The Illustrious Ya

FOUND! alien vending machines

Thu, 07 May 2009 20:42:41 GMT

TO MY MOST OUT OF THE WAY READERS: I have a request which no amount of Google can solve for me.
I know this alien suicide cult is real because I watched an A&E show about them. But I cannot find information about them on the internet. I will never ever forget what I watched. The cult believed that space aliens would come down to bring them up into the mothership. So they eventually all got together for their happy reunion (suicide), completely ready for their life in alien paradise. They put on matching light blue tracksuits, matching space-shoes (air jordans), and each cultist had a large bag of quarters to work the alien vending machines on the mothership. Because there was only that one catch to alien heaven, that you had to have quarters to work the vending machines on the alien ship to get your ambrosia and stuff. I actually don't remember if they succeeded in drinking their stasis-potions (special kool-aid), or if the police raided them before it was too late, but I know these people are real. Only I have no idea what their name is, and can't find information about them on the internet. If anyone here knows about the alien vending machine cult, PLEASE TELL ME.
DISREGARD THAT I SUCK AT SEARCHING; it was HEAVEN'S GATE
I was so sure that it wasn't heaven's gate that I ignored all the links that talked about Heaven's Gate. It was Heaven's Gate. Also, their track suits were black, and they only had a five dollar bill and three quarters.
Still. Alien vending machines, folks. And I may be messed up, but to me, the thought of sending an "away team" up to the aliens, complete with matching suits and shoes, and little armbands with their Heaven's Gate rainbow logo plus away team printed on them, all ready to go to the spaceship where they'll be in heaven arm and arm working with the happy aliens and buying things out of vending machines is just so CUTE to me. :3 Of course, they committed suicide systematically, which is not cool. :<

Oh, Heaven's Gate, you will always be the Alien Vending Machine Cult to me.

And also today, I watched If These Walls Could Talk 1&2. I believe 1 is superior. Although the subject of Lesbian rights (the subject of 2) is very important, the movie was alltogether too happy go lucky for me. I felt that the issue of abortion as dealt with in 1 was granted more timbre and sophistication. In 1, abortion was treated as a very serious life changing topic that had no right answer. In 2, lesbianism was treated as YAAAAY LESBIAAAANS! Oh, yeah, it's sometimes hard to be a lesbian when they deny us rights as next of kin or if we can't get our partners pregnant but YAAAAAY LESBIANS OTHER THAN THAT LESBIANS HAVE NO PROBLEMS EVER AND ARE PERFECT BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. Now, mind my words: lesbians are people. People come in good and bad. That includes lesbians. Considering that I was born a girl (damn shame) and like girls, I am sympathetic to the plight of the lesbian, but I don't think If these walls could talk 2 dealt with Lesbianism in a very well-rounded matter. Not all lesbians are nice or have good intentions, JUST LIKE ALL OTHER PEOPLE. I'd take Lesbianism more seriously in this movie is it was treated in the same adult manner as abortion was in the first film. It would have been nice to deal with things such as fake lesbians / daddy's-money lesbians, the pain of discovering one is a lesbian and that social ostracism, a lesbian caught in a loveless hetero marriage, the rising tide of lesbians marrying gays to put on appearances for their folks, and other such issues. Now the first segment of two, with the two old ladies being unable to care for each other when the one goes to the hospital (because her lover wasn't recognised as her next of kin) was the most effective, because it was the most adult and dealt with an issue that was both political, fixable, and relateable to non-lesbians. Also, I can see the likelihood of one house hosting three women who would have to deal with abortion in their lives, but srsly what is the likelihood of one house being occupied over time by not two, but eight lesbians over time, two couples of whom were in loving, long-term marriage-like relationships? SO in sum, I love lesbians, no srsly I do, but I think If these walls could talk 2 was an inferior film when compared to If These Walls Could Talk 1.
And you should all see If These Walls COuld Talk 1. It'll stick with you.

Che Conlangua's Orthography Trashbin

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:13:56 GMT

Is it too much for Che Conlangua to ask that you come up with some reasonably sane roman orthography for your conlang? Che has seen the best, he's seen the worst; he's created both good and bad orthographies in his time. As an avid conlanger and reader of others' conlangs (I'm addicted to reading passages of other peoples' conlangs aloud), Che Conlangua has an appreciation of conlangs. It is for this reason of love and fandom that Che is unhappy to start out this orthography trashbin with a critical analysis of one of conlanging's biggest columns: Teonaht.

Before we begin, a shout out to Arahu: nice use of umlaut for palletal-glides.

To introduce the subject of orthography, I will re-list Che Conlagua's arbitrary rules of conlang orthography:
1. DO NOT use punctuation to represent phonemes other than the glottal plosive.
2. DO TRY to hold to a one letter one phoneme standard.
3. DO NOT make up new letter forms.
4. TRY NOT TO use rare letter forms IF you want to publish your conlang in ASCII.
5. DO NOT use counter-intuitive letter forms and/or digraphs.

Teonaht breaks rule 5.
Although Teonaht is very good on all other counts, it insists on doing something quite counter-intuitive: placing the h before the sound it modifies. Th becomes ht, sh becomes hs. Why? To be different I guess. As well, it breaks its own rules. The fricatives regularly use h except for /j/ representing [Z]. Then in the affricatives, we have /c/ for [tS] but /dj/ for [dZ]. Why not follow the other letters and have /hz/ for [z] and /j/ for [dZ]? Then the orthography goes on to have /w/ for [w] but /u/ for [j], breaking all intuitive rules. Since /y/ is used for a vowel, it's understandable that it couldn't be used for [j], but why not follow a slew of other languages and use /i/? The answer to that is that after Teonaht's disastrous vowel system, /u/ is a leftover letter that can be used for [j]. But Che!!, you say, Che, does Teonaht just not have a [u] sound; why would it have /u/ left over. Well, the answer to that is that:
Teonaht breaks rule 4.
Teonaht has eight vowels. Being three more than the PALTRY selection of the roman alphabet, it is understandable that some improvisations have to be made. But teonaht makes almost all the wrong fixes. Teonaht spells [u] as /õ/, originally a sign in portugese for a nasal [u]. But since Teonaht [u] is not nasalised, and it could bloody well use /u/ for [u], it just leaves me sad and agitated. Teonaht very sensibly distinguishes [I] and [i] with /i/ and /y/ respectively, so props there. But it then decides to use û for the schwa. Why not follow the lead of Welsh (and the lead from other conlangs), and use y for a schwa? One could then SENSIBLY use /î/ for [i], since you could conceivably view it as a long [I]. Using û for [@] schwa is just baffling unles sone remembers that funny little English orthography trick where we can use /u/ for [@]. But since English is the only language that does this, û simply continues to be not only mystifying, but overdone for a schwa. Schwas tend to be lax vowels as opposed to vowels in their own right, and therefore it's nice to use a very small nondescript vowel for them. Adding a circumflex accent or ANY accent onto a vowel makes it stand out, and thus defeats the ninja agenda of the schwa.
I will give Teonaht points for the following things: it has the lateral fricative [K], which I should just marry at this rate, and it distinguishes four (sometimes five) liquids: [l] [r:] [r'] [4] and sometimes [R].

