Apparently, when you do a search on CNN.com for “Viggo women friends” my blog is on the first page of the results.
Now, while we have been known to let the odd Viggo pearl drop around these parts (mostly they’re mopped up with kleenex, actually), we would like to say that as far as this goes, Viggo and I are just good friends. There is no further comment at this time.
Now that Albus Dumbledore has been thrust out of the closet, brutally outed live onstage at Carnegie Hall (surely every closety fellow’s worst nightmare, especially if the ghost of Judy is watching) it seems the ripple effect is rocking not a few boats in the world of children’s entertainment.
One that’s particularly rocky is the Transformer di Tutti Transformers, Optimus Prime. A word of warning: the following video contains cringe-inducing self-doubt, blindingly obvious truths unacknowledged, and a narcissistic self-absorption entirely at odds with a typical childhood perception of the hitherto entirely macho Opti. Click at own risk…to your own childhood dreams, and the thinnest closet door in the whole flimsy Dream Factory.
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So there I was, at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. As I am every year on the rainiest weekend in October. It’s traditional, although it beats me how tradition always remembers the rain and forgets the “George Clooney deployed to raincoaster‘s table” thing that I’ve repeatedly requested.
So there I was, sitting mild-manneredly at my trade show table, ably representing the Shebeen Club in my civilian alter ego rather than my raincoaster Cthuloid altar ego, which is quite another thing, I’m sure you’ll agree. The only places in meatspace where I’m better known by my online names than my meatspace ones are the Editor’s Association of Canada (“Oh My GOD! You’re Evil Elf!”) and Restaurant Connor Butler (“Hey! raincoaster’s here!”) and sweetly those sounds do fall upon my ear, forsooth and for other reasons as well.
But there I was, being all polite-like and not even trying to pull anything for once, and I look up and I see that right there in front of me, tantalizingly close, yet oh, so far away, was the workshop of all workshops of all the weekend in which I wanted to be.
And I wasn’t.
And I joked with the moderator about just putting my ear to the door crack, or if I had anything with which to bribe her I’d have bribed away, but alas I do not, so I couldn’t. And she quite understood and offered me her chair instead, which she is not supposed to do because after all, I could be all weird and shit, although of course we all know I am considered to be perfectly normal.
On my home planet.
And so I got to sit in on a talk given jointly by the both hard-bitten and jocular thriller writer Michael Slade, and Diana Gabaldon, queen of the hot, brainy historical novel. And, verily, it was a treat.
Come to think of it, the last time Diana Gabaldon saw me I was on both my knees and my fifth glass of wine, so perhaps it’s best that my hair is a different colour now.
But that is neither here nor there. It’s entirely salon-related and thus has no place in this story.
This story. Right.
The story I’m telling you.
The story Diana Gabaldon told, about being interviewed by a German fellow when once she happened to be on a book tour through, you guessed it, Germany.
And he was saying you’re brilliant, your books are so popular, they’re so literate, what quality your writing has, no wonder everyone loves them…
and she was thinking yes, yes, dooo go on…
and then he asked a question. The Question. A question that, perhaps, could only occur to a straight, male German interviewer.
He asked:
And could you explain to me please the exact nature of the appeal of a man in a kilt?
And she paused for a microsecond, or maybe a nanosecond, possibly even a picosecond, and then she replied, in her dignified Julia Child as a Professor of English Literature voice:
Well, I suppose it’s just the idea that you could be up against a wall with him in under a minute.
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Rumour has it that Michael Jackson is developing it into a full-length musical, just as soon as he can sign the cast from Kid Nation for the chorus!
via Disembedded
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Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old English teacher who has taught in South Korea and Vietnam, is being sought in the infamous case of a serial pedophile who extensively photographed himself raping Thai boys as young as six, uploading the 200 + pictures to the Internet, but digitally altering the photographs to hide his own identity (although not those of the victims).
His whereabouts are currently unknown, and it is believed that he is attempting to evade capture.
German experts attempted to uncover an identifiable picture of the suspect by undoing the manipulations, giving the above final image. This was enough to get an ID on a suspect, Christopher Paul Neil, who has posted on the Korean Job Discussion Board using the name Peter Jackson.
a current picture of Christopher Paul Neil at Bangkok Airport
Among other things, his posts mentioned how he got around the mandatory criminal records check for English teachers.
Police checks are NOT needed to get a visa. Public schools will want one but you should be able to stall them. Often they want teachers SO quickly that they will “wait” for some things. I never gave a police check for my last public school job. I was in Vietnam at the time and getting one wasn’t easy. I delayed and never heard about it again.
and how to hide things from inspectors:
[I]’ve never heard of porn been a problem in Korea. On my first trip there in 2000 I remember reading the customs declaration form while on the plane. I was SO nervous for the remaining hours on the plane because I happened to have a couple Penthouse magazines in my bag. I ended up tossing them in the bin at the airport washroom, only to find out that no one would have found them anyway.
In terms of computers, if you’re worried about any “content” there are several ways to encrypt your drive. A friend has highly recommended Truecrypt, which you can download.
If you want to get rid of old files so no one will see, then simply deleting them will not work. You’ll have to get a program like Jetico’s BC Wipe and “delete with wiping”.
He worked in Wonsam (near Yongin) and then Gwangju in Jeollanamdo, and wasn’t beloved by co-workers, it appears:
I knew him as a pretty normal guy, as far as ESL teachers go. I didn’t work with him (his former school has been informed, and if they know anything, they’re not telling at this point.) To be perfectly honest, I perceived him as the kind of guy who didn’t have much luck with girls and would be comfortable purchasing sex (just based on his overall presentation and some comments he made regarding working girls in Thailand.) I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had had a fake degree or passport– but I would never ever have guessed that he was sexually into children. We didn’t discuss it, and I never saw him around children.
A standard Zeta male.
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raincoaster 