| An interesting, if somewhat gross, realization |
[Sep. 11th, 2006|12:20 am] |
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As many of us know, the somewhat uneloquent American right wing often refer to the islamic world (this, of course, means the entire islamic world - remember, one of the world's three biggest religions is, in its entirety, a fundamentalist sect) as 'camel-f*ckers', obviously intended as a derogatory term to imply that muslims are morally inferior and/or should be disposed with. This is stated even though islamic states carry extremely severe punishments for beastiality. Meanwhile, the good old american heartland has provided conditions where a man has been able to legally marry a horse and, erm, consumate the relationship. War for beastiality? O_o |
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| New avatar! |
[Aug. 21st, 2006|03:17 am] |
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Lo, the power of Mentok the Mindtaker! eeeeeeouuuoooooooeeeeEEEEEEEUUUOOOOOOOO... |
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| Fashion SWAT - More NHL Jerseys |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|01:59 pm] |
Let's see what other embarassing designs the NHL has provided us with, shall we?
That's all for now. I'm running a little dry on current jersey designs and it's a little more difficult to find images of older ones (although there are ones out there that make the worst of these lot seem downright classy), so there may or may not be a third instalment; if there is it will probably be somewhat abridged. |
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| Snakes on a Plane |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|01:20 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes | ] |
Saw it earlier today. Cancel the oscars, we have our best film. |
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| Fashion SWAT - NHL Jerseys |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|09:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Led Zepplin - Dazed And Confused | ] |
There's a lot of these I'm itching to take a swipe at so another one of these is definately penned in for the future. Cripes, there's a lot of terrible jersey designs out there... |
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[Aug. 2nd, 2006|12:01 am] |
sorry about the complete lack of entries from the last few weeks. The truth is, very little has happened until I quit the safeway stint back on Saturday. Some bullet points over what has happened since then.
-got pidgeonholed into going to the stampede rodeo. Somehow the idea of getting on an animal known to be dangerous, pissing it off, and seeing how long you can stay on dosen't strike me as the most intellectually sound concept for a sport. If you want to stop being called hicks, this would be a good place to start improvements.
-saw Broken Social Scene, oddly as headliners for the folk music festival. GO SEE THIS BAND, they're a phenominal summer band and their performances are perfect for warm outdoor nights.
-went to the zoo today. Saw otters. And stag fellatio o_________o
I have something coming up for a next entry which I hope to be special. To certain kinds of people anyway. Until then... |
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| More Oddities |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|10:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Red Hot Chili Peppers - Turn It Again | ] |
I feel I don't neve need to comment on this one...
*while sweeping*
girl: We were all in art yesterday
dad: Really? Who's Art? |
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| Oddities |
[Jun. 11th, 2006|11:54 pm] |
Two odd shoppers from the other day
-I didn't get much of a look at this one, but early one shift I spotted a guy who had his laptop strapped to the handlebars/basket ledge of his shopping cart. He was filling out Excel spreadsheets while browing through the fucking chip aisle. It took about five minutes for it to really sink in that he was physically doing work DURING HIS GROCERY RUN.
