“If I can’t have it, it probably sucks anyway.”

That’s the sentiment I feel like I’m deriving based on scuttlebutt chatter as Dragon*Con approaches.  As I alluded to in a prior post, there’s kind of a dour feeling in my small little world as the days tick down towards Nerdi Gras.  And it’s coming from two specific parties: people who are part of the costuming community and/or people who for whatever reason, cannot make it to Dragon*Con this year.

But the point remains is that if people aren’t fighting over opinions on what D*C is or is supposed to be, they’re deciding that it’s best if they let their own small little worlds know that they can’t make it, and that they’re glad.  It’s not being said, but there’s an implied underlying hint of resentment that they’re not going, and almost as if it’s by result, they hope it’s vastly below-par and less than satisfactory than if it were with their presences.

As for the people in the costuming community that can’t seem to get their heads out of their own asses, I’m seeing a different, albeit no less interesting phenomenon going on amongst those whom are textually sparring.  Person A makes snarky remark about a policy.  Person B gives their opinion that differs.  Parties C-G gives opinions that mirror A, while H-N show up to provide snarky, all-caps esoteric sarcasm rebuttals.  I don’t know what usually happens next, because by this point I’m usually hiding the conversation from my wall.

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O’Charley’s new logo looks like tax preparation

I passed an O’Charley’s restaurant last week while running errands, and I couldn’t help but notice the new logo and identity of the chain.   Gone are the soft edges and rounded serifs, and in its place, a text logo that looks like it could it could be typed up in any word processing software in any operating system in existence.

Somewhere out there, in the world of creative, there is an agency that employs a designer that can claim credit for this logo.  They can probably give some convoluted explanation to how they came up with what they did, how the all-caps subtitle of “restaurant + bar (note the plus sign, the clear superior alternative to an ampersand)” is done in such a way to emphasize sophistication and seriousness, despite the fact that it’s still an O’Charley’s chain restaurant.  They can probably defend that it’s more than just a simple string of text, and how it had to be specially kerned to make it look how it does, how the second apostrophe was shrunk, and how it differs from the first, single-straight quotation mark.

But what they can’t really defend is the fact that in spite of all their explanations and rationales to why the O’Charley’s logo looks the way it does now, it looks like a logo that is for like a financial institution, or maybe tax prep software.  It’s probably on account of the green that the new O’Charley’s logo is using, but everything about the new identity screams finance, and not really, food.

Someone actually got paid to make this.  Funny how an industry called “creative” so often times goes in a direction that seems to spit out the absolute antithesis of creativity, and succeed.

Forcing terminology: A Bundy

I’ve decided to start referring to good things happening in fours as “a Bundy.”  As in Al Bundy scoring four touchdowns in a single game.  Sure, the meaning behind four touchdowns in a single game has been somewhat diluted and turned into something of a joke thanks to seasons of Married… With Children, but the fact of the matter is that four touchdowns in a single game is an extraordinarily difficult task to accomplish.

Looking at the list of all-time single game records in the NFL (before it turned to shit), there are literally a single handful of guys who have managed to score five touchdowns in a single game, and slightly more guys who have managed to score four touchdowns in a single game.

Bundys.

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Sweaty ramblings

When I am doing absolutely anything other than physically exerting myself, I do not like to sweat.  I dislike sweating walking to and from Starbucks in the summer months, I do not like sweating after spending two minutes in the stifling garage looking for a particular tool.  I dislike sweat when I’m enjoying myself at a convention taking pictures, walking around and watching people.  I even dislike sweating when I’m at a baseball game, which is absolutely ludicrous considering baseball is a sport played in the summertime.

The bottom line is that when it is not time to sweat, I do not like it when my body’s core temperature has risen and it feels the need to secrete some perspiration to cool itself down.

But when it is time to sweat, not only do I not mind sweating, I actually kind of love it.

Sweating is like tangible proof of the effort I’m expending, and let’s myself and everyone who can see me know that I am probably working harder than you are.

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Wanna hear a joke?  Internet narcissism.

Over the last week or so, my Facebook friends number has dwindled a little bit.  It’s not necessarily because I’ve pissed people off to where they don’t want to be internet friends with me, it’s because some people believe that Facebook has become such a toxic environment that they don’t want to be a part of it anymore, or it’s because some people think their lives have become so expansively complicated that too high a number of friends on Facebook is apparently detrimental to everything that happens away from the internet, that they feel the need to pare down the ranks to regain some degree of composure in life.

In other words, narcissism.

It may not seem like it, but I have nothing against the unnamed people that I am referring to.  They can choose to make the decisions they want to make.  What I do find laughable though, are their seeming requirements to announce such plays to the rest of the listening internet before they make them, which I can’t help but feel is unnecessarily narcissistic, and in a passive-aggressive way, fishing for feedback.

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The door is ajar

Admittedly, I’ve had a hard time finding the motivation to write lately, which sucks a little bit more considering my general desire to have at least a post every weekday.  It’s been somewhat challenging on some days, but given the fact that there are about 17-18 waking hours of each day, usually something piques my interest, or a thought pops into my head that is adequate enough to get the words flowing.

The thing is right now, I’m apparently using a lot of my concentration these days in preparation for Dragon*Con, which as of the time I’m writing this is a hair over two weeks away.  This isn’t something that should be the least bit worrisome for your average attendee, but being one of those weirdoes that likes to have a costume for D*C means that two weeks isn’t so much a chunk of time we’re wishing to erode faster, contrarily, we’re wishing we had more of it.

Needless to say, I’m trying my hardest to not let the thoughts of doubt creep into my psyche, and make me feel like I’ve got an insurmountable boulder to drag up the hill.  I do feel as if I’m making some decent progress, in spite of the fact that I’ve had an immensely difficult time in getting the wheels turning over the summer, and in all frankness I shouldn’t be in this situation had I gotten my ass in gear at an earlier time.

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Thoughts on my first Yelp Elite event

Not a lot of people are aware of this, but I’ve been writing reviews of things on Yelp.com for like five years now.  Primarily restaurants and the occasional business, but for the most part, it’s something I’ve done that conveniently acts as something of a chronicling of my dining experiences in my travels or general living, while indulging in my general enjoyment of writing.

Obviously, there’s often discussion about the ethics of review sites like Yelp and how there are always conspiracies of sites holding small businesses hostage with bad reviews, small businesses altering their behavior at the knowledge of known reviewers, etc, etc., but all that stuff doesn’t concern me, nor do I really care about any of it.  For the longest time, I’ve been content to keep my Yelp identity hidden, behind a faceless avatar, that wrote reviews of places completely anonymously, save for the customary first name and last initial.  Something about doing it like that made me self-righteously believe that there was more integrity in doing it that way, as I thought those people who revealed themselves and under the banner of “Elite status” felt subliminal pressure to pander from time to time.

I also thought Yelp was kind of cliquey in some regards, no more apparent than when someone writes a review of a place that’s literally no more than the phrase “omg I really luv this place <3 <3 <3 !!!!”  and it’s nominated as a city-wide “review of the day,” as voted for by local peers.  Doesn’t seem like there’s much integrity in “reviews” like such.

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