Spontaneous ∂erivation

Because I’m tired of hanging onto links.

Candy Blog

Epicurean discussion of candy, very lovely blog.

The bite is soft, the chocolate barely flakes, which is a great relief after the red licorice catastrophe.

The licorice at the center is quite soft and has a strong molasses flavor – the chew is almost jelly like, but has the satisfying rib-sticking of a wheat-based confection. The anise and licorice notes are rather mild and more of a generic spice cookie feel. The chocolate is sweet, not terribly chocolatey but seems to seal in all the flavors well.

It’s nice to see an Aussie licorice being sold at American candy prices. It was a nice change up from Twizzlers, Good & Plenty or Crows, which are really the only plain licorice products sold in single serve packages any longer.

And I am reminded: “All things can be reasoned within a discursive community.”

Epic Win: Casio Super Magic Diary

Brenna M comments: “When I was in 5th grade, my friends and I would exchange the FIRST text messages during class with the casio Super Magic Diary.”

FEDCON USA: Making Flanvention look Good

Not to be too much confused with the original FEDcon in Germany, the USA version fell apart into impressive flaming bits in 2008. Complete fail on the part of the organizers, and very much win on the part of the actors who could make it, and the actors who were cut off by the con organizers and yet still advertised to be going there.

It took me a while to find the site with the most links, and this was apparently (though I didn’t remember at the time) my first encounter with Fandom Wank! Links and screencaps in the comments, but probably one should make note of a capture of particular posts on the FedConUSA’s board that were deleted, especially since they featured Aaron Douglas, known by fans both as Chief Tyrol in BSG and also as being made of win.

He turned out to be made of Epic Win. As was John Billingsley (Enterprise, Dr. Phlox), who got up on stage and demanded refunds for all the fans when the convention was canceled half a day into the schedule. Here it is on YouTube (with related videos).

Time is Running Out?

Remember Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation”, nominated for the 2009 Hugos Award for best short story?

There’s a proposition that, instead of the universe expanding, another explanation is that time is slowing down instead. Hat tip to TYWKIWDBI.

William Shatner Reads Sarah Palin’s Tweets

High-quality video from Hulu:

Hostesses and Herbivores

When the economy went to hell in Japan (it’s still there, by the way), social and cultural shifts started to happen as well. Hat tip to the Daily Dish.

Hello Kitty Monopoly

Just as saccharine as you can imagine it. Hat tip to Hello Kitty Hell.

Ale to the Chief!

Photo gallery of the “Beer Summit” via Talking Points Memo.

The Big Picture: Lightning

As always, cool huge hi-quality photo gallery from the Boston Globe, featuring Lightning. Also one of my favorite Despair, Inc. posters:

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing as much as I usually do (work enjoyment has also collapsed by the wayside), this is an approximation of what I think about constantly when Father’s Day begins its approach on my little ice-cold horizon of memory:

It starts a bit over a week before the holiday, and lasts for one week after, because memory fucks with your head like this, and none of my medication is currently making a difference, which is normal for this time of year.

You should see what goes through my head when Mother’s Day comes around. Christmas is probably the worst, followed by Thanksgiving. The Fourth of July is going to be one nice week-long nightmare. I don’t even want to talk about my birthday, which I try to forget ever exists (although obviously it helps that I’m past 21, because it’s hard to buy a good white wine for cooking otherwise).

Sons and daughters should celebrate their fathers… but their fathers have to be good ones. I don’t think that’s said enough, but for once a president has said it.

… it’s stupid, but I can’t even bear to tag this fucking post “father’s day” despite the title being what it is. That’s how stupid my brain is right now.

Yes. Nap now. Maybe see you when the weekend is over.

Less than 24 hours ago, I dreamed of Obama.

I don’t know what to make of it.

Note: Much angst follows. They say (they being psychology dudes) that PTSD is reduced through the telling of war stories. Not the boastful kind, but the kind the old vets tell at the bar in quiet tones. This entry is like that kind, except for child abuse. And you know. That really harshes a lot of people’s mellows.

If you’re here because of a search for “Obama dreams” or possibly “what do Obama dreams mean?” this is likely a more interesting link for you to follow.

Click here to read more »

Dear New York Times,

Yes, we notice when your Latest News Blog has poorer image resolution than the full newspaper edition.

Let’s hope that your photo editors don’t do any more JPG bastardization than necessary in the future.

Love,
S∂

Yes, another screenshot from the New York Times Kindle newspaper. I thought this was a particularly nice picture.

I love him so.

There are quite a few people upset at the House of Representatives’ Republican behavior with respect to the bill. All that wasted talk and compromise from Obama, seems to be the general thought on the left side of the line.

But I’m not upset, despite liking the bill.

First of all, it’s the House of Representatives. The House is like the LiveJournal community of the U.S. Government. I’d have been deeply impressed if the Stimulus Package vote had gone down without some kind of high school melodrama.

Secondly, the Republicans seem to have forgotten the rules to the blood sport of Washington. Yes, you can indeed ignore the rules of reciprocation and trust when you’re in the clear majority. But when you aren’t the majority, it’s easier to accumulate political debt than political interest.

Put plainly: Obama, by visiting the Hill rather than staying put in the White House, and having all of these successful talks with the Republicans, more or less invested his available political coinage (of which he has quite a bit of, being as popular as he is with the country right now). He gave the opportunity to the Republicans to do the same. But instead of investing, they decided to spend what little coinage they had left in cock-blocking the bill (and especially the way they spun it to the media).

This might have been worth something were they able to actually get something in return, like actually blocking the bill; but they didn’t and indeed they couldn’t. Obama’s investment, on the other hand, paid him dividends. He had little risk, which is not the same as having little to risk, which is what the House Republicans have. And thus Obama played his hand well, much better than most Presidents would have done, I think.

So, House Republicans: they’ve effectively blown their political brokerage account. They didn’t actually incur debt, because Obama came to them; they just cleaned themselves out with little leverage left to actually build up their accounts again. Such accounts do eventually gain interest as the memory of the public fades, but for the near future, Obama has them dead to rights.

And, you know. It wouldn’t be LiveJournal the House of Representatives without a little soap opera floating around.

The New York Times reviewed the piece as well, quite accurately.

Link and video link from the Linkmeister (on a Making Light post).

Transcript available from The New York Times (complete with cheering and such).

Calvin Trillin, like many of us subject to the increasingly mysterious and nonsensical whims of the Bush administration, was obviously a man in pain. While some blogged and others made YouTube videos, Trillin decided to let it all out in verse.

The various doings and undoings of the Bush Administration are extremely painful to look back at without a shield of humor such as the Daily Show or the Colbert Report. But in a pinch, Calvin Trillin’s poems and songs and etudes to the previous administration—as well as the 2008 election—provide us a way to look back without losing our lunches, while preserving the fact that these last eight years have been majorly fucked up.

Oh Bush. There are some things we’ll miss about you. There will be a time of nostalgia for your era. Like the nostalgia that exists for the Cold War era.

I welcome our new Democratic overlords. Including the unicorns they came riding in on.

Inauguration 2009!

1. Fertilizer, I like to think of it as. [↩]