You know those old videos that were all the rage back in the day that were about playing classical music overtop of bright and colorful things that were supposed to make an army of super intelligent babies but actually did more to develop ADD than anything resembling intelligence? Well “Vermilion Pleasure Night” is sort of like that for the Young Adult Fetishist.
Lots of bright colors, lots of cute girls in outfits that would give any fashion aficionado a rock hard erection, awesome music, and some bizarre comedy.

I remember seeing the trailer for this a long time ago in my early pubescent days of reading Newtype Magazine and being intrigued. At the time I was into manga and anime in a bad way. So anything that the magazine told me was good I wanted with a passion. It also promised boobies, which at the time would have also worked.

But as things go I never got around to buying it and I eventually forgot it. However the other day I was browsing through Netfilx streaming catalog and found all of the episodes were available for instant watch. So looking for a chance to wax nostalgic I Queued it up and let it go. I was not entirely prepared for what I got.

The music, they style, and on rare occasion the comedy and satire were fantastic! I was racking my brain as to why this wasn’t more popular. I thought “This crazy Japanese random crap is exactly what weeaboo otaku eat up!” But then I realized, the reason it was not popular is because its not “Japanese” really.

The animation style that it uses are far from anime and the closest I could compare it to is Heavy Metal but even then still not quite right. The music isn’t girl pop sang by frilly pop idols. The clothing, while ridiculous, is not made of lace, no latex tutu’s, no maid outfits, and the nurses are far from this. What’s more, it’s not trying to be wacky or crazy its trying to be legitimately different and I applaud them for that.

The problem that arises is that it’s a fairly repetitive show . Skits repeat often and a lot of the time the humor of the running gags don’t come across very well. Two recurring skits that I kind of hate are the Fuccons, who got their own spin off show and did fairly well in America, and Zombie Family which takes too much time and is boring even if the make up looks rad. By the third episode in a row I was just fast forwarding though them as quickly as possible to get to the good stuff.
At times the show tries to satirize Japanese family sitcoms which sometimes you can kind of see how it could be funny but it generally fails. What’s worse though, is when it tries to satirize art films. Sometimes it does alright but most of the time it just becomes difficult to tell if it’s a joke or if its being serious.
But all of that doesn’t put me off that much. I still enjoyed a lot of it. Watching pretty things, listening to dance music, and clapping my hands like the super intelligent infant I truly am.

I would suggest, if you can, watch the first two episodes then give yourself a break. I was up till 3 watching all five episodes back to back and I’m sure my brain slowly leaking out of my nose.
But there is always something cool and new to be seen in every episode but a lot of each episode is repeated skits or more goddamn Fuccons.

Keep a look out for:
One point English
Midnight Cooking (specifically the one where she has the shakes)
Zipper Girl
Quick Girl
Hot space ladies playing in pink goo.

Potentially Related posts

• Because we’re obviously just that cool (0)
• Listen to Good hip-hop: Madlib (0)
• THE GAME IS CALLED CONSPIRACY (0)
• (but not hotdog buns) (0)
• Todd Goldman – not the sharpest knife in the drawer (0)

So here it is, Thursday morning. I’d like to talk to you for a moment about food, and some crappy absinthe, but first, food.

There may have already been some food (and general trip) related photos, so make sure you’re keeping tabs on my flickr, which I didn’t even know that ping.fm posted to until yesterday!

Here’s what I’ve been jotting down my food-related notes in:

50 cents in the random crap bin at the grocery store. Purchased for the lulz.

Tuesday when we got in, we checked our bags at the hotel, and since it was too early to check into the room proper we decided to suss out the closest delicious food source. I poked at yelp and so forth on my phone, and saw that there were a couple things up the street from us. Exploring, we discovered a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese place.

Koji Osakaya Japanese Restaurant

First off, whoever told me that sushi is just better on the west coast… was clearly right. This was a great experience that trumps every east coast sushi I’ve ever had. Granted, hunger does make a fine sauce – and man was I ever hungry – but this was very easily a much tastier and worthwhile experience.

The place was fairly quiet, somewhat understandable for about 2pm on a Tuesday I suppose. There was limited seating in the restaurant from what I could tell, leading me to think they probably do more takeout business than dine-in. Still quiet was exactly what I was after. I greedily eyed the noodle bowl options, but knowing the portion sizes that things like that tend to come in, I resigned myself to checking out the lunch specials and items that looked cheap since I knew they’d be somewhat smaller. I was starving, but not interested in eating myself sick either. Sometimes it’s a thin line between full and HOARF, ya know? While perusing the sushi options, I spotted an amusing typo.

