I knew something was up when I was pedaling to our Farmer's Market and there were pirates strolling down the street. A man and woman in full, colorful pirate costume are not the usual visitors to our little suburban town of Pleasanton.

I continued on to purchase my berries and basil and pedaled back to see the pirates going into a sushi restaurant. Ok - now I have got to know what is going on. So I did what any suburban woman would do - after I washed my produce and put everything away, I googled local events.

Ahoy! I had my answer. Ye Olde Velosity Circus Pirate Academy is appearing In San Francisco June 23-27, 2008. The " team of slightly unprincipled, playfully deceitful scoundrels and rascallettes will teach children how to walk, talk and present oneself in only the most proper pirate ways." The Academy will teach nautical knot tying, sword skills, storytelling, a mermaid cove and pirate lingo. Arrrgh.

This is one of the many events and activities scheduled during the Festival of Sail San Francisco. There will be a parade of tall ships and activities on land and sea, including hands- on activities for children and families, ship boarding, an International Village and Green Village featuring environmental organizations and exhibits related to marine life.

So set sail, drive your carrrgh, shiver your timbers and get down to the Festival of Sail!

Technorati: pirate, pirates, pirate gifts, pirate money clip, ships, sailing, sailboat, nautical, mermaid, mermaid gifts, treasure box, night lights, nite lite, San Francisco, Festival of Sail, google, computer, produce, farmer's market, bike, bicycle, marine life, ocean, marine animals, environment, green, custom gifts

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "Piracy, as we are so frequently told, is wrong. Apparently it funds child abuse and terrorism
(by means they’re not quite ready to explain just yet). It’s a serious
business folks. Which makes it a bit odd when Ubisoft get spotted
apparently doing it.

People who bought Rainbow Six Vegas 2 via Direct2Drive
were having a bit of a problem with the 1.02 version of the game, with
it refusing to install. So Ubisoft or Direct2Drive released a v1.03
patch to fix it. Unfortunately for them, canny people took a closer look at the solution in place.

So what happened? Well, to ensure that players no longer needed the
CD to play, the iniative was taken to use a No-CD crack. For those
unfamiliar with the seedy underworld of piratic evil, a No-CD crack is
an illegal patch that when installed means a game will run without the
CD in the drive. This means you can then do such horrifically
despicable things, like lend the game to your friend. (Or worse, play a
game you’ve bought without having to find the disc every time). But,
see, the problem here is Ubisoft didn’t botch their own No-CD fix, but
rather, er, one was borrowed from cracking group, Reloaded."

FULL ARTICLE

meanwhile spotlit by some streetlight
moon eternally smoking beneath
a grey fedora doesn't ponder
simply waits,

a piano player is tinkling
Chopin
as she lurches sudden starboard
and they flee into the night,
a billion tiny souls like some
cloud of moths ignites and
rush into the moon urgent
to delight,

What I will say next may seem trite after what I just wrote, but lately the music that has been speaking to me is the soundtracks from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  I love those movies and a big reason why is the music.  It captures the story for me.  It captures me.  It's provocative but not in the scndalous sense.  I think part of the reason I feel this way is because I find myself in Elizabeth Swann's character.  I am not half as gorgeous as she is, but here's the tie in.  In the beginning she is the Governor's daughter which has so many expectations of her to be proper and do what she knows she should do.  And as the movies progress, she realizes that is not who she really is.  She becomes the Pirate King for pete's sake.  And I resonate with that.  I also really like Captain Jack Sparrow.  He appears treacherous, but he isn't. 

Now bring me that horizon...

Top Photo by: RossinoBossioB

Bottom Photo by: Disney

And of course if you would like to help me show other people of the awesomeness that is pirates, head over to jinx and buy me this shirt.

I mean I do like ninjas....but pirates are way cooler.

I decided to start slow and only got the first 150 episodes, the show is currently on about it's 350th episode. With 150 episodes now safely stowed away on my Harddrive, I decided to see what the fuss was all about. 1 episode turned into 5, then 5 turned into 10, before i knew i was 20 episodes and having the time of my life. The way you get sucked in show is somewhat frightening, it's make you want to drop everything, dash of to the closest harbour, join a pirate crew and sail the sea's in search of adventure.

It starts of with just the star of the show Monkey. D. Luffy in search of members to form his pirate crew. Luffy at first seems a little strange, and well he's a little strange. He's basically an idiot, but an idiot with a firm belief in himself. His way of thinking is strange but his ideals are always sound. His goal is to sail the Grand Line in search of One Piece the legendary treasure of Gol. D. Roger, who ever finds this treasure will be become the pirate king.

