Tuesday, March 10, 2009

God Hates Bigoted Cult Members

We had a little excitement in OKC last week (March 2009). Fred Phelp's crazies came to see us. They protested outside of the Capitol building because the state senate had the audacity to allow a gay man, a state representative, to read a prayer. The horror. Thank Gawd we have these holy warriors to come and spread their own special brand of irrational hatred. Chutah and I came up with a fun little 'shop of their picture that appeared in the local news.


This was a direct result of an email exchange wondering what kind of life that little boy in the center of the picture is living, and if it isn't enough for him to be removed from that kind of horrifying existence.

My favorite part of their visit, though, is that the Westboro "Church" randomly chose Moore High School for a second protest in the region. They had posted on their web page that Moore High was full of "violent brats" and "sluts." As far as I know, these kids aren't any more violent or slutty than any other high school in the region or state. The really awesome thing about this portion of the protest is that local bikers reached out to other bikers and they formed a counter-protest. These bad ass bikers situated themselves across from the Jesus-freakery to protect the students and community from the notorious faggotry of Westboro. In addition to the bikers, veterans came out to protest, and high school students stood up for their school and their classmates. Throughout the city, churches held prayer vigils to remind their faithful and everyone else that religion is not all extremist and cultish.

I would have preferred the local religious community made their presence known at the counter-protest, but the fact that all different segments of the community pulled together to oppose the nutjobs gave me the warm fuzzies. With the attention given to these extreme groups, it's easy to forget that most people are decent and are willing to stand up for what's right and rational.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Gin and Generic Juice

Must blog more. (I know. It’s getting pretty bad.)

So today (Monday, February 23, 2009), on NPR, I heard a story about the packaging of Tropicana. They explained that the usual packaging of the orange juice features an orange with a straw in it, and they had changed it to have a glass of juice that wrapped around the side of the carton.

They are changing the package back next month due to customer complaints. According to the report, customers complained it made the package look "generic." This brings to mind a couple of points.

One, what’s the problem if it looks generic?

You know what you’re going after, and once you locate the new generic-looking package, you put it in the cart. I’m imagining a bunch of blue hairs in designer track suits suffering from mortification that another blue hair in a designer track suit say her buying GENERIC JUICE. What a travesty.

Two, who actually calls and writes these manufacturers to complain about stuff like this?

If I see that the packaging for a product has changed, I just think “different” and move on. I don’t spend hours in the grocery store developing a critical analysis of this packaging as compared to the previous packaging. I do not have a deep, spiritual bond with the packaging for my products. There are not enough hours in the day already without spending time analyzing juice boxes.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Wil Rocks the World

He loves his wife, he loves his kids, he owns his geekiness, and he rocks Bon Jovi at Sci Fi Cons. My hero:



The joy to be found here is truly a thing of beauty

Awesome Art Program Online



...fun to play with, I made this. I should put it on the fridge

http://bomomo.com/