tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2637325601803551132024-02-20T01:39:33.080-08:00A Wretched Hive of Scum and VillainyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-59931527108005791252004-05-27T13:45:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:06:01.488-07:00New URLI've officially switched my url to <a href="http://awretchedhive.blogspot.com/">http://awretchedhive.blogspot.com</a>. Go there from now I. The power of Christ compels you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-37447671639823336552004-05-27T12:52:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:08:34.709-07:00Jimmy Crack Corn... and I don't like musicalsIt still baffles me the interest level in the nouveau-Star-Search,
pretentiously called "American Idol". Apparently, someone
vaingloriously named <a href="http://entertainment.msn.com/tv/netcal/?netcal=125">Fantasia won</a>
the contest last night. When my girlfriend had the clicker the other
night I was subjected to about 10 minutes of the show. Seriously, this
is quality programming? I will aver from expressing contempt towards
people who revere and/or buy the products shoveled out by theses shows,
and just chalk it up to one of those things I am not conditioned or
programmed to appreciate.<br /><br />That list has included, for many years,
any and all manner of musicals. I've never been able to appreciate
musicals in any form. For those minor musical movies I admit are
classics and I quote from, such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005LINE/102-6193042-1291359?v=glance">Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory</a>,
technology comes to the rescue. Through the miracle of DVD I jump over
the dancing/singing scenes so I can enjoy the twisted humor and sharp
dialogue. <br /><br />Coincidentally, the other night I also (forced, could not acquire remote) watched about 20 minutes of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005JLSE/qid=1085677233/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6193042-1291359?v=glance&s=dvd">Chicago</a>,
purported to be a top-notch musical on film. Again, I just couldn't
maintain much of a passing interest in the routines. The conversation
good and the plot seemed pretty interesting, but when the characters
would break into song in the middle of dialogue, for me it would bring
the film to a screeching halt.<br /><br />The best way for me to explain
what I mean is to make a parallel to science-fiction. In the genre of
these movies there is an ability each viewer must possess to fully enjoy
the films, and that is <i>suspension of disbelief</i>. What this
means, in short, is that the viewer must be able to put aside his/her
doubts about the validity of the technological devices or bizarre
characters being seen in the film and just accept that these things or
characters are 'real'. Failure to do this will seriously impair the
viewer from getting all the enjoyment out of the film.<br /><br />To illustrate (I have time on my hands and I feel like it, so there), let's use an example from AN EXCELLENT FILM called <i>Star Wars: Attack of the Clones</i>.
Roll your eyes if you must, but you might learn something here about
yourself. Now, if someone watching the film observes him/herself that
'lightspeed' is physically impossible, or at least beyond our present
comprehension, and that fact sticks in their head they won't be paying
attention to the film or enjoying it as much. This would be analogous
to a student listening to a lecture who gets stuck on one point and
starts daydreaming about it, thus ceasing to hear the lecturer for those
few minutes.<br /><br />Or, let's use the more famous example of the
beloved and hated Jar Jar Binks. Preconceived notions brought on by
contemptable and ridiculous racial reviews of the character might make
observing his role in the story difficult because the viewer will be
upset or put off by how they are offended that this space alien's voice
sounds as if a black man is doing the reading (he is!!!). Whatever the
reason, the viewer's mood is soured and he/she is unable to suspend
their disbelief about the character. They are jarred from the filmgoing
experience (I could have used 'jar-jarred', but I'm not cruel).<br /><br />And
that is what happens to me every time a character inexplicably switches
from dialogue to a song. THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE! my mind
shouts. And it's too late and I'm thrown for a loop. In other words I
am much more able to suspend disbelief, film-wise, that a man can shoot
webs out of his wrists than burst into song and dance with 100 strangers
on the street.<br /><br />There is that major problem, but, lo, there's
another: the songs themselves. I DON'T LIKE SHOWTUNES IN THEMSELVES. I
don't like the songs, I don't have records of them (despite my aversion
to musicals, I have heard quite a few numbers in my time -- you can't
avoid it), and I don't sing them or like listening to them when driving
in a cross-country car trip to get my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305181381/102-6193042-1291359?v=glance">Sure Thing</a>.
