It starts with a “Ska” and ends with a “Tch” and everyone wants to drink it, because anyone who’se a man drinks Scotch. There is of course the issue that many people abhor the taste of scotch, but if I can quote myself from a drunken misadventure many years ago “Drunk people can’t say no to whiskey” (Which incidentally is gospel truth and should not be doubted)

Even if you’re not a huge Scotch drinker, this gift still has it’s allure in being techy, cool and something involving booze (the guy trifecta). They are, without further ado:

Whiskey Stones
Whiskey Stones!

The idea is actually pretty simple… you take the things, stick them in your freezer then when they’re ready you drop them in your drink and they chill it without watering it down.

This is essentially the same thing as those creepy purple and orange globes they spat out in the 90s that were supposed to do the same thing but didn’t get cold and didn’t look nearly as cool. Plus more than any other drink out there, people who have a giant boner for their scotch pride themselves on how little water they can use in their scotch. Which makes ice the perfect cheating tool, so you can bust their balls (or help them out if they’re legit) by using these thingies.

This alone is an awesome gift, but in case you’re also debating buying some scotch for someone, I’ve got the following quick click gift guide to Scotch, organized by price.

Also blended Scotches tend to be looked down on by more mid-range Scotch drinkers because they’re less pure. In their quest for the perfect Aryan scotch they’ve gotten slightly jaded, but don’t worry, there’s no ethnic cleansing slated for this holiday season. Ultimately if you’re buying Scotches for people who know their Scotches they’re going to find something snarky to say about your selection, but if you want to fake it here’s my recommendations:

Booze it up my friends:

20ish bucks a bottle:
Johnny Walker Red, J & B, Glenlivet (my personal favorite out of the bunch, as it was my training wheel Scotch)

30 bucks a bottle
Lismore – When I had a wicked case of swine flu, an amazing friend gave me this to cure it, and it worked. And it got me drunk. What’s not to like? Also:
Glenmorangie 10 Year – I’ve spent many a night loaded on this stuff, another of my friend’s favorites

40 bucks a bottle
Glenlivet 14 – I’ve heard mixed reviews from mi amigos

Balvenie Double Barrel – Another I havent had, but my hombres say it’s amazing (I like using Spanglish when talking about Scotch)

50 bucks a bottle:
Unfortunately the only time I was drinking 50 dollar scotch I got blackout drunk so I can’t really remember what I was drinking. Good luck!

At this point we’re thoroughly out of the range of Scotch’s I’d ever buy on a regular basis, so that means if I’ve had these later ones I was drinking heavily at the time so certainly have no frame of reference for what these actually taste like. As such, take my word for it that if you buy a dude one of the following Scotch’s he’s obligated to bone you when and where you want, and if he doesn’t, we’ll find him and take his Man Card.

150 Bucks a bottle:
Macallan 18 – My scotch swilling buddies swear by this

160 bucks a bottle:
Johnny Walker Blue – This isn’t one of those things that’s expensive cause it’s rare.

So there you have it, from cheapish to expensivish, Scotch on the Rocks (literally) for December 2nd. Get shopping folks!

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Posted by admin - 03/12/09 - 0 comments

 

So I figure with the holiday of your choice coming up soon, I’d type up a possible “dude” gift each day, to help those of you with a Significant Other, Child, Parent or Hot Neighbor Kid, with a few inches of meat dangling between their legs, who you’re trying to butter up and get to love you by throwing money at them in the form of gifts.

As I am pretty much the world’s worst gift purchaser for women, I figured I’d spend a little time helping the fairer sex pick out some gifts for the big hairy smellball in your life.  And so without further ado, here’s gift #1, and let me tell you.  It’s Badass.

No really… it’s a book called Badass by Ben Thompson and you can just take my fucking word for it and buy it with this link:

Oh, you’re not convinced?  You require convincing because you are a stupid person who doesn’t do as they’re told?  Fine… first of all this book has a chick, and a dude with an axe on the cover.   That alone should make you want to buy it, but if not I bought 2 copies of it when I saw it because I knew it was so awesome I’d have to give away two of them.

