On politics

They say humans are social animals; that they like to be in the company of others rather than be alone.

I’d say this no longer holds truth. Humans have long since evolved from just being social buggers to being political fiends. Face it, society just loves politics! Individuals try to make themselves better than others. If pure hard work fails, they’ll strike below the belt to make sure the competitors fail or are hindered in some way. Individuals with a similar school of thought amalgamate and do the same thing, but this time in a group. In small sections of society these groups are formed. Even in these groups, there are politics between different persons. Rumours and gossiping soon follows and larger groups split into smaller ones, merge into other groups and so on.

The time has long past since we were just satisfied with being social. Like it or not, politics has taken a hold of our lives and will do so in the foreseeable future. It isn’t always a bad thing, more of a defence mechanism than anything else; but we should take care that we keep it under finger and not the other way round.

Torrents: The Internet’s Response to Booze

P2P was undoubtedly one of the great inventions of the Noughties. It invoked applause, scorn, legal issues and even conspiracy theories; just like alcohol. And like alcohol does a lot more than heat you up when you’re cold, P2P does a lot more than allow you to “share files easily”.

Some people I know are so addicted to it that downloading all sorts of things is the only reason for them using the internet; they are the bums of the internet. The Webums. These webums are not necessarily social recluses, nor could you spot one from a distance. It’s when you touch upon the subject that the litmus turns red. They just can’t stop bragging about how much “gigs” they’ve downloaded this month.

Almost all of them have long download queues in their bittorrent clients, and their computers never shut down. They keep downloading all kinds of stuff from the internet- movies, the latest songs, the latest software and sitting high up there on the clouds, PORN. Illegally, I might add. Some even take orders.

It’s pathetic.

If you are a webum and you are reading this, pause that download and look at what else the internet has to offer. You’re missing out on a lot of memes, guys.

How Pirates of the Caribbean is a Monkey Island Rip-off

So you’re interested in the title of the post, and you’re probably thinking ‘what the fudge is Monkey Island?’. Let me start off by saying that the Monkey Island series was one of THE best adventure games made in history. Amazing story-line, lovable characters and witty dialogue that never gets boring. Not to mention the catchy, but never annoying background scores.

If you haven’t played any of the games, you probably would after reading this.

Comparison #1: Captain LeChuck and Davy Jones/ Captain Barbossa

Davy Jones

Captain Barbossa

Captain LeChuck

The most obvious similarity between the two are the antagonists LeChuck, Davy Jones and Captain Barbossa.

LeChuck is an undead evil pirate (the most feared pirate across the Caribbean) who commands an army of skeletal undead.
Barbossa is undead and commands an army of skeletal undead (in the first movie).

LeChuck can only be destroyed by a special ‘voodoo root’. Davy Jones can only be destroyed by stabbing his heart. Both of these objects are kept closely guarded in a chest.

Comparison #2: Elaine Marley and Elizabeth Swann

Elaine Marley


Elizabeth Swann

The fathers of both were Governers of their respective islands, both are the love interests of the protagonist, both get married to the protagonist in the end. Both are the only ‘bootiful’ women in the respective series. Go figure.

Comparison #3: The Voodoo Lady and Tia Dalma

The Voodoo Lady.

Tia Dalma.

Do I even need to explain? Both dabble in voodoo magic, both are ‘strange’, both have lived in a swamp at least once, in a wooden hut filled with candles and strange ingredients and other thingamajigs.

Comparison #4: Kidnapping the lead female.

LeChuck kidnaps Elaine. Multiple times.

Barbossa kidnaps Elizabeth. Sao Feng kidnaps Elizabeth. Davy Jones kidnaps Elizabeth.

Comparison #5: Herman Toothrot and “Bootstrap” Bill Turner

Herman Toothrot


“Bootstrap” Bill Turner

Herman is actually Horatio Marley the long-lost, thought-to-be-dead father of Elaine Marley. He has amnesia, but recovers later-on.

Bootstrap is the long-lost, thought-to-be-dead father of Will Turner. He suffers from short-term memory loss.

————-XXX————-

There’s also all this talk about the dog-having-keys sequence, but that is an oft-repeated plot point in many other stories, so it can be forgiven.

These are just the blatant similarities. The more we go into depth, more subtle similarities can be found.

All in all, the Pirates trilogy was great and I loved watching the movies. The acting was superb and Johnny Depp even more so. I just feel that it would’ve been better if an animated (a la Curse of Monkey Island) movie series would have been made instead; By Lucas Films, not Disney. Especially since the PotC “borrowed” so much from the series.

OMG, iPHONE. ORGASM.

So the iphone was released. Big deal. Its just a fucking phone. I don’t understand all these legions of perennial losers who queue up in front of stores a day before a new product is released, just so they can get their smelly little fat hands on that piece of gadgetry before anyone else does and go ballistic. Sweet mother of God, it’s a fucking piece of over-hyped circuitry- a million others are going to own it. Who the fuck cares whether you were the one who first bought it? It’s not like you’re creating history…. the manufacturers already covered that part of the deal.

Same was the case with the xbox360, the ps3 and now the iphone. Steve Jobs must be laughing his head off at the hordes of people just dying to make out with their iphones. Can’t these people fathom the simplest of logic that they’re wasting precious hours of their miserable lives just to buy a piece of equipment that’s in mass production in a gazillion factories? It’s not like they’re gonna run out of iphones. Just take it easy, godamnit…. there’s enough for everyone.