Atheism, comics, writing, video games

Well, that should cover everything.
Let's go down the list:
Atheism: Interestingly, more and more people I'm talking to are, apparently, atheists. This gives me great hope for the future. I want to make something very clear here. I am not anti-religion, in that I believe YOU get to believe whatever you want. However, you don't get to use that as a defense when someone challenges you on some position you've taken, or worse, voted on. At best, all religion can provide in such a debate is an end to it.
1:"I am pro-choice because, ultimately, this is a biological process, a small collection of cells that is part of a woman's body. That makes it her choice."
2: "Well, I'm pro-life because God says that is a person with a soul"
Effectively, thats like saying "nyah nyah nyah, I'm not listening". There really is no point in continuing the discussion.

Also, having spent some time thinknig about it, I am very disappointed in Pascal.

Comics: 52. I want to get through 52. I know its important. I know that buying the trades makes it easier.
But it just won't end. And I just don't care.
Further, Powers continues to rock.

Writing: Dunno why this was in the list. I am, however, starting to get into photography. Well, mostly into Photoshop more than actually taking pictures. I'm pretty good at it, too.

Video Games: Yes, Rock Band does, in fact, rock. However...Mass Effect. Are there some crappy mechanics? Sure. Are the manual and tutorials woefully insufficient? Definitely. Is it the best RPG of all time? Quite possibly.
Now, it simply isn't fair to compare this game to others in the past. The 360 does, in fact, have a ton more power, and yadda yadda. But it is apparent that this thing was a labor of love for BioWare. The writing, the dialog, the environments (except for the fact that planetary outpots tend to get a little repetative...even that may make sense), the twists and side quests, the depth each of the characters possesses, these are the things that make an RPG great. And in these aspects, I've never encountered anything close to Mass Effect. FFX, KOTOR and KOTOR II, Oblivion, nothing.
So, my new top 5 games (in no particular order)
Mass Effect
Resident Evil 4
Final Fantasy X
KOTOR I and II
God Of War I and II

Tags:video games
atheism
comics

Mass Effect

I'm not sure I can say how amaznig mass effect is. The best way is through an email conversation I've had over the past couple days:

ME:
OK, so, I got completely sucked into Mass Effect (to the point of almost forgetting about Rock Band).
First, the writing is amazing. The dialog is better than any I've ever heard before in a video game.
Second, to back up the first, the voice acting is top notch.
The plot and graphics (for the most part) rock, and the pacing is pretty good.
This really is the next step forward from KOTOR.
However,
I don't know if I was just doing something wrong with my team, went someplace too early, or just have to learn more, but the game is HARD.
The last planet I was on took hours. I had to fight for every single inch, struggle to get through every encounter.
While this was very frustrating, its also very satisfying.

A couple of items...the moon-rover vehicle is no fun to drive.
There are a couple bugs here and there, like your character just getting stuck behind a bar, or, as recently happened, in a wall.
But these are small prices to pay for what may be the best RPG out there.

I ache.

Tomorrow, I drum.


MK:
I second that: i've played (it tells me) for 13 hours this weekend,
and i'm not even remotely tired of it. The vehicle is indeed a piece
of shit to drive, but everything else is pretty damned sweet, but i
figured out yesterday how to handle it in a fight much better than
before.

honestly, i could have doubdled the time spent in game if i read
everything in the codex that i gathered, but frankly, i don't think i
can: but the fact that they built a incredibly deep universe is
awesome.

favorite bug: walking across a bridge in the Citadel, and just getting
stuck right in the middle of it. couldn't go forward, or backward,
until i crouched. and then the invisible wall was gone.

S:
Someday I will get to play.

*sigh*

Until then I will continue assassinating people.


ME:
btw
1. While I hate the moon buggy, I will say that it moves like you'd expect a moon buggy to move, and its almost indestructable due to terrain. I think I drove off a mountain top, fell for almost 10 seconds, and only hurt my front right wheel. Assuming the wheel wasn't already damaged.

2. The elevator sequences are pretty long. But I love the small talk the companions make:
A(big alien, deep voice): So, your people created the Geth, the greatest threat to the universe ever. Do you talk about that?
B (female): No. We find it to be very unpleasant conversation. Your people were steralized by the Taurians. Do you ever talk about that?
A: all the time.

As fun as the side quests have been, I finally took my first real step in the main storyline (after becoming a spectre).
And its even more fun than the side-quests.
Also, turning your squad-mates from 'use skills/talents for defense only' to 'use talents for all purposes (or w2hatever)' makes for MUCH more fun. Nothing like seeing a giant dog-beast suddenly fly into the air and get smashed to the ground


MK:
super concur about changing the AI control settings. sure, it takes
some of the finer control out of the game (no, don't make that guy fly
in ther air, dammit!), but it also allows me to not go insane issuing
command after command - pausing to do such a thing really takes some
of the flow out of the game. more importantly, it actually allows me
time to use the sniper rifle without going insane zooming in and out.

i do kinda wish, however, that the game didn't keep track of how long
i've been playing. over the course of a 4 day weekend, i apparently
logged 24 hours of game time. this is an unheatlhy ratio, but
stunningly, all i want to do is play more. it's been a *long* time
since i wanted to do that - not even KOTOR did that for me (though, of
course, now i want to re-play that).

ME:
I'm a bit disappointed in the sniper rifle, the 'zoom' doesn't appear to be any different than anything else. Or am I missing something?
I am, however, VERY happy with my squad using the rifle. a couple of them become absolutely devastating with it.
Of course, having done more than a few side missions first, I may just be over-powered at this point.

I'm rapidly filling up all the skill-slots though (at least for Sheppard), so I'm curious as to what will happen when I have no more places to put skill points.

I agree with the desire to simply keep playing and playing and playing.
This is to RPGs what God Of War was to action/hackslash games.
If someone would feed and diaper me, I'm pretty sure I could play 24 hours straight.

BTW, Saren and Captain Anderson were the main characters in the Mass Effect novel.


MK:
24 hours in, i still have plenty of skill slots to go; not sure you
have to worry about that.

The sniper rifle zoom is definitely different than the zoom on the
other weapons. i don't know what you're doing to not get it - you get
the typical "black circle + fine crosshairs" zoom that you'd expect,
and it's a *big* zoom. saved my life more than once by being *far*
away and just pegging people from the top of a mountain. One shot
kills are nothing to sneeze at.

ME:
ahhhh...I wonder if its because my character doesn't have any skills in it. That would make ALOT of sense. Dragsville, daddy-o, I'm always a fan of sniper rifles. Mostly I use a pistol (which, surprisingly, does a ton of damage...).


I'm probably 75% or more through my skillslots. Of course, I might be mentally editting all this and forgetting the skills I'm not bothering with so who knows.


S:
He spent most of the weekend (up until about 8pm last night) doing side quests. So his chars may be a bit more leveled than yours.


He's finally learning to play right ;).


Tags:Mass Effect

iSlut for iPhone

For years and years I've wanted a single device that handled everything short of being a workstation (don't get me wrong, I'd love that too...and with that cool projected keybooard that came out a while ago...).
And my prayers have, nearly, been answered with the iPhone.
All the hype aside, it is a fantastic, intuitive device. I'm always connected (it looks for WiFi and failing that, connects through EDGE) including email and web browsing, my calendar and contacts are organized well, and so forth.
The keyboard is amazing and I'm getting faster every day (my fiance is significantly better at it than I am...apparently I have club-fingers).
Only a couple things annoy me:
- ringtones have to be only from approved songs on itunes...(minimal annoyance).
- 3rd party apps require a hack. This one is a little bigger for me. I want to synch my iPhone up with goggle calendar and come up with a way to synch google with outlook at work (I'm just a contractor and there's no way they'll let me hook up my iPhone to my workstation). That gives me a single repository for appointments which I'm always forgetting. There IS a process for doing this one-way, which will have to do for now.
Further, it would be great if there was a doc reader so I could skim over design specs, for example, while killing time in line somewhere.

I suspect that Apple will open things up eventually out of pure demand.

Oh, and something nice about hacks? The iPhone comes with a 'factory reset' function that will return it to its initial state if you screw anything up too much.

