Merry Xmas Cuppers

Well Its Xmas. I hope everyone is having a great morning. I just found out that I got straight A's this semester at CSUN. Its nice to give myself a gift for Xmas that didnt cost me a dime. We should play some WOW sometime. Hit me up with details Im not sure where everyone is located right now. Take care all.

Merry marmot to all, and to all a good night!

Star that shines

Star that shines so far away
Do you understand my grief?
You control the night and day
Cant you sway my disbelief?
On my hands and knees I pray
Pressure builds and bullets fly
Words can tell but I cant say
I love you if it's a lie

Yosemite?

Well, I sort of fell asleep on the job and Yosemite sites for late spring went on sale this past Monday, so Upper Pines is full. I did manage to snag a site in Hodgdon Meadows (edge of the park, kind of near Hetch Hetchy) for the nights of Friday May 1 - Sunday May 3 (so the trip would be May 1-4). So how much of the Cup is interested in camping? I'm sure there are still some mountains left for us to explore. Or perhaps more of the Hetch Hetchy area since it would be close by. Anyway, this will sort of be my birthday party for myself, so if you can spare the time, I'd love to spend it with the Cup.Also, let me know if there is interest in a backpacking trip sometime in the summer so I can keep an eye on the trail permit dates. Another option would be to go into Desolation Wilderness from the cabin my parents are buying (cheaper / no pesky reservations, but not Yosemite).

Happy birthday Crow #2

Because no birthday would be complete without crappy microsoft paint artwork from Cyrusse, you get a crow with a pimp hat hehe. Congrats on finishing up with school, and I hope you're enjoying your freedom and having a great day! =)

Happy Birthday Crow

Well...another year older, another year wiser, glad you had a good weekend in Vegas and that you enjoyed that NIN concert. Well deserved!

Well man, this is a work in progress. I'm hoping to finish it by the time I drive down...but wanted to ring in your birthday with something =)





I think it's pretty straight forward.

uhhh, I thank Edward for the inspiration...

Got the idea for this after talking to Ron about Edward's adventures and subsequent exile...




Hope it's even remotely funny =) Took like 30 minutes...you know, to start up adobe and scan it...

Cyrusse sells seashells at the sea shore

Or attempts to sell bags at the lab craft fair... Same thing. Here's my booth at the craft fair. A grand total of three people bought bags. Hooray for crappy economy that makes people paranoid about money (I so almost typed "monkey" right there hehe).So if anyone wants a purse, I've got plenty. And they've got nifty lobster tags courtesy of Defmoose, yay.

Cute furry thing of the day =)

Today's cute furry thing is the hedgehog. Cute prickly thing of the day. Well, whatever, they're cute and there's fur in there with the spines. Despite evidence to the contrary, they are not blue and speedy and can't spindash. Hedgehogs are found virtually all over the world except here in North America, which may prevent me from trying to hug one and getting poked. Unlike porcupines, hedgehog's spines don't easily detach, so their only defense is to curl up into a prickly ball and hope no one wants to go through the trouble of getting prickled in order to eat them.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online

Hey guys, this link comes via 1up networks:

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online closed beta



After you click on the link, you should get a key and a download for the installer. Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online is the MMORPG of the Persona series. Apparently you get to dress up demons. One of the podcasts I listen to said it was reltaively fun and scaled well on old and new hardware. It's also free. It's one of those pay for a nice hat type RPG's, you know, the Korean model.

Wikipedia entry

PS my character's name is Cheveyo and hes on "Channel 6"

Step Two: You Put Your Junk In That Box

Stay with it until the end it's hilarious. The only warning I'll give you is that its SNL and it's an Orange Threat.

Multiple kill vehicle...

Ummm yeah, this from gizmodo. The link includes a video of Lockheed Martin Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV). What does it do? It's meant to "search and destroy multiple warheads and countermeasures using a single launcher".

Kind of looks like a drone from HL or any number of scary, that would suck in real life, machines...

What's really neat about this thing is that it kind of "floats" in 3-D space...I'm assuming it's just firing downward with enough firepower to keep itself afloat.

I wonder how much just this 30 minute run costs...beyond that, even though it's supposed to be for countermeasures, imagine this thing used against a normal human population? I know there are worse...but this is oddly different....

Tales of a Data Monkey

So all of these years as a data monkey are finally paying off. One of our papers is getting published in "Energy Policy," which is actually fairly respectable in the field of energy and resource analysis, even if the rest of the world has no clue what it is. So yay! (I wouldn't bother trying to read the article, it's not exactly exciting... just pet me and tell me I'm special or something hehe)

Higher Consciousness Exists

Higher consciousness exists
Every time I use my lips
To express my love for you
It's Creator speaking through
Me; Im just a telephone
Even when I make you moan
It is His voice in your throat
In every word I ever wrote

We are channels for THE source
Like a river runs its course
There is no denying light
Stars still burn in frozen night
For the ones who aren't aware
Open desert may look bare
Underneath you see the life
Meaning for the harshest strife

I just submitted my grad school application...

Here is a sketch describing the process:
Now I just need to remember how to work... hmmm..

Prop 8: The Musical

Yeah! Think of all the money! Gay marriage will save the economy! This short vid is pretty entertaining. See Jack Black as Jesus. You know you want to.

The Muse

The Muse

Foolishly I gave away your title
To someone who could never bear it’s weight
Sculpted her into a golden idol
Misused the stars to help create false fate
Illusion can seem real through eager eyes
With second glance the image disappears
The truth so bleak that I preferred the lies
Composing music ears would never hear
I held her close and told her she was God
Ignoring that your presence dwells in all
My righteousness was only a façade
Its writ that pride will come before a fall

The inspiration I could never choose
It’s Consciousness itself that is the muse

Econmy woes hit close to home

So remember when you were young and you thought that you were invincible. Well, I'm sure plenty of us figure with the economy tanking that we wont be affected. I know I did. It turns out I was wrong. There's a chance that come February I wont have a job and from now to then I have to take a significant pay cut (everyone at my work is) =P

Why am I sharing this with you guys? While my boss was talking to the company he started asking how many of us have friends that have been affected by the economy woes...sure, one guy knows a guy and so does another, but none of us had really heard anything significant. He said feel free to share because people talking about these things help make change.

