Please tell me this is a joke.

I do not see how anyone could have been so stupid as to assume that the Lucky Charms slogan, It's Magically Delicious, is anything other than a piece of marketing blather. When the cereal first came out over here, I was about eight. Not only did I not believe for a moment that the cereal itself was magical, I didn't actually like it much (my brother rechristened them Yucky Charms - they're magically disgusting!). And yet here is an article in which supposedly thinking, rational adult human beings claim to have eaten Lucky Charms simply because they thought it was magical, and are no so distressed to find out that hey, it's just cereal after all, that they're going to stop eating it forthwith.

How in the Hell can people be so stupid? How can grown adults think like this? Kids I can understand. Kids are literal; they only see the surface. They believe the hype. They believe that Barbie's glitter lotion and color changing cars really are magical. They believe a lot of things are magical, because people tell them they are, and the realization that they aren't and that people don't alweays mean what they say forms one of Junior's first disillusionments with the adult world (oh, I could a take unfold). Hell, they believe Lucky Charms are magical and that eating them will help some of that magic rub off on them. But shouldn't you have gotten over that by the age of nine?

Part of me hopes this is a joke. Even if it is, though, that hardly helps. People really do think like this.

Example? I recently heard of something which made me very sad indeed. A company who shall remain nameless (largely because I don't remember who they were) apparently released a new design of disposable camera which they decided to call 'The Weekender'. After its release, their helpline staff apparently found themselves fielding calls from bewildered customers, all of whom, asked the same question: can we use this camera during the week?

How do people GET this stupid? This isn't the kind of accidental stupid you get from not being very clever. This is a malignant kind of stupidity. Stupidity so stupid one would have to work at it. This is the kind of stupid I'd like to think didn't actually exist this side of Invader Zim, but apparently it doesn't. You don't get this good at anything by sheer happenstance. Nobody can be this dumb simply by not being very intelligent.

Thank you, mother, for insisting I spend my evening looking up pictures of lucky charms.

And thank you, General Mills, for releasing a cereal named 'Lucky Charms' so, instead of gettign hideously kitsch pictures of shamrocks, black cats, birth stones and ribbon-bedecked horseshoes courtesy of Google Image Search, instead I got cereal box designs and hideous photographs of equally hideous-looking marshmallow pieces. Yeah, thanks for that, world.

Oh well, back to work...

Random Edit Because I Can:
Well, at least I found lots of fonts to download. I like fonts. Pathetic of me, I know, but I really do like fonts and I haven't gone on a download-fest in quite a while (I admit it, I downloaded some of them just because I thought they had cool names, or something like that anyway). I'm going to have to get my mp3 player down here or something, so I can take them all home with me, but all the same... whee, new fonts for my PC. What can I say, I'm easily satisfied. I also just realized I didn't have any decent Gothic fonts. Um. Traditional Gothic fonts. You know, the fancy writing ones that look all old-world. Yeah. Those fonts. With me now?

Also, I found a meme, courtesty of aidanshoku. Well, I say a meme, it's more a survey type... thing. And, because I never can leave well enough alone, I present it for your delectation. If anyone wants to help me out - lay it on me! I can take it.... kinda... I hope? Oh, Hell. I need a kick up the pants writing-wise.

The 'laila's asking for it' Fic Writing Questionaire 2006!
1. Do I have a distinct style of writing?
2. If so, what exactly is it that defines my "style"?
3. Would you say my stories usually follow a 'theme'?
4. Is there anything I really need to improve or change?
5. Does my style (if I have one) remind you of anyone else?
6. Judging from whatever writing of mine that you've seen, what do you think is/are my strength(s)?
7. What do you think is/are my weakness(es)?
8. What would you rate my writing overall on a scale of 1-10?

... you see? Well and truly asking for it. But if anyone has any opinions at all, I'd like to know. I'm just a glutton for punishment that way.