White Knights

There was stupidity afoot involving my circles on Google Plus this week featuring a woman who I know to be bi-sexual and last I checked is in a relationship with another woman being labelled and harassed as a homophobe.  How can this be, you may ask?  Well, its the internet and stupid things happen.  There's no IQ check to ride this ride.  This lead to someone I've known online for years coming into the thread of the accused out of seemingly nowhere, caps lock a-blazing, spamming a post with comments demanding to be blocked.  The spammer in question was someone I've chatted with online since Google Buzz, but over the years I finally got weary of their knee jerk attitude and removed them from my circles.  They weren't posting anything remotely interesting to me anyways.  I did so quietly choosing to just vanish as far as they were concerned.  However, since there seemed to be a homophobe about, they felt the need to come in and put them in their place.

Doesn't matter that the person in question is in no way a homophobe.

The comments were deleted, which is good because they were just sad to look at and the conversation continued about people who post emotionally as opposed to logically.  I then get a massage sent to me including a screen capture of a comment I made in the thread by the person who had made a specticle of themself.

"Ah, so despite all the courtesies and allowing you to freely speak your mind over the years I'm the crazy one." 

Silly me for not realizing that they were in charge of Google and/or the internet as such I owe my posting ability to them.  It continued.

"You really shouldn't be such a hypocrite in public." 

Being a hypocrite is like real-estate.  Its all about location, location, location.  Especially when the hypocracy is imaginary.

"I posted this private to you, because previously I've tried to give you a fair shake. But if this is how it is, then don't think I won't give you the same...courtesy you've just shown me." 

That last part almost seemed like a threat, but as its just funny and pathetic its not much of a threat.  I responded by telling them to "take your victimhood issues and fuck off" and promptly blocked them.

Seems a bit like that cyber-bullying that we worry so much about, doesn't it?  That's because it is.  Fortunately there's "block" and "ignore" options available on social media sites and the internet would be a much better place if people used them more.

This brings us to the main reason for this post and the cyber-bullies behind this: White Knights.  These individuals are aptly named due to them being on a crusade to rid social media and pretty much anywhere someone can post a comment of those terrible people who dare to disagree with them.  That Resumé of Hate I posted a while back?  These are the folks that believe all of it.  Some are just outright nuts.  Some have just fallen for the logical fallacy that they, like most people, consider themselves to be a good person and if someone does not share their views and/or values they must somehow be a bad person.  This isn't anything new.

The only thing that's really changed is that now we have a global internet community to contend with.

There's plenty of the little sub-groups within the White Knights, and here's a few of them:

The Tinfoil Hat Brigade.

There's so much information easily within our grasps today and anyone can be posting.  Accuracy is not a guarantee.  As such, we get people who have taken their off kilter opinions as facts and have found something somewhere online to validate them and that's plenty for them.  I enjoy a tasty conspiracy theory as much as the next guy who loves a good story.  In fact a good friend linked a brilliant article about how much people in general really are into conspiracy theories and how much of a pain that can be.

Where we have a problem is when a person let's their favorite whacked out idea consume them to the point where they'll insert it into any online chat or comment thread that they possibly can.  This is usually complete with links to some YouTube video or some obscure "news" site that totally backs their claims.  They're out to save us all from our own ignorance, which we must obviously have since we don't buy into whatever crackpot theory they're peddling.

Oh, and don't bother trying to provide information from reliable sources to try to set them straight.  Those sources are all part of the conspiracy trying to cover up "the truth".

The Magenta Lantern Corp

Otherwise known as the Magenta Oppression Army.  I just like the other name better.  This brand of goons have real issues that they are combating.  These are things like social inequalities, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.  Their big problem is that they are so wrapped up in battling that issue that they see it everywhere they turn.  Yes, these issues are legitimate, but they are not in every facit of our society and existence.  Major persecution complexes here.

Let's consider our little cartoon fellow here.  This came from someone posting a picture of Nicholas Cage, but the printer messed up and it came out basically a silhouette of Cage's head with only his eyes and teeth visible.  Looked freaky and in the middle of a discussion of how freaking it looked a guy came in and said that the picture was racist and we were all racist for not being horribly offended at how racist that image was.  The discussion then pivoted to amazement at how incredibly butthurt a person would have to be to go off like that.  Needing a color coding for that level of butthurt, and after much discussion and careful consideration, it was determined that it was a magenta level of butthurt.  This also seemed to fit with the Johns' Emotional Color Spectrum from the Hal Jordan and the Techni-Color Dance Party-a-Go-Go DC Comics put out a few years ago.  The picture soon followed.

There are things that people post online that are indeed offensive.  If you find that you're being offended over every little thing, then you may want to back away from the internet for a while.  Try some meditation.  The Corps are guilty of one big crime and that's putting their issues ahead of their logic.  They let their knee-jerk emotionalism guide their online activities and just make themselves look silly.  Its hard to dismiss them totally since what they're crusading against are mostly real problems.  However, its like PETA: they would win the debate with they weren't such a bunch of obnoxious douchbags about it.

The Church of Richard Dawson and the Latter Day Atheists

This shower of shmucks come out in force this time of year.  They're the first to decry relgious people as intolerant but have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't share their viewpoint.  You see, each and every one of us is on our own spirtual and/or philosophical journey through life.  As long as what you believe, feel, or think doesn't justify you hurting others then you're probably OK.

The Latter Day Athiests don't believe that though.  They think if you're a Christian, then you're an idiot and are in the same ilk as the Westboro Baptist Church, or if you're a Muslim, then you're a Jihadist.  That picture of your Christmas tree that you posted is their call to arms for them to comment on that picture that the custom of the Christmas tree originated with a pagan custom that Christians adopted.  Although, despite being fundie athiests they'll still take part in holiday gift giving and most would still not want to work Christmas Day.

These are typically the most pompous of the White Knights as they don't fall back on knee-jerk emotionalism, but rely upon a psuedo-intellectualism and an air of superiority that lingers in forums like a stale fart.

In conclusion, the White Knights will never go away as they're pretty much part and partial to the human condition.  There's always going to be those think they are better than other people.  They'll group together and reinforce their ridiculous notions in what one would consider an echo chamber, but sound doesn't echo in a vacuum.  Fortunately, this group is most often self-defeating.  It was White Knights that wanted to shut down Chik-Fil-A and that resulted in the franchise breaking all of their sales records (although the White Knights still think they actually won that one).  It was the White Knights who were the force behind Everybody Draw Muhammad Day and in their quest to strike a blow for freedom of expression and free speech got an entire country to temporarily block social media and spawned protests against their actions.

