So you may or may not remember that a while back I posted about taking a class on Euripides via UVic's Continuing Studies program. They recently sent me their course guide for 2010, and I didn't bother to look through it until just a couple minutes ago, and now you cannot see me but I am phreaking out. The fifth course listed in this book is none other than Michael Jackson: The Man, The Myth, The Legend. So yeah, I definitely just broke the promise that I'd made to myself to not spend any more money until January. >xD Some of you may remember when I found out that UVic offered a class on MJ a mere month after I had graduated (and the ensuing phreak out I had then), but this class is much better because I can actually take it!!

BRB USING MY ALMA MATER FOR FANGIRLING PURPOSES

aurora_lime, take this class with me!! xD

They also seem to have expanded their foreign languages department, which is awesome! This year they're offering two Beginner's Korean classes, for example. (And yes, I am definitely tempted.) Although I would still argue for the need to add some more advanced classes for all the other languages they offer. :|

http://polrant.blogspot.com/2009/12/tolerance-is-sometimes-vice.html

OK OK I know some of you are probably getting bored of Democommie, but man this amuses me too damn much...and hell it's my blog:

"Two more comments by Loudmouted Asshole mike w. deleted. mikey, when are you going to get it through your single issue dominated thick skull that I have no desire nor intention to discuss anything with a loudmouthed asshole? You keep telling me you want a discussion when what you really want is to dominate a conversation--not at all the same thing."

Hehehehe, you want to dominate the conversation, so I'm going to delete all your comments, and get up on my soapbox...because that isn't at ALL the same thing.

"It appears to be impossible for you to absorb and process the information that I keep putting out that for you at Southern Beale's blog."

What, that we're assholes, and you don't want to discuss the issues, and us fucking dickheads are rude? I think I got that, what part did I miss?

"You're a punk who needs to learn that your ideas are not the only ones that matter. Grow up or don't, but do it at your own blog or one of your echo chambers."

Nope, it appears that only views that parrot his are allowed to remain are the ones that matter! Indeed, Grow up and blog at your blog where you allow all to comment, and openly discuss issues...or some other Echo Chamber....like blogs that delete all contrary posts.

I R O N Y!!!

"If you really want to discuss the issue, go to the Brady Center's blog and talk to those folks--they're sort of single issue, too. You're probably very simpatico in that regard."

Heh, Thinking is not his strong point. Bradies haven't allowed comments on their blogs in years, because pro gunners would dissect their flawed arguments!

Too FUNNY!

Arrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

SPAM ME WITH YOUR DECLUTTERING AND ORGANIZING TIPS!!!

I am decluttering/organizing/cleaning tomorrow in an attempt to save my shiny new Christmas gifts from having to live in the maze that is my room. I swear right now I feel like I am a mere few useless belongings away from my own episode of Hoarders. How unfair is it that I've been fighting this for a decade and yet I still feel like I'm losing all the time? :|

Random post!

• Mum and I went to Vancouver yesterday for the Boxing Day stuff. It was quite foggy going, but coming back was SUPER FOGGY. Literally, you could not read the road signs until they were by the passenger window, and the catseyes on the road to show the lane divisions weren't visible either. We have totally driven from Vancouver to the ferries a bazillion times, and we STILL got lost by not making the turnoff - AND DIDN'T NOTICE UNTIL WE GOT TO WHITEROCK. You can imagine how impressed Dad was.
  
  
• I got a mild headache yesterday, which lasted overnight and is now a mild-moderate one. So I was lying down in mum's room with a wet cloth (she made me, otherwise I would have ignored it), and Dad came in and asked if I had caught meningitis. Thanks Dad.
  
  
• BBC world news says that the Chinese think they have found Cao Cao's tomb, which would be pretty awesome if true.
  
  
• The radio also said that some people are trying to start a new slang for "click on the link" -> "Clink," as in "Just clink on it." Or, as I of course heard it "Klink." XD
  

I had a good friend growing up named "Eben", now that's a name you don't hear from away!

