COTTON THISTLE CLEARANCE
Random musings from the noggin' of Knolltrey
(Best viewed on a monitor running Mozilla Firefox, with a brain running on a case of Grolsh...)
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
...but other people have too much time on their hands, too!
Mood:  bright
Topic: General

I'm not the only one wasting my time with utterly stupid stuff, as this video link I was provided with clearly shows (although, in this case, the result is f**king hilarious...)

YouTube presents: metal gear kitty!

 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 4:56 PM MNT
Monday, 11 February 2008
"Where's Snake? His technology's getting all cold... and eaten..."
Mood:  spacey
Topic: General

I'm giving myself more permission to be incredibly stupid:

 

 

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

 

Alright: I'm done amusing myself with this one-trick pony...

I think... it's damn unproductive, huh?

And, hell: for the record: this ain't even the best Metal Gear parody starring cats on the internet, IMO...


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 7:55 PM MNT
Updated: Monday, 11 February 2008 7:59 PM MNT
"...of where the cat ends and the grin begins..."
Mood:  silly
Topic: General
Who says Cheshire Cats don't exist outside of fiction, eh?

 

 (uh, it's a biiiiiiig picture, and I'm too lazy to resize it, so... well, deal with it, huh?)

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

I both took and doctored the photo (nice, huh? ;) but I don't own the pussy that's pictured here: these animals are neat as hell, but also ungodly expensive.

And with their sense of stealth, they have a nasty habit of disappearing on 'ya...

 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:06 AM MNT
Updated: Monday, 11 February 2008 2:15 AM MNT
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Fruit of the Poison Tree?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Scientific Progress...

Not that I wanna keep whining about wine, as it's a tired topic (the subject gets punned-down easily, doesn't it?), but this li'l study from across the pond piqued my interest.

Makes sense, mind you. Part of the problem is that the researchers appeared to use a general pool of wine tasters for the study and not a group of vinophiles (like myself) or bona-fide connasseurs (of which I have neither the disposable income nor the palate to become...)

Just goes to show that the whole cognitive dissonance thing is less a nebulous Freudian academic process and quite real: an almost quantifiable phenomenon (note that they actually scanned the tasters' noggins for regions that lit-up with each sip). This mental process can lead to the ultra-humerous situation of ignorant parties ordering a bottle of pricy, yet ruined, wine at a restaurant and then chatting together about how 'sensual' and 'complex' the 'boquet' is...

...(a friend of mine stumbled upon just such a scene one day upon encoutering a tablefull of friends; with one offered sip her face became so scrunched-up that the sommelier came over and tested the bottle himself: it had, he immediately deduced, turned to vinager. The wine steward apologized to the table, but they were so red-faced that all they really wanted in return was their check...) 

I think one quote from the story sums everything up nicely:

"Expectation is a huge part of wine appreciation."

Now, that law supposedly decreases with knowledge and exposure to wine culture, but still: wouldn't you think that, as a rule, this phrase would even apply just a teensy bit to even the highest levels of the wine world?

Eh: Scientific Progress doesn't know, and at the moment it's too busy chugging a $250 cabernet to care...

...at least, Scientific Progress thinks it's a $250 bottle... 

Tastes like it, anyway. 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 9:30 PM MNT
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Super Duper, Oodle Doodle!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Entertaining Insights

What a week...

Things've been rough lately, but the upshot is that I've spent a bunch of time wallowing in feces (figuratively) and slamming out the next chapter of Typers (literally: I beat my head against a wall to fix any writer's blockage that crops up...) 

And I'm seein' stars, at the moment...

Anyway, time for the Super Bowl, and who can you pick? I don't hate either team, but I've got no love for 'em, either. In the end I've gotta root for the Pats' 'perfect season' in lieu of upping Eli Manning, the Scrappy-Doo of sports, to star-status.

(I feel kinda bad, actually: in the books I use his older brother Peyton's name as the codename for an unseen 'runner' of the Antipathy Committee... he's the only runner who gets killed to date, but the reference is a form of flattery... I think)

Might be an interesting game, though. Hell: how could it not be with the number 42 in its title (gatekeepers should check each patron at the game to make sure they don't have two heads...)

Ah: and there's one other thing: a botched piece of 'Tart' (that's "TYPERS art"... clever, huh... right...?)

