Nov 16 2009

A Lesson in the Subtle Influence of Chair Sizes

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In this article, we discuss the importance of having properly sized chairs.  But first, a true story from the distant past….

The scene begins:  you are a young child and are off exploring in the deep green and vast woods (how you as a child ended up in the woods alone is another story entirely).  Your curious and audacious personality lead you deeper and deeper into the timberland maze, and you wonder what perils await you…

Oh No! A Bear!

Oh No! A Bear!

Just then, a black bear of pure monstrous size appears a mere meters away.  His appearance is more than threatening, and you begin to wonder if you can hold in your imminent and nervous induced urination despite the irony of being surrounded by nature’s bathroom.  The bear puts on a show of pure confidence and ferocity, displaying both his hulking muscle as well as his razor sharp teeth.

Oh man is this thing scary, it probably has power, courage, and wisdom (all three triforces!).  You wonder if you’ll ever make it out of these woods alive, and you’re too speechless to cry for help.  As your mind finally begins to clear and pass the threshold of pure shock and angst, you begin to see this ferocious beast in his true form.  You take a moment to observe a broadened view of your surroundings…

What the hell...

What the hell...

Is he sitting in a tiny chair and drinking tea?  What a wuss!  You immediately go on the offensive and charge this bulking lump of lard, throwing down a few karate moves.  The bear retreats moments later, full of cowardice and shame.

This, my friends, is an extremely important lesson in chair sizes.  If this bear had been perched upon a throne, like in the Golden Compass or something, than you would have ended up on his plate (you and your crappy karate uniform).  The fact is that this bear, having sat in a tiny chair, greatly lessened his credibility and overall appearence.

Which brings me to my most important point.  Big things trying to sit in small chairs is always really really funny.  There is no scientific way to describe this, it is part of the chaotic and unpredictable part of our world.  Well, maybe not entirely because on average, I have found that a chair must be at least half as large as the minimum sized fitting chair for a patron sitting in it to become funny.

elfHollywood is “down with this”, as they have exploited the raw humor of big people in small chairs on several occasions.  In fact, the whole first half of Elf was an elongated joke credited to how funny it is for Will Ferrell to try sitting on tiny chairs.  Billy Madison was no different.  Why billymadisonwere the kindergarden and first grade class scenes more enjoyable?  That’s right…because Billy was forced to sit in small chairs.  As soon as he went to third grade, they knew they had to change gears, and went with the obvious and honorably mentioned “Want to have sex with my teacher” approach, which like I said is somewhat worthy, but still does not compare to small chairs and big people.  Take notice of the real estate discrepancy between Billy’s small chair and the sexy teacher on the movie’s cover.  This is a clear microchosm of the relative humor associated with each joke.

There is one party, however, who does not benefit from the hilarity of tiny chairs.  We speak of course of those big people who actually sit in tiny chairs.  Elf, Billy Madison, and our beloved bear above each suffered from extreme ridicule due to the nature of their miniature stools.  Thus, an important lesson must be taught to the people of this world.  DO NOT SIT IN A CHAIR THAT IS TOO SMALL FOR YOU!  It will ruin your interview, your date, or your authoratative power.  Last year alone, over 10 million people reported decreased standards of living directly related to sitting in tiny chairs.  Don’t be a fool…it could happen to YOU!


Oct 29 2009

Facebook Birthday Application: The Zenith of Lazy

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birthdayIt was my birthday yesterday, and like many birthday boys these days I received copious amounts of birthday wishes via my facebook wall.  Now, most of us would admit that facebook has revolutionized the way we connect to and keep in touch with our friends.  To be honest with you though, I was surprised at the number of random people from my past who took the time to comment on my wall.  Of course I know that they logged in and facebook said “Hey it’s Mark’s birthday”, but they still took the three seconds to acknowledge that they saw said advertisement.

Like the sick bastard I am, my thoughts wandered and I found myself wondering if any of these people had an automated program that posted on the walls of daily birthday celebrants (I can’t accept that all of these people might actually give a shit about my day…haha).

facebookAnyways, my conclusion was that it would be awesome if someone wrote a simple facebook app that would automatically post a message of your choice onto any of you friends walls on their respective birthdays.  This way you could fool all of your important friends into thinking that you aren’t a selfish and incompetent fool.

Of course the core functionality of this application would be a simple programming task.  However, more complicated versions could contain personalized messages for different groups of friends, and other various settings.  Also, it would be nice to provide people with a meta-language that helped personalize messages.  For example…

“Hey <user-firstName>, Happy Birthday\n\n

<if(today.isShortlyBeforeChristmas() AND user.group()==groups.HomeTown) then insert\”Will you be home for the holidays this year\”"

Haha…of course, you better verify your programming skills, or you might be sending your friends from China some very cryptic birthday messages.  Either way though, I think that this would be a great way to avoid a daily and painful facebook process, while still including the necessary personal touch.

I propose a new version of the Turing Test, if you can write your automatic facebook birthday messages without anyone noticing that you aren’t actually doing shit, then you’ve created an intelligent machine…you monster!


Oct 28 2009

The Mega Man X Bosses Need a Little Love Too…

mega_man_x_coverart

Looks like this one might actually be fun!

Every real nerd enjoys a good Mega Man game. So much in fact that we tend to form arbitrary and emotional opinions regarding the quality of the game’s elements, especially the infamous boss robots (in this case). Many biased lists have appeared that attempt to rate the best and/or worst bosses of the series (including this one…http://retro.ign.com/articles/885/885610p1.html). However, too few of these lists include the Mega Man X series, which is newer, cleaner, and more fun (right?).


Thus, I present to you the best and worst of the Mega Man X bosses. In particular, I will try to convey the emotions that these bosses uniquely brought out in me, and why those emotions lead me to either like or dislike the character. I’ve decided to choose a standout characters from the first five games only.

Launch Octopus (Arbitrary Greatness Score = 1 Trillion)

launch_octopus

Oh yea! Brains AND Brawn

This guy is the epitome of badass. First of all, he’s a frickin octopus. The Mega Man X bosses are inspired by various animals, and what is more intimidating and threatening than an octopus. I know I was always scared of them, and thus I am scared of the Mega Man manifestation. In addition to his natural form, Launch Octopus is full of attitude. At the beginning of a battle, he taunts Mega Man with the classic “you’re going down” gesture. As far as his attacks go, Launch Octopus mixes long range missile attacks with close quarters combat.

Launch Octopus is a great boss because he combines these elements above to create a character whom the player fears and is genuinely intimidated by. Thus, he easily tops the charts as the best Mega Man X boss of all time (he’s even better than some of those NES Mega Man Bosses…yes I’m talking to you Charge Man…you big dumb fuck train).

Duff McWhalen (Arbitrary Greatness Score = 3.14)

Remind you of anyone?

Remind you of anyone?

Duff McWhalen is a pretty sweet boss. Sure he’s clearly a rip off of classic whale antagonists such as Moby Dick and Monstro, but there is always room in my heart for another giant pussy whale.

I mean, seriously, what is more threatening than having a Whale eat you alive!?

Wait…what?…oh…he doesn’t eat you…uh huh…uh huh…oh he just throws ice cubes at you?…goddamnit…Alright everyone show’s over! I’m gonna go play some Mega Man 3, everyone knows that’s where the real action is anyway … screw you Mega Man X creators…and sorry Charge Man, I actually like you a lot.

Don't Mess With the Classics!

Don't Mess With the Classics!