Edited by author 06-01-2009 09:03 PM
Yes, I finally changed the title!

If you were wondering where the old one came from, it's from Tent.

The current title is from this song.

Yaaay. Welcome DJ. Hope everything works out awesomely.

Sorry, it was rather rude of me to move the Comments page when there were still conversations going on in the old one.

Kirk, I answered your kitten play question again there with a human equivalent, but I'd like to add:
DJ purrs all the time, over everything. When playing, he likes the frustration part, but he purrs noticeably louder when the frustration ends and he gets to bite his "prey." So I still think it's like a video game to a human: too easy, no fun; too hard, no fun.

The trick to getting through a door without letting an anxious cat also through it-- s l o w l y. Open the door only enough to admit your body, squeezing through carefully, and as much as movement will allow keep your trailing foot on the cat's face. There's an anxious moment at the end of the procedure when you have to chose between closing the door on foot or cat; remember that you only REALLY need the big toe and the others are just decorative.

-Three-Toe Ernst.

That Killsy-DJ Pic is the stuff.

Living vicariously through you these days, Bill (job and living with the grandpappies means even less chance of a cat for me), so keep the updates coming, it's really fun and awwwh inducing.

AWWWWW... *kitteh smushes*

What Zef said. Or like I said at LJ, kitten pix make everything better. ALWAYS.

Edited by author 06-11-2009 08:09 AM
Wow. Jörg's trials fill me with sympathy for the common folk suckered into Hitler's madness. Well written, Herr Splut.

OF course, after the reign of Bush II, I can see how an American can get into that mind-set.

Bill nice to see DJ inspiring so much writing!

I get what you mean about the frustration, but I'm still wondering about the moment of "hey this isn't really a snack"... is it fun just to chew?

Thanks, Ernst. It really was intended as a period piece and not about anything Bush-related, but when it was done, I saw how it could be taken that way.

Kirk: Nah, my inspiration comes from having the free time to write! Now that vacation's over, expect the usual sparse posts. Also, could you rephrase your question? I'm unclear on what you're asking. Currently "fun to chew" refers to what DJ does to my fingers.

Pokemon nearly ruined my life.

I wish i were jokin'.

Is a cat likely to view the business end of a cat dancer as a "very moth like thing that's pleasant to try and catch and then gnaw on a bit" or "a cruel, moth-like hoax that I'm nibbling on but dang it can't eat!"

Hmm, thinking of sweeping cat generalizations (I know you'd point out that every cat will vary) - cats do seem to derive pleasure in other forms of hunting-related play that doesn't necessarily involve much sustenance, per se, so I'm gonna vote for "the cat digs catching and nibbling" and not sweat the "this isn't food!" frustration that I think I might feel in reversed circumstances.

With a kitten in the house, I've remembered how much cats like it when a toy gets swatted under the fridge--so long as they can get it out. Otherwise they wait for the human to get it back into play.

But I think that the proof is the time I saw a cat outside my condo playing with a live mouse. He wasn't making any attempt to kill it, or even injure it. He just wouldn't let it escape. He was playing with his food.

I believe Voltaire said "Anyone who thinks the world was created by a loving god has never seen a cat play with a wounded mouse."

I am finding the DJ pix increasingly addictive--even more so in conjunction with Killsy and Byron--and now strongly suspect you of adding a hidden narcotic component to them. "Insane Kitten Kuteness™--ask for it by name!"

Ernst's opinion re: the Tale O' Jörg vociferously seconded. You've got quite the way with words, have I mentioned that in the past fifteen minutes? Don't care if I have, frankly, cos I'm sayin' it again.

And lastly, saw this, thought of you; Cos now that's SIR Christopher Fuckin' Lee to you, buddy!

Happy Father's Day to the single greatest cat mom I know. :)

My opinion as to what you should do with your day off falls along typically predictable lines: stay home from both those so-called "events" and play with the kittehs instead. (Aw, c'mon, like you'd rather do anything else? :)

Just to break Lily's combo of posting:

The company I translate for didn't get the contract with Square Enix. My translation is responsible, of course.

Did I bite far too much than I could chew? Of course.
Was it unrealistic to hope? Sure.

It would've been damn cool, though. Probably just not a job for a single pseudotranslator dude.

What's the news coverage exchange rate on human life? How many dead Afghanis, Iraqis and Iranians does it take to equal one Ed McMahon?

Impossible. You can't compare the ineffable uniqueness of an individual white celebrity to the cookie-cutter, they-all-look-the-same-to-me-ness of brown people who never laughed at terrible jokes in front of millions, had their hinted-at nipple reproduced infinitely, or entirely changed the shape of their head music videos. After all, family-supporting has never been as important to the media as entertaining.

And don't try to say Michael Jackson wasn't white the last decade or so. Or that I'm not in a terrible mood that sees me living up to my name.

This bowl of scrounged up weed crystals and scraps is for you, Thriller-era-lookin' MJ. You rocked my childhood so much with Dangerous, and I hadn't even heard Thriller back then. Thriller changed so many things.It was puberty in wax form, shaping life at 45RPM.

Hell, the LP cost me ten amerikan cents in a church fundraiser in 1995. it was that rockin'.

I love the DJ pics; he just beams sweetness.

Our kitten has a new nickname; The Phantom Menace. Watch all doors!

