:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 29.4.02 ::

In assholes of the week category, some search engine company apparently have stolen fellow MeFi'er Succa's domain, more than a month than the domain was supposed to expire. This is not the first time i've heard of such things happening, and it seems like straight up stealing. Read more here, and if anyone knows anything else that can be done, feel free to e-mail me, k?
:: Scott [+] ::
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For the second year in a row, my mid-50's father is running the OKC marathon tomorrow. 26.2 miles. Amazing. Go pops.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Sadly enough, the beliefnet below has filed for bankruptcy. Sucks.
:: Scott [+] ::
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What do you know? I'm an Orthodox Quaker! And they're not as freaky as they sound. Can I be a technophiliac orthodox quaker though? Here are my results:
1. Orthodox Quaker (100%)
2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (89%)
3. Reform Judaism (86%)
4. Liberal Quakers (84%)
5. Seventh Day Adventist (79%)
6. Sikhism (79%)
7. Orthodox Judaism (78%)
8. Islam (74%)
9. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (73%)
10. Unitarian Universalism (73%)
11. Bahá'í Faith (68%)
12. Theravada Buddhism (65%)
13. Mahayana Buddhism (63%)
14. Jainism (63%)
15. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (61%)
16. Eastern Orthodox (57%)
17. Roman Catholic (57%)
18. Jehovah's Witness (56%)
19. Hinduism (56%)
20. Taoism (51%)
21. Neo-Pagan (45%)
22. New Age (43%)
23. Scientology (40%)
24. Secular Humanism (38%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (35%)
26. New Thought (31%)
27. Nontheist (27%)

This via the "belief-o-matic". How do you stack up?

*warning: Belief-O-Matic assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

:: Scott [+] ::
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Eh, it's been a while, and why not? The Spark always has good online quizzes. Here ya go, have at it!
What's your inner child?

Here's my results:
"Your inner child is the Newt (PIFC). He or she likes to play in the mud of your psyche, pick your psyche's nose and generally just chew on your psyche's fingers. The result is a tangier, salty you. As a kid you *liked* extra-curricular homework and now the Star Trek DVD's are collecting on the inside of your soul.

Most of your belongings are arranged in ornate piles and mosaic patterns.

Don't be afraid of the sun. Come out of your hovel once in a while-- it's nice out there and there are some nice people to meet. Try and meet people similar to you though, because, let's face it: you are a freak.

