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War Journal Entry number 958 - Missed it by that much, a review of G.I. Joe: Retalliation

2013-05-19T18:03:13Z

It's pretty sad when an 80s cartoon for kids does a better job of something than a modern theatrical movie intended for older audiences. Specifically I'm referring to the portrayal of female characters.

The comic series did an even better job than the cartoon. In a 1986 interview Larry Hama had this to say on the female following of his G.I.Joe comic series - "Most of the girls that write in say that the reason they like the comic is that the women characters are simply part of the team. They’re not treated as any different from the other team members. They don’t go around with their palms nailed to their foreheads. They’re competent, straight forward, and they go ahead and get the job done. They also participate emotionally. They have their likes and dislikes. They’re not ill-treated and they’re not running around being worrywarts." I couldn't find the exact quote but I seem to remember somewhere him saying that he just writes female characters the same way he writes the male characters, and he couldn't understand why that was so revolutionary.

Back to the films, I didn't complain too much on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra about the portrayal of women even though it did have issues. Scarlet was adequately done, but didn't totally make up for the fact that the first film completely undercut the Baroness, changing her from a competent, self-driven villain into a brainwashed damsel in distress. Though, seriously, having only two female characters of note is also a mighty large black mark against it.

Then G.I. Joe: Retaliation comes along and again only has two female characters, one a collection of tropes and the other a pointless ninja.

Starting with the second, they seemed to have included Jinx because they needed to have more than one woman in the movie but they didn't really have a place for her. She doesn't actually contribute to the plot in any way and could have been completely left out without any changes being necessary. And I don't know if the demure acting was from the actress or due to direction, but it flies in the face of the fiery attitude shown in the original character portrayals of the comics and cartoon.

While Jinx seemed to be an afterthought, Lady Jaye is an example of overcompensation due to a lack of understanding. She's an expert sniper, whiz at computers and communication equipment, and can go undercover and manipulate bad guys with “the power of her hotness.” This wouldn't seem so out of place in G.I. Joe, an organization full cross-functional experts, except for the fact that her male counterpart teammate, Flint, doesn't do much of anything except contribute the single most offensive moment in the film. To add depth to Lady Jaye's character they gave her a backstory where her dad wanted a boy so she was driven to prove him wrong by getting promoted past him, but was denied this closure by his premature death. Can you hear my eyes rolling? Daddy issues? Evidently it never occurred to them that a woman could be successful and driven on her own merits, and need not prove herself to and require the approval of men.

Speaking of the men, there's a scene where Flint uses the reflection in some surface (don't remember exactly what it was) to watch Lady Jaye strip out of her hot red dress of infiltration without her know it. So was he caught and clocked in the face for his transgression? No, no he wasn't it. Despite the fact that Lady Jaye knocking the arrogant Flint down a peg or two was a part of the character dynamic in the comics and cartoons, the incident instead goes undiscovered and we are shown that it's ok to be a voyeur. What? Seriously? Yes, seriously, because obviously the prurient needs of men is more important than showing respect to women. This is why we can't have nice things.

Look, I didn't expect much out of the movie, I just wanted to see Dwayne Johnson in a fun action role and that's what we got. (And he was, as always, a lot of fun to watch.) We got a typical action movie, and as such it carries all the problems, cliches, and tropes that they entail. Like the Michael Bay Transformers movies, the G.I. Joe films only have a surface understanding of the property and completely miss many of the deeper qualities that have made it endure for decades.

War Journal Entry number 957 - Very brief (and as spoiler-free as possible) review of Iron Man 3

2013-05-13T02:53:37Z

Iron Man 3 is a pretty divisive movie. I enjoyed it. Many dedicated fans of the comics are upset with a character change made in it. Critical viewers have also pointed out how that change also introduces a ton of plot holes into the proceedings. But without it I wouldn't have enjoyed the film nearly as much. It would have left me uncomfortable, and probably not intentionally so. With the reveal, though, that part of the movie appears to have been on purpose and that they were knowingly taking things over the top.

Overall, it helps if you aren't too attached to the source material, and don't think about the film too awfully close. It's not bad, but I'd never label it a great film. I think it's better than the second one, and I would probably place it just under the first owing to the number of elements that I enjoyed.

