It's not very good yet (we haven't figured everything out), but Brainslur does have one song up on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/brainslur

So. Dave's been muttering about how I wasn't allowed to check the mail this week, because my birthday gift was due to arrive. I've ben wracking my brain trying to decide what I thought he might be getting me.

I never even came close.

Today it arrived, and Dave being Dave he doesn't bother with the wrapping and the waiting until the actual birth date for the gift giving. The gift is given in the packaging in which it came, upon the moment of arrival. I was told to briefly close my eyes so he could unbox it from the shipping package. ;)

( And what to my wondering eyes did appear? )

plantyhamchuk let me use her shower, and wolven and her and I hung out for a while, bullshitted, and were loved by her cat.

And...really, that's it, right now. I've got props to finish painting, and dinner to make. Was tempted by Chick-fil-A, but snapped right out of it when I saw that what I wanted, the chicken Caesar wrap, had climbed to almost five bucks on it's own. The combo was nearly as much as the same thing at the Vortex...Um, NO. I'm going to make some fish instead. I've got some salmon in the freezer that needs to be eaten before it is freezerburned, and I could eat salmon just about any day of the week.

...or maybe potstickers and rice. There's that, too. Damnit. I hate when I'm hungry and then everything sounds awesome.

(Oh, and the advisory has been lifted. WOOT.)

...that the deadline for Post-RSC Histories Ficathon and Lovefest entries is THURSDAY 31 JUNE at 11:59 PM CDT (I'm using my own timezone because I feel like one should be able to use one's prerogative occasionally in things one is organizing). To figure out what time that is in your time zone, go here. Anyway, point being, that's one week from today.

I am planning to post entries at thisengland, and will index them here. They'll go up once I have all of them. Please send entries to strangebrooch AT gmail DOT com.

When you send your fic, please remember a few things:

1. Make sure your fic is properly formatted as you want it before sending it off.

2. Please include a header with the following information:

Title:
Play:
Recipient:
Character(s)/Pairing(s):
Warnings: (if necessary)
Rating:
Notes:
Summary: (keep this to one or two sentences)

This will make it easier to keep track of everything.

3. If you have any problems, questions, &c., please let me know as soon as possible.

Written by Bob Cesca:

As we have observed throughout the last several years, the notion of fairness in journalism has been guided by a miscalculated rule that in order to report good news about a liberal or a liberal success, news reporting has to be counterbalanced either with unearned praise for conservatives or trumped up and parroted negative news about the aforementioned liberal or liberal success. Oh, and the reverse doesn't apply. That's the rule.

And so now that Senator Obama's Berlin address is in the can, get ready for the backlash from the very serious corporate media. Get ready for profuse around-the-clock praise of Senator McCain and/or unfair, invented criticism of Senator Obama. Because reporting news, however accurate, about Senator Obama's successful trip to the Middle East and Europe isn't news. It's obviously biased reporting against the McCain campaign.

That's all we've heard from the McBush Republicans this week: griping about the press coverage of Senator Obama's trip, as if such an epic event isn't newsworthy. Although I'm sure the McBush camp would've been thrilled about such wall-to-wall coverage if Reverend Wright had been spazzing out on the wing of the Obama campaign jet, ripping it to shreds Twilight Zone style -- Rezko and Ayers running around in turbans spray-painting "clinging to guns" on the side of General Petraeus' helicopter.

And it appears as if the McCain campaign's Gripe Surge is working:

HANNITY: Scott Rasmussen has a poll, 49 percent of Americans think the media is trying to help Barack Obama win. Only 14 percent think they're trying to help you win.
MCCAIN: The American people are very wise.


When the press aired the Wright videos around the clock for approximately six weeks while continuing to refer to Senator Obama as "Osama bin Laden," they've clearly been employing some kind of magic or trickery -- some kind of scary reverse psychology. You know, to help Senator Obama. Thankfully the American people were "wise" to it.

The McCain campaign even turned their griping into a web video this week to prove that the corporate media loves Senator Obama more than they love Senator McCain. Setting aside the idea of a web video from the campaign of a man who is just now learning how to "get online," it's staggeringly desperate and ridiculous of them to produce such a thing. Reason the first: because the content of the video, apart from Chris Matthews "leg thrill" remark, is mostly just reporters saying things like, Is the media in love with Obama? which, of course, doesn't prove a damn thing one way or the other. And, reason the second: because this other web video exists:



But several days of crotchety griping from both far-right talk radio and the McCain campaign has begun to show results. Here's how.

On Tuesday's edition of Morning Joe, Mika Brzeznski, Andrea Mitchell and Very Serious Mark Halperin (who publicly encouraged Senator McCain to convince people that Senator Obama is a terrorist) agreed that after three days of reporting the actual news that Senator Obama's overseas visit was successful, they should deliberately attempt to "trip him up" -- to "hold him accountable." Oh yeah? For what? We're gonna hold him accountable for not screwing the pooch on this trip -- the rat bastard! We're very serious! Barack's a Muslim terrorist [Halperin only]!

Then CBS News, showing its obvious penchant for wanting Senator Obama to win, edited out Senator McCain's laughable error with regards to the Anbar Awakening -- another in an on-going syllabus of McCain ignorance, which further proves that he's really not the Mighty Old Man of Awesome Foreign Policy Experience and Balls. Suggesting that there's such a thing as an Iraq/Pakistan border in a Today Show interview on Monday didn't help either.

But as the rule goes, the only way the corporate press (Olbermann, Maddow and the like excluded) can make a beef about these things would be to find a similar gaffe or mistake by Senator Obama and report on that first. And since nothing recent exists... Pass! Next!