I don't remember a time it hasn't been that way, and, like my
political convictions, it's not that I don't understand the issue or the
concept, it's that I just <i>don't like it or don't agree with it</i>.<br /><br />The
only thing I can expect, and hope to in turn deliver to everyone I meet
or write to, is the same consideration that we are not all of the same
fiber, the same genes, the same background, and there is nothing wrong
with [most of] us. That I don't like beans or disagree with liberals or
Christians doesn't mean that there is something wrong with beans (ha).
It just means that opinions are like assholes -- everyone's got one --
and if you respect mine, I'll respect yours.<br /><br />Unless you like American Idol.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-69195914043628557012004-05-26T13:13:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:11:01.372-07:00If you can't come in her, come on her<a href="http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/">Jaquandor</a> posted about a group of Christians whose intent is to <a href="http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2004/05/can-we-star-wars-fans-all-take-over.html">lead a modern-day secession</a>.
Seems that these particular zealots want to move to a particular crop
of land, take over, and start its own nation to keep out the heathens.
They have most likely been inspired by Israel's overwhelmingly succesful
and docile independent state, knowing that where the Jews failed they
would succeed thanks to the guiding hand of Jesus who suffered for 2
hours and 11 celluloidal minutes at the actor-Jews' behest.<br /><br />They
have, no doubt, received inspiration from reading scripture. In doing
so, must have looked amongst the thousands of pages (depending on how
heavy you like your biblical myth) of lore for the proper words, the
perfect mantra for a holy cause. After much deliberation, they came up
with this quote quote for their <a href="http://christianexodus.org/">website headliner</a>:<br />
<ul>"Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins..." - Revelation 18:4</ul>
Of
all the myriad quotes they could have chosen as their banner, this one
is the one they voted on? The double entendre is hilarious. Not only
do we now understand where antiquated Catholic birth control technique
originates, but get a true understanding what these lewd Christians are
all about, and maybe a little misogyny thrown in to boot. Come, yes,
come with us!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-89260536435692389402004-05-21T13:47:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:12:57.632-07:00<a href="" name="108516213156142354"> </a><br />
<a href="http://washingtonienne.blogspot.com/2004/05/i-just-got-back-to-blogging-and-boy-is.html">"I Just Got Back to Blogging and Boy is My Asshole Tired"</a><br />You just don't get many good post titles anymore. That's just one of the sexcapade posts from <a href="http://washingtonienne.blogspot.com/">The Washingtonienne</a>,
the hot blogging Capital Hill (former) Staff Assistant who has been
turning tricks on the side with presidential appointees. Unfortunately,
her recent new blogs have segued into the land of the ridiculous and
all-out whorish.<br /><br />Her original blog got removed from Blogster when it hit too close to home, but you can read it <a href="http://www.wonkette.com/archives/the-lost-washingtonienne-wonkette-exclusive-etc-etc-004162.php">here</a>.
This stuff was a lot more genuine-sounding than the new stuff above,
her observations jaded and funny and somehow just a little sweet. To
save some time, here's her summation of acronyms:<br />
<ul>FD=The intern in my office whom I want to fuck.<br />X=Married man who pays me for sex. Chief of Staff at one of the gov agencies, appointed by Bush.<br />T=Lost
my virginity to him and fell in love. Dude who has been driving me
crazy since 1999. Lives in Springfield, IL. Flies halfway across the
country to fuck me, then I don't hear from him for weeks. <br />HK=Dude from the Senate office I interned in Jan. thru Feb. Hired me as an intern. Broke up my relationship w/ QV (see below).<br />QV=Serious, long-term boyfriend whom I lived with since 2001. Disastrous break up in March, but still seeing each other.<br />P=AKA "Threesome Dude." Somebody I would rather forget about.<br />YZ=My new office bf with whom I am embroiled in an office sex scandal. The current favorite.<br />K=A sugar daddy who wants nothing but anal. Keep trying to end it with him, but the money is too good.<br /><br />Shit. I'm fucking six guys. Ewww.</ul>
But still my favorite quote has to be:<ul>A man who tries to fuck you in the ass when you are sober does not love you.</ul>
That's entertainment. At least for me today. I don't want to work today and that's that.<br /><br />UPDATE: The Washingtoniette <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48909-2004May22.html">revealed</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-41296921420316965592004-05-21T10:09:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:14:28.764-07:00"I love the sound of my own voice", or, "Somewhere I have a point, right?"Greetings again, bored Friday people. I have some riveting news to report, concerning VH1's <a href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/50_most_awesomely_bad_songs/series_countdown.jhtml">50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever</a> (their words, not mine) list. <br /><br />More
often then not when I go down the list, I was a little put out by the
choices listed. Huey Lewis' "Heart of Rock and Roll" may be tiresome
and 80's to some, but it is a good song and definitely not #10 (adding
insult is that it edged out "Rico Suave"!). Watching the show itself
lent a little insight into the decision process. The commentators were
obscure comedians (I should put that in quotes) or VH1 staff that
weren't particularly insightful or explanatory as to their choices.<br /><br />In
particular, there was one egghead who they kept referencing for what
must be the basis for all opinions on the show. I have no idea who he
was, but my guess is his name is Andrew Hershberger. Not because this
name is on my list of usual suspects, but for the singularly confusing <a href="http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Television&action=page&obj_id=41541">opinion/rant piece</a> posted this week on <a href="http://www.cinescape.com/">Cinescape</a>.
