Black Light Burns

blacklightburns.com
We are proud to announce the early online release and hard copy pre-order of Cover Your Heart and The Anvil Pants Odyssey.
Please go to blacklightburns. com and have a look. You'll notice several options which are not unlike what Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Saul Williams have conceived very recently. We like the idea of options and think that people should be able to order what size album they want from our website like a menu. So please feel free to go check it out. The instrumentals are free, but due to copyright issues, the covers can't be given away at no charge. Thanks for your support. We hope you enjoy.

-BLB

You can go to their MySpace page and listen to a couple of the song on their page.
Lucretia, My Reflection is pretty freaking awesome.

B-E-N-D-E-R

Bender Bending Rodriguez is a Unit 22 Bending Unit made in Mexico, a child number 1729 of a robotic arm mother and a father killed by a can opener. He is a heavy drinker and smoker for mechanical reasons but he pathologically steals, cheats, and lies for fun. His electricity dependency is under control. He is 40% zinc, 40% titanium, and 40% dolomite, but he was briefly made of wood and once converted into an Olympic medalist fembot. He is a devotee of All My Circuits, having appeared on teh show after serving as a water heater for its star Calculon (whom he stalked and nearly married). He toured with Beck, escaped from Robot Hell, and suffered the curse of the werecar. You know, the usual stuff.

Tanning

Maybe I'm just bitter because I dont so much tan... as I burn. With my pale background, it's pretty inevitable.
For some reason I just got waist deep into a pile of articles about tanning and sunscreen.

To much jumped out at me that a Facebook headline just wouldnt cover.

Such gems like, "Indoor tanning—like smoking, unprotected sex, and the occasional six-margarita evening—is one of those guilty behaviors that we all know probably isn’t super-duper good for us, but which many otherwise-intelligent women indulge in anyway."
Might as will throw in, "Doing Shots While Pregnant."

Also, a crazy little fact that I learned is that a Tan is actually a melanin response to damage caused to the DNA of your skin cells.
So... you're actually BURNING your DNA? That's pretty intense!

And the idea of getting a "base" tan to prevent sunburn before going out in the sun on vacation, or something, is a fallacy. A "base" tan only contributes the equivalent of 2-4 SPF. FAR below the recommended 15 SPF. Sure, darker skinned people burn less easily... but that doesnt mean they dont get cancer.

I'm going to be curious to see what the long term effects of many of our modern "luxuries" are going to be.
Cell Phone Brain Cancer.
Skin Cancer Deaths.
Sock Rash.

Maybe I'm just a pale ole nerd, but I REALLY dont find tans attractive anymore. Normally, when a woman comes up to me with a "beautiful, golden tan," I'm as turned off because of that as if she were Smoking.

Yahoo Top Ten Lists

Usually these things are laughable at best. Stuff like "Top Ten Grunge Bands" and then putting Nirvana at number 6. ((Heck, I think Nirvana even did better in the 100 Greatest Bands Of All Time list))

These two are actually pretty good. Moderately educational, and designed to be laughable.

Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies

Top 10 Historically Inaccurate Movies

I particularly enjoy:
This ridiculousness drove Duke University paleoclimatologist William Hyde to publicly state, "[The Day After Tomorrow] is to climate science as Frankenstein is to heart transplant surgery."

I felt their problems with 300 were a little weak, comparatively speaking. I'm surprised they didn't just REAM that movie.

Boxildreo

((Box-Children-Hero))

Talking to Kim last night about a super hero I always pretended to be when I was a child was a combination of Archangel, Colossus, and Wolverine.
Just imagine it. Hell Hath No Fury Like Arloserine!!!
I just came up with that name last night... I think as a kid I was just known as "Mad Dog." Notably less creative than Arloserine.

EDIT: Aw crap... you can't spell Arloserine without Loser.
Dammit!

Also, I've made my first purchase towards my Steampunk CD Player.
I've decided to go with more of a Music Box than a true stand alone unit...

