Monday, January 30, 2006

Speaking of Elise, and Winston the Gnome

So, speaking of Elise from After School Snack, I followed her link to her other blog today which had a link to pregnant paper dolls.

I used the dolls to craft a snarky response to Kyle, who accused me of waiting anxiously for In Her Shoes (it's an MST3K thing). Kyle, in turn, meandered around wishingfish.com until he found something more disturbing: Winston the Gnome. This is Winston - and I'm sure that's supposed to be a pipe in his hand...otherwise some other gnome is in a world of hurt, or is about to be pleasured. Maybe it was a gag gift from Winston's bachelor party - like the Mr. Peter ice cube maker Kyle bought once that we used to torture a certain Microsoft technologies writer. Winston sings too, as long as you fill him up with your words.
Wishingfish has several rather disturbing items for sale. I'm not entirely sure why you'd want Be Nice/Be Good Elf Soap, particularly not if you do a reasonable job of cleaning your privates. And why, why would you want to have a unicorn on your desk impaling someone? It's not cute. It's not clever. It's just downright weird. The unicorn alone says something strange about you, and then topping it off with a mime, new age woman and businessman/boss is just weird. Do people really get away with impaling their boss as a figurine in their cube and not get called out by management? Isn't it stage one in the "How to Spot a Disgruntled Employee" handbook?

And finally, I guess we now know why they put hot women in shower advertising, because this guy is simply not selling me on my very own Microphone Shower Sponge. Why is he wearing jewelry and glasses in the shower - did he just have Lasik? And why do you need a microphone shaped sponge -can't you just sing into anything? Regular sponges are squeezy - so squeeze and pretend - you're going to have to pretend the audience is in their underwear when you make it big anyway, so now is as good of a time as any to practice.

A Nod to Nothing Cloud

Elise from After School Snack pointed me at the make your own blog cloud t-shirt site. I expect myself to be self-referencing, so Scooter and blog aren't surprising, and neither are pooteewheet, eryn, bush, and mean mr. mustard...but I'm pleasantly surprised that gay shows up prominently, as does alien/aliens. Of course several rambling pages of made up conspiracy theory about aliens and the government will probably elevate the words a little, but it wasn't the first time I've babbled about aliens and it won't be the last.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Upright Citizens State of the Union

AmericaBlog has a link to a spoof on GW's State of the Union address. It's big and a little long for work viewing, but thoroughly funny. I'm almost sure it was worth it just for GW's parable about Jesus and Walking in the Sand at the end.

It took me a moment of watching it to realize that the performers were The Upright Citizen's Brigade, a group that used to have a show on comedy central that was pretty funny and contained one of my favorite skits on comedy central, "Ass Pennies". The skit is about two brothers, one very successful, the other seeking advice. The successful brother advices the other one to stick $30 worth of pennies up his ass every day and spend them, resulting in a feeling of superiority whenever he meets someone as they probably have one of his "ass pennies" in their pocket. The brother is horrified, and it devolves into a fight wherein the successful brother points out that he's stuffed 1.1 million pennies up his butt so far in the eleven years he's been creating ass pennies, and one of the pennies in the other brother's pocket is, no doubt, an ass penny.

You can probably grab a copy at either of these places, although it might not be work safe to read something with the title "ass pennies" over the company internet.

The Balk

Eryn drew me this picture. She's says it's a "Balk". I turned it sideways and it looked sort of like a face. She assured me it is not a face, it is a Balk. I said, "Isn't that an eye?" Eryn said, "That's the mouth." I said, "Then what is that?" Eryn said, "That's the butt." Oh. And then for good measure she pointed at the curve in the picture and said, "That's its whirly thing." WTF is a whirly thing, and why is it between your mouth and your butt?

On Friday, we took her to the maxilo-facial-something specialist in Apple Valley to have her backed-up spit gland (mucocele) looked at. You can see exactly how much of a problem it's causing her in the picture below. The specialist said, "It'll have to be surgically removed. She'll need general anesthetic to remove it as she's younger than four." (paraphrasing). General anesthesia? "Well," she told us, "it's not hurting her, and unless it gets bigger, you can just wait it out." So we harrassed my mother, the nurse, who said to make sure adults other than us were watching it as they had a longer period between viewings and would known better whether it was growing, and to use a piece of saranwrap and a permanent marker to get a measure of the thing so we could know for sure if it was growing, then wait it out. No sense putting your kid under general anesthesia for something that will be an office visit later if it's not hurting them. Unnecessary risk. This, of course, is warring with seeing the bump on her lip and thinking, "get it off, get it off, get it off", which is probably just the teenager in me knowing that if I'd had that thing on my lip when I was aware it was on my lip and aware it was gross, I'd have been freaking just a bit.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Project Censored

I sometimes ponder taking Fark off my aggregator list, and then I find something on their constantly scrolling list of items that I don't find anywhere else, like this: Project Censored's Top 10 Project Censored News Stories (Fark link, with comments). "Project Censored specializes in covering the top news stories which were either ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media each year." There are a few stories on that list, which is actually 25 news stories, that I hadn't heard. You can read all about what happened in Fallujah, hemispheric plans for Canada, little known stock fraud, AIDS experiments, military expansion in South America, and tsunami as opportunity. A lot of good reading with plenty of links and a book on Amazon if you're into paper copy.

Dan'l Should Quit Paying His Phone Bill

My friend Dan'l spent his time overseas during Gulf I after getting some training in Farsi, and ever since he came back, he's been sure the clicking and bad phone service he gets are indicative of the government listening in on him - to make sure he didn't make illicit contacts overseas, to monitor whether just knowing Farsi changes his brain patterns, who knows. Pooteewheet and Dan'l's wife Cookie Queen don't help the matter by trilling at each other on the phone all the time just in case someone is listening in.

Well, according to Matt at After School Snack (via PBS), it appears Dan'l may be right, and he may want to just stop paying his phone bill and let the government pick up the charge for him.
"Here's one more tidbit on wire-taps: They get you free phone service! The feds tapped the phone of the Sisters of Mercy in Washington D.C. because of some anti-war stance or something they took in the 1980s. The good sisters noticed some kind of clicking on the phone at times, and finally decided that someone must have tapped into their phone. Their solution: Don't pay the bill so the phone company will have to shut off the phone. The phone never went dead, and they quit sending them bills! The Feds wouldn't let Ma Bell shut them down, and probably began paying the bills. The sisters talked long and free with their friends across the country!"

Perhaps There's a Real Conspiracy Afoot

I followed the Boing Boing link to the short Encyclopedia Britannica film about how democracies become depostisms. I think the original is much more amusing than the one with spliced in footage - it doesn't really require the remake to allow someone to draw comparisons with the current state of the union. However, what I did not expect to see in a move that is 60 years old is George W. Bush at the beginning of his acting career. I can't be certain that's him in the lower left yucking it up when the big boss explains how he's the one who makes the rules - but it sure looks like him in my med-res version. Does he suck the blood out of a poor person once every 80 years to renew himself, like in The Hunger or is he actually a member of the Illuminati and they really do have the secret to eternal youth?

