Life and Times

Alright.
I have no sketch or anything for you today. Sorry about that. There should be a new NGV5 up tomorrow, so you'll have that.
I had a lovely three-day weekend. During the traditional celebrations, we decorated our Presidents Day tree with Boston tea bags and little fake copies of historical documents, with a light up star/capital dome at the top. Jenn wore leggings a powdered wig, and Jackson a top hat. We dressed up one of our small dogs as John Wilkes Booth, and let her chase Jack around for a bit, holding a dainty plastic derringer in her mouth. I decided that this year, I would dress a Teddy Roosevelt, and dug out my old circular wire framed glasses, and put on a false mustache. I then went into the woods behind out house and killed the first living thing I saw, which happened to be a tick. I was glad for that, as I don't own any guns, and would have had to beat a larger animal to death with just my bare fists and a heap of moxy.
President's Day also ushered in some mild weather that me and the fam took full advantage of, as we have not been able to play outside in weeks. Our pasty white skin turned red in a matter of minutes during the trip to the park. A few hundred trips down the slide were exactly what Jackson needed to get the heebie-jeebies out of his pants.
Um... Not much else going on. I have a birthday coming up on Sunday. I'll be 32, or freezing, were I water based. I suppose I am , really, but the carbon 14 is keeping me solid. We will be in Tulsey Town Saturday night, so if you want to help me celebrate, get in touch.

That is all.

Happy Heart day.

I have to say that I like this holiday. I like making valentines and being all arty. Even when I was single, I liked this holiday. I always saw it as full of potential rather than a day to mope and listen to The Cure (though if you choose this path, grasshopper, you will find that The Cure has a surprisingly large amount of love songs, and you will just dig that hole deeper).
Yet another holiday that the Roman Catholic Church used to distract people from, and dissuade them from celebrating a pagan holiday, in this case, Lupercalia.
Lupercalia was celebrated in ancient Rome:

"At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy."

In this case, I fully support the change. I only know a few people who would like to be smacked with a "shaggy thong" by a naked rich kid. However, as Hallmark has bastardized this holiday for financial profit, I can see why some have labeled it "singles awareness day".
I remember, back in grade school, when we all gave out little pre-printed cards en masse to every person, male or female in our class. Dropping them into the paper lunch sacks that we spent the previous afternoon decorating, and then carefully taped them to the side of our desks. One year, I got one from the resident hotty of the fifth grade, that was signed "love, Rachel". This was a big deal back then, as grade schoolers rarely shared such deep feelings, and I set that one aside, because it was special, and I had convinced myself that I apparently had a shot with this girl, who every boy (and maybe even one of the girls), had a crush of sorts on. On the way home, while walking along with a few of my buddies, one of them produced an identical card with an identical signature. He was convinced that he had a shot with this girl, because of her emotional outpouring of two words. Then I pulled mine out, and then the third kid pulled his out, and we quickly realized that she had signed each card the same way. All three of us had assumed that our card was unique, and each of us had had the same feeling of requited affection for an entire afternoon, and I bet every boy(and that one girl) in that class felt the same way. I still kept that card for a while after than, just in case.

-JP

SB 21 - I wish I were Yuri-G

I was listening to PJ Harvey, and decided to draw a pic of Yuri Gagarin. I haven't done a ball-point pen picture in a while anyway. I don't know if Gagarin is the Yuri G mentioned in the song of the same name, but the song mentions the moon a lot, and even though Gagarin never went to the moon, he was the first human in space, and was closer than anybody had been before. The song seems to mention a voodoo doll as well. I don't know what peej is on about most of the time, but she makes good music and is so delectably weird that I can't help but like her. So, um, yeah.
Well, Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay Boston 2 million dollars. 1 mil to cover the cost of dealing with the "mooninite scare" and 1 mil as a good faith money. The sad thing is that the two guys who put up the LED boxes are still facing charges of terrorism. Stupid. It seems like the most they could reasonably throw at them would be a vandalism charge, which would only apply to the ones not placed on private property, so they should really just drop it. They won't though. I can foresee it.
Last week, Jen was in Vegas having an awesome time celebrating Robin's birthday and playing craps and doing all the fun stuff Vegas has to offer. Well, hopefully not all the stuff, like going to whore houses. She had a good time, and she wishes me to extend a thank you to all those who made it possible.
Her being in the desert meant that I had the boy all to myself for a whole week. I loved it. I loved being that responsible. I loved picking out his outfits and packing his little lunch and taking him to school. We got to do what ever we wanted in the evenings, and we played hard so I could wear him out so he would fall asleep easier. I was very glad to have Jen back, though. I had fun, but I couldn't keep that up on my own for very long.
Not much else going on. We are excited to see Cookie's photography show in Enid, and hope to go there this weekend. I fully plan on buying something. Maybe the one of my kid that I hear is in there.
That is all.

-JP

Mooninite Panic

weenies.

I gotta say something about this, and the panic storm that has risen around it. This is an example of how much the media is screwed up. No, That's not correct. This is an example of how people use the media to retarded ends. I think the on the ground reporters are fine for the most part, they just report what they see. But in this situation, the anchors at the 24hour news channel are the ones who have turned this into a circus. They are the ones that blew this thing out of proportion by naming this thing a Terrorist Hoax, which it is not. It is an advertising campaign. A grass roots, guerrilla ad campaign that was actually pretty ingenuous. Just because somebody who grew up in the '70s and had some kind of Lite Brite trauma as a child took it the wrong way and overreacted, doesn't mean that the idea behind it was anything malicious. Now all these freaky-deaks are rattling their cages and saying that they want to put these guys in prison because some idiot was scared of a cartoon character.
You can actually see the progression into the downward spiral. These guys put these things up, somebody complains, some cop checks it out, and he calls the bomb squad just to be safe. People get word that the bomb squad is taking these things down, and it gets on the news. People who have noticed these things around town start to freak out, and call the cops. The news coverage continues, and the whole city gets shut down while they sort it out. Now once they figure out that the whole thing is basically a bunch of Etch-a-Sketches taped to phone poles, the cops and the bomb squad and the media types get embarrassed at their own stupidity and they get angry at the two little hiptser hippies that made them look bad. This couldn't be their own idiocy, right? Must be a fucking Terrorist Hoax! String 'em up!
This is the world that GWB has created. People are so concerned with terrorists, yet they cant tell one from a cartoon. This is what Wil Wheaton had to say:

"This is the result of politicians and the media creating and then exploiting a culture of fear in America.
Politicians use it to grab power and silence dissent, and the media use it to drive up ratings.
In either case, it's sickening exploitation." (more)

I do have to say that I love the reaction of the perps during their press release:




These guys get it. They realize what a fucking joke this whole situation is. I hope they keep talking about Mod haircuts throughout their whole trial. Better yet, I hope the Judge throws the case out, and chastises the prosecutor and the Media talking heads for wasting everybody's time.





-JP

I love this man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af1OxkFOK18

SB 20 Robot 3

Here is an unfinished robot. You like? Yeah, he's okay.

So Jen is off to Vegas next week, and I have the house and the boy all to myself, and a babysitter, and maybe Jen's dad at some point. That will be fun after not seeing him for four days while in D-Town. Jen will have fun, and win us enough money to buy a pony.

Not much to report. A boring week, other than getting the now Flash at work, and messing about with that. It does many neat-o things. I'm having a good time with it.

Seriously, all I have for you is a silly robot.

-JP

SB 19 - Squid

Well, I haven't posted a Sketchbook in a while, so here you go. It is a squid. I didn't have much to work on today so I drew a squid. And there you have it.

So I'm back from Denver. I finally got my driveway free of ice yesterday after much scraping with a nasty looking scraper thingy, and now we're supposed to get dumped on again. Another 6-10 inches heading our way. To tell the truth, I am relieved. Other than my lack of an actual snow shovel, I have no reservations about the coming storm. I could use a weekend in, after the holidays and the cruise and the Denver. I caught a cold in the three days since I've been back as well, so I could use the rest. Next weekend, Jen goes off on her own trip, so the boy and I will be batchin' it. That will be fun. Sometimes I really like having him all to myself.

The big news in Stilly is that the new, up-to-date Wal-Mart opened today. Whoopty-fuckin'-do. It is a lot closer to my house, but my bank is still in the other one, so good and bad I guess. I hate that I have to shop there, but they don't give much choice. Albertson's is hella expensive, and the IGA is a friggin' joke. Stupid Wal-Mart.

Not much else going on. I miss my Denver friends, but I am glad to be home. If any of you in Denver can get me a really good paying job, so we could all come back, go ahead and do so. You have my number.

-JP

Denvah in '07!

Oh.

My.

Gawd.

