More Than Meets the Eye?

More than meets the fucking eye! And slightly stoopid and more than one ways a tease. AND I HATE TEASES! But dude, my calendar is already marked for next year's fourth of July.


.. width="425" height="350"> src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SnnNfyjMyNE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">..>


PS: That's supposed to be the Transformers Teaser...if nothing pops up.

Gone Fishing for Bumblebees

June 28, 2006

“The price of getting what you want is not wanting it any longer”

This quote is brought to you today by the number 29.

Why?

Why not?

Gonna be quiet for the next couple of weeks. Real life and work are pretty busy at the moment.

Busy like a bee.

A Bumblebee.

Did you guys see that picture of the Transformer Bumblebee?

It is pretty rad.

Most sites have been forced to take it down, but it is still up at www.twitch.com.

Or you could ask me.

Leave your email in the comments section and I will send it to you.

Yay, my non existent readers are going to receive a pic of a jumbled yellow mess that just MIGHT be a Transformer.

Or you could wait till next week and see it in the teaser trailer.

“I think my friend said, I hear footsteps, I wore my black and white dress to the birthday massacre, birthday massacre, I wore my black & white dress…”

Of course, if something pisses me off you see me back here sooner than you think.


________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
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Hmm...

June 26, 2006
(because I come from the future to wan you all of something, that I cannot think of at the moment. When I remember it I will tell you.

Ominous, no?)




Sorry if that turned out to be a bunch of jibberish. I always thought computer code was just a bunch of ones and zeroes.

It is estimated that every third Russian man and every seventh Russian woman is an alcoholic.

And we took so long to beat them during the Cold War because?


________________________________________________________________________
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Racism Radio

From UCLA Asia Pacific Arts online Magazine:

Racism on the Airways, Yet Again!

First we have Mike North, who hosts the morning show on WSCR-AM 670 in Chicago. After a poor performance by Chicago Cubs rookie pitcher Jae Kuk Ryu, who is of Korean descent, North said, "Who was the Chinaman on the mound the other day? Whoever it was shouldn’t wear a major-league uniform ever again. He was dreadful." Several Asian American interest groups in the area filed complaints with the radio station and demanded a public apology. They not only cited the racist term ‘Chinaman’, but also opposed the homogenization of Asians into one race. After refusing to apologize, North responded with, "I don’t get it. I grew up in the streets and we used to say that all the time. I’ve got buddies living in Chinatown who are Italian. Wait, can I say ‘Chinatown’? I don’t mean any ill will and I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but every five years it’s something different. You used to be able to say ‘Oriental.’ Can you say Oriental Theater anymore?"

Next we have DJ Lucas of Tower 98-3FM, who hails from Toledo, Ohio. DJ Lucas seems to think it’s OK to make prank calls on the air to local Asian restaurants to make fun of their accented English. A petition to put an end to this harassment is being circulated by Asian Communities United and is available at www.PetitionOnline.com. A portion of the petition reads: "Your DJ Lucas’ on-air prank calls to Asian establishments, made with the specific intention of ridiculing the recipients of those calls, were dehumanizing, derogatory, and outrageously offensive. These actions are based on the racist assumption that people of Asian ancestry don’t speak English, don’t mind being racially harassed on radio airwaves, or somehow deserve less respect than other members of American society."

For more information on Mike North, visit: www.chicagotribune.com
To sign the petition against DJ Lucas, visit: http://www.petitiononline.com/ACU123/petition.html

Dumbo does not want you to gamble...

June 22, 2006

From the BBC news site: Elephants, painted in the national flags of World Cup teams, join a game in Thailand to promote the dangers of gambling.

Okay, how?

Do you get squished by a pachyderm if you bet on black?

________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy
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Geek Stuff

June 22, 2006

Kudos to Tanvi for actually reading my ramblings and being the first person that I do not personally know to paste a comment (at the blogspot). Although Tanvi was probably lured by the promise of a prize. In the best tradition of Marvel Comics, what you won was a no-prize. Sorry, but I decided to keep the million dollars to myself. Although Marvel did also send stuff when they awarded a no-prize (to my knowledge it was but a letter that stated that they won the no-prize). Who knows, if I offer enough no-prizes maybe more people will drop in and decide that my writing is actually mediocre and start throwing rotten tomatoes, dull knives and other assorted rusty instruments at me.

Now, to more important stuff.

