YouTube: A Cautionary Tale

   YouTube keeps advertising videos at me. Which is alright, gotta keep up with the one channel I'm subscribed to, but there's always the videos it suggests that it thinks you might be interested in. Sometimes, it's brony stuff. Mostly...

   A few months ago, February 3rd according to the internet history which I'm going to trust as it matches up to having occurred on a Tuesday, looking up tutorials on how to fix washers, but apparently autoplay was on and the videos just kept on going, from the washer one to a second one and from there randomly jumping to prank compilations.

   This continued on for 5 1/2 more videos.

   And every week, when YouTube its scratching that artificially intelligent brain of its, trying to figure out what kind of videos it thinks I would be into, keeps on going back to the 45 minutes straight where funny prank video compilations were playing. The screen was off and the sound was down and we were having dinner, but YouTube has no way of knowing that. So when it wants desperately to please me, it proffers things like SEXY WOMEN FUNNY NAUGHTY PRANKS, or whatever. Because, that's the only thing I seem to have shown continued interest in.

   I know how easy it is just to delete that history from YouTube's databanks, but I'm leery of rewriting history just to make the present slightly less annoying.

Thespian Acquiescence, But More Importantly...

   A note on Sundays: seriously, new strips of Sunday strip Thespis are coming out, and I've got 5 or 6 already totally completed from a couple of years ago, leading up to the new storyline coming up. They're... somewhere, on the computer. And they totally exist! At press time, of course, we have none. No new strips of Thespis, posted up, right now, like I promised I would do on Sundays. They are coming, and hopefully the seemingly overly obvious explanation that they are not up right now will be necessary in the future, but for now, uh...

   The strips, these new old ones, are, turns out, on a file format that our PC no longer supports, so I need to find some way to transport the files to the laptop so that I can convert them there to JPEG. (OH, if there were only some means of doing so, like if they invented a portable drive of some sort...!)

   Last week being Spring Break at the local school district, however, even if we did have all those things that I promised you we still wouldn't have one today (such it is when you start a comic strip for high school distribution.) So we're free to have today's blog post deal with other issues. And all that explanation seems rather petty now, seeing the issue we'll be dealing with...

   It's weird, like it feels like this should be affecting me more than it is, but, 11:51 Utah time, weighing in at 9 lbs. 5 oz., I... well... I'm an uncle now. See me mother's blog for more stuff on that; this is a way bigger deal for her than it is for me (becoming a grandparent versus becoming an uncle, hmm, let's see...) but it's still, you know, okay, I guess...

   On my mission, one of the people I worked under, Rachel, her name is (or maybe it's Rachael, I always was spelling her name wrong in my journal...) she asked me one time if I had any niece's or nephews. She said that I've got a sort of certain, amiability, about me, and I suppose assumed it was avuncular? I had to answer no to her question of course, but, you know...

   Not that we've met yet or anything.

Thespis Strip Dated Sunday, April 5, 2015

Click to embiggen.

TRANSCRIPT

Collin: What are you doing?!

Just look at yourself.

Look at the gifts you’ve been given.

Look at who’s given them to you.

Were you worth it?

Well, you were, but are you worth it now?

You can’t only be nice when it suits your purposes.

Trying to make you a better person through bribery? We knew it would never work, not really.

But there’s already this time and energy given to give you what you want.

All the labor costs, the multimillion dollar industry. Looking forward to the future. But you always go back to naughtiness.

Santa invests so much in you.

And you let him down each time.

Surf's Up Plus

   Going well back into the archives of the blog... The first post, actually; perhaps you'll remember it.
http://dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-had-dream-once-where-if-i-ever-got.html
I posted up, well, it's just an anthropomorphized wolf thing with a surfboard and swim trunks. A drawing of one, rather (wouldn't the other one be so rad, though?) It seemed t' fit what I was going for...

   The next month, I came out with a digitally colorized version of the same, slapping over a translucent color layer in Photoshop. Still really early days stuff. Years ago.
http://dielikeadisneyvillain.blogspot.com/2012/03/surfs-up.html
I noticed in colorizing it (to whatever mild extent that I did; I suppose it was just my "style" back then) a couple of the mistakes I'd made; we all learned something and yay happy fun times.

   SO I'm not sure if it needed to be done, or whatever, but recently, a few weeks ago but far more recent than the other stuff, I assembled a new version based off of the original drawing; all digital this time (that is to say, even the "ink" layer is digital; traced over the original sketch.)

Click to... well, you know.

    If I noticed mistakes last dye job, it doesn't come close to the number I caught with this one (caught, but, released I suppose? I noticed it all but corrected nothing, anyway; it wouldn't be really the same drawing otherwise (arguments about what that constitutes in relation to having the drawing be traced over on a new layer notwithstanding.)) I suppose I should be happy? Means I must be getting better, after all...

X-Files, Rogue Nation, Tomorrowland (Oh, My...?)

   Well, originally this post had been going to be on the Tomorrowland movie Disney's doing, which I found out only today is a thing (I screamed. I screamed like a little girl.) Even if it turns out not to be that great, it's still going to be a goshdarn Tomorrowland movie, in the vein of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean*, directed by goshdarn Brad Bird and starring goshdarn George Clooney and goshdarn Hugh Laurie. Oh, with a goshdarn script cowritten by Damon Lindelof, by the way. I'm not kidding when I said I screamed. If you don't need a change of pants after hearing that lineup, I don't know what's wrong with you. (Continence, probably.)

   Oh, and looking up Britt Robertson, who plays the main character, just now, it turns out that I do actually recognize her-- she played one of Dan's daughters in the wonderful, vastly underrated 2007 Steve Carell romantic comedy Dan in Real Life. So that's nice too.

   But the discovery that Tomorrowland is a thing comes on the heels of learning of the existence of the latest Mission: Impossible film, which is totally going to be the best of the lot (though, of course, I say that about every M:i installment.)

   And now it comes to my attention that Fox is starting the X-Files again after a hiatus of... shoot, does the "I Want to Believe" movie count in that...?

   So, yeah. I love these things. You love these things. That's all that can be said, really, and all that need be.

I Don't Consider Myself to be a Busy Person...

   I haven't actually posted anything really since my mom linked to this and the other blog on her blog... Officially, so far, it's been, uhh, twice, since she linked last, saying how it's one of the things I do. Twice. Euh. I totally have all the posts for the interim days planned out in my head, 80%ish, but... "School work keeps him from writing as much as he would like," yeah...

   I don't consider myself to be a busy person, but looking on it, I suppose I kind of am. At least during this school season. I have things to do. The true earmark of business, tell you what.

   I have yet another English paper due on Thursday (they just keep coming at me) and I want to get it in before the literal eleventh hour this time, so I've been working on that (Feb 5th 30-point paper: turned in 11:58 pm; March 1st special credit paper: turned in 10:42 pm; March 5th 100-point paper: turned in 11:54 pm; March 12th 30-point paper: turned in 11:53 pm.) Started reading the assignment today, which I'll finish tomorrow-- and I kid you not, I've actually started writing a bit about it. Here's the part where I make some witticism about procrastinating tomorrow instead of today, which occurred to me today, but there's no way to fit it into the English language that sounds nearly as clever as it initially did.

   With the baby coming up, as well, I've been spending a bit of time the last few days sewing up quilts and receiving blankets at my grandparents' house, learning how to do that n' all, and throwing a couple together... Begin at 9:00ish in the morning and break only for a late lunch, so it takes time, but, oh, it looks darling; it's a shame I don't have pictures for you at the moment.

