Hell Bent For Taters: humor and nerdery

What Would Aragorn Do?

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:48:00 +0000

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Ranger (6th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-17

Dexterity-13

Constitution-15

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-15

Charisma-12

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

This is pretty accurate, I played a ranger in my last RPG and while a lazy, shiftless miser, I ended up being the only person concerned with morals. We had no allies because we backstabbed everyone, and eventually were destroyed because of it.

Sully, remember when I said it was my last post?

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:08:00 +0000

I LIED.

This is a shirt for the U.S. grind metal band "Crom," introduced to me by the excellent CROM! Conan-related blog. I can imagine a fat LARPer wearing this shirt.

all good things must end

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:12:00 +0000

I'm not sure if there's a compelling reason to keep this side blog open. I am content to let my freak flag fly. Please follow Pluck You, Too! if you don't already. The content normally going here will be there instead.

The Queen of Denmark and the Hobbit

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Queen Margerthe II of Denmark illustrates and paints under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer, and her woodcut style art was used to illustrate some editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
I think they are excellent depictions that inspire the imagination instead of replacing it.
And they place the story in a realm of myth and Dark Age lost history that makes it seem even more alive. They were used in the 1977 and 2007 editions, and I'm looking for a copy.
Pretty cool. America's leader might read Conan comics, but Denmark's illustrated Tolkien. They have out-nerded us! We must not have a nerd gap!! Thanks to my pal Sonny for educating me on this and finding these illos.

he rules with a mighty sword and a troubled brow

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Arnold admitted on Twitter that he keeps the sword from Conan the Barbarian in the Governor's office, which is the awesomest thing ever. This is how you cut spending!

I saw this from his Twitter feed, but over at Crom! the Ultimate Conan fan blog, they have more photos of his office.

Tommy Salami on MAD TV

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Thundarr the Barbarian

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:57:00 +0000

Thundarr the Barbarian! In the year 1994 from out of space comes a runaway planet hurtling between the earth and the moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin! 2000 years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery! But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage and his fabulous sun sword against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr! The Barbarian!
Thundarr was a loincloth clad swordsman taken to bellowing outbursts like "Lords of Light! Demon dogs!" and cutting mechanized minions in half with his sun sword. Or the weapons of the bad guys. How I loved this show as a child. This was when you could watch R-rated movies like Conan the Barbarian and Escape from New York on HBO at all hours of the day, and Thundarr was a child-friendly amalgam of two of my favorite films. In the first episode, he fights a group of rat people called groundlings led by the evil sorcerer Gemini in the subway tunnels of "the Ruins of Manhatt," so how could you not be hooked? Sure Thundarr sounds more like a '60s era Indian brave than Snake Plissken or Arnold, but Ookla, his Brak meets Chewbacca sidekick, makes him sound quite eloquent.

He was a lovable character, speaking only in snarls, and about as patient as the Incredible Hulk. In the first episode, Thundarr wants him to fly a helicopter, but he tears the steering wheel out, and kicks the controls out, and crashes it with a rather hilarious growl of triumph. What I liked best was how the show made kid-friendly versions of things like Alien and The Road Warrior, other favorites of mine. In the episode "Stalker from the Stars," a vampiric alien haunts an abandoned themepark and wraps its victims in webs. It looked a lot like the Alien. And several episodes had tribal thugs on Mad Max-esque vehicles. And of course, Thundarr's "sun sword" was a lot like a lightsaber.
The character designs were worked on by legend Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, and they look like fine art compared to many other cartoons of the era. I was watching them on my laptop but it just died, so my long post full of screenshots is just not meant to be! But I'd recommend giving them a second look if you have any nostalgia for them. They kick Orko and He-Man's ass for the somewhat subversive commentary on our civilization, and how many references they manage to cram in.
It's apparently memorable enough that people dress as Ariel for cosplay, and action figures were made.

Mickey Rourke is patriotic about punani

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:32:00 +0000

This is from the movie Spun which I heard about because Rob Halford plays the porno store clerk in this scene. He looks the part. However, Mickey Rourke is hilarious in this meth-addled version of Requiem for a Dream, which seems a bit more like Trainspotting in that it's not entirely soul-crushing. This scene's very funny. The audio is NSFW so use headphones, ya dummy.

Nanner Puss

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Another stupid commercial a co-worker has gotten stuck in my head. So I pass this torture on to you...

Tommy Salami lookalike contest

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Who do I looka like?

Luis Guzman:
Or Randall "Tex" Cobb:

I'd have to grow my hair and beard out more to look like the unstoppable Leonard Smalls. But I think it would be worth it. Then again I don't mind looking like Luis from Boogie Nights and Out of Sight. He's funny, too.

