God wants us to die of old age, after years of pain and decreased mobility

[vovat]

I wasn't so keen on last night's Simpsons episode. It had some decent jokes, mostly in the pre-bullfighting parts (the Rob Reiner commercial, the Rich Texan's comment about his gay grandson), but didn't elicit a lot of strong laughs from me. I did think it was interesting that they took on physician-assisted suicide. I also found it a little weird that Abe actually mentioned his age, since they seemed to avoid giving an actual number in previous episodes. I guess that means he was in his mid-forties when Homer was born.

I guess they've finally set a date for the Simpsons movie. I have to wonder what the actual plot will be. If it's basically just an extended episode, that'll be fine with me. Well, as long as it's a GOOD extended episode, obviously. But since it's been so long in the making, I'm guessing they're going to try for something more worthy of the big screen (however THAT'S determined).

Also last night, bethje and I watched Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella talk about how The Da Vinci Code is "trash." Jack was pointing out all the errors in it. Um, Jack, didn't anyone tell you it was FICTION?

Okay, time for some memes.


I know I've taken this at least once before. Possibly twice. The first time was when I'd only been on LJ for a very brief amount of time, though.

The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test
Category	Your Score	Average LJer
Community Attachment	16.13% You've got pals to cheer you up when you're down, but no audience to applaud you... Yet.	22.5%
MemeSheepage	49.12% An expert on multiple-choice questions, an whiz at the cut-and-paste	27.91%
Original Content	51.61% Using LiveJournal to express a few strong opinions	37.71%
Psychodrama Quotient	10.84% Had a comment taken out of context once or twice	16.74%
Attention Whoring	36.36% This quiz is part of a grand scheme to keep people reading	20.57%
Take The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test and see how you match up! (By The Ferrett)

And this one is from rockinlibrarian:

"Ok, are you sick of all these surveys that are obviously made by teenagers, with questions like "Have you ever stayed out all night?" Who cares? Well, I guess when you're 14 that's a big deal. So here is a survey for adults cause there are some of us out there you know."

The adult meme...

[X] I have a Job

[ ] I own a paid off car (although the money I owe is to my dad, not the car dealer)

[ ] I have a house payment or rent

[ ] I've made a house or car payment late

[ ] I've had a car reposessed

[ ] I know my credit score

[ ] I have kids

[ ] I have kids by more than one person

[ ] I pay child support

[ ] I'm married

[ ] I've been divorced

[ ] I'm 30 or older and haven't been married

[X] I have toys from my childhood that are older than half of myspace

[ ] I remember when David Lee Roth left Van Halen.

[ ] I saw "E.T." in the Theater or Drive - In.

[ ] I know who shot J.R.

[X] Fraggle Rock.

[X] "Where's the Beef?"

[X] I've found grey hairs

[X] I have aches and/or pains for no apparent reason.

[X] I've uttered the phrase "Kids these days..." (Well, not exactly, but probaby something close to that)

[X] I've uttered the phrase "When *I* was a kid..."

[ ] I think current teen fashion is laughable, but I own something from the 80's or early 90's thats equally retarded... that I still wear.

[ ] I know off the top of my head who Crockett and Tubbs are.

[X] "Capital Gains tax", "401k", and "Homestead exemption" all mean something to me. (Actually, I'm not so sure about that last one.)

[ ] I wanted a Delorean.

[ ] Yes, I have had sex with people of different ages and backgrounds.

[ ] I remember when it was just "Star Trek"

[X] I had a Trapper Keeper

[X] I know what "Reaganomics" was.

[X] I remember when Michael Jackson was Black.

[X] I remember Max Headroom

[ ] I know who killed Laura Palmer

[X] I remember when VCR's were a "new gadget" And the remote control for the cable box had a long ass wire. (My grandparents had a VCR long before we did.)

[ ]I also remember the first time we rented a VCR and the first movie I ever watched on it

[X] I remember Atari

[ ] I remember when the only anime show you could watch was Robotech. (Hey, what about Speed Racer? Not that I watched that either.)

[ ] I remember when there was no such thing as a computer. (How old do you think I AM? ENIAC was built in 1946!)

[X] I remember Pop Rocks! I also remember the first time that i was told drinking soda and eating pop rocks would make your stomach explode.


And finally, courtesy of the dragonquest community, here's the history of Dragon Quest. It's pretty funny, if you're familiar with the games.

Comments

[loz]

I always find that Livejournal Obsession test annoying, because it doesn't properly indicate community attachment. There are too many questions about meeting up with other LJers. I can't meet up with most of the people on LJ I would want to due to travel restrictions, and believe me when I say there is only one other person on LJ who has indicated they live in Adelaide who I would be remotely interested in ever speaking to. And even then, not so much.

I feel like it needs questions such as "have you ever had a terrible day but thought 'oh well, at least I can read so&so's posts later on' and felt better" or "has someone's comment to one of your posts brightened you up so much you felt considerably better about the world" or "have you watched/read/listened to this, this and this because LJ friends liked it and you thought you might like it too?" to be truly reflective of community attachment.

On another note, I really want the Simpsons movie to be good.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the test. I also found it kind of weird how some of the questions have options going up to "more than fifty" or "more than one hundred," but "Written a review of some media source (movie, book, CD, videogame) that you've seen?" only goes up to "more than five times." Probably about half of my entries are reviews!

I think that, when making tests like that, people like to put in questions that they think are funny, but which no one taking the test would have ever actually done. I have to wonder whether the final score gives the same amount of points for every question, just like I wonder whether purity tests give the same weight to "Have you ever held hands?" and "Have you ever had a threesome with an immediate family member and a goat?".

On another note, I really want the Simpsons movie to be good.

As do I. I know the writers said something about not wanting to do a movie until the show was over, so that they could concentrate better on it. Since I think the contracts for the show were recently renewed for another three years, they've obviously changed their minds. Mind you, I think the argument could be made that they should have made a movie a lot earlier, back when they still had a lot of fresh ideas.

[onib.livejournal.com]

One thing that seems to get a lot of people bent out of shape about The DaVinci Code is that (1) it is fiction, and yet (2) it claims at the beginning that all works of art, locales, and documents described in the book are 100% accurate. This leads people to believe the connections made by the book are accurate (yes, people are stupid). Unfortunately, many artworks and places are not as described in the book or, in some cases, the artwork looks as described in the book, but its documented history is totally different. *shrug* Like I said, people are stupid and care far too much about the things that don't matter.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Also, wasn't Voltron a pretty old anime? Some of their questions seem a little stilted toward their own memories.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, although I don't know when it was aired relative to Robotech. I know Voltron was on when I was in the second grade, because I remember kids in my class talking about it.

I do agree that the quiz was probably based mostly on the creator's own memories. The computer question is a good example of that. I doubt too many people on LJ remember when computers didn't exist, but I'm sure many CAN remember when most people didn't have home computers. My family got one when I was pretty young, but then, my dad WAS a computer programmer.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think if he had said personal computers or home computers, it would have made a lot more sense.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

My guess is that IS what they meant. I mean, home computers vs. computers in general. That's how I answered it anyway.

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

And plus, Brown stole every idea in the book from someone else.

So how old is Abe Simpson?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

And plus, Brown stole every idea in the book from someone else.

He even copied the index from an old Vatican telephone directory!

Seriously, I haven't read either The Da Vinci Code or the book that Brown supposedly stole ideas from, but I get the impression that it was a case of his using pretty general ideas (like Jesus having married Mary Magdalene and had children, which I'm pretty sure is a theory that's been around for centuries). Maybe it's more of a rip-off than that, though. I wouldn't know. Jack Van Impe mentioned the plagiarism accusations, and claimed that Brown said his wife did all the research. I found this kind of amusing, since I get the impression that Jack's wife does a good deal of HIS research as well.

So how old is Abe Simpson?

He said in last night's episode that he was 83. I remember another episode where he was playing in an over 85 basketball game at the YMCA, though. Considering how much Abe misremembers or just plain makes up, I'm not sure we can take even that bit of information as totally factual.

I was wearing an onion in my belt, as was the style at the time

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, his mind drifts. :P

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Okay, I know that Jack Van Impe is stupid, but Rexella is awesome. And her name is Rexella. Rexella!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

If "rex" means "king," what does "Rexella" mean? I'd say "queen," but that's "Regina."

Hmm, it looks like "Ella" can mean "other," so Rexella is the "other king"? Sounds about right to me.

[onib.livejournal.com]

How sad is it that when I hear her name, my brain goes, "hey, that translates to Woman King, doesn't it?"

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

I remember my mom reading back in like 1991 in the National Enquirer about a Simpsons movie coming out in 1993 or 1995, 'can't remember I was a little kid. So its kinda sorta been in the makings for 15 years! Or at least the rumors for it.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

[X] "Capital Gains tax", "401k", and "Homestead exemption" all mean something to me. (Actually, I'm not so sure about that last one.)

I don't know what it is either, but apparently I applied for it last year. Speaking of which, I just finished our taxes and am about to send off the tax form to the IRS center in Philly-- does this mean you're going to be processing it?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Actually, during training, they specifically told us that we couldn't process returns for people we know. Maybe someone else in my department will process it, though.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

We may end up e-filing it anyway-- I don't know if that's still your jurisdiction. hah. Anyway, are you actually supposed to stop and say "wait, I know this person!" if you actually get somebody you know?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

So far, I've only worked with paper returns. I think the fact that so many people are e-filing means they don't need to hire as many data transcribers, which is kind of a shame. I'm going to keep e-filing my own returns, though.

Anyway, are you actually supposed to stop and say "wait, I know this person!" if you actually get somebody you know?

Yeah, pretty much.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, we didn't end up efiling anyway, since I'd already done all the adding and whatnot on paper-- it didn't seem worth it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I know there have been rumors for a long time, but it's kind of surprising they were around that early, considering that the first full-length episode aired in December 1989. I guess there have been other shows that were made into movies after only two seasons or less, though. I think they'd been saying for years they'd make a movie after the show ended. Maybe now they realize that that's not exactly practical, since the show will never end. {g}