This attitude of brazenly encouraging learned technological helplessness is exactly why I do not and never will trust Apple. They may make an aesthetic product, but if I can't open said pretty box up without fucking myself over for all eternity, then I don't want it.

Other bits from catching up on my NYT/NPR/etc. backlog:
- Marry me, Gail Collins? I clean up after myself and I make a mean curry!
- Review of Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue". I can only hope someone does a reading to equal those of Joe the Plumber's and Carrie Prejean's "biographies."
- Fun collection of Ramen-related memories.
- Famous authors read the funnies, via Roger Ebert. Garfield via James Joyce has a surreal quality, being so awkwardly true to its source material.

EONUS: A surreal moment, courtesy of Mississippi's gambling interests. Sorry, casinos, but the only thing I really want to know about Troy King is if he's really yet another conservative republican homophobe hypocrite.

I feel the universe should know that I have Opinions on Bibleman, and this scares me. Given that I *avoided* my Statement of Purpose just so I could watch Bibleman, this is doubly worrying.

Background to explain this chat: Due to inadvertent if hilarious mental scarring that is All My Fault, I agreed from the kindness of my heart (and because I am a sap) to bake katarik a cake. However, with me a gift is not just a gift. It is a joke waiting to happen.

So this thread may have been...inspiring. She can just be thankful at the time I didn't think to look for Kiss Play fanart.

( i am actually more concerned that you would buy me toys and arrange them in obscene positions. )

Sarah Palin announces her resignation as Alaska governor. (Full transcript.)

Need a hand, Sarah? That cross won't nail you to it itself!

So, in an effort to make us collectively forget about their long history of public embarrassments, the Church of Scientology has unleashed a brand-new media and commerical blitz. All of them are winners, but my favorite is "Search."

One idea and four hours later, I do believe the ad has been...improved.



(Yes, I do sound that odd in real life. I am a combination of multiple accents and childhood speech therapy.)

Jesus?

Watches Kamen Rider.

This is what happens when I have free time in the summer - I make silly things. If everything works out evenly, I may be making a series of AMVs using various Parry Gripp songs. I suspect "Cat Flushing a Toilet" may prove a challenge.

Anime - Dennou Coil, focused on Densuke

I knew it! Sarah Palin was an internet troll all along!

After much thought, I think I have found Ryuunosuke's inspiration for Tenkuu Shinken-Oh.

( Not exactly what you expected... )

Apparently, Ryuunosuke watches exploitation gore flicks in his free time.

Apparently, I am going to end up commenting on most of the Shinkenger episodes with mashups vids because text cannot communicate the hilariousness.

I do not promise coherency. This is maybe four posts, compiled into one big "I need to sleep but I need to post" post. I promise post-finals I will scan in Mr. T and the T Force!

arionhunter: *just bought a book on the making of camp* I cannot wait for finals to be over
das_dingsi: *hug* stressful?
arionhunter: Yeah, and irritating because I have books! And I want to read them now.
das_dingsi: i know that feeling. it's like getting chocolate for easter and being expected to NOT eat it right away
arionhunter: Exactly!
I have a book on rhetoric and argumentation that takes on street preachers!
I know that's not sexy to everyone, but I'd hit it with a ten-foot pole.
das_dingsi: hah! I can see why

-

Things comics have given us that are questionable - the series "Lynch Mob." (man in the middle with the glowy fist is Lynch). The main character may or may not be a man of color whose codename is "Lynch." I do not have the time to take scans, but in the first issue Lynch's skintone considerably is darker than the white people he stands next to. The writer never clarifies Lynch's ethnicity, as they're all too busy fighting a hot anthropomorphized female computer AI in a bikini.

Then again, this imprint also gave comics "Smiley the Psychotic Button," whose first issue ends with Smiley realizing he, as a button, has no penis so he can't have dream-sex with Lady Death.

-

My first cat macro starring Cat.

-

( Summer reading list, mainly for personal reference. )

Today the question was posed in a column: What if Sarah Palin were a lesbian?

Driven by this question (and because I have an odd and twisted sense of humor), I felt it necessary, nay compelling, to consider this in song. As such, I present "If Palin Were A Lesbian," with original credit to Fiddler on the Roof.

( I'd fill my yard with moose and rainbows and cats and trucks / For the town to see and hear. )

(Also seen in the aforementioned column: Hunting moose and watching NASCAR is a lifestyle choice just like being gay!)

