This may be cheating but it's also a test

Most online quizzes are a bit silly really. The title is 'which so and so are you?', the questions and responses are pretty clear that if I pick response A, I'm leaning towards Character A, and the results are no surprise. I took a 'Which Doctor Who are you?' today and the questions and responses were nicely mixed, perhaps because there were ten Doctors to pick from, they had to work harder. I actually had no clue Who I was getting and was quite pleased to see my result.

Your Result: 2nd Doctor

"Oh my giddy aunt!" You are fun-loving, and excitable but that doesn't hinder your ability to plan ahead. Although when things get tough you may have trouble at first, you'll always find a way through. You may overact to entertain or take cover, but you're a solid person underneath, something only true friends understand.

Ugh

Yesterday my left ear felt a little clogged, closed, or stuffed up. Eventually it relaxed.

Now it's my right ear's turn. It feels like there's a crayon loose in my head and someone's slowly pushing it out my right ear. My hearing is a little wonky as a result.

It's very distracting.

Beyond that I'm feeling better. Hopefully my ear will relax tonight and I'll feel active enough to do something, anything, tomorrow.

That would be nice.

Grumble

I am sick and because of that illness I am missing this year's 'behind the scenes' night at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I'm hating that. I've only been to the 'behind the scenes' night once and was looking forward to going back and taking some pictures.

Last night I took a big, slightly more than recommended dose of Nyquil with the idea that it would knock me out for the night. That's the sort of thing that the commercials suggest will happen anyway. That did not happen for me. I slept for a couple hours, was far too awake for a period of time, and napped fitfully for the rest of the evening. I woke up tired. My throat felt less rough but I'm not sure if the Nyquil or the vaporub did that. I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon away.

I've never been much for cough syrup upon becoming an adult. The primary ingredient in most cough syrup (the Nyquil included as I looked) is alcohol. Why not just drink brandy or whiskey? Bound to accomplish the same things by in large. Get some blackberry brandy, that'll coat your throat and off you go.

Don't mind me. I'm just tired and bitter for missing my photo-op with a polar bear.

Radio on the TV

Thought I blogged yesterday. Woke up this morning, had a look, and realized I hadn't. Bother. The days are blurring together a bit as I'm sick again. Unpleasant that. Let's not dwell on that.

The topic I wished to discuss yesterday and managed to remember into today was that I'm not using my television very well. I'm using my television but not much as a television, more like a radio. I switched to a different media provider a few weeks ago and this new monolithic company provides me with a comedy radio channel. I get clips of comedy albums, radio programmes, stand-up, all sorts of good stuff, much of which I don't have. Which is nice.

Why isn't there a video channel like this? There's a load of performers from the 60s and 70s for which I'd love to see more video. Not that there aren't performers after that I wouldn't mind seeing as well but more of their work is available in one form or another. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, etc on a television talk show in the 60s is something I have seen so little of over the years.

There are some down sides. Some of the tracks are mislabeled. Like any radio, some of the tracks, pleasant as they may be, are repeated too often. I've heard Bill Cosby's 'Chicken Heart' routine a lot these past few weeks. I like it but it's long and stops being as funny when you hear it three times in the course of three hours.

All these channels and I spend most of my time listening to the 'radio'. Silly, isn't it?

I just don't get it

At the risk of sounding like the crazy old man who ain't what he used to be, I don't understand the point of Twitter.

I understand some of the points of Twitter. It's like sending a text to a mailing list. I can see how it could be handy when reporting from an event. "Hey I'm at the Brewer game and almost caught a foul ball." That sort of thing. Just walking around on a daily basis though? How many people are interesting enough or witty enough to use 240 characters on a regular basis and have it be of interest. "Hey, I'm eating a hot dog!" is not the sort of thing that really grabs the interest.

I'm afraid that the next step is a mobile device with a GPS that would automatically update a site with your location. Then you can read 'Steve is in bed.' 'Steve is in the kitchen.' 'Steve is in the bathroom.' 'Steve is still in the bathroom.'

Won't that be fun?

Pondering heroes and villains

Not every villain needs to be horrible. Not every hero is a boy scout. Both can have codes of honor that they follow.

As an example, let's pick on El Hombre de Silla.

El Hombre tries to act as a hero while in the wrestling ring and out. Yet he carries a folding chair to the ring to use as a weapon. This could be the sort of thing associated with a cheater as he has an item that could be used to cheat. However, so long as he uses it only when it's legal, makes it clear that he's bringing the chair with him (it's not a secret that he has it) and has chair in his name (Silla being Spanish for chair), this suits his code of honor. He considers himself something of a warrior with the chair acting as both sword and shield. Having the chair could be a villainous act, but, under the circumstances, it isn't.

