Atheist roadtrip, what up

Boyfriend and I would totally whip up an HEATHENMOBILE and drive over just to see Dawkins, but! Peter Singer! I dislike him! I am of the opinion that philosophers should not bleat on about animal ethics when they are not in an animal field and have rarely worked with them; I am also of the opinion that they should shut up before I headbutt them.

I love animals, I want to work with them all my life, I want to make positive changes for them. So imagine, if you will, how goofy a fourteen-year-old me must have been. Vegetarianism! Animal rights! Wanting to grow up so I could bust pigs out of battery conditions!

And even then, I threw Singer's book away and dismissed it as pure tripe. Derp.

I do not think I will go; I get my RDI of rage by reading the proscribed "we shouldn't kill kangaroos they are an icon it is bad!!' texts for uni. :T

( ANYWAY here are some photos of a scruffy python and an even scruffier boy )

The weather is absolutely delicious! Summer has breezed in, and the air is warn and airy, and full of the smell of mown grass and sunscreen. A quick whip-through the markets at lunch procured a bunch of wondrously fragrant mangos, freshly-made red bean buns, and some camel for tea. Work is slow and easy, my end-of-year assignment is ticking along nicely, and everything is just... nice!

The cherry on top: Valve are being big dorks again. Free surprise comics! In-character blog posts! And HALLOWEEN FUN



IF YOU DEFINE HALLOWEEN FUN AS "EVERY CHARACTER NOW DOES THE THRILLER DANCE". ALSO: "WHILE WEARING PAPER BAGS WITH SCARY FACES DRAWN ON".

AND I DO

The new temporary Halloween map is hilarious, and I cannot tell what is the best. Watching half your team run squeaking away from a ghost? Seeing a Spy gut a Scout to steal his candy swag, celebrating with an impromptu dance? I have never laughed harder at a FPS. Not even the one where you could run around as a gigantically bobble-headed Alan Cumming, slapping people to death.

RECIPE TIME. I like things that are hearty, solid, and can easily survive being thrown together by someone who has no respect for recipes or accurate measures. I also wanted to bake a lovely cheesecake. These things do not mix! OR DO THEY? ...YEAH, THEY TOTALLY DO.

( a thoroughly teutonic cheesecake (gluten-free/contains lactose/whinge about calories and I will smack you) )

Oh hey, I got a distinction for my Woma management plan. I think that means I should be able to buy tax-deductible pythons as study aids. The government seems to disagree.

On the fauna survey, a whole bunch of baits kept going missing without anything triggering the trap. We set up some movement-activated infrared cameras to catch the bandits in action, and I got the shots back today. Perhaps you would like to see?

( who took the peanut butter 'n oats 'n honey cookies from the elliott trap? (large photos) )

Although FPS games have a bad rep for being being full of jerks, I've never copped any sort of flak in TF2. Perhaps because I do not use mics! UNTIL YESTERDAY, WHEN I DID

Local S.Aussie server: PIPELINE PIPELINE PIPELINE
kaatsu: FUCK
kaatsu: HELLO THERE, AMERICAN SERVER WHICH IS NOT PLAYING PIPELINE
A rapid stream of incomprehensibly thickly-accented American: MURMBLE MURMBLE MURBLE KAATSU
kaatsu: YES?
Americans: MURMBLE
kaatsu: WHAT
Americans: MURMBLE
kaatsu: WHATTTTTT
Americans: MURMBLEEEEE
kaatsu:
kaatsu:
kaatsu:
kaatsu: perhaps going on mic will help me communicate better
kaatsu: TALK SLOWER I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOUR ACCENTS JEEZY CREEZY
Everybody, for like ten minutes straight: OH MY GOD AN AUSSIE A REAL ONE BE SNIPER BE SNIPER PLEASE SAY SOMETHING FUNNY PLEASE C'MON C'MON MATE MATE MATE


CUTEST HARASSMENT EVER :3c

Around Alex's last letter, it was just like -- ponk! Out fell my heart.

