Mickey is coming for your ass!

Some things you just have to see to believe:


Personally, I always thought Goofy was the one you had to watch out for but I guess I was wrong:

Just be sure not to f*ck with the mouse.

The surreal fate of Mr. Scott.

I know there have been many Earth-shattering events that have occupied our attention this past week. Certainly there have been more than enough to warrant me playing the hermit for the better part of the last few days. However, one of the things which may have escaped your notice is the strange fate of Jimmy Doohan.

Jimmy Doohan better know as ‘Scotty’ from Star Trek TOS (geek alert) was in the news this past week. It’s amazing how some people can make it into the news even after they’ve passed away:

The UP Aerospace payload included samples of cremated remains from more than 200 people, including James Doohan, who played the role of Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original “Star Trek” series as well as a series of spin-off movies. Doohan died in 2005 at the age of 85.

What the internet brings us.

It brings people the ability to sit in a room somewhere, attached to their computer like it was a morphine drip and spend innumerable hours hurling invectives back and forth at one and other. The surprising thing is we don’t hear of people being shot, maimed or murdered on a daily basis because of something that sprung from an argument conducted on a message board.

Someone was recently telling me a story about a woman who had her own website and was so taken aback by the comments threatening violence to herself and her family she shut the site down and contacted the police who (rightfully so) took the matter quite seriously. At the other end of the spectrum is the current War of the Words raging between Gary Groth and Harlan Ellison (and their various acolytes) over at the Beat.

There is that clichéd image of how nasty and gossipy teen age girls can be but in this case it seems like there is a lot of testosterone in the thread basically with much the same result. This is one of those moments I am so very glad not to have an interest in the winner.

MCCCIII

That‘s right I’ve made it past the thirteen hundred mark for posts and seeing as how a bunch of posts are quite wordy that’s something indeed (although I can’t help but wonder if I hadn’t written a single page of a continuing story for each of those posts I would have quite the novel).

In any event, a few posts back I was talking about how there were a couple of things that threw me last week and I‘d be lying if I backpedaled and said they didn’t but, I also noticed I neglected to mention something else that happened recently - something surprising and cool (leastways by me that is).

I was perusing one of the threads in a Flickr group I belong to, specifically Guess Where NYC. A bunch of the people who belong to the group had gotten together an easily blown away the competition in the first annual Panorama Challenge. Although I missed the event (which I’m sorry about but, which is kind of par for the course with me), one of the things mentioned in the discussion post-event was the fact the city apparently licenses people to be Sightseeing Guides.

A person must have a Sightseeing Guide license to guide or direct people to any place or point of public interest. Note: Licensees are required to comply with all relevant laws and rules, including the Consumer Protection Law. For a copy of the actual law regarding this category, call 311 or come in person to the DCA Licensing Center in Manhattan at the address above.

I was a bit amazed at that even though it made a certain level of sense. Still, one of the posters in the thread commented on having taken the test and gotten licensed.

I took the test and it wasn’t too hard. I did no studying, just walked in and took the test. But it did take 3 hours to finish. (The room I was in is used for all license tests, the electricians and plumbers took less than 30 minutes, the sightseeing license testers took 2+ hours.) They sat me down with this humongous binder of questions. Some of the questions were long and rambling, sometimes up to a page. But the good thing is some of the questions lead you to the answer. The hardest thing about the test was the bureaucracy; waiting on line, filling out forms, very painful.

You should take it. You have nothing to lose.

Well for whatever reason, something about the whole taking a test thing tweaked something in me. There have been a couple of times over the past few years where friends have had people come up to visit the city and have asked me if I would show them around and I’ve found it quite enjoyable because it gives me a chance to show off the city and embrace my inner geek. Also, I get the chance to go and check out some things I had been wanting to check out myself.

So, I took the test.

I had to drop off my car for work someplace a few weeks back and spent the day in the city and made it a point to get all my paperwork filled out and to make my way down to where they give these tests. The bureaucracy part of it wasn‘t altogether that bad, the people were pretty nice to me (it’s amazing how just having a modicum of manners will get you very far in any setting where people’s jobs are dealing with the public all day).I just went in with all my forms filled out and my checks and everything so there wasn’t a lot they had to have me do. It only became a matter of sitting for the test.

Now, given the comments in the Guess Where NYC thread I really though the thing was going to be a cakewalk. I don’t know why but I glossed over the part where the guy said it took him three hours and there were 150 questions. When I finally got into the exam room there was another person taking the test in there and she didn’t look all too happy to say the least. I got the impression she had been in there for quite some time and when she did finish she managed to just squeak by and pass with 101 right out of 150 (97 is passing).

So, I sat down and took this thing.

And it was a bitch! I mean, I don’t know what I was expecting but it covered a lot of ground with topics ranging from Museums to Ethnic Cuisines to History to Commercial Traffic laws! There came a point where I realized, for whatever reason, I was taking this thing on a lark - pass or fail I shouldn’t get stressed about it.

So, 150 questions and I haven’t studied for the thing and I went through it and answered everything in the first pass. I figured what the hell, let me just get it over with. If I fail, I fail. I can always take it one more time without paying and I can study for it the next time with a better idea of what the test is about anyway.

I finished it in just under two hours (maybe an hour and fifty minutes), you can do that when you wiz through something without worrying about consequences. I read the questions and gave each answer my best shot.

And I passed!

I didn’t get 90% or anything, but I did manage to get 111 out of 150 right (74%) and as the years pass I come to realize it’s not about being perfect every time out but managing to finish things. So, I finished it!

And now I am licensed as a Sightseeing Guide for the City of New York!

It’s not like I plan to go into the sightseeing business or anything as much as I did it for the bragging rights but, if you need someone to show you the city on a visit, well you know whom to call.

ACT NOW!

Yesterday was free comic book day and if you missed it, you should take the time out to point your browser over to the Twomorrows website where for the rest of the day they are offering people the ability to download complete issues of a couple of their fine magazines for free!

This weekend only, you can download FREE PDF COMPLETE ISSUES of the following mags, just by logging in and putting them in your shopping cart:

• Alter Ego #65


• Back Issue #21


• Jack Kirby Collector #47


• Write Now #14


• Draw #12


• Rough Stuff #3

My new robot.

So, I am really bad about washing the floors. It’s something I should do every week but I don’t. I procrastinate about it. Mainly because washing the floors is always such a big ordeal, I wind up getting three buckets (one soapy water, one empty and one clean water) just to really give the floor a good scrub instead of just moving the dirt around.

Like I said though, once it’s done it looks great I just don’t do it as much as I should or would like to.

So, I was looking around the other day and I saw this device and decided to plunk down the money and juts get the damn thing and see if it was worth it. Right now I am sitting at the computer while the thing does a pretty decent job giving the floor a good once over. It’s a bit noisy but, I have to admit to being really fascinated watching it make its way back and forth over the floor and circling around making sure the floor gets clean. I am reminded of those small jobbies from Silent Running.


image from the Cult TV Man site (cool site, check it out!).

Incredible new software?

I’ve got this incredible new software that shows how a person will look as they age.

Check it out! I took a picture of Steve Buscemi:

...and aged him to see what he would like like as an old man:


Reminds me of Separated at Birth (really the top photo is Steve Buscemi and the bottom Gollum from Lord of the Rings).

Things to look at.

I ordered a bunch of books last month and they have remained stacked off to the side as other things have occupied my attention these last few weeks. Today, I took the shrink wrap off of one and just thumbed through it for a moment or two before putting up on the shelf with the thought being to come back, sit and savor the thing one rainy afternoon.


Well, that was my original intent anyway after flipping through a few of the pages I am not sure if I can wait for that rainy day, the thing is just that beautiful to look at. I’m talking about DC’s Absolute edition of the Long Halloween. If you haven’t read the Long Halloween before now, don’t spend money on getting back issues or trade paperbacks, this is one of those things where an Absolute Edition really does make it all the more spectacular and even if you have read the thing, you should really check out the Absolute Edition because looking at the artwork large size on good paper is really phenomenal!

