I was born in '77 and started watching the show in the early 90's. While I got a lot of the jokes, some of them were simply before my time. When I got a hold of the MST3K episode guides where every reference was explained, I was amazed at how much slipped by me. Most of my friends enjoyed the show but I had one who was intelligent but just didn't "get" it, mainly because he had no familiarity with the pop ephemera being referenced. Some of the jokes will remain timeless: "I got a man who knows all the angles -- yeah, the name's Euclid." Other jokes will become incomprehensible: "What, a V-2 rocket? He could have had a V-8!"
It's sort of the same problem with watching certain anime with a lot of in-jokes, Excel Saga for example. So many of the jokes rely on having a familiarity with animes that came before or silly puns that only work in Japanese, easily half the humor is lost in translation. Even when the subbers explain the jokes, jokes just aren't as funny when they're explained.
But this new riffing stuff is good. By open-sourcing it, we should get even better yucks.
Gamera is really neat! Gamera is turtle meat! We love Gamera!
I had a guest show up as I was finishing the last post and I cut it a little short. I was trying to say that I'm more satisfied working for myself because I work on what I believe in. Whether I can make a living at it in the long term remains to be seen, but I'm happier than I was at a comfortable desk job with a nice salary and vaguely defined work goals.
Heh, I'm reminded of a quote from my old Latin book: "How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting by the world forgot." Or more succinctly, "ignorance is bliss."
That really is the problem, finding that good job and keeping it. I liked my last one a great deal but the company had to go and suicide itself. I'm liking the current one but I'm feeling insecure about how long it will last. The thing that kills me in this fucking economy, our work histories will make us all look like contractors. A year here, two years there, six months at another place. Why did you leave these jobs? "I didn't. Lay-offs, downsizing, profit-raping, none of this was my doing. I'd love to work somewhere for ten years but the jobs never last that long."
On the other hand, for the last few years I've worked on projects that are ostensibly for the public good, ensuring safe water supplies and such, but I've been rather unhappy with it. Why? Because the company I was working for was far better at securing grants and government contracts than at building anything useful and actually putting it to use beyond carefully controlled tests and demos. I came to realize that nothing I ever did there would ever really matter.
How is this any different from how they're operating now? What does it matter that they're no longer going to breaking a law they never paid any attention to in the first place? Karl Rove tells Congress to take their subpoena, shine it up real nice, turn it sideways and shove it right up their collective asses. Consequences? So far, none. Will there ever be? Doubtful. Will it be any different for the FBI? Doubtful.
Well, I'm never eating at Taco Bell again after reading that. I hope you're happy...
Your GI tract will thank you.
The last time I ate at Taco Bell? Ten years ago, had it for lunch. Driving home from work later I'm feeling kind of eh, then suddenly from out of nowhere I get a case of the technocolor yawns, projectile-style. Usually you have a bit of warning with food poisoning, you get the ill feeling in the back of your throat and you're like "Dude, I'm not going to vomit," your mouth starts to water in that horrible way you know means something is coming up right now and you're like "dude, I fucking hate vomiting" and then you're at the toilet opening wide and thinking "Ok, let's get this shit over with." None of that happened. Went from meh to splatters in a split second. On the interstate, no way to pull over, bits of tortilla and processed meats coming up. A horrid, disgusting mess.
Which makes Russia's bellyaching over our deployment all the more amusing. The base in Poland can't intercept missiles launched from Russia to North America (they tend to go over the pole)
Yes, launches at America go over the pole. So why do you think Bush wants the launchers in Poland?
Jerry: Makes movies. Elaine: So does...it does? I thought Windows didn't make movies. Jerry (shrugs and sips): Vista. (Door explodes open!) Kramer: Jerry! The Dell store down the street is selling computers with Vista for $1500! Jerry: 1250 Kramer (walking over to Jerry's laptop): Oooh, is that... Jerry: Vista. Kramer: Niiiice.
