This is one of those post where 1) my opinion is law, 2) we didn’t take time to research and wrote this on the fly, 3) subjects encompassed are of category I actually try to talk about with friends (as opposed to writing), like this lady [we'll call her "A"], and 4) you don’t have to read if you’re easily offended with regards to 1. Just so we’re clear and you comment accordingly.

So the other day one of my roommates friends decided we needed to have “the talk”. But we weren’t going to be talking about sex, on no (which really sucks cause I’m always down for a little sex talk; the longer the better I always say), we were going to talk about religion. Specifically, my relationship with this thing called “God”.

*Hahahahahahaha!*MASSSIVE giggles*

He started by feeling me out (metaphorically speaking), tailoring his message to my goals and personality; strong start I’ll give him that. He tried to appeal to my education, bright personality, my personal happiness; anything to find a button and keep my attention. Classic sales trick, by the way. He even brought his life story into play and argued that given the massive difference in our age, and all the knowledge and wisdom he’d acquired over his lifetime, considering his “Lord” was probably the best investment I could ever make, because without “Him”, I will [allegedly] never find personal happiness.

And all of this, while to convince to me to believe in something I simply choose not to, was spurned because I looked down, distracted, and he sensed, he was “told” by his “God” that I needed to be talked to. He assumed problem, tried to fix it, assumed that his help was the only thing needed to fix the assumed problem, and tried to convince me that without his solution, my problem would never go away. No offense, but drug dealers do that same shit to the disenfranchised every fucking day. Just something to keep in mind.

And then at the end of this long, thought-out lecture, this guy admits he never took the time to learn my name!?!? Okay….way to make a sale Random-Gospel Guy.

Now let me make something clear, I’ve got no problem with those who believe; regardless what they believe in. Further, I’d never say what my title does to someone in person; even though that’s EXACTLY how I feel everything this “talk” comes up. I have dated and friended some of the most devout people to ever walk this Earth. I have respect for the genre, just not the love.

However, I think that if I am having problems, they are my own damn business and not a goddamn explanation owed to anyone. That if I wanted to talk to you about them I would. That if religion solved everything, then it would’ve by now. That I’m fucking old enough to decide whether I want religion in my life and what type at that. And even if I wasn’t, you don’t (and you never will) have the right to push any opinion down my throat as fact. I don’t need religion to solve my life. You might, and you might think I do. But I don’t. And I think it’d be nice if so many people stopped trying to convince me otherwise.

I’m Agnostic by the way. I won’t bother to explain what that is, since most people don’t actually know what it means to be Agnostic and only have the vague idea they do because they’re too damn lazy to look into it themselves. So stop being so damn lazy and go learn something, stupid.

The religious I meet ask me to take so much into consideration; I just wish they’d take my opinions into consideration too, before all too often assuming (much like their critics of their deities) that they don’t exist.

(dianeham/flickr)

You know, I can’t spell ‘squirrel’. I don’t know why I can’t, I just can’t. Totally spellchecked; you’ve caught me red-handed.

Squirrels are interesting. One of the most cleaver animals around, and (though I may be the only one who thinks this) arguably one of the most financially smart creatures known to man. Think about it, this guy is all about the hustle! When have you ever seen a squirrel sitting still? They’re ALWAYS moving, and they’re NEVER wasting time. Squirrels spend most of their time looking for, harvesting (saving), and investing nuts. If nuts were money the little bastards’d be richer than all of us. It’s practically their entire day. Find a nut, repeat until you have a full load, store nuts for later. Repeat all day; break up the routine with an occasional snack. Such dedication. It’s the type of discipline you have to apply to personal finance. And what do they get for all that hard work? From what I’ve seen, some decent free time to relax, and quite a lot of sex. You ever see a squirrel not looking for food, chances are it’s racing through the trees or over a building with other squirrely buds just chillen. You ever see a squirrel having sex? Probably not, but take a look outside just for kicks; that population isn’t going down anytime soon. While you’re sleeping Mr. Squirrel is gettin’ it in & yea, the neighbors know his name. What a great life. Be financially prosperous, hang out with your boys, and sex it up. Squirrels have it too easy.

