Shippin Up to Boston (cont...2 weeks later)

Ok, so it's been a while, but here's what happened on Saturday...

We decided to skip the bar crawl, and stayed at the apartment and played video games most of the day...I read some comics as well. Eventually we went out to a pretty nice bar a couple blocks walk from Mikey's place. We had a few beers and I had a delicious Guinness beef stew. Seriously, if you guys ever see this stew on a menu, get it, it's damn good.

Then we took the trolley/subway or whatever it was to another bar...my boy Tom met us about halfway there. When we arrived, they gave me a beer in a glass with a triangular base, which I really wanted, cuz I collect pint glasses. Anyway, I asked if I could buy it, but instead they just gave me a different one. I was grateful at first but after getting more drunk I decided that I really needed that triangular glass. I took it off the bar and handed it to Tom who was sitting right next to me and said, "put this in your hoodie," or something to that effect. I looked up and there was the bartender looking at me.

Let me just say that I was wasted at this point so I'm not really sure what happened, but after thinking it over the next day I'm fairly confident that he just gave the glass back and laughed at me. However, after we had left the bar I asked him what happened to the glass and he told me that it had broken. Not sure what the real story was but I'll probably never know at this point so it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, I don't remember most of the rest of the night...I know there was some rock band played at some point and more drinking...I think I passed out on the floor in the kitchen.

The next day me and Scott woke up and got on the bus and went home.

And that's that.

Shippin Up to Boston

Hey all, I went to Boston last week and meant to write about it, but I've been busy so you get it a week late.

I made a couple of entries in the journal I brought there so I figured I'd start with those, though they trail off before all the good shit happened so I'll fill you in on what I remember of that with a later entry.

3/14/08 8:30pm

Uneventful train ride into NYC. The 8:00 Chinatown bus was full so we decided to wait for the 10:00pm one. Scott suggested we take a walk around the block. I wanted to see if there were any bars in the area. There weren't. Sitting here now, with my notebook resting on my duffel bag, perturbed by my sobriety but embracing the experience nonetheless.

11:40pm

We decided to kill time by playing poker. I dominated that endeavor. Once we got on the bus, we drank the 5 beers I had in my bag. I'm feeling very tired and I'm pretty sure Scott is already asleep. There are about 3 hours to go on this trip and I'm writing in the shadow of my own hand right now. I think it's time to give this a break for a while.

3/15/08 11:46am

We arrived in Boston at about 1:30am last night, which is an hour sooner than I thought we'd be here. Mikey had been at the bar all night. He said he'd meet us by the train station. After about five minutes of waiting, he called Scott and told us to start walking toward a white flag that was on our right. We did. I noticed a person in the distance sit down by a concrete planter, he looked homeless. We walked onward towards the flag. The homeless guy sitting down started shaking as we approached. I said, "That's got to be Mikey." As we got up to where the planter was, he jumped at us. Obviously it was Mikey.

We walked about three blocks back to his apartment, he was drunk as a skunk. On the way he tapped a girl on the shoulder, she thought it was me ("Did it work?" he asked after a minute or so of walking, "Yeah, it worked.") He yelled catcalls at construction workers. he tried to hitchhike back to his apartment, cabs pulled over, I had to wave them off. Even when we got there he started a "rock band" with some complete strangers on the elevator ("Where's my air guitar?!" he kept demanding.)

Once we got inside, we drank a few beers and bullshitted for a couple of hours. We watched 'Drunk History' and Mikey solved a Rubik's cube while wasted. Then we passed out.

I woke up and started writing. There is supposed to be some kind of pub crawl today starting at noon and going till 7 or so. We may catch the tail end of it. Apparently 80 people will be there. It should be quite an experience if nothing else...I'll let you know.


Present time:
And that was all I had, in my next gripping installment I'll let you know what happened on that fateful day. Until then, seeya later.