Klingon breaks rule 5.
It gets a pass on rule 1 because it uses the apostrophe for a glottal stop. And yet, and yet, Klingon does the doofiest thing imaginable: capitalization. If you thought it was using capitals to try to follow rule 2, look at its trigraph /tlh/ for by darling [K] when it could have used /L/ or /T/. It also uses /gh/ and /ng/ when it could use /G/ and /N/, so it doesn't even stick with its wonky system. And although /i/ does indeed represent [I], it is not contrastive with /i/ and [i] since [i] does not exist. And since /e/ is [E], why not write it /E/? Le sigh. I know that Klingon was constructed to be alien and unwieldy, but this is just ridicudonkulous.

Lojban is the reason rule 1 exists.
I could aim my hatred of apostrophe abuse at every single highschool fantasy authour who has "a language", but I'll abstain because they just don't know any better. Lojban should. For the language that strives to be logical, it dries me up the wall with illogical orthography. Lojban uses /'/ for [h]. Lojban does not use /h/. Why not use /h/ for [h]? IS IT THAT HARD? I know that /'/ serves a grammatical purpose, but it doesn't serve any less of a purpose if it is spelled /h/. And once you guys decide to spell [h] with an /h/, you can use /'/ for the glottal stop like everyone else instead of using a goddamn FULL STOP (period).

I shouldn't rag on Solresol, but I will. Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si : /D/ /R/ /M/ /F/ /S/ /L/ Si/. Why in the word not better distinguish sol and si? Since Sol and Si both start with s, this makes us write out /S/ and /Si/ when the dang language should just have seven letters. Perhaps using Ti for Si (which would let us use /T/) hadn't been invented yet in France at Solresol's conception, but the language could still use /I/ to stand for Si.

Wenedyk loses because it decided to use the Polish alphabet in its orthography. I have nothing against the Polish language, but fo srs, hooks? Remember the last time conlangs decided to borrow from Polish? Yeah, ESPERANTO. And look how that turned out:

I know that Esperanto is a very divisive thing. Some people love it, some people hate it. I would feel nothing for it if only certain things about it didn't just stick in my craw. For now I'll just extrapolate onto the most obvious craw-sticker: Esperanto orthography. Zamenhof decided to make up letters not found in any widely spoken language. The idea of one letter per phoneme is great. Really really excellent, rule 2. But Esperanto decided to adhere to rule 2 by breaking rule 3.
ĝ (g circumflex) is a letter which is only used in one natural language: Aleut. In aleut, it stands for [G] (reasonably). Esperanto uses it for [dZ] and thus breaks rule 4 and 5. When Zamenhof made Esp[eranto, there were no typewriters ANYWHERE that had a ĝ key.
ĉ (c circumflex) is a completely made up letter not used anywhere. FGSFDS. It stands for [tS] by the way.
ĥ (h circumflex) is a completely made up letter not used anywhere. It replaces [x], which is often written /x/, /ch/, /or /kh/. Even Zamenhof allowed /hh/ as a substitution. As a matter of fact, Zamenhof often use +h systems for his altered letters, and they work JUST FINE like that as digraphs, so why the hell not just stick to that system fo srs.
Look, I could keep on going, but there's no point. ESPERANTO IS BROKEN. There are plenty of people who have proposed good alternatives. I won't burden the net with another one but fo srs KJADHSAJKGEARAKRU,E. ARGLBLARGL.

SO, in conclusion, Kelen has my hearts. This was Che Conlangua, complaining a susual in order to revolutionise orthography. Viva!

Photoshop excess

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

For those who don't read J-rock humour, I present my latest post. Because I am proud of it and spent a while on it.

For those coming over here from there because they read about something concerning me and SONY: The story behind this post is obviously fake (as is the post itself). I don't work for SONY or with L'Arc. I'm just a poor jobless artist trying to find work and stave off my own inevitable misery with silly photoshopping. Please check out my webcomic.

Pounding PETA: a concerned citizen speaks out

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:26:45 GMT

Yeah, I know I'm late to this whole Sea Kittens debaucle, but after hearing about it, I could take no more. So I sent off the following message to Mr. David Eisenhauer of the U.S> Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm not a scientist, so I may have gotten a few specific words or particulars wrong, but I think that in general, this message counts and delivers the broad an important message well: fish are dumb, fish are healthy, fish are good for the economy. Presented below is the text of my letter. If you want to stop sea kitten abuse, aka letting this sea kitten thing run too far, please join me and compose a letter of your own. Yeah, don't just copy mine. They'll probably appreciate short e-mails better anyway. Anyway, on with the show, and may we all dine on delicious sea kittens soon, of we so wish to! Because that's what your diet should be: your choice. Vegan, vegetarian, or meat eater: it's YOUR CHOICE.

Dear Mr. Eisenhauer or the lucky intern reading this,

I understand that you are doubtless inundated with facetious e-mails sent by PETA fanatics. I understand you, or even one of your aides won't even read this particular e-mail. I am not a member of, nor am I associated with PETA. That is exactly why I would like to give you the facts about "sea kittens," or as normal people would say, the facts about fish.

The idiots who e-mail you about "sea kittens" are ignoring some big scientific facts. The first I would like to deal with is their claim that "sea kittens are just as intelligent as cats and dogs." This is incorrect, and in fact laughable. The fish referred to by PETA as "sea kittens" are, as far as I can tell, all members of the bony ray-finned fish family. They're all, to use a colloquial term, dumb as a bag of rocks. Cuttlefish, which aren't fish at all, are the smartest sea animals; some of them are actually as smart as apes. Octopi, closely related to cuttlefish, are also extremely intelligent. A trout? Not so much. To end this paragraph on a light note, I'll share with you one of the horrifying "bedtime stories" about "sea kittens," wherein a trout is attending school and university before he gets poisoned by mercury and then eaten. In a school. Like a human one. Underwater. Which fish totally have. Complete with those square graduation hats. I wish that I were making a flight of fancy like this up, or that it were relegated to a children's show like "Rainbow Fish." This is a good reminder of how out of touch with reality PETA can be.

Do fish feel pain? Fish have nerves like most other animals, and they can in fact feel pain. Interestingly, cuttlefish and octopi don't get nerve signals back from their limbs, so they don't hurt at all when they lose an arm. That's because they're not actually fish. But what does it mean that a fish feels pain? Is it the same as a human feeling pain, or a pet feeling pain? No. Dogs and cats dislike pain and will avoid painful situations because their brains are advanced enough to be able to evaluate situations and plan for the future. Humans are the same way, only in addition to being able to alter our behaviour to influence the future, we are also personally aware of our pain. That's what we call being "sentient." Humans are some of the few animals that are aware of our own selves as individuals and who can "think about thinking." It's powerful stuff! Stuff that cats, dogs, and especially fish don't have. A fish is no more aware of itself as a being than a worm. The only reason that a fish feels pain is the original reason that pain was evolved: to tell the tiny fish brain that something is not right. Pain is (to oversimplify) the body's way of telling the brain that there has been tissue damage. A fish can get this signal of pain, and it will know two things: part of its body has been damaged, it should probably leave the present situation and go hide. Fish aren't much more complicated than that. Fish are completely controlled by instinct and a very few learned behaviours. That's why they can all come together during spawning season, or know what foods to eat, or know what predators to hide from and how, or stay still while tiny fish or krill clean their teeth. It is all programmed into their brains from birth.

