In Rainbows...

So my good friend Sarah has this post, in which she asks weather or not Radiohead ripped her off in some weird dollar to Euros and/or hidden fees fiasco when she bought their new album. My friend Brandon had a similar problem, and he figured out that since Radiohead were in England, they were using pounds instead of Euros, or the other way around or something, and yes, his transaction was a little higher than he expected. But he still got the album, and he got it for cheaper than he would have in a store or on itunes, so he's okay with that. It's all about the art, right?

Now, I didn't have those problems because I got it off a friend from work, so I really didn't pay anything for it. I think it was all an elaborate marketing ploy, but it worked. People seemed to love the concept. I know it did, and I had every intention of buying it. I was going to give them about $10.00, but when a guy at work waltzes up with the thing on a flash drive, what are you gonna do? I am weak willed, everybody knows that.
On to the album: I love it.
OK Computer is arguably one of the best albums ever made ever, and is the benchmark I use for all other Radiohead albums. Kid A was close. Amnesiac a little further away. Hail to the Thief and The Eraser were complete let downs. I don't hate them, but When I have OK Computer and Kid A sitting there in the same pile, I'm gonna reach for one of them. I do the same thing with The Pixies. Bossanova and Trompe LaMode always take a back seat to Doolittle and Surfer Rosa.
In Rainbows, especially when compaired to The Eraser, really lets you know that Radiohead is a group effort, and not the All Thom Yorke Show, unlike some bands like The Cure or Coldplay*. The mellow, guitar-driven tracks are like seeing an old friend, back to their usual self after getting out of rehab. And I an sure Phil Selway is happy to be able to actually drum again.
They keep the ethereal, psychedelic aspects that remind me of bands like Tones on Tail and Galaxie 500, back in the '80s, and are what made Radiohead great, like a rock band conceived completely under water. And there are some solid lyrics in there. All in all, I think they are back on the right track, and I'm happy for it.

In Geek News:

Wil Wheaton is interviewed for BoingBoingTV:



He goes into a nostalgic narrative, summarizing a story he's written for his new book, about that time in many of our young nerdy lives, when we had our allowance in our hands and found ourselves staring up at the wall of action figures at the local K-Mart (back before they were ghetto), trying to decide weather to save our cash for something big like the Millenium Falcon, or to go ahead and get the instant gratification of holding Greedo in our hands right then and there. I have to say that he hit the nail on the head with that one, and this was something my brother and I struggled with every weekend of our lives until we discovered girls.
I was always the saver, my brother the spend it now type, and I would hold that over him every chance I got. Like when I pulled out some Halloween candy sometime after thanksgiving, or when I bought a rare back issue of Groo the Wanderer that one time. It made him furious. He ended up stealing a good portion of stuff from me over the years because he just couldn't stand it. We are still like that to a certain extent. I can't wait to get a copy of Wil's book.


That is all.

-JP





*Let it be known that I cannot stand Coldplay. Overrated and dumb.

Just like everybody else does....

Things like this make me happy that the interwebs exist.

You know what else makes me happy the interwebs exist? My friend Joey has a radio show that broadcasts from a public radio station in Austin. He has a Jazz show on Wednesdays, but on Friday nights he has a goth, industrial, new wave show that is as awesome as they come. So I sitting here listening to the Smiths on my computer and i didn't put it on. YAY! He even gave me a little shout-out. Awww...


Jen failed the first test for gestational diabetes. SUCK. Now she has to eat this awful all-carb diet all weekend, and she gets to do another even nastier test next week. I hope she passes. The same thing happened with Jackson and she passed the second time so everybody cross your fingers.

In Geek news: The new Star Trek movie is getting cast with the best people ever so far. Oh, you want proof? They cast Simon Pegg as Scotty. Satisfied? I am. We also get Harold as Sulu and Sylar as Spock. Can't get much better.
Also, Captain America is back from the dead and he has some spiffy new duds.

Um... that's it.

Feuling My Silent Rage

So....
Jackson has a new thing. Well, actually 3 things. 1) He's been waking up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to sleep until we leave for school, and he gets a nice 30 minute nap while I get to dodge road raged South Tulsans. Sometimes he's visibly upset, and cries for while, but sometimes he's ready to party. Or wrestle a bear. Or go bungee jumping. 2) He has found his whine. This eluded him for some time, but now that he has it, he's decided to make up for lost time and whine loudly and with much feeling. About everything. 3) A natural progression from #s 1 and 2, he has decided to test the waters concerning the length and intensity of fits. Screaming and ranting and yelling for hours at a time. Last night he scored a hat-trick, and nailed all three. You have never seen anything more pathetic than your own kid crying at the top of his lungs in the dim light from the microwave in the wee hours wearing no pants or diaper, as he had torn them off in total frustration. All this adds up to me feeling a little more empathy with Alec Baldwin. I don't agree with what he did, not by a long shot, but I understand it. I'm cranky in the morning anyway, and adding an extra three hours to my morning is not a good idea. In a weird bit of coincidence, TAL did a story about just this phenomenon this week. I was happy to hear that Dan Savage was having the same problem. If we were in our own home it would be one thing, but we are still with the in-laws until the beginning of next month, and they invariably wake up and stick their noses in our business. They are just trying to help, I know, and they do, but sometimes I wish they would just shut their door and let us work it out.

In other news (about time, ya whiny bitch!)

Heroes is back, and although I do love it so, NBC has decided to add what seems like an extra 10 minutes of commercials to each episode. I actually timed it, and at one point there were 4 minutes of commercials, 4 minutes of show, and another 6 minutes of commercials. SIX! Get back to the show. I'm not buying a friggin' Swiffer!
I have given up on Bionic Woman and Journeyman. They failed to hook me. Journeyman will never be as cool as Quantum Leap was, and Bionic Woman makes me feel like I'm watching the actual '70s version, though unironically. Starbuck isn't even cool anymore.
The one new show I actually like, Reaper, is going strong, but I don't think it will last. Not OC enough for the CW, I think. Hopefully Sci-fi will pick it up, where it can live happily for years to come.

In still other news, we just had a river development plan here in Tulsa shot down. I have mixed feelings. I really think the city needs something like this, and though I am unsure if this particular plan was the best they could have come up with, at least it was something. The opposition was angry and fierce, and was mostly along the lines of "no more taxes" and "let's not give anymore power to the government" and "just use the money he already have more responsibly", and I can understand that. But now all bets are off and I have a sinking feeling that Tulsa will continue it's downward spiral to becoming a ghost town. I look at the river every day as I drive in and I keep thinking that there should be nothing but bike paths, Frisbee golfers and smoothie stores littering the banks, not old mattresses. But I'm used to Denver, I guess. I love Downtown Tulsa, I really do. If there were decent parks, some awesome condos, a good school, and a grocery store down there I would totally live there. But I guess I'm just used to Denver. I could go months with barely touching my car. I miss that feeling that the inhabitants of a city actually cared about it. I just don't get that here. I'm sure they do, and a lot of them will tell you that that is exactly why they voted down the river tax, but still. I've never been anywhere where the people seem to hate their own city so much. I think the river will get developed anyway. It will be slower and more at the hands of private entrepreneurs, but it's too good of an idea to ignore.

-JP

A few small things that made me smile...

First off, you know those girls you see in cars that are either really small and really expensive or really big and really expensive? They are usually wearing white framed sunglasses, look a little bored to be in the car, and are just way too attractive for their own good? You know those girls. They're everywhere. I saw one yesterday while waiting to cross the street, and she was digging out the biggest booger ever. Just swirlin' away up in there. She even checked her nose in the mirror, decided it wasn't booger free enough, and went back at it. I guess some people don't realize that glass is clear. I guess one could take small comfort in the fact that she made it to her destination with nasal passages free of obstruction.