-The day of game two of Carolina/Edmonton I bagged the groceries of a large bespeckled woman wearing a Conservative Party t-shirt (first of all, what the hell? Who wears a political campaign t-shirt six months after an election?). Beyond the mere physical oddity of the shirt, however, was her discussion of the upcoming game. Hardly surprizing on its own, I've had shoppers talk about it to me all the time during game days, but this woman set herself apart by her declaration of how the Oilers would win the series because she prayed for them, and that Carolina's victory would signal a triumph of satan. That's right, ladies and gentlement - in a world wracked by ecenomic distress and terrorism, we have people dedicating prayer to HOCKEY. As a heaven-hell battle no less. o_____o |
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| A Safeway-Sponsored Rant |
[Jun. 3rd, 2006|11:56 pm] |
After a few days of my mind-blowingly crap summer job at Safeway, I've noticed something. People are douchebags. Part of my tasks as a 'courtesy cleark' (ie - bagboy with other, equally crummy small jobs tacked on. Yay!) involves sweeps. You know that huge-ass push broom that's like four feet wide they use in grocery stores? On designated hours I get to use that and run it through the aisles and other parts of the store. Sweeping aisles usually involves pushing the broom up one side, turning at the end, and running along the opposite side. Obviously, shoppers and such are using the aisle space while I'm... brooming. This is where my beef begins. Some individuals are quite courteous and move over to the other side of the aisle when I ask politely for them to move (oddly, old women seem to be the most nice about this). About 80% of the time, though, I'm either ignored or, more often, given The Unholy Glare Of Death before they shuffle off to the other side of the aisle. Having a broom in my hands seems to mark me as the source of all derision in the eyes of those within the store. To those individuals - yes, I apologize. I forgot that the act of stepping three feet to the left is a physical act requiring many years of hard training, and Olympic Sidesteppers are few and far between in Calgary (they're more often seen in the Vancouver area which contains far better athletic sidestepping equipment and facilities). I also realize that doing so adds a whopping half-second to your shopping experience, eating away valuable time for you to drive around in your pointlessly large SUV and pickup truck (both extremely necessary for grocery runs in an urban environment with paved roads) and watch the latest episode of Desperate Housewives or whatever show they have nowadays people think is 'good'. Trust me, I'd rather not have a job involving me sweeping grocery store floors in the first place and therefore wouldn't have to ask you to get out of the way, but there's a reason sweeps are done. There are stupid amounts of people making use of the space in a given day and unless you want to buy your food in a place with floors covered with the trash of previous customers, please move the fuck over in a manner that dosen't suggest some herculian effort on your part.
I saw another truck with a confederate flag license plate on the front bumper. It seems like these plates are always found on a ridiculously huge pickup truck or a trashy delivery van. Jesus, if this place really is peppered with so many confederate supporters I shudder to think what it's like in states that were actually PART of the confederacy. And the Texans wonder why I never want to set foot in their state... |
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| Jebus... |
[May. 30th, 2006|01:15 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | RHCP - 21st Century | ] |
I was flicking through the channels this morning before going to work and wound up finding George W. Bush on a talk show, doing an impersonation of Bill Clinton. And it was good.
o_________________________o |
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[May. 22nd, 2006|01:12 am] |
In my long LJ absence I've acquired summer jobbage. I get to be a 'courtesy clerk' at Safeway, which is pretty much just a fancy way of saying that I'm a bagboy who gets the additional benefits of cleaning up spills made by customers who haven't grasped the notion of holding onto an item. Kinda sucks given that I was hoping for something music-orientated and, well, I'm a fucking bagboy for three and a half months but it's 200 dollars a week to throw groceries into bags so feh.
We've also had a death in the family recently. My iPod of one year and five months was officially pronounced deceased by an Apple Store official earlier this week. Cause of death was determined to be corruption of the hard drive via excessive shocks, a COD seen as suspicious given the iPod's relatively passive life. The iPod, or Poddy as he prefered to be called, will be remembered for his monochrome affinity for nostalgia and his portability. He is survived by the new iPod recently ordered and expected to enter the household within the next few days.
