Sunday, November 30, 2008

Highly Inappropriate



And by "inappropriate," I mean hilarious.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Replaying Link's Awakening


I finally rediscovered my long-lost copy of the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for the original Gameboy Color. My brother and I are replaying it for the first time in years on my Super Gameboy for the SNES. It's addicting and a surprisingly robust adventure for such a small cartridge. The trademark fetch-quests and retreads of already covered ground can be somewhat frustrating, but the solid gameplay, surprising graphics, and humorous storyline filled with Nintendo references keep us coming back.

Best Zelda game ever? Maybe not. But it's close.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Pan de Muerto


I baked the above loaf of pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, yesterday on my day off from work. It's a little dry, but quite tasty.

You Ready for the Remix?



You know, I'm not really "hip" to the disc jockey scene, but I think I may have found a truly amazing talent: DJ Douggpound.

You ready for the remix?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Ipod Emaciated, Needs Nourishment


This is a call out to anyone interested in helping. I need some new music! Post links to some of your favorite songs in the comments and I'll consider adding them to my collection. I'm interested in all genres.

Recently Added:

1234 - Fiest

Dance of the Knights -Prokofiev

Oom-Pah-Pah - Oliver!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Musical Memory

I've composed a simple melody that has been with me for awhile. I didn't expect much from it, but it's so simple that it's been very easy to arrange. I like listening to it. Unfortunately, it's only a minute long.

To lengthen the piece without adding too much of my trademark monotony, I thought I'd add another theme that has been bouncing around in my head. Last time I remembered the melody, it seemed to fit well despite the different tonality. Of course, now that I'm ready to add it to the song, I can't remember it.

This happens frequently. Melodies come and go. I expect it to hit me again in the next few days. But in the mean time, I'm stuck twiddling my thumbs.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Mmm...Corn Nuts...



Oh. I see what you did there.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Retro Gaming Part V -- Holy Crap Edition!



I just bought what looks to be a mint condition Nintendo Entertainment System: Action Set for 32 dollars (12 dollars if you don't count my $20 gift certificate) at Good Will.

These things sell for as little as $75 and more often in the $100 range. I stand to make a nice profit.

Of course, the only problem is defeating my Packrat Syndrome. I'm not sure I want to give this thing up. It's so beautiful and pristine. And I have to imagine it will only increase in value. Who knows, if I keep it safe and dry, I may have quite the collector's item in 40 years time.

Senator Ted Stevens (R Alaska) To Be Flushed Down a Series of Tubes

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term. The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count. That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.


Article


New Poem:

Zoƫ

She burst onto the scene, heavy
With jazz dripping off her promenade,
All a-swish with gin and smoke,
And those hoop bracelets swinging,
Pulling in boys hot to trot,
Slicked back geeks hoping for a peek
Behind her white framed shades,
And a flash and a thrill up their legs
To take home.
One, two, three, four,
Each step sang a far out note,
So that even stiffs dropped politics,
Skirts and fags drew a jealous breath,
And no one dared look away
While she cut a line through the crowd,
Crossed that red rope barrier,
And left us,
A melody fading in the air.

By Jay Fuller

Monday, November 17, 2008

Dog Trains Man



My dog Sophia loves to sleep in my bed. Unfortunately, she's a big dog and a total bed-hog, so just about every night I have to wake her up from a deep sleep and kick her out of my room.

Easier said than done.

In fact, she's such a brat about her sleep that there is no booming voice or threat of violence that will move her. I gave that fight up long ago. Instead, I drag myself down to the kitchen, snap a doggy treat in half, and lure Sophia out with a tasty snack. Does the trick every time.

Yesterday, I found myself in the kitchen and going through the usual ritual without much thought. Imagine my surprise when I went to my room and Sophia was no where to be found. There I was, like a sap, conditioned by my own dog, holding a useless doggie treat in my hands.

It's little moments like these that force me to reflect on my little place in the cosmos.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Minority Report Tech Becomes Reality


I Thought I Hated Documentaries

So why have I seen so many? I used to tell people that I don't like documentaries. But upon reflection, I'm reasonably certain that I've watched as many or more documentaries recently than I have fictional films. Here's my list of viewed documentaries. Add your list in the comments!

