Brian Cowen got a bit hot under the collar today when he was accused of protecting people in Anglo Irish Bank and committing "Economic Treason." Normally you might think any leader of a country accused of this would get angry, but this is Brian Cowen we're speaking about. A man famous for his lack of anger. A man who's reaction to having two unsolicited paintings of him, naked and taking a shit, appearing illegally in the National Gallery was little more than "ah sure, tis' grand". And when he and his mother were infamously insulted when Ian Paisley remarked "the reason his lips are so big is because his mother used to stick them to the floor", his response was a simple shrug of the shoulders and an utterance "ah sure, people say things ya know."
So why did he get so upset today? Over a statement that was more for theatrics than anything else. Is the pressure finally getting to him? Is this his attempt at finally showing some leadership? Or did the question hit a nerve? A nerve leading to something rotten?
This is a fairly long winded post but the point I really want to make is: if you ever have a problem with your computer, check your RAM! Seems obvious to some but it's often overlooked in favor of other possible problems. You never know what you might find after checking it and removing a dead RAM module will do wonders!
I recently had an issue with a bad RAM module in my main computer. It manifested itself one night while I was playing Half-Life 2. During the game I suddenly got a System Stop-Error screen (Blue Screen Of Death). I thought nothing of it and attempted to restart the machine. During the boot process the machine restarted itself again. This happened each time during the boot process. I did all the usual things: attempted to boot into safe-mode (same problem), use last good configuration (same problem)... I eventually set about "repairing Windows" which consisted of "refreshing" the existing installation of Windows on my machine with the Windows CD-Rom. That didn't work either, the process got only so far before hanging.
The stop-errors were different each time the blue screen popped up. One of the screens mentioned an IRQ problem and another something about a page being out of bounds. At that stage I suspected it might have a RAM issue causing the problem so I opened up my computer and swapped all the RAM modules around to see if that helped, and it did! After that I managed to boot into Windows and everything seemed to be fine, for a while. Then, another blue screen. The next time I managed to get back into Windows I Google'd RAM Checkers and came across this Microsoft Utility. And this brings us to the nub of this post:
Windows Memory Diagnostic tool is awesome! With it you make a little cd-rom boot disc, pop it into your disc drive before restarting the machine and it boots into a little DOS diagnostic thingy which does some wonderful little tests and stuff. Testing 3 gigs of RAM proved to take forever though so I simple loaded it up with one stick of RAM installed at a time, and by doing that I discovered that a 512MB RAM module that originally came with the machine failed every test while the other passed with flying colours. So I popped the good ones back in and restarted the computer.
And my machine works better now than it ever did! I always had little weird niggling problems; odd slow downs and failed start-ups. All gone! Even boot times are much faster now! The oddest thing of all though, my system hard-drive is much much quieter after I removed the RAM. I don't just mean less disk activity, it actually is quieter! From day I got the computer the hard drive used to be so loud that I had to put on music to cover up the crunching noises.
So there you have it! Two things I recommend you regularly check: Your bumps for lumps, and your RAM for flam.
I was watching a program on Discovery about human sacrifices. They said these acts aren't carried out anymore, and yet in many countries around the world today, even in America, people are killed for seemingly ritualistic reasons on a regular basis.
It could be argued that the Death Penalty it a ritualistic killing. Even though it isn't carried out to appease fictional gods, its existence is still justified on the grounds that it's for the greater good of the community and country, to protect it from further "evils" by dissuading would-be killers from committing murder.
[Image: Hood Museum of Art, Aztec sacrifice mural via]
'The idea, she [Judith Witting, sales manager for the producer, Sprehe] claimed, was to get in on the Obama-mania which is continuing to grip Germany. The word "fingers" in the name refers to the fact that it is a finger food. "It's like hotdogs," Witting said. "No one would ever think they are actually from dogs."
