Monday, February 8, 2010

THE FOLLOWING THINGS DO NOT MAKE YOU INTERESTING

Referring to yourself as "crazy"on a friday night instead of "an uncreative, twenty-something weekend alcoholic".

Wearing tie dye shirts on themed days at work or school, or in general, for that matter.

Expressing your fondness for Dave Matthews Band.

Cat-In-The-Hat or jester hats.

Granny glasses with different colored lenses.

Wearing a snake or lizard around your neck in public.

Juggling or playing with devil sticks.

Drinking excessively while broadcasting to the world that you are drinking excessively.

Playing acoustic guitar and singing in a forced, weird voice on a blanket in the park.

Knowing the words to “Fight for Your Right to Party”, but nothing else by the Beastie Boys.

Calling yourself “a spiritual person” without being able to elaborate.

Liking Coldplay.

Actually being Jamiroquai.

Wearing Harley Davidson everything.

Being able to hold a prolonged conversation about what happened on “Dancing With the Stars” or “American Idol” last night.

Making sure that people notice that you are reading the “Tao of Pooh” at Starbucks.

Considering the possibility of attending Burning Man.

Actually attending Burning Man.

Accessorizing your jeans and t-shirt ensemble with flair that tells the world that you enjoy smoking
Marijuana.

Ankle tattoos of Tinkerbell or the Tasmanian Devil.

Hanging a dream catcher from your rearview mirror.

Political bumper stickers.

Driving a prius or a hummer.

Stretched limos.

Being passionate about KISS.

Actually putting the sticker that came with your mac on anything.

Growing a soul patch.

Being Christian.

Informing the world that you are an atheist at the drop of a hat.

Convincing yourself that there are republicans in the audience who are going to have an epiphany and suddenly start giving a shit at a showing of a Michael Moore documentary.

Wearing sunglasses indoors and/or at night.

Wearing green, sequined top hats and shamrock glasses on St Patrick's Day.

Gluing shit to your car.

Yelling “Woo!”

Dating musicians.

Referring to one's participation in anything as having been “a long, strange trip”.

Doing blow or heroin.

Talking to sober people about politics while stoned.

Being a stripper.

Passionately liking the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Identifying with the cast of Jersey Shore.

Bringing up how long you've been sober at every single social gathering you attend.

Dancing on a bar to the Lenny Kravitz cover of “American Woman”.

Dressing up like the Crow and/or the Heath Ledger version of the Joker at every single party or function you attend.

Constantly reminding people of your coffee addiction.

Being old and wearing festive sweaters.

Alerting the world to your raging heterosexuality by telling everyone that Megan Fox is hot.

Carrying a tiny little dog around.

Reminding people who you voted for in the last election.

Caring deeply about the dolphins. Not all marine life, mind you, just the dolphins.

Telling people that you are studying marine biology so that you can swim with the afore mentioned dolphins.

Being an actual dolphin.

Playing in a Doors cover band.

Displaying stickers that let the world know that you (or maybe your bike?) only buy local and haven't willingly left the Portland Peninsula in several years.

Being brought to us by letters and/or numbers.

Being white and affluent.

Being the guy that wears the white tuxedo to the prom.

Paying money for a shirt emblazoned with an image of Che Guevara.

Making statements about being in touch with your feelings.

Doing that thing where you pantomime rearranging your face before doing an impression of someone.

Playing poker.

Monday, February 1, 2010

BLUETOOTH HEADSETS: THE MATING CALL OF THE AMERICAN ASSHOLE

The other night, I went to Borders after work, intent on purchasing a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Once I had located this tome of awesome manliness, I headed over to the occult section to see if they had any new books about Norse or Japanese mythology. While attempting to locate a Vaniir needle in a haystack of post-Twilight homoerotic vampire bullshit, I thought I heard someone say “Hey” to me.

Looking over my shoulder, I made eye contact with this dude. He had long hair, pulled back into a slick pony tail, glasses and a leather trench coat.

“Okay, what you need to do is rebalance your karma.”