Friday, January 27, 2006

There is an Invidious Conspiracy Arrayed Against Me

Warning – indigenous nudity ahead…

It has come to my attention through years of patient study of the truths contained in the Bible, Wikipedia and Addison Wesley’s Design Patterns that there is a conspiracy swirling around me which must be addressed. It is a conspiracy that affects every member of the human race, particularly you, so I shall attempt to lay out the insidious nature and abundant convolutions forthrightly, delineating in a structured list the proof of what is afoot.

There is a conspiracy between our government and three alien groups: the counter aliens, the contra-aliens, and the hypna-aliens. These groups of aliens sometimes refer to themselves by their historical names from human mythology: demons, daemons, and djinn.

I find things in my recycling bin at work that are not mine and that should not be recycled.

There is a man in a very small, three-by-three foot room on the lower level, where I work, hooked into a wireless network via one gigabit subcutaneous mind links. He is constantly reviewing my code and introducing errors and inconsistencies. Sometimes these inconsistencies are designed to gage my reaction to stress and sometimes to solve the problems of his masters by tricking me into using my alien-adjusted mind to bring a different level of psychic focus to bear on their issues. At other times, the code he introduces are calls for help, as he himself is watched and errors are introduced into his work on me just as he introduces errors into my work. The frequency of his intrusion increased when he moved from a 100 megabit to 1 gigabit linkspeed connection. What good does it do my company, his masters in the government, and the counter-aliens (which is the branch of aliens leading this particular experiment) to expend so much money and effort to control me? It makes no sense whatsoever. Yet they do it nonetheless.

At other times, the coding errors are mysteriously corrected. This is the work of the “original” or “prime” aliens, although their mythological/historical name is the angels or valkyries, and is meant to inform me of the time of their arrival to herald my rebirth as their spiritual and military leader. At the appointed time they shall leave their hypercube within the earth, a space almost invisible, yet internally containing a complete battle fleet, exit via the North Pole, and fly to my side. Other hypercube bases exist throughout the solar system. One is on the moon, and another is on an undiscovered fifteenth planet the angels call “Eden”. This is the same Eden in the Bible from whence Adam and Eve were evicted by the ultimate fusion of counter, contra and hypna alien, the grandfather of all three races, Satan/Loki, who had corrupted that hypercube with asynchronous mental orchestrations of extraordinary deviousness in order to work his plan to bring about the downfall of the angels and the enslavement of humankind. The story of the snake and the apple is an allegory for the infusion of alien DNA into Eve via Satan/Loki’s squidlike mating arm. This is the same DNA of which I am a direct inheritor – a Scion of human/angelic/alien fusion. This is information known to the Catholic Church, though they withhold the knowledge from the laity, coding it within the Bible in order to pass the story from priest to priest. The number of angels living in all these hypercube bases is 333,333,333,333, or 111,111,111,111 in each hypercube base. Yet within their hypercubes they truly fit on the head of a pin. The number of counter, contra and hypna aliens is 222,222,222,222 of each race, or 666,666,666,666. The number of failed alien cloning attempts of me in order to reharvest the original human/angelic/alien fused DNA strain before the angels leave their hypercubes and seek my leadership will be 143,999. This proves that I alone am the tribes of Israel and the resurrection and rapture of me is what will save humankind.

The water bottle on my desk always has a little less water in it when I come back to work after the weekend. Someone is drinking it.

As stated previously, there are attempts to clone me underway. The hypna-aliens harvest the hair and skin cells from my keyboard to clone me and track me. They intend to create another hypna/contra/counter-alien/me clone using their DNA altering techniques, but have failed to apprehend that I allowed them to do this to me before I was born, while still in the womb, and that any other copies of me are instantly and quantumly aware of this and refuse to allow it to happen again because it is not part of the plan.

The government and the hypna/counter/contra-aliens have created the web to distract me and waste my time – to keep me from more important things such as fully understanding my destiny. I blog to convince them this is working.

My wife, who denies me the constant sex necessary to build chakratic energy sufficient to break through the hypna/contra/counter-alien orchestrations and correlations loosely binding the valkyric/angelic hypercubes, is part of the alien plan. She records the results of this deprivation experiment and other alien/government experiments on her “blog” for my humiliation and as yet another record of the alien/government program. I suspect her to be most closely aligned with the hypna aliens, who long ago manipulated my DNA, before my birth, to give me a predilection for those likely to dye their hair red, which is a sign of hypna-alien hybridization.

Sometimes only one side of my headphones works and my yellow highlighter is replaced with a green highlighter. Outlook shows me appointments I never agreed to attend and there is evidence of an inhuman impression in my cube chair frequently preceding these events.

There are fingerprints on my Sarah Silverman postcard, and I can not verify they are mine.

My daughter may not actually be my offspring, but the fusion of hypna-alien and human DNA, like my wife. My daughter’s similarity in appearance to me proves the hypna-aliens infused with me with some of their DNA long ago to get me to marry my wife by building a preference for their kind into my genes before I was born. However, this same DNA, magnitudily reinforcing the original Eve-Satan/Loki strains of the alien DNA I have inherited, makes me the one individual capable of understanding the aliens and their goals, the one individual capable of defeating them, and the natural leader for the angels. Normal spatiality for me, because of the magnitudily-reinforced DNA strains, is perceived as a series of hypershapes, allowing me to understand the bindings the counter/contra/hypna-aliens have placed on the angels hypercube bases and to formulate intrusions and backdoors to those bindings which will allow me to dispel them upon achieving a sufficient reserve of chakratic energy coupled with an enlightened mental state.

The hypna/counter/contra aliens and the government stage elaborate plays to confuse me. For example, the other day, two of their agents discussed Videodrome versus The Running Man on the elevator, dropping hints about mind control in the corporate setting that were designed to test the level of functionality within which I am operating, given the level of influence and interference to which they currently have me subjected.

The government, and therefore the hypna/contra/counter-aliens, track me and report on me using Microsoft Reporting Services and Microsoft Biztalk Server, the later to ensure report delivery and availability using complex compensations. They find this safety and redundancy of systems imperative in case the angels attack and the fallout and interference from terra-watt space lasers temporarily renders their web services unavailable.

The Truth and Reality Behind What You Think Is Real

They are forcing me to consider living at home with my mother as their intrusion into all aspects of my life is shattering my relationships. They are worried I am the messiah, and I am, and that the rapture that comes with my true awakening and the subsequent return of King Arthur in that time of need to act as my sword against their bindings, will endanger their corrupt alien/alien-slave administration.

Several remote locators advertise within the back of my Harper’s magazine. This is to mock me and to let me know that the hypna/counter/contra-aliens are watching me. Also, that they are searching for the hypercubes, to bind them with invidious correlation sets before they can disgorge their angelic soldiers. The advertisements are obviously targeted at me, even though it is wasted on the thousands of other readers who cannot understand its meaning.

The free milk, coffee and fruit at work are for the benefit of no one but me. Others only pretend to eat their food. Its intent is to fill me with chemicals to control my mind and further alter my DNA. The hypna/contra/counter-aliens have the nerve to introduce these chemicals right in front of me, as with the coffee machine the other day, just to see if I will react. If I react, they will try to harm me, for I will have admitted I am aware of their plans before they feel they are ready to stop me. The coffee shop within my building is also a part of this plan, but compounds the process by adding addictive chemicals to their coffee.


