Damn you invisible animals living in my body!

I am sick. Bleh. Been trying really really hard not to be for the last couple of days, thought I was doing well today, then got up and did a baby shower for A and was one my feet and busy for about six hours.

Now I feel like shit. Eating soup, drinking Sprite and just generally feeling sorry for myself - as one is wont to do while ill. I will likely spend my Saturday night watching Buffy since I have been wanting to go back and rewatch the series, and since I have it right here...

On the plus side, the dog is super cute when I'm sick. She brought me her ball and after I explained that I wasn't really up to going outside and throwing it, she walked away all dejected like. She returned with her blue squeeky dinosaur and laid it in my lap, then laid her head on my lap. Thank you dog, that makes me feel a lot better.

On a brighter note, I got a Team Edward (James Olmos) in the mail today, from my sister-in-law who is doing everything in her power to become my most awesome relative - blood or otherwise. First it was a Star Trek necklace, then the Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, then Maus... now Team Edward. I love you J.

Battlestar Batman

Lord, I am such a dweeb (Dweebus Maximus is the term according to Kali and Mike of Dreamworthy Gifts). Not only did I not even leave the house on Saturday night, I spent my evening... well, let's go into the backstory first shall I?

Within about a half hour of waking up on Saturday morning I was involved in a conversation about what a Batman / Battlestar Galactica crossover would be like with @hubcomics. Because, yeah, that's my life now.

Well, this lead to discussion on how it would work: Dude, each ship would end up with its own supervillian, with Batman on Galactica. It would be EPIC. As well as ideas for how the story might unfold: Joker kidnaps Gaius Baltar: "Why is 6 afraid of 7?" "I have no idea. Cylon politics?!" "Because 7 8 9!"; DICK "NIGHTWING" GRAYSON vs. LEE "APOLLO" ADAMA in the battle of "I'll never be as good as my dad, either!".

So Saturday night, while I'm sitting at home being a dorkus maximus, I made this... and it cracks me up.

click for full view

So there you go, Jesse, Battlestar Batman.

Blue text is from @hubcomics.

Who are these people?

While on my Christmas vacation my family and I played quite a bit of wii. We can't play as a team, there is far too much yelling and accusations on even the simplest sports, and god forbid you bring something like doubles tennis into it. But we do quite well with individual effort.

So imagine a fine, California afternoon. It's a balmy seventy outside, and geeks that we are we're inside playing wii hundred pin bowling, the most satisfying game ever invented. If you haven't heard the cacophony a hundred pins make when connect with a bowling ball you have not lived.

It's my turn, I have a split. The pins are easily ten feet apart. So I concoct a plan that involves bouncing my ball off the bumpers to make a billiards-type move to get both. I get ready, get set, and....

What the Hell?


Dude, is that Voldemort? And a Stormtrooper?

They totally made me flub my shot, by the way. Then, of course, no one believed me. Also, it appears it's not the same crowd every time either. While I was waiting for He Who Shall Not be Named to come around again, I also saw...


A ninja. Dude, it's a ninja! Also, some total dork there in the front, but a ninja. I don't know who the guy with what looks like a dude standing on his sunglasses is, but I'm sure if I were a better geek I would recognize him instantly.

Also, in the back of the other side...


It's the Joker! And some guy from KISS.

At this point, the game pretty much devolved into trying to find all the hidden miis.

In the end we found these guys...


But also a hamburger...
And Billy Mays!


GO BUY A WII! <---- To be read in a Billy Mays voice.

Sherlock Holmes

It is unfortunate that in my life I have only read the collection of Holmesian short-stories which revolve around some hapless person coming to Holmes with a problem. After which, Holmes talks out the explanation for three or four pages without ever leaving 221B Baker Street. Next story.

Which, if the 'unfortunate' in the above paragraph didn't clue you in, kind of sucked. I was never exposed to the finer Holmes stories, Cleolinda assures me they exist, so never understood the fan love.

What this boils down to is I went into the Sherlock Holmes movie with incredibly low expectations.

The movie's basic plot picks up partway through the Sherlock Holmes adventures. Watson is about to move out and marry Mary, Holmes has previously met Irene Adler and he is quite famous already as a detective. The movie opens on an occult ritual being performed by the villainous Lord Blackwood who is apprehended (maybe even on purpose). The main plot revolves around the fact that after being hung for the practice of black magic and murder - in that order I might add - Lord Blackwood rises from the grave to continue being a total badass wizard.*

*Some or all of those facts may have been dramatized for the purposes of this review.

I don't want to go too far into it as the movie is worth watching with as few spoilers as possible (unlike, for example Avatar whose plot you could see coming for miles). I will say that the supernatural plot points have an explanation that won't make you want to throw things.

