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Iffy CP case ends state-sponsored terrorism investigations
Posted 11 years agoOver here, a spurious case of CP is used to put an end to parliamentary investigations against our government for more than a decade of substantial financial, equipment, and secret service support for a wanted extreme right-wing racist terror group that is responsible for a two-digit amount of homicides against Islamic and Eastern-European immigrants.
The material used for this spurious case comes from the equally questionable Operation Spade carried out in Canada in 2011 against a registered company that was selling nude beach videos that between 2004 and 2009 had been repeatedly found to be harmless by Canadian authorities.
This changed when in 2009 a Canadian court ruled that the Dost test for child pornography now explicitly applies also to any nudity of minors, effectively rendering the Dost test as similarly an elastic clause as the Miller test in the US that considers material CP by the mere criterium whether an imaginary "average community member" could potentially consider them obscene for whatever reason. Hence, in 2011 the autorities seized 300,000 files from said company, out of which 160 files (equalling half a percent of the entire seized material) were now considered CP according to the Dost test on grounds of nude minors walking along nude beaches in the background. More than 350 people in 50 countries were arrested for having ordered nude-beach material from the company, and 348 minors related to these customers were put into custody (aka "saved", as the media puts it). Out of those more than 350 people, one British teacher was actually found in possession of material considered CP by the British COPINE scale which also applies to swimsuit and nudity images.
Over here, the whole Operation Spade including the company's name has been all over the media since summer 2013, since before even any arrests took place because nude beach videos are not illegal over here, even if minors are found to be in the background. Our government has been co-operating with Canadian authorities ever since 2011 on the case, and found the material sent to them just as harmless as had Canadian authorities repeatedly between 2004 and 2009.
The politician that is now being targeted more than two years after Operation Spade until a few days ago led a parliamentary commission that for two years had been investigating against our government and its secret services for more than a decade of substantial financial, equipment, and secret service aid and accessory for a wanted extreme right-wing racist terror group that is responsible for a two-digit amount of homicides against Islamic and Eastern-European immigrants, and continued obstruction of law in persecuting this terrorist group.
Ever since Operation Spade was all over our media in summer 2013, this politician as a private customer of the company's nude beach videos continually approached the authorities to co-operate with them, repeatedly offered them to search his homes and to hand all his computers and hard drives to them, but the authorities continually denied his offers.
Now in late January 2014, the police and state attorney called several local newspapers and TV channels to join them for live coverage of them searching the politician's homes with SWAT teams for CP, and they found...nothing. In parallel, the politician is thrown out of his party with great public fanfare as a pervert and the parliamentary commission against our government has been closed down immediately by law without a final report. Traces of broken plastic fibers are now taken as alleged evidence of destroyed hard disks, a fact which is not denied by the politician, as before the commission had been constituted he, all commission members, and our secret services had been ordered by law to continually destroy evidence on the government case stored in files, records, and hard disks after use (and in case of our secret services even long before these files could even be recorded as evidence).
The police and the media now say that the only reason they found nothing was the fact that our minister of the interior had informed the head of the Labour party about the non-case in fall 2013 (several months after the politician had begun repeatedly approaching the authorities about his non-case) so the party could "warn" their "pervert" in advance so he could destroy evidence, and everybody now believes that our Labour party must be full of perverts.
The whole case gets even weirder: The politician now says that he had been in contact with authorities ever since the media reports in summer 2013 because he "didn't know" what the elastic clause for "posing material" said in detail. What's so weird about that is hardly known by the public and glossed over by the media: That he personally wrote that bill, introduced it to parliament, and voted it into effect. What he, the media, the police, and the prosecutor are trying to sell us now is that he, *AFTER* authoring said bill and voting it into law, ordered nude beach videos that he is now being publicly smeared for based on that law he himself authored, introduced, and voted for, and now says he "didn't know in detail".
My two cents: The whole case is a sham (and the politician a paid pawn) to either introduce broader laws to now even cover nude beach videos or finally introduce the widely-critizized law on data retention (that would effectively void large parts of our constitution, involving sanctity of mail and inviolability of home), or the sham (potentially involving active planting of material) is fabricated to end all on-going investigations on our government for state-sponsored racist terrorism, or both.
The result of the whole non-case currently is a giant shitstorm of political, racist, and anti-paedophile agitation in the media and in the general populace, the latter having hardly known that the politician had led the parliamentary commission against our government, a fact which the media doesn't tell them either now (you only see people here and there going, "Of course, no service for our political system could ever outweigh the violation of our kids done by criminal scum like him!", without saying what his "service for our political system" really was). Because the politician has Indian ancestry, user comments on media reports directly and many media reports indirectly tell this "Oriental pervert to go back to India!", others call for castration and capital punishment performed on him as well as all the arrested from Operation Spade, etc. This on-going racist agitation is especially noteworthy in the context of the now closed investigations against our government for aiding and supporting a racist terror group for years, investigated by the commission led by this politician.
And of course, we now see demands left and right to also ban nude beach videos. In order for that to happen, many people inside and outside of the media and the legal system are suggestively calling the perfectly legal nude beach videos "morally questionable shopping catalogues" to "order children by". To mail-order children in a box, or what? And if it's for purposes of sex tourism, that already *IS* illegal (most so-called "havens for child-sex tourism" such as in South-East Asia legally punish the act by 20 years to life imprisonment, and even if they wouldn't, most Western states themselves have sex-tourism laws that effectively violate legal autonomy of foreign nations, so sex tourists cannot only be persecuted in the countries where they violated local AoC regulations, but even in their own countries).
Also noteworthy within the whole context of state-sponsored racist terror is the fact that the house searches and public smear campaign against the politician are led by the same Public Prosecution Office that did the same in 2011-'12 with our former Federal President (not an active member of government in our system, more of a representative post) after he had said in a public speech that we should also welcome immigrants of Islamic faith, only that the charges against him were corruption and money laundry.
As result of that earlier affair, our Federal President has been replaced with an anti-communist red-scare baiter that has repeatedly spoken out against introducing a minimum wage, denounces unions and grass-root movements such as Occupy for pleas for more humane treatment of jobholders (for twenty years now, our unions consider low wages better than having no job at all), has repeatedly called for large-scale revisions of post-1945 borders in Europe that would involve the unilateral annexation of Poland, Kaliningrad, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and at least parts of Ukraine and Romania, and who after several requests made to him, after the terror group had been uncovered, to speak out against the acts of terror committed by the racist terror group and attend public services for the relatives of their victims, said publicly that he "has no interest at all" in such "because who cares about some stuff that happened so long ago" as five or ten years.
Another similar case that comes to mind here is one that toppled our whole then Red-Green government in 2005. Our Green foreign minister had initiated a historical research commission to publicize how our foreign office is still annually honoring and celebrating a high number of Nazi war-criminals, some of whom were persecuted or put on trial at Nuremberg and later cases. Our foreign officials responded by a public smear campaign led by the media and parts of our legal system against our Green foreign minister because his party had liberalized our visa policy for tourists from then-recently accepted Eastern-European EU member states. The media was full of reports how seemingly millions of dangerous criminals would be visiting our country every day because of our new visa policy, and a number of public prosecutors told the media they were investigating against our Green foreign minister and Labour head-of-state for directly aiding human trafficking and forced prostitution because of their visa policy (parts of these accusations keep being repeated as evidence for some alleged global paedophile conspiracy because human trafficking and forced prosecution are categorized as "paedophile crimes").
What came from it was a parliamentary commission led by the conservative party against our foreign minister and head-of-state whose daily sessions were broadcast live on TV for hours (unlike those of the recent commission investigating state-sponsored racist terrorism, which in contrast is ignored, its findings when cited by third parties called paranoid delusions, and the criminal trial against the terror group's one surviving member is almost treated like a propaganda trial against a martyr of free speech who had heroically stood up against some "violent flood of undesirable criminal aliens" that our media has been sensing for 20 years now, ever since bi-lateral annexation of a neighbor state has officially saturated our nation with all the "aliens" we could ever need).
After a few weeks of "investigations" by the commission on "visa abuse" (which consisted solely out of our conservative opposition questioning our Green and Labour ministers on how and why they had liberalized visa policy), our head-of-state dismissed his government and new elections took place that our conservative party won. Our conservative party has never left the bench of government since this 2005 visa policy affair.
Don't ask what's wrong with our country. Ask what's wrong with child-safety crusaders everywhere.
The material used for this spurious case comes from the equally questionable Operation Spade carried out in Canada in 2011 against a registered company that was selling nude beach videos that between 2004 and 2009 had been repeatedly found to be harmless by Canadian authorities.
This changed when in 2009 a Canadian court ruled that the Dost test for child pornography now explicitly applies also to any nudity of minors, effectively rendering the Dost test as similarly an elastic clause as the Miller test in the US that considers material CP by the mere criterium whether an imaginary "average community member" could potentially consider them obscene for whatever reason. Hence, in 2011 the autorities seized 300,000 files from said company, out of which 160 files (equalling half a percent of the entire seized material) were now considered CP according to the Dost test on grounds of nude minors walking along nude beaches in the background. More than 350 people in 50 countries were arrested for having ordered nude-beach material from the company, and 348 minors related to these customers were put into custody (aka "saved", as the media puts it). Out of those more than 350 people, one British teacher was actually found in possession of material considered CP by the British COPINE scale which also applies to swimsuit and nudity images.
Over here, the whole Operation Spade including the company's name has been all over the media since summer 2013, since before even any arrests took place because nude beach videos are not illegal over here, even if minors are found to be in the background. Our government has been co-operating with Canadian authorities ever since 2011 on the case, and found the material sent to them just as harmless as had Canadian authorities repeatedly between 2004 and 2009.
The politician that is now being targeted more than two years after Operation Spade until a few days ago led a parliamentary commission that for two years had been investigating against our government and its secret services for more than a decade of substantial financial, equipment, and secret service aid and accessory for a wanted extreme right-wing racist terror group that is responsible for a two-digit amount of homicides against Islamic and Eastern-European immigrants, and continued obstruction of law in persecuting this terrorist group.
Ever since Operation Spade was all over our media in summer 2013, this politician as a private customer of the company's nude beach videos continually approached the authorities to co-operate with them, repeatedly offered them to search his homes and to hand all his computers and hard drives to them, but the authorities continually denied his offers.