So there you go. First I thought to myself, "things are bad if Washington Mutual gets hit..." then I thought "man, if my job gets hit..."

There's a chance we'll be able to stay open if we can find an investor, but unfortunately with the economic climate the way it is, people are not exactly lining up.

Sorry I've been out of the loop. Internet was down, had to work while in LA. Thanksgiving madness, party madness...sigh. The party was a blast though, I'm just sad no one from the cup could be there, but that's how it goes eh =)

Anyways, I have faith, I know things will work out fine and well. I've already chatted with my family circle, Evelyn, my mom and Belen. Evelyn is still moving up, she'll just be chief accountant for casa de flores because I've always been bad with my money.

So hey what do you know! You all now officially know someone who has been hit by the recession, which ironically enough was just announced yesterday when I got the news.

Oh yeah, and sorry Ron, looks like this will be my last month at the YMCA for now...so let's make it good eh?

Bay Turkey Roundup

What's up people? The cup has been rather quiet from all our traveling, holidays, birthdays and such. Hopefully it'll pick up again this week. For now I'll give you all the bay update. We're back in Berkeley after our trip to Sebastopol. Sydny and her Dad were able to build my concept for a doorway thing for the top of the stairs, so Edward will be back at our place sooner than we expected, which is cool.

I beat both Half Life 2 and HL2 Ep1 this past week and I'm a little bit into HL2 Ep2. I really liked the part where you get to control the giant crane and can drop shipping containers on the bad guys. Overall the games were pretty enjoyable, but there were a couple parts that were extremely frustrating/annoying and the plot was lacking. Both games end with explosions and leave you having no idea wtf is going on. That's pretty poor storytelling if you ask me. Still good stuff though.

Hit up some cool weekend deals from amazon via cheapassgamer. Me and Syd picked up copies of the new WoW expansion since it was so damn cheap ($26 from regular price of $40). We also picked up copies of Warhammer Online to check it out ($11 from regular price of $50). The WoW expansion price is still the same today if anyone wants to pick it up, but Warhammer is $20 today though. There's some other cool deals too, like Guild Wars for $10. Dan what did you pick up?

Syd's parents picked us up a tv converter box and I am pretty impressed. We got a buttload of channels now and they all come in crystal clear. I'm curious how long the digital signal has been available. Anyone have any idea? As some of the channels claimed hd programing the idea of hi-speed internet over white spaces seems much closer to reality.

Hope everyone had a great time this holiday weekend. Anyone down for some WoW tonight?

The forgotten remember

The forgotten remember
Thunderous sound of hooves beating down on
Miles of open plains
Four corners connected
In a never ending circle
The wheel spoke of the universe
Flying ships seen in the night sky
Above the pyramids
On their way to drop off and pick up
New refugees
The forgotten remember
Sacred secrets whispered round the fire
Old astrology given to us in a dream
So we could awake
The children
See the light that shines within us all
Bound to stars so we can be free
Look in the mirror and see
You are one of
The forgotten; remember?

Happy birthday (tomorrow), Lorigga!

Hope you have a fun birthday / Thanksgiving! Look, we invited the Thanksgiving turkey to your party! He was so happy you weren't going to eat him he brought you a crappily drawn present. Yay!

Happy birthday, Defmoose!

a birthday moose
from Dr. Seuss

now all we need are some cats and hats and rats and bats and we'll have a real party going...

Chi needs our help

Chi from Deftones has been in the hospital for about 2 weeks now. I wasnt sure if anyone knew about it but Ive been following it closely. I took so long to post because naively, I thought that the super human factor some how applied to musicians, when in fact this incident has reminded me that they are very much just regular people. Chi was in a car accident with a drunk driver. Im not sure who was the drunk party because the Deftones website has not been specific, only stressing the importance that the rest of us dont drink and drive. Either way Chi has been in a coma the whole time and he has still not waken up. He is in stable condition, which is good, now everyone just needs to send him love and support so he can wake up and begin putting his life back together. I wasnt scared at first but hes been out for a while now. I love Deftones, especially Chi, seeing as how he is the bassist, but also he's always been one of the funniest of the bunch. He has given me so many of hours of musical comfort and peace the least I can do is send this out to a few of us in the hopes that the more people that think of his recovery, the faster it will come about. Take of yourselves good people.

I Saw The Crystal Skull!

So I went to lunch with Julian today at Skywalker Ranch up where he works. It was cool. I didn't touch George Lucas, I didn't have to be escorted off the premises or anything! I had a pretty good cheeseburger there at the building called the Fitness Center. And got to see some cool memorabilia in some cases at the main house. The picture above is one of them. I also got a pic of Darth Vader's lightsaber and Willow's stick! Hehe. Hope everyone is doing well!

Airspace

Yeah.. this recent story arc in Get Fuzzy mostly this just reminded me of Steveland, Ronstralia, Sydania, paper sandwiches, and foreign aid.

MK vs. DC: Storyline

Well, well, well. We've all taken our stint in enjoying the delightful world of comic books and video games. But I don't think anyone ever thought we would see the day the Mortal Kombat and DC universes would collide!

So it tripped me out when I saw that Games Radar has all the cut-scenes from the game posted. So essentially, we can all watch the storyline and try to make some form of sense out of this madness.

I watched the whole DC story thread and am working on the MK one. To be honest, I'm enjoying it. Mainly because I didn't even imagine this game would have a story! In retrospect, it could be a LOT better. Regardless, it's entertaining, plus, I have to justify spending 50 minutes watching the DC scenes...