I'll be Bach

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Over at Cinema Styles, Greg was surprised to find Neve Campbell in a movie about Vivaldi. And he compared it to finding Sly playing Robespierre. Why not have all the famous composers played by action stars?

The A-Team Movie we'd like to see

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Gotta share the awesome. Got this from Scandy Factory, but it was made by Impossibly Funky.

Judas Priest - Heavy Metal Parking Lot 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:48:00 +0000

The band opens with British Steel

Judas Priest came to Jersey last weekend and of course, Hell Bent for Taters was there with Invader Milk and Gozer the Drossarian. We had hoped to re-enact the classic 1985 documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot (helpfully reviewed by me here) but the 80's are long gone, and metalheads are a different breed these days. This was one of the few concerts I've been to where I felt young (the other was Steely Dan, where I felt really friggin' young). I'm sure much of the crowd were in the original Heavy Metal Parking Lot at least in spirit.

Johnny (Invader Milk) and I "Breakin' the Law"

Shaggy hair, faded tattoos, electric blue nails so long you wonder how the girl can wipe her ass- it was metal New Jersey style. All we needed was a bucket of Rolling Rock longnecks and a hibachi grilling Taylor Ham sandwiches, and I assure you next time that will be the case. One couple, looking like God the Biker and Overtanned old Sarah Palin with platform flip flops, decided to simulate Cinemax After Dark to Whitesnake. It was like watching two Galapagos turtles mate out of the shell. The image is still burned into my retinas.

Mike and Heavy Metal Parking Lot alumni in back

Thankfully the concert erased all the pain of witnessing such public atrocities. To think, at my first metal concert- I was in high school, during the Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time tour- I got hit in the head with a bra by a stoned Jersey gal of drinking age. Once again I'm one of the young guys, except now the gals have AARP cards. But then again, so does Rob Halford! He's 58 now, and still rocks the house. May we all rock so hard when pushing 60. The concert was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the British Steel album- damn does that make me feel old- so they opened with "Rapid Fire" and played the entire album.

The incomparable Mr. Halford

I remember a claymation TV commercial advertising British Steel. I wish I could find it now... youtube has failed me! Judas Priest has been a favorite of mine for decades. Halford and crew are just so honest. They don't mince words. And they don't forget their mellower past, with their first albums almost being prog rock; they played "Victim of Changes," for one. Their latest album Nostradomus is a concept album, returning to their progressive roots, and they played the title track. But Halford also stormed onstage in the gleaming chrome Painkiller motorcycle to sing "Freewheel Burning."

Freewheel Burning

My favorite album is Sad Wings of Destiny, and to my surprise (and shock) the first song they played after British Steel wound down was "The Ripper," which holds a special place in my heart because one of my favorite hot dogs joints, Rutt's Hut, calls their special "the ripper." And we went to have some before the concert, as detailed here on Pluck You, Too! Overall it was one of the best concerts I've been too, up there with Muse at the Garden, the 3 hour long Pogues concert on St. Patrick's Day, and seeing Flogging Molly and Warren Zevon at small venues. Classics such as "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" got the crowd participation treatment, and Halford is an effortless showman exuding charisma. Other faves of mine like "Diamonds and Rust," a Joan Baez cover of all things, was included.
We were a little disappointed that "Screaming for Vengeance," "Painkiller," "Electric Eye," and even "Turbo Lover" were passed over. Another fave of mine, "The Green Manalishi," an early Fleetwood Mac cover, would have been great too, but I'm glad I got to hear British Steel in its entirety. I hope they do the same for Screaming for Vengeance in 2012!

The Ripper

don't google it, facebook it

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:03:00 +0000

I read in this month's Wired that Facebook wants to compete with Google. Insane, you might say. But what is the biggest problem with search engines? The trustworthiness of their results. The top Google returns, other than sponsored ones, have only been vetted by their algorithms. Wouldn't it be cooler to ask a friend? Other attempts have been tried- there's Cuil, which attempts to validate content using human readers, and the familiar Ask Jeeves and Answer.com, and there was even one that promised a human response a while back. But who do you trust?

Maybe you don't trust that person who sat behind you in 3rd grade and shot spitballs at you either, but Facebook has a distinct advantage here. Many people use it as their homepage of sorts- messaging within it, and linking outside of it. On my blogs, at least 30% of readership comes from social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Digg. I only get about 200 readers a day right now, but my readership skyrocketed once I began posting stories to Facebook and Twitter. Admittedly, the majority of hits still come from Google Image Search, but maybe someone will read my review of Porky's after making an avatar out of that image of Ms. Ballbricker yanking the guy's johnson through a peephole!