Now in late January 2014, the police and state attorney called several local newspapers and TV channels to join them for live coverage of them searching the politician's homes with SWAT teams for CP, and they found...nothing. In parallel, the politician is thrown out of his party with great public fanfare as a pervert and the parliamentary commission against our government has been closed down immediately by law without a final report. Traces of broken plastic fibers are now taken as alleged evidence of destroyed hard disks, a fact which is not denied by the politician, as before the commission had been constituted he, all commission members, and our secret services had been ordered by law to continually destroy evidence on the government case stored in files, records, and hard disks after use (and in case of our secret services even long before these files could even be recorded as evidence).
The police and the media now say that the only reason they found nothing was the fact that our minister of the interior had informed the head of the Labour party about the non-case in fall 2013 (several months after the politician had begun repeatedly approaching the authorities about his non-case) so the party could "warn" their "pervert" in advance so he could destroy evidence, and everybody now believes that our Labour party must be full of perverts.
The whole case gets even weirder: The politician now says that he had been in contact with authorities ever since the media reports in summer 2013 because he "didn't know" what the elastic clause for "posing material" said in detail. What's so weird about that is hardly known by the public and glossed over by the media: That he personally wrote that bill, introduced it to parliament, and voted it into effect. What he, the media, the police, and the prosecutor are trying to sell us now is that he, *AFTER* authoring said bill and voting it into law, ordered nude beach videos that he is now being publicly smeared for based on that law he himself authored, introduced, and voted for, and now says he "didn't know in detail".
My two cents: The whole case is a sham (and the politician a paid pawn) to either introduce broader laws to now even cover nude beach videos or finally introduce the widely-critizized law on data retention (that would effectively void large parts of our constitution, involving sanctity of mail and inviolability of home), or the sham (potentially involving active planting of material) is fabricated to end all on-going investigations on our government for state-sponsored racist terrorism, or both.
The result of the whole non-case currently is a giant shitstorm of political, racist, and anti-paedophile agitation in the media and in the general populace, the latter having hardly known that the politician had led the parliamentary commission against our government, a fact which the media doesn't tell them either now (you only see people here and there going, "Of course, no service for our political system could ever outweigh the violation of our kids done by criminal scum like him!", without saying what his "service for our political system" really was). Because the politician has Indian ancestry, user comments on media reports directly and many media reports indirectly tell this "Oriental pervert to go back to India!", others call for castration and capital punishment performed on him as well as all the arrested from Operation Spade, etc. This on-going racist agitation is especially noteworthy in the context of the now closed investigations against our government for aiding and supporting a racist terror group for years, investigated by the commission led by this politician.
And of course, we now see demands left and right to also ban nude beach videos. In order for that to happen, many people inside and outside of the media and the legal system are suggestively calling the perfectly legal nude beach videos "morally questionable shopping catalogues" to "order children by". To mail-order children in a box, or what? And if it's for purposes of sex tourism, that already *IS* illegal (most so-called "havens for child-sex tourism" such as in South-East Asia legally punish the act by 20 years to life imprisonment, and even if they wouldn't, most Western states themselves have sex-tourism laws that effectively violate legal autonomy of foreign nations, so sex tourists cannot only be persecuted in the countries where they violated local AoC regulations, but even in their own countries).
Also noteworthy within the whole context of state-sponsored racist terror is the fact that the house searches and public smear campaign against the politician are led by the same Public Prosecution Office that did the same in 2011-'12 with our former Federal President (not an active member of government in our system, more of a representative post) after he had said in a public speech that we should also welcome immigrants of Islamic faith, only that the charges against him were corruption and money laundry.
As result of that earlier affair, our Federal President has been replaced with an anti-communist red-scare baiter that has repeatedly spoken out against introducing a minimum wage, denounces unions and grass-root movements such as Occupy for pleas for more humane treatment of jobholders (for twenty years now, our unions consider low wages better than having no job at all), has repeatedly called for large-scale revisions of post-1945 borders in Europe that would involve the unilateral annexation of Poland, Kaliningrad, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and at least parts of Ukraine and Romania, and who after several requests made to him, after the terror group had been uncovered, to speak out against the acts of terror committed by the racist terror group and attend public services for the relatives of their victims, said publicly that he "has no interest at all" in such "because who cares about some stuff that happened so long ago" as five or ten years.
Another similar case that comes to mind here is one that toppled our whole then Red-Green government in 2005. Our Green foreign minister had initiated a historical research commission to publicize how our foreign office is still annually honoring and celebrating a high number of Nazi war-criminals, some of whom were persecuted or put on trial at Nuremberg and later cases. Our foreign officials responded by a public smear campaign led by the media and parts of our legal system against our Green foreign minister because his party had liberalized our visa policy for tourists from then-recently accepted Eastern-European EU member states. The media was full of reports how seemingly millions of dangerous criminals would be visiting our country every day because of our new visa policy, and a number of public prosecutors told the media they were investigating against our Green foreign minister and Labour head-of-state for directly aiding human trafficking and forced prostitution because of their visa policy (parts of these accusations keep being repeated as evidence for some alleged global paedophile conspiracy because human trafficking and forced prosecution are categorized as "paedophile crimes").
What came from it was a parliamentary commission led by the conservative party against our foreign minister and head-of-state whose daily sessions were broadcast live on TV for hours (unlike those of the recent commission investigating state-sponsored racist terrorism, which in contrast is ignored, its findings when cited by third parties called paranoid delusions, and the criminal trial against the terror group's one surviving member is almost treated like a propaganda trial against a martyr of free speech who had heroically stood up against some "violent flood of undesirable criminal aliens" that our media has been sensing for 20 years now, ever since bi-lateral annexation of a neighbor state has officially saturated our nation with all the "aliens" we could ever need).
After a few weeks of "investigations" by the commission on "visa abuse" (which consisted solely out of our conservative opposition questioning our Green and Labour ministers on how and why they had liberalized visa policy), our head-of-state dismissed his government and new elections took place that our conservative party won. Our conservative party has never left the bench of government since this 2005 visa policy affair.
Don't ask what's wrong with our country. Ask what's wrong with child-safety crusaders everywhere.
Signal Boost: Kickstarter for a 80s movie
Posted 11 years agoThere's currently a Kickstarter campaign for this movie in vintage 80s style: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5359616
Call for attention for somebody that deserves it
Posted 11 years agohttp://www.f-list.net/c/The%20Real%20Kirby
He said he likes attention from his fans (meaning Kirby fans) and people that like cute characters, so I asked him all kindsa questions about his world (Dreamland) and what's it like being a videogame star (as that's what he sees himself as, being the leader of all the Kirbies because he's the one Kirby that's starred in the most of his games and episodes of his show). He was really cute and creative about his answers. I also fed him some of his favorite foods to make him happy because food is one of his three favorite kinks.
But after maybe 40 minutes or an hour or so, he asked me to leave him alone (for the night) because I was only asking him questions, I was becoming a bother and was no fun for him. He's obviously looking for attention of the roleplay variety rather, and I'm just not creative enough for those, after all, when I'm on F-list I'm only there to get my rocks off.
So because he was so cute and looking for roleplay attention and I'm feeling so sorry now for having only bothered him with questions, I'd like to direct some people his way to roleplay with him via the F-list chat when he's on (and not busy).
Now, F-list may be a largely sex-driven network and this Kirby swings both ways and would obviously do a lot of consensual and caring stuff. But I feel like he's more looking for non-sexual stuff that's related to his games. After all, outside of his fans and people liking cute characters (I was the second category), in his ad he was especially looking for "people that need his help". He also once tried to start his own channel on F-list to help people and get attention, but nobody came. :( So it would be great if by this call, we could get him enough of a roleplaying fanbase to maintain a channel.
So if you happen to catch him up sometime and RP with him and he likes it, it would be nice if you could tell him I sent you his way.
He said he likes attention from his fans (meaning Kirby fans) and people that like cute characters, so I asked him all kindsa questions about his world (Dreamland) and what's it like being a videogame star (as that's what he sees himself as, being the leader of all the Kirbies because he's the one Kirby that's starred in the most of his games and episodes of his show). He was really cute and creative about his answers. I also fed him some of his favorite foods to make him happy because food is one of his three favorite kinks.
But after maybe 40 minutes or an hour or so, he asked me to leave him alone (for the night) because I was only asking him questions, I was becoming a bother and was no fun for him. He's obviously looking for attention of the roleplay variety rather, and I'm just not creative enough for those, after all, when I'm on F-list I'm only there to get my rocks off.
So because he was so cute and looking for roleplay attention and I'm feeling so sorry now for having only bothered him with questions, I'd like to direct some people his way to roleplay with him via the F-list chat when he's on (and not busy).
Now, F-list may be a largely sex-driven network and this Kirby swings both ways and would obviously do a lot of consensual and caring stuff. But I feel like he's more looking for non-sexual stuff that's related to his games. After all, outside of his fans and people liking cute characters (I was the second category), in his ad he was especially looking for "people that need his help". He also once tried to start his own channel on F-list to help people and get attention, but nobody came. :( So it would be great if by this call, we could get him enough of a roleplaying fanbase to maintain a channel.
So if you happen to catch him up sometime and RP with him and he likes it, it would be nice if you could tell him I sent you his way.
For Sonic fans
Posted 12 years agoJust felt like I had to share it, maybe even as an inspiration for other artists (WARNING: Cub porn):
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416178
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416430
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416455
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416488
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416547
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416962
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=417097
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=418056
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=419807
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=420644
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=420674
First page is even colored yet:
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=496556
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416178
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416430
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416455
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416488
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416547
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=416962
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=417097
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=418056
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=419807
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=420644
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=420674
First page is even colored yet:
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=496556
Need help with a PSD file!
Posted 12 years agoI used to have this multi-layered clean lineart PSD that I got from one artist. Then I sent it to another artist for coloring, and ever since I got it back all colored by her, it only ever opens as one merged background layer in every other program beside Photoshop now.
When I open it in Photoshop, all the layers still seem to be there, but not so in any other program. It doesn't even work if I try to save it as new PSDs or any other image formats with layers and/or alpha channels. It only ever comes out as merged background layers in any other program, while the same files are still multi-layered when I open them in Photoshop.
So next I tried to just copy every single layer and save them to an own file each. That doesn't work either. When I try to copy the individual layers in Photoshop, Photoshop is telling me in 90% of cases now that the layers would be empty, even though I can see stuff in them when I click them on and off.
With the remaining 10% of layers it's one out of two cases: Either the layer only copies as 1-2 faded colored brush strokes with no alpha channel (i. e. those lone brush strokes appear on a solid white background), or when trying to insert or paste the layer into anything, I get a system error telling me the layer would be exceeding 6GB of system cache/memory and thus cannot be pasted.
I've tried to google this problem, but all I get is hundreds of pages telling me how to merge layers. Derp!