Affleck and Damon for the new Star Trek movie as Spock and Kirk, respectively? As reported on www.aintitcool.com, I hope this is fake. Not that Harry Knowles’ website has been up to par in breaking news lately. I still read the site for the reviews, but other sites break the news sooner. The do have interesting talkbacks and the readers bring their nerdiest and geekiest with them when they comment. My favourite suggestion though is that they suggested the wrestler, The Rock as the Spock. Completely and totally off left field but the image just stuck in my head. Can you smell what the Spock is cooking? I have not watched pro wrestling since I was knee high to a short guy, but Dwayne Johnson seems like a pretty decent guy. Can you imagine this big guy as Spock though? I would totally buy that for a dollar.

Slightly bugging though was the suggestion of John Cho as Sulu. Nothing against the guy, he was wonderfully bastardy in Better Luck Tomorrow and people love him in Harold and Kumar, but it seems as though the talkbackers just thought of him because he was the first (or only) Asian guy they knew of. Kinda like the Lucy Liu thing, back when she used to be the token slanty eyed person in movies and TV shows. I hate to bring up the notion of skin tones, but Sulu was always an Asian with a darker complexion (think Indo Chinese or most Filipinos) and John Cho is not that. But they could do worse and cast the arch enemy of my brother in law Edison Chen (a tale I have to tell one of these days) or one of the HK cantopop boys in the role. Honestly, though, if they announce an open casting call for the role of Sulu, I am gonna run up and give it a shot. Yeah, I have no acting experience (unless you count being an extra in high school plays) but I can do George Takei impersonations with the best of them.

________________________________________________________________________
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25 Ways to Reach Your Inner College Student

June 21, 2006

In response to Mr. Jam’s 25 Way To Reach Your Inner Child at http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/2006/06/25_ways_to_find.html#more , here’s 25 Ways to Reach Your Inner College Student:

1. When using the company credit card, go crazy.
2. When inviting your co-workers over for dinner, serve them Cup-O-Noodles
3. Or serve them Ketchup Soup
4. Procrastinate.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. …Eh, I'll finish the rest later…
________________________________________________________________________
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A Midsummer Night's Thingie

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2006

Yeah, the first day of summer. Fun, Fun, Fun, Joy, joy, joy. Let us all go to the beach, hang out at the fair and watch Rick Springfield make all the moms happy and go see a movie. Well, one of three ain’t bad. Well, more likely none out of three, but hey- who cares? We are adults and summer is just another season, just hotter than the rest and we all still need to wake up early everyday to go to work. Let us just hope that it does not feel like the longest day of the year.

Appropriately enough though, the new Neil Gaiman comic comes out today. I read the first six pages online a few weeks back and I really hope the rest of the book is as good as that. As long it does not venture into what Kevin Smith did with the Spider-Man/Black Cat story, I should be happy.

Continuing with the comic book thing, Superman comes out in one week. Look to the skies, folks.

And continuing with the superhero thing, Holly stopped her car in the middle of the road, where everyone was whooshing past at least fifty miles per hour, got out, narrowly missed an eighteen wheeler, a pick up and a lost Italian in a Vespa and rescued a turtle. Yup, a turtle lost, probably washed from its home by the recent rains and luckily not squished yet by all the cars. It was a pretty decent sized turtle, about as big as my grande cabeza. She took it home where we named it Donatello, had some pizza and then took it to a nearby park by where she found it. The park had some ponds and ducks and it also looked as though people went fishing there. We were about to wander it would know what to do when we got it there when it made a mad dash to the water and promptly disappeared. Funny thing was it was still mostly in its shell, propelling itself on the ground with its two front legs peeking out looking like flying rock. Oh, well. Have fun out there Donatello and please stay away from the road.

And if you ever encounter any radioactive goop, stop by and say hi sometime.

Came across the following from Mark Felt, the FBI guy who turned out to be Deep Throat about his days working at the Federal Trade Commission and investigating butt wipes (from his memoirs):

My research, which required days of travel and hundreds of interviews, produced two definite conclusions:
1. Most people did use toilet paper.
2. Most people did not appreciate being asked about it.
That was when I started looking for other employment.[6]

Huh.

________________________________________________________________________
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One funny thing and Two not so funny...

A CBS Goof- can you find the goof? First one wins a prize!
The Slums of the Phillippines. It sickens me that people still have to live like this in this day and age.

Keep your chin up...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

It’s a strange world.