When I'm standing at the gates of Hell, I'm pretty sure this is going to be on my resume under Honors and Achievements, right after the LOLcat porn.



EDIT: Following the tokusatsu-related humor theme, for the toku fan half of my f-list (and all of it really): a compliment in graph form.

Interesting recession-related link for the day: Future of 'anime' industry in doubt: Money, success elude; outsourcing, piracy abound.

Personally, I think AltJapan's commentary is rather astute, if a bit pointed.

EDIT 2: Replaced with brown_betty's venn diagram, because she understands math.

EDIT: An analogous example, displayed in graph venn diagram form (since katarik decided to be nitpicky):



Attempt #2.

Original graph.

At das_dingsi's suggestion/request:

When I awoke today the sun was blazing full force, a development I was all-over happy with given the miserable cold rain we had to put up with yesterday.

So I walk outside in flip-flops and a short-sleeved shirt, expecting warmth.

I believe the first thing I said, after registering what I saw, was "Holy shit." ( A sight I have not seen here since...10 years ago. )

I'm ready for my airborne pigs and George W. Bush apologizes now, world.

Bonus: One of my running commentaries lately has been my cat's inappropriate interest in my large box of condoms (for handing out). She has taken to sniffing them a lot and took it to a new level today.

arionhunter: Now Cat is eating my box of condoms
katarik: -- eating the box, or eating the condoms?
arionhunter: The box - I'm not giving my cat condoms
I am crazy, but not that crazy
katarik: *snerks*
arionhunter: This is one of those conversations that is going down in history as a conversation only I could have
katarik: *laughs*
arionhunter: At least I have not suggested cat condoms?
katarik: -- ew.
arionhunter: I am--um. Not sure how one would get them on with all of their fingers intact.

It's been a very long time since I've written anything, and the...inspiration for this hit while I was working on way too many midterms.

( For your reading pleasure, Ban/Hoji in 500 characters or less. )

EDIT: Now with fanart for Week 3!

arionhunter: I'm reading the NYT, and I happen to see a headline "Rider Paradox: Surge in Mass, Drop in Transit," immediately think, "When did the NYT start covering Kamen Rider?" and then realize that clearly, I need to get out more
katarik: actually, i totally went there, too.
arionhunter: BWAHAHAHAHA I WIN
I WIN FOREVER
katarik: *hands you an internet*
arionhunter: *cuddles it*
katarik: *internet plays zanki's guitar for you*
arionhunter: *bounces up and down, clapping*
arionhunter: Man, I am so fucking easy
katarik: yeah, but it's kind of cute.
arionhunter: I am not cute, shut up
katarik: adooooooooooooooorable
arionhunter: I just express my joy with a minimum of dignity.
arionhunter: There is a difference, I tell you

( Possibly the most horrifying thing to come out of Twilight fandom yet. )

Batman, in a desperate grab at relevance, decided it was time to embrace some new fashion trends.

( Just one of millions inspired by the Queen's crown. )

So, the not-so-sekrit project is finally revealed! The parody Christmas carol "album" - "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear!"

My inspiration came from being forced to endure "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" in the local Deals when the anachronistic nature of the song struck me. Hopalong boots and pistols, really? Thus, for my own amusement I did a modern update of "Beginning." This sparked an entire mini-project: rewriting/repossessing Christmas carols around various themes. Some are better than others, and one or two are fairly serious. Originally, I planned to do ten carols, but my sudden flu-like illness and delirious fever dreams had other plans. So instead I post the seven songs I did complete sans commentary.

Cover:


( Tracks )

One of the things I always wondered about David Sedaris was if his childhood stories actually happened, if it was possible for someone to have a life so full of future humor material. I think it was when I thought, after a particularly difficult "pants police" moment with my mother, "This will be hilarious in five years," that I finally realized - Yes, you can have a life so full of awkward humor material.

But this is not my true concern at the moment, no. What I'm really dying to know, for which I just can't contain my curiosity, is: what are you, minorities that you are, ashamed of? We've done all the pride; now it's time to feel the pain of the privileged.

So! As a someone with a genetic bad sense of humor, I have to get it off my chest - I'm sorry about Jay Leno. I wish I could do something about it, but Quality Control was clearly on autopilot that day. I promise you, it won't happen again.

Also, Tim Allen Christmas movies. Apparently, someone thought we hadn't had enough of Home Improvement and needed a new dose of it every two years. We're currently hunting them down in the wilds of Nebraska. We thought we had 'em, but they chewed through the ropes.