Tag Archives: books

words, evil news and stuff.

Just downloaded 2 years in the forbidden city to my palmtop… it’ll be easier to tate than the printed out version.

words of the day – (I seek to be neither)

timorous TIM-ur-us, adjective:
1. Full of apprehensiveness; timid; fearful.
2. Indicating, or caused by, fear.

The source of timorous is Latin timor, “fear.”

choleric (KOHL-uhr-ik) adjective

Easily irritated or angered: hot-tempered.

[Middle English colerik, from Latin cholericus, from Greek cholerikos.]

And now, the evil news.

The Most Jaded Man In America
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A New Jersey man may be a million dollars richer — but he doesn’t believe it, and apparently doesn’t want to be bothered.
Officials at H&R Block, the company that prepares people’s income tax returns, says the man has until Friday to claim his prize or they will give it to
somebody else.
“It is certainly an odd occurrence, but we are hoping that, by making every attempt to contact him, as well as going to the media and pleading with him to
claim this prize, is that we will indeed have a happy ending to this promotion,” said Janine Smiley, a company spokeswoman.

Life for Addict Who Buried Father Alive
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A heroin addict who bludgeoned his father with a hammer and then buried him alive has been jailed for life.
Kenny Wilkins, 22, attacked his 47-year-old father Kenneth Wilkins and dumped his body in a rubbish tip where they both worked.
Wilkins, of Shard End, Birmingham, used cash taken from his father’s body to buy drugs and pay off a £200 debt.
Birmingham Crown Court was packed with members of Mr Wilkins family who sat in silence as the prosecution detailed the brutal attack by his son.
The court heard Mr Wilkins had received seven hammer blows to his body and had fractures on his hands and arms where he had tried to fend off the blows.
When the prosecutor gave details of the bruises on Mr Wilkins’ body, which showed he had been alive when he was buried, members of his family broke down in tears and some left the court.

Kids Curse On Old Lady Works!
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An elderley woman has died following a confrontation with a group of children at her home in Lancashire.
Sheila Bridge, 62, collapsed within minutes of contacting the police about youngsters causing a disturbance near her sheltered accommodation in Nelson.

Kill and Cull
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China has denied allegations of harvesting and selling the body parts of executed prisoners, sometimes before the donors were clinically dead.
The allegations were made by a Chinese doctor, Wang Guoqi, during testimony to U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, where he described coordinated procedures between surgeons and Chinese government officials to extract convicts’ organs immediately after executions.

New Japanese Fetish
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“My undies? It’s a pain changing them sometimes. You know, like after you’ve stayed at a friend’s place, you don’t change ’em much,” 16-year-old Yumi says.
“But … I do make sure I use a protective sheet for secretions so my panties don’t get dirty.”
Kyoko, a 17-year-old Tokyo teen, tells a similar story.
“It costs a lot to buy underwear if you’re away from home for two or three days, right? That’s why I always used the protective sheets,” Kyoko says. “But I’ve stopped using them now. I used to leak a real lot of fluids. My panties would get all crunchy and the hairs would stick to them. It really hurt when I changed my undies.”

Mom Of Ugly Kid Goes On Rampage
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A lingering argument about the attractiveness of a baby ended Thursday night with a New Orleans woman being booked with attempted murder in connection with dousing 10 people — including two infants and a pregnant woman — with gasoline and then attempting to set them afire.
Cynthia Brown Brady, 32, of 8616 Colapissa St. was booked with 10 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 10 counts of attempted aggravated arson, criminal damage in the amount of $70 and trespassing, said Lt. Marlon Defillo, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman.

Pete Sampras Makes Move On Young Boy
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In front of a suddenly uneasy audience inside Court One, Pete Sampras revealed questionable judgment and taste Friday during his interaction with a ball boy during his third-round victory. Serving in the second set, Sampras began to charge toward the net when he slipped a few feet inside the baseline. As he fell down, the service return by Sargis Sargsian bounced and darted up into the left leg of Sampras’ shorts. Lying on the grass court laughing for several seconds, Sampras sat up with the ball lodged between his legs inside his shorts and looked over toward a ball boy. He smiled, crooked his finger and motioned for the school-aged boy to come toward him. The boy, visibly nervous, approached Sampras, who then touched the ball inside his shorts and asked the boy if he wanted to retrieve it.
“He can pick up the ball if he wants. He declined. I guess he didn’t want to go up my shorts.”