Having spent 20 months and a solid 3-digit amount on this pic so far, I officially hate Photoshop even more now! ;.; Been using Paint Shop Pro for two decades by today (which includes PSD reading, writing, and editing capabilities among many other things, has 99.999% of all the Photoshop effect you'd ever need and more, works in all bitmap color spaces and does vectors too, costs only 5% of what Photoshop costs, and has a far easier, actually intuitive handling and GUI, whereas after all those years, I'm still struggling with how to operate Photoshop for the most basic things), and the only reason for me to use PSDs and sometimes shitty Photoshop so far is to give people a file format they know and don't get their pants in a twist about.
When I open it in Photoshop, all the layers still seem to be there, but not so in any other program. It doesn't even work if I try to save it as new PSDs or any other image formats with layers and/or alpha channels. It only ever comes out as merged background layers in any other program, while the same files are still multi-layered when I open them in Photoshop.
So next I tried to just copy every single layer and save them to an own file each. That doesn't work either. When I try to copy the individual layers in Photoshop, Photoshop is telling me in 90% of cases now that the layers would be empty, even though I can see stuff in them when I click them on and off.
With the remaining 10% of layers it's one out of two cases: Either the layer only copies as 1-2 faded colored brush strokes with no alpha channel (i. e. those lone brush strokes appear on a solid white background), or when trying to insert or paste the layer into anything, I get a system error telling me the layer would be exceeding 6GB of system cache/memory and thus cannot be pasted.
I've tried to google this problem, but all I get is hundreds of pages telling me how to merge layers. Derp!
Having spent 20 months and a solid 3-digit amount on this pic so far, I officially hate Photoshop even more now! ;.; Been using Paint Shop Pro for two decades by today (which includes PSD reading, writing, and editing capabilities among many other things, has 99.999% of all the Photoshop effect you'd ever need and more, works in all bitmap color spaces and does vectors too, costs only 5% of what Photoshop costs, and has a far easier, actually intuitive handling and GUI, whereas after all those years, I'm still struggling with how to operate Photoshop for the most basic things), and the only reason for me to use PSDs and sometimes shitty Photoshop so far is to give people a file format they know and don't get their pants in a twist about.
Awesome art refs database
Posted 12 years agoLooking for a sci-fi/fantasy plot element?
Posted 12 years agoIn case you're looking for a plot element or two for your sci-fi/fantasy/horror writing or art, I've found this website: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series about a very peculiar organization that researches seemingly supernatural phenomena and artifacts.
Leaked trailer for Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem"
Posted 12 years agohttp://vt.tumblr.com/tumblr_mp4exhj.....rdjj9t.mp4#_=_
Better get it while it's hot! Really being an unofficial bootleg unwanted by the studio, it's been pulled from a lot of places already. First thing I did when I found it at the link above was download it for myself before that would get taken down as well.
Starring two-times Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz, Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Mélanie Thierry, and David Thewlis, I've heard rumors part of the reason this thing is in post-production for a year is because Terry's trying to get Bill Murray for a few additional scenes.
Better get it while it's hot! Really being an unofficial bootleg unwanted by the studio, it's been pulled from a lot of places already. First thing I did when I found it at the link above was download it for myself before that would get taken down as well.
Starring two-times Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz, Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Mélanie Thierry, and David Thewlis, I've heard rumors part of the reason this thing is in post-production for a year is because Terry's trying to get Bill Murray for a few additional scenes.
DING-DONG! THE THATCHER IS DEAD!
Posted 12 years agohttps://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd......56053714_n.jpg
http://1.2.3.12/bmi/static.guim.co......-party-010.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?.....levant_count=1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/.....rixton-glasgow
Several Facebook groups in celebration have already sprung up with 1.5K members:
https://www.facebook.com/events/650707421611923/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead.....67275286714951
Think it's gonna get more people publically celebrating than back with bin Laden?
In other news: Within the last 12 hours, Ding-Dong! The witch is dead! has jumped to no. 27 in the global iTunes download charts.
http://1.2.3.12/bmi/static.guim.co......-party-010.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?.....levant_count=1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/.....rixton-glasgow
Several Facebook groups in celebration have already sprung up with 1.5K members:
https://www.facebook.com/events/650707421611923/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead.....67275286714951
Think it's gonna get more people publically celebrating than back with bin Laden?
In other news: Within the last 12 hours, Ding-Dong! The witch is dead! has jumped to no. 27 in the global iTunes download charts.
I've just read a disturbing and disgusting sci-fi short stor
Posted 12 years agoThe story is told from the point of view of Dewey, an 8 or 9-year-old boy and it begins where he's driving with his parents to a garden party, his dad being some wealthy manager in some energy corporation company. Underway, they run into a demonstration against a new power plant with some new kind of energy his dad's company has to do with, something to do with "tau particles and the flow of time". Dewey asks his dad what all those people want, and his dad tells him they're all just a bunch of filthy hippy scum and stupid know-it-alls.
They arrive at the garden party of one of his dad's colleagues at a large country estate, where the grown-ups soon start talking the same way about those annoying protesters. That's when all of a sudden, bizarre creatures come creeping out of the bushes and the grown-up fathers, who have been arming themselves in the past because of those protesters, start shooting and killing them. At first people think it's the protesters who've breached the gates, but pretty soon they realize it's some kind of zombies and panic breaks out.
Soon, Dewey and his parents try to flee in their car but they have an accident running into another guest's car. Dewey ends up with something that seems like concussion, dizziness and nausea. While his dad is outside yelling at the guy in the other car, Dewey collapses by the side of the road. He has a long feverish dream of scenes from his past life.
Then he suddenly wakes up and doesn't feel much better. His skin is feeling all burned and it's hard for him to breath. He wants back to his parents and comes out of the bushes, where he sees his father and runs towards him, hardly able to speak from his burned lungs. What his dad does is point his gun at Dewey and kill him!
It's then we realize that the zombies from the bushes were actually people sent back in time a few minutes by this weird new power plant, and the time travel burned them up and multilated them so they looked like zombies, and Dewey ended up the very first "zombie" killed, by his very own dad!
I mean there would be some certain irony if those greedy corporations people had only been killing their own selfs sent back a few minutes in time. But why a little child, WHY DEWEY?!
They arrive at the garden party of one of his dad's colleagues at a large country estate, where the grown-ups soon start talking the same way about those annoying protesters. That's when all of a sudden, bizarre creatures come creeping out of the bushes and the grown-up fathers, who have been arming themselves in the past because of those protesters, start shooting and killing them. At first people think it's the protesters who've breached the gates, but pretty soon they realize it's some kind of zombies and panic breaks out.
Soon, Dewey and his parents try to flee in their car but they have an accident running into another guest's car. Dewey ends up with something that seems like concussion, dizziness and nausea. While his dad is outside yelling at the guy in the other car, Dewey collapses by the side of the road. He has a long feverish dream of scenes from his past life.
Then he suddenly wakes up and doesn't feel much better. His skin is feeling all burned and it's hard for him to breath. He wants back to his parents and comes out of the bushes, where he sees his father and runs towards him, hardly able to speak from his burned lungs. What his dad does is point his gun at Dewey and kill him!
It's then we realize that the zombies from the bushes were actually people sent back in time a few minutes by this weird new power plant, and the time travel burned them up and multilated them so they looked like zombies, and Dewey ended up the very first "zombie" killed, by his very own dad!
I mean there would be some certain irony if those greedy corporations people had only been killing their own selfs sent back a few minutes in time. But why a little child, WHY DEWEY?!
Anybody here know French at a near-native level?
Posted 12 years agoI'm trying to buy a cine movie camera via a French eBay equivalent by using Google translate, and the seller only speaks French. I tried to make her tell me if the camera runs with batteries in (first she thought she needed a film to test it, and lacking one she told me that she saw it functional back in the mid-90s):
You don't need a film to test it. All I wanna know is if the camera is functional today when you put batteries in and pull the trigger. You'll be able to tell by the characteristic whirring noise.
Google translate:
Vous n'avez pas besoin d'un film pour le tester. Tout ce que je voudrais savoir, c'est si la caméra fonctionne aujourd'hui quand vous mettez les piles à l'intérieur et vous appuyez sur la gâchette. Vous le saurez par le bruit caractéristique vrombissant.
But looks like Google translate didn't really help me at getting the idea through to her, as this is what she replied:
Oui j'ai mis les piles, j'ai essayé et pas de soucis, elle tourne . En fait j'ai meme retrouvé un film... mais du coup je vous le laisse.
Google translate:
Yes I put the batteries, and I tried not to worry about it running. In fact I even found a movie ... but suddenly I leave you.
Could anybody here help us out, please?
You don't need a film to test it. All I wanna know is if the camera is functional today when you put batteries in and pull the trigger. You'll be able to tell by the characteristic whirring noise.
Google translate:
Vous n'avez pas besoin d'un film pour le tester. Tout ce que je voudrais savoir, c'est si la caméra fonctionne aujourd'hui quand vous mettez les piles à l'intérieur et vous appuyez sur la gâchette. Vous le saurez par le bruit caractéristique vrombissant.
But looks like Google translate didn't really help me at getting the idea through to her, as this is what she replied:
Oui j'ai mis les piles, j'ai essayé et pas de soucis, elle tourne . En fait j'ai meme retrouvé un film... mais du coup je vous le laisse.
Google translate:
Yes I put the batteries, and I tried not to worry about it running. In fact I even found a movie ... but suddenly I leave you.
Could anybody here help us out, please?
ForeRest is in need of money; takes commishes
Posted 13 years agoPassing on the signal: https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=63576
Basically, ForeRest will be alone without family for Christmas, New Year, *AND* his birthday because they're going to the USA, leaving him alone in Costa Rica, he has no passport until late January, he's absolutely broke, and all he has is his shitty phone net access.
So what he needs is money.
Basically, ForeRest will be alone without family for Christmas, New Year, *AND* his birthday because they're going to the USA, leaving him alone in Costa Rica, he has no passport until late January, he's absolutely broke, and all he has is his shitty phone net access.
So what he needs is money.
Star Wars Episode VII, Exclusive New Script!
Posted 13 years agoThe Story So Far: Huey, Dewey, and Louie always had the suspicion that Donald Duck was not their real dad although he's brought them up since ducklings! But now they've been told who's their real father: Stingy old Scrooge! When he was young, his original name was Alasdair McDuck, but he then was corrupted by the Force of Money! He's been leading a mean life in the services of Emperor Glomgold'n'Sax ever since!
In shock, Huey runs up to Donald:
Huey: "Unca Donald! Why haven't you ever told me the truth about my father?"
