I stopped giving to the Salivation Army when they started discriminating against gays. I didn't realize that it goes much, much further than that.



I think I might just have to print out a bunch of these...

(via flamingnerd)



LJ has automatically set everyone's journal to moderate adult content, meaning that unless you change it yourself, you're missing stuff on your friendslist right now.



Go here: http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/ to change it.



(this post is 100% free of adult content.) :P

PHOENIX SHOW INFO



Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine are playing ONE CONCERT in PHOENIX, ARIZONA in January 2008, probably on Saturday January 26. But before we can book the show, we need to know how many people are coming so we know how big a venue to play at.



Please enter your email address in our ARIZONA CHEESE FANS list, and we'll let you know as soon as we confirm a show. Please tell your friends in the Grand Canyon State to visit http://arizona.richardcheese.com too!



PLEASE DON'T SIGN UP MORE THAN ONCE. WE NEED AN ACCURATE COUNT.



Sorry, we are only playing ONE show in Arizona this year...we invite our friends in Tucson, Flagstaff, Bisbee, and the rest of the state to please see us in Phoenix!



(reposted from lionaz - thanks, Kari.)

Blind Melon, "Change"



I don't feel the sun's coming out today

It's staying in... It's gonna find another way(yeah)

As I sit here in this misery

I don't think I'll ever know lord

See the sun from here



And oh as I fade away

They'll all look at me and say,

and they'll say,

"Hey, look at him I'll never live that way

But that's ok, they're just afraid to change



And when you feel life ain't worth living

You've got to stand up, and take a look around, then you look up way to the sky



And when your deepest thoughts are broken,

Keep on dreamin' boy, cus when you stop dreamin' it's time to die



And as we all play parts of tomorrow, oh no

Some ways we'll work, and other ways we'll play

But I know we can't all stay here forever

So I'm gonna write my words on the face of today....

until they'll paint it



And oh... As I fade away

They'll all look at me and say, and they'll say

"Hey look at him, and where he is these days"

When life is hard you have to change...

When life is hard you have to change

Nothing about any of these lyrics is in any way related to anything going on in my life, I have always just loved this song, and remembering it was a lovely shared moment in a lovely afternoon.



REM, "Find The River"



Hey now, little speedyhead,

the read on the speedmeter says

you have to go to task in the city

where people drown and people serve.

Don't be shy. Your just deserve

is only just light years to go.



Me, my thoughts are flower strewn

ocean storm, bayberry moon.

I have got to leave to find my way.

Watch the road and memorize

this life that pass before my eyes.

Nothing is going my way.



The ocean is the river's goal,

a need to leave the water knows

We're closer now than light years to go.



I have got to find the river,

bergamot and vetiver

run through my head and fall away.

Leave the road and memorize

this life that pass before my eyes.

Nothing is going my way.



There's no one left to take the lead,

but I tell you and you can see

we're closer now than light years to go.

Pick up here and chase the ride.

The river empties to the tide.

Fall into the ocean.



The river to the ocean goes,

a fortune for the undertow.

None of this is going my way.

There is nothing left to throw

of Ginger, lemon, indigo,

coriander stem and rose of hay.

Strength and courage overrides

the privileged and weary eyes

of river poet search naivete.

Pick up here and chase the ride.

The river empties to the tide.

All of this is coming your way

Mostly courtesy of thiswaste. Kind of cool to have a small contingent of European peeps on my flist, because they post at different times than other people do, so I usually always have something interesting on my list, no matter the time of day.

What Cronenberg Movie Are You?

You are: eXistenZ - You drown yourself so deeply in fantasy that ultimately you lose all rationality.

Take this quiz!





