Gluemeat

Talented dude’s short stopmotion video done completely on a dry erase board, slobber over his skill.

The Far Side’s Gary Larson, still in the top five of greatest comic strips ever made, has been keeping himself busy in his retirement days playing jazz guitar and giving oodles of time and cash to wildlife conservation. You also get to know how much money a superstar cartoonist gets to make annually off his old material. What more can you ask for?

It’s that time of year in the United States, and not to put a gloom on anyone’s parade, here is a video recording of William Burroughs giving his own Thanksgiving prayer back in 1986.

If I’m sharing this with you all, it’s not as a knock on the US. If anything, by listening to what Burroughs is challenging, it’s a testament to how little things have changed in 20 years.

Time for a good old-fashioned geek-out.

For you see, I have my Wii.

Mathias and I showed up at 6:30 am at the local Toys R Us store Sunday morning where we had pre-ordered our console back in June. We had been contacted by the electronics department on Thursday that the console was going to be made available at 8 am, that all 80-some pre-orders would be honoured, and that those who would get there early would have access to all the Wii stock available (games, accessories, etc.)

Even though my console was guaranteed, I wanted to get there early to obtain a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

When the doors opened at 8 am, we were sixth in line. Letting people in five pre-orders at a time, we took all the time we needed to look over the merchandise and make our picks. In the end, we left with a Wii console, an extra Wiimote, an extra Nunchuk, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Christmas did indeed come early this year.

As we were leaving, the store ran out of Nunchuks. I announced that tidbit to a few folks who asked me a couple of questions as I left. The chorus of groans was moving.

As I left, there were about 100 people in the pre-order line and approximated 50 waiting in the “no reservations” line-up. Sucks to be them, as there would be only 20 “on-the shelf” consoles available for them.

But, then, around 8:45 am, we started unpackaging it.

So in my son’s 2nd grade class, any child who finishes up his assigned work faster than the others can get to doing a little personal project. It can be anything from reading to drawing to crafting. Anything. My son has pulled out some pretty fun stuff out of these down periods, but nothing quite as amazing as this.

It’s a drawing inspired by the song The Crane Wife (Part One) by The Decemberists. If you have never heard it, the song is based on a Japanese fairy (folk?) tale of a man who finds an injured crane in the dead of winter, nurses it back to health, only to find that it’s a shapeshifter which he marries.

It’s folded in the middle and all crumply, like any good eight year old’s drawing should be.

It’s important to note two things:

1) There was no parental guidance in this at all. He did it in school and I was just as surprised as anyone to see the end result.

2) We listen to The Decemberists a lot, at home.

I guess, in a way, this is my son’s first true piece of fan art. May his geekdom be long and fruitful.

There is a higher resolution image of the drawing at my Flickr area.

Here’s another Foxy Lollop comic. They’re turning into a habit, aren’t they? I’m going to have to give them their own site.

Oh, wait.

More great movie moments from Turkey, with all the boulder hitting, sand-scratching, and leading-lady-trying-to-smile-at-the-end you crave.

“I think James Baker and Dick Cheney should take Bush out to the woods around Camp David. After 24 hours in a sweat lodge, he should be given only a loin cloth, a hunting knife and a canteen of water. Bush should then set out to track and kill a black bear, after which he should eat its still beating heart so he can absorb its spirit. He should then fly back to Washington in Marine 1. His torso still scratched from the bear’s claws, his face bloodied and steaming in the November chill, he should immediately give a press conference at which he throws the bearskin on the front row of the press corps, completely enveloping Helen Thomas, declaring, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’”

- National Review Online writer Jonah Goldberg, coping with the Republican loss of the Senate and the House.

Yeah, I used to do the exact same thing to my Chaucer prof in university. He never picked up on it, either.

(Flickr page, via Wonkette)

“No, I did not and the reason I didn’t know is because I hadn’t visited with his replacement.”

- US President George W. Bush at today’s press conference answering a reporter’s question as to whether he knew he was going to ask Rumsfeld for his resignation when he stated last week that Rumsfeld was going to stay on board for the next two years.

Quick comment on my part: Let me see if I got this right: so last week Bush said he wasn’t going to kick Rumsfeld out. Bush tells us today he wasn’t planning on doing it because he didn’t get the chance to visit his replacement. Yet Bush stated that didn’t know last week that he was going to hand Rumsfeld his walking papers. But there was a replacement, he said it himself. How can you not know that you’re going to fire someone if there’s a replacement in the wings?

(Video at Crooks and Liars)