Thanks for making me think about Ed McMahon's hinted-at nipple.

also by coincidence the youtube adam and eve video reminded me of something I happened to post on this day 8 years ago:
http://kisrael.com/2001/06/29/

Edited by author 06-29-2009 08:10 PM
Thanks, Werebear! He is the lovingest boy in the world.

My latest post (6/29 entry) has some brief cat observations you may be interested in, vis a vis my burgeoning Cat Civilization.

Our kitten has a new nickname; The Phantom Menace. Watch all doors!

"IT'S A TRAP!" (TIE Kitten attacks)

New LACKADAI--
Not really. But has anyone lately checked out our friend Mimi's DA page? I do, but just thought that I'd mention it in case you didn't. Love you some Pixar or some awesome Muppets? She's making some seriously cool cover art! Gonzo as Captain Hook? Perfect.

Also, FWIW, some of the packies around here have ping pong balls by the register. Took me a second to realize they weren't golf balls, and from then to figure out why they were there.

The laws down here are different than in Mass. Your liquor stores can sell food, we can sell lime juice but not actual limes. And cigarettes, but not cigarette lighters. Or cigars.

We do sell non-liquor items, like corkscrews and coolers etc. I don't know if we could sell ping pong balls. Both liquor stores that I've worked for could sell hangover "cures," beer bongs and Jell-O shot trays, but both refused to. Even with a large college customer base, we don't want to be seen as promoting binge drinking.

Although we do open at 8AM, when our entire clientele consists of "people who have vodka for breakfast." Binge drinking, no; alcoholism, yes!

Ah, ok. An out-of-towner might not realize that.

Speaking of sins- just found out clove cigarettes might be banned? WTF kind of nanny state shit is this?

Thoughtty, I just saw this LOLcat pic and thought of you. I know LOLcats are passe by now, but it made me grin anyway.

It makes me crazy that I can't buy any of the Muppet Show comics with Mimi's covers. Hers are the best-looking ones if all, IMO.

I love me the LOLcats! I read Cheezburger and CatMacros every day.

Re: Mimi, I read this on Mike Sterling's blog yesterday:

"Some good stuff that came out this week includes Muppet Robin Hood #2 (not the exercise in perfection that the Muppet Show comic is, but still amusing and well-drawn)"

...And that's a comic store owner's blog. She could prly draw a great cover even for "Jim Henson's Retarded Man-Child Gonterbabies." NOT THAT I WISH SUCH A THING TO EVER BE!

new, pretty rockin' Lackadaisies going on, holmes. Get'em while they be hot.

Y'know, just sayin'.

The fact that the Jesusfest site says, "If you would like to receive the free gift of eternal life in heaven..." makes me long to ask if there could possibly be a t-shirt-with-purchase offer involved as well. Because while eternal life is nice 'n all, I need to keep my earthly form covered as well, and if they're going to use phraseology more customarily associated with infomercials, I want some more tangible bang for my buck, dammit.

Recently at my workplace a poster was put up for a Christian Burnout Competition, which apparently, despite the humourous possibilities, means wasting both fuel and tires on goony muscle cars. The poster was put up over a small notice from a local animal shelter seeking homes for abandoned cats and dogs. All Hail Our Saviour by being absolute dicks in as many ways as we can at once.

The Esoteric Order of Dagon beckons gently, dunnit?

I neglected to mention the tshirt that was so bad I almost bought it: "JESUS Sweetest King of Kings" done exactly in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup font. While it would certainly boost Catholic church attendance if the Host was chocolate, it made me wonder if there were some other Kings of Kings who were low-fat, and thus somebody was named "TONY NutraSweetest King of Kings."

Hey, Negaduck! I saw that your friend Lar did a guest strip for The Legend of Bill. Seriously, why is that a comic strip on a major site? It ONLY updates when someone else does one; I'm pretty sure that the guest strips outnumber the "real" ones. How did something so lazily and infrequently done by its creator get a spot on GoComics, when Mimi couldn't get anyone to take on As If! or Thorn? (Mimi doesn't come around here anymore, so I'm asking for myself. Exactly how half-assed do you have to be to get a strip there? Just know the right someone?)

Really not a news flash as such, though I still imagine that High Council of Catsylvania has summoned an emergency meeting in order to ask, "WHO TOLD?!"

Yeah, olde news. I blogged many a year ago about a study that discovered that humans have a region of their brains specifically wired to rate how urgent a baby's cries were. People who never had a baby knew exactly how urgent the cries were. Makes perfect evolutionary sense, of course, knowing when you should race to your spawn. Another study found out that cat cries fire up the same brain regions, even among people who've never had cats! And cats never meow to other cats, just to humans. Yes, cats taught us a trick. "Come here, cat!" rarely works, but "Come here, human caregiver!" now THAT works!

Absafricklutely. I can tell which of Sophie's mrows mean, "Mom, where you at?" "Pets naotiems?" or "I iz distressed and no likey dis." (Though pretty much all of Beezer's still seem to primarily connote her immense annoyance with the world not conforming to her exact specifications.) The kids are presently freaking a trifle cos I've been going thru the boxes in my living room--finally, for the first time since I moved in eight years ago--and of course the girls aren't thrilled with having their universe messed with so monumentally.

MOT hasn't dealt with it terribly well either, though I did learn an important lesson tonight: do not out of curiosity attempt to investigate the extent of an unfixed male cat's boner, because he then may very well try to fuck your hand! Oh, poor little randy fella, I've gotta get your sitch sussed soon...uhm, once I'm done laughing, anyway. XD

Bill, let me know what you're missing from the Jen White days. I still have most of my stuff. Whatever I have, I'll send you ASAP.

