China Rejects Pope's Peace Overtures

NaNoWriMo is coming! This will impact my blogging but hopefully a novel will result!
So bear with me!

Sometimes you just have to say "No." Not that the world as will and representation will stop continually affirming itself, no, it's not that... it's just a temporary "No." A hiccup along the grand march into the leibenswelt of cosmic actualization. A brief stop at the gas station of restorative reorientation at an Illinois turnpike oasis. The "No," is not the Hardee's which refuses to close. The "No," is the normative utterance which makes everything right again. So again I say, sometimes you just have to say "No."

Oh, and this was in my Spam folder today if you can believe it... wonder what it means? Helpin' Uncle Udo to the Other Side.

I told you Speilburg was taking out the Fed's guns! And a CG E.T.? What's up with that... he's supposed to be a crummy-looking muppet. I thought that was the point.

The religion of peace, so says our president.

ZAP!

Game Over, man!

Ugh. I'm wet, I'm cold, and I'm still hysterical!

Heh.

Oh and if anyone happens to know where I can find any Jayne Cortez CDs please let me know. I'm sick of groovin' off of just the 30-second sound samples on Amazon.

In lieu of writing an actual song (it's been hard getting back on that hobby horse), I wrote 15 snippets of songs and just recorded directly to disk. It was kind of fun, just banging on the keyboard. I'll have to get back into it real soon! :)

I have a new supersonic toothbrush... do you?

FOXNews.com
Similar to the "Mickey," blog update below, but this one has pictures!

I AM 16% GEEK.

I wanna be a geek. But I'm not. Why would
I even want to be one. Do I think it's fun?
I should try writting an online test application at 1
am in my underwear.

Take the GEEK Test at Fuali.com!

Hiya, Kids! Mickey says stealing music is wrong! It's also uncool.

So some ideas for the novel:
A scene where the character suddenly realises he's not a kid anymore, feels old, and decides not to grow up anyway.
A driving scene with the other main male character.
The meeting of that character with the psychologist which results in his being blackballed.
The character who lives through celebrities, surely she can't be the one in the triangle -- she's really not worth leaving the other girl over.
The other girl, through no fault of her own (except her own uncompromising williness to please the main character) isn't treated too fairly by that main character.
The boss of the main character.
The dad of the other male character, who is perhaps the most admirable, if a bit prone to flights of fancy.

So, some themes:
The whole bioethics thing, a la' Percy, of course.
Escapism: both through refusing to become a man when the situation demands it (repeatedly) and through living the life of others (through celebrity worship).

There's more of course, but I only have a month to write it. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is quantity over quality, but I hate to turn out crap. Note: I never said I don't do it, just that I hate to do it.

Explorer is crashing on me now. Must post.

The They Might Be Giants show ROCKED this evening. Probably the best rock concert I've ever been to. They played (if you count all of the Fingertips songs individually) about 22 encores (if you count them as one big song, it was about five encores). Never once did they seem to fatigue. They did a neat new feature where they tuned a radio to a few local stations for a few seconds and then played whatever song or commercial happened to be on the radio at that moment. This included a version of the original Candle In The Wind and a session of trading fours with their drummer Dan Hickey, and a drum solo on WEMU. All in all, very very cool.

I felt old, though. Most of the fans were in their teens. Also it didn't help I was in the balcony, which remained seated and orderly for most of the show. The floor seating areas got up and danced. I'd have liked to have been down there at times, but how pathetic would that have been. Oh to be a teenager again. I wouldn't waste it again. Anyway, rock n' roll makes you feel young, so it's no surprise why so many boomers and Gen X'ers like it.

An awesome rock show all around.

I use that word rocked too much. I should say the performers excelled.

Oh, and Buffy rocked again tonight, on the light-hearted tip. Very very nice.

Chinese zoo sentences lion to 'life imprisonment' for injuring tourists

More weirdness from China.

Taliban Fighter Captured While Buying Cigarettes

This is the most sad, pathetic thing I've ever read.

What a sweet episode of Angel tonight. That show has a lot of heart... and severed heads.

Bussssted!