Most importantly, even if you think you have right on your side, cyber-bullying is cyber-bullying.  And if you encounter these people, just hit that "ignore" or "block" option.  You're not going to change them.  Save yourself the headache.

Railing at Social Media and the Fools Therein!

What's really fun is that the fool in this instance would be me.  Everybody gets a bit tired and cranky sometimes, and boredom is a factor too.  So, when I spotted a picture my buddy on Google Plus posted mocking Republicans and mentioning pigeons crapping on a chessboard, I figured I'd have a bit of fun.  So I played the "I'm a republican, why are you picking on me card" and feigned some mock indignation.  Allen fell for it.  He's a nice guy, and sure we don't agree on some thing politically, but he's a straight shooter.  I was going to let him know I was just screwing around, but then he got his rant on.

Internet/social media propoganda 101
Reality check people: -- IF I (or anyone for that matter) posts a graphic attacking: Atheists, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, Nerds, Jocks, Redheads, Long Hair's, Blondes, Jazz Freaks, Music haters... etc....... there is a 99% chance the post is EITHER simply meant as humor and/or intended as propaganda against the extreme elements of whatever group is being mentioned..... If you see such a graphic and believe that it is specifically targeting you? --- Think twice, chances are, you're wrong (unless of course you ARE a backwards ignorant trolling bigot who deserves to be called out---- but really, assuming I have you in one of my circles--- you really think I would have left you there if I actually felt that way?--- jeebus, grow up people

Now this brings up a really excellent point.  We get bombarded by information on the internet.  Ideas are flying about.  If you're going to go on a social media site, you have to have a thick enough skin to be ready to deal with what other people post. They may say things you don't agree with.  They may post something they think is funny that offends you.  The main thing is: most likely they are not posting it to particularly offend you.


Now, there's another side of this coin.  When you're posting something about a group of people, you have to remember that you're posting about a group of people.  I'll make fun of our Pop Star-in-Chief or his walking gaffe machine VP, but I'm a bit hesitant to go after Democrats as a whole.  I have friends and family members who are Democrats.  My aunt is a Democrat, and I love my aunt to pieces.  So I don't want to post anything that'll upset her if she happens to see it.  So if you're posting something about a group of folks, you need to be prepared for possible fallout if someone you know and like doesn't like what you may have insinuated about them.


So, my bit of trolling of Allen yielded some pretty cool results.  Unfortunately, someone else decided to chime in.  We'll call him "Jay", mainly because that's his name.  On Google Plus is you scroll over someone's name you can see a little pop up giving you a couple of bullet points about them like location and occupation.  Jay's bullet point said he was a "thinker" and I should have backed away right there.


Unless you're one of the shambling dead craving brains, you are a thinker.  Don't put that in you occupation unless possibly you work in one of them there think tanks, which I always been curious about.  And don't put "free thinker" in there either.  That translated directly to "kook".


But I made the mistake of poking fun at the Thinker, and that always brings out a rant.  Its never a good rant either.  You're always kind of hoping for some Dennis Miller quality rant that just rails on with insightful, poignant things and is so amazingly clever that even though they're dumping all over you, you've got to give them props for freaking amazing their rant is.  Nope.  Its always them trying to show that their intellectual shlong is bigger than yours or anybody else who happens to read it, and even if its loaded with perfectly poignant facts as to the topic at hand, its so frakking boring that you have to fight the urge to just respond "tl;dr".


So, don't ever troll a "Thinker".  Its never worth it.  Just no fun at all.  I did try to get the guy to lighten up and make it obvious that I was indeed just screwing around, but Thinkers think serious think-stuffs, and have no time on this here intarwubs for shenanigans.  So I got blocked, which is a shame, because as everyone knows: I'm a complete delight to be around.  I dunno.  He might have just been having a bad day.


So, what did we learn today?


1: Allen Marshall makes an excellent point that needs consideration.


2: Forethought before posting probably needs to happen more.


3: Being a "Thinker" can be mistaken for being a knob, so we gotta be careful of that.

Friedrich Frowns Upon Facebook Frakker

Its Wednesday, April 26, 2012, I won't be getting my comic today, and this is The Side.  the single dad thing continues and that means taking the kids to gymnastics on Wednesday as opposed to hitting the comic shop like a proper nerd.  Not enough time to do both.    Ah well.  So, no reviews until Sunday again.  Thanks for the patience.

BATTLEGROUND:  FACEBOOK!!!

Oh, I am loving this one.


If you've been online for more than five minutes, you've probably heard the horror stories of women getting pictures sent to them that nobody wants to see.  There's been a few cases of well-known guys getting busted for it, like Brett Farve and Anthony Wiener (the name along selling the joke).  Kidding aside, its one of those things that I do worry about having daughters who know about computers and a little about the internet.  Its one of the reasons I don't want them to ever have a Facebook account.  Some pervs start fixating on a girl and then the messages and inappropriate stuff start getting sent to the girl.  Its flat out harassment and its one of the reasons we've got the Government trying to regulate the internet.


The problem is that the people in the government barely have a clue as to how things work on the internet.

People that are online, and don't take shit, know how to handle these sorts of things.  This brings us to Ariane Friedrich.  She's an athlete from Germany who will most likely be competing in the high jump at the Olympics this year.  She's an attractive woman, and I'm certain she has quite a few admirers.  However, one of them got all stalkery on her.  Used to be a proper stalker would follow you around and leave notes and dead roses on your doorstep.  Nowadays, they send pictures of their junk.


Now, there's legislation in this country giving women options for dealing with stuff like this.  It varies from State to State.  Some places have fines.  Other places even have jail time.  This this involves pressing charges and having to go through a whole bunch of paperwork.  Got to make sure the paper trail is sound and that you've got evidence and all that.


Friedrich is a busy woman.  She doesn't have time for that crap!  So, she outed the dude!  She posted the guy's name and e-mail address right on her Facebook page.  Now, there's a big old tizzy about her not handling this in the "proper" fashion, and due process.


Screw that.  This moron was dumb enough to send dick pix to woman who didn't want them, and she knew his name.  No need for the courts to get involved here.  This guy has been thrown directly into the court of public perception, and that's one harsh jury.  I do love how she handled it.


While there are a lot of good intentions about internet safety, a lot of what's being proposed is overkill.  Its people with a particular paradigm that can't be applied nice and neat to communications and interpersonal relationships of the 21st century.  Really, with a lot of these cases, it can be handled fairly simply: don't take any shit, and if the pervos can't keep it to themselves, then share it with everybody.

MUSIC!!

Girls that jump are awesome and so are girls that run.





Alright, I'm off to the ratrace.  See y'all Friday.

