Sinister, blaspheming ...penguins?

Y'know, there comes a point when people really need to wake up and realize that they're taking things way, way too seriously. Like, say...now. I'm sorry, but the first person to come talking to me about "The Passion of the Penguins" is going to be hurting afterwards. And, some fact-checking would be nice:

Secularists point out that emperor penguins have a freewheeling sexual life and that homosexuality among penguin species is quite common.

I am amused. Of course, when I've been awake for almost four hours at 7:30AM, it really doesn't take much.

This is an interesting discussion on the whole "OEL" thing. Amazingly enough, it's the first discussion that didn't make me break out in hives, although I think some of the OEL creators have egos the size of Texas.

I'm not sure where I stand on this particular issue. One one hand, I have no problem at all with graphic novels originally published in English, provided the story draws me in - Meridian, Elfquest, Sandman, Cerebus, Fable, Age of Bronze, Sojurn, A Distant Soil, and others all have places of pride on my bookshelves. On the other hand, the OEL titles that attempt to pass themselves off as manga piss me off - primarily because of posts made by the creators in various places (not just AOD), and interviews I've read. They seem to have a horrible combination of huge chips-on-shoulders and intense inferiority complexes, and it pisses me off.

Plus, the ones I've read from Tokyopop have, frankly, sucked. Badly, both in art and writing.

Don't try to sell a story to me by billing it as manga - it won't work. I don't care where a story originated, as long as it's good. Write a good story, and I'll read it. Why spend so damn much time fussing about terminology and where it's created? That's time and energy better spent in writing and art.

I just had an incredibly detailed lecture from New!Boss Lady about the innards of government contracts and aquisition. My head hurts. Somehow, it All Makes Sense for us to pay $13K for a single standard desktop computer every three years. That is, honest to god, what my work computer costs us. $360 a month, every month. And it's hardly a top of the line system.

While I grant that the entire thing might Make Sense under the current cop of bizzare requirements laws and other gobbledegook that I'm supposed to be taking classes on, that doesn't make it right. It's completely absurd - beyond that, really.

The $400 hammers and $700 toilet seats are actually $10 hammers and $200 (all numbers in this sentance are pulled out of my ass, because I don't care enough to look up the real ones) toilet seats (specially designed for certain kinds of jets) with Federally-mandated contractual overhead charges tacked on. No wonder contractors get paid more.

Trust me, you don't want me to get into any more detail than that. I have five different courses on the stuff behind me, and I barely have a handle on the whole concept. Mostly because it defies all logic, and I'm really rather fond of logic on occasion.

Oh. Dear. God.

Pass-the-Buck is listening to a band that is quite possibly the Backstreet Boys, or some other insipid boy band.

Fu-Master has been attempting to install a scanner for two hours...without the power cable. And couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Our Senior Network Engineer and Operations Manager, we're talking here.

Now, he's talking about taking two different power supplies, cutting the cables, and attempting to splice a different cable to the power supply he thinks is correct. Is it bad that I'm hoping he manages to electrocute himself in the process?

Now to retaliate - battle of the music! Perky J-pop or agressive bagpipes and drums? I need to get some dissonant symphony pieces for variety.

[EDIT] That's it, next time I'm down at PARF I'm going to be buying me some Tartan Terrors CDs. Scotland Depraved should do the trick nicely.

Does anyone know if this is an artbook or not? I'm putting together another Amazon.jp artbook order, and I don't know if I should add this or not. List provided by request only. ^_^;;

Fu-Master speaketh:

"You can't compress binary, it's already been squished."

*THUD*THUD*THUD*