Did we have a good time. (click me)

We set forth on a chilly Thursday evening that was going to get way chillier. Like chilling out with the children of Chile while eating a chili-dog with green chili and a bev from the chiller while watching a chilly-willy cartoon, awaiting the start of The Big Chill. Cody and I did not care. We were on a mission. And we were in a heated, 4WD truck with some good music. Cody is good company. The road trip is a good test of friendship. If you don't want to jab an ice-pick into someone's eye after hours and hours trapped in a tin can with them, then you never will.*
We did well, with Arctic Monkeys and Eddie Izzard, and peeing on a gas station in the freezing cold keeping us awake. That is until about 4:00 am, when we both started to crash. But like that famous line from the Gambler, we were both too tired to sleep.
We made it to the Breakfast King and all was well. The King has changed a bit. The smoking ban has forced a bunch of dives and greasy-spoons to smarten up a bit in order to appeal to those who would otherwise not want to fight thick grey fog for a plate of biscuits covered in thick grey sauce. No yellow windows with my fluorescent yellow eggs, please. It also means that your clothes don't stink after a night at the bar.
A visit to Cain at the Pablo's to get some keys and we got settled into my mom's mostly empty condo, feeling a bit like squatters. At least I did. I was on a mat on the floor, whereas Cody had a King-sized bed. It may not have hit him as hard. Funny thing is that I got to sleep right away on my little mat, and Cody fussy-butted around in his king-sized pile of cousin's until he gave up and went to the mall.
I met up with him a bit later for sammies and coffee and shuffleboard and Newcastle. Then we tried to take naps, but I couldn't sleep this time. Cody had a craving for a Gabor's hamburger, so off we went. People slowly trickled in, and we chatted and drank and ate. I took off for a bit to visit with Amy, and while at The Thin Man, Eric the owner bought me a beer. This was a bit weird. I've seen him charge his own mother. Off to Sputnik, and a fantaboulous time. This was a great night. I met a lot of really cool people and had a lot of fun in the photo booth (see above). We closed the place down, and went home to sleep it off.
Saturday we slept in. After a kick ass if way too expensive breakfast buritto from watercourse, Cody went off to visit his sister, and I tooled around town with Aaron and Jeremy until it was time to hit LeCentral with my mom. I saw the new Tattered Cover, the new Twist and Shout, and some galleries and toy stores along Broadway. It was cold and icy. I bought a little toy from a very cute girl. LeCentral was delicious. I had beef tips on a bed of pasta and the French onion soup that has an inch of provalone on top. Yummy. We called the whole world and told them to meet us at the condo.
Then the real fun started. See, in the condo, you need a phone to buzz in somebody from the lobby. Being squatters, we had no phone. But I remembered that if you have a TV hooked into the antenna for the building, you get a channel that shows all of the security cameras. At first, we were just watching to see when someone showed up so we could go down and let them in. Each time somebody got there, we would make them do something goofy, not knowing that the rest of the group was upstairs watching. We speculated on what would be amusing to see on a camera pointed at a lobby, like putting Jeremy in there in a recliner with a reading lamp, or Cain spilling a box of baby chicks. Once everybody got there, we spent a while doing other weird things, like little plays, pretending to strip, or a hockey fight that spanned two floors. Then Cain put a dollar in the lobby to see if anybody would grab it. After a while we thought it would be fun to put a sign by the elevators, telling them to put it back. This we did to hilarious results. After two people came through the garage instead of the front door, and with a large group of malcontents getting steadily more drunk while staring at a bunch of security camera images with growing anticipation, we hit pay dirt. A young couple came into the lobby. The man noticed the dollar, picked it up, and did that thing where you hold it with two hands in front of someone and sort of snap it like "look what I got". She nodded in that unimpressed way every girl nods, as if to say "great," but not really mean it. As they round the corner, they see the sign. They look at each other and look back at the floor where the dollar used to be, and to our complete astonishment, the guy fishes the dollar out of his pocket and puts the fucker back! Then he peels the tapped up sign we put on the wall, and re-tapes it to the floor by the dollar. Then he and the girl, giggling, enter the elevator and go out of sight. Hoo Boy did we have a good laugh at that one. A while later, another guy, who's honesty really amazed us, picked up the dollar, and left it on the coffee table ling before he ever saw the sign. When he did see it, he went back and put the dollar back on the floor. By that point, it was late, and fewer people were coming in, so we decided to go to Streets of London Pub, where we spent the rest of the night throwing darts(not always at the dartboard), giving each other fake knuckle tattoos, drinking whiskey, and generally having a great time. We went our separate ways, Cody and I got some Taco Bell, and watched the last part of a weird as fuck animated movie about giant fish-faced people oppressing tiny humans, and the first part of a Hercules movie before crashing out.
Sunday I had lunch with my Dad, ironically just 45 minutes after I woke up. I spent the later part of the afternoon with my mom, having coffee at the shop, and then we all decided we wanted Indian food, so we went to Lisa's house. We drew on the wall, and listened to Cody play the guitar, and soon realized that not only was there no Indian food in her house, there was no Indian food in out bellies either, so we went to an Indian restaurant. Called India's. The mightiest vindaloo in the land, I tell you. I needed Lager**. I was informed that not only did Cody once piss off the lead singer of Live for no reason, but the movie we saw was called "Fantastic Planet" and was the product of a Czeck and French team-up intended to freak out really inebriated people in the future. We headed back to Sputnik, and met even more cool people, and had an awesome time. I had a few too many whiskeys, which was fun because I was a lot more mellow after having vodka redbulls the previous two nights. Cody and I had a wonderful conversation with Vanya and Katie, that I don't remember much of. After being forcibly defenestrated at about 2:30, we went home and slept the sleep of the dead.
Monday we packed up and headed home. All we did on the way back was text all the people we just saw, talk about how wonderful the weekend was, and how much I wanted to get home to see my wife and kid. We made it back despite a massive series of snow and ice storms that made the whole state look as though it had been covered in vanilla icing.
Today I went to work. Yes, the fuckers made me go to work.

I can't even begin to explain how much fun I had. Thank you to all who made it so. Despite all that, I was Jonesing to see my family. As much as I love you all, I love them more. I am happy to be home with them, though missing all of you. I feel so torn.



*maybe
**The only thing that will kill a vindaloo.

So we went on a Cruise...

It was relaxing in that whatever we wanted was right there, the food, shows, the bar, the swimming pool, all right there, and we didn't have to pack up a bunch of crap or find a babysitter or anything, we just went upstairs. So that was cool. It was exactly like being trapped in a LasVegas Hotel. Sure there is plenty to do, play the slots, go to the buffet, see a musical... But you can't leave. You have to stay put and give your money to them.
It rained on us from when we got to Galveston the night before until a well into the Cruise.
We had a fun night in the Super 8, frequenting the Waffle House out front a little too much.
We packed the whole family into 2 cabs, and headed for the pier, which looked like a really run down bus terminal made for giants back in the time of talking animals. We stood in line for a while, then got on the massive ship, which was made in the late '80s and the decor has never been updated. A lot of neon and busy carpet patterns. The halls are lined with plastic New York New York sky-line buildings that shimmer in Black and green and gold. If you have epilepsy, I caution you to not take a cruise on this boat. We spent the first night and part of the morning hiding from the rain and trying to keep our food down, as the swells knocked us around a little.
After that, the sun came out, and the upper deck was soon flooded with an enormous amount of scantily-clad Americans of all ages and weight classes.
We all spent most of our time in the restaurants. Not like we ate continuously (I actually lost weight), but there were 13 of us and we tended to linger. We took Jack swimming, and to a kid's dance party, and saw some shows, and Jen and I got some awesome spa treatment massages. Mostly we just sat on the deck and chatted with the fam. Jackson was a hit with just about everybody, because he's super-cute. We got a lot of compliments.
All the meals were included, but none of the drinks were. Any soda or alcohol we had to pay for, and they were not cheap. I think I spent most of my time drinking the fruit punch from the kid's buffet. You could buy stuff from the duty free shop, but after you buy something, they kindly wrap it up, and tell you where you can pick it up once the cruise is over. Bastards. You could get this drink card worth unlimited sodas for like $25.00, so we got one and smudged out the name enough so a bunch of us could use it if we were crafty. Tim and Lonny both brought Whiskey in their luggage, so we mixed that with our ill gotten Mr.Pibbs. Fuck the man!
Cozumel was really cool, but we were only docked from 8 till 5, and two hours. Either side of that was spent ferrying people from the ship to the island because a hurricane knocked out the pier last year, and they aren't too busy fixing it. So really we only had 4 or 5 hours on shore, which wasn't enough to see the whole island. We ended up renting a van, dropping off the girls at the plaza to do some shopping(after I got us lost and we ended up in the ghetto), while Tim, Lonny and I went to see the Mayan ruins. The ruins were neat, but small, and I hear the ones on the mainland are a lot bigger and more impressive. I'll hit those next time.
We were originally going to rent some scooters, but I'm actually glad we didn't. Cosumel is the scooter wreck capital of Mexico, and I now know why. Scooters are everywhere, and they don't give a shit. At one point we saw a woman driving with her 4 year old standing on the running boards, while the 8 year old sat behind her carrying a large cardboard box, just whipping in and out of traffic. We saw one scooter that had 5 people on it, mostly kids.
I had to buy some diapers for Jack in Mexico, and let me tell you, those things were sub-par. They held very little even though they came up to his nipples.
So after getting on the very last ferry back, we did the whole boat thing back to America.
We were barely looked at during customs, but the airport security was awful. They took away a bunch of our stuff, including a small bottle of Mexican Vanilla Jen had bought that I had mistakenly put in the carry-on, and were complete dicks about it. Due to some bad scheduling, we had to sit in the airport for a few hours, and that didn't impress Jack one little bit. He got pretty cranky, and told us so by smashing cheese crackers into Jen's purse. Once on the plane, though, he passed out, and slept the whole way home.
We all had a good time, there were few family clashes, it was relaxing. But I was very happy to be home, as was Jackson. He was way off his schedule, and it was starting to wear on him. When we finally got home, he started laughing hysterically while getting all of his toys out of the bin. He slept for 14 hours.
Now, after Jen spent the last two days doing a shit-ton of laundry, and we hurriedly celebrated her birthday, I am off to Denver with Cody tonight. We were going to leave on Friday, but since there is yet another giant snow storm heading there that will hit Friday afternoon, we thought it best to drive all night rather than get stuck somewhere in Eastern Kansas.

