Внимание! The Russian (spam) is coming!!!

Ironically enough, earlier today I was playing Call of Duty, a WWII first-person shooter game which takes you through a few classic parts of the war, from the perspective of a Brit and a Soviet soldier. I just got to the Stalingrad levels, full of fog, rubble and snipers. Good stuff. And I just got some returned spam, as some Russian is forging "thwart.net" emails to other Russians. But it looks like a hell of a deal!

I have used the Dashboard translator to illuminate some of what it means. The Russian advertising industry is probably baroque and sinister in really amusing ways.

Внимание! ДО 31 МАРТА КУРС ДОЛЛАРА $ 1 = 3 РУБля!!!
Attention! UNTIL 31 MARCH THE EXCHANGE VALUE OF DOLLAR I 1 = 3 RUBLES!!!

Рекламно Агентство «RBA MEDIA» проводит распродажу собственных рекламных площадей и предлагает Вам организовать эффективную рекламную кампанию, а именно – разместить рекламу в издания на уникальных условиях:

Advertising agency "RBA MEDIA" is conducted the sale of its own advertising areas and proposes to you it organized effective advertising operating period, namely - it placed advertisement into the publications on the unique conditions:

ВАША РЕКЛАМНАЯ КАМПАНИЯ ПО ЦЕНЕ $ 1 = 3 РУБЛЯ!
YOUR ADVERTISING OPERATING PERIOD ON THE PRICE I 1 = 3 RUBLES!

Данный курс действует на размещение рекламы любого объема в любых номерах изданий 2006 года на страницах журналов, участвующих в акции при оплате не менее 3-х публикаций до 31.03.06 г. Кроме того, каждый рекламодатель данной акции получает бесплатную полугодовую подписку на издание с собственной рекламой.

This course acts on the arrangement of the advertisement of any capacity in any numbers of the publications 2006 on the pages of the periodicals, which participate in the action with the payment not less 3rd publications to 31.03.06 g. furthermore, each sponsor of this action is obtained free half year subscription to the publication with his own advertisement.

Звоните: 8-909-630-3868
и Вы получите уникальную рекламу кампанию за минимальные деньги!
Стоимость рекламы в журналах, участвующих в данной акции:
and you will receive unique advertisement operating period for the minimum money!
Cost of advertisement in the periodicals, which participate in this:

[And there are several items like this:]
Журнал «АВТО - ОБОЗРЕНИЕ»
Официальная стоимость рекламы:
1/16 полосы - $ 600
Стоимость рекламы во время акции:
1/16 полоса - 1.800 руб.

Periodical "IS AUTO- - REVIEW" the official cost of the advertisement:
1/16 strips - i 600 cost of advertisement during the action: 1/16
strip - 1.800 rub.

I have to say that Russian is probably the coolest looking language.

POW!

Hello, everybody. My name is Jon Lyons. A lot of people think I've got something to hide because my avatar is an adorable kitten, but no...that's just how I roll. If I or anyone else ever says anything unpleasant here, just look at the kitten for a while and continue reading when you feel better. It's always worked for me.

I figured I should take advantage of my accound on old nostalgic HongPong to finally make my voice heard on the internet. As such, I had a lengthy post prepared about defending the traditions of The Enlightenment and rational thinking from the forces of Post-Modernism and cultural relativism, illustrated with extensive anecdotes from times I've argued with hippies at parties ("Science can't explain a...a bird, man..."), but ultimately my familiarity with marks on paper or screen ends when people start calling them "words." I did draw a cartoon for the paper about it, though:

Anything else I could say would ultimately be a watered-down repetition of the rhetorical devices used on Butterflies and Wheels. That being the case, I would much rather you looked at these nine drawings I did of people getting hit in the head. Standby...

[A depressing note from Dan: we lack the bandwidth to host Jon's pics in the full resolution & size he sent us. I put the originals in this folder for your pleasure. Most of the pics O pain after the fold]

Anyway, I saw Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" last night, thanks to the fine folks at the campus Hillel Center providing me with a free ticket, and let me tell you that she is without a doubt easily one of the funniest people ever to have lived. Good comedy should exist in a moral vacuum, with no concept of right or wrong, and few other people can manage to sound so oblivious to to the concept of taste on stage. And, you know, the jokes are good.

Theoretically I could contine this post and talk about how I saw Repo Man the other day and what a cool movie it is and how I finally understood it - Not really a movie to watch when you're 8. But the only reason for me to talk about something like that would be to try and justify posting silly pictures with some kind of personal narratives to make myself sound interesting. I should know by now that doesn't work.

This is Jon, signing off. [More pics on the flip... Pretty fucking awesome for a first entry --Dan]