Straight Outta Innsmouth

Where the Democrats are going wrong

2004-11-04T20:58:56Z

This quote pretty much sums up why I think the Democrats are consigning themselves (and all us liberals) to oblivion if they don't get with the program soon:

"So why did I vote for Bush? I am a born-again Christian, my faith is critically important to me. As long as the Democratic party, and/or those people who purport to speak for it, belittle my beliefs, dismissing them out of hand, and address me publicly as intellectually challenged for holding to the faith of my fathers, you will never get my vote. How can I trust your party to lead me when you so obviously (and vociferously) denigrate those values I hold most dear? You may not agree with us. That's OK, this is America, pluralism is a wonderfully legacy we all share. But if you do not respect us you will find it very hard to ever have the opportunity to lead us." From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6382485/#041104

Here in New York, the level of bile and anger being thrown at southerners, midwesterners, and religious people in general is really scary. Someone at work today suggested that the entire south was a "third world country" and we should just "give them to Mexico and be rid of them."
The people who voted for Bush aren't stupid or evil (at least not all of them). They feel like us "liberal elitists" don't take them, or their god, or their Wal-Mart or their hunting seriously. And they resent the shit out of us for it.
We don't have to pander to them or become religious fundamentalists ourselves, but we have to stop condescending to them. We have to stop thinking that they're stupid because they don't vote based on real issues or their economic self-interest.
Basically, the Dems need to stop nominating presidential candidates who make half the electorate feel like they're being talked down to, or who fulfill all their stereotypes of godless, know-it-all liberals. Clinton was right on, Edwards or Obama could be good, but Gore and Kerry? And we're doomed if they nominate Hillary in 2008. That will prove that they don't get it and never will...

On a positive note, Rumsfeld's probably out, and there is talk that Ashcroft and Rice want to leave too. Yay! Powell's almost certainly gone, but he's lost what little credibility he once had, so I shed no tears.

End Rant

NYC Lifestyle

2004-07-19T15:33:50Z

Chilling out and squatting in what I hope will soon be our swanky Manhattan apartment. I could get used to this lifestyle. One of the first things I did when I got here was to plug the new wireless card into Dana's laptop and immediately found four (!) unsecured networks we could latch onto. Yay! No more paying for internet access for us. One less expense is a wonderful thiing in the big city.
We went to a hipster party Saturday night at some house in Brooklyn. For a party where we didn't know anyone, it was actually kind of fun. When the dj started playing some industrial tunes to appease all us People in Black, it was pretty much all-Apop-all-the-time. Boring, but we boogied nonetheless.
Yesterday was for sleeping in, visiting our friend Steph who works (for now) at the Strand, the ultimate bookstore, then wandering the East Village, dinner at what is supposed to be the best pizza in NYC (John's on Bleeker), then back to Chelsea for coffee and dessert.
This morning I accompanied Dana to work, then I braved Times Square to do some shopping at the Sanrio store. It was actually kind of a disappointment. I've seen better Sanrio stores in malls. Oh well, I still got Dana some silly Batz-Maru stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just saw a flier that Siouxsie is doing a show here in September. I'm going to buy tickets as soon as I'm done posting. Yay! (The concert is sponsored by VH1 Classics, though. God, I'm so fucking old)

Update: we just interviewed with the head of the tenant's association and we're in! Cool apartment is officially ours! (the "interview" was a total waste of time and stress, though that's a story for another time. gotta go and get some dinner)

Have you let Cthulhu into your life?

2004-05-16T04:16:09Z

I just found a great Jack Chick parody here. Check it out while its still online.

If you don't know who Jack Chick is, you've probably seen his little evangelical comic books lying around, especially if you've ever spent any time in the south.

dj_dagon @ 2004-04-22T16:42:00

2004-04-22T20:46:50Z

Here are my results from Googlism:

dagon is mentioned as one of the prominent gods of the phoenicians
dagon is the god i have created and am about to become
dagon is a noun
dagon is the darkplanet of uk jan 1st 1801 midnight
dagon is a pretty decent flick
dagon is actually a deft merging of two lovecraft stories
dagon is also indicated by the name "beth
dagon is familiar territory for stuart gordon
dagon is the fire master
dagon is
dagon is a modest production
dagon is determined that he will now follow suit
dagon is a matter of some controversy
dagon is the god of the philistines and is half human and half fish
dagon is a solitary individual
dagon is what you’d call a real lovecraft hootenanny
dagon is "a project that fans have been waiting years for and won't be disappointed with
dagon is the diminutive form of dag and signifies a "little fish"
dagon is the plant
dagon is heir to the throne of another mythical kingdom
dagon is around 400 years old and has decided it is time to settle down with a mate
dagon is an exceptionally pleasing movie that kept me hooked to the screen and guessing what would happen next
dagon is one of the really old gods
dagon is better than you
dagon is fallen on its face to the earth
dagon is an underground area beneath the village of darceath moor
dagon is just an episode
dagon is that
dagon is the best lovecraftian film so far
dagon is a curious little lizard
dagon is typical of the incarnation
dagon is not the bravest of sorts
dagon is not a film that everyone will enjoy
dagon is one of those lovecraftian beasts but i've added wings and fangs making it look vampiric
dagon is hampered by some clunky
dagon is probable in every way
dagon is coming out pretty soon (?!?)
dagon is mentioned in the bible on several occasions
dagon is betrayed by his power
dagon is overthrown
dagon is available in the interview section
dagon is known to have been an ancient semitic god of the northern mesopotamian area
dagon is the yankee candle and we pray that he continues to bring light into the darkness
dagon is a blending of one of lovecraft's very first works published in 1917
dagon is a spanish production
dagon is master of the pantry
dagon is a dank maze of crumbling buildings that becomes a terrifying
dagon is called eloheem
dagon is the lord of the fish
dagon is the fish
dagon is a demon whose insanity lives in his body as well as his mind; his form is as fluid as his mood
dagon is the master sommelier at chantterelle restaurant
dagon is no match for the hebrews’ yahweh (yes I am!)
dagon is first mentioned by lovecraft in his 1917 story
dagon is trying to enslave the half
dagon is still idle (is it that obvious?)
dagon is sometimes attended by ashtoreth
dagon is broken before the ark
dagon is the leader of the phillistine army that has come to conquer the israelites and king saul
dagon is repeated
dagon is bought by the high procuress of kava
dagon is a solemn feast
dagon is generally represented as having the body or trunk of a fish
dagon is one of the most evil films i’ve seen since in a glass cage
dagon is deserted; the priests shake with dread; the people die like flies; and i will have none of it
dagon is not a man to be trusted

