The last few days have had me thinking about groups. What drives people to aggressively associate around a particular activity or interest? Some groups that I’ve been thinking about:
Comic-Con – This is the granddaddy of comic conventions. I’d like to go, but I think we’d all generally consider this the bastion of dorks. Here’s the thing, 125,000 people attended it last year. Some of them were like this. Is there a point where the attendee number becomes either so large or saturated with gold bikini Leahs that I won’t have to tell people I went for work? I suppose we can only wait and see.
Mooning Amtrak – It seems that a bunch of people get together at a particular time and place once in a while to moon Amtrak trains. I think we can all see the intrinsic awesomeness of this one. My question here is around origins. How did this become a full-fledged group?
Drunk guy 1: Hey there fella, you gonna moon that train?
Drunk guy 2: Yup
Drunk guy 1: Can I join ya?
Drunk guy 2: Yup
Drunk guy 1: I know how to make web sites….
Kickball Leagues – This one actually makes total sense to me. It’s nearly impossible to be super competitive with kickball. Even softball can devolve into a bunch of former high school meatheads trying to relive the glory days (Come on! Get the ball!). I hate those guys. Kickball is less around crazy ideas like “practice” and “play to win”. It tends to focus on solid sports fundamentals like “bbq” and “beer”. God bless these pioneers of sport.
Renaissance Faires – I have some buddies that were heavily into Ren Faires for a long time (Kit, shoot me an email buddy). On the one hand, it’s theoretically like a big camp out costume party including wenches and elves drinking ale. On the other hand, most of the wenches look like this and you’re on the slippery slope to becoming these guys:
Every morning I walk my poodle Ted and he leaves me a hot little present. I’ve often thought, “I wish I could freeze this into a poop-sicle, but liquid nitrogen is far too unstable to carry around.” God bless these folks for inventing Poop Freeze. What a wonderful time to be alive!
I’m on my fourth cup of coffee and I’m just going to keep the entries rolling this morning with a couple more quality sites.
Photo Memes – This blog is devoted to collecting pictures where you think you’re being sooooo hilarious but actually you’re just doing something that millions of people have done before. Check out their “I’m King of the World!” collection.
Star Wars Crawl – This is freakin great if you’ve ever want to create your own Star Wars opening text (I know, who hasn’t wanted to?). But the part I really like is that you can see the crawls other people have made. Here’s my favorite.
Wifey says that all the Stuff hidden in the Garages, under the Bed & the Day-Bed, & all the extra cars & *Stuff* has got to start Going. (She promised me a Smart Car if I do, which with the price of Gasoline right now & Coupled with my age doesn’t appear to be too unattractive to me at this point.
I think they missed the best part of the mysterious Black Khakis listing:
About Me:
I am a remarried father who enjoys offering quality products.
I have a dreaded ex-wife which is like having leprosy. Funny…I’ve enjoyed a very happy & solid 2nd run for almost 10 years now.
I work full time and we are raising two teenagers (one of each!).
For the past 3 years, I have worked as a Level 1/2 Senior I.T. Service Desk Technician and have a sum total of 10 years of PC/Networking experience starting with the IBM 486 Turbo Self Built (in 1997) computer.
I enjoy computer gaming and anything having to do with coffee.
Here’s the thing, I like pants. Pants are pretty handy. I’m not sure if I’d want used pants from someone who has used the word leprosy in the listing in any way, shape or form. But maybe that’s just me. Anyway, check out the site.
Update! The black khakis story has become even more interesting. A bit of research has revealed not only his completely fantastic ebay profile (the first one I’ve ever actually seen someone fill out), but he’s on MySpace! The text is everything we could hope for from the author of the Black Khaki Manifesto.