AOL Signs Landmark Deal With China

Oh boy! I can't wait. I wonder how Time/Warner is going to convinve their american viewers that State-Sponsored Chinese Programming is going to be the next CNN or whatever.

Of course that's not the greatest problem: I'm guessing a lot of viewers aren't going to be able to tell Communist China's State-Sponsored television channel from America's own PBS.

True Confessions

A nice Amy Welborn article on Augustine.

"In light of current events, we are changing the name of the band to something more friendly, Basket Full of Puppies...."

I've long known about Hanoi Jane's actions during the Vietnam war, but I found this article from snopes on Tomgirl's site and decided to post it here as well.

Tomgirl: just keep on keepin' on!

"These movies get a tremendous amount of hype before opening, but those who are vocal about wanting to see the movie are a very select group. They're the sci-fi geeks who sit on their computer all day and have read all Tolkien's books — they don't represent the mainstream."

Hey, watch it, there! I haven't read all of Tolkein's books! But for $40 you can have your name in the DVD credits, that's pretty cool. And there's this, from Swingers guy:

"I want to see hobbits and orcs, not spies and terrorists; show me good and evil in a way I can stomach. I think I speak for all of us when I say that right now, I feel like a confused hobbit about to enter Mordor."

Kitties!

Independent News

In knew it was only a matter of time before we'd have to deal with invincible ants!

I got a really nice email from someone who liked the Robot Love CD, who is also a fellow musician! They don't have a website, so I can't link to it here.

I also had a very fun night on the U of M campus at the Smithee MegaMeta II Awards.

1 Shot Deal

Now I feel olllllld.

MOLLY MICHIGAN - MOLLY MICHIGAN - MOLLY MICHIGAN

This is, quite frankly, a great idea. I suggest every artist immediately grab some markers, some heavy paper, and head over to eBay. You could make tens of dollars!

"Is that snow?"
"It sure ain't cotton."

- Shaft's Big Score

sweetcherrie.com :: rock divas :: which rock diva were you in a past life? take the test!

What's up with this? Who is this person?

A lot of people think I'm a grumpy old coot, and should be the one turning 30 or 50 or 70 or whatever, not them. Well... yeah.

It's a crime, not a war.

If my memory serves me correctly, we would've been more than happy to 'dialogue,' with bin Laden after any one of his numerous attacks on our embassies or interests. He set the tone of this 'discussion,' himself. We're only making sure now that we get the last word.

Seriously, though, it's a bit ironic, that statement from the Quakers in light of the historical context which led, if not the Quakers, certainly the Anabaptists to be driven from Europe: their strict adherence to pacifism was what was inciting the Muslims of the time to attack Europe ("See how easy these Christians are to conquer -- they don't even fight back!").

It was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now.

I WANT ONE!!!!!!

Mayize mentioned (in regards to my previous post) that perhaps these girls are just at that stage during which most teenagers rebel. That may be the case, but I still don't see why people would choose such a... common way in which to rebel. When my friends and I rebelled in High School, we took our 1200 and 2400bps modems and learned how to make MIDI interfaces for our computers, or we installed a second SID chip to give our C-64s that six-voice stereo vibe, or we listened to jazz all the time -- stuff that 95% of the kids weren't already doing.
And if the grounds for your rebellion be of a sexual nature, at least do something unique and counter-cultural... dress like Edith Head (not the best picture, I'm afraid) and get a reputation for being uber-chaste and ascetic to the point where it ceases to be dorky or lame to the point where people are actually in awe of your severeness. Anyone can be popular to a point if they sleep with a different guy every weekend (note how many pieces of meat Burger King sells -- and they even have to charge a buck a piece!). But to go to the opposite extreme and then turn that into something alluring, well that takes real finesse. Real style.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that for as creative and neuveau-post-modern as a lot of people claim to be, their manners and actual output (or should that be 'put out?') are frightfully plebian. Frighfully base. Frightfully, again, common.

