You may remember a while ago I posted this all about my assault on Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.

Today’s entry is somewhat less well-known but in my eyes more exciting. Have you ever seen/heard of The Adam and Joe Show? It was on Channel 4 in the late nineties, I re-watched them a while back when they put it up on 4oD, it’s very silly and funny.

I listened to them on XFM and then they had a Coca-Cola sponsored podcast which was a bit rubbish, now they’re on BBC 6 radio and they are back to their great standards.

There is a new Tintin movie on its way next year which Spielberg is directing. Joe Cornish is/was involved in the screenplay, which is very cool.

So I was out this afternoon watching Pied Piper this afternoon and we wandered into a really cool arty abandoned bunker thing made by Robert Kusmirowski.

He has created a World War Two-era bunker. This highly atmospheric installation – featuring a warren of mysterious rooms and a draisine running along a track that disappears into a dark tunnel – transports viewers to another reality.

We came out and bumped into Mr. Cornish. Now my first mission was to remember whether he was Adam or Joe, my brain delivered on that one and before I knew it I was telling him how much of a fan of ‘his work’ I was. That’s probably the most clichéd sentence I could have come up with.

He then asked me why I was here and for some reason I thought it was a good idea to put myself in an Ali G style pose when I said we were here for the street dance. He claimed he’d just come for the exhibition but I saw him half an hour later, sitting in the row in front of us watching the street dance too, so… .

I then realised that he felt it was appropriate to leave and I tried to think of something else to say, all I came up with was “oh, have you met my brother Dewi?” What!? Where did that come from? I quickly realised that this exchange was over and wished him a Merry Christmas and briskly walked away.

One always re-imagines these situations and thinks through the other things they could have said. In my mind we compare notes about writing scripts and he tells me some exclusive gossip about the new Tintin film and how Steve Spielberg is “such a sweetheart”. But my lips failed me this time. Oh well.

Not the Joe Cornish I met, just some photographer with the same name. This is nice though isn't it!?

“Having a relationship with (her)… is like waking up to discover there is a unicorn in your garden…It’s a completely unique circumstance and something of a shock. You’ve never encountered anything quite like it. Suddenly, standing there in the middle of your life, is something that proves the presence of magic in the universe. You always believed that the magic was real, but now you can actually see it—and almost touch it. Almost, but not quite. Because first you have to get closer, and yet how do you approach such a skittish, exotic creature? Do you even dare? And are you worthy? There is no frame of reference for such an encounter, no one who can tell you how to go about it.

…If you scare it away, it will break your heart and the magic will drain from your life, never to return. Then your landscape will appear very, very empty for the loss. How could your world ever look the same again? For while you may encounter other things of beauty over the course of your life, there is really only one unicorn, isn’t there?”

The Book of Love by Kathleen McGowan

This is my life before we got together. I don’t know it anymore. Thinking back to how I got here in the office from the moment I struggled to get off the sheets at home, I can’t imagine how I lived before I met her. I must have been a zombie or a piece of deadwood kicked around by strangers’ feet. I really don’t know. It’s almost as if I helplessly fall asleep and get lost in dreamland whenever she goes away.

Yet I’m not saying my life before her had been a waste. I’d like to think that the strength of what we have today owes, in large part, to the silent long hours, days, months, years waiting for her to come stumbling into my life (or perhaps it was I who stumbled into her life). When I appeared before her, I was a man who knew how special love is, how others stupidly tend to take it for granted — but it was up to her to show me what it was like to be in it, to be part of it.

Many of my friends think that I’ve changed, that I was definitely not the same guy I was. That is, at least, partly true. Even in the loneliest walks I’ve walked around my college campus, I knew deep inside that there was a jolly, funny, crazy guy in me waiting to get out — trapped by the seriousness of loneliness. But it was up to her to set that guy free and walk amongst real people.

I was just waiting for her — waiting, waiting and waiting, wasting my lines and my thoughts on made-up wishes and ambitions. I made them all up to distract my mind. The more tragic my own novel, the better. I wanted to see myself as a hero in my own made-up story. It was all I could do to pass the time ’til the one I wanted came.

Oh, and she came all right. Dazed and dizzy with my eyes half-closed, drool almost dripping — she kicked me in the butt so hard that, for the first time in a long, long while, I felt the hot sting of life. She was nowhere near the image of my ideal woman that I played in my head in my endless fictional stories. She wasn’t pure, dainty, gentle, elegant, or conservative. She was bold, loud, threatening, brass, wild at times but curiously silent most of the time. And just like that, all the thick vapors of my dreams dissipated, leaving her standing in front of me, her big brown eyes telling me it was time — finally — to wake up.

