I'm watching Heroes now, I just saw the latest episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.
When I'd heard that Joss was doing a new series, I thought: "WooHoo! BuffAngeFly II!!". I was sincerely hoping for another great series with amazing plot twists and turns and awesome characterization. Well, at least until the inevitable puppet episode.
But then I heard what the series was about.
It's an "edgy" series about an undercover Los Angeles agency that not only rents out high-class prostitutes to fulfill their customers' every desire, but then erases their memories so that after they're done screwing their money-laden clients, they remember nothing of the incident and revert back to their child-like brain-inhibited states. Oh, and sometimes they're hired out for ninja infiltration and assassination. Because it's Joss, and it wouldn't be Joss unless every human being with 2 X chromosomes had M4d N1nj4 Skillz.
But ... I forced myself to watch it, and ... I kinda liked it.
Okay yeah, the whole "it's kinda technically rape, isn't it?" thing doesn't jive well with my belief that rapists ought to be gently introduced balls-first into a chipper-shredder, but I have hopes that there's more to this than a series about human sex-trafficking. Because it's still Joss, right, and he's only using squicky concepts to shock us and then ironically turn it on it's ear, right? Riiight?
So the first episode wasn't spectacular, and by the second episode, I was slowly starting to agree with Tycho and Gabe on the subject. Except, I'm slowly starting to see something in the show that I ... like. There's an undercurrent of ... what's that called again? Oh yes, HALFWAY DECENT WRITING. Something I haven't seen on TV since the first season of Heroes. This most recent episode kicked me in the gut with a few twists that I SHOULD have seen coming a mile away, but apparently too much predictable television has completely numbed me to this sort of thing.
I feel like I'm enjoying this series to SPITE myself! It's really bizarre. Am I just slavishly devoted to Joss, and determined to like this no matter what, or am I seeing a decent show here for a change?
Your thoughts?
Now about Heroes:
"Really Hiro?! You STILL haven't been able to use your powers since Mr. Petrelli (if that IS his real name) zapped you last season, even thought EVERY other hero that has encountered him and lost their powers have miraculously regained their powers just ... just because they wanted to, except now that a baby who controls electricity touches you, you suddenly have one (and only one) of those powers back!? Really? Is that internally consistent with the way that anyone's powers have worked so far? You'd think that Ando throwing around +5 power bonuses would have been able to kick start them better than Baby-Power-Up. Yes, and isn't it too bad that Sylar, mass-murdering psychopath at large brought the angry bald Federal guy that was hunting him a nice prezzie, isn't it? He's so thoughtful. But at least, AT LEAST Michah's Aunt who hasn't seen him since he was little, not only recognized him at a glance but knew exactly what his powers were. You'd think her sister wouldn't have had time to send her family update e-mails what with being on the run all during the first 2 seasons.* And it's fascinating that Angela was almost able to escape the Federal Agents that had her limo surrounded by simply WALKING OUT THE DOOR AND DOWN THE STREET!?" Oh! OH!! And it's a damn good thing that every mother who has a convicted terrorist for an ex-husband reacts to two grown men trying to STEAL HER BABY by calmly asking them their intentions and seeing nothing wrong with their story, decides to believe them. Because hey, why the Hell not??"
So please, could SOMEone, ANYone, give me a good reason that I'm still watching this show?? [sigh]
*As I was writing this, I just realized how this would have been possible, but I don't care at this point, I am a big Ranty McRanterson! Graaaaaaaah!!
I have a friend on Second Life, named Hypatia, who has a lovely wifey named Rachel. Rachel is a fairly talented artist, but is unfortunately introverted and self-conscious of her artwork. Hypatia eventually coerced her lovely wifey to start putting some of her art up for sale on Esty. She's done so, and is slightly terrified that someone might actually ... y'know, SEE it. [scratches head]
So if any of you might know anyone who knows anyone that might be in the market for some artworks, click on the pretty picture:
I'm using LJ as my method of getting her work out there, since this is where I know the most people. :)
What? You thought that I was going to STOP having over-simplified straw-man political debates with myself just because one of the GOOD GUYS is in office now?? Oh Puh-LEEZE!!
