What? How can this be? Am I really posting the very first new message this month? And here I thought I was clicking on a picture of a urinal to get a closer look at that fly.

Hi, Mike. How'z'it goin'?

Bill - I got those movies too. I haven't cracked the package yet, though. Just looking at the titles has had me laughing. I saw some of the other collections, and the "100 Classic Cartoons" one is really tempting, because they have a few of the Hoffnung cartoons. My parents had the Hoffnung books, and I'd heard that some animation was done based on them, but I never thought I'd see it!

Bill, I suspect in your current mood this is exactly the WRONG movie to recommend, but I've just seen The Lost Skeleton of Cadavara and it's well worth the rental. It's kind of an attempt to distill the enjoyable factors out of all the crummy movies on your DVD, and it's largely successful. About 3/4 the way through it, my wife said, "Hey, this is like an SCTV sketch!"

I'm soft on big monster movies, but I'm really hard-line on movie talkers. Surely you could triangulate on Mr. Meanwhile and apply socks full of M&Ms to the back of his head. Lacking M&Ms, rocks or lead shot would work.

Duck, they animated HOFFNUNG?? That is so cool!!

When Mr Mimi and I went to see 'Home on the Range', we were almost the only ones in the theatre. Still, the sad lack of attendance at a Disney feature COULD have been compensated by our very own real cinema msting session... if about 3 other people hadn't shown up during previews. They were sitting far away from us, but we still kept our traps shut. Ah well...

I watched about 2 minutes of one of the Hoffnung toons and wasn't impressed. Very simple and repetitive animation for what little I saw. If I want that, I'll watch a really early 30s cartoon, as those things seem like they were made by people on weapons-grade drugs. My opinion of Hoffnung might've been influenced by the fact it followed a version of Uncle Tom's Cabin that is horrifically rascist and hilariously deranged. One plus (for me) to the toon set is that there's a lot of those weird early toons, like they used to show on Cartoon Network's "Black and White at Night." I wonder how many people bought the set thinking that they were getting a disc of Tom & Jerry, only to discover that they're the forgotten Van Beuren Tom & Jerry.

The transfers on the Sci Fi set aren't that great (surprise!) and the chapters seem to be set pretty much at random. But this is some real crap! Good crappy-type crap movies!

Ernst:
I'll take The Lost Skeleton of Cadavara into consideration. Hitch! magazine gave it a terrible review, but his tastes and mine sometimes don't match (although he did like Bubba Ho-Tep).

My friends and I would go to the drive-in and kinda heckle the movies...it wasn't so bad in the privacy of our own car or truck...but I think the last movie we did that to was "Volcano", so it has been a while. The theatres have been good for no hecklers though.

What's with the crazy Nigerian and Lagos ads? Are they the "default" till Google determines we like cats and supplies us with www.crazyaboutmainecoons.com or what have you?

And the awesome thing is that 'cadavara' sounds almost like 'calavera' which is spanish for SKULL! WOOWWW!!

yes, i'm back.

I had thought 'Brother Bear' was to be the last Movie disney made with traditional animation, since they were losing too much to pixar.. then home on the range came around.. was i wrong? then again, what exec ok'ed HotR ? i mean, didn't they learn off atlantis? PEOPLE WANT SHINY PRETTY CGGGGGGG!!!, but really, COWS? COWS? COOOWS?

COOOOOWS! Delicious cows crammed with crazy brains! MMMMMM! Prion goodness for all!

Ironically, I had a burger just yesterday. I'd better enjoy thinking while I still can.

Just to start the month out right, I thought I'd mention that the third installation of Gonty-kins Planeswalker novel is up. It's not as entertaining as Lost Boy Found, though. It has some previously unpublished Gonter-art, too.

Wow, that Planeswalker thing was dang awful. What's with DVK now making his PDF format (that everyone hates) a PDF that now opens in a frame? Just to show us that he knows how to do that? Hey, dude, how about learning to stay in the same tense in the same sentence first? Is that so beyond your abilities?
"Her touch, soft and warm, made Jamie feel like she's bathed in sunshine."
Guess so!

Marc:
Is that a Canadian thing? I always get ads for bulletin boards (literal, physical, cork-based bulletin boards) for the first several days after starting one of these.

Mmm, nice face-plant on the past page of Planeswalker 3. And - "And you thought having Puberty staring in your face was bad,"

Ow ow ow.

As for the PDF thing, don't knock the format. It's great for archiving documents, and it's been my bread and butter for the past few years. As for putting his fanfic as PDFs... it fits his "Hey, lookit this new feature I can use!" pattern. He's done that with flash, with an obscure document format that I can't even remember, and now this.

Say, Bill, I'm going back to the hospital for more tests. Looks like they haven't yet figured out what my stomach disorder is! Yippee! I'll bet that my syndrome can beat your syndrome.

My money is on Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Every third person I know has it, and for such a wide array of symptoms that it's obviously Doctorlish for "We don't know what's wrong, we don't think you've got the money to be worth REALLY trying to find out, but we're not yet ready to say you're lying about pain, which in this case is south of the ribs and north of the thighs". As much as I appreciate modern medicine, I sometimes wish they'd go back to putting on a feathery head-dress and shaking a rattle.

"After the MRI and gastric barium series, all I can really suggest is that one of the small devils of the river has inhabited your colon. UHNG! BUGGA BUGGA MOOG! OUT, DEVILS! How's that feel now?"

Oh, hell, I've had IBS (which I like to call Spastic Colon Syndrome 'cause it sounds neater) as long as I can remember, and only recently learned that it was abnormal. It's nothing more than a mild annoyance for me. This is a completely different thing involving the upper GI. And, looking at the gallbladder diseases pages on NIH.gov, I see that I have a bunch of those symptoms, including pain radiating onto my back. Erk. I don't want knives cutting into my guts.

I have yet to wade through Planeswalker - the Rambling. But this one sentence bears enshrining:

Gerrald McIndy felt her before he saw her, an ancient and primal presence staring him down long before he saw her eyes, and he somehow knew it was a she who's making him feel smaller that what the giant bolder pinning his leg was

Gonty - the Internet's William McGonagall.

Summer break! Woo!

I'm back from the sunshine state all tan and gorgeous. No. All red and gorgeous. I spent a full three hours catching tiny fish in three inches of sea water with my bare hands and sticking those little clam-like creatures in the sand and watching them bury themselves. Good times. There was no snorkeling or cliff-diving, but that's okay. Finals ended the day before we left and I needed relaxation, not excitement.

"Someday somebody will make a giant monster movie that'll actually be really good."
What about King Kong?

I dunno, Bill...now the ads are all about blogging sites. Strange. I wonder how they "aim" the ads...

Negs, they told my brother he had IBS for a few years. He lost a pile of weight about a year and a half ago (230 - 150 LB) and his coloring went all screwy, and ended up with severe abdominal pain. He ended up having Crohn's and it had caused his small intestine to fuse to his colon ( a fistula IIRC) and have food bypass the large intestine. This apparently tore apart one day, and he had to get an operation to cut out a few feet of Crohn's afflicted tract, but a year later, he's healthy and the Crohn's is inactive. It does run in the family, a few first cousins of mine have it. I hope you don't have it, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

As a matter of fact, when I talked to my doc for the first time about IBS, which I at the time only suspected I had, he mentioned a few other possibilities, one of which was Crohn's. Research showed it to be the type of thing you described, but after visiting the NIH and other relevant sites and looking carefully at the symptoms, I concluded that that wasn't what I have. I'm not wasting away, I don't have the damning symptoms characteristic of Crohn's. I just have a digestive system that switches from park to drive to fifth gear at random.

Crohn's, for those interested, is an allergy to wheat/gluten. Eating even a little bit of the stuff will kill the villi in your intestine, which is what you absorb the nutrients in your food with, hence the wasting away. You have to modify your diet drastically to avoid setting it off. I'd have hated that.

Negs: I be doing mostly fine. Work is hell. Life is better.
Bill: Do you still visit Slashdot frequently? You should check their latest poll before it goes away: Favorite Castaway?

LaGrey:
(I'd call you "LavGrey," but that sounds like a color you'd paint the bathroom)
Do you mean LOTR's Alan Jackson's upcoming King Kong, or the original? I like the original, but there's a lot of dead space in the first 30 minutes.
I'm not sure what Jackson could do to improve the original story, except change it around until it's unrecognizable. If it's going to end with "Twas Beauty killed the Beast!" wtf's the point?

I'd like to see an original Giant Monster movie not tied to any moldy old Japanese franchise. Given the imagination that could be freed, it could work.

This is fragmentary, gleaned from twice semi-hearing on the station at work ("Springfield [Mass]'s Classic RAAWK!") while I was...well, working. A station promo, advertising something about their "Road Crew" and "badly animated superheroes." They deride the Wonder Twins and Gleek, but also refer to themselves as "better dubbed than Space Ghost." That's followed by C. Martin Croker yelling "WHAT?!" in his Zorak voice.

Copyright infringement, or wholly-owned subsidary of Time-Warner?

On-the-spot SHAWT--
Co-worker looking at word game on internet, which asks which of five categories a scrambled word falls into, becomes baffled and begs assistance. The categories are food, city, state, country, ocean.
"The word, unscrambled, is 'England'," say I, expecting this to finish the matter.
There is a pause, as he looks from me, to the categories on the screen, and back a couple of times.
"Oh, right, England! That's a state, right?"

Sometimes I feel very much like Marvin in Hitchhiker's Guide....

Edited by author 08-05-2004 02:40 AM
now the side ads are for that gluten allergy.. suddenly i'm a bit glad that what runs in family is vainilla heartache and diabetes. through the moment they diagnose me with it, im not changing my diet until after a few comas to set me straight.

they mentioned that internet addiction bit on the news here too. i'd probably worry a bit about having to catch up on all the stuff i read after being away (like here! though i didn't have to catch up on a lot... more reason to like it) but would probably be so excited at doing soldier stuff that i probably wouldn't mind. i mean, if i was ever drafted. weight would probably put any drafter off for now.

Edited by author 08-05-2004 11:02 AM
hey, an ad for Space Ghost on dvd, too... it must be doing a keyword scan of our text...
edit - okay, now they've turned into Irritable Bowel remedies. Quick, everyone talk about kittens again!...

I found a whole pile of cat pictures on my web server. They're pretty much all of the same two cats.