See you when I get there.

2006 year in review

Everybody seemed to love this last year, so I'll do it again.
In 2006, I:

(in no particular order)
-Was relieved that a good portion of the country came to their senses and realized that allowing any one political party do whatever they want is a bad idea.
-Switched from a mac to a PC. (there are very valid reasons)
-Downloaded more music and movies than I bought.
-Saw Jack turn one.
-Welcomed home my brother-in-law, safe and sound, from Iraq.
-Watched my son grow from a baby to a boy.
-bought a car, sold a car, couldn't afford that car, sold that car, bought a $300 car.
-Visited DC and met a bunch of politicians. (I had more fun meeting Ann's family)
-Really got crackin on my comic website.
-Got one comic published in a mag and one posted on a website that wasn't mine.
-Really got crackin' on comics and art.
-Worked on my house a lot. It is finally starting to feel like our house, and not one that we are house-sitting.
-Got so comfy in my job, that I think I can do something more now.
-Realized that I am a better parent than I thought I was.
-Realized that Jen is a way better parent than me.
-Drank a lot of coffee.
-Was excited at the news that Jack will have a new cousin to play with in the coming year.
-Didn't loose the weight I wanted to loose, but didn't gain any either.
-Never did get a decent haircut.
-Made it through the most God-awful fuckhot summer ever. If that shit happens again this year, I'm moving back to Denver. I can deal with cold. And they never give you a day off because it's too hot.
-Watched a crack in the foundation of my house inch upward in pace with all the fuckhot. As soon as it started raining, the crack stopped.
-Was visited by many a friend and family, which was surprising, because Oklahoma isn't on most people's "gotta visit before I die" lists.
-Went to a fabulous wedding for two people who honestly care about each other, and got to be a groomsman, which was a distinct honor.
-I made a friend. One of the best ever. He drives a lot to see us, and that makes him cooler.
-Turned 31, but I got to throw a really cool party for Jen's 30th. Robin helped. I'm lying. Robin did most of it.
-Taught myself Flash. It's actually fairly easy, if time-consuming.
-Did lots of sketches. More than usual.
-Realized that the 3 hours I spend with Jack in the evening after work and before he goes to bed isn't enough.
-Was mostly disappointed with all the over-hyped summer movies I was looking forward to. The pirate movie was the only one that really delivered.
-Was really happy that the new crop of nerdy shows on TV were so good. Heroes, Doctor Who, Torchwood... All awesome.
-Was amazed to see a great many people move out of Denver, my brother and his wife included. There are still many reasons to return, but they get fewer every year.
-I now have a good reason to visit Portland.
-Realized how a good family support system really helps out when one has a kid. Those guys are super!
-Realized that Jeremy is really good with kids. (keep that in mind, ladies.)
-Noticed that Thom Yorke doesn't "have it" anymore.
-Got into some new bands. There is good music out there, you just have to dig.
-Saw several friend's bands got fairly popular, proving that it does not have to be a "young man's game" to break into music.
-Didn't visit nearly enough people.
-Saw Jack start pre-school, start using words and sign language, have a really awesome Christmas, figure out how the use the vacuum, and generally watched him grow up a little. He's exceedingly smart and slightly impish. He'll be a maniacal genius. I'll have to keep my guard up.
-Realized that Jen deserves a medal for what she does. Working and being a mommy has at times run her thin, but has strengthened her resolve and character to degrees she is completely unaware of. She is tougher, more resilient, more loving and sweeter every day. I'm so glad I married her.
-I think I really became an adult this year. Having a kid really skews one's perspective if they do it right. We had a few financial bumps here and there, and the fact that my kid and my wife came before everything without me even thinking about it or even realizing it was a bit of an eye-opener. I see a bunch of people who were never ready to be parents or never will be, who try to cling desperately to their old lives instead of embracing their new one, or who look at kids as a burden and not a blessing, and I want to smack them. Not that people's lives need to stop, far from it. It just needs some skewing. I don't want to tell anybody how to live but when a plasma TV is more important that putting food on the table, you got some thinking to do. (I'm pointing at you, crazy couple in wal-mart the other day)

2006 was fun. We will miss James Brown, Jack Palance, Dave Cockrum, Gene Pitney, and all the others, including troops, who died. We will have fond memories of the good, that hopefully outweighed the bad.

2007 is set to be another fun one. I have a few secret and evil plans, but I'll keep those to myself. I do intend to make a road trip to see Jeff, and to move my comics to a real website, but those are "at my leisure" tasks. Jack will turn 2, I'll turn 32. (or freezing if I was Celsius)
Grace will have her kid, and the fam will grow. Congress may or may not get anything done, but let's hope they do. Maybe then the stupid polarity of the nation will ease a bit, and the power-hungry folks at the top won't be able to gorge themselves on our liberties as often. I have a few more rooms to paint, I have to get a new garage door, get my foundation fixed, have the transmission on the truck looked at, and we need to find Jen a better car. We need to pay down some more debt, but last year we got rid of a good chunk, and if we stick to our guns, we should be sitting pretty by this time next year. I'll have to teach Jack to pee standing up. I'll try harder to loose the 20 lbs I still need to. I'll try to get a decent haircut. I have a few art projects to tackle, and some prints to frame, and a stack of books to read. I have a kid to look after, and wife to help to not go crazy. It should be a blast!

Pics of the litter

Christmas pics here.

Catch up!

Well, we have a lot to cover. First off, there are some pics of Jeremy's trip here.
Second, we had an awesome Christmas! With the exception of a short jaunt to OKC for a small family thing, my plan to not go anywhere, and make everybody else do the driving this year worked just as I had planned!
We spent a good time at Grace and Lonny's house, where she had a big announcement, and Jack got a set of Jack-sized cleaning products (vacuum, mop, broom) that he was EXTREMELY excited about. He loves to help us with chores, and he flipped out when he saw them.
Sunday, Jen and I made a big batch of snacky food consisting of a shitload of sweets and things that can be dipped or scooped into other things. We munched on all of that all night in lieu of an actual meal. We stayed up late, played video games and watched movies and had an all around good time. Monday, we all woke up about the same time Jackson did. He didn't have the full understanding of what the day meant for him and his playtime activities, but he got up early nonetheless. When we dug into the pile, Jack made out like a bandit, and his favs were a toy coffee pot, that we got him so he would leave mine alone,* and a the trikie, as evidenced above. The rest of us had a good haul as well.
The rest of the day was spent being very lazy, eating food, and playing with all of our toys.

