Duck And Cover: Nozz's Side

Target: Kids?

2012-01-25T06:29:00.000-05:00

Urp. Its Wednesday, January 25, 2012, its all my fault, and this is The Side. Grabbed a drink yesterday morning from the market. The market has a deli which is pretty much the only lunch option in Sandbridge. I asked what the special was going to be that day. The lady asked me what I wanted. I said hamburgers, because I miss burger day all the time.

Fast forward through me shoveling wet sand for hours. I head up to the market to grab another drink and a bit to eat. Sure enough the special was hamburgers. Big old quarter pounders. Guy in line in front of me looked at it and said, "Burgers, hunh?"

And then the lady behind the counter replied "That's right..." Then she pointed right at me, "... AND ITS ALL HIS FAULT!"

JERKS!!

This story broke late last week, and when I posted the news story on G+ it led to a few good and pretty heated discussion. Its about the parents who finally revealed the gender of their five year old. They parents are all about keeping things gender neutral under the pretense that they don't want their child stifled by gender roles. On the surface it sounds all enlightened and well meaning. Really, its something really despicable.

This is a case of parents using their child to push their agenda.

Let's be plain: there's nothing wrong with a little boy having an interest in things that society typically considers a girl's thing, and vice versa. I've got a little girl who loves trains, Legos, super heroes, and thinks Jackie Chan is really cool. Got another little girl who like dolls and her little tea set. That's how they roll. So if this little boy wants to play with a doll, it seems a little weird to me, but that's how he rolls, and he's not hurting anybody.

But here we have parents who are encouraging the boy to play with dolls, as long as it isn't a Barbie, because she's "horrible". And they're oh so happy to put him in dresses and a tutu. I really wonder how much is this kid's choice, or are his folks coaching him into cross dressing. He's not allowed to wear "hyper masculine" things like shirts with skulls, or cargo pants.

I really need someone to explain the cargo pants thing to me. Those are "hyper masculine"? What?

Now the kid's gender is revealed because he's going to school. Here's the part that really is telling. They're sending the kid to a school that requires uniforms. So they're having the boy wear boy's pants, but a girl's shirt. So, they're looking to have things their way even thought the rules are specific.

The parents are using the boy to make a statement. Just like when those parents sent their poor kid to confront Michelle Bachmann. Sure, Bachmann is a kook, but you don't coach your child to confront people like that and then send them out in front of a camera for that "gotcha" moment. I don't care if you've got he best point in the world. You could be advocating protecting kittens. YOU DON'T PUT A BULLSEYE ON YOUR CHILD AND SEND THEM OUT IN PUBLIC JUST TO MAKE A POINT!

I want to say I can't believe that some people are this self absorbed, but here we are again.

We have societal norms. Those do need to get challenged from time to time. Some people, like these idiot parents, think there won't be a blowback against a kid. This is failing to consider all of the other kids, not to mention a serious nutters who have no qualms about hurting a child. Standing out can easily make you a target of unpleasantness. As a parent you have to teach your child about the world, and society so they can eventually find his or her own place in it.

Let's say hypothetically that this little boy just likes dolls and dresses all on his own without being pushed in that direction by his parents. The parents should let the boy know that there's nothing wrong with it, but other little boys don't do that, so wearing a dress out in public might not be a good idea.

Now, I'm sure there are people who are upset by this, and aren't happy with me not going along with the gender neutral thing. There are those people who view gender roles as a "box" which confines a person, and who would want to do that to a child? Those boxes label "boy" and "girl" are very large and have plenty of room and company. That gender neutral box is very small and the label is easily mistaken for one that says "freak". Kids are going to like what they like, and in couple years they'll like something else.

If those parents really gave a damn about letting their child enjoy what he wants to enjoy then those rules about "hyper masculine" things and barbie wouldn't be their. I just hope those hypocrites have the money for the mountains of therapy this poor kid will need later.

MUSIC!!

Couldn't resist. Well, I could have, but I thought it was funny.

That's it for me. I'll see y'all Friday.

Killers, Thrillers, and Chillers

2012-01-22T05:57:00.000-05:00

Here we go! Its Sunday, January 22, 2012, got a bunch of stuff for you today, and this is The Side. Yeah, I'm a bit video heavy today, but I've got some cool movie trailers for you, and of course our music section. I'm actually haven't a pretty good weekend. No blood (at least not mine), not much drama, kids seem to be feeling a little better, I'm not rushing to bang this out.

I'm almost scared I'm jinxing myself. Ah well. Let's dive in.

MOVIES!!!

Haven't had a chance to get to the theaters in quite a while. Fortunately, I've got Netflix and a Wii. Been watching some great flicks with the Missus. Been really digging some foreign movies section. Here's a couple we checked out this week.

BANLIEUE 13: ULTIMATUM is set two years after the first film. Yeah, we have or fun calling the French a bunch of cheese eating, surrender monkeys, but this film is completely badass. Damien and Leito team up again to keep a crooked politician from setting into motion events that would destroy the district and kill a lot of people. The Parkour scenes stole the show in the first film, and that gets toned down this time in favor of hard hitting martial arts choreography. They really do it right here going with the Asian approach to fight cinematography and pulling back with limited cuts to let the viewers really see the choreography and showcase the work the actors and stunt crew put in. The story has a hole or two in there, but for the most part its really good. The main bad guy manipulates everything masterfully. There were plenty of times I had to just sit back, slack jawed and take in how amazingly screwed up this guy's plans were. Really good performances all around. Not as visually over the top as the original, but more than makes up for it with a really tight story.

BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT was a really pleasant surprise. For the moment I saw that it was from the same production company they gave us ONG BAK and CHOCOLATE I knew I was in for a treat. I crew of young martial artists are hoping for a shot at fame in Hollywood, but what they get is kidnapped and put through a gauntlet of vicious fighters so high rollers can bet on them. This was a really martial arts thriller. I was on the edge of my seat worried about these kids. The thugs range from muay thai fights, to guy that seems more like an animal than human, and even a guy right out of a slasher flick. The fight scenes are off the charts. The crew of fighters specialize in parkour, muay thai, kung fu and capoiera. The action is as beautiful to watch as it is brutal. Plenty of twists and turns for the more story minded. Loved this movie.

COMIX!!

MORNING GLORIES #15 is on deck this go around. Gym class continues as Zoe, Hunter, and Jun continue trying to navigate the Woodrun. So while things go fairly poorly for the students we get plenty on flashbacks continuing to let us in on Zoe's past. I'm very intrigued by this story because its focusing on Zoe. Yes there's more to all the characters here than meets the eye, but Zoe is such a random factor. On one hand she's dived right in to help save Jade, and she saves Hunter in this issue. But on the other hand she's got that pesky habit of stabbing people to death with large knives. She's really hard to get a bead on. I love that because early on it was so easy to write her off as a hot Indian Slutty McSlutslut who gets by on batting her eyelashes and excellent bra selection. That seems to be the middle ground between the altruistic girl who peeks out every-so-often and the stone cold killer. She's really a fascinating character. The over all story doesn't give us much more insight as to everything that's going on. There's a trap that seems specially designed for Hunter, or possibly he's not the only person with his condition. I do think there's a puzzle piece in here somewhere, but figuring out exactly what it is, and where it fits is the tricky part. As always with this book, its one big load of screwed up with a psycho chaser. Love it.

MUSIC!!

This guy's voice reminds me a lot of Sting's. The singer, not the wrestler. The tune has been getting a lot of air play here locally. I dig it.

That's going to be it for me today. Feels like I've got my mojo working, so we'll see how long I can keep it going. See y'all Wednesday.

Prepare for PAIN!

2012-01-20T06:46:00.000-05:00

Blarg. Its Friday, January 20, 2012, there's possibly irony at work, and this is The Side. I say this because about two days after my brother kicks off his blog about cars, I spend two and a half hours trying to get home from work. Sure, I had to stop and pick up my new glasses, but that was (under normal circumstances) five minutes out of my way, and I spent less than that in the store itself. St00pid traffic is st00pid.

Oh, and if you want to check out my brother's vehicular type blog, go here. Its good stuff.

BEATIN'S!!!

Black belt testing is coming up. Four students are going for it. Two of them I've been training for years. One of them started out as mine, but once I trasferred the YMCA program over to Bill he because her main instructor. The last person came to us because we were training his son and he decided to jump in himself. The young lady with be fine as she is an excellent baker and understands how to bribe senseis with brownies. She's learned well. The older fellow is a tough customer and should be fine. The boys from my program are really in for it.

They're both teens. Both of then started off in my kids program and advanced to the adult class once they turned 13. We introduced ourselves in the time honored manner of drills and sparring. They got to meet everyone in the adult class, and by "meet" I mean they fought them. Yes it seems cruel and horrible for a bunch of people to put on gloves and terrify 13 year olds in pugilistic fashion, but its Karate. That's just how it works.

The road to getting a black belt is different in different school. Some places are unfortunately all about the money, so if you stroke out a big enough check, you'll make it sooner or later. So places are more form oriented so if you can preform the forms to a certain proficiency then you'll move up through the ranks. Many are technical in the requirement. There's a time factor for seasoning the students. They have to have a grip on specific techniques and forms to advance.

The tow kids I've got going for it are a couple of spicy meatballs. This is coming up on the end of a years long hazing ritual. We've slapped them around. Made fun of them. Given them colorful nicknames. One student recently had to explain why he someone how got a rug burn on his forehead when he train in the room with a tiled floor. Don't know if his buddies at school noticed it, because there's no explaining away a rug burn on your forehead to your buddies when you're 14 years old. The other recently took a knee to the forehead. But it was his head and in his case not a vital target.

Mocking them aside. We are talking about a 16 year old kid who has gone toe-to-toe with with adults buck larger than him and has developed power and ridiculously quick punching and kicking speed. We're also talking about a really cagey 14 year old with a ton of tricks up his sleeve and the ability to nail the nerve cluster under the arm given anything resembling an opportunity. This is also the same kid who waged war against a conga line of students at the beach last spring. Freaked his folks out pretty good.

What we do is push these students. The ones that persevere the training gain insight into themselves. I looked at a couple of brown belts in the kids class who had a particularly memorable time getting those brown belts.

"Was that test the hardest thing you've done so far?"

"Yeah." They both answered. But they're both about 10, so the scope of hard things they've had to do is limited.

"Everything else seem a bit easier after that?"

You gain confidence in your own ability to get through things. You don't give up nearly as easily. "I survived that particularly gnarly test/class/seminar, and I can deal with this." Getting a black belt in my program takes guts above all else.

And of course we'll be examining the guts of some students fairly soon as we splatter them all over the dojo.

But not the girl. She makes brownies.

MUSIC!!

No, I'm not going to play "Kung-fu Fighting". That's never going to happen on here. Its like a rule of something. Instead, enjoy a really underrated Dire Straights tune.

That's it for me. Moved a literal ton of sand yesterday with shovel, so hopefully I'll have an easy day today. While I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony. See y'all Sunday.

Under Pressure

2012-01-18T06:26:00.003-05:00

Its Wednesday, January 18, 2012, things are in chaos, and this is the Side. It doesn't take much to throw things off. In my case this week, its a sick kid. Sick kid can't go to school. If sick kids can't go to school then the Missus can't handle things she needs to handle without a bit of outside help. Then I get a phone call requesting help. The problem with that is I am needed at work. The boss is very understanding, however one does not want to push things to see how understanding one's boss really is. So this guy here has to hustle to make try to make sure everything that needs to happen actually happens. Something is going to fall down somewhere. Someone is going to get let down. That's a hard pill to swallow. You have to minimize the damage as best you can. That's tricky because the situation induces stress and under stress it becomes easy to make a mistake. Then you're in a big spiral of it sucks to be you, which is best avoided. Currently, I'm not in that spiral, but I sure can see the event horizon of it.

So, I don't have much to sound off on right now. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff going down with the horrible SOPA and PIPA bills. If you haven't contacted your representative yet about them, you really should and tell them not to vote for it.

I'm going to wrap this up for today because I'm currently just spinning my metal wheels, much like that hamster in Sunday's post. I do have an appropriate tune for today though.