So I've been poking around at other people's blogs and one thing I note is that teenage girls nowadays, at least those with blogs, are intensely (you were warned) crude -- this, however, is nothing you couldn't learn by just going to a movie theater or to Target on a Saturday night. Seriously, check it out for yourself. And if you don't think that maybe if it came down to their "I'm a HOE, tee-hee!" form of American culture vs. some form of fundamentalist Islam in a culture-war-to-the-finish that maybe Islam would rightfully triumph, then maybe you need to look a lil' bit harder. And where did this nihilistic, degenerate culture come from anyways? I'll blame MTV (sorry -- VH1) for now, but seriously, there's not a whole lot in common between the more flamboyant members of Gen. Y and those stalwarts of The Greatest Generation. Honestly, I really hope most of these people live to be a ripe old age doing whatever they're qualified to do (and please let it not just be collect welfare or write for Salon.com) and never have to die as they lived, wallowing in their own hopeless stupidity. Not that I'm talking about anyone in particular here, just what I see as a cultural trend, and that's what I do (on a part-time, amateur basis) -- analyse cultural trends.

Aaaaaanyway, back to the point: a lot of these blogs, in a fit of further self-aggrandization (an ailment sadly not unique to teenage girls) think it's cool to show a screen-capture of whatever their computer desktop looks like.

Well, I guess it's only fair, then, to show folks a screen-capture of what my computer 'desktop' looked like when I was their age:



Oh yeah... that's sweet.

The Times

It's about time! I mean, honestly: how many times have you wanted to see Rowan Atkinson imprisoned? If only for Bean: The Movie, if nothing else.

PS. Buffy was pretty cool last night. I was just wondering when we'd see Jonathan again... bringing Warren back as well as (the brother of) the guy who sent the werewolves to the prom was just too excellent.

Star Wars Personality Test!

Openness:
Yoda -- This wise, philosophical, and thoughtful Jedi master
challenges the establishment, encouraging his pupils to
unlearn what they have learned and see the world in novel,
creative ways.

Conscientious:
Admiral Ozzel -- A generally conscientious soldier who is
susceptible to occasional lapses & blunders, such as the
mistake he made at the beginning of the imperial assault on
the rebel base at Hoth.

Extraversion:
Wampas -- reclusive creatures of the ice planet Hoth.
They are rarely seen & generally shy, leading a
solitary existence.

Agreeableness:
Boba Fett -- A mean and menacing bounty hunter, known
for his ruthlessness.

Neuroticism:
R2-D2 -- A brave droid, who remains calm,
confident and unperturbed even during the most
dangerous of missions.

Md., Va. Warn Tax Revenue Shrinking

In other words, "Ooops!" You can only get so much in taxes from any one person, and, not to beat a dead horse here, if people aren't making new people, new taxpayers, revenues are going to fall regardless. It's ironic then that the State which relies on a steady influx of new taxpayers for its own survival would legalize and pay for a procedure which kills new taxpayers before they're born.

Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking

I'm not sure that's the answer. The Human Race's (well, at least the Western-Civilized portion of it, which for all intents and purposes is really the only portion of the human race which could colonize space) isn't at risk from a doomsday virus as the good doctor suggests, but is bound for exiction due to its death-rate surpassing its birth-rate. For Britain, this day will come in 2006, they believe. Did you know that 20% of pregnancies in Britain end in abortion? There's never been a virus, not even Spanish Influenza, which has wiped out 20% of a population, year after year (I believe the plague took several decades to kill 1/3 of Europe's population, if that's even correct).

And even more good news! I got the new battery for my old (ca. 1996) PowerBook today! $20 plus $5 shipping and it works like a charm. Sure beats paying $136 for one!

Thoroughly enjoyed Angel tonight. Perfect blend of comedic farce, horror, and pathos (for poor 'Fred!). And it's clear that Angel still loves Buffy more than life (so to speak) itself. Some people I could name need to be watching this show.

I fought the John Landis and the John Landis won. 1,100 points to 860. Ouch.

I knew these guys were nuts, but not this evil nuts. They're evil nuts.

Muslim Rebel Threatens U.S. Beheading

Okay, that mystery is explained. WB20 just went a little funny in the head and broadcast last week's episodes this week and at weird times.

But I figure, hey! kismet! Maybe this Mutant X show is a show I should be watching, and this is just providence that the VCR happened to tape it instead of Andromeda (sob!). But, no, I could only watch about 30 minutes of Mutant X... the pacing, especially for a series premiere, was just WAY too logey.

