I am still alive. I survived the holidays mostly.

Lots of news coming. A lot of changes in 2012. Possible projects, new jobs, new locations… 2012 is going to be a huge year.

I’m not really ready to talk about a lot of it, but here are a couple things I am ready to share:

My writing – I really spread myself too thin in this respect. I am going to try to refocus my efforts and really make the best use of my time going forward. It’s hard to do things right when you’re trying to do too much.

Kneel Before Pod – There will be more of it. We’re going to work to make sure that there’s a new episode every two weeks. I’m also going to do my best to have actual content on the site again. Maybe not daily or anything, but maybe some videos, review and show notes. That’s right, I’m going to be professional and actually post a companion for every episode that will have links, pictures, etc. I also have some interesting ideas to make Kneel Before Pod more multi-media and also get the fans involved a little more again. We’ll see if I can get it to work though.

This Site and the Internet in general – I’m hoping to get back to sharing and communicating with all of you on Twitter, Google+ and elsewhere. I just haven’t had much to say lately and haven’t spent much time in front of a computer with twitter open. Not to mention I had my cellphone turned off during the Holidays to save money. I was super busy and that phone just sucks up my time with email and twitter.

Lastly, here’s a little personal update. Late this year I tried to weigh myself only to find that I exceeded the weight limit on my scale. It was a horrible feeling. I had to make a change. So to start things out I have gone on a Ketogenic Diet to help jump start a new, healthier period in my life. I am already down almost 35 pounds since I started in November and feeling great. I am now around the same weight I was around my second year in college. I’m sure I will be posting more about this in the future.

Anyways, here’s to a wonderful 2012!

In general, many people have a problem with other people in positions of authority. Very few people like to be told what to do. It’s just human nature. With that in mind, the relationship between police officers and your regular joe on the street has been tense at times. Over the years various groups of people have rioted for various reasons, some reasons better than others. Pigs, Fuzz, The Man: As long as there have been polices officers, there have been people that disliked them. Though I think that following the events of 9/11, the police in general have been riding on a wave of goodwill from the American population.

Some of you might not remember this, but before 9/11, things that involved the police were ticking time bombs. In 1992 LA burned for six days when the officers that beat Rodney King were acquitted. That same year the movie Reservoir Dogs was released. The movie contained a quick exchange between Mr. Pink and Mr. White that would be the center of many conversations with my friend Donny back in College.

Did You Kill Anybody?

Mr. Pink: Did you kill anybody?
Mr. White: A few cops.
Mr. Pink: No real people?
Mr. White: Just cops.

Could you imagine dialog like that in a movie a few years ago? There would have been hell to pay. Even now, I think there would be plenty of people offended and voicing their displeasure over it. But every day I think it’s getting to the point that it would slide past and only be a story on Fox News.

Every day on my twitter, on Reddit, or just talking to people in my store I am hearing more and more unrest. More people saying “Fuck the Police” and other such now cliche anti-authority slogans. It now seems like a near daily occurrence that someone is getting beaten, shot or sprayed while protesting in their city. Each time I see a video from the Occupy movement, the demonstrators are seemingly more and more hostile towards the police. How many more times till it’s the last time? Will the ineptitude of politicians and the ill=deeds of a couple terrible cops going to lead to riots in major cities across the country?

I hope not. I hope that we can move ahead as a nation and try to make the country a great place to live for as many citizens as we can. But hoping isn’t enough, and I fear that we’re quickly approaching that moment where a couple people are going that last dumb decision and throw us all into social unrest.

So pissed off from my trip to the mall. There’s a place there called “The Bargain Box” there. The owner just opened a stand alone comic shop. It’s terrible. There are more crappy dvds than comics in the shop.

Anyways I’m getting off topic.

I go to “Comix & Collectibles” in hopes of finding an Action Comics #1. I already got it via ComiXology, but I wanted to have a physical copy to lend to a friend. I get in there and I can’t find *ANY* of the DC New 52 relaunch. I look through all the new releases and they’re just not there. I briefly thought “Wow, they sold out of everything! Even Hawk & Dove!?!?!”

Boy was I wrong. I eventually make my way to the back counter of the shop and see they have a bunch of high priced “collectible” comics behind the counter. Then I saw them… The New 52 comics. These idiots had them locked behind the counter. The clerk, who wasn’t even in the shop at the time, runs in and asks me if I was looking for anything. I tell him Action #1, he looks at me like an idiot. I explain it’s one of the newly relaunched titles from DC. He still looks at me with his idiotic blank stare.

