Three commercials I DIDN'T hate!!

Yeah, rare thing, I know.

But, y'know, even in a soul crushing system, the subversive stuff trickles through.

Anyway, enjoy the memories...









Read More......

Bye bye, 00's.

You were one helluva strange decade, my friend.

A decade that came in with 9/11, and went out with Dingoo.


And in between, the TrekBBS years, and the WF years, which were kind of all one thing, and ended with me coming out as a liberal, and an atheist, and ending up despised over there, and it all ending in a car-wreck.

If ya told me 6 years ago, it was gonna turn out like that, I wouldn't have believed it.

And then, the start of the RD.net years, which, this time around, I hope I won't be calling "the RD.net years", nor saying words to the effect of "wow, if you had told me it was all going to end like that...", I hope in 2019, we're still chugging along.

Oh, and also, of course, Shmegalamonga was born, and became 1 year old.

Strange rollercoaster in my internet life, to say the least.

Well, the good movies of the 00's seemed to be better and more numerous than those of the 90's.
I dunno, I just plain didn't like the 90's they didn't agree with me.
What did the 90's have?
Army Of Darkness, T2, Pulp Fiction, and...??

We were treated to George Carlin's last 3 specials, and 3 of his books (Brain Droppings was '97, and "Last Words" just came out posthumously, so, yeah, 3, not 4).

Oh, and of course, geek culture thrived.

The internet, which spread everywhere in the late 90's grew to new heights, both in tech, and cultural effect.

Course....things were politically and economically horrific.....

And, I lost a handful of loved ones...

And our culture lost a lot of good celebrities....

So, there was quite a bit of darkness.

But, by and large, things look hopeful and interesting for the 10's.

I won't miss the big history crap, but there's stuff I'll miss about the 00's.

Enough so, I think I'll have enough to look back on it fondly.
At least in that truncated, hazy, rose-tinted way I look back on the 80's.

Couldn't say that about the 90's.
I kicked that bastard in the tailbone on its way out the door.

Came in with high school, went out with Wal-Mart, just plain disagreeable for me personally.

But, I'm much more ambitious and invigorated by the possibilities of the post-"The God Delusion", post-Dingoo world.

That's going to be a lot more interesting.

IMHO.

Read More......

My wonderful gadgets 3.

DINGOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The power....it flows through me like white hot lightning....my skin can barely contain it....THE POWER!!!!!!!

(See previous entry in series for slight edification)

Oh, and here's my "utility belt", as it stands now....

Needs...something....a meelee weapon...and/or something that emits noxious fumes perhaps....

Hmm..... Read More......

Merry Santa-Day!!

Last christmas...

And now...










Read More......

Robert Wright is a twit.

I almost went with "Robert Wright, another horrid little man", but, slimy and dishonest as he is, he's not quite as awful as Ben Stein.

Aaanyhoo....


To catch up the uninitiated, he's the prototypical example of one of these weasel-faced faith-eists that I find I have little patience for anymore.

Especially when they get vitriolic.
Well, here's a sample of his whining drivel.

Clicky.

And here's the excellent Jerry Coyne blasting him out of the water with a flick of his pinky nail.

Clicky.

Which clearly inspired this Jesus & Mo cartoon.

Clicky.

But, if that drubbing isn't enough, here he is making an ass of himself in a discussion with the ever unflappable Dan Dennett, who calls him out on some faulty assumptions, and just plain bullshit a few times at the end...



....and here we have Christopher Hitchens pasting him fairly well.



Ahhh, fun stuff, fetch the popcorn.

Read More......

Okay, one area...

...where geek culture let us down big time...the fuggin' Star Wars prequels.


I admit, back in the day, I defended the Phantom Menace, and spouted the "it's set up to be the first part of a trilogy, let's see how the other ones play out, that'll redeem it, and show you haters wrong", line.

Well, it's been a decade later, and TPM still sucks donkeys, AOTC is a bit better, and ROTS is finally decent, but...overall, the prequels were just unnecessary.

We could've lived without 'em.

I apologize deeply and whole-heartedly to everyone I annoyed back then.

But, the good news is, we're all big boys and girls now, we don't need uncle George to spoon-feed us, we can make our own shit now that's better.

