Drawing to a close

Its Sunday, November 27, 2011, the end is drawing near, for my beard anyways, and this is The Side. Yes indeed, I did the whole "No Shave November" bit, and while I've gotten quite a few compliments about my chin whiskers I'm ready for it to go. Indeed, I am looking manlier than ever, but it feels like I'm wearing a mask, and while masks are great, its nice to take them off too.

That and the amount of grey in there is making me look and feel a bit old.

ENDINGS!

There are somethings that we wish would go on forever. Four of these I kind of wish could. One of them could go away and never ever come back and I'd be a happy camper. Still, its tough giving some things a proper send off. So, for any of those producers out there who might need a little ghost writing done, I've got your back!

In the finale of THE BIG BANG THEORY it is discovered that Penny is really a Russian spy and the entirety of the time she'd been involved in Leonard and Sheldon's lives she had been reporting back to her superiors and subverting the scientists' efforts. Sheldon puts the pieces into place noting that Penny has always had an amazingly sharp memory. Paranoia sets in as Sheldon tries desperately to reveal Penny's real motives without tipping his hand. Its spy versus nerd until Sheldon finally confronts Penny, only to discover that the entire thing was ruse to lure Sheldon to his surprise birthday party. Leonard finally proposes to Penny. The episode ends with Penny reporting to the Russians that everything is going according to plan.

THE WALKING DEAD concludes with Rick waking up from his coma only to discover that the entire zombie apocalypse had been a dream. This is immediately followed by every fan around the world simultaneously wailing and gnashing their teeth.

SUPERNATURAL comes to an end in their final season when the Winchester boys find themselves up against C'Thulu. Its pretty much a descent into madness, which isn't anything new to the show, but the in an unexpected twist, Sam and Dean actually get along for the entire season. This is completely groundbreaking for the show. The series ends with Dean reciting a spell from the Necronomicon, but he messes the words up and sends himself and Sam to another dimension where both of them have chainsaws for hands.

In the new final installment of the TWILIGHT series, it vampire guy (played by that weird looking dude in the movie) and the werewolf guy (played by the former Shark Boy in the movie) reveal that they were sitting around watching IN THE COMPANY OF MEN and thought Aaron Eckhart was a complete boss in that film. They went to find a really stupid girl to do the same thing to, and everything just got really, really out of hand from there. Both guys get the heck out of dodge. The stupid girl then spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out what she's going to do with her half vampire kid and thinking community college would have been a much better idea than trying to live out her gothic fantasy.

And finally, CASTLE wraps up when Castle and Beckett begin to penetrate the whole conspiracy behind who tried to take out Beckett with the sniper rifle. The person responsible hired the serial strangler that got away from Castle and Ryan to lead Castle through a series of challenges testing his deductive powers to save people. Meanwhile, this is all a ruse while the figurative noose tightens around Beckett. She's in the cross-hairs and knows it, but the team can't stop those behind that and keep up with supporting Castle against the killer. Castle breaks ranks and ditches the others for a lone confrontation with the killer, freeing Ryan and Espesito up to aid Beckett in taking down the people who tried to kill her. Castle has a whole Holmes/Moriarty battle thing and if he survives finally get together with Beckett. He also gets made an honorary police captain, because its Nathan Fillion and he'll always be a captain to us.

MUSIC!

Let's keep it simple today.



That's all from me for today. I'll see y'all Wednesday.

Nerding It Up Family Friendly Style

Who's your daddy? Its Sunday, October 23, 2011, nurture seems to be curb stomping nature, and this is The Side. I made that little comment because no one has discovered a nerd gene and my kids have some interesting behavior.

When your daughter says that the theme to THE BIG BANG THEORY is her favorite song, that's probably a sign.

This is the same daughter who argues against wearing pajamas. I told her how its colder at night now and she needs to wear PJs because I don't want her to freeze her little butt. See countered this with "If I freeze, I'll break that ice like Iceman!" Yes, my daughter's new favorite superhero is Iceman. This is due to Netflix instant streaming letting us watch SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS.

This is not to be confused with the other daughter who refuses to wear anything cute. If its not 'awesome', she won't wear it. 'Awesome' is the new criteria of choice for four year old clothing choices.

That daughter is the same one with her Spider-man rain boots. She wears those when it rains because sometimes its too wet for her Spider-man sneakers. That doesn't really make up for it being too wet to put on her Spider-man helmet and ride her Spider-man bike around the court. We do keep her well-rounded though, as she carries an Ironman backpack to pre-school. Yes, she picked out all of these things herself.

I guess I'm pretty lucky. My kids have glommed onto my interests and seem to genuinely like them. I know this is most likely temporary. Little girls grow up. They'll likely develop a taste for music I can't stand. With my luck, they'll become fascinated with TWILIGHT. But for now, I can enjoy coming home and hearing my girls ask if they can watch X-MEN EVOLUTION or HEATHCLIFF or any of the other shows I really like.

COMIX!!

It was one of those weeks at the shop in which there was absolutely nothing in my pull box. Happens about one a month since the great purge from my pull list. That doesn't mean I haven't been able to check out anything cool. EDUCATION OF A SUPERHERO by Adam Dechanel is launching next month. This one's going to be online and there's still some production stuff going on so I've been asked not to toss out a link quite yet. I did however get a preview of what's to come and I'm definitely digging it. The writing is solid and enjoyable. The art is really sharp. The main character, Julie Meyers, seems interesting. I only got a ten page preview but it sunk a decent hook and made me want to check out more. Dechanel might sound familiar to you. He's written quite a few things including some fun 'choose your own adventure' type stuff on the Superman Homepage. This'll be his first project out on his own, and its one that bears watching and deserves some support. I'll be back to drop the link when launch time hits.