But what I really want to talk about is HoYay!, cause whoa and damn. If I wasn't as familiar as I am with Holmes I would think they spent all of their off screen time making out. I did actually lean over to my mother partway to whisper "Oh just kiss already". But Holmes is asexual, and I do think that the relationship between Holmes and Watson is a reflection on Holmes's complete inability to form a normal human attachment. He quite simply has no clue how to handle normal human emotions, and the feelings of brotherly love for Watson manifest in odd ways.

On that note, I am choosing to interpret the Irene/Sherlock love as a lot closer to the book's portrayal. I do beleiev that Adler cerainly harbors affection, perhaps lust, for Holmes. But Holmes is more fascinated by her methods, and while his body reacts to her as a woman, his mind is apart from it. They have two kisses, one instigated by Adler while Holmes is unconscious, and one of a more fatherly/brotherly nature from Holmes (not on lips). I originally took the line about Adler getting their old room as a deliberate attempt to misdirect Holmes' brain, when the room in question was the scene of a crime or heist perhaps.

I did love love love the boxing and bartitsu. If you've never heard of bartitsu, it is a martial art that focuses on eastern fighting style with an emphasis on defense using your walking stick. That's right, Sherlock Holmes was considered a master of a martial art that would beat you to death with a cane. The boxing and bartitsu are canon, and often forgotten about amidst the tweed and deerstalker hats.

I truly deeply enjoyed this movie, have already seen it twice in fact. I can highly recommend it to both Doyle fans and people's whose only knowledge of Holmes is the phrase 'no shit Sherlock'.

Leaning Tower

Is it time for another optical illusion? I think it is!


Believe it or not... that is the same image twice. No, really. I'll wait while you go to photoshop or gimp or your image software of choice. Or, you can just blink really fast - it'll trick your brain. Totally. I'm not even there to watch you, what makes you think I'm messing with you?

The explanation, as near as I can tell, is that your brain sees the image as one scene. Thus, the tower on the left is used as a point of reference for the vertical of the tower on the right. The result is that the image on the right seems to be significantly more skewed than the image on the left.

Neat.

(Thanks to The Thinking Blog for the heads-up.)

(Who tried the blinking thing? It totally worked didn't it?)

The Best Letter Ever

Today, I received the most amazing letter of my life. Seriously. My acceptance letter from Hogwarts comes in a distant second.... a distant second.

The letter in question is from the Republican National Committee. No, I'm not a Republican. I urge you, no I command you to click on these images and read the full thing.


I was laughing so hard I was crying by the fourth "paragraph". I mean, I was lying across the table clutching the pages in my hand with tears streaming. I have never been so profoundly entreated before in my life. I shall not, Mr Chairman "desert my Party, and walk away from my conservative principles." Also, does everyone capitalize 'Party'? 'Cause I find that a little 1984.

Please stick with me... this letter gets so much better.



So apparently, there is non-stop, swooning coverage of Obama by the ultra-biased media. (If you didn't read it, let me inform you that is almost word for word what the second "paragraph" says.) Who are these media people? I know that the media gives him some leeway, but they do the same for every new president. Political parties Parties have very short memories it seems. I recall quite clearly the first seven months or so of the W administration, do you?

Wherever that non-stop, swooning channel is, I want to find it so I can run it 24-7.


Oh yeah, this is the page where the RNC accuses the Democrats of having "an agenda that is dictated by, and benefits, the special interests that bankroll their election campaigns."

...


...


BWA HA HA HA HA!


(Or on a more eloquent note... Pot? There's a Kettle on line one for you.)


No, just... no

"We have been on the defensive as the Democrats in Congress put partisan politics in front of the best interests of the nation, attacked our leaders with personal smears, and saturated the media with propaganda."

The hell? You know, there's a part of me that says: "Honestly, this letter could have come from either party if you replace Democrat with Republican and liberal with conservative," but I have a hard time believing that the Democratic party would ever put out something this puerile. Not that we're above it, but that it's way too silly and possibly offensive.


The questionnaire just pissed me off. Who worded these questions? I actually wrote next to one: "If the Democratic policies are enacted it is possible that puppies will be kicked. Do you agree with this policy of puppy-kicking? Think of the puppies." That's how badly these questions are railroading you.




I'm going to switch to the Republican Party if they regularly send out this kind of hilarity.



Uh, totally kidding about the Hogwarts letter. Yes, yes I was.

Our Independence Day

Okay, so it's not necessarily a "real" speech that brings me to tears. Also, certain rousing movie speeches have been known to make me tear up a bit and start talking about how dusty it is in the room.

This is the rousing speech given by the President to inspire the troops in the 1996 film Independence Day.

Our Independence Day

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!