Sdtrk: ‘Thieves like us’ by New order

Last year, Burger King offered store-only versions of Tiger Toys’ I-DOG line. Basically, the Burger King ones are substandard versions of the actual I-DOG toys, which are pets that, when you hook your .mp3 player up to them, they flash lights and wave their ears in time with the music, in an unbridled display of whimsy. BK was selling the dog, cat, penguin, and turtle versions. So why is the toy line called I-DOG then, when three-quarters of them aren’t dogs? *shrug*
I’d wanted the cat, naturally, but I missed the window to get one. So you can imagine my glee when I learned that not only would BK have them again this year, but each would have a Hallowe’en theme. Glee, squared!

After weeks of pestering various Burger King employees in the SE Michigan area, I can now proudly announce that I have the i-Cat… and he’s got a robot costume. How appropriate is that?? Actually, I bought the cowboy one day by mistake, and the next day I got the robot, but still.

The Missus’ T-shirt provided by Mr Rstevens of Diesel sweeties Boutique,
in beautiful downtown Burbank, California

Now the quandary is that this lil’ fella needs a name. Sidore suggested ‘Shironeko’, as it’s a pun on her last name, Kuroneko (‘black cat’), with shiro meaning white. ‘O, that’s not pretentious at all,’ I laughed. ‘So what, he’s gonna sit round the place all day, listening to Bauhaus and writing awful poetry?’ I suggested the clearly superior Mecha-Moggy 5000. Shi-chan’s response? ‘That is retarded, and you are retarded.’

This is where you come in, reader! In the spirit of it being an election year, we have a poll, where you can vote for the name of a toy cat that you don’t even own! The winning entry will be the one we go with, so vote with vigour. VIGOUR! And if you think you can come up with a name more suitable for said cat, then have at it in the comments. Technically we haven’t even decided on a gender yet, so that doubles the possibilities.
FUTURE EDIT (02 DEC): Poll’s closed! We have a winner!

As an aside…

‘[You and Sidore] are living in as close to the Diesel Sweeties future as anyone alive today.’

– rstevens, webcomics assembler person

How ace is that??

Sdtrk: ‘Amour, vacances et baroque’ by Paul Piot & Paul Guiot

You might find this hard to believe, but I used to be a lot more cynical than I am now, at least when it came to politics. You could encapsulate my feelings about the voting process in a bumper sticker: ‘Don’t vote, it only encourages them’. However, since the Second Reich of George W., I changed my thinking to, ‘if you don’t vote, you have no-one to blame but yourself’. Well, myself, and everyone who deliberately votes for bigoted stupidity. So I voted in the last election, and I sure as fuck voted in this one.

They let us out fifteen minutes early at work, to allow people to get to the polls that much quicker. From the horror stories I was hearing from coworkers about lines wrapping round the block at the polling stations, I steeled myself for a two- to three-hour wait. Which wouldn’t have been that bad, as I had my .mp3 player, and I was going to use my Treo to finish up a couple of Emails. To that end, I was partially disappointed when I saw there were plenty of parking spaces at my precinct, as well as a complete lack of lines, when I arrived there at ten after five. I think if it were later in the day, it would’ve been more worrisome — I was one of seven people voting at that time — but I reasoned that at 5pm, most people would’ve been exiting their places of work at that point. I beat the rush!

Blurry, but you get the idea. Incidentally, I was voter no.361 in my precinct

All told, the whole process felt pretty good — I felt like I wasn’t just throwing my vote away.
You can do it, Brak O’Bama! If you won in the 7-Election polls, victory is assured everywhere else!

EDIT (11.40 pm): WOOOOOOOOOO

Sdtrk: ‘Ford Mustang’ by Serge Gainsbourg

Besides being two of my favourite telly shows that I rabidly watched during my formative years — which really explains a lot — what common thread joins Ultraman and Space: 1999? Is it the kitsch factor? Is it the fact that the production crew did a lot with a little? Well, it’s simpler than that, as you’ll see:

The Jet Beetle seats five ‘comfortably’

Space: only $19.99 (while supplies last)

That’s right — orange suits. Although I have to say that I’ll take the Science Patrol’s uniform over the Alpha Moonbase spacesuits any day. I mean, that’s attire you can pretty much wear anywhere

