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| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
urbaniak
|
9:58a |
Ramble on
Here's an hour-long, enjoyably digressive podcast I did with Ken Plume.  |
fengi
|
10:03a |
They don't need our money.
The starting rate for getting into Holy Land (without parking, food, etc.) is $35 per person. A bit of a steep price for ironic thrills when there's acres of nature around.  It's manatee season at Blue Spring State Park, so we're going there instead. When it comes to some dude undergoing a dinner theater crucifiction or sea cows, we have a bias. 
In fact, Jesus may have come back as this guy. |
fengi
|
6:44a |
Extremely late to this cute party.
I was doing an image search and I came across this. Oh em gee, so cute, so sad.  May 2007: A group of orphaned baby owls snuggle up to a cuddly toy which has become their surrogate mum after they were found on the brink of death in the wild. Two of them, brother and sister Oscar and Olivia, aged four weeks were brought in by a concerned dog walker who found them being clawed to death by a pair of cats. A fluffy baby aged around six weeks called Thomas was taken to the animal centre by a member of the public who spotted him lying on the edge of a busy road. And tiny eight-week-old Tamsin narrowly escaped a nasty end when she was discovered by a cyclist tottering along a popular bike path through a forest. All four of the nocturnal creatures are now being cared for by experts at the New Forest Otter, Owl & Wildlife Park at Longdown in the New Forest, Hants. After a tough start in life, they are being fed up to full strength in the park's hospital quarters, where they crave love from their surrogate mum. The park's animal manager, John Crooks, said the little chicks may have got lost from their mums in the Hampshire countryside after wandering off before they could fly. Or they may also have been forced out of the nest by their parents if they were the youngest of a large brood to hatch. He said: "There's a lot of misinformation about tawny owls. They're perceived to be very wise animals because of their appearance but really they're not very bright at all. ...once their wings and adult feathers are grown, they will be moved to an aviary to spend another month or two learning to fly and building up their muscles. Experts hope to be able to release the orphans back into the wild when they reach the age of three to four months. ...The group have all bonded and snuggle up close to each other and to the cuddly toy owl dubbed 'mummy owl', which has to be washed regularly because she gets so much love. The babies are also making their first attempts at flight by jumping off objects and flapping their little wings. The tiny chicks stand just a few inches tall at the moment, but within a couple of months they will grow to be around one foot tall. ...Park keepers are also worried because owl breeding has been unusually early this year - a phenomenon they believe is evidence of global warming. |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
fengi
|
6:26p |
We are In Orlando to see Jesus Get Nailed
 Deadend Margo and I are in Orlando Florida for the holiday. Tommorow we're going to The Holy Land Experience and right after, we'll cross the Interstate to stop in the gigantic Target in Millenia Plaza (shown here under constrution).  |
mskittieface
|
3:59p |
Brittany Murphy, Rudolph, and Santa-phobia...
Today's been a weird one. Apparently, Brittany Murphy died this morning. Of cardiac arrest. (I smell drug use.) Weird. I'm sitting here, watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which I haven't seen in years. I forgot all about the elf who wanted to be a dentist. Weird. Worked the Santa cruise this morning, and there were a pretty large percentage of kids who were terrified of Santa. I mean, like, screaming terrified. Weird. |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
fightingwords
|
12:00a |
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| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
evandorkin
|
6:23p |
|
fengi
|
10:38a |
The Shock Doctors
The Health Care debacle was presaged by the Iraq War. Just think: In that war, we hired private contractors to do jobs the military used to do with training and a tradition (if not reality) of honor. For billions more we get private firms who rape fellow employees, kill civilians while violating rules of engagement, take bribes to help corrupt officials escape prosecution, all while taking pictures of themselves doing ass shots and enjoying immunity from American and Iraqui law. They also screw over their own employees whenever they can, and can't even install a plumbing and lighting without racking up a body count. Meanwhile our actual military continues to surpass private contractors whenever they do the same task, except they're not only at risk of death and horrible injury from taking a shower, they get paid shit and face a system which will attempt to give less than the minimum mandatory compenstation for injury and death at all times. This has gone on for a decade without the patriots of our nation who allegedly love our troops saying shit. No one has pointed out how insane it is to overpay private firms to do a worse job. Why are we suprised there's a bill which obligates private citizens to spend money - a tax in all but name - on private businesses who are openly determined to do a worse job than medicare? EDITED TO ADD: I should make clear I'm still shocked, even though I suppose I shouldn't be. I honestly thought the worst outcome would be no bill or some tiny improvement pretending to be big. Not this. |
