I felt a great disturbance in the force.
Federal investigators were set Tuesday to begin an investigation into a fire that ruined about 4 percent of America’s yield of hops, used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale.
And the homebrew shop will raise their hop prices in 3, 2, ….
Bruce Campbell’s going to be there because Brisco County’s coming out on DVD.
Sweet! This is the best year ever! We bought a house, The Tick and Brisco County are on DVD. Awesome!
So are you saying that getting married and going to Ireland were just filler?
No. I’m just not sure it compares to the Tick on DVD….
*SIGH* I’m too tired to hit you…
Zombyboy David_J is doing a Thing where he’ll be presenting a song in a vain attempt to stave off the stigma of “American Idol Blogger”.
It’s an excellent idea, So I’ll play along at home. I’ll post an MP3 of a song and why it’s currently one of my ‘100′.
The mp3 will be available for a week or so, unless I forget to delete them.
Let’s be clear. These are going to be songs I like, and driven mostly by “what’s Matt listening to righ now”. My music library is… far ranging. You’re likely to see Louis Jordan as much as The Hellacpoters. I’m going where the music takes me at the moment.
Dave is continuing his unmanly and disturbing fascination with American Idol. And he seems to have infected Andy as well.
Maybe it’s something in the water in Colorado.
Now, tempting though it is, I’m not going to make fun of two ostensibly mature adults blogging about a show that seems aimed squarely at the 13 year-old girl market. No, I’m more magnanimous than that. I come not to mock, but educate.
You see, Andy says the following in all apparent seriousness
Taylor – doing “Try a Little Tenderness.” I just don’t think anyone will ever top the version from the movie “The Commitments.”
What?
Now, granted, Andy may have been distracted by the boobies of the atmittedly fetching Katharine McPhee, but no one will ever top The Commitments version? Unless you have some serious Soul chops you shouldn’t get anywhere near Otis Reddings catalog, and I have no idea if this “Taylor” organisim* does or not. I’ve never heard him sing and will probably die a happy man.
But to appear to claim The Commitments version is somehow definitave?
No, ’tis but a shadow of the true Amber.
Otis! Monterey, June 17, 1967. Five minutes fifteen seconds of raw power. He blew Hendrix off the stage.
That’s what ya need to top.
Good luck with that.
*I hesitate to use the term “person” to describe someone who resembles George Clooney to that degree.
You know what I just realized? I can’t write unless I can come uo with a snappy title or first sentence for the piece. I can have an entire outline, know exactly where I want to go with it, etc. But I can’t get started until I’ve got that phrase or sentence that ties it all together for me. This is why I’m a terrible blogger, I just can’t write until I distill what I’m trying to talk about into one sentence.
I need that anchor to get going.
Never mind, just random musing.
This is all Zombyboy David J’s fault:
Seven things to do before I die
Seven Things I Cannot Do
Seven things that attract me to… (foreign and domestic bodies)
Seven things I say most often
Seven books (or series) that I love
Seven movies I watch over and over again
You know, if I ever sat down and catalogued the things that scare me to an unreasonable degree, like clowns, heights and the phrase “Carter Presidency”, I’d never have thought of animatronic monkey heads.
Until now. This may be the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time. Seriously, watch the video clip they’ve got and tell me you’ll sleep soundly tonight.
So real, it’s unreal! “Alive” Chimpanzee (Latin name: pan troglodyte…if you can believe it) is a fully animated, life-size bust of the real animal; he has been painstakingly handcrafted to exacting standards. His appearance is uncannily lifelike — with skin and hair and eyes that look and feel genuine. His head and neck — as well as his face and eyes — move as if “Alive” Chimpanzee were a living thing.
Watch the video. That’s not how real chimps move unless they’re rabid or driven insane by rage. And it can be yours for only $150!
# Soulful eyes track movements using infrared “radar” vision; his ears have stereoscopic sound sensors; his skin reacts to contact with touch sensors all around.
# Four distinctive emotional moods include “Curious,” “Happy,” “Fearful” and “Feisty.”
Along with it’s two other emotional modes “Kill whole family while sleeping and feast on the yummy flesh” and “Find Sarah Connor”. Still only $150! Buy one for the kiddies! Imagine their wails of glee as they run screaming from the room in joy at having recieved an Evil Carnivorous Monkey Head as a gift! Imageine the years of Therapy!
Yeesh. If anyone needs me I’ll be barricaded in a closet with a shotgun and a bottle of brown likker.
UPDATE (11/29):
SEE! See what happens when this kind of thing is encouraged? Nazi Monkeys!
Dear PC case manufacturers,
Is it really too much to ask that you build a case in the $50-$100 range that isn’t either plain, boring beige with inadequate cooling or just plain butt-assed ugly? Seriously, people actually buy these godawfull cases with side windows and blue neon and whatnot? because to me they look like someone tried to jazz up a ‘74 pinto. Just put a row of pom-poms around the side window and have done with it, already.
Or make a decent looking, affordable case.
thatisall.
Let’s just, as a hypothetical, say that you’re an employee at a State mental institution. In your care you have a “possibly violent” paranoid who’s been off his meds for two weeks.
