The Great Geek Manual

I went to see Tangled this weekend with my family. I was really impressed when I didn’t see the twist-ending coming. The parents survive. First time ever for a Disney movie.

I was eating dinner tonight with my parents at our weekly family dinner when, out of the blue, my father turns and tells me that a friend told him that he needs to sign up for something called Facebook. Before I could wrap my mind around this, my mother chimed in that a friend had told her she needs to get “a Facebook,” too.

I was clicking through a gallery of cosplay photos from Dragon Con 2010 for my new blog, CosGeek, the other day. Have you ever noticed that whenever you see a photo gallery or video of “Con Highlights,” “highlights” is inevitably a euphemism for “cleavage”?

Great isn’t it?

This morning, I was researching my daily history entry when I came across this Wikipedia entry for Wards Island.

“The island is home to several public facilities, including Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center (which serves the criminally insane), and a New York City Department of Environmental Protection wastewater treatment plant. It is also home to Wards Island Park, which offers stunning views, athletic fields, and picnic grounds.”

Is this some Wikipedia user being sarcastic or the worst P.R. job ever? I mean, a park where you can both see an asylum for the criminally insane and smell a waste processing plant? Why not just drive over to Jersey?

I rented Avatar last night. The entire time I was watching it, all I could think was how awesome a video game it would make. Like Halo, except I’d be killing blue guys.

My mother was trying to push some Taco Bell brand taco shells on me last night at dinner. When I picked the flour tortilla instead and she asked me why, I explained that Taco Bell was one of the first companies ever to be forced to recall a product because it had been created with genetically engineered corn not approved for human consumption (back in 2000).

Of course, the recall is just another of the obscure bits of trivia I’ve learned over the years from blogging about history and has absolutely no bearing on anything. When my brother pointed this out, though, I asked if he’d ever read Sleepless by Charlie Huston.

You know, reading as much speculative fiction as I do may not be entirely good for my mental well being. Might be time to scale back

Anyone else think that the guy from this McDonald’s commercial looks a lot like Gordon Freeman from Half-Life?

I picked up a copy of the Kalamazoo Gazette Thursday advertising an article entitled “269 Cool Things to Do in Kalamazoo.” Dubious, I flipped to the article. Number two: “Kalamazoo Radisson Hotel. Have you seen the fish tank in the basement?”

Yeah, that’s the kind of town I’m living in. May as well be living in Siberia.