THOUGH I AM CONFUSED ON ONE POINT i.e. there was a thread on fandom secrets the other day where people were all "aww, I like to imagine that there was something between Alex and Jonathan!" &c, but I thought that was the whole point? That Alex loved Jonathan, and Jonathan kept writing horrible, bleak things, on the idea of not being able to love? I was not sure, as it was so lovely and heart-wrenching, I thought I must have just slash-goggled it, but it seemed that that was what was there? In any event, fix-it fic goes on my Yuletide wishlist. :<

What is up, ladies? I have spent the last week up a mountain, helping run a few hundred traps for fauna surveying! The next mountain over was all capped in snow, and deer and rabbits bounded through the forests as we walked. I have never used a sleeping bag before, let alone got up at 5am to check bat traps. It was an experience! A cold, uncomfortable, awkward experience!

THINGS I HAVE LEARNT:
-Antechinuses bite like motherfuckers
-The more irritated microbats get, the cuter they are. Snarling vampire mouths are adorable when they are one centimetre wide. :3
-Nothing spices up a morning expedition like being told by a ranger that he has set up dog traps somewhere within your transect zone
-Similarly, nothing makes for excitement and adventure like falling into blackberry bushes with no pants on. I now have the butt of a de Sade heroine.

Here are some pictures of the bush!

( yes. )

EXCITING.

Just to continue my accidental streak of posting about awesome Ukranian things, here is a movie I quite liked!



Since my tolerance for carefully eccentric twee indie bullshit (GOOD MORNING THERE, BRAID) is dangerously low nowadays, I was a bit wary. But it is quite lovely! Also: Hutz is pretty much a big gangly puppy, and I just want to squeeze him.



SUCH SQUEEZING I WISH FOR

Susan Boyle can eat a bowl of dicks

I mean

THIS IS REALLY GOOD, WHAT

Urrgh I was all packed and ready to head out the door to count bats up a mountain, but then realised that it is NEXT week. How do I skip a whole week. How. ANYWAY here are two albums I have been listening a lot to, please enjoy them!

Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta! (+ one Jewish-Ukrainian Freundschaft song, woo)
UKRANIAN GYPSY PUNK PARTY ROCK

THE BEST THING TO COME OUT OF UKRAINE BESIDES VARENYKY

AND EVEN THEN IT MIGHT BE A CLOSE THING

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar

ehhh it is Beirut, everyone knows. OHHH IIIII'M A FRENCH PEASANT, GONNA WORK UNTIL I DIIIIIE (BARUMPAPUMPUM)



( my tablet broke so have some low effort pencil scribbles, tf2 + naruto )

today I learnt a very interesting fact

here it is

FACT: Staffordshire Bull Terriers can go under the back wheels of vans and emerge with only a bit tongue to show for it.





aaaaaaahhhhh mother fuckkkk jeeeeessussssss aaaaaaaaagh

Nathan Explosion slipped his leash while walking past a main road. It was dark, he is black, and he immediately bolted for the other side. And immediately ran into an oncoming van. Dave ran on to the road, scooped him up, and ran for the local vets; I mostly stood there and trembled. The lady drove back and took me to the vets too.

Little bastard was fine. So fine that he walked home.

ksdjfskjd;fjk

The vet gave him painkillers for any bruising, and he is currently in my lap, stoned as a motherfucker.

kjdf;asjdf;jasd;fj!!!!!

Last year we were driving along when the car in front of us hit a bull terrier, and that one copped a full hit fine. Dave had a staffy as a kid who was hit with a VW, and in a trump of British engineering over German engineering, it did more damage to the car than vice versa.

The moral of this story is that staffies are clearly the best designed dog ever; also, complete and utter bastards sobbbb.

