Celebrate some gay!

In honour of our friendly neighbors to the north legalizing gay marriage, I proudly present...

THE GAYEST THING EVAR!!

And a hearty congrats to the Canucks. If you're anti-gay marriage, I'm sorry if this offends you. I'm neither for nor against the particular issue, but I AM for a person's ability to choose for him/herself.

Links-a-poppin'!

I figured it's been a while since I did a good old-fashioned link round-up. So without further ado, away we go!

First up is a terrific piece of French animation which cleverly demonstrates the Butterfly Effect (and no, I don't mean the crappy Ashton Kutcher movie): Le Building (Brief animated nudity and violence)

Want to see how far we are from the nearest star? Want a guided tour of our little section of the neighborhood? Like to play with cool Flash based astronomy tools? Then this one's for you: Planet Quest 3D New Worlds Atlas

Really, who didn't see it coming? Tom Cruise writes a letter to Satan

And finally, the robot revolution is beginning. I advise seeking shelter immediately in any local government facilities with fall-out shelters. Of course, you might have some time to plan, since the robots are still just predicting the weather. (This could very well give you nightmares. I felt the last tattered shreds of my innocence slip away watching this seemingly innocuous weather report.)

Taste my religion

Tried out this religion quiz forwarded to me by my friend JT. It ranks you in accordance with where you fit in different Christian ideologies, based on a set of agree/disagree questions. It's sort of fascinating. For instance, you'll notice that Fundamentalist is lowest on my list, but I was raised Fundamentalist. I'm much more open-minded and liberal these days (a fact which causes my mother no end of grief). Anyway, give it a try, and let me know where you fall.

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern		86%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		68%
Modern Liberal		64%
Classical Liberal		61%
Neo orthodox		46%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		36%
Reformed Evangelical		29%
Roman Catholic		18%
Fundamentalist		14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Funny this site is, mmm.

Wondering what that's all about? I'm sure many of you (and by "many" I mean the three people that read this thing) are fans of Star Wars Episode III. I saw it last week, and my reaction to most of it was a firm and unflinching "Meh." It had the cool effects and fights, and there were one or two cool moments (Darth Vadar's first breath, anyone?), but for the most part I was overwhelmingly underwhelmed. So with all that said, I give you Star Wars Epidsode III: a steaming pile of Sith (found, cleverly enough, on "The Best Page in the Universe").

Also, plenty of examples of Superman being a SuperDick.

Oh, and one other thing...

You know, The Phantom Professor has been receiving a lot of attention since she was outed. For those of you not in the know, that links to a blog run by one Elaine Liner. Ms. Liner is an arts critic for The Dallas Observer (where she regularly makes personal attacks against actors/directors/producers; yes, personal attacks). Ms. Liner was also an adjunct writing professor at Southern Methodist University. While a professor, she maintained the aforementioned blog, and often commented on things she observed/heard on campus, interactions she had with students, or just SMU life in general. She labeled the rich, blonde, petite girls who are SMU's stock-in-trade as "Ashleys", giving her a way to discuss their vapidity without naming names, which would've opened her up to a libel case.

The blog ran in complete anonymity for quite a while, until it was discovered that it was Ms. Liner running it. I can't remember how, nor do I really care; we'll get to that in a moment. Regardless, the truth came out. Shortly after it came out, Ms. Liner lost her contract as an adjunct professor at SMU. Were the two connected? SMU claims no, Ms. Liner (naturally) claims, if not directly, it certainly didn't help.

People have been lauding her as someone speaking the truth about how things are at SMU. I can't really argue with that aspect of it. The way she describes things are pretty accurate. There's a real focus on the surface of things here (which would explain why every office in my building has a flat screen monitor, but I have to pay about $35/month (!) for my health benefits). So she makes a few good points. That being said, I'd like to express the following opinion of Ms. Liner: She is a horrible person, and that was a really inappropriate thing for her to do.

I know, it seems hypocritical of me to say her points were good but they make her a horrible person. But that's not what I meant. What I meant was that the expression of those opinions was the bad thing to do. She quoted things students said to her in confidence, and while she may not have used any names to indentify the students, the students themselves knew when they were being quoted. I would go so far as to say their friends knew who they were as well, and potentially could have learned details they shouldn't have known about friends/acquaintances. In addition, the labeling of a subset of the school community in a pejorative nature is unprofessional in the utmost. She's in a position of leadership, authority, and guidance over these students. Rather than bemoaning the fact that they have little focus on the deeper things in life, try to guide them toward those deeper things. Is that what a college-level professor is supposed to do anyway? Guide and instruct?

Something definitely needs to be done about the love of money and surface around here. I'm not saying I'm any better than Ms. Liner. I'm not, however, in a position of authority over the students, so anything I say is just inane rambling (if you've gotten this far in the post, you can definitely see the truth in that statement). When it comes from Ms. Liner, it's wholly inappropriate. Did the blog have anything to do with Ms. Liner's ousting from SMU? Who really knows except the administration? Should it have had something to do with it? You bet your sweet bippy.

Art schmart

Today's all about art on teh intrawebs. Actually, it's only about two websites on teh intrawebs, but they're both artistically related, so nyeh to you.

The first is Gallery of the Absurd. An artist writes brief little comments on something going on in the world of the vapid celebrity, then creates a (rather impressive) piece of art based on that blurb or celebrity. Par exemple:



The second is from Dave Devries' Monster Engine. Dave takes children's drawings of monsters, superheroes, and miscellany, and turns those drawings into actual pieces of art. It's effing brilliant. My favorite is his translation of a child's interpretation of Superman:



Anyway, it's all great stuff. Check it oot, eh?

Tom Cruise: That's some tasty crazy!!

From Television Without Pity (TWoP for those in the know):

While I would much rather be recapping Tom Cruise jumping his own self-made Scientology-loving shark on Oprah, dragging Katie Holmes out against her will… All right, I will recap it. Quickly. Here it is: "Look! I love women! I love me some vagina. Look. Look how I chewed Katie's lips off with my hetero-love-passion! Check it out. I love black people, too! Oh, yes. Black women. Tina Turner gave me roses, that's how motherfucking vagina-loving my shit is. I'd friggin' wear a vagina if I could, but in a really manly way. Intense? Hell yeah, I'm intense. Look, I help people. I'm known for that. I'll get your kids off Ritalin if you just donate a billion dollars to The L. Ron Hubbard Home For Terrible Sci-Fi Fiction and Freaky C-List Yeardley-Smith-Level Celebrities. See, I told you I was known for helping people. You know what else I'm known for? Fucking gay porn stars and then suing the balls out of their mouths when they come out with the story. What? Yeah, my children are black? Fuck you, Oprah. How dare you even notice something like the color of someone's skin. That's how fucking non-racist I am. I didn't even know my kids were black. I thought they were very tan. You're black? See! I didn't even know that! Now I'm going to stand on your couch until you get me some vagina right the fuck now!!! Go see War of the Worlds, opening June 29th! And then go hump some vagina, cuz that's what I'll be doing!"

Courtesy of Stee, who is one clever fellow.

Liar!!

OK, so...hypothetical time (and by hypothetical, I mean it really happened to me, but it's hypothetical for you). Let's say you have a coworker who, while a nice person, truly blows chunder when it comes to her job, and this person continually screws crap up that has a direct effect on YOUR job, which you then have to fix or have her fix, and bring to her attention so maybe she'll learn from her mistakes. However, despite all your efforts to help, (including directly offering to answer questions, take some of her burden because you often finish your work quickly, etc.), she both refuses your help, AND continues to screw up. Let's say this situation is so bad, in fact, that your and her boss has been getting multiple complaints from people in your dept. due to her screwing crap up, her inability to answer questions, or help in any significant way. In fact, the situation is even worse than that...there’ve been so many complaints about her that the head honcho of your dept., your executive damn director, has had to make special arrangements to RE-train her AND your direct supervisor, as a way of stemming the complaint tide.

Now imagine you do well at your job...keep your head down, don't make trouble, you're thorough and responsive, and you've gotten MULTIPLE compliments from people on your team and your dept. as a whole, INCLUDING thanks for making things run smoother than they've been in the past. Now imagine that there is a particular task you and the idiot share...a common email account that people in your dept. can send questions and requests for help, and you and the idiot both work that account, doing a first-on-the-scene sort of thing for the common questions, and dealing individually with emails that pertain directly your position (which you do work, maybe not as often as you should, but you do work it at least once a week, usually more).

Now let's say there's a particular member of your team who trained you, and with whom you get along quite well but who the idiot hates for reasons neither entirely clear nor accurate, and that team member calls you into her office one day to inform you that, during a state-of-the-union meeting about the idiot, your name came up in a negative sense. Specifically, that you had told the idiot that she was solely responsible for the email account (a blatant lie), and she was therefore overwhelmed responding to emails and couldn't do her job to the best of her ability...in essence (and this is my interpretation), that it's your fault that she sucks. Not only that, but your direct supervisor, who you thought you had a good relationship with, backed up her account of things...all of this in front of at least one other manager and the executive director. He and the idiot seem to have some odd relationship, where he continually covers for her mistakes. Did he ever ask you your side of things? No. Did she ever come to you to say she was overwhelmed and could you take on more responsibility for the email account? No.

The rub is you're not supposed to know....it was told to you in confidence by that team member. In fact, that team member probably wasn't even supposed to know, but heard it from a manager you really like and respect, and who seems to like you as well. You don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but you want to call the idiot on her lie, and ask your supervisor why he didn’t just ask you about it first before supporting her in front of the executive director. What would you do to prevent further false tarnish to your reputation using information you’re not supposed to have?