Arnold (Arnie) Stang, one of Hollywood's best voice and comic actors known for playing "nerdy" characters, passed on the other day at age 91. His most memorable film role was in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", where he played one of the two owners of the gas station destroyed by Jonathan Winters.  (If you saw the movie, you will remember that scene.)  His most well-know role, though, was as the voice of Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat.  His career started in 1942, and he worked for over 60 years, providing voices for a variety of characters in Cartoon Network's "Courage The Cowardly Dog". RIP.

OPEN: JANUS FILE #0336


I'm toying with the idea of creating creating some customized cards (or having them created) for next year's Christmas. The front of the card would have me dressed as Bullwinkle. Or at least dressed to convey the idea of Bullwinkle. Held up over my head (probably by the antlers) would be a sprig of mistletoe, and I would be puckering up for a great big smooch. When you opened the card, you would read this message:

"MERRY KISS-MOOSE!"

Do you think the idea would would be received well?

CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0336

1808: The first public performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, possibly the most famous piece of European orchestral music in the world.

So, what's YOUR favorite piece of music? 

For me, it's the "Ode to Joy", the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony... it's an expression of pure, unadultered happiness, and never fails to lift my spirits. If you've ever seen the movie "Immortal Beloved", you've seen one of the finest uses of music in film, using the Ode to Joy.


OK, your turn... what's yours?

I really meant to leave a TAFF ballot with Chris Garcia back in November when I was still in the Bay Area, but the set {Kevin, Chris, Kevin's Checkbook, Kevin's TAFF Ballot} never seemed to fill, and then I was sent off to Columbus for two weeks, and.... now the deadline for voting for TAFF is today. So I had to resort to PayPal, donating extra in order to offset PayPal's fees. Well, better to do that than miss the deadline entirely, I suppose.

This is the "red-band" trailer for the upcoming film "Kick-Ass", which looks AWESOME!

(WARNING: ADULT CONTENT!  VIOLENCE AND NSFW LANGUAGE ENSUES! There is an age-gate before the trailer.)

If you want to see the original trailer (suitable for general audiences), you can find it HERE.

And HERE is the original teaser trailer... which is also awesome in its awesomeness!

The Five Christmas Wishes.

Walk through The Glen shopping area, most specifically Kingsway, the trendy street full of Asian eateries, and poncy bars, wearing a singlet given by well-meaning, full-loving daughter. Singlet says: "North Pole Dancer" and features the silouette of a pole dancer wearing an Xmas hat. This stretchy white singlet makes me look about 4 months pregnant.
Oh, and make sure you are accompanied by a small, enthusiastic dog who has eaten an Xmas decoration, and whose muzzle and front paws are now dyed hot pink.
Even though you are nearly 46, people will assume you are a first-class bogan. Pregnant, wearing skanky shirt, sporting small yappy dog who has been dyed pink for the festive season.
"I've got two words to say to you, Rexy. Look at moi, look at moi, look at moi."

You can now keep up to date with Aussiecon 4 news, announcements and chat over at Twitter (Aussiecon4) and Facebook (Aussiecon4).

Aussiecon4 has a travel livejournal set up for Aussiecon 4 members to exchange travel tips, hints and information  - a4_travel 

Why am I up after midnight? We got the kids to go to sleep on the early side, and then they woke up and would not go back to sleep. Eventually, we got one of them down, but the other just wouldn't go to sleep, despite being tired.

Nomi sat with her and starting reciting "The Walrus and the Carpenter," which gave me an idea. I found my Annotated "Hunting of the Snark" and started to read it to her.

By the time "the Baker had fainted away," so had she.

Good night.

Although there are a few points when it looks like Benny is having a hard time holding it together, I think he was in control the entire time. So:

I've exchanged the cold and snow of Columbus for continuous rain and not as cold in Mehama. I'm still leaning toward Eastern Time. I went to bed at 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon once we got back from Portland, and got more than twelve hours of sleep, which made me feel much better.