A LIST OF THINGS I PUT IN MY MOUTH IN JAPAN:

-Tanuki
-Viper
-Ostrich
-Wild boar
-Raw deer
-Whole raw baby firefly squids
-Bees
-Caramelised locusts
-Whale
-Pig organs
-Unfiltered sake

The whale was actually pretty bad! Sin should taste better, I think.

I AM BACK

WE HAD A GREAT TIME

NOW SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT IS HAPPENING IN CUANTA VIDA BECAUSE SERIOUSLY BAWWWWWW

We ate a tanuki. It tastes like ham.

ALSO: in trying to explain to a new friend our adventures in Okariba, the restaurant where the owner hunts down everything on the menu himself, Jing tried to say in Japanese `we ate bees, wild boar, deer, locusts, and tanuki, with our friend Koichiro'.

What she ended up saying was 'we ate bees, wild boar, deer, locusts, and tanuki, and our friend Koichiro'.

That poor man now has such a weird view of Australians.

Brb, taking jingdono to Japan for her birthday. It doesn't count as getting older if you're in another hemisphere!

Just finished a five thousand word species management plan on Woma pythons. Here is all you will ever need to know about Womas:



They are the goddamned goofiest looking things ever.


In other news: Translation Party!

GOM TV match for third place is tonight, ZvZ. I would have probably still been interested if the Zerg players hadn't consistently spent the last three weeks choking and going down in flames. :< Goddamnit, Effort.

Hello! I have not been very chatty lately, but here are some things I have been enjoying!

The Great Yokai War:
I was in the video store and found a DVD sporting this tagline: A kid-friendly adventure from the director of Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q. I had to see if it was as wildly inappropriate as that made it sound. Guess what? It is! God bless you, Takashi Miike, you terrifying mess of a person.

The movie starts with the hero, 10-year-old Tadashi. His parents have divorced, so he's moved to the country with his mum and his grandfather. He cries while on the phone to his big sister in Tokyo. His grandpa calls him by his dead uncle's name. "That summer," he narrates, riding his bike on a summery day, "I'd tell my first white lie, and fall in love for the first time." Twee music plays.

Then we cut to a screaming cow beating its head into a bloody pulp against a wall, giving birth to a horrible larval monster with a wizened human face. "There is going to be a great war!" the monster rattles, before dying. Its eyes burst, spilling blood down its face.

GREAT KID'S MOVIE THERE, MIIKE.

( It gets worse )

Shogun:
I assume that Toshiro Mifune is everywhere. I like to believe that as soon as someone writes a script involving A Jaded Yet Kind-Hearted Samurai Down On His Luck Saving Stupid Yet Earnest Young Men from Political Machinations, they look up and he is there, sword at hand and a twinkle in his eye. All the Kurosawa I've seen: Mifune. Kihachi Okamoto films? Mifune. Picked up a VHS TV-movie special about Musashi from the local mall, and guess who had the title role? Once I turned on the TV in Japan, and there he was. So when I saw an American samurai drama in the video store, I grabbed it, on the basis that surely here would be the rarest of beasts: a samurai movie without Toshiro Mifune.

It is about a British dude who is apparently the world's first lolcat, as he spends a long time wandering around going "Is this The Japans?" The Japanese boil alive one his his crewmates, who apparently only has a vague idea of what that entails, as he sort of gives a few lame grumbles then falls asleep in the pot. Toshiro Mifune shoes up and does a sailor jig.

KILL! aka Seven Samurai Hiding in a Hidden Fortress, Take THAT, Kurosawa:
The spiritual kinship between 1950's samurai films and spaghetti westerns continues to be the best thing ever. A farmer-turned-samurai and a samurai-turned-yakuza have an excellent adventure. There is so much joy and heart in films from this era, before I got into them I totally did not expect to laugh so much while watching black and white period dramas.

Mars Attacks!:
Boyfriend had not seen this. I discovered that trying to explain this movie makes it seem like a bizarre celebrity cheese dream.

THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN MARS ATTACKS (I refuse to spoilercut for movies that are old enough to steal a car):
-The main romantic subplot occurs between Pierce Brosnan's decapitated head and Sarah Jessica Parker, whose head has been sewn onto a small chihuahua
-Michael J Fox melts
-Jack Black actually plays someone other than Jack Black
-The creepy invading alien forces turn out to be massive trolls who delight in playing "we come in peace- not!", take giant deathrays for joyrides through nursing homes, spend their downtime reading porn, and laugh and shout "don't worry, we want to be friends!" as they storm Washington and set everything on fire
-Jack Nicholson plays Jack Nicholson. Twice.
-The movie ends with Tom Jones emerging, blinking, from the safety of underground caves. An eagle flies down to perch nobly on his shoulder, and deer come to rest by his feet. He promptly launches into It's Not Unusual.
-ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK

The Leningrad Cowboys Do America:
The single most deadpan movie in existence. I have never laughed so goddamn hard at nothing at all. I can't even explain it.

Fallout 3:
I've always wanted a post-apocalyptic corpse-looting simulator! I would rave about it, but for some reason, five hours in it just started crashing randomly. Apparently this is not uncommon, even on the console versions. Fuck you, Bethesda, fix your broken shit.

My dude: awesome. Every so often I'll search for fanart of him, only to remember the problem with character-creation games. His name is Jonas, which lead to some confusion when at your birthday your dad asks you to go downstairs and see Jonas. "Oh boy," I thought, "A clone of my very own?" But alas, no. Paternal disappointment right from the get-go? This game really is immersive!

Penumbra Overture:
A well-rated survival horror game? For five bucks? Sure!

A basic flaw in my logic: I am a gigantic wuss.

My progress was halted forever when my character saw a big spider.

Let's Play Sonic 2006: Dudes decide to play a terrible, terrible game all the way through in one sitting. And make no mistake, it is an absolutely awful game. The controls rarely work. They repeatedly get stuck in walls. Sonic glitches and breakdances off of a cliff. This is the most painful thing I've ever seen.

Let's Play Commander Keen 4: Listening to Raocow talk is like going on a magical journey. A magical French-Canadian journey.

Let's Play Kaizo Mario World: Watch everything that Psychedelic Eyeball is in. Thank me later.

Also this and this are awesome. THE END.

IT IS SUNDAY AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

WAIT NO YOU PROBABLY DON'T

Pro StarCraft tourney, what up

It has been my Sunday Thing for the last month. A nice ritual! Tonight is the semi-finals, with Jaedong vs Effort in ZvZ. For the uninitiated, this is Jaedong:



Yeeeeaaaaah


ALSO: boyfriend turned 24! We made bread. These things may not be related.

( because you are breadcrab zombie )

What is up with this warning brawl? People are cross about "having to go out of their ways" for people "too fragile for the internet"? Dudes. Dudes. It is nice to warn for erky shit, because not everyone wants to read your erky shit! Also: if you are a terrible person, warnings make it easier to find terrible things! so if you can write twenty thousand words about pop stars getting violated by medical implements, you can surely spare like a few extra to say "hello! this contains bad things.". The end.


IN OTHER NEWS:




I'm just sayin'.

Oh yeah, 24 hour comics-- the boy and I pulled an all-nighter at Casa du jingdono, though I threw in the towel at eight pages in and spent the rest of the night eating M&Ms and making fun of everyone as they slowly went mad. This is the best strategy, I think.

Please point your eyes towards Cryptopher Rabbit and the Case of the Confounding Corpse, Jing's entry, which involves murder mysteries, a certain mako-infused general, and sparkly :I vampires. If you sign in to the forums, you can read the boy's comic about Pig Pirates, too. (After uploading it, Photobucket deleted one of his pages for inappropriate content. This confused us, as his comic was PG-13. Apparently he'd drawn a hand so badly, Photobucket had thought it was a penis. That's... kind of impressive, really!)

I haven't really read many entries that weren't thrust at me over breakfast, but this one is bleee cuuute.