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Divine by Zero: Neil Gaiman in Springfield and Spike the Bloody Wear Christmas Colors

Nov 082011

November 8, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am Divine by Zero Tagged with: 45, actor, adam savage, assassin's creed, beer, carriage, columbia university, conspiracy, construction, death star, divorce, explain, funny, gay marriage, generation, herman cain, holiday, hopeless cause, horror, image, james marsters, jersey shore, kardashian, lol, movie, movies, mtv, neil gaiman, News, patron saint, paulie, pic, president, rachel maddow, scary, scene, shitty, short film, simpsons, theory, too much money, trailer, trick or treating, universal, xkcd, zombie movie No Responses »

November 8, 2011

Guess who has to drop several pounds gained over the last year? Yeah, it’s going to be a fun month cutting back on caffeine, sugar, pounds, AND getting ready for the holiday season. Woohoo?

With that in mind, let’s get some links out of the way.

Assassin’s Creed may be making its way tot he movies, but some insiders are shocked, SHOCKED I say, that Ubisoft has virtually total control over story, casting, everything. What does a video game company know about making movies, they ask? I’d ask instead what the hell Hollywood knows about adapting video games to movies. Bloodrayne, anyone? Prince of Persia? Doom? I could go on…

Speaking of which, the president of Universal admits his company makes “shitty” movies. His words, not mine.

Rachel Maddow has a theory about Herman Cain. He’s an actor. He has to be. The entire presidential run has to be some sort of massive art project. She explains her reasoning and, frankly, it makes sense.

I did not and will not talk about the Kim Kardashian divorce. Just like I didn’t talk about the wedding. However, this article lays out how the divorce, at the same time the show is still showering us with images and video of the happy newlyweds, is actually good for America. In a nutshell, the dissonance between seeing the couple just a few weeks ago and the reality of today shatters the illusion of “reality” television. It’s staged, we all know that, but this is the most glaring example so far.

If you find yourself complaining about the MTV Generation… you may be TOO old. Older than you think.

Another moron from Jersey Shore got paid good money to lecture, this time at Columbia University. Thankfully, the students he spoke to were less than pleased he was there and let him know it.

James Marsters, aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer answers some questions and makes a holiday picture like only Spike could make.

I once asked if someone could make a chart of how many explosions Michael Bay could fit into a movie and still make money. Amazingly, someone did just that. It seems there is a point at which the explosions cannot save a movie, but beyond that point, more boom means more cash.

Do you know someone who is against gay marriage? Here’s a handy set of pictures and text to explain the concept of gay marriage (what they gays refer to simply as MARRIAGE).

I already knew the patron saint of hopeless causes and the patron saint of beer, but I was surprised to learn there is a patron saint of ugliness. Check out the other saints you may not have heard of.

I love sleeping with some nice, semi-fluffy pillows and a warm comforter, but this is probably the best place to sleep EVAH!

Adam Savage had a small role in a zombie flick. Short and sweet. Check it out.

We have new images of the construction of the Death Star.

There can be an argument that some people have TOO much money. They buy things that no one needs. Things like, well, anything in the Skymall catalogue. Or they go and do crap like THIS.

Neil Gaiman will be on The Simpsons. Also, he gets roped into trying to do an American accent. Hilarity ensues.

Here is a headbanging bear.

And finally, here’s the trailer to Denzel Washington’s new movie, Safe House. Enjoy, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Kristen Stewart’s Teacher Problem

Oct 192011

October 19, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 8:02 am October Tagged with: actor, actress, bite, child, complain, complaint, dumb, educate, education, home-school, hot, Kristen stewart, lip, mail, pic, send, stupid, sucks, teach, teachers, twilight, video, work No Responses »

If you take a shot whenever she bites her lip in a movie, you'd be dead from alcohol poisoning by the second reel.

October 19, 2011

Aside from starring as one half of an abusive relationship based on sparkles, Kristen Stewart has also helped to turn vampire fiction into something slightly less tame than a Lisa Frank trapper keeper. Now, though, she’s gone and taken a swipe at her teachers.

All of them. They failed her! When she was young and acting, she did not receive the support she should have received! In a recent interview, Stewart claims she had to drop out of traditional school because her teachers would not accommodate her life. When she was away on shoots, her teachers did not send her work and they counted her as absent when she was gone. This, she says, made it impossible for her to continue a regular education.

Yeah, those teachers really dropped the ball. How dare they do THEIR JOB?

school is fhuuuunn by ~Free-Hugz-4-Tobi on deviantART

See, Kristen, here’s what you fail to realize. A teacher has to keep watch over many students. Teacher gives out work. Students take work. Students study and use the tools given to them. Teacher continues to teach and build upon previous lessons, accommodating the lesson as needed for special cases.

Special cases might include things like ESL students, students who do not have a solid grasp of English yet. For example, I will give a full lesson in English. If, after the lesson, an ESL student has questions, I will be more than happy to review with them and, if needed, go over it in Spanish. That’s a reasonable accommodation.

Having a teacher mail work to a location so a student can finish it on her own schedule as she works? Not so much. If a student is sick or has to leave for a family emergency, that’s a situation beyond the student’s control. A compassionate teacher would probably mail or email work out to the student.

EDUCATE by ~Not-A-Tree-225 on deviantART

But acting was a choice on your part, Kristen. You chose to pursue an acting career at eight. You chose to go to jobs that required you to miss school. If you wanted to do this, fine. Get homeschooled. Nothing wrong with that choice.

Just don’t blame your teachers for not catering to your particular needs. They have a job to do, as do the students. Students need to put forth the effort. If I decided to become a blogger in high school and wanted to spend all my time researching and writing and not going to school, I wouldn’t expect a teacher to not count me absent or send me work.

Kristen, you already starred in a (shamefully) hit film series. You’re set for life. Stop whining that American educators did not serve your wishes (not needs) and hand you your education. You made your choice. Now shut up.

And now, let’s look at someone DUMBER than Kristen Stewart.

A Review of The Thing

Oct 182011

October 18, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 9:09 am October Tagged with: 1982, 2011, antarctica, awesome, bad, film, flame thrower, good, horror, hot, kurt russell, mary elizabeth winstead, movie, outpost 31, pic, prequel, review, sequel, sucked, sucks, the thing, Thing, trailer 2 Responses »

AKA Ramona Flowers vs Aliens. Oh yeah!

October 18, 2011

The Thing is one of those classic films that really changed the genre. The special effects showed a graphic representation of alien invasion on a biological level. The sense of paranoia created by not knowing and actually caring who had been infected by the Thing made it not only deeply disturbing, but also unleaded nightmare fuel.

So how did the prequel/remake stack up?

I’m going to try and not give away any spoilers, but here’s the lowdown on the original 1982 film.

An American research station in Antarctica finds out that a nearby Norwegian outpost has been decimated by… something. They investigate and find evidence of an ancient starship buried in the ice. However, as a coming storm threatens to cut the Americans off from all contact with the rest of the world, they slowly realize that something from the Norwegian camp made it to the American outpost. It can perfectly mimic whatever it consumes. And not everyone is human anymore.

The prequel actually starts days before in the Norwegian camp. After finding the alien ship, they call in a paleontologist, Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). When she arrives, the team removes an alien corpse from the ice and begins to study it, but soon things take a turn when the alien wakes up and escapes. Soon, the team can’t be sure who is still human or not.

The Thing by ~PurityOfEssence on deviantART

The Good

The movie is FUN, and I mean that in the best way. One thing I liked compared to the 1982 film is that the prequel actually has happy, likable characters. Kurt Russell is dour and jaded and shell-shocked, and everyone else is pretty much just as dark. The Norwegian team, though, is actually having fun with their work, making it more jarring when the bodies start piling up. Winstead is actually really good in her role as an archeologist-turned-Amazon and she adds some heart to the film.

Because of the changes in special effects technology, the monster is much faster and interacts with the victims much more prominently. We get to see some very freaky transformations that don’t have to cut back and forth between different models. Plus, we FINALLY get to see how the thing absorbs someone and changes them, and it’s the kind of thing that would make the Marquis de Sade gag.

Best of all, whoever wrote the script actually paid attention to a little something called continuity. We get to find out what the hell the creature the American team found was and we got to see why the Norwegian camp was such a warzone, including finally explaining the corpse that apparently killed itself in the radio room.

Once the action gets going, it gets going, too. While it starts with the same kind of paranoia as the original, it soon turns into a chase to stop the creature, and it’s much faster than the original film.

The Thing by ~FritoSparrow on deviantART

The Bad

Let’s face it: it’s a foregone conclusion than pretty much every character you see is going to die by the end of the film. They have to. There are only so many ways to tell this story, too, and if anyone is smart enough, they do what the characters do to try and weed out the alien. This unfortunately means that the general plot is a dead giveaway. You know the broad strokes of what will happen.

By having the creature take a center stage in the action and featuring all sorts of close-ups and extended transformations, the film obviously needed to step the game up. While early reports said that the film was going to use as little CGI as needed, the final version is FULL of CGI. Not only that, but it’s not revolutionary in any way. It looks okay. It’s not a bad computer effect, but it’s the same thing that’s been done over and over again.

The Thing by *tarrzan on deviantART

The Final Word

Does the 2011 film stack up to the remake? Yes and no.

It was a really fun movie overall. I enjoyed the action scenes and was concerned with the welfare of every character. I thought Winstead and the rest of the cast were very good at their roles.

However, I do want to address something else. As io9 pointed out, a lot of viewers are complaining that the Thing in the prequel doesn’t seem to have any plan, unlike the original film where it was trying to leave Antarctica and infect the rest of the world. True, but I actually thought it made sense. In the prequel, the monster’s just woken up. It’s weak. Even if it infects other humans, it’s still an alien to our culture and our ways. It’s probably more scared than anything.

By the time we get to the sequel, it’s had time to adapt and it makes the great escape plan of looking like a dog so others will take it in. Even at the end of this film, it finally wised up and decided to try to blend in to get rescued as a human.

Would I watch it again? Probably. It’s not a terrible film by any means, but it does have the added weight of having to live up to one of the standards of the genre, so that hurts it.

Go watch it. If you saw the 1982 version and loved it, this is a nice addition to the mythology. If you’ve never seen the Kurt Russell version, do yourself a favor and do so now before seeing this one.

Or watch it on Netflix without having to pay.

Bordertown Laredo: Like a Fox News Documentary on Civil Rights

Oct 142011

October 14, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 8:37 am October Tagged with: awesome, bordertown laredo, bust, church, cocaine, cops, crime, directions, dog, drugs, editing, episode, fake, guns, heroin, justice, lpd, marijuana, narcotics, pic, pigs, police department, premier, raid, review, san agustin plaza, sucked, synopsis, texas, unit, warrant 2 Responses »

You will never find a more wretched hived of scum and villainy... If you believe the show.

October 14, 2011

I watched Bordertown: Laredo last night. It was the premier and they showed two back-to-back episodes. I was curious to see how this show would portray the city I live in, and was a little scared because Laredo is the influence for Via Rosa, the semi-fictional setting of Charcoal Streets. I know I don’t exactly paint a rosy picture in my stories, but I made it a fictional city with elements from various cities for a reason.

Now, I realize it’s only the first two episodes, but I have a few complaints about what I’m seeing. And yes, I know the Laredo Narcotics Team is a local organization of law enforcement essentially fighting a NATIONAL cartel organization in Mexico. Their job is difficult and they put themselves in very real danger just by appearing in this show…

But this isn’t about whether or not drugs should be legal, the ethics of the war on drugs, or anything like that. I need to talk to the producers of this show. Aside from the fact that the cops don’t even wear gloves during part of the evidence collection process, the fact that everyone of them is in terrible shape for the kind of physical activity they engage in, or that one of them seemed to have pink handcuffs for no apparent reason, there are a few things that just bothered the hell out of me last night.

It’s MexiNoir!

Nothing screams “Hispanic” and “edge of nowhere” like using fake film scratch in your opening text superimposed with images of the downtown. Seriously, though, the images used in the title sequence were all seemingly taken within three blocks of the river. Yes, we have a massive Mexican population and a lot of sections in town have signs in Spanish. Yes, a lot of buildings downtown are in a state of disrepair.

But if you travel not three blocks further inland, you find I-35, McDonald’s, and this little view.

Worse, the music sounds more Spanish than actually Mexican, which isn’t unexpected since we were under Spanish rule at one point, but if they were trying to go with a Wild West theme, they failed. It sounds more flamenco than anything else.

Oh, and to whoever actually took the time to edit in images of the Beer Run stores, shame on you. Nothing says “class” like drive-through liquor stores with exploited female workers.

We Took a Wrong Turn at North America

This is really a jab at the editor. In one scene, the police are following a car. Anyone who lives here can recognize the intersection as McPherson and Saunders. The cops then chase the guy and say they are passing a church. A shot of the San Augustin Cathedral is shown. Then the cops reach the guy’s house somewhere in what looks like Zapata Highway or somewhere else in the deep southeastern part of the city based on the landscape.

These three locations are nowhere close to each other. The church is more than two miles away to the west, then to get to Zapata Highway, it’s another seven miles in the opposite direction.

Granted, the Cathedral looks nice, a lot nicer than other churches, but would it have killed the editor to use the REAL church they passed? Instead, we get a set of detours that amounts to something out The Family Circus.

Mexico by ~TornadoGirl108 on deviantART

Welcome to the United States of Aztlan

All of these gripes are about the way the show was put together. However, when you actually sit down and watch the show, there are more than a few problems with the way the city and its residents are portrayed.

And before I get to that, let it be known I have no shortage of complaints about this town. We are undereducated and have networks of ties that make any legitimate business difficult. Like one friend in DC once told me, “Dealing with Laredo is like dealing with the mob 20 years ago.”

In just the first two episodes, we’ve had the cops bust several storehouses filled with thousands of pounds of drugs. It’s an impressive set of hauls, sure, but the show hasn’t shown much past a mile or so from the border, and if you think the drug trafficking is confined the “Mexican” or “poor” parts of the city, you are sadly mistaken. I know going to suburbia and busting some high schoolers isn’t glamorous, but the drug trade is EVERYWHERE in town. And it’s not that hard to find someone to sell you drugs.

If you want to find a drug dealer, talk to three people. Those three people will, in short time, name someone who buys or sells or uses. Then follow it to the source. It’s easier to find a drug dealer in Laredo than it is to find a Starbucks in any major American city.

This show is going to be hell for this town. I don’t like it here that much, but I’d prefer if they at least got their portrayals right.

To clean out all this dumb, let’s get a Spanish lesson from Dora. Can you say, “Sniper, no sniping?”

How to Rewire Your Brain

Oct 052011

October 5, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am October Tagged with: activity, advice, all-stars, blu-ray, changes, childhood, chopped, ESL, fun, funny, game, ILI, iron chef, joke, learn english, learning english, lesson., pic, picture, remastered, robert Downy Jr., saturday morning breakfast cereal, secret ingredient, sherlock, sherlock holmes, SMBC, star wars, student, study, sucks, TAMIU, teacher, teaching, texas A&M INternational University, tip, video, zac weiner No Responses »

Show here? Brain power!

October 5, 2011

Even though the Weekly Muse kind of fell through (I plan on bringing it back, though), I used a similar exercise with my ESL students.

For example, after going over the week’s vocabulary and grammar lesson, I usually ask random students to use one of the new words in a sentence. For their test this week, though, I had them do something different. We practiced first, so don’t worry. They weren’t caught unprepared.

I gave them TWO vocabulary words and they had to use it, along with either an adjective, adverb, or preposition (my choice) in a SINGLE sentence. The words could be odd mixes like “bean” and “fur.” It was their job to make sense out of the ideas. Why would I do something so seemingly sadistic, you may add?

Ever seen Chopped? Chefs compete by making dishes with mystery ingredients. Usually, one of the ingredients is a bit… odd. They might be asked to make a desert with ingredients like corn flour, raspberries, and sardines, for example. Check out the following scene for a better idea of what they do.

In many ways, it’s harder than Iron Chef. In Iron Chef, yes, you have to come up with several dishes that feature one secret ingredient, but on Chopped, you have to combine multiple ingredients that oftentimes are not obviously connected. How the hell do you make a main dish when you’re given pork chops, bananas, cilantro, and a small puppy named Earl? A great chef, though, can find the commonality in the food and whip up something extraordinary.

Likewise, I want my students to stop thinking so mechanically. I want them to not only learn the words, but start using them in more than just simple sentences on one topic. Talking and using a language in casual speech is the best way to learn it. It’s the same reason I put such odd things like “Atlantis” and “Mexican restaurant” in the Weekly Muse polls: to encourage people to pick the strangest combinations they can think of. Finding connections between seemingly unrelated thoughts and ideas is what helps the brain think differently.

Take the famous “Sherlock scan” often used by… uhm, Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes by *Hideyoshi on deviantART

All the clues are there. All the parts to put together a sentence, or a story, are present in the world. It’s just a matter of training yourself to find the links and put together something that didn’t exist before. Sherlock doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, though having a background in science and anatomy helps. Likewise, finding links between apparently different words, finding a sentence to use them in, forces my students to find those connections so new words get easier to integrate. They just need the grammatical rules to put their work together.

In essence, using dissimilar topics forces their brain to adapt faster and faster. A time limit for tests also helps.

Now go out and build those neural biceps!

And now, let’s flex those muscles by combining INTENTIONAL comedy with George Lucas’ meddling into our childhood dreams.

Divine by Zero: Badger Porn and Plus-Sized Models

Sep 162011

September 16, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 8:18 am 2011, Divine by Zero Tagged with: 43000, advice, American apparel, bbw, beautiful, big beautiful white, blu-ray, bridge, clint eastwood, college, contest, disney, emma stone, epic rap battle, executed, fat, FBI, funny, gay marriage, great mouse detective, hack, hanged, hot, hpne, hun, killed, large, legos, leia organa, meme, mexican independence day, mister rogers, Mr. T, naked, nancy Upton, nice peter, NSFW, nude, nuevo laredo, parody, pic, pictures, plus-size, princess leia, samuel l. jackson, scarlet johasson, seth rogen, sexy, sheltered freshman, social media, star destroyer, star wars, story, venerator-class, worst reactions, zetas No Responses »

September 16, 2011

It’s Mexican Independence day! To me, this is a bittersweet holiday. Yes, it marks Mexico proclaiming itself a sovereign nation. On the other hand, the country is enslaved by the cartels. Right across the border, just a few miles from where I wright this, two people were tortured and publicly displayed for writing negative things about the Zetas. We have a long way to go, but I’d like to start by ending this stupid war on drugs.

And speaking of things that were probably influenced by drugs, let’s get some links out there and catch up with the week’s stories.

Clint Eastwood doesn’t care who you marry. He also managed to make himself even more awesome.

I have my reservations about the new Star Wars blu-rays. On the other hand, this promo featuring famous people reenacting classic scenes is hilarious. And Vader gets the best treatment, especially at about 2:14.

Speaking of Star Wars, here’s a 43,000 piece Lego Venerator-class Star Destroyer.

To all the new freshmen in college, please, for the love of Bob, don’t do this.

And speaking of bad decisions, could celebrities please stop taking naked pics of themselves with their phones? You, the thing that can be hacked? Unlike that camera that you need to physically get to retrieve said pictures? The reaction to Scarlet Johansson’s leaked nude pics has ranged from everything from an FBI investigation to the internet having a collective seizure. Because the internet, as you know, has been seen naked boobs and butt.

Nancy Upton entered a contest for American Apparel. She satirized what I can only describe as really unflattering images of women that look like they need a sandwich. Her pics were… well, they were unique. She’s confident, has a sense of humor about herself and the company, she looks wonderful and natural, and she won the contest by a large margin… and now American Apparel is saying they won’t go with her because she’s not targeting their demographic. Hypocrites, anyone?

“Gordon Ramsay’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead In A Badger Den.” How do you NOT click on that link?!

It turns out that reading fiction boosts your empathy. I just wish they’d used another book besides Twilight for the study.

Global warming is doing a lot of things… but did you know that it’s causing giant crabs to invade Antarctica? Be scared…

Disney does not have the best record when it comes to acknowledging the audience’s intelligence. However, some of their older animators didn’t react too kindly to the higher-ups changing the name of a movie to make it more descriptive since audiences “might not get it.” The result is pure sarcasm and gold.

And finally, Nice Peter came out with another Epic Rap Battle. Mister Rogers all the way! Represent! And I’ll see you all on Monday!

Divine by Zero: Leia’s Sexy Again and Pinhead’s an Idiot

Aug 252011

August 25, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am Divine by Zero, Uncategorized Tagged with: bikini, carrie fisher, censorship, commercial, costume, cultural exchange, dad, disney, doom, dust devil exorcist, epic, exorcism, forced labor, gadaffi, glenn beck, hat, hellraiser, jenny craig, jerusalem, joe the plumber, kid, leia, libya, live, metal, obama, oregon, penis tree, pic, princess, rally, return of the jedi, revelation, slave, steven segal, tea party, the lovecraft bar, trailer, trick, video, wake up, win No Responses »

August 25, 2011

As I read through my Star Wars books and look for inspiration for this RPG we’re playing on Saturday, I can’t help but notice that the world continues to turn. Behold, the joys of internet surfing, wasting time, and everything you need to know!

You want something truly American? Joe the Plumber and Steven Segal. Granted, one’s a loon who made his mark with the Tea Party and the other is a washed-up action star with an ego the size of a small Pacific island, but still… It’s like pizza and beer.

Obama may be losing support at home, but they love him in Libya.

And speaking of Libya, you want some swag to go with that revolution you just took part in? How about taking Gaddafi’s hat?

Speaking of things that are way to awesome to be real, check out how one gamer dad makes sure his son wakes up.

What’s a sure-fire way to censor art you find offensive because it portrays the male sexual organ? Simple. Get hired to “restore it.” No, really. A piece of that was just full of wang got people’s eyebrows up not because of what was on it, but what was missing after a group finished “restoring” it.

Hellraiser was an interesting movie. The sequels went into schlock horror. But this? This is… I don’t know what this is…

Someone at Disney finally admitted what we’ve known for years: it’s about the money, not the plot.

Can someone in Oregon tell me The Lovecraft Bar is any good? It sounds awesome!

Carrie Fisher has lost for than fifty months in the last nine months? Her goal? Getting back into the metal bikini. Seriously, though, she’s going it to help herself and she looks great. May the Force be her!

It’s one thing to bring foreigners to this country for a cultural exchange. That’s wonderful. Making them work for Third-World wages while they don’t learn anything? That’s called exploitation, folks.

As I type this, Glenn Beck is in the Holy Land doing the Lord’s work… selling himself and his brand. No, really. If you’re a Christian and still think this whacko has ANY point on anything, please watch him hawk HIMSELF at his Jerusalem rally. He claims it doesn’t take a prophet to see the things he sees. Frankly, it takes brain damage to see the things he sees.

And finally, this has to be THE best commercial I’ve seen all year. Just watch it and try to guess what it’s selling.

Dirt Devil-The Exorcist from MrPrice2U on Vimeo.

Palin’s Rape Fantasy

Jul 112011

July 11, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am July Tagged with: alaska, assault, book, bristol, camping, definition, drunk, english, image, interview, johnson, levy, palin, pic, rape, sex, sexual, steal, stolen, tent, vocabulary, wrong 4 Responses »

It's not rape if you change the wording, right, Bristol?

July 11, 2011

Oh, there are so many things I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about Bachmann’s stupid pledge to ban gay marriage and porn. I wanted to touch on old shows getting new commercials inserted during the story. I wanted to do so much, but now I am forced to address a language issue that has far-reaching consequences.

Bristol Palin has ruined my day again.

It’s no secret that she had premarital sex, got pregnant, then was about to marry the father of her child even though they later had a falling out. It’s no secret that she’s a hypocrite for claiming that abstinence is the only kind of birth control that’s useful even though she never practiced it, never received proper sex education, and studies have shown that abstiance education actually increases the chance of getting pregnant or catching an STD. All of this is well known, if not accepted, by the Right.

But now Bristol has gone and said something that doesn’t just condratict reality. She’s said something that actually damages language and could create a problem for any woman that is sexually assaulted.

Bristol claims her virginity was “stolen.” She says she wasn’t raped, though. Her rationale is that we say we “lose our virginity,” so it’s accurate to say hers was stolen since she didn’t consent.

But it wasn’t rape, she insists. She was just really drunk and doesn’t remember what happened.

Yeah, that’s called date rape.

Scared Silent by *MEGAN-Yrrbby on deviant ART

Words have meaning for a reason. The verbal knot she created by trying to defend her statements is not only indicative of her poor grasp of language, but it sets a dangerous precedent. If she and others like her can claim that their virginity was “stolen” but it wasn’t rape, if such a viewpoint of contradictions is ever accepted as valid, then others can make a similar claim.

“See, I didn’t rape her. I stole her virginity. And she doesn’t remember.”

“I didn’t kill my husband. I introduced an unappetizing ingredient in the form of ricin into his food because I knew he wouldn’t like it. It’s okay. He didn’t know what happened.”

“No, I didn’t drive drunk and hit someone. I was enjoying a night out when someone carelessly didn’t notice I was driving erratically and got in my, leading to their death. I didn’t take their life. They lost it.”

Like her mother, Bristol seems to think she can just make up her own definitions for words and it’ll just be accepted. Guess what? Yes, English is a language that changes all the time, but just because you don’t understand it and don’t get things like vocabulary, does not mean you get to go and invent new terms.

A Form of Rape by ~Equivamp on deviant ART

So let me be blunt. There’s a term for stealing someone’s virginity. “Stealing” means to take without permission. When this applies to virginity or when it implies someone performs a sexual act on you without your consent, that’s called rape. If Bristol doesn’t want to report it, that’s her problem, but it adds to the problem of women not coming forth with assaults like this so something can be done…

But going on the national stage and claiming that having someone “steal” her virginity is not rape is irresponsible and ignorant. If you want to get technical, Bristol took English and forced it to produce an unnatural meaning. They made it do something it didn’t want to do. They, shall we say, made it perform an unnatural act?

Well, let’s get something fun now to wash the stupid away. Here’s Ben Franklin battling Billy Mayes.

Crimes of Conscience

Apr 272011

April 27, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am Uncategorized Tagged with: abortion, alessandra torresani, anthony bourdain, conservative, costume, crime of conscience, cupcake vodka, fast 5, free, freedom, gay, gene, george takei, GOP, health-care, Heritage Foundation, homosexual, it's okay to be takei, lesbian, marriage, mexican border, moral, morality, new, pic, pics, reboot, reform, republican, sell-out, slave leia, slut, socialism, socialized, spiderman, star wars, tea party, the onion, video No Responses »

Hey, you! You're making me question my beliefs! Stop it!

April 27, 2011

It was bound to happen.

The Right Wing has officially jumped into Orwellian territory. Remember that plot point in 1984 wherein the Party would use phrases like “Freedom is Slavery” and “War is Peace”? The idea was that having the population believe two mutually exclusive ideas would create such a dissonance that more mundane lies would be much more easily accepted. It is the willingness to believe something that cannot be true by its very nature that would make the population easier to control.