TGIF?

This past week was one of those weeks. Not a horrible week, just one of those weeks (and really since it’s Friday and not truly over, I am thinking I had better watch my P’s and Q’s). It started with getting one of those notices about property tax from the mortgage company and ended with finding out the car would need work on it with a number that had the mechanic telling me I could go on an installment plan.

I’m not happy about it.

Certainly, it skews my plans a bit but, giving the scheme of things and the last few years I am blessed with a bit of perspective.

See, it could be worse.

The thing I always seem to be reminding myself of these days is no matter how much life may not fit into whatever picture perfect setting I would like, it could be a lot worse.

The car needs work and it’s going to cost money? Well, at least I have a car and at least I am able to cover it even if I have to go into a hole a little to pay it.

Property tax bill comes in? Well, at least I can say I ‘own’ something that they can even tax me on.

I am trying not to freak out these days when things seem bad because freaking out in the end doesn’t really do you much good. Neither does getting upset or dwelling on something and being negative about it. Yes, if I get knocked down, it’s becoming more a matter of just picking myself up and brushing the dust off of me and then continuing to move forward in the process doing the work necessary to deal with the situation at hand.

The key is to stay focused on a goal and to keep moving forward - some days I make little progress and some days there are tremendous breakthroughs and as long as I remind myself of that and keep working to move ahead, things will be fine.

The best thing about this time of year.

Besides the glorious weather (which we are finally starting to get) is the fact that the sun’s angle during these months changes and the whole front of the house fills with the most glorious sunlight all through the afternoon. Maybe a negative on really hot days but, after so many months of winter it is a tonic to the soul!

Counter programming.

So, I got to thinking the other day I want to be in the business end of television. My first thought was to go to network’s and counter program pitching shows loosely based around already popular franchises. To that end, my first pitch is a new show about a morbidly obese psychic. I call the show - Large.

A constant companion.

I never ceased to be amazed at the benefits I derive from sharing my home with the little, furry beast. As I write this, I am sitting in my office chair in a slouched position as she lies atop me with her head resting on my shoulder. Perfectly comfortable and at peace, she actually snores (or at least the cat equivalent of snoring). When I wake up in the morning she is lying atop me and as soon as I get up for the day she meows a good morning and begins to purr very loudly. I wonder what I could have done to elicit such a joyous celebration on her part but, it never fails to start my day off on the right foot. Sure she spends a great part of the day sleeping but, there are also these times when she is just ‘around,’ in the room or somewhere close by lurking about and making it apparent she likes my company. The funny thing is how some days that’s all you need for it to be a good day.

When photo ops bite you in the ass.

The great thing about the TV age, allowing for the short attention span we as a country have, is when something is news - they cover it up the Wa-Zoo with tons of ink and video devoted to a particular topic.

So it is with the great photo op of four years past when our chief executive looking smart in his flight suit landed on an aircraft carrier and looking very ‘presidential’ announced to the nation ‘Mission Accomplished!’ Four years later there is no stronger indictment of the failed policies of the current administration than having the President’s own words come back to haunt him on the day when he is locked in a battle with Congress over continued funding of the very war over which he declared a resounding victory.

Bush has promised to use his veto power to block any bill containing a schedule for troop pullout, and has urged lawmakers to pass the current proposal to him promptly so work can begin on a new version.

Bush on Monday reiterated his determination, saying the measure would only tie the hands of those running the war on the ground.

“I am about to veto a bill that has got artificial timetables for withdrawal. But that's not the only bad thing about the bill,” he told reporters.

Seems to me if the Mission was Accomplished like the man proclaimed, there are no grounds for his vetoing this bill now is there?

Flip side to this, is I think we should listen to the counsel of the commanders and troops currently serving in Iraq but, I really hate the self-serving kind of media events like the one that took place four years back.

A new Euclidean principle.

Euclid is reknowned for setting forth some of the basic tenets of mathematics in the classical work Elements. However, I have just recently discovered a new Euclidean principle and want desperately to share it with the world.


I was a bit perplexed originally because I had thought what I was witnessing was a form of Chaos Theory but I have since revised my original opinion.

Consequently, I explain to you the principles of what I have termed A-Rod math:

When Baseball’s most talented and expensive player does well (hits, scores runs and fields well) his team loses.

Inversely, when his team does nothing but win, win, win Baseball’s most talented player stinks up the joint.

If Salvador Dali had a hand in designing our roads.

They’d more than likely look like this:

The big f*ck of the day.

So, I track stocks. I’m not obsessive about it but I try to keep watch for the kinds of things I think will provide a lot of growth potential. I’ve been pretty lucky in that I managed to get a few things at the right time following my instincts. Earlier this year I was tracking a stock on a foreign exchange. My broker doesn’t trade foreign exchanges so it was a bit of a problem as I couldn’t find a way to invest without opening an account somewhere else. Well, this stock which I thought was a little pricey at $82 a share (back in January) closed on the 23rd at $1,180 a share!

DAMN!

Mantra?

iChat because iAm?

I can understand the sentiment.

I know what is trying to be accomplished by Congress in the debate over military appropriations currently taking place on Capitol Hill. On one level, it certainly makes sense to examine the direction foreign policy has taken and the use of the military in particular in regard to overseas activity. That we need to have a debate about what is currently happening in Iraq is something we unquestionably need to do as a nation. Entreaties to ‘stay the course’ aside, we should always examine our motives and decisions for actions on the world stage. It’s a good thing.

Personally, I’m getting to the point where I grow weary of hearing comparisons made to Vietnam. However, since we have this brand, spanking new government in Iraq, duly elected by its citizens - I think we are at the point where one of the things we need to put up as part of the referendum before the Iraq electorate is whether they even want us there. Instead of drawing us in ever deeply into a quagmire, we should put it out there before the Iraqi people and make it apparent to them we do not want to stay in there country even one day longer than our help is desired. I think it would be a good thing for the people of both our nations (even if the idea might sound a bit simplistic to some).

It would illustrate our nation has no ulterior motives or designs upon Iraq, putting to rest the biggest objection to our presence there. It would make it clear to the rest of the Arab world we stand behind the ideals we purport to be advocates of. I would think it’s a win-win situation both overseas and here at home. Most of the opposition here in this country is about wasting lives but, are we really wasting lives if people ask us for help?

In the meantime, although Congress may have its heart in the right place, I can see how in some quarters their actions in holding up funding for the troops can be viewed as a betrayal and I would advise Congress to step lightly as this is a very sensitive area. Not only does it affect the health and well-being of people who have sacrificed much in defense of the tenets of liberty but, it could cause the families and loved ones who are praying for them to return great consternation because they find their loved ones are not receiving all the support and protection we as a nation should be offering to them.



I was reminded of this by an email I got from my friend Bill this morning (who has family serving currently). Just a few of the images, which while they were funny underscored there is another way of looking at the battle between Congress and the President and in the end the people who may wind up paying the cost of that battle are the very same people both sides fervently claim to support.

MR. LUTHOR!

“We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn’t want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!,” said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at the Natural History Museum.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

“I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns,” he said.

Aside from the horrid misspelling of Lex’s name, one of those cutesy stories about the discovery of actual kryptonite? That’s not the only typo by the by, I leave it to you to find the second one.

A white knuckle ride.

I have to throw this out there even though I am loathe to make this kind of comment, I just can’t remain silent and I’m really curious about what others think.

