Oh, I've been meaning to write this before Obama announces his VP choice.

There has been much talk about the crucial factors the candidate must weigh in choosing his running mate. Will the VP-pick make up for Obama's experience gap? Appeal to Clinton voters? Be consilient with the message of reform? Carry the south? Not be discovered to have once received electroconvulsive therapy?

But this misses the crucial question. Does the prospective running mate have a surname that can be stuck between 'Obama' and '2008' without yielding a bumper sticker that people are ashamed to put on their cars?

This is more difficult that you might think. Consider the options.

Obama/Biden sounds like the colloquial way of expressing a state of languid anticipation in some backcountry dialect. "The old mule, she been obamabiden' out by the barn all week."

Obama/Kaine sounds like the unrefined base crop for a hallucinogenic narcotic. "Under a new agreement with the Peruvian government, the Drug Enforcement Agency will soon begin spraying the obamakaine fields with herbicide."

Obama/Sebelius sounds like a new species of terrifying disease. "Federal authorities have imposed a quarantine on the city of Toledo until it is determined how the Obama-Sebelius strain is transmitted."

Obama/Nunn sounds like an inscrutable expression of frustration, probably coined by Catholic school students. "I dropped it! Oh, bomb a nun!"

Obama/Dodd is something a 10-month old would say. "Baababba oma babadoba obamadod dababa..."

Obama/Reed sounds like the name of an earth-killer comet. "Scientists say there is a 25% chance that Obama-Reed will strike the planet in 2053 with a force greater than the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs."

And Obama/Clinton? That sounds like the clinical name for a psychological condition characterized by unrelenting struggle between two strong personalities, resulting in the patient's inability to accomplish anything at all. "The four years I had untreated Obama-Clinton were the most confusing and traumatic of my life."

Dr. McMahan is one badass mother.

"Don't get your understanding of this from the Da VInci code.  Great movie, poor scholarship."

"You read the stocks page?  Not a page turner."

"Surely disciples wouldn't be that stupid!  So lets make their mother do it."

"It seems like Jesus is a little soft on morality."

Lich King Cinematic is Up

Was dozing, and this popped into my head. Luckily pencil and paper were nearby. I think it may actually be my opinion. Or at least an opinion to adopt as my own, or a position to take, until I think about it again. Huzzah!

Good art critics must have not only an observer's knowledge of art, but a maker's knowledge of art. They must have felt the grime of oil paint on their hands, become accustomed to the smell of turps, practiced the techniques of the masters and the modernists or rejected them completely; they must have a sense of delight in and awareness of the textures and tactile nature of art. And when bandying about complex thought experiments and visions of meaning, supported by quotes from dead but respected theoreticians, they must keep in mind language's limited role in the artist's process of synthesising a personal meaning. Nothing can replace this, to me it is more art than a post-event judgement that cannot be anything but ignorant. All language about art is essentially reductive, a pale comparison to the experience of making it.

Okay, I actually have no idea what I wanna say ...

There's been shed loads of discworld_2008 posts for me to catch up on ...

I'm so tired. and I'll be even more tired tommorrow as I probably won't be able to sleep at all tonight for worrying that I've forgotton to pack something, or do something...

Can't believe I'm actually going...

Wish I'd made more of an effort ...

Hope I'll actually get there okay (I haven't got a seat reservation...)

Hope my poor suitcase don't break ...the locks are abit done for really

Can't wait until i actually arrive and the big part of my worries will be over and done with

I probably won't be on the 'net again after today, so au revoir my lj friends, and see ya later to those of you who will be there

Test results came back clean for my dad, which is a big relief.

Also todays test went pretty ok.

I don't really feel like using this space at present, which is odd in and of itself, but I felt I should ease anyones worries for me and my kin by saying that we're apparently still continuing towards immortality.

I juuuust got home from a night out trampling on the city,and i soert of feel like upchucking at this berry moment. plechhhhhhh. The fookk is happening to me?

Current Mood: sick

These have been made by Electric Art, a design studio from Sydney, Australia.

