Travel Mugs

This week's series of mugs are fashioned for those on the go. Whether or not these mugs are practical, though, for such a purpose is debatable.

First, let's look at this nifty little mug my mum gave me when she went to Las Vegas. It's very lightweight, and certain to fit into most car cupholders. However, it feels thin enough that coffee scalding could be a hazard.






Another mug procured from a gift shop is from Maryland. This mug, detailed with a red crab (presumably a steamed blue crab), is made of a very thin plastic. I actually wouldn't recommend using this for hot beverages, at all, considering it doesn't even have a handle. Should you choose to fill this mug with hot coffee, however, the tab on the lid warns that you should keep the mouth of it open to let out steam.




Our next mug is more of a seasonal thermos, possibly best for hot chocolate as opposed to coffee. It has a fun Arctic scene with Canadian Geese in the sky, flying into the Aurora Borealis, polar bears playing, penguins skating, and deer headbanging. The top has a sort of switch that you push back so that a straw will pop up. There's a thin "window" on the side to reveal the beverage level within. Another interesting thing about this thermos is that when you shift the mug, the images move, so the deer really do headbang and the Aurora Borealis dances across the sky.

As an interesting side note, the southern equivalent of the Northern Lights is known as the Aurora Australis. The aurora is caused when particles in the atmosphere are ionized by solar radiation.

Our final mug of the evening is also the one I most recently received. It was given to me by the same fellow coffee-enthusiast who contributed the Rooster mug and black-on-blue cat mug. This purple travel mug is very similar to the Lexapro travel mug. A thick case of plastic insulates the stainless steel cup, keeping coffee warm and your hands safe. The lid also seals tightly, which is good for preventing spills should the coffee slosh around when on-the-go. This is, by far, my favourite type of travel mug; so much so, I sometimes even use it when I'm simply sitting at home.


That concludes this week's post of mugshots. If you have any comments, questions, or mugshots of your own, please feel free to e-mail me at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com.

Why Do You Have to Prove Me Right?

In July, I wrote about gay marriage and the nonsensicalness of banning it. At the end, I described how the California State Supreme Court overturned a law that banned such, but said that there was still a ballot initiative for banning it in November. While I was hopeful that such an initiative would fail, my better senses continued to tell me otherwise. So, Californians: Why did you have to prove me right?

Proposition 8, the aforementioned ballot initiative, is a state constitutional amendment. Therefore, unlike the previous ban on gay marriage, this one can't simply be overturned by the state Supreme Court: it can only be voided through another amendment.

Florida and Arizona have also voted for the banning of gay marriage. And, what's possibly even more inane, Arkansas's Initiative 1, which prohibits gay couples from adopting.

On what were these decisions based? "Good ol'" Christian values? Fallacies about homosexuality? Outright bigotry and ignorance? I didn't understand where these people were coming from, so I decided to look up some of their arguments for why they think gay marriage should be banned, and I hope to address most of them here.

Allowing gay couples to marry is not giving them "special rights" if they're finally gaining what everyone else has, but what they've been deprived of for so long.

Many want the term "marriage" to strictly mean the union between a man and a woman. But the issue is not of gays getting married in churches, but of having government-recognized unions: something that is open to heterosexual couples, but currently not to homosexual couples. If one wants to limit the definition of "marriage", then the term cannot refer to the secular portion of it at all. Furthermore, there is no need for the fear that the government would force churches to hold marriage ceremonies: there is a separation of church and state, and the government cannot force religious institutions to do anything.

I read a comment somewhere that read, "marriage is a choice, not a right." However, in the secular sense, it is a right. If homosexual couples aren't able to access the same secular privileges as heterosexual couples, why should heterosexual couples have those privileges in the first place? Instead of there simply being a male and a female on the paperwork, there would be a male and a male, or a female and a female; it's not that big of a difference.

I've also read a lot of comments that allowing gay marriage should be "up to the people," and if the people say "no" to gay marriage, case closed. This would make sense if it weren't for the fact that, again, secular gay marriage (which is what these ballots were about) is simply letting homosexual couples have the same secular privileges as heterosexual couples. If the people voted in favor of slavery, it still would not make slavery any more right.

