America Needs a President for Barney Smith not Smith Barney!

I'm voting for Barney Smith.

Are you all watching the run-up to Obama's speech? (I'm supposed to be packing.) If you aren't you missed a suprising speech from Mr. average American, Barney Smith. When he took the podium I actually flinched. Yes, I judged a book by it's cover. There were so many assumptions to be made based on life experience that one of them had to be correct. But not at all. I was wrong; forgive me Barney Smith. It wasn't the best oration ever by any means but he did it and he meant it. It was a great explaination point to the delegate part of the evenings speeches. It is to soon to be on the net anywhere but this guy could be meme gold. The sound byte of the orchestration is as follows:

"America needs a President for Barney Smith! Not Smith Barney!"



Barney! Barney! Barney! Barney! ...

Gus, This is Your Chance...

... to influence my musical taste.

To any and all (not just Gus):

I have 30 free downloads left on eMusic before I cancel the trial subscription. I've already pulled several albums to my taste and am willing to give some new stuff a try.

My commitment: find something in their catalog that you like, post the track here (link if you can), and I'll put the first 30 into rotation. Try to keep individual artists to a track or three so I can mix it up. I can't promise to like it, but I will give them all an honest listen.

Klingon threat....averted!

A spokesman for police in Gloucester, where it was surrendered, said: "It is a particularly nasty weapon that can, literally, take someone's head off. We are very glad it is off the streets and we want more weapons handed in."

The blade is believed to be a stainless-steel copy of a Klingon weapon used in the science fiction series Star Trek. "It's an extremely dangerous weapon," said a martial arts expert last night.

I can tell some fanboy will be VERY mad at his mom when he returns from Uni.

p.s. could they have gotten a guy FURTHER from the Klingon standard to pose with this weapon?

Light Sabers are next because "People might not be able to tell if it is a real lightsaber or replica"

Not a Photoshop

Yep, that's Will Farrell and a Sleestak from the upcoming Land of the Lost movie. Fun trivia: Sid and Marty Kroft recruited USC basketball players to play the Sleestak in the original show.

To Take Up Arms Against a Sea of Something Unpleasant

This is not a new game, but one of many excellent flash games that appeared earlier in the year (this past spring was a great time for casual browser gaming) and persists in my mind as a true calssic. I had intended to do a big round-up of all of them, but as the weeks slipped away it felt less and less timely.

All for the best, though, as now I can trickle them out a few at a time. Aside to Waters: I'm not an enabler, I'm an encourager.

The Winter Is Coming

The song "The Albatross" by Elf Power just popped up in iTunes from their album "The Winter is Coming." I never made the George R.R. Martin connection until today. I listened to this record a bunch when it came out. They're band is part of the Elephant 6 collective, and as such, are close cousins to Neutral Milk Hotel.

There are no overt references to the Starks in the title track. But there are parallels. Crows. Lots of crows. And maybe someone spying from the skies?

"The Winter is Coming"

trailing out through the golden dawn
veering into the angry swarm carried by the birds into the dark
swooping down through the blurry clouds
peeling back the enormous shroud to release the beast that lurks behind

mother nature calls your name
leads you to an open space
the winter is coming and you have no time to waste

later on at the lair, see the birds melt into the air
no one could protect them from the sun
blazing on for another world, setting off through the silent swirl
think of all the faces they may know

mother nature calls your name
leads you to an open space
the winter is coming and you have no time to waste

free at last now, the bird has flown
looking down from his floating throne
just a lonely stranger in the sky
down below, people walk the road they never pause as they scurry home
they never see the birds are floating by

Directions

MCTC just opened a new science building. So today, before class, I'm doing some math and a pretty, young woman approaches me with a look of concern and rising urgency on her face. She addresses me politely.

"Excuse me. Can you tell me where the Science Building is?" As usual, my internal editor is asleep at the controls.

"Is it that obvious?" The subtlest adjustment of her expression tells me that she hasn't got time for anything but directions.