Also, today I found a van with a confederate flag license plate on the front. Is it okay for me to say I *really* hate Calgary now? |
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[May. 4th, 2006|10:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Neverending White Lights - Liar | ] |
hurray for reversal of fortunes. Calgary's out, hence negating any negative feelings I has concerning Detroit getting out. I've been handing out resumes today with the prospect of some form of summer job. I took time out of my busy schedule in downtown to point at every remaining supportive slogan for the Flames, yell "not anymore!" and laugh manically. Good times. |
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| Red Wings |
[May. 1st, 2006|07:57 pm] |
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Sweet jesus. There is no god. I have not lost all hope, however. Seeing Calgary lose will be even more satisfying to me than seeing Detroit win. *sobs into his jersey* |
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[Apr. 7th, 2006|11:24 pm] |
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final day of classes for us, cueing the countdown to exams and eventual leavage. I have to say, I actually feel some sense of not wanting to go. Mind-bogglingly, I've encountered an educational experience that didn't leave me with bitter hate towards all humanity (don't worry, most of it is still there and it'll probably regenerate over the summer). What have I learned? Single rooms are teh r0x0rs. It really *is* possible to make it through a year of university without delving into rampant experimentation with alcohol and drugs. Psych class is really little more that Biology lite, which sucks. Just about all art ties back in some way either to sex or politics. And, of course, social lives are grossly overrated. mind-numbing months of parental supervision and working at HMV ho! |
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| Freud - Action Hero Extraordinare |
[Mar. 26th, 2006|04:56 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Editors - Bullets | ] |
Stumbed across this on YTMND just now. Quite possibly one of the few things that manages to set off both my 'Awesome' and 'WTF' alarms at the same time. Behold - a cryogenically-frozen Sigmund Freud sent to Afghanistan to destroy the taliban by means of high-flying action and the Oedipus complex.
http://rapidshare.de/files/16437503/The_New_Adventures_of_SIGMUND_FREUD.zip.html |
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[Mar. 19th, 2006|06:14 pm] |
Hi kids, I'm still here. Been a busy little... while for me lately. Having a term paper sandwitched between regular essays tends to be a bit of a bitch. The limited space in my dormroom is definately noticible, it feels like there's a hell of a lot less space with art history books all stacked up on the floor next to my desk. The topic in question? Be it resolved:
'Abstract Expressionism has been regarded as both a retreat from the political activism of the 1930s and as a political tool of American foreign policy. Describe the qualities and conditions that lead to the notions of a retreat and discuss, in particular, Jackson Pollock's art as an expression of democratic freedom and individualism that could be used to promote 'American' values'
That basically means 2500 words on
This!
This!
This!
and This!
Fun. I'm almost completely through it though, should be finished comfortably before Wednesday's due date. I'd give cookies to those who can list off those artists in order but I think most of them say it in the link so there wouldn't be much point. |
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| lol, Pride |
[Mar. 1st, 2006|02:17 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Avalanches - Frontier Psychatrist | ] |
So apparantly some large-scale pro-life demonstration is taking place on campus tomorrow. This group is supposedly notorious for using graphic images to compare abortions to lynchings, the Holocaust, Rwandian massacres, ect. Obviously these people are nuts to a Westboroian degree and I have no problem with there being an accompanying protest to the demonstration. My beef lies with the fact that the protest seems to be largely, if not primarily, the brainchild of the university's pride organization instead of a focused feminist/pro-choice group. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Pride is intended as an organization for the betterment of gay and lesbian relations with society at large. So why are they focusing all this energy and effort on an issue that isn't really a gay issue in the first place? The chances of accidently getting pregnant seem pretty damn low in same-sex relationships, so where's the unwanted fetus to choose to abort? The sole exception I can think of for instances of unwanted pregnancy in lesbians (since lets face it, abortion isn't really a personal issue when you have a penis) would be in rape cases. Sure they're significant, but remember that this is a small fraction of an already small minority. Unfortunately, democracy means that generally the majority rules, or at the very least can present some form of influencial voice. The small numbers of gay/lesbian instances where abortion could be seen as a viable issue seems to simply be too small for it to be a valid gay rights issue. Even if you don't buy into that, there are some better things Pride could be dedicating itself towards. You know, like all the gays and lesbians out there who don't associate themselves with Pride who get the recieving end of homophobic bullshit purely because of the negative stereotypes Pride insists on maintaining, supporting, and projecting out onto society at large. But hey, getting beaten up for being gay can take a back seat so that we can trench ourselves even further into the stalemate of this abortion debate. Pride seriously needs to get its priorities in check. |
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| suck on this, cupid! |
[Feb. 14th, 2006|12:49 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Led Zep - The Rover | ] |
So, Valentine's Day is upon us...