Another comment I've read was written by a parent, worried about their children: they didn't want their kids to "have to decide" their sexual orientation, when they "have enough to deal with." Sexual orientation is not a decision, but something already programmed in our brains, and we cannot "straighten out" an individual. Banning gay marriage is not going to make a teenager's personal quest any easier by having them make "one less decision." In fact, it might make it harder because if he or she is homosexual, he or she may see that as a bad thing and try to conform him or herself into a life that just doesn't fit, and may be ashamed just to be their own self. It's like not talking to your kids about sex: even if you don't speak with them about it, it's not going to make the problem go away. Even if gay marriage is banned, there will still be teenagers learning that they are homosexual or bisexual, though they may feel worse about it because the area in which they live is bigoted against non-heterosexuals.

I've addressed this in my previous posting on this topic, but I'll explicate again: there are many married heterosexual couples today who either can and don't want, or are not able to reproduce. To say that marriage should only be an institution for procreation is outrightly absurd, and takes us all a great stumble backwards to the Dark Ages.

And, to reiterate, gay marriage as proposed in the ballots is referring to the secular unions of couples, not religious unions. The government has no right to interfere in religious organizations (just as religious organizations have no right to interfere with the government).

To repeat a point I previously made, homosexual couples are not "sexually perverse" and "morally depraved" people: they are human beings who, instead of falling in love with people of the opposite gender, they fell in love with people within their own.

Homosexuality is not "contagious". One does not choose to be homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual, and anyone who says otherwise is outrightly lying. Homosexuals are not child molesters: there is no reason to fear the safety of a child if a gay couple wants to adopt him/her, nor should there be any fear that the child will grow up "morally misconstrued" and "become" gay.

It is absolutely sickening that anyone can be against acceptance, or even just tolerance, of homosexuals for the fear that it's teaching children "to be gay or else." There is no homosexual agenda for world domination. There is no satanic plot to turn the world into a cesspool of sin and chaos. Those are just delusions concocted in the paranoid minds of the ultra-religious: minds that crave, minds that need conflict in order to continue to believe in their religion. This "us or them" mentality is quite outdated and useless, especially now, in the 21st Century. And, when ideas become obsolete, they must be thrown aside, lest we step into an interminable spiral of regression.

Music Video Friday: Cake - "Sheep Go to Heaven"

Hey, everyone! I'm really sorry about not posting more frequently, but I've had a lot of work to do. I've still got stuff to do, so don't expect many posts anytime soon.

This week's video is Cake's "Sheep Go to Heaven". I hope you enjoy it!

Another Site to Look At

So, while I'm not writing about coffee mugs in English, I'm practicing my Spanish. I consider myself an okay Spanish student, and since the only way to get better is with practice, I thought I could help myself and others by making a site on learning the language.

My site, Spanish Assist!, is a way for me to practice what I know, and also learn more about the Spanish language. Not only do I try to share some fun vocabulary terms, but also try to explain the bits and pieces of the language so that it makes more sense to other students whose first language is English.

So if you've ever been interested in learning a thing or two about Spanish, visit there. I should note that I do not update it too frequently, and I've still got a lot of things I'd like to do, so it's far from complete, but I do hope it lives up to its title.

Music Video Friday: Blind Guardian - "Mr. Sandman"

This week's video in the Friday night spotlight is that for the Blind Guardian rendition of "Mr. Sandman."



The video opens with the members of the band dressed as uniformed women, an obvious play off the Chordettes. This cover of the song, however, is markedly different in every other possible way, namely that it is headbang-able. Certainly, it starts off somewhat sweet, but once the clown comes in, the whole song takes a turn for the hard and rockin'.

