Networks have noticed a mysterious disappearance of 18-34 year old males watching television this season. Maybe because we are downloading all their shows off the internet.
Input by Mike at 1:21 AM
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
The question for the day is: Is a mall a good place to hole up in case of a zombie outbreak?
George Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Max Brooks' seminal The Zombie Survival Guide seem to give us contradictory answers. In Romero's film, a group of four survivors find great safety in a shopping mall after securing the structure. All of their needs (aside from social relations) are accounted for and the mall is a large, relatively controllable environment... once it is secure. That is the important thing to emphasize. In Dawn of the Dead only two mall residents survive the process of shutting down outsider access, a sign that the task is extremely dangerous. Of course, one can argue that if early situations had been handled more wisely, the deaths could have been avoided.
Romero's mall is strangely vacant aside from a spattering of zombies. Brooks' however sets a more realistic stage of the possible overcrowding of a mall. In the early stages of an outbreak (and continuing indefinitely), malls will be points of attraction for both zombies and people. THIS MEANS DANGER! Even if you can arrange the initial arrivals into an efficient military, constant influx of outsiders and zombies would present continual problems.
In order for Romero's mall to be as vacant as it was when the heroes arrived, how many regular people would have already died at the location? This certainly doesn't say much for your odds of survival.
Still... Are the potential benefits greater than the dangers? Large parking lots give you a good scope of approaching undead, there is a large quantity variety of inherent supplies and the attraction of people means an ability to establish new trade, society and culture.
If you've got the answer, weigh in at the forums.
Input by Mike at
10:19 PM
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
No more Tuesday Morning Quarterback for awhile
beeFymojo: espn.com just ousted Gregg Easterbrook (one of their best non-sports-people-but-still-serious-about-sports columnists) presumably because of something he miswrote about Jews off-site
Moogle: Something he mis-wrote?
beeFymojo: [Edited for length: text is here in the 10.16.2003 entry.
beeFymojo: as he explains it, he didn't mean to bring in the jews-love-the-money stereotype
beeFymojo: meant more to go for, how can the victims of horrible violence also market it
Moogle: I got more of a "Jews are corrupting us" sort of thing.
Moogle: Yeah, I can see the glimmer of that argument lying in there.
beeFymojo:obviously, what he wrote was bad
Moogle: But, yeah, this is why you have people look over your work.
beeFymojo: but that is part of the problem with the quick-update philosophy of the web right now
beeFymojo: the blog mentality, so to speak
Moogle: Oh well, he'll get his foot surgically removed from his mouth, and get a job somewhere else.
beeFymojo: yeh
beeFymojo: i just hope the football column gets picked up quickly
Moogle:Uh huh
beeFymojo: i'd paste some quotes in here, but espn eradicated the whole archive
beeFymojo: it is a good thing that RF has taken a year to get its first issue out
Moogle: Yeah, otherwise you guys would totally have come across as the New Hitler Youth of the critical world, or something.
beeFymojo: and our publisher would fire us all
Moogle: Hey, speaking of insta-update and blog mentality, I've been reading Transmetropolitan...
beeFymojo: o?
beeFymojo: how is that?
Moogle: Oh, it's good.
Moogle: Especially if you have delusions of being a writer or journalist.
Moogle: But the "Feedsite" thing Ellis put in there is remarkably similar to blog-news
Moogle: Basically, people sign up to be "listeners," and run around equipped with backpacks that feed everything they see and hear into these massive website/tv station things.
Moogle: These are then filtered and turned into television.
beeFymojo: that is interesting
Moogle: A bit more centralized than modern blogs, but I could see centralized "Plastic" style hubs of "professional bloggers" who actually get good at writing or investigative journalism, or editorials, for that matter.
beeFymojo: that may be where things ultimately go
beeFymojo: it is kind of moving that way
Moogle: Especially as professional writers are starting to keep blogs of a sort...
beeFymojo: Gregg Easterbrook, incidently has one
beeFymojo: which brings us full circle to the problem of that kind of system
beeFymojo: pretty soon, we will just have rediscovered the old media publication environment
beeFymojo: i mean, if you think about it as a frontier
Moogle: Yeah, but for a few moments, right now, it can be remarkably simple to thrust yourself into literati.
beeFymojo: in the literal frontier you had people just going and living independently off the land...
beeFymojo: and here we are
beeFymojo: yeah. it's nice to have a moment
Moogle: Yup. Pay attention. This is history.
Input by Mike at
1:16 PM
Monday, October 20, 2003
Well, the Bears with Chris Chandler look a lot less volatile than with Kordell Stewart. I've been trying to figure this Kordell guy out and my basic assumption is that he's essentially a rookie who has been in the league a long time. With some good and possibly difficult coaching, he could turn his career back around and at least be considered a decent quarterback. He just makes too many rookie mistakes on a Bears team whose veterans have the injury bug. Chandler has plenty of experience and can use his limited abilities more effectively than Stewart can use his versatility. I don't like to see Chandler start, but I feel fairly calm when he does.
Maybe Kordell Stewart needs to stop trying to prove he is capable of getting out of his slump and just focus on the situation at hand. He's given the opponent the ball at the end of each first half this year, all in situations where the game was close and we could have made it, at least, closer. These aren't life-or-death moments, so don't treat them that way.
Honestly, I have no ideal. But my initial statement is probably the most true thing... The Bears with Kordell, for some reason -- whatever reason you decide, are an unstable concoction.
Super Bowl!
Input by Mike at
11:38 AM
Sunday, October 19, 2003
Kill Bill was tonight's attraction... Bought some comp tickets off a guy for $5 a pop for a sold out show. The story is funny considering a dream I had about a week ago...
My old friend Chris and I decided to go to the big Chicago premiere of Kill Bill, only we didn't have tickets. Somehow we ran into a guy from my high school who had stacks of comp tickets he was giving away. Chris, being the astute kinda guy he is, figured out the tickets were counterfit though. My response, "If they find out, the find out... but it's worth taking our chances." Soon after, I learned ticket holders would get to meet Quentin Tarantino before the film. Now, I don't know any HUGE Tarantino fans, but my imagination created every type from handwritten t-shirt-clad teeny-boppers to film geeks with scraggly hair and tiny specs. And not only was Quentin meeting his fans, but he was staging a seance' gone awry for groups of a dozen or so. I finally got into the room where the seances were being staged and while waiting for the scene to reset itself, Quentin looks at my jacket and says, "That's a good coat. It's got that classic, vintage look... That's a great coat." I humbly say thank you and in the process notice he is wearing a pair of sneakers like the ones I own. I point and say, "Same shoes too." He laughs and points out we're like evil twins and all of a sudden he's schocked. "Your shirt," he says and goes to his bag and pulls out a book and holds it up to my chest to confirm this strange occurence. I am wearing a Forlorn Funnies t-shirt, he has an issue of Forlorn Funnies. "WHOA!" is what we both say, and I am about to suggest he make a movie of Forlorn Funnies when I realize I can use such a point to get a creative "in" with Mr. Tarantino once we get a chance to talk more.
Well, in the back of the room is a fanboy type guy I went to college with, who is upset by the parrallels between me and the director. He starts teasing me about how I'm taking the attention away from everyone else for no reason; he steps back and begins falling.
Quentin Tarantino, invoking Gene Wilders when a child falls into his river of chocolate, says matter-of-factly, "Watch out. This may be a fake seance, but that's a real bottomless pit with acid at the bottom."
I wake up before flesh begins to be eaten away.
By the way, Kill Bill is loads of fun. I'll keep anymore comments about it for the review and move on here in the blog.
Input by Mike at
1:36 AM
