I dunno, those things can be pretty lethal.

I want a burrito like the one which locked down an entire school.

Castor Oil...sickeningly good: If I had a hammer

Castor Oil...sickeningly good: If I had a hammer

My sentiments exactly (well, i haven't read the whole thing yet, but I was really annoyed yesterday when Friends of John Kerry called me asking for $110 to support the Kids for Kerry bill or whatever)
for that kind of money, we could feed, clothe and insure all the kids without getting bugged at home by the husband of a billionaire.

Oh yeah, it was a caller ID blocked number too (i answered it czu some of my relatives have there IDs blocked) and it was my cellphone so it was on my dime as well.

Kerry's a moron.

"I Shit My Pants": Spontaneous Ancient Literary Structure in Modern Day Colloquial Speech

"I Shit My Pants": Spontaneous Ancient Literary Structure in Modern Day Colloquial Speech

This is so awesome, you must read the whole thing, but here's the chiasmus:
The form of this chiasmus may be more readily apparent if we indent the middle two lines. Thus:
03: I was at the grocery store.
04: Where I just shit my pants.
05: I SHIT MY PANTS!
06: At the grocery store.

Here's the audio and here's the text.
Be sure to check out the mp3 remixes. This is the best one. FONKAY!

Suntory Whisky

Suntory Whisky
Originally uploaded by heyrog.

Ok, so I just found my Kodak photo CDs of pics from Japan tonight. Thank heavens for Irfanview which can batch convert to other formats, check it out if you get the chance it is so money.

I'm perusing the photos which I took 4 and half years ago and I noticed this billboard ad for Suntory Whisky that I shot in what I believe was Ginza. Suntory was later made famous in the movie Lost in Translation.

|:ni9e:|:destruction:|:production:|

For the ADD crowd: NWA's Straight Outta Compton with all the non-explicit words edited out: |:ni9e:|:destruction:|:production:|

BLACKLION BASH II - JUNE 17, 2005 - NAS Oceana

I've posted some military recollections on here. But if you'd like to hang out with the real thing, check out the BLACKLION BASH II - JUNE 17, 2005 - NAS Oceana - Black Lion Bash 2005

Dog Air Flop

Nande Air Flop
Originally uploaded by Johnny Huh.

Check out how he's looking right into the camera too. So awesome.

Fall Bridge

Fall Bridge
Originally uploaded by Photogopher.

Nice pic of a (the?) bridge in the Portland Japanese Garden. Here's photogopher's 75 pic set of it:Portland Japanese Garden

How Navy flyboys relieve stress...

I recently got this email from a friend of mine and it cracked me up. I asked if I could blog it and he said sure. I've redacted certain parts to protect the innocent and/or guilty parties. I also have it on good authority that this episode of throwing yoge was one of the deleted subplots in Top Gun. (I've included a glossary at the end for the acronyms.)

Here it is:


I made quite a name for myself this week, and for exactly what you may think. Two days ago I found myself alone in my 4-man in the middle of the day on a break from the SDO desk. I knew two of my roommates were flying and one was working out, so obviously I threw in a copy of "Finally Legal 3" and starting treating my body like an amusement park. Not wanting to get myself into an awkward situation, I threw up our Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

Now despite the fact that our room had not formally established masturbatory Rules of Engagement, I figured that the sign was self-explanatory. Not so much. A few moments before a glorious completion, the door flew open and one of my roommates cluelessly stumbled in. Sorry, I don't want to ruin this for you, but I wasn't suspended naked upside-down from the ceiling or anything. I was actually just sitting in my flight suit in the middle of the room. In one fluid motion, I crossed my leg, stored the unit, and froze. I probably could have played it off, but was given away by the moans of "fuck me!" blasting from the TV and the look of terror on my mug. My roommate's expression of confusion quickly became a knowing one. Now at this point I admitted my guilt, figuring it would him the hell out of the room as fast as possible. He was intent on getting a post-workout shower, though, so I had to sit awkwardly as he fumbled around, changed into his robe, and attempted some mood-lightening jokes. As he departed, I told him to make it a nice Hollywood shower, because I wasn't about to finish my duty day with blue balls. I managed to get my train back on track shortly after his departure and completed my mission. Funny enough, though, he was only a few seconds away from catching me a second time when he returned. But I didn't care -- I was a happy sailor.

Now I was certainly not expecting to get away with this without incident. I figured I'd get some shit from my roommates and some other JO's in the squadron. And I didn't really care -- I feel no shame about such matters. But I had no idea how far it would go.

