i started out reading AICN Harry's response to Matthew Lillard, who gave a rebuttal (at the end of the article) to Harry's response to Freddy Prinze Jr.'s thoughts on Harry, who has been a critic of the upcoming Scooby Doo film, in which Prinze Jr. and Lillard are staring. (phew!)

after that, i ended up at Film Threat. there's a transcript of Harry's appearance on "Turn Ben Stein On," along with links (all in the first paragraph of the Film Threat link) to "a series of three articles examining the sometimes questionable behavior of Harry Knowles and others at Aint-It-Cool-News.com." they are: part one - Deconstructing Harry: Ain't It Unethical?, part two - The Geeks Strike Back and part three - Ain't It Criminal. Film Threat led to Coming Attractions' Director's Cut article titled "A Question of Ethics."

in the convoluted cross-linking, i've visited a half dozen sites, and i've decided that i now know WAY more about Harry Knowles than i wanted. i've also decided that he sucks. i've never been a regular visitor to AICN (in fact, i think i've only referred to it twice here), so it's no big deal if i never visit again. the Talkbackers on AICN say 'Harry can post whatever he wants to because it's his site'. yep, he can. just don't expect me to read it. the Talkbackers also say, 'if you don't like what Harry's doing, then go to another website." i think i will.

my preference for film news/rumors sites is apparent by my frequent attributions to Dark Horizons. it's not the most visually-stunning site, but it provides the information in a manner than makes it easy for me to pick out what i want to read.

also, i'd like to note that i am no fan of Freddy Prinze Jr. i'm hoping Sarah Michelle Gellar will have some kind of psychotic episode in which she thinks she's actually Buffy and that Freddy's a vampire or demon or something, and it all ends badly with a piece of wood shoved through his chest. anyway, i'm not a fan of FPJ, and don't care particularly for Matthew Lillard, but i am going to give Scooby Doo a chance and actually see the film before i make any proclaimations about it's coolness or suckage. if i seem to be babbling, blame the hypercaffeinated state i'm in. and yeah, i know this is all old stuff, but i just read it for the first time. quit making fun of me. thank you.

TVGuide's feature on Enterprise. and, because the Enterprise article mentioned Joss, here's my chance for a Buffy link: TVGuide's summary of the show, with lots of links to news and gossip from past issues of the rag.

Marvel Comics has taken to making Flash trailers for current and upcoming projects. most recent: Banner!.

even niftier, Marvel has some Flash comics available free online, including Banner! and Ultimate X-Men.

i figured out a way to use binder clips to make an antenna. now my cell phone can get a signal in my cubicle. yay me!

on the subject of cellular processes, here's the Kreb cycle. i think it's nifty.

Microbe has Midas touch.

"They use dissolved metals like iron, uranium and gold the same way we use oxygen," Lovley said.

The conversion that takes place in the extremophile is a simple process: a dissolved metal is absorbed through an enzyme that coats the microbe, and then is excreted as a solid.

doesn't sound like the gold is being used in cellular respiration, so it's not used the "same way we use oxygen." this guy's a scientist? no wonder the world sucks.

had nightmares again last night. that's 4 consecutive nights. i'm a grouch.

Scholastic Assessment Tests "are a measure of the braininess of the entering freshman class, and by extension the braininess of the student body," he said.

ugh.

bwahahahahahahahaha! (Buffy related) dunno why it made me laugh so hard, but i think it's fucking hilarious.

someone used the Bleh feature to search my archives for "Buffy." to save time, i'll just tell you that almost every day's entries will include something about Buffy. Bleh isn't going to narrow it down for you.

laughed at by Stormtroopers.

a Muskogee, Oklahoma committee of teachers and administrators has voted to remove To Kill A Mockingbird from the required freshman reading list at Muskogee High because it may make some students uncomfortable.

