RKNet Blog... Thing

I love the riotclitshave photo blog!

No names have been changed, but appropriate links have been provided to appropriately ID the other participants in the conversation. Where no appropriate link could be found, the name has been omitted. Some cross-talk has also been omitted, since it doesn’t make quite as much sense out of context as it would with much more text. Rather than retell the story, again, in another format, I figured just sharing this with everyone would suffice.

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Anyone who still reads at my “old location” knows that I’ve been having a bit of a family crisis. So yesterday while driving to the Portsmouth Regional Hospital, I was fussing with the radio, trying to find some kind of music that didn’t suck. This task is often challenging in this area, as they tend to play the same five Pink Floyd songs, and a mix of recent popular dreck. (I most often listen to 96.7 since they tend to have a pretty enjoyable mix of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.)

However, periodically I’ll tune in to 106.1 - Portsmouth Community Radio - in time to catch some DJ’s set that introduces me to the interesting, oddball stuff I so thoroughly enjoy sometimes. Yesterday was one of those happy accident days. The two charming ladies setting up the records at the station that day played a unique track called “Japan” by a duo known as Cocorosie.

My immediate impression from the first 30 seconds or so was that Lamb Chop had grown up and started dropping a lot of acid. In two words: Far fuckin Out. As it went on I started to pick out the warm and quirky lyrics themselves, and the choice of instruments that fit the theme. The tune was relatively simple, but that wasn’t a shortcoming, it was a feature that made the song more accessible. At one point the song faded out, and I thought that the next song on the playlist was a lovely, operatic vocal song with minimalist instrumental background. As it turned out, that was an intermezzo of sorts. It was such a striking musical experience that I managed to remember the artist and song title hours later. (A rare feat for me, no matter how much I like what I hear.)

A quick googlin’ turned up one of my favorite lyrics sites: Always on the Run.net. They’ve got a brief bio, lyrics galore, and a couple MP3s available from the group (available from a small icon by their name on the main page).
Hit it up, check it out, and let me know what you think.

The obligatory “if you like” list:
The Flaming Lips
Ween
Poe
That one operatic song from The Fifth Element
Modest Mouse
Lamb Chop, grown up, on acid (not the actual band named Lambchop, mind you)

Hairnet Paradise

Rainbowarriors

A while ago I got an email from “orthodox.us@livejournal.com”. The title was in Russian: “ОККУЛЬТИЗМ НА ФOPУME KУPAEBA!” And the rest of the email was as well. I thought this rather strange. I periodically comment on a few journals over there that are also commented on by Russian speakers, but I couldn’t think of any reason why I’d be contacted by any of them. Below the cut, in all its glory, is the email I got. It definitely appears to relate to a subject, rather than being spam. Even so, I have zero idea what it’s all about. Caveat: I didn’t check any of the links from this email.
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	Remember the illegal number? Well, I converted the hexadecimal number into a set of five different colors (using hex-color codes) and made this lovely GIF to illustrate. Don’t use these colors together. If you do, you’re breaking the law. Or, at least, you’re breaking it enough to get sued for it.

Thanks T3knomanser!
I’d like to also add that this is a primary example of how color could be used to carry information.

Aaaaaaaaw shit. That’s right suckers, Season 2 of the Venture Brothers is about to pop like a jack-in-the-box full of asswhuppin’!

For those who may be unfamiliar, there are a ton of clips over at YouTube and I know there are ways to watch whole episodes over at the AdultSwim website.

This show is the best thing to happen to TV since… TV was invented, I’d wager.

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I was mulling over a number of pieces at Gatochy's Flickr, like this Bacchus that seems to have the wrong face on it.

Being in an art-minded mode, I checked my email and skimmed over the regular Overstock spam to find the following:

My first two thoughts were “Oooh, that's sharp” and “Damn, where are all the well-dressed men?”. I certainly don't know too many.

I would like to add, just to clarify, that this is neither a complaint at, nor an indictment of, the men in my life. I for one am usually terribly dressed, so I really can't complain. Just curious as to what folks think.

This Words To Know is being brought to you today by “why the hell not?” and also by “not formatted anything like the other ones”. Now with 99% less Wikipedia and 100% more link mouseover info. This makes it sort of revolutionary among its brethren, and also somewhat of a jerk.

First thing's first. With the recent pet food scare, and me owning a kitty of which I have yet to take pictures, I decided it was time to find out what kitty ought to be eating. There were a lot of resources out there, but the best has to be this recipe for a “raw food” catfood. More on how that works out later.

One of the suggested ingredients in there is a whole rabbit (minus skin and fur of course). That's not a euphamism for kibble, either. That's the real deal, 1 whole Peter Cottontail, 1 whole Benjamin Bunny, 1 whole hexen hase[2]. I myself am going to settle for the chicken option, it's a lot more accessible and ultimately much more afforadable.

That's just one of several things I've managed to suss up lately. I've gotten into a lot of bizzare philosophical debates on IRC lately, and one of the most recent involved average IQ. (Intelligence has been on my mind a lot lately, particularly the calling into question of my own. Which is a patently ridiculous scenario, I realize.) Of course, show me a person with a truly average IQ and I'll probably be so stricken by the unlikelihood of it all that I'll spontaneously develop bizzare psychic powers to not be outdone in the oddity department.

Speaking of the oddity department, and discoveries, I've decided that I'm intensely enamored of the whole “Gothic Lolita” fashion style. The lovely Annalee over at ToM pointed out the store site for Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. I spent a while browsing there and then struck out on my own, looking for more super-fun visual styles in that vein. It is of course by no means practical, but it's so enjoyably artful that I can't help but be fascinated by it.

This leads to my last little bit, which like most of the rest of this post will be less of an proper WTK and more of a personal aside. At some point while gushing over how adorable a bunch of cosplayers were I quipped something to the effect of “quick, everybody gimme me money so I can buy a Suiseiseki costume!” However, my attempt to be funny went slightly off-center with someone and I wound up being donated $15 through PayPal. …so now I intend to hold that money aside and put it towards buying real hosting for my site as I mentioned wanting to months ago. I guess I am willing to take other donations but I'm not really all that keen on the idea since it feels sort of absurd to take handouts for something as simple as hosting. What I will accept with open arms are suggestions on a low-cost, stable hosting solution that will support wordpress.

kuro5hin.org posted a story yesterday that at first made me laugh, then made a minor amount of sense, then made me cluck my tongue in irritation with this country's rampant paranoia.

TRON, as in battle bikes, everybody's glow in the dark, Master Control Program TRON - that TRON, has been cited as a “sensitive” by the illustrious US Department of Homeland Security.

To paraphrase, TRON contains scenes of a former government testing facility. The scenes they're talking about are the “real world” ones with all the intense lab equipment strewn about. Showing this lab equipment, which is apparently the actual lab equipment that was used at that facility, is a potential security breach.

In a move that I can only describe as “shutting the barn door after the horse has run out”, the DHS is going on a crusade to sieze all copies of the movie. In addition to writing Disney a huge nasty-gram, they have also been sending nasty-grams out to film retailers large and small.

Thankfully, there was some dissent among the working class, even if Disney officials were scared to say anything.

Government conspiracy to undermine our morale in subtle ways? Disney plot to move a copies of TRON?
YOU DECIDE!

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/space?user=giania
My space adventure is pretty hilarious, as is my dungeon adventure!
http://thesurrealist.co.uk/dungeon?user=giania