   But, see, my day is packed full, with, those, uh...

   Two things. I consider that busy... (Only had, like, 12 hours of downtime today.)

Partials, U2, and Mormon Decency

   This is like my fourth time urinating today; why is there so much of it? And why is it coming out so clear? I remember drinking only a single cup of water today, but there must have been more in there...

   Anyway!

   Just finished Dan Wells's Partials, book 1 of the Partials Sequence. It's postapocalyptic YA scifi-- and it actually is all those things; it isn't until you stumble across something like this that you realize that those other post apocalyptic scifis for the YA crowd aren't really all that postapocalyptic, and only technically scifi. And stumble across this one, I did. Let me explain.

   Looking up *Ruins* to find OSC's Pathfinder 2, top results showed that it's also the name of Partials 3. Partials? What is this? Ooh, book trailers. And it's by Dan Wells? The Dan Wells? So I purchased a copy to download.

   And I'm not here to give you a review.

   Alright, maybe a little.

   Great if you like: 

• Strong female protagonists who are also minorities
• Institutionalised teen pregnancy
• (and thus) Real political conversations regarding fake politics
• Genetic engineering as the next nuke   

   Anyway. I had known of the books before, actually, turns out. There's this little post he did regarding U2 of all things, which I was of course all over and have been itching to have an excuse to share (it captures the roller coaster experience of attending a live U2 concert perfectly! Or so I'd imagine.)

   Oh, and it talks about Partials. Which totally confused me why he'd be talking about that, up until this point when I've actually read it.

   http://www.fearfulsymmetry.net/?p=1509#comments

   I'd recommend following that link if you're a fan of Dan Wells and/or U2, and wonder how they feel about each other.

   Even if not that, click on the link only to be sure to read the comments; BC Woods's seemingly unrelated one is easily one of my favorite things of all time (hey, the whole post is that as well.) In it, he talks about the attitude he used to have against Mormons, how he used to view us as polite robots with no understanding of human suffering, and how Dan Wells changed that: "you clearly understood what real darkness was and you were just a polite and decent person ANYWAY."

   Seriously, click that link.

My Records from Forever

   Today we had a bit of a run-in with law enforcement. Running across the street from cousins' to our place, to get shoes to play basketball, Alex ducked into the bushes. Passing police cars happened to spot him, and notice him not wearing shoes, in fact wearing only pajamas, and attempting to make himself scarce to get out of the way as the cars rolled by... Yeah. They figured he was a runaway, or something... I was inside as Alex breezed by, telling me that there was a police officer who would like to see me at the door.

   Oh.

   Act. Natural.

   We chatted. The officer asked me my name and Alex's, how to spell that, our relation, my age... writing this all down. The story of why Alex (who breezed back by with his shoes on) would be dressed as he was. Where our parents were at (Dancing with the Stars,) so that made me the babysitter technically... He drops his pen at one point, and I help him pick it up (apparently speaking in present tense now!) Talking with people isn't difficult. I was never nervous talking to girls until I learned that I should be.

   There's a scene in National Treasure where Riley tells Ben, dude they're gonna have your records from forever dude they're gonna have my records from forever. That feeling is here, to be honest, just a little bit.

   What are they going to do with these records? I'm thinking. My criminal records are... I'm clean, right? That (genuinely funny) near-86 at Wal-Mart, they don't record that kind of thing if it doesn't go all the way through, yeah? And, what about records higher up? Are they going to run me through an FBI database? Do they keep things like internet search history there?

   Oh crap. They're gonna find my web comics...

   The conversation (well, Q&A) wound (returning to past tense again) down, as another vehicle paused at the corner-- Grandparents' Prius. Paused, and rolled back, noticing the police vehicle in the driveway. I pointed them out. Blocking the driveway now, so there was no way the police would be able to escape a conversation with them. I went back inside and left them to it.

   Funny thing is, the ensuing conversation probably confused the officer(s) even more. Grandma reiterated the dubious story of the normality of dressing up in pajamas without footwear, for one. And also (wondering if the officer could get any straight answers from me) called me autistic... which the guy said I most definitely do not seem... so, hmm.

   It's genuinely still a toss-up whether this is going to get anywhere, if it's going to get filed as an official incident or whatever. Shoot, probably. I don't know police procedure. So who knows, maybe the FBI will use some of their resources to look into me, instead of trying to track down Jack the Ripper or whatever.

   Still hilarious, though.

Grape Juice

   At the end of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox, they break into the supermarket and all drink juice boxes. Apple, of course, for everyone except Ash, who's chosen grape. Which juice, characteristically, stains everything it touches: Ash has got a ring of dark purple 'round his lips. Which kills me, because that's how that works.

   I was watching the film one day at that scene when Mom came in: "why is that fox wearing lipstick?" It's grape juice, but this is the first time I've ever really noticed. In the film, there's a recurrent theme of Ash being [appropriate hand gestures here] different, and from that there's... I'm going to call it speculation, deeper into his character. I'd never held it, but I always found it quite lovely and poignant, the notion that Ash is actually gay and doesn't realize it yet though his father does. Just watch it again with that theory in mind. It really adds something stirring to the relationship, doesn't it? But up until that point I hadn't given the idea much thought or credence (his "dress[ing] like a girl" is his superhero costume, for one.) But since then...

   Grape juice has stood as a symbol of homosexuality, to me. Subconsciously. I didn't even realize it until today, when context brought it to my attention.

   In all innocence, they served grape juice at Grandmother's house...

Butterflies

   You know that joke where the man dreams he is eating a giant marshmallow, and when he wakes up, his pillow is gone? That actually happened to me once. It's apparently a joke about eating your pillow in your sleep or whatever, but I never realized that; I just figured it must have been a common (enough) experience that I wasn't the only one.

   The pillow turned out to have fallen off of the bed and rolled underneath it, in case you were wondering. But none of that is what this post is about.

   I had a dream once, when I was very young. A different dream. I know I wrote part of it down, in stapled-together homebound book format, or at least illustrated it. The original book has probably been lost to the garage, like so many others from that era (the likewise unfinished books of the Aladdin and Dragon Tales dreams spring to mind,) but it wasn't much of a plot, so I can remember it well. Even then, it wasn't so much a plot as an idea... the dream was about a butterfly. The dream was about a butterfly. And I was the butterfly.

   And though I never would have forgotten, I never would have thought, I'm not the only one to have had this dream. The butterfly fell asleep as I woke up. As we woke up. We dreamt that we were butterflies. The butterflies dreamt they were us. And to this day I still can't figure out...

   whether I was Zhuangzi dreaming... or Zhuangzi was me.

Raymond Babbitt in Vegas

   I'm not sure how, popular or whatever, it is to like Rain Man, anymore, especially for an Aspie or for anyone, (I'm probably going to get torn to shreds for this,) but, Rain Man! I think that it's a terrific film. Smart, iconic, unevil, and with heaps of Tom Cruise. My legs are jelly.

   The climax and most iconic scene is Vegas- Charlie gets Raymond to count cards, everyone has a gay old time and makes a lot of money over the course of the day to the point where Charlie's debts are made up for, and the question inheritance money practically gets mooted, with the only cost being never being allowed to set foot inside a casino ever again. Also that wad of cash lost when Raymond pulls a number out of his butt at the roulette wheel, but, no matter.