I must be nuts or obsessed about cats. Cats cats cats! Take that, Google!

Vanilla Heartache? is that like heartburn - that must suck, vanilla is in a lot of stuff.

Cats? Well, the two new kittens, both of whom are cats, have just been allowed into the rest of the house, where our other three cats (cat, cat, cat!) greet them with... nothing. The new kids take turns hissing and cat-erwauling at the strange cats they've never seen before, but they should sort things out soon. Ah, cats....

Say, those cats in the Finnish Army are at a disadvantage anyway-- given how much of Finland lies above the Arctic circle, and the resultantly long winters, they've got about the highest rate of suicide and chronic depression in the world. No wonder they cling to the glow of the internet.

SO, you think that was enough cats to shift the adbot? I'd say more about the cats, but I'm starting to rub the letters of the CAT buttons on the computer.

I guess it'd help if I posted the cat-related cat pictures of cats. They're polydactylicious! http://24.138.4.101/momspics/Cats/page_01.htm

I'm naming my band "Vanilla Heartache." We will sing about cats.

I have to admit that I have some trouble with the notion of a genetic precursor to being emotionally distraught over an infusion of bean goo ;-)

Have I mentioned that one of our new cats, the orange tabby, has tiny bags under his little cat eyes that make him look like a tiny fuzzy old man? Such a cute cat.

alright, so english is my second language and i confused heartache with heartburn. at least i gave Bill a name for a band! XP

KITTTIEEEES! YAY!

Edited by author 08-05-2004 09:50 PM
I'm not sure that the ad change is so good-- there's one over there now indicating Canadian Kittens for sale. We do a fine job of them here, but it's not like they're a prescription medication, and the implications regarding shipping make me very, very worried. Now I need to go home and cuddle some of the swarm....

Oh, yeah, I should apologize to zef-- years of study and all I can manage really is several versions of "I'm sorry, I don't speak your language." Your English is vastly superiour to my Spanish (No habla espanol) and I get the feeling you kick my big northern bum in Japanese as well (Sumimasen, supaingo ga dekimasen). >Grovel!< >Cringe!<

Thanks for the kitties, Marc! Are those double thumbs on Wooly?

This is my favorite pic so far:
http://24.138.4.101/momspics/Cats/quakerwooly1.JPG
Not as cute as my kids, of course.

I haven't seen the original King Kong, but I've heard good things about it.

thankies ernst, but really, i don't speak any japanese at all, i'm sure you know more, as you seem to at least know sentences, while i only know spare words and tidbits. i need to really learn it..

as for kittens for sale.. *imagines a kitten wrapped in bubblewrap* NOOOOO!!

Edited by author 08-06-2004 01:11 AM
Bill... Of course! that's what all proud parents say.

Wooly has the huge catcher's mitt paws - I think he has 7 pads per front foot. Quaker had thumbs that kind of came out and over the regular claw on the leg...I think it's the dewclaw? Polydactls are common here.

Oh, I forgot the drawer story...Dad had gotten a deal on them used, and he installed them as an entertainment unit in the basement and the cats went NUTS climbing in and out of the drawers. Instant pressboard cat heaven!

Zef-I wasn't sure if it was a regional thing or a cultural thing...and I'm with Ernst - I may know about 10 words in french and that's it for my bilingulalism.

What'd be so good about Canadian kittens anyhow?

Edited by author 08-06-2004 06:16 PM
WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT CANADIAN KITTENS?! Good heavens man, they're KITTENS! What, apart from imperilled knicknacks and occasional mystifying smell, could be bad about them?

Bill's revelation of the math of horror leaves one a little cold. I mean, it's all well and good to say we've got this formula, but surely the quantification of the elements of the equation is a little... subjective, shall we say?
"Bates motel-- 7.2 on 'isolation', but The Overlook is a solid 8."

(editing note-- for some reason, this posting went twice, so I got rid of one. Not more than a 1.1 on the 'sinister actions' ranking)

canadian kittens can also ride horses and make maple syrup for you on the mornings, if provided with enough maple leafs.

hellcats rule batboys all the way!

Canadian kittens... "meh" instead of "mew" and they like hockey? When they ask to go out, they say "ooot"?

Seeing some of these pics, I'm again amazed at the size. Oy. I have a tiny tiny studio apartment. And wire snap-together cube/shelves in my open closet... I can just imagine all my clothes in there coated in cat-hair. Yick.

Not to bring it up again, but I found my IBS-like symptoms stemmed from eating too darn fast. I stopped rushing (I was used to half hour lunches where 15 minutes were spent walking to get food!) and started chewing and even stopping eating to chat during the meal. All my problems stopped right away.

As long as I remember to take Lactaid. ;)

Noooooooooo! They've canceled Aqua Teen Hunger Force and are renewing Sealab! Why?! Why Why Why Why Why?!

M3 - I wish my problem was so easily solved! I eat slowly anyway. I've heard that people who eat slowly tend to be thinner, because their bodies have time to process the food and start sending out "Okay, that's enough" signals. I even eat with chopsticks when it's appropriate, and you know how those keep you from shoveling it in. :)

LavenderGray - No, they haven't canceled ATHF. They were just pulling legs, and that time they pulled very hard.

When they ask to go out, they say "ooot"?
Actually, they say "out", rather than the "aht" you southron vowel-flatteners expect to hear ;-)

Man, why'd that winged cat have to show up in such a very Christian place? *sigh* "Looks funny, must be the Devil at work!" Jerks. I bet if it appreared in Bhutan or India, it would have gotten a better reception. (Yes, it's a tabloid confabulation-- it still irks me)

Where did "aboout" come about? Nobody I know says it like that up here on the east coast.

M3, amazed at the size of the cats? I'm not a fan of cat hair...I think Wooly sleeps on my bed when I'm not home visiting, I wake up with cat-hairs in my mouth and eyes. Ick!

mmmm, maple syrup.

The only place I ever hear the "abooot" sound was on an SCTV epsiode, "Garth and Gord and Fiona and Alice." From this website:

"Garth and Gord (surgeon and lawyer) drive to Toronto from the Maritimes in search of lawyering and doctoring jobs. They pick up Fiona, a nuclear physicist, in Quebec, and run over a woodchuck being filmed for Hinterland Who's Who. They arrive in Toronto full of hope, but Garth's pal says things are slow and there are no jobs after all. They go to Yonge Street, where they meet Alice. Fiona finds a job setting up pins in a bowling alley. Gord gets Alice pregnant. They go to Yonge Street to think. Alice leaves Gord. They decide head out to Alberta."

Alice says "abooot." Maybe it's a Yonge Street accent?

Heh, that was a classic episode. That and Headline Challenge were hilarious. I'm sure that "aboot" was poking fun at something.

Also, for fun:

http://www.hww.ca/media.asp?mcid=1

An archive of the actual hinterland who's who episodes.

[Puts on Education Degree hat]
There is a difference in pronunciation between US- and Canadian-Standard English in the rounded "o"-- About, mouse, roof. I say this with the authority behind Robert MacNeil's History of English.
[Returns extremely silly hat to its peg]
I hear the difference more in "roof" than "about"-- I'll hear people on the news cabled in from Michigan talking about someone throwing himself off the "ruff". It's a little more subtle than the written versions would make you believe, but it is there... I assure you it is, Mr. Ellis.
(Bonus points on the midterm for identifying the reference!)

To the first person reading this who actually uses RealPlayer:
Go here:
http://www.real.com/musicstore/heineken/
Punch in this:
HKNAPUQ2FCP-JDXP
And, I guess, you'll get 2 free music downloads. Of what, I've no idea. Found it on a returned 12 pack at work.
Just remember: It's RealPlayer. Proceed at your own spywarey risk.

"I assure you it is, Mr. Ellis."

That Cleese-less crappy season of Python? The one with ants? And more ants?

The Mr Neutron ep was good, Mrs S-C-U-M.

And, of course, the poetry-reading. Bravo, Bill!

To me, the Canadian 'about' sounds more like 'a-boat' than the 'aboot' that Americans love to parody.

And now, another lovely little pram..-POEM!....

The "Mr Ellis" line was the giveaway.
That, and me being a pathetic Python geek.

So, what did you guys think of Venture Brothers?

I'm sorry my conversation is so dull. All my creative juices are going toward The Novel. Speaking of which, here is an excerpt:

 Every time somebody got arrested, people would say to each other, “What was he arrested for?” It gave them hope to think that the arrests were made for good reason. It meant that they wouldn’t be arrested, because they hadn't done anything wrong. They thought up ingenious reasons to justify it every time: “Well, she really was a terrorist, you know,” “He really did go too far,” “It was to be expected, he’s a terrible man,” “I always thought there was something funny about her.”
 Today Elena had screamed at them, “What the fuck are you talking about?! Don’t you get it by now? We’re being arrested for nothing!”

Reminicent of a Kill Kill pic:
http://www.boners.com/grub/791940.html

The motto of Bukoff drinkers:
http://www.boners.com/grub/791505.html

Yo, buddy, you wanna start playing Pathetic Python Geek Olympics, I got your Gervaise Brook-Hamster right here, pally...

I'm still goggle-eyed at the fact that apparently I was the only one to catch Bill's news flash of the nouveau-Nashville version of LotR helmed by "Alan Jackson"; so in this interpretation, do all the hobbits have mullets (Merry as Joe Dirt. Totally.Fearsome.!)? Does Aragorn sing a song to Arwen about "She Thinks My Sword Is Sexy"? Just wondering.

(Hey, at least Christopher FUCKIN Lee is Christopher FUCKIN Lee regardless of idiom or scenario. Last night on Telefutura they were showing his turn as "Dr. Catheter" in Gremlins 2 and my heart went out to the poor guy. Yeah, I'm sure he's always managed to pay the bills, but it's a shame a guy with so much cred had to participate in so many stinkers.)

Speaking indirectly of The Castle of Fu Manchu, I'm getting ready to send young Zefster his first care package du Lilly, and I was wondering if any MSTers out there had opinions re: what I should include; see, right now I've decided on MST3K:TM and Shorts Vol. 2, just because they're official dvd/videos so I can easily replace them if they get lost/confiscated in transit (Swamp Border Patrol: do not bring your evil humor here!)

