Day of the Moon

I've just finished watching (okay, re-watching the latest "Dr. Who" episode, "Day of the Moon".

It's the second part to the story started in "The Impossible Astronaut" and it puts another gemstone in the crown of awesome worn by Steven Moffatt.

It was creepy, brilliant, and had some truly unexpected twists and turns in it that made me giddy.

There were a few tiny plot holes, but it was all paved over by the awesome that was the last few minutes of the episode.

And no, I'm not going to elaborate and spoil.

Lovecraftian Sex Ed

Ia Ia Naughtiness F'tagn.

It makes SO MUCH SENSE NOW!

Web Serfing

Salon (specifically Matt Zoller Seitz) sums it up more succinctly than I could.

Yeah, I'm talking about the "royal wedding". The wedding of Prince William (does he have a last name?) and I-don't-know-her-title Kate I-don't-know-her-last-name.

You know. Them.

Up until Wednesday, I'd successfully shoved this insanity into the background and simply assumed this whole thing had already happened and I could yawn and go on with my life.

I was corrected on Wednesday (or maybe Tuesday, I forget) and realized I had more days of banal pseudo-"news" to look forward to.

And then my morning news was pre-empted by this bullshit.

I don't mean anything against William and Kate. They seem nice enough, I guess. I don't know them, so I really don't have any strong feelings about them one way or the other. I'm with Zoller Seitz that I'm sickened by the media's blathering mindlessly on and on about this.

I mean, I get - kinda - why the British and Commonwealth nations might care about this. I don't really get why people here in the U.S. give a crap. Didn't our ancestors fight a rebellion (sorry revolution) so we didn't have to care about royalty and arbitrary labels of superiority people get from their birth and name?

There's something creepy and sinister about incessant media messages that attempt to create "noble" classes for us common folk to bow down to. In the States we're supposed to breathe reverently whenever a politician assures us of something... unless it's a politician from another party. If it's a media star/darling (Tom Cruise, Lindsey Lohan, whomever) or a CEO, we're supposed to kowtow and give nine-hundred different kinds of shit if they sneeze funny.

Hell, we don't even persecute executives for crimes in this country (*cough*financial scandal and bank meltdowns*cough*).

It's like we're trying our best to undo all those years of social evolution away from a feudal mindset.

And it's creepy.

And it kind of pisses me off.

The mind-numbing awesome

Backstory: I saw this on rpg.net. I was originally just going to slap it up here and say I had no idea who the original creator was.

Then I looked at the filename and did a search for "Coelasquid".

Found the above image after a few minutes of searching DeviantArt (god bless 'em) and finding Coelasquid's stuff.

The awesome is overwhelming, isn't it?

Miscellany for April 25

Brilliant bit on the post office railway under London (via io9)

---

Watched "The Impossible Astronaut" again. Still a brilliant opener for series six of "Dr. Who".

---

It was a nice, long weekend up until about Sunday. A lot of my extended weekend had a decidedly alcoholic theme to it. That's probably not healthy.

The weekend took a downturn on Sunday morning when I was notified of a death in the family. Enough said on that topic.

---

Haven't seen the latest "Game of Thrones" yet. I hope to see a recording tonight.

Impossibly Awesome

I saw the first episode of series six of "Dr. Who" last night. The episode was entitled "The Impossible Astronaut".

It was freakin' brilliant. The level of genius in that episode alone left me in shock and awe.

Steven Moffatt is a god.

R.I.P. Elisabeth "Sarah Jane Smith" Sladen

Ms. Sladen has apparently died at the age of 63.

Rest in peace, Ms. Sladen. You will be missed.

Gaming the Thrones

I managed to see a recording of HBO's "A Game of Thrones" last night.

God.

Damn.

I didn't really think any kind of televised presentation could do justice to Martin's dark and gritty work.

I am eating my words now.

Tastes like chicken.

Your moment of WTFery

Words

Welcome

Hello again, Friday!

Come and sit, my dear friend. I shall fetch beer. We shall toast your health and that of dear, wonderful Saturday.