Second, we may have found a house to buy yesterday. I don't want to get my hopes up because the other two times we went through the house buying process, we didn't get the first one we put an offer in on, and why should this time be any different? Still, the house is nice and the price is right, so I can't help but be a little excited. I missed out on the Smallville* premiere and ER to go look at that house and I am not one bit sorry for that.

Does anybody else think Jessica Alba has an odd skin tone? It isn't quite olive like most people of Latino descent, and it isn't quite white-girl-with-a-tan either. Not that it makes her any less attractive, mind you. Which, as the Nerd I am, I only realized once she started doing comic book movies.

The week of new shows has been pretty okay, I guess. Heroes was awesome as usual, though I don't think they can push it too far past two seasons. Twin Peaks taught us that the public can only take so much weirdness without a pay-off (I'm lookin' at YOU, Lost).Bionic Woman kind of sucked. The villain was way better than the heroine, and Miguel Ferrer needs to stop accepting the same role over and over again(He plays the same guy he played in Point of No Return and RoboCop, and a dozen other shows and movies). And it another in a new crop of shows that have British actors playing Americans, ala House. Bionic Woman, Life, Journeyman... All Brits. WTF, Mate? Reaper was awesome and funny and poorly edited and I hope it lasts past this season. We get the gift of Ray Wise, another RoboCop/Twin Peaks alumni, like Ferrer, ad the Devil, and he's fantastic. I missed a few I wanted to see that I'll have to catch in re-runs. Medium is back in January. I am very sad to see The Dresden Files wasn't picked up for a second season, and that Veronica Mars went bye-bye too. At least we get Kristen Bell on Heroes this season. She picked Heroes over Lost (suckers!).

Um... Now that I'm done geeking out. Jackson decided that 4:00 am was the time to get up and start playing today. So the wife and I had to get up too. He, however, got to konk out on the drive to school, where as I, did not. So I stopped for a massive coffee, or rather what I thought was going to be a massive coffee, and ended up being only a 16 oz coffee and they still charged me five bucks for it. Why do they call it a Latte? Because it costs a Latte, that's why. After working in the coffee industry all those years, I really hate paying for coffee now. I just feel somewhere in the back of my head that I shouldn't have to, I guess.



*Please don't tell me what happened, I am... aquiring it as we speak,.. um... write? whatever.

Forever in Flares

So tonight we had to go to the Sprint store for some service that the people on the phone told us we had to go into the store for, but the people at the store told us we had to call on. This dispute did not get resolved. Go fig.
We were hungry on our way there so we decided to hit the chick-fil-a, because they have a play area for toddlers. And we have a toddler who likes to play. In areas. Little did we know...(dramatic pause)... that they were having a "Fabulous 50's Night" to celebrate their 40Th anniversary. All the staff was dressed in what their parents, who were born in the late '60s, early '70s, told them people in the '50s dressed in. The Guys just put on paper hats and white aprons. They weren't trying too hard. People dressed as cows (the mascot of the place that serves chicken) greeted us from the corner and at the door wearing over-large Elvis style sunglasses. As was the Elvis impersonator.
There were a few things amiss about their party that Jen and I noticed right off the bat. 1) 40 years ago was 1967. 2) The Elvis impersonator they hired was dressed as the 70's Elvis, with a white jumpsuit(which was adorned with beads on both the tassels and the sash. But awkwardly. like Indian beads. only crappy). 3) Said Elvis impersonator was singing Neil Diamond songs.
He knocked them out of the park, though. Best Neil Diamond I've ever heard from an Elvis in a fast-food joint. The meal was yummy as always, and we got free brownies and root-beer floats.
Jack played happily in the play area. The slide was way more interesting than some dumb-ol' Elvis.

-JP

Two books that made me very nostalgic

So I have read two books in the last couple weeks. Both of which got me thinkin' about about my misfit high school days, though I would never in a million years want to return to those days (except maybe armed with my current brain).
The first was The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl,* about a nerdy comic book obsessed freshman who hates his step-dad, is prone to migraines, stays up all night making comics because he is an insomniac, and is slowly falling in love with a Goth girl. I could have easily described myself that way when I was a freshman in high school. Anybody could have described me that way in high school. The main difference being that I had more than one friend and listened to better music. I could have easily turned into this kid were it not for an older brother and the fact that I met Joey randomly in the hall about a month into my freshman year, forging a life-long friendship, but more on that in a future post.
The Second was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and I have to give a huge shout-out to Ann for telling me about it. I read it in three 2-hour sittings. It has a very Catcher in the Rye feel to it, and that book is mentioned several time throughout the story. Told in a series of letters to an anonymous reader, the main character Charlie is going through his freshman year in the early 90's, and seems to be some sort of super-genius who can't deal with social situations very well. Kind of like the scientist who's assistant has to follow him around with a sandwich because he forgets to eat. That kind of guy. He befriends two of his classmates and goes down an interesting road filled with new experiences and a welling up of passion that Charlie just can't seem to give into. What made this book so special to me that the characters described were the same people I hung out with during the early '90s while I was in high school. I new these people and I had similar experiences and listened to the same music and I really identified with this poor kid who couldn't quite make himself do some of the things he really wanted to do.
Good books, both. They are quick reads as well, so check 'em out!

In other news:
I want to thank Jeffrey Rowland for this. PostSecret is pretty cool, but there is definitely a Degrassi Jr. High drama quality to it, and I think people just make shit up so they can see their silly postcard on the web. Don't they realize how flippin' easy it is to be on the web? You're reading this right? That's how easy it is.



JP: Out.


*If you like either of these, you can also check out The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl , about a girl who works in a coffeeshop and draws comics and gets to save the world for real from an otherworldly gun-slinger. Fun.

A Quick One...

Not much happening right now for no good reason. No bugs, no moving, and the big project I have been working on tirelessly for the last few weeks or so has been implemented, and most of the known bugs worked out of it. I finished the last thing on my massive work list yesterday, and crossed it off. I then looked around restlessly and realized that I didn't have anything to do, which was a new one on me since arriving to my new vocation. Weird feeling.
In Other news:
Somebody who walks the same path I do from the company's parking lot to downtown likes bananas(a word I never know when to stop typing). I know this because this person leaves the peals on the ground. Most mornings, there is a fresh one lying there as i walk along. There are also many many other peals scattered about that this person has left during their earlier travels. The oldest ones tend to shrivel up and blow away into the train yard after a while, so I don't really know how many or for what duration of time this has been going on. For some reason this really bugs the crap out of me. Why can't you just throw them away, mystery person? Or even wait to eat it until you get to work? I know that they are biodegradable, and that sometimes the pigeons eat them, but seriously, pick up after yourself.

That is all.

And we sit and wait...

Well, things have settled down a bit. We moved, my Dad came for a visit, then my Mom came for a visit, then we moved again, then had the other set of grand kids here for a visit. This weekend was more calm until our car broke. Not really broke, but they can't put the put the plug for the oil pan back in, so they can't put any oil in it, so there it sits until Monday. Other than that, things are good. Having live-in baby sitters is awesome. We can just run off to the store if we want to.
But we still live with the parents, so there is an inherent lack of privacy. I got walked in on whilst taking a dump the other day. I can usually hear Norm's office TV louder than the one in the living room even though he has the doors shut. Things like that.
Jack is talking up a storm. We were eating dinner the other night, and I had a bit of red beans and rice on my face, and hey said: Hey daddy, wipe your face. About as snidely as I would have.
He's also a little mimic, so watch your language.

So a lot of people have been asking me for more of Norm's recipes. I have bad news for you all. He has no more. He eats only those things and variations of those things. Jen bought herself a pint of Butterfinger crunch for her preggers self the other night on her way home from work. We had to run some errands, and when we got back it was gone. Let me just tell you that when a pregnant lady is expecting there to be some ice cream to be in the freezer and it isn't, you'd better replace it pretty quick. He also has a tendency to eat large spoonfuls of whatever we're cooking right out of the pot while he walks by. Then he puts the spoon back in. That's pretty annoying.