Steve Largent will be resigning his Congressional seat at the end of November to begin running for governor of this state. Cathy Keating, the wife of the current governor of Oklahoma, will run in the special election to replace him. politics are incestuous. anyway...

last night, i dreamed that i campaigned for and was elected to Largent's Congressional seat in a heated battle with Cathy that essentially ended when it was revealed that she was also an international porn star (i'm not sure how she planned on hiding her other career, but hey, no one ever said she was bright. besides, she may have been elected if she'd campaigned *as* a porn queen). i never made it to DC though. i spent my term on an archæological dig in the middle of Mohawk park, just outside the zoo entrance.

believing that my dreams are prophetic, i'm thinking of filing as a candidate when Steve resigns. i'd really love to be an archæologist.

Sci Fi Wire's current poll:

The Freddy vs. Jason movie has
received the go-ahead. Who do you
think will win this fight to the death?

¤ Freddy is Jason's worst nightmare.
¤ Jason will carve Freddy up.
¤ Neither: Buffy kills them both.

so far, 72% choose Buffy, with Freddy a distant second.

According to ToonZone (which appears to be having problems now), Paul Dini confirmed at this past weekend's Wizard World that some scripts for a few BATMAN direct to video/DVDs have been greenlighted by WB. Also the uncut 'Return of the Joker' disc is still quite likely to get a release. [found via Dark Horizons]

i caught the Discovery Channel's feature on Allosaurus last night. it made me want a brood of baby Allosauri of my own. they were native to my area (get a quick and short list of the dinosaurs that once roamed your ZIP code).

i also watched some Animal Planet last night. i know i've mentioned him before, but i really like watching Jeff Corwin. he oozes goobness and intelligence, which is sexy (yes, i know i'm contradicting my post from last week in which i said i like 'em big and dumb. can't i have layers?)

School strip search not actionable. A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that a strip search of elementary school pupils was unconstitutional but that a teacher and a police officer involved could not be sued for conducting the search.

The appeals court said she was correct to rule there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal, and those officials were protected from liability because they acted to fulfill their duties.

so, these police officers didn't know that a search sans warrant or probable cause wasn't legal? they also didn't think that maybe, before stripping elementary kids down, that a parent or two should be notified or present? i realize it's only Georgia, but aren't the days of Rosco P. Coltrane over with?

(this post is actually from Friday evening, but the great Blogger gods were displeased with me and wouldn't let me post it)

ack! he defiles everything he touches! from the unlinkable sidebar at Sci Fi Wire: Freddie Prinze Jr. told E! Online that he has signed a deal with Marvel Comics to write a few books, including a storyline for one well-known superhero whom he declined to identify. "I can't say who, but he climbs walls," Prinze told E!

and from E!Online, Wanda says ""Takes More Than Studio Tricks and Cease-and-Desists to Slay Our Slayer." the first page is clean, but after the first paragraph of the second page, it gets a little spoilery (but Wanda-spoilery, which, i'm told, isn't all that reliable. still i'm warning you).

a letter to the President.

today's Happy Is: listening to the Giles Sings clip from "Restless." been a while since i've listened to it. made me happy to find it again.

i probably let myself get much more pissed about people taking-the-last-cup-of-coffee-and-not-brewing-a-new-pot than is healthful. friggin' bastards.

some gossip reported on Dark Horizons today: "David Boreaenz, who plays Angel, on the WB series, could be stepping into the shoes of a legendary superhero - if my sources are correct. My source claims that the TV star was approached about starring in the forthcoming BATMAN movie (Im assuming he was refering to Year One) as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Boreaenz is still considering - but after much thinking, I think the Warner casting office may get something right for once."

Sci Fi Wire advertises for TVGuide: the August 25th issue of TVGuide will have new photos of the ship from Enterprise (which is called, uh, the Enterprise), and "will also feature three different covers, with stars Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) and Scott Bakula (Capt. Archer)." two addition covers with various cast members will be available online, probably for $20 (please oh please buy a few of those expensive online-exclusive covers. help generate some revenue for TVGuide so it can keep all of its employees, and i won't be laid off).

Sci Fi Wire news that probably isn't good: "Blair Witch Project co-director Ed Sanchez told E! Online that he's eager to get started on a third installment in the film franchise".

coincidentally, last night i watched BW2 for the first time, which is why i say a third one probably isn't good news. not scary. at all. and the stupid little "go back and watch for hidden images that may be messages from the Blair Witch!" crap was stoopid. seriously, if your subliminal "this is scary! and great! and ooky!" messages didn't work the first time i watched, they probably won't work the second time either. i got bored, so i read something much scarier: the script for the Buffy episode "Halloween".