War Journal Entry number 956.1 - And a little bit more than meets the eye

2013-04-08T16:39:22Z

The general description for Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye is that it is about a group of Autobots traveling through space as they hunt for the legendary Knights of Cybertron and have adventures along the way. That’s a generic enough charter that it leaves a lot of room to explore different genres of tales as it goes. But really, as someone said very well on TF Wiki, “mostly it's about lonely nobodies hanging out pretending they have friends.” And, damn, it so really is.

One of the things the writer did recently, which has been very excitedly picked up on by the slash fiction writers, is introduce the concept of Conjunx Endura, an acknowledged relationship status that grants specific rights and responsibilities. From James Roberts himself, "That’s the beauty of writing about alien civilizations: sometimes, when it comes to relationships, there is no precise human equivalent. That said, I’ve made it clear through the stories – I hope – that Chromedome and Rewind each regard the other as the most important person in their life." But the choice of term is not one so vague as he implies, conjunx is a Latin word that literally means, “One who is united in marriage, a consort, spouse, wife; more rarely, a husband.” He’s established formalized emotional relationships between gender-neutral characters. And it’s character stuff like that which makes it my favorite book.

War Journal entry number 956 - More than Transformers

2013-04-01T02:01:54Z

Damn you, James Roberts,

No, not for making me cry. Again. And I most certainly did with Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #15. I've come to accept that every issue is going to do that.

No, I'm cursing you for being the Terry Pratchett of Transformers writers, and crafting hands down the best book I'm reading right now. And I'm reading quite a few comics, I pick up about a dozen a week. Heck, I've been in stores with fewer comics than I have. Yes, I've been a Transformers fan since 1984, and I have almost all of the American available comics as well as many of the British ones in the Titan or IDW collections, but I'm not comparing this to other Transformers comics. This leaves them far behind. I'm comparing this to every other comic I'm reading and have read, and this is one of the best.

And that right there is the problem. I try telling people about this spectacular series I'm reading, with characters more complex than you see anywhere else, with tone shifts that are both unexpected yet logical, and with every single issue being a completely satisfying experience while building upon the full tapestry of the higher tale, but all they can think of is the 80s cartoon or at worst, and most likely these days, the Michael Bay movies. So therefore I end up looking like a raving idiot.

Thanks a lot, James.

And keep up the brilliant work.

Most sincerely,
Jeremy Wiggins

----
Letter sent to IDW Publishing

War Journal Entry number 955 update - How go the Guardians?

2013-04-01T00:54:07Z

So. Guardians of the Galaxy #1. You may be wondering what I thought in regards to the fears that I had going in.

Well, one fear I didn't express, because it seemed kind of snarky, has been assuaged, namely that Steve McNiven may not be as good as he used to be. See, there were quite a few, by which I mean a lot, of panels that just didn't work in issue #0.1. Typically it had to do with faces and expressions during the conversations and quiet moments. Well, this issue got around that by not having much in the way of quiet moments so the art was, for me, unquestionable.

The other unspoken fear was that Iron Man was included because Bendis didn't want to give him up after leaving the Avengers line of books. Well, that may actually be the case. I don't know, possibly there's more to it than that and Iron Man is going to have a purpose in the story they are going to tell. But here, after a prelude issue that was 100% Star-Lord, we got a book that was Star-Lord, guest starring Iron Man, with cameo appearances by the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The balance is just off at this point, focused on the most human, a.ka. relatable, characters at the expense of the others. That's what lazy writers do, underselling non-human characters and relegating the others to secondary characters. Bendis should be better than that. So I am disappointed with that. Significantly so. It's a bad sign, especially from someone that has a long history of writing ensemble team books.

The fear that I did express in the previous entry was that the individual issues wouldn't be satisfying and that it would be light on plot. Well, the issue is made up of only two scenes, but it's still somehow overall satisfying. So, all right, I'll try to continue keeping an open mind.

War Journal Entry number 955 - Waiting for the Guardians

2013-03-26T02:56:23Z

The first issue of the latest iteration of Guardians of the Galaxy comes out this week. I’m a little nervous about it.