Bagle Maki

page 1 of food libraries

For about 15$ I picked out the assorted sashimi lunchbox, mostly because I was hoping it’d come on a bed of rice so I could stuff myself silly on sumptuous sushi rice. It was to be my one concession to the urge to eat ’til I dropped. No such luck there, but the miso soup was some of the best miso soup broth I’ve had in a while even if it was lacking my personal favorite: green onion. My usual habit of dumping a generous amount of soy sauce (we’re talking 3 shades darker at least, people) into the soup was totally unnecessary here. The fish, oh the fish was amazing! There was a piece of octopus which was chewy, salty, light and packed with flavor. It’s somewhat difficult to describe but if you haven’t had octopus and you enjoy sushi, get past the idea that it’s a tentacle and do it up. There was salmon which was melt-in-my-mouth delicious, though perhaps a little… lighter than what I’m used to getting. This may have to do with it being fresher, or it may be a different variety of salmon. I couldn’t tell and I didn’t ask. There was something that was pale, flakey and unbelievably rich. I was just looking at sushiencyclopedia.com – which seems like a pretty nice resource – but couldn’t find anything that quite matched. There was of course some medium fat tuna, and something that I think was yellowtail perhaps. I grabbed a couple rolls off the sushi plates my compatriots got, and was also impressed. The rice was terrific (would that I had gotten some!) and the veggie roll with ume and shiso was intense. Not quite my thing, but impressively flavored nevertheless. I also got the coldest, crispest Sapporo I’ve ever had. It was in a brown bottle with a golden label, which I don’t think I’ve had before. Totally awesome. One of those and all that lush food, and I was on top of the world, lookin’ down on creation.

After an awesome start to the food ethos of the West Coast, I was pumped for what lay ahead. The hotel uses the restaurant downstairs to fulfill their room service, Pazzo, and that was our next experience, with WILDLY mixed results.

Pazzo and Pazzoria

We got late night munchies from them. I got manicotti, and @meatbag picked up the capellini pomedoro (which was angel hair pasta with… stuff). The manicotti was pretty good. The sauce was lacking a little something, but the baked cheese on top totally made up for all that. (What can I say? I’m a sucker for cheese.) With that experience being pretty satisfactory, I was looking forward to breakfast. I was wrong to do so

The egg in the omelet I got had almost no character whatsoever. The spinach and fontina in it were fine enough, I suppose, but paired with the egg it was just underwhelming. The potatoes were salvaged from a dry hell by copious amounts of tabasco and ketchup. The bacon… oh the poor bacon. The nearest thing I can think to compare it to would be pork rinds made out of cardboard. The cappuchino was cold, so it pretty much didn’t matter what it tasted like. I spiked it with coffee from the thermos so I could at least drink it. The coffee itself was definitely potable.

This morning out of laziness, we opted to give them another shot. This time I got the french toast with sausage, and a fruit cup. It was like a whole different experience! The slices of bread were huge and screamed “we totally bake our own bread” which they totally do, in the bakery connected to the restaurant that’s connected to the hotel (and the green grass grew all around all around, ‘cept it didn’t because this is the city, duh). Pazzoria bakery helped make this particular breakfast a total success. The pain perdu had awesome flavor. I spread it with butter and drizzled it generously with the (I believe totally authentic) maple syrup, stealing a little cream cheese from @meatbag‘s smoked salmon plate for one of the smaller pieces. It was all music to my mouth and filling without being super heavy, like rich breakfast food like that can sometimes be. The fruit cup was impressive. It was actually a small bowl of nicely arranged, fresh, and really flavorful fruits. The apple was the best I’ve had in a long while and left me wanting so much more. The pineapple was delicious, as were the blueberries. I’m not a huge cantaloupe fan but this was firm and sweet, and before I let it get warm it was quite good. The only negative here was the slightly mushed blackberries. They still had good flavor, but once they start getting smushy the texture aspect just isn’t very enjoyable.

ridiculous breakfast!

meatbag's salmon plate. those triangles? expertly cut cream cheese, folks. mmmmm... cream cheese.

Let’s take a quick trip back in time though shall we? Yesterday’s lunch was equally as squee-tastic, and came courtesy of a jaunt out to a place called Bon Apetite, across the street from a large Greek restaurant with a crazy purple octopus out front.

What you see in the upper left corner is not a monster, but my finger. It was raining and I was attempting to shield the camera lens on the back of my phone.

Bon Appetite!

So as noted above, the Greek restaurant with the giant octopus out front sounded great at first because it’s Greek food, and it’s close, AND they have a giant octopus out front. I checked it out on yelp and was disappointed to find that most reviews were very negative. Slow service, incorrect orders, etc. I sniffed around some more to see what else was in the area to satisfy my urge for something Mediterranean. Just across the street from that same cephalopod-bearing restaurant was a place called Bon Appetite, labeled as Greek/Mediterranean food. Perfect! We trucked down there in an inexplicable rain shower, a light but steady drizzle from what looked like a clear sky.