Dark Angel on the other hand…well I don’t know if interesting is the word we should use. Complicated, maybe? And no one understands him but his…oh wait, that’s another story. Dark overdrafted his account in April. The overdraft happened on account of Paypal refusing to believe his name was real; DESPITE having sorted out any identity issues well early into the start of his 2.5 year tenure with the company. The Paypal flag [stopping an automatic payment to one of his bills] triggered a flag at his brick-and-motor bank. A hold up that’s costs more than Dark has ever needed to spend; seeing how it wasn’t his fault. But while most of the damage was undone, not enough to keep the brick-and-motor account out of the negative zone. No big though, he could probably handle this. He’s going to be a finance major afterall, remember. Dark went to see the wonderful HR wizard of Oz about changing his direct deposit from his negative account to his positive account. 3 Times! 3 times the wizard acknowledged his request & 3 times ignored it all the same. The last request would have been a magical blessing for Dark’s [positive] bank account and overall finances, but upon the day anticipated, there was only disappointment. There was a lot of rage too, but anger is so very tiring for The Dark these days. His old bones simply yearn for a simpler time. So Dark watched his phone payment (along with everything else) float away like a cloud. Which normally wouldn’t have been that big an issue, but unknown to The Dark, the wicked witch of the border sent some Mexcian hacker-monkey to cripple Dark’s email. Dark was allowed to retrieve access to his email, on one condition, the meager expense of verifying a text or phone call to the phone number on file; which would be possible if not for the the fact that his phone can’t be used until the phone bill is paid, which never happened because the wonderful wizard of HR never transfered his direct deposit!

RESIDUAL RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…sigh…Leaving Dark with virtually no possible way to get in touch with almost anyone and vice versa. Money mismanagement for the fucking win. And what does Dark get for his hard work? He gets to work 3 jobs, just to break even and cover his bills. He gets a bunch of rowdy roommates who never go to sleep & when they do they snore so loud you can hear them from anywhere in the house. He gets tired beyond recover, in addition to clients, classmates, and 3 sets of co-workers all telling him he looks dead on arrival and far too tired for someone his age. Course it’s a lot more sobering when he hears the same thing from the homeless community. He gets to come home every night and see his eyes so bloodshot you’d swear he was jacked up on something he conjured up special that you can’t find on the streets. He gets to spend a lot of time thinking about things he doesn’t get, things he can’t have, and things he’ll probably never have, no matter how bad he may need them. And he gets no support; though he’s not sure he’d even take it if he had the option. And that’s just the stuff on the surface.

After everything I’ve had to deal with this month, I think it’s time to get my squirrel on.

Hey gang, someone swiped my laptop a few days ago, so don’t expect anything here (new or otherwise) for a while. Sorry for the buzzkill.

So somehow I got roped into taking care of my sick friend in Baltimore, even though I’m supposed to be in Annapolis & somewhere in-between those facts I have found myself to take residency in Maryland’s 2 biggest cities – at the same time. But that’s another post, for another day.

So I’m in Downtown Baltimore, on my way to see my sick friend and right as I turn the corner I hear this light rumbling. I look up only to see roughly 30-50 pounds of snow collapse on what would’ve been my next 2 feet. Amazing. Days like today I wonder how I get so lucky.

24-hr+ snowstorm, in MARYLAND, of all places! Unbelievable! They’ve been calling it ‘Snownami’, ‘Snowzilla’, ‘Snowpocalypse’. It would be nice, were I not snowed in because of it. I would’ve loved to take way more pix for this.

[nggallery id=20]

So here’s my funny little story for today. Apparently, while JP Morgan Chase spent the better part of ’09 taking up shop down south, they were making equal efforts to pull out of the northeast, or at the very least Maryland. Getting up here, I’ve found myself repeatedly facepalmed at the lack of bank network. Easily rectifiable by PNC, or M&T, but wow, did not see that coming.

KhayaL/flickr

At the start of the month I had a dream. Specifically a dream about money. A dream in which I saw $10. So suffice to say I’m amazed that what happened happened, less than a week & a 1/2 later.

That’s a credit. To MY bank account. Of EXACTLY $10!

Tomi Tapio/flickr

Don’t get it twisted. I’m not complaining. It couldn’t have come at a better time. But MASSIVE purist are well aware that I’ve had a long history of these ‘dreams’ & further ‘conveniences’ only leave me with more questions than I can deal with.

I had a dream about money last night. Finding money. Not sure why or how, but I think there was a $10 & $20 bill…crazy dreams….

©Rooster Teeth/©Rooster Teeth

On August 31st, 2009, the unthinkable happened. No literally. Disney bought Marvel! Yes you read that right. To say the move was shock would be an understate & an injustice in and of itself. NOBODY saw this one coming, but when the news hit the wire, many a fan took that same tone as Iron Man [above]. And who wouldn’t? Marvel (for the most part anyway) treats its readers with a level of intelligence. ie-mortality & consequence. So why would anyone in their right mind team icons like Hulk, Thor & Spider-Man with Mickey?

Of course rants & raves aside, this news became (and still is) fodder for some of the best jokes this side of 2009. Two words. Finding Namor. However once the masses got past the shock, the rage and the funnies, there remained a void of curiosity that has yet to be filled. What Next? Many a blogger/artist/stock trader have taken a stab at this, but until we actually see what Disney/Marvel decides to do next, its all speculation.

Rob Bricken (who we interview in June) posted probably some of the most realistic developments anyone can expect out of this merger. Make no mistake, this deal won’t make everyone happy, but it’s not all bad. Another school of thought comes courtesy of ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. And of every opinion I’ve heard & read (to date), his seems the most level-headed.

What does the future hold for Marvel? Don’t ask me, I couldn’t tell ya. But If anything, I’m more curious about Marvel comics than I’ve ever been my entire life. Hate it or love it, this deal changes everything!

All my old podcast. My virtual cache has been wiped clean (and not by choice). Not good, not good at all. And there was a lot of new stuff I never got to post.

Grrr! What am I gonna do?

Superman’s latest adventure put’s DC between a rock and a hard place. So the co-creators of Superman sold the rights to DC a long, long, long, long time ago. But through the magic of legal loopholes, the rights were set to revert to the heirs of the creators, a Jerry Siegel & Joel Schuster. However, in a settlement this past Wednesday, a judge in California decided to strangely split the rights between the heirs and DC. The reason for the split being that the creators basically sold the rights to the origins, but all the character development was written by work-for-hire working under DC. So now DC’s gotta shove out a ton of money to pay back loyalties proper. Schuster’s relatives will unfortunately get nothing however, sine…well…there are none.

[via Variety]

Umm….what?

How is Oprah now a force of nature? I mean it was a good idea for a cartoon plot device, but now she’s officially getting a CNBC special?! Or are we as a society so depressed and/or so broke that we’ll look to anything to be pimped nowadays?

My long awaited followup to the Handley Case. He plead guilty & the ramifications from this case will come back to bite somebody in the ass when we all least expect it. This whole case has been absolutely unbelievable & I cringe at whomever the next Christopher Handley might be….

Original Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBe_hthK_Iw

MangaBlog’s Coverage:
http://www.mangablog.net/?p=4328

Lawrence A. Stanley’s observation via ComiPress
http://comipress.com/special/miscellaneous/down-the-slippery-slope-the-crime-of-viewing-manga#_edn1

Anime News Network Article
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-05-20/christopher-handley-pleads-guilty-to-possession-charges

Anime News Network article comments
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=117958&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30