The 1990s series was my gateway drug into super-hero comics. Prior to it the comics I read were primarily licensed ones for science fiction or quasi-science fiction properties. There was Transformers, of course, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ghostbusters, and the Archie published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That first issue of Guardians pulled me in with the future setting, aliens, space exploration, and cool outfits, and then proceeded to introduce me to the melodrama of superheroes. The series featured some 31st century versions of modern characters, like Ghost Rider, and also referenced events like The Dark Phoenix Saga which got me interested in checking those out. As if that wasn't enough, the desire to see more of the Guardians themselves made me dig back relatively far back as their previous appearances were from the late seventies and early eighties. Thus I was pretty quickly introduced to some solid Bronze Age comics. The Steve Gerber penned run in Marvel Presents is a perfect example of the kind of trippy social commentary they were doing at the time. Meanwhile, The Korvac Saga is to this day still one of my favorite Avengers stories.

The initial writer/artist of the 90s series, Jim Valentino, left after about two years and the follow up creative teams never really settled on a direction. I stuck around for a couple more years but eventually gave up. Rather tellingly the series lasted less than a year after that.

A few years ago another Guardians of the Galaxy series came out. This one was from the writing pair of Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning. I was already a big fan of theirs going into it. They were well known for their science fiction work, had done fantastic stuff with Legion of Super-Heroes in the 90s, and were in the midst of a deservedly critically praised Cosmic Marvel multi-part epic, of which Guardians of the Galaxy was just a piece. While only using one of the original members they were able to demonstrate that they were not ignoring the history of the book yet at the same time crafting new, enthralling tales that built upon that major Cosmic arc but were still eminently satisfying as individual issues. The series lasted two years and came to a deliberately planned end. Damn, that book was good.

Last month we got Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 from the new series’ creative team, Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven. The oddly numbered issue is a bit of a prequel, focused on the origin (as in conception, birth, and early childhood) of the team’s leader, Peter Quill a.k.a. Starlord. The story, as mentioned in a text piece in the back, was originally intended to be an eight page tale in a teaser anthology. But Bendis decided there was too much there and convinced editorial to make it a whole issue. Unfortunately he was wrong. Five pages can be cut in seconds, and I could easily cut this down to eight pages without breaking a sweat. Of course the fact that this wasn’t even a necessary tale and could have simply been a small bit of exposition means there just isn’t as much substance as Bendis thinks there is. And that has me worried. Bendis used to do a pretty good job of judging how much story there was in a tale, but I haven’t seen that skill so much in a number of years. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe I just haven't read the right things lately. Back when I read Ultimate Spider-Man the story-arcs were of a variety of different lengths ranging from two issues to eight or so and that worked. And while the arcs on his Daredevil run were typically all the same length none of them felt too long or drawn out. But with his later work on Avengers there were quite a few times I felt like things were being padded, like the focus was on the next crossover event but they needed to have some books on the shelves between them. And I know that there is a crossover, possibly even an event, in the near future for Guardians of the Galaxy. So, yeah, I'm worried that the book will be light on plot and that individual issues will be about as satisfying as just watching the ten minutes between commercial breaks of an hour long TV show. I'm not a Bendis hater, I've thoroughly enjoyed some books that he's written, and he's not the only guy "writing for the trade" so I can't completely hold that against him. That mentality comes from editorial as much as it does the writers. But I want Guardians of the Galaxy to be one of my favorite books and I just don't see that as likely.

There is some supremely unexpected news on the horizon, Neil Gaiman is co-writing issue #5. Wow. OK. That should be, well, that should be quite good. There's no word yet on if he's doing more than just that issue.

I guess at this point I'll just take it one issue at a time and hopefully Bendis will prove me wrong.

War Journal Entry number 954 - Camelot 3000

2013-03-24T15:31:04Z

I finally read Camelot 3000 recently. It's really something I should have read a long time ago. First off, it's got a solid pair of creators. It's written by Mike W. Barr who consistently turns out enjoyable stories. And then the art is by Brian Bolland who's never had a bad page printed, ever. Secondly, this book occupies a significant place in the history of American comics. It was one of the first lengthy limited series at 12 issues. (That size is sometimes referred to as a maxi-series to keep it from being confused with a mini-series which is typically three to six issues long.) It was one of the first mature readers titles from one of the big two publishers, and also one of the earliest direct market exclusive books. All in all, it was well past the time for me to read it.