Sudden water flow rushes down Mount Rainier. i never get to see anything cool like that.

not that i'm a big fan or defender of the tobacco industry, but when did extortion become a legitimate governmental practice?

TVGuide (print) says "Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America is in development as an HBO miniseries."

and over at TVGuide Online, Seth Green talks about Rat Race.

the Berkeley Breathed Q&A.
[waterfowl made flightless by Bradlands]

could this possibly be used to refute the cosmological principle? i've never particularly cared for that assumption.
[unravelling of cosmic tenets brought to you by Dean, who doesn't sleep with a teddy bear]

oh no. i just got the email. the company's bought ice cream for us again. someone's getting sacked.

Fox Sux. that was the place i went after watching an episode of Buffy that made reference to something that happened before i started watching. it wouldn't be so bad if they'd get scriptbooks for each season published, but right now, they're only up to Season 2. damn Fox.

ADHD TV, two guys who wanna be on tv. not as jackassian as Jackass (which is a good thing). watch clips from the show. Caveman vs. Monkey cracked me up.

QUESTION: In your opinion, is George W. Bush a new kind of
Republican, or is he basically the same as Republicans of the past?

Yes 34%
No 61%

what? given the choice between "This" and "That", one third answered "Yes"? does this mean that people are stupid or that CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls are stupid? ok, there are more questions than that one, but a couple of them are stupid like that.

happy is:

• waking up and not finding Orange Cat sitting next to my head grooming himself and annoying me with his *smack smack* sounds. yay!
• finding a one hundred dollar bill stashed in a planter while brushing your teeth, one for which you can't account, even after itemizing your income and expenses for the last 60 days. yay!
• hearing "Love Is A Battlefield" during the drive to work. yay!

If Jesus were invited to a lunch with Bush.

speaking of Jesus... (and, btw, "Bloody Revenge of the Invincible Jesus Ninjas" is a great title and premise for a game). Christ's miracles are rated.

oh. David Hasselhoff is the Anti-Christ.

now that Jimmy Bond is nowhere in sight, Seann W. Scott has become my new Hollywood crush (actually, it's more like Chester Greenburg and Billy Hitchcock. what can i say? i like 'em big and dumb).

how about some Spike links? Spike-Stock 2001 and Heat. Desire.

here's one on the missing Riley.

chat with Oz (Seth Green) tonight at 7pm CDT. you and a few hundred thousand other people.

Joss: "One of the most dramatic moments from last month's three-week long Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., was, ironically enough, also one of the quietest. During a poolside shindig thrown by the WB, network bigwig Jamie Kellner slithered over to Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon and — egad! — shook his hand." more here at TVGuide Online.

Angel (link may be a little spoilery. read at your own risk): "Since its 1999 premiere, Angel has solidified into an hour of quality television that rivals — and this past season arguably even outshone — its sire. In fact, if the final WB episode of Buffy (before its fall transfer to UPN) is an "instant classic" — and, frankly, it is — then the four-episode fairy tale with which Angel rounded out the year is at least a mini-masterpiece." more here, again at TVGuide Online (and once again, may be spoilery).

ACT scores remain flat. i heard them talking on the radio about this during my drive to work, and they added that, in Oklahoma, the average actually fell a few tenths of a point, but that, of the ACT taking students from schools with the touted enhanced curriculum, which requires more core classes to graduate, half did better than the national average. they didn't bother to mention that it also means that half did worse. i'll bet they're worried that last part will refute their claims that the most recent education plan will really improve state test scores.

personally, i think they should focus on some of the more immediate problems, like how school started today, but last week, Tulsa public schools was still searching for 50 more teachers. and how long term veteran teachers are retiring early. and how, when i stopped by my old high school to look in on four of my favorite teachers, and that i mentioned off-handedly that i may still want to teach, and three of those four said 'Don't do it. It's not worth it anymore."