fengi
|
10:13a |
Newspaper Trend Pieces: For When Wikipedia Is Too Nit-Picky
It's good to know shitty lifestyle writing isn't confined to American local news. Courtesey of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) twosnoos a London Times article about the hot new poetry slam scene in England: Poetry slams began across the Atlantic. In 1981, a factory worker in Chicago grew tired of the dull, pretentious atmosphere of traditional recitals and introduced a competitive element to poetry performances occupying strict time-slots. The legacy of that innovation has been Def Poetry, a high-profile national competition that is screened every year in the US on the HBO television network. |
twosnoos
|
10:43a |
Article about Poetry Slam in today's London Times
Three-minute poetry? It’s all the rageRapid-fire ‘slam’ recitals with voting audiences are a big draw. Could this be the new X Factor?By Sam Parker http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article6957668.eceEvery week in small theatres and pubs across Britain, poetry is being dragged back into popular culture by a new generation. The rules of “poetry slamming” are simple. Anyone is invited to perform for up to three minutes, and his or her efforts are scored out of ten by judges selected at random from the audience. There are heats, and whoever finishes with the highest score is the winner. At the Farrago London Slam Championship, off Oxford Street (the longest-running slam in Europe: it started in 1993), the voting cards are being offered round and I hold out my hand eagerly. For an hour I have watched a stream of young faces — some clearly nervous, some calm — arrive and put their names down to “slam”. They study tatty bits of paper pulled from back pockets, or pore over well-worn notepads. Lips move silently as the room fills up. The first performances are from Fran, a poetry slam veteran; Mark, a former Farrago champion, now in his thirties, who recites a poem about being HIV-positive; and Deanne, a 20-year-old who giggles, cringes at the sound of her voice, pauses, then bursts into angry verse. The attention she commands is disarming — somewhere between the gawping adoration of live music and the reverent silence of theatre. I reach for my voting cards but needn’t bother. These are just the “feature” acts who have been invited to get things started. Still seated are 20 or so mainly young people, clutching their notebooks and itching to get on stage. Poetry slams began across the Atlantic. In 1981, a factory worker in Chicago grew tired of the dull, pretentious atmosphere of traditional recitals and introduced a competitive element to poetry performances occupying strict time-slots. The legacy of that innovation has been Def Poetry, a high-profile national competition that is screened every year in the US on the HBO television network. Def Poetry performers share much of their technique with America’s chief musical obsession, hip-hop. At slams in the US, identity politics and rap-style skits dominate. But while we are yet to see a truly mainstream poetry event in the UK, we are catching up where it matters — on stage. And we’re doing it our way. “When we first started these events, the US was way ahead — just like when hip-hop began over here and everyone did it with an American accent,” says John Paul, the founder of Farrago, which, along with another group called Hammer & Tongues, is the most prominent slam group in the country. ( MORE BEHIND THE CUT ) |
| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
mskittieface
|
10:26p |
Goddamnit, cats are expensive.
Emo is sick. Threw up for two days straight and I took him to the vet tonight. Had to write a postdated check for the vet bill, which is just absurd. It seems he has the same thing Miss Kittie Face had last year, although we don't know the origins, and it could be something so much worse than the ridiculous emotional issues that brought it on in Face. The vet is afraid he has feline AIDS or leukemia or cancer or something. We're giving him home treatments (much cheaper than keeping him in the hospital) and seeing what happens, and if he's not much better in a few days, we're bringing him back. He got an anti-nausea shot and he came home to eat a little bit of the extravagant wet food from the vet. He seems to be doing a lot better now, and he hasn't even had his subcutaneous fluids yet. I have antibiotic shots for him and he should get better, hopefully. I always said I couldn't understand spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on an animal, like, when it's their time it's their time, and prolonging their lives and keeping them alive and in pain is just cruel. But I don't know what we will do if he's diagnosed with something really horrible. He's Jack's baby, and we couldn't just let him go out like that, could we? It could be worse. There was a woman there whose dog had impaled herself on a fence and she has to pack a very large weeping stomach wound for the next few months. I do not envy them the ridiculous amount of money they are spending, nor having a pet in that kind of pain. We'll just have to see how it goes. Poor baby. |
fengi
|
2:33p |
|
mskittieface
|
10:32a |
Apartment for rent!!!