It took a second to find the place. It’s part of a strip of stores that aren’t terribly distinctive. That puzzle solved, we headed in and firmly glued our eyes to the menu. Shwarma, falafel, gyros abound on their list. The shwarma was tempting, but since Quick to Go in Somersworth (NH, that is) has already won the right to that fiefdom of my heart, I went with the falafel. I’ve made my own sweet potato falafel, but never had proper falafel until yesterday. Holy crap I had no idea what I was missing. It had a enough of that fried food flavor to satisfy even the most vicious urge for grease, but not so much that it was dripping with oil. The flavor itself was rich with parsley and that slightly nutty flavor that only comes from chickpeas. The sauce was so fantastic I actually avoided picking the tomatoes out of my wrap, which is kind of a big deal since I don’t do raw tomato as a rule.

Or as I conveyed my feelings on the matter via Twitter:

that was so good it was almost sexually gratifying A+++++++ would nom again

We grabbed an appetizer box to go for @malpertuis, who’d stayed in to chill. It slid around a bit since the takeout box decided to turn sideways in the bag, but that didn’t stop it from being fantastic, it just stopped it from looking pretty. The hummus, baba ganoush, etc were all amazing, and clearly homemade with that kind of balance between richness and salt that can’t come from the store.

After the fantastical radness of Bon Appetite, we decided it was high time to procure some booze. Not being bar-going folk, @meatbag and I both decided we’d hunt down the liquor store and see what was different and thrilling on offer. We first popped in to a convenience store to pick up a six pack of local beer, which was pretty good, though nothing incredibly distinctive.

I didn’t know you could buy scope at the liquor store…

What WAS noteworty was the absinthe we picked up at the liquor store on our way back to the hotel. First off, a word about this liquor store. It was dimly lit, maybe because it was so close to closing time. The selection was pretty admirable, though hard to read since it was all behind the counter. A type of theft prevention, I’m sure, but kind of annoying as I like to be able to read the bottles and price labels up close and personal. The guys working were playing Wilco (Being There, so mad cred for that too) at an admirable level.

In the interest of perhaps setting ourselves up with the means to make Doctor Funk/Crunk/Funkenstein (pro tip: they’re each slightly different drinks), we eyed the absinthes on offer. They had Lucid, which has become our standby at this point, and three others we weren’t familiar with. One was about the same price as the Lucid (around 60), and one was $80 in a lovely bottle. The one we ended up getting, however, was about $45 dollars. We learned the hard way that you do NOT cheap out on absinthe. Ever. Seriously.

It came in a cardboard tube, positioning itself like some “fancy” booze. In retrospect I theorize this was not so much a package design decision as a “let’s hide how fake this shit looks” move. This was definitely an instance where the inability to get up close and personal on the packaging (largely due to lack of time, I’m sure they would have let us check it out) really hurt our purchase decision ability.

Here’s how the live twitter report went:

• http://ping.fm/p/ijjMm – new kind of absinthe it is VERY green not sure how I feel about that, but the proof is in the louching afterall :)
• http://ping.fm/p/7drCc - no your eyes do not decieve you, that IS mouthwash colored absithe, friends. taste verdict to come
• it smells like a high alcohol herbal perfume so far, not as rich on the nose as i’d like…
• correction to aroma report: out of the bottle it smells like wintergreen and non-descript men’s cologne
• and what did we learn here, kids? we learned that you don’t get the cheap goddamn absinthe. it TASTES like wintergreen cologne too. :/ Editor’s Note: FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

It was just plain awful. It’s got at least 3 dyes in it, thus the fucked up neon aqua color. It really does taste like what would happen if you dumped some cologne into scope. A child’s experiment in mixology. “Here daddy I made you this!” Hell, I almost gargled with it this morning since I really just want it to be good for SOMETHING. It was a tragic waste of 40$, for sure.

Avoid, at all costs, Le Tourment Vert absinthe. I really can’t stress this enough. Other reviews back me up, too. Someone generously suggests that it might appeal to people who enjoy Rumplemintz. That may be true, I’ve never had Rumplemintz so the comparison is lost on me. However, I’d not suggest giving this away to a desperate alcoholic who is on the verge of switching to sterno, I found it so repugnant.

Luckily, we’d also picked up a 10 year Macallan scotch, so that and the Blue Heron beer comforted me.

So what now?

Tomorrow marks the first day of the film festival, and the arrival of @cheshster and @oddessy, as well as the exciting prospect of meeting @theweeklygeek-ers. :) I look forward to all of it.

Potentially Related posts

• Sort of like a words to know post… only more stupider (0)
• New Features: Google Friend Connect and Movie Reviews (1)
• Words To Know Volume 6: More Homunculi (5)
• At First I Was Like… But Then, I LOL’d! (0)
• Chaos Incarnate: The Glorious LineTo (0)

Preface: If you’re following me on Twitter, you may have seen my non-stop barrage of updates relating to a trip I am currently still on, a trip to Portland Oregon for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. What follows are a few selected tweets (in chronological order), and my hand-written journal entries. Each will be delineated clearly, for now. As the week rolls by it may devolve a bit. I just don’t want this experience to pass by like the MoCCa convention trip earlier this year, which was amazing and full of photos and quotes that has to this day not made it into a final record.