I flashed him a what the fuck look.

“You wont reincarnate as someone else.” he said in an urgent tone of voice, “You're just going to repeat the same mistakes over and over.”

Now keep in mind that we were making eye contact and he was speaking in my direction.

“No, it doesn't work that way.”

It was only then that I realized that this fucking new age asshole was having a very loud, idiotic conversation with his bluetooth headset and was just making eye contact with me because he was also a creepy, new age fuck.

….

I would like to meet the inventor of the bluetooth headset, and then I would like to to punch him in the dick with the ancient lucha technique known as “El Cocko-Puncho”. I'm sure he had altruistic intentions in developing his product, but he has actually managed to find a way to make self-important assholes even more obnoxious.

Yes, people who own a bluetooth headset and choose to use it anywhere other than in the car are assholes. In fact, chances are that they are stupid fucking assholes with insipid lives that nobody actually wants to hear about, including the person on the other line. I say this with a fair level of certainty, because I have to listen to other people's bluetooth conversations all the time.

(If I have just pegged you as an asshole, you may now be wondering what I mean by “I have to listen”. Surely, I have better things to be listening to than your conversations. And you are right, I do have other things I would rather be listening to, like the music I am playing or the quiet conversations I am having with people who are actually in close proximity to me. However, because you have a piece of plastic lodged in your ear, you're automatic response is to say everything loudly, as if you are addressing someone who is across the room. As such, it becomes impossible to continue my conversations or enjoy the music I am playing, and I am forced to hear about your stupid bullshit.)

There's an old Hateful Man proverb about turning lemons into lemonade, then throwing the squeezed-out lemon husks at passersby.

Somehow, contemporary social contract theory has come to allow anyone to say anything loudly in public, as long as they have a bluetooth headset on. I certainly did not agree to this, as I am sure anyone who has the ability to think about other people, or at least has a sense of shame, would. However, it seems to be here to stay, so all you can really do is take advantage of it.

Here are some fun activities that exploit this phenomenon!

1. ARTS & CRAFTS
First off, you need to invest in something that LOOKS like a bluetooth headset
If your phone came with a bluetooth headset, awesome. Remove the batteries and use that. If you don't feel like chipping in for a real one, you can always glue a rectangular rubber eraser to an earpiece from a broken pair of headphones and paint it black. Really, it doesn't even have to look that convincing up close, as no one will be willing that close to you.

2. AWKWARD....
Go somewhere very public and crowded. I recommend the waiting room of an Olive Garden on a Friday night, as people will not only be feeling claustrophobic, they'll be irritated both at the restaurants shitty service and themselves for ever thinking eating at an Olive Garden on Friday night (or anytime) was a good idea.

In a slightly louder than normal voice, say something akin to following:
“Hey Babe. It's (insert current time). I just got the results and they're, well, they're not good. The medical term is Hogan-Lacher's Syphilitic Glandular Discharge. Basically, it means that I now have permanently crusty, swollen (testicles or labia). I probably contracted it in Thailand. It's highly contagious. We're probably going to have to put the pets down. You definitely have it if I do. There's a good chance it has infected your (ovaries/testicles) and you're sterile. Give me a call when you get this. I love you.”

Tap the headset, then shake your head, scratch your crotch and say “Oh fuck, I need to get some Purel.”

Run out of the waiting room.

Okay, actually, that's probably illegal. So don't do that. However, short of convincing people that they've contracted some kind of horrible, highly contagious bacterial junk rot, that headset gives you carte blanche to say anything in public.

I recommend the following fake conversations:

“You're adopted Timmy. Stop crying and let me talk to that milfy mother of yours. No, I wont tell you what that means. Why? Because you're a filthy orphan and I want to nail your fake mommy without your fake daddy knowing.”

“I'm calling to let you know I'm breaking up with you because your new haircut and penchant for wearing an oversized flannel shirt makes you look like a Large Marge. I'd actually text this to you, but that costs money.”

“Dad, I am undergoing hormone therapy to become a woman. No, I still have a penis and I still prefer women. I just have my own set of boobs.”

