{"id":1411,"date":"2008-05-15T12:38:08","date_gmt":"2008-05-15T12:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2008-05-15T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2008-05-15T12:38:08","slug":"a_couple_of_quickies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2008\/05\/15\/a_couple_of_quickies\/","title":{"rendered":"A Couple of Quickies&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a couple of items I&#8217;ve been meaning to post for several days and just haven&#8217;t gotten around to:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nThe first is a funny video that explores something I&#8217;ve often been annoyed by, our society&#8217;s snotty attitude that says sports fans are somehow completely normal while <i>Star Wars<\/i> (or <i>Star Trek<\/i> or <i>Farscape<\/i> or <i>Firefly<\/i> or any other kind of science fiction) fans are nerds, when the behaviors are, for all intents and purposes, <i>exactly the same<\/i>:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/BIUQw1w5OqM&amp;hl=en\" \/><embed width=\"425\" height=\"355\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/BIUQw1w5OqM&amp;hl=en\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Really, what&#8217;s the difference between dressing up like a Klingon for a weekend convention of like-minded enthusiasts and painting your bare chest and belly in team colors and wearing a block of fake cheese on your head for a game? The fact is, everybody&#8217;s a geek for something, and if you&#8217;re sufficiently immersed in your particular geekiness, the things you do to indulge your hobby are going to look really weird to those on the outside of your circle.<\/p>\n<p>Next up, a political video, but don&#8217;t let that prevent you from playing it. It&#8217;s actor Tom Hanks voicing his endorsement for Barack Obama. Now, for the record, I honestly don&#8217;t care who Tom Hanks chooses to vote for because his opinion is no more meaningful than anyone else&#8217;s, celebrity or not (Hanks himself acknowledges this right up front). But I just thought this video &#8212; and what Tom says in it &#8212; was really nicely done, with a balance of eloquence, passion, and good-natured self-deprecation. It doesn&#8217;t hurt that I happen to agree with much of what he says:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/68CKnirCxak&amp;hl=en\" \/><embed width=\"425\" height=\"355\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/68CKnirCxak&amp;hl=en\" wmode=\"transparent\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Oh, and I like the antique typewriter collection in the background, too.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/05\/04\/nyregion\/04detectives.html?ex=1367640000&amp;en=b5de3773b8a6b699&amp;ei=5124&amp;partner=permalink&amp;exprod=permalink\">here <\/a> is a <i>New York Times<\/i> article I found curiously fascinating, about the custom-tailored suits worn by police detectives. I&#8217;ve read in many a spy thriller about suit jackets that have been cut to conceal a pistol, but I never really thought about such things in the real world. Interesting that the NYPD has a particular tailor who specializes in these suits, and that colors matter, and why certain features like side vents are advantageous for the profession&#8230; well, I thought it was interesting, at least&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a couple of items I&#8217;ve been meaning to post for several days and just haven&#8217;t gotten around to:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-ramblings","category-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}