 To hell with you all, then.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

 

A reader would tilt their head like a dog and wonder why I'd make a piece of art dedicated to Serafino Grafsteen. Well, this was supposed to represent Aryl Sven Wraith but, like all images I've tried to make of him, didn't turn out right. The face came out quite young and quite unlike Wraith's shady mug, but I thought that it DID look an awful lot like that young VP from the Gouden Preek Corporation.

He's pic-worthy because, 'natch, he becomes far more important later on (and yes: there's an actual reason that he keeps a mad raven perched upon his shoulder, but as it turns out that's not the only 'black bird' he's interested in*)

*(see: the pilots wear black suits, and are semi-derisively called  'Hatchlings', and... ah: nevermind)

And shall I go into the future with my writing once again? Quote the writer: nevermore.

The comming chapter's coming up within the coming week; come hell or high water.


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 3:10 PM MNT
Monday, 28 January 2008
HOLY F**KING SH*T!
Mood:  blue

...Sticker-Shock ahoy...

Shane is going to Edinburgh in the, well, relatively near future (it's a bloody long ways-away, actually, but in the event of such trips I count the months on a daily basis... uh, you know what I mean...)

So... uh... look: the thing is, I'm a natural-born American and everything, but I AM actually Scottish... a bit. When you mix out all the parts of my blood (of which an alarming amount comes from Central Europe, unfortunately*...) you're left with about 10-percent actual, factual, full-fledged Scottish blood (it's not an even number though 'cause there's some Welsch, and...

...forget it...)

Anyway my point is that someone with Scottish blood who can claim genuine kinship to a clan (mine's MacDougall, incidentally) is allowed to don those colors (no: not those colors: the other kind of colors... which, when you think about it are really kind of the same thing, but not exactly. At least the Scots were more manly about their turf-wars: Claymores beat tec-9's any day of the week).

Right: given that I'm a card-carrying Scotophile (which ain't too hard to figure out), there's something I've wanted to get my hands on for a long, long time that I think I have the confidence, emotional maturity  and physique to pull-off...

...I want a f**king kilt.

Now there's a fantastic and historic kiltmaker right on the Royal Mile that does amazing work; I've been by the shop dozens of times, their manniquins sporting incredible works of skirt-like art. Well: size me up and hem me a man-skirt!

Not so fast... LOOK AT THESE PRICES!!!! A full kilt set from these guys- jacket, tartan and minimal accessories- would set one back over 600 pounds (convert that to dollars, taking into account the fact that our currency is weaker than Abe Vigoda's cannoli dipped in lidocaine, and you can see a slight problem, here). I knew the damn things aren't cheap (especially ones of quality) but these f**kers charge over 100 pounds for the sporran.

...The sporran, for God's sake!

Eh: bottom line is that Shane ain't gonna be skirting this issue anytime soon. As it stands now I can barely afford the Sgian Dubh (and yes: I'd insist on getting that, too, 'cause if you wanna wear a kilt in the Continental United States and you aren't over the age of 70 you'd better be prepared to fight about it)

And I would fight about it, incidentally.

Buaidh no bàs, motherf**ker...

 

 

*(Not that there's anything wrong with that. It kinda keeps my ego in 'Czech'. Anyone?... No?... alright....)


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 1:13 AM MNT
Friday, 25 January 2008
Big Feet on the Red Planet?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings

Lookit this...

NASA says it's just a rock. Oh, those poor, deluded fools...

Actually, that thing kinda looks like another odd creature dredged from the annals of cryptozoology.

Although, in the case of our friendly (hopefully?) Martian friend, I guess the term is 'exozoology'.

Sounds cool, anyway... 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:06 AM MNT
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
1:00 AM Blues
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
Topic: General

Part of my thing is, when I write, I love to make esoteric references and... well: what I guess would be called 'in-jokes'.

Part of what pisses me off is that a) most people won't pick 'em up and b) anyone who does will probably consider it corny and contrived.

I'm not ragging on anyone's intelligence when I say that obscure references go whizzing by: that's why they're obscure. But what annoys me is that, for me, these're the best parts of the description/dialogue/action and they are, effectively, invisible.

For example: in 'Filial Affection' I wanna reveal that Chenine's little nom-de-guerre she uses to keep Kensu Onizuka and others from  catching her real name is Camille Steen (in TGS she picks 'Camille' out of the blue, but no last name is mentioned: 'Steen' is new).

I don't think many people would get the Steen reference, you see (scroll down for 'alternate names')...

Actually, her alterego's first name is also a reference, too.