Re - Joe Torre: Am I the only person getting the impression that Joe Torre could indeed be fired? There’s been all this turmoil in Yankeeland with Steve Swindal being removed as the heir apparent. Torre’s decision-making process seems terribly askew. Let’s see, we have Andy Pettitte coming in in relief? Twice? In one weekend? Mariano Rivera coming into a game in the eighth inning? If the Yankee bullpen is so weak, why? You‘ve got Colter Bean, Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth, Sean Henn, Jeff Karstens, Mike Myers, Scott Proctor, Luis Vizcaíno if it has come to the point where Joe Torre doesn’t trust his bullpen and need to bring in Andy Pettitte for relief or bring Mariano in early what does that imply for the rest of the season? I understand Hideki Matsui, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Karstens, Carl Pavano, Mike Mussina have all been on the disabled list early in the season but, we are still talking about a team with A-Rod, Jeter, Damon, Abreu, Cano, Giambi and Posada on it. That’s 7 out of 9 spots in the batting order, if you’re a Yankee fan you’ve got to be scratching your head and you’ve got to be worried.

What you’ll notice.

If you visit on a somewhat regular basis is that the list of links in the sidebar will continue to grow until it winds up filling out the sidebar. I use the blog sidebar as a form of a traveling bookmark in that I can go to it from wherever I am and surf over to the sites I like checking out without having to go searching or loading my own bookmarks into a public machine. I’ll just keep piling on until the thing is filled up at which time I’ll go through and sort them to some semblance of order. In the meantime, I would advise checking out some of the links because there is some really cool stuff there indeed!

Discouraging.

Last night I was in the midst of composing this long, long post when in the middle of everything the browser just crapped out on me. Pffffftttttt, everything written just gone up in smoke. At the beginning of the week I was compelled to upgrade to the new blogger (which I am still not happy about) and lo and behold the ‘recover post’ button doesn’t show up at all anymore.

I can’t entirely blame blogger though, I am getting to the point where I just hate Safari. It crashes a lot on my machine and I find that just enormously frustrating. I have Firefox also and I continue to be amazed by its portability. The thing I really like about Firefox is that it will ask you if you want to restore a session after crapping out. Since I’m the kind of person who has plenty of windows and tabs open it is a big plus for me.

It’s just force of habit and lack of momentum that has stopped me from switching over to Firefox as a default browser - just the way things work with me I imagine.

In the period of just over a decade I’ve gone from Mosaic to Netscape to Safari. I’ve had and used Explorer and Opera on my machines but found I never really used them much.

At least it’s not like the days when an app crashing would force a restart so I guess I should consider myself lucky.

Culture of sensationalism.

Aside from the pictures, aside from the audio, aside from the words, aside from all the pop psychology and on air analysts who Monday morning quarterback a tragedy. Seeing all the inescapable coverage from the latest media circus and the incessant questioning about why some kind of intervention hadn’t taken place before such a horror came to pass. Hearing how signs were missed and how in the future what someone should see and alert law enforcement to the possibility of. The only thing I can think of is how sad it all is. Sad for the people who were victims, sad for their families but at the same time, sad as well for the family of this misguided person and sad for him too. What a lonely place to be and how much pain to have lashed out in such a violent manner, crying out to be acknowledged somehow - is there any other way to interpret mailing out those materials to a major news organization. There is no justification for such actions, for such a display of random violence but, with all scrutiny we are giving to this event, I question what is going on in our society that we can create these kinds of monsters. Monsters who feel so alienated, detached and ostracized - so disconnected from the world around them. Spree killers and serial murderers, is it America’s equivalent of a suicide bomber, I wonder?

I love it!

11:02 pm, tonight’s episode of Lost just finished and definitely one of the best moments is how they put little throwaway clues in the background for fans to catch. Tonight’s jewel (ranking right up there with the Dharma logo on the shark) was the picture on the desk of the abbot. Desmond in the process of leaving, is being told by the abbot of some great as yet unrealized destiny his life has in store for him and. As they cut back and forth between Desmond and the Abbot, on the Abbot’s desk there is a picture of him with Ms. Hawkins who in an earlier flashback explained to Desmond what his destiny held for him.

The team to beat.

An example of brotherly love as brought to you by the manager of the Phillies.

Speaking of sprees.

Last night, struggling once again to drag myself into the future, I availed myself of the convenience of iTunes and went off and got some ‘new’ music for myself. New in the sense I didn’t have it, not necessarily new in the sense of it being cutting edge current.

Anyway, I went out and got one song which I had heard, liked and after some research found out the name of the song and the group. The song I was looking for was Light & Day/Reach for the Sun by Polyphonic Spree. Well, it turns out they released an EP recently as well that covers Nirvana’s Lithium (click the preceding link to give it a listen) and I have to say, the cover is stupendous. Makes me want to go see them when they tour. The cover sounds a bit to me like Nirvana if the Beatles covered them, really terrific stuff and highly recommended.

Things to remember...

...if you’re ever stopped in New Jersey for speeding (or any other moving violation).

Speeding is an excusable offence if you have a reason for speeding (like say you’re late for an appointment):

Speed must be put into context, “as to whether there was a reason to be going that fast at the time.”

In Governor Corzine’s case it was the context was he was running late, late for a meeting between Imus and the Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball Team. Sounds like a real emergency for the state of New Jersey to me. Who knows what peril will befall the state because of the Governor’s absence at that meeting?

State Police Superintendent Joseph “Rick” Fuentes said the trooper driving Gov. Jon S. Corzine did not realize he was going 91 mph last Thursday night...

Let’s put it this way, you get nailed for driving 91 mph in a 65 mph zone and chances are they are going to take your license away. Take a look at this, pulled directly from New Jersey’s DMV site. You think the trooper was going 91 in a 65, I have a feeling he might have been going even faster but if he was it becomes an even bigger deal (looks at the points). Any driver in a similar set of circumstances could have been guaranteed to face some if not all of the violations below:

statute	description	points
39:4–52	Racing on highway	5
39:4–96	Reckless driving	5
39:4–97.2	Driving in an unsafe manner (points only assessed for the third or subsequent violation(s) within a five-year period)	4
39:4–99	Exceeding maximum speed 15-29 mph over limit	4
	Exceeding maximum speed 30 mph or more over limit	5

Hey, the other rub in all of this is the fact that the governor wasn’t wearing his seatbelt!

New Jersey’s Seat Belt Law: (NJS 39:3-76.2f)

• Applies to all passenger vehicles including vans, pickup trucks and SUV's, that are required to be equipped with seat belts.


• Applies to all passengers, who are at least 8 years of age but less than 18 years of age, and each driver and front seat passenger of a passenger automobile, operated on a street or highway. All occupants are required to wear a properly adjusted and fastened seat belt system.


• Makes the driver responsible for proper seat belt use by all occupants who are under the age of 18.

Seems to me, any driver other than a New Jersey state trooper driving a vehicle in that manner would wind up getting tickets up the wa-zoo and under these circumstance, you would think at the very least the guy should lose his job. I imagine the reason the governor has a State Trooper assigned to him as a driver is to afford him a modicum of protection?

Let us not forget, originally the accident was blamed on a mysterious hit and run vehicle involved in the accident:

Police have said the series of events leading to the accident began when the driver of the red truck saw the SUV’s flashing lights, pulled too far off to the right shoulder to give it room and then jerked back into the roadway, causing the white truck to swerve and strike the governor’s Suburban.

Fuentes, who initially said last Thursday night that speed was not a factor in the accident, had a different analysis today.

“Speed is always a contributing factor in any accident. It goes to the heart of what damage you may have on the vehicle,” Fuentes said in a conference call with reporters.

D’uh!

Still, you have to appreciate the flagrant disregard for the rules of the road by the very people who are charged to enforce them.

Society of martyrdom.

If this craziness in Virginia jumped off two weeks ago, I think Imus would still have a job.

This week (and for the next two weeks probably) we will be treated to a litany of images and stories about what happened in Virginia. About how tough it is for the students to deal with, the meaning behind it all, the influence our society as a whole has in incidents like this occurring and of course trying to discern what could have been done to prevent it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s f**ked up, no doubt. Some kid goes off and winds up shooting a slew of people, it’s not something that happens every day (thankfully).

