Category: general

I know, man; I’m totally shocked too.

;P

Snopes: Rubber Johnny

Hai disagrees with the summary cited on Snopes; he says, “the summary should be ‘what looks like a mutant child locked in a basement is actually a really bad music video.'”

Brooke and I decided to meet up with Mari, Mari’s family, Chris, and Jeannie at Borders for the Harry Potter release party. (Of that group, only Mari and Jeannie had actually preordered the book!)

Before we went over there, I tied Brooke to a chair and forced her to watch Kyou Kara Maou episode 1 on DVD. She claimed to enjoy it, but you never know with coersion…;> Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Furi, Brooke! It’s hilarious I tell you!

Anyway, after Wolfram showed up and stared disdainfully at Yuuri for the first time, we tore ourselves away and headed over to Borders, where much hanging out was to be had.

Someone had brought extra witch hats…

Here’s a picture of everyone.

As you can tell by the timestamp on this post, Brooke and I left before people started getting their books (at midnight, obviously). This is mainly because Brooke was tired, but also because I didn’t want to stand around coveting my neighbors’ wives…err possessions.

In any case, it was neat to see all the kids dressed up in costume (of course, I didn’t get any pictures of that) and to think about buying some Harry Potter-themed snacks. They had rice krispie treats in the shape of a lightning bolt, with thick purple frosting. They had chocolate frogs (toads, technically, according to Jeannie). And they had butterbeer (non-alcoholic). However, the line extended halfway through the store, so I contented myself with looking and imagining.

Mostly, we just stood around and talked, and took pictures of each other wearing the witch hats. I also leafed through a book of Drew Struzan‘s movie posters, which was nice. It had my favorite Star Wars poster and my favorite Indy poster. (Drew also did the Harry Potter posters. Because he is the man.)

After that, Mari disappeared, and shortly thereafter Brooke and I did the same ;>

Observe (1, 2, 3):

Somehow, his face seems to change shape, too.

AJ sent me to this video, Rubber Johnny.

According to the site, it’s “the creepy video everyone is talking about.”

I’m not sure I would call it creepy. I think it’s just weird, and a little gross, and fairly stupid in places.

I’m not really sure what the point is. Any film critics out there have an idea? Luke?

I kind of liked the beginning of it, but after the title was shown it just got…ridiculous.

From Slashdot:

“Engadget has an interesting article regarding a new feature in Longhorn entitled PVP-OPM (Protected Video Path – Output Protection Management) which detects the capabilities of the display devices you are using and manages how (and if at all) content is sent to it. In short, this means that if Longhorn detects that your monitor is not “secure” enough, then your premium video content won’t play on it until you buy one that is. Who gets to decide? The content providers of course.”

Court rejects teachers’ plea over ‘Kimigayo’ issue

I keep seeing stories about Japanese teachers not singing the national anthem, and how they are reprimanded. I do not, however, see any explanation as to why they don’t want to recognize the national anthem. Why don’t the news sources tell us their reasoning? What is the purpose behind these teachers’ protests?

Takarazuka Revue to perform “The Rose of Versailles” at University in South Korea

BeruBara! Lady Oscar!

I want to see it performed!

Japan to promote animated films, video games, music abroad

Because, you know, there aren’t enough anime fans abroad o_O;;

Seriously, maybe this will help us get uncut versions of anime. (Or maybe this harkens the end of fansubs, as Japan cracks down on them so it can profit on exported media…)

Here are two Hiroshima stories.

Rare Hiroshima photos to be shown (one day only)

The panoramic photos were taken Aug. 10, 1945, by Hajime Miyatake, a photographer with the The Asahi Shimbun’s Osaka bureau.

Miyatake, now deceased, entered Hiroshima on Aug. 9 and took the first panoramic photos of the scene from the roof of the three-story Hiroshima-Higashi police station.

Drawings of U.S. soldiers killed by A-bomb given to Hiroshima museum

Dumbledore’s death in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer

The Poppynge of the Clogges

At Hogwarte’s, schoole of wizardrye,

Unfoldeth drede folle tragedie!

Yonge Ron Weasleye, and classmayt Pottyr:

Fallen preye to ‘tvylerottyr,

Who, throughoute Harry’s sadde lyfe,

Hath been the source of muche stryfe;

Hys parente’s lyves, rendyred shorte,

By naughtie manne: Voldemorte!

