#&¢% Censorship

We seem to have gotten to the point where it's become standard to give television shows names with expletives in them ("Who the Bleep Did I Marry", "Bleep My Dad Says"). I don't know about anyone else, but I see absolutely no point in making the censored words so blatantly obvious with bleeps, be they in audio form or visual (the latter called "grawlix", according to Dribbleglass). We're in the digital age, and, in short, I propose this:

We got standard-def and high-def versions of the channels on our systems; perhaps we should have censored and uncensored versions of the channels as well. The TV service can put an option in the guide for a "censored only" list to please the Christians. We got an HD-only list option on our system, we should be able to do a censored-only list. The puritan-descendants can use that list...put a lock on for the kids...and the rest of us can kick back and enjoy the shows as they were meant to be.

'Cause let's face it: some of these shows have characters speaking in sentences that are nearly completely made of obscenities, and we hear an occasionally interrupted beep. What's the point of airing these things in the first place? Viewers of these things know what they're watching and are perfectly comfortable with all the violence, sex and general dysfunction. What difference will a handful of (frequently used) four-letter words and their variations make?


Those are the [words] that'll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.

—George Carlin

If you're happy and you know it, whoop-dee-doo
If you're happy and you know it, good for you
If you're happy and you know it, and you really want to show it,
Well I recommend you do it somewhere else.

You know you've grown up when you identify more with the coyote than the roadrunner.

The time at which you get to the bus stop is the additive inverse of the time at which the bus gets there.

I think I said that right.

Okay, the Geico ad with the pig can go away now.

Does this lawn need mowing?

If clicking the small image below doesn't let you see the big, hi-def image, please say so.

Courier

An Indian chef.

A bus driver started this bit of stuff

I let my mind drift.

It can get rather oxygen deprived in space. I gotta supply it with a spacesuit and a good-sized O₂ tank.

It's gotten to know that suit quite well.

So many wonders it can see beyond that suit.

But it can never touch them.

Most of it seemed to make some kind of sense at the time.

—Arthur Dent

False premonition in that last post. Maybe. Or really early one. Hey, who else has a sudden strong craving for milk?

This whole "academia" scene isn't quite for me, I think. I'm sure one current professor of mine would be quick to agree. That person rather rubs me the wrong way, despite being familiar with Can (link to my review of Ege Bamyasi). I'm six years into college now, twenty-four credit hours (eight classes) from a bachelor's, and still the thought of crawling to the finish line just to trade in the ribbon for forty-some-odd years down another, horrendously dull, desert road doesn't turn me on. I say "crawling", because given my state of mind since roughly 2006, these days officially documented by a neuropsych doctor and some accomplices, I'm only taking a class or two per semester.

I don't need a whole lotsa money, I don't need a big fine car. Hell, I don't need a TV of any kind. Telephones can stuff their minutes up their charging end too. I'm perfectly happy with Internet, music and cats. (...as "Year of the Cat" comes on my system.) True, there are some other things I think are rather groovy, such as heating/air conditioning and indoor plumbing, but do I really need the sort of job that requires an official degree for me to be happy?

I also wouldn't mind some traveling, but I'm sure that will come.

Happiness. It's all we need.

I appreciate the valiant efforts of some—some—folks at the university, but I'm just not feeling it there.

Well, while I work with someone to figure things out for me, anybody got any thoughts about the portrayal of human nature in The Iliad?

Something is wrong.

I don't know exactly what it is. I'm in Chicago, and I'm going back downstate tomorrow. Likewise, my cousin, her boyfriend and Newton the cat are driving back to Cookeville from here tomorrow. We had a lovely dinner at Koi. It's a bit wet out now. The Rs (cousin and boyfriend) are asleep now, and the others are looking at magazines downstairs. Everything seems fine.

I don't know what it is.

Something is wrong.