| Buffy vs. River? |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|11:35 pm] |
Joss Whedon recently received a lifetime achievement award in Cultural Humanism, and during the speech, he was asked who would win in a fight to the death; Buffy Summers of River Tam.
This is from the article on the speech;
"But perhaps the most important question of the evening was one of the earliest, as Whedon was asked who would win in a fight, Buffy Summers or River Tam? He admitted that this was the one question of the evening for which he wasn't prepared. He first sought to answer the question democratically, conducting an instant poll of the audience; the results were about a fifty-fifty split (my tenuous grasp of journalistic objectivity prevents me from revealing my vote on the matter). After buying sufficient time to consider the question, Whedon finally reasoned that, while Buffy is stronger, River's whole thing is being programmed to kill, so…He trailed off there, but I think that's a pretty clear vote for River. (What? I said my objectivity was tenuous.)"
My money is on River. No one ever fucking killed her. Like, seven god damn times. |
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| Prop. 8 to be..."Terminated"? |
[Nov. 10th, 2008|09:17 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
Here's hoping!
http://tinyurl.com/6crrya
From UPI.com
Calif. gov.: 'We will maybe undo' Prop 8
SACRAMENTO, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Sunday said "we will ... maybe undo" a measure passed by voters Tuesday stripping same-sex couples of the right to marry.
Proposition 8 amends the state constitution to declare that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It came in reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling that laws prohibiting same-sex marriage violated the state constitution.
In an appearance Sunday on CNN, Schwarzenegger said the state Supreme Court might overturn Proposition 8, the Los Angeles Times reported. He also said it is likely Proposition 8 will have no effect on the estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages already recorded in California.
"It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," Schwarzenegger told CNN. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."
The comments seem to represent a change in Schwarzenegger's thinking, the Times said. In the past he has said he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, but he has also said the matter should be decided by voters or the courts and he opposed Proposition 8.
He told backers of same-sex marriage they "should never give up."
"They should be on it and on it until they get it done," he said. |
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| What? No, I just got something in my eye..... |
[Nov. 8th, 2008|03:29 pm] |
From the Washington Post:
Butler who saw racial history being remade
FOR more than three decades Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines. During some of those years, harsh segregation laws lay upon the land.
Mr Allen trekked home every night, where his wife, Helene, kept him out of her kitchen.
At the White House, he worked closer to the dirty dishes than the large desk in the Oval Office. Mrs Allen didn't care; she just beamed with pride.
President Truman called him Gene, while President Ford liked to talk golf with him.
He saw eight presidential administrations come and go, often working six days a week. "I never missed a day of work," he says.
His is a story from the back pages of history. A figure in the tiniest of print; the man in the kitchen.
He was there while America's racial history was being remade: the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.
When he started at the White House in 1952, he couldn't even use the public restrooms when he ventured back to his native Virginia. "We had never had anything," Mr Allen, 89, recalls of black America at the time. "I was always hoping things would get better."
In its long history, the White House — just note the name — has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans.
"The history is not so uneven at the lower level, in the kitchen," says Ted Sorensen, who served as counsellor to President Kennedy. "In the kitchen, the folks have always been black. Even the folks at the door — black."
Mr Sorensen tried to address the matter of African-Americans in the White House, but in the end, there was only one black man who stayed on the executive staff at the Kennedy White House past the first year.
"There just weren't as many blacks as there should have been," says Mr Sorensen. "Sensitivities weren't what they should have been, or could have been."
In the mid-1950s invitations to the White House were still fraught with racial subtext. When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow pianist Hazel Scott to perform at Constitution Hall because of her race, many letters poured into the White House decrying the DAR's position. First lady Bess Truman was a member of the organisation, but made no effort to get the DAR to alter its policy.
The first black to hold a policy or political position in the White House was E. Frederick Morrow, a former public relations executive with CBS. Dwight Eisenhower's presidential campaign operatives were so impressed with Mr Morrow's diligent work during the 1952 campaign that they promised him a White House executive job if Ike were elected. Ike won, but Mr Morrow ended up being placed at the Department of Commerce. He felt slighted and appealed to Republican friends in New York to force the White House to make good on its promise.
Before he landed his job at the White House, Mr Allen worked as a waiter at a resort in Virginia, and then at a country club in Washington.