The counter/contra/hypna-aliens and their human slaves have caused me no end of concern by stealing my copyrighted name for other uses, in violation of internationally sanctioned laws against such use. They have contrived to deny me access to the World Court to obtain satisfaction. The breadth of this illegality is evident in such infringements as Scott Adams, Orson Scott Card, Ridley Scott, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the other Scott in my workgroup, Scott Township (Minnesota), Scott Island (Canada), Dred Scott, Francis Scott Key, Ben Scott Folds, the U.S.S. Scott, and Scotland. I have filed a patent, and it is pending, and countered with numerous lawsuits against said perpetrators, including the U.S. Navy, Ben Folds Five, Canada and the King of Scotland I have also filed a petition to remit all proceeds from the National Anthem and the song Superman (It’s Not Easy) for my personal use.

Klund knew about the conspiracy against me and attempted to warn me of the dangers of working where I was constantly under surveillance by the hypna/contra/counter-aliens, the U.S. government, and the man in the little room, but was exiled to St. Peter in an attempt to suppress his knowledge. Mr. Mustard also knew about the conspiracy, but was replaced during a promotion by a counter-alien that mimics him in almost every way, yet cannot always contain the genetic rage that consumes that race. I originally thought that he had been replaced by the counter/contra/hypna alien fusion known to us as Loki/Satan, but it is now obvious that he is but a foot soldier in that army.

Less sunlight is reaching the earth. This is proof that the binding correlations of the hypna/contra/counter-aliens are being strengthened in anticipation of my self-actualization, Arthur/Christ’s resurrection in the time of need, and the upcoming battle between the valkyries/angels and the counter/contra/hypna-aliens and their human and human/alien hybrid slaves, in the battle that will be known as Armageddon or Ragnarok.

Sometimes I cannot find my car in the parking lot at work. This is not because I forget where it is, but because my work, the government, and the hypna/contra/counter-aliens take turns moving it. I believe they sometimes use it to run errands and procure Chipotle burrito boxes for their meetings reviewing my mental state, the progress of the binding correlations and accompanying invidious orchestrations, and the completion status of their conspiracy against me and the rest of humanity, which depends on my well being and self actualization.

This has been a creative review of Kooks by Donna Kossy (pub. Feral House).

Thursday, January 26, 2006

IP Spotting

I followed Sex Drive Daily's link to IP Spotting (absolutely work safe), a site that takes your IP address and tries to find some sort of numerological meaning in it. My IP Address resulted in the following information (below – one shy of a straight, damn it. Foiled on the river.) and a score of 11. One of the things the site does is render your IP as a small bitmap so you can get some sort of totemistic satisfaction out of your spiritual journey to their site.


They gave me a zero score on my dingbat because it didn’t look like anything. But Eryn said the result looked like a checkers game. Pooteewheet said it looked like a no-parking or no-whatever sign (at least the first thing that came to her mind was “no whatever” and not “no sex”). Personally, I feel it has many similarities to a Space Invaders alien. Like in this crop circle photo.

My IP breakdown:
173 is prime (+10)
The country this IP is from (USA) is part of the G8 (+1)
Your IP address as a poker hand:

  • Five of ♥ Hearts

  • Jack of ♣ Clubs

  • Eight of ♥ Hearts

  • Seven of ♦ Diamonds

  • Six of ♠ Spades

Degrees of Liberty

My post that included a picture of the Georgetown law students yesterday drew an offline comment, that I will recount here:

The pic you show in your blog today shows a Franklin quote that has been misused quite a lot.

The quote is really: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

I would argue that there is a difference.

I believe my commenter would like to imply that the salient omission in the Georgetown version of the quote is the word "essential", and secondarily the word "temporary", and that it's an important omisison in that it implies B.F. meant something very different - that the liberty in question has to be evaluated on its own merits and deemed essential or nonessential - sort of like those venial and mortal vices Catholics are always bandying about. It's probably worth arguing that big sin or little sin, they're still sins. And big liberty or little liberty, they're still liberties, or aspects of liberty - but that leads down the whole road to what liberals feel are essential liberties versus what libertarians feel are essential liberties, and there's enough commentary out there about that very issue that I don't have much to add to the accumulated tome.

However, what I can state is that the quote probably wasn't even by Franklin at all, but by Richard Jackson. Franklin actually wrote: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." Which doesn't include the word essential at all and is probably more apropos of the Enron trials restarting. That quote has been misconstrued over the years, including:

  • "They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

  • "He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security."

  • "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."

  • "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." (Wikiquote)
In the end, with the quote hopelessly mangled over time, the issue comes down to which source you use as your attribution and, more importantly, what you are trying to state or communicate, which in this case is that the president circumvented the law to suit his own needs, even after lobbying against loosening the requirements after 9/11 and questioning the constitutionality at that time, and is now following the GOP SOP which is to go on the offensive on as many fronts as possible claiming something was necessary, regardless of whether it was legal. He is not above the law and he is not the final arbitrator of which laws he feels he needs to follow, regardless of what he feels is necessary.

She Says has some extended notes up at Unblague, including links to Bill O'Reilly badmouthing the students, the Daily Show's take on the whole thing, the webcast of Gonzales's speech, a webcast of the panel that followed it, and links to newsfeeds with coverage of the story.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Just Some Day to Day -Ests

Stupidest thing I heard today, on E!: "...Roy was lying lifeless at death's door". I'm sure that's a lot less creepy than standing vitally at death's door.

Second Stupidest thing I heard today, at the bank: Man - "I dropped the envelope, and someone cashed the check. I don't understand how they could cash a check made out to Discover." Bank lady - "Sir, there's no way to know they're not with Discover."

Most surprising (est) thing I heard today, also on E!: Komodo Dragons have venom that can kill you in seconds. Not true. But it is true that they can deliver venom, whereas all this time I thought it was just the bacteria in their mouths causing scepticemia. Well, seems to be that it's a bit of both - they have venom, just no purposed delivery system like the ones God designed more intelligently. This is a fairly new bit of information, but I'm still surprised I missed it.

Funniest thing about West Virginia I read today: they're putting in Dance Dance Revolution at 765 schools. I wish I had video of Christy doing DDR in high school - that would be sweet. As it is, someone related to her has video of her dressed up as a clown for a Rax birthday party. I want it. Please. I promise to give it back as soon as I digitize it.

Saddest thing I ready today: this link to a Boing Boing post about a homoerotic reimaging of Jack Abramoff's Red Scorpion (yes...that Jack Abramoff and that Red Scorpion). Why is it sad? Because the link to the movie is down and I really want to watch it!

Story that cheered me up the most today (b-est): via Boing Boing, law students at Georgetown protesting Alberto Gonzales speaking in favor of illegal wire taps of U.S. citizens. Note that it's not just the students in the cowls with the sign - many of them are facing away from him.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Ridiculous - Opus Dei

Maybe they'll stick the actual copies of the book in plastic covers and put them on the back shelf of the magazine rack at the bookstore. Or is the assumption children watch movies but don't read?
Catholic group Opus Dei has called for the film version of The Da Vinci Code novel to be given an adult rating. The organisation says children should be protected from what it calls "insidious" lies about Catholicism.

Spokesman Marc Carroggio said: "Any adult can distinguish reality from fiction. But you cannot expect a child to make proper judgements."