Still, I had a very bad experience loaning Manos to someone who I thought would love it and ended up totally hating it, so I'm prone to tread lightly in this regard (and no, Zef, you'll have to come to my house to see my own dub of Human Duplicators, which has that immortal sandwich line).

Oh, and Canadian kitties are cooler just by virtue of being Canadian. As an honorary Canadian since 1996, I won't brook no back-talk or back bacon on the subject!

Edited by author 08-08-2004 07:54 PM
I used to snicker my way through Degrassi (next generation, not the 80s one). Soo-ree is "sorry" I eventually picked up. I was truly confused at what she was trying to say. And I'm from Pittsburgh, where they abuse language like nobodies business. "Warsh" comes from us. But mostly the "ruff" is further north, Mass. and the New England states.

I think "aboot" was on Degrassi too. I haven't seen it in almost a year, where I used to watch it every night, so I've forgotten a bit.

Also re: cat hair, LA is really really dirty. Since my windows are always open (no AC) I have to clean every surface regularly or it gets a black film. I just cleaned my TV screen last night... it was horrifying. Since I don't want it on my clothes, I may be putting up some drapes or a shower rod or something in the closet (used to house a fold-away bed in the 1920s) to keep some of the dirt from infecting my clothes. Which I realize won't keep a cat out, since they are like giant furry roaches and can get into anything. But... I don't have a cat, yet. Maybe by then I'll have a real closet with a real shutting door!

If I get a job. Everyone cross fingers I get the one that is made for me... Administrative Assistant in a Hollywood memorabilia auction house/dealer! It's listed at $40K, but I need about $45K to live out here, so here's hoping they love my qualifications and hire me for that much ;) It's made for me... I've run fansites, I've run an office, and I freaking up and moved to LA. I know what these items are worth, especially to those who value them for sentimental reasons and not just collector value. I'd get to help prepare merchandise and props for auctions!

This last year of rejections and frustration and mounting debt has just been insurance I don't take any old job that I'd hate. I had to be ready when this job became available. It's mine. It was made for me. It knows it's mine, I just have to go get it. BWAH!

Edited by author 08-08-2004 08:51 PM
Bill! i double checked, and it seems you buy IAMS.. now, i have nothing about that (though kiwi used to get only whiskas) but seems PETA does..

http://www.petakids.com/iams.html
http://www.peta.org/kids/grrr1-2004/experiment_iams.html (i had to highlight all the page to read)

sorry it's from peta kids. i think PETA can go a little too strong on the offensive, so i'm not a big fan of theirs, and i dig my meats too, so i don't check their site or anything. i got the link from something awful, but it seems they have a point here...

I'll believe the PETA story when there's independent verification. "Some PETA Guy Says" isn't proof of anything, no more than "I saw Elvis kissing Bigfoot on a UFO" proves anything.

I used to say "Good for them!" when PETA threw red paint onto people wearing furs. Then it hit me--Who wears fur? People rich enough to buy it. Are they so poor that they wouldn't just go out and buy ANOTHER fur? How many additional animals have been slaughtered and fur coats sold because of PETA?

My vegetarian friends despise PETA. PETA has their heart in the right place, but their heads up their asses. Anytime you bring up animal rights, some rightwinger starts sneering about PETA. Like ELF, they do more damage to the cause than they do good. I sometimes wonder if PETA and ELF are funded by the meat and logging industries, just to make animal or environmental causes look like they're only for nutcases.

then probably whiskas paid PETA to smear IAMS. ;)

those are good points, as i said, they're too forward and they scare off people.. like me.

Yes! Someone mentioned Degrassi! My roommate recently bought the entire old series off of half.com. It's goofy, it's Canadian, and it's from the eighties! Not to mention that something horrible happens to those kids on a regular basis. You can't get any better than that.

I dunno if someone's mentioned this yet (too lazy to look), but there's a dvd set for the first couple of seasons of SCTV. If anybody out there's got it, maybe they can tell us if they have the funny episodes or the weird incomprehensible ones?

Re: The Hit Counter Mystery

If someone is browsing with Netscape (and I'm not sure if this is still the case or if it's only with an older version), the site they visited just prior to yours will show up as a "referrer", even if they're just going through their bookmarks or whatever. So that could explain why that article you sent to Kevin showed up as one.

You can get the movie "Voyage Into Space" with a few extra Johnny Sokko eps on one DVD for just $5 + $4.95 S&H here. Same seller.

Thanks, Negs!

The eps included are not ones that were hacked into the movie, except for parts of "The Last of Guillotine." This is when the evil eggplant-headed emperor threatens to destroy the Earth with his exploding fingernails.

On the other hand, if you don't get the complete series you won't get to see Giant Robot fight The Monstrous Flying Jawbone.

The modern Degrassi has nothing on the classic series. The original Degressi kids were dorks like the rest of us - no airbrushed 90210 perfection in sight! Spike, Caitlin, Snake, Joey, Kathleen, the Zit Remedy, how I miss you so.

We use Hill Science Diet here in the lofty spires of Schloss Bitterman. I suspect it was from something I read via David Suzuki's site (environmentalist well enough wrapped together to get a regular airing on the GOVERNMENT REGULATED NETWORK up here) that lead to choosing it-- a combination of not so much animal testing and rather less FUD-causing crap in to. As a side benefit, the tooth-cleaning variant is roughly the size and shape of Corn Pops, which leads to enjoyable food chasing... and losing, which then becomes a race between the humans and the household insect load to find the concealed nuggets. erg.

Python geekery olympics is far too easy. I suggest a 400m freestyle Goon Show event, and will see about finding an authentic Neddy Seagoon speaking trumpet to offer the winner.

I was going to avoid mentioning the family connexion with Degrassi, until it occurred to me its so nebulous that it does nothing more than make me look like a pathetic attention-seeker to bring it up-- my cousin was the producer of the old series. So at least someone in the family has done something interesting. [retreats to cardboard box labelled "Super Atomic Submarine" to sink some Commie shipping before resuming work on the verdammt manuscript]

i used to grab paper boards and draw all sorts of controllers and gauges on them, as big cardboard boxes were too hot to be inside them on the tropic i grew up in.

and on the topic of kitty feeding..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/Zefiel/Photos/EBIL.jpg

BULLSHIT! just did a thing on PETA. It was pretty interesting. It's a shame so many people focus on animal rights when I've got six or seven different homeless people digging through the garbage outside my window. Or you know, abused kids, teen runaways, drug addicts, child pornography... I mean, it's not like humans are really in a position to ignore their own species to keep the rest of the country from eating cow. You know? Stupid.

Degrassi old school was too gloomy for me when I was a kid. And this new generation, I don't really find them attractive. Of course, I'm a lot older than them, so... But every week is some heartbreaking tragedy that they seem to get over really quick.

It's August, but it's only in the 60s! This is the first summer that I've ever seen in CT where we haven't hit 90 yet. Remember: Global Warming won't make the weather hotter, it'll make it go insane first.
Ditto up here-- yesterday was 15C (about 60F) and 94% humidity. The last time I checked, the nearest large body of water was about 3 hours away by commercial air liner, so I'm a bit mystified as to where the wet is coming from. I mean, the bloody carpet is DAMP. Has anybody checked up on the Trans-Atlantic Current lately? Is it still doing its thing, or have we SUV'd ourselved into a new ice age?

Edited by author 08-10-2004 12:04 PM
Actually, since I'm just sitting around waiting for the shops to open, I'll check myself-- apparently no fresh reports since NASA's carefully couched, Bush-friendly "Oh, crap" in April (http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0415gyre.html), although on their home page today is a little encouraging story(http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0715glacierquakes.html). Apparently, if you melt the glaciers off Alaska, the joint will be wiggling around too much to drill for oil. A mighty conundrum for MobilExxon, to be sure!

Dude... that's freaky, dreaming about the D-man. I mean... I check his site every day or so, too, but he has yet to invade my subconscious, thank Gourd.
I prescribe the application of a purring kit to your head before bedtime. Sure, you may not be able to breath if the B-boy rolls over, but hey, you'll be spared Gonty-mares..;)

My next cat will be named Baba Ganoush. Perhaps I will start a food theme.

Bill, you FOOL! Don't you realize that microwave-activated Turkey Bacon is an offence to the laws of the All-Mighty?! What madness hath thout wrought?

Well... it's a pretty good bet the Holy Babble has SOME kind of problem with it. Probably in Leviticus. If poly-cotton is an abomination, turkey bacon's GOTTA be in there.

re: your stock, you'd better check to see what the new company is trading at right now. If they're trading at higher than what you'd get cashing in, then go for the trade, and then if you don't want to futz around with it, cash out... you'll still get more money. the only way you can lose money in this case is if the new company is trading low... but then again, it's not like it's money you've really got, it's just the PROMISE of money.

I just watched The Color Purple again. *Weep* This is the greatest movie ever.

Turkey bacon is like god in a meatstuff. A slab of goodness, I tell you! I must try this SAMMITCH you speak of.

Edited by author 08-12-2004 01:42 AM
(Thank you for the advice, M3!)

Here is recipe for SAMMITCH:
Fry 2 slices of turkey bacon cut in half in pan for 5 minutes, turning half through. 99% no-fat and low in sodium, TURKEY BACON is FRIEND!
At turning point, put English muffins in toaster. Have cheese slices ready.
Carefully remove muffins (no, COAT MUFFINS IN GASOLINE AND PUT THROUGH TOASTER AGAIN WITH A GERBIL that's an ARSONIST, you ASS!)
(Previous was what you are NOT to do, and to protect me from lawsuits if you ARE that retarded)
Layer cheese on SAMMITCH. There will be extra cheese; put this aside.
Place turkey bacon on cheese on muffin halves. Put remaining cheese bits on top of the bacon (it will discourage sammitch slippage).
Run 15-20 seconds in microwave to further melt cheese. Fold halves of SAMMITCH over each other.
Make "MMMM...!" noises as warranted.
Eat another one and pass out from JOY.

(no, COAT MUFFINS IN GASOLINE AND PUT THROUGH TOASTER AGAIN WITH A GERBIL that's an ARSONIST, you ASS!)
(Previous was what you are NOT to do, and to protect me from lawsuits if you ARE that retarded)


what about hamster kebobs? they're furrilicious!

Edited by author 08-12-2004 01:30 AM
Yes, but there's so little meat! Unless you catch them inside Richard Gere.
*ba-doom-ba*!
Crimeny. It's a new century, and I'm still making the Gere jokes. I suck!