*backs up a few feet, then runs up and punts a cherub like a fleshy, winged football*
Yes, I'm one of the sheep who hate this 'holiday'. Blatant crummy commercialism aside it seems completely asinine to celebrate 'love' on a date that commemorates the typically graphic execution of a roman christian priest giving illegal marriages. Besides, what's the point of this? Why must couples emphasize their feelings for one another on what is effectively a completely arbitrary date? What happened in their personal lives on the 14th of Febuary that reminds them of their closeness to one another? Usually diddly squat. Of course, some people could arrange for things to happen on Valentines (proposals, marriages, ect) but even then it's scheduled around a date that ultimately holds no personal significance. Whatever the hell happened to being that way to a partner the OTHER 364 days anyway...? So what'll I be doing for Valentines? Well, the Arctic Monkeys' supposedly kickass debut album is coming out. I'll pretty much be picking that up and listening to it. A lot.
Speaking of supposedly kickass music, my dad introduced me to the awesomeness that is Physical Graffiti. Why I haven't listened to that much Led Zepplin leading up to this moment is mystifying... |
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| Remember kids, if you criticize Pride, you're automatically a homophobe! |
[Feb. 8th, 2006|04:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Ataxia - Another | ] |
I'm on UBC Pride's mailing list. Usually this involves getting article postings or updates on meetings, most of quick I quickly gloss over before dumping into my trash folder. One message caught my eye, however. Such an article can be seen here. I pretty much saw this as yet another petty outrage from Pride and pretty much finally got the nerve to write to the mailing list about it. In any case, my ignorance for the issue is posted below. I'm actually almost looking forward to the inevitable flood of hate-choked, poorly-written replies.
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Most messages I get from the mailing list are given at most quick glances - as an individual who is both underage and not terribly proficient in vocal debate, the usual regular updates concerning discussion forums and events requiring the Unholy Two Pieces Of ID and its nefarious sidekick, No Underage Wristbanding (but that's an argument for another time) tend to be somewhat redundant. However, for whatever reason, I found myself drawn into this e-mail and the subsequent article linked to it. And, for whatever reason, I found myself compelled to reply to it.
One might ask why I'm writing this in what is effectively a public mailing list. In all honesty I find some trouble in figuring that out myself. Perhaps I simply feel the need to release something that has never sit right with me not only with this particular issue but with Pride itself - a confession of sorts. With that in mind, I suspect, nay, wholeheartedly predict the general negative opinions towards this message (assuming, of course, anyone bothers to read it in the first place). Since this seems an inevitability, I welcome any clarifications or counter-arguments on the single condition that some form of civility is used.
Well, with that all said and done I return to the issue in question. World of Warcraft, for those who are not computer game-savvy, is was is referred to a Massively Multiplayer Onling Roleplaying Game (abridged to MMORPG). This effectively means that the game is played within a large-scale free-roaming game world populated with a large number (up into the thousands per individual server) of other people. Players are able to take an open-ended approach to the game, aquiring skills and items to increase their abilities. Dedication to the game structure is rewarded through a levelling system, allowing players to aquire increasingly better abilities as they increase in level. Doing this requires completing tasks called 'quests', usually involving acquiring particular items or defeating a certain number of computer-driven baddies. The idea of guilds is where this is primarily put into place - the game often presents tasks that are either impossible or near-impossible to complete by yourself. Among a slew of other benefits, joining a guild makes it easier for players to group up with other players in order to complete a difficult quest together and ultimately help everyone progress through the game in a way that helps to keep the social element of the game intact.