Today I had to back to work. :(

slacker week

So I don't have many projects, and my company had to have everything sealed up for Christmas a few weeks ago, so we are down to slacking and having holiday parties and things like that. The staff is dwindling as they leave to visit their families anyway. Today we had out secret Santa thing and a little raffle thing, and I got some cool stuff. So that's cool.
Turner got off okay, with just a massive delay with his connecting flight in phoenix. I guess they have a huge blizzard right now. Good thing to come home to when you live in Denver. Makes it feel like home.
Jack just got done getting pics with Santa, and from what Jen tells me, he wasn't a big fan. He wasn't scared or anything, just didn't want to sit in his lap too much. I remember my brother going nuts come Santa time, and I think we only did it for a few years. This is corroborated by the distinct lack of photos depicting either my brother or me with Santa. I don't seem to have missed it much.
My cards are not done, and my gifts are not mailed because I'm a total slacker. I'm hoping to get that done today, and everything will be late, so don't expect much.
I tried not to go overboard with Jack's presents because he has grandparents and will be very well taken care of.
I am finally over the horrible stomach virus that I got on Sunday night. Yay. I didn't eat for two days and dropped 5 pounds. I slept 12 hours Monday night. I woke up hungry, and took that as a good sign. Thankfully there was a pot-luck at work. I brought pop-tarts and a toaster. Un-thankfully* Jen now has the stomach thing. I think this may be what Jack had when he was throwing up and not eating for a while. Mystery solved!
Having kids mean you get sick a lot more than you used to.

weekend of fun

we are having a great time. Turner have been here since Wednesday. Lats night he and Cookie made home made green chili that was the best I have ever had. Then after Jen's sister and her husband came over, we all drank beer and wine and sat around the chimenea and played video games into the wee hours of the morning. Right now we are eating cinamon rolls and watching the discovery channel and nursing hangovers.

The X-mas

Christmas is creeping up! 10 days left. If you don't receive a card or something, well, it's because we have an 18 month old and a house guest right now.
Speaking of: Turner made us the most awesome dinner last night, because I won his contest. It had pasta and chicken and a cream sauce and asparagus and a bunch of other stuff and we ate till we wanted to pop it was so good. Then an hour later, we gorged ourselves on ice cream. Turner ate three bowls I think. Maybe more. We drank a bunch of beer and watched a movie, part of a dog show, and then some documentary on discovery about puppies. It was doggy night I guess.
This saturday, there will be a party in his honor. You should come, it will be fun.
Jackson seems to be over his bout of barfing, and is not only feeling better, but has decided to sleep through the night two nights in a row. This has NEVER happened, and getting all that sleep is a weird feeling at this point. My chemical dependencies are much more noticeable. All that coffee in the morning used to just keep me functional, but now I'm actually a bit jittery. All bleary-eyed and happy. It's like an old friend I haven't seen in years. I welcome his return. Jack LOVES Turner BTW. He follows him around, and wants to be picked up by him all the time, but it think that's because Turner is like eight feet tall, and Jack likes to see everything. They cuddled on the couch for a while last night, and Jack usually saves that for really close family members, so that's cool. So remember that, ladies: Turner is good with kids!
What else? The new HP trailer is up, and though I now a crazy huge fan or anything, I do like these movies. The thing that struck me in the trailer is that I didn't realize how much I hated the haircuts in the last movie until I saw that all the characters get shorn in this one. Although if that's the main thing I took from the last movie then they must have had some major storytelling issues.
So that's it.

The sun will come out.

Tomorrow the Turner man comes to town. Excited I am.
enough of that.

So yesterday, on the way back from school about 1:00pm, Jackson had his first big boy barf all over the car. We got everything cleaned up, hosed off the carseat, washed all of the padding, and let everything dry out in the sun. He seemed okay after that. After I got home from work, we needed to go to the store, so we put everything back together, all the padding back on, put the carseat back in, and he barfed all over it as soon as we pulled into the store's parking lot. So we used up all of our wipes, and almost had to run in to get more. Luckily, most of it landed on his hoodie, so it wasn't near as bad. He's still a bit oogy. He should feel better today, I hope.
Jen stole my phone on accident. And she's out of town tonight, so don't call me.

The Turner of the screws

So next week, Mr. Turner will be visiting, and I am very excited. For all his neurosis, he is a good and honest man. He became one of the best friends I have ever known within hours of meeting him(those hours spent at Streets of London Pub). I knew him before he had flames. I trusted him so much when we met, that I didn't have a problem with him moving in with Jen, him being an ex-boyfriend and all. For a whole year, and especially during the build-out for Pablo's,we played NHL HITZ and watched Blind Date or Conan every single night. We kept Gabor's in the black. And now he is coming for a visit. We are going to throw him a party, we like him so much. So come to our house on the eve of the 16th to wish him well, and help get him drunk. He will regale you with yarns of a tattooed goth existence.
In other news:
1)I need a new drafting table. If you have one, kindly set it on my porch.
2)Jackson's back teeth have turned out to be complete assholes. Nobody likes them. They keep Jack up at night, which keeps mommy and daddy up at night. Which makes mommy and daddy cranky and destroys their immune systems. In addition, it keeps daddy completely chemical dependent to appear human.
3)A happy birthday should have gone out yesterday to Tom Waits.
4)Happy birthdays go out today to my Dad, Joey, and Kyle.
5)Happy birthday goes out to Heather O tomorrow.
6)Yoko can go fuck herself.

Snow Day!

So as many of you anywhere in the Midwest know, we got a hella snow storm last week. It was a full on blizzard with only fifty yards or so of visibility. Since I now live in an area that doesn't see this very often (compared to Denver), everybody freaked out. And nobody knows how to drive in it. Like how turning you lights on would be rule #1. I went in late on Thursday, and ten inches later they sent us home and told us not to bother coming in on Friday. Woo and then Hoo. Three and a half day weekend!!
We spent Thursday night staring out the window. Friday I shoveled the driveway for the first time in the four years I have lived here. Then we got all bundled up and took Jack out to play in the snow.

He did NOT enjoy it. --->

The snow was way too high for him, and he couldn't move in it.
He did have some fun splashing in the slush. He spent most of the time in the garage bawling.

Saturday we had a little pre-emptive Christmas party at our house with Jen's dad's side of the fam, though Jen's dad didn't show up. We had a really good time. Jack got a book. We had a shit-ton of food and some really good coffee. After that we just hung about the house. I watched The Island. It was pretty, but stupid. Just like a few of the girls I dated after high school. Sunday we went to the city and did some shopping with Jen's sister and her husband, ending the weekend by stuffing our faces with Mexican food. Last night Jack decided that three AM was breakfast time and I am really sleepy.
We have little going on at work, so I've been watching the whole of Red Dwarf on my computer. I love bittorrent.

That is all.

This man taught me how to draw.

Dave Cockrum died on Monday. This is particularly sad for me because as the title states, Cockrum taught me how to draw.

X-men was one of the first comics I really got into that wasn't of the 'kiddie' variety. It was also the first one that I knew all about, as in I knew the history of the characters and followed it the closest until it got too ridiculous, or I grew out of it. I don't remember which. Cockrum was my all time favorite X-Men artist, and his creation, Nightcrawler, was my all-time favorite X-Man character(followed closely by Longshot and Art Adams). Some time in the '80s, there was a four part mini series about Nightcrawler going to a parallel universes with Kitty's pet Dragon Lockheed. I read this series about a million times, and must have drawn and re-drawn every panel of every page. His art became the foundation for everything art related I have ever done since, no matter how hard Art School tried to beat it out of me.

He had a relatively short tenure with the X-Men, but his character and costume designs persist to this day. I followed his career pretty closely for a long time, and I remember that on the list for my hold slot at the Mile High Comics in Buckingham Square (slot 32. The lower the number, the cooler you were) I had written down "All Dave Cockrum".

He will be missed.

Any ethnic food will do.

Man. Holidays for latch-key kids, especially if they marry another latch key kid, involve a shit-ton of driving. This year wasn't so bad, but the whole mom's house in the morning, dad's in the evening, Denver for one holiday, Tulsa for the other, see these sets of people, then go across town to see the other.... Oh and if you are the first ones to offer up a grand-kid? Forget it. Even distant cousins want a piece of you.
So that being said, I have decided that now that I have my own house and my own kid and my own Christmas tree, the rest of you can piss off or drive to my house.
I racked up a lot of mileage in the last few decades, and now it's your turn. So come on down. I'll be the one sitting comfortably on the couch, half drunk by noon.

Okay. So despite all the driving, we had an awesome weekend. Thursday was spent in Enid America(the worst city in OK, according to many of it's own residents), At Jen's Aunt's house. There were stairs there which must have looked almost exactly like a jungle gym, because all Jack wanted to do was climb up and down them the whole day. He was also really into getting olives. Not to eat, but to squish, then feed to the dogs. There was lots of yummy food.
Friday I had to freakin' work, but I came in late, and left early. I spent the time in between decorating the internet marketing area for Christmas in the most obnoxious ways I could think of, eating the free pizza they provided for us, and watching downloaded movies on my computer. That'll show 'em! Then I drove to Tulsa, and helped prep for feast #2. We watched "the break-up", and although I generally like Vince Vaughn and I think Jennifer Aniston is a cutie despite myself, the movie was a let down.

