WTF Wednesday- Dwarf Dance Party

I was feeling kinda down then I stumbled onto this epic video (sorry embedding was disabled).  It can't help but make you smile.  I am not sure about doing this the prescribed 3 times a day, but I will be sure to try once or twice.
-Wes

Michael Clarke Duncan Passes Away At 54

I was going to write a succinct review on the Season 7 premiere of "Doctor Who", but I now have an inability to write very much on that subject for today. Instead I would like to express my sadness for a man who was one of the most enjoyable actors I've ever seen. Many of you may know him from The Green Mile, but to my memory I first noticed him in either Married With Children as a bouncer, or the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as the character Tiny. He had various other roles in the Weird Science television series, The Jamie Foxx Show, and the Wayans Brothers Show before hitting the big screen in various movies. Bulworth (as a bouncer), Armageddon, Night At The Roxbury (oh hey bouncer) before landing the role of John Coffey in The Green Mile. My favorite role of his was that of Cleon Salmon from The Slammin' Salmon, especially when he purposely broke character and said, "Who turned out the lights?! Haven't you seen Green Mile?! You know I'm afraid of the dark!" He also happened to be one of the only good things about the Green Lantern movie, lending his voice to Kilowog, which was perfect casting. I am quite dejected, and I'm sorry for being a let down.

-OneOfMany

Selected Reading

The idea here is not to rate anything, but to say, "You should read this and that, because these are the comics I care for." However, if I receive requests for other comics, outside of my personal reading, I will oblige and give you my opinion of the material.

First up I have Before Watchmen: Minutemen #3. This issue tackles the aftermath of the Comedian's attack of Silk Spectre, as well as delves into the background of the Silhouette some more. This issue is fantastic, and I've been hardpressed to find anything remotely offensive to the Alan Moore vision of Watchmen. Darwyn Cooke does a fantastic job as writer and penciller. I have a bit of bias for his art i.e. I fucking love it, but that doesn't make it any less a joy. Seeing the Comedian adopt an all leather version of his costume was particularly enjoyable. His writing is also well thought out, and personally I'd rather focus on the Comedian day in and day out, but the fact that this is a representation of the "Under The Hood" novel, there is a firm focus on Hollis Mason. Which is all well and good, seeing as how the majority focuses on the Silhouette saving a little girl and Nite-Owl's reasoning for breaking the law time and again. The right thing isn't always legal.

Next up is Uncanny X-force #30. I miss Warren. Probably as much as Betty wants to. He's always been my favorite X-man(unless you want to count Deadpool, in all his Marvel-Girl glory). Rick Remender has put out an amazing 29 issues, and I am inclined to believe he will continue to do so. His grasp of each member of X-Force is fantastic. Sadly, this issue doesn't see any of the team, except a flashback with Fantomex and a subsequently funny cameo by him later.  Well it was funny to me, anyway. The issue is mostly about Evan, and a new Brotherhood popping up. I get the roadtrip idea, and behind it is a far more sinister reasoning, but all in all I don't care for it. Why should you read this issue? Cheese puffs.

Lastly is Winter Soldier #9. As it may have been firmly established, I read things that I obviously care about. Bucky is awesome. He's the best resurrected character I've read. Winter Soldier is an excellent series. Ed Brubaker is the masterful storyteller as always, and Michael Lark's art is giving me all sorts of espionage glory to drool over. This is what spy books should look like.  I imagine how Bucky is dealing with Black Widow and the emotions he's going through to be quite similar to hers when he first popped up as the Winter Soldier. Sitwell is the Velma of the group, but he shows that he can hold his own in a fight. In the end, Bucky must choose between "saving" Natasha and capturing Novokov. Of course he chooses the girl.

Till next time,
OneOfMany

It is Labor Day and since I have the day off from my actual work I'd like to share some updates. First, a new  segment called "Dim Sum and Geekdom" will be happening where The Every-Geek and I will be interviewing various people over a meal of dim sum. I actually had a chance to set up such an interview in the future with indie rock band A Silent Film, whenever they happen to be in the area again. Later I will be posting selected readings, and the season premiere review of Doctor Who. And then, if i find anything noteworthy, I'll probably post that as well.