And it is 9/11, or as some have called it, patriot day. Whoopty-do. Put a flag on your car. It is literally the least you can do. And the up shot is that it benefits nobody but sticker manufacturers. Send a care package why doncha.

In other news:
The new Iron Man trailer is bloody kick-ass. It will be the able to challenge the awesome comic-to-film awesomeness of Hellboy, Spider-man, and 300. At least until Watchman comes out. Speaking of, there some booty-rockin' pics from The Dark Knight surfacing through the inter-ether. Heath doesn't look too bad.

Oh and all the stuff you heard is true. Britney sucked. She looked like a slutty weeble wobble.



-JP

Well... There it is.

So. We loaded the last of the stuff into the pod last night. It will be picked up tomorrow, and that will be the last of the bug house, other than the fight to get our deposit back. The cat was not happy to be moved again, and she'll have to do it again this weekend, as Leslie has been gracious enough to keep her for a while. We plan on chilling for a while t save up some cash, pay off some debt, and mooch off the in-laws. I am sick to death of moving things around, so I'd like to put that off as long as possible. This does involve staying with Norm and his wacky eating habits, but at least I have back up from my wife and kid this time. Here's a funny thing: After Jack's birthday party, we had a bunch of those little individual serving ice cream things, the kind that used to come with a little wooden spoon-shaped thing, left over, and Norm ate 4 of them in one sitting. The best part was that he was totally unashamed about it. He didn't get 4 of them one by one. He just grabbed all 4 at once. I think he would have grabbed more, but that was all that was in there. Monday night, we had some leftover pizza, actually about half of a large pizza, so quite a bit of pizza. He ate it all in one go with mustard on it. yum.

We also found out yesterday that Jackson will be a big brother to another boy. YAY! My brother mentioned that, try as he might, he couldn't imagine a Powers girl anyway, so it's just as well.

Um... That's it.

-JP

In which I have to move again...

Because of the bugs.
We got an exterminator and I put a massive amount of crap on the lawn, and in the crawlspace and have sprayed the house every few days and the fuckers just won't leave. I just got my cable hooked up, too. The last straw was on Saturday when Jen went to pick out an outfit for Jackson's birthday party, and there were three roaches in his drawer, that scattered when she opened it. That was it. we are out of there. We are going to stay at the in-laws until we either find a new place to rent or a new place to buy. We may just hang there, and bank some cash for a really sweet down payment, depending on how much annoyance is involved in living there.
The landlord was being pretty cool about it, but his wife was not. Jen got in a pretty good argument with her on the phone the other day, and that pretty much sealed the deal. I think that it we are out by the end of the month, having been there less than 30 days, we should get our deposit back just fine. We are going to try to move all our stuff into a storage unit over the weekend, so if you would like to help out with that, give me a call.
In other news, Jack had his 2 years old birthday party, a month late, on Saturday, and it was a big success. We all went to incredible pizza, a join put on this earth for kids parties. We all had a good time. A lot of people showed up. Jack made out like a bandit with a heap of toys that are sadly going into storage this weekend. He played the toddler version of whack-a-mole, and rode the little train a lot. Then he crashed out and slept for two hours.

That's all I got.Have fun.
-JP

In which we internet-stalk...

So Jen did some interwebs sleuthing, and it turns out that dude from next door at our old house was put away for 2 years for selling meth and cooking it in his house. The other two people who lived in the house at the time got much smaller stays, which means they probably testified against him. He and the wife got married shortly after he got out, and the two of them moved in with dear old mom next door.
Only one of the 4 kids is their own progeny. The oldest is from when Dude was in high school, and the twin girls are hers from some time before as well. Only the kid that just turned two is theirs. This made us think:
Wait a sec, ... that means he was still in when the kid was conceived ... that means that he was the result of a conjugal visit ... yuck ... and she was preggers when he got out and they got hitched at the court house ... classy.
The meth use does explain the two's erratic behaviour and their extreme skinniness. (In looking through arrest paper work, the wife was brought in a few years ago weighing 135 lbs, and her most recent arrest shows her weight at 105 lbs.) And the complete lack of any memory.
And the jail time certainly explains the crappy tattoos. All of it explains why neither of them can get a damn job. Now I an REALLY glad we moved.

Speaking of:
The bugs are getting fewer and further between. On the advise of a Kettler, I bug-bombed the crawl-space. That was kind of fun actually, like chucking tear gas into a heating vent. We are starting to be able to close both eyes when we sleep.
I wish the animals were any flipping help. They just stare at the bugs as they scurry across the floor, Even the cat. Bloody useless, they are.

The visit with my Dad was fun. We took Jack to a Drillers game, and he had a really good time. Now every once in a while, he'll say: "Wanna see base ball!"
So that's cute.
Jack started at a new day care yesterday, and I think he loves it. He gets a little upset when we drop him off, but from what they tell me, he gets over it pretty quick. He was in a really good mood when I picked him up so let's hope that stays the norm.
Um... that's it.

-JP

We are Tulsans again.

Well, we are all moved in. Kind of. There is a lot less room in the new place, but we knew that. Our stay here is completely temporary, so we just have to decide what not to unpack. I think the china and the comics are staying in their boxes.

What we do have room for, apparently, is bugs. Lots of bugs. All kinds of bugs. The kitchen was pretty filthy when we got in there, and we slowly started seeing the signs of an infestation. We cleaned everything real good, put all kinds of traps and what-not down, sprayed inside and out, then called an exterminator. He came yesterday and now the house is airing out. It should take care of the problem with minor maintenance here and there.

I really hate that I'm renting again. The majority of what we have to unpack is out, we just have to find a place for it all.

Jackson is very excited because he got a toddler bed shaped like a VW Beetle. Now all we have to do is get him to actually go to bed in it. Jackson, like his father, doesn't like to go to bed early. He'd rather stay up and see what everybody is doing. So we usually have to put him in his crib at bedtime, and once he realizes that we mean it, he'll settle down and go to sleep. The car bed has no rails or anything, so he'll just get up, and come out of his room. We're working on that.

My Dad is coming to visit tonight and for the weekend. I get to see him rarely, and Jackson gets to see him even less, so I'm really glad they'll be able to spend some time together. Our new house is right by the Baseball field and my dad is a big baseball fan, and the Drillers* are The Colorado Rockies' farm team, so there is that, too. Other than that, we're going to do some touristy shit, and have a generally pleasant time.

Then we get a weekend to ourselves, and then my Mom is coming down for a visit while we plan a very belated birthday party for Jackson.

If you wanna come, let me know. Jackson likes tractors and fruit snacks.

I finished the new Harry Potter book, and I have to say it is a bit of a let down.

!!!! Spoilers !!!!

The whole series has been building up to a show down between Voldemort and Harry, and hinting all along that Harry will ultimately prevail because he has the ability to love, and Voldemort doesn't and ergo Harry is better no matter what. So after 6 big books and years and years of build up, Harry wins because of a wand mix-up. Lame.

Also, I spotted a major continuity flaw: Dumbledoor gets the Elderwand because of a duel. They make a big deal about how that wand was unbeatable in a duel. You can steal it, but you can't win against it in a duel. What's up with that?

The previous book set up a situation where the three main characters quit school and go hunting for the remaining horcruxes. The pay off here was a big let down. They spent the majority of the time hiding in a tent for months on end wondering what to do next.

I did love the Battle of Hogwarts, Though Ron and Hermione were strangely absent for most of it. In fact, most of the action scenes were awesome. I do have to say that I like the Voldemort of the movies better than the one of the books. He way more menacing.

!!!! Spoilers End Here !!!

Well that's all I got for now.

-JP

*why does their logo look so communist propaganda-ish?

The less one has to do with their neighbors..