Saturday was a giant pile of food with us having to eat our way through it. Lots of family and kids and running and yelling and then more food. After we watched Bedlam and had naps, Jen and I went on down to Arnie's for Larkin's CD release party. That was a blast. I love drunken Irish parties. I can't help but feel like I'm fulfilling the wishes of my forefathers. When Indian people participate in traditional dances and rituals, they must get the same feeling I get when I am in an Irish pub, with a Guinness, belting out drinking songs. It's a connection to your past.
Sunday was spent putting up Christmas decorations and getting the house ready for the holiday party we are throwing next week end.

I want Chinese food.

House (not MD)

We had a working weekend of sorts. Friday was spent not doing much of anything, and I think we went to bed early in another of our rockin' Friday night extravaganzas, involving me watching Doctor Who, and Jen Watching What Not To Wear. We may have put a load of laundry in after Jack went to bed. We're crazy like that.

Saturday, Jack went to the Grandparent's house to stay the night and to help in the yard as part of chore deal we have worked out.
Pictured is him in his favorite Elmo fleece hoodie, and his extremely small and therefore extremely cute Converse All-Stars.
His visit allowed us to paint the living room that we've neglected since we moved in. It is now a dark toupe color that really makes the fireplace pop, like you give a crap. I also reinforced the new shelves, and put the rest of my books on them. Our house is finally coming together like we want. Yay.
The real fun was Saturday night, when Cookie came over for dinner (we had Steak), and we actually were able to go to the bar. It was awesome fun to sit and drink Newcastles, ogle the college kids, yap endlessly, and watch drunks try to play pool. Frat kids, bikers, women of ill repute, and the best players were the Asian physics majors. They stay sober, and know all the angles.
Sunday, after realizing there was nothing resembling breakfast food in the kitchen, we went to iHOP for breakfast. Small town family restaurants are always a treat on Sunday mornings, and this one did not disappoint. Mixed in with the old people, hungover college kids, and church-goers were these two kids, about 15, who were right out of Rushmore. They were both dressed a little too nicely, and the one in the blue blazer was reading the paper and talking on his cell phone, while having a deep discussion with his friend about WWII. In response to these two old-before-their-time kids, Cody and I went and played video games the rest of the afternoon.

Cody is master of the X-Wing.

Shelves!

Finally!

Lookkit dem shelves!--->

We sold some of our old shelves in a garage sale over the summer, and gave the others to cousin Preston after we repainted the room, because the red stain didn't vibe with our new guacamole colored paint. So all our (read: my) stuff had been sitting on the floor ever since. We had been waiting for some extra cash to build new ones and never seemed to have a spare $200. That is until we found the brackets we wanted on sale for $2.50 each, and found some really cheap wood. The third and most important piece was Mr. Dopps. He came over on Sunday with a mad fat pile of tools, and helped me put them up. They look really awesome. Jen had an idea of what she wanted, that I turned into something much more elaborate and expensive in my head. When we got all the stuff together, the whole thing ended up being under $75. So that was even cooler. Jen smart.

Friday I spend a good deal of the night looking for cousin Ryan's dog Roscoe who ran off earlier that day. We looked and looked until about 10:00 when we got a call from his roomate stating that Roscoe had showed up on the back porch out of the blue, whining for some food and smelling like a rotten creek. Crisis solved, I went back home and crashed out watching Doctor Who on the Sci-fi channel. Saturday we cleaned the house, raked the leaves, washed and detailed the Xterra, put it up for sale on the corner, did laundry, and bought the lumber for the shelves. Oh, and played with the kid. A lot.

Monday and today were work days, and as work is kinda slow, I spent most of my time watching my new love(thanks again, Cody!): The Mighty Boosh. I love those guys. They have a talking Ape as a main character. They break into elaborate musical numbers at odd times. They had mod wolves. That's what sold me. I also will have a new NGV5 page up by tomorrow, if the stupid scanner at work is functional.

um... That's it.

I voted

And I couldn't be happier. Finally the country has realized that letting any person or party have absolute power is dumb, because being able to do whatever you want without impunity always leads to bad things. The "value voters" have realized that no one party has a legitimate or singular claim to morals. People realized that making a living wage is better for business. When people make more, they spend more. They have realized that they want a health care plan that doesn't pander to big pharmesutical companies. They have realized that they like clean air and a pleasant landscape, and that they don't really want Florida or Manhattan or London under water. They don't want their civil liberties trampled on any more. And finally, they have realized that they want peace in Iraq with a viable exit strategy, and that they want to know what that is.
I have to give Bush a teeny bit of credit for realizing this as well. At the press conference yesterday, in addition to seeming pretty peeved, more at the party and Rove than anybody else, he seemed pleasantly open to the fact that he was going to have to change how he does things. And starting with replacing Rumsfeld was the best first step we could have hoped for. Maybe now some civility will return to Capital Hill. Maybe now the politicians will return to the center, where all of their constituents are. Maybe now the arrogant posturing will leave one side, and some confidence will enter the other. I doubt it, but maybe. It will be really interesting to see how '08 goes, because you know that shit's gonna start really soon.
Yay for change!!

Go Vote!

If you don't, then the terrorists really win. What they hate most about America is our freedom, and voting is the very basis of that. Also, If the current people stay in charge, even though they spout freedom in every speech, they are slowly taking it all away. So go vote for whoever is not the incumbent, so we can get some new decision makers in there. If the Congress goes Democratic, I'm not sating everything will be gravy, but change is sorely needed at this point. Checks and balances have to be in effect for this system to work, and there aren't any right now.
Voting is not so much a right as a responsibility, and a civic duty.
Enough of that.



A stern boy-->

We helped Grace and Lonny move into their new house in the sub-urbs of OKC this weekend. We moved everything from their storage until that they have been living out of while staying with an aunt for the past few months, and they seemed relieved to have their stuff back in a home of their own. Nancy stayed at our house with the boy overnight Saturday(and took this pic), so we got to go out that night. We visited Derrek and Caroline, and had a lot of fun. I didn't drive, so I drank a little more than I should have. Chris told the story about the time he got shot in the leg during a dispute in a parking lot that he was not involved in. There is now a spot on his leg where no hail grows, to his dismay, but I reminded him that pain is fleeting, and chicks dig scars.

Yesterday, we did jack shit. The only time we left was to look at an old Volvo that we are thing of buying. Jack played in a bird feeder while I test drove it. The guy only wants $300, so I think we're gonna get it.

And now I am at work, wishing I wasn't.

halloweenies

Well, Saturday, we went to Jenn's parents' house to celebrate her dad's birthday. That was fun. lots of family and burgers and things. Norm took this pic, further solidifying that my kid is way cuter than yours. Just accept it.
We thought we might be able to go out that night to some Halloween stuff or maybe go see Larkin, but that didn't work out. We ended up coming home and falling asleep on the couch. Jenn during the new Hellboy cartoon, and me during the credits for The Grudge, a terribly disappointing horror movie, even though Ted Raimi and Clea DuVall were both in it. It was just a bunch of jump-out-of-the-closet crap involving human versions of manga characters.
Sunday was the really fun day. We did a bunch of Halloween stuff. We made cookies, carved pumpkins, and watched a bunch of cheesy horror on TV. Cody "snake"* Dopps came by to chat for a while, and that was awesome. It was nice to have a day to ourselves.

So here is a weird bit about how stupid local politics are: Before Oklahomans passed a measure allowing the lottery here, there were a bunch of opposition from the conservatives. Their point, keeping with their Reaganesque ideals that government should get off our backs**, was that gambling is bad. The pro side said that Oklahoma was behind the times and missing out on a great means of revenue which were previously going to border states. Since each state can decide on their own where that revenue is spent, and the OK public education system was in the shitter, that's where they decided to put the money should it pass. Projected estimates were in the $200 million range BEFORE operating costs, installation of machines, training, and the like. Also on the ballot that year was a new tobacco tax that was projected to draw in $100 million. They liked that one, because smoking is bad too.
So now, after the projected revenue on both were way below expectations ($59 mil from the lottery and $30 mil from the tobacco tax), the Republicans and conservatives are blaming Scott Meacham, the treasurer for the $211 mil "shortfall", and want him out of office for it.
Here is what I think is so stupid:
1) Conservatives think smoking and gambling is bad and that Oklahomans shouldn't do it. The shortfall proves that they aren't. Shouldn't they be happy about that?
2) $59 mil and $30 mill are both more than zero, which is what it was at before.

To my mind, the choice between the two parties comes down to a simple distinction: Republicans want everybody to look out for themselves. Democrats want everybody to look out for each other. In every other way, they can seem totally indistinguishable. I for one want to live in a world where somebody's got my back.







*Cody thinks "cookie" is too effeminate.

