You know what I haven't figured out yet? What my comic is going to be called.

Post the 11th, up in the 11th hour- did you think I wouldn't get it done?

Never crossed your mind, eh? All well and good.

Finishing up my series looking at my dudes- here's Stingray and Barrier!

(Quick note before the picture... I'm really happy with how Barrier turned out, but I accidentally went a little hard with the pink on the lips, so if you look closely he's got a bit of a Joker face going on. Ugh, what happened?? The Stingray I'm not so happy with, I'm not sure exactly what it is with the figure itself, I may have made the head, arms and hands too small, I'm not sure. But forgetting the figure, I'm not pleased with the colour scheme. This is probably only the fourth or fifth time TOPS I've ever coloured Stingray in, and I always try a different look, but I'm never 100% happy with it. Everyone elses colours are pretty much solidified, but Stingray defies me. It pains me to say, but maybe I need to think about a costume redesign? I love his belt though, that thing is gold.)

Just like how Warp and Eyesore were a bit of an odd couple to have on the page together, the same goes for Stingray and Barrier- Stingray is a take on a 90's hero, note the giant shoulder pads, angry expression, sharp looking fin things, and a couple pouches obscured by the shoulder pads (which I usually don't even bother drawing anymore), while Barrier is silly fun personified.

These characterizations follow through to their powers as well (which, now that I think about it, would make for an interesting Freaky Friday scenario... yeah, it's been done to death... and I already had a similar story planned for Warp and another character anyways... hmm, maybe the Stingray/Barrier switch could be a B plot for that story, played for some background humour...)

Stingray is a bio-battery, always charging up energy, which he usually expells from his fists, but could concievably blast from anywheres. This starts out with giving him extra power packed punches, but soon he can actually blast it along as a long range attack, eventually figure out self propulsion (aka FLYING! I always thing of Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now' when I think of Stingray flying "I'm burning through the sky..."), and this energy helps him heal better than most people.

The downside is that when he isn't using his powers it just keeps charging up, to the point that it gets hotter just standing around him, and he's actually worried that he'll explode if he doesn't get rid of some of that energy.

Naturally he's the hot-headed, always spoiling for a fight, member of the group- I'm kind of mean to him in that regard, he doesn't REALLY get a decent fight until issue #4 (against the Sunflower Man! Oh, sure you laugh, but he's EPIC. I love that guy.) In the second issue he gets all excited to have the Hypnocrook to finally fight, then gets taken out with that hypnosis beam before landing even a single punch, and then there's the giant robot at the beginning of issue 4 that SELF DESTRUCTS before Stingray gets to do anything.

But you know he isn't REALLY that much of a tough guy- he's got freckles! Come on, you know he's a sweet heart underneath it all! There's this great moment in issue 2, where the bank teller asks if he's a good guy or not. Stingray gets taken aback by this, loses the angry look, and says "Good guy, of course."

Ah, his powers just have him on edge all the time. That's why I'm excited about how, a good long while down the line, he'll eventually be able to use his energy to heal other people. Taking a step away from destructive stuff, which is the kind of thing people would be expecting from him.

As far as secret identities go, when everyone was picking he just said his name was Stingray. But then everyone gave him a dirty look, so he went with Stanley Raymond.

Here's a note on a story idea of mine: See, it turns out Marvel HAS a Stingray character, an underwater dude with a red/white colour scheme going on- he actually has a pretty cool looking costume, but I don't really know much besides that about him. Not only that, but I read one X-Men comic years ago that had a throw away Warp character in it, oh right- plus there's the lame Warp that runs around the DC Universe. Anyway, as a sort of meta joke I've got a story in mind that consists of another pair of characters called 'Stingray' and 'Warp' showing up to challenge my protagonists to their names. I forget the design for Other-Stingray, I'm sure I've got it written down somewhere, but 'Other-Warp' is actually pretty cool- he's got this distortion field around him that only he knows the "code" of to get through, so if someone tries to throw a punch at Other-Warp's head, you may miss entirely, or more likely end up punching yourself in the kidneys. His weakness being that if you can figure out the pattern yourself, say it's throwing a punch two feet to the left of his left hand, he's knocked out and you win.

So the Other Stingray and Warp challenge my guys to a duel for the names- Stingray takes out Other Stingray relatively easily, but Warp is on the ropes against Other Warp... so Warp says "Hey man, listen maybe we can share the name..." Then POW Stingray flattens Other Warp with one shot, then Warp springs up and finishes what he was saying- though a bit differently than with what he was going to say "....is something I'll NEVER SAY! WHOOO!! #1!"

Cut to "The End". The suddenness of the ending makes me laugh, which is a big part of what these characters are all about. If I'm not enjoying their antics, I'm doing it wrong.

Barrier, as I've already said, is fun personified. He erects an energy shield around himself, the intensity of which he can vary- it doesn't have to be gas permeable if he doesn't want it to be (which of course leaves him with a limited amount of air) nor does it have to be light permeable (so he can hang around a bubble in the dark). For the most part, if Barrier is inside his Barrier, he's got it made.

Well, okay, someone could pick the whole thing up and shake him around like a snow globe, that could hurt- ANYWAYS generally he's safe. And that's why he can afford to be fun and silly. It reminds me of the Fantastic Four, their adventures can be a little more goofy and fantastical than others because each of them is basically invulnerable to harm. A rubber man? A giant rock? A ball of fire (extra points for melting anything that tries to hurt you) and an Invisible Woman that can either avoid the problem entirely OR as is more likely the case since the 80's and up, erect a force field of her own.

And, for the sake of mobility I should remember to say that Barrier's ball can fly around- when Barrier isn't cartwheeling inside his ball he'll be sitting down cross legged, flying above everything.

And that's pretty much all you need to know about his powers... the barrier gets more advanced later on, with changed shapes and different colours for camouflage, but that's a long ways off.

There's a gag about Barrier stressing as he chooses a secret identitiy, trying to think if "Barry Allen" is a good name (Barry Allen, aka the silver age Flash), but he takes so long that the others name him "Barry Ryerson" which I think has a cool ring to it.

There are some running gags with Barrier! Pretty much once an issue he'll say "Nothing can harm a man with an Unbreakble BarrierTM!" (don't know if there's a way to superscript that TM on blogger, but you know what I'm doing) and right after saying that, something will go wrong- in issue 2 the Hypnocrook's hypnobeam gets him right away (what with the barrier being usually light permeable) and in issue 3 Barrier says the line right before getting buried in coal, trapping him in place. The whole gag would be good in and of itself, but it's actually a riff on the line Spider-Man's old villain the Vulture would always use, exultantly exclaiming "Nothing can hurt a man with wings!" which is, obviously, ridiculous. And awesome.

