So, I read Cracked.com a lot since I found out about it this past year, and they have some pretty funny articles there. Some of them, though, aren't so funny. Like this one:

http://www.cracked.com/article_16434_5-creepiest-advertising-techniques-near-future.html

And by "near future", they really mean now. Take #2 for example: Undercover Marketing. Basically, businesses are starting to use real, live people both online and in person to essentially subtly market their products for them. You can read specific examples on the site linked above.

Well, I've been seeing tons of ads on Pandora for an "i'm talkathon" - I finally clicked through to the website to see what it was all about. Oh, that's nice, it's some college guy who's decided to help promote MSN Messenger because it donates some of the money they get from advertisements to charity.

But wait! While scrolling through the recent blog entries on the site, I noticed a big ol' disclaimer at the bottom. This good-hearted blogger? He's not even real! In fact, he's a fictional creation of Microsoft! And it's even written in edgy 'i'm a hip college blogger' lingo. Shady much? (I love how they "apologize" for the deception in "quotes", too. I "accept" your "apology", Microsoft.)



Yeah, I know what you're thinking, it's all for a good cause, why should I pick on it when there are bigger problems in the world? My issue with it isn't the purpose of the marketing, it's how they do it. Microsoft is essentially -lying- to us in an attempt to make it seem like someone we could be buddies with in real life is totally for MSN Messenger, when it's really just a big corporation putting a friendly face on a marketing ploy. I don't know about you, but finding out what I thought was some independent guy with "good intentions" was actually just a corporate scheme -does- rub me the wrong way. What if this weren't for a good cause? What if it were used for pure corporate profit? What if it were some hot 18-year-old totally pushing how sexy cigarettes are? Or planted actors publicly voicing their opinions under the guise of normal conversation on how awesome Big Corporation's new product is? OH WAIT. That already happens. :D Google "undercover marketing examples" if you don't believe me.

(I suppose the irony of it all is that, in a way, I'm helping to promote Cracked.com, or even the i'm talkathon. Am I a paid agent for their website? If I were, you wouldn't really know for sure. Perhaps this statement is just an attempt to make me seem like just a "regular person"...)

Happy(?) early Memorial Day.

(Psst...vote Barack.)

happy entry omgwut :o [but no conventional punctuation]

looking forward to this weekend -- heading down with Tad and Sorrow to Savannah to visit Myst, Lunar, and Zaine -- while we're there Tad and I are gonna visit the beach

then Sunday evening we're going to see The Lion King in Atlanta (tickets were one of Tad's Christmas gifts to me) =3

yay

FWA was better than last year, thankfully - though it was off to a slow start. I didn't really start having tons of fun until Saturday afternoon, but afterwards I at least had enough fun to make up for it.

Tad and I hung out with the usual crowd - Fen, Jayded, Bolt, Sorrow, and Sash - missing Dagon, though. =( Also had fleeting encounters with Dae, Manytails, Sophie Cabra, Beetlejuice, Puma and her lizard friend, and a few others - would have liked more time with all of the cool people I met, but this con seemed to have a lot of people stricken with wanderlust, and I can't say I was always eager to run out and socialize with random strangers myself. Also hung out more with Glowstickk, Kalahari, Joecifur, Julie, Marcaryn, Zaine, Mirage, Sarakazi, Spaz Fox, Tansunn, and Yume, and met lots of cool new furs like GreenReaper, Japanda, Kyomana, and Yoshii (and the non-fur-rainbow-sweater Karen). I was glad to be able to hang out once again with Lunar and Myst, too - it really brought back the old days.

Overall, I'm still recovering from all the craziness (though not too much con crud - forever will I sing the praises of Vitamin C supplements) and the fact that I somehow spent $100 in one weekend despite only buying a couple of cheap pieces of artwork. o.o I might flesh this out later, when I don't have to leave for classes in 5 minutes. XD

Question: How can you tell if a dog doesn't want his nails clipped?

( Answer: )

I just paid $200 to wait an hour and a half to get stabbed in the arm. I'm supposed to get reimbursed for the Gardasil vaccination series, but UGA's health center wasn't considered in-network with my insurance company, and the place I just went to that is supposed to be in-network told me my insurance company wasn't going to cover it, despite me telling them that my stepmother works for Merck (who made the vaccine) and reassured me several times (even calling our insurance) that it would be covered. So I expect to be reimbursed, but it's still a very annoying hassle that left me angsty enough to listen to Nine Inch Nails the whole way home. -.-

Work is still pretty good, but I'm ready for the cash to start coming in. XP

I'm visiting my cougar-love this weekend. I miss him lots, and this week seems to be dragging out because of the anticipation (and boredom/loneliness/lack of socialization, as most of my friends are at least half an hour away, and a good deal of them on vacation).

I don't watch a lot of TV, but all of the shows I do watch have simultaneously ended their seasons for the next few months. >.< Thanks to the wonders of the internet, however, I can catch up on any missed episodes of South Park, Family Guy, Degrassi, House (omg everyone's leaving D:), and Law & Order SVU (will Benson and Stabler just do it already? geez) in the meantime.

