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| Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | | 6:36 pm |
| | Friday, October 23rd, 2009 | | 5:56 pm |
Another stupid Bird thing for sam...
Why do I think of you when I see these things? The Mating Ritual of the common Loon.  When a FAP is executed successfully by one partner, it triggers the next FAP in the other partner. Thus the entire routine is a chain of FAPs that must be performed flawlessly if mating is to occur Flawless FAP chain! Combo x100! Current Mood:  amused | | Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | | 1:21 pm |
Theology 1
A: "If there's a loving god, why is there war and suffering on Earth?" B: "Because god gave humans free will" A: "So, will we have free will in Heaven?" thoughts from the religious? | | Monday, October 19th, 2009 | | 7:41 pm |
Banksy Quote
A good quote from Banksy, thought I'd share.
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.
Current Mood:  pensiveCurrent Music: h.i.m. - your sweet six six six | | Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | | 11:06 pm |
SALE SALE SALE
I just bought the Company of Heroes Complete Pack for $30... today only on Steam. And I convinced ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shockwavesix to buy it too, so here's hoping we can start playing some multiplayer soon. Also for those of you who appreciate Civilization IV, check out the Civ IV Complete Edition for $20 on Steam. Now, I go to play Brutal Legend with Sam. The bass is all the way up. The intro alone is epic. Current Mood:  aggravatedCurrent Music: METAL | | Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | | 6:28 pm |
| | Friday, September 4th, 2009 | | 5:09 pm |
A legend.
http://www.drunkard.com/issues/10_06/10_06_andre_giant.htmlThe tale of a truly epic man, both in appetite, attitude, and stature. An excerpt from this fascinating article.
You won’t find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard 12-ounce bottles of beer, nothing fancy, but during a six-hour period Andre drank 119 of them. It was one of the few times Andre got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel. His companions, quite drunk themselves, couldn’t move the big man. Fearing trouble with cops, they stole a piano cover from the lounge and draped it over Andre’s inert form. He slept peacefully until morning, unmolested by anyone. Perhaps the hotel people thought he was a piece of furniture.
Think about it: 119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop. That’s beyond epic. It’s beyond the ken of mortal men. It’s god-like.
Current Mood: busy | | Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | | 2:54 pm |
Wild Boars
From the wikipedia entry on Wild Boar... At least three Roman Legions are known to have had a boar as their emblems: Legio I Italica, Legio X Fretensis and Legio XX Valeria Victrix. X Fretensis was centrally involved in the First Jewish–Roman War, culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in 70 AD. In addition, it was stationed in Roman-occupied Judea for centuries and was involved in numerous other acts of oppression against the Jews. By one theory, resentment of this Legion's boar emblem, which came to be identified with extreme destruction and persecution, partly accounts for the deep-rooted traditional Jewish aversion for pork. (The Bible does not single out pigs in comparison with the many other unclean animals whose flesh is forbidden; nevertheless, in actual Jewish culture pigs are clearly singled out for a special, highly emotional loathing, of a kind not directed at other unclean animals)
So, the Jewish dislike for pork and pigs may be in part because the Romans were huge assholes two thousand years ago. Current Mood:  bored | | Monday, August 17th, 2009 | | 2:27 pm |
District 9
District 9 is the best science fiction film of the year... with the exception of "Moon", which I haven't seen yet, and "Star Trek" which was as much an action film as anything. D9 may even be the best science fiction film in the last few years, since I can't really think of anything else quite on its caliber - with the possible exception of "Children of Men". Unlike "Children of Men", D9's bleak view on human nature is somewhat tempered by a more personable protagonist. The film begins documentary-style, then progresses into a more traditional action-film format while occasionally reverting to drive home subtle points. Subtlety? In an action-sci-fi flick about aliens? The themes expressed in painful detail are greed and xenophobia, both masterfully set against the background of south African poverty. The parallels to apartheid are uncomfortably close to home, but the director Neill Blomkamp never preaches to his audience. There's no brute-force moral at the end of the film, and no public service