( enjoy )

I don't believe it ...I just opened up my friends page just to read that a fella with the membership number right after my number has won the prize of full membership refund for DWcon...so close lol. My congrats to him :-)

thebadpaladin put me onto the fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" and I have just this moment finished the third book, A Storm of Swords. I feel sufficiently moved by it to write about it.

I'm not a big fan of fantasy, particularly when it gets just too fantastical. That's Ice & Fire's first and strongest point - it's set in a fictional world, but otherwise it's closer to historical fantasy than high fantasy. Nearly all the peoples are modeled on historical groups, from Mongols and Vikings to the Tudors of England (King Robert is Henry VIII), all of which add to the appeal for me. Then there is a healthy, yet not over-the-top, dose of magic and mysticism thrown in.

I could go on about it for hours, but what motivated me sufficiently to make this post was the thought that George R. R. Martin has effectively killed the conventional fantasy genre. There simply cannot be another fantasy story that can break new ground. Ice & Fire has everything, and the way the stories interweave is masterful. The events and characters of fifteen years before the books' time are just as real as the current events.

I came to this rather sad thought when I tried to think how I would write a fantasy story (not that I would be up to the task, of course - just what sort of story my inferior prose would tell :P). And I simply could not think of a single plot line or event that did anything radically different from Ice & Fire, and I'm not even halfway through the series yet.

Feudal kingdoms. Wilderness. Mighty castles. Legendary swords wielded by legendary men (and not a few women). Heroes of Old. Doomed lovers. Dragons. Undead risen and the forces of darkness gathering. Beautiful queens. Treacherous plotters. Evil villains. Blood. Spirits and dark magic. Prophecies. Ancient spells. Mysteries slowly resolved as the story progresses. All threaded seamlessly into a dozen interwoven subplots.

He wasn't even going to put the dragons in, apparently. But it seems somebody convinced him you couldn't have a fantasy series without dragons, and now the dragons are so interwoven into the story you'd think the whole series was built around them from the outset.

All written with the richness and character development of any of the best novels, with the advantage that it's describing a truly breathtaking story - something which most of the best novels can't quite match.

The characters in Ice & Fire are amazing, as is their development. Halfway through Book 1, I could never have imagined that Jaime Lannister and The Hound would become my two favourite characters, but once you see things through their eyes you come to understand their side of the story and as your judgement softens you start to realise how awesome they are. Along with Rhaegar Targaryen, who starts off the series apparently a monster, a rapist and murderer, and yet, even though he's been dead fifteen years, becomes the biggest hero of those times.

And not a single armoured chainmail bikini to be seen.

Modern fantasy is a genre badly lacking in richness and originality. It's written to a script. Not quite as bad as romance, but getting there. The characters are hollow, the stories cliched and unbelievable yet somehow predictable at the same time.

It's the punk of literature - anybody can throw guitar, bass and drums together with some off-key vocals and pump out some decent punk. Likewise anybody can throw together some dragons, beautiful maidens, magic and heroic knights and pump out a passable fantasy novel.

But in both cases, to reach the top of the game, your Rise Against or your Ice & Fire (good name for a band, come to that - I'll mention it to Al and Shane), you have to have a true spark of genius.

And man, this series has it. Read it.

The online fan base has guessed one of the main twists in the upcoming books, and I'm pretty certain they are right. But several other major plot points they're just grasping at straws, and I can't wait to find out what happens. Only it's taken him 12 years to get this far, so the bugger had better not die before the end like Robert Jordan did.

Open door
==================
The quivering fingers touch timidly,
tentatively, carefully the closed door.
It is like a membrane, semi liquid.
It sucks you in and let you out in the
other side. One way please. So don’t try to
return. The other side is a misty
palace of meaningless truths.
The other side is a breathing water
to swim and float till eternity eats you.
See the side of earth
you have come from,
see it in disconnection, slight hallucination.
Open the door let me return
cries the sleep cries the dream…
The door only let you in.

Current Mood: quixotic

Originally published at Wonder what's next. You can comment here or there.

...чтобы они не думали, что тебе легко.

Julius Carry III - Dead at 56
http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/20/am-i-the-deadest-shonuff/

"New Southerner" Magazine: "Is it possible to reshape our thinking in baby steps or must we make sweeping changes?"