Asian Americans do not have a Martin Luther King (or a Malcolm X) or a Caesar Chavez. Asian Americans are conspicuously absent from the civil rights movements of the sixties. The Filipino involvement in the farm worker movement is largely overlooked. And the general public at the time still had memories of fighting the Japanese in World War Two while at the same time engaging the Vietnamese in their own country. The Asian Americans were largely content to just looking after their own and being, as many refer to them still, the model minority happy in their whatever-towns.

So I came across this morning to an article at http://www.asianweek.com/061397/feature.html about the case of Vincent Chin. I believe it is an older article that I was made aware of during my daily browsing of the Angry Asian Man site. It has been 24 years since the guy was murdered and pretty much how the guys who did it pretty much got off without so much as a slap on the wrist.

This is how it went: Vincent Chin lived in Detroit. He goes to his bachelor party. Two guys who work in the auto factories are there. They are mad at him and they trade insults. The auto guys hate him because the Japanese auto industry is killing the American auto industry. Therefore all Japanese people are bad. Vincent Chin is of Chinese descent. They cannot tell the difference. They get into a bar fight. Fight in bar get broken up. The auto guys later confront Vincent outside. They bash his head in with a baseball bat. They were charged with and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. For this, they each received a sentence of three years probation and a $3,000 fine.

Now imagine the same scenario but make Vincent Chin a black guy or any other guy but a white guy. It will still be a hate crime. But do you think the dudes would get away with just probation and a fine? And by, the way, Vincent Chin died. Is that all you get for murder?

There is a lot more to the tale for sure, like how unprepared the community was to deal with the race issue (no translator for Vincent Chin’s mother?) and why did the prosecutor not even show up to the trial? And how one of the civil rights cases was moved to a city where only 19 out of a 200 people interviewed to be jurors have even encountered a person of Asian descent.

But the thing is, it was a murderous hate crime and they got away with it.

So, by the way, if I get beaten up because my people took down the flags at UT Arlington (but hey, I am not Vietnamese) or if my other people are testing missiles (I am nowhere near looking like a Korean) or my yet another other people are stealing our valuable resources (maybe I am Chinese?), it is okay. Looks like you are going to get away with it.
________________________________________________________________________
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15 minutes

Monday, June 19, 2006

Get your body beat, let the blood flow.

It was once said that even those who live in the posh parts of any town that a simple fifteen minute drive in any direction will get you to where the grass ain’t greener. Is this true? Living in Oxnard in a decent (but not posh) part of town that fifteen minute drive would take you to Colonia, although I have never attempted to wander towards that direction. The urban tales that it is drug fueled and gang banger infested just warned my adolescent self to stay away. Yet, some good friends of mine lived there. I think some good friends of mine still live there. Years later, I realized as close as it is I do not think I ever got to Colonia, I just never had any reason to head that way. Maybe I have, I never really knew where Oxnard stopped and Colonia began anyway.

Fifteen minutes the other way and you come across the Pacific Ocean. Or strawberry fields. Or places that used to be strawberry fields. A trailer park once adjacent to a strawberry field and now both paved over so we can get stuck in traffic faster. I have not lived in the ‘Nard since 1997. I can still find my way around, but I cannot rely on old landmarks anymore.

After the ‘Nard, I lived in Northridge, right next to the university. A fifteen minute drive northwest would take you to Chatsworth and we all know what happens there. Hidden debaucheries in the nondescript warehouses. Fifteen minutes east takes you to Van Nuys. Disastrous in the summertime, as the intense heat pours down on you from above and rises from the concrete below. A town where dealers push their wares by the children’s shelter. Hell, quite often, the dealers were the ones utilizing the shelter themselves. And the houses here still sell for half a million dollars.

Fifteen minutes down Sepulveda towards Ventura Boulevard and you get to the multi million dollar houses and the restaurant where Phil Hartman’s wife ventured to right after his murder. I think it was also where the guy from Baretta went to right after his wife died. The hip place where celebrities go to after the loss of their significant others for whatever reason, proven or not. That aside, Buca De Beppo’s is a great place to eat with a million of your closest friends. Just make sure you did not piss your significant other prior to going.

Fifteen minutes from there gets you to Hollywood, both where they film American Idol and where several years ago a bank was held up and the robbers stood their ground because their guns were bigger that the ones the authorities had. Hollywood where as the cliché goes, 1% of dreams are made and 99% of dreams are stomped bloody in the head. But they sure have some nice clubs there.