He and Helene, 86, are sitting in their living room. A cane rests across Helene's lap. Her voice is musical, in a Lena Horne kind of way. They met in Washington at a birthday party in 1942. He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked his down. They married a year later. In 1952, a lady told Mr Allen of a job opening in the White House. "I wasn't even looking for a job," he says. "I was happy where I was, but she told me to go on over there and meet with a guy by the name of Alonzo Fields."
Mr Fields was a maitre d', and he immediately liked Allen. He was offered a job as a "pantry man". He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $US2400 a year.
There was, in time, a promotion to butler. "Shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for," he says.
"I was there, honey," Helene reminds him. "In the back maybe. But I shook their hands, too." She's referring to White House holiday parties. They have one son, Charles, who works as an investigator with the State Department.
"President Ford's birthday and my birthday were on the same day," says Mr Allen. "He'd have a birthday party at the White House. Everybody would be there. And Mrs Ford would say, 'It's Gene's birthday, too.' "
And so they would sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.
"Jack Kennedy was very nice," he says. "And so was Mrs Kennedy."
He was in the White House kitchen the day JFK was slain. He got a personal invitation to the funeral, but volunteered for other duty: "Somebody had to be at the White House to serve everyone after they came from the funeral."
The whole family of President Jimmy Carter made Mrs Allen chuckle: "They were country. And I'm talking Lillian and Rosalynn both."
It comes out sounding like the highest compliment.
First lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming state dinner for then German chancellor Helmut Kohl. He told her he was well ahead in the planning and had already picked out the china. But she told him he would not be working that night.
"She said, 'You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.' I'm telling you! I believe I'm the only butler to get invited to a state dinner."
President Kennedy started with two African-Americans, Frank Reeves and Andrew Hatcher, in executive positions on his White House staff. Only Mr Hatcher, a deputy press secretary, remained after six months. Mr Reeves, who focused on civil rights matters, left in a reshuffle.
Lyndon Johnson devoted considerable energy and determination to civil rights legislation, even appointing the first African-American to the Supreme Court. But it did not translate to any appreciable number of black staff working for him.
Colin Powell would become the highest-ranking African-American of any White House to that point when he was named President Reagan's national security adviser in 1987. Condoleezza Rice would have that same position under President George W. Bush.
The butler remembers seeing Mr Powell and Dr Rice in the Oval Office. He was serving refreshments. He couldn't help notice that black people were moving closer to the centre of power, closer than he could ever have dreamed. He would tell Helene how proud it made him feel.
Mr Allen was promoted to maitre d' in 1980. He left the White House in 1986, after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a sweet note; Nancy Reagan hugged him.
Interviewed at their home last week, Mr and Mrs Allen speculated about what it would mean if a black man were elected president.
"It'd be really something," said Mr Allen.
"We're pretty much past the going-out stage," his wife said. "But you never know. If he gets in there, it'd sure be nice to go over there again."
Mr Allen has pictures of every president he served on a wall in his basement. There's a painting President Eisenhower gave him and a picture of President Ford opening birthday gifts, Mr Allen hovering nearby.
They talked about praying to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They would go vote together.
On Monday, Mrs Allen had a doctor's appointment. Mr Allen woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged his wife again. He was all alone. "I woke up and my wife didn't," he said later.
Some friends and family members rushed over. He wanted to make coffee. They had to shoo the butler out of the kitchen.
The lady he married 65 years ago will be buried today.
The butler cast his vote for Obama on Tuesday. He so missed telling his Helene about the black man bound for the Oval Office. |
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| Ren! |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|02:03 pm] |
I picked up a Monsterpocalypse starter today.
It looks freaking sweet. |
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| Just don't do it. |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|12:46 pm] |
The other day, I was in Cinema Secrets with Cate, buying some green makeup for her costume, and some stuff for the upcoming Alliance event for me. In the 20 minutes we were in the store, I saw no less than 4 people purchasing, or requesting various pieces of one of the lamest costume ideas I have heard this year.
The Joker.
People are are sinking a ton of money into these costumes, from a couple people I spoke to, over $300 on the suit alone. Congratulations, fucktard, you're going to stroll into a party in your three hundred dollar suit, and at least 10% of the douchebags at said party will also be wearing $300 dollar purple suits, sporting poorly done scar effects and horrible attempts at one of the best make up jobs of the year.