-OneOfMany

A New Challenger Approaches

Good day, vagabonds of the internet. In time I hope you find an enjoyable commentary on the exciting field of geekery. In the coming months I hope to share some reviews of things I enjoy, as well as some I don't. Topics shall include music, movies, comics, literature, alcohol, video games, gadgets, tools, and other wondrous sundries. Till then I leave you with this:

Sincerely,
OneOfMany

Bang Bang- Boys and their toy guns

When I was a child my mother forbade my father from buying me any kind of toy gun.  I assume it was out of fear that a cap gun would make me grow up to be a professional killer (I wish, they make some serious cash I hear and have alot of travel).  This annoyed my father as he grew up in the 50s when cowboys, gumshoe detectives, and there gun totting brethren ruled the media.
I was a boy, and as such, I was naturally attracted to the idea of playing games involving less then real guns.  My mother finally gave in when she caught me shooting my brother with a puzzle piece in the shape of Florida (educational toys have some fun uses.)

I have yet to kill a man, nor has my cap gun toting father.  I say let boys be boys, and understand that play is play.

any way a video that illustrates just how much times have changed is below.  (look at the criminal- I think sheriff Andy Taylor will be very upset with Otis if he saw this).

Garage Projects- LCD monitor fixes part 1

Truth be told, It has been over a month since I first intended to do this project.  But with the school year (or two different ones I am involved with) coming to an end, slowly finding and acquiring the needed supplies (de-soldering wick beats the de-soldering pump's ass btw), and having a car parked in my workshop for 2 weeks solid (I can only really work in it while my house mate is at work due to space limitations) this project has been slow to start.

I have to monitors that are in need of repair- my second desktop monitor (20inch veiwsonic) and a "trash" monitor my mother was about to throw away after it stoped working on he desktop  (17inch Dell).  They both had similar problems- they would briefly flash an image after being turned on and then would go black in less then a second.  If it was turned off then on again you would get another flash of the screen.  After a little research I found that the cause might me some bad capacitors and proceeded to do what I learned was the most fun solution as a child- take shit apart and see whats inside.

=>aside=>
  I was a quiet child and was horribly socially awkward.  I would rather have spent my days in front of a TV, video game system, computer, or playing with the large quantity of action figures in my possession (you can't buy love, but my mother never stoped trying).  This is not to say I was a quiet child by any means.  I was always ridding couch cushions down the grand foyer stairs and crashing with a bang into the wall at the end, searching anything I could find for some random detail I had not noticed before (The fact that my elder sisters never killed me still astounds me), and (shrug) taking things apart to see what was inside.  I admit it.  I tended to only take things apart I was sure I could get back together or were already destined to be discarded- but that is not to say there were never bounds overstepped in this regard.  
After a bit of this, disasibly was tagged as my MO and any future findings of dysasimbly were subsequently blamed on me (parents of 4 children have to find short cuts to the family legal system to keep control).  Despite my claims of innocence all findings of dysmantament (or perceived dysmantalment) were blamed on me.  If the top was found to have fallen off of a cheap $1 flashlight it was blamed on me. 
 A problem eventually emerged- things I never took a single screw driver to started mysteriously falling to pieces all over the place.   This was a mystery to only me, as the forgone conclusion was that I was responsible and a lier for claiming otherwise (some thing I greatly resent in retrospect).  Though I don't know for sure who the culprit was, I do have my theories, for next me on the games systems, behind me sliding down the stairs, and often next to me poking at the magical innards of devise was my equally, if not more so, socially awkward little brother.  I think most of those dysasimblies I was blamed for were his (as I was crafty enough to avoid getting caught).   
=>But back to the main plot=>
After opening my old Viewsonic I found a couple of capacitors that seemed to be bulged and one of which was leaking a brownish "who let the magic smoke out?" liquid.  I decided this was the problem and placed the bulky parts to be reassembled later of in a corner till I had some free time and the right tools on hand.

Today the parts of the puzzle all came together.  My garage was free, I finally got my de-soldering wick in the mail and I was bored.  So it was "Working-on-that-thing-I-have-been-meaning-to-do-for-a-really-long-time Day".

So I did what any respectable material hacker wanna-be would do=> I layed out my materials, tools, a lexan wine glass, and a bottle of 3-Buck-Chuck.
Now that I gave up on the stupid vacuum de-soldering pump and got the wick it only took me about 15 min to remove the 2 offending capacitors from the first board (bearing in mind I had never done anything like this before, so I would say that was a pretty fast).  I placed the capacitors to one side to order replacements later.

With that out of the way I decided I might as well crack one the Dell and do all the part ordering at once.
Opening the Dell was a bit tricky as I was expecting more screws and a more apparent way to get into the body.  But it turns out that it has four screw the look like they are all part of the stand, that need to be removed and from there it is all a matter of prying it open "Conan the Barbarian" Style with a screw driver (I always hate this kinda thing, I am in constant fear I am going to shank some vital part and jack the thing  I am trying to fix up).

