Miscellaneous updates and announcements

[cleolinda]

So, today: another rainy-ass day. Also, a couple of weeks ago when it rained really hard as well, our pool turned green and murky overnight. You know how Dracula infiltrates people's bedrooms and shit by turning into mist? I think Pthoolhu returned to town in the form of a sudden outbreak of "mustard algae," whatever that is. So Pool Guy came and dumped a bunch of chemicals in, meaning that either Pthoolhu will flee again, or we'll be the first to be eaten when the apocalypse comes. Either way.

(Best. Christmas wreath. Ever.)

So we watched movies again--I can't remember what the first one was (maybe it was just a TV show? No, I remember, it was Monster House. God, I can't wait to get my nice B-complex vitamins tomorrow), but then we watched Hot Fuzz, which Sister Girl ended up not being very interested in. I think it's because--by her own admission--she didn't really know the buddy-cop action-movie clichés well enough to get most of the jokes, which weren't even jokes with punchlines per se, just all the action-movie clichés put in the context of a sleepy English village. Although I don't think she got "Forget it, Nick... it's Sandford," either. Me, I spent most of the movie trying not to howl with laughter since she didn't seem to be into it. "FOR THE GREATER GOOOOOOOD. CRUSTY JUGGLERRRRRRRRS..."

("An early draft of the script included a love interest for Nicholas named Victoria. She was cut from later drafts, but her dialog was given to Danny, often without any changes." I am so incredibly not surprised by this. Particularly about the time Danny takes Nicholas home to watch movies. "Uh... are they going to start making out now?")

Oh, and quick PSA from elbales: If you see a "Career Cruising" meme going around, please don't participate or pass it on. It's not a free quiz--it's on a pay site, and by using whoever's login/password it is, you're going to get them into a huge amount of trouble. As wendymr has pointed out, it's a site for professional career counselors and their clients, and my suspicion is that one of those clients leaked the password, probably to their friends, and it went wild from there. So, you know, for the sake of this poor counselor, please tell people to delete or lock their meme entries or not participate at all. I don't know if the counselor can change his/her password, either.

Update: It was a Wine Opener Thing.

Also, wow: Barak Berkowitz has stepped down as Six Apart Chairman and CEO. Related to Strikethrough '07 (Parts 1 and 2)? I don't know. If it was related to Strikethrough, though, I'd guess it was because the whole thing was botched all around and got way more tech-blog media attention than the company wanted, not because someone at the company feels bad for fandom or anything.

Linkspam will be back in a day or so, by the way. At the moment I'm just trying to take a couple of days off, write a little more, and catch up on things.

Comments

[reannaremick.livejournal.com]

The first time I watched Hot Fuzz I was in the same situation. My bro was not that into it meanwhile I'm trying not to die laughing. Crusty jugglersssssssss!

Also - holy crap about the Job Search thing. I'll post the PSA to my lj as well - everyone I know has been doing it myself included. Woops!

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I don't think we can chalk up Barak's departure to ST2K7 -- I can't imagine that such an event would be the mitigating factor in a CEO's tenure, and certainly not the sole factor. It couldn't have helped, though, I'm sure.

Also, yes, Pegg + Frost = cinematic awesome. They seriously need to (a) make more movies (b) get more people to see these movies so they can (c) make enough money to (a1) make more movies....

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

she didn't really know the buddy-cop action-movie clichés well enough to get most of the jokes

That was pretty much my problem with it. I thought that they were trying to imply a relationship (of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge variety) between the two main characters until my cousin explained that no, that's just how old buddy movies were. (old buddy movies had their main characters sleeping together on couches? And the men watching them didn't go into testosterone-driven rages?)

So . . . have you ever found out what Pthoolhu *is*?

[sfulton229.livejournal.com]

Well, there is a lot of homoerotic subtext, either deliberate or inadvertant in the old buddy movies. I remember Simon Pegg on Jimmy Kimmel saying that they deliberately played that subtext up in the movie as he sees a lot of subtext in the other movies. He gave as an example the end of "Lethal Weapon 2" where Danny Glover is clutching a wet Mel Gibson to his chest and murmuring "I've got you, baby".

[lo0o0ony-lauren.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no, they were sort of implying that relationship. Pegg and Frost always say in interviews that if one of them was a girl they would undoubtedly be married by now, because they're such close friends, and their characters very often have a bit of ambiguity in their relationship. In Spaced, for example, it was hinted at that Frost's character might be a little in love with Pegg's, as in this film; the buddy cop genre just gave them an excuse!

I'll just... be quiet, now.

[siara79.livejournal.com]

I second reannaremick - everyone I know, including myself, has done that meme. I left my results up because interestingly enough there were a few I might consider, but I did edit the instructions and put up the paragraph from your entry, crediting you of course.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

You know, I had a weird feeling about that meme; thanks for posting the info.

[elbales]

I should clarify, on Wendy's behalf since she's on vacation, that she's not from the company whose login and password got outed, but her company does also use the service. She was asking people to take down the meme because of the large potential for large trouble that smells like TOS trouble, and if LJ people know anything we know about TOS trouble. No one's actually been burned at the stake, as far as I know--but hey, what do I know? I think rain is wet.