That's a wrap for me today. See y'all Friday.

I'm a Sexist Pig!

2012-01-15T07:01:00.002-05:00

OINK! It's Sunday, January 15, 2011, I is ashamed, and this is The Side. Nobody's perfect, and boy, I sure ain't. Yes, there's often plenty of typos in here. Yeah, I've had times in which I haven't posted when I said I was going to post. This week I had a serious headdesk moment.

COMIX!!!

Last go around I raved and raved about HEART from Image Comics. I poured over the first first three issues and took in the whole book. Loved every bit of it and its a really great book. Its also the first comic from Blair Butler and I noted this saying that this book is his first outing as a writer. Well, I got a comment on the Comic Kings website:

Not to be that guy, but… Blair Butler is a lady. Other than that, great review. I’ll have to pick up “Heart.”

Oh, he's so totally that guy.

GAH! It never occurred to me that Blair Butler is a woman. I've only know one person named "Blair" and he was a dude. There's that there Blair Underwood actor fella, he's a dude. The only "Blair" I know of that's a who was on THE FACTS OF LIFE. I even read an interview with Butler that was featured in one of the comics. Still had no clue she was a she.

This isn't like that whole Lady Gaga thing in which the song gets played, you ask "What the fuck is this garbage?", and then you she a picture of Gaga, and you ask "What the fuck is that?" And it seems obvious that that we're dealing with a Boy George type thing and its a cross dresser. But then they are claims that its a woman and you're stuck wondering "pre or post op". This is totally different.

Its also not the first time I've made this mistake. I spent months thinking Taylor Swift was a guy. People kept talking about how amazing Taylor Swift is and I'm wandering around half wondering who is he? He's certainly got a cool name. I was curious, but not curious enough to bother Googling Swift. Then I saw a magazine cover with a gorgeous girl on it and in big bold letters it said "Taylor Swift". I'm looking at the magazine thinking to myself, well I guess this guy must be popular to be the lead story in this magazine. Then the realization slowly crept in that Taylor Swift was the gorgeous girl on the cover.

This is even worse. Yes, Butler wasn't even a blip on my radar before Wednesday. I just knew there was an MMA comic out there that I wanted to check out. I had no clue that she was the girl on the cover of that one issue of BOOSTER GOLD. Usually when there's a writer I don't know very well, but their stuff blows me away like HEART did, I do a bit of research. Sure, my schedule has been pretty jam packed this week, but I could have at least checked out her website which was listed in the comic.

And its worse because I'm all for more women getting into the comic industry. Now one throws her hat in the ring and I think she's a he. I even read back through the comic armed with this new knowledge. The comic is from the viewpoint of an up and coming MMA fighter. Butler absolutely nails it. I would have thought that this comic was written by an MMA fighter. I don't expect women writers to write about hearts and unicorns and crap. I've ready plenty of hardcore stories from Gail Simone. Carla Speed McNeil's FINDER is still one of the best comics you probably aren't reading. I feel like a freaking hypocrite because it never dawned on me that the writer of comic that it brutal and honest about the stuff an MMA fighter goes through and is so pumped with adrenaline could have been written by a woman. I wouldn't blame Blair Butler one bit for wanting to kick my ass. Right now, I want to kick my own ass.

So, I want to apologize to Blair Butler, who isn't a guy. She's a woman who writes really awesome comics. And if you haven't picked up HEART yet, you suck nearly as bad as I do.

MUSIC!!

Rough weekend, but I did get to hear some really good music yesterday.

That's it for me this go around. Hope you enjoyed my tale of being a stupid sexist jerk, as well as the video with the cute little hamster. See y'all Wednesday, at which point I'll try to be a better person.

Funny Book Beatdown

2012-01-13T06:32:00.000-05:00

Hey howdy, buckaroos! Its Friday, January 13, 2012, eek, bad luck, and all that crap, and this is The Side. Not terribly concerned with the whole Friday the 13th being bad luck. If memory serves I've tended to have good days on Friday the 13th. The only thing that concerns me is being a bit off schedule as far as my weekly rhythm. Had a couple of short days at work which is kinda nice because I got to spend a bit of time with the kids. Still, it feels weird because today feels more like a Tuesday than a Friday.

Next thing you know I'll be trying to go buy comics tomorrow. Completely unnecessary since I got them already.

COMIX!!!

Snagged HEART #1-3 and got my doors blown off. ATTACK OF THE SHOW's Blair Butler makes his comic writing debut and he hits on all cylinders. Yes, I am absolutely biased. Its a comic about an MMA fighter, and I love MMA. The story follows Oren Redmond, a young guy who really has nothing going on and gets into MMA. We see him in the beginning of the story as a guy working in an office and hating it. His brother is an MMA fighter because he grew up wrestling and wanted to keep doing it. Oren decides to give it a shot. At this point you'd typically see the story take a turn in which Oren turns out to be insanely talented, and learns super secret techniques from his sensei and everyone is blown away by him. Not this time, Butler keeps it real. You see Oren's head in the trash can on day one puking his guts out. You see him getting the crap kicked out of him. He keeps going because he's feeling pretty good about this. He feels like he's earning his rest at night. Slowly but surely he gets better. He gets in shape. He figures out he has a sucky ground game. The coaches keep working him and he starts getting amateur fights. He does well and starts getting pro fights. Its not all glamour. There's a great scene in which he's working to cut weight, and the reader gets to know exactly how much it sucks. Oren also does stupid stuff like blowing money on tattoos. He's a likable, but not perfect character. Kevin Mellon blows me away here. His art is spot on. Its dynamic and still very technical. Its easy to draw a guy throwing a punch. Its not easy to draw a guy locking in a kimura from his back. Even the little things like giving the fighters' stats and listing their entrance music really made this book sing. This book is a gem. If you've never seen anything MMA and want to get an idea of what's up this book is a brilliant introduction. Also, if you've got a friend who loves MMA but isn't really into comics, let them check it out. I'm betting they'll dig it.

Moving from realism to fantasy let's head over to Dark Horse for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON NINE #5. Buffy's having weird Slayer dreams and those of use who have been following the Buffy-verse for a while know that these tend to set the tone for things. There's buckets of things that go down in this book. Huge reveal at the end. Its really hard not to drop spoilers because of the extreme Oscar Mike Golf factor. This is really a set up issue in which we're getting some pretty significant plot beginnings to plot threads that we'll most likely be following for the majority of season nine. We get an inkling of a possibility of reconnecting earth to magic as well as huge personal changes for Buffy. Karl Molina (FRAY) guest pencils, and I love his stuff. I'm really excited to see where this season is going now.

Let's stick with vampirey type stuff with THE STRAIN #2. This is a really nasty story. The vampires here are pretty disgusting. These are the complete anti-Twilight vampires. Nothing even remotely sexy here. Still, its a good story. You've got to be a patient reader here because the vampirism pandemic is only just beginning. There's no huge body count let, but things are still just just beginning. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and the others at the C.D.C. are still trying to get a handle on just what happened on the flight, and the three survivors aren't any help. The mystery is deepening for them, but we get a peek of the horror that's coming. The creepiness of this book is building, so if you love horror, you'll love this.

We wrap up this week with DARK MATTER #1. This is a nifty little sci-fi mystery. Six people wake up on a spaceship with no memories of who they are or how they got there. They look for answers and fight a robot. For a first issue, its pretty straight forward. The set up isn't anything really fresh, but its handled well enough. Each character seems to have their own skill sets that they're discovering. Its not bad at all, but hasn't really hooked me. It is good enough that I'm going to follow along for a bit and see where it leads.

MUSIC!!

Let's use one of Rooster's entrance music songs.

That's it for me today. Have a good weekend even if it feels like the middle of the week. See y'all Sunday.

Student Bodies

2012-01-11T06:18:00.001-05:00

I'm trapped! Its Wednesday, January 10, 2012, there's no way out, and this is the Side. OK, right now I'm not actually trapped, but I was yesterday. Sandbridge has one road in and out unless there's an emergency and they allow people to go through the adjacent Naval Base. Well, when a truck decided to go off the road and it took wreckers and firetrucks to clear everything, I was pretty much stranded for a bit.

I did get out in time to pick up my daughters. This led to a discovery of an hours long black out affecting a good chunk of Virginia Beach. Another truck had backed into a power pole, breaking it. The pole then fell on the truck. The power had been off for about four hours by the time I got out of Sandbridge.

I retrieved the kids, the sun is setting. I grab a couple of Happy meals because its going to be just about bedtime by the time we get home. Sure enough a school bus got in an accident tying up the entire area. We finally got out of that, and were amid the blackened stores when I heard two voices from the back seat.

"Daddy, I have to pee."

"Me too."

That was a tough commute.

PARENTS!!!

Stuff is afoot and with some kids in schools. It is some pretty stunning stuff, but what gets me more is how their parents are dealing with thing.

First up is the case of the eighth grader getting shot by police. The eight grader was wielding a pellet gun. Officers told him to put it down. He didn't and he got shot. Now, here's the breakdown. This kid was 15 and in the eighth grade. Probably not good at following directions. I've seen a picture of the pellet gun in question, and it is easily mistakable for a real gun. Witnesses heard the boy being told to put the gun down. He was shot twice in the torso. Two officers were involved. I don't know if each officer shot once, or if one fired both shots.

The boy was given an order to put down the gun. When a police officer tells you to put down a weapon, you damn well better put down the weapon. Officers are trained to aim center mass. That's exactly what they did. I fell really bad for the officers, because they have to live with what happened. that's some rough baggage.

There's been some serious blowback from a lot of stupid people. Some people are asking why the officers didn't shot the gun out of his hand, or just wound him. The answer is simple: THIS IS REAL LIFE, AND NOT A TV SHOW. If I'm armed and someone is pointing a gun at me and aiming for the biggest target and that is the torso. The fancy shooting we see in the movies and on TV is Hollywood make-believe. Then there are those people who are demanding to know why the officers didn't use non-lethal methods to subdue the boy. The range they were at has not been made clear so it may not have been in a good tazer range. It was too far for pepper spray or other gas weapons, and those are not what you are going to us when suddenly you are faced with someone with a gun. You pop smoke and you'll be eating lead before they even start coughing.

The parents of the boy are really leading the charge here. I fully understand where they are coming from. Their boy snapped, made some horrible decisions, and is now dead. These parents are angry and grieving. They want answers. They want someone to blame. There very well might not be anyone to blame. Its tragic. The parents are wrong trying to go after the police for this, but I can't judge them too harshly. They've lost their son.

So we have a set of parents who really want to see the best of their child that they've lost. Its put blinders on them a bit. On the other hand we have a case of parents who seem to want everyone to see all there is to see of their child and are willing to court to make it so.

Sydney Spies is all ticked off that her school yearbook won't use the picture here. The girl is 18, so for my pervo readers, you needn't feel too horrible about yourselves this time around. Yep, this girl wanted to use this picture for her senior picture. She's an aspiring model and all that. The yearbook staff shot it down. The reason: they have standards. There's awards for yearbooks, and this school has won a few for theirs. They put out a quality, award winning yearbook, so they weren't exactly thrilled with the notion of a senior wanting to look like a Slutty McSlutslut in there.

The school administration backed the yearbook staff. Then the parents pitched a fit saying that the school was infringing on their daughter's right to Freedom of Expression.

I want to smack the living fuck out of these people.

What really sucks is that since the administration of a public school backed the yearbook staff's decision Colorado's law about schools not infringing on Freedom of Expression can be used to make the staff use the picture. The parents are actually taking this to court. They have to be completely off the rails. They want pictures of their daughter in suggestive poses wearing some sexy clothes for the her senior portrait? I remember my senior picture. All us guys put on tux jackets. We had these little clip on shirt things and bow ties. The girls had these nice wraps that they put on. We looked classy. It was actually a decent picture of me (after the air brushing), and those are hard to come by. So I really don't get why they'd even be allowing her to even try to use these pictures in the yearbook. I know she's legal, but its still creepy.