Secondly, this book is basically a gathering of a bunch of awesome things from the “Badass of the Week” website.  If you’re not familiar feel free to go enlighten yourself presently at Badass of the Week or just read the following mercilessly stolen from there.  You’ve maybe seen 300?  Then you’re probably familiar with the following story:

“Once upon a time there was this place called Sparta, where everyone who lived there was a total badass.  They were so badass that whenever one of their citizens said some stupid bullshit like, “Hey man Democracy kicks ass… I like reading books, petting small puppies and not violently killing people with pointy sticks that are on fire”, they just shipped his pansy ass off to Athens or Thessaly or Bill’s Gay Land to philosophize about the nature of the soul, pick fresh daisies and have sex with men.  Sparta was one of the hardest cities ever built;  It’s men were all trained from birth to be highly-disciplined explosive killing machines of death who didn’t fuck around and it’s women were taught to raise strong children and encourage their husbands to die honorably in battle.  In fact, all citizens were required to be able to break at least three wooden boards with their foreheads, another four with a well-placed judo chop and punch bullets out of mid-air with their bare hands.  Anyone who failed this test was sent into exile.

Well one day some fucking jackass named Emperor Xerxes I of Persia got all pissed off at how awesome Sparta was so he sent a bunch of soldiers to invade it and burn all of Greece to the ground so that he could make Persia the most badass civilization in the known world.  Well obviously this didn’t sit well with the Greeks.  They hate it when fuckers burn down their cities.

Anyways, Xerxes’ army of about 200,000 dudes created an impractically large pontoon bridge across the Hellespont and arrived in Greece in 480 BC with the intention of kicking everyones ass and possibly even taking names while doing so.  However, in order to get through the countryside and sack Athens, they needed to pass through a hugeass mountain pass known as Thermopylae.  The Spartans knew this, and they had every intention of using this to their advantage.

The Spartan King Leonidas I hand-selected a force of 300 of the most hardcore balls-out warriors in Sparta to defend the pass at Thermopylae.  Knowing that it was pretty much a suicide mission, all the men he chose to accompany him had sons that were old enough to take over as head of their families.  When Leonidas’ wife was like, “what shall I do while you’re gone?”, Leonidas was just tipped his helmet and said, “Marry a good man, and have good children”, before puffing on his cigar and riding out into the sunset Clint Eastwood-style.

The Spartans arrived at the pass along with a force of about 4,000 other Greek troops.  The Spartans were like “get out of here, losers” and sent the other troops home to organize the defense of Athens while the Spartans stretched out, did some jumping jacks and then oiled themselves up like professional wrestlers.  The other Greeks got the fuck out of there, except for a contingent of about 600 Thespian citizen-soldiers who may not have been hard as hell, but were totally brave as shit.

Xerxes showed up and was like, “what the fuck is this shit?”.  He opened a parlay with the Spartan King.

Xerxes: What the fuck is this shit?

Leonidas: Eat me.

Xerxes: There are 200,000 dudes here and you’ve only got 300 pussies guarding this pass.  You’re so fucked.  Just lay down your weapons.

Leonidas: Why don’t you come and get them, bitch?  We’ll see who’s a pussy when I shove all 200,000 of those knuckleheads up your ass.

Xerxes: Fuck you.

Leonidas: Good one, fag.  I’ve heard better insults from retards.

Xerxes: That’s it.

Xerxes got totally pissed and assaulted the Greek defenses but the Persian light infantry was ill-equipped and way too lame to dislodge the battle-hardened Spartan warriors.  They were torn to shreds by huge spears of the Greek phalanx and then put into a huge water balloon launcher and catapulted into the Aegean Sea.  Xerxes finally ordered the light infantry to pull back and moved his archers to the front to fire a couple of volleys at the Greeks.  One Spartan remarked that it was all good because there were so many arrows it was like they got to fight in the shade for a while.  Seeing this was unsuccessful as well Xerxes brought in his bodyguard contingent of 10,000 Immortals, an elite unit in his army that was world-renowned for its ass kicking skills.  The Spartans and Immortals clashed in fierce combat, and Xerxes could not believe it when he saw his most disciplined and experienced troops getting seriously fucked up by Leonidas’ men.

At the end of the second day of battle, the Greeks still held the pass and the Persians had lost a shitload of soldiers.  Unfortunately for King Leonidas, a Greek traitor defected to the Persians and told Emperor Xerxes about a secret way around the mountain pass.  During the night, Xerxes sent what remained of his Immortals around to the other side of the pass and when the Spartans got ready to fight in the morning they noticed that there were now Persians on both sides of them.

