BunkBlog

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new approach to consumer activism: The Corruptibles. The cartoon is pretty cool, and gives a reasonably simple overview of what the entertainment industry would like to have Congress give them. So far, the congresscritters have given them pretty much everything the industry has paid for wanted, so there’s a great deal of confidence that they’ll get everything else they’ve bought asked for as well.

I’m sure some people don’t care that their iPod only works with music they buy from Apple, and that Sony enjoys building virus-like rootkit hacking tools into music CDs, and the industry wanting to halt all technology at the level of analog cassette tapes, but maybe some of you realize that giving one business model special protection is a bad thing.

Only we can stop…The Corruptibles!

If you don’t read Joe Rogan’s blog, you should. He’s got some entertaining experiences to share. The latest is a porn movie viewing. While this large group of people are watching a porno in a parking lot (only in L.A., folks), the star of the film arrives.

A car pulls into the parking lot, and the princess steps out and says hi to all her friends.

People applaud.

With her in the car, is a young guy. He looks like he’s in his early 20’s, and he doesn’t really seem like the type to be hanging around with a chick like her. Then I see his face when he looks up at the screen and sees the girl that he arrived with, and she’s got her legs behind her head like a contortionist while this rather rude gentleman is alternating shoving his cock in her ass, and then her mouth, over and over again.

Ass, mouth, ass, mouth, ass, mouth.

The guy is grunting like a gorilla, and every time he shoves it in her mouth, she’s making the otter noise.

The kid’s eyes are locked on the screen. He’s got this look in his eyes is like he really believes that his brain must be malfunctioning. Like he just can’t comprehend what he’s watching. Like as if he didn’t even know she was a porn star. His jaw drops.

After about 30 seconds of this kid standing in front of the screen, frozen in the hypnotic spell of ass, mouth, ass, mouth, ass, mouth… he turns to her asks her a question, and I hear her say, “I was gonna tell you.”

NO FUCKING WAY.

I was gonna tell you?

Suddenly, the party just exceeded my wildest expectations.

Just finished watching the bootleg Doctor Who episode “Impossible Planet” (bootleg because it’s not available on this side of the Pond but I’ve already seen the episodes on SciFi Channel).  I find it peculiar that nobody on the Wikipedia site or elsewhere finds the appearance of the Ood to be at all Chthulhu-like. Seriously, how can you look at these guys and not say, “H.P. Lovecraft, your table is ready?”

As you can see from the latest listings from Google, we have (as of this writing) eight total movies playing in the city of San Angelo. The closest city, Abilene, is approximately 20 percent larger than San Angelo, and has two dozen movies playing today, in five theaters, including a drive-in (!). We, on the other hand, have one theater, consisting of 14 screens. On those 14 screens, 8 movies. Way to maximize the available resources. There are eighteen showings of X-Men, eleven of the Da Vinci Code, and ten of Over the Hedge. Shaggy Dog? Nope. Benchwarmers? Nope. Curious George? Been and gone.
Akeelah and the Bee? You must be joking. Hoot? They don’t give one. Thank You For Smoking? Not a chance.

In the past two years, we’ve lost two theatres, which combined had eleven screens. We’ve also lost any semblance of competition for cinema. Think the lack of competition has affected the attitude of our sole remaining movie house?

I have this cool folding hammock, which Alex insisted I set up in the den for him to lay on.  He never did.  But, the cat is now trying to figure out what manner of monster this is. She’s batting at it, making it swing, and then trying to determine whether she should jump on it or not.

Eventually, she determines that she’s better off on the bean bag.

Make your own news!
Yes, I am easily amused.  Why do you ask?

Built one of Yamaha’s papercraft animals this weekend: a macaw. Now to let my hand uncramp from the knife-clenching. Of course, Alex now wants me to build a motorcycle. The macaw took three pieces of card stock; the motorcycles are over a dozen sheets each. Ouch.

This list is the result of letting my coworkers select the music for a party. Uneven?

