YOKOHAMA MONTREAL KAIDASHI KIKOU (Montreal Shopping Log):
SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY "BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY" EDITION
This will be a short one, as it's rather late.
I got on the 2 p.m. AMT train from Dorion to go downtown. It was raining very hard today, so I didn't play Game Boy Advance or read manga on the train, instead looking at the cool mist along Highway 20 (which runs parallel to the tracks). I got off at Windsor Station (well, technically you're supposed to call it Lucien L'Allier Station now), and had an uneventful walk through the "underground city" (technically, much of it is above ground, the buildings are just conneced via underground tunnels), circling around the southern edge of the Bell Centre (formerly Molson Centre), through old Windsor Station, down the stairs, through Bonaventure Metro station, up a long escalator by the bus station for the buses going to the South Shore, left at the "Passage" shopping concourse below Place Bonaventure, up through Central Station, then the Place Ville Marie shopping centre, through the "Tunnel" emerging at Centre Eaton.
I had about 40 minutes to go before my self-appointed purchase time of 4 p.m., so I just browsed various stores including the DVD Passion. Then I checked out the Electronic Boutique store in the Ailes de la Mode shopping complex and damn, that store was packed! Ooh... I didn't know that there was a game in the classic Sega
Shining Force (or, if you want to be a real Sega fanboy,
Shining in the Darkness) RPG series for the Game Boy Advance! Unfortunately,
Shining Soul's not a strategy RPG but a multi-player RPG (if you have at least one friend with a GBA whom also has his or her own
Shining Soul cartridge). I'd get it if the solo missions aren't as boring as those in
Phantasy Star Online. Fortunately, Camelot (formerly "Sonic Software Planning") will also be doing a real
Shining Force game on the GBA, though I'm not sure if it's just a port of the Sega Genesis or Game Gear games.
I decided to keep an eye open for any anti-capitalist activists, probably singing pretentious "Anti-Consumerist Carols" (Christmas carols with modified lyrics), and, most years, I have no difficulty finding them, but... they were nowhere to be found. At least not where I was at the time I was there. They might have been singing on Sainte Catherine's street in front of the Bay department store, but... look, it was pouring out and I wasn't going to go outside to sarcastically listen. Been there, done that. So I went up to Indigo bookstore in Place Montreal Trust shopping centre and
ogled nude photobooks skimmed edifying tomes of diverse academic interest. Yeah, that's the ticket.
And then I took the escalators down and walked to the Centre Industrielle-Vie or whatever the fuck the official name of the shopping/entertainment complex which used to be Simpson's department store (yes, "Simpson's" as in "Hocus Pocus Alamagocus", except
Today's Special was set in the downtown Toronto branch of the Simpson's department store chain, which went bankrupt in 1989) and proceeded to Metro Video. Ah, all six copies of
Millenium Actress which I mentally noted were present yesterday when I was making my final "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" plans, were still there, so no mischief makers got any funny ideas from my announcement a couple of weeks back. I waited in the anime section for about ten minutes to see whether or not anyone whom reads this thing would show up, but... no one cared. And I was wearing my stars-and-stripes rugby shirt for easy identification too. Not that I was disappointed, since my objective was to cheese off the snobbier leftists by buying something on their "special day", not to make a "personal appearance" in the store, sigining autographs, giving a public reading of my better entries, and handing out balloons to the kiddies. So the main phase of my cunning plan went off without a hitch, and, yes, I did mutter (semi-jokingly) "That'll show them!" to myself under my breath a couple of times.
Still, it would have been fun to meet a couple of people whom agree or disagree with my personal stance on "Buy Nothing Day"...
After I had completed my purchasing of an item on "Buy Nothing Day", I took the Metro from Peel to Atwater, and I got myself a ticket for
Bad Santa at the AMC Forum 22 cinema complex inside the Pepsi Forum, but I still had about 45 minutes to kill before the movie started, so I noshed on some fries at the McDonald's at Plaza Alexis-Nihon shopping centre whilst I waited.
The movie
Bad Santa is very funny, though not for small children, but I won't review it now. Maybe I'll see it a second time and review it here, but no promises, and it would be after I'm finished writing all these fricking papers I have to write. After the movie was over, as I was leaving, I noticed two cops at the customer service desk of the AMC cinema... they seemed to be looking for someone, or two people, from the little peek I had out of the corner of my eye, though I have no idea whom they were looking for or for what purposes. As I was leaving the cinema through the glass doors near the SAQ booze store, the person in front of me inadvertently left the door open long enough to let in this one black guy, which is a no-no, since these doors are exit only since the AMC doesn't want people getting in for free. (They don't have the ushers at the door of each individual screen checking your tickets like they do at the Paramount... well, the first floor at the Paramount at least; the third floor with the other screens has a control point.) I debated with myself whether I should bring that to the attention of the police officers there, but decided against it as I didn't get a good look at the guy and I didn't want the cops frisking every black guy in the cinema for tickets. The I walked down rainy Atwater to Lionel-Groulx station, getting soaked by the rain just because I hate taking the Metro for one fricking stop, and got on a 211 bus going to Sainte Anne de Bellevue at the western tip of Montreal island, from where my mother takes me the rest of the way home to Pincourt.
Is my gesture of buying something on "Buy Nothing Day" just to cheese off a tiny minority of activists a pathetic, meaningless gesture? Of course it is, but so is buying nothing on one day of the year and then feeling smug about it. And, since I saw a well above average number of shoppers in downtown Montreal today, even though it's not even considered "Black Friday" up here in Canada, I can confidently declare "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" a resounding success! Your side lost and my side won!
I am the champion!
Now, I guess I'll watch a bit of
Millenium Actress, which I haven't seen since I caught
the world premiere of it at the Fantasia Asian/Fantasy film festival two years ago. I'll read what I wrote in that review first, though, just to refresh my memories. I think it's a far more interesting film than
Spirited Away was, but it doesn't stand a chance of winning Best Animated Feature at the Oscars next February because of
Finding Nemo, and I'm not sure if it will even get nominated because
Les Triplettes de Belleville has much more critical bizz.
Oh yeah, you can see a
picture of me with my purchase in the Photoblog.
"BUY NOTHING DAY" UNMITIGATED FAILURE... AGAIN!
