ZayZayEM - kickin' moron ass since 2002

True location

2008-08-23T23:20:00.002+10:00

Life is a real mess right now. But real new location is:

http://www.zayzayem.wordpress.com

It's Alive!!
Still Kickin' Still Screamin'

Man on Fire Feels Your Pain

2007-11-26T16:44:00.000+10:00

Hooray free image hosting.

People may have noticed my "new site" hasn't been updating, and I haven't fulfilled any promises I made towards the internet.

Let's just say Honours has made me really miss working at Hitachi Amity. I wish I was the guy above. At least he gets to dance.

Anywaaay... once I finally finish this gene project, I'm gonna spend a while getting my shit in order, and then hopefully start up again with teh internet projects.

The goal is to stick with "It's Alive" as my main blog - it will deal with the usual shit that was here - science news, rants and the occasional video.

I'm gonna remove any Japan content from this blog, and rewrite it formally in another blog. And it will totally be retconned to sound not quite so whiny, as well as possibly a bit more and a bit less honest depending on the event.

I'm gonna make some more cool T-shirt designs. (...)

And I'm gonna make sure Dekiru actually takes off as a project, hopefully by roping in some friends. The idea is just to have some Japanese language prose written by non-native speakers. Mostly either about an interesting news event (Seal bites surfer's face!) or personal life (kangaroo sushi). It should also be aimed at improving vocabulary and language skills of other non-native speakers.

Nobody is reading this anyway. But I like typing. It's noisy. Ha. Ha.

Z Lizt

2007-06-26T22:52:00.000+10:00

Well, so I've moved...

z list

enjoy

...mind you its still under construction...

further working on a genuine science/student blog, so my rants will not be disapeared; as well as shifting で出来る over to wordpress too; and creating a myspace.

The Last Post - Alchemy Facts are Useful

2007-06-09T12:09:00.000+10:00

Don't take me too seriously on either of those statements. I'm thinking of trying to move the science-part of Kickin' Moron Ass over to NatureNetwork - which will also include some of my actual in lab exploits (my supervisor is finally getting a move on inductions and having a meeting about risk assessments, I have to write up a supply list too).

Some of the less serious aspects of KMA would be moved to a more link-list style weblog, like my first blogging idol, Lindsay's Bificurated Rivets, which will probably be interspersed with youtube vids too. That will probably be Better than a Knife in the Eye (with a new brand image).

While I'm fond of the good old Kickin' Moron Ass (since 2002) tag, I don't know if it's appropriate for Nature, so any suggestions for a biomedical wannabe mad molecular biologist with allusions of grandeur.

Anyway, this last post needs better content, so following on from some discussion in comments over at Pharyngula - The Scientist kindly dropped this slideshow in my inbox:

"Before there was chemistry there was alchemy. So before there was art about chemistry, there was art about alchemy. For previous generations of chemists, so much of how things work was a mystery, so artwork that featured animals, astronomical objects, and other aspects of nature contained significant symbolic meaning. As time went on, of course, modern experimental methods turned people away from mysticism, and alchemy became a piece of the past."

I haven't looked at it all yet, but I get really miffed when people just reject something like alchemy or astrology as outrightly wrong and as if they weren't valid forms of natural observation in their time. Like I said in the comments, what distinguishes something as anti-science is dogma - in their day most alchemists weren't stuck in absolute dogma, and were active experimenters and debaters. Small amounts of dogma existed, but the great thing about modern science is that dogma is gradually being replaced with total paradigms (paradigms are facts that are accepted as acceptable, but can be moved or shattered if something better comes along through further observation and rationality).

I love paradigms. The phrase is already overused in my thesis.

Well, it's been a fun ride kids. Thanks for the memories...

Asian Conspiracy

2007-06-01T14:24:00.000+10:00

The Power of Christ Compels You

2007-06-01T14:00:00.000+10:00

To spontaneous epilepsy?

Back when I was trying to formulate a Christian outlook - I really came to the assessment that Evangelicals of the Benny Hinn breed were the devil. You know, those false prophets that were prophesised about.

Jesus never did anything like this, and he certainly did not ask for money. Jesus did some cool party tricks, first aid, and the occasional psycho-hypnotherapy session (hey Legion!) - he didn't make people fall down and speak in tongues. The pentecostal "speaking in tongues" was not gibberish, it was understandable by everyone around - Romans heard it in Latin, Greeks heard it in Greek, Arabs in Arabic etc. that's cool. That's a mega coded BabelFish.

Anyway, now I just see they are all just pretty nuts.
It's psychological hysteria etc. The Beatles made people faint by touching them, I don't think they were Godsend.