Thanks again to Cleo for posting about this, and thank you to everyone who's being so nice about going along with Wendy's request.

[editornia.livejournal.com]

I did the meme last night, but I also posted the warning (along with credit to cleo) as soon as I saw it.

I'm just wondering/worrying, though... it can't just be circluating on LJ, right? It's gotta be doing the whole circling-of-the-internets thingy, so... maybe if you/they ever find out whose password etc. it was, maybe they (the original owner of said password) should be given a kind of "internets-for-beginner-with-no-common-sense" warning, to not ever give out their username and password, not even to close friends or members of their family... what do you think? :\

[elbales]

The original owner is a career counseling agency; my friend Wendy knows exactly which one, which is part of the problem, as it clearly identifies them to anyone in the know, including Career Cruising. If they're anything like my friend's agency, they give out their password to their clients, who are supposed to be responsible about it. I very much doubt they are internet beginners with no common sense.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

It seems then that the likely scenario is that the counseling agency gave the password to a client, who then sent it to a friend/family member and it spiraled from there. Probably without anyone realizing what was going on

[elbales]

Yes, exactly. Thank you for the clarification. :)

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

It is all over the internet. But no one has mentioned "oh HAI! I just contacted them to see if this is in fact a privacy issue for the account holder." Am I the only one that emailed them?

[editornia.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there was an e-mail address! Well done for letting them know. :) It's not something I thought of doing. :/

[incogra.livejournal.com]

Must. Have. Wreath!

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Thank you, as usual, for all the links, and in particular, for the link about the career cruising meme. Would you mind if I excerpted your paragraph about it and included it in a post? I'd link here, of course, but lots of people on my flist are doing that meme, and I'd like to pass this on ASAP.

Catherine

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, go for it. I'm just glad people are willing to help out. : )

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's done, and properly attributed.

Catherine

[missmp.livejournal.com]

I got a wine opener thing like that as a gift, and I'm always nervous using it b/c I'm afraid to break it, since it clearly cost more than any bottle of wine I might open with it.

[agentsculder.livejournal.com]

Although they can break (ours did) for the most part they are very easy to use. We think ours broke because more and more wines are using those rubber corks, and those are harder on the corkscrew than corks made of actual cork.

Also, they aren't necesarily that expensive. Some brands are pricier than others, but mostly they just LOOK really fancy. I loved ours until it went dead.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

At the moment I'm just trying to take a couple of days off, write a little more, and catch up on things.

V.g.!

[agentsculder.livejournal.com]

I would have guessed you had seen Hot Fuzz before now, mostly because I thought I was one of the last people to see it!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was just a great homage to buddy-cop and action movies. So funny, and I loved the town of Sanford and it's rather colorful residents.

Last night I finally saw Shaun of the Dead and now I have a bit of a crush on Simon Pegg.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh, I haven't seen Shaun of the Dead yet either. There's a ton of movies that I just inexplicably don't get around to seeing, and in this case I thought, if SOTD is supposed to be better, I'd better watch HF first.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for the headsup about that career quiz thing. It's been all over my flist.

As for Barak Berkowitz: heh.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

PS: Hot Fuzz is my new favorite movie. I charged right out and bought it -- I'm in love with Simon Pegg. Eternally in love.

[kirsdarke.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the PSA relating to the Career Meme. A friend of mine did it, and another friend got it from her, and I've done it and now feel incredibly guilty, so I'll pass it on.

Thanks.

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

Hot Fuzz was awesome, in my opinion.


Also, am I the only one who thinks the wine opener looks more like something your gyno would use?

[entropy-and-me.livejournal.com]

If you like Hot Fuzz, you should also check out (probably on DVD) the British series Hyperdrive, starring Nick Frost as the captain of a 22nd century space ship. I personally find it hilarious, as I did Hot Fuzz.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

"Forget it, [name]... It's Chinatown." is the closing line to a quite good detective movie entitled 'Chinatown'. Had to watch it for my screenwriting class last semester. Enjoyable, classic, though not my usual fare.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. I'm saying my sister didn't get that, because she's not very versed in older movies.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Ah. The use of 'either' at the end of that particular sentence led me to think you didn't get it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Nah, it was supposed to mean that she didn't get the cliché jokes or the Chinatown reference.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

I'm a Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright all the way from Spaced (which is fantastic, if you haven't seen it). One of their trademark awesome things is the pop culture references, which you'd love.

Pegg is coming out with another movie Run, Fat Boy, Run (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425413/) with my all time favorite comedian, Dylan Moran (http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0425413/Ss/0425413/FB2024.jpg.html?path=gallery&path_key=0425413).

I am BEYOND EXCITED.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Er, that was meant to be "Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright FAN." Duh.

[hollywoodsmile7.livejournal.com]

Now I see this, lol:

"Oh, and quick PSA from elbales: If you see a "Career Cruising" meme going around, please don't participate or pass it on. It's not a free quiz--it's on a pay site, and by using whoever's login/password it is, you're going to get them into a huge amount of trouble."