What's My Line?

They don't give you much to work with here at the new, not so improved Xanga 2.0 do they? Oh well, such is life. I'm not here enough to complain much and I'm not likely to be here even if they did offer anything close to an alternative in the world of blogging.

Why am I here at all? Good question. The other day someone messaged me and told me I looked hilarious (or something like that) in the profile picture. I'm here to explain it. It may take a while so get comfortable if you're interested. If you're not, what are you doing here? I had asked some friends to tell their favorite joke while I shot video of them. They did and then I edited the raw video, added music, various sound effects, titles and pictures to add some punch to the final production. When I had all of them finished I invited everyone over again and showed them the videos. They were really funny and we all had a great time.

Because I never could leave well enough alone I asked them to redo the jokes, in light of what they had seen, to see if they could improve on them. Okay, so that probably was pushing a little too much. Fast forward to about a month or so later. We were set up in my living room with a green screen in the background so I could later add some effects to the video. Bad idea. The original jokes were simple and straightforward. The new jokes turned out to be a production to match The Ten Commandments in complexity.

One of the girls brought props and several costume changes. It was so complex she couldn't remember her lines in what used to be a joke, but had turned into a major production. She was playing a Veterinarian so she had a stethoscope, those strange glasses with the fake nose and mustache, and a cigar. As she was going through her bit it was so stilted that I put all the stuff on and tried to show her some different ways to loosen up in the delivery of the lines. While I was doing that someone in the room took the picture that I've used as a profile picture. They thought that was pretty funny. That's the story of the profile picture. Now I'm going away again.

Whack-O's

Okay, I don't know what your political stand is concerning Xanga 2.0, but for me it's not so bad. I like the idea that comments are moderated. That takes care of so much garbage right off the bat and still leaves the site open to interested parties who aren't maliciously insane, mentally deranged or sexually depraved. No, I didn't cover all the possibilities. I wanted to leave something for you to share. We've all had our share of Whack-O's trolling, defecating, leaving twisted grafiti or otherwise spreading their disease and discontent about their own sorry excuses for a life. Quite a number of years ago I addressed the subject in a piece about Feeding the Monkeys. Since 2.0 all the titles are gone so I can't find it, but it is good.

And now for something completely different!

This font is too small. I don't like it and I can't find how to change it. Seems Xanga has locked up WordPress so they still get to hold you on the leash. I reckon that's what people do in this business. Oh, and what is pulse? We get two categories to start off with. Uncategorized and pulse. I still have a pulse, but it's not Xanga's fault. Okay. I surrender. The is me waving the white flag. Point me in the right direction and I'll try to figure it out.

What's your favorite Whack-O story? By favorite I think we know we didn't have to enjoy their insanity to appreciate their illness.