Anyway, that's a somewhat incomplete, dry explanation of how the game works and the function of guilds. Now for the quasi-interesting stuff. As a firmly seasoned internet user (so seasoned that perhaps a stronger cullinary word such as 'infused' would be more accurate) and a relatively recent member of the WoW fanboy mob, I would like to present a few realities that I have come across in my many sessions using 'teh intarnets':
I confess that my status in WoW is still fairly low - a Night Elf Druid at a juvenile lvl26 - but I've done a fair amount of questing. I've killed things, picked up things from the bodies of things I've killed, cultivated things, cooked things, mixed things, bought things, sold things, traded things, casted things, flown things, transformed into things, and... well, that's about it. Regardless, in light of the amount I've explored and interacted with in the game world, I rack my mind for any instance where I've been enquired, let alone mistreated, concerning something like sexual orientation. Maybe I'm on an unusually civil server or something, but I've yet to see any message in the 'Looking For Group' chatbox along the lines of [looking for people for *quest X*, preferably healers and people who aren't sexually attracted to their own gender]. Likewise, I have never seen any quest where the requirements involve anything concerning whether I enjoy taking it up the butt (but for the record, I don't. Yet. Max may yet have his way). On top of that, that lack of exclusion, both in the game-generated quest system and the players themselves, has extended to pretty much any minority that generally finds itself on the recieving end of what we commonly refer to bigotry. Anti-semetic players? None that I've seen. Quests that are unavaliable to blacks? Nope. Nor have I seen any indication that these groups feel the need to make themselves known to everyone. So I find it particularily mind-boggling that this need for a gay-only (sorry, 'gay-friendly') guild is so prevalent. Referring back to my original description of guilds, why is it so necessary that gay WoW players play with other gay WoW players? Obviously other minorities are fine with playing the game and *enjoying themselves* without needing to flaunt 'pride' for an inherent biological composition they were born with. The desire to prevent harrassment is clearly an admirable one and I can understand how "remaining invisible and silent is not an acceptable means of reaching that goal", but someone please explain to me how going out of your way to form your own, SEPERATE group from everyone else in the game IS an acceptable means of doing that. Aquiring acceptance and integration with the rest of society isn't exactly synonymous with blatant and intentional segregation. What was that saying about having one's cake, again...?
Regardless, let us now look into our next reality concerning the online world. 'Vee Zed' put it quite rightly - it's full of kids who are not cool with gay. What does this mean, exactly? A solid 97% of the time (rounded, of course), it involves 12-year olds wearing metal band t-shirts and that tragically fashionable hairstyle where you mousse your hair forward in a continuous ridge of stupid engaging in IM conversation with his similarily-styled friends with every other sentance being "that *insert object here* is gay". The sheer lack of logic in declaring an inanimate object as homosexual is something I've already commented on in great length elsewhere and won't bother repeating. That said, it's pretty much the worst I've found in chat systems as far as homophobia. Once again, 'Vee Zed' is correct in pointing out that it's "stupid anti-gay behaviour". So the logical thing we should be doing is treating it as such. We know it's idiodic, most people who have passed puberty know it's stupid, hell, I imagine even the kids who say it know somewhere in their minds that it's stupid too. But, as usual, we seem incapable of accepting stupidity and find ourselves throwing out the lawyers at the mere drop of a hat. WoW is currently one of if not the most popular games in the world right now. Its game structure means that a mind-boggling amount of people are capable of playing at any given time. The expectation that Blizzard should be devoting anything ressembling a sufficiently effective method of policing the entire game and snuffing out players at the mere remark of "that quest was gay" defies logic. I pay monthly fees so that the developers can spend their energies creating a constantly fresh and improved gaming experience, not so I can be spared the 'outlandish insult' of having some kid almost half my age remarking that something is 'gay'.
At the end of the day, I play WoW for a very simple reason. It's a game. It's a FANTASY game at that. I hear more than I've ever had any desire to hear about politics and wars and social tensions away from the computer. I somehow doubt that the likes of the Kyoto treaty or Danish political cartoons are issues that have torn Azeroth (WoW's game world) apart. In fact, I went back to the game manual and read the historical appendix again to double-check. I'm in the clear - no reference to jihad or pollution reduction agreements anywhere to be found. If these and effectively all other real-world issues are absent from the ultimate structure of the game, why must gay rights suddenly be dragged into it? Could be any issue for all I care, I just find it a shame that a fantasy environment has to be constantly marred by people unable to keep a clear distinction between the real world and fictional roleplaying.
