I Love You, Charlie Sheen

So by now, I’m sure a lot of you have heard the news about Two and a Half Men abruptly closing down for the season. This news follows a recent interview Charlie did where he really said some things that ultimately ruffled some feathers at CBS, Chuck Lorre, and apparently with the public as well. But not me, I can say that. And of course I’m going to tell you why. But first, you may want to take some time to listen to the interview. You can do so here. It’s ok, go listen, I’ll wait right here for you.

Everybody back? Ok now I ask this… was it just me that laughed their asses off at that recording? Not too sure how "real and honest" he was being with this, but it was fuckin’ hilarious nonetheless. To me it sounded more like a created character to ruffle some feathers. But assuming he meant every word (and I’m sure he meant most deep down)... the man had a fucking point. He HAS become the whipping boy in the media. Tons of slander and speculation every god damn day. The world is obsessed with watching this guy’s every action. And for quite a while he seemed to be emotionally bulletproof when dealing with the media.

But every person has a breaking point before they tell people to shut the FUCK up. Guess ole’ Charlie found his. I say good for him, it’s about damn time. I don’t give a shit what right the public thinks they have when dealing with celebrities. You have an opinion, fine. No one’s trying to take that away. Just stop trying to shove it down everyone's throats. Unless it’s about World of Warcraft, and then the opinion that the game sucks donkey balls should be heavily passed out in a worldwide memo. But I digress.
 

People seem to be personally offended that during the interview Charlie took a shot at the almighty Chuck Lorre. Well I think Chuck took a pretty dirty shot with that vanity card he put at the end of a recent Big Bang episode. He should consider himself lucky he was only called a turd. I could think of much more colorful words to use. I don’t really give a fuck WHY he wrote it, OR if it was justified. Keep your shit off our TV and out of our homes. That’s YOUR shit to work out. So hey Chuck, can't handle the attack? Then stop dishing it out yourself. You get back what you put out. Simple as that.

That all being said, the interview DID seem like Charlie just did a rail of something good. I’ve never heard that much energy coming from the man. But again, I think he crossed a breaking point with all the scrutinizing that he has endured. Who cares if he fucks porn stars? Most guys, whether they admit it or not, dream about doing it. Who beyond the people that are close to him should ultimately care about whether he snorts some Coke? It’s his life, man. To us he’s a performer, that’s his job and he does it well. That’s all he needs to give us. I don’t subscribe to all that “When you’re a celebrity your life is an open book” bullshit. That’s just plain ignorance. 

One of the most controversial parts about the interview, it seems, was his quip about AA. People say that he couldn’t just “cure” himself like that. To this I say, why the hell not? Now here’s where I  myself will rustle some feathers I’m sure. But I have experience with the matter, so I feel as if I can share it. I believe people don't have total control over an addictive personality, but they damn sure have control over what they are addicted TO. You CHOOSE alcohol as your addiction. You CHOOSE to take that first hit off the crack pipe. Focus your addictive energy elsewhere. Go get addicted to catching butterflies, or doing charity work. Hell you can even join Fluff and Wilson's campaign to take back the rainbow. Find something. There was a time I was involved in the drug/alcohol scene and I have an extremely addictive personality. But then I grew up, and I realized that it was a dangerous focus for my addiction. I CHOSE to leave the hard drugs and the alcohol behind and focus on less dangerous things. So I became a web designer, and I am quite addicted to that. I collect music, and I'm obsessively addicted to that. You just have to pick your poison, but it IS a choice. Sitting around in AA meetings  (yes I have been to plenty) whining about how hard your life is and how everyone has abandoned you does not solve your fuckin issues. You can’t let yourself go and surrender yourself completely. What does that say about you? Stand up like a strong person, dust yourself off and go about your fucking day. So is it possible that Charlie said to himself, “Hey I’m done with this shit”, and move on? Sure it is. Whether or not it’s true is a moot point. The point is, it’s not up to us to judge him or say he’s wrong. That’s ignorance as well.

But hey, these days the “hip” thing to do is to jump on the “Bash-a-Celebrity” bandwagon. With all the real problems in the world, this planet sure spends a retarded amount of time getting involved in irrelevant shit. Let Mel Gibson say what he wants. Let Lindsey fuck up her life. Let Charlie bang as many porn stars as he wants. Why should the general public give a shit? Keep it out of our lives and out of our grocery store check-out lanes. Enough already.

One more final thought before I go watch some Hot Shots. I understand people being upset about the people being out of work now that production has halted. It really does suck. Well through several documented interviews and such, it has been revealed that when Charlie is at work he’s a professional. He does his job well and doesn’t screw off on the set. What more do they need? He seems eager to get back to work. So if people want to be upset about the halted production and it’s ramifications on the rest of the crew, that’s fine. But let’s focus some of it at CBS and Chuck Lorre and not just Charlie. As soon as they realized that ole Charlie was no longer going to be a whipping boy, and that he was going to stand up to them, they pulled the plug for now. Grow the hell up already and do your fucking jobs.