Fifteen minutes from there can take you to any of the thousand miles of freeway stringing the handful of towns that make up the city of angels. Fifteen minutes out of Los Angeles one way takes you straight to Orange County. Another fifteen minutes the other way takes you immediately into Ventura County. If you are lucky and take the fifteen minutes out of LA via the 10 west to the Pacific Coast Highway and you will drive by the ocean. It will take longer than fifteen minutes before you run out of city but it is worth it. A drive down where car commercials are bon and where most die. Where you want to just dive your car into the ocean.

Another fifteen minutes out to LA another way and you get the lands where massive brush fires ravaged a couple of years back and from those ashes rising are more multi million dollar homes. Because, hey, we all need them expensive houses to live in. Do you want me to live in a half million dollar home in Van Nuys?

Like. Oh. My. God.

Nowadays I live in Austin.

Eleven months this month.

Fifteen minutes from where I live gets me to work smack dab I the heart of downtown. Fifteen minutes the other way gets me face to face with a cow. Or a Goat. Or an Emu. Fifteen minutes gets me to Del Valle lovingly called Del Valley where 100% of the schools are considered crappy. I am sure it is not their fault. Fifteen minutes the other way gets you to where the schools are considered not as crappy. People here tend to base where they live if the considered crappy or not. Even if they do not have kids.

Fifteen minutes another way leads to Manchaca lovingly pronounced Man-Shack. Fifteen minutes further and you are in Bexar lovingly likewise pronounced Bear. And if your name is Salazar, be ready to be called Sal Laser. They really like Sci Fi here. And by the way, I am by Guada-loop street at the moment. Another year or so I will be saying Ya All like all the locals here.

Fifteen minutes anywhere else I am not sure yet. I have not ventured there yet.

Is the grass greener fifteen minutes away? Who knows? People can be happy wherever they live. They can be denial or they have roots there or they can be genuinely happier there. If the grass is actually greener, I think maybe it is because of the cows.

Here at least.

On anther note Combichrist and KMFDM are coming to town this October 19th, 2006.

I am so happy.

And I know it.

So I clap my hands.
________________________________________________________________________
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Warren's Words

Monday, June 19, 2006

I don't think of LA as an honest geographical space, a place where people stay, a place where traditional cities happen. As a native said to me on the first day I ever spent there, LA isn't a city -- it's a handful of towns strung together by a thousand miles of freeway. The biggest constructions in the area are not designed to be lived in, but to be traversed. It's a place that became designed for machines, not humans, at some point.

I hate the place. Which I'm sure comes as no surprise. I hate cities I can't walk around. When I try walking in West Hollywood people in their cars slow down and stare at me. I don't think this is entirely down to my shocking personal beauty. Have you ever tried walking in Burbank? Have you ever tried finding somewhere in Burbank to walk to? Walking down Sunset is an exercise in existential horror. Santa Monica's only walkable if death is no hurdle. The air's the wrong colour. People put sunglasses on their dogs. It's a hideous place where humans are not welcome and those who stay suffer eight kinds of brain damage.

I saw it. A dog with pink-framed sunglasses.

- Warren Ellis

Regarding Whales and Fishies

Monday, June 19, 2006

So it looks like the Japanese have made some headway to get the ability to hunt whales again. Like most people my age, I have a fascination with Nipponese culture. From anime to ninjas to Godzilla and Gamera, I hope to one day go to Japan, go to Mount Fuji, hang out with the snow monkeys, ride a bullet train, get ramen from a vending machine along with a pair of shorts and see the technology that is at least ten years ahead of us. But their fascination with eating cetaceans disgusts me. I remember growing up the images of the dolphin massacre with the ocean red for miles around and the carcasses piled up like an image from hell.

Then there is this article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3847167.stm about how they know when a whale is dead after it is harpooned. Usually when all movement has stopped- but how do they know it is not just paralyzed after being impaled? I mean, people can stop moving if they are impaled on something but sometimes, they do not die for hours. Then there is the fact that the harpoons the use can be tipped with a grenade to make it more humane. Yup- not only is there a big needle in your head, it is also now going to explode. Goodbye. We cry bloody murder over the images of prisoner torture in Iraq, but it is okay to blow up a whale’s head. By way, see if is still moving so we can make sure it is dead.

