3-8-2022 was one of those days when everything seemed to need to be fixed at once but i will ATTEMPT to post a proper website for 3-9, I know this is very important to me that I do this.
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decisions, decisions!
In the end I could not resist a good old fashioned crispy hormone, but I had to send it back because while the preparers remembered to include the pickle chips I requested for the frites, they neglected to leave the weird slimy aioli off the main event sandwich, although the server insisted “I told them no aioli!” Officially it is supposed to be a sauce made of garlic, olive oil and salt but in trendy american restaurants that charge $15 minimum for a sandwich that is a code word for “disgusting mayonnaise to disguise the lack of flavor on everything but meant to sound fancier than mayonnaise.” The Popeyes restaurant chain also puts mayonaiz on its sandwiches by default but those cost about one third the price, are comparable in size and are actually properly seasoned if you succeed in getting your request for no mayonaiz heeded. I don’t know if the sandwiches are hormone or aren’t, admittedly, and they don’t come with french fries but I didn’t ask for french fries! And when I get them anyway the quantity I receive is lately not outstanding. Though it looks marginally less silly in that bowl than essentially the exact same order the last time I was at a Friendly’s joint, evidently in 2016
am I supposed to be impressed by this cage on a stick? it also looks as if I was denied a complementary pickle on this occasion, even though friendly’s was at one time the only place that would give me such material.
another “artisinal” restaurant, another nearly identical chicken sandwich, another underwhelming quantity of french fries in a weird bowl, plus pickle fragments that I probably had to request. Word has gone out within the past decade that potato scraps must be limited and not touch sandwiches and brined cucumber scraps must be yet more tightly rationed, even at locations that dare be properly lit and not have dark wood tables. I think this establishment was called Haywire. Haywire is of course a well-known informal terminology for a situation that is completely under control. Think about it, rectangular plates are much more spatially efficient than circular ones. Since this is USAmerica, we can’t solve a problem without immediately filling the void with another problem that we charge premium prices for. The space made efficient is remade inefficient by putting extra sets of spaces within it that don’t need to be there. It’s like those “hatchdimals” and “lol surprise” dolls my niece was so obsessed with for a while, that came in huge expensive packages which mostly contained more layers of packaging, and then in the middle would be a tiny little doll that possibly would be one she already had, because it’s not legally underaged gambling if their parents have to buy it for them, I suppose. For stuff that I buy for myself however I would definitely prefer they stop directing the money toward the acquisition and cleaning of funny serving vessels.
ah that’s more like it…no! That is NOT more like it! I mean put more food on the plate, not make the plate smaller!
I assume the serving size is based on how many fries this guy can fit in his jacket pocket.
but it could be worse
does this look like eight dollars worth of soup to you? this same dining zone also provided me with a refill on my iced tea without me requesting it, and then charged for an extra cup of iced tea on the receipt. and it was UNSWEETENED iced tea. I had to do the work of making it actually taste like something myself, QUITE for free. I appreciate that they totally filled the cup at least, why that was two bowls of soup worth of liquid!
on another occasion, since for the time being I end up taking someone to restaurants that I don’t necessarily want to be at weekly, or more, depending on how susceptible to guilt I am, I noticed several of these chairs outside the building, and an employee came out and asked me why I was taking pictures of them. I thought they looked neat. They did. on the day when i was overcharged for soup the chairs were very cheap but I was concerned about being seen taking pictures of them. My guess is the staff are aware of the detereorating furniture and were looking to get me to admit that but i hadn’t noticed it then! And you know what I don’t care about using crummy furniture if the eating experience is enjoyable, and it rather wasn’t. If you think I order too many chicken sandwiches, this place only has steak and fish sort of junk and it is worse and costs twice as much. just a trashy dumb defensive place all around.
it even has a perimeter wall like it is expecting invaders. however we have much more effective modern ways of averting needless warfare
I actually made this dumb little image edit days ago –after this extremely popular twitter post that isn’t necessary to look at, the link is just to keep me from posting a picture of it– but abstained from posting it, unsure if it was only funny to me because I was completely out of touch with the world. Or if it looked more like Richard Nixon than Vladimir Putin. All Jack Kirby men have a bit of Nixon in them. But maybe sanctions actually WILL work? Or maybe they’ll just, as usual, punish everyone except the autocrats who always remain quite well taken care of, who if they need anything just grab it from someone beneath them, and blame outsiders imposing sanctions and act yet more erratically. can anything REALLY be done?
ah jolly good I feel better now.
I wrote something about the Charlottesville riots a few weeks ago, but nasty stuff is always happening in the world, and I don’t keep up with it all, so I felt like maybe the matter was dated by the time I would get the post out, but retro is always the rage somewhere.
[one of those] awful website[s] that I am always complaining about despite continuing to use happened to institute a “code of conduct update” and announce that to all users. the “update” is of course totally pointless; the core rules, treat each other with respect, should cover everything. So the update primarily serves to remind people that they can argue about what “is” hate speech and who is more victimized by hate, themselves or the people they hate.
This completely unremarkable announcement prompted an endless series of arguments by opposed parties accusing each other of being fascists and nazis that resulted in the topic being closed for further remarks within less than a day. Which I suspect happens on EVERY site-wide update, and usually I try not to look too close –this manner of futility is nothing new in the history of the internet– but I have a terrible habit of skimming them in search of ludicrously long, petty comment threads, and happened to end up on this statement:
and I think that cuts to the meep of the matter. Not so much of what people argue ABOUT, but how they are able to continue arguing forever about ANYTHING. Once the previous pseudodiscussion is no longer hot, other dorks want to argue about the argument.