Donald: "Your father was tempted by the Dark Side of the Force, Money! He was no longer Alasdair McDuck, he became Scrooge! From that point on, the good man that your father once had been, was destroyed! So in a way, I *DID* tell you the truth!"
Dewey runs up to Goofy, a fatherly friend of the family:
Dewey: "Goofy, tell me: Is Scrooge my father?"
Goofy: "Quiet it is I need..."
Dewey: "Please Goofy, I *MUST* know!"
Goofy: "Your father he is...told you so, he did? Surprising that is, and sad..."
Dewey: "It's sad that I know the truth?"
Goofy: "No, sad it is that to stand up to him, you could not wait...when complete your Woodchuck training was not...ready for the burden, you were not..."
Louie runs up to Scrooge in the Money Bin:
Scrooge: "Ah have bin expectin' ye!"
Louie: "I know, father!"
Scrooge: "So ye've accepted th' truth a'last!"
Louie: "I have accepted that you once were Alasdair McDuck, my father!"
Scrooge: "Tha' name has become o'nae meaning tae me anymoor!"
Louie: "It's the name of your true self! Feel the Good Side of the Force, break away from Money!"
Scrooge: " 'tis too late faer tha', me bairn! *GREED* is goud!"
Louie: "So my father really *IS* dead!"
Louie stabs Scrooge to death with the glow-in-the-dark Woodchucks army knife and piously buries him. He then blows up the Money Bin and gives all the spare change within to the poor. The Empire of Evil, Inc. has been slain, the human race is free!
(Sneakily ripped off and translated frae, er, from: http://www.stern.de/kultur/film/dis.....ampaign=kultur )
In shock, Huey runs up to Donald:
Huey: "Unca Donald! Why haven't you ever told me the truth about my father?"
Donald: "Your father was tempted by the Dark Side of the Force, Money! He was no longer Alasdair McDuck, he became Scrooge! From that point on, the good man that your father once had been, was destroyed! So in a way, I *DID* tell you the truth!"
Dewey runs up to Goofy, a fatherly friend of the family:
Dewey: "Goofy, tell me: Is Scrooge my father?"
Goofy: "Quiet it is I need..."
Dewey: "Please Goofy, I *MUST* know!"
Goofy: "Your father he is...told you so, he did? Surprising that is, and sad..."
Dewey: "It's sad that I know the truth?"
Goofy: "No, sad it is that to stand up to him, you could not wait...when complete your Woodchuck training was not...ready for the burden, you were not..."
Louie runs up to Scrooge in the Money Bin:
Scrooge: "Ah have bin expectin' ye!"
Louie: "I know, father!"
Scrooge: "So ye've accepted th' truth a'last!"
Louie: "I have accepted that you once were Alasdair McDuck, my father!"
Scrooge: "Tha' name has become o'nae meaning tae me anymoor!"
Louie: "It's the name of your true self! Feel the Good Side of the Force, break away from Money!"
Scrooge: " 'tis too late faer tha', me bairn! *GREED* is goud!"
Louie: "So my father really *IS* dead!"
Louie stabs Scrooge to death with the glow-in-the-dark Woodchucks army knife and piously buries him. He then blows up the Money Bin and gives all the spare change within to the poor. The Empire of Evil, Inc. has been slain, the human race is free!
(Sneakily ripped off and translated frae, er, from: http://www.stern.de/kultur/film/dis.....ampaign=kultur )
Review: "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)
Posted 13 years agoWith all the buzz I've always heard about the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz, with it being constantly praised for decades as "the best fantasy film evah", I decided to finally see it.
Now, the fantasy genre relies for a great deal on special effects, production and set design, and I've always heard people rave about this movie exactly for that. I was appaled to see how cheap it actually looked, even for the time when it was made. Did they blow most of their budget on the Technicolor process? The contemporary Gone with the wind (1939) looks much more lush, vast, whimsical, and cinematic in comparison, and so does Münchhausen (1943). With the poor production design, special FX, and tiny plastic sets, I constantly felt like I was really watching an overlong episode of Welcome to Pooh Corner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcom.....to_Pooh_Corner ). Photography was accordingly cheap and TV-like as well, with only two Dutch angle shots of the evil witch in her castle looking mildly ambitious enough to be of interest.
Most of the acting was bad enough it could've fit into an Ed Wood movie. Judy Garland looked like James Cagney with a wig put on him throughout the movie. Although I instantly recognized thousands of dialogue snippets from pop culture, I was surprised that they'd made it into the public culture mostly due to this movie, as the plot seemed as thin as a leaf of toast with only one side to it and made me laugh out loud several times with its ridiculous, inconsequential deus-ex-machinas. So at one time, it seems like you can call for help wherever you are in Oz and the good witch will help you, at other times she seemingly turns a deaf ear to your woes for no reason given whatsoever. The way the evil witch just waved an hourglass to scare Dorothy, with how it wasn't even pronounced in any way by any remotely-talented photography or special FX made it a pure trash scene that had me rolling on the floor because of how bad and amateurish it was.
Countless other ridiculous plotholes, technical weaknesses, and acting failures like that that I'd never expect from such a "timeless classic", even if you call it a movie for kids. There's much more timeless charm and brains in many Disney cartoon shorts to begin with. The cheesy acting reminded me of another ridiculous desaster: The recent 2011 TV adaptation of Marcel Proust's In search of lost time where the director thought, hey, the novel is all subjective perception anyway, so let's make everything as cheesy, uninvolving, obtrusive, amateurish, and superficial as possible! Other than The Wizard of Oz, she was given good set design and lighting appropriately reminiscent of Luchino Visconti at least, though that might have been due to misunderstandings of the technical crew and not caring on the director's side anyway.
Bottom line: It may be a nice past-time experience for 3-year-olds used to TV shows such as above-mentioned Welcome to Pooh Corner and Teletubbies, but with its cheap production design and thin plot it certainly will have lost its charm for kids aged 8 or above. The film seems notably to me mostly for its catchy tunes and the nice technicolor, but that's pretty much all.
One curious thing about the production caught my interest though: At least 80% of the movie looked deliberately undercranked to me, where the film was obviously shot silent at somewhere between 12-16fps, and then edited, dubbed, and scored in post-production at 24fps playback speed, making all the movements, whether in Oz or the b/w real world, look jerky and fast on closer examination.
The musical numbers in-synch with choreographies don't contradict this observation: The dwarf songs sound like they're played back at double speed anyway, and the other songs heard at normal speed and pitch must have been played back at something like half-speed (depending on whether the shooting framerate was 12 or 16fps) during shooting for the actors to mime at. It's a technique very common in music videos since at least the early 80s. Also, many of the choreographic stunts during songs in the movie look much more physically plausible and humanly possible when played back at somewhere between 12-16fps.
Shooting with silent cameras running at 12-16fps, then adding audio in post-production at 24fps playback was a technique common with early talkies that can also be seen in all the entries of the 1939-1946 series of Sherlock Holmes films (where all the scenes were shot like that), in most of the insert shots aka cut-aways without dialogue in Fritz Lang's M (1931), and I think also throughout all of the Thin Man films (1934-1947). For example, if we were to slow down the Sherlock Holmes films to something like 12-16fps, the movements would be normal again (as that was the original shooting framerate), but the audio (being added later at a 24fps playback speed) would be much too deep in pitch.
So does anyone know what framerate The Wizard of Oz was actually shot at?
Now, the fantasy genre relies for a great deal on special effects, production and set design, and I've always heard people rave about this movie exactly for that. I was appaled to see how cheap it actually looked, even for the time when it was made. Did they blow most of their budget on the Technicolor process? The contemporary Gone with the wind (1939) looks much more lush, vast, whimsical, and cinematic in comparison, and so does Münchhausen (1943). With the poor production design, special FX, and tiny plastic sets, I constantly felt like I was really watching an overlong episode of Welcome to Pooh Corner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcom.....to_Pooh_Corner ). Photography was accordingly cheap and TV-like as well, with only two Dutch angle shots of the evil witch in her castle looking mildly ambitious enough to be of interest.
Most of the acting was bad enough it could've fit into an Ed Wood movie. Judy Garland looked like James Cagney with a wig put on him throughout the movie. Although I instantly recognized thousands of dialogue snippets from pop culture, I was surprised that they'd made it into the public culture mostly due to this movie, as the plot seemed as thin as a leaf of toast with only one side to it and made me laugh out loud several times with its ridiculous, inconsequential deus-ex-machinas. So at one time, it seems like you can call for help wherever you are in Oz and the good witch will help you, at other times she seemingly turns a deaf ear to your woes for no reason given whatsoever. The way the evil witch just waved an hourglass to scare Dorothy, with how it wasn't even pronounced in any way by any remotely-talented photography or special FX made it a pure trash scene that had me rolling on the floor because of how bad and amateurish it was.
Countless other ridiculous plotholes, technical weaknesses, and acting failures like that that I'd never expect from such a "timeless classic", even if you call it a movie for kids. There's much more timeless charm and brains in many Disney cartoon shorts to begin with. The cheesy acting reminded me of another ridiculous desaster: The recent 2011 TV adaptation of Marcel Proust's In search of lost time where the director thought, hey, the novel is all subjective perception anyway, so let's make everything as cheesy, uninvolving, obtrusive, amateurish, and superficial as possible! Other than The Wizard of Oz, she was given good set design and lighting appropriately reminiscent of Luchino Visconti at least, though that might have been due to misunderstandings of the technical crew and not caring on the director's side anyway.
Bottom line: It may be a nice past-time experience for 3-year-olds used to TV shows such as above-mentioned Welcome to Pooh Corner and Teletubbies, but with its cheap production design and thin plot it certainly will have lost its charm for kids aged 8 or above. The film seems notably to me mostly for its catchy tunes and the nice technicolor, but that's pretty much all.
One curious thing about the production caught my interest though: At least 80% of the movie looked deliberately undercranked to me, where the film was obviously shot silent at somewhere between 12-16fps, and then edited, dubbed, and scored in post-production at 24fps playback speed, making all the movements, whether in Oz or the b/w real world, look jerky and fast on closer examination.
The musical numbers in-synch with choreographies don't contradict this observation: The dwarf songs sound like they're played back at double speed anyway, and the other songs heard at normal speed and pitch must have been played back at something like half-speed (depending on whether the shooting framerate was 12 or 16fps) during shooting for the actors to mime at. It's a technique very common in music videos since at least the early 80s. Also, many of the choreographic stunts during songs in the movie look much more physically plausible and humanly possible when played back at somewhere between 12-16fps.