Documentaries

King of Kong
Fog of War
Gonzo
Constantine's Sword
An Inconvenient Truth
Who Killed the Electric Car?
The Times of Harvey Milk
Crumb
The Celluloid Closet
Comedian
Religulous
Expelled
Spellbound
The Aristocrats
Fahrenheit 911
Bowling for Columbine
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
March of the Penguins
Hearts of Darkness
The Making of Jurassic Park
Lost in La Mancha
Heckler
Deliver Us from Evil
Salesman
Trekkies
Grizzly Man
Tarnation
Darwin's Nightmare
Jesus Camp

Mockumentaries

Best in Show
A Mighty Wind
The Office Special
Waiting for Guffman
For Your Consideration
American Movie
Windy City Heat
The Blair Witch Project
Coming Apart

Friday, November 14, 2008

Madagascar 2 Music:

Surprisingly good. I prefer the score to this theme over the lyrical version, but it's still catchy.


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Happy Belated Veterans Day

But more importantly...

Happy Belated Birthday, Andrew!


Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Christopher Hitchens Debates



Despite the fact that Hitchens repeats a few old quips and has a sometimes annoying penchant for name dropping, he absolutely eviscerates Turek in this debate. It is joyous to watch (I laughed out loud several times). Sometimes, you can just tell when someone is leagues ahead of another regarding argumentation skills and general intelligence.

There's also a "Gospel according to Brady!" Inherit the Wind moment that Hitchens ignores at first, but then finally acknowledges and uses to decimate Turek. It's just great.

There's also a youtube version if the vimeo version is as slow for you as it was for me (but the vimeo version is certainly the better of the two)

UPDATE: Here's part of that "Brady" moment:


Sunday, November 9, 2008

Mormons and Catholics Wrong (Again)



Protests have organized in opposition to religious entanglement involving the removal of civil rights and Proposition 8. Hopefully, protests will continue to grow in size and frequency. Keep the passion burning!

There's a rumor that the Sundance Film Festival will be moved from Utah in response to the Mormon Church's political solicitation and support for anti-gay propaganda in California. I hope this rumor becomes reality; there's nothing like hitting bigots where it hurts, right in the money bags.

Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church has come forward with a message of solidarity with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (that's the church that believes in polygamy, magic underwear, and dark skin as a punishment from God.)

"Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support of traditional marriage-the union of one man and one woman-that has been the major building block of Western Civilization for millennia." -Bishop William Weigand


Representatives from both churches are now complaining about the ire they have raised against their own organizations of bigotry and inequality. I think Nicole Belle offers the appropriate response:

Sorry, LDS and Catholic Churches, let me pull out my tiny violin for you. You have used the tenets of your faith to infringe upon my secular government to take away rights from people, and I'm supposed to feel bad that protests are targeting you? I just don't think so.


I say keep up the protests! It helped suffragettes, it helped black civil rights activists, and it can help the progressive movement again!

Video Portfolio Open


Check out some of my film and television work.

Including Shadows! (Just ignore some of the production values, and some of the acting, and some of my writing...)

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Is Our Next President A Geek?



From Newsweek:
"That's an interesting belt buckle," he said to Michelle, mischievously. She feigned offense and said, "I am interesting, next to you. Surprise, surprise, a blue suit, a white shirt and a tie." Obama grinned and bent down until he was almost at eye level with her waist. He jabbed a playful finger toward her belt buckle, and let loose his inner nerd. "The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!" Obama squeaked, laughing at his own lame joke as Michelle rolled her eyes.


I'm doubtful that this next story is true, as it comes from a random commenter; nevertheless:
And slightly less known is something a learned from a find of mine, intern for the campaign, that ran hospitality for the now-President-elect when he was in town.

The job involves getting him something to eat, maybe playing a little basketball with him, and basically chatting and getting whatever he needs between important things. During the conversation, apparently Zero Wing came up.

You know, the Sega Genesis video game. I don't know how.

And apparently, my friend made the off-hand comment of "All your base are belong to us".

And Obama leaned forward in his chair, quirked his eyebrow a bit, and responded "What you say?"


Apparently, Obama also gave Leonard Nimoy the Vulcan hand sign at a campaign event.

And then there's this:



via tor.com

Friday, November 7, 2008

Unity



Perhaps a set up, it looks too good to be true, but this picture makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I only wish some other children could be so gracious...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Smack Dem Christians Down!