This post is NOTHING except a prompt for more people to agree or get angry at it. The BASE matter, white supremacists feeling more and more empowered and acting accordingly, is not one where “both sides” are equally at fault. But when you engage in jerky acts, you make it seem like it is. How can you claim to be peaceful when you go looking for pointless fights? People like that getting involved in peaceful movements, daring others to hit them so that they can hit back and claim self-defense, they allow the “other side” to isolate their abrasive behavior and apply it to the group as a whole. I am not making a “few bad apples” argument. This is a bad tree, and the tree IS on “both sides.”
I think there is an extremely small group of actual fascists, and legitimately violent “anti”-fascists, but the amount of fear hype about has drawn uncommonly large groups of folks with no clue what is going on into aligning themselves to fight something that doesn’t really exist, or at least promoting the fact that they think they do.
Comments like this accomplish what? Nothing at all. These people see that the arguments are pointless but would rather smirk at the camera like Ferris flippdippin Buehler than contribute in a meaningful fashion. And they will do it anywhere, not just on dumb old furrafinity. And I admit to also going in here primarily for my own amusement, but I don’t gloat about it. I recognize that I have an unfortunate habit. I don’t ENCOURAGE this to keep happening.
The earliest remarker doesn’t even understand the matter, seeming to think that “Antifa” is a person, presumably conflating it with “Anita,” the name of somebody who was at the center of the “gamergate” ideology furor a few years ago, whose contributors were equally unwilling to have solved. And I didn’t talk about it, since it wasn’t relevant to my life. But every social conflict looks like it now. My understanding is that antifa is a loose organization of abrasive folks but not necessarily out to break anything.
I think it is a misconception that protest marches are organized with the specific purpose of theft and vandalism. But then there are sorts who claim to belong to protest movements who are only in it because they like breaking stuff and/or stealing stuff, which means they are anti-everything, and not worth trying to please because nothing will ever be enough or more fun than feeling camaraderie while smashing things. It comes to the same thing as “getting popcorn,” except they grab it from somebody else. I do not think that will help them achieve their goals, assuming they have any. But there is not much I can say to somebody who has already given up!
Whoever you are, you can’t win by trying to get revenge or by telling your opposition it is stupid, because you have to share the planet with them. No, killing them is not an option, and “punching” them will only make them less rational. “But THEY would kill ME” I often see as a reply to this, and I do not believe that they would, on the whole. To use criminal outliers as an excuse to demand zero tolerance and pre-emptive punishment for anything and be abrasive forever seems to me like ultimately the same thing. That creep who backed a car into people on purpose, HE is a murderer, as an individual, even if a few people in the car’s path probably WISHED he would do it. Those wishers are also individuals, and not helping themselves or their friends, but not responsible for a murderer’s actions, either.
The “alt-right” movement exists by fixating on the most ridiculous and aggressive “liberals” and painting them as terrorists to distract from its actual irrational and unattainable root values, that non-straight and/or non-whites have to go, which is only deeply considered by a very small group. I guarantee you most of those “right wing” people don’t follow it to the core; they wouldn’t actually kill their target if given a chance. They claim that isn’t actually their goal, and I think if forced to admit that it WAS, or was the goal of their leaders, they would be embarrassed and go back to being privately jerky.
If modern day confederate support is not about hate, it is about ignorance. Enemies of the union should not have monuments to them on union land, and nobody should die for having a problem with that. The dumb old statue is just an excuse to reignite the fight. At the same time, I believe in self-preservation. The driver who killed a person and injured others plainly was out to cause damage, and is rightly being charged as a murderer. But unprotected people should taunt at cars driven by people who want to hurt them, since the car has all the power in that scenario. If you sincerely believe somebody to be a nazi, you ought to believe they have a nazi’s regard for the lives of those they disagree with. I just said I don’t think there are many who truly believe in killing for this, but there certainly are some. Having a person die as martyr does get attention to your cause, but I wouldn’t want to a belong to a group that encouraged its members to put themselves in danger needlessly. This is not China, this is not Afghanistan. We do not need to do that. From my perspective, white supremacists seem to be losing in this country. They are dying out and getting more desperate, and behaving like cornered rats. But they are human beings, and have legal rights that rats do not, so there is no situation where it makes sense to corner them that is in aid of peace. Somebody is going to get hurt, and it will be a crime either way. If your goal is to remove the entire legal system which grants equal rights in this manner then that is another matter entirely.
