The Vodka God

"You Drank My Battleship!"

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:05:40 GMT

ENIGMA – Battleship Drinking Game

Recorded Last Night

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:39:59 GMT

Glasgow Tunnel – from left to right: Q, Tim, Katy.

The last rehearsal before Saturday's gig was Thursday evening. When Katy, Tim, and Skanky arrived, I led them down into the woods. It was kind of cool walking down Main Street with my own band serenading me as I walked. Not quite as cool as if they'd been a personal mariachi band, but close. Note that two of them are carrying guitars, and the other is carrying a twelve pack of beer. Priorities!!

The reason why I led them down into the woods is that there's a clearing (right next to a park in which I've photographed Richard many times) with picnic tables and charcoal grills. Q was waiting down there, with food ready to eat. (She had two grills going, so Katy's veggie patties didn't have to share a cooking surface with the chicken and beef consumed by the rest of us.) The rehearsal moved indoors once it started getting dark.

The performance last night, on the fourth of July. Both the Metro and some of the roads in and through DC were quite a mess. I earned my nonexistent roadie pay last night, let me tell you. (Skanky was unable to make it, his thumb having lost an argument with the trunk of a car.) Originally, we were going to bring him to Rocky Horror after the gig, and stay there ourselves; but it was midnight when I finally got my car back to Artomatic and loaded up with amps, speakers, and instruments; so that obviously wasn't happening.

They may not have had a big audience (they were the last act before Artomatic closed for the night) but Richard made up for it by being an extremely cute one-boy mosh pit.

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:16:54 GMT

(Ganked from evilgrins.)

Sort-of Fic

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:14:46 GMT

Collected Paperwork, by phaetonschariot, is a collection of Torchwood sexual harassment incident reports.

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:43:13 GMT

Serious Geekage

My Onion Horoscope (Earth-Shattering Kaboom!)

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:38:44 GMT

Pisces Feb 19 - Mar 20
No matter what path you ultimately take, or what choices you ultimately make, this week will still end with you being shot out of a cannon.

I Just Made This

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:35:48 GMT

I Blame Those Extra-Dimensional Aliens For Screwing Everything Up

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:57:42 GMT

IsraelNN.com — Abuna Pauolos, Patriarch of The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was in Rome this week to meet with Pope Benedict XVI. While there, he told reporters that the time had come to reveal before the world the Holy Ark [of the Covenant]. He said that the holy container has been in the custody of his church for hundreds of years. Paulous said he would make the full announcement this Friday, June 26, 2 PM local time at a press conference in Rome. The claim that the Biblical Holy Ark has been kept at the Church, in the city of Axum, is an old one, but this is the first time that the Church plans to actually reveal the actual container, or news of it. It is not known whether the Church claims that the actual Tablets of the Law are inside it. …

If they have the Ark of the Covenant, then what the hell was that thing Indiana Jones found?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:45:45 GMT

(Ganked from devil's sidekick.)

Plugging My Wife's Tunnel

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:41:39 GMT

Remember Artomatic, the art show in Washington DC (running through July 5), from which I made several picture posts? Well, this weekend Q is going back there to volunteer some time working; and next weekend on the Fourth of July (which is a Saturday) at 9:30 PM, her band Glasgow Tunnel will be performing for about half an hour (DETAILS!) So, if you're in the area, check them out! I'll be there with Richard, explaining to him again why he can't eat the Peeps…

For Some of My Friends

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:42:14 GMT

The Jewish Zodiac

More Artomatic Pictures

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:08:29 GMT

Yesterday, while I was posting pictures from the trip I made to Artomatic on Saturday with Q and Richard, Q had gone back to Artomatic with Dawn and Skanky to take in even more of the sights (as well as to be a part of them)…

There was a tattoo parlor there (I think Q said it was on the second floor; we only hit the seventh and the eighth on Saturday) set up by Britishink, who had a TARDIS as the entrance to their (enclosed) studio at the art show. (And the inner door had "BAD WOLF" painted on it.) Naturally, Q had to pose for a few pictures here. She also talked to them for a while about pricing and such for tattoos we may be getting, and got their info.