I loves me the Wayback Machine. Just recently I dug up the old "Oz Kids" site. It looked like it was made by an intern with a press kit and Notepad in one afternoon. And I remember when most "official" sites looked like that!

Thanks, Negs, but no need to send it ASAP. Because recreating the old Geo page will be such tedious drudgework that I'll put it off until my September vacation. Isn't most of it available on that giant MySTing site, the name of which escapes me?

At any rate, it was only some of the later text ones: Mickeygate!, Dr Minotaur, Manos, and White Noise/The Sprite in Black. Yahoo shut my main site down, but left all the secondary sites with the comics intact. Go fig.

BTW, did you see my earlier comment about Lar and Legend of Bill? (/m32)

And apropos of the whole carding thing, I also congratulate bag boys and the like when they address me as, "miss," rather than, "ma'am." I'm pretty sure that most women over a certain age appreciate being termed thusly...or at least I do. :)

Website Number Nine went down back in 2003. It was supposed to only be moving after the owner left college, but it never came back. So, all that's gone. E-mail me so I'll know where to send the text files, OK?

Yes, I did see that comment. I didn't have much to say about it 'cause I don't know anything about "Legend of Bill." I can definitely see Lar's style (in its goofier stage) there.

I get creeped out when people call me "ma'am." You'd think I was over 40 and... oh, wait, I AM. Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often, as I don't have a wedding ring and usually slouch around in T-shirts and blue jeans.

Heh, I have that Fiend Folio myself. Bought it for a buck at a yard sale. I remember being appalled by some of the artwork.

i'd happily take the book, besides my love for cats and bad prose, I could read it around univ. and pick up like-minded cat chicks, but for that reason i can't promise to send it forward, and thusly i abstained from asking for it.

What I'd happily accept, though, is more cat updates. *frets about the kids*

it was well-written and often funny, just nothing I wanted to read again. And since it came without a dust cover, no one would know what you were reading anyway...

Duly noted about the cats. Update in News tonight, although "things are fine" would be the spoiler.

I actually already have that book.

Pushkin is orange tabby and is afraid of and hides from everyone and everything. But I think his warranty is expired.

I never knew about William McGonagall. Thanks for posting that, as it explains something that had puzzled me in Terry Pratchett's "Wee Free Men." There is a character named "William the Gonnagle," a Gonnagle being a battle bard. He recites horrible poetry, with dramatics that make Shatner look subtle, to repel the enemy.

ssecondin' the love for the McGonagall dude. I went and looked him up in Wikipedia, and now I'm considering translating his stuff for my final thesis paper at univ. Now, If only there was a web resource where I could learn about metrics and rhythm. Never cared for poetry, see.

McGonagall's good, by which I mean bad, but I'll always be a McIntyre man myself. Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing Over 7,000 Pounds is his best poem about cheese. Among his many.

I really love the assertion that, "McIntyre makes a bid for the admission of cheese to the sisterhood of chemical muses -- alcohol, coffee, opium, benzedrine, absinthe, heroin, mescaline, cheese." Given my own passionate attachment to it, I'd say that isn't too far off, actually.

Looking for something to help El Zef with scansion, this reminded me of exactly how easy it was for me to space out in critical theory courses. Perhaps it's not so surprising that the first poet I ever really liked was e.e. cummings, actually.

Killsy looked more like she was angry for being unable to sleep while the other two snoozed away. Lovely pics.

That looks really useful, Lils! Thankyee!

Is your mother looking to adopt a daughter? Low-maintenance, comes with recipes, eager to share.

Hey, we've got the same lunch box!

Negs:
She already has three, sorry. Even though I have one sister I'd like to trade... ;)

Ernst:
Old friend of the InExOb and former regular commenter Govynda sent me that. I'm surprised it didn't come with a little Thermos for my borscht. Or vodka.

Your latest reminds me that I'd meant to comment to my clump of American friends about the scare-ads I've heard the RIght are running down there in the vein of "Canadian-style health care will KILL YOU!!!!1!" It's nothing of the sort, of course. The only person I know who needed cancer surgery (my dad) not only got it in a timely manner, but apparently was seen to by the same guy Larry King chose for his. My son's birth cost a total of $90 because we insisted on paying $90 for a private recovery room. Colonoscopies are free and frequent for those as need 'em. It's imperfect, but find a health-care system that isn't, and that country will fill with immigrants so fast that it will be.

Zef, I thought that link was fairly abysmal, actually. Or were you being sarcastic?

I have concern about Killsy's eye boogers. La Beez has had a dark crusty snot problem on her left nostril for a few months now and I've been periodically washing it off & then putting Vaseline on it--I'm sure you can imagine how well she responds to that--but I really hope I can get her to the vet soon. It doesn't seem to bother her or inhibit her breathing, but nonetheless, it ain't right.

Ernst, as previously noted, I think we'd be in a helluva lot better shape if we had "Canadian-style health care." The Righties (and, well, my dad) throw around the phrase, "socialised medicine" like it's some kind of catchall Cthulu and it gets on my sodding wick. (Why, yes, I talk to way too many British people anymore--why do you ask? ;)

Of course, Bill, oh-so-love the kitteh pics. MOT looks amazingly different just from when we had those photos taken in June; I don't know how much getting fixed/dewormed has to do with it--that was only a week ago, after all--and how much getting adequate nutrition/staying indoors has contributed, but he's a great deal softier and silkier. My dad was also astonished at the length of his tail, so I was forced to elaborate on how "MOT" stands for, "Mr. 'Oreo' Tennant" accordingly. (Typical of my dad, I'm not sure he got it, but my auntie laughed, anyway.)