Anyways, if anyone in the cup community is interested, here's the first cut scene from the DC perspective of the story:


Visit this page if you want to see the other three vids, they're about 10 minutes a piece...are you prepared?

And here the first vid for the MK perspective:


And the subsiquent page featuring the rest of the cut-scenes.

You know, at first I was like, WTF, every time these guys see someone they don't know they're all like "FIGHT!" But then I remembered, isn't that like the U.S. foreign policy?

Interweb Newz!

Some random cool news for you all. First off is some awesome news regarding the upcoming FCC:

Last week, President-elect Obama appointed Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, and Susan Crawford, who teaches communications and Internet law at the University of Michigan, to co-chair his FCC transition team. In preparation for his incoming administration, the two, both seasoned Net Neutrality advocates, will be tasked with providing information on U.S. government Internet and telecom policies, along with advising on budgetary and personnel matters.

Other than the part where they're Net Neutrality advocates, my favorite part is that the guy is in two guilds in WoW. Let's just hope he's on Horde side, hehe. Secondly lifehacker just mentioned today that Monty Python will now have it's very own official high quality Youtube channel. Comments from the cast in the video below:

Media Dump!

Some things for everyone to check out...

First a wonderful that made me laugh very hard:



The above comes from Commissioned Comic, he's a French artist and is a special guest on the Extra Life Radio podcast. I very much enjoy the art style and find myself checking it every monday, wednesday, and friday =)

And in case you missed it, the trailer for the new Star Trek movie, Crow, I recall you father being a big fan of the series as well as yourself.

Trailer can be found here.

A frame by frame analysis can be found here.

I like the trailer! Granted, I never got really into the original series but I always enjoyed Star Trek when I've watched it. So I'm curious what the Cup Community thinks of the trailer.

The Indestructible

The Indestructible

Nameless; just call me I AM
The mangy black street dog howling at the moon for recognition
Ageless; older than the cold blue Earth
My history predates time
Faceless; one of countless
Grains of sand on a never ending beach
Feels so rough as it slips through your fingers
Indestructible

Let it burn

Houses consumed by the unforgiving onslaught from wave after wave of hell's embers
Pine trees become candles in the night,
Dancing in the wind like beacons of victory for chaos
Fire men running for their lives looking back over their shoulders
In horror
Their water hoses melting into the sidewalk
They know how Lot felt before she turned into salt
Sometimes its best not to look back
Let it burn!
I was baptized in fire lifetimes ago
The heat within the flames contains more healing than cool water
Wild brush upon the noble mountain ablaze
Creates
Some sick Satan signature written in brimstone ink
Burning brilliantly against the black sky to revel the stars
And cast fear in our hearts
Let it burn
The fire in my heart will not be extinguished
So let the city burn down around me
Ashes to ashes
The children rebuild

Re: FYI

Yup, undies and daggers work just fine. Enhancement shaman is crazy.

Also, Ducotte's other sweet ride, and new pet:





I guess the only good thing about the flu is that I can't really handle anything more involved than staring at tv or mindlessly poking at warcraft.

fires again

fires are threatening my house again so I wont be online for who knows how long. I have to pack up my computer right now. wish me luck.

FYI

Between actually doing homework and reading my brains out I've gotten back into WOW for a bit. I can now say I've gotten two char up to 60. My Shammy just dinged and omg it was too easy. I'm glad they're made some changes but damn I only died when I went balls out and took on groups of 4 or more. I remember outlands being crazy and awesome weapons right off the bat but really things seem a bit outta hand. I can go from battle too battle generating more mana and health than i know what to do with. Pretty sure I could still rock mobs with nothing but my daggers and undies.(picture not included) Anyways I'm kinda back up and on but still gotta get shit done these days (for another month!). Let me know any thoughts.

RUN!!! and shoot!

Hey all, how are things? Life treating you well? I'm here in my batcave writing me a program to blink some LEDs...sure, it's not fabulous, but still kind of amazing in and of itself.

Anyways, been keeping up with my gaming news and one in particular has come under my radar...

LEFT 4 DEAD

It's quite simple, you're one of four people who find themselves in a zombie apocalypse! I believe there are a series of four missions with different objectives in which you have to consistently beat the onrush of zombies.

Things become more hectic in that there exists this somewhat enigmatic figure called "The Director" which I'm not quite sure weather or not has an in game avatar...or if it's just an AI. Regardless, it dictates when / where the zombie rush will come and seems to know the right time to hit you and quite unexpectidely.

To add to the craziness, there are four types of "boss" zombies, which are playable in a 4 vs. 4 match where teams take turns playing as survivors or infected. Even while playing only as survivors these badies come up. Apparently, the infected act as griefers, dashing the hopes and dreams of the survivors. For example, when all is quiet and you've strayed a little to the left of your team, BAM! you get pounced on by "the Hunter."

Here's the intro clip:

Left 4 Dead 'Intro' clip

Left 4 Dead 'Tank' clip

If any are interested, the demo is up on steam.

I've been following the game via Rock, Paper, Shotgun (RPS). Here are some articles that really perked my interest in the game:

Walkthrough of the Left 4 Dead Dead Air campaign.
A narrative of the RPS team's adventures in versus mode.
Some first impressions of the game.

I'm planning on trying the demo out first, because I don't know if my hardware will take much of a liking to a zombie apocalypse. Luckily, the game is developed using the source engine which as we all know, works fairly well on some older hardware. Now let's see if def was able to download it, LOL!

A Warcraft Photo Essay

Humor dump...

It's monday! Yay! More work! Wait...wha?

Mephistopheles meets the EULA...

Makes me think that any of those "make a pact with the devil" type stories could have been easily solved with an EULA...remind me to carry one in my wallet...just in case...