One of the reasons I refuse to eat seafood is the fact that the oceans are over fished and the destructive methods they use to obtain their catches. I eventually would like to be vegetarian, but for now love steak, bacon and fried chicken. Currently also, the soy meat that is available is pretty yummy but can be expensive and often come in teeny, tiny portions. I mean, I live in Texas and would love a Texas sized soy steak- but those do not exist, if you order a soy steak it would probably be the size of a CD.

But, anyway, back to the fishies. Which go pook, pook, pook, by the way. They now have to trawl the nets deeper and deeper to catch fish. They start to sell deep water fish which look start to look less and less like fish die to the immense pressures and the odd evolutionary tactics sued to survive down there. They are really weird creatures. But now they are caught, sold and then served as dinner. It must be a really obscure notion- being a creature that lives a mile underwater, whose organs explode when the go too far up due to the different pressures, and then being forcibly taken to a completely different environment to be eaten by beings who just have a craving for fish.

They are now trying to farm fish nowadays. In the long run I think it will have the same impact that farming has on dry land, with the native species driven out so we have areas to cultivate food for ourselves. And building inlets inland to farm the fish as they have done in the Philippines have shown to have other devastating ecological implications. But I guess it is a step in the right direction to at least consider alternatives to over fishing the oceans. But still, too slow, by the time the fish farms go into full effect will any fish still roam the open seas? Or will it be giant squid for dinner tonight?

Now for something different or maybe not.

What Nury Vitacchi said about my www.Myspace.com page:
Joe, that's a cool site -- you are a funny guy! However, I'm not sure I would share those deathpunk videos with my kids -- especially that song, the entire lyrics of which are "This s*** will f*** you up" repeated endlessly. With sentiments like that, you kind of don't need a warning label!

But, but I love that song.

And I am reminded again of his whale explosion article. Now I wonder if that was the result of an unexploded grenade in the whale’s head. Remember kids, if you are to play with whale carcasses, make sure all exploding kill things that may be stuck in its head probably at the end of the sharp stick stuck in its head have blown up.


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Enough already...

Friday, June 16, 2006

Hey, I just got political there for a moment. How about that?

And now for the beauty of Texas.

After a week of hundred degree temperatures we are greeted this morning with a 30% chance of thunderstorms and a 1/10 of an inch of rain. And in a couple of months from now your car is going to be so covered in ice that you cannot open the doors. People will think they learned how to drift but they are just sliding on the iced over and jammed up freeways. And the Japanese want to hunt whales again. Which has nothing to do with Texas but it still bugs me. And reminds me of the how one day in Taiwan, in the middle of a city, a whale exploded. Mister Jam tells that story better at http://mrjam.typepad.com/.

Explodo the Whale.

I think I just got the title for my first book.

Coming soon to better bookstores everywhere.

In the slashed prices bin.


________________________________________________________________________
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Happy Belated Flag Day

Friday, June 16, 2006

"The Germans killed 6 million Jewish people," one woman yelled. "Should we take their flag down?"

That is from an article found at http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/states/texas/arlington/14823605.htm regarding the current controversy of the Vietnamese Flag at University of Texas Arlington. School officials there have removed 123 international flags from the campus’ Nedderman Hall on May 10, after Vietnamese students complained about the display of the current Vietnamese flag, which they contend represents an oppressive communist regime. Of course, this brought animosity between the Vietnamese American students and the other students. This brought out the opening remark listed here.

Which first of all, the Germans as a people are not responsible for the Holocaust, it was the Nazis. Which yes- consisted of mostly Germans, but I think a good bunch of the 6 million people of Jewish descent who were killed were also Germans.

And secondly, did they have to take down all the flags? The flags were part of a tradition at the campus to represent where members of the student body originated from. The Vietnamese Americans resented the communist flag being placed there about a year or so ago. The issue brought a lot of press and pressure ultimately leading to legislators threatening to pull funding for a new engineering building for UT-Arlington if the U.N.-recognized flag of the communist government was allowed to remain. So the idiots there just decided to pull down all the freaking flags.

Ai Yah.

So now everyone hates the Vietnamese Americans there.

"The Vietnamese community wanted the flag taken down, and now the Vietnamese community is not accepting responsibility," said Jesse Dearing, a software engineering major, who organized a petition to the president to restore Flags at Neddeman Hall. Dearing, the creator of the Web site www.savethehallofflags.org, openly acknowledged there was anti-Vietnamese sentiment on campus now, visible in posts on the Web site that he moderates. “But it is not because of race”, Dearing said.