..now we'll have to be on the lookout for 'EVIL TERRIST CATS' *sigh*

In connexion with the LEFT-WINGER LIBERAL MEDIA (grrr!) items you linked to, I noticed on one of our more rightist network's news last night that it's about to become harder for Canadians to come down and visit (and thus spread seditious thought... or, um, thinking, which is inherently seditious, in the Bush weltanshauung). The most forcefully stated reason is an enhancement of the War For Terror, but it is apparently an open secret that the mere consideration of decriminalizing marijauna is a powerful motivator. 'Cause, of course, if your country allows legal intoxicants, you're almost certainly a villain and not allowed easily into the US to buy cheap Bukoff....

*Oh, Canada! plays softly in the background.*

I've decided this book will be called A Deeper Breath, and the moral of the story will be that democracy leads to happiness while dicatorship leads to suffering.

Edited by author 08-12-2004 09:40 PM
Would I be an utter prat to suggest a subtheme? Democracy leads to dictatorship if not closely monitored.

It's a bit of a Simpsons conceit, but have a look-- Athens, Rome, Weimar Germany, China (sorta), and now... well, seriously, I think you're a lot better off with a nice Constitutional Monarchy. Gets the autocrat out in the open, where you can keep an eye on him/her. I understand the Netherlands doesn't have a lot of extra-territorial holdings at the moment, and the Queen's a real peach.

[edit: Damn, forgot one-- France. THREE TIMES! Napoleon, Napoleon III, Charles de Gaulle. QED, democracie c'est despotisme!]
[even later edit: On reflection, with the exception of Athens, those are all republics, aren't they? Guess we could drop in the USSR, too]

Edited by author 08-12-2004 11:23 PM
Ernst: Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen.

Here's another excerpt:

There was a federal ban issued that denied the approval of film licenses to “anyone who has ever affiliated themselves sympathetically with radical activity.” Artists abandoned realism, de-politicized their work, and adopted an “art for art’s sake” ideology. Huge nonsensical canvases flooded the galleries, described in complicated-sounding and obviously meaningless terms. The study of literature was stripped of all political and historical context. Professors who took sides on social issues were accused of neglecting their scholarly obligations to be objective.
(Elena to Amy after being fired from her position at the university) Well, I’m on the list of honor now. You were right. I should have taken the bribe. Now I won’t get another chance.

Bill: Birds smell, alright. Hang around the parrots section of a major pet store for a while, you'll catch the smell. Cats without fear seem the new plague, too-- Young Hercule is the orange tabby Matt Murdock (without the blind thing), dropping absently from any height, sniffing fans, and such like.

Anyone else having trouble resolving www.thoughtviper.com
I have tried from both home and work and both result in a DNS lookup error. Bill, did you forget to renew your domain registration ?

Bill's server goes down sometimes...

I never changed my contact email when that service went under. So my reg lapsed on Saturday. I just paid it off, so at some point today it should come back up.

Okay, it's looking less likely that it'll be back up "today" as opposed to "at some point soon."

I was getting a little worried. good to hear all is pretty much OK, or will be soon.

Also, new Cat-Town

http://www.spatch.net/cattown/

YAAY! page up! woo! we can return to our daily obsession.

AND WITH BONUS KITTIES!

SPLUT back!! WHOO!

KITS! Double-whoo! :)
If anyone wants to see what I did this weekend, here's the link:
http://www.asifcomic.com/wizard/ww_01.html

Bill, I figgered you were already getting deluged with email screaming, "Where the hell is your page?" so I decided to give it a miss.

Glad you're back, anyway, and predictably,I LOVED the pix. (My friend Karen here in class has a pure-black polydactyl named Peekaboo, and she liked Byron's pix especially.)

Huzzah! A redundant meesage of rejoicing!

...and in a hearkening back to a long-ago topic; looking over the top of my cubicle I see a weather map. It's hotter in *Alaska* than it is here is Flatsylvania or in Spluttown. Man, that's messed up.

Yay! My knight in a shining ponytail is back!

Byron has the gorgeousest eyes ever! They're like a clear lake with bright green moss at the bottom.

Today was a HAWT Georgia summer day. I tried to beat the heat by lying under the sprinklers in a red hot bikini (my little gift to the neighborhood.) Since then, I've been sucking down ice with some lemonade in it. I held up an ice cube for Reese and she licked it into nonexistence.

I've also been reading through Kitty's livejournal. How's she doing these days?

Once again, the 4-panel format defeats the narrative impulse in Ferd'nand. Obviously, F is making his way to bed in what he believes to be his safe bedroom, but the moment the lights go out, the Damascus Symphony Orchestra leaps from hiding and pummels him within an inch of his poorly-rendered life! Updates on the action in his on-line journal, explaining where they all hid and how the fled before the lights came back on!

Edited by author 08-18-2004 01:35 AM
"Byron has the gorgeousest eyes ever!"

And if you look closely, with his right paw he's giving us all the finger.
http://www.thoughtviper.com/images/new/byron81404.jpg

Think you're a Harry Potter fan who's seen everything? (down to the slash fics) then you owe it to yourself to glimpse how HP bootleg DVDs look!

http://www.deadjournal.com/users/zefiel/

it's so dang good to have Bill back. was Byron distressed like that when he got fixed?

Edited by author 08-18-2004 05:29 AM
Good to have you back, Bill! That is a really nice picture of Byron. I guess I am a sucker for cat pictures. I wonder why he went all snarky like that - maybe being deaf and all it just really razzed him. Wooly growls and hisses regularily. He does it when I pick him up and he doesn't want to be there - some cats squirm and fight, he just stays contentedly and growls and hisses.

I'd have to think that's October third...but maybe a call to the company would straighten it out...you'd hate for Short Cuts to be the son of Chicken Voila...

Mimi, I enjoyed the pages about your trip...it must have been strange indeed going into the Outback steakhouse and seeing everything just kind of "mis-interpreted" like that. Hopefully Canada is safe - how can one make Poutine any more bizarre than it is?

The weather's just been crazy here too Ernst. I think they're expecting more hurricanes here this year. Anyone affected by Charley?

I found this in my travels during the past few nights of work... http://www.portigal.com/Museum.htm Grocery items of foreign lands!

Bill says :
>The site came back up at noon. Why noon, I don't know. I >paid with my Visa, and when I buy groceries with the card >it's not like they make me wait 24 hours to give me my >food.

To add something boring and technical in way of an explanation for the delay, the reason it took 24 hours was due to the way DNS propagates. When your domain registration expired the link between www.thoughtviper.com and your servers ip address, 63.119.175.60, was deleted from your DNS providers server, ns1.readyhosting.com. This deletion then propagated to the rest of the DNS servers on the net. When it was added back it had to propagate across the net once again, this propagation can take upto 24 hours, tada.

We now return you to our scheduled programming.

...due to the way DNS propagates.

Hey! If I wanted smut like that, I'd be watching the Nature Channel! ;-)

Zef:
Thanks for reminding me of my lowest moment.

Bill:
I knew I loved that boy for a reason.

"you'd hate for Short Cuts to be the son of Chicken Voila..."

Marc, I was going to make a Chicken VOILA! joke, but I thought "Hell, no one's going to remember that!"
I'll send you a bumper sticker that says, "My Child Was The Long-Time Drivel-Reader of the Month at thoughtviper.com!"

Crimeny. "Short Cuts" I only just got that "joke" in the product name. Is the Ferd'nand guy writing Perdue slogans now?

Edited by author 08-18-2004 11:51 PM
"Bill:
I knew I loved that boy for a reason."

LaGrey, I assume that you're talking about the only boy I love, Byron. But whatchu talkin' about?

(Yosemite Sam: Notice that I didn't say "Willis?")

ALF: Ha ha, I crack me up! While some of you got that joke, I'll bet that I'm the only one here who actually owns the song that "Death Cab for Cutie" took for their name. And possibly one of the few who's never heard a DCFC song.
I don't work in CD/video stores anymore, and so I'll listen to the music I WANT to, dammit!

EDIT: Okay, I think me got it. Finger!!!

I'll bet that I'm the only one here who actually owns the song that "Death Cab for Cutie" took for their name. And possibly one of the few who's never heard a DCFC song.

Mmmmm. Bonzo Dog Band. Delicious hot, disgusting cold....
I too am somewhat older and unhip, as I was startled at the thought that there WAS a band with the name of that song.

"And looking very relaxed, Adolf Hitler on vibes."
ba-ding-ding-ding-ding!
"NICE!"

Bonzo Dog Band is also where this Comments page got its name! Well--sorta. A former member's solo outing, "Blind Date." He's told to recognize her by her "long and flowing hair," and it's not until long after that "fur-tongued horror of a kiss" that his date is netted by the zoo. She's an escaped chimp.
"Rotten luck," says our hero.

Edited by author 08-19-2004 04:16 PM
Bill, you have the ineffable ability to write about animals and make me cry (in public, no less, though I'm typing this surreptitiously in class and not at the library, hence there's a smaller audience to witness my tears--hell, they all think I'm still looking at pictures of Pieter van den Hoogenband, anyway! Gord only knows what conclusions they will *now* draw!). Good on ya, and mucho gladness at things being back to normal con tu y your brood.

Anyway, I just read the sad saga of Byron at the vet; I know that they say getting fixed is harder for girls than boys, since it's internal surgery, but my poor Tboy took his emasculation far worse than any of the girls did with their ops (and I'm including La Beez, who had to get fixed *twice* owing to some errant ovarian tissue)...what I brought home from the vet was not so much my gleeful rambunctious boy but a 2-lb. shivery damp lump (he peed on himself during the op so they'd had to wash him).

(Okay, and although I don't have any BDDB albums, I can sing any number of Neil Innes songs from the MP and Rutle oeuvre... ::now humming 'When Does A Dream Begin' from MP:: Can I get any special privileges in the Cool Boys Clubhouse?) BTW, especially since I'm now forced to deal with a group of gals who think nothing of male-bashing on a regular basis, my sincere apologies go out to all Y chromosomes for said indignities. :P

...since I'm now forced to deal with a group of gals who think nothing of male-bashing on a regular basis, my sincere apologies go out to all Y chromosomes for said indignities. :P

[pauses to wipe tear] Bless you. As one of three males at the call centre, I overhear a lot of "girl talk". Apparently they think I'm kidding when I suggest that I could have them all in front of the Human Rights Commission on a harrassment beef. Gotta get me a tape recorder....