*rock*satan*benny hinn*evangelical*hysteria*epilepsy*legion*demons*christ*

Learning Foreign Language Technique

2007-06-01T12:56:00.000+10:00

This is a useful training video I guess. It does do a bit more oversimplifying. It's pretty logical that the "putting yourself out there" and actually using your Japanese etc. but it's obviously a technique that is more suited to confident extroverts. So it is also (I'd say quite strongly) a matter of personality.

To me walking up to a strange couple on the beach with a kid is a bit creepy. Could you imagine the reaction to some strange Japanese guy wandering onto Bondi and doing the same in English? It's not just a matter of your personality, but there's as well. I personally feel worse about that kind of situation, if you are just talking/being friendly to practice your Japanese, it feels like a bit of an abuse of the relationship there.

I did like this video though. It also manages to be amusing. When the couple are talking about his shoes, it sounds and looks like they are talking about the size of a certain male body part.

*japanese*learning*ペニス*video*jafl*日本語*jet*training*personality*

Video Friday... One Night Only

2007-06-01T12:26:00.000+10:00

Okay, I going to attempt to revamp everything intarweb over the weekend. It's going to be a total makeover, and its likely going to be a whole new blog (I'll try and pull a swifty and keep the same address). Anyway, enjoy...

This Frog did NOT eat a cat. I was so disappointed. I wonder if it has got something actually wrong with it, or if it is trying to sound like that.

via Pharyngula, via greg, via dan

Almost Human: That's So Raven

2007-05-29T12:09:00.000+10:00

grrlscientist has the goss on avian intelligence.

Apparently Ravens have very logical minds, indeed too logical. While being able to work out that they could get a piece of meat dangling on a string by pulling it up, when the situation was changed so that the raven now had to pull down to get the food up it was a little bit harder.

This sort of abstract thinking is a trait, AFAIK, that really gets into what made Hominids human. While being able to logically associate things is pretty basic biology (even microbes are chemoitactic); and memory is something a lot of animals have (even goldfish, against all prejudices). Imagination and innovation is a pretty limited trait, along with self recognition.

Something that was probably included in the original SCIAM article would be what age-equivalent this level of intelligence makes the ravens. At what age to humans have the capacity to work out that you can pull down on a string and make it go up in certain situations. Such a figure would be quite subjective, avians have far superior memory skills (I keep forgetting where I put my mobile and keys, I'd starve if I had to remember 1000s of food cache locations without a map) and are also adept at deception and mistrust.

*ravens*almost human*animal*intelligence*behaviour*grrlscientist*science*logic*intuitive*memory*birds*

2007-05-25T20:40:00.001+10:00

You scored as Spiritual Atheist, Ah!
Some of the coolest people in the world
are Spiritual Atheists. Most of them weren't
brought up in an organized religion and have
very little baggage. They concentrate on
making the world a better place and
know that death is just another part of life.
What comes after, comes after.

Spiritual Atheist

75%

Apathetic Atheist

67%

Scientific Atheist

58%

Agnostic

58%

Angry Atheist

58%

Militant Atheist

50%

Theist

42%

What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

History of Japanese Bashing in Queensland

2007-05-25T19:10:00.000+10:00

Today I was teased for "thinking too much", which is true, IT HURTS! This was followed up with, "How do you know all this stuff?" To which I answered "Reading". Seriously. Reading makes you learn stuff. I read it somewhere.

And it's not just wikipedia. Though I've got to admit, wiki-technology and the internet in general makes it all so much easier to access information. But I read lots of things. I've read the Bible, Shakespeare, National Geographic, Australian Geographic, Childcraft, Newton, textbooks of various kinds, Tolkein, Fiest, Rowling, Laurel K Hamilton, Mercedes Lackey, news@nature... and since about mid-way through high school I've grown into an ever increasing multimedia whore, embracing video, DVD, documentaries, mp3s, avi downloads, watching the news, Media Watch, The Glasshouse, Warcraft, The Chaser, South Park, Eat Carpet, podcasts, vodcasts, rss, technorati... really, all you have to do is get literate and pay attention: the world is your smorgassboard of information.

I love it.