Fish aren't aware that a human is going to come and kill them and eat them. They may be aware that they are trapped in a net, but this awareness doesn't last very long and is the same as if they got trapped in some seaweed. They may be aware that they are hooked on a line, but this pain is the same as being bitten by a predator. They may be aware that they are currently flopping around on a hard dry surface, but as far as they know, they've washed up on a beach or unexpected island atoll. To sum it all up: fish don't care. Fish don't have the capacity to care. Fish stay alive for one reason alone: to make more baby fish. Because most if not all the fish which are caught at sea or farmed in a fishery are adult fish that have spawned, these fish have lived out happy productive lives from a fish's standpoint! Some fish even die after spawning, so what big loss is it to eat them then? After reproducing, a fish's reason for living is over. They don't have a game to go to, or an artwork to create. Being caught and eaten by a human hurries an already inevitable demise of starving to death in the open ocean or eaten alive by tiny predators. They aren't even aware that this is going to happen to them. Fish are dumb. Fish are tasty. As my next paragraph will state, not only are they dumb and tasty, they are good for the economy.

Octopi, cuttlefish, and bony ray-finned fish are all staples of local commerce and welfare, and also considered delicious. It would be against the interests of the United States to take away these jobs just because PETA wants to change the English language. I urge you to help support fisheries and local fishing companies, which are often the backbone of their local towns. If you are concerned about the welfare of fish, keep in mind that fisheries often don't keep fish any more "crowded" than they would normally be in the open ocean or in rivers, especially in breeding season. Fishermen and fish farmers certainly aren't out there with a pathological and intense hatred towards fish or a desire to inflict pain upon them. In fact, supporting fish farming operations is a very good environmental idea. Farming fish helps keep sea populations healthy. That's good not only for the Earth, but for the U.S. economy!

Not only are fish good for the economy, fish are very good for your health. Some of the longest living people in the world, centenarians all, live in a village in Japan on a diet of rice, fresh vegetables, and fish as their only meat. Fish is packed full of nutrients and protein: many fish have more protein than red meat! Fish are also full of Omega-3 fatty acids, which have many health benefits, including helping in blood circulation, arthritis, and (some promising studies say) even cancer! The helpful nutrients in fish really are "brain food" like they say on the news. Fish are also slimmer and more heart-healthy than the red meat consumed by most Americans.

I am allergic to most fish except tuna and catfish. You'd think the whole eat or don't eat fish... excuse me, "sea kittens"... fight wouldn't affect me. But actually, it does. Not only are fish used for meat, but they also produce oil. I am deathly allergic to rubber and latex, as are many Americans. I also suffer from chronic recurring styes in both my eyes. Yeah, I sound like an unhealthy person, but really I'm 22, I'm healthy, and I'm happy! And why? Fish oil. Fish oil helps calm rashes that I get from accidental minor rubber exposure. Fish oil helped make my last two styes go away, and they haven't come back. Fish oil, a product of the fishing industry, has helped make my life happier and healthier. If PETA got their way and banned the use of fish for meat or byproducts, I and many other Americans would probably be itching and in a lot of eye-pain right now. I'm glad that the fishing industry exists.

In summary: fish are dumb, fish are healthy, fish are good for the economy. Therefore I urge you to ignore the idiots sending you pitiful pleas from PETA. Please, help America kill sea kittens and eat their flesh.

Somewhat sophomorically yours,
Ya L.

MEME BACKLOG

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:12:48 GMT

Hey, guess what? I've been memetagged by my friend Tash in a big way! A BIIIIG way!
See her post here for more information.

Post a comment, and I will...

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favourite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must should post this in your LJ!

.oO|Oo.

Give me a fandom and I will name:

Favorite character:
Least favorite character:
Character with the best hair:
Character with the best eyes:
Character I'd most want to kiss:
Character I'd most likely shag:
Character I'd make lunch for:
Character I'd go singing in the rain with:
Character I'd go shopping with:
Character I'd go dancing with:
Character I'd take over the world with:
Character I most want to see more of:
Favorite het pairing:
Favorite slash pairing:

People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog and replace any question that they dislike with a new, original question.

.oO|Oo.

Make a list of 5 things you can see without getting up: hide plushie, spool of black thread, jelly beans, boken, comic roughs.

How do you style your hair?: Short, unintentionally messy due to lack of brushing.

What are you wearing now?: Korean patterned shirt (from korea) and black linen slacks. But only because all my black shirts are in the wash.

What's your occupation?: Unwillingly absent. Looking for one right now, and I'm wither disastrously over- or under-qualified.

Do you nap a lot?: Usually I am not a napper, but after my multiple surgeries, I've done so about five times. It's weird.

Who was the last person you hugged?: My grandmother! non-family: Shazzbaa

What's your current fandom/obsession/addiction?: Famiry. Those of you who know what that is should now feel sorry for that which is my brain. And yes, Lovecraft is still there. I'm moving out of House because the writers despise me, but Lie to Me is looking good so far. Edit from the future: Lie to Me is terrible.

What is a trait/habit that you associate with yourself?: Autographia of phonetic inventories in IPA or X-Sampa. (I write out lists and lists of the sounds in different languages, sometimes applying different historical sound changes ot the systems, often whenever I'm not drawing and have blank paper around.)

If unisex permed mullets were the be-all and end-all haircut of the near future, would you get one or risk social ostracization for not being as cool as those eighties hair dudes? Be honest, now!: Do you mean like, a Bowie or a Die mullet? They had some pretty nice mullets for a while. I could rock that.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?: Youtube, Fora.tv, Something Awful, various webcomics, craigslist and other job sites

What was the last thing you bought?: Three textbooks that I never even used that were 100 dollars each. What a regrettable waste.

What are you listening to right now?: BUCK-TICK "BRAN-NEW LOVER -CUSTOM-" (pasdfhdsh BRAN-new ahahahshdfsgfdyt)(but fo srs I love this remix, it's beautiful.)

What's the last song that got stuck in your head?: Mokubaryo "Jounetsu Siren -music theory folk remix-"

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?: Turn into a shoggoth at will. Interestingly, I would then gain quite a few powers. Including the power to make other projectile vomit!

What is your favorite weather, and why?: Late autumn, in that crisp, cool almost-winter time when it's really fun to walk back and forth on the roof.

If you could play any musical instrument, which one would you play?: I'd like to get better at the bass guitar.

How are you?: Not feeling particularly happy due to financial, job-security, and petty emotional issues.

What's something you'd like to say to someone right now?: I was a terrible, terrible teenager, and I am so sorry that I have not lived up to my duty as your child, for I was ungrateful and am now a burden.

Say something to the person who tagged you: Ilubb but you know that. Oh, and also: music, in theory. hide says hi. I just can't seem to keep him locked up no matter how many topless women are involved.

.oO|Oo.

1. Where did your LJ handle come from?: I used to call chibis or super-deformed characters that I drew "putti," after the Italian plural of "putto," meaning those little cherub man-children in renaissance and Roman art. I am also a big hide-plush collector. The two got put together in the most embarrassing and unprofessional name that I for some reason am also using for my e-mail in job applications.

2. What was the last movie you saw in the theater and at home?:
Theatre: Disney's "Enchanted"
Home: "Arsenie Lupin," a French film

3. What is making you happy right now?: Drawing new Kemet Kids pages, and frankly, you guys. You guys are keeping me from unhappiness. This isn't a guilt trip, it's honest love from me to you.

4. What are you currently reading?: "The Great Warming" by Brian Fagan.

5. Do you need music to study/write?: Most of the time, yes. If I don't have music to listen to, I'm always catching myself humming or singing to myself. In past jobs, I have actually kept quiet during work hours, so I am a good employee.