The best apartment in our building is open! We'd take it ourselves if we could afford a 2 bedroom. Seriously. It's HUUUUGE. 1200 square feet, $1250/month. The landlords would rather keep it in the family, rent to friends of the tenants who are already here. Exciting! :) Let me know if you're interested. |
fengi
|
9:30a |
Fig 1: Unacceptable Hairstyles.
 Stills from a video related to this story. Favorite quotes: The district is known for standing tough on its dress code. Earlier this year, a seventh-grader in the district was sent home for wearing black skinny pants. His parents chose to home-school him.
On its Web site, the district defends its code, saying "students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members of the society in which we live." |
fengi
|
9:21a |
One can save on dev/ops with the premise the enemy are idiots.
From an article pointed out by jwz: Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems...The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said. On the original post, michaelkvance comments: Predator drones? There's an app for that(tm). |
| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 |
fightingwords
|
3:41p |
Teh Hubbs got pick of the week in the Guardian!
I'm pretty excited to be singing in the opening act this Friday with Wiggy Darlington, Honeysuckle Moses, Alotta Boutté, Sparkly Devil, Honey Lawless, Gigi D'Flower, and Twinkletoes McGee. But don't take my word for it--check out this write-up in the SF Bay Guardian: Hubba Hubba Revue's Chrismanukkah Hubba Hubba Revue is big in England. Word of the SF burlesque troupe's shenanigans had reached my burlesexual friend Lou Lou, who knows about tassel-twirling because, back in Blighty, she's a "maid" who flounces about the stage between acts cleaning up the dancers' tossed underthings. Lou Lou was convinced "the maid" was a universal feature of burlesque shows, and was surprised to learn that in the Hubba Hubba Revue, her role is played by a man-monkey named Zip the What-Is-It, bald but for a tuft of hair on his crown. Things are different here. But they do have lovely ladies stripping all retro-like and enough shiny bells and whistles to keep even the burlesque-shy (does such a person exist?) jaw-dropped and fancy free. The troupe's holiday celebration promises peace and goodwill to (wo)man, and performances by Bunny Pistol, Professor Shimmy, and Meshugga Beach Party, a Jewish folk surf jam experience. (Caitlin Donohue) 9 p.m., $12–$15 DNA Lounge 375 11th St., SF (415) 626-1409 www.dnalounge.com www.hubbahubbarevue.com |
evandorkin
|
1:58p |
News and Notes For Today and Tomorrow
Beasts of Burden was written up in USA TODAY. Jill and I were interviewed for the article, they also ran the cover for #4 and the first three pages as a preview, in case anyone hasn't seen them yet. It's a nice piece, and it says nice things about the series, which is certainly appreciated. (BTW, #4 isn't supposed to be out today, as the article states. It ships next week. I'm not really sure where the confusion about this came from, the previews running on several sites list the date as today, but Diamond has it listed for the 23rd, and DHC has told me it ships next week.) Both Sarah and I are scheduled to be on SLG Radio tomorrow, airing on the internet at 5 PM EST. We'll be speaking with host Dan Vado about health insurance and other financial/career issues for cartoonists. For more info, and how to listen in live or via the archives, go here. It's possible I'll be calling in to SLG Radio tomorrow from a comic shop, as I'll be one of the creators signing at the Comic Book Jones second anniversary event being held here on Satan Island. Signings, a sale, and an after-party for those of drinking age are in the offerings. So, come on down. Or over. Or whatever. It should be fun. I think that's it. My thanks to those folks who chimed in on the health insurance conversation, especially professionals sharing their experiences and advice. I hope the conversation gave a few people something to think about regarding their own situation and career. Hope to see some of you HOF faithful at the Jones event tomorrow, otherwise, type to you soon. |
fengi
|
11:11a |
Number 2 All Over Us
The entire health bill is a chaotic mess of multiple versions, so clearly there's other shady business going down while everyone freaks about the public option. Take a key point even some crazed teabaggers think is important: getting rid of pre-existing conditions. This is not a simple thing. One can't just say, "no exceptions for chronic and long term conditions" as a market based system will produce discrimatory pricing, unmanagable costs for providers or both. One must ensure companies can't exclude customers by other means and expensive customers won't create real or contrived bankruptcy. Even if the health industry wasn't fighting this, creating something which met all needs would be complex. Of course, there's two simple answers: 1) universal health care; 2) pass something meaningless and claim it works. The first ain't happening, so I suspect the second went down some time ago. As many versions of the bill have a form of mandatory coverage, I suspect the end result will be like mandatory auto insurance. Lost of folks will end up buying some wonky policy which meets minimum requirements but isn't worth shit if one actually tries to use it. |