There’s no secret to this. I’m not saying I did the right thing just idly waiting for the heavens to send me their best winged divine immortal up there. I guess when the opportunity came, I just willingly abandoned my old self to keep something more infinitely precious.

This is me thinking it all through amidst the background noises that are ten times louder because her voice can’t reach my ears. This is me getting used to the life I lived before. I just can’t wait to leave it again. I guess ’til she returns, I’ll be in dreamland chasing unicorns, fighting dragons, flying to the moon.

The solstice has passed, but I have not. There was no sitting on a beach in Clam Gulch, watching the sun dip just below the horizon over the Alaska Peninsula – the fireworks were hired to play that night, and no one was disappointed – and there was no standing gloriously atop some mountain ascended by chairlift in the early afternoon darkness, waiting for the sun to touch the landscape so I could race it down, falling below the light before it had a chance to retract itself. The joke was not funny anymore, but I laughed to myself anyway. Failure was key, because the white torches were bound to flare up, or so I thought, and my dependence was disaster. Never count on the light. Never mention neversummer, everwinter faded into highlights – in memory of them, in memoriam.

Elements expose themselves daily, and still we are enamoured of them – to remind ourselves what we do not take for granted. Familiarity is a vast wasteland into which we cannot venture, but instinctive loyalty is required. Ambivalence reigns over kings and queens and those opposed will suffer the defeat of resolve, of confidence. The unicorn remembers your face, and will not forget that wistful tune we sang to lure it in, and she will not return to that place again, lest she loses herself in its beauty and is tricked by the jestering explorer.

If I could EQ the sound of fear, I would take away the high end and make it sound less like a snake’s whisper. I’d give it the tone of the music you close your eyes to, no matter where you are, and I’d amplify it into the valleys you’ve made your homes, and the earth would take care of the effects, the reverb tail and the compression into something tangible, understandable and self-explaining, because I magnify it and show it for what it is, and like that old man said, mystery is where truth exists. So cover in dust the instruction booklets and open up the maps – you’ll see where they lie in waiting, in anticipation of your arrival. The rooftop was just the beginning, your thought process the route we’ll take – just print it on the back of my hand and we’ll be forever ready.

Been quite some time since I last updated. Been busy with some RL stuff. Anyways, on to the release update.

From Toy-World.com via Ngee Khiong

• Bandai MG Astray Red Frame Kai, February 2010, 5,250円
• Bandai MG Exia Trans-Am Mode, Release Date and Price TBA

From Amiami.com

• Revoltech Yamaguchi Date Masamune White Costume ver., January 2010, 2,286円
• Revoltech Yamaguchi Sanada Yukimura White Costume ver., January 2010, 2,286円
• Kerberos Saga Kai Tetsuro GENX CORE, December 2009, 7,240円

From Gunpla.jp via Ngee Khiong

• Bandai MG Sinanju Titanium ver., February 2010, 12,600円
• Bandai MG Unicorn Gundam OVA ver. SP Pack, March 2010, 7,350円
• Bandai MG Unicorn Gundam OVA ver. , March 2010, 5,250円

If you read the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, you will come away thinking that the ancient Hebrews believed in unicorns.  This is understandable since there are nine verses referring to unicorns: Numbers 23:22, Numbers 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9 & 10, Psalms 22:22, Psalms 29:6, Psalms 92:10, and Isaiah 34:7,

Many atheists take potshots at Christian Biblical literalism by pointing out that taking the Bible literally would entail believing in ridiculously fantastic creatures such as unicorns.  Some Atheists get great joy out of showing Biblically naive believers that their beloved Bible has unicorns populating it.

However, examination of the Hebrew makes it clear that the KJV is just a mistranslation.  Wheew, Christians are off the hook on this one — not that there aren’t a lot more hooks out there waiting for them !

Here are the linguistic facts:

• The Hebrew word translated “unicorn” in the KJV is רְאֵ֖ם (re’em) which in the TaNaK (Hebrew Bible) actually means “wild bull” or “ram” and is translated correctly is most other Bibles.
• The Latin translation of the same word in the Vulgate is  “rhinocerotis”
• The Greek word in the Septuagint is μονοκέρωτος (monokέrōtoς) which means “one” (mono) “horn” (kerotos).  This mistranslation of re’em and may have caused of the misunderstanding.  You see, a “rhinocerotis” has one horn.

Anyway, please cut the Christians a break — except those who worship the KJV, of course!  There are a lot more substantive debates to be had.  And besides, approaching conversations about the Bible in this manner, disobeys what I call the Debator’s Golden Rule which calls for helping the other side present their strongest argument.  And more than all this, and the point of this post, is that keeping all the unicorn talk clear-headed allows us to save the unicorn for its most important task: debunking the burden of proof of fantastical notions (covered in another post).  For that purpose, Atheists have created the notion of the Invisible Pink Unicorn (Wiki) as well as the Flying-Spaghetti Monster (wiki) for which we are all deeply grateful.  We don’t want to confuse our conversations with Christians by discussing biblical unicorns when we have the much more useful invisible pink uniform waiting patiently in the forest ready to come to our rescue ! 

__________

Reference:  see this Bible side-by-side translation.

You know that beauty’s only skin deep
Well, baby, baby, come on and skin me…

Song of the day:
“Ball Cap” by Mother Mother

So Dreamy…

Uh muh guhd.
I’m too lazy to write a real post, but I’ll try my best.
So I had THE most fantabulous birthday every. and birthday-week. and birthday-month. I learned that I am loved an abnormal amount. And I must have earned it somehow. Yay!  I also got some phenomenal birthday presents from two very special guys, on the fifteenth. Oh. Tinzel hasn’t given me anything yet…       She said she would. but if she doesn’t, I don’t care.
So today in band we did our secret Santa thingers. and I got the most AMAZING GIFT EVERRRR! I LOVE ERIKA SO MUCH!!!!
It was a bag. In it, there were three items.
One (1) handmade 3-D unicorn-shaped eraser.
One (1) handmade 3-D ninja-shaped eraser.
One (1) bag of chocolates
One (1) Original handwritten story, tying all three objects together.
Here is the story:
Once upon a time, there were some very lonely chocolates. They were wandering around, when they came across an equally lonely character named Sid, the Sad Unicorn.
The chocolates and Sid were having a nice long chat when suddenly, unexplainably, they were attacked by a very angry NINJA!
“ZOMG!” cried Sid.
” No wai,” murmured one of the chocolates.
The NINJA lowered his kicking leg – with some difficulty, as it was very stiff – and explained that he had only tried to “jump them” in order to correct their bad grammar.
“We ain’t has no bad grammar!” cried Sid, disbelievingly.
The NINJA sighed and started to correct Sid, all the while with a clearly irritated vein throbbing in his neck. He shuffled forward towards Sid the Sad Unicorn, and something horrible happened! Little pieces of the NINJA broke off, leaving the earth white and clear where he had touched it.
Sid’s jaw dropped, and the chocolates put the little flare-y bits of their wrappers over each other’s eyes.
“What kind of monster are you?” one of the braver chocolates stepped forward and hissed.
The NINJA rolled his eyes and explained that that was the reaction he always got. “I’m an eraser,” he sighed.
“Oooooh,” Sid said before turning back and shooting the chocolates a clueless look.
“It means that whenever you make a mistake in your writing or drawing – in pencil – I can fix it.”
Sid glanced nervously at the tattoo on his arm, depicting a heart and the words, “YOUR MOM.”
“Only pencil, I’m afraid,” the NINJA rolled his eyes.
So there you have it, the epic tale of chocolate, NINJAS, and Sid the Sad Unicorn. Eventually the Unicorn discovered that he, too, was an eraser, and after a brief period of denial, he discovered how to accept himself for who he was.

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!
And tomorrow I get to perform skits, and then GET IN THE CAR AND DRIVE TO PG, where I will see my SISTER. Who I haven’t seen for 4/5 months. Lame.
So yes.
I should probably call Louise back now.
Toodloo.

My friend told me that I live in a world where unicorn exists. At first, I thought unicorn was the only magical creature I could find there; but then…

I spotted you.

The newly crowned Miss Ohio All American Goddess … Miss Alana Steele performs Vogue for talent section of the pageant. She will continue on to compete at the National pageant in June 2010.

You can find Alana Steele perform the following days:
Wednesday- Zonies Closet
Thursday- Unicorn
Friday- Zonies Closet
Saturday- Greg’s/Our Place
Sunday- Metro

SM Clark Cyberzone cosplay tour 2

Part 1

Sailor Mars

Olah! It is my first time to attend in a cosplay competition since it is the first cosplay event ever held in Angeles City. My friend Kent Paras Told me that there will be a cosplay happening in SM Clark. He’s hooked in cosplaying and he is the one who introduced the Gosiengfiao sisters to me. We are very excited about the event and we even told our friend Crizalyn Tulabut to join and play the costume Card Captor Sakura. But we didnt have the time to prepare .

Its an unforgettable moment for me to attend because, I see anime characters come to life! Just like the photo on the left. Gundam Unicorn is lost in the city Yikes!

The event started at 4pm I think. The Judges were Alodia, Faus and the cyberzone creative director? not really sure about this.

Gundam Unicorn shot with WB!

FOCUS ALERT!

This is what you get when your camera does not have an auto focus feature!

Ryan, maze, me and Bubble head nurse (Silent Hill)

[No Idea why they called this lovely nurses bubble head]

Unicorn Gundam

[One of my fave cosplayer in the event]

Yey! Unicorn Gundam and me!

ABA (Guilty Gear) and Vinzrock

[Love her weapon key i wish i have one of those too :p and also on how she looked at the camera.... catchy!]

Danaya
Charm and the unknown sword lady

[The costume is so distinct on details. This reminds me of Danaya of Encantadia. I admire the ones who created the costume ~bow]

Rey Ayanami (Evangelion) and Charm

[She's so pretty :p]

Me and L (Death Note)

Ms. Ashley Gosiengfiao

[Watching with beauty]

Charm and Lady ABA

[Love the framing and the depth of field]

Miss Ashley on the move!…. and Edward :p

Miss ashley and Alodia Autograph signing

Kent, charm and Bogs doing the caramel dance!

[Arg! Im the one taking the picture! I so love this picture]

Me charm and kent at singapore! LUL

Ryuk and Bogs

[If only ryuk drank more milk when he is younger... I bet hes a lot taller now]

The best part is… I got Alodia and ash’s autograph!

Very tiring but a awesome experience! Im looking forward at SM Marikina Cosplay

where me charm and kent will cosplay ahahahah! Subscribe to see what will happen next!

&

These paintings by Dan Lacey, also known as The Painter of Pancakes, shows his portrayal of the president of the United States in a series of unique paintings. Lacey’s artworks can also be ordered as posters at Dan Lacey’s blog.
Some of the weirdest paintings you will ever see in your lifetime:
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Are right-wing email forwards bombarding your inbox?
Reply with funny political pictures in your Christmas cards this year!
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• Too gory? Please. Who doesn’t like eating the dismembered remains of delicious gingerbread men??
• They found a freaking unicorn! Well, no, not really, but still adorable and I want one soooo bad. Why are we not using our mad scientist, 21st century genetic powers on this kind of stuff?
• Weird yet amazing and architectural shoes; yep, here you go….
• …and in other shoe-related news, now your feet can disappear! How  amazing are these? I am considering trying to DIY myself a pair.
• Have you ever eaten, like, a whole carton of ice cream or wolfed down a big-ass chocolate bar and been left in a total sweetness coma? Like you can never imagine wanting anything sweet ever again? This will do that to your brain.
• Aaaand, to round out the list, totally hilarious yet alternately terrifying movie moments that scarred us all as wee children…. (Site  NSFW)

Waste some time, my darlings! Just tell yourself you’ll use it on Jeopardy at some point.

The quick brown fox

You’ve heard of the McGangBang, right?  For the uninitiated, there’s a world out there of fast food items not listed on the menu that are available for your dining pleasure (and most likely for your digestive displeasure) if you’re in the know, and if the employees are in the know.  This list from McDonald’s alone is pretty impressive.  There are many others out there.  My friend Andy used to apparently get a “Volcano” from Taco Bell, which was described to me as a burrito with everything in it.  Now that they have volcano tacos & burritos that are something else entirely, that might be an ordering issue.  If you’ve got time to kill or your interest is piqued, it’s definitely worth Googling.

At any rate, while I have raised a legitimate issue with McDonald’s, and I have gotten one response so far… I decided to use my W(aL)D email address to address a ridiculous issue with them.  So, off to the McWebform I went!  Sadly, you’re forced to pick a category… none of which exactly fits my query.   I think I posted to “McDonald’s U.S. Marketing, Promotions, and Advertising“, but it seems like my answer was brought about by the “Unsolicited Idea Policy“.  Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.  On to the emails…

My original submission (via McWebform):

Hello Friends,

I was wondering if you are aware of the mythical magical McGang-Bang, and if at any time in the future, you man be adding it officially to your menu?

