builderofxeno

Now with decent pictures!

2009-10-27T05:35:41Z

It's almost to the peeling point now. I have a lovely aloe and cucumber lotion to use.

I'm not sure how much further I want to carry this theme. I certainly like getting and having tattoos, but covering a decent portion of my body in the same kind of imagery strikes me as kind of boring. I got this one and the one on my shoulder because I had ideas for them and was able to get the artist at the tattoo shop to make designs that I liked. If I have more ideas that I'm excited about then I'll probably get them put on somewhere, but it's not a deal where I want to continue the theme for its own sake.

Continuing on a theme

2009-10-24T18:35:55Z

Moar ink! Right forearm.

Occasionally they're amazing

2009-10-21T06:34:04Z

I just learned of two amazing things I must own: manga versions of "Das Kapital" and "Mein Kampf." I will press onward through any and all barriers in order to have these, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Rubbery and Adorable

2009-10-04T17:08:39Z

Together at last.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/03/photos-adorable-newborn-p_n_306976.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image

A Proposal

2009-09-21T23:24:43Z

In lieu of all other negative/derogatory terms I believe we should use the word "nazi." While it may cause some initial confusion and perhaps lacks the nuance of other insults, "nazi" ought serve as an effective indicator, regardless of the situation, that we disapprove of/don't like something without the risk of offending anyone's sensibilities. Let's see how "nazi" works in some everyday situations.

"My girlfriend just left me."
"Sorry to hear that, man. That's pretty nazi."

"Damn it! I stubbed my toe and it hurts like a nazi."

"I don't want to watch that movie. It's totally nazi."

"A friend of mine just killed millions of ethnic minorities."
"Wow, what at fucking nazi."

Fuck the media

2009-08-21T19:06:10Z

In its lazy, stupid, greedy eye.

Betsy McCaughey, as some of you may be aware, is the person largely responsible for the idea that The House of Representatives' bill on healthcare contains launguage which would allow for the creation of "death panels" which would decide whether or not senior citizens can have access to life-sustaining medical procedures (the term "death panel" is not, however, of her creation). This is not dissimilar to her actions in 1993 which helped to halt the Clinton administration's efforts toward healthcare reform. McCaughey also happens to be a member of the Hudson Institude, a conservative think tank, the Cantel Medical Corporation, a company which produces and sells medical equipment, and a lying sack of shit.

Yesterday a news organization finally brought McCaughey in to discuss her position (as her involvement in this issue has been known and understood for some time). Now, you may wonder what contemporary news organization would actually have the wherewithal to pursue this story. Who would have the genuine journalistic sensibility and integrity to actually trace this issue back to its source and find out what's really going on? The Daily Show. I'll write that again just to make sure you get it.
The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show

My stance is as per usual: Burn the motherfucker down.

Evolution, more awesome than ever

2009-08-06T00:59:19Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-l7Kwhz7js

Dangling

2009-08-02T08:39:29Z

Walked to the bell. 1:30. 3/4 of the group strangers. Completely naked. Defying the cold. Life is good and full of genitals.

builderofxeno @ 2009-07-26T20:57:00

2009-07-27T03:03:10Z

In about a month's time I will be a twenty-three year old attending a final semester at Beloit College. At one point this was a worrisome though, but now it's more of an oddity than anything else. I have a general direction for myself, and that is both sufficient and satisfying. Planning is for the fearful.

I am, without a doubt, the most academically excited I have ever been. I'm going to be conducting a study of post-apocalyptic fiction during my Honors Term, and, despite this being a far larger project than any I've attempted before, I have absolutely no anxieties. This is a completely uncoerced endeavor which I feel to be of genuine academic worth and is certainly of great personal worth. Few, if any, of my past academic prjoects are even comparable.

For the last few weeks I've been finalizing the list of materials I'll be using for my project. This is the bulk of the reason I'm so excited about the project.