This was one of the other cool exhibits that Dawn took pictures of (before I forget to mention it, all of these pictures were taken by Dawn). It's composed entirely of various toys and action figures, and there were a number of other works by the same artist in a similar vein.

Q is on a boat. I have no idea.

Nice knockers!

Again, I have no idea.

A bathroom done up in mosaic. Cool, but the ones Merana did in her showers are better.

I didn't take a picture of Nationals Park right next door, but Dawn did.

Skanky.

One of the reasons why Q wanted to go back Sunday was for the Zombie Prom on Sunday night. (It would have been too late for Richard to be up and out, plus he probably wouldn't have let himself be made up zombie-style, so he stayed home and spent Father's Day with Daddy.) We have a bunch of old, stained expendable jackets and Q used another one for this costume (and discarded it later, most likely along with the shirt and vest). They brought the clothes, make-up, and fake blood with them and zombied themselves up when the time was right. Apparently they were the best-looking (or worst-looking, since we're talking brain-eating shambling undead) zombies there, and everyone wanted pictures taken with them… so I'll wait a week and then google "artomatic zombies" to see if I can find more pictures people took of/with them.

More Peeps!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:24:40 GMT

The first three pictures are alternate shots of some of the Peeps Diorama Contest entries, taken by Dawn when she went to Artomatic on Sunday with Q and Skanky. I added those pictures to my folder because they provided a closer-up shot and/or a different angle from the pictures I took, revealing details that weren't as clear in my shots (but missing other details because of the narrow focus). I thought they complimented each other well.

The next two pictures are of Dawn and Skanky posing with the giant Peep on the bench. Note that they changed the position of the bench – on Saturday, the bench had its back to the windows, so the backlighting interfered with the photography. On Sunday, the bench was facing the window, so the light from outside was illuminating the subjects, not obscuring them.

The last picture was not a part of the Peeps Diorama Contest exhibit at all, but was part of another exhibit elsewhere in the building.

Kodachrome

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:57:04 GMT

Rochester, NY (AP) — Sorry, Paul Simon, Kodak is taking your Kodachrome away. The Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday it's retiring its most senior film because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age. The world's first commercially successful color film, immortalized in song by Simon, spent 74 years in Kodak's portfolio. It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and '60s but in recent years has nudged closer to obscurity: Sales of Kodachrome are now just a fraction of 1 percent of the company's total sales of still-picture films, and only one commercial lab in the world still processes it. Those numbers and the unique materials needed to make it convinced Kodak to call its most recent manufacturing run the last, said Mary Jane Hellyar, the outgoing president of Kodak's Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group. "Kodachrome is particularly difficult (to retire) because it really has become kind of an icon," Hellyar said. …

So if you go to the Kodachrome Basin State Park on vacation, bring a digital camera.

Think Our Banks Are Messed Up?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:48:08 GMT

MosNews.com — A financial company in Latvia is offering residents loans secured by nothing but their immortal soul. Riga-based firm, named Kontora, does not require credit history record or proof of employment. It grants loans of 50 to 500 Latvian lats ($100 to $1,000) to any adult after he or she signs the a very short agreement. According to the agreement, the only security required of the borrower is their immortal soul, which they are asked to confirm as their previously unmortgaged property. The loan is subject to one percent per day in interest until full repayment. The period of full repayment is 90 days, and in case the borrower fails to return the money, the creditor gets full possession of his soul.

I guess that's a good deal if you're an atheist; just walk in, sign the paper, take the money, and never look back. Then again, that depends a lot upon how the contract is worded – do they assume possession of your soul upon your death, or do they get to attempt an extraction of it immediately upon default? (I'm picturing a variation of the "Live Organ Donors" scene from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" here.) If they want to take immediate possession of your soul (after all, if you're still alive, then you're still using it) you may not survive the process.

Only $100 to $1,000? I'm sure the soul of, say, James Brown would be worth more than that. The man is the freaking Godfather of Soul, after all.

