Welcome Home.

I'm back! It's been a bit, having spent some time at Alchemy: The Georgia Burn. (For more info on Alchemy go here: http://www.alchemyfestival.com/ for more information on Burns in general, such as Burning Man, go here: http://www.burningman.com/) It was a much needed week spent with amazing people (mutants, the lot of them) and recharged my batteries to a degree that I cannot even begin to thank them for. In the meantime, however, it appears that things were afoot.

Regardless of your party line, or cultural demographic, the majority of Americans have been highly vocal in their displeasure with our current financial industry/system, and those whom have profited from the shortfalls our economy has faced. While I was gone, it appears that things were coming to ahead in the forms of protests and demonstrations in many major cities across our wonderful nation, the first (that I am currently aware of) being in New York City, New York. The title of the synchronized protests, "Occupy Wallstreet" denotes the origin and location of the original. For more information on this, please go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

For the viewpoint of the original protestors, please visit here:

http://occupywallst.org/

Now, as a member of the Armed Forces, I am not legally allowed to publicly endorse any political movement in a manner in which it would appear as if said movement were endorsed by the Armed Forces. However, I am not prevented from appearing at peaceful assemblies, as long as I do not do so in uniform. As a result, I will be participating in every fashion that does not violate the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, or the rights, freedoms, or safety of American Citizens, and those that are visiting this amazing land. I am also not prohibited from sharing hyperlinks with you, my tens of readers, and as such, will do so now:

http://occupymemphis.org/

Please, please, please read and become informed to the best of your knowledge. Don't just take someone else's word on this matter (I hate to point this out, but that's how predatory lending practices work; on the lack of understanding of the borrower.), do the research yourself, and learn what really happened. We cannot begin to move forward until we understand what was pulling us back in the first place.

-T

Post Breakup: New Orleans

Post Breakup: Day 2

As opposed to spending the evening with my good friends whom care a great deal about me, I've decided that it was more important to hole up in my house, drink excessively, and experience mobs of people sapping up my cellphone's bandwidth, and ability to do such mundane things as make and receive calls.

You know, like an adult.

After temporarily abating my new-found fear of the interwebs with booze, I've come up with today's running tally of my stats. Perhaps the increase in strength will pay off in tomorrow's P.T. session at drill.

Strength:       3
Dexterity:      0
Constitution: -2
Intelligence:  -2
Wisdom:      -2
Charisma:     1

Post Breakup: Day 1

The first day after the breakup of any significant relationship essentially reduces all of your "stats" to zero. (For reference as to what I'm referring to, see here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons#Advanced_Dungeons_.26_Dragons ) It's a harrowing, soul-crushing experience, weather you were the instigator, or recipient, and regardless of you being "right" or "wrong" in your actions. Even if it's actually for the best, it never feels as if it is, and at the end of the day, you've both lost the person you love. It renders you as effective as a newborn infant. (To see just how useful that is, check here: http://www.onion.demon.co.uk/theonion/other/babies/stupidbabies.htm )

From day one, you begin to slowly rebuild your statistics, a metaphysical representation of your own ego and perceived usefulness in the known universe. These are, in general, accomplished by the completion of mundane adult tasks, that now become arduous and impossible because every little scent, color, or small, perky fold in the sheets somehow reminds you of your former lover. Even simply putting on boxers can become challenging "Ahh, boxers. I remember once how she told me she prefers I wear them..." Often times this is accomplished by pretending to everyone around you that you're some sort of stalwart rebound sex-robot, with booze for blood and none of those pesky regrets for your obviously correct and necessary decision. This is good, because if they actually lift up the curtain to see the vulnerable, terrified, and still hopelessly love-stricken loser you actually are, they're sure to mock you. (As well they should, pussy.)

For SCIENCE! I will be logging my progress in such activities, and will keep a running tally of my player statistics from today until this segment is no longer amusing to me.


Strength:         0
Dexterity:        0
Constitution:  -2
Wisdom:         1
Intelligence:     0
Charisma:       1

The Kill

This comic is an homage of sorts to "The Kill" by The Dresden Dolls. Fantastic song, if you have yet to hear it. After all, they fought the British- and they won.

Hipsters I

To be fair, I have Hipsters to thank for bringing an economic force to the many things I love and have enjoyed for decades, but until recent interested, were underfunded. I'm not the sort whom is particularly impressed by how underground or obfuscated something is, and as a result take enjoyment when my favorite band grows in popularity. As a result, I bear this demographic no ill will, other than the fact that it took them so damn long to catch on to all these spiffy things! Speaking of which, go listen to Anathallo (Start with "Sparrows"). Do it right now before you forget, and if you have something spiffy to share with me, then by all means!

Soup would be nice.

My sister recently asked me to do a comic. I'm not entirely sure what she had in mind, nor am I ready to implement this “grand idea” I've been tossing around that will rely so heavily upon photoshoppe type programs, but hey, I figured I'd give it a shot. More to the point, since most of the subjects we discuss are so cynical, it seemed a positive note couldn't hurt. Couple of things to take into account, however:

1. Despite the massive amounts of awesome ideas I have for other people's comics, I rarely have any of my own.
2. I cannot draw.

Not to worry however, because cute, awkward things are what's “in” on the interwebs right now. Thank God for this because not only do I find them personally entertaining, but I just don't have the time at current to improve my lack of ability to scribble lines across paper. Or do I..?

The other benefit to this is that all of the various ideas I've been wanting to try equate to entirely plausible, and enjoyable. This is quite a relief since, to myself at least, the purpose of this exists to vent unto the world, and while I'm down for entertaining anyone whom reads of our particular neurosis, I'm not sure I wish to expand beyond an audience of, oh, I don't know, 11.

Why? Well, it's simple. I'm a genuinely crazy fuck who has a hard time puzzling out the motives of other human beings. I just want to help people, and not explode, and don't understand why everyone else isn't driven by these two ideals either. Whenever the latter does not occur, I count this as a “good day”, because in my little scorebook it allows me to rack up significantly more tics than the previous system, in which days when I was crippled by rage, distrust, and paranoia for even a couple of hours, I marked as a “bad day”. Yesterday would have been counted as one of those. So now while this data is significantly less helpful to whatever individual might make good use of it, it sure makes me feel a hell of a lot better.

And now I want pho.