Riffs

To the following posters: Forgive me for taking liberties with your character, if I am mistaken in any way please be sure to correct me*. (Editors Note - fuck that)

Backfat is quite obviously a favorite of the Mods around here, but the general public is decidedly split on her.

Me? I love her. She can definitely be annoying to the casual observer or anybody trying to breathe for that matter, but she shows no fear, and I find that very endearing. She posts pictures of her fun-loving life. She types with her eyes closed often, and sometimes vertically. She tells us of every banal thing she does, including bowel movements. She brags about her drug use and drinking habits, though not as much lately. She doesn't really invite us into her life as much as she thrusts it upon us, rather violently. I feel the mirth she projects in most every post she makes, and when I see her, I smile too. She alternately complains and gloats over her boyfriend Alex, (the human anime) causing us all to retch and castigate him, or to sweetly exult over how cute a couple they make. She doesn't normally jump into the common fray, she creates a starting point where others can comfortably step in. Her parodies are often funny, (I laughed at yesterday's "Power and Monet" thread). Negative or positive, she entices responses from almost all of us. Isn't that the definition of an attention whore? Much of me says that she does not need the attention, she just plays with us like a cat with a piece of string. To backfat I will say: keep on keeping on and don't let the bastards drag you down.

Mrrick had me at hello.

From the moment we first conversed together, I could tell that he was a man of character. He rarely causes trouble and more often than not has something positive or funny to say. He is fiercely loyal to his friends and is always there to lend a hand when he sees that someone is down. He occasionally allows his formidable artistic talent to shine through but never brags or shows off with it. (I for one wouldn't mind if he did expose us to more of his photographs and photoshops.) The picture of Bumba as the Hulk is one of my all-time favorites. He doesn't post a lot, which should be a lesson for some of us, because the more you talk, it seems, the less people listen. He appears to have a great sense of style, he dresses in hip clothes, drives an antique car, and has recognizable handwriting, He looks like he could throw down with the best of them. He is the guy I want on my side when it all goes down. He brings the New York credibility to the forums via Florida which is not as weird as it seems. One of the things I remember about his posts, is the trio of mrrick, Bumba, and morticia, hi-jacking the threads in the early days with their witty and sometimes over-the-top flirting. It makes me feel nostalgic. I recently made a thread about the rock and roll sensibilities, what I should do is add the posters that I think embody that, and I would start with mrrick. This cat is rock and roll. To mrrick I will say: Keep on rocking in the free world.

Ravioli22 is better than some of the reports out there on her.

Sure she whines and complains, but the only people who complain about her are whiners and complainers themselves, so they sort of cancel each other out. Behind the bellyaching I notice a fun person. For all her detractors, it seems she has more than a few fans. She is quite a prolific poster and some of her threads seem to go from one page to ten pages in the matter of minutes. She is not you garden variety spammer either. She starts with a silly or innocuous statement and the posts start rolling from there. She usually takes the badmouthing in stride, but occasionally she is clearly upset. Thursday's thread by Tyrone was rude and in bad taste, and I want to apologize to Rav for posting in it. Her disposition is more often than not sunny, and she playfully shoots barbs at her cohorts, Apotheosis, Limejello, and Joann to sometimes hilarious results. The "Wanna Ride Bikes thread made me laugh out loud when the dinosaur talk started. "Shitcerotops" deserves a gold star, and if I were into that type of thing, I might use it as a signature. She pretends to not care, but we know that she does, and that makes her human and not an autonomous insult machine like some of the other posters that she is compared to. I love that she speaks my language, the language of food, because sustenance is the most important thing in the world. If you don't believe me, ask someone who is hungry. To ravioli22 I will say: don't change a thing, you are perfect just the way you are.