Today rumors really started circulating about my getting caught. I probably should have just tried to deny it or at least play it off, especially when the department heads started asking me about it. Instead, I bragged. I told them of some of the places I have owned: most airliners I have been on, the backseat of a T-39, and my cell at SERE school. Some were disgusted, some were in awe. Some just thought I was an idiot for getting caught. Either way, momentum was building for a formal squadron statement commemorating my behavior. It just so happened that we had an all-officers meeting scheduled for this evening, and I wasn't at all surprised when I got called up front at the end. My XO called attention to awards and my squadron snapped up as I walked down the aisle. I did a sharpabout-face and listened to my first Navy award statement:

TRIPLE-M AWARD: MERITORIOUS MASTURBATION MEDAL

FOR COMMENDABLE PERFORMANCE WHILE JERKING OFF IN PLAIN SIGHT ABOARD FIGHTER SQUADRON XYZ EMBARKED ABC FROM XX XX XXXX FROM 1205 IN THE AFTERNOON TO 1207. XXXX J. DOE TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS IN A HIGHLY EXEMPLARY MANNER. AS THE MASTURBATION SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT, JDOE TOOK CHARGE OF THE SITUATION AND DISPLAYED EXCEPTIONAL PERSEVERANCE DESPITE THE AWKWARD INTERFERENCE AND TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THE DO NOT DISTURB SIGN. HIS CAVALIER ATTITUDE RAN RAMPANT AS HE CONTINUED HIS LEG-UP-ON-THE-DESK THROWING STYLE. AFTER DULY DISMISSING HIS TRAUMATIZED ROOMMATE HE CONTINUED HIS SELF DEBAUCHERY BY BEATING ON IT LIKE IT BROKE INTO HIS HOUSE. XXX J. DOE'S EXCEPTIONAL FOCUS AND DEDICATION TO THE MISSION IN HAND RESULTED IN SPEWING GREAT CREDIT ALL OVER HIMSELF AND ARE IN KEEPING WITH THE HIGHEST TRADITIONS OF LONELY SAILORS EVERYWHERE.

I.M.A. SPANKER
REAR ADMIRAL, USN - LOWER HALF

Needless to say, uproar ensued and I felt much pride. My roommate then walked up to the front of the ready room and placed upon me my new necklace: a small bottle of lotion on a loop of rope. So that I would never have to go without.

As if all that weren't enough, it turned out that when my fellow JOs were printing out my award speech for the XO, they had to send it to the Maintenance Control printer due to a lack of toner back in Ops. By the time they retrieved the incriminating document, half the chiefs in my squadron were refusing to shake my hand. Nothing like keeping things professional. Just to make sure that absolutely EVERYONE knew about it, though, the scheds officers kept the party going. That night when they drafted the next day's schedule, they titled it The "J. DOE Makes Love to Himself, Not War" Edition. They did so to amuse themselves, mostly; they knew it would have to be removed before the skipper actually signed the official version. We got a laugh out of it before they passed it up the chain, though.

Later that night, after about 30 copies of the final schedule had been distributed throughout the ship, all hell broke loose. The XO called from his stateroom and demanded to know if his newly delivered schedule was real. It turned out that the Ops O and the skipper had missed the Edition joke, and approved it for wide release. That meant the captain, the air wing commander, and a bunch of other people on the ship were already reading about my schlong stroking. Within minutes the schedule writers were dispatched to retrieve all copies, burn them, then kill anyone who had seen them. Nonetheless, the damage was done. My entire squadron and a good chunk of the aviators in my air wing now know I am dirty, even if they don't know all the award-winning details. I am sure it will take me a while to live it down. But at least my roommates will respect the fucking Do Not Disturb sign from now on.

JO junior officer
Ops O Operations Officer
SDO Squadron Duty Officer
SERE Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape
TSTA training ships training availability
XO Executive Officer

Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache by Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon lyrics revised

I've posted these lyrics before, but I've recently received a bunch of help from the UK on the lyrics. I've updated with the suggestions, but I'm still unsure about two places, so I've left some comments/footnotes in brackets and italics. Please comment if you think you can help some more or if you know Johnny Johnson or how to get in touch with him.

Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache
By Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon

Like a madman I'm up in the morning,
headin' for the walls of heartache.
Working everyday, bringing home the pail of heartbreak.

You look down and the walls get higher
They are built from the tears you're cryin.
Oh, I got to bring it back,
I'm workin' til the day I'm dyin (oh, yeah!)


Breakin' down the walls of heartache, baby
I'm a carpenter of love and affection!
Breaking down the walls of heartache, baby
Got to tear down all the loneliness and tears
and build you up a house of love.


Yeah!
Breakin' down the walls of heartache!
Takin' down the walls of heartache, baby!
Takin' down the walls of heartache!
Shakin' down the walls of "heartache!

Brick by brick, I'm tearin' them down!
Yeah, alone at night, my neighbours hear me (1)
Chip-chippin' at the walls of heartache.
Callin' out your name.
Go with a pail of heartbreak

And your face is there before me,
Hiding my unknown tomorrow (2)
Your letter of goodbye,
is written on the walls of the heartache.
Oh yeah!

