A reminder for Americans

George W. Bush will look you in the eye and lie to you. Dick Cheney will look you in the eye and lie to you. Condoleeza Rice will look you in the eye and lie to you.

Actually, none of these liars will ever actually look you in the eye. They don't give a damn about you, or your family, or your neighborhood, or your town.

They're exploiting you, and they're using you, and they're getting richer every day at the expense of this country.

Just a friendly reminder.

The Megapixel Myth

There's a recent piece by David Pogue at the New York Times about the Megapixel Myth. What's the myth?

"'The more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.'

It’s a big fat lie. The camera companies and camera stores all know it, but they continue to exploit our misunderstanding."

Read the entire article here. The NYT site requires registration, but you can bypass it by getting a free login at Bugmenot.

My superhero lover

Hmm, 65.2% isn't really that great of a compatibility score, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for (some) Alpha Flight, so I guess it's a decent match. The early John Byrne issues were good, at least. And Aurora is a hottie, even if she's nuts. She used to be a nun, I think, right?

Marvel Girl is Rachel Summers? I didn't know that. I did have a thing for Rachel back in the day, when she was the New Wave looking Phoenix ... well, as much as a teenage boy can have a thing for a fictional character, anyway. Gotta love the short red hair. :)

TV, part 2: The Venture Bros.

I bought a Venture Bros. t-shirt a couple of weeks ago; it's black, with the skull-looking logo in white on the front. I imagine that, from a distance, to the uninformed, it just looks like a skull. I wonder what the normals think when they see it.

I wore it to the grocery store recently, and as I was leaving the checkout, I heard a voice call out, "Go Team Venture!" and I looked over my shoulder to see some dude looking at me, raising his fingers in a "V" sign. That's what kind of show The Venture Bros. is, the kind of show that makes you yell a greeting to a stranger in a grocery store.

The show is currently on hiatus between the second and third seasons. Season 1 is already out on DVD and Season 2 is coming out in April. This is the best animated show I know of, and one of the best comedies in general, animated or not. It's similar in spirit to The Tick, and if you like crazy exaggerated superhero type stories, it'll be right up your alley. The humor is at times slapstick, but other times insanely subtle, and the episodes demand repeat viewings just to be sure that you catch all the jokes and geeky references.

Season 2 ended with a kind of cliffhanger, after Phantom Limb attacked The Monarch at his wedding to Dr. Girlfriend. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Klaus Nomi were also involved. But don't start watching there, get the first season and then try to catch Season 2 episodes in reruns or on Adult Swim Fix. You'll want to be caught up before the next new episodes start.

The Police

The Police opened the Grammy Awards tonight, performing for the first time in many years. Of course they played "Roxanne" (that was predictable) but it was still awfully cool to see Stewart, Andy and Gordon all on the stage together again.

The Grammys are otherwise pretty much meaningless to me, but it was a cool performance to see. I wonder if the Police will play another number; I'll have to fast forward the DVR tomorrow and find out.

The songs of February

I've been as giddy as a (giddy) schoolgirl lately, because I've gotten back into using Pandora to find new music. There is more to this story but I ain't tellin' it here. This month's mp3club offerings are a result of some Pandora discoveries. Check 'em out and if you enjoy them, let me know.

Nature

On the way back to my office after lunch today, I heard a distinctive bird call, and I looked up to see a hawk circling slowly in the sky. I stopped to watch it, and it flew gently downward, wings flapping, until it landed on a lamp post. I smiled, thinking to myself what a beautiful, majestic creature it was. Then it squirted out a big white poo, which splattered to the ground beneath it, and it flew away into the afternoon sky.