Do you think it’s a good idea to give this guy a machete so he can do yard work?
No?
Five word review:
Damn. That was just… Damn.
Longer review:
Whedon definately pulled off the transition from TV series to movie. One of the things I was worried about was the fact that a lot of the reason Firefly worked so well was the character development, which you’ve got plenty of time to do over the course of a TV season. But a two-hour movie? Not so much.
Whedon pulls it off with aplomb, though. There’s enough exposition so that people who haven’t obsessively watched the DVDs aren’t lost, but not so much that fans are bored by retelling the story. And man, what a story. The movie is basically a two-hour episode of the show, only about four times as intense. Intense enough that at times it feels a little brutal in a kind of “stop beating my brain!” kind of way. But it works. Really, really well.
I was also worried that with a big movie budget that they’d go overboard on the special effects to the detriment of the story. They didn’t The effects are damn good and used to good effect, but they don’t dominate the movie the way they have some recent sci-fi movies. (*cough*Revenge of the Sith*cough*) The effects are basically the same as the series (I’m pretty sure the same company did them), but more lavish and bigger. The planet-side scenes are impressive, The space scenes are just about perfect, with none of that “I’m watching a video game” feel that CGI effects often has.
Overall, it’s a great movie and one I’ll probably go see again. And I’ll definately buy the DVD when it comes out.
Spoilerific plot synopsys later when I get a bit more time. Let’s just say some people die, Mal’s a magnificent bastard, and River kicks ass. Seriously, her kung-fu is strong. And the movie pretty much ties up the “River is bat-shit insane” storyline. But it does leave it’s options open for a sequel. Or a new series.
Not for the kiddies or those with delicate sensibilities. A sniper in Afghanistan taking out taliban fighters.
Let’s just say the .50 BMG packs a hell of a wallop.
Ya know, every time I think “Wow, Java’s pretty damn nice” I run up against something so egregiously stupid that it makes me want to dash my brains out with a brick. For example:
The class java.lang.Double has a constructor which takes a String object.
So you’d expect something like
Double d = new Double("99,999.00");
to actually work, at least with a US locale. You’d be wrong. That throws a NumberFormatException. If you do this:
Double d = new Double("99999.00");
it actually works. Because you’d never, ever, in a million years want to turn a string that contains commas into a Double.
And doing :
Double d = (Double) NumberFormat.getInstance().parse("99,999.00");
throws a ClassCastException, even though NumberFormat.parse() returns a Number, and Double is derived from Number. Though to be fair, it may have thrown a NumberFormatException and gotten ignored since java won’t let you just let an exception propagate up to mian() and asplose there.
I’m sure the answer is something that does what I want but involves ten classes and 40 intermediate objects, and it will actually make some sort of sense when I actually find out what it is. But for christ sake, atod() just works. Not well, I’ll grant you, but it works and it’s obvious.
I need to find a Sun engineer and kick it in the nuts.
I’d forgoten I’d taken this picture in Dublin.
The G.F. Handel Bar, somewhere around here.
I took the picture because it seemed odd that a pub in Dublin would be named after Handel, but it turns out The Messiah had it debut there in eighteen-mumblety-something. Can’t remember. Robert’d know since he’s got a book.
It’s 3 AM and I’m still awake.
This is part of my body’s plot to drive me insane.
I need a new host body.
Have you ever wondered “Are there any music videos featuring stereotipical Miami Vice Colombian drug Dealers in Swedish soft-core porn settings?
Wonder no more, your prayers have been answered.
And if you’ve ever asked yourself “Are there German Disco groups that dress in satin Cossack outfits and do silly dance routines to realy bad songs”?
(link via BoingBoing.)
This is just wrong:
As if Captian Kirk sleeping with James Spader isn’t disturbing enough, there’s this:
And Spader admits his castmate has a very distinctive odour.
He explains, “You can tell a lot about a person by that first impression, that first smell. He had a very sort of, a strangely very attractive sort of pungent sort of gamey, sort of a venison or a lamb sausage… and a little bit of rosemary with a touch of ranch dressing.”
I need to go wash my brain out with bleach now.
Ewwwww…..
Off for two weeks in Ireland with my bride. See y’all in May.
This post is the only thing that shows up if you search Google images for “Kylie Minogues butt”.
I think I’m rather proud of that.
Walk down the aisle to the Imperial Theme from Star Wars.
Walk down the aisle to any John Williams music.
No, not the music from the Cantina either.
No, not Indiana Jones either. Or any music from Star Trek.
No “One Ring” references.
No shouting “Khaaaaaaannn!!!” at any time.
HER: God! I’m marrying a dork!
Not allowed to shake down guests for money.
No, you’re not wearing Converse.
Mike had better keep his clothes on. Brian too.
Not allowed to call her cousin “dorkbutt”.
Not allowed to walk down the aisle to “My Victim” by the Supersuckers.
Not allowed to instigate piracy against any of the boats in the marina
I’m not actually the Center Of The Universe.
I will not actually “Rule With An Iron Fist” once we are married.
If you think it’s funny, you’re not allowed to do it.
Not allowed to drink “too much whisky”.
UPDATE:
No, you’re not playin Jimmy Buffet, either.