Wisdumb: Smart and Not-So-Smart

Assuming the products really work, the new Green Works™ roll-out from Clorox is a very promising look at what is to come in consumer marketplace.

A nice grouping of products, a nice website and a great story to tell should all add up to success. I know my household will try it… I’ll report back on if I think it is a good buy. I am not promising to do any in-depth side-by-side comparisons, but I’ll let you know if it works or not.

UPDATE (2/28/08): Well, I have used the All Purpose Cleaner and I can say it worked fine. I didn’t do any side-by-side comparisons against any other products, but I cleaned up a mess quite nicely with it.

I just watched the first episode of Saturday Night Live on DVD last night. Overall the show, hosted by George Carlin, was mediocre at best. It did have a few highlights (most famously the Andy Kaufman Mighty Mouse lip syncing bit) and some of the groundwork for what was to come was set in the first episode (Weekend Update, the Bee sketches, commercial parodies, short films).

Anyway, the thing that struck me most was that even though the show aired over 33 years ago, quite a few elements of the show are still very appropriate today. Some topics covered included a sketch about how American’s love guns, George Carlin had jokes about the hassles of security at the airport and how the government would use the fear of terrorism to infringe upon other areas, and a sketch about the new technology of home security.

There was also a commercial parody about a new and improved razor that had three blades. The idea was that having three blades would be so ridiculous — in fact, the tagline for the fake commercial was “because you’ll believe anything.” Of course, I am sure the writers of that particular sketch must have been quite amused when the three-bladed razor came out… and again when the four-bladed razor came out.

My six-year-old son’s homework assignment involved him coloring in various items after figuring out which ones met certain requirements.

Anyway, it was getting close to his bed time and he wasn’t finished coloring. He said it was taking him so long because he was trying so hard to color in between the lines because he “wants to be an artist.” This made me smile as I wondered how many years it would be before he discovered that what makes him an artist is his desire to not want to color in between the lines.

I just had to fill out an online form for an awards submission on behalf of my company. As the person filling out the form, I had to identify myself. For the salutation title drop down list, I was offered these choices:

Admiral
Brother
Cmdr.
Col.
Deacon
Dean
Dr.
Father
General
Judge
Lt.
Miss
Mr.
Mrs.
Ms.
Pastor
Prof.
Rabbi
Rev.
Senator
Sgt.
Sister
The Honorable

That’s 23 choices. And since my “Dr. Love” title is only honorary, I had to go with the quite unispired “Mr.” title.

I wonder why they stopped at 23, though. Don’t Congressmen count? What about the various Dragon titles of the Klu Klux Klan? How ’bout: Mayor, President, King, Emperor, Pope, Ambassador.

If you are going to go beyond the usual Mr., Mrs., Ms. and fill in your own options, why stop at 23?

I was once called “Professor Dipshit” but that was more of a term of endearment, I think.

Here is another late night post… I got nothing to say, but I didn’t want to start out this week without a post. So, as I have done before, I am posting another guitar video — this time by perhaps my favorite guitar player: Paul Gilbert. However, before we get to that video, here is what inspired me:

I was just going to post the kid video, but since I figure most civilians [read: non-guitarists] don’t know who Paul Gilbert is, I wanted to give my readers a fine example:

If you YouTube search Paul Gilbert, you will find hundreds if not thousands of videos by him, featuring him, or by other guitar players covering his music. It is quite amazingly actually. I only chose the above video because it was one of the better ones from an audio and video consideration. Besides being arguably one of the most talented players of all time, Paul really seems to be a nice guy. He is very witty, he shares his knowledge, he respects musicians, has a very cool and funny website and he is a god in Japan (search for Paul Gilbert and Marty Friedman to see some hilarious and amazing Japanese TV show appearances). Lastly, if you want to hear what the young Daniel was playing by its originator, search for Gilbert GOOMY to see what a fine job he did trying to cover Paul’s impossible playing.

Lastly, if Paul’s neo-classical heavy metal/shred style isn’t your thing, please do not dismiss him over this. Paul is also about the most versatile guitar player I can think of. I believe I have all of his CDs (including the Mr. Big and Racer X stuff in addition to his solo work) and he has plenty of stuff that is more accessible to the average rock or pop music fan.

I am always amazed that the Evolution vs. intelligent design topic is still in debate (please note me not using capital letters for the latter) in regards to what should be taught in public schools. Now, if people want to “learn” about i.d. on their own time, in church or perhaps even as part of a social studies class discussing world religions, then why not - it would be relevant information. But as reported by the National Academy of Sciences released on Thursday:

Creationism, based on the explanation offered in the Bible, and the related idea of “intelligent design” are not science and, as such, should not be taught in public school science classrooms, according to the report.

More of this story can be found  here by Reuters. The scariest part in this article is this statement:

A 2006 Gallup poll showed that almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

I would like to see this poll. Was it really an accurate poll with a big enough universe and a fair sampling of America, or was it really just asking the first 10 people who came out of a Stuckey’s in Alabama?

OMG, Martin Lawrence has a funny yet knowing smirk… I bet when boys look at his daughter he just goes crazy! Ooh, the kid has funny glasses – that just promises adorably cute fun! A pig in the car! What a riot. Donny Osmond! Sure, he is edgy… but the untapped comic potential is limtitless and interacting with the subtle genius of Sir Mr. Lawrence — forget about it! It’s simply brilliant, I say.

Throw in some cheap stereotypical Asian gags and this is going to be an instant classic that people all over the world watch every year.

Pure movie magic!

Do I hear Oscar calling?

In case you need more proof, check this out:

Day 1 - 2008.

0 pounds lost so far.

And so it begins…