Luffy gradually starts to gather a crew, starting with Zoro (A famous swordsman); Nami (Navigator); Sanji (Cook); Usopp (Sniper); and Tony Chopper (Doctor). More members join on later in the story but i wouldn't want to spoil anything so you'll have to wait and see for yourself. Luffy along with many other characters that pop up along the way, have powers known as Devil Fruit Abilities. These are a range of different powers given to those who eat the rare devil fruits. Luffy is known as the rubber man, as his body has the ability to stretch. This may not sound like a powerful ability but you'll be surprised the damage he manages to do.

Everytime you watch this show you are once again sucked, and always have a smile on your face before the episode is done. A great watch for all those who haven't seen it.

Thanks for reading, i'll be posting again soon. "Jan ay"

Summer is when there is ain't an Rrrr in the month.

Ya que con esta hacen el llamado a la Hermandad Pirata, o los 9 señores piratas que dominan la pirateria, para poder elejir a un rey pirata que los comande a todos, bajo el codigo pirata escrito por Morgan y Bartholomew... Bueno con esto termino y explico que me fascina mucho el mundo de la pirateria maritima (Tanto como los videojuegos y Japon su cultura), por eso amo las peliculas de Pirates of the Caribbean y todo lo relacionado a Piratas y los piratas legendarios.

Tanto con los reales como animados tambien amo One piece, wl mejor anime-manga jamas creado superando a dragon ball por mucho, Y ya cumplio 10 años de haber sido creado y apenas va a la mitad de la aventura!!

Una pequeña muestra de la Saga que ya ha pasado: Ennies Lobby y una de las mas importantes y emocionantes!!

Mata ne!

The violence was pronounced in Somalia, where pirates are often armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons.

Kevin Costner thinks this would be great idea for a post-apoplyptic adventure.

- Anya Yurchyshyn explains how the guy pictured below stole Salmon Rushdie's "Best of the Booker Prize" thunder, sorta....

- As if they don't have enough things to worry about....airlines are now concerned about making sure to open up revenue streams by placing ads on boarding passes.

- Younger siblings of Australia rejoice.

- Two Thumbs Up for Malthusian fear mongering...The politics, culture, and business of WALL-E.

- "Uggla'd" is sure to be in the urban dictionary by the end of the day. I'm sure it will be something along the lines of being selected for something b/c of outstanding skills but then shitting the bed when asked to demonstrate said skills. I would say "Uggly" is the best way to describe Dan Uggla's performance in the All Star Game but the AP already used it.

--jw

I received my first electricity bill the other day and breathed a sigh of relief. Not the most typical reaction to this most dreaded form of mail, but on this occasion I was only too happy to pay the 933 baht (£14.50) for one month's usage.

Electricity is relatively expensive in Thailand. Overall, the cost of living can be roughed up to about a quarter of what you'd pay in the UK, so when you think of it in these terms, 933 baht for a month's electricity is a little on the steep side.

However, as said, I was happy to see this figure on my statement. Why? Because in the last place I stayed, I was well and truly ripped off.

While househunting for a permanent base here in Bangkok, Maki and I stayed at a serviced apartment called P Mansion. Serviced apartments offer similar facilities to hotels, but are typically paid for on a monthly basis, and the guest pays for utilities. They provide something close to a home, without requiring a minimum-term contract.

The way it worked at P Mansion was that we would pay a month's rent up front, plus another month's worth as a deposit. When we left, we would have our deposit returned to us, minus our electricity bill. Fair enough - except when check-out day came, we had almost 4,000 baht (£62.50) deducted from our deposit.

It seemed excessive, but we had no choice but to accept. In effect, we had already paid. But P Mansion's rooms do not have electricity meters, so you have no idea how much you are using. Now I know why - because apparently they simply charge an extortionate amount of their own choosing.

At the time, I tried to reason it through in my mind, especially as the staff at P Mansion seemed so charming, but I really couldn't believe a month's electricity in Bangkok would cost more than double what it does in London.

Wondering if somehow this was the going rate, it was with trepidation I opened my first electricity bill when it arrived in my apartment's mailbox. This is why I was so relieved that it was "only" for 933 baht. But with this sense of relief came a sense of anger that I had been utterly screwed by the "charming" manager of P Mansion, who saw fit to bill us for the electricity for a one-room studio at a rate of more than 400% what it has cost for the two-bed apartment I now rent.

