Even More in the Vein of "Shit That Caught My Eye"...

Gary Kurtz on why "Star Wars" went down the tubes...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/star-wars-was-born-a-long-time-ago-but-not-all-that-far-far-away-in-1972-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer.html
which was pretty much what i'd expected...

more discussion on why the google-verizon proposal should be shouted down:
http://io9.com/5610328/how-the-googleverizon-proposal-could-kill-the-internet-in-5-years

and an alternative view of the google-verizon proposal:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/08/17/cnet.internet.apocalypse/index.html

a rather dense examination of the possibility of an afterlife, among other things:
http://chronicle.com/article/Youre-Dead-Now-What-/123759/

even more on the new "Bioshock" game:
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/08/bioshock-america/

for those of us who are Dawn of War/Dawn of War II fans, the following is a "Happy Happy Joy Joy" announcement:

It's time for WAAAAAAAUGH!

"Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld - take German/Austro-Hungarian walking war machines, add British/French/Russian Victorian genetic splicing that creates animal hybrid war machines, mix in a young prince in danger from his own people after his father and mother are killed (which starts World War One), and a Scottish girl pretending to be a boy so she can be a midshipman in the British Air Corps and you've got a lovely Steampunk YA novel that i recommend unreservedly - with absolutely beautiful b&w illustrations to boot! go buy it, read it.

some good points made in an article on Cracked.com...
http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly_p2.html

note what music i'm listening to... a Stevie Ray Vaughn cut I never knew existed... that automatically makes it a good damn day. add that it's SRV & Dick Dale and the Del-Tones - bonus points! add that it's "Pipeline" - we are into serious Extra Special Orgasm-Making Bonus Sparklies Complete With Cookies And Ice Cream!
Hell, only thing that could make it better would be if my wife got a job today...

I'd Been Resisting...

But I just couldn't ignore it anymore, so now, like so many others, I'm forced to share

most definitely NSFW

Okay, A Few Quick Notes...

Dorris' phone interview today went well, we're in waiting mode, she'll be flying back in tomorrow. we remain 'optimistic'.

"Battle Royale" on DVD - wow... i enjoyed it a lot, so much so that i've ordered the book because i crave more of the back story. recommended.

"Battle Royale II" on DVD - uh, not so much. some really stupid writing, at least one "so-over-the-top-performance-that-i-cringed-watching-it", and a lot of shit that just didn't make any kind of sense at all. 20 minutes in, i gave it up as a lost cause and pulled the disc.

"Land of the Lost" on BluRay - aside from the fact that i feel Will Ferrell is, most days, a festering abcess on the ball-sack of humanity, i thought to myself "How bad can this be?". 7 minutes. that's how bad folks, 7 goddamn minutes and i could not watch another second.

there you have it, back to your regularly scheduled thursday afternoon.