If she was going to put those photos in her modelling portfolio, that's fine. That's her portfolio. That's her business. Her now, her and her idiot parents are looking to impose their will upon the yearbook staff. Forget what they want. Forget that they're trying to put out the best product possible. Forget their offer to compromise and let the picture run in the advertisement section of the book. Now you've got an attention whore and her folks (and I doubt that apple fell far from the tree) getting national exposure on the news.

People wonder what the hell is wrong with kids nowadays, but I have to say, I'm wondering what's wrong with the parents. Kids make bad choices, it happens every day. It happens due to lack of experience at this thing called life. They're developing something called judgement, and until they've got that down, they need parents to look out for them and let them know when they're making bad choices. With the first case the parents didn't have much warning that something was going to go wrong, but defending their deceased son by placing blame on the police is a mistake. In the case of Spies, those parents are borderline creepy, and anyone who is willing to go to court to defend their daughter's whims is flat out bad parenting.

I'm taking a lot of note, because I know full well I'm going to have my hands full once my loin-spawn reach their teens. One thing all parents should know: kids are kinda stupid. Even the smart ones are kind of stupid. They make bad choices from time to time. You've got to tell them when they do.

MUSIC!!!

Everyone hopes their kids will end up alright. Doesn't happen by itself.

That'll do it for me today. See y'all Friday.

Thugs and Socky Choppin'

2012-01-08T07:02:00.000-05:00

Look out below! Its Sunday, January 8, 2012, the sky is falling, and this is The Side. Well, the sky isn't really falling, but my boss was yesterday. The walkboard he was on went out from under him and dumped him ten feet to the cement below. He crushed a caulk gun under his foot, which probably broke his foot. It was one of those orange caulk guns, and for those who haven't seen them, they don't crush very easily. Scared the hell out of me, but surprisingly, he was up and about and couple minutes later back on the reset walkboard hanging up siding.

Falls happen fast. I train my students on how to take a fall, and I think every martial arts school should. I had a ladder go out from under me years ago and hairline fractured my heel. Still is tender when I hit it just the right way. I landed feet first on a ladder rung which is what caused it. They say its not the fall the gets you, its the sudden stop. Sometimes, the sudden stop is manageable, but that stuff you land on is a bitch.

COMIX!!!

Got something new and something old for you this week.

THE GOON #37 was on the stands this week. This issue was very different than your typical GOON comic. Sure there was a few laughs here and there, but the main subject was no laughing matter, and is actually an excellent gateway to look at a very interesting part of history. The story itself is about a tragic fire in a factory whose owner is really a greedy bastard. Its pretty much a sweatshop. People died, and the survivors form a union to demand better conditions to work in. The boss gets a bunch of corrupt cops and head busters on his side. The union ladies get The Goon and Franky to back them. Mayhem ensues. There's a really brilliant horror twist at the end. Now then, I am not a union supporter. I've had some unpleasant run-ins with union folk in the past. As they are now, its pretty much a racket, taking money from workers in exchange for protection and using the money for whatever the bosses want. But let's look at the inspiration for the story, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911. Heads up, clicking that link will take you to a very good article about the incident, but there are pictures, and they are really disturbing. If you've got a kid looking over your shoulder, you'll probably want to send them away. The events in the comic mirror the events of the 1911 fire quite a bit. Back then there wasn't much regulation of business or real safety standards. Workers needed unions for protection from exploitation. And yes, there were thugs and head busters and connections to organized crime. Back then you had unions really working to look out for workers as opposed to things like the Wisconsin bit where they demonized the Governor. This comic didn't change my mind about unions at all, but it did make for a fascinating portal to look at a time most people today in America can barely think of. much less relate to.

That was the only book in my pull bag this week so I looked around the old comic bins to see if anything interesting popped up. Sure enough I found RICHARD DRAGON KUNG-FU FIGHTER #1 from 1975. Richard Dragon has been a character of interest to me for quite a while. He was one of, if not the, top martial artists in the DCU. This may have changed with reboot. I don't even know if he exists in the reboot. Sure enough, there was his first appearance along with Bronze Tiger alias Ben Turner, who is referred to as Ben Stanley in the comic. Not sure why the name was changed. The book opened up with an ad featuring Batman and Robin stopping a mummy with Twinkies. I'm pretty sure they could market Bat-Twinkies now and they would sell like hotcakes. On to the comic itself. We see how Richard Dragon seems Ben and the O-sensei. His training is kind of glossed over and the story fast forwards to Richard and Ben leaving the sensei to go work for a clandestine operation that send them to take on slavers in the Sudan. The art is classic stuff from Denny O'Neil, although he's working under the nom de plume Jim Dennis here. There's a fun fictitious biography of "Jim Dennis" in the back of the book. Now, you'll have to forgive me, because I'm horribly biased when it comes to martial arts. I like accuracy. The comic is called "Kung-Fu Fighter", but there's no Kung-Fu in the story. There's no mention of Kung-Fu in the story. They use a ton of Japanese Martial arts. They have a sensei and not a sifu. So, of course, I'm wailing and gnashing my teeth. The O-sesnsei is supposed to be an elite martial artist and teaches Richard and Ben everything he can in six years. Yes, I did actually facepalm at that one. Still, its a fun book, and you get to see two of the old DCU's top fighters back in the day. As much as I griped about technical stuff in the book, it was still pretty cool to get my hands on it.

MUSIC!!!

Tune from a 90s one hit wonder. I dug it, and it still gets a bit of airplay around here. No, I'm not saying my boss hit the ground like a cannonball either.

That'll do it for me this go around. Going to go kick off this month G+ Grand Prix. See y'all Wednesday.

You can do eeeet!

2012-01-06T06:39:00.001-05:00

Hold it! Its Friday, January 6, 2011, I'm making no sudden moves, and this is The Side. The reason I'm making no sudden moves is pretty simple, my glasses are broken and they're ready to fall off my face at any given moment. Not sure where the kids have hidden the duct tape, so fixing them is being delayed slightly.

Getting whacked in the melon by a ticked off 4 year old started the process. Still it was a bad move to have them on during certain drills at the dojo the other night. Note to martial arts type folks: guillotine chokes will render you unconscious and break your glasses.

IN THE ZONE

Its often tough to keep a positive outlook on things when things aren't going you way. One thing going wrong sucks, but is manageable. However, when its one thing after another after another, its really easy to get really down on yourself. That makes it hard to get back on the right track.

That's something I've really had to work hard on at my job. I'm not perfect, nobody is, but my major flaw on the job is I'm not very fast at certain things. I'm not milking jobs and goofing off. I just do things a bit of a slower pace. Somethings I can zip right through, but not everything. When I go fast, that's when I often make mistakes.

But mistakes happen. I get a bit of a stinkeye from the boss, rightfully so. Then I try to do extra good to make up for things. I start rushing. Then its more mistakes because I'm getting ahead of myself. Then the boss wonders why he keeps me around.

Had this happen yesterday, or at least the start of it. his week has been a bit light on work, but things have been going smoothly. Yesterday didn't start out too well. I had to break metal, which I actually know how to do pretty well. For those who don't know, "breaking" metal is using a big contraption to make bends in pieces of metal. Yesterday I was creating metal pieces for going around a window. These were rather complicated pieces to make, but I should have been able to handle it.

It took too long. That and I messed up a couple of pieces and had to do them over. Not good. That wasn't the only thing we had to do yesterday. I had put us behind. The boss was less than pleased. He doesn't yell, but I know when he's pissed.

This would be when I start going nuts trying to make up for it and try to crank out the pieces as fast as possible, and probably screw them up again putting us further behind. I've done that too many times. I got smart this go around. I took a deep breath, and got back to work. The pieces got made. Boss was still a bit ticked, but the other things we had to do at the house were handled pretty quickly and very well. I tried my best to keep a "can do" attitude. The rest of the jobs that day went pretty well.

Keeping that attitude is important. Its also very hard when you have things go wrong. The more things go wrong, the harder it is to keep that mindset. Once you lose it, its tough getting it back. Having it is a big help though. It keeps your spirits up and helps your confidence. Both of those are important. Sometimes i think that's why we really have weekends. You need a couple days to get your head back on straight sometimes.

I didn't make much for New Year's resolutions. The only one I really had was stay calm and handle my business. Sounds simple, but could be harder then any of the previous goofy resolutions I've made.

MUSIC!!

Seemed sort of appropriate, and I realized that I'd never had Tina Turner in the music section. Had to remedy that.

That's it for me today. See y'all Sunday.

Fingergate!!

2012-01-02T06:37:00.001-05:00

Clicky clicky. Its Wednesday, January 4, 2012, Happy new Year, and this is The Side. Gotta do this one quick because time is working against me.

BATTLEGROUND: GOOGLE+

Last week "Fingergate" hit Google+. This is probably one of the sillier things that has popped into my peripheral lately. One person changed his profile picture to an image of himself giving the finger. This was deemed against Google+'s rules and the image was removed. This was followed by wailing and gnashing of teeth about censorship and free speech. Other people because posting pictures of themselves flipping the bird in protest. Silly arguments were posted about "How could this be offensive? Everyone on here is supposed to be over the age of 18." The endgame was the person who started it vowed to continue posting pictures of himself giving the bird until he was banned.

Let's take this from the top.

Google+ is a free service and they have a terms of service agreement that you must agree to if you want to use it. No one is making anyone use it, and the service is from a privately owned company. As long as their terms of service doesn't violate the law of the land then the free speech argument is DOA. They get to decide what can and can't be on their service. If they decide they don't want funny pictures of cats on their site, then they have the right to make that rule and enforce it.

Another person who got caught up in the this told me that his issue was the haphazard enforcement of the rules. This brings us to site moderation. It seems there people out there who don't know how this works. Fortunately, a very dear friend of mine (who I've been lousy about keeping in touch with) is a site moderator for a very large social website, and she gave me some insights as to how these things work.

Rule enforcement and moderation do not happen magically. The moderators come online and they look at a queue of reports. From there, they work their way through the queue as best they can, making judgement calls as to reports. In some cases, moderators might come across a rule violation just by cruising through the site, but in the cases of big sites with a lot of content and users, they're going to work off of the queue. So, if something does not get reported the chances of the moderators seeing it goes down dramatically.

Example: let's say we have two G+ users: Fred and Barney. Fred has about 6 people in his circles. Fred posts some hardcore porn pictures. The Six people in his circles like hardcore porn and they don't report it or share it. Fred gets away with a blatant rule violation. Barney on the other hand has 500 people in his circles. He posts a funny picture of someone mooning someone else. All it takes is one person out of those 500 to report that picture, and its going in a queue for moderators to review.

So the guy, who really isn't a bad guy, who changed his profile picture of himself giving the bird for all to see, had at least one person in the many, many people in his circles who did indeed find the image offensive and reported it. Not sure what happened in crusade to get banned, which is silly in and of itself. Last I checked is account was still up and his profile image was bird-free. Hopefully he came to his senses.

MUSIC!!

Looking through videos of The Walkmen for last weekend's post I came across this gem. Enjoy.

That's it for me. See y'all Friday.

One More Time in 2011

2011-12-29T23:22:00.001-05:00

Holey moley! Its Saturday, December 31, 2011, this post is a day late, and this is The Side. This post is late because I overslept yesterday, and got up just in time to check a couple things and go to work. Hate oversleeping, but at least I wasn't late for work. Besides, it seemed fitting that I do my year in review bit on the last day of the year.

YEAR IN REVIEW!

So much has happened this year that is feels like a blur.

I think the biggest personal thing was the loss of my Uncle Buddy. He was a great man and an an inspiration to many, and it sorely missed.

This was the year that DC Comics did their massive reboot, and also the year i stopped reading DC Comics. It seemed for a long time that they were trying to show me the door. Still books like Miller's BATGIRL, Morrison's Batman work, and Paul Cornell's stuff kept me on board. Those are now gone and so am I. I'm reading less comics now, but am really liking what I'm reading.