Pottyr and freynd, in’t towyr trapp’d,

At mercie of thyss eevil ratte!

What woe! What payn! Unluckiness!

To looke upon poor boye’sdystresse.

“Fore all thysse tyme, my plans you’ve foyled,

Designs divertyd, and schemes despoyled!”

So began the Dark Lorde’sawfolle gloatyng,

And standarde baddeguy show?boatynge,

“But not todaye, you little shytte!

Payn’s true meanynge, thou shalt wytte!”

And so commenceth vyle torture,

Whose detayle here ’tis harde to utter,

Arms asunder, Fingeres chopp?d,

Elbowes burned, and thynges off-lopp?d!

The outlook bleake for our hero,

But survival’s chaunce is not yette zero!

In darkest cornere, unknown to’t villayne,

Creeps Dumbledore, to sayve yon children!

Evil’s wand is raysed for’t fynalle tyme,

To finyshoff thysse horrid cryme:

‘Farewelle Pottyr, we’ve had some jokes,

But now thou shalt be with thine folks!’

At thysse, yon Darke Lordesends a shotte,

To putte the ende to Pottyr’slotte,

But ‘fore the blast can Harry ice,

Brayve Dumbledore makes sacrifyce::

In Black Magyck’s pathe he jumpes hedelonge,

For Pottyr’s lyfe to helpe prolonge.

‘It styngs! It burnes! Mine de this come!

From bolt of lightnynge up my bumme!’

Though Pottyr’s sayved, his trusted friend,

Hath in this towyr met hys ende.

Yesse, Dumble’s Done, as is mine narratyv,

Of old lyfe, gonne, for yonger lyfeto lyv.

Tom Richardson

But not todaye, you little shytte! XD

When I asked Mari, Kelly, and Chris whether or not they’d seen Batman Begins, Kelly laughed and said, “We haven’t even seen Star Wars yet.”

My first inclination was to say, “Who cares about Star Wars? Go see Batman!” This struck me, because I had thought I really enjoyed Revenge of the Sith (other than the unbelievable Dark Side shift that is halfway explained by the idea that Anakin is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome/insanity). When I think back on it, though, it would seem that I don’t really care if I see Sith again, but I would like to see Batman at least once more.

Ah well.

All day, when I’ve tried to post, Blogger has timed out during the “read” process. Thinking that there was something wrong with index.html, I removed it entirely and tried republishing again. Then Sean took me out for lunch.

Hope you enjoyed the lovely view of my directory structure while I was gone.

When I got back, I uploaded Google’s cache of the page, then republished, and it worked.

Here’s hoping this post won’t break it again.

Christopher Bahn over at MSNBC has written an article full of questions. He’s connected a few dots and come up with several things he hopes are covered in the next book.

He seems to favor a Harry-Ginny pairing, though for some reason I don’t. I don’t know, he has a point about how Ginny is able to deal with Harry, but somehow I either don’t think he’s met the right person yet, or that he’d be best off with…Luna Lovegood ;P I don’t know, I just have a weird feeling about that.

Will Ron and Hermione get together in this book? I don’t know, if I was the author I’d probably force everyone to wait until the last book to resolve that plot point…although it’s getting less and less realistic to keep them apart, they’re openly jealous now.

Anyway, lots of fun speculation to be had.

From Amazon’s Help section:

We will deliver Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on its Saturday, July 16 release date to eligible customers who pre-ordered from Amazon.com before midnight on Monday, July 11 and chose standard, Two-Day, or One-Day shipping when placing their order. (Amazon Prime customers who ordered the book by July 11 will receive it on the day of release at no additional charge.) If you qualified for guaranteed release-date delivery, in the unlikely event that you don’t receive it on Saturday, July 16, we’ll refund the cost of the book.

So yeah, they get me with the shipping. I ordered it well in advance, but I was ordering it with other stuff and I used the Free Super Saver Shipping option as usual. I wouldn’t have, if I’d gotten some kind of warning about it, but I didn’t.

Oh well, guess I’m just screwed then.

I got the email saying that my order shipped today, and if it shipped from Lexington there’s a chance it might arrive tomorrow, so I guess I will just stick with my plan of not buying it unless it doesn’t come on that day…

Hmm, I’m looking at my package tracking, and it seems to indicate that the order actually went out on the 13th, arriving in Campbellsville, KY at 9:30 pm. The next checkpoint is Atlanta, with a departure scan on the 14th…that is really odd. It couldn’t possibly take them two days to get it to me from Atlanta. Maybe they do something special where they hold the order and bring it on Saturday.