With all the fan pages, Facebook is beginning to resemble my blogroll on Google Reader. At first I was dubious; isn't Facebook for kid pictures, stupid farm games and chuckling at Sgt. Lincoln Osiris's great fake page? I'm still more enamored of Twitter's lightweight, phone friendly profile, but there's no ignoring that Facebook's 200 million are a force to be reckoned with. With Facebook Connect- now battling with Google Friend Connect- it is linking with the outside web in ways it never did before. It's becoming a Passport of sorts. And I have a feeling they may actually win. As said in the Wired article- which is only in the magazine, and not online it seems- this is no longer the Internet where nobody knows you're a dog. And maybe we're better off.

I grew up with the anonymity of BBS chatrooms and silly monikers on usenet and forums, but as I get older and crankier, I see it more as troll heaven. It has its place in a world where free speech is still not free (costs a buck-0-five) but I find myself seeking the comfort of moderated forums more and more. Even Something Awful, with its tenbux-ocracy (if you get banned, it costs $10 to get back) manages to make a community of 50k+ self-proclaimed goons work somewhat. Sure, I was a bit miffed when Facebook clobbered my blog posts that had screenshots of '80s trash films with gratuitous boobies, and perhaps it needs to be improved a bit, to keep the under-18 crowd from ruining it for us adults. But the privacy tools are part of that. I have friends, bloggers, and coworkers. You can guess who sees the absolute least. Wouldn't it be great if you could manage Google this way?

So think about it. Facebook as the new search engine, eventually. Who vets the search results? You do. And you don't even know you're doing it, as it comes in the guise of clicking "I Like This" beneath a shared link. By the way, with the Networked Blogs app in facebook you can share your blog there. Mine are all there if you search for them. If you're a Facebook addict, subscribe to them over there. Just wait. Facebook turned down partnership with Google; let's see if they buy Twitter. Now that would be interesting.

Shibumi

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:18:00 +0000

I read Shibumi on the recommendation of a friend of mine because of how over the top it is. Behold the ultimate assassin; Nicholai Hel. Born of a Russian artistocratic mother, perhaps the Lady with the Little White Dog, on a respite in Shanghai, and a German officer. The boy befriends a Japanese General after the takeover of the city, and learns the game of Go from him. He is a natural prodigy in many ways, and like many Westerners do when faced with the enigmatic society of Japan, believes that it is the most superior on Earth and embraces it fully. After World War 2 smashes through, Hel's good friend the General is captured as a war criminal by the Russians; both are used as pawns by the Americans, and he decides to learn the art of killing with ordinary objects, like a folded sheet of paper.
Because the Japanese have mastered those secrets, as well as something called Stage Four Lovemaking, where you can induce orgasm through eye contact. Now, I'm poking fun at a book I truly enjoyed; Hel becomes a master assassin, an idealist who strikes at the hulking behemoths of governmental and corporate power, represented by The Mother Company. An oil conglomerate, so it doesn't feel dated today. Hel has retired and lives in the Basque mountains in a fortress with a Zen Garden and a trained concubine, one of the few women who can match his near-deadly lovemaking skills. His good friend the Basque separatist Beñat Le Cagot, a fellow cutting edge spelunker, joins him on caving expeditions in the misty mountains. And all is well.

Until the CIA screws up a hit on an Israeli counter-terrorist cel, essentially the homebrew version of the folks in Munich, who want to avenge the Olympic massacre. One girl has survived, and the Mother Company is not happy. Her uncle sends her to Nicholai, and now the world's greatest assassin is pitted against the world's most fearsome shadowy organization. I expected this to be a crazy espionage story like the Jason Bourne movies, but instead, much of its time is spent in backstory and character, and it's where Trevanian excels. The book is gripping, and full of humor. We may have a hero who has "proximity sense," so he can practically read minds and pinpoint the presence of enemies in the dark, but we can buy that. Because Trevanian is a great storyteller, who'll pause to poke fun at Clint Eastwood movies, making clear his dissatisfaction with the movie adaptation of The Eiger Sanction.
Shibumi could probably never be properly filmed without destroying most of the story. It's still an incredibly enjoyable read, and if you like James Bond, Bourne, and perhaps want to wear a kimono and wear Hai Karate cologne while making fondue in your Tiki room, it's the kind of book that channels the '70s zeitgeist and yet transcends it, so today it is still pure entertainment and not a self-parody. If A Confederacy of Dunces makes an epic hero out of a fat nerd living with his mother, then Shibumi takes the Cold War cynical spy hero and makes him into a Renaissance Man and plays with our desire to believe that with enough training and purity of spirit, maybe we can be as lucky and canny as James Bond. It's a fireside tall tale that you won't be able to put down, even when you chuckle at how far it dares to go.