--the next day--
Elaine: So Jerry, why does your screen look different? Jerry: I "downgraded" to XP. Elaine: Why's that? Jerry: Battery life is crap, I was getting nagged to death with cancel or allow screens-- Elaine: Like that Mac commercial. Jerry: Right. Truth in advertising, who knew? Elaine: So you're using an operating system almost as old as Michael Jackson's boyfriends. Jerry: True. Elaine: On a big, expensive, shiny modern machine. Jerry: Uh-huh. Elaine: And you can still do all the things you said you could do before, only with less crap interrupting you? Jerry: Yep. Elaine: And my Mac still costs twice as much. Jerry: Yep agian. So, what advantage do you have with your Mac? Elaine: Chicks really seem to dig it. Jerry: That's a plus. Elaine: But I'm straight. Jerry: Consider your options. You could say you were dual-booting. Elaine: *bites her lip and looks worried*
I agree, many people have a vague dislike for Vista. I think it has to do in part with allowing Apple to be the one to tell consumers about Vista.
I'm normally one who wants to see marketing types drown in pools of their own blood but I do have to give Apple props for their handling of Vista. Nobody outside the techie circles even knew what the UAC thing was but the first time they sit at the PC and encounter it, they'll immediately think back to this commercial. Vista was made to look ridiculous there and the user experience is reenforcing that belief.
Not only that, the cancel or allow thing has worked its way into pop culture now. I've seen non-geeks using it now. Someone will complain about something and a friend saying something like "I think this place must be run by idiots!" and the friend will reply "You have come to a sad realization, cancel or allow?" The other guy gets the joke and does the Resident Expert sigh and says "Allow."
There is no countering this kind of resistance, this negative mind-share. Someone here on slashdot said he realized how bad Microsoft fucked up when even his technophobe mother said Vista was bad.
wow, that's pretty dark. There's a nine inch nails video with a suicide machine that is supposed to bring the victim/supplicant immense pleasure/pain before being mulched for plant food by the creepy garden below it. Intricate torture machines always creep me out, much like clowns.
One of the worst punishments I encountered in a story was a prison built inside a mountain. The prison consists of a gigantic wheel carved into the mountain, the only opening to the outside world being at one slim port the width of a cell. The condemned are sentenced to a revolution, inserted into the cell as the openings move by. A revolution takes ten years. There are passageways above the cells for guards to observe the prisoners, pass down food, etc, but none of this is visible to the condemned. The condemned are forced to pull at their stations within the wheel or risk being crushed by the wall following behind. A slick wetness on the floor from the wall before them indicates when a prisoner has fallen and been ground to death within their very cell. There is no contact with any other human within this prison, no light, no occupation other than pulling at the wheel. The inventor of the prison was said to be among the first put inside.
The story told here was of one prisoner who was able to make contact with the person in the cell before him, a woman. He found a point where the side of the cell facing the outer wall had fallen into disrepair and had been poorly bricked back up. he was able to work bricks free and move into the cell before him and met a beautiful woman. He had to return to his cell for the next move and hoped that he might see her again. The following night he entered her cell but someone else was there, the man from the cell in front of hers. He had already raped and murdered her and was ready to do the same to him. End of story. Pretty creepy.
I like to think that on the ramp leading to every rocket there's a sign that says "Must be this smart to fly, deposit all primitive screwhead beliefs in dustbin." If you really think there's an invisible man in the sky who gives a shit about all this shit, you shouldn't be flying in space. End of story.
And yet I'm sure many US astronauts would call themselves Christians.
And great men through the ages used to believe in witchcraft and magic and alchemy. 51% of the American people thought George W. Bush was a good idea. Smart people, doctors and engineers even, pulled the level for that guy. Doesn't make them right.
