Thursday, April 29, 2010

Thursday Wrap-Up

Alright, so here's the scoop: there's a bunch of stuff that I wanted to share with youze folks, and, since it's late and I don't actually have enough to write about concerning each topic to put up an entry for each, I'm just gonna run through them all right here, right now.

First and foremost: I had followed this Tito Ortiz/Jenna Jameson thing as far as I can go. Hell, I even tried to justify my questionable reaction to their marital issues in a blog post earlier today. Now, everyone's story has changed and both parties are recanting their accusations. Tito's now saying that the pills he found were very, very old (yet somehow still in her pants pocket, because when you're that rich, you don't need to wash your clothes) while Jenna is claiming that this whole situation has gotten "blown out of proportion," with "blown out of proportion" being a polite way of saying that "I claimed that my 6'3", 205lb. husband threw me into a bathtub, tearing two ligaments because it seemed like the right thing to do, not because it was actually true." Fuck 'em both, I'm done with it, and I hope that Mark Coleman gets a shot at Ortiz and throws him into a bathtub.

Secondly: There's a news story making the rounds of the Internet about Santa Clara County and their decision to make Happy Meals, and other such kids' packs illegal. The idea is that when children get lured into places like McDonalds', Burger King, or anywhere else that offers a toy with its children's meal, they associate unhealthy food with prizes. Some people are for it, some people are against it, and you can count me on the former. I can't tell you how many times I have been seduced into eating garbage (albeit really tasty garbage) by the promise of something special. It started off with Happy Meals, where, after my family made the rare "treat" trip to McDonald's, I would immediately be thinking of the next visit, so that I could collect all of the "boys' toys" for that generation of Happy Meal. The taste of the cheeseburger, fries, and strawberry milkshake would be long gone, but I held onto that Hercules toy for years.

By the time I had a job, and could buy things for myself, I realized that I didn't have to wait for my parents to treat me with a trip to McDonald's; I could do it myself. Then came the addiction to Monopoly. The usual order, including a medium fries just wasn't enough anymore. Mystified by the potential to win hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prizes, I would splurge on the large fries in order to collect those little rectangular stickers.

I may sound like I'm joking, but this stuff is true. Happy Meals and their ilk do not, as some may defend, simply thank valued customers for their choice. They lure impressionable people into what an environment that is supported by unsafe eating habits. So, the County steps in, saying "eff that noise," ignoring the 87% of its citizens who disagreed, and did what they, and I, thought was the right thing to do.

Lastly: About three weeks after having it recommended to me, I finally checked out Zero Punctuation, a "groundbreaking videogame review series starring Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw." In it, Croshaw, with the assistance of little cartoon assistants, gives his long-winded and quickly uttered thoughts on a different video game every week. Like most reviews, these are best enjoyed after actually having played the game, since there are tons of references to things that you will not really understand if you're going in blind. The combination of the cute animations and Croshaw's amazing voice makes for an incredibly entertaining experience.

And that's all I've got for you this Thursday... although it's now Friday... unless I decide to write one of two outstanding (meaning late, not great, although, if the shoe fits) movie reviews (Yes Man and True Romance). More than likely, I'm going to watch the rest of UFC 10 until I pass out from exhaustion.

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