Defiance of trends

Using the formula of First Initial, First Syllable the following canadian prime ministers have good rapper names:

• J-Mac
• A-Mac
• C-Tup
• R-Bed
• J-Dief
• L-Pea
• P-Tru
• J-Turn
• B-Mul
• K-Cam

End of the Year lists can suck it!

A proposal (not sure on the degree of modesty)

Freshly flush with xmas cash, I began looking for deals on video games; including my fuel for my addiction to plastic instrument-based rhythm gaming. Looking at the most recent entries Band Hero and Lego Rock Band to realize that between both games there were about ten songs I liked and around one hundred songs of varying degrees of crap. As I pondered this I realized the same thing about the on-disc songs of the games I own (Sturgeon's Law triumphs again!), but that 90% of the songs I had bought as DLC were awesome.

So he's the proposal: next major iteration of each franchise (GH6, RB3) ships with the no songs on disc, you get the full game engine and all the modes, but no songs just credit to download 60-80 songs from the online store and all the songs you would have put on a disc launching as DLC on the same day, allowing the user base to pick and choose what they want, making everyone happy. Or at least make me happy, which is all that really matters.

One more thing...

As a follow-up to the last post, have (select one of the following):
Merry Christmas
Happy Hannukah
Krazy Kwanzaa
Tip-top Tet
Cool Yule
Superb Saturnalia
Awesome Afflux
Bodacious Bhodi Day
Egregious Emperor's Birthday
Lovely Life-day
Hopped-up HumanLight
Extreme Eid al-Adha
Festivus for the Rest of us
Groovy Global Orgasm Day
International Sweater Vestival
Non-Heinous Ninja Day
Majorly sweet Monkey Day
Righteous Regifting Day
Nice Nickanan Night
Cooky Cookie day
Happy New Year!

And all you Atheists out there can enjoy the weather!

An open letter

Dear conservative Christian types,

It the time of year you guys stop uppity about the lack of passages from Exodus in the constitution, and start getting annoyed with the phrase "Happy Holidays" and begin ranting about the increased secularization of this time of year, which used to be all yours. This is not an attempt to marginalize or insult you all (for real, seriously) it's mostly just decent people trying to avoid insulting all the non-christians as the western world becomes increasingly multi-cultural and more and more religions seem to pop up.

On the other hand, I can see how you'd be upset that one group is co-opting one of your biggest festivals of the year, isn't that right guys?
Irony is a bitch, isn't it?

Pulps vs Supers and Why Atomic Robo is the best comic in print.

Yes I was among the people who tweeted about Robo which lead to this article. But I'm not really talking about the article itself but one of the comments to it:

Dolphinandrew wrote:

Sounds good. But I don't really see how it doesn't fit the description "superhero comic".It sounds very superhero-y.

And based on the description given in the article I can understand his confusion, which brings to mind the fine distinction between pulp fiction and superhero fiction. Superhero stories, in broad terms, are about costumed, superpowered, individuals fighting crime incognito, while pulp is more broad including S&S fantasy, lovecraftian horror, noir detective, and over the top two fisted action. Sure, Robo is more resilient than the average human, but Indiana Jones got dragged behind a truck for a mile without so much as a bruise, and he can heft a Buick, but the stories in Atomic Robo aren't about his powers it's about crazy awesome adventures and larger than life situations.

While I'm on the subject I may as well review the first two volumes of the series. I could talk about clever dialogue, endearing and interesting characters, great layout,and art that reminds me of the best of Mike Mignola and Genndy Tartakovsky, but anyone who knows me knows when I recommend something I do so by listing all the Awesome shit that happens in it so lets roll with that.