My thoughts drifted to “Crispy kat,” a proud nazi cartoon artist, who I mentioned several years ago. Yes these are the people that I know about, unfortunately. I had to check and sure enough Crispy has a predictable opinion on all this. I didn’t even guess that Crispy was pro-confederacy, but I guess just IS by default since that looks controversial and gets people annoyed. This person appears to think that since there were Union supporters who owned slaves, the confederacy should not be treated as emblematic of slavery. But it is only the south that fought to protect slavery. The northerners with slaves may be analogous with multinational corporations now, that exploit workers, don’t pay taxes, and don’t clean up after themselves, but that doesn’t mean that a lesser, more isolated injustice should be permitted, because that just keeps the powerless fighting each other. Crispy also feels that since soviet Russian imagery is not stigmatized, neither should nazi germany’s be. Again trying to confound the issue instead of taking responsibility. Instead of protesting offensive imagery, they present counter, deliberately offensive imagery, and then act smug about it. I must confess I don’t encounter people “who proudly fly the hammer and sickle,” but then I only know about Crispy’s proud swastiking by weird chance, and will believe that other inappropriate use of oppressive dictatorship imagery occurs. But the hammer+sickle are not iconographic in the same way that nazi swastikas, or “stars and bars” are (in fact Crispy, as much as she loves to change the subject and get off on a technicality, doesn’t even realize that “stars and bars” HISTORICALLY referred to the first national Confederate flag that nobody uses now since it looks too much like the Union’s flag). Since soviet Russia continued to exist with the same symbol for decades after its worst atrocities, the symbol became somewhat normalized and almost comical, when it became synonymous with cold war absurdity. And of course the current non-soviet Russia has its own issues with oppression, and also with neo nazis, as it happens. I, personally, would accept the swastika becoming innocuous and laughed at like that, and I think the confederate battle flag is well-designed. But they aren’t innocuous now, and probably are not going to be soon, and I would solve nothing by conspicuously enshrining them. I wish people could, or would, see where they stop fighting for justice and start fighting just because they like fighting. Crispo correctly identifies overpopulation and carelessness toward the environment, palm owls notwithstanding, as primary factors in the sad state of the world, so why continue to do stuff that gets people bickering over inconsequential symbolic issues?
At one time I considered that nazi furry-artwork was poorly executed satire, but now I just think it is mental illness. There are people who call themselves “furry raiders,” a group founded by somebody called Foxler. I cannot accept political rhetoric as sincere from somebody who role-plays as Adolf Hitler as a cartoon animal and wears a nazi-style red armband with a paw print instead of a swastika. Such a person has a very slight grasp on reality, and it would be irrational to argue with him. He even missed calling himself “Adolphin Swimler,” after eh. In a sense, it is unfair to ban him or his adherents from any conventions because most of your attendees in general are going to be people who live a weird fantasy. Although he also supposedly practices bestiality and sexual predation toward minors, while simultaneously criticizing furries who are outwardly perverted for giving the fandom a bad reputation.
When you experience dimwitted political conversations, somebody will often expound on what they think Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd would do or say in that situation, and can probably find a quote to fit any viewpoint that is antithetical to his actual viewpoints. Imagine if we talked about what Hitler would do. He would have EVERY suspected furry shot and shoved in a ditch, regardless of whether they pretended to be a cartoon fox allegory of him.
And so, I think, this gang actually aren’t Nazis, but they get off on being able to sport nazi-like regalia and attitudes in public and claim that isn’t what it is. They are enrapt in the petty sub-fight, of complaining about media bias and non-existent conspiracies targeting their heritage or whatever. Gosh the English lost the war of 1812 and nobody has a problem with THEIR “heritage” displays, because this isn’t really about that.
My older brother reads a lot and knows a lot, but expresses his knowledge in a way that gets people angry at him, and call him a fascist, and post nazi-punching memes at him, so he doesn’t really solve anything, and I fear that he enjoys not solving anything and feeling targeted. He wouldn’t go full crispy but if he put a backwards swastika on a bag and called it a manji and carried the bag in a flagrant manner so somebody would try to put him in the hospital, that would STILL surprise me but it is more plausible. And my other brother has his own frustrating ways about that. It is very challenging to untangle the whole mess because there is always another story to shift focus to that I haven’t heard of and therefore cannot dissect, and half the time they turn out to be completely made up.
I do believe it is counterproductive to “tell it like it is” in a way that hurts marginalized people. That is not my goal. There is criticism about those who “crawl into a victim space” and in truth heavy conservatives were doing it first, with their wars on Christmas and assault on good old American Values talk. It may just be human nature to view yourself as the most wronged, and I would prefer to live with the less violent of the aspiring victims, if I had to choose, but I think I am stuck with both. Negative lifestyles cannot be magically changed, only eased out of.
What do I stand to gain, really, from talking about this? Nothing, probably, but I hate seeing people pat themselves on the back and solicit donations for saying dumb trash like “WE don’t support HATE” and “punch a nazi today!” and selling little trinkets with slogans on them. That, as usual, doesn’t help anything and it doesn’t take any courage to do that. And it doesn’t take courage because nazis are a minority and there is an extremely low chance you will run into more than one in any location where there isn’t a greater number of people who ostensibly advocate punching them. And so they will feel justified in using terrorist weapons, like automobiles against you. The real problem is people acting without empathy, and taking easy actions based on what their support groups, families, churches, whatever, encourage. Our president exacerbates this. He is seen as a hero by white supremacists, but since he can point to the fact that he never openly endorsed white supremacy in itself, he thinks doesn’t have to DO anything to stop it. He won’t take charge of a role he has but did not choose unless it serves his desired image. This is somebody who looked straight at the dumb eclipse (which I didn’t see at all but never mind) three times while everybody told him not, and he did it just BECAUSE everybody told him not to. He might do himself permanent damage, he might not, but he got to show off people who act like they think they are smarter than him.
Consider this: I have a niece, and sometimes I am asked to look after my niece, even though I am terrible at it and have things to work on. I could say: I don’t drink beer, I don’t do sex, I will never have children, and know I should not have children, and consequently there is no reason I should have any role of responsibility over this or any child. That would be “fair” in a sense, but it would cause animosity, hurting my family and alienating me from them, and in the end it would be my fault.
