Popularity Destroys All Good Things

August 16th, 2020 by

A teacher once said to me “just because something is popular, does not make it right.” This teacher was referring to opinions and ideas.

It is a trope in the 1980s angsty teenage movies that the outcast kid wants to be popular. It was good to be the geek, good to be the freak. Yeah, pretty girls would shun you, jocks and face men maybe put you down, but you did not have to conform. Popular people had to conform to certain ways of doing things, and had to hang out with only popular people. Geeks hung out with other geeks, but did not have to stick with the narrow group. In the old 1980s movie once the outcast became popular, their life actually becomes miserable. The outcast never knew how good they had it until the outcast became popular.

Popularity has with it certain requirements. When it comes to being a teenager, if you are popular, you are expected to associate with only certain people. If you stray from the popular crowd, you are ostracized and shamed publicly. Falling from popular to nothing. The people you shunned, the nerds, geeks and outcasts, come back and pick you back up.

Unfortunately, popularity not only destroys people, it destroys culture. When I was a young geek, there were things to escape the world and enjoy the company of other geeks. Comic books, science fiction, fantasy, roleplaying games, it was all part of geek culture. Then it all became popular.

Then Iron Man came out, introducing a bunch of people to what was really cool to the Geek Set. CGI, and special effects caught up to the needs a superhero movie required. Hollywood realized it could stick true to the character origin, and actual costume, with only a few modifications, and have an awesome action movie. This launched the whole Avengers series. Avengers was the most awesome movie. Everyone whom would have shunned geeks were pumping geeks for information. Attractive women were sitting and talking about how awesome the movies were, and watching superhero movies. People became more interested in what was geeky. Science fiction, fantasy and other things became very much en vogue. Suddenly those cute cube dwelling women whom would slap a sexual harassment claim on the geek for looking at her tits by accident, was now dressing up at comic cons in skimpy superhero costumes and giving Joe Geek a photo op.

But, popularity destroys. Suddenly movies had to follow certain guidelines and adhere to the cool kids popular dogma. The fun was sucked out of all the movies. Statements had to be made, virtue had to be signaled. Comics, the origin of all things superheroes became the throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks, then make a movie. Things fell apart.

Stranger Things brought Dungeons and Dragons to the popular forefront. Suddenly all the people whom would have not sniffed at the players of the game, were interested. Tabletop gaming, roleplaying games were taken over by popular kids. Suddenly the games had to conform to the popular concepts.

Video games grew to become major money makers, and popular. There were great games developed. Interesting stories and themes. Then the games soon had to cater to what is the popular mantra. Now video games are starting to become boring saturated concepts.

Yeah, it sucked not being popular, but when one realizes one has to sell their soul, and destroy their individuality to be popular, it ain’t worth it. The same goes for culture. Geeks loved comic books, roleplaying games, and video games, once the stuff was viewed as unclean, became cool, it lost its soul.

Popularity destroys. It was a lesson that was being taught in the angsty teen movies of the 1980s, and it is a lesson people should have learned. Now all the fun that was part of being a geek, is gone. One needs to worry about what is next. What will the popular kids want to make popular?

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Of Clown and King

August 9th, 2020 by

Last week I posted about sudden difficulties with service at a franchise of the king — and worried that the same thing that drove me into a fifteen year hiatus of not going to restaurants associated with the king — was happening again. I had hoped that the minor mistake in my order, not giving me my soda at first, then handing me the wrong soda, was just a blip. I was wrong.

I decided to return to the franchise associated with the king, and I checked my bag of food after ordering, before I drove off. The bag felt too heavy for what I had ordered. I did get what I ordered, except, two of everything. Some people would say why complain? Free food. Because you cannot return food. Except, I did not get my soda. The person at the window handing out food was filling four or five drinks, but did not fill mine. Nor did that person even hand me a drink. At this point I am surprised I am not handed food from the Bell.

I brought the attention to the drive thru attendant, whom summoned a supervisor. I handed them my receipt. Always get a receipt. It is proof of what you ordered. The supervisor said I was only charged for one of what I ordered, but they could not take food back, so I can keep the extra. The person attending the window did give me my drink. Sadly, I did not get my receipt back. I wanted to fill out that survey and complain. Not that it would do any good. The franchise associated with the clown proved that. I am on hiatus from getting anything from restaurants associated with the clown.

It sucks. I may have to go on hiatus from the king as well. Both franchises, one of clown, and one of king are close to where I live. I do have to drive past my house to get to the two franchises, but there was that convenience factor.

I could start going back to the Bell on a regular basis, but that chain removed the food I enjoyed ordering regularly from their menu. Everything else on the menu is so unappealing, and so I don’t go there.

If I alter my route home slightly, there is a franchise with a Star as their logo, hardy-har-har. I have gone to that restaurant a few times, and so far have not been parked nor has my order been screwed up. The other option is where the meat claims to be.

Granted, this is all first world issues, but we should be happy we do live in a country where getting wrong food is an issue. In countries in this world, just getting food would be cause for celebration. But, putting things into perspective, this is a country where we do not have to just accept what is given us, and the admonishment of it could be worse, is something we should not be threatened with.

These multibillion dollar companies made franchises multi millionaires and their money is based on decent food and service. When service is poor, then things need to be corrected. When complaints have been filed, but nothing has changed, then refuse to give money to those companies. I went fifteen years with not going to the king, I guess I can go back to the long term hiatus for the king and the clown if need be.

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Return of the King?

August 2nd, 2020 by

About a year ago, I posted a blog about how bad service from a franchise of the fast food chain of the clown drove me back to the crown. This is after fifteen years of not going to the king for food because of bad service across the entire board, whether it was the same franchise or not.