Another running gag would be Barrier's run ins with Michael Sylvestro. Sylvestro (who pretty much looks like a hobo version of the Green Lantern villain Sinestro. But with a name that got spliced with Sylvester the Cat.) barely ever says a word and JUST LOOKS SO SUSPICIOUS!! The gag is that Barrier (or even someone else) will always think "Sylvestro did it." but that will never ever be the case. Plus, right after you think that, he'll probably walk in with some muffins he just baked for you or something. Turns out he's the nicest guy around.

OR IS HE!?!

Plus, whenever Barrier is off on an adventure on his own, it will invariably be an especially silly adventure, usually involving anthropomorphic food. The first example being him facing off against the dreaded Jello-Monster (yes, I know that's a brand name and I wouldn't use it, but that's what it is) that Barrier would end up beating by eating. And don't even get me started on the dreaded Were-grape.

Man that's silly.

So, yeah, those're my buddies Atticus, Warp, Eyesore, Stingray, and Barrier.

More characters! Warp and Eyesore! The Blue Bolt and the Walking Christmas Tree! (I just came up with those now, we'll see if they stick.)

I had a dream a bit ago where there was this sad girl and I gave her a hug. It's notable because I could feel her body temperature. I don't often dream in "temperature".

Been a few days, but here's another installment of 'looking at some of my personally created super heroes'

Starring: Warp and Eyesore!



I wouldn't ordinarily place these two together, they both often serve as a more rational voice in a story, because Warp is genre savy, and Eyesore is cynical. Well, okay, maybe that's a reason to talk about them together for the purposes of a post. Which I'm doing now.

Try to keep up!

Warp is a kind of Atticus-lite, more representative of a regular guy trying to be a hero. It's therefore THIS character that gets to make mistakes when he's trying to do good, and can feel anxious about whether or not he's doing the right thing. I tend to think of him as a lot like Cyclops (leader of the X-Men), even though that really isn't all that accurate. For one thing, Cyclops can fall into "drill sergeant" mode, making him come off as unlikable- Warp doesn't do this, because theoretically Atticus is the groups leader.

Except for the very basics of their personalities, each of my main characters is a bit of a blank slate to start off with. This is done intentionally as I strive to find some middle ground between the (for lack of a better term) evolutionary worlds of the DC or Marvel variety (a story setting that gets built brick by brick, issue by issue, over the entire period of it's publishing history) and the more thematically unified creationist world (most characters and history arrive fully formed, and any adventure they go on is old hat to them) you get in your Astro City, or even your Watchmen. Having my characters relatively blank, but the world around them (mostly) fully formed, allows the readers to better project themselves onto one of my leads, as they grow brick by brick, issue by issue.

Obviously this leads to a difficulty in getting the characters different voices across... chiefly between Atticus and Warp. In my third issue Warp (as "Warren Harper") goes exploring a bit and finds a comic book store, where the shop owner lets him read a ton of stuff. I really love the enthusiasm Warp has about the super hero stories... okay, I made him into a little nerd, but that was ALWAYS going to happen, especially with his powers.

See, when I first made the guy, he just had super-speed. I tend to love the super-speed guys, when my brother and I were deciding on whether to buy a Sega Genesis or a Super Nintendo, we chose the speedy hedgehog over the plumber. Many a notebook had Sonic doodles inside. Of course the number I've done pales in comparison to my brothers. But anyway.

So Warp had super-speed, but as I got older and read a few other comics I ran into some difficulties- the Flash goes around defying physics because of an 'aura' that protects him and things close enough to him from friction- when a bad guy or something has gotten rid of that aura, the Flash will always catch on fire. This 'aura' was eventually expanded on to be the "Speed Force", an extra dimensional energy source that would let Flash move faster than light, because otherwise Flash had to stop every hundred miles or so at a hot dog stand to fuel up.

So what was my character doing for energy?

The way I remember it going is a little skewed, because I feel like I had the idea before grade twelve and then refined it then, but lets say for arguments sake that I came up with the whole of the answer in grade twelve. Actually, my grade eleven physics teacher was electrifying with the subject matter, I MUST have come up with the basics then.

The idea for me was that speed is relative to your reference points- if you have only a thing moving and a single point of reference, it is impossible to know which is the thing moving away.

Not only that! But if you take smaller and smaller slices of time (this part definitely came to me in grade 12 calculus, and is the reason I'm grateful for having taken the course even though I bombed it so bad. My first test I got like 30% and said "well, I'm failing this class!") then the speed seems to be less and less... until you get to that infintesimal fraction where absolutely nothing is moving, and the one reference point IS just as good as another!

So what Warp does (and I've been keeping my eyes open for years, dreading the day when I find someone else has hit on this concept... so far I think I'm clear) is he "acceleports"- making a minor teleport (I have his upper limit range at about 2 meters... enough so that he can appear on the other side of walls- another Flash trick that I wanted to mimic but with a different reasoning behind it than "vibrating ones molucules through the wall") and when Warp comes out of the teleport he's going whatever speed he wants.

Zero to lightspeed in nothing flat.

Now Warp wouldn't actually go at lightspeed- friction would tear him apart! Not only that, but even going, say, a modest 200 km/hr would make it pretty hard to breathe. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned... I have the most fun with the Flash when he isn't a boring invincible hero that's way too powerful, but since that rarely happens, well, I have my own guy for that.

And what's great (as far as I'm concerned) is that if Warp were to wear a breathing apparatus, then BAM he can go that much faster. Similarly, if he were in a straight vacuum tube (with the appropriate environmental gear) even friction wouldn't be that much of a problem, and he actually COULD go sub lightspeed.

Making further reference to the... points of reference... thing... when Warp acceleports he essentially switches reference points with his destination. Say he were to accidentally make a jump into a tree... well fortunately the part of the tree that was in the space he's now occupying is currently sitting back where Warp made his last jump... no scrambled molecules for me thanks, I'm full! However, I wouldn't advise Warp to stick around in that spot, because if he just switched spots with part of a tree trunk, well the rest of that tree is going to come crashing down on top of him.

Hey, I gave him all the help I could, he's on his own now.

Of course there are a lot of applications for this outside of self propulsion, like moving around OTHER stuff... but I've made it so that this kind of thing is especially draining on Warp, to put a limit on that sort of thing. To be clear, it's the jumps themselves that require physical exertion from Warp, not the speed he may or may not choose to have. So if he made a jump to go super fast, but was too tired to make the corresponding leap to slow down... well, he'd have a real problem there, wouldn't he?