I say let the “nazis” have their rallies. The low turnouts speak for themselves. You can get a few thrown in jail by provoking them to extreme violence but never win in that manner.
This reminds me of Boromir in Fellowship of the Ring. When he tries to steal The Ring, even knowing that the point of the quest is to destroy the ring and the evil it permits to exist, he starts fantasizing about NOT destroying the ring and using its power to lead great armies. He wants to fight great wars forever, not prevent them, since that is all he understands, and all he enjoys. And I almost removed this bit of text, thinking it was better to refer to real acts by real people, but nobody I know seems real anymore, so perhaps I should exclusively use fictional examples.
8-10 230am howdy. i have a comic page -almost- done but i hurt my back and am presently using that as an excuse for not having it ready on 8-9 even though I did not actually create this problem until around 1 am, unless we pretend that I live in alaska. And if pretending I live in alaska gives me less anxiety about going to bed before finishing a job for the sake of my health, why do I still feel compelled to announce this?
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this ad is making several key misconceptions about my mental state. first of all, that if I have specific favorite misheard lyrics, there are enough of them that I classify them by topic type, and that there enough in the food category alone that I can choose 8 standouts without exhausting my supply, and that a marketing company knows which ones those are. and then also that I would like to watch sock puppets — at all, but especially to act out misheard food lyrics, when whoever designed the advertisement isn’t even that into it, choosing instead to fixate on the graphical possibilities of the number 8.
which reminds me:
gosh FINALLY. Dial For Men. No, not a 1970s gay porn film, but Dial SOAP to be USED by men. For the first time in history,
For comparison, here is what regular, apparently woman-only dial looks like.
beets since when is SOAP not masculine enough? Is this marketing reacting to a demand, or trying to make men self-conscious about not having a manly enough soap?
gosh even the number 8 needs to be harder and manner. How long before Dial for MEN invades regular Dial’s territory citing an ancestral claim to the power berries?
I am not surprised at all that there are more transvestites than ever. The harder you push this “gender must permeate every object you own” agenda, the more people like me will turn away from it. And the more normal men will become insane and convinced there is a “war on men” just because the world is less unilaterally made for them. And then push more products like this, and they will keep getting oafier. With that said, I won’t feel inclined to buy Zest Tranny Clean soap once that starts showing up, because it would have the same message: you are defined by the non-personality-related products you buy. The companies who make these aren’t giving you anything. They are looking for sneaky ways to get money out of you in perpetuity, and to shut out their competitors who don’t yet offer man-only soap
It is true that there are hard biological differences between women and men, and perhaps different soaps are in order, although I always understood that was what dodderant was for, and I already do not feel comfortable buying that unless I am unaccompanied and in a store which allows self-service scanning. Already every product marketed at children has a gender-coded character or object on the package, which increasingly is impossible to avoid unless you buy off-brand stuff that status-conscious kids will still pick on you for owning, but at least adults are still free to have neutrally aligned noodles out of a can. Maybe some day there will be his and hers water and oxygen and there will be an indicator on your forehead if you try to use the wrong one without asking the government’s permission first.
I was in Washington DC this year during what apparently was “Capital Pride Weekend.” Outside of New York City, I cannot think of any place with less of a pride deficiency. Specifically it means non-caucasian non-heterosexual non-male pride, but it uses the gay pride colors, but we can’t say gay pride because that offends trans people who think they aren’t gay and you still can’t change your race because that’s racist and even if you’re trans everybody knows you are trans and still identifies you with what you were born as and on and on and we pretend this isn’t fascism garishly disguised as freedom. Anyway people who formerly were not comfortable are supposed to be proud of themselves, even though chief executive also in that capital doesn’t actually believe in this. And the ones who run Connecticut sure do not, either, lest we incite the gods to send a cursed storm of blood over our crops.
You get a F or an M that is assigned to you and you cannot have the other unless you pay thousands of dollars to have your body destroyed, and you DEFINITELY cannot have neither. This is absolutely crucial to you being able to drive a car or buy liquor (requiring the same card for both was a great idea). And apparently now to washing yourself too. Maybe someday people will be proud of themselves just for taking a shower. Like a small child would be, and perhaps then they will share their princess/truck-branded soup with the rest of us.
Or somebody other than the custodian does.
I have seen people promoting 2016 as the worst year for all humanity ever on the basis of all the celebrities that got dead, such as legendary Breath-Assure pitch-man George Kennedy and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and also Donaldo Trump’s presidenty election (even though he had yet to institute any executive orders). However, there is definitely an insufferable undercurrent of hyperbole to all the commentary I observe.
Regardless, most years-in-review focused exclusively on entertainment, and tried and yet try to suggest we are in the happiest, most talented, most gol-durned glorious period of all human existence, and consequently anything we don’t like must be the worst ever. And it just isn’t true. There is just more forced happiness and more push to not criticize something that is politically aligned with you than ever.
Yes I am still irritated about stupid hamilton. But it isn’t ONLY hamilton. However, seeing hamilton’s existence in the context of the forced enthusiasm makes me disinclined to doubt myself exclusively on the basis of my tendency to doubt myself. I saw the new Star Wars movie, and I saw the one last year, and both are nice, but are either special? Not really. Although I do not necessarily think the originals were the best movies of all time, but they weren’t desperately trying to remind me of themselves. Every movie that is made now wants to be thought of as existing now in today, the ultimate point of all times.
