Thread "The 2009 Rant, Vent, and Share thread" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 8:11PM, Nov. 26, 2009

I hate articles on thanksgiving screeching that we're celebrating the genocide of indians with the genocide of turkeys. :/ I want to be around my family and ridiculously large meals + those cute little 'what are you thankful for' where you feel warm and fuzzy when they mention you, not how my ancestors raped the land and defiled the women of american natives.

This is the first thanksgiving my family has had at home in probably 10 years though, we usually mooch off our pals. It's tradition :)

that's super dumb when you consider that we're actually celebrating that indians helped settlers survive the harsh winter and gave food to those they didn't know. we hadn't raped and pillaged yet.

i love it when people (the articles skullbie's referencing) are historically inaccurate.

Posted at 11:11PM, Nov. 26, 2009

that's super dumb when you consider that we're actually celebrating that indians helped settlers survive the harsh winter and gave food to those they didn't know. we hadn't raped and pillaged yet.

Perhaps the ones in that particular settlement…

In reality, North America is a very large continent and European colonisation happened over a few hundred years. What the Thanksgiving holiday references has become the mythical origin of the U.S., completely ignoring the rest of the story- French and Spanish settlement, the British prison colonies… etc.

That is probably the reason people write those negative articles; not to take anything away from your holiday with your family, but to puncture the fantasy of the idea of the peaceful religious origin myth.

—————

It is pretty spiteful to do it around the time of the holiday itself though. Much like those wankers who go on about how Christmas is too commercial and all the made up Christmas Urban myths (like Santa being a Coca Cola thing etc) to try and make things crap for everyone.

Posted at 12:11PM, Nov. 27, 2009

Ugh… I'm glad I fix MY OWN COMPUTERS. I never have to deal with inept techs who think they know what they're doing when it's clear that they don't (seen it when I sent my machine to a repair shop once).

Well, I'm ready for Christmas Eve now.

*pushes a button on a weird looking remote, and his house transforms revealing SAM emplacements, Anti Aircraft Vulcan cannons, Flak Cannons, four Red Nosed Reindeer/flying sleigh detection radars, proximity/pressure sensitive mines on his roof, upward pointing barbs in his chimney, and mines around and inside his windows and front door designed to explode outward with lots of shrapnel when a really fat person tries to enter the house*

There's no way that old guy is going to leave a cold piece of coal in my stockings this year!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! >:-D

Posted at 5:11PM, Nov. 27, 2009

Re: Bah humbug.

I can't wait for this holiday season to end. CAN'T. WAIT. I despise everything about it and today was a fine enough example.

Posted at 9:11PM, Nov. 27, 2009

walmart had a sale…and i couldn't help myself…i got a TV at half off. it's the newer model of the one i got in '07…a lot lighter and thinner…and only a picture difference when playing video games…(which is 90% of what i use it for)

I'm sure that money would have been better sitting in savings…but i don't really think so. at least….that's what i'm going to tell myself.

Posted at 2:11AM, Nov. 28, 2009

Two of my sister's dogs are at the vet on an IV because they have some kind of toxin… :[ I love those pups and I am super worried about them, I feel like crying.

Posted at 6:11AM, Nov. 28, 2009

The current US Thanksgiving is a continuation of one introduced by Lincoln during the War Between the States. The real first US Thanksgiving was November 26, 1789, called by President George Washington as a national day of Thanksgiving for the passage of the Constitution and the foundation of the US Republic.

The whole Pilgrim schtick is romantic Victorian mythology. And of course the Victorians couldn't be bothered to remember the real settlers of the USA in JAMESTOWN Virginia like MY ancestors!

And Ozone there were no prison colonies as such in the USA, only prisons emptied and the people shipped to the American colonies or the people offered the choice of prison or indentured servitude in America. Kind of neat how you can read the ship manifests and Indenture contracts in various colonial archives.

Posted at 6:11AM, Nov. 28, 2009

the people shipped to the American colonies or the people offered the choice of prison or indentured servitude in America. Kind of neat how you can read the ship manifests and Indenture contracts in various colonial archives.