American shoppers were out en masse on "Black Friday", and, even though it's just a normal Friday for those of us here in Canada, the Centre Eaton and the Ailes de La Mode shopping complexes were packed (I'll write more about my experiences today later).
Hmm... how was shopping in every anti-consumerist activist's most reviled department store chain?
""It was an adrenaline rush," Imbia Barry, who lost her scarf in the frenzy at a Wal-Mart in Marietta, Georgia, told The Associated Press.
"It was like a football team or something," Jesus Gonzalez, 22, who arrived at a South Texas Wal-Mart by 5:45 a.m., told the AP. "Man, it was crazy.""
I hope some of you were lucky enough to get Nintendo GameCubes with the
Legend of Zelda bonus disks for the one day price of $74.99 like I told you to buy before.
Remarkably, even at
Indymedia/Nazimedia, I had to scrounge to find any moderately amusing
"Stupid Activist Tricks".
"Police in New York City arrested a man who declined to make a purchase in the Disney store on city?s famed Fifth Avenue shopping district. The Reverend Billy Talen was celebrating Buy Nothing Day with members of his flock and a gospel choir clothed safron-colored robes, They gathered at the famed Plaza Hotel at 1 PM Friday and proceeded through crowds of holiday tourists on the sidewalks outside F.A.O. Schwartz, Coca Cola?s New York City headquarters and other flagship stores. Approximately 20 uniformed police officers, some on foot and others in a variety of vehicles, tailed the spirited non shoppers as they headed downtown. When the group reached the posh Walt Disney outlet a few blocks south of Central Park, Rev. Billy, the choir and several worshipers entered the store.
Billy had less than two minutes to exhort the crowd to ?stop shopping and save your souls? when several uniformed police officers followed the group into the store. The reverend backed slowly out of the store, encouraging shoppers to ?buy nothing? and reached the sidewalk in front of the store without incident. As the choir members and others followed Billy out of the store, one of the officers informed Billy that the non-shoppers were blocking the sidewalk and had to move on. Continuing to walk backwards, Billy took a few more steps downtown when officers spun him around and pressed him up against a ?Cushman? style police vehicle, often used for traffic and crowd control. As the crowd chanted ?Shame! Shame!? and ?Free the Reverend,? Billy was handcuffed, transferred to a patrol car, and driven away.
The arrest represents an escalation of official disapproval of ?non-shopping? actions chronicled on Rev. Billy?s site at www.revbilly.com. Writing of a previous stop-shopping excursion into Wal-Mart, Billy wrote, ?The ecstatic release from shopping hit our church picnic like a hallucinogenic prairie wind. Children, listen to me. Have you ever seen a Wal-Mart manager run out of his big box with a red face and a baffling orange tie ? and actually take a city bus hostage? He screamed at the driver that she could not take our little church group on board. Why? -- because he, the manager, insisted that we be interrogated by the police for actively not shopping in his store. It must be illegal, somehow, someway. Our ?ritual resistance? required a full review by the authorities.? Police apparently decided today that entering a store and not shopping actually was illegal, as they detained Billy despite the compliance by the reverend and his flock that they leave the store and continue walking down Fifth Avenue."
Oh, please,
Bill Talen, you idiotarian moonbat, you weren't arrested for non-shopping, you were arrested for creating a disturbance on private property with your Communist proselytizing. If I were in charge of the Disney store, I'd ring you up on racketeering charges, actually, as well as tresspassing. Technically, Disney can charge anyone on their premises they damn well like with tresspassing since it's not public property, but, for obvious reasons, shopping and browsing in a non-disturbing manner are sanctioned by the management.
Nelson Muntz says
"Ha ha"!
Oh,
Something Awful's Comedy Goldmine" this week is making fun of medieval tapestries like the Bayeux Tapestry.
This particular one had me laughing out loud, not an easy task, since I'm one of the 1%, if that, whom would likely get the reference. (It's about the old
Oregon Trail educational computer game from Broderbund which we played 75% on Apple IIe computers in Mr. Berg's computer class back when I was in grade 7 at Edgewater Elementary School in Pincourt way back in 1987-88.)
INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY "BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY" WEEK
Oh yeah, by the way, if anyone in Montreal wishes to see me make my ceremonial "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" purchase of the Japanese anime film
Millenium Actress at Metro Video in the basement of the old Simpson's building below the Famous Players' Paramount Cinema (corner Sainte Catherine's and Metcalfe, Metro Peel) at 4 p.m. sharp on Friday, I'll be wearing a cloth jacket that has sort of a dark red, dark green, and black tartan pattern design and, of course, my ultimate "piss off liberals" shirt, a rugby shirt with an "Old Glory"** design (horizontal stripes and the blue patch with the stars on my right shoulder). I love that shirt, even though I'm not American and haven't even visited the United States since a day trip in October 1993.
There's a bunch of other pro-capitalist things I wanted to write (and pro-capitalist articles I wanted to link to) that I didn't get around to mentioning, but it's "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist" Week until Saturday, so expect some more stuff either this evening (though I'm planning on seeing
Bad Santa after I make my purchase and then I need to go to Concordia library) or Saturday.
**The "Old Glory" is the American flag, for those of you in Rio Linda.
THE LIFE AQUATIC UPDATE
Apparently, in Wes Anderson's
The Life Aquatic, the underwater creatures Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and crew encounter
will be animated! And not computer animation either... it's going to be from famous stop-motion animation wizard
Henry Selick, director of
The Nightmare Before Christmas** and
James and the Giant Peach. So,
The Life Aquatic joins
Elf as a movie with very brief animated sequences with live-action characters interacting with animated creatures where the producers eschew computer generated graphics and splurge on much more expensive and time consuming (in terms of production) stop-motion animation... not that I think that's a bad thing at all. Not that I'm going all Luddite to you; I think most computer generated films look just fine, it's just the visual appeal of the sorts of characters you get in CGI films like
Toy Story or
Ice Age is appreciably different in ways I can't quite codify or quantify from the visual appeal of of the sorts of characters you get in stop-motion animated productions like
The Nightmare Before Christmas or
Chicken Run, if you count "clay animation" in the category of "stop-motion animation". Except for the jerkiness inherent in stop-motion animation, which is, strictly speaking, an error in production, but it gives the "stop-motion" animated characters a certain "organic" appeal the much more smoothly-animated CGI characters lack, not that CGI characters don't have strengths of their own. And the models are something real that's photographed, not just a bunch of ethereal textured polygons floating around in cyberspace. For CGI productions that try to emulate the look of stop-motion productions, and I'm thinking specifically of
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, the CGI sequel to the classic 1960s Rankin-Bass TV special, it's like... the computer-rendered versions of the classic characters look right, more or less (some of the textures are a little too plastic-ky compared to the original), but they don't feel right. The abominable snowman/Yeti in
Monsters, Inc. was about the most successful attempt to do a CGI version of a stop-motion character, obviously meant as an homage to
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but, still, it moved too smoothly and the hair is too perfect compared to the
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer monster.