And so I'm going to present a nice essay that combines some interesting facts about recent Queensland history, politics, intolerance, racism in Australia, Japan, economics and Asia-Australia relations:

Last Post for the Gold Coast: Heart of a Nation and the Japanese "Colonization" of Queensland. by Narrelle Morris

Basically, Back in the 80s, with post-WWII Japan becoming a large economic power, much investment came to tropical Queensland way. Being moderately closer, and certainly a lot larger than tiny tropical Hawaii, the Sunshine State was made all the more appealing by old-school (some might say corrupt) government under Sir Joh. Concern mounted in 1988 with "Heart of the Nation" a community concern group that was totally not-racist in its economic proposal which was simply getting all those foreign influence back where they came from. Heart of the Nation's hypocrisy in character was outed rudely when its primary proponent, Bruce Whiteside, was shown to actually be a foreign investor himself - from New Zealand. One hasty citenzenship ceremony later, and a clarification that Kiwis are Oz's little cousin, whereas Japanese are totally different, HotN continued on its merry little agenda. Media involvement didn't exactly do much to prevent excacerbation of the situation, which resulted in attacks on Japanese education in Queensland schools, misleading figures about Japanese ownership, and even the Japanese media retaliating against the Gold Coast tirades against their country. Despite several attempts to clear itself of any racist agenda, Heart of the Nation was gradually subsumed into Queensland One Nation and Pauline Hanson support to protect against the "yellow peril" of Asia.

Hooray Queensland! Seriously, this is an odd story. Particularly that the entire movement against foreign investment was stirred up by a foreign investor himself, under totally non-racist motivations.

The poor thing about all this is, while Labor Federal has been pushing for Japanese to be brought back into schools (though I don't think too many Queensland schools dropped it), as a Japanese guy I recently met mentioned to me, China is the new asia-pacific superpower. I think it's a bit sad that Japanese language missed the boat - while still fairly complex, it's nowhere near as complicated as Chinese language. I suspect Chinese (Mandarin) will become an Asia-Pacific language more so than Japanese unless the Japanese government pulls some swift manouvering. Mandarin definitely has numbers, area, and political power on its size.

さびし

*japanese*racism*australia*heart of the nation*essay*history*thinking*yellow peril*knowledge*reading*back in the 80s*lesson*china*language*economics*one nation*culture*queensland*education*foreign*bruce whiteside*pauline hanson*

Chimps dig the Hot Mammas

2007-05-22T22:04:00.000+10:00

Well, its actually pretty old news, dating back to a behavioural observation published in November 2006.

I really like how the behaviour gets so totally compared with humans: "...despite their promiscuous mating system, chimpanzee males, like humans, prefer some females over others. However, in contrast to humans, chimpanzee males prefer older, not younger, females."
And even we accept this diagnosis; far from being a demonistic paedophillic trend, youth-preference in humans has something to do with monogamy or something. I don't think there is very much evidence that humans prefer monogamous relationships, meaningful ones, maybe - but not necessarily life long, early in life or with only one partner.

*chimpanzees*primates*psychology*behaviour*milf*sex*preference*almost human*old news*science*animals*mating*

There Is No God - Part I

2007-05-21T23:15:00.000+10:00

TING is an unregistered trademark of ZayZayEM. Don't you dare steal it (or show me that someone else has used it first).

Well, I was going to take a few more days rest from the blogosphere, but I've just got a heap of newfound non-spirirituality surging inside of me that I have to share (sorry I was raised pseudo-evangelical, old habits...)

So here's a handout to some of the godless who do accidentally make it here (Pharyngula is known to boost my readership by about 300% at times)

Yesterday ABC screened the first part of Root of All Evil? and I can't say I'm particularly impressed. And I'm not talking about the title, with the question mark included, it strikes me as the perfect balance of thought provoking controversy and meaning that the documentary entails.

To me Dawkins doesn't come off as the intellectual, he just seems a hard-assed atheist with too little knowledge of actual theology and a blazing sense of naivity. I criticised his interview with Ted Haggard (if only we knew the truth back then though... oh the hilarity) where it just appeared to loggerheads involved in cock measuring contest, but Dawkins still afraid to pull down his zipper. Haggard is calling Dawkins arrogant for claiming that if only Haggard knew the science he knew and that it's totally rude, but now, if Dawkins had read the Bible as Haggard and had a deep intimately hardcore knowledge of God like Haggard, Dawkins would see his own arrogance. Haggard himself is obviously also full of himself. It's not to hard to notice, but Dawkins doesn't (at least in the documentary cut) reply. Maybe it's too obvious to point out the almost cringing hypocrisy, or maybe it's that Haggard has a point, Dawkin's does come off a little arrogant, maybe with the best intentions, but arrogant nonetheless.

He seems like a little boy who has just found out Santa Claus isn't true - but also knows he will still get presents - but has decided to make sure all the other kids at school know it. Sure he's right. But are the other kids prepared to know it? And is Dawkin's prepared enough to make his arguments?