Last scenario: "Oops, due to a typo, we now own Seoul, Korea."

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:32:43 GMT

Captain Pike told me to post this…

Other Art

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:47:05 GMT

I put the Peeps into a post of their own since there were so many pictures of them, and because I knew they would be of interest to all of the Peeps fans I know. (I personally have never seen the appeal of Peeps.) However, I did take pictures of a few other things; and since Q went back there today with Dawn to meet up with Skanky, I will most likely have even more pictures later. (There will also be a few more involving Richard which will be, as per usual, friends-only.) Anyway, here they are:

This is me standing perfectly still in the action figures exhibit. I have been referred to as an action figure myself, due to my ability to remain immobile and be posed by other people.

Booze. Naked woman. What's not to like? (The alcohol bottles triggered my Booze Sense™ from a couple of displays away.)

A monkey for Jim.

Q caught this name out of the corner of her eye and thought very briefly that it was my sister Merana's name – except that my sister does far better work than this woman did.

This one's made out of postage stamps, which impressed Q because she also works very well with postage stamps.

Q noticed "Velocity Condos" out the window and pointed out that condos moving fast is most likely a bad thing. (We could also see, out the windows on another side of the building, the nearby Nationals Stadium where a baseball game was taking place. As if we cared.)

The ruby slippers also caught my attention, so I took this picture for Jeffie.

Click on this one if you want to blow it up to full size and read it. There were also seats (with "the homewrecker's" face on them) available for you to sit on while you read.

Peeps on Display

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:07:01 GMT

Yesterday, we went to Artomatic in Washington DC (running May 29 through July 5), and the best exhibits there by far were the Peeps Diorama Contest entries. I took pictures of almost all of them.

Here's more information about the contest, the third annual one, as sponsored by The Washgton Post.

If you don't recognize this one, it's based on a children's book called "Goodnight Moon." It's not one that I ever read as a child.

Steve Jobs presents the iPeep Nano.

One of my wife Q's favorites.

This one was the winner.

Because it's in black and white (except for the peep on the wing), I'm assuming that this is the original Twilight Zone series episode with William Shatner, not the movie version with John Lithgow.

The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Here's another shot I took of all the detail in the city behind the cathedral.

Thelma and Louise: Peeps on the Run

Peeptanamo Bay

This one's based on the DC Metro system (specifically, the Federal Triangle underground station). "Keep the Right" is the instruction to people on the escalators if they're just standing, to allow people who are walking to pass them on the left.

"Metro Meets the Needs of the Peeps Beyond the 24th Century." Also set in a Metro station (on the Green line), it features Peeps dressed in original series Star Trek uniforms. (I cannot tell whether or not this is also meant to be the version with William Shatner.)

Sweeney Tood, the Demon Barber of Peep Street.

This one is called "Sweet Revenge", and features Peeps making candy out of humans.

"A Very Special Passover."

They even had a giant Peep with whom you could pose for pictures. This is my son Richard.

(Crossposted to randompictures.)

Delta A Max Nine

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:35:17 GMT

(The actual video is here, but with embedding disabled.)

Dicegasm!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:57:42 GMT

As some of you know, I'm a dice freak/geek. So, when Q spotted Dicecapades, "the board game with over 100 dice", I just had to have it. (I haven't opened it yet, but the dice come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are marked with numbers, letters, colors, pictures, playing cards, and who knows what else.) Looks like I'm going to need some playtesters.

Lost in Translation

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:49:30 GMT

(Ganked from Zigamorph.)

Plugging My Wife

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:25:27 GMT

Q has written another Doctor Who crossover fanfic. This time he solves a murder with Adrian Monk.

"Weird Al" Releases New Single, Video

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:01:02 GMT

Thanks to aurienne for pointing me to this…

Speaking of Cars...

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:24:49 GMT

Remember the old Hanna-Barbera series "Wacky Races"? Well, some people drive those cars for real:

I'll Explain Later

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:12:24 GMT