Tweets

• 2:30am 09-28-09 – leaving for the airport – adventure start! lvl 1 bus trip
• the led 1s above me seem to stare like the eyes of some large, shifty beast, or fireflies frozen in time, forever calling out a 1 note plea.
• I feel about in the dark, which is blindingly punctuated by electric light, and can find no familiar shapes, puzzled by this urge, I settle.
• I recall the coffee, given to me gratis by a kind but unhappy young man working @ the mcd’s, I do not so much drink as huff this kind nectar
• first leg of the journey eclipsed, a girl outside has a box labeled “fresh seafood”… oh my Editor’s Note: I have no idea what became of this “fresh seafood” container.
• with the lights on as we pause to collect passengers, I note my place: seat #23 :) so far so good – hail eris!
• it suddenly dawns on me that if I had any brains I would have turned on tweet import into rknet during this trip – someone please archive?
• dozed for a moment, woke up to some horrid coughing sound & saw a SWARM OF BEES over the aisle which faded into nothing as my eyes adjusted. Editor’s Note: This is 100% true and was 100% TERRIFYING.
• promised myself i’d save sleep for the plane, yet I nearly dozed thru the 2nd checkpoint, dreams intense &fitful Editor’s Note: And I think some of them involved *shudder* furries.
• the nymphs of sleep continue to tempt me with their lush, velvet arms as hypothermic sleep must entice the arctic’s soon-to-be-lost souls!
• the end of lvl1 I avoided: snoring (I hope), leg cramps, & battery overuse. next lvl2: airport ho!
• waiting in line to check bags, kiosk fail, but the girl behind the counter is cute and chipper. :)
• woman in front of me has a lesportsac carryon, posh! Editor’s Note: I think it may have even been a highly coveted TokiDoki black bag. *swoon*
• baggage check success! now waiting for tsa to open up, c’mon sleepyheads, shake a leg, this stuff’s heavy!
• got thru tsa with minimal fuss. @meatbag sacrificed a cute dr bronner soap bottle to the 3oz only gods. oh well, no great loss. lvl 2.5 get! Editor’s note: I probably shouldn’t have called it as level 2 and a half. This was barely scratching the surface of the trip. :/
• http://ping.fm/p/I8pmq – this waiting area is PIMP. nice comfy chairs, usb (g1 used power leech! it’s not very effective)& reg power jacks
• well, we were gonna board but I guess they gotta get the gremlin piss off the wing or something Editor’s Note: One of the bathrooms was apparently leaking some kinda water.
• one plane down, sitting in chi-town on the next waiting to be hurtled thru the sky at terrifying speeds which defy the earth’s very spin! :D
• destination: portland, oregon :) finally, to the west coast! not a first for the well-travelled @meatbag though
• this is the nicest damn airport I have ever seen
• lvl2.75 complete! flying & bag claim all done – now waiting to collect @malpertuis & establish home base!
• on lvl2.75: encountered wild tacos! devoured easily but left with burn.
• Zomg I think it’s gonna be @malpertuis tiem soooooon
• http://ping.fm/p/4XV4H – we got to the hotel, complete with bear & obelisk Editor’s Note: Though I neglected to say so, I think This is officially the END of level 2.

Not part of the travel portion of the adventure, but absolutely part of adventure as a whole: http://ping.fm/p/t05uG – inspired by the interview w @jamesurbaniak & jackson publick, they’re right, it IS awful

Notebook content

I admit that I did something that could mark me as some kind of trend whore and got a moleskein journal. I wanted something without spiral binding, and unlined pages. The moleskein gave me that, and the bookmark, elastic closure, and a back pocket. It was worth it.

Page 1

Hurtling above the land & clouds at pilot-only-knows what manner of height & speed, I am inclined to make a few observations, though they may be trite and obvious to all but the most obstinately non-observant. The upper surface of a large bank of fluffy, white clouds possessed the same manner of undulating sea surface I had noted as we banked out over the Atlantic to gain speed (presumably). In short, it was a captivating case of “As above, so below”. The second thing which really grabbed me as I owlishly stared out of the smallish window to my left (would that make it port side?) was the curious juxtaposition of man-made grids of landscape, versus the chaotic winding of rivers and their surrounding forest. Of course the more urbanized areas do tend to wind and twist – the loops and whorls that give fingerprint to a living community. Not even an expert palmist, I suspect, could read the fats of these places by such unassuming lines. I think, perhaps, the swaths of red/brown, and of glittery cars clustered around big buildings paint a clearer picture of what humanity is doing to/for itself. Certainly moreso than any other aforementioned qualities of landscape.

Page 2

My good pen exploded and I smeared the ink from my fingers onto the page. I took this opportunity to try to base some drawings off it. I did a pretty nice sketch of an eye and ruined it by trying to ink it with one of my felt tip pens.

Page 3

This page intentionally left blank.

