Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader exhorts you all to check out our friend Skippy’s new site. Update your links! Visit Skippy often. But be warned… Some of his postings are NSFW.

New site looks nice by the way. It loads faster and is easier to read.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader had a great Memorial Day weekend. Although he forgot to put any sort of thank you message up, please know that your Maximum Leader is very thankful for the service given to our grand republic by our soliders, sailors and Marines (past and present). He particularly gives a big shout out to his cousins Karen and Cindy. Both are Colonels in the US Army. Karen is currently in Iraq. Cindy is between assignments overseas. Our whole family (and by extension our nation) are better for their service.

In other news…

Your Maximum Leader and his best buddy (his brother really) Kevin spent just a little time this weekend. Damning gas prices to hell, your Maximum Leader drove to Northern Virginia and picked up Kevin and returned him to the Villainschloss. There we enjoyed some sandwiches in the company of your Maximum Leader’s brood. Then Kevin and your Maximum Leader went and saw “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Your Maximum Leader went to the film with two thoughts. The first was that it would be good to “recapture a bit of youth” with Kevin. It was with Kevin that your Maximum Leader saw the first three Indiana Jones movies. So that was going to be good. The second thought was that the film couldn’t be all that good - so it was best to approach with lowered expectations.

Indeed, your Maximum Leader fully expected IJ&TKOTCS to suck big time. And in fact it did not suck big time. Sadly, it wasn’t all that either. If you expected it to suck big time - then you came away slightly impressed. Your Maximum Leader thought the story was a hodgepodge of charactatures of 50’s “B” movies. The dialogue was campy and forced. And even the special effects (where one would expect the film to shine) were just okay. Karen Allen’s role was merely ornamental - which was sad. And Shia LeBoeuf has a silly girl’s name.

The best that can be said of this film is that in 20 years some 13 year old kid might really enjoy it on a rainy Saturday morning on TV. That is assuming that there is TV 20 years from now and 13 year old kids might watch it.

Your Maximum Leader belives that this past Saturday is the only time he will ever see IJ&TKOTCS. (It is possible that at some point in the future your Maximum Leader might see the movie on TV and stop his incessant channel surfing to watch for a few minutes.)

Anyhoo…

It was very good to see Kevin. Your Maximum Leader is happy that Kevin is on the road fulfilling his wish to walk across America exploring themes of religous diversity around this nation. Kevin is now in Blaine, Washington at the beginning of his journey. Your Maximum Leader prays for Kevin’s safety and good fortune on the road. Fare thee well Kevin. I look forward to welcoming you home after a great journey.

And lastly…

Villainette #1 must be the lucky charm for the Washington Nationals. This past Sunday, your Maximum Leader and his eldest child went to the Nats/Brew Crew matinee. This was, perhaps, the 9th or 10th Nats game Villainette #1 has been to see in person. In all those games, she’s never seen the Nats lose. Your Maximum Leader was sure by the middle of the 9th inning on Sunday that his daughter’s luck was going to change. The Nats were down and it wasn’t looking good. Then all of a sudden they got men on base, men were batted over, and Elijah Dukes scored the winning run on a wild pitch. It was incredible. Then when it was all over, your Maximum Leader and his daughter went down on to the field (and she ran the bases - along with a few hundred other kids…). It was a great Sunday afternoon.

Except for one thing…

This is the “lessons learnt” part of the post…

Your Maximum Leader put some sunscreen on his arms and neck and face… He forgot to put sunscreen on his legs. Now his knees (and pretty much only his knees) are so damned sunburnt that it is painful to do just about everything involving movement of his legs. Indeed, the sunburn on one side (the right) is so bad that it seems as though it is actually swelling.

Lesson is - wear sunscreen.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been lazy. He had plenty of time to write up a whole bunch of post over the weekend and then schedule them to magically appear throughout the week. But instead, he opted to do play outside with his kids. Then he decided to play inside (sometimes with and sometimes without) his kids on his newly refurbished X-box.

Did your Maximum Leader explain what happened to his X-box? Non? Well, a few weeks ago the Wee Villain decided that he wasn’t enjoying his game of Lego Star Wars. So he decided to force open the disk tray. While the game was still running. That there was a problem. When your Maximum Leader figured out that he couldn’t just pop out the tray and replace it with a new one, he sent it back to Microsoft. It cost him $100. That sucked. But on the positive side, they also went ahead and fixed that “red ring” problem too (even though your Maximum Leader had not experienced the “red ring” problem.

