Happy Friday (or Phriday)!

Tired of looking at people's vacation photos on facebook (Yes, I get it. You're having a much better time in Hawaii than I am having sitting in my cubicle.)? Well I hope not, because last Friday's Photoshop Phriday on somethingawful.com was great. The theme was Monster's on Holiday (or as we say here in the US of A, vacation). 


Take a look at these monsters letting their hair (or tentacles, or whatever weird hair-like substances that they have) down and relaxing.

I'm going to restore me some sanity (and/or fear)!

Living in DC, I've been hearing that there is going to be a big event this weekend. Tomorrow is the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I'll be heading down there along with 5 to 500,000 others. So far, there isn't a lot known about what will be happening down there, besides tons o' fun. However, Gawker has obtained a copy of the official permit, along with a tentative schedule. 


If you're also planning on attending the rally, here are a few handy guides to help you enjoy your sanity restoring and/or fear making:

• The Washington Post's Going Out Gurus have put together a list of pre-rally & post-rally happy hours.  
• WhoRunsGov.com has put together a restoring sanity "Survival Guide." It includes a handy map of places in the DC metro area where President Obama has eaten.
• Colbertrally.com  has a list of restaurants that have rally food and drink specials. The Passenger has a drink called the "Fear Monger", which is Kraken rum, lime and ginger beer. Awesome!

Have fun!

Zombies: Jumping sharks or eating their brains?

Zombies are everywhere these days. They’re storming the Lincoln Memorial, they’re in our video games, they’re being spoofed on Community, they're appearing in our political cartoons, and they’re coming to AMC. This weekend AMC will premier their new drama The Walking Dead. There have been ads for The Walking Dead all over the internet, TV, and I’m guessing the radio (I don’t listen to the radio ever) for weeks now, and I’m excited for the show to start, if only for the ads to go away. I’ve been seeing so many ads for The Walking Dead, I’ve started rereading The Zombie Survival Guide and making a list of items I’ll need when the zombie apocalypse eventually hits*.

Given that you can’t go online, turn on a TV, or walk through the National Mall without seeing a zombie, now is the time to ask if zombies have “jumped the shark”? The answer is of course, no, not at all. First off, zombies can’t jump (again, see Max Brook’s The Zombie Survival Guide, so there’s no way that they could literally jump a shark. Second, zombies would just eat a shark if they came across one. Finally, they will never stop being culturally relevant (In 2012, Brad Pitt will be staring in World War Z, also a book by Max Brooks).

Zombies fulfill so many different themes that we love. For example, people being put in impossible situations where they’re forced to do anything to survive; people trying to survive and then reform civilization in a post-apocalypse world; people forced to turn against the one’s that they love to survive; etc. So, get used to the fact that zombies are here to stay. Stay in this weekend, avoid the zombies roaming the streets, bars, and brain depositories, and watch The Walking Dead. You might just learn a few things that will keep you alive when Z-Day comes.

*Bolt action rifle, ammo, machete, rations (seriously, watch this video!), signaling mirror, crowbar, rope, etc.

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Trivia is hard, but funny team names are easy

Last night I went to trivia night at a local bar and realized that I don’t know about enough trivial stuff. I mean, you’d think that surfing the Internet all day and reading random blogs, news articles, and copious amounts of sports articles would prepare me to run away with any trivia night. That turns out not to be true unfortunately. What it does prepare you for is coming up with (I think) terrific team names.

My keys to coming up with a good team name are:

1.  Topical – Your team name should show that you don’t live under a rock and that you’re “in the know” with current events. Try to make sure that the events are current and not several months old. For example, do not reference Tiger Woods’ mistresses any more. That is tired and is old news now. Move on because the rest of the world has too.

2.  Humorous – Make the quiz master laugh, at least to him/herself, and if you can make the rest of the bar laugh when they hear your team’s name the better. Often times there are prizes for best team name, so even if you suck at trivia that night you can still win something. Plus, being funny is way cooler than being smart. Who wants to hang out with Steven Hawking when you could be hanging out with Louis CK? No one.

3.  Self Deprecating (if possible it can also be self defecating too) – This ties in the other two keys to make it a triumvirate of awesomeness. Often the best humorists poke fun at themselves and point out their own flaws so others may laugh with/at them. This serves as a good defense mechanism in case you do end up sucking at trivia, because you can always say “I knew that we sucked, so we put it right in our team’s name”.

Here are some team names that we came up with last night: These trivia questions are too damn hard party; Our chances of winning are smaller than Brett Favre’s penis; Like Christine O’Donnell, I’m not sure what’s in the bill of rights either; Reigning three time Trivia Champion at the Gathering of the Juggalos; and I hope none of the questions are “how do magnets work?”. All topical (the Insane Clown Posse ones are a little old, but those guys are just so funny that I’ll let them slide), all self deprecating, and all slightly humorous.

Slacking off at work and reading blogs (including this one) can help you with your trivial knowledge and take you to the top of the standings at the end of the night. But, there’s always that one category that you’re going to suck at (who cares knows if raavi* is a type of cheese or a font? Not me, that’s who), so make sure you’re prepared to dominate the only part of trivia night that actually matters by having the best team name.

*Raavi is a font.