Author Archives: sam

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Sam has been devious for years.

Science vs. Religion: The Moon

I live in Texas, I know these people are out there, surrounding me, just waiting for the chance to bash my atheistic brains in… But come on!

The Waco Tribune covered a guest lecture gig that Bill Nye the Science Guy did in Waco in 2006. He talked about life on Mars, Global Climate Change (Global Warming is an inaccurate term and gives fodder to idiots complaining of snow in Spring) and Energy Consumption.

But when he referenced a Bible verse and explained how the Moon reflects light and isn’t a source of light to listeners (mostly children) at McLennan Community College, they booed him. What the hell? Who knew there was a group of Flat Earthers living in Waco? Why haven’t they been stamped out like the stupidity-pestilence they are? The Tribune recently reposted the article on their site, so it’s starting to make the internet rounds. Check out this choice bit:

The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.

A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.

“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.

Nye is a geek’s geek. He made science fun for kids for years and let’s face it – he’s cooler than Mr. Wizard ever was.

Crazy Texas Laws

Because I’m a politics geek, and because I live in Texas, and because Texas has some weird-ass laws, here’s a list of some of the crazier ones. There are many many more out there.

Now, you need to remember that these aren’t enforced for the most part… BUT THEY CAN BE.

  • In Austin, it’s illegal to carry wire cutters.
  • In Dallas, it’s illegal to possess realistic dildos.
  • The Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home.
  • It is illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing in public.
  • In Galveston, it’s illegal to drive a car down Broadway before noon on Sundays.
  • Also in Galveston, any person who sits on a sidewalk may be fined up to $500.
  • In Mesquite, it’s illegal for children to have unusual haircuts.
  • In Temple, cattle thieves may be hanged on the spot.
  • You must acknowledge a supreme being before being able to hold public office.
  • In Kingsville, there is a law against two pigs having sex on the city’s airport property.
  • It’s illegal to curse in front of, or indecently expose oneself to, a corpse.
  • To have a valid ceremonial marriage, all you need is reasonable authority and at least one person acting in good faith.

It’s nice to see political mockery is alive and well in Texas.

It’s no secret that I dislike my governor. Rick Perry has been a horrible governor for Texas and just keeps getting worse. There were a couple of corruption stories about him, but they have faded into obscurity.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all seen him recently. He’s the douche bag who stood up at a San Antonio rally of proud Tea-Baggers and said Texas can and should secede from the Union. That asshat. Despite Texas Mythology converning our weird state laws and what our constitution does or doesn’t allow, the reality is that there is no provision allowing Texas to secede. The closest provision we’ve got is that Texas has the option of dividing into 5 seperate states. Which is an amusing thought, but will never happen.

Why is he doing this? Because he faces an impossible primary against U.S. Senator Hutchison, a moderate – for Texas – Republican who’s respected by the majority of the state. So Gov. Goodhair is running to the right. The FAAAAAR right. Into the waiting arms of the Republic of Texas crazies. Because in the Republican Primary, it’s usally the far right that participates – they aren’t crazy about Hutchison.

The image at the top of this post is a t-shirt that the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee has created to mock our endangered governor. Good job guys. Remind me to donate some cash.

Book vs. Movie: Let The Right One In.

Books that get adapted for the silver screen usually get a bum deal.

Books that are written based on a movie are even worse off.

Let’s look at how Let The Right One In faired.

I read John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel before I watched Tomas Alfredson’s movie. I do this with most the books that get adpated into movies because I usually prefer the book to the movie. The only movie I’ve enjoyed more than the book was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book was fantastic, but the movie was just enthralling on a level that the book couldn’t match.

Basic plot of Let The Right One In: a 12-year-old boy who gets picked on befriends an apparently 12-year-old vampire girl. Hijinks ensue. But in the slow, dramatic sort of way. No one throws a pie.

The Book: A slow paced horror. The translation was really odd in places, but I was able to look beyond that. The writing wasn’t very captivating but the story was interesting. The plot took place over about a month and brought in many groups of people who were bound together by random events. It was well done and all of it served to progress the plot.

The Movie: A slow paced confusing horror. The movie sort of assumed you had already read the book. They dropped many of the supporting characters or truncated their involvement in the main plot. The timeline of the movie was sped up to about a week and a half. There weren’t a lot of clues to be used to help you identify characters. The ending was the same as the book, which I really liked, but they cut out one of the largest points of conflict between the two children (ignoring the whole vampire thing) and only aluded to it with a bizzare vag-shot that made no sense without the context provided by the book.

So, Let The Right One In: better book than movie. Both were very good but very odd. Worth watching and reading, but I suggest picking one or the other and sticking with it.

(I’m told there’s a lot more dark humor in the subtitles for the theatrical release than made it into the DVD subtitles, but what are you going to do?)

WordPress RSS feeds are the devil

An hour ago, Mike mentioned wanting to link to a post on a FaceBook profile he’s about to create. The context of his question was such that it had nothing to do with where I took it. Mike wanted to know if anyone would be annoyed because the Basement is looking a little shabby at the moment.

But I ran with the question and began wondering if he could establish an RSS feed of the Basement that would auto-post to his FaceBook thingie when he made a post here on the basement with a specific tag. (I have no idea if FaceBook can do this, so whatever.)

Continue reading →

Let’s Tea-Bag, Baby!

He voted for Bush's massive expansion of the government twice.

He voted for Bush's massive expansion of the government twice.

