I Can't Decide If I Like Justin Bieber a Little Bit More...

Or Slipknot a Little Bit Less....

I do know it's a pretty wild party when Iowa and Canada get together.

A Fond Farewell to Steve Carell...

           Hell yeah that rhymed! Tonight at 9pm on NBC the hit series The Office will say a final goodbye to it's lead character Michael Scott. While fans have known about his departure for a little over a year, I think the reality for us is finally starting to sink in. The show will survive based entirely on whether or not NBC can successfully nail down a solid replacement for Carell. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill. I personally own every season of The Office on DVD and I still go back and watch my favorite episodes from time to time. While every character brings something unique to the table (my personal favorite being Andy Bernard), Michael Scott is the glue that holds the whole thing together. 

 

Like I said..BIG shoes to fill..

          It has already been established that, to finish off this season, there will be a 4 episode story arc that will feature Will Ferrell as Steve Carell's replacement. After that, the future is still unclear. I sincerely hope that they are just trying Ferrell out to see if they want to continue to use him on the show going forward. I'm fairly certain he will knock it out of the park. He already has some experience playing this type of character. Maybe he'll watch some of his old SNL skits for inspiration.

Sorry for the poor video quality. SNL must keep pretty strict tabs on their content.

           It would appear that Will Farrell is a big enough star with the right skill set to live up to the lofty expectations of the fan base if he chooses to stick around. If not, I have a few suggestions for a Michael Scott replacement of my own...even thought NBC hasn't officially asked me for my opinion...yet....

Most people think Ricky Gervais is the obvious choice. He was on the original Office series in the UK (by the way for all of you British version honks out there. It wasn't better. Stop lying to yourselves. It's embarrassing.) He did a great job on that version and his character David Brent could be directly ported to it's American counterpart. The fact that NBC brought Gervais in as a goof on the fans earlier this season leads me to believe that Ricky probably won't be the new full-time guy, but I think people would be fine with it if he were.

After he wraps up everything going on with Iron Man 3 Robert Downey Jr. might want to take things down a notch. He has a tendency to do some lower level and independent projects for a while after he finishes with a big one. Also, he has some sitcom experience from his time on Alley McBeal. That show was terrible, so he may want to make things right with God by taking over on The Office. They may have to up the budget a little to get him though.

Before you ask, yes I did try to find pictures of all my picks for Michael Scott winking. And no I didn't succeed. Danny McBride has already been rumored to join the office cast. He would probably have to play a character who is a bit more egotistical and brash than Carell did, but I think McBride could pull it off, assuming East Bound and Down won't be in line for a 3rd season on HBO. Watch that show if you haven't already. 

Zach Galifianakis (spelled checked) would be my wild card pick for a role like this. From his Between Two Ferns web series, we already know he can be both funny and awkward, which is a fine foundation for a Michael Scott replacement. I'm not sure how keen he'd be on 'selling out' and going the sitcom route, but if he warmed up to it, he could do some great things. How many sequels to The Hangover can he really count on for his next big pay day?

Paul Rudd would be another nice free agent acquisition for The Office. He's quick witted and versatile. Also, like Will  Ferrell, he has a working history with Steve and could probably get a good word in with NBC execs if he were interested in the role. Plus he kinda looks like the middle management type. This one might be the biggest stretch of all because he probably isn't a big enough name just yet. Either way, I think we can all agree that Role Models was bitchin'.

While I realize most of my ideas are probably far from a realistic possibility, I also think it could be an interesting curveball if The Office brought in a female as Steve Carell's replacement. Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Wiig, in my opinion, are the two funniest women in the biz without a steady comedic gig. (Lisa Lapanelli is the funniest woman on earth, but she's a bit blue and might not translate well to network television. Jane Lynch already has Glee, but she's hilarious too.) Anyway, most people view SNL (also on NBC) as a stepping stone and The Office could be a nice jump up for either of these two ladies.

           Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to watch The Office on NBC tonight at 9pm so we can talk about it later. Who did I leave out? As always, send your thoughts, things I've mispelled, and death threats to trox@troxtalk.com and you can follow me on Twitter @troxtalk if it suits you.

                                                                      Warmest Regards,

                                                                       Trox

Could This Be the Most Hilarious Image on the Entire Internet?