Page 4

It took about 12 hours to cross the country, no mean feat, but it’s amazing this future we live in.
Trendspot: patterned tights w/ flat boots
Saw my first ever, proper, junkies hanging about the rite aid. Editor’s Note: That Rite Aid was the most intimidating, WEIRD shopping establishment. So many strange items behind chiming plastic half doors, everyone was in an absolute rush. Disinterested cop standing near the doors, and junkies milling about both in and outside the doors, with the most lost and tragic air I have possibly ever seen in a human being. It frightened me and broke my heart simultaneously. My journal entry item was too cursory and unfair to the actual experience.
Crossing the Rockies was amazing, though perhaps more amazing were the ranges of mountains that preceded them.
So many hills, valleys, ravines, rivers. Amazing. There was a large brush fire, too. Not sure where we were when we saw it.
Looks like some of the bars round here permit smoking. This does not bode well for my lungs.
The air here is chill but clear & pleasant.
There is, potentially, so much to do, I simply don’t know where to begin.
I’m looking forward to the film fest.
It promises to be greatness for sure.
Meeting more Ectomites is also a thrill in waiting though I fear Eliza’s exacting tongue… ah well. Editor’s Note: It’s so difficult to meet people you admire, and of all the Ecto-gods, she is the one I want to avoid looking like a douchebag in front of the very most. Introspectively, I can’t help but wonder if my lack of female interaction growing up has made me incapable of interacting normally with other females now as an adult.

Page 5

While listening to WFMU, enjoying the hell out of hearing Jackson Publick and James Urbaniak of The Venture Brothers (which I absolutely ADORE), they were discussing comics, and the topic of political cartoons came up. They likened the modern political cartoon to something as crass and stupid as a guy wearing a shirt that says “taxes” and a guy with a bat that says “healthcare”. In a fit of “I should draw more because that’s the only way to get better”, I busted out the blue pencil and the non-smeary pen and set to creating this masterpiece of AWFUL. I shared it via Twitter/ping.fm: http://ping.fm/p/t05uG.

The text reads:
Guy in taxes shirt: “What’s that whistling noise?”
Guy with bat: MINE
Caption below: HE WON’T KNOW WHAT HIT HIM

Sidetext: Political cartoons are terrible (Then a note regarding the inspiration as noted above.)

Potentially Related posts

• "Capitalism Done Right" (0)
• Stupid Things On The Internet: CD Cover Meme (0)
• No Other Explanation Necessary 11: Snake n Bacon (1)
• Words to Know: Shaking Off the Dust (2)
• Fun With Emails: Spain ASS- or in spanish- ASSpan’a (4)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfx4UH659kQ

This poppy, energetic, tightly executed ditty grabbed me in the first few seconds the way few songs have in a while (since the Fleet Foxes’ White Winter Hymnal, I reckon).

It’s a super catchy balance of techno precision and warm pop sensibilities, wrapped up into three minutes fifty-odd seconds of awesome. The vocals have the adorable lilt that makes people fall in love with artists like Feist, and the kind of simple but well crafted lyrics that make an absolute classic song. I detect little airs of Fleetwood Mac, or maybe Heart or Pat Benetar. There’s a throwback aspect here that I haven’t quite pinned down, but I’ll be happy to listen to again and again to discover. Little disco notes bubble up here and there, adding that particular flavor of jubilant funk to this heady brew.

If you bounced along with Freezepop’s addition to Guitar Hero (or just listened to their albums!) you’ll probably really enjoy this tune’s grin-inducing hoppy beats. It’s not all techno though, throughout you can hear the slide of fingers on guitar strings, providing little organic clues to the musicianship at work.

I’m excited to check out the rest of this album and highly recommend you press play above!

Also, nerd bonus I just noticed: Ender’s Game reference at about 0:45! :D

P.S. Their five song EP, The Robots in Love is only 5$ on Amazon MP3.

Potentially Related posts

• I <3 Goofy Internet Toys (0)
• Fun With Emails: Spain ASS- or in spanish- ASSpan’a (4)
• No Other Explanation Necessary 8: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (0)
• Analytics is Not a Perfect Science or How to Tie A Shemagh (4)
• Another link for your amusement (0)

1: Knock knock.
2. Who’s there?
1. The interrupting cow.
2. The interrupting co..1. MOO

I suppose it is worth noting that there are NSFW images and links here.

Oh, exploitable

Yesterday (September 13th, a day that will live in infamy for the next few weeks), during the MTV Music Video Awards: Kanye West made an ass of himself… again.

Here’s how it went down:
Taylor Swift won some manner of award on the 2009 VMAs for having a video that no one probably saw because MTV stopped playing music videos several years ago.
She arrived on stage to take the microphone to make her thank you speech.
Kanye West – proud non-reader of books – then invited himself onto the stage, took the microphone, and proceeded to inform the audience that Taylor would be allowed to finish, but Beyonce had one of the best music videos of all time.
While that may or may not be true, this has since sparked a rather large kerfluffle over what a massive, unrepentant douchebag West continues to be in the face of all rational thought.