Dawkins lack of preparation comes off most startling when he targets an American born Jewish Israeli settler who converted to Islam in an attempt to get an moderate/understanding view on the whole Middle East religious turmoil. Yousef al-Khattab, formerly Joseph Cohen is anything but moderate. Dawkins quickly, and to his own disappointment quickly realises that here is man who "has willingly handed himself over to irrational fundamentalism" (or something like that). Yousef is of the belief that one day soon Muslims will rule the Middle East, one day later the world, and Dawkins better do something about the outrageous way "his (UK?) women dress". Dawkins responds appropriately, but in a slightly stuttered way that belies his stereotypically stuffy intellectualistic British arrogant/naive outlook.

Dawkins point is overall that dogmatic, indoctrinous religious belief is a negative influence on modern society; and he rams it home with some very good points. But it just seems a bit rushed and unprepared and all to badly produced. It's just not a good engaging personality in this documentary. PZ is going to really hate me ... it might even be an issue of "framing"...

Oh... and I'm allergic to squid...

(Yes this is a part of a series)

*pharyngula*squid*religion*ting*root of all evil?*atheism*framing*personality*cock fight*british*naive*santa*haggard*arrogance*abc*richard dawkins*documentary*

There is No God - Part II

2007-05-21T23:10:00.000+10:00

Well, if Dawkins sucks (I'm planning on getting a hold of The God Delusion, Dawkins at least seems the person who actually gets better from experience), Who am I willing to bring up for atheist spokesbody?

I quite like to think satirists do a good job. Nothing could be more painful that someone quite intellectually reducing your entire silly-little-belief-system-that-gives-you-meaning-for-life to a grand joke. I'm sure any deity observing that show was just sitting back with some nachos saying "Oh, it's so funny... it's so funny 'cos it's true... oh Joe Pesci... I think I peed my pants... hahaha".

But while jokes work as good rhetoric, they don't win battles. If we rely on humour too much, it sort of gets blurred what is serious and what's not. As Dawkins drives home, the pain that religion brings to this world is anything but funny.

ABC followed up last night's dish (possibly coincidentally) with a new documentary by Andrew Denton, a popular Australian media figure, entitled "God on My Side". I couldn't get a hold of any actual clips, but here is an SBS taster. I really wish I could find his appearance on Rove[live], it might give some of the godless some hope. It certainly gave me a bit of hope. With my mother as a local chaplain, some murmurs about bring ID downunder, and letters to the editor with the insane notion that Australian money has "In God We Trust" on it (evangelical Christians seem a bit slack on plagarism, or checking the relevance of their sources for their demographic - I think its a "universal truth" thing) - it's nice to see that at least are media and it's personalities aren't totally bonkers yet.

All Denton has to do is briefly flash a bumper sticker that says "Evolution is not Science" and the entire audience of Rove McManus' talkshow is in laughter. Now, I can't imagine a similar scene on Oprah, or even Leno or Letterman. The bumpersticker was just one of the many items Denton picked up while filming "God on My Side" a fairly non-critical expose on the 63rd National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas, Texas. The item he actually had to show was an allegedly realistic representation of the ark, Denton's question was "Where is all the poo?" (He says "mess" in Texas) The Christian's answer was that their were chutes hidden in the drawing, again this drew big laughs here.

"Non-critical"? What kind of expose is non-critical. Denton is pretty simple in his production. He doesn't pull too many hard hits. He just asks questions, and sometimes throws in a couple of small punchlines - some of the evangelicals get it an laugh, others don't, and a couple don't even realise it was a joke and answer in complete seriousness. The best example is when Denton is told that ancient man was pretty intelligent, after all the Bible says Adam named all the animals. Denton cheekily asks "So where did he come up with aardvark?" and the Christian is a bit taken aback, but quickly straightens up and maybe out of pride, defensiveness, or maybe he was trying to have a bit of fun too, but he sounds a bit too serious for the latter and says "Well, err, you see here. It was late in the day and Adam was... [fade to scene]" Some people need to learn to say "I don't know the answer to that one", it is not the same thing as saying you win (another thing some people could learn).

Most of the film is asking questions like that. Simple harmless questions about what these particular Christians believe, as the documentary progresses the questions get more serious. We move away from "How many people do you reach with this message?", "What do you think of the Benny Hinn image?" to more serious and doctrine exposing questions "Are we in end times?", "Should USA unequivocally support Israel?", "Does it bother you that President Bush says God tells him what to do?", "What makes you right when all you say is the Bible is the word of God, Muslims say the same about the Koran?".