The Buddy System

Sweet mother of pearl! Its Wednesday August 3, 2011, I haven't won the lottery, so i guess I'm going to work today, and this is The Side. Time's working against me today, so this rambler needs to get ramblin'.

FACEBOOKERY!!

Here's a neat one for you: if you are a teacher in Missouri you are not allowed to send private messages to your students on Facebook. This one has gotten reported wrong by the media repeatedly, saying it was illegal for teachers to be Facebook "friends" with their students. There's a real level of silliness to this.

I understand why they wanted this in place. Law makers and concerned parents want any online interaction between students and teachers to be public so no wrong doings are afoot. Lawmakers have gone after the most visible target here, which I doubt will do much good. There's a ton of other social media sites as well as thousands of online forums all of which have private messaging options. That's not even factoring in e-mail.

I nearly typed "good old-fashioned e-mail". Yeesh.

So, if I'm a student looking to improve my grade by less than proper means, I've just got one more little hurdle to get around in doing so. There is something more interesting than the actual story to me and that's how it was misreported. It was reported that there was a ban on being Facebook "friends" with students. Notice how I keep putting quotes around the word "friends" when discussing Facebook. Words, as we hopefully know, have meaning, and those meanings can be subjective to people.

When I say the word friend, I am referring to someone I know and think well of. This is a person whom through interaction with me has gained a level of trust. The definition of "friend" on Facebook is different. It pretty much means someone you are linked to on the site. There are people with hundreds or even thousands of 'friends" and they don't have the slightest clue about anything about those people. Now, I do have people in my life that I've met online that I do consider to be real friends I'm referring mainly to "friending" people for the sake of numbers or just maybe liking a post they've made and adding them to a friend list. This isn't a Facebook rant, because there're tons of forums in which you can build a "friendlist".

Now consider someone whose idea of the word friend is strictly traditional. The concept of adding someone to a "friendlist" who isn't a real friend is weird. Moreover, when its their kid and they finds out their kid and the kid's teacher are "friends" it can be a bit creepy for them. Of course, the media is going to report things that way because weird, creepy stuff gives them ratings. Oh, and the that whole "we've gotta save the children" bit plays well too.

So if you are in Missouri, and you think your little cheerleader is now safe for being e-stalked by the Coach McFeelyhands, you'll likely sleep soundly tonight thankful that the courts and Government are doing your parenting for you. If your not stupid you'll be talking to your kid and checking up with what they're up to online. Don't squawk to me about giving your kid privacy either. If you think there's a chance that something might be up, get to snooping. They'll hate you now, but that's just how it goes.

You're their parent, not their "friend".

MUSIC!!

Personally, I think Jolene be trifflin'. How dare she try to take Dolly's man!



This loco-motive is a puffin' smoke, so your e-daddy has gone for broke. See y'all Friday.

What's in a Name?

For Nozzgard!! Its Wednesday, July 27, 2011, the Nozzsleep is upon me, and this is The Side! I'm jealous of Odin. Not because he's powerful, got a six-legged horse, or was played by Anthony Hopkins in a movie. The guy sleeps for a week. Gives the old "I must replenish my power or the realm will fall" bit and its off to dream land. I wish I could sleep for a week and replenish my power.

Actually, a day would be probably do it.

I'd probably settle for just sleeping in one of these days.

THE NAME GAME

Google+ is stirring up a bit on controversy among its users with its policy of having to use your real name on your account. This isn't sitting well with a lot of people. This policy wasn't around on Google Buzz and people got known on there by their internet handles. Some people have had these nicknames for a long time. This is causing quite a stir.

By insisting on users using their real names Google has a better control over things. I can't create a "Justin Bieber" account and troll the blazes out of people. There have been cyber-bullying cases in which people have created false accounts for people in order to humiliate them. So, in this case, its a good thing. Also it cuts off those goof that'll create a blatantly offensive screen name just to be an e-troll.

On the other hand many people come online to get away from being ourselves a little bit. We have an online identity. How our family sees us is different than how our co-workers see us. We act differently around different groups. Similarly, how we act online is different than in real life. Often our screen names reflect this. Some people roleplay characters. Some just don't want their real name out there, and wish for interact with a bit of anonymity. There's nothing wrong with any of this.

Yes, there is a case for making people use their real names, but that's out weighted a bit by the case for allowing screen names. To make it even stickier, the folks that work on Google+ often have use screen names, so its a bit embarrassing for someone who is working hard on an application to get bumped from the service.

Google has a great product and its one I really like using. Ultimately, its their product and they make the rules. If we want to play in their sandbox, we have to abide by their rules. But, they want and need people to play in their sandbox, so while there should be rules, they need to be agreeable to the users. There are plenty of other social media sites out there.

Personally, I do hope Google changes this policy. Google+ is a top notch social media tool and those of us on there have no trouble policing the joint a bit to keep it nice. We just want our cool names is all.

MUSIC!!

I don't think "Rob" is his real name.



That's it for me today. I'm going to go over to G+ now and how no one's outed me for using my pen name yet. See y'all Friday.

Attack of the Internet!!!

Head's up! Its Sunday July 3, 2011, I'm still sick, but don't care no more, and this is The Side! I am dragging like a pathetic bastard, but i must drag on because out of nowhere the world decided to be insanely cool and interesting!!! There's so much going on so let's jump right into the mix of things.

GOOGLE+!!!

Google rolled out its Beta for its new social network, Google+, this week. I wasn't paying attention, and made a joke about being snubbed for not getting an invite to try it out. After all, I do host the legendary Google Buzz Tournies so I should be an obvious choice to try it out. Next thing I know one of my followers hooks me up with an invite and I'm in there like swimwear.

This thing is freaking slick.

OK, there's going to be a ton of comparisons to Facebook, so let's just jump on those right now. First up: networking. One of the things that I don't like about Facebook is the Friending thing. "Friend me!" "We're friends!" "Friend this person!" And then there's there's the always awkward "Well, why didn't you friend your Aunt Harriet?" There's people who make multiple Facebook accounts just for the sake of information sequestration. Because some people do want their family members to be on their Facebook so they can all keep in touch, but they want to share the pictures of that awesome night in Vegas with their buddies and those pictures at the nudie bar aren't quite appropriate for Grandma or little cousin Timmy. Google+ has got that all figured out with their Circles. You have multiple Circles for however you want to categorize and sort your contacts. You can have a Circle for family members, a Circle for Friends, and a Circle for people you know but aren't really tight with. I created a Circle for my buddies on there that I talk comics and other fun geeky stuff with. You can check out the feeds for just specific Circles to make information sorting a breeze as well as just share certain posts with specific Circles. You can also put people in multiple Circles, so if you create a Circle for your specific interests, and you have one contact on there that shares a couple of your interests, you can put them in both circles. This way you can can post stuff for your family without your friends all jumping in there, and put up a post about that great night at the bar without a disapproving comment from your mom. And the great part is that they don't know what Circle you put them in. That's your business not theirs. We did find out that you can only get 5000 people in one Circle. So I guess nothing's perfect.