And the foot up your ass is not because of that stupid comment. The Vietnamese Americans only wanted one flag down, not all the flags. Now whispers of ‘Charlie” echo all over the halls of UT Arlington. Very clever there guys.


________________________________________________________________________
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I still love you...on second thought...may I don't

Just me...drifting...

Friday, June 16, 2006

There is a new Fast & the Furious movie out today. Directed by Justin Lin, the guy who put Asian Americans into non-stereotypical roles and just portrayed them as people in the tight crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow. He has since then directed a more white wash cast in Annapolis (which I do not expect to watch unless it is on TV or something) and in this new car racing movie. Yes, the movie is set in Tokyo, one of the BLT guys is in it and Sonny Chiba is in it too. But it was mostly filmed in Southern California (aka home) and the focus is on the white dude. But then again, if you are expecting to see a great piece of cinema, dude, you are so going to be disappointed. And you probably did not see the other two movies. This is a summer, popcorn, does not make your head hurt, sit back and enjoy movie. One that does not require brain cells. And the drifting thing has already been done in the Initial D live action movie. Which is a damn good film. But like this one is just a piece of fluff despite being made by the Infernal Affairs people.

Besides, Justin Lin has said that he is only making these kinds of films so he can get free film schooling and get paid for it. Good for him. His next film is supposed to be comedy about a bunch of guys who are in denial about being Asian American (which is already touched upon in the movie The Debut- which is not as great as BLT but is still pretty good. I mean, when is the next time you are going to see a movie about the Pinoy Life in America?).

There is another movie coming out soon called Cavite which also sounds interesting. Made by two guys for $7000 about a Filipino American who has never lived in the Philippines wandering the titular town trying to rescue his family from Abu Sayif. There is a lot of talk that with the technology nowadays you can tell a story the same way the dudes in Hollywood can. These guys went and did it, which is cool. Although as the story goes, they had to sell their camera after filming to further finance the editing process.

Anyway, whatever you do, be careful when you are driving. Chances are there are folks who just saw a movie and think it was driver’s ed and now think they can drift. I do not know how to drift. You do not either.

Coming soon: House Tales.
________________________________________________________________________
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Thank you Nury

Friday, June 16, 2006

So, geeky stuff first. I am a fan of the work of Nury Vitacchi, a Sri Lankan author who lives and works in Hong Kong. He is probably most well known for The Feng Shui Detective about a cranky and misery old geomancer who in the course of his work happens to solve crimes. Think Philip Marlow less nihilistic and as written by Douglas Adams. Nury Vitacchi also had a book called Only In Hong Kong that I would read when I was in that Special Administrative Region to see how much of what he read actually occurred. He has since branched out to be a keen observer of all the daily oddities that Asia (and its Asians) and occasionally the rest of the world have to offer. He put out a column about the Filipino love of puns when naming local places. For Example:

A bakery named “Bread Pitt;”

A Makati fast-food place selling a type of banana fritter known as maruya called “Maruya Carey;”

A water engineering firm called “Christopher Plumbing;”

A boutique called: “The Way We Wear;”

A video rental shop called: “Leon King Video Rental;”

A restaurant in the Cainta district of Rizal called: “Caintacky Fried Chicken;”

A local burger restaurant called “Mang Donald's;”

A doughnut shop called: “MacDonuts;”

A shop selling lumpia, or meat parcels, in Quad, Makati, called: “Wrap and Roll;”

A butcher named: “Meating Place;”

Another butcher, called: “Meatropolis;”

But read his stuff, he tells it much better. So anyway on his site, http://www.jam100.com/pages/1/index.htm is a link to send him a message. Which I did, a short one thanking him for his work. To which, surprise, surprise I get a response the next day:

Wow, Joe, your letter really made my day. I slumped into the office this
morning feeling blaaaah and yours was the first letter I saw. Thank you Joe,
you are a man of great literary taste.

I've placed your letter as the "lead" item on my blog:
http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/

Warmest wishes
Nury

To which I have to say made my day (which can only now get worse? No, I must be optismistic, wait I am supposed to be goth, so a bad, depressing day is a good day for me? It is confusing, stop makin my head hurt).

Thank you Nury, I know you do not get a lot of fans from Texas but you have at least two now (Holly loves your work more that I do, and she actually met you when she used to work at the Far Eastern Economic Review. She says hi!)

________________________________________________________________________
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Fantastic

Thursday, June 15, 2006

”God, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought and why we died. All that matters is that today, two stood against many. Valor pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, the HELL with you!”