I'm also assuming that some software update will have the screen rotate for more than just browsing and pictures, and little tweaks here and there.


Honestly? This is the single best device I've ever owned.


Tags:iphone

Kathy Griffen, Hate Speeh and Jesus

Kathy's Remarks To Be Censored Because Catholics Have Snit

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this," Griffin said at this weekend's show, at which the academy gives out the awards there aren't time to hand out in Sunday's main Emmy telecast. "But he had nothing to do with this. Suck it, Jesus, this award is my God now!"

Now, I'm not sure where I stand on how hate speech should be classified and handled, but I'm pretty sure that this ISN'T hate speech (though many may find it offensive).

If she said "Suck it, Karl Marx!" it wouldn't be considered hate speech against Karl nor against Socialists.
If she had said, "Suck it, you child molesting socialists", that would be different.

Or, more to the point, if she had said "Everyone says 'thank you jesus', and I'm here to say, 'fuck off you christians'. Good night." THAT might be hate speech.

But she DIDN'T say that. She made a crack about a person who is dead (if he ever existed), or about a particular world-view. She didn't make any crack about the people who follow that view (other than the obvious subtext that people who get up there and thank jesus are generally not sincere).

But, yes, I can understand why the Catholic League finds it offensive, certainly. And they are doing EXACTLY what they are supposed to do. They are making a stink. Thats how these things work. You don't like something, you speak up. Thats how the whole Don Imus thing worked out.

I just think that calling it hate speech is an attempt to equate it with real threats against, say, gays, and providers of abortions, oh...wait...

Tags:Kathy Griffen Hate Speech religion

We have to stay in Iraq why???

Its all because of the troops

"If you don't come out here, then you really have no clue," says Gonzales, a member of Task Force Justice, which is operating in northern Baghdad. "They don't understand what it is [like] driving down the road and to wonder if you are going to get blown up or not."

I've heard this sort of thing before. Usually along with "Let's honor the soldiers by letting them do their job".
Translation (as always): if you don't support the war, you hate the troops.
Another translation: You'll hurt the soldiers' feelings if you call the home before they 'win'.
And while I respect the men and women serving our country, hurt feelings and bruised honor (if these really would be the results) are NOT NOT NOT reason enough to continue a war.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm belittling the situation, but the argument really does come down to that. Exactly how many lives have to be lost to balance against the emotional damage a soldier might suffer because he wasn't allowed to continue fighting?

Further, the troops serve us, and the policies we create, NOT the other way around.
Here's an analogy: Assume a large group of volunteers are being used to test an antidote for a particularly dangerous poison. The antidote keeps failing. The volunteers keep dying. Would you suggest that the doctors keep running the study because the remaining volunteers would feel like it had all been a waste?

Tags:Iraq

Censorship and the real meaing of freeh speech

Not releasing a DVD is censorship?

Now Cyrus is trying to revise history. He complains that ABC’s decision not to release the DVD version of Path to 9/11 is censorship worthy of Stalin:

This passive self-censorship is just as effective as anything Joseph Stalin or Big Brother could impose. The result is the same: the curbing of free speech and creative expression, and the suppression of a viewpoint that may be an inconvenient truth for some politicians.

See, that’s the problem with free speech. People assume that the fact that you CAN say what you want, that you CAN make a movie, that you CAN write a novel, means you are entitled to an audience.

I'd say that blogging has disproved that. Gazillions of people, even with the means of production, have no audience. If the site hosting your blog doesn't promote it, is that censorship?

Tags:censorship

Oracle and RowID

Someone in class today asked why you would ever use Rowid. If you ever needed the speed which rowid grants you, then shouldn't you have an index on that column?
Now, the fact that indexes don't always help aside, my response was that rowid is useful in very large tables.
This is not actually the answer I meant to give.
What I have found it really useful for is deduping, especially in ETL situations.
If, somehow, you've loaded data in a way that has dupes (or perhaps the data itself has dupes) and you didn't assign a sequence to each record, then you can end up in a very bad place.
row1: Joel,Smith, 617-862-5147
row2: Joel,Smith, 617-862-5147
There is no way to tell one row from another, so getting rid of a dupe is difficult, if not out-and-out impossible.
Unless you use rowid.
Each of the rows above has a unique rowid, and that can be used to select a specific row, regardless of the data (no, you can't use rownum)
Yes, this is reasonably basic, but it is worth keeping in mind.
It isn't a speed issue, its an identity issue.

Tags:oracle rowid

Cool Oracle thing, stupid oracle thing

Cool:
so, I never really understood how to know if it was a good idea to use an index, or why an index is used by the CBO or a full-table scan was used.
While this isn't completely accurate, its a good estimate:
1. using the all_tables and tab_cols views, you can get how many blocks and how many rows per block.
2. if the percentage of rows you are planning to retrieve is greater than 1/rows-per-block then you are likely to use the full table scan

Stupid: the cursor_sharing parameter helps oracle know how to reuse explain plans (how oracle does the query). Set that to 'FORCE'. That means that EVERY cursor, EVERY query, will use the same explain plan.
Select * from employees where emp_id = 100
uses the same explain plan as
Select * from employees where emp_id = 200
which is good.
BUT, the same plan gets used for
Select * from products where product_id=7
Which will get you data from the employees table!


Tags:oracle index database cursor sharing explain plan

Rampant Links: Newsflash Edition

I'm sorry, Mr. Richardson, exactly where in the Constitution? Where in the Bible?
My response: Fuck Iowa.


See, Bob, thats what you get for going techno.


Duh, Part I. Film at 11.


Duh, Part II. Join us next week for our lead story, "People would rather be rich than poor"


The only story of late that doesn't make me sad, angry, or homicidal

Tags:god iowa presidential campaign Bob Mould sex drugs rock and roll gaming

No, don't bother with hard journalism. Just the easyfunstuff

Vanity Fair article on Gore and the media during his run.

As Time magazine's Margaret Carlson admitted to Don Imus at the time, "You can actually disprove some of what Bush is saying if you really get into the weeds and get out your calculator, or look at his record in Texas. But it's really easy, and it's fun to disprove Al Gore. As sport, and as our enterprise, Gore coming up with another whopper is greatly entertaining to us."

Yes, the MSM certainly have a liberal bias...
Jesus...this is frickin' Time magazine here. Not Matt Drudge

Tags:gore msm

Republicans: Yeah, we only care about Straight White Males

Film at 11

Univisión planned to air the first presidential debates in Spanish on Sept. 9 and 16, one for Democrats, the other for Republicans, trumpeting a national coming-out party for Hispanic voters.

Except Republican candidates aren't coming. Only Ariz. Sen. John McCain agreed to participate in the event at the University of Miami.
...
All eight Democratic candidates are slated to show up Sept. 9, and party leaders plan to highlight the contrast.

Seriously, they don't wanna do the youtube thing, they can't stomach the idea of the logo debate, and now they don't feel like reaching out to latinos.
What's left?
Well, what do they care. They don't need those snotty tech brats, or those disgusting fags and man hating dykes. And they especially don't need those fucking wetbacks.


Tags:republicans racism

Romney On Craig

"I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton,"
Yes, soliciting prostitues and sexually harassing underaged aides is exactly the same thing as having sex with a consenting adult.

Craig, gays, and self-loathing

The logic is that if you're gay, you must therefore support gay marriage
No, you twit.
The logic is that, if you are gay, and you don't support gay rights in general, you are, in fact, pathetic.
The right's objections regarding homosexuality aren't at all limited to gay marriage. Thats just the most recent outbreak (mostly because the gay rights movement is winning, as freedom and civil liberties always do, eventually).
And here's Craig hiding frm his own fears again:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/29/craig.arrest/index.html

Craig also has opposed expanding the federal hate crimes law to cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias and, in 1996, voted against a bill that would have outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which failed by a single vote in the Senate.

If you go through the whole article (which is a very good overview of how opinions on Craig have changed now that the election has passed), it becomes apparent that the real problem the right has with Craig is that he was having illicit GAY sex. Vitter, on the other hand, appears to have just been too manly for one woman.