Website: Complete

     Well folks, I'm kinda nervous to say it but I think the building of the "Fluff and Wilson's Miscellaneous Debris" website is complete. I know some folks thought it would never get finished. I mean I had the majority of the core site up and running but it wasn't anything compared to what I have developed over the last several days. I must say that I am quite proud over what the site has developed into. There's a lot more functionality and user-friendliness than there was prior. I'll talk more about that later.

     All I can say at the moment is, that while I should be popping a cork on a bottle or rolling a fatty or something, I just want a nap. My brain is so mushy at the moment. But I feel as if it was worth it. And hey, I learned a few new things along the way. Currently, the rest of my cast and crew have no idea that I have been secretly finishing things up. I didn't need the attention since I was in a pretty heavy groove. Boy, they will sure be surprised when I upload the finished product in a few hours.

     So what's new, you might be muttering to yourself. Or maybe you're not. I'm not a mind reader anymore since I made that deal with the gypsies a few years back, so I'm just guessing. Anyways... website... new stuff... oh my! Well first and foremost there's now handy sidebar navigation that controls a lot of the new website features. You can track the latest episodes, jump to the latest blogs, try new things in the Topic Shuffle, etc etc. The main top navigation bar has changed as well. Buttons have been renamed, moved around, added, and even deleted! So take some time to get yourself acquainted with the new setup. It's not that hard, really it isn't.

     Over on the Show page we added a nice handy clock so we can try to keep from rambling too long while we broadcast. This is a good thing for all of you so just roll with it. It's a shiny new clock, deal with it. In the Archives section some things have been slightly altered. It's now much easier to quick jump to a specific episode so you can get your fix in right away! I hope you all like how I integrated that in there, I thought it was neat. Yes, I know I have been slacking a bit on getting all the episode info entered into the site. Part of it was that it was tedious to do until I developed a better system, which I have now. So I have no excuse. But I'll try to find one anyways. I'll get back to you on that. So anyways, the new info should start coming in at a better rate.

     Ok so now that the less major changes are talked about and out of the way, let's get to the new shit. And boy, oh boy, have I brought you a bunch of new things to play with. First off... the Blogs. Major revamp here. If you saw what it was prior, it was pretty bare bones. The structure and material was there but the styling and interface was heavily lacking. That has been changed. I had fun working with this page as I am not entirely familiar with RSS and everything it entails. I still don't know a lot but I'm glad I figured out enough to get it working nicely. We don't blog a whole lot but we sure plan on trying to do more of it. So this section has been made more user friendly to navigate all the blogs quickly and easily.

     Next is the Links section. Totally new feature. Everyone has their share of favorite links and we of course are no different. I figured since the podcast is very media related that offering a a healthy supply of links can't be a bad thing. But don't worry we won't put bullshit scam links up. Fuck that noise. You'll notice that the Links section is broken up into category for easy viewing. Take some time to try some new sites. Especially our personal picks! We'll be adding many more Link entries over the next few weeks so bear with us. One last note, some people may notice that the Links button on the main nav button no longer triggers a pulldown menu like it used to. This was an intended choice and it is not broken. A new links nav bar has been created and implemented. So don't ask. :P

     The next feature came to me late last night and I thought it was a pretty cool idea especially since I had spent so much time making the framework graphics for the Show page. So I re-used the framework for my new idea. I was at YouTube for some reason and started playing with their embedded playlist feature. Very neat. I'm a person who likes making YouTube playlists and I have a feeling Fluff does as well. So we're gonna make some playlists of videos to share with you all. I even decided to get our producer in on this section! I really like how this section came out and I have a feeling I'll be using it a lot cause I came up with a really fast way of navigating your playlists.

     And last but not least we have the section that Fluff hounded me soooo much about. The About Us section. I mean, as if you guys don't get enough of us through the live broadcast, the replays and all our incessant advertising. But whatever it'll make him happy. Pretty straightforward section but I stylized it up a bit and I think it's pretty nifty. So Fluff.... smile.

     So there you have it folks. I babbled way too long but I was excited to share all the news with our fans. If you want to give out some feedback about the website please drop us a line. Even if it's just raves. In fact, I prefer rave reviews. I had a lot of fun making this website. I'm excited to know folks will be utilizing my virtual playground. I'm sure down the line we'll add some fun new features, but for now the structure of the website is complete and now it's all about updating the info. Enjoy everyone!

McDonald's: The Evil Predator

Ya know, just when a person starts thinking that this country can't slip even further into ridiculousness, a story like this one comes into the light. One of those, "WTF-jaw dropping-head shaking" moments. And now that I think about it, it makes me a bit angry.