Quizilla | Join



| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Your Geek Profile:

Geekiness in Love: Highest Internet Geekiness: Highest Music Geekiness: Highest Movie Geekiness: High SciFi Geekiness: High Academic Geekiness: Moderate Fashion Geekiness: Low Gamer Geekiness: Low General Geekiness: None

You Are Mud Pie

You're the perfect combo of flavor and depth. You are overpowering and dominant - and that's what people like about you. You bring energy and a new direction to most interactions. People crave you in a serious way. You're that important to them. Those who like you give into their impulses. You don't represent reason. You represent pure temptation. People get addicted to you rather easily. You offer people a dark side that is very hard to resist.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

You Are a Fruitcake

People pretend you're sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!

What Holiday Food Are You?

You Were Naughty This Year

You Were 70% Naughty, 30% Nice You may not have been good this year... But you sure had a really good time. And nothing from Santa could top that!

Were You a Naughty Girl or Nice Girl this Year?

Guess what the top headline was on Black Friday for the Arizona Republic, the largest paper in the state? Was it hard news, something topical? No. It was, "Reading this? You could be out shopping!" I couldn't believe it. Forget the quasi-intellectual pursuit of reading your daily dose of right-skewed local news - GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE AND SPEND YOUR HARD-EARNED DOLLARS TO KEEP THE ECONOMY MOVING, YOU PATHETIC COGWHEELS! How completely fucked up is this culture that a product wants you to go out and buy other shit rather than actually use it? Well, I guess the AZRep already has your money if you had it delivered, but it makes me wonder if the street edition that's sold in the machines has the same above-the-fold headline. "Don't buy this paper and waste your time READING, GO BUY SHIT!"



I know, I know. It's so sterotypically hippie and leftist to be all "blah blah consumerist culture blah blah". But you know what? I don't care! BLAH BLAH CONSUMERIST CULTURE BLAH BLAH!!!! I HATE IT!



As mentioned before I'm up at my parents for the weekend after Thanksgiving. Which means I'm actually watching TV, something I almost never do at home. I promise you I'm not one of those insufferable people who sniff, "Oh, TV, I never watch that drivel." I'm just equal parts lazy and disheartened by my run-in with DirecTV and as such have not found a reliable television provider. After three years of no cable/satellite, I'm just used to not having it. Honestly, I watched it maybe three times the whole three months we had it. I do watch DVD's of TV programs and stuff that Brian downloads. Sandi's lent me her "L Word" sets. Last week David and I watched the first six episodes of "Weeds" in one sitting. And someday I'm gonna actually sit down and get hooked on "Lost" like everyone else, I'm sure. Great stuff, all of it. Nice thing about DVD's and downloads though? No commercials.



The commercials, my god the commercials. This is why I hate Christmas. A solid month (or more) of Christmas being shoved down your throat. We were watching one particular "romantic" commercial where a man casually dropped a diamond necklace in a woman's hand on the pretext of holding it, like some clandestine drug deal. My son was sneering at it and my mom started to be all like "oh, but it's kind of sweet" and I turned to my kid and said, "No, you're right, it's total crap, the diamond companies somewhere along the line convinced people that stupid shiny rocks equaled love, that guys who want to get married should give up two months salary, meanwhile they strangle the market, grossly overinflate the actual price of diamonds, damage the environment, and are guilty of human rights abuses against the peoples of Africa." Or something like that. I think his eyes glazed over at some point, and heaven help whatever girl he gets involved with someday...hopefully she'll be as big of a geek as I am.



Seriously though, I've always told every SO I've ever had - don't waste money on shiny rocks. If you're gonna drop some cash on me, get me computer or video equipment. I promise it will give me just as much of a warm and fuzzy feeling. I always thought diamonds were a crap gift anyway before I actually found out the story behind them, and that only reaffirmed my opinion in the entire thing. It sickens me - working class people suckered into saving up money to fill the pockets of huge corporations, wasting their money on "precious" stones which are anything but, or nouveau riche people with their conspicuous consumption. Have you ever tried to resell a diamond ring? I have. The gold in the ring is almost worth more than the goddamn diamond. I was lucky to get a third of what my ex paid for it.

I was a big fan of Black Cherry Vanilla Coke...David got me hooked on it at one point. I didn't like Vanilla Coke at first, but the black cherry with it worked for me, I guess. I liked the diet stuff, too.



Unfortunately, Coke discontinued making it this summer. :(



So now I'm up at my parent's house for Thanksgiving, and I just went to get some soda out of the pantry, and I grabbed for what I thought was a cherry Coke...which was pretty cool anyway because my mom usually just has diet or generic stuff. Come to find out it was actually Black Cherry Vanilla! I had completely forgotten that months ago I bought a case and accidentally left it at parent's house.



There's three cans left. I'm drinking one of them right now with lunch. Maybe I should sell the other two on eBay, LOL.

for laserhen and baerana especially



(via fee)







Kittens 'adopted' by pet rabbit



Six abandoned kittens have found an unexpected new mother figure - a pet rabbit. Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old kittens to her Aberdeen home.



The kittens seemed to think Summer the rabbit was their mother and began to climb all over her and try to feed from her.



Efforts will be made to find the four males and two females permanent homes in the coming weeks.



Melanie, 29, told the BBC Scotland news website: "The abandoned kittens were handed in when they were about three weeks old and I took them home.



"Summer the rabbit was taken inside on Bonfire Night because of the fireworks and the kittens seemed to really like her and thought she was their mother."



She added: "They were trying to get milk from her and climbing over her. And Summer was not bothered by them at all.



"Summer is five months old and she's gigantic. It is lovely to see them all together.



"They are all doing well and Cats Protection will re-home them."

It's these little things, they can pull you under.

Live your life filled with joy and wonder.

I always knew this altogether thunder

Was lost in our little lives.



Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.



It's these little things, they can pull you under.

Live your life filled with joy and thunder.

Yeah, yeah we were altogether

Lost in our little lives.



Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.

Blogs are sort of like an addicting virus, I'm finding...you get on one and it leads you to others. I friended city_of_dis which lead me to friend theweaselking because he always has such interesting pictures and articles. That's now led me to friend tigrakotik because of the amazing pictures that theweaselking has been getting from him/her. tigrakotik is actually Russian, which means that I'll have to translate it if I want to know where they come from, but if you take a glance at that journal, you'll see it's worth it. I'm loving the addition of Russian LJ...it means that a lot of interesting stuff is filtering into the LJ "system", as it were.



Here are two recent sets that have knocked my socks off. (If you click on the pic, it will take you to the post where there are more pics.)





I ran the Russian text through Altavista Babelfish (I didn't realize they have a Russian translator now) and it says this is from a storm in the Black Sea, specifically in Crimea. This is the source; apparently the storm happened on November 11th. There are more amazing pictures at that link.



The below is the work of a German artist named Frank Melech. I now have this picture as my desktop. I love this stuff. I'm wondering if it's pure art (painting?) or if there is some manipulated photography involved. I guess I'm just wanting some of these places to actually exist. It kind of reminds me of some of the locations in the Coppola Dracula.

I'm an agnostic, not an atheist*, but this article, Athiests and Anger, comes pretty close to how I feel about religion. I'm angry about all of those things, too.



*I don't identify as an athiest per se, but I am definitely a non-theist if nothing else (non-theist being the broader category that encompasses atheism, agnosticism, and the like - kind of like how swingers and polyamorists are both nonmonogamists). I usually say agnostic, but I think a closer word would be something that indicated a lack of belief - in anything. Funny thing, Dogma is not one of my favorite Kevin Smith films, it was well-intentioned but deeply flawed - and yet one of the things he said really struck home with me, and that was to strive more to have ideas instead of beliefs. Ideas can always be changed, they leave room for growth and change. Beliefs seem to indicate to me that the thinking has stopped. I am somewhat fascinated by the idea of Ignosticism, which holds that the rational discussion of God isn't possible because no cogent explanation of God has so far been put forth - basically they claim that the very phrase "God exists" is itself meaningless.



I seem to be using the word "cogent" a lot lately for some reason.

