Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy, part VI

For Part V of Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy, click here.

One of the casinos that I play at in the Reno area has a tropical rainforest theme. Now, I’m used to seeing all sorts of garish decor around casinos, but this one is pretty bad even by casino standards.

They have a “Storm Bar” or something which is supposed to remind people of rainforest storms. Every half hour or so, thunder plays over the loudspeakers, the lights around the bar flash, and water comes pouring down into a large(maybe 10′ by 20′), flat rectangular pool a few inches deep. Unfortunately, the water nozzles are all off of a single long pipe running the length of the pool, suspended seven feet above. This makes the entire array look like a giant stadium-style urinal, which I’m sure is the kind of image that encourage people to order expensive fruity drinks.

Far more annoying, however, is the presence of a supposed “bird of paradise” that zooms around the casino regularly. This mechanical contraption(which looks more like a badly painted flying chicken) is suspended from a rail track on the ceiling and emits ear-piercing squawks. The bird also drops chips and cash every so often, giving the impression that the bird is shitting money. I put in play only because it has a pretty good comps and cashback deal, but after a couple hours of listening to that infernal machine, I wanted to ask the casino staff whether I could spend some comps for the use of a 12-gauge shotgun and a box of shells. Blowing that thing out of the sky would’ve been as good as hitting four of a kind.

Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy, part 5. AKA, I drive them crazy(ooh! ooh!), like no one else.

For Part 4 of Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy, click here.

My housing situation got all sorts of screwed up this summer, since the house I lived in was breaking up due to 5 out of the 7 occupants moving in with significant others. I found a place for this upcoming year, but the problem was that my old lease ended 8/31, but the new place wouldn’t be ready for movein until 9/23. Out of the people who offered crash space, only three households didn’t have furry pets- and I’m really allergic to furry animals. I didn’t want to stay a week at each place- talk about an easy way to get every one of my friends annoyed with me. I figure for pretty much anybody, three days is enough to get one’s hosts mildly annoyed.

The obvious solution, then, was to fly to Reno(tickets essentially paid for by casinos) to stay for free at the resorts for 3 weeks. So I’m back in the Biggest Shitty Little City in the World for a bit, playing some video poker, hanging out with Kyle, and trying to put up with the kind of tourist who comes to Nevada to die.
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Lyrics to "Show Respect to Michael Jackson" by James Kochalka Superstar

“Show Respect to Michael Jackson”

Show Respect to Michael Jackson
He’s been through a lot
And What do you want?

Show Respect to Michael Jackson
He’s been through a lot
And What do you want?

No one can dance like Michael can!
No one can sing like Michael can!
Lay off Michael, he’s my man.
Remember when the whole world loved him?


Show Respect to Michael Jackson
He’s been through a lot
And What do you want?

Show Respect to Michael Jackson
He’s been through a lot
And What do you want?

No one can dance like Michael can!
No one can sing like Michael can!
Lay off Michael, he’s my man.
Remember when the whole world loved him?

Remember when Michael Jackson…. mmmm hmmmm mmmmm
Remember when Michael Jackson…. mmmm hmmmm mmmmm

Transcript of Osama Bin Laden’s September 2007 tape

Transcript of Osama Bin Laden’s September 2007 tape.

Now he just wants us to end deomcracy and taxes. At least he’s goal oriented!

To paraphrase Ben Franklin: “In this world nothing is certain but death and Zakaat.”

“All praise is due to Allah, who built the heavens and earth in justice, and created man as a favor and grace from Him. And from His ways is that the days rotate between the people, and from His Law is retaliation in kind: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and the killer is killed. And all praise is due to Allah, who awakened His slaves’ desire for the Garden, and all of them will enter it except those who refuse. And whoever obeys Him alone in all of his affairs will enter the Garden, and whoever disobeys Him will have refused.”"As for what comes after: Peace be upon he who follows the Guidance. People of America: I shall be speaking to you on important topics which concern you, so lend me your ears. I begin by discussing the war which is between us and some of its repercussions for us and you.”

“To preface, I say: despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and up-to-date military arsenal as well; and despite it spending on this war and is army more than the entire world spends on its armies; and despite it being the being the major state influencing the policies of the world, as if it has a monopoly on the unjust right of veto; despite all of this, 19 young men were able – by the grace of Allah, the Most High- to change the direction of its compass. And in fact, the subject of the Mujahideen has become an inseparable part of the speech of your leader, and the effects and signs of that are not hidden.”

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Google Earth Flight around The Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Sphinx

A nice little flight around the Great Pyramid of Khufu/Cheops. I’m not sure that a flight like this would even be possible in real life.

Music: “Mandarin” by Peramides

I made this on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn using Google Earth, xvidcap, and avidemux.