Oh yeah, this entry is about
The Life Aquatic... sorry.
"Anderson's story centers on a down-on-his-luck Jacques Cousteau type, Selick explains via cell phone while driving to his studio. "We're creating most of the undersea characters, many of whom are very close to real, and some are more fantastic. It's a small part of the film, but it's an important one." Unlike Tim Burton, who conceived and wrote Nightmare, "Wes doesn't really draw," says Selick. "He does very simple thumbnail sketches, very rudimentary. We have a fair amount of freedom to design and, of course, animate, because that's what I do. We're designing 'em, but he's picking the designs he likes." The artist got the gig when Anderson wisely concluded that Selick's style suited the picture far better than computer-generated animation. "There's a fablelike quality to the film that this reinforces," Selick says."
Hmm... interesting. Anyone who has ever seen the sampling of the original storyboards for
Rushmore on
the Criterion edition of the DVD (not the bare-bones Touchstone version) knows that Wes Anderson can't draw worth a damn, however the Criterion version had cover art, the inside booklets, a fold-out map, and even the DVD menus drawn by Wes's brother Eric Chase Anderson, whom is a very talented illustrator (and he shot the "Making of" documentary for
Rushmore). Eric was later heavily involved in the production design of the house in
The Royal Tenenbaums, down to drawing the designs on the wallpaper and even painting the pictures of Margot (painted by the character Ritchie in the film). Of course,
the Criterion edition of The Royal Tenebaums*** is also stuffed to the hilt with Eric's art. I would have loved to have seen what sort of creatures the animators could have made based on his drawings, but, since that idea probably occurred to Wes at some point, I just presume Eric was unavailable for whatever reason.
**I hate to admit this, but my opinion of
The Nightmare Before Christmas is pretty much the same as my opinion of
Spirited Away: I admire the artistry of the visuals, but I never got into it as a film on a level any deeper than "fairly-entertaining children's fluff". It's like... I'll watch it if I catch it on television, but I don't quite care enough to get it on DVD.
***No, it's not redundant to say "the Criterion edition of
The Royal Tenenbaums" because Touchstone did sell a bare-bones version with an additional French language soundtrack here in Canada.
CNN FUCKS UP...
Well, the Netscape CNN homepage, at least. I got
this amusing screen grab of an article with a headline and picture of President Bush arriving in Iraq to serve Thanskgiving dinner to the troops, but the text is about the audiotape of Michael Jackson's accuser. I get amused by the dumbest things sometimes.
Not that I have anything against George W. Bush, me being one of the tiny evil minority of Canadians (which also includes David Frum and Mark Steyn) whom would vote Republican if I were American.
INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY "BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY" WEEK
I had a look at four examples of the English-language "alternative" press in Montreal,
the Hour, the
Mirror, and the two Concordia papers
The Link and
The Concordian, and there's nothing about "Buy Nothing Day" in any of them. So, ironically, I've been giving "Buy Nothing Day" better coverage than they have, even if it's anti-coverage. Plus, so far, I've only noticed one person whom came here looking for information about "Buy Nothing Day" on my
SiteMeter, though, admittedly, there might have been a few earlier in a week, when I was flooded by all the people looking for information about Jonathan Brandis's suicide (and wondering if he was gay... honest, that's a good one-third of all the Jonathan Brandis hits I get) and I might have missed some "Buy Nothing Day" hits simply because the free version of SiteMeter only gives information for the last 100 hits. I gotta wonder, is the whole "Buy Nothing Day" fad pass�? Eh, I doubt it... I wouldn't even be surprised if more people celebrate "Buy Nothing Day" this year than ever, but, fortunately, each year, these people are far outnumbered by people shopping at Wal-Mart, which
broke all one-day sales records on "Black Friday" (the day after American Thanksgiving) last year, and this year which has that sweet $74.99 U.S. deal on the Nintendo GameCube plus a
Zelda collection, so i hope you all go out and spend, spend, spend!
Well, I did find this one amusing article on
the Ontario Nazimedia page about how some radical ne'er-do-wells right here in Montreal found "Buy Nothing Day" too yuppie-fied and decided to make it
"Steal Something Day".
Ah, hell, these people hate the idea of intellectual property anyhow, so I might as well post the entire bloody thing here
for you to laugh at and make fun of for your edification.
Celebrate
STEAL SOMETHING DAY
November 28, 2003
PARTICIPATE BY PARTICIPATING!
a shameless 24-hour stealing spree!
For the past twelve years, a few self-described "culture jammers" from Adbusters Magazine have dubbed the last Friday in November "Buy Nothing Day."
From their stylish home base in Kalle Lasn's mansion in Vancouver's upscale suburb of Kitsilano, the Adbusters' brain trust has encouraged conscientious citizens worldwide to "relish [their] power as a consumer to change the economic environment." In their words, Buy Nothing Day "[p]roves how empowering it is to step out of the consumption stream for even a day."
The geniuses at Adbusters have managed to create the perfect feel-good, liberal, middle-class activist non-happening. A day when the more money you make, the more influence you have (like every other day). A day which, by definition, is insulting to the millions of people worldwide who are too poor or marginalized to be considered "consumers."
It's supposed to be a 24-hour moratorium on spending, but ends up being a moralistic false-debate about whether or not you should really buy that loaf of bread today or ... wait for it ... tomorrow!
Well, this year, while the Adbusters cult enjoys yet another Buy Nothing Day, accompanied by their fancy posters, stickers, TV and radio advertisements and slick webpages, thousands of others across Canada & worldwide will celebrate STEAL SOMETHING DAY.
