27. October 2008 by admin.

I need a scanner.

Halloween would seem to be a great time to launch my Guys in Robes comic strip.  The quasi-pagan origins and popular mythology tying the holiday to Satanism would make it easy to compose the first few strips, and then the onslaught of of the mid-winter holidays would allow me to maintain momentum.  Alas, the economic downturn has affected even the web comic industry, forcing hard choices.  Given how much the kids squawk if they don’t get fed the scanner may have to wait for the after holiday discounts.

Maybe it’s the mists of memory, but Halloween seemed to be a bigger deal when I was a child, o lo those many decades ago.  I remember packs of becostumed munchkins roaming far and wide, filling pillowcases with tooth-rotting goodness and generally running wild.  Now we’re lucky to have a couple of dozen trick or treaters come to our suburban neighborhood.  With All Hallows on a Friday I’m hoping for a better turnout this year; it looks like the weather may cooperate.

The transformation of the Halloween party into a “Fall Party” or “Harvest Party” in schools is just amusing to me.  For 364 days a year the Conservative Christian movement howls about allowing religion to be taught in schools, and arguing that we should “teach the controversy” about creationism (intelligent design’s true face) vs. evolution. Yet when a school wants to permit a social activity only notionally connected to another belief system, suddenly ‘religion has no place in school’ and it is ‘harmful for the children.’  Remember this commotion in eight weeks when these same voices start complaining how Christmas break morphed into winter break.

Posted in Geek, Religion, Politics | No Comments »

24. October 2008 by admin.

Some people have disputed the veracity of Thursday’s PBN.  I originally got it off Yahoo! News, but they don’t keep their links active forever, so here is a link to the AP story through the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s website.

I admit I’m not big on MMOs.  I tried EverQuest many years ago but some PK would always geek me within 10 minutes.  Turn a corner and BAM! another me bites the dust.  If I come in 2nd in an even fight, then I’ll accept the loss and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  But it wasn’t worth $10/month to get the beatdown before I could make any headway.  And before someone points out the obvious: this was before non-PvP servers.

I’ve tried WoW a couple of times off friends’ accounts.  The graphics rendering was pretty good, and the players much more civilized.  The couple of times someone went PvP on me, we were both roughly the same level so it was a fair fight.  (I didn’t say I disliked PvP, I just think the players should keep it even so it stays fun.)  And there were some instances of spontaneous generosity: a high level rogue from Rico’s Roughnecks gave me some magical items because I’d read Starship Troopers and knew the lingo (Everybody Drops!  Everybody Fights!).  I also received several invitations to Guild so I wasn’t wandering the Big Bad World alone.   I could see why my friends built such a camraderie with their online associates and would drive hundreds of miles to guild gatherings to be together in the meat world and all game online.

My problem is I’m trapped by the programmers’ creativity and laziness.  If I can come up with clever tactic the designers didn’t think of, then I’m out of luck.  Trip lines hidden in high grass to disrupt the enemy’s infantry charge?  Sorry, out o’ luck boyo.  (If anyone out there LARPs, try this at your next battle.  Just be sure to have archers and wizards there to take advantage of the ensuing chaos.  And if at all possible, please please please video tape it and put it on YouTube!)

It’s these kind of artificial restrictions that keep me a tabletop gamer.  Freed from the straightjacket of corporate accessibility (”What do you mean I can’t keep the Cave of Wonders?  I killed the damn genie, let the next adventuring group try to take it from me!!”) I find gaming to be more challenging and vibrant.  Plus it’s fun to throw my players (I usually GM) for a loop and make them work for their victories.

Plus WoW makes gnomes look ridiculous.

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13. October 2008 by admin.

My friend Khris is letting me use space on his server for a lot less than my current provider, so I’m starting the process of migrating everything over.  He installed CMS Made Easy because my HTML skills are still abysmal, and while I like they’re interface, I would really like to copy the Girl Genius format where the comic/whatever is on the left and I can stack other info on the right.  Does anyone know of a template I can plug in for this style?

PBN is my belief that Chris Columbus had the ultimate “right place/right time” experience.  He was wrong on just about everything when he planned and executed his voyage, but he is built up to grade schoolers to almost a cult status.  The historical reality is much different, but by the time people start learning it (if they ever do) they’ve stopped caring.  Worked out well for Chris though.

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9. October 2008 by admin.

I’ve been very bad this week; things keep getting posted late.

I’m working on minimizing that in the future.  I may even succeed.

The latest installment of Always Time To Do It Over will be posted today.  It’s going to be a bit short, but sometimes they just are.

Politics has obviously been the predominant theme over the last few weeks.  This makes PBN easy to figure out (they usually aren’t made until the day they’re posted) but annoys some readers who aren’t that interested in my political take and would prefer I stick with the Geek/gaming jokes.  To those readers I promise, after the election the political humor will subside.  Slightly.

Last post I promised explanatory blurbs for the comics, and since the only ones I can remember are the last 3, those are what we’ll recap.

The report of the abysmally low approval ratings crossed my consciousness as a NPR wake up alarm.  My sleep fuzzed mind processed the information and asked itself: If this is a government of the people, are we a nation of self-loathers?  This is why my wife sends the kids in to wake me instead of doing it herself.  The coupon clipping dialogue is fairly typical of what happens at the kitchen table Sunday mornings.

I was grocery shopping and saw the Seal cereal.  Whoever designed those boxes is clueless or one sick puppy.  Which is probably the animal we’ll next see on a cereal box.

I watched the debates with a collection of friends and family of various political stripes.  The debate comic is a collection of their observations.  Between them and my being to lazy to change even the poses in the panels, this was a really easy strip to draw.

Posted in Geek, Politics | No Comments »

4. June 2008 by admin.

I tried, I really did.