   So. Happy ending, yeah? But the movie keeps going... the story's not yet over. Hmm. Let's examine that.

   See, in this scene Charlie has made concession to Raymond's talents, true, but he was still using Raymond the exact same way he uses everyone else (whether the "yes" had been actually in response to a question posed a half-hour ago or not, it was still an accurate response to the question posed to Raymond then and there.) The Vegas scene gets Charlie out of his monetary problems, (which I guess is kind of important since it was all he could think about before,) but I don't think people realize the implications there; he's still using Raymond. You know, the reason he whisked Raymond away from the mental institution in the first place? He's still doing that. That's bad.

   Charlie is the true broken one: Raymond, though not without his problems in relation to change, is more than happy to deal with Charlie on Charlie's terms, but you don't see much of that going the other way. To put in simplistically, though not inaccurately, Raymond is just a problem that needs to be dealt with, because that's the way Charlie sees the world at first. (Prized. goshdarn. rosebush.)

   It isn't until the fire alarm and the scene at the pancake house that there's a full reconciliation between the two brothers, and Charlie is totally transformed. Charlie is able to approach Raymond on Raymond's own terms, for the first time that's real (i.e., syrup.) Charlie making concessions to and taking advantage of Raymond's savant skills in Vegas is a step that highlights both Charlie's and Raymond's natures, bringing the two (finally) together in a way that Charlie can swallow, and in the waffle house Charlie is ready to approach Raymond as a whole person, not just a savant, but an autistic savant. A bundle of complexities. Actually a pretty nice guy once you get to know him.

   It's weird, how many people overlook that.

   Or at least, I don't know, I think people overlook that, but-- the implications of the Vegas scene sure as heck never get brought up in any of the parodies, when it would seem that that's the most riff-able aspect of it, so...

   I was always disappointed that I wasn't named Timothy, but at least my middle name is Charles. I think that's pretty cool.

Thespis Strip Dated Sunday, March 8, 2015

 

Click to embiggen.

TRANSCRIPT:

Collin: Comics are tough.

Well, they're kind of easy, but they're tough.

See, with a sitcom or something, you're allowed to time the humor out in real time, using pauses and beats to achieve maximum comedic effectiveness, instead of the tools you have to work with in comics, using spaces between panels and vision-directing action lines in the hopes that the reader of the comic will read it in any semblance of the comedic timing you have in your head.

On the other hand, with a comic, you only need one joke per strip, and even then only at the very end. Any sitcom set up like this wouldn't last very long.

Not as a sitcom, at least.

Maybe as a cooking show, if all the humor is food-based.

Another thing about comics is that you don't know if any of the humor is even getting through at all. With a stage comedy

(which I know all about)

(or at least used to until my character derailment)

you can tell when the humor is reaching your audience.

For example, this week's entire strip was one elaborate pun, but I have no idea if it got through to any of you.

Still to come: more about the difference between humor on the page and humor in real life.

The M/W/F Supremacy

   I just realized, even with the Ludlum-style post name, that wouldn't have been much more than typical lame excuses on t' lack of more frequent posts recently... Which had been... kind of the point, actually... If it's such a big problem for me to get posts up daily, I fully realize I can switch over to a less frequent schedule, maybe even then getting the chance to juggle between this blog and the woefully underposted-at Things That Don't Even Come Back Around, alternating days with TTDECBA on Tuesday-Thursday-Saturdays? (Underposted-at, totally real vocabulary not made up in any way...) Have to keep up daily for now, though, for reasons I've explained, which does mean insane backlog rush, but maybe one the Hundred Things are posted I can change... Even I'm getting tired of self-absorbed (?) excuse posts, so I'd better make that soon.

   Daylight Savings, I'd been going to talk about Daylight Savings... and... forget it.

   The world is awesome, alright? I think it's great to live in a world where exciting news is happening every day. You can subscribe to an e-service that tells you the latest of what's going on in Orson Scott Card's mind at any given moment, now, you know that? They've cast the I am Not a Serial Killer movie that's a thing that's happening, and John Wayne Cleaver is being played by Max "'Max' in Where the Wild Things Are" Records and Old Man Crowley by Christopher "Christopher Lloyd" Lloyd. You can keep tabs on further announcements on Dan Wells's website, though for Pete's sake don't look too far into that if you don't want major spoilers from the book; my point is, yes, the world is big and awesome, and I can't keep away, and it's happening every day and I've got enough material every day to post probably-- but you notice that I'm telling you to keep tabs on it for yourself... Teach a man to fish, enrich his life, in one sense (isn't that what we're here for? shouldn't that be our primary motivation?); mostly, of course, it's because I've had bad experiences with trying to keep tabs on current events (mostly with that SWAT KATS revival thing a couple years back-- it's like trying to hold a snake that's thrashing in your hand; things keep happening...)

   So.

20 Years

   The earliest memory of mine which I can place a date on is November 20, 1994-- the day of my third birthday. I remember being very confused-- obviously I didn't know what a  birthday really was, which makes sense considering my last one had been a literal half-lifetime ago... I was still excited, though; I remember waking up and tottering around. Perhaps I could sense something in the air; after all, awesome plastic fireman hats don't just fall out of the sky at any minor occasion...

   Didn't give that much thought until yesterday. With that being my third birthday then and my age being 23 now, I've got two decades' worth of memory now swimming around in my nut. Frightening.

   Saw today on Netflix that they've got Jumanji, in a not entirely parenthetical tangent. Fantastic bit of cinema, that-- all so famously made and taking place in 1995 -- "What year is it?!", a half-crazed Alan Parrish (Robin Williams) sputters out. The answer is 1995. "'95...," Parrish marvels...

   Two stinking decades ago.

   That was the greatest movie as a kid-- still is now, of course, but this-- this was the must-see film, yeah? Remember how the AVON lady had a VHS copy, when it was finally released on video... had to beg Mom to purchase it off of her; we'd been so excited...

   But that was all twenty years ago now; it hadn't even occurred to me till I saw that there on Netflix this morning...

Main Characters

   Attended Mass today. My first time. It was for a funeral. It was mesmerizing. I still don't know what a Hail Mary is in football, but, daaang it's sweet in real life.

   After the funeral services, there was lunch. There was a guy there, who'd been at the funeral too... it was crazy; he looked just like Mitch Peleggi. You know who Mitch Peleggi is. Even if you've never heard his name, you'd know his face. You may know him as Walter Skinner from X Files, but you may also recognize him as Lt Caldwell from Stargate Atlantis, or the highway spree-killing UnSub in the classic Criminal Minds episode, "Normal," or... He's in a lot of stuff. He's very famous.

This guy.

   So, yeah, Mitch Pileggi. And maybe this guy was Mitch Pileggi; I don't know. Funny thing, that's probably incredibly illustrative of the way I view reality: I kept on looking over at him, expecting that since he's "played" in real life by a guy I can recognize, he must be an important character, and if anything happened in that scene he'd be a primary actor in it and not just an extra.

   I am being serious.

On Never Having to Do Another Background for Cerebus Ever Again

   I just wrote a 3 page paper and it weren't that hard, chugged out an outline and pasting that into the form it happened to be the perfect number of pages. I'm not intimidated, I'm not intimidated.

   Whew, big week for homework. I've got a 7-page essay due in two days, and... well, not much else. Seriously I think that's it. Any homework at all is an assault against my perfectly ordered kingdom of lollygagging! I guess. It's been coming for a while now, though, and we're so near to the end.