What can be the only difference between the way hero and villain acts is their goal. El Hombre tries to fight for the downtrodden. He fights crime. Therefore, he's a hero to those who are victims or possible victims. To criminals, he is a villain, preventing them from their goals.

A villain can become a hero if the villain fights against characters deemed to be greater villains than himself/herself. The character may change nothing apart from his opponent to facilitate this transformation. You use a hacker to catch a hacker, a thief to catch a thief, Rowdy Roddy Piper to defeat Bad News Brown or whatever.

It's the overall goal that generally determines the character's alignment in a 'ends justify the means' society.

I am the Wall

Last night I went to a concert for a band I'm familiar with, but not that familiar with, in a building I haven't been inside in years, and got to do something I'd never done before. It was a good time.

Sevendust is one of my buddy Moppy's favorite bands. He's got everything they've done, probably twice. I do have some of their music from various soundtracks and such but I mostly know them through Moppy, from car rides or tailgating or whatever. I enjoy them and their heavy metal/hard rock style music. Like I mentioned, I'm not that familiar with their work. I don't remember song titles or lyrics or anything, I just know I like the sounds they make. Normally that would not be enough to get me to go to a concert but I figured it would be a good time and, more importantly, Moppy had some free tickets so I went along.

I haven't been to the building known as the Rave in about a decade. It has been fixed up a bit in that time. It's an old, old building that's probably falling down more than it shows. The ballroom is where the concert was held and, oddly enough, was also the scene of the last concert I went to in the Rave. It has two or three areas to host concerts. It's old and a big place. I'd been using my memories of it to invent a place for my stories. It looks nicer than I've been describing it.

Moppy and I were in the midst of the crowd. When the first chords of music began, he turned sideways, became paper thin, and dove deeper into the crowd, into the center where a mosh pit was guaranteed. As I'm unable to become that thin anymore and the seam closed after he passed through it, I stayed where I was, happy to headbang by myself. We had a place to meet if we got separated so I wasn't concerned about finding him again. I just rocked and enjoyed myself.

About halfway through the concert, another mosh pit formed next to me. Now, if you've never been in a mosh pit before, they look very violent. There's a reason for that; they are very violent. It's not an angry violent, it's a very good natured sort of violent, like football. Guys slam into each other repeatedly during the music, then shake hands, hug and go on their ways. If someone gets knocked down, he gets picked back up again. If someone gets hurt, he gets helped out.

When I was younger, moshing wasn't quite such a contact sport. I still didn't do it too much due to concerns over my eyewear. Now, it's a little too rough for me. Considering where the pit formed, I became part of the pit wall. Now, the thing about these concerts is that not everyone wants to be in the pit. Some people just want to listen to the music. A wall forms around the pit to absorb the energy of the moshers and try to disperse it before it can affect the rest of the audience. Basically you're trying to block them from knocking everyone else down. Most of the time, the moshers aren't hitting the pit wall that hard. You're just helping them keep their feet. Occasionally they bump into someone wrong, lose control and you're trying to keep everyone from falling, especially yourself. I stumbled a few times but never fell. The moshers were doing their best to keep the bumps to themselves. As it should be. I would rock out during the break between songs and then return to watching the pit. When it's on you cannot take your eyes off of it. If you do, you will get knocked down.

Sevendust finished their set. Moppy, tired, rematerialized by my side. I shook hands with one of the guys from the pit before leaving. Good times.

A Few Thoughts on Comics from This Week

Or just one comic from this week.

The Muppet Show Comic Book #1.

The art took some getting used to, but I like it. It's short 'skits' with a story arc, just like the show. I can hear the characters' voices in my head as I read the book. It's funny. I got misty eyed at the end, just like I do for some of the shows when Kermit says something sad but sweet.

It is outstanding.

Ouch

Spent all day, well, almost all day at a job fair. Too much thinking. Head hurts. Simpsons, beer, chips and nacho cheese to relax. Actual text later.

Midwest Gaming Classic

Last year I went to the Midwest Gaming Classic because I could. I had an interest in going, I had no expectations of having company and just went for the sake of wanting to be there. I ended up bumping into friends and had a fine time in general.

This year I had plans to attend with friends I don't get to see very often as they live out of town. These plans worked. In addition to having access to more classic arcade games than last year, more museum systems to look at and play, more vendors to buy from, I had my buddies to mess around with while there. It all ended up working out, which was nice. Hung out, had fun, had a nice dinner with most of them, got to tell stories, got to hear stories. Nothing explosive or overwhelming to report, unless beating Mark in Gorf counts. Or me losing my Kermit in Mickey ears pin. Drat it.