Denton starts of "God on My Side" with the goal of exposing the Christian ("our side") polar opposite to modern fundemental Islam: while being a good documentary on American fundamentalism... it fails on this stated original goal. The evangelicals at NRB convention aren't effigy burning rabbles... they might ultimately come down to the same not "I'm right. You're wrong. I'd wish you change, but if you don't you are going to die and live in agony. Oh and God Loves You." Maybe that is his point.

But hey I guess you can tell, I'm not easily satisfied. And I'm not finished.

I forgot to add one bit about God on My Side. The absolute biggest cack up was an evangelical sculptor who tried to convince Denton that the sparkling on Denton's hands when he held them up to the light was not sweat, but a scientifically unidentifiable element that was shining undeniable proof of God's love for him. Someone had to have fed this guy this bullshit, noone can have enough intelligence to make that bullshit up and believe it. Denton calmly mentioned that it might be sweat, but then couldn't help giggling as this poor guy pulled out the "Scientist have tested this shiny stuff" line...

*religion*andrew denton*god on my side*abc*sbs*documentary*american*evangelical*texas*national religious broadcasters*inanity*expose*dawkins*rove*australia*satire*serious*bible*fundamentalism*

There is No God - Part III

2007-05-21T23:00:00.000+10:00

I've dissed Dawkin's for being a poor presenter. I agree with the message and his points, I'm also not a fan of pussy-footing about the issue, so his direct approach that "It's time for rational people to speak up" is great. It's just in Root he comes across as arrogant and unprepared, I really like my snotty kid learning about Santa metaphor. No matter how right you are, and how wrong your opponent is, Meta:DICK still applies.

Then I brought in Denton as a comparison. While being a better and more entertaining documentary IMHO from Denton's honed personality and tact; it still lacks the firepower of Dawkins atheist enlightenment. It also isn't helped that Denton is still a bit hung up on respecting religion, as far as I'm concerned around 40,000 years enough to expire WP:AGF.

What's my solution? Well, T.I.N.G. is far from production ready (someone buy me Flash MX and we'll see about a pilot), so I don't have one. Sort of a hollow ending. Sorry... I'm only human.

Let's look at various videos that have been dying for their own video Friday in my bookmark list for a while:

Youtube/BBC 2: The Most Hated Family In America - Youtube appears to be removing this (it had the whole series up before, it's rethchingly sobering). These are the sorts of American fundamentalists that provide an appropriate contrast to radical Islam. The Westborough Baptist Church. Notice you can still point these bunch of mindless trollops as to the fundamental difference between Jesus message of Peace, and Mohammed's message of Love, Pastor Phelp's does not condone violence. You can also witness the irrationality to instantaneously oppose them by the American public, not because they hate gays, not because they are loathesome idiots, but because they dare side against America and her troops... *sigh* dogma vs dogma

Memri TV - Muslim kindergarten abuse - I saw this before I heard about Dawkin's comments that "Catholic child" should be irreprehensible as a concept, I have to wholeheartedly agree. This is a good contrast to the above documentary which notes how Phelps' ministry has brainwashed children into hate. Here I'll explain why I'm calling Islam "Mohammed's message of Love" - the dogmatic end of love for someone is doing anything for that person - including killing, whether it be animals, bystanders, yourself, or even the object of your affection. This is not a well thought out idea, so don't hang me on that statement. I've mentioned before that I taught Sunday School at a local church. Sometimes it makes me icky to think I was a part of this brainwashing machine.

Youtube: imrational - A pretty good explanation of what skepticism really is. Some skeptics (like the Australian skeptic society) should look at this. Being a true skeptic means skeptic of the sun rising up every morning. It even means being skeptic of skepticism. It's a slight cranial exploding to focus on, but its rational and reality. It's also a good kick in the balls to snide Tripplehorn.

And finally so you don't get upset about my three page bashing of Dawkins: Here's Dawkins in his new and improved Super Sayon form commenting on the poor plight of Athiests in America. Far better prepared for questioning, and able to express his points in a better manner. I guess writing a few books and a couple of world tours does stuff to improve your public discourse skills.

There may be no god but there is hope for the world yet.

Now I gonna use my magic time bending powers to put these posts in anachronistic order. BWAHAHAHA.

*religion*dawkins*denton*documentary*video*youtube*atheism*super sayon*violence*love*peace*subtle wikipedia references*bwahahaha*ting*islam*christianity*fundamentalism*rationality*america*brainwahing*children*abuse*framing*friday*dogma*tripplehorn*

Breaking not Broken

2007-05-14T23:16:00.000+10:00

Yeah. I'm taking a break.

I did my introductory speech (113 powerpoint slides in under 35 minutes, awesome) two weeks ago, went well, got some good feedback.

So let me have some fun with my new desk, hardrive and workspace.

Here's some vids to keep you amused:

Mash Ups with Sue Teller
Ken Tanaka meets Jonathan Smith
Cain in Azeroth (for die-hard Blizzard geeks)

Oh, If you have any quoll's blood let me know.

I'm Your Goddess

2007-05-08T20:42:00.000+10:00

Hooray. Sexual ambiguity.

At least I'm psychotic and wrathful... I guess that's why I got labelled female.

Which God or Goddess are you like? Your Result: Goddess Sekhemet You are Sekhemet. You are loving and caring, but when need be, you are fierce and protective. You love the color red and you are no vegetarian. Your feirce nature makes you somewhat like a rebel, but you like it that way. Congratulations!! You are Goddess!!
Goddess Bast
Budha
Satan
The Christian God
God Zeus
You are your own God or Goddess
Jesus
Which God or Goddess are you like? Make Your Own Quiz

This test does start of with a little into of crazy though:

There are people out there who dont know how much we resemble our creaters. [sic] They go on living thinking that we just came to be. Thats not the case. We are here yes, but the gods and Goddesses who made us, also put a little of themselves in us.

I think it's sad when someone sees something special in themselves, and then has to say "Oh, it must have come from somewhere else". I know being proud can be a sin, but I don't think that self respect should be.

2007-05-07T12:31:00.001+10:00

How evil are you?

I still don't get Asian bras

2007-05-01T23:07:00.000+10:00

No, this isn't a jab at Asian women being flat chested (not that there is anything wrong with that).

They just don't seem to be understanding the correct point of a bra.

I mentioned earlier the ad campaign encouraging push-up bras because it will make you the subject of unsolicited sexual harrassment...

...now we have a bra that turns into a bag.

First I think awesome! Mostly because there is a fairly hot airbrushed girl in red lingerie on the page.

Secondly it's environmentally friendly. Now, I'm not able to read a lot on that page (I'd show it to a Japanese girl I met, but I think I'm already freaking her out), but what little I can suggests it is being touted as an ecologically sound alternative to plastics like those green bags.

But is this really practical.

I don't wear bras, so i'd be happy if those females who do visit this site contribute to the discussion - I'm only a mysoginist on Wednesdays (that's 30 minutes away, so be quick) - but I'm sure when your shopping - while your bra might be at ... erm... hand... I don't think you are going to be able to just whisk it out at the register in front of the poor gawky check out boy to put your milk and eggs in. (Aren't you glad I didn't say meat and veg...)

It's a bit like building a Gundam. Sure it's cool. And yeah it will get the job done. But it's a little impractical and I can see some serious potential for mass collateral damage and mayhem to be caused.

It's called "Bra Ranger" so don't get upset about that analogy.

On that note I am going to sleep...

*bra*japanese*asia*flat chested*gundam*ecology*environmentally friendly*shopping*bag*check out*green*

It's not easy being green...

2007-05-01T22:59:00.000+10:00

Apparently it's excrutiatingly painful.

Warning, if like me you grew up on muppets, like me, you might not want to click on that link. With Miss Piggy gone, fame and fortune seems to have abandonned the merry marionette frog. He's turned to drugs and is turning tricks it seems. And has started up a myspace... well duh... emo is the new cool.

That aside, the satire and film clips are actually pretty satisfying. I don't think image of Kermit going down on Rowlf the Dog is going to leave my mind anytime soon.

*green*nirvana*satire*muppets*heroin*kermit*sad*emo*frog*myspace*

Discrimination! Think of the Children! Yarrr!

2007-05-01T13:27:00.000+10:00

I may not be believer, but I think Pastafarians should quickly band together to aid poor Stacy Snyder.

Stacy was denied her Teaching degree from Millersville University the day before her graduation, to have it replaced with a lowly English degree (not that there is anything wrong with that). The problem with her disqualification was that it was based solely upon a single MySpace profile photo that shows Stacy in a pirate's hat drinking out of a Mr Goodbar plastic cup with the caption "drunken pirate". The faculty stated the reason for the degree change was that she was encouraging underage drinking. Stacy is a 27 year old single Mum, she was 25 at the time the photo was taken, the legal drinking age in the States is 21.

OMG. Drunk. Pirates. In the classroom? It's the endoftehwoorld!!

This is ridiculous. Noone can really expect tecahers not to drink. That would be insane and socially irresponsible (think suicide figures, I'm half serious on that). Would it be any better if she wasn't in a pirate costume? That's just silly. I don't think "drunken fairy", "drunken police woman" or "drunken suburban moll" should really gain any preference over the others.

