In trying to cope with weapons grade stupid, Suburban Banshee has come up with the ideal wish fulfillment movie for today's burgeoning  homebody demographic.

.....if there were a Shaker version of Footloose, it would be about some crazy rebellious kid who wanted to be a 19th century couch potato. (And who also snuck off to kiss girls, probably.)

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I'm pretty sure this is one....

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AOL and Juno it seems can't be used for ones E-Mail address. The issue seems to be with AOL and Juno blocking E-mails from Pixiv for some reason.

I couldn't access my old G-mail account as I've long forgotten the password, but I was able to get a new one and join up.

Of course, with Deviant, this makes two art boards I'm a member of, despite having artistic skills a few notches below Randall Munroe....but without the medical insight.

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Between, recent bad news and the fact that I was offline for a bit, I've been surfing and playing catch-up on current events.

In the process I blundered into the two most important posts in the history of everything:

Moe Lane has a solution for what is increasingly beginning to look like a mistake.

Scott Lowther demonstrates that what many assumed was a mistake, may not have been.

The implications of these ponderings are indeed profound and will require much thought from great minds to have their meanings fully grasped.

Much like this will...

 

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1 They just enjoy your presence so much that they want to keep you around for another year. 

Best of luck...

Posted by: Siergen at Wed Jun 5 16:11:23 2013 (Ao4Kw)

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Oh my...

^{"That was...harsh."}

It was a dark and foggy sky
Into forbidden seas, they did ply
For Pinyon knew where great treasure lie

To damnation they did sail



Into the depths did Ledo go
To fight the Whalesquid Far below
Through the fearsome beasts his lance did mow

To damnation they did sail



Pinyon's brave crew performed his plan
One he had devised since he became a man
Tons of explosives and many a can

To damnation they did sail



For Pinyon knew. He'd been there before
His brother'd seen knowledge upon the floor
before he'd perished in the nests dark core

To damnation they did sail



For the best of reasons
For the betterment of man
For knowledge and not treasons
Did Flange embark upon this plan

And so he watched and with trepidation waited
Not comprehending quite how much Ledo hated
the fearsome beasts his noise had baited

To damnation they did sail.



With great persistence
for the salvation of man
For honor and not remittance
Did Ledo embark upon this plan

When Ledo found the monsters nest
He slew the larvae and did his best
To end the threat to all the rest

To damnation they did sail



In Chamber (Ledo's mighty mech)
Ledo saw, amongst the whalesquid dreck
information he felt he should inspect.

To damnation they did sail.

But Chamber said "I cannot say"
"To have this secret is the proper way"
But Ledo asked "Whose top ranked today?"

To Damnation they did sail



And so Ledo read
and hung his head
as he drifted there amongst the dead

To damnation they did sail.

To keep man alive forever
There had been two schools of endeavor
and they did not agree (not ever)

One school had sought to survive in space
forging metal and carbon mesh
The other foresaw a slower pace
and they forged their very flesh

Both sides pursued their favored arts
Their arguments they exchanged like darts
and both sides did grow hardened hearts

To damnation they did sail



The ice age came the snow fell more
The two schools began to fight a war
And earth was rendered terribly poor

To damnation they did sail.



The Hideauze were but tweaked men
Ledos forefathers were their kin
They locked in a battle they could not win

To damnation they did sail


Ledos forfathers did build a gate
and some Hideauze became consumed by hate
in wrecking it they did seal Earths fate

To damnation they did sail.



The Hideauze that were filled with rage
and the forfathers Ledo once thought were sage
went through the gate and turned the page

To damnation they did sail

The Hideauze that went into space
had believed they were a master race
The noble ones...they'd stayed in place

To damnation they did sail.

And Ledo wept amongst the gore
in the nursery where he'd brought his war
..and then he spied something along the floor.

To damnation they did sail.

A child without her living shell
Swam up to Ledo and grinned so swell
And Ledo realized he was bound for hell.

To damnation they did sail



As Ledo fought back guilty tears
Chamber did seek to allay his fears
by reducing the naive child to smears

To damnation they did sail.

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Boeing's CST has completed wind tunnel testing. It's expected to launch it's first manned flight in 2016.



Interestingly, although big, it's light enough to be launched on an off the shelf Atlas 5. 

Now there are those who are getting their backs all bowed up and asking questions like "Why do we need ANOTHER one of these?" "Isn't this just a colossal waste that duplicates effort?"

We'll let one of our crack team of science babes politely respond to that.

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This was a transitional episode, poignant with a very "on the precipice" undercurrent.




Fairlock does not survive his heart attack. He regains consciousness briefly and lingers long enough to declare Ridget to be his successor.

Ledo gets some bad news as well. It seems that Chamber has finally gotten a good enough parallax on the requisite stars to deduce there position relative to Ledo's home. By his calculation their first distress beacon is...



 Well suck...

Now without ANY hope of rescue, Ledo tries to explain via his very imperfect understanding of their language why he feels he must go. He has better luck with Bebel, her brother to whom he reveals that he fears the boy who gave him the Hideuze flute before being recycled might have been his brother.



...and all the while, the people of Gargantia deal with separation and loss. This is portrayed very eloquently throughout the episode, most of which is in the shadow of Fairlocks funeral, which is itself a very touching ceremony.



I like the fact that Flange (the fleet captain who is leaving) does not seem to be a jackass. He's doing what he thinks is right, and his eulogy for Fairlock seems sincere and heartfelt.

The fleets separate and their world is forever changed.

 

This was a well done episode. A bit downbeat, but it does stress the overall decency of most of the characters. We learned some things too.

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I had no idea this existed when he passed earlier this month.

It's the test footage for Ray Harryhausen's War of the Worlds project which was being pitched in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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They are indeed SPECIAL trucks.



Actually, UPS 3-Day is sometimes shipped via air.

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Attack on Titan Episodes 8 & 9 seem to have largely wrapped up the 'Battle for Trost'. The show continues to surprise. It continues to have its characters develop in unconventional, but interesting ways. The nightmarish imagery continues as well and they really outdo themselves in that regard with some truly horrific visuals...

On the other hand, it is really nice to see someone who thoroughly enjoys her work.

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I'm impressed with how, despite his obvious physical limitations,  he's able to lug around a tripod for these self portraits.

I'm rather concerned about his anticipatory triumphalism though.

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Mac Specialists (formally Connecting Point) at 4772  Euclid Road in Virginia Beach is one of, if not the oldest Apple stores in Virginia. It was set up as a computer sales and repair store and school back in 1980 and has been a Apple-only establishment for most of that time. The store had an excellent reputation for service and greatly hyped Apple widgets in Southeastern Virginia for three decades. The store is no-nonsense and no frills but all service. 

But, they are even more impressive than that...

When Apple started its own line of hipster oriented, gorgeously designed, snobtacular stores, it threw the smaller computer stores to the wolves by cutting them off from ordering new machines. Apple even opened an Apple kiosk in the Best Buy across the street from Mac Specialists.

That was several years ago and Mac Specialists is still there, having persevered via sheer excellence in the quality of their repair work, Mac training and customer service. These qualities were made all the more glorious by the stark contrast to the customer service and expertise at the aforementioned Best Buy across the street. I gather that Apple got complaints....I further gather that there were rather a lot because, some years ago, Jobs allowed Mac Specialists to start ordering and selling (but not displaying) Apple products. It's a store with NOTHING on display....but if someone wants to order an Apple they can walk in, sit down, describe what they want and the parts will arrive...assembled.

Which is how I got Holo, my iMac.

The store does a bang-up job on repairs as well, when my iMac was struck by lightning some years ago they fixed it and saved the data. I upgraded the machine to a two TB drive tat the same time. Their bills are itemized minute by minute, part by part. The owner,  John Crow, is extremely knowledgeable and still gives classes on using Apple products.  He is also a former Brown-Shoe who flew an A-6 Intruders. He is both courteous and ethical. I have been thoroughly impressed every time I've been there.

Well, the other day, my hard drive blew. To my astonishment Mr. Crow informed me that my 2 year old drive was still under warranty.

Wo0t! For $106.00 in labor, I now have essentially a new computer in an old case which is neat because the steel & glass case is, IMHO, vastly superior to the new plastic one.

There was a bit of a delay in getting the drive, in part because the Express Air Freight service ran afoul of the recent Tornadoes.

I spent last night setting up, customizing and adding bookmarks, Parallells, Windows 7 and various Video Codecs to my new machine.

The old HD must have been 'off' for a while before dying because I am absolutely astonished at how fast this machine is now.

Anyway, I'm back online now.

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My computer's been clunky lately and Thursday morning when I got home from work, the only thing that displayed on the screen was a folder labeled with a question mark.

Having no patience for such introspection from a very expensive appliance, I attempted various Mac-specific fixes to no avail. I dropped it off at Mac Specialists on the way to check on my Mom (who was in the hospital getting her Gall Bladder removed).  Friday I was informed that the hard drive is shot. Fortunately, it was still under warranty from the time it got repaired after being struck by lightning. I should get it back late next week.

In the interim, Kuroi, my netbook with the tiny keyboard, has been crashing with demoralizing regularity. Last night I had a friend look at it and discovered that MacAfee was dueling with the Norton  that was bundled with the machine but was ostensibly never activated.

It's slow and I can't do frame grabs with this set-up, but I can actually poke about online for the first time since Wednesday night.

In other news, after a brief scare where she tried to pick up her grandaughter and opened herself up,  Mom is doing much better, though it is a chore to keep her from lifting anything.

Dad goes under the knife in two weeks for a hernia operation. I'll be super mister butler man for six weeks thereafter, so I' withdrew (early enough for a refund) from the two summer classes I was taking. I may take them in one of the later summer sessions.

Anyway,  as compensation for having sat through that banality bombardment, here is Kem Kem's rendering of 'Rei' Yamamoto, from Yamato 2199..

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The story going around with this pic is that some HOA would not let a fellow fly an American flag  and this was his response...



Now HOAs  are a pernicious blight upon our civilization and and those that run them and think they are swell are bad and should feel bad.  Thus there is a lot to like about this story. However, this story breaks down upon the slightest thought. The quidnuncs that form Home Owners Associations are going to have as one of their first despicable acts, strict rules on what colors their victims can paint their houses. Thus this made little sense unless the fellow was just going whole hog in an effort to stick his thumb in their eye.



It turns out after 2 minutes of image searching that this is actually a dispute with a local historical society. Historical societies that enforce repair regulations are like HOAs with government sanction so this is actually even a better story than the fake (assuming Captain America here doesn't end up in jail).

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I got this grim but interesting image from The Daily Mail, which has some amazing and very sad pictures.of the tornado damage in Oklahoma and Kansas.



It's bad....and there are more storms on the way.
more...

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Anime Blogger Ubu Roi has had a rough year.

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...to be on Oklahoma or Kansas.

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