Bought a Xbox 360. It's broken. Maybe I can fix it. For $10 I decided to take the dare. I'm decent at tinkering which means I can follow directions and troubleshoot well but I can also break things that are already broken. We shall see.

'Strongman' Review

When I was twelve, I was introduced to comic books as Comic Books. I'd read them before that age and knew many of the characters from television, but suddenly there was a history there, more depth than I expected. I fell hard, as I often do when finding a new obsession.

A couple years later, I bumped into wrestling and hesitated rather than turning away. At it's core was a story similar to the comics I had gotten comfortable with reading. It was good vs evil on a stage. I got hooked.

In the 1990's my interest in wrestling revived once I started seeing luchadores, high flying styled wrestlers mostly from Mexico, as part of the shows. Comics and wrestling had more truly connected with masks designed to hide the identity of the wrestler and fighting moves that would make Spider-Man proud. Discovering that Mexican cinema had a history of taking these men and having them fight crime just cemented that connection together. My character El Hombre de Silla is born out of that fascination, in tribute to that style of entertainment.

The 'Strongman' graphic novel also follows in that tradition. It tells the story of Tigre, a formerly Santo-esqe character insomuch that he wrestled, fought crime, and made movies. Tragedy hit over thirty years ago and he is but a shadow of himself, spending much of his time drunk and wasting his life. A young woman encourages him to investigate a problem and, eventually, he gets talked into it, reviving the Tigre of old.

Over the course of the story we find out what happened that fateful day in 1973 and how it affects Tigre to this day. The story is logically laid out, well told in words and art. It is more realistic than the movies would have been in the past and yet reads like a storyboard for a movie waiting to happen. It's not that realistic. It's real enough when it needs to be and yet a story when the time is right.

I loved it. More please.

GLCW - 'Two Words ... Too Sweet' - March 21, 2009

I've been to a few cards promoted by Great Lakes Championship Wrestling and they've all been a good time. This show was no exception. We arrived at the Waukesha Expo Center with plenty of time before the show started. We got the same seats that we had for last December's Blizzard Brawl. The only variation on our side was that my buddy Mark was in the area over the weekend from Stevens Point and he attended in place of Moppy.

Match 1: ICW Title Match, Justin Dredd defending the title against Mickey McCoy

Mickey was from Ireland and Justin from Milwaukee which, oddly enough, was cause for 'USA' chants to break out. Just days after St. Patrick's day and suddenly we're anti-Irish? Weird. Justin was the face and took a good beating from Mickey. We started renaming Mickey's moves to fit his Irish background, from simple things like renaming the Russian Leg Sweep to the Irish Leg Sweep to more complex things like calling chest chops potato slices. Or something. I'm forgetting our best jokes. Justin won with a move off the top rope that was similar to a Russian Leg Sweep if both guys involved were on the top turnbuckle and did a backflip to land face down in the ring. There's a name for the move and I'm ashamed to say I can't remember what it is. Nice hot opener that got the crowd going. Justin is a little on the skinny side and would benefit from putting on some weight.

Match 2: Electric Eric Freedom vs Lenny Lane - 10 minute Time Limit

The Lenny Lane Army was ready for the appearance of their hero this time. There were signs, there was yelling, there were smiles all around. His Lenniness played the face this time. He and the 'hardcore hippie' worked a solid back-and-forth match that was ended by the Time Limit. Of course more time was asked for, Freedom tried a sneak attack as the match restarted, and Lenny got the win. After posing around the ring, slapping hands with the cheering crowd, Lenny started back towards the dressing room. With an exaggerated 'oh wait a minute' expression, he tore over to the location of the Lenny Lane Army in order to pose with us. Outstanding! Excellent fun. As predicted, my voice was already destroyed after this match.

Match 3: Three Way Dance - Matt 'Love Machine' Longtime vs Dysfunction vs Ryan Rogue

After a few moments, the characters sorted themselves out after the general positive reactions to the guys during the introductions. I've seen Dysfunction play face and heel so there was a certain 'what's he been lately' confusion. Matt Longtime is generally a heel so that wasn't complicated. Ryan Rogue was unfamiliar. Apparently Ryan's middle name is 'punching bag' as Dysfunction played heel and helped Longtime beat the snot out of him. Heel miscommunication led to Longtime hitting Dysfunction and then pinning him for the elimination. Ryan managed to rally to quickly defeat Longtime for the win. Post match, Dysfunction expressed his 'that's not how we planned it' frustration to Longtime. Dissatisfied with the response, Dysfunction superkicked Longtime, leaving Longtime in the middle of the ring, his legs raised in the air stiffly. He remained in that position until the Intermission was announced. Unsteadily, he climbed to his feet, fell, rolled from the ring, staggered, fell again, and stumbled to the back, selling the entire way. Well done sir!