Unlike Buy Nothing Day, when people are asked to "participate by not participating," Steal Something Day demands that we "participate by participating." Instead of downplaying or ignoring the capitalists, CEOs, landlords, small business tyrants, bosses, PR hacks, yuppies, media lapdogs, corporate bureaucrats, politicians and cops who are primarily responsible for misery and exploitation in this world, Steal Something Day demands that we steal from them, without discrimination.
The Adbusters' intellegentsia tell us that they're neither "left nor right," and have proclaimed a non-ideological crusade against overconsumption. Steal Something Day, on the other hand, identifies with the historic and contemporary resistance against the causes of capitalist exploitation, not its symptoms. If you think overconsumption is scary, wait until you hear about capitalism and imperialism.
Unlike the misplaced Buy Nothing Day notion of consumer empowerment, Steal Something Day promotes empowerment by urging us to collectively identify the greedy bastards who are actually responsible for promoting misery and boredom in this world. Instead of ignoring them, Steal Something Day encourages us to make their lives as uncomfortable as possible.
As they say in Montreal (where STEAL SOMETHING DAY was founded by people in far less posh housing): "dranger les riches dans leurs niches!"
And remember, we're talking about stealing, not theft. Stealing is just. Theft is exploitative. Stealing is when you take a yuppie's BMW for a joyride, and crash into a parked Mercedes just for the hell of it. Theft is when you take candy from a baby's mouth. Stealing is the re-distribution of wealth from rich to poor Theft is making profits at the expense of the disadvantaged and the natural environment. Stealing is an unwritten a tax on the rich. Theft is taxing the poor to subsidize the rich. Stealing is nothing more than a tax on the rich. There is solidarity in stealing, but property is nothing but theft.
So, don't pay for that corporate newspaper, but steal all of them from the box. Get some friends together and go on a "shoplifting "spree at the local chain supermarket or upscale mall. With an even larger mob, get together and steal from the local chain book or record store. Pilfer purses and wallets from easily identified yuppies and business persons. Skip out on rent. Get a credit card under a fake name and don't pay. Keep what you can use, and give away everything else in the spirit of mutual aid that is the hallmark of Steal Something Day.
See you next Steal Something Day which, unlike Buy Nothing Day, happens every day of the year!
Hmm... if this ever catches on, I propose making it "Help Out the Store Detectives and the Police" day by keeping an eye on other customers wearing faux anarchist-clothing, and taking pictures when they give themselves a five-fingered discount.
WEIRD SEARCH REQUESTS
"untalkative bunny dvd"
Hell, yeah! Hey,
Dynomight Cartoons, I think it's about time.
Well, if you want them to do full-season boxes, you can always join the
semi-official Untalkative Bunny group at Yahoo and agitate for one... well, don't agitate too much, just at a polite level like Bunny would want you to.
"CUE THE KLAUS NOMI" UPDATE
Okay, I think it's fine for politicians to express their personal convictions on homosexuality if they don't think it's a 100% super-de-yooper lifestyle option. I had no problem with
Elsie Wayne expressing her views against gay marriage and I do get outraged when the "pink triangle gestapo", the fringest of the "Queer Rights" (their term, not mine) activists, go to the courts to send mayors to the politically correct re-education camps known as "sensitivity training" for refusing to endorse gay pride activities or to force Christian printers to print flyers for gay pride events or, most recently, to attempt to
get gay pride floats into a Santa Claus parades, but, yeah,
Canadian Alliance MP Larry Spencer's comments on homosexuality were over the line.
"Spencer, a U.S.-born former Baptist pastor, said he believed that because of the gay rights movement, there will soon be strong pushes to legalize polygamy and pedophilia.
He said he believed gays had conspired to seduce and recruit young boys in playgrounds and locker rooms and that a "well-orchestrated'' conspiracy has led to recent successes in gay rights."
Now, see, as someone that thinks sexual orientation is psychological**, not physiological, and that sexual orientation can be fluid for many people (and, as always, I recommend that
you read this little essay which I fully agree with), I have plenty of what I feel are legitimate concerns about the message well-meaning individuals in groups like Project 10 give to young people in order to end discrimination against teens that perceive themselves as being gay or lesbian, that sexuality is fixed, predetermined and immutable, considering that to be perfectly honest, my earliest sexual thoughts were homosexual in nature and, while most of my crushes in high school were towards girls, most of the sexual thoughts I had were gay, at least in the earlier high school grades, had Project 10 come to my high school at the time, they could have easily convinced me that I was gay. But using the word "recruit" is just stupid, and merely serves to polarize those on the other side of the issue whom like to jump all over people with more conservative views on the subject and paint them as being bigots. Implying that gays are lurking in locker rooms and playgrounds with recruitment papers in hand is just playing on people's worst fears, subliminally equating gays with child molesters. Yes, there are plenty of homosexual feelings in locker rooms, but that's because there are plenty of kids eager to experiment, whether they admit it or not. The fact of the matter is that, even if every radical "Queer" activist went and joined
Reverend Fred Phelps's God Hates Fags group*** tomorrow, there would still be the desire among kids to experiment, since I think the desire to experiment is quite normal. The only way homosexuality should be equated with pedophilia is that, since a large portion of people have been led to believe that homosexuality is a genetically-predetermined sexual orientation which they didn't consciously choose (a position which some
very radical gays don't even hold), some people that have, for one reason or another, sexual attraction to children have taken the logic one step further and are now trying to push forward the notion that pedophilia is also a pre-determined sexual orientation, because, hey, no one "chooses" to be attracted to children, so, if it's not a conscious choice, it must be genetic****. But there's a difference between homosexual sex between two consenting adults and a pedophile molesting a child (not that there aren't likely many people out there whom are secretly attracted to children but realize that they should never act on the attraction).
As for whether the gay activists have inspired those pedophiles whom feel that there's nothing wrong with the way they feel and it's how other people feel about pedophilia is the problem, I tend to agree with
Jonah Goldberg's position on
the slippery-slope fallacy.
"The only place where I think slippery-slope arguments are valid is where they involve activists and ideologues who fight for A because it will get them closer to B. And once they achieve B, they press on for C, falsely promising that that's where they will stop ? even as they lay the groundwork for D. Their ultimate goal is, of course, the absolutist position of Z. This is why slippery-slope arguments over, say, gun control make some sense. Because there are people out there who want to ban guns outright, they are actively pushing an issue down an unslippery slope."
Yes, there are pedophile groups that indeed are inspired by the gay rights movement, but I don't think they'll have the same success in "normalizing" pedophilia, for the reasons given in the classic
South Park episode
"Cartman Joins NAMBLA".
NAMBLA Leader: Rights? Does anybody know their rights? You see, I've learned something today. [Stan and Kyle look at each other] Our forefathers came to this country because? they believed in an idea. An idea called "freedom." They wanted to live in a place where a group couldn't be prosecuted for their beliefs. Where a person can live the way he chooses to live. [Stan, Kyle, and Cartman look at each other] You see us as being perverted because we're different from you. People are afraid of us, because they don't understand. And sometimes it's easier to persecute than to understand. [Stan and Kyle look at each other, then at the NAMBLA leader]
Kyle: Dude. You have sex with children.
NAMBLA Leader: We are human. Most of us didn't even choose to be attracted to young boys. We were born that way. We can't help the way we are, and if you all can't understand that, well, then, I guess you'll just have to put us away.
[shots of the agents, then the Brando look-alikes, then Stan and Kyle, who look at each other, then at the NAMBLA leader]
Kyle: [slowly, for emphasis] Dude. You have sex with children.
Stan: Yeah. You know, we believe in equality for everybody, and tolerance, and all that gay stuff, but dude, fuck you.
Kyle: Seriously.
Anyhow, I think it's fine for politicians to express politically incorrect views on homosexuality as long as those views are reasonably mainstream and are against the activities or the lifestyle and are not demonizing gay or lesbain individuals, but I do not feel you need to create straw men and use slippery-slope arguments to do so, and much of what Spencer said is just silly. I'm glad that he's no longer the Canadian Alliance's "Family Issues" critic.
**And despite what some some activists will have you believe, there is no consensus on the origins of homosexuality. When the APA declassified homosexuality from the
DSM-IV in 1973, all it really meant that homosexuality was no longer to be considered a mental illness, which is different from saying that homosexuality is not a psychological condition.
***As you may recall,
I have certain suspicions of Rev. Phelps's true motivations.
****By the way, I think that's a false dichotomy; just because most people don't make a conscious decision as to whom they're attracted doesn't mean that it can only be genetically predetermined. I'm also very attracted to Asians, and I don't know exactly how that attraction came about, but it would be ridiculous to suggest that there's a "being attracted to Asians" gene. I think the human mind is ridiculously complex, and the reasons these attractions come about are nebulous and very personal, often based on long-forgotten experiences, and vary from individual to individual.
AWWWWWW!!!
I added 3 new pictures of
Nick holding the kitten to
the photoblog.
WEIRD SEARCH REQUESTS
People under 18, please don't click on any links in this post!
"hentai about tenchi muyo only"
Try
this site, though I warn you that this link isn't just
Tenchi Muyo doujins, there are also many
Pretty Sammy doujins there too.
Don't say I never do anything for you guys! ;-)
INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY "BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY" WEEK
Ah, I swear to God that I hadn't read
this Nuketown editorial by Kenneth Newquist from "Buy Nothing Day" last year entitled "Piss Off a Liberal: Buy Something" when I devised my own name for "Buy Nothing Day", "Buy Something Nice for Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day". I think "Piss Off a Communist" sounds funnier myself, and, I'm in Canada where there's a Liberal party so I'd have to write "PISS OFF A SMALL-L LIBERAL", since I write my headlines in bold caps. Still, nice to see other people working on the side of good, capitalism being a good thing overall and spending during the Christmas and other miscellaneous holidays season being something inherently good, for Christians and non-Christians alike, by floating most boats... at least of those people whom choose to be productive by selling goods people want to buy. I may expand upon this at some point later during the Christmas season, when newspaper and radio columnists like pulling out the old "Is Christmas Too Commercialized?" horse to flog. Anyhow, I chose that title because it's just so much fun counter-jamming the "culture-jammers" and
"International Buy Something Day" is both obvious and a bit too simplistic. Most people have to buy at least one thing a day. I say, might as well celebrate self-indulgence as well and doubly piss them off.
And, to my capitalist-minded American readers, don't forget that, this Friday only, Wal-Mart will be selling Nintendo Game Cubes with the bonus
Zelda CD for only $74.99 American, so you'd be buying something on "Buy Nothing Day" and you'd be buying it at Wal-Mart, which is like wolfsbane to anti-"consumerist" activists. While you're at it, buy another game for the GameCube that celebrates the might of the American military or at least is just
nice and violent. And don't forget to eat at the in-store McDonald's while you're there.
INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY "BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY" WEEK
Unfortunately, I have too much stuff (past) due to write too much this week, but I can, at least, link to some interesting articles with a pro-"consumerist"** theme. Here's a
spirited defense of Wal-Mart by Karen De Coster and Brad Edmonds, recognizing that the reason Wal-Thrives is because a lot of us don't get the appeal of "mom & pop" stores except for really niche, and, quite frankly, prefer shopping at big box retailers. Personal service is actually vastly overrated, as far as I'm concerned. Sorry "Main Street", adapt or perish.
Here's an article about
non-hypocrites in Inverness, Florida whom were happy to get a Wal-Mart Supercenter opening up in their town (as opposed to the people whom decry Wal-Mart's arrival in their small town but then shop there anyhow like the ghost of Sam Walton is holding a gun to their head). I like this section of the article:
"While its long-term effect on other stores remains to be seen, the supercenter put a damper Wednesday on the Winn-Dixie at the nearby Citrus Center at SR 44 and Croft Avenue.
The original Inverness Wal-Mart was a neighbor of Winn-Dixie's, but that Wal-Mart is closed now that the supercenter has opened. By midafternoon Wednesday, not even the "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" offers mustered much of a crowd at Winn-Dixie. The same went for the Kmart a few miles away on U.S. 41 N.
Still, a few loyalists were sticking to tradition.
Lee Pariso of Inverness was buying a four-pack of steaks at the Winn-Dixie.
"I'm not going to give all my money to Wal-Mart," she said. "Winn-Dixie has always treated its customers right, and I think it's right for people to show some support. Sure, I'll shop at Wal-Mart, but I'll also shop here.""
Well... erm... how many smaller grocers' stores went bankrupt when their local Winn-Dixie opened in (presumably) the 1950s, supermarkets being largely a mid-20th century innovation? What's the moral difference between a new Wal-Mart putting a dent in the sales in an existing supermarket in 2003 and the Winn-Dixie putting a dent in the sales of the independent grocers, butchers and bakers in Inverness when it opened in 1953 (well, I don't know when it opened, but that's besides the point)? I don't know, but I bet a lot of those smaller "Mom & Pop" stores went out of business when the Winn-Dixie opened, providing shoppers with all the services for which they'd previously have to go to several different stores under one roof. It's the exact same thing, only bigger, American consumers on the whole being more mobile now thanks to the automobile and able to travel further away to larger stores meant to serve an entire region. Yes, it's sad when any store goes out of business, especially one that has been around for generations, but it happens and "It's always been there" is not an excuse for older stores not to meet the needs of its current customers. What's the alternative exactly? Should a "Mom & Pop" store which has been losing customers for years be mandated to be open for all perpetuity just because it's somehow morally superior to Wal-Mart? Are laws going to be passed forbidding big-box retailers from expanding any further even if it's what local consumers want?
Also, "Maddox" is
exactly right when it comes to Wal-Mart hiring "illegal" immigrants for jobs Americans were asking too much for, as though the free market shouldn't also apply to the labour force.
**When the
Adbusters/Naomi Klein types use the term "anti-consumerist", what they really mean, without exaggeration, is "anti-capitalist", and most of them would admit this if you asked them. "Anti-consumerist" just sounds less radical.
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB! (Updated)
(Sorry... no good news articles about this up online yet, I'll give you guys a link tomorrow.)
Apparently, two men in their twenties in Mercier in Montreal's east end showed up at local CLSCs (Centre Local Services Communautaires- Quebec's system of medical clinics aimed at taking some of the pressure off hospital emergency rooms) on Sunday with mysterious and suspicious injuries. It turns out that they were making homemade bombs and one of them exploded, and Montreal police had to cordon off a vacant lot somewhere and evacuate a handful of buildings as they detonated four other explosive devices.
Hmm... they haven't given any information about the suspects, but I would not be at all surprised if they were troglodytes from
murderer Raymond Villeneuve's weedy little group
the Movement de Lib�ration Nationale du Qu�bec, which has recently been
recruiting new simpletons into the fold, since they seem to be quite witless in terms of the proper handling of combustible materials. This proves my theory that French Canadians in the province of Quebec should have the same choice available to Anglophones to be able to send their children to English-language public elementary and high schools if they so desire, since, with what crappy English instruction they get in a lot of French-language public schools, they don't even seem to be able to read and follow simple bomb-making instructions on the Internet properly. Also, please don't continue blowing yourselves up with your own bombs, otherwise
Little Green Footballs will have to find another word to call Palestinian terrorists besides
'splodeydopes.
Once again, this is the *real* reason why
Sony removed the level from Syphon Filter 4: The Omega Strain wherein the Quebec separatist terrorists take over the Toronto subway, since the real life Quebec terrorists don't have nearly that level of competence.
EDIT: Hmm...
there's no motive mentioned other than just wanting to "set things off", but, I think, if they are Villeneuve's acolytes, they aren't exactly going to tell the cops their motives.
ANN COULTER LOOKS LIKE A MAN, HYUK HYUK! AND CONDoLEEZA RICE NEEDS A MAN, HYUR HYUR!
Well, I haven't read this week's installments of
The Boondocks yet, not being like Gary from
Early Edition and getting my papers before they're published, but, please, please, please Aaron McGruder, no more "Ann Coulter looks like a man" or "Condoleeza Rice needs a man" jokes for, oh, the next millenia or so. Because it seems like he's been doing variations of those two jokes for most of the past month in his strip. This is cutting edge liberal satire? It's mostly just name-calling of people you disagree with; that's not intelligent satire, that's just schoolyard-level discourse with no intelligent points made. And, yes, this is indeed the pot calling the kettle "black", I fully admit, and I don't claim that some of my satire is any more clever than his is. The crucial difference is that I don't get paid for this nor do I get invited to talk on talk shows or give commencement addresses and I have cool ideas for animated cartoons too, but I'm not currently negotiating anything with any animation studio, and if BlogSpot ever decides not to host my blog anymore, BlogSpot and its sponsors won't get "Mau-Mau-ed" by my supporters and racial hucksters for "censorship" and the tired old "racism" canard.
This isn't a case of me decrying a comic strip because I disagree with it either... even if I fully agreed with McGruder on his political positions as articulated on various American cable talk shows (most of which I can't watch in Canada), he's still no
Tom Tomorrow, whose
This Modern World isn't always funny, but at least there's plenty of substance (if anything, there's so much substance in that strip there's often no room for a punchline), whether or not you agree with him or suspect that, while he's not making quotes up, they're often taken out of context.
I'm not about to repeat
what I said I wouldn't say about Aaron McGruder, but, well, here's one for
Googlism: Aaron McGruder is a guy whom would call
Condoleeza Rice but not
Mumia Abu-Jamal a murderer.
KELLIE WAYMIRE R.I.P.
This one I missed... on the 13th of November, 36 year old actress
Kellie Waymire (sometimes credited as "Kelly Waymire") passed away in her sleep. The IMDb lists
"natural causes" as the cause of her death.
She played "Liz Pitt" in the extremely short-lived Fox sitcom
The Pitts, which I found noxiously bad, especially for its overly simplistic caricature of conservative Christians, I'm afraid. However, she was also a
Star Trek actress, playing "Crewman Elizabeth Cutler" on several episodes of
Enterprise, as well as playing the alien actress "Lanya" in the
Star Trek: Voyager episode "Muse", which was one of the more interesting "forehead ridge aliens of the week" episodes wherein the people on the planet had gotten hold of various logs from
Voyager crewmembers and were performing the stories as plays, with the stories being the actual
Star Trek: Voyager scripts, with all the stage directions being read Greek Chorus-stlye. Lanya was the character whom was the actress whom played Seven of Nine in the plays.
Unlike Jonathan Brandis**, I can't say I knew of her name, but, still, obviously, it's very sad, especially when they're still young.
**By the way, for all of my new visitors here, please note that it's "Jonathan Brandis", not "Jo
hnathan Brandis". I'm sorry that I spelt it with the extra H that one time. Also, you'd be surprised how many people seem to think the guy's name was "Jonathan Brandon"...
SAILOR MOON THOUGHTS: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 3
Yeah, I know, episode 4 and episode 5 are already circulating around the file sharing services, and I'm actually downloading them now, but it just took me a couple of weeks for me to finish downloading episode 3 on WinMX. You know the drill by now... here's
a straight episode synopsis on Genvid.com, which you should read first if you don't have access to the episodes if my sarcastic comments are to make any sense.
-I can't really comment on what happens prior to the opening song this time round, since the raw, unsubtitled file I have seems to start about a minute in, so we just get a couple of frames of Sailor Moon in near profile, holding her hands in front of her
breasts heart, with an early morning or sunset sky in the background and what looks like the top corner of some building, for some reason.
-At least Ami Mizuno seems to realize how hokey and fake the custom Crown Karaoke Centre "passports" Luna made look, since she asks Motoki if they are legit, but, like in the previous episode, Motoki seems too engrossed in watching his salmonella-breeding turtle to take much notice.
-What the fuck is the deal with everyone nodding their heads with a chime playing in the background? Is this spoofing some Japanese game show opening or something?
-The big "What the Fuck" of the episode is, of course, the game show, "Sailor Senshi Quiz" Luna holds to refresh the girls' memories about their mission. And, like the hapless "Quiz Kings" contestant from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Larry Templeton, "I'm sorry. I don't speak Japanese." Well, okay, I do know a bit of Japanese, but not really enough to be able to understand this bit without subtitles, so I'll have to rely on Genvid's synopsis for what is said. Remember, Usagi, that the answers are "Hachi ju hachi" (88), "Godzilla", and kwakisurpepeku** (not "kwakisurpeneku")! But, what, Luna built the podiums and the buzzers and the flashers and the lighting? And this isn't an actual game show! Why are the girls facing away from Luna and towards an empty wall? Why are both girls staring into the camera, breaking the "fourth wall" once again? And who exactly is booing Usagi's wrong answers?
-Hmm... this episode still has the Dark Kingdom kidnapping girls, like the Sailor Mars debut appearance stories in the anime and manga, but, instead of them making entire city buses disappear, they just have a little whirlwind of leaves form a swirling blue vortex, and two extendable robot-like arms reach out and grab the girls. I just
know those arms remind me of some obtuse pop culture reference, but it's not coming to me right now, so, if it occurs to me, I'll edit this article, and, for now, just pick one of the following characters the arms sort of remind me of: Mr. Fantastic, Plasticman, Bionic Commando, or Rubberduck, the "Malleable Mallard" from
Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew. I do have to admit, though, that it does make more sense making individual girls disappear rather than spiriting away entire buses, since, you know, after that happens just twice, you'd think they'd cancel all of the buses in Tokyo, or, at the very least, cancel that particular route until they figure out what's going on. And who would want to ride thosee buses?
-Ooh... Hikawa-ji temple
miko (Shinto priestess) Rei Hino's staring intently into the fire, in a kind of trance, and then the flames start swirling in a bad special effect. You know what this means, right? Yep, another sequence tailor-made for our friends into the "hypnosis manip" fetish to add glowing green eyes to using
Photoshop!
-So, at Azabu Juban Junior High/Middle School, the tables the students use as desks are
pink? With pink cloths over the back of the chairs? Even the boys' desks? Hmm... I guess all the boys there are die-hard "Metrosexuals", or, perhaps, the
Crab People posing as Ted, Kyan, Carson, Jai, and Thom from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy have already taken over the school!
-Oh, okay... Genvid.com says that the conversation the girls are having is about rumous that the priestess, Rei Hino, is cursing the girls. Well, you know, Keiko Kitagawa does have that scowl on her face all the time, but she's supposed to, since she is playing Rei. She doesn't look evil, just serious.
-Ooh... Rei's Catholic school uniform looks just as hot in the live-action version as it does in the anime!
-Hmm... is that "bead bracelet" supposed to be a rosary? Most colourful rosary I've ever seen.
-Oh my God! What's the deal with that gay little dance that "propeller-head", the youma of the week, is doing amongst the sleeping girls?
-Ah, Queen Beryl looks hotter than she did last time. Good... Incidentally, I wonder if they're going to expand upon Beryl's origins which were never really explored in the anime, but, in the original manga, it seems she was just an explorer in the Arctic whom discovered the ruins of the Dark Kingdom and Queen Metallia.
-You know, as Usagi is running away in fright from Rei on the temple grounds, after she climbs down the stairs, I can barely see that other girl in the shadows of the trees. They didn't light her at all well, nor is she on the screen long enough to make much of an impression.
-Does Ami-chan have a Medic-Alert bracelet amongst that jewelry?
-Umm... why's Ikukko Tsukino wrestling and sitting on her daughter, Usagi?
-Yeah, I do have to concur with Genvid.com on this... Sailor V running with her arms spread out like a
Polka Dot Door host pretending to be an airplane is just goofy.
-LOLICOM BAIT OF THE EPISODE: A posse including girls from Rei's school and some other Shinto priestesses gang up on Rei, and she gets into a catfight with two girls wearing the same uniform as her. Oh, one of those girls is supposedly the same girl who saw Usagi running away in fear the day before, but then Usagi shows up and does a little weird dance, with slide whistle sound effects, to show them she's okay. She was just scared of Phobos and Dimos, Rei's crows, or so she claims. And you get a glimpse of Usagi's bare midriff.
-COSPLAY FETISHIST BAIT OF THE EPISODE: Usagi and Ami dress up as Shinto mikos (priestesses) with the white tops and the red
Hakama pants in order to sneak into a wedding reception where Rei, whom is anticipating more attacks, is on guard.
-Usagi and Ami hear a scream, and rush out to see Rei crouching over an unconscious miko; Rei pulls out an
akuryou taisan (the anti-evil paper charm thingie) and throws it at the cloud of swirling cheaply computer-generated particle-effect "leaves", which fall, but, if you look carefully, they sort of fade out rather than fall into the pile.
-Come to think of it, Rei aims the akuryou taisan very high and you see it going high into the air towards a tree, but, in the next shot, it hits the vortex just two feet off the ground. What, are we supposed to believe that this is some sort of "magic" akuryou taisan... well, more magic than an akuryou taisan is supposed to be at least?
-Ooh, the stretchy arm thingies pull Usagi and Rei but not Ami into the vortex, indirectly affirming that, yes indeed, Sailor Mercury is the most useless Sailor Senshi. (Well, okay, I know she's not, but her powers are mostly defensive.)
-They end up in a blue version of the world, with the goofy-looking propeller guy. Think "day-for-night" in older movies, and you get the idea.
-They transform, and Sailor Moon gives us our first gratuitous panty shot of the episode when she does one of those somersault thingies wherein the legs are extended and a scissor kick, evidently the director's favourite move.
-Fortunately for viewers, Sailor Moon shaves her armpits...
-OMF'ingG! A tentacle! A tentacle! A tentacle made out of leaves wraps around Usagi and raises her in the air. A second one wraps around her feet, and evidently a third one seems to be wrapped around her torso, but we never saw that one appear.
-Ami-chan called for Luna, whom had to appear to tell her to turn into Sailor Mercury. Hey Luna, howcome you're casting a shadow in the exact opposite direction of everything we can see in the background, and why's it so dark?
-Why's it take a minute for Usagi to figure out that those tentacles aren't exactly gripping her too tightly?
-Hmm... Rei-chan's transformation sequence into Sailor Mars includes clouds of red petals? Did the writers watch
American Beauty one too many times, or maybe this episode was written by Lester Burnham himself? Yes... writer Lester Burnham and director David Hamilton (see
my comments from the last episode). That would explain a lot about the way this series turned out.
-By the way, did you know that the Mars symbol is a penis and testicles? Well, it is.
-More gratuitous panty shots of Mars jumping and twirling!
-Instead of "Fire Soul", she seems to have stolen Ryu and Ken's fireball move from
Street Fighter II: The World Warriors and subsequent variations thereof.
-All the other girls wake up in the evil dimension... but why? They're overworked Japanese schoolgirls; this is probably the first decent sleep they've had in years.
-Wait one minute, Sailor Mercury was aiming her water beam well into the air to form the vortex, so why is she looking down into the vortex to contact Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars? And why does she call Usagi, "Tsukino" with all those witnesses around? Way to blow your secret identites!
-Funny caption, if I could do picks... when Rei's helping the girls leave the vortex, she looks like she's a flight attendant stadning by the door as the passengers disembark. "Okay, Alright! Have a nice day! Have a nice day! Thank you for flying TransAmerican!"
-Also, when Rei's helping the girls leave the vortex, the portal is clearly at ground level, yet when Tuxedo Mask comes in and rescues Usagi after she's pulled back in by a wayward tentacle, the portal seems to be two metres off the ground and they have to fall to Earth. What are we supposed to believe, that this is some sort of magic magic portal? (Bah, I can use the same joke twice if I want to.)
-At 7:55 (if you're watching the same version of the episode I have, with the time in the upper left-hand corner), Ami-chan asks Usagi if she's okay, then you see a medium close up of Usagi with the shoulders and back of Ami-chan's head at the left of the screen, and, if you look closely, just behind her ear, you can see just a tiny bit of Chisaki Hama's real hair as the wind blows the Mercury wig a little. You can see it again in the shot after the shot where you see Tuxedo Mask walking towards what looks like a pabike path of some sort.
-The John William's
Superman "Romantic Theme" rip-off music plays as Rei realizes that she's the third Sailor Senshi.
-Ooh... cliffhanger! Rei hates karaoke and doesn't want to be part of their team. Which one of those two things are Usagi, Ami and Luna more concerned about, I wonder?
Well, I gotta admit that it is nice to see that the naysayers were wrong about
Keiko Kitagawa's acting ability and her suitability for the role. Maybe she did sound a little too sure of herself in the interviews, but, in this case, it's because she really does fit the role perfectly, with a Rei Hino-esque scowl on her face 90% of the time. Will she and Usagi be sticking their tongues out at each other in future installments.
NEXT TIME: I come up with the perfect description of live-action Nephryte's hairdo, and, no, "red Elvis" is too obvious.;
**Yes, I am aware that some of the syllables of "kwakisurpepeku are not proper Japanese syllables, and, if I was transcribing it, I'd write it "kyakisepipiku", but I was just writing out the word the way the subtitles spell it on the
Saturday Night Live: the Best of Mike Myers DVD; note that the "Japanese Game Show" sketch, with special guest Alec Baldwin, is also available on the
Saturday Night Live: the Best of Chris Farley DVD.
GAH!
Something Awful's
Awful Link of the Day for today is
Happy Sabrina, a Japanese site featuring a guy wearing anime character masks (expensive-looking ones with hair) while dressed in sexy outfits... well, outfits that would look sexy on a real woman (or one of those Thai transvestites whom look like actual women and not like clowns with the ridiculous makeup). Anyhow, I thought the mask in the photo looked an awful lot like Natsumi Tsujimoto from
You're Under Arrest, so I checked the site, and, sure enough, the name of the mask is "Natsumi", and there's a whole page of
pics of him dressed as a female police officer marked "?�?�?�?�?�?�?�?I"/"Taiho Shichau Zo!", the Japanese title for
You're Under Arrest. Gah! I know Natsumi is supposed to be fairly muscular, but... she's still feminine! I mean... the mask is actually a very good approximation, it's just the rest of the body I have problems with. How dare he sully the name of one of my favourite anime characters? This is even worse than the
live-action You're Under Arrest series from a year or so back!
EDIT: Speaking of
Awful Links of the Day, I think they were a little harsh on
"LiL_Angel_cUtiE"'s Xanga blog. Yes, alternating caps are very annoying and yes, she has those star things and that other whatever-it's-supposed-to-do function which brings up an error message each time I load the page, but she appears to be 15 or 16, but that's what kids do these days. At least, that's what I assume... I dunno, when I was her age, all I ever used the keyboard on my computer for, 90% of the time, was to start games in MS/DOS or to type in commands in the old school Sierra games like the early
King's Quest,
Space Quest, and
Hero's Quest/
Quest for Glory series games, before they dumbed them down with the point-and-click interfaces. I was already past "alternating caps" age by the time I got on the Internet. I presume it's just a net thing and that she types her papers for school normally. Anyhow, 99% of the pages which get to be the "Awful Link of the Day" have it coming, but there's nothing exceptionally bad about "LiL_AngeL_cUtiE"'s Xanga blog... at least, I've seen plenty of other blogs from teenage girls which are very similar. Maybe pick on
Xanga in general for having an overabundance of such blogs, but I cringe when nice girls are targeted for derision.
