Something Random

Mercutio

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I went to Wizard World Chicago today. That's the local humongous comic convention.
I wore a shirt that said "I'm somebody's fetish", which made me quite popular. I ended up getting my picture taken fourteen times (once by a baddass-looking guy dressed as "Blade" and another time with a couple who were dressed as Stormtroopers) and got a couple dozen more compliments from passers-by, vendors and the minor celebrities that make up the subculture to which I belong. People would just walk up and start talking to me about my shirt. It was weird.
Aria Giovanni recognized me from the year before. I have a picture with her and Linda Tran hugging me (I have a deeply stupid look on my face - one of them goosed me). Such is the power of the "I'm Somebody's Fetish" shirt.
I got Sam Jones' (Flash! Ah-Ah! Savior of the Universe!) autograph, met a couple Playboy models and a BUNCH of comic writers and artists whose work I really like. This is the first year I really collected any autographs.
I bought tons of cool prints and books, saw Kevin Smith's panel, and got to see the hundreds of hot comic-book-fan chicks who live around Chicago (I figure pretty much all of them show up. Either that or being at a comic convention just makes girls hotter).

I continue to be disappointed by the percentage of space taken up by Manga/Anime shit. This year the convention space was somewhat larger than previous years, but it seemed like there was a lot more big-eye tentacle rape related stuff being sold than before, too.
 

tazwegion

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Kewl! sounds like you had fun :cheers: I must be getting one of those T-shirts for myself ;)

Hmmm... Flash Gordon awesome glitzy 80's movie! :thumbright:

As far as the Anime stuff... I was glued to G-force, StarBlazers & Robo Tech during my formative (teenage :p) years, I've still got a collector's item (toy) as it were from the series ;)

aug07053nh.jpg


I've always wanted to go to one of those 3 universe/B5 conventions, but never did seem to get there :roll:
 

Handruin

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I just bought a snow blower this weekend. :eek: Makes me depressed to think of winter, but at least I won't have to shovel as much. Mass had a tax-free weekend, so I took advantage of it.
 

mubs

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Was at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) this afternoon to see King Tut - Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs. Fascinating. After seeing this, I have a yearning to visit Egypt. The LACMA exhibit runs June 16 thru Nov. 5. Being Sunday, the place was crowded as heck (tickets specify a particular time you're allowed to enter, but it's still crowded).

"King Tut's treasures return to LACMA 26 years later - this is the only venue west of the Mississippi and the only chance to see these objects before they return to Egypt forever". That's LACMA's sales pitch.

LACMA
 

Fushigi

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Yes, the wife & I will definitely see Tut's stuff when it hits Chicago. We're members of the museum, so hopefully we'll get in on a members-only night and avoid some of the huge crowds.
 

Groltz

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[RANT]

BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH

Listening to the neighbor's kids drive a loud, whining, battery powered jeep up and down the sidewalk outside my window. :cursin:

What kind of assclown parent buys a non-physically handicapped child a battery-powered car instead of a pedal-powered one?!? This neighborhood is completely flat, BTW. No hills at all.

No wonder the little turds are fat.

[/RANT]

Thanks
 

Will Rickards

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My kid has two pedal bikes and won't pedal either of them. He just scoots along with his feet. I 'caught' him trying to pedal the other day. We always try to get him to pedal but he won't.
 

Mercutio

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Look at it this way, Groltz:

I know from my time living in BFE Cornfield, Illinois, that parents who buy kids things with little engine keep buying them things with bigger and bigger engines.

About the time they are 10 or 12, the culling begins. They ride out in the street and lose fights with real cars, or they go over the handlebars and under their three/four wheelers or they hit a wire fence with their snowmobiles...

The little town I spent the first 14 years of my life in had a population of around 100 and averaged one kid killed by a "kid-sized" motorized vehicle every two years.
 

Groltz

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Will, these are kids that are at least 5-7 years old. Isn't your child quite young?

My point was the decline of muscle-powered outdoor toys in favor of these battery powered ones. Fostering sloth and obesity, the American way. :(

I could see it being tolerably different, as I hinted, if this neighborhood wasn't flat or the kids were handicapped.

Merc,

I couldn't wish harm upon the kids in this scenario.

It's the parents that need the wake-up call. And, if only they would find a humane way to muzzle the little goblins so they wouldn't scream so much.
 

Mercutio

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Meh. The parents will learn. About the time little Billy down the street needs to be fed through a tube for three or six months.

Sorry. I'm pretty anti-kid.
 

