At a time when terrorists are blowing up bombs all over the planet, and the US is being invaded by millions of illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is on the job protecting us from… pirated copies of Star Wars workprints. Yes, when our borders are more porous than cheesecloth, when terrorists are trying to hijack planes and kill thousands of Americans at a time, DHS and ICE are there keeping a few kids from seeing bad copies of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. What’s that? You think I must be joking? I’m afraid not. This is the original DHS press release in PDF format. This apparently an ongoing policy at ICE. Rather than protecting our borders and enforcing immigration law, they’re busy being the movie police. Osama Bin Laden was the best thing to ever happen to George Bush. Bin Laden has given Bush a blank check from the idiotic American public to destroy the country. If a magic genie popped up and gave me the choice between preventing 9/11 or preventing Bush’s election in 2001, right now I’d go back and undo Bush’s election. He’s FAR more dangerous to the US than any terrorist.

Update: It seems there’s ambiguity in my post there. Let me amend it. “But you think Bush actually cares about Star Wars workprints?” No, I think Bush cares about protecting big busness more than the people. He wants to replace the Constitution with an End User License Agreement. You will purchase your rights from USGov Corp for a limited period of time, subject to approval by DHS and your local Identification Verification Center. If you are found in violation of your license, you’ll be sent to a Repatriation Center for whatever training is deemed necessary by the Board of Patriotism Regulation.

We’re not the lead dog yet, but we’re definetly part of the pack…

Via Pictures I Like For A Variety Of Reasons

Thanks to Sander, Tristor, and Jesse. I have been smacked upside the head with a baton. A musical baton that is, not the kind the cheerleaders or majorettes have. It’s an interesting moment for self-analysis though…

Total volume of music files on my computer:

1,905 Files, 8,341,171,980 bytes (7.77GB).
The vast majority of which is legal, ripped from my own CD collection. This still only represents about half of my CD collection. Roughly a hundred files are singles, half of which I ripped from CD collections, leaving about 50 or so of questionable origin. I do not recall how they got into my collection, I swear.

Last CD I bought:

Hmm, I’ll go one better. Well, three better.

• Latest artist repeat-buy: U2’s How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb.
• Latest artist-first-buy: Dido’s Life for Rent (then No Angel shortly afterwards)
• The actual Latest CD purchased: Sequentia/Choral Ensemble of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Chill to the Chant, although this is a replacement for the original I bought in 1995 that has been lost in the mists of time and moving, repurchased April 30 for $1.96.

Playing right now:

Tony Bennett Unplugged

Five songs that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

• Depeche Mode’s One Caress – I’ve sung this for exactly one person, although I’ve sung it in front of many more. It’s just four minutes of purple velvet from my soul.
• Frank Sinatra, It Was A Very Good Year – So bittersweet and honest, it tells a story with no regrets.
• Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings (Opus 11) – It just rips my heart out every time.
• The theme from the original The Legend of Zelda – Why? if you need ask why, then you also need to listen to an orchestral version. To me, it’s a soaring theme with a simple but bold melody. It brings to mind being eight years old playing in a lush, verdant field and rolling hills, and infinite adventures beyond the horizon.
• Phantom of the Opera, Music of the Night – Again, for exactly one person. It’s a sweet pain that reminds you what it is to live life to it’s fullest.

Five albums that mean a lot to me (also in no particular order):

I’ve added this section because coming up with those five songs reminded me how I feel about albums. I agree with the artists that still cling to the artistry that is an entire album. With these five choices, the album is a masterwork of flowing moods. For me, choosing one song from these would be like picking a single color from a Van Gogh, or a single word from Shakespeare.

