Desultory Thoughts

Maybe I was in a bad mood when I read Jody Genessy’s opinion column in the Deseret News this evening, or maybe I’m just fat and taking offense, but I think he went a little far in his attempts to be funny today. To his credit, he took a stab at himself on that very point when he listed “You spend way more time trying to be funny in a weight-loss column than you do exercising” as a way to know if you’re obese.

From the looks of his picture included with the column, Jody, like a lot of people these days, is a bit on the heavy side. So the article is obviously meant to be funny in the self-deprecating sense of the word. I’m a big fan of self-deprecating humor; if you can’t laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at? But “self” is the keyword. He took it too far today by laboriously running down the list of all-too-common fat jokes. If he would have stuck to just a few, I wouldn’t be as critical (uptight) as I’m being. The ones I liked were was:

You won’t put a nickel in a slot machine because gambling is a vice, but you will put eight quarters in a vending machine at work for a bag of Doritos, a Snickers bar and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

That says quite a bit about the way a lot of us (including myself) take some commandments to heart, but completely ignore (or justify) breaking others. The Word of Wisdom is often focused on for the list of “don’ts”, but there are also many “dos” that are too often ignored.

I dream of one day being back to the best shape I’ve ever been in. One of the biggest things I can do to help myself out is to start eating right.

I donated blood tonight and one of the recommendations is that you drink a lot of water (and it specifically excludes pop), and I’ve yet to drink a single glass. But I have had a couple cans of pop.

I’m an idiot, no doubt about it. (How’s that for self-deprecating?)

People have been raving about a flash-based talking monkey service called Monk-E-Mail hosted by CareerBuilder.com. It’s a fun way to send someone a message, especially if they’ve never seen it before. I laughed my head off when my boss sent me a message this morning.

There is a catch, however. The URL can be changed to reveal the messages of everyone in the system. So when you’re tempted to send your loved-one some dirty-talk, think twice. All someone has to do is change the numbers after “mid=” to something else to see your message.

From what I can tell, the messages start at http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/Default.aspx?mid=2777791 and go WAY up from there. As of today they were up in the high 8600000. That’s over half a million messages to browse. Just be forewarned: don’t be surprised if you come across something that you’d rather not hear.

I found a funny message where somebody was sending subtle hints that a co-worker wears too much cologne. I’m sure there are some jems in there among all the junk. Post your good ones here if you find some worth sharing.

You may have heard of Flash Mobs by now, they’ve been around for a while now. They seem to be picking up steam again. This site documents (and I mean documents) a Flash Mob on a New York City Best Buy. Eighty people showed up dressed like Best Buy employees and entered the store ready to help customers. You can read all about it…like I said, it’s very well documented.

After reading the FAQ, it’s important to note that these people do not consider themselves a Flash Mob. They are merely actors/actresses out to have a good time. Nonetheless, it’s very well documented.