Uh, yeah...so it's been a while since I've updated anything. I've been kinda busy. So I'm just gonna share a few thoughts now - a nice quickie entry. Some little thoughts that have been circling in my mind.

Theory: If you were to isolate every one of Ralph Wiggum's lines from every episode of The Simpsons, it wouldn't be very long, but it'd probably be the more hilarious few minutes of audio you'll ever hear. And it might work too, since most of his lines have kind of a non-sequiter feel to them anyway. Reminds me of something I heard on the radio a while back...they isolated every one of Shwartzeneggar's lines from Terminator 2...the entire movie boiled down to about 4 1/2 minutes.

About the Matrix:
As I write this, it's still in the middle of it's opening weekend. I'm debating whether or not to go see it tomorrow...I dunno, I've got some stuff at home that needs to get taken care of (like editing more comics, for one!). Funny how now, people are analyzing the movie more. It's not as reality-breaking (as opposed to just ground-breaking) as the original. Especially since it's been copied/parodied almost everywhere. But they're analyizing little details, such as this point. Why humans? If all the machines needed was an alternative source of fuel other than solar, why not something like wind power (the humans made it awfully stormy, I think)? Or hydro-electric? Nuclear? No, they've got to come up with some complex, convoluted scheme to enslave every human on the planet and hook them up to Jell-O bubbles. And make them not notice. Sure, it's creepy and makes for a nice story. At this point, I haven't seen The AniMatrix...and I've heard there's some explination as to how the whole Matrix started. Sounds like the humans were being dicks to the machines, which is kinda why the machines picked human batteries first. Like I said, I don't know...I'll probably look quite the fool once I do see it and look back at this post. An April fool, as it t'were. But anyway...first off, why were the humans maltreating the machines? It seems like humans maltreat everything. Then the machines are all hell-bent of destroying/enslaving all humans. Why is this a theme in almost every story that involves robots or artificial intelligences? I need to read I, Robot, but I would think the first thing you do when writing an AI is to include those rules.
It's funny, as I read the previous entries here and realize I was kinda drooling over the trailer. But now I'm a little more jaded...but more for the story and the fact that it's all anyone's been talking about for the last 10 days or so (after everyone got over X2, of course). Still, I'm looking forward to the special effects :-D

You might've heard about it...but the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (my alma mater!!!) was briefly considering changing their mascot. This was mostly the Athletic Department's doing. They paid $10,000 to a marketing firm in New York, and the idea proposed was to change the Minutemen to the Gray Wolves. The idea was that the wolf was a more marketable icon, whether it was cuddly or fierce, so they could sell more merchandise. They claimed the gray wolf was a Massachusetts-indiginous animal. The debate over it, of course, brought up the fact that they really weren't...or at least, not seen around here for a long time. Plus there was a lot of hoopla (with my thoughts included agreeing with this, as well) that the Minuteman was not only a unique nickname among college athletics, but a relatively unique identifier of Massachusetts history. And you get all the recent patriotism going in its favor. And, the New England Patriots don't seem to have a problem with their mascot. Another dumb thing about the debate was the gender issue...that some of the female student body couldn't identify with a masculine logo. It's dumb, and the point was brought up too that a gray wolf would've been a little more masculine anyways. Plus all the other schools with masculine mascots, ie USC, UNLV, Syracuse et al. One more thing...gray wolves would've been a little too close to neighboring UConn's and Northeastern's (where my sister goes!) Huskies.
But, it was finally announced that UMass is keeping the Minuteman...and now they're waiting a little bit to build up suspense to unveil a more updated logo. I hope it looks good. In short...gray wolves would've been really stupid.
Maybe I'll dig through some archives...but I might repost my thoughts on some other school nicknames that I thought were unusual. We'll see.

Thanks for checking in! Please continue to support Alternate Delusions...and for heaven's sake, if you like it, let me know! Write me or something! I've been toying with the idea of putting up a poll on the site, but I'm curious if people are just stopping in for the comic, or if they're really voting, or maybe I should set up a forum or something.
posted by Tim at 3:11 AM