compassionate comedy?

Just workin on the good ‘ol laptop…  I’m not really paying attention, but the TV is on. There are no new shows on this time of year. I’ve been trying to really understand why there are NO new shows during most of December… It’s stupid rational – but that’s not why I’m writing now.

So I turned on South Park since it’ll easily entertain.  It started at 8pm, and imediately after the opening credits was one of those extremely sappy give money to feed the impoverished and fly ridden children of some 3rd world country. It was long enough to take up the entire commercial break.

Then the second commercial break was another extended commercial involving the cause of saving the unwanted animals of America. This exact same spot played in the third and last commercial break. I guess saving the domesticated pets of the third world isn’t a worthy cause to some female singers.

So what is it about the demographics of South Park or Comedy Central watchers that screams “I want to give money away if you play sad music over a sad montage as long as you have a celebrity spokesperson”? I mean hell… South Park made fun of the whole Sally Struthers charity spokesperson thing in their first season.

I’d hope it was a media-buy gone bad, but it was so obvious that it just didn’t fit with the whole purpose of watching Comedy Central. I’m not saying they aren’t worthy charities or anything, but with the frequency that I’ve been seeing these specific commercials in the limited number of times I tune into Comedy Central shows a targeting of commercials that for me is instead leaving a bad taste in my mouth because they’re trying to play on the emotions of people who are trying to have a laugh.

112 degrees of GM stink

This is the image of the final cast for the upcoming movie that seeks to discredit one of my two favorite childhood toys. Yes, the new trailers look better than I thought they would… And I’ll probably see it for the effects and to laugh at the likes of Josh Duhamel… But it can’t not ruin the memories by simple fact of how they now look (and that it’s a sponsored movie by an automaker of the worst quality).

I also didn’t think John Turturro needed a paycheck that bad…

getting learned

So in doing some research on services online for printing on different paper mediums. I came across something I knew about, but was not expecting to this extent.

Including the quotation marks, type in “custom paper” into Google and check out the sponsored links.

And for those of you who don’t do it, I’ll just tell you that the majority of sponsored links are for services to write term / research papers aimed at high school and college students.

As I said, I knew these places were around from reading about them in the news, but damn… This are multiple businesses existing so that kids in school that are too lazy to plagiarize may instead jump into the realm of fraud. This is a good illustration of how both high school diplomas and college degrees have become less meaningful. Sad, sad, sad…

sad

Bad day

I thought I had left the sleepless night and pensive morning behind until I sat down for dinner with my wife. The local news was ending, and there was some image of a small plane in a body of water. She had just gotten off the phone with her mother and we began to enjoy our Mow & Johnny’s take out when the phone rang again. Like anyone else, we don’t like being disturbed during dinner. But it was my father, so we answered the call.

He was calling to ask if I’d seen the news, and when I told him I had just turned it on he informed me that the father of a high school friend was killed in a plane crash. My old friend was seriously injured, and his mother was also in the plane and also injured, but not seriously. Not only was I in the same graduating class in a small high school, but we also lived close to each other. I spent a decent amount of time at his house, and vice versa. We drifted away when college started.

I’ve spent the last few hours trying to let all those that I know who have had any connection to the family know, and I finally have a chance to let it sink in. I don’t think it has at all. I can’t imagine what it’s like for anyone in the family.

I’ve never known how to really deal with death. Does anyone? I’m no stranger to having loved ones passing or being there for the passing of a friend or family member. I just don’t know how to process it. I’ve never been able to. I can go along and function fine in the wake of this type of tragedy, but it’s something that stays with me for years whether I like it or not.