dj_dagon @ 2004-04-08T21:11:00

2004-04-09T01:22:14Z

Hah! I finally completed my patriotic duty and finished my taxes. I'm glad I put it off until the last minute because we actually owed a load of money this year. Did we really make that much? Where did it all go?
Oh well, at least its going to good use. According to the handy pie charts at the back of the tax instructions, I just donated $183 to the war effort (and I'm sure its really more than that). Take that, you villainous terrorist scum! Or something like that... Crap.

Cover Mix War

2004-04-03T06:48:16Z

At a Wife's request, I have compiled my own cover mix as a complement/competitor to her own. I'm still fidgeting with the track order before I burn it, but here it is:

Pop Will Eat Itself - Games Without Frontiers
Cake - I Will Survive
D.D.T. - Vogue
Nine Inch Nails - Get Down, Make Love
Leæther Strip - Lullaby
Stanton-Miranda - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Shonen Knife - I Wanna Be Sedated
Fetchin Bones - Super Freak
Crocodile Shop - Let's Go to Bed
Front Line Assembly (with Tiffany) - New Year's Day
Rage Against the Machine - Beautiful World
Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - In the Ghetto
Pig - 1979
Marilyn Manson - Down in the Park
Therapy? - Isolation (Consolidated Mix)
Laibach - Jesus Christ Superstar
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (with Shane MacGowan) - What A Wonderful World

Grumble

2004-04-02T18:39:55Z

I was all ready to launch into a big political rant when I got home from work yesterday (it wasn't even about W. that would be too easy), but then my mom called. My dad fell off a ladder yesterday--he's in pretty rough shape, but about as good as can be expected. He's all drugged up right now and will be laid up for weeks (at best). I wanted to go visit, but my mom wants me to wait till next weekend. He'll be hobbling around on crutches a bit by then, and he'll probably be going out of his mind bored. He's not a sitting around watching TV kind of guy.
It could be a lot worse, of course, but it really took the wind out of my sails. I just sat around all night eating chocolate-chip cookies and playing mindless computer games. Now I'm moping around work procrastinating because I don't really have all that much to do today. Maybe I'll rant all political at a later date if it still seems relevant.

dj_dagon @ 2004-03-30T16:51:00

2004-03-30T21:54:32Z

I love movie previews. They let you watch a crappy movie in 90 seconds, getting the distilled essence of every decent joke or cool action sequence without having to actually waste two hours of your life on it. I just watched Scooby Doo 2, The Punisher, and Garfield. Thank God I don't have ot actually sit through any of those pieces of crap, but my perverse curiosity about them is satiated. Ahhh...

dj_dagon @ 2004-03-27T17:21:00

2004-03-27T22:21:17Z

I just took my Role-Playing Purity Test -- What an amusing waste of time!

Your Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score
Category	Your Score	Average
Hacklust	52.83% Will kill for XP	53.4%
Sensitive Roleplaying	70.89% Will talk after everyone important's been killed	54.2%
GM Experience	62.32% Ran a module once or twice	69.2%
Systems Knowledge	87.29% Played in a couple of campaigns	90.2%
Livin' La Vida Dorka	59.77% Has interesting conversations in public	62.9%
You are 67.77% pure Average Score: 68.6%
Take The Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Test and see how you match up!

dj_dagon @ 2004-03-26T20:15:00

2004-03-27T01:15:21Z

Yay! I got a cool icon for myself. I'm well on my way to being a wankering, rambling blogger. I'm not ready to bore the world with the details of my dinner plans yet, though.
But since no one will ever read this, its safe to say that I'm going to make some artichokes and couscous (all the Brussels sprouts at the store looked nasty).
All I really want is to get some sleep. I haven't gotten a decent night's sleep all week. I couldn't even make it out to Jetset for Goth Night. I'm so old and lame.

dj_dagon @ 2004-03-26T12:50:00

2004-03-26T17:52:24Z

Hmmm, just trying out this wacky LiveJournal thing that all the kids seem to like. Probably not the best use of time while I'm at work, though. I hope to make this an interesting page someday...