Shooting with silent cameras running at 12-16fps, then adding audio in post-production at 24fps playback was a technique common with early talkies that can also be seen in all the entries of the 1939-1946 series of Sherlock Holmes films (where all the scenes were shot like that), in most of the insert shots aka cut-aways without dialogue in Fritz Lang's M (1931), and I think also throughout all of the Thin Man films (1934-1947). For example, if we were to slow down the Sherlock Holmes films to something like 12-16fps, the movements would be normal again (as that was the original shooting framerate), but the audio (being added later at a 24fps playback speed) would be much too deep in pitch.
So does anyone know what framerate The Wizard of Oz was actually shot at?
Banned again
Posted 13 years agoSo I've been banned from 
LiliFox aka Babs's stream. Why? Well, there was this one thing Babs had once yelled publically on her stream, and on mic. Within the next two months or so, I asked her maybe 3 times if she'd been serious about that. Never got a response.
Tonight, the stream started all normal, with Babs greeting everyone, including me. I didn't say anything in the stream because I was busy elsewhere, only listening to the stream.
Then 2 hours later, Babs suddenly yelled out to me on the mic that I was supposed to agree at once to an ultimatum Proink was supposed to have "told me in private about", or else I'd be banned. I never even knew who Proink was, and had never been contacted by him (or had given out any "private" connection channels for that), so I asked what this was about. Babs told me about the three times I'd asked her about what she'd said. I shrugged and said okay, telling her if she doesn't want me reminding her, I don't care about the whole thing anyway. Then I was banned, after Babs telling the stream to allow her to ban me, and four people or so among 29 said yes before they even knew what was going on.
Now, with Livestream, "banning" only means that your own posts will be invisible to everybody else, while you're still in the stream and see and hear and read everything. While I was "banned" in Babs's stream, several people said they musta missed something, as they didn't understand what I'd been banned about, especially after I'd hardly ever said anything in Babs's stream. Babs and Proink went on to tell the people they'd banned me for a.) the fact that I don't like MLP, b.) that'd I'd been "trolling" a channel I'd never even heard about by "talking about ponies", c.) that I'd been "constantly interrupting Babs's stream" (after hardly ever having said anything, being busy elsewhere), and d.) that I'd been "trolling and abusing Nanook".
Now, what was this thing about
Nanook123? Nanook had been doing a free requests stream. In that stream, I'd asked her about a paid sketch commish. Because everybody and their dog kept making requests for free art in that stream, my description regarding my desired commish kept being pushed up, and thus, Nanook again and again asked me to repeat it. When the stream was over, she asked me to send her a mail about that comish, which I did, and that was all.
I mean look, Babs publically tells people in her streams that she's gonna show the whole channel her RL boobs once a certain viewer number will be reached, moaning and panting into the mic to "make her voice sound sexy", and people there spoke in detail about cub porn pic scenarios when an actual RL preteen was on and they knew it. But they're banning *ME* for asking Babs a few times about something she herself has said.
After I was "banned" from Babs's stream, I told Foxy (who was in both streams) in
Foxlover91 aka Ishoka's parallel stream that I could still read what people were making up over at Babs's stream (still am watching Babs's stream right now as of posting this journal). I then got banned from Ishoka's stream as well. When Ishoka returned, he, too, said that he musta missed drama that he hadn't seen that I'd been banned about, as he saw nothing in the chat that coulda warranted my ban. But then he said that I "deserved" a ban anyway for having said in his stream before that Avatar: The Last Airbender looks like anime.
Believe it or not, that's what I've been banned before in Ishoka's stream, after being immediately insulted and threatened for using the word "anime" and was forbidden to ever use it in their presence. When I asked why they were making such a fuss about the word "anime" as it only designates a certain drawing style, they banned me, becaused they called that "not letting go".
LiliFox aka Babs's stream. Why? Well, there was this one thing Babs had once yelled publically on her stream, and on mic. Within the next two months or so, I asked her maybe 3 times if she'd been serious about that. Never got a response.Tonight, the stream started all normal, with Babs greeting everyone, including me. I didn't say anything in the stream because I was busy elsewhere, only listening to the stream.
Then 2 hours later, Babs suddenly yelled out to me on the mic that I was supposed to agree at once to an ultimatum Proink was supposed to have "told me in private about", or else I'd be banned. I never even knew who Proink was, and had never been contacted by him (or had given out any "private" connection channels for that), so I asked what this was about. Babs told me about the three times I'd asked her about what she'd said. I shrugged and said okay, telling her if she doesn't want me reminding her, I don't care about the whole thing anyway. Then I was banned, after Babs telling the stream to allow her to ban me, and four people or so among 29 said yes before they even knew what was going on.
Now, with Livestream, "banning" only means that your own posts will be invisible to everybody else, while you're still in the stream and see and hear and read everything. While I was "banned" in Babs's stream, several people said they musta missed something, as they didn't understand what I'd been banned about, especially after I'd hardly ever said anything in Babs's stream. Babs and Proink went on to tell the people they'd banned me for a.) the fact that I don't like MLP, b.) that'd I'd been "trolling" a channel I'd never even heard about by "talking about ponies", c.) that I'd been "constantly interrupting Babs's stream" (after hardly ever having said anything, being busy elsewhere), and d.) that I'd been "trolling and abusing Nanook".
Now, what was this thing about
Nanook123? Nanook had been doing a free requests stream. In that stream, I'd asked her about a paid sketch commish. Because everybody and their dog kept making requests for free art in that stream, my description regarding my desired commish kept being pushed up, and thus, Nanook again and again asked me to repeat it. When the stream was over, she asked me to send her a mail about that comish, which I did, and that was all.I mean look, Babs publically tells people in her streams that she's gonna show the whole channel her RL boobs once a certain viewer number will be reached, moaning and panting into the mic to "make her voice sound sexy", and people there spoke in detail about cub porn pic scenarios when an actual RL preteen was on and they knew it. But they're banning *ME* for asking Babs a few times about something she herself has said.
After I was "banned" from Babs's stream, I told Foxy (who was in both streams) in
Foxlover91 aka Ishoka's parallel stream that I could still read what people were making up over at Babs's stream (still am watching Babs's stream right now as of posting this journal). I then got banned from Ishoka's stream as well. When Ishoka returned, he, too, said that he musta missed drama that he hadn't seen that I'd been banned about, as he saw nothing in the chat that coulda warranted my ban. But then he said that I "deserved" a ban anyway for having said in his stream before that Avatar: The Last Airbender looks like anime.Believe it or not, that's what I've been banned before in Ishoka's stream, after being immediately insulted and threatened for using the word "anime" and was forbidden to ever use it in their presence. When I asked why they were making such a fuss about the word "anime" as it only designates a certain drawing style, they banned me, becaused they called that "not letting go".
Seen a flying dog
Posted 13 years agoI've seen a flying dog on my way home today. Part of the car's light shattered in the crash. The dog was howling some while flying past me, but he did get back on his feet, although he kept limping.
There had been loud, aggressive yelling for a minute or two before that, I soon figured that it musta been the dog's owner. Couldn't see anything though because there was a van blocking my view. Then suddenly a loud *THUMP!* and screeching wheels, and I saw the dog flying past me. Half a minute later, the dog's owner came storming towards me, yelling at me, "WHERE IS THE DAMN DOG?!" He didn't seem to care much about the pet's health, he was just mad.
All that had happened in front of a police station, even. The people in the car set up breakdown triangles around their damaged car, and repeatedly tried to get some officer to come out, but no use. When eventually an officer did come out, he just waved his hands, saying that it didn't interest him one bit, and he went back in again.
The dog owner was meanwhile trying to go away, dragging his limping dog with him. One of the drivers tried to ask him if his dog was alright, and stop him to make a photo of the limping dog, or maybe also have the dog owner testify to the police as to what had happened. The dog owner just yelled at him, "FUCK OFF!", and stuff like that. The owner of a tanning salon came out because she felt bothered by the noise, and probably because the driver looked Oriental, she bellowed at him to leave the gentleman with the dog alone, or else she'd call the police. So just because the guy looked Oriental, she was obviously thinking that he was trying to mug the dog owner or something.
The driver was stunned at that loud thread, while the dog owner tried to disappear into a house entrance, and the driver hurried after him. Then I tried to explain to the tanning studio owner what had happened, and that it had been the dog owner who'd been the one who'd been aggressive from the start, even before the accident. At first she refused to believe me, because she said she knew the dog owner and "what a nice man" he was, but when she heard of the accident, she seemed shocked.
After maybe 5-10 minutes, the dog owner returned from the house, without the driver. The tanning studio owner started baby-talking to the dog, asking what had happened to him, then asking the owner why he'd just ran away instead of taking the dog right to the vet down the street in the other direction. The owner was less agressive now, but obviously close to tears, sobbing, "Yeah, that's where I'm going...but those *STUPID IDIOT FREAKS* never *LET ME!*"
He was obviously confused and in shock, which was why he'd went home in agitated confusion first rather than right to the vet. And again, he'd been aggressively yelling even before the accident, before the car was even anywhere near, so much so that I'd originally thought that some drunken hooligans were having a fight. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been beating and kicking the dog while on the pavement, then the dog ran away and he tried to make it come back by yelling even more, the dog eventually ran on the street and was hit by the car. It'd also explain why he didn't want anything to do with the police and met any mention of a testimony on his side with even more aggression towards the people in the car (interestingly enough never saying that they were responsible, he just generically insulted them for talking to him after the accident), even now that he was talking to the tanning studio owner.
There had been loud, aggressive yelling for a minute or two before that, I soon figured that it musta been the dog's owner. Couldn't see anything though because there was a van blocking my view. Then suddenly a loud *THUMP!* and screeching wheels, and I saw the dog flying past me. Half a minute later, the dog's owner came storming towards me, yelling at me, "WHERE IS THE DAMN DOG?!" He didn't seem to care much about the pet's health, he was just mad.
All that had happened in front of a police station, even. The people in the car set up breakdown triangles around their damaged car, and repeatedly tried to get some officer to come out, but no use. When eventually an officer did come out, he just waved his hands, saying that it didn't interest him one bit, and he went back in again.
The dog owner was meanwhile trying to go away, dragging his limping dog with him. One of the drivers tried to ask him if his dog was alright, and stop him to make a photo of the limping dog, or maybe also have the dog owner testify to the police as to what had happened. The dog owner just yelled at him, "FUCK OFF!", and stuff like that. The owner of a tanning salon came out because she felt bothered by the noise, and probably because the driver looked Oriental, she bellowed at him to leave the gentleman with the dog alone, or else she'd call the police. So just because the guy looked Oriental, she was obviously thinking that he was trying to mug the dog owner or something.