So, to put a fine point on it, your Maximum Leader was lazy this weekend. Sure there were many family activities that had to get done - and did get done. But then your Maximum Leader just sat around and did very little. We’ll see if he can be a little more productive on the blog this week.

Carry on.

Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is a little tired this morning. He was up past his bedtime last night. (You know you need lots of sleep to be villainous…) He was out last night (a Wednesday!) cavorting.

Now you may be asking yourself, cavorting with whom exactly? Well… It was a great cast o’ blogging characters. Mr & Mrs Peperium (and their handsome children). Robbo the Llamabutcher. The Postmodern Conservative (and his lovely wife). Lorraine. And the sometimes Misspent One. In addition to the bloggers were a number of men of God, including Father M (and his seminary classmate Father H). All in all we were a dangerous bunch. We had pretty much ever base covered. Religion, history, poetry, politics, culture, and (of course) villainy.

Alas, the evening didn’t go off completely without hitches. The Peperiums had some difficulty with their hotel. Then the restaurant gave our table away to another group. We were able to suffer the slings and arrows of fortune and have a great time. Your Maximum Leader was glad to be able to get together with so many great people. He hopes to be able to get together with those in the group who are local more frequently in the future (perhaps as the pace of DC life slows somewhat in the sultry summer).

Your Maximum Leader is sure that the Peperiums (Peperii?) and Fathers M and H enjoy their mass with the Pope today. It was interesting to learn that this morning at 4am there was a mass held at Nationals Park. You might think that is an odd time to have a “run through” but the real purpose of the early AM mass was to consecrate the 46,000-odd hosts required for communion today. That is one of those interesting factoids that your Maximum Leader is sure he’ll be hearing on the newcasts tonight. Just remember you read it here first.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is returned from a week in Vegas. Ah… Las Vegas… That city can bring out the worst in a person. Luckily, it did not bring out the worst in your Maximum Leader. He came home only about $50 down and with fun memories of seeing Penn & Teller and Barry Manilow. (Excursus: If you are a personal friend of your Maximum Leader and remember seeing a Penn & Teller show with him at the National Theater in DC at some point between 1990 and 1995 please let him know. He is sure that he saw the show with someone, but now can’t remember who…)

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader is now a week behind at everything. That means he might need a day or two to catch up. This process is made worse by the fact that (once again) the Wee Villain is rife with pestilence. Over the past six weeks the Wee Villain has been afflicted with (in order): severe cold/border-line flu, strep throat, ear infection, full-blown flu, and now conjuctivitis. This is driving your Maximum Leader and Mrs Villain nuts.

Your Maximum Leader can’t commit to much blogging over the next few days, but he’ll give it the ole college try…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t dead. He is just having difficulty getting onto a computer to blog. As he mentioned a few short posts ago, computer time is becoming hard-to-get at the Villainschloss. So your Maximum Leader has been thinking up lots of great posts… And letting them wither on the vine that is his clouded brain. He had a few pithy comments to make about Hillary Clinton’s victories the other night… But now you’ve probably heard enough of that and are moving on.

Your Maximum Leader might try to post a few things tomorrow or over the weekend. But no guarantees. He owes Mrs. P. some decrees (which he hopes to work on tonight). And you shouldn’t expect to hear from (read?) your Maximum Leader next week. Why you may ask? Well don’t ask, just read the post title line again.

Yes, your Maximum Leader will be in Las Vegas next week. If you happen to be in the Las Vegas area next week, shoot your Maximum Leader an e-mail. He’ll try to meet you. Otherwise, just imagine what your Maximum Leader will be doing…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to wish his good friend Skippy a very happy 38th. Many happy returns. Lucky for Skippy, your Maximum Leader will not be sending any damp underwear. (NB to Skippy: If you think there is anything your Maximum Leader can get you (legally) for your birthday - please let him know.)

You know, there are times when your Maximum Leader wonders if he and Skippy aren’t sometimes psychically connected. You see, your Maximum Leader and Skippy were thinking the same thing this morning while watching “Meet the Press.” Only your Maximum Leader was too lazy to write an outstanding blog post about his thoughts (which pretty much mirror Skippy’s - except for all that stuff about being Canadian).