While getting work done at Lisa's father's house this morning, I restored my personal laptop computer to a semblance of normality, using the clone that I'd sent here to Oregon when I headed off on the road trip. Once again, the non-booting drive could be read when attached as an external device, but wouldn't boot, so once again I have not lost any data, but have had considerable annoyance. I need another computer; I'm considering looking for a used Dell laptop, as I don't really need a top-of-the-line machine, and would prefer to have something compatible with the half-dozen batteries and multiple power supplies I already have in stock, rather than having to start all over and load me down with more techno-junk.

While waiting around in Denver, I discovered that there is a hole in my computer backpack. I could seal it by zipping up the expansion joint, but this morning while unpacking, I couldn't find my small USB hub that I had taken with me. I called the hotel just in case I might have left it behind there, but they didn't have it, so I expect it dropped out of the bottom of my bag along the way. It's not a huge loss, but a minor annoyance. If someone does find it and is honest, they'll call me, because it has my name and phone number on it.

I regularly read Patterico's Pontifications, which is a blog run by Patrick Frey, who is a Deputy District Attorney in L.A. He has some frequent guest bloggers who post on his site as well, but Patterico is the best reason to read it as his experience gives him an interesting take on our legal system.

Right now, he's engaged in -- actually, throwing up his hands and abandoning -- an argument with another blogger who is apparently replacing the original text of comments that Patterico has left on his blog with completely different text. This sort of thing has gone on before on other blogs and when the previous incident was being discussed on Patterico's site, I left the following comment:

People with integrity think that editing someone’s comments in this way is always bad behavior.

People without integrity think that editing someone’s comments in this way is just fine, unless it is done to someone that they actually agree with.

And so I was both amused and flattered to find that Patterico had quoted me in the middle of his most recent post on the subject.

Damn! I'm quotable. :)

Last week the Associated Press reported that an Australian public health expert declared Santa Claus to be a public health menace in a study published in a British medical journal.  They recounted the study's findings that "made a reckless role model, noting his frequent cookie snacks, occasional cigars and refusal to don a helmet during "extreme sports such as roof surfing and chimney jumping."

The problem here is that the article was a joke;  the study never existed, and it was published as a humor piece in the journal's annual Christmas edition. 

Apparently, AP didn't get the joke... they reported it as a real study.  Which isn't very pleasant for Nathan Grills, author of the article, as people all over the world are now attacking him for being "Anti-Christmas".

AP did publish a subsequent follow-up article stating that the study was a spoof, but the follow-up article makes it seem like Mr. Grills is just back-pedalling, and it then goes on to REPEAT all of the study's "findings"!  Of course, any of the "research" mentioned in the article could have been debunked with one or two clicks on the internet.

However, at least in this case, it seems that it's more important for the Associated Press to have been "correct" than for them to have admitted they made a mistake.  :-\

I heard from Rick Waterson today that the Arlington Park Sheraton is closing. This doesn't surprise me.

The Sheraton hosted Windycon, Capricon, and Duckon at various times (and under various names). Capricon would probably still be there if the owners hadn't decided to build the water park. This ate a big chunk of the con's function space and caused the owners to not want to host the con so that they could rent those rooms to people who wanted to stay at the hotel and go to the water park.

I predicted that those people didn't really exist -- that anyone who was motivated enough to stay in the hotel overnight would go up to the water park near Gurnee Mills where one or the other parent could spend time shopping and where there are numerous restaurants to eat at. I may have been completely correct or it may just have been the recession taking the air out of the scheme.

I suspect that someone will eventually reopen the facility, because it's more valuable as a hotel and water park than it is as vacant land. But not right now.

Next Monday, December 28th, MYTHBUSTERS on Discovery Channel will air an episode in which they go after the myth of...

THE STAR TREK GORN CANNON!

 

(If you want to watch the original scene, it's HERE.)

This segment was apparently the brainchild of Grant Imahara, who is a HUGE geek, and a Trekkie to boot!  During the show, viewers can chat live with Grant on the Mythbusters Twitter feed.

I am SO going to be watching this!