The 00's gave us Lord Of The Rings, the Spidermans, the first Iron Man, the first J.J. Abrams Trek, we're sitting pretty damned pretty as a fandom.

Aaaanyhoo, let's walk down the memory lane of suckitude, with this epic and hilarious 7 part review of The Phantom Menace.

Fucking nails it in every detail.

Part 1.

Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #12.

That not only is geek culture superior to mainstream/watercooler culture, in the long run, it beats it.




Think about it, what do people my age remember about the 80's now?

Transformers the fucking movie.

Optimus vs. Megatron, death of Optimus, Unicron, the whole deal.

And Goonies, Tron, Garbage Pail Kids, Madballs, Weird Al, Pee-Wee....

What was the mainstream shit that drowned us geeks out, and made us underground?

The shit everyone thought was so important, and discussed around the watercooler?

30-Something, The Big Chill, Moonlighting, nuclear Armageddon paranoia shit on the news, mall chicks and their Madonna worship, Airwolf, a slew of b-string cop films that ripped off Dirty Harry,....

Where's all that shit now?

Forgotten, and un-loved.

Geek shit won.

90's, what does anyone remember?

Anyone looking back fondly on Fear Factor?
That's all anyone could fucking talk about for awhile.
S'gone.
What do we remember?
Satiric cartoons.
Simpsons, Duckman, Beavis & Butt-Head.
Fuck knows the music scene didn't amount to much.
If it hadn't been for Radiohead's "OK Computer", on the tail end of the decade, we'd've been fucked.

Well, geek band, there you go.

So, don't stress the 00's.

Mainstream culture noisily waved it's prick around, with it's repulsive reality soaps, it's repulsive teen celebu-tants, it's bubblegum teenybopper singers prancing for the pedophiles, its torture porn horror movies, and political torture porn dramas *cough*24*cough*, and fear porn on Fox News,....

But 5-10 years, it'll be gone and forgotten, and the good stuff will bubble up from the bottom, the underground.

And we'll remember "the zombie survival guide", and "chocolate rain", and "garbage day", and all the other fun internet memes, and the Superhero movies, and Lord Of The Rings, and the new Transformers flicks, and the good zombie flicks, and the good nu-prog, and nu-metal...and on and on...

All the geek stuff will be loved, and all the awful shit will be in total amnesia by 2020.

So, don't sweat the 2010's, they'll have some crap that will annoy, there will be some new hot-shit cultural fad that the gossip-media will desperately try to ram down our throats, it'll be on every channel, and make a lot of noise, and I'll be right here to take a dump on it all.

And I promise you, new years night, 2019, it'll already be fading away.

Bullshit's got a short shelf life.

We're right, we're better, we win, fuck those people.

:)

Read More......

"Science is a faith!".

Ugh...

I meant to do one on this, indeed, I thought to throw it into Dicky-Pedia, but just plumb forgot.


Anyway, my memory was jogged Googling for Hubble images, and stumbling onto this steaming load.

Ugh, what a thing to taint Hubble pics with...

Guy's clearly got daddy problems, but sifting that out from the whining, and the core argument seems to boil down to "waahh!! Scientists and skeptics are intolerant and close-minded!!".

Well, that's answered brilliantly and decisively in this video here.

Then, there's some attempting to muddy the waters around the edges with appeals to quantum woo, and there's a whole book devoted to knocking that silliness down.

I've had it in my reading/viewing list for awhile now.

This fella could've just made himself a little bit more literate, and had his white-knuckled frustrations eased.

I'm sure his daddy, and science teachers, told him something along those lines, and he took that as "condescending".

Enough so to "DESPISE", them.

Yeah, that's healthy.

Anyway, these bad arguments, and the sniffle-voiced teenage rebel attitude wrapped around them, are ones I've run into quite a bit, and this guy sounded a total clone of the more unpleasant people I've had the misfortune of debating with, so, I figured it was yet another argument pattern I'd like to put to bed, by having as a permanent and handy link.

And, I'll be retro-linking this into the entry on "spirituality", so it'll be part of Dicky-Pedia after all.

It's an argument I never want to fucking have again, it's quite loathsome.
Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #11.

The beauty of the universe.



First of all, just plain look at that.

Humbling, yes?

Secondly, as shown in this vid, the universe is an engine for grinding up ego and solipsism.

