Author Archive | Mark A. Rayner

Druids, pagans protest naming of Christmas tree

Christmas balls hanging on treeOttawa (The Skwib) — A group of pagans have appeared in front of Rideau Hall to protest the naming of a tree.

“In ancient Celtic practice, the evergreen tree is a symbol of rebirth, and should not be connected with a Christian religious holiday,” Lugh Fripwhipple, spokesperson for the Gargantuan Organization Devoted to Lovers of Earth, Spirits and Society (GODLESS) told The Skwib.

“No it’s not!” said Hragnor Bootflak, High Priest of the Society of Odin Devotees (SODs). “The evergreen is a sacrifice tree — you should hang sheep testicles off it, not candy canes!”

“Wait, wait,” said Mamma Bulemia, Mistress of the Virgin Association of the Great, Inexpressible Nature Animists (VAGINA), “it’s about the love that Mother Nature has for all of us. We shouldn’t be putting them up at all!”

Randy Mylyk, a spokesperson for the Governor General (GG), said there had been a misunderstanding about the naming, but that did not please the protestors.

The trouble gegan with a CBC radio interview, when another Rideau Hall spokeswoman Lucie Brosseau had said: “At Rideau Hall, we will be putting up a holiday tree as we find it reflects the traditions of many cultures, and it is inclusive.”

“We just want to represent the Christian holiday,” another, as yet unnamed, GG spokesperson told The Skwib.

“I think all true worshipers, whether from GODLESS, SODs or VAGINA can agree that the decorating of an evergreen to celebrate a Christian holiday is contrary to the wishes of the spirit of the tree,” Fripwhipple said. “We don’t think the GG should have a tree at all.”

Other religious groups were asked to comment, but wisely refused.

A similar protest erupted in Boston after the mayor decided to name their festive flora a Christmas tree, but the pagans were quickly silenced in a series of “conversions” by Rev. Jerry Falwell’s crack “Grinch Gang”.

Alltop likes the way those sheep’s testicles hang. Inspired by the usual goofiness: Tradition Trumps Inclusiveness. This is from the deep, dark archives, December 2005!

More Christmas goofiness

I do hope this cogent observation only applies to women:

The four stages of life


Now, this next item doesn’t have the awesomeness of a monkey riding a goat, but it’s darned Christmassy, not to mention goofy: “A man dressed as Santa Claus holds a flare as he wakeboards on a small lake in Hamburg, Germany on December 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Christian Charisius)”

Santa wakeboarding with flare


Both of the above items are via the entertaining afternoonsnoozebutton. So have I given up blogging? Am I just ripping off afternoonsnoozebutton? Nay! I am also ripping off Retrograsm:

The origins of eggnog

I’m also willing to link to other writers. If you haven’t already checked out my fellow ENC author’s short Christmas tale, A Claus to Remember, you can find it here. [pdf]

And lest you think I don’t create any of my own content, perhaps you didn’t see the flash fiction below, about a certain Magi and his need to explain “why the myrrh?” Well, there you go. Merry Frickin’ Christmas already!

Alltop ONLY pulls content from other people, and nobody calls them on that! Note: much of this kind of crap can be found at my low-rent Tumblr blog, Monkey Joys.

Don’t judge me! (A post about video games)

Dara O’Brien just nails the whole video game art form, not only from the ridiculousness of the games themselves, but also from the perspective that not everyone plays them.

YouTube Preview Image

Some of my fave quotes:

“You cannot be bad at watching a movie; you cannot be bad at listening to an album; but you can be bad at playing a video game, and the video game will punish you, and deny you access to the rest of the video game. No other art form does this. You’ve never read a book and three chapters in, the book has gone: ‘what are the major themes of the book so far?'”

“Oh my god I’m in a gun battle! Which one of these buttons isn’t crouch?”

“You’re not supposed to like video games. It’s the largest entertainment industry in the world, and we’re supposed to NOT enjoy it. … If I’m at a dinner party and somebody asks me, ‘hey Dara, how do you like to relax after a gig,” it’s less embarrassing to say: ‘I like to masturbate to hard core pornography.'”

And his pantomime of what his video game characters look like perfectly reflects my character’s actions the first time I played Bioshock.

You can find the video at YouTube if the embedded one is stuck on crouch.

Hey, Alltop likes that pet a unicorn game! Via The Daily What.

Disquieting Postcards I’ve Recently Received from My Future Self

Here’s a snippet from one of my recent short fictions, published by the brand-spanking-and-awesomely-new, AE – The Canadian Review of Science Fiction. Essentially, it’s about the dangers of self-improvement through time travel:

Dude!
Recognize the handwriting? Yeah, it’s me. More precisely, it’s you, circa fifteen years from now. Good news — you’ve finally lost that twenty pounds! Too bad you had to amputate your right leg to do it. At least it means our BMI is low enough to keep us out of the local “Fat Reduction Centre.” The less said about those, the better. I hope you like the card. This is a picture of our home town after the alien invasion. Cool, eh?

M.

— P.S. Don’t sweat the aliens. They’re good for us.

Read the rest of the story at AE, and be sure to check out the other short fiction and essays too.

Alltop once married its own great-great grandparents.