Manly Drinking

The 655 ml rugged Full Metal Jacket Stein of Science remains foremost on my mind of late.

It's a tad heavier than my other SoS and I've got a learning curve in drinking successfully out of it.

The heavier weight can only be a good thing. It will help me burn more calories as I drink.

The learning curve will teach me to pay more attention to the act of drinking and help me conquer my easily distracted natu... oooh! Shiny thing!

Shiiiiiiny.


So shi... wait. What was I? Oh crap.

Looks like I've still got a ways to go.

For surveys in bad neighborhoods

I can't decide if this is a good idea or a horrifying one.

Or both.

Could be both.

My Beer has a New Home

With the last bits of some money I came into that hasn't otherwise gone into savings and similarly-important matters, I obtained a second Stein of Science.

Why a second one?

Well, this one is "rugged".

Wait. Let me back up.

So the Steins of Science are dewars (vacuum-sealed glass, thermos-like containers... think high-quality thermoses). My previous stein has a metal shell, but I know all-too-well how fumble-fingered I am when washing my drinking vessels. I wanted something with a slightly better chance of surviving me.

Plus it's always nice to have a backup and a "carry elsewhere" stein that I can show off to the envy of others.

So yesterday I got a 655 ml "Rugged Full Metal Jacket" Stein of Science (and more Black Blood of the Earth... I have a minor chemical dependency, I think).

I'm actually "baptizing" my rugged stein with a pint of Smithwick's as I type this.

It's interesting to drink around the extended lip of the rugged stein. I can see I may develop a literal drinking problem, but that's hardly news to anyone who has had drinks with me.

And thus is the last shiny thing I can selfishly buy for a good long time. I regret nothing.

[Edit] Unashamed pimping: Funranium Labs is offering a coupon on purchases for a limited time... [/Edit]

What I've Learned Today

The Japanese pantheon apparently has a god of evil.

His name is Amatsu-Mikiboshi (天津甕星, "August Star of Heaven"). Wikipedia claims he's both the god of evil and the stars, specifically the pole star (Polaris).

Sounds like the Japanese beat Lovecraft to the punch by eons.

I must thank In His Likeness for expanding my theological education.

Arigatou gozaimasu!

One Way of Looking at It

SMBC's take the Rapture.

Makes sense, when you think about it.

Images of Crazy

The Geek Zodiac

Love, according to Neil Gaiman

Disclaimers:

1) I lifted these off of RPG.net. I'm assuming they're okay for reposting.

2) I have no idea if the Neil Gaiman quote is actually from Mr. Gaiman himself. I'm too tired to attempt to verify. I just found it to be cool.

3) I don't think I had enough coffee this morning.

Carbony and sharp

It finally arrived.

I did my taxes some time ago and got a nice refund. I went a little nuts and bought some stuff with said money (most of which was obtained at WonderCon). One of the non-WonderCon things was the Creditor Carbon Fiber Money Clip Knife.

I saw it on several blogs (Uncrate, etc.) and decided:

* My knife collection needs to be expanded all that much more
* I need something that could potentially shred my cash

It proved to be a popular purchase. It was immediately on a nearly two-month backorder. I'd almost forgotten I'd ordered it when I received email from the site saying they were processing the order.

Then I waited on pins-and-needles for a new shiny thing in the mail.

After enjoying a day of beer tasting on Saturday, it was in my mailbox waiting for me.

It's very small. They advertise it as the size of a credit card and they're not lying. It's got roughly the dimensions of a credit card, save the thickness, which is roughly that of two credit cards (assuming you remove the clip).

The handle is titanium and very light. The knife is a wide thing but sharp. It's got a nice handle.

Me like. It was well-worth the wait.

Disclaimer for whomever would actually give a crap about these things: I don't work for these guys. I didn't get money from them nor any other kind of compensation.

Gaming the Thrones

HBO's take on "A Game of Thrones" starts this weekend.

I actually wish I had HBO. I've seen the clips from the show and I've read the books. I have to say that what little I've seen is pretty true to the books.