Urban Dictionary defines Tea-Bagging as:

To dunk ones scrotum into the open mouth of another person
Usage: “Man, Brenda was all passed out with her mouth open and Billy tea-bagged her”
Tea-Bagging is also what the fake grass roots movement of the Far Right is calling their protest this tax day over President Obama’s administration. The protests scheduled around the country have been hyped by Fox News – which claims they aren’t promoting them – and they are expecting a massive turnout. The first pictures from these events are making their way onto the internet, and now we can all laugh at people wearing stupid hats like this douche while we’re stuck at work. I’m not going to cherry pick a bunch of photos for you all to look at, I’m too lazy. I’m sure you can find your own photos that’ll make you laugh your ass off.
The Tea-Baggers seem to have forgotten that they were Bush’s hardcore base who never stopped supporting him as he weakened an already crippled financial regulatory system and oversaw the largest government spending increase since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

I don't think she means "George W. Bush."

I don't think she means "George W. Bush."

The Tea-Baggers also don’t seem to realize that the adjustments to the tax code will LOWER taxes for the majority of the country while only raising them for a fraction of the population. And that 1% who will have their taxes raise will still be paying less than they have since the Regan administration. Another thing to remember: These nuts are protesting Bush’s taxes. The adjustments that President Obama has proposed won’t go into effect until next year.

Disney: Full of Laziness

Disney’s cartoons from the 70s were great. My favorite cartoon growing up was Robin Hood with the animal characters. I watched it until I wore out the tape. Then, a few years ago when I was all growed up, I got it on DVD.

Today, I found this gem through the Magic Of The Internets. It’s a composite of 5-6 different Disney cartoons where they had reused dances and fight scenes almost frame for frame in multiple movies.

From cinematical.com:

Did you ever notice some similarities beyond the love of princesses and their princes? Watching Disney over the years, they all seemed fairly diverse — Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood. But they all have some really recognizable things in common

You had best believe that it took someone with mind-boggling levels of cartoon geekery to catch this.

Update to Social Networking Bullshit

I remembered the analogy I wanted to make about MySpace.

MySpace is this generation’s version of Geocities. Just set the font color to red and background to black, slap a midi file of “Video Killed The Radio Star” up there, and let the mid-90s websites roll over you like waves of angst filled teenage memories.

Social Networking Sites Are Bullshit

There. I said it.

Oh, they were alright back when Tribes was good for getting laid and you could be emo before emo was a word on LiveJournal, but these days? Not so much. Sure, there are some out there that serve an actual purpose like LinkedIn, but for the most part? Bullshit.

But here’s the thing, social networking sites are one of the biggest things out there that promotes the mainstreaming of Geekitude. So here I am, a geek, looking for broader acceptance of my geekery, basicly biting the hand that feeds me. Why? Because you should all be ashamed of MySpace.

Here’s a look at the current big three in social networking:

MySpace. This is what hell would look like if the devil was a 14 year old with an obession with My Chemical Romance and taking pictures of themselves. Speaking of taking pictures of themselves… It’s MySpace’s fault that I now know who Miley Cyrus is. Do you think that idiot knew that it was just a matter of time before her self-pics that verge on child pornography ended up in the public domain? Who cares. I now have this crap in my brain and it’s all MySpace’s fault. MySpace is great if you want to make people look at animated gifs and listen to music that’s so overplayed, even pop radio stations won’t touch it any more. My little brother used to use MySpace to share music he created with the masses. Talking about that now embarrasses him horribly. I had a great analogy about MySpace being this generation’s {Blank}, but it completely slipped my mind. Sorry.

FaceBook. Remember that guy in highschool? The one who fucked with you all through your algebra class freshman year? Well, he’s 15 years older and the rosey glow of nostalgia makes him want to be your bestest friend ever and tell you all about his job as a sales associate at the local Ford dealership. Facebook might have started out as a way for real social groups to keep in contact online, but these days? Not so much. It’s now the Nostalgia Machine where all the people you made an effort to avoid after graduation can find you and tell you about their children. And here’s a dirty little secret you probably aren’t even telling yourself: If you had wanted to keep in touch with any of the hundreds of people on FaceBook desperate to make a connection with someone who also went to BFE High 17 years ago, you fucking would have done it. You wouldn’t have lost touch with those people in the first place. You would have made the effort to call them every couple of months, or send them an email. you wouldn’t need to have them remind you who they are and how you should know them. My girlfriend recently got a FaceBook account and she’s been telling me about all the asshats from high school who want to be friends with her now that everyone’s hormones have settled and the pecking order that seemed set in concrete back then as ben revealed as meaningless.

Twitter. 140 character microblog site. You can update as you go about your day, and check updates on other twitter account with your phone or whatever. The site’s ease of use promotes constant updating, and a lot of the accounts I’ve followed have at one point or another forgotten that there is no privacy on Twitter. Once you make your account public, everyone can see every post you’ve ever made. Sometimes that’s funny, but other times it’s just sad. Like the congressional Republicans bitch-tweeting during President Obama’s first speech before congress. Then there’s the TMI tweeting: “Just saw A Lot of Penis…” (This precious update was from earlier in the week on an account that’s being followed by someone else I follow.) Honestly, Twitter is the social networking site I have the least problem with. It’s only as “social” as you want it to be and you just need to remember that everyone can see the crap you choose to post about.

Confession time: I have a twitter account. And yeah, it occasionally brings me shame. I resisted getting an account on Twitter longer than your grandma did. Fear my herculian powers of resisting peer pressure. I got it for a journalism class last year and I kept it once I found I could use it to get all the reporting updates on local politics in one place. I’m too lazy to use RSS feeds, I suppose.

Continuing the Zombie Theme…

I just got home from running a table top role playing game where a group of people have to survive a zombie outbreak.

Currently, they’ve foolishly chosen to help others who were trapped in their homes when the zombies attacked, and now they have a group of 70 survivors they can’t feed or protect.

Bad things are gonna happen. And it’s gonna be great.

(But yeah. despite this post, if this turns into a role playing only discussion site, I’m going to have to set you all on fire.)