The Mattopia Blahg

22 April 2007

The people behind the massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech and all the other scenes of mass killings - including those terrorists around the world who try to portray themselves as martyrs - are nothing more than cowards.

They shall remain nameless here because that's all they are: nameless chumps who couldn't take life's lumps. Because they were miserable, misguided chumps, they wanted to take valuable lives down with them.

If they were real heroes, they'd have stood up and demanded their voices be heard in a fashion that didn't involve the taking of lives - others and their own. If they were real heroes, they'd be alive right now, talking about how they effectuated positive change in their lives through the use of discussion, debate and other vehicles of civil exchange and, if necessary, civil disobedience.

If they were real heroes, they wouldn't dig their lives into an inescapable hole by cutting themselves off from society for whatever reason and then idolizing objects of anger and violence that only serve to reinforce their misery.

Sure, in the case of VT, the chump apparently had serious mental issues festering away. But an equally serious problem is the amount of time spent on TV, in the news, in movies and in music glorifying or perpetuating violence. The message of violence is all over the place and readily available to those seeking to wallow in their own perversions.

The message of rising above, inexplicably, is harder to come by and it oftentimes gets overlooked as being trite. Even churches don't seem to spend enough time on that simple message these days; it's less about rising above and more about praying for more money.

This is the view of one Matt who has been kicked to the curb numeroous times by many, many different parties. And I've even been at the receiving end of a comment from a former co-worker about how if he were to go postal I'd be the first one he'd get rid of. Maybe it was said in some sort of rough jest, but it's harder to tell these days. Nonetheless, he's another chump who shall remain nameless.

Mattopia is not a wimpy place. There is a "shitlist" and woeful are its members. The people on it know who they are and dealing with me when you're on the list is never a pleasant experience. That's by design. And if those people ever have the good fortune of earning their way off the list, things are different going forward.

That's simply a part of life's challenges: "outting" the bad people in your life and then rising above them. Brutal honesty is quite refreshing, particularly in this politically correct world that is so afraid to offend even the most offensive creatures. It's not even a matter of proving people wrong because most of the time derogatory comments come from those with their own agenda, their own pain. As the old saying goes, "Consider the source."

Taking the high road is never easy. In fact, it takes quite a bit of courage.

Pointing a gun at somebody and pulling the trigger? That takes zero courage. That's proof the person is too weak and too cowardly to grapple with life's difficulties.

In Mattopia, the mantra is, "It's hard to keep a good Matt down. Many have tried. All have failed." It's a mantra that is its own bottomless source of inspiration and one that ensures a healthy way of life.

There are a lot of ideas and messages bouncing around this site. Right now, that Mattopian Mattra is the most timely.

10 March 2007

I've rediscovered the awesome cleaning power of Comet.

Thought I'd share this profound revelation since the last Blahg update was so many weeks ago.

23 January 2007

So much for my Wii silent protest. Nintendo must've heard my kvetching. I picked up the system today at Target so now it's time for me to stop whiining.

Standard retail price. No fancy "bundling." No camping out in the snow.

I picked it up around 1:30 this afternoon. The Target dude was telling me the systems had been sitting around a long time... Since 9:45 this morning.

In the world of Wii, that's a loooong time.

Anyway... Something like a review will be posted somewhere on this site... eventually.

21 January 2007

Great rhetoric, Hillary.

But how do I schedule time with you to "chat"? I certainly hope people won't be fooled by empty clatter like that again.

18 January 2007

The Nintendo Wii situation is a crock.

Target has 'em in stock according to iTrackr. So I blazed over to the one in Lone Tree only to be told they're not selling them until Sunday, when the weekly ad announces their availability.

Same goes for Best Buy and Circuit City. The latter is still going through the rigamarole of handing out vouchers one hour before stores open, essentially encouraging people to camp out for a product they've simply been sitting on for days in order to fuel more pent up demand.

It's all supposed to be a part of some kind of "relaunch."

Count me out on that crap; I'm willing to wait for Amazon to reload and have Wii come to ME.

But we'll see how I feel when that happens. Nintendo needs to step up to the plate and produce more units before interest on behalf of the have-nots wanes.