Just Had to Let It Out

Ten minutes left before I have to be back at work. This is all spew of consciousness stuff. I just wanted to get something in here because honestly I haven't posted enough lately. I'm going to Boston this week, so hopefully I should have some good stories about that. I'll tell you all about it later. I hope to have a great weekend there and I don't see why I wouldn't. Leaving at around 5 tonight, hoping to make it there by midnight. God only knows what revelry and debauchery we'll get into over the weekend, but if I remember most of it I haven't done my job.

Gonna bring a notebook so hopefully I'll have some notes about it or something. Guess I'll find out. Shit....forgot to pack that notebook, good reminder for myself. Gotta find a good book to read for the trip too.

Monday is St. Patty's day, I am damn excited for that. I took off the next day so no need to worry about the hangover thank god.

Alright, need to go get everything else in order and get back to work. Nice talking to you all again.

Moses Biscuits?

Hilarious news everyone! I’ve got a couple of things I thought were funny as hell and a follow up article to share with you and then I’ll leave you the hell alone.

The first one harkens back to biblical times when life was simpler and everybody was fucked up on something. This article comments on the possibility that everyone was high on some sick hallucinogens when Moses showed them the Ten Commandments. Oh Moses, you sick bastard, it’s just like you to give everyone acid before you come down that mountain.

The other funny article I have comes from a village in France where dying has just become outlawed. It seems they filled up the graveyard there and apparently can’t just plot out more land for a new one. The mayor has decreed that people who die will be punished for their transgression. Surely they could turn the already dead into zombies to help alleviate the problem.

I also wanted to provide this link for anyone who is interested in that new NIN album that came out. I spoke a little prematurely when I said it was free. Apparently their price scheme was based on a tiered system in which only Ghosts I was free, Ghosts I-IV was $5 if you only wanted it digitally and $10 if you wanted a CD along with digital download. There are also deluxe editions costing $75 and $300…So I’m glad I cleared that up.

Let me know if you guys want me to jump off a bridge, ok? I’ll write more sometime later.

55

So I was at the bar last night and I asked for a pen and some napkins to jot with. The bartender there said that I should try writing a story in 55 words, so I did several. Here are a couple of them...Disclaimer: I was at the bar so you know, take that into account:

One:
"I'm baring my soul to you. I'm trying to tell you what I never could, or what you wouldn't accept. I need you to understand now. I can't take it anymore. I'm about to burst. It's taken so long, years, decades it feels like. I'm trying to tell you that I love you."
"I know."

Two:
We got in by breaking down the door. I put my backpack down in the future never-would-be living room and took out that homemade explosive.
"Everything gravy?" I yelled.
"Yeah."
I set the bomb and ran out. If She won't do it herself, I'll save Her.
This will be so beautiful.
Boom.

Those are the ones that don't suck so terribly they make me want to vomit. Anyway, thought you might be interested.

Thanks for reading.

The Color of Fire

Hi again folks. What’s new with you? I feel kind of like a schizo writing here, what with not really anyone reading. What’s the point of posting this on the net? Maybe it’s just a blogging wet dream, to grow and establish a fanbase and then make millions based on these words that I take from other people. But I soldier on for you, my press-whore alter ego.

Went to a party last night, a friend of mine is leaving for Japan within the next week so she had a little going away bash. I’m still not sure exactly what she’s going to be doing there. I’m sure it will be great for her as she is an avid manga fan.

I’ve been thinking about getting the Periodical Informant back up and running. I have a couple of people lined up who may be interested in filling the days that I don’t have a new article, which would be nice. Also, a friend of mine is getting into photography and I think it’d be great if we could get pictures up on the site. I think it would lend the column at least slightly more respectability.

Mostly music news today, Trent Reznor released a new album for download Ghosts I-IV, you can read about it here and here. This album is entirely free from what I understand, though I don’t believe it has any vocals. I definitely want to check this out as Reznor is always doing something innovative with his music and apparently now even with the distribution of his music. This is very similar to what Radiohead did with their album In Rainbows, (which is unfortunately no longer available for active download) wherein customers selected their own price to pay for the album.

