Proper Recourse

So a newspaper prints a cartoon depicting your god/deity/religious figure in an unflattering way, and you’re like all indignant and enraged like the Iron Sheik, right? What do you do? March and demonstrate? Ban the newspaper? Burn down the embassy of the offending country the newspaper was printed in, plus a few others for good measure?
No, this is a perfect chance to utilize the Muslim Man Complaint Box.

Thoughts on Google Video

Exploring the depths of Google Video is kind of like flipping through a giant record collection. 99% of what you find is chaff, so discovering the occassional gem is exciting. Word of mouth about good selections gets around quickly so certain works become popular overnight. It’s a lot more rewarding, somehow, finding that one work that really tickles your own fancy, even though it might not appeal to other people.

the face of jesus in my soup

Is the name of the song. Check out this video someone laid down to it:

The creator says this is “footage from local library of international driving instructions.”
I really like looking at instructional videos and cars from that era. I remember we still had “What to Do in Case of Nuclear Attack” (duck and cover!) posters on the wall at my elementary school. Even back then, I knew they were remnants from another time.

Hardly News

So after 9/11, I signed up for e-mail updates from CNN for breaking news items – you know, back then it was impossible to get to major news sites and even the big newsbloggers were getting bogged down with traffic. I figured it was a good way to be kept kinda in the loop for major events, etc… It worked out kind of in that way, in that sometimes the e-mails would cover stories that we just don’t get coverage of in Japan, even on CNN International.
The thing is, though, it sometimes makes me sad. Like today, the CNN Breaking News alert I received contained the following info only:

The Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XL, beating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 Sunday night.

I may just be completely out of the loop, but hearing that just makes me want to say whoop-dee-fucking-do. Mind you, these News Alerts are not daily or anything, they only send them when “important” shit happens. So I guess Superbowl results now rate right up there with devastation of entire cities and American soldiers fighting and dying in foreign lands (actually, they stopped sending updates about the war over a year ago).
I guess what I’m trying to say is: Priorities, bitches. In the grander scheme of things, individual sports competition results rank very low. Plus, anyone who didn’t already know the score by the time you sent the News Alert probably doesn’t give half a shit.
It is Monday, and I have had my rant.
///
It occurs to me that I could be told to simply opt out of the mailings. Believe me, I have tried…

Things I Learn from My Patients

This one is dedicated to my baby sister, who is currently attending med school in sweet home Chicago. From the Student Doctor Network Forums, Things I Learn From My Patients.
Highlights:
– Latex paint, despite being thick and creamy, does not coat your stomach and provide the same relief as pepto bismol.
– Don’t road surf on the top of a moving stickshift car driven by your younger sibling with a learner’s permit.
– Never, ever leave flashlights, shampoo bottles, beer bottles or any long, circular object on the floor because someday you will fall on it and it will somehow, work its way up your rectum.
– To complement the above, “if you come in with a salsa jar in your rectum, don’t give the staff a fruit cake as a thank you present.”
Heh.
We have a good friend out in Nara who’s an OB/GYN. She always has interesting stories about women who come in with something or another stuck in one of their southernmost orifices. My favorite (albeit sad) story was the one about the woman who’s husband who wanted to play seduction master with a potato and then accused her of being “frigid” when he couldn’t get it out!