Films (16)
On the Beach (1959)
Panic in Year Zero (1962)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
The Omega Man (1971)
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Mad Max (1979)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Radioactive Dreams (1985)
Siz-String Samurai (1998)
28 Days Later (2002)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
Diary of the Dead (2007)

Television Shows (5)
Now and Then, Here and There (1999)
Peace on Earth (1939)
Good Will to Men (1955)
Life After People (2008)
Dead Set (2008)

Books (24)
The Last Man (1826) Mary Shelley
After London (1885) Richard Jefferies
The Scarlet Plague (1912) Jack London
Ape and Essence (1948) Aldous Huxley
Childhood's End (1953) Arthur C. Clarke
I Am Legend (1954) Richard Matheson
The Long Tomorrow (1955) Leight Brackett
The World Jones Made (1956) Philip K. Dick
Atlas Shrugged (1957) Ayn Rand
Alas, Babylon (1959) Pat Frank
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960) Walter M. Miller Jr.
Dr. Bloodmoney or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965) Philip K. Dick
The Incredible Tide (1970) Alexander Key
Lucifer's Hammer (1977) Larry Niven
Children of Dust (1985) Louise Lawrence
Swan Song (1987) Robert R. McCammon
The Last Ship (1989) William Brinkley
The City, Not Long After (1989) Par Murphy
Oryx and Crake (2004) Margaret Atwood
Dies the Fire (2004) S. M. Stirling
Day by Day Armageddon (2004) J. L. Bourne
The Road (2005) Cormac McCarthy
World War Z (2006) Max Brooks
The World Without Us (2007) Alan Weisman

Short Stories, Plays, and Poems (5)
Darkness (1816) Lord Byron
Nightfall (1941) Issac Asimov
There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) Ray Bradbury
Second Variety (1953) Philip K. Dick
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1967) Harlan Ellison

Video Games (2)
Fallout series (1997-2008)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995)

Comics (3)
Post-Nuke (2003-Present) Andreas Duller
Y: The Last Man (2002-2008) Brian K. Vaughan
The Walking Dead (2003-Present) Robert Kirkman

Suggestions are welcome and wanted.

builderofxeno @ 2009-04-08T13:24:00

2009-04-08T18:35:43Z

This Fall I will have an Academic Honors Term at Beloit College studying post-apocalyptic fiction.

I found out at lunch and haven't been able to stop smiling since.

Character meme, eh? I can get behind that.

2009-01-10T03:46:31Z

Provide whatever kind of commentary you'd like on these characters. I'll be giving my own, but disagree if you'd like

Vampire: the Masquerade
Sade- Sociopathic Sabbat Toreador artist. Wholly hedonistic, murdered as an art form, and eventually stumbled onto the Path of Ecstasy. Distinctly and exercise in extremes and was somewhat difficult to play at first because I made myself fully conceptualize his extreme brutal actions. This difficult eventually passed.

Vampire: the Requiem
Vigr- Gigantic viking, samurai, guerilla, dragon-slayer. One of the original memebers of the Bloodline created to kill Dracula. Extremely old and wrapped up in ideals of honorable combat and warrior's pride. Sort of an exploration of a being that defined itself through physical conflict and an approach to such.

Obsidian
-Jaques Thompson (aka Theta)- Corporate fascist. Had a particular image of how society ought exist and found essentially all means to that end justifiable. Eventually became a wonderful little antagonist for Jinx to torture his players with. A character for whom other people were always tools to be bought, sold, used, and discarded when no longer useful.

Shadowrun
Valentine- Elf, mage, gigolo. One of my sillier creations. Wanted to do some kind of pimp or gigolo character and saw the "orgasm" spell in "Street Magic" at Gencon. It was all a well-lubed downhill slope from there.

Munchkin Land
Friedrich Nietzsche- Kinda had to do it at some point. Had a very surreal moment when I forgot that all of the other characters were PC. Still have an entire page of notes, written in-character, about the symbolism of the other characters and the events that unfolded. An interesting and intensely observational experience.

Exalted
Sigurd- Steampunk, Haslanti Twlight. One of the most light-hearted characters I've played. Provided a great opporunity to just think of ridiculous investions (though I believe there was a pretty nasty torture/execution device in there made under threat from a Bloody Hand). Indulged my inner techie. Wanted him to invent the motorcycle, but I don't think that happened.

Unknown Armies (that game of amazing ideas and maligned mechanics)
Spartan- Tyler Durden+The Dude as an annihilomancer. Destructive, violent, sarcastic, cynical. Ended up so angry at the world that he was going to let his own son die of cancer. Some of my most deeply deld beliefs made manifest and, moreover, made very frightening. Burned several copies of his character sheet.

