Hey, I did it! Back under a million!
Now, if Kansas wins tonight, and Ohio State loses, I might actually move out of last place in some of my pools.
Victory is close, folks.
Just For Fun!
That IMDB! It always finds the fun amidst all the facts! Since The Final Season'll be released pretty soon, the staff wanted to find some amusing trivia to promote the movie. Click the thumbnail to see what they found. I took a picture because I didn't think anyone would believe it if I just wrote it out by hand.
What's super fun about this is that the cameraman actually died. Good work, IMDB! Can't wait to see the film! It all sounds great.
I guess Superman really is a dick.
My dad sent me this link here, which gives us 15 of the worst offenders in the "Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panel" - and by "unintentionally funny," I mean "wildly sexual or chauvenistic when you consider them in modern contexts." The best of the lot is the one at the bottom of link. I always had my suspicions about Batman.
All of the comics are stolen from Superdickery, an extremely funny but terribly slowly-loading site based entirely around the concept that Superman, defender of our freedoms and champion of the people, is a complete dick. They collected hundreds of panels and covers from - what, seventy, eighty years of comic book reading? It's not surprising that they found more than a few double entendres* in there.
The best ones, or at least my favorites, are the ones from the comic covers, where the editors are just trying to sell issues. Superman has been known to have a little bit of a dark side from time to time, but on the covers, he takes it to a whole new level. He's an absolute lout.
Here's a few of my favorites from the site (and yes, internet wonks, I stole 'em all outright and I'm not claiming credit, so no flame mail allowed). Click on the thumbnails to see the ones that catch your fancy, they may take a second or two to load but it's nowhere near as bad as the main site.
Let's start out with the longtime storyline "Superman - World's Worst Lover"
1. The beginning of an ongoing pattern of Superman keeping everyone else as far away as possible from the sweet, sweet taste of success.
2. A deeply, deeply, deeply disturbed man. Like Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, only with superpowers. Ugh.
3. That's right, Superman. The chick had it comin'.
4. Let me give you some sage dating advice, Lois, similar to the sort of thing that Dr. Phil's recommends on Match.com - "If your partner is the jealous kind, and it sometimes leads to squabbles or fighting, don't go on any sort of interplanetary trip with him, especially if your partner is impervious to cold and the absence of atmosphere." If only you'd listened to me earlier, Lois.
Moving on to "Superman - World's Worst Adoptive Father."
1. First, let's cover the joys of paternal appreciation on Father's Day.
2. Excellent. Now, the inevitable sadness of a child moving out of the house.
3. And finally, learning self-reliance. My favorite of all the ones we've done so far.
And the closer.
Let's finish with my absolute favorite. Go ahead and read the comic cover first.
Now, let's create this imaginary exchange one might have with the precocious boy.
"Superboy, you've built a nifty-looking time telescope there, and, yes, it allows the viewer the ability to see through to the future. Very cool. And it looks like Bruce Wayne is suitably impressed that you've shown him how the two of you are going to be friends forever. But let's discuss some more useful things you could be doing with the machine:
For example, you could use it to foresee natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes, and warn the world so that nobody gets hurt. Or, if you're a little more mercenary, you could use it to correctly predict sports outcomes and make a killing in Vegas. Or, maybe, you could use the machine to let Bruce Wayne know that his parents are going to be gunned down in front of his very eyes in a filthy alley, you tool!"
It's especially great that the common complaint about why people can't get into Superman is that "he's too perfect, it's hard to relate." Funny, I wouldn't think that would be so difficult.
*side note: most spellcheckers, especially internet spellcheckers, don't recognize the word "entendre." Considering that this is the internet, you'd think the word would come up fairly often and the problem would be addressed. But no.
You know what word is also not recognized? Spellchecker. They won't accept the now universally recognized one-word spelling. Strange.
Campbellite, eh?
Laura dug this up from a few years ago and posted it again, so I thought I'd have a go at finally taking one of these "What Denomination Are You?" tests. I liked this one because it let you weight the questions you felt were most important, and let you give a "No Opinion" answer. Therefore, things I'm not really sure about - Heaven and Hell, the Rapture, etc - I can just say that I don't know and it's not that important to me, and focus more on Church and State, communion, and church government. It made it more fun than the classic rate-this-between-one-and-five tests.
Here are my results. I know it's ridiculous to be a little bit giddy about being 100% Lutheran, and yet I can't help myself. That'll show 'em. Those Methodists haven't gotten to me yet.
Still, you can see the whole theological pattern to my upbringing right here. Alright, fine, you can't, but I can. The list shows somebody who grew up with a strong Lutheran tradition combined with immersion (if you'll excuse the phrase) in the worlds of Baptists and Methodists for most of their life. And it at least clarifies a glimmer of why I've never been all that comfortable in Presbyterian churches, though I never knew that it was a Presbyterian thing, and not just a I-don't-like-this-place thing. Apparently, I feel strongly enough that I'd rather be a Campbellite. And I don't know what a Campbellite is.
100% Lutheran
84% Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinist)
83% Easter Orthodox
83% Wesleyan/Methodist/Nazarene
81% Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker, etc.)
81% Anglican/Episcopal/Church Of England
81% Baptist (Non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist
76% Congregational/United Church of God
71% Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God
67% Roman Catholic
62% Seventh Day Adventist
61% Church of Christ/Campbellite
55% Presbyterian/Reformed
Black Lab Song
Whether you're interested in "bum rushing" anything at all or not, the song is really good. And Black Lab's been dropped by two major labels in their lifetime, which is why it takes them... seven years to release an album sometimes.
If you peruse the blog today, you should swing over to iTunes and download "Mine Again." Don't be alarmed by the cover art - I was, a little bit - the song is gorgeous.