Sdtrk: ‘Lotto’ by Fantastic plastic machine

As is our wont, back on the 27th of last month, Monti and I met up for another dinner — we put away a tidy amount of Japanese food while catching up on each others’ lives — and somehow or other, we got on the topic of Twitter. Now Twitter, if you’re not familiar with it, is a hot & sassy new Internet service that lies somewhere between a chat programme and a blog. Its optimum use is probably in a mobile context; you can use it to basically provide real-time updates to your subscribers (aka, your ‘followers’) as to what shenanigans you’re up at any given moment from your cellphone, and as you’re limited to 140 characters, you’re forced to adhere to the ‘brevity is wit’ ethos. Pretty interesting, all told.
I’d actually known about Twitter for a couple of months — web-savvy sex columnist Violet Blue uses it frequently, as well as R.Stevens of the online comic strip Diesel Sweeties, William Bennett of caustic Noise merchants whitehouse, and countless others. Abe Vigoda periodically sends out a couple of updates a day (known as ‘tweets’) to let people know he’s alive and kicking, which I think is a riot, although I’ve seen a couple of the same messages twice, I’m beginning to think that either he’s a malfunctioning Android, or just extremely forgetful.

When I initially learned of Twitter, it sounded kinda fab, but the one thing that really stopped me from hopping on that train would be the fact that my cellphone plan has a limit on texts, so sending and receiving Tweets would definitely enlarge my phone bill to Biblical proportions. But when Monti mentioned that you can post updates from your browser, I started thinking it was a viable option. So I signed up!
As a social networking site, it’s actually not too offensive… personally, I’d say it’s better than Facebook, and roughly one thousand times better than Myspace, but then, so is being punched in the sternum. But it’s straightforward, which is what I like about it. No flashing .gifs to slow load time, no external applications you have to download; you just write up to 140 characters, hit your Update button, and move on with your life. And then write about that, and hit Update again. However, for my personal use, I see two drawbacks. One: as I can’t use it from my phone, it kinda throws cold water over the ideal situations I’d be using it in. I was having visions of me using it at work (‘In the midst of another pointless monthly meeting, and considering a messy suicide’), or whilst out and about (‘A homeless bloke asked me if I liked Coldplay, so I kicked him. It was no more than he deserved’), or in other contexts (‘The Missus is horny again! Unfortunately, I think we’ve run out of lube’), but unless I want a ten-page phone bill, that’s not an option. Two: so far, I’ve been posting Tweets from my computer proper, but I often wonder if I’m sliding into the realm of the inane. Cos to be honest, it’s either that, or TMI-territory (see the lube reference above). There is, after all, such a thing as too much disclosure. ‘Shouting etc etc’ covers a considerable bit of ground as it is, so how much more does a person need to know? It’s not as if I do a tremendous amount, really — I get together with my friends, I play videogames, I read, I curse my job, I stare at the InfoBahn, I sleep, I have it off with Sidore-chan. Err, sorry, I did it again. Ignore that!

As it is, Twitter’s not a bad application, but is it really necessary for someone like me? I’m not entirely sure. In the meantime, though, it’s not hurting me to have it up there on the sidebar, and if I get sick of it, I’ll simply press the Eject on it. There are worse ways to interact on the Internet, after all

Sdtrk: ‘Irreversible neural damage’ by Kevin Ayres and Nico

Although we here at Deafening silence Plus missed the passing of the Autumnal Equinox waaay back on the 22nd almost entirely — which we’re rather embarrassed about, as this is our favourite season — nevertheless, we’re still enthused, cos that means we’re close to the beginning of October, which means we’re close to the end of October, which means we’re close to All Hallow’s Eve, which means we’re close to 01 November, which means post-Hallowe’en closeout sales, baby. Last year, I purchased this fine mirror, for example! And naturally, a third of Sidore’s wardrobe comes from various Halloween USA locations all across Michigan.

So not only is our breath bated for the crispness of the Autumn weather, we’re also gearing up for !!BIG SAVINGS!! It truly is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Well, it will be when Autumn actually kicks in; for the past couple of days, it’s been averaging a dreadful 80ºF. Damnit, Summer, let go already!

Sdtrk: ‘Shakespeare’s sister’ by the Smiths

Well, this certainly speaks to me:

Be sure to visit the cartoonist’s site, the rut. No, that’s what it’s called

Sdtrk: ‘Satellite’ by Depeche mode

Andy Warhol, iconoclast and Pop art meister, would’ve been 80 today, on 06.08.08. Personally, I think he was early by like two days.

‘I don’t know where the artificial stops and the real starts’

Many happy returns, Andy!
That having been said, where’s his Android when you need him?

Technorati tags: Andy Warhol, robots, Android