I’ve opened this blog repeatedly over the last three days, and tried to write something pithy and relevant, but every time I reviewed what I had, I realized I could have taken any number of earlier posts, changed the names of the states holding the primaries, and it would have been hard to tell the difference.

I almost did that to see if anyone noticed.

But now, after five months (has it only been five, and months?) of posturing and politicking, Barak Obama has made history by becoming the first openly Blackish candidate on a major party ticket. This is an incredible accomplishment, and he deserves the kudos and congratulations that are being heaped upon him.

So, Hillary, having fulfilled her promise to stay in until everyone in America has been given a chance to vote, bowed out gracefully last night and pledged to work to restore party unity and help Candidate Obama win the White House and undue the ravages of eight years of Bushology.

What? She didn’t? Surprised? Nope, neither am I.

If you inhale deeply, you can smell the whiff of sulphur from the match Hillary lit to warn the Dems of her willingness to engage in scorched earth politics if she is not given a position of power in the party, most likely the Veep slot on the ticket. Hillary seems to believe she is entitled, nay, even destined, to lead America to a bright and shining future. Of everything we’ve seen this election cycle, or even for the last 10 years of election cycles, her almost religious zealotry toward this idea scares me. If she became president, what would she do to achieve her goals? What would she feel justified to do to those who stood in her way?

New subject: in a Politics/Geek crossover, this young lady here:

http://users.livejournal.com/_allecto_/34718.html?page=1

posits a three post discussion on how the tv show Firefly is a misogynistic racist sexist rapefest which demeans and depowers women. I thought I was putting up a blog that was poorly researched, bigoted, and distorted my subject matter. Man, do I have a long way to go.

Posted in Geek, Politics | 1 Comment »

30. May 2008 by admin.

I won’t often get a chance to say this, but the presidential candidates have been trumped by naked red people with bows and arrows.

According to Survival International, they discovered an “uncontacted” tribe in the backcountry of the Amazon in Brazil.  If true, this is very cool.  But I wonder how they know the tribes have not had contact with the outside world?

The website (http://www.survival-international.org/) has some cool pictures showing thatched huts with women and children.  In my favorite photo, a pair of red skinned males attempt to shoot the airplane taking the pictures.  I wonder what they would have done if they had managed to bring it down?.

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26. May 2008 by admin.

The important thing first: if you haven’t bowed your head and said thanks to those who died defending your nation, whatever nation that may be, do it now.

Much less important:  I finally opened a store at Ontheblob.net and Paperbagninja.com.  Right now it’s only T-shirts, but as I have time to be creative I’ll branch out.  If there are story quotes or comics people are interested in buying, email me at customer_service@ontheblob.net and I’ll get them made for you.

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17. May 2008 by admin.

First off, an apology.  I check the stats on unique hits, pageviews, etc. for Ontheblob.net, Paperbagninja.com & Greenpunk.org regularly, ’cause I know people are utilizing those sites.  But tonight I checked the stats for the blog, and holy cheese, people are reading this too!  Now that I know this, I’ll post much more regularly, to give you a reason to do so.

Of course, it wouldn’t hurt for you to respond back with comments; this is Web 2.0 you know.

So, a random thought for 4:30 am: what can I do to make the websites better?  I like Scott Adams new functionality of allowing his readers to insert their own punchlines into his old strips.  Would people be interested in doing the same with PBN?  What about LOLNinjas?  I can’t accept storyline suggestions for It Ain’t Easy Being Green or other fiction for legal reasons, but what kind of interactivity can I give Ontheblob?  How about Greenpunk?  Shoot me an email, or better yet, post your ideas in the comment section?

So, totally jacking Scott Adam’s idea, what if I were to publish a text free version of the comic for people to caption themselves, and I would post them and allow voting?  The winner would be enshrined on a Mash Up page, and maybe win a PBN handpuppet or something (yes, a brown lunch bag with a hand drawn PBN face on it.  But hey, I’ll sign it for you.)

Let me know.

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6. May 2008 by admin.

Crap, I need to get on here more often.

I could offer lame excuses: I’ve been dedicating my time to updating the PBN website so it doesn’t look so slapdash, and I’m trying to keep ahead of the Being Green story, and this just fell right through the cracks.

In reality it’s because religion, politics and geek has gotten boringgg!

Even Gary Trudeau has taken a sabbatical from writing Doonsbury, politics have gotten so predictable.  McCain is keeping his head down while Obama and Clinton damage the Democrats chance to win the White House for personal ego.

I mean it was fun to watch a couple of primaries ago, but now it’s just predictable.  Even with Indiana and whatever Carolina is voting today, we know what’s going to happen.

I do kind of hope for a contested primary.  That could be fun.

D&D’s 4th edition is coming out in a couple of months, but even that’s boring, because from the previews it looks like they are continuing the trend of making characters even more munchkin with extra powers and abilities than they were before.  It’s essentially WoW the RPG.

The pope came to visit, and said nice things, and even met with some victims of the sex abuse scandal.  I don’t know that it actually will result in any changes, but it was a nice touch, and at least the papal pr guy gets my respect for have Pope Bennie do it, especially in such an understated way.

So, gentle readers, we while away our time until the summer, when things should pick up.

Posted in Geek, Religion, Politics | No Comments »

26. March 2008 by admin.

Nots is back on it’s normal schedule!  Look for another installment on Saturday.

I never knew how hard it could be to come up with multiple terms to describe rolling an object between your palms.  Try it, see how many you can come up with.

I also have some make-you-think blogs strolling through my head, but they took 2nd fiddle to getting Nots back on track.  I’ll post the one’s that are still relevant today or tomorrow!

Posted in Geek | No Comments »