Dirty Euphemism

"I don't know who she's been sleeping with, but she's got something filthy going on in the oven."

Steampunk CD Player

As some of you MIGHT know, I was considering crafting a Steampunk CD Player. Mainly as a decorative piece, but with the intent of it being fully functional.
Well... a googling of "steampunk CD player" yielded this bad boy!

Friends Don't Cuddle

and Boys Don't Cry

((the name of my second single from my band Who's The Boss, Tony Danza))

Batman Recall... again

This is exactly my point.
Why recall a toy because it's to creepy!?
It's an ADULT movie anyway, and the media recognizes that...

It's not a comic book movie.

That's the first thing you should know when your kids ask to see "The Dark Knight," this summer's biggest blockbuster. The film is vastly more true to Frank Miller's famous alternative view of The Batman than to the zap-pow camp of Adam West's TV portrayal and sanitized DC comics that filled our childhood.

So how do you answer? Should your children see "The Dark Knight?" We turned first to our resident film fanatic and visual designer, Chuck Kim, the first of the Yahoo! Kids team to see the box office smash.

"I would not take a kid to see 'The Dark Knight,' said Chuck. "The Joker and Two-Face alone could give a kid nightmares." The oft-mentioned violence is not of one of gore, he says, but more of the heart—and thus potentially more terrifying. "The main thing is that it is a very dark movie," Chuck concludes."There's no ray of hope for the city." He recommends kids be 14 or older to see the film.

Such cautions seem to be the consensus, beginning with movie's star, Christian Bale, who said this on the "Today Show:"

"It’s quite haunting. It’s something which will stay with you for quite a while afterward. I’m not sure how much a child will be oblivious to that. I would say starting at about 9, maybe 10 years old may be an appropriate age for kids to be able to deal with this.”

A sampling of other comments:

* "'Dark Knight' is a staggeringly violent and disturbing film. Thought-provoking for adults, but potentially terrifying for children," says Jeffrey Weiss of The Dallas Morning News. "The PG-13 rating should offer some warning, yes. But this film dances just south of an R in my book."

* "This film is not for children, and I would discourage parents from taking anyone under 12 to see this movie," writes Jim Pappas of The Trades.com. “'The Dark Knight' offers a glimpse into the darker places within each of us, which might be cathartic for some, but others will simply be afraid."

* "The movie is sadistic, violent, disturbing and also one of the best and biggest movies of the year," according to MoviesOnline.ca. "That all said, 3 out of 4 of those components are absolutely not suitable for young children... regardless of how the MPAA rated the movie."

Ultimately, the "Dark Knight" decision depends upon you, your children and your relationships with them. There are children at age 14 (and I was one) who would be deeply troubled by the darkness of the film. And there are children of 10 who could not only face down the terror but even discuss some of the film's layered themes.

In all cases, we suggest talking with your children about "The Dark Knight." Be sure they understand that it is not a typical comic book movie and that it is intended for grown-ups. And should you permit them to see the film, we strongly recommend discussing it afterwards; our Common Sense Media review has some excellent starting points.

How about you? Have you seen "The Dark Knight?" Would you take your children to see it? Please share your views in our comments.

Mattel Pulls Joker

Mattel, the American producer of the action figures for the new Batman movie, has pulled the late Heath Ledger’s original “Joker” figurine from production, claiming the toy was too scary.

The move has left collectors scrambling to buy the limited edition original before supplies run out.

Mattel has hastily thrown together a friendlier version they can sell to children, movie and celebrity site, collider.com, said today.

Collider.com said Mattel was expected to sell a strange “hybrid” doll, based on the movie and an animated version of the notorious Batman villain.

There were speculations in the media at the time of Ledger’s death that the dark and twisted Joker character had stayed with the Australian actor long after the film’s wrap.

Batman: Dark Knight is scheduled for release in July this year.

Now... this explains why I cant find one.
But what gets me the most is that it was pulled cause it was scary. Seriously?
I mean, that was the point. Hollywood and Heath made an awesome character. He was supposed to be grotesque and scary...

