The comments, reviews and rantings are for entertainment only. If you are offended then someone else is getting entertained. Welcome to the internet. Have at it. This is where I sound off on what I read in comics this week, and occasionally ramble about other things.
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.
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.
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.
WAK! Its Wednesday, October 12, 2011, time to talk some movies, and this is The Side. I hadn't planned on discussing this, but it just seemed like everything was steering me towards this topic. Happens a lot actually. Good thing about the world: there's no shortage of stuff to talk about.
MOVIES!!
I was talking with my buddy the other day about Batman movies. His son his the same age as my daughters. We've known each other since we were in diapers, and he knows that when it comes to superhero stuff, I'm a pretty good guy to direct questions to.
The issue was BATMAN RETURNS. It was on TV and his son perked up because it was Batman. He loves batman. He's already got his batman costume for Halloween this year. He got excited that there was a Batman movie on TV. I shot him an "uh-oh" look.
"Dude, that thing was gory." Yeah, the Tim Burton flicks aren't made for kids. My friend had to cut the viewing short when things got a little rough. He asked me about other Batman movies. We were teenagers when Warner Brother kicked off their franchise, and he's not as much of a movie buff as I am. I own the old 1989 BATMAN movie. He asked if they might be OK for his son, and I had to tell him "no". "I don't let the girls watch it."
None of the Batman live action movies are kid friendly, except the old Adam West flick. Many of the animated features aren't very appropriate either. I enjoy a lot of them. I do like the Tim Burton Batman movies, but I'm not going to let my kids watch them. It sucks. My girls see a Batman DVD. They recognize Batman. They like Batman, but they don't understand why they can't watch it. They've watched Batman on the SUPERFRIENDS cartoon. They like BATMAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES. They've seen an episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED which they saw batman fighting robots and being awesome. They love watching the Missus play LEGO BATMAN on the Wii. But the movies are taboo.
There's of course the flip side to this that there's all this stuff for the kids, and there's a definite market for Batman stuff for adults. Fine. I've got no qualms about keeping the Nolan films as far away from my kids as possible. It does irk me a little seeing merchandising for those movies, like toys, being aimed at kids. "Here's the toys for the movie you're not allowed to watch."
Not a fun position to be in when I'm asked what batman movies are appropriate for a little kid and my answer has to be "pretty much none of them".
Fortunately, my kids are happy enough little campers seeing cool stuff like THE AVENGERS trailer.
MUSIC!!
Music can inspire. Sometimes you just need the right song to put everything in place for you and get you out into the world ready to be awesome. This song's done that for me a few times.
Alrighty! Time for some more demolition and clean up. Been quite a week so far. See y'all Friday.
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.
