mickey mouse land

i think the whole idea that Disneyland exposes America as a media space is a little too subtle for people to grasp at first, since when you're in Disneyland, Disney is the only one grabbing your attention, and since you're in the park already, they don't have to work that hard to in the first place if you've already forked over the $50 per ticket it took you to get in there.

media spaces strike me as being much more competitive--Disney's exposure of America would be more overt if it was more like Times Square, with Cingular and Cup o'Noodle ads jumping out into your face from all over. the whole idea behind Disneyland teaching us about mediated spaces in America seemed a little silly, because it came across like that's what Disney set out to do in the first place. obviously it's just some person's reading into the existence of Disneyland, so i guess the main issue i have with it is i disagree with it.

other than that, non-places being defined by their content rather than their history or location, that i can dig.

someone made a wedding cake out of legos.

it's pretty impressive looking, especially since the cake is actually solid legos, rather than lego-shells. and apparently he does this for a living...?

there's a link to one of his birthday cake projects on that page too.

there's also a funny entry from The Sneeze Blog/Zine about the new thing McD's is doing: affixing your receipt to the bag with a sticker that says, "i'm lovin' it." in response, the poster made a bunch of different stickers that are far less presumptuous, including, "i'm just datin' it" and "i'm wishing we used protection." funny stuff, people!

also, the japanese have this new pac-man product that basically looks like he's eating your head.

and finally, if you enter in any url at this site they'll take that page's content and make a rap song out of it, no joke.

all these links came from the pcjm blog, which is linked in my sidebar.

oh wait, i'm not done spamming you yet. on The Japan Times Online they had an article titled "For a Life Less Ordinary, Marry an Otaku."


Her husband: a smart, gentle gijutsu-kei sarariman (corporate computer engineer) in his mid-30s, is an avid collector of figya (figures) of various animation and action heroes with a special penchant for Star Wars and Gundam. He knew seven of the great classic ani-son (animation theme songs) by heart, and liked to sing them out loud, at the top of his lungs while driving. He never failed to get up at 7:30 on Sunday mornings to watch a cult '70s anime rerun on TV and seriously considered dressing up as Kamen Raidaa (The Masked Rider) for his wedding until his mother wept and begged him not to.

reading this article reminded me of why i don't date hardcore otaku. then again, does anybody?

not quite up to schedule

i'd meant to post an edited version of my flash up today by 5, but it wound up not happening. my s.o. called me up this morning sick, so i dropped him by health services, met with some friends to celebrate a birthday, then took him back home and hung out there for awhile. then i got to drive home in rush hour traffic (yay!). on the plus side, i got gas for $2.08/gallon (diamond shamrock on corner of old spicewood and some other street). in any case, the flash is as it stands, unfortunately. my entire fridays are free, so i'd been reserving today for revising it--adding some more sound and fixing the one buzz glitch on page 4 and a sky and clouds and stuff like that, but otherwise i'm pretty okay with how it turned out.

Two Flowers and a Bee is my oh-so-creative title for it, and it's back a couple of posts, if anyone's interested. and on a random note, i've completely forgotten the "exporting your after effects file" procedure now.

maybe it's me

but i was having a bit of trouble connecting the meaning of bricolage with its usagein the article. as i understand it, bricolage is an amalgamation of things available to someone that they appropriate for their own use and derive meaning from (of course, there may be problems with my understanding of it, which would explain the trouble i'm having putting it in context here). i guess i'll ask today; it'll be made clearer in class.

in other flash-related news, check out a very cool website at mypetskeleton.com. there's a game called a murder of scarecrows hiding somewhere on it, i think (immediate link not with me at the moment). in any case, the flash is puuuurty.

edit: the link to the game is theskeletonshop.com.

edit: never mind, i get the bricolage thing in the article. apparently double reading helps.

i'm up, i'm up.

i've been sleeping for most of the day, since every time i get up my stomach makes me feel like i want to die horribly. i've been up maybe 3 times--once to call the doctor, once to force feed myself, and now. so somewhere in the realm of unconsciousness i was reminded of the flash project's due date, and i hustled on up to upload it.

here it is.

if you want to view it bigger just change the .html at the end to .swf.

i was thinking/planning on adding more sound to it today, but seeing as how my body decided it would be better to make me suffer miserably, that didn't happen.

enjoy the flash; i would've put a pre-loader on it if i knew how to. but it's not like it's that big anyway.

back to sleep for me. apparently this bug or whatever i've got is going around, so watch out for germy college kids, fellow 319ers.