The Nozz Compound discovered Netflix instant streaming and quickly dismissed any urge to get pay TV. What I really love is that because of it I've been able to share HEATHCLIFF, SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, X-MEN EVOLUTION, JOHNNY TEST, and JACKIE CHAN ADVENTUREs with my kids. That's before i get into all the shows I can watch. Still got plenty of episodes of SCRUBS, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE and BURN NOTICE to watch.

I finally beat FINAL FANTASY VIII. Don't hate me because I'm retro.

This was also the year Google Plus came out. I've taken pretty well to it. I've gotten a nice little group on there to discusses fun stuff. I've continued the monthly tournies I used to do on Google Buzz, but are now much easier. I've even started doing a little webcomic on there using the picture sharing and album features. Really digging it.

COMIX!!

ANGEL AND FAITH #5 was waiting for me in my bag this week. Christos Gage continues to nail the characters pitch perfectly. Phil Noto handles the art this issue. I love his cover work, but typically don't see much of his sequentials, so this was treat. "In Perfect Harmony" is an one-issue story dealing with Angel's former secretary and the current most popular vampire in the world, Harmony. During BUFFY Season 8, vampires went public and Harmony became a media darling including her own reality TV show. She still just as much of an annoying pain as she was on the TV show. Bad for Angel and Faith, but great for us readers. The previous storyline was pretty heavy in dealing with the attempt to resurrect Rupert Giles. This story gives us a little break, much like Whedon would do in the series give us that wink that we are supposed to be having fun here. Their utter exasperation with Harmony is apparent on every panel and its awesome because I think everyone is utterly exasperated with Harmony.Its an utter exasperation party, and everyone is invited! OH, and Clem is here as Harmony's personal assistant. Good ol' Clem. He's one of the most likable characters in the Buffyverse. This issue was really fun. The only thing I didn't dig was how Noto illustrated vampires getting dusted, but I can look past that easily. Great stuff.

MUSIC!!

Last year, for the final post of the year, I posted the song that rocked my socks the hardest. Seemed like the thing to do with year. I picked "Angela Surf City" by the Walkmen. First heard it in Local Heroes and was blown away. The great thing about this video is you can see the drummer really going to town. I wish I had half his stamina.

That's it for me for the year. No post tomorrow, so we'll pick things back up on Wednesday. Happy New Year everyone!

Light of the Nozz

2011-12-28T06:35:00.002-05:00

Its Wednesday, December 28, 2011, I'm frakkin' beat, and this is The Side. Spent the last couple days working the floor I mentioned last post. It was a valuable lesson to me about speaking up. I should have gone with my gut, instead I spent a day scrubbing floor stripper on a floor. My fingertips are feeling a bit funny at this point, but I figure when you get enough chemicals on them, that's what happens.

Not enough chemicals to keep me from typing though.

GIFTS!!

We've all gotten gifts over the years where we've wondered "what were they thinking giving me this?" I can't actually recall one right now, but I'm likely repressing the memory. I do remember getting one particular item that absolutely drove me nuts. It wasn't something that was dumb of someone to get me. In fact it was actually something nice. It was a lamp.

I had a pretty big bedroom when I was in high school. Having a drum kit and a drawing table took up a lot of room so I actually had the biggest bedroom in the house. My folks got me one of those lamps that shines the light on the ceiling and illuminates the room. You've seen them. The tall skinny deals. It was horrendously bright, but had a really sweet dimmer control, so it could be adjust ed to one's comfort level. Perfect, or so I thought, and it went right next to the drawing table.

The problem grew from how I used the lamp. I did my homework at the drawing table, so I'd be in the room in the evening, playing some music and getting things done. I'd have the lamp adjusted so that I'd have enough light to see, but it wouldn't be too bright. Never liked have lighting too bright. Hurts my eyes a bit. Unfortunately, this was deemed the incorrect way to use the lamp and my father would come in, fuss at me, and then turn the thing up to full. the lamp was supposed to simulate sunlight. Last I checked, we built a house so I would be able to get out of the sun. That, and I don't think we're supposed to be looking at the sun directly.

So this persisted for months. I'd be in my room with the light at a comfortable level. Dad would come in and crank the sucker. He'd leave and after a view minutes of squinting at whatever I was doing, I'd turn the light back down. I'm not sure why the message of "When the light it turned up all the way it hurts my eyes" did not reach his brain, but it didn't.

Then I got the bright idea of removing the lamp entirely from my room. I had other lamps in there that did the job alright. Hell, I had a lava lamp that was much more pleasurable to my eyes. I removed the lamp from my room. I resisted the urge to chuck it out the window. My folks weren't home from work yet, so I took the lamp, picked out a nice spot in another room and placed it there. Then I went back in to do my homework.

In sit-com like fashion, my father upon arriving home discovered the lamp in the room which i placed it and brought it back into my room, plugged it in, and cranked that sucker up to the point which I then required a stronger glasses prescription. All the while, reading me the riot act about how they had gotten me that lamp and I should use it properly.

The matter was finally resolved when I started making good use of the lock on my bedroom door. When anyone knocked, I immediately cranked the light up as high as it would go. Once business has concluded I'd turn it back down to my comfort level. Some teenagers use the "Just a minute" bit when their parents knock on their door to hide the porn or whatever else they had that would get them in deep dip with their folks. Not me. I had to make sure the light was on.

Not a very traumatic story of youth, but we do have a moral: you can't tell people how to enjoy their gifts.

MUSIC!

I really hate this song, but it seemed appropriate.

That's all for me today. see y'all Friday.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well that floor I was worried about ended up being quite worrisome, but that can wait until tomorrow. Today is all about some peace on Earth and good will towards men. Not to mention the hopefully final day of everyone's holiday stress.

Travel safe my friends, and Merry Christmas! I'm going to start the coffee and light the tree now. I think Santa showed up. Fooled him again. HA! Thinks he's so clever with that "naughty or nice" list.

Peace on Earth and Whiskey in my Belly.

2011-12-22T22:34:00.001-05:00

Its Friday, December 23, 2011, my heart is growing three sizes, I should probably see a doctor about that, and this is The Side. I've still got one more item I'm hoping to get and then I'm declaring my shopping done. Got my fingers crossed on that.

Moreso, I'm hoping that floor I'm supposed to be finishing up turns out alright. Last thing I need is a job to go sideways on me right before Christmas. Its one of those "we're not supposed to be even doing this one" kind of job where we kind of got roped into it. Not cool. Ah well. On to something more pleasant.

NOT SO LONG AGO

How I spent Christmas changed quite a bit one was a grown. My folks had divorced. My dad had remarried a wonderful woman. I lived with my Mom to help her out a bit. My stepmother is from Maryland so her and my Dad would go to see her family on Christmas, and since they had pets I would be the one to watch their house.

Its amazing how differently I viewed Christmas. When I was a little kid I couldn't wait to get up and go open presents. As an adult with a physically demanding job I was more than happy to sleep in a bit. Nothing crazy like sleeping until noon, but I certainly wasn't in competition with the sun to see which of us would be up first. This was especially true if I had to work the night before at the bar. While I usually got out of there early if I had to work Christmas Eve it was typically still pretty late by the time I got into bed.

I'd tend to Dad's house and his pets. The first thing that got put on was TNT since they were showing A CHRISTMAS STORY over and over again all day. Even when I was dating my girlfriend who went on to be The Missus I still had the run of the place since she would typically be visiting her folks in Kansas. I'd grab a shower and get dressed to head over to Mom's for brunch.

Brunch at mom's was pretty much the big Christmas Day thing. I usually had seen everyone in the family before Christmas day as since we'd all grown up, the logistics of getting everyone together was much trickier. So the family Christmas gatherings were spread out. I didn't get much by way of gifts at the time. The things I wanted were pretty easy to come across. I'd maybe get a game for my Playstation 2. The food was always great as I love my mom's brunches. She makes a breakfast casserole that I always eat too much of.

After that I typically spent the afternoon at my father's watching movies, playing video games, and drinking whiskey. No binge drinking or trying to see how hammered I good get. I enjoy a nice whiskey from time to time, and knowing I wouldn't have to work the following day could allow myself the indulgence without having to worry about being fully on my game. Occasionally a buddy would come over seeking refuge from the holiday madness of his family, but mostly Christmas became, for me personally, a day quiet personal peace.

What was funny was one year every felt so bad that I typically spent the holidays alone that no one went anywhere that year. So I spent the day running around like a lunatic trying to get everywhere I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. I couldn't very well say, "Its Christmas, why aren't you people leaving me alone?" Fortunately, the Missus also stayed in town that year, and helped me stay sane through it.

I think its that way for a lot of people once they grow up. The magic of the season and shininess gets a little difficult to enjoy when you have to worry about scheduling everything and making sure you're everywhere you need to be. When you're a kid, its a lot easier. Your parents take care of all that. You're just along for the ride. You can look at things through the wonderful lenses of youth. At an adult, you appreciate things like the end of A CHRISTMAS STORY when everything is done and the parents can sit quietly with a glass of wine and relax.

MUSIC!!

These guys who made this video are hilarious. My favorite Christmas parody song.
That's all for me. Going to wrap up a bit of work and then start to enjoy my weekend. Don't expect a huge post this Sunday, but I'll have a little something for you. See y'all then.

Merry memories

2011-12-20T21:37:00.002-05:00

What's that under the tree? Its seems to be Wednesday, December 21, 2011, wrapped horribly, but yes indeedy, its The Side. And shame on you for shaking me to see what I am! I'm all dizzy and stuff now.

Yes, the big day is fast approaching. I'm not done with my shopping, but fortunately my wife has handled the majority of that. Pretty much I just have to shop for her. That can be tricky. Fortunately a lot of stuff she likes, like video games and movies are things I like, so its kinda like getting a gift for both of us. I'm not going to pull some Homer Simpson bit and get her a bowling ball drilled to my fingers or anything like that.

Actually, if going bowling wasn't so expensive, she might like a bowling ball.

Hm. OK, got to go ponder stuff now. In the meantime, you enjoy some memories.

BACK IN THE DAY

When I was a kid Christmas was pretty much about two things: presents and family. Yeah, I did come up a good Methodist kid, and we'd go to candlelight service on Christmas Eve and sing song and enjoy fellowship. On Christmas day, it was a whirlwind. I never slept well the night before. Looking back, the night before was pretty miserable. The anticipation actually made me sick a few times. I had a clock in my room and knew I wasn't going to be going downstairs to open presents before six in the morning. I remember often waiting at the top on the stairs with my brother while my folks made sure Santa had come. Thinking back now I'm pretty sure they were stalling until the coffee was ready.

My folks weren't wealthy, but they made sure my brother and I got pretty much everything we wanted for Christmas. For me that was mostly action figures and comic books. I did get a drum set one year, which I think is the most expensive thing I ever got. I was pretty decent about practicing on it, but didn't really have much in the way of talent. I was always pretty content as a kid on Christmas morning. It was a flurry of wrapping paper and playing while taking a break in there somewhere to eat breakfast.

Sometimes my mom's parents would be staying with us, which was always great for me. They were a lot of fun. That brings me to family. The majority of mine live in the area. There were two stops to be made on Christmas. My dad's parents, and we'd see them and whoever else was there at the time. There'd be food, but I tended to eat light there. I hang out a bit with my cousins. Looking back I wish I had spent more time talking with my Gran'dad. He's a neat old guy. I found out all this stuff about him later, so I do wish I had taken the time to hear the stories he has to tell.

The other stop that day would vary. My folks would rotate hosting the family Christmas gathering with my aunts and uncles that live in the area. So either we'd be back home with everyone coming to us, or off to see everyone. My aunts can cook like nobody's business. We're talking about all the trimmings, and a bunch of fat and happy folks by the end of things. This is my mom's side of the family. So, we're talking about a bunch of very sharp, witty people who love to laugh and have a good time.

At a certain point we'd sit around and exchange gifts, but I think I liked hearing everyone carrying on best. These were the people who put up with my nerd nature with a smile and laugh. The jokes were always there, but never really at anyone's expense.

I had it really good growing up at Christmas time. Not because of heaps of gifts being dumped on me, but because that was a time for family, and I'm lucky enough to have a great one.

MUSIC!!