**unless you are foreign, gay, unborn, or enjoy having fun.

Zardoz

So, if you were flipping channels, and came across Sean Connery with a giant mustache, wearing what can only be described as underoos with some pirate boots, running through the forest, you'd stop and watch for a bit, right? Well I did. two hours later as Zardoz was ending, I was unsure of what I had just seen. Something that was a mix of Barberella, The Prisoner, Planet Of The Apes, bad '70s soft-core porn, and Farenheight 451. Only really shitty.

Connery stars as Zed, who spends his days galloping around the post-apocolyptic Irish countryside happily raping and murdering "brutals" in the name of Zardoz, a giant floating stone head. All of said brutals are wearing suit jackets for some reason, while Zed has to settle for a loin cloth and a Janus mask, which the writer probably chose for no other reason than that is looks kinda creepy. So one day Zed gets laured into a disused library, and discovers the joys of reading, and by extention, the joys of free thought. He wants to get to the bottom of all this weirdness, so he stowes away in the head, and ends up in "The Vortex", a place where those who were once well-to-do who now call themselves "Eternals" live in a utopian society where they have been for a few hundred years because some crystal robot thing has made them immortal. They live in a perpetual rennaisance festival, blissfully unaware or apathetic to the troubles of their mortal bretheren on the other side of a sort of giant wal-mart bag. While on the giant head, Zed has inadvertantly killes Zardoz, who was really just some guy that got his name from The Wizard of Oz. Zardoz gives Zed and his buddies guns and ammo in return for the crops that the brutals are forced to cultivate. Zed gets trapped in the Vortex with all the hippies, and disrupts the ideallic society therein.

Didn't see that coming. I'm sure that this was supposed to be an allegorical commentary on the.... something. But it sooo does not work that way. Not with Connery in his undies through the whole thing.

Turns out that Zed was genetically engeneered by A few Eternals who are so bored they just want to die already, and need him to do it for some reason. The Eternals decide to impart Zed with all of their wisdom, one at a time, by fucking him. He becomes the new leader, and the societies combine to form a new race, and we see Connery in a full-on wedding dress. and the less said about that the better. Man the '70s were a weird time for science fiction. Until Star Wars in '77, we mainly got things like this and Logan's Run, which was great when I was a kid, but deeply flawed when I watch it now. That happened with The Dark Crystal and The Black Hole as well. Don't do it, kids. Let those movies remain cool in your head. Watch something you haven't seen before.

In other news, page 26 is up. Have a nice day.

Amnesia

So I totally forgot to write about last weekend, because I had to write about the Goth wedding from the weekend before. So I'm a week behind. I'll do a two for one today.
LAST week Jason, Jennifer, and Jackson received a visit from Cody, Kindra, and Cori, who were in Stillwater as part of their world-wide alliteration tour 2006.
As Jenn graciously stayed home with the increasingly cranky and tired boy, the rest of us got Chinese food and bubble tea. The conversation of the evening was some of the best I had had in a long time, and I hadn't made somebody shoot egg drop soup out their nose since I was a little kid. They had all watched almost all of Spaced the night before, so many a reference and/or quote was made about that. There was far too much conversation time devoted to tapioca in my opinion, but Cori just would not shut up about it. We also all agreed that Kindra is terrified of silence, and that the waitress was not very good. The table next to us had a little girl who did not like the obnoxiousness of our little party, and kept making faces at us, but then Cody did that thing he does where that thing comes out of his head and it scared her away. I always have to laugh when he does that, because I mean, what is that thing?
We then went to the coffeeshop, and the poor small town girl behind the counter just could not wrap her head around the meaning of Cody's T-Shirt. She was all like: what's beautiful about suicide, and Cody was like: it's in the eye of the beholder, I guess, and she's all: I guess I don't get it, and he's all: BLARRGHH!! And he does that thing with he head again, and we all laugh. Cori did not get coffee because she still had bubble tea. Then we went home and gave Jenn her Chinese food, and watched her eat it like she just got out of Guantanamo. Then we yapped the night away. Hanging out with them and meeting Cori did make me a bit homesick though. I don't meet really cool people like that any more, much less get to just hang and yap with them into the wee hours of the morning. When I do meet people like that, they end up being from Denver.
So there! On to this last weekend
It was a very collegiate weekend for us. On Friday, after giving Jackson a not that great, trial and error, keep going until it looks okay home haircut, we went to OSU's Walk-Around. It is a sort of reverse parade where the floats are stationary, and you get to walk around and look at them all. They are really intricate, and have moving parts and things. The two best involved a robotic undersea adventure and a robotic version of Chutes and Ladders. There is lots of live music and food and stuff, and Jackson had a great time in the snuggly, for which he is way too big for. We retired to Cousin Ryan's house and drank some beer while watching Jack and the Pug 'play". Saturday morning, we went to the actual homecoming parade for OSU, and Jackson had a great time there as well. He really like marching bands in general, and the drums in paticular. We found this out because every time a band came by, he would start shaking and giggling hysterically. Later, Jenn's parents came up to watch the boy so we could go to the OU homecoming game against the Colorado Buffaloes. This required a drive to Norman, OK with out the boy. It took about an hour and a half, and I kept looking in the back seat, thinking Jack was there but asleep, as I do every time we go anywhere with out him.
The game was fun and cold, but the tix we were given turned out to be really good. We had access to this little lounge where you could sit in the heat and eat without you or your food going cold. The game itself was kind of boring, but being there was great fun. We left a but early, and still hit the horrible traffic. Horrible traffic usually happens when a hundred thousand people all want to go somewhere at the same time. Just so you know.
We ended up at Robin's house. We stopped in because we were "in the city" and she had beer. There were a few people there already, and Jenn's sister and her husband showed up as well. We stayed there until about 1:45, which was dumb, because we still had an hour to get home. But home we got, and Jack actually slept until a little before 8:00, so we got to "sleep in" a little. Sunday we hung out with the fam and ate chili. A whole freakin' pot of chili.
After the coma subsided we just bummed around the house, and I got lost in Wikipedia for several hours, having wanted to find out something mundane about the French Revolution.
That was it. See what boring lives we lead? Why do you keep reading these things?

Goth Wedding

Alright, here you go. ---->
The Goth wedding was a lot of fun. The flickr set is here. Begona made this weird lace-up thing with a bunch of flowey fabric all over, and made the groom wear a top-hat, which I am convinced only Jack White and Slash can really get away with these days.
The affair was held in Begona's back yard, giving it a very bar-b-que feel, only with a bunch of darkly clad ne'er-do-wells instead of hillbillies. You could tell that even though the sun had set, they were a bit uncomfortable being outside. I'm sure they had a hard time deciding when to hold the wedding, as October (the gothiest month) had a full moon, a Friday the 13th, and of course, Halloween. They opted for the full moon. Cooler parties on the other two.
The funny thing about it was that the ones who dress like that every day, just came dressed as if they just happened to drive by, and saw a party, and the ones who don't dress like that every day tried really hard to sift through their wardrobes to find any and all black attire, and just put it all on. All of it. Then they just over-did their eye-make up and called it good. There was a third contingency that rolled in just looking for free food.
The ceremony was Wiccan, and very nice. Basically the same as any other kind of wedding. Actually kind of an amalgam of other types of weddings. They lit candles and jumped a broom. The officiant wore fake horns and was draped in a pentagram flag obviously purchased at Hot Topic. No devil worship, no bloodletting, no sacrifices, which was kind of a disappointment. It was all very nice and tasteful. For a wedding wear people wear horns. My favorite Wiccan participant was the guy with the shaved head, jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt reading: Wanna see my broomstick?
I have been around the punk/emo/goth culture my whole life, but had never been to a wedding that went all out. It was great fun. We ate small sandwiches and drank cheap beer, and chatted and mingled until we decided to go. We had left the boy in the care of his Aunt Grace, and when we returned to collect him, he was still up and at 'em. He slept very soundly on the ride back to Stilly.
In other news, I find that as the election season gets into full swing, I am simultaneously entranced and disgusted. Much like when a deadly car accident throws a dead body through your living room window: You have a personal stake in the outcome of these events, but you can really only watch what happens from the side and hope your house gets fixed eventually.*
We are going to the walk around thingy at OSU this Friday, and then going to the OU football game on Saturday. I not the biggest fan of football, but in my opinion, going to a game is better than TV, and college is better than pro. Jen scored some awesome tix in a boot or something somehow, and they are playing Colorado. So there's that. Her parents are gonna come up to watch the boy, and that means we can go out after the game.
I'm getting excited for Halloween.
Page 25 is up.
This guy is a douchbag.
That is all.

Stupid stupid stupid

So I keep meaning to post pics of the uber-goth wedding we went to over the weekend, but I keep forgetting that the camera is still in my wife's car, and she keeps having to drive really far away for meetings and the like. So I'll post those on Flickr and here when I get a chance. Suffice to say it was a lot of fun, and I haven't had an excuse to break out the goth gear since I moved away from Denver (nobody has a "goth night" in Oklahoma).