The Better.
Case in point, and a main reason why I am not to sad to see Stilly in my rear view window:
The first year and a half that we lived in our current house(current for 3 more days as of this posting, anyway), Everything was awesome. Our back yard is tiered, and looks out over woods that have as of yet been undeveloped. So while out on the deck, we could just chill out and look at the trees. When I still smoked, this was my all time favorite pastime. We'd lounge out there, eat, read the paper, whatever.
About 8 months or so ago, our neighbors daughter, her husband and their 4 kids came to live next door. Now, while they aren't the most white-trashy people I've ever come into contact with, they're in the top five. They used to come for visits (and by "visits" I mean dumping off the kids and high tailing it for the weekend) quite often and we thought that was the case for a while, but after a few weeks, and after noticing all of their belongings piled up in the garage, we realized things were a bit more permanent.
The Dude in the family next door is a full on red-neck. He has his last name (Kaiser) tattooed on his back in an Old English font. He shaves his head. He never wears a shirt. He speak as though he is constantly stoned, and he might be for all I know. Either that or he drank his mind to mush back in high school. The wife, who is also the daughter of the woman who actually owns the house, is an out of work hair dresser who weighs about 6 pounds. The kids seem okay. The oldest is maybe 12, then the twin girls, and a toddler a little older that Jack, who is rarely in anything more than a diaper rain or shine.
Dude doesn't work, and we have cobbled together that he is in the midst of some sort of workman's comp legal battle. That's why they had to move in with mommy. That's why the wife works at the Git 'n' Gallup. That's why the car got repoed.
The reason this is a problem:
Our Deck is on the west side of our house. Their patio in on the east side of their house. Their house sits slightly higher. That means they can see everything we are doing over the fence. Including when we are in the hot tub.
So Dude is a bit dumb. He seems not to do much other than hang out on the back porch and smoke cigarettes. All day. He doesn't have music playing, he isn't on the phone, and the isn't reading. He just sits there without a shirt smoking. Every time we would go out on our deck, there he was. And the second we were out there, he'd try his darndest to make small talk that amounted to asking the same questions over and over, like what our names were and what we did for a living. But mostly he would just stare at us in a really unnerving way, and listen to our conversations and smoke. After a while, we started not going out there as often, and when we did, we would peek out first to see if he was there, which was risky because if he saw you, he'd start in with the questions, and then you were stuck. Jen threw a girl's night party once, and he stayed over there staring at them until 3 AM. He was actually a good part of why I quit smoking. I was just sick to death of seeing him out there. If I went out front instead, he'd be there too. After a few months, we quit going out back all together except to mow or grill.
But then we started seeing him and his family everywhere we went. At the store, at the park, next to us in traffic, all over the place. Every time, he'd run through the questions again.
When I got my new job, and it came time to sell that house, we actually told our Realtor not to go out back if Dude was out there. So last night was the last bit of crazy I hope I have to deal with.
We are moving this weekend, and have been packing like mad, giving away a heap of stuff, selling a bunch of stuff and throwing away a bunch of stuff. Last night I was loading up the truck with good will stuff about 10:30PM. I go out there, and there is Dude in his underwear in the middle of the street yelling,
"Whoever you are, I'm gonna kick your ass!"
I quietly go back inside and watch him through the window for a while as he keeps yelling to nobody. When I think he's done, I go back out there with a box for the truck, and he leaps out of the shadows, still in his undies.
"You seen anybody messing with my door?"
"No."
"Somebody keeps trying to open my front door," He says, bleary-eyed and slurring his speech a little. "I keep hearing the latch jiggle, and when I run out here, nobody's there."
"I don't know, man." I say, "I haven't seen anything."
"I think it might be the Chinese guy next door that has a crush on me," He says. "I ain't never seen gay Chinese guys before."
I see where this is going, and pry myself out of the conversation as quickly as possible. I shut the garage door and decide to load the rest of the stuff in the morning.
The Chinese guys in question is just one Chinese guy, who is just polite and dresses well, not gay. And if he were, I don't think Dude would be his type.


I am anxious to move.


-JP

A year and 6 months longer than the Macarena

Dear Jackson,

Well look at you, kiddo. 2 years old. That's more than the rise and fall of a few third world dictatorships. A hell of a lot more than some relationships I've had in my life. Less than how long I've had my glasses or have been to the doctor.

I have to say that I am awfully proud of you. You have learned a lot in the past year, and have taught me more. You figured out which one of us will cave in first depending on the situation.
You figured out that you can get two treats if you ask one grandparent in the kitchen and the other out on the patio.
You are getting really good with the fork, and with drinking out of a big boy cup.
You remember everybody's name now, and even though your mom and I are the only ones who understand what you are saying most of the time, you seem to be okay with that.
You hate it when the dogs sit on your blanket.
You love tractors, cars and airplanes with a crack-head like fervor.
You don't care that paw-paw gave you a horrible haircut, you love him just the same.
You are a happy, well adjusted little boy, which is more of a reflection of your mother than me, I'm afraid.
And although you know full well what a fit is and when to use it, we don't really care because we know that someone who is only two years old has very little control over their lives, and would like to keep what little control they do have. You make up for it in kind, as in that day a few weeks ago, when I hadn't seen you for a few days, and when I poked my head around the corner, you yelled my name and ran as fast as you could, arms wide open and I scooped you and your big smile up for a hug .

Two years ago, I had just started a new job, was moving to a different city and was awaiting a child. All of those apply today as well, though I hope I'm handling it all a bit better. Just relax and keep in mind that every time I shake things up like this, things usually end up better than they were before. Usually.

I do it all for you and your mom, buddy. You two are the best things ever, and your little sibling will be the icing on the cake. Actually, most cakes have icing, so maybe new baby will be a figurine or something.

I love you, son. Happy birthday.

-Dad

A New Recipe

This one is called Tomato Mash-Up

You will need:
-An insane amount of gigantic tomatoes from the guy with the cart or from the farmer's market or where ever. (These can NOT be acquired from the grocery store for reasons I will explain later.)
-An insane amount of salt
-An insane amount of Mustard.

Get the biggest plate you can find. Slice Tomatoes into "shapes"(once again, no two should match). Arrange the tomato shapes onto the plate, in a flatish pattern or just a big pile, It won't really matter. Add salt to top. Add mustard.
As with other foodstuffs that Norm consumes, leave the plate on the table for a good half-hour or so. When you come back, grab a fork and take the plate outside to the patio. Light a cigarette. Mush everything together into paste as you simultaneously eat the "meal" and smoke. When finished, proclaim that those were "perty good tamerters"


Now there are two things I don't get:
1) He insists on having fresh tomatoes right from a local farm, and won't touch the ones from the grocery store. Then he pours salt and mustard on them in such quantities that there is no possible way he or any other human could tell the difference.
2) What the hell is with having everything sit for so long before he eats it? And it isn't just food he makes for himself, like how he makes sure he's the last person in a buffet. And it isn't about letting it cool down because he does it with hot and cold stuff, though he puts the cereal in the fridge, so maybe it is. But he can drink coffee right out of the piping hot carafe, so maybe not.

Maybe he's just a freak.

-JP

Update...

This--->

(The whole container) along with an entire package of Club Crackers,* is what Norm had for dinner last night. He swears that not only is this the best ice cream ever, but that he invented it years ago. He's been mixing birthday cake and frosting into his ice cream for ages. I, for one, believe him.

So anyway...

The festivities for the independents day were cancelled in Stilly, so we're going to go to Tulsey town. Where Jen's parents live, they are up on this big hill, and can see more than a few displays. So we'll just sit there, maybe grill out, maybe give Jack a sparkler.

That's all I got.

-JP

*I was hoping to see him actually scoop some ice cream onto the crackers, or even spread some on with a knofe, but I was denied. He just took a few bites of ice cream, then ate a few crackers.

