Every day seems to be another day. It's only boring if you allow it. That's why I'm trying to make my life more interesting, so feel free to follow along and take a ride on my personal roller coaster known as my life.
Well, I did it. I bought the Samsung Galaxy S2. I now have a phone with enough power to do what I want to do. The old SIM card is in the new phone and.everything is up and running.
I also paid some bills today. The good news is that my car insurance is taken care of for the remainder of the year. That will leave an extra $60 or more in my pocket each month (until February of next year).
So now I shall keep this post brief and go to bed. I am getting sleepy. :)
While the weekend is technically over for me, I still feel excited. That's because I'll be selling somebody a computer that I don't use anymore. In turn, I'll be able to purchase the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Exciting times indeed.
Monday was no less exciting though. I got to spend time with good company and excellent food.
Home made pizza. :)
Dinner involved a variety of home made, home baked pizzas. Of course, they weren't the traditional round pies, but they were still delicious. There was bacon cheeseburger, pepperoni and pineapple, and even desert pizza. My friend De Lena has a wonderful philosophy when it comes to cooking.
Use real butter.
When in doubt, add more butter.
The meats were turkey based too, so I had no issues with eating at least one of each variety (I don't eat pork). The company was fantastic as well. We shared jokes and had a grand time conversing with one another.
Cora and De Lena (De Lena's the one wearing the jacket)
I stayed there until the early hours of Tuesday morning. I slept for a bit, then I woke up. After spending some time in the apartment, I decided to do some laundry and have some McDonalds (yeah I know... bad for me, but it tastes sooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooddddddddddd!).
When all was said and done, I gathered my clean clothes and came home. The rest of the night was spent blogging about controversy that was generated by a Facebook post. Hopefully yesterday's post will add more balance to the dialogue at hand regarding fandom of any sort. Only time will tell.
For now, I'm wanting to relax for a little bit, and eventually go back to bed since I have to work tonight.
I skipped posting yesterday, because I was hanging out with a few good friends for dinner. I had a wonderful time and got to meet a couple of cool people. I'll talk more about that another day.
What I would like to discuss today is something that I've seen over and over again. It's a mixture of rebels being put off by success in conjunction with infighting and accusations of one of the varying forms of bigotry.
Unfortunately, this horrible concoction has found its way into the nerd and geek realms.
Before I begin, it should be noted that context is very important in fully understanding a situation. Emotions flew all over the place regarding a personal Facebook post on the part of Tony Harris, who has been a part of the comic book industry for over 20 years. Here it is:
Click the image for a larger version on The Daily What.
The published screenshot created controversy, and one of the most well known video responses is as follows:
Of course, there are other responses as well. The one thing that many of these responses had in common was the accusations of sexism and how one shouldn't deem a female to not be a real geek and/or nerd.
I couldn't agree more.
However, what happened was that emotions overwhelmed the part of the mind that is thoughtful and reasonable. It happens to each and every one of us when it comes to a subject that touches are hearts. After all, we're human and prone to this sort of thing.
What I am about to do is to ask you, the reader, to do something that could be potentially challenging (or even difficult) depending on your individual situation.
After reading the entire quote from the screen-cap posted at the beginning and watching the entire video, I would like for you to take a step back, take a few deep breaths, and set your emotions aside for a moment.
It's time to start thinking.
While it is most understandable that women throughout history have been discriminated against, manipulated, and abused, there are times when certain actions are misconstrued as being such when the intent of those actions are entirely different.
Let's begin by asking the question; What was the intent of Tony Harris, a veteran of the comic book industry when he ranted on his own personal Facebook? Was he hanging up a "no girls allowed" sign, or was he speaking out against something else entirely?
Let's go through what he wrote, shall we?
He opines that he's going to say something without caring what everyone else thinks. It's his opinion after all, and as individuals, we are all entitled to ours. He goes on to say that there are some women who cosplay at conventions who are actually into the comic books that the characters come from in the first place.
In other words, he doesn't have an issue with them. What he writes next is what gets him in some hot water. He goes on to say that there are too many women who dress up as some of the most popular characters without having ever read the comic books themselves, let alone know anything about them.
I can see where he would be called sexist on that. However, middle of his rant, he does note that it was based on what has happened around him at his booth at various conventions.
To be fair, there has been various shenanigans that have occurred at various conventions, whether it be of the pro-wrestling, science fiction, comic book, or anime type. There are going to be things that are irritating, no matter what.
