Tayce's Blog

Ok, so I participated in Zombie-Walk 2005. Wow, what a fantastic time.
Pictures of the event can be seen here, here, here, here,
and here.

Also, I made a website for Catamari.

Recorded some lines last night at Russell's, it was a lot of fun.

I want everyone to read this article about movies...and then cross examine the following rant that I wrote a couple years ago concerning Manny Perry:

Manny...I've got two words for you.
Fuck you.
You come on the big screen, telling me that because I know how to use a computer, I'm forcing you out of a job by downloading movies. You claim that you don't get paid because of people like me. Well Manny...I call shenanigans.
You see, what Manny doesn't want you to know is that all of the people responsible for actually MAKING the movies, such as stunt drivers, set painters and post production teams, well they all get paid regardless if the movie does well or not. How many times have you heard about a movie being halted in post-production because they ran out of money? Well if you haven't had your head up your ass like our dear friend Manny, then you would have heard about it as often as I have. Hell, even the Matrix ran out of money, Keanu had to pay out of his own pocket to get it through post production…he knew he would get his money back.
So now I ask you, Manny, what kind of a dumb-assed stunt driver would sign a contract where they have to wait until the movie was released in theatres before getting paid? And how often do the producers (who make most of the money) show up at the door of a simple stunt driver after the movie has done well with a briefcase full of money...for a job well done. That’s not bloody likely, Manny.

Oh, and another thing, why the hell are we getting anti-piracy shorts before a movie that we've just paid 13-17 of our hard earned dollars to go see?! Not exactly the right target audience. Maybe they should be releasing stuff like that on, ohhh, let's say...THE INTERNET? Put it before movie trailers, force people to watch it, don't force PAYING movie-goers to sit through your tripe.

Also...FOR THE RECORD. They basically FORCE us to download movies these days, just to tell if it’s a crappy movie and whether we should bother spending our time and money on entertainment. If Hollywood would just stop releasing SHITTY movies, then maybe we wouldn’t feel the need to ‘test the waters’.
See, back in the good old days, when it cost 5$ to go see a movie, it wasn't that big of a deal if it sucked or not. But the prices they charge for movies now are highway robbery...they call us the pirates?
MAYBE IF YOU STOPPED MAKING MOVIES THAT SUCKED we wouldn't feel the need to download them. We could just go to the theatre like we used to. I can't justify spending 13-17 dollars to go see a movie, that in all likelihood, is going to be full of derp jokes and product placement. Try making better movies, not just pushing out movies with prettier effects. If you’re going to use CG, then try and at least have a decent story present aswell. Yeah it looks pretty, but there is no substance, nothing WORTH seeing.

True, the top grossing films of the past couple of years have out-sold any previous movies...but that doesn’t mean shit. The price to go see a movie has doubled, if not tripled in the past 7 years. It's not because they are better movies.

Declining sales? Loss of interest?
Maybe the movie companies should take this as a sign that they need to release better material, spend their money on good writers and stop relying on CG to sell their crap to the masses. We won't be fooled.

So Manny?
Fuck you. That's right. You heard me.
Leave me and my geeky friends alone. The sympathy card you are trying to play, your efforts to make me feel guilty about not wasting my money on your crappy movies, they only turn to rage Manny.
I'm going to keep downloading movies until they make every movie I pay to go see worth the money I paid for it.
Maybe, my dear friend Manny, you should be more concerned about the fact no one needs stunt drivers anymore…because it can all be done from a computer.

What the world needs more of is science...
Science and ninjas.

From The Guardian:

March 14 "A boy aged two was shot in the head by his four-year-old brother after a squabble over a toy and a churchgoer opened fire on fellow worshipers, killing seven of them, in a weekend of gun violence across America."

March 22
" · Teenager shot dead five students and teacher
· Grandfather and security guard also killed
· Gunman, named as Jeff Weise, 16, committed suicide
· 14 others wounded, 2 critical "

May 31 "A high school student is thought to have gone on a shooting rampage hours before his graduation ceremony, killing three members of his own family and two other people before turning the gun on himself.