   I feel like... like Gerhard, at end of Cerebus. Dude did the backgrounds to David Sim's artwork, right, only by the end Sim had gone, kind of, famously, well anyway, and Gerhard had been by this point doing the backgrounds forever, and absolutely sick of it, and it had lost its wonder, and, Cerebus was coming to an end, and so Gerhard focused on that-- done by Christmas, done by Christmas. At Christmas time, I'll never have to do another background for Cerebus ever again. And that's what kept him going, and that, more or less, is the story.

   And that's how I feel with this paper. After this paper's done, the, paper, will, be, done. And I've been working on it, and slipping in my blogging, but, that's not what's important, so that's alright, but.

The Fine Line Between the Mainstream

   There's a built-in escape mechanism to the "hipster" subculture which I find absolutely charming. All this freaking indie crap sounds exactly the same, so there's obsolescence built in. It's great: "oh no, the mainstream's found the thing we like, making it cool! Fall back to any one of our seemingly identical indie bands!"

   That being said, I still think it's impossible for this to be the case every occasion-- gonna namedrop like I don't even care-- Fleet Foxes, Neutral Milk Hotel, those guys are all adorable enough not to care if the mainstream breaks in around you; identity is maintained (who names their band after Switzerland that's just weird enough always to be "edgy") you don't even have to bring up whether or not you discovered them when everyone else did. ...I don't think.

   But you don't know the extent of it from the inside. That make sense? No, of course not, that's a terrible way to phrase it. Let me give an example for you instead, then. I worked on Collapse, as an intern, right? Shoestring enough that it's not like anyone got paid, though; the official trailer had to be released through the director's son's YouTube channel instead of his own, seeing as how his own has maybe three or four subscribers and his son's has several thousands (which has more than doubled in the time between then and now.) The director's son, you see, (also playing the main character in the film (again, shoestring) so the move makes some sense) is apparently a fairly prominent YouTube reviewer of K-Pop music videos.

   And here's the, "extent from the inside," thing. Through that Twilght2Mnlght/Lukes of Hazard YouTube channel,  I may have known of Psy's Gagnam Style before it became such a huge hit in the states a few years back. It was interesting, but so were all the other K-Pop music videos and there wasn't much to distinguish any one thing-- references to it started cropping up in more and more places, and, I don't know. I don't know when it became a hit, and that's my entire point. From the inside, you don't know the extent of it. I had known of it, but I wasn't aware it was such a phenomenon because... because I had already known of it. When does the indiestream break off and the mainstream begin? The answers, they don't come easily...

More TED

   Unrelated, but moving on, anyway. Great! More TED talks! Truly ideas worth spreading. This one is by Scott McCloud, the man who by volume is responsible for more of the content on this blog than any other individual (as inventor of the 24 hour comic, you see, which related posts account for 16% of the bulk of this blog; almost a full sixth-- in total 158 of the 985 posts up at press time (including this one, which for the record I am counting as not being about 24 hour comics, though still directly dealing with Mr McCloud.)) If you've already read his Understanding Comics trilogy, there aren't many new ideas here, but if you haven't, you'd better buckle down to have your mind blown...

   If you have read those books anyway, I still recommend giving the video a play through nonetheless. You'll see why.

http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics

   Isn't he adorkable? This talk comes from, holy crap, this month, one decade ago (the website just says, filmed Feb 2005; doesn't have the precise date, so... who knows, it really might be from exactly a decade ago today).

   I told you the video was worth watching, anyway, even if you already know the basic material in it. Did you spot it? How could you have missed it? The man is a master of slideshows. Makes sense, actually, considering their affinity with the "comics" format. There's so much potential in the medium, I've always felt (and especially grew to appreciate on the mission for some reason.) It's not just for boring business presentations, the same way that Comics aren't just for pappy kids' stuff. Multimedia, real-time, performance art. It's used the way it is because it is ideal for directly transmitting a message-- it's because of its power that it's stuck in this ghetto of business meetings, but it can be so much more powerful than that, as hopefully we've gotten a taste of here. In short, I believe in slideshows the same way Scott McCloud believes in comics. (I also believe in comics the same way he believes in comics.)

   PowerPoints are ephemeral creatures, "real time" like I said, but comics is a print medium, capable of being visited and revisited at a moment's notice-- maybe I've gotten away from myself a little bit here, but both media's secret power lies in juxtaposition.

Mythology, pt 2: What? How?

   Bravely split off this post into its own entry, to avoid blogstrain/postfatigue on yesterday's post. This is it.

   In a theory that I invented just yesterday, which initially had nothing to do with anything but now realize would be beyond perfect to bring up here (though it may still be a bit rough around the edges), I, um, posit, that religion has two faces, like a coin does: remove one, the other ceases to be, because there's no such thing as a one-sided object. Both sides of the coin must support each other, each side explaining aspects of the other.

   One side of the coin is the mythological aspect of the cosmology: creation, eschatology, history, characters, the mechanisms of the universe. Stuff that can be observed, and therefore proved or disproved. The other face of religion is the part that dwells in the metaphysical, and it is the theology, the doctrine, the what who why how of God. Science, I think what it is, comes in and disproves mythological aspects, and then laughs and says it's disproved all of religion, rather than marred one face of it. Sometimes one or both sides of the coin may be misunderstood, mistrusted or even disliked, and changed, which completely alters the entire cosmology: easy variability. Good religion doesn't need that, and the differences between good and bad Science and good and bad Religion are one and the same.

   Back to "easy variability," then. Remember the Greek mythographers hypothetically B.S.ing their way through the Persephone myth back there? After an explanation like that, they'd probably laugh because their view on how seasons work is obviously the correct one since they've got science and observable reality on  their side, "proving" their story correct (which would be, um, correlation and causation swapped, or sommink.) Sometimes observable reality can be used to bolster false mythology, legitimizing it in one sense while actually making it falser. (An illustration in progress; Gunnerkrigg Court FTW!) It's the same (very, very awesome) process that leads to weird bits of pseudoscience like the Ptolemaic model of the solar system-- "oh, retrograde motion of the planets even though orbits are clearly circular and not at all elliptical? Well, then, it must be that the planets and Sun aren't actually revolving around the Earth but around weird invisible bits of Science that are themselves revolving around the Earth! Haha, genius." (...I wish I had the capability to make this stuff up. You want to know what's truly rad, though? The Tychonic system. Anyway.)

 

Mythology, pt 1: Why? Where?

   I've also been meaning to get up more TED talks...

   Quantum Physicist David Deutsch forces us, in the video below, to reexplain the way we explain things, and explains why we can't just say "a wizard did it." There's a principle he calls "easy variability" especially in regard to mythology, which I'd like to hang on for a bit-- if the Ancient Greeks found out that it's not the entire world that gets chilly in winter but just the Northern Hemisphere, with ours and the Southern Hemisphere's seasons swapped, they could very easily change the Persephone myth to fit the new reality to observed science.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation

   Saying "a wizard did it" is (also) called the God of the Gaps fallacy. Where does God operate in a universe that can be explained using science? Is there a place for Him? Some would say, the "gaps" of scientific knowledge, but even that doesn't work and in fact just might make the situation worse somehow. Orson Scott Card said somewhere, and you know that with that I'm totally gunna be paraphrasing but get a free pass to do so, "God" is unscientific; not because God's not real or anything, but because the moment you throw your hands up in the air and say, God must have done it, you stop making inquiries, and it's no longer science because you're no longer trying to figure out the how of anything.