As huge as the visible universe is, it's a sliver compared to all the dark matter out there.

And all the matter, dark or otherwise, is a sliver next to all the dark energy.

The universe is mostly dark energy.

So, we're sitting in a little blue speck, that orbits a generic star, in a generic solar system, on the outer spiral arm of one of billions of galaxies, within a booger of visible matter, in a sea of dark matter, which in turn is a booger in a sea of dark energy.

And...the superstitious-minded amongst us have the cosmic gall, to imagine all of this stuff was"finely tuned", to specifically create us, and that the universe literally revolves around them.

Wow....

And they say in the same breath they're "humble".

Humans.....aren't they neat?

Well...yeah, actually....

As briefly mentioned in this post, just imagine all the sperm & egg combinations that could have been born instead of you, just with your set of parents, and then imagine how unlikely it is that those two particular parents met, and then magnify those odds for your whole family tree, and you quickly realize how cosmically lucky you are to even be alive.

Now, pull farther back, and look at the whole evolutionary tree of life.

Now, these same superstitious folks get all incredulous and indignant , and say "oh we just can't be JUST a bunch of molecules", well first, your feelings on the matter doesn't annihilate the truth, and make something else true, but secondly, what's so undignified about that?

I find that fucking incredible.

That if you leave an ocean teeming with the right chemicals, and the right weather conditions, bubbling for a few billion years, you can end up with us.

We're molecular-chemical androids from the year 5 billion.

Top that, science fiction.

And this shit happened.
You're here reading this.

A molecular-chemical android from the year 5 billion, with emotion circuits, self-repair systems, and a core processor that computer science has yet to match.

And this is something to have the fucking blues about?

Get with it, my fellow monkeys.

Now, stack on top of all of this, that all the elements higher than hydrogen in our bodies were forged in the furnaces of supernova, and as Sagan said, we are literally star-stuff.

We are the universe observing itself.

And you get to be alive in this time of discovery to know all this.

...but that's not enough for some people, for some reason.

They want to anthropomorphize the universe, and for it to give them a hug.

...I've never wanted for that, it's not a need I've ever had, so I can't fathom that mindset.

Except externally, as a series of brain phenomena.

But, even that is fascinating.

A lifeform with a neural-net so sophisticated, it can create its own internal worlds that are more real to it than the external world.

Let's see a laptop do that, eh?

Yeah, it's great to be alive, and it's a great time to be alive.

Look at all the great stuff we're doing, y'know?

Heh, when we're not letting bullshit waste that potential.

Yeah, overall, I'd rather be alive than not.

So should you.

:)

Read More......

Yet another climate change video.

Keep 'em coming Potholer54. :)

(Parts 1-4, part 5, part 6)

Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #10.

That I'm not any of these people....






Or, what they represent, anyway.
(Last one's the Jonestown zombie carcasses BTW)

I'm not a perfect guy, I'm kinda messed up, and I have a razor tongue, and I can't suffer fools gladly to save my life, but I think I walk the straight and narrow well enough not to be THAT bad off.

Sure, these folks bring their horror, harm, and damage to the world, and tend to get me down, but man, as bad as putting up with them externally is, imagine how horrific being INSIDE them, by BEING them must be.

Yeah, better to have them outside of me.

Read More......

The way I see it.

Well, it's like this....


First of all, we've got all these big problems that I've mentioned previously.

Most of them born of human stupidity.

The rest are theoretically solvable, but not if that same stupidity gets in the way.

And if we don't solve them, we're quite simply fucked.

Game fucking over.

So, as a Darwinian survival organism, at the molecular core of my being, it's naturally unacceptable to me that my species should be wiped out by something as stupid as, well...stupid.

And if we're fucked, then none of the mundane crap of a little American life fucking matters.

We may as well be waiting ignorant, oblivious, and cattle-like to be one of those poor bitches and bastards at Pompeii.



So, being a dumb little "good American", is a dead concept to me, intellectual garbage, get it out of my face, you may as well be trying to sell me a turd on a stick.

So, given all that, the only thing that could possibly matter, is trying to change this damned world.

The world in its current shape, is well, as said above, fucking unacceptable.

And, it follows, the big stupidities, are an aggregate of the little day to day stupidities, so those are fucking unacceptable.