Lord of the Rings 3, there we go, something I like that won a record setting or matching number of osc-awards. Including “Best Song” despite my not having any recollection of any singing, background or otherwise, in the film, because it only plays over the credits, which makes it a matter apart from the film, really. As if the only reason the song is there at all is to be award-eligible. I am to believe this 11-award winning film is superior to films that just won 10 even though one of the awards is for something that isn’t even IN it. You might as well give an Academy award for best preview, best red carpet premier or best bootleg back of box summary. And maybe we will once we run out of records to advertise that we broke. I liked the movie but would not call it significantly superior to the other two. My favorite part is how long it is, which is the thing other people hate! Anyway all that was 13 years ago by this point, so we need to hurry and give even more awards to La la la la Land! Only the stuff that we like NOW can have the most awards! Best La! Best Land! Best title word duplication!
Although having said that, if La La Land does not at least win the best song award, and observe it is in there TWICE, that means Sting, Justin Timberload or Lin-Manuel Miramilton is getting one, so we keep it in the family whatever happens. Breaking news, somebody I’m already tired of gets more attention! I appreciate that Sting has the one song on there that by its title does not seem to be about forced smiling optimism, and furthermore does not have a page written about it already. Also, Sting at least is old. It makes sense that I am tired of him.
Gimme a break! They only GAVE that to you because you’re already famous!
There HAS been public figure-provided resistance to La Land Land, but primarily on the basis of it being “white people” entertainment. Which it IS, and I suppose we allow that since white people can presumably “take it,” but how much of that are they required to take before it is no longer considered a “dangerous” fascist viewpoint to criticize a decidedly non-white product for not being white enough? In fact Hamilton itself expressly forbade caucasian actors from even auditioning. Because it wanted to tell a story with non-white people (ignoring the fact that in terms of personal mannerisms and skin-tone, Lindy himself, praise be upon his name, is just as white as I am (in fact I might claim I am less white than he is since I didn’t go to private kindergarten, neither of my parents are doctors and one even stole a bunch of stuff)). And fiddle-dee-doodle it is allowed to do that. The only people who go out of their ways to be offended by that are INSANE. And as somebody who had to spend the 1990s pretending I didn’t hate the Beastie Boys to keep myself sane, I can tell you their annoyance to me was not owed to them being white. It was because they were tone-deaf screeching cretins. I don’t give a barbecue if one of them is dead now or supported great causes. If you would have me believe that La “The La” Land would be a perfect movie if it had all the same dialog, same songs, same dances, same smiles, but none of the actors were white, you would be just as much part of the problem as anybody. It is fun to call stuff “white” as a joke but we ought not accept that as a valid journalistic explanation for mediocrity.
Michael Phelps won the most gold medals of anybody, which is an objective accomplishment in a skill-based venue, whom nobody wants to disqualify on basis of extreme whiteness, and I got sick of him, even. The “greatest olympian of all time” ? Not really. All he did was swim (non-synchronously), and in an artificial environment. And it seemed like he got another medal each time he did it. in contrast to pentathlon competitors who need to do five different things that have nothing to do with each other (including Show Jumping on a dingdang HORSE), or team sport competitors who need to win four lengthy games across a week, thereby preventing them from competing in anything else, to get ONE medal. And of course Phelps worked for the Wenited States, who consistently have the most money and best resources for training, and the second-largest vat from which to pull eligible competitors. They almost consistently win the most gold medals in general. Only China doesn’t have an excuse for always losing (and it DID get the most gold at least in Summer 2008). I am past past past the point of caring if an American is the best at an athletic frivolity. If Michael Phelps won ONE swimming gold medal AND a badminton gold medal, by finkeldy then I would be impressed.
But Hamilton guy acts AND writes AND composes! And he drifts into songs from “Camelot” during interviews just like I probably would! THAT should impress me, right? No, because I hate his stupid beard. (also as of 2019 I have been forced through Moana multiple times and can say with total sincerity that I think its songs are awful)
I like Game of Thrones. Is it the best tv show ever? I would not say that it was. However, I have not seen every tv show ever. And to be fair, the format was greatly limited for a very long time. The 1980s and early 1990s were dominated by syndication, which likes to be able to air episodes in any order at any time of day and it wants a huge mess of the things, while reserving the right to dump any that it doesn’t like. There was less potential money, and consequently more difficulty in procuring investment in programs with limited numbers of episodes that don’t make sense unless all are seen, one after the other. Realistically it is only valid to compare Thronegame to shows made within the past twenty years, and I haven’t seen all of them either!
But people will tell you with total doubtless confidence that it is best ever and best there ever will be, and ignore that they ever said that when the next trendy manly abusefest comes along. I think it could have been made with less cruelty, and less contrariness for the sake of being contrary. But I appreciate that it was permitted to be as cruel as it thought it needed to be. YES I watched all 60 episodes of it across a few months. But I could have lived without it. And I DID live without it for the first six years of its existence. And I am probably better for not having made any attempt to interact with the dumb fan cult around it (or anything). And also for the huge sacks of cash it would take to subscribe to the Hibbo network for ten or fewer episodes a year. I can get the dvds for free from a library! Or other ways.
