1. Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five. I don't care who thinks he's overrated, he's one of my geek heroes.
2. High-speed internet.
3. xkcd.
4. Gosford Park. I'd forgotten how much I fucking love this movie. The characterization is fantastic, the casting is unbelievable -with Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, Stephen Fry, and Ryan Phillipe, among others- and the dry humor is brilliant. I really can't think of enough superlatives to describe it, so just go watch it right now.
5. The Goops' cover of "Build Me Up Buttercup." It's the one played in Mallrats. This is the movie tie-in music video, featuring Jay and Silent Bob (duh).
6. Sleep.
7. Cats.
8. The Garden State soundtrack. Even if the movie wasn't great, its awesome soundtrack would compensate.
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
10. Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
But They're Just Helping Out!
Every bit of angry union brat in me is screaming.
I hate the contractors in Iraq. Hate. Blackwater and Halliburton and all of them...and it isn't just because I'm opposed to the war. Their incompetence and endangerment of lives fills me with a deep and righteous fury.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Wow
Hillary won Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas. At least, that's the way it's going, and most of the votes are in. The race just got way more interesting again.
Oh, and McCain's the Republican candidate. Hands up, anyone who's shocked.
Oh, and McCain's the Republican candidate. Hands up, anyone who's shocked.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Update
Apparently Charlotte Allen really was just being "tongue in cheek." At least, that's her editor's take on the matter.
Dear Charlotte Allen:
Read this.
Please note the parts on insincerity, irony, and whimsical exaggeration.
Better use of this, minus statistics -- not typically considered insincere, ironic, or whimsical, despite possible flaws in their collection methodology -- might convince people you have an actual sense of humor.
Until then, stick to your usual column, without attempting to be funny. It may be bad, but at least we can tell when you're being serious. We think.
Sincerely,
Dark Matter
Cross-posted at WTF Is A Hoosier?
Dear Charlotte Allen:
Read this.
Please note the parts on insincerity, irony, and whimsical exaggeration.
Better use of this, minus statistics -- not typically considered insincere, ironic, or whimsical, despite possible flaws in their collection methodology -- might convince people you have an actual sense of humor.
Until then, stick to your usual column, without attempting to be funny. It may be bad, but at least we can tell when you're being serious. We think.
Sincerely,
Dark Matter
Cross-posted at WTF Is A Hoosier?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Shamelessly Nerdy Comic Book Plugs:
1. Red Son. What if Superman landed in Soviet Russia as a baby and was raised as a Communist? Red Son sets out to answer this question, and the result is a beautifully complex example of what comic books can be and why they deserve a lot more consideration and attention than they get. It would've been really easy to write this as an absolute dystopia, to revert to Cold War thought and portray Communism as pure evil. Thankfully, the authors choose not to. Rather, their alternate reality is carefully constructed and explores the consequences of a true Cold War superpower surprisingly thoughtfully. I heard rave reviews and was admittedly skeptical. Now I just wish there was more, which is impressive given that as a general rule I don't like Superman at all, for a number of reasons. This, however, portrays him in a way that makes much more sense.
2. Runaways. One of the newer Marvel franchises, it has (as per usual) cool superheroes and an interesting premise: In LA there is a group of 12 supervillains called The Pride, comprised of six couples. Each has a child that is unaware of their parents' secret identities; then, one night, the children witness their parents sacrificing an innocent girl in their basement, in-character. Horrified, the six run away, discovering in the process their own superpowers. From there, they decide to avenge the wrongs of their mothers and fathers. Their efforts are hampered, however, by a traitor in their midst, whose identity isn't revealed until the second volume. The Marvel Civil War crossover comic between the Runaways and the Young Avengers is awesome, too.
3. Marvel Civil War. Holy Jesus, there are a lot of these, but all that I've read are awesome. You don't have to really know a lot about comic books to get most of it, either, which is good for noobs like myself who rely on the recommendations of more experienced people for good comics.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 8. Joss Whedon = God. That is all.
5. Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Really more of a graphic novel series, but awesome graphics and beautiful, complex, deep, dark storylines full of mythology and drama. Love, love, love.
6. Freshmen. Recommended to me by my main source for all things comic book-y and awesome, this particular one was co-created by Seth Green. If Joss Whedon wasn't already God, Seth Green would be. This is hilarious, if only because the characters have some of the most creative powers ever: One can put people under the influence with his burps, as long as he is under some influence himself; another has squirrel-like agility and can glide through the air; a third can literally talk to plants -- and hear them talking. It's brilliant.