It's not exact, mind you, but I'd be shocked if the tv series stays exactly true to the books.

The books are pretty f*cked-up. The tv series will - no doubt - be f*cked-up for tv, but I doubt it will go as far as the books.

If it does, it's going to blow minds.

cofffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

A personal record: I managed to injure all four of my limbs in class yesterday. I think the hamstring is more-or-less stretched back to normal now. I'm pretty sure my foot is okay. I'm confident my finger got mashed rather than broken.

*sigh*

I suck at my hobby.

If it were not for the last bits of my supply of Black Blood of the Earth, I probably wouldn't have made it out the door today. Good thing I'm getting a refill of my supply this afternoon.

Pithy - Dr. Who related - title here

io9 has a spoiler pic of Dr Who's new villain: the Silence

To say I eagerly await series six of Dr. Who does not adequately cover my feelings.

Wow. 2001.

My last post was my 2000th, per Blogspot.

My contributions to the cacophany have been prolific.

In other news, I watched IP Man on Sunday morning through a bleary haze of beer recovery.

Donnie Yen busting out and kicking nine hundred different kinds of ass as Yip Man, one of the teachers of Bruce Lee and an instrumental person in the Wing Chun school of kung fu.

It was good times.

Monday already?

Well that was a packed weekend. A fair amount of it was debauchery and that puts the weekend solidly in the "good" category.

Sake and beer before Friday's Your Highness showing. Saturday was almost entirely the Firkin Fest beer tasting to-do.

Sunday was not so much of the crazy. It was cozy family stuff, but that's good. My battered liver needed a rest.

Somewhere along the way, I obtained a zombie ninja Mez-Itz from ThinkGeek.

He holds a place of honor on my work PC, guarding the chaos of my desk from... um... something. Order? Cleanliness? I dunno.

I realize I work among my people when people immediate take note of him when they wander by. It says a lot about my co-workers that they can notice a ninja (though the zombie part probably helps... it's the smell).

It's funnier when several of my female co-workers observe zombie ninja is "cute".

Not the reaction I would have expected (at least from the ones who have voiced that observation), but life is full of little surprises.

ThinkGeek should get a pirate-robot Mez-Itz to properly do meme-battle with the zombie-ninja.

High-as-a-kite-ness

With some good friends and a healthy base of alcohol in the system, I saw Your Highness last night.

We loved it. Seriously.

So... caveats:

1) This is a stupid movie. Seriously.

2) We had been drinking a lot.

3) We are all easily-entertained.

4) My standards for movie excellence are not exactly high.

Your Highness is best described as The Lord of the Rings meets any other fantasy movie you can imagine as written by a couple of stoned 13-year-old boys playing Dungeons & Dragons around a pile of skin magazines.

To say the language is crude and the humor is sophomoric is to waste too many syllables in describing the dialog.

The story is pretty simple(-minded): there's two princes in a mythical kingdom of some sort. One is noble, good, and all that. The other is a petulant, slacker, stoner.

The noble son's would-be virgin bride-to-be is kidnapped by an evil wizard for an evil spell. Noble son goes out to get his bride-to-be back.

That's an awkward sentence. Hm. Nevermind... moving on.

Slacker son has to go along with his noble brother or get banished. So the two of them set out with slacker son's lackey and have a series of bawdy adventures that eventually put them on the same path as Natalie Portman's character. Portman's character is a bad-ass, beautiful warrior woman.

Hang on. I know this depth of plot is hard to keep up with. Take a breather.

Okay, feel better? Moving on.

Slacker son has to step into a role that might be heroic if you squint just right. Good triumphs over evil.

Well... slackery fumbling triumphs over pervo creepy.

Um...

No that's not right either.

Bah. Long story short the movie ends with profanity and sex jokes.

Hm... maybe I should have added a spoiler warning?

So, if you can handle bawdy humor (like young teenage boy humor) and ridiculous amounts of profanity, this is a movie you'll enjoy.