Paraphrased from Robert E. Howard. Just because.

On to another topic and another quote:

‘You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And, you know what? So was I.'
-The 9th Doctor

Finally finished the first series of the new Doctor Who (which is either the first season or the twenty seventh season depending on how big a geek you are) courtesy of Cindy, a co-worker of Holly. (Happy Birthday by the way)

So, how did I like it? Well, I am a Doctor Who fan now. I was not really before. I have now seen shows of all the Doctors, including the 10th one thanks to www.youtube.com. The first one is a little out of character compared to the other reincarnations- biddy old man. The second one is insane. The Third one is a foppish James Bond. The fourth one is the image that always comes to mind when you think of the Doctor. The fifth one has celery on his lapel- but personality wise; he is the one closest to the ninth doctor. The Sixth one, well, I have only seen one of his stories and would like to hold judgment until I have seen more (he is usually the most hated one). The seventh doctor is the one I would like to see more of- how the hell did he become Merlin? Plus Ace is my favourite companion so far. The eighth one is the one I remember the least because I saw the movie when it aired years ago and it is not available here yet. But I remember enjoying it, although it probably failed to American audiences because it tried to tie in too much of the mythology of the show too fast to soon. I was confused watching it way back when. I liked the ninth Doctor. He was fun with a tease of sadness because he is the last one of his race and it is his entire fault. But he never gives up and is always looking out for the little guy. Which is why I have come to like Doctor Who. No matter what the odds, always look out for the little, which more often than not turns out to be the human race.

Highlights for the Ninth Doctor’s Season:

“Just once, everybody lives.”
“Did I mention that it travels in time?”
Zombies and Charles Dickens.
Pigs in Space.
The future prime minister.
The Lone Dalek.
The dude from Shaun of the Dead.
The Heart of the Tardis.
Anne Droid to the Daleks: You are the weakest link- goodbye!
Captain Jack- dude, I cannot wait for Torchwood.
The one thing you really want to happen to reality show castaways: DISINTEGRATION
How the Doctor always says FANTASTIC.
EX-TER-MI-NATE!

Favourite Episodes:
The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances

Bad Things:
Well- Rose in the end does end up like Cordelia from Angel.
The pacing of some episodes is off.
The fact that this show airs in Britannia prior to being shown here hence, I know spoilers prior to watching.
Only 13 episodes a season? And the season set is gonna cost me a hundred bucks!?

Oh, well.

RATING:
FIVE STARS
________________________________________________________________________
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Popping Fresh

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Babies.

They are popping everywhere.

Better watch your step, just in case.

That squishy thing might be a baby.

Nah, I am just kidding. Babies are cool. As long as they are not mine. Although it reminds me of that Neil Gaiman short story that PETA loves about what happens when all the animals go extinct and what humans turn to for their meat and meat by product needs. It sure aint pretty.

So what is the point of all this?

My congratulations to my cousin Kat, who is expecting in October and to my sister Marie Antonette, who is expecting in September (just do not let that kid eat cake).

Hah, I just made a funny.

Or not.

Stupid clichés.



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Now, this qualifies as a rant...

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Check out the following from a San Antonio newspaper:

“The malls attract more than 6 million visitors a year and rank fourth on the list of the most popular tourist destinations in Texas, behind only the Alamo, the River Walk and Six Flags Over Texas.”
San Antonio Express-News Web Posted: 06/06/2006 12:00 AM CDT Melissa S. Monroe Express-News Business Writer

The malls they are talking about are the San Marcos Outlet malls which are halfway from San Antonio to Austin. They just got hit by softball sized hail not to long ago and incurred damage that may account in the millions. But never mind that- how is it that an outlet mall is the fourth most popular place to go to in Texas? How about the landlocked Sea World? SXSW? The ACL Music Festival? The museums I never go to in Austin? The billion rodeos that happen in this state?

A Mall?

I am a hardcore mallrat, but still.

A mall?

Fuckers.
________________________________________________________________________
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http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/

The Future Hates You

Please note that at the time of this posting the End of the World has postponed. God and the Devil happen to be soccar fans and want to watch the World Cup.

Tuesday, 666

Hey, it’s the end of the world. Or some other demonic stuff. How about that? Now, I will have to listen to that Cure song from their most recent album over and over again or it will be in my head all day. My recommendations for this momentous day when the dread Pepito rises, the dead walk the earth and I do a jiggy dance?