Lils: I thought it was very helpful indeed! not sarcastic at all. See, i know so little about the stuff that i didn't know if that was right or wrong, or what is it's problem =(

Bill-- you have of course seen notalwaysright.com?

I read it daily.

Deb may like that WWII book actually, so thanks for the pass-along. :)

It was loosely based on a series of SA articles, but the book is much, much better.

Um, Bill:

Wikipedia:
"Guillermo (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎermo]) is the Spanish form of the male given name William. "

So the chances are technically twice as high? Sorry.

I run Firefox 3.5.2 and it restores my sessions. thank god, because I blow it up every other day.

Same here. I tend not to, but when I have multiple tabs open, and try to close Firefox, it asks me if i want to save these tabs for the next session. Firefox 3.0.13 heah'

Safari 4.0.2 here, which means, erm...I've never had that problem. On the rare occasions that it crashes, when I come back everything's just as it was. (Which is a good thing, cos otherwise I'd hafta Harm Someone.)

Is there some obscure Windows-type reason why you turn your compie off at night, though? Mine never gets switched off unless

a) I need to restart it (with Gimp being a bit cranky, this does happen semi-frequently), or

b) I'm moving and have to box up Bleuie for transport. :)

BTW, thanks again for what you said at my LJ. Of all the wonderful comments, yours was the one that made cry--but in a good way. {{massive hugs}}

I run Firefox 3.5.2 and it restores my sessions. thank god, because I blow it up every other day.

I know it'll restore after a crash, but I want it to whenever I shut XP down. I don't understand why there isn't at least an add-on for it.

Is there some obscure Windows-type reason why you turn your compie off at night, though?

Yes: it costs electricity, and that costs money. I used to leave the monitor on, but when I started turning it off, I saved $5 a month--on a bill that was only $45 to begin with. It's not a lot of money, but it's a huge percentage of the bill. (Plus, the monitor will last years longer)
Also, once I left the house for only 90 minutes with the computer on, a giant flash thunderstorm raced through, and fried my modem.

I think the better question is, is there an intrinsic reason to leave computers on? Probably because of the way I use it (i.e. Hard) but whenever I didn't restart my computer for an indecent amount of time it became slower and slower. That was with a desktop. Now that I'm firmly entrenched in laptop territory, I'm enormously wary of leaving the little systems on for any amount of time longer than reasonable, lest their little hearts melt. (Anyone who's owned a laptop can back me up on this, an unattended laptop left running for a week would probably cause a China syndrome.)

I think the better question is, is there an intrinsic reason to leave computers on?

Yes, dearest Zef, there is. Because I want to be able to access my email, Twitter and anything else my inherently impatient little heart desires from the interwebs post-haste, instead of having to wait for my darn compie to boot up. ;)

I turn my computer off. I only use it between 6:30 and 12:00 in the evenings during the week, so why should it suck up energy when it's doing nothing the other 18.5 hours of the day? My electricity bill is high enough as it is.

As for sleep, I personally think of it as my body's chance for downtime maintenance. Scrub the fatigue toxins out of the bloodstream, sort through what's going in in the brain, repair & refuel tissues that are otherwise frequently used, et cetera.

I've just seen news of Ted Kennedy's death-- are we all anticipating the Republicans declaring that this was a politically motivated act?

Lucretia never sleeps. I want her when I get up, when I come home for lunch, after work, and before bed. This is sad, but that's how I roll. Wired. Her sister Electra (glistening pink Netbook that is apparently my "Perkiest Employee of the Year" award) will be the Sleeping Beauty, but I can't fully accept yet that Electra is not in fact an oversized Barbie toy.

Glad to hear news of harmony on the DJ front. The girls are still just barely tolerating MOT, and while he continues to gamely try and play with them, he gets naught but hisses in response; the editorial position there definitely seems to be, "Bug off, kid, yer botherin' me." (Though getting him fixed has mellowed him out A LOT as well.)

And my parents' Mitch Miller records are the reason I always hear "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and immediately infer the lyrics, "Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother..." *rolls eyes*

Edited by author 08-28-2009 08:12 AM
An interesting compare'n'contrast exercise is watching The Langsten Tag in close proximity to A Bridge Too Far-- both are "starring absolutely every male star we can think of" affairs, based on real events, but the flavour is different entirely. I consistently cry at the second on, but that's probably because the Dutch Kid character is very nearly my dad (differences-- about three years older, about 60km to the east, and dead before the war ended).

Edited by author 08-28-2009 09:06 PM
Lils:
I always hear "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and immediately infer the lyrics, "Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother..."

LOL! I almost mentioned that, but figured no one would get the reference. It's the only song from Miller that I remember, possibly because it was short and funny, making "damp" rhyme with "swamp" and "You may think that this is the end..." Funny to a little kid, anyway. "WELL, IT IS!"

Ernst:
An interesting compare'n'contrast exercise is watching The Langsten Tag in close proximity to A Bridge Too Far

That's now in my Netflix queue. I saw it maybe 30 years ago on TV with a friend's father, who as a kid lived just outside of Arnhem. He was impressed with the location shooting (the Allied HQ: "I used to walk by that every day!"), and had lots of interesting anecdotes about the war (such as the winter after the battle having nothing to eat but tulip bulbs, or how the only reason he wasn't shot to death at age 6 by a German soldier was because another German grabbed the rifle away). Of the battle itself: "We did what we always did. We hid in the cellar until the explosions stopped."

...had lots of interesting anecdotes about the war....

My dad likewise. I'm pretty pleased that my son is going to find my childhood anecdotes REALLY dull. Hiding in the cellar was a very popular Dutch pastime in the mid-1940s; the last time my dad did it, he found a Polish anti-tank squad on the family driveway after emerging.

*tosses Russian homework away*

New Lackadaisies.

FFFFFFF. This is how you pace a story.

Edited by author 09-03-2009 09:47 AM
Bill:

SO glad the colonoscopitude went reasonably okay. Back in ye olde horking-down-opiates tymes I used to drink citrate half a bottle at a time (to try and offset the gastrointestinal difficulties that tend to result from from 25+ Vicodin-ES a day), and I think "brackish Sprite" describes it perfectly. (For that matter, that probably works as a description of my personality as well.)

Ernst:

My conservative 85-year-old dad--who watches Fox News and thinks it's real--insisted to me the other day that while the system of socialised medicine in the U.K. is all very well and good, it's a known fact that most Canadians come to the U.S. for all major operations because they have to wait too long otherwise. It was one of those times that I was at a loss for words as how best to address this whopper of an assertion--any suggestions?

That's easy. My dad had his prostate cancer handled by the same surgeon who did Larry King's-- at the hospital that's a five minute drive from our family home. I believe the waiting time was something like a month.

Billy boy, your tweener imitation frighteningly reeks of verisimilitude. BTW, saddened to hear about the loss of one of our early-80's college radio heroes but know the "People Who Died" jokes will now inexorably commence accordingly.

A big fat albino can never be too far away-- doubly so for the big fat albino's natural enemy, the museum curator. It only becomes worse if a gust of wind blows diverse hats onto their heads, causing them to act as, for example, a gangster and a judge. Dan Brown him is geneeus.

LOL, Ernst...yeah, somebody needs to find Dan Brown's editor(s) and smack 'em upside the head with a copy of Roget's Thesaurus (hardbound, of course).

Bill, I loves me some Showgirls, yo--that extent of schlock 'n bouncing boobies is a truly wondrous thing to behold...and I dunno if it made the list, but I'm also rather partial to Basic Instinct 2 as well. Any movie featuring alla dat hot nasty hatesex and David Morrissey's nekkid bottom is truly a thing of beauty. :D

The book ends in 2004, and BI2 came out in 2006. Although Wikipedia says that it cost $70M and made about $3M, so, yeah, it could've been in the book.

But the book's about "tortured production histories," so the film's background story may be why he chose the movies he did. With a loss of "only" $8M, Showgirls actually was less of a bomb than the other movies chronicled. You'd certainly think that Howard the Duck would make the book, but maybe the history wasn't interesting enough.

Here's a longish interview with the author. He talks about Showgirls near the end.

“less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet,”

Out of all the global warming stuff, this tidbit is what really gets under my skin. Humans can't destroy the planet, as much as their hubris loves making them think so. Now, don't get me wrong, life *as we know it* in the planet is at risk, yadda yadda yadda. That can indeed be wiped out, sure. But the *planet*, as a whole? Hell naw. Even if humans screwed up hard enough to make the planet clicking hot with radioactivity and all life as we know it were vanished, the planet would still be kickin' around, getting sunlight, and pretty soon new life forms would evolve.
(There ARE bacteria that dig on radiation, just as a way of example, but there's so much still we don't know of evolution and nature, and evolution takes so long, it's hard to predict anything, other than life tends to pop up invariably)

Same for the global warming. Natural catastrophe after natural catastrophe could fall upon the planet, and yeah, it'd probably flood, and most land based species would vanish, but life would go on. It's not like the planet would (in 10 years, no less) say 'enuff o' this stuff! I'mma 'splode right heah' and then do so.

Humans have the potential to wipe themselves and a bunch of the current life cleanly off the face of the planet. They can't harm the planet otherwise. We must care for our lives and current enviroment, the planet can take care of itself with or without us.

Now, typing this I got the image of a post-global warming world with the production values of Waterworld, now that's a scary idea and worth battling global warming.

I've read ALL of Dan Brown's books. (Already stole "procured" his latest and have to read it yet) They're every bit as painful as they sound, not to mention they're all the same, only with different characters/settings.

Thoughtty, got your brain bleach handy?

A very sweet ride.

That bike gets way too much attention.

Edited by author 09-23-2009 05:44 PM
"That bike gets way too much attention."

Really? Ya think?

Eric would be overcome with a need to impregnate his bike if it were possible. That's what he was thinking when he first saw it, FYI

Not "have sex with," but actually impregnate, giving birth to a 1/3 human, 1/3 vaguely doglike critter, 1/3...motorcycle. Prly have to do a caesarean delivery on the gas tank. To make it worse, the "drawing" looks like the impregnation process has just begun!

Wow, hard as it is to believe, it looks like his "art" has gotten worse! Even the "drawings" he admits to tracing! And these are illustrations for his "book"? (Sorry, there's just no way to describe this stuff without qualifying quotes) Thanks for "arting" an IV bag. Because anyone stupid enough to buy your self-published "book" isn't going to have any idea what that is. Unfortunately, they prly won't know what a book is, either. Also, "barn," that's helpful, as it doesn't look anything like a barn.

Eric hates that Hedgehog! is a nice callback to the much beloved NiTRO, and apparently Eric hates Sonic so much he's impregnating his ear.

Negs:
Howza bout a cartoon you might like?

That Carl Sagan thing was apparently the big meme yesterday-- my brother emailed it to me, I stuck it up anywhere I could, I saw it twice more in unlikely places.

Also, you're absolutely right-- DVK is somehow slipping in his artistic accomplishment. Or should I say, digging a way to new lows?

Thoughtty - I saw this cartoon and thought just of you.

Vintage Splutness on le rant, and as per usual, right on the money. Well done, my friend. :)

S'wounds, Spluttington! Thou hast erred like a commoner! Wasps ain't bees, and bees ain't wasps! Bees are industrious little flower-suckers, while wasps are natures own bastards.

-Member of the Society for Cuddily Apiary

As someone who was stung by a whole hive of (probably africanized) bees, I can safely say, I don't care and both of them can fuck right off, as far as I'm concerned.

"Sunny, beautiful and full of bees" sounds better than "full of wasps."

And I'm with Zef. Fuzzy bumblebees, let 'em pass. Every other stinging bastard, bee or wasp, you're name is motherfucker to me!

I need to learn Zoltan's "kill the killer bee" trick...

I love Scotch eggs too, though I realize it would be far more effective to simply jam a syringe full of lard directly into my heart sac.

My brother has the kind of bee sting allergy that's rather serious--i.e. he will die if stung--and thus that makes me slightly prejudicial toward all insects of that ilk; Dad and I had to set up a yellowjacket trap the other week and I am happy to report that it's about two-thirds full at this point. I've worried about the karmic implications there, but considering it's in my direct line of sight whenever I go outside to smoke, I figure that I'm doing my bit to curtain my own mortality accordingly (which I guarantee is the strangest rationalization for nicotine addiction you will read this week).

I don't think I knew what "dirty Sanchez" meant until I read this little nugget o' internet hilarity that my niece, bless her, was kind enough to have tweeted about semi-recently. (I still haven't read the whole thing but literally blew snot out my nose laughing at, "the Bullwinkle.")

The other day Dad reported that MOT had had hiccups earlier, but after he described the motions involved, I had to explain that El Emmo was hairballing instead. Still, we've had the kids on Science Diet Sensitive Stomach since I moved up here, and it seems to be quelling their urpyness to some extent. (So much for Hairball Formula, eh?)

I've got Dave Thomas' SCTV book, but much like with that book of weird postcards I sent you, I've had my fun with it already, so do you want me to send it along? Or do you have it already?

Edited by author 10-16-2009 07:26 PM
I've got Dave Thomas' SCTV book, but much like with that book of weird postcards I sent you, I've had my fun with it already, so do you want me to send it along?

Oh yes, please! That's a book that I heard was coming out, then completely forgot about it! I really only bought the Second City book for the SCTV chapter anyway. Thank you!

edit: Can I send you something in return? Like the Colbert book; no matter how good, I don't imagine that I'll read that more than once.

Nah, all I require from you is positive karmic vibrations and reports of happy kitties. (The occasional GQ shot don't hurt none either, mind you.)

I'm srsly OMGWTFBBQ?! about your boss, though. Can you not report his ass and/or get him fired, or will that simply rebound inconveniently back onto you? Jeez, I may be a former drunk, but I was never that way at work, at least. Pathetic addict unprofessional much? D=

Can you not report his ass and/or get him fired, or will that simply rebound inconveniently back onto you?

He's been friends with the owner, Dave, for about 40 years, and Dave knows about the boozing. We've lost customers over the years because of his antics, but he fortunately spends most of his time out of public view.

When my last job sold a store and didn't have a position for me, they got me my current one. Jimmy, who knew Dave but only knew of the store from what salesmen told him, said, "You'll like working for Dave! He's a great guy, and takes good care of his employees. [pause] The store manager's got a real drinking problem, though." That's some widespread fame.

I lost a friend (only 19 years old) to a drunk driver who got a slap on the wrist (he was from the richest family in town--named Cheney, although I don't know if there's a relation to the most evil person in recent American history--and the cops waited 3 hours before giving him the breathalyzer, so he could sober up). When I first started working here, believe me, it was hard not to call the local cops and report him. He somehow managed to get off a "fleeing the scene of an accident" charge on a fender-bender. His story was that the driver of the car he bumped acted crazy and he was afraid, but we all know that he'd had 9 beers and took 2 more for the rush hour commute home.

Funny thing is, is that when he drinks, he's an angry drunk, screaming and swearing over nothing (usually not at employees, though), but when he doesn't drink, he's HAPPY. I always thought that the idea of drinking was to make you feel better! I learned early on "Don't drink when you're angry or depressed, because you'll just feel worse." I guess he likes feeling worse.

Pathetic addict unprofessional much?

He's convinced himself that everyone at work thinks he only has a couple of beers a day, rather than a couple of 6 packs. Oh, and he's on methadone, from his old heroin addiction. Great guy, total role model for me (to avoid being).

Chutes and ladders is called 'Serpientes y escaleras' here.

'Snakes and ladders'. That'd make a so much better movie, and you could cast Samuel L. Jackson as the lead!

-I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking ladder!