It's surprising how years later, I can still watch a Matrix spoof and be entertained. Who would have guessed? So what would have happened if the Matrix ran on Windows? Screw that, I wouldn't want a USB device driver somewhere in my head to run the USB port...



Hope everyone had a great weekend and is having a good day!

Ducotte's sweet ride

Guess who got the big flying mount?





On a related note, guess who is completely broke now? Yeah... /sigh

Cupiversary!

In the Cup: bringing you shit in half full / half empty cups for 1 year! (Well technically this blog has been around since the 4th, but it didn’t take on its full cupness until the 9th, and I know it’s still the 8th, but better early than forgetting entirely…)



I think we can all agree that this has been an eventful year, and I know I’m glad the Cup was around to help us all share our adventures, writing, discoveries, marmots, etc with each other. Would the art form of pee-ku have ever been invented otherwise? I think not.

Back when we first started, I had no idea what to expect, but I definitely didn’t foresee us getting so much use out of this blog. I think it really has helped keep us all connected in spite of physical distance and hectic schedules. I especially didn’t expect the literary turn that it has taken at times, but I’ve really enjoyed getting to see Crow’s work, and this blog actually got me to try writing poetry again, which I highly doubt would have happened without a friendly forum in which to share it. In the Text was an interesting experiment that I think we should try again (maybe next summer when people have some time), preferably with a book I haven’t memorized this time.

And really, where else do you find blog entries labeled “Gollum-looking-mother-fuckers” and “Dan’s soul.” Good times. Happy birthday, Cup! Here’s to many more years of ray guns, shit, and of course friendship.

For all those my little ponies you have stashed away in the attic...

Ok, so they were technically your sister's, but I'm pretty sure everybody used them as ninja turtle mounts or attacked them with jurassic park dinosaurs. Anyway, best use of my little ponies evar:




There's also Batman and Joker, which looked familiar to me, but if someone already posted them here, I couldn't find them. Maybe it was Kotaku or something.

Opposition work in progress

Unforgiving concrete devours all the grass

Children laughing playing hopscotch on a familiar sidewalk

Insane heat rises off shit black asphalt, boiling our blood and stimulating violence

Cool ocean breeze,
swimming pools,
running through the sprinklers,
cheap plastic fans whizzing day and night,
relief found in the shade of a tall building.

Shotgun shots echo through the alley behind your house, a dead baby found in a dumpster, handcuffs being placed on another juvenile, dope fiends scratching imaginary itches, begging
for spare change in exchange for "God bless you"

Museums and universities crowded with eager minds,
Mom's quesadillas after church,
the freedom of skateboarding to nowhere with homies,
Grandmother's rough touch as she crosses your forehead and recites "God keep you"

Smog the color of cigarette ash robs the sky of it's blueness
and a generation of asthmatics are born gasping for clean in air in vain

Through the haze of the L.A. skyline a sunset becomes
an explosion of pigment,
a box of crayons melting in the sun,
restoring our faith,
reminding us,
we are home.

One Small Step for Man

So for the first time I went and worked the polls on election day. This picture is of the line at our polling place in the morning. People were already lining up to vote at like 6:30am! At one point there was an hour an a half wait.

Some people treated us like customer service workers with "I will have satisfaction" attitudes. More still were the people who realized that we were all volunteers trying our best to make things go smoothly. We got many thank yous for volunteering from people. One lady said she was going to go get us some cookies that she had baked. Within 10 minutes she was back with some tasty chocolate chip cookies for us. Another woman brought us cokes and bananas and offered to go pick up any food or anything we might want!

Everyone was expecting an after work 5pm rush to polls that never came. People made sure they voted absentee or early. So the last couple hours were a lot more relaxed than the huge rush of the morning. The most memorable moment of that time was when an excited flustered woman came in to drop off her absentee ballot. Her ballot was all crumpled up as was the envelope and we had to tell her she needed to put it in the envelope, seal it, and sign it, as she didn't seem to know what to do with herself. She asked us "you guys didn't hear?" We had all been required to be at the polls with no breaks from 5pm on so we said "no what's going on?" She said "He won virginia! McCain has to win the entire West Coast to even have a chance!" Needless to say we were all happily shocked blinking at each other and smiling ear to ear. When we were cleaning up after the polls closed one of the clerks said "hey guys want to see something?" We said sure and she showed us the screen of her iphone with a picture of Obama and little color coded bar graphs of the electoral votes: Obama 364 McCain 163. That was the happiest a graph had ever made me feel in my life.

And yet it still didn't sink in. I honked my horn with 20 other cars at MLK and University that night and it still hadn't sunk in. I talked with Adam late into the night, called my Mom, and went to sleep. When I finally woke up today it was because a group of children were walking by outside chanting "Obama! Obama! Obama!" It made me wake up with a big smile on my face. I went on with breakfast and the internet. I read on Crooks and Liars that people were standing outside the White House singing "Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye". Then I watched Obama's acceptance speech and was brought to tears several times. We did it. No third term for BushCo. There's a chance now for this country to flourish once again as a whole and not just 1% of it. Now he just needs to be the change we've been talking about for so long. We still have work to do and long roads to travel.

Obama Wins - Fatality!

Well...I guess today is a pretty darn good day. I thought this morning I would find myself eagerly checking the news, waiting to see which contested states are filled with voter fraud. That I would have to hold my breath today in the hopes that Obama would win by a narrow margin...

So imagine my surprise when I overheard Obama's victory speech while exiting the YMCA around 9:30pm. While swimming and doing yoga stretches, I contemplated the election...the ramifications of an Obama loss or win. My own life and what's going on. It almost seemed surreal as I stepped into my car and heard cheers and honks in the distance. As I got home I realized that I was a little sad that I couldn't be with any of my loved ones for such a momentous event.