Featuring Tom Smykowski

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Not All Good News

It looks like proposition 8, which will amend the California constitution to say “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” will pass. That's terribly unfortunate and a sign that bigotry and injustice are still woven into the fabric of the United States.

If we are lucky, Obama will be a truly transformative president and continue to follow in the footsteps of Lincoln by putting a stop to this petty, irrational violation of civil rights. But it would be an unpopular fight.

Alas, the people have spoken and they are dumb.


President Elect Barack Obama



Sounds pretty good to me.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Don't Forget to Vote!

I'll be getting up very early to vote before working my two jobs tomorrow. Please, just vote for Obama. I'll be your best friend. Pinky swear.


Ben Stein's "Expelled"

I decided it wouldn't feel right bashing Ben Stein's Expelled and turning Blockbuster customers away from this brainless dreck without watching it myself, so I gave it a shot. My verdict? It's dull. It's dishonest. And it's shameless.

Any rational movie watcher should get a little suspicious as soon as they look at the box. The only positive quotes the filmmakers could advertise are Ben Stein's own words ("I love this film!") and praise from that re-fried turd burrito Glenn Beck.

Really quickly, the whole movie (I hesitate to call it a documentary as that suggests at least some sense of journalistic integrity) is basically based on the fallacious appeal to pity. The filmmakers argue that Intelligent Design is a viable scientific theory because their proponents are silenced and abused by a conspiracy of "Darwinists," aka biologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, geologists, physicists, anatomists, etc. In other words, "Those guys are bullies, therefore we are right."

Ignoring the fact that the charge is absolutely ridiculous, the filmmakers do a great job of encapsulating the problem with the whole ID movement. Namely, that the "theory" is an unsubstantial negative argument. Rather than presenting actual evidence to support a positive claim, they instead focus on how bad they are treated and how wrong the other side is.

There are many inexcusably dishonest moments in this movie, but worst of all, I think, is the quote mining of Charles Darwin to make him out as an insensitive proponent of cleansing society's undesirables. If they'd only continued the very same quote a little further, they would have had to admit that Darwin saw the human instinct to care for the sick and malformed as the "noblest" of all human endeavors! Shame on you, Ben Stein.

Now, I have to admit, I thought the production values were actually impressive. And the scary thing is, if I try to imagine that I am an uninformed audience member watching Expelled for the first time, then I think there is something emotionally convincing about the movie's conceit. Compare it to its recent polar opposite, Bill Maher's Religulous, and there is something disturbingly similar in the editing, general structure and appeal to sympathy. That worries me because I loved Religious. Perhaps this just proves that these sorts of films have to be taken with a huge ol' grain of salt.

I award Expelled 1 Pope hat of a possible 5, for making me reflect on my own biases.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

duder



I'm insanely jealous of the creative team behind the webseries "duder." The writing is just as witty as Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it is even more personally identifiable. Seriously, some of this dialogue could have been stolen from conversations I had with my friends in college. It's smart, a little ironic, and hilarious. Check it out.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween Overcommercialized?



The Onion investigates.

To Evolve

evolve

1641, "to unfold, open out, expand," from L. evolvere "unroll," from ex- "out" + volvere "to roll" (see vulva). Evolution (1622), originally meant "unrolling of a book;" it first was used in the modern scientific sense 1832 by Scot. geologist Charles Lyell. Charles Darwin used the word only once, in the closing paragraph of "The Origin of Species" (1859), and preferred descent with modification, in part because evolution already had been used in the 18c. homunculus theory of embryological development (first proposed under this name by Bonnet, 1762), in part because it carried a sense of "progress" not found in Darwin's idea. But Victorian belief in progress prevailed (along with brevity), and Herbert Spencer and other biologists popularized evolution.

Argh. I hate it when this happens. Somehow I picked up the apparently false-factoid that "evolution" was a botanical term before Darwin used it which meant "the unfurling of pedals." And so up to this moment there has always been a particular grace about the image that the word inspires, namely that of a flower opening up, its pedals radiating outward like innumerable species evolving from a common ancestral beginning.

Oh well. On the positive side, I've learned something new that makes Darwin seem even more impressive. Did you read the bold lines? Darwin totally anticipated and rebuked the imbecilic interpretation of his theory as necessarily progressive!

I try to curb the impulse for hero worship, but Chuckie D makes it so difficult!