The Writer's Poke

This is the reaction that convinced McCain that he needed a hot chick to add some excitment to his campaign.

Which is better: Blogger or Word Press? When I began blogging a couple of years ago, I started using Blogger. It's easy to use, and I like some of its features -- like letting you know when a link is last updated. But its templates are pretty boring. This week, I started playing around with Word Press. I like the templates better, and it has the ability to add different tabbed pages -- a feature Blogger lacks. It's also much easier to create a pretty cool header background/photo with Word Press. On the downside, Word Press apparently only gives you 3 GB of space; need more and they charge you. Blogger's space is free and unlimited. So I was toying around with moving my blog over to Word Press, but for now I think I'll keep my main blog on Blogger. I still want to play around with Word Press, though, so I'm going to move my Writer's Poke posts to their own Word Press blog --> http://www.writerspoke.wordpress.com/ What's your opinion? Is Word Press better o...

As Homer would say, "Mmmm... beer. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

The best Republican president of the 20th century was probably Ronald Reagan. The man could deliver a speech, and the country loved him. Why do the Republicans hate Barack Obama for being able to do exactly what Reagan was most famous for? What makes Obama's ability bad and Reagan's ability good? This is what I hate about politics. It's the hypocrisy. If you don't like a person's political views, fine, but don't attack a characteristic that you would otherwise praise if the candidate was of your party. And as a writer, I'm offended when Republicans now claim, as Palin did in her speech tonight, that memoirs and speeches don't matter, aren't really "doing anything" and don't have the ability to promote real change.

Sarah Palin's acceptance speech tonight was full of attacks on Barack Obama. If Hillary Clinton had delivered some of the lines in her speech, people would have called her a "bitch." Palin, however, will probably get away with her comments. That's very unfortunate. Notice the difference between how these two campaigns have been run. McCain's campaign is negative and always attacking. Obama's campaign has always tried to rise above politics. So, who's really putting their country first? The Republican party, a party I've identified with my entire life, is really turning me off and driving me away.

Yeah, it's a fake, but a pretty good fake. http://www.joeydevilla.com/

Pretty funny stuff. http://www.joeydevilla.com/

Ricky Gervais is a comic god. :)

If you enjoyed Sin City and Planet Terror as much as I did, then may I present to you Director Robert Rodriguez's latest project: Red Sonja . Slated for a 2009 release, the movie stars Rose McGowan in the lead role. For those that don't know, Red Sonja is a character from the Conan the Barbarian comic book series. The last time she made it to the big screen was 1985, when Brigitte Nielson played the part. Click on the link for an interview with the cast and crew: http://www.superherohype.com/news/featuresnews.php?id=7546

http://www.fleshmap.com/listen/music.html For Writers: Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg studied 10,000 songs to determine what body part received most lyrical attention. For Gospel and Blues, hands were the number one body part, while the ass was the favorite body part of Hip Hop, earning a mention in over 20% of all Hip Hop songs. But for eight of the eleven musical genres analyzed, eyes were the most popular. Why are the eyes so important? Granted, vision is our most important sense, and we gather most of our knowledge, including how callipygous someone is, through sight. But there must be more to it than that. Interestingly, hands ranked high across all genres. Is it because the sense of touch is second only to vision in importance, or do eyes and hands act as metaphors, representing ideas and values far greater than just a part of the body? What's your favorite body part? Write a song about it. OR Is there any part of your body that you would change? If so, which part? Wh...

Unlike some of the crap I post on this blog, this is apparently a legitimate story. According to BBC News, in 2005 the Cambodian government allowed 42 midgets to fight a lion. The President of the Cambodian Midget Fighting League ( CMFL ) thought that his midgets could beat anyone or anything. After 12 minutes, 28 midgets were dead, and the rest were severely injured . Boy, I'm glad we live in the 21st century. Click the link for the full (true) story: http://www.fmft.net/archives/BBC_NEWS.htm

Do Barack Obama or Sarah Palin have enough experience to be president? This question really bothers me as partisan political supporters will say that one does while the other doesn't, depending on which political party they happen to support. To me, the "experience debate" just makes people end up sounding very hypocritical and stupid. Let's be honest. It's not really about experience at all, is it? Why would you care how much experience a candidate has if you didn't agree with his or her positions on the issues? In the end, it's positions and political philosophies that really matter.

What are you going to be doing in 20 years? Perhaps you'll be nominated VP to a major political party ticket. In 1988, Sarah Palin was just a sportscaster for a local Alaska network affiliate. And now, she somehow claims to have more "experience" than Barack Obama. Of course she does have five kids to Obama's two, but I don't think that's the kind of experience she's claiming. However, at the 40 second mark of this clip, she does utter the phrase "beaver roundup."

For Writers: Over the past twenty years, songs about touching have been quite popular. Samantha Fox's 1986 hit "Touch Me" began the trend. This was the song that every 13 year old boy had been waiting for. England's Page 3 Girl turned pop singing sensation was just "begging for you" to touch her. And all was right with the world. A few years later, Cathy Dennis decided the time was right for a less slutty "Touch Me" tune. But even though Cathy had a more innocent -- almost Debbie Gibson-like -- approach, she still suggested that it would be alright for you to touch her, "all night long." This was a message that resonated with 17 year old boys, making the song, which was otherwise quite gay-sounding, perfectly acceptable to listen to. 1991 was something of a breakthrough year, as The Divinyls decided to put their own twist on the touching idea, suggesting that the listener didn't need to be a participant. Lead singer Christina Amphlett...

Ah, the Accordion Guy does it again. This is his response to the rather pathetic $3 Obama bill that some Republicans have been passing around. http://www.joeydevilla.com/ Click on the smiling McCain for a bigger view.

Back in April, blogger Jeff Fecke speculated that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was a possible contender for the Republican VP slot. Why Palin and not Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice? Here's Mr. Fecke's take on Palin, Hutchinson, and Rice: " Palin's an attractive woman, and that's pretty much the only reason why she shows up on these lists. Still, she appeals to the same type of thinker that Condi Rice appeals to -- the folks who think that if the GOP just puts a woman on the ticket, women will vote for them, despite the fact that Palin's primary feminist credential comes from her membership in Feminists for Life. That's not to say that Palin doesn't have a reasonably bright political future; indeed, in 2012, she well could be on the short list for V.P. But right now, she's served a grand total of fifteen months in Juneau, and Juneau isn't exactly the hub of American politics. Although if McCain could sw...

The curse of being pretty is, no one takes you seriously for your mind. Trust me, Sarah, I know the feeling. That's one hot lego.

This picture offers one theory for why McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate instead of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Palin looks better than Pawlenty in an evening dress, I'm guessing, and when Alaska builds bridges to nowhere, they don't collapse.