And yet they go to confirmation class and are expected to do at least a little constructive thinking. Has anyone thought about starting a club to put The Da Vinci Code in the top drawer of every hotel nightstand?

Update: oh, wait, wait...they're going to bless a Hooter's in Waco. I'm sure the kiddies will understand that. No lies or contradictions involved there.

Minvolved

Clever Peasantry, MN Publius and columnists like Rew from The Power Liberal, have teamed up to start an activist blog addressing local/Minnesota candidates for office, Roe v. Wade, how to help your neighbors with family in the Gulf, how to blog, political events, and more. Be sure to check them out at Minvolved.

Monday, January 23, 2006

XML Situps


Luke wasn't so sure this was funny. But as someone who made one of his first blog entries about his own version of Lord of the Rings XML, I really can't criticize.

Rebel or Thief

"Rebel or Thief" - I think that will be the title of a book on the way sooner or later about the Bush administration. I know this because my mother wasted her money on postage to send me "American Compass" the Conservative Alternative book club. She's not a conservative mother worried about her liberal son, just a smartass on the wrong mailing lists. If I join today (which was also yesterday and the day before), I can get five books for only a dollar, including literary excitement like "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race", Trent Lott's "Herding Cats", Chuck Norris's "Against All Odds: My Story", "Thank You, President Bush" which includes essays praising GW by such illuminaries as his own brother (maybe he's got a slow connection so he can't see why so many people interviewed for MN Stories think he's "awesome"), and the highlighted book of the moment, "Rebel in Chief" (that's a review by Patriotboy, btw, not an Amazon link) by Fred Barnes. You can only imagine the depths of my deficit of enthusiasm. I noticed he (GW, not Fred Barnes) was on the television upstairs today, and pointedly ignored him because he was making that old-man-without-his-teeth face he often makes when you know he's perhaps moved off the script and is making things up, and the transcript of the fantasy is always available later anyway. But let's review what made him a rebel today.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Dan Has a Banana on His Head

Yesterday was board gaming day - the first one in many months. We usually schedule around my friend Adam coming down from Brainerd, but he was in a car accident and couldn't come. No one was hurt, but I'm sure he's a bit freaked out going in the ditch with a pregnant wife.

Eight people showed up to drink and play cards and board games, the hard core gamers like Chari and Kyle lasting from ten a.m. until what seemed to be almost midnight. If you include the breakfast trip to Jensen's new breakfast joint by 35W, it actually lasted a few hours longer than that. Jensen's is great, and if you're looking for a breakfast review, the food was delicious, the brown sugar infused maple syrup was unique, and the cheesy hashbrowns were particularly exceptional. It runs a bit on the more expensive side for breakfast, but that's also reflected in the service - I couldn't put my cup of coffee down without getting a refill, which is hard to find nowadays. And it's not Perkin's, yet south of Bloomington - which is unbelievable.

As for actual gaming, Steve got to play The Bootleggers game he'd been eyeing last time he was here. And he won. He also put in quite a showing on Settlers of the Stone Age right at the end of that game, but I think his win at Bootleggers may have convinced two other players at the table that he was a threat. Chari was just irritated she wasn't winning any games at all. And Cindy's brother Paul (Sean's brother in law) seemed particularly enthused that there was a never-ending array of card game opponents.

As for my friend, Dan'l, he put in a good showing, but toward the end of the evening all the cans of Miller beer began to catch up with him. Here he is on the couch downstairs.

Dan'l has a banana on his head
Dan'l has a banana on his head
Dan'l has a banana on his head
And he keeps it there all night...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Gay Cowboys, the Jazz, and well...

I think this is almost what bloggers call a carnival - except it's just me - basically a list of things that are intricately interrelated but in some respects varied in their location and theme. The topic - Brokeback Mountain. Have I seen it? Unfortunately, no. I want to - but Pooteewheet and I haven't had a good chance to do the spousal movie swap lately (oh yeah, we swing that way), so there's been been nothing since The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (actually, I went to The Producers with my dad, but I'm going to dismiss it and pretend I didn't as neither he nor I liked it, unless you count Umma Thurman's jiggling. By the way, speaking of Narnia, my sister Allison is Jesus -Eryn told us so, she said "Aslan, Ceri, and Amelie" and then picked up her Burger King Aslan the Lion plastic toy (Mean Mr. Mustard has the Burger King Mr. Tumnus whistle - blow him Mr. Mustard, blow him!).

Ok, enough digressing...on to some blogging about Brokeback Mountain, which I haven't seen (but will).
  • Salt Lake Tribune article about Larry Miller removing Brokeback Mountain from his movie theaters, yet still showing Hostel - link. Erik (the Hairy Swede) told me about this, and I thought he was talking about Minnesota, but apparently I can't read every blog article in my aggregator, because I would have made the connection.
  • Reader of the Salt Lake Tribune complaining about Larry Miller showing Hostel while removing Brokeback Mountain: link.
  • Video of Larry Miller getting really pissed because the press won't just ignore his bigotry towards gays like they would have in the good ole' gay-bashing days (are they actually gone?), or like they would if this were the country GW wants or like they would if we were the United State of Utah: link.
  • Honestly, gay cowboys are really, really, really frightening and threatening to red state America - they don't know how to cope with The Village People: link.
  • But Cheney has reviewed Brokeback Mountain: link.
  • And Larry Miller is offering some other Jazz promotions: link.
  • And maybe it doesn't matter because Grandma's Boy (please let Nick Swardson be good, please let Nick Swardson be good) is also an issue (Savage Love at the City Pages - see the bottom article): link.
  • And just more on Larry Miller and Brokeback Mountain if you must have more: link.
  • And, oh yeah, it won like four (4) golden globes after seven nominations, including best picture: link.
  • And the golden globes are where George Clooney looked yummy in his tux, and gave a nice little speech criticizing Abramoff: link (video).

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree

Christy gave Eryn a bunch of Ty's books to read quite a while ago - all the ones Ty grew out of over the years. One of Eryn's favorites is "The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree" by Gail Gibbons. It's a good book about the seasons from the perspective of an apple tree, and Eryn particularly likes the fact that part of reading it is reading the dedication, "To Ty, From Grandma Amy, Christmas 2000". For a while, she even seemed convinced that she had a Grandma Amy. However, there is one page in the book that disturbs me, before it even gets to the first season. The question must be asked, just how well does Arnold like his apple tree if "Arnold's tree keeps him busy all through the year."? I really hope he's just taking a leak, or admiring it fondly.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Jonathan the Impaler

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to blog about our local kook because, well, I think he's a loon, and just not really worth the buzz just because he's strange. But the fact that his wife was fired from her job as a bus driver for being a pagan in Princeton...damn I hope that's wrong because it's seriously f-ed up. You should not get fired from being a bus driver for religious reasons unless your religion involves harming children and particularly harming children in a bus-related venue. I hope this drives home a point for Mr. Impaler...you can't consider yourself like anything vaguely approaching a Republican and still expect that they'll support your values if you're different, i.e. not Christian (and potentially, not white...but you seem fine on that front). It's antithetical. You are what fits the cookie cutter mold, or you're gone. If you don't fit the mold, you better damn well either a.) pretend to fit the mold or b.) have enough money to buck the mold, or you're going to pay the price - and selling sparkly cloaks, well, I'm pretty sure that doesn't score enough green to buck the mold, at least not Abramoff style. I don't know of a liberal Democrat friend of mine that would have fired your wife - so keep that in mind while you preach your policy of intolerance and impaled vengence. Embrace a bit of peace and tolerance and it'll embrace you back.