Fatties Are Funny and Its Okay To Point It Out.
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Clearly, studios have concluded that grossly overweight people make audiences laugh. They howl when Fat Bastard grunts, “Get in my belly,” or when a lean Eddie Murphy morphs into a plump Klump.
Yet some people aren’t laughing.
“Unfortunately, it’s funny to people,” said Dr. Lisa Berzins, director of women’s behavior medicine and the eating-disorder program at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Hartford, Conn. “For people who struggle with their weight, it’s not funny at all. The sad thing is people will pay more attention to a person dressed up in a fat suit than a fat person.”
Berzins says that fat suits send the message to society that it’s OK to make fun of overweight people.

Day one of My sweetie being away.

It hasn’t sunk in completely yet. (I’m going to feel it especially hard tomorrow morning, though… our wake up chats, and gabbing through work is what gets me through the day. I miss her being online, but I’m thinking about her being on the road… I’m writing her a letter tonight after I finish my break.

Hooked up my brother’s machine with the Internet, and a few games, although he hasn’t got a sound card, so the fun factor is a lot lower than it might be. I’m going to see if I can find him a nice little sound blaster from the stockpile at work. He needed a few little other bits of hardware, a mouse, long phone cable, etc… Next time I head over there, I’ll get him an AIM account, and such… (he’s a slow typist, but the voice chat’ll be nice).

I left about 3ish, and got home… and promptly took a nice nap. (I only slept 4 hours last night.) I was rudely awakened by my landlord at 5pm… (I can’t blame him for that, who’s asleep at 5, usually?) Where he gave me nonsense about the front of my apartment. (I forgot to set out my trash last night, and his gf griped to him that my full can will be in front for another 3 days, before the following pickup. Oh, the humanity..[sarcasm].. Hey, I wasn’t the one baker acted for wielding a firearm in a homicidal/suicidal fun, and had to be baker acted for 3 days at the local pokey. I’ll welcome blowing this Pepsi stand.)

Since I was awake, I went to do my long overdue laundry… and dined alfresco at the next door Italian restaurant. They have a wickedly good eggplant parm sub, and they deliver. Somebody new to add to the menu! 🙂 (They also have a buffet table set up, I might hit that next laundry day…lots of tasty pizza, pasta, salad and desserts. The key lime pie looked really good, but I abstained (This time…) Anyhoo, I watched the sun go down, and I imagined holding hands with my sweetheart…that brought me a great peace. I returned to the ‘mat, just in time to move the clothes to the dryer. I had my palmtop with me, so I read my copy of leaves of grass. Dang, Ol’ Walt knew his stuff.

stuff to do tonight

get comfort food to ride out a night without my love in talkie-range.

taco bell, with earl gray tea.

Book – House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (I went into my closet this afternoon and pulled out a few books I’d not read yet, picked up at a used bookstore about a year ago, and promptly forgot). It’s a meaty paperback, about as thick as The Stand was, when I had it in the same size. I remember now, why I put it in the closet, as it’s a meta-book… where it’s a few layers of story deep. little bits or writing on the margin, and so on. it’ll give me something to do. I hope it passes the test of 100.

A kitty in lap, or playing milk ring fetch, should be nice too. I’ll be burning nag champa, and be bundled in bedding cocoon, sending her my thoughts for her happiness, and comfort.

a flash of memory

Does anyone else remember the Computer game Syndicate Wars, in particular the open cut-scene?

The background was roughly that every human worker had a chip implanted in their brain that caused them to see everything as right, bright and happy. The syndicate agents don’t have the chips, and operate in reality, where a powerful religious movement is running around deactivating people’s chips and causing all sorts of disruption. The character in the into is walking down a pleasant city small-town street, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and Mr Policeman is is smiling at him, wishing him a good day.

Then his chip is deactivated.

The sky darkens, the small puffy white clouds stretching out to a perpetual fog. The building shoot up into massive skyscrapers, dirt and grime running down their sides. The bird song turns out to be the noise of the city. The policeman isn’t wishing him a good day, he’s telling him to move on. And he definitely wasn’t carrying an assault rifle before the change.

The actual game dealt more with blowing things up than it did with philosophy, but it was a keen background.

“There are ranks and orders. There are faces at every window. Just be thankful they didn’t send the Men in Mauve.”

— Grant Morrison, “Doom Patrol”

yow!

must be a dull day! you guys are posting like gangbusters… hard to stay on top. Entertaining none the less. though.

Coming movies look pretty neat, here’s what’s up.

Here’s the lowdown on the fall movie season!