Edited by author 10-20-2009 07:18 PM
I lost a friend (only 19 years old) to a drunk driver who got a slap on the wrist

We recently had a traffic fatality here for the first time in years--a 27-year-old woman who had the misfortune to be riding shotgun in a car driven by a smashed-outta-his-gourd guy who not only had his license suspended but also had eluded one charge of vehicular manslaughter via DUI already. Every time we drive past the little roadside memorial for her, I am filled with the fervent hope that they throw the fucking book at him.

He's convinced himself that everyone at work thinks he only has a couple of beers a day, rather than a couple of 6 packs. Oh, and he's on methadone, from his old heroin addiction. Great guy, total role model for me (to avoid being).

Yeah, I've always thought that a crucial component of addiction is denial (and I would know). Part of why I'm sooo glad to have vanished without a trace from Motown--more or less--is the fact that Bobby, the guy I used to use with, has no way of getting in contact with me ever again, cos it absolutely sickened me the way he thought being "clean" meant, "not doing heroin." Meanwhile, he was perpetually tanked out of his gourd on booze, pot, benzos, etc., not to mention his codeine prescription. Yeah, way to follow through on that whole sobriety concept, dude.

I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking ladder!

LMFAO!! *hearts da Zef*

If you check your brain at the door, Transformers 2 is hella fun.

I saw it on IMAX and was laughing the whole time -- between the visceral impact of those special effects, and the sheer dumbness of it, it can be really enjoyable, even the gratuitous "our real armed forces at work" shots.

I think that we'll have to agree to disagree on this one! Hoo-whee, it was so bad I thought that it stinked the whole house up!

Every movie is better in a theater--as anyone who remembers my manic praise for Speed Racer knows! I'm sure that I would've had a better opinion of it if I'd seen it in IMAX. I also would've had a much better opinion of it at home if it was, say, 90 minutes long, rather than 150.

haha yeah, I wish i could get those super fast acting weed brownies just as easily as the transformers mom.

The local radio movie reviewer said of the latest Transformers that he would have rated it much lower, except for all the running in a tight t-shirt the leading chippie did. As it was, he shared Kirk's opinion, and wondered aloud what happened to his brain.

I've committed to never pay money to see one of those kind of films again, so I'll just have to wait for the DVD to come available at the public library, the way I did with the first one (which was sort of not HORRIBLE until the robots started talking).

For what it is, which is terrible, it's absolutely great! Seriously.

Also my girlfriend has a visceral, gut reaction to the realistically rendered giant robots. Like, maybe not quite bad enough to be whatever the robo-equivalent of "furry" is, but...

Edited by author 10-24-2009 10:20 PM
EDIT: Noooo, oh hell. i meant *District* 9. Sector 9 was the title here and i assumed they hadn't translated it.Shows how well my mind works when sober.

And, hell no, it might not be as graphically pretty as Speed Racer, or as full of detail as the anime Metropolis, but it's effin' rockin' to watch in the big screen. I liked the loud audio, at least.


If you love Sci-fi and hate racism, you need to stop whatever is it you're doing and go watch Sector 9, like right the hell now.

you need to stop whatever is it you're doing and go watch Sector 9

They did a sequel to District 9 already?! ;)

I''m waiting for the DVD, but the reviews were universally awesome.

The semi-documentary style of it should work pretty well on the small screen, but I will join the legions of see-it-sayers.

Huh, I hadn't thought of the documentary aspect. I will guiltily admit that, I liked it on the big screen a ton more because, being made by the team that *almost* made the Halo movie, the action is top notch, and as a plus there are a couple references that bring a smile to this gaming nerd's face.

I would if I had anything like netflix! The burro that comes every third day carrying titles from the border never has anything more recent than 2007.

I'd absolutely rent this last reviewed movie, too, but I kinda get enough of that in the news as it is.

What? You can't get Mexican movies in Mexico?! GET A BETTER BURRO! Strap rockets to it or something.

Yeah, it is the news. That's what makes it great: it's the news, if you add 10 or 20 years. I work with people (aka: assholes) who would see that armed wall and nod, "But it would keep us SAFE! From the illegal MEXICANS! And, FUCK, did you see how much LETTUCE costs now?! WHY ISN'T IT CHEAPER?!?!"

All I can think of to get movies (in the realm of 'legality' of course) is blockbuster. How much do you pay for a blockbuster rent in the first world? I have to pay $2 on sale days for a rent, or $3 on a weekend.

Also this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but it seems 90% of mexican movies (outside of the mainstream, of course, which is all romantic wacky comedies with a dash of sexy salsa) are about 'the issues', which is well and good, it calls attention to them, but in the end a movie's not going to change the world (did Gore's do anything tangible?) and I'd rather see that effort pushed into more artful things, fantasy or whatever. It's well and good to call attention to the issues, but what's the point of improving the issues if there's nothing better to look at on the other side (i.e. Imagination and such)

Sorry for the rambling, I'm just hella coming down from a night of partyin'

Got some classic DVK for ya: Lola Dress up 2 of 4

This one is especially timely for me, as I have an appointment with my GYN tomorrow.

For a homophobe, he sure draws the gayest shit imaginable. Look, that one guy's "blowing" that other guy!

So, Negs...you're going to your GYN dressed as a Playboy bunny? Or as a man?

Both. I've added bunny ears and a fluffy tail to my Frank N. Furter costume.