Pooteewheet's Fault?

I'm hoping this is my wife's fault because she's a therapist and using my credit card/account now and then, and not indicative of my recent book purchases on Amazon.

Recommended for You:

The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom

Price: $10.46 Used & new from $7.98

My Father in Law Recently Took Up Geocaching

My father in law recently took up geocaching. I think with his workload and the weather he really hasn't embraced it yet, and there now appears to be one more reason he should be careful about where he puts his stash of geocached goodies.
Rounding a corner on his motorcycle to finish rigging his cache, he was greeted by a barricade of police cars and a bomb squad. He struggled to explain the misunderstanding. "I got off my bike and three officers approached me very cautiously, hands on their holsters," he said. "I was trying to turn off my
MP3 player and I think they were worried I was going for a detonator."

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Some Helpful Advice From Ikea

It was spring cleaning day at the Scooter and Pooteewheet household today - we're just that far ahead of the curve. Mainly this involved finding plastic totes, buying two bookshelves at an extremely crowded Ikea (picture of Eryn hammering a bookshelf below), and then organizing everything out of the basement bedroom into said totes and bookshelves and several great big piles of donatables and trash/recycling.

However, the most important thing gained today - the sage advice from Ikea that one should not hump one's bookshelf, otherwise it might break.



Here's a more family-friendly photo of Eryn and me putting together the white Ikea "Billy model" bookshelf for her room. She also sank the screws herself, so she really did most of the non-lifting work alone.

Strange Ads From My Arizona Brochures - Part IV

Um...I guess the best that can be said for this cactus is that he didn't ask me to wrap my lips around this.

Strange Ads From My Arizona Brochures - Part III

A friend once asked me how I remembered where another friend, Kyle, worked, as that was sometimes the easiest place to call him. I said I used a rather juvenile mneumonic device - I remembered "Kyle works for BJs", and then just kept a pointer in my head to the fact that it was actually TJs. If Kyle would just work for this company, B-J Drilling, I wouldn't need the extra memory pointer, or I could just remember that he was into drilling.

Strange Ads From My Arizona Brochures - Part II

Queen Mine. Lavender Pit. Named after a former manager...sure it is. Sounds more like one of the very first gay pride statements to me. I think The Lavender Pit would be a good name for a gay bar. Sounds like the one my project lead at the State of MN invited me to when he thought I was gay, "Over the Rainbow".


Strange Ads From My Arizona Brochures - Part I

What does it really mean if you're the "Town of Friendly Neighbors" in quotes? Are they actually not really friendly, but pretend to be friendly? Do they act nice most of the time and clap sarcastically when given the chance? And how can "friendly neighbors" be the best tourist feature in your town? And if it is, how does that attract tourists? There are friendly neighbors elsewhere - in most places. I doubt most people have to leave their neighborhood to meet a few friendly neighbors. My friend Steve is a pretty good neighbor. So are the couple to our left and across the street. And come to think of it, if it's a town full of friendly neighbors, how does that do you, the visitor, any good at all? Maybe they're all friendly because they like to band together and do evil things to tourists as a community - some sort of "Children of the Corn" sort of thing (although it's Arizona, so "Children of the Saguaro").

Sexolicious

Just a pictorial post where Pooteewheet denigrates my wordsmithing during a late night bout of hangperson while she was babysitting for my niece. In my defense, she started it by using a proper noun (Dahmer) and telling me that it wasn't like we were playing Scrabble or Boggle. I considered using "truthiness", just for Stephen Colbert, but he seems a bit peeved about not getting credit in the first place.

Eryn Reads

Looking at the inside of her tinfoil Dove chocolate wrapper, "Be a lit-tle my."

"Um...mysterious, honey. But...ah...very good."

Pooteewheet swears it's because we leave the subtitles on whenever she's watching a movie.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Swiftboating

Swiftboating Murtha? Honestly, dig deep and find the shame, guys - you know it's in you somewhere - the ends doesn't justify the means, it just justifies being mean. Details at:

MST3K - Coming Back?

I'm pretty sure if any of these alternative renewals of MST3K were true, my friend Kyle would be looking like someone had spiked his beer with old cigarettes. Although, personally, I can see Morgan Webb hanging with Tom and Crow... (thanks, ~Tild)

I can only assume...

...that this article about caffeine getting certain people sexed up means that Erik and Mean Mr. Mustard have been trying to get me in the mood every morning for the last five years. I don't know why they've been doing it...but it bothers me. And I'm not in the mood. Maybe they should buy me more coffee.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Interlacing

Today I went out for a beer with a company architect, Skippy, and a co-worker, Erik, on my project. We went with the architect's friend, Doug, who's a consultant, who knew a consultant I used to work with when I was a consultant. While at Old Chicago, we bumped into Tall Brad, who was at a non-sanctioned company drinking binge with Starlett, who was on one of my first projects at my company, Karen, who I don't really know but bumped into at breakfast on Lake and the (Mississippi) River last fall, and a few other coworkers. While enjoying a beer Tall Brad bought me, I noticed that one of my business unit guys was sitting nearby, along with one of my ex business unit babes (I know, I know...guy, babe...but she's good natured, she'd appreciate babe more than woman/lady...I think). When I was all done drinking, I went to Rainbow Foods next door to buy my wife heavy cream and half and half and found my project lead buying supplies. She's lived in the same town as me for 3 years and never bumped into me in public. And then I saw another coworker, and then yet another coworker, one that I always see getting coffee every morning, even though I don't know her, although my coffee comrades do.

Did I mention I went to Chipotle after my friends/coworkers this afternoon, but bumped into other friends/coworkers, including Christy, my next door neighbor (and her friend Lisa), and sat next to yet another co-worker, Becky, whose husband works at the same company as my father in law, which I know because I bumped into her at their corporate breakfast/Christmas party where my father in law plays Santa Claus?

I'm starting to feel that Minnesota needs to be a bit larger if I'm ever going to feel like I'm not at work.

Joe's Comment on This Post

Joe's comment on my earlier post was vaguely prophetic, given Regina's post and bluetooth commentary on this talking vibrator (nsfw). "You're right ALL the time" is actually a very funny thing for a talking vibrator to say. However, I think it would funnier just to have your significant other record an enthusiastic "Buzz...BUZZ...bzzzzzzzzz....I'm buzzing...Buzz!" Presumably if you can get your partner to laugh right in the middle of the Big O, they're going to have a heck of a good time.

Clever Peasantry is Right

Clever Peasantry is right, this "Fall Out Boy" hand drawn video by Andrew Mathas is damn funny. I was laughing pretty hard by the time he reached "Drop a Whore".

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Spiral Scouts

Honestly, if it weren't the fact that I was 6'2"+ at 15 (as were several other Scouts in my troop - and really, I was 6' at age 12) and sporting enough muscle to attract a derranged student teacher (oh, muscles, where o' where did you go?), most of the Boy Scouts I know would have been beaten up a lot more, particularly on uniform day. As it was, there was conflict, and the protagonist generally got his a** kicked where no one could claim to be a witness because, well, Scouts don't beat people up. At least that has to be the impression, if not the reality.