I enjoy learning about religions. The various traditions and such. And one of the fascinating aspects is translating certain rules, laws, customs, etc into space. Presumably Iran, as an Islamic republic, will send devout Muslims into space and will have to answer some interesting questions. For instance, if you orbit the earth every 90 minutes, you experience a very short day. If you are Muslim, how does that effect praying 5 times a day (every 18 minutes!). And what about direction? If anyone has any serious thoughts, I'm curious hear them. In a related vein, can devout Jews use thrusters (light a fire) on the Sabbath?
I like to think that on the ramp leading to every rocket there's a sign that says "Must be this smart to fly, deposit all primitive screwhead beliefs in dustbin." If you really think there's an invisible man in the sky who gives a shit about all this shit, you shouldn't be flying in space. End of story.
Forget McCain and Obama. We need a seance with Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln and both Roosevelts, Teddy and Frank. I honestly think it would take all six to get us out of this mess, after they kicked all of our respective asses for letting it get this bad.
Since that ain't a practical solution, what the hell can we do? The books I've been reading paint a grim picture if we look at this in a historical perspective. You can draw direct parallels between states and business in this regard. There will be some great combination of winning factors that will create an empire. The Dutch had masterful use of wind power, both on the land and sea. Their trading empire was world-spanning and awe-inspiring. But as their riches grew, they became more enamored with finance than the work of the merchant. Their system failed in favor of the Brits who ushered in the Industrial Revolution. 4/5ths of the world's coal production combined with efficient production of steel, steam engines to make all of that more efficient, it was a self-reenforcing cycle of success. But the Brits never really grew beyond the family firm, the enthusiastic tinkerers. The Americans and Germans applied scientific rigor and tremendous capital resources for labs and experimentation and were able to take the revolution to the next level. The Brits became enamored with finance, could not fathom how to upgrade their industrial infrastructure which had gone from world-leading to antiquated in two generations, there just wasn't the political will and foresight. Americans pushed to develop oil and easily stepped into the power vacuum created by the collapse of the British Empire after two world wars. And now America is at the end of empire.
I swear, it's like a Greek tragic hero, the qualities that lead to the hero's greatness also sew the seeds of his own destruction. We build up this incredible, unsustainable society based on oil and are now incapable of seeing a way to a different future. Our leaders are more interested in looting what's left for profit and dashing before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
With all the forces arrayed against us, I don't see how one man can make a real difference. I'd like to think Obama means well but he's got the Democratic enablers backing up Bush, fucking Nancy Pelosi screeching that impeachment is off the table, blocking real investigation into Bush's corruption because any close scrutiny would reveal Democrats fighting with Republicans for the right to fondle his balls.
And now we have Bush and his idiots trying to restart the Cold War, trying to play nuclear Russian roulette with the Russians. What. The. Fuck.
But you go ahead, and keep humming that "I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best" mantra. Keep closing your eyes as tight as you can and shut your ears tighter. Find a good teddy bear, because the old man, the old man has seen all this before.
What astounds me is that there are people who will genuinely reply that your post amounts to nothing more than faggy hippie whining. I'm amazed at how so many people on the right end up identifying with their subjugators.
Slashdot Mirror
I was born in '77 and started watching the show in the early 90's. While I got a lot of the jokes, some of them were simply before my time. When I got a hold of the MST3K episode guides where every reference was explained, I was amazed at how much slipped by me. Most of my friends enjoyed the show but I had one who was intelligent but just didn't "get" it, mainly because he had no familiarity with the pop ephemera being referenced. Some of the jokes will remain timeless: "I got a man who knows all the angles -- yeah, the name's Euclid." Other jokes will become incomprehensible: "What, a V-2 rocket? He could have had a V-8!"
It's sort of the same problem with watching certain anime with a lot of in-jokes, Excel Saga for example. So many of the jokes rely on having a familiarity with animes that came before or silly puns that only work in Japanese, easily half the humor is lost in translation. Even when the subbers explain the jokes, jokes just aren't as funny when they're explained.
But this new riffing stuff is good. By open-sourcing it, we should get even better yucks.
