chaotic_nipple

According to Netflix, my copy of Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is "shipping today". The website said the same thing yesterday. It damned well _better_ not say the same thing tomorrow too, or Bad Things Will Happen. This is the first new Robotech cartoon in 20 FREAKING YEARS, and I will not be denied the pleasure of seeing it! >:-(

I figure I'm about 3/4 of the way through with organizing my Legos. Soon as I'm done, I shall embark on a great-yet-relatively-modest project: a more or less minifig scale, transformable Logan from Robotech. For accuracy's sake, it should be tan, but some of the pieces I'll need for it don't come in that color. Or do they....?

In other geeky news, I'm enjoying the current series of "Transformers" comics more than I thought. They lack the campy fun of the originals, but they're actually intelligently written, and as realistic as a comic about giant transforming robots can be. For example, Megatron and Optimus Prime actually behave like _real_ leaders. Megs doesn't cackle or engage in mindless malice, and Prime understands the concepts of "acceptable losses" and "collateral damage". Simon Furman seems to have overcome his earlier limitations as a writer... Can I, then, do less?

Elsewhere, Bloggers vs brownshirts, God hates _a_ fag, How the Ex-gay movement really works, Crazy Harry plays with electricity, Some HONEST televangelists, Welcome to Law School, and finally, use condoms.

There's a 40 foot tall Optimus Prime statue in China. Now I'm not so worried about the coming Chinese hegemony over the 21st century.

Edit: Looking at the van next to it, the statue seems quite a bit bigger than that. 60 feet, maybe?

I demand a recount!

You Are 60% Nerdy

You may be a bit surprised with this score, but your more of a closet nerd than an actual nerd. Stop denying your inner nerd! You're truly dorkier than you think.

... So I have to inject heroin into my eyeballs propagate this meme too:

Rules:

This is the Science Fiction Book Club's list of the fifty most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

I keep trying to read it, but I can never get into it. I've tried reading them in order, out of order, starting in the middle of the books, etc, but it never grabs me.

*2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov

One of the classics. Just suspend your disbelief and go with it!

3. Dune, Frank Herbert

Meh. It just bored me.

*4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

The first of Bob's Really Trippy And Intense books. It wasn't as good as "Time Enough For Love", though.

5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
*6. Neuromancer, William Gibson

If you didn't love this book, turn in your mirrorshades in disgrace.

*7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke

Yes, I both loved and hated it.

*8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

Not the most consistent of his books, but still wonderfully strange.

9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Read it for english class, but I can barely remember the plot, and I never got why it was so "controversial".

11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
*12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Also read this for english class. And read it again later on my own.

*13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
*16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

The first Discworld book. Not the best, but here's where it started.

17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison

Actually, I'm not sure if I read these or not. If I did, they can't have been good, or I'd remember them.

19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
*21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

If only all of her Pern books were as good as the first 6. The series is a stern warning to other authors about the dangers of running a good idea into the ground.

*22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

What can I say that hasn't already been said? Future generations will consider this one of the seminal works of this age.

23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
*24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl

Actually, in the middle of reading it. Seems cool and somewhat transhumanistic, but the science is somewhat... lacking.

26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling

No, I have no interest in reading it. I don't care who thinks I'd like it. NO!

27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Funny, but not worth re-reading.

28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Meh. It was an entertaining read, but not all _that_ great.

30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
*33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick

Possibly his best work.

34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
*38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

Liked what I read, but somehow I never get around to finishing it.

39. Ringworld, Larry Niven

One of the classic Really Cool Ideas, but I found most of his books somewhat bland when it comes to characterization.

40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

I was actually able to finish it!

42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
*43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
*46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein

I long for the day when Bob is finally able to pull his scattered, soggy ashes together and wreak horrible undead havoc on Hollywood for the _atrocity_ that was the movie adaptation.

*47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock

Good reading, for moody teenagers.

48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
*50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Some day, the Lego corporation will expand the current "Lego Creator" concept to a "brick-on-demand" service, where you will be able to order any brick you want, in any color needed. At that point, it will be possible to mass-order the transparent/translucent bricks needed to build such wonderful projects as the Palace of the High Ones, or an optically camouflaged Tachikoma. When that glorious time comes to pass, geeks everywhere will rejoice.