I won’t give up hope! :P

According to this, Amazon didn’t mean to send me an email saying that my copy of Half-Blood Prince might not arrive on the 16th.

Amazon.com e-mailed customers to say its notice that books might be delayed “was sent to you in error.”

“We sincerely apologize for the concern we caused with this incorrect message, and hope you will be thrilled to know that we’ve begun preparing your order for shipment and we are confident that it will be delivered on Saturday, July 16,” the e-mail to customers reads.

Amazon.com spokeswoman Patricia Smith said a few thousand customers mistakenly received the notices.

“It was a complete goof on our end,” Smith said. “I don’t know if it was human error or computer error, but the bottom line is, it was an error.”

I didn’t receive the apology email. My Amazon account still says July 19 for the delivery date. I’m not really sure what to think at this point.

I can hazard a guess that the email was actually intended for people who preordered within the last few days, but who knows for sure?

I guess I won’t try to buy one on Saturday, though…it’s not like I have money to burn. If the book doesn’t show up all day Saturday, maybe I’ll go out and try to find one on Sunday.

This is irritating, and kind of depressing, since I’m really looking forward to the book.

I didn’t read my news subscriptions much while I was immersed in the wizarding world, and as such I had something like 500 items to read. Here is a sampling.

These first few came from BoingBoing.

Crazy-ass clouds

Mulvaney on Bomb Disposal, Supplement to Intelligence Bulletin No. 85, 15 September 1945

A novel without a word telling a love story?

Competition: The death of Dumbledore

The rest are from CNN and/or Drudge.

Coroner: Toddler killed by LAPD bullet

Waterfalls dazzle in Michigan’s far north

Companies confused over gay rights

Suspected leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq captured

“We now believe [Hasib Hussain] was responsible for this attack [on the number 30 bus in London] which claimed the lives of 13 people.”

Five hurt in New York building collapse

Claim: New Potter sold in Indianapolis

Scientists find planet with 3 suns

Who’s the next great film superhero?

“The whole trick is taking a story that has a fantasy angle of some sort, but doing it as realistically as possible,” says the 82-year-old Lee. “Saying, what if a fellow really could shoot a web and crawl on the walls? What would his day-to-day existence be?”

Damn straight.

New “SiteKey” system for banker security launched (I wrote that “headline”, CNN’s sucks)

Tokyo fault could produce ‘intense shaking’

The fault that has twice caused major earthquakes in the Tokyo area may be shallower and more hazardous than previously thought.

Prisoners escape US Afghan base

BBC edits out the word terrorist

CIA-backed tech can instantly spot terrorists in a crowd

A Los Altos, Calif. company, Pixlogic, has been developing technology meant to search for fugitives and insurgency suspects in a crowd.

Pixlogic has employed new software based on visual pattern recognition and search technologies to match archived still or video images with those gathered from security cameras or other sources, Middle East Newsline reported.

[…]

Executives said the company’s software could also detect and alert investigators to anomalies in video footage provided by closed-circuit television systems. Such anomalies could include an individual carrying a large box, or a truck that returns to the same spot. They said such technology has not yet been employed in either Britain or the United States.

Laura [Bush]: Name woman to high court

A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian has learned.

[London] Terrorist gang ‘used military explosives’

Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds

Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

Corpse Falls Into Traffic in Texas

Bill Clinton contends Democrats are held to a double standard (I made that title up too, I mean, that’s what the article’s about…yeesh, AP)

Mystery ‘sex change’ has curious flocking to Myanmar monk-to-be

Support for bin Laden falls in Muslim countries

…WHEW.

Okay, that’s most of the news I actually clicked on and read :>

I want to take a screenshot of how many IE windows I have open right now (hint: it’s a lot), but I don’t have enough RAM available to paste the contents of the clipboard into a program.

:>

There’s a magic 8-ball in the art department. Today I asked it, “Will these people ever hire me?”

The magic 8-ball said, “Signs Point to Yes”

Then I asked, “Will that [other place I keep getting the runaround from] ever hire me?”

The magic 8-ball said, “Most Likely”

Finally I asked, “Will that [other place I keep getting the runaround from] hire me next week?”

The magic 8-ball said, “Cannot Answer Now”

So, of course, I asked it again, and it said, “Signs Point to Yes”