my time on terra firma

Thirteen months in and I'm still tickin'!  Woo-Hoo! Thirteen months ago, I was sweating the last few details of one of the last acts (besides marriage and parenthood) of full-on adulthood; my first place!  My own place.  After 39 years of living with of others, I was going to take the plunge and live on my own with my own rules, my way, for the next twelve months or so.  Finally, I was going to be able to come and go as I please without checking in with a parental figure, the US Army, or possibly scaring the bejesus out of my unsuspecting roommates when I strolled in at say, 3 AM.  Finally, I can have the option of living like a complete neat-freak or turning my humble abode into a pig-sty.  Get up when I please or stay in bed all day?  Three piece suit?  Suit of armor?  Birthday suit?  Don't matter, all bets are off...or maybe they're on!  Haha!  I decide!  Me!  All me!  All.  Of.  It.  On me. ...

Excellent!

So, this hasn't happened in a while. And by "this", I mean writing an actual entry.  Sure, I've answered some of Platypi's questions, but I can't call those actually entries that were about me.  I don't know what to say except that sometimes I feel the strongest urge to write and sometimes I just want to sit on my duff and veg in front of the boob tube (oh who am I kidding???  I'm looking at porn on the Internet!  I mean they're so naked...and smooth...!); today is the former. Tonight, for the third time this week, I'm disappointed in myself.  For the last few days, I've been unable to make my diet goals. First, a little back story.  For the last several months, I've been on a diet.  A hardcore, ass-kicking diet consisting of calorie counting, walking and an elliptical machine.  I've been on this grind since November and since then, I've successfully dropped 4 pants sizes.  I'm now a svelte size 33 or 34 depending on ...

I wrote this in response to a  friend  who posted a blog entry about heroes and memes over a year ago: Um, I don't think about Warhammer or any games like it. At all.   Truth is, I wasn't aware of Warhammer or miniature war games when I was younger and honestly, I had other toys that I actually played with.   Too easy. http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/globalLanding.jsp?gotoGWSPage=http%3A//www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp%3FcatId%3Dcat370003%26rootCatGameStyle%3Dwh

I wrote this in response to a friend who posted a blog entry about heroes and memes over a year ago: Yes, I am a fan of anime; right now, my two favorites are FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Naruto: Shippuden ! And the reason I'm in to these particular shows is one word: pluck. Both main characters, Naruto and Edward Elric (Naruto: Shippuden! and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, respectively) are literally and figuratively the shortest dogs in the fight; two very powerful human beings who through sheer will and sticktoitiveness increased their abilities exponentially! They never stop, they never quit! Sure, there are many real life artist, writers, athletes, scholars, etc. who also have pluck, but there's something about these two characters that speak to me more than there real life counterparts. In Nartuo's case, he's been an outcast since birth! He was born into a village of ninjas and when said village was attacked by a very dangerous creature c...

Thank you, Wil Wheaton.     Sent to you by tony via Google Reader:     Today the US Senate is considering legislation that would destroy the free and open Internet. via WWdN: In Exile by wil@wilwheaton.net (Wil Wheaton) on 1/17/12 "Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there's deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?"         --Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC. I put this on my Tumblr thing earlier today, but I'm reposting it here, because it's important to me. If you don't know what SOPA and ProtectIP are, read this technical examination of SOPA and ProtectIP from the Reddit blog and come back when you're done. SOPA Lives -- and MPAA calls protests an "abuse of power." The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has looked at tomorrow's "Internet blac...

Slam!!!     Sent to you by tony via Google Reader:     I write for myself and I'll say anything I damn well please via Letters of Note by Letters of Note on 5/9/11 Back in December of 1996, worried about the influence of Green Day 's "explicit" fourth album, Insomniac , on her 8-year-old son, a mother decided to write a slightly aggressive letter of complaint to the band. It clearly hit a nerve, and she soon received a handwritten response from then-24-year-old frontman Billie Joe Armstrong . Both letters can be seen below. Apparently this exchange inspired the song " Reject ," as found on Green Day's next album, Nimrod . Transcripts follow. Images supplied by Dexter. Images: Dexter Transcript December 2, 1996 Green Day P.O. Box 710 Berkeley, Ca 94701-0710 Re: Insomniac To whom it may concern: I am a parent, and I am very disturbed by the cassette tape my 8 year old son was listening to. His 60 year old grandmother bought it ...

I wrote this in response to a friend who posted a blog entry about heroes and memes a few weeks ago: My top ten favorite cartoons are as follows...in no particular order: Transformers -More than meets the eye! Robots in disguise! This was one of the first cartoons to spark my interest in robots and Japanese animation. No Go-Bots here folks; though I watched that show, I always thought it was a cheap and lazy rip-off of the genuine article! The plot was so simple, so basic, that all you had to do was listen to theme song to get the premise. Good robots vs. Bad robots who are trying to drain the Earth of it's natural resources and use said resources to get back to (and take over) Cybertron. And the humans are caught right in the middle. Too easy. The battles of good and evil were summed up nicely whenever Optimus Prime and Megatron got to slug it out. A friend of mine asked me a few years ago who I thought was the best leader in comics/animation/pop culture. I honestly couldn't ...

I wrote this in response to a friend who posted a blog entry about heroes and memes a few days ago: The answer is no, I don't play D&D. Not anymore. The reason: I did not have the attitude for it; which is more important than any other reason I can give. I believe that when pursuing anything in life, you need three things to experience every aspect of any activity you're engaged in: attributes, aptitude and attitude; I've ranked them by importance from least to most important. I believe that if you're missing just one of these A's, your experience (from raking the leaves to having sex), will be greatly hindered and/or impaired. I'll start with attributes. Attributes--I've often entertained fantasies about being everything from a rapper to a pugilist to a pro basketball player; this last example should suffice. I do NOT have the attributes to be a pro baller , barring great balance, better than average ball handling skills and the ability to shoot ...

So, I'm having dinner with my roomies at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants when I just remembered that a few family members of Dragonmarks took a recent trip to Egypt! There was a lull in the conversation and I decided to bring up the recent unrest taking place in said African nation. Me: Hey Dragonmarks, when your parents left Egypt, was there a large, Michael Bay inspired explosion at their backs to convey how dangerous it was? Dragonmarks: (Dragonmarks turns to me with a mild glint of ire in his eyes; his wife falls silent) My parents are still there and I haven't spoken to them in 24 hours . Me: ... Shit! Oh-my-god-dude-is-everything-cool-I'm-so-sorry-Me-and-my-big-mouth-Why-am-I-so-parched-Where's-our-server-I-could-use-some-water-Fuck-it-where's-the-exit-I-should-leave! Flee!!! Update: Dragonmarks's parents are back in the states safe and sound. In other news, I'm such an idiot. http://www.atta.travel/

I wrote this in response to a friend who posted a blog entry about heroes a few days ago: Too easy. Luthor. Lex Luthor. Was there ever any doubt. For over 70 years, he's successfully been a pain in not just Superman's side, but the sides of just about every major hero in the DCU. He's the number one threat to Superman; more than Brainiac, more than Darkseid, more than Doosmday. In fact, if you go down Superman's rogues gallery, he's at the top of the list. Which is really amazing considering the fact that he has NO super powers whatsoever! I would even put him higher than most of the villains in Marvel! "But surely Tony, there must be at least one villain that is greater than Lex Luthor?", you (and by you I mean, "you", my lone, loyal fan!) may be asking your computer screen. Nope. Not a one. I'll run down the big dogs: Darkseid just wants the answer to the Anti-Life Equation and ...

So, once again, my mouth has gotten me in trouble. This all started about 2 weeks ago when my friend Platypus posted a list of nerd stuff (posted below) that she was going to answer every week. She called Spider-Man whiny , which prompted me to respond ...unkindly. I apologized to her and even though she agreed that I was a jerk, she also agreed that she didn ’t know a lot about comics and should therefore stick with the things that she did know. She also wondered if she should continue with said list. She absolutely should, regardless of my unkind comments. I was being a jerk and in situations like that, people should ignore me and do follow their heart’s desire. Furthermore, I think that I should add my two cents and answer each one of her questions each week (except for the food, I'd take all day on that list). In the hotlink "whiny" you, dear reader, can see that I answered week one. Here’s my response for week two: After thinking about it for a few hours, I ca...

I wrote this in response to a friend who posted a blog entry about heroes a few days ago: When I was a young boy, my aunt would let me and my sister go to 7-Eleven; it was one of the few areas we were allowed to go by ourselves. Generally, I was there for a Slurpee, but once a week, something magical would happen: the 7-Eleven would receive new comics!!! Oh joy! New comics! Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, Captain America, the X-Men and my favorite, Spider-Man. Yes, for the longest, he's been one of my favorites to read and even though I don't buy comics anymore (are you kidding me, look at the price tag?!?) I still casually read it when I'm in my favorite bookstore and occasional, I'll buy graphic novels. He's been my favorite for several main reasons: 1-He's like me. Oh sure, he was a teenager by the time I started reading but I understood what it was like to have a good day at school but a bad day at home. Or a good day at home, a ...