And I found it... refreshing. The series was published December 1982 – April 1985 (yes, there were some delays between issues) so it hit the market before the more well known mature titles of the mid-eighties like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Watchmen, and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. Having grown up in an era where anything geared towards an older audience is some form of meta-commentary on the medium or deconstruction of the characters and tropes it was just refreshing (there's no word more appropriate) to read something that was more concerned with telling a good story than it was with talking about itself. I'm not saying it's simple, it's not. And there is a layer of context wherein the story presents itself as just one of countless iterations of the Camelot legend, one that will be repeated again and again. But its main purpose isn't to prove how clever it is, it's to be an entertaining read.

So, the story itself resolves around King Arthur and his knights being reborn in the year 3000 to defend the Earth from an alien invasion. Fairly straightforward. Some of the knights return in bodies that they aren't thrilled with and that leads to some interesting drama. One finds himself in the body of a genetically engineered, mute brute while another has become a woman, complete with a husband. Both find themselves being treated differently by their former bothers-in-arms. This causes some issues to say the least. Meanwhile other things follow the classic Arthurian pattern so you know that Lancelot isn't going to behave himself.

I don't really want to talk too much about the plot and story itself because I think it's a worthwhile read. So I guess that's the point of this. Go read it. Get it out of the library, borrow it from somebody, or actually go ahead and buy it. It's worth your time and your money. The copy I read was a borrowed one but I do plan on on buying one for myself.

War Journal Entry number 953 - a short lesson

2013-03-21T16:55:08Z

If someone doesn’t follow the tenants of your religion then that is NOT an infringement of your rights.

If you try to make someone follow the tenants of your religion then that IS an infringement of their rights.

If a law does not adhere to the tenants of your religion then that is NOT religious persecution.

If you try to make the laws force other people to adhere to the tenants of your religion then that actually IS a form of religious persecution.

If the basis of your political argument is your religious views then your argument is invalid.

If you can’t separate them then don’t get into politics.

War Journal Entry number 952

2013-03-16T19:17:57Z

My brain is not working at all today. I missed my exit taking Ditko to the groomer, forgot to give her the little bag of treats I'd done for him (he's so food motivated), forgot to bring a clean sweater for him when picking him up (shaved dogs get cold) and just in general have had major attention and concentration issues. I don't like it.

My accomplishments for the day have been doing the dishes (and I just noticed I missed a few right before I left) and futzing around with my iTunes for a couple hours.

Tonight may have grocery shopping, or possibly just liquor, then going to a Barfleet party. Just this second realized that going to buy liquor the night before St. Patrick's Day is probably going to be... annoying. Yay me, again. Why is my brain being so stupid?

- This was a long FB post I decided to put over here since I haven't posted for so long. I'm feeling guilty about not keeping up with my LJ friends, just another thing on my list of anxieties.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

War Journal Entry number 951 - announcement

2013-01-27T21:20:46Z

In honor of this being our tenth anniversary, Becca and I are planning on having a commitment ceremony later this year.

We have the date set, October 12th. Currently we're looking at having it at the Beachland Ballroom, our favorite local music venue. They've been a bit slow getting back to us on the finalized details, hopefully we don't have to switch locations. Our focus is mainly about the party, and Becca's sister is helping immensely with the planning and organization.

I bought the first piece of my outfit today, a vest from Gentleman's Emporium.

So there, it's official.

War Journal Entry number 950 - Anti-

2013-01-11T17:09:55Z

“Intellectual” doesn’t just mean “educated,” it also means someone that values thought. Anti-intellectualism is a movement against thought and is one of the primary tools of fascists and totalitarian dictators. Anti-intellectual individuals primarily fall into two camps; they are either people out to control others or they are idiots. Sometimes they’re both. The point is that in order to determine into which camp they fall anti-intellectuals need to be questioned more forcibly on precisely why they don’t want people to think.

The argument, exemplified recently by Samuel Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber,” that gun control led to the Holocaust and other government sponsored atrocities would be amusingly ironic if it wasn’t so frighteningly prevalent. The anti-intellectualism that brought him to fame is a significantly greater factor of how those things occurred than is any measure of gun control.

People are asked for identification when buying decongestants, but no one fears that the government is going to take them away from people that aren’t abusing them. Owning and operating automobiles requires licensing and insurance, but no one is afraid that the government is going to come along and take cars away from people that have not shown themselves to be a danger to others. But even the slightest bit of regulation, monitoring, or accountability in regards to guns, which by definition are WEAPONS and serve no other purpose than to shoot things, is met with howls that everyone’s guns are going to be taken away. No one, except some extremists on the left which are being completely and utterly ignored, is advocating taking away every single gun. That option hasn’t been seriously discussed within my lifetime, it’s not part of the so-called “liberal agenda,” and the only people that think it is are the ones that are truly out of touch.