Call me fortunate, but based on today's standards when it comes to "protecting our children", my parents did a great job. Meaning I am literate, I stayed in school, I didn't get a 14 year old pregnant, I never joined a gang, I actually love my parents, and I never turned into a huge festering blob of human weight. So like I said, by today's standards, my parents did a bang-up job. And guess what? They weren't up my ass 24/7 to do so either. Apparently they understood the concept of, "sometimes your child needs to go through fucked up things to learn the best lessons in life."

So, in case you haven't read the article I linked to at the beginning, this rant is aimed at the politicians in the "greater area" of San Francisco. I use "greater area" loosely here. Get this, apparently some piece of legislature passed that is basically making it so fast food places such as McDonalds (the chain under fire for this at the moment) are NO LONGER able to package a toy with their Happy Meals. You heard me, no fucking toy. Apparently the toys are making our kids fat. Interesting eh? Has nothing to do with lazy fuckin parents feeding their children junk food while their ungrateful brats sit on their chubby asses and play with their Ipods and texting contraptions. It's all about the 50 cent toy you get with each meal. Who knew that such a small toy could cause this huge obese epidemic in America. Mystery solved, eh?

They say that these toys are making children crave poor food. And I can see that to an extent. I remember seeing the commercials as a kid and saying "Hey Mom, can we go to McDonalds? There's a sweet new exclusive Hot-Wheel this week only!" And about 70% of the time my mom said, "No, too much junk isn't good for you." The other 30%, well I'd get my fucking Hot-Wheel, play with it for a few days and then lose it forever in my large toy chest. What a concept huh? A parent who knows when to say no to junk food? Cause judging by the media, parents like that don't exist any more. Parents don't know how to do the job right apparently, so good ole government steps in to save the day. Well awesome, thanks for teaching us common sense Mr. Politicians. Your wisdom and maturity amaze us on a constant basis and you really are the smartest peo... ya know what, i can't even get through that with a straight face. I tried, I really did.

Here's an observation. I'm now 34. I love fast food. I really do. Greasy fries and a gutburger makes me smile. I'm ok with it. I also love toys. Who doesn't (well besides the government apparently) like toys? At age 6, I loved junk food and toys too. So from 6 to 34 I can't even begin to count how many Happy Meals Toys have passed my hands. Guess what? I'm not a huge fat waste of life like the government implies. I'm actually rather skinny, I just have shitty cholesterol but who doesn't. So apparently with moderation and proper parenting, people DO succeed. I know, it's weird but it's true. I have a daughter, who's 13, and she has had her share of toys and greasy burgers too. But again, some proper parenting and supervision, and I have a skinny kid. And my kid ends up with a new toy to play with for a few hours before she leaves it somewhere for me to step on at 4 AM when I have to pee and I am walking blindly down the hall.

One of these days, we all hope, maybe politicians and others will give some of this "parental discretion" back to us. Of course, a lot of parents need to start earning it back. A lot of parents just don't give a fuck and that's really depressing. But not everyone should suffer for the morons out there who can't properly raise a child. How far have we sunk as a country to where we're actually thinking that a 50 cent toy is ruining everything. When they ban these toys and people continue to get fatter and fatter, what's next? No toys in cereal boxes? No stick of stale ass gum in a pack of collector cards?

As for McDonalds, I say keep making your little toys. If their little toy is "affecting" kids so much, maybe it's time we start looking at the deeper problems such as poor parenting or an interfering government or even a depressed child that just eats the sadness away and wants a shiny new something to fiddle with while doing so. So just leave McD's alone about the toy. But hey, why should be even remotely surprised? I mean if we can blame them for not making an official world wide message that coffee gets hot, then why not throw the label of "Evil Toy Predator" upon them too. I never thought one day that I'd be saying to my child, "You know honey, there was a time when you got a toy with your meal and it was great!"

Ya know, I'm starting to think the whole article I read was a plant by McDonalds to get me angry enough to blog about it. Because suddenly I'm in the mood for a Big Mac...

The New Project

So I have been working on a new website finally. Decided it was time to stop playing so many video games and get my ass in gear. Progress is moving along nicely and a good chunk should be done by the time we go live for our first show on Thursday. Pretty excited to take this whole podcast journey. Especially excited to embark on the journey with on of the best friends I've ever known. God help the world when we get on the mic on Thursday...

First Post

So here we are on Blogger. My best friend and I are starting our very own podcast. I've never really listened to them before, let alone actually be part of one. So this is a new venture for me. So starting this blog is one of the steps to getting the ball rolling. A new website is in development and hopefully I'll be able to integrate our blogs straight into the site. I guess time will tell how it turns out. Stay tuned!