   Where does that leave God or gods, then? (Where is my mythology that this post is ostensibly about?) Gets even more problematic when scientists (who are, after all, still people too) fill in the gaps where God had been hiding, then throw their hands up in the air in the other direction and say there is no God because there's no room in the gaps any more. (I personally find this a bizarre move, claiming no God from a scientific perspective, since that's a decision really left to the philosophers and metaphysicists, but...)

   Is mythology just a way to fill in the gaps? It may start out that way, but can it grow beyond that? Also, how annoying is it to have no other kinds of sentences than inquisitive? How am I going to end this post?

   A WIZARD JUMPS OUT AND WRITES A SATISFYING ENDING TO THIS POST, WITH JUST ENOUGH LOOSE ENDS FOR A SEQUEL HOOK.

   Oh.

   Thank you, wizard.

The Perazzo Project

   Really since I want to seem like I know what I'm doing...

   As part of my time on my mission-- well, actually, I'm not sure how much of this is confidential, but, on the other arm I never did have to sign that confidentiality agreement, but, on the gripping arm I still think it would be in best taste not to divulge too much since there's (probably) a reason for it to be confidential in the first place-- long story short, as I will explain in one of my Hundred Things, I, was assigned, to research a bunch of world mythologies. As part of Family History. Yes.

   Aside from the project, I've never been part of that generation who can just tell you the difference between Iocaste and Hecabe off the top of my head, like so many kids nowadays seem to be able to do. Jocasta and Hecuba, that is-- alternate spellings of character names is at least one of the things hammered into my head. I've seen maybe one Percy Jackson film, listened to the audiobook of maybe a couple others playing in the background without really paying attention; whatever-- that's probably not making me look very good, but, in the name of honesty and full disclosure, actual genuine research is good for you, and that's what I've been doing for the past 1 1/2 years.

   And so here I am, somehow an expert in all of this. My compendium of mythological characters has been dubbed the Perazzo Project, in the FCHHM tradition of naming projects after the people whose mess it is that the grunts get to clean up. I've got at my disposal a list of a handful thousand names or so of characters from various world mythologies, and I was wondering, perhaps you'd like to take a peek...

Screws

   Exactly how it sounds, this post is just a fun little list of things I've felt strongly enough about (in the negative) to justify saying to screw, doing a careful combing of the post archives here using such obscure tools as "find" and ctrl+F. Here we go.

• Billy Owens
• P!nk

   That's it. Could've sworn I also said "screw you" to Texas, possibly over the fact that their chili has no beans, but I can't find it anywhere. Huh. I guess that's a safe thing to remain unsaid-- but that doesn't mean I can't stand by it...

   Honorable mention, though, times I've said to screw "it":

• it: the fact that there's a difference between fish and aquatic mammals

   ...and, that's it.

   Well, it's been fun, but, anyway. Moving on.

Discovery Center

   I chuckled to myself. When I saw the article in last week's LDS Church News: FamilySearch Opens High-Tech Discovery Center in Salt Lake City...

   Didn't get to it earlier for some reason, though it had been staring me in the face (it is after all last week's... still the most recent version, since there's no post on Sundays-- so there...)

   For those of you too lazy (or, whatever) to click that link, let me summarize. The Discovery Center is this amazing high-tech (read: equipped with iPads) center of, um, discovery, all this awesome stuff, located conveniently at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, Utah, right off of the FamilySearch Center there (the, you know, location where I worked for the last couple months of my mission.) Exciting stuff...

   The time I worked there, the Discovery Center was still in beta-- groups went in, and my companion and I helped them, but it was the other companionship there who actually led the groups in there-- never went in, never got closer than being able to peer into there from outside. And now... well. It's open. Have a reservation to get in though.

   https://familysearch.org/discoverycenter

The Tizz

   Totally found my fresh specs, like 5 minutes ago as I was waiting to get onto the computer to write this post. They were exactly where I'd left them; crazy, eh? (Resting comfortably amidst the pedals of the abandoned electric organ that lives in my room, since I know you must ask.) Things are so... crisp. Almost overwhelmingly so.

   Anyway, the post I'd had in mind, the reason I was waiting for the computer (slash, trying to locate my Kindle so I could maybe get to blogging from that, slash, locating my paper with my notes for the Hundred Things on it...) Continuing on from the ideas from yesterday's post (which I haven't actually written at press time, but I totally know what it was about, so)...

   For those of you reading this from the present instead of the future, let me break down what I was saying, or, will say. My father, especially, is the one who does this; he kind of, doesn't, sugarcoat, the, um, fact that I have autism. I was going on (or, I will be going on yesterday) why that's alright, but, hey.

   Church. Have to get in early for choir practice. Don't mind going in early, but, you know. Choir is bull. (Alright, now you know: choir is bull.) Maybe it's the fact that we're always slightly late that does it, but, choir, right? Never go over parts. Never even sing parts, most of the (few) male voices. Maybe that's what does it. But, never go over parts, so, whatever. Just, do a few runthroughs of the piece we'll be doing. And, I figure, it's not like it's worth it anyway. Because choir is bull. But I practice with them anyway, because, might as well, and, obligations. Obligations such as, might as well. And, nobody else is that great, so, might as well. And, I'm supposed to be alright, so, might as well. But choir is still bull.

   I'm not that great, though. I can sightread enough to know when to go kinda up or kinda down or very up or very down, or stay on the same pitch or transpose an octave, but I don't do sightreading, like, tremendously. Not enough to muddle through it without some sort of accompaniment, usually, at least (someone singing along with me who shares my part and is moderately alright at sightreading will do the job.) I'm good enough to realize how bad I am, though.

   I haven't had a meltdown since Thanksgiving of 2013-- that's a true horror story, that, so I'd like to think that that's never going to happen again.

   I can still get frustrated.

   I mentioned how choir is bull, right? Throw your choir binder down, yeah; that'll make you look cool, calm and collected. My father, aforementioned not to sugarcoat, noticed my "tizz." Oh. Is that why he's so cool with mentioning anything. Because it's not as invisible as you'd like to think sometimes. And thus, not as, forgettable. Well. Thanks for making me feel self-conscious like that. It's not for nothing, I see. It's not just... the things I thought.

  Well.

   Good to know.

   Also.

   I get this post up now, at night, because that's what it's about. It wouldn't work, backdated, to the morning. Have you seen my mom's blogpost today? http://treadingwater-beth.blogspot.com/2015/02/everyones-keeping-busy-and-happy-mardi.html The painting, there... I didn't intend for it to be that much. Just went out a couple Mondays ago, went down the road maybe half a mile, got some practice en plein air. Last week, Presidents' Day, well it was a holiday so spent time with family instead. But, painting, I think I'll do the same thing tomorrow, yeah? Had intended it to be a thing to do on Mondays. Didn't think much of it. In fact, I still don't-- my cattle look more like bison, and all in all the painted scene looks almost nothing like how it did in real life. It was good practice, that's about it.

   And yet...