This is my favorite Christmas song. This version is pretty jazzy. I'm digging it.

That's it for me today. Time to get to work and hopefully pick up a gift or two. See y'all friday.

Merry Comix?

2011-12-17T21:51:00.000-05:00

Hey howdy. Its Sunday, December 18, 2011, I'm still struggling a bit with the new blogger interface, and this is The Side. I think I've got a bit of this figured out. Before when I put these together I operated entirely from the HTML mode, which I'm not claiming to have a good working knowledge of HTML, but I know how to spot certain things, so I was able to make it work for me. Now, things are working differently, but as much as I'd like to be stubborn about things, sometimes you have to change. So, I'm doing pretty well on the learning curve and hopefully will find my groove again soon.

Things are moving right along this season. Took the girls to go see Santa at the Hunt Club last night. One of them managed to summon up the guts this year to actually sit in his lap. It was a different fella in the suit this year, as the guy who had been the Hunt Club Santa for year passed away, which is a shame because that guy was awesome. Not that this fellow wasn't good, but the previous fellow was truly a treasure and will be missed. We still had a nice evening, and roamed a bit around the petting zoo which was beautifully decorated. The goats and sheep were all quite friendly and the kids had a blast playing with them.

Before we get on to our next bit of business I should say that while it is a week before Christmas all the books I ended up with this week would be better suited for Halloween. These things happen sometimes.

COMIX!!

THE WALKING DEAD #92 starts us off this week. You hear hype about certain issues from time to time about "Everything changes here", well this time around, its no joke. The mysterious figure we saw at the end of last issue plays heavy here as he goes up against Michonne and Abraham as they're out on a patrol. I've talked about that there's a bit of grumbling from readers about how slow the last storyline was. This issue makes up for that with a really cool fight scene. There's been some talk from Kirkman that there was going to be some big changes coming up and this issue gives us a hint as to the direction he's planning on taking. The ending really has me itching to get my hands on the next issue to see where we're going with this story. Top notch work.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON NINE #4 wraps up the "Freefall" storyline which has kicked off this latest season. Sev is the Siphon who has been killing vampires all over San Francisco and leaving a trail of bodies that has police hunting Buffy. Sev's powers involve him draining magical energy from beings and charging himself up. In the case of vampires, they revert back to humans, and since they're already dead, we've have a corpse instead of a pile of dust. Sev's looking for revenge against Buffy blaming her for his girlfriend's becoming a vampire not going as planned since Buffy destroyed Earth's link to magic last season. This issue does a great job of not only delivering a great fight, but setting a lot up for this season. We see how Buffy is interacting with the police force. We get a new player with Koh, who's pretty cool. Buffy's roomies also discover she's a slayer so we'll see how that plays out. Great issue, and lots of fun.

THE STRAIN #1 is based off the novels from Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I haven't read them, but am considering remedying that soon. This issue starts us off nicely with some old folklore to set the tone and them a transition to modern times in which we meet Ephraim, a divorced guy who works for the CDC. One thing that really caught me was how well they handled the characterization of Ephraim. Who really get a good idea of who this guy is. There's not a ton of action in this issue as the pacing is more like that of a novel. When doing storytelling in a comic you usually get to the action quickly and try to work in exposition when you can. With prose, you typically work the other way letting exposition set up your action. This book is taking the latter route, but does well in setting in the hooks and giving us a bit of mystery to sink our teeth into. The airplane scene in does remind me quite a bit of the ship in Bram Stoker's Dracula, which i though was a really cool nod.

MUSIC!!

He better be ready to run next weekend. Here's the classic from Chuck berry.

That's all for me this time around. See y'all Wednesday!

Merry Movies

2011-12-15T06:37:00.003-05:00

Bleh. Its Friday, December 16, 2011, I'm sick as a dog, and this is The Side. The kids were a bit under the weather earlier this week. That got passed onto the missus. Not its on to me. I've been chomping cold medicine to keep me going. It makes me functional, but doesn't make for the best blogging.

Also, I'm still getting used to the new Blogger interface, so please bear with me. I think I've got a little bit of a handle on it. Of course, if you aren't reading any of this, then there's the distinct possibility that I've completely bollocks up the thing. Guess we'll have to see.

MOVIES!

Sure, there's a few of action flicks that I could list and call them Christmas movies. As much as I love DIE HARD and LETHAL WEAPON, they're not really Christmas movies.

A CHRISTMAS STORY. Love this movie. Have to watch it every year. Used to drive my family nuts because TNT would play it for 24 hours in a row and I'd have it on the TV all day long if given the chance. Since I don't have cable anymore I do have the DVD to fill the void. One of these years I'm going to get my kids to ask Santa for a Red Rider BB gun. So many great lines and moments in this film. From the furnace fighting, to the Chinese restaurant, the Ralphie beating the snot out of the bully. I love this movie from beginning to end.

Wait! You mean this song isn't really by Dingoes Ate My Baby!

I guess i better get on those chores I mentioned. See y'all Wednesday!

French morons picking a fight

2011-11-09T18:20:00.003-05:00

RAGE! Its Friday, November 11, 2011, I'm ticked again, or is it as usual now, and this is the Side. Lot of 1s in today's day. Ah well.

Onward!

BATTLEGROUND: FRANCE?

I'm pretty ticked off today, and its all about people being stupid. A French magazine has decided to piss off Muslims. They're doing it because they say they have a right to. Worse, they're being praised for it.

The break down is a french magazine decided to have cartoons of Muhammad in it, which Muslims don't like because they consider it idolatry. Crazy extremist Moslims decided to firebomb the magazine's office. The magazine then responded with putting another cartoon on its cover of what is possible Muhammad, but definitely a Muslim kissing a man to further tick people off. I'm sitting here thinking that the French haven't picked a fight with anyone since the French Revolution and maybe their economic problems are a lot worse than anyone thought.

This is the same type of stupidity that brought us Everyone Draw Muhammad Day, which I've talked about at length. Its abusing Freedom of Speech and freedom of Press. The part that's really stupid is that there are Muslims out there who are just living their lives and this offends them. This gives them a common ground with the crazy extremists. And the people at the magazine are complete douchebags. This is seriously the equivalent of putting out stuff against all of Christianity just to take a shot at the Westboro Baptist Church. They don't care about who they might offend, just as long as they offend someone.

Here's something that these morons, and many other morons don't want to admit: Freedom means responsibility. And when you shirk that responsibility, that's when you run the risk of that freedom being taken away. Can assholes protesting at soldier's funerals make people question the extent that we should have freedom of Speech? It does happen. Can these idiots at that magazine make people really wonder if having the freedom to offend people who haven't done anything to deserve it is worth it? Yeah, they can.

And then there's the real winners who are defending this. The first comment in the Gawker article i linked to posted a cartoon and dared Muslims to attack him. This is the mindset of the type of moron we're dealing with. They want nothing more than to count coup. But, of course, they're just looking to insult those "close minded" people who aren't enlightened enough to see things their way. "How could anyone be offended at a comic?"

How about a word?

What if I decided to start using the N-word in this blog? But I'm not directing it at all blacks. I'm just directing it at that black guy who threatened to shoot me for being the wrong color on his street and his buddies who thought that was funny. The other black people who I like shouldn't have a problem with it, right?

See the point yet?

I hope so, because there's a lot of people who don't.

Bottom line: that French magazine isn't ballsy, because being racist isn't ballsy. Its just stupid.

MUSIC!!

This dude really likes this song!

That's it for me today. Happy Veteran's Day, and thank you to everyone who has served our country. See y'all Sunday.

You want me to save the world AND look good doing it?

2011-11-08T06:36:00.007-05:00

Howdy! Its Wednesday, November 9, 2011, my brain is still sorting through last nights episode of RINGER, and this is The Side. I'm going to be amazed if that show makes it to a second season. Its not that it isn't a great show. Its absolutely brilliant. However, they've managed to weave such an intricate web of deception between all these characters that its almost impossible for a new viewer to penetrate.

But, mna-o-man its fun to watch.

COMIX!!

Something got brought up the other day, and it seems obvious, but no one seems to talk about it. I'm a big old nerd. I nerds it up like nobodies business. However, one thing that doesn't really affect me is comparing myself physically to the characters I read about. This does happen though, and its sometimes leading to serious problem: eating disorders.

In looking at how women are portrayed in superhero comics, its easy to see the problem. Artists often work to "idealize" how they are portrayed. Tiny waists, and plenty of curves are pretty common in the spandex crowd. Some artists take things further than others. Some have difficulty showing women of differing body types. It is obvious that it you have a woman who is a successful crime fighter then she will most likely have to be in top physical condition.

The problem is there's been a disconnect as to what a woman in top physical condition really looks like. That's one of the reasons there's such scrutiny over casting female superheros. We like it when the actors actually resemble the characters they're playing, but real women don't look like how women are portrayed in comics. Yes, there are some out there, but they absolutely aren't the norm.

If you're a guy and want a woman that looks like the one you read about in comics, its not going to happen. If that's the standard you are judging against, then you're standard is flat out messed up. This makes you part of the problem, but there's an easy solution. Take a good hard look in the mirror. Do you look like Bruce Wayne? It you put on a Batman costume right now, and not one of those padded things, could you pull it off convincingly? Probably not. And don't try saying to yourself that you could if you hit the gym and ate right. That's a lot for gym time, and while I'm all for people eating right and getting plenty of exercise, there's a little something called body type to consider. Some people are built trimmer than others. Some are stockier. It goes on, and its both genders.

Do I find the women in comics attractive? Some of them, yes. I've had my own comic book crushes over the years. When I was a kid I was a really big fan of Kitty Pryde, and the New Mutants. They were just a little older than me and I really liked how Chris Claremont wrote them. The artists didn't draw them as sexed up bombshells. I was attracted to the girls in those comics, and while they were attractively draw, it was more their characters that I liked.

I think about this more as a parent now, especially with daughters. They know about superheros. They know about the Justice League, and the Avengers, and the X-Men. However, when they see Wonder Woman, Wasp, or Storm in action they're don't seem to be thinking about how they look. They want them to see them doing awesome stuff. One of my girls only wants to wear clothes that are 'awesome'. If the shirt isn't 'awesome', she doesn't want to wear it. As a parent I have to keep an eye on what they're watching. When they're watching their favorite superheroes in action, its up to me and the missus to guide they're viewing a bit. We focus on the attributes of these characters that make them strong and noble.

So, of course I want my girls to Wonder Woman's grace, Kitty Pryde's guts, Oracle's brains and perseverance. I don't want them to think that they have to look like the sex up versions that some artist put out there.

I do feel bad for the women out there that see characters in comics, or some girl with freakish genetics and/or strategically placed silicone parading the goods around in a cosplay costume, and feel like they don't measure up. As far as your body goes I've always thought that if you're a healthy weight and can make your body do what you want it to do, then you're just fine. Unfortunately, there's still that matter of being happy with what you see in the mirror. If you're not happy with it, then there's plenty of healthy ways to make your body change and bit fitter. No, you don't have to go to extremes like a top flight athlete, or have a training regime like you'd imagine Black Canary would have.

And a lot of this is at the feet of the artists, and the higher ups that push these images. To those people I just have to say: I've seen real, beautiful women and they don't look like how some of you are depicting them.

MUSIC!!

Because anthropologically speaking, they're still drawing them wrong.

Time to hit the ground running. See y'all Friday.

Falling back to comics!

2011-11-04T07:04:00.003-04:00

I AM RESTED! Its Sunday, November 6, 2011, I fell back, and this is The Side! I love this weekend. I get a whole extra hour to sleep. It used to be fun when I work at the bar and was telling everyone it was time to go. There'd always be at least one person who would try to say we'd be open an extra hour. The clocks actually roll back at 2AM (that's the facts, Jack!) and that was when the bar closes. One woman looked at me aghast and told me she had a whole limo of people coming. Too damn bad.

I never liked that annoying broad anyhow.

COMIX!!

