MindlessChatter

I have come to realize that I am a Disney fanboy. I love the history behind Disney, the parks, the movies, the innovation, and the music.  Sure, I'm an "adult" male over 30 who uses his kids as an excuse to go see the latest Disney flick in the theater but I take no shame in admitting that I love just about every major release.  The storylines can be cliché, predictable, and according to some carry questionable themes but I still enjoy the ride.  I've even gotten to the point where I watch a movie just for to hear the music.  This habit is great on long car trip where I don't need the visuals to experience the movie.  I just let it play and let my mind fill in the visuals based on the audio alone.  Recently I've been hooked on the soundtrack to Frozen and have been walking around the house singing "Do you want to build a snowman?" Much to my wife's chagrin.  I've been known to look for covers of various songs just to see what I ca...

There is a new-ish addition to some theme park rides that takes the boredom away from sitting a ride out. The large raft rides that are popular at many theme parks are now accompanied by water cannons strategically placed along the raft route.  Now the younger sibling that are on the smaller side of tiny have the ability to get in on the action without the need to meet the height requirement, soaking the unsuspecting riders with a blast of chilly water; all for the price of a single quarter.  More often than not, parents are found at these lovely machines eagerly waiting to dish out some payback.  I've sat back and watched a few of these over eager parents and they all have the same first experience. Gleefully jamming a quarter into the water cannon, hands hovering over the button, eyes straining to get a glimpse of the telltale black hoodie indicating that my child is in the boat that just plummeted down the ramp, frustration felt after the realization that the boa...

I often find my self at the computer late at night, unable to sleep wandering thought the endless corners of the internet.  Now it may be the number of martinis consumed but I found this incredibly amusing. So much so, that I just about fell out my seat laughing.   Inappropriate? Yes. Funny? Yes.  Safe for work? Yes as Long as you don't try to explain it....

As most internet hours ultimately conclude, I am lost. Google, Wikipedia, an occasional glance at an online thesaurus or dictionary, forums, blogs, Wiki again, 'googling' a wiki link talking about a blog, back to a dictionary or thesaurus, etc. has often made me upset at the world and the general misuse of seemingly generic words. I do not pretend to be some great smithy of words but I do believe that we need to start correcting people on the small stuff. I understand how, in a world full of short communications, text messages, and character limitations, be it Twitter or moral quality, we can lose meaning and miss inflection of simple phrases, but our childrens' children will suffer, or at least we will suffer having to listen to them. This is what started it today: http://xkcd.com/1272/ What I ended up finding was definitely in my wheelhouse: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/22-everyday-words-you-might-not-realize-youve-been-using-incorrectly/ It led me to the wor...

Growing up in with my family had many advantages. One of the most valuable (at least in my opinion) is the sense of humor that each of us inherited and thrived upon.  Our parents (mainly Dad) wouldn't hesitate to poke fun at us, especially at stupid things we did.  It was all done in jest and he made sure to tell us that it was all in good humor and that no malice was intended; plus Mom would always follow up with some form of "we love you just the way you are, but that was really funny" making sure that we didn’t feel ostracized. Because of this profound upbringing we have all developed a sense of humor that allows us to laugh at our own faults, traits, and/or actions.  We can be kind of relentless towards each other, always with a smile and always with the intent to make the other laugh.  This can backfire.  I distinctly remember a time when we (I think just the four guys) were at a restaurant.  As usual jokes were flying back and forth and we were h...

Ok, first of all, f*** you guys and your persistent insistence that I read these damn books. While I haven't actually 'read' anything but a few chapters I have delved into the amazing world that Marsters does a damn fine job of bringing to light and have enjoyed every minute of it. I have finished the fourth book and can't wait to add more witty lines to my notes: "loopier than a crochet convention"! It gets me thinking, have you ever watched a movie or a television show that got you hooked? That drew you into the characters so well that you crushed when it ended? I get this way sometimes, mainly with movies. It ends and I want to follow their lives for a bit longer, wrap things up more completely, get another hint of mystery or an idea of who the characters are. The cliffhangers don't get me as much as just knowing that there is more to follow, a new adventure to start, and not a lot of mingling with the unfamiliar. I guess you guys have ...

Every time we get together, my brothers and I tend to get hung up on a word or phrase; arguing over the origin and proper use or, more likely, misuse. With today’s smartphones, we can quickly ping the interwebs for an answer usually leading to more chin scratching and the muttering of phrases such as: “Ah yes.  That makes sense” or “Really? It sounds more Russian than French”.  The funny things is that we have no idea what we are talking about, but we like to pretend. There have been many ……discussions over the years: rife; lineagey; remote; etc.  Tonight the word that caught our interest was smithereens. For some twisted reason the first thing I thought of was Mr. Smithers (I already said we didn’t know what we were talking about).  A quick search led us to a page explaining that Smithereens was Irish in origin and could be based on an old Gaelic word ‘Smiodar’ meaning fragments.  The article had a second origin that I actually prefer; “’smithereens’ … ...