Cooking with Norm

Welp, First off, I'd like to apologise for the lack of art lately. I don't have a scanner at work, and since I am staying at the in-laws during the week, I have no scanner there either.

I do have a picture of my kid for ya:

That is the look all of you make while reading my blog. Why on Earth do you bother? That haircut, BTW, is the standard "Okie Burr" given to him by his grandfather. Not my idea. Not Jen's either, but he started right up the middle, and at that point, he had to finish it, lest Jackson has Harkonnen blood that I am unaware of.

Living with the in-laws (especially Norm, Jen's step-dad) is proving ... Interesting. This is the only time where somebody's eating habits, unrelated to cleanliness, has gotten on my nerves so much. I have no idea where this man learned to eat, but it wasn't anywhere I've ever heard of.

Let's go through some of my favorites:

note: For a lot of these, you will need an Insanely Large Bowl (ILB). I just measured the one Norm usually uses, and it is about 2 Quarts. For reference, because I know most of you don't know what the fuck a quart is (because you are either foreign and use the metric system, or American and dumb), the pitchers that we all used to make kool-aid in as kids, that's about 2 quarts. It's a BIG bowl.

1)Tomato-cracker "soup"

You will need: Two cans tomato soup, an entire box of Club crackers, a fist full of shredded longhorn sharp cheddar cheese, and an unhealthy amount of salt.

-dump both cans soup into pot to cook. Do NOT add water.

-When bubbling, transfer soup to ILB.

-Crush every single club cracker from the box (3 rows)and add to ILB.

-Add cheese and salt (because the salt from the soup and off the crackers just isn't enough), stir.

-Place in microwave, cook for 2 min, then leave it in there for a while so the crackers soak up the soup.

What you should get is a paste of sorts that is yellow, orange and red. You can eat it right out of the bowl with a spoon, or on heavily buttered toast. Around here, bread is unheard of, so the best option is usually the former. Be sure to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

2)Pizza Monstrosity

You will need: 1 DiGiorno supreme pizza, a massive tomato*, a fist full of shredded longhorn sharp cheddar cheese, and an ungodly amount of French's Yellow Mustard.

-Remove pizza from box.

-Cut tomato into "shapes" of no discernible rhyme or reason.

-Add tomato and cheese to top of pizza in no kind of pattern you ever heard of.

-Cook as normal, insuring that the new cheese is burnt, and the frozen cheese stays that way.

-When done, cut like a normal pizza, remove two pieces and lat on plate ass to end.

-Add mustard in copious amounts to top of pizza.

-Add a dash of salt.

-Exclaim: "This is the best god-damn pizza you ever gonna eat!" to all within earshot.

3)Breakfast "meal" (to be eaten at night)

You will need: Honey Nut Cheerio's, Grape Nuts, 1-3 bananas, sugar, two kinds of milk.

-Fill ILB with all ingredients listed above in as large of portions as you can muster.

-Place ILB in fridge.

-Go outside, smoke a cigarette, watch the first part of the O'Rielly Factor, wander around for a bit.

-Remove ILB from fridge.

What you should have is a brownish-white... thing. The sugar should have dissolved the banana, and the Cheerio's and Grape Nuts should have soaked up a good portion of the milk, though the mixture should remain very liquid. So much so, that it is difficult to carry without spilling, and as you walk yo the living room with it, you should leave little spills in your wake. When you notice these upon your return to the kitchen, mumble a string of curses under your breath.

And the self-explanatory ones:

4) ILB full o' shrimp

5) Cheese n' Pickles

6) An entire 12oz bag o' beef jerky

These are just a few, and not even the most interesting. He insists on putting mustard on most things he eats, and nothing crunchy usually works it's way in. It makes me not want to eat anything.

-JP

Well, I started my new job today. I think it went really well. I like all the guys I'll be working with, and I had a fun lunch with a few of them. I get into he meat of the job tomorrow because a snafu of sorts over the weekend meant that the guy showing me the ropes was off today.
I think I'll have a good time, and it seems like this is the first job I've had that I can still see myself in ten years down the line.

In other news:
We had a great week end where we celebrated father's day and a few June birthdays all at once. Better to get them all out of the way.
We sold the crappy ass '88 Volvo that had no air conditioning to a woman to give to her teenage daughter, for $500. They did not get a deal. That is exactly what the car is worth.
We did a small bit of shopping, including the bridesmaid dress that Jen will be wearing next week in Robin's wedding. Lucky thing the Wedding is soon, or Jen wouldn't be able to fit in the dress.

I think that's it.

-JP

Grub.

So there it is. Jen is 11 weeks on, and the baby is due Jan 3.
We are both very excited.

Not much else to say. I start my new job next week. Robin is getting married the next, and Hopefully our house will sell soon, so I don't have to commute.

waiting.

-Jason.

Transmogrification

First off, if anybody out there wants to be a rock star, watch this video over and over again to get some pointers.






The White Stripes and The Raconteurs are bands that I really like despite their massive popularity. See diagram. For once a band is popular because they deserve it, and not because the Clear Channel and MTV programmers were bribed into over playing them and insisting that you should love them and you should go to the concert that we happen to be sponsoring and here is some free swag that you don't need and visit us for a free hot dog at some shitty car lot that we also have an in with where you can hear that same song played from the back of a van...


IN OTHER NEWS:

The following has mostly broken out, so I feel safe in telling you all straight out. I seem to love to totally disrupt my life and the lives of my loved ones about every two years or so. First off, I just got a new job. It is as a Graphic Designer for the Tulsa World Newspaper. I am very excited.
This means that I will be packing up my family and moving back to Tulsa. So I'm going to have to commute or stay safe places until we sell our house and find a new on to either buy or rent in Tulsey Town. I also need to start packing. I have a lot of stuff. I will miss certain aspects of Stilly and I will miss most of the people I've met, and I will for damn sure miss the coffee shop. Stilly has been a good experience overall, and has been great for Jackson. I'm sad to pull him out of his school and daycare because they both do a bang-up job. But I have come to realize that if you don't have anything to do with OSU and are a professional with any kind of ambition, then your options run a tad short. So off we go.

So the other news is that Jackson is going to be a big brother. Jen was keeping it quiet, but the word has pretty much been spread about by the rumor mill*, So I am here to tell you that yes it is true, and Jen is due in early January and don't call us screaming congrats or anything like that or I'll have Jen puke on you.

So, um... Yeah. I have a lot to do. I should get to it.

-JP


*By "Rumor Mill" I mean the Kettlers. And my Mom.

Big changes.

More later.

Not really an SB

Here are all the Doctors hastily scribbled on post-it notes. It serves no purpose.

Jen threw a Batchelorette party for Robin this weekend I assume they had a good time. I don't know because the boy and I were not invited. We hid out in Tulsey Town until the dust settled, and all evidence of penis cakes and what not were cleared away.

Then I crammed a whole weekend's worth of chores into a few hours Sunday evening.

Other than that, not too much going on. I hear rumors that the Turner Burner is coming OK way, so that will be fun. This weekend is my 5 year wedding anniversary, so that's cool.

I am very excited for the Heroes season finale tonight. So I just want my day to go by faster.

That is all.

He just keeps being awesome.

See what I mean? Also, Campbell's bit as an obnoxious french waiter in the Spidey3 film is full-on awesome. Not since Patrick Stewart's turn as an obnoxious french waiter in LA Story has a geek-hero been so entertaining as an obnoxious french waiter.

Good news here. They dropped the charges against the ATHF guys after they did some community service. They shouldn't have even had to do that, but at least they didn't get charged as terrorists. The article does say that there would be a problem with proving intent with that anyway.

This is pretty funny, too.

What else?

Did everybody call their mothers yesterday? Did anybody call anybody a mother[SHUTCHO MOUTH!] Just talkin' 'bout Shaft!