Something really awesome for G+ (As wee cool kids call it) is the picture sharing. Its a little slow on the upload, but it more than makes up for it in picture quality. That and the unlimited space for pictures. Makes me want to post a ton of artwork. My buddy, Cass, on there is a photographer and he's loving this.

This is Google, and Google is all about information, so they have Sparks. These are your interests, and G+ will give you a feed of news stories related to your interests which you can share with your circles with just a couple of clicks.

Something I haven't tried out is Hangouts in which up to ten people can have a video chat using their webcams. People that have tried it called it "Skype without all the numbers". Then someone took it to the next level. He created an open hangout for anyone to join in. A Chinese fella hopped on and kind of lurked. It was obvious he didn't speak English. The guy who started the hangout, brought up Google Translate, typed in part of the conversation and hit the "Listen" button. Google did its thing and then with a little bit of lag the Chinese guy was in on the conversation. It translated the text and his speakers piped it out in mandarin loud and clear. His microphone picked it up and bingo. Now, that is some exciting stuff. Keep in mind, G+ is still in Beta testing. Someone does something like this, and its going to get noticed.

Facebook does have something that G+ doesn't, and that's games. So, no Farmville for you if you go on there. That may change later. Its hard to tell at this point. Right now though it is really nice to be on there and not see in my info stream that someone reached a new level in whatever game they're playing, or get a bunch of invites to game I don't care about, or get virtual farm equipment, or whatever. I'm quite happy with that.

Here's the bottom line: Google+ let's you share what you want to share with who you want to share it with. And its does it in a nice and easy manner. I don't know if it'll be a "Facebook Killer" because I don't see a casual internet user who just wants to keep in touch with a few people and play Angry Birds jumping on this, but if you want good, clean, and slick social networking, this is definitely the way to go.

BOOKS!!

See this book? It is, as I type this, the number one seller on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.com. Held that spot for a few days now. Here's the kicker: it doesn't exist. Yet. The cover was created by a fan of the writer. The book is still being worked on, and is due out next spring. The writer, John Greene, has a very strong following not only from being a best selling author but from producing videos thrice weekly with his brother on a variety of subjects.

He's got a large and fiercely loyal following to the point that upon announcing finally deciding upon a title for his new novel and stating that he would personally sign every pre-order copy of the first edition, this thing shot out of no where and straight to number one. Now that, my friends, is one helluva good trick. He's understandably thrilled about it. His brother is quite thrilled to the point of humping half the inanimate objects in town, which he then uploaded the evidence of said humping to YouTube. I'd link to this video, but its more than a little too much humping of inanimate objects than I am comfortable with.

Moral of the story: the internet is indeed a powerful thing. I have a modest following online, but its one I do greatly appreciate. Were I to announce that I am releasing a graphic novel of my comics, that following would generate a few sales. Nothing on the scale that John Greene has accomplished, but that's how things work now. There has to be a presence that your fanbase can interact with. The Greene brothers have it with their fanbase, the Nerdfighters, and that fanbase is completely down with mobilizing to support each other and Greene boys' endeavors. I'm not quite jealous, but more than a little in awe.

John Greene did not forget to be awesome.

YOUTUBERY!!

YouTube is having a competition called Next Up. The winner get basically everything they'll need to really become the next big thing on YouTube: funding, training, profession equipment. Well, guess who got through...



Yep, that's our pal Lee running a victory lap through his house. He's a great guy. I like him. I like the videos he makes. He showed off a picture I drew. He's the kind of guy that really should win this thing. So please, go to his page, find the link in the video description to take you to where you can vote for him and do so. You can vote once per day, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

MUSIC!!!

Going with some Counting Crows this time around, and you might be thinking that its because I've have a pretty miserable week with being sick and still having to suck it up and go to work, so I'm going to play some soulful woe-is-dudes tune.

Screw that, time to rock.



That's everything from me today. No thoughts from last night's UFC because I'm still feeling lousy and needed some rest. I heard it was some great fights though. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend. Have a fun and safe Fourth of July. See y'all Wednesday.

The Nozz Sells Out

Hello, Gorgeous. Welcome to my party. Its Wednesday, May 10, 2011, I'm a whore for the masses, and this is The Side. Internet popularity is a numbers games, and yes, that's kinda dumb, but we're all playing it.

WHERE'D EVERYONE GO?

Here on Blogger there's pretty cool features that allow me to see what kind of traffic I'm getting on here. I can see how many pageviews I've gotten. I can see about what time those pageviews happen. I can see what operating system is used, which I thought it was pretty cool that especially since I discovered that some folks check this stuff out using their Nintendo Wii. I can also see what part of the world people are viewing this from broken down by country. Don't worry I can't tell exactly where individual people are or stuff like that. I can also see key words they used that brought them here, or links that brought them here.

Now then, last month I had the most pageviews ever in one month since they started keeping track with 4,251. First time I broke the 4,000 mark and I was pretty excited about it. yes, I know its not terribly much compared to big sites or big name bloggers, but having over a hundred people per day coming through here made me a happy camper.

Then May came around and numbers just absolutely tanked. I'm getting less than half the traffic than I did last month. That's enough to make me wonder what on earth did I do to tick off my readers. However, I do have the tools I mentioned before and I decent analytical mind. I know exactly was happened.

My numbers tanked because of this image.



For whatever reason its fallen off the Google Search map. I was getting a lot of traffic from Brazil and Portugal. Now I'm not. I also saw that the search links had changed a bit. Did a little digging and I found that dozens of people would come through here regularly because of that image.

If you don't know what that image is, its Pocoyo. I was blogging about random thoughts I had about PBS Kids programming. When you've got kids and no cable you end up watching a lot of it. And I like Pocoyo. Stephen Fry narrates it, so it must be educational, right? He is British after all.

So, is their a sudden complete lack of interest in Pocoyo? Is there a Pocoyo scandal of some sort? Kind of doubt it. Its probably just that the image from this blog doesn't appear near to top of searches for Pocoyo pictures anymore. Not sure, why but that's just how it rolls. I did lose a follower when all this happened, but I don't know if those two things were related.