“Sorry for showing your kids The Story of O. It was French. I thought it would be a cultural experience.”

“There was blood in my stool again. Should I call the doctor? Its been a month.”

“We really should try anal. You know the Reagans were fans.”

“I just wanted to say I love you one more time before you die. No, I wont come and visit you. I told you, that place smells of old people and that orange stuff they sprinkle on vomit. Pretend you're a doggie in the kennel.”

When you have these fake conversations, make constant eye contact with people.

3. TAKE BACK THE STREETS
Take the fight to the people handing these fucking headsets out! Go to an AT&T or Verizon store and pace around, having one of the conversations from section 2. Look at cell phones and products. When a clerk asks if you can help them, cut them off before they finish their question by raising your right index finger to indicate that you want them to wait, then tap the headset and and mouth the words “they wont shut up” while making a jabber jaw motion with your left hand. Clerks fucking love that shit. After a minute or two, just leave.

4. TANDEM ASSHOLES
If you know someone else with a hatred for mankind and a bluetooth headset, go to a Walmart and walk around, side by side, having a discussion with each other over your headsets. Discuss the people you see and the products you are passing.

Any time you become “separated” (i.e. more than three feet apart or on either side of another person or an isle), get even louder than you were before.

Have one person go into the restroom and sit in a stall and say “Okay, one more and I'll be out in a minute.”. Have the other person stand out in front and periodically say something like “That is amazing! I can't wait to see you you when you finish. Be sure to wash your hands! Did you use a paper toilet seat guard? Because I don't want you tracking someone's sweaty ass bacteria onto the seats of my prius”.

Hug each other when you are finally reunited.

HATE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

In this weeks installment, I pay tribute to two of my favorite literary styles: Erotic Celebity Fan Fiction and “Chose Your Own Adventure”. The names of the celebrities have not been changed. They may sound like bigger ceelebrities that you have actually heard of, but I swear to God, they're actually just Canadian up-and-comers from the CW that you've merely never heard of.


HATE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE #1 : IN THE LAIR OF THE HOSEBEAST

“Oh shit!”

Startled by a sudden strange noise, you wake up in a strangers rickety, queen-sized, Ikea bed. The cheap, pink cotton sheets are wet with sweat and you can smell the musky, oily stench of stale bodily fluids.

Looking around the room, you see an odd mix of large stuffed animals, crystal pony figurines, mylar butterfly balloons, a life-size portrait of Rick Bannon, and a bunch of old, rusty medical equipment.

You become aware of someone singing off-key Cariah Marey songs in the bathroom to your right.

If you try to locate your pants, scroll down to PAGE #2.
If you make a break for the door, scroll down to PAGE #3
If you investigate the singing, scroll down to PAGE #4


PAGE #2
You search the floor frantically, trying to locate your pants. There's something horribly wrong about this house, and while your first instinct is to get the fuck out as quickly as possible, you would prefer doing so with something covering your filthy genitals.

After several minutes of searching for pants to cover your shameful nudity, a raspy voice calls to you from the bathroom.

“If you're looking for your clothes, you left them in here, lover.”

If you go into the bathroom to retrieve your pants, scroll down to PAGE #4
If you make a break for the door, scroll down to PAGE #3



PAGE #3
Overcome with a sense of impending doom, you decide to ignore your nudity and make a break for the front door.

“Mother fucking shit!” you yell as you discover that what you thought was the front door is actually an oven, and not because it at all resembles an oven, but because your parents were alcoholic first cousins.

If you decide to leave through the oven anyway, scroll down to PAGE #7
If you decide to head back toward the bathroom, scroll down to PAGE #4
If you decide to leave through one of the windows, scroll down to PAGE #8


PAGE #4
You walk towards the open door. As you approach, the singing stops and the person in the bathroom lets out a coy giggle.

“Come on in, Lover-boy.” says a raspy, but playful voice.

You poke your head through the doorway.

Oh fuck!! It actually is Cariah Marey!! She's lying in a bubble bath, nonchalantly sawing away at her left leg with a rusty hacksaw.