Television
I admit that if I am not watching a sporting event, I rarely watch television. Several years ago I would have been labeled a "boob-tube" head, but now I only spend a few hours a week channel surfing, hoping to find something vaguely intriguing. Usually to no avail. I find that I still watch The Simpsons in syndication (two shows on weekdays at 7pm) and sometimes The Daily Show. Otherwise American television is a wasteland of giant poops, starting with:

"Reality" TV
My wife enjoys it, she watches Survivor, The Amazing Race, Project Runway, Laguna Beach, and The Real World/Road Rules Challenge among others.(She helped me out on that last one because apparently I don't know the difference between The Real World and Road Rules. Don't get me started on MTV, I mean, how do you go from the coolest, most revolutionary channel in history to the worst one on the dial in less than twenty years? Is there anything on that channel worth watching? I think not, but I digress).

The fact that these so-called reality concepts are re-hashed over and over again maddens me, but what upsets me the most is the American public supporting it. I have a theory on this: shows like Wife Swap exist for the same reason Neo made his nastier polls, so the people that watch them can be thankful they're not the ones involved. These people are tortured for the viewers enjoyment but what's worse is that these ignorant rednecks that take place in these shows are so stupid they don't understand they are being exploited. The mere fact they call it "reality" television is an insult to Americans. Do we really believe these representatives are a cross section of the American Citizen? Chalk it up as another reason the rest of the world hates the USA. Except the Japanese because they love us.

By the way, have you ever seen Japanese television?

Disclaimer: My wife is not a redneck, nor do I disrespect her because she watches this type of television. She is a lovely, multi-talented woman who is loved and respected by all who know her. The above is just my opinion, and sadly, I appear to be in the minority.

News
The local news always reminded me of a parody of itself, the forced dialogue, bad segues, worse jokes, and awful hair. That is why I loved Anchorman so much, I wasn't really making fun of local broadcasts, it was mirroring it. I rarely watch the news on television, I prefer to get mine from newspapers and radio. It is easier to skip over that which doesn't hold my interest. I have a friend that works as a reporter on a team in town and he likes to put me on TV, which I chalk up as free advertising; and I also went to school with the sports anchor on channel 8. Whenever I see him out, he's got makeup on and is always using that booming television voice, which I find quite annoying. But he is still pretty cool though.

The network news and all-news channels like CNN and MSNBC come across to me as some sort of sensationalistic, morbid fashion show with people not pretty enough to be actors. Did we really need 24 hour coverage of Michael Jackson's trial? And OJ's slow-speed chase was just ridiculous, not to mention the media circus surrounding poor Terry Schiavo's right to die case. These networks thrive on this stuff but it turns my stomach, I can learn all I need to know about these cases in a couple of paragraphs, and if I want more, I'll wait for the book to come out. It's nice that we care about what's going on in our world, but sometimes too much is not enough for people, and I find that incredibly sad. It is kind of funny when they keep reporting "no-new-news": constantly repeating themselves with blank and bored looks on their semi-pretty faces.

Another thing that bothers me is morning shows. If I ever see that shameless hussy Katie Couric again, it will be ten times too many. She always sounds so condescending which she tries to hide with a cute smile, but I'm not buying it. I always liked Matt but he thinks he's some sort of hard -hitting journalist, I'm not buying that either. I give Al credit for taking care of himself, but he's not funny. I will buy Ann Curry because she's hot.

I haven't seen any of the other morning shows and couldn't care less who's on them because they are all the same thing. It's just fluff, people.

Sitcoms
The main problem I have with sitcoms, is that they are running out of situations for the comedy. It's all sex. For that matter, most television shows and commercials have the same problem: everything is sex; but the reality is, sex is not everything. Sex is like money, you only need to deal with it when you don't have it, or if you have too much.

(I don't want to come across as a prude because I'm far from it, just ask my wife when I get off her.)  So they give a sitcom to every unfunny comedian, especially if they are minority, then expect them to carry a show which has the same premise as an old Newhart episode, ( Newhart is probably the funniest sitcom ever) with a cast of half the talent. Maybe there are a few funny shows out there, but I don't have the time to weed through them all just for a few laughs. Maybe someone can tell me which ones I should be watching.