So, silent passive acceptance of all that stupidity is well, fucking unacceptable.

Hence my ranting.

And the not just acceptance of, but the rebellious exaltation of stupidity...

....fucking unacceptable.

Hence the jeering tone of some of my ranting.
It's the natural human reaction.
Anything else would be a politically staged lie.
You don't wanna be lied to, do ya?
All right then.

Wanting to be lied to is another of those fucking unacceptable stupidities anyway.

So, given I see the world from this angle, you tell me...

Is blind flag waving nationalist patriotism possible for someone like me?

Fuck no, it ain't, you goddamned know it ain't.

Religious faith?

Fuck no.

ANY concept that requires a blindfolded leap on par with religious faith?

Fuck no.

Forgiving people for their fevered greed, or even seeing it as a positive, indeed, something one should be PROUD of?

Fuck no.

So, given those are impossible for me, tell, me, what's left of this "American way", for me to root for?

Hmm?

I have etched in my memory, a thread on WF where someone demanded of liberals that we say what we love about this country.

I had a damned hard time answering.

Politically?

Practically nothing.

The ideals of Thomas Paine are the only things I love outright with no reservations.

But what we've become? What we are now? What a fucking mess.

What's to LOVE about that?
Huh?
You fucking kidding me?

American politics isn't something you love, it's something one endures through Herculean acts of mental bracing.

And you know I have not a single quark of affection for (much less patience with) America's infatuation with superstition, and mumbo-jumbo.

So, what's left?

The little things.

The little things our dwindling freedoms bring.

And that we even have those freedoms, tattered around the edges as as they are lately.

And that they're roughed up and tattered is fucking unacceptable.

And that people find it acceptable is fucking unacceptable.

But, anyway, those little things, as I said above, are as meaningless as Pompeii, unless we work to change the world for the better.

So, those little things that console me, only console me, if I'm doing my admittedly teensy eensy weensy part to change things.

I have to work toward that or I'm fucking dead already.

So, you goblins out there who have hopped up and down with joy while spouting drivel to the the effect of "you haven't changed anything! Nothing you do matters! Tee hee hee! Wheee! The world is shit, we win!!".

Fuck off, and kindly die.

Thanks.

Your world you love so much is fucking unacceptable.

It's only acceptable with that much glee if you're fucking stupid.

Or if you blot out all the horror by plugging your ears and humming.

Which is fucking stupid.

Or, if you're fucking evil, but evil without the political power to back it up is just a lame pathetic nihilistic revenge fantasy, and no dipshit out there in internet land has that power, so, it's just more stupidity.

Anyway, given all that, I also have burnt into my memory, my friend, Margaret saying in that aforementioned thread, essentially"I love America's potential".

This pissed my other friend, Tamar/Tracie off to no end.

But, that outrage only has a leg to stand on if one can with a straight face be 100% contented with our current condition.

I can't seem to pull that trick off.

I don't see how a grown adult who pays attention to the news can, frankly.
Could be a failing on my part, I dunno.

So, yeah, we have the potential to be greater than we are.

And for our very survival, we have to be.

And that people would rather be contented, than great, is fucking unacceptable.

Given the stakes for our species, absolutely fucking unacceptable.

That's what "I love America's potential", means to me, anyway.

I see that as a great thing, not a disparaging thing.

If we had no potential, we really would be 100% fucked, there would be no hope, and nothing to live for, and I wouldn't be writing this.

But I am, and there is.

And that's just the way I see it.

Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #9.

Oh, wait, this is a good one...


We (as Americans, don't know how it is where all my readers are) still live in a society where kidnapping, rape, and murder are NOT okay.

Y'know, sometimes, I almost actually wonder, what with politics getting so up to the edge and all of late.

BUT, whenever some little girl vanishes, and is found ripped to little bits, it's a national outrage.

So, horrific as these crimes are, and horrible as it is that they happen, and as awful and dumb as a lot of average people can be, at least in the final measure, we're still on the same page on the big things, like these crimes being horrible.

So, I breathe a sigh of relief that things like this are in fact, an aberration.

We're not too far gone yet.

The ratings for Nancy Grace are a testament to the common morality of most Americans.
...it's just a damned shame Nancy Grace gets ratings...cuz, man, she's just fucking awful.

Her and her brunette clone, Jane Valez-Mitchell.

