Robert's widdle fee-fees got Hurt...

With all the time he saves not attending debates, it's good to know he's doing stuff with his free time...like writing pissy letters to editorial boards for calling him on that.

And kudos to the editor for standing by their editorial in the comments.

I guess I understand why Hurt might not want to debate our congressman. If you're relying on fricking George Allen to be your spokesman, you can't have that much confidence in your rhetorical abilities.

So I'm making dinner for my kid, right? She's three...

And I'm putting some croutons on her plate...
"Daddy, I want a lot!"
You get two, OK?
"No, I want a lot! I want twenty!"
Look, kid, you either get two or zero.
"I want zero!"

And I thought, shit, now I know how Obama feels...

So, what will respected Dmitry Anatolyevich do, fire me? Ho, to see him try would be pleasing to me!

Having lived in Russia during the tumultuous 90s, I never thought I'd see the day Yuri Luzhkov would cease to be the mayor of Moscow.

But apparently he forgot his post isn't decided by elections...

Apparently he's stated that he's going to re-enter the political arena. Gee, in his place I'd think I'd go with my billionaire wife off to Sochi or Greece and just lay low before the FSB decided to encourage further retirement via the force-feeding of a polonium smoothie.

Oh, so THAT's what those things are...

I've seen no more than four or five at a time at my place; a couple stuck in our screen door, one flying through the front door, another (somehow) up in my loft. So all in all, I don't have the stinkbug horror stories as others in our community have....

Greetings, Juicers!

Doug J of Balloon Juice was kind (and crazy) enough to post an open thread asking for his readers' blogs. Checking my stats, odds are 3 to 1 that you're reading this because of that.

Hope you pop in from time to time! Sure, BJ's got great stuff, but if you want commentary about a 2D-fighter featuring scantily-clad raccoon-women, I'm yer guy!

Because 2 + 2 = 5 cares. And loves. And all that other crappo.

Yep, love this goddamn town so much I'll be off at the Day of Caring tomorrow doing the thing I despise the most, physical labor.

And while my co-workers cynically exploit this day to be out of the office, you can be assured that I am making a true sacrifice because there's nothing I love more than being in my cubicle protected from the elements.

Really. Outside. Feh, I say. Feh.

Another edition of "What John Cole said"...

This comment about recalcitrant liberals is so awesome I'm going to copy as much as I can without breaking copyright law...

"Good god, you insufferable firebaggers never stop, do you? You’re trying to push me into putting a straw into a Laphroiag bottle, aren’t you?

IT ISN’T ABOUT YOU. IT ISN’T ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS. It isn’t about your pet issues. The grand total of the membership for people who care about all your specific pet issues is one. It’s you.

This is about the direction of the country. Every single one of us can list multiple ways in which Obama, the Democrats, and the media have let us down, but still, until you progressives with all the answers start changing the minds of the electorate at large and Dennis Kucinich wins precisely ONE goddamned primary, you are stuck with what you have with the Democrats..."

Fortunately, I'm in a district with a great congressman and will happily vote for him, but for those that would actually think for one second about letting Boehner and No-Chin control things, really...

Duckie ducks another one...



State senator Robert Hurt (left, archive photo) skipped another debate; for those keeping count, this is his third.

He's supposedly going to attend later debates where two-percenter nutball Clark is not invited, that is, if he can get over the disappointment of Molly Ringwald going with Andrew McCarthy. Really, Molly, how shallow of you...

Great news for our district...

Oliver Kuttner's company took down an X Prize...

Our congressman was just talking about the impact of companies like this for our district...

Delaware? I thought the answer was a brand new jersey...

No, not much to say about the teatard victory in Delaware...

But if she is anti-masturbation, well, there goes the whole blogger vote, right there...

The Chang is back! Long live The Chang!

Wow, if Peter Chang can make that shithole a place to get a celestial meal, then he truly is a master...

Buy Higher Grounds coffee...

I was already having one of those "if I don't get my coffee soon someone's getting murdered, preferably a stranger" days, and to compound it, I didn't realize until I got there that I didn't have cash.

But the wonderful barista just told me to pay tomorrow. Sure, it's a safe bet, since I'm there 200 times a year, but she still didn't have to do that.

So everybody, buy Higher Grounds coffee. Here in Charlottesville. Higher Grounds coffee.

Hee. Corgi pup.

Awwww, he can't reach the toy with his li'l stubby legs...

Good for you, JMU...

Wow, what an upset. Next time I swing up I-81 I'll tip my cap to you as I pass exit 245...

8 Bits O' Nevsky - Waka Waka Waka Edition

OK, walk with me through my thought process here.

I was mildly pleased to read that Namco was updating Pac-Man Championship Edition for the XBox and PS3. I played the XBox version and certainly liked it enough to want a version for the PS3...