Taking a step back from that level of extremist reaction, we see that the same people that claim any sort of gun regulation is harmful to lawful guns owners are often the same ones against government provided financial aid to individuals because some people abuse it. The cognitive dissonance at play here is staggering. On one hand they claim the government can’t in any way regulate an elective item because it makes things marginally more difficult for people that want to obtain them, while on the other hand they don’t want to provide aid to anyone that genuinely needs it because some people have abused it. Boiled down further, in one instance they are against inconveniencing the innocent despite the real and present dangers that creates, but in another case they are in support of hurting the innocent to keep the unscrupulous from possibly benefiting.

There is no reasoning with people that are able to so passionately hold onto such incongruous thought patterns. It’s no longer a question of anti-intellectualism but actual non-intellectualism. These people are refusing to think about their own thoughts, and that’s as scary as things get.

War Journal Entry number 949 - status update.

2012-11-30T17:25:46Z

I'm still struggling to get around to writing here, I'm typically too sick of looking at a computer to use the one at home.

Tonight we're off to spend time with our friends hooloovoo and celticcowboy68. Tomorrow morning I'm taking my car in for new tires which are definitely needed before winter. Then Bec and I are having breakfast with my mom. After that Bec may be going on a road trip with new friend, Chris, to Toledo, and I'll run errands or goof off. Probably goof off. Tomorrow night we're going over to visit calebbullen at his new apartment to drink and watch horror movies. Then we were planning on visiting habari on Sunday but I don't think we've fully firmed that up yet. Lots of good socializing after a really crappy week at work.

Oh, then Monday there will be the next Pop! Club meeting. They have a website now -- www.popcomicclub.com. Tuesday night I'll probably be playing more of Boderlands with Dave. Wednesday is currently open, but Thursday will have a party of four of us playing Halo 4. Friday I'll be working a half day and may end up going to the Beachland Ballroom with Bec's sister to talk more with them on Bec and mine upcoming commitment ceremony. Then Friday night will be the next Vanity Crash show. I mentioned the last show last entry (showing how long it's been since I've done anything here), but this time I plan on getting dressed up. Finally, that Saturday we have dinner plans with two more friends, skyspirit and ofoghorn. That's as far ahead as I'm looking right now, but somewhere amongst all this I'd like to fit in visting with another friend.

I'm rather shocked at how much I've been socializing, now that I look at it.

Lunch is almost over...

War Journal Entry number 948

2012-11-06T18:00:11Z

Quite a bit going on lately but I haven't gotten around to much writing.

We went to a highly enjoyable lecture by Lee Harrington and Mo Williams on Wednesday night regarding taboos and boundaries. It was part of their book tour promoting Playing Well With Others, which is still only $1.99 on Amazon for the Kindle version. We bought a hard copy from them there.

Friday we went and saw Vanity Crash at a local bar, they are headed up by a highschool classmate of ours that does some brilliant musical theatre work. I liked him as Hedwig better than the original actor. We ran into a couple of other classmates there and I was told by one that I was more memorable and influential than I realize. OK...

The Barfleet party was a whole lot of fun and we both enjoyed it a great deal. Actually ended up taking yet another old highschool classmate that we recently ran into, at SMART of all places. I think he enjoyed it, we tried to check in reasonably often and he was usually in the middle of a conversation with various people. He volunteered to be the designated driver which I certainly appreciated.

He also downloaded copies of Freakylinks for me. It was a short lived television series in 2000 from the creators of The Blair Witch Project and David S Goyer, and I've been wanting to see it again for years and years and years. And if they ever release it for sale I will definitely pay for it. The quality of the recordings is rough, and some have the ends of the episodes cut off, but it's better than nothing. I'm also glad that I can actually use the media player on the Xbox to view them. Yay, I don't have to watch them on my computer monitor! I'll have to talk more about why I like the series despite its numerous problems, but a lot of it comes down to compassion, which is something you don't expect from a science-fiction/horror series created to compliment with the X-Files timeslot.