I can understand and indeed deeply sympathize with the issue of homosexual rights. I find it deeply disturbing when leaders of supposedly free countries make efforts to prevent the sanction of rights to particular citizens for what should ultimately a superficial distinction, let alone that these actions are met with clear public support. This incident, however, makes me shake my head and sigh. Apparantly Pride has run out of things in the real world to nitpick; now it finds itself compelled to demand things from worlds that don't even exist outside of Blizzard's servers. My already critical view on Pride have taken another serious blow with this incident. Seems like a virtual reality check is in order.
-Matt |
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| gay bashes and computer crashes |
[Feb. 8th, 2006|01:56 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Le Fly Pan Am - Tres Tres 'Retro' | ] |
So the other day I was madly writing an essay due tomorrow (usually with my bi-weekly essays I have a relatively secure schedule that I stick to; on this occasion, for whatever reason, I found myself on the day before the due date with less than a page written up. Cue major cram-writage). I usually take advantage of my ipod speakers and the absence of quiet hours in the afteroon during these times and have something playing while I work. My tastes in music are a tad on the uncommon side. I can't remember exactly what I was playing - I think it might have been Sufjan Stevens or The Dears. In any case, I was making a bathroom run and I crossed by someone who was just walking into the floor lounge. As I was passing the open door, someone in the lounge enquired "who's got this gay music playing?" The walls here seem to be relatively poor at insulating sound, and given that my room is the only one on the floor that shares a wall with the lounge, I can only assume that they were referring to what I had playing, whatever it was. I imagine you assume this is going to be a rant on people's poor musical taste. It's not going to be, though - mainly because that's a given. No, adjectives are my nark point tonight. I always have, and still do, fail to comprehend to label effectively everything that's negative as 'gay'. The obvious homophobic element aside, it's been done to death. Saying something is 'gay' never was particularily clever or witty or original in the first place, why does using it for the quadrillionth time in identical context any more effective. Even throwing all that out the window, saying it's gay MAKES NO SENSE. Last I checked, music (and all other things labelled by the jock profiles exquisitely reflected in most of the residents on my floor) is an inanimate object. If you can show me how sound waves generated by speakers in a way to produce coherent (or semi-coherent if you're listening to Le Fly Pan Am) tones within the ear is capable of being sexually attracted to sound waves generated by speakers in a way to produce coherent tones within the ear of the same gender, I'll eat my hat. No, seriously, I will take a knife and fork and physically chew and swallow my much-loved beret. Well I suppose if the music I was listening to did indeed exhibit homosexual tenddancies towards other pieces of music, I figured there was no harm in playing flaming faggot music. Vocalized Silver Mount Zion pieces at an increased volume seemed appropriately queertastic for the loungedwellers.
In unrelated news, my laptop went stupidly wonky on me last night. You know how when you log out of windows it clears the taskbar and all the icons for a few moments before properly shutting off? It pretty much was flicking between that and back to normal desktop use every minute or so. As an additional annoyance, Windows Explorer windows closed automatically upon the occurance of these cycles. I hacked away at possibly ways to find some electronic Neo Citron for my ill laptop to no avail. Activating PC Restore seemed the only option. Essential files and programs were thankfully small in number, small enough to fit comfortably on the remaining space on my ipod. Reestablishing downloaded programs and games took most of my out-of-lecture time today, though. There was also the added error of forgetting to save my Photoshop/Imageready rips before formatting >.<. I really don't want to reload KaZaA to get the programs back and a 30-day trial obviously isn't what I'm wanting, so I guess it'll be time to grovel for disk borrowage or something.. |
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