For Americans in Germany, though, there is a risk that the product might be seen as racially insensitive. Fried chicken has long been associated with African-Americans in the US -- naming strips of fried chicken after the first black president could cause some furrowing of brows.'
And don't forget about the "brown" curry sauce! Oh you evil Germans, weren't two World Wars, The Holocaust, the birth of Cancer, the cause of global warming, the aging process and the invention of AIDS enough for you... No, you had to go and top it off by making the racist finger foodz. Damn you all to hell!
And now for some parody theme music for the product which I found on Youtube. God bless Youtube, and God bless America, and most of all, God bless you Mr. Obama man!
My [Mike Davey, creator] goal in building this project was to create a machine that embodied the classic look and feel of the machine presented in Turing's paper. I wanted to build a machine that would be immediately recognizable as a Turing machine to someone familiar with Turing's work.
Although this Turing machine is controlled by a Parallax Propeller microcontroller, its operation while running is based only on a set of state transformations loaded from an SD card and what is written to and read from the tape. While it may seem as if the tape is merely the input and output of the machine, it is not! Nor is the tape just the memory of the machine. In a way the tape is the computer. As the symbols on the tape are manipulated by simple rules, the computing happens. The output is really more of an artifact of the machine using the tape as the computer.
I thin a good appraoch to find an prostitute via online is to use video chat. This allows you to see the other in real time, with a real face and have a real conversation. If you harmonize in the chat then maybe meeting is a good idea. If not that’s ok too.
It reminds me of the 4chan meme "an hero". The thing is though, there is actually nothing grammatically incorrect with either "an hero" or "an prostitute". The a/an thing is purely for ease of phonetic pronunciation and has no written hard-set rules on when either sould be used; it's all down to the choice of the speaker.
If you think "an prostitute via online" is correct, then that's fine, and "If not that’s ok too."
Valentino Liberace, as some will know, was a popular pianist famous for his flamboyant outfits and showmanship. Rumors of his homosexual tendencies and illness from AIDS plagued him respectively for years and months leading up to his eventual death in 1987. He never admitted to either however, and died before either could be confirmed. Horrifically, shortly after his death and burial his body was exhumed for further medical inspection. The official reasons for this were a bit willy nilly, but most knew it was for morbid curiosity of whether he had died HIV positive and thus, in a round about way, confirming his homosexuality.
So anyway, there I was, on the toilet thinking about Kim Kardashian and wondering what her ass would look like sitting on a toilet seat when a thought struck me. Like most of these "famous" people, I actually know very little about the woman. Literally this is all I know: 1) She has a ginormous ass-bottom. 2) She made a sex tape with a black man with a big willy and most people agreed that he wasn't using it very well and even they, with their little sausage snakes could do a hell of a lot better. 3) She's friends with Paris Hilton[? Not sure about that one]. Finally, 4) most people say she has ass implants. It's that last one that causes me most grief, for nothing ruins a fantasy more than the doubt of fake ass implants. You just can't enjoy an ass if it might be made out of rubber [don't mistake this to an ass covered in rubber, that's a whole other type of fantasy!].
It's this doubt that I was thinking about. We'll never know for sure if her bum cushions are real or not. There are so many haters spreading rumors out of spite and too many horn-dogs willing to believe anything they see. Big bottoms exist all over the place, but it does appear as if her ass is all she's famous for, so you wouldn't know what kind of hocus-pocus she shoved in there just to bolster her fame. I think, much like poor old Liberace, the only way we'll ever know for sure is after Kardashian dies and the doctors perform some sort an ass-autopsy. Only then will we find out if those bunz are 100% organic! Fuck, this got a bit macabre didn't it? Quick, cue a mock up I made earlier of Kardashian with external butt padding.
Fan: Hi, could you sign my book please? :) Author: Sign your book? you wrote a book? Awesome! XD Fan: No no, it's your book. =P Author: My book? What are you doing stealing my books? o_O Fan: No, its a copy of your book. :) Author: Copy? Ok so you is doing the god damn piracy on my ass!? O_O Fan: No, its ok. I bought it. :-S Author: You bought it! That's god damn boot legging now. >:-( Fan:No, no its ok, it's a totally legal copy I bought... you got the money. :-O Author: No way man, I would have remembered if you gave me money. ¬_¬ Fan: No it doesn't work like that... :-\ Author: Damn straight it doesn't! ¬_¬ Fan: Look, can you just sign this please? >:( Author: Certainly. :-D
With the prevalence of stories about child molestation by religious clerics around the world, inevitably this will lead to the general public becoming used to and accepting of parodies and cultural references to this sordid subject matter. I just wonder then, how long will it be before they name a race horse, "Paedophile Priest". You have to admit, it does have that 'GG' ring to it, and just imagine the commentary it might provide: "and it's Paedophile Priest, sneaking up from behind, coming on the inside, to take the win from Childhood Memories". If it were ever to race against another horse called "Childhood Memories" of course.
I could see it happening, it's a good punchy name. Than again, I can't ever imagine it being acceptable to call a horse "Burning The Jew" so maybe it will never happen.
The reason I sometimes like speak in terms of extreme black and white is because I rarely ever want to concern myself with clearly defining where one thing ends and the next begins.
I've stuck with watching LOST since episode 1, way back in 2005. It's the one program on TV that I sit down to watch every week. Season 1 was excellent, really spooky shit, but even I have to admit that last episode was a real kick in the hole to loyal viewership. I personally know people who loved every episode of season 1 but never watched LOST again after that season cliff-hanger finale.
A lot of the time with LOST it's been painful to watch. Some episodes added nothing to the story. I guess the writers might have hoped people would entertain themselves with their own ideas and theories about what the Island is. Me, I never gave a fuck. I never wondered if it was hell, or a parallel dimension, a game show, toxic waste land, Craggy Island... I just watched it. I still want to know what the hatch from season 1 is all about. Oh I know they "built a story around it" in season 2 but I mean, the original mystery of the hatch has never been explained, and the more I watch of the final season, the more I realise nothing will be explained. This is the modern day Twin Peaks, but at least Twin Peaks never promised to make sense.
I watched another episode finish tonight, and I feel so empty. This must be what long term heroin addiction feels like. Oh well, Evangeline Lilly's bewbz.
So when did LOST turn shit:
1) It was always shit, get over it.
2) The end of season 1 when they left you hanging.
3) The fact that there was a season 2.
4) Religion.
5) When the storyline left the island.
6) Time travel.
8) John Locke not being John Locke.
7) The fact that it's one big long dragged out ever-twisting convoluted story line with no real rhyme nor reason; which you are watching now simply out of brut habit even though you know nothing will ever be explained by the final episode.
While not unique to the Irish, we are still renowned for our acts of begrudgery towards those of our own who have achieved or strive for success. But what can you expect from a people who have taken a word like "bold", generally meaning brave and adventurous, fearless and daring; and turned it into something which instead means mischievous, contumacious, insubordinate, criminal.
"A bold child is one that needs to be chastised for it's naughty behavior."
It must be six or seven years since I was first introduced to this, along with a collection of "Nu-Centz" songs. Initially the whole Irish Hippity-Hoppity/rap thing seemed hilariously ironic, but over the years I've grown quite fond of lyrical stylings of songs like "Asshole", "Down in the Dodder" and Anto & Finton's "Gerrup Outta Dat".
"Boy Racer" is grand auld laugh at the expense of the yobbo's reving the guts out of their clapped out shit mobiles in the middle of the night, and the most cutting thing of all is: every single lyric in it is completely true! Savage, like.
Maria Riesch: 2 Olympic gold medals and the Slalom World Cup globe for 2010.
I did some splanxy-art [yes, I'm calling it that now] in honor of Maria Riesch's fabulous year of Alpine Skiing. Lindsey Vonn might have won more but when she didn't win she tended to get a spaz-attack and forget how-to ski. Considering Vonn won 2 medals in the olympics but failed to finish 6 of the 8 race events I think that says a lot more about her skiing skills. Oh plus whenever Lindsey Vonn lost a race she blamed everything bar herself.
I have lots of "splanxy art" ready to unleash on your senses. Most is practice work where I was trying to figure out what look I was going for. Prepare yourselves.
Joe Duffy is like a character from a Stephen King novel. He and his "Liveline" team will fuck you up, no matter how well prepared you are. Go on air discussing issues about your noisy neighbors, prepare to have dark secrets about your childhood brought up. If you ever hear Joe issuing a Fatwa on your head, you had better run for cover. Going on air to argue your point rarely works in your favor. No, you're better off staying well away.
And now for some poetry that I wrote on the matter...
Feel the urge, To vent your pain, Summon him now, To solve your bane.
Turn him on, Tune him in, And drop the notion Of being without sin.
[Witness now, the callers aired.]
Tricky calls from across the land The line is open, free at hand. But no man has ever fared well, At the grips of this tele-hell.
Let this be a warning: If he asserts you blame, Avoid at all costs, To try clear your name.
For talking is the key, The key to your damnation. Oft better to be quiet, Than be heard by the nation.
If talk you must, Then dare not feel fine, Because that is the trap Of Joe on the LiveLine.
A few thoughts I noted over the past few months. Usually I would have popped these onto my Twitter (What the hell do you call it anyway, Twitter blog??) but for one reason or another I decided against it.
I went to the doctor the other day and he told me I had syphilis. I couldn't believe it as I hadn't slept with anyone in months. The doctor said I might have gotten it from a door handle. Well it looks as if my days of fucking door handles are over then!
They say you should live your life as if each day is your last. But what if it isn't!? I'm not sure I'd like to go to jail for killing all those people in the day previous.
Jade Goody was lying in her hospital bed, with medics and family all around her. One doctor turns to the family and says: "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do, there's no sign of any brain activity..." A moment passes, then Jade wakes up.
Why is it when I do a Christy Brown impression I get chastised and shunned but when Daniel Day Lewis does one, he gets an Oscar. There's no justice in the world.
The two main subjects of this post (Johansson and make-up) aren't really mean't to be taken together, I'm actually taking them as separate entities. I want to talk a little about Scarlett Johansson and then use her as an example for the make-up part. Just in case anyone thought this post was about having a go at her or something.
The truth is I don't know enough about her to have a go at her. From what I had seen of her she never did much for me. Until that is, I saw the picture above. It's been some years since I saw it first, and I may have even blogged about it (at least I planned to; maybe this is the post I planned now? Lord, the memories are gone!) Anyway, she "does it" for me here. So I investigated her more after this, not a lot mind you, but more than before, and I found some more images:
Oh the glamor of it all! But that hair colour, oh dear. It's like someone melted a Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel over her head. A nice looking woman for sure but still not my kind of thang.
Now here's the magic part. I came across another set of images of Johansson, again in make-up but this time a much more neutral set of tones. The effect is quite, well, have a look for yourself....
A different person completely! Mind you, I'm not very good with faces in general so I'm not a good judge on this. [Note: It's taken me so long to write this post that I think I've fallen in love with Scarlett Johannson, thus making it hard to flesh out the original ideas I had. Oh how fickle the micky gets when gray hairs appear around it <-- old Chinese proverb. Nevermind I shall battle on] Which is more beautiful though? Which would a typical hetero-man or lesbo-woman find themselves being more attracted to? If you asked me before now, I would have guessed the high glamor appearance like in the shots below, now I'm not too sure however. Given what I've read from others, you could probably cut her head off as long as she still had "The Boobz!" Some are easily entertained I guess (boobs are good though, again don't get me wrong).
I think [a lot of] men have a problem [or don't care] what it is that makes them attracted to a woman. The whole notion of attraction being part woman, part illusion, part action, part pantomime rarely comes into conversation, at least in those terms (and maybe it shouldn't? Maybe to analyse is to dampen the effect). Some years ago, while I was still in college, a friend of mine was perplexed as to why women looked better to him during the Summer. Others didn't care but he kept at it until the Eureka moment hit him. "Maybe..." he pondered "maybe it's because of the clothes they wear in the Summer..." I sometimes think discoveries which involve the obvious are the best, don't you? :)
Anyway, as a means to wrap up this mess of a post [it really has taken me years to complete!] I shall include a lovely little ditty by one of my favorite musical acts (don't get excited, I have many favorites) Sparks! Taken from their 1994 album "Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins". The track, "Frankly, Scarlett, I Don't Give A Damn" would have been a perfect end but now with the Stockholm Syndrome after setting in, I don't know whether I give a damn or not.
Finally, finally... for the trainspotters. Christie Haydon is miming [or playing minimal] drums in this video. She was often an extra on the set of Star Trek: TNG. I just thought I'd throw that one in, for free, like.
I like Ricky Gervais, I'm a fan of his work you could say. I liked The Office, Extra's, his stand-up shows, and I quite enjoyed his last major film role before this, Ghost Town. I thought then I might also enjoy his last effort: The Invention of Lying. I thought wrong. They should have called it "The Invention of Boredom!"
A moderately interesting premise: a world in which lying didn't exist. Unfortunately however, the execution of this plot was poor. Why does not being able to lie mean people have to say stuff just to offend a person rather than shutting up, and the use of sarcasm by characters in the film seemed off, since sarcasm is a form of lying. I was willing to look past issues like these however as there will always be paradoxes and inconsistencies in movies dealing with altered realities. I could not however look past the fact at how unfunny this film was. Painfully unfunny. I thought it might have been jut a slow build up and when he started lying then the funny would begin; no.
The true reason for this film's creation manifested itself later on when Gervais' character told his dying mother a fairytale of how wonderful the afterlife is. This then leads him on to create the story of "The Man In The Sky" (God), which he delivers to inhabitants of this world on the back of two pizza boxes as they sat there lapping it up like brainless zombies, only to occasionally interrupt with well known inconsistencies with religious rules in our own world. The film then flops off into a micky-mouse love story.
Ricky Gervais is well known to be an outspoken Atheist, and that's fine, but the next time he decides to make a propaganda movie lets hope he makes it entertaining at least.
Few know it, but today is actually "Hi-Res Images of Sexy Older Balto-Slavic Ex. Leaders, With Nice Hair, Wearing Headphones" day. Yep it's right up there with May Day and Christmas. Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (her full name with all the bells and whistles) stepped down from her post as Ukrainian Prime Minister on the 4th March 2010 (see that, I'm almost as quick as the mofu REUTERS!)
She is the leader of Ukrania's conservative party, "Fatherland" (well with a name like Fatherland it gets my vote anyway). Not only that, but it's official colour is pink. A conservative party with pink livery? Where do I sign up! David Cameron are you listening? And to a lesser extent, Enda Kenny are you wearing your pink silk knickers today?
Whatever you may or may not think of her looks, you cannot deny that hair! RTÉ newsreader, Sharon Nà Bheoláin, is quoted as saying that Tymoshenko is a big influence on her personal style and fashion sense [citation needed]*.
Brian Cowen got a bit hot under the collar today when he was accused of protecting people in Anglo Irish Bank and committing "Economic Treason." Normally you might think any leader of a country accused of this would get angry, but this is Brian Cowen we're speaking about. A man famous for his lack of anger. A man who's reaction to having two unsolicited paintings of him, naked and taking a shit, appearing illegally in the National Gallery was little more than "ah sure, tis' grand". And when he and his mother were infamously insulted when Ian Paisley remarked "the reason his lips are so big is because his mother used to stick them to the floor", his response was a simple shrug of the shoulders and an utterance "ah sure, people say things ya know."