The driver was stunned at that loud thread, while the dog owner tried to disappear into a house entrance, and the driver hurried after him. Then I tried to explain to the tanning studio owner what had happened, and that it had been the dog owner who'd been the one who'd been aggressive from the start, even before the accident. At first she refused to believe me, because she said she knew the dog owner and "what a nice man" he was, but when she heard of the accident, she seemed shocked.
After maybe 5-10 minutes, the dog owner returned from the house, without the driver. The tanning studio owner started baby-talking to the dog, asking what had happened to him, then asking the owner why he'd just ran away instead of taking the dog right to the vet down the street in the other direction. The owner was less agressive now, but obviously close to tears, sobbing, "Yeah, that's where I'm going...but those *STUPID IDIOT FREAKS* never *LET ME!*"
He was obviously confused and in shock, which was why he'd went home in agitated confusion first rather than right to the vet. And again, he'd been aggressively yelling even before the accident, before the car was even anywhere near, so much so that I'd originally thought that some drunken hooligans were having a fight. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been beating and kicking the dog while on the pavement, then the dog ran away and he tried to make it come back by yelling even more, the dog eventually ran on the street and was hit by the car. It'd also explain why he didn't want anything to do with the police and met any mention of a testimony on his side with even more aggression towards the people in the car (interestingly enough never saying that they were responsible, he just generically insulted them for talking to him after the accident), even now that he was talking to the tanning studio owner.
This is your brain...
Posted 13 years agoJust something I wanted to be known for quite some time about a certain fad:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ies/ponies.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ies/ponies.jpg
Are there many artists like this on FA?
Posted 13 years agoA little thing that occured to me in my on-going search to find somebody who can do an on-model, Bluth-style Feivel Mousekevitz face b/w lineart for an An American Tail 25th Anniversary Tribute pic. It's about an artist who's at about this level of quality: https://inkbunny.net///submissionvi......php?id=103601 Especially in his coloring. DISCLAIMER: The linked artist has nothing to do with the artist I'm talking about below other than that their quality is similar.
ARTIST: Hey, I'm currently going bankrupt here. Can't pay my employees! I'll do sketches for 10 bucks!
ARTIST: UPDATE: Heck, you know what? I've decided to do fullly shaded greyscale paintings for all of you for the same price!
ME: Hey, could I get a simple sketch for those 10 bucks? Doesn't even have to be shaded or anything. If I like it, I may even commish a bigger lineart of the same thing.
ARTIST: Cool beans! Gonna note ya someday!
ONE WEEK LATER.
ARTIST: Hey, thanks to everybody who sent me money! I'm ending this sketch commission offer now.
ME: What about my request for a slot that I made before you've called quits now? Is it still valid?
ARTIST: (switches to notes) I'm game! What did you want me to do again?
ME: I'd like you to draw me a sketch of this copyrighted character's face, to see if you can do it on-model, then I'll commish you with a larger black-and-white lineart of that face. I'll have that lineart colored by other artists. (links a number of refs for character)
(10 or so notes go back and forth where he keeps asking me about all the details I want other people to do that have nothing to do with the face I want from him. It's an entirely family-friendly, G-rated pic that the face will be part of. I tell him so he'll have an idea of what context and mood the whole pic will be, but keep reminding him I only want that b/w face from him for others to color. Then he decides to give me a quote:)
ARTIST: Yeah...you know, doing a copyrighted character is a pretty morally questionable activity. I don't want the original artist from 25 years ago to be hurt. So you gotta pay me extra for the risk of him being hurt.
ARTIST: Also, lineart requires *ERASING* lines, you know, to make it look clean. That's extra.
ARTIST: Plus, you gave me refs to look at. That's *RESEARCH*. Costs extra, too.
ARTIST: So...I could offer you a price of, say...200-300 Euros?
ME: A three-digit figure?! 0.o For a few clean lines to make up a cartoon face?! 0.o
ARTIST: Dude, I can't play in the same league as all those untalented wannabe kiddies here on FA by selling myself as cheap as they do! You're talking to a professional running a graphics design business here!
ME: 300 bucks...for...a few lines for a face that you don't even need to color because other people are gonna do it...? 0.o I've compiled a sizable list of people offering me that they'll be drawing all the rest of the picture *OR* coloring the whole thing for 20-60 Dollars...
ARTIST: YOU GONNA GO TO OTHER PEOPLE FOR COLOR JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE CHEAPER THAN ME?! FUCK OFF! I DON'T WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!
(At this point, I'm thinking: "Dude, newsflash: I know many, many people that can color *WAY* better than you for *10 BUCKS* -.- ...and if you're like this to your customers, it's no surprise your RL business is failing..." Also see the sample linked above by another artist that resembles this guy's quality.)
ME: Uh...I told you from the very beginning and in at least 5 more notes that all I want from you is a lineart of a face that I'll get colored by other people...
ARTIST: IF YR NOT WILLING 2 PAY MY STANDARD PRICES OF AT LEAST 200 EUROS FOR A RISKY LINEART, THEN I MADE A MISTAKE IN EVER RESPONDING 2 U! I'M GLAD I FOUND OUT BEFORE U WOULDA RIPPED ME OFF, AND I WANT NOTHING 2 DO WITH YR DISRESPECTFUL KIND!
Yeah...he's perfectly within his rights to decide for himself what commishes he'll do or not. And if he doesn't wanna do lineart to be colored by somebody else, or if he feels he'll hurt Don Bluth by drawing a face for a G-rated picture, that's fine.
But that's no excuse to be behaving like an immature @$$hole, behave totally smug and elitist demanding more than *20 TIMES*(!) his actual market value as if that's his birth-given right, and act all as if he's just been obscenely insulted when being reminded of the fact that's far above the average market value of perhaps 95% or more of FA artists.
ARTIST: Hey, I'm currently going bankrupt here. Can't pay my employees! I'll do sketches for 10 bucks!
ARTIST: UPDATE: Heck, you know what? I've decided to do fullly shaded greyscale paintings for all of you for the same price!
ME: Hey, could I get a simple sketch for those 10 bucks? Doesn't even have to be shaded or anything. If I like it, I may even commish a bigger lineart of the same thing.
ARTIST: Cool beans! Gonna note ya someday!
ONE WEEK LATER.
ARTIST: Hey, thanks to everybody who sent me money! I'm ending this sketch commission offer now.
ME: What about my request for a slot that I made before you've called quits now? Is it still valid?
ARTIST: (switches to notes) I'm game! What did you want me to do again?
ME: I'd like you to draw me a sketch of this copyrighted character's face, to see if you can do it on-model, then I'll commish you with a larger black-and-white lineart of that face. I'll have that lineart colored by other artists. (links a number of refs for character)
(10 or so notes go back and forth where he keeps asking me about all the details I want other people to do that have nothing to do with the face I want from him. It's an entirely family-friendly, G-rated pic that the face will be part of. I tell him so he'll have an idea of what context and mood the whole pic will be, but keep reminding him I only want that b/w face from him for others to color. Then he decides to give me a quote:)
ARTIST: Yeah...you know, doing a copyrighted character is a pretty morally questionable activity. I don't want the original artist from 25 years ago to be hurt. So you gotta pay me extra for the risk of him being hurt.
ARTIST: Also, lineart requires *ERASING* lines, you know, to make it look clean. That's extra.
ARTIST: Plus, you gave me refs to look at. That's *RESEARCH*. Costs extra, too.
ARTIST: So...I could offer you a price of, say...200-300 Euros?
ME: A three-digit figure?! 0.o For a few clean lines to make up a cartoon face?! 0.o
ARTIST: Dude, I can't play in the same league as all those untalented wannabe kiddies here on FA by selling myself as cheap as they do! You're talking to a professional running a graphics design business here!
ME: 300 bucks...for...a few lines for a face that you don't even need to color because other people are gonna do it...? 0.o I've compiled a sizable list of people offering me that they'll be drawing all the rest of the picture *OR* coloring the whole thing for 20-60 Dollars...
ARTIST: YOU GONNA GO TO OTHER PEOPLE FOR COLOR JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE CHEAPER THAN ME?! FUCK OFF! I DON'T WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!
(At this point, I'm thinking: "Dude, newsflash: I know many, many people that can color *WAY* better than you for *10 BUCKS* -.- ...and if you're like this to your customers, it's no surprise your RL business is failing..." Also see the sample linked above by another artist that resembles this guy's quality.)
ME: Uh...I told you from the very beginning and in at least 5 more notes that all I want from you is a lineart of a face that I'll get colored by other people...
ARTIST: IF YR NOT WILLING 2 PAY MY STANDARD PRICES OF AT LEAST 200 EUROS FOR A RISKY LINEART, THEN I MADE A MISTAKE IN EVER RESPONDING 2 U! I'M GLAD I FOUND OUT BEFORE U WOULDA RIPPED ME OFF, AND I WANT NOTHING 2 DO WITH YR DISRESPECTFUL KIND!
Yeah...he's perfectly within his rights to decide for himself what commishes he'll do or not. And if he doesn't wanna do lineart to be colored by somebody else, or if he feels he'll hurt Don Bluth by drawing a face for a G-rated picture, that's fine.
But that's no excuse to be behaving like an immature @$$hole, behave totally smug and elitist demanding more than *20 TIMES*(!) his actual market value as if that's his birth-given right, and act all as if he's just been obscenely insulted when being reminded of the fact that's far above the average market value of perhaps 95% or more of FA artists.
Comic: "Necromantic" for 20USD
Posted 13 years ago
Ishton is selling his comic Necromantic for 20USD: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3629199 This is obviously gonna be the cover: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8312188/It's fantasy-horror that takes place in the Medieval town of Blutenheim, you can see many concept drawings in his gallery: http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/ishton/
Landscape refs
Posted 13 years ago
treatsBig load a' drawing tutorials
Posted 13 years ago
ryanwardlowEpic rating fail
Posted 13 years agoI've just seen a live-action period piece film that was rated PG that began with a graphic depiction of a newborn infant being violently tortured to death! WTF?!!!
The story is that of a young prince back in the early 19th century that has to disappear so the current monarch's uncle can be next on the throne. And what do the uncle and his mistress decide to do? They pay a valet and the court physician to torture the baby to death! Throughout, the doctor explains with a mad grin on his face how the baby is suffering and what parts of his little body have just broken, teared, or have been otherwise mortally injured. The woman is looking on and appears to be totally orgasmic from the whole thing. All the while you can hear the baby scream, hear his limbs break, and then how suddenly his screams become muffled. Doctor explains in ecstasy that's because his lungs are now running full of water.