...and KIDS SHOULDNT BE SEEING IT ANYWAY!!!
It has nothing to do with Mattel making a scary figure.

((My guess is that Mattel is now going to sell the ones they pulled on eBay and reap the profits!))

Additional Steampunk

You might not be in to shit like this ((and honestly, I'm not REALLY into it))
but you have to look and this and go, "WTF!?! That's a computer!?!"
And yeah... it works. It's water cooled, too! Which just adds to the Steampunk coolness.



Here's how he made it.
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/320859/?s


uh...
a blog directed me to this eBay auction...
at the time it was at $224...
it sold for $455!!!

whoops...

It's been a few days. Sorry about that.

I'm really hoping to find some sort of steam punk gadget that I could use as decoration in my living room. Something large and brassy and geary. Something like that looks like it might actually do something. Unfortunately, the only thing I can ever find is stuff like this:

Which is a customized Nerf Gun on eBay... for $152 ((and there are actually 4 bids on it right now))
I will say, that is pretty good. They went so far as to add the leather, and some tubing, and even a laser sight that I think actual works.
Unlike this one that still even says NERF on it

Seriously... take the time and get a Dremel and buff that shit off!

But I digress...
Those guns are pretty rad, but they're not what I'm looking for. Those would need a rack/display to show them on my entertainment center, and people would be tempted to play with it. Not what I want. I just want people to see it and go, "WTF is that!?"


((lemme just add that this one is pretty pimp. it's not just a painted Nerf gun))



If you're interested in more of this stuff, just do an eBay search for Steampunk Gun

sacrificed on your altar of greed

There are many parts of this news article that are just a fun read.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_re_us/homeless_hit_and_run

LOS ANGELES - Two elderly women were sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday for murdering two indigent men to collect insurance policies taken out on their lives.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley on Tuesday sentenced 77-year-old Helen Golay and 75-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt to two consecutive life terms each.

In April the women were convicted of a scheme in which they befriended homeless men, took out insurance policies on them and then killed them in murders staged to look like hit-and-run auto accidents. Prosecutors say the women collected $2.8 million before the scheme was uncovered.

The judge denounced the women, saying the men they killed needed only food, water and shelter and thought the women were going to help them.

"Instead, these unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altar of greed," Wesley said.

Both women were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the 1999 death of Paul Vados, 73, and the 2005 death of Kenneth McDavid, 50.

Both men were run over by cars in dark alleys. Police linked the cases when a detective investigating one overheard a colleague describe a similar case.

Defense attorneys had conceded the women were involved in insurance fraud but denied they had formed a murder conspiracy. Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, said during the trial that the women's idea was to insure old, sick homeless people who would die more quickly.

The jury that convicted the women in April saw a secretly recorded videotape of the defendants in a lockup after their arrests. Rutterschmidt berated Golay, saying her actions in taking out 23 insurance policies raised a red flag when the men died.

"It's your fault," Rutterschmidt told Golay. "You can't have that many insurances. ... You were greedy. That's the problem."

Hellboi Deux

Just got back in from seeing. I enjoyed it. Not as much as the first, but enough. I felt like it's sort of a filler film between the first movie... and the 3rd. Which, if they didnt make... I'd be ok with.

I'm tired.

I need to find my tiny, metal guns for my tiny plastic action figures.
I know I have them... but dont know where. Gonna be pretty pissed if I trashed them.

The Capital Hotel is pretty freaking awesome!

Late Night Musing

Thursday!?! But it's July!!!

If you would have told me that you would love to talk, but you have to clean up dog vomit from your cars upholstery... I would have seriously been heartbroken!

-4 -2 094
-4.5 -2 062

Tentacle Hat

So tonight I discovered Etsy.com
It's an online store of peoples homemade stuff. I've been digging around in the geekery section for a while now, and have found a lot of stuff.

Like this:

I'd never wear it, but I appreciate it's comic value!

A Few Updates to a Few Posts...