I would know as I have experienced it once when I was dressed up as the Millenium Earl at Naka-Kon one year. I was essentially criticized for wearing a mostly pre-made costume instead of putting it together myself. Personally, I didn't care. Elitists are everywhere, and there's nothing that can be done about that.
The problem is that someone speaking out against something that annoys them is often confused with being elitist. In a manner similar to night shift workers at a retail outlet not feeling appreciated when members of management and people from the day are covered in a magazine while they're left out, Harris argues that without the comic book artists and writers, the books themselves would not exist in the first place, there would be no following, and no conventions to speak of.
So again, is he really sexist or is something else going on?
It is often said that a rebel is often put off by their own success. After all, becoming mainstream would mean that they are no longer a rebel, hence their cause is now obsolete. The only option left is to either find a new cause or become irrelevant.
So let's revisit the question. Was he being sexist? Does he hate women cosplayers? Does he hate cosplayers at all?
Well, no, as B. Clay Moore on Twitter points out. For further consideration, here are a couple of comments from the Comics Beat website:
The first comment has some offending parts, such as not being a nerd if one is now just enjoying something. To be honest, I have collected some comic books, but I don't do so anymore. I have a couple, but that's about it. For that reason, I don't refer to myself as a comic book nerd.
My interests are in computers and the software that's on their hard drives. I know full well that the Captain America movie did not follow the comic book series as much as some would have liked. That didn't stop me from enjoying it. The same thing with the Amazing Spiderman movie.
And therein lies the problem.
More and more people know about Captain America, Spiderman, and other comic book characters because of the movies that have been in theaters. I'm fairly confident in saying that a significant portion of the audience of said films more than likely did not read any of the comic books beforehand.
In a sense, Hollywood has made the characters from those books very popular, yet in a sense watered down to the point where most people will never hear of a Tony Harris, J. Michael Straczynski, or John Romita Jr, because they never read the comic books in the first place. That doesn't mean those who enjoyed the movies are bad for only watching the movies.
It simply means they aren't comic book geeks or nerds, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It appears to me that what Harris was speaking out against was a form of mindless group think. If something looks cool, hip, and "in," there are those who will make themselves appear to be a part of that something, even if that isn't who they are.
It's known as being a pretender, and sadly, they exist no matter the genre. Those who pretend to be something they are not are often not comfortable with who they really are. To be fair, there is no way to tell what the thoughts of every single cosplayer out there happens to be. Only the cosplayer knows.
And to continue to add balance to this discussion, there are those who just think the costume of a character is really cool, so they dress up as that character. Nothing more, nothing less. There's nothing wrong with that. However, I can see how it can be irritating when cameras from corporate controlled media are surrounding that person instead of the writers and artists behind the comic book series in which the character came from.
In other words, the creation of fiction has been taken for granted, and much to the chagrin of some, it is important to recognize that those who created the characters, drew the characters, and wrote stories surrounding the characters are individuals with feelings too.
Notice how I didn't refer to male or female in the last few sentences. I said individual. Before I explain why I did so, here is what Joe The Peacock had to say on the matter at hand:
"Tony has spent his nearly 25 years in comics innovating and creating
some incredible properties, characters, art and culture. One major
aspect of Tony's art: he's one of the very few male artists in
mainstream (superhero) comics who has ever outright refused to draw
idealized / fetishized / objectified women in his work."
Seeing as how Tony is a friend of Joe's, it's a safe bet that he knows him well enough to be able to make such a statement at all. What did the individual in the video accuse Harris of doing? Objectifying women. Also consider the following:
"Have you ever vented in the spur of the moment, something you wish you'd
taken some time to really think out? Have you ever used Facebook as a
catharsis for a burst of emotion? Have you ever felt your logical side
peek out and say "Hey now, you know that's not what you really feel..."
only to have your emotional side say "YEAH BUT IT FELT REALLY GOOD TO
SAY!"
Ever regretted it? Not that you felt it or how you think, but how you said it?
Maybe consider that when you realize that this is what happened here,
but instead of a bunch of comments and unfriending, the guy was put on
an international stage across tons of blogs and Tumblr pages and news
feeds and Twitter and cannot possibly respond to the volume of feedback
(which has, as it did with me, coalesced into a tide of "You're EVIL!")
much less reflect, explain or, if he wanted to, apologize?"
No matter what, words are going to get taken out of context. Emotions that aren't kept in check play a role in that. Trolls will appear in order to stir the pot. That's what trolls do. The cycle keeps going until the latest thing happens that either gets the masses enthusiastic, angry, or both.