USAGI YOJIMBO #141 tops us off this week. This is a very significant issue because its the 200th issue of comic Stan Sakai has done. That puts him in a very elite spot that he shares only with Dave Sim with his work on CEREBUS. And the great this is, the book is just as enjoyable after all this time. The back cover features all 200 covers of the comics and is really neat stuff. On to the book itself, its a fun read. This issue is a stand alone but it touches back to the "Murder at the inn" story that wrapped up last issue. The bandit in that story kept talking about his brother and how tough and terrible he was. Seems the brother has taken over a town with his gang. There's also a neat bit here in that a sculpture in this town had a dream that the town would be rid of the bandits if he sculpted 200 little statues, called Jizo. By the end of the book the sculptor is asked if he would continue to make the Jizo since he completed 200, and he said he would as long as his hands let him. Here's to that.

THE GOON #36 pits The Goon and Frankie up against one of their toughest opponents yet: The Queen of Burlesque! The drinkin', smokin', strippin' machine! Roxi Dlite! Dlite is a real life burlesque performer and here she is guest starring. This was a hoot and a half. Ridiculous sex. Ridiculous violence. A bunch of laugh out loud moments. Its a goof caper story with a stolen knick knack. Eric Powell always knocks it out of the park. Its hard to give much detail because every time you turn the page, two things smack you right in the face: its wall-to-wall nuts, and its a really great comic.

The boys from Primal Paper are back with THE BAKU #1. Mike Fererali (THE SKYROCKET) teams up with Drew Moss for this one. This is flat out the best book Primal Paper has put out yet. Yes, I do have a soft spot for these because I know most of them. Yes, I do know Mike and Drew. I like Mike and Drew. Its hard to give a review on something from people you like especially when its not the best thing ever. Fortunately, I have no problems here. Mike's writing is his sharpest yet. Drew is probably one of the best artists you haven't heard of. This book is great. Its a supernatural western. The main character, Baku, reminds me a lot of Jaeger Ayers, from Carla Speed McNeil's FINDER. Baku isn't knock off though and has plenty of his own quirks. The first issue gives us a great introduction to the character and the world without reading like an instruction manual. Its fun and weird and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this series.

We'll wrap things up with an early review of 41 #4 which will be available this week. This is also from Primal Paper, and I did say that THE BAKU was the best book they've put out so far. This comic is one hell of a follow up. This is the best issue yet. It wraps up the ongoing story in brutal fashion. I'm reminded a bit of the anime feature X in which we have all these character pop up and is obvious that they all have their own stories and are interesting, but with what they're up against you know they don't have much of a chance. Still, if Bill and his crew are going down, they're going down swinging and with lots of company. The production on this comic has gone way up since issue 3. The book looks great. The writing by Bob Frantz is tight. There's still a couple of holes here and there that I have questions about, but they don't hold up the story at all. Its a last stand story for this arc's last issue, and it goes out in style. Great work.

MUSIC!!

That's right! I'm posting a song by a violinist! Because I'm classy, and tasteful, and shit.

That's a wrap for me. Hm, with all my extra rest, does that mean I don't need to brew an coffee?

MADNESS!

See y'all Wednesday.

The Not So Great Divide

2011-11-04T05:57:00.002-04:00

It's Friday, November 4, 2011, its my stepmother's birthday, and this is The Side. Hopefully the HITMAN volume 5 trade I ordered for her will get here soon.

I'm very tired right now.

I'm thinking today about the division of things, mainly groups of people. It seems like there's a lot of focus on it now. In many areas I'm all for it when we keep things in perspective. Splitting things up can bring about competition, which can be fun and enjoyable. The competition can be physical, mental, or emotional.

Physical competition is pretty obvious. We typically see it in sports. It gets the blood up, and pushes those competing to be the best person out there.

Mental competition also pushes folks. We see this in debates, spelling bees, chess matches, and any other intellectual pursuit that can involve more than one person. This is also good. It keeps the mind sharp.

Emotional competition is along the lines of being a fan of something. Let's say you're a Yankees fan. If your team is on the field you're invested at least a little bit emotionally. Well, there's someone else out there who's invested emotionally in whoever the Yanks are playing. Being passionate about something is good for the soul.

There's a flip side to all this. Competition can bring out a lot of bad stuff. people can cheat. They can do something to intentionally hurt someone. They can get so obsesses with winning that they hurt themselves. This happens when people forget something very important: they are part of a larger group.

That person cheering for the sports team that's playing against the team you love. You both love the same game.

That guy at the comic shop who loves Marvel Comics instead of DC. Guess what. You both love comics.

That guy I face in the ring when the gloves go on. He's there because he loves martial arts just like me. That's why the first thing we do is bow.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who want to focus so much on the divides in things that they do some really stupid stuff. There's no competition to see who is a better person. In that its when you start behaving like you're better than someone else because of some divide that separates you, you become a worse person.

Atheists that malign religious folks needlessly, and just as much a bunch of douchebags as those 'Christians' who tell people "You're going to hell" for not living their lives a certain way.

Anyone who assaults another person for being a fan of a particular sports team should get to spend time in cell to think about what they've done.

People standing around pointlessly in the streets because they're not as successful as they wish they were and someone else is doing well because they worked hard and got a little lucky are just being petty.

Calling somebody a "racist" simply for having a differing political view that has nothing to do with race at all simply because you want to tear down those people is pretty disgusting.

However, all this ranting probably will be forgotten fairly quickly by anyone who reads it. After all. Next year is an election year.

MUSIC!!

2011-10-08T18:58:00.004-04:00

BRAINS! Its Sunday, October 9, 2011, I seem to be lacking them, and this is The Side. Been a busy week. Worked six day. Got the dojo back on track now that the Karate demo is over. Drew and inked a bunch of stuff. Found time to get my journalist on. I'm feeling a bit out of steam.

Fortunately, I don't run on steam. I run of caffeine, and possibly grease.

ONWARD!

COMIX!!

2011-09-24T17:17:00.004-04:00

Its Sunday, September 25, 2011, I'm going to lay some pipe, and this is The Side. Had a plumbing problem in the Nozz Compound involving minor flooding. I managed to stop the problem, but now I have to attempt to make the bathroom fully functional again. This is stretching the limits of my plumbing ability. Frankly, all I really know about plumbing is that shit rolls downhill and quitting time is five o'clock.

But before I possibly make a bad situation worse, let's see what's going on with things.

INTERNET!!

This has been a busy week in social media. Facebook is making a bunch of changes, which don't affect me because I'm not on Facebook. A lot of the changes have already started rolling out. The users aren't too pleased about it, but there may be a bit of resisting change for the sake of resisting change in play.

Phillip DeFranco gave a pretty thorough rundown of what users are in store for with the new Facebook.

Now to me, this all sounds horrendous. It just sounds like one big confusing mess. However, the focus still seems to be on what Facebook's main goal has always been: putting information about yourself out there to share with people. Also, looking at the screen shots of what's in store and having seen what the pages look like now, it just looks too jumbled. There's a lot going on here. Whether its too much or not remains to be seen.

The timing is also very interesting in that Google+ went public this week. Its still in beta testing mode, but its fully functional. Its neat and clean. The focus is on sharing information and discussion. Whether or not that information is personal or news stories, or just fun bits from the web depends on the user. They also have games now and that's in its own little section so you don't have a bunch of game notifications clogging up your streams.

There's been a lot of people I've seen on G+ who also have Facebook accounts noting that since G+ came into existence that Facebook has been tweeking things in a way that seemed like they were trying to mimic G+. Mark Zuckerberg does indeed have a G+ account so he knows exactly what G+ has to offer. Whether the allegations of ripping off G+ have any meat to them is anyone's guess at this point.

I've made my call as to which site I'm going to be on. I don't think that many people who casually use social media are going to use both. That said, we'll see what happens. Is Facebook going to get turned into MySpace, or will Google+ not catch on like many people think it will?

That asked, I'm going to get ready to see the results of this month's G+ grand Prix championship.

COMIX!!

THE RED WING #3 was on the stands this week. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra continue their time travel story with some new wrinkles to things. This continues to be an idea driven story as opposed to a character driven one. Time travel is based upon ascending vibrations, and considering time as a stacked model. Time lines are vertical. But we have have people diving backwards through time and doing things. As opposed to many other time travel stories, altering things in the past has no affect on the present. It merely creates an alternate time stack. We learn here that it is also possible to move horizontally through the stacks, which is the equivalent here of moving through parallel dimensions. This is not he only idea in play here, as we are also dealing with the condition of the present and whose fault that is. So, in the "present" (which is the future relative to us) Dom, Val, and Maye are pilots dealing with an attack from a foe which is still very loosely defined. Meanwhile Dom's father is the prisoner of Dom from possibly "the future" or possibly a different "present". prisoner taking Dom seems to have thrown in with and is leading the enemy that pilot Dom is facing with Val and Maye. He's also ready to blame the present on the past, which is a big issue here. The enemy forces seem to be pillaging and destroying various points in the past, and taking whatever they can. It seems their motivation is 'our parents didn't do right to make the present good so we'll go back and take whatever we can to make the present good, and screw the past because its their fault the present sucks'. This proves my long standing believe that whiny, self-centered jerks shouldn't have time travel technology. We're on issue 3 of 4 and I've got no clue how Hickman is going to wrap this thing up in only one more issue. I can't recommend this title for everyone because it seems like you need to be a theoretical physicist to keep this thing straight. Dealing with time travel issues is tricky enough, but over-laying parallel dimension theory with such an odd turn on time travel theory is about enough to cook a few brain cells. Its definitely different, so if you like different, and enjoy having your brain kicked sideways, give it a read.

MUSIC!!

There's cool, then there's cool, and then there's Chris Isaak.

What? Did you think I was going to post that "I want to fall in love" song? That ain't happening. That's it for me for today. I've got a hot date with blow torch. Got to sweat a nipple onto a pipe. Technical jargon can sound kinda dirty sometimes. If i don't burn the house down, I'll see y'all Wednesday.

Insert "Bunky" joke here

2011-09-22T06:35:00.008-04:00

I feel thuper! Its Friday, September 23, 2011, thanks for asking, and this is The Side. Spent some quality time under a house fixing insulation that wasn't installed properly by another contractor on a house that's suppose to close today. Time crunch, couldn't get the person who did the original work in time, under I go.

Its unpleasant to work with that stuff. The fiberglass insulation itches something fierce. Being the crawl space isn't fun and even if you don't have claustrophobia, being down there is nearly enough to make you want to start. But the job is done, and while it was pretty unpleasant I can't really complain because first off I was working and right now, working is a very good thing.

Also it being a vacant house with newly renovated bathrooms and nice showers to choose from after the ordeal was a bit of luxury.

COMIX!!

The DC reboot is in full swing. The new #1 issues are steadily rolling out. I haven't been buying any of them, but a few have ended up in my pull box. Joey at Comic Kings has been very happy when I told him I didn't want them, as he had a serious run of people who came in at the last minute asking for the books. You can't pre-order books a week in advance. If you didn't know that before, you do now. So even with ordering a lot of extra books, he's still a little short. Seems that people will still show up for first issues. The real question is, will they show up for subsequent issues.

There's been a lot of talk about diversity with the characters. Its not just white guys on parade anymore. Although there's still a bit of fanboyism that's in the way. Hal Jordan is still Green Lantern, even though John Stewart has a strong following thanks to the old JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED cartoon. If DC wanted to really impress me with their push for diversity they'd have made John the main Green Lantern. It might almost make up their their notion that diversity is good unless we're talking about paraplegic women.

We do have new gay heroes too! That should be good, but when I hear people talking about Bunker, I'm having my doubts. I have no problems with gay characters. Greg Rucka created some really great ones. The thing that has me worried is reading Brett Booth tweet that:

We’re trying to make being gay a part of who he is, your gaydar should be pinged right off the bat:)

OK, that's a pretty poorly phrased statement. Your sexuality is a part of who you are. Its not difficult to make being gay a part of who a character is. If that character is romantically attracted to other characters of his or her same gender, then they are pretty much gay. Now, what I'm really, really, REALLY hoping that he doesn't mean that being gay is going to be this characters defining characteristic. This is partly due to this character being on the Teen Titans and defining teenage characters by their sexuality just isn't a good idea. Moreso, defining any character by their sexuality is a bad idea. Is Bunker's (Whose dumb idea was that name? Why don't you just set the ball on the tee?) main motivation for everything he does going to center around him being gay?