A lot of people are freaking out now that Obama is President. I haven't seen the Alexandra Pelosi movie yet, but I hear that people on the Republican campaign trail were going absolutely apeshit at the proposition that Obama might in fact become President of the United States. Yesterday, I had a conversation with someone who off-handedly mentioned: "... not that that's going to matter once Obama bankrupts the country...". It blew my mind.
Unfortunately, I've have been blessed with the Gift of Foresight, and I know ...exactly what's going to happen.
Now:
Conservatives: "Ohh GOD, Save us!! Obama is the ANTICHRIST!! He's gonna take away our GUNS! He's gonna BANKRUPT the country!! He's gonna open up our borders to ILLEGALS!! He's gonna leave us vulnerable to TERRORIST ATTACKS!! He's gonna fuck up the HEALTHCARE system!! He's gonna expose our children to the MORAL DECAY of pornography and LEGALIZED DRUGS!! We're all gonna DIE!! This is truly the END of DAYS!!"
4 years from now:
Conservatives: "[snort] Well what the Hell happened to all of this big CHANGE that you fucking Liberals were talking about? Isn't that why you elected that guy Obama in the first place, because you wanted CHANGE?? I don't see any CHANGE around here, do you? It looks like we're exactly where we were before! Your big Liberal Jesus didn't CHANGE a goddamn thing. Pathetic ..."
Liberals: "But we're out of the financial crisis that we were in 4 years ago!".
Conservatives: "Oh, you mean that slight dip in the economy that you all blew out of proportion? Yeah, good job there, Bar-rack..."
Liberals: "But the War in Iraq is over!!"
Conservatives: "Hel-LOOOO!! Maybe you forgot a little incident aboard the USS Abraham LINCOLN ... where a guy named George Walker Bush said "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"!? You're giving OBAMA credit for a war that Bush won 6 years before Obama even took office? Typical...".
Liberals "But what about ... ahhh, forget it ...".
(Because we're Liberals, and we always back down when we're defending our own beliefs) ;)
Okay, so I'm reading TV Tropes from work. Many of you may be familiar with the fearsome time sink that is TV Tropes. It is a wiki of all of those themes, cliches, and other recurring elements that you see in popular media. Like many wikis, it is hideously addicting.
I was just looking through a trope called Scare 'Em Straight, which is a litany of all of the creeptacular ways in which adults have used pure, unleaded Nightmare Fuel to frighten children into staying away from drugs, not speaking to strangers, and of course making sure they don't have unprotected sex.
One link on the page led to this video, entitled "One Got Fat", which is supposed to be a 1963 movie on Bicycle safety:
I've watched this video, every horrifying moment of it, and I know that the pale, soulless faces of these hybrid alien children will haunt my dreams tonight. I advise you all to watch with caution, for this is truly terrifying. However, I have learned a very valuable lesson from this short film:
That you should never ... NEVER read TV Tropes from work.... [shudder]
Created by Train Horns
Furthermore, I just played this on my laptop to see if I could get the cats to freak out, and Charlene just glared at me and said: "What's that high-pitched noise?". I did not hear a thing. Like ... at all. I would have sworn that she was totally messing with me, but she had no way of knowing that I was clicking on the test from here. Spoooky!
Okay, so last yesterday (Sunday), the beautiful wifey and I were watching a M*A*S*H* marathon of our own devise. I was playing WoW and downing Manhattans like they were Gatorade, and she was snuggling with the kittehs and falling asleep.
There was one episode that struck me as slightly ... off. It was a 3rd season episode entitled: "Life with Father". In this episode, Col. Henry Blake gets a letter from his wifey, saying essentially: "I know that you're miles away from me in a foreign country, and that sometimes people get lonely, so if you should turn to someone else for ... comfort, I would never hold it against you".
Now, when Henry first receives this letter, he is overjoyed. Not because his wonderful wifey has just given him permission to fool around outside of their marriage, but because he has been given permission to continue to fool around outside the marriage.