Breakin' down the walls of heartache, baby
I'm a carpenter of love and affection
Breakin' down the walls of heartache, baby
Got to tear down all the loneliness and tears
and build you up a house of love.
Yeah!

Breakin' down the walls of heartache, baby. (Yeah yeah, yeah!)
Shakin' down the walls of heartache, baby!
Shakin' down the walls of heartache!
Shakin' down the walls of heartache!

Tearin' them down,
Tearin' them down,
watch me baby!
I'm a carpenter!
A carpenter of love!
Love and affection!
Brick by brick, tearing them down!


1. [or maybe: Yeah, through the lonely night, my neighbors hear me]

2. [or maybe: writing on and no tomorrow?] [i still think this “writing” something because of the next line about the letter of goodbye]

House Passes Major Rewrite of Bankruptcy Code

I think that there should be some bankruptcy reform, because the system as it currently stands isn't that sustainable. However, not letting identity theft victims be exempt sounds pretty stupid. I'm not down with all my parliamentary procedures (queensbury's rules?) so I don't know if all those parliamentary tactics were uncalled for or not.
New York Times > House Passes Major Rewrite of Bankruptcy Code user/pass , try cypherphunk/cypherphunk or bugmenot

Boing Boing discovers Peak oil

Boing boing has a post about Peak oil today and it contains a lot of interesting links from all sides of the debate:
Boing Boing: Peak oil article in Rolling Stone

Ymir and Intelligent Design

I think that Audhumla might be more than just a theory: Science vs. Norse Mythology

Visage's "Fade To Grey"

I just noticed that Spoilt Victorian Child's featured mp3 is "Fade To Grey". Go there to sample it.

Steve Strange and Midge Ure must be pissed.

I heard this song on the radio today- when I heard the intro, I thought it was a remake of Visage's classic 80s hit "Fade to Grey." However, it was the new Kelly Osbourne song "One Word."

Hell, this is a really blatant ripoff. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a lawsuit about this.

Let's start looking at the ripoffs- and this is off the first time I heard it on the radio:

1. The melody to the first line is identical. The rest of the cadence nearly so.
2. It's got the foreign speech- French? I don't have an ear for languages.
3. The synth lines both in the intro and underlying the entire song are virtually identical.

As Rog says, this is a rip of an 80s classic being reintroduced for 14-year olds.

Filangy

I've been using FIlangy for a couple months now and I have to say I like it. Basically, you just install the toolbar in your browser and it indexes every site you go to (those that are public, not the private ones {it does this by having their servers access the page itself, not transmitting what you are looking at to the server, so any site that requires a login or registration doesn't get indexed}), and you can also save any site to your "webmarks", same as bookmarks basically. Whenever you search the web you can get 3 types of results, those from the web proper, from your web cache and those from your webmarks. They also do good stuff like cluster your search results as well. You're probably wondering about privacy. Well, all they require is an email address for registration and login, and we all know those are pretty easy to come by. Here is their FAQ: Filangy Frequently Asked Questions

This guy has a good writeup of it as well: http://www.igniq.com/robs_blog/2005/02/filangy-beta-first-impressions.html.

I have some invites, so if you'd like to try it out, let me know.

Nanaca Crash Update

Nanaca Crash
Originally uploaded by heyrog.

Here's my highscore so far 15 kilometers, 39 meters and 70 cm. Peace out.

Nanaca Crash!!, the best game ever?

Check out this simple yet addictive flash game: Flash � Nanaca Crash!!. It's along the same lines as smack the penguin, but it's even better cuz you get powerups, combos, specials etc.

Here's some background on it: What is Nanaca Crash?

My best is only 4000m or so, while one of my friends got 12,000m. The alltime record is about 70,000m or something. There are height records. Enjoy.

A World Discovered

A World Discovered
Originally uploaded by BombDog.

Flickr is back up now. Thank goodness. Lots of interesting stuff over on Polyscifi, check it out.

The Straight Dope: How can a corporation be legally considered a person?

When the case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Morrison Waite supposedly prefaced the proceedings by saying, "The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does." In its published opinion, however, the court ducked the personhood issue, deciding the case on other grounds.

Then the court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis, stepped in. Although the title makes him sound like a mere clerk, the court reporter is an important official who digests dense rulings and summarizes key findings in published "headnotes." (Davis had already had a long career in public service, and at one point was president of the board of directors for the Newburgh & New York Railroad Company.) In a letter, Davis asked Waite whether he could include the latter's courtroom comment--which would ordinarily never see print--in the headnotes. Waite gave an ambivalent response that Davis took as a yes. Eureka, instant landmark ruling.

The Straight Dope: How can a corporation be legally considered a person?

And, uh, as much as I wish it was, this isn't an April Fool's joke.