I had a nice weekend at Aunt Grace's house, except that every body got weird sicknesses independent from each other. Jack had this nasty fever and Grace threw up so hard her nose bled. I had massive sunburns from dealing with Grace's crapped-out lawn mower (Lonny is off with the Guard cleaning up Greensburg, so we offered to help out), and Jen was on no sleep because of an overnight fundraiser at her work. We had a really good time despite ourselves.

Now I'm back at work.

meh.

But you know what? I kind of like Mondays now. Heroes is on Monday, and I usually have an extra helping of web-comics and blog updates to pour through.

-JP

Rain

Rain rain rain...... Big storm......rain rain.... Tornado....rain rain rain...

And that's about it. The weekend had a break, and I did yardwork with a great furver, then it rained again.

See? That's been going on forever now.

SB 26 - Big Fat Nerd

So, let me tell you a little story about my youth. (this gets nerdy) The very first episode of Dr. Who I ever saw was 'Robot", written by Terrence Dicks. It was the first 4th Doc Tom Baker Episode as well. He first hit the screen in 1974, so this was either America getting the eps really really late or repeats in syndication, because I saw it in like '83 or '84.

This is important because I had already seen Jedi at this point. As a nine year old kid who was teetering on the edge, about to fall into the abyss of geekdom, and not being old enough to care about production costs or good writing, this was a good episode to start with. It started a lifelong ... not so much obsession ... but devotion to Dr. Who that would persist into my '30, with only occasional breaks for actual obsessions like Teletunes or for the show going off the air for a decade or so. Even then, I read the comics and the novels from time to time. Jeff was the real fan, and I was kept updated by him as well.

Having seen Jedi by this point is important because of the slave girl outfit. As with most boys, and a few girls, in a certain age group and demographic, that slave girl outfit was a bit of a turning point in my life. It made me realize that girls were more than targets for propelled dirt clods. And I, along with everybody else, never told a sole. Which brings us back to "Robot". This ep also featured Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elizabeth Sladen, as a plucky reporter trying to make a name for herself, but people give her a hard time because she's a girl. She also had these big doe eyes that a nine year old Jason found totally cute. That actually may be why I tuned back in the next week, and after a few more I was hooked. So there.

What else?

It is my Mom's birthday, so happy birthday Mom. I seriously doubt she reads this blog, but you never know. If she does then I should have had a lot of explaining to do before today.

I saw Spider-Man 3 last night. It was good, but not the strongest of the three. It was a bit choppy, and I think they didn't learn the lessons concerning overindulgence that X-Men or Batman taught us. They just tried to cram too much in there, and even though there was simple way even the odds, the whole last third of the movie seemed really forced. Effects were really good, and even though I was never a big Venom fan, they did a good job with him, and he's in it a lot more than I thought he would be. The thing that really bugged me was that in the whole "temptation" sub-plot where Peter is hanging out with Gwen Stacy was silly to me because the obvious choice would be Ursula, the awkward, and completely hot neighbor across the hall. Idiot.

Okay. So that's it. I gotta go back to work.

-JP

SB 25 and Kites in Denver

Here is a sketch of some of my favs from Heroes. I am ball-bouncingly happy that said show is back on the air. Waiting a week was bad enough, but almost two months? Piss off, NBC.

In other news, I had an awfully good time in Denver. Thanks to all of you who made my stay as awesome as it was. I got to see some new Friends like Margi and Lisa and old friends like Terrence ( I used to call him "Terry", but that has since been disallowed.) and Dave.

The Drive with Mr. Joey was the funnest part. Back in the day, Joey and I would Road trip all the time. At least once a summer, usually more because back then we had shit jobs and no responsibility and could take off for a few weeks without our personal realities crumbling. We get along well in the car and have almost the exact same taste in music and snack foods. The trip took less time than I figured, but since we outfitted his 97 Civic for Hyperspace, it's got a little more pick-up off the line.

We stayed again at the Empty Condo of the Mom which, much like the Model Home in Arrested Development, is the default place to crash for my family. No one has actually lived there for years, but if one of us is visiting from out of town, too drunk to drive back to the sub-urbs, just broke up with significant other and got or needs to bring a hooker somewhere discreet, then the Condo is the place to go. My Brother and his wife were waiting for us there Friday night and it was good to see them because I hadn't seen my brother in a few years. They spent the majority of the weekend at StarFest and had a good time. My mom had stocked the Condo with food and whatnot, so we made a big breakfast each morning since that was the only time we knew we'd all be in the same room together.

I went to Sputknik, Gabor's and The Skylark (not all in the same night), And saw a too many people to mention by name and had a lot of fun, only a small portion of which involved porn.

Sunday Emily decided we should all fly kites. so that's what we did.

See? I tell no lies:

This was the first time I came back to Denver where two things happened, or rather didn't happen. 1 - once we parked the car, we didn't touch it again till we left. Which is probably because we 2 - never left the hill. We walked everywhere. I never went past Broadway, Colfax, Cheesman Park or 6th, with the exception of the bar. I usually make it into LoDo at least once, but not this time. Weird.

I'm back in Stilly now, and even though I had a great time, I was ready to see the Wife and the Shorty (Sgt. Shorty now).

Joey made his way back to Austin without incident, and I was sad to see him go. We really need to make it down there for a visit. He and Laura are up on us like 3 visits now.

That is all.

-JP

SB 24

Um... I have no way to explain the above pic. I will say that I have suspected for a long time that my brain doesn't work right. Too much happy time in high school.

The Good:

-I and Joey V are leaving for Denver in about 24 hours. I hope to be knee deep in friends and whiskey once I get there. Make that happen.

-Jackson has figured out that if he uses his little wagon full o' toys and gets a running start, he can knock over the baby gate. He then runs into the back part of the house yelling the baby equivalent of "FREEDOM!"

-I'm totally excited to see Hot Fuzz. Anybody in Denver want to go see that with me?

The Bad:

-Cody will not be joining us on the D-Town trip. He says that all the rain has hampered is earning ability for the last few weeks. I guess I can see that, but he's still a weenie.

-TODD Goldman, the maker of David and Goliath tees, has been caught red handed ripping off a web comics creator. This story is all over the interwebs, thanks to a Juxtapoz article, and hopefully Todd Goldman will burn in hell for it, or maybe just be put out of business. There is now a whole site devoted to his obvious rip-offs.

The Ugly:

-April is indeed the cruelest month. With the exception of my good friend Aaron Taylor having his birthday in April, the month pretty much sucks. OKC, Columbine, This Virginia Tech thing, That plane crash that killed all those OSU basketball players. The Bees getting killed by cell phones. Kurt Vonnegut dieing. My horrendous allergies that smack me around all month long with a bigger hammer than usual. Piss off, April.

-Speaking of the VT shooting. I hate to sound rude of insensitive, but having been in Denver during the Columbine shooting, and only a few years removed from high school I have to get this off my chest. Here's what will happen: There will be a massive outpouring of concern and solidarity, rightly so. Then the extremes will come out of the wood work. The Right will yap about more security, The Left will yap about gun control. Not realizing that the answer is somewhere in between, they will not waver their extreme points, and nothing will get done. It's what happens every time there is a school shooting, and obviously it hasn't worked.

Also, I have to say that I don't like the camera hogs. People who had nothing to do with the incident or any of the people involved, but end up on the news four times a day. Back in high school, a kid got killed huffing the crap that they put in fire extinguishers. When news hit the school, there were these kids who would sit in the hall crying and asking why him, and all that, and none of them knew him, They just wanted attention. I've always hated that. It happened at Columbine, and it happens whenever there is a major tragedy. Those people don't need your shit. What does that get you? 5 seconds on TV and that's it. Your false sincerity blows.

So, um... Yeah. That was a bit of a downer. Sorry about that.

have a nice day.

-JP

Thought dump 2

Well, after public outcry from my last post, I have decided to link to the jack pose.

Click at your own risk.