What? You didn't think he'd been FAITHFUL to her all this time?
The truth is, in a time of war, when people are apart, sometimes Absence makes the heart go yonder. It basically went without saying that many of the M*A*S*H* regulars were carrying on affairs while overseas, and people generally looked the other way and assumed: "What happens in Korea, stays in Korea". Even the alarmingly chaste BJ Hunnicut, who stayed faithful for most of the series, had an occasion to "fall off the fidelity wagon" with a lovely nurse who stops by the 4077th.
So when Col. Henry Blake gets "permission" to cheat, he immediately goes to brag to the other guys that he's the luckiest guy in the world, and now has carte blanche to fool around. He is positively beaming with joy.
Until ... he starts to suspect his wifey Lorraine's motivations for this sudden permissiveness. Could it be that ... SHE has strayed during his absence?
By the end of the episode, he discovers that yes, she has been straying, with a guy from the local dance club. Poor little Henry Blake is devastated. He has tears in his eyes, he feels betrayed, his entire world crashes down upon him. His beloved wifey, the woman he loved and trusted, has been ... exactly as faithful as he has. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
Explain?
Yes, I'm sure that the POINT of the episode was the hypocrisy in cheating on your spouse while expecting HER to remain faithful. And I realize that this was the 1950s, where you really couldn't blame a GUY for wanting to sow a little wild oats while out on the front, but a WOMAN was expected to be more chaste than Penelope until his return. I get that. I just don't get how someone can be hurt by someone committing the selfsame sin that they've been committing for the past three and a half seasons.
Is this the way human emotions work, and I've just been a shapeshifting alien sleeper agent all this time? That would certainly explain a lot about me. [twitches]
I fully intended to sleep extra extra late this morning, but somewhere around 5am, I woke from a series of really bizarre dreams. (contains
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
wench18 and gamingnut)( Cut for kindness )
Viked from
emyrldlady (Who in turn stole it from mordread4u )Ok ... many of you on this F-List have known me for well over 10 years... some of you for 20 or so .... instead of me telling you about me, guess what.
YOU now tell me about me.
Who has the guts???? :)
1. What do you call me?
2. What should my theme song be?
3. If you could give me one present, what would it be?
4. What one thing/event do you associate with me?
5. Tell me one thing about my self that you think I do not know, but you feel I need to know.
Ganked from the lovely Skepchicks:
The Catholic Church is a tyrannical organization that attempts to subvert and brainwash its parishioners! First they kill a bunch of people in the Crusades, THEN they burn a bunch of people in the Spanish Inquisition (Which no one expects) and turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Holocaust. But this time, oh yes THIS TIME, they have gone TOO FAR!!
Now they're actually coming around and supporting the ideas of THE DIABOLICAL HERETIC WHO DENIES THE LITERAL TRUTH OF THE GENESIS STORY AND THREATENS TO DESTROY THE MORAL WELL-BEING OF OUR CHILDREN!"
Those rascally Catholics! [shakes fist] :P
In less sarcastic Catholic news: Plenary Indulgences back by Popular Demand!" Better get your hammers ready, Lutherans! :P
They say that whenever someone qualifies a statement with: "This is going to sound racist", or "I'm not a racist, but..." that you should automatically assume that they probably wear a white sheet and burn crosses on the weekends.
Nonetheless, this is going to sound pretty racist. Enter with caution.
So I hope I'm not racist in saying this, but there is one very important thing that I believe about this new Presidency, something that people seem to be skirting around, probably for fear of sounding racist.
I know that I was born and raised as the "default setting" for American Society. I was raised in a middle-class, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant family with two loving parents. I have never known discrimination. When I walk into a store, I usually see friendly faces asking me if I need help, rather than suspicious glares. When I go to see a movie, I can be reasonably sure that the dashing hero will look like me, will definitely get the girl, and will probably survive to the end of the film. I know that if I were a successful actor, that no one would ever refer to me as: "One of Hollywood's Most-Respected White Actors". If I'd been a writer, the flyleaf of my latest book would not read: "Celebrated Anglo-Saxon-American Author Craig Anderson brings you a tale of life in the middle-class suburbs ...". I know that if I'd looked at the (now discontinued) flesh crayon in my box of Crayolas, that it would look a lot like my flesh. I know that taxis will stop for me, that employers will seriously consider my application, and that no one will make a total ass of themselves trying to be "Down Wit'" me.