Shadow Nations
Hadeon Petrenko- Enormous Ukranian Hellspring of Carnivoria. The most nuanced and interesting meat-shield I've played. Was turned into a monster, had to leave his family, and was drawn back to a world that feared and hated him by default. Was tempted to hunt his own children. Made for some of the most intense role-playing I've every done (remember that blue-booking, Jinx?) The character's development was entirely reliant on the other characters, so there was an interesting liberation there.

Hunter: the Vigil
Me- A 30 years old, alcoholic, drug and vitae addicted hunter who is slowly integrating parts of monsters into himself. Imagined as a fairly dark character to view from the outside who, internally, maintained contentment. A mixture of some fears and hopes. Having surgery to implant claws and fangs was pretty hilarious too.

Onward

2009-01-01T09:39:10Z

To time's inevitable march! May it bring us ever closer to the grand glory of our immaculate lives and to the bright future at the end of the horizon! Cheers, salutations, and sweets words to the spirit of our new year. Don't disappoint us you cocky motherfucker!

On a glorious morning

2008-11-05T15:45:35Z

Hehehe... sweet.

Mental Recount

2008-11-04T16:45:04Z

Haven't voted yet, but I 'm in kind of a Nader mood right now... we'll see.

Also, what's the best way to literally/metaphorically shit on the ballot but still have it count when it's handed in? Just curious.

My plug still doesn't work right

2008-10-01T20:13:23Z

24th anniversary of Neuromancer. Cyberspace, data jacks, and razor-fingered leather-clad assassin chicks. Discuss.

So, here's a strange one...

2008-08-26T23:35:14Z

I have been 22 since last Saturday, and that's pretty cool. I've had an entire year with legal alcohol, and four years with legal tobacco and porn. Life is thoroughly good. I don't feel old, nor do I have any particular conception of 22 actually being old. I'm full of pep, vigor, and ever-ready erections.

However, I have been spending a fair amount of time with this year's freshmen. I'm comforted by the fact that they aren't making me feel old either. We have plenty to talk about, and there isn't any awkward generation gap. Things is cool. When I'm around them, though, I become aware of a strange sensation. It's taken me until now to figure out exactly what it is. I don't feel superior to them. I don't feel wise with my years of experience. I don't even feel ennui. I feel distance. For the first time since I came to college I actually feel a significant distance between myself and another group of people. They're coming in, and I'm on my way out. It's kinda of a bookend situation.

The freshmen are, on the whole, interesting people, and I'm sure that I'll enjoy hanging out with them throughout the year. At the moment, though, this feeling is hanging with me. It's not necessarily positive or negative at this point, just new and different. Seeing the freshmen places me in context. It's a reflection that I'm not used to.

I'll bite.

2008-08-23T18:18:47Z

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read
3) Underline/bold the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read only six and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

On the record.

2008-07-20T11:03:42Z

I am VERY excited about The Watchmen. Just putting it out there. Observe.

...

2008-07-07T14:14:29Z

Punctuation, in both life and literature, is a beautiful thing. A distinct point from which to proceed in a thousand directions.

Little steps

2008-06-26T06:21:45Z

It's no datajack, but I'll take what I can get for the moment.

There was much rejoicing

2008-04-16T07:05:57Z

Demonoid lives again! Let the much-more-convenient torrenting being!

Overwhelming Joy

2008-02-26T17:43:52Z

My day just got brighter.

I love Lit Theory

2008-02-07T22:08:25Z

I hate you, author. I hate you for wedging your way into a text. I hate you for trying to be more important than the language you use. Your life is insignificant, and your feelings irrelevant. Your intentions aren't important no matter how much you think they are. You are literary masturbation. You are the bane of analysis. People look to you when they have no ideas of their own, and I hate you for being a willing crutch. We do not know you and never will. All we know is language, and it means more to us than you ever can. Write your words, and get the fuck out of the way. That is all I ask.

The simple things

2008-02-06T08:15:21Z

There is a freshly constructed giant snow-penis just outside my window... I hope never to tire of this world and its many wonders.

A mask

2008-02-01T04:53:31Z

Snow is the best kind of beautiful. It burns, it blinds, and if you touch it too much you'll go numb.