Overweight people less likely to die



Porn doesn't cause rape



All the oversimplified news that's fit to print! (via wyldemusick and baerana respectively)

green eyes and lingering kisses

can't remember a time you didn't hold my hand

in the car

i didn't want to get up but

the drive was worth it

the road and the guessing game

you singing out of the corner of my eye

the music, your touch, your eyes

speaks better to me

than words ever could

(though I love you comes so much easier to you now)

almost three years later and

we still spin the same simple magic



Tom Waits, "OL' 55"



Well my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splickly out to my old '55

As I drove away slowly, feeling so holy, God knows, I was feeling alive.



Now the sun's coming up, I'm riding with Lady Luck, freeway cars and trucks,

Stars beginning to fade, and I lead the parade

Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer,

Oh, Lord, let me tell you that the feeling's getting stronger.



And it's six in the morning, gave me no warning; I had to be on my way.

Well there's trucks all a-passing me, and the lights are all flashing,

I'm on my way home from your place.



And now the sun's coming up, I'm riding with Lady Luck, freeway cars and trucks,

Stars beginning to fade, and I lead the parade

Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer,

Oh, Lord, let me tell you that the feeling's getting stronger.



And my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splickly out to my old '55

As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy, God knows, I was feeling alive.



Now the sun's coming up, I'm riding with Lady Luck,

Freeway cars and trucks, freeway cars and trucks, freeway cars and trucks...

On (the day before) my birfday, LJ gave to meeeeeeeeeeee (us)



COMMENT EDITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!



YAY!

Found this on YouTube the other day. I was introduced to Nik Kershaw when I was 13 or 14 by one of our babysitters (who was only a couple of years older than me) who had Human Racing on vinyl. (Funny how babysitters are good for that. We had another babysitter who turned us on to MTV before we had cable - she had tapes of it that she lent us.) I spent years tracking down a tape of Human Racing (this was before the internets) which I promptly wore out. I should really get it on CD or something.



I never even knew there was a video. Some pretty awesome chromakey effects on the suit, dude. I was always so annoyed that the version that's on the Pretty in Pink is a cover. 20 years later I'm still wondering why they didn't just use the original.



Amazing how the same music, more than twenty years later, makes you feel the same things. That beginning guitar, that buildup of tension in the middle that explodes into the keyboard slide and then the electric guitar solo...oh yeah baby. You know you love it. Yup, it's cheesy 80's synthesizer rock. But I'm all about that, I mean I also loved me some New Order, Depeche Mode, the The, Scritti Politti, etc. I'm totally happy that bands like Ima Robot, Modest Mouse, The Killers and She Wants Revenge are bringing New Wave back.



What's really sweet as well is all the comments on the YouTube page from people going "wow, that reminds me of when I was a kid, I miss the 80's, wish I could be 15 again, things were so much simpler then".

I'm so fascinated by steampunk style. There was a lot of it at Burning Man the last couple of years, like the Neverwas Haul and the Steampunk Treehouse. I've always had a thing for Victorian style and things like the Time Machine, even the shitty recent remake (it was fun in a cheesy way). I wish I had one iota of mechanical ability.



Here's something I saw on intrepid_reason's journal:







Here's a picture of the NeverWas Haul. (Click for more pictures.) This is an art car, a steam-powered mobile Victorian home on wheels. I saw her the last couple of years at Burning Man. Pictures don't even begin to do her justice.

You Are 29 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

From this excellent article that feng_huang showed to me...



Beware the Government that Rules By Fear

A government that uses fear as a tool to cling to power is an enemy to its own people. It will use fear to undermine the rights of the people and to aggrandize its power over them. It will promise to protect, and will claim that it will take rights and offer security in exchange. But this is a fool’s bargain. A people who will surrender their essential liberties for an illusory measure of security are not worthy of being free. The lesson of Guy Fawkes is this:



It is not the People who should fear the Government, but rather the Government which should fear the People.

Just something I found in a comment on a friend of a friend's page.





Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club











Yes, these next two really are real animal skulls.







EVEN MOAR!