Saturday, April 19, 2008

Not exactly Separated at Birth

(With apologies to Bully)

I'll admit right off that with me and Kalinara, this is the opposite of that Star Sapphire Green Lantern cover. I giggled and rolled my eyes at this one and she found it distasteful.

But as a Private Benjamin reference?

The iconic Goldie Hawn image:



Ms. Marvel #29:



Just to drive that home, Goldie Hawn again:




If that's an homage, it's a piss-poor one.

It'd be a funny homage, were it for the cover of say Benjamin's Privates or some similarly themed pornographic take on the movie, but a superhero book?

You know, I never thought that I could respect Greg Horn less as an artist, but the thought that he was intentionally referencing Private Benjamin rather than Army@Love or an actual porn movie... Well, that just digs a new cellar under the Hall of Artistic Shame.

I'm so disgusted I'm impressed, actually.

But I'm sorry, it can't be what he was thinking. I'm almost certain it's a reference to an Army@Love cover, but I can't find it. I've seen that pose before in the annuls of military-themed pornographic images. It's not a Horn original idea. It's not a reference to that movie, either.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tales from the Chatroom

Kalinara... on civics:
You ever notice...There are 9 members of the Supreme Court. And 9 Nazgul?

Mike Choi

On dealing with criticism:
But in public,

1. Do not dismiss the criticism. At least show an attempt to at least see where they might be coming from.
2. Do not become combative or antagonistic. Sarcasm counts.
3. Do not use past works to justify the current work.
4. Do not just say that you're doing your best. Everyone is doing their best.

If you do any of these, prepare for a shitstorm, especially if you do any of these on a message board where you're trying to defend your shit.

Actually if you ARE on a message board trying to defend your shit,

5. Get the fuck out.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Public Service Announcement: The Last Word

(Update at bottom)

Most blogs have a feature that allows people to know when someone has commented on their post.  They can do this by mail, or by a comment feed, or a little message center in the dashboard.

Most people who blog are aware of this, but there's a number of commenters who seem to think that they can pick a 6-month old post and get the last word in on the discussion because the actual conversation part is dead.  Why do think people are doing this to get the last word in and not be noticed by the smart bloggers and commenters?
 
Because the dumbest fucking comments are made when the thread has been dead for 6 months or more.

Rarely do I ever get anything positive or intelligent when the post has been dead that long.  I'm not sure why anyone bothers doing so, maybe they link it to their friends and show how they "pwned" the original poster, maybe its so that future web nomads will leave the discussion with the impression that no one could argue against the last commenter's "brilliant" point.  Whatever the motive, it doesn't work and it looks rather stupid.

It reminds me of this guy.



Now, this guy is Internet-Famous for standing behind a bunch of people with a sign and making them look foolish.  The first time I saw it, a colleague at work had emailed it out with the words "The guy in the back is my hero."

I admit to chuckling when I first saw it.  It's amusing as it is.

Thing is, he's standing behind all of the women in the photo.  I'd hardly describe that as a feat of courage.  Judging from what I know about human beings, he probably hid the sign whenever any of the women turned around.  Not exactly a hero.

Granted, the thought of him shitting his pants, running for the hills, or being duct-taped to a pine tree once that group of protesters noticed him is pretty funny.  But it makes the overall stunt more an anecdote of amateur clownishness than the brave act of counter-culture rebellion I suspect the gentlemen was going for.  And certainly not the heroic moment of comedy its held up as.

I supposed my point is that's there's something especially disgusting in cowardice.  I mean, it's one thing to be an unrepentant asshole and get surrounded with hatred and banned from message boards and blogs and such for your rudeness and it's one thing to merely be stupid and outmatched in every argument you set foot in.

But to be stupid and/or rude and know you'll be hatred, banned, or outmatched and then go out of your way to avoid it but still look like a badass little rebel who gets the last word?  That's pretty low, even for a fucking troll.





I suppose what I'm saying, to translate to the language of misogynistic assholes, is "Good god, grow a pair".



Update: Look what I got in the mail today, as if the universe wished to remind me of this post and prove my point.



I'm giving you a screencap of the email rather than just linking the comment because the comments don't have dates. And the date to this comment is so very important to me.



These two comments were left two years, one month, and five days after this post was originally posted. It's like the universe is validating my opinions.

This guy might actually be a very brilliant comedian who was hoping there'd be a date stamp on the comment. If not, well, he's like a birthday present. A really late birthday present. I mean, I'm still not impressed with his idiot friend, or likely to click on his idiot link, but this may be the best comment I've ever gotten. Thank you, Bob.

For the record, there's some sort of radio recording supporting his story. So he's a truthful, late, probably cowardly (or just obsessive or stupid), asshole troll. I really don't care, though, because this is an old post and he started out with calling me names. Now, to be fair, I called the guy with the sign an asshole but the man is demonstrably an asshole and it doesn't matter that he's not as big a coward as I thought or he's a paid plant or what-have-you. I can upgrade him to the level of timely asshole troll willing to get into an argument for attention, which isn't exactly a brave, intelligent, or respectable person. So I fail to see how this is defending him exactly. Bob is being abusive on a two-year old post. So I'll be publishing the abusive comment, but not the followup comment with the link because I am a bitch.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Further AIM Adventures of Ragnell and Kalinara... in INNER SPAAAACE!!

Ragnell: It's vitally important that we wear the GL costumes on the day I finally snap.
Ragnell: So I can introduce myself to the gathering crowd as Hayley Jordan and point to you as my associate Gal Gardner.
Kalinara: I'll look appropriately menacing.

(I know one of you is typing a comment asking what led to this part of the conversation. Stop it. You really don't want to know this one.)