fengi
|
8:20a |
Unintended Side Effect
By now, you've probably seen the cute/weird/scary (depending on your point of view) footage of the Octopus grabbing coconuts and using them as tools. It's prompted a lot of squee and awe, though it's not the first evidence they can use tools and are capable of complex thought and emotions. My second reaction, however, is this: Fuck, I'm never eating calamari again. It's like snacking on a monkey, elephant or dolphin. Yes I know the sea kittens crowd will chide me for my exceptionalism - I don't think being a carnivore is wrong, but if you're a carnivore with a brain you've got boundaries. UPDATE: I've just been informed that calamari is squid. Talentless, stupid, tasty squid. I'm relieved. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
fengi
|
9:36p |
Recommended Link
If you want an idiosyncratic, lively, bitter and rumor-filled, and ultimately hilariously depressing inside look at the meltdown of a company which once competed with Starbucks as the symbol of upscale chain-store gentrification, read ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) iworkatborders. |
urbaniak
|
8:57a |
|
fengi
|
10:29a |
James Chartrand is kind of a dick.
You may have read about James Chartrand - owner of the the Men With Pens web design and copywriting firm who confessed to being a woman who took a male identity to get work. As she tells it, it's a tale of responding to sexism against women writers: Using a male pseudonym when you’re a woman isn’t anything new. Writers have been doing it for centuries. George Eliot, George Sand, Isak Dinesen...Why did they do it? To have their work accepted, because women weren’t supposed to be writers. Their work had a much better chance if their audience didn’t have to get over initial skepticism that a woman could write at all, much less do it well.
Since then, we’ve had feminism...And yet apparently we haven’t gotten past those 19th century stigmas.
The evidence was right there in front of me.
I never wanted to be an activist, or to fight the world. I’m not interested in clawing my way up a ladder to a glass ceiling...I just want to earn a living and be respected for my skills. I want my kids to be happy and have access to what they need. I want them to go to university and have good opportunities in life. It's a depressing and eloquent tale about sexism today.Except her confession didn't address the entire story. Amanda Hess at The Sexist blog points out James Chartrand wasn't just a male name, he was a persona, one which referred to his one female employee as perky and a good cook and: "...regularly used photos of naked women to illustrate her posts...occasionally essentialized women -”all the women” loved Jerry McGuire, Chartland wrote -while conveniently placing herself outside of the gender categories she set for them...used a photograph of a man silencing a woman with his hand as the logo...When a few commenters noted that the photographed failed to create an “inviting community for women,” Chartrand replied: “Photography is very subjective. You see a woman being terrorized. I see a man helping a woman stay quiet so he can save her life.” "James" also wrote this about Mommy Bloggers:No one appreciates them, they bitch and whine, and they feel they aren’t taken seriously in the business world.
Before I have my comment section filled up with nasty remarks about how I hate women and my email bombarded with insulted letters telling me that I have no idea what I’m talking about, let me reassure you that I fully understand the hardships of both being a mother and working from home. I respect work-at-home mothers.
Many blogs run by women, managed by women and read by women seem to have an unspoken “all men beware” mantra. They’re full of posts and comments that leave me the distinct impression that these women wield their feminism like a spiked mace sword.
It’s scary.
Woe to the man that steps foot in those online communities of female bloggers with children.
On the few occasions that I’ve risked my balls to post a comment on a mommy blog, I noticed my comments were skipped over as if they (I?) didn’t even exist. Sometimes my comments get a sharp, snappy, “piss off” kind of remark in reply. Sometimes I’m absolutely bashed, and I have a hard time figuring out why.
I don’t understand that. Yes, I understand catering to a female/mother audience and forming a blog community. I understand forming an online personality. I understand discussing the difficulties of working while raising children and maintaining a household.