Remember back in this post when I said I would vote for McCain if the GOP put him up? Well that's out the window. Yesterday, McCain, playing the Rove card, said it was all Clinton's fault that North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon.

"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the
Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's
administration negotiated was a failure,"

This seems to be the new rallying cry of the republicans. Even though it has been 6 years since Bush took office, and four since all three branches of the government were put under GOP control. You would think they could have done something about it during that time. Constantly blaming Clinton is a total cop-out, and they know it. The sad thing is that a vast majority of the populace will believe them,because they are too lazy to look into the situation. Well, I did. Turns out that Clinton'ss policies were working just fine until 2002 (the same year Bush gave them 95 million dollars). The deal was that they would stop making plutoniumm. Bush cut off talks when he found out they were enrichingg uranium instead. A dick move on North Korea's part. But from 1994 to 2002, they did not produce any weapons grade material, never tested a bomb, and allowed IAEA inspectors into their facilities. When Bush walked away in 2002, it allowed them to start up the plutonium production again, kick out the inspectors, and continue the uranium enrichment, and spend the 95 mil on whatever they wanted, not on food for the poor. How is that Clinton's fault? Truth is, just like with 9/11, this happened on your watch, republicans. You should have seen it coming. Here is what Kerry said (the first concise, intelligent thing he has said in a long time):

"The truth is the Clinton administration knew full well they didn't have a
perfect agreement. But at least they were talking. At least we had inspectors
going in and we knew where the (nuclear fuel) rods were. This way, we don't know
where the rods are, the rods are gone. There are no inspectors. Ask any American
which way is better," Kerry said.

So why the paradigm shift, Mr. McCain? Could it be that you don't think the party faithful will put up a centrist? Is that why you gave the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University this year, after bashing him and his ilk six years ago? Turning away from your ideals for votes is a quick way to loose the center, the independentss like me. Bad move.

Once again, off the soapbox! Back to work!

My Name Is Michael Caine

The Caine from the '60s is far superior to the one we have now, I think. Don't get me wrong, he's still awesome. But his string of tough-guy movies were some of the best. I kind of wish he'd revisit one of those characters like Terrence Stamp did in The Limey. Now that was a good film. I think that what I like about a lot of British tough-guy movies is how unpretentious they are. From Get Carter on up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and even L4yer Cake. They just kind of do their thing. Most don't even have a love interest, or if they do, they aren't used as a MacGuffin or some other lame plot device. The best are the independents. Once studios start getting involved, you get James Bond. I love Bond, but there is far less style in those movies. I have high hopes and low expectations for the new Bond. I dig Daniel Craig, and I love that they are thinking outside the box and reinventing the franchise, but I am weary of the studio involvement. Looks like it was shot well.

Also, The new Thom Yorke album: I wouldn't say I am disappointed, because I saw it coming. I don't really like it though. Remember when the Pixies broke up, and then The Breeders started doing their thing, and Frank Black started doing his thing? I could tell who had done what in the Pixies, and could see how "creative differences" came into play after the band members parted ways. I thought Frank and The Breeders did some awesome stuff, but neither did anything close to what they did as the Pixies. Well, the same thing is happening here. Eraser is filled with everything I didn't like about the direction that Radiohead took after OK Computer. Again, a lot of what they did was bloody brilliant, but certain aspects of it I didn't jump on board for. Listening to this album it is easy to see that the rest of the band may have kept reeling him back and insisting there be actual drums and guitars in their songs. I think there are some good parts on the album, but the further Thom gets into the electronic stuff, the further away from OK Computer he gets. It seems like OK Computer is smack dab in the middle of this album, and Pablo Honey, right where it should be. I think that may be where I like them the best.

The Fall Season

I don't think my head works right. Did something big change and I missed it? I feel like I was anticipating something, and then I missed it, and then it turned out to be really anti-climactic anyway. So there is a bunch of residual anticipation that isn't directed anywhere. Maybe it's hockey season. Maybe it's The new fall TV season. I did miss a bunch of premiers when I was in DC, and a lot of those were extremely anti-climactic as well. Maybe that was it. That'd be kinda sad, though. If my mind was subconsciously excited about the fall TV schedule.
Some of the new shows I didn't really get to see except Heroes. That show I really liked. They did a good job of showing what it would be like to suddenly realize you had super powers. Most of us would freak out, but the comic book nerds would be overjoyed.
I never got into CSI or Law and Order or Lost or any or the ten billion stupid reality shows that are on network TV. Some of the more obscure reality shows I like, though. I have a few geeky shows that I watch like Smallvillee and Doctor Who, and now Heroes. Smallville and my secret guilty pleasure Gillmore Girls (a show I have been watching since day one and not telling anyone about it) are both on the new CW station, a merger of the WB and UPN. I'm sure the W is for Warner, but I don't know what the C is for. This was a good idea, as both networks had a heap of crap, and they seem to have done a good job of keeping the good (or at least the most successful) shows. I liked Veronica Mars, but there was always a scheduling conflict, but now I can watch it. OLN has picked a lot more Avalanche games this season, so that's good. Most of the time I don't even really watch TV. I mean like sit and stare at the screen for the whole show. I do that with movies, but with TV, I'm usually doing something else, like drawing comics or surfing the net, or blogging, or making dinner, or playing with my boy. It does always seem to be on though. At least after Jack goes to bed.
I had one awesome weekend. It was just me and the boy, as Jen was in Dallas. We had a good time. He is getting to really enjoy specific people and specific activities, and when you get around the things he likes, he's just as happy as can be. We got haircuts, went to the park, a lot, and generally just played and farted around Stillwater. It was a lot of fun. He's slowly starting to get easier to manage a night, so that's good. He still wakes up at 4:45 ready to start his day, but at least he sometimes sleeps straight through till then. Sometimes. We and a good time.
I rented The Proposition. This is the Australian Western that Nick Cave Wrote. It was very good, and very violent. No the Die Hard cartoony kind of violence that we usually get stuffed down out collective throats, but really mean, brutal violence. Violence that serves the very well written plot. Check it out.
Well, that's all I got for now.

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There are some movies you see as a child that stick with you for various reasons. Barbarella was one such film for me. For many males of my generation, the first time they really realized that there was something about the fairer sex worth looking into, came when they first saw Princess Leia in the slave girl outfit.* It was the same for millions of adolescent boys in 1983: They collectively tilted their heads to the side like a dog does when confused, and quietly uttered a single word: wow. It became the basis for many a fantasy from then on. As I grew older, I realized that we all had this in common, but we rarely spoke about it. It was always under the surface somewhere. What we didn't realize, and I didn't know until a few years ago, was that many a girl from our same generation had similar feelings for Han Solo. Maybe not as strong, and certainly not for as long, but it was there.

I was no exception, but I got a deeper dose of sci-Fe sexuality when my dad took me to see Barberella during a re-release at the local art-house sometime around 1985. Based an an extremely racy French comic book, Barberella was about... well it was really about Jane Fonda put into as many situations as possible where she could either get nekkid and have sex in a weird locale, or change her extremely skimpy psychedelic quasi-futuristic outfits.

It did make quite an impression on me. On the whole, it is a bad movie, but I love it anyway. For what it is, it is the best. The movie has had long reaching influence, the most obvious being where Duran Duran got their name. I you watch Arena, the "plot" of the concert vid concerns the Duran Duran from the movie exacting revenge on the band for stealing his name.

I have to say that 1968 was a wonderful year for film. Some of my all time favorites were made or take place in 1968. Night of the Living Dead, The Itallian Job, 2001: A space Oddessy, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Bullit, Planet of the Apes, the list goes on and on...

Page two:
The Missus has gone to Dallas for the weekend, and I have the boy to myself all weekend. I think we are going to go to the dog-parade. He'll like that. We may check out Celebrate Stillwater, but I don't know. I don't know if we'll have the time. Cody is leaving town for the weekend as well, so we can't take Jackson to the coffeeshop pretending to be a gay couple with an adopted kid. I know it works better with an Asian baby, but you've got to work with what you got. Had Jackson came out as an Asian baby, his mother and I would have had to have words. So that's all I have planned, but that's enough. If you want to stop by and say hello, and maybe watch him for a sec while I pee, feel free to do so.

Page 23 is up.

*One notable exception, is a friend of Jen's who's first thoughts of the opposite sex came while watching Wonder Woman as a child. He was young enough that he didn't really know what he wanted to do with Wonder Woman, but he thought it would probably be nice to sit in her lap.