There are many ways to get ripped off in Thailand, but I thought a serviced apartment - catering as it does to long-terms visitors rather than naive tourists - would be above this kind of behaviour. Normal Thais are wonderful people, but there are a number of unscrupulous individuals and companies who treat foreign visitors simply as a means to a quick pay-day. Not only do these people harm the international reputation of their country and their culture, they're also extremely short-sighted. If P Mansion had treated me fairly, I could have recommended them to anybody who wanted to visit me, especially as it is close to where I now live. Therefore, they would have earned more business over the time I'm here, and maybe beyond due to word of mouth. But no, they thought it would be better to line their pockets with a one-off 4,000-baht con, thus permanently souring my opinion of them and losing the chance of ever getting repeat or referred business.

So, hopefully, a few people will Google "P Mansion" and find their way to this page, and the rip-off merchants of "Pirate Mansion" will be denied further opportunities to fleece their customers.

If anybody needs a serviced apartment in Phahon Yothin/Ladprao, then I recommend Success Inn instead. Roughly the same location and presumably not managed by pirates. I haven't stayed there, so can't really comment, but anything to steer custom away from P Mansion.

P Mansion's website is here, just so you know what to avoid.

At first, I felt like a traitor. How could I, an avid supporter of the ninja, be so in love with a story about pirates? The natural solution would be to read some exciting stories about ninja...but here is the problem. Ninja, over their centuries of stealth and secrecy, have become so removed from the real world that we cannot tell stories about them. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies were great representations of pirates. But what kind of movies can you make about ninja? We all know that pirates drink rum and sing songs while carousing, but what do ninja do? Drink sake? Presumably. But we'll never know. Pirates make perfect anti-heroes and villains. But what do ninja do? Stab people with icicles? Throw shuriken (admittedly, very skilfully)? But there's no excitement there! No mystery or romance...no Jonny Depp or Keira Knightley.

I still concede that ninja would win in battle: as I proved to Tati, eyepatches, peglegs, and alcoholism are not conducive to battle. But with regards to coolness, it seems that pirates win. Pirates swashbuckle, while Japan's invisible assassins fall short.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want a really befuddling one? A question that will make you question everything you think you know? Who would win, Gandalf or Dumbledore? [i'm still very conflicted]

Today's viewing was found after I twitterstalked a guy who lives in Mumbai and found his blog, which was interesting, and led me to this "Dance off of the Star Wars stars." For why I twitterstalked a Mumbai resident in the first place, you'll have to wait until nextpost.

For more viewing, check out "The Whole Blah Damn Thing" from Weeds.

Clearly, it would not take much of a run to put the Braves in contention for a division title. But it will take a bunch of changes in how this team approaches each game to spark a winning streak. Right now, Chipper Jones, Jair Jurrjens and Brian McCann are the only bright spots on the roster that appears to be so talented. An opportunity to grab a Cy Young pitcher in CC Sabathia wasn't even seriously considered, and there are absolutely no rumors in the mill about the Braves wheeling and dealing.

There was a rumor sharply denied by the Boston Red Sox brass that ESPN's Peter Gammons said the Braves offered Mark Teixeira to the Red Sox for Kevin Youkilis and Craig Hansen. Hansen is a prospect with a mid-90s fastball, with a real good slider in the high 80s.

To me it sounds like the deal has no legs. To me it seems like the Braves might have already called it a year. And they are only 6.5 games out of first place. The roster is a revolving door of young guys as Bobby Cox prays for one of the kids to get hot, and stay hot.

Braves AJC beat reporter David O'Brien tried to speculate what the Braves may do before the July 31st deadline in this article. He even dared to be silly by saying the Braves can look at the possible return of Mike Hampton.

Who is the only guy O'Brien mentions as a possible player the Braves should look at? Xavier Nady. Yes. I said Xavier Nady, who right now is overachieving for the Pirates.

I guess even he is giving up.

Officials attending the Future Games continue to insist Yankee GM Brian Cashman is sending out a vibe that he is uncertain if he is buying or selling at the deadline. If the Yanks decide to buy, officials say watch for them doing something with Pittsburgh for lefty reliever Damaso Marte and possibly Xavier Nady. The Pirates have been scouting the Yankee system and are known to like Ross Ohlendorf, among others.

If Matsui can get back to the team and stay healthy, then there's really no need for Nady. Then again, the Yankee OF is a mystery right now. With Abreu stinking up the joint in RF and Damon injured out in LF (and with Melky not hitting in CF), another bat wouldn't hurt. Nady is a notorious first half player but has the talent to do well in the second half. Marte has been on the Yankee radar for what seems like forever. I wonder if Ohlendorf is traded, if he'll be looked at as a starter or a reliever.

