Blech. Well, you can pretty much ignore the blog entry from July 8th. The first three paragraphs, anyway. For those too lazy to find it, it's about Mandy re-emerging in my life and comic. But there was a phone conversation tonight that kinda puts things back the way they were before. I'm not writing this for pity (though offers of "helping me feel better" may be considered). I just happened to be thinking about the comic, and realized I had mentioned I'd reaccept Mandy fanart and possibly rewrite her in...but the awkwardness about all of it has come back and those ideas are once again null and void.

I haven't discussed this with her yet (we're still "friends"...the good way or the bad way remains to be seen), but this wasn't exactly a hot issue in the aforementioned conversation. It's still gonna take me a little time to get over the initial surprise of it. "I am shocked!! Well, not that shocked."

[completely off topic: "shocked" is a funny word when you look at it.]
posted by Tim at 2:21 AM

This weekend I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. I was quite entertained, actually. To paraphrase what I read in one review: "it was a better movie than a movie based off a theme park ride has any right to be." I'm thinking of drawing up a Hastily Drawn Comic about it, so keep an eye out for it in the future.
posted by Tim at 2:08 AM

Sad news, everyone. Elf Only Inn has ended.

It will be missed. But I'll likely re-read the archives many times in the future, and you should too, as it is a well-written and wonderfully funny comic. One of my all-time personal favorites. It's a shame it had to end at the height of its popularity, but if Josh thinks it's best for him, I'm certainly not going to bitch and moan that he should do more.

And I really shouldn't be this sad about it, and I suppose I'm really not...the news just came a little suddenly and...well, I'll miss it, but I'll deal.
*puts on a brave face* :)
posted by Tim at 12:45 AM

My family got together with my grandmother for a quick belated-birthday-for-sis-and-dad lunch today. This trip included picking up and dropping off my sister at college (Northeastern). Driving through Boston, there were quite a few billboard ads for the new Gillette "Passion Pink" Venus razor dealie, or whatever the hell it's called. And I have several problems with this, for some reason. The biggest problem is that it's the same razor as the previous incarnation, but this one is pink. HOT PINK. OMG I HAF 2 BY 1 R1GHT N0W!!!!!1!!11! There's absolutely nothing special about this razor except that it's pink, and for some reason that's a much more desirable trait in razors for women than the previous blue. The slogan (basically): "What is it about pink that feels so good?" I don't know, you tell me...in fact, I'd really like to know what's so special about pink. Then there's the fact that there's something in the order of 3,000 of these ads within a 1 mile radius in downtown Boston. For a pink razor. Am I the only one questioning this particular marketing strategy? Probably :)

The new Malibu Stacy doll! With New Hat!
posted by Tim at 2:46 AM

It's now official: I have been certifiable, and now I am certified!

To drive powered industrial trucks, that is.

What, you thought I meant I was crazy? Bah, that's been true for a while ;-)

Finally got my license for my certification at work today. After over four months of being a "trainee". The funny thing is, there's another person who's been then less time than I have, and got their license too. Ah well, not like it's important or anything. But a little yay for me =D
posted by Tim at 12:54 AM

I was flipping channels again, and I came across the Outdoor Life Network. They were showing coverage of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Now, I'm pretty sure we'd all agree this is a fairly stupid event to partake in to begin with, but OLN was covering the event as if it were some kind of sporting event, with play-by-play and color commentators. This struck me as quite odd, naturally. This is not an event that requires the services of TV commentators. Now, I don't know just how long this event lasts, but it seems to take a while as all the various news programs show the annual(?) clips of drunk people getting gored. I noticed a little graphic in the corner claiming that coverage continues tomorrow at so-and-so time. OK, covering the event is one thing, but continuing coverage?! o_O
posted by Tim at 1:11 AM

Another quick thing to think about: Just read online that someone (else) is suing "Spike TV" (now that they've won that case) about Stripperella, claiming that Stan Lee stole her idea. This, plus the whole Spike Lee thing, just makes me think, "Would you people just shut the hell up and let these nice people entertain you?!" Is there some kind of curse, or really just unfortunate, funny coincidental marketing/timing? Sure, Lifetime and Oxygen expand to comine to over 30 channels, but "the first network for men" can't seem to get it's feet off the ground! (yeah, I know, TNN's been around a while, through a couple previous personality changes). I guess ESPN doesn't count, since it's just sports and women can enjoy that too (despite what the ratings say).

I'm just channeling a little bit of Tim Allen - he claims that he's not an anit-feminist, he's a masculinist. I say, yeah, nothing against women...it's just men have been catching a lot of flak for a while in the wake of women's rights. Like I just mentioned, there's now a ton of women's programming, but we finally just got one network coming right out and saying "we're devoting our programming toward men!". (Again, I don't care if that's what networks have been doing already, this is a little more on the marketing side). And now I'll take it a step further: to include race, not that I've got anything against "minorities", but with all the stuff going on the last 40 years or so, it's kinda tough to be a white male, generally speaking. We're becoming the minority.