Large shark school dissipates off Florida coast.

don't bet on it. they've finished their strategy meeting, and now they're moving on to carry out those plans. makes me very happy that i'm in landlocked Oklahoma, where it's unlikely that a wereshark will be moving among us.

Hundreds of sharks spotted off Florida. it appears that the Rokea are amassing. they're tired of us dumping our trash into their home. they're about to invade us.

the worst thing about all this shark business is that it'll replay visions of Jaws in everyone's minds, they'll get all sared, and then do stupid things to hunt/trap/repel/destroy sharks, first in coastal touristy waters, then later in the open ocean. sharks are modern society's equivalent to medieval society's wolf (well, sharks share that modern distinction with the wolf, because there are people who still blame the wolf for all their woes. apparently, those little wolves are crafty).

in conclusion, the extinction of any shark species should be blamed on Steven Spielberg. and wolves too.

and when the devil did Hell-Mart start selling roleplaying books?

i have a solution for the cloning hullabaloo. let us turn our back for a while, allowing a small group of someones to try it, work out the mistakes, and try again. then, no matter the outcome, we'll denounce them as Evil Mad Scientists and say they're going to Hell for their Evil Ways. then, we can sleep better knowing that the monsters have been exposed and properly condemned, their Evil Deeds known, and that we can take their Evil Research and use it for Good Purposes, thereby perverting the Evil into Good.

because those who would say those scientists are going to hell have already decided that i'm going to hell, i volunteer to be one of those researchers (two birds with one stone, and all that). to be effective, i should probably get a degree in genetics or biochemistry or something life-sciencey related, so i'll need people to fund and sponsor me at university. heck, to be sure you'll be condemning only the best, go ahead and put me through med school. remember, your support of my education will help you sleep better, you'll reap the benefits of any discoveries made along the way, and you'll have me as a convenient scapegoat.

Dot Com: The Musical

much weirdness in the world
[electoral laughs sponsored by I Shoot With My Mind]

balanced by some goodness.
[via Redcricket]

i caught an episode of ST:TNG on Sunday. it was a first season ep, "Hide and Q," and in it, Worf gets to fight some nasty looking aliens in Napoleonic France-era uniforms. for a guy who's supposed to be a warrior, and from a warrior culture, he sure fights like a weiner. he'd, like, throw a punch, then stand there like he didn't know what to do next. he was skewered pretty quickly, and would have been dead if not for Riker's Q-given powers. it was really sad (on a happy note, Wesley was skewered too. sadly he was healed also).

after that, the WB reaired the Buffy ep "The Gift." Buffy did a much better job of kicking ass. she fights a lot better, and though she died too, at least she won the fight first, and against a Hellgod, no less.

so (you see where this is going, right?), the Warrior from the Warrior planet and the Warrior species who regard glorious, honorable battle above all else would sooo get his ass kicked by the 20 year old California girl.

sometimes, while i'm listening to a cd here at work, i go to type an email as a good song comes on, and i end up clacking the keys in rhythm to the song, like i'm a pianist, complete with crescendo and decrescendo, as appropriate. my co-workers find this annoying, and it's probably not good for the keyboard either.

a trailer for 13 Ghosts is up. the movie may be good, it may suck, but there are or will be way too many ghosties on the large and small screen. ghosts are the "In" thing this year

anyone else like to play with Currency Converters? i can take my paycheck tomorrow and head off to Djibouti with eighty thousand Djibouti Francs, or go to Ulan Bator and have more than a six hundred thousand Mongolian Tugriks, or to Freetown, Sierra Leone and have nearly a million Leones. yay! do they get Buffy in Sierra Leone? eh, doesn't matter, since it'd probably be dubbed, and i can't speak Sierra Leonese.

who's Zia McCabe?

sounds like a scene from Pee-wee's Playhouse, except no Laurence Fishburne.

from the archives of TomPaine.com, a little reading to keep me occupied while i have no work:
 ¬The Beijing Olympics and the (Mis)Uses of History. Will the 2008 Games Democratize China?
 ¬The New and Improved President. Forget Policy -- Bush Wants Fuzzy, Feel-Good Phrases.
 ¬A New Look At Pearl Harbor
 ¬The Sound and the Furious. A Writer Tries to Escape Our Culture of Noise.
 ¬Why Can't Americans Swim in Effluent?. Iceland's 21st Century Energy Policy.
 ¬The Neglected Facts for last week.

