I’ll catch up with you at another con.

Change for the sake of change reminds me of my Obama impression:

“Future hope change! Hopey hope future change hope. Welfare change future hope! Raise taxes hope change! Rich people bad! Hope change future hope!”

The semantic content of his speeches are exactly nil.

After doing some research into this, I think Biden was Obama’s choice simply because he was trying to shore up a candidacy that was looking increasingly weak in the face of global realpolitik. He may be a guy that people can pin their “hopes” on domestically, but God help us if he’s in the White House and Israel gives Iran an F-16 shaped yuck fou.

Chris: What does history tell you (concerning “change for the sake of change”)?

I think the choice has two motivations. First, the president should surround himself with variety. That is admirable. Opposing viewpoints have value. “Yes men” have none. I read that Lincoln filled his cabinet with people that opposed him. Second, it seems both candidates think they can appeal to their weaker demographic by representing them with the VP candidate. In the grand scheme of things, I care very little about the VP. My friends feel the same way.

While we are talking politics, what does the phrase “change for the sake of change” mean? Does someone motivated by that vote for change he dislikes because he also dislikes the way things are. Or does he not care how things are nor what change he supports? That is, he just wants change.

He may bring experience, but if he bombs in public its not going to help.

He was not particularly religious or blessed with social graces. More than a few times he had been scolded by Father O’Reilly for quenching his thirst by drinking the holy water or washing his hands in the baptismal. The oppressive heat of the summer prompted the priest to forgive this wayward lamb. Surely he was just trying to keep cool… but he muddied the sacramental water and the basin smelled of sweat and newly turned earth.

Oblivious to attack as he stumbled home along his usual route, Rupert had unknowingly dispatched three denizens of the undead to their eternal damnation this month alone. Had it not been for the holy water, they would likely have only suffered severely bad trips and hangovers. Buffy, move aside! Clothed in muddy overalls, and armed with a shovel, liquid courage and a belch that could knock a buzzard off of a shit wagon, Rupert was judgment incarnate. He reigned supreme.

In fact, given your style, I would find interviews with John Ringo and David Weber also interesting.

Women have their faults as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6DktXFvg4

“Sheer delight! This guy can really write!”

Going to run by the neighborhood Borders at lunch and try to snag Scalzi’s book.

For the record, I am NOT a fan of Vampire stories. I find the genre overwhelmed and very ‘commercial’. But I realize others find delving into it a thrill/chill experience, much like horror films and roller coasters.

A country at war (we left Saigon in 75)
An unpopular president, viewed by most as not legitimately elected to the post (Ford)
Rising inflation
Economic stagnation
Energy crises / foreign oil dependence
Nuclear threats growing
An aggressive and mobilized Soviet military
A new US President elected on the premise of “Change” (or as many have described, change for the sake of change)

At least Carter was committed to the Shuttle program. However, I believe that the first launch of the space shuttle was during Reagan’s term (STS-1 was in April of 81… oddly, it took 12 years to get the first shuttle into orbit as the program took root in 1969 under Nixon). I don’t trust Obama’s designs concerning the space program; and I believe McCain more willing to carry on our space legacy. But funding NASA will largely be the responsibility of Congress, not the next president. True, it does help if the president is for such funding and signs as Congress requests.

Seriously though. I could care less about his flip flops, I just want to see something done to keep NASA afloat. If we elect Obama (and I personally hope we do) and he doesn’t make good on his campaign promises, then hopefully we’ll elect a better man 4 years later.

Saw Clone Wars tonight… wasn’t as bad as the reviewer made it out to be. But it wasn’t noteworthy either. I left the film with a solid case of the blahs. I liked the interaction between Skywalker and a Togruta Padawan. The writers had so much to develop there but missed a lot of obvious points. The animation takes some getting used to… over-stylized, rather stiff and jerky, and with the quality of a late 90’s video game. Hand-to-hand combat no longer has a fluid feel to it. No opening scroll… there was a cheesy opening narration as though they were trying to recapture the feel of the old movie serials. Yes, the Nawlins drag-queen Hutt was a bit much, as was the Laurel and Hardy routine with every battle droid. The “and a child shall lead them” motif (that Lucas and Spielberg soil themselves over) was in full effect. It wasn’t a bad movie, but I felt is was more for kids under the age of ten. Don’t see this for full price, unless you are a SW ubergeek.

Animation: C
Plot: C
Dialogue: C
Character interaction: B to A
Character development: C
Action: A

I’d rather see the mini-series take a few notes from LotR instead of be a made for TV clone. I am also VERY eager to see the first moments of the film project. Who hasn’t longed to see the last few moments of Lewis to see how close it resembles their own big-budget imagination?

Of course, the cost of getting actors to play the thirty million starring roles in the book would probably outweigh the cost.

Sally sold those goodies to finance her Hutt language classes and her Tiberian space freighter with tractor beam. She’s got a lot of marklar.

I hated, no loathed, the last three SW movies… wooden acting, cutsie-poo creatures to draw the adolescent crowd, non-existent dialogue, plot-less action sequences, and a cheesy, ham-handed, fumbling, weak, and meaningless origin for Darth Vader… the biggest badass in the galaxy, the nexus of the Force, the hope of the Jedi is a whiny little pussy controlled by Force exuding bacteria and a Sith Lord with a massive need for Clorets? From Mannequin Skywalker to an homage to Frankenstein’s monster… someone explain to me how and why his fall (as portrayed) was significant. My hopes were so high then, but quickly dashed by Lucas’ abandonment of what made Star Wars great to begin with. I couldn’t care less if the new version of the Clone Wars is a masterpiece or a vile steaming heap of poo. But I’ll lay odds that it’s the latter and no where near the former.

I have believed in a possibility of life elsewhere, though also believing in an infinitesimally small probability. I speak of and abundance and variety of life as we enjoy here on the big blue marble. There are so many narrow factors that have to be in place so that we can exist… an abundance of water, a protective atmosphere, the Van Allen belts, distance from the sun, angle of axis, a stabilizing moon, large mass planets within the system to deflect incoming missiles, etc. Even the orbits of our planets around the sun seem unique in the universe. Life could not survive the wild temperature and environmental extremes of even a slightly more elliptical orbit. It seems strange to me that scientists are just now discovering (or admitting) how unique our situation is.

Brown chicken brown cow…
(pronounced like bow chicka bowp wow)

Imagining you or Ms. Alba (or both) in a Cookie Monster suit is a mental image with enough humor to last me quite a while.

Limp Bizkit did it all for the nookie
Cookie Monster did it all for the cookie
and Solo did it all for the Wookie

A: A piece of ass that’ll bring a tear to your eye

I bet she gives dollars to Sally Struthers, too.

#2 I think most women would be insulted by such a brief course… Give me food, Give me sex, and Give me silence

#3 I think the Nigerians are working for Robert Tilton

#4 Don’t show starving children… make an Amber alert that children are being abducted from Africa by rich white American actresses

But back to the original subject… Pete, I think our anthropomorphism concerns not extra-terrestrial life in general, but our expectations for SENTIENT extra-terrestrial life. It seems that only space monsters break out of the public imagination for bipedal, anthropomorphic life… the blob, the thing, the aliens from “Alien”, etc. I believe that we want to believe that there is some sentient anthropomorphic life-form out there to relieve a sense of being alone in the universe and perhaps that there is someone (not just something) out there who is just like (or very similar to) me. Collectively we are looking for a connection… hoping to peer into the galactic looking-glass and see ourselves reflected there.

WTF!?!

by L. Ron Hubbard

Assuming we retain a carbon-based form of life, but alter the means of respiration, energy consumption, and reproduction through the use of different elements/molecules, could such a life form develop and what would it look like (how would it operate)? For years scientists believed that no life could exist in the deep ocean that was not directly or indirectly dependent upon light/photosynthesis. However, whole colonies of many different creatures (tube worms, shrimp, mussels, etc.) were discovered to be living around thermal vents with their existence centered upon bacteria that convert hydrogen sulphide into food.

Sorry, please return to the topic at hand…

‘Perchlorate can be used in rocket fuel and fireworks, due to its high oxidation potential and its relative stability.’

Fireworks on Mars? Cool… Ah, sorry, did it again. I’ll stop now…

My father collected WWI and WWII era Lugers. So when I was a kid I fired a few of these officer’s sidearms. An uncle of mine was a cop and allowed me to fire (on range) his .357 revolver (I think it was a Desert Eagle, but not sure). That is a scary powerful pistol.

I’ve never fired a mortar, but I’ve directed fire I’m real good at calling for FFE

M16A1 my first service rifle (H&R)
M16A2 (Panther I think) service rifle
M203 40mm Grenade Launcher (M16 Mounted)
M4 Carbine
M1A
M1 Garand (Kasper and Wills toys :))
HK SP89 9mm(full auto rental at in door gun range)
HK MP5-SD3 9mm(friends full auto silenced)
Grease Gun .45 (full auto rental at in door gun range)
AT4 Anti-Tank Weapon (9mm trainer and just once live in basic)
MK19 40mm grenade launcher
M60 Machine Gun
M249 Light Machine Gun (SAW)
Browning M2 .50 cal Machine Gun (Ma Deuce)
Kalashnikov AK-47
Kalishnikov AK-74

Beretta M9 9mm Pistol (pos)
H&R 1911 first service pistol .45 cal Pistol
Many other pistols and guns that aren’t that interesting or memorable

Various shotguns

Other fun stuff:
Various Hand grenades (not so cool)
Bangalore Torpedo (very very cool)
Claymore (very cool)

In the USMC and in other government service I have fired the following:

M16A2 Assault (Service) Rifle
M203 40mm Grenade Launcher (M16 Mounted)
M4 Carbine
M4A1 Carbine (full auto)
AT4 Anti-Tank Weapon
MK19 40mm grenade launcher
M60 Machine Gun
M240G Machine Gun
M249 Light Machine Gun (SAW)
Browning M2 .50 cal Machine Gun (Ma Deuce)
Kalashnikov AK-47 Assault Rifle (live fire exercise)
Beretta M9 9mm Pistol
Browning .45 cal Pistol
Remington 870 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun

There are other weapons that I have handled in the USMC arsenal, but never fired (Ex: Mortars)

The DVD I rented had special features, including commentary by Raimi. I learned, after torturing myself by watching the film, that this first movie of the series was actually meant to be serious. It was an homage, in part, to the “classic” horror flicks. I definitely saw parts that reminded me of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead, and (of course) The Exorcist.

I was especially disturbed and disgusted by the forest rape scene. If the remaining films of the series proffer such as entertainment, I will not bother with them at all. There was really little camp in this film to enjoy, and as a serious horror movie it failed me on all counts except two: Raimi’s camera usage was phenomenal, and he knows how to build suspense.

Things that made me laugh:

(1) Sumerian burial rituals in rural Tennessee
(2) The mocking of the demon possessed woman in the cellar “I don’t wanna die!”
(3) Beheading the demon possessed girlfriend, creating a demon possessed talking head
(4) Moving the desk away from full length window in cabin in order to block the door
(5) Removing stave from demon possessed best friend’s abdomen, resulting in a cork-removed-from-bottle sound followed by the whoosh and gurgle of escaping blood, gore, and bile.

I think it would be better if their license plate said “Government without intelligence.”

The fact that this is funny to me is sad commentary on how little we expect out of Congress these days.

“Just so you know, SgtWebb… I never doubted you. I already suspected that you are a sick, sick man.”

My hypocrisy knows no bounds.

I mean really. Hot Lesbians beating the shit out of each other. Does it really get any better than that? If the Taliban had that movie on BluRay, they’d just give up their AK-47s immediately. Virgins in Paradise can’t equate with quality cinema featuring naked flesh.

Maybe crime would actually DROP there.

Maybe I’ll take a couple seasons with me next week to San Francisco…

I develop Video OnDemand systems. I have to watch lots of movies to test our software. About a year ago the fellas in our back office removed all our content save one movie: “Vampiyas”. I was forced to watch this film 8 hours a day for more than a month:

review: http://www.mattniemi.com/archives/2004/11/bad_movie_monda_13.php
stills gallery: http://www.vampyres-online.com/vampiyaz_stills.html

PS. Just rented Evil Dead and will watch it sometime before the weekend is over.

You are a sick, sick man.

I’m not making it up. Check IMDB if you doubt me.

I think that is the essence of camp… taking a subject or premise that is normally serious, or at least not comedic, and creating comedy that turns inward, poking fun at the movie (or genre) itself. I think that the more serious the title or premise, the funnier the campy-ness becomes.

I guess I’m going to have to rent a few movies this weekend. Bubba Ho-tep sounds like a good start.

Slapstick is a form of camp (Naked Gun, eh?). Slapstick films aim to be silly and meets the mark. I am especially intrigued by titles that appear to be serious, but I can’t help but wonder how they missed their ideal tone by so much.

Speaking of beer and campy movies: Strange Brew is a little known gem. Just be sure to have plenty of beer and friends on tap.

Spinal Tap is camp, right? Can’t leave that out of our thread.

Does anyone recall a show called Mad Movies that was featured on Nick at Night loooong ago. They took classic films, spliced and re-dubbed them to make new hilarious stories. Camp-o-licious! If anyone can find a copy of the show where they turned the original Night of the Living Dead into a surprise party, I will pay good money for a copy.