What I can't work out is what's more ridiculous about this - that they can't actually prove she is drunk or even consuming alcohol, because its an opaque chocolate bar sipper - or - that it's a freaking myspace profile picture, is the university cyberstalking its students?

This all transpired last year. Snyder is now suing the university for about $75,000 for ruining her lifelong dream. Good on her. Dr Jane S. Bray hopefully won't be Dean of Education for much longer - unless she manages to bring some more convincing proof of professional misconduct.

Oh. And Snyder studied to be a science teacher - the United States definitely needs more of them.

*pastafarian*pirates*drunk*photo*goodbar*myspace*stacy snyder*science*news*think of the children*law*university*education*discrimination*teacher*smoking gun*america*endoftehwoorld*

Just let me bite down as you kick my head into the gutter

2007-04-26T15:46:00.000+10:00

Big Brother has started again in Australia - and actually has small hopes of vindicating reality TV. They have not gone for throwing in various mix of subcultures into the house to watch it boil and explode, there are no over-the-top gay prima donnas, just a bunch of narcisstic guys, semi-hot average girls, one mormon, and a geek. They have instead gone for superior twist pulling psychological experimentation - with a hidden couple, a blast from the past and the insanity inducing White Room. Sure it's silly and superficial still, but I think it will at least be slightly more "real" and at least entertaining.

I've recently had a different experience with another Australian reality television show - Australian Idol.

In their attempt to liven up an old genre, Aus Idol had gone to various regional centres in attempt to get more, or perhaps, new chumps for those shows. With auditions being held at Rockhampton, I thought, "Hell Yeah! Good way to spend an afternoon". Although spending around six hours in cue until 10pm though sort of pulled some fun out of the experience.

Regardless, with an audition with a vocal coach, followed by one with producers and executive producer - and I was given a ticket to Brisbane. Now in hindsight it seems, this was probably as much based on my attire than my singing talent. You'd be surprised how many people think you are trying to make some sort of political statement when you wear a T-shirt saying "Bacon is a vegetable". It's stupid. It's supposed to be stupid. That makes it funny, or ironic, or something. Get over it.

Cut a long story short: I choked. I sucked. And I copped a lot of shit from three male judges (poor Marcia I think was left speechless at the tragedy). If I find a youtube version of it I'll put it up. I still don't know if it will air on television. I am sort of hoping not. I didn't really handle cameras and TV well when focus was on me. What little talent and ego I had just was not displayed that day.

The judges did appear to be out to get me from the start, with comments about my appearance, and then questions like: "You live with your mother?" "You have a lady (ladies?) (man?) (lady?) in your life?" "Do you have human body parts in your refridgerator?" can really be off putting. The comments after the performance were worse, but at least they were deserved, my performance truly sucked, and I'm not in denial about that.

The day was definitely not a great day. There wasn't too much positive energy in a bunch of just over 50 musical performers who all felt hot, tired and just wanted to get it over, and more importantly get in. I got to know the guys who came down from Rocky (about 6 of us, plus 1 from Cairns, 1 from Bundy, and a couple of people who had driven from palces closer to Brisbane just so they could audition earlier). I think 3 Rocky auditionees went through, to top 100 including Luke Churchill - a 17 year old guitar/vocals kid who just has it all. I will be very surprised if nothing comes out of this experience for him.

Other people who got through, a couple just seemed absolute narcissists. Which can just be a little too much, but I guess its part of the successful persona you need. But seriously saying the words, "Do you want me to do that again?", to a camera after you just put on a staged performance in a reality television program makes you a jerk who is asking for a glassing.

Andrew G is a champion. Definitely kept the atmosphere going when he was around. I was able to witness one very interesting John Mayer impression while waiting for judgement.

Another disappointing part of the day was that I didn't get a free day in Brisbane. I got a free airplane trip, and a day spent at the hotel. Luckily I knew K downstairs in the bar from highschool. She thought it was great, we had done musicals together. She's actually a Performing Arts graduate. She also scored me free lunch, drinks and snacks. Inside contacts rule (that's why we are using a pseudonym). It also meant I couldn't up with K's boyfriend, another friend from high school, Or another girl I know from Yeppoon diaspora.

So that's my fun Idol experience. Let's hope it doesn't get shared anymore.

*auditions*australian idol*failure*train wreck*brisbane*luke churchill*big brother*reality tv*winner*choke*narcissist*andrew g*john mayer*rude*zayzayem*bacon is a vegetable*

Love Hate Kitty Hello

2007-04-18T14:34:00.000+10:00

I'm never buying in store T-shirts again. And if I don't get a scholarship pay out soon, I won't be buying any new clothing soon.

