Columbus Wizard Comic Con 2013

Went to the Columbus Wizard Comic Con over the weekend and had a ton of fun.  Here's some pictures from the awesome event.  I know tons of Star Wars characters while Allison and I went as Star Trek characters.

the uncluded

It has been awhile since I felt like posting anything on my blog.  Things have been going on and life is moving forward, but nothing has really inspired me to write for a long time.  I think drawing my comic over at mini dove comics has been consuming my life for the past few years.  I guess that's just life.  Luckily that doesn't stay that way forever.  Sometimes you find something that is so awesome you have to talk about it.  That something is a new CD I got from the library this week.  I was looking at all the different CDs and trying to find something cool to listen too.  This can be tough for me I listen to a ton of different music right now.  Although nothing has been inspiring.  Lately new music has been sounding the same as my old music.  I've been trying out old bands I never really got around to listening too.

You could call me a bad person, I judge a CD by it's cover (that goes for books too).  I was looking at the "Urban" section at my library when I saw a weird little cover.  It looked like to gnomes hanging out trying to catch things.  I was like this really looks interesting.  It was by a band I'd never heard of, The Uncluded. I figured no harm checking it out from the library, I was so wrong.

After I got home I decide to look the band up on youtube and I found this little song by them called The Aquarium.  In comes the rappers, "Please don't tap on the glass. Please don't tap on the glass."  This started with a beat that sound good, better than any other rap song I'd heard in awhile.  It wasn't forced and over powering.  It had a good beat that I made me want to get up and dance.  I was in love with this song.  Plus it was about fish and aquariums.  I love aquariums and looking at fish, as long as I don't have to get into the water with them.  The song was amazing.

Well after watching the video I had to know more about this band and listen to more of the songs.  Good thing youtube had more songs as I started to rip the CD.  Then the most amazing thing happened.  I actually know both people in The Uncluded.  It was Kimya Dawson and Aesop Rock!  If you don't know who either of these people are, I'm really sorry for you.  I like both of these artist I already own some of their stuff on vinyl, yes LP's.  If you like hip-hop or folk music this might be the album for you.  I love it already.  I've had it for two days and listened to it ten times all the way through.  I played it a couple of times at work this morning instead of listening to my audio books.

I know this kind of music isn't for everyone, but I'm not sure if that matters.  I have declared the song of summer, The Aquarium.  That's how much I like the song.  This album may be the best thing I've heard in a long time, maybe a year, since I heard JEFF the Brotherhood.  They had the song of the summer last year with Sixpack.  I hope you all check out the great music that is The Uncluded.  I know I'll be enjoying them.  In fact I love this album so much I'm going to buy it to support them.

i might be a nerd, but i don't think so

I know I've called myself a nerd before, but at the same time I'm not really sure if I am really am a nerd.  For one thing my wife is was to hot.  Which might not be a true test to see if you're a nerd or not, but I believe it is one thing that might make me less nerdy than other people.  I've never really had any nerd friends either, all my friends have been normal with a punk here and there.  Plus I try not to fly my nerd flag in "real life."  That means I don't go around telling people I read comics and make comics.  I don't jump into conversations about Star Wars and Star Trek with people, even people I know.  It's been this way for a long time.  Since high school really.  I got rid of my Magic the Gathering Cards in Jr. High.  Then my junior year I transformed my look to a 90's punk rocker.  I shed as much nerdiness as I could.  Sure I read comics here and there, but  I didn't associate with people that did that kind of thing.

Fast-forward to 2013, everywhere on the internet people are claiming to be nerds.  They're throwing on glasses and seeing superhero movies.  They scream that they are nerds because they've seen all the "comic" movies, which I doubt, because that means seeing all these little film too.  Yet, I still feel like being a nerd is a bad thing.  Sure I can tell you almost complete history of most of Marvel Comics characters.  I watch reruns of Babylon 5, Star Trekn (all series), Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica.  I play with Lego bricks.  I even draw my own webcomics, but don't call me a nerd.  Most people I met don't know about any of those things.  I try to tell people about them, but no one has ever been interested in my hobbies.  I always keep them quite and try to blend in with other people at work.  My shyness makes that hard too.  Still even though I feel like maybe nerd culture is accepted on the internet, no one in the real world has heard.

So what do you guys think?  Am I nerd?  Should I be proud and fly the nerd flag even if it makes me an outcast?  Plus what should my nerd flag look like?  And what do you think a nerd is?  Allison and I don't totally agree on what a nerd is.  Allison thinks she's a nerd and I don't think she is.  Once again, she's just to hot to be a nerd in my mind.

Now here's the song from Adam Warrock that made me think about all these deep nerdy thoughts.