Saturday, February 10, 2007

Japan's "Right Place" Short Film Award Winner

Really, really cool.

Award winning film: Right Place » Japan Probe:
"As reported by Neatorama: “Right Place is the winner of the Best Short Film at Cannes 2006, directed by Kosai Sekine. It’s about an Japanese convenience store clerk with OCD that finally found the ‘right place’ for himself.”"

Japanese Mac vs PC Apple Ad

Sandy said I should post this after we saw it on TV. So far this evening I've watched the Japanese version of "Dancing with the Stars" and I'm going to be made to watch American Idol in about an hour.

What has happened to my life?

Clever ad though.

Ah yes... "Parenting."

Overheard in the Office | Boot Camp Is Over -- We're Goin' to War:
"Two-year-old girl: Up, Daddy.
Dad: No.
Two-year-old girl: Up, Daddy... P'ease?
Dad: No. C'mon, we taught you how to walk for a goddamned reason. Let's move it.

Target [Of course it was Target... Could only be funnier if it was Wal-Mart - Rob.]
Avon, Indiana

Overheard by: Shatmandu"

This is just awesome to watch.

Dance company Pilobolus on TEDTalks


"...a deep belief in collective activity, and the inspiration of nature gave birth to the dance troupe Pilobolus, and has allowed this “tiny arts organism” to survive some 35 years. Company members Otis Cook and Jennifer Macavinta then perform the sensuous duet “Symbiosis.” Whether it traces the birth of a relationship, or the co-evolution of simple, symbiotic species is left open to interpretation. But the gorgeous, organic choreography — blurring the boundaries between the performers — is a clear success."

Patton Oswalt speaks wise.

blog.myspace.com/pattonoswalt:
"If you go out in public in sweatpants, you've quietly given up."

Thursday, February 08, 2007

"Proper" language and political discourse.

John Rogers sums up dealing with all those who are now suddenly overwhelmingly concerned with "civil" discourse and the "good-feelings" of bipartisanship.

Kung Fu Monkey: I Stand With Amanda:
"Now that blogs have given them a publishing voice, why the national discourse is destroyed. When Judith Miller corrupted the New York Times in order to print lies about WMD's and lead us into war, there was nothing to get upset about there, because she didn't say fuck. Everyone's aflutter at the swear words and some clumsy jokes in two relatively unknown women's websites -- they're being called 'mentally ill' by the right wing bloggers -- while Dick Cheney subverts the Constitution, billions of dollars go missing in Iraq, habeus corpus is gutted, illegal wiretaps slide into place -- oh, yes, you can disagree with thse things, but don't dare raise your voice. Why, it brings on the vapors.

...You see, if just anybody can express an opinion, then the professionals aren't special anymore. And a lot of them spent their entire lives getting into the special club. They're taken seriously, now, mister, they're on TV and they wear ties and make speeches and just because you somehow managed to get an audience without any help doesn't mean you're going to strip them of their Heathers-like victory. No sir. Some have even managed to get semi-famous by sucking up to the pros, making "civility" their whole mission, covering that flank for them.

Fuck. That.

If we're uncivil, it's because we're angry. Because being polite, and reasonable, and taking it in the fucking neck for the last six years got us nowhere. People swear, my MOM swears, this is how real people talk -- it ain't quite as pretty as how the professionally trained pundits and journalists and politicians speak, but I'm still not quite sure how my saying "fuckwit" is worse than outing a CIA agent or cutting VA funds during a war or stop-lossing National Guardsmen.

Some professional bigot says that as a Hollywood writer, I love anal sex and abortions and hate families, he slams my many Jewish friends, he can say that on national TV ... and I'm supposed to cluck my tongue and pen a thoughtful rebuttal, citing the many academic studies documenting the number of sodomy-free hours on the Fox lot?"

Sandy says "Put this up so Mom can see I got it."


Done.

And btw, this is the face of a woman with a starting employment date of February 26th, for those of you interested, with ELS Language Centers, at the Fukuoka branch.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

This may be the greatest thing ever.

Waiting for NESARA:
WAITING FOR NESARA documents the true story of The Open Mind Forum, a messianic group of Salt Lake City ex-Mormons... The group anxiously await the implementation of NESARA—a miraculous secret law hundreds of years in the making— that they believe was blocked and covered up by the Bush administration. The group believes that the 9/11 attacks were Bush's first attempt to delay NESARA's implementation, and that the Iraq war will be his second.

