Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in darksumomo's LiveJournal:

Saturday, May 4th, 2013
5:07 pm	Happy Star Wars Day! Over at Crazy Eddie's Motie News, I've been observing Star Wars Day. Happy Star Wars Day! Darth Vader on Dubstep As I wrote last year "May the Fourth be with you!" Current Mood: Goofy Current Music: "Imperial March" Dubstep version (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
3:02 am	What motivates Americans to act Here's something inspired by this thread on the most recent LJ is down post on fandom_lounge . People there are counting their blessings that U.S. LJ users are so far not calling for SUP to suspend accounts of Russian users who are being targeted. In particular, lied_ohne_worte wrote about the last DDoS: Yes, I recall suggestions to just put everything Russian on it own servers, so that everyone else can enjoy fandom in peace. LJ going after fanart: ZOMG FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Political bloggers under a not-exactly democratic regime being attacked, and LJ actually preserving their freedom of speech: ZOMG WHY CAN'T YOU SUSPEND THEIR ACCOUNTS!?! My response: I figured out something a while ago and posted it in a comment to a Huffington Post article on Dancing with the Stars. “America is quite clear about its screwed up priorities­. My experience has convinced me that the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with their entertainm­ent." Google says my insight wasn't original. In a letter preserved in a blog post copy of a Paul Krugman New York Times article,# Paul Box, Alice Springs, Australia observed, "Mess with people's health care or retirement and they get fatalistic. Mess with their entertainment or Internet access, and you've got war!" LJ down is messing with both enertainment and internet access, so no wonder the U.S. users are grumpy. *That was in 2007. I swear that I never saw it before and came up with my opinion independently. Second! Current Mood: Catty Current Music: rain (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
3:05 am	alt.usenet.kooks awards descriptions   </div> ( Awards behind the cut. )</lj-cut Current Mood: Unrepentant Current Music: Wind blowing in the trees (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
10:49 pm	Just when I thought this election year couldn't get any stranger From ontd_political on LJ. Yahoo! News: Who is Alvin Greene? Mystery S.C. nominee has pending felony charge Alvin Greene has been on the phone all day. That's to be expected for the guy who just won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary and is facing incumbent Republican Jim DeMint in November. But everyone calling Greene has just been trying to find out who the heck he is — and one thing reporters learned Tuesday is that a criminal complaint was sworn out against him last year for allegedly showing obscene photos to a South Carolina college student and suggesting they go to her dorm room. Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed military veteran who lives with his parents, defeated Vic Rawl on Tuesday for the Democratic Senate nomination despite having run essentially no public campaign — no events, no signs, no debates, no website, no fundraising. The result has baffled political observers, who had heavily favored Rawl — a former state legislator, attorney and prosecutor who had the edge inasmuch as he actually campaigned and tried to win. Many in South Carolina (which has grandly lived up to its reputation as a political circus this year) suspect that somewhere, a crafty GOP political operative is snickering. As far as the local political press can discern, the only positive step Greene took toward campaigning was when he plunked down a $10,400 check in March to satisfy the state's filing fee and get on the ballot. He never registered a campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission or filed a financial disclosure with the Senate Ethics Committee. ( Click here to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. ) Current Mood: *thud* (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
1:58 am	Glee Cosplay found on Twitter From Ray Radlein/@Radlein on Twitter: Today's Edition of Unexpected Things That Seem Inevitable in Hindsight: Glee Cosplay Glee Cosplay at Megacon on Flickr Current Mood: Candy-Coated (Comment on this)
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
12:02 am	Just an image for you all. Current Mood: geeky Current Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music (Comment on this)
Friday, September 25th, 2009