Behold the American Conservative Movement.

The Heritage Foundation is pushing for something called “conscience rights.” In essence, they claim that things like abortion and gay rights are assaults on freedom.

Think about that for a second. When the blood stops shooting out of your nose, keep reading.

. Cognitive Dissonance . by *DigitalBaptism on deviant ART

The argument goes something like this. Say you believe that homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God. By making same-sex marriage legal and otherwise embracing the homosexual community as normal members of society with the same rights and freedoms as everyone else, the government is encroaching on your moral fiber by making something you believe is a sin acceptable.

I’m really hoping you see where this plan falls apart.

They want to push to make things illegal because they are against their own morality, a morality that is quite clearly based on religious belief. But they’re not phrasing it like that. They’re phrasing it to somehow mean that we, as a collective, are outraged.

So… in order to protect speech, religion, and the right to love each other, you must take those rights away from others who believe, say, and love what you will not. After all, having worked with gays and having lived next door to one for three years clearly affected my ability to be attracted to women.

Love has no Limits by =MyLastBlkRose on deviant ART

Okay, I‘m being snippy. The specific example they go for is that if a doctor against abortion is asked to perform one, he will have to comply. This is clearly an assault on his morality, right?

Well, if he didn’t want to deal with this, he shouldn’t have made choices to put himself in this position.

So, if I am offended that Republicans are against gay rights, immigrants, and a woman’s right to choose, can I deny to help students at TAMIU who identify themselves as Republicans and write papers on conservative opinions? I’d be helping the ideological opposition spread its message, and I just couldn’t live with that.

Without actually claiming and admitting that this course of action is about fundamentalist Christian morality trying to weasel its way into our legal system, they’ve set themselves up for failure. A small part of me wants for this to get taken up just so the Right sees the whole thing blow up in its face like liberal-hearted claymore.

A claymore filled with progressivism!

Explosion are Always Fun by ~GreenApples109 on deviant ART

Hey, look! Links!

Cupcake-flavored vodka? I predict scores of sorority girls chucking this stuff, then puking their intestines out at parties in the very near future.

The Onion has an insightful interview with the writer of the latest Fast and Furious sequel.

Budweiser released a commercial some claim contains a gay soldier and his lover. Me? I thought it was the guy’s brother or something. Anyway, I can see how people might think it’s about gays in the military, but what do you think?

How do we know socialized medicine would work? Because it’s worked pretty much everywhere else.

People often ask me why I hate Beck so much. Partially, it’s because he’s a lying snake who’s tricked millions of people into a world-view they’ll cling to even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Yesterday, he went off on new passport regulations that would ask for information regarding every place you’ve ever worked at, every address you’ve ever resided, the people present at your birth, and other questions. He called this new application “evil” since, he claims, no American could find all that information. His only explanation? The government wants to make sure citizens cannot leave the country and illegal aliens can stay since we cannot figure out where they’re from. It’s a ploy to take power! The real explanation? These new regulations are for people who submit questionable birth certificates or references. It’s actually a way to keep sketchy people OUT.

If you live in Tennessee, you will no longer be able to say “gay.” More specifically, schools won’t be able to address homosexual issues. Way to go, Tennessee. It’s not like gay teens were already marginalized, right?

And George Takei had some things to say about this.

We may have finally found the “slut” gene.” Methinks this will not be exploited by corporations in the least. Nope.

I adore Anthony Bourdain, but he admits that he may now be part of the problem when it comes to selling out. Say it ain’t so, Tony!

Just how jarring is the change when crossing the border between Mexico and the US? Check out these pics.

Ever felt like you were being watched?

And speaking of awesome things that don’t have anything to do with this, a new photo of Spiderman’s new costume (with battle damage) for the reboot film was released. The best part, we can now confirm the mechanical web-shooters are real. Even though it’s not the exact costume from the comics, I really like it.

And finally, Alessandra Torresani and some more geeks star in this wonderfully tongue-in-cheek video, “Tonight I’m Frakking You.” Can you name every character, reference, and actor by the end? Don’t think so. Anyway, enjoy the slave Leia outfit, female Ghostbusters, and in-jokes out the butt. See you Friday!

A Defense of Drug Abuse 2: Electric Boogaloo

Apr 252011

April 25, 2011 Posted by Entropy Echo at 12:01 am April Tagged with: advice, art, artist, black, caffeine, coffee, drink, duke nukem forever, energy, fillion, green, harry potter, images, jaw, jersey shore, jorts, meth, monster, mugshot, nathan, no, pic, Rebecca black, starbucks, tan, tanning, trailer, writer, writing 5 Responses »

It's twitcharrific!

April 25, 2011

Every artist needs a booze break. Whether your drink of choice is a shot of pure agave tequila, bourbon on the rocks, absinthe (if you can find it), or a chilled beer, you just want to longue back and relax, look at notes, or otherwise zone out into a chemical haze for a few minutes. Nothing wrong with that.

Of course, the opposite is also true. Sometimes you need to jump start the creative juices. Sometimes you really want to just get going and not stop until you finish. An exercise routine is good to get your blood flowing, but with a hectic schedule, you might not have time.

Enter caffeine, the savior of writers, painters, and artists everywhere.

Look, I‘m not naïve. I need me some hot or cold caffeine in the morning sometimes. However, your delivery system, like your delivery system for alcohol, must suit your needs. Not all caffeine is created equal.

A Monument to College Caffeine by ~animay0 on deviant ART

Energy Drinks

Red Bull, Monster, 5 Hour Energy Shot, whatever. Take your pick. The truth is that a lot of these drinks have a lot of sugar and other things you don’t really need. If you don’t have the time for a cup of coffee or tea, you really need to rethink your schedule. These things don’t have any more caffeine that a cup of whatever else you might want to enjoy, so why not just have something that won’t pack on the sugar?

Plus, let’s face it. Most of them taste like crap. If you really, REALLY want one, though, I recommend Monster Low Calorie. At least don’t get diabetes while you’re drinking these things.

Coffee

I’m going to get a lot of people upset but…

I can’t stand coffee.

The smell is just… I don’t know, but I’ve never liked it. I’ve tried it black, with cream and milk, and other ways, but I just can’t stomach it. Other than all that, though, coffee tends to linger on you for a long time. It stains your teeth and, unless you make it yourself, expect to pay something like twelve bucks for a cup of overprized foam.

I’m sure coffee has its fans, but I’m not one of them. Moving on…

Surging through my veins by *Xaldin911 on deviant ART

Black Tea

Dark, delicious, with a delicate flavor of herbs that both soothe and wake up with that jolt of energy… This is my favorite, hands down. Black tea can be just as pungent as coffee, but I actually don’t mind its flavor. Irish tea, which is pretty stout and bitter, is my favorite for a day when I know things are going to be hectic. It’s bold enough to wake me up and packs enough caffeine to get me through the morning at least.

Unlike coffee, though, black tea rarely leaves a lingering smell anywhere. That’s a big plus, I think. You don’t want to be smelling coffee all day. Trust me. My sister worked at Starbucks and as much as she loved coffee, having half her clothes smell like it really put her off the stuff for a while.

And speaking of tea…

Green Tea

South Texas is hot. I mean really hot. I mean… let me put it this way. It’s 9 PM and I’d rather stay inside because it’s still freakishly hot outside. When the wind blows, it feels like someone has a hairdryer aimed at your face. A hairdryer filled with hellfire. That’s wielded by a fire primordial.

Once summer gets here in full swing, though, things get downright nasty.

That’s why I get a pitcher, put four green tea bags in there, and fill it with hot (not boiling) water. Stick that bad boy in the fridge overnight and the next morning you have delicious iced green tea. It’s like liquid energy and awesomeness. A little sugar helps if you think tea in any form is too bitter, but I prefer it straight.

Afternoon Tea for One by ~regularjane on deviant ART

Like alcohol, though, be careful. I’ve actually cut my caffeine intake these last few months to maybe a cup or two a day if I need it. I was getting too jittery and on-edge. Cutting back meant a few days of sharp headaches as I detoxed from caffeine. I’ve also gotten into the joys of brewing the tea in a cast-iron pot my grandmother gave me. I could kill a raptor with that thing.

All in all, it’s a moderate tool that should be used with care.

And I type all this while on my second cup of tea for the day…

Well, link time!

Nathan Fillion is awesome… even if he did do this in his younger years.

Here’s proof that Rebecca Black is a sign of the End Times. Repent!

Jersey Shore has done a lot of things, among them convincing perfectly attractive young women that they need to look like a burnt Cheeto.

Here’s a wonderful visual to see how the Harry Potter characters have changed in the movies throughout the years. I think Neville grew a pair the size of Hogwarts between the first and last movies.

If you have a weak stomach, I recommend not looking at this mugshot of a jaw-less meth dealer.

Whoever wrote these emails is my new hero. It seems that in Australia, the Christian Right has found a way to infiltrate schools under the guise of counselors. This email exchange shows how one parent got his kid out of an Easter show and the results are… epic.

Wow. And they said it would never happen. I remember hearing rumors about Duke Nukem Forever since… well, they’ve always been there. It looks like this is it… and I still can’t finish Diego’s Story. See you Wednesday!