Other good news, and a tip of the hat to Ben for letting me on to this, Blind Melon is back together and touring with a new lead singer after a twelve year hiatus. That’s one hell of a layoff, but it sounds like they’re really hitting it off with the new singer so who am I to complain. No one, that’s who.

The last thing today, which I thought was kind of crazy as hell is apparently environmentalists are burning down “green homes”that aren’t environmentally friendly enough. C’mon guys, you’re gonna burn down somebody’s house because you think it’s fucking up the environment, I bet burning insulation does wonders for the ozone layer. What the hell is wrong with you people, go hug a damn tree and stop putting people’s lives in danger.

That’s all for today true believers. I’ll talk at you some more in the next gripping installment of whatever the hell I feel like calling it.

Symposiums are Totally Rad

Just got this in the mail: I guess something is keeping track of what I’m writing about…even if it’s just some keyword searching bot:

Please post if you think your Intimate Knowledge readers will be interested:


You are invited to Splat! A Graphic Novel Symposium
Saturday, March 15, 2008

We welcome new readers, writers, artists, publishers, agents, and long-standing comics fans alike to learn more about the fastest growing movement in publishing – and meet some of the best creators working in the medium today!

The SPLAT! Symposium will also supply prospective creators with a unique opportunity to learn what it takes to be a graphic novelist. There will be three different tracks of panels, seminars, and workshops, followed by the SPLAT! Reception with Scott McCloud.

The panels will be led by a number of key writers, editors and artists from the graphic novel world including: Jim Killen, buyer Barnes & Noble; David Saylor, Editor Scholastic; Raina Telgemeier, artist, The Baby-Sitters Club; Ted Rall, creator, Attitude: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists; CB Cebulski, writer/editor, Marvel Comics; Bob Mecoy, Founder, Bob
Mecoy Literary Agency; R. Sikoryak, creator, The Seduction of Mike; Brian Wood, creator, Demo, DMZ and Local; Nick Bertozzi, creator, The Salon; and Charles Brownstein, executive director, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Please visit www.nycip.org/graphicnovelsymposium to register
for this unique event.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This thing could be cool. Anybody want to go? I’m sure there will be plenty of HOT BABES, EXPLOSIONS, COOL CARS, PORN, HOW TO MAKE BEER, BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, HOCKEY, BASKETBALL, SOCCER (for the international crowd), BIGFOOT, JELLO WRESTLING, KY JELLY, and CURE SYPHILIS.

In Keeping with Orange Cats

Did you ever stop and ask yourself, what if John Arbuckle was alone in all of those Garfield comics? No? Why the fuck not? They’d be hilarious. Luckily, someone did. After you’re done laughing you can go back to whatever it is you used to fill your time with before Garfield sans Garfield, I almost feel bad for you.

The BBC did a report recently on the Italian Mafia trying to reestablish their ties with the mob in America. They apparently have a pretty good stronghold on some fairly big businesses and are getting deeper into online gambling. This should be interesting.

Some other news of interest, Cuba just signed two legally binding human rights pledges, shortly after Raul Castro was sworn in.So we got that goin' for us, which is nice. Looks like Cuba might be just about done playing hardball and willing to jump on the I like to buy shit from the US bandwagon. Yay, they’re only 20 years too late for all the good shit. Cuba could just keep torturing people and buy their stuff from China, I’m sure they don’t mind.

If there actually is anyone reading this drivel, give me feedback, tell me what you like and what needs work. I have no idea what I’m doing here so any comments are helpful.

Thanks fellas and fellitas.