Intermission - Lenny Lane set up shop on the ring apron. Once the children had a chance to say hi, the Army moved in. We said hi, bought t-shirts, laughed with him, chit-chatted about his recent brief appearance 'up north', he discussed a character idea he brought up there and expressed his annoyance with how it got shot down. He also signed the Lenny Lane Army sign I'd held up. Good times.

Match 4: Bobcat vs 'Connie Armoni' with Sunny as Guest Ref

'Connie Armoni' would be local legend Angel Armoni in a dress and wig. GLCW womens matches tend to be fun comedy matches and this one was no different. Relatively short, sweet, and to the point. When the comedy faded, a few individuals in the audience expressed their boredom but the match really wasn't long enough to lag for any real length of time. Bobcat won to become the new GLCW Ladies Champion. Fun.

Match 5: GLCW Heavyweight Title Match - Mr. A.E. vs Champion Al Snow

Mr. A.E. is also the current commissioner of GLCW so the storyline of the match revolved around his changing of the rules during the match to prevent his losing and stacking the deck against Al. It became 'no countouts', then 'no dq'. Once Al tried to bring his mascot 'Head' (a manniquin head) into the match, Mr. A.E. noted that he never agreed to a 'handicap' match so Matt Longtime came out to 'balance' things out. Al continued to survive the pummeling until the referee decided he'd had enough and refused to count a fall for Mr. A.E. The ref was dismissed and a new ref was chosen, someone already wearing black and white... Matt Longtime. Even Matt's quick counts weren't enough to count Al out after he'd had a chance to rest and Al managed a comeback. Once both Longtime and Mr. A.E. were down for the count, the original ref returned and gladly counted the fall for Al. Good work, fun storyline that was well performed. This and the Lenny Lane match were my two favorites for the night.

Match 6: 'The Match They Didn't Want You To See' - BG James and Kip James vs Kevin Nash and Scott Hall

Both teams (the former New Age Outlaws of DX and Outsiders of the NWO respectively) came out and did their traditional schtick to the delight of the crowd. A lawyer from 'Connecticut' then tried to stop the match but was told where he could go in humorous fashion. The match itself was standard, nothing special, what you'd expect from these guys and their ages but all performed well. As I predicted, Hall wrestled about 90% of the match for his team. Not only was this standard operating procedure for the Outsiders, but Nash is having elbow issues and may have been limited in what he could do. Late in the match, Hall went to tag his long-time partner but was met with a middle finger instead. Confused, he was easy prey for a Fameasser and a 3 count. Hall and Nash exchanged some words and a match between them was set up for the next card on June 12th. Very enjoyable.

Already announced for the June 12th show at the Italian Community Center:

Scott Hall vs Kevin Nash

Bobcast vs Traci Brooks for the Ladies Championship

Mr. A.E. vs the Boogieman

On the whole, an enjoyable show as I expected. Good times.

Long Weekend

Everything played out as it should. Tired. Will most likely review the wrestling card tomorrow. Maybe more to make up for this limited entry.

I still smell marker. Bother.

Invest in Yourself

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Normally that sort of question makes what's left of my hair curl. In a job interview, it's a difficult question for me to answer. I'm good at seeing possibilities but possible, best possible, and realistic can muddle all together. As I was talking to a buddy of mine, I answered it realistically from a creative point-of-view: two books done and released with a few short movies also to my credit. As I said, realistic based on how I tend to work. It gives me room to overachieve.

Our discussion made me realize that how I've been approaching my writing of late has been an investment in myself. Other jobs may come and go but my love for writing should always stay, always progress, and the more I have to show for using that skill, even in limited ways, is for the best. He started showing me some of his investments in himself. He's even drawing again. I think it's been years.

How are you investing in yourself?

Active for a Change

It's been a busy week. I've got a little more power on this end and I'm still trying to find ways to use it properly. I want to play a bit. All that fiddling takes time.

First I've got one of those weekends where I've got stuff planned for every day. There's hockey tonight, a wrestling show for tomorrow and the Midwest Gaming Classic on Sunday. I should get a story or two out of all that, hmm?

A Few Thoughts on Comics from This Week

Dark Avengers #3 gets first billing this week. Much of the issue is Norman Osborn talking to the Sentry. "You know what," Norman more-or-less says, "you might be crazy, but you're not the only one in this room that is. Me am too." The scene goes on for pages, makes sense, finally makes the Sentry make sense to me, and accomplishes a lot. The rest of the book is good as well. Bendis' dialogue sounds real here for a change as opposed to the clipped, snappy 'real' he sometimes uses. The book may not have a long-term future but it's existence is worth it just for this issue.