So really what I have now is the numbers my traffic would be minus the Pocoyo factor. These are the people that come here moreso for the content I put in, and my opinions on it. So are mere numbers worth flooding a post with pictures of a cute cartoon show? How shallow would that make me?

Yeah, like I ever claimed to be deep.

BREAD AND CIRCUSES!!
Who loves Pocoyo?

This guy right here!!!

Greatest cartoon ever!!!

(That's not counting anything Bruce Timm did.)

POCOYO! POCOYO! POCOYO!!

I'm just giving the people what they want, and they want Pocoyo.

MUSIC!!

Sell out? Me? Naaaaawwwwwww....



That's me selling my soul to the Google search engine for today. I'm going to keep my eye on the numbers to see if they go up. Will Portugal and Brazil love me again? Guess we'll find out Friday.

Answers on the Internet (Ask Nozz Day #1)

Its Wednesday, January 26, 2011, I have a wedgie, and this is The Side. I love my nieces and I love the Batman underwear that they got me as a bit of a joke for Christmas, but the danged things don't fit quite right. Ah well.

I put out the call for questions, turning it over to you guys to let me know what you wanted me to address. Response was pretty much nonexistent, but a couple of people did have questions, so here we go.

ASK NOZZ!!

People have questions. I have answers.

jodie dragonfly - packed like a grand national winner?

The Grand Nation is a horse race in England. This joke comes from the British comedy THE BLACK ADDER GOES FORTH episode "Private Plane"



Yes, that is Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, and Stephan Fry all on the same TV show.

Rob Gordon - Q: Why is the link to Duck and Cover Studios broken.

My partner Chris maintained the site and had it set so that everything would renew automatically in with the company he paid for the domain name and such. Well, for some reason it got changed to not renew automatically, and we were so busy with trying to make ends meet with work, keeping food on the table, and roofs over our heads that the site expired and we didn't even see a notice to pay to keep it up. So it went poof and we didn't even know it because we weren't doing out weekly updates. Currently we're lying low with or comic ventures as we're needing to prioritize paying work.

WORLD AT LARGE

A lot is going on on the other side of the world. There was the recent overthrow of the government in Tunisia. Most recently there were massive protests in Egypt. One thing that it really key to those recent protests was the people's ability to use social media to organize. Social media, especially Facebook, takes it on the chin from me fairly regularly. This isn't one of those times.

Our government has its flaws certainly, but they allow us to speak our minds. If our representatives don't listen to us and abuse the power we allow them then they get voted out of office. Currently there's a lot of people feeling very disenfranchised by the government. They don't feel they're being listened to. That's why you have the Tea Party. They hold rallies and support candidates and ultimately they are about the people being heard by the government. Despite the lies spread about them they are a very diverse group of people, and they are very successful in getting their message out.

But that's America. We have the right to all get together peacefully and speak our minds. A lot of countries don't have that. So it really is amazing that there's these online social media sites that these people can access to get word out about their movements. The truth can get out without the spin that their governments or their media puts on things. Some of it is hard to watch. A few years ago someone caught a mob stoning woman to death and got a video out their their camera phone. Its a nasty slap of reality to know that things like that go on, and happens legally in some places.

I've seen social media used to try to tear people down. Cyber bullying, Everybody Draw Muhammad Day, and just about about every forum out there is going to have someone looking to just be a complete prick. But the internet is about more than that. Its information. It's giving people a global voice for which they can share their perspectives and points of view. Its allowing them to find people who share their concerns about the world and get organized to maybe make the world better.

The internet boils down to two things: information and freedom to spread it. Both things are important to remember. Egypt's government blocked access Twitter during the protests. Keep that in mind the next time you hear legislators talking about regulating the internet.

MUSIC!!

I do get kinda annoyed when I want to find a certain song, but all I can find is live versions. Still, sometimes its worth it to snag the live version.



Alright, time to go do something horrible. I would have done something horrible here like tell everyone who reads FANTASTIC FOUR that the Human Torch gets killed in today's issue, but the Associated press beat me to it.

E-tardation

Whiskey day again. Its Wednesday, January 20, 2011, I'm still not sure how I got this far in the week, and this is The Side. Pretty much everything is a blur at this point. I'm not sure when I acquired the mental capacity of a tazered deer, but here we are. I've been working out, because I'm old and trying not to look it. Work has been weird. So I've hit one of those times when my days start running together.

I need jarring out of this. That's where you people come in.

Next Wednesday will be "Ask Nozz Day" where I'll be answering any questions I receive this week. So leave me a comment with whatever you want me to weigh in on and I'll try my best to give you a coherent answer.

TEH UNTERNET!!

Computers just weird me out sometimes. Probably because I can't use them worth a damn. I changed the template on here because the old one kept cropping the videos I'd put up and I could make it stop. My pal Joe suggested I look at the coding to see if there was a conflict between the HTML of the Youtube videos and the CSS coding used by the templates, which sounded like it would work great, much better than my cunning ploy of yelling "STOP CROPPING THE VIDEOS" at the monitor. The sad thing is I know its not the monitor's fault, and I feel bad for yelling at the monitor, but that's what's right in front of me so something's got to get yelled at. That and I would know conflicting code if Mike from Alpha Geek came over, found the code, showed it to me and said "that's the conflicting code".

But really it is all about code on here. All the fancy interfacing in the world means nothing if you don't have have proper coding. My Playstation controller doesn't change, but different games handle differently even with the exact same controller.

And this brings me to the latest storyline in RED ROBIN. The concept of the Unternet is that its an internet for eeeeevil people. But we see that its more like the new DC Universe Online game but it makes you eeeeeeviler. At least that's the theory as we don't know if the new DC game will actually make you eeeeevil and if it does, does it make you eeeeeviler than the Unternet. But interfacing this thing in the comic is kooky. People using it seem to fall into some sort of trance while they are in there. This brings us back to the Tron frame of thought that people can somehow enter a computer based world physically and/or mentally. Kinda irks me that we've come so far with computers since the original Tron movie came out, but this notion persists.

I'm looking at how things are set up now with social media. Someone can post something on Tumblr, which automatically reposts on Twitter, which automatically reposts on Google Buzz. That's just the tip of things. One post can infect multiple social media outlets and all the followers on each individual one could see it. And these posts swirl around the e-ether until they finally land on someone's Facebook page with is the final resting spot ultimately for all such things. This is due to Darkseid being defeated by Batman and Superman and in FINAL CRISIS and falling backwards in time again to Harvard university in which he lands in Mark Zuckerberg, which you can actually see in the deleted scenes of that "The Social Network" movie, but only on the DVD/Blu-Ray 3D combo pack after you access the downloadable content from online. Don't worry, it only sounds like the Anti-Life Equation.