HARRY POTTER
and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Opening October 20th

IN A NUTSHELL: David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) directs one of J.K. Rowling’s gut-wrenching Harry Potter novels to the big screen.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: Rowling’s Hellish thriller is perfect material for Fincher, who hopefully will infuse some lightheartedness into Rowling’s blood-soaked horror. Young Harry Potter will be played by Brad Pitt.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: Fincher had to cut footage to avoid an NC-17 rating; reports say up to 14 minutes were sliced from Harry’s climactic battle against the dark Helldemon and his flesh-eating underlings. Can it really be that bad? “We’ve had people walk out of screenings before,” says MPAA representative Mary Herschwieler, “but this is the first time screeners have actually ran from the theater. And they kept running, some never to be seen again, the thin fabric of their sanity rended, befowled, and flushed down J.K. Rowling’s toilet.”

Look for: Danny DeVito in heavy makeup as The Soul Eater.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN 2

Opening October 20th

IN A NUTSHELL: The Nazis are back in this modern-day sequel, and Private Ryan is called out of retirement to take ’em down. Tom Hanks and Matt Damon reprise their roles from the first film.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: The script was penned by comedian Jerry “Fuzz” McBully (Deuce Bigalow, Caddy Shack 3) so the film should have a lighter feel than the depressing original (Hitler’s new sidekick is a hilarious midget.) Action master Michael Bay (Armageddon, Bad Boys) directs, and everyone is talking about World War II with the wild success of Hogan’s Heroes.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: Some WW2 vets are offended by the idea of Matt Damon and Tom Hanks taking on the Axis army by themselves. The slogan for the ad campaign (This time we’re gonna do it right) also irks some veterans groups. Hanks, who was killed in the first film, is reborn as a killer cyborg for the sequel. Do we need to see Hanks playing yet another killer cyborg?

Look for: Dolph Lundgren as Adolph Hitler.

PAY IT FORWARD

Opening October 27th

IN A NUTSHELL: Based on the heart-warming novel by David Lee Roth. Twelve year-old Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) changes the world with a simple idea: Do something good for three people, and in exchange, they must each “pay it forward” (do a favor) for three others.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: The ad campaign promises a refreshingly optimistic film, about one idea that brings about peace and happiness on Earth. However…

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: …the real story, as those of us who have read the novel know (WARNING! SPOILER AHEAD!) is that the boy’s idea meets an abrupt end. Trevor begins the movement by giving a homeless man food and shelter. Instead of “Paying it Forward” the homeless man pulls a large-caliber pistol and shoots the boy eleven times. The book was only six pages long.

Look for: A now-mature Osment, who is sporting a thick beard for the role.

UNBREAKABLE

Opening November 22nd

IN A NUTSHELL: Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson square off in a world championship arm wrestling tournament. Dave “unbreakable” McGwire (Willis) takes on the current champion and bitter rival, Donavan “FroMaster” Jefferson (Jackson). The winner gets a brand new semi.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: Possibly the most authentic arm wrestling movie since Stallone’s Over the Top. Willis and Jackson each took a year off acting to study the intricacies of the sport, and trained for six months under arm wrestling great Mike “Cooter” Bulsom. Also, it’s got the season’s hottest catch phrase: “I’m ’bout to wrestle some arm!”

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: Willis’ last four arm wrestling movies haven’t performed up to the level of his first five. Is arm wrestling mania waning? The film could also have benefited from an earlier release, to feed off the Olympics and America’s gold medal-winning arm wrestling team.

Look for: A cameo by Bill Paxton as Jacques, the Prime Minister of France.

RED PLANET

Opening November 9th

IN A NUTSHELL: Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore star in this sequel to Red Dawn, the 1985 Russian invasion film. This pet project of Val Kilmer’s (a devoted anti-communist) is set in the year 2015, when a souless Al Gore shackles the U.S. under Marxist rule.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: Action, and lots of it, as Kilmer leads a rebel band of NRA members against the reds.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: The film is filled to the brim with anti-communist propaganda. At one point a forlorn Val Kilmer weeps over a dead patriot child, saying “none of this would have happened if only I had reported the unamerican activities of my neighbors!” (he turns to look into the camera) “Will you?”

Look for: Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff as the evil Russian general Kusputin.

CAST AWAY

Opening Dec. 25

IN A NUTSHELL: Tom Hanks stars in the true story of Henry Scarpetta, a man who survived a three-month stay on a remote island off the coast of Japan. The real-life Scarpetta used bamboo sticks and palm leaves to build an 11,000-mile bridge back to New York.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT: Realism. Hanks grew a scraggly beard and lost 50 pounds for the role. The ocean-spanding bridge used in the film was built by the actor himself.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD: The studio tried to boost business with a Survivor tie-in. However, producers of the hit TV show refused, so instead the studio cast members of the 80’s band Survivor in several key roles. How will that help? Also the studio has made changes to the otherwise true story to suit Hanks (he’ll be playing a killer cyborg).

