One Take Gang

I did a few videos in one take, low effort as possible, because I work for a living and I’m old and I just don’t have much sauce for this kind of thing at the end of the day.  But I do have a wee skosh of sauce, hence why I did anything at all.  So I used those videos for three days worth of blogpostery, but they got very little attention.  That’s fine, you gotta do you.

But it makes me wonder:  If I do video content, would you like to see it be higher effort?  Have editing, better lighting, whatever?  Or is video content just not a thing I should be doing?  I trust you will not answer these questions like complete savages, thanks.

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If I turn in a sicko, will I get a reward?

Ah, it’s a good day to be alive and bearing the Mark of the Beast.  I can do commerce and have the rights of a citizen of the One World Government, unlike those freaky christians.  Man, who’d wanna be like them?  I heard sometimes they disappear leaving behind a pile of empty clothes.  Serves ’em right.  Wait, I was talkin’ about how it’s a good day.

Back to that.  So I’m out here mindin’ my biz when some christians were down on the street corner talkin’ about how much they love their savior.  Wotta laff, but also, it made me angry for no reason at all, and I was wondering.  If I turn in a sicko, will I get a reward?  Like, maybe from one of those New Age Healers appointed by the United Nations to indoctrinate the youth into righteous atheistical thinking.  They probably got loot under those cone hats with the nucular symbol on ’em.

Or they can gimme credits to use at the megastore, stock up on spiced lamb of god.  Deeee-lish.  I sure hope I can get a reward.  If I turn in a sicko.

Yeah I’m lookin at u, jeezy people.  Step on up.
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U Can’t Say Fanny on Telly

I’ve heard “fanny” is a dirtier word in the UK than in the US, but don’t care enough to google it.  There was a US band called Fanny back in the days of yore, which I’d never heard of, but popped up on my yewchoob recs.  The four ladies in the band were all great rock musicians, but I also think it’s especially cool that there were some biracial filipinas in the mix – the sisters on guitar and bass, June and Jean Millington.  Drummer Alice de Buhr is super cool (and now married to a woman, aww*), pianist Nickey Barclay was on some extra Ray Manzarek shit.  They really looked like a group of characters, as rockers should.  If this video plays for you, observe:

The whole playlist of that performance on some German show is available as well.  You’ll recognize some cool covers, I don’t know what of their originals were hits or how big they were at all.  I got curious and hunted down a performance by the sisters in a more recent year.  Check this out too:

Nice funky bass there.  Guitar sister can shred.  The end of the German show is the song “Special Care” (flashing light warning) which they really build to an intense climax without overstaying their welcome.  Good times and great oldies, as my extinct local oldies station used to say.

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*on the rainbow representation, seems like jean-june-alice-nickey would be nope-L-L-B, if i got that right, if it matters.

Transphobic Latin

Remember when some conservative twitter posted this?

This is the Age of Sin. Reject the order of creation. Revel in the annihilation of Man as the image of God. DESTROY. Plot designs of death. Disfigure the face of Man and Woman.

I feel like they were catholic, but they didn’t have the medieval decency to post it in Latin.  I tried, and would like a second opinion:

Haec est aetas peccati. Reicitote ordinem creationis. Gaudent annihilatio Hominum qui imago Dei. DESTRUITOTE. Insidiàte consilia mortis. Disfaciatote faciem Virum et Mulierum.

I invented a second person plural imperative in “disfaciatote.”  Whaddyagonnado, ehh?  Undecided on Virum vs Hominum, or if a royal singular like Man in the original could be kosher in Latin.

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Limerick Time

There once was a man from Nantucket.  What happened next will warm your heart…  I kid, I kid.  But I have no idea for a post, so I’m gonna bust a limerick, and invite any of you who so dare to drop your own in the comments.

There was a blog bunch atheistic
Who did not find gods realistic
Asked what they believe
The world has up its sleeve
They simply replied it ain’t mystic

Eh… I dunno. Trying again…

There once was a nasty orange creep
Who had a debate with the veep
She just had to stay cool
While he acted the fool
Now his candidacy lies six feet deep

Counting chickens, I know.
Well, I’ll give y’all a turn…
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Flippin my Coin

One of Batman’s enemies is a guy named Two-Face.  He used to be a good guy but half his body was grodified and he resorted to crime.  But he flips a coin to decide if he’s going to be good or evil on a given day.  This worked against the impact of a certain Cormac McCarthy character.  Anyway, I just noticed something that has me flipping my Two-Face coin.

On the day I did “Manoposting” I wrote three articles.  They were pretty cheesy, but still, three posts is more difficult than one.  On that day I got the highest traffic within the last few weeks.  The second highest was when I had “hentai” in the title of my singular post.  This poses a moral test.  Should I do more posts to garner more attention, or fewer posts with clickbaity titles?

The second one, of course.  I love taking the easy way out.  Now, I didn’t title this post Batman Yaoi Bondage, but I did put the words in the corpus of the text, yea, that I might reap the internet searches.  If you found Freethought Blogs by searching for Batman Yaoi Bondage, apologies that I did not provide that which you seek.

But have you ever considered that atheism could be the way and the light?

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Fake it til u Make it

There’s a bird species I think in New Guinea that, in response to brood parasitism, developed a trick whereby they can actually communicate with the chick inside the egg.  “Shave and a haircut,” and from within the egg, “Two bits” – or you get chucked out of the nest.  (sorry don’t remember source)

In order for that trick to work, the chick needs to know the proper response by pure instinct, doesn’t it?  Maybe not.  Maybe it works by teaching the eggy the song, then checking for the trained response on each return to the nest.

Kinda ruins where I was going with this.  I was thinking about language, and to what extent it can be inborn or has to be taught.  Bouba/Kiki notwithstanding, all of human language is constructed (and under construction lol).

It’s artificial, and that can be easy to lose sight of, perhaps moreso for the monolingual.  Good writing feels like it speaks directly from one heart to another, no barriers to understanding in the way.

It feels like that, but it’s a trick.  The words the author chose might not perfectly convey their intent; the reader may infer things wrongly due to their own biases.  Both sides can put in a good effort to speak and to hear, and with cultural common ground and education, probably get pretty close to spot on.  But you never know.

Which I’m thinking of as a writer.  When you’re writing, sometimes it comes out very natural and easy.  Sometimes you feel like the world’s biggest faker – not an imposter syndrome thing, but an awareness of the artifice of every technique you are using.

I don’t think there’s a good solution to that issue.  Some days it’ll be like that; some days it won’t.  But when you’re feeling fake, keep pushing through.  You might find when you come back to read that writing later, it feels effortlessly clear.

Or not, and you can edit or rewrite, whatever.  Just be aware, the best writing in the world is artificial too.  Bon courage.

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