Well, there are two books regarding the end of the world by Neil Gaiman that I would propose you check out if you are in the mood for the end times. The first is co written by Terry Prachett called Good Omens. Just like the remake coming out today, it is about a boy who is supposed to be the antichrist but all he wants to be is a boy, best friends who just happen to an angel and a demon, the other horsemen of death, the demon hell hound named Dog and how eventually every song you listen to turns to Bohemian Rhapsody. It is a fun read, totally all over the place with footnotes that are at times a better read that the main text.

Then there is Signal to Noise, illustrated by Dave McKean. A more serious tone as it tackles the point that each day is always the end of the world for someone. It also touches
on what happened the last time the world was supposed to end (which was the year 1000, not the year 2000- no one expected the world to end then, well except the over religious being that is my Mother). One of my favourite works by Neil Gaiman, I can read this over and over again.

Really decent works although I am slightly biased since they are written by my favourite author.

The Play list for the end of the world:

The Cure-self titled album: As described by the band members that this is the Cure playing as a cover band covering the Cure. People love it or people hate it. I listen to it now and then. There are songs I like, there are songs that I forget existed until I listen to them. But it has the End Of The World on it. That said- the album aint that bad.

VNV NATION- Burning Empires: Totally Excellent and gets better with every listen. This gets buried with me.

Peter Murphy: Wild Birds

Tokyo Rose: New American Saint

The Passion Of Lovers: Bauhaus Tribute

Industrial Madness Disc 3.

And since we are on the topic of the antichrist, can I get political for a second? What the hell is George Bush up to with his new anti gay marriage initiative? Well, we all know his popularity is at a low, that the Democrats are set to take over soon, the rising fuel costs and the war in Iraq is, well, not really in the hands of the Americans anymore. So he comes up with this? Traditional marriage my bohinky. Why is this place becoming the Land of the Free As Long as Your Freedom is Dictated By Us?

2008 cannot come soon enough.

Political stuff over.

Now where was I?

June 06, 2006 or as some people lovingly refer to it: 060606

It is the 21st century.

I still do not have cable TV- never have.

I still do not have a cell phone. Eventually I will- but not now.

I do not have a digital camera.

I have a mp3 player but I use it to save documents and not music.

I do not have a jet pack, I drive to work.

My car does not fly- it does not even have a radio.

We have the internet. But there are those who want to get rid of net neutrality so if I ever get an audience of people who actually read my rants, they may get rid of my ability to reach that hypothetical audience.

We do not have teleporters or things that can go at warp speed. But happily there are those who are experimenting so that one day we may just teleport to place in warp speed.

I have not met an alien.

The Future is not what I thought it would be.

But I have hope.

Unless today is the end of the world.
________________________________________________________________________
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Too Good to be true...

The Annual Gothic Cruise and Masquerade Ball for 2007 is Set for Ocotober, and will feature VNV Nation onboard for the entire 7 night sailing. Our new official website is: http://www.allgenretravel.com, where you can view all of the information and details.

2 007 Goth Cruise With VNV Nation - Live
The 2007 Annual Gothic Cruise and Masquerade Ball will host VNV Nation. The next goth cruise will sail out of Florida in October 2007 for 7 nights, with the final date to be released later in 2006. This will be the 12th gothic cruise in 16 years.

THIS IS NOT AN ALL AGES SHOW.

Passport Requirements
This cruise will require a passport. If you need passport information, please click here, or email us for information.
But I'm Not Gothic?!
Even if your not gothic, you will find plenty to do outside of the concerts and events onboard the ship and in the ports of call. Please click on ship information, or Itinerary for more!
I have Children that I just have to Bring!
The cruise lines offer babysitting onboard, as well as FREE childrens programs. Please click on the age restrictions link. Most of these services can be provided free, or for a small charge. Most of the gothic events are not appropriate for children. This will not be an all ages show by VNV Nation.
Sailing Date
The exact sailing date for the October 2007 Annual Gothic Cruise and Masquerade Ball will be released on or about August 15th. We are taking advance reservations now, so get your deposits in!
Can I book directly with the cruise line?
No. All bookings for the goth cruise with VNV Nation must come through All Genre Travel. If you book directly through the cruise line, you will not be allowed to attend the concerts, get an autograph, attend the events, etc.
How can I talk to others who are going?
. Easy!! A message board has been made so that you can talk to others going on the Annual Gothic Cruise. You can also post for a roommate on our message board.