Wendell Berry: "Oh, let’s be against sweeping changes and in favor of doing things in small steps. Let’s not discourage ourselves by trying for too much or subject ourselves to the tyranny of somebody else’s big idea."


to be fair, that one man has done quite a bit with his "small steps."

http://dolboeb.livejournal.com/1319083.html

^^;

Yay for private medical cover!

WHEN: Tonight
WHERE: Radisson Hotel - Piscataway, NJ
WHAT: James 'The Voice' Hatton returns to the fake stage with fake bands and real singers. That's right, it's Japanese for 'tone deaf' - Karaoke!

Tonight is the test run of my patented (aka: put together with the best tech I could find on the cheap) karaoke night. I have the best music selection I've EVER SEEN at karaoke, no bullshit. (Thanks GC!)

If you ARE coming, or thinking about it - drop me a comment... I honestly might need an amp depending on what I end up having. =)

So tonight come and sing songs and make merry.

Книга II. На Крылах "Небесной Девы" (начало)

Нико Лестери - пилот, капитан корабля "Путь Странников". потомок рода Лестери, происходящего с Эйдо. Состоял на службе Её Высочества Принцессы Лувы Элли Вэн в качестве пилота "Небесной Девы". Позже стал пилигримом и совершил странствие в поисках затерянного мира, где жили потомки древних Рыцарей Космоса, не вернувшихся из свогео боевого похода. Женился на Элле До Вэнтрон.

Элла До Вэнтрон - Принцесса Лувы, студентка Академии Анликорса, участница проекта "Первая Любовь" для религиозных анклавов Сейленд-Ара. В её честь названа исуственно зажжённая звезда, которая была перемещена в ценрт грани. Позже Элла До Вэнтрон была коронована и стала Королевой Лувы. Вышла замуж за своего пилота Нико Лестери.

Элен Витал - потомок рода Виталов, происходящего от Йона Валентайна и Виты Астры. Назначена Администратором поселения на Вэталке. участница проекта "Первая Любовь" для религиозных анклавов Сейленд-Ара. Вышла замуж за военного пилота Гвардии Анликорса Георга Рима . Мать Вирджинии Витал - основательницы Королевства Рыцарей Космоса.

Георг Рим - пилот, служил в Гвардии Анликорса - элитных частях космодесанта. Женился на Элен Витал. Отец Вирджинии Витал. Погиб в крупном сражении с пиратами Республики Свободных Созвездий.

Ну вот есть у нас в ЖЖ некто ЖЖ-пользователь "Другой". Последние две недели этот субъект только тем и занимается - что отрабатывает свой кусочек хлеба "зелёного" цвета - пытаясь доказать всем, - что в этой войне виновата Россия, Россия её начала, геноцида осетин со стороны саакашвильевцев не было, что Сам Саакашвили - мудрый вождь гордого свободолюбивого народа и т.д.

Я хочу сказать даже не о плохом качестве его текстов, о глупых доводах и бьющем в глаза непрофессионализме.

Ситуация ещё смешнее. Дело в том - что даже его хозяева-работодатели это хорошо осознают (просто пока не могут отказаться от его услуг, т.к. ишаков на переправе не меняют) - и переодически дают ему указание самые глупые и подлые тексты снять. Вот только за самое последнее время - только мне попалось об этом два упоминания:

http://ponny1.livejournal.com/306664.html

http://yareactor.livejournal.com/53468.html

Словом - он немедленно трёт тексты, не смотря на то, что к ним уже идут комментарии и они становятся известны - когда убеждается, что его подлое враньё - просто отчетливая глупость.

Ситуация приобрела совершенно сардонический характер. Настолько непохожа ситуация в реальной жизни на ситуацию среди виртуальных пользователей-тысячников. Есть у нас в России один мудрый олигарх. Скоро, я уверен - он перегонит всех наших абрамовичей и дерипасок по своим активам. А рецепт у него простой: на самом деле он является хитрым евреем, но изображает из себя тупого азиата. С "Другим" всё ровно наоборот.

Однако же - смех - смехом, но всё это быдло пляшет на могилах наших солдат и братских осетин.

Эти люди должны быть наказаны!

http://community.livejournal.com/georgia_war/564079.html