Meet a lost post (i.e. I never finished writing it) from last July. Since I wrote it, I've also had to get this thing's screen and power supply replaced.

After my laptop's screen hinges came loose, after it stopped recognizing the presence of its touchpad, after the antivirus software started acting odd, and after I took it to Mr. Sudin to see if anything could be fixed, and it just stopped working completely, we now know that due to the laptop's overheating problems, the motherboard has been burned to the point of no longer being usable. Could my life possibly get any worse? This raises the question, if Curb Your Enthusiasm, rather than being about an intelligent, wealthy superstar TV writer with everything going for him that nevertheless finds everything going wrong, were about a not-so-wealthy 19-year-old college student who is unsure of his future, and questions if his talents (or lack thereof) are of the extent that he'll be employed with enough income to not live in constant worry, would it be as funny?

On a different note completely, Dreaming In Cuban is a fantastic book. For all of my fellow former Ladue AP English students, if you found Typical American lacking in any sort of point beyond "it's difficult to move to a different country with a different language and different customs -- who knew," do I have a book about families, politics, immigration, and life for you.

Family Guy. I think it's funny. Most of us think it's funny. But as you may or may not have noticed, it seems to be part of a current trend of an anti-political correctness in pop culture. Specifically in Family Guy, stereotypes are used to scold against stereotypes. I wonder, though, when have we gotten to the point when being anti-PC to rebel turns into "being anti-PC is the popular thing to do"? There are loads of kids out there, and I hate to be the guy ragging at me at 12 not to be playing Mortal Kombat, but I get the feeling that not everyone gets the fact that all of this facetious racism, sexism, etc. is facetious. At times, I wonder if the shows' writers really do. As someone once wrote in a review of the Frogs' themed album "Racially Yours," there is a point where some people who would, at first glance, appear to be criticizing old examples of discrimination just look like they're having way too much fun with it. Herein lies the problem.
- posted by Eric @ 2:43 PM