They put the baby into the prince's bed, his constant blubbery screams now sounding like a creepy crawling huge grindcore bug from an x-rated horror movie. The baby's father comes, looks at his son, asks, "What is it with you, my son?" Doctor goes, giggling, "Your highness, I'm afraid that your son has lost any physical capacity of sensing you, as his spinal chord as well as the back of his head have been broken a number of times!" Father squeezes the rattling bleeding meatball, and for a second, the screams coming from the bed turn absolutely piercing, and the father's hand twitches back in shock. Doctor goes, "Oh...you see, that's because his lungs are full of water, he's drowning in incredibly pain at the moment (chuckle)!" Mother demands to see her son. Father yells at her, "I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT! OUR SON IS LOOKING LIKE A HIDEOUS ABOMINATION!" It takes until the next day (15 minutes or so on the screen) for the creepy giant grindcore bug sound, synchronized to the little meatball's twitching, to fall silent, with the little baby in obvious hell for hours and hours.
More atrocities: Turns out the woman had replaced the real prince with a stable-lad's baby before this whole shit, and then they hide the real prince in a dungeon in total darkness for close to 20 years. And not just that, they constantly overdose him on opium from day one, daily, for all those years, to keep him quiet, severely and irrevocably damaging his body and brain. His fingers freeze off or rot off while he's banging his head against the stonen wall without ever realizing anything of it, only staring blankly. When he's finally let out at age 18 (after the first 30-40 minutes of a two-parter that's 180 minutes total), he's a mental and physical cripple.
WHAT...THE...FUCK?!
I was expecting an atmospheric, romantizized period piece a la Kubrick's Barry Lyndon! And then...THIS?! In a live-action movie that's rated PG?!!! On public TV?!!! FUCK! I didn't want no fuckin' splatter-grindcore-exploitation-horror movie where babies are graphically tortured to death or constantly kept on the 19th century equivalent to crack and meth to fry their brains and destroy their bodies! FUCK! *pukes*
The story is that of a young prince back in the early 19th century that has to disappear so the current monarch's uncle can be next on the throne. And what do the uncle and his mistress decide to do? They pay a valet and the court physician to torture the baby to death! Throughout, the doctor explains with a mad grin on his face how the baby is suffering and what parts of his little body have just broken, teared, or have been otherwise mortally injured. The woman is looking on and appears to be totally orgasmic from the whole thing. All the while you can hear the baby scream, hear his limbs break, and then how suddenly his screams become muffled. Doctor explains in ecstasy that's because his lungs are now running full of water.
They put the baby into the prince's bed, his constant blubbery screams now sounding like a creepy crawling huge grindcore bug from an x-rated horror movie. The baby's father comes, looks at his son, asks, "What is it with you, my son?" Doctor goes, giggling, "Your highness, I'm afraid that your son has lost any physical capacity of sensing you, as his spinal chord as well as the back of his head have been broken a number of times!" Father squeezes the rattling bleeding meatball, and for a second, the screams coming from the bed turn absolutely piercing, and the father's hand twitches back in shock. Doctor goes, "Oh...you see, that's because his lungs are full of water, he's drowning in incredibly pain at the moment (chuckle)!" Mother demands to see her son. Father yells at her, "I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT! OUR SON IS LOOKING LIKE A HIDEOUS ABOMINATION!" It takes until the next day (15 minutes or so on the screen) for the creepy giant grindcore bug sound, synchronized to the little meatball's twitching, to fall silent, with the little baby in obvious hell for hours and hours.
More atrocities: Turns out the woman had replaced the real prince with a stable-lad's baby before this whole shit, and then they hide the real prince in a dungeon in total darkness for close to 20 years. And not just that, they constantly overdose him on opium from day one, daily, for all those years, to keep him quiet, severely and irrevocably damaging his body and brain. His fingers freeze off or rot off while he's banging his head against the stonen wall without ever realizing anything of it, only staring blankly. When he's finally let out at age 18 (after the first 30-40 minutes of a two-parter that's 180 minutes total), he's a mental and physical cripple.
WHAT...THE...FUCK?!
I was expecting an atmospheric, romantizized period piece a la Kubrick's Barry Lyndon! And then...THIS?! In a live-action movie that's rated PG?!!! On public TV?!!! FUCK! I didn't want no fuckin' splatter-grindcore-exploitation-horror movie where babies are graphically tortured to death or constantly kept on the 19th century equivalent to crack and meth to fry their brains and destroy their bodies! FUCK! *pukes*
How do you deal with such people?
Posted 13 years agoI've been friended by a guy on Facebook two weeks ago that I've met in a political group there, and he's also a writer for a nationwide daily calling itself Left-wing. Because I'm a television, video & camera student, he promised to get me a two-to-three weeks job to shoot a number of podium debates hosted by this one atheist organization that he'd just become a member of. Mimimum tariff for two professionals (one camera operator and one sound operator) would be circa 350 Euros per day, but I offered them as low as only 600 all-in-all for the both of us, but they turned us down because they were only okay with 100 Euros for two people and two-to-three weeks work.
Even before they turned us down, this negotiator guy from Facebook invited me over to the home of this one actress who used to be in Fassbinder movies decades ago. We were 6 people, that was her, him, me, a friend of his, and her landlord. The only people talking the whole night long were him and her, and the others were just silent, watching, only whispering to me when I asked them something.
I soon realized why it was that way. The actress and this Facebook guy were pretty much giving an ad-lib performance feigned to look like a casual chit-chat that didn't tolerate any foreign input. Once or twice she'd turn to me to ask me a question, but before I could even finish a single sentence, she immediately yelled at me how stupid and wrong I was, so she'd only been looking for a stock character to ask a rhethorical question that she'd histrionically answer herself.
When I tried to give my own input during the first part, all that happened was the Facebook guy glancing over briefly to hiss at me how I had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't mind *HIM* so much though because he seemed much less aggressive than she did. So after maybe half an hour I was starting to realize what was going on and tried to just sit back and enjoy the show like the others.
Until they started vehemently defending this one recent poem that's made a lot of press over here, about alls Jews being mass murderers, the new Nazi Fascists annihilating the Arab nations, and that Israel would be deliberately planning a nuclear Holocaust of the Iranian people "because they are just like the Nazis". That's when I couldn't hold back anymore and tried to talk some sense into them about the Arab-Israeli conflict and that it's the Irani government that's currently developing the bomb in order to "wipe Israel off the map" as Ahamdinejad, puppet to the mullahs, has repeatedly uttered.
What happened first was that the actress turned on her laptop and yellingly read out to me this one small printpaper pamphlet from 2001 about "the American Inteligence Agencies having found no evidence about Iran having the bomb so far", and then she played a video interview of the poem's writer where he said stuff such as that "it's the duty especially of us Germans to prevent another Holocaust as the Jews are planning right now" and how he's totally flabbergasted and outraged the "partly servile, partly propagandistic political correctness" of everybody critizing him for saying so.
After that, I told them that they didn't let me know anything that could convince me, and compared the poem's writer to another writer who's recently flirted with extremist right-wing ideologies by forging statistics, reviving biological and genetical racism about "the typical racial attributes of Jews and Arabs", calling the latter inhuman, incorrigible, and intellectually inferior monsters "because of their genes", and who'd also claimed afterwards he had no idea how much of a stir of "political correctness" he'd cause with that.
Both the actress and the Facebook guy only responded by calling me "an immature, puerile little boy" for "such a stupid comparison", and after that, I didn't speak up anymore during the night, only later promising the Facebook guy to mail him a discussion thread on the Arab-Israeli conflict where I'd adressed all the topics brought up by the poem writer.
Towards the end of the night, the Facebook guy, sitting next to me on the couch, was pretty much groping my crotch for 10 seconds (which I pretended to ignore) when he gave me a DVD with a pierced male nipple on the cover, telling me to watch it and tell him what I thought about it.
Part of my tolerance and compliance was due to the fact that the Facebook guy had promised me "more filming jobs" beside the one that we'd be turned down on by his atheist organization.
But after they'd turned us down for that first job, the Facebook guy started texting me on Facebook and calling me on the phone for hours, day and night, to "teach" me endlessly, for hours and hours, about how he thinks that the Catholic church is evil incarnate and the Pope being the anti-Christ or something. I felt like being constantly recruited and shouted at by some Scientology cult member.
So yeah, I thought, I myself am all for separation of church and state, I'll play your game, as long as you'll get me more jobs. So at first I tried going in-between his hours and hours of rants, "Yeah, burning witches and all that, I'll give ya that was pretty bad...but wouldn't you agree that other religions can be pretty fierce as well, I mean, like, Sharia and all that, and that there's also many secular ideologies that can be pretty intolerant?"
"NO WAY!", he'd yell at me during his long phone calls way past 2 at night, "It's all lies you're parroting! You just can't handle the truth!" His main motivation seemed to be the homophobic stance of the Church, which made him totally romanticize and idolize the ancients (while I tried to tell him several times on Facebook in response to his glorifications that all that Greek Eros had been about was pre-pubescent boys, and that the standard Roman response towards same-sex activities among male freeborns was the death penalty according to Lex scantinia, but he kept ignoring both or linked me to some Roman political libel attacks and satires on "the immorality and corruption of men"), and it made him even go so far as to proclaim the "tolerance of Islam" in regard to it just because in Arab countries, males can be dancers.
Plus, after I'd agreed to him that it was pretty mean on behalf of the Church to burn gays, he started sending me all those full-frontal nudity pix of guys via Facebook without ever asking if it was okay, in order to "show you we're still friends even though you're talking all this humbug". I didn't dare telling him that I'm not into guys, because of his constant fits he was having already just from me trying to reply to his rants on Christianity.
When I'd also sent him the promised link to the rather smart debate on the Arab-Israeli conflict, together with another to a large number of newspapers that had started making *EXACTLY* the same comparison between the two writers that I'd made before any of the papers did, it considerably turned his passive-aggressiveness up a notch, although he never mentioned the event or debated any of the links (probably for good reason, I'd bet).
After a few days and nights of constant bombardment both via phone and on Facebook, I told him that I just don't *CARE* who's right, just as long as he'd stop pestering me with the whole Christianity issue.
He went, "Oh, silly little boy...you're just not *LISTENING*! You *NEVER* listen and you'll never learn, just like you never listened and never learned when we were visiting my *WONDERFULL* actress friend! You're so twisted and in denial about Christianity! That's why you're trying to change the subject, because I caught you out, you have no idea what you're talking about! I can't be the first having to tell you all these *FACTS* about Christianity and how evil it is, because you're just too stupid to get it by yourself when everybody does! I'm a wise old man and I shall teach you out of my selfless compassion, and I shall be your direly needed therapist from Christianity, you sick, sick little boy!"