Speaking of Ghost in the shell, one of the neat things I've noticed about the "Stand Alone Complex" series is that optically camouflaged characters really _do_ become more noticeable when they move. I thought that was a neat touch. Something that I found highly annoying, though: For an elite paramilitary unit, Section Nine has _lousy_ muzzle discipline. They 'flag' each other _all_the_damned_time_. I don't care how advanced the fire-control capacities of their weapons and artificial cyber-bodies are, the whole unit is a frindly-fire Darwin Award waiting to happen. This would't be so jarring, if the rest of the show wasn't so realistic. But ASIDE from that, the series is great, and everyone should watch it.

Whilst browsing the Transformers Wiki, I came upon, and corrected, several spelling and grammatical errors. I have not yet corrected the worst error I found yet, though, because I'm not quite sure how much detail to go into. You see, in the Beast Wars entry it says: Though reviled by many Transfans when it first hit the airwaves in 1996, the wholly-CGI Beast Wars is now considered by many to be the critical pinnacle of Transformers storytelling. Between "considered by many" and "to be", the words "drug-addicted crack-whores" are missing.

You might think that would be an easy fix to make, this being a wiki and all. But it's not that simple! For one, the ho's might shiv me, if I'm not careful. For two, I'm not quite sure if I should bring attention to the homosexual aspect of their whoredom. Most trans-fans are male after all, as are most johns. But are the Beast Wars fans just "gay for pay"? And is it even relevant, when the important thing is that their drug-addled synapses are what drove them to covet such inferior toys in the first place? I can't edit the article until I've hashed this out. But the important thing is that the Beast Wars, toys and cartoon both, SUCK.

On to less important matters: I actually find myself considering whether I should go back to work for The Man again. Not in the Army, oh Hells no, but as an overpaid civilian, who would never leave the country. The scurvy dogs at the University of Wisconsin admissions office still haven't gotten back to me about my application, so making plans is difficult. I can't imagine they would actually reject someone of my sterling qualities, but still I wonder. It's not often that _other_ people's procrastination causes me problems. :-P

Mahna Mahna! Surely, no human mind could come up with such a catchy tune. It much be a cunningly crafted attack meme from Space; The Aliens shall invade, yet we will be unable to resist as we'll be humming along with the sound of their War Engines. Fiendish...

Robert Anton Wilson is near death. I never got a chance to see him speaking. I never got his autograph. I never got to thank him for all the weird mind-fuck trippiness of his books. This sucks. I hope he's still planning to have his head frozen, in the faint hope that he may some day be resurrected for the enlightenment of future generations.

"Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show

BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers."

So, that means we have to leave, right? I mean, if it's a War of Liberation, and the people you Liberated tell you to leave, you're sorta obliged...

"Four charged in graffiti spree.

South Congress Avenue businessman Brandon Hodge doesn't care if he never sees the names Gimix, Scope, Radar or Zenac again... Hodge wondered who the graffiti artists were, so the president of the 60-member South Austin Merchants Association, acting on a hunch, logged onto myspace.com and poked around to see if any of them had a personal Web page on the popular hosting site."

And they did. Complete with incriminating photos. I hope they get extra punishment for sheer retardedness...

"Tattoo in prison makes molester a marked man.

CARLISLE, Ind. -- An inmate serving life in prison for molesting and killing 10-year-old Katie Collman is now the subject of an investigation into how he ended up with the tattoo "Katie's Revenge" emblazoned across his forehead."

As prison tattoos go, it was a pretty good one too. Nice, clean lines, looks like it won't fade or blur. My complements to the artist. (Evil grin)

In current events, Kip Hawley Is An Idiot. Going back to the news of a month ago, the liquid bomb plot was completely unfeasible. _I_ already knew that, having read the Poor Man's James Bond cover to cover. Further back in history, Why did Thomas Jefferson Hate America?

More important than all this foolishness, behold the glory of the Lego Hall of Justice. I wish I could take credit for it. But when I build my Lego Tachikoma, my place in Geek Lore shall be assured!