But what if I'd been born differently?
What if every time my eyes met the gaze of one my fellow American citizens, they saw: "CRIMINAL" and then quickly looked away? What if Congress had to pass laws to FORCE employers to hire me? Would I be able to hold my head high when I went into the office and listened to my co-workers tell me that they saw that new Ice Cube video yesterday? What if a significant majority of the music of "my people" was a celebration of how very GOOD it feels to be a gangsta? What if the only heroes that I had to respect and admire came pre-packaged and marketed directly to me with the words: "THUG LIFE" tattooed across their abs? If I couldn't get society to respect me, could I get it to fear me? If I walked outside in a bulky hooded Raiders jacket, would people cross the street to avoid walking next to me? Would I buy into that image? Would that be my model? Would I be sitting on a porch in Neptune, NJ right now sipping a 40 of St Ides? What if that's all I HAD? What if the best that I could hope for was to be a Menace II Society?
Well right now, on this day, there's a kid somewhere in the projects with a do-rag on his head, gold chains around his neck, and a poster of Tupac on his bedroom wall, and this kid has just been told that one day, he could become the President of the motherfucking United States.
I think that's something, isn't it?
Everybody make sure that they don't forget to wish a very
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
... to my wonderful HunnyBunny, the gorgeous and intelligent
chucklebug!!She is truly the GrandMistress of Love.
[Also: Geeky!!]
So I was playing WoW last night, with the members of my guild, and I was feeling amorous. I'd just come home from a desperately mediocre day at work, to find that Chuckle mah Bun was cooking up a mean cajun catfish with red beans and rice, and also doing the dishes. We cracked open a bottle of chablis, caught up on some of our favorite TV, and cheered as Maximista slapped the Priestess in her little weasel face. (Oooh, that was just a spoiller, btw. Don't read that)
On World of Warcraft, I greeting one of my guild-mates on public chat with: "_________ my love!". She then responded with "Blackthorne my love!". ('cause that's my character's name) Then, as other guild-mates reared their lovely heads, I continued to hail them with: "_______ my love!", "__________ my love!", and even "_________ my love!". (names withheld to protect the innocent) It was a great big happy intra-guild love-fest to beat the band.
Until someone replied that no, she quite frankly was not my love. Because she was married.
Now, I understand that I was being silly and goofing. I did not honestly mean that I was madly, deeply, passionately in love with the members of my guild, and that we should all immediately purchase a large ranch in Minnesota and start a hippie love commune with a T1 connection and LAN parties every Friday night. In fact, if one of my guild-mates randomly showed up on my doorstep one morning, cold and hungry and needing a place to sleep, I'd feel more than a little weird about taking them in for the night.
But when I say that I "love" someone, it means that I've seen something special in that person. That that person makes me laugh, or that I enjoy seeing their name pop up under "friends online". For me, love is a kind of connection, a magical rapport that happens when people see the divine in each other. It's the brief glimmer of a realization that deep down, human beings are amazing, and that the world is a brilliant place, Boom-de-yada, Boom-de-yada.
But, we have laws in this country, and those laws dictate that if someone is married, that they aren't your love, and that if you persist in loving them, you are breaking the law. Yes, I do understand that adultery is against the law, and that if I, as an adult, claim to "LOVE" someone else, there's going to be a sexual implication there. I get that. I am also able to comprehend that if I tell someone that I love them, I really should come up with some kind of legal caveat before I start offering my love to them willy-nilly. ( LOVE in this case is defined as a feeling of close friendship and camaraderie and should in no way be understood as sexual or implying an illicit relationship between the two parties. Acceptance of this love does not require any cost or obligation on the part of the user, and both parties agree not to have any contact with each other beyond the confines of the gaming world. Neither party is expected to give the other assistance or protection during raids, instances, or PvP conflict and is not required to emote /kiss or /hug upon greeting each other outside of guild chat ...)