I don't drop a Divine Cosmos link too often on the cup. It feels like I'm proselatizing when I do so. But I just wanted to share that my (and Steve's) guy, David Wilcock, has been adiment that Obama would win. He's also been adament about an economic recession for the last few years =)

Anyways, a few days ago he posted a little blurb on his own break down on the current political climate..yeah, he throws in dreams, crop circles, the law of one, reincarnation, and all sorts of stuff that I LOVE. But I did feel it was worth sharing his break down of what the events leading to today have to say about peoples mindset.

---------------------------------------------

From Divine Cosmos:

Sexism and Equal Rights for Women: Hillary Clinton’s candidacy broke the male-dominated political world on the Democratic side, and now even the Neocons — the ultimate symbol of the patriarchy — have followed suit by bringing in Sarah Palin.

Knocking either Hillary or Palin for being a woman has become totally inappropriate. The focus has been on their experience and qualifications for public office.

Racial Intolerance: Barack Hussein Obama is half-Caucasian and half-African, with a Muslim-sounding name that reminds people of the two biggest bogeymen of the Neocons stage-managed War On Terror: Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

It is nothing short of astonishing that so many traditionally intolerant members of our society are letting go of their prejudices and voting for the candidate who is better for the country, rather than out of instinctive, xenophobic fear of a race or a purported religion.

The scars of the Civil War still remain in the division between the "red" and "blue" states, which in the 2000 and 2004 elections was practically an identical map to how the Civil War went down with the states that were a part of the US at the time.

The South, of course, was the side that was fighting (in part) for the right to keep the slave trade alive. Now we have an election where a half-African man is actually winning the election in these very same states. This is of unspeakably vast importance in the opening of the hearts within the Heartland.

Colin Powell’s recent statements about anti-Muslim prejudice are just the beginning of a healing process that will very likely continue — and expand — if Obama takes the presidency.

Plots to assassinate Obama, and / or racially-motivated acts of hate, have had the very strong effect of exposing the ugliness and discomfort of racism, so that more and more people can choose NOT to think and act this way.

Religious Extremism: Sarah Palin’s nomination was so blatant in its attempt to pander to the extreme religious right that even the Evangelical Christians themselves are awakening to the shortcomings of "clinging to guns or religion." Surprising numbers of them are changing their minds and actually waking up to how their extremist views have been manipulated to win elections.

Similarly, the people are now seeing the similarities between all different forms of religious extremism, whether Christian or Islamic. No one wants war — we are all wishing for greater peace and stability as a society.

The more we look at the relationship between government corruption, racism, us-versus-them thinking and religion, the more we realize that these great spiritual teachers would never have wanted us to turn against one another.

Generational Prejudice: Is it right to be prejudiced against people because of their age? With McCain being 72 years old, all these issues have been stirred up as well.

It has clearly been established that we should not be biased against McCain because of his age. Those attacks are simply not appropriate. It’s not about his age — it’s about whether he has the competence and vision to lead his country.

This is a valuable step, considering how many of us forget about elderly relatives once they are moved into ‘assisted living’ as if they are no longer thinking, feeling people who need our guidance and support.

Classism and Economic Segregation: The wealthiest members of our society have been able to turn us against each other, manipulating all the above prejudices as well as the basic concepts of "Republican" versus "Democrat," but now the game has changed.

More than ever, the spotlight is being turned on the entrenched power structures. The scope of the public uprising over the 700-billion-dollar bailout is unprecedented in any modern history. The fatcats have already received the "kill shot," and are now on the run, spilling blood as they go.

We shouldn’t gloat over their defeat, but rather be grateful that the public ignorance they have taken advantage of for so long is finally eliminating — and along with it comes freedom and a much greater prosperity in the long run.

---------------------------------------------

Congratulations Barack Obama.
SF Chronicle: Obama's historic victory.

LA Times: Obama wins presidency, makes history.


And because somebody had to say it =)

Go Vote! Get Cave Story! It's your Doody!

Tomorrow is election Day! If you haven't already voted via absentee or early voting make sure you go do it! Hopefully props 4,6,8, and 9 will all be put down, and we won't have a third term of BushCo. I'll be working the polls all day long here in Berkeley and hopefully helping everything go smoothly. To the coffee drinkers out there, Starbucks is giving away free coffee all day tomorrow as long as you tell them you voted. Also the internet is giving away free copies of Cave Story to voters! Well technically it's free for anyone... shhh! The game and translation patch can be found at this tribute site. It's very fun stuff and a deserving reward to anyone who took the effort to vote! =D

UPDATE:If you're not sure where you're supposed to go vote, you can find your polling place here at govote.org.

Saul Williams: Dear History

Just got an email from Saul Williams' mailing list with this video in it. I thought it was just going to be him talking but he does his spoken word thang and it's pretty cool. I'm still sad none of us could make it to see him in Berkeley.

Dear History,
You are behind us and we are no longer looking back. We are standing on the threshold of new times, new days, new worlds, and charging forward without battle cry or trumpet, while cynicism, apathy, and cowardice take their place beside you, behind us.

Half of a sestina...

This should have three more stanzas, but I'm stuck and I'm getting the feeling that this was way to rigid of a form for me to try at the moment since structured poetry is very much not my thing. So here is half of a sestina, or all of a nothing, to the crow that always squawks at me on the way to work and to the resident poet laureate of the cup, our friend Crow.



You lift your coarse voice from the sky above
and throw yourself down on silent charred wings.
Wind streams by me, the result of your fall,
turning my hair to feathers that chase you.
I am the colored shadow of your black;
gliding, walking, we both travel this road.

Wind rushing by like a great storm of wings,
Air becomes feathers all grasping at you.
From the wire you watch this empty road
As indistinct voices echo stark black,
Murderous friends awaiting your fall;
The moon also watching, soft light above.

