To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good

Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More.



Fabulous icon by eternitycrash at staticlost

Overall, I was really impressed with Voyage of the Damned and Partners in Crime. Except...

I can get pretty riled up about things but I rarely feel the need to express this particularly vulgar sentiment. I don't flip off other drivers and I don't really say the word all that often barring the occasional toe stubbing incident or delivery of really crappy news.

Geez. Anyone into feminism/fandom/culture/science/programming has probably caught wind of this by now:

GropeGate at ConFusion

The story exploded like wildfire all over LJ. Even Feministing picked up on it this afternoon. I really hope this turns into a positive dialogue about the treatment of women in the con subculture, but I'm a bit fearful that it will quickly dissolve into a "you just don't understand how we do things" debate. In my personal experience, sci-fi cons are simultaneously excellent places to witness fantastic leaps in breaking gender taboos and  excellent places to observe some really effed up notions of objectified and grossly misunderstood female sexuality. It's hard to argue with something as delightfully indulgent for one's inner geek as a convention where you can dress up like Sailor Moon and nobody will make fun of you. But the same crappy gender issues that characterize our political and social systems exist in our sub-cultural groups; if we want to continue to enjoy such events in future, we must demand that the same standards of basic human respect apply at our gatherings.

Oh, BTW: Happy St. George's Day!

Shatner offers dramatic reading of Exodus

Less than a month after the death of Charlton Heston, another of Hollywood's great over-actors takes center stage in the retelling of the story of Moses.

marriedtothesea.com

Dark Shadows is quite possibly the most addictive kind of TV crack around. I think it has to do with a combination of :

1. 18 minute episodes (of course we can watch another one...and another...and another)
2. Soap Opera Time, which runs at a rate of about an eighth of real time
3. Prolonging the inevitable realization that Barnabas is eeevilll

Last night, he seriously macked on Maggie the Waitress and busted out some rather impressive sexy eye rays over coffee. Something tells me she's about to become the Lucy of DS.

Watching DS is kind of like watching Sailor Moon, except without all the pink. It makes you giddy :).

V. good weekend.

Actually, make that excellent weekend.

High: 63
Low: 46
Chance of precipitation: 80%
Periods of rain with a few thunderstorms likely. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Rainfall near a half an inch.

You know what, Mother Nature? Screw you! We'll have a good time anyway. We will get dressed up, wear our buttons, eat cake, drink wine, and celebrate the marriage of two very awesome people.

There might even be a spot of puddle-jumping.

Where Are The Dogs Humping.com

This just came through on the Dark Horse Pony Express for Feb./Mar.:

"Are you ready for the knockout? Universal Pictures and Dark Horse Entertainment have signed a three-year production and distribution agreement that establishes a studio home for all of Dark Horse's creative properties going forward. Universal will have creative access to all Dark Horse characters and properties, as well as any material that Dark Horse might acquire on its own and want to develop as a motion picture. In addition, Dark Horse will have the opportunity to distribute movies through Universal!!!!! Read more about it right here! "

Sweet!

Basketball teams? Nope. It's the Final Four ladies of Fug Madness 2008.

So who do we have left in this breakneck competition?

1. Sharon Stone
2. Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham
3. Paris Hilton
4. Bai Ling

My money is still on Bai Ling.

Started watching Dark Shadows last night. Three words: Gothic Soap Opera. Well, let's add three more: From the 60's.



Best Wikipedia quote: "As a child Johnny Depp was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him^[1]."

I admit to being one of thousands of young women and girls seduced by the glamour of the Sweet Valley universe. Book after book of sunshine, gossip, mystery, scandal, and general intrigue tucked in a formulaic narrative with a relatively low level of vocabulary made for many afternoons of ingesting the reading equivalent of candy. Make that cotton candy.

1		Christ our passover is sacrificed for us :
		therefore let us keep the feast;
2		Not with the old leaven,
		nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness :
		but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
3		Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more :
		death hath no more dominion over him.
4		For in that he died, he died unto sin once :
		but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
5		Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin :
		but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6		Christ is risen from the dead :
		and become the first fruits of them that slept.
7		For since by man came death :
		by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
8		For as in Adam all die :
		even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
		Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
		and to the Holy Ghost;
		as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
		world without end.  Amen.

Random, cool history trivia of the day: Hydrostatical Bubbles. A set of differently calibrated glass bubbles used to measure the alcohol content of wine and spirits in the 18th century. They're described as a "valuable tool for any gentleman importing large quantities of high quality wine and spirits to the colonies" (according to the display sign below bubbles at Gunston Hall, home of George Mason). Sadly, they were proven to use faulty measurements and dumped into the 19th century trash bin with other such pseudo-scientific devices. But still a cool idea and something I wouldn't mind keeping around as a novelty (which I can do, according to this site).