Little Billy (we'll just call him Billy because I certainly don't know his actual name) is fast asleep, when a clown pops out of a giant Jack-in-the-box. Why a kid would have any toy that big is beyond me. Do kids that age even play with Jacks-in-boxes? At any rate, the Pandora box of evil clowns has been opened, and apparently, this somehow wakes up Little Billy. He quickly sits upright, just in time to see the Clown with a Billy Idol sneer use his evil powers to slam the windows and doors shut.

The Clown then climbs out of the box and heads for Billy, presumably to eat his soul and see if he "floats." Our hero seems to have defeated the Clown by simply throwing his blanket over the masked menace, but was instead lulled into a false sense of security: for, just moments later, three more clowns come out from a well-lit closet (or closets, there were three sets of doors). The coolest part, though, has to be the strobe lights flashing and confetti falling downwards (at least I think I'm seeing confetti, but correct me if I'm wrong). By far, this must be my favourite cover of this classic song.

August Animals!

So I put off any mug-related writings just so I could make the title with two words that began with the same letter. It's not quite assonance, since that's with the same vowel sound, and "au" sounds different from "an". But enough with the technical stuff, let's get on with the mugshots!



Our first mug of the day is a really groovy black-on-blue vessel. It is round at the top, yet tapers down the bottom into a rounded-square base. The "front" of the mug depicts a pair of blue-eyed, pink-nosed black cats; on the "back" are four black paw prints. I particluarly like the mug's handle, which isn't completely round, but instead bends as it goes down; it reminds me of the sort of lines in a piece of art nouveau (which is so much cooler than deco, but don't tell that to mi padre, who set the whole house to deco).

The material of the mug is a bit thin, so it's not good for coffee, unless you're one of those folks, like myself, who put a lot of milk/creamer in your (de)caffeinated beverages. I also use a ton of sugar, but that's another issue I'll tackle another day. I first got this spiffy mug as a birthday present from a family friend. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for it, as I use it almost every morning.



The next mug should look very familiar for those of you who've read my previous posts. This is the very same mug that I saw in Tuesday Morning. This was a gift from the same person who gave me the above mug, only this time as a way to reward me for my hard work in my education. He was there when I took pictures at the store, and I'm pretty sure he reads this blog (but if he doesn't, he should). I'd like to thank him again, this time for getting me such a cool mug. I use this one pretty frequently, too (in fact, I'm drinking from it, right now). My previous assertions on how good the mug is against coffee scalds have proven to be correct, in that if there's not enough milk in the mug, someone's gonna get burned. Not too badly, though, but enough so that one would want to hold the handle in a manner that one's fingers are a good distance from the body of the cup.


This mug is another good mug of mine. It's dark-blue-on-white, with little cartoony kitties (who are apparently sleeping) all over the body of the mug. The material is very thin (even the handle is thin!), so it's not good against coffee burns. Its relatively small size makes it for a good mug when I just want a quick cup of coffee before hitting the road. I can't quite remember where or when I got this one, but I'm pretty sure it was another Tuesday Morning.


Our final mug of the weekend was found in a floor-based cabinet in the kitchen, right behind the coffee grinder and a bag of tea lights. It was given to me by my great-aunt, who knows I like cats. This white mug is simple in design, in that it has an image of the famous orange tabby Morris, as well as his name beneath his face in red text. Morris the cat, for those of you unfamiliar with cat food commercials, Morris is a finicky cat who will only eat Nine Lives cat food. Now, folks seem to think that all cats are as stuck-up and choosy as Morris; however, my cats are definitely not snooty and most certainly aren't picky. The Misha-cat will eat cantaloupe and will kill for peaches -- or at least he'll try to knock one out of my hand. They also must have their water in a glass, to be refreshed every three or four hours, most preferably with ice. They're not picky, at all.

So that's it for this weekend's Mugshots. If you have any comments/questions/random verbiage, feel free to comment, or e-mail me at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com. Also, if you've got any mugshots you'd like to see here, just send 'em over, along with your name (or nombre-del-Internet), and you'll see them up here. In fact, the next post will be reader's mugs, since one regular reader and commenter (er, the only one with both those titles) sent hers in. I hope to see yours, too!

Some More Filler: Music Video

I still need to round up all the mugs for the next round of Mugshots, and I just recently got new batteries for the camera. Oh yeah, and there's Otakon, which is rockin' the box, so far. So, with all those excuses blended together in a nice little potpourri of procrastination, the caffeinated collection will be added virtually in another little while.

In the meantime, however, I've come upon the idea of having at least one aspect of the blog to update regularly: Music Video Friday, whereby I post a groovy music video every Friday. I could make this a tad challenging by selecting videos of non-R.E.M. songs, and then force myself to research new music, but I'll hold off on that concept for later. At least after "Losing My Religion", anyway.

The first video for this new to-be-regular feature is for a nice little tune, "Peaches", by The Presidents of the United States of America.



The video starts us out in a peach orchard, or at least one that grows canned peaches. The song, in itself, is awesome enough, considering it's about the greatest fruit in the world. Sure there's a mention about an ant crawling inside (I'll explain my Communist ant conspiracy theory later), but that can be forgiven. If there were any songs dedicated to a specific fruit and its greatness, this has to be the best. The words "nature's candy in my hand, or can, or pie" really express the many ways the peach can be eaten.

Peaches come in two varieties: white and yellow. Yellow peaches are commonly grown in Georgia and New Jersey, and have yellow meat, while the white peaches, grown in California, are much paler. There are also taste and texture differences: yellow peaches are more likely to have bits caught in your teeth, and white peaches have a more subtle sweetness and flavour. Both types, in my opinion, are simply awesome. Even my cat likes peaches (he'll try to knock a peach out of my hand)! Certainly, all these must be evidences as to why the peach deserves such a rockin' song about it.

Oh yeah, and in the video, there are ninjas. Apparently, The Presidents of the United States of America had to protect the nation's peach supply from a band of swift and cunning interlopers! For this, the band should surely be rewarded, possibly with a cartload of peaches.

This wraps up today's postings, unless I get the urge to write another. If you have any mugshots you'd like to submit, e-mail them to me at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com.

Desktop Backgrounds!

Yep, my last post was a bit different from the usual "lol coffee mugs" fare, but I'll have a special set of mugs in an upcoming post.

Now, sometimes I feel artistic, or just plain bored out of my socks, so I'll fiddle around with Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9 and come up with nifty little backgrounds for my desktop (I used PSP 9 to make my banner, too). I've got a bunch just sitting around, so I thought I'd share 'em with you.

To download a background, just click on one of the thumbnails below, which should take you to the full-size version. Then, right-click on the full-size image, and select "set as desktop background".










Again, the next post of Mugshots should be up, soon. If you have any mugshots of your own, please send them to me at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com. It also might be a good idea to write "Mugshots" in the subject line, so that way I don't immediately consider it possible spam. Not that I'll delete it, I just won't touch it.

Hey There, MacGyver

I know, I know: the May Mug Mania post is late. However, I'm working on that, now, so it should be up in a few minutes. However, in the meantime, please listen to my new favourite non-R.E.M. song, "Hey There MacGyver".



Only MacGyver could pull off a mullet.

UPDATE 8/10/08: Ever since I heard this song, I'll never be able to listen to "Hey There Delilah" the same way again.

CBS Owns the Internet

After I had just put up my post on Cectic, I started up my linklist (which you should see to your right), looking for interesting links to add. Then I remembered something so awesome... you might want to sit down. Unless you already looked at the linklist, which then you might already be sitting down. Or laughing at me. Or confused.

What am I so hyped up about? What am I talking about in this post's title? I'm talking about FREE MACGYVER EPISODES. Yes, folks, now the adventures of everyone's favourite man of ingenuity, simplicity, and all-American goodness are available to anyone with an internet connection (that isn't dial-up) and a video player. We may all now enjoy the exploits of Mac and his friends, like Penny Parker and Jack Dalton, as well as Mac's fight against his arch-rival Murdoc (he comes in Season 2). Mac also fights against Communism (ants, Soviet arms dealers, etc.) and promotes the good ol' American values of simplicity, friendship, and loyalty. Although I have to say, Season 1 is pretty cheesey, considering he's pretty much kissing a new girl at the end of almost every episode. Really, Mac, chill. Otherwise, the series is fantastic and full of adventure!



Check out the FREE EPISODES here at CBS.com so then you'll understand any and all MacGyver references I may make here on out. Especially check out Season 1's episode "Trumbo's World", where Mac fights against the evil Communist ants threatening to destroy a good ol' American's crop that had been worked on by the hands of cheap labour; if this doesn't convince you of the evils of ant society and how they wish to dominate the world, then you're probably just an ant sympathizer. Comrade.

Anyway, I thought this would be a really cool thing to share with everyone. MacGyver is a television series that no one should miss, for even over ten years after its last episode aired, its values, tips, and cheesiness still resonate today.

New Mugs - At the Store

Okay, so about a month ago, or at least the beginning of this month, I was at a Tuesday Morning store. I normally don't like going there, but I decided to come along (read: was dragged) with a relative of mine. A good decision it was, too, for the store had a ginormous selection of mugs from which to choose! Unfortunately, my camera's batteries were near dead, so I only got a chance to take a few shots.

The first mug in this evening's showcase is a fairly large mug. The body of the mug is yellow, with a white, black-spotted handle. In the blue box, in large, what appears to be Papyrus font, reads megalomaniacally, "I am the Queen." While I'm not sure about how well it would be against coffee scalds, I'm certain one may drink like a queen with this large mug.

Our next mug was just beside the Queenly Mug. This mug is ribbed in shape, painted in what I think is an awesome shade of dark-leaf green. Certain to hold well to coffee scalds, though it may not hold as much caffeinated goodness as the preceding mug.



Now, almost all the mugs there were fairly priced, ranging from two to three dollars. However, some were ludicrously expensive. Case in point, this rather nice, royal blue mug. This particular mug is made of a sort of stoneware material. And yes, you read that price tag correctly: they wanted $16.99 for their mug. While it is a nice mug, it cannot hold as much coffee as can the Queenly Mug, and, though it should be good against coffee burns, I can't imagine anyone willing to pay so much for a single mug when they can buy five mugs the same size, or larger!, for the same price. And note the top price: $34.00. I'd hate to be the person who paid that much for that mug.

Another item, or set of items, I found oddly expensive was set up on a shelf just a foot or so away. This creamer/sugar bowl set is finely decked in gold paint, with hand-painted cheetahs along the sides. The price for this set? $49.99. And that's with the prices "slashed." Their original price was, sit down for this, $150.00. I remember getting my own sugar bowl at a fraction of their "lowered" price. Certainly, they could have afforded to "hack and maim" the price further to at least meet that of two of my sugar bowls. Well, I will grant them that the bowl and creamer were rather large, but not by much.


Our next mug is sure to be a delight (or a disgust) to teachers! This mug is lean and tall, dressed in hand-painted apples. The leaves are peculiarly blue, but the depiction is otherwise elegant. The material itself is rather thin, and might not do well against conducting the heat of the coffee to one's hands, subsequently burning them. However, this mug might do well with apple cider, warmed or chilled (but not at the near-boiling temperatures of the high-octane).



Our final mug is a short, but rather cute mug. It is white, with mint-green handle and lip. In fact, all the colour added to the mug is exclusively mint-green, excepting for, of course, the outlining of the illustration: an adorable rooster (with red crest, waddle, and yellow beak, though mint-green through the rest), and some sort of plants. It seems to be somewhat thin, and may not be completely coffee-burn free, but it does seem to be a nice mug for an afternoon cup of coffee.

That concludes this set's worth of coffee mugs. Please return soon for either some filler material or more mugs! And please, don't forget to send me images and descriptions of your own mugs, along with your name (or nombre-del-Internet) to my e-mail at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com. I'd love to post them!

The (Belated) Obligatory Holiday Special

I went through my coffee cabinet this evening and pulled out a dandy little holiday collection for today's post.


Our first cup of the evening is a cute little Snowman/Bear mug. First found in the ornament box in the attic last year, actually pulled out of the box and placed in the cabinet this year of tree decorating, I have no idea of its exact origins. The mug is made of a thin material, and glossed over; cute, but not good against coffee scalding. While I've never really used this mug, my coffee senses tell me that that is the case.



Moving on, we come to an old mug that must have been in the Cabinet ever since I was a tadpole. It's very simple in design: a pair of candy canes, some holly, and "Happy Holidays", written in a green, what appears to be Comic Sans typeface. I've only used this mug for my hot chocolate, but a good hot chocolate mug it is!




This next mug is another one of those mugs whose origins are unknown. However, unlike mugs past, there is a clue: a torn, worn "Michael's" label sticker on the bottom, partially removed from washings. It depicts a Christmas Tree (or, a "Family Tree" or "Holiday Tree", as some would refer to it) with its string of bulbs and lights, and a simple, yellow, five-pointed star at the top; an image repeated on both sides. The mug is basically the same as the previously mentioned floral mug, though shorter. I've only used this mug for hot chocolate, as well, and again, it seems to do a good job in protecting my hands from indirect coffee burns.


Our fourth mug is the second most recent addition to the Cabinet, just received this past Christmas season from a comrade of mine. Its simple red-and-green stripes and spots certainly give this mug the flair of early twenty-first century design. The red circle contains the word "merry" in what appears to be a white, Tahoma- or Verdana-like typeface; either way, that's a rather accurate description of what coffee brings. It's a rather large mug, albeit it never seems to hold enough coffee. ;) I've used it on several occasions within the past few weeks, and it seems to do a fine enough job in the thermal insulation department.


The fifth, and newest addition to the Cabinet is a cute little penguin mug I received on Christmas Eve. For some reason, folks must apparently associate me with penguins, for I've received two penguin ornaments, penguin socks, this mug, at least one card, and I'm certain a couple other penguin-themed items this past holiday. So what if I wear a couple penguin T-shirts, a pair of socks, and own several plushies? So what if I tend to dress in only black and white, have a diet primarily consisting of fish, and am a better swimmer than flier, not to mention my webbed-toe condition and squawky voice? But I digress. On this mug are three rather adorable little penguins, the two outermost ones waving to each other, and the middle apparently confused as to whether they are the one receiving the greetings or not. It's apparently snowing in this scene, as shown by the jacks-like depiction of snowflakes. Upon the mug are written the words, "JOY", and "LOVE", which are exactly the things that coffee brings. As it's somewhat similar in material to aforementioned Christmas/Holiday/Family Tree mug, I've never gotten burnt hands from using it. I'd have to say that this mug is my favourite, alongside by Zyprexa mug, which I shall discuss next post.


That's all for this evening's post. Please return next time for a lovely little round of coffee mugs to promote various different psychological drugs!

Flowers and Blue Diamonds

Hey, folks! I'm back with the first two coffee mugs! The first is this nice floral coffee mug. It's large (but never seems to hold enough coffee), and thick enough so that indirect coffee scalds may be averted. I honestly have no clue where this one came from, though; I opened my cabinet one day, and there it was.




This next coffee mug is a little thinner, but just as tall as the floral mug. Unfortunately, this blue, diamond-patterned mug is too thin to prevent burnt hands. However, it is visually appealing, and still serves its main purpose: containing coffee. This mug was either purchased at a Goodwill, or some large store like Target.

Mugshots

My friend and I were conversing about the rather large number of coffee mugs I have. "Yeah," I said. "I could take a series of photographs of them and call them 'mugshots'!" We had a good laugh, when she said that it would actually be a good idea. And thus, I give you this Blogger.

Mugshots is simply an entertaining site, where I, and hopefully any readers out there, may share their caffeinated (or decaffeinated) images. I may discuss about what's on the mug, the history of whatever that may be, or just history in general (because history and coffee go fantastically well together!).