I mean WTF? Imagine it, a 50yo talking like that to a 29yo, or to anybody, for that matter! I was already at a point when I couldn't sleep at night even when he wasn't talking at me due to his constant belittling, patronizing, insulting. Because I didn't dare telling him on the phone, I then sent him a msg on Facebook, telling him in two bare-facts sentences that often those are the best representation of all the dogmatic, self-righteous intolerance of religion who have suffered most at the hand of religion themselves (as he'd told me he'd been born into Christianity), and that I was feeling like being recruited into Scientology or any other cult religion, restricting myself to not sound as gleefully patronizing and insulting as he constantly was to me.
A few hours passed, then he replied with a return msg saying, "You are so full of yourself that you don't need a wise teacher like me! You are worshipping yourself as your own idol! I shall now leave you all alone with your confused ignorance that all you little kids are suffering from nowadays!"
But still a few hours later, he came back and IM'd me on Facebook, first with the line, "Weren't you the stupid brat who cried me a river about some sects? ;)"
I ignored that first IM. Then he IM'd me a long sermon about how he felt like "a genius classical musician" whenever "talking" to me, and that I'd be a "hooligan" who'd "always be disturbing his beautiful opera-house performance by bellowing rude, naughty chants".
That did it. I replied in IM that I refused to talk to him any further about the religion he had been born into, that I don't talk to fanatics about religion, and that he should stop acting like a spoiled child for lashing out at me for not telling him what he wanted to hear. I hit ENTER and immediately closed Facebook, being close to tears.
About 6 hours later, I dared going back to Facebook because I had to check a group there. What I found was a raging long IM by him ALL IN CAPS, full of typos, and with so!!!!!! many exclamation marks. I didn't bother to read more than the first and last sentence. The first started, "I DNT BLNG 2 ANY RELIGION YU SWINE...", and the last one was, "I WSH YU STAY AWY FRM M3, YU SCK; SICK PYSOCHPTH!" Friendship status was removed.
So, yeah...how would you deal with a person like this when it's happening to you? To be frank, I'm still kinda worried about him or something. But most of what he did happened on the phone (smart enough to leave no trace to any outside people?), and he was plastering his own Facebook page with the same male nudity shots that he'd sent to me without Facebook ever complaining. And, well...I don't like dealing with legal matters.
Even before they turned us down, this negotiator guy from Facebook invited me over to the home of this one actress who used to be in Fassbinder movies decades ago. We were 6 people, that was her, him, me, a friend of his, and her landlord. The only people talking the whole night long were him and her, and the others were just silent, watching, only whispering to me when I asked them something.
I soon realized why it was that way. The actress and this Facebook guy were pretty much giving an ad-lib performance feigned to look like a casual chit-chat that didn't tolerate any foreign input. Once or twice she'd turn to me to ask me a question, but before I could even finish a single sentence, she immediately yelled at me how stupid and wrong I was, so she'd only been looking for a stock character to ask a rhethorical question that she'd histrionically answer herself.
When I tried to give my own input during the first part, all that happened was the Facebook guy glancing over briefly to hiss at me how I had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't mind *HIM* so much though because he seemed much less aggressive than she did. So after maybe half an hour I was starting to realize what was going on and tried to just sit back and enjoy the show like the others.
Until they started vehemently defending this one recent poem that's made a lot of press over here, about alls Jews being mass murderers, the new Nazi Fascists annihilating the Arab nations, and that Israel would be deliberately planning a nuclear Holocaust of the Iranian people "because they are just like the Nazis". That's when I couldn't hold back anymore and tried to talk some sense into them about the Arab-Israeli conflict and that it's the Irani government that's currently developing the bomb in order to "wipe Israel off the map" as Ahamdinejad, puppet to the mullahs, has repeatedly uttered.
What happened first was that the actress turned on her laptop and yellingly read out to me this one small printpaper pamphlet from 2001 about "the American Inteligence Agencies having found no evidence about Iran having the bomb so far", and then she played a video interview of the poem's writer where he said stuff such as that "it's the duty especially of us Germans to prevent another Holocaust as the Jews are planning right now" and how he's totally flabbergasted and outraged the "partly servile, partly propagandistic political correctness" of everybody critizing him for saying so.
After that, I told them that they didn't let me know anything that could convince me, and compared the poem's writer to another writer who's recently flirted with extremist right-wing ideologies by forging statistics, reviving biological and genetical racism about "the typical racial attributes of Jews and Arabs", calling the latter inhuman, incorrigible, and intellectually inferior monsters "because of their genes", and who'd also claimed afterwards he had no idea how much of a stir of "political correctness" he'd cause with that.
Both the actress and the Facebook guy only responded by calling me "an immature, puerile little boy" for "such a stupid comparison", and after that, I didn't speak up anymore during the night, only later promising the Facebook guy to mail him a discussion thread on the Arab-Israeli conflict where I'd adressed all the topics brought up by the poem writer.
Towards the end of the night, the Facebook guy, sitting next to me on the couch, was pretty much groping my crotch for 10 seconds (which I pretended to ignore) when he gave me a DVD with a pierced male nipple on the cover, telling me to watch it and tell him what I thought about it.
Part of my tolerance and compliance was due to the fact that the Facebook guy had promised me "more filming jobs" beside the one that we'd be turned down on by his atheist organization.
But after they'd turned us down for that first job, the Facebook guy started texting me on Facebook and calling me on the phone for hours, day and night, to "teach" me endlessly, for hours and hours, about how he thinks that the Catholic church is evil incarnate and the Pope being the anti-Christ or something. I felt like being constantly recruited and shouted at by some Scientology cult member.
So yeah, I thought, I myself am all for separation of church and state, I'll play your game, as long as you'll get me more jobs. So at first I tried going in-between his hours and hours of rants, "Yeah, burning witches and all that, I'll give ya that was pretty bad...but wouldn't you agree that other religions can be pretty fierce as well, I mean, like, Sharia and all that, and that there's also many secular ideologies that can be pretty intolerant?"
"NO WAY!", he'd yell at me during his long phone calls way past 2 at night, "It's all lies you're parroting! You just can't handle the truth!" His main motivation seemed to be the homophobic stance of the Church, which made him totally romanticize and idolize the ancients (while I tried to tell him several times on Facebook in response to his glorifications that all that Greek Eros had been about was pre-pubescent boys, and that the standard Roman response towards same-sex activities among male freeborns was the death penalty according to Lex scantinia, but he kept ignoring both or linked me to some Roman political libel attacks and satires on "the immorality and corruption of men"), and it made him even go so far as to proclaim the "tolerance of Islam" in regard to it just because in Arab countries, males can be dancers.
Plus, after I'd agreed to him that it was pretty mean on behalf of the Church to burn gays, he started sending me all those full-frontal nudity pix of guys via Facebook without ever asking if it was okay, in order to "show you we're still friends even though you're talking all this humbug". I didn't dare telling him that I'm not into guys, because of his constant fits he was having already just from me trying to reply to his rants on Christianity.
When I'd also sent him the promised link to the rather smart debate on the Arab-Israeli conflict, together with another to a large number of newspapers that had started making *EXACTLY* the same comparison between the two writers that I'd made before any of the papers did, it considerably turned his passive-aggressiveness up a notch, although he never mentioned the event or debated any of the links (probably for good reason, I'd bet).
After a few days and nights of constant bombardment both via phone and on Facebook, I told him that I just don't *CARE* who's right, just as long as he'd stop pestering me with the whole Christianity issue.
He went, "Oh, silly little boy...you're just not *LISTENING*! You *NEVER* listen and you'll never learn, just like you never listened and never learned when we were visiting my *WONDERFULL* actress friend! You're so twisted and in denial about Christianity! That's why you're trying to change the subject, because I caught you out, you have no idea what you're talking about! I can't be the first having to tell you all these *FACTS* about Christianity and how evil it is, because you're just too stupid to get it by yourself when everybody does! I'm a wise old man and I shall teach you out of my selfless compassion, and I shall be your direly needed therapist from Christianity, you sick, sick little boy!"
I mean WTF? Imagine it, a 50yo talking like that to a 29yo, or to anybody, for that matter! I was already at a point when I couldn't sleep at night even when he wasn't talking at me due to his constant belittling, patronizing, insulting. Because I didn't dare telling him on the phone, I then sent him a msg on Facebook, telling him in two bare-facts sentences that often those are the best representation of all the dogmatic, self-righteous intolerance of religion who have suffered most at the hand of religion themselves (as he'd told me he'd been born into Christianity), and that I was feeling like being recruited into Scientology or any other cult religion, restricting myself to not sound as gleefully patronizing and insulting as he constantly was to me.
A few hours passed, then he replied with a return msg saying, "You are so full of yourself that you don't need a wise teacher like me! You are worshipping yourself as your own idol! I shall now leave you all alone with your confused ignorance that all you little kids are suffering from nowadays!"
But still a few hours later, he came back and IM'd me on Facebook, first with the line, "Weren't you the stupid brat who cried me a river about some sects? ;)"
I ignored that first IM. Then he IM'd me a long sermon about how he felt like "a genius classical musician" whenever "talking" to me, and that I'd be a "hooligan" who'd "always be disturbing his beautiful opera-house performance by bellowing rude, naughty chants".
That did it. I replied in IM that I refused to talk to him any further about the religion he had been born into, that I don't talk to fanatics about religion, and that he should stop acting like a spoiled child for lashing out at me for not telling him what he wanted to hear. I hit ENTER and immediately closed Facebook, being close to tears.
About 6 hours later, I dared going back to Facebook because I had to check a group there. What I found was a raging long IM by him ALL IN CAPS, full of typos, and with so!!!!!! many exclamation marks. I didn't bother to read more than the first and last sentence. The first started, "I DNT BLNG 2 ANY RELIGION YU SWINE...", and the last one was, "I WSH YU STAY AWY FRM M3, YU SCK; SICK PYSOCHPTH!" Friendship status was removed.
So, yeah...how would you deal with a person like this when it's happening to you? To be frank, I'm still kinda worried about him or something. But most of what he did happened on the phone (smart enough to leave no trace to any outside people?), and he was plastering his own Facebook page with the same male nudity shots that he'd sent to me without Facebook ever complaining. And, well...I don't like dealing with legal matters.
Fun with Photoshop...
Posted 13 years ago...that was actually had with Paintshop Pro.
Been having some fun with a photo of the 5 currently alive Presidents: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....Presidents.jpg
Been having some fun with a photo of the 5 currently alive Presidents: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....Presidents.jpg
