Heckuva job, ya idiot

So, somebody at FEMA got the bright idea to stage a fake press conference about the California wildfires, using FEMA employees to pose as reporters and lob softball questions. The genius who cooked up this scheme was scheduled to take a new job as the Public Information Officer for the Director of National Intelligence. The fake news conference turned out to be a great Career Limiting Move (CLM) as he has now been bagged from that new job.

When a political hack Republican lapdog like Michael Chertoff says you've just done "one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things" he's ever seen, that's saying something. This idiot definitely doesn't deserve the promotion that he's not getting anyway, but he does deserve an award - perhaps "Fucktard of the Year".

Zombie Defense Kit

Some guy made an awesomely funny Emergency Zombie Defense Kit. I think it's hilarious and well done. I'm not fond of zombie movies myself, so I think if I were going to do this I'd make an Emergency Vampire Defense Kit. Cause I'm more a blood-sucking nasferatu fan, myself.

Clothing, and sometimes the lack thereof

My preference for wearing a kilt is pretty well known among my friends. Therefore, I am embarrassed to say that I did not know that today is Kilt Day, and I as a result I am not wearing a kilt. Damn these unofficial, anonymously declared special days!

As best I can tell, Kilt Day may have been declared by Kiltmen.com. So it's quite arbitrary. And perhaps a little redundant, since Glenlivet sponsors Wear Your Kilt to Work Day on April 15. Still, the stigma that still gets attached to kilt-wearing rears its ugly head far too often, so us kilt wearers need to stick together. One of my friends and few actual readers is a perpetrator of this anti-kilt prejudice, so I enjoy flaunting my man-skirt around him whenever I can.

I do get some crap from guys when I go about kilt-ed, but I don't much care. They just don't have the cajones to wear ones themselves. That's their loss. Kilts are quite comfortable.

Also, the majority of ladies, it has been my experience, love a man in a kilt. Part of it, I am sure, is the perceived mystery of whether or not a man wears an undergarment beneath his kilt. My answer, regardless of the questioner's gender, age (well - as long as they're over 18), or anything else, is always the same: I just say, "There's only one way to find out!"

Moving on!

Another thing I am well known for is taking my shirt off anytime I am indoors and am allowed to. Having an excess of insulation (read: fat), I get far too warm wearing a shirt in a room-temperature environment. And that is why I love Improv Everywhere's latest prank: to poke fun at Abercrombie & Fitch's homoerotic advertising that constantly features shirtless men (more like boys in most cases), Improv Everywhere sent 111 shirtless men in to shop for shirts at Aberzombie & Bitch (as I like to call them). A "no-shirt, no-shoes, no-service" policy makes sense in an eating establishment, but in a clothing store? Don't you want to sell shirts to the shirtless? But no, A&F kicked them out.

This reminded me of something I did last week. I had gone into a store to purchase some new underwear for myself. I was wearing a kilt when I did so.

I love irony, and practice it whenever possible.

- Mattbear out.

Democrat Senator almost gets some cajones

Senator Chris Dodd (also Presidential hopeful) is saying he will attempt to block a FISA renewal bill, because it gives retroactive immunity to telecoms for any role they played in Bush's illegal wiretap program.

That's great. I think they need to be held responsible, and Dodd is trying to make sure a legal avenue is there for doing so. But what about the actual action of holding them responsible? When is someone going to do that? And the bigger question -

How about actually doing something to the Bush administration, since they're the ones that broke the law in the first place?

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

I'm a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction. It generally, though, does not translate well into film. Most attempts to do so have resulted in downright horrible movies.

A couple of years ago, an independent crew made a silent film of Call of Cthulhu that turned out excellently, though. Filming it as a period silent movie actually worked very well, and their project captured some of Lovecraft's ideas brilliantly.

Apparently this same group has been at work on a second Lovecraft movie, The Whisperer in the Darkness. This time it's a "talkie", but still in black and white. I look forward to this one.

Hallow's End

We always give our homes a name of one sort or another - our last house was "Creepy Forest Lodge", so called because our son decided that one particular stand of trees in our yard was a "Creepy Forest". He also decided one part of the yard was "Pirate Island", but for some reason we went with the Creepy Forest part.

For our new house, the missus suggested "Hallow's End", for reasons I could not fathom. Given that I could think of nothing better, we went with that. She has started a new blog for the house. Check it out.

Cool site: The Surnateum

The Museum of Supernatural History, or Surnateum, seems to be a collective or family of magicians and performers with a collection of interesting magic props, "artifacts", gambling cheating rigs, and more. Really, I'm not entirely sure what the Surnateum is. But I do wholeheartedly suggest perusing the site.

Random stuff

Some of my friends have been vegans or vegetarians, and I being the big carnivore that I am like to make fun of them. I appreciate that they are making a different choice, and bully for them, but I reserve the right to make fun of them for it. Making fun of people is sort of my hobby. But you better pray for salvation if you start pushing your herbivore bullshit on me. It pisses me off more than if you try to push religion on me - and I've been known to try to slam doors literally on Jehova's Witlesses when they come around.

This why I find this post hysterically funny. (From some blogger who recently linked to Billy Ocean, Student Council Treasurer)

In gaming news, having raked in the cash from three Halo games but not wanting to do a fourth (or fifth, if you count the upcoming Halo Wars), it's official: Bungie is splitting from Microsoft. I wonder if Bungie employees will still get Microsoft's awesome healthcare benefits?

Ever-hated idiot hack pundit Ann Coulter has said that the government should take away her right to vote, something I wholeheartedly agree with. Unfortunately, her real statement was that they should take away all women's right to vote, because then, she posits, we would never have another Democrat President. Why hasn't she starved to death? Seriously, that woman just needs a hoagie, a conscience, and to get laid.

Issaquah Village Theater costume sale

Hmmm, found out yesterday that the Issaquah Village Theater is having a costume sale on Saturday. I'm going to go see if I can find anything to help with a Steampunk costume.

20 things not to do in your writing

BoingBoing linked to a great list of 20 "writing blunders", as blogged by author E. E. Knight. It's a nice little list for us wannabes.