Andy's (we are on a first name basis) piece doesn't so much as break
down the show or give any kind of insight as provide a forum for this
kid's ageist blathering:<br />
<ul>I was watching VH1 the other day and they
had one of those "worst songs of all time" shows on and by the end when
such abominations as "Everybody Have Fun Tonight," "Achy Breaky Heart,"
and "We Built This City" reared their ugly head and won the coveted top
spots I realized this list is made by 30-year-olds. Crusty, pungent,
has-been 30-year-olds... Who, besides geriatrics, remembers listening to
"The Heart of Rock & Roll" or "The Final Countdown" when they had
the immediacy of a contemporary offering?</ul>
I'd agree with Andy that
those songs hardly merit inclusion on the list, but his logic seems to
be that old music (i.e., from [aghast] 20 years ago) should be relegated
to a meat locker somewhere. He then goes on to comment on the
inclusion of recent songs:<ul>Out of fifty songs, nine were from this
decade alone. Out of 10,000 years of music composition nine of the worst
sonic atrocities have been made in the last five years.</ul>
His
viewpoint seems to veer somewhere between outrage that 80's songs are
even listed and recent songs have been included. Huh? Of course, Andy
should know that there are very few bands worth shit out there (that
didn't exist before 1996), and if his own generation's music has been
dragged through 15 miles of shit (so there!). However, he also seems a
little upset that 'old' pop music has been stealing the thunder of VH1.
What exactly is his complaint? Alas, the world may never know.
Possibly that his education (assuming facts not in evidence) did not
include a class on essay writing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-47042259876001255222004-05-04T13:26:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:15:48.242-07:00Plugging the Sasser holeAs you may be aware, there's a new worm making the rounds on the computer virus network called <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4890780/">Sasser</a>. Yesterday, I downloaded a <a href="http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/">removal utility</a> that found <i>two</i> instances of Sasser on my home PC and removed them (and a trojan horse, too, but I don't want to steal <a href="http://troymovie.warnerbros.com/">anyone's</a> thunder).<br /><br />The
worm appeared only to overload my CPU so that I was unable to do much
of anything. It was more of an annoyance than anything else -- before I
got the virus, I merely stopped the application that was hogging all
the processing power. However, Microsoft apparently thought it not so
much a pest as a <a href="http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/content.cfm?articleid=3716&EID=0">pain-in-the-ass</a>, judging by the turn of phrase in the article:<br />
<ul>Sasser
appeared on Friday and exploits a recently disclosed hole in a
component of Windows called the Local Security Authority Subsystem
Service, or LSASS. Microsoft released a software patch, MS04-011, on
April 13 that plugs the LSASS hole.</ul>
And now all Windows has to do is stop metaphorically bending over.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-73488258343431772022004-04-28T17:54:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:16:49.980-07:00Cheney Speech<a href="http://www.marcnet.org/marcland/archives/000642.html">Here's</a> a transcript and commentary on VP Dick Cheney's speech out in Fulton recently. I like to read.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-68953168067361251992004-04-23T15:31:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:17:42.385-07:00Sad, but inspiring newsI just heard that former Arizona Cardinals receiver Pat Tillman has been <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4815441/">killed in action in Afghanistan</a>.
This guy gave up millions of dollars to go serve as a Ranger defending
his country. It's one of those stories that you may have heard quite a
bit in WWII, but never these days. I'm sad for his wife and family.