You're just using definitions there man. Indentured labour penal colonies is what I meant. The same thing they did with parts of Australia after they couldn't really use North America any longer. ;)
The difference is that America forgets it and romanticises the Pilgrims and Australia forgets the free settlers (although there were far more settlers) and romanticises the convicts…
Strange, but the Aussie objective is to create the myth of an independent rebel working class battler- Starting off as convicts and then striving in the bush as sheep shearers, wheat farmers and gold-miners, creating a country out of sweat and hard work.

When in reality most people very quickly moved to the cities and most of the mythologising about the rural idyll by poets, painters, composers, and writers was all done by city people.
-Victorians and Edwardians lol! (not to be confused by people from the state of Victoria)
So that's something in common about our countries: those Victorians and their origin myths :)

Two of my sister's dogs are at the vet on an IV because they have some kind of toxin… :[ I love those pups and I am super worried about them, I feel like crying.

Hope they get better!

Posted at 8:11AM, Nov. 28, 2009

But they weren't penal colonies like they were in Australia. They were just people shipped to the colonies under a contract. The reality of the legal language was different. It was changed when the people were shipped to Australia to keep them from doing that whole revolution thing. In the Americas the contract could be broken and even bought out. The prevailing Colonial American culture by the late 17th Century came to be make something of yourself. Once the contract was up go out and get some land and make a go of it. The indentured servant had a lot more freedom than they did in the Australian penal colonies. They weren't prisoners, only laborers. The reality was different as well as the language of the contracts. That's why I mentioned reading them.

That whole oppurtunity thing (and face it North America had a whole lot more oppurtunity in the 17th and 18th Century than Australia). Virgin forest and rich soil versus the Outback? It wasn't a myth. An indentured servant had the chance to be a free Englishman with their own land. They weren't guarded by soldiers. There was an infrastructure that preexisted them that they worked in. The Americas was settled by freemen who then used the indentured servants as labor. Once the contract was up the servant could go home, buy his own land or even continue as a salaried employee. Things like that didn't grow up for a long time in Australia whereas in America they were here from the beginning.

An example: Jamestown and Virginia colony. Land grants pruchased and then the indentured servants brought over, who then turned around and got their land grants and brought over servants who then got their own land… And before you knew it they all thought they were all free Englishmen who deserved their rights.

I've got to give my avatar a rest. Getting sick of it.

Posted at 9:11AM, Nov. 28, 2009

I don't think you know much about the situation in Australia Bravo. :)

In North America you have people shipped to be bought and sold as slaves. Georgia was founded as a penal colony. People bought and sold. I've done reading about that penal system and I think you may be looking at it through rosy glasses. ;)

In Australia the convicts could become free settlers very early on. That was the way they decided to found the place. The main difference with Australia was that the British Empire didn't lose it so the system went on longer. In North America it was a free market slavery system, in Australia it was more government controlled. :)

Yep, there were actual prisons. A relatively small number really. I think the Yanks tend to exaggerate on the "Penal colony" idea of Australia in order to minimise the similarities of the origin stories.
i.e not part of the accepted mythology.

But then ALL countries have their cherished origin mythologies and ways of looking at their founding that fit with their way of thinking about their country. It's part of being human. We rationalise what we don't like, and we identify strongly with whatever groups we belong to (mainly our nations).

Posted at 12:11PM, Nov. 28, 2009

awesome…. i drop the money like its hot on a tv…. and now i think my computers on fire

Posted at 7:11PM, Nov. 28, 2009

Then how did you post that post?

Posted at 8:11PM, Nov. 28, 2009

zune hd baby. takes like 30 minutes to load drunk duck, but it's quite quick on mobile sites.

Posted at 8:11PM, Nov. 28, 2009

…Okey dokey.

Posted at 9:11PM, Nov. 28, 2009

Yikes! Never thought fuel pumps would be so expensive… or so hard to repair. I can imagine how empty my wallet will feel when I take the car to the repair shop. x_x

Too bad the repair shops around here don't have a "fix now pay later" plan. T_T

Posted at 3:11AM, Nov. 29, 2009

That's what emergency credit cards are for, man. :]

Ugh… it's the end of a 4-day weekend and I have a lot of work to do and I don't want to. :[ The work I'll have to do, but it will probably mean putting off the comics yet again.

Brazil is a great movie.

