End of Side A

This is the end, my only friend, of the end of the Hamburger Challenge, but not the end of JakeyPen. I will be taking some time, though, to sufficiently enjoy not eating my burger. I've enjoyed writing here daily, but it has made the whole thing a bit routine. The number of "I'm blogging be cause I have to, not because I want to" posts has increased lately, and that's not much fun for me. At the same time, the contest has encouraged me to write things I wouldn't have otherwise. So here's the plan: for the next month, no matter what happens, I will not be updating. I won't even open this site. What will you do 'til then? You could chase your tail. You could count your nose goblins. After that, I'll come back, but without any schedules or obligations. At some point, I will set another daily challenge for myself, so if anyone out there is interested in joining a future blogging contest, speak.

This concludes Season One of JakeyPen. M-I-C, see ya real soon, and thanks for reading.

Congratulations Dave+Lily, Marisa, Nicole, and Nora!

The Very Quiet Jake

Tonight is a good night I think for listening to Sean Lennon.

And that's pretty much all you're gonna get out of me tonight, 'cause I just packed all my stuff and I am not too chatty and the moment. Also, it's hot. Insane hot. I drank an entire pitcher of iced tea, several cups of water, and some quantity of soymilk, and I'm still thirsty. I'm the Very Hungry Caterpillar of thirst.

As long as I'm linking Sean's MySpace page, I should link this.

Pepperoni and Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Olive, Chives

Advertising's got me on the run. If you'd like to read something that should make you sick, check out this study which found that "82% of Consumers React Positively to Receiving Contextual In-Game Ads During Game Play." Bad, yes, but this was a survey designed to prove the effectiveness of desecrating video games for money. There was a certain bias, and there are so many factors in "research" like this that may skew the results. No, what got me was the way people have responded to these findings. People, ordinary people, people who spend huge amounts of time and money on video games agree that an increase of in-game advertising is okay. I've seen Websites where people have, of their own will, commented that they don't mind buying interactive commercials. How can this be?

This bothers me enough from the perspective of someone who plays games, but as someone who wants to make games, I must say that I do not like the idea of selling out becoming the norm. Then again, this isn't a matter of my industry. Auctioning off our integrity is apparently such a fundamental part of human existence that we're advertising it to the stars.

The aliens won't need death-rays or shape-shifting when they come to conquer Earth. We'll happily take them to our leaders for a couple bucks.

The News From Your Bed

I should be moving out any day now, but as much as I like the new apartment and the new roommates, there is one aspect of leaving my current pad that disappoints me. For months I've been planning to do a follow up to the bed post, but with only days until my lease expires, it appears the bed shall outlast me.

Crazy Week

That's what you get when spend all day working and all night looking for an apartment, but I've finally submitted a rental application. Pending approval of said application, I'm expecting a crazy weekend.

Current question: How does one move without a vehicle? I could rent a truck from a moving company or quickly make friends with a car-owner, but you know me; I like to make things difficult. If I steal a shopping cart, will I be able to fit my futon in it? Hmmm...

Remembering the Carlin

I've spent the night watching, reading, and listening to George Carlin. Now that I think about it, I've spent lots of nights this way. I don't think there's any reason to get too sentimental about George's death, but everyone should at least look up a few of his bits on YouTube, and everyone should keep questioning authority.

Carlin was one of the best.

While Silly Thoughts Go Through My Head

Dreams I want to record before I forget them: Last night I dreamed that we were living in future times. We lived a future where food could be multiplied. Make a meal for one person, multiply it to serve your whole family. There were still homeless people begging in streets, and people still wouldn't help them. It's not my fault their food isn't motivated enough to multiply.

When I woke up, I reasoned that if we could multiply food, we would never get a rotten apple. Someone would discover a great apple and multiply it until we had specific pieces of celebrity fruit. Maybe we would have a rotten apple, but we would trust that it was good because everyone else liked it and we didn't know any better. I thought, we already do this with people and media. Television is our cloning machine. Make a friend for everyone.

I dreamed I was reading a newspaper with a YouTube video embedded on the cover. When I woke up, I reasoned that this is technology we might develop, but why? There are events which can't be expressed by mere words on a page, but the real answer has nothing to do with news. I pictured myself walking through a store while every pack of toilet paper shouted to me at once, images flashing across the label.

I do not want this future.