http://instapundit.com/archives2/016810.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtNr5-up0U

Hah!

Then it turns out he doesn't like Israel so much, after all...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=29358_Electronic_Intifada-_How_Barack_Obama_Learned_to_Love_Israel&only

For someone meant to be so eloquant in speeches, this guy is making an awful lot of mistakes.

Sigh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXmYVRIpu2w

Far from 'scaring', the violin music actually added a reassuring feel to things. As did the picture of a child sleeping safely. That was the whole point of the other advert; to convey an atmosphere of reassurance and safety.

If that girl's genuinely offended about stock footage being legally bought for perfectly valid reasons, she needs to get over it.

This makes that campaign look hyper-sensitive and reactionary.

Probably should start looking at the rest of your journals again!

However, I had to post this bit of political hilarity...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=29090_Barack_Obamas_Double-Dealing_on_NAFTA&only

"Oh yes, he did!"

Clinton might unify the Republicans, but if the Democrats choose the other guy, they're going to be led by a more intellectual vacuous representative than they have been for a long time.

Amazing science news!

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1303867,00.html

Netscape dies!

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/01/netscape-the-br.html

Meanwhile, looking at Ron Paul's foreign affairs and economic advisors, respectively, a pattern begins to emerge...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/ron-pauls-tax-adviser/
http://lonestartimes.com/2008/02/01/who-has-the-ear-of-ron-paul/

And then there's this. Never let it be said that politics, here in the UK, does not know how to make fun of its ridiculous self. Just would be nice if it was a bit more, oh, I don't know... Common sense, maybe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/31/nschools131.xml

Not that it's expected that Al Qaeda is in the business of, like, using women with Down's Syndrome to kill more then... Oh, wait. They have...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511678&in_page_id=1811

Sigh.

On the positive side, it just goes to show how we're running them out of resources.

What... The... Fuck...?

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/2204

The guy's either too ignorant of geopolitics or... I don't know what... But it's absolutely not what a President either needs or should do. It's obvious what the majority of 'feedback' would be. One only needs to see that rambling letter the Iranian President sent to the Bush administration, not long ago. It was full of allusions to some soret of Jewish 'problem' which needs to be sorted out and all the rest of it.

Also, does he really need someone to tell him that the vast majority of leaders of 'Islamic' countries tend to be more in the business of oppressing, rather than governing, the people they supposedly represent?

It really is bizarre news.

OK... This Obama guy? I swear, he states the most obvious thing in the world, phrases it like an advertising slogan and everyone yells in happiness, because he puts a 'serious' expression on.

Example?

"This election is not about the past, it's about the future!"

Well, gee, thanks for that update about where we are in time!

Let's try some examples, shall we?

"And Microsoft asks you, my friends... Where do you want to go, today?"

See! It so works! Just imagine him saying it and the crowd roaring with loud applause!

"Is it live or is it Memorex? Because I tell you, my friends... Don't leave home without it, because life's complicated enough and when you say - when you say Budweiser, you've said it all! And just remember - always Coca-Cola."

Oh, this is amazingly easy...

"Can you hear me now...? Good! Welcome to the human network! The power to be your best! Powered by Intellect... Driven by Values. It's in the game!"

See how that shit functions? You, too, can write that crap and be annoyed because htey're not paying you for it.

:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love-shyness

Interesting! There's actually a term for it. :)

I've been looking for informaiotn on that sort of thing, again. Unofrtunately, the 'answers' seem come down to:

(1) Don't focus on sex.

Truesome. I don't, however. A lot of people, such as myself, are troubled only in the confidence department. However, this problem is severe, in so much as it is not a cliché to say that the mind, quite literally, goes blank, when speaking to a girl I don't know. Unless I have some sort of 'official' reason to do so, which is incredibly rare (and usually about the maximum extent of any conversation, in any case), then I cannot think of a single thing to say.

(2) "Seriously. Just go out and get some."

Yeah, fuck you, too, my slow-thinking friend. :)

(3) Go up to people and flirt with them. You'll get plenty of rejection, but that's what it's about and you'll feel great.

The trouble with this view is that it's of the 'wouldn't you rather try' philosophy.

No! People such as myself would not rather try! Not when it comes ot that, precisely because the psychological stakes would be so damn high. To an ordinary person, it's a nervous proposition. Of that, make no mistake. But for people like me, it is not a cure. Rejection not only compounds the issue, but strips away what little confidence you enter such a situation with. Not just a little, but wholesale and it's something which others do not seem to fully appreciate the value of.

The best way to describe it would be to trip up while carrying a glass of water. Some people might spill it. Others, like me, would not only spill it, but break the glass and find the place I got that water from had just ran out of replacements for a week.

OK, so that's a bit of a long-winded explanation, but the water's the confidence and the tripping up is the... Well, yeah, you get it. :)

People go through 'dry spells', I believe the problem is termed. But this type of thing is much more extensive than that. A certain comedy film tried to examine this issue and, as I pointed out in my review of it, the problem with it was not that the main character had social issues with women. In his past, it was made clear that he quite regularly got into the position of almost having sex with many of them. He just had yet to do the act.