Look for: A cameo by Bill Paxton, as himself.

a new day… a chance to begin again…

in a land of opportunity and adventure. hm.. maybe.

Slept wonderfully last night, Newton was a little beast though, knocked over a bag of hay I found in the closet from my old scarecrow costume a few years back. he’s having a good time, but it’s going to be messy to pick up.

Work goes slow, but steady… so much so that I’ve not had much time to write. I think I’ll have to focus on a good short story on the weekend, just to keep my hands in.

Remembering a quote from an old Thor comic…”Fatherless son of a She-Dog!”

I suppose that’s asgardian shakespeare for bastard, SOB. I often wondered why scandinavian gods in marvel comics talked like they were english nobility. ::shrug::

I could use some purple throat-potion… but I think I’ll have to settle for the detritus that’s served at the local vending machines. Apple Juice in a can! woo hoo! hmm.. after that exclamation, I think I’ll opt for Yoohoo!

It’s like chocolate milk, but it never goes bad. Better living through radiation.

bible porn

hubba hubba!

Song of Solomon 7: 7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
Song of Solomon 7: 8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
Song of Solomon 7: 9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

the return of purple potion.

THE MYSTERIOUS PURPLISH LIQUID

There are several incidences of The Shadow reaching under his cape and pulling out a vial of Purplish Liquid. Just a few drops of this on an ailing person’s tongue restores them. This is a list of the stories where the Purple Liquid is used, and who is restored

STORY/ DATE/ PERSON REVIVED

Treasures of Death 12/15/33 The Shadow
The Circle of Death 3/1/34 Bridgetown Zorman
The Cobra 4/15/34 Cliff Marsland
Cyro 12/15/34 Roke Rowden
The Fate Joss 7/1/35 The Shadow
The Ghost Murders 1/1/36 Thomas Farren
The Voodoo Master 3/1/36 The Shadow
Quetzal 2/15/37 Jerry Loyden
The Radium Murders 9/15/37 Harry Vincent
Death Jewels 8/1/38 Clyde Burke
The League of Death 5/1/41 *
Trail of Vengeance 11/1/42 The Shadow

* This is not THE Purplish Liquid, but one used by a foeman.This one makes you appear dead, but you come out of it short time later.

Censorship in the news….

NEW YORK (AP) – Harry Potter made the list. So did The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The most popular children’s books? No. The ones adults most wanted removed from library shelves in the 1990s.
“This just proves no book is safe from censorship attempts,” said Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. The top 100 titles – including The Handmaid’s Tale, by acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood – were compiled and released in advance of the 20th annual Banned Books Week, which runs Sept. 23-30.

The ALA, the American Booksellers Association and the American Society of Journalists and Authors are among the sponsors.

The most disputed books were the popular Scary Stories titles, horror tales by the late Alvin Schwartz. Objections included violence, cannibalism and causing children to fear the dark. A complaint from the school district in Campbell County, Wyo., said the books made kids believe “ghosts are actually possible.”

Also in the top 10 were such classroom standards as Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

“The fact that teachers assign them is one of the reasons there’s so much concern,” Krug said. “They deal with issues a lot of parents don’t want to know about.”

The Harry Potter series, which Christian groups have attacked because of its themes of witchcraft and wizardry, comes in at No. 48. It was removed this year from a public school in Bridgeport Township, Mich.

According to the ALA, more than 5,000 complaints were recorded at school and public libraries in the 1990s. Krug said that represents about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of all challenges, although she does note the annual number has declined slightly over the past years.

“A lot of people are now spending more time thinking about Internet content,” she said.

“Sexually explicit” was the most common objection raised about books at libraries, followed by “unsuited to age group” and “occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism.” Others included violence, promotion of same-sex relationships, racism and anti-family values.

Krug said about 5 per cent of those complaints lead to a book being banned.

“Usually, when the rest of the community hears about a complaint it speaks out in support of keeping the book,” she said.

But many books, even famous ones, do get removed. In 1997, Angelou’s memoir was taken off the ninth-grade English curriculum in Anne Arundel County, Md., because it “portrays white people as being horrible, nasty, stupid people.”

In 1993, Catcher in the Rye was removed from a California school district because it “centred around negative activity.” Four years later, the superintendent of the Marysville, Calif., Joint Unified School District banned Salinger’s novel “so that we didn’t have that polarization over a book.”

The list includes such children’s favourites as Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Acclaimed adult novels on the list include Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

Also cited are William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, removed in 1996 from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas, because it “conflicted with the values of the community.”