More importantly, this has spawned a new image macro, and a less funny, but undoubtedly more popular, video featuring President Obama’s recent speech, and big to-do after a reporter spilled through Twitter (and later retracted) that Obama called West a jackass for interrupting Ms. Swift like that; the audio on that conversation has since leaked to the internet.

Without further ado: The Interrupting Kanye.

ULTRA MEGA IMPORTANT EDIT: VKlaus found the winner of the Kanye meme.

Another epic find! IsKanyeWestADouchebag.com – now with hot interruption action! :D

Kanye interrupting his own video

Kanye interrupting a dream

Kanye coitus interruptus

kanye interrupting the mega man select screen

kanye interrupting his own interruption

kayne interrupting beyonce video

kanye interrupting the kanye interrupting thread

Kanye interruptions unto infinity

Kanye interrupting the start of world war 1

Kanye interrupting Osama

Kanye West interrupting this tragic case of child abuse

Kanye Interrupting Trip to Mordor

Kanye Interrupting the moon landing

Whether or not this fledgling image macro becomes a full-fledged meme is hard to say. The event is so mainstream the enjoyment factor may be lulzkilled by media coverage burnout, resulting in premature death.

It’s already spread to twitter in the form of a user image overlay put out by twibbon which – while an appalling amalgam of words for cutesy trend purposes – is kind of an interesting tool. It allows you to sign up and “show your support” for a variety of causes or trends by the use of automatic user pic overlays. In this case, it’s a headshot of Kanye West with “Ima let u finish”, effectively blocking out the person’s userpic altogether.

And Colbert hopped on the let’s-make-fun-of-the-village-idiot wagon on Monday as well. Colbert uses his character’s over-inflated ego to counterpoint the absurdity of over-inflated ego, making his jab cast a much sharper relief on the utter ridiculousness of the entire situation. The thing I enjoyed most was that he actually focused on giving some props to the actual award winner, Taylor Swift, who really deserves far more attention than the assclown that interrupted her anyway.
(P.S. Speaking of Comedy Central, I totally beat CCInsider to this meme story by a good 3 hours. Just remember, you heard it here first, folks!)

A favorite site of mine, teefury.com, also got into the action yesterday when they debuted their one-off shirt: “I hated Kanye before hating Kanye was cool”. The truth of that was almost enough to make me break my “no slogans on shirts” rule. Soup.io user Amsterdam was smart enough to capture the design before the opportunity to buy the shirt was gone. (They do a different design every 24 hours, and ONLY for 24 hours.)

Potentially Related posts

• Screw You Comcast (0)
• Dream log, around 10AM this morning (0)
• At First I Was Like… But Then, I LOL’d! (0)
• Mortal Kop-out (0)
• Gamer Report: Brief PS3 Reviews & Flash Game Promo! (0)

Well, it’s that time of year again. Holiday Fun Time! And, if you’re anything like me, you usually wait until the weekend before your holiday of choice to get your shopping done… er, started. You brave the mall with a bunch of crazed maniacs and a hangover, and inevitably, you never quite find what you’re looking for. You likely way overextend your budget in an attempt to disguise your procrastination, and often end up with a slightly impersonal gift, wrapped in really pretty paper with a big shiny bow.

This year, I’ve decided to take a stand. I’m not going to buy one tiny (yet always overpriced) item for every member of my boyfriend’s family, or each of my roommates, or every coworker. No more $16 tubes of branded lip-gloss, no more wind-chimes or gift certificates; no more scarf/hat/mittens sets from Target; no more purses that I can’t afford and can’t guarantee the recipient will like. This year, I’m doing it old-school. I’m making up some swank-ass gift baskets for the whole family, and I think you should too.

Skip Generic, it's time for a little DIY

Now, the key to making gift-baskets work is to skip the generic, store-bought, prepackaged, two-for-one-deal baskets they sell at Bath-and-Body Works, Wal-Mart or Kitchen etc. and put the baskets together yourself. You can make your baskets big or small, extravagant or modest, themed or random, selective or amalgamated, but most importantly, and here’s where you come in- they should be personal, and they should feel indulgent.
My basket is for a whole family, so it’s gonna be packed.

I’m planning an understated wicker basket, lined with some pretty cloth or other that will fit nicely into my boyfriend’s mothers’ “country-home” aesthetic (tiny colorful houses, quilt patterns or antiquey finishes). Then on to the good stuff: a gourmet jam or two, some classy crackers, some olive tapenade, a few select cheeses (port-wine pub cheese, soft brie and garlic smoked gouda, perhaps?), a small cheese knife (and maybe a cheese board), a pepperoni stick, nuts, several kinds of homemade cookies and/or fudge, homemade chocolate dipped pretzel rods (rolled in crushed walnuts and coconut!), gourmet hot-chocolate, gourmet coffee, homemade chocolate stirring spoons, homemade chocolate dipped candy canes, and, the clincher: two framed photographs of the smiling family on the receiving end.