Watch either one, it's the same exact fucking show.
I'm serious, same fucking show, go ahead, and look.

They dig up adulterers (at best) or some murdering, molesting, raping, fecopheliac, necropheliac maniac, and spend the next 20 minutes or so waving a finger, and bullhorning their voice going "you're bad!! You're bad!! You!! Are BAAAD!!!".

No fucking shit.

This is news?

No?

This is entertainment?

To whom?

I dunno, yet another instance of our fucked up culture being an utter mystery to me.

BUT, the one thing I'll happily take from it, is that, again, me and most other rational civilized humans seem to be on the same moral page.

Sometimes, it really feels like I'm surrounded by zombies that want to eat my guts, it really does.

Maybe it's that "we surround them", horseshit that does it to me.

I see how easily people are led, and I feel like I have to hop in the back of a Jeep, and escape to Switzerland or something.

But, if Glenn tells his drones to eat a little girl, or fuck a baby, in the end, they'll pull back.

So, there's that.

Yeah, the common bond of humanity.
It keeps the being devoured nightmares away that it still exists.

I have to keep compulsively taking the country's temperature though for the slightest fluctuation.

Cuz you never know....

But for now...for now....I'll be okay....
Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #8.

The second tier of good channels.




Turner Classic Movies.
Oh, holy crap, this shouldn't be in the second tier, this should've been in the first tier neck-and-neck with Ovation!!!
I don't even need to explain this one, do I?
Here's me being elitist again, but if you aren't up on your classic films, you're a slob.
Game over.
FX.
They've got "Rescue Me", and a bunch of other good shows.
They've shaped up to be an impressive little channel.
So good, they keep making me forget they're part of the Fox empire.

Comedy Central.
They've got whole chunks of the day, and even days on end, where there's nothing but shit on, but, they've got South Park, & Colbert, and the roasts, and uncensored Ron White, and Lewis Black, so, there's a smattering of good stuff.

Y'gotta figure, we're damned lucky, in these futuristic waning days of the 00's.
What you and I see as a smattering for one channel, is more than we EVER had on the WHOLE damned channel lineup in the 80's.


Bravo.
Yeah, lotta people rag on James Lipton, and his little show, but I dig it.
*Shrug*

Plus, you got the Kathy Griffin stuff.

I think that's a good teamup, you hit this crummy culture from both sides that way.

Kathy Griffin tears down the crap celebrities that poison the culture, and James Lipton ass-kisses and waxes philosophical with the decent actors that...y'know, make good stuff in our culture that isn't poison.
Well..mostly.
He's had a couple twits on, but IMHO not harmful twits.
Y'know, like Angelina Jolie is overrated as fuck, but she's never made anything as obnoxiously and punishingly awful as Showgirls, or Basic Instinct, or Gigli.

Looking over the filmography of a classy actor has the same effect as "Unwrapped", for me, it's like "oh yeah, he/she did all that good stuff, there's yet another decent and productive human that isn't trying to brainwash or slaughter his/her brothers/sisters on this fucking planet".

Call me lame, but that's a soothing thing to me.

Same deal for a Kathy Griffin concert, but I'm soothed more by the applause of her audience.
She points out what most of us are already thinking about these dopey tabloid celebs, so it's obvious stuff, but seeing those crowds, it's like "ahhh, thousands of people who are SANE".

It's that "you're not crazy, THEY are", factor I mentioned before.

It's a cathartic thing.

E!
Eh, think the only thing on here anymore is "The Soup", and I barely ever watch it, and if so, for a couple minutes.
But, I'm glad it at least exists, for the reasons above.

Food Network.
Well, of course, they have "Unwrapped", but also, "Good Eats", which is pretty cool.

Science and food, you can't beat that combo.



Cartoon Network.
For Adult Swim, obviously.
Although, I am getting a bit pissed at the encroachment of the awful live action shows they've been blowing out of their ass.
But, the good shows, while puny in number, are more than they had when they started, so as with Comedy Central, I can't bitch too much.


TVLand/Nick@Nite.
I lump these together, cuz they're sort of the same.
One's just a 24/7 version of the other.
Any channel that keeps All In The Family, and MASH in the cycle is good.

So....that's it for TV.

Books and internet are better, but TV ain't a total loss yet.