To force him to stay on the ground (even though that's really the more dangerous place for him to be) the first story arcs villain Dr. Jason Corvid (oh no, so villainous!) implanted in Warp a fear of heights. That's actually really been difficult to get across, and it's weird to put so much effort into a problem that I know he'll eventually get over... most of the time now when I imagine Warp it'll be of him rocketing on an arc through the air...

Interesting side note: while travelling along, what with the frequency of acceleport jumps necessary for keeping from smeering along the ground, Warp would almost always see things as if under a strobe light. Disorienting.

Ah, I spent forever talking about Warp, and still have Eyesore to go... this is why I wanted to do them each on their own... but I wanted to complete the year with these 5 guys talked about... I should have started earlier...

Eyesore is the character that whenever I get someone to read what I've done with my comic, people will like the most. Because he's cynical and sarcastic, and therefore funny. And then I always go "NOOO don't like Eyesore- he's easy to write! Appreciate someone else, someone I actually had to work on to get their feelings across!"

Don't get me wrong, I love Eyesore- I love all these guys- but Eyesore just happens on the page. It does me no credit to have people love him.

He's got pretty much all of the vision powers- heat vision, telescopic, x-ray (but that one... doesn't do what you think it'll do), eventually he'll get a sort of concussive blast like Cyclops has (man, I must really like old Cyclops to keep bringing him up).

Pretty much the first line out of Eyesore's mouth in my comic is him yelling at the lions share of the cast as they fly away "Not everyone can leap tall buildings you know!" I may not have decided on what I'd want my comic to be called, but if I were naming/titling the issue, that quote would have to be it. Eyesore is self conscious about his powers, not feeling they're flashy enough... and so he lashes out with a false bravado, and harsh words. Well, as harsh as I'm willing to give him, so still pretty tame.

In the picture above, I've drawn him looking up at the stars, and he's looking pretty happy. I imagine it'd be impossible for him to not be amazed by stargazing, but otherwise he's unimpressed with his power draw. Which is too bad, because he's actually got it made over the other guys. Just from sheer number of powers he's got them beat.

Here's a tip, when the Hypnocrook (man, I love that guys name) tries and fails to hypnotize Eyesore in issue #2, Eyesore can't figure out why he's immune. He suggests it's because he's "Awesome" but here's a hint: because of the kind of sensory information he takes in, in order to interpret it, he's got a super brain. I keep picturing the example of him looking at the reflections in a spoon and being able to make out everything around him just as well as if he were looking straight at it. Anyway, it makes him immune to mind control. Pretty awesome, right?

I imagine a lot of people who know me would think that Eyesore is my author avatar in the series- they think of me as sarcastic and whatnot. As a not so subtle meta joke Eyesore even takes the secret identity of "Isaac Harris" (to which someone loudly proclaims "What kinda dumb name is Isaac?") Well, that's not how I see myself. Even though it's true that ALL of the main characters have varying chunks of me in them, Warp has always been my author avatar, going all the way back to when these guys were created based on some guys in class in grade three. But my brother Jordan WAS the template for Eyesore... in fact, his awesome "Super Jordan" stories created a bunch of things that we still use today- like the Hypnocrook, for example, who hasn't really changed in name, appearance OR modus operandi since he first appeared.

And that is why I've featured Warp and Eyesore together on the same page.

It's not a bad blog at all, it just needs a little love. (Now that I'm typing this title, it feels like I've used it before...)

A bunch of things I wanted to say, but have been on a blog hiatus because I've already got so many this month if I were to just write when I felt like it, well, there'd be a bunch more posts than I normally plan for. Also, I was put off because I hadn't taken the time to draw another picture, so I could talk about another one of my own creations. And no, I still haven't done that. If you liked the previous post, with it's drawings, I'll be obliging in the future.

First things first!

"Often passion makes us believe certain things to be much better and more desirable than they are; then, when we have taken much trouble to acquire them, and in the process lost the chance of possessing other more genuine goods, possession of them brings home to us their defects; and thence arise dissatisfaction, regret and remorse. And so the true function of reason is to examine the just value of all the goods whose acquisition seems to depend in some way on our conduct, so that we never fail to devote all our efforts to trying to secure those which are in fact the more desirable...
Often however the passions... represent the goods to which they tend with greater splendour than they deserve, and they make us imagine pleasures to be much greater before we possess them than our subsequent experiences show them to be... But the true function of reason in the conduct of life is to examine and consider without passion the value of all the perfections, both of the body and of the soul, which can be acquired by our conduct, so that since we are commonly obliged to deprive ourselves of some goods in order to acquire others, we shall always choose the better."
(from a letter, Descartes to Elizabeth, Sept 1, 1645)

FINALLY- I've been holding that page in my book for days now so I wouldn't forget to post it here. Now I can keep reading the thing.

The Descartes info was especially useful, it gave me something to talk about with this one guy at a party on Tuesday. He was either really drunk, or just plain hitting on me. Possibly both. He was really barking up the wrong tree on that one. That, and it's hard to take a guy seriously who talks about avoiding commercialism when he looks like he pays for a haircut twice a month.

At the time, the above quote was especially resonant to me because I was going nuts wanting some attention. I was considering jazzing up the look of my blog here and then being a bit more aggressive with telling people about it, but I was weighing that possible gain against the loss of this place as a Fortress of Solitude. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back in and all that.

Except for the Aladdin movies, he goes back in his bottle all the time there. I'm aware that it's a lamp.

And of course there's the devastating reality to consider, that perhaps even with a concerted effort to get people here, no one would come.

Regardless, that particular crisis was beaten back by a few days where I did some actual socializing for a change.

The above quote is still fantastically timely, what with it being Christmas time and all. The difference between wanting and having, buyers remorse... terrible terrible Christmas staples.

***

Tron: Legacy!!

I've got some things to say about Tron, but first let me post a quote from the boys at Penny Arcade:

"There are several movies here, all of them playing simultaneously on a single screen for some reason, and they're executed at varying levels of sophistication. But you really can have any movie you want to, sitting in that chair, and I travelled through several unique polarities myself. You can be the cultural exemplar, enemy of nostalgia- you can resist its entreaties at every turn, swirl your cape, and not be moved. You can absorb it through every pore, becoming young thereby. You can marvel at some of the cool coats. You can't really lose; at every conceivable juncture, you emerge the victor."- from the main post Monday Dec. 20, 2010

There are certain movies that you almost feel embarassed you haven't seen (come to think of it, that's true of books too, but those are usually embarassments reserved for an entirely different crowd)- I hadn't seen any Tarantino until a few years back for instance... so I saw a bunch at the York library. That's also when I got up to date on the Kevin Smith oeuvre. They're okay.