Do I agree? Do you care? What are you??????
:: Scott [+] ::
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Alright, MeFi's still down, so you get some extra archipelapogo action tonight. Here's a random fun post for you. I'm pretty obsessed with Steve Buscemi. He just seems like the coolest guy to hang out with. How many movies of his have you seen? I love the Big Lebowski. Funniest movie EVER. And Fargo was great too. Trees Lounge (which he directed, also starring Chloe Sevigny) was quirky, but good. Other memorable movies he's been in? Ghost World, Desperado, of course the Tarantino flicks, The Search for One Eyed Jimmy (doubt any of you except for Ryan has seen that one!), Big Daddy, Con-Air, etc. Yet, I didn't realize how many movies he's done, especially the crap ones. 28 Days (Sandra Bullock film)? C'mon. And probably even worse, Spy Kids 2? Crap. That sucks. Still love the guy, though.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Nothing more exciting than French Politics, eh?
In a shocker, the French version of Pat Buchanan has come in second in the primary voting (out of 16 candidates) beating out the third place Socialist Party (which actually exists and functions well in France). Le Pen now faces incumbant Jacques Chirac (who has the unnerving nickname of "Chameleon Bonaparte") in the election. And you thought politics in the US were wierd and disturbing. (C'mon, read it! International news is good for you. Comment too, you lazy ne'er-do-wells)
:: Scott [+] ::
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Happy Earth Day everyone. Go hug a tree (or a yet-to-be-named plant). Or at least recycle.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Had a good weekend, with my parents coming down, and bringing some more of my stuff with them. To be honest, I still haven't unpacked everything from the first load. But parents visiting is the goods, b/c you get good food, get to go grocery shopping on someone else's tab, and it's always nice to see them. I now have my stereo cabinet, CD player and record player. Plus I got a plant, but a real one! I'm considering suggestions on a name for it...?
:: Scott [+] ::
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Having a boring Saturday afternoon? Play some darts, or mini-golf! Highly addictive, and very, very fun.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Ah, man. This blows. Layne Staley is (most likely) dead.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Gay bars are cheap.
Denise and I went gay-bar hopping on thursday night with an old friend from Baylor. Hey, there's a first time for everything, right?
The first place we went was like a sports bar with techno music. About 85% guys, if I had to guess. There was even a drag show that seemed more like one of those Professional Aerobics competitions that you see on ESPN2 at like 4 in the morning.
The second place, we just popped in for a sec b/c our friend wanted to show the irony of gay cowboys two-stepping in the heart of Texas. Pretty ironic.
The third place was just a club. Loud, thumping techno that all sounded the same. But there were two or three random guys on pedastals in their underwear dancing. Good people watching. Wide variety of people there, preppies, skater kids, leather people, younguns, olduns, etc. Oh, yeah. The drinks there are super cheap. Like $1.75. Very cool. Had a good time, and got to experience something new.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Yeah, my posting hasn't been too great as of late. Want some more blog action? Here's some fools i've been reading as of late: Jonmc from MeFi. His blog is new, but some quality stuff. Too many pics, which makes it load slow, but it's worth it. This guy totally is anyone from High-Fidelity. Music savant. Also, this cat (don't know his name) who was a "blog of note" on the blogger front page. The only blog of not that i've felt inspired to visit more than once. Good stuff.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Denise and I also went to the Inwood (one of at least three "art/indy" movie theatres) this weekend and saw Y Tu Mama' Tambien (and your mother also!). Presumably controversial, b/c of rampant sex and nudity, it's still a film with a lot of soul and probably leaves different people with many different feelings and thoughts. Yes, there is a LOT of sex in it. But it's no prono flik. No one, not even the 70 year olds in the back, walked out. The essence of the movie, and what makes it worth seeing is the story, of two young-ish (recently h.s. graduated) Mexican lads who take a recently seperated 28 yr old woman on a road trip to a beach that doesn't exist. It's really quite funny, yet also quite tragic. If you can handle the aforementioned lewdness, I'd definitely recommend it if it's playing at a theatre near you. And yes, it is subtitled.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Sorry it took so long, but here's the "highly anticipated" Michael Moore book signing report. He was late. About thirty minutes late. I'd stepped outside for a bit when he pulled up in a little white honda or nissan or something or other (hey, the guy really hates GM), but i'm sure it was a rental, or someone who volunteered to drive him. Apparently not a local, though, as they'd gotten lost somewhere around downtown. So he opened up his speech commenting on how someone had pointed out the "Grassy Knoll" to him while they were lost, and he looked up and saw on the other side of the road a billboard reading "Gun Show". Pretty damn funny observation. All in all, i'd guess around 130-150 people showed up. Pretty diverse crowd, all things considered. Denise and i didn't get chairs, so we kind of wandered around the store for the hour after we got there until he arrived. So we ended up standing, kind of in the back, smack between a completely Euro-trash fashionista couple (complete with matching platinum dyed hair and the "European versions" of such wonderful mags as Maxim and Cosmo) and a couple who were very vocal in their agreement and thoughts during THE ENTIRE SPEECH. Not ideal.