Read More......

Hey, sweet!!!

I just broke 21 followers!!

21 little heads...watching me...molesting me with their eyes...*violin screeching insanity music*....

Anyhoo, that fills up the square, so, I'm finally a real person!! :D

Hooray!!! Read More......

What's been popular this quarter....

...according to my little Feedjit map, this is what you folks out there on planet Earth are really digging.


Let's fast-forward.

According to the looks it's still getting, this is apparently my #1 hit.

Well...thanks, folks, dunno why you love it, but..okay. :)

Inner-space part 5- Godzilla & King-Kong across history.

I'm completely oblivious as to why this keeps popping up.
Maybe there are lots of fans of the film King-Kong vs' Godzilla, and my shit comes up first on Google?
I don't know....

Inner-space part 6- The Bullshit Busters vs. King-Kong & Godzilla: Aftermath.

Ditto the above...maybe someone thinks it's a weird crossover fanfic?
But...that would be one or two guys hitting it, being bitterly disappointed that it's a weird political/psychology allegory, and moving on.
But no, after months, it's still getting pounded.
Someone must actually like it.

Inner-Space part 13- Elvis has left the building.

I dunno why I chose that title, I guess I was running out of phrases for things being over.
Anyhoo, mistaken Elvis fans can't account for this one being looked up.
Maybe people like that's it's an action plan?
Could be...
Well, if so, then it warms my heart.
Maybe I actually am helping people.

Meaningless slogans 4- Superstitions.

Man, this one's a HIT in India!

Either one kid with a laptop can't get enough of it, or he showed all his buddies.

Man, I hope they're loving it, and not plotting my doom.

Anti-supernaturalism ain't so big in that part of the world.
But, if I'm giving hope to secularists there, well, again, that makes it all worthwhile.

I'll try to keep the good stuff coming. :)

Read More......

Snarky political comment of the day #2.

Y'know, I've suddenly gained a new respect for Ronald Reagan....




...yeah, you heard me, Ronald Reagan.

I mean, sure, I didn't agree with him on...anything that springs immediately to mind...domestically anyway...

BUT, one thing that jumps out at me, especially now, is this.

Here's a guy, who took a devastator bullet to the guts,...and the country didn't change a whit for it.

He kept his cool about the whole thing.

Contrast that with Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.

Takes one little statue to the face, and he totally loses his shit, and wants to make protest illegal, and crack down on websites that say mean things about him.

Y'know, crush free speech, and install Big Brother 2.0.

So, I guess my Italian friends won't be reading this blog soon, cuz here comes the ridicule.

Berlusconi, you fucking blood belching pusslip.

Take a statue-ing like a man.

You screeching little girl's blouse.

What is it about tyrants?
They're all such pussies.

A punch, a joke, an insult, even the most meticulously framed constructive criticism, they can't take anything.
Anything.

They're like fucking 4 year olds.

I hope your citizens rise up, with assloads of ruthless grinding parody that powderizes your bones, you silly little bitch.

Our presidents can take DEVASTATOR BULLETS!!

And you're sniffling about a temporary bout with statue face?

I thought you Italians were so much more macho than us.

Way to drag your country's image down.

Hey, there's another reason for the citizenry to rise up.

I mean Italy's butch scale is rocketing downward.
It totally didn't deserve that.

You pip-squeaking ass.

...so, think I've said enough to be banned in Italy yet?

Or y'think he banned Babelfish already?

Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #7.

Hmm, lessee...people that I'm glad exist...


Firefighters.

Rescue workers.

EMTs.

Good doctors.
Y'know, not arrogant quacks.
I used to be down on arrogant prick doctors period, but if they can back it up with skill, like House, fuck it.
Just save my ass.

Soldiers.
But good ones though, not those "just following orders", My Lai kinda guys.
Or guys like The Comedian.
Y'know, good ones.
I fucking hate war, but, I don't take it out on the troops.
They sign up for a job I never would.

Cops.
Again , good ones, naturally.
We need them for putting away our more dysfunctional members of society.
BUT, nothing drags society down worse than dirty cops.
Dirty cops are on my special hate-list, and are in the "give me nightmares", column.
Thankfully, I've never run afoul of such types.
I really hope the percentage is low, but you always hear those horror stories.
Usually from Louisiana, and L.A.
And then there's the shit poor Serpico went through.
But y'know, that's why the good cops deserve extra respect.