Anyhow, Craig has shown himself to be a self-loathing hypocrit who puts his desire for power ahead of everything. Even his own nature. He has, in fact, sold his soul to those who would see him burn.

I'm reminded of a character from The Boondocks cartoon.
Rufus.
He is, of course, the modern day version of...well...a particular class of slave who worked in the owner's mansion.


Tags:larry+craig gay+rights

Boycott Amy Winhouse

Good tactic
It isn't my place to determin if Ms. Winehouse is an addict, but I do think that this tactic should be followed either way.
The fact is that Amy has been screwing her fans by, y'know, not showing up for concerts.
Concerts people paid money to attend.
Again.
And again.
So, one of a couple of things is going on here.
1. Amy figures she can get away with this shit. This requires a sizable ego as well as a complete lack of understanding of the music world. Amy can and will be replaced, just like every boy band, the moment people get tired of her crap. Very VERY few people can go the distance. Alienating your audiance can cut the suffering short.

2. Amy is completely and totally ungrateful for what she's been given. A tiny fraction of people in the world get what she's gotten. I wonder how much she'll like, y'know, working at Tower Records for the rest of her life.

3. She's nine kinds of sick. Addiction, bi-polar, or just plain old crazy.

Not buying her albums will either cut short her career now and get it over with, or it will wake the girl up (in the case of 1 and 2) or will at least stop financing and enabling her addiction.

Keep helping me drink and I'm gonna keep drinking.

Tags:Amy Winehouse

emu emu emu emu emu emu

EMUS, I TELL YOU, EMUS!!!

Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter used shopping carts to corral a wayward emu outside the store Monday about 6 a.m., West Bend police said.

Which, really, is what Wal-Mart is good for. Herding ugly, but speedy, animals.

Tags:emu

Vick's issue is what, exactly?

Vick: I need to grow up

He said that he was "disappointed in myself" and that "dogfighting is a terrible thing and I ... reject it."

He said, "Through this situation I've found Jesus."

OK, can I say how SICK I am of people 'finding Jesus' just in time to try and make the public forgive them their trespasses?
The thing that kills me here is Vick's understatement.
Vick doesn't just need to grow up.
To me, what he's saying is, 'I screwed up and put my career at risk.'
And, more so, 'I got caught'.
(I'll put aside for the moment the fact that Vick is one of the most fortunate men in the world. He, basically, has EVERYTHING, and instead of being a worthwhile, grateful human being, he decides to make dogs slaughter each other).

Vick's issue isn't one of maturity, per se. It is one of moral development.
Let's remember. Vick didn't just take part in dog-fighting, which is reprehensible in and of itself, and is basically torture. He killed the dogs that didn't do well. With HIS hands.
Torturing and killing mammals for pleasure is a very interesting characteristic.
It's one of the surest signs a child will grow up to be a sociopath.
What does it say about an adult?


Tags:Vick Dog Fight

Heavenly Sword!!!

So, IGN UK just released a review of Heavenly Sword!!!
Unfortunately, it is far less than stellar.
From skimming the review, it looks like the game is absolutely wonderful as eye and ear candy.
But gameplay...
This is really not good for the PS3.
The console needs a couple games worth buying the system for (killer apps).
Heavenly Sword was the first hope (ok, I can't speak to racing or sports games).
Next is Lair.
Then, I think, its skate, Folklore, then Ratchet And Clank Future:Tools Of Destruction.
Lair could be huge, I mean who DOESN'T want to fly a fire breathing dragon?
But I am not setting my hopes too high.

Tags:ps3 Heavenly Sword

Yes, people being persecuted certainly is odd...

Abuse of cross-dressers, maybe jailtime
So, it isn't that I think cross-dressing as a crime is insane (though it is)
and it isn't that I think that sharia law is an abomination (though it surely is).
Its that Reuters put this article in the 'Oddly Enough' section.
I wonder...
Do honor killings go in that section?
How about..."Woman, raped, accuses brother who also raped other sister!" HAH! Boy, that sure is odd.
Oh...wait...I think I meant to say 'horrific', not odd.




Tags:sharia msm

The Cult Of The Amateur

So, Andrew "I'm not really self-serving elitest" Keen has been making the rounds of late, thanks to his scheme to actually get paid to troll, called The Cult Of The Amateur.
(no, I'm not gonna link to the book...)
If you've missed this, the basic premis is that because the internet allows everyone to voice their opinions and/or their art/music/whatever, it is destroying the opportunities for people of real talent and real intelligence.
Lets break that down into two groups, which, I beliece, is how Mr. Keen sees it.

1. Artists: I'm not sure what Andy thinks the art world was like BEFORE the internets, but I can assure him that since the demise of patrons, being an artist of any kind has always been an uphill battle. It is difficult to imagine that blogging and such have had any negative impact on this. Are more people pumping out music? Sure. But it also means that you don't need to go bankrupt to put together an album and distribute it. Think of how people like Ani DiFranco would have LOVED to be able to tap into this network! Had all these tubes been in place years earlier, perhaps we would have been spared Fiona Apple's pathetic tirade at the grammies.
I'm also not certain Mr. Keen is aware that, even before this technology, a large number of artists were putting out crap. The interwebs haven't changed that, either.

2. Journalists and the media: He's right on this topic, in that we do have to read our news critically. Bloggers are formally answerable to no one. Atrios could put up posts saying that "Bush may be contemplating invading Iran within the next two days" and there's not alot that would happen. I mean, jeez, go look at Little Green Footballs and Michelle Malkin if you want to see how poorly some sites report 'news'. I'm not saying that they are out-and-out lying, but...
The thing is...the MSM has CAUSED this to happen. When the nightly news, the NYT, the white house press corp, etc. all become mouthpieces for the administration, when they report virtually nothing of substance, when they become sheep because they are afraid to step on anyone's toes, well, what did they expect to happen?
Its like Jon says...its almost as if the mainstream media has completely abdicated its responsibilities.

I could go on for a while more on this, but I won't.
I will relate a quickie here, though.
Caught Sir Keen on CSPAN2 this weekend. He was just doing a panel thing back in June. The other guy on the panel was Lev Grossman, writer for time magazine (and, incidentally, someone I went to school with a gazillion years ago). The conversation would go something like this:
Keen: 'The real problem is that there are so many people who are trying to X'
- make a living on the internet
- think they can get rich on the internet
- think that everything any blogger posts is true
- etc.
Lev: 'Um...where are all these people you keep talking about?'

heh
Tags:Andrew Keen Lev Grossman MSM

LOOK AT MY NEW IDEA!

So, I saw this ad on craigslist.org for someone looking for writers to help create an internet sensation.
Yes, I assumed this was some scam or whathaveyou. But I emailed anyhow.
Its some guy looking for a writer to help write the video blogs that tell the story of a set of friends. And the hook? No one will know that they are being scripted!
OH MY!
You mean people will think that they are REAL???
How will you market this??
Well, I have this new theory called viral marketing...

I attempted to explain to the guy that this is, in fact, already old. I explained the whole lonelygirl15 thing, and how people just aren't likely to fall for this anymore, or at least not like they have before.
Then I tried to explain how the internets are filled to overflowing with gimmicks and perhaps it is time to let go of gimmicks and, instead, produce quality content (which is much harder than gimmicky content).
He complained that no one would watch the early episodes cause they'd be dull.
To which I replied, why not stop thinking of this in terms of novel or movie.
This is a new medium.
Think in new ways.

I doubt I'll hear from him again.

Tags:media internet youtube

My onlineness sucks

The fact is, I'm out of control, online.
No, I don't mean I'm downloading 5 gig of porn an hour.
No, I don't mean I'm going broke on ebay.
No, I don't mean I'm the guy who sends you all that email about your penis falling out of your girlfriend's mouth.
I mean I'm drowning in info-soup.
Its not that I can't process the metric gazillion feeds I have on google reader.
Its that I don't actually care about most of them.
I think I should care about some of the feeds dedicated to economics, but I don't. Really, I don't understand much about economics at all. I'm OK with that. It looks to me like big picture stuff is pretty much hit-or-miss for the guys with PhDs anyhow.
(I understand two and only two things about macro economics:
1. Trickle down economics doesn't work. I know this because I lived through two terms of Reagan and one term of Bush Sr.
2. If an economy is helped by money moving around from person to person and business to business, then the best possible idea is to make sure poor people get more money.
And I say that as someone who is making a lot more than most people.
Oh, OK, I understand one more thing. Rich people who bitch about their taxes should be made to live without any of the things taxes pay for. I make a good living, but I ain't rich. In reality, taxes probably screw people in my pay range more than just about anyone else, and I pay them. Every year. Without complaint. Because that's the rent for living in the US. And it is a small price to pay.)