Volume 1:

* Robo blows up an immortal Nazi occultist while dragging a squad Nazi infantry
* Hurling Buicks at giant ants
* Steam-powered pyramid with a solar powered death ray, staffed by mummies.
* Robo, stuck on mars for a year without anything to do for year spends his time using rocks to spell out "Stephen Hawking is a bastard" so large its visible from orbit
* Nazi cyborgs, lead by a cackling mad scientist
* Edison summons the ghost of Rasputin to discredit Tesla

Volume 2 (set mostly during WWII):

* Dieslepunk mecha
* Slavering, mad, genetically engineered super soldiers
* Train-top fight
* Incomprehensible Scottish commando kicking 17 kinds of ass while dragging a disassembled robo
* A freaking weather cannon
* Giant enemy crab
* 60 ft tall robot created by north koreans invading Seoul

Yeah, the comic runs on mad science and coolnees cranked to 11, and I can't wait for volume 3.

Tvtropes has ruined my life I waste altogether too much on that site. when i could be wasting my time watching cartoons or something. Also most of the tropes have crept into my regular vocabulary, making it awkward for anyone not familiar with the lingo.

Trends

Cruising through the fantasy section of of a bookstore the other day and noticed that a lot of urban fantasy/paranormal novel cover all seem to have one of the following two elements:

A Full Moon
A shot of a woman from behind
A tramp stamps to go with that shot
Woman looking over the shoulder
Bladed weaponry for no discernible reason.

What's the deal with that?

Soundtrack of my life

MY LIFE ACCORDING TO The Who:

Are you a male or female:
Dreaming from the Waist

Describe yourself:
Mike Post Theme

How do you feel:
Whiskey Man

Describe where you currently live:
The Good's Gone

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Run Run Run

Your favorite form of transportation:
Glittering Girl

I suppose I like to
Cousin Kevin

Thought for the Day:
It's Hard

Your closest friend?
I am the Sea

I think Sunrise sums them all up.

You and your friends are:
We Got A Hit

What's the weather like:
Fortune Teller

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Cooks Country

What is life to you:
Too much of Anything

Your relationship:
Christmas

What do think of when you think of love:
I've Had Enough

Your fear:
Odorono

What is the best advice you have to give:
I Can't Reach

How I would like to die:
Batman

My soul's present condition:
I'm One

My motto:
Baby Don't you do it.

Frat-Boy presents: Barbequeing with Booze

I thought I throw up a couple of easy recipes before bbq season ended. First up we have a nice little steak marinade. Sorry, guys no pics with this post.

Beer Beef Marinade
1 Tbsp Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Lemon Pepper
12 oz beer of your choice
1-2 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1. Combine ingredients in a shallow container
2. place steak in container, cover let sit for at least one hour before grilling

note: this recipe covers about 1 lb of meat.

Garlic, Herb and Whiskey Rub
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 oz whiskey of your choice (I use rye, but have experimented with using bourbon, both are awesome)
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
chili flakes to taste
1 dash Worcestershire (optional, though recommended for beef dishes)

1. stir all ingredients until it reaches a thick paste-like consistency
2. coat meat in rub, grill

this one also works great for beef roasts.

Thoughts on adaptations, fan reaction, and oh yeah new astro boy trailer

Whenever some nerdy property gets adapted to a new medium or remade there's a big stink about not being faithful to the original. Honestly, most of this is pretty stupid. It's adaptation not translation things get changed around for the sake of a new medium, and new interpretations can be very interesting. If you're so attached to the original just stick to that and ignore the what you don't like. This brings us to the trailer for the Astro Boy movie. Go watch it, it's short, I can wait.



All I can say is that they nailed the sleek retro-cool look for the films visuals, but otherwise I remain very skeptical. Astro Boy was mostly an allegory for prejudice with occasional examinations of what it means to use a robot to replace a person emotionally. This trailer seems to be about yoinking plot ideas from The Iron Giant and Short Circuit. Also, Nic Cage voice acting and machine gun butt, questionable.

Lost in Space...with Cheese

'Tis a dark dark for scientific endeavour and dairy products as the world's first successful attempt to put cheese in space has been lost after landing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1202755/Hard-cheddar-Pioneers-lose-cheese-space.html

I can't help but wonder that they lost it on purpose to gain more publicity. Also, the reward for finding the lost capsule is you get to eat the cheese that touched the face of god.