Restolen

Got this from Warren Ellis' blog...stolen with permission from the author:

Taken from Harlan Ellison’s online community, reproduced in its unedited entirety below:

HARLAN ELLISON ON THE WRITERS STRIKE SETTLEMENT

YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO RE-POST THIS ANYWHERE:

Creds: got here in 1962, written for just about everybody, won the Writers Guild Award four times for solo work, sat on the WGAw Board twice, worked on negotiating committees, and was out on the picket lines with my NICK COUNTER SLEEPS WITH THE FISHE$$$ sign. You may have heard my name. I am a Union guy, I am a Guild guy, I am loyal. I fuckin’ LOVE the Guild.

And I voted NO on accepting this deal.

My reasons are good, and they are plentiful; Patric Verrone will be saddened by what I am about to say; long-time friends will shake their heads; but this I say without equivocation…

THEY BEAT US LIKE A YELLOW DOG. IT IS A SHIT DEAL. We finally got a timorous generation that has never had to strike, to get their asses out there, and we had to put up with the usual cowardly spineless babbling horse’s asses who kept mumbling “lessgo bac’ta work” over and over, as if it would make them one iota a better writer. But after months on the line, and them finally bouncing that pus-sucking dipthong Nick Counter, we rushed headlong into a shabby, scabrous, underfed shovelfulla shit clutched to the affections of toss-in-the-towel summer soldiers trembling before the Awe of the Alliance.

My Guild did what it did in 1988. It trembled and sold us out. It gave away the EXACT co-terminus expiration date with SAG for some bullshit short-line substitute; it got us no more control of our words; it sneak-abandoned the animator and reality beanfield hands before anyone even forced it on them; it made nice so no one would think we
were meanies; it let the Alliance play us like the village idiot. The WGAw folded like a Texaco Road Map from back in the day.

And I am ashamed of this Guild, as I was when Shavelson was the prexy, and we wasted our efforts and lost out on technology that we had to strike for THIS time. 17 days of streaming tv!!!????? Geezus, you bleating wimps, why not just turn over your old granny for gang-rape?

You deserve all the opprobrium you get. While this nutty festschrift of demented pleasure at being allowed to go back to work in the rice paddy is filling your cowardly hearts with joy and relief that the grips and the staff at the Ivy and street sweepers won’t be saying
nasty shit behind your back, remember this: You are their bitches. They outslugged you, outthought you, outmaneuvered you; and in the end you ripped off your pants, painted
yer asses blue, and said yes sir, may I have another.

Please excuse my temerity. I’m just a sad old man who has fallen among Quislings, Turncoats, Hacks and Cowards. I must go now to whoops. My gorge has become buoyant.

Respectfully, Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison

###

Catching Up

I’ve had lots of stuff to talk about lately and no time to write about it. Frankly I’m disappointed in myself, but that’s alright, here goes nothing.

I have a comic review on the backburner for now because I just started a new job (in the same company) and I’m still getting used to/celebrating the later hours. I have about 4 million stories started that I’m sure will never get finished for the simple fact that I’ve let them stew for much too long already. I want to get to a point where I’m writing every day, but it’s not as easy as it seems.

My bid to quit smoking has failed pretty miserably so far. I need to try again, I think I made some good headway last time and just need to give myself a final push and I’m certain I’ll be done for good. Haven’t done any physical activity in the longest time either, I’m convinced my body is going to degenerate until I’m just a swirling spiral of smoke with a beer in it’s somehow still corporeal hand.

News has been interesting lately, “CNN was one of only two American news organizations ever allowed to visit the main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.” This article was about a recent tour of a North Korean nuclear plant where they extracted plutonium for nuclear weapons projects. The North Koreans are looking to gain more favor with the US in return for some supplies etc that they need. Hopefully this is good, but I have my doubts. I guess we’ll see what happens with all that.

Lots of news on Slashdot about RIAA suits and it looks like a lot of it is good news these days. It’s about time they lost a little ground in this battle to anally rape music lovers.

The Pentagon confirmed that we successfully shot down a satellite last week. Hopefully we can do that when something that can actually hurt us is bearing down on our atmosphere.

I think I’m going to do a blog post where I list my favorite web comics soon. It seems like the thing to do, and it will give me an easy to access list if anybody asks about what comics they should be reading online. If anyone in the world is reading this, let me know if you can think of any good ones. I also have to post Harlan Ellison’s rant about the WGA strike…I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I guess that’s it for now. Gonna try to keep this more up to date in the future, but as always, no promises.

Freaky Friday (Ugh...I can't believe I'm actually using this headline)

FREAKANGELS by Warren Ellis (Which apparently he doesn't write the title of anywhere without all caps because he wants to torment my soul, as I get anal about finding out which letters should be caps and which not, etc...this creates a great swirly nexus in my head somewhere between Neverland and sanity which slowly eats my brain. There are several of these nexii thanks to Ellis.) is slated to arrive this Friday. It looks awesome.

I've been bouncing around in the forums that Ellis has set up and they're a lot of fun and a good time killer if you're looking for something to dispose of your time in a ruthless and bloody manner.

In a sad bit of news, Steve Gerber, a comic icon, died on Sunday 2/10/08. He did Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown among other big comic titles in the 70's and 80's. He's acknowledged as one of the most influential advocates for comic creators rights. He'll be missed.

Glad I could get some news out today. I know its not much, but deal with it, jerk.

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Insurance Fraud Hooray!

So I've just been tottering around lately, doing this and that. Haven't posted very much because my life ain't that interesting. Mostly I'd just be talking about other people and such. But hey sometimes I can bullshit about my life.

Still working on trying to get a comic review site going with Ben and Scott. Should be alright if/when we get all the bugs worked out.

Working is killing me, I hate it more and more every day. Need a new job, something else, something more fun than this. I'd rather be poor than do something I hate my whole life just so I can have kids and teach them to do the same stupid fucking thing. After a year of experience, which is a mere 4 months away now, I am definitely setting my sites on new horizons.

In other news, a guy who was declared dead in 2003 turned up in the Czech Republic recently. This story has one of the best headlines I've ever seen. Gotta love insurance fraud.

Dinner's ready, talk to you all later.

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David Tyree and His Helmet

Ok, there are a couple of things to talk about today.

First and foremost, GO GIANTS, congrats on one of the (if not the) best Superbowls I've ever seen. What an amazing game. David Tyree made one of the best catches I've ever seen. Holy shit, let me just say you won't see a better game than that folks, if you missed it, shame on you.

Ok, as for what I was going to say over the weekend. Exxon obviously enjoyed another record year. If they are turning such
amazing profits why are we paying so goddamn much for gas. You'd think
they could afford to lower the prices and still make some money. Fucking assholes fucking shit up for fucking everybody. It's gonna get worse before it gets better guys, get some of those hybrids everyone's talking about.

Also, found this cool little thing called a worldometer courtesy of Warren Ellis. It's got a lot of interesting real time info, including the cost of a beer in Zimbabwe, which at time of this publication is 3,401,703 Z$ and rising fast. They just tendered million Z$ notes in the country to keep up with its unconscionable inflation. They are experiencing a 150,000% inflation rate.

Well, I think that's all for now. Check back next time when hopefully I'll have more interesting crap for you.

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Super Bowl Sunday (Giants - Pats)

Hiya,

Just wanted to let you know (and not let myself forget) that I've got a bunch of things I want to talk about, alas, it is Super Bowl Sunday and I've got to run. Make sure to tune in next time though when we discuss things such as Exxon being douche bags and "worldometers." Fun stuff in store for you, be there or be jerks.

Later.

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Time for an Upgrayedd

Yes, I have been drinking. Yes, I'm probably an alcoholic. What's it to ya?

Nothing all that interesting to report in the last few days. Hopefully I'll be stumbling into some extra cash at some point soon, but nothing confirmed. At the very least I'll be able to help out a buddy. That's all you get to know, as I am admittedly shady.

I saw Idiocracy last night and let me tell you, awesome movie. I had heard some good reviews a while ago and they were whole heartedly confirmed. Mike Judge is awesome, period. I have never disliked anything by him and he didn't disappoint with this one. It's a great look at the flaws within society without being preachy or obnoxious. Watch it, enjoy it. I promise you will care who's ass it is and why it is farting.

In other news...there is no other news really.

Super Bowl is on Sunday. I am quite excited. Go Giants beat the piss out of the Patriots just because everyone thinks you don't belong there.

Thanks again...seeya later.

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Where the heart is, also the bed

Hey you,

So here I am and I'm contemplating what the hell it is that I should do with my life and I kinda just want things like this to happen. If I could spend my days playing/reviewing video games and making comics I'd be a very happy boy. I mean, I guess I could do that but it wouldn't make me nearly as much money as the PA guys. To be fair, I'm sure they wallowed around in the muck of extreme poverty for a while when they were trying to kick their site off.

I don't know, I wouldn't mind throwing myself into something even if it was pretty much destined to fail except for the fact that I'm trying to save up money right now for all the random shit I want to do. So I need time and money to do this shit. Right now I have some money but no goddamn time. I could quit my job but then I'd have no money. So what I need to do is win the lottery...ooooor make a living doing something I want to do.

Choices:

1) Write, etc...in time that you aren't at work or sleeping. During the week this is ~ 6 hours a day. Shit, I work more hours than I'm awake during the week, that kinda blows.

2) Quit job and see if you can hack it as a real writer. If you fail you're fucked and back to a shitty office job with the knowledge that you blew your chance to do what you want to do. But hell at least you tried right?

3) Win lottery/get hit by rich drunk guy/find box of money (credit to Jim for this one)/get sugar mama/join the lucrative pro ping pong circuit and beat those Asian guys.

<Segue>

Saw No Country for Old Men a few days ago. Awesome movie, I highly suggest seeing it. It has one of the most terrifying villains I've ever encountered. Coen bros. hit their mark again. Cheers to them.

Hopefully I'll get some reading done today. That'll be nice, yeah, nice. Got so many books I'm in the middle of, it'll be good to finish something soon.

Peace blogosphere.

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Let's try this again

Now that I will have to completely start advertising this again I figured what the hell, lets give this blog another shot. This isn't going to be some big, adventurous blog that everyone will come to so they can have a glimpse into the life of someone living life to its fullest potential or any bullshit like that. Most likely it will be a place where I plot and scheme and complain and sometimes stop making sense. Likely, it'll be really boring for anyone but me, but since it'll be mostly for me I really don't give a rat's ass.

First order of business is to come up with some way to make my life not miserable. A list, I think, is in order:

1) Get a job you don't hate - This is the big one because the job you have now is slowly devouring your soul.

2) Start writing more - Hence the blog. I want to start up some new exercises/projects in writing. We'll see how that goes, hopefully I don't get started then quit halfway through like I do with everything else.

3) Get that comic review site up and running - Ben I hope you're reading this. We really need to do that man. It'll be easy and fun. Just need someone to design the site for us I guess. We should perhaps talk to Bill about this as it's his damn job to create and maintain websites.

4) Complete quitting smoking - Good start so far, have to keep it going.

5) Start a workout regimen that I can actually stick to - When I can actually breathe again because of the effects of #4, sports would be a good way to do this.

6) Learn more about the world around you - Stumbled onto Wikiversity today, which I had never heard of before but is an awesome idea.

7) Get something published - Why not? I've passed the age where I can make the excuse that I'm too young to get anything done. Need to work on what I've got and where it can go and write something that's worth a damn.


God, look at all this crap, there's more but I'll probably just depress myself. Maybe I'll wade into that later.

It's good to be back. I know you've all missed me...God, I'm so lame I need to imagine that I have internet friends.

Bye for now my faithful followers.

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