However, it’s not the first time something like this has happened and I have to say I have the feeling it won’t be the last. What I find unsettling more than anything though is how we are becoming a nation of reaction rather than action. How our focus turns inward rather than outward - wallowing in the drama of something doesn’t seem to me like a way to heal, it seems more like a way to perpetuate the drama of an event and to make it more than it is.

I couldn’t turn the dial on the radio or flip a channel on the TV without mention of this thing. If it was a reference to it, certainly that wouldn’t be as much of a problem but, today (unlike let’s say 20 years ago) we have nonstop coverage on competing channels.

I’ve got a lot more to say about the Imus thing but, ask yourself this: last week all the news channels we’re talking about the incredible scarring of the athletes of the Rutgers women’s basketball team over the words uttered by a 66 year-old, white man who had little or no impact on those women’s day to day lives.

I mean, it was EVERYWHERE!

Doesn’t all of that drama seem somewhat hollow in the light of yesterday’s events? How do the events of yesterday even compare to the other tragedies happening each and every day? If car bombs in Iraq blow up and kill over 60 people, why aren’t we trying to figure out the meanings behind that tragedy? Are those lives less worthy of our attention? How come those deaths don’t warrant their very own special graphic tag on all the networks or the incessant coverage that follows such an event?

I just get this sense of Bread and Circuses and I can’t say I attribute it to a specific political party or individual as much as something which is overtaking our society at our peril.

Finding fun on a Sunday morning.

There is a whole subculture which I miss out on because of my age. I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up with the stuff that’s available to a kid today. The dirty little secret of kids growing up in my day was finding someone’s tattered Playboy in the garbage and going out to the woods to look at the pictures fearing the absolute worst should we get caught.

Anyway, I started looking for something else and came across the latest YouTube sensation - a video of some German kid freaking out because of what appears slow connection speed. Well, as these things go, another person came up with the idea to marry to another YouTube sensation of the moment and the results are hilarious.

I give you (as titled by the author and not me) Angry German Kid vs. Douche Girl:

DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU DIRTY APES!


The FDA has said the affected foods contained wheat gluten contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used in plastics and fertilizer. The recalled products represent about 1 percent of all pet foods, the agency has said.

Sundlof told lawmakers the melamine probably caused the deaths of 16 cats and dogs. The agency has received some 15,000 calls about other illnesses and deaths, but he said its main priority was the recall of contaminated food.

Just had something occur to me this morning, isn’t this the way the whole Planet of the Apes started:

Building upon the description given by Cornelius and Zira before the Presidential committee in the previous film, a terrible disease has killed off the world’s cats and dogs, leaving humans with no animals to keep as pets, except apes. In time, humans notice the Apes capacity to learn and adapt, thus they are taught to perform menial household tasks. By the year 1991, human society has become a sterile and more oppressive culture, with apes used as an outright slave labor force by humans.



Funny coincidence?

Without incident?

I didn’t even realize it! Yesterday was a Friday the 13th?!?!

Transformation.



Last year I was working for a client and I met this very talented young woman. I liked her energy, her design sense and subsequently I would check out her blog from time to time. I had wanted to post this a few weeks ago to make reference to just how blown away I was by the photo but I had the incredible disappearing template happen so I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Click on the image and check out Indhira’s photo blog.

Been really quiet around here lately.

Not that there isn’t a lot to say and not like there isn’t a lot in the drafts queue sitting around but I’ve just been way too busy the last week or so.

Bringing you one more step closer to an Orwellian future.

I came across this map during my travels among the electronic sand dunes of the internet. The scary thing about it is I have a feeling that not only is it not entirely complete but that it also underestimates (reports) the actual number of surveillance cameras in and around the city.

Notice something different?

Well, somehow the sidebar got corrupted the other day and I lost the code I had for the template so it will be a few days while I rebuild/reconstruct that info. I had made some slight changes to it but I hadn't deleted any code and the blogger people are woefully neglectful when it comes to anyone who refuses to upgrade (or in general which can hardly be surprising since the whole thing is free).

I had been thinking about changing the look of the blog anyway so maybe it was something which happened for a reason if only to prompt me in that direction.

It’s all in how you look at things.

Suppose just for an instant if you will that the planet Earth is a single cell. Earth as a cell in the greater body of what we term the universe. Humanity then might be viewed as a virus of sorts infecting that cell and then global warming a response by the cell to eradicate the infection?

Link love.

I’ve updated some of the links in the sidebar. One of them is a link to Vince Musacchia’s wonderful Soup2Nutz blog. Vince is someone who I’ve met a few times, he’s a really nice person and an incredibly talented artist - just take a look at the image below:


A lot of what I like about Vince’s work, is the almost effortless sense you get looking at his drawings. They look as if they are such simple and basic pieces but, it’s just that Vince is so gifted. The color, gesture and design of his work is all so exemplary it belies the hard work and knowledge that goes into making it. Take a look at his stuff, I am sure you will come away impressed!

Happy April’s Fools!

April 1 is the golden jubilee of Panorama’s spaghetti tree story, thought to be TV’s first April Fool.

Click through, RealPlayer needed to watch.

Housecleaning.

Over the last few days I’ve spent some time just doing necessary maintenance on the computer. Lots of it is just plain and simple file management stuff. You’d be amazed at how quickly these things get out of control. Lots of clutter, clutter, clutter just gumming up the works and taking up space.

I’ve been burning files to DVD which on one drive managed to free up about 55gb of space! On the other drive, I have finally gotten around to organizing and burning all those podcast I subscribe to onto a disk. Who knew! Just by backing up podcasts, I managed to free up a good 12gb of space and counting!

Old, new again.



I came across this the other day - it’s at least 3 decades old if you can believe it. Dog-eared and water marred it sat aside off in a corner of the basement among many unsorted and long forgotten papers. This was penciled and inked by a friend of mine and later I colored it with (I think) China markers. I am figuring this was drawn around ’75 or ’76 and that would make the guy who drew it 15 or 16 and me 16 or 17.

Don always kicked ass when it came to drawing. Even though he is a year younger than me (which was a chasm of time as a teenager) he was way ahead of me in ability. At 15, he managed through our art teacher, to wind up working as an in-betweener for Zander’s when they were located over on Madison Avenue around 40th St. It was a spectacular summer for him. Don could draw rings around me but, somehow all that early success never materialized into anything more.

Don tagged along when I went up to show samples at Warren and he tagged along when I went up to Marvel to show samples but, he never managed to get his foot in the door. Other things wound up taking his focus. He moved to California, went into the service for a couple of years and by the time he got out, drawing had fallen by the wayside. I’ve got a few of his drawings around here if I look for them. He always talked about getting back to his drawing and maybe even doing storyboarding but it makes me think about bike-riding.

I think about bike riding in the sense of when I was a teenager I would take these long, long bike rides taking me from the Bronx on a meandering path up to White Plains and back. I just loved getting out of the house and being away from the neighborhood. Last time I road a bike was awhile back and it wasn’t easy at all. The memory of the bike riding was still there as vivid as ever but the truth is I hadn’t exercised those muscles in a long, long time. Kind of how I think Don would be if he ever got back to drawing again.

Too bad really, because he was so very good.

World of men.

“Hey Fuckface?”

“Yeah jackass?”

“You gonna eat that?”

“No, you can have it if you want. I’m done.”

“Cool.”

What’s next? A candy cane Muhammad?!?!

The Easter season unveiling of an anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ, dubbed “My Sweet Lord” by its creator, has infuriated Catholics preparing to observe some of their holiest days of the year.



The 1.8-metre sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Roman Catholics mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit at the Lab Gallery inside midtown Manhattan’s Roger Smith Hotel was planned for Easter Sunday.