There have been some creative upsets in comics, and I've dropped a number of things. I'm still looking to cut a couple more. But there have also been some really great things and that's what I'd prefer to talk about. Both the Hulk and the Dr. Strange Season One graphic novels were well worth their price. The Transformers comics have been way better than they have any right to be. Boom is putting out some great science fiction series like Hypernaturals and Higher Earth. The relaunches of Glory and Prophet have both been amazing, especially considering their source.

OK, OK, I have to work. I'll be back.

War Journal Entry number 947

2012-10-21T17:06:39Z

A number of different things going on.

Thursday I went to three different hour long interviews for another position at work. It would have been about a $10,000 to $15,000 raise, but would have added 10 to 20 hours of work per week plus tied me to a work cell phone with the expectation of being on call all the time. So I wasn't too upset that I didn't get to the second round of interviews. At least they let me know quickly, on Friday afternoon.

Also on Thursday they admitted my mom to the hospital for testing because her blood oxygen levels were low. She doesn't really feel bad so she's been really bored. They are finally letting her out today, I'm expecting a call any minute that she's home and then Bec and I are going to pick up lunch for her.

Friday night Bec and I went to an event at Mapleside Farms. Mapleside is an apple orchard with a nice restaurant and other things. This year instead of doing the classic haunted hay ride they are having "Light Up The Dead," shooting zombies with uv reactive paintballs. It was cold, muddy, and rainy, but still a lot if fun. It took some effort to coordinate with friends to meet up, but having a group of eight all together was well worth it. Playing with friends is always better.

Tonight we're going to a concert at the Beachland Ballroom, one of if not our favorite local music venue. The band is Nouvelle Vague, a French group that does covers of New Wave, punk, and other popular songs in a jazz lounge kind of style. Looking forward to it.

That's the highlights for right now.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

War Journal Entry number 945 - National Coming Out Day

2012-10-12T23:17:51Z

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, so I think the day after should have something, maybe some reassurance. The problem with it is that there is an unintended level of peer pressure associated with it. Therefore I wanted to say that I think the most important thing is for people to be comfortable with who they are and how they live their life. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone they can do whatever they want, and they can keep it as public or private as they'd like.

But in honor of yesterday, and with my idea for today, I’m going to reveal something: whenever I find out that someone is gay, bi, queer, trans or anything else “non-mainstream” I immediately tend to like them more. Heck, I feel more comfortable and relaxed around them. It’s the “normal” people that make me nervous.

War Journal Entry number 944 - Even I'm tired of myself.

2012-10-04T16:24:05Z

The difference between an excuse for an action and a reason is a sincere apology. It doesn’t matter whether a person just had a bad day, or was drunk, or has depression or another mental issue, they still own their actions and have to take responsibility for them. Any therapist touting that “they separate the problem from the person” is an enabling incompetent that allows people to feel blameless for what they do wrong. People have a conscience for a reason, and they should, no, they NEED to feel bad when they do something wrong.

The takeaway lesson I have is that if I am certain that someone will not react well if I raise a concern, then that’s a sign that the relationship should be broken off. It’s one thing to be concerned that their feelings will be hurt. That’s fair. Nobody really wants to be told that they’ve done something wrong. But there’s a level of reaction that is acceptable. What’s not acceptable is if their reaction to be confronted about their hurtful behavior is to get pouty or pissy for days, possibly even cut off communication “to cool off,” and essentially get angry at the fact that they were told that they hurt someone’s feelings. Not apologize. Not show concern. Get angry. That’s not only immature, that’s abusive, and it should neither be accepted nor tolerated.

This political climate isn’t helping my mood, instead it just reinforces that eloquence outshines honesty. There’s a distinct lack of comprehension skills in the populace. People can lie or misrepresent, hell, they can even say things that are just blatantly wrong, but if they do it with eloquence then people will flock around and declare them brilliant. That, of course, just feeds delusions. Then they end up running for President. And that's why we can't have nice things.

War Journal Entry number 943 - Workin' in a coal mine.

2012-09-27T16:58:15Z

A relationship is not a job.

Oh, relationships need work. Even a stable relationship needs constant monitoring and work to keep it that way. Most trouble arises when partners have different ideas over how much work should be put into the relationship, but every single relationship requires effort. And people that aren’t willing to put in the effort for a relationship shouldn’t expect the rewards.

But what I mean is that people shouldn’t treat relationships like jobs.