       If this isn't the best thing ever, I'd like to see the pic that tops it. My buddies and I geeked out on this for hours. Who doesn't love a meme that puts you in your place?

The very first time I saw this it brought me to tears...then it did it again on the very second time.

Don't Be Such a Baby...Unless It's THIS Baby.

Didn't realize Rihanna was a touchy subject...Here's something silly to lighten the mood. You guys are so sensitive..

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones....

But Rihanna is a dirty-butt. 

        Let me explain. When was the last time you heard anything from former R&B sensation Chris Brown? A few years back you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing one of his hits like "Run it" and "Kiss, kiss". In fact, he was the first artist to have their debut single on top of the Billboard charts since Montell Jordan did it in 1995. Chris Brown was loved by the ladies, envied by the fellas, and was on a rocket ship to the top of the music industry until his run in with a gorgeous young pop vixen from Saint Michael, Barbados.

"You gotta get your grove on before you go get paid."

        Rihanna and Chris Brown dated for a while, and it apparently went sour. They had some problems (too young, too famous, happy meal toys, egos, etc.) which ultimately resulted in their split. Clearly the two weren't right for each other and Chris Brown took it pretty bad. He went off the deep end and allegedly began stalking her, threatening her, and in March of 2009 he was arrested for assault after Robyn Fenty...errr...Rihanna sustained visible injuries. The whole world turn on Brown, and while I'm not defending him (I thought he was kind of a d-bag long before he ever popped Rihanna in the kisser..allegedly) his fall from grace was epic, and most people had already written him off before the end of the first TMZ report. I'm not objective when it comes to domestic violence, so don't go telling people "I read on TroxTalk that Trox thinks hitting girls is funny." I tend to think a little outside the box, but there is no way I would ever try to justify a man putting his hands on a woman. My Gram raised me better than that. And Rihanna did appear to be in pretty bad shape. 

Gotta love the way TMZ watermarked this pic with their logo. "Nanny nanny boo boo! We saw her busted grill first.." Jackals.

       The paparazzi went crazy with this thing. Everyone, including myself, hated the shit out of Chris Brown for picking on a defenseless, helpless, little 5'8" 123lb angel with a beautiful singing voice. That's how we all knew her. Poor, poor Rihanna. What an awful man Chris Brown must be... Robyahnna even went on a media tour urging women to get out of abusive relationships before "it's too late." Then she appeared on 20/20 and did a tell-all interview with Diane Sawyer which, honestly, if you saw it there is no way you weren't at least a little touched. Basically, by this point, if you didn't hate Brown and want to be this young woman's Kevin Costner after seeing the way it all went down, you were a soulless, heartless, gutless freak of a demented human being...People, for the most part, continued to feel this way until a couple of months ago when this puzzling little number was released...

 

    Da Buck? I can't even imagine being a parent in today's society.."Chains and whips excite me...Daddy what does that mean??"...."Uhhh...It means get back to your Pokemons."  
  

      Is it possible for someone to watch that video, and listen to that song without thinking about slapping a hate crow on somebody? I used to think Rihanna was one of the most beautiful women on the planet, but now she just seems kinda gross to me. I know that domestic violence is not the same as getting overly kinky in the sack. I also know that what Chris Brown did was completely wrong and inexcusable by anyone's standards. I still can't help but wonder about the psychology involved in all of this. Does it rub you the wrong way too? I mean, in Rihabyn's interview with Sawyer she even said, "The more in love we became, the more dangerous we became for each other, equally as dangerous"... Did CB get tired of having a rubber ball rammed in his mouth every time he got laid? Maybe he just wanted to get some missionary going, but Ri kept sticking things in places where they didn't belong.. Is it naive to think that Chris thought he was just giving her what she 'wanted'? What if she was a psycho in bed, but he didn't want to tell anyone and end up the sissy who complained about getting to nail Rihanna because she was "too rough"? I guess it's possible that she developed these strange fetishes after her first love repeatedly beat the tar out of her. I'd say that could probably go a long way towards warping your sense of what true passion is...

Some say she gave him the herp. That was the last straw...

       I need reiterate..Don't go telling people that Trox is a misogynistic, wife beating, Satan-spawn. The truth is I don't really like anyone. Besides you. You're cool. Unless you are beating on your gf right now...Then you should stop...If you are really reading this and thinking that I'm taking up for ol' boy and his despicable behavior, then either I'm not the brilliant writer I thought I was, or your IOWA test for reading and comprehension came back false..probably the former. I will say that before this song came out I was 100% certain of who America should be pissed at in this situation, but as a deep thinking person I can't help but wonder how skewed the public's vision of this peculiar situation really is. I guess we'll never know for sure. Maybe I just wanted to see how I'd fare as a tabloid 'journalist'. Sometimes it's fun to be skeptical. 

                                                                Warmest Regards,

                                              

                                                                 Trox

P.S. Or maybe he's just a nutbar. There is nothing quite like getting to the end of a post, and finding something like this in your last bit of research..  I guess I might owe Rihanna an apology... Nah, that song was awful.
 

Four weeks and counting...

It's been 4 weeks since I applied for my permanent visa to Brazil. 28 days. I don't expect my visa to be ready, permission granted and mailed back from Brasilia to let the consulate know that I'm ready to have Brazilian residency, that'd be too fast. I'm just keeping track as I count the days since I've applied.

I did say it before that I'm not a very patient person, but I have so much to take care of before we leave, that it's not imperative that my visa be approved too quickly (it's not like I have extra personal days at work to take off to go to Miami).

Besides, I was told that the permanent visa can take 4 weeks to 6 months, so I'll just wait. In the meantime, I have plenty of work to keep me busy.

Less is more...

       I've been on vacation here for the last little bit dealing with some PC issues and whatnot, but I'm going to start making more of a concerted effort to right this TroxTalk ship. After reading some of your past emails, and talking with a few of my readers I've decided to switch gears a little bit when it comes to the posts on here. I tend to get a little wordy at times, and I realize not everyone has time to read a half hour dissertation every time they click over to TroxTalk. (And I'm still not completely convinced all of you can read.) So, with that in mind I am going to be trying something new for the next little while to see if it improves the overall experience for myself and (more importantly) for all of you. Basically, I'm leaning towards more posts, spanning over more topics, but with a slightly shorter format. I think it will be for the best. However, I'm still relatively new at this, so if it sucks, bear with me because I can always just switch it back.  

Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of problem solving, fixing things, or obtaining knowledge. "Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again." Works Cited: Wikipedia (take that English professors)

       Not that I consider this endeavor a failure to this point. I mean I am having fun, getting literally thousands of hits, and having some great interaction with people. In fact, considering this thing was supposed to be a way for me to vent and kill some time, I'd say TroxTalk is largely a success to this point. I love the Weekly Homework Assignment portion of the blog, so that is pretty much going to stay exactly the same. This week is the only exception because...let's just say my dog (computer) ate it. Nobody really felt like pausing their St. Patty's Day fun to email me pics anyway, so in hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea to begin with. Don't get me wrong. I may still do an old school post once in a while if I'm particularly stoked or pissed off about a given subject. The new content is just going to be a bit more pointed, and rapid fire. As always, I am open to suggestions, so if you aren't feeling it, let me know.
       Also, I've decided that I am not going to spam advertisements all over Facebook whenever I post something new. If I'm getting tons of reaction to a certain post I may throw it up there occasionally , but I've never cared meeting someone really cool who happens to be affiliated with some band, or cult, or Live Action Role Play group, and suddenly my FB news feed is being plastered with their "my band has 87 shows this month" or "I just became a level 17 Ninja-balloon artist". I honestly feel like I've built up a large enough number of viewers to pump the brakes on the shameless self-promotion. If I see the numbers slide I'll go back to being obnoxious about it. For now, I'll lay off. Did I just Tweet this to let you know that I will no longer be Tweeting this?...SHO NUFF! In the future TroxTalk will always be right here where you need it because the last thing I want TroxTalk to feel like is Farmtown...
       So, there's the update. I'll be making some tweaks (peep the new logo!) I'm still going to continue to keep it real by keepin' it real. I still hate Oprah, and I am still grateful for every single one of you slacker Troxaholics who follow along, and keep me grounded each day. Tomorrow is the dawn of a new day. Thanks for tuning back in. Here's a little something for your troubles...

                                                                 Warmest Regards,
                                                                  Trox

You're welcome.