See if you out-of-staters can keep up with the lingo!

Arrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

Turns out Democommie has his own blog. And guess who he's squawking about there?
http://polrant.blogspot.com/2009/12/tolerance-is-sometimes-vice.html

Talked about him here:
http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/605489.html

Seems Demo doesn't like me much. Let's have some fun!

"What's not okay is when threadjackers descend on blogs to push their own narrow agendas and try to turn someone else's platform into their own bully pulpit."

You'll note that all I do on this blog and others is correct misinformation, and present my side of the argument. Given that this is true, seems that Demo actually only wants HIS message to have the Bully Pulpit, and lies and misinformation to go unchallenged.

"When they are obvious trolls I will do what I can to chase them off. By "obvious troll" I mean those commenter’s who have no desire to do anything but disrupt the thread to the point of having other commenter’s give up and walk away."

yep, hence why I come with questions, background information and discussion topics, and I'm constantly inviting debate here there or anywhere.

“Many of the trolls have their own blogs which, of course, they invite people to visit. This particular bait is not tempting to me.”

Don’t blame you…see below.

“If they had a legitimate point I wouldn't be calling them "trolls" in the first place. Since they are trolls I see no reason to advance their hit counts.”

Hence why they avoid the topic at all costs and come off as completely ignorant and belligerent. I can see that!

From the comments (on the thread listed in my blog post *comments are gone now because Ms. Beale switched to Blogger comments because Haloscan sucks and now costs money…I don’t blame her*)

“With people like Weer'd Beard and mike w., there is no "discussion" and they have both made it pretty obvious, even with their own words, that they have little expectation of convincing any of the readers of your blog that they are right. They are simply being cyberbullies. Their links are to information that is either from pro-gun sites or cherry picked from other places. They have zero respect for people who disagree with them.”

Hmmm Here’s another quote:
“You just don't get it. I don't give a flying fuck what you think. You're convinced that your paranoid delusions about government confiscation of guns are a rational response to the attempts by some well intentioned, if less than expert, people to lessen the carnage. You have no respect for those with whom you disagree, unless they can pile more facts up than you can. Of course both you and mike w., when presented with facts you don't like, simply disregard the information, characterizing it as "liberal" or "socialist" or "cowardly".”

HOLY SHIT back off Big-Bully me.

I come into topics and bring my side of the issue. I should be polite and actually just tell people to fuck off! Why didn’t they teach me this in school?

I probably shouldn’t waste as much time with people like this. Ms. Beale, MikeB302000, Democommie and the like all contradict themselves and make fools of themselves so much I have a hard time believing they have full metal faculties.

Still this the ENTIRE face of the anti-freedom movement.
http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/589444.html

It’s not like these fringe basement-dwellers are just a limited contingency, they’re just the less rational arm of a massive beast that pushes in the same direction.

Their goals are the same, to remove all our freedoms and allow the government total control.

Their tactics are the same, spread misinformation, do all you can to squelch the voice of the opposition, and if ever directly questioned, they change the subject or ignore.

Good luck at that. I won’t back down.

Arrrrr

-Weer’d Beard

If you asked me what my favourite song of all time is, I have no idea what I would answer, but one song that comes pretty close is Loreena McKennitt's "The Bonny Swans":



(Is anyone annoyed by YouTube videos embedded into posts outside of a cut? If so, let me know! I don't want to be slowing down anyone's friends pages or anything here.)

FIRST OFF - FUCK YOU CINEMAGIC FOR NOT SHOWING THE IRON MAN 2 TRAILER BEFORE THE FILM. I WAS LIVID. LIVID. I SCREAMED IN THE THEATRE; SERIOUSLY, I ALMOST WENT TO THE MANAGER AND DEMANDED A REFUND. I SPENT $9 ON THAT TICKET -- YOU THINK IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE MOVIE? NO, IT WAS CAUSE I WANTED MY DAMN ROBERT DOWNEY JR DOUBLE FEATURE.

So, anyway, the movie. ( GENERAL SPOILERS )


The Conclusion:

Robert Downey Jr is God Of Epic Win. The less you know about Sherlock the better. The sequel is inevitable, and I hope that they ditch McAdams and Ritchie.

Hey I read bullshit like this all the time:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/22/terror.guns/

"When people on the government's terrorist watch list have tried to buy guns or explosives in recent years, the government has let them the vast majority of the time."

OH NO suspected terrorists buying guns! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! Well of course people who want to infringe on the right to bear arms don't seem to care that "Suspected Terrorists" under the letter of the law are called "Innocent People".

Still if all these dicks on the "Terrorist Watch list" are such a danger.

#1) Why are they out breathing free air and able to walk ANYWHERE, let alone into a gun shop.

#2) Why is it that REAL DEAL TERRORISTS like this assclown wasn't on said list:
http://blog.joehuffman.org/2009/12/26/HowsThatWorkingOutForYou.aspx
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/25/breaking-attempted-terrorist-attack-on-intl-northwest-flight/

Gun control it's what you do instead of somthing!

Arrrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

Well, I hope those of you who did the Christmas thing had a good one. I don't really like Christmas, but mine was nice as usual all the same.

Anyway, on the topic of giving, the LJ promotion this year is $10 off a paid account. Since most of you already have one, and I don't really feel it's a great gift to give someone something they still have to purchase, I'll just offer up: If you want a gift certificate for $10 off a paid account, just comment and let me know. I've got 10 to give away, anyone welcome.

And, since what's Christmas without presents, here's the nice begining to an unfinished post-Apocalyptic fic to warm your hearts.

Watchmen, PG, probably no pairings, Movie!verse AU

( Snow is falling through the shattered pyramid walls )

How weird that the year I wasn't really feeling the Christmas spirit turned out to be the year where I got some of the bestest presents evarrr! ( First world materialism, go! )

And I feel like I've said this about a million times already, but I have also been LOVING the fandom card exchange I took part in. You guys are amazing and I'm glad to have been able to share a little bit of the holidays with you. <3 :D

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean off my desk so I actually have somewhere to put all this stuff when I leave for work in two hours. :P

I have been sitting here for an hour trying to think of some way to write a Christmas post that's happy but that also somehow reflects the odd confusion about the holidays that I've been experiencing this year. Nothing is coming and so I guess I give up for now, although I do want everyone on my friendslist to know that I hope you have an amazing day, whether you're celebrating or not. Every day I am super grateful to have met every one of you. <3

I've been thinking about my Japan trip a lot lately, I think just because this time last year is when I was busy planning all of it. Completely by accident, we were lucky enough to time our Tokyo Disneyland visit so that we could enjoy the last few days of Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare (the other parks that do the overlay just call it "Haunted Mansion Holiday," I have no idea why Tokyo throws in that extra word), which was so much more amazing than I had expected it to be. And weirdly enough, going on that ride in January, and despite the fact that it's supposed to be a little frightening, I always felt much more Christmassy than I had during the actual Christmas season. Anyway, just now I looked up the audio to the stretching room portion, because that "lalalalala" in the background is pretty much my favourite part of the entire ride, not gonna lie. Oh, and the creepy singing at the very end, when you're exiting the stretching room, omg I love that! So for those of you who like your Christmas a little creepy:



(It is really weird to me, hearing this dialogue in English. xD I'd never heard the original version before tonight!)

Wow, this entry is discombobulated. Longer, more coherent letter later? For now, please have an awesome day -- and don't let Jack Skellington ruin it for you! xD <3

Home for the Holidays, the Mrs. and I packed up the wagon for a few days in Maine with our folks.

Good times will be had for what has been a crazy season!

Hope all is well for all of you!

Arrrrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

I get to go to work!

DON'T BE TOO JEALOUS NOW!!