If you ask her why the fuck she's sawing off one of her legs with a rusty hacksaw, scroll down to PAGE #5
If you make a break for the door to the apartment, scroll back up to PAGE #3
If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll down to PAGE #6


PAGE #5

“Cariah Marey, you old so-and-so! Why the fuck are you sawing off your left leg with a rusty hacksaw?”

Cariah proceeds to give you a long, incredibly incoherent answer involving rainbows, by which time she has completely severed her left leg.

She giggles and points at a heap of clothes on the floor.

“You left your pants in here last night, after we copulated in the shower.”

You complement Cariah on aptly describing any sexual intercourse that may have occurred with the most cold, unappealing word possible.

She thanks you, then begins sawing away at her other leg.

If you make a break for the door to the apartment, scroll up to PAGE #14
If you attempt to staunch her bleeding by making a tourniquet with your belt, scroll down to PAGE #9.
If you grab your pants and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Rick Bannon, scroll down to PAGE #10
If you grab your pants, put them on and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Rick Bannon, scroll down to PAGE #11
If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll down to PAGE #6


PAGE #6
You decide to take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family.

Wow. Cariah has a fucked up concept of family. She keeps insisting that she actually gave birth to her stuffed animals and that they love her and call her Mommy-Ma-Ma.

Also, wow. You actually chose to take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family. Hi-five!

When you finish, she asks you to light a match.

If you light a match, scroll down to PAGE #12
If you ignore her request and don't light a match, scroll down to PAGE #13


PAGE #7
You decide to attempt to leave by using the oven, anyway. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, you discover that it is not a gas oven or even an electric oven, but an oversized E-Z-Bake oven, and there are several mold encrusted pizza boxes and a rancid Hungry Man Turkey Dinner inside.

If you decide to head back toward the bathroom, scroll back up to PAGE #4
If you charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Nick Cannon, scroll down to PAGE #10


PAGE #8


You approach the window. Oh wait, you're an inbred cretin with fetal alcohol syndrome. What you thought was a window is actually a portrait of an extremely waspy looking Jesus.

You fall to your knees and begin sobbing, your spirits completely crushed.

If you try to locate your pants, scroll up to PAGE #2.
If you investigate the singing, scroll up to PAGE #4


PAGE #9

Wait, why the hell would you do that?
If you make a break for the door to the apartment, scroll up to PAGE #14
If you grab your pants and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Nick Cannon, scroll down to PAGE #10
If you grab your pants, put them on and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Nick Cannon, scroll down to PAGE #11
If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll back up to PAGE #6


PAGE #10

You scoop your pants off the floor and dash toward the nearby portrait of Rick Bannon. Ah ha! Remembering that your parents were alcoholic first cousins, you realize that your shitty inbred mind had mistaken a door for a portrait of Rick Bannon!

You step out onto the front porch, right as the real Rick Bannon is getting back from a night out alone. He sees you leaving his apartment. You are still naked from the waist down because you did not bother to put on those pants. Only instead of murdering you for making him into a cuckold, he assumes there's a reason you don't have any pants on and takes his own pants off.

You look at each other for several long, awkward seconds.

You clear your throat.

He looks at his watch.

And then you are both hit by a bus.

You spend the next thirty years of your life in a coma. Eventually, Cariah pulls the plug on you. Somehow, this actually causes you to wake up. She's wearing a creepy vinyl nurse costume and has had extensive plastic surgery to supposedly retain her youthful features, but really, she looks like a partially melted wax doll.

You have a stroke and slip back into another, deeper coma.

You come to again, another twenty years later, and promptly die of old age.

THE END

PAGE #11

You scoop your pants off the floor and put them on, then dash toward the nearby portrait of Rick Bannon. Ah ha! Remembering that your parents were alcoholic first cousins, you realize that your shitty inbred mind had mistaken a door for a portrait of Rick Bannon!

Crashing through the door, you stumble into daylight and sweet, sweet freedom. Or so you think.