Thought dump:

I am going to be in Denver over the weekend of the 22nd, so adjust your plans accordingly.

So Nick Cave has a new band. Well, not a new band, but an old band with a new sound. A sound so different, they decided to change the name. Grinderman is their name and I have to say that this description pretty well sums them up: "Foul-mouthed, noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better." The album is good and entertaining in the way that your drunk, racist uncle is. You'll ignore the intolerance because his stories are so fucking awesome.

I love my DVR. I really don't watch live TV anymore. Having a shorty makes that cumbersome anyway. Most of the time, I'd rather spend the 3 hours a day I really get to see him playing with blocks and tonka toys on the floor that watching Boston Legal anyway, so I just record everything I might want to watch and wait for him to go to bed. The last week or so, Ive been really into a book anyway, so once I'm done with that I'll just stay up some night watching oodles of cheesy sci-fi till 2AM and be in a crabby mood the next day when I hit the message boards.

I lent Jen my ipod so she could take it on her business trip this week. I'm using a little flash based job that I won in some raffle here at work a while back. It won't work with itunes, but I don't need a music subscription service to use it, just drag and drop from my music files. That's pretty handy. I hate the interface, but the sound is really really good. I'm surprised. It is super tiny, too. I like that.

I've been listening to Kevin Smith's podcasts lately. They are incredibly entertaining. Kevin has no censor button on his brain so the sickest shit comes out of there in a very matter-of-fact kind of way. And he curses more than anybody I've ever even heard of. Fun stuff, but not safe for listening in groups. Keep it in the earbuds.

I wonder why spring is being such a bastard. Does he really put that much credence to what that stupid groundhog dictates?
"Six more weeks!" says the groundhog.
"You know what," says Spring, "Fuck you."

-JP

SB 23 - Raincoat guy

Hey! a new sketch! About time, Powers.

Okay so I have some random thoughts that won't leave my head till I write them down:

-I love how easy it is to get music on the intertubes these days, either legally or otherwise. I also love that I have a vast network of friends who are also music lovers, who can dupe things and mail them to me. The music is so assessable now that one barely has to think about it. One hears a song they like, and just goes over to the computer and gets it. No more wandering into Wax Trax and thinking "what the fuck did I come in here for?". There are a few downfalls, though. One is the band not getting as much money, but with the exception of Megadeth, I truly believe that this is propaganda perpetuated by the major record labels and that the artists (at least the ones who are in it for more than money) would want as many people as possible to hear their music regardless of how they obtained it. The second, and the one I have only recently realized is the loss of album art. Sure, itunes has that tiny 2 inch square in the lower right corner that gets displayed on your ipod (if you are lucky enough to have one that allows this, like I don't), but most of my downloads are off the torrents, and are bare bones. I've been listening to !!! for weeks now, and I only saw the cover of the album last week while in the music store. I feel that an album is an all senses kind of thing, or at least it should be, and I'm missing out on something here. I need to look into that.

-I came late to the party for a wonderful British show called Life On Mars. It is wonderful. Well thought out and beautifully acted. I don't know when BBCAM will start running it again, but catch it when it does. I read somewhere that David E. Kelly was making an American version for ABC, but I still can't figure out why the networks insist on remaking great shows and not just playing the original. The exception being The Office, which has managed to out shine it's predecessor somehow.

-Guys who insist on backing into their driveways or into a parking spot bug the shit out of me. It seems to take way longer to shimmy into the spot backwards than it would to just pull the fuck in. Do these guys think a brawl is going start in the Satrbucks, and they might need to get out in a hurry? Seem weird.

-They kicked off Sarah last night on America's Next Top Model. Bastards. I've been watching this show over my wife's shoulder for years, and Sarah was the first one that I really liked as a model and as a person. Usually those things don't mesh, but Sarah was smart and cute, and didn't go all bitchy all the time. She was there as a definite career step, and not because somebody told her she was pretty once and wanted to be on TV. She'll do well outside the show, though. She has enough drive.

-According to an entry in BoingBoing, you can now have your cremated ashed made into pencils. Live on through other people's sketches. I actually think that's really cool. You heard it here first: in the absence of a living will, that is what I would like to have done to me when I die.

-Jackson started doing this thing in the bath, where he stands up, rests his right hand on the edge of the tub, crosses his legs in front of him, and places the other hand gingerly on his hip in what can only be described as a modelling pose, ala Mr. Peanut. He then leers at you with a coy little smile, as it to say "hello, ladies." It is the funniest thing I have ever seen a toddler do. I shall try to capture this on camera, but he only does it in the bath, and I don't know the laws regarding posting a pic of a naked toddler in a "come hither" pose.

Okay. That's it. Brain emptied. Thanks for playing along.

-JP

Kiev

I think there is a lot of good street art out there. I just don't think most of it is in America. Last night, The Fam and I got stuck at train crossing, and were commenting about how all the graffiti on the train cars ammounted to a variation of "Joe was here". Don't get me wrong, I have a high respect for art in any form, and if it weren't for street art, we wouldn't have Basquiat or Keith Harring or several other very influentual artists.

But this stuff* -->

Just awesome. It's from The Ukraine, and I can't read it. But it looks really cool, so I don't care. I wish more Americans would crank it up a notch like these guys did.

Another cool artist I found between trolling the message boards and actually working was Ashley Wood. She combines two of my favorite things: Robots and Pin-up girls. Cool stuff.

The 3rd series of Doctor Who hit England on Saturday, and then hit the torrents a few hours later. It was really good. The new companion will do just nicely.

In other news:

For those of you who know my brother Jefferson, this will be amusing. He's part of a podcast now, over at SuperHeroCinema.com. He and two other guys yap about movies and other media that is adapted from comics somehow. I have a hard time listening sometimes, because I know his voice so well. I keep wanting to interject. They geek out on all kinds of stuff, and I don't get to do that very often anymore, so I listen intently every week.

Those podcasts are all the rage now. I can't figure out if I like them or not. A lot of them are fun and amusing like the ones from the Onion, but others are like listening in on a conversation that you can't be a part of. Kevin Smith's is like that. Why do I want to listen to two guys yammer on like that? Answer: I really don't. I get the same feeling I get when eavesdropping on the neighbors when they are fighting or screwing. I usually keep listening in either case, because I am gossipy deviant.

Jackson is nearing 2. My how time flies. He's learning a lot of words really fast, which means I have to watch my mouth a lot more.** He is also starting to push a few boundaries. In that, I mean he can be a total pain in the ass from time to time. My friend Brian has a good theory on why that is, and I tend to agree. I now have the age-old parental question of weather to give in for the sake of quietness and risk spoilage, or don't react, and risk deep-seeded daddy issues later in life like I have.*** I usually go about 50 -50 to cover the spread.

-JP

*From Drawn!

** Like I ever did before.

***And everybody else in the world.

In which I have a new pic.

Finally, a new page of NGV5 is up! enjoy.

In other news: Looks like Iran started a war. Idiots.

So, a few weeks ago, Jackson went through a little phase where he was loving to take his pants off. That's cool. We all do that. I still do that. He was at the baby sitter's, where she had a heckova time getting him to keep the drawers up. She's pull them up, he'd run around the corner and laughing the whole time, pull 'em off again. At some point, she realized that she hadn't seen or heard him for a while, and found him between the couch and the coffee table.

The result, here.

As I said in the previous post, I am addicted to Lego Star Wars. Lego just announced that they are making a new game based on Lego Batman. I peed a little in my pants when I heard that.

