Animation Observation

There's something about animation that always gets me excited. If it's animated and done really well, it can have my imagination going for days on end. I don't know why but I fondly remember the cartoons of my early youth more fondly than I do any other TV show, save for Star Trek.  

As I grew older, those shows stayed with me. I look back at Batman: The Animated Series and think, 'For a kid's show, it was really ahead of it's time.'

Review: Man of Steel

For a lot of kids, the first superhero they're exposed to growing up is Superman. When I was younger it was Batman but as I got to the age of six or seven, I really became interested in Superman. I'd read whatever comics my parents were nice enough to buy, even though I didn't always understand the continuity going on and when I was in grade two, me and the teacher wrote to the ABC network after he heard talk that Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was in danger of being cancelled. I was such a big fan of the show around that time that I even used to wear a home made Superman shirt to school once a week.

And for the record, the show stayed on the air several years after we mailed that letter. I don't know if we had any impact on it's remaining TV run or not but I still have the letter that ABC sent me in reply. I watched the Superman animated series that aired in the mid-nineties and while it never reached the popularity of...another animated series, I think it might actually be a bit underrated at times.

"Someone's playing Superman 64? I'll stop them!"

Book Review-Zits: Chillax

Any similarities between the character on the cover and the author of this blog are (hopefully) coincidence and (hopefully) unintentional

I was probably in grade six when my parents called me over to look at a comic strip. In it, a teenage boy was chained in a dungeon while a voice off-panel asked him how his day at school was. The next four or five panels featured something similar: An exercise in torture with a side of everyday questioning. The last panel showed the teenager looking physically spent, sitting at a table with his parents simply saying they weren't holding an inquisition. 

Since most of the questions from my parents concerning school and the like felt like that to me when I was that age-and to this day-I instantly knew that I had found something special. This was the comic strip Zits. 

Calgary Expo 2013: Saturday

Last year, I arrived at the Expo only to be turned away along with thousands of others due to the lack of foresight the planners had put into the event. In case you don't recall my post from last year, the highlight of the 2012 Calgary Expo was the full cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation being together at a convention for the first time in close to 20 years. 

Fans were righteously upset and I was among them. I didn't brood about it but at the same time, I knew that if I wanted to make it next year I would have to be better prepared. I bought tickets a month ago for the weekend but there was going to be a slight problem in that I had to work a midnight shift that Friday night. I wasn't going to run home for a nap and risk missing anything important so instead I bought a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans and headed off as soon as I punched out. 

My Favourite TV Themes

Back a few months ago, I did a podcast with The Basement Vagrants where we discussed our favourite TV themes/intros. I went back and listened to that and thought that while my list was good, there were some choices that I either neglected to include or shouldn't have put on in the first place. 

It's very hard for me to rank these to other than the final two on this list (Which I consider the best), so any other entry on this list, I enjoy equally. 

Haiku: The Origin of Intercourse

Don't ask me how or why I came up with something like this, but my theory is, so long as my creative juices are flowing and producing something that's not porn, why not share it? And don't worry, not all every haiku I make will be about sex. 

The Origin of Intercourse:

I took my dick and

Put it inside of you. And

then I pulled it out.

Still Alive

No, I didn't die, neither did I give up writing the blog. I just...got distracted. First of all, I was unemployed for a good while (Not that there was anything good about it), was looking for a new place, new job and trying to keep depression at bay while creating content for the boxing website I write for.

Then I found a new job, had to get used to the fact that I was at the bottom of the food chain both in terms of seniority as well as having any idea as to what I was doing (Nobody ever tells you how bad you're going to fuck up until you've already fucked up) compared to the Pilot/Flying J where I was training people who were going onto become General Managers of their own stores. To quote Gordon Ramsay: "General Manager? General Tosspot."

"Making reference to me when not talking about one of my shows? GET OUT!!!!"

But I'm doing well at my new job now, settled into a new apartment and am giving good content to Boxing4free.com on a regular basis. So now that that's under control, I'm going to try and work to get this blog up to the standard it was at two years ago. I've already got some ideas for posts, including an episode-by-episode review of some animated series and a few other things. So, relax, don't get out that black suit. I'm not dead yet and neither is my writing.

Mother Nature's a Skank and Jack Frost is a Dickweed

Well, here it is, late October, Halloween in just over a week and what does that ho named Mother Nature decides that now is the perfect time for a snowstorm. You know, a few weeks ago, we had a light falling of snow which I don't mind. You know, I'm pretty cool with it but instead of giving us time to prepare for the upcoming freeze, Jack Frost decided to give us here in Calgary a swift kick in the nuts and laugh as we crumbled on the ground.