don't you hate when you're reading an article, and it seems to be a good article, and it feels like it's building up to something big and thought provoking, something that's gonna make you furrow your brow and shake your head and say "wow!", then suddenly it ends, and ends poorly without that moment of wowness?

ok, so this editorial isn't quite so thought provoking or wowing, but i was really disappointed by the last paragraph anyway. if you're gonna make a point about something, don't resort to stale soundbites, please. it doesn't have any punch, it's lazy thinking, and it irks me.

Ain't It Cool News "reported the rumor that the project [Batman: Year One] has been squashed because Warner Brothers instead wants to build a franchise out of a proposed film teaming up Superman and the caped crusader that would eventually lead to a series of Justice League of America movies" they also say that "John Travolta might be in line to put on Superman's cape opposite George Clooney's Batman." [i quoted SciFi Wire on this]

i'm not even going to entertain the possibility that this is true. nope. can't, because the whole idea sucks that much, and though Warner Bros has disappointed me so much lately, i still have to believe that they-who-own-the-rights-to-Animaniacs will redeem themselves.

whadya say? AOL owns them now?

good god, it's gonna suck.

another Buffy entry:

Buffy Star Snipes At Emmys . Whedon says "It's Ripper, not Watcher." concerning questions of continuity between animated and live action Buffy, he also says Dawn will be part of the animated Buffy "because the Monks changed history." and Marti Noxon Talks Buffy Rumors.

Dog lovers threaten World Cup boycott over the consumption and trade of dog meat.

methinks they should mind their own business first.

Shpadoinkle! Tales of the Slayer, to be released November 28, will include stories written by Joss (the Primitive), David Fury (Old West Slayer), Doug Petrie (Nikki the '70s Slayer), Amber Benson (French Revolution Slayer) and, lastly, Joss again (Fray). yay!

Big Buffy entry:

picked up a Buffy Shooter Saturday, along with the newest issue of Fray. in Fray #3, "Melaka learns some of the history of the Slayers and comes to understand a little about what it means to her, " including why there hasn't been a Slayer or vampires since the 21st century.

i also thumbed through the current issue of the BTVS comic. it was interesting seeing how Dawn had helped to save Buffy's life after the Master left Buffy for dead. i've been curious about how events were different (in everyone's minds at least) with the addition of Dawn, but i still didn't buy the comic. i hate joining storylines mid-story, but i'll probably go back for this one, now that i know it was the first of a four issue arc dealing (a little, at least) with the false memories built to include Dawn in a world in which Dawn didn't exist at the time (i, btw, have my own view on the whole "Dawn's only been here for six months" thing).

also, ran across the summer issue of Buffy the magazine. interviews with Emma Caulfield and Clare Kramer, and a brief Q&A with David Boreanaz that makes me want to avoid anything about him unless it's about him in character as Angel. putz. oooh! there's also a Wesley poster in the middle! hooray!

there's something both a little wrong and extremely amusing about running across a television program called "Wildlife Views: Condors/Dutch Oven Cooking."

i'm feeling microbial today. it may all that food that's been lying around for 8 hours now that people are still munching on. can't be healthful.

Microbe Warfare Hides the Enemy
[New York Times article. free registration required]

"Only by planning and preparing will we be able to diminish the likelihood that biological weapons will be used, and reduce the risks if they are." —Biological Warfare: A Nation at Risk--A Time to Act by the Honorable Richard Danzig.
ok, so this one is five years old. its points are still valid.

All the Virology on the WWW. that may be an exaggeration, but it's still got lots o' links.

Chemical & Biological Weapons Resource Page at the Center For Nonproliferation Studies. there's even a nifty little chart showing a list of nations who have, may have, or have had biological or chemical weapons. notice that the Canadians are said to be "former" possessors of weapons and programs. i'll bet they still have them and are developing even more in their bid for world conquest. Canadians are evil!