Immediately after thanking God for getting you out of that nightmarish hellhole, you hear someone blowing on conch shells. Turning around, you see an advancing army of filthy orangutans. Before you have time to remove your pants and display your dominance, their leathery paws drag you to the ground and tear you to shreds.

THE END

PAGE #12

You strike a match across your teeth like a cartoonish villain. For a brief second, you notice the rippling effect of a gas leak, then everything goes white.

You, Cariah Marey, her fucked up stuffed animals and rusty medical equipment and probably Nick Cannon's suffocated remains are vaporized in the ensuing explosion.

Thank God!

THE END

PAGE #13

You ignore Cariah's pleas to light a match, and let her baste in the stench of your bowels.

You collect your pants from the heap on the floor, triggering a bear trap, which completely severs your left foot.

Cariah thrashes about in the tub, moving the stump that once was her left leg around and singing a song about how the two of you are now twins.

The last thing you hear as you bleed out is her awful, vocal warbling.

THE END

PAGE #14

Overcome with a sense of impending doom, you decide to ignore your nudity and make a break for the front door.

“Mother fucking shit!” you yell as the you discover that what you thought was the front door is actually an oven, and not because it at all resembles an oven, but because your parents were alcoholic first cousins.

If you decide to leave through the oven anyway, scroll up to page #7
If you decide to head back toward the bathroom, scroll down to page #15
If you decide to leave through one of the windows, scroll down to page #8


PAGE #15

You skulk back to the bathroom, resigned to the wretched fate of being Cariah Marey's living plaything. Seeing as how you just mistook the oven for the front door, you probably are stupid enough to actually find Cariah Marey pleasant and even talented.

Once back in the bathroom, you find that Cariah has now completely severed both of her legs and is in the middle of grafting a pair of pink vinyl pony legs onto her stumps. She's singing happily about her new Lover-boy and pointing at you every time she mentions this unfortunate schmuck.

If you attempt to burn you eyeballs out with a curling iron, scroll down to PAGE# 16.
If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll down to PAGE #6


PAGE #16

With the soul-crushing realization that you are doomed to a future of gecko ankle tattoos and vocal warbling, you search around the bathroom, looking for something – anything - you could use to end your life. While looking around, you notice your pants lying next to the tub, and shudder at the implications.

You grab a curling iron from a cabinet under the sink and plug it in, intent on burning through your eyeballs, into your brain. In the few moments it takes for the iron to warm up, you attempt to make small-talk with Cariah.

She's fine. Her favorite color, of course, is pink. No, you may not call her “Mimi”. Working with the ODB was fun because he was always calling her vacuous. She doesn't know what that means, but it sounds funny!

Thank God! The curling iron has finally gotten hot! You hold it in front of your face for a second, smelling the mix of electric heat and burning product, and say a little prayer for forgiveness.

Ow!! Fuck!! That really hurts!! What the fuck were you thinking?!! All you managed to do was blister your eyelids. Fuck!! Shit!! Ow!!

You run around the bathroom, flailing your arms, knocking shit off the walls and strewing makeup and hair products everywhere.

Finally, you regain your senses. For some reason you are still clutching the curling iron.

Cariah waves and blows a handful of bubbles at you.

If you fling the curling iron into the tub, scroll down to PAGE #17
If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll back up to PAGE #6
If you grab your pants and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Rick Bannon, scroll down to PAGE #10



PAGE #17

This is it! Using the last ounce of your strength, you fling the curling iron at Cariah, hoping to electrocute her in the tub so that you can tend to your blistered eyelids then find a way out of this nightmare.

The curling iron flies out of your hand, arcs out about two feet and comes crashing down to the floor. What the fuck? Did you think you'd found the curling iron with the world's longest fucking cord? Its still tethered to the wall, Dumb Ass!

If you take a gigantic dump in her toilet while engaging her in a conversation about the state of the American Family, scroll back up to PAGE #6
If you grab your pants and charge headfirst into a nearby portrait of Rick Bannon, scroll back up to PAGE #10