The bodies of Moody's grandparents, Gary Shafer, 67, and Sharyl Shafer, 66 - who last week placed an advertisement in the local Bellefontaine Examiner newspaper wishing him "Good luck in your future!" - were discovered in a farmhouse a quarter of a mile away. "

July 12 "Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a toddler as she was being used as a human shield on Sunday, officials said.

The suspect also died and an officer was wounded."

August 3 "A girl aged six accidentally shot and killed her two-year-old brother while playing with their father's gun at their home in Montgomery City, Missouri."

By the last Census poll, there are 281,421,906 people in the United States. From here on out, almost all measurements are my own calculations from the the metric system. I will be slightly off by statistical standards. My point is not for 100% scientific accuracy. The land mass of the United states is 5,983,240 square miles. This makes for roughly 47 people every square mile. Now, China has 330 people every square mile. Germany, 600/SqM. The Netherlands has almost 1200 people every square mile. It has been calculated that every person in the world could fit into Texas, with 1269 square feet to themselves.

There are only two countries with a higher land mass than our: Russia and Canada. (China is roughly 20,000 square miles smaller than us.)

So. We are the third largest country in the world, with an incredibly low amount of people proportionally (and the second lowest of the superpowers, I believe.) Since the Civil War, there have only been two major attacks to our country, and one of them occurred in the largest war ever (based on the amount of countries, death toll, property damage, etc.). Now, I was pretty sure that we had the highest amount of non-war gun violence before I got curious the last few nights. What I wasn't aware of is how big the gap was. I have combed through several reputable news sources, and a few not-so-reputable. Granted, it was a quite wide toothed comb, as I am a little pressed for time; nonetheless, it's impossible to find so much gun violence in ANYother country. It's incredibly hard to find school shootings outside of the U.S. And you will not see article after article of children under the ages of ten killing their friends and siblings day after day.

Other countries absorb the same banal action films. Millions of kids around the globe play Grand Theft Auto just like me, and probably get just as excited at a good killing spree as I do. We all listen to our "Dangerous" music, be it Manson or J-pop or hip hop or Britney. Everybody (but me, I say with a hint of pride) watches TV. So what's the difference? What causes the gap? Availability of weaponry? The NRA would say no, but then again, Phillip J. Morris is just admitting to trying to kill me. Bad upbringing? Every parent of every child killed had the gun in their purse or closet or chester drawer, loaded with no safety on, but they'd tell you that they told their child to never, never, play with Mommy or Daddy's gun. You could cynically argue that, with our freedom, Man's viciousness is just being allowed to play itself out, as it has many times before. I would have to cynically retort, though, that we are far less free than some might think, and certainly less free than some countries with much less of this kind of pattern. So what is it? Why is the deluge of violence in our hands?

From The Associated Press (in an article about Stem Cell Research, no less):

August 3 (in reference to terrorists) "They are narrow-minded people, don't tolerate human rights, women's rights, don't tolerate dissent. There's no such thing as rule of law as far as they're concerned - that they're cold-blooded killers." -George W. Bush

The inclusion of the above comment may seem like I'm suggesting that our leadership is to blame, but that is not necessarily the case. I just find the quote hauntingly relevant. I am also haunted by the fact that people who want to preserve their way of life, however strange it may be to us, are labeled terrorists, while we idly sit by and watch the children of our nation, the people of our nation, kill each other over and over, with no reason and no lesson.

To quote on David Cross:

"I saw an ad for electric scissors during a break from The Simple Life....and I think of that every time George Bush says 'The terrorists hate our freedom. What the fuck? I hate our freedom! Is this all we've done with it?"

So I got a copy of that Carmen Electra 'Fit To Strip' dvd.
Maybe it's just me...but it's pretty lame.
I mean...if you don't know how to dance..I guess it would be helpful, and yeah it is a workout, but it's sort of ridiculous at the same time.

I learnt a couple new moves that would be kinda neat...but I also have no one to strip for, so it's sort of like buying really expensive underwear if you have no one to wear them for.