USB Strike

A rather cool gizmo. A USB missile launcher. Saw it on woot.

Ron Paul on Colbert

Notice how the audience only cheers the anti-Bush positions. Ron Paul says he wants to do away with the UN and not one peep.

"If you saw the Pope in jeans, you'd be like Catholics are idiots."

My Generation, sung by The Zimmers, a bunch of old people

Final shot may catch you off guard. The 90-year-old lead guitarist is really something else.

Dance for your diplomat! Dance! Now, Riverdance!

Dilbert - 106 - Elbonian Trip
Uploaded by Tehpeej

Wang

According to the AFP, (via Drudge), China is running out of surnames. For example,

"Current Chinese law states that children are only allowed take the surname from either their mother or father, but the lack of variety means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang."

This of course leads to problems...

"Guan Xihua, a household registration officer with the Beijing public security bureau, said the lack of variety caused trouble in daily life and the new regulation would slash repetition."

Now the Chinese are attempting to solve the problem by combining the surnames of the parents (the husband's and the wife's maiden name). Now we can have the Wangwangs.

(The content of this post has been modified).

Travolta is a vampire!

Apparently he only goes out at night in order to avoid the paparazzi--and by "avoid the paparazzi" he means to suck the blood of the innocent in order to prolong his undead existence.

Notice the similarities??

Whoa!

If you ever wanted to watch a tv show or anime or movie or music video online but don't want to search, this is your site: TV Links.
(photo from: http://static.flickr.com/44/151086288_c10778a64a.jpg

For Mok-san...

Trinity Blood (1-24, I think there are 2 not included here).

For Paul up north...

Here are my favorite video sites:

Veoh
YouTube
Daily Motion
Throw Away Your TV
MyRawr (Full Movies)

And some anime links...
Samurai Champloo
Witch Hunter Robin

Witch huntin'

Text post here...

Been watching an-I-me! Witch Hunter Robin -- sweet. Noir -- looks good after one episode.

Domo, Six-san.

Also watched all of the Blame! anime on YouTube. For the most part, waste...of...time. Although it does provide good fodder for AMV's. A bit too abstract to be great, although it does have its moments. Also, almost done with Samurai Champloo. Check these out if you got the time, especially Mok-san.

Tusky

Here are some pictures (taken by moi) of items from the library's ivory collection.

Global warming warning

From Drudge. Senator Inhofe mocks climate change hysteria. Good sense in this, especially good points about the conflicts interests of carbon caps and helping 3rd world nations. Read the speech here.

He he he

My lens is back!

After a difficult time shooting Pirates of Penzance without AF, a long wait, and a nearly $100 bill, I have my lens back. The AF works!

Down below...

In a parking lot....

Pirates + CS2

More "Pirates"

Pirates of Penzance Pix

From the school musical. Good production. Note, my AF was broken so I had to use manual focus for all of these....

To prevent global warming, the idiots are out in force

I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting .

--Singer Sheryl Crow

Glad SHE lost

Tranny loses Prom King title. Fresno: We're on the map for meth and transexual high school students.

Buddhist Monks Throw Punches

Partial Birth Abortion Ban Upheld!

Finally, a step forward! And I like this picture as well.

The Court's opinions here (in PDF).

Kill Quentin?

Article on The Times' web site about why Tarantino's latest, Grindhouse, flopped and how he may be on the out and outs. There was one particular passage which struck my eye:

How, pundits asked, can a moronic sword’n’sandals romp such as 300 make $400 million at the box office, while a smart cine-literate action parody such as Grindhouse completely dies? The New York Times suggested that this wasn’t the end for the Weinsteins, just a bump in the road. But Business Week announced that it should be a lesson for Hollywood, and that dumb audience-friendly movies such as 300 and Ghost Rider were the way of the future.

Well, it seems rather obvious. "Moronic sword'n'sandal romps" appeal to audiences looking for violence and action. A "smart cine-literate action parody" requires several factors for success. First, people need to have actually seen the films parodied. To hazard a guess, I would say that most of the people who saw--and liked--Kill Bill weren't familiar with the films Tarantino was honoring/paroding. Same here. How many people have seen the 70's "B movies" which Tarantino refers to in Grindhouse. Does Tarantino's knowledge of these films make his "cine-literate"? Am I "cine-literate" if I am quite knowledgeable about low grade horror/action films from the seventies? Are B movies the cinematic equivalent of literature? Is Grindhouse worth seeing?