Last night’s news carried a story about the six-foot anatomically correct chocolate Jesus currently on display at the Roger Smith Hotel here in midtown. There are lots of things I have to wonder about with something like this. Lots of funny yet totally blasphemous things that will undoubtedly condemn me to an eternity of torment.

Aside from the fact I have the tune from the Depeche Mode song echoing through my head with one small lyric change... ‘Your own... Choc-O-Late Je-sus...’ The other things that ran through my mind was, if the chocolate Jesus statue is anatomically correct, then it must be circumcised?

No?

Jesus was Jewish after all.

Then, I was thinking if there was such an uproar over the a guy made a chocolate Jesus, I can only wonder if he had made it out of dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and the uproar there might have been over that kind of implied political statement.

It’s not shocking to me after all, I have the Buddy Christ sitting atop my computer monitor.



Still, it does seem a bit offensive and nasty. You know, it is Easter Week and that does account for something to Christians.

We hear about freedom of expression and I’m actually a proponent of it but, I think some people in the art world take the easy way out. It’s too easy these days to take a Christian religious icon and do something like this. For all the talk of uproar and everything, the gallery owner and the artist’s lives aren’t in any danger. If he had done a chocolate figure of Muhammad can you begin to imagine what the response would have been? The guy would be in hiding and we’d have demonstrations across the planet.

I’m not pious by any stretch of the imagination but, it just seems tacky, there’s really no other way to state it. As much as the gallery owner talks about his surprise to the response, there is a part of me that doesn’t wonder if it isn’t all calculated to generate as much publicity and notoriety as possible. It is not so much about making a statement or getting a message across as much as making a name for one’s self and becoming a celebrity.

Seems to me there’s a big difference between the two.

Today’s excitement.

Among all the other exciting things which need to get done for the day, managing to get on the air at WABC radio with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to ask a question about the city’s plans for the 2nd Avenue subway being built.

How messed up is that?



So, they finally gave Nikki and Paulo their own episode on LOST and they wind up being buried alive! How f**ked up is that?! Here they were at the beginning of the season being heralded as two new characters for the show who were going to occupy the audience now that the three main Losties had been captured by the others (Jack, Kate and Sawyer) and the fan reaction to them was so overwhelmingly negative they got put to sleep!

I’ve got to think this is one of those television history moments akin and a wholehearted attempt to avoid Jumping The Shark!

Let’s get it over with!

I am just sick of the long running joke that presidential politics has become. The stupid race for the White House should just start the day after the inauguration (at least that’s the way it seems to be going). It’s aggravating, it’s overly long and it distracts our country from focusing on the actions and endeavors of the current administration regardless of who is in office.

I got to thinking today how our nation had morphed into this country where more people vote in American Idol than vote in Presidential Elections even though the Presidential Election seems to be getting more and more like a bizarre reality show with each passing day.

I don’t think we could elect a Dwight D Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon today; these men were just not telegenic enough for today’s populace for us to be comfortable electing them as our chief executive. The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized there is one person we should draft to run in 2008 - he’s what our country needs, no... he’s the kind of leader our country wants! You heard it here first:



Vince McMahon in ’08!

Just say cheese.

Ever since I saw the 40 Year Old Virgin, I have been enamoured by the lovely, dark-eyed Kat Dennings. There’s just something in her look that has me perving on her (and before I hear those groans, it’s kind of the way Harrison Ford pervs on Calista Flockhart and almost the same gap in years). Every once in awhile I’ll check out her blog which is plain fun and I wanted to share one of the short films she’s made which is a bit funny (at least at the beginning it is). I can remember having that kind of energy but it was a bit of time ago.

Just one more!



How can you not want to see this flick?!?!

I’ll admit it.

I’m hooked and dying to see it just based on the previews mainly focused around this image:



And for some reason, I expect this is going to make the kind of splash another movie from about ten years ago made. At the time I was working for a place doing ads for Miramax and all I saw was the poster:

Be afraid, be very afraid.

In advance of a formal press release due in mid-April, Citigroup yesterday announced plans to lay off approximately 15,000 high-cost workers in cities where doing business carries a high price tag — New York, London and Hong Kong.

The downsizing comes as Citigroup chief executive Charles Prince traveled to India to announce the expansion of Citigroup’s India operation into areas such as research, investment banking and credit analysis, as reported in the New York Times.

I came across this via the Monster blog and thought I would share it. I can remember in the 80s when our leaders told us as Americans we should be fine with manufacturing jobs moving overseas because our economy was undergoing a transformation from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. This was all part of some great master economic theory and in the end all ‘boats would be raised’ because we would be left with higher paying jobs in the new sectors.

I think we’ve seen how that has panned out. It appears instead of raising all boats a lot of us have been left high and dry as the tide has rolled out while a select few have managed to take their large boats out to sea on a cruise.

Still, I can’t help but think this change isn’t an entirely bad thing. I think the true question is whether or not or leaders have the ability to look down the road to the future and figure out ways to maintain our economic growth and well-being without moving us backwards.

Free, free, free as can be!

If the best things in life are free, then nothing beats this:

Now you can read the full first issues of the many Vertigo series that revolutionized comics! Follow the links below to download a PDF version of the first issue of these classic Vertigo series now collected in graphic novel form. When you visit the Graphic Novels section of VertigoComics.com, any graphic novel titles with a #1 icon () will have a download of the ground-breaking first issue!

Yes, that’s right all the great Vertigo titles that have made it into trade paperback form now have their first issues available online for free in pdf form! Can’t beat that!

I’m not buying it.

Scarlett Johansson stares me right in the eye and says the following words: “I think I look kind of like a boy.”

I saw this stupid headline in the Parade insert in Sunday’s paper and the first thing I thought to myself was how transparent can you get fishing for compliments. Yeah, she really looks boyish all right... I’ll bet.

Rediscovery.

Every now and then, I’ll revisit something that was a great love of mine in younger years.

Friday, the mail held two of the latest things to pop up in my Netflix queue. One of the flicks was The Kids Are Alright which surprisingly enough, I had never seen, although I considered myself a fan of The Who.


It was one of those things I just never got around to. I knew about the film but, I’d seen The Who live and didn’t really think I would get a lot out of another concert movie. Also, I hadn’t realized there was a bit of controversy surrounding the film:

In 2003 a DVD edition of the film was released. The film had been transferred from the restored 35mm negative and the audio was extensively restored. In addition to the original film, the DVD contained a bonus disc with over 3 hours of additional materials including a new interview with Roger Daltrey conducted by the DVD’s Associate Producer Martin Lewis. There was also an audio commentary track with Lewis, film director Jeff Stein and producer John Alberian. The DVD was released by Pioneer Home Entertainment. The digitally-restored version of the film was premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2003 with Daltrey, Lewis, Stein and Alberian in attendance.

Well, I don’t know what appeared in theaters but, to my understanding it was a shorter, edited version and while the DVD version is a bit long, I will say I was just absolutely floored by the audio not to mention as concert films go it is extremely entertaining.

There are a few other pieces of trivia interesting to rock fans. One performance in the movie was enough to prevent another film from being released! Apparently The Who were so spectacular in their takes of A Quick One (getting better with each performance of which there were three) that the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger) decided not to let Rock and Roll Circus see the light of day.

The Stones contended that they withheld its release due to their substandard performance because they had taken the stage early in the morning and were exhausted. Many others contend that the real reason for not releasing the video was that The Who, who were fresh off a concert tour, upstaged the Stones on their own production. The Stones had not toured in a while and were not in top playing condition, as the Who were.

Watching the performance, you can see why. It’s one of the great rock performances ever. I’ve embedded a YouTube video of it but, the quality doesn’t do the performance justice and you should check the DVD out.



The other thing of note is the story behind A Quick One, the suite of songs Townshend penned and The Who’s first (albeit mini) rock opera. You hear a lot about The Beatles making the first concept album with Sgt Pepper but, the release of A Quick One precedes Sgt Pepper by six months.