Constitutional Problems with Enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention, September 28, 2000, by Ronald D. Rotunda, visiting senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.

i wanna be a Special Agent at the FBI. they make it sound so exciting. if only i had motivation and ambition, i too could kick in doors, tap people's phone calls, and hold people at gunpoint. legally, i mean.

the Dred Pirate Roberts joins the X-Files. aarrggh!

today is not a day for working. i didn't sleep well last night, we have very little work coming to us, and our new department is having a "Food Day" to welcome us to their group (we were consolidated during the recent Reorganization). there's so much food that they're begging us to eat and eat. the only thing that looks good is the green marshmallowey stuff. except for the salad and marshmallowey stuff, everything is fried or creamy. no fruit at all.

all i want is a couple of strawberries and a nap.

"In this day and age of stagnant comic book franchises, where origin revisions and shock value are rampant, the core Batman titles have taken a different approach to presenting the Dark Knight Detective in three different stories every month."

an article on why "Batman is quite possibly one of the most exciting comic book characters."

did anyone else think that the most interesting thing about el presidente's speech last night was the flies buzzing around his head? did anyone else watch it?

a Catwoman movie without Selena Kyle?

hey, this is good news: Group says 17 deaths may be from recalled asthma inhalers.

The inhalers were sold under the brand names Proventil and Warrick. Schering-Plough said on March 29, 2000, that it was recalling those brands of prescription albuterol inhalers made before Sept. 30, 1999, “as a precaution to address the remote possibility that an aerosol inhaler may not contain active drug.”

September 30, 1999 was about the time i started using my Warrick inhaler. i'm still alive though, so i guess mine wasn't one of the defective ones, but it would have been nice to have known about the recall before today.
[easier breathing courtesy of oliverwillis.com]

from The Simpsons: WhatBadgersEat.com

i know i've been ignoring news articles or reports containing the words "Congressional" and "Intern", but i'm still a bit suprised that i haven't heard about this:

A Death in the Congressman's Office

"FORT WALTON BEACH, FLa. - Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old office worker for Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fl), was found dead in the congressman's district office. Police said preliminary findings from the medical examiner's office showed no foul play or any outward indication of suicide."

a sample of articles:

July 21st -- Scarborough aide found dead in office. No indication of foul play, police say.
July 27th -- Aide's cause of death still not released. Six days after the 28-year-old aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough was found dead inside the congressman's Fort Walton Beach office, local police are still waiting to learn how and why Klausutis died.
July 28th -- Aide's death still a mystery. The autopsy also was not conclusive, though the medical examiner did say that there was no evidence of foul play.
August 7th -- Heart problem contributed to aide's death. Medical examiner says woman hit her head during fall, killing her.

something i hadn't thought of before: WWF Erotic Fanfic

Texas executes 11th inmate this year.

Oklahoma has already executed 14 people this year, has two more scheduled for the end of the month, and two pending (information about the condemned Gerardo Valdez, scheduled to be executed on August 30th, can be found here at the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty website).

One-fourth of all executions in Oklahoma since reinstatement occurred in less than 90 days during 2001. go Governor Keating! way to idolize Bush-era Texas!

Bush hammers home faith-based initiative.

the most irritating thing about this article isn't that El Presidente only made a 15 minute appearance at the Habitat For Humanity construction site, or that he spent part of that 15 minutes making a brief speech, nor even that it was basically just a photo op for his Forced Conversion Initiative... the most irritating thing is the lame-assed punned title. whoever came up with it should be fired.

early this morning, i had a dream that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference filed a lawsuit against a group of crickets that live just outside my bedroom window. the SCLC argued that the crickets has violated someone's First Amendment rights and should be stomped. Dan Rather was broadcasting from the foot of my bed, interviewing SCLC representatives when the announcement came that the Supreme Court would hear the arguments. the crickets had no spokesperson and were unavailable for comment. during the arguments before the Supreme Court, the crickets did nothing but chirp. the Justices ruled against them and they were visciously stomped right there. Justice O'Connor cried. the rumor going around was that her father was a cricket.

this dream told me two things:

1) i should drink less soy milk before bed.
2) i should find some way to drown out the chirping of the crickets outside my window. it was really irritating me.

