Lists Suck

http://www.complex.com/blogs/2010/08/04/what-it-look-like-our-10-favorite-video-game-character-rip-offs/comment-page-1/#comment-69740

My big pet peeve these days is how people seem to love constructing these numbered lists in articles. I’ve griped about it before, but it seems to be the trend these days (sadly, that trend means the state of writing is deteriorating). Anyway…I hate lists. It’s a lazy why to write, because what easier way is there to create controversy than to mix up the order of things? Most lists don’t even argue a point, they just list the items in a certain order and then state the merits of each item. The reader doesn’t really know why #5 is better than #2, it just is. But that’s arbitrary. It has nothing to do with writing, which includes, *gasp*, constructing an argument. God forbid someone with an opinion will have to do that in an article.

Which brings me to the link I posted above. I’m griping over this article because “ripping off” is taking something else and acknowledging it as your own, ala, plagiarizing. The creator of Metal Gear has come out to say that Solid Snake was modeled after Snake Plissken. So there goes that. If you want to talk classic ripping off, check out how Disney ripped off The Lion King from this Japanese cartoon.

Zombie Fashion

My coworker asked me this:

“So you just got bit by a zombie and you only have a short amount of time left before you become a part of the zombie horde. What is the last thing that you wear? That last bit of personality you can give to yourself before you become a zombie?”

Oh man! The possibilities! If I could get a shirt that said: “Life is overrated,” or “Will work for braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!” Then that’s what I would wear. I guess even in my zombie afterlife, I can’t live without my graphic tees.

Study/Work Music

I actually just listen to one song over and over again: Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. I was introduced to the song by the movie The Fall, which has it playing through most of the trailer:

The Fall is easily the most beautiful film I’ve ever watched. Do your eyes a favour and get your hands on the film. Anyway, my “one post a day” streak is officially over as I go back to writing my damn essay on the “profound impact of Native Indians on seventeenth and eighteenth history in North America.” So if you want to listen to what I listen to: