Pent's Place

yeah, it's me, I'm back again

Mon, 31 May 2004 23:15:59 GMT

You know, despite the fact it's the only good song BLink 182 ever did, listening to "Adam's Song" while angry at one's family is probably not the best thing to do. :-)

I'm not depressed because of the situation as I was before, but I'm very very angry.

I think I'm giong ot channel that into writing out of order, and trying to write one of the angriest, most violent parts of one of my WIPs. I just feel very good to be out of what they have very clearly made sure I know is *their* house, adn back into mine.

Pentalarc

bizarre

Thu, 11 Dec 2003 05:02:30 GMT

You are a Cyberculture Floozie. The theoretical
aspects of postmodernism interest you only
insofar as they can be used to make cool blinky
things. You probably take psychedelics and
know at least one programming language (HTML
counts!). Other postmodernists call you a
corporate whore. They're probably just jealous
because you make more money than them.

What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

Bizarre, and not very accurate. . .but still, an interesting insight.

Soon to have more time to do better entries.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sat, 06 Dec 2003 19:48:33 GMT

Cold. . .Cold. . .Cold. ..
Never been a fan of cold weather, and this is the coldest day so far this year. I think my brain is partially frozen.

Have to do a lot of eBay research on some overstock CDs that I have. Got rather burned out and bored doing it last night, so I'm going to try to break it up with other things today.

Well, a quiz or two.

Where do you fall on the liberal - conservative political spectrum? (United States)
brought to you by Quizilla

Actually, I thought I come out far left. I came to it in a rather wierd way, I am a very cynical ex-libertarian.

pentalarc was
a Dirty Pick-Pocket
in a past life.

Discover your past lives @ Quiz Me

odd. . .

Prick.

What is Your Shakespearian Tragic Flaw?
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Well, now that was completely unexpected. . .I think I just about picked one of each, though, so. . . :-)

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 01:09:06 GMT

You're a Velvety-Mopey-Goth! You're wardrobe isn't
condusive to heat, water, or the natural range
of human movement. People may think you're
cheesy, but you know it's just because their
infantile minds can't fully comprehend the
insurmountable anguish of your existence.

What kind of Goth would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla

--,--'<@

Goth

What Kind of Goth Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

--,--'<@

Getting back into the swing of things.

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 05:04:01 GMT

Well, it's been about a week since I got back, and I think I'm finally starting to get back on my schedules and back into my normal way of feeling.

I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on, and I want to get back into the swing of things with this as well. Just a few observations.

The last episode of the first season of Carnivale was tonight. . .absolutely amazing show, can't wait for the next season. It's a great creepy mix of occult, period, and all sorts of wierd stuff. Sort of a cross between the Prophesy movies and X-Files. More on that later.

More politics later too. I plan on (hopefully soon) putting my BBS back up as an internet message board. Should be fun. Politics, religion, entertainment and music, the primary once and futre board, so look soon for the Demi-Monde BBS pt.2.

That's about it for now, expect more on Carnivale, more politics, more posts, and, yes, more Saints football (They won today, by the way, 24-20) and more who knows what from me too.

I also plan on writing more soon.

Fun fun fun

"Everything is turning out so dark. . ." or "Can't you just be kissing me right now?"

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 20:42:56 GMT

I was listening to some music while doing some work on my computer, and some of what I was listening to was songs from the soundtrack to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode "Once More With Feeling" Specifically, the song "Walk Through the Fire" got me thinking about it, a series that I really miss, and whether or not it got bad at the end.

You see, I'm not a big one for big dramatic changes in long-running series. Back when I read comic books, they would have a way of pissing me off by making one major change that I thought was stupid, and I lost my enthusiasm for the series. Eventually, I stopped reading them altogether, and I thin kthat the reason was that I simply got sick of being disappointed byt them. Buffy always felt like a comic book brought to life in my opinion, with episodes that both stood alone, and combined into one major storyline.

Near the end, I alternated between being unable to wait until the next episode, and dreading seeing it when it came on, because it seemed that it was alternating between brilliant strokes and huge mistakes. I had a lot of mental investment in these characters, and I was not happy with a lot of the things that was happening to them.

Using "Once More With Feeling" (a brilliant episode, tied with "Hush" as the best ever) as an arbitrary starting point:

Having Giles leave: bad idea, but it smacked of one of those things the creators didn't have much control over.

Having Willow and Tara break up: Willow was my favorite character on the show. (In fact, if they would start a spin-off featuring Willow and Spike, I would tune in immediately) Tara had every right to be pissed that Willow used the Lethe's Bramble to affect her memory, but if Willow was that magic addicted, you have to ask yourself if she'd just use the same technique again. . .:-) Ok, probably not, but still, I hated the fact that they broke up, but it was belieable. I've make this one a draw.

"Rest in Peace": best song on the show, Spike finally got a chance to express the fact that Buffy was really not treating him fairly. THis made the viewers have to finally take off thier blinders and admit that no, Buffy wasn't treating Spike fairly. Spike was the whipping boy most of the series, and Whedon played with forcing us to alternate between having sympathy for him and not having sympathy for him. Brilliant.

"Walk Through the Fire": A meta-song, both describing the way the series was turning ("everythign is turning out so dark") and teasing with the possibilities. (Spike's line, "First he'll kill her, then I'll save her." Is Spike going to turn Buffy into a vampire? He could have. In a lot of ways, you have to ask yourself what would have happened if he had. . .I think it would have been interresting. . .) Brilliant

"I'll Never Tell": Sarcasm abounds, brilliant.

The Oh Grow Up season: Who cares? No one tuned in to the show to hear about Buffy hating her burger flipping job. IT could have been used for a lot more, but come on, this one time when the relentless darkness didn't work. In fact, it seemed more silly than anything else. I'm fan of both grunge and goth, so it's not a matter of my not being able to deal with downer stuff, but this just got obnoxious and silly. Huge Mistake

The Evil Trio. . .errr. . .duo. . .errr. . .uno: Thier leader was a human more evil than many of the supernatural foes. His underlings? A used socially inept victim who despite the great magical power that he had was incapable of freeing himself, and a fatalistic closet case who thinks he is unforgivable. Great depth. Brilliant.

Tara and Willow getting back together : Brilliant! I just about danced in the streets when this happened, my favorite couple on the show getting back together. And a great line, (see title) "Can't you just be kissing me right now?" That is just so real, proving that things are not always perfect, and sometimes love really is the most important thing. I had wondered if Whedon had lost his courage or bowed the pressure of right wing censors and broke them up. Now I was really liking Whedon again. . .until. . .

Tara's death: What?!!!!!!?!?!!?!?!!?? You've got to be kidding me. You get them together and then kill off Tara? For absolutely no fucking reason? And then leave her dead? Willow is still addicted to magic at this point, and is giong a bit evil. Why would she *not* have ressurected Tara? This is just not believable. I've heard people, even ones that were also huge Willow/Tara fans say taht this was a great move. . .a great comment on gun violence. Bullshit! I can't help but think that someone chickened out. I stopped watching the show for several weeks after this. Huge mistake.

Buffy and Spike's love affair: Absolutely brilliant. Why shouldn't the all American blonde heroine be a kink? It's called depth of character. It's called reality. It's called a match made in hea. . .no. .. a match made in he. . .no. .. a match made somewhere they make matches. I always thought that Spike was a better match for Buffy than that self-rightous, conformist, frat-boy prick Angel. (Yeah, go ahead, boo. Do I not get to call myself a liberal now? Whatever, I don't like Angel.) I guess she just had to be brought back to the all AMerican blonde good girl or people would start irritating the sponsors. Now I'm babbling, which brings me to. . .

Spike utter depth and redemption: Spike is brought to the absolute lowest level of pure evil and the worst thing someone can try to do, and then goes literally though hell to get his soul back to atone for it. Joss, I promise I'll figure out the rest of teh show on my own, but can you just tell me if I'm supposed to hate this guy or not? Please, I can't make this mistake? No, I gotta guess. Fuck. Brilliant.

Xander and Anya breaking up: Stupid mistake. Come on, see two above.

THe First/the hick preacher/Buffy goes bonkers: Okay, the First is actually a very cool idea. The hick preacher who's name I can't remember played by the guy that played the captain on Firefly (I really miss that show too) was amazing. Buffy turns into a controlling, insane insufferable lunatic. Brilliant/Brilliant/draw

Faith comes back: Faith was necessary since Buffy become insufferable. I don't think I could have gotten through it without at least one cool slayer.

Giles comes back: thanks, Joss, appreciate it. Brilliant.

Willow and Kennedy getting back together: Kennedy is no Tara. Too little too late, and I think a bone tossed to people who really missed Tara. Just doesn't have the charisma or belivability. Add to the fact that when I hear the name "Kennedy" I immediately think of the worst VJ that MTV ever had. Did lead to that great pierced tongue line, though. Draw.

The final episode: Well, let me break this down. . .right now, it's a draw.

Angel comes back: Gee, thanks for the silly looking doodad, now go back to your own show. Do you think that maybe that was a little booby trap for Spike from Angel. ANyone else thinking Heracules' cloak? . . . draw. . .mistake if he had spent about 3 seconds more screentime.

"Drowning in footwear. . .wierd dream": Sorry, that line deserve's it's own listing. P.S. "Button button, who's got the button. . .my bet's. . .the witch!" Brilliant

Spike's death: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! that sucks! At least he died very spike-like.

Anya's death: No, well, that kinda sucks, I guess. . . I really didnt' see this one coming. Probably should have. She had just gotten back together with Xander, which, according to the Tara syndrome means she might as well have put on a red shirt and beamed down with Captain Kirk. But really, I didn't expect it.

By the way, did you notice that Whedon killed off the two that are the easiest to bring back? From what I've heard, Spike has already returned to Vampire Flashionplate 90210, err I mean Angel's show. Anya just needs to get re-demonized, and then optionally de-demonized, and she's back.

Man, didn't expect to talk about this this long. . .oh well.

In closing, I'd just like to say, don't you wish they just woudl have dropped Gellar, kept everyone else, renamed the show "Slayers" or such, and picked up where they left off? Oh, and transmogrify Kennedy into Tara?

Or, how about this. The show starts with Willow getting up, getting out of bed, and walking into the bathroom to find Tara alive and in the shower. (Insert theme from Dallas here, and responde if you don't get the reference, and I'll fill you in.)

Later, all,
Pentalarc
Where Five Road Meet He Stands

ugh!

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 01:31:36 GMT

I have always detested Will & Grace. I saw one episode and found it so stupid, annoying, meanspirited and stereotypical that it utterly pissed me off. I just saw a commercial, and they are having James Earl Jones guest starring, and they are making him act like a self-mocking imbecile.

It's horrible when pathetic shows boost thier ratings by humiliating good actors.

Hey, hippie!

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 01:29:06 GMT

Louisiana is in the opening stages of a runn-off election for governor. Bobby Jindal, the Republican candidate, of course pretty much has the rich, conservative suburbs that ring New Orleans locked, so that's where his sign-wavers set up.

That's set up part one. Here's part two. It was pretty hot today. It's New Orleans, so in early fall, it's often still hot, especially on a clear sunny day like today. Without hte clouds to keep out the sunshine, it gets quite hot in a car.

So anyway, I'm driving down Veterans Memorial Highway, the main street through the suburbs, and my air condition goes out. It's been doing that a lot, so I just roll down the window and go on. I get to the corner of another major street, Bonnabel Blvd, which a) leads to the interstate, and b) is in one of the richer areas. For those of you who have yet to see me in person, I have shoulder-length hair. So as I'm driving by, there is a group of late-teens/early twenties close-cropped sign wavers for Jindal yell, "Hey, hippie!" into my window as a I drive by.

No bid deal, eh? Well not really, in my opinion, it shows how little progress the city, the state, and the country, in fact has made. This is not middle-of-nowhere south. It is the south, but it is the suburbs of a major city. It just goes to show that if someone is actually going to go after someone for a hairstyle and an assumption, how can anyone expect to be safe or accepted? I guess it just shows where the right wing is going, and how much it just gets worse and worse.

I immediately pulled out my celphone, called information and complained to his campaign headquarters, and then grabbed the next U-turn and went back to the corner, parked, and went up to find the person in charge of the wavers, and informed her of the situation. I'm also going to call all the local political radio shows, and going to send letters to the editor to the newspaper. Just one of those things that gets under your skin, and makes you at the same time irritated and amused.

Well, feeling better

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 00:14:56 GMT

Definately feeling better, had a really crappy day yesterday, but definately feeling better.

I'm going to be short here, heading out over to my house to do my ebay. . .by ebay has actually been going really well, but I have a long night of hurrying and multi-tasking ahead of me.

And I'm going to redo the appearance of my blog, because I've noticed it's just about unreadable right now, with little tiny font.

Well, that's about it, going to grab some drivethough and get going.

Later,all

Pentalarc
Where Five Roads Meet He Stands

Well, the Saints lost again. . .

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 21:15:49 GMT

One more bit of my sports-geek/whodat/Saints fan bits. . .

The Saints lost again, and while they looked better, they're running out of time to turn the season around. This time, we basically lost because of stupid penelties and a freak special teams play. Some bad tackling too, but getting better.

There will be a run-off election down here in Louisiana, between Republican Bobby Jindal and Democrat Kathleen Babineux-Blanco. The guy I supported, Randy Ewing, a New Orleans-first democrat didn't make the run-off. I'm not terribly fond of either Jindal or Blanco, but I'll be supporting Blanco. Not only because I'm a Democrat (personally, I'm a lot further left than Blanco), but because I feel that any democrat will be better than any republican for New Orleans, and New Orleans is my first concern.

I haven't had much time to write recently, been very busy, but I hope to have more time soon. Right now, I haven'y been supporting too many winners recently.

gee. . .first entry. . .am I usually this cheerful? I don't know

Sat, 04 Oct 2003 06:37:29 GMT

Well, this is my first entry ever on one of these. (I'm a bit of a late bloomer, I suppose) and there's been a couple of things burning on my mind, and the one I chose for today, I'm not sure how interresting overall, but hey, I'm political.

But first, my day. . .

The internet at my house has been down all day, and I don't have the information right now to call customer service. It went out last night, and has been down all day, as far as I know. I'm tying this from Sil's house. I have one of those fancy high-speed cable modems, and I always here how they're a problem, they "go down all the time" but I've never had that problem. . .until recently. Now it keeps going down for hours at a time. Still, with the ammount I multi-task, I need the speed to avoid locking up my computer even faster. . .have to figure out how to set up more virtual memory. . .but not right now.

Anyway, I've had one of those "woke up on the wrong side of the and smacked into the wall" days, so I was in a walking foul humor. This was, of course complicated by the fact that neither me, nor my internet connection was feeling well. Then, right when I'm trying to wrap up trying to get it to work, and doing the few things that I can without online that I had to do, Sil calls me, and says that one of the cats is limping bad, and we have to take her to the vet.

Not so much a problem, except for the fact that I'm in one of those "argue with everyone" days. I like our usual vet, but she's on vacation, so it was pot luck. We end up with this guy who reminds me of Dom DeLuise without the talent or personality. He's rude, rough, insulting, and has a superior attitude.. . everyting every doctor especially a vet is not supposed to be, but is so common that it's a stereotype that they have are. It's like that old joke. . .what's the difference between a doctor and God? God doesn't think he's a doctor.

Kismet should be fine.

Of course, then I ended up trying to comment on some people holding up signs for one of my least favorite candidates, a republican who got her start as the hand-picked puppet err.. .successor to another republican who had just pushed through term limits for the New Orleans City council. . .who then moved for an at-large seat, essentially not only skirting term limits, but also using it to give herself two votes. Right wingers who cheat on the things they push through themselves, anyone surprised?