But, seriously, everyone keeps asking me where I got my new set of T-shirts from. They certainly weren't cheap. But I've had them since before Christmas, so they are getting a bit old stick, plus, an unintended consequence of ordering during the pre-Christmas rush meant my order was slightly botched - in that I got far too many plain black T-shirts. Now, I'm emo enough to appreciate a health dose of Black T-shirts, but I have enough mood swings to require some colour too.

I wore "Jesus Helps Me Trick People" on Easter Saturday. I rock out.

When I do get my check, I'm tossing up whether to invest in new affiliates Dirty Microbe, or the ever imaginative Goats.

I was also after a "Back off man I'm a scientist" shirt, but it appears to be a movie quote, I can probably design my own without worrying about infringements. Though I think it would match good old Dr McNinja well (plus I want the new "Ninjas can't catch you" shirt).

Speaking of designing my own, I might switch from the continually stalling cafepress (I just can't log in, it freezes my Firefox and Safari) to Printfection, the home of the range I was actualy writing about.

Keeping it simple on the pseudo-rip-off design from home start up is "Goodbye Kitty" with uber-kawaii depictations of the demise of one of Japan's cutest exports. There is:

burnt at the stake
electric chair
BDSM
roadkill
milkshake
decapitation
hanging
crucifixion
stabbed
shot
eaten by a dog

No doubt the PETA is not going to be happy with this, though I'm not sure if fictional animals come under their domain, but then again PETA has been classified as "officially nuts" by several global organisations.

What's missing is a nice collage, a la the classic (banned? discontinued?) Many Deaths of Kenny South Park T-shirt.

*goodbye*hello kitty*japan*violence*kitten*death*peta*t-shirt*clothes*promotion*mcninja*diesel sweeties*online shopping*cafepress*printfection*affiliation*

Apocamon: Left Behind Left Behind?

2007-04-15T20:30:00.000+10:00

Revelations has too be one of the best (well, most entertaining) books of the Bible.

I remember good old days back in church reading it while trying to ignore "boring" sermons (hey, I was a kid).

It really is "revealing", in that it shows some of the really kookiness that Christians actually believe, or at least should believing, or ignoring in their own private pardox or whatnot. I remember finding Terry Pratchett's opinion, that John was on Magic Mushrooms at the time, absolutely hilarious.

Left Behind was a good, and well researched, fictional version of the Armageddon. But it lacked a certain realism. Call me suspicious, but I think the authors may have had a little bit of bias - and after seeing reports about the video game, they might not be quite right in the head either.

Eschatalogy is a fun hobby, and I also like マンガ style art. So when I stumbled onto APOCAMON: THE FINAL JUDGEMENT, I was over the moon. As a pokemon-armageddon hybrid might suggest, it has a small touch of dark humour. But it is deadly serious I think. It also has good sense of pathos and tragedy in there. Exactly what is the philosophy of a benevolent God sending a legion of demonic insects to reign pain down upon his most prized creation in attempt to sway them back into his favour.

I'm gonna show two screenshots to give a taste for you guys. First, a great caricature of the evil scientific establishment that fundamentalists oppose. I love the T.I.N.G exclamation.
Secondly, just a great subtle highlighting of some peculiar intrinsic contradictions that occur in a man-written religious text. (Both are from Episode Two).

I really wonder if there are any "impartial" bible translations floating around somewhere. I think it would be a good freethinker project, complete with footnotes to contradictions in text, or semi-contradictions, such as where the devil is referred to as "the morning star" and then later on so is Jesus of Nazereth.

APOCAMON is only on the fourth episode, with quite a few more to follow. I hope it keeps on going through.

*bible*armageddon*apocalypse*jesus*left behind*apocamon*pokemon*manga*ting*god*theology*eschatology*revelations*contradictions*sacrilicious*

Statcounter touts integrity

2007-04-15T20:12:00.000+10:00

Statcounter is utilising its new blog to tout itself as a standing pillar of integrity in the seedy world of online addons.

This is great, I'm not gonna bash it as being pretentious. They aren't naming other competitors that do allow the bad practice of allowing spyware installed into there code.

Spyware is probably the most disgusting legacy of the internet, even more so than spam mail. Spam mail is visible as a pain, spyware operates behind visual, its in the code. All that invisible little html, java, php and other script that beautifies everything internet.

Some spyware tries to hide itself behind something cute and fuzzy (literally). It's just not cool. Internet users shouldn't have to live in paranoia about what they surf.

*statcounter*bonzi buddy*internet*blogosphere*integrity*spyware*spam*not cool*