9:45 pm	The Downfall of Drum and Bugle Corps ...or how I accidentally ended up sounding like a Hitler parody in an Internet meme six-and-a-half years after the fact. YouTube: Hitler finds out that Amps have been legalized As it turns out, I was the Drum Corps World reporter assigned to cover the 2003 DCI meeting where amplification passed, so I had a front-row seat for the entire experience that the video is a reaction to. The headline for the article I submitted to Drum Corps World was "Amplification passes. Hopkins declares 'Drum Corps is Marching Band.'" To my amazement, they ran with it. People on Drum Corps Planet were using that headline as their icon for months afterwards--and not as a sign of support for the action, either. Most were just as upset as "Hitler" in the video, and typed a lot of the same phrases. Since I was present at the DCI Rules Congresses from 2001-2003, I am in a position to point out that the creator of this version made an error in the history. The proposal to allow amplification did indeed pass at a Rules Congress in Rosemont, Illinois and then went on to the Board of Directors meeting in Miami--in 2002. Because of extensive fan lobbying during the intervening two weeks, the Board voted amplification down. As I mention above, amplification passed in 2003 at a combined Rules Congress and Board of Directors meeting in Orlando. Combining the meetings meant there was no time for the fans to stage an email and letter-writing campaign, which prevented them from influencing the decision. Consequently, the ruling passed. As for the Downfall meme, I would have been on board with it had it existed in 2003. Instead, I flamed Hopkins speech on rec.arts.marching.drumcorps (the RAMD mentioned in the video) when a woman with the screen name of Sis posted it there. While it wasn't a Downfall rant, it came close enought. It also started a 100+ post flamewar. That was deliberate. I had been around rec.arts.marching.drumcorps long enough to know what topics would set off flamewars and when would be the best time to either light a match or add more fuel to a fire. This was an example of the latter. Sis lit the match and I threw on a Molotov cocktail and then stood back. I didn't have to make any more posts to keep the flamewar going. I have to admit getting some grim satisfaction out of that.  Current Mood: Dramatic Current Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music (Comment on this)
5:58 pm	Yesterday was an important anniversary on the Internets ...and most of you didn't even know it passed unless you read Wired or are a complete Internet history geek--but I repeat myself. Wired: Sept. 24, 1979: First Online Service for Consumers Debuts More at the link. That reminds me. Next January will be the 20th anniversary of my being online. Nearly all of you have a ways to go to catch up. :-> 1979: CompuServe begins offering a dial-up online information service to consumers. Current Mood: geeky Current Music: Freeway Noise and crickets chirping (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
10:38 pm	Facebook status Vince is halfway through Watchmen. Rorschach is the sanest crazy man I've ever encountered. Doctor Manhattan is your mind on quantum mechanics. I haven't figured out what to make of either Silk Spectre or Nite Owl. Current Mood: Shiny Current Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music (Comment on this)
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
7:03 pm	Tuba/contrabass bugle missile laucher.   ( Military musican pr0n behind cut to save flist. ) Current Mood: *sporfle!* Current Music: Freeway Noise (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
6:57 pm	So, LJ is down After all the recent drama about layoffs at LJ, and the deaths of both Greatest Journal and JournalSpace, along with the near death of Soapblox, this happens.  It looks like the perfect opportunity to start posting here and CommieJournal; the fandom posts will go here and the political posts over there, with personal posts to be decided on a case by case basis.  When LJ comes back up, I'll post them back there.  Should it go down, I'll have two archives. Current Mood: GRRRRRR Current Music: Final Fantasy XI Game Music and Freeway Noise (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
2:43 pm	Lits o' w(h)inners: alt.fan.art-bell awards Following are my contributions to documenting the wank and crazy in a segment of an entertainment media fandom--the Coast to Coast AM fans who post to the USENET group alt.fan.art-bell.  ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Winter 2006 ) ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Spring 2006  )   ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Summer 2006 ) ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Fall 2006/Winter 2007 ) ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Spring 2007 ) ( WINNERS! alt.fan.art-bell awards, Summer 2007 )   Current Mood: Caffeinated Current Music: FLCL soundtrack by The Pillows (Comment on this)