announcement about 'love-thy-neighbor', but District 9 accomplishes two things rarely seen in a Hollywood summer blockbuster - it makes you think, and it's genuinely entertaining. The first half may drag a bit, especially if one expects the movie shown in the trailers - full of gunfights and robotic alien exoskeletons. Don't give up on it. The scenes filmed in actual south african shanty towns are authentically filthy. The CG aliens blend perfectly with the environment, both due to rendering quality, cinematographic composition, and the director's skilled ability to treat the CG actors almost as human characters - not just digital artifacts. District 9 definitely earns its R-rating with scenes of gore and brutal violence. While some might feel it unnecessary, I felt myself genuinely unnerved by some of the scenes - both the body-horror moments of inhuman transformation, the agonizing pain of torture, and the disturbingly real portrayal of violence against the aliens - scenes that play out against humans on the nightly news. There is vomit, gore, cannibalism, alien dissection, gunshot executions... but it's never done to impress, only to convey the reality and deadly seriousness of this film. Not to say that it's a boring piece of work. Despite its brutal themes we see a wide spectrum of emotion - both human and inhuman - that somehow never feels out-of-place. There are laughs among the horrors, touching moments are found in between moments of nauseating violence, and real romantic feeling hidden behind intolerable cruelty. In one film, we cover the highest and lowest peaks of feeling, and it's never fake. This is the power of good cinema - to take the truth of human existence and distill it into a tale that resonates with every sentient being. You will feel bad by the end of the movie. You will think deeply. You will cheer the protagonists, and thrill at the well-choreographed action, but you will trade in a bit of your faith in humanity. Neat gadgets abound within a fully realized world, but at its core District 9 represents the purest purpose of science fiction - exploring a future that hasn't happened yet, based on where we are right now. There are very real situations exactly like this film, being played out in third world countries all across this globe, and if a science fiction film about aliens opens people's eyes, then Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson deserve far more recognition than simple box office gross. District 9 is an impressive film by Hollywood standards, but by human standards, it's a work of art. Don't let the exploding people, cool alien weaponry, and intense firefights distract you from the true message of this film - we treat humans as badly, or worse, than the aliens of District 9 - with an equal amount of greed, exploitation, xenophobia, and contempt. Current Mood:  blah | | Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | | 6:28 pm |
| | Monday, July 20th, 2009 | | 7:32 pm |
| | Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 10:34 am |
| | Friday, July 10th, 2009 | | 7:42 pm |
Bruce Sterling at Reboot 11
Epic good. He's saying a lot of what I've been thinking for the past few months. Current Mood: contemplative | | Monday, June 29th, 2009 | | 11:40 pm |
| | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 9:55 pm |
| | Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | | 10:32 am |
| | Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | | 7:54 am |
I went to bed at about 8pm last night for a 'nap'. I woke up this morning at about 6am. What. The. Fuck. The only possible answer is that I'm psychically stealing xianvox's sleep-ration. | | Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | | 4:00 pm |
| | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 2:53 pm |
Fifteen Books
geekmama did this one, which is pretty good as far as memes go. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.1. "On the Beach" - Nevil Shute 2. "Lord of the Flies" - William Golding 3. "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" - H.P. Lovecraft 4. "Childhood's End" - Arthur C. Clarke 5. "A Stainless Steel Rat is Born" - Harry Harrison 6. The Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). 7. "Fahrenheit 451" - Ray Bradbury 8. "The Martian Chronicles" - Ray Bradbury 9. "Perdido Street Station" - China Mieville 10. "Deathbird Stories" - Harlan Ellison 11. "On Killing" - Lt. Col. Dave Grossman 12. "Phantoms in the Brain" - V.S. Ramachandran 13. "The Selfish Gene" - Richard Dawkins 14. " Zero - the Biography of a Dangerous Idea" - Charles Seife 15. "Snow Crash" - Neal Stephenson There are many, many more, but these are a fairly decent cross-section of my mental library. | | Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | | 7:23 pm |
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