6. Who or what do you think about on a daily basis?: Friends and Famiry. Not so much my family.

7. What is the ugliest body part?: Genitals, both sexes'.

8. What TV show do you watch reruns of?: House, Hell's Kitchen, MST3K, MXC, and more usually as background noise when I'm not listening to a book or scientific lecture. That's right folks, I draw and learn at the same time!

9. What is your favourite movie genre?: I really do not know.

10. What is your favorite sport?: Badminton and tennis.

11. What is your favourite colour?: Violet and Black.

12. What's in your bag?: Laptop, pencils, eraser, sharpener (x-acto blade and regular), folder with paper, ID card, five dollars, Swiss Army Knife, trilobite fossil, handwritten letters from Susan, sometimes a hide plushie.

13. What's your favourite food?: Chinese chicken and peppers or crispy beef. I live by the best Chinese place in the entire DC metro area. Also, pomegranates.

14. Which languages do you wish you spoke?: Really, just Japanese. I don't have a lot of call for other languages that I'd use as much, so I'd forget them and the learning process would be pointless.

15. What is your biggest pet peeve?: To quote Tash: "Let's just go with tactlessness."

16. Do you have a birthmark?: No.

17. Which countries have you visited?: Morocco, Tanzania, Kenya, England (Scotland and Wales as well), France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey, China (and Hong-Kong), Mexico, San Lucia, the Bahamas, and Canada. (I'm sure I'm forgetting one.)

18. Where would you like your next holiday to be?: I can't even think about travelling right now.

19. What are you doing this evening?: Talking to Tash and Spike.

20. Tell me something you love about the person who tagged you: We met by... arranged marriage almost, and now, as in the best arranged marriages, I have grown to love her. Actually I loved her after our first night. We are Saku-bretheren, and SO MUCH MORE. Reading this meme, I realised how much more we have in common!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:01:15 GMT

Chef Ramsey: "So, let me get this straight." *points* "Sous Chef, Executive Chef, Sous Chef, Line Chef. You all just got beaten by a nanny, a short order cook from the Waffle House and a Pastry Chef! You aught to be ashamed!"

High Priest of Stardust: Disneyfied!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:15:21 GMT

I've been reading "Notre-Dame de Paris." I loves me some Victor Hugo. And I regret to admit that I'm turning into one of those creepy Frollo fans. He's a wonderfully complex, sympathetic, and tragic character. And Disney... uh... turned him into a Nazi (kill the gypsies!). Good going, guys. Okay, okay, Disney DID keep his sense of inner conflict, but they also jettisoned most of what made him sympathetic in the book. Disney also cut out his LOUT of a younger brother.
The most embarrassing part about my newly kindled love for Frollo is that he reminds of Sakura in the "good but strange guy, assured of his own virtue/coolness/alchemy, who gets tragically destroyed by his own pent-up misery which turns him to sin/drugs/alchemy" way. Not that my mental image of Frollo has long black hair and alabaster skin or anything. No, as Hugo clearly illustrated in lithograph in my picture-can-has edition, Frollo has SHORT black hair and alabaster skin, like 2002 Sakura. *crossarms* Only Frollo doesn't get a Zigzo, which is a shame.

So, I've been writing "The High Priest of Stardust" for a while now, and it hit me that if it got turned into a Disney Movie, something very similar would happen! They'd make a villain out of ~~Sakura~~ Sunflower, despite the fact that I was actually THIS close to making the book all about Sunflower as a tragic antihero! I stopped myself short of self-indulgence, although he-she-it still remains a somewhat Sue-y character. Also, a book all about a ~~shoggoth~~ black builder would be REALLY offputting to a human audience... or any audience for that matter. Hard to connect with, yanno?

So lessee... how would it all work out? And just how many musical numbers would there be?
Disney's "Xutswi Sen" is the story of a boy (haha no hermaphrodites here) who finds out that he is a space-bee. Along with his spunky friends, he tries to get back to space where he belongs, building a rocket. But the evil Black Builder and his corrupt policemen seek to keep him from lift-off so they can uhhh... eat him or something. In the novel, the bad guys (such as they could be called that) are actually trying to HELP Xutswi go into outerspace so that they can use him to awaken their super-powers. But that's way too complex for Disney.
So I guess Wakara gets turned into a girl... which would make him happy... because he has to be the main love interest. And Kat will definitely merge with Ffeef (xutswi's pet salawa) to become the cute talking animal sidekick. And Cute gets turned into a girl too so you can have a useless love triangle, and of course Teomi (cute's love interest) gets cut completely. Because all black builders are now Always Chaotic Evil. And Xutswi will get a personality replacement, because no Disney Hero is allowed to be a misanthropic (in that he hates/patronizes/eats humans), scholarly, somewhat socially inept programmer. Oh, and no other ~~mi-go~~ space-bees allowed; unlike in the book he can't have sex for species procreation yet still love Wakara. Maybe they'll turn Wakara into a late-blooming lady space-bee. And lastly, Nug and Nyarlathotep get complimentary brain-removal so that they can be bumbling villain henchmen. :/

Ya's Presidential Crack Team (also school is ovah)

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:01:25 GMT

First to get this out of the way: I have abdicated from the teaching program due to the staff being incompetent and the professors practically pushing me out through unfair grading of projects and essays into which I put my all. Also, they are ill-bred idiots who are either unaware of or actively spiteful toward British spelling.* FGSFDS, and it is over. Thassall.
*This statement does not apply to Dr. Thomas, who is intelligent, fair, and honourable.

Now for Ya's bi-annual "if I were president" post: "Ya's Presidential Crack Team"

1. Ron Paul, for better or for worse.
Now before you all go screaming "Aaaaah! Not Ron Pauuuul!! The libertarians are heeeere!" please note that my point is to represent views that are "out of the way," and otherwise underrepresented. Yes, Ron Paul has a bunch of bad and unrealistic ideas. So does everyone else, and I'd rather have fresh bad ideas than all the bad ideas of past administrations getting recycled again.

2. Shane Killian (youtube shanedk): financial advisor
Well spoken, has good progressive ideas, and actually versed in economics. Ron Paul lite? Maybe. Invaluable for being untarnished by the actual political process as well as being devoted unflinchingly to skepticism? Hell yeah!

3. Yoshiki in a dress: foreign relations advisor
Kept purely for entertainment purposes. Must contractually always wear either a dress or kimono, and a wig until his hair grows out. Wedding dresses for white tie occasions. Giggling encouraged. Also, to be practical, it'd be good to have an advisor who comes from a thoroughly foreign moral and cultural base. I'm serious about that dress thing; corsets will be good for his ailing back.

4. Nostalgia Chick: energy advisor
Face it, she's just as good or better than whoever's in charge now. Mostly I'm keeping her around in case I do something stupid so she can slap me.

5. 13Heathens and Red: official readers, public relations advisors
With their dulcet tones, they will read things to me and give press conferences. Also, they will be able to make sure that I don't say stupid things with their critical eye for hidden agendas ans bad grammar.

6. Mr. T: education advisor
Kids, stay in school. Be good to yo momma. Drink yo milk. And other platitudes and good street sense will be provided by Mr. T. Having grown up in a radically different environment compared to any of my other advisors, his input will be invaluable along with...

7. Bill Cosby: labor advisor
Surely, Bill Cosby knows about labor. Bill Cosby is full of wisdom, common sense, and dignity. Tell me he wouldn't be invaluable, I dare you.

8. a hide plushie: arts advisor
Advising me on all plushie matters and matters of cool.