I don’t understand making male readers and participants feel unwelcome. I know plenty of mothers who blog and who come off as… well, bloggers who are mothers. They don’t perpetuate the stereotype of a frazzle Mom trying to work in a household of chaos. They don’t try to shave the balls of all males who dare to visit the blog. They don’t discount opinions from men. Everyone is equal. This is the same woman who's confession repeatedly seeks reader sympathy by citing her love of her kids and being "Bossed around, degraded, condescended to" for being a woman and a mother. Whatever I could say about this is best summed up by Amanda Hess: Chartrand claims to have testicles in order to avoid being lumped in with all those whining, stereotypical mommy blogs, and then she has the nerve to insist all the lowly female bloggers let her into their club? Chartrand, of all people, knows that everyone is not equal on the Web...she found her work perpetually discounted, insulted, and ignored by men. Men (and people who assume masculine identities) get to have the rest of the Internet. Women get their own tiny little part of it, where women’s voices are actually valued. In those spaces, comments about how these women “wield their feminism like a spiked mace” from the one man valiant enough to “risk his balls” to wade into the comments are not welcome. Obviously.
( She created a male space that—while welcoming to female commenters and clients—is, let’s be honest, more welcoming to men. But now that she’s a Web presence of her own, complete with clients, employees, and substantial readership, does she really have to keep perpetuating the guy thing? ) |
fengi
|
8:22a |
Man
Joe Leiberman is a putz. And the Democrats reaction to him is pathetic. That is all. |
| Monday, December 14th, 2009 |
mskittieface
|
9:56p |
Bah, humbug.
There's a freeway underpass two blocks from my house, a series of freeways and BART tracks run over it, creating tall platforms way up high underneath them where it is relatively secluded and above all, dry. There are five or six older homeless men who live up there, in the high secluded caves above the sidewalk. They have air mattresses and tiny barbecues to cook in, coolers for food, pillows and blankets, buckets for waste. They're clean and away from the street, not sleeping in doorways on cardboard, not hassled by cops at night, not mugging or stealing or mean, not dying of exposure in the rain. I've always been glad they were there. It makes me glad to know that they are safe. Today, walking to the bus stop, there were eight or nine CalTrans trucks and a couple of cop cars. Two dozen CalTrans workers were up in the caves, throwing things into trashbags, tossing bedding and personal belongings down into the ravine of the street, laughing and joking and disrespectful. Making fun of the people who would keep these things they see as garbage. Making trash of treasures. Do you know how long it takes to spare enough change to buy a barbecue? An air mattress? Pillows and blankets and coolers? How many dumpsters you have to dig through to find things good and clean enough to still be useful? How much of a miracle it is to find a place that is dry and safe and away from the street? I am so angry I can't stand it. I don't want to walk back by there, though I know the men will be gone. Once your things are tossed into traffic, you move on. Find another place to hide from the rain. To rebuild. It will take months for them to get back to where they were last night, if they are able. They may never recover. I wanted to scream at the workers, throwing everything into the street. But it wasn't their fault. They don't know what it is to be homeless. To be afraid. To have nowhere to go to get out of the rain. To have no heater, no refrigerator, no stove, no microwave, no blankets, no closets full of clean dry clothes, no shoes without holes. They don't know what it is to be desperate. To be turned away at the doors of a full shelter, to have strangers avert their eyes when you beg them for help. I want to own land so that I can leave it empty, put up tent platforms in the middle of Oakland, hand out free tarps and blankets and air mattresses. Grow gardens of vegetables for whoever needs them. Bring in metal bins for trash can fires. Metal grates over them for cooking. Keep people dry and warm and safe, but still independent. Keep them out of doorways and off of rooftops, out of the backs of Crown Vic cruisers. I hate that everything is difficult. I hate that tonight those men will come back to a place they thought was safe, only to find their lives destroyed. Only to have to begin again, with nothing. That tonight they will sleep cold and wet on bare concrete, unsafe and insecure and afraid. I hate that we treat people so badly, that we don't see humanity in poverty, not because we can't, but because we won't. We refuse because it scares us. Because if that man is someone's son, someone's brother, someone's father... then it could be our son, our brother, our father. And that is too terrifying to bear. Light a candle tonight, for the men on my street. Light a candle for them to be safe, and that someday they can all find home. |
fengi
|
3:52p |
I Can Haz Administration?
According to james_nicoll, the post of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office had existed in some form for around 450 years until being abandoned by the Blair administration. Which explains a shitload, if you ask me. Anyway, the post has been reinstated. Sybil is her name and, appropriately, she used to belong to Chancellor Darling. UPDATE: Sybil is deceased and the post is apparently open. How many cats think they'd be qualified? I'd say all of them. |
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