How can Pokemon DP manage to be so repetitive (see the VGCats comic here for my thoughts exactly) and yet still so addictive somehow at the same time? The world may never know.

Got the job at Petsmart. I think I'll enjoy it. The only reasons I disliked working in the kennel two summers ago were crappy managers and working in sweltering heat; Petsmart is air-conditioned and the managers I've met don't seem too bad so far. Animals make me happy, and if I can get paid to be around them all day, even better.

Had a hard case of nostalgia last night. For roleplay of old - MUCKs that are no longer around, old RP partners, characters that have faded into inexistence. Meadows MUCK is doing quite well (the past weekend had 40-45 connected at peak times) in the dying era of the text-based RPG, however, so I'm happy for that.

There's more I could talk (read: complain) about, but honestly? It's not worth it. I'm content, and there's no need to be a source of petty bitching.

So. FWA. Yeah.

Mange's flight got cancelled, so I was really sad she couldn't make it.

Lots of people got lots of drunk. Lunar was the only funny one ("You're a six-piece chicken McNobody!").

I got uber-pissed when a certain ugly bitch obsessed with my mate kept inviting him up to her room.

"Tumbles the Dragon" tried to kill himself by throwing himself down the concrete stairs. He made a pact with God that if he hit the last stair, he'd be able to fly. But he missed.

But now that I'm cleaned up and the Mega Furry AIDS Plague I contracted at the con is subsiding, it wasn't completely horrible. It was just a fucked-up kind of "fun".

First off, I apologize to everyone I've been shunning for the past few days - I promise I'll hang out with all of you sometime soon. >.< I've just been involved with a prolonged 1-year anniversary celebration for tadcougar and myself. ^^ Additionally, this past three-day weekend, we spent Sunday and Monday at Auburn with some local furs there at snowmew's place, so I wasn't even in the state for half of the weekend. XD And even though I'm not a big fan of drinking, the host made these excellent layered shots with funny names, and I ended up having a couple Fairy Farts (strawberry, watermelon, and mango-flavored). XD

We got back around 11PM last night, and I had a dream I woke up late for work...and then I really did. Which always seems to happen when I have one of those dreams. -.-

FWA is now only a month away, and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm planning on avoiding/ignoring entirely the people who caused drama last year, so hopefully I won't have to dispose of any bodies after the end of the con. XP

Warning: Rant Ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

I hate winter.

Mostly, I'm just growing to despise the weeks around Christmas/enter preferred holiday here. If I could, I'd hibernate from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve. I once thought I had seasonal depression, but now I think it's just a hatred for winter holidays. Since when did Christmas become a month-long holiday? Starting the day after Thanksgiving, we're subjected to the Capitalist's Dream: Christmas-themed fucking everything, and if you don't buy it all you're a bad American for not celebrating the true reason for the season which we all know is Our Lord and Savior, Money--I mean, Jesus. And Merry Fucking Christmas to anyone who doesn't follow our glorious faith. (Thank you, Mr. Garrison, for one of the only Xmas songs I really like.) thesexyotterman summed it up best in his entry: "Christmas has become a delusional cloud of commercialized greed for the gift-thirsty children who only care for themselves." I only bought one gift this year, and it wasn't even anything materialistic. It was a donation in tadcougar's name to help save Florida Panthers (of which there are less than 80 left - thanks again, human-parasite race). I'd much rather give gifts when I find something that reminds me of someone, rather than being forced to buy something for everybody I know by a certain date. The only reason I "celebrate" Christmas myself is because it would seem hypocritical to say I don't and then expect money from relatives, which only goes towards paying for the necessities, such as food, gas, and medical finances (everything else is put straight into savings). And speaking of medical finances, school breaks are never really breaks anymore for me. Both Fall Break and Thanksgiving Break this semester involved 1-2 medical appointments and studying for organic chemsitry tests. And now Winter Break, while not requiring studying, has a grand total of 4 appointments, which isn't including the surgery next week. No, chances are I haven't told you about that. It's not life-threatening, but it's scary nonetheless, and honestly, I don't feel like telling everyone I know because I don't want to have to deal with the same awkward responses over and over again (just like I hate answering the same questions from people who don't really care in the first place about school and classes and grades over and over again). At least it gets me out of visiting relatives (that used to be fun, but when you reach a certain age, and your cousins are all either too young or else married/with children/moved away, things like that lose their luster) and hopefully church (which is boring as fuck for an agnostic/atheist/apathetic, and yet my parents still force me to go). And then, of course, there's the constant battling with my mother over how she wants me to live with her versus how I really don't enjoy visiting her and don't care to make a trip over there during my already-busy break. All I want is some fucking time to myself. Just a little bit of breathing room in the midst of all this, where I can finally just relax and lose myself in some mindless leveling up in Final Fantasy 12 between rerun episodes of Law and Order: SVU before I have to return to yet even more required and hard-as-fuck chemistry courses in January.

Is that really so much to ask?

And yes, I've accepted it: I'm a Grinch/Scrooge/bitch.

(If you read all that, congratulations.)

