I’ve been in a state of self-analysis lately, determining why I’m willing to put myself in a position of wage-slavery when all of the people whom I admire have avoided such servitude. Not surprisingly, it comes down to courage. They have had the courage to work toward their dreams, and I have not. I hope to change that.

My heroes include:

Spider-Man – I know, he’s not a real person. Maybe I should be idolizing Stan Lee instead for creating him. To me, however, Spider-Man is the perfect hero. He’s a working stiff. Although he is possessed of great intelligence and amazing superhuman abilities, he realizes that his duty and responsibility is to do what no one else can, even at the cost of his own happiness and success. No other comic book hero is as fully realized as a human being as Spider-Man, to this day.

Jack Black, Ron Perlman – Two guys who do not fit the Hollywood ideal, yet have achieved based on that very principle. Jack Black rocked his way to the top and maintained his allegiance to the entirely underrated Kyle Gass. Ron Perlman took what jobs people would offer him early on, relying not on good looks, but on raw talent and determination to, as he puts it, “put his kids through school.” Now, he’s the oldest actor ever to play a superhero.

Joss Whedon, Ben Edlund, J. Michael Straczynski – Gifted writers all, but what makes them truly admirable is their adherence to quality above profit. Each of them continued to work to have their art produced and eventually made their mark on the TV scenes, only to become the upper eschelon of geek idols.

Most-Honoured Girlfriend helped me celebrate the passing of years with a trip to Broadway Baby, a dinner theatre North of Milwaukee. My lack of interest in birthday-related celebrations notwithstanding, my belly had its fair share of laughs, after more than its fair share of prime rib.

Dinner was tasty enough and the service was excellent. So, despite my trepidation at the somewhat cramped theatre, the 5 to 1 ratio of elderly to young person, and the attached bar, I was welcoming a little bit of musical madcap. And I received it.

The show regaled us with relationship humour common to most stand-up routines, with a few clever lines thrown in and some over-the-top characters to help with the hyperbole. Overall, the writing and music are about what one expects from an off-broadway show. And, although I was not “enchanted” or some similarly unctuous term over-used by critics, I was pleasantly entertained.

The live theatre atmosphere communicated the joy that the actors shared in playing their roles. Enthusiasm of that degree rarely gets expressed through the multiple-take medium of film. I was also impressed with the use of space; the stage was somewhat small, but the actors seemed completely comfortable, belying the close proximity of the audience. And we were able to take away a phrase that we will use to symbolize when we’re being assholes and we know it : “So chooo-ooose ME, Mr. Video Man.” Yeah, you hadda be there.

Music: 6/10 (referring to composition, not performance)
Direction: 8/10
Acting & Musical Performance: 8/10
Writing: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Czeltic Girl sifted through waxy and sent me disturbing news about Bugs Bunny. it didn’t take long for the internet to FLASH-RAGE on that shit.

‘A New Bunny’ [Flash, NSFW]

For players of World of Warcraft, a list of fun items and easter eggs only adds to the addiction. I’ll be taking my time to narrow the list to some of the best ones. For you, the Steelbuddha reader.

After all, no one wants to wade through the numerouds bitchy and double/triple/hundredple posts, least of all you, the Steelbuddha reader.

For the literary mind:

• The 1 Ring. Also, humans give a bit of a long-winded satire of Tolkien’s work as one of their /silly responses.
• Hemet Nesingwary (an anagram of Ernest Hemingway) and his expedition ask you to prove your worthiness as a hunter of wild beasts and to return pages of Hemet’s manuscript, The Green Hills of Stranglethorn

Historical myth and fact exploited:

• Nessy [.jpg] can be found in the aquatic section of the Deeprun Tram if you like dodging trains.
• Blizzard found Jimmy Hoffa.

Numerous Shrek-like pop culture movie references, though funnier, geekier and better masked:

• Scooty and Sprok stand in front of transporters in Gnomeregan and Stranglethorn Vale.
• You can find the Six Demon Bag, without having to deal with Egg Chen.
• There is a goblin racing machine crashed into the side of a cliff. No word as to Buckaroo Banzai’s whereabouts.
• One goblin racing machine is clearly modeled after the podracer from the ill-received “Phantom Menace.”
• Woo Ping [.jpg] is selling two games at once, baby. He’s that fast.

Some people make their own fun (or is that pwn fun?):

• Crocodile Hunter
• Safe in contested zone
• Loot Lag

That’s all the ones I’m going to filter. There are several more worth knowing, but you’d have to deal with the same idiocy on the boards that I did. And you, the Steelbuddha reader, are obviously above all that. Should you change your mind and want to read through them: WoW General Discussion –

Give me some time and this place won’t look like a trainwreck. For now, we’re back to Ronald McDonald color scheme you all know and love.

Just click this. [jpg]

A quote from one of the greatest books I’ve ever read might explain this behavior. But probably it’s just fun to jingle the bells.

Someone, somewhere, was paid to write, rehearse and perform this “song.”

They typed up the lyrics and put it in front of the vocalist, who as vocalists must, scoured the song for climax. Then, slowly, he knew the strains where he would project emotion, driving home the message of the song. Perhaps he thought of American soldiers fighting in the steamy jungles of Vietnam as through gritted teeth he sang “Knee deep in the mocha.”

Later, as they layered effects, sweating in the production room of a studio, the backup singer said, “I’m going to add a simple “ooo, ooo” vocal solo here, but we can just have it as an echo after the call-and-answer ‘Remember’ section at the end of the third chorus.” That much thought had to go into this.

And then Survivor came in to help the producer give authenticity to the remake, putting the tracks through different filters and samplers, and *Survivor* said, “No, we’re not going to work on this.”

Later, an emcee would weep silently in a men’s room stall when his cries for dancing went unheeded.

I hope you’re happy, Starbucks.

Slapnose: Jefferson Starbucks

This article is a nice little primer on Ajax, the in-place technology Google is using in its new apps, and likely the new way the web will work.

adaptive path » ajax: a new approach to web applications

Things you don’t wanna hear.