Doctor Who is Dead to Me

Hey y'all.  I know, I know, I should have my next Top Ten Top Ten up.  But I have college, and naps are important to my health.  Besides that, I found something else I really wanted to talk about: Doctor Who.  It's all over the bookstore I work at now.  There's scarves, hats, TARDIS cookie jars, salt shakers, LEGO sets, magnetic floaty TARDISes, Dr. Who Yatzee, and tons of T-shirts.  Now, if only all this had come out when the show was doing better.

So, I was watching Dr. Who again the other day.  Quite frankly, I dread it.  On the one hand, I've liked it in the past and I want to keep up with it, but on the other, I just don't want to see them ruin it anymore. 

Top Ten Most Annoying Things in Youtube Top Ten Lists

Hey y'all.  So I'm working on my Top Ten Top Tens worst/most hated/most annoying video game character list, and that'll be done probably later this week (school and work exist), but now that I've started, I'd like to share with you some things that just annoy the crap out of me as I'm watching these videos.  Chances are, you do too.  You probably don't watch as many top tens as I've had to for my blog posts, but that doesn't mean that some of them just plain piss you off.  The point of a video is to be entertaining, right?

So, here's something to tide you over until later.  Top ten most annoying things in top ten lists!!!

A Nerd's Guide to Surviving Plane Rides.

Hey y'all.  I just got back from a trip this weekend, and let me tell you, planes make me nauseous.  I'm not afraid of flying or anything like that, just pressure buildup in my stomach and ears.  I once made it to China with a blocked ear and couldn't hear right for three days.

But I just went down to Texas, so no fifteen hours on a plane for me.  Only three.  That, however, doesn't mean my stomach handled it better.  And on this particular trip, I got some inspiration for surviving the trip.  My biggest piece of advice happens to be really nerdy.

So we've all heard the advice about chewing gum, sucking on candy, and yawning.  These are all nice hints and tidbits, but speaking from experience, they are all slighlty better than useless.  They can relieve only a little bit of your pressure, but if you're feeling grouchy or uncomfortable, they won't help you.  That, and for some reason chewing gum in the air for a while makes my stomach feel weird.  Probably something to do with the pressurized cabin and whatnot.

In any case, the absolute best advice I can give you on an airplane is to be calm.  Be relaxed.  Get enough sleep the night before.  Being afraid of the flight (or of the nausea) will only cause you to feel sick, and thus end up fearing the flight even more.  Bringing a travel pillow and a blanket are good ideas as well. 

But what if you don't have a pillow or a blanket, and you've already found out that airplane equivalents are worthess?  What if you stayed up late packing and didn't sleep much?  Or what if you're just darn scared of crashing?  So now you're on the plane and it's about to take off.  What do you do?

Football: Manning vs. Tebow.

Hey y'all.  So you might not expect that a nerd such as myself would like football, but I do.  It's like a language: it helps you communicate with all kinds of different people.  Someone who is nothing like you but is also a fan of football can be approached by talking about all kinds of football things, even if you're not going for the same team.

I wanted just to make a little comment on stuff going on in the Denver Bronco realm.  Yes, they are my team, and have been basically since I was born.  I am a little sad about them getting rid of Tim Tebow, but honestly, you really can't blame them for wanting a Manning when they had the chance.  It's just business.

In any case, as you know, the Denver Broncos lost their playoff bid this past Saturday.  I'm actually pretty upset at this, as it was my brother's wedding, and it would have been a very nice cherry on top of the day if the Broncos had actually won.  For the first half of the game, my brother actually pulled a tv out of the trunk of his car and let us watch the game at his own reception.  The people at the wedding, though from several different states, were all Bronco fans (or football indifferent). 

It would have been too good if Manning had actually pulled it off.  But no.  He threw two interceptions, one enabling a quick score in the first quarter, and another in overtime that cost them the game.  Granted, the game sounded pretty exciting (I was at a restaurant for the second half, and we were checking twitter for scores) as the scores were tied for most of the game.  Until Manning's last interception.  My only consolation was that Tim Tebow has more playoff wins than Manning.

I like Tim Tebow.  He's a cool guy, and well, kinda cute.  Kinda really cute.  I think it was sort of ghetto for Denver to boot him out (come on, he took you from a losing season to the playoffs!) and extremely ghetto for the Jets to ignore him.  I hope a team will keep him around for a while and let him show off his stuff.  Come on, Elway, does anyone have to remind you what you were like your rookie year?

So Peter Tebow, Tim's brother, makes a comment on Twitter about Tebow doing better in the playoffs than Manning.  And then the next day he apologizes, because honestly, it's not really the best thing to say for someone so closely involved.  However, I support his right to say it.  That is exactly how many football fans feel.  Manning's sudden inclusion on the team jolted a lot of people, even who weren't necessarily Tebow fans.  Thus, he has to justify himself.  I kinda thought it would be a lot easier for him, but maybe the Ravens just knew what they were doing or something.

Anyway, football fans are nuts.  Have you heard the kinds of things Skip Bayless and his fellow commenters say?  Sometimes the truth is biased.  And it's the simple truth that Tebow has more playoff wins than Manning.  And if some of us smile at this, well, let us have our summer.  There's always next year for Manning. 

The Principle of Reasonable Explanation

Hey y'all.  You're probably wondering about that title.  Well, the principle of reasonable explanation basically goes like this: people in general will buy an explanation that seems reasonable even without proof that this reasonable explanation is true.

For example, take the story of the nine blind men touching the elephant.  Each of them are touching a different part of an elephant, like the tail, nose, or leg, and each of them say that his piece is what an elephant is like.  This is a little philosophy story to basically say that all people know a piece of the truth, and the real truth of the elephant can only come by putting all the pieces that the blind men have together.  Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?  Only there are several problems with this metaphor.

For one thing, no blind guy is just going to hang on to one piece of the elephant.  They're going to go, "huh, what's this attached to?" and keep investigating.  They'll eventually figure out that all the parts of the elephant are all attached.  And what is the elephant doing?  Just standing there?  I don't know much about elephants, but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't like being surrounded by nine touchy-feely dudes. 

Also, what if one of the guys wasn't touching the elephant?  What if he was touching a giraffe, or a hamster, or a rock?  What if he's touching nothing at all, but merely pretending he is so that he can either feel included or sound smart?  What if he thinks the others are just making up a creature called an "elephant" and get mad at them for not "admitting that they're making it all up"?

Nitpickery: The Search for Jackie Chan

Hey y'all.  So, one of my favorite movies is a Chinese film, called The Search for Jackie Chan.  Actually, that's the Chinese name.  The name in the english market is Jackie Chan: Kung Fu Master.  For some reason.

Look, peeps, if you're going to sell something to somebody, you have to market it for what it is.  Don't lie to your consumers.  They never like that.  That's at least half the reason why people despise Star Fox Adventures.  We looked at the cover and expected a Star Fox game, not a mediocre dinosaur story with gameplay ripped off from the Legend of Zelda.  And when an American sees a movie with Jackie Chan's name and face on the front, he generally expects a kung-fu movie with Jackie Chan as the main character.  He doesn't expect a movie about a dorky Indonesian kid on a kiddie adventure to find Jackie Chan.