Commerce

Finally there's an iPhone app that actually makes me (slightly) consider buying an iPhone. It passed, quickly, but so far this is the coolest 'app' I've ever heard about. EpicWin turns your ordinary, hum-drum, perfectly mundane to-do list into an epic RPG game.

Want to gain XP, level up, earn yourself some treasure? Then get the car washed, do your laundry and get that passport application notarized, Mr. Hero. Then you'll grab awesome loot like a caffe macchiato, or a 100-calorie snack pack, you badass you!

I still won't buy an iPhone, however. It's too 'hipster' for me. I'm kickin' it old school with a pen and paper, yo.

So I don't normally write a blog about other issues anymore because mostly been focusing on writing movie reviews and trying to get better at them, but this has been on my mind since the last time I went to Wal-Mart.

I live in a small town where Wal-Mart dominates everything and I do not go there often, but one day I decided instead of driving 15 miles to the bookstore in High Point, NC, I would just go to Wal- Mart to visit their book section and check out their selection. I was searching for something specific and if they didn't have it I could always order it from Amazon.

What I saw there puzzled me.

The Fallout series of video games are known for mixing apocalyptic visions of the future with a dash of humor. In all of the games in the series the player assumes the identity of the 'vault dweller' -- an ordinary person who survived a nuclear holocaust by growing up in an underground shelter. In the games the vaults were created by a company called 'Vault-Tec' and their chirpy advertisements can be found littered throughout the Fallout games.

Now there's really a company that does what 'Vault-Tec' did in the games!

Legend has it that French princess Marie Antoinette*, when told that the peasants did not have bread to eat, illustrated her detachment from reality by blithely remarking, "Let them eat cake." Since then governments have struggled and strained to become more open, more free.

A Canadian woman has published a new pornographic magazine intended to be 'read' by blind people, reports UK Telegraph:

The book, the brainchild of Lisa Murphy and called Tactile Minds, is designed to be 'enjoyed' by the blind and visually impaired - and is on sale for £150.

We received our Census forms from the US Census Bureau yesterday. One of the first things that stuck out was the effective date of the census for 2010 is April 1st. In 2000, it was January 1st. And historically, it was June 1st (1880-1900-1910).

This in and of itself, doesn't mean much, other than that the forms were delivered on March 17, 2010, with the instruction to return immediately. How does one return immediately yet also assure that they have their info as current on April 1st?

More evidence that the election of Barack Obama has not led us into a golden age of post-racism:

Walmart: Black Barbie Sold Cheaper Than White Barbie

So this blatant racism might possibly be occuring at other stores?

The article continues:

In case you had not yet heard, Greece is slipping deeper into insolvency, and the socialist / unionists of the country are going on strike. It's all just so, so sad. The cradle of Western Civilization, laid low by unionized workers.

A few weeks back President Obama (aka The Worst President in American History) proposed that Democrats and Republicans sit down and discuss how best to solve America's healthcare 'crisis'.

From the linked NYT article:

Televised? Will it be televised in the same way the ObamaCare bill was televised, as Obama promised on at least eight ocassions during his 2008 campaign? That kind of televised event? For those who haven't been paying attention, Obama broke that promise. The bills put together by Congressional Democrats were drafted behind closed doors, with no cameras, no CNN coverage, and -- natch, no Republicans.

Nothing illustrates the massive gulf of understanding that exists between the Left and Right than Rep. James Clyburn's (D-SC) recent declaration that the only way to grow the economy is by going deeply into debt.

I challenge Clyburn to produce evidence of a civilization that taxed itself into prosperity.