Gamera is really neat! Gamera is turtle meat! We love Gamera!
I had a guest show up as I was finishing the last post and I cut it a little short. I was trying to say that I'm more satisfied working for myself because I work on what I believe in. Whether I can make a living at it in the long term remains to be seen, but I'm happier than I was at a comfortable desk job with a nice salary and vaguely defined work goals.
Heh, I'm reminded of a quote from my old Latin book: "How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting by the world forgot." Or more succinctly, "ignorance is bliss."
That really is the problem, finding that good job and keeping it. I liked my last one a great deal but the company had to go and suicide itself. I'm liking the current one but I'm feeling insecure about how long it will last. The thing that kills me in this fucking economy, our work histories will make us all look like contractors. A year here, two years there, six months at another place. Why did you leave these jobs? "I didn't. Lay-offs, downsizing, profit-raping, none of this was my doing. I'd love to work somewhere for ten years but the jobs never last that long."
On the other hand, for the last few years I've worked on projects that are ostensibly for the public good, ensuring safe water supplies and such, but I've been rather unhappy with it. Why? Because the company I was working for was far better at securing grants and government contracts than at building anything useful and actually putting it to use beyond carefully controlled tests and demos. I came to realize that nothing I ever did there would ever really matter.
Bechtel?
"As an auditor I search for errors that others have made and haughtily tell them."
You must be very popular.
It's all in the tone of voice, haughty but nice.
Human fingers are greasy. Show me a touchscreen that can repel all human grease and then I'll be interested.
Ok, so now we can transplant faces but tell me, Doctor, can we transplant the heart of a good movie into a Travolta vehicle?
And... "Oh, my! And now a large, moving trash bin with a toilet plunger for a hand is here. What ever next?!"
We sic the cast of Queer Eye on the Daleks and turn them into metrosexuals? "EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!"
I think if you told Thomas Jefferson that the United States would be up to this sort of thing, someone would have gotten a musket ball to the chest.
I think his reaction would have been more along the lines of "Goodness, what is that peculiar blue box you stepped out of?"
How is this any different from how they're operating now? What does it matter that they're no longer going to breaking a law they never paid any attention to in the first place? Karl Rove tells Congress to take their subpoena, shine it up real nice, turn it sideways and shove it right up their collective asses. Consequences? So far, none. Will there ever be? Doubtful. Will it be any different for the FBI? Doubtful.
Well, I'm never eating at Taco Bell again after reading that. I hope you're happy...
Your GI tract will thank you.
The last time I ate at Taco Bell? Ten years ago, had it for lunch. Driving home from work later I'm feeling kind of eh, then suddenly from out of nowhere I get a case of the technocolor yawns, projectile-style. Usually you have a bit of warning with food poisoning, you get the ill feeling in the back of your throat and you're like "Dude, I'm not going to vomit," your mouth starts to water in that horrible way you know means something is coming up right now and you're like "dude, I fucking hate vomiting" and then you're at the toilet opening wide and thinking "Ok, let's get this shit over with." None of that happened. Went from meh to splatters in a split second. On the interstate, no way to pull over, bits of tortilla and processed meats coming up. A horrid, disgusting mess.
That's why I no longer eat at Taco Bell.
Which makes Russia's bellyaching over our deployment all the more amusing. The base in Poland can't intercept missiles launched from Russia to North America (they tend to go over the pole)
Yes, launches at America go over the pole. So why do you think Bush wants the launchers in Poland?
I want to do some sort of pun on Roe v. something but I can't think of anything fishy that rhymes with Wade.
Eh, the best one was from Katrina.
"What does Bush think about Roe vs. Wade?"
"He doesn't care how they get out of New Orleans."
They found a bug! It was a good test.
This project's got more bugs than a Taco Bell, they can't swing a dead cat without finding one.
Jerry: Makes movies.
Elaine: So does...it does? I thought Windows didn't make movies.