Anyways, I only just saw the original Tron a few days before seeing Legacy, but it turns out I'm a fan of the series- the first is a movie that, even if you haven't seen it before, you've seen it before. It's been thoroughly absorbed by our collective consciousness, not the least of which is the light cycle bit. The original story is sparse on the details, characterization wise and world building wise, but in effect it always us viewers to take what we're given and expand on it enormously in our own minds. It's a fantasy story. Have you ever heard someone complain that the witch melting in the Wizard of Oz came out of nowhere (I'm talking about the movie, I forget if they set it up in the book or not)? No, I don't think you have. But I bet you can find someone who'll complain about the Master Control Program getting all disrupted by Flynn.

I like the visual cue we're given at the end of each film, or rather that we're not given- we don't see the heroes reconstituted back in the real world. The whole adventure comes off like a dream, or one man's minds eye's vision of what his inputting of commands has resulted in.

The original Tron's effects are fantastic, chiefly because it's rotoscoped, NOT CGI- it holds up really well. Even the stuff that is CGI, that doesn't look so great, is pretty effective.

The thing I keep telling people about Tron: Legacy is that usually if a movie raises questions that to me just don't seem to make senes I'll take a dislike to it- it'll seem like lazy writing. I wasn't so dazzled by the visuals in Legacy that certain story items or extraneous items didn't jump out at me as weird mistakes. When Flynn Sr. starts talking about the spontaneously generated cyber creatures, the isomorphs, that was weird. Tron makes a lot of use of religious figures, with the Users (humans/gods) creating programs- having the isomorphs show us feels like a bit of a mixed metaphor. When we're then immediately told that (almost) all of the isomorphs were then killed off centuries ago (in relative computer time) it's hard to feel like we're not being led in a circle of wrong story.

Those two things were the biggest sources of dissonance to me, but they don't matter at all, because the whole picture still left me with an altogether postive experience. The movie was triumphant, is the best way I can think to put it.

Maybe you realized this on your own while watching the movie... that those weird "glitches" don't really matter in the end. Then Flynn Sr. gives a speech to the bad guy CLU about how the world doesn't have to be perfect, that there's a perfection to be found IN it's imperfection. And if the film makers are saying that, while perfectly aware of the flawed movie they're creating- that's brilliant.

"Brilliant? Isn't that cheesy and obvious?!? And just making excuses for itself?"

Y-yes, but the idealism and enthusiasm in their presentation of that statement sets it far and away apart from any other story that is just making a cop out to blanket over their mistakes.

Now that I think about it, it rather reminds me of the garishly toy commercial based properties of the 80's... an insane mix of cynicism and idealism that has no reason to work at all, but completely does.

Couple of extra notes: Olivia Wilde looks amazing in the film, love her dark askew hair, and wide eyed naivete- they don't especially play up the romance between her and Flynn Jr., it's subtle but really affecting.

And the light cycle fight. While visually fantastic, and still a tense scene because of the disparity in cycle abilities (the good guys are handicapped, naturally) I prefer the original Tron's cycle battle. The original, with it's solid light barrier trailing behind, was more claustrophobic, and it wasn't the case that you could simply "turn off" the wall being created behind you. If you didn't think ahead with your driving you were just as likely to crash into yourself as you were to crash into your enemies. And there was no apparent ability to alter speed either. Just zero to hundred turnturnturn CRASH. That's tense.

In Legacy they could use ramps to jump over the solid light walls, which weren't even all that solid, they could be smashed through. Lame. If I were trapped in a Tron movie, and had to pick which one, give me the new one... I'd last a little longer there.

***

Seeing as how this is Christmas Eve, and I've already discussed the fact that this place is a bit of a Fortress of Solitude (see above)- want to hear a little secret? I think I've only mentioned this to one other person in my life, who has probably long since forgotten it. Maybe there's a second person I'm forgetting... regardless, if you can count on one hand the number of people who could possibly know this, you're doing pretty well.

Since my last Christmas at high school (2003?) I've always bought a toy for donation to Toy Mountain (or wherever it goes through, that hardly matters). I look for some basic super hero figure (nuts to those disc shooting "Arctic-Zone Batman" figures), a Superman, a Spider-Man, a Batman, and before I drop it in I say a quick prayer. I don't do a whole lot of praying these days, but I pray that it will go to some kid that will be inspired by what the figure represents. Whether it's caring, idealism, responsibility, etc etc. just that it'll mean something to them and help them grow. Whether this is lame or not; any grace under fire and good qualities I have, I attribute for the most part to having set up as my role models these kind of idealized figures- it's something to strive for, regardless of attainability. Maybe I've helped some other kids get that for themselves? That's the idea anyways.

I can't say I really remember which figures I've given exactly, or in what order, I seem to recall giving a Green Lantern one year (yeah, willpower! That's a good one) but maybe I'm mixed up. I left it to the last minute this year, and the pickings were slim, either a weird specialized Spider-Man (going against my maxim against "Arctic-Zone Batman" figures) or a selection from Star Wars.

Ironically, the Star Wars figures seem more "terrestrial" than my usual fair, but I went for it. My choices seemed to be Clone Wars era Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dagobah crash landing Luke Skywalker, and Leader of the Forest Moon of Endor strike against the Death Star shield array Han Solo.

I went with Han. In a crazy universe of Jedi and Sith, I'd rather espouse the values of someone who may seem to spout self interest but in fact hides a heart of gold. The Jedi are kinda really preachy.

Also- Padawans? Younglings? These are the names you're going with? Try "Millenium Falcon".

Well, I'd better hurry up and drop this thing at a Toy Mountain place... believe it or not, but EVERY YEAR I have a hard time finding a place to drop it off. I'm always like "oh, where was it last year?" and I either forget, or they've moved it. EVERY YEAR. Man I suck about that. It's actually pretty funny.

A fun post about a super hero of mine!

Today I felt pretty misanthropic and alone and pretty lame.

I considered writing along those lines here, but then I decided to do the opposite, and create something joyful.

Here's a drawing of a super hero I created.

His name is Atticus, and he's been with me for a good long time. Yes, maybe naming a guy Atticus is pretty cheesy, but he's supposed to be a good guys good guy.

In fact, as far as my various characters go, Atticus is the most impossible to write. No question- impossible.

What he became for me relatively early on (that is to say, once I decided to actually look at my main characters as characters, seeing who they are and what distinguishes them) was a call back to those original Golden Age characters, those who confidently leapt into battle, never lost their cool, and were always in the right.

Such characters haven't really aged too well- because of the outcry for realism in stories the Golden Agers have been revealed as reckless and arrogant when they keep relatively close to their original portrayal, or else they've grown with the world to become aware that they aren't always correct in their morality, and will have their own faults and insecurities.

The most obvious example of this happening would be old Superman, who has been accused in the modern era of being a ditherer- always stopping to decide whether or not his interference is warranted and the right thing to do.