MUSIC!!

Something a bit different as the song isn't really my style. Its "Don't" by Jesse Rubin which is a nice enough song. However the video is Allison Holker and Jakob Karr, and they are improving this entire thing. Behold, I give you art.



Alright, that's a wrap for today. As you can also see I changed the template for the blog. Let know what you think as well as sound off on your questions for "Ask Nozz Day".

Edgar versus Batman to Save Children!

Happy New Year! Its Sunday, January 2, 2012, half my resolutions are already toast, and this is The Side. Bouncing around the intarwub like it was new toy I found a nifty little new story about Scareware. Well, well, looks like what hit my comp last week has a name and its bouncing around Facebook, which the Missus has been spending quite a bit of time on.

Look, Facebook sucks, but half the planet seems to use it. Nothing I write is going to make it go away our make people stop putting way too much information about themselves or their friends on there. Its a Wikileaks for people, but unfortunately Mark Zuckerburg has enough pull to keep his ass out of the frying pan.

That said, if you're going to make just one New year's resolution involving the internet, make it this one: don't be stupid. This is a hostile environment, and don't you forget it. If you put it on the internet count on everyone on the planet seeing it. Nothing is fully secure on here, and if you don't believe me, just ask Haley Williams.

BEATIN'S!!

UFC 125 was last night and a lot of people were pretty down on this card due to lack of big star power. I think people thank big stars as in size. The heavyweight division lit up once Brock Lesnar hit the scene. For a while it was pretty thin, but now its exploded with a lot of giant powerhouses, which made Lesnar's days as champion numbered and which will give him a hard road back to the championship. Now the opposite end of the weight spectrum is getting a huge push. The UFC has added a featherweight and bantamweight division. Their roster has increased with the acquisition of the WEC. I was incredibly excited to hear that Anthony Pettis was next in line for a lightweight title shot, because that guys is exactly what the division needs, an incredibly exciting fighter who can bring the crowd to its feet.

But can the lightweight division offer the same excitement that the heavyweights can? Frankie Edgar is determined to prove it can.

The champ managed a feat that no one else has: he beat BJ Penn twice as a lightweight, and he did so convincingly. He goes under the radar because he's not a big trash talker. Still, last night's title match had my full attention because because Edgar's first defense now that he's sent Penn back up to welterweight was against the only guy who has ever beaten him. Round one looked like history was going to repeat itself as Gray Maynard beat the living hell out of Edgar. The guy threw 93 strikes in round one and many of use were shocked that the fight wasn't stopped. We were more shocked that Edgar survived the round. We were even more shocked when Edgar came out in round two as if round one had never happened and won the round. Edgar battled like a true champion but Maynard is a tough fighter and always dangerous. The fight went the distance. Edgar had one three of the five rounds including the fifth. However the judges don't always agree with me and Maynard's dominance in the first round gave him a lead of points that Edgar was forced to catch up to, and he did resulting in draw. A rematch is is up next for the two fighters, with Pettis waiting to take on who ever is left standing.

So the naysayers can say whatever they want about the lighter weight classes in mixed martial arts, but the UFC has one gutsy champ to be proud of. Most guys fight matches. This guy fights wars.

COMIX!!

Yes there is indeed a second set of comic reviews because i had two weeks worth of books at the shop and ten bucks to my name. At least until I got paid. Here's the rundown on the rest.

I had a lot of Batman related stuff last go around. Grant Morrison continues to give us a Batman that is awesome. David Finch is attempting to drag the Batman from the 90s back. But that's Bruce Wayne Batman. What about Dick Grayson Batman? He's being awesome right now in DETECTIVE COMICS #872. Scott Snyder writes a helluva Dick Grayson Batman. His interactions with Barbara and Tim were great. The story is moving along in an interesting direction. The banquet hall scene was legitimately creepy and nerve rattling. There's also the back up story with Commissioner Gordon that's running parallel to the Dick Grayson story. I know DC is cutting back-up stories to get their books down to the $2.99 price point, but Detective Comics was the first comic i read regularly and it always had a back-up story. At the time it featured green Arrow. So the nostalgic part of me will miss them. That aside, its a really creepy mystery story going on there and I'm dying to see how it turns out. I know the last time I reviewed this title I said I wasn't a fan of Jock, but I like what he's doing on this book. Ditto here. He can set up camp here with Snyder for the long haul and I'll keep right on reading if it continues being this good.

Moving on over to things Teen Titans. We had TEEN TITANS #90 where I am uncharacteristically just there for the art. No secret, I love Nicola Scott. She's one of my favorite artists working today. She totally delivered here. As for the story itself, its moving right along. J.T. Krul was responsible for writing one to the worst book in 2010, but he seems to be looking to atone for that with a solid story and good character interactions. The interactions with Rose and Damien were very well done. I was off this book for while, but I'm back gain and enjoying it. That wasn't the only Teen Titans book out, and here's where it gets weird. TEEN TITANS: COLD CASE was there waiting for me, so I grabbed it and I don't know why this book was published. Its not that its not particularly very good, because frankly, it is pretty lame. Its that the book is set five years ago our time and has nothing to do with the characters as they currently stand. It features the One Year later Teen Titans line-up complete with Tim Drake as Robin and still dealing with his father's murder and Kid Devil, who I liked and thought it was pretty crappy that he got bumped off. I don't know why this book is coming out now. Did someone at DC find the script in a drawer from 2005 and say, "Hey, look what I found, let's publish this!" Weird, and skippable. Save your money. The dumb thing is $4.99. For that you can get a copy of TINY TITANS #35 and some doughnuts. This month we have fun with parallel dimensions and color schemes. Great stuff as always and it gave me a chuckle.

HELLBOY: THE SLEEPING AND THE DEAD #1 features Mike Mignola and Scott Hampton teaming up to give us another really fun and creepy title. Hellboy takes on vampires, and this is all straight from the Mignola handbook. Give us a grabber of an introduction and pull us right into the heart of the mystery along with Hellboy. This takes me back to stories like "The Wolves of St. August" and "The Chained Coffin". Its a short story that is super creepy and entertaining. Lovely work.

Rounding for home we get to the favorite comic of The Mighty Missus Nozz: ZATANNA #8. Paul Dini is back and dealing with Zee's fear of Puppets. I absolutely love the cover as it has has nods to some pretty famous puppets. The book itself is really good. One thing that bugs me is that everything in Zatanna's life seems to go back to something involving her father. And I know that this is the basis of the character, but I want to see things move beyond that. This story is a step in that direction. Yes, it does involve her father, but the story is about Zee. The threat is one that is specifically targeting her. The writing is great as expected from Dini. Cliff Chang handles the art, and its top notch. I know Supergirl will be in good hands when he takes over for Jamal Igle. He manages to make Zee look attractive and sexy without crossing over into making her look slutty. The Missus has good taste.