Please, just don't do it. Take your $300 suit, and just be a pimp or something.
Anyone I see this year wearing a Heath Ledger Joker costume will be asked the same question; "Are you supposed to be the sad clown version of the artist formerly known as Prince?" |
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| Wherein our hero's body begins a revolt, and a fatal stabbing is narrowly avoided. |
[Oct. 13th, 2008|10:16 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
I'm sick. It started with a sinus infection a couple weeks ago, and this past weekend, descended into a full blown ass kicking sickness.
Aleeve and Liquid Ibuprofen got me through the weekend, with some of my best performances of the year (I called my audience bitches for half hour, called one man Drunky McGee, covered up cleavage, and vigorously rubbed my nuts with three of the girls' skirts, and the audience fucking loved it.) I got more compliments on my performance this weekend than I ever have before. Antibiotics + Alcohol turns this monkey in to an offensive, insulting, performing MACHINE. I fear I will never be able to duplicate the proper mixture of perscription medication and liquor which helped me acheive such a state.
I hope someone got video, and that somewhere on youtube is a scene of me screaming at my audeice "I can see that you're not clapping, asshole!"
Onward to this morning...
You know the usual soreness after a weekend of high energy performances? Couple that with the added soreness of being sick, and no amount of over the counter drugs can help you. If I could, I'd go home right now, and crawl back into bed, and pray for the sweet release of death.
But I can't. My coworker is working from home today so she can go to a Dodger's game. If they win, I probably get cookies tomorrow. If they lose, I listen to mumbled swears all day tomorrow. Either way, tomorrow will be interesting.
But back to the near fatal stabbing that almost occurred this morning.
Right now, I'm heading aproject to get all of our decives (cell phones) profiled. This entails loading several programs onto the device, running them, and recording the info the programs spit out. To facilitate speed in this, I have created the white board of perpetual profiling.
This whiteboard, a 4' x 6' monstorsity, has been sectioned off into a grid, with 24 handsets listed on it, with a space to mark if a device is out. It is situated in my office in such a way that one HAS to see this board before they can see me. Next to the WBoPP is a basket full of devices, the very same devices that are listed on the WBoPP. This is so when someone has the time, all they must do is walk in, take a device from the basket, write their name down, and get to profiling.
Last Friday, one of the QA project leads came in around 11. I had just gotten in from a docotr's appointment, and had made sure to fill the basket and board so there would be plenty of work to be done before I got in. The lead walks in, looks at the board, which still has 20 handsets listed, ready to go, looks in the basket, then turns to me and says "So, are there any more phones to be profiled?"
I laugh at first, thinking he's kidding. He isn't. I point out the board, and the basket. He says "Oh." and takes a phone and leaves. My coworker turns to me and says "That's the second time today he's done that. I explained to him the first time about the board and the basket." My hand hit my forehead so fast there was a noticeable breeze.
2 hours later, he comes back in. "Are there any more phones?"
*face palm*
I explain again about the system, all the while wondering how this person got hired. The rest of the day, all goes well, he comes in takes a phone out of the basket, all is well.
Jump to 8:30 am, Monday. In my heightened state of sick, I decide to fill the board and do as little as possible today. Board and basket are full. Several testers come in, and take phones, write down names and go about their merry way, with little disturbance of myself, other than the occasional "Dude, you look like shit, are you okay?"
Until 9:15.
In walks the Lead.
He looks at the board.
He looks at the basket, overflowing with devices.
He turns to me, "So are there any more phones to be profiled?"
Had I been a healthy man, there would have been blood. |
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| This meme isn't completely e-tarded. |
[Oct. 13th, 2008|10:13 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sick | ] |
When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.
"You mean you put down your rock and I put down my sword and we try to kill each other like civilized people?"
and
"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours." |
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| STFUGTFOAWTEALKFKF |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|01:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | restless | ] |
Shut the fuck up, get the fuck out, and wander the earth alone like Kane from Kung Fu.
I'm restless.
It might be the fact that I'm working so much, but I really don't know.
I feel like something needs to change. I've had no life affecting changes in almost a year. SOMETHING NEEDS TO HAPPEN! |
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| Act III |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|08:13 am] |
Didn't see that coming.
I think I want to have Joss Whedon's babies. |
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