[  Mood: Silly ]
[ Currently: Enjoying Naptime ]
So we Canadians are also in the middle of our Federal Election. Unlike the American one, it takes about five weeks. I know, so short!

Yet I am already bored.

I just want this to be over. I am so tired of elections. We have had three in five years.

Maybe part of the problem is that the Tories are going to win. We know that. The only question this election is settling is will majority or minority. (I personally hope for the second as the first would be scary.)

Tory leader (and our current PM) Stephen Harper is a smart George Bush. He’s policies are right wing for Canadians. I know to Americans, he looks like a hardcore democrat, but he is pretty hardcore up here. Take for example his proposal to try fourteen year-olds as adults if they commit serious crimes. I teach fourteen year-olds. Trust me. They are children. And they make stupid mistakes. Should they be in jail for twenty years if they make a mistake at fourteen? No.

And don’t toss the deterant argument at me. If you’ve been around fourteen year-olds, you know they don’t think to the end of the week. Trying to argue that a deterant would prevent a fourteen year-old from committing a crime is ridiculous.

So why are am I bored, you ask? Given my politics, you think I would be out on the streets. Well the left in Canada is split three ways right now. (Four ways in Quebec). The Liberals, the NDP and the Greens. Where does my vote go?

In my riding, David McGuinty will win. He is a Liberal, our current MP and a good MP. And I like the Liberal Green plan. But I also like the Greens. And the NDP might actually win enough seats to be the official opposition.

The key is, we have to stop the Tory majority. This has lead to vote splitting schemes on Facebook and strategic voting. I am still trying to figure out how to vote. And given my boredom, it is not easy.

And I am still trying to figure out how to vote for Obama.

“Like the Iraq war and patriot act, this bill is fueled by fear and haste,” said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas on the Bailout Bill.

Finally, a Texas politician speaks the truth… was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Angelic ]
The Caldecott medal is given every year …

This year, the award was given to Brian Selznick for his incredible The Invention of Hugo Cabret. At 500 plus pages, this is not a traditional picture book. It tells the story of a young orphan boy who maintains the clocks in the Paris Train station and his discovery of an automaton left behind by his father.

This is not your father’s picture book. Nor is it yours. The story is told both through text and through pictures. There are pages and pages of pictures without words and then several pages of novel style text. It is far more of a silent film in style, which is cool cause the story references the silent film era.

I would encourage all of you to pick this book up. It is revolutionary and breathtaking. I loved it.

[ Mood: Amused ]
I ran across this entertaining site with cartoons that make references to Linux and Unix. LinuxToon reprints selections from Doonesbury, Dilbert, Robotman, Foxtrot, Dr. Fun, and even some Norwegian strips!

Click to enlarge


Click to enlarge

Linux/Unix Cartoons was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son – Situation Normal ]
Daniel H. Wilson looks at the technologies offered to us by Sci-Fi and wonders why some of them have yet to appear. In the case of others, he examines how we already have those technologies, but that they are different from those portrayed on Star Trek.

This book is funny. I mean laugh out loud funny. May even buy a copy funny. Each entry is about three pages long, so it is a perfect bathroom book. Go get it and make your calls of nature more enjoyable.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Listinening to My Cat Snore ]
So I had never read the Watchmen until I borrowed a copy from the library.

Yes, I know, leave my geek card at the door on the way out.

The impact of this collection is different on me today then it would have been had I picked it up back in the day. Much of Moore’s innovations have been picked up by comics and the rest of mainstream media. Would we have a Heroes if the Watchmen had never been published? Probably not.

What I mean by this statement is that what was innovative and shocking when this first came out had so permeated our culture that it seems almost normal now. This might explain the reaction of some who see the trailer but have never read the comic.

So while I enjoyed the book and am glad I have read it, I did not find it as shocking or breathtaking as those who may have read it in 1986-87.

Editor Steve Bissette‘s seminal late-20th century anthology Taboo, perhaps the finest horror anthology of all time and a model for my own horror anthology Weird Business, offered over 100 pages of visceral, no-holds-barred horror from the finest cutting edging creators of the late eighties and early nineties. Initially self-published under Bissette’s Spiderbaby Grafix imprint (and later continued by Kitchen Sink), each Taboo volume presented contributions from the likes of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Eddie Campbell, Chester Brown, Charles Burns, John Totleben, Tom Veitch, Bernie Mireault, Michael Zulli, Richard Sala, Paul Chadwick, Moebius, Phil Hester, Dave Sim, D’Israeli, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson, Charles Vess, Jeff Jones, Matt Howarth, Mark Bode, Scott McCloud, Paul Grist, Joe Coleman, Jim Woodring, Tim Truman, and Bissette. Running for nine amazing books (1988-1995), Taboo contained some of these creators’ finest works.

Some 13 years later and horror comics are once again all the rage, isn’t it high time for someone to produce a 200 page best of compilation? Even without From Hell, which started in those pages, the books offer enough incredible talent that it’s sure to be a much sought after item.

Best of Taboo? was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Confused ]
[  Currently: Listening to Husband Unit Put My Son to Bed ]
In my constant attempt to get decent service out of retailers, I present to you my letter of complaint to Canadian Tire.

Now you know why we call it Crappy Tire,