Wait wait, so what's this deposit thing? Here I have to leave a buck if i want to buy beer in a quart+ glass bottle, but otherwise there is no such thing. After I leave the buck, I can either give them back the bottle and get my buck back, or keep it and give it to them whenever i buy a new beer.

Zefster, it costs about $3 to rent a movie, the last time I checked. Of course cos I shell out $24.95 per month for my Netflix subscription, that might have changed in the interim. Here in CA we have a redemption value tax built-in with all recyclable bottles and cans.

Although it's a few years old, a friend at Twitter just passed along this article, so I thought I should do the same for my favorite Enophile. (The interview itself is great, though the intro made me go, "Jeezy creezy, and I thought that I was a wordy-ass writer? Get to the fucking point already!").

Zef:

We have to pay a deposit of 5 cents on every carbonated beverage. Last month, this got changed so that we have to pay a nickel on bottled water, too--but still not iced tea, or alcoholic ciders, or...AHH, it's so confusing. We have that "The manufacturer really wants the bottle back!" thing that you have, on really the big, half-gallon bottles, and then the deposit is $1.50. It's good for the environment when people take their smelly, rank, even sometimes crawling-with-insects bottles back. But not for the guy who has to handle them! I did tell you all about the bottle someone returned to make sure that they got their fucking nickel back on, the one that included the rotting, moldy corpse of a mouse?

Lils:
Thanks! I haven't read the interview with Brain One yet, but I will do so over the weekend!

Ew, Mouse.

I do know what's with that search string though. It's a riddle, but it's been so long since I heard it, I googled it. And found it with the simple string: "Riddle 3 people hotel bellboy" (which granted, could've produced porn results)

_____

Hotel Bill

Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager finds out that the room rate is $25 and gives the bellboy $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to split among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27. The bellboy has another $2, adding up to $29.
Where is the remaining dollar?

New Lackadaisy.

I didn't know Squirrel Nut Zippers was a kind of candy. I'd only ever heard of the band!

Woah, what the hell Lils. Me too!

"Hot" is a damned fine album.

Hi, I've been caught in a time warp (which doesn't exist). Is this thing on?

Just stumbled across a long lost bookmark. And what the hell, Bill is still updating his New. Hooda thunkit.

Nice to see this again. I have to see if I can put the "new" in my RSS reader.

I just had a nightmare about being trapped in a small town fulla Fundies (rather a flashback to living in Wyoming, that) and how one of the evil townsfolk took Sophie as a hostage until I returned the evidence of their predictably-corrupt leader's misdoings, so I'm sending {{massive hugs}} the lovely Jessica's way about now. You've mentioned Majoriam several times before, so I'm absolutely sick at heart to hear about this, and strongly second your sentiments about hoping the big guy will make it through this.

Thank you! He's doing as okay as he can today, but there are still tests to come back. Poor Jess has really gone through the wringer over his health lately, but not as much as Major.

Poor Jess, poor Major...sending thoughts their way. I'm going through the "how much money is too much, what is my breaking point" trauma with my cat right now. You feel like a horrible person even considering it, but you have to...

... and it sucks.

Edited by author 11-20-2009 04:21 PM
Glad to hear the good news on the Major front--Beezer has had a horrible bunch of black gunk emanating from her nose for a while now and after my dad bitched and moaned to high heaven after it cost approx. $150 for MOT to get his shots, I dunno how the fuck I'm gonna come up with the cash to get my cranky old lady seen to. (For now I've settled for regularly cleaning it off with Vaseline, a process with which of course La Beez is utterly thrilled--for the first time in her thirteen years of life, she actually bit me the other day.)

And I sporfled at the virginal joke too, ya know.

tiredcynic:
You have my empathy, and my love for your feline friend. I hope your kitty comes through it okay. Our little ones ask so little, yet give so much.

Our little ones ask so little, yet give so much.

Absafrigglutely. Rather than now getting all weepy and emotional here, I'll merely pass along--with hopes you haven't seen it already--what immediately made me think, "What if Killsy and Byron had a child?"

I'm sitting here chuckling at the expression of immense alarm that Her Beezness got when that clip started playing, and the fact that Sophie is still trying to figger out where those other kitties are.

Killsy's ears pricked up for a second, but otherwise she and DJ ignored it.

FWIW I still always do my own HTML coding ...

Kirk:
When I wrote that, I wondered who I know that writes their own code, and I thought "Of course Kirk does!" But you also coded "JoustPong 3D," whereas I once thought that the BR tag took up less space than the P tag, because P added 2 spaces and BR only one.

Do you do it out of habit, or personal pride? It's about 30/70 for me. A friend once made a joke about me not using Blogger, and I asked him, "So, you're making fun of me for knowing how to do something you can't?"

Good luck to all those beautiful cats =(

I do a combo of hand and machine coding. I do the volume work with an editor - in my case, Namo Webeditor - and then go in and manually tweak the code so it looks exactly the way I want it to. I edit Javascript by hand, too. I'm macho that way, plus it simply gives me more control over the result. When I blog, I write straight HTML rather than use their silly WYSIWYG editor for mere italics and lists.

Ah, another video from Cyriac! I've been a fan of his since I first saw the "animated GIF loop" video and spent several days crawling around in his site. His work has a Salvador Dali appeal for me.

A bit belated, but hi, Mike! Glad to see you again after all these years!

Thoughtty, on that cleaned-up page there are some dead Geocities links. Are you going to recover those pages as well? If you can't get them through the Google cache, then the Wayback Machine might have them.