9. Penn & Teller: bullshit advisors
Have you guys noticed how many "you're doing something stupid" advisors I'm getting? There's a reason: I do a lot of stupid things. Like the Yoshiki in a dress position.

10. a cat: senatorial advisor
Also a senator. A bit better than appointing a horse, and just as effective. When the cat refuses to eat dinner, it's time to cut, audit, or imprison another senator or congressman.

LET IT BE SO!

The Conlang Singer on YOUTUBE!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:20:46 GMT

Using my prodigious voice acting talents, I warp my manly man's voice to that of a little girl in my very first Youtube video! Introducing: The Conlang Singer.

If you'd like a song sung in any conlang, e-mail putti_plush@yahoo.com with the following:
1. A romanization (latin alphabet) of the lyrics, and directions on how to pronounce the romanization.
2. A link to a video or an mp3 of the song, just in case I don't know the tune.
3. OPTIONAL a midi version of the song to sing over and have in the background.
4. OPTIONAL any picture you'd like me to use in the video.

I've never done a youtube video before, so I hope this works. >.

EPIGENETICS ZOMG

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:20:53 GMT

EPIGENETICS ZOMG. Sorry to spam my journal, but, well, EPIGENETICS! Molecules turn on and off gene expression! Diet of the mother a direct factor! THIS IS AWESOMELY AMAZING.

www.armyofwomen.org

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:44:05 GMT

You all may be surprised that I have in fact joined

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You all may be surprised that I have in fact joined <ahref="www.armyofwomen.org">www.armyofwomen.org </a>. Why should such an upstanding man such as myself join the army of women?
1. BREAST CANCER SUCKS.
2. Even though I hate it, I have breasts and ovaries. ergo:
3. I can and shall use my female bits FOR SCIENCE. Finally, these sources of pain can potentially help others.
4. Seriously, breast cancer sucks. It is a leading cause of death and misery for women worldwide. I want to do something to help stop this.

If you also have breasts and/or ovaries, even if you're a guy like me, please join the <a href="www.armyofwomen.org">army of women</a>. It's for the good of humanity. It's for the good of science.

Project Implicit

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:45:02 GMT

really interesting tests! My scores so far:
moderate association of males with science and females with liberal arts
slight association of european americans as foreign and native americans as american

the one problem I have with these tests is the damn E I key thing, because the way that it's presented gets your brain used to certain associations and then breaks them. With me, it's not so much unconscious association with stereotypes as it is "DAMMIT THAT CHOICE USED TO BE ON THE OTHER SIDE DAMMIT."

Translation log: Paprika

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:21:44 GMT

vaidorazeta no fan (by hirasawa susumu)

luq otla no sola mi, mawarate ha no davaj no kamabuxi mi
kyo zei a kyo zei mi boku no koetlarate tao ba vuj o uubra
honou mi moe o penra duei siibsurate fan o tazira
yukihilo mi qiismeta lui sa na a sannai a mucut mi azacoura

kye a nemu ba vumeteta duei et qahar no koe a lialumeta
ikuzei tij ikuzei tij, lelu sen no tao o koetlameta tao
ofugou mi bitman zin a hiizetmeteta imi o gezoura
lougixi mi lougixi mi azabaiku no jun moele a dansera

aa, mantoru daicousetu mi honou o juurrate
abanzeta mi nuusrate luile o himuradei
aa, xizu tubeu, xizu tubeu, fan no viziibzeta ba
aa, sannai no kyoutou mi leu a qeirate matao

luq otla sora, xu mi japarmeta zei no moera luvura no kumo kei-el
kyo zei dei, kyo zei dei, kyo tao mi leqmeteta duei o vumeta
rururate no nemu yaoyora, fuur o tazirate tao o focra
kawagixi mi kawagixi mi, azabaiku no jun hii ha a vimeta

Paprika = amazing movie. Ending song = win.
Also FINALS DEAR SWEET SAKUHAI GUH.

I'm tiered of crying.

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:15:28 GMT

What's the point of living?

I've lived a good life. I was relatively successfull. I got all A's in college. I was happy. I'm not happy anymore, not since this stupid boondoggle of grad school. I pretend to be happy for other people, but I haven't been happy in months. One thing after another keeps happening, and I'm just not happy. What do I exist for? I'm trying to train to be a teacher, but all I get is a run-around. Stupid forms, stupid COMMUTES. STUPID ASSIGNMENTS. I don't care about this! I don't care about any of it! I want it all to stop!
I'm sych a loser. I can't do anything right. I can't get to class on time, I can't do my assignments right, I can't even try or pretend to care. I have reached the end of my ability. I can't even draw anymore. What's the point of having my stupid website? no one reads it. no one will read it because I am inept. It'll never become a cartoon, it'll never even sell, because I am inept and everything I do is worthless. I've just turned into a post-anime-shit-tard. I can't do anything on time anymore. Why should I even try?
I feel like I need people to walk me through things even though I try to be self sufficient. It's just that they keep changing the rules on me! They keep changing our class times, they keep changing our assignments, they keep changing when we have to show up places, I'M TIERED OF IT! I want it all over.
I have lived a very good life up to this point, why should I try for more? There's no point. I'm just going to fail. I think I need more Zoloft.
I have cried often. One week i cried every day. I am crying again. I can't keep this up, I can't cry anymore. I don't want to jump through hoops for these people. I'm broke, I'm miserable, and my room is a mess because I can't be bothered to arrange it. My internet is non-existant and I have to walk to the library to get any. I have brief moments of contentment watching nature. I have brief moments of contentment living in my own fantasy-land of thought. But these are becoming fewer, rarer. And every time I try to run away and tell myself to focus on my happy thoughts, the lingering gheist of "but there will still be all this work to do later" pops up, and I can't ignore it.
I hate the feeling that I can't handle this. I hate it. I like to be in control, on top, but I'm not any more. I'm not controlling my destiny, I'm jumping through hoops for the people who are controlling my life and trying to turn me into a test subject for their new program. Stop it! Teach me what I need to know! Help me pass my teacher's exams! THAT IS ALL I WANT. I want my certification! I don't care if I'm enriched, and I don't care for rubbing elbows and making your stupid program look good. I want to help children, not adults. That's why I started a children's comic, and that's why I want to be a teacher, because I want to improve this bleak future.
Unfortunately, the future just gets bleaker, and I hate it, and I hate myself. i don't want to do this any more. I'm a burden on others. I need other people to drive me, I need other people to pay for me, I need other people to help me run my life. What is the point of living as this gigantic burden?

I want to run a game next quarter. I like playing RPGs with my friends. Maybe it'll make me happy. It'll take up a lot of my time; do I even have the time? I just want to be happy and see other people happy.
I'm tiered of discussing my opinions with my class. My thoughts are NOT for sale, they are NOT for review. My motives and intentions are my own. My innermost thoughts are MY OWN, I am TIERED of having them dragged out of me for a grade. I'M TIERED OF ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOR THESE PEOPLE! NO.. YOU TELL ME WHAT THE ANSWER IS; YOU'RE THE TEACHER! You're not even using the Socratic Method, so shut up when you ask "Well what do you think about..." and "Well if you could what would you do in this situation?" I don't know. I have no way of knowing. I am not a teacher. THIS IS WHY I AM TAKING YOUR STUPID CLASS SO TELL ME THE ANSWERS.
SETH ET HOLTH! "Give us the answers! Somewhere in this world there must be the answers to all our questions." "Let the lights of this world die now."
"For life, for love, forever." That's what I feel like. I don't want to do this anymore. I can't stay free my misery any longer. Not even for the love of hide can I contain my tears and melancholy.
I want it all to be over with; I don't want to be a burden. I'm tiered of crying.