Maybe they'll name the new stadium after him.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-62334979050515004152004-04-04T13:47:00.000-07:002012-06-14T22:20:22.477-07:00How to ruin a great gameI'm upset. I feel cheated. And it's not because <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4660889/">UConn rallied to beat Duke</a>
last night in the Final Four. It's because the referees tried to ruin
the game by calling the most ridiculous fouls ever. They had UConn's
premier player (Okafor) benched after playing 3 minutes in the first
half by calling two ticky-tack invisible fouls. My Duke team, not to be
overlooked, get just about every starting player in foul trouble using
the same method. Randolph and Williams, our two big men (not counting
Horvath, who, while good, isn't either of them), fouled out with seven
minutes or so left in the second half, leaving Okafor completely
unchallenged to lead a comeback. <br /><br />Incomprehensibly, the referees
called only the fouls that weren't there, but ignored some amazing
hacks. The one that comes to mind most clearly is the hard foul on
Redick in Duke's last possesion. You don't see Krzyzewski, a class act
of a coach, often on the sidelines screaming, "That's bullshit! That's
bullshit!!" When he's lost his cool, you know there's something wrong.
And what is wrong is this game could have been classic. It could have
been magical. Instead, thanks to three stupid zebras, we got two
championship-caliber teams fighting it out with one arm tied behind
their backs.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661164/">Michael Wilbon</a> of the Washington Post was there, and his column says it pretty good:<br />
<ul><i>They
came close to ruining the game. With eight minutes to go half the
people in the Alamodome, some with no rooting interests whatsoever,
began chanting, "Let them play! Let them play!" David Hall, Olandis
Poole and Ted Hillary apparently never heard the sentiment that zebras
should be seen but not heard. <br /><br />There was never any kind of flow
or back-and-forth rhythm to the game, even though Duke and Connecticut
are polished teams offensively. And neither is particularly physical or
foul-prone. UConn vs. Duke isn't Michigan State vs. Oklahoma. UConn and
Duke rely on skill; they play beautiful basketball. They don't hack it
up. Yet, the game was ugly, perhaps even unsatisfying, because the
officiating was embarrassingly, even unforgettably awful and actually
prevented the teams from playing to the level they'd shown through the
first four games of the tournament. All three of them should have been
taken from the court at the half and been replaced during intermission.</i></ul>
It's too bad. I'm pissed, but what can you do? (Answer: see <a href="http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/hellboy/hellsite/">Hellboy</a> today, that's what!)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-30661016864752102742004-03-04T13:27:00.000-08:002014-02-15T04:52:01.664-08:00That's Mr. Durden to youTook Quizilla's "What movie do you belong in?" quiz, and lo and behold, this is what I got, and I am indeed proud:<br />
<br />
<img alt="CWINDOWSDesktopFightclub.jpg" border="0" src="http://images.quizilla.com/S/SuperCurlz/1059384212_pFightclub.jpg" /><br />
Fight Club!<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://quizilla.com/users/SuperCurlz/quizzes/What%20movie%20Do%20you%20Belong%20in%3F(many%20different%20outcomes!)/"> <span>What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)</span></a><br />
<span>brought to you by <a href="http://quizilla.com/">Quizilla</a></span><br />
<br />
The list of all possible outcomes is <a href="http://quizilla.com/cgi-bin/result/list/list.pl">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-20205305331669020282004-03-04T13:15:00.000-08:002014-02-15T04:49:43.513-08:00Batman: The Ultimate CastThe new <a href="http://filmforce.ign.com/batman/">Batman movie</a> in production continues to add to its already formidable cast with the addition of <a href="http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Movies&action=page&type_id=&cat_id=270338&obj_id=40977">Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon</a>:<br />
<ul>The cast includes Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Katie Holmes as Rachel Dodson, Liam Neeson as Ducard, Ken Watanabe as ra's al Ghul, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane, and Larry Holden as D.A. Fisk.</ul>
Is it too early to get excited? Never!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263732560180355113.post-54233280412809558342004-03-01T09:51:00.000-08:002014-02-15T04:44:55.659-08:00Technological AdvancesIt's amazing, but this internet <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~welder1956/att00003.htm">orgasmic simulator</a> really does capture a realistic facsimile.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com