   The scan on the blog doesn't do the painting much justice. The colors are so much more vibrant in reality-- the painting currently hangs on the fridge (yes!) and I could see it over there from my vantage point reading my book, and... And it was like, looking past the paper, into the painting itself, as though the painting were nothing more than a little window... I think it's more than just the vignette there, where I simply didn't bother filling in the outer edges, causing this effect that pulls you in. Maybe it's how the colors get deeper the further into the landscape you get. Maybe it's the fact that the thick wet paint warped the paper, which is only medium grade, causing it to get mildly three-dimensional... I still don't think it's that great, but I can kind of see it (Mom's thinking of making, like, prints, and stuff. Prints!)

   So, though it may not mean much to me, I think I shall continue. Not with painting, I don't mean-- I told you I'm continuing that anyway already. I mean-- I mean... Continue with, whatever. Art, writing, blogging. Posts about having autism, and how weird that is, and how normal, and how weird it is how normal it is. And really, personal, whatever. More than that, more than anything. Communication. Directly to the brain. Art. Everything. If it means so much...

Update on my Health Levels

   And here's the part where I make a cutesy neologism, because I just realized that I'm also going to need to downdate on my health (you know, like, actually post up that post I wrote for the most part half a month back but never actually polished and posted up, so I'm going to need to backdate and post it?)...


   A couple of weeks ago (or however long ago it was, sounds about right...?) in order to wake me up among other things, I decided it would be nice to run right out of bed-- I'd worn shorts and a t-shirt to bed the night before for just such an occasion, so it wasn't so much as a spur-of-the-moment thing as that makes it sound (just biding my time to a day when it wouldn't be, you know, the need to poop or anything, to get me out of bed)-- when I woke up in the morning, I just got out of bed and set out the door and ran. No shoes, no coat, nothing that I hadn't already had on.

   They say-- and, I just realized, no I have no idea who the "they" in this instance is, but I've talked to a person or two (or, one) and this person/these people say that, um, singular or plural they,'ve, done research on the subject, and clearly follow it themself(ves), so I'll take word for it-- they say that "natural running" (you know, running without shoes on) is, like, way healthier for you than the other thing, and, hey, I can believe it-- the same way that diet pop is less healthy for you than full-brew because you subconsciously feel better at ordering the Monster Thickburger because hey my Sprite is diet, the same way that having increased car safety features actually lowers safety because you feel better about driving more dangerously, ergonomic shoes actually are worse for you because of all of those things; plus, I've read Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger, and there's a girl who runs barefoot in that and she's really good at it but she's trying out with shoes anyway and it sucks but there's this scene where the titular Messenger delivers her this shoebox with these supposedly amazing new shoes for her to try and the box turns out to be empty and it's all meaningful and it's such a good book, guys, and, and, that all back there was one sentence; pretty nice.

   But the thing about natural running, running barefoot, when it's early in the morning in the middle of winter, and you're running on a barely paved Podunk road in the middle of rural Nevada, is... oh, you've already guessed it? Uh, moving on, I guess...

   I only ran maybe half a mile, but it took a couple of days for me to be able to put my feet directly on earth again without smarting. Running feels good, and it's great, though, so that was hardly my last time doing it. It's only been a couple of times in between then, actually running instead of just going off on a walk or something (which also happened a couple of times) but running just yesterday (it's always a spur-of-the-moment thing, which explains why it hasn't happened that often) I was barefoot still and everything, but just between those two or three times I've already got callous enough for it to be okay (callous as a noun, there, by the way.)

   Also, sort of exercising other ways-- I kind of lifted weights, last week, and I am pleased to report that I am a pathetic weakling.

   But my weight is down, anyway. It's almost at my old all-time-high. Isn't that great? (Plus a whole lot more of it is muscle mass, this time around, though-- I actually possess the ability to do a full pull up, now, as proof.)

   And, that's it, for now. Hope that wasn't too boring...

A Primer on Tape

   Continuing on the great tape unraveling that I told you about yesterday... or, attempting to continue, at least...

   As part of my disentanglement of the tangle, ment, the knotting of tape which happened as part of my opening of the jammed cassette trying to unjam it-- I wanted to keep the sections of the tape which had already been unkinked separate, so I, kind of, wound those up and kept them cordoned with Scotch tape... Which worked fine, until I realized the need to untape the tape eventually...

 

   Let this be a lesson for future generations: tape and tape do not mix. The tape will just tear the tape. (Assuming, you know, future generations still use tape... Heck, I think the only one of the current generation doing that is just me.)

   Sad thing is, I already knew that, and just said to myself, "I'll just be really careful with it." Yep.

Old Glasses

   You know what's great? Blogs of people who have actual lives. Plenty of thoughts and things that go down in 24 hours, of course, but as for daily material that's worth taking note of, not so much, in my life. If I actually went anywhere or did anything, that would be fascinating, you know?...

   Not that I do nothing ever. Today, for example, I spent like 3 hours trying to wind up a tape cassette that had crapped out. I made it worse; tape tangles very easily apparently and honestly I'd take the Gordian option by now if that wouldn't, like, kill the cassette.

   But anyway. For 90% of our lives, we are creatures of habit. We can debate exact percentages later, and actually that's not a half bad idea (PLOT BUNNY)... Habit, yes. Put down my glasses, take them off for, whatever-- sleep, is usually one reason. Put them down, and occasionally misplace them. Like yesterday.

   Can't really find a good photo of what I look like with my current prescription on. The family Christmas card this year has a good view, but I can't find that right now... Here's a shot from my mom's blog, which you can kind of see...:

http://treadingwater-beth.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-photos-2014.html

   Not the best, but workable. My specs, the lenses are sort of, long, with no bottom frame piece so it just, hangs, open, I guess. Man I'm bad at describing this...

   EDIT: Alright, found it.

   Isn't that much better than my lame attempt at description?
   Yesterday, anyway. Searched all over, couldn't find where I'd put them last. Luckily just so happen to be in that state of perpetually trying to clean my room and organize everything, and in the drawers of the desk where I'd kept my music collection up till this point, there are a bunch of super old glasses...

Oh, man, a selfie. Guess that means I'm a sociopath... no, wait, you already knew that.

   Note how much smaller these ones I found are. I'd initially just grabbed them to resolve where my normal specs are, but 1) I still can't find those and 2) these old glasses just so happen to match my current prescription. They were smudged and dirty as all-get-out, though.

   But I like them. I think they make me look rather... tailor-y.

Thespis Strip Dated Sunday, February 15, 2015

Click to embiggen.

   Oh, man. This all seemed true when I wrote it, four years ago.

TRANSCRIPT:

Collin: 3D movies!

Bambi: Wooo!

Collin: 3D films! Films filmed in the third dimension! They're awesome, and with new light polarization technology, they're here to stay this time, folks!

Marvin: Myself, I find them tiresome and gimmicky.

Collin: That's just the tiresome and gimmicky ones; the ones that use the third dimension as a feature rather than a filmmaker's tool. “Tiresome and gimmicky” could literally apply to any filmmaker’s tool in the hands of an inept director. A good filmmaker, on the other hand, can use the third dimension to imply depth, size, surface translucency, texture! A filmmaker can play silly monkeys with the audience with the effect, creating a feeling of unease, as in the tunnel sequence and Other Mother's world in Henry Selick's Coraline.

Marvin: Filmmaker's tool!? Style and substance aren’t mutually exclusive. You can't misuse the tools of how we view everyday life. When they came out with color and sound, they knew how to use those effects. Sound was no gimmick; it opened up new ways of storytelling, like how whistling is used as a plot device in Fritz Lang's M. We don’t conceive our vision of the world in 3D; we conceive it as being flat, so ultimately 3D can be nothing but a gimmick.