It's pretty much just like this

As I type, tiny flakes continue to sprinkle on the ground, causing people to drive more cautiously, however that means 95% of people on the road are driving like this is their first time behind the wheel. It also means that transit is going to be delayed. So while I was lucky enough to catch a train this evening, it means that anyone who said, "I'll get the next one" ended up waiting over 30 minutes for their train to arrive.

Right now I'm in a Starbucks, sipping a hot chocolate and trying to get some feeling back into my feet before I go out and see if I can catch a bus that'll swing by my place.
This is my fourth winter in Calgary and I still can't get used to the idea of there being trick-or-treater's outside while all around me it looks like I should be getting ready to sing O Holy Night.

Montreal Student Protests

Back during Victoria day weekend Aaron and I made a trip out to Montreal for a friend's bachelor party. After a few days of drinking and staring at titties it was almost time do go home. On the last night, the bachelor, Chris realized that he hadn't gotten his fiancee anything and decided to make a last minute effort to get her a decent bottle of wine.

Deciding for a change of scenery (The rented apartment was getting a little stale for me), I decided to go with Chris and a friend of his named Jamie walked up through the streets of Montreal and see what we could get. Personally, I thought Chris was worried about nothing. If she's going to get upset over you not bringing home a memento from your bachelor party, a time where all your friends are paying for your lap dances and a chance to see the lesbian show...then she's not really worth it.

How many of you guys are thinking about wine for your girlfriend right now?

The House-Sitters Club Part 2: Italian Adventure

Back in July before I went on my own vacation, Aaron and Katelynn were telling me about their planned honeymoon later in the summer (That being now). Originally the plan was to go to Russia but that quickly changed when they found out that it's harder to get into the country now than it was back during the Cold War.

And besides...screw Russia. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of history there and Aaron was really interested in seeing the Kremlin and Red Square but to me...there's not much else to do. Also the Russian government has some strict rules about people who want to travel. They would have to mail out their passports to the government and wait for them to return. Also, they would not be able to travel by themselves and have to stay in a group the whole time. Yeah, cause that's what everyone wants for their honeymoon.

I'm just not feeling the romance with this image

So they changed their mind and decided they would be going to Italy. Beautiful scenery, historical monuments, great food, a wonderful atmosphere...

You can understand why I was pissed off at them for going.

Since they were going to be gone for two weeks I immediately informed them that I would once again be willing to look after Lyle while they were off eating ravioli that wasn't made by a chef named Boyardee. 

"Oh, that's not necessary," Katelynn informed me. The plan was to drop Lyle off in Ontario to spend some time with Katelynn's mother which seemed a bit strange especially since Katelynn put in a way that made it seem like Lyle really was looking forward to going to Ontario.
I should note that Lyle is a dog who often confuses the doorbell on TV for the doorbell in real life. The sound of either causes him to bark like a maniac.

When not being baffled by doorbells, Lyle likes to spend his time working on his tan

So after I came back from my cruise, I went to Aaron's one afternoon to drink when all of a sudden he pulled out his calender.

"Hey...what are you doing between, uh August 22nd and September 5th?"

I had a feeling he was asking me to go somewhere with him but it turns out...

"Would you wanna watch Lyle for us?"

It seems that they both came to realize that paying airfare for a canine to be transported to Toronto to be picked up by a parent and cared for over a period of two weeks only to return to Toronto after said two weeks were over wasn't such a good idea after all.

So here I am on a nice little bed with Lyle sleeping on my feet, occasionally looking up towards me and barking at any unfamiliar sound that's unfamiliar to him. For the most part he is good company though there have been some changes in the routine. 

For example, while he normally sleeps on Aaron and Katelynn's bed with them, I put a stop to that after the first night when he woke me up at 2am due to all his tossing and turning with that noisy collar of his. And then when someone decided to walk their dog three hours later, even though he couldn't see the other dog, the other hound's presence was so vile to Lyle that he woke me up with his barking and constant running back and forth between my door and the front door to let me know he wanted to go for a walk. He sleeps in a cage now.

Another Quick Life Lesson

If you're going to fly American Airlines, either drink heavily before boarding or give yourself a sleeping pill because I've never flown on a more boring airline in all my life.