Category Archives: Blogging

best. comments. ever.

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Bar none. You don’t even have to know who Peter Hitchens is to enjoy this thread. It truly gives one faith for the British school system; they must be doing something right if the amusing and condescending wordplay can continue for 277, that’s 277 comments, most of them golden (including mine, but then I was educated by Boho preppy draft dodgers).

We are all Peter Hitchens now.

We are all Peter Hitchens now

One of the most amusing (and irritating) comment makers on this blog uses the name Peter Hitchens, he writes from a sometimes witty, sometimes demented hard right-wing position. As does the comment maker. The real other Peter Hitchens has been in touch to complain.* So can the impersonator change his user name, so we can avoid getting into a “no, I am Spartacus“ bun fight. In fact Guido would like to invite the impersonator to publicly announce his name change in a post where he can also outline his world-view. Email to sort this out.

UPDATE : Hitchens has a blog! Not a very busy blog, maybe “Peter Hitchens” should go and comment over there….

UPDATE II : Have had second thoughts about getting “Peter Hitchens” to change his user name, can he just put his name in ironic quotation marks at least?

UPDATE III : Peter Hitchens has just emailed from the Mail on Sunday to confirm he really is himself. He thought it all very funny until people began thinking it really was him. Is that clear?

*Presumably from the original Peter Hitchens “Would the person who is abusing my name on this blog please cease doing so? It seems to me to be unoriginal, dishonest and rather cowardly to hide your own opinions behind the name of somebody else. I have written this message because I am beginning to receive messages from people asking if I am connected with the person who calls himself ‘Peter Hitchens‘ on this blog.”

Now, I’m already confused. See, is it Peter Hitchens, “Peter Hitchens,” or ‘Peter Hitchens?’ You’ll note three different possibilities, even leaving Spartacus out for now.

Which the comments have not done. Don’t just sit there, read them! This thread is a thing of beauty and a joy forever; already noted at Fortean Times, fyi, but that’s not going to stop me from posting it here, too, particularly as I’ve been up for 36 hours straight and am far too lazy and woozulated to come up with something of my own at this hour.

coolest movie trailer ever: 300

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Stumbled across this on Daily Kos, a site that I go to maybe once a year; at least I picked the right day to go. Check out this incredible trailer from the new film based on the Frank Miller graphic novel. Rimjob, the blogger who did this writeup, knows his military history as well as his Star Trek; the Spartan/Klingon parallels were in Gene Roddenberry‘s mind when he was writing the original, and have only grown stronger since then.

No points for guessing who the Romulans were based on.

I must say, there’s just something amusing about writing “That Rimjob really knows his Spartans.” And vice versa, no doubt. By all means, go read the whole entry.

I’ve always been fascinated by historic last stands against insurmountable odds. The defense of Wake Island in World War II is an amazing history to read about. I’ve always seen events like this as living proof that a small band of people can, by force of will & a little luck, stand up to anyone or anything.

The trailer for the film version of Frank Miller‘s “300” has just been released. The movie & graphic novel deal with the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, where a few thousand greeks (led by King Leonidas & his 300 Spartans) fought an army of invading Persians that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The trailer looks good, although they have the Spartan King Leonidas talking about “a new age of freedom”. Spartan society is probably the closest Humans have come to being like Klingons…

Well, he’s put his finger on it there. Persians are what they were called before they were called Iranians, and there’s no question the marketing people will be peeing themselves in spasmodic glee at how well the current international situation reflects the slant in this film.

Perhaps you’ll recall Michael Medved‘s attempt to claim that the Lord of the Rings films were about the terrorist threat against America, and perhaps you will recall as well the new asshole that Viggo Mortensen (cum laude B.A. in Government, St.Lawrence University) ripped him for that. Tolkien himself nearly rose from the grave at that apostasy.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how the Iranians/Persians are demonized, how the Spartans are Americanized (dare I cross my fingers for NOT?), and how the images are used as cheap emotional triggers by all the many squirming sides to this debate.

Until the users start using, we can simply enjoy the trailer itself. One last thing. I note with admiration that it contains the single most definitive ingredient to an awesome YouTube: a soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails.

Rock on.

from the vault: my firstest-ever blog entry

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Terminal CityAnd I stand by it to this day!

Terminal City is a home for my observations from and about the Downtown EastSide of Vancouver. It is not affiliated with that zine [now deceased] or the snobby club downtown.All rights reserved, in fact, all rights revert to me including the right to own property. I’d like some, please. You can email it if you have a broadband connection, right?

You are welcome to read and to forward from the blog as long as you properly list me as the source. Forwarding or appropriating content from this blog without properly crediting the source indicates your acceptance of the fact that I will remove both your right AND left legs, slowly.

Have a happy!

Welcome to Carrall Street

new ‘out of office’ replies

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from Raj:

this one works for me

New Out of Office Replies:

1. I am currently away from my desk, beating my head against the wall. Your message will be replied to once I have reached a level of numbness
sufficient to cloud my vision to the point I am able to formulate an appropriate response to your request.

2. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

3. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the
order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this one is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. I’ve run away to join a different circus.

9. I will be out of the office for the next two weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Martha’ instead of ‘Marvin’.

question o’ the day

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TIAWhat does a commenter have to do to get banned around here?

Geez, I thought it was a lock!