Tag: Rants

Feb62012 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Five Reasons I Stopped Following Your Twitter Feed

Five Reasons I Stopped Following Your Twitter Feed

Internet
I was a fairly late Twitter adopter, only joining a few years ago. It's been a fun and sometimes enlightening experience so far, but it's come with some annoyances too. And so once in a great while I'm forced to take the drastic and life-altering step of unfollowing a feed. I know, harsh, right? So if you are one of the unfortunate souls whose tweets will no longer be reaching my eyes -- or if you want to avoid that awful fate -- here's five things to reflect upon. You're not funny and/or interesting. I post my share of banal crap, but I at least try to keep things entertaining for the most part. Not saying I succeed, but I try. Regular updates about what you're eating or wearing (especially Foursquare tweets about becoming the Mayor of some shitty bar) are no more interesting o...
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Dec142011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
All-American Fear

All-American Fear

TV & Radio
The first clue that the Florida Family Association has their collective heads up their asses should be in the name. Instead of being intellectually honest and branding his organization with a name like Scared White Fundamentalist Christians, FFA founder David Caton chose a deliberately vague moniker. After all, if you don't agree with the positions of the Florida Family Association then you must be against families, right? And what kind of monster is against families? Apparently, the monsters on TLC's now-controversial reality show All-American Muslim are. Despite TLC's transparent attempts to hide the truth, the FFA wants us to remember that all Muslims are by nature evil and anti-American. So really, Caton and his group are doing the Lord's work by exposing this cancer on society.
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Dec82011 by Chris Holmes10 Comments
Does it matter if Rush never makes it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Does it matter if Rush never makes it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Music
I've been a Rush fan for, oh, just over 20 years I suppose. It's not exactly the most exclusive club in the world, but it's not like being a fan of the Beatles or Bruce Springsteen either. In most circles, when you tell people you're a Rush fan, they give you a sideways look as if to say, "Oh, that's nice. And do you still play Dungeons and Dragons?" Then there are the pot shots taken by fellow music lovers, who stroke their beards, cluck their tongues, and talk about, "What's to be done with this band with their shrill singer, overly complex songs, clinical drummer, and lyrics about dragons and sorcery?" Ninety-nine percent of the time all that drivel rolls right off my back. But for the past dozen or so years, right about this time, I'm reminded of all the insults and all the m...
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Oct62011 by Chris Holmes7 Comments
A polite request for Steve Jobs bashers to STFU

A polite request for Steve Jobs bashers to STFU

Mental Debris
I can't pretend to be personally moved by Steve Jobs' death. I can acknowledge the impact he had on modern technology and our society, and still not be all that upset that he's no longer with us. But here's the thing -- last night, while the internet poured out its sympathy and grief over Steve Jobs, I decided that instead of being a phony I just wouldn't say anything at all. I really wish some of you Steve Jobs/Apple bashers would do the same. I read a lot of negative commentary yesterday regarding Jobs, and it seems to break down into a few major gripes. Allow me to address them here. You say: Why should I care about Steve Jobs? I don't even own an iPod. I say: Good job on demonstrating your short-sightedness. The fact that you don't own an iPod or any other Apple products, beli...
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Aug52011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Is Wikipedia dying? Thoughts from an admin and former contributor

Is Wikipedia dying? Thoughts from an admin and former contributor

Internet
Wikipedia founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales recently bemoaned the current state of the site -- specifically, he said that the number of contributors is decreasing at a rapid rate. According to an Associated Press article, Wales stated at the most recent Wikipedia conference in Haifa, Israel, "We are not replenishing our ranks. It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important." Wales cited Wikipedia's Byzantine editorial guidelines and the site's demographic challenges -- the core group of geeky men in the 20s apparently discover women eventually -- as the main reasons for the attrition. To be honest, I can't even remember the reason why I stopped actively contributing to the project. But there was a time when my involvement with Wikipedia bordered on obsession. I made my first edit ju...
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May132011 by Chris Holmes2 Comments
Save your anger, NFL fans. No one cares.

Save your anger, NFL fans. No one cares.

Sports
The last thing the internet needs is another screed about the NFL lockout, but here's mine anyway. I'm not really interested in taking sides in the toxic blame game that the NFL owners (via their squirrely mouthpiece, Roger Goodell) and the NFLPA have been engaged in for weeks. What I'm more interested in is the fans who choose to take sides, and why they do so. At this point most of the resentment seems to be aimed squarely at the league's 32 owners. They're greedy, they're just trying to screw the poor, subjugated players, they're killing the golden goose, blah blah blah. I'm not defending the owners or how they've conducted themselves throughout this whole sordid affair. But neither can I get myself whipped up into a frenzy over what they're doing. Because I recognize them for wha...
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May22011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Even though nobody asked, here are my thoughts on bin Laden

Even though nobody asked, here are my thoughts on bin Laden

Mental Debris
So Osama bin Laden is dead at last. Maybe. Probably. It's been fewer than 12 hours since I saw the news, but here are my thoughts and impressions so far: 1 -- I feel not one ounce of joy that he is dead, as this hardly means the so-called War on Terror is over. You better believe there will be another bin Laden popping up any time now. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were already plans in place for more attacks to take place in the event that bin Laden was killed or captured. 2 -- This is not the same thing as getting rid of Hitler at the end of World War II, despite many people making that clumsy comparison. This killing is a symbolic victory, nothing more. Its military or strategic value is negligible. 3 -- We lost hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives and spent billions...
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Mar12011 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
The Kasem Syndrome – 7 Classic Celebrity Meltdowns

The Kasem Syndrome – 7 Classic Celebrity Meltdowns

Listcruft
In light of Charlie Sheen (he of the fiery fists, tiger blood, and Adonis DNA) being in the midst of a full-blown public meltdown, I thought I'd recycle this post from March 24, 2008. If nothing else, it proves that Sheen is just the latest in a long line of celebrities acting with less than proper decorum. Now that Easter's over (well, one of them anyway), I thought I'd take a few minutes to celebrate anger. Not the kind of anger that starts wars or incites mindless violence, but rather the kind of anger that causes people in the public eye to make complete asses of themselves. In other words, the kind of anger we can all enjoy. So I've spent at least 20 minutes scouring YouTube for some prime examples of celebrity rage. Mind you, I'm not attempting to judge anyone here. I doubt the...
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Feb252011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Listening booth — “Charlie Sheen”

Listening booth — “Charlie Sheen”

Listening Booth, Music
Charlie Sheen hasn't just killed the golden goose with his most recent public rant against Two and a Half Men co-creator Chuck Lorre among others, he's pissed on its corpse and lit it on fire. CBS has canceled production for the rest of the season, although they have not killed the show outright (damn!). Anyway, I can think of no better song to play right now than "Charlie Sheen" from the King's X album Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous, so here it is. Here are the lyrics, for those scoring at home: It all works out It all works out It all works out It all works out I'm waiting for a word beyond our history And paper tigers dance about within the mystery Clover of substance I can't put my finger on And stepping over sidewalk cracks I'm catching the last one The silent wa...
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