Frequently, when I'm walking down the street, people will come up to me and say things like, "Hey, you're that nice guy from The Internet!" Then I have to act all surprised that I was recognized, thank them for noticing, sign my name on whatever they want signed, and tell their kids to "stay in school." Stuff like that. Fame rules! Even as a teen, I'd get that "you're such a nice guy!" all the time...except it would be followed by "you're like a brother to me"... that's probably a whole different story, though. The problem is, I've been getting that "nice guy" thing for too long, and it just isn't really working out for me. "Nice guys" are boring and don't get invited to all the great parties.
I think I need to be "edgier."
Of course, this will require a bit of a remake of my "nice guy" image. So, I'm going to start a new series today called, "I'm Not As Nice As You Think I Am" to help dispel the whole "nice guy" image.
So, let's kick the series off with driving.
Everyday, I commute on I-70, north of downtown St. Louis. The driving on I-70 is, how to put it, competitive. At certain times during the night, some people even shoot at their "competitors!" That's right, the winner gets to live! Fun times.
The problem with all the competitive driving is that another word for competitive drivers on I-70 would possibly be "idiots." Some days, I'd like to shoot the idiots. Of course, that is generally frowned upon, though I HAVE seen the police on the side of the road with their guns drawn. I'm pretty sure the car they had pulled over was full of idiots.
Seeing how actually shooting the idiots is probably not a good idea, despite the obvious benefits to society, I needed to work out another way to deal with the idiots. For years, I've tried to telekinetically cause the offending drivers to drive right into a ditch, but only rarely did this work. I even practiced on forks at home at dinner! Surprisingly, this is harder than they make it look in the movies. It gave me a headache, too. Eventually, the perfect solution came to me.
Paintball cannons.
Yep. I rarely have much stuff in my trunk so there is a lot of room for the necessary equipment back there, plus my car has something like 72 horsepower, which means there is plenty of room under the hood where the other several hundred horses should be living. Do you see where I'm headed with this? Let me spell it out - fore and aft paintball canons! How perfect would that be? You drive like an idiot, and I shoot you with paintball pellets! Well, your car at least. Are you swerving from lane to lane, narrowly missing cars in your quest to "get ahead" (which almost never works), then expect to be hit with a volley of primary color paint pellets. Are you tailgating me so bad I can't see your headlights? Expect a more colorful radiator grill.
This could actually be considered to be some kind of community service, too. After about a week, all the idiots will have their car tagged and the regular, decent, upstanding citizen drivers will know which cars to avoid! Also, the police could save time and hassle by just automatically pulling over the paintball tagged cars. No doubt, the drivers of a tagged car were doing SOMETHING worthy of a ticket. They're idiots, right?
How many people do you know with paintball canons mounted in their car for their commute? No one you say? See how I am not nice? GGGGGRRRRRRRR.
Now that's edgy.




TOO FUNNY!
You could color-coordinate the paintballs to the season-pink in the spring, blue for summer, orange in the fall, and red and green (or blue for Hanukkah) around the holidays.
Posted by: Kathy G | April 21, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Excellent idea, but you're still thinking too much like a "nice guy". A real bady guy would figure out a way to just vaporize them. No more idiots and no evidence left behind to incriminate you. They just become another part of the St. Louis smog.
Posted by: Teresa | April 22, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Ok, I just have to comment - if people have said to you "you're like a brother to me" and actually knew you in your brother mode, you would not have a nice guy image to be concerned about. I know. I have stories.
Posted by: Gregg's sister | April 22, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Hilarious and I've already thought of this. I'm going to start a site so you can add your least favorite drivers by license plate. You and I can moderate.
Posted by: Todd Jordan | April 23, 2009 at 12:31 PM