Cross-posted at WTF Is A Hoosier?
2. Runaways. One of the newer Marvel franchises, it has (as per usual) cool superheroes and an interesting premise: In LA there is a group of 12 supervillains called The Pride, comprised of six couples. Each has a child that is unaware of their parents' secret identities; then, one night, the children witness their parents sacrificing an innocent girl in their basement, in-character. Horrified, the six run away, discovering in the process their own superpowers. From there, they decide to avenge the wrongs of their mothers and fathers. Their efforts are hampered, however, by a traitor in their midst, whose identity isn't revealed until the second volume. The Marvel Civil War crossover comic between the Runaways and the Young Avengers is awesome, too.
3. Marvel Civil War. Holy Jesus, there are a lot of these, but all that I've read are awesome. You don't have to really know a lot about comic books to get most of it, either, which is good for noobs like myself who rely on the recommendations of more experienced people for good comics.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 8. Joss Whedon = God. That is all.
5. Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Really more of a graphic novel series, but awesome graphics and beautiful, complex, deep, dark storylines full of mythology and drama. Love, love, love.
6. Freshmen. Recommended to me by my main source for all things comic book-y and awesome, this particular one was co-created by Seth Green. If Joss Whedon wasn't already God, Seth Green would be. This is hilarious, if only because the characters have some of the most creative powers ever: One can put people under the influence with his burps, as long as he is under some influence himself; another has squirrel-like agility and can glide through the air; a third can literally talk to plants -- and hear them talking. It's brilliant.
Cross-posted at WTF Is A Hoosier?
Hey All...
So William F. Buckley Jr. died about a week ago. I can't really say anything positive about him, except that I liked reading about Augustus Gloop every so often. Actually, that's a lie. Augustus Gloop was sort of a gross and scary poem and it definitely wasn't good pre-bed reading for small children unless you want to promote nightmares about small boys exploding, and even if you were older it was sort of disturbing. But some of the other stories in The Book of Virtues were okay, if you ignored all the boring ones and the really moralizing ones, which knocked out most of them. That's really the only positive thing I can say about him.
Apart from that, well, there is this singularly moronic post by a Washington Post columnist named Charlotte Allen, whose premise in this can be boiled down to one sentence: Women are physically and mentally weak. I really genuinely hope this is a joke, but with samples like this:
In case you wondered, the "episodes" she refers to are maybe a dozen reports of women fainting at Obama rallies, which she attributes entirely to their response to his manliness and not to, you know, the stress of standing for hours at a crowded campaign rally. I'd be willing to bet that a few men passed out, too, but given that it's largely hearsay anyway, who really knows?
The worst part is that she goes on like that for two pages. Women suck, women are weaker, women are bad drivers, women are emotional, women are bad at math, if we're better at anything than men it's entirely because of evolution, intelligent motivated influential women are "outliers," and we should be happy just to sit at home and accept that we can have happy and fulfilling existences by focusing entirely on making a happy home for the men around us, even though we're "kind of dim."
I really, really, really hope that it's satire. It's just a bit too convincing. The only argument in favor of the satire explanation is that she hasn't resigned her job so that some apparently better-suited male can have it while she goes home to bake chocolate chip cookies and make floral arrangements.
Apart from that, well, there is this singularly moronic post by a Washington Post columnist named Charlotte Allen, whose premise in this can be boiled down to one sentence: Women are physically and mentally weak. I really genuinely hope this is a joke, but with samples like this:
I can't help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women -- I should say, "we women," of course -- aren't the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women "are only children of a larger growth," wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right?I really have to wonder.
In case you wondered, the "episodes" she refers to are maybe a dozen reports of women fainting at Obama rallies, which she attributes entirely to their response to his manliness and not to, you know, the stress of standing for hours at a crowded campaign rally. I'd be willing to bet that a few men passed out, too, but given that it's largely hearsay anyway, who really knows?
The worst part is that she goes on like that for two pages. Women suck, women are weaker, women are bad drivers, women are emotional, women are bad at math, if we're better at anything than men it's entirely because of evolution, intelligent motivated influential women are "outliers," and we should be happy just to sit at home and accept that we can have happy and fulfilling existences by focusing entirely on making a happy home for the men around us, even though we're "kind of dim."
I really, really, really hope that it's satire. It's just a bit too convincing. The only argument in favor of the satire explanation is that she hasn't resigned her job so that some apparently better-suited male can have it while she goes home to bake chocolate chip cookies and make floral arrangements.
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