Time's 2011 'Most influential people' poll

Link

…Do they know 2011 isn’t even halfway over yet?

Five out of the top ten are pop stars. Meanwhile, Gabrielle Giffords is 24, Michelle Obama is 32, Hillary Clinton is 44, and the President of the United States is 45.



It’s not all hopeless though. Mohamed Bouazizi is on the list. I know! Not only is he on the list, but he’s all the way up to 16. He’s the Tunisian who set himself on fire and single-handedly sparked the most widespread democratic upheaval we’re likely to see in our lifetimes. I know I should shove a spoon into my eyeball upon the realization of Lady Gaga being more influential than a fucking worldwide revolution, but I’ve learned that I need to lower my standards at this point. When Susan Boyle is at number 3, I’m going to take what I can get.

And Christopher Hitchens is number eight! I didn’t even know the general public knew who he was! I like what Time put down under his occupation once you click on his name: “writer, atheist.” I immediately went to Jon Stewart, and was surprised to find that it didn’t say “Occupation: Jew.”

Making myself laugh prevents me from crying.

Sunday Youtube Post

Mogwai - San Pedro from Rock Action on Vimeo.

LIZERD DERP.

Click for high res.

Progress report for a drawing I’m working on right now. I haven’t even begun shading the head yet, or messed with the different colored scales, and I gotta work on that area around the eye, and I’m not satisfied with the glares on the tongue. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do for the background yet. I might just spread around some charcoal, that always looks nice. I’m really excited. I know it’s pretty good so far, but whenever I get full of myself, I just do a google search for “Albrecht Durer,” and he always puts me in my place. I wish I could be Albrecht Durer. I want to make love to the corpse of Albrecht Durer, is what I’m saying.

What I find most interesting about working on this piece is how much I’m learning. I’m not talking about art skills, I’m learning about the lizard itself. You’ll notice the scales below and around the nostril sort of look cluttered and misshapen (the scales around the eye though are purposely misshapen to give the illusion of contour… to the best of my ability, at least). That area around the nose is where I first started. I was trying to figure out how the scales worked. By the time I got to the area below the mouth, you’ll notice everything is much more uniform and organized. That’s where I started to pick up on it. I explained this to my teacher and asked if she thought I should redo the scales around the nose, but she told me they still look like they fit, so I’m going to keep it. Constructive criticism encouraged.

One final thought: fuck the human figure. Good god. So hard. I’m sticking with animals for now okay. I painted a spider a couple months back and I think I do well with animals.

Sunday Youtube Post

The entire unaired pilot for Rugrats

Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee talk separation of church and state

The Daily Show's website is glitchy as shit and it won't let me embed, but here's Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the unedited interview. I'm so glad Stewart did such a great job, because if he hadn't, I likely would've thrown my computer out of a window due to how incredibly misinformed Mike Huckabee is about everything ever.

Glenn Beck's TV show will be pulled

Fox announced today that Beck will "transition off of his daily program" later this year.

His radio show wasn't mentioned, so he'll probably still have that. Regardless, this is still a huge victory for truth and rationality. Shame on Fox for giving an outlet to conspiracy theorists and sensationalist lies. If you listen to the regular conservative voices like Hannity or O'Reilly, I'm still going to think you're a bit of an idiot. But people like Limbaugh and Beck go way beyond the pale. They are pure propagandists, and I'm not going to respect your opinion if you take them seriously.

But part of me is still going to miss him a little. As horrifying as his ideas are, you can't help but sit back and laugh at how fucking dumb he is. We'll miss you, Glenn. Here's his greatest hits.

• Glenn Beck says Japan deserved the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster because God is punishing them

• Glenn Beck asks a Muslim Congressmen to prove he's not a terrorist

• Glenn Beck calls the president a "racist" with "a deep-seeded hatred for white people" and "white culture."

• Glenn Beck rapes the memory of Thomas Paine

As a lover of revolutionary American history, this, above everything else, has pissed me off the most. Beck got a guy to dress up and pretend to be Thomas Paine. But instead of reciting Paine's anti-nationalist, anti-religious, proto-socialist views, this asshole portrayed Paine as a xenophobic neocon who agreed with Glenn Beck on everything.

• Glenn Beck literally inspires terrorism

I didn't realize how much I missed him. Come back soon Keith <333

Monday Youtube Post

I enjoy history so much because I always try to put myself in their shoes. But pre-gunpowder battle always escapes me. I just can’t envision it. Think about it. Modern war is civilized in comparison. These people were forced to march onto the battlefield, rip apart the flesh of other human beings, and become serial killers. Just try to think about what the battlefield must have looked like at the end of the day. An estimate of how much blood was on the ground after the dust settled at Cannae is about 30,000 gallons — and that’s a low number. Add that to the amount of people on the ground who are still dying. Cutting is messy. You’re often not going to die immediately. So at Cannae, you got at least 50,000 of the dead and dying basking in a blood swamp in the hot August sun. Hannibal himself was said to have been shocked. You talk about post-traumatic stress disorder in the modern sense? Just imagine what the survivors of these battles had to live with for the rest of their lives. Now try to imagine these people as the same species as us. Don’t let anyone tell you we’re not living in the most peaceful time in the history of the world.