach history for a living. I love history, I love learning history, and I love showing people how much history knowledge I have. Yep, I’m THAT guy.
Anyway, have a good evening America. I’m off to practice my solo project which I’ll be presenting tomorrow, and needless to say, I’m nervous.
Sleep well.
Cody.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears: Part Two
May 25th, 2008 § 1 Comment
Good Midday America. You know what really grinds my gears? Church. And Cell phones. And by cell phones, I specifically mean the Verizon LG Chocolate.
Let’s begin with Church:
Nowhere else can you find the worst human beings on the planet, except maybe at the Republican National Convention…granted Church and RNC are virtually synonymous. The people in most American churches profess to be “god-fearing”, wholesome, relatively decent people…but they’re not. At all. They gossip like schoolgirls. They cheat on their spouses with other members of the church. They flaunt their money like people actually care how much money they gave this week. This, sadly, is an actual conversation I heard while listening to a sermon a few weeks ago.
Church Goer One: “My wife and I started tithing 12% of our money instead of 10% because we feel like God blesses us more than most families, so we wanted to give something back to him, you know?”
Church Goer Two:“I totally get what you mean. My husband and I have been giving 12% for a few years now and donated $10,000 to fund our neighbor’s mission trip to Africa.
Church Goer One: “Wow…that’s really impressive. You’re a really good person *blank*.”
Church Goer Two: “I really think that Africa needs a lot of help, so I feel like I personally contributed to the solution.”
I’d really like to say that I was impressed by the seemingly selfless philanthropic nature of “Church Goer Two”, but I wasn’t. I actually pulled out my Glock and went *gat* *gat* *gat* in the back of “Church Goer Two’s” head.
Since when does donating more money than someone else secure you more of God’s love? God is NOT a prostitute and I’m sure he/she would appreciate it if you’d all stop treating him like a cheap whore/genie being who will grant unlimited wishes as long as you attend his club and pay your dues.
Now moving on to Cell Phones:
I hate that I can’t feel like a complete being if I am not carrying around my cell phone. I actually feel nude, yes nude, if my cell phone isn’t in the left pocket of the day’s pants. The story following is one of pure RRRRRAAAAAAGGGGGGGGEEEEEEE!
STORY: I was driving to church this morning, as I do every Sunday morning. The Flobots were on the radio and I knew today would be relatively mediocre to possibly decent. I got to the church parking lot just as the ending lines of the song were floating across the airwaves, confirming that I can, indeed, ride my bike with no handlebars. I got out of my car to check my phone because I thought I felt it vibrate while I was driving and being the responsible patriot that I am, did not check it. What I actually felt, apparently, was my phone’s seizure-like attempts at getting my attention to let me know it was about to commit suicide.
Sadly…my phone did commit suicide at 9:04 a.m on May 25, 2008
All I could say when I saw the fluorescent white screen was “GOD!!! Not again…”, as that phone was my FOURTH LG Chocolate since June 2007. All have been replaced due to faulty craftsmanship, yet they replace them with the same crappy hardware, over and over and over and over. If this Chocolate flips out and kills iteself, I’m switching to Alltell so Chad and The Wizard can take care of my phone.
You better watch out Verizon and Organized Religion, because you both really grind my gears.
Thank you and Goodnight.
Cody.
My Virtual Life as Myself.
May 24th, 2008 § 1 Comment
Let me begin tonight America with something that has NOTHING to do with the actual topic of this post. Marshmallow Cream is quite possible the most delicious substance ever conceived from the minds of human beings. If by some freak chance, aliens can see the inevitable aftermath of George Bush’s Nuclear Holocaust from their home planet, I hope they come visit our now obliterated planet just so they can find the formula for making Marshmallow Cream…they certainly deserve it.
Now back to your originally planned programming.
The virtual version of me is far more successful than the tangible, fully functional version of me. He has a job, he is actually quite far in the Journalism world. He has a smokin’ hot wife and some adorable little bastards running around causing mischief. Seems like I’ve done a pretty good job in making a quite affluent and joyful person right? Too bad this little pixelated personification isn’t anything like me. The only thing Sim Cody Kloock and I, the REAL Cody Kloock have in common, is our name. (And the love of Journalism! *thumbs up!*)
I find it fascinating that I can sit at the computer for hours playing around with this fake little man: making virtual friends for him, getting him a promotion, getting him some sweet “woohoo” with random wenches, and raising his skill points in various things like cooking, mechanics, and the ever fun charisma. Then I find it sort of disheartening when I take a gander at my own low skill leveled, low occurance of “woohoo”, jobless, and hermit-like life.
It’s so easy to just click around and tell him to “Study…Cooking” or “Do Homework” or “Woohoo” but it’s pretty hard to find ways to do those three things in “the real world”, and that’s what I hate.
The Sims is quite possibly the easiest form of escapism available. Instead of throwing oneself in to alcoholism or drug abuse or RRRRRAAAGGGGGGEEEEEE, you can just pop in the DVD and start up the game. You can be whoever you want to be. You can look however you want to. You can live wherever. And the best part is, no one is going to give you flak for your choices because if they don’t like you:
YOU CAN DELETE THEM!
I wish I had that kind of power (sort of, I mean…there is always murder, but murder is wrong). But in the Sims, you’re always right no matter what your decision is because you can just always get your job/spouse back. No one in “the real world” means to get fired from work. No one means to get caught cheating by their spouse. No one means to sprint through the quad while crunk on Jose Cuervo.
The Sims is possibly one of my favorite games of all time because I can just do whatever I want to. I always make myself have this wicked sick beard, a ridiculous amount of charisma and cooking points, and everyone seems to love me to death.
The only thing of the above list I have in real life is the wicked sick beard, but it’s hampering my ability to get employment and therefore my ability to get promoted and that’s one of my WANTS…it needs fulfilled before my aspiration meter dips TOO low in to the red and I get a visit from the Social Bunny.
“EA Games: Challenge Everything” they say, more like “EA Life: Escape Your Crappy Existence”
My main problem though, is the fact that anyone who plays the Sims realizes that they could be doing exactly what they’re doing in the game, in real life. That always bothers me. It’s as if watching tv in real life, or having a conversation with someone isn’t satisfying enough so I have to watch a virtual version of myself do it for me to find entertainment. What does that say about me? Or the 100 million people who play the Sims. Are we that bored of our everyday life that we have to recreate ourselves to do exactly what we’re bored of? Or is the problem deeper? Are we just trying to make someone feel as distant and bored as we do?
Maybe we’re just playing a game…but maybe we’re the ones being played.
Excuse me, I just got the sudden urge to go “Study…Cooking”.
Cody.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?
May 22nd, 2008 § Leave a Comment
Fifteen minutes prior to the “highlight of my day” I split my head open on the hook in my trunk, as in, I drew blood. So after I made sure I was done bleeding and washed the blood out of my hair, I went to pick up Ollie.
DRIVING DRIVING DRIVING
So I’m driving down the road on my way to get him and “Violet Hill” by Coldplay came on the radio. Now, I have a strange relationship with Coldplay because I used to hate them a few years ago because I thought Chris Martin(the lead singer) was a goof-ball who knew nothing about writing love songs. I have to come to a point in my life where I am willing to admit that I was wrong and that he does, in fact, know how to write an effective and moving love song.
The members in Coldplay, it seems, are pretty intelligent guys and I’m starting to quite enjoy their music, but hearing their song this morning wasn’t the highlight of my day. The highlight of my day was when I was sitting in my car waiting for school to start.
Here is the story: I was listening to 96x, the local Alternative station, as I do every morning, and there was a caller to the usual morning show, Mancow’s Morning Madhouse. The caller in question, in my opinion, is the Pro-Choice Argument on Abortion because he really was a total moron and Mr. Muller obviously agreed because he started laughing at the guy and hungup the phone.
The caller is part of a group called VHEMT or the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. They are apparently peaceful in their motives and call for the voluntary extinction of the human race because they believe the planet would be better off without humans, so we should all stop breeding.
But isn’t breeding, in essence, our purpose here on Earth? I mean, we’re here to make more of us until there is inadequate space to meet the needs of the masses and to then (AND ONLY THEN MR. BUSH), end the world in a devastating nuclear holocaust. But only after Jesus triumphantly returns and says, “Yo. Let’s go to Heaven my Christian homies.” Note: I figured “Jesus speak” should remain in red. :End note.
Let’s get this straight though. They really expect people to stop breeding, as in, they really believe in all the things they say. Their leader, Les U. Knight (Which has to be a joke because his name sounds coincidentally like “Let’s Unite”) said in an interview that “as long as there’s one breeding pair of homo sapiens, there’s too great a threat to the biosphere.”
Really Mr. Knight? One pair is too great a threat? Really? I think you, Mr. Knight, are too great a threat to the biosphere. And that ladies and gentlemen, is what really grinds my gears.
Cody.