Will you be here when warm days turn to fall
Asleep on a wire, shadow cross the road?
I will still be walking, watching for you
Searching the shadows as clouds boil above
We’ll be dreaming of a sky filled with wings
Your wings above me, the sky also black.

Lobstercabra!

... and a forest whore (would have been a slutty elf, but the elf ears didn't work, therefore forest whore)

Sly Fox

The sly fox, cyclops
we locked in the idiot box, the video slots
broadcast the Waco Davidian plots
they own YouTube, Myspace
when this ignorant shit gon' stop?
they monopolize and use your views
and the channel you choose
propaganda, visual cancer
the eye in the sky, number five on the dial
secret agenda, frequency antenna
got the mind bender, remote control soul controller
your brain holder, slave culture game's over
what's a Fox characteristic?
slick shit sensin', misinformation
pimp the station, over stimulation
reception, deception
Comcast digital Satan
the Fox has a bushy tail
and Bush tells lies and Foxtrots
so I don't know what's real

Watch what you watchin'
Fox keeps feeding us toxin
stop sleeping, start thinking outside of the box
and unplug from The Matrix doctrine
but watch what you say Big Brother is watchin'

Watch what you watchin'
Fox keeps feeding us toxin
stop sleeping, start thinking outside of the box
and unplug from The Matrix doctrine
but watch what you say Fox 5 is watchin'

the fear factor got you all rowed up
O Reily, oh really? No rally needed, I'll tie you up
network for child predators, settin' 'em up
myspace pimps, hoes, and sluts
yall exploit rap culture, then yall flip on us
and you own the post, and yall shit on us
what is they net worth?
they gon' try to censor my next verse
throw 'em off the roof neck first
while I'm clicking my cursor
reading blogs about the pressure they put on Universal
it gets worse while I'm clicking my mouse
while they kickin' my house
they figured us out, why a ****** go south
it's either he caught a body, no sleep they watchin'
I watch CBS and I see BS, tryin' to track us down with GPS
make a nigga wanna invest in PBS

Watch what you watchin'
Fox keeps feeding us toxin
stop sleeping, start thinking outside of the box
and unplug from The Matrix doctrine
but watch what you say Big Brother is watchin'

Watch what you watchin'
Fox keeps feeding us toxin
stop sleeping, start thinking outside of the box
and unplug from The Matrix doctrine
but watch what you say Fox 5 is watchin'

they say I'm all about murder murder and kill kill
but what about Grindhouse and Kill Bill?
what about Cheney and Halliburton?
the backdoor deals on oil fields
how's Nas the most violent person?
yall don't know talent if it hit you
bringin' up my criminal possession charges with a pistol
I use Viacom as my firearm and let the lyrics split you, who do you rely upon?
they shoot shells at Leviathan, I'm dealing with the higher farm
fuck if you care how I write a palm
only fox that I love was the red one
only black man that Fox loves is in jail or a dead one
red rum, political bedlam
don't let the hype into your eyes and ear drum
Murdoch on Fox, not 18 with barracas
and he hate Barack cause he march with the marchers

Death in L.A. V3

Death in Los Angeles

Apathy sinks into the well of your heart
from Skid Row, or Santa Monica,
or CSUN.

It appeals to you, begging
for alcohol, a lover's touch,
anything to fill the void.

Your hand becomes a whore,
or a saint, innocent and devout, blind and bound,
a prisoner to your routine.

That is when death finds you.
It always asks, Are you happy?
Are you empty? Are you ready?

So I embrace the darkness
I kill myself gradually like HIV inside of a fresh host.
Flies all around me
I live with death

Signs of a Recession in Mushroom Kingdom

I love Extra Life. It's a webcomic / blog / podcast site. They also host The Instance, a WoW podcast which also won the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards for Best Podcast. I still listen to WoW / game related podcasts. I really don't know why, I'm perfectly happy knowing I won't experience most of what discussed...well, I know, because the personalities are hilarious. Scott Johnson, the artist and main guy behind the site just has a down to earth personality. His comics make me laugh and the other guys he brings on are exteremly entertaining, they also have their own webcomics. I guess their conversations remind me of ours, you know, when the whole community is together and chaining one inside joke after another...sigh...

Hulk's Got You...

Thought Lorriga might appreciate this. Found it over on TOR's blog (they publish Brust's Vlad series among a bazillion other things) and thought it was pretty random. We've been needing new posts anyways =)

Death in Los Angeles (v2)

Death in Los Angeles

Apathy climbing into you
from Skid Row, or Santa Monica,
or CSUN.

It appeals to you, asking
for money, alcohol, beauty,
double barrel shotgun that shoots bullets of love.
Your hand, a whore
or a saint, innocent and devout, blind and bound
the prisoner you know.

That is how death finds you.
It always asks, Are you happy?
Are you empty? Are you ready?

So I feel through the darkness
I kill myself gradually like HIV inside of a fresh host.
Flies all around me
I live with death

Saving the world, one marmot at a time...

Hehe, if only. Though on a less interesting topic than marmots, here is draft 1 of my statement of purpose. My supervisor seems to think it's good, but I'd still appreciate any input you all have. (in the comments, so it doesn't usurp the entire blog) Now if I could somehow find a marmot conservancy group to do research for for a masters thesis, that would be the funniest thing ever. Hmm...

Furries For Cyrusse

In honor of the Blog's untimely death I've decided to revisit the Furries for Cyrusse component. Perhaps the Blog's life is kind of like a comic book hero where it gets revised multiple times...or perhaps someone casted a res?

Anyway's, just for you Cyrusse, a giant spider eating a bird.



Apparently the spider is a golden Orb Weaver...I once had an Orb weaver spin a web by the porch light at the apartment. I kept hitting it's web and it started creating one just right to the dimensions of my head. It was very big...but apparently as an Orb weaver it just eats insects and isn't too dangerous. They seem to be a garden variety spider...