Everyone needs a job. Just, flatly, that’s the way it is, everyone needs to have a job. Even someone that is independently wealthy needs to do something with their life, otherwise let’s just kick the fucker off a cliff and take their shit. Of course that means people may end up having jobs they don’t like and doing things they don’t want to do, but them’s the breaks. The good thing is that people have the option to look for a new job while still holding onto that crappy one to fulfill the need of having one.

Can you guess where this is going?

Firstly, people shouldn’t NEED a relationship. If they do, they are being unfair to themselves and anyone they are with. Yes, people should be happier in a relationship than they are out of one, and if they’re not then they have even more problems. But if someone is desperate for a relationship then they are going to end up taking what they can get, which probably isn’t going to be ideal. Everyone has that friend who has been in a string of crappy or even abusive relationships simply because they are afraid to be alone. And if someone is that driven with NEED for a relationship then it is most likely in an effort to find someone to fix them, which never ends well and puts an unreasonable amount of pressure on their partner.

Secondly, people shouldn’t remain in a relationship they don’t like while looking for a new one to replace it. That's fine for a job, but not so good with a relationship. It’s one thing for someone to be working out where they will live and how they will support themself before beaking it off, but it’s another thing to be hunting around for a relationship that they can immediately transition into. That typically ties back to the fear of being alone. And people really need to be comfortable with themselves.

Jobs can suck, but relationships shouldn’t.

War Journal Entry number 942 - isn't it obvious yet?

2012-09-25T16:26:14Z

New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’

The GOP is getting so self-justified that they are being more obvious about things I've been saying for years. From the same side that is fighting for no abortions under any circumstance comes more and more stringent restrictions for people to get help supporting raising the child. It should be apparent by this point that they are just punishing people for having sex. They are imposing their own religious-based sense of morals on others and it is oppression.

Sure, after the article went out the wording of the proposal was changed, but the fact that it got out like that goes to show their overdeveloped sense of righteousness. The blatant hypocrisy of wanting to give corporations (i.e. folks with money) more freedom while fighting for more and more restrictions on the rights of individuals (i.e. folks without money) should be getting to the point that anyone can recognize it.

War Journal Entry number 941

2012-09-20T16:30:43Z

Sometimes I have such guilt over things I have no legitimate reason to feel guilt over that you'd think I was raised Catholic. But I wasn't. Hell, my parents aren't even ones that really employ guilt to influence people so I'm not sure what the origin is for this. Either way, it's there. I'm pretty sure that an overdeveloped sense of guilt is one of the leading factors in my depression/anxiety issues. More on that later. And by later I mean eventually. Maybe.

There's been so much shit in my life lately it's sometimes difficult to keep in mind the good. There is good. But I really wish that I had the option to just block some people entirely from my life, you know, like you can on FaceBook. That would be nice.

War Journal Entry number 939 - Superman Guitar

2012-08-11T15:09:43Z

Around Cleveland we have oversized guitars set up as art installations, and they periodically swap them out and put new ones up. One of the recent ones is a Superman themed piece.

War Journal Entry number 938 - small status update.

2012-07-19T16:32:59Z

I've been rather stressed and depressed lately, and it often feels like just about everything is getting under my skin in a decidedly unpleasant way. So I am just very monumentally and indescribably thankful that my relationship with Becca is one of the few things in which I have full and comforting trust. She's what makes dealing with the world worthwhile.

I appreciate the comments on my last post about how I felt, it's pretty easy for me to think that there isn't anyone out there that cares. I don't go around thinking everyone hates me, I'm not paranoid, but I often feel isolated even though I know a lot of that is in my head and/or my own fault. That sometimes just makes me feel worse about things. Stupid, stupid brain.

War Journal Entry number 937 - The Man in the Ant Hill

2012-07-17T16:57:20Z

  During San Diego Comic Con last week there was finally the official good news that an Edgar Wright directed Ant-Man film is going into production. The good news quality of this is entirely based on the fact that the announcement of any Edgar Wright film is good news. Ant-Man? Whatever, there have been some decent stories but Hank Pym is neither iconic nor inherently interesting.

  Last week Marvel released the Ant-Man: Season One graphic novel, most likely so as to have something on the shelves for when the announcement about the film was made. The Season One series of graphic novels are modernized origins and/or early stories of the focused characters. At $25 each I haven’t gotten any yet. There are a couple coming out soon that I will be getting based on the creators involved, but this was my first one. I received the book as a reviewer copy, and I’m glad I didn’t pay the full price.

