Tons, great, always, never, millions...

It didn't used to be a pet peeve but now. Slowly and surely I've become keenly (see my twitter post on that) aware that absolutes have no business being in anybody's vocabulary. The possible exception being this blog post. Back in writing 201 you end up with profs telling you this same thing. Absolutes are never to be used. I agree. There is nothing worse than somebody cramming your reading voice with a bunch of alwayses and neveres. Pundants and op-ed pieces included. Which leads me to believe every talking head you see on CNN, FOX, HN, et. al. are just spouting flammable mucus then igniting it for the benefit of those who can't/won't think for themselves and find this kind of TV viewing enjoyable. I weep for our nation. I really do. Makes me physically ill. Makes me want to move to New Zeeland or maybe Canada where they don't seem to mind casual use of marijuana.

OK, first of all, this is really me reaching out to all of you. Not some cut and paste chain letter/poll. As my friends and family, I'd really like to know the answer to this question... I send you a link to a movie on the Internet that I thought was good. You go to the link and find out the guys who made the movie are charging $1 a show.

Would you pay a buck?

(Assume that the movie is feature length (90 min or so) and in or close to the genre of movies that you normally enjoy)

As most of you know, I love making movies. I recently read an article about a guy who posted his film on the web and charged a buck per view. If you enjoyed it and wanted to see it again, you paid another buck. This theory is called the "What The Buck" theory of distribution. A person makes a movie fully intending to distribute it on the web by charging a fee so small, most patrons would just say "What the buck" and pay it. The thinking is if you movie is halfway decent and with close to 250 million Internet users in North America alone, you can get 50,000 or 100,00 people to pay a dollar and finance your next movie.

So I'm asking some real people what they really think of this idea that looks good on paper but then again so does communism.

Would you pay a buck to see a halfway decent low/no budget movie?

Thanks for helping out,

Dennis

Why?

More American children are sick, two deaths. Probably safe to say more deaths will follow. Toys from China. Proving once again that the biggest threat to Americans isn't terrorists, it's our own apathy. Honestly now. Stop buying anything from made in China and everything will be alright.

So I broke the news to Liam about going organic. No more BK (no problem), no more ready serve chocolate milk only organic white milk with chocolate syrup (no problem), no more BW3 chicken tenders (tears). He chippered up after I told him I'd make him organic chicken tenders that would taste a lot like BW3's. That got a smile.

During the family meeting tonight I told him the story of Kevin and how he died.

(http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-issues.php)

The reasons behind it and my disgust with the lawmakers in this country. Now you have to understand, when Obama was campaigning last year, for what ever reason, Liam's first grade class really got into it. The teacher didn't push any candidate over any other. Liam ended up as firmly behind Obama. When he won, I could see how happy he was.

All politics aside (and I do mean ALL) in my eyes I saw the pure joy on his face when his man won. Good, bad, indifferent for this country, it didn't matter to me (still doesn't, presidents are two heads on the same coin). Liam believed in the system.

Not sure how it would have worked out had McCain won but that's' another post. So after telling him Kevin's story and all the crap behind it and why we can't eat medicated goo for food any longer, he looked up at me and said, "Why doesn't President Obama do something?" For the briefest of moments, I was stunned by the innocence of his question.

I could have given him the long winded explanation about how little power the executive branch has over the legislative branch but for that one moment, government aside, I knew I had to tell him that the system really doesn't work. And that it's really not Obama's fault even though I'm not sure how he voted or even if he did when all these wacky laws that protect big agra come into being.

Here's this innocent little child asking me why. And I don't know the answer.

Everyone makes a choice. Some of them are informed decisions, some of them are not. Switching over to organic is going to be tough. Tougher, I fear, for my soon to be eight year old son.

Paying through the windpipe

Yeah, windpipe. It's more visceral that way. And cleaner than the first word I chose. Today starts the first day of grocery shopping for organic foods. In my new lifestyle change (that I'm forcing on my wife and child I might add) aptly titled...

"Don't Panic, I'm Pure Organic, No More Medicated Goo"

This has also fostered a new story idea. Take a software pirate mentality and apply it to big agra corps and you get the gist of it.

No surprised here but organic food is expensive. Something I'll just have make room for in the budget. I just know cable will have to go. Back to watching live sports on my laptop I guess.

Then again I should probably make a budget. As you can imagine, my to-do list is quite extensive.

Of course this all fostered another story idea. All the genetically altered foods and overly medicated farm animals have made poor people immune to a ramped virus which turns organic types into walking rotting corpses that need to feed on the brains of lower class americanna in order to survive. Now why does that seem vaguely familiar?

Food Inc. (the movie)

Don't panic, we're pure organic. No more medicated goo. So I'm a year late in watching this doc but holy Pope in the pool I'm changing my lifestyle. Seems every time I hear a nasty story about some big corporation screwing the average Joe I keep thinking I'm moving to Canada where they still have some morals and scruples. This is truly a case of he who has the gold makes the rules. It's against the law to say anything bad about some companies and their practices. When in the wide, wide world of free speech did this happen in the USA? I'm stymied. Seriously.

The whole point of the movie (in case you haven't seen it and if you haven't, please do so) is know where your food comes from. Yes, DARE to know where your food comes from. Well duh, you need kill the chicken before you eat it but when did it become standard practice to treat them so poorly while they're alive?

Cows too! There are some farmers doing it properly. Find them and beg them not to stop. Buy their products. Apathy is the friend of your enemy.