To imply that those who say the things that Harris said are no better than the bullies slamming kids into lockers. As someone who has been bullied in school growing up, I find such a notion insulting. Harris has essentially been accused of committing a thought crime.
Did Harris generalize? Yes. Is he the only individual who has done so? No. There is a reason why in various forms of the New Testament, the phrase, "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." exists (male oriented, but it's a male oriented religious text we're talking about). It's the same reason that the theme of the pot calling the kettle black exists. In other words, to a degree, we are all hypocrites.
Perhaps before pointing fingers at somebody else, we should all, as individuals, look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, "How can I be better today than I was yesterday?" Nobody is perfect. We are all human.
Too much political correctness is often the death knell of any given community. Harris was not speaking about all women who dressed up in costumes, but about a few he has encountered. While he doesn't speak for an entire community, neither does the individual in the video nor any other blogger who has spoken and will continue to speak on the matter at hand.
In my opinion, it was not about "protecting something from others," but about pointing out how something has become watered down because less and less people are reading the comic books, reading up on the history of the characters and series, and appreciating who brought the product into existence in the first place.
To drive the point home, both males and females are responsible for the wonderful comics that have existed over the years.
To sum up, I share the same views as the kid in one of the Mighty Ducks movies who didn't care about politics between schools and simply wanted to play hockey. I just want to enjoy the occasional comic book (I do plan on getting some more of them at some point, even if it's only digital), watch the occasional movie, play some video games, play on the computer and the Internet.
I just want to have fun and enjoy my life. With that, my opinion has been shared. You the reader are free to do the same.
Tonight is my "Friday." In other words, I have Monday and Tuesday nights off. I'm really looking forward to 7 AM Monday morning. As I sit here consuming the remainder of my Woodchucks and relaxing, I couldn't help but plan for the week. Of course things are somewhat tentative, and might change depending on the situation, so I'll have to adjust accordingly.
Needless to say, I'm thinking that this week is going to be interesting to say the least (and in a good way).
Laundry
I'll definitely need some clean clothes for when I go back to work Wednesday night. I might do enough of a load to last me a couple of days or do enough to last the usual five depending on the situation.
Meet a Friend for Dinner
It's been forever since I've had dinner with this friend. She's one of the most sociable people I've ever met. She also tends to get worried if she doesn't hear from her friends in a while (she wanted to know if I was mad at her). It's been a while, so I might as well visit with her and another friend at the same time (haven't had an extended conversation with him in a while either).
Sell the ole' HP dv7 notebook
I don't use it very much, the touch pad is a royal pain on OS'es other than Windows (right click doesn't work unless I want to do some major tweaking), and switchable graphics and the Linux kernel don't currently get along. Somebody else is needing a computer to use, and $275 USD sounded good to him.
With that money coming this Thursday, I just might be able to swing... A Samsung Galaxy S2
I currently have the Exhibit II 4G, which is decent, but the specs are a little low. If too much stuff is loaded, Android practically has to reload itself after killing as many processes as possible. For a regular, everyday consumer, it's a great phone. For what I want to do, I need something a bit more powerful.
Pay Bills
I also get to pay some more bills, which is a part of life.
All in all, I'm looking forward to this week. Now to get this published, eat some more food, finish off those Woodchucks, and head for bed.
It's Saturday and I'm glad I'm off work. Something interesting happened last night, but I'll be keeping it to myself for the time being. However, I will talk about something that has been on my mind as a result of this event.
For the longest time, I would analyze things over and over again, especially if it pertained to me. This one instance caused me to start asking questions, when a voice in the back of my head spoke up.
Stop. Just see where this leads.
It wasn't the authoritarian type of thinking that discourages questions, but rather an inner calming of myself as I realized that I should just see what happens in the near future. Either way, I'll see what happens.
On the plus side, it looks like I've got that HP dv7 of mine sold this Thursday. That will get a computer off of my hands that I haven't been using in a while (switchable graphics and systems using the Linux kernel don't quite mix very well, especially when I want to use the more powerful GPU).
If I do wind up getting another portable computer, I'll be aiming for AMD yet again. If I replace my ZaReason Breeze 3110 with anything, it will probably be this one. In other words, I'm thinking of going strictly AMD by getting rid of the one system I that's Intel (Atom that is).
But I digress.
I now fully realize and appreciate the fact that no matter what happens, I always come out of it in one piece. So with that, I'll have a little bit more food and then I'm off to bed. :)
I've already eaten some Hot Pockets. After the shift I had at work, I might go ahead and eat some more before going to sleep. Before I decide on that, here's how my shift at work went.