Collin: Well, people dreamt in color up until the invention of the television, when people began dreaming in black and white. It wasn’t until they came out with color TVs that people began dreaming in color again! Even then, an entire generation was left dreaming in black and white for the rest of their lives. With new practical 3D technology, people can begin to conceive the world in 3D again.

Marvin: Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Just because it’s a visual medium doesn’t mean it also needs sound; it doesn’t even mean it needs color! Just look at comics!

Marvin: What were we arguing about again?

Collin: Whoa, trippy.

Marvin: uh...

...

...

...

I don't know, man. Let's get out of here.

(2/13)

   For added deliciousness. Five years ago today. Still have the ticket; I keep things like that. It's kind of beaten up right now, and 90% of that is my fault... (See those burns? They occurred when I attempted to photograph the thing. DON'T ASK.) But there it is, my ticket to go see James Cameron's, trying to think of a snarky title for it, Cat Smurf Pocahontas the Movie or something. But yeah. In 3D, just like I said. Just letting you know it's not, uh, made up, or anything...

   ...Is 3D still the next big thing? I'm not sure the market for 3D televisions anymore, man I'm going into this post well-researched... but the 3DS is totally radical, but then again now there's the 2DS...

   I seem to recall I once said something like, directing a film in 3D needs to be more like directing a stage production, since without the field of focus you can't control precisely where the audience is going to look...?

   No, wait, that was actually Orson Scott Card, reviewing Thor. I'm always getting myself confused with SF/F legends talking about the MCU.

   Boy am I acting snarky. I guess I do that when I don't really have anything to say... So I'll stop here.

   Seriously, though. I never knew that about myself. You learn something new every day.

RootsTech/FGS Con

   Well, aside from the fact that I totally missed the Innovator Summit yesterday, meanwhile back in Utah RootsTech 2015 began today. From the RootsTech website FAQs:

RootsTech is a global family history event, where people of all ages learn to discover, share and celebrate their family connections across generations through technology. At RootsTech, there is something for everyone, no matter your experience in family history or your skill level in technology.

   A pretty exciting thing, in other words. As if that weren't exciting enough, though, this year, in what is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime, thing, RootsTech is sharing venue keynotes and Expo Hall space with the annual national conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. It's, huge.

   After spending two years as a missionary on Temple Square, and being there around RootsTech season for both of those years (though never actually, you know, attending or anything (I told you about the Xbox Kinnect incident that had happened, right?)) I can tell you: man, this year it really is going to be bigger than ever, and if you happen to be in the Salt Lake City area this weekend, I strongly recommend you at least get a one-day starter pass, and check it out.

   But the best part of it? All the free leftover pizza that the young elders of the FCHH Mission are going to get. FHL has an annual "grab a slice of pizza and find an ancestor" promotion, and they overpurchase every year.

Name of Post... Rabbits, I Guess? Rabbits are Cute...

   The post today sort of polyped off of yesterday's post, which happens too often for me to sit and complain about how I never have seeds for posts...

   I do believe we were discussing the point of having this blog be daily (besides the fact that of course I'm constrained to it since the death of (cousin) Adam and my posting two times in one day that day and working to make up for that...) I go over previous posts I've put up, just checking in, the way I do, and I see-- a lot of potential, to be sure, and maybe a few clever ideas, but because what I'm looking at is mostly stuff I scheduled in a rush before my mission, maybe I didn't dedicate as much craft as I should have ideally, and so a lot of it is not... great. Tough sometimes to admit that about your own work, but I do that here with gusto. Really funny stuff getting tossed out the window; paragraphs I spent hours of research on landing with dull thuds and none of the (>>probably>>) meticulously researched information getting through.

   For example, you seen "One Face... No... Two-Face! No... Five-Face?"? It took like 3 or 4 hours to compile all the information, possibly longer still to composite it, not to mention a whole lot of time on top of that just slacking over at (totally awesome website you should totally check out) Comics Should be Good! (my primary resource)--- and me writing that post all up, thinking boy oh boy this is gonna be a good one, and the post itself is just like, meh. The information all coming at you feels way rushed, so much jammed up in there with no room to breathe... Plus there wasn't much there that wasn't at CSBG! already, and hey guys it's such a good website check it out. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/)

   I suppose in the end it comes down to craft, then. And strike out that "I suppose." I've got it; that's it-- everything was rushed, all the posts of that time period. Maybe not "all," of course, but... I'd thought that the posts were fine at the time, and that was certainly the case given the "I'm-going-to-be-leaving-for-two-years-in-a-couple-of-weeks" circumstances, but, man, I don't know. Style versus substance again!, I could still have spent a lot more effort in the final product itself, the surface instead of just the underlying ideas.

   And that's my official excuse for why you haven't seen a single one of my Hundred Things so far, although I've been working on them since before I got off my mission.

Arbitrary Post Title (Ideas, and More Blog Talk)

   Well, I'm back to blog-a-daying, getting back to doing it at 8:30 in the morning notwithstanding-- and that's my next step.

   Do I have anything to say, now that I'm here, though? I always have something to say, actually, and if it doesn't seem like it sometimes...

   Alright, yeah. The having a blog post in every day is, seemingly, arbitrary. I do always have something to say, but all the whacking around the bush and not posting up even when I have solid ideas (there are three or four posts I've been churning around that by now could easily have enough content to have been a score or so of posts; I'd refer you to my post of January the 27th for a discussion of what my problem is, iffen, you know, that post were actually posted--) I've come to realize, within the past five minutes actually, that ofttimes I lack boldness to do say things, even that I do have to say. Or, euhh. Well, no, it's not that, actually, in so many words. It's just-- time nor place for them, and many of my ideas are little ideas I have very specific contexts in mind for. But what the context could be, in reality, is beyond me.

   Example, example. Alright, pulled this one out of a file on my harddrive copied to the laptop desktop:

    [The man is in custody. The lady cop enters the interrogation room. The man sits there.] He closes his eyes, and describes everything about her in vivid detail. How are you doing that, she asks, when you can't see me?  I know all of this, because I can see you. I know all of this because you are a figment of my imagination. And she disappears. He rubs his now-uncuffed wrists, and looks up, darkly.
   Chilling? Yes. Neat? Certainly. But in what the hay kind of context would that make sense? Perhaps a brief tangent to some other tale; I don't know.

   These things need time to ruminate. Germinate. I can't force them; dark secret and I think it's true of all creators, really, I'm a terribly unoriginal creator, because none of my ideas are my own-- the ideas, they come to me. Saying daily "hey I have an idea" is just kind of, premature. But it does serve a helpful purpose, beyond the sort of making sure the ideas are artificially incubated, brooded over every day. The skills in expressing the ideas, the skills in how to communicate, get honed in the process... and we all need as much practice as we can get.

SPORTS

   Went on a bit of a tangent yesterday which thankfully I cut out of the final post (and which I'm of course subjecting you to here! yay.) I was talking about the Superbowl, and how like cut off I feel when it's basically the only common ground in America but I'm not in on it? But, I now realize, I'm not sure if I would have it any other way or not... Like I'm fond of saying (or at least fond of thinking a lot; you're going to have to verb the subtext, man;) it's just, a thing; neither positive nor negative but totally neutral (of course, as with all things, save for contexts-- which there seem to be about a fifty-fifty split of, so, yeah.)

   Sports, as I had been going to explain yesterday, never really appealed to be; I don't know. Went to a girls' (varsity?) basketball game this evening; home team was already whupping by the time we arrived 5 minutes late, and the status quo never got more interesting from there. Spent much of the time napping; that hour passed quickly. That's with basketball. And basketball is my favorite sport (basketball is my favorite sport!/I like the way they dribble up and down the court!...) Alright, maybe not my favorite-- insert obligatory curling reference here, and as for the rest I've always kind of been interested in horsey polo... not that I know much of it beyond its existence, and everything, but: it's a cross between like all of my favorite things; horses, golf, and, like, croquet... it has to be awesome!

   What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, how much I dislike sports (and how much I am not a hypocrite, I believe was somewhere in the water...)

   The goal is arbitrary, watching the baseball card statistics play themselves out just smacks of a major waste of time... Real-world politics influencing what happens down there in the arena, sure, makes sense, that's interesting that's the kind of thing they make the movies out of-- but that isn't the sports itself, is it? It's never totally about the game; we act like the stadium is its own entity, and actions down there are isolated in vacuums and everything, but that's not really the case, is it...? It's never the case. When does the arena give off and the... real world... begin... We have opened up a metaphysical pool too deep for this current lighthearted discussion, my friend; I suggest we move on...

   Being so knowledgeable about how factors influence each other that you're able to have a relatively accurate March Madness bracket prediction, or, whatever-- that's actually pretty cool, but... well...

   Alright, I'm done here.

Probably Not a Strict Necessity

   Continuing on from yesterday-- I realized that I didn't say nearly as much as I'd meant to... So, yeah, I'd been talking about how I don't get out much, and how it's probably not very healthy...

   For the past week, when I do get out of the house (I do have, classes, geez) there are people discussing still Superbowl 49 (or "exlix," as apparently it is not pronounced,) and I'm completely lost. Popular culture grows increasingly disconnected, this far cry from the "only four networks" days, and in the Superbowl we manage to retain a touchstone through all that-- but, nope, I'm the one clueless here. Pop me in a room with anything else, and...

   Could it really have been only a week ago? I find that hard to believe, actually, as the past only-a-week has been filled with enough shark references to leave Discovery Channel behind in the dust. So at least I'm not the only one...

   What was I talking about--? Shut-in, right. I am pleased to announce my neck's total lack of beard, though, and the fact that we don't even have a basement. My fingers are cheetle-stain free; I am fluent in both breathing through my nose and through my mouth. What else is there... Sure, yeah.

   No, though. I was talking about my life. Humble one as it is. I'm the ward membership clerk, I'm sure I must have told you, and on Wednesday I did some demonstration on cousinfinding in front of a few members of the stake presidency (Rootstech 2015 is coming up on Friday; aren't you so excited!?) I'm on my way.

    ...

   Why do I blog? Is it personal, to get something off of my chest; or is it for my audience, meager though it may be? Yeah, I'm pretty sure nobody's out there reading-- I could say whatever I want; nobody cares. So maybe... Or, or instead, is it some third thing-- the need for creation, be it perhaps about my chest, or be it something more... Practice, getting myself in shape for grander works of creation? That's gotta be it, seeing as how though my blogging's slowed down and ofttimes sputtered to a complete stop lately, I am still actively working on other projects-- which, hopefully will be unleashed one day, and so I'll have had an excuse for all this here.

   Probably explains some stuff.

The Thespis Contingency

   Yesterday's Thespis marks the end of the original batch of strips I did. I do have access to all of my scripts and notes for it, pulled off of the hard drive-- but there's sort of a, problem, still with restarting the strip, picking it back up so that its continuance here will be uninterrupted. A problem such as, it's been four dang years from there to here, and even though I do have the notes and outline and wherewithal to pick it back up, how would I do so? And by how, I mean, what, do I pretend that it's still 2011 and just fly through continuing on the story arch like nothing's happened? Or do I explicitly address the issue?

   Well, it is Thespis... Meaning, if there's any place where such blatant lampshade hanging would be appropriate, it would be here... But I really can't think of any way to go about saying "hey, it's four years later but we're picking up exactly where we left off" without it coming across as kind of cutesy.

   I definitely do intend on continuing with the strip and the storyline and everything, picking up more or less where we left off yesterday*.  Come Sunday next, I'll have whatever it is that's coming, because I am continuing this, spite the fact that the rest of my blogging lately has been sporadic and all that. I like Thespis, and I'd like to continue it. And, planning on having Other//half actually exist one of these days,** I need a lot more practice at the medium under my belt...

Thespis Strip Dated Sunday, February 6, 2011

Click to embiggen.

TRANSCRIPT:
Collin: L'esprit de l'escalier: staircase wit. Fridge Logic applied to comebacks. It happens to us all. Someone insults us, and we have no choice but to take it because we can't think of anything.
If it's such a pervasive problem, that means there's a whole industry there waiting to be tapped.
Just think of it, Marvin: an entire corporation that does nothing but sell comebacks. We could have them monopolized!
Best of all, just think of how cheap our legal department would be!
Marvin: That makes no sense.
Collin: That's what you think.
Marvin: Somebody sues you for selling a defective product, and your entire defense consists of said defective product?
Collin: That's what you think. 
Marvin: But-
Collin: That's what you think. 

Blog is Blog (My Biggest Problem)

   Let's examine life. My life-- specifically. I think it's kind of, nice, when I do posts like this, so why not (my hand! got licked! by a cow! isn't that darling?)... I may as well embrace the fact that blogging is a form of narcissism, so, as much as I try to avoid it sometimes, hey look at me, aren't I handsome and clever and, occasionally funny, and, way too wistful for my own dang good sometimes... people are always so much more entertaining to read when they make you laugh... so I should try to be more funny I guess but there's more to life than that...

   My life, yeah. A blog is a blog is a blog. If you're reading this, well, first of all you're a masochist who yet has excellent taste, so congratulations, but-- if you're reading this anyway, you wouldn't mind. If anything's annoying it's my constant protests about this very thing, always going on about why I'm telling you about myself, as if I need an excuse... But people's lives are fun. And the specifics are fascinating. And what the hay. It is nice when I talk about my life. It's also really fun and mindblowing when specifically I talk about Asperger's syndrome and how I've been diagnosed with it and how trippy that is-- yeah, there's something; kind of fun an unusual and let's talk about that.

  That one time I spent 13 posts in a row doing just that is pretty popular, after all... but dang it was a research intensive process, getting that puppy up. I'd say about, three, four hours went into each of those posts, on average. And I'm not sure how much there is left to be said on that topic, besides... There might be. The 13 posts, another thing about it is that it's all pretty personal as well, and a surprisingly large chunk of it has nothing to do with autism or anything like that at all. It's a good starting place, to be sure, but (especially with a subject so, ehem, high-functioning (ladies)) it's hard to tell how things would turn out in any other circumstance, or where anything lets off and anything else begins.

   But dang I am a total shut-in.

   I think that's my biggest problem. Like, I never interact with nobody. Miles away from anyone who is both interesting and not related to me-- no license to drive, so I'm basically cut off from that. It would be nice to one day go on a date with a girl (and, a date for real, at that-- I did promenade at prom time, Senior year, but beyond that... uh...) Maybe when my credits all transfer, and I go off to some shiny college elsewhere, and live in an apartment and everything, I'll be able to get practice(d), but for now...

   Hello, internet.