Sports
I love sports. It is the ultimate reality television. Real people playing by real rules with no edits. I watch lots of different sports, my favorites being American Football and Baseball. Basketball is fun sometimes but the NBA is such a mess that I'd rather watch the NCAA. Hockey on television is confusing to me. Kind of like Soccer, you need to be at the game to truly appreciate it because it doesn't translate well to the screen. I find that I watch lots and lots of ESPN and other sport talk shows during Football season but not so much during other seasons. There is not much more boring than a home run highlight, but I do watch about 20 minutes of NASCAR(not a sport) a season just to remind myself why I don't watch it. Cars driving fast in circles for 4 hours is not my idea of exciting. I give credit to the sport though, for enthralling all the fans that they do in a time when wasting gas is looked upon as tantamount to terrorism. I used to think golf was boring on TV but. oh yeah, I still do.

NBC has been doing a decent job with it's coverage of Turino, I just wish they wouldn't tape delay it. If people want to see it, they will find time to watch it during the day, and they could keep the recap on in the evening. I watch the French Canadian channel and see everything live, I just don't understand the banal commentary, which is a good thing.

We are such slaves to prime time here in the US, maybe it's time to challenge all our preconceptions about programming and shake it up a bit.

One question: can someone please tell me when Texas Hold'em became a sport?

I swear it was on four different "sport" channels last night. Not a good trend.

What is good

CSI is kind of neat, great premise for a show, but do we need ten different versions? Cop shows are an old television staple that seems to still be going strong even if they are all basically the same. Like I said before, I still watch The Simpsons, South Park is funny and topical, even Drawn Together can be funny though it's kind of gross. I also stop on Star Trek and Next generation when I see it. I miss Gene Roddenberry. He was good for Television. As I flip around the dial I find that I end up on educational channels and PBS most often. I like animal shows and space exploration, new technology and The History Channel. The Food Network has a few good shows on it, but that can get kind of boring seeing that I look at food every day at work.

I used to watch a lot of television, but since I discovered the internet, I rarely find time to anymore. When I do it upsets me how much junk passes for entertainment nowadays, but maybe it was always this way and I just moved up to a higher class of recreation like The Superficial...

Nah!

Is the Internet Real Life?

My daughter came to me a couple days ago complaining of a few schoolmates that had been picking on her, she said that they had been calling her names and making fun of her family. Now you should know that my daughter is not a fragile flower. She gives as well as she takes, so for her to come to me and be as upset like that was reason for me to take notice. I first asked her if she was playing "verbal tag" with them and she said no, not today. I can only assume that she may have been playing along and it got out of hand.

This made me think about another giant sandbox in which we play, The Superficial.
I have heard many posters claim that we shouldn't take what happens to us on the Internet seriously because it is not real life. But I have noticed that most of the people that say this are the ones causing trouble, and also more than half of them have been publicly upset on this forum because of something someone else said to them. The stick and stones rule does seem to apply in some sort of hypocritical way.
I think we forget sometimes that we are conversing with people and not our computer screen. The condition of anonymity breeds a freedom we do not enjoy in our "real" lives outside of the Internet, and it gives us courage that is not unlike the effects of alcohol. It can bring out the best in us, and it can bring out the worst in us; and I would liken the former and latter to strong and weak.

What Do You Want?

We all come to the Internet forum for different reasons, but ultimately we are all looking for something. We seek attention that we are not receiving somewhere else, whether it is from a parent, a spouse, or a significant other; maybe we are shy and have no social skills to communicate with people face to face. I think these reasons affect the way we act on these forums. I don't want to judge anyone but I will state my opinions.
The posters that lack parental guidance seem to be the most profane and belligerent.
It would appear that they seek attention whether it is positive or negative, and they are the most likely to throw insults casually about. They also are the ones most likely to offer themselves up as a sexual sacrifice because they lack self-esteem and have no confidence in their lives.
The posters that search for friends on the Internet are much more eager to please, and attempt to paint themselves in the best light possible with or without putting anyone down in the process. Shameless flirting and macho posturing would be evidence of this along with deliberate displays of intelligence.
Posters that lack love of a spouse or a significant other are blatant attention seekers who will do and say whatever it takes to make people talk to them. These are the ones who air their dirty laundry and post pictures to prove it. The thing we all have in common is we want people to respond to us, we want confirmation of any sort. But I also feel that if you come to an Internet forum to create havoc and cause people pain, you are a low and pathetic person who needs to find help in dealing with your emotions because soon you will reveal to yourself the degenerate you have become.
I don't know you and you don't know me. That is a fact. But I believe ninety percent of all posters on The Superficial fall into these categories. Although I have no scientific facts behind these beliefs; I have faith in them.