Jerry (shrugs and sips): Vista.
(Door explodes open!)
Kramer: Jerry! The Dell store down the street is selling computers with Vista for $1500!
Jerry: 1250
Kramer (walking over to Jerry's laptop): Oooh, is that...
Jerry: Vista.
Kramer: Niiiice.
--the next day--
Elaine: So Jerry, why does your screen look different?
Jerry: I "downgraded" to XP.
Elaine: Why's that?
Jerry: Battery life is crap, I was getting nagged to death with cancel or allow screens--
Elaine: Like that Mac commercial.
Jerry: Right. Truth in advertising, who knew?
Elaine: So you're using an operating system almost as old as Michael Jackson's boyfriends.
Jerry: True.
Elaine: On a big, expensive, shiny modern machine.
Jerry: Uh-huh.
Elaine: And you can still do all the things you said you could do before, only with less crap interrupting you?
Jerry: Yep.
Elaine: And my Mac still costs twice as much.
Jerry: Yep agian. So, what advantage do you have with your Mac?
Elaine: Chicks really seem to dig it.
Jerry: That's a plus.
Elaine: But I'm straight.
Jerry: Consider your options. You could say you were dual-booting.
Elaine: *bites her lip and looks worried*
I agree, many people have a vague dislike for Vista. I think it has to do in part with allowing Apple to be the one to tell consumers about Vista.
I'm normally one who wants to see marketing types drown in pools of their own blood but I do have to give Apple props for their handling of Vista. Nobody outside the techie circles even knew what the UAC thing was but the first time they sit at the PC and encounter it, they'll immediately think back to this commercial. Vista was made to look ridiculous there and the user experience is reenforcing that belief.
Not only that, the cancel or allow thing has worked its way into pop culture now. I've seen non-geeks using it now. Someone will complain about something and a friend saying something like "I think this place must be run by idiots!" and the friend will reply "You have come to a sad realization, cancel or allow?" The other guy gets the joke and does the Resident Expert sigh and says "Allow."
There is no countering this kind of resistance, this negative mind-share. Someone here on slashdot said he realized how bad Microsoft fucked up when even his technophobe mother said Vista was bad.
wow, that's pretty dark. There's a nine inch nails video with a suicide machine that is supposed to bring the victim/supplicant immense pleasure/pain before being mulched for plant food by the creepy garden below it. Intricate torture machines always creep me out, much like clowns.
One of the worst punishments I encountered in a story was a prison built inside a mountain. The prison consists of a gigantic wheel carved into the mountain, the only opening to the outside world being at one slim port the width of a cell. The condemned are sentenced to a revolution, inserted into the cell as the openings move by. A revolution takes ten years. There are passageways above the cells for guards to observe the prisoners, pass down food, etc, but none of this is visible to the condemned. The condemned are forced to pull at their stations within the wheel or risk being crushed by the wall following behind. A slick wetness on the floor from the wall before them indicates when a prisoner has fallen and been ground to death within their very cell. There is no contact with any other human within this prison, no light, no occupation other than pulling at the wheel. The inventor of the prison was said to be among the first put inside.
The story told here was of one prisoner who was able to make contact with the person in the cell before him, a woman. He found a point where the side of the cell facing the outer wall had fallen into disrepair and had been poorly bricked back up. he was able to work bricks free and move into the cell before him and met a beautiful woman. He had to return to his cell for the next move and hoped that he might see her again. The following night he entered her cell but someone else was there, the man from the cell in front of hers. He had already raped and murdered her and was ready to do the same to him. End of story. Pretty creepy.
I like to think that on the ramp leading to every rocket there's a sign that says "Must be this smart to fly, deposit all primitive screwhead beliefs in dustbin." If you really think there's an invisible man in the sky who gives a shit about all this shit, you shouldn't be flying in space. End of story.
It's not trolling, it's the truth, simpletons.
And yet I'm sure many US astronauts would call themselves Christians.