I managed to get into the screen, and find the power board where the problem should have been (drinking wine all the while), but when I got there I found this=>

A full set of capacitors that are not bulged, leaking a witches brew of techno death, or any other apparent problems.  I am stumped.



------Spelling does not count------May fix later
- Wes

Clockwork- Art in Motion

I have always had a Jones for anything that denotes order and elegance in funtion and eficancy- that is possibly why I had always been drawn to taking apart mecahnical devices (getting them back together has proven problematic).  Sure I love the flow of electrons as much as the next guy, but they some how lack the art of gears, worm-screws, and cranks.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this amusing clock work scene on the interwebs =>   


"Epiphany" 2010 from Tom Haney on Vimeo.

Once I get some more free time to surf the net I think I might poke around more and see what is out there in this vein.
-Like long and Lobster.

Southern by the grace of God- late-night rambling rant

I was born, raised, and plan on dying in the American South.  I am a real southerner, whose family has been in the "Old Dominion" (thats Virginia) since it was fairly new to the settlers (at least as early as the 1640's).  I have ancestors who defended this commonwealth in the Revolutionary War, French and Indian War, the Civil War (though at least one prominent member of my family found a desk job in the Confederate Treasury signing currency instead of going into combat), and my grandfather even helped defend the Chesapeake Bay from German U-boats in World War II.  My genetic forbearers were willing to put their lives on the line to defend their home.  And rightly I am proud of the home they left me.  I am proud to be a citizen of the US (we got our problems, but who doesn't), I am proud to be a Virginian, and.... well...(cough)...

I am Southerner and proud of it.

That is why is disturbs me to see people misconstrue what that means and view it as a negative.  Many people in the North or out West tend to think of southerners as being uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy racist (I will only fess up to being lazy; and that is just me personally, not the whole south).  And I will admit that there are some uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy racist in the South, but I have met people like that everywhere.  I will admit that there is a contingent of uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy racist that tend to pick up screen-printed Northern Virginia Battle flags (Stars and Bars), some bumper-stickers about loving-it-or-leaving-it, and a stars and bars hat at a truck stop and act like it is cool to be a racist and swear that "The South shal rise again(oddly, all the biggest Rebel Flag-Waving red-necks I have ever met were from PA).  But there is a whole baby/bathwater issue we need to be careful about.

A common misconception is the the Civil War was about slavery.*  The truth is the plantation owners were not the majority of the people in the Rebel trenches.  Many were small time farmers, tradesmen, merchants, teachers, or other middle to low class jobs.  Their lively-hood was effected by plantations b/c they were in the region with them, but they were not the biggest factor in their daily lives, as the plantations were mostly self-sufficient and shipped most of their harvest over-seas or to the North for processing.

* I have taken a number of upper division college histories that touch on the causes of the Civil War, and an interesting thing to do is listen to the professor's view of the cause of the Civil War and figuring where they went to school.  Without fail, every Prof from the North will put a bigger emphasis on slavery then states rights or economics, and profs from the South will give the states rights argument.  feel free to disagree with my argument, but I looked at the evidence and it is clear to me.

So if the common soldier's income was not dependent on plantations' nearly-free labor staying nearly-free, why would they risk their lives fighting to keep the rich guys rich?  (Its like me attacking Apple's headquarters to make Microsofts' market share increase, and I don't own stock).  The reason was not that the North was forcing the South to free their slaves before the war, as they did not.  Though the North had a history of trying to contain the expansion of slavery into the new territories and states, they made no attempts to end slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation, and that was more of a strategic move on the North's part with the aim of causing slave up-risings in the South.

The South felt that the North was using its majority political power in Washington to pass laws that were unfair economicly to the more sparsely populated South.  The main complaint of the South was that the North put artificially high tariffs on raw materials grown in the South and shipped to Europe.  By doing this the North made it more profitable for the South to sell their cotton and other crops to the them at a much lower price, rather then paying the excessive export tax to ship it to a raw material hungry Europe.  This coupled with the dropping price of cotton was devastating to the South's economy and put many farmers into great debt to Northern money lenders.  This was an abuse of power in the Souths eyes, and was the reason the Southern states decided to leave the Union (Thomas Jefferson's view on this- "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. ").

The South felt that since each state joined the United States freely, they were allowed to leave the Union freely.  The North did not want to see their personal cash-cow walk away from the herd, so they objected to this.  The early events of the "War of Northern Aggression" were acted out in a series of calculated and logical maneuvers that lead to almost inevitable start of fighting in NC.  There were a lot of tiny factors at  play here, but I will not get into them here for the sake of the reader.  The end result of this struggle was chaotic, horrible, and tragically unnecessary.

The Rebels fought valiantly, and often gave their lives fighting for a cause they felt was important- living free of oppressive government rule (why not? they did it once before and kicked England's ass).  But the South's lack of supplies (North Blockaded the Southern ports and the South did not have a lot of factories to produce needed goods), much smaller population, and untested/newly formed government proved to be no match against the Northern forces.  Since the North won the war, they got to write the history (a long standing tradition that is being stomped dead by the internet in modern times); and clearly they would not choose to write that the South's complaint was that it was being unfairly treated by the North controlled government.  The North pinned the war on the pre-war "elephant in the room"- slavery...  And so it is viewed today by all the children educated in the North.  So it is only a short logic step to assume that anyone who wants to do anything as wrong owning another human# , must be at least one step closer to being a cave-dwelling troglodyte.  So that is were the modern view of Southerners being stupid, inbreed (thats West Virginia if your looking), racist probably came from.  "The South is so backward that they don't know any better.  We should really pity them."  This stigma is strongly seen in the media to this day (look at Family Guy for example).

#Not that I am defending this practice, but things like this being view out of their historical/social context are hard to rationalize in ones mind.  Look at the Spartans, they had sex with little boys and everyone was ok with it.  Different time, different place, different expectable activities.

===>an interesting side note: Plantations were not as profitable right before the Civil War as the once were.  Maintaining the huge complex of buildings, laborers (free and slave), and overseers- was not efficient any more.  Some plantations had already started to stop large scale agriculture in-favor of "share cropping" their land out to small poor farmers.  When you merely collect a portion of the harvest from the people using your land, you are not responsible for their personal well being like you would be for slaves, which were expensive and belonged to the plantation (you treat your property nicer then others.  Don't believe me? loan your neighbor/roommate something you like and watch how they treat it when they think your not watching).  This system allowed the share-cropper to fall into a debt spiral with the owner, fueled by giving a large portion of the crops to the owner and buying farming supplies from the owner on credit.  A system like this was later used through out the north in "company towns" built around factories and mines (I think these systems, though commonly viewed as better, are much more abusive then slavery.  You make sure you keep your investment of a slave well fed and alive so they can work, you can just get another immigrant to replace one when you break him for no cost).  Since this system was much more profitable and easier for the former plantation owners, it flourished through out the South after the Civil War.  Given time, the South would have probably slowly converted to primarily share-cropping and abolition of slavery would have come on its own (though I am not sure how long that would have realistically taken)

And sure we have our share of uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy, racist Red-Necks; but New York has a lot of uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy, racist, Wanna-be-Gangsters; Texas has a lot of uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy, racist in cowboy hats; and California has a lot of uneducated, slack-jawed, lazy, racist who try to pretend they are not.  Same assholes, different flavor.

So when I wear my "CS" belt buckle, fly a Bonnie Blue flag (both of which only a small portion of the population can identify and I have never had anyone get offended b/c of it), or admit that I am from the South- I don't want you to think I am sub-human and I think black people are property; I just want you to realize it is part of my family's history and I am proud of it.

Their is much more shameful things to have in your family's history then willingness to die for freedom from oppression.


On a lighter note: We, the South, really do love our sweet-tea.  Yankee's don't really seem to get it, but it is kinda like the equivalent to pizza in New York City, beer in Chicago, tacos in New Mexico, or Sister dating in West Virginia.  It is a basic part of life and when it is done wrong you are going to have to bitch about it to someone.
Here is a song sung by a middle aged white woman, who is loved by other middle aged white women, about the brown water the South loves so much. (get a load of her audience, there is not a single man, or a woman under the age of 35 in it)




     

***Update: get a load of this thing i found will looking for pics.  Thought it was interesting.

WTF Wednesday: Creepy Blue Things- In Your Mouth

Ok, I know it is important to teach kids certain things about safety and what may harm them, but this is just wrong.  It might just be my warped mind, but I kept getting images of deranged blue fluff balls trying to perform oral sex.  This is a thing that is near the top of my list of "Not Cool THings".
But take the message of the video to heart- If you are a creep blue fluff ball, make sure it is ok before putting a thing in your mouth.