My Win-sense is Tingling. . .

Fireman dresses as Spider-Man to rescue boy.



Seriously.

BANGKOK - A Thai firefighter dressed as Spider-Man to rescue an autistic boy who climbed onto a third-floor balcony and dangled his legs over the side because he was nervous on his first day of school.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai was called in after the 11-year-old boy's teachers and mother failed to coax him off the ledge on Monday, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"He was nervous about the first day at school, and he was asking for his mother," Somchai said. "He cried and refused to let any of us get close to him."

Overhearing a conversation between the boy's mother and his teachers about his love for comics and superheroes, Somchai rushed back to the fire station to change into a Spider-Man costume before swinging into action.

"I told him Spider-Man is here to save you. No monster will hurt you now," Somchai said. "Then I told him to walk slowly toward me. I was very nervous that he might have slipped if he got too excited and ran."

Somchai, who keeps costume of Spider-Man and a Japanese superhero Ultraman to liven up fire drills at schools, said the teary-eyed boy broke into a smile and started walking into his arms.

Win.

Schwarzenegger

Remember all that stuff I said about substance? I'll get to that later.

For now. . . Schwarznegger.

I need say no more. But, I'm going to anyway.

I've been watching The Nostalgia Critic for quite a while now. Every once in a while, he compiles lists of the Top 11 of some nostalgic category, eg. Top 11 Animated Nostalgic Hotties(Sailor Moon was #9! Otaku Power!) or Top 11 Drug PSA's, etc.

So one day, I got to thinking, "What would make the list of the Top 11 Nostalgic Schwazenegger Classics?" It was an interesting question, especially considering that I had likely spent the rest of that day thinking "How do I analytically derive the probability of a molecule, incident upon a potential barrier in a bound state, reflecting in that same bound state in the limit of an arbitrarily weak binding potential?" And besides, my generation pretty much grew up with Schwarzenegger, and it had hit me that there may be another generation of kids growing up without knowing him as anything other than a politician who used to be an actor, a la Ronald Reagan. So, I got to work.

My first problem was that I couldn't list eleven worthwhile Schwarzenegger movies. Oh, I could list eleven Schwarzenegger movies, if I padded it out with things like The 6th Day, The Villain, The Running Man, or Batman and Robin, ie movies that are either just bad or bad and non-nostalgic.

Another problem was that I really haven't seen all of the films from Schwazenegger's action heyday. I've yet to see Commando, though by all indications it is fucking sweet. I've also never seen Raw Deal or Red Heat. I don't know how I could have missed Red Heat-- the idea of Schwarzenegger trying to pass as a Russian cop with his oak-like Austrian accent is the stuff dreams are made of.

Yet another problem was what order the movies would come in-- specifically, whether The Terminator or Terminator 2 would hold the top spot. I consider The Terminator to be the superior film by small margin. . . but it's not as nostalgic as T2. . .

As I thought about it more, however, I realized that there are many facets of Schwarzenegger that most people-- ie people who don't spend their free hours surfing the YouTube-- are blissfully unaware of. For example, having taken three German classes at UVic, I always wondered, how does Schwarzenegger sound when he's speaking his native German?

So Schwarzenegger sounds. . . like Schwarzenegger. Which, I imagine, sounds to Austrians the way Sylvester Stallone sounds to North Americans.

Strangely enough, his Japanese is more convincing:

Well, I guess we should be happy that he can speak any language as well as he does. He's clearly come a long way, as clips from his first movie, Hercules in New York, show:

Here's another sample of Arnold's early career, this time a guest appearance on the TV show Streets of San Francisco:

He's not ugly! He's BEAUTIFOOL!

Here's more of Schwarzenegger's take on the beautiful philosophy of bodybuilding:

Arnie. . . I do not think that word means what you think it means. Here's more of Schwarzenegger working his magic on the ladies:

Was that. . . Stiffler's Mom at 0:36?

And now for something political. . . In 1990, PBS produced a series called Free To Choose, which laid out the pro-free market beliefs of famous economist Milton Friedman. It was very Republican stuff, so of course Schwarzenegger gave a personal introduction to one of the episodes:

I'm not Socialist! I'm Laissez-FEEAAIIRREE!

Yeah, you're not a pro-wrestler either, Arnie:

And with that, I bring to an abrupt close my tribute to the lesser known side of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And for Something Somewhat Substantial. . .

This blog is not very good.

I mean, consider my last post, a plug for a Japanese language blog written by my make-believe Japanese girlfriend, Miyuu Sawai.

Or, more generally, consider in itself my ridiculous interest Sawai, a young woman who as a teenager had to learn how to act while dressing up in a blonde wig and dancing around men in moster costumes, and who now makes her living by shilling suits.

I guess what I'm getting at is. . . I would like to be more substantive. I would like to have something to say about Canadian politics, or about life, or about science, which supposedly I'm studying right now.

To that end. . . another plug:

Terrible Depths.

I'll probably be reading this blog regularly now.

Miyuu Sawai Has a Blog.

Here it is.

That is all.

Lab. . . again.

I've got a troofer!

No, not a 9/11 troofer. This one believes that the moon landing was a hoax. He came in, announced that the moon landing was the greatest hoax in history, and showed me footage of the moon landing that contain brief flashes of light, apparently evidence of wires attached to the astronauts in order to make it look like they're in weak gravity.

He also showed me the footage of the "waving American flag," and asked me how that's possible. Rather then explain that the flag only waved when the astronauts twisted the flag pole while putting it into place, and that the flag's ruffled appearance in other photos was deliberate, I just shrugged and said "I dunno."

"How you not know?" He's Chinese. "You have physics degree!"

I briefly mentioned the whole "ruffled appearance" thing. Then he showed me more video "evidence," this time of astronauts who look like they're suspended from wires:

Oh well. At least he gave me something to blog about.

For those interested in reality.