And that was quite a revelation, really, because it exemplified just how deeply the rest of society utterly fails to understand it. To many, it's a simplistic thing and one which, therefore, could be easily overcome.

The bottom line is that, yes, it can be. However, it requires confidence. To gain it, you must have success, but if you have no success and time gradually moves on... Hmm...

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/01/22/mystery-in-brooklyn-bomb-factory-at-columbia-university-professors-home/

I think that was the University which invited Iran's President over, too. Not that the guy who runs it doesn't get credit for, upon the Ahmadinejad's arrival, verbally laying into him for executing homosexuals and being a tyranical bastard, in general, but then it was recently revealed that quite a few Professors were planning to travel over to Iran to 'apologise' for the comments.

Makes me wonder if this Professor was one of them.

Would not surprise me, if that was so!

I don't know how to embed the video part, so shall just give the link:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/the_few_the_proud_the_morons.php

I love the idea for that! Really creative! soldiers on ceremonial drill, in incredibly ordinary places. It's simple, yet really gets the point across.

Some of the latest, in a long line of progressively more violent rocket attacks against Israel have been getting coverage here:

http://www.israellycool.com

This is exactly what happened, the last time. The only question is how long it takes before the critical point is reached, where Israel is forced to retaliate with military strikes again.

Just to be serious, for a moment or so, those of us who keep track of this sort of thing, have been noticing some differences:

1: The IDF was training with tactics to remove the Israeli settlers, back then. This has since been changed to training more in line with teh sorts of battles recently fought.

2: A greater emphasis has since been given to taking out the enemy on the ground, instead of over-reliance on air power. This should also be to Israel's assistance, if something does occur.

3: Israel did piss-poor on the PR front. They kept automatically apologising for things they were accused of, only to have to back-track later on, when they discovered certain things were not nearly so clear-cut as was thought (mostly discovered by the blogosphere, rather than anything Israeli-related). If they haven't improved their PR department by now, it would be very strange.

And now one of the terrorist leaders is literally bragging about having Israeli body-parts as trophies:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19337308.htm

Just a question of time...

OK, remember this item?

http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/emphasis/171937.html

Well, it won the competition! Although the film does not appear to be getting good reviews (I'll be seeing and writing a review of it, later), one of the two directors was involved in choosing the winners, as was a member of the production team, which meakes it very pleasant. :)

I had been hoping to see Juliet Landau at a Starfury (www.starfury.co.uk) convention, which will apparently be the last they will have her for.

Huge disappointment. :( Especially as I wrote on this year's card that I would be hoping to see her for that.

This is very frustrating for me to learn, but even if I took the emergency option to do this, then I would only have a very small amount of money left for food and stuff. The group in question are the people who do them for weekends and so this could be the last time I would have had the opportunity to see her for that length of time. Claire was not able to be my room-mate, then I had to spend some of the money saved for this on a new computer monitor. With this on top of that, it seems like events are conspiring to keep me away from it.

I am in contact with who does her Web site, however and let them know (saying that I would instead make a donation towards the film she is doing, on her site). I haven't seen her, since the year before last. With luck, they'll pass the message onto her and she'll know I'm at least trying to help out with that, even if not making it over there. She mentions those who gives the right amount of donations (about $300 lets you have you mentioned in the credits), on her My Space thing, so, I shall hope for that.

I've been looking at the US election stuff, recently. Ron Paul... I don't even know why the guy's in the Republican party. He's pretty much like Howard Dean.

I also never knew he was so downright racist, homophobic and all the rest of it.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/01/ron_paul.php
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27860_Ron_Pauls_Old_Newsletter_Revealed&only

This is what you see, in regards to the financial side of a film:
http://www.mecfilms.com/moviepubs/memos/variable.htm

This makes sense of it:
http://www.mecfilms.com/moviepubs/memos/terms.htm

:)

Just seen 'I Am Legend'.

Very impressed. Great stuff.

If anyone's interested, I just recently did an interview with a sculptor who has a link with 'Aliens Versus Predator - Requiem', but not in the way some would think. :)

The news, where people comment:
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/index.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1198644670&archive=&start_from=&ucat=5&

The article:
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/website.php?section=interview_shaun_noelte

Hello!

If you have time, I would like thoughts on this small story I have written, to do with the various 'Alien Versus Predator' films. It's actually an original thing, which has some references to the first (as I won't be able to see the newest, until it is shown here), meaning it's set at a similar contemporary time. It's done for a competition, which is why I'd like to know what others think.

( Read on for that story... )

Well! It seems that my friend is unable to make it for the convention where I'll hopefully be seeing Juliet Landau again and that means having to be on my own for that weekend, again.

Would be nice to actually have someone to speak with. :)

And now, something clever...