Yet it still bothered me to be told that someone wasn't my love because they were "taken". After all, I'm "taken" as well, but as far as I'm concerned, anyone that WANTS to love me can love me. I'd feel terrible telling someone NOT to love me just because I happen to have met the most awesomest girl on the planet. I mean, that's not THEIR fault, now is it? And it hurts me just a little bit to be told that I'm somehow not allowed to see the beauty in someone else. To be told that I'm legally forbidden from feeling that magical connection to someone, that romantic feeling of kinship and wonder.
It's all because I just haven't gotten it through my thick skull that Love is a precious commodity, and that wasting it on people that already have a regulated Source of Love means less Love to go around. Then I create a Love deficit, the global price of Love goes down, and we have a World Lovenomic Crisis. Suddenly, the small relationships start to go under, and the Love Banks can't meet the demand. Finally the market fails, and we're all in a big Lovepression. All because I've been spending Love illegally. [sigh] I'm a Lovepublican. :(
But I'm not going to quit. I'm going to keep loving until they lock me up, and even that won't stop me. I'm going to love everybody, whether they like it or not, and when they least expect it. Someone will be just walking down the street, smiling to themselves, and the sunlight will catch their hair just right, and I'll fall in love with them for just that moment. They'll turn to look, and I'll be gone, just like that. You can't stop me. I am the gangsta of Love. I'm the Loveinator. Resistance is futile. So there. Nyah.
Less caffeine might a good thing, though. [glances furtively at empty Starbucks cup]
I made a new post at http://wyrmwood.wordpress.com - Talking about nekkid people again. Nothing unsafe for work, unless you follow a few of the links, and even then nothing terrible.
I'm not sure if any of you got my post yesterday saying that I was moving there permanently. I still want to, but I'm not sure if anyone's actually following me there, sooooo ...
This longish rant was inspired by a response that I'd made on
gothhippiegrrl's LJ earlier this month. I debated not posting it, since making a full-length post out of a comment is complete and total vanity. But then I changed my mind and decided that this is something that needs to be said, publicly, and often. Vanity, thy name is W[soapbox]
I have been really fortunate this holiday season. I am not a rich man, and surely things have been tight this year, but I know that I haven't had to worry about putting food in my belly. I have a tenured position at a university, a gorgeous wife, a house, and beautiful kittens. I have an internet connection which not only allows me to access an obscene amount of information and knowledge, but also permits me to cultivate a global network of deep personal friendships with people whom I've never met. Not to mention all of the free porn. I live in a country where nearly anything that I could possibly need to sustain life and my personal happiness is within a 20 minute walk from my house. If I have no money to buy the things I need, I can hand them a 2x3 in. piece of blue plastic and someone at a major United States corporation will promise to buy me these things as long as I pay them back in a timely fashion. There is another 2x3 object downstairs on my nightstand (though slightly thicker that the blue plastic object) that will allow me to send nearly anyone in the world a brief message of 140 characters or less, in addition to taking pictures and/or video, which I can also send. Oh yes, and I can even SPEAK to these people if I so desire. I can be fairly certain that in the town where I live, a warlord will not raise an army to subjugate my people. I know that there are statistically few bear attacks. I've never had ninja break into my home. If someone nearby develops mutant powers and decides to set the neighborhood on fire, I know that a highly-trained team of volunteers will at least try to put out the fires.
The point is, that I'm fortunate. Things are going pretty well for me. I wish I had a few million dollars to throw around, or that Angelina Jolie had my number on speed dial, but I'm doing pretty well for myself. From these facts, and others, I have drawn a simple conclusion:
There is no earthly reason that I should dare to waste one second of my time being pissed off about anything.
I've had a few blessed, blessed days off work this season. The time I've had to myself has allowed me to shop for my loved ones, go on a few leisurely walks, and get some errands done. Wherever I go, through the hustle and bustle of this joyous holiday season celebrating peace on Earth, I see nothing but miserable assholes.