Flobots

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:08:41 GMT

I never listen to American radio on my own. My only exposure is either in a car or when I used to be able to hook up my false tooth to a transmitter, which I did for giggles. Since I've been carpooling a lot recently, I have been exposed to American radio more. Most of it does not please me. But this afternoon, coming back from my GACE Computer Skills exam, a song came on the radio which immediately peaked my interest. I thought "Zilch on American radio?" But no, it was Flobots (as the announcer identified). I immediately went online and I am in love.
Putti_Plush has been known to share with his readers better-than-the-usual rap. Here is another of my updates in this genre which is too often misrepresented. Yup folks, Flobots may be mostly white, but they are good rap. They have an actual message, they have musical complexity on top of vocal precision. And for my readers who know these things, the fact I could momentarily confuse them for Zilch is a very good thing.
ninjaedit: Also one of their members is a female violinist. Kick-ass points recieved.

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:09:18 GMT

Some days I believe hide's mind worked this way:
"
Can we add naked / scantily clad / suggestively clad girls to this?
Yes? Awesome.
Do it.
Can they be all up ons / groping me?
BETTAR.
And can I look like a woman, sort of, at the same time; well of course. My life rules.
And there will be alcohol involved somewhere or I'm not doing it.
...
Shit, I get away with so much shit. >:3
...
Okay, can we add just like, one more topless girl?
Yes?
*:)*
Awesome. "

Chimps versus Parrots

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:26:10 GMT

Parrots do anything; chimps get the credit.
Parrots do anything chimps can do too.

culture: check
use tools: check
copy others: check
use language: check
solve puzzles: check

So remind me, why are chimps so much better than parrots? Give those grey parrots some more time folks; you'll see what they can do. They are not hindered by emotionalism. Se puede, parrots, se puede! I for one welcome our avian masters.

Translation log: MUCC COVER

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:23:08 GMT

Mucc did a cover of the truly lovely song "tsubasa kudasai." Since I knew that name would get y'all to pay attention, I used it. The original artist is actually Hideaki Tokunaga.
Been a long time since a Translation log! I'm working on a case study right now, and yeah I've been dead lately, but that's because this master's degree is EATING MY LIFE. But as you all know, when the going gets tough, and the classes ask me to write boring reports, by idea of a break is a translation log. So here you go.

si ma tono coii a hounaxi nalba...
ot ourla no youni, houe'ii a hoxii.
kyono hadaka dou sa so o zuuhqe mi
kagayaki e'ii o cutra kudazayi.
kyo daiseu sola mi e'ii o eipanra.
koko ba habiraveudei.
ximianai ziyuu no sola ei feikuxi.
hatameqe e'ii no ij ikuraveu.

fandao mi vumeta nemu a revenra.
ma tij meim nemu mi boku o vumurade.
kyo daiseu sola mi e'ii o eipanra.
koko ba ikuraveudei.
ximianai ziyuu no sola ei feikuxi.
hatameqe e'ii no ij ikuraveu.

The song was originally in Japanese, now in Viisyal, and it's ridiculous how many cognates there are. For example a comparison of the first line of the verse and last line of the chorus:
Japanese: Ima watashi no negaigoto ga kanau naraba.
Viisyal: Si ma tono coii a hounaxi nalba.
Japanese: Tsubasa hatamekase yukitai.
Viisyal: Hatameqe e'ii no ij ikuraveu.
Cognates: ima/ma no/no ga/a naraba/nalba yuku/ikura

It was kind of weird translating this, since Viisyal is an Orla language, aka a language possessed by people who normally have wings. I had to write it from the (admittedly heartbreaking) perspective of a wingless Orla (and not a pregnant one either). References to wanting wings like a bird were changed to "wings like the other orlas." A few other minor changes were made to reflect this perspective.

Total cognates: ima/ma no/no ga/a hontou/hou naraba/nalba hoshii/hoxii no youni/no youni kono/kyono hadaka/hadaka dou/dou sole/so wo/o ni/mi kagayaki/kagayaki kudasai/kudara sola/sola he/ei koko/koko hatameku/hatamera yuku/ikura nemuri/nemu boku/boku dekiru/dekira
BECAUSE NO ONE WILL NOTICE.

Zsazsa Zaturnna

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:03:53 GMT

This is fantastic and I must have it.

Conservapedia fails. For new reasons.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:10:12 GMT

I shouldn't be posting about this. i have homework, and I want to get started on OMG AMAZIN NOVEL, but I HAD to check out the much lauded/derided Atheism page on Conservapedia. Here is my journey.

***A personal note here: I'm not an Atheist, but I actually highly respect my Atheist intellectual cousins. I am a Deist, and like Atheists, I believe in rationality over all things. Although an Atheist would not understand how I cling to the belief of any higher power, even when I define it as the universe or creator, a highly impersonal thing, we can pretty much all agree that rationalism is cool, arguing from first principles is da boss, and God/gods definitely do not exist as highly personal beings.***

BACK TO MY JOURNEY THROUGH CONSERVAPEDIA.

I went to conservapedia. The site is laggy, obviously has server trouble. This is worse than bulbapedia. Obviously they don't want to give any money or support to wikipedia and thus eschewed using their more stable servers. I located the atheism page. It is curiously extensive. It is longer than the page on King David, longer than the page on Cats, Arabic, and Egypt.

The Atheism page is as biased as promised. It starts out okay, but then slowly works its disingenuous claws in until Atheists are seen as analogous to Nazis. Remember folks: all atheists are godless heathens who run their lives without morals because they don't believe in God or the bible. OOGABOOGA. It's nothing I hadn't heard before, but yet I still felt insulted. It is very insulting to read "Because you don't believe in the God of the Bible, you are a moral-less monster commie/nazi." "Atheism and Morality" even has its own section! Also, the article keeps pushing and pushing about the "tenuousness" of Atheism, trying to say "These deluded people are standing on a very weak philosophical ground." It's insulting. Weak Atheism noes NOT mean the person is weak.
My favourite gem from the article:
"Currently, there is an ongoing debate on whether atheism was a causal factor for Friedrich Nietzsche's insanity or whether it was caused purely through disease."
Thanks to the rest of the article's bias, this statement pretty much IMPLIES that yes, Atheism was the cause. Also, I have never heard of this debate.

Disgusted, but yet amused, I decided to test out the rest of Conservapedia. I clicked on the link to King David (why is a link to King David in an article about Atheism?) and found the article to be short and badly written. I opened up a new window of conservapedia, and after a few tries, got to the page on Cat. MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED. Did some crazy cat lady have a go at this page? I honestly cannot fathom what the tulipcorobockles information about cats attacking dogs is doing on there, interspered with pure cat lady talk about cats' intelligence and being the... inspiration for vacuum cleaners? I should be impressed that these articles seem to be written from scratch, but actually I'm insulted that they couldn't go and copy a little from wikipedia (like SO MANY other sites do!) to make this article worthwhile! The cat article linked to the article on Egypt, so you KNOW where i'm going next...