The way I've described it here, you may think I don't like the changes to these characters- not true! To have a character be how they were portrayed back in the Golden Age is to have an impossible character- it's not even really a character at all!

And yet that is what I have made of my Atticus- because what he really is is a literary device. A dramatic 'deus ex machina'. And though he'd never say it, or even think it- he is still "aware" of this fact.

The result (or at least, the goal)? This is a figure that will always succeed in the end, who is always comforting when he's trying to be comforting, immediately trusted and trustworthy, will never fall for the old "villain tricks him into compromising position" (because Atticus would always see the deception coming- MAYBE he'll play along). If something terrible happens and he couldn't stop it in the course of the story he doesn't uselessly angst about it, he goes on to the next thing that needs to be done, and yet no one would accuse him of coldness at this fact.

The good guys love him because they wish they could be him, and the bad guys hate him for the exact same reason.

I think after all that, you'd agree how impossible it is to write this guy, especially without front and center saying all of these effects of his are his "super powers"... because if I did that, said he gained peoples trust as a sort of power, well, then whenever he left the room characters would always think "do I really trust this guy, or am I being manipulated?"

All this would make him a sort of "Mary Sue" character- except I'm hoping the fact that I'm so aware of this, always having him wink to the camera and smile at the audience, that I can get away with it.

But of course in practice, he can sound preachy and boringly practical. The end scene of issue 3 of my comic has him give a pep talk to a kid that ran away from home- and it's a pretty weird transition from having my one character, Warp, who had really been the focus of the whole issue and has spent the most time with this kid, at the end lean over to Atticus and say "hey, could you talk to this kid?" Very awkward transition.

The saving grace I've thus far enjoyed is his sense of humour, having him use the 'buddy system', and chase after another hero type because he wanted to shake his hand and that was it- it's funny because of the situation. I keep imagining that at one point he'll go off and have some adventures without his friends, and all of these singular adventures would be like a crazy 50's comic. Specifically, I'm waiting for the issue where he'll get turned into "A Zebra-Atticus" and he'll be coloured all in black and white stripes. That's funny to me because Batman did it. Of course it would only have been partially silly when Batman did it. Hmm, maybe more than partially silly, this is 50's Batman after all.

In case you were wondering- Atticus' powers in story are flight, super-strength (though his friends don't realize that until issue #4 "Why didn't you tell us you had super strength?" "Nobody asked!"), and super-ventriloquism. The last of which he would never use for any practicle purpose in battle... though I've only written 85% of issue #4, and have the outline for issue #5, and know what'll happen in issue #6... issue #7 is called "Talent Night" and of course Atticus would put on a ventriloquism act.

And as far as secret identities go- he calls himself 'Aaron Finch' (yup, pretty obvious name, that's kind of the plan) when out of costume. But that really wouldn't come up too much.

Man, i've got to finish writing those comics. And/Or re-write them to make them better. It's been a loooong time since I've really worked on them. I'm glad I took the time to draw Atticus today.

These characters have been with me in one form or another for a long time... third grade! He's changed a lot since then (as have they all)- though his costume has been pretty recognizably his throughout the whole process. Oh, sure, he started out with little triangles on the bottom of his cape (they were supposed to look like Batman's cape... but even to my 7th grade self or so those things reminded me of the flags they have set up at Car retailers) and there was that briefest of time when he had a symbol on his chest (like, a day- even as a kid I could tell that look wasn't going to fly), but it's been pretty much constant now for, what? Twelve years now? Sheesh.

Consciously done or not, it's pretty clear what two OTHER characters shaped the way I dressed old Atticus:

That's Mon-El, a longtime figure from the DC universe, in a panel from the first Superboy comic I ever read/owned. Though he was sometimes going by 'Valor' in this continuity, he was still doomed to get put into that Phantom Zone to spend a thousand years waiting to join up with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Happens EVERY SINGLE CONTINUITY. Like clockwork. Maybe for that reason Mon-El should be thought of as the DC version of Sisyphus.

Mon-El has always had a lot in common with Superman personality wise, and therefore it should come as no shock that he often fits a Golden Age style mold. But, as is ever the case these past twenty plus years, he's got a fair amount of angst to his name now.

So take Mon-El's suit and mix it with Darkwing Duck...

Yeah, that's definitely the parentage of Atticus' look.

A Proposal

Uhhhh I've added a blog to follow that I've recently discovered. It seems to be exceptionally well done for the most part, but each entry is so long even I (bold and underlined here) start running out of the necessary patience to read through it all. And I'm almost 93% composed of patience!

Probably it was the tenth (of December- last week) if memory serves that I was walking downtown and got hit with a desire to think about society and what not. You know, thought I'd give that a try.

What's probably more interesting here is the fact that once I got into this thought-rut I remained entrenched for the whole hour long trip home. Maybe longer if you count when I was actually at home, but I forget if something may have distracted me at that point.

Oh, did you actually want to hear my thoughts? Even though I'm not, strictly speaking, a social scientist, and therefore I open myself up to potential ridicule?

Sure why not.

There was a radio broadcast... or maybe an editorial (it was almost a week ago, get off my back!) saying how we should close our borders to immigration, fix the problems in the country first before we let any more people in... with of course the added implication of an 'IF' we let any more people in.

"These new guys are taking all our jobs!" would be the jist of that statement.

That's never made much sense to me. For every person there is, because of how interdependant we all are, we would inherently create more work by the very existence of an additional person.

If that is the case, then immigration would only help matters, especially considering the low birthrate in this country (no, I can't cite the statitstic, it's a stat that is spouted so often in various papers that I just, perhaps erroneously, take it at face value. For what it's worth, it sounds right to me.). If we aren't growing then we're withering away.

Pretending that the problems we face as far as equitable employment are NOT a result of that "withering" of too few people- just because a) immigration does still exist and b) there are SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! then where is the problem stemming from?

The problem seems to be from how we value the basic level of work- for a decent standard of living we need to earn X dollars over Y hours, and if Y is cut in half (say, by hiring someone else to pitch in with the work load) then X is also cut in half... so that they're only achieving half of a decent standard of living! Obviously, in this scenario the incentive is to hoarde all of the work/hours to oneself, even though we have over crowded classrooms, diseases that need cures, places to be cleaned, and lines lines lines everywhere. Many hands make light work.

In this case, creating a job is easy. Make X dollars constant regardless of Y, and divide Y as often as you want... well, as often as will increase that tasks efficiency, it'd be silly if people spent more time "changing the guard" than actually doing the job!

That's the case for reducing time on the job, but just to be clear- they should ALSO increase the number of people doing those jobs. Easiest example: instead of one 30 person classroom, make 2 15 people classrooms.