"WE GOTTA SAVE THE CHIL'REN!!"

We all worry about kids. We worry about the world that they are going to inherit and we worry about what they're going to do with it when we're old. When you're a parent you have two jobs: protect your kids and teach them to fend for themselves. More and more we worry about them at younger ages.



Some of it is pretty common sense. You need to keep an eye on what they're exposed to. If I brought home a magazine that my dad wasn't familiar with, he'd give it a flip through to check it out. Its trickery now, especially with music. My dad and stepmom thought their was nothing wrong with their granddaughter, who was at the time a pre-teen, being into the Spice Girls. I did warn them because I had actually listened to some of their music, but they blew it off. After all, the Spice Girls were marketed directly at pre-teen and early teenage girls. They thought I was blowing things out of proportion until they finally heard some of the music. Things like this don't change. Of course I was 12 when "Licence to Ill" hit and me and the guys wore that album out. So the battle is an eternal one and it does go on. Like recently when a CD marketed to kids was found to have profanity on it. Sometimes things slip through the cracks. Wal-Mart didn't know there was profanity on those CDs and as soon as they did, they pulled them from the shelves. Wal-Mart slipped up, but ultimately its not Wal-Mart's job to protect your kids.

And kids consume more than just entertainment. A current study shows that a lot of infants are overweight or obese. This is a big problem because overweight people are among the last group you can make fun of and have politically correct hippies come after you with torches and pitchforks, so we can't let our kids fall into that group. The study says that straight breastfeeding is the best way to keep your infant from becoming overweight.

This study is complete bullshit.

First off: babies need calories. Second: there's plenty of calories in breast milk. My kids were had only breast milk for their first three months of life and quadrupled in weight. The Missus worked with children and babies for years. The overweight ones were often the ones that were breastfed. There's nothing wrong with formula. What parents need to do is listen to what they're kid's doctors tell them about their diets. You don't just shove a bottle in their mouths whenever they cry. I've got twins. If you don't have a good schedule with twin babies, you are screwed. They got a certain amount of formula at specific feeding times. If they didn't eat it all, no problem. If they did eat it all cool. They were well fed, and because of that they rested well. And resting well leads to eating well. So, my girls who were about three pounds each when they were delivered two months early quickly grew in little girls who are now mistaken as being older than they are. They're the tallest in their preschool class and healthy as horses.



Good eating is common sense. Yes, I eat horribly, but my kids eat pretty well. They love veggies and fruit. They eat plenty. Yes they had a period when they were squishy little butterballs, but now they're lean, mean, mess-making machines. And that's not me saying that I'm dad of the year. I'm a horrible parent by the standards all these studies put out, yet my kids are thriving.

It really doesn't take much to raise great kids and its no big mystery has to how to keep them healthy. But the one thing it does take above everything else: PAY ATTENTION! Pay attention to what they eat and what they're exposed to. You'll be amazed what a bit of vigilance pays off into.

MUSIC!!

Since I mentioned "License to Ill" by the Beastie Boys...



Alright, that's how we kick off the New year 'round here. Be back on Wednesday. I plan on pissin' some people off. That's about the only resolution I'll probably keep.

Surf Free or DIE!!

Its Sunday, December 26, 2010, I have Batman underwear, I'm wearing it right now, and this is The Side. Christmas has come and gone and my kids still haven't opened up all their presents. Spoiled little things. Really though, its an effort by myself and the Missus to maintain a little order in the house. If they opened everything at once we fear we would lose them and the floor in a sea of wrapping paper. Not sure if the rest will get opened today as its snowing quite steadily today and they'll likely want to be out playing in it.

As for what I got for Christmas aside from Batman undies. Dad came home from the hospital yesterday. That's all I wanted.

SAVE TEH INTARWUB!!!

When I agree with Al Franken on something its time to pay attention. What am I agreeing with him about? Net neutrality. This is what keeps the internet free and open. For those of you that are confused by this thinking "but I pay for internet service, it isn't free", here is a video from Phillip Defranco explaining it.



Still confused about Net Neutrality? No problem. Check this out. Everyone on the same page now? Let's move on.

The great thing about the internet is that its a pretty level playing field for talent and ideas. You can put a ton of money into a website, and that'll float you for a while, but if you don't have damn good content you will eventually sink. Inversely, if you don't have a lot of funds but you've got something worth clicking on and half a brain as to networking online, you will get people viewing your stuff. For example, I don't pay anything to do this blog aside from paying for internet connection and purchasing whatever stuff I review, with a few exceptions. I do not pay to advertise to send people to this blog. I link to it on Twitter and Google Buzz. I've gotten over 2000 page views this month, a new record for me. Someone else could be paying for internet connection, paying for a domain, may be paying a webmaster, and also be paying to advertise his site. He might be paying all of that and not get as many page views as this blog.

But let's say companies decide you should pay a fee to look at things on Blogger which hosts this mess I post up thrice weekly. Currently you only pay a connection fee to get online and you can read it absolutely free. What if it cost a quarter to come on over here and read this? The quarter doesn't go to me, who produces and compiles the content. It goes to your internet service provider who is the one who set the price. What do I get? Less views, and that's it. Because they'll obviously charge less money to go to bigger sites and why pay a quarter three times a week when you need nickels to go to YouTube or Facebook. It adds up. I certainly can't afford to pay up a nickel every time I'm on here, so The Side would be retired.

The federal government has passed legislation to protect net neutrality, but its pretty vague. There's lots of wiggle room for companies to get around. This is important for the future of the internet. Freedom requires vigilance. That's includes internet freedom. Contact your representatives. Make your voice heard.

MUSIC!!

And if net neutrality went away you might end up having to pay and extra fee to see stuff like this. It would be worth the fee, but I'm still not changing my position.



Thus endth the post. I'm going to go grab the flamethrower and clear the walk. Stoopid snow. They really need to stop having those Global Warming/Climate Change conferences in winter. Every time they do, it snows like a sum'bitch. Ah well. See y'all Wednesday.

Gail Simone battles George Lucus with Jetpacks!

Its Friday, October 6, 2010, my hair is a mess, and this is the Side.

First off, 24 Hour Comic Day was last weekend. That's when creators produce 24 pages of comic in as many hours. Our good friend, loyal supporter, and all-around awesome gal Kat Hogan participated. Her project can be seen here. Go there. Enjoy. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Done?

OK, let's go.

IT'S HEADED RIGHT FOR US!!!