Guided by constant internet updates from New Age gurus, the group believes NESARA will abolish the IRS, remove George Bush from office, expose him as a reptilian alien, distribute millions to the worthy few, and install a UFO-flying Jesus Christ as America's new leader.

How exactly does this work?

Now I understand "self-abuse" in the Catholic sense... boy, do I understand it... though that's probably TMI... but how exactly does this constitute the "sexual abuse of children" when you're talking about something done by an individual to themselves, involving nobody else, of their own volition?

USATODAY.com - Teen girl charged with posting nude photos on Internet:
"A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for taking nude photographs of her self and posting them on the Internet, police said.

...She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography."

"Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us"

This is a very cool bit of video about what technology and the web is, and means...

Brilliant bit of video making.

US Naval Academy Alumni in the News.


Folks from my alma mater, making us all proud.

She's actually class of '85, same year my older brother graduated.

Remember... we are the nation's "best and brightest."

You normal peons would never consider wearing diapers so you wouldn't have to stop at roadside rest area.

See, that's what we call the "fancy book learnin'."

abc7.com: Astronaut Charged With Attempted Murder:
A NASA astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections was charged with attempted first-degree murder Tuesday and released from jail after posting $25,500 bail...

Police said Nowak drove 900 miles, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted a woman she believed was a competitor for the affections of Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an unmarried fellow astronaut.

...Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities found a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Oefelein and Colleen Shipman.

...Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom, authorities said.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, she waited for Shipman's plane to land and then boarded the same airport shuttle bus Shipman took to get to her car, police said.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Vatican has the highest crime rate in the world.

I can't even pretend to be surprised.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > I'm Sure its Act of Contrition Statistics Are Equally Impressive:
"Der Spiegel reports that the sovereign Vatican has the highest per capita crime rate in the world"

Cindi be a blogger now.

I warmly welcome my sister-in-law into the world of not getting things done in real life.

profoundly perplexed: wicked humor - the back story:
"i flew back to visit my parents for the holidays a couple of years ago. my father was driving, i was sitting in the passenger seat while my mom was in the back. my father and i are going through a quick 'how are things' when i hear my mother from the back. she's not speaking directly to my father or me so i turn around.
me: who are you talking to you?
mom: klkick sdfhkse fieps nanu nanu
me: mom! who are you talking to??
mom: don chu know? i'm alien. i'm speaking aliens.
i almost pee'ed in the car."

Sunday, February 04, 2007

"...just a ride." - Bill Hicks

Rigorous Intuition (v. 2.0): Are You Being Served?:
"...In altered states, the shaman and the mystic shed his or her "skin-encapsulated ego," as Stanislav Grof calls it, in a transpersonal experience of undifferentiated unity. "In the extremes," Grof notes in Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos, "it is even possible to experience an extension of consciousness, which is so enormous that it seems to encompass all of humanity, the entire human species.... in rare instances, it is possible to experience consciousness of the entire biosphere, of our planet, or the entire material universe."

But in the normal course of our lives, the human ego serves as a temporary "fiction suit" through which consciousness experiences the world. Consciousness tries us on for size. And consciousness, so conceived, has an insatiable thirst for experience. Which means we get played.

If so, we are not being taken for a ride. We are the ride. And it's a thrill ride."

Just. Too. Awesome.

Overheard in the Office | Could Be the Year He Moves Out of His Parents' Basement:
"Clerk: You know, the adult videos are 'Buy two, get a third free.'
Best girlfriend evar: Really? Honey, go get that one we were looking at.
Boyfriend: What, the one with the two blondes on the cover?
BGE: No, no -- the pirates one.
Boyfriend: Okay, be right back.
BGE, as soon as he's out of earshot: Quick, while he's gone can you box up that Spiderman statue behind you, too?

Minneapolis, Minnesota"

PostSecret selections of the week.



PostSecret: "Sunday Secrets"


[Rob's observation of the week - sure are some crazy women folk out there.]


The impotence of military authority in the face of reality.

Overheard in the Office | My Career Is in Your Tiny Hands:
"Navy commander to his three-year old who's locked herself in the connecting bathroom again: Susie*, open this door at once! I command you!

Visiting officer's quarters, Tachikawa Air Force base
Tokyo
Japan"