All this stuff about renegotiating NAFTA or withdrawing from NAFTA is crazy talk…

But then again… Both Clinton and Obama are good at dishing out the crazy talk.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader needs another computer. Not that there is anything wrong with the computer he has. It is just that he finds that he is going to have to share it more and more. You see, Mrs Villain has her own laptop computer. Your Maximum Leader has his big ole massively powerful desktop. But now the Villainettes are getting to the point where they must start using the computer more for school. This means that your Maximum Leader is having less and less time available for idle computer use. He needs another computer. He needs a computer with which he can blog and surf the internet.

He could buy a cheap laptop.

Or he could save up a little and buy a Mac…

Oh how he’d like that… Maybe a Macbook Pro… With the 17 inch screen and all the bells and whistles…

Then again… He could buy a cheap laptop…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader likes to think that in some things in life he is a winner. Now he can point conclusively to one area in which he has won.

Venomous Kate likes him. Or at least she liked his caption for her caption contest.

Your Maximum Leader never does well at caption contests. Whenever he sees one there had been three possible outcomes: 1) Someone else thought of his pithy caption; 2) He can’t think of a pithy caption; or 3) He has thought of a pithy caption, no one else has thought up a similar pithy caption; but something happens and he just forgets or neglects to write the caption out.

But this time he got his caption in and even won.

Your Maximum Leader would like to thank Kate, the Academy, his wife and kids, his extended family, God, his loyal readers who keep him going back to the PC (nearly) every weekday, the Green Bay Packers for a great season, Lola Astanova for being totally hawt and so very talented, David Lean for directing two of your Maximum Leader’s favorite three films, Julie the Barista for being so cute and always ready with a hot beverage, that girl he stood behind in line yesterday at Best Buy who kept dropping stuff out of her purse and would keep bending down and showing off her (non-Nakedvillainy) thong and shapely arse, that old guy who always sits on his front porch and waves at your Maximum Leader as he drives by…

(cue music)

…and Smallholder, and Smallholder’s great beef and pork…

(cue music)

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader had such high hopes for his blog so many years ago when he began it. It would be a highbrow blog. It would comment on issues of the day, religion, philosophy, history, and culture.

And now what has it become?

Well… It is still written in the third person…

Your Maximum Leader was just thinking about writing a few posts. Indeed, at any given point he likely has about three decents posts sitting in his wee little villainous brain. It is just a question of finding time… He wonders if he should just try and be a periodic essayist in this space…

Anyhoo…

Today your Maximum Leader wonders if he has enough energy to blog. This has been a rather busy week. It has been busy in that the schools are in a “teacher work day” mode and the villainous offspring are being shuttled around a bit more than normal. Excursus: Has anyone wondered about the whole concept of the “teacher work day?” Isn’t every school day a “teacher work day?” Shouldn’t a day when the teachers work but the kids have off be called a “teacher catch-up day” or a “teachers need to do their paperwork day?”

Anyhoo.. Back to your Maximum Leader… He isn’t feeling very energetic today. It could be due to his diet today. He was recounting to himself what he’s had to eat. Breakfast consisted of a Diet Coke. Between breakfast and lunch he drank a few cups of water. For lunch he had a chicken salad sandwich (on whole wheat bread), a small handful of crunchy cheetos, perhaps a half cup of applesauce and a glass of hot chai. Then he drank some water between lunch and dinner. For dinner he had a broccoli spear, a chicken sandwich (on whole wheat), and a glass of milk. Now he feels exhausted. Perhaps he should have eaten something more - or something different.

Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader is tired.

Is this post banal enough for you?

Are you still reading?

Highbrow? This blog? Highbrow my arse.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader really enjoys Eric’s site. Today, your Maximum Leader read Eric’s lastest post a few times… All the while he thought of the wood that lay in his back yard waiting for cutting…

Excerpt from Eric’s great post:

…how he’d [Eric’s Dad] turn the wood to just the right angle, lean in and let his eyes search the surface for natural splits, breaks, or signs of weakness…. and once he had achieved some sort of near-mystical understanding between he and the hunk of wood, he’d steady himself, bring his mall to the port-arms position, and in one single moment of extreme violence, precision, and focus, he’d smash down on the wood…. and more often than not, he’d make the split in one beautiful movement….. and if the wood didn’t bow to his will after the first lick, it usually gave up after the second…..

Great post. Read it.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t do much in the way of photos on this site. Not much at all. That is in part because once that photo is out on the interwebs you never know what is going to come of it. Your Maximum Leader refuses to post photos of his children on the internet for this reason (indeed, he doesn’t even email photos often).

So… It was with great interest that he read this peice on the Washington Post. The piece describes how big corporations are lifting photos from the internet to use in their advertising. Here are some excerpts:

Under the banner of “intellectual property,” record labels warn you not to bootleg their songs. Hollywood studios warn you not to download their movies. Intellectual property has lately seemed the concern of corporations trying to protect the artist from the grabby public.

But in an increasingly user-generated world where the public is the artist, sometimes it’s the big boys who get grabby. And the questions that arise are about ownership, but they are also about fairness, and changing culture, and ultimately, the search for authenticity.

[…]

Photographers (even amateur ones) automatically own the rights to their own work (even online). That means others can’t use a photo without permission.

But sometimes, through “fair use,” it actually is okay to use a photo without permission. Fair use can include scholarship or parody, and is determined by a number of criteria.

Further: sometimes, individuals… can decide to give away just part of their control. For example, permitting use of a photograph as long as the source is credited.

[…]

Says Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford legal scholar who created Creative Commons, when asked about the issue of corporations borrowing photos: “There’s really no excuse for [these companies] except that they think it’s not important to protect the rights of the amateur.”

[…]

What’s noteworthy…, Lessig says, “is that bloggers, a community typically associated with piracy, are rallying in support of copyright.”

He says average individuals are increasingly thinking of themselves as artists, whose work has value — or at least deserves respect. Lessig predicts that as the average Joes have their own material appropriated, it will eventually result in better behavior from both individuals and corporations.

Very interesting stuff. Your Maximum Leader knows that he’s used some photos without attribution. He does know better (and does try to provide attribution - in the form of a link mostly). Appropriation of web images by big corporations without trying to get permission is wrong, in your Maximum Leader’s mind at least.

Be careful with your images people….

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader experienced a plug-in problem with this blog late last week. Thanks to the hard work of Agent Bedhead and Phin, all is now well again.

More posting to come.

Carry on

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader presumes, perhaps wrongly, that many of you who read this site might also read his friend Kevin’s site.

As readers of both sites know, Kevin is taking off to Europe for a few days. So, during that time your Maximum Leader is both assuring that Kevin-authored content is published along a schedule set forth by Kevin himself. But your Maximum Leader is also writing some original content for publication there.

If you are so inclined, go over to Kevin’s site (and for the next few days - your Maximum Leader’s other site) to see if he’s posted a little gem for you.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is still “vapor locked” as Joan mentioned in a comment on the last post. That is a very a propos way of phrasing it. Your Maximum Leader is just locked up and can’t seem to focus enough on a subject to write anything pithy. Somehow this condition doesn’t seem to have stopped him over the past few months when he was still able to write, although he was unable to be pithy. Perhaps your Maximum Leader’s conscience (such as it is) was bothering him. Bothering him to stop writing crap and start writing some good stuff…

Alas, this post will not be full of good stuff…

Last night your Maximum Leader didn’t think of anything to write, but he did do something fun. To wit this photo:

That is Gilbert Arenas (aka: Agent Zero) after passing the ball to Caron Butler late in the second quarter of the Washington Bullets’ eventual 103-90 win over the lackluster Indiana Pacers.

Yes. Your Maximum Leader is sitting on the floor. He was in the third row to be exact. Very close to the action. If your Maximum Leader does say so, those seats are the bomb. You have attendants coming to bring you drinks and food throughout the game (still at overpriced stadia rates plus tip - but you don’t have to mingle if you don’t want to). You have access to the VIP lounge under the stands and just off the floor for cocktails and snacks before, during, and after the game if you like. It is quite nice. You are so close that you can interact with the players (alas your Maximum Leader is not a big smack-talker so his comments were mostly encouraging his team on to victory). You are also close enough to see the cameltoe, boob-job scars, and caked makeup on the dance team. Sadly the dance team for the Bullets leaves much to be desired. Your Maximum Leader found precisely two of the roughly 15 girls on the team attractive - and one of those two was sorta marginal.

Before the game your Maximum Leader had a fine dinner at Matchbox. He recommends it to you all. Sadly, your Maximum Leader’s photo of another eating establishment didn’t turn out. It was a photo of the “New Big Wong” restaurant. “NBW” is right around the corner from the Verizon Center in what passes for Chinatown in Washington DC. This particular restaurant is the successor to “Big Wong” restaurant. As your Maximum Leader understands it, “BW” was the victim of a grease fire. “NBW” is the veritable phoenix rising from the spicy szechuan ashes of the old restaurant. It is a dive of an eatery - but with a name like “New Big Wong” it just has to be good…

Carry on.