My next day off isn't until the 28th. :(

I was going to ramble on a bit but I don't feel like it now, lol. Happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it, and an awesome Thursday to those who don't. :)

Random edit: One of my co-workers asked me today if I had a "music device" (haha, cute), because she wanted to listen to music on her break. I just find this amusing because I dunno, I feel like I listen to the most random assortment of music without caring what anyone else thinks about it, and so I wonder if she'd even be able to find anything in my collection she'd want to listen to. xD

WHY YES I DO THINK I AM MORE UNIQUE THAN I AM

WHAT OF IT

Tonight my cat, Ben, met our pair of gerbils for the first time. To his credit, as a mouse and bird killing machine, he was clearly interested by "rodent-under-glass", but did nothing more than gently paw at the glass a few times. I figured this is what would happen, he's very capable of feeding himself off of his natural prey (did it for years when he was younger), but now that he's older and lazier (read: cat), and especially as they were in their secure tank on the counter, he gave up on the idea pretty quickly.

Cygnus and By-Tor, never seeing a cat before, were placid as ever.

My folks thought the whole thing was cute.

While writing that previous Star Trek essay I brushed up against the idea of speciesm in the Federation, specifically regarding Spock. Here's some more on that.

( I didn't tell my mother I loved her )

In other news, by request, our tree. I particularly like the angel veering rather drunkenly to the right. Hopefully others feel encouraged to post pictures of theirs, as I'd love to see them! XD

So there's a good chance by this time next year the Mrs. may very well be 100% seizure free.

That will be a wonderful time, and I hope above all hope that's the God's honest truth.

That being said, there will be one thing I'll miss.

So for starters as a primary caregiver of an epileptic, it's a serious disease, but that doesn't mean I'm above having fun with it. "Twitch" has been my favorite euphemism for epilepsy. I'll call the Mrs. "Twitch", or call her meds "Twitch Pills". Once I was telling the Boss what it was like being "Married to a Twitch". Come on, have a little fun with it.

So while the Mrs. was in the Hospital with her EEG monitoring the nurses confirmed her mental state by asking simple questions. Stuff like "What Day is it?" "Do you know where you are?" "Who's the President?" "What year is it?". Stuff like that.

Well since then when I suspect the Mrs. might be having a seizure I ask questions like this. Sometimes I don't get any meaningful answer, or she simply says "I don't know." Which isn't very interesting, but other times it's kinda cool.

We were at Jordan's Furniture and I noticed a blank stare from the Mrs..

Me: "Do you know where you are?"

Her: "Of course I do, I'm at my Mother's house!"

Me: "Who's the President?"

Her: "Obama."

Creepy that last bit, huh?

I'm pleased to say there are many times she doesn't know who the president is.

This evening:

Me: "Who's the President?"

Her: "Like right now?"

Me: "yes"

Her: "I don't know...."

Me: "Do you know where we are?"

Her: "I'm in the Hospital?"

Me: "The Hospital? heh, that's funny!"

Her: "Why? We're in the Hospital?"

Me: "Look around. Do you know where you are?"

Her (Looking around): "Looks like the Kitchen."

Me: "That would be Correct."

She has no recolection of any of these conversations.

It's kinda neat, and I won't lie, I might miss it a little bit!

Arrrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

http://throwingstardna.livejournal.com/1086414.html

From Guav, who's totally liberal, but cool with individual rights, so it's hard to argue with him.

"In NYC it's illegal to paint a real gun to look like a toy & illegal to sell a toy gun that looks real. Problem solved, crime is over!"

That's how they see it, isn't that funny?

Arrrrr

-Weer'd Beard

Found this as a referring page from a link:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=fa&sl=en&u=http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dweer&rurl=translate.google.com

Looks like Farsi or Arabic to me, but that's a very crude guess.

I wonder if I'm as funny in Central Asia and North Africa as I am here in the Western World?

Arrrrrr