I'm just too puzzled... I could've sworn I'd set the VCR to record Andromeda tonight -- I even set it to start a minute early -- and what's on the tape is the last minute of the credits from what appears to be last week's episode and then last week's episode of Mutant X where Andromeda should be. I'm puzzled, and I'm going to have another look at that tape.

I thought this story was nice.

And the Chinese are flooding more Churches.

Oh, good grief!

Plane Held at San Jose Airport

We watched that there Mummy Returns DVD and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Actually quite a bit of fun.

I'm trying to think of a more destructive organization.

Not even the Taliban wants to kill the unborn kids in Chile. Perhaps the Nazis compare? The Nazis promoted abortion, too, but then again, they were mainly concerned with their own country.

So what's Jeff Minter up to?

Here be sheepies!

Not much, it seems.

Oh, and I guess today would be the day on which I recorded the first few notes of my next album. Oh, and I'm not supposed to be working on any more albums, so "shhhhhhhhhhhh."

I also added (in the past 1/2 hour) a search page to my weblog so you can search the et cetera archives, if you want.

There's something about listening to Parliament's "Theme From The Black Hole," which causes me to smile everytime I hear it. I don't know if it's because the song blows up at the end (something to do with Sir Nose and his cohorts trying to turn Starchild into a Donkey or something and it backfires, if I remember the comic book that came with that album correctly) or not. Still I like listening to that.

Shoot. Now I'm wondering where I misplaced my "Fred Wesley and The Horny Horns" albums. I'm going to spend the rest of the night looking for those.

It truly is comforting at times to know you're not alone. Of course some people can sing a lot better than I can.

jessica martins dot com

The Mirror Project

I guess you could consider this, Do-Light-Waves-Bounce-Off-Of-Me,Hit-A-Reflective-Surface-Bounce-Off-Of-That-And-Then-Hit-A-Camera-Lens-Or-Not.com

Weblog Wannabe

That's the first weblog I've ever linked here. Well, the first one in about four months. But since I was using so many of their links already. Just go there, it's got a very clean design and the content's pretty good, to boot. Quack.

Movie Robot or Programming Language

I scored 13 out of 15... let's see how well you can do!

Lego Haiku

Yeah, I know... I know...

Looks like someone is getting a jump on the Nanowrimo project. Perhaps I should start creating some, like, plot outlines or something.

Heads up, everyone.

Press Release - 10/11/01 - Warning of Possible Future Terrorist Attacks

At times the melancholy becomes accute, and a hangover is desired.

"That man with the squeegee, he was like our gaurdian angel!"

I'm angry at my radio now. I can't stand to listen to talk radio anymore. The callers, and increasingly the hosts (except for Tony Snow or Al Kresta, of course), are all pretty much idiots. Not because they disagree with me (or I disagree with them) but because no one thinks anymore... they just talk. At least on the radio.

And what's up with smooth jazz? Bascially listen to what Courtney Pine is doing, and 6 years later someone will water it down, plagarize it and call it smooth jazz. That's not right.

Another example of how the internet has changed our lives.

Well, here it is, Blogger's back up. And I got nothing to say.

I enjoyed Angel last night, even though it was one of the more difficult episodes to watch (especially the scene with the poor slurpee monster). But it really took the whole human vs. demon, black vs. white premise of both Buffy and Angel and stood it on its head. That it could create such moral ambiguity (which quickly turned out to be moral evil) sympathetic to the demons, after only introducing the whole friendly demon premise last season is quite remarkable. Remarkable mainly, I guess, in that that they opted to do it at all. Anyway, 'Fred's really coming into her own, though I'm not 100% sure what they're going to wind up doing with her character yet.

eMode.com said that my "Theme Song," was a song by Limp Bizkit I'd never even heard of. eMode.com sucks.

I didn't know there were so many Edisonphobic film-classes out there. The filmmakers moved out to Hollywood because the weather was nicer and in 1914 D.W. Griffiths was going to shoot a Western in Wyoming, but found the scenery better in California. The barn he rented there became the first movie studio. Besides, no one was using Edison's cameras by then, they were using the lighter Lumiere-style cameras and projectors. Or so they say.

