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