Actually spoken by me.

To the cat today... ‘You’d better not be on the f**kin stove!’

Cleaning out the closet.

Since I haven’t been writing so much lately, actually I should qualify that, I have been writing just not on the blog and when it has been on the blog it has either gone unfinished or been swallowed up by an app crash, I thought I would begin the process of just getting all those snippets and unfinished entries up and out. One reason of course being to keep up the flow of content, the other reason because of a move I’m contemplating and not wanting to lose them.

Some things are interesting, if only to me, given the context of where they place in my own life history.

This one was from about a month before the ordeal of the EYOC began which would come to occupy much of my attentions until just recently.

Power on, power off:

Over the last 24 hours, there have been intermittent power outages. It started last night around 9pm - the power just blinked off. It’s accompanied by a high pitch squeal as the CO detector shuts off. The TV went off too, nothing but snow. Of course as fate would have it, it happened right in the middle of this week’s 4400, which is something that I’m looking forward to all day, ah well.

TV came back early this afternoon but, the power was on and off throughout last night and today. I’d be doing something around the house and all of a sudden >BLINK< no more electric. Last night I know I woke up at one point when it happened, it was unnaturally quiet. This morning I was getting ready to make coffee (plowing my way through a sink full of dishes) and >BLINK< no more electric. I just kept at the dishes and sure enough just about the time I was through, the power came back on (which was good as the stove is electric - no power, no coffee).

It reminded me of something that happened last week, an entry that got gobbled up by an inadvertent power blip.

One of the innumerable responsibilities around here is the care and maintenance of the EYOC. The EYOC differs from the FYOC in that a FYOC is infinitely more manageable. Those not familiar with the acronyms, EYOC stands for Eighty Year Old Child, a rather apt description of dealing with an Octogenarian parent - FYOC being a Five Year Old Child.

Over the last few weeks, the EYOC has fared well with me managing to get some sorely needed maintenance done around and about his suite. Being bachelor guy, these things don’t come naturally to me but, even an ill kept, alley cat bachelor allows that there comes a point when a mess can no longer be ignored. Consequently, there has been much moving of furniture, making less clutter for the EYOC (clear passages being a major point of concern for increasingly unsteady legs). The installation of the air conditioner (a project which languished for a long time) was finally completed. Much vacuuming and cleaning - even I am taken aback and still sniffling from the dust bunnies whose anger was incurred. A new bed even made it’s way into the EYOC’s life.

Think of it as something along the lines of a ‘Craftmatic Lite.’ Basically, it’s a twin that is completely adjustable (head and feet). It took the place of an old queen that somehow survived over 20 years and had sags in its sags. Somewhat like an old junker sitting in the front yard of a run down house, the thing was even up on bricks to give it an incline and help the EYOC sleep somewhat better (this an invention of his very own design).

So, new bed works better than old bed although there still seems to be some talk about being sure if it is the ‘right size’ and all.

—8.15.05

Surprisingly enough, although there seemed to be this stretch where the power was going off for a while I can’t remember it crapping out since. The other thing that comes to mind is that those last few months the EYOC was home before his sojourn through the world of docs and hospitals, he was being well cared for. I had spent a lot of time those months before just cleaning up after him and making his life easier and better. Something I can be glad of given the course of events.

There ’s no law against stupidity...

Harper told three friends he was sitting with that he was going to test whether the net would hold his weight – and then he jumped, police said.

“The next thing you know, you don't see him anymore. You saw him on the net,” said 18-year-old Mike Spadafino, one of Harper’s friends.

The idiot fan that wound up on the net behind home plate at the Yankee game last night. Testing a theory but, never thinking about the consequences to the people beneath him should the net prove to be too weak. File this under blatant stupidity – used to be things like this were good for weeding out the gene pool (natural selection at its finest) but, in today’s society it’ll probably wind up as a court case with the Yankees being sued on the grounds of some supposed negligence.

—8.10.05

I believe the guy was ultimately charged with a crime and part of his sentence was being banned from Yankee Stadium but, somehow I found it emblematic of all the cretins who came crawling out of the woodwork to become ‘lifelong’ Yankee fans once the Yankees started to hit that spectacular streak in the mid 90’s. I was a big Yankee fan for a long time but, as they started getting better as a team in the early 90’s you could see the change in the people coming to games.

When they were a fifth place team, the people in the stands were true baseball fans who loved their team (the Yankees). When the team got more and more successful on the field there suddenly appeared a whole legion of brutish, loud-mouthed, ill-mannered, drunken fans (usually men in their late teens through early 30’s). It made for a less than desirable Stadium experience. I bought a woman from work one time and had to ask some guys to watch their language that was embarrassing even to me (and I swear like a sailor) just for the benefit of my companion and some children in the general area.

Funny thing is I’ve taken people with me to Shea, people who are Yankee fans and even they admit the whole Shea Stadium experience is much more fan friendly and family oriented to the point where if they were to bring kids or wives to the game they would opt for Shea over Yankee Stadium. I think it speaks to the Yankee organization failing their fans.

Brutality...

How do you judge someone’s worth in your life? You sit down and level out the good versus the bad.

I’m trying to be a bit more optimistic these days and turn a blind eye to certain shortcomings in people. I’ve got more than my own fair share so, I don’t really think it’s right to hold someone else’s failings under a microscope. Life’s too short, there’s too much to do and wasting your time on the negative is never a good idea. Plus being around people, means taking the good with the bad.

Sitting around John’s house. with a drawing of a person while we sat around and listened to an inane phone conversation that had been taped with the words “actual voice of...” and laughing very long and very hard.

—8.6.05

An incomplete entry about a cancerous person long since removed from life, someone not even worth wasting time on.

Funny things about people you know...

I’m on what amounts to a very weird schedule with the heat and everything. This results in me being online at weird hours with the TV on in the background - days are usually spent in absolute quiet trying to get things done.

The last week or two have been very interesting in a bunch of ways.

I’ve been cloistered for the most part, choosing to focus on finishing all those things I work so hard to avoid. If there is one constant in my life, it is that is marked by periods where I just remove myself from things for awhile and try to do the business of taken care of moi and assessing what direction I want to focus in for the future.

In the meantime, I am sure the world is full of all these people I know who are leading the most wonderful lives. Rewarding, fulfilling lives, full of excitement and adventure, nothing but wonderful things and oh, of course, I am missing out on the big party that is going on for everyone else while I sit around. This is the kind of thing up until a few years back I was telling myself and feeling despondent over until it was pointed out to me (through therapy and much life experience) that everyone pretty much has the same kind of crappy life with its ups and downs. The other thing is that you mainly hear about only the good stuff as opposed to the bad.

A couple of things that came to light recently that were once again a reminder of the old saw that the grass is not always greener.

First, I found out a former friend of mine who I had long ago lost touch with had just spent a nice little ten-month stint in prison (it is just amazing the things you can find on the internet, amazing and scary). The information came my way in the form of a dozen or so very disturbing pictures taken of said friend throughout his progress through the penal system of the state where he was incarcerated. The pictures were upsetting. Even though we had a falling out (over a woman, of course), I still didn’t wish the guy ill - and yes, I was the transgressor.

The photos followed the journey from the initial arrest, to sentencing and then subsequent intervals thereafter. The thing I noticed was how at the arrest, my friend had his normal hair, after sentencing his head was shaved and then over the next few months his hair slowly grew back. He had street clothes on in the first few photos, the state issue orange jumpsuit in the next few and then some kind of janitorial green outfit towards the end.

Now, beyond the fact that something like this causes one great embarrassment (it’s not information you really want to broadcast) and the fact I would imagine pity on my part was something which would be welcomed, I still found myself feeling really, really bad for the guy. How badly does your life have to go off the rails that you wind up doing time? This is someone who went to and graduated law school! I just can’t figure how you could be so together as to make it all the way through the hell that is supposed to be law school and then screw up like this. I couldn’t make it through law school (even though a part of me thought about it at one time).