Xerxes: Alright, bro.  Nice try, but now you’re toast.

Leonidas: Come on down here then.  I’ve got a present for you.

Xerxes: Dude, you have no chance to survive.  Just give up.

Leonidas: I’ve got a better idea.  How about you shut the fuck up and bite my dick?  That sound like a good plan?

So the Persian forces assaulted the Greeks from both sides.  The Greeks held out for far longer than they should have, throwing themselves against the onslaught and battling with whatever they had — spears, swords, fists, teeth, sticks, knees to the crotch… you name it.  Eventually the last of the 300 Spartans fell to the Persian army as they tried to defend the body of their fallen King.  The Persians found the body of Leonidas I, beheaded it and crucified his body outside the pass.

It takes a special kind of person to volunteer for a suicide mission and battle to the end against impossible odds.  Leonidas found three hundred men willing to do just that.  They did not fail the honor of their city or their people, willingly and unflinchingly facing an entire army to defend their homeland.  The 300 Spartans (and 600 Thespians) held the mountain pass against impossible odds, being slain to the man but inflicting an estimated 30,000 casualties on the Persian army’s most capable units.  They dealt a serious blow to Xerxes’ forces and managed to hold back the Persian advance long enough for the Greeks in Athens to prepare for a major military engagement at Salamis, where they would crush the Persian navy and effectively end the invasion of Greece.”

Whether you know someone in your life who needs a serious kick to the stomach to make their balls drop, or if you just know someone who’se badass enough that their name deserves to grace the cover of Badass 2: “It’s the one that says badass motherfucker on it” then this is the book for you.

And even if you don’t buy this book for someone… at least go check out badass of the week and learn how you too can grow a pair.

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Posted by admin - 01/12/09 - 0 comments

 

So I watched the movie Surrogates and was totally underwhelmed.  Normally I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to movies, and it’s way easier to destroy than create so I thought I’d give up my long silence on here by talking for a minute about this craptastrophy.  I’ll try to avoid spoilers but if you’re really dead set on not having your ‘moviegoing experience ruined’… well don’t see the movie.

The premise is pretty simple.  People go onto the internet to control robot versions of themselves in the real world.  95% of people use these robots.  Bruce Willis is on the FBI, and investigates a crime involving someone dying while plugged into the internet.

Ostensibly this is all fine.  The most immediate problem however is a more glaring one.  The robots are all made by James Cromwell.  He’s the kindly old man who invents robot technology that ultimately goes awry.  You might remember him from 24 (as Jack Bauer’s dad), LA Confidential and Babe… you might also remember him from I, Robot, in which he plays the kindly old man who invents robot technology that ultimately goes awry.  Allow me to ask frankly… how the fuck do you get type cast into THAT specific of a roll?

James Cromwell Conquering the World

This robot is really good at making bacon.

He’s fairly believably in the roll, which makes sense since James Cromwell was also born roughly 80 years old, and hasn’t aged since.  (Much like a robot)

The basic idea of a science fiction story is pretty simple.  You come up with a neat concept “People log onto the internet and live out their fantasy lives as someone else”.  Then you think of the social implications and ramifications of that, and then build a story.  That’s the forumla.

Surrogates however looks like it was something drunkenly scrawled on a bar napkin that somehow made it into a movie.  One of the first assertions is “Due to surrogate technology, prejudice has gone away”.  Firstly, this doesn’t play a roll at all in the movie, and secondly if anything the internet is one of the strongest strongholds of racism in the universe.  I’ve heard more racial slurs hurled at me within 5 minutes of signing into Call of Duty that I have in my entire life walking around in meatspace.  Giving someone a robotic version of them to go out into the world and act irresponsibly is, in no conceivable way, actually going to make less crime or discrimination in the world.

The whole movie is like someone standing on a rock shouting angrily in the direction of Second Life because his wife won’t log out and give him the time of day cause she’s busy blowing a half-man half-unicorn online.  Which brings up another point.  In the movie everyone is pristine and perfect looking, with only one person in the movie being ‘weird’ and they were just blue.  If you could have a robot look like anything, where are my sexy devil or bunny eared chicks.  Have a little imagination with your robot porn!

((Man I don’t know why I never posted this, it’s been sitting in my Drafts folder for weeks… Enjoy!  And don’t go see Surrogates!))

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Posted by admin - 01/12/09 - 0 comments