I'm not saying that having an openly gay character is a bad idea. I'm not saying that having an openly gay character in the Teen Titans is a bad idea. In fact, its a great idea because it opens the door to having great stories addressing issues of prejudice. Much like Chris Claremont's 80's UNCANNY X-MEN run used the genre to look at prejudice. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that we're going to have the same thoughtful and nuanced approach to the issue here. When I think of a character like Tommy Jagger, who was gay, I don't just think "Oh, he's gay." No, I think about what a great character he was and how much I could relate to him. I looked forward to reading comics with him in them. He wasn't there to be in my face to make me think about diversity, but the way the entire Rucka CHECKMATE series was written you accepted diversity because everyone brought something awesome to the table.

So the question is: Will Bunker bring something to the table that fans and readers can appreciate, or will he be there to pander to one group of people for the sake of being "diverse"? I'm really hoping its the former, but unfortunately I'm having serious doubts.

MUSIC!!

Because gay dudes are hardcore, yo!

That's all for me today. Looks like its going to be a soggy weekend again, but I'll still see y'all Sunday.

Lies, Hate, and Batman

2011-09-20T22:42:00.006-04:00

To the Bat-pole! Its Wednesday, September 21, 2011, good-bye Summer, and this is The Side! Months ago I walked into a Chik-fil-a and was asked for my name to go with my order. That's happening more and more in quick service type places. So I gave my name as "Bruce Wayne", because I could. I figured I'd just cycle through the Justice League secret identities for a while.

But the next time I went into that store I got a "Hey, its Bruce Wayne!" Now I'm known as Bruce Wayne there. Let that be a lesson for you people. If you're going to pick a fake name, you need to be ready to commit to it.

One of my Karate students tried going into that Chik-fil-a and claimed his name was "Bruce Wayne". They just looked at him and said "You're not Bruce Wayne."

Damn right. BECAUSE I'M BRUCE WAYNE!!

POLITICS

I was accused of spreading hate speech over the weekend. What did I do to receive such an accusation? I made fun of Al Gore. Now, you're probably thinking that those must have been some really brutal jokes to be called hate speech. Actually, they weren't. I mentioned that for someone who is so concerned with the environment its funny that his house uses more power than about thirty other houses in his state. I also said that the private jet he flies around in must run on fairy dust. I also said its pretty funny that he's such a proponent of buying "carbon credits" to offset energy usage, and he owns the company that sells carbon credits. I pointed out the truth. That was hate speech.

At least, it was considered hate speech by one moron who was an Al Gore supporter, and couldn't come up with an effective counterpoint. I informed him that you can't call something "hate speech" simply because you don't agree with it. He insisted I was still spreading hate speech. I told him to specifically point out where I had spewed the alleged hate speech. That ended things because he couldn't. It would be a whole other matter if I had started slinging slurs about his ethnicity or religion. I didn't. I pointed out his hypocrisy which is a matter of public record.

This is intellectual bullying, which is a funny thing to call it because it requires the mental capacity and debate skills of a ten year old. If you can't defeat the argument, you must vilify the person making it. The goal is to make the person making the point out to be a bad person and therefore turn opinion against their the point. If Hitler told you it was a nice day, your gut reaction would be to disagree because he's a bad person.

This is an old game in political topics. How many times have you heard that talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity were racist and spread hate speech? There are people who have actually taken these claims at face value. I listen to a lot of talk radio because I spend quite a bit of time driving around. I've never heard either of these people say anything racist. The hate speech allegation is the same as the one was levied against me this weekend. There are people who don't want to hear what they have to say and cannot come up with an effective counterpoint, so they try to vilify them.

A high school kid was told he was racist by another student because he thought that Barack Obama wasn't a very good President. The student said calmly and intelligently that he disagreed with the President's policies. Still he was called a 'racist'. I don't like the President's policies. I think he's wanting to take the country in the wrong direction. I'm looking forward to voting against him and hopefully getting him out of office next year. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with skin color. You can call me a racist for stating any of it, but that only makes you intellectually inferior and a flat out liar.

I've seen hate. Its nasty. There are things that I do hate, but there's a whole lot of justification for it. I don't hate people for simply having a different opinion than me. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, although not their own facts, but that's a rant for another time.

MUSIC!!

This hater is gonna hate!!

Don't hate me because I have to go! See y'all Friday!

SMG XTC!!!

2011-09-17T15:14:00.007-04:00

That's right, we're not done with her yet. Its Sunday, September 18, 2011, and because you expect it, this is The Side. It rained nearly all day yesterday, which was kind of nice. It brought the current battle to a bit of a halt. Seems a hive of yellowjackets or hornets or something has got themselves a bit of nest next to the front porch and underground. I hit them with multiple cans of horrible chemicals but time is going to tell me with worked. One of the little bastards already stung the Missus. That affront shall not stand.

EXPECTATIONS

Its hard to go into anything without expectations. When you're telling stories you have to decide whether its going to be better to meet the expectations of an audience or surprise them. There's benefits to both options, but if you do nothing but meet expectations things are going to get boring and stale. You run the risk of losing the audience. I'm not talking about quality. If you have a reputation of doing quality work, that's an expectation that you're going to want to try to achieve every time. I'm talking about the type of work that you do. You can't just plug stuff into the same formula over and over and over. You don't grow that way.

Since its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, she's going to be our example. When we think of her there's one role that she played that springs to mind: Buffy Summers. Its easy to equate the two. She wasn't the first actress to play the role, but she played it for seven seasons on television. The show was the premier show of a network and spawned a spin off. It had legions of fans. She won awards for the role, and received a ton of nominations for other awards. We equate the actress with the role and vice versa. When you envision Buffy Summers she looks like Gellar. When you think of Gellar in a role, you expect someone tough, funny, and heroic. Not too shabby for an actor.

She then proceeded to deliver the goods to the fans of her show, but she player smart and branched out a bit. She got noticed for many different reasons for the movie CRUEL INTENTIONS. Most notably she had a steam on screen kiss with another actress, Selma Blair. I don't make the claim that that's the most notable thing about that role because I'm a big old perv who likes watching hot girls kiss. That kiss won an MTV movie award. It surprised people a bit, and folks took notice. She won best female performance at the same awards show and was nominated for "best villain". Gellar played against type here. The role called for her to be manipulative and overtly sexual. These are two traits you don't think of when you think about Buffy Summers. She pulled the role off masterfully. If you went into that movie expecting to see the same role from her as she played on TV, then you were in for a surprise and, probably, a bit of a shock.

What she was doing there was showing range. It was a different role, with different challenges to it. By meeting those challenges, she helped herself avoid being typecast.

The fact that she drastically changed genres worked for her advantage. Nobody expected her to kick an undead creature in CRUEL INTENTIONS. However, other movies she made were in the horror genre, and she was rather forgettable in them. In the movie I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER she was second fiddle to Jennifer Love Hewitt playing "hot girl in the movie who will eventually die horribly". Even worst was SCREAM 2 in which she played "random sorority person who dies horribly". I watched both these movies, and was sitting in the theater expecting her character to kick a bit of butt. I was placing the expectations I had of Buffy onto these characters. That's not to say that all of the horror movies she started in were suddenly equated to Buffy expectations. After the TV show had wrapped, her next role was in THE GRUDGE which was a horror/suspense piece but the tone and performance was so very different that she managed to put away the expectations we had of her and move on.

She's also been smart enough to do a couple of movies aimed at much younger audiences with the SCOOBY-DOO movies. I'm not going to sit here and rave about these as I skipped them entirely. I'm not a huge Scooby-Doo fan aside from the shows first season. But again, she branched out a little bit playing to a different audience. This audience wouldn't know her as Buffy, although their parents probably would. Again, she played a character in a supernatural adventure piece, and she played it to the fans not only of the old cartoon show, but from the previews the character had a few martial arts moves as a nod to her role as Buffy Summers. This is using the audience's expections to give them a wink. It acknowledges the expectations even if its not playing totally to them.

Its been a Sarah Michelle Gellar week, not because of the weird dream I had a few nights ago in which I was married to her, but because of her new TV show, RINGER, which debuted this week, and I previously reviewed. The actress is returning to television after the birth of her daughter to a show on the network that made her a huge star. Expectations were already in place from the first advertisements. The thing is that we couldn't be exactly sure what to expect because with the nature of the show and the events of the premier episode the network, wisely, didn't want to give too much away. I did go in with expectations, however my expectations didn't include her shoving pieces of wood through the bumpy-faced undead and delivering kung-fu kicks. I expected her to turn in a good performance and be watchable in the role. She did that times two with her portraying very different twin sisters.

I approach expectations as a writer. I'm no actor. I'm a ham with a lot of cheese, but no actor. But the type of expectation that an audience has of me as a writer and cartoonist are the same as type of expectations that they have of an actor. We're both there to try to deliver a, hopefully, good and memorably story/performance. Both walk a fine line of trying to give people what they want, and try to give them something they wouldn't expect from us, but will still like.

I'm struggling with it, but it looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar's got it all figured out.

MUSIC!!

2011-09-08T06:42:00.003-04:00

Its Vader time! Its Friday, September 9, 2011, I'm back in the game, and this is The Side. This is why I hardly ever go on vacation. You take a few days off and go somewhere and it feels like you need a week to get everything back to normal. Still, it was nice to get up to the mountain and see my Dad and Stepmom. He's completed his post heart surgery rehab. I think the nurses were sick of cranking the tread mill up to top speed and maximum incline and him asking when they were going to do something hard.

TOUGHEN UP!!

There's a lot of things that suck about getting older. I'm currently dealing with one in particular: my metabolism. Growing up I always had the metabolic rate of a blast furnace, so I basically ate whatever I wanted without having to worry about my weight. Well, those days are over. There's also a particular habit I used to have that I've broken. Those who have put up with the habit for years and fairly glad to see it go, but it was one that benefited me. I used to pace. I mean seriously pace. I'm talking affect the airflow around me pace. I'd march in my little OCD circle for sometimes well over an hour as my mind ran wild extrapolating story ideas and considering projects. I could probably march from here to Tokyo with the amount of steps I've taken pacing. But that habit got broken, mainly because it annoyed the hell out of people. Unfortunately, pacing the floor as I did burned a lot of calories. Now that I'm not doing it, those calories are hanging around.

Its not really about the number on the scale. Never has been. Its more about making my body do what it needs to do. I am carrying around extra weight. Its not a lot. The guys still call me 'Slim'. But its harder to keep my energy level up when my cardiovascular conditioning isn't as sharp as it used to be and my body is having to work harder to carry the extra weight. I'm finding myself wanting to take an afternoon nap and being tired more. Strength-wise I'm alright, but my energy level has dropped significantly. Not good.

Time to change things up. I've been trying to participate more in karate class as opposed to just teaching it. That can be a tricky balance to find, but I'm working on it. The elliptical trainer has been moved from the garage back into the house, and on the nights I don't work out I'll be spending some more quality time with it. It is difficult to find time for these things. I don't have the extra scratch for a gym membership, and if I did I don't really have the time for it. I've got a job (thankfully) and a family at home. Fortunately, little changes lead to results. If I can fit in some time at night on the elliptical before grabbing a shower and hitting the sack, great. If I have the option of grabbing an apple versus a snack cake, I'm going to go for it. That part is hard, as I do loves me some snack cakes. There's also the added workouts with my neighbor on Sunday morning in which we get old-school in his back yard leaving me sore and sweaty before the rest of the family is out of bed.

I'm not looking for huge results. I'm not trying to set a weight goal. I just want to feel better physically, and have the energy to do the things I want to do.

MUSIC!!

It was either ROCKY clips or put on Jensen Ackles lip syncing. I may have chose poorly.

That's the ballgame for me this go around. Everyone enjoy your weekend and I'll see y'all Sunday.