Following up to I Bought A TV...
I just happened to stop by Best Buy yesterday after a long day of driving to see my future dog to see how things were going, and if my new TV was ready. It wasn't.
Lots of balls got dropped by Best Buy, apparently. Not only was my TV not put on the truck in Ft Smith to be mailed to me, but the TV was sold.

This made me ever increasingly agitated and stinky.

A bulk of the time was spent trying to figure out what happened. Eventually they start offering me options. I really didnt want to leave the store without a new, working TV, so the notion of waiting until sometime next week to mess up again. Er, get me another TV from... somewhere.

So my options became wait until next week for a new model of my tv to come from Tulsa, change out my TV for a similar model (an LG), or upgrade for $100.

I wanted the TV today, so waiting wasnt a real option... I really dont like LG (the salesman even said while trying to sell me on the LG that Samsung had a better picture)... and the idea of giving them MORE money didnt appeal to me. I was between a rock and a hard place, and couldnt think anymore.

I was forced to call my electronic financial adviser: My Dad. His only question was whether or not the upgrade was in fact a much better TV, and it was. So he told me to go for it.
Now I think I have, hands down, the best TV amongst my friends and family.
It looks great, dont get me wrong... I just went over budget. Wouldnt have been as much an issue, but since I saved so much the first time... I bought other things that now have me over budget. No big deal.

That's what student loans are for, right?


Now, remember that $20 that wandered off from the Hotel back in Work Frustration? Well, I told him about it, and while he knew he was going to get his $20... that wasn't enough. He wanted them to know that they stole his money. He came up to the hotel (while I was buying my TV) and asked about the money. They gave it to him, but it wasnt enough. He wanted the envelope it was in. I wasnt here for it, but things got real serious, apparently. So much so they had to call the police to escort him off the property.

Way to go.

I bought a TV

After digging around the bestbuy website for in store availability, I discovered that the TV I wanted was not available in the NWA area. Sadly, I went on about my day. Realizing that my ONE plan of buying a TV wasn't going to happen.

However, my day off travels lead me to the area between Springdale and Fayettevile... which has a walmart, best buy, the mall, etc. "Hey, let's stop in Best Buy. Nose around a little." Ended up getting helped (surprise surprise) by Jared. Not the Subway guy... more like The Hebrew Hammer. Turns out... the TV I wanted had been discontinued ( :( ) but that did have one left ( :) ): The floor model. So I had come into this store on several occasions, and seen the TV I wanted and walked right by it... because it wasn't labeled. Jeez!

The fact that the TV I wanted had been discontinued explained the cheaper (unbeatable) price... but since the one the store had was a floor model... they knocked another $57 off the price! Woot. Which totally justified to me the purchase of an upconverting DVD that was a Clearanced Closeout. Making a $100 DVD cost me only $40. So considering they knocked my cost down anyway... just made sense! ((Granted, the HDMI cable wasn't entirely justified... but at this point if you're serious about AV, you understand))

At this point, I'd told Jared this is what I wanted. So at this point they start the process of removing it from the wall, finding a stand, reattaching the stand, finding the paperwork and remotes for the TV and DVD Player, and ghetto packaging the TV. Now, when I watched them pick up the TV I noticed the stand kinda got cocked at a funny angle. I asked about it (because I had to sign a waiver about it being an out of package item) and was told it was ok. "It just pops back in."

To this point, we're looking about 2 hours of my day spent with Best Buy.
((They kept apologizing for the wait and the trouble))

I get it home and start setting it up, when the stand starts giving me trouble. I start setting the thing up and the it gets kicked off to one side. I try to "pop it back into place," only to discover it's not really attached. 2 of the 4 screws attaching the stand are missing, 1 of the remaining 2 wasn't installed properly. Causing physical damage to the TV. I get discouraged at this point, because I didnt like the idea of dragging the TV back out to Best Buy. I call them up and explain the situation, and the first option was to just give me some smaller screws. I offered the idea of bringing it back to them and having THEM put everything back together.