Now, I see that the guy/girl secretly wanted to kill me. It just wasn't large enough.

That bird is big too...wtf?

What if Super man were in the Dark Knight?

Apparently the movie would have been a LOT shorter =)

<

What I find interesting about this commentary is that Lex Luther has no super powers either...

Video made me laugh at work in that way that makes me feel guilty.

Bone Appetite!

How is you know when times are good?

So much in my life is going so well, can't complain.
And yet, we're at war, in a depression, about to have a monumental election and I don't have a job.
Shit is confusing.
It's at times like these that I rely on the internet to cheer me up and get me through these troubling times.
Here's what I found:

Here's looking to the future. It's going to be freaking awesome!

The diminishing awesomeness of Lime Mate Mist

*if you can't tell from my leet drawing skillz, it's bathroom spray. maybe I should have tried to draw a toilet.
edit: um.. it's a toilet.. I think.

I was just thinking

So I was just thinking, now that the retrograde is over we should all buy new houses, have anonymous sex, propose for marriage (its ok if you already got married its just fun!), sign legally binding contracts, and call up loved ones who live in far away places, all at the same time! It should work out wonderfully without Mercury to fuck things up. Right?

Obama Roasts McCain!

This little gem was tucked away in some comments on Crooks and Liars. It was from earlier this evening at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a stop for most presidential candidates. Quote of the night:

"I have never, not once, put lipstick on a pig, or a pitbull, or myself.
Rudy Giuliani, that's one for you. Who would have thought a cross dressing mayor from New York City would have a tough time running the republican nomination? It's shocking. That was a tough primary you had their John."

It's funny because it's true... and so sad...

Since you think the cup is dead: Death in L.A.

I wrote this poem tonight as an exercise for my English 208 class. We were given the poem in its entirety minus all the nouns and verbs, we had to fill in the blanks. The class seemed impressed with mine, one girl said it was excellent, I must admit I had to hold back a tear as I read it aloud, even if it was just an exercise for some, for me this is my life. If its slightly incoherent, you know why, I had very little creative freedom with the structure, I could only put in the the nouns, and verbs (in one case we were allowed to use an adverb, hence the kill myself gradually line). Ill include parenthesis for the text that is truly mine. And by the way, the cup aint dead until I die, and even than, nothing ever dies, just transforms into something else.

(Death) in (Los Angeles)

(Apathy) (climbing) into you
from (Skid Row), or (Santa Monica),
or (CSUN)

It (appeals) to you, asking
for (money), (alcohol), (beauty),
(double barrel shotgun made of cotton candy)
your (hand), a (whore)
or a (saint), (innocent and devout), (blind and bound)
the (prisoner) you know.

That is, (death) knows you.
It always asks, (are you happy)?
(are you empty)? (are you ready)?

So I (see) through (Hell)
I (kill myself gradually like HIV inside of a fresh host)
(Flies) all around me
I live with (spiders)

Cyrusse is alive! Or at least undead.

See? Undead. Har har.

Well, since I couldn't even find a post made by me, I figure it's been a while. In my absence I've been learning that being the unofficial TA for a class is not all cookies and rainbows and ponies (it totally should be!) and attempting to deal with grad school admission stuff. I've discovered that trying to write essays about myself makes me go a little braindead. And Berkeley is rude and they want a statement of purpose and a "personal history statement," and I'm still not exactly sure what needs to go in which. If anyone can think of any convincing reasons that the public policy department should accept me or ways to express my general coolness, please let me know. It's a pain in the ass... Maybe I'll post my essays when they take on some sort of cohesive form.

Oh, and I've been making wingalings for my Halloween costume. Don't ask me what the rest of it is. Something with bat/dragon wingalings, that's all I know.

Horror Dump!

It's october! Guess that means it's time for all things creepy, horrific, and "dark" to come to the consciousness of everyone in the world. So I've decided to bring the cup community a little something to get the ball rolling.

First, for all you RE fans, here are some VERY cool trailers for RE5. I never did play through 4, but I know everyone else here has either directly or vicariously. I put myself in the later category.

Anyways, here's an official RE 5 trailer:


Here's an unnofcial trailer which shows a some gameplay...looks hectic to say the least.


I personally think it looks like they're taking the formula created for RE4 and pushing it forward. I mean, with all the added military stuff and crazy mob fights, looks intense. But I must say, what's up with Wesker turning into Neo? Meh, guess he's been going that way for sometime.

The following trailer is for a game called "Dead Space," which released yesterday. Pretty much, it looks like someone decided it would be a good idea to make a game out of Event Horizon. It does look rather freaky.

Dead Space 'Launch' trailer

So there you go, zombies in space and in Haiti. I guess the zombie craze is just getting started.

Mercury Retrograde mention on CNBC

Hmmm, this is interesting. What does it mean when a major news media outlet makes a mention to Mercury Retrograde? It is kind of cool (and comfroting) to know that there are people in the market sector who are aware of this stuff. I hadn't even thought about it, but yeah, the timing of all these financial woes does correlate with Mercury Retrograde. Beyond that, it makes me wonder how the bailouts being decided right now will affect the future...

Hit the link for the vid, the mention comes fairly early and the last half is just financial stuff:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=875316256

New Diablo III class - The Wizard

via Kotaku and RPS (Rock Paper Shotgun)

Looks like Blizzard have announced the third class in Diablo III, the Wizard. Seems to be a mashup of the Sorceress and....well, I'm not quite sure what else, Assassin maybe? Judging from the video the wizard seems a LOT more badass than the sorceress ever did. First check out the Wizard trailer at Kotaku, then have a peek at the youtube vid below:

[Edit: was able to find an embeddable Wizard trailer]

Diablo 3 'Wizard' trailer

[Here's some gameplay footage]


Looking at the trailer...I can't help but form an opinion clouded by all those people out there criticizing the art direction. The more stylized look is new...BUT I will say, I like the direction the gameplay seems to be going! These classes just look sick. And I guess the gameplay is what's most important in the end. Besides, will Lorigga actually play this one? Seeing as how he managed to get through the first two...and has waited many a year for this...he hopes to make that time...but we shall see.