Heh son, he said disappearing down the hatchway, next port, Shanghai, I'll get ya a mermaid tattoo then turned and mumbled into his filthy beard, that'll fix ya,

First, a little about Herrera. At the age of 24, Yoslan Herrera was a success in the Cuban "amateur" leagues, where he had a career pitching record of 18-7, with a 3.27 ERA. But his baseball career had hit a ceiling, because under the Castro dictatorship, superior Cuban athletes are prohibited from playing outside their country. Herrera told a Pittsburgh reporter last weekend that a few glimpses of video of American baseball had persuaded him that he wanted more than anything to test his talents against major league competition.

So three years ago, on July 13, 2005, Herrera paid someone everything he had in the world for a place on a small boat with a rickety motor headed for Florida. (The Castro government confiscates the property of defectors anyway.) He found himself risking his life with eighteen other persons, including two children.

Thousands of Cubans have lost their lives in similar attempts to escape Fidel Castro's "socialist paradise," so this was no pleasure cruise. But Herrera and his fellow emigrees enjoyed good weather, and although they had no food, their water held out for the two days it took for them to reach Florida. Herrera averted his eyes from the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean. Fortunately, the freedom-seeking Cubans were not intercepted by Cuban officials, and they reached land before they were spotted by American officials who would have returned them to Cuba. Herrera hasn't seen his parents since then and isn't likely to anytime soon, barring radical changes in Cuban government policy.

In December 2006, scouts for the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Herrera to a major-league contract and paid him a bonus of over $2 million. He pitched for the Pirates' Double-A affiliate Altoona in 2007 and for the first two months of this year. His fastball improved under professional tutelage, but no one knew whether he would ever become a successful major league pitcher like fellow Cuban exiles Orlando Hernandez ("El Duque") or Jose Contreras, who had also risked the sharks for a chance to play against the best.

But last Saturday the Pirates, with their rotation in a mess, called him up to start at PNC Park against the St. Louis Cardinals before a sell-out crowd of 38,000. In the first inning, Herrera made the first out himself on a grounder to first, then struck out Albert Pujols (Albert Pujols!) and Rick Ankiel. In the second, he got out of a bases-loaded jam by starting a 1-2-3 double play.

The Cardinals had better luck against Herrera the second time around the lineup, and he didn't get through the fifth inning. The Pirates trailed 10-4 in the eighth. But as if to reassure Herrera that anything is indeed possible in America, the Pirates scored two in the home half of the eighth and four more in the ninth, then won the game 12-11 in the bottom of the tenth with a walk-off home home from Jason Michaels. Herrera had been the starting pitcher in the most dramatic baseball game the Pirates had played this year.

Herrera may never be a star and he may never have another $2 million payday, but he's going to get at least one more start next weekend, after the All-Star break. I couldn't understand him in his interview -- he doesn't know much English besides baseball talk -- but he sure sounded happy to be in America. It was "a big joy," he said in Spanish, to record his first major league strikeout against Albert Pujols.

Then there's Alec Baldwin, also blessed with exceptional abilities, not to mention looks. He was born into a working-class family, but his God-given talents got him into acting school, then into TV and onto the big screen, where he has become a star in films like The Hunt for Red October and The Departed. He was even nominated for a Tony for a role in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Unfortunately, Baldwin also suffers from diarrhea of the mouth, chronic messy episodes of which have made it clear that no one in America is more ungrateful than he for the opportunities that our nation has given him. Not content to disagree with our elected officials, he despises our country when democracy does not produce the same results that an Alec Baldwin dictatorship might. Unhappy about the impending impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998, Baldwin longed for simpler times, with the charitable thought that "if we were in another country, we would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and kill their wives and their children."

Unhappy with the first term of George W. Bush, Alec Baldwin claimed that Bush's election had harmed democracy as much the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Of course, Baldwin's notions of "democracy" may be different from yours or mine, as he openly admires Fidel Castro, who has seen to it that no democratic election has taken place in Cuba in nearly 50 years.

In 2004, petulant over polls showing that Americans were likely to re-elect Bush, he said that if Bush won, it would be time to leave the country. (Some thought he'd go to Canada, but the betting odds were on Cuba.) Baldwin to Cuba for Yoslan Herrera would have been a good trade for the American team; America would still have been sufficiently diverse without Alec Baldwin. But Baldwin proved more talk than action, and he is with us still.