So anyway, the three frat-boy jock sign wavers try to confront me, so I roll up my window in thier faces. Just waht I didn't need.

Speaking of politics, probably a bunch of you have heard Rush Limbaugh's lastest fuck up. (Not the drug one, the football one.) Basically, he said that Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the NFL and "the media" want a black quarterback to succeed, and to look good. Not only is he playing to right wing racists, but it shows that he knows a whole lot less about football than he (and a lot of other people) think. THis was politics, not football. Additionally, on both counts he's wrong. Now he's claiming that his free speech is being violated. Huh? Let me ennumerate:

1) Black quarterbacks are not a novelty, never were, and are not a rarity in the league. Warren Moon? One of the greatest black or white. Randall Cunningham? One of the greatest, black or white. There are a large number of black quarterbacks in the league right now, great ones, marginal ones, overrated ones, and underrated ones. Ones that are starters, and ones that warm the bench.

2) Donovan McNabb is not getting let off easy. No one gets let off easy in Philly. The Eagles fans and media will rip anyone who makes the slightest mistake. They're not called the boo birds for nothing. Win, lose, or draw, Philly is not a sports town that lets people off easy.

3) Black quarterbacks have been given a hard time in the media before, including right now. Akili Smith? Widely considered a huge disappointment, and an overall bad quarterback. Rodney Pete? Benched for backup Jake DelHomme, and widely considered a good move by the media. Shaun King? No one questions that he should be a backup behind Brad Johnson. Kordell Stewart? "Slash" might have been a media favorite at one time, but now he's used as an example of how far the Chicago Bears have fallen by the fact they have him under center.

4) This was pure politics, not football. This is similiar to another one of Rush's football comments where he said that "conservative play" on offense was not the short-run but that opening it up and taking risks was. Sorry, Rush, but you're wrong again. There are two defintions of conservative. I'll save my definition of the political version for later, but here's what conservaitve means in football. It means a low-risk game, on offense, that usually means, few or no trick plays, lots of running and short passes. The opposite of conservative offense in football is not liberal offense, it's agressive offense. Now, let's say that I, as a liberal, would say that agressive offense is actually conservative, because I feel that conservatives are agressive and take too many risks. Guess what, I'd be wrong as far as football is concerned, because that's not a conservative offense style.
So why his problem? Because he can't separate his political feelings from what he thinks is his sports knowledge. Somehow, he has to take the question of "why is the Eagles season been lackluster so far?" and turn it into some anti affirmative action rant. Pleasing, I'm sure, for his audience, but it shows how little he knows about football, and what his real motivation is everytime he opens his mouth.

Now, as far as freedom of speech thing. Get off it. *You* resigned. *You* made that choice. If it was worth fighting about, you should have fought. No one is trying to put you in prison. They're just saying you don't know jack about football, and apparently, you don't. Besides, how come that conservatives want to censor everyone and everything, but when tehy say something stupid, racist, homophobic, sexist, whatever, and some people don't applaud, they claim that they're being denied thier freeedom of speech?

It reminds me of the John Rocker situation. John Rocker is/was a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, an idiot, and a crappy pitcher. Granted, he was apparently (from what I've been told) a great relief pitcher at one time, but at the time of the controversy, was beaning and walking everyone and his brother. . .repeatedly. . .game after game. This to me means one of two things. . .either he lost his touch, or he was in one obnoxiously long slump. Either way, he was sent to the minors.

He wasn't sent to the minors because he was politically incorrect, or becuase he's a conservative, or because he's a bigotted idiot. He was sent because his team was losing games becuase he couldn't pitch. However, the right wingers in this country made such a stink that his team brought him back up from the minors. Yet Rocker, Limbaugh, and other right wingers claim he was being attacked for his beliefs. He wasn't. He got rewarded for it when his team caved and brought him back up.

Hmmmm politics and sports. .. now that I've put everyone to sleep, I think I'll check my ebay, then head back home to see if my internet is working again.

Later

Pentalarc
Wher Five Roads Meet He Stands