Then, a lot of it had to do with...

—8.5.05

Well, I imagine I’ll never finish that thought. I haven’t heard anything since about the person in question suffice to say it still strikes me as sad, shocking although not surprising what had happened. You hope something like this happens and it works to the person’s benefit. They come to a low-water mark in their lives and it forces them to take stock of themselves but, in such a way that they never return to such a low point. I don’t know if that has happened or not. I haven’t heard anything and my attempts at securing additional information have gone for naught but, I really, really wish the guy in question the best because for all his lapses (and there were many which have nothing to do with me), I never though of him as purposely malicious and it’s a shame to see someone you hold in high regard stumble.

The fuck in me...

I’ve been trying to find another all-purpose word for my vocabulary lately. Something that would serve a broad purpose of being an adjective, noun, or verb depending upon the usage. It seems my old pal, “Fuck” just isn’t in fashion the way it used to be.

There has always been an uneasy alliance between us - the word fuck and me. Fuck is just the old friend in my dialogue I lapse into out of habit and laziness. Unfortunately, through the years I’ve become increasingly aware (as evidenced by the many times I will try to forcefully use it in this entry).

—8.3.05

I still have yet to remove that word from my vocabulary although I have noticed two people I know who have successfully made the transition over to the substitute ‘Frik’ which I consider to be Fuck lite. It’s interesting to mark how much their language is peppered with the word though which is kind of funny and even though they use F-lite, every time they use Frik you still get a sense that it’s Fuck they are reaching for.

Important no longer...

There is an undoubtedly a transitory nature to life. I’ve noted in the past how we all have this tendency to occupy ourselves with the bubble of the present, not overly concerned with anything beyond the immediate past or immediate future. You wake up and a bunch of years go by without you’re really noticing - where did that time go? So, how important are the things we make important? Slights, feuds, and all those things we exert energy on which are little more than distractions for any of us.

The reason this line of thinking arises, stems from two things which came to light over the past week...

First, was a conversation with a friend. It involved a conflict between him and an estranged sibling brewing for years. Akin to neighboring countries who find themselves at odds, resulting in the sporadic border skirmish, this friend found himself enmeshed in righteous indignation over the most recent slight in a litany of many. Not that there aren’t a ton of other distractions to occupy my friend in his life currently. Fueled by his indignation, he was ready to embark on a full-scale war. No amount of effort and time would be too great to avenge this insult and balance the scales.

He asked for counsel and I found myself telling him to let it go. Imagine that, me of all people telling someone to let things go.

Next up, was idling away sometime doing the Yahoo image search entering names of people I’d lost touch with and discovering a former close friend had been incarcerated for almost a year.

—7.31.05

It took me a second to remember whom I was referring to in that post. Now that I did, I can’t really say whether or not things ever got resolved between the two siblings although the friend in question has since moved quite a distance away which makes the whole dispute very easy to manage. Physical distance between the two parties means whatever lingering animosity between the two can stay unresolved since they seldom enter into each other’s orbit.

Again, the mention of the incarcerated friend that at the time was just the most disturbing news.

The many jobs...

I haven’t been doing the graphics thing so much lately. It’s not that I’ve missed it and it’s not that I haven’t been busy. As I had observed a few weeks back, someone had asked me at a function what I was doing these days and I had replied, ‘nothing.’

I had replied in that fashion because generally when I am asked that question I get the sense the person asking it, is referring to where I’m working at the moment. Since I hadn’t been doing much freelance lately, I responded ‘nothing.’ In retrospect, when I thought about the question (and my response) over the subsequent weeks, it occurred to me how much of a person’s identity is wrapped around what they do for a living.

I guess it’s the way our society is structured, you meet someone for the first time and within the first several minutes of your acquaintance you ask him or her or they ask you, “So, what do you do (for a living)?” It’s such a seemingly innocuous and harmless question but, what it does is give you the parameters within which you judge a person or are judged by them. If you doubt me on this, try it the next few times you meet someone. Give a group of different people different responses (professions) and see how they react. I truly believe you’ll get a big difference in the response if you say something like theoretical physicist as opposed to garbage man.

It’s the American version of the caste system. A way that society operates and your very own special place in society’s pecking order.

Anyway, what bought on these musings was how I choose to occupy my days recently. They are not eventful or exciting but, I find they rocket by and generally are extremely satisfying.

—7.28.05

Looking at this I realize the last two years have been marked by a definite slowdown in terms of the career thing. It was partially intentional, partially by accident. However, I find I still feel the same way about how we choose to ‘brand’ ourselves by the work we do.

That‘s always bothered me to a certain extent. Maybe it’s a sign of not being able to grow up in a way because when you think about it, adults are the ones who classify themselves, children don’t do such things. As a matter of fact a big question for adults is, ‘So, what do you want to be when you grow up?’

The question is geared towards generating an answer which is occupation based: I want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a fireman! We carry this questioning over into our adult lives when meeting other adults we ask that same question which was so readily foisted upon us as children.

However, do we really want to define our lives this way? Especially in today’s marketplace, where jobs themselves are so transitory in nature. If we define ourselves by our jobs and we wind up holding a multitude of positions throughout the course of our working life are we in danger of becoming a little too much the equivalent of Sybil?

I can}t say I have a better answer now than I did when I first wrote the entry although I do find myself moving away from defining myself by what I do to make money and I think that is a better thing after all.

On the heels of talking about Michelle Wie...


Again, just another comment on how different this generation of women is from the ones that preceded them. I have to admit that there is something about Serena Williams too. She is just fascinating. I mean, she looks like she could probably beat the sh*t out of me (not that that is what I’m into) but, she is really just very beautiful. Just a gorgeous face and incredible eyes and smile. Although I must say she looks like she just stepped out of a comic book with that physique. I can’t say I could ever remember...

—7.19.05

There was a period of time where I was thinking of doing something along the lines of Women I love Wednesdays. Just as a way of exploring something for myself in what I find attractive. A lot of people say every person has a type but, looking back on the women I’ve had as part of my life I can’t say that’s the case for me. There is something very, very beautiful about Serena Williams. There are some who would find her physique to be off-putting but, I have to admit I like the whole package (I can hear the ewwws now).

She is just an incredible woman.

I like women and I may still do that WILW if I can ever motivate myself just because I think it would be interesting to see the range of women I find attractive - interesting and surprising to some (even me). I always get a little nervous though about being offensive to people but, is it really offensive to comment on finding someone attractive?

1 effin K!

Yeah, I looked at the counter and it looks like it’s about to hit the three digit mark. Unfortunately, I have to figure there are a bunch of hits in there which are just me posting or editing an entry or just going back to fix a broken link or image.

—7.8.05

I’d like to think if I put the thing up sooner it would have had a much higher number but, the truth is the blog doesn’t really generate much traffic. Which is okay because the original reason I started the thing was more for myself than anyone else and that‘s what should keep me motivated.

What gives?!?!

Everytime I’m looking out the window today it’s snowing!?! What’s that about!

Still a juvenile at heart.

I don’t exactly know how I came across it.

I think it started with a search for what a Seax was.

That search led me to something on languages as they developed in Europe, during which I came across an actual group of Cimmerians (which made me think of Robert E. Howard and Conan) and ultimately found my way to Denmark of all places.

So, after this jaunty little stroll along the byways of the internet, there came a point when I was looking at the peninsula of Jutland and various related pages. Then, I came upon a map with the name of a town printed very prominently across the center and lo and behold I just busted out laughing!

Middelfart was founded around 1200 A.D. The first written account of Middelfart is the name Mæthælfart in Kong Valdemars Jordebog (13th century). Later this name was shortened to Melfar. This short form is still popular in names of shops, institutions and events, e.g. Melfar-Posten, a local weekly.

Because I like to eat.