“We have new releases in the front & more valuable ones behind the counter.”

This gets me thinking. More valuable comics? None of the DC relaunch titles had been out for more than a week. They’re back behind the counter? I looked over the selection and noticed that they had Detective Comics #1 price marked $12. It had only been out for two weeks. That clearly has to be a mistake.

“Does that Detective Comics say $12?”

The clerk fumbles around, almost turning in circles looking over the small collection of “valuable” comics.

“The one in the middle… the one with Batman on the cover… and the Joker… YES! That one.”

“Yeah, that’s $12.”

“Tell your boss he’s a scam artist.”

And I walked out.

$12 for a comic that hasn’t been out two weeks? A comic that sold incredibly well and will likely never be a collectible since so many copies were sold. There is no collector’s value when every one also owns a comic. If you want a perfect example of this, pick up any of the 5 million Reign of Supermen “special” editions that had the cut out covers. Each one introduced one of the new Supermen and the whole collection of them can be bought for a $1 in most shops. Most of these New 52 comics will be in the same boat in a year or two. Just because something is hard to find doesn’t mean it’s rare. In the case of these titles, the difficulty in finding the titles was a direct result of short-sighted shop owners simply not ordering enough copies.

I think the worst part of this is that one of the largest objectives with this relaunch was to attract new readers. These new #1s were meant to be a safe jumping off point for neophytes so they could enjoy the wonders of comics without the stress and work of extensive historical research into a character. So that being said… what new reader in their right mind would walk into a comic shop, see one of these new comics (which they have never purchased before mind you) and shell out $12 just to read a comic book.

It boggles the mind. Boggles the mind…

First things first, I have officially sent my submission packet for the story entitled Tesla Force to Dark Horse Comics. So if you have seen me mention “Project TF” or just “TF,” that’s what I have been talking about. I don’t want to give out too many details, but it’s kind of a steam punkish/alternate history sort of story. The more I get it out there, the more comfortable I will be when it comes to revealing things about the story. I think it’s a funny story and I think it has a chance of getting some attention. Maybe not from Dark Horse or over the next few months, but by someone at some time.

The new week of DC Comic’s New 52 has hit my computer and I have to say, I was underwhelmed at first. Then magically, I was super impressed. I picked up some comics that weren’t originally on my pull list and I have to say they might be my favorites from this week. I will be doing at least two or three reviews for Guerrilla Geek (Click here for our New 52 reviews. This link will take you to the tag and get you the most up to date reviews!) Once I get a few of the full reviews out of the way, I will give a rundown of all the titles I picked up this week and my verdict. I am really excited to talk about them with Ryan on Kneel Before Pod.

Speaking of Kneel Before Pod, we made plans to record tomorrow. I’m an idiot and I think I might have to cancel those plans. For more info, including what we’re planning for the first two episodes, head over to Kneel Before Pod.

The biggest reason why we might not be recording tomorrow is we’re getting our new computer. Pardon me while I nerd out a moment, but here are the specs:

AMD Phenom™II X6 1100T Six-Core CPU (3.3 GHz)
GigaByte GA-970A-D3 AMD 970 Socket AM3+ ATX Mainboard
8GB (4GBx2) RAM
1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card
Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan

I was toying with the idea of getting a better video card, but we don’t run multiple monitors. I am also likely going to upgrade the ram as soon as I get it with some memory I have lying about and get it up to 16GB. It’s not the tippy top end of gaming systems, but for under $800 I should be able to play any game that comes out in the next few years at max video settings. Also, it glows blue. Expect some pictures of it once I get it all setup.

Or is it too many irons on my plate? Meh…

Regardless, I have just too much going on for as lazy as I am. I have a couple music albums that need reviewed, multiple articles that need edited for Guerrilla Geek, a submission packet to finalize for a comic I’m sending to Dark Horse, organizing the return of Kneel Before Pod and I’m still trying to write content for Guerrilla Geek. All this while I work part-time in retail. It’s a lot of stuff that needs to be done and I am just too lazy to get shit out the door.

Something really needs to change if I want to get things rolling around here. The good news is that I think my submission packet is all but done now. I just need to read over everything one last time to make sure I didn’t make any really stupid mistakes, put it in an envelope, mail it and pray. I’ve let a few people read over the script and it’s getting great feedback. I just hope it’s enough to get noticed.

Sorry internet, just venting frustrations over my own shortcomings. I mean, I can’t be mad at everyone else all the time. Sometimes I have to save some of that anger for myself ^_-

As promised, here is some music time!