Then I remembered that I owned a Hori Fighting Stick (giggle) so I could play BlazBlue without getting carpal tunnel pain and thought...I'm going to be able to play Pac-Man...with a Pac-Man-style joystick.

Pac-Man...with a Pac-Man-style joystick.

And time stopped like when Anton Ego tasted his ratatouille...

Hey Rob, just so you know, your district's in Virginia. Virginia.

There's going to be another debate in our district, and once again, Robert Hurt is ducking it.

He's got a good excuse this time; he'll be attending a fundraiser in Texas. Because it's really important in our district to get that Texan vote.

What tires me is that I see very little evidence that this will (heh) hurt Hurt. For his voters, it's not about what's best for our district, it's about punching Nancy Pelosi in her womany ovaries or something.

And if I didn't live in this district I'd be happy to let them have the representative they deserve.

No one said it was going to be easy...

And I agree with Lowell that this poll that shows Congressman Perriello only down by two is too good to be true. That six percent for Clark looks VERY suspect to me, unless it weighs Charlottesville heavily and the Repubs there are punishing Hurt for blowing off their debate. Still, I find it very hard to believe that Hurt is up by twenty-six. Al Weed didn't even lose by that much, did he? I think even the gloaters on the forums won't take a fifty-buck bet that Hurt will win by that. Of course, as the congressman undoubtedly already knows, a win's a win, even if it's one vote.

If it is close (and at this point, who the hell knows), then the congressman has a shot because his organization was tops at getting out the votes last year and perhaps he can combat the general malaise that's gripping the country re: Democrats. But this district's demographics definitely work against him.

And even though piling on Perriello seems to be the hip thing to do in the Virginia political blogs, even I have to say I'm not a huge fan of his latest ad. While there's no question Robert "World Of" Hurt is a corporate whore, I think the Congressman has been the best salesman of himself, and this ad keeps his screen time to a minimum. I'd love to see an ad detailing very specifically the projects he's brought to the 5th (which even Hurt can't bring himself to criticize).

We still great power! Our cars superior!

Mrs. Nevskaya showed me the hot new viral video in Russia; a little background, Pootie-Poot was pootie-pooting around in a Russian Lada car to show the strength and durability of domestic cars. The problems here are a) Putin took three yellow Ladas on his trip, presumably in case one of them broke down b) all the other cars in the ridiculously large entourage were clearly of foreign make, and c) the punchline occurs at around the 2-minute mark, where the third yellow Lada is on the back of a truck and the audience assumes (not unreasonably) that it must have broken down.

Here's a British blog article on the whole debacle, and those students of Russian language and linguistics will no doubt delight at the curse words thrown around.

8 Bits O' Nevsky - WTF am I supposed to do next edition

If you were concerned about purchasing Metroid: Other M because you had heard that it was a bit of a departure from past games, let me assure you that it is a Metroid game through and through.

Because I've played it for 20 minutes and it's already really fucking pissing me off.

No, I'm not a big Metroid fanboy. Not unlike the Final Fantasy series, the only game I've managed to beat is the first one on the NES. And I'm pretty sure I piggybacked on my brother's progress on that one to finish it. Unlike Zelda, I don't think I really got a handle of how I was supposed to progress. All those little nooks and crannies that encouraged exploration just confused the hell out of me, occasionally I'd trip through a hole and progress but more often than not I'd go back and forth between rooms clearly missing something but not taking the time to look as closely as I should have.

And things didn't improve so much when I bought the Metroid Prime Trilogy last year. I felt I had to buy the game the way semi-intellectuals purchase The Complete Works of Shakespeare, because it would look good on my shelf. And for fifty bucks MPT is an unbelievable bargain. It's either a testimony to the series or a condemnation of 90% of Wii game designers that the original Metroid Prime is still one of the best-looking games on the Wii. But I stopped about 25% into the first game despite the excellent level design and wonderful controls because...well, I'm not really sure why. Really need to get back to it.

So anyway, I pop in Other M, big cutscenes, check. Quick tutorial, and the Wiimote-only controls seem unnecessarily difficult. Why not use the nunchuk for moving around? Then you can use either the C or Z button to pop into visor mode. Fine, I get down to a room, defeat the enemies, and spend fifteen minutes looking for the next key. And I just can't fricking find it and it's getting on my nerves so much I decide to quit even though I wasn't able to save my progress which means I'm going to have to watch those cutscenes again and I just bet you can't skip through them.

So, this Metroid experience will be like just the others, I fear. You'd think I'd learn.

Speaking of shriveled-up teats, what, you weren't speaking about that?

Times can be hard, we're all busy. We've all got our own responsibilities to ourselves, our loved ones, and society as a whole.

And despite being busy, I would be remiss in my societal duties if I didn't say fuck Alan Simpson. Sideways.