But I just can't see uniform day being anything other than the worst day of the week for someone in the Detroit Wiccan Spiral Scouts. Wow does that sound...lame.

By the way, I don't donate money to the Scouts anymore because of their anti-gay stance, regardless of the fact that I'm an Eagle Scout, but if your only reason for founding a separate scouting system is because you want a focus on the environment and citizenship, you should reexamine those Environmental Science, and Citizenship in the Community/Nation/World merit badges.

Ode to Ken Barlow - A Dramatic Reading

My sister has posted a beautiful, yet psychotic, poem to Ken Barlow. I shall now provide a dramatic reading.
this is an audio post - click to play

Alito Hearts Westlaw

I haven't had much time to listen to Alito's hearings - I just can't focus on radio and work at the same time, it's not a particularly good skill of mine. I only get the highlights on MPR after work hours (the whole, you donated, I don't remember why, don't you like women and minorities, I do, I just don't remember, thing today made me laugh). Yet, Mean Mr. Mustard (I wish he'd freaking blog - he's all work and no play, lately; it makes him go something something....although I can't really say anything bad about him as he gave me a brand new Marvin the Martian mug after my wife broke my other one...that's friendship) told me that Alito defended his stance on presidential signing statements (Kos link to hearing info) by noting that Westlaw agreed to put them on their systems (I believe those are some Westlaw books positioned behind him in the photo. No lawyer or judge is willing to pose for a photo op without them, even though 99(.99)% of their research is done via the online version).

I'm sorry...that doesn't mean anything. Westlaw is a great company, but if you base your values and your standards on what they put on their systems, then that includes Playboy without the pictures, gardening magazines, mulching magazines, and anything that might have impact on anything, legally, journalistically, and um...researchistically, at any time in any possible instance, anywhere, for any reason. They are not solely a legal company, despite the fact that they once were. They are an information company. They collect information. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Often used. Seldom used. Never used. They are about information management, so if you have information, it is going to end up either in Westlaw or another Thomson system because they are incredibly good at collecting information and that is their business. They don't care about the fact that presidential signing statements are presidential signing statements other than to tag them with the appropriate xml-encoded category, supply several dozen linking/href tags to associated documents, and push them into a database that makes them accessible, for a fee, to lawyers, journalists, students and other paying customers, who care that they are presidential signing statements. It's almost self-referencing...Westlaw cares about all information, therefore they must care about my information, because it's information, so therefore it must be important information, because it's on Westlaw.

I'm sure the same applies to this memo, it just wouldn't have any value-added commentary.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Racial Shooting in International Falls

This is just very disappointing. They should drum the lesson of the Duluth lynchings into everyone up there - I realize that doesn't fix everything, but it would sure negate the question of whether they were taught any better. And if there's any annoyance about being taught "minority history" they should keep in mind that it's not minority history, it's local history.
A 67-year-old accused of shooting a man just because he is black faces trial this week on attempted murder and other charges.

Authorities allege that James Waltz, who is white, had told a neighbor he hoped to someday kill a black person before he shot Ricky Davis outside a bar in International Falls in November 2004.

...

Witnesses said Waltz was upset that several black men were in the bar on the night of the shooting. He used racial slurs and said blacks didn't belong in the town, the criminal complaint said. He allegedly pointed a handgun at three of Davis' friends, all black. Waltz followed Davis into an alley and shot him in the stomach, the complaint said.

Celine Dion

I know I had an art post recently, but this begged posting. I was looking for a picture of Celine Dion to "photoshop" into a brain MRI picture today to demonstrate to a coworker that his previous MRI for back pain had clearly shown that the problem was pressure on his right frontal lobe by Celine Dion. Strange...but funny if you were there. In the process of Googling a Celine Dion picture to use, however, this was the result. Wow is that just bad...it looks like what you get when you take a picture and apply the "portratize" setting to it in an image-editing program.

What's worse is that the group associated with this picture, which I assume is for sale, or was auctioned, is a PTSD group, Support From Within. Pooteewheet specializes in PTSD (among other things) at her new practice, and I have a hard time believing that it's acceptable to induce PTSD using a painting just so you can treat it - seems very unethical.

Absolutely the Craziest Statement I've Read in a While

Lewis Black has a bit about hearing a statement at a coffee shop that was so out of context and weird that it bothered him to the point of driving him insane. I think that today, PZ Myers crossed this threshold when he wrote:

"I've got a set of procedures that allow me to generate one-eyed fish at will."

Regardless of whether it's true, and I'm sure it is, it's one of those phrases that will bother you whenever you see a fish, read The Odyssey, encounter a biologist, or hear someone create a new euphemism for wanking. And how the hell does one make a hobby out of studying one-eyed biological defects? I think my upbringing unjustly circumscribed my possible hobbies in comparison. Feel free to follow that link and check out his cyclopia collection, by the way - downright peculiar.

I'd say this was unnecessary...

...because I'd mounted a webcam on my wang, but that brings into question the sorts of maneuvers involved, and that's just the most obviously disturbing question one could address.

Is there a need for a vibrator with a mounted camera (nsfw - from Regina Lynn at Sex Drive Daily) if you're not a gynecologist or a proctologist (and really, couldn't they settle for a non-vibrating dildo)? And why do you have to plug it in? Is it too much to ask for an infrared port or something - after all, if they can put ports on Playstation controllers, they should be able to insert...wait, let's say "install"...them on personal toys. RCA jacks indeed.

"Look Deep Inside of Me!

Revolutionary, insertable, micro-camera for internal viewing action!! Powerful, multispeed, vibrating stimulator with a microsized, close-up lens camera that can be inserted for your viewing pleasure. Easily plug into your television or record on your VCR. Includes removable Silicone tickler sleeve and RCA jacks for your convenience. Uses 4 AA batteries, not included."

Monday, January 09, 2006

Sexual Reassignment

Boots the Monkey, erstwhile sidekick of Dora the Explorer, lost his tail today at our house. Being an enterprising father, I took my cordless drill and gave him, well, an asshole. Really, it was a tailhole, so that there was a place to glue in the tail, but it looked really wrong. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been, and almost drilled a hole completely through him, discoloring the plastic on his crotch, which would have given boots a vagina or, more disturbingly, once the tail was inserted, a willy. I'm pretty sure he would have discretely disappeared and been replaced at that point.

There's Only Several Thousand Mona Lisas...

That's right, I'm grabbing my title from a TG Sheppard song. Just cope.

I got a catalog for Design Toscano today, and I have to say that the Mistress Oriana sculpture, which is some sort of bat girl in a g-string with a "cocoa brown bustier", is pretty darn sad. I just can't see a wall in my house dedicated to the half-dressed fairy and anti-fairy art of Alan Dickinson. Likewise, this "Feline Stretch" Balinese sculpture (probably nsfw unless you work in an art museum) from Basil Street Gallery (whose catalog also came today), were it on my fireplace mantle, would convince my friends I was living a lifestyle I just couldn't keep up with in reality.