Amazing Spider-Girl #30 is sadly the last issue of the regular series. It goes out with a bang, wrapping up the big storyline and setting the characters up for their briefer appearances to come in Spider-Man Family. It was a good book. I shall miss it.

Ultimatum #3 is a bit of a breather of sorts. This big, blockbuster, changing everything event is indeed changing things, in ways that would be less likely to occur in the 'mainstream' Marvel universe. This specific issue has a lot going on in it and yet feels like a breather at the same time. The characters involved are starting to get a moment, to regroup, and the issue ends with a 'let's go get him' moment. We get some confirmations of deaths, some craziness, some heroics, and some more deaths. Oddly enough, I don't mind Jeph Loeb here like I do on some other books. We're not getting the identity of Red Hulk until next year? Boo. Here, Jeph can do what he wants. It's working for me.

Night of the Living Dead - New York has the best art for one of these NotLD spin-offs yet. Story is suitably dark. What's it like being in a major city at the beginning of a major ghoul outbreak? The answer is 'not good'.

Tales of the TMNT #56 also had some really good art in it. The story brings the Han character from the most recent cartoon series into the Mirage universe, explaining his history with Casey Jones. Good stuff.

Issues #5 and #6 of Vincent Price Presents both came out this week. This is the only book I get from Bluewater Comics and, despite Vinnie 'hosting' it, it's been very lackluster so far. These two issues have redeemed the book a bit in my eyes. The story in #5 was calm but very interesting. I didn't care much for the weirdly painted style of the art at first but it grew on me and suited the story. The story is #6 was okay but the art was less so. A brief back-up story held my interest with the best art I've seen from Bluewater to date. The story was more of a prologue than anything else so I shan't judge it.

Amazing Spider-Man #588 and Amazing Spider-Man Extra #3 were both good as well, wrapping up a number of different storylines while prepping some new ones. I still don't like the story that got us here, but I do really enjoy the stories I'm getting.

There were a couple other books, but these triggered me to write.

Puzzlement

Of late, I've been dreaming a lot about almost being out of work, being in the last few days of a job. This is odd. I experienced that and those days were... uncomfortable. You'd think if I wanted to flash back to something positive, I'd flash back to the early days of my unemployment when the days were warm, the severance fattening my wallet, and baseball was there to be attended.

If I missed my job, why wouldn't I just dream about being at work? Seems odd to me.

Oy

The only thing more tiring than doing your own work is helping someone else do their work. I'm beat and my back hurts.

On the plus side, I'm writing this on my laptop via the wireless running in the house now.

Which is nice.

Fiddling and Thinking and Looking and Cleaning

I moved some equipment around and got my old iMac set up in a new area. It still runs. I started looking for a picture file and it turned out that it wasn't on the hard drive. Bother. I started going through old floppy disks to find it.

There's a thankless task.

Most of them will read but can't see all the files on the disk. I've been tossing whatever reads onto the hard drive for movement onto my newer computer systems for backup. I've gotten all too used to hearing the whirring click that indicates the disk won't read. Annoying.

I did find the file I was looking for so it wasn't completely worthless.

I do have better things to be doing. I think I'm writing something in the back of my head as I do this. This happens a lot; subconsciously working on something while I tinker with something else.

I wonder if my even older Performa will still boot up?

DRUMS! DRUMS!

If we could go back and ask seven year old Me what he wants to be when he grows up, the answer would be either 'baseball player' or 'drummer'. The reasons aren't complicated to understand. Playing baseball is fun. Animal on the Muppet Show is awesome. Done.

Apart from occasionally whistling, I have no discernible musical skills. I've had the opportunity to fiddle around with instruments in the past but I had no real clue what I was doing at the time. It always looks so easy so I never understood why I couldn't at least get some sort of rhythm from my head to the bass guitar or drum or what have you. I didn't expect to pick it up and rattle off a song, just two sounds together that seemed like they went together.

When I first started playing Guitar Hero my respect for people that play guitar for real increased. I know that playing the game and playing guitar are really nothing alike but I figure that if medium on the game kicks my butt, then real guitar playing is probably even more complicated. I huzzahed the true guitar heroes with all due respect.

I got to play drums on Guitar Hero World Tour last night. The same huzzah goes to the true drum heroes. My buddy has some real drum playing experience and the game frustrated him a bit. I got the hang of it a little. Considering it was my first day, I felt good about what I managed to do.

Maybe I can be a fake drum god, in the living room anyway.