Make it Personal

The basket is an amalgamation of everyone’s favorites: cheeses, dips and olives for the sisters, chocolate and homemade goodies for mom (plus the personalized basket), coffee and hot-chocolate for the brother and photographs to make everyone go “awww.” The best part: I’ll put the whole thing together for less than the three $20 gift certificates to the mall I otherwise might have resorted to (notice the liberal use of the world “homemade” in the above paragraph.)
My basket is jam-packed, because it’s meant for a whole family with differing tastes, likes and dislikes, but you can theme your basket around just about anything and anyone. Try some of the suggestions below, and see what you come up with.

A Few Ideas

Chocolate

Everyone loves chocolate. You really can’t go wrong. And chocolate gift baskets are really easy. A canister of gourmet hot chocolate or some nice hot fudge in a pretty jar can be your centerpiece. Bake some double-chocolate-chip cookies for filler. Add some unique flavors of chocolate (like spicy chili, honey, or extra-dark) and round it out with homemade chocolate dipped anything! From fruits to pretzels, what doesn’t taste good dredged in chocolate?

Wine

Know your recipients' preferences. If they love deep reds, choose a velvety Cabernet. If they’re into crisp, fruity flavors, choose a bright pinot grigio. Then, build from there. Find brands they likely haven’t tried, and don’t fall for gimmicks. Ask a clerk at your local wine or liquor store for his or her favorite and ask them why. Then, get a unique bottle or two. Add two wine glasses (i love stemless glasses
- very modern), some cheese, crackers, nuts or chocolate and include a cute bottle-opener or wine stopper
.

Breakfast

Breakfast baskets are great, if you know your recipient will use them. Make a couple of your own pancake or waffle mixes and put it in a nice jar. Splurge for some real maple syrup (so worth it) Add a few packets of freshly ground coffee and two matching (yet inexpensive) mugs, and you’re done!

Cooking

Perfect for the chef in your life, a cooking basket can feature any number of surprises. You choose a meal-in-one type basket, where you'll surround your gift around one particular meal by adding gourmet pasta and sauce (using a colander for your basket), or homemade dough and an array of pizza toppings (arranged on a pizza stone), for example; or you can choose a hodgepodge of kitchen staples like unique marinades and sauces (think curry, pineapple-teriyaki or brown-sugar molasses), spices and rubs, gourmet oils (rosemary, lemon, garlic or pepper infused are always big hits) and few kitchen tools (like a Parmesan cheese grater, a cute apron or some colorful kitchen towels).

And your basket doesn't have to be filled with edibles. Put together a massage basket for a hard-working couple with a few scented oils, candles, some wood-rollers and a how-to book. Or a survival kit for the athlete or outdoor adventurer in your life with items like a flashlight, hand-warmers, chap-stick, trail-mix, wool socks, a knife, a flint and a compass.

The bottom line is that you can make a thoughtful, personal gift-basket for just about anyone, without overextending your budget. If money is tight, fill your basket with homemade goodies like cookies, fudge, seven-layer bars and dessert mixes. Your recipient will appreciate your effort and hard work, you'll save a bundle, and you might even have fun doing it.

Potentially Related posts

• Keep Digging: Temple of Damanhur (0)
• Ashtanga Yoga: The Role of Asanas, and a Very Brief Background/History (6)
• Control Your iPod from Multiple PCs with Winamp (0)
• Too Cute! I'll take one of each, thanks! (0)
• Todd Goldman – not the sharpest knife in the drawer (0)

This morning my mother copied to me via IM an email or a page she had found. Within contains the most complete list of paranoias, hoaxes, wishful thoughts, and general falderall ever generated via email chain letters. It is a tremendously entertaining read and I absolutely have to share with you all. Oh, and if you don’t digg, del.icio.us and put this on your facebook then bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity. Bill Gates told me so. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is pretty cute and I thought you’d get a few healthy chuckles from it. :) I just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year. Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel. I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels. I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed. I can’t enjoy lemon slices in my tea or on my seafood anymore because lemon peels have been found to contain all kinds of nasty germs including feces. I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pass-time while driving alone is picking your nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot) Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years. I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. Yuck! I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are se nding me for participating in their special e-mail program. I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas.. I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans. I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. And thanks for letting me know I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face…disfiguring me for life. I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS. I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise. I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a num ber for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda & Singapore and Uzbekistan I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe. Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt. And thanks to your great advice, I can’t ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. I can no longer drive my car because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies! If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your b ack, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician… Have a wonderful day… Oh, by the way….. A German scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.-

Potentially Related posts

• oh that nightmare thing (0)
• This just in(and out and in and out..) (0)
• Portland Oregon Travelogue Part 1: Levels 1 & 2 (1)
• Design-a-Vagina Contest Redux Closed (0)
• Love at First Listen: The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket (0)

No no, not the trouble with Turbosloth. Just regular type.

A friend of mine recently referred to sloths as “Natures Muppet”. Fitting. They hardly look real, but they ARE adorable.