Handruin

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I paid just $0.02 more per gallon than you this morning...A coworker was telling me there is a year wait on the Toyota prius if you want one.

You know, though...those battery powered cars have been around as long as I can remember. It's nothing new... I understand your point, but given today's knowledge, you would hope parents might encourage more physical activities. I'll admit, I always wanted to drive one of those when I was little. I never had one, but I wanted to drive one.
 

tazwegion

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Mercutio said:
Meh. The parents will learn. About the time little Billy down the street needs to be fed through a tube for three or six months.

Sorry. I'm pretty anti-kid.

Dude you really are negative... gotta' work on those social skills! :p

AS far as fuel costs go, don't complain too much... we have to pay $1.22 AUD per (imperial) litre the equivalent of $4.17629 USD per gallon... though included in that AFAIK we have,

State tax duty
Federal tax duty
Fuel excise
GST (10%) on all of the above :eekers:

And it's tipped to up further still :(
 

JKKJ

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tazwegion said:
AS far as fuel costs go, don't complain too much... we have to pay $1.22 AUD per (imperial) litre the equivalent of $4.17629 USD per gallon... though included in that AFAIK we have,

State tax duty
Federal tax duty
Fuel excise
GST (10%) on all of the above :eekers:

And it's tipped to up further still :(

More like USD 3.50 (3.78 litre to a US gallon), but anyways, still lots. I like the sound of the imperial litre though. Sounds vaguely Rule Brittania and all that, wot wot :)

You're paying about the same as we do here in Western Canada (yes, right next door to the oilsands - go figure) around CAD 1.11 / litre.
Unless I misunderstand and you add GST after the AUD 1.22!
 

tazwegion

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LMAO I used the UK measurement for gallon (4.55 litres) :lol: hence 1 US (liquid) gallon is 3.78 litres :roll:

Nah the 10% GST is charged on all charges including fuel excise... a tax on tax if you like, on top of that we pay 22-35c+ in the dollar income tax :eekers:

Hmmmmm Gov't :cursin:
 

Pradeep

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22-35% tax doesn't sound so bad when Medicare in the US is only for the basically homeless or aged, and healthy adults have to pay close to US$1000+ per month for decent health insurance for a family of four (tho fortunately many employers cover some of this cost).

AUS and US petrol prices aren't radically different, try the UK:

"On Sunday July 10th, the UK average price of Unleaded fuel passed the £4 a gallon barrier for the first time ever. Average prices for all regions are now over £4 a gallon."

That's US$7.18, or AUS$9.542, for a 4.5l gallon :eek:
 

time

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I've never understood why the US felt the need for teeny weeny gallons. A ten-gallon hat is really just a baseball cap with pretensions.
 

Mercutio

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Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.


--
Pablo Neruda
 

Groltz

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No shortage of poignant depth there, Merc. I hope you weren't inspired to share that due to a new (and unfortunate) personal experience.
 

tazwegion

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Pradeep said:
22-35% tax doesn't sound so bad when Medicare in the US is only for the basically homeless or aged, and healthy adults have to pay close to US$1000+ per month for decent health insurance for a family of four (tho fortunately many employers cover some of this cost).

AUS and US petrol prices aren't radically different, try the UK:

"On Sunday July 10th, the UK average price of Unleaded fuel passed the £4 a gallon barrier for the first time ever. Average prices for all regions are now over £4 a gallon."

That's US$7.18, or AUS$9.542, for a 4.5l gallon :eek:

Yeah I know... but it just irks me that we pay a 10% Goods & Services Tax on the total price of petrol including added taxes :evil:

Now the very same Gov't that feed us total BS, is saying trust us again whilst they turn around and sell the remainder of the one nationally owned telecomunications giant Telstra :roll: the service providers will cut each others throats for the lucrative 'easter seaboard' lines and attempt to palm off the regional areas ie. central N.T. onto a small provider who'll need to charge higher rates just to cover expenses...

/rant :p
 

Groltz

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Fear and Loathing in Indiana or Goofball melting down barbecues with liquid oxygen:

http://www.doeblitz.net/ghg/

Still photo or an MPEG MOVIE of lighting of the grill with 3 gallons of liquid oxygen. Started with 60 lbs of charcoal, and burnt up 40 lbs of it in 3 seconds. Result is a grill ready to cook in about 3 seconds, and all the old grease, etc burned off. Don't try this at home.

<sigh>
 

Mercutio

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Lunar said:
Are you OK, Merc?

I'm about the same way I always am. I was out last weekend with my ex and her partner. Someone had a little too much to drink and was kind of clinging (clinging in this case is a euphemism for any number of barely-appropriate-in-public behaviors) to whichever of us happened to be closer.

Seeing and feeling that made me remember this song I know, which happens to be based on that poem.
Sometimes I get invited along on what feel to me like their dates. There aren't very many ways to explain the emotional response I have to that.
 

ddrueding

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Mercutio said:
There aren't very many ways to explain the emotional response I have to that.

Considering the obvious indecision of someone you care about, and the no-doubt awkward situation between the two ends of this scenario, yet the desire to still be a part of it however you can...that's where I'd be anyway.

"better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all"...if those were the only two options, it might be that simple; but I've never just "loved and lost", and it sounds like you haven't, either.

I apologize if I misinterpret or offend.
 

ddrueding

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My week isn't going so great either.

In addition to being sick as a dog (that is, if the dog was running a fever of 103) I was forced to dump someone only to be promptly dumped for a completely new reason.

I was spending time with one girl, but it really wasn't working out, and I'd just met this other one at a party. Considering that I have some moral backbone, I promptly called it off with the first (many tears on her part, though I tried to soften it best I could). The next day I go back to see the new girl, only to be informed that god had told her we shouldn't be together. She had, however, argued with god and gotten us a few days. So we promptly spent the next 4 days straight together really enjoying each other and having a great time. When I had to go, she reminded me that we can't see each other and that she wouldn't call me, and that she hoped I understood.

Sometimes I really hate jesus.
 

Mercutio

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ddrueding said:
Sometimes I really hate jesus.

I have a T-shirt that says "Jesus hates you and so do I."
I wore it grocery shopping once. The cashier had a "Smile, God Loves You" pin on her uniform.
She turned white when I walked up to the checkout. I think we balanced each other out.
 

LiamC

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Mercutio said:
ddrueding said:
Sometimes I really hate jesus.

I have a T-shirt that says "Jesus hates you and so do I."
I wore it grocery shopping once. The cashier had a "Smile, God Loves You" pin on her uniform.
She turned white when I walked up to the checkout. I think we balanced each other out.

The Yin and the Yang? Or just Karma? Must go read Lord of Light again.
 

LiamC

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Yup, Zelazny. A most underrated author. I've read a few reviews of Lord of Light, some glowing, some with still rating him/the book good, but not great. Personally, I think the book gets better with each read as you discover depths you missed last time 'round. Lord of Light is one such. Helps if you know a little of Buddhism, to see the impact of such on another (entrenched) "religion", but it is not essential.
 

Tannin

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If I had to make a list of my top ten all-time favourites, books I loved when I was 32 or 22 (or in this case 12) and still love today, Lord of Light would certainly be on it. The last time I read it was perhaps a year ago. That was .. oh ... the 20th time or something like that. I've been reading it every year or two or three since I first borrowed it out of my 20-year-old brother's collection (I mean he was 20 then, over 50 now, of course) when I was boarding with my grandmother to go to school in Melbourne. That makes it ... uh ... 1973.

Hmmm ... let me see.... Not in order, just as I think of them:
  • Lord of Light
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Glory Road
  • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
  • Protector, The World of Ptavs, and the Ringworld books
  • Anything by Gavin Lyall.
And also:
  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and sequels
  • Stranger in a Strange Land (not as keen on this as I was, but still)
  • The first Amber Series
  • Starship Troopers, Red Planet, Between Planets, various others from the man.
  • The Man Who Sold the Moon

    NB: These are things I loved when I was young and still love. I'm not listing what I have discovered since then, nor things that I used to think were brilliant and now don't. Just the things you can read at 10 or 15 and still read with equal pleasure when you are 110.

    They are a mixed bag. If you want a list of genuine outstanding literature from the above, I'd suggest:
    • Lord of Light
    • Lord of the Rings
    • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
    • The Man Who Sold the Moon

    These will all still be famous in 100 years.
 

Mercutio

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I'm personally fond of the last book Zelazny worked on (with a number of other SF authors) before he passed away, an insubstantial little thing called "Forever After".

And oh, those Niven "Known Space" Books. Great science fiction.

Never cared much for the Amber books. Only made it through about half of Herbert's Dune series before it got WAY too stupid to finish.

Personally, I always liked Alfred (The Stars my Destination) Bester and Philip K. Dick (who wrote lots of things, most of which have been turned into very bad movies). I think I started with very hard science fiction (e.g. Ben Bova) when I was young and gradually moved to what I guess would be called "speculative" rather than science fiction.
 
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