• U2’s Achtung Baby – The entire album just fits me like a second skin.
• Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes – Incredibly revealing, you just can’t turn away. You’re forced to share yourself in return.
• REM’s Automatic for the People – A long look back at the life you’ve lived so far, coming to terms with it, accepting it, holding on to it, and finally accepting who you are. And that’s ok.
• Depeche Mode’s Violator – Peeling back the veneer of civility to reveal the base desires in us all. A cool yet smouldering passion.
• The Cranberries’ Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? – A time of many firsts and many loves. The memories attached to this are so strong I literally couldn’t listen to it for about seven years. And yet I could never forget it, or let it go.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton (still in no particular order):

• ct^ – He’s just freakin’ cool.
• MightyMu – The second best non-native-Pennsylvanian you’ll never meet.
• Wil Wheaton – I hope I can get Uncle Willie to reply in his “Big Willie” style…
• Nosebleed – Don’t drip on the carpet, it’s new!
• Asa Dotzler – Just to see if I can get him to reply. About as likely as Wil…

Now it’s your turn. (Some linkage below if you’re interested…)
» Continue reading “Follow the bouncing baton…”

Every week PostSecret has a new batch of confessions sent in from all sorts of people from all over the place. I read it every week (I may have even sent one in, but if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret any more). I find it far more interesting and far more cathartic than group hug because it takes more time, energy, creativity, and effort to submit to PostSecret. You have to get a post card, express yourself on it (anything from simple text to elaborate artwork), address it, and mail it. with group hug you just fill in a form and hit Submit. PostSecret is far more personal because even the simplest entries reveal something about the creator. And with PostSecret, the secrets tend to be actual secrets, as opposed to stories; plain facts about the sender.

I see a trend in the vast majority of them, and that reveals so much mroe about all of us, not just the senders. Most are either past abuse, lies we tell, or a love we wish we had. We’re ashamed by past abuses even though we’re the victims. We’re afraid to tell the truth about ourselves, even when we know it’s the right thing to do. And we wish we either were loved, or still had that one special person in our lives but are too afraid to find them or tell them.

I guess none of us is as brave as we wish we were…

<jX> Have you ever been out ghost hunting and suddenly needed a USB flash drive, or been transferring files to your USB flash drive and suddenly needed to check for ghosts?
<jX> PROBLEM SOLVED! (magic token)
<jX> Intricate diagrams in crazy moon man language here: (I can't read this)
<MightyMu> jX: make sure jwz knows about that...

A week ago, this story about AntiBoothBabes.com hit Slashdot about AgeTec boycotting boothbabes. It’s completely stupid. I commented thusly. But the broadly held suspicions that this was a stunt are true. Anyway, my opinions still hold true for boothbabes, bikini girls, et al.

And so, I now bring you links to a multitude of E3 Booth Babes. Please feel free to add more links in the comments, but they have to be Booth Babes, not like the N-Gage girl.
Notice how a less than desirable “console” gets a less than desirable girl…

• Purrr…
• That’s it ladies, mingle!
• Hot future girl can stay…(reference)
• The one on the right. Left-girl is awful. Too much lip-collagen, and bad implants (note ladies, implants are always bad, but these are awful)
• She’s cute, but that THING is a bit unflattering…
• Hi-Def BoothBabe video! I loved the dance routine! The rest of the HiDef boothbabe videos (2, 3, 4) are subscription only, so let me know if you find them, even lower resolution copies.

Updates!

• I4U’s Photo Gallery, delish!
• E3Girls.com I love the motto, “It’s not about the games”. I heartily approve.
• No one said MMOGs were like this!

steeler_fan over in #bs tossed out this URL. It’s in-fucking-credible. I got chills and giggled like a schoolgirl. Speaking of girls, the chicks in this video are cute too. So, it’s great music, these kids can sing, and the choreopgraphy is great. It’s a trifecta, like a cold bucket of awesome was thrown in my face.

Wow. This extension basically allows you to edit and save web sites so they display this way each time. It’s as though every site now comes with a “fix me!” button. Thanks to Asa for linking to it. I can think of half a dozen sites to use this on already…

[23:10] <Asa> I can't wait to sell out
[23:10] * Asa waits to see that one quoted somewhere.

These have been up for a while, but I guess I never linked them up, for some reason. These are a couple old gags I did years ago that I still find funny. The National Toilet Association (You can have my toilet when you pry it off my COLD DEAD ASS), and the ever so subtle Trendy Cafe. The Trendy Cafe I honestly find cute and fun, and am somewhat proud of how far I could take it before I got hungry, er, bored. The National Toilet Association is built around exactly one joke. And what a great dead horse it is! 🙂