"But," you ask "what about quality control? Isn't it more work to see if these multiple teachers are up to the task of teaching their respective classes?"

Well, yeah! That's part of the point- there are now an increased number of "veting teacher ability" jobs. It's a cycle that fits itself to what is needed.

Having one person overburdened at a position is, as far as I can tell, a relic from an age when there just weren't enough people to fill those posts, so the one person HAD to handle it, and afterwards even though they COULD hire someone else to help, well, why bother? This lone person has already proven that one is just as good as two.

I'm reminded of this past summer, I had an older retired gentleman (emphasis on the gentle) working for me- his job was to stand at the door for nine hours. I don't know anything about his finances, but maybe he needed this job to get by? Well, what's the point in getting him to stand there for nine hours, hurting his back, for a job that takes two seconds to learn how to do. I could (and in fact did) get a random person from another department to fill the spot when necessary. Forcing this guy to do the full shift on his own seems, in this context at the very least, cruel.

While it may seem as though I'm advocating an excess of leisure, I'd really prefer if people could just get the chance to live a full life.

In my first year at university I read this book "Woman on the Edge of Time". I hated it. It cost me way too much and was ridiculous, so I never bought another book for a course again (not counting course kits). However, one thing I did like was the future society they showed. Not only did they have plenty of time for bike riding, but they also shared essential tasks- so instead of one person doing one job for a short amount of time, which is what I have thus far spoken of, they rotated jobs.

It's sort of a macro scale version of the ergonomical suggestion to get up out of your chair every hour and get the blood flowing- you've done one job now for a while, come over and try something else for a bit. Maybe by monetizing our hobbies we can legitimize them in OUR OWN EYES.

To return to my faceless dissenter: "But," you will say, "given the ease with which people can get by, isn't there a danger of people over consuming? That the only thing keeping us from stripping this planet bare of resources is that we many people can't afford them? You know, like in Urinetown- the people thought the payment to use the washroom was purely a money grab by the guys in charge, but it turned out that without that "natural" hold the environment became so toxic that the people ended up killing themselves off?"

I've thought of that (obviously, seeing as I wrote it. Just now. Making me the faceless dissenter.) and as far as I can see there are only two responses. One is that how much each person can accrue (in food stuffs and other possessions) would be regulated by the government- which I can't say is much of a solution at all- and the other is to change how people think about possessions, either with an enlightened disinterest, or (making this a third option I just thought of) completely reversing the advocacy for "getting stuff", in effect turning "not getting stuff" into just as pervasive a brand as that which we're already bombarded with, but hopefully with a positive effect. Which is sort of a horrible manipulative mix of options one and two.

I'd rather hope for elightened disinterest- it could be that sort of enlightenment would be a natural side effect of the ability to, as I've said, live life- in which case, take that faceless dissenter!

One ten millionth armageddon- kero kero kero

Why am I up before 7?

It's partly has to do with my back, that's in a scary amount of pain when I can't figure out what I did to it.. a week ago the problem was in my upper back, now it's right at the base of my spine. Spent my night trying to find the right formula for healing in my bed (went with laying across the X axis at the foot of my bed without pillows- I should have started with fewer variables) and then I hear what immediately conjures fear in my mind, a screaming comes across the sky, and wonder whether or not that's the sound of the end. I'd have flipped on the tv to see if there's anything to that, but my brother is asleep infront of the darkened screen, and it isn't worth it to wake him. I flip on my radio, and get nothing, unless Nirvana is the code band for armageddon.

I'm afraid I can't tell you I was frightened into an epiphany- whenever I think that's the end I take a moment to consider everything I haven't done, then take a longer moment to consider why I haven't done them, and I'm fine. One thing I am definitely not it seems- I am not motivated by fear. Doesn't mean I wouldn't change a thing or two, but I'm not going to sacrifice everything else I am for a fleeting balm that I'd grow to resent later.

Hmm. I'm almost certainly over thinking things.

Well, my brother's up, the tv is on, and the most fascinating thing they're talking about is that fact that it's snowing in Canada. So it goes.

Had to google that last bit to remember what I took that from- Slaughterhouse-Five. That may make me officially awesome.

A grown man talking about Tangled. You're welcome.

Hmm, all the warmth and life energy have been sucked out of my right index finger. It's an interesting phenomenon that driving seems to produce. It's a cold steering wheel alright, but why no anti love for my middle finger/ring finger/pinky? I suppose I do most of my driving with one finger...

Made the most of a trip to Harvey's- three refills. So this is what it feels like to be two thirds made up of iced tea.

Last Tuesday I went to see Tangled with Cool Geoff and my brothers Simon and Jordan. I wasn't planning on seeing it- but when Cool Geoff comes calling, you've gotta accept the charges!

I bet kids today would have no appreciation for how awesome that phrase is. Too many cell phones, not enough collect calling. Someone needs to start stealing cell phones and replacing them with pagers. I imagine only Santa has the network to accomplish that. (network! like, phone network, but also system for going to everyones houses? Fine. Nobody get's me.)

"Nobody get's me." is also an amazingly funny line. Bill Murray used it in Scrooged.

Riiight, Tangled.

So right off the bat, the songs didn't impress me, there were no stand out "Hakuna Matata" or "I Can Go the Distance" numbers to reel you in... with the POSSIBLE exception of the number they did in the bar "The Snuggly Duckling" where all the tough guys were singing and they made the male lead sing only through threat of violence... but that was just a funny bit, that doesn't really make the song itself better than the others.

There were two animal sidekicks in the movie, a chameleon named Pascal, and a horse named Maximus. Personally, Pascal didn't add much to the movie, though he can certainly make for a very cute little stuffed toy, so that's important.

Maximus, howevever, was awesomeness/hardcore incarnate, and easily the best part of the movie. Everytime he appears, it's this uber competent, no nonsense horse with this intense stare to his face. Is it a little silly for a horse to smell out his opponent like a blood hound? Maybe so- BUT DON'T TELL THAT TO MAXIMUS!

When the male lead Flynn is about to make good his escape from the palace guards, thanks to his wielding of a frying pan, without missing a beat Maximus draws a sword out with his mouth from a downed guard, and proceeds to sword fight with Flynn's frying pan. And then Flynn, played by the guy who plays Chuck, but I forget his name at the moment, beautifully deadpans "this is absolutely the strangest thing I've ever done."

The story structure was pretty straightforward, but I imagine if I went back and watched some old Disney films I'd feel the same about all of them as well.

Oh yeah, Tangled is a Disney film... how did I not know that going in? Seems like a pretty big point, but I honestly didn't know.

The villainess's plan was really well done- due to it being a situation of her having to manipulate Rapunzel to stay in that tower, I was on the lookout for the kind of inconsistencies that would make me sit up and say "whoah now, that's not how that character would react- now you guys are just shoe-horning in what you need to make your plot work!" but no, every action had a believable re-action, ending up working in the villains favour. That's tight criminal masterminding.

And as far as the big finale with the bad guy, I won't spoil you, but I thought it would go one way, it went another, but after the fact I agree that's the only way it could really have gone. A.k.a.- the way all good stories should end.

Plus there're the two scenes- the romantic boat ride where Flynn and Rapunzel realize they love each other, and when Rapunzel is reunited with her long lost parents, that got to me a bit, and prove that I'm a big softie. Curses!

In the end, this was a pretty good film, so if you've got any little cousins or anything that want to go see a movie, Tangled is a good choice for them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to waiting for that awesome looking Jeff Bridges cowboy picture. Moving picture.

About Earth One and feeling special

Got a call from a guy today who just wanted to share some good news with someone. I like that I'm on someones short list for 'whoah, I've gotta tell someone about this!' moments. It makes me feel special.

Yes yes, I have embarassingly low standards for things to make me feel good.

Read Superman: Earth One by J.M. Straczynski and Shane Davis today. I've usually found myself not liking Straczynski's work lately, and I'd heard bad things about this book- specifically that he made Superman an emo kid- but I actually really enjoyed it. It accomplished something that it seems, thinking back on it, is required of all good Superman stories- it makes me feel uplifted.

It's an origin story, so we get to see Clark Kent introduced to Metropolis- it's a Clark Kent that feels aimless because he could very well do anything he wanted in any field. At first it bothered me that he excelled in a football teams try outs, blew a tech firms mind with a formula, and basically just found success wherever he went. It bothered me because to even get an audience with the people he did to give those demonstrations is a display of huge priviledge, then add to that the advantage of having powers beyond those of mortal man.

Now that bothered me until I remembered this was Superman I was dealing with here. This is a guy who, if there's a problem, almost by magic, he solves it. What I was seeing here was a more mundane Superman, one who we can more readily accept as someone who could exist in our world.

It's like "this is the story about a man who can fly- but what that really is is an allegory for success" but instead they tell the story straight, about the man with success.

Yes, this story still has flying, and fights with an alien menace, and heat vision, but in conjunction with the earlier striving for purpose (and getting paid untold wealth for those different positions) that part becomes more closely affiliated with self sacrifice. Interestingly, the poorly paid reporter job was the only one that didn't immediately jump to hire Clark Kent- it wasn't until Clark became Superman, choosing a life of service, that he got the gig. Plus, of course, Clark Kent walked in the office with an exclusive interview with Superman, that helps.

DC actually printed the interview in the back of the book- so we've got two pages or so of Clark Kent talking to Superman, with Clark writing as though he's nervous, and makes a geeky joke that he laughs at WITH Superman... it would always have been a disingenuous interview, but that was a bit much.

Personally, I prefer it when Lois gets the first interview, and Clark Kent gets the job because he's "the fastest typest (they've) ever seen."

At least it's Jonathan Kent that names him Superman- it's better coming from a proud father than from the costumed strong man himself.

I'll stop after one more thing- it'd come as no surprise if I pointed out my penchant for analyzing Batman comics, but it kind of surprises me that I don't do the same for Superman. True, I don't really buy single issues of Superman, preferring to get him in trade (and even then, it's been some time since I've bought one), but just thinking about their stories I'm not sure they both lend themselves as well to that kind of analysis.

I find Batman to be (in general) a more literary book; exploring genre, medium awareness/manipulation, and how these things change with the times. It probably helps that Batman himself has to be more cerebral, what with the detective thing going on, and then there's the influence of Batman co-creator Bill Finger who was just a smithy of words.

Really, it's the medium awareness that always gets me- Q: Batman is a man, how is he living through all this stuff? A: Because he's also the star of the story.

Ask the same question of Superman Q: How is Superman winning all these battles? A: Are you kidding me? He's Superman! How is he NOT winning these battles is the better question- if he ever lost a battle that is.

Defeating the bad guy can never be the point of the story when it comes to a Superman story (good thing too, with lame bad guys like the Toyman, there better be something else going on). Have two missiles flying in opposite directions, will Superman save more lives, or take care of his personal interests? The Superman Returns video game, sure it had it's problems, but this part was brilliant: Superman himself couldn't be killed, it was METROPOLIS that had the health bar.

Superman #775 by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, published hmm 2001-2002? entitled "What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" (I remembered ALMOST all that by myself... I just needed a little correction on the title, but that's what google is for) is just one of those favourite stories of mine. I haven't read it in years, I loaned my copy to a buddy in high school and he never got around to reading it. It's now become such a fixture of our relationship, the fact that he hasn't read it, that he basically can never read it now.

The issue itself deals with a surly group of anti heroes who barge in, kill bad guys left right and centre, are seemingly capable of brushing off Superman, AND it looks like the public may prefer their take no prisoners style. Though it's played to look as though Superman is having trouble from a power level position, it's eventually revealed that the real issue was his deciding for himself whether or not the world had moved past him, that maybe these "heroes" were the new standard and he was a throwback.

Maybe I was being too harsh, saying Superman doesn't lend itself to analysis. Though this issue is a little obvious (old school Superman versus 90's anti-hero, a concept that has really been used a lot in connection with the Big Blue Boy Scout) it is still addressing societal change outside of the world view of the comic book, how the world at large sees the story, and that's the kind of thing I love.

Of course in the end Superman wipes the floor with the anti-heroes, doing it in such a way as to convince their leader that Supes had adopted their viscious styles- he hadn't, it was rather an object lesson in how easy that variety of justice can be.

When Manchester Black (that was the bad team's leader) screams at Superman "WE'LL BE BACK!", unconsciously referencing his earlier attitude about the futility of Superman's brand of justice, Superman flips it on him "And I'll be waiting." making it now the returning villains of every Superman story the ones trapped in futility. At least Superman can have a life, however small, outside of "Superman"- for the bad guys it's prison-escape-kryptonite-capture and repeat.

Obviously this issue really effected me, I remember so much about it. Well, maybe you shouldn't quote my dialogue verbatim, but the idea is there.

Go read it, go to a library or a Chapters, pick up a recent volume of "Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" and it'll probably be in there.

On University rankings and then eventually Yogi Bear. But you have to wait a while.

Holy macaroni- Michelle Williams is on the Daily Show right now, and she looks so cute! Maybe it was just her character on Dawsons Creek I didn't like all that much...

ANYways, I may have stepped in it over on the facebook, a friend made a casual reference to her school being the best in Canada, I joked how that was courting controversy from people that are highly defensive of their schools... and then had to become one of those guys? Because I was then on the recieving end of crazy frowny faces?

It's okay though, they gave me a link to a Macleans page of university rankings, so now I know McGill is the best.

Or that would be true, if I cared about one magazines opinion, or in fact what makes a "best university". I've met good students at all sorts of places, and bad students everywhere. The ability to get into a "good school" doesn't impress me.

But even pretending I did care about this particular web page- I find it (using the most devastating word possible) humorous that I'm supposed to be swayed by the little ranking at the top of the page, and ignore all the dissenting opinion from the comments.

This particular comment mirrors my own point of view:

"Every school has its problems. Your education is what YOU make it. Don’t let someone else tell you how much your education is worth...These lists are so glossed over and much too vague to be considered helpful. If you want to go to the most popular schools then this is the kind of list for you...This list was made for the student who wants bragging rights, not for the student who is concerned with his or her education first and foremost."

But my pointing out of this to McGill students makes me insufferable.

It's like preaching to not-the-choir. They just don't want to hear it.

Alright enough of this topic.

Tuesday I made plans to visit a friend of mine on Thursday. She said she would give me a call Wednesday(today) to finalize plans. What I immediately knew, but did NOT say, was that I didn't really expect her to call me. If I intimated to her that she would forget, that would hurt her feelings, she would get defensive, suddenly I feel like a bad guy again.

So, I mean, there's a reason we don't hang out that much.

I hear what the readers at home are thinking: but Isaac, maybe if you talked about this problem, it could get or better or something!

See, I knew you'd say that! But what you missed is that my description of her getting hurt and defensive, that isn't a theoretical situation. I've done it, that's what happens.

...

This post is lame, it's all complainy sounding.

*NEWS BULLETIN*

Ebizo Ichikawa, 33 year old star of Kibuki shows over in Japan, also known as "The Prince of Kabuki" (which is AWESOME) is no longer allowed to participate in kabuki because of the drunken brawl he participated in, which damaged his face! Drama! It's estimated that his absence from stage and screen has cost Japanese media between 1.2- 2.4 million dollars.

That is an epic story. I want to see a movie based on this.

On some Wikileaks stuff (which is a story of great interest to me, if I haven't made that clear already) here's a handy quote from U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates:
"The fact is governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us and not because they think we can keep secrets."

That is a scary attitude. And he's practically an Assange SUPPORTER compared to some higher level Americans.

Another brief American point of interest- man, I feel bad for Obama with his call to extend those Bush tax cuts. I don't think he made the right decision, but I also think this is something that would have happened with or without his approval (strange as that may seem).

Back on the home front: I like how the political cartoon in todays Metro says nothing. I mean, they USUALLY don't say anything, but this was an especially astounding case. Yes, Don Cherry did say those things.

So I think I finally figured out what has been hitting me as "off" in the trailers for the upcoming Yogi Bear movie (I like Yogi Bear, so sue me. Please don't sue me.)- it's far too animated. The wild expressions and gesticulation are too far removed from the relatively static and dry rejoinders from classic Hannah Barbara cartoons. And I predict there will be no instances of Yogi walking along a seemingly inifinite hallway of a recurring background saying "Sheesh!" about something. That's my favourite part!

Boo Boo looks good though.

Dude, my wrist feels much better! But that leaves...

Ah my back is killing me. Not really. Well, sort of. It's in that place where I WOULD just make a quick pop manoeuver and everything'd be shiny, but it doesn't want to pop, and THAT'S what's hurting me. Yes, I had to look up how to spell manoeuver. Although there are simpler ways to spell it that are also socially acceptable, I like this way.

And yes, on occasion I'll say "sh"-eduel.

Back in that book on thinking strategically, I participated in a thought game and got the right answer. I'm just pleased that I am, in fact, "getting it". I think I said in my last post that I may not be, because of some crazy graph/spreadsheet. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure that was just a mistake in the figure A. Which is what I said last time.

I've turned to another book by my bedside, it's a collection of essays on some famous thinkers. I was pretty tired that first night I decided to give it a read, and I ended up reading the entire first essay- that means it was engaging. It was about ol' Socrates. Is this common knowledge? Accounts of Socrates chiefly come from four sources, which have plenty of, not discrepancies, so much as parallaxian viewpoints between them, so that any points of intersection create a vivid picture of the man.

In a waiting room, an older woman was really glad to see me and my twin brother. She was so sweet, I had no choice but to try and be enthusiastic about the fact that- oh yeah! I have a brother!

Why did you keep this a secret from me??

Actually, she asked if we were close, and I said "yes, right now we're very close."

And then the receptionist laughed "OH- because you're physically sitting next to each other right now!"

usually it's MY schtick to explain my bad jokes... it's just silly when someone else does it.

Hmm, was there anything else... eh that's fine for now.

Nope, my body doesn't want to come up with a title. "fhngiludy" there we go.

Not entirely pleased with my latest review. Our second week into the new format (longer reviews, fewer numbers) and I didn't have much to say about this one. My fellow writers are wanting to be more positive, but my tone is still negative on this one. I mentioned Godzilla for some flavour, then looked up and saw a guy in a Godzilla suit on 30 Rock. Coincidence, or was I paying more attention to the tv than I thought I was?

I didn't even bother mentioning the Atom back up story which has failed to impress me- even though it's being written by this wunderkind. I like the other stuff of his that I've read- but that'd be pretty lame. "I like the OTHER stuff he's done..."

Ahh I've got a twitch driving me crazy. Right beside my eye.

Just erased something about the Simpsons. Not everything makes the cut on this page I guess.

Reading about Mayor Ford's call to cancel Transit City, many are up in arms over the hypocricy of railing against wasteful spending at city hall then making a move that would waste, what, a hundred million dollars? To cancel something that has already been started.

Of course in theory the metrolinks (is that what it's called?) is in charge of the transit city stuff, a separate entity from Toronto.

Of course in THEORY theory there's a city council to say "no, this is happening."

But unfortunately I'm concerned by the mythologizing these leaders of ours get. It's like once they get the top spot, people think they HAVE to agree with them. Sort of a hold over from our monarchical background. Or more likely the influence of seeing people in power run riot for a decade in the states. Or, hey, maybe they've been running riot here too, just a really boring version of running riot.

I tried to get back into my book toaday, but it appears to have made a series of errors in a single graph- or else I REALLY wasn't getting what it was talking about.

Okay, I'm out of it right now. I'm missing and rearranging more letters here than usual. Which is already a pretty big number...

I saw a friend of mine the other day, she asked me a question she asked me two years ago. I didn't say anything, but it bothers me when that happens. Heh, maybe that makes me Bill Murray. Which would be awesome.