KJ

By watching YouTube, specifically work-from-home news bloopers. I particularly enjoyed this one, which includes the old classic of the North Korean expert on the BBC when his kids wandered in to the room, but I mostly share it here for the final segments of cats very much being cats, and refusing to be on camera when the reporter actually wanted them there.

I'll write something real tomorrow, I promise.

Presumably most of you have heard by now about the awful homophobic retelling of "Hamlet" written by Orson Scott Card. I don't know whether to be happier that I stopped giving money to OSC years ago, or sorrier that I can't yank every penny away now.

On the bright side, it did inspire scott_lynch to write this brilliant parody of how OSC might re-imagine Henry V.

(Thanks to renay for both links.)

I know that this is making the rounds, and that this may be the fifteenth time you've all seen this linked to in one place or another.

If even one person sees it who might not have seen it otherwise, it's worth taking that risk.

I give you: The Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody.

Back when I first acquired the FFXII soundtrack, I noticed that one of the songs was called "Clash on the Big Bridge". The title was somewhat familiar, the song itself even more so, but it took some cross-checking with my Black Mages albums to discover that it was based on a battle of the same name in FFV. I hadn't remembered hearing it anywhere in the game, so I chalked it up to poor memory and moved along.

Then today, a hunt called "Battle on the Big Bridge" showed up in my queue, so of course I had to check it out.

( Minor spoilers for a hunt in the latter half of FFXII. And also for FFV, perhaps. )

I approve. It's a fun little nod to fans of the series, and I love that it takes one of the less-played games as its jumping off point.

Presenting the 2009 winners. I haven't read them all yet, but the grand prize winner actually made me laugh out loud.

Even if you aren't normally a fan of LOLcats, you have to see this one.

( The world must be warned... )

Hanging out and watching bad television with amybang. It's telling, I think, that out of all of the ridiculous things that have happened in "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" (librarian as fact machine and action hero, magical books, plot twists that a five year old could see coming, the book of Solomon being written in English, various crazy coincidences, obvious editing mistakes), the thing we can't get past is that the main character, Flynn, somehow managed to complete five PhDs by his 32nd birthday.

Via SE, the Atlas of True Names, maps of the world and Europe that show the etymology of country, region, and city names. Some are fairly straightforward ("Land of Indians", "Virgin's Land", "Sea of Sand"), but there's a lot of fun stuff, too. Can you guess where "Land of the Chaste One" is? Or "Canal of Many Fish", or "Town of Respectables"?

But I think my favorite must be "I Don't Understand You!"

I wish the big map images on this page were enlargeable. Of course, then they'd be a lot less likely to sell the print versions. I have to admit, I'm kind of tempted.

Almost there. I can't believe that after two years of non-stop campaign news, we're finally less than 24 hours from the first polls closing.

All kinds of reasons to be excited and nervous and worried, but I've managed to narrow my focus to two: the presidential election, and Proposition 8. And since the alternative is unthinkable, I've made plans to head down to the No on Prop 8 San Francisco headquarters after work, to see if there's anything I can do. I'm not much for making phone calls to strangers, but surely there's office work that can be done, and, well, if not, maybe I'll just suck up the phone phobia for the evening. It might not even be a drop in the bucket, but I at least have to make the attempt.

In the meantime, have two owl-related distractions (I'm always posting moose stuff; it's about time to give the other half of my handle a little love):

Hiding place for sleeping owl is not so hidden after all.
Everyone is fond of owls. (Warning: Flash animation with loud sound, auto-plays with no way to stop or pause, extremely silly.)

Got a good owl picture, link, or story? Leave it in the comments!

Counter-protesters in pirate costumes drive away demonstrators from the Westboro Baptist "Church".

The counter-protest was organized by a group of Pastafarians, naturally. The Flying Spaghetti Monster has brought the world so many gifts, how can we not believe? Ra-men.