There is no real fantasy in film anymore. Every one wants me to believe it is real, and filled with real people, and realer and nower than what came before it. Even when something is ludicrous from the outset, with your sharknadoes, snakes on planes and cowboys vs aliens, they are not sincere works of expression by filmmakers. They mean for you to think they are “badass” in how awful they are, like all those oafs with tv shows about them eating huge heaps of rancid meat. I remember being surprised when I learned Guy Fieri was a chef; I literally thought he was just some GUY, hence the name, who drove around shoving awful things in his mouth. And not because it is entertaining but because and I’ll have to get back to you on that. Because this is AMERICA. We don’t need to do something awful to ourselves for a reason. Once again, we have the president we deserve.
There is no fantasy in film anymore. Every one wants me to believe it is real, and filled with real people, and realer and nower than what came before it.
When the film Spider-Man was released in 2002, that was a new fast paced realistic spider-man unlike all past spidermen. Then in 2012 there was another spider-man even newer than that one. And apparently now there is a third newest spider-man and I am completely desensitized to it. What is he going to do that the other spidermen didn’t do which makes them obsolete? Is he going to save Uncle Ben? Is he going to get power by biting a spider? Is he going to skip the dumb origin story and trying to live a Normal Life for 75% of the movie and get to the point for once?
For that matter, I have completely lost track of or interest in swervy altered or updated “fairy tales.” And I had ten years ago. Every movie coming out looks like something I’ve seen before even though each one is purporting to be a new version of something I have seen before.
Just in my lifetime I have seen 3 spidermen, 5 batmen, 26 Cinderellas, 8 ghostbusters, not including extreme Ghostbusters or Filmation Ghost-hyphen-Busters, plus 4 Colonel Sanderses. None of these things function without presuming familiarity on my part.
For the last 2.5 decades solid, live action films are never rated G unless they are garbage for toddlers. Everything else must have realistic violence, abusive language, real sadness and offense emotion, and sex oh teehee.
Although I must note that the 1940 Errol Flynn feature film “The Sea Hawk,” which I inadvertently witnessed a piece of recently, is openly rated G as determined by a film review board that came into existence long after it did, despite the production showing whipped slave labor, death by musket, death by cutlass, presumed death by drowning and disdain for another nation on the basis of it being one. The British men I am meant to want to win try to board the Spanish ship by throwing Rygar grappling hooks, one of which catches a Spaniard in the neck. There is no blood but the recipient is plainly in pain and not able to get it loose. And of course all the important people are white men. Nonetheless the film is unmistakably a fantasy: everybody talks in a funny way, they are not afraid of the danger they are in and the music is jolly despite mass mutual deceasement for the parties depicted. I am meant to enjoy the depicted exploits without believing the on-screen characters share my culture, goals or fears.
It is possible older films would have been less fantasy-like if they had been permitted to do so by the standards of their times, but I think also film-goers appreciated escapism in a way that present American audiences don’t, or are not encouraged to. War to 1940s Americans wasn’t just something that other people had to deal with. Ironically of course there are American troops right now in more countries than ever. We offer this to them in lieu of medals!
Good news, you get as many gold arches as you can fit on your side of the wall!
Yes obviously Trump has been hard to take, despite my best efforts to give him the benefit of any doubts. For the sake of my ability to coexist in society, I thought that was important. Coexisting has always been a challenge to me. In part due to Trump-like attitudes from all the people who control everything.
Ironically I have felt disliked by ostensibly compassionate people for my attempts to maintain my sanity amidst this. And in recognition of my relative courtesy toward Mr. Trump, he has, without altering his facial expression, consistently crunched up my courtesy and tossed it back in my face unless he can find a worse place to toss it . He really doesn’t want the support of anyone who will question him in any way. In a sense proving right the people who maligned him all along. But in all honesty I think even if he made an effort to appear to care a bit, the people who shunned me for not shunning him would still do so. Which I say to excuse me, not him. As I have stated previously, I still do not believe Trump can or aspires to deport legal citizens, much less send them to gas chambers. He is not a “nazi.” Perhaps he condones them so long as they stay out of his way, but he is not a white supremacist. He is a Trump supremacist.
Which doesn’t even necessarily mean he will be worse than any president we have ever had; he just has no intention of being unpleasant discreetly as Clinton would have done. Trump won’t let us feel good about how bad he is. It can be a scary feeling. Which could potentially be good. But it probably won’t be. We could improve ourselves with the awareness that we need to improve, but we will probably just complain about it. We haven’t been trained to do anything else.
But he is the president we deserve. Possibly always deserved. He is totally marketing focused. He does whatever is necessary to meet a goal, so to speak, and feels no shame for it, no matter how unpleasant it is.
Maybe by this point, by fixating over what happened to me a few months ago, I am just paranoid and not helping anybody who offered benefits of doubt to me, but I would hardly say my relationships were splendid before this happened. My new rule for 2017 is that I don’t draw free art, or work three times as hard on wholly undercompensated art as I would on free art of stupid rubbish for scumbags who can’t or won’t help me unless they are me, and I won’t indulge their bad company for months and months because I think they can connect me to people because they are only going to connect me to other scumbags if they even decide to connect me at all which they are strikingly likely to not bother with. Which is somewhat beside the point; there are about 30 more paragraphs to this but they need to be edited, and every time I try to write an excuse for cutting it off I get a new paragraph. Please trust that I need to have the paragraphs above this one out of my business prior to Trump being inaugurated more urgently than I need to put them into context. Sleeping would help me!
I am glad people are protesting, but I hope they have actual goals and are not merely, in the manner of “Occupy Wallstreet,” seeing it as a socially acceptable thing to do. You can get thousands of people to “march,” but at your core you are just moving from one piece of ground to another, and it consequently would not make a difference if you got millions to march beyond that you coordinate marches well.
At the art show I attended back in October, one of the large exhibits, by somebod[ies] who got in free and was PAID to be there, was called Total Jump Live and it was a series of video screens and self-aggrandizing slogans meant to coordinate and show everybody in the world jumping at the same time. Because naturally everybody in the world has access to live streaming video at all times and is capable of jumping. As somebody who was on the premises when it happened, I sure didn’t know WHEN it happened, and whatever massive problem it solved by happening was not one I was prior or thereafter aware of. I was however aware that there was a special rehearsal for the jump and that an APP was available to help me practice! Of note is that if you browse the internet on a non-telephone there is no way to download the APP nor for the, I had thought basic information about how to jump to be delivered to you in another format.
Well then by gorby we’d sure have accomplished nothing more than that! Which is still perhaps more than I have accomplished, but I don’t believe that I would be satisfied with aspiring to that. The proposal wishes that all able-bodied people jump and land at the same time. Which means you have temporary frivolous unity at the expense of diversity. For just a brief stupid jump does it matter if I put aside my personal jumping manner for a moment? It does if the stupid brief jump thinks it is terribly important. I will not do it: I will not jump in somebody else’s manner so that they can pretend they have a consensus of jump-manner and feel proud of themselves for bringing it about. Because from my experience all this gains me is an expectation that I keep right on doing it. But I will not obstruct, either. Unity without expression has no value.
Hey, let me tell you something. I do not NEED your permission to tell you anything!
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A few bims ago I got into the topic of people pretending to be Nazis on the internet.
You might be aware that I have had my own accusations of insensitivity with regard to Hitlery activities, and I have considered the potential hypocrisy of me whining over this. But I didn’t say so then so I say it now. My use of nazy imagery behind generalissimo eli was meant to be seen as conspicuously bad taste, and if I thought that could not be determined from the context I would have changed it so that it was. These people think it is GOOD taste.
When I was in fourth grade I remember seeing another student draw a big swastika in a notebook. Nobody had ever told me that the Nazis butchered citizens of their own country, but I recognized the symbol from a book in my house and from a bizarre “ducktators” cartoon i had at one point on a vhs tape (that like any other cartoon I watched just because it was a cartoon without considering what its point was) and just thought “hey that IS a neat symbol. I will draw it in MY notebook too!” So after every suit-wearing man in the school district decided I was safe to return to the class, I naturally recited a jerky poem about how I can like whatever I want and nobody has the power to stop me.
This notice about returning was posted on the page of the person in question shortly before she was barred from returning to this specific fur-themed website. Actual Nazis’ lack of belief in free expression is one of the major things that defines them as nazis, but this has nothing to do with “free speech.” You can’t (or shouldn’t be) arrested for stating opinions, but you have no constitutionally granted right to use any website. And if we disregard the law, because it is often needlessly harsh and arbitrary, plus generally not written with the internet in mind, and consider what would be the “nice” or morally just thing to do, this person probably should have been tossed in a dumpster four years earlier. I would feel that way if I encountered this without any backstory.
“Free speech” is meant to give you also the opportunity to defend your opinion. Legally you do not have to, but if you merely state it and claim you are entitled to it, then it comes across like you CAN’T defend it, especially if you have plenty of time to write poems and draw pointless animations whose only purpose is, once again, to bother people. The supreme court might support your right to use the swastika to annoy people, but they might also agree that Richard Garriott can come sleep in my bed any time he wants because the end user license agreement for the Ultima Collection CD I got 14 years ago says so. Nobody reasonable would accept that.
As far as what these opinions are, “cartoon cats should proudly wear world war 2 nazi swastika armbands” is an opinion, in a sense, I suppose, and it isn’t just furries who are going to not like that.
This is controversial or contentious like putting a pancreas in someone’s mailbox is controversial: it isn’t, it’s just illogical and can’t possibly accomplish anything. No publicity is bad publicity, right? But this is because less than 15 people will ever read this. Nobody will give the crispy cat a book deal because I linked to its page.
I have made jokes about the famous September 11 2001, because the hype and the federally, commercially mandated mourning was an artificial and unpleasant, and often laughable waste of time. But I never made it a major life goal to post things on the internet designed foremost to be a nuisance. And still I felt bad about some of it, eventually. You can’t even compare nazi stuff to other symbols; 70 years of remembering history to avoid repeating it have removed it from logical consideration.
There could be a time in United America and Germany when swastikas mean good luck and good times, but nazis themselves wearing swastikas will always be genocidal murderers, and that stuff isn’t only in these two countries or the past. There are active Nazi groups in Russia. There are a few in the parliament of Greece, and not in the “Heil Obama, he wants to use the power the constitution grants him” sense; people who would kill their own citizens out in the open, without even sending them to secret prisons first, if they got enough of their own in the room for a vote. A legitimate attempt to desensitize people to this solves nothing.