One guy glared at me venomously for not pulling out of the parking space that he wanted quickly enough. This one couple was screaming at each other in Macy's over a gift that they were buying for a relative. I see surly salespeople angrily looking at the clock for their next break. I see a woman in a fur coat with bags from Nordstrom's, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's pack her purchases into an SUV that must have cost 4 times as much as my little Honda Civic, and know that in 20 years the frown on her face right now will have caused permanent lines jabbing downward from her mouth.
And it all just seems so COMICAL to me!!
All of these angry, miserable people, living in a world of miracles, celebrating a time of peace and joy, and they can't even be bothered to crack a fucking SMILE. I've decided that the most appropriate response to these people, is to POINT and LAUGH. It's all so ridiculous, and stupid, and it's just really goddamn funny to me, so I've decided that insane laughter is the most sensible reaction. I've been walking around in a nigh-pathological sense of joy and pity for these irascible fools that just don't seem to understand the humor in all of it. I want to grab someone's face in a Heath Ledger inspired confrontation and ask: "Whyyyyy Soooooo Serrrrriioooooouuuuuussssss??!?!". It's actually kind of scary how amusing I find it all. People just need to relax and chill out for a while. Go give someone a hug. Tell someone a joke. Do something reckless and insane while you've still got the chance.
And yes, I totally understand that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and there are people dying in the Gaza Strip, and nobody has any money anymore, and the long hard road out of the Bush Administration will be our greatest trial as a nation, etc etc etc. I should, in fact, be hideously ashamed of myself for being happy for my own good fortune when there are people in this country who are out of a job, and have relatives in trouble, and don't know how to provide for their families this year. I understand that the miserable assholes of the world have tried their damnedest to make life utter Hell for the rest of us.
But I refuse to join them in their miserable assholedom. This year, and every year thereafter, I resolve to be pathologically happy, to face any of my own misfortunes with a big fat stupid grin, and to laugh in the faces of anyone who dares to get pissed off about a parking space, or any stupid thing for that matter. Even if the world DOES all go to shit, I'm going down laughing.
In my original response to the beautiful
gothhippiegrrl, I quoted a glurgy little parable that I heard somewhere. Probably not true at all, but who the hell cares: It seems that there was a young Jewish guy in Auschwitz, who shared a room with an Rabbi. Every night, after all the abuse and hard labor, the old Rabbi would say his prayers before bed. One night the young guy said to him: "Hey, you old fool, what are you praying for?"
"I'm giving thanks to God", said the Rabbi.
"What the Hell have you got to be thankful for?" asked the young man.
"For not making me like them".
There are a lot of angry, hateful people in the world. I refuse to be one of them. Feel free to join me.
[pirouettes off soapbox, dances down the alley]
Merry Ho Ho everybody!!*
* Seriously, what could be merrier than a couple of hos?
Ganked from Wickedthought:
This is actually quite brilliant:
I feel like I'm back in 8th grade going through Choose Your Own Adventure books like they were candy.
I'm reading a book by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku about the scientific properties governing wild-ass speculation of ridiculous theories such as Teleportation, Time-Travel, Invisibility, and Psychokinesis.
In the chapter on Teleportation, Kaku-san mentions the truly awesome Erwin Schrödinger*. I've always liked Erwin, despite his careless destruction of hypothetical half-cats. But today I read this little tidbit:
Historians of science have spent some effort trying to track down precisely what Schrödinger was doing when he discovered his celebrated equation that forever changed the landscape of modern physics and chemistry. Apparently, Schrödinger was a believer in free love and would often be accompanied on vacation by his mistresses and his wife. He even kept a detailed diary account of all his numerous lovers, with elaborate codes concerning each encounter. Historians now believe that he was in the Villa Herwig in the Alps with one of his girlfriends the weekend that he discovered his equation.
I like the guy even more already. Theoretical physicists get all the chicks, man! :D
* To those of you still working on yesterday's New York Times Crossword Puzzle, that was the answer for one of the clues.