I'm not trying to get into some kind of white supremacy rant or anything...I am certainly nothing like that. Just want to make that clear. I guess it's just that it seems to me that white men are kind of licking their wounds after all that's gone on in civil rights and all. It just feels...I dunno...like I can't be proud of who I am because of who I am; because others are taking that away from me because of what my ancestors did. I'm not claiming anything personal here, I'm speaking from an "everyman" standpoint. And I most certainly could be wrong about it all...I'm just spouting stuff off the top of my head without going through my "stupid filter".

Like how some schools recently (I think the University of Michigan in particular) have tried to drop using race as a basis of admissions. My first thought about this was "Bravo!" But this apparently upset a lot of affirmative-action types. I'm not saying I'm against affirmative action. I would think a university's priority in admissions would be to accept those students who would contribute the most academically and make the university a better institution. I would hope they could choose those students regardless of what their skin color happens to be. (And on a side note, I'm hearing there's a general shift to multi-racial families, so maybe this won't be a problem in a few generations). Though I would find it unfair that a white person would lose a job to a lesser-qualified black person simply because they're black, according to affirmative action requirements. Again, please don't blast me about being racist or something horrible like that..I haven't really given it enough thought to have a cohesive stance on the issue. My point is I would actually support complete integration, in much how it should be - we shouldn't need stuff like affirmative action. I guess that's the Trekkie in me shining through.

Wow, I wasn't expecting quite a long rant. I just wanted to mention the Stripperella thing. Speaking of which, I still have yet to watch their linchpin programming...guess I'll try and do that tonight. Peace :)
posted by Tim at 2:12 AM

I finally got around to seeing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets recently. Oh, that and I plowed through Order of the Phoenix...actually, all but the last 20 pages of it. But that's OK, I figured they weren't important anyway. But, back to my point, about the movie: generally, I thought it was all right. Not bad, not great. I'm indifferent like that for a lot of things.

But I realized something which I thought about it, and about the first movie too. It's not so much that they're bad movies, but it's just a matter of trying to accomplish too much. The main problem (which is what I think a lot of people love about the books) is that Rowling is presenting this alternate world of wizards and magic and stuff. The movies have to present a pretty-much-bare-bones version of the general plot, and can't afford to spend too much time on the details of said world. And I think many people sort of picked up on that, or else the movies might've done better. Critically speaking, of course. I know people moaned that they had to cut out Nearly-Headless Nick's deathday party...and as well they should, I didn't miss it. I did think they spent a tad too much time on other parts, though...such as Harry and Ron in the Anglia "racing" the train.

It's kinda like I felt about the first movie...there was a little less attention paid to the "everyday" kind of activities going on at Hogwarts (for example) than the regular plotline. I'm sure given all the time and money in the world, every movie would include every detail and everyone would enjoy the 5+ hour-long films...given adequate stretching time, I'm sure. But of course, that isn't feasible, or marketable, etc.

I guess it's just the nature of the beast...it's where the movies falter, and where, say, Lord of the Rings triumphs...with those movies you get a good sense of what's going on without having to include every detail. But on the other hand, nobody in their right mind would want to include every detail of Lord of the Rings.

In summation: The movie was all right, and, much like the first one, "fails" in the sense that there's just too much to be included to give it a satisfying, complete feeling.
posted by Tim at 1:32 AM

And thus ends the current storyline of Mandy being abandoned on some distant planet of cute fuzzy creatures and flowers. Ironically, this storyline ends at a time where Mandy and I are actually re-forging some kind of relationship. It's a bit of a weird situation right now. Well, I'll just say it's weird cuz it's awkward to talk about it to anyone besides Mandy, least of all the general Internet audience. Funny how life works out that way?

The storyline was written during a time when Mandy and I weren't speaking to each other, and so the choice was made to write her out of the comic. (I'll add here, for no real good reason, that Mandy is the only other "real" person in the comic.) This is also why, on the Misc. page, that I mention I wasn't accepting any fanart of Mandy. But now, I may lift this "ban" - yeah, like all of you are chomping at the bit to draw her. ;-) And while I'd like to get some more story done, to kind of flesh things out, there's a good chance she could be written back in...I actually sort of designed the storyline that way.

Don't know why I felt like sharing that, but that's kind of what a blog is for. So send in your Mandy fanart...hell, any fanart for that matter! (She wondered out-loud to me what her fanart might be like if she was drawn all thin and sexy-like).

And now...for the very few of you who read my blog...Now iz ze time on Sprokets ven ve dance!
*deedle deedle dee dee dee*
*ra ta ta ta ra ta ta ta*
*bum ba bum beedle dee dee dooo*
*tippity tip tip tappity tap tap too*

This will make sense to no one, since I just made it up. Just a way of saying "Thanks for reading!"

Oh, before I forget, hope everyone had a Cracker Jack 4th of July! and Happy Birthday Dad, Elaine, and Jack!
posted by Tim at 3:37 AM