I have no reason to believe that Miss Diagnosis is insincere. If she wants to create a Internet "buddy list" for herself to ease the pain of what she is going through, who am I to call her out? I do not know her even a little bit. What I have read of her posts tells me that she is an introspective and funny person. I must admit, that when I originally heard of The Straight skinny, I felt as though there was subversion in effect, and that The Superficial was being harvested to feed a bigger and better forum. I have since come to the conclusion (after repeated assurances) that there was no competition intended. I believe that now intrinsically. I do however; feel that some of her cohorts have handled themselves in an unprofessional way thus perpetuating what had become a "board war". I will not defend any of the members of The Superficial in their attempt to defame the rival board because I refuse to take responsibility for a few ignorant individuals. I think they know who they are. In the two weeks I perused The Straight Skinny I found it quite boring. If I were The Skinny I would invite posters from someplace other than The Superficial because it seems that all they have created is a shadow of what already was.

I wish Miss Diagnosis and her friends the best of luck with their endeavor, and I hope their greatest wishes come true.

I come to the forum expecting a laugh or two, some juvenile high jinks, and perhaps a bout of serious drama involving some prominent posters. What I have been getting lately is a whole lot of whining.
In my opinion, Neo was banned because he was an annoying troll who continuously berated other posters for his own enjoyment and also rebelled against any rules that were set before him. Some may say that RRBM is doing the same thing, but I feel that both posters are (were) moving in separate directions. Neo was becoming more and more aggressive while The Big Man has shown a more human side recently. If I had to choose between the two, even back in the day, I would choose RRBM because I find him funny.
If the people wish to reinstate Neo, then we must surely do so, in keeping with the history of The Superficial, which forgives just about anyone except Subparficial (who was a total ass). I do find the constant barrage of "Unban Neo" propaganda to be distasteful, but that is my personal opinion, so I feel that I should temper my antipathy and hope for the best outcome. With Neo and RRBM in the same house again, it would create some amazing dynamics.
With the return of a number of posters from TSS, the forum is looking more like itself again, with that it brings another sense of urgency such as the need for new and interesting posters. This has been known for a long time, for our forum has been inbred for quite a while now. How else can we explain the infusion of dupes that we have recently withstood?

For those of us that are still around, I implore you to make interesting posts and start intriguing threads. If all else is lost, be funny. I have faith in you.

I told my daughter about the need to be aware of her surroundings. I also told her that if she decided to talk a big game, she should be ready to play it. And I said that if she felt that things were getting too real for her to back off.
I made sure to tell her that if she did not like people talking to her this way, to not give them a reason to. If you treat people with respect, then more often than not, they will treat you with respect. I live by these rules but I also never shy away from telling the truth. I will hold back sometimes if I feel it will hurt someone, because often it is better to keep your mouth shut. Being straightforward and truthful is the best way to make people respect you. Is that not what makes real life easier? Respect?
The feelings of my daughter regarding her classmates are amazingly like some of the gripes we have heard here on this forum. If we believe that we can say anything we want on here and there will be no repercussions, we are sadly detached from other peoples feelings and too wrapped up in our own. This selfishness is evident all around us as the world has become so small and communication so easy. We talk more but say less. I would have to say that life is as real as we want it to be and I feel sad for those who choose to experience it at arms length and not up close. For me, the real world is full of bullies and hardships, so why does the make believe one have to be also?