The acquaintance I mentioned last time also draws the characters without swastikas, because he found the response to his first picture, which fully featured them, lacking, but he still credits the characters to this crispy person who is deliberately horrid, and then tries to promote the horrid person to someone like me (or did, one single time). I won’t give a gummy bear to somebody whose existence I can’t justify (not even a clear one; I actually like them now); I certainly wouldn’t spend hours drawing pictures for them, especially if I had to deliberately mischaracterize the subjects. The characters aren’t particularly distinctive anyway. You could draw any dumb white cartoon cat and call it an “original character” and avoid associating with creeps like that. It would still be a boring style pastiche but I suppose that is beside the present point. In fact as far as I can tell nobody but me cares whose characters he is drawing so long as he takes out the swastikas, even though if they are the same characters they are still nazis, because part of being a furry is being able to look at a dumb cartoon like Balto or Rescuers Down Under or something drawn to resemble one and not realize how dumb it is, and that’s why they enjoy each other’s company and I don’t.
Apart from trying to conclude an unfinished thought, I also couldn’t handle bimshwel being the last “video game humor” website to not have the condemnatory, excema suffering Master-D on it. I cannot do anything about its ultimate fate as the last website.
Speaking of cruel, power-mad dictators with low opinions of Anne Frank,
I cannot tell you what manner of female human Justin Beepler desires (It might affect listeners’ abilities to imagine they specifically are being sung at if they had details, after eh).
However, our own Never-Seen (not even now; I refuse to look) bimshwel exclusive photographs show that purple hair and knee-high yellow boots do not tickle his fancy. Walking barefoot on one’s toes while wearing blue capri pants is the only way to go.
Apart from specifically choosing to look like an extra from West Side Story, the recording industry’s current Justin’s transition from a welch’s grape juice advertisement-look is nothing new. It is the standard “hey Media I have SEX now watch out” forced image makeover. Usually people try to become trashy or thuggish, unless they already have a thug image, in which event they elect to remain thug-like. Nobody ever thinks “maybe I should change my public image of sex-driven, overpaid, selfish, untrustworthy moron.” In fact that is often a condition for them to continue being granted the luxury of being one (unless they become nazis or mildly overweight). What is notable is that this is the fourth time I have mentioned he-who-biebs despite only ever having heard one of his songs and only learned it was his on a technicality. This could give people the impression that I sometimes have really elaborate opinions on topics I know nothing about.
There was a time when writing became an overwhelming burden, because I made the job too difficult, and I resorted to posting pictures I made in the absence of long written pieces, and then later I realized that, owning the website, I was entitled to do that, and later still I felt bad about it again and posted neither words nor pictures. Those were some tough times.
You should always bring a hat to protect against burns.
I think this fulfills my blue sky quota for the year.
Feel free to use this as the title screen to your terrible 1992 super vga shareware game.
a “bear” because the original sketch 9 or so years ago had a similar looking creature in it. I could change it but I have not thought lately. What I did change was the potential victim to ant, instead of a rat. I thought the rat was more stylish but was of improbable size and presumed quickness to suit this pasttime. And then I drew the replacement ant at the size of a rat because I was still hurting from my loss. I wish somebody who otherwise had no sympathy for humanity would take pity on me.
And I suppose you could say ah ha! Obviously nazis dislike gays so this is a JOKE. Like
Fortunately that mental acrobatics isn’t necessary because, like this one who has reported on a previous posting by me of the previous image, there actually are people who think adopting Third Reich names and symbolism is stylish and acceptable [for their otherwise stylish and acceptable misanthropic animal personas], which requires totally different but more publicized mental acrobatics to comprehend. Either they have no concept what real National Socialists actually were, and willingly keep themselves from knowing, making them morons, or know full well and have no problem with it, and I don’t understand how somebody raised in this country in this time period can get to that position.
In fact I have been more closely acquainted with at least one person who thinks neo-nazi-ism isn’t a big deal so long as the culprit draws cute kitty-cats.
And I probably don’t help it by changing the subject away from condoning Nazis,
because I was concerned I was being too hard on my conversation opponent because I knew I was annoyed at him already, for other reasons, such as liking other artists I had different problems with. But thinking now (glad I thought of it), I shouldn’t silence myself to preserve a relationship where I must constantly silence myself, for it is always the same reason: these people don’t care/notice how horrid or infantile anyone else is so long as the cute distribution operation is maintained. The fur-folk crum-bummunity thrives on that, but it is symptomatic of society in general. We treat babies like royalty (because they are “cute” to someone) and if they have a marketable talent then they may get to grow up feeling entitled to special treatment. Noisy, abrasive, uncontrollable, but they draw/sing/wear/remove clothing nice so they get away with it. People who are aware it is horrible say nothing because they can make money for themselves by filming and producing television programs about it. The fantasy of entitlement is “reality.” This “cute” nazi fan artist has nearly 1900 known regular observers, a majority of whom may be presumed to condone the whole thing. There’s no incentive there to alter the behavior. There are 14-year-olds who aren’t necessarily nazis but have 3 times the following and it’s just normal to them that whatever awful they thing they do, if even 3% publicly support them or think they stand to gain something by seeming to, there will be 90ish people to say “great job living!” If I said “that person is a Nazi!” in any other context I would look like a hyperbolic kook, and now that I can say that, the response is “I know, isn’t it cute?”
Anyway, the point is that sometimes it is better if people like me just post drawings without saying anything.
All this is not to say there aren’t individuals who deserve the gas chamber, but that needs to be decided on a case by case basis.
The topic continues over here.