MUSIC!!

Here's one for the ladies, and by ladies I mean my daughter for likes to dance around to her favorite song.



That's all from me for now. I'm going to go hunt down some nice, warm socks and brew some coffee. Catch y'all Wednesday.

Sheldon Cooper is a Stud

BAZINGA! Its Friday, September 30, 2011, I'm in a hot dense state, and this is The Side. I'm currently still attempting to get my bathroom in proper working order. It seems properly sweating a fitting that's attached to a horizontal pipe is impossible if you're me. For a guy who fixes stuff all the time at work, one would think I could fix stuff in my own house.

It would seem that one would be wrong.

NERDS!!

OK, I'm getting my rant on, so hang on to your socks. See that image there? That is from a webcomic that I'm a big fan of called OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS. The premise is simple. The guy who does the comic works in a comic shop and he does little comics of some of the customers and the stuff that spews from their faces. Now, this particular cartoon is just amazing in that someone actually said that. Someone actually uttered that insane statement. What's even more crazy was the comments that were agreeing with the loon that said it!

For those who don't know, "black face" was when white performers were made up to "look black" for shows, and pretty much played up a bunch of stereotypes. We are talking as racist as the day is long here. So black face is racist, and with the allegation in this cartoon, from the guy saying it and those agreeing him, is it possible doing something against a nerd is somehow racist?

Its really enough to make your head explode sometimes.

OF COURSE IT ISN'T RACIST!! Nerds aren't a race! They aren't even a culture. Our definition of a nerd has changed over the years. Its borderline subjective. I'm a nerd. I've read comic books since I was three. Given a chance I'll play video games and watch cartoons all the live long day. I can interject Batman into damn near any conversation I have. I didn't get that way by birth, unless there's nerd DNA that we haven't discovered yet. It has nothing to do with where I was born. Its my hobbies. That's it. Somehow, society has decreed that my hobbies have branded me a nerd. Actually, its not so much society, as it is my peers when I was a kid. A person who is a nerd made a choice somewhere in their life to pursue a particular interest that his or her peers deemed nerdy. They can also stop pursuing that interest. A person can not just take up an ethnicity no matter how much some people try.

And these people are ticked at THE BIG BANG THEORY? Really? Have they never watched television ever or am I just that freaking old? They think that show is "nerd racism"? How about HEAD OF THE CLASS? That's right, I'm going back about 25 years for this one. Let's look at the king nerd on that show: Arvid. Rocks a pocket protector and big ol' thick framed glasses. Skinny dude who was good at math and science. Couldn't get a hooker if he was waving hundred dollar bills. This guy had zero social skills, but he was smart. Sure he was made fun of in nearly every episode, but that was wrong and we all had to learn to accept each other for what makes us special. Thank God Howard Hesseman and Billy Connolly were there or that show would have been damn near unwatchable.

And let's not stop there, how about some SAVED BY THE BELL. Remember Screech? Y'know, before the sex tape. He was everyone's pal all the while they made fun of him every time he opened his mouth. The girl he liked treated him like dirt. His best friend treated him like a flunky. There was the near endless name calling by the cooler kids. Still, there he was. Lovable old Screech, there for people to step on until they needed him or it was an episode in which the moral of the story involved being nice to nerds.

Now let's contrast those characters against the king nerd of THE BIG BANG THEORY: Sheldon Cooper. He holds two doctorates, and is likely the smartest person in any room he walks into. He's eccentric, not caring much for the social hoops we all jump through. His confidence and manner has attracted numerous women to him, and had he an interest in it, he'd be laying pipe like a master plumber. He's uncompromising in his beliefs and will argue you into the ground if you have the slightest intellectual chink in your armor. He's also lived in the Arctic for three months performing an experiment, which is actually pretty bad ass. Yes, he enjoys his comics and sci-fi. If he's the new face of a what a nerd is, then we've come a long way.

And there was a comment that the cast of the show was at Comic-con and got boos from the crowd when they didn't know what a Tardis was. Let's just assume that's true, because I don't feel like hunting down proof. People are upset that actors are acting? "They're playing nerds on TV! How can they not be nerds in real life?!" That's completely stupid. That's like being pissed off because Chris Hemsworth doesn't really have a magic hammer that can call down lightning.Its pretty good acting too since Jim Parson's has received two Emmies for playing Sheldon Cooper.

So for those who are ticked that THE BIG BANG THEORY isn't showing nerds in a more favorable light, shove it. That show depicts nerds completely awesome in comparison with damn near every other sit-com ever. And for those who are even attempting to equate treatment of nerds with racism, I want to hit you in the face with brick. It may or may not knock any sense into you, but I'll feel a hell of a lot better. Grow up and get some perspective, you idiots.

End rant. And I'm going to watch that show as soon as I get home from work today.

MUSIC!!

Kickin' it L 7 style.



That's it for me today. Doing a Karate Demo at the Church's annual Bazaar, in which I've bribed people with buying them homemade ice cream. The show should last about 20 minutes. See, if it was store bought it would only last 5. You can get a lot more from people with homemade.