George Lucus announced last week that he has no more ideas in his head at all but still wants your monies. Translation: he's releasing the STAR WARS movies in theaters in 3D. This of course is great news for the dozen or so people who think 3D is awesome and this announcement makes their lives complete. The rest of the population rolled our eyes and asked "Really?"

Because its not like George hasn't messed with the franchise enough. Sure he created it, and the orginal films are awesome. Then he turned around and released the movies and updated some of the special effects. Alright, we're OK with that as long as everyone is clear that Han shot first. After that off course came the prequels, which really weren't that good at all, but we still watched them because we're a bunch of lemming nerds. We dealt with it though because "Phantom Menace" had Darth Maul, and "Send in the Clones" had Yoda kicking ass, and "Revenge of the Sith" had... had...

OK, "Revenge of the Sith" completely sucked.

But soon you'll be able to see it suck in 3D!

They're planning on rolling out "Phantom Menace" in 2012 as the Mayans predicted.

Probably by that time everyone will be completely fed up with 3D and just sit home and watch their pirated DVDs of the original trilogy. Y'know, I'm against stealing content, I really am, BUT I've watched the movies, I've watched the releases, my parents bought me a ton of the toys when i was a kid. I even got the Boba Fett action figure in the mail before "Empire Strikes Back" came out and nobody knew who this guy was or what he did, but HOT DAMN did he look cool! And I'm definitely anti-entitlement, however, for all the hard earned money that I and my parents have spent on STAR WARS I should be able to watch the version I want on the format I want.

So, I want a DVD without Hayden freaking Christianson photoshopped into the final scene of "Jedi".

That's not too much to ask.

So Mister Lucus, with all due respect, F'N QUIT IT!!! Quit screwing with the movies I love. Do something new or just enjoy retirement.

BATTLEGROUND: TEH INTARWUB!!

Cyber-bullying seems to be on the rise. This is when someone picks on someone else online. This is made much easier by social networking sites, but its absolutely not their faults. They do what they can to crack down on these sorts of things. Parents are very worried, but don't seem to be worried enough to keep their kids offline.

NEWSFLASH: There's more to the internet than Facebook.

There are a lot of websites that are very well moderated geared towards young people. And you create your own user name so unless you tell people who you really are, then they won't know. When you put yourself out there online, whether you are a child or an adult, you put a target on yourself. That target is not only for criminals and weirdos, but for anyone who doesn't like you. So if you're going to go online, you either need to know how to keep your online privacy secure, or grow a really thick skin.

And then there's the claim of this won't stop what people say behind your back. Look, this is nothing new. Waaaaaaaay, back when I was in school before such inventions as the internet existed people would still say things behind other peoples back. I'm pretty damn sure Thomas Edison created the telephone just so he could talk shit about people behind their backs, because tapping out how stupid someone is in morse code is a pain in the ass. And certainly people talked about me behind my back. I was a skinny kid with braces who read a ton comic books and made great grades. No one lifted a finger against me and no one could say anything that I hadn't heard a million times before. Being able to throw a spiral, hit a softball a country mile, and people not being sure whether or not I was a black belt in Karate didn't hurt either.

Bottom line: there are people on and offline who suck and will target anyone if they think they can get away with it to make themselves fell better. You can't hide from them forever and you mommy won't always be around to deal with them. Learn to deal. Either ignore it, report it, or get ready to get your hands dirty.

COMIC SPECULATION!!

I really don't spend a lot of time on Twitter but when i do things just jump out at me. Like this from Gail Simone for example:

Even people who haven't been reading BOP are gonna want to pick up the DEATH OF ORACLE storyline. Just saying.

Now this may cause some people to worry quite a bit as oracle is a very beloved character, however I can tell you not to worry as my sources have ferreted out the truth. I say this because my sources are actual ferrets.

Oracle will not actually be dying because Oracle can never die. Instead Barbara Gordon will be sent back in time to sit in an ancient clock tower for a while. In the meantime the "Battle for the Comp" mini-series written and illustrated by Ed Benes will be launch to determine who will be the new Oracle. The new oracle will be Wendy Harris and working along side her as the new Proxy will be the daughter Barbara Gordon never knew she had, but it'll make for an interesting dynamic since the younger Gordon was raised Mark Zuckerburg and is evil, sorta.

A mysterious force will begin bouncing Barbara through history where she'll found Microsoft, invent the telegraph, as well as develop the Dewey Decimal System.

This is going to be great!

MOVIE SPECULATION!!

They've decided on a director for the upcoming Superman movie: Zack Snyder. Nolan and Goyer are still producing and writing the project. I'm still not sure about this project. On Nolan's end, I loved BATMAN BEGINS but hated THE DARK KNIGHT. With Snyder I loved 300 and that's the only movie of his I have to go on. I did not see WATCHMEN because I did not particularly enjoy the comic and had no urge to go see the a movie based on a comic that I didn't enjoy. Still I've seen some clips of it.

I don't know how well Snyder's stylized approach will work with the property, but I've got a bit of confidence that he'll do something pleasing. Its Nolan I'm worried about. Nothing this guy has made gives me a feeling that he'd be a good fit helming the Superman project. All of his movies that I've seen are visually appealing, but are pretty dark affairs. That's not the sensibility I'm comfortable with when looking at a character like Superman. Of course he could really surprise me and make a great and inspiring piece.

So, we've got another time will tell situation. I'm really hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

A company is getting closer to making a commercial jetpack. This is good because the one I've been building from the kit I order from the back of that old AVENGERS comic isn't looking to promising. Really this thing isn't a "jetpack" so much as an "enginepack", however "jetpack" sounds much much cooler.

Of course you'll probably need a license for the thing and have to file flight plans to use it, oh, and there's of course the fact that most of use will never be able to afford it. Kinda takes the shiny off a little bit.

I'll probably never be in a position to be able to afford on of those things. Still, if I'm sitting around being old and crotchety, waving my cane at the neighborhood kids and telling them to stay the hell off my lawn, and I look up to randomly see someone someone streaking across the sky with their jetpack...

Bah. I'll probably be all bitter and pissed off that I didn't have one too.

Odds are this won't get too far with the public. There's probably be some outcry that its not environmentally friendly because *GASP* is runs on gasoline. Freaking hippies expect us the fly using fairy dust, and that's not going to happen because the same hippies will get torqued off because we'd be exploiting the fairies' natural resources.

MUSIC!!

I'm feeling like some punk this week. And not that crap that they try to pass off as punk nowadays on the radio.



Wow, that was a lot of stuff. Alrighty, I'll see y'all on Friday. I'm going to go build a fence now.