Fun.

The TV gets wrapped back up in its ghetto packaging, and driven back out to Best Buy. I'm not met at the door, but the TV is brought just inside the door to be worked on. Lots of back and forthing and shuffling and refitting happen, only to discern it was the wrong stand. Neat! I get to stand around a lot more while they try to fix their problem. I start getting really internally pissed off. Commenting that if I were another friend of mine, I'd be walking out of the store with a new DIFFERENT TV and an Xbox 360. ((He's just a retail jedi master)) The best thing that came out of the deal was THEY ended up screwing up my TV in the process of trying to fix it. Glad I brought it back!

To solve the problem, they jerryrigged the stand to work (for now), and they're shipping me up a new (in box) version of the TV I wanted from Ft Smith. Now I dont feel bad about not getting the service plan for $140... cause its a new TV.

With a Spaghetti dinner, Bruce, Jesse and Myself watched Hellboy on my fun new system!
I can't wait till my new new tv comes in.

Work Frustration

So a few weeks ago I asked a guy to cover my shift. I even offered to throw in an extra $20 (because he's normally a bellman, and doesnt make much money). In the time that I asked him till he had to work, my boss had a talk with him. Stating that if he didnt shape up, he was going to have to fire him.

I was unaware of this when I asked him... but I dont know that it would have changed anything.

I didnt have the money immediately for him, and since we worked different shifts, I eventually just taped an envelope to the desk with a twenty in it for him. I thought I'd be funny to write it neatly with a pink Sharpie saying, "To Will, for services rendered."

The envelope disappeared... I assumed he got it. This was a least 2 weeks ago.

TODAY I tell the story about how I had him work for me and that got him fired. ((which wasn't true)) Mentioning that I left him $20...
A fellow desk clerk tells me to tell this story to my boss...

Turns out he never got it. Instead, my boss took it so that he wouldnt get it... since he might have stolen something to get himself fired anyway. This money was then used to buy the front desk staff dinner. Dinner I was not included in. I was asked if I was hungry, I was not.

Internally... I'm kinda pissed.
I'd ask for this money back, if I thought I could get it. I think the thoughts at this point are that it wasn't my money anymore. It was this other guys.

I need that money.
I'm gonna have to ask for it back.

And Now For Something Completely Different:

more cat pictures

Fun Things...

I dont wanna just be another blog about stuff I've found on ThinkGeek.com, but I saw Nintendo Wall Graphic...

...and I want to do now is cover my garage with this.

I Love Engrish

http://www.engrish.com/

Electric Sander

Anyone got one?
It's time to bring this old table out of 2003...

Tonights Work Entertainment

EvilMilk.com
with classy pictures like this one:
"Antiques"

Ghostbusters

At this point, some of you may or may not be aware of the Ghostbusters Video Game that is set to hit shelves later this year.
The game looks pretty sweet, but originally I had gotten the impression that Bill Murray would not be taking part in the game even though Dan Akyroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson had signed on to reprieve their characters.

I was just informed otherwise.
Bill Murray WILL be in the game.

BUT Rick Moranis will not. He was asked to come back as Louis Tully, but turned it down.
Why? Because he doesnt need the money. APPARENTLY, he made so much money with the "Honey, I ____ the kids" movies that Moranis has effectively retired.

Go figure.

This is still pretty good news though!
The game is a legit sequel to the originals, with the original cast!
http://www.ghostbustersgame.com/us/index.html

Satisfaction

So I just returned home from my third weekend home in a row. All that driving wasn't cheap, but this third weekend was a full 4 days... and I had plans! Things I wanted to do! I should have gone on an adventure with that time, but I just wanted to hang out at home. Over the course of my trip, I got to see everyone I had promised, and I was able to consume fried catfish, chinese food, and strawberry daiquiris. Not at the same time, mind you.

Even got to do a little hunting, and if you know me at all, you know that I'm not talking shooting at animals. Granted, I didnt have funds to pick up the stuff that I found.