The article on Egypt is a mess. I was particularly disappointed that it focused more on modern Egyptian history than ancient. The link to "Egyptian Chronology" cryptically states: "The chronology of ancient Egypt is the least settled of all the chronologies of the great powers of the ancient Near East." I scratched my head about this. For one thing... no, it's not. People are pretty darn certain about what happened in Egypt. Things can be carbon dated, dated by interactions with other cultures, traced by graphochronology, etc. Also... why does Chronology of Egypt even have its own article? That seems daft. It's like having a separate article about Chronology of Disney on Ice. The article seemed strangely LONG. Then I looked at the Table of Contents: Bible. Apparently there is such a large article and "controversy" about the Chronology of Egypt because what's written in the Bible about Egypt conflicts with what Archaeology tells us.

Folks, I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I do know a great deal about Ancient Egypt. Yes, there IS conflict between the Bible and Reality when it comes to Egypt. The Bible says (to condense) that Joseph brought the Jews in, and then Egypt enslaved them, and then Moses brought them out. History actually DOES support this a bit. In tombs and preserved private homes, the arrival of a bunch of Semites and their customs is recorded. You can tell that they are not Egyptians because of their paler skin, long hair, Jewish facial structure, bushy beards, and painstakingly rendered Semitic clothing. They all came into Egypt following (if the tombs lie not) a record flood of the Nile coupled with desertification elsewhere. Egypt was a great place to live at the time, and the arrival of large amounts of Nubians and Ethiopians was also recorded. I don't remember the date that these paintings are traced back to, but it's sometime around Joseph, giving at least the ARRIVAL of Jews into Egypt credence. The frescoes and carvings go on to detail Jewish circumcision (which was also practiced by many Egyptians prior to the Jews, female version too :( ...), certain celebratory rites, and the fact that after the Jews came in, they became working class or merchant families, and definitely not slaves. Jews worked in the mines, in the tanning beds, and in the textile industry. They basically had a Chinatown setup going, with no hard feelings apparent from the Egyptian artists. Then of course, the Jews all disappeared. Maybe Moses DID lead them out, who knows. Either way, the Jews were never slaves, or at least they were equally as enslaved as the other Egyptians.

The article goes on to state: "Yet the evidence supporting such a great age for the Egyptian state was highly dubious at best." Come again, pilgrim? Do those pyramids, and tombs, and extensive stonework cities and temples mean NOTHING to you? Do you think that was cheap? The idea that anyone would deny that Egypt was once a powerhouse is LUDICROUS. I'm not trying to be all pro-Egypt here, but HONESTLY. That's like taking a look at old Greek ruins and saying "Yeah but the Bible doesn't say anything about a great Greek civilization, so these must all be relatively recent, and the entire society wasn't all that great anyway." Superman says Slap-a-Jap, and I say Slap-a-Bitch! Again from the article: "Kings, or pharaohs, who dictated those inscriptions tended to 'spin' history to suit their memory." Yeah, and the Israelites were TOTALLY INNOCENT of this, right? Everyone does it. History is written by the victor. That's why everyone loves stupid Osiris.

Now on none of these pages did I find a good link to Egyptian Religion. You'd think conservapedia would be all over those heathens! I had to actually search for Osiris to get the Egyptian Mythology page. It actually started out well! "Egyptian Mythology includes all the religious beliefs practiced by ancient Egyptians. These beliefs greatly influenced the development of their culture, but was never a unified theological system. The Egyptian faith was based on a collection of ancient myths, nature worship, and a number of deities." That is surprisingly unbiased for conservapedia. Oh, but the pain was to come.
Green means correct, red means blatantly wrong.
"Anubis was the god of embalming and was often represented by a jackal or other dog, his brother is Horus." ...Where'd the sentence go? WHERE? COMMAS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY. Also, Horus is not Anubis' brother according to 90% of myths.
"Hemen is a falcon god." Hemen and the Masters of the Universe! Hemen and the Hermits! (Hemen was a very minor god only worshipped in hefat. Sort of a proto-horus from the Old Kingdom when Set was dominant. I can't give this green because really, what's Hemen doing in this short list of otherwise major gods?)
"Horus is a sun god who is often represented by the falcon, he said to have resurrected his dead father Osiris." NO! Nebet-het and Isis resurrected Osiris! Horus wasn't even born yet, that's the POINT. Isis had to get Osiris back to life in order to CONCEIVE Horus! Horus couldn't bring his father back to life when he wasn't even extant yet. Also: GRAMMAR!
"Imhotep was originally an historic figure but was later deified by the Egyptians into the god of medicine." Correct. A star for you.
"Isis is a goddess who is supposed to be the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus." Also correct, but I'm confused by the "supposed" part.
"Osiris is a god who was said to have been killed by his brother the god Set, only to be resurrected by his son Horus." HORUS DID NOT RESURRECT OSIRIS.
"Ra is the supreme manifestation of the Egyptian sun god of Heliopolis and one of the most important members of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. The Egyptians believed that each day the sun was re-born. In the morning after a bath and breakfast he took a journey across the sky in his heavenly boat and would spend an hour of each day inspecting each of his 12 provinces. When the sun went down in the evening Ra was believed to enter the underworld until the next morning. All night long Ra had to fight his enemy Apep the terrible cosmic serpent who lived in the underworld. Ra is usually depicted as a falcon wearing a sun disc on his head. The rulers of Ancient Egypt called themselves Pharaohs - literally "Sons of Ra" - as a means of establishing their divinity." So close, and yet so far. This is otherwise a very good entry. Honestly, very nice there. Until you try to play linguist!! Every Egyptologist worth his/her salt knows that Pharaoh means "Great House" or "Lord of the great house" and refers to the Pharaoh's luxurious dwelling. The pharaoh WAS considered and called the Son of Ra, what that is not what Pharaoh literally means. You fail Ancient Egyptian Language school.
"Set is the brother of Osiris and uncle of Horus, he is said to have killed Osiris, who was later resurrected by Horus, Set was then killed by Horus." AKCHURLY, in 90% of myths, Horus doesn't kill Set. That's the whole point: the adversary is always there. Set can't even kill Apep forever. The Contestings of Horus and Set have many different iterations. My favourite iteration, of course, is the one where Horus and Set become lovers and Horus turns Isis into a pig at the end so she'll leave him and his boyfriend alone. Folks, you only wish I was making that up. Horus and Set fight a lot in every single version, and in every version, Set takes out Horus' eye, and Horus gets one of Set's testicles. SO yeah, they start out enemies. But in many versions, they DO mellow out one way or another, and in all versions, Horus only wins the battle because his mother Isis cheats. Now before I start rambling more about my Set expertise...
"Thoth was an Egyptian god represented with the head of an ibis, who was supposed to make sure neither good nor bad had too much power over the other." And we end on a high note. Shout outs to my Thoth-Hermes friends!

I am THIS CLOSE to editing that page. IT NEEDS HELP. Funny to me is that the Cat article linked to the Egypt article because of Bastet, and yet Bastet isn't on their mythology list! For shame.

My last sojourn was into language. I clicked on the Arabic page. It was very short (two lines!), and mentioned it was related to Aramaic. So I go to Aramaic and BOOM bigger page. because Aramaic was the language of Jesus, natch. I then searched for English. Shorter than Aramaic, and relatively benign. but it linked to... Official English! A page about making English the official and single language of the United States! Because we hate those dirty Mexicans and their jibber jabber Spanish. (You guys know I'm being sarcastic, right?) Clikcing down to the languages category surprised me! Japanophiles are everywhere! There are plenty of articles on the Japanese language, a very large group matched only by biblical languages.

The end. I'm done with this. No more conservapedia; I feel my braincells dying.

Columbian Fairytales Combat Child Abuse

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:01:54 GMT

These are some pretty interesting ads. Not only do I love the art in them, a combination of collage, found object, and traditional cartooning illustration, but the message is very clear. I think we can all agree that children shouldn't have to be subjected to these horrors, so kudos to the Columbian Government for releasing these print ads to help stop these abuses. Worth a look.

Junjou House Romantica UPDATE

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:50:18 GMT

I was wrong. It was not Chase and House, for the real Chase had not yet arrived. So ep 10 on, it's all about professor Wilson getting a love interest. Yay! He deserves it, and I'm satisfied with how it worked out between professor House and student Foreman. I've decided to call that character Foreman because he's always running off. Okay, so these new episodes are centering around professor Wilson, and his love interest is... a blonde haired boy from Australia. THIS IS CHASE. Zomg it's UNCANNY.

For those scratching their heads: I'm talking about the anime Junjou Romantica, which is my guilty pleasure. I do NOT homosexually pair up actual House MD characters... except maybe Cuddy and Wheelchair woman.

At first episode nine squicked me out because it was professor House and writer Thirteen as kids, but they kept it clean and cute so yay. And the writer Thirteen x student Cameron story was cute.

And yes I still refuse to learn their Japanese names. I remember professor House is called Kamijo only because of Lareine.

Set's... a... Mary... Sue...??

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:56:34 GMT

"Your Mary Sue Score: 60
56-70 points: Über-Sue. You've got one hell of a Mary-Sue on your hands here, and it's not going to be easy to set things right. But do your best. There may be hope for you yet."

I... it's... it's not my fault, he's a GOD!!! I had to give him a lot of points because he's a god! All my main characters are gods though, so perhaps this is not so bad? Furthermore, he got some "Japanese points," but his mortal form IS a nisei. I somehow feel that's no excuse. But I had to admit I like him too much. Dammit, he can't be a MS, can he? Can I use the test's Morpheus clause here?

I'll do Osiris. Just to compare.
Your Mary Sue Score: 42
36-55 points: Mary-Sue. Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.

I'm pretty sure half of those points are due to his poetry. I checked all the boxes. Because that's how he rolls.

Website Alert!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:11:23 GMT

UPDATE: Bugs found my YNA fixed. If any of y'all find a bug, please let me know.

So yeah, I've been sitting around listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall Repeatedly lately, and being all absorbed in my work and all, but in between Sakura-themed Prog-Stoner-Rock and the BRUTAL Master's Degree in Teaching, I managed to get up my Website. Yeah bitches, that's right, Ya PG-rated is on the web and the world shall tremble before the might of my Egypt babies. kemet kids . com . Bookmark it, spread it, help me take over the world. Do it for Set's little booty dance sake, if nothing else! More Set is coming, I cannot stop him, He is enveloping the pages I draw RIGHT NOW. So if you like Sethide, this is totally good news for you. If you thought I could keep up the pretenses of Horus as the main character, you are deluded although entitled to the knowledge that I manage to keep up this effort/charade for the first 26 pages.

kemet kids . com waits for no man, but I still have obligations.
SUSAN: I owe you a letter, you are my STAR for writing to me; tyou have no idea how WONDERFUL it is to have your letters when I'm busy and feeling down. I think: "Yeah that's right, Susan writes to me. That is Kick Ass." I haven't forgotten our correspondance, I've just been bogged down with my master's degree.
My DA friends: SIMILAR EXCUSES.
Claire: Dudette, I'd give you stuff if only you'd talk to me. This whole ignoring my pleas concerning your well-being is a bit scary. Are you OK?
MNAYNA: You guys know I love you. I've been making it onto AIM a bit.
Natanya: I still think of you, think of you fondly. I honestly would have married you to give you citizenship.
Everyone else Re above: Long Story.

Loveya babes!

brain... melting... Creationism and the jröckerdämmerung

Tue, 27 May 2008 18:04:16 GMT

"I go to university and I don't understand why all my teachers keep teaching evolution as if it were a fact."

Hmmmmm Bekky, could it be that, oh I don't know, IT IS A FACT? Science is not about OPINION.

However, just like Bekky, I AM confused as to why a study of cultural norms is becoming a class on evolution. I would think that a class about "this is how the Inuit live; this is who the Ojibwe worship; this is the popular food of the native pilipino" would have little to do with evolution. I can very well study someone else's culture without caring about evolutionary theory. Now, it IS interesting to take into account population separation and small human mutations when studying culture. For instance: most Europeans and Africans have a gene for digesting cow milk, which is lacking in most Asians and Native Americans. Yay for advantageous mutations based on culture! (the populations in europe and africa gained the cow milk gene assumedly because they were keeping cows for their meat and milk; those who were lactose intolerant could not survive in these milk-drinking cultures) The way Bekky describes it, however, this is NOT what they're studying. Then again, Bekky could be lying.

Now she says that her course is supposed to "give an in-depth study of global human history." So I THINK I can see where Evolution is coming into her course: they might be starting at the beginning! And though Bekky opines that "it's supposedly an open-minded class that accepts everyone's beliefs," Science is SCIENCE and History is HISTORY. Bekky, I am quite sure they'll respect your Creationist beliefs! They will respect them as BELIEFS. They will give equal respect to the person who believes that the world was created by Ta'aroa breaking his cosmic egg shell and tearing himself to pieces. Of course, Ta'aroa's dismemberment and Yahweh/Elohim creating the world in seven days are both RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL BELIEFS. Neither of them is scientifically true. That doesn't make them any less valid in their original contexts though! It just means that your religion is not fact, it is FAITH. Yes Bekky, we WILL RESPECT YOUR BELIEFS. But just because you believe something doesn't make it TRUE.

I can believe all I want that hide is up in heaven amassing j-rockers with the most fabulous hair in preparation for the jröckerdämmerung, with Pata, Taiji, Heath and the Denryo as his undercover earthly agents, but that doesn't mean I can in any way prove this belief scientifically in order to deem it true within a reasonable limit. My jröckerdämmerung theory, just like the Creationism theory, is not a SCIENTIFIC THEORY.
Here's a CHART!

THEORY	Relativity	Creationism	Jröckerdämmerung
Makes testable ("falsifiable") predictions	Can predict the actions of large and/or fast-moving bodies.	Does not make any predictions; only describes what has already happened.	Makes an untestable prediction: hide will return with perfectly coiffed male valkyries.
Consistent with the theory that it replaces, or can explain why that theory worked so well	Does not contradict Newtonian mechanics as far as they are applicable (small and/or slow moving objects.)	Completely and totally contradicts Evolution, which would be the theory it replaces. Creationism is based on falsifying and degrading Evolution.	Consistent with the götterdämmerung in that the jröckerdämmerung is only the end of Yoshiki's reign in j-rock, not the end of the world.
Accurately describes our world; agrees with observed evidence	CHECK.	Creationist ideas actually contradict observed evidence, such as geological strata and the distance of stars.	Contradicts the observed evidence that people don't come back from the dead, nor do the dead select the living for their heavenly legions.
Passes Occam's Razor: makes as few assumptions as possible.	The whole point of relativity is to explain part of the universe as simply as possible.	Makes a whole book worth of assumptions such as God, Adam and Eve, and the Flood.	Makes many assumptions about untestable subjects such as the afterlife.

In sum: Relativity passes 4 of 4 Theory requirements. Creationism FAILS 4 of 4. The jröckerdämmerung passes 1 of 4; this makes the jröckerdämmerung technically more valid than Creationism. Awesome.