Equally exciting is this:

This is a test shot from the movie version of Watchmen, which Zach Snyder of 300 and Dawn Of The Dead fame has taken on as his next project. There may be another Zombie movie first, and if I get that too, I can happily wait for Watchmen. I am becoming a big fan of Snyder. He does good work, and he has a good bead on how movies work both as a business and as art. He stated in an interview, that he is treating the book as literature, not wanting to update it to fit into today's political climate, ala V for Vendetta. His point is that if you were to make a movie based on Moby Dick, you wouldn't try to set it in a contemporary time frame*, and I have to respect that. Good for Zach. He also stated that he wants to keep it as true to the comic as possible, making it most likely R rated and 3 hours long, and after seeing how accurate 300 was, I believe he can do it. Watchmen is the single most important Comic ever produced, and those of you fan boys that just had The Dark Knight Returns pop into your head can fuck right off.**

Also: I didn't get a job I was going for. I'm a little disappointed, but it was a long shot anyway, so no harm done. Jen and I are looking to make some sort of major change, though. We basically know what, we just need to figure out how to proceed. More on that later.

I have nothing else to report.

Have a nice day.

-JP

*save that for Shakespeare.

** Still one of my Faves, but couldn't have happened without Watchmen.

Oh, those silly comics...

You all should check out Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Panels from YesButNoButYes. Good stuff. Like this gem -->

Of course this guy has been at it for a while now.

Speaking of comics: Back in the day, as it were, I was a big fan of all the Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean Sandman stuff that was counter-culturally popular in the early '90s. After a while, though, I lost interest in Gaiman and that whole gothy-comics thing. I thought Gaiman's writing was going down hill, and the majority of similarly themed comics weren't very good. When Sandman ended, I wasn't too upset, and I picked up The Dreaming for a while, but soon lost interest. Gaiman edited a collection of short stories that I thought were pandering and dumb, so I pretty much gave up on him. McKean was a similar story. He sort of got in a rut, and most of his art looked so similar that I couldn't tell one piece from another for a while.

About a year ago, somebody sent me a link to his blog, which I have been reading off and on ever since. I was surprised to find out that he'd forsaken the gloomy streets of London for a family life in Minnesota. People I respect were telling me that his novels were really good, and I did enjoy Good Omens, but that was because it is really witty and funny which I assumed was the Terry Pratchett influence.

So a few weeks ago, at the urging of my curiosity, I rented Mirrormask, the movie that McKean and Gaiman made together. I hadn't heard of them collaborating on anything very big for a while, so I thought I'd check it out. It's a bit of an Alice in Wonderland rip off, but It looks gorgeous, and was way better than I thought it would be.

So then I decided I'd give in, and I picked up American Gods, used, with a gift card. I have to sat that I am impressed. All the stuff I used to love about his writing is in there with out all the gothy trappings he fell into way back when. I'm only about half way through it, due to my obsession with Lego Star Wars, but so far, I likie. The boys redeemed themselves.

I am currently listening to The Violent Femmes first and best Album. Everybody go dig that album out and listen to it very loudly right now. You won't be sorry. I have memories flooding back of lazy high school afternoons driving around wasting time till dinner.

-JP

In which I have little to say.

Well, there have been some serious changes at my work. Some shuffling and some re-organizing. Suffice it to say that I have turned my thoughts toward change. I have been feeling for a while that I may want to leave Stilly. I like it here, but I feel I may be able to make a better life for my family if I get back to a bigger city. Which city and with what opportunities said city would offer are the questions. Things seem to be pointing me back to Tulsa, at least in the short term. We shall see. The weird thing is that I've actually been hella busy at work, hence no sketches or comics for a while.
In other news:
Basketball has robbed me of new Heroes episodes, so to fill my geek quota, I have to survive on sporadic Smallville eps and whatever Sci-fi has to offer.
The new Robin Hood series on BBC America is better and worse than I thought it would be, so I keep tuning in and can't really figure out why. The acting is mostly bad, but the writing is pretty good. It suffers from trying to distance itself from the version the one the Herc and Xena people did by fully embracing the Kevin Costner version. Of course they make everybody younger and better looking, in keeping with what feudal English peasants historically looked like. Who knew oral care was so much better during the Crusades?
BBCAM really needs to re run The Eleventh Hour. That show is really good. Starring Captain Picard and Maggie from Extras, they both play against type as crime investigators. Picard uses chemistry to save the day!
Also, Live Forever is a really well done documentary on the whole Brit Pop phenomenon back in the '90s. If you were into that at all back then, Like I was, you should take a look.
The FX show The Riches got off to a promising start. A family of con artist-gypsies take over the lives of a family killed in a car wreck. Good stuff. It was really weird to see Eddie Izzard a) without make up, and b) acting so well. He does a really good job. And I didn't want to punch Minnie Driver in the face*, so she's getting better.
Jackson is learning more words every day, and it is awesome to see his cognitive abilities grow. He's going to be some sort of evil genius when he grows up. A mad scientist perhaps. I should start looking for castles atop creepy mountains for him to live in.
Why is the spring time so filled with reality shows? For the most part, I don't like them, a few here and there aside (and none of those are on the air anymore) I just don't see the appeal. Though most reality show watchers would wonder why I waste my time with cheesy sci-fi.
The new Arcade Fire and !!! (chk chk chk) are both decient. !!! is fun because you think it's dance music until you realize they are all actually playing real instruments.
I think That's all I got. Take care.

-JP

*though that jaw would probably break my fist.

One of my favorite things..

Is when white christian conservatives bitch about being discriminated against. I love it for it sheer absurdity, kinda like a mime. Or when you catch dogs humping. They're just doing what's in their nature, but it sure is funny.
NPR ran a story today about Conservapedia, the conservative's answer to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anybody can edit. I guess they had a problem with "anybody". That could mean that somebody who wasn't a white christian conservative, and they can't have that. That would undermine Jesus' teachings of love and tolerance. The main page touts: A conservative encyclopedia you can trust. Yeah, right.
So, um... yeah. Sorry I haven't written in a while. There's been some funky-funky at my work lately, so I've been a little pre-occupied. I can't really go into it, because they have eyes. and cameras. Not really. It would just be wildly inappropriate.
Other than that, not much going on. I saw 300, and loved it. It was like watching a giant live action video game. Miller's dialogue actually works in such a setting.
So. That's it. Go away.

SB 22 - Fish

Here is a fish. And it went where ever I did go.
Jackson got a little fishy for Christmas from his aunt Grace that lives on our counter now. In a little bowl. Jackson likes it. Every once in a while, he points at it, and says "shi-shi!"
Fish are weird. I've had a lot of them in the past, the coolest being a Black Moor named Doctor Fishopolis that lived eight years. Fish don't have eye lids, so when they die, I never really believe it because they're still looking at me. I usually have to poke them once or twice to make sure. (why is it that whenever we come across something dead, our first instinct is to poke it? Usually with a stick.)
Everybody in the Powers household was sick over the last week or so. A nasty "comin' outa both ends" kind of sick. The kind where you don't eat anything for 3 days, then when you finally feel better, food still sounds disgusting. All you want to do is lie in bed. Or better yet, you wish there was some way to move the bed and the TV into the bathroom so you don't have to scamper as far. Jack got it first, then me, and finally Jenn, the day before she had to go to Dallas for some training class. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't all get it at once, as there are not enough bathrooms in our house.
Now we're all better, we all have our appetites back, and even though the ordeal left me 8 pounds lighter, I'm glad food sounds good again.

-JP

My Town Stinks

Know why? Because there are a large number of skunks that have gotten hit by cars all over town. I have never seen such a mass-suicide in skunks before. They are running at cars kamakazi style in what seems like pairs. We went to Tulsa this weekend, and counted 14 of them in the road during the drive. The combined effect is making the whole town smell like skunk spray and rotting flesh. Yummy.

Thanks to everybody for well wishing going on all weekend. My birthday was marred by a sick child, barfing all over everything all weekend, so the celebrations were decidedly low-key. Jen took me to a very nice dinner, and out for a beer. It was relaxing, which was just what I needed. Poor Jack had to skip his friend Gavin's 1st birthday party. We got back on Sunday, and Jenn made me a cake.

That's about all I have right now.

-JP