Some people take great risks to live where they'll have an opportunity to use their talents to the fullest. Other people despise the nation that has nurtured their talents and helped them to become rich and famous.

In The Future, We Live on Glorified Lilypads

Aside from the obvious reasons why I'd like one of these for my birthday, I'd also like to point out how rad this would be if the floating cities turned into pirate cities. Hoisting a green skull and crossbones, wielding cutlasses made from 70% post-consumer content, using giant manta rays for underwater dogfights, hijacking other weaker cities' solar panels, bedding wenches (otherwise known as the marine biology interns who are on board for the summer), making non-recyclers walk the plank...these are just a few of the fantastic activities you'll experience whilst sailing (okay, floating) the seven seas on board The Cursed, Yet Energy-Efficient Shark of Doom, my wicked awesome pirate city. I shall bend the ocean to my rapacious, yet carbon-neutral will.**

**I'll need a first mate who's good with the detail stuff like remembering which one is starboard. You'll probably also have to keep me from falling overboard because of all my boozing and pillaging-type activities. I'm sort of a big-picture kind of guy; don't have time for the small stuff. If you have good references and are up for an almost constant stream of abuse, feel free to apply.

Oofta, the Pirates have landed in Hill City, Minnesota. Seriously the pirate in the middle is my mother and she in 82 years old. If it is really a matter of genetics I have a lot of life to look forward to!

If you Missed it...here is a podcast about growing old.

http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

I am, once again, off, this time to vacation with the grandparents. Internet access is likely but not assured. Stay tuned.

Fake News
Kiss You Where It Hurts: the story (R), the art (NSFW), the step-by-step (ditto)

Hellsing
Arr, Captain (arrrrrt, worksafe)

Marimite
Otaku USA #7 includes a free sample from the official Marimite sub! (The full first season will be out in two weeks.)

Next Week in Shine:
The Alucard fans arrive, and Schroedinger comes face to face with . . . himself?

We had a great time at the game yesterday. It was overcast (and threatened of rain) for most of the game, although some sun did peek through for a few innings. We were in the shade as well. Despite all this, I still managed to get a wicked sunburn on my arms. Ouch!

There were 9 of us total (8 knitters/crocheters and one non-knitting husband). Here we are before the game started.

Our section filled up quickly. And at every game there's always that one guy, you know who I mean. The one who yells in his loudest voice "I GOT IT!" whenever the opposing team hits a pop fly, or heckles people sitting near him. His name was Nick. And Nick was sitting right behind us. Lucky us. Lisa took this picture of Beth teaching him to knit with "sticks and thread" as he called it.

And in true Stephanie Pearl-McPhee style, here's a picture of my Jaywalker sock and the ball park.

PNC park is really a beautiful ball park. It has a lovely view of the downtown skyline, and has really awesome surround sound. You can even text a message to someone and they'll show it on the scoreboard!

And we had some excitement in our row, too! Bottom of the 8th. Pirates down by 5. All the sudden an errant foul ball came barreling towards Rebecca! She made a valiant effort to catch it bare handed, but it smashed into her hand so hard that it went rolling down 2 rows in front of us. And wouldn't you know it, the guy who finally ended up taking the ball wouldn't give it back to Rebecca, even after she showed him her swollen hand. Here she is icing her hand.

And the swag wasn't bad either. Cute bags this year.

I think I may go again next year. Better play the Cubs, though!

now there are some of you who dare to presume it is some earthly pleasure we desire, some booty or bounty, bliss in some port of call but we are pirates, the slow fuse suicide bombers of our times, it is freedom we fight for from all the hypocrisy of ordinary lies. If we sin let us sin in some real and grandiose way and throw away our lives simply for the experience of being and believing,

you cannot measure the morality of your actions by their consequences since you can't possibly predict how many lived or died as a result of your butterfly. Kings are thieves all of them and the complete unreliability of memory if pondered makes knaves of us all. We are completely adrift, you drunken scoundrels, in a sea of instinct and only those who read the tides survive,    
       
 
(The link above goes to a letter by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna hosted by Message in a Matrix.)

But even more important than that, yet another shocker from this seasons team, at the break, Albert Pujols is not the team home run leader.  But he was running behind in the past as I mentioned before.  The real shock is that he isn't even is second place.  Ryan Ludwick is leading the team again heading into his first All-Star game with 21 homers on the season.  Trailing him by one, with 20 is Rick Ankiel.  Pujols comes dragging in third with 18.

Crazy.

Well, my congrats go out to Ludwick on his All-Star pick.  Let's hope he keeps up the pace in the second half.