If you are appropriately drunk and/or stoned, this also could well be a movie you'd enjoy. Hell, I'm going to say you need to at least be buzzed. In my case it was multiple glasses of sake followed up by a 22-oz Arrogant Bastard Ale.

If, however, you're easily offended, or expect a movie like this to have good acting and a solid plot, I'd save cash and go see something else.

boggled

Poll: 46 percent of Mississippi Republicans want interracial marriage ban

Wisconsin politics

Arizona guns on campus

Federal Government Shutdown

I used to wonder why I occasionally get hit with boughts of depression. One nice thing about the increasing insanity and stupidity gripping the U.S. is that I don't really have to wonder anymore.

Awkwardly Awesome

Some five or six years ago, I visited China on a tour. It was a fun trip. I got to see the Great Wall, Tienanmen Square, the "Forbidden City", the Terracotta Warriors, the Three Gorges Dam, and a bajillion other things that were overwhelmingly awesome.

The only thing from that trip that distracted from the awesome was the air pollution.

We were lucky in Beijing. The weather was windy and apparently blew all the smog away, so we didn't have any trouble. Where I hit personal critical mass was in Shanghai.

I was hoofing it along some street or another to the waterfront and the air was so thick with automobile exhaust fumes that you could cut it with a knife... after about five minutes of hard work.

My eyes were a lovely shade of red. I developed a chest cough that sounded like I was dying. I lost my voice.

I could have used this.

I have visited Japan and China now. I used to think it odd to see folks wandering around in broad daylight sporting surgical masks. In Japan it was explained to me that folks do that 'cause they've got a cold they'd rather not share with others, though sometimes it's to filter crappy air in their cities. I was told in China, it's mostly to try to filter out the pollution.

This "Totobobo Mask" thingie looks vaguely like something out of dystopian science fiction, but I sure could've used it in Shanghai.

Though, I have to admit one thing. If I'd had it, I'd have constantly been wandering around saying stupid stuff like: "Luke! I am your father!"

Nobody would've gotten it. It would have been sad.

Clearly In Need of Entertainment

Today's Webcomics of awesome:

Evil Inc.

Order of the Stick

xkcd (always a safe bet)

Yeah, that's all for now.

I would like to [bleep] glazed donuts

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

*sigh*

Exhausted

What a weekend.

Far more beer than was likely healthy, but I had the craving.

And then there was WonderCon. Nerd costumes, the Iron Throne of Westeros, webcomic and comic creators, more nerd costumes, lightsabers, and a lot of overall crazy.

Baking.

And then the family tradition of the spring mai tai coupled with Trader Vic's style Danish baby-back ribs.

Good times. No... great times.

Game of Thrones preview

Game of Thrones Exclusive Preview©ShareURL=http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1170886&filter=game-of-thrones&view=null

(via io9)

Um... wow.

Sold.

Con Job

I attended WonderCon 2011 for a few hours today.

I didn't attend any panels. I didn't watch any previews. I spent pretty much all my time wandering the dealer room, chatting with dealers, artists, and the like as well as snapping photos of various costumes.

As always happens when I'm anywhere crowded, I got slammed with a claustrophobic anxiety attack a couple of minutes before my friends texted/called me to tell me they were in line to see Berkeley Breathed.

Yes. Berkeley Breathed. The guy who did "Bloom County" and "Opus".

Did I rouse myself there? No, I sat in a corner to rest my foot (still hurts) and try to deal with the crowd-anxiety thing.

Didn't really work. I decided to take a break and walked off to get lunch at a local sports bar.

There were other Con attendees with the same idea. One of them was Batman.

It's disconcerting to see Batman slamming the pints.

A burger and some beers later, I felt relaxed and returned to WonderCon for about an hour-ish more. By that point it was getting truly insane.

And I was done.

I left with four t-shirts, two CDs, a small bundle of comic books, and a lightsaber.

Yes. A lightsaber.

I carried the lightsaber back on BART, too. That was awesome. All those BART riders looking but trying so very hard not to look.

Their envy (or fear or disgust) was delicious to me.

Damn but I'm tired.