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. (1918)

Theodore Roosevelt

I can quit any time I want. It’s a good thing most of the programs on my MythTV box are set for “autoexpire when the drive gets full.” Here’s the latest status line.

297 programs, using 242 GB (246 hrs 31 mins) out of 345 GB.

Now, to be fair, I have a truly stupendous number of cartoons for the Boy, as well as a significant number of DVDs ripped to the hard drive (no need to mess with the disks, which is good if you’re six years old).

V for Vendetta fans (I’m looking at you, Joe) should get a kick out of C for Cookie, the Sesame Street version.  Oscar is the bad guy, Elmo is Evie, and Cookie Monster (obviously) is V.

I want everyone to remember…

The recording industry mafia have gotten a new one – they are suing a family for filesharing when the family doesn’t even own a computer. I believe it is quite difficult to infringe copyrights (not steal any darned thing) the way the RIAA accuses them of without at least some kind of computer to use.

So, the morons have shaken down little old ladies, small children, dead people, families without computers…how many cases has the RIAA won? Not a single one. That’s right; no matter how much they bully people, not a single case has been decided in their favor. Of course, almost no cases have been decided at all. The strongarm tactics and extortion that the cartel has used are effective. People know they have no reasonable chance of fighting the RIAA in court because the RIAA can afford better lawyers, and in the modern judicial system money talks. So, when the mob boss industry lawyer offers people a way out of the multi-million dollar suit, they tend to take it. Unsurprisingly, the amount of money the RIAA settles for varies from case to case – it is generally defined as, “what do you have?” One college student was told to max out his student loans to maximize the industry profit. Think this will encourage that student to buy more CDs next year? Yeah, me neither.

JJ Abrams is going to deliver the next Star Trek movie. This one is set not too much before the Original Series, since it stars a younger Kirk and Spock. We’ll see.

This video has to be seen if you want to truly understand how long it will take to rebuild New Orleans.  It’s 22 minutes long, 82 megs in size, so don’t be impatient with it (or use dialup).

As ikilled007 has said, years – not months – years to bring it back, if ever.

Exactly why is it that nobody in The Unit wears a uniform while in garrison? Sure, when they’re in the field, they wear a mishmash of military and civilian attire. But, when they’re supposedly doing their homebase training, they hang out in t-shirts and jeans. Yeah, right. Well, there is one guy who stays in BDUs (the Colonel), but he doesn’t wear insignia of any kind, name tapes, patches, nothing.

Some of you may say, “But the US Code says that you can’t wear an accurate uniform.” That is actually not true for actors. Oh, it was true once, but it’s not true now and hasn’t been for years.

Larry the Cable Guy tied Basic Instinct 2 this weekend. That’s gotta hurt.

The BBC has a list of 10 stories that could be pranks but aren’t. Nice to know on this April Fool’s Day. I particularly like #6.

Slashdot is pink. ThinkGeek is selling USB tanning centers and wireless extension cords. Welcome to April Fool 2006. Be afraid.

1. Name one of your flaws. I’m a gigantic smartass.
2. Have you ever won first place?  In 7th grade, I won first place for the science fair (Tesla coil and Jacob’s Ladder) and also for an art contest (some elephant sketch).
3. Who is the last person to make you smile?  Probably one of the ladies at work.
4. Describe a time when you should have tried harder.  High school.  Specifically, the “getting into college” period.
5. What are you good at?  Folding paper, building computers, animated GIFs, sex, cooking, baking.  A few things, all of them indoors.  Huh.

I read the graphic novel a while ago, and the movie version of V For Vendetta
is true to the source material and yet quite different.

The Commander’s review pretty much covers the material, so I won’t be redundant.  The most striking difference between the novel and the movie in my mind was the final scene.  I don’t recall a scene like that in the novel (the above ground bits, that is).  Makes the movie more hopeful than the book, which is not nearly as dark as most Moore stuff.  Might explain why he screamed to take his name off it.