But far, far worse, in my opinion, is this travesty of classical art, the "Mona Lisa Contemporary Wall Art". Most people would be content with a copy of the Mona Lisa in their house, if that was their artistic "thing", but not everyone. No, some people need their Mona Lisa to spring to life, and not in one of those laser/magic eye paintings, but literally 3-D, her beauty extending "six inches from the wall", the hands, face and bust sticking out of the painting like one of those creepy, light up, I'm stuck in the wall faces you get on Halloween. Nothing says class quite so much like not being able to make up your mind about whether you want a reproduction of a painting or a reproduction of a sculpture, but give up and settle for both. Truly the zinfandel of art.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Books 2005

Well, I managed to top 2004, though I was still over 5,000 pages short of my banner year (1996). I read 40 books, totaling 12,890 pages last year. Total since 1994 when I started keeping track (Access 2.0!), 141,645 pages in 386 books/short stories. Here's 2005, most recent first.

Odd Jobs: Portraits of Unusual OccupationsRica Schiff, Nancy
Innocents, TheNeufeld, Peter and Barry Scheck (Taryn Simon and the Innocence Project)
Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Stories, TheWilde, Oscar
Coyote BlueMoore, Christopher
King RatMieville, China
Men Who Stare at Goats, TheRonson, Jon
IliumSimmons, Dan
Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower VI)King, Stephen
Island of the Sequined Love NunMoore, Christoper
Eastern Standard TribeDoctorow, Cory
Iron SunriseStross, Charles
Reaper Man (Discworld XI)Pratchett, Terry
Singularlity SkyStross, Charles
Moving Pictures (Discworld X)Pratchett, Terry
Eric (Faust - strikethrough the word) (Discworld IX)Pratchett, Terry
Another Roadside AttractionRobbins, Tom
Guards! Guards! (Discworld VIII)Pratchett, Terry
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise DaysReynolds, Alastair
OutKirino, Natsuo
Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of NoahKaplan, Jeffrey
THEM: Adventures with ExtremistsRonson, Jon
Pyramids (Discworld VII)Pratchett, Terry
Wyrd Sisters (Discworld VI)Pratchett, Terry
Sourcery (Discworld V)Pratchett, Terry
Gil's All Fright DinerMartinez, A. Lee
McSweeney's Enchanged Chamber of Astonishing StoriesChabon, Michael (ed.)
Soldiers of God: White Supremacists and Their Holy War for AmericaBushard, Howard L. and John R. Craig and Myra Barnes, PhD
Death on the Fourth of JulyNeiwert, David A.
Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American CommunityNeiwert, David A.
Timelike InfinityBaxter, Stephen
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeHaddon, Mark
DiaryPalahniuk, Chuck
World Treasury of Science Fiction, TheHartwell, David G. (ed.)
CoalescentBaxter, Stephen
Mike Nelson's Mind Over MattersNelson, Michael J.
Liar, TheFry, Stephen
Terry Jones's War on the War on TerrorJones, Terry
LullabyPalahnuik, Chuck
Invisible MonstersPalahnuik, Chuck
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas TerrorMoore, Christopher

Friday, January 06, 2006

My poor little girl...

Pooteewheet has a post about the nasty thing my daughter Eryn has adopted. Honestly, just gross. And I have to say I feel incredibly bad that after the doctor's appointment, I had to go back to work and check my health care plan to determine what the impact was going to be. With Pooteewheet setting up her own therapy practice (anyone with PTSD or in need of EMDR, or just in need of therapy is free to contact her), and my company switching to "design your own" insurance two Decembers ago, the intersection of health care and outflow of savings was a bit worrisome. No danger of losing the house or anything - just a different issue than it might have been a year ago. I will admit, I looked up the trauma and details first, before insurance information; I'm not a monster.

While it might require surgery and stitches on the lip to get rid of her bump, I have to say that when she's 16, she'll probably be giddy with delight that it happened now and not then. I picture a breakup with the boyfriend over the gross lip pimple if she were 16, and way more crying than a bit of gas and a blade/liquid nitrogen/laser now.

Remember When I Said "I'm Such a Child"?

Remember When I Said "I'm Such a Child"? Well, tonight I snickered when my wife asked me where Lappland was.

Surly Brewing

MNSpeak had a link to the new brewery in Minnesota, Surly Brewing, as well as commentary about whether their name is overkill given Surly bikes. I know I'll try some if it makes it to the Cellars or one of my other local beer stores, but I can't imagine it will ever replace Summit as my beer of choice. I have had many, many beers, and enjoyed quite a few of them - heck, I've brewed several thousand of my own and currently have a kit sitting downstairs (the Surly guys are homebrew guys going upscale). But when I have to find a stock of beer for my basement fridge, I always find myself resorting to Summit EPA and whatever their current seasonal happens to be (Winter Ale at the moment) - there's just nothing quite so good. It's a competitive market between Summit and Schell's (Summit focuses on their strength, absolutely kick ass beer. Schell's focuses on their strength, brewing everything under the sun for anyone who wants to contract a batch), so I'm wondering if Surly will find a place - after all, James Page didn't.

If the Wege whines about Bell's Two Hearted, well, I have to admit, that's actually a shade tastier as an ale than Summit, but Summit is a good $6 cheaper per 12 pack most of the time, on tap in more locations locally, and it's a Minnesota beer. Summit has local specials, gives away free glasses with the beer, gives their employees company stock, sends an employee team to RAGBRAI (the across Iowa bike ride) with beer, they give volunteers the "bad" beer with the misplaced labels...honestly, that's just good community spirit and love for your employees. It almost makes my bottle cap break...wait...it does.

All Canada Show

Today through the 8th, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, you will be able to attend the All Canada Show, which highlights the glory, the beauty, and the attractions of our neighbor to the north. As you might assume, any convention highlighting Canadian tourism that's designed to appeal to those of us in the U.S. has to feature a bit of content dealing with hunting. After all, it's not enough to export violence to Toronto, as their mayor claims we're doing, but we need to go there and kill things ourselves. This is where what one is likely to see at the All Canada show diverges wildly from anything I possibly care about. For instance:

Sam Hunter - polar bear guide, tells us about the Hudson Bay area and his job as a polar bear guide. I saw the episode of Survivorman they filmed in the Hudson Bay area. That's enough. I just never need to meet a polar bear outside a zoo.

Locked at Lac Seul - presented by Cabela's. "This exhibit is a first of its kind. The display consists of two life-sized trophy moose with horns locked in a 'duel to the death.'"..."It has taken more than a year from concept to completion of project."

Someone spent a year of their life mocking up two dead moose fighting each other? I simply do not see the attraction. They're dead. They weren't locked in combat before death, they've been posed that way. And they are in distinct opposition to Sam Hunter. Sam wants to show you live polar bears in the wild, not tame ones in a zoo, or dead ones that are stuffed. These are moose denuded of all their wildness - I got a bigger thrill watching Survivorman hide from a moose in a lake.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I'm Such a Child

Some days it's extremely difficult to tell whether I ever matured beyond the age of 13. For instance, every year when I take this ornament out of the box, I chuckle to myself, for a really long time.

And every year when I put it away, I chuckle some more.

Movies I Watched - 2005

Posted as a public service announcement, so the FBI doesn't have to request the list from Netflix. Posted from most recent, to least recent. And yes, there are 129 of them for 2005 alone and they are only the things we watched on Netflix, not in the theater and not via pay per view (the clean kind) and not on IFC.