----------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE 10/14/08 @ 1:00 pm

New vid released demonstrating more Wizard abilities

Diablo 3 'Wizard Effects' trailer

Well, blink was an assassin ability. And that forcefield one...that's new. As well as the deathray!

Nice spin on the mage/caster class for hack 'n slash...not that I'm some authority on the matter. In fact, I have the least authority about games these days considering how much I play them. Guess I'm almost ready to study them in an academic environment where I think about games and manage not to play them. =P

Hopeless hours

Oh hopeless hours!
Are they not still ours?
To hold and embrace
For all time (and space)
To store in our hearts
Like Night keeps the stars
So she won’t forget
The tears that she wept
While cruel Day just slept

Oh hopeless Day, with empty skies!
Your sun has been feeding us lies
With promises of love and peace
That it does not intend to keep
Happiness it can deliver
With a shot from cupid’s quiver
But the drugs effect does fade
Than we seek out Nights cool shade
In the dark the dream can end
Why did we try to pretend?
Cold lonely moon doth understand
The feeling held in empty hands

The Why and How of the Current Economic Crisis or Shadow Market Goes to Town

So I came into this video having no idea what the hell was going on with the economy. I knew that there was some sort of trouble and that people were calling this the kind of disaster that occurs every 50 or 100 years. I had no idea what caused it or why. This clip explains exactly that in really simple terms. My next thought is, if this can be explained so simply, then why was this ever a problem? Was simple greed enough to ignore the obvious fact that if everyone is betting on bad investments to not fail, with no capital to back up the bets, that betting couldn't last for that long? It truly boggles the mind and hurts the knees. Hooray for shadow markets! [via Crooks and Liars]

Happy Birthday What!

Happy Birthday What! I hope your having a good one. This image is what popped up when I typed in "ta-da" in google. hehe. Eat some cake and get drunk!

And you thought the only alternate use for diet coke was a mentos fountain...

For your amusement, here is a summary of the winners of Harvard's "Ig Nobel" prizes, courtesy of BBC News:

Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence for their study showing that food actually tastes better if it sounds crunchier.

Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino for demonstrating that armadillos can turn the contents of an archaeological dig upside down.



Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc for showing that fleas on dogs can jump higher than fleas on a cats.

Medicine: Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine.

Cognitive Science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro and Agota Toth for demonstrating that slime moulds can solve puzzles.

Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tyber and Brent Jordan for discovering that the fertility cycle of a lap dancer affects her tip-earning potential.

Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith for proving that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.

Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide (it was shared with C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang who showed the opposite). (see New Scientist for an elaboration on this)

Literature: David Sims for his passionately written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."

So yeah, next time you need to justify a lap dance, say you're doing economic research...
Also, this reminds me of the Darwin awards. You know, most creative/spectacular/stupid ways of cutting off your contribution to the gene pool. I'll have to look for those.

Sarah Palin = Bush with Lipstick

Her insane gibberish non-answers could only rival our current President for lack of intelligible content. Apparently she's coming to CA to promote her good ol values and tell people to support Prop 4 and Prop 8. I'm sure we all remember our favorite abortion related Prop that we've seen twice before and rejected twice before. And who could forget the attempt to undo same-sex marriage in the ongoing battle of Brad Pitt vs Utah Mormons. With McCain looking more and more like a propped up corpse paying for $5k+ makoevers to hide things like his drooping left eye, the thought of her being president makes me want to beat my head against a wall. So if anyone can think of a good 50 character message to have displayed over her event, pop over to Courage Campaign and make the suggestion. It might be flown back and forth over the event and the Los Angeles area. (DEADLINE for submissions: 9 p.m. Wednesday)

A Demon's Nursery Rhyme (The story of Sam)

There once was a man named Sam
And Sam felt that he had been damned
The sun never shined, the moon wasn’t kind,
And Sam never could understand

But one day Sam meet Miss Sue
And Sue seemed to have a clue
She kissed all his wounds, and became his Moon
In this world no love was as true!

Until that one fateful day
Sue was taken so far away
Sam looked and he looked, and his life he forsook
And in this way he started to pray:

Bring her back, bring her back!
Was it something I lacked?
How dare you treat me as such, was I asking for much?!
Why tease me when you see that my heart is black?
How much more can I take before I just snap?
Did you not see that for me there's no chance?
Why not keep it as such, did I ask for Sue’s touch?
Yet openly you delivered the match
Even easier still for you to just snatch
And strip me of anything I thought should last.

This prayer was evil and Sam knew it to
He was just so angry it was all he could do
He cursed, and rehearsed, and made himself worse
Until Sam wasn’t Sam, he was now Mr. Cruel

Mr. Cruel cursed the world and his fate
Nothing left to love, nor to hate
Without Sue around, his heart can’t be found
Such a terribly lonely state

Anime Night: Someday's Dreamers - Summer Skies

Another Monday another Anime Night. Tonight's showing Someday's Dreamers - Summer Skies is a spiritual successor to the original show Someday's Dreamers. Synopsis from animenewsnetwork.com:

Suzuki Sora is a cheerful country girl from the small town of Bie. She made a promise to her father, and following this promise applies and is accepted for a magic intership in Tokyo, where she will face the life in a big city. While training to get better with her magic, she meets a mysterious boy also practicing to become a mage. While he can not use magic that well and he seems distant and cold at first, Sora's fate intertwines with his and the two are thrown together, learning a lot of new things about life and each other.

The showing will be at 7pm in 101 Morgan and for those not in attendance torrents can be found here at animesuki.