if anyone into interpreting dreams wants to take a crack at it, let me know what you find out.

remember the tektites? the were one of the baddies in the original Legend of Zelda game for Nintendo (tektites may have appeared in the sequels, but i haven't played them to know). tektites are cool.

i overslept this morning, and in my rush to get to work, i didn't pay a lot of attention to styling my hair. a few quick strokes with the brush, an even quicker flip at the front, and i was out the door.

a visit to the restroom a few moments ago showed me that i, even when very late, should probably take a little more time on the hair (and less time admonishing Orange Cat not to vomit or attack his sister) before leaving the house. because of the way my hair curls slightly in the front and tends to stand straight up above the temples, i have these two medium-sized horns jutting from my head. i look like i'm about to face a guy dressed in tight gold trousers and waistcoast with a cape, or like i hang out with Belial after work (being unshaven probably doesn't help me there).

Swedish censors have given Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence its highest rating, barring anyone younger than 15 from seeing the film, Variety reported.

"We feel that sensitive kids could be really scared and as a result suffer damage," censor Jonas Wall.

heh. taken from this Sci Fi Wire report taken from Variety.

Trees. It's bite is worse than it's bark!

yep, i gotta see this. i can take comfort in knowing it can't possibly be worse than Coyote Ugly.

it's like the Ewoks vs. the Empire. Inuit community takes on NMD in Greenland.

missed this one yesterday: Man sentenced for stock market hoax

idiot.

clones can be sorta kinda cool (but not always).

cloning the undead is really cool.

on the clone thing, monozygous/identical twins aren't always "identical".

"We must advance the promise and cause of science but do so in a way that honors and respects life," Bush said.

what the hell does that mean? and would military weapon research be considered to honor and respect life?

i don't know what all the cloning hullabaloo is about. i haven't heard any arguments against cloning that have a basis in rational thought. it's always some sort of ethical or religious argument, more or less exhibiting a fear of the loss of individuality (or at least questioning what it means to be an individual) or railing that we're arrogantly placing ourselves on the same level as God. it's all poppycock. somehow, i doubt that the basis for divinity is the ability to clone, especially since some species have been doing it for a long time.

TV Japan in Canada has a show called Samurai Drama. why can't the US networks have cool sounding programs like that?

also last night, as i was going to bed, a guy who used to live in the same building i now live in called (he needs a name based on a distinguishing characteristic: Scoliosis Guy). he was in the area and wanted to drop buy for a few minutes. after letting him in and having him sit, i went to the kitchen for a glass of ginger ale and walked back to the living room where Scoliosis Guy was then lying naked on my couch. he's tried something like that twice (though never so bold) before. each time i've refused his offer and told him that i'm not interested in him.

i told him to get dressed and get out. on his way out the door, he says "I still wants to cook dinner for you sometime."

he still doesn't get it. how, without using a lead pipe or a firearm, do you convince someone who won't listen that you're not interested in him?

no no no. go away.

so, i finally finished Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn last night. this is quite an acomplishment for me, if you take into consideration how bored i was with the game. it's not bad game, but it's rigged to give Good-Aligned players all the advantages, while the Evil-Aligned ones suffer annoying consequences. the final battle at the end was a bit cheesey and the Tests of Character you have to go through to get to the Master Villain have rewards for the good characters and punishments for the evil characters. it really isn't all that fair, considering your character is the offspring of the God of Murder and Icky Things.

now that i've finished it, it's time to move on to the expansion and to get ready for the sequel.

i have a sudden craving for a Skor candy bar.

some funny (if dated) stuff here, especially pleasing to me because i live in the state that sent Largeant, Coburn and Watts to the Capitol.

heh.

ok, UPN has some new, post-Buffy's-death promos with the Scoobies, and you can find them online now: here's Dawn, Xander and Anya, and Spike.

just to let everyone know:

1) the Buffy premiere has been moved up a week to October 2nd. i have no idea why, but i'm very glad for it. too little Buffy makes Terrence very grumpy.