Seeing as how I work retail at night, I get a walkie talkie depending on what part of the front end I'm on. It allows me to communicate with supervisors if need be. The only problem is that some interference must have been occurring somewhere. Some people could hear me loud and clear, while one of my supervisors couldn't. For some reason, that issue seemed to resolve itself after lunch.
I ran some freight in the celebration department, which gave me a nice break from the monotony of where I was at before. There's always one or two items that irritate me, because I just can't find them no matter what, but I still things still went smoothly. I volunteered to keep working on the floor, so I was asked to zone frozen.
In retail, when one zones, they pull merchandise to the front and make it look as presentable as possible.
I took cardboard and overstock to the back and went on my last break. After that, I went to frozen. I always start with the first set of end caps I see so I don't forget them. Then I did my best with the ice cream side of things. Right before I was going to do the end caps on the other side, two individuals were spotted, and I told them that the wall was already done.
Naievly figuring that frozen was going to get done at a faster rate, I told them they could start the next isle if they wanted to. I tossed a frozen item that I knew was likely in the other isle to one of them, and they proceeded to that isle. I took care of the other end caps and started on the other wall in the isle I was working on.
When I found a couple of items that were not in the isle I was working on, I took them to the other isle thinking they would be located there. What I found was one of the most irritating scenarios of my life. The other people who were sent to help me had disappeared.
Oh joy.
The same thing had happened to me on Monday morning when I was in frozen trying to make it look presentable. One person appeared to be helping me only for them to disappear soon after (with a different person showing up and staying to make sure it was done).
I was not about to do somebody else's work for them, so I simply took the items that didn't belong in frozen to their respective places (another person in the deli department helped me locate where one of them was supposed to go). I then took some ice cream to the back to be properly disposed of (broken seals) before telling one of the supervisors that the one isle looked like it hadn't been touched.
Another worker stayed to finish the job, bless his heart. As for me, it was time to clock out. Hopefully the situation of the disappearing co-worker is resolved at some point.
Now that I think about it, I believe I will have a couple of Lean Pockets before going to sleep. ;)
Work was draining, but then again, it always is I suppose. I still managed to find time to observe the interesting habits of people as they pay for their merchandise. I was assigned the register that's known as the "smoke shop." That register is the only place where one may purchase tobacco products.
Aside from those who don't like self check-out, some interesting people came and went.
Interesting Customer #1
I never saw this customer, but I could hear them yelling, "I don't do self check!" My supervisor offered to take care of them on a register with a full belt. I was thankful I didn't have to deal with them. Interesting Customer #2
Split transactions are common place in retail. The lady handed me some cash, and when I tendered it, her new total was $6.66. Out of fear, she grabbed a King Size Reece's just so she didn't have to have that total on her debit/credit card
I tried pointing out that it was a reference to a corrupt Roman Emperor to no avail. She isn't the only customer who has cringed at such a number. Such a phobia is one that I find amusing.
Interesting Customer #3
At 15 minutes until six o'clock in the morning, a customer comes to my register with vodka. I explained that he had to wait 15 minutes, because the register wouldn't let me ring it up otherwise. Missouri State law limits the time in which alcohol can be sold at retail establishments.
Monday through Sunday: 6:00 AM - 1:30 AM the next day.
Sunday: 9:00 AM - Midnight Monday morning.
The gentleman had me hold onto his alcohol for him while he waited. Another customer asks me what times we can sell alcohol. He actually thought my place of work was exempt from the law and that it only applied to the bars. It's very fascinating how many people are unaware of the law.
Changing my Phone Plan
I'm currently with T-Mobile at the moment. Unlike other suckers consumers, I'm on a no contract plan.* Thanks to companies like Straight Talk, other providers have had to actually lower their prices in order to compete.
I was originally on the $50 USD plan, but I switched to the $60 USD plan. I just got tired of getting throttled to 2G speeds after downloading a mere 100 MB of data. Now that threshold will go up to 2 GB instead.
Soon, I will be able to watch YouTube while on lunch.
I was considering switching providers, but I really didn't want to go through the hassle of porting my number or getting a new one. I figured I might want to be able to tether at some point anyway; though not at the moment, for I refuse to pay additional money for the privilege (hint to T-Mobile: stop charging extra just so people can tether... it's stupid, and only encourages people to run third party apps that will bypass your system).
All and all, it was an ok end to my day. Now it's time to relax and go to bed.
