The Cynic’s Cache

Before you read the rest of this article, take a quick glance at your computer.  Just do it, I’m going somewhere with this.  Now take a better look at it.  Does it have any neon?  Does anything other than the funny little “Hey everybody, I’m turned on” light glow?  Is any part of your computer a bright, obnoxious color?

If you answered yes to these questions, find something sharp and stab yourself in the eye.  This is what it feels like when you set your case down at a LAN party.  It isn’t a fashion show, it’s a nerd party for nerd things where we’re going to play nerd games.  In fact, your glowing neon box makes you look like an ass.  Far as I’m concerned, the only purpose case modding serves is to tell us who is trying too hard.

I have seen perhaps two case mods in my life that were actually aesthetically pleasing.  Of course, both were tastefully done by nerds that also had some artistic talent.  They didn’t glow.  They didn’t whir like they were about to take flight thanks to the excess fans needed to cool the thing because its air circulation was ruined.  They didn’t triple your electric bill or make everybody wonder if they were fire hazards.  They didn’t even have liquid coolant.  No, they were neat little projects by a few guys that decided to make their computers interesting rather than blocky.

Of course, the other, oh…five trillion case mods I’ve seen have been geared toward attention whoring rather than art.  They all could have lit up the room with the lights out.  Every last one looked like it was assembled from the scrap of some rave gone disastrous.  It screamed hey everybody look at me like some kind of beacon for stupid to collect around.

In the off chance that we ever end up in the same room (unlikely) and you set down a heavily modded computer case in front of me, I won’t even pretend to be impressed.  It really does make you look like an ass.  Anybody that seems impressed is, most likely, either feigning it or stupid.

Has anybody else noticed that the word “Fat” receives more anger than the word “Fuck?”  Is my perception skewed, or has this become reality?

Saying “Fuck” in public might get you a glare from at least one person.  It might make somebody ask you not to say that word because it’s offensive or there are children around.  In a few rare cases, it might even get you slapped.  But, ultimately, it isn’t nearly as offensive as it once was.  I blame Comedy Central.

Yet, I find myself saying “Fat” in hushed whispers lest the wrong person hear, especially at work.  They have a no-swearing policy in place, but don’t sweat the occasional curse so long as it comes from a customer.  However, “Fat” can get you fired if you aren’t careful.

When did this happen?

When did western society decide that a descriptive word that means “overweight” be more offensive than the universal four letters of extreme displeasure?

Then I started wondering.  Is it denial?  Even when pointing to numbers alone or the herds of human cows wandering around sucking on everything deep fried they can find, there are still those that will deny America has a weight problem.  Even if you sugar-coat it with a nice, cute term like “plump” or “fluffy,” there are those that stop just short of demanding that you be drawn and quartered.

If only denial burned calories.

The overall fatness of America, for me, finally sank in when numerous stores quit selling clothing in my size.  I actually have trouble finding things that fit right now.  I’m not freakishly skinny, either.  I’m a “healthy” weight for my height and, once, would have been considered pretty much average.  Yet, these days, the “average” person my height is fifty pounds heavier than I am.  And yet, there are still those that deny that America has a weight problem.

Suddenly, XXL size shirts aren’t nearly as anomalous as they once were.  There was a time where they had to be special ordered.  Now they’re common.  I don’t know about everybody else, but I just can’t ignore that.

If only we could find a way to make denial burn calories.  Then maybe we wouldn’t be such a nation of fucking fatties.

I keep looking at the review pit and wanting to revive it, but it’s a big factor in why I’m not writing much of late.  Reviewing music ate up a great deal of my writing time, which made me write little else.  It pushed out a few other of my projects, which made me a touch unhappy.  After careful consideration, I’m closing the Review Pit indefinitely, though the old reviews will stay up for archival purposes.

Worse yet, I found myself wanting to write the same crap over and over again.  I looked at old reviews from the currently down review blog on PolicyOverkill.com and realized that I had, ultimately, been doing just that.  Not only is that boring and a waste of time, but it is also unfair to the musicians.

My apologies to those I never got to.  You’ll be first on the list if I ever start reviewing agian.