Posted at 10:11AM, Nov. 29, 2009

I have an exam tomorrow and haven't studied yet. Im too lazy :/

Posted at 1:11PM, Nov. 29, 2009

I have an exam tomorrow and haven't studied yet. Im too lazy :/

I have an exam tomorrow too, it's easier to study if i completely turn off my internet and it's siren calls *o*

I went christmas shopping on black friday, got my mom some nice stuff. My friend had just got paid and bought a ton of games lol. We also watched monty python and the holy grail, god that was hilarious. :)

Posted at 3:11PM, Nov. 29, 2009

I have an exam tomorrow and haven't studied yet. Im too lazy :/
I have an exam tomorrow too, it's easier to study if i completely turn off my internet and it's siren calls *o*

I know what you mean! I'm meant to be writing a 15 minute speech about "Elements of Irish Folklore in the poetry of Yeats and Carson" right now but it's reaaallly hard to concentrate on that when there are so many awesome websites that have nothing to do with Irish poetry.

Posted at 6:11PM, Nov. 29, 2009

Google: 10 ways of How to do an Irish speech without distractions.

Remember Google is your friend!

Posted at 8:11PM, Nov. 29, 2009

Remember Google is your friend!

A friend with benefits.

Christmas is almost here and work is sloooooooooooooooowwwww…
Do do do do, sitting at work doing F-all killing time. -_-
I think I'll try and do some comic work.

Posted at 10:11PM, Nov. 29, 2009

Oh wow i'm retarded, i thought my exam was tomorrow because i thought today was monday, it's freaking sunday! =_= Holy crapola.

Well i guess i shouldn't be too mad, another day of study time is good :)

But seriously it took me this long to realize it wasn't monday, it's almost 12 am!

Posted at 1:11AM, Nov. 30, 2009

Wow… playing Forza Motorsport 2. Actually, with the auction house. I've only 90k credits and a lot of the cars cost a lot more to buyout, and I've never won an auction. :(

Now I find myself debating if I should sell my Arcee car. While I could easily buy another 1965 Shelby Cobra in the game, the paint design that I put on the thing took me a while to create. Not the most original or best paint scheme I've ever made (compared to the "300" cars I've seen with Mister Sparta Man on the door).

Basically the car is supposed to resemble the original Arcee transformers character in her car mode. :)

Posted at 2:11AM, Nov. 30, 2009

While I could easily buy another 1965 Shelby Cobra in the game,

I thought for a sc there you were talking about getting a real one lol!

Reminds me… I was looking for a birthday pressie for my dad and a white brand new Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder Convertible drove right past me. Such a shame how far Lamborghini has fallen design-wise. The original Countach (on which ALL their best sports models have been based since) was weird glorious perfection, but after its debut it got a whole lot of plastic crap added and ever since all the subsequent models based of off it have bulked up into fatter, clunkier, chunkier tonka-toy versions of the original. So sad…
I blame CAD; crap arse designers -_-
Still, it's interesting to see one.

Birthday and Christmas shopping is hard, especially in the electronics shops. …All I can think about is all the stuff I want to buy for myself- it's all so cheap now and I have lots of money set aside for buying things -but I'd feel so guilty if I wasn't buying stuff for other people,
The trouble is that I can find heaps of stuff I'd like, but nothing I'd want to buy as presents. T__T

Posted at 2:11AM, Nov. 30, 2009

While I could easily buy another 1965 Shelby Cobra in the game,
I thought for a sc there you were talking about getting a real one lol!

I wish I could buy the real one, but since I don't have THAT much money I'll settle for the video game version.

I've done a few paint jobs on cars in the Forza Motorsport 2 game and even sold one off. My skills need to improve if I want to sell more cars for ingame credits.

When I first got the game and checked out the site for the game I saw lots of forum posts where people were actually offering money (yeah, REAL money) for good ingame paintjobs. Sounds kinda ridiculous to me. So you spent your hard earned cash for a custom painted car ingame that will probably be useless when the next iteration of Forza Motorsport comes out. But I guess good artwork will always sell for cash, whether you get to keep it or not.

I guess the ability to make custom paintjobs and trade them (one way or the other) in the game is the main reason why I don't buy the Gran Turismo games anymore… :)

I'm sorely tempted to make paintjobs based on various DD comics, but at the moment my layering skills are woefully inadequate… I don't know how to do fading for instance.

edit- rats… didn't realize that FM3 is already out. T_T