So, as of today, I am cleaning up.
I'm down to under a dozen feeds, and I'll build from there, slowly.
I'm cutting down to just this blog.
All email lists go to another email account where they will probably be ignored.

Just because you CAN take it all in, doesn't mean you want to.

test

link
test
Tags:[tagname]

American Idol and The Beatles

So, I was watching Idol and they decided (for some ungodly reason) to do a tribute to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
And I'm watching.
And these past winners are coming on stage, doing parts of various songs.
And the camera pans around them.
And then I see it.
A teleprompter.
Which is just pathetic.
I understand most of you are young.
That maybe you don't know the song by heart.
But you know what?
Its THE BEATLES!
Learn
The
Fucking
Song.

(especially you, Taylor Hicks)

Tags:American Idol Beatles Taylor Hicks

Old Navy Kills Your Soul

Oh, and not for nothing, but I think Old Navy may be causing me to become less attracted to human beings.

Tags:Old Navy

American Idol: Blake

So I'm watching American Idol.
And, really, I'm bored.
I mean, Melinda is great, sure, and so is Jordin, but neither of them have the flexibility or the more general musical...I dunno...knowledge? understanding? whatever that Blake has.
They may be better singers, but he has more talent.

Tags:American Idol

Superman heats up the crucible

Superman was born for this

The funny thing is, strangeness like this just wasn't that, well, strange in the 60s and 70s.
It was an interesting time to be reading comics (no, I wasn't alive much in the 60s or early 70s, but I grew up with backissues).
I'm not saying that the writing was GOOD...
But it was sort of like there were no rules.
Superman devolves into a super-ape-man?
Go for it.
Batman gets a new partner, Ace:The Bat-dog?
Get that script done!
Wonder Woman's magic lasso becomes self-aware and goes on a crime spree?
Nono, too much.
Make that an imaginary story.

Sure, there's Elseworlds stuff today, but that lacks the surreal nature of the classics.

I wonder if we've just become too frickin' sophisticated.
Or just plain old boring.

Where are my "Those Annoying Post Brothers" comics???



Tags:comics

test

Tags:[tagname]

Mario, Mario, Where For Art Thou, Mario

Ok, Mario, we're gonna get you laid.
I haven't had a chance to watch all of this (23 minutes???), but the first couple minutes killed me.


Tags:mario frustration

New toy! Maybe not...well, someday....

Years and years and years ago, my Dad retired from Digital Equipment Corp. (took the retirement package instead of getting laid off...this is around the time HP bought them).
So, for the first time in decades, he has nothing to do.
For a while, he obsesses with various ways of making coffee (don't even get me started on this), but that can only go on for so long.
Anyhow, my brother, our friend Bonehead and I are all playing this game 'Ultima Underworld II' because another friend of mine, Austin Grossman, was working on it for Looking Glass Studios, and was kind enough to get us a late-stage beta.
Loved it.
Eventually, we move out.
Dad calls me one day saying "I just bought a computer and thought I'd use it to play games. What can you suggest?"
"Ultima Underworld II."
"OK."
A couple weeks go by and I give him a ring.
Me:So how's Underworld going?
Dad:Well, I'm kind of stuck. I don't know what to do next.
Me:OK, so where are you?
Dad:I'm in the castle.
Me:What castle? (I have no memory of a castle)
Dad:The one with the King and the Royal Family.
Me:(confused pause) Wait, the one you start in???
Dad: Yes. I've talked with everyone and now I don't know what to do.
Me: Well, have you gone down into the sewers?
Dad: No. They said there were monsters down in the sewers.

And there you have it. Playing video games requires a fundamental shift in perspective. You are, in fact, looking for trouble.
Anyhow, once he got over that, his video game career has far outshined mine.

Dad goes through a couple of computers, upgrading when needs be.
But then Oblivion comes out and there's no way Dad's machine will run the damn thing. But its also a really bad time to buy a PC as the duo cores are still pretty new and all that.
So he buys an XBox360 so he can play Oblivion and maybe a few other games until he decides to buy a new PC.
He goes through every bit of the game that he can, and then buys Enchanted Arms.
Uh-oh.
Enchanted Arms has some display problems.
Why?
Spanking new tech in the XBox360, 5 year old tech in the TV. The text is illegible.
So, to him, the 360 is dead.
Eventually, he gives it to me.
I am most happy as I'm out of PS2 games to play, now that I've finished God Of War II, and can't justify a PS3 (which has nothing worth playing yet either) or a 360 (which has some games I'd like to play, and a bunch of great ones coming soon, like Mass Effect) since I just spent 900 bucks on a wedding ring.
I go and buy:
Gears Of War
Viva Pinata
DOA4
Dead Rising
and an extra controller.
WHEEE!!!
Gears of War confuses me. I'd gotten it on the recommendation of a friend who said it wasn't really a first person shooter, but rather more like 3rd person.
Plus, it looks pretty.
For a while, the game confuses the hell out of me. Moving around seems needlessly tricky, and I appear to have WAY too many options when I'm hiding behind a rock. I'm also getting my ass handed to me.
Until, of course, I read the manual, which makes it abundantly clear that hiding is the way to go. Duck, poke,shoot, duck.
Gotcha.
Which reminded me of a CCG card I once read (or maybe it was a fake card...I dunno...). The flavor text was: "So there I was, between a rock and a hard place. And I thought to myself, 'What am I doing on this side of the rock???'"

Played a little DOA4 which was gorgeous and fun, and then...Viva Pinata.
1) Yes, all the 'characters' appear to be pinatas. And they all want to get bashed open by children at parties. Its unclear if they are then resurrected of if they are simply suicidal. Reminds me of the Schmoo.
2) Your pinatas eat each other (and also mate in front of a jukebox).
3) The tutorial section is unbelievably high-pressure. It wouldn't shut up with telling me to do things. All I wanted to do was grow my garden and raise some frickin' pinatas! Easily more stressful than Gears Of War.
Most tiring.

Alas...
the 360 is busted after only a day or two of playing and is currently in transit to Texas for repairs.
(long way to go for a complaint, ain't it?)

Tags:Xbox360 Gears Of War Viva Pinata Ultima Underworld II Video Games Looking Glass Studios

American Idol: Barry Gibb Is The Antichrist to Ryn Seacrest's Jesus

So, this season is the first time I've watched American Idol from the beginning.
For the most part, I like the format of the show. Specifically, how they use the theme nights. Sure, it was hard for the guys when it was Diana Ross night (I mean, seriously, the woman's singing is legendary, so it would be hard enough to step up, but to try that as a guy? not that fair), but the guys had their chance with Tony Bennet and Bon Jovi.
Anyhow, this week was just stupid.
Barry Gibb?
You want them to sing music that, previously, was sung by a man but almost completely in falsetto?
C'mon.
Of course they all stank that night!
What did you expect?

Oh, and lets face it...
Disco music is BAD MUSIC!
The only reason people argue against this idea is because of nostalgia.
Disco is death.
(I'm pretty sure that the band played the same music for each song)


Tags:American Idol

BLADE RUNNER SUPER SPECIAL RESHOOT EDITION!!!

GEEKGASM!!!

Joanna Cassidy (who played Replicant Zhora in the film – she’s the one Harrison Ford runs down on the street & shoots in the back) has just finished shooting new material for the forthcoming DVD restoration!

Tags:Blade Runner

I, too, can swing like Spider-man!

Real Spidey Suit???

A new Spider-Man film swings into cinemas soon, but an Italian researcher said on Thursday he was working on a project that could lead to real-life versions of the comic book character.rnrnNicola Pugno, a 35-year-old researcher at the Polytechnic University of Turin, said he has worked on a form of adhesion for about 10 years that could lead to something like a spider-man suit.

Obviously, this man knows nothing about Spider-man.
First, Spider-man is more than just sticky.
Second, the sticky, such as it is, does not come from the suit.
Third, when will Target be carrying these?

Tags:Spider-Man

My Humps...with feeling.

My video response coming soon. More of a commentary, really.



Tags:Alanis Morissette My Humps black eyed peas

Obama/Clinton

We here in The Basement have noticed something about the Democratic contenders.
Two of them in particular.
Barak Obama, an attractive man. A political up-and-comer with a bright future ahead of him. A man of power.
Hillary Clinton, also attractive for a man, and almost as powerful as her husband is now.
Could they possibly resist each other?
It seems clear, now, that Hillary and Barak have become the new power couple in Washington, DC.
Don't believe me? Just watch their behavior during the state of the union address.
No go?
Then take notice of how careful they are to hide their affair. How rarely they are in the same room together, or even mention each other on TV.
Quite the discrete pair.
But a little too discrete.
Not talking about something can be just as informative as yelling about it.

When will they finally reveal their forbidden love?



Tags:Hillary Clinton Barak Obama forbidden love

Faux Klingons???

Idiot...they are obviously Andoreans...



Tags:iraq klingons David Wu

When Idiots Use The Web

MASS MURDER ON MARS

So much for my dream of being the first murderer on another planet.

Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing.

Tags:Mars

Strange Germans and their inventions

I'm pretty sure this is a montage of strange inventions.
I wish I could read German/

Tags:Inventions

GOATS GOATS GOATS TREES TREES TREES

HOLY FUCKING FUCK!



GOATS IN TREES!!



Tags:Goats In Trees

Cobra Commander Has Me By The Short Hairs

For some reason, I have a version of Copa Cabanna in my head...
only its this:
I'm the Cobra, Cobra Commander
With the Baroness, Destro and Serpentor
I'm the Cobra, COBRA Commander
If the Joe's get in my way
Then I will make them pay
I'm the Cobra....

If I don't get this out of my head soon, I will have to Weird Al the whole frickin' song like this.
I'm stuck in the damn chorus!!!
I may take a life tonight.
It may be my own.

YO JOE!

Tags:G.I. Joe Cobra Commander

Lamest Superheroes Ever

Wow!
Personally, I like Dogwelderman:

Dogwelder was a character from Garth Ennis' "Hitman" series. Dogwelder was part of a superhero team known as Section Eight which was a band of these crazy guys that fought crime in rather inane ways. Dogwelder is my favourite of the bunch. He's this madman in a silver welder's outfit that basically just goes around welding stray dogs to villains' faces. That's it. That's how he fought crime. Welding dogs to people. Mind you it would be a bitch of a thing to have happen to you. You try to rob a bank and you end up with a Lhasa Apso welded to your face, yapping for eternity. *shudder*

Tags:superheroes comics

Why Zombies Are Scary

Zombie Outbreak Simulation

set to 1 zombie, the city falls in less than 2 minutes.
THAT'S why zombies are scary

Tags:Zombie Simulation

Flatland: The Movie

Flatland: The Movie

Interesting.
But I'm worried the characters will all be two-dimensional

(I had to say it...forgive me)

Tags:Flatland Movie

Bloodrayne 2?????

Again, I'm not kidding. Bloodrayne 2, the movie

Will whoever is financing Uwe Boll please cut it out.
Send me the money, if you must.
I will bear that burden

Tags:bloodrayne 2 Uwe Boll

Pot Delivery

I'm not kidding

heh.

Tags:pot delivery drugs

Duct Tape Doesn't Heal Warts

I guess it ISN'T the all powerful substance which binds the universe together

Tags:duct tape warts

See? Party games are for idiots and murderers!

Welcome to Worlds Dumbest People!

Tags:party games murder

Best...video...ever

I love dancing jesus


"Dancing Jesus, you have to watch the end of this video" on Google Video


Tags:dancing+jesus

I can't argue with their logic

(btw, please note that this draws inspiration from some seriously old school animation stylings)


Tags:Instant Karma Party

test email posting

hi there

--
Mom's Basement is my Secret HQ!
http://momsbasement.blogspot.com/

The Geektivist
http://geektivist.blogspot.com

Livejournal
http://mole_boy.livejournal.com

Ewe Boll: Boxer

Fighting Exe Boll

Heh...
our very own, present day, Ed Wood.
I think Ed would have gladly boxed for film.

Tags:Ewe Boll Ed Wood

Launch Ring

Best...Rollercoaster...EVER!

and we are one step closer to a rail gun.

Tags:launch ring rail gun

LucasFilms, Bribery, and Domain Names

LucasFilm had to bribe a fan for a Phantom Menace Domain Name

A wookie cosutme.
A WOOKIE COSTUME???
BOBA FETT, YOU TWIT, FETT! FETT!! FETT!!!

Tags:lucasfilm
Domain Name
Phantom Menace News wookie

Holy In The Corner Pocket, Batman!

Must...Have...Holy...Pool Stick!!!

Tags:Pool Stick Jesus Christ Virgin Mary

Dustin Diamond Does Dirty Sanchez

Oh Dustin...

I mean...just when you thought fame couldn't get any more surreal...

Tags:Dustin Diamond sex tape Dirty Sanchez

Tickle Me Elmo EXTREME

I'm not kidding

Should anything with Elmo ever be called 'Extreme'? (assuming that word should ever be used)

Tags:Tickle Me Elmo Extreme TMX

Shark vs Octopus

Shark vs Octopus

what more can be said?

from swingnut: My favorite octopus story involved one than was getting out of it's tank at night and getting into the crabs tank next to it for a little midnight snack. I was watching some documentry on the intelligemce of octopi and they were interviewing some guy who studied them in a lab. He said every morning there were crabs missing and they couldn't figure out how, much like the missing aquarium sharks, so the watched the lab one night and low and behold...

Tags:shark octopus

Barney's Penis

Barney Isn't Neutered

There's really nothing to say here except...

BWWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Tags:Barney penis

As cool as an ipod?

From slashdot

a discussion of an upgraded mp3 player from sandisk:
Person 1:ya but....nothing will EVER be as cool as an ipod.

Person 2:How about Bruce Willis on a hoverboard listening to bootleg OGGs of
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic on a homemade altoids-tin
music player, kissing Salma Hayek, and fighting Christopher Walken,
Jet Li, the Rock, and an army of robot sharks with rocket-packs?

Person 1: almost, but the ipod still has a scroll wheel.

Tags:ipod Christopher Walken Salma Hayek Bruce Willis
slashdot

Do Not Call

Is the do not call list working?
So says yahoo:

Currently, 76% of Americans are signed up, meaning the number of victims a tele-intruder can bother, er, sell to, has fallen drastically. In fact, 87% of those who registered report getting fewer calls.

76%. Thats fantastic!
Now, maybe, we can get a Do Not Spam list?
Please?

Tags:Do Not Call List telemarketers

Rose Tyler: Earth Defence

Rose Tyler: Earth Defence
(a little more from Cinescape this morning)

"It was actually commissioned by the controller of BBC One and budgeted," series creator Russell T Davies told Doctor Who magazine, according to a report on the BBC Web site. But Davies later decided that the show, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, was "a spinoff too far" and called it off.

a spinoff too far
bwaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha
(I really do love Rose)

Tags:Rose Tyler Billie Piper Doctor Who

Garth Ennis: The Boys

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson Talk About "The Boys"

...the book is really about: the effect superheroes would have on society and history, if they really existed. And, of course, the effect that politics and corporate backing would have on them.

What...another one?
No, I'm not really bitching. Given that superhero comics can use just about any title that isn't strictly about bashing badguys, I'll take it.
The tone of Garth's comment just sounds as if he thinks this is the first comic of it's kind. And thats just not true.
Hells Bells, Garth, Booster frickin' Gold beat you to the corporate backing thing!

But I'll probably buy the trade

Tags:Garth Ennis
The Boys
Darick Robertson comics

Armor Of God

I'm not sure if I should laugh or get a set.
I mean...I'm pro any set of +3 pajamas I can get my hands on.

Tags:Armor Of God

SNAKES ON A PLANE

HAPPY SNAKES ON A PLANE DAY!!!

my review late tonight or early tomorrow.

Tags:Snakes On A Plane

Terrorism

Squirrel Suicide...Um...no...not quite bomber....

Crazed squirrel ransacks house

Press Association
Wednesday August 16, 2006

Guardian Unlimited
A family today told how a squirrel went berserk and trashed their house after falling down their chimney.

Retired engineer Alan White, 67, and his wife Janice, 65, came home from a weekend away to find their lounge had been ransacked, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

The couple initially feared burglars had broken into their home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but the culprit was found to be a squirrel which had left sooty paw prints all over the room.

The trapped rodent had tried chewing through the window frames and tore the curtain and settee to shreds in a desperate bid to escape.

The couple's 38-year-old son found the lifeless body of the squirrel behind the settee.

"Once we realised that we looked more carefully for damage and saw the settee, which was quite a nice one, had been ripped and gnawed," said Mr White.

"Of course, the squirrel had been covered in soot falling down the chimney and everything, even the light on the ceiling, had been covered with soot by him.

"The curtains on both sides of the window had been torn to shreds and he had torn a big hole in the carpet."

Mr White said he and his wife had been to the International Balloon Fiesta in Bristol with their grandson Shaun, 13, and were greeted by the scene of carnage when they arrived back.

"There were pot plants and ornaments strewn across the room and we immediately thought someone had broken in. But my wife pointed out that the doors were still locked," he added.

Mr White said the squirrel had even tried to chew its way through the aluminium frame of the patio doors.

The family are relieved that the lounge doors were closed, preventing the trapped creature from running amok around their entire house.

The couple have been in contact with their insurance firm about the damage, and the lounge will have to be completely redecorated after the squirrel's rampage.

Mr White said he was now thinking about getting a chimney cowl fitted.

An RSPCA spokesman said the incident was very unusual. "We've heard of birds getting into houses but never a squirrel getting down a chimney. It's unfortunate for the family - and the squirrel," he said.


Tags:Terrorism Squirrel

Getting Bigger Boobies Can Save Your Life

'nuff said

Tags:breast implants Lebanon Israel Hezbollah

Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

I loved Knights Of The Old Republic.
A fantastic game, fun characters and dialog, and, of course, great force powers.
More so, you get to be evil.
I loved being evil.
My favorite part?
*inviso text*

making the wookie kill his friend
*end inviso text*

So last weekend, I bought KOTOR II: The Sith Lords.
This game is HUGE! I mean, it just never frickin' ended!
And that was just fine by me. I could never do enough evil.
It did get tiring, though...I mean, you'd finish a good 8 hour session and think, wearily:
But...but tomorrow there is still going to be more evil to do.

I may have to go back and play KOTOR again to really compare the two, but this game
felt more subtle, deeper in many ways. Especially the plot which wove in a good deal
of economics and politics.
The only downside was the ending. The last 'quest' just felt very abrupt, and the ending
was unsatisfying. A quick search shows that Obsidian (the developers) were pushed by
LucasArts to meet an XMas deadline so they cut the ending short, and left out lots of
other material. Apparently the basics for this stuff is still in the code and is being assembled
by people at Team Gizka. I'll be there.

Anyhow, big thumbs up, overall.
I think I'll go play Shadow Of The Colossus.


Tags:KOTOR II
Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Treehouse as a secret lair

Our New Secret Lair
(yes, my secret HQ is now a secret lair)

Tags:treehouse

Smanuel L. Jackson on Snakes On A Plane

Samuel L Jackson interview about SOAP!

SAMUEL L. JACKSON: No! Hell, no! You want the snake hit! You want to see it. You have two people goin' to screw in a bathroom on a plane and you know that there are some snakes on there... you know that when that tit comes out, you want to see a snake on that tit! At some point you gonna go, "Man, I know a snake's going to show up somewhere... and hopefully that snake's going to be on that tit!"

Tags:Samuel L Jackson snakes on a plane SOAP interview

The Toast Song

TOAST

I'll be the last to say there's much redeeming about myspace, but you gotta hear this song!


Tags:myspace toast

Paris Hilton Celibate

The End Of An Era?
My favorite part:

The Hilton Hotels heir and uber-socialite told the magazine she is "very shy" and relates to the late Princess Diana, who was hounded by photographers.

I'm not sure what she's saying here. Is Paris saying that she feels like a person who used their fame and money to help those less fortunate, or is she calling Princess Di a media whore?

Tags:Paris Hilton sex celibate

STAR WARS DELETED SCENES

Scenes removed from Star Wars: A New Hope!
'nuff said.

Tags:star wars deleted scenes A New Hope

What a strange waste of time

Ban Comic Sans
What an odd campaign.
I wonder if they fall under a different IRS heading?

Tags:ban comic sans

You make the call

More scary or less scary?


(thanks BoingBoing)

Tags:Darth Vader Hello Kitty

TIMECUBE

Am I the last to hear about
TimeCube???
Who needs drugs when you have TimeCube??? (I could have saved a fortune)
I have to say that I've always been a little leary of the whole -1 x -1 = 1 thing, but now I'm confused. Is it July 30(2) or July 30(3)?


Tags:TimeCube

Born again!

Yes, you can become a born again atheist.
Though I'm not certain I'd call it that. It kind of implies that you have been born into a new world when, in fact, all you've done is drop the illusion you've been stuck with all your life.
Anyhow, I'd always been leaning towards atheism anyhow, but being in AA kind of drew me away for a while.

This revelation was brought about by reading several articles by Sam Harris, author of The End Of Faith.
He wasn't, for the most part, saying much I didn't already know, but what he DID manage to do was bring to the forefront feelings and views that I had not put into a concrete framework. He also showed me the hypocrisy of my actions.


List of Articles


The best has to be the Atheist Manifesto. Its long winded, but worth it if only for this paragraph:

It is perfectly absurd for religious moderates to suggest that a rational human being can believe in God simply because this belief makes him happy, relieves his fear of death or gives his life meaning. The absurdity becomes obvious the moment we swap the notion of God for some other consoling proposition: Imagine, for instance, that a man wants to believe that there is a diamond buried somewhere in his yard that is the size of a refrigerator. No doubt it would feel uncommonly good to believe this. Just imagine what would happen if he then followed the example of religious moderates and maintained this belief along pragmatic lines: When asked why he thinks that there is a diamond in his yard that is thousands of times larger than any yet discovered, he says things like, “This belief gives my life meaning,” or “My family and I enjoy digging for it on Sundays,” or “I wouldn't want to live in a universe where there wasn't a diamond buried in my backyard that is the size of a refrigerator.” Clearly these responses are inadequate. But they are worse than that. They are the responses of a madman or an idiot.


Atheist Manifesto

These articles etc, also helped me realize that my tolerance when it came to other people's faith was misplaced. I don't have to (nor should I) respect their faith. I do (and should) respect their right to believe it.
What does this mean?
It means that I certainly don't burn churches or try to make laws preventing practice of religion. I let people believe what they want and behave how they will, so long as no one gets hurt.
It also means that if someone brings a god or supernatural faith into a discussion, I can treat it with the same weight as if they said "A big blue ocelot told me so".

Tags:atheism Sam Harris god religion

Just call me Reverend!

Not kidding!
As of today I am a Minister in the Universal Life Church!
As Reverend Joel, I am empowered:
. To perform marriages within any US state, following the rules laid out by the state in which
you wish to perform said marriage.

. To perform funerals, baptisms, last rites or any other sort of legal ceremony or ritual you
wish to perform, except circumcision.

. To start a church of your own, be it a bricks and mortar building or on the internet.

. To absolve others of their sins as you have been absolved of yours.


This is particularly ironic in that today I became a born again atheist.
Will wonders never cease?

Tags:reverend ordained atheist

Poor, Poor Lobsters

by way of
DailyKos Cheers and Jeers

CHEERS to Yankee Ingenuity. On this date in 1872, the doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel of Thomaston, Maine. Only after his early experiments on lobsters went disastrously wrong.

Tags:Lobsters doughnut

Stranger than fiction

Is life really stranger than fiction???

Tags:Snakes On A Plane Snakes In A Cockpit

I wish someone would send ME an internet...

This is someone who makes policy???

My favorite quote (and there were many):
"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday."

I dunno. Sending an internet really might take a couple days.
I mean, there's ALOT of porn out there.
next time he should use BitTorrent.

Tags:net neutrality Ted Stevens Senator Stevens

Meerkat Manor

Meerkat Manor
So there's the show coming up on Animal Planet called Meerkat Manor.
Now, please note, this is not a single show.
Its a reality series.
We will spend an entire season following a heard? flock? or whatever of meerkats around.
I like meerkats. They are cute and adorable.
But exactly how many episodes can one watch?
"Oh, look, she's standing on her hind legs, again!"
"Hey, watch how they use their hands to eat, again."
I think they'll have to get a little more clever.
Narrarator: Watch, now, as a badger entires the tribe's area.
*shot of badger in cage being released*
Narrarator: The badger delves into the meerkat burrow.
*shot of badger being forced into hole with stick*
Narrarator: This looks like a bad day for our friends.
Thats my kind of show.

Next week, Meerkat Meets Gator!!

Tags:meerkat meerkat manor animal planet Reality TV

Religious discrimination

Soldier's shouldn't be wiccans, apparently

Tags:wicca

Horrid?

How is this any more horrid than GTA III (vice city or whatever)

because we know the names of these people?

hm.

Tags:columbine video game

See No Evil

See No Evil

This is kind of a weird question, but have you ever thought there should be a movie about a big bald retarded muscleman with extreme religious views running around an abandoned hotel banging people against walls and plucking their eyeballs out? If so, today's your lucky day, and SEE NO EVIL is your movie.

Tags:See No Evil

Apple

24/7 Apple Store

Say what you want, apple knows how to market...its gorgeous!

Tags:Apple

Why should I get rid of my cat?

BIG KITTY!!!
yes, but for most animals, 'unpredictable' doesn't imply being turned into lunch:

When asked whether he considers his lion to be inherently dangerous, Collins insisted that any pet can behave unpredictably.

yes, but for most animals, 'unpredictable' doesn't imply being turned into lunch:

"I think it needs to be in a different environment," Hall said. "Everybody here keeps their guns loaded."

yeah, big surprise, its frickin' kentucky

Tags:lion kentucky

Pat Robertson: Meterologist

Pat Robertson Agrees With Weathermen!

The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.

Or, alternately, you could listen to what the scientists have been saying all year.
Whichever.
Nice when religion backs science.

Tags:Pat Robertson

SOAP

YES!!!
I was watching last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and he made a SNAKES ON A PLANE JOKE!!!
YES!!!
*in George Bush Voice*
I have just heard on the internet...there are snakes on a plane.

Tags:Snakes On A Plane The Daily Show Jon Stewart

"I'm Psychic" is a defense

Susan Polk Is Psychic, so its OK

There's no reason to doubt murder defendant Susan Polk's claim that she stabbed her husband in self-defense, and also that she is a psychic, an expert witness told jurors Tuesday.
...
"My understanding is that she's got considerable psychic ability and there's no reason to doubt that," [Retired forensic pathologist Dr. John] Cooper said. "Maybe you don't believe in psychic ability."

Now, whether you been in psychic ability or not, trying to use it in your defense is, in a word, nuts.
Personally, I think two things:
1) Ms. Polk has given up and is trying to set herself up for appeal on the basis that she was incompetant to be her own counsel
2) Dr. Cooper should stay retired.

Tags:Susan Polk Psychic Medium

Taxes

Something is upsetting me.
Taxes.
No, not the paying, thereof, but the complaining.
By the rich about paying a higher percentage than the poor.
Now, don't get me wrong. I hate paying them.
But, people who know more about economics than I do tell me that a gradiated tax system is the best way to go. I know little about economics, so I listen to them.
If someone can show me a flat tax system that gets the government all the money it needs without unduly burdening the poor, I'll listen.
That said...
What I can't stand is when those who make 250K a year bitch that their tax bracket is higher than people who make 35K a year.
They still make a gazillion dollars, don't they?
If anyone has a right to bitch, its people who make about what I do. I do pretty OK, but I'm hardly high-on-the-hog. If *I* am OK with my bracket, doesn't it sound petty for those making well into 6 figures to complain about how unfair it is to them?
As always, its the middle class that takes the brunt of things, and the wealthy who complain about them.

Tags:taxes

SNAKE ISLAND

Oil pipeline explosion kills up to 200 in Nigeria

Nigerian officials say the pipe exploded on Snake Island.

how cool is it that Nigeria has a place called Snake Island???
(actually, the name is misleading. Its really a peninsula)

Tags:Nigeria oil pipeline explosion Snake Island

Da Vinci Code

Christians Compare Questioning The Story Of Jesus To The Holocaust

In Rome recently, Archbishop Angelo Amato, the No. 2 official in the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Catholic communications officials: "If such slanders, offenses and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust, they would have justly provoked a world uprising. Instead, directed at the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will all boycott the movie."

Now, I have zero issue with Christians protesting the movie, however, comparing the questioning of the life of Jesus to Holocaust Revisionism is just not quite sane.
If nothing else, there are people who actually personally remember the Holocaust (it was only 60 years ago).
A more appropriate comparison would have been Jesus vs Moses.
People look back at history and question it all the time. The older the history, the more likely it is to have picked up some, shall we say, misleading information.
The only reason to say that questioning the story of Jesus is akin to questioning the accounts of the Holocaust is to assume that the Bible is infalible and so on equal grounds with the objective, verifiable data on the holocaust, as well as the personal accounts, which is fine, but one can't expect non-christians to believe that.
On the plus side, all the demonstrations and actions (except for one nutso group in India who is planning to starve themselves to death) are peaceful.
The core meaning behind it is: Just because the movie is out there, doesn't mean you have to go see it.

And thats EXACTLY how this is supposed to work.
(as opposed to, say, burning down buildings)

Tags:Da Vinci Code

Real Life Email

J: only saw this once, but there was a great commercial for
Nintendogs. Shows some 12 or 13 year old boy playing with his
Nintendog, which starts to bark because it senses other Nintendogs
around. HA-ZAH! its his sisters girlfriends coming over to play.
ANd, of course, his Nintendog gives him an 'in'
I'd have bought that in 2 seconds.

--
M:wow, that *is* a good commercial. of course, now I can add the
classic "buy some wine coolers + menthols" component to the mix and...

... no, best i don't say aything more.
--
J:yes, please don't.
As I work on a military base, the last thing I need is someone showing
up here to ask me about our plans to seduce little girls.
--
M:what, a guy can't smoke menthols and drink wine coolers and play
nintendogs in the privacy of his own house? What are you, some kind
of freedom-hating monster?

leave us not forget that *i'm* not the one who used to live across the
street from the catholic school, mister.

(hmm. i thought the google ads for this were going to be more exciting)
--
J:I believe I have made it clear that yes, I am a freedom-hating monster.
However, the school wasn't my fault.
And what red-blooded american guy WOULDN'T sit out on the porch with
some booze and wearing a speedo at 3:15 each day?

(yeah, I'm getting DDR ads up the ass)
---
M:i hear the kids love DDR. love it a lot.
---
J:I'm not kidding.
I'm really disappointed in google-ads
---
M: Oh, i'm seeing them too: i'm really not that surprused: after all, I
did mention DDR previously, and it *is* a pretty big cash cow, and now
it's just getting mentioned further, so, as far as it is concerned, we
must really be interested in it.

Still, we *definitely* should have a little more variety in ads.
---
J:It would appear google ads has something of a one-track mind.

wait.

penis enlargement.

mortgages

dental work
---
M:I got free ringtones! Good job! (though i'm not sure where that came from...)

let's see, what else.

viagra

cialis

free imac

canadian pharmacy
---
J:whoa
you killed google ads
have NOTHING
---
M: that's just impressive, if you stop and think about it: probably the
glut of keywords in a single email thread just crashed a server..

"must... display.. ads... cannot.. choooooooosee...."
---
J: now I'm just scared.

dating

girls

lesbian
---
M:oh my god, i think we *really* killed it.

weight loss

rolex watches

paris hilton
---
J: brangelina

scientology

ninjew

car loan
---
M: IT'S NOT WORKING!!! THE INTERNET IS DYING!!!
---
J: FUCK!!!

Look, without google ads, how will I know what books and hair care
products and various services I might enjoy learning more about?

How will I know where to find singles in my area?

What will become of my near-obsessive need to get the lowest interest
rate on my various loans regardless as to the processing fee?

HOW WILL I KNOW HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM SURVEYS????
---
M: apparently, you're just shit out of luck now.

You're just going to have to go to the store, and consume at random

try a local bar

call that guy in the question mark suit

and you can't, dumabss

(respectively)
---
J: so...quiet...like dead air on the radio. creepy.

** follow up once I mentioned I was going to post this**
M: hey, when you get to the part about seducing little girls. can you
please change my name to, like, i dunno, Lance or something?

actually, wait, it would make more sense if my name didn't change in
the middle of the conversation - that would probably make me look even
worse.

M: "Nintendogs is cool!"
J: "I agree"
Lance: "You can use it to seduce little girls"
J: "What?"
M: "Nothing."

Yeah, that would look weird.

Tags:google-ads

Lesbians are wired differently

LOOK! More facts about homosexuality that will be ignored by the religious right

film at 11...

Tags:homosexuality gay lesbian

RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!

Flying robot attack "unstoppable": experts

I shit you not. That really is the title.
To which I can only say...
D'UH!!!

Tags:robots

Conversations I didn't have, but probably could

S: Kim brought her baby in last week. It appeared to be a functioning
small human

F: Look at her -- she's so unimpressed! If Kim had brought in a
new kitten, it would have been all excitement -- look at the new kitten,
it's so cute, googie goo, you're so cute [this last said in baby-talk]

S: well...

F: Or "look! Kim brought in the new Life game!" In this game, you
have a baby, and you take care of it just like in real life! Look how
cute the baby is [pantomimes baby on computer screen]

S: but...

F: But a REAL baby -- eh, shove it in the corner and keep it quiet. I
have to do the ordering.

R: Was it a boy or a girl?

S: I don't know.

[Pandemonium]

Conversations I never thought I'd have

Intro: My girlfriend (S) and I (J) had dinner at our friends Todd and Sybil's house
for the first time a few weeks back which was really nice. Its been a
long time since I made friends at work. We decided that we should have
them over to our place. Here is a conversation I had with S about what
to serve.
S: I want to make something so impressive that no one cares how it
tastes.
(note: this is a strange thing for her to say as she is a fantastic
cook)
J: OK
S: How about one of those pies that when you open it, birds fly out?
J: You mean like 4 and 20 blackbirds?
S: exactly! I found a recipe for it today in my Food in History book!
J: Well, first, that would be a very big pie.
S: Yes.
J: Second, I'm not sure where I could buy 24 blackbirds.
S: We could use budgies. 4 or 5.
*I think about this for a moment*
J: So what you are really doing is making a magic trick, as opposed to,
say, dessert.
S: No. It would be Impressive. And it would be a meat pie for dinner.
J: The problem is we are then left without having any pie.
S: That's the best part! We put a smaller pie inside that we could then
eat!
J: Yes. I'd definitely be interested in eating pie that had been
trapped with scared little birds for a while. That would certainly be
tasty. You know what birds do right before they take off?
S: What?
J: They drop some ballast.
S: ?
J: they take a dump.
S: Oh. We could wrap the little pie in plastic wrap.
J: Well, one, the talons from the budgies would surely rip it open.
And two, I am not sure I'd be interested in eating pie wrapped in
plastic that was covered in guano.
S: Guano is bat shit, not bird shit. If you're worried about the birds
tearing the saran wrap, we could lightly dope them so that they'd be
just coming around when we open the pie.
J: You know nothing about doping birds, you'd probably kill them.
S: I could look it up on the Internet. I can't be the first person to
need lightly doped budgies.
J: Still, no one would want to eat the pie even if it's wrapped in
Saran Wrap, if it's then covered in birdshit.
S: FINE! We keep the little pie separate from the big pie, hidden in
the kitchen.
J: Sybil is 8 months pregnant, do you think she needs a shock at this
stage?
S: Not a shock! Impressive!
J: We would end up with happy cats though.
S: HAPPY KITTIES!
J: And very tense budgies.
S: HAPPY KITTIES!
J: And a home covered with guano.
S: Guano is BAT shit!
J: I suppose we could then use the budgies for target practice,
especially as they came out.
S: SKEET!
J: A couple BB guns, it could be big fun.
S: YES! BIG FUN!
J: Which still leaves us with no pie.
S: We have the small pie!

*yes, this continued on... And on... And on...*

Review: Infinite Crisis

A couple years back, DC, in its annual tradition of massive crossover events, put out Our World At War.
I read the collected volumes (as I am want to do) and it was...OK.
Maybye if I'd read ALL of the issues, ALL of the crossovers, ALL of the titles it ran through, well, maybe then I'd have loved it.
The problem was that...well...it just didn't feel as big as it should have.
It didn't feel important.
It didn't feel epic.
Infinite Crisis.
Wow.
I mean...
OK.
Stop.
Let me start out by saying what I didn't/don't like about all this.
1) the lead in mini-series (except for Identity Crisis) were badly done and, ultimately, pointless. There was nothing that couldn't have been done in a few extra issues. Worse, they were boring and contrived (for the most part).

2) The new Blue Beetle, and his role in this, was very deus ex machina.
3) The One Year Later/52 stuff. Not happy at all. Don't like being forced to read the individual issues to stay in synch.
4) The obvious ploy to make you read titles you don't care about (for example, I give not a rat's ass about Bludhaven)
5) The art was inconsistent
that said

wow.
Seven issues that I just never wanted to see end. It was huge. Epic. Powerful. While I haven't fully understood the outrage over the whole mind-wipe thing (y'know, Dr. Light was a violent psychopath who raped women...fuck him), the emotion behind it all came through clearly.
The world (or, really, worlds) was in danger, peril, everything was in the balance.
At it's core, though, this was a story that has been coming for a while.
It was a story about the darkness of the Warren Ellis' type heros vs the simplistic 1950s heros. A dark grey world vs a black and white one.
It was a story that sets the stage for heros who live in something like the real world, a place with murderers who keep murdering, with villains who never go away for good, with planet devouring monsters, and how they find a way to handle these threats effectively, but still shine as an example of what mankind can and should be.
The seeds have been placed for deeper, more complex heros.
But ones who can also inspire.
Lights in the darkness.

It remains to be seen how those seeds will grow.

Tags:[tagname]

Not Really A Review: Earthboy Jacobus

This really isn't a review, just a couple comments.
I just finished reading Earthboy Jacobus by Doug Tennapel. He also wrote Creature Tech that I wrote about earlier.
This one is OK. Not as good as CT, but hey, high bar and all.
Anyhow, its a pretty touching and very patriotic story about an odd boy and his adoptive dad fighting off an alien invasion, sort of.
The only real problem I had was on one page.
A human preacher, who has been transformed into an alien stooge says something like "I now see that all struggle can be broken down into economic terms and I no longer need an imaginary divine entity to act as my drug to keep me in line."
Translation: the aliens are commie bastards.
Personally, I have no real problem with the idea of aliens representing communists. Its a bit out-dated, but thats OK.
The problem is that the scene is, pretty much, talking down to the readers. Telling rather than showing. Its just bad writing.
The other problem I have with alien=marx-toy is this:
the aliens invade planet after planet, gobbling up all the resources to feed the never sated god-monster that leads them.
Really, this isn't communism.
Its American Capitalism.
Its capitalism thats the shark, devouring everything and always needing more.
Its capitalism that consumes resources without leaving anything behind.


Tags:doug tennapelEarthboy Jacobus