Potentially Related posts

• Semi-Sorta-Synchronicity Sunday: Jesus, Moustaches, Pickles (0)
• Heart-Pounding Tales of The Manliness of Men Vol. 3 (0)
• Sort of like a words to know post… only more stupider (0)
• Short Film – THIS SIDE UP: Relapse (0)
• Design-a-Vagina Redux: A More Serious Approach (1)

I couldn’t tell you why but I take such a perverse amount of pleasure in the Xs that keep cropping up in place of where my actual “friends” used to be. It’s almost enough to let this account sit here until this site officially implodes in on itself. Unfortunately it’s become such a haven for melodramatic teenagers (Gaia without the cute avatars?), that it is highly unlikely it will ever go away. While it is true some people do seem to use this for what could be claimed is its “original purpose”, based on my experience I think the vast majority are composed of about five types.

1 – Whores – This is a very broad category. This includes spam accounts to generate pay-per-click revenue for any number of ridiculous products, as well as people whose extreme attention seeking behavior earn them the more generic label of Ho. Just to clarify, this category includes:
~ jailbait who put up pictures of themselves in their underwear
~ “scene kids” nee “emo kids”
~ businesses who put up some manner of profile front (I’m looking at you Carlo Rossi),
~ And of course, actual whores and/or sluts (one expects cash and advertises as such, the other just makes you pay for everything then dumps you), etc.

2 – Drama Students – While I applaud the philosophy of “never stop learning”, this does not apply to the kind of overly melodramatic and destructive behavior that one is likely to pick up during the Junior High and High School years of one’s life. Quite frankly I never wanted to use the internet to find out who hates who and why, and it’s largely because I usually don’t give a flying fuck. I disrespect drama in all forms, but internet drama… Stupid to the nth degree. Whatever happened to the good old fist fight? The screaming match in public? People are getting awfully passive aggressive. I blame all that “self-esteem” crap they taught us when we were all little.

3 – Angst (omigod awesome link lol)- It comes from all sides. I’m guilty of a bit myself. It’s that bizzare ritual of self-deprication in public, seeking sympathy, understanding, and/or open communication from any source even if it includes a bunch of people you don’t really like all that much. Angst, drama, and whoring are usually daisy chained together 4lyfe, but this gets its own category because there are career angst-and-woe types out there who absolutely must insist that they are miserable (or perhaps really are miserable) at all times, in the most public ways possible. How many people really give half a thought to you? Probably not as many as you would hope. Learn to bottle and die early of heart disease, if it was good enough for your grandparents and great-grandparents, it’s good enough for you. (Then give me all your meds, maybe there will be something good in that pile of rubbish doctors prescribe for behavioral modification.)

4 – Fledgling Media Breakouts – Before the recent rash of whores through my approval box, the only time I would bother to check this thing is when some manner of small or local band wanted me to rally to their flag. Sure thing guys, more power to you I guess. Someday I might even stop being such a workaholic and find the time to go catch a show. Who knows?

5 – /B/tards and Related – These people of indeterminiate race, religion, quanitity, and quality want you to be a retard who will fill in your password at the drop of a hat, without paying attention as to whether or not you really are still on the myspace servers. Then they’re going to take your brilliantly crafted profile and probably replace it with something involving memes, cuss words, and/or penises. Anonymous is legion, and they really don’t give a shit about you or your friends, so if defiling your profile is going to be funny to anybody, it will be done if you’re stupid enough to give up your information blindly. Quite frankly if you can’t be bothered to monitor your login information, you deserve it. (Besides, I think it’s kind of funny, too. …desu)

I hope I have made both my disgust and my amusement with this Borg-like hive of ridiculousness that is myspace. Please do let me know if I’ve forgotten any key points.

Potentially Related posts

• Remember That Guy? ZeFrank Chats Us Up Again (0)
• Cynical Gamer Nerds are Wonderful People (0)
• T-Mobile – Sorta Kinda Trying to Unveil the G1 (0)
• A is for… Mudkips? (7)
• Analytics is Not a Perfect Science or How to Tie A Shemagh (4)

Check this out!

I know it’s got a fad quality like swatch watches and snap bracelets and other silly doodads from recently by-gone years, but I think they’re cute! The’ve got a delightfully old school appeal with prints that strike me like the newer types of print-all-over abstract tee shirts. They’re called Switchrings.

They’re also pretty darn cheap. $9.99 for 4 pieces. Which is apparently 2 central rings (they call them wedges) and 2 outer bands.
Each of the categories has a few different prints, and you get a random selection of prints and outer bands from each category.
I really want the one with the poppies on it.

Potentially Related posts

• Please tell me more (0)
• NH Media Makers Follow-up: Awesome! (2)
• Metalocalypse – Dethclown pt 2 (0)
• Ashtanga Yoga: The Role of Asanas, and a Very Brief Background/History (6)
• Cross-posted rant from MySpace (0)