</rant>

I've always enjoyed learning about the player behind the character in my years of online roleplaying. It's always interesting seeing how different someone is compared to the mental image I've held of them. And the real names never sync up after the fact. I can't quite bring myself to really recognize Tad as Chris, Sytobi as Courtney, Tamaharus as Gavin; I've learned to associate with the character names so much that the new names seem like the fake ones.

Maybe I'm weird, but there's something about the first time you talk to or meet someone you've been speaking with strictly via text for months that's really interesting to me. I can't even explain or understand why it is that I find it so enjoyable. Perhaps it's the fact that it helps proves my theory that personality should be the number one consideration when it comes to relationships with others - rather than basing someone on the way they look or some other superficiality, you come to befriend someone based purely on the way they express themselves.

Just a random stream of consciousness at 4AM.

Furry Weekend Atlanta = teh_winnar!!1

My first furry con, and despite my jokes that I'd come home swearing I wasn't a furry anymore, I had one of the best times of my life this past weekend. So much so, that not only did I have people asking me if I was high or drunk (I replied saying I was only high on life), but instead of sleeping before my classes tomorrow, I'm writing up this memoir.

Summary of memorable events:

Friday
Arrived around 3ish, didn't do much aside from hang out with tadcougar, joecifur, charon2, fenrirwoof, sorrowulf, etc. Met some cool new furs. Then came the realization of my bad idea: volunteering. I ended up spending 4 hours straight in the dim, boring, feng-shui-less LAN room while dealing with BushyCat drama and a guy who wouldn't leave me alone and showed me at least 100 pictures of his cats. So I was starting to feel like furries can't escape drama after deciding I'd never volunteer for a con again until Tad convinced me to come to the rave in the ballroom. The adrenaline and endorphins must have kicked in, because that's when I started to have the "high on life" feeling - I ended up hugging fursuiters left and right (avoiding the creepy ones).

Saturday
I had to wake up at 8:15AM to accomplish the hour-long process of making myself into a cat before the "rehearsals" for the variety show, which turned out to be nothing more than filling out a form and sitting around boredly before the fursuit parade. As Joe mentioned in his LJ, Julie and I were the objects of affection for a Schnauzer, and the anthropomorphic soda cans were a bit odd. But several pictures were taken of me, as is the norm when in my catsuit, including when I bonded with a lynx, which I hope turn up on the Intarweb sometime soon. And I kicked ass at the variety show. Seriously. Quasi told me the show was relying on me. XD I was rather proud of my performance. After a much-needed nap, I woke up to Tad bringing dagonthedragon and Sash back to the room to partake of alcoholic beverages, which led to a night of deep talks about philosophy, relationships, sexual identity, and naturally, a murrpile.

Sunday
After crashing in boltagex3 and zaineotter's room, we almost slept through check-out time. We then lounged about in the lobby for several hours (we felines and dragons tend to roll like that) until things started to slow down, and at which point we were directed to the sign stating the event that was following our furry furry yiff yiff convention - a meeting of Evangelical Ministers. XD More lounging and bonding with my new friends Dagon and Sash, including a middle-school-dream-fulfilled of being a dragon rider, followed by zany computer antics on fchan which led to Bolt drawing a picture that included as many fetishes as possible, including but not limited to unbirthing, tentacles, guro, and scat, as well as Bolt's new fursona, an anthropomorphic beard named Periwinkle who keeps his cell phone and other goodies in his mass of hair.

And now Tad and I are back at UGA, unfortunately having to return to the normal world of school and non-furries.

[But we brought a dragon back with us! So that lessens the post-con depression.]

I miss college.
[I also swore off keeping a blog...I guess a sporadic entry here and there won't hurt.]

I've never particularly cared for family time, and this is no exception.
My mother kept accusing that orientation is a choice.
My mother's family is boring, as usual.
Jeff, the awkward friend of the family, is...well, awkward.
My father's family is more entertaining, but this holiday is particularly 'off'.
All the chides about my political preferences were only funny the first 10 times.
The comment equating gays with pedophiles made my blood boil.
My favorite cousin is engaged. And she confided to me that she may be pregnant. The thing is, she's my younger cousin.

Holidays are supposed to be relaxing...but the only relaxing part I've experienced so far is sleeping half the day and then playing video games the other half.

I miss tadcougar (i miss you, hissed the lovecat), Ryan (my partner in crime), Chelsea (my sex-talk co-host), neon_streets (my muse), sorrowulf (biggity-bwau!), joecifur (I think it's time for another coffee talk), and all my other friends.

And to top it all off, I don't have a New Year's Resolution yet.

After suffering through Descartes, my Intro Philosophy class has finally gotten to John Stuart Mill.

And he is worthy of being praised.

Here are the reasons why I love Mill:

He argues that religious majorities will impose their beliefs on the minority, thus restricting them according to the "supposed preferences or aversions...of their gods."

He states exactly my beliefs regarding a single law for society, echoing the Wiccan Rede: "The principle requires liberty of tastes and pursuits, of framing the plan of our life to suit our own character, of doing as we like, subject to such consequences as may follow, without impediment from our fellow creatures, so long as what we do does not harm them, even though they should think our conduct foolish, perverse, or wrong."

He uses the phrase "tyranny of the majority".

And he spoke the winner of all quotes:

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."