Favorites: Unforgivable Blackness (absolutely enthralling - just amazing), Motorcycle Diaries, Fitzcarraldo, Kinsey, Gunner Palace, Tae Guk Gi, Iron Jawed Angels, Persona, Naussica of the Valley of the Wind, The Woodsman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Five Obstructions, Touching the Void. Oldboy and Calamari Wrestler get props for being "memorable".

Not on the list, but watched this year and absolutely loved: Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic".

Hated: Elmopalooza (really, Eryn concurs), Versus, Anchorman, Duplex, Boo the Movie,Vampires Out for Blood, The Horror Within, Darkness, Alone in the Dark, Orgazmo, The Brown Bunny, Closer. Those were the out and out one-star flops at first glance - there were an amazing number of twos. We'll watch anything, but it'll get a bad rating if it deserves it.

Not on the list, but watched this year and absolutely loathed: "The Cave".

The List:
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson: Disc 1 (2-Disc Series)
Robots
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 3: Vol. 1 (2-Disc Series)
Burnt Money
The Calamari Wrestler
Fire
Farmingville: POV
Come Undone
Peeping Tom
House of Wax
A Tale of Two Sisters
Lost: Season 1: Disc 6 (7-Disc Series)
I'm Not Scared
Lost: Season 1: Disc 5 (7-Disc Series)
Closer
Lost: Season 1: Disc 4 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 1: Disc 3 (7-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 1: Disc 2 (7-Disc Series)
Bush's Brain
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 2: Vol. 2 (2-Disc Series)
Lost: Season 1: Disc 1 (7-Disc Series)
City of God
Downfall
Layer Cake
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 2: Vol. 1 (2-Disc Series)
Oldboy
Friday Night Lights
A Very Long Engagement
Seven Samurai
8.5
The Brown Bunny
Assisted Living
The Motorcycle Diaries
In the Realms of the Unreal
Shallow Ground
The Girl from Monday
Steamboy
The Aviator
Voices of a Distant Star
Down by Law
Born Into Brothels
Kinsey
Fitzcarraldo
Gunner Palace
M
Naked States
Millennium Actress
Rashomon
Suspect Zero
Through a Glass Darkly
Orgazmo
Team America: World Police
Throne of Blood
The Machinist
Being Julia
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
Finding Neverland
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Persona
Memories
Iron Jawed Angels
Lewis Black: Black on Broadway
Hidden Fortress
Primer
Alone in the Dark
The Merchant of Venice
The Corporation
Northfork
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Darkness
Vera Drake
The Horror Within
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Bottle Rocket
The United States of Leland
The Woodsman
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1: Vol. 1 (2-Disc Series)
Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
Danny Deckchair
The Yes Men
Akira
Dead Birds
King Arthur
Ocean's Twelve
The Final Cut
Elling
Since Otar Left
Robot Stories
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Rules of Attraction
Storytelling
Saw
The Bourne Supremacy
Closely Watched Trains
Word Wars
The Bourne Identity
Vampires: Out for Blood
Exorcist: The Beginning
I Heart Huckabees
Cube Zero
Man Bites Dog
Maria Full of Grace
Head in the Clouds
Garden State
Hero
Napoleon Dynamite
Boo! The Movie
Paragraph 175
The Five Obstructions
Duplex (Widescreen)
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Kiki's Delivery Service
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
The Sopranos: Season 4: Disc 4 (4-Disc Series)
Open Water
Home on the Range
Pieces of April
Audition
I, Robot
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Journeys with George
Versus: Director's Cut
Sesame Street: Elmopalooza!
The Terminal
Touching the Void
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Coffee and Cigarettes
The Wiggles: Cold Spaghetti Western

Tinfoil Hats

My friend Christy has a New Year's tradition that involves her son, tinfoil hats and chocolate coins - something like that. I don't entirely understand the whole tradition - maybe it keeps the NSA wiretaps away for the year (very forward looking of Christy, she's been observing the tradition for years). Whatever the reasoning, she and her son were kind enough to make Eryn a hat. I realize it looks a bit fancier than it is, with the light and everything, but I'm sure if Christy could make the hat with a light on top, she would.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Hello Kitty Cosplay

I'm just not so certain that the Hello Kitty Cosplay sign belongs next to the indoor playground at Rosedale. I understand that it's not usually sexual, like it often is with furries, but I'd rather no one was encouraging my daughter to run around dressed up like Hello Kitty all the time. And if she decides this (below) is what she wants to look like, I'm going to be a bit distressed. I'll try to be understanding, but I'll still be deeply and profoundly distressed.

Is there a society for people who like to dress up like famous cyclists? Just wondering...no reason.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Best and Worst Songs 2005

Hell no, I don't have my own list - but I have links to other lists for 2005, and after posting a link to the top 50 videos, I thought this was appropriate. Something to enjoy on a rainy Minnesota January morning (it's sort of like the new year just decided to pee on us).

  • City Pages Culture to Go, KMOJ's Best of 2005 - I've heard of the artists, but not most of the songs (except that Jamie Foxx and Kanye West thing).
  • City Pages Culture to Go, Worst of 2005 - I agree about "My Humps" - that is soooo painful. And anything by the Pussycat Dolls is stomach churning.
  • Planet Dan's 2005 Favorites - apparently he's heard the Kanye West song as well. I know many more of these artists, though not all their songs. I've heard some of them by listening to Dan's play list over the year and input from my work pal, Erik. Dan and I intersect on Fiona Apple - I like her new stuff better than her first album.
  • Planet Dan's 2005 Least Favorite - I like Green Day (although they have been overplaying the whole album if you ever listen to the radio), but the Lifehouse, Dave Matthews, Nickelback and Tim McGraw picks are spot on. I don't question why he doesn't like Tori Amos, but I do wonder why he notes "Writes Songs with 12 Year Old Girls" because, to the best of my knowledge, those are the only people who watch shows with characters named Lorelai and Rory.
  • Boing Boing's best mashups of 2005 - fully a musical movement I do not understand.
  • Twin Cities music writers poll at the Strib - I am familiar with Melodious Owl and Low.
  • Elise at After School Snack has a top poetry list - some people claim music is just poetry with a tune, so I guess Elise's list counts, although her list does not restrict itself to poems from 2005 (unless Chaucer has risen, and if he did, how would anyone know, because only English majors understand him). I know more poets and poems on this list (and have actually read them) than songs in the KMOJ list.
  • And finally, via the Blotter, possibly nsfw J.R.R. Tolkein commentary on elf sex (gay elves? kissing cousins? interspecies sex is death?), because those elves are making sweet sweet music together.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Cycling Links

I think my resolution for 2006 is not to be sick. I am fully put out over being ill. I was ill after my trip to Arizona, and starting Thursday I was ill again and am still ill, but this time with the flu not some bacterium. Hacking, fever, chills, sweating, steam baths to relieve sinuses on top of several kinds of various sinus/flu drugs, headache, aching joints and back, all so bad that I only had two hours of sleep on Thursday and Friday, all while trying to go through the motions of acting normally on a long weekend. As for any resolutions about riding my trainer more...right out the damn window until I can breathe enough not to be dizzy and winded just sitting still.

So, if I can't bike, I bring you a few biking links: