Holiday shopping

It's Thanksgiving and instead of being able to relax, eat, and watch some football, I have to start worrying about holiday shopping. It makes me want to kill small animals.

D-bags at the gym

I'm sure everyone is aware that there are a lot of tools at the gym. You can spot them easily by the tribal tattoos and bandannas. If you can learn to laugh at these people, the gym can be a wonderful place, but there is one thing I still don't understand.

The way the water fountains are set up are similar to the ones pictured here. Two of them together, with a slightly lower one to the right of it. For some inexplicable reason, people will wait to use the taller one. I've literally seen lines of 3 people to use the taller fountain, meanwhile I just walk by all of them, using the lower one with equally satisfying water and moving on with my workout. I don't get if it's an ego thing or they're afraid of leaning over the extra inch and a half, but people are willing to wait for me to refill my water bottle (a good 20 seconds) just to use the taller fountain. When someone was trailing me to use it and saw me begin refilling my bottle, he actually walked across the gym to another one. What the fuck is that about?

Left 4 Dead

I just finished playing through the Left 4 Dead demo with 2 friends and immediately afterward, pre-purchased it for $45 through Steam. I also finally got Audiosurf for $2.49. It was just an amazingly fun experience. The number of times either "OH SHIT" or "OH FUCK" was screamed was ridiculous. Killing zombies was very much satisfying, but the only problem is that when playing without 3 other people, the remaining characters will be AI controlled. There's nothing else to indicate that this game will be anything less than awesome, so definitely check out the demo, also available on the 360, if you haven't already.

Voting

I don't buy into all the shit about people saying that you have to go out and vote. I don't want idiots that don't have any idea about any candidates voting and I'm tired of people trying to make me feel guilty. I think it's just as American to decide not to vote. Sure, I did vote, but it's because I am informed and certainly, if I didn't get around to it, I don't feel like that makes me a worse person. I do feel like it makes you a worse person if you vote and have no idea why, who, or what you're voting for.

As a friend of mine suggested, perhaps there should be some sort of simple test required in order to vote. He didn't intend on making it very difficult, but gave the sample question of "If Kim is on the chair and the chair is in the kitchen, where is Kim?" If you answer "wherever god wants her to be at the time," you will, thankfully, have no influence on the upcoming election.

Atheism

When discussing potential topics for a researched argument paper, I brought up the negative perception of mixed martial arts as well as the negative perception of atheism. My professor responded with interest saying "Yes, this seems to be a popular area of discussion. Can an atheist be a moral person?" she asked rhetorically.

If that seems like a legitimate question to you, you're a fucking idiot. Seriously, all kinds of retarded. That's like saying no one truly ethical exists. That's like saying if people didn't fear a god or gods or whatever the fuck, they would have no reason to act morally.

I'm an atheist. I have no problem admitting it. I know that I'm a good person. I was raised and influenced by good people. And it seems much more ignoble to act out of fear than kindness, doesn't it?

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

I'll start off by saying that I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan. I have seen everything he's done and I've loved just about all of it. I even thought Jersey Girl was okay, but for some reason, I wasn't too pumped for Zack and Miri. I didn't even feel the trailers were that great. Maybe it was the lack of Silent Bob or the presence of Seth Rogen leading me to believe this was going to be another Judd Apatow flick.

Either way, as soon as the movie started and that bitchin' soundtrack kicked in, I knew this was a Kevin Smith movie and I never lost that feeling. Zack and Miri is fucking hilarious. In all seriousness, this is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I wouldn't say it reaches Clerks or Mallrats in greatness, (well, practically nothing does) but this is a must see for anyone who's enjoyed anything from Kevin Smith. Even if it's just those guest spots on the Tonight Show. Seth Rogen brings his usual charm to Smith's amazing writing and Craig Robinson is awesome. Basically, you should see this movie immediately.

Metal mood

I've been getting back into my heavy metal ways lately. I've been listening to more Lamb of God, In Flames, and Pantera. I just checked out Trivium's new album Shogun. This follows up the tremendously disappointing The Crusade, and while makes improvements, didn't feature many tracks I felt blew me away. On the other hand, All That Remains is following up The Fall of Ideals, one of my personal favorite heavy metal albums, with Overcome. I'm almost done with it and so far, it's fantastic. God damn, All That Remains is fucking good.