Friday, July 31, 2020 I decided to get a chicken sandwich from the king. I ordered the meal, which includes sandwich, fries, and soda. It was Friday, and busy, so the restaurant had the first window open to take payments, then the person drove to the second window for food. This method is supposedly more efficient and allows the server of the food to focus more on getting orders correct. The whole reason I stopped going to the king was fifty percent of the time my order was incorrect. Either missing something or the incorrect food. I paid my money, drove up to get my food, the young lady stuck a bin out with a bag full of food. Then pulled back and shut the window. I waited a moment, the woman looked at me like I was being a jerk or something. I got my food, why did I not drive on? Soda! I said nicely with a smile. The woman looked confused, went back and forth between the order machine, and soda machine for a minute, then just grabbed what was at the soda machine, and handed it to me. It was Cherry Pepsi, I ordered regular Pepsi, but did not know it was wrong until I tasted it. At least my food was correct. I had a bacon, cheese chicken sandwich with fries.

This might be just a blip. The dining room is closed due to Kung Flu, and people are using the drive thru more. A new person working a busy shift, so there is some confusion. If this becomes regular, I guess not only will I stop going to the clown often, I will not be returning to the king so often. The clown parked me one too many times, and filling out those surveys complaining did nothing.

I understand that working in a fast food restaurant is difficult and stressful, anyone whom is middle class or below in economic standing has been there, done that. That is why people want to stop being poor or middle class, so they do not have to work entry level jobs. But, I digress. When someone orders a meal, it is usually good form to hand the drink to them first. Then the meal follows because usually it is still being assembled.

I am hoping this is a fluke and it is not a return of the king’s old ways. At least I wasn’t parked.

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Rise of Skywalker

May 31st, 2020 by

In a previous post, I had mentioned that I was not going to see Rise of Skywalker at the theater, and maybe would pickup the Blu-Ray. Because of recent events, I decided to complete my Disney Star Wars trilogy and purchased the Rise of Skywalker Blu-ray at Walmart.

Having read countless reviews, I was not anticipating much. The movie was as terrible as the reviews made it out to be. I am a judge for myself type person, and reviews will seldom influence my judgements on movies or television shows. Chances are I will like something most people do not like, Superman Vs. Batman is an example. Rise of Skywalker is not something I like that others dislike.

The movie was so disjointed, and confusing, I ended up falling asleep. I woke up during the big final battle, and shook my head, then went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, I felt like I had missed nothing. I removed the blu-ray from the player, placed it into the case, and put the movie into the cabinet containing my DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

Will I ever watch the movie again? Maybe. I did watch Last Jedi a second time, hoping to be less critical. That taught me to sometimes go with my instincts and not rewatch a movie. At this point the only good Disney Star Wars movie is Rogue One. It is an example of how a Star Wars movie can be made by someone else, not Lucas, and still tie well into the Star Wars canon created by Lucas.

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Self Parody

March 22nd, 2020 by

At some point, when you try to pander to smaller and smaller groups in order to boost sales, your company becomes a parody of itself. Marvel has done just that.

The “New” New Warriors comic is an eye rolling, agenda driven, pamphlet of propaganda. Already people on both sides are complaining, but for different reasons. Those whom are tired of being attacked as everything evil point to these two characters and say, this is why we stopped buying comics. The continued shaming, blaming, and destroying of iconic characters due to some social justice agenda has turned off major comic fans – white males. The “progressive” crowd is complaining that the characters feel like an insult. An attempt to attack or make fun of “progressive” views. Unfortunately this unintended parody is the whole reason why people of all walks of life have stopped buying comics. It is also why groups comic book companies are trying to court won’t buy comics. In an attempt to be “diverse” comic companies create characters that are cliched and pander, rather than create characters whom are original and engrossing.

Sadly a hobby I had enjoyed for nearly four decades is coming to a close. Comic companies were able to continually reinvent themselves in creative ways, update characters in ways to make those characters not only more appealing to new people, but satisfy older fans. The creativity is gone.

The whole method of producing comics and distributing them is also bloated and antiquated, thus would eventually collapse under its own weight. The take over of comics by the current regime of agenda driven nitwits was the introduction of sand into the gears of a machine that was breaking down.

Why would I buy a pamphlet that is designed to propagandize hate and bigotry against me disguised as “progress” or “inclusive”? Why would I buy something that insults me?

The central concept of heroes was altruism. The heroes fought for the good of all people, not for some misguided ideals or values. Superman fought for truth, justice, and the American way. Unfortunately the American way has become distorted and viewed as wrong. If you look at the actual origins of Superman, and the origin of Superman’s creators, things become very clear. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were children of immigrants whom sought and achieved a better life in America. Spider-Man fought crime because he did not want others to suffer tragedy he suffered as Peter Parker. Uncle Ben was killed because Spider Man refused to stop a thief. With great power, comes great responsibility.

Creators of comics tend to be influenced by their own world view. Creators put themselves into their creation. Villains reflect the creators perception of evil. The hero fights against that evil. Superman’s greatest villain was Lex Luthor. The origins of Lex Luthor have changed throughout time, but Superman’s goals have not. Lex Luthor was a genius whom used his intelligence to commit criminal acts. Then Luthor became the CEO of a global corporation. A ruthless businessman intent on furthering his own goals. Spider Man’s rogues gallery is filled with villains whom represented the misuse of science for personal gain or misused their powers.

At some point comic book companies in the attempt to prove themselves as being pleasing to all people and inclusive, end up displeasing everyone and alienated those whom were fans.

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