Of course, a story can't also just be a bunch of trivia shuttled between the lines, but it's my adamant opinion that these kinds of things really enrich a story, if only a little bit (and only to a point...) Honestly, I've got enough other stuff going on in the books action-wise to prop up a little playfulness between the lines.

...For example: in the next chapter Chenine gets her back broken in at least three places, paralyzing her from the neck down. Pretty f**king dramatic, don't you think?*

*(This is technically true, but if you think I'm gonna finish the story with my lead female character going around a-la-Stephen-Hawking, you'd be dead wrong...)


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 3:20 AM MNT
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Den of Iniquity
Mood:  down
Topic: A Hello to Arms

The gray wolf has historically had a hard time dealing with human coexistence, especially in the contiguous United States, although recently (as in during the last 30 years) their numbers have risen through fedeal funding for reintroduction and conservational PR pushes.

In Alaska... well... their numbers have never dwindled and, in fact, those numbers seem to be rising unchecked... 

So enter this proposal.

...eegh...

I'm no idiot granola-eating "nature-loving" twit who wants to teach all animals to live on tofu and humans (see PETA for that platform). Nature is, in a word, brutal, and when balance is lost drastic efforts must be taken to restore it. I like hunting, I like extreme (responsible) forms of population control, and I don't even bat an eye when bleeding hearts go on about the clubbing of seals (The differences between shooting a deer and letting it bleed out and bashing a li'l critter's skull in are, as far as brutality goes, infinitesimal, so if I can eat venison, and I can, then I can stomach the more 'hands-on' side to hunting as well).

But I also like wolves. No: scratch that (no pun intended): I looove wolves. Obsessively. Passionately. They are, by a wide margin, my favorite animal: nature's perfect killing machine (short of humans), and nature's most sociable mammal (short of humans). What a dichotomy! It intrigues me.

I loooove wolves...

Of course, I also support measures like helicopter-based hunting of the critters as a form of population control, and what about ranchers and their livestock? Shoot the f**kers, if they pester ya'. No problem. Again: nature is brutal, and it abhorrs imbalance. A few dozen shot wolves is better than a generation of starving canids produced by overpopulation. 

But these are pups, for God's sake. At the end of the day this is like going to the kennel and slitting the throats of a bunch of puppies in their runs. Look, yes: they're all wild animals, technically no different from a charging cape buffalo, if you're on the wrong side of one, but at the same time these things're only 100,000 years removed from the Golden Retriever at your feet, so think about that, maybe...

At the end of the day (even though it makes little difference to the pup in the den) it's much more palatable to camp out in the woods and gun down the adults.

They can improve their aim that way, at least...

Aroooooooooooooooo.... 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 7:35 PM MNT
Updated: Saturday, 19 January 2008 7:38 PM MNT
Thursday, 17 January 2008
The Dark Ages of Astronomy?
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Dancing in the Dark by The Boss
Topic: Scientific Progress...

Currently, astronomers and physicists estimate that about, oh, give or take 90-percent of the mass of the universe is made up of invisible, untouchable, undetectable fluff called 'dark matter'...

They've got a new 'map' of its distribution from the Hubble...

According to the theory, this stuff causes ALL of the errors currently seen in their updated theories of General and Special Relativity. It exists not because we can detect it (we can't) or see it (we can't) or touch it (we can't) or smell it (we can't)...

It exists because, when you do complicated calculations involving huge quantities of mass (ie: a galaxy, etc...) and velocity, the numbers always come out kinda wonky...

So, of course, the answer lies not in the incompleteness of our understanding of the universe, but because... well... over 90-percent of the universe is invisible and untouchable...

Right.

Of course, I don't have a PhD in astrophysics or anything, but that sounds an awful lot like saying that the reason a feather flutters in the wind is that a bunch of ghosts (all weighing several hundred pounds) are slapping at it with their hands... or bedsheets, or whatever have you...

My only point is that the concept of Dark Matter should be seen only as a placeholder, not a scapegoat, for the shortcomings in how we understand the ideas of gravity and spacetime (I'm not averse to the idea of its existence, just like I can accept the doctrine of ultimate quantum indeterminacy, but to hear someone go on about 'Dark Matter' I get the impression that they might as well be saying that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is pushing suns and galaxies around on his noodly appendage).

I suggest that the bean counters keep crunching the numbers until there's a more likely explanation available.

Until then, Scientific Progress accidentally bonks into an invisible, undetectable, unsmellable, unseeable wall of some kind... 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 6:47 PM MNT

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