ragdoll

Once in a blue moon I give some crazy comic a chance and will read/buy it. Okay I'll read almost any comic I can get my hands, but buy that's a different story. I like to stick to characters that I know and love like Spider-man, Wolverine, Invincible, Batman, and other cool characters like that. Back when I had a bit of more income flow I would would dabble in collecting comics in a big way, but now it's very small. I can count on two hands all the comics I buy. So, I decide to give a comic I've heard very little about a chance about four months ago, Lil' Depressed Boy. This comic doesn't have superheroes. This comic doesn't have tights. This comic doesn't have demons or supernatural events. The character is not detective or PI. He's a ragdoll named Lil' Depressed Boy or LDB for short. In all cases he could easy have been a normal boy, but for a gimmick they made him a ragdoll instead. I think this was a clever idea. The whole world around him is normal and they treat him like he's a normal person. I think this perfect. I think we all have a little ragdoll in us. I know I relate to LDB alot. He's shy, really like music, and plays video games. Plus he's not so great with women, until he meets this cute girl at the laundry mat. Thus starts the great boy meets girl, boy likes girl. Hi-jinx occur. The first four issues of the comic are out now. I'm not totally in love with the book, mainly because I feel like I could have been LDB before I got married. The story hit really close to home. Going to parties with her but not fitting in with her friends. Trying to be cool, but feeling like a fool the entire time. The story has so much love and depth in it. This isn't a comic that someone made up. This is someone's heart and soul. I'm not sure if the author meant to do that or if he's telling the story from his own experiences, because it feel like it. I think this is one of the best personal stories out there for comics. If you ever want to read comics, but not superheros or large space battles, but a personal story this is an amazing story for that. Plus I drew a little comic for it. Check it out!

cincinnati wordless wednesday

pawnee, in

Having returned to the almost a year ago I have missed many things. Fast food like White Castle and Steak n Shake. Humidity and all the wonderful thunderstorms. Moving home to Bloomington was an amazing idea. Yet I feel like there is another place in Indiana that I would rather live. Where is this place you ask? Pawnee, IN. What is Pawnee, IN you might ask. Well it's the most magical place in all of Indiana. Where libraries are hated (okay Allison might not want to live there) and the parks department is loved. Yes it's a fictional town, but it's my favorite fictional town in Indiana.

If you watch Parks and Rec on NBC you probably know all about this awesome city. At first I thought it was going to be a small city like Martinsville or Kokomo, but after more review it's probably as big as Bloomington or Terre Haute if not bigger. Plus the city has a television station which means it's not small. Since I want to work in TV this is already a plus to Bloomington which only has PBS and won't hire anyone outside of IU.

Why is Pawnee so great? They have a zoo, where two male penguins were married. They had to move the penguins because people were not open to this marriage, which I can't blame them. They also have the best breakfast restaurant in all of Indiana, JJ's. They're waffles are like crack. At least that how they're portrayed on the show. Pawnee has a whiffle ball league. How awesome is that? It's whiffle ball. You couldn't it a home run with one of those balls if you tried. The best part of Pawnee is the fact that they have the greatest Indiana band of all time, Mouse Rat (formally known as Scarecrow Boat).

Sure you might say but Michael why would you want to live in a fictional city? I say why wouldn't I? It's just an awesome place. Plus Parks and Rec makes the city look awesome. I need a little more awesome in my life. Don't we all need a little more awesome?

the loss

My weight loss from working at UPS has come to a slow stop. I won't lose mush more till summer and the summer heat hasn't come in full force here in Indiana yet. One area I didn't think about weight loss in was my hand. I didn't think my hands were chubby, but I guess they were. The last couple of weeks I've noticed my hands more specifically my fingers are skinnier. This is not something I would normally notice, but I have a ring I wear everyday for the past year and a half. It was just perfect when I bought it in the fall of 2009. Then It got a little tight over last summer. I thought it was because the heat expanded my hands or something. I know my hands shirk a little in the winter. Trying to save heat and everything. Back to a couple weeks ago, I noticed I was having a hard time keeping my ring on. One time I was in the bathroom washing my hands. I went to dry my hand on a towel, as I was drying my hands my ring just went flying off. Luckily it was at home and I found the ring really quick. Another time I was at work. At work I wear gloves to protect my hands from all the boxes. As I was moving boxes I actually felt my ring slip past my knuckle. My hand was in a gripping position, the ring should not have slipped past my knuckle. It also felt weird to have my ring on the front half of my finger. I did have my gloves on so I just pushed it back on.

My job has been a crazy adventure. Most of them are lame and stupid but I'm still surprised that I'm having them. I hope I didn't bore everyone to death. Only a couple more hours till the "rapture!" I can't wait to start looting. Yes, I don't think I'm going to make it up in the rapture. I'll miss Allison most of all, but I'll see her in five months when the world ends. If it doesn't happen today, well I guess I'll just go to work on Monday like normal.

dirt bike

A little video of when I took my bike on a dirt bike course in Boise.

woke up

I had a a feeling this morning that at 2:30 that today was going to be a really good day. By eight am it turned into one of my worst mornings ever. On the plus side there only one way to go, up. So today I post a memorial to my stolen bike. Yes, it was stolen today. I got home from a horrible day at work to find it missing from the bike rack. I guess my lock wasn't good enough.

Here's a comic of me riding my bike to school and work. I use to ride it all the time in Boise. It was my main mode of transit for awhile. I would ride it on the green belt just to get away from all my problems. I did not have the chance to ride my bike this year. All the rain made me not want to go out and now I'll never ride my bike again. Click on the comic to read it.

R.I.P. - the Kord (yes my bike had a name and it was Kord.)

free comic book day!

Today is a great day, it's the first weekend in May. This weekend may be marked by Mother's Day, but I like to think of it as the beginning of the comic season. Yes the comic season. This is the weekend that a new comic book movie comes out. This year's comic movie was Thor. Another big this about this weekend is it's Free Comic Book Day today. This has been happening since 2002. It coincided with the release of the first Spider-Man film. There has only been two years without a comic film to help with free comic book day.

I have not actually celebrated every free comic book day, but I have been trying to the last few years. This year was a really fun one. I brought Allison along with me for the ride. First year the both of us went out for it. Bloomington only has one comic shop so we decide to hit up Indianapolis for free comic book day. I scouted out seven different locations in Indy to visit. Oh it was a going to be an amazing day. We headed up and I decide at the last minute to change the route and visit the west side stores first and loop back down.

We visited Downtown Comics West first and then we went to Comic Carnival West. They were good. We got some basic comics like Captain America and Thor, Spider-man, to Mouse Guard. Finding a lot of cool comics, but not the main one I was looking for, Super Dinosaur. The new Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard comic. After one more shop we decide to stop for lunch in Greenwood. We were a little pooped by that time. We got some hot dogs for lunch. A perfect lunch for today. Allison got a Indy Dog and I got a Chicago Dog. So awesome. So good. We were about to just head home when I was like there one more comic shop that wasn't one of the Indy chains. I had never been there and it was in a part of town I didn't visit often. After getting a little lost we finally found Comic Book University. This was the best stop. They had more free comic than all the other stores combined. I also found Super Dinosaur! It was awesome.

That was my adventure for free comic book day. One of my many Cassette Tape t-shirt with my red converses were worn on this amazing comic adventure. I hope everyone else had an exciting free comic book day too. I know mine was awesome. Driving all over Indy for a bunch of free comics and a few I bought that I couldn't find in Bloomington. Nice.

wordless wednesday

the AM @ St. Louis Art Museum 3, a photo by MichaelMcLean on Flickr.