Celebration on the Hill

Hi, all. Jen and I just spent the week in our nation's capital. We traveled with Jen's co-worker Karen, the second most rockin' girl at ACS. And the second shortest. These two distinctions were won through hard work and determination. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't be the second shortest person where you work. Unless you are Jeremy Turner.
The first thing I notice about leaving the mid/south/west/"heartland" is that nobody serves Dr. Pepper. I don't know if they don't serve it because nobody drinks it, or if nobody drinks it because they don't serve it. . All I know is that Mr. Pibb is a very poor substitute. Mr. Pibb never went to medical school. He's just some dude.
The second thing I notice is that where I live is really... white. I know I'm coming from whitey white Stillwater, but even Denver was pretty white. This is why most of the ethnic food I've ever eaten in the mid/south/west/"heartland" is sub-standard. Diversity is a good thing.
The third thing I notice is that being in airports and airplanes all day sucks ass, unless you have a really good book.
We got into DC around 5:00, and had to fight rush-hour traffic from Dulles into the city and to our hotel, the Marriott in Westpark, next to the Zoo which we didn't realize until we were on our way home. We got checked in, and took a cab to the kick-off event for COH. We got registered, and schmoozed a bit, then went in search of ethnic food. We found an awesome Thai food right by our hotel. We both got Pad Thai, and spring rolls, and ate every bit. They did not serve Dr. Pepper. We then crashed.
Day two:
We started with showers. The funny thing here is that we both took showers the night before after traveling all day. Off to the Ambassador breakfast for our region. For no adequately explored reason, Hawaii is part of our region, prompting a lot of "Aloha Y'all!" all day. The breakfast was yummy for hotel food, and we met a bunch of people who we'd be spending the day with. We then boarded the Metro en masse, pissing off the locals late for work. The Metro let out at Union Station, and we walked down to the Capital, where the giant stage was. After opening ceremonies, there was a parade, and we went to work. What we mainly did was man the booth, and visit others. But in the afternoon, we got to go meet with the politicians from our local districts. The point of the whole thing was to get a massive amount of people from all 50 states and provinces into Washington to show support for cancer research. Each state had ambassadors to meet with every representative and congressman who would meet with them. Jen and I were on the teams to meet with Rep Lucas and Senator Coburn. Lucas was very open and honest, and was all for what we were doing, happily signing the promise to help get funds back from reappropration, and to take a leadership role in getting more funds sent that way. Coburn, on the other hand was not so eager. I have never liked Coburn, so let's just get that out of the way. He violently pro-life, and extremely homophobic. He was the one caught doing a crossword puzzle during John Robert's confirmation hearings. What I do like about him, is that he has made it his mission to cut pork barrel spending in The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Katrina. It was because of this that he wouldn't sign. Morally, he won't sign things just for photo ops, that he doesn't intend on working toward. He said that if he signed it, and it didn't get done because of Washington bureaucracy, he'd be held accountable. Which is true. That was the whole point. But the fact that he'd rather not sign and stay safe than sign and try was weird. Especially for a two time cancer survivor. Better luck next time.
We went on to the Wall of Hope, and as the night was getting chilly, we wanted coffee. After about a half an hour looking for any coffeeshop, a local walked us the three blocks to one that was in a hotel near the Holocaust Museum. I found all the locals I met, with one very drunk exception, to be extremely nice, eager to help, and just a great bunch of people. Armed with hot choc and lattes, it was on to the Luminaria celebration: a ceremony where white bags lit from within by a candle, representing a loved one effected by cancer, are lined up along the reflecting pool in front of the capital. It was massive and beautiful, and I have no pics of it. After closing ceremonies as the night was winding down, a bunch of staff members ducked out and went to Murphey's Pub. There was live music(a large Irishman with a guitar who did a great cover of Down Under by Men at Work, au=amung others), and we all sang and danced and drank and ate cheese sticks. Then we climbed the way too steep hill back to the hotel and went to sleep (after showers).
Day Three:
Day three was the really fun day. Day three was the sight-seeing day. Day three was the day we all went rogue, not bowing to anybody else's time tables. Day three was the day of the trolley. The trolley takes you to almost every significant monument or touristy thing in the city. All for a mere 30 dollars. They take you there, telling you interesting historical facts en route, and trying hard to be funny. In this fashion we saw most of the main monuments of DC. My favs were the Jefferson and the Lincoln monuments. They had a lot power behind them. They don't make monuments like that anymore. The sad thing that I noticed is this: After 9/11, they put up temporary concrete barriers around all of the monuments. These prevented anybody from driving a vehicle within a certain distance of any one monument, as they blocked the drive-ways that were used to unload busses and what not in front of each monument. Well, this "war on terror" has become a seemingly permanent thing, as they are slowly creating permanent barriers, or in some cases, removing the streets that were brigaded. I think they thought these things would be up for only a short while, but the sad truth is that they have to make lasting plans. But I digress.
I was moved by the sheer size of Arlington. That place goes on and on, and they just bought a bunch more of the surrounding land for expansion, another sad fact. I also really liked the Korean War Memorial. That wasn't there when I went as a kid. When we were waiting on the for the trolley to take us back into town, as we were all really hungry by this point, we were accosted by a bum. I'm not sure what his main point was, but whatever it was, he backed it up the assertions such as: "My black ass was born in DC" and "You need to get your white ass out of here". I tried to tell him that I was waiting for the trolley to do just that, but he wasn't buying. Through a barrage of insults, pointings, profanity, and gin-spittle it was determined that I was a fag, and he seemed satisfied with that, and staggered on down the road. Of course, the trolley was 30 minutes late, prolonging our temporary friendship. When the trolley did come, all we wanted was food. Not so fast there. First you have to wait while they block traffic for the president's motorcade to go by. Cops and black cars and giant SUVs carrying men in suits with machine guns drove by for about 10 minutes. The two attractive Norweigans on the trolley with us had a hard time wrapping their brains around that one. They asked us if that's how he traveled every where, even to the market. Well, he doesn't go to the market. They seemed astonished by this. Then we had to fight all the backed up traffic to get to a restaraunt. ANY restaraunt. We ended up in Chinatown, and I had some awesome sesame chicken. The bill came in Chinese, which made it hard to figure out who owed what, but hey, it's Chinatown.
After that we got back on the trolley to see the national cathedral, embassy row and Georgetown. Here I parted ways with my companions to go have dinner with my friend Ann whom I had not seen since Blur played the Ogden in '96. After a bus ride, and a Metro ride into Alexandria, she fed me lazagna and Newcastle, proving that she is indeed a wonderful friend. Jen and her crew had some dinner, and went to Hotel Washington to see the view. They got to see The Prez fly over in a helicopter, the second sighting of the day. We all made it back to the hotel in one piece around 2:00 am, and decided it was a good day, but now it should end. The guys at the hotel told the girls that it was a good thing they came back late, because the president of Pakistan was there that night with a truck load of entourage to have dinner with Cheney and Condoleeza. Off to sleep.
Day Four:
The last day. We only had time for a few things before we had to go to the airport. We chose The Holocaust Museum. A good choice. Everybody told us that if we could only see one museum, to o that one. They were right, and I offer the same advise to everybody else. It was very moving. We were there a good three hours, and I still didn't see everything I wanted to. We started walking back into town, stopping for pizza, and to get a closer look at the Whitehouse. The Snipers on the roof also got a closer look at us, which was a little unnerving. They don't like it when you wave at them. We did some shopping, and headed off to the airport. The flight back seemed longer than the way out, but at least I got to sit next to Jen this time. We watched Poseidon on the tiny TV screen, and read, and did a crossword, and napped. The lay-over in Denver was too long, but no long enough to go into town to see friends. So I ate a sammich instead. We got into Tulsa around midnight, and headed off to the Grandparents to collect our son. We missed him so much, it was all we could do to not wake him up when we got in.
So ends our trip to DC. We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to bring Jackson there when he is old enough to care.

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Hey there! Here is a Reservoir Dogs sketch for ya.
A fine film. I watched it again the other day. I hadn't seen it for a while but this post got me iching to see it. I wish people would stop giving Quinten loads of money so he'd be forced to make more creative movies again.
In other news, Jackson decided that this was the weekend to start walking. Grace was here visiting, and at some point, Jen and Grace and Jack were in his room playing, and he just tore ass down the hallway. On foot. Laughinh hysterically the whole time. He's very proud of himself. He'd been holding onto furniture and stuff like that for months, but this was a bit of a surprise. Now he won't stop. He's all over the place and he's friggin' fast. We now enter a new level of containment and surveillance.
As I mentioned earlier, we're going to D.C. tomorrow for the COH.
Jack is splitting his time between the grand-parents, and they will have their work cut out for them with him walking. I don't envy them. The trip will be fun. I've never done anything important or political while in D.C., so this will be a blast. I haven't been to the east coast in forever, either. We're going to do some lobbying, some sight-seeing, and some old-dear-friend visiting. Probably in that order. See ya afterward.