The range of topics thrown at me by Twitter followers turned out to be impressively vast. I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this little social experiment. Do people genuinely care about my opinion? Probably not. Am I glad they played along? Absolutely.

The only intro statement this really needs is that I hope no one feels I’m belittling the importance of the more serious topics (the minority) by including them side-by-side with less serious ones (the majority).

#DontCallItAQandA

Well, this is more info-centric than opinion-based. From what I’ve seen on Twitter, most people fear Trump will make health care much less affordable in general. A lot of the negative buzz on social media surrounds cancer care costs.

After reading a few articles, it seems everything still up in the air. It doesn’t look Trumpcare is going to pass, and Trump realizes that. He has apparently threatened GOP opponents to pass the bill. Yikes. I hope they stand their ground without repercussion. I guess we’ll have to continue to voice our opposition and hope for the best.

Here are a few other informative articles on the topic:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-paul-ryan-and-donald-trump-hope-will-happen-on-obamacare-this-week/

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/medicare-article-1.2932266

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN16R2P9

The first time I heard 311 I was 11-years-old. I was watching 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. The chorus of Amber rattled me to the core and — for the first time in my life — I truly understood love.

Whoa, amber is the color of your energy
whoa, shades of gold displayed naturally
you ought to know what brings me here
you glide through my head blind to fear
and I know why
whoa, amber is the color of your energy
whoa, shades of gold displayed naturally

Did you know 311 hosts its own cruise? Yeah, believe it. How over-the-top ridiculous is that? It must be like a Gathering of the Juggalos except douchier and on an inescapable ship. Good lord.

Anyway, back to 50 First Dates.

One of the most underrated love movies of all-time, no doubt. The way Adam Sandler saw past the fact that Drew Barrymore’s brains were effectively scrambled eggs and still loved her? Real tear-jerker. Though honestly, the car accident that gave her dementia or whatever really only leveled the intellectual playing field between the two. And plus, I wouldn’t mind having a wife that won’t remember I came home drunk and threw a frozen pizza at the wall after biting into it before baking it the prior night.

Moving on.

I’ve made a meme for you:

Thanks for not only giving me a topic, but a stance as well, I guess?

I’d rather have Matt Skiba Blink-182 than no Blink-182, so let’s not give him too hard a time, yanno?

When I first listened to the California album last summer, I was all about it. I was just stoked to have new Blink. Now if pretty much any song off the album comes on Spotify, I skip it. California gets old so quickly, entirely unlike the rest of Blink’s music. It feels manufactured and a bit forced, and the new single Parking Lot is no different.

It’s tough to understand why anyone would leave one of if not the best pop-punk band of all time, but we’ll never be able to understand. We haven’t lived Tom’s life, and we don’t know what makes him happy… #softtweet. If it’s chasing after aliens, then by all means, Tom. Who else will be able to say they’re one of the most influential musicians of a generation AND an integral part of the first confirmed alien discovery? No one ever, that’s who.

I still think it’d be cool if he and Giorgio Tsoukalos started a pop-punk band with songs strictly about aliens, though. Tom’s got the music talent and Giorgio has the hair.

*executes perfect interlude*

“Hope it’s not the creatures from above…”

I was fascinated by aliens as a kid. I loved sci-fi movies and books about aliens. I lost interest as I grew older and realized it was all speculation, which is a waste of time.

That being said, aliens definitely exist. Do you know how big the universe is and stuff? Your tiny little brain can’t even begin to comprehend it. Don’t even try.

The odds of there *not* being other life somewhere out there are vastly small. But the odds of us finding other lifeforms on another planet in this lifetime are even more so (sorry, Tom).

I’ll leave you with this cool Arthur C. Clarke quote (one of my favorites).

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

Well, I don’t know much about comics, but I am against gender roles. Considering the fact that comic books are traditionally for boys, I think this is a very cool statistic. I’ve stopped in Gutter Pop Comics on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo once — cool place.

Memes are the best. For someone to find a joke funny, they need to feel like they’re in on it, or at least familiar with it. Memes are a way for the entire internet to join together on one big joke, successively adding on to it. They bring people together via humor, which is awesome.

I learned in a visual media class that memes is a term that pre-dates the internet; a meme is anything that goes viral by being passed on and gradually modified/altered by a culture system (or something like that). So a meme can be any idea, not just a picture with bold black-and-white lettering on the top and bottom. But yeah, memes are great. Some are annoying, like the Meryl Streep yelling one that’s going viral right now. I love blinking white guy, who seems to be nearing the end of his time in the meme-king throne.

Not my thing. I’ll leave ’em to Japanese businessmen and Rex Ryan. I’ve heard Sexy Rexy keeps a framed picture of his wife’s feet on his desk. Talk about having no shame in your game. I’d make a joke about his lust for both feet and, ironically, football, but this is weird enough already. I’m going to move on.

One time I was on vacation in Mexico and was super confused as to why so many gay dudes in banana hammocks had families and kids but then I realized they were just European.

There are three people I know named Chuck:

1. Norris
2. Rumfola
3. Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (I do realize this is the second Adam Sandler reference I’ve made, but it’s not on purpose and I do apologize)

My fondest memory of Chuck Rumfola is calling him out for talking shit about Brand New on Twitter while we were drunk at some bar during Ellicottville Fall Fest.

Interesting. Is there a social debate over this? Or is this the most random topic anyone could have ever thought up ever? Let me consult Google real quick, Kasper.

*scans Hummingbirds.net — something I could never have imagined myself doing*

Okay, so it looks like there has been a rumor going around for years that the red dye in hummingbird food is detrimental to the health of the birds. Thankfully, Ron O’Kane of Hummingbirds.net says “Each time that rumor surfaces, we do our best to track it down to see if there is any basis in fact. I am most happy to report that in every instance we’ve found not only no conclusive evidence of harmful effects of coloring, but in every case have found ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE AT ALL!”

Ron seems like a trustworthy guy, so I’m going to go ahead and consider this rumor de-bunked.

Side note: Hummingbirds flap their wings a lot of times in a second and also my mom loves hummingbirds. Thanks for the Q, Kasper.

Props to Kaep for stirring up so much discussion around an important topic. I was watching NFL Live yesterday and all four analysts agreed teams will likely take into account the turmoil surrounding him when considering signing him. Trump’s recent remarks were counter-productive; all he did was bring the discussion back to the forefront of the media’s interest, which is exactly what Kaepernick’s original goal was. While Kaep’s decisions earlier this season don’t anger me like they do some, I don’t think it was the right decision for several reasons. I’ll make one key point:

While racial prejudice is inarguably an issue in our country, a minority (number, not race-wise) of Americans are racist. Therefore, it’s an issue with a specific demographic of narrow-minded, bigoted people. There’s no need to disrespect or disown the entire nation, which a majority of NFL fans, players and coaches hold great respect for. I get that there are more layers to the issue as a whole, police brutality being at the top of the list, but I’m not about to write an essay on this. I respect the decision and his stance, but I don’t think it was an entirely effective way to go about it (at least in taking an inoffensive, well-thought out stance; obviously he succeeded in creating quite a stir), nor do I think it was a wise career choice. If you think something is wrong, use wisdom and words to help them see why what they’re doing is wrong. Offending the wrongdoers by disrespecting something they have immense respect for just stokes the fire. That’s just my personal take.

*drops mic*

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Twitter: @Almasi_