And great men through the ages used to believe in witchcraft and magic and alchemy. 51% of the American people thought George W. Bush was a good idea. Smart people, doctors and engineers even, pulled the level for that guy. Doesn't make them right.
I enjoy learning about religions. The various traditions and such. And one of the fascinating aspects is translating certain rules, laws, customs, etc into space. Presumably Iran, as an Islamic republic, will send devout Muslims into space and will have to answer some interesting questions. For instance, if you orbit the earth every 90 minutes, you experience a very short day. If you are Muslim, how does that effect praying 5 times a day (every 18 minutes!). And what about direction? If anyone has any serious thoughts, I'm curious hear them. In a related vein, can devout Jews use thrusters (light a fire) on the Sabbath?
I like to think that on the ramp leading to every rocket there's a sign that says "Must be this smart to fly, deposit all primitive screwhead beliefs in dustbin." If you really think there's an invisible man in the sky who gives a shit about all this shit, you shouldn't be flying in space. End of story.
sure they can put a man into space, the problem has always been to get them back down safely once up there. When will they be able to do that?
He doesn't need to come back, he's flying a capsule full of ammonium nitrate into the International Space Station.
Just what the world needs, a robotic killing machine that likes to hold hands.
Especially when the hands are no longer attached to anything.
Forget McCain and Obama. We need a seance with Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln and both Roosevelts, Teddy and Frank. I honestly think it would take all six to get us out of this mess, after they kicked all of our respective asses for letting it get this bad.
Since that ain't a practical solution, what the hell can we do? The books I've been reading paint a grim picture if we look at this in a historical perspective. You can draw direct parallels between states and business in this regard. There will be some great combination of winning factors that will create an empire. The Dutch had masterful use of wind power, both on the land and sea. Their trading empire was world-spanning and awe-inspiring. But as their riches grew, they became more enamored with finance than the work of the merchant. Their system failed in favor of the Brits who ushered in the Industrial Revolution. 4/5ths of the world's coal production combined with efficient production of steel, steam engines to make all of that more efficient, it was a self-reenforcing cycle of success. But the Brits never really grew beyond the family firm, the enthusiastic tinkerers. The Americans and Germans applied scientific rigor and tremendous capital resources for labs and experimentation and were able to take the revolution to the next level. The Brits became enamored with finance, could not fathom how to upgrade their industrial infrastructure which had gone from world-leading to antiquated in two generations, there just wasn't the political will and foresight. Americans pushed to develop oil and easily stepped into the power vacuum created by the collapse of the British Empire after two world wars. And now America is at the end of empire.
I swear, it's like a Greek tragic hero, the qualities that lead to the hero's greatness also sew the seeds of his own destruction. We build up this incredible, unsustainable society based on oil and are now incapable of seeing a way to a different future. Our leaders are more interested in looting what's left for profit and dashing before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
With all the forces arrayed against us, I don't see how one man can make a real difference. I'd like to think Obama means well but he's got the Democratic enablers backing up Bush, fucking Nancy Pelosi screeching that impeachment is off the table, blocking real investigation into Bush's corruption because any close scrutiny would reveal Democrats fighting with Republicans for the right to fondle his balls.
And now we have Bush and his idiots trying to restart the Cold War, trying to play nuclear Russian roulette with the Russians. What. The. Fuck.
Don't forget to blame the Shrub for the eventual decay of the earth's orbit until it is consumed by the sun.
That's actually Cheney's fault.
...and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!
...which was made in China.
You complain about the lead in it now but it'll come in handy for shielding when the bombs start dropping.
But you go ahead, and keep humming that "I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best" mantra. Keep closing your eyes as tight as you can and shut your ears tighter. Find a good teddy bear, because the old man, the old man has seen all this before.
What astounds me is that there are people who will genuinely reply that your post amounts to nothing more than faggy hippie whining. I'm amazed at how so many people on the right end up identifying with their subjugators.