Here’s a link to one of my favorite recipes. Which, as it happens, is what I am spending the afternoon making.

I put a spell on you!

Just another of the lovely attendees at last weekend’s New York Comic Con. A whole batch of new pics posted up on the Flickr stream.

Two down!

Well, my second article is up on Comicon’s, The Pulse. It’s about Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and has a great bunch of news about a few upcoming movies and projects including Brad Pitt, Ron Howard and Sam Raimi. Check it out!

Days run by like mileposts on a highway.

So much going on these days, so much to do!

Between the mostly finished job, ready to go aside from client comments. The new job with a deadline of today. The article finished but not yet posted. The other articles which need to go out the door in the next day or two. The client who calls for time but who is in the back seat of the bus at the moment. Plus just all the normal life things that need to get done it hardly seems like it’s quiet at the moment.

Truth of the matter is, things will be getting busier if anything over the next few weeks and that’s a good thing.

In the meantime, have you heard about Photoshop going online and being free?

Chizen said that although hosted Photoshop is meant to be a low-end product, the company intends to ensure that it is of a higher quality than free alternatives. As an online image-editing application, Adobe faces a challenge in providing a good experience for customers, he added.

“You don’t want (network) latency to be an issue for the user, so it’s harder, in some ways, than a video Remix product,” he said. “Even though bandwidth is increasing, the pipes are getting filled with video, so the user experience will likely stay the same for the next three to five years.”

What makes today a wonderful day.

Besides it beginning to get warmer (I believe we creasted 40° today). The biggest and best treat of all is flipping channels and suddenly finding the Mets inaugural exhibition game of the 2007. We’re talking baseball! Yay! And tomorrow, there’s another game at 1! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me!

It’s up!

My first article is up on Comicon’s The Pulse! Go check it out!

Now, I have to get about the business of writing the other five articles!

If only.

So, after downloading Apple’s latest update(s) last week and finding everything going blooey right after installing it, I have spent much of the ensuing period trying to get things back to where they were. Finding out later I wasn’t the only person experiencing those problems was little comfort.

You would think I would know better having been down this road before with one of Apple’s security updates. It was around the same time last year, I downloaded a Security Update (it was in March) and wound up with the dreaded kernel panic, a machine that starts up, loads and then just sits there unable to launch into the finder.

Gggggrrrrreeeeeaaaatttttt!

Well, since that time last year I have at least had the intelligence to keep working files (read jobs) on a separate drive so I can still get at things if I need to wipe a drive and reinstall system software. Reinstalling system software isn’t a problem, it’s what happens afterwards that creates a big deal. All the passwords, preferences and the way the computer operates through the main user account are just gone.

Well, I’ve managed to get things mostly back to where they need to be. I’m really, really close. I’m starting to finally learn a helluva lot more about what goes where and what does what in OS X but, I am still nowhere near where I was in terms of knowledge of the prior versions of the Mac operating systems (read as OS 6 through OS 9). So, I imagine there is something good that came out of all of this.

The only thing that is truly bothering me at the moment is that I may have deleted all my email in the process over the last few days! Even after recovering some stuff from the trash (already deleted) I’m still having trouble recovering the actual mail files. I may have to go back in again and try to do another unerase but, at least I can get stuff done like I could before I installed the stupid updates.

In the process though, I have to acknowledge gaining a great deal of really good info from the MacFixIt website. I cannot recommend the site highly enough. As a matter of fact, I was having some problems with Quark today (everything is still a bit buggy after shunting things over to a secondary drive) and through information gleaned on the MacFixIt site was able to quickly and easily identify and correct the problem! I almost feel in control the way I did with OS 9!

Once again.



The Flickr stream generates way more traffic than the blog. Part of that has to do with the latest photo set being mentioned by the Comics Reporter website. However, I am working on several articles about the con which will be posted later today and tomorrow on Comicon’s The Pulse! So, hopefully the writing will start to generate some interest as well. Lots to do over the next 24 to 48 hours and that doesn’t even include the work I have to get done around here, for clients or the snow which needs to be shoveled!

Stand the test of time.

So, today I was bopping around Flickr looking at some of the photos of my contacts and I saw one that reminded of some lyrics from a Talking Heads song. I did a little bit of searching and I came across this short on YouTube and I will be damned if it doesn’t hold up. I think it’s as good if not better than a lot of the stuff out there in the music world today:

A breath of fresh air.

Having finished the design project I have been working on (at least for the moment) and being awake even though I was up until a quarter to six this morning only to be rudely awakened by the incessant nagging of kitty who is on a morning schedule for her wet food (and who wails as if she was being tortured should it not appear on her schedule). I am going to make the attempt to bang out a few entries about things which have caught my attention as I wander about trying to get things done even though I am operating on about three hours of sleep.

On a good note, this is the first round of revisions (or is it the second, I‘ve lost track) and I’ve already addressed client comments on this round so, this puppy might just about be out the door and apparently there is another project stacked up right behind this one. So, I imagine I did a decent enough job on the thing although both I and my contact on the client side like the first draft better.

Just in time as there are big things brewing over the next few days.

The monday morning award for blatant stupidity.

In papers filed in federal court in White Plains, Pacenza said the stress caused him to become “a sex addict, and with the development of the Internet, an Internet addict.” He claimed protection under the American with Disabilities Act.

And here I just thought it was a question of being a perv! Wow, I guess I’m disabled too (LOL), wonder if there’s any kind of government benefits I qualify for?

It’s almost here



If you want to go you better get your tickets soon! As posted on their site today: Friday and Sunday Tickets Still Available for Advance Purchase online here and through NY area retailers (link this). Click here to buy your Friday and Sunday tickets now! Saturday and Weekend Passes Sold Out online. Limited Quantities still available through NY area retailers

If it’s anything like last year’s show it should be a pretty big deal!

A light at the end of the tunnel.

Six down, four to go and freedom beckons just over the horizon. Two decades of worry put in the past at last!

Because everyone could deserve a good laugh:

More from Jim Florentine’s website - this is a clip from his album, Terrorizing Telemarketers 4.



Sit back and take a listen to what is simply titled:

No, No.

Right war? Wrong reasons? Wrong war? Right reasons?

Lots of sturm und drang over the “surge” these days. It makes sense to me in a strange way. I’m not entirely happy about the prospect but, it makes sense. What I do find interesting though is the parameters of the debate about the situation in Iraq currently and how those people in opposition paint the arguments they have against further involvement in what goes on in that country. The reason I find this interesting is because there is an intrinsic flaw in their argument which I seem to notice but, I wonder if they do or if I’ve somehow gotten it wrong.

Lots of talk these days centers on the situation in Iraq devolving into a civil war and it not being our business to have any involvement in the affairs of a civil war in another country.

Okay, that I understand.

But, if that is the case my question to the very same people who are arguing we have no business in Iraq because it’s a civil war my question to those people is what about Darfur? What about what happened in Serbia and Bosnia? What about what happened in Rwanda?

In some instances we sat on our hands (Rwanda), in others we were actively involved (Bosnia) and in one we are wringing our hands while the situation is getting worse (Darfur). Let’s say we left Iraq tomorrow, for arguments’ sake, what happens then? I’m all for getting Americans out of harm’s way, sh*t it makes a lot of sense.

See if Iraq were a stock this would be akin to buying on the way down to hedge your losses, something I learned the hard way and was told never to do, don’t buy a stock on the way down. By sending more troops are we in a sense buying more stock in the Iraqi situation? I understand this argument and it makes sense to me but, when people use the context of saying we have no business getting involved of the civil war of another nation, it’s a moment I am given pause.

What are our responsibilities in the world? What is our role? I think it’s a good question. We have troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq and I wonder too what we’re doing in these countries and whether or not we are doing any good. The question is whether or not our presence there is making the situation worse? If we are going to have a discussion about our presence in these countries I think those are the parameters around which we should base the discussion.