2) Ritalin Junkie is back up, and she's simplified. yay

although "always shoot to kill" policies are great for stopping an advancing threat (and for striking fear into the hearts of the not-so-wicked), wouldn't, say, shooting an attacker in the leg be the better option for officers just to cut down on the amount of paperwork and to reduce the likelihood of being prosecuted for manslaughter?

and since i'm asking questions about old French stuff, why are the Three Musketeers called musketeers when they don't carry muskets? [this and the last post, btw, are the latest entries in my "Things That Keep Me Up at Night" series]

why is Javert so obsessed with tracking down Valjean? he chases him for decades or something. really, all that for a parole violation by a guy whose crime was to gank some Iron Kids? please.

the Ice Cream Layoff Warning System has failed. my boss was just "Reorganized" out of a job, and we didn't get ice cream first.

the path the Downsizing and Reorganization are taking does not look good for me. my department's function is completely duplicated in Pennsylvania. there are about a dozen of us here, and a few score of them there. we're probably next, but, by god, i want ice cream first.

last night, as i was driving home, i started craving pizza. i haven't had pizza since last summer, but it sounded really good. shortly after i got home, my sister called. while i was talking to her, the pizza she had ordered was delivered. i decided that i must have pizza.

i ordered one (geez, they've gone up since i'd last had one). when it was delivered, i readied myself for maximum pizza engorgement. i ate my fill. i ate until i couldn't eat another bite, that point at which even thinking about it will make you sick. i ate... one piece. for some reason, that was all it took. and now i have a large pizza, minus one piece, sitting in my fridge.

if anyone's hungry, wants a free meal, and doesn't mind leftovers, just drop by tonight and the pizza's yours.

been trying to avoid politics lately (national, anyway. still keeping up on state, damn Keating to Hades), but here's a quick in-and-out:

there are those who argue that, by calling Florida for Gore before polls closed, the television networks caused thousands of GOP voters to give up and not cast their votes. but wouldn't that also keep Gore voters from going to the polls. they thought their candidate had already won. why bother voting then? and, if you were serious about casting your vote and heard during polling hours that the opposition candidate was winning, wouldn't you run right out and vote, just in case it might help?

United Way commandos have taken over the employee lounge. they're serving pancakes to those who buy tickets, thereby supporting the United Way (and various other groups through them). i had issues with the United Way before this, but now, they won't let me into the lounge unless i pay them $3. all i want is a cup of coffee. the bastards think they can extort money from me. when did it become okay for charities to turn to extortion (besides the guilt-extortion thing they've always done)?

aren't lemurs the coolest little prosimians? they're probably the coolest primates of all too, and i'd say coolest mammal, but i think i like monotremes and raccoons better.

the first lemur link has three animations showing how lemurs look during various actions. the animation of a lemur death cracks me up, as if *every* lemur died like that.

hate the Taco Bell/Bonanza Theme Song commercial? hate it as much as this guy? didn't think so.
[and i do have very clear memories of Lorne Greene and Co. singing the theme][theme to Bonanza, not Taco Bell]

the second photo on this pointless article about The Planet of the Apes looks like a scene from a porn flick. <shudder>thoughts of Charlton Heston doing porn</shudder>

In another instance, the FBI uncovered a plot designed to convince Central Americans that couples in the United States were adopting children from Guatemala and Honduras to harvest their vital organs.

who'd believe this crap when there are plenty of children here in the US to adopt and take organs from? sheesh. that was my favorite line from an article on the FBI watching our citizens for Commie sympathies.

anyone know how i can go about getting the church to canonize me?

from The Learning Channel's description of "Trial By Fire," an episode of the TLC series A Makeover Story:

"Kim and Wendy have had a trying relationship as mother and daughter and recently, their home was badly burned in a fire. Now Wendy and Kim have to rebuild their lives, and are looking forward to a fresh start and a fresh new look."

as if a makeover will make everything all right. cracks me up.

today has been one bloody awful day. family matters have kept me from doing anything today, including showing up for work. my sister's ex-fiancé showed up in town last night (he lives in Florida) and caused some trouble. he has one opportunity to redeem himself, and failure would not be healthy.

if things work out right, i should be back to babbling for you tomorrow.