Culture

Virtual Reality Introversion

I'm pretty sure that in my lifetime virtual reality systems will become commonplace. They may not be at a level that’s indistinguishable from reality but they will be good enough that people will spend a lot of time in them.

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Signs of the Impending Apocalypse

I had the idea of starting a new blog titled “Signs of the Impending Apocalypse”. It would feature stories of the worst in human behavior as well as showcasing celebrities, new products, or entertainment that I see as examples of incredible stupidity. Then I realized there is already something very similar. It’s called “The News.”

Anyway, here’s my list for today:

• 20 Different Flavors of Coke
• Comic Sans penetration nearing critical mass
• Candy dispensers in the form of pooping animals
• Bikini Baristas
• Indiana Jones 4 (not because it’s stupid, but because I never thought I'd live to see it come to fruition) Yikes, it was stupid.

I Used To Believe

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11 (NIV)

I recently came across I Used To Believe, a site full of the strange and humorous ideas people remember from childhood. I was surprised that so many similar fantastic ideas are arrived at independently among children. I never really realized that child logic, which is such a separate and independent form of cognition, would deduce so many similarities between individuals.

Here are a few of my own childhood ideas that I recalled while browsing the site:

• Reports of Guerilla Warfare on the news conjured images of soldiers fighting armed gorillas in the jungle.
• The television PSA’s against Drinking & Driving pertained to any drink, and I scolded my mom for drinking a Pepsi in the car.
• Every intersection in the city had a control room beneath the street filled with municipal employees whose job was to monitor the traffic and change the stop lights accordingly.

Modest Discovery

I've often wondered what would happen if there was a true discovery of a lost book of the Bible. Rather than something revelatory that would devastate the foundations of the Church it would probably be a modest work that would simply enhance what is already in the Bible.

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Oscar Predictions

It’s that time of year again. I haven’t seen many of this year’s Oscar nominees but I felt obliged to take a stab at what the future might hold for this most prestigious of award ceremonies.

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Cat Nativity?

We got a Christmas gift catalog in the mail filled with tasteless gift ideas. The catalog’s cover features a “Cat Nativity”. The set depicts the classic nativity scene, with all the main players represented by anthropomorphic cats, with an adorable sleeping kitty representing the Newborn King. What’s next, a kittyfied Jesus on the cross?

Hand Clapping

What is applause all about? Why all the hand clapping? It feels so primitive, banging our meaty appendages together as a show of collective approval. We’ll watch an elaborately rehearsed symphony concert, performers who've dedicated their lives to perfecting their expertise on delicate instruments. They’re showing us the culmination of Western culture.

All we can offer in response are meat sounds?