(FYI: The young lady in the clip is Jessi Combs, who is filling in for the woman who will one day be mine Kari Byron while she's on maternity leave.)

So, what do you think the result's going to be?  Confirmed, plausible, or busted?

Type your city into this website and hit go. It will tell you your local weather conditions and compare it to a world in the Star Wars universe. (Chicago: -3° Celsius, Cloudy--It's Like Hoth out there).

Best is to leave the city box blank and hit the Go button.

Health care so-called reform has passed in the Senate, voting along strictly partisan lines, the Dems halted a Republican filibuster. In an after-Midnight session, sometime in the dark hours of Monday morning, your government, O Americans, decided to increase taxes, to increase the health care premiums paid by independently insured parties, to increase the premiums paid by unions in their plans, to fund Abortions (prenatal infanticide) from your tax money, and to lower the salaries of Insurance company members, and to restrict the return on investment of citizens holding stock in Insurance companies, and to otherwise dictate what hitherto had been private matters determined peaceably between rational men by negotiation.

The bill creates 112 new bureaus and offices, and no actual health care will be provided to anyone until five or nine years have passed, albeit the taxes and other impositions go into effect immediately. There is apparently no "public option" which means the poor still will not get any more or better or different coverage.

The bill is upwards of 9 trillion dollars over a ten year period. This, during a depression.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, at paragraph 2243:

Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.

Of these criterion, not all have been met. ( Read more... )

To those who celebrate it, a Blessed Winter Solstice to you!

For those who don't celebrate it... well, Happy First Day of Winter!

And for the movie and animation buffs reading this... happy Anniversary-of-the-premiere-of-Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarves-in-1937 Day!

I hope it's a good day for all of you, regardless!

Possibly NSFW.

A new T-shirt from the geniuses at THINK GEEK:

HE'S UNDEAD, JIM!


Here's the description from the site:

It was worse than dead; his brain was gone.

There are a lot of ways to die if you're a red shirt. You can be shot by a poisonous plant, step on an exploding rock, be struck by lightning, get whacked by a native with a big stick, choke on a dikironium cloud, or, our personal favorite, be beamed down to a planet that's not actually there and get sucked into space, never to be seen again. But it's an entirely different matter when Bones says, "He's undead, Jim." That's way worse than dead, and the entire galaxy could be at risk! Be sure to double tap with your phaser.

T'was THE TWILIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!


"You're impossibly fat.  And merry."

Jerry invited us and samwinolj and Bonnie over for dinner tonight. He had mentioned that it would be all right if the girls came, so when all our babysitting fell through, we let him know and brought them along with us. There were moments when it made things a bit more exciting, but other than Gretchen and I -- to some extent -- eating dinner in shifts, things went really well and everyone had a good time.

I am not really sure about when the party will be, depends if we have anyone entering the Concoction/party contest, which would be cool too. I just figured I'd pick a time or area when I get a chance to look at the schedule when it comes out.  It would be cool if we get enough interest to have an on going SCA area at least for future Frolicons.

My current ideas are, kilt inspections, complete with blue ribbons, I'm even thinking of making blue ribbon cock rings as well. Cloven fruit/edibles, wet chemise contest. Period examples of 'kink' garb/toys/etc, I'm not sure if this will be a contest or not yet, maybe for future Frolicons. Bawdy bardic circle. 'Bunny' Dances, where the dancers will only be allowed to wear 1 square foot of fabric/fur/leather/etc, or less.  That's what I have so far.

I am also thinking of widening the normal SCA period to include Colonial, Civil War, and other historical periods because I think it would be really cool to see what other reenactors can come up with.

I am hoping I can generate enough interest with these parties to eventually have an unofficial SCA version of Frolion somewhere.

THIS... Is a Shadowrun video game!


THIS... Is a Shadowrun video game!


THIS... Is troll-drek!

Candy Review
JET-PUFFED MALLOW BITES


I saw these while I was in Wal-Mart earlier today. I was looking for something else at the time, but when I saw the package on the shelf, I knew I had to get one right away.

I think the name is pretty self-explanatory, but just for the record, here's the quick and dirty description: The Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites are Kraft Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows which have been covered in milk chocolate.

If you're familiar with Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows -- or indeed, any other brand of miniature marshmallows -- these will be familiar to you. They are the same size as the mini marshmallows. They are mostly brown, with the white of the marshmallow peeking through the chocolate coating in random places.

Kraft seems to be using a richer milk chocolate to cover the marshmallows. It definitely has a more pronounced chocolate flavor than what you usually find in most of Hershey's products, for instance. There is just one slight drawback to this, though. For the most part, the flavor of the chocolate completely overwhelms the flavor of the marshmallow. The chocolate does have a nice snap to it, which makes for a nice contrast with the sponginess of the marshmallow.

You know, this is really a basic candy idea. So basic, in fact, that I'm more than a little surprised that Kraft hasn't produced these before. I also would be interested in seeing them do a dark chocolate version of the Mallow Bites.

So far, I have seen the Mallow Bites in a 2.5 ounce size. The bag claims that this is "about two servings," but I found myself dispatching the entire package quite rapidly and all by myself.

I can see a couple of ways that Mallow Bites could be used besides eating them alone. First, they could easily be incorporated into a sweet party mix (in other words, something along the lines of Chex Party Mix). And their composition means that Mallow Bites could be considered a form of instant s'mores. Just place between two graham crackers, and zap in the microwave for 30 seconds or less.


-jc-

Lisa has had great difficulty sleeping, and I can't drive a manual transmission reliably, so when she picked me up from PDX late last night, we decided it would be better to spend the night in Portland. We went to the Holiday Inn Express near the airport, where they upgraded us to an Executive King at a pretty good room rate. At least this time we got some sleep. The last time we stayed in this particular hotel, it was the night before the start of the Japan trip, where we needed to be up absurdly early for a 6 AM flight out of PDX, and because we arrived at the hotel so late, we basically didn't sleep, but simply used the room as a place to wait for a few hours before catching the shuttle to the airport. Poor Lisa's tinnitus continues to bedevil her, so she didn't get much sleep, but at least she's rested enough to get us home. I slept pretty well, but because I'm still sort of on Eastern time, I woke up at 6 AM by myself. It's a good thing I wasn't relying on my cell phone alarm, because I had the alarm set for Monday-Friday only.

But as I was composing this message, I realized that check-out time at this hotel is 11 AM rather than the Noon it was in Columbus, so now I need to hustle up and finish packing. Not that I did much unpacking last night.

THE HARLEY AND THE IVY!



( (Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, that is...!) )

jblaque reminds me of something markbernstein and I have loved for a long time: the storytelling duo of Geoffrey Lewis and Geoff Levin, performing under the name Celestial Navigations.

It is hard to overstate how wonderful this stuff is, and fortunately easy to demonstrate:


Not to mention the incredible "Horses".

Any good storytelling you've found lately to share? Audiobooks count.

Went to dump some stuff on the compost heap. Youngest cat was outside in the cold and wet. Decided he wanted in. Runrunrunrun. He charged through the door (I'm holding it open, urging him on) rounded the corner into the kitchen. Wet paws hit vinyl flooring. Kitty spinout. :-)

Was feeling tired and down all week. Thought it was a combination of things; allergies, weather changes, holiday preparations, office holiday luncheon. Now I'm convinced I had some kind of bug. Yesterday I started feeling chilled. Even turned the thermostat up. Got *really* cold around ten. Then started feeling better.

Went to bed early, still feeling kinda sick. Woke early (really early) feeling so much better I had trouble getting back to sleep. An hour and a half later, after a series of long "naps" I got out of bed feeling great.

Still have a lot to do - such as wrapping presents - but now looking forward to it.

So, despite the weather not being nearly as bad as promised, I made the right decision staying home last night and skipping gaming.

This is closer to what I originally had in mind for this series:

Click the link and check out the comments, too.  :-D

It's before 7am on a snowy Sunday morning, with the sun not even up yet. Why the hell have I been awake for an hour? :-( (Also, Gratuitous Icon Post on my LJ... from today's SINFEST.)

