Edit: This is the 100th post to be published on my blog. Huzzah!
Friday, 14 November 2014
Cute Cat Friday 2014-11-14: Belle
It's my chair now. If you wanted to keep it, you shouldn't have gone for that cup of tea.
Edit: This is the 100th post to be published on my blog. Huzzah!
Edit: This is the 100th post to be published on my blog. Huzzah!
Interstellar: Review
Interstellar has definite flaws, but in its themes, ambition, and visual spectacle, it is a deeply impressive film.
Friday, 7 November 2014
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Eavesdropping on the Springfield Republican Party
I've received an account of secret Republican Party discussions in Springfield, which I think sheds some light on the impact of Tuesday's election results in the USA. I feel it's worth breaking my self-imposed blog silence for Nanowrimo to share it.
EXT. SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN PARTY HEADQUARTERS. Lightning flashes. Bats flap around the turrets.
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM. RICH TEXAN, MR BURNS, DRACULA, KRUSTY THE KLOWN, and RAINIER WOLFCASTLE (aka MCBAIN) sit around a table.
RICH TEXAN: Yee-haw! We won Springfield's Senate seat.
MR BURNS: Oh, pish-pash. That seat was last contested in 2008, when Obama was full of hope and change. Now he's so unpopular, my cruel Republican grandmama could have won it, and she's been dead for eighty years.
DRACULA: I resent that remark.
MR BURNS: Resent it all you want. There's a reason why vampires don't stand for election.
WOLFCASTLE: Gentlemen, please. This is no time to bicker amongst ourselves. I think we need to look at the bigger picture.
MR BURNS: The moving pictures actor is right. What should the Republican party do, now that it has control of the Senate?
(Long, uncomfortable silence)
KRUSTY: We could stop Obama from appointing judges and federal bureaucrats?
MR BURNS: We were doing that before. Think bigger, everyone.
DRACULA: We could work constructively with Obama, and pass laws for the benefit of ordinary people?
(Uproarious laughter around the table, including from Dracula)
MR BURNS: That was a good one. But let's be serious for a moment. What can we do?
RICH TEXAN: We can repeal Obamacare. Yee-haw! (Fires guns at ceiling.)
MR BURNS: Stop shooting the ceiling, it's an antique. And no, we can't. There's no way we can get a big enough majority to overcome Obama's veto.
WOLFCASTLE: We control the Senate committees now. We can launch many investigations into Obama's dastardly wrongdoing.
KRUSTY: I haven't been paying attention. What wrongdoing is that?
WOLFCASTLE: It doesn't matter, everything he does is dastardly.
DRACULA: We can impeach him. He must have committed a high crime or misdemeanor somewhere.
MR BURNS: (Steeples fingers) Excellent. Let's get to it, gentlemen.
So, nothing much will change in Washington DC, except there will be even more partisan conflict and spurious attempts to find or manufacture a scandal for which Obama can be blamed. I can hardly wait. No, then again, maybe I can.
Oh yes, and content-free speculation on the 2016 Presidential race will now rise in volume. It's almost enough to make me wish Kang and Kodos would move in and take over.
######
EXT. SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN PARTY HEADQUARTERS. Lightning flashes. Bats flap around the turrets.
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM. RICH TEXAN, MR BURNS, DRACULA, KRUSTY THE KLOWN, and RAINIER WOLFCASTLE (aka MCBAIN) sit around a table.
RICH TEXAN: Yee-haw! We won Springfield's Senate seat.
MR BURNS: Oh, pish-pash. That seat was last contested in 2008, when Obama was full of hope and change. Now he's so unpopular, my cruel Republican grandmama could have won it, and she's been dead for eighty years.
DRACULA: I resent that remark.
MR BURNS: Resent it all you want. There's a reason why vampires don't stand for election.
WOLFCASTLE: Gentlemen, please. This is no time to bicker amongst ourselves. I think we need to look at the bigger picture.
MR BURNS: The moving pictures actor is right. What should the Republican party do, now that it has control of the Senate?
(Long, uncomfortable silence)
KRUSTY: We could stop Obama from appointing judges and federal bureaucrats?
MR BURNS: We were doing that before. Think bigger, everyone.
DRACULA: We could work constructively with Obama, and pass laws for the benefit of ordinary people?
(Uproarious laughter around the table, including from Dracula)
MR BURNS: That was a good one. But let's be serious for a moment. What can we do?
RICH TEXAN: We can repeal Obamacare. Yee-haw! (Fires guns at ceiling.)
MR BURNS: Stop shooting the ceiling, it's an antique. And no, we can't. There's no way we can get a big enough majority to overcome Obama's veto.
WOLFCASTLE: We control the Senate committees now. We can launch many investigations into Obama's dastardly wrongdoing.
KRUSTY: I haven't been paying attention. What wrongdoing is that?
WOLFCASTLE: It doesn't matter, everything he does is dastardly.
DRACULA: We can impeach him. He must have committed a high crime or misdemeanor somewhere.
MR BURNS: (Steeples fingers) Excellent. Let's get to it, gentlemen.
######
So, nothing much will change in Washington DC, except there will be even more partisan conflict and spurious attempts to find or manufacture a scandal for which Obama can be blamed. I can hardly wait. No, then again, maybe I can.
Oh yes, and content-free speculation on the 2016 Presidential race will now rise in volume. It's almost enough to make me wish Kang and Kodos would move in and take over.
Friday, 31 October 2014
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Blog break for Nanowrimo
From now until the beginning of December, I'll be taking a break from my regular blogging to take part in Nanowrimo.
For those who haven't heard of it, Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It started in the USA (hence the "National" in the title), but has since spread around the world, and Cambridge has a large and active chapter. See the above link for FAQ's and other information.
I've entered six times before, and reached the 50,000 word target four times previously, in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013. The novels in question are... not great. Fifty thousand words in a month forces you to concentrate on quantity instead of quality. They were a lot of fun to write though.
Cute Cat Friday will appear as normal, and I'll get back to other blogging in the first week of December; or maybe the second, depending how long I need to recover from my fictioneering marathon.
If I see something which I absolutely cannot restrain myself from ranting about online, I might break blogging silence to do so; but it would have to be pretty spectacular. Otherwise, I will spend November in frenzied typing of another Nanowrimo manuscript.
For those who haven't heard of it, Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It started in the USA (hence the "National" in the title), but has since spread around the world, and Cambridge has a large and active chapter. See the above link for FAQ's and other information.
 |
| The honourable emblem of Nanowrimo. |
I've entered six times before, and reached the 50,000 word target four times previously, in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013. The novels in question are... not great. Fifty thousand words in a month forces you to concentrate on quantity instead of quality. They were a lot of fun to write though.
Cute Cat Friday will appear as normal, and I'll get back to other blogging in the first week of December; or maybe the second, depending how long I need to recover from my fictioneering marathon.
If I see something which I absolutely cannot restrain myself from ranting about online, I might break blogging silence to do so; but it would have to be pretty spectacular. Otherwise, I will spend November in frenzied typing of another Nanowrimo manuscript.
Friday, 24 October 2014
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