Frat-Boy Gourmet presents: Cooking with Booze! Vodka sauce

Here's a fun, tasty sauce that goes well with cheese tortellini or ravioli

• 1 cup vodka
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 pound bacon, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 medium-large tomatoes
  
• 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 Parmesan cheese
  

How to make.

• In a small bowl, combine vodka and red pepper flakes. Set aside for 1 hour.
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute bacon, garlic, parsley, basil, salt and pepper until bacon is evenly cooked. Pour in vodka mixture, and simmer 10 minutes. Crush tomatoes, and stir in with 2 cans of tomato sauce, and 1 (8 ounce) can water. Simmer 15 minutes. Stir in 1 cup heavy cream and cheese, and cook 2 minutes.

Schrodinger, Aquaman, and Fonzerelli.

Just a random sort musing about Aquaman. The DC comics character that everyone makes fun of, because he was really lame and useless on The Superfriends cartoon that supplies all pop culture knowledge of Aquaman, and really most of the Justice League. In the cartoon his primary abilities of talking to fish and swimming really fast are not especially relevant to any adventure the other land-based heroes would be having. This forced the show's writers to clumsly jam in some sort of marine disaster or a fish monster attack just so he would have something to do. Comlete and utter lameness, in summary.

If you talk to any DC comics reader (forgive my lack of knowledge I was Marvel reader in my youth); Aquaman, in his own books, is a total badass. He fight Lovecraftian eldrich abominations, he chopped off his own hand, he has crazy Conan the Barbarian style adventures under the sea, and does all sorts of cool shit.

But no one reads Aquaman comics, all anyone really knows about him comes from the pop culture references that mock his lameness. So we have a case where the observed charcter is uncool and the unobserved character is cool, resulting in somesort of state where is both cool and not cool at the same time: Schrodinger's coolness.




Yeah, I don't know where I was going with that either, but I figured I'd write it down.

Frat-Boy Gourmet: Chili-sagna

I hope I can turn this into an on going series of easy(ish), cheap dishes that will impress friends and confound the people who thought they taught you how to cook.

Chili-sagna (aka chili lasagna/Scott's twisted fusion cooking experiment #3)
The dish combines chili, guacamole, cheese and noodles in the style of an Italian favourite. Guaranteed to upset Nonas and Abuellas alike.

Chili

• 1lb Hamburger
• 1 Green pepper
• 3 jalapeno peppers
• 1 can tomatoes
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1Tbsp chili powder
• 1 can kidney beans
• garlic, black pepper, hot sauce to taste.

Brown and drain burger in large pot, dice peppers (FOR THE HATRED OF GODS ANCIENT AND TERRIBLE, DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYES), and all ingredients to pot, bring to boil then simmer for 30 min-1hr. the longer the better

Guacamole filling

• 3 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons salsa
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash garlic salt
• 1 dash onion powder

1. In a small bowl, mix together the avocados, sour cream, cream cheese and salsa. Blend to desired consistency.
2. In a small bowl mix the salt, pepper, garlic salt and onion powder. Stir into the avocado mixture.

Lasagna

• 500g lasagna noodles (not the oven ready kind)
• 1lb Monterrey Jack cheese.

1. grate cheese
2. prep noodles accordeing to box directions
3. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
4. spread 1/2 cup chili in the bottom of a 13x9 baking pan
5. layer noodles, scoop on a thin another layer of chili, cover with 1/3 cheese mix
6. layer noodles, cover with guacamole filling.
7. layer noodles, cover with chili and cheese
8. layer noodles, top in off with remaining chili and cheese
9. cover with aluminum foil
10. bake 30 min
11. uncover, back 15-20 min
12. let sit 10min before serving, unless impatient.

Share and enjoy.