I don't know where this vicious slander against Edison by academic professionals comes from. Probably out of jealousy for his capitalist genius.

“Increasingly, Christians are portrayed in the media in ways reminiscent of how the Jews were demonized during the 1930s in Nazi Germany,” Knight said. “First, they were ridiculed as buffoons. Then they were shown to be subhuman, and finally, as enemies of the state. This set them up for eventual persecution. We need to actively expose and resist this trend in America.”

On more note on Andromeda: regarding Rev's quote from Dante's Inferno, Canto 17 (the bit about the beast with the tail, destroying mountains and castles): the beast referred to is Fraud. So regarding Bloodmist's, the head Magog's, question, is the beast himself (Rev), Bloodmist, or the Spirit of the Abyss?, I'm guessing the beast Rev is referring to is the Spirit of the Abyss, a fraudulent god.

I watched the season premiere of Andromeda and I didn't really realize how badly I've missed that show. No other show, not even DS9, has been able to make me want to laugh, cry, cheer, and then go read Dante within the space of about 10 minutes. The show rocks: it's a real shame that Enterprise (pah!) is getting all the publicity when Kevin Sorbo ("That's me, Captain Idiot!" hee hee) and Andromeda's excellent writers are able to totally put the latest Trek series to shame so effectively. I mean, the difference between watching the two shows is like the difference between watching a supercharged version of ER and watching Baywatch (Nights). Go on, watch it: you'll see what I mean.

Not sure if this is such a good idea for a product or not: naming it after a Vincent Price movie, I mean.
The Tingler, Head Massager

Jackie Chan saves drowning stuntman.

All righty. Enough politics and news. Here's another poem, circa 1996 or so.

Your Glasses Make Me Angry
by Victor J. Lams

Your glasses make me angry,
I wish they’d go away.
But since you need them to see
The Mess that is Me...
Well, I guess they have stay.

Your glasses make me angry,
You need them to see far—
Far enough, you recognize
Hatred running from my eyes...
So, I’ll crush them with my car.

Your glasses make me angry,
I wish you’d take them off,
Along with your hair,
And the rest you wear...
And with them please get lost.

Your glasses make me angry—
But I like it when they’re steamed up.
You’ll have no clue,
As to what I’ll do,
When I do all that I’ve dreamed up.

Many folks had wondered how long it'd take Jesse Ventura to make an absolute mess of things...

I don't know if this is such a good idea.

But think of it: 40-million people died in the 1918 epidemic... shouldn't there be movies about this? How many people can really understand just how great that number is?

This probably isn't blogworthy, but I liked it.

Mourning the Muscle Cars (washingtonpost.com)

You know, it's stories like this one which really make me love my fellow Americans just a little bit more.

I guess if anyone really wonders whether or not it is not unexpected that we, as a culture (not as a people or nation) have planes run into our buildings, perhaps we can look no further than Peter Singer for the answer. Could we ask the question: what makes the life of anyone killed in the September 11th massacre any more valuable then the infants Singer wants to kill (bearing in mind that the burden of proof is fully on Singer to prove that a human isn't a human until some arbitrary criteria of "consciousness," are met)? Would the answer be nothing: that the lives are both equally precious? Do we then conclude that there really is no big deal... to this, the attacks, or to anything?

I almost cried when I read this.

Another one...

Life in the Coffee Cup
by Victor Lams

a witty
blend
of
tangy
winy
beans
Life pours from
the pot
of
bitter
steamy
dreams

I found a bunch of poems I wrote in College...

Mirror Lake
by Victor Lams

My Love the Lake
doth call to me
with eyes of pools
and kisses wet—
And I mistake,
though tragic’ly,
her for the Love
I have not met.

My Love the Daisy
does not care for me
her petals closed,
yea, closed, and yet—
With vision hazy,
in mystery
another flower
we shall beget;

And I shall find her, in the Lake
Which from my eyes
has been so wet.

My Eye Teeth

So today, for the first time in over three-and-a-half years, I went to the dentist. I was nervous at first because it'd been three-and-a-half years and I wondered what sort of stuff had been happening to my teeth in that time: would I need a root canal? Did I have any new cavaties? I didn't know. But it turns out my teeth are fine. Perfect, even. The dentist and hygenist marvelled at my teeth. "Some people would kill for your teeth," said the hygenist, and that gave me something new to worry about.

I haven't had a cavity since I was three, and that tooth fell out when I was six. My previous dentist said once that I had "Hollywood teeth," and it's nice to know they're still intact. The hygenist suggested I get them all sealed since they're in such perfect shape, lest something untoward happen to them in the future. But how many of my Hollywood teeth would I have to sell to pay for that? Ha ha. Anyway, we figure that there must be something in my saliva which is harmful to the bacteria which cause cavaties. Or else it doesn't contain those kinds of bacteria. Also, I don't drink pop. Anyway, if anyone would like a sample of my saliva for analysis or whatever else, just ask.

You may want to hold off on that, though, until you hear the rest: my saliva is not so good at killing the bacteria that cause gingivitis. Also, I infrequently, if never, floss. My top gums were okay, the little probe only went into my gums to depths of 3 or less-than-3 mm, but the back, bottom gums bled a little. So now it turns out I have to go back and have them take out all the infectious muck back there and then use a special mouthrinse for a while. Oh, and it also turns out that, even though I've never been conscious of it, I clench my jaw a lot. This is likely due to stress, and I've never noticed this because when I'm stressed, I'm usually so focused on whatever is causing the stress that I never notice my jaw. Anyway, this would explain my headaches, my sore neck, my stiff jaw, and perhaps something else interesting I learned about my mouth today: my mouth only opens 30mm. Most normal mouths open 40mm or more. But not mine. This could explain why I've never been much good at eating Zingermann's sandwiches like a pro.

But at least I still got my Hollywood teeth!

Ahhhh.... okay, so it WAS Ameritech, after all!

This story is the first I've seen of the sketch, and the story. I think it's really cool that the web makes things like this possible.

Sweet. Liberty is not dead.

Oh, well. Perhaps it really was too much to expect that the majority of Americans had fully gained a newfound appreciation for life after seeing 6,000 of them snuffed-out, and that that newfound appreciation would actually affect our culture.

Happy Birthday, Email!

Pretty picture! But 30-million light years? I wonder if it still exists anymore.

Whoa! David Horowitz actually sounds pretty impassioned about something!

Okeydoke! Buffy is back -- and how! "I'm a pretty powerful Manwich, myself!" Hee hee!

So I finally watched the 2-hour premiere of Enterprise last night. And... what the heck is up with that opening? The only thing I can figure is that they were running a little over budget, came time to design the opening and someone said, "Well, let's just use all this NASA stock footage we have lying around." And then since David Hasselhoff was someplace else, they got someone else to record their little "Flying On Rocket-Powered Faith (or Faith-Powered Rocket)," song or whatever it is.

Anyway, it's clear that they're trying to break out of the ST:TNG mold, and they've succeeded, undoing 12-years (I'm not couning the years from when DS9 ended and Voyager still ran) of ever-more-intricate and intelligent plots. No, this is Star Trek for the masses, though they do toss some scraps to the more devoted fans. And I have to admit that Dr. Phlox is a fairly cool character -- even if he isn't a Cardassian in the strictest sense. I'll say nothing of the decontamination gel scene except that the cinematography didn't match the acting or the pacing or the writing of that scene, so I have to assume it was completely gratuitous (imagine if Picard was facing off against Q and then, unexplained, the camera started slowly zooming in on his crotch or something).

I personally think that Braga/Berman peaked around the time of ST:TNG's 7th season Parallels episode. Like I said, though, Enterprise is definately not like any other Trek show, and I guess that's not a bad thing. Though it's unfortunate that while humans aren't as fully "advanced," as they are in the ST:TNG universe (and I think their "advancement," itself is a crock, but more on that later) and are a bit more impulsive (I like Trip, The Yahoo)... where was I, oh yes, it's unfortunate that they've already "wiped out war, disease, poverty, famine, pestilence, itchy rashes, etc.," in the past 50 years. Now that was something I'd have liked to have seen!