...and then of course, those who improve quality of life when the shit ISN'T hitting the fan...

...all the authors/performers in my reading/viewing list...

...all the performers, workers, and artists involved in creating the art, and keeping the institutions running, and running the machines, involved with making the stuff in the other entries exist.

...and...chefs!

...all for now, forgive if I forgot stuff, but there's always other entries..

Read More......

'Nother thought of the day.

Speaking of Ayn Rand, it occurred to me looking things over, I've more or less whupped the whole "artistic angst", shit I was struggling with, and blubbering about in the addendum to the original rant.

Hence my ability to pound out that self esteem chapter I did.

So, that's all done then.

Blogs heal, kiddies.

:) Read More......

'Nother good one on "tolerance".

Read More......

Another Ayn Rand rant.

Not by me though...

(Thanks go out to Allan for showing me this)

Clicky linky.

...wheeell....I knew Randist thinking in it's extreme spectrum could either lead to sociopathy, or encourage it,...but wow, who knew it was inexorably tied to bare-bones sociopathy right from the horse's mouth?

I don't think I had never heard this story until fairly recently.

Chilling shit.

And fascinating.

Turns out I didn't dig deep enough, and went too easy in my rant (plug, plug, wink, wink). Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #6.

The good channels.



OvationTV.
Not so dippy about the ballet crap, but the documentaries are usually cool, especially when they do animators, or authors, or comics people.
And every couple months, there's an anime marathon.
Sweet.

Good ol' reliable PBS.
When I was a kid, it was easily as geeky-cool as Ovation.
Well, they still have Nova, Charlie Rose, and everything by Ken Burns, so, that's something.


C-Span-2.
A lot on here that's boring, or makes me mumble at the TV, and work up an acid stomach, and the seeds of a headache in my eyebrows, y'know, given it's mostly about Washington and stuff, and as you may know, politics gives me the heebie-jeebies.

BUT, they have authors on, sometimes in huge unrelenting marathons, and that kicks ass.
I could watch that shit all day.
Well, sometimes I do. :P



History.
Okay, as I've ranted elsewhere, they have WAY too much UFO, ghost, Bible, and conspiracy shit on here lately.
But, when they have actual history on, they're still fucking great.
Despite the crap, I'd still rather they exist than not.

And of course, there's the channels that the sprinkle of other good shows are on.

But for channels that you can usually run to, and find something watchable, these are pretty dependable.
At least for me.
YMMV.

Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #5.

The good animated satire shows.








Seems satire has to be in cartoon form for the American public to swallow it down.
Well, fine by me.

Anyway, I'm glad they exist.
Like how stuff like "Unwrapped", jogs my memory that people can and do make good things, and not just horrible and exploitative bullshit, the clever shows remind me there are people left who fucking think, and are out there reminding people "you're not crazy, THEY are".
That's important to the sanity of a nation.
I happen to think it's the most important work there is.

Just imagine a world were this work wasn't being done.

It's easy to, we see a sliver of what it might look like every election year.

Course, thanks to certain channels, we get a look at the delusional psychosis year round.

Picturing being trapped in a world like that makes one want to put a gun in one's mouth.
I'm continually relieved I don't live in that world.
So should you, if you don't already.
Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #4.

Oddly enough, Freddy Krueger.




Never had a Freddy dream, or at least an unpleasant one.
Funny.

I find that series of films to be a strange kind of catharsis, really.

In one instance, even therapeutic.

Damnedest thing....

Read More......

Things that don't give me nightmares #3.

Hmmm....like to make myself do one of these a day...c'mon...think...

Things that don't make me want to die....it gets harder as I get older.....


Ah...here we go...

ThinkGeek.

DealExtreme.





Hmm....

Oh yeah, this thing.....

These folks....

And these folks.


And whoever you people are.

...unless, some of you are reading my every word grinding your teeth going "I hate you so damned much...I'll show you...I'll show you...", or, the smirky/sneering arm-crossed version of that, in either case, piss off, get a life, and take up a less stessful/annoying hobby.
Chia farming, perhaps.

The rest of you can stay.
You folks are wonderful.

Hmm, yeah, all for today.

Read More......