Slim Pickings

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:42:00 +0000

Yesterday was Slim Pickens' birthday. One of my favorite character actors; best known for riding a nuclear missile to destruction in Dr. Strangelove, I was introduced to him in Blazing Saddles where he was the perfect straight man for Harvey Korman and Cleavon Little to riff off of. Plus, who else could say "Mr. Lamarr, you use yer tongue purtier than a twenny dollar whore!" with a straight face and look so earnest about it?
Pickens was also one of the most memorable parts of Spielberg's 1941, which isn't saying a lot, but he was up against a lot of good comedians in that one. He's the guy the Japanese sub captures, who swallows the compass from his Cracker Jacks to impede their invasion of California. And I think when he pretends to be taking a massive dump, it was perhaps the highlight of the film.
According to Wikipedia, Kubrick wanted him to play Dick Halloran- the role that Scatman Crothers took and would eventual cry during, after 100+ takes- but Pickens refused unless he was contractually obligated to do fewer than 100 takes! It sounds apocryphal, but who knows. Sam Peckinpah liked him as well, and used him in The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Getaway and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Pickens had a very likeable face and classic acting chops where he could express volumes with a single expression. He died in 1983, and it would have been an honor to meet him.
Real name Louis Burton Lindley, Jr., he was a rodeo performer to start, and took his stage name because he was told rodeo work would only pay "slim pickings." He was nonetheless inducted into the Western performers Hall of Fame. His final film was the '80s cult classic The Howling by Joe Dante, who cast such a recognizable and out of place Slim to keep the tongue in cheek manner of the film. It's one I haven't seen in years, and I think it's going in the queue in Slim's honor sometime soon. Happy trails, Mr. Pickens.

I remember when he was black and sort of sane

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:28:00 +0000

He was a bad mama jamma. I grew up with a copy of Off The Wall, so I remember Michael Jackson before the plastic surgery. It was Thriller that catapulted him to stardom, where he had his nose done and looked a bit paler. He really looked like a different person. As John Updike said, celebrity is a mask that eats away the face, and it was never more apt an statement than with Jackson.

the obvious joke

He came from an abusive family relationship; stories of beatings and long exiles locked in closets abound. Add that to the life of a child superstar, who got bigger and bigger once he carved up his face to look white, and you can sort of sympathize with his eccentricities. Not that I'll forgive a child molester. That was the last straw for me. Some will say it was "never proven," but if you read the court transcripts of young boys describing his penis, telling of nude sleepovers together, and wine hidden in cans of Coke called "Jesus Juice," this was not normal, forgivable, or a one time mistake.

Then and now

Not to psychoanalyze but I think he deified children, and wished he could go back to his Rosebud days when he hadn't turned himself into Elizabeth Taylor with plastic surgery. Maybe he'd gone so crazy that he thought he was a child. But in the end, he was bankrupted by lawsuits and legal fees related to his molestation of young boys. I'm sorry, Michael, that I can't forgive you your trespasses against children. You should have looked harder at "The Man in the Mirror," and asked him to change his ways. You once said that if you want to make the world a better place, just look at yourself and make a change; if only you could have followed it.
Rest in Peace, but I'll never be able to think of you as the guy who made me wear too-short black pants, Soul-Glo curls and a ridiculous 80's jacket, but as someone who preyed on young boys to satisfy your own lost innocence.

The Stig revealed!

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:48:00 +0000

Car nerds like to call themselves gearheads, but let's face it, we're just geeks who like cars instead of lightsabers. We don fu manchu mustaches and mullets to hide the nerdery, but who are we fooling?

Top Gear is the ultimate car nerd show and the hosts may be rich and claim coolness, but they are secretly anoraks, to use the limey parlance. One of my favorite parts of the show is when the Stig, their "tame racing driver," takes new cars for a lap around the track at the highest speed possible. The Stig always wears a helmet and racing gear so his identity is unknown, and they play lots of jokes, such as having him listen to romance novel audiobooks while driving.

But the Stig may have revealed himself accidentally at an art gallery, trying to get a limited edition print of the Stig made. In this article, the art gallery owner outs Ben Collins as the secretive Stig. It's possibly bad news for the "white Stig," as the last Stig, who wore all black, got sacked when he revealed his identity. It makes some sense to keep him secret and thus remove any hint of possible bias, and it's part of the charm of the show. Hopefully he goes out with a bang. Last time it was a splash- they made it look like the old Stig drove off an aircraft carrier.

