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Friday! Yay!

Lookin’ at a four day weekend with my Weasel. I hope it doesn’t come to fisticuffs. I think I’m having PMS and he’s on my nerves a bit. Meh. In any case, I hope to have fun at the Alive! festival in Duluth tomorrow. I’ll be in the Oracle 20/20 booth (18-19). Come on out, it’s free!

I gotta get some head pins of the correct size (1.5″) and whip up some cute chakra earrings for the fest. These are made with small seed beads, so I think I’ll just charge $5 for them. My usual stuff is $10, but I can’t charge that for such small beads. I had hell trying to find ANY beads that had all seven colours! And even these didn’t have a true red. Weird.

The Atlanta Comic Convention is also this Sunday at the Marriott on Clairmont. Depending on how business is at the Alive! fest, I may or may not be there. Nick will be there either way. I’m currently thinking that one day of an outdoor festival full of skwerls will be enough for me, so I’ll probably just do Saturday. Besides, I don’t want to have to duplicate the change box for two events. BUT, if I sell a ton of stuff, I may be tempted. We’ll play it by ear.

Hmm, what else? Welp, I’ve been cooking a lot the last week. Last night I challenged myself to on-hand soup. On-hand soup is whatever I can scrounge from the fridge and pantry. It turned out to be chicken and veg w/ barley. One of the veg was purple cauliflower, which was delightful in the soup. I even managed to use bouillon cubes for stock and not make it too salty. I highly recommend the flavoured bouillon cubes by Knorr. I used cilantro last night and it was great. You can find them in the Mexican section. There’s cilantro, tomato, chipotle, etc., all in a chicken base. I also recommend keeping garlic and garlic+ginger pastes handy. You can find that in the Indian section or Indian grocery. Good stuff.

I got a birthday coupon from Iberian Pig, so we may have to do that in addition to my Porter outing next weekend. We’ll be at The Porter for my epic, once in a century birthday of 11.11.11 on Friday 11.11.11. The official start time is 6pm, we’ll be there early. If you can come out, please do. It’s just a low pressure get together, no presents or anything. Just a get together because of the date, really.

It’s my turn on the Rack, so I guess I’ll sign off. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Oh, and the new headers are Monet pieces: Japanese bridge, Japanese Garden and Sunrise. Enjoy!

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Why I don’t read Marvel or DC

This whole reboot bullshit has really got my knickers in a knot. And it’s exactly why I have not and will not read Marvel or DC comics. It’s stupid and it’s a blatant money grab.

Marvel has always put me off with their umpty gazillion multiverse crap. I don’t like having to have an encyclopaedia of the characters to keep up with what’s going on, ok? Call me crazy, but a bit more STORY and a bit less shenanigans would do your characters good.

DC has now rebooted. What a crock of shit. We need money, so let’s start at #1 again and all the avid “buy anything” comics nerds will go for it. DING DING DING!

I just don’t have the patience to deal with Marvel and DC. I want to read a comic with a story and characters that are TRUE to the ideals they are representing and are in ONE universe. Is that so hard? Apparently.

All this shuck and jive nonsense just puts me completely off superheroes. I’ve never been a huge fan in the first place, but damn, I really don’t see the reason to start if the characters I love will get gutted by a marketing scheme. DC and all their #1s can suck it. It’s a marketing scheme and it sullies the whole industry.

It’s shit like this that keeps comics relegated to the nerds and kids. I feel that the complete disrespect DC is showing its characters and its readers is breathtaking. Marvel pisses me off with the multiverse bullshit, but at least it’s organised! There is some sort of order to how it’s done. DC just flipped off everything and threw continuity (and integrity, IMO) out the window.

Ugh. I’ll stick with my indie comics, thanks. Marvel and DC can just keep on relying on that choir of old comics nerds to buy their crazy schemes, because I’m here to tell you, doing crap like they do is not doing anything to garner a new generation.

I encourage any and all of you displaced Marvel and DC refugees to try out an indie comic TODAY. Here are a few to get you started (and yes, some are via subsidiaries of the Big Two):

Think Weasel! (of course, you knew I’d pimp US!)
Serenity Rose
Anything by Terry Moore
Locke and Key
Little Vampires
Cleopatra In Space
Chew
(anything from SLG comics, really)
iZombie

And SO many more! Cruise the indie section at your local comic shop and show us some love!

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Weather, politics and comics

The weather has finally broken and sweet relief from 90º days has arrived. AH! Even today, at 62º and rain is wonderful! I’ll take it! It’s always this time of year when I think that the NW wouldn’t be bad… But then I realise that it’s like this most of the time and MEH. It’s gotten too hot down here in general, but I like having 4 distinct seasons. I do wish La Niña would give us a break in summer.

Politics in the mornin’! It astounds me that so many dumb people (as represented on FB) STILL think Obama is doing a good job. WUT? How completely stupid do you have to be to believe that? Magical thinking much? He is a president who has accomplished exactly jack and shit. He has reneged on undoing the Patriot Act – twice. He can’t speak in front of a crowd at all without his Teleprompter. He’s never had a job fer chrissakes!! He wants to “tax the rich” to “even the field”. Oh, really? No, it sounds to me like take from the rich and give to the poor. Rich people do play the system, no doubt, so why do we not change the system? Fair Tax would stop that happy crappy. But this is not about leveling anything. This is about creating a nation of takers who don’t work and live on the dole (or who work for the government, same thing). UK, anyone? This is about crippling small business, making a hostile corporate environment and celebrating being a lazy fucker who lives on welfare.

While on the subject of lazy useless people, I’d like to piss off all the “disabled” assholes out there who have been “disabled” their whole lives and refuse to work. You know who you are. When I was growing up, I never knew anyone in their 20s who didn’t work. Now, it’s commonplace to see TEENS on disability. WTF? Hells bells, I had a BLIND friend who worked at Wachovia until he got too sick and had to go on disability – which he hated. When did being a lazy fucker on the dole become fine? When did it lose its stigma as a bad thing and something you tried to avoid? I must have missed the memo.

On the other hand, I know someone who has a real illness and is currently on disability while he goes to college online. He’s about to graduate. Which shows gumption and pride in his abilities. He’s not going to let his condition limit his choices in life. Bravo!

So do not tell me you “can’t” work. That is bullshit and you know it. Do something. Open an Etsy shop. Go to school. Find a way to be productive. Hell, even being a blogger is something! Geeze.

We have a convention next weekend (Oct 1 & 2). It’s in Nashville. It should be low stress. We’ve got our booth pared down to just a few totes and we’ve got the Square set up, so we’re good to go. I hope we make at least a little money. The comic is trundling along. We are in a slow period with dwindling ideas and lack of motivation. I hope the convention will get us cranked back up.

In other news, I’m working on a site for a local animal rescue group. I hope they like what I do and I hope they make lots of money for the pets. I’m also going to start volunteering for Centennial Olympic Park one day a week. Nick thinks I need to get out more. I probably do, but MEH. ;)

We are also planning a trip to CA to see Nick’s family in October or November. I look forward to seeing them, but not to the plane ride. Fucking TSA. ::sigh:: I’m gonna end up in jail if they fondle me, I just know it. Grr. Fucking useless harassment security theatre violation of my fucking rights… grumble, grumble.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here. What’s going on with you guys?

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Weekend report

So, another DragonCon is under the bridge. This year we helped out our pals from Florida, Echo and Lazarus Chernik. They drive a big ole RV to cons all summer and you just can’t park that thing in downtown Atlanta, so they parked it here at Casa Mizgala and we shuttled the booth + art back and forth in the Ranger.

We put on an art reception for Echo on Saturday night at the Courtyard Marriott that is tucked away next to the Westin on Carnegie St. The room was perfect for an art reception and Echo was pleased with my quickie catering. It was VERY fun and VERY tiring! Echo debuted her exclusive DragonCon print at the reception and we intend to do that again next year. Hopefully it will be a DCon tradition!

Overall, I have to say that I really do prefer working cons to just attending/partying. You meet many more people that way.

Echo gave me a giclée print (Seafood, part of her 12 food pieces) for helping out with the reception and made me cry. It’s really too much!! But I adore it and can’t wait to get it hung. THANK YOU seems inadequate for such a lovely gift! We can’t wait to do it again next year – it will be AWESOME!

I got the house cleaned, groceries procured and the laundry caught up yesterday so today I’m futzing on the intertubes and generally just laying around. :)

Gotta get my thank-yous done, too. Ah, I love organising stuff. Maybe I’ll find a job doing it!

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Hingeheads Review

So, someone on Twitter mentioned “hingeheads” the other day. I was curious, so I looked them up. A HingeHead is a little metal sculpture that attaches to your door hinge.

Sounds weird, right? Well it is! And it’s brilliant! What Kai and company have created are little pieces of art that add just a touch of “wow” to the most unsuspected place: door hinges!

I found a typo on their site, so I sent an email informing them and Kai VERY kindly sent me a sample HingeHead for my help. I decided to return the favour with a review of the HingeHead. I don’t review stuff often – other than restaurants – so this is a rare treat for me. :)

Kai sent me a HingeHead I would’ve picked myself: Moon and Star! Looky:

HingeHead in Brass
Moon and Star HingeHead in Brass

This piece is in brass, but they offer several different types of metal including pewter and copper. I have to say, the magnet is VERY strong! I chose to hang mine upside down (yay for the sculpture being either/or!) at the kitchen so I could admire it easily. There are metal holes that used to hold a swinging door – way before we ever got the place – but no door is there now, just the metal hole. You can vaguely see the hole in the pic. Our door hinges are very old and have round balls on top [see pic below], but even on those, the HingeHeads piece held on nicely.

Since there seems to be some confusion, here is a pic of an old ass hinge with the round top that I am not using, but I could if I wish since the strong magnet of the HingeHead will hold:

Old ass hinge
Old ass hinge with round top.

These little sculptures vary in price from $6-15 and they do lots of limited editions. Head on over to HingeHeads and check out the stock. These would be awesome stocking stuffers or little surprise gifts. Love ’em!