  It was obviously written to be a miniseries instead of a graphic novel. It doesn’t have chapter breaks, but it does have periodic cliffhangers which quite jarringly interrupt the flow. There is also an argument between the same characters which exists twice. If it had been in separate issues so there was a two month gap that wouldn’t be a problem, but only having about forty pages between the instances, and only a day of in-story time, it just smacks of poor editing. The overall story is rather simple, and though the element of Hank's paranoia was nicely ret-conned into his early days it was often overdone.

  The art is most graciously described as adequate. It’s a somewhat cartoony style which isn’t necessarily a negative for me, but it is inconsistent and not particularly well thought out. That might be fine in something specifically directed at younger readers, but expecting a sophisticated audience to accept it with the price tag that is attached is a little dubious. For example, there’s a part where Hank and his friend Bill Foster have to set up a makeshift laboratory in Bill’s garage. The art, though, does not convey that this is a garage being repurposed, it just looks like a generic comic book lab, i.e. smooth featureless walls and blocky equipment that doesn’t resemble anything in a real world lab. Another instance finds Hank shrunk down to two-inches high or so having to retrieve the samples he had secreted away for fear someone would try to steal his work. Despite having no idea that he would be shrunk down, the samples he retrieves are small enough for him to carry, and already in a perfectly sized little knapsack. Things like these indicate that the artist wasn’t thinking things through.

  This would have been better marketed as an all-ages miniseries, which is probably how it was first pitched. Four issues at $2.99 each would have been a more reasonable price for this product. Instead they rated it T+ and also priced it beyond the age group that might have been OK with it. If you’re curious about Ant-Man, I’d recommend the Ant-Man and Wasp miniseries by Tim Seeley (creator of Hack/Slash), or the Irredeemable Ant-Man by Robert Kirkman (writer of The Walking Dead and Invincible). Both series actually star the third character to use the Ant-Man name, though Hank Pym does appear in both.

War Journal Entry number 936

2012-07-10T17:04:47Z

I don't really feel like I'm getting this whole "being an adult" thing. There's so much, big and little, that I just do a shit job of getting around to, from health issues to car issues to things around the house. Hell, I do a crap job of doing the things that I actually enjoy doing (or used to enjoy doing), how can I get to the shit I don't want to do?

The sheer number just overwhelms me. Hell, the idea of taking a couple minutes to list everything gnawing at the back of my mind fills me with anxiety that looking at the list would be the last straw to trigger me into full-on depression, or an anxiety attack. Maybe both at once. And, yes, I'm anxious about feeling more anxious. Ouroboros powers are go!

I'm a decently intelligent individual able to keep track of multiple things at once, how the hell do the idiots get by? Or do they get through life by virtue of not caring?

I don't know. I just don't know. But now I need to get back to work, something else which I'm typically not too proud of either.

War Journal Entry number 935

2012-06-16T04:33:38Z

Ever felt lonely while also not in the mood to deal with people? It's really damn inconvenient.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

War Journal Entry number 934 - too much metaphor.

2012-05-31T16:36:36Z

Interacting with people is getting scratched. Not cut, or scraped, just a light scratch. We do it to sooth the itch of loneliness. Everybody has their own level of itch, and like any itch its intensity fluctuates. But people also have different thicknesses of skin, and the threshold for when scratching goes from relief to pain varies greatly.

Me, I seem to have pretty thin skin.

I get lonely, I like attention, and I like interacting with people. But the point where dealing with people overwhelms me and causes me to run and hide seems much lower than most others’. So I retreat. I disappear from view. And when the itch gets too bad again I try to come out. But by that time I’ve either been forgotten or people are afraid to trigger me again, and I just end up feeling ignored. I fear that if I’m up front about it and say I’m lonely and would like attention that there will be one of two outcomes. Either I’ll get too much attention and recoil from it, or I won’t get enough and I’ll just get more depressed. The idea that things will work out and be fine doesn’t really occur to me.

So what, specifically, do I want? I don’t know. I really just don’t. It’s so very difficult for me to communicate what I want and need because I don’t know what will work for me. And since I can’t express it clearly, I certainly can’t expect anyone else to understand it.

This is another way my brain sabotages me. Stupid, stupid brain.