On the face of it all, the lesson Hollywood should learn is not that dumb audience-friendly movies are the way of the future. At least I hope not. What Hollywood ought to learn is that exceedingly "clever" directors, like Tarantino, aren't necessarily making movies which appear attractive to the the average joe--or teenage boy in the coveted 18-24 demographic. If critics want Hollywood to make good films, there is not much that they can do about it. Hollywood doesn't care about critics until the Oscars roll around or until the studio's ad department has to fill in the space of newspaper movie ads with words.

Critics are right for lamenting moronic dreck like Ghost Rider. But Grindhouse isn't intelligent. It's "smart" but not intelligent. It's "clever" but not witty. Simply put, Grindhouse failing is nothing to cry about. Critics lamenting its failure is.

Pearls is funny

Oh, I'm almost at 300 posts. Yipee.

Getty

More backup from Feb.

I call it "Untitled" because I don't have a title for it. But I do like it quite a bit.

Style from February

126 lit up

Some guys

Aye Aye, Captain

Joy comes in the morning

Cool video here.

Oh and I just bought my 580EX flash.

From the Apocalypto Teaser

YouTube comment area is horrible

Stumbled Upon this comic which perfectly states what a stage for idiocy the YouTube comments sections are. See the comic here.

Art imitating nature...

Article here.

From Brothers Karamazov

And breaking away from Ivan, he again rushed at Dmitri. But Dmitri raised both his hands and suddenly seized the old man by the two surviving wisps of hair on his temples, pulled, and smashed him against the floor. He even had time to kick the fallen man in the face two or three time with his heel. The old man let out a shrill moan.

Something Awful Fun (Photoshop Phriday!)

Kafka for kids

Nice source for those looking into grad school

http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/

Mystery Science Theater 3000 and other things

There was a request for information about how I am doing. Well, here is your morning/afternoon/whatever-time-of-day-it-is-right-now-as-you-
are-reading-it update:

I can't wait to get back to school. Being at home completely throws me off of my routine. When I come home, I sail into port, a port which has lots of reefs and rocks and a very dim lighthouse keeper, resulting in my time being sacraficed upon the reefs and rocks of distraction and such. (Translation: I have only read 100 pages of Brothers K. and don't have any actual drafts for my thesis, just multiple Word documents filled with my thoughts, which, when I get down to it, will be molded into a draft).

Christmas was nice. My brother is now "dating." I haven't gotten around to buying a flash for my camera.

Well read

So, according to the comments, he's talented AND well read. Well, we already knew both, but it's nice to see other people being observant (although to not have read Macbeth makes one not well read, I don't know if merely reading Macbeth renders one well read--not that he isn't well read, so in this case I am only questioning the inference of the commentator, not the conclusion).

To quote,

... and, by the way, as a B.A. of liberal arts, an author, and a classicist, I do consider myself rather well read. Well placed though, my friend.

Good reply.

Xmas letters

I don't think my family has even sent ours out yet. I like Rat's brevity.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and Such

Happy Boxing Day!

I have finally bit the conspiracy bullet and watched one of those 9/11 conspiracy films that are floating around the net. It raised a few reasonable questions (actually, one reasonable question):

Where was the plane wreakage at the pentagon? 'Cause it isn't in the pictures the guy showed.

Other than that, the video, featuring the host of some radio show called "The Power Hour" (*snigger*--what a silly name), was filled with leaps in logic, logical fallacies, annoying "ominous" music of the same variety used by The Discovery Channel in that Tacoma Narrows Bridge documentary (oooooo, a bridge collapsed! CONSPIRACY...or something like that), and bad logic. You can watch this video here. Or above if YouTube ever posts the movie on the blog (mumble grumble stupid YouTube mumble grumble). I am annoyed with this guy's "train of thought."

A lot of assumptions.

Then you can visit this wonderful debunking of 9/11 conspiracy theories here (be sure to listen to the radio program on the first page).

ChristmasBack

Maybe not the funniest video ever, but it amused me.

Opera is out of control (more Robot Chicken)

Titanic IM-Style (Robot Chicken)

HAHAHAHA

Robot Chicken - Weird Al

A clip from Robot Chicken, either by Weird Al or in the style of Weird Al.

Robot Chicken - Calvin and Hobbes

A different take on the creation of St. John's most famous grad.

More Xmas Day

Xmas Day Pictures

Pictures

Hahahaha

Bedtime Stories by Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead. (Not actually by Thom Yorke, but quite funny).

'fro

Fire fun