Bill:
Yes, the finger. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd sneak into a picture just for the lark of it.

Edited by author 08-19-2004 11:11 PM
Gonter-note: I am still trying to tackle the MSTING of his RP fic on Disney Echo. The first two pages are here:
http://home.mindspring.com/~mimisgrotto/misc/davey_marcie01.html

(page 2 is linked on page 1)

ps - Davey's lines are in italics. The 2 other people who do the fic are unitalicised

back at the newer toy store, the cool, rich, down to business manager (if i wanted to skip a day, i just had to call him and see if it was ok) had a bad tendency to talk to girls who were quite younger than him, subordinates to him, and who he was not married to. talk to them a lot. it is said that he once asked one for a kiss, i don't know. it was on my day off. anyway, supervisor comes one day, and gets enough rumors he decides to interview all the female staff. a week later, that manager has to go for undisclosed reasons.

so we get the inexperienced, young, wanted-to-be-always-submanager climbed up to manager, and he just works us all to hell. ironically, all the girls liked him and kept harassing him (down to the point of grabbing him and such) did something happen? nah. mexico's not the chauvinist place it was... in the '20s.

Stupid thunderstorms!
The power just came back on. No time to post, only READ before bedtime!

haha, i feel less bad about living in a country where RAIN makes the power go out.

Also, watched 'Bowling for Columbine' today. anyone has a thought on it?

Bill, you might be interested in the sound effects in this Achewood strip...

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=08202004

Bill 'n' the Gang,

As a former Connecticutite(?), the phrase "ding-dong car" (AKA ding-dong cart) stopped me dead in my tracks. For anyone scratching their heads at this colloquialism, outside of Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and apparently Long Island, NY, it's the known as the "ice cream man".

Not having heard that term in 20 years has given me a new perspective. The new perspective is that it's an unbelievably dumb thing to call it.

It makes me wonder what other dumb things I've said over the years, as I sit here in Boston making fun of people who say "tonic" for soda, and "bubblah" for water fountain.

Woo! new person!

Edited by author 08-21-2004 12:35 AM
Hey--umm, "Ding Dong," if that's what you wish to be called!
What part of the Nutmeg State were you from? Just curious.

Out in this here neck o'the woods, the chocolate-coated chocolate cakes that we call "Ding Dongs" you non-Connecticutioners call "King Dons" or "Ho-Hos"!
You hideous freaks.

I'll go with DingTom, I think, since it incorporates my real name. I won't make a pun about how it's got a ring to it.

I hail from Enfield originally and now make my home in the Bay State. You may recall our correspondence from a long while back regarding that museum of dreck, Railroad Salvage, and it's curator, Ruby Vine.

I've enjoyed reading your website ever since and I guess it took a ding dong cart reference to jarr me out of lurk mode. Hello.

Splinters in the brain? No, more like...SPLINTERS IN THE MIND'S EYE....

Anyway. Actually, I can't get to quicktopic from work, and I often check during lunch at work, so I skip out on the comments.

Though your recent blackout experience reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons quotes...

"I can't read porno by candlelight!! Who am I, Abe Lincoln?!"
--Krusty the Clown

Ah, yes, Tom. I remember.

Speaking of Boston and ding-dong cars...

Edited by author 08-22-2004 09:47 PM
Ai, I'm late on a lot of things...

The "We've Turned the Corner" link did take me to CafePress, so if you've got that link to the cheaper place handy, let me know. I wanted to add something to my site in late fall (trying to give a custom artist time to wrap up other projects) and would love some place other than CafePress.

Maybe if Byron got to meet the birds in question, they'd lose their mystery and he'd stop yelling? I don't know, my dog only wanted to play with and lick everything, not eat them. And again in awe of the size of the cats. No, never getting used to that. Maybe I'll get a dwarf cat or something. If ever.

Oooh, and what about catnip? Can't you like, zap the cats before you go to the vet, or would that interfere with whatever they do there? Get them all high, then put them in the cage. Heh.

I'm working through the As If! pages, I wonder if they'd ever come all the way out to LA? I'd go see that. Them. Her. Whatever. Outback's bread plate looks suspiciously like Lone Star's bread plate. I've never been to Outback as they season EVERYTHING. I guess I'm not missing much.

I'm sorry, but as a straight female, I constantly question why a group of large, hairy, Jewish men would wear spandex and face paint and think that's SCARY. Especially when one is a CAT and one has a STAR and wears RED LIPSTICK! Honestly, KISS is the gayest band ever. And I mean literally. Satan would scoff if those were his knights. KISS SUCKS!

Huh. A white/gray cat just wandered across the street to the trash. I snapped at it and it looked up. I waved, as it was not Hideous Evil Cat that gets inside our gates. It stared up at me like WTF and went back to sniffing things. Yeah, that was pretty stupid.

I have DVK myst to catch up on...

edit - Marc, awesome link, I love foreign oddities. I wonder why all the snack food in Japan end in 'Y'?

edit #2 - Zef, I live on Normandie in LA! I keep getting asked if I live in the ghetto. I'm going to get a cartoon sign that I can whip out that says "Normandie is a long ass street!" I mention this because as I was flipping through cable I saw a bit of Bowling but only when Moore was in LA. Talking about smog and getting jumped in da hood.

edit #3 - last one. Ding Dongs and HoHos are two different things. Ding Dongs are flat cakes, HoHos are rolled swiss cakes. And Little Debbie's HoHos are so sweet they make my teeth hurt. Hostess makes the only tru "HoHo", Debbie's calls her poison "swiss cake rolls". And I'd sell my soul for a Hostess fruit pie out here. Or a TastyKake. *sigh*

edit I lied - I would SO buy that placard from the AsIf booth, with the vellum and all that! It looks so amazingly awesome. And I cry, there's real live comic books of AsIf?! Damn my unemployed, debt-ridden self!!!

Ahhh, nostalgia. Y'know what, I used to watch Saturday Supercade, lame though it was. I watched it for the Q*bert bits. And I wondered why thry gave Coily and his moll arms. I mean, they're snakes, fer cryin' out loud! Why not have them hold things with their tails? Silly me, being logical in the face of animation budgets.

Yes, I also watched the Pac-Man cartoons. They kinda lost me in the second season, though, when they added Super Pac-Man and whatshisface, the "cool teen" character. Those two diluted the purity of the Pac.

Last time we visited Scott's folks, I salvaged a bunch of old Muppet Magazines from the mid-80's.... only *marginally* more educational than HotDog!, but it DID have Soleil Moon Frye doing a fashion shoot with Miss Piggy :)
I shall believe the 80's are truly back when teens start tucking in their shirts again ;)

My sole experience with the Pac-Man toon was when I unintentionally taped their Xmas special on CN. Ho-lee Ca-hrist, was that awful.

Note that they gave Pac-Man arms and legs, too. If I recall correctly, also a bow tie. Because if you walk around stark nekkid, you want a bow tie.

The was also Mrs (not Ms) Pac-Man and Baby Pac, which pretty much forced you to think about Pac-sex and where their genitalia was.

Yea, the Xmess special was pretty dreadful. However, it can't even come close to the He-Man/She-ra Xmas special for sheer mindmumbing what-the-Hellness. Orko and Jesus don't mix.

Giving the Pac characters arms and legs wasn't so bad. Now the pac-dog and cat, THAT was bad. As for how they breed, I like to think that that's where the ghost monsters come in. ;)

The man who did the voice for Pac-Man went on to voice Lucifer (as in, The Devil) in the Darkwing Duck cartoons. Draw your own conclusions about that!

Interestingly, I once checked out a book of paintings by Dr. Seuss, and a lot of them were, well, not pornographic per se, but definitely erotic. Bare breasts and such.

I grew up during the 80s, but I'm glad to say I don't remember much of the junkola from that mag. My most vivid memories of the 80s were my He-Man coloring books, where the only pictures I would color would be the ones where the villains had He-Man tied up and at their mercy.

Even when I was 5, I had a dirty mind.

Negs:

Saw at the SalvArmy today an unopened pack of He-Man napkins, and thought of you. If they were Orko, I would've bought them.

I also saw a She-Ra book and thought of Kitsplut, if she still reads this...

Yay! now i'll be able to locate Gonter's rendition of Stan lee (i remember the moustache he draws, but i want to be X-act)and perhaps finish Bill's "story"!!!

I was a nerd...I really liked Saturday Supercade. Some of us would worship anything video game related...hell, I one halloween I dress up as Donkey Kong jr...

Aw, Bill, you is too nice for me. :)

I was laughing out loud (well, OK, giggling stoopidly) at your description of the Foxfire comic. I laugh at your pain and suffering because it is FUNNY!

Ziefel: Just look up Gontie's version of Roy Disney, he's identical to 'Stan Lee' ;)
I have to wonder if davey has ever seriously looked at Roy - he doesn't have the cookie-duster mustache that Davey draws, for one thing...

Seriously, Canada--"Moose Jaw," WTF? Good thing you didn't first come up on that town from the other end!

Buddy, when the weather sucks this much, you take your amusement where you can get it. Moose Jaw is very close to the provincial capital, which started out as "Pile of Bones", but in deference to Queen Victoria changed it's name to the Latin word for 'queen', but which pronounces it to rhyme with the Latin word for something Queen Victoria's subjects weren't supposed to talk about. For REALLY funny names, though, the Ex-Dominion of Newfoundland wins hands down.

Oh, on the subject of weather sucking-- today is lovely, if I'm in England in mid-December.

At least a thunderstorm is interesting, even if the power goes out. More envy directed at Bill!

Mlle. K is still present, but she is the kind of depressed that no one really wants to hear about.

She has also had the Darkwing Duck theme stuck in her head intermittently for about a month now despite not having seen the show since perhaps the mid-nineties. I sense who is to blame but am at a loss as to how such was accomplished.

Kit:
Sorry to hear. I myself became magically not-depressed when I started work on The Novel Version 1.0. That might not help you, but it's what worked for me.

Ernst:
It's a sad testament to my life that I actually looked up that word.

Hey Splutmeister...
You might be interested in a book I just finished, I special ordered it at Barnes and Noble but it was like $4 or $5..."They Have A Word For It" is all about words and phrases other languages have that take us much longer to explain the nuance. A little annoying how the guy says he's a descriptivist in the intro (the intro is also notable for the lengths it goes to explain BBSes to a pre-Internet audience) but every entry suggests using the word in real life, sometimes it would be very corny and awkward to do so...

Edited by author 08-25-2004 01:21 AM
Kits:
We love you, our Queen Splut.
I would've bought you the book, but there's as much He-Man as She-Ra.
Yig.
**smooches**
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Want a Coke?
GUH.

Zef:
What, you hadn't seen the Stan Lee Moustache before you drew it? Because you got it damn right! I was sure you'd seen "FoxFire" when I linked to the official site years back.
Easy tip: Gonter-staches are horizontally-aligned handlebar nose hairs.

Ernst:
I had an employee named "Regina," because her immigrant parents from the West Indies thought it was a cool-sounding name. After visiting a vacuum cleaner store once. And, yes, they insisted on pronouncing it "that" way.

Kirk:
I was actually excited to see "Supercade" in the magazine! Until I realized that it wasn't the show that had Rubik's Cube as the star. No reason why it should've, of course. That would've been a few years earlier, and Rubik's not at all arcade-based. It just kinda made me disappointed.
Because the Rubik's Cube cartoon SO sucked.

Ernst:
We've actually had a mild summer down here--quite pleasant! But it makes me wonder what's next--a mild winter, or Arctic cold?
I know you get it worse than here, but CT can see months of 20-below windchills, too. We called it "Late Dec-Late Feb 2003" here.

Bill: Fascinating linguistics article, but it seems a bit of wheel re-inventing: ability to express tightly bound up with ability to percieve? GOLLLLL-EE! The precise evidence is great, tho'. "I'd like something like one bottle of coke and a middling quantity of gumballs, please."

Kit: (Simultaneously presuming too much by virtual proximity AND re-inventing a wheel myself) The kind of depression no one wants to hear about is precisely the kind that should be heard about. Experience talking. And yes, it's easy to say. I'll shut up now.

I..i did draw gonter's rendition of stan lee? i don't remember that. i scripted it so he'll appear on the 3rd strip, which is in the works now.. so.. huh?

i had read foxfire years before, but gontertolerance was much lower and i don't think i got very far. i did see stan lee that time. I was for a second worried that you implied i can naturally draw like gonterman or something.. (not that it's proved i'm any better than him)

Regina's a common, normal name here...

Intrestingly enough, the villains in The Novel are called the Society of Freedom. Right now I'm working on the part where they slaughter thousands of people in something called the November Peace Campaign.

I'm not sure why this makes me less depressed.

Lav, i was thinkin' about that time i mentioned the slash HP (sorry if i made you feel bad, did not mean to) and what you just said, and there's a calvin and hobbes strip where calvin says he's going to write his life in 'biographical fiction' and hobbes asks him why would he want to make up his own life. Calvin simply replies that'd be because on his book he'd have a flamethrower.

Zef:
"I..i did draw gonter's rendition of stan lee?"

No, but you got it with Jesus's stache.

Haha, it took me a day and a half, but that was what i thought you meant. scary though, meaning that i've either got his style down pat, or that i'm as incompetent as him ;_;

New toy found online! Check out http://www.retro-gram.com for old-style messaging fun!

Zef:
Just kidding about making me feel bad. The whole slash thing always been a guilty pleasure for me. For example, just a few days ago I watched The Road to El Dorado because a friend of mine told me it was homoerotic.

On the other hand, I'm still better off than another friend who said he was going to see Without a Paddle because he liked man-cuddling. I like man-cuddling too, but I've still got higher standards than that.

Must...stop...using...symbolism.
As much as I like Utena, I do not want to write a book like it.

"Sometimes the glitter wears off, and you're nowhere."

I thought that I stole that from a 70s song lyric, but Google disagrees. Damn, it sounds familiar. Can anyone identify it, or did my brain just make something up again?

Sorry, I don't keep up w/ this board like I should--

Bill, re: Rubik the Amazing Cube ( http://imdb.com/title/tt0085082/ ) ... that was pretty awful. I remember that stupid voice at the end of the intro going "my - name - is - Rubik". It's a different voice actor but exact same voice that showed up a bunch of places in the 80s and 90s...punky brewsters's sidekick (what was it, Glomer, Gameboy in "Captain N", (same actor for those, actually...Frank Welker gets around), various secondary characters in cereal commercials, etc.

Can't help with the "glitter" quote (although it DO seem familiar-- film noir, perhaps?), but you are DA KEWLIST likker dude ever!! I base this estimation on the lack of reports, on your site or elsewhere, of serial decapitations in your area. You've seriously got sufficient provocation to do some loppin'.

I'll ask my esoteric friends to do long range healing wierdness for Byron. Can't hurt, right? Gesundheit and unlimited genki to the Toemaster.

Oh, wait, I just got that lyric. "On Broadway": "The glitter rubs right off, and you're nowhere." Now I can go to sleep at night.

Time for some Gonterman!

"I said it before, and I say it again, and this is an example of the Gonterego™ I'm infamous for: People who rail on folks for doing stuff online that they themselves obviously can't--or won't--are practically a dime a dozen and are as lame as what they consider the poor stiffs their trolling to be. Do they make any web comics or posted anything like what I did online? No they've havent, and the reason why is that they don't have the guts to do so."

I'm pretty sure that I *could* spew out some fanfic that's incompetently drawn, self-obsessed, and free of most of the rules of English grammar. The fact that I *don't* shit in an oyster shell and pretend that I've made a string of pearls is something that I consider to be in my favor.

And those who don't like his work "are people with very pathetic lives--probably still living in their mama's basement smoking weed by their computer screens..."
Which is amusing coming from a guy who works for his mama.

"Let them wallow in their sandboxes using shredded printout of my early work for the sand; like the little pot-smoking loser children they are. I'm thirty-f***ing-five, and I have better things to do with my life."

"Livewire Latte" is a better thing to do with your life? It's only interesting because it's so DULL.

Bill: Ah yes, you found his BITING rebuttal to his being mocked on GAFF. It generated as much reaction as a disappointing fart.
As I commented there, I wonder if he even remembers that women read his stuff too (and are indeed, some of his biggest mockers (indicating the luvly Negs))... because he is always pointing out the small "cahones" that his detractors have.

Yup. Mine are so small, they're non-existent ;)
Mind you, by Gontie's own words, I am officially ALLOWED to mock him, so yay. I guess....
(Is this where it doesn't become fun anymore? when you're ALLOWED to wreak mayhem? Like when Joel openly invited Tom and Servo to destroy his matchstick model of Montecello?..)

The "I'm thirty-f***ing-five" is priceless. We've been using that in OUR reasoning for years!

I've had a lot of ideas, still handle a few, but I knew better than to start a terrible webcomic with my terrible art, being how sensible i'm to critics. i did try for a week on my journal, and decided i wasn't ready, and i don't know if i'll ever want to again. it's something that requires a lot of effort, care, and strenght to know (and listen to) what's wrong. it's a big issue nowadays, but webcomics are something relatively new, and not everyone can jump in the bandwagon.


I wouldn't feel i'm qualified to mock him, but at least i hope 'cahones' it's a word only he uses. in any case, if you wanna sound like you're from spain say 'cojones'. or if you wanna sound like a lowly mexican, say 'huevos'. which means eggs. hehe. i'm teaching you lot dirty mexican words!

the irony is that tomorrow i start teaching english at my school (requirement for me to finish)

at least i hope 'cahones' it's a word only he uses.

The archivist in me is struck by the thought that there's probably a great big book to be compiled of the misuses, totally unnecessary neologisms, and bewildering grammatical habits of the natives of Gonteravia. The lazy bugger in me is disinclied to pursue the thought.

The previous sentence in Gonteravian (Nitro dialect): "Teh lazy Bogger my is not to when doing the thing I just thought of, because it is two boring and dull or tedious but maybe difficult if attempted."

Edited by author 08-28-2004 09:55 AM
HOLY CRAP! Could it be that the utterly non-Japanese name "Nit-san" is self-referential to the older "NITRO" work? An in-joke for his fans? EEEUW! [Does Homer Simpsonesque circular dance with hands waving in front of chest]

...I feel like a character in a Lovecraft story now. I want to give my brain a shower. Everyone repeat after me: No good comes of penetrating a secret!

Well, we can always work by analogy when it comes to cojones. Or, as Davey calls them, grapefruits. I'll be willing to bet that my ovaries are bigger than his.

Bill, thanks for the link to "As If." I've been going through the archives, which would be bad if it weren't such a slow time at work. Good stuff! Angie has the same hairstyle as me (except the little bits tied around back) and she makes it look better than I do, the twerp. But then, I'm ash blonde, so I can't expect much. My personality and wardrobe is closer to Hunter's anyway.

That seems unusually eloquent for Davie-kins.

Well, since everybody else is talking about him...

Davey's updated his sketchbook. Go, look, marvel at his technical skill with color! The anatomical precision with which he renders the figure! He also mentions that he's got a Deviant Art account now. That's sad, I know a lot of very good artists who put their work up there and don't deserve to be associated with him.

Mimi: If anybody deserves to make fun of Gonty, it's you. As If! is awesome, art and story-wise.

Edited by author 08-28-2004 05:11 PM
I got paid to write on the internet, so I'm exempt, right? Except everyone does the picking and slinging at him so much better than me, anything I have to say is useless. Although I recall one brief barrage of emails I sent to Bill over one of the stories or another. Something about transforming into a princess in a sprinkling of sparkles? *gag* I just hate him. In that way that I have to keep up to date with him. Because, you know... some people pick scabs, others follow Gonty.

Edit: AsIf! isn't awesome, it's astounding. I'd give both my legs for half that talent. *cries quietly in her corner*

Oh, um... praise. Um... *^_^* feelin' awkward, going over here now ;)

Just for the record, I am TOTALLY my own worse critic and fret CONSTANTLY that I suck and that the REAL comic artists are mocking me behind my back much as we do to Davey. Apart from the odd anonymous troll email, I have never been SHARPLY criticized for As If!, even in a constructively critical way. But I am always TOTALLY open to informed advise on how to make it better - emphasis on 'informed' and not 'OMG! U shud SO get Hunter and Angela in LUV, it wud b SOO CUUUUUTE!'.....*barf* ;)

But enough about me. Back to Mr David Gonterman of 3924 Oakmont Dr Apt #2, Pontoon Beach IL...(no phone number, note ;))... the deviantart account is
http://daveykinsfoxfire.deviantart.com/gallery/
And Nitwit's kimono STILL isn't right. What's up with the obi??

Y'know... knowing how "generous" he is with praise, I really sometimes wonder what he'd do if I sent him my own rendition of Nitwit or Tara or....no, not Johnny, I'd have to cut off my hand afterwards...

Edited by author 08-28-2004 06:01 PM
Ernst: That's what we need, a Gonter-Glossary ;)

The definition of "Clinton Jobs" would be on the frigging COVER!

Back to the sketchbook:
http://foxfirestudios.us/4images/details.php?image_id=18
Wtf? No, seriously.... what? the? fuck? is? he? babbling? about??
Nice to know his infamous spelling is NOT due to typos, he really does write like that!

"argumented by the fox ears"

Riiiight.

So I'm confused. Is this guy Copper who was a billionaire helping Adam Packbell the character or DaveyKins the author? Or am I forgetting some imporant info here? Because I mean, god, any main character is Davey, but... It's just so confusing. He refers to Davey in the handwriting but then Adam at the bottom.

Also, is he admitting to actual brain damage here? It talks about damaged parts of his brain, which the nanites repair, which would lead me to believe he means physical damage. Which either adds a whole new aspect to Gontermania or yet another painfully laughable lack of biology. Being picked on as a child fucks you up, obviously, but it doesn't destroy your brain. Oy.

Mimi: You do "As If!"? I had no idea! I don't follow a lot of webcomics, but yours is on the list. I really like your art style - it's very clean, and it's unique. I don't look at it and see someone else's style (as I look at Eric Schwartz's art and see Chuck Jones, for example). It's a little anime-ish, but only a touch, to flavor the art rather than overpowering it. To sum up: You do good. Me buy graphic novels when in comics store. :)

Re the Davey-Kins costume picture: it reminds me of the description of Davey's skunk costume at the ens of one of his "The Mobius Chronicles" installments. ALso, from the caption: "Not only does Adam get his own costume, he also has nanites injected into him to repair parts of his damaged brain." As Adam is just another Davey-kins avatar... oh, it's too easy. Someone else take this!

Yayness :) I definitely don't set out to do a pure manga style. My style is a kind of indefinable hybrid - some anime, some western animation, some just my technique. To say it's unique AND good is the best praise I could ask for, thank you :)

Davey is 'unique', too, so that on its own can swing both ways...;)
I believe Copper is supposed to be Adam's father. Or Davey's. But how can you POSSIBLY confuse Adam with Davey?....

(you're right, Negs, this IS too easy...)
Anyway, Copper shows up in several pictures in DVK's sketchbook. He's the Tuxedo Mask clone with the french maid sex slaves.
Can't just about ALL furry artists trace a lineage back to Chuck or Disney? ;)

Wow...seXXXy!!!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/10120825/

Oh baby! That's how I like 'em! Cross-eyed with a prosthetic left titty, badly rouged with lipstick on only one corner of their mouths, and keeping a spare cig in their cleavage!

I notice that the main page has a PayPal Donation button. "For: New Computer
Goal: Summer 2004
Amount: $20/$1000"
Current amount: $0. And with only 3 weeks left to Summer, too.

How can he seriously take pride in that? Most other people would post something like this with the adjunct: "Yeah, I know it sucks, but figures are HARD and I'm still learning".
Nope, not Davey. He seems to feel the need to provide some mythical demand for his stuff.
And boy, check out the feedback DELUGE *cricket noises*

I've seen sexier pairs of scissors. Yeah, scissors. That's what came to mind when I looked at her legs, anyway.

Dig the caption: "Ah, Aline Rabbit. My Playboy Bunny Android. Some are attracted to her, some are repulsed. There is no other ways around." Well, that's truth in advertizing if you agree that David Gonterman = the second "some."

This is basically Roll Rabbit from his MST Nitro comic after a bottle of hair dye. Pheer the Clinton Jobs.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the key component of my Gontermania is The Ego. Part of it is his utter lack of any talent for anything, but it's mainly his simultaneous utter and complete belief in his own godhood. That's why after thousands of drawings over a decade, he's shown no improvement. He doesn't need to improve because he thinks that his stuff is comparable to the pros. Better than them, as he's said more than once. Seriously, have you ever seen any other writer or artist who regularly interrupts a narrative so that his made-up characters can praise his nonexistant art skills? It's like Hamlet delivering a soliloquy that begins with, "Whoa, this Shakespeare dude sure writes good, huh?"
(Now ends the only paragraph in the world in which "Shakespeare" and "DVK" will ever appear together in)

And who else is so egotistic that they decided that what the world really needs is an RPG where you get to play Himself?

Edited by author 08-29-2004 12:08 AM
http://foxfirestudios.us/adamorigin.shtml

Well, this answers the 'Davey=Adam' question. Davey makes an 'attempt' to justify his addiction to Self-Inserts.
Oh, what the hey. Mini-MST!
The self-insertion (S-I) technique, where you make yourself into a character in a story, known as a 'Mary Sue,'
I almost think Davey forms an entire SUB-Species of the Gary/Marty Stu phenomenon. He sits somewhere below sphagnum moss, as Chuck might say...
I hesitate to name the SI a writing 'technique'. I prefer 'unimaginative cop-out'

or 'Author Avatar,'
Or 'OH CHRIST, NOT ANOTHER ONE!!!*loud, wracking sob followed by gunshot*

is a popular way for a novice writer to find something to write about, and was a common way to get started on writing for many a writer.
*extremely long snigger* so what's YOUR excuse, pal?

Unforutnately it is very denegrated on in some areas online, and in some places, downright vilified with a venom that borderlines on Fatwah levels.
Oh boo to da NASTY people who prefer their fandoms UNraped by boring, self-absorbed loser OCs!...
Davey should just avoid words over two syllables, I find...

I should know; my first story published on the Internet was a Sonic-themed Self-Insertion called "Blood and Metal"
And I quote, from the above-mentioned magnum opus:
"Oh mah stars, is this guy the biggest hunk yawl ever seen?" Bunnie
Rabbot cried as she snuggled up to Davey's right leg. She only went up to
his thigh, but then she expanded her robot legs and got into his chest.
"And looky here, this one's got some fur! Oh, Sally Girl, grab a limb,
there's enough man here for all of Knothole!"
*ramming fist into mouth to keep from laughing up a lung*

and that story and it's ilk are the reason why some people mention my name with a thumbed-up nose.
CAN YOU BLAME THEM??!! *rofl*
Actually, Davey, a thumbed-up nose would far from do your name justice. I think the least it deserves is a slow, painfully-detailed comparison to cocktail wienies. No, cheese doodles, that's better....

And I totally agree on the Ego, Bill. And he now thinks that just because admits his early stuff is bad and he shrugs off detractors rather than get upset with them makes him noble and Mature?! He still remains deaf to all entreaties that he is STILL NO BETTER! The Ego is very much attached to the lack of talent. It's like Body Image Dismorphia, where anorexics look in a mirror and see a whale. Davey, amazingly, looks in his sketchbook and sees Carl Barks 9_9

"The Ego is very much attached to the lack of talent. It's like Body Image Dismorphia, where anorexics look in a mirror and see a whale. Davey, amazingly, looks in his sketchbook and sees Carl Barks"

*wipes eyes*
Mimi, you rule!

Edited by author 08-30-2004 10:53 AM
Dig the caption: "Ah, Aline Rabbit. My Playboy Bunny Android. Some are attracted to her, some are repulsed. There is no other ways around."

I'm not going to do it myself, but perhaps we could give the Gont some wider exposure by recommending his works to http://www.engrish.com

Mimi: Wtf? No, seriously.... what? the? fuck? is? he? babbling? about??
Nice to know his infamous spelling is NOT due to typos, he really does write like that!

It's worth comparing the strange rambling from that page to the strange rambling on one of the foundational documents of scientology. G-devil's got slightly better handwriting than Hubbard, but he's also likely not syphillitic.

For fairness sake: I have never been SHARPLY criticized for As If!, even in a constructively critical way.
I occasionally have to work a little but harder than normal to keep track of dialogue when several of your characters speak. Best/worst I could think of. The Ditko tribute cover rocked hard, although it failed in as much as you're a somewhat better artist than Steve Ditko ;-)

Ah yes, my reluctance to use speech balloons. I do use them in print issues, though.
I'll try and work on making that clearer in the space I've got. Thanks ^_^

Mimi: Well, ok then. Note, of course, that these were the utmost criticisms I could offer your work.

Bill: Good to hear that modern Chinese cinema is fill of the bubbly happy feelings that "Raise the Red Lantern" taught us to expect. Maybe we can hope for a Chinese director to take a run at dramatising "Beowulf" or "The Battle of Maldon".

To hopefully switch direction-- Wuzzup with Byron?

Edited by author 08-30-2004 08:29 PM
I seem to remember years ago Gonty having someone kindly suggest that he try taking a figure drawing class, and he went ballistic on them in his old-school/old-meds style.

"Maybe we can hope for a Chinese director to take a run at dramatising 'The Battle of Maldon'."

"...In the land of dark forces, where Gildor was King."
"Oh, yes, the Icelandic Saga. Good, it'n't it?"
No, wait, that was the battle of North Malden. Gateway of industry!

"Wuzzup with Byron?"

His ickiness seems to have coincided with the humid weather. Which is ODD (like him), as the AC's always on and it's quite nice in here. His "PLAY!" button seems to have been turned off. ODD, again, as he's always been nothing but. Kill Kill started slacking off at 18 months, and he's at 14. ODD, really. But maybe all it is is odd. His nose is cold and wet and he seems happy.

Wanna hear something scary? Gonty has taken figure drawing. Waaaaay back when, he put some of the pictures online. And my reaction was "How did they get mutants to pose for art classes?"

And on another note of incompetence, today I asked for beta readers for a story of mine. Always helps to get some crits before posting something, y'know? Well, I sent the story out as a zipped text file to someone, who replied thus:

Could u send ur file again, I can't seem to read it its in giberous. just paste it onto the message box then I will paste it to my word doc program {its easier to beta read that way if u have any upjections let me know}

Is it really necessary to post that, to beta read stories, you ought to be at least literate?

Does anyone besides the almighty Negaduck watch Adult Swim? Is anyone else loving Venture Brothers as much as I am? Is this an appropriate topic for me to babble about?

Wanna hear something scary? Gonty has taken figure drawing. Waaaaay back when, he put some of the pictures online. And my reaction was "How did they get mutants to pose for art classes?"

No effing way!!!! Please tell me you have these pictures and can share them with your fellow Gonter-obsessors. The world is suddenly a much more frightening place.

Sorry, those pictures were long gone before Gonty started getting a fandom. I've got a collection of rare stuff, but that's a little too rare for me. And do you really want to see Gonter-drawn nudies?

I would >:)....
Maybe if enough people cajoled him to prove he's had SOME art training, he'd reproduce them...;)

I want an apology from you right now, Mimi, for using "reproduce" in a sentence referring to David Gonterman.

Argh! <goes to gargle with Pledge>
Sorry! Sorry! Brrr... Gonter-spawn....

As punishment, you must look at Heroin Chic She-Ra. Now with pre-ratted hair!

The exposed nipples are a good deal more obvious in the colourized version. I'm trying to decide if the expression is "newly-risen walking dead" or "what the hell was the 5th thing on my shopping list".

...not that I could do any better, of course. That's why I DON'T post any art for the world to feel sad about.

Edited by author 08-31-2004 08:33 PM
And do you really want to see Gonter-drawn nudies?

Yes I do! Apparently I'm some kind of a masochist. I've been studying figure drawing for a while now, and looking at G-man's atrocities would make me feel better about my own stuff. And make me laugh.

But, alas, those pictures are gone. I'll just have to settle for the bulbous boobies of his semi-nudes. It's not like there's much of a difference.

Rabbit:
CHRIST. There's nothing so bad that Davey doesn't think is good enough to share with the world. Check out that black eye.

La Grey:
Adult Swim is a perfect topic. I only got online because of Space Ghost.
I myself haven't watched it in years. It was the only thing I was using cable for, and that $40 a month made more sense as a DSL connection. Realspace friend Kevin was supposed to tape them for me, but he never did. So I know nothing of this "Venture Brothers" of which you speak.

Edited by author 09-01-2004 12:50 AM
Gah. Is it just me, or are those some gigantic hooters for a 15-year-old? 9th grade would be hellish for whoever was possessed of those monsters.

Edited by author 09-01-2004 01:10 AM
Negs:
Yes, but you forget that she's "TAL."
You know. She's "Tal!"
You know!
Cuz "Tal" is SO a word!
It means "15 years old with extreme lower back pain." :p

Umm...I just took a closer look...Is Adam 12 feet tall? Seriously, take a look at that size chart. Either he's a giant, or the females of his species are pygmies. With giant inflatable chests.

There is also, of course, the slight chance that Davey's a phrackin' loonie.

I think "Tal" is a name in this case. 'Cause otherwise it wouldn't make sense. Which, I admit, is not a a high priority for Gonty, but, still...

I also assume that the girls are elves. Well, the one on the left is. Lookit her wingnut ears. As for the others... um.... (my expression is starting to match that of the upper right face...)

Man, those are some weird-ass lookin' feet. After all these years he still draws feet like flatirons.

'Tal' got

Wtf?.... stupid quicktopic, screwing up html tags....
I MEANT to say,
'Tal''s got Toe!

Hey, Bill! Just last week me fren Don went on and on about said Venture Bros. I figured you'd be the target audience for such things, rather than I...

And because you *are* Just That Special, minutes ago I realized that I had the Psychotic Pineapple's "I Get Weird" playing in my head, and after Googling, I found this:

http://www.hyped2death.com/bandlinks.htm

Mind you, I didn't actually click on any of the links, but there were a lot of names there that made me smile in fond remembrance--hopefully maybe you can too!

Bah! Where's my Heroin Chic He-man?

Oh yeah, the Venture Brothers. Hey Lilly, have you seen the show? Do you like it? I myself comandeer the dorm TV every Saturday from 11:00 to 11:30 so I can watch it.

Three words, Bill: Johnny Quest parody.

Also, am back at real college again. w00t. Am majoring in creative writing, of course. I have to write a one-act play by the end of the semester. Time for major stress to begin.

I JUST DISCOVERED MY NAIL POLISH CHANGES COLOR. IT'S SILVER WHEN HOT AND PURPLE WHEN COLD. THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

Tal is from the Planeswalker comic. She's Jamie's grotesquely over-developed friend. There's an intensely disturbing scene where Jasmine Sparkfloe, the Planeswalker, turns Tal into her "pet." This is a horrible, horrible scene that no one should ever lay eyes on. You can find it here and continued here.

See if you can spot the vibrating nipples!

*IdidnotseeDaveykinsbondagepicsIdidnotseeDaveeykinsbondage
pics*.... argh, where's the bleach? Eyes need cleansing....

I never got that far into Planeswalker...man, and I thought the Davey avatars were relatively absent in this one - it was mostly Jamie and Jasmine. But oh no... little Jamie LIKES this strange card-flipping enigma with mullet of brown and eyes of squareness....

Edited by author 09-02-2004 01:30 AM
I miss Pitfall. Super Pitfall was the bomb. I should look up the cheats online, so I can figure out what the dead zone was about or that giant skull that runs after you...

Also, for Bill: http://thegimly.free.fr/Divers/schtroumpf.jpg

It was decided between a few friends and I that Rasta Schtroumpf looked like he knew how to schtroumpf a girl real good. When he's not you know... lighting up.

that is all.

Edit, not that I have money for nailpolish, but what brand is changing colors? I'm intruiged.

Also, Venture Brothers made me spit take three times. "That's called blinking, boys."

"The only one who SMOKES SASPARILLA!"

Hee hee. I hated The Smurfs, but I liked Peyo's Schtroumpfs. H-B made them all sickly-sweet, but Peyo's original comics were fun to read. And they were good practice - I could read 'em pretty well without having to go for my French-English dictionary more than two or three times per page.

Edited by author 09-02-2004 03:50 PM
Wow, Billy boy! Now I feel so special because I *am* unquestionably a L-T'er! I totally got that, and everything! (This morning I was listening to Holly and the Italians, and musing on how lucky I am to have a friend who listened to college radio at the same time I did.)

Lav, I have no cable, much to my eternal discomfiture and overall annoyance (someday, someday I will get DirectTV and HNIC will be mine! [Oops, only Ernst probably knows what that is]), but me fren Don described the show to me in some detail and your pithy encapulsation sounded *perfect.* Maybe if Don ever tapes it I can see that, though I'm one of the few non-cartoon-inclined minorities herein...

Edited by author 09-02-2004 07:42 PM
Screw HNIC (damn catchy theme song that it has) and have a gander at this!
http://www.newscientist.com/news/nographic.jsp?id=ns99996341
I'd rate it as good news, but the guy in charge of the world's biggest supply of nuclear devices will probably view it as a threat.

Oh, by the way, does it count if yr not a L-TR, but fought yr way though ALL of it in a slow week at work.

[EDIT: changed the link from CNN to the current one-- more meat, less puff]

"The team has now finished analysing the data, and all the signals seem to have disappeared. Except one, which has got stronger."

It was later traced to Don Cherry! Thanks, I'll be here all week! Tip your waitress, enjoy the veal!

Here's something I'd grabbed a while back from the Internet. If I recall correctly it's the original theme, or a goofed version of it.

http://24.138.4.101/hnic/hnic68.wav

It's kinda big, though.

M3:
I actually don't know what the brand is, because it wasn't my polish and I'm not sure where it is now (yay, the communal ownership of college life.) It came in a teddy bear-shaped bottle, though.

"[EDIT: changed the link from CNN to the current one-- more meat, less puff]"
Ah, so it's the Atkin's article!

Bill.

If, by any chance, we ever meet in real space, and you are standing behind me, and there is a spider on my back that jumps into my hair, FOR GOURD'S SAKE TELL ME BECAUSE I HATE THEM HATE HATE HATE HATE HAIR ICK ICK ICK ICKICKICKICKICK GAAAAAAAH and am going to comb my hair frantically for the next ten minutes in a psychotic episode of paranoia inspired by the mere reading of that passage.

Found a link to things that change color (or colour if like me you are from Oz).
Could be the nail polish LavenderGray mentioned, they say they have 24 shades, which could be twelve that change to another color. I am to far away to test this, and also male, so I only paint my toes ;-)

Full URL:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/...landale/9276267.htm

TinyURL:

http://tinyurl.com/6k64x

Awwwww, Steve--how kind of you to indulge our girly interests that way! You do your country and all Y chromosomers proud.

I've used some nail polish that changed colour, but it wasn't in a teddy-bear-shaped bottle. All of the shades were in the ugly-metallic range, but they *did* become radically altered in sunlight. The next time I go to Longs, I'll see what the brand is called.

This is what you get when you have an open forum, Bill! Us chickies taking over! From now on, the topics will be confined to nail polish, haircare products, fluffy small animals, and boys! (Hope you're having fun at the reunion, anyway. "You gots spider hair!" will now be recurring to me throughout the day and making me smile, which is something from which I could benefit at the moment. Thanx!)

*takes swig of beer*
*belches loudly*

I'll be over here with the boys....;p

The Super-Cool Movie thing to do about a spider on someone's neck is to grab them by the shoulder, say "Don't move!" in your best 'Angry Clint Eastwood" voice, and while they're paralyzed with anxiety gently scoop the spider into your free hand and deliver it to a safe, bug-filled dark corner. At which point the beer-ad girls arrive to express admiration.

I actually did something like this recently, except it was a bee, the person was a very good friend, and the sole admirer was my wife (who likes bees and me, so its cool).

My uncle does that for my aunt, she's terrified of bugs - but that extends to earwigs and june bugs. I mean, earwigs and June bugs- they're like insectdom's joke...gross little filthy earwigs and June bugs that get stuck on their backs and die after a little while. At least bees make honey!

Lilly, I think your "Von" moniker is driving Gooooooogle nuts! two of the ads displayed are for german websites.

Anyone using Gmail here yet?

I love Eggs, Bacon, and Cake...................Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.............hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhaahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahhahahahahhaha............hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah hahahahha...........hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahahhahahah