One For The Others

To the people leaving me comments (which never get published), the ones that simply MUST tear apart everything I say, put down my ideas, and generally be critical of me and my work, let me just say this:

At the very least, when I say something (right or wrong), I have the brass pair to put my name on it. I don't have to hide behind the mantle of Anonymous.

You identify yourself (not with just a nickname or a fake name, but your real, full name), then we'll talk about posting your comments. Until then, the proof is in the pudding: I've got the stones, you don't.

I'm not afriad. You're a chickenshit.

And for the record, on that subject? I'm 100% correct...

The One About That One Time Back Then

Oh yeah. New book goodness, baby. The collection on my shelf continues to grow, with this week's addition of Harry Potter 7, and now with the news of the impending release of the latest book from Wil Wheaton (aka The Boss of Everybody), "The Happiest Days of Our Lives."

First of all, Kudos to Wil for using Pink Floyd. Brilliant choice, although the song itself (found on disc one of The Wall, for those scoring at home) isn't quite "Wil's New Book"-related. Oh well, most people won't recognize it off the bat, anyway. They all think it's just the intro to "Another Brick in the Wall Part II..."

At any rate, if you don't read Wil's blog, or haven't read his books, you're really missing out. Once you put aside the whole Star Trek fanboy nonsense, you find that Wil does something that the people who wrote his character on TNG couldn't do: Write, and write well. Convey a story in a way that elicits genuine connection and response from the reader.

Boy can spin a good yarn, that's for sure.

Go read some of his entries. You'll see what I mean. I'll be here when you get back.

No, really...

Definition Of Irony

Found on Fark, this is the end-all, beat-all of irony videos. Inmates in a prison in the Philippines (and a shit ton of them at that), all performing the zombie dance number from... Wait for it...

Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Click and enjoy...

And you know what? They're not half bad at all...

Behold The Power of Cheese

If this were an actual game, I'd be addicted to it for sure.

Famous Last Words

From this BBC article:

President George W Bush has played down the anxiety, however:

"There is a perception in the coverage that al-Qaeda may be as strong today as they were prior to September 11th," he said on Thursday.

"That's simply not the case."

In case you don't want to read that, Georgie is reacting to Congress doubling the bounty on one Osama bin Laden, turr'r mastermind and all around scary guy.

So, tell me something, Mr. President. How are you so sure that is "simply not the case?" Hmm? Is this the same intelligence that told you Saddam Hussein (may his soul roast in hell as he and Satan have buttsex) had WMDs? Is it a "gut feeling" like Chertoff's? Can you show us some hard evidence?

The truth is, you can't back that up at all. Not even in the slightest. al Qaeda COULD be that strong. How are we to know otherwise? Trust you? HA! The people who defend this country
can't even trust you, Mr. President.

Show me some proof, jackass. And if they DO attack, I'll enjoy watching you eat those words...

Hellmuth Busts Out Hard

Here's Phil Hellmuth, driving around a casino parking lot in a stock car with his name and face all over it, basically living out the racing equivalent to having your pocket rockets cracked with a 10-2o. Enoy. (Via Fark)

Genesis

So, how do you start up a podcast, anyway?

I guess I'm about to find out. After talking with John last night, I've decided to give it a shot, thereby making my statement above (about being a podcaster) a reality instead of just a dream.

The trouble is, coming up with something for a proof-of-concept show.

For the last few years, I've had an incredible case of writer's block. It's why I never finished UR, and it's also why there hasn't been much from me creatively in a long time. If anything, my blog has become a dusty, cobwebbed closet I open once in a while to put stuff in.

That's not cool.

I'm hoping that my recent desire to actually work with my blogs is a good sign of things to come. I really do miss being able to come up with stuff like I used to. It's just that life has brought me to a point where I don't much care about anything, let alone writing something for the sheer joy of it like the old days.

Only this time, I'm not writing for just a blog. I'm laying down a recording of my voice and releasing it upon the Earth. So, it's gotta be at least halfway good, right? Right.

Talk about brain frying...

USA! USA! USA!

Finally. An American I can give some honest support to! Congratulations to Joey Chestnut, winner of the 2007 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Championships! After years of domination by Japan's Takeru Kobayashi, Chestnut ate an unbelievable 66 hot dogs and buns, smashing the record set by Kobayashi the year before by just over a dozen! ROCK ON!

Let It Be

Nathan James Aughenbaugh -- 1980 - 2007. He died because of the cruelty and malice of others. He died unnecessarily.

Beside his casket, surrounded by the people responsible for his death, I made him a promise: "We'll make this right."

And we will.

Nathan, when I knew him best, was a happy kid who loved rollerskating and off-roading in his entirely illegal Bronco; Listening to music and taking road trips; being with his friends and flirting with Angela. He loved life, and almost always had a smile on his face.

Never was he ever suicidal. Ever.

Soon, you'll all know why Nathan did what he did. But that's not what I'm here to do right now.

Right now, I want Nathan remembered for the true person he was: A giving friend, happy and full of life, who wanted nothing more than for people to be like him and just chill out and enjoy the ride. If there was anything he could do to make his friends feel better, it was done. All he wanted in return was the same kindness and positive vibes; Negativity was never his thing.

Back in the summers of 1994 and 1995, Nathan, Angela and I would jump in the Escort and put his cassette single copy of Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" into the tape deck, and we'd drive around endlessly, listening to all 15 minutes of the song, over and over, just to kill time before we went to the skating rink. By the time 1996 rolled around, I'm sure all of us could rap along to any version of that song without missing a beat, all thanks to knowing each and every part of the whole song from memory. All because of Nathan.

Nathan loved kids, and his influence is no more evident than on the kids of our friend Nikki. Those kids will endlessly pick flowers and give them to Mom and her friends. All because of Nathan. Because he loved to follow the old addage "stop and smell the [flowers]." There is creativity alive in Angela's daughter, thanks in great part to Nathan and his love of imatination. Several of the drawings hanging on Angela's apartment walls have Nathan's influence in them.

Angela and I have big plans in the works, and I'll have a huge announcement of the positive variety very soon. In the meantime, though, I ask all of you to remember Nathan for who he truely was. Keep him in your hearts and memories. Every life he touched was brightened.

It's just so goddamned sad that he had to suffer so much...

Vaya con dios, hermano...

LOLStuff Plus

Yeah, I got bored. With the last batch of pics off of my trusty camera, I've come up with these few LOLShots, as well as some extra goodness. First of all - Lady, Little Dog, and Hammy get into the LOLAct...



Next up on the LOLBlock is Jen. Jen, a friend of mine and Sheetz employee, got suckered into this shot last night during a midnight drink run. The result is some Flavor-related LOLFun...

And now for some normalcy, but only for a moment. Missy, Fred, myself and Andy, posing for one of those classic "Hey, set the timer and put it in front of the HDTV" pictures. That's all spontanios, no lie. Each person acting independantly to create a nifty little scene. We're good at that sort of thing, you see...

And finally, because I'm a huge asshole, say hello to Moose. Moose is a chatter. And if you get the joke at the bottom of the image, then all I have to say is "Ni!" So, Miss Adorable Angel Eyed Beeper: AM I that big of an asshole? Oh yeah, you'd best believe it...

Another Brick In The LOL

OMGWTF NO WAI S TEH FUNAY LOLZRZ!!!11!!one!11! CLKME!







LOL that you touch, and LOL that you see... LOL that you taste... LOL you feel...

Thanks Chuck -- via WWdN:IX

LOLMeme FTW!!!!!!!1

It began with LOLCats. Cheezburger.



Then, it became LOLPresident:



There's LOLTrek:



With LOLWesley Goodness, to boot:


Don't forget LOLBots:

Can the internet get enough? Apparently not. But these are some favorites. Go find your own, and enjoy the meme while it lives...

Mach Go Go Go

Here he comes. Here comes Speed Racer.

MTV these days is a bastion of pop-culture and reality trash, nothing at all worth watching like it was. You see, it used to show these things called "music videos" all the time. And late at night, it showed classics like Monty Python's Flying Circus and - my personal MTV favorite - Speed Racer.

For alot of us Anime geeks, Speed was our first exposure to the genre, along with Robotech, Voltron, as well as (to an older extent) Astro Boy and Gigantor. Speed, though, took the cake easy. What made him top out giant robots and killer transforming space fighters? The Mach 5. Forget the Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT from Knight Rider) and any of those fancy James Bond rides. The Mach 5 was the original pimped out ride.

The Wachowski Brothers have said that they want to be true to the series without just bringing an episode to life in long form, and even though the second and third Matrix movies were a bit of a letdown, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with Speed. Anime is a huge influence on animators and flimmakers these days, and the Wachowski's are no exception. After all, just look at the effects they pioneered with The Matrix. Not to mention the storyline was nearly straight out of Akira...

2008 should be, at the very least, a good year for geeks who love movies...

The Good Doctor 2: Electric Boogaloo

The saga of Dr. Larry Adams continues, dear readers, and it gets rather amusing. You see, despite all the hooplah over the raids on his practice, home, and van, The Good Doctor is still practicing. Yes, that's right, he hasn't been arrested or charged with anything yet (even though the general concensus is he's pretty-well fucked).

The downside? He can't write a perscription. Period. None whatsoever.

While this limits what he can do as far as pill distribution, it does pose a problem for his patients. Or rather, the ones who actually NEED the medication that he's suspected of offloading. Patients like one gent with two bad knees. Thanks to the virtual handcuffing of Dr. Adams, this poor gent has to drive all the way to State College for much more painful and less effective injections.

And what if a kid comes in with a cold, or bad allergies, or something worse like asthma or bronchitis? No antibiotics, inhalers, nothing.

Another gent discovered the no-script policy on a visit to The Good Doctor's office recently. Naturally, this guy genuinely needs his meds, so he throws an almighty fit, announcing it to the rest of the patients in the waiting area (who were also unaware of the no-script rule). Result? Alot of disgruntled people, probably most if not all in serious pain, in need of medication, and unable to get it.

Why? Because Larry Adams is a fucking moron. A selfish, greedy idiot. Way to go, Doc. Do you know how many lives you screwed up because of your actions? Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we?

• Your Family: Let's face it, you're already sitting on a familial powder keg, what with your menagerie and all. Now that your practice is handcuffed (and you're most likely going to do some time for it), how are you going to afford to keep that up? Eh?
• The people of Philipsburg and the Moshannon Valley: How does this affect the hospital, Doc? I don't think the rest of the "Rosewood Group" is going to want to continue with their point man the subject of a State Attorney General's investigation into the illegal perscription drug trade. And that's if there even IS a "Rosewood Group." The people of this community NEED that hospital. For you to even think of screwing up such a monumental thing in an act of selfishness boggles the mind. You're a fucking DOCTOR. You're supposed to be INTELLIGENT. You're charged with HELPING PEOPLE. You took A FUCKING OATH.
• The people of the area addicted to the crap you push: I'm not going to lie to you. There's a SERIOUS PILL PROBLEM in this area. Big time. Bigger than anyone wants to admit. Anything and everything is sought after: Xanax, Percocet, Vicodin, Codine, I don't give a rat's ass how you spell all these, and of course, the big one: Hillbilly Heroine, Oxycontin. It's bad enough that the Big Pharmacuticals get away with pushing this crap on people to begin with. It's another thing to HELP THAT ADDICTION ALONG. And now that your little flow of goods has been cut off to what I'm sure is quite a few people. Where is their next fix coming from, Doc? And what will they do to get it? Nice job...
• You: There's no two ways around it, Doc. You're probably going to go to jail. And take it from me: Jail is not a fun place to be. They're not going to treat you like an Enron Executive, Martha Stewart or Paris fucking Hilton, Doc. No, the jail they send you to won't have a posh "high-profile protected custody" wing. No, if they have that, it'll be full of rapists and deviants, and at that point, I'm willing to bet that you'd rather be in General Population. Face it: For a few years, your life is going to suck major ass. If I were you, I'd start weight training now, because your pudgy ass is bound to become somebodies prison bitch for sure...

Sounds like fun, doesn't it. I pity the man in a way, but then again, I don't. The mistakes we make in life are our own. I've made my share, and I've paid (and continue to pay) for them. The Good Doctor will pay in his own way, appropriate to what he's done. There's no excuse for idiocy, whether it be his, my own, or anyone else's. The consequences are his alone to bear. I hope he's ready for it...

For Elgin

This blog bleeds Black and Gold.

But it's owner bleeds red, just like every other human being on this planet.

Just because of Elgin, I'll say two words I never thought I'd see myself type or hear myself speak:

Go Senators.

If they do dance with Lord Stanley, they should etch this kid's name on it with the rest of the team.

RIP Little Guy...

Crossposted (sorta) to Yahoo360 and MySpace