Returned... physically

2011-09-07T06:03:00.003-04:00

Hey, gang. I got back in last night from my little vacation to West Virginia. It was an uneventful trip, but that's what I was hoping for, so I'm pleased. However, my head still feels out of the game and my body is soft from lack of work and training. I'm also feeling quite disconnected from everything still, so I'm just throwing a little update up, and I'll be back to business as usual on Friday.

MUSIC!!

DO OVER!!

2011-09-02T05:36:00.004-04:00

Alrighty then. Its Friday, September 2, 2011, I'm ready to go, and by 'go' I mean the heck outta Dodge, and this is The Side. Yeah, I know this post is a bit video heavy, but that's how we roll sometimes.

I attempted to us the new Blogger interface for this. Horrible experience. I'll be keeping the old interface for a while, thanks.

RE-SOMETHING

DC has officially kicked off its reboot with JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 this week. I haven't been to the comic shop, so I haven't picked it up. Oh, and there's another reason, I think this entire reboot thing is stupid, and don't intend to pick it up. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, here you go.

So while the video says "everything will be alright" after listing a ton of reasons why I'm not on board with this, it turns out everything is not alright and the word is getting around that this new Justice League book isn't very good at all. Its basically Batman meets Green Lantern. Batman's back to being a jerk. Hal Jordan is still a douche. They go try to beat up Superman, who is now a young douche, and that's about it. Meet the new DCU, where you can see the heroes try to beat each other up and posture in "badass" manners. Screw this. That's not even getting into some of these horrible designs. My kids can't even recognize these characters anymore.

I'm not totally against reboots and/or remakes. I think there's some things really important to consider when these are undertaken. Primarily, are you doing this for the right reason? If you truly believe that it needs to be done in order to create something better, then you're on the right intentional track. That's one of the main problems with the DC re-boot. They're trying to gain new readers, so its a stunt to gain money. Not good.

If you remain true to some key themes in the original work, you're probably on a good track as well. Its sort of the same rule has handling an adaption from one medium to another. Alterations are more readily forgiven if they keep the spirit of the original work.

What can be a problem is re-imagining a work. That's when you take a work and then put your own spin in it. A great example is the Mortal Kombat web series. Kevin Tancharoen re-imagined the concept and removed a lot of the mystical aspects of the storyline, but kept a bit of the fantastic nature. He made a video, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, and it was a huge hit with Mortal Kombat fans. It got the go ahead from Warner Brothers to do a web-series, but it had to get Ed Boon, one of the original game creators and current head dude of things Mortal Kombat, to give the final go ahead. Well, Tancharoen's vision pretty much got squashed, and the web series ended up being a series of videos telling the origins of various characters from the games. The videos were still very good, pretty much a let down from what Rebirth promised. That's with the exception of the "Raiden" episode, which really was a great video, and the best of the series.

Mortal Kombat is about two things: martial arts and brutal finishes. Tanchareon switched the other worldly characters with twisted serial killers, but maintained incredible martial arts fighting and a brutal edge to things in the Rebirth video. But his vision didn't get the go ahead, so we're kind of left to wonder how awesome his take on things really could have been. I would love to sit down with him and talk about it though.

It does really boil down to change. On one hand DC is trying to change what they have in order to gain fans, and the fans they have are backing away from it. On the other hand, you have a fan who made something great and generated a lot of buzz and new fans, but the original creator put the breaks on things and might have shut the door on something really promising.

I've done it too. My old comic NIGHT LIFE got a bit of a reboot because when I did the original comic in college it was much later on in the character's lives. I wanted to go back and start telling their stories from an earlier spot. Sure some things got altered a bit, but my abilities and sensibilities as a storyteller have changed quite a bit sense college.

Hitting the get "Do Over" button doesn't automatically make something bad. You just have to make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

MUSIC!!

Here's something a bit different your ya: The Oakridge Boys covering The White Stripes.

That's all for me guys. I'm getting out of here for the weekend. I haven't visited my dad in far too long and decided kind of last minute to take a trip to the mountain to see him. I'll be back Tuesday, so definitely no Sunday update again, and possibly no update next Wednesday. Yes, yes, I'm a bad blogger. See y'all later, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

Irene Gets Nekkid!!

2011-08-28T10:34:00.009-04:00

Is it safe to come out? Its Wednesday, August 31, 2011, my brother's birthday is tomorrow, and this is The Side. I was driving home the other day when I got a phone call. I didn't recognize the number. A little girl was on the other end and queried, "Can I ask you a question about super heroes?" For a brief time I figured that my nerd rep had spread to the point that my phone number was being distributed to anyone who may have a burning question concerning super heroes. The question was asked. I answered. I was thanked. And it was over leaving me to wonder who the heck I had just talked to.

Part of me didn't want to know, as it was a blissful moment. Turns out it was my dear niece, who knows full well that her uncle is a big old nerd. She knows this because my brother, who is soon to be old like me, told her.

STORMY WEATHER!!

Hurricane Irene was pretty anti-climatic here at the Nozz Compound. We never lost power, and had a reliable internet connection all day. Clean up afterwards wasn't terrible. Had a couple branches land on the roof, but no damage. Now I feel a little bit silly not posting on Sunday, but at the same time you don't know what's going to happen with these things. You can get through most of the storm and then a tree comes down and hits your house, or you lose power and not get it back for a week. So I pretty much just hung out and kept an eye on things. I actually had a two day weekend. Felt kinda weird.

There wasn't a ton of damage, and there was quite a bit of overhyping the storm. I think everyone is afraid now of not giving one of these storms enough attention and then we get another Katrina. Yes, it was kinda overblown with the coverage, although the guy flashing the live Weather Channel camera was hilarious, but it wasn't much ado about nothing. It was still a hurricane. People still died. People did have stuff destroyed. An old family friend lost trees in their yard. Best we can figure is a tornado or something did a touch and go. His house is wrecked and he and his wife could have been seriously hurt. Fortunately both of them are fine.

When I did finally get to Sandbridge a lot of people were still without power, but the power company was really on top of things and by the time this gets posted they should all have their power back down there. The damage was worse the further south I went down there. A tornado had touched down out there and turned a two story beach house into a one story beach house.

I did run into a reporter as I was doing damage assessments. Real nice guy, and a very tired one too. he had 26 hours of overtime the prior week and this week was looking like a long one too. He agreed that calling this storm "the storm of the century" was pretty dumb, but in his business they're damned if they and they're damned if they don't. If they stress heavily how dangerous these storms are they're accused of "overhyping", and if they treat it like "OK, we've been through these before, you people know the drill, watch yourselves and stay safe" they get accused of not doing their jobs and warning people.

I guess we'll see if there's any adjustments to their coverage with Katia on her way.

PR0N!!

Let's talk about some porn. And no I'm not talking about the HIV case that has temporarily shut down the LA porn industry thus leaving poor pervies to have to watch skanky amateurs for new material to rough up the suspect to. Not too long ago you could actually find a few comic books on the magazine racks in the 7-11s around here. Then I noticed that the magazine racks started to go missing from the stores, and I asked about it.

7-11 was phasing out of having magazine racks. They were still planning on carrying a few magazines at the counter, but racks were on their way out. I though about this, and I guess will people getting more and more information through electronic means, it was inevitable, but I didn't think it would happen this soon. It was so odd to me because I always glance at the magazine racks. I also always check out book shelves. But I figured that this was coming to an end, at least at 7-11.

But then last week, I went to the 7-11 around the corner to grab a couple things and saw the magazine rack had returned. I was happy and then went to engage my slightly OCD habit of seeing what magazines they had. No comics this time around, which bummed me out a little bit. Then I looked at the top shelf, and it was porn mags. Not just a few copies of Playboy either. I'm talking the smutty smut! Club, Hustler, and Cheri were all there. Holy crap.

I've got no beef with the smutty smut but, I'm not comfortable with it in my 7-11. It needs to be over at Getty Mart, because that's the convenience store of choice for your smutty smut needs. I go to that 7-11 all the time. The people who work there recognize me. I always check out the magazine rack, and I probably still will to see what articles are in Men's Health or maybe check out a video game magazine. But I'm not cool with the nice girl behind the counter thinking that I'm over there ogling the smutty smut. We have our little pseudo-relationship, and it does not involve smutty smut. Now there's a smutty smut peripheral.

I'm also kinda bummed that there's no comics on the rack anymore. They didn't have many, but having a little something over there might lure in a new a reader or two, and that's important. I got nearly all my comics from 7-11s and grocery stores when I was a kid. I'm kinda sad that a kid can't see a Spider-man comic randomly in a 7-11 and maybe get his dad to buy it for him.

Of course, he'd only be able to buy it if he had money left over after buying a copy of Hustler.

MUSIC!!

This is another one of those times in which I dug the video and the song was alright. Here we go.

That's all for today. Once again, Happy Birthday to Big Matt Nozz tomorrow! We'll see y'all Friday.

Here comes Irene

2011-08-25T21:44:00.003-04:00

Hey, gang. Its Friday, August 26, 2011, we're under a hurricane watch here and this is The Side. No big update today because I'm having to get ready. Got some thunderstorms pushing through that have nothing to do with the hurricane. Internet connection is spotty at best. I'm having to head out early to board up some beach houses, and will likely be spending all day Sunday assessing damages. That said, there will be no Sunday post, especially since I seriously doubt I'll have power here. Hopefully I'll be back online by Wednesday.

I did grab a couple comics this week. Loved ACTION COMICS 904, especially since the epilogue completely bitch slapped JMS's stupid "Grounded" storyline. BATMAN INCORPORATED 8 was very interesting stuff. I do love how Morrison handled Barbara. It was her world, and you sure didn't want to mess with it. The comp art was a bit jarring, and I don't really dig it, but considering the nature of the story it fit. So this week was my good-bye to DC. It was fun.

Let's wrap it up with a bit of music.

See y'all when I see ya.

One Disastrous Week

2011-08-23T06:48:00.007-04:00

Duck and cover! Its Wednesday, August 24, 2011, I'm bracing for impact, and this is The Side.

Sometimes a fella has to wonder whether or not there's a higher power out to get him, and I'm not talking about Linda's threats of disemboweling me, although she technically does count as a higher power. We had an earthquake yesterday. I found out about this later, because even though I was on step ladder, I failed to notice it. The house actually shook, which I know because the woman that was inside the house told me so. I didn't feel a thing. We don't get many earthquakes here in Virginia so when we do have one it would be nice if I actually noticed it. I feel a bit ripped off. We got a tsunami warning too, but not much risk of that. Mostly that was a "really?" moment.

Then there's the wildfire which has blanketed various parts of the area in smoke depending on which way the wind is blowing. One part of Suffolk actually had an air quality condition of purple. Not red, PURPLE. That's past red on the scale. You think code red is bad. That's doesn't have shit on a code purple. You hear code purple, you hide your ass.

That's not to be confused with a code pink, which I hear is some political group but I can't take them seriously at all due to their name. "Code pink" is what we used to call it when you were late for work due to some morning nookie, and was accepted by the boss as a legitimate reason.

The wildfire itself has consumed about nine square miles of the Great Dismal Swamp. A lightning strike set it off. There's a lot of dead wood out there from a fire a couple years ago. Its been burning most of the month now.

Finally, there's Hurricane Irene which is heading my way and due to say "howdy" this weekend. Hopefully all the rain will put out that frakkin' fire. We've already gotten plenty of phone calls from clients worried about their properties down at the beach. These things are so unpredictable. We could get off light. We could get our asses handed to us.

Right now my plan is to ride this one out. I don't wet my shorts for anything under a Cat 2, and that's what it looks like it'll be when it gets here, if it gets here. Its currently due Saturday morning. Don't expect a post on Sunday because its a safe bet that I'll be without power for the weekend. Longest I've been without power due to a hurricane was three days, but like I said, there's no telling how this'll go.

I really need to upgrade the Nozz Compound, and include a bunker.

MUSIC!!

I really dig this version of the song. Robert Rodriguez rules like school.

That's all for me today. The forecast doesn't have the hurricane hitting until Saturday, so I should see y'all Friday.