Hi Fellow Frolicon-ers!

I just put up another lingerie giveaway at my blog. http://www.stockingsandlingerieblog.com/2009/12/lingerie-giveaway-playful-promises.html

This one is for a black satin bra, panty, and garter belt set worth $85 from Playful Promises.

I'd love it if you enter. :-)

This one is from Playful Promises...http://www.stockingsandlingerieblog.com/2009/12/lingerie-giveaway-playful-promises.html

After lunch, I went out and cleared the one to three inches of oobleck off the driveway. Katie came out to help me. After five minutes of help, I asked daisy_knotwise to come take Katie in before I had a heart attack. I'd given her a shovel (since she demanded one), but the snow she was moving kept ending up on the sections of driveway that I'd already cleared, which was less than helpful. Once Katie went back in, I finished up in half an hour or so.

I had some Christmas shopping to do, but Gretchen asked that I take Katie out to Sam's Club and then to the Jewel to pick up some things that we needed. This would allow her to put Julie down for a nap and get started cleaning up the family room floor, so it seemed like an entirely reasonable request.

Mostly, this worked. Katie did go running off once, but it only resulted in a two aisle detour at Sam's Club. Then there was the sit down strike after we went through the checkout there, because Katie still remembers that I once bought her an ice cream cup at the Sam's Club lunch counter and that was what she wanted, despite the weather. (See above.)

Off to the Jewel we eventually went, where things actually went pretty well, despite my inability to find a replacement for Katie's broken snow globe. I divested her of the Hershey's Special Dark bar that she grabbed at the checkout line before anything could happen to it. (Gretchen's comment: "Julie's smarter than Katie. Her first act when she grabbed the chocolate Santa was to bite the head off it, so that I had to buy it.") And then we went home and I gave Katie a graham cracker from the box that I'd bought so that Gretchen could later make an apple pie from the vast quantity of apples in our refrigerator.

Then I finally went out shopping. And after walking hither and yon, and then yon and hither, I think I've finally gotten everything.

Except for one present that I'll pick up tomorrow after lunch, because I need it tomorrow night. :)

Well, I didn't go out an measure, but eyeballing it from my window, it looks like we've already got more than a foot of snow in King of Prussia/Valley Forge.  And it's supposed to keep coming down until tomorrow.   We may actually get the 20 inches or so they were calling for!  I do not look forward to shoveling out the car tomorrow.

I'm warm and cozy in my apartment, but I will admit that nights like this are when I get lonely.  It would be nice to have someone to cuddle up with.  :-(

Ah, well... at least I have my DVDs of Farscape Season 4.  Not that I can cuddle up with them, but I can at least get my fill of Claudia Black.  ;-)

Have a warm and safe night, everyone!

1. Make assumptions about me based on my website, my writing, an online profile, or a single meeting.
2. Keep telling me how spiritual you are.
3. Tell me we're destined to be together.
4. Tell me you've had visions of us working together, and make huge assumptions from that.
5. Tell me what to do.
6. Turn up at public events uninvited and try to manipulate things there to show that we're destined. That's a sure way to get magick to bite you on the bum.
7. Tell me you love me after 4 days' acquaintance.
8. Don't take no for an answer.
9. Tell me what I should be writing about.
10. Paw me all the damned time.
11. Lecture me on how confused my heart must be, having overseas lovers and that I should have only one, preferably you.
12. Suggest that I will leave witchcraft behind and come to see that your brand of spirituality is your true calling.
13. Get your best friend to vouch for you and ask if I have friends who can vouch for me in terms of my genuineness. Yes, I do, but you won't be put in contact with them. Next thing, you'll be wanting a signed note from the gods.

Are you getting a clue, you dickhead? Now, take your needy, pawing, 'psychic' self off and go do some serious work on yourself, AWAY FROM ME.
You are pissing me off, prawnhead. At this moment, a date with an evil robot would be better. WARGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!