The speech was good though. He mainly touched upon a lot of stuff in the book, but, and color me naive if i am, i was surprised that many, many people in the audience hadn't read the book yet, judging by their reactions. Even the vocal idolaters to the side of me would go *gasp! when he mentioned something that they hadn't heard, yet devoted four pages to in the book. Bah. There were only two people that decided to make asses of themselves by being rude and whatnot. Actually, one, and his supporter. He decided to yell out his altering viewpoint at a bad time, and was impolitely told to "shut the fuck up", which just made me tense and despise humans a little more, as stuff like that always does.
He spoke for maybe an hour, and then fielded some questions, one of which was made by jackass's supporter. Something about clinton. Micheal Moore doesn't like Bill Clinton. If she had bothered to read the book, she would know that. Then, jackass decides to raise his hand, and Moore wanted to give him time to speak (as he had mentioned after said outburst). So instead of forming an opinion and asking a valid question, which I honestly hoped he would, he ended up buttering up to Mr. Moore saying such things as "You've got a great gift from God with your sense of humor", "You're a great writer, and you really get the people behind you", etc. etc. Then, he had the balls to talk about how he'd been writing a book for about two and a half years, and after he got through the agent process if Michael Moore would write a blurb for the cover! Lordy, there was a lot of grumbling, some of it with appropriately raised voices. Sheesh, this guy needs help.
Then the signing came, and I was in the first color group (purple!). So i was around the 25th person or so in line, which was nice, b/c i'd run out of patience with people and didn't feel like talking to anyone else in line. When it was my turn, i approached, and he seemed a lot more quiet and tired. (I honestly was surprised by his public speaking skills as he seems a very awkward, self-conscious man). He was nice though, and it says my name as it was printed on the little yellow sticky note. The signing looks more like "Mmmmmmmmmmm" than his name, but that's cool. I'm glad i went, and i'm even happier it was walking distance from my apt.
:: Scott [+] ::
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So denise and I went to Borders last night to hang out and browse some stuff, and i ended up buying the aforementioned "stupid white men" by Michael Moore. I'm already finished with it. It's a pretty quick read, b/c Moore's got that kind of free flowing weblog-esque style that makes reading and comprehension quite easy. I was going to hold off on buying the book, or see if the library had it, for awhile until i had more money. But, he's going to be here on Sunday doing a lecture and signing and said Borders, so i figured i'd go. Probably my only chance to meet him, and i don't know how i'd feel about walking in to get his autograph on my copy of Roger & Me.
The book is pretty good. Obviously well-researched, and he does set himself up in many cases, giving his critics fodder to burn him with, which is pretty respectable. (keep in mind, he was done writing it pre 9/11, and i think the original release date was the week after or something, but it got postponed). There's plenty of talk about the election 2000, what went down etc. I thought i was pretty knowledgable as far as that went, but i was wrong. There really is some pretty intense conspiracy shit involved. There's a chapter that is a hilarious open letter to 'president' bush. A chapter on schools, environment, the prison/judicial system, the Democrats being "DOA", race, and gender. All in all, it's pretty funny, yet sad. He (or his staff) have got all of their statistics and facts proven by citing resources, which is always a good thing.
Some interesting facts. Did you know that the guy that actually taught Moore how to use all the camera equipment and helped film Roger & Me is Dubya's cousin? And not by marriage, but by blood. Their moms are sisters. Also, Laura Bush committed vehicular manslaughter when she was 17, killing a motorist after running a stop sign? Sad, but true.
Through it all, there's a lot of factual mudslinging (if such a thing exists), yet the book ends up on a pretty positive note. The last three words of the Epilogue kind of sum it up and prove the point: "You deserve better."
I'll post about the book signing on Sunday. Hopefully it will go well!
:: Scott [+] ::
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Thanks to Community Waste Disposal, my apt. complex now has recycling bins in the parking lot. So do all of the other 13 complexes in "the Village". This makes me happy. I have about 4 grocery bags full of newspapers sitting in the bottom of my pantry that i was going to try to find a place to recycle. Now, it's easy. Hurray!
:: Scott [+] ::
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Help the elephants and get a pretty cool piece of art. This foundation is auctioning off paintings by elephant's and using the money to help preserve them. I think it's very cool. The paintings may not look like much, but hell, they're done by elephants!
:: Scott [+] ::