I believe it to be a McChicken sandwich stuffed inside a Double Cheeseburger, the new 99¢ McDouble, or even a Big Mac.  The exact specifics are a subject of hot debate, as this is a rare creature, like Bigfoot, el Chupacabra, or the Unicorn.  There is also debate on whether to discard an extra bun or down it whole.

If you do plan to offer this in the future, what would the proper spelling be?  McGangBang, McGangbang, McGang-Bang, or McGang-bang?  I could see how all options would be acceptable?

I’m not sure where the name comes from, but it sure is catchy.  (Much better than “Arch Deluxe”, no?)

I’d like to be able to go into a McDonald’s and order a McGang-Bang without being looked at like I’m crazy when it’s common knowledge among certain circles.

Thanks for your time, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the matter!

-E.

Their “we got it, we’ll get back to you” reply:

From: McDonald’s DoNotReply@mcdonalds.com
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Subject: McDonald’s Web Site Comment or Question
To: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting McDonald’s website. Below is your email which has been submitted to McDonald’s Customer Response Center. While replies to this e-mail cannot be received, should you need to contact us again, please feel free to contact us through mcdonalds.com. Thank you.

Title: Mr.
First Name: ERiC
Last Name: AiXeLsyD
Mailing Address: ____ _______ _____ ____ __
City: Pittsburgh
State: PA
Zip: _____-____
Day Phone: 412-555-1212
Evening Phone: 412-555-1212
Contact Time: None.  Email please.
Your E-mail Address: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com
Comment: [What you just read above...]

Their “real” reply:

From: McDonalds.CustomerCare@us.mcd.com
Date: Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 5:08 AM
Subject: Message from McDonald’s USA
To: world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com

Hello ERiC:

Thank you for contacting McDonald’s recently with your idea for a product or service that you believe would be of interest to us. We appreciate your interest in McDonald’s, but it is our company’s policy not to consider unsolicited ideas from outside the McDonald’s system. We have retained an electronic copy of your submission solely for our records.

It’s not that great ideas cannot come from people outside of McDonald’s. Each year, however, McDonald’s receives thousands of unsolicited ideas and proposals for products and services from individuals as well as companies. Because of the volume of unsolicited ideas and the difficulty of sorting out what is truly a “new” idea as opposed to a concept that has already been considered or developed by McDonald’s, we must adhere to a strict policy of not reviewing any unsolicited ideas that come from outside the McDonald’s family of employees, franchisees and approved suppliers. We realize that we may be missing out on a few good ideas, but we have had to adopt this policy for legal and business reasons.

As a result, we must decline your invitation to review your submission and hope you understand the reasons for this decision.

Again, thank you for thinking of McDonald’s.

Jessica
McDonald’s Customer Response Center

ref#:6525973

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Please do not “reply” to this email response. No “replies” can be received through this mailbox. If you wish to contact McDonald’s Customer Response Center again, please visit our website at www.mcdonalds.com

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Are you finished with your holiday shopping? Even the person with everything gets hungry. An Arch Card makes a great holiday gift. For more information visit your local McDonald’s restaurant or our website at http://www.mcdonalds.com/archcard.

You wrote:
[You just read it above...]

Well, apparently my idea went to the wrong department, or someone that’s absolutely no fun.  I didn’t submit an idea!  I asked about a secret menu item…  Hopefully, as we’ve learned with most other web-forms, we submit again, and we get a different person responding.  Although, this looks curiously like a form letter.  Perhaps I should try again in a different category?  Should I ask for the email address of a real live person?  Perhaps I need to Google some names of high-up important McPeople and try to figure out the syntax of the company email addresses.  This worked with great success for me in the past with Boston Market.  Ha ha ha.

Also, I wondered on the Beat if putting a “Mc” in front of everything could be construed as racist?  As an American of Irish and Scottish descent, perhaps I should be taken aback by the flippant use of “Mc” in front of everything?  (By McDoanld’s, and even my own shockingly casual use.) It is after all, listed in the Racial Slur Database and in Wikipedia’s list of ethnic slurs.  Perhaps this is an idea to addressed in the future.  Dave was quick to point out though, that nothing is more racist than 365Black.  Wow.  Just…  Wow.  (…or McWow?) Also… What about leap day?  Is that a day off?

Find any of this amusing?  What’s the next step?

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