Twitterpated

• 10:52 Sleeping with "Lockup" on the TV results in some weird dreams. #
• 10:56 Who would win in a fight between Ranger Smith from Yogi Bear and Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore from the Humphrey cartoons? #
• 12:17 I hate the word "normalcy." Didn't Warren G. Harding just make it up, anyway? #
• 12:18 It annoys me when people act like there's only one aspect to environmentalism. #
• 12:53 Sasha Cohen didn't make the Olympic team, but oddly enough, Sacha Baron Cohen did. #
• 15:54 Photo: My wife says Dianna Agron has a really attractive mouth. I think I can s
  ee it. suicideblonde: tumblr.com/xpy5t584u #
• 17:03 I guess I should figure out how to operate a business in The Sims 2 before actually doing it, huh? #
• 21:30 Did anyone really do much partying in 1999? #

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Monday Miscellanea

1. Online Presence and Future - Between this journal, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge deciding where to address a certain topic. Really, I don't use Facebook much except to link to stuff I've written elsewhere, as I find the interface rather overly complicated. On the other hand, that's where I have the most followers, so there's no accounting for tastes. I use Tumblr pretty much exclusively for pictures and videos, although I'll occasionally throw in a link or a brief text post. Twitter is for brief observations (as it pretty much has to be by its very nature; I actually kind of like the fact that it prevents me from being unnecessarily verbose), and this journal is for a real mishmash of stuff. Lately, I've been writing more topic-specific posts (Oz, mythology, video games, etc.) than personal stuff here on LJ, and I have to wonder if it's really the best medium for that. It's convenient, but bethje has said she suspects people tend to see "LiveJournal" and think it's going to be someone whining about their relationships (which I do do, but not quite as often). She and some other people have suggested getting my own domain, but I have to admit I have no clue how to do that, or how to work with it when I do have it. I know some people have blogs (i.e., movable type) on sites that aren't specifically tailored for it (like LiveJournal, Blogspot, Wordpress, etc.), so I know it's very possible, but I don't know how to arrange such a thing. And does anyone think I'd actually get more traffic that way, or would it just be a waste of money? I'm looking for input here, people!

2. iPod So You Don't Have To - I've been considering getting a new MP3 player, since my current one is now about four years old. It still plays, but it has occasional problems, and it's probably better not to wait until it conks out entirely. I currently have a Creative player, and I like it, but I don't think they make any with much storage capacity these days. I know some of the iPod Classics can store a lot of music, but is it true that you can only use those with one computer? I've heard that, if you plug an iPod into someone else's computer, it will erase all of the stored data. Is this true, and if so, is there any way to get around it?

3. This Is Not Really an Item - I already mentioned this on Twitter, but I thought I'd elaborate on how ridiculous I found it when an eHarmony commercial insisted that it WASN'T a dating site. Their explanation for this was that it was a match-making site, or something like that. I forget the actual phrase they used, but it was something that sounded suspiciously like a dating site to me. It reminded me of something I first read in a Chick Tract and later heard from other fundamentalists, which is that Christianity isn't a religion, but a relationship with God. I don't think any of them have been able to sufficiently explain what the difference is, though. Is saying things aren't what they pretty obviously are a growing trend?

4. Brangelina Blues - Well, I've now heard about 80,000 times from various media that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are breaking up, although they officially deny it. Wow, what a shock! You know, if you get shocked by really obvious things. ("Oh, wow! Grass is GREEN!") Didn't Brad cheat on Jennifer Aniston with Ms. Jolie in the first place? Not that I really blame him for that one, since at least Angelina is somewhat interesting. Ms. Aniston has to be one of the dullest people in the entertainment business, yet somehow she keeps appearing on magazine covers. The story usually seems to be something like "Jen upset over break-up," which I suppose is news because people who didn't star in Friends just LOVE breaking up. But anyway, my point is that I never figured either Brad or Angelina for the type who goes for stable relationships.

5. Haitian Satan - An interesting post I read today puts Pat Robertson's moronic comments about Haiti into context. Apparently the idea that the Haitians are in league with the Prince of Darkness is nothing new, because some Christians assume that Voodoo rituals must be Satanic. Yes, we're back to the idea that every god other than yours has to be the Devil in disguise, as if Satan really has that much free time. As the article mentions, Christianity itself was subject to that sort of slur in its early days. I can't say I believe in any of these gods, but I always kind of liked the ancient Roman notion that having more gods would strengthen the state. Really, I think paganism would work out well in today's society, because as it is we have hundreds of different interpretations of the same deity. If you really want a violent deity, why bother insisting that the notorious pacifist Jesus would have been cool with guns? Just become a devotee of a war god (Ares/Mars, Tyr, Mithras, etc.), and you can easily mix your pro-war stance with your religious fanaticism! Also, I think I might do an article on Voodoo mythology in the near future, as I don't know a whole lot about it and it sounds interesting. I do know one of their gods (or loa, anyway) is a skeleton in a top hat, and how can you go wrong with that?

Trapped Like Mice! Rats!

Having just recently seen Skottie Young's drawing of the Ozian field-mice for the comics adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz (I have the first issue, but haven't been keeping with the later ones, and might just buy the collected version when it inevitably comes out), I thought these mice might be a good topic for a post. The Queen of the Field-Mice, who wears a tiny golden crown, is prominent in both of the first two Oz books. In Wizard, after the Tin Woodman saves the queen from a wildcat intent on eating her, she and her subjects drag the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy field on a cart made by Nick Chopper. I'm not entirely sure why the poppies' fumes don't seem to have any effect on the mice themselves, but I guess the Lion wasn't really that far from the edge of the field. The queen tells Dorothy and her friends to call if they need her help, but when they actually do require assistance, Dorothy uses a "little whistle." That Baum never actually described the girl receiving this whistle is one of the more obvious gaffes in the book.


In Land, the whistle is said to be silver, and is in the possession of the Tin Woodman. He and his friends find a field-mouse village on their way to the Emerald City, and the Scarecrow hides a few of the mice in his straw, so that he can use them to scare away Jinjur and her stereotypically girly soldiers. The Queen of the Field-Mice also helps the party get through the illusions that Mombi throws in their way.


The Queen is not named in the Oz canon, but the Russian Magic Land books give her the name Ramina. In the apocrypha, she assists Eureka in David Hulan's Eureka in Oz, in which she reveals that she has a transportation spell provided by Glinda. She and her subjects also appear in Jeremy Steadman's Emerald Ring, and provide Trot and Button-Bright with a magic necklace, which provides light and sends Trot back in time.