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I didn't get very far into "the revolt of the masses". It was just bad timing, i think. So I started "A Life on the Left" the biography of Harold Laski, a early 20th Century British politician/socialist/Labour party supporter. I found it for $1 brand new at an outlet store, hardback, with cover, pics, about 650 pages. I was pleased. I'm somewhere in chapter three right now, but I got an interesting history on Eugenics in chapter 2. I didn't know much about eugenics, nor how revolting it is, nor how popular it was in a lot of places around the turn of the 20th century. Laski supported it at first, but then renounced it a few years later. Don't know much about eugenics? Here's a definition: "Eugenics is the study of methods to improve the human race by controlling reproduction. The word was coined in 1883 by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton believed that the proper evolution of the human race was thwarted by philanthropic outreach to the poor; misguided charity encouraged the "unfit" to bear more children. This upset the mechanism of natural selection. Hence, the human race needed a kind of artificial selection, which he called "eugenics," from Greek for good birth. Galton wanted eugenics to develop from a science to a policy and finally into a religion." Pretty sick eh? Apparently it still exists in parts of Africa, and in smaller ways other parts of the world. Here's a brief intro.
From what I've read in the book, and on a couple of internet sites, here's my semi-conclusions. There's two kinds of eugenics. "positive" and "negative". Postive eugenics at it's core would be encouraging those who are considered "superior beings" (brilliant, super stong, etc.) to reproduce. Even at random, just knowing each other long enough to make a baby. These super babies would then grow up, also reproduce, and make uber-humans. Negative eugenics is discouraging, or preventing, those who are considered inferior from reproducing. Often times this is done to people who are poor, in prison, uneducated, or, unfortunately, of a particular race. Personally, and I know I'm not going out on a limb, but I disagree with both. Religous reasons aside, i think nature is nature and it should take its course.
Apparently there's a lot of people that were influential in starting Planned Parenthood in this country who were members of the American Eugenics Society. I don't know much about the history of planned 'hood, and frankly don't care much to find out about it now. I'm not sure what the intent of the founders was. i do think it's sad however that people that are against PP's modern day actions are twisting around their current intent, trying to tie it to Hitler's experiments in eugenics, racism, etc. I'm of the opinion that, no matter if you're for or against abortion, PP does a good job of educating people and helping them to get contraception, which is a good thing, economically, and humanitarianly (if that's a word). Less unwanted children = less unhappy children. If they're not loved, they're not going to be happy. Pretty simple concept. Yet, people are going to have sex. Often times people that do it in ways that result in unplanned pregnancy are those that can afford it the least, i.e. drug addicts, "escorts", teenagers, etc. Education can help prevent it. That is why I feel the need to support PP.
OK, that got off of track. Now something interesting about Eugenics? Got questions? Hit the little 'comment' guy below!
:: Scott [+] ::
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Just in case you missed it, (ryan especially), the Simpsons added to their list of musical guest stars (Motorhead, Chili Peppers, The Who, Sonic Youth, etc.) by having Phish on in this past Sunday's episode. It was a pretty good episode. Homer has eye pains from a bird attack and gets prescribed medicinal marijuana. He gets hooked on it, mayhem ensues. Then the citizens of Springfield try to de-criminalize it, so Homer starts a rally and gets Phish to play. And yes, it really was phish. They supposedly played a song called "run like an antelope" or something goofy like that, and then the ending theme song. Pretty good episode though. It probably won't be rerun until summer if i had to guess. Hope you caught it.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Noticed I don't even apologize for not posting anymore? What's the point?
:: Scott [+] ::
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Quick! Get your own "jesus votes republican" wife-beater, and other merch. Not sure if this is supposed to be sarcastic or what. I guess different buyers will purchase it for different reasons. It'd be fun to get a hat from them, and then wear a liberaljesus t-shirt, just for quizzical looks.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Anyone wanna buy a poor man a book? (i've added it to my amazon wishlist). I saw this cat on the Daily Show last night, and it sounds like a really interesting read. (sidenote: i wonder if libraries stock this kind of stuff?) Apparently he was recruited by this really rich freak in Pittsburgh that wanted to take Clinton out in a bad way. The author was recruited for writing a piece FOR Clarence Thomas during the whole Anita Hill fiasco. According to the interview, and presumably this book, there was, basically, a right-wing conspiracy to take Clinton out. The Paula Jones thing came about by these people trolling around trying to find someone to make an accusation and get bubba impeached. The author said that yes, there's a good chance that clinton and jones had a tryst of some sort, but it was by all means consensual, and even Jones's head attorney didn't believe her story. Creepy, eh?
The interview was done very well, as Jon Stewart tends to do. My favorite question that Stewart posited was "Don't you think that there's a similar left-wing faction trying to take out W. and his cohorts?", to which the author replied no, he honestly didn't, b/c, to the best of his knowledge, there wasn't a left-wing nut out there with millions of dollars to waste trying to take someone out. There may be, but this guy would know better than me. I really want to read it! (btw, i also wouldn't mind reading Michael Moore's new book, b/c it's getting all kinds of press, and i want to be in on the joke.)
:: Scott [+] ::
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