And today, the word of the day in the corporate press is... presumptuous. Used in a sentence: Senator Obama is being presumptuous during his trip -- acting all presidential and dignified. How dare he be presidential while running for, you know, president. Presumptuous. During the live CNN web feed of the Berlin address, an anchor used it to describe the event. Joe Klein used it in a blog post today. Of course Joe attributed it to racist voters rather than very serious reporters -- racist because it's presumably a synonym for 'uppity' and we can't accuse the press of such awfulness. And Candy Crowley used it in her post-address analysis on CNN. That's a lot of coincidences. "Presumptuous" must really be a popular word. Odd that it's being used so often by people who want Senator Obama to win.

AP: "In a speech that risked being seen as presumptuous..."

TIME Magazine: "capable to become the Commander in Chief of a superpower -- without seeming presumptuous..."

The National Journal: "He is well aware voters here at home might see that as presumptuous..."

Washington Post: "Whether by the end of this week he will be seen as presumptuous or overly cocky..."

Chicago Tribune: "That means walking the fine line between looking presidential and appearing arrogant and presumptuous..."

Boston Globe: "plus the growing sense in some quarters that the presumptive Democratic nominee is getting a little presumptuous..."

Can you feel the wanting-Obama-to-win love radiating off your computer screen? No?

The reality is that positive coverage of any Democrat is limited and temporary for fear of networks and newspapers either being accused of liberal bias or being tossed out of the very serious barbeque loop. Regardless of whether the Democrat, in this case Senator Obama, is having a good day, it's somehow unethical to report on such good news for too long without deliberately concocting an antidote to appease the far-right. So rather than standing up as the only industry explicitly named in the Constitution and defending the very basic idea of journalistic integrity, the corporate media is all too quick to capitulate to these specious Republican attacks -- that is, when they're not tossing their ethics aside and taking bribes in the form of barbeque and McBusch beer from a candidate whom they're supposed to be covering objectively.

`Happy Birthday lizmopuddy

VERY cool: exoskeleton for disabled people.

Most of my House fangirl friends will appreciate this.

New York Yankees ban sunblock inside the stadium because of terrorism, sell overpriced substandard sunblock inside.

two headed bearded dragon lizard.

OK...

I watched Obama's speech in Berlin before I went to work and I was literally frozen as I was watching. After eight painful years of Bush's language-mangling embarrassing incoherent speeches, to hear a man speak clearly, efficiently and with full grasp of history and location... I simply felt like the sun had finally come up, the shades of darkness were finally beginning to show that they would fade... and Bella crawled back to his place on Bald Mountain.

It was amazing. A politician actually knowing what he was talking about! A man who could actually point to historical events and accurately explain the lessons to be learned from those times! It was amazing to realize just how low we've all set the bar... even I forgot what it was like to hear a speech of this level of excellence.

I personally think we should just make Obama president right now... so we can lessen the chance of George W. Bush killing all of us.

I just got the last of a recent, giant order from Scent Addict (which is affiliated with Magical Omaha). In my order was my fourth (! I know!) bottle of Arcana Frilly Underpinnings. I can't even think about running out of this scent, and I just wanted to get ONE MORE to stock up on. Since they only came in 5mL.

Except this one is a 10mL. Not that I am complaining, since I love this scent with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, and wear it all the time, but that's SO WEIRD.

I've been looking at Taryn Rose and wondering what the sizes were like. They're a bit expensive to just buy online, the risks are a bit much when you're talking $300-$550 plus postage. But Arnott's have a selection on the shelf. There I can at least try them on. And I think there may have to be some trying.

Actually got a good bit of work done this morning, believe it or not. Also, there was some weirdness right as I was adding the daily click graphics to the end of the entry and a few links went missing, so I think I put all of them back but I'm not sure. ( Carnage and crazies at Comic-Con! )

Happy Birthday to metalrabbit

Betrayal

CI Haiku


( Read more... )

While I should be posting about my most recent vacation (which was way cool), one of Esquire magazine's recent articles inspired me to create this meme.

Instructions:

1. Cut-and-paste the list.
2. Strikeout the items you've done, italicize the items you're in the process of doing. Because they're things that every man should do, we don't care whether or not you want to do an item or not...
3. Female participation is welcome and encouraged.

Esquire's ( The 75 Things Every Man Should Do )

So, I'm working at the adult reference desk when two young fellas (around 12 or so) come up to the desk and politely ask if they can use a sharpie marker. Thinking of the graffiti issues we've had in the restrooms, I said yes, but only if you use it right here. They settle down in the comfy chair located immediately to my right and start emptying out a bag. I try and ignore them a little, because I want to give them some semblence of privacy. However, it's obvious that they want to write on the bag that the smaller boy is carrying. I'm fine with that until I realize that they want to pretty much completely black out/decorate the entire cloth bag. WTF. I interrupt them and say that I'm sorry, but I thought they were just going to use the pen to write their name on something and that if they were going to color in the whole blocked off area, I would need the pen back and they would have to get their own sharpie. The older boy pulls out four quarters and says, "Okay, we'll buy yours" and continues coloring.  No, no, no. This won't do. I eventually actually have to take the sharpie out of his hand, put his money back in his hand and tell him to go buy his own sharpie because ours is off limits. It was about 5 minutes before shift change, so I let the next librarian know what was up in case they tried it again with her.

Just got a call from Alex. He and Shannon are now alive and well in Hawaii

cross posted from the blog

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Original: craschworks - comments

Gnarls Barkley needs Jesus. This is the most disturbing R & B video I've ever seen in my life. That thing about me suffering? Yo, this is one of those times.