What OF

Best comment on the internet today

Jacob — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:56:03 +0000

ok… to all you people leaving comments like “this comic is like 2-3 years old”….. yea SO WHAT… the telephone is 200 years old and u still use it moron

– Cegan

It’s in reference to this mildly amusing comic called The Dangers of “World of Warcraft”, and it made me laugh.

Tagged: comics, comments, humor, innane, world of warcraft, WoW

The Death of Somoza

Jacob — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:47:56 +0000

The Death of Somoza was a really interesting book. It’s a piece of journalism, basically. A non-fiction narrative (probably with some approximated dialog) delivered by the Argentinian commandos who killed the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle. It details some of the Nicaraguan revolution, and the six month operation leading up to the assassination, and I think it’s a really fascinating read. Plus, they used an RPG and machine guns and disguises.

I don’t know much about Latin American history, but this book and further research online make it pretty clear that Somoza was a right old bastard and deserved what he got. I’m suddenly interested in researching socialist action in the Americas. If there are interesting books out there you think I should read, please suggest them.

I’m pretty sure there’s an alternate universe out there where I’m a socialist revolutionary. It’s the one where civil unrest at the beginning of the twentieth century actually turned into some sort of action and the US split into capitalist and socialist states.

Tagged: alternate history, assassination, books, communism, latin america, nicaragua, politics, revolution, socialism, Somoza

The Future is Twenty-Ten

Jacob — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:43:27 +0000

Soo we’re totally living in the future tomorrow. It’ll be 2010. We’re entering the period of time where everything is Twenty-whatever. 2010, 2011, 2050, you name it and it sounds like Science Fiction. Because that’s what it is.

We may not have flying cars or moon bases, but we have com-links and the internet. Books are obsolete and you can practically plug your brain into media. We survived through the dystopic wasteland that was supposed to be 1999 and we survived the ambiguous decade of fear and hope and hope and fear. We regurgitated the culture of the past decades because we had it all archived online and now it’s 2010 and we’ve done all that so let’s get on with our lives!

Welcome to the FUTURE! Tomorrow the cool glasses and nano-tattoos come out. Apple is developing a brain jack so you can plug your ipod right into your ibrain. The AIs are waiting in the wings and we’re having genetically optimized children sooner than you can say ‘bad fucking idea.’

Never have I been more excited. Now I can say, “Yeah, it’s Twenty-Ten.” Happy new year.

Tagged: 2010, culture, future, new year, science fiction, time, twenty-ten

Advice for readers.

Sarah — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:57:00 +0000

“The Travelling Enthusiast, from whose journals we are presenting another ‘fancy-flight in the manner of Jacques Callot’, has apparently not separated the events of his inner life from those of the outside world; in fact we cannot determine where one ends and the other begins. But even if you cannot see this boundary very clearly, dear reader, the Geisterseher may beckon you to his side, and before you are even aware of it, you will be in a strange magical realm where figures of fantasy step right into your own life, and are as cordial with you as your oldest friends. I beg of you — take them as such, go along with their remarkable doings, yield to the thrills and shudders that they produce, since the more you can go along with them, the better they can operate. What more can I do for the Travelling Enthusiast who has encountered so much strangeness and madness, everywhere and at all times, but especially on New Year’s Eve in Berlin?”

– “A New Year’s Eve Adventure”, E.T.A. Hoffman (transl. Alfred Packer)

Blacksmithing photos

Jacob — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:26:35 +0000

I don’t have much interesting to say at this hour, but just so there’s something to look at, this here is a link to my flickr feed from my European blacksmithing trip this past summer! Hot damn.

Click me furiously to get where you want to go.