But then Top Gear decided to open the new season by revealing the real Stig as Michael Schumacher- this cell phone video from the audience is on youtube. I think that was classy and smart PR to head off an impostor. But is Collins an impostor? He's done stunt driving for films such as Quantum of Solace, and under the mask, the Stig could be many pro race drivers. In the end, I think that's the real answer for why his face is hidden all the time, because they pick from pro drivers who are available.

President Nerd

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:40:00 +0000

John Hodgman outing President Obama's nerdiness at the Correspondent's Dinner. I'm not a huge Hodgman fan but he's quite funny here, and the Prez takes it like a champ. It's so nice to have a President whose public persona isn't anti-intellectual.

Star Wars credits, 60's style by Saul Bass

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Got this from the Retroist blog- the Star Wars credits, imagined by Saul Bass fans.

Private Pyle Terminator

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:22:00 +0000

My friend Ryan reminded me of this hilarious deleted scene from Terminator 3, that would have made it even campier and over the top. In true geek form, I wish they'd modeled the Terminator on John Matrix from Commando, but hearing Arnie dubbed with a goofier accent is even better.

Alien Stompers by Reebok

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Yep, these are the shoes Ripley wore in Aliens. Reebok released them as a tie-in in 1986 and they are available again now.
So, if you're a huge Aliens nerd you need to get these, and this awesome Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds t-shirt from Nerdoh. They're pricey but very good quality! I know, I have one.

Maid in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:15:00 +0000

If you've been on the internet for more than 5 minutes, you know that Japan is the nerd capital of the world. The Akihabara district of Tokyo is the epicenter, a clutter of neon Tetris blocks that looks like Times Square squared, and every building has multiple floors of geek treasure. Whether it's newfangled electronics, t-shirts festooned with scenes from '80s anime, hard to find DVDs, or plastic figures of hyperjointed mechabots, you will find it here. And when you get hungry, you can have cupcakes served to you by squeaky girls dressed in maid outfits.
That's a maid girl advertising for a Maid Cafe in the background. It costs money to get photographed with them. My friend Peter and I were with Naomi and Kiku, and unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the sweaty nerds drooling over these maid girls. Digital photos are forbidden anywhere near these cafes. They want to sell you cheap tiny polaroids.
You can buy these costumes for your girlfriend or realdoll if you wish. Naomi was a good sport:
I treated for the maid cafe because it's something you can't experience elsewhere, and it's not sordid at all. They are completely cute about it, or kawaii as the real anime nerds would say. Thank goodness, because I was embarrassed enough.

That's the flyer for the place we went to. It's an internet cafe as well. I don't remember how the cake tasted, but the coffee was pretty good. Japan is different from the states. People go to these cafes just to use the internet; the equivalent of going to a Chuck E. Cheese to play Frogger. I couldn't leave without souvenir photos. You can pay for them or perform some sort of task on stage; a fellow with a huge pompadour got his by catching 3 pastries in his mouth. I'll regret putting these on the internet someday, but they crack me up. She kept hanging from my muscles like I was Hulk Hogan.
We had a great time with Naomi and Kiku; we had dinner at a yaki place (fried meat) and visited Yoyogi park where girls dress up after school and pose around the park as their own dreamt-up anime characters, but I'll save that for another post.

my precious... it's my birthday and i wants it...

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:28:00 +0000

'Give us that, Déagol, my love,' said Sméagol, over his friend's shoulder.
'Why?' said Déagol.
'Because it's my birthday, my love, and and I wants it,' said Sméagol.
'I don't care,' said Déagol. 'I have given you a present already, more than I could afford. I found this, and I'm going to keep it.
'Oh, are you indeed, my love,' said Sméagol; and he caught Déagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger.

My Terminator Sequel

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas Pluck) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:43:00 +0000

When Terminator 2 blasted onto the scene, my friends and I were overtaken by its awesomeness. It's the rare sequel that tops the original, and it was part of the national consciousness for years. We wondered what the sequel would be.

Some goofy cartoonist friends of mine came up with a sitcom spin-off called "Mom Married the Terminator," which wondered what would have happened if the Terminator did not self-terminate and instead, lived with John and Sarah as the surrogate Dad John wanted him to be. After all, Skynet was gone! It was a lot better than that crappy "Sarah Connor Chronicles" show with River from Firefly (oops), let me tell you.

My contribution was the episode where John takes the Terminator to see Bambi: