The end of 2014

Since I started mentioning my Christmas toy donation tradition on this blog I've appreciated it as a record of which toys I've picked up- depending on the toy it tells me what kind of message or value I'd like some kid to pick up: responsibility, hope, diligence, etc. etc.

This year I donated a Spider-Man, specifically "Blitz Board Spider-Man"

I, and I assume most every kid, was never a fan of the various alternate costumes they gave figures- I always wanted to play with the character as seen on tv or the comics. So part of the reasoning behind this choice was that the Spidey figure itself is a regular costume.

Also factoring into the equation was the fact that the container wasn't in the best shape. Oh, it was fine, just that the glue that held the plastic on wasn't quite up to snuff. A kid could easily rip into it at the store and score a free Spidey. As a result the toy was half off.

If you've talked to me at all lately, you know I'm broker than I've been in years. Everything has been getting dumped into school, while I've also been working far less because, duh, I'm in school. A part of me is worried I cheaped out on the kid to get this deal, but the other part of me knows I need to be really smart with my money.
It would be super great if at some point I wouldn't need to use that sentence any more.

As for my Christmas haul? Jordan got me season 5 of the Venture Brothers, Simon got me the complete 80's Ninja Turtles show, which is amazing, and Cool Geoff got me the Shakespeare Star Wars collection, which I hadn't even mentioned to anyone how I wanted that. Thanks guys!

Been a while, here's some library books

I haven't been by here in quite some time. Things haven't been great at all, they've been mighty tough, and I didn't particularly want to share.

Still don't.

But I'm about to return some library books and I wanted to give them lip service- though I will also have skipped a bunch of other books, like 'Flashman' and some of my beloved Horatio Hornblower's (maybe just the one..)

so there was 'How Not To Be Wrong' by Jordan Ellenberg which I thought would aide my argument-making abilities. Nope, just talked about math stuff. I learned about the Laffer Curve, which is basically the representation of effective taxation for the purposes of raising government revenue where you raise the least money ($0) at 0% and 100% taxation, and therefore finding that sweet maximum point in between is what it's all about. And by 'it' I mean deciding what tax rate is the best.

I got super bored with the rest of the book, and was reminded by a girl at work that I didn't HAVE to read it.
Huh. She's right! I'm done with you, boring book!

Then there're two autobiographies

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. Look her up, she's internet meme famous for the "ALL THE THINGS" picture, which is in fact in this book. Quick read, fun. Recommend.

Then I've got the embarrassingly titled "Never Have I Ever: My Life (so far) Without a Date" it's got a bunch of hearts all over the cover, and perhaps this wasn't the manliest book to read on the subway. Whatever. It was really fun. Curse those heartless men, they shoulda been dropping like flies at Katie's feet!

There's an exercise book that I'm going to have to return today, can't renew it. I'll get it back later.

Joke gaffe and mental exercises

The family sat down to watch Robocop last night. Yes, that is a particularly bizarre choice for us, what with the constant sweating and hyperviolence (obviously it would be fine if it was just us younguns).

At one point Simon said "He's more machine now than man." And my dad said something along the lines of 'that could be a line from The Six Million Dollar Man'.

Now, that is exactly something that I would say, it's right in my humour mill- to say something is from X when it's clearly from Star Wars. I mean Y. But I was pretty sure there was no intention of this.

I says- "Dad, you just said something that, were it done on purpose, would be REALLY funny to me. You know that line Simon just said is from Star Wars, right? Specifically The Empire Strikes Back.. no, wait, Return of the Jedi."

But, yeah, no. As expected, total accident. Bummer.

In other news, I've been getting exceptionally tired at work lately. While it's possible to attribute this to my increased frequency of gym attendance, more likely it's the case that with crackdowns and a changing workforce, I'm just not getting chatted with enough to keep me mentally stimulated.

Did you hear it takes 14 minutes on average for people to fall asleep? Yeah, sounds about right.

Considering how ridiculously easy it is to get a second wind with the slightest bit of social interaction acknowledging the fact of my existence, today I took to engaging MYSELF via mental exercises. First I concentrated on pokemon type match-ups; strengths, weaknesses, resistances, and how they stack up. Then I got to thinking about those cool feats of mental ability on t.v. when people play chess in their imaginations. So I pictured a board, figured out the check/space nomenclature (I'm guessing using the best available knowledge.. again, my own head.)- A-G, by 1-8, and then made a white move, followed by a mental flip of the table before making the mirroring move (you'd have to be insane to think I made some different move and was ACTUALLY playing against myself. I wish! That'd be really cool! And totally unverifiable!)

I made three moves and their mirror- the kings side knight to D3, the C2 pawn to C4, and the kings side bishop to C2, along with the corresponding moves on the black side of the board.

This actually helped to pass the time pretty well. I should get to work on some writing that I had previously worked on in my head so I can clear space for a new project, the enthusiasm of which would surely carry me for a few days at any rate.

Yes, I definitely need a new job!

Meet Mr. W.M. Hackman

I had a brainstorm today-

I want to write more, I have a number of projects in my head that want to exist outside of there, but one of the largest stumbling blocks is how impossible it seems to me to take these ideas and make them perfect things, wholly communicative outside of myself. Because of course that's impossible. Wires get crossed, oppourtunities missed, and it just won't ever be perfect. But the attempt is a daunting thing.

But what if it wasn't?

What if I created an alternate persona to do my initial writing for me- a self assured hack that could bounce from one project to the next, comfortable in the notion that whatever he writes will be "eh, good enough for me" and that eventually his old editor Isaac will get to re-emerge, to take these scraps, remold them after the fact, and steal them as his own.

It's brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT!

So, a pen-name's the thing, a pseudonym.
Readers are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

I shall become "Will Manning Hackman" (a well-meaning hack...man.)

(This could be the opening chapters for a strange re-telling of the Jekyll/Hyde story. Not that that story really gets all that much stranger)

Anyways, yes, this is just a trick to psych myself up. I'm not actually going insane. Probably.

Pokemon Tournament

Just got back home from the YAMA/York Anime Club's pokemon tournament. Although I got beaten by Jordan in my second round of the singles match-ups (in a supremely bum rap- our first match there's a connection issue, I bring it to the judges attention, Jordan says "I was winning though" and therefore Jordan is declared the winner. Whatever.) our next match-up Jordan legitimately beat my team I guess, but that was hardly a best two out of three situation, is it?

More importantly, in the double battle tournament, Jordan and I started with a buy, then we faced each other (AGAIN? these guys seriously need to figure out a better system..) I won, then faced Mike, who I beat thanks to my skill and luck, mostly skill (thankfully late in the game I had a bunch of misses that really slowed me down, so I feel it kind of balances the number of times he was paralyzed and at my mercy). I won, then lost to Jonas in the finals.

But do you know what that means?

I GOT SECOND PLACE IN THE DOUBLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT AGAIN!!

Two years in a row! I'd been bragging about my standing all this past year, and now I get to do it again!

But I'm tired now, I'm going to nap (10pm naps aren't the norm...)

Thanks for playing! And thank YOU, Keymaster the Klefki!

January is packed

Besides a draft that I started a few weeks ago and never published, this will be my only post for the month again. And right this second I don't have much time to do it- I need to go get comics, go to the library, pick up some groceries for the coming week, do some story discussion stuff over at a buddy's place, go to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (which will be great) and then go to a comedy show to round everything out. Augh, too much. I'm trying to cram four days of stuff into two days without going nuts.

I'm probably failing at that.

I've been working hard, doing the security five days a week. The writers room commitment is over, but I still need to actually write the sitcom the whole thing was for. Man, I need to do that. I've got a month, and I'm not sure my characters will work how I want them to.

Alright, I need to get moving.