And so it begins...

Today began my training for the Disney Inaugural Wine and Dine Half Marathon scheduled for October 2nd later this year. This was the first time in I don't remember how long that I've actually run and something wasn't chasing me. I went 1.78mi and took 27:38 to do it averaging 15;32/mi and 3.9mph. To me that just plain sucks but others are telling me its not too bad for a first day. My hope is that once I shed some of this extra weight I'll actually enjoy running more than I do now. My shins and lower legs are the part of me that can't seem to take the running for long stretches. I'm only stopping to walk when my legs need a breather. I feel good that I didn't give up and even though I walked every 1/4-1/3 mile I pushed through and did the complete loop at Lenora Park plus a little bit.

If you like to check in on my pain and progress you can peek at my MapMyRun Profile from time to time and see how I'm doing or poke me if I'm not doing enough.

HeroesCon 2010

ROADTRIP!!

I took a road trip this weekend with my buddy Joe Peacock to Heroes Con in Charlotte NC. Joe invited me along since I'd never been and we're both comic book geeks of various eras. Joe was going because he was giving a talk on his Art of Akira exhibit discussing the importance of Akira in animation history, its attention to detail, and its sparking the Anime boom in the United States. I learned quite a lot from his talk. Akira was truly a phenomenal piece of work that has never been surpassed in the same medium. It was a great talk and presentation that will be on youtube as soon as he gets the video we took cut down and edited.

After Joe's talk we hit the floor to experience Heroes Con. I've been out of the comic book collecting world for at least 20 years so it was very interesting to see so little has changed. The main difference now is that I actually know people that draw some of the mainstream published comics. (DC/Marvel stuff) Being able to see them and meet friends of friends and chat with them was incredibly cool and a lot of fun.

Outside of the people I already knew, I was thrilled to be able to finally meet Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots. I've been reading her comic for years and its one of my daily reads that I never miss. I got a signed book one from her and hung out for a few minutes chatting. She was every bit as cool and friendly as I pictured she'd be and I was really glad to meet her. Next to her was Erika Moen of Darcomic.com. I hadn't had the pleasure of discovering Erika's work online or meeting her before but I'm glad I made her acquaintance. I had a great time chatting with her and am looking forward to catching up on her comic and work. We exchanged stories on our tattoos and their meanings and just had a few minutes of general chit chat. She was really cool. I could see hanging out with both ladies and friends having beers and shooting the shit one day. That's how cool and friendly both Danielle and Erika were. I am glad to have met them in person.

After HeroesCon wound to a close for the day we hooked up with some twitter friends of Joe and went to The Penguin Drive In. It was a nice small place not far from downtown with good beer and decent grub. The atmosphere and hanging out with new friends is what made it a really great night out. We had beers, met new people, and shared various stories (carjacking anyone?). If Joe and I hadn't planned for just a day trip we would have definitely stayed around longer and hit a few more night spots to continue the fun. Sadly though we had to bail before the next stop and begin our trek home.

Overall it was a really great road trip. Joe and I had many excellent and random topic conversations on the road jumping from topic to topic as happens when you get geeks together. Same thing happened at dinner at The Penguin.

I'll definitely be going and get a room for HeroesCon next year.

Lyrical memories

Its funny how a song can trigger a memory. Just now I'm listening to a song and was reminded of a funny question posed by Logan when he was 4(ish). I'm working in the garage playing some tunes and he's goofing off with sidewalk chalk and Summer Sunshine by The Corrs comes on. One of the lyrics is "i'll kiss you and nobody needs to know." That lyric plays and Logan looks up and ask me "Daddy, if nobody needs to know why is she singing about it?" To this day I still chuckle when I hear that song. His cute question still plays in my mind every time that lyric is heard.

Good times....

The Once a Year Flea Market

I am sad to say that I believe the annual small town craft show and festival has become a severely endangered species. It was once an event to look forward to as an opportunity to see handcrafted wares and items. Sadly that is no longer so. The part that is endangered is handcrafted. These events are slowly becoming more and more populated with bulk ordered crap ordered off the internet. Fading are the days where every vendor hand crafted and created their products and wares. Sure there are a few vendors that still do that but their numbers are diminishing year after year. They are the true crafters. The people that live and breath their craft out of love and a desire to create. Many have full time jobs and do their craft as a hobby but some do their craft full time and try to make a living from it. Rising Craft Festival "booth fees" and poorly planned festivals have pushed many of them to give up or start cherry picking the few festivals they want to do and are worth their time.

What's that you say? "Whoa, wait a minute there chief. What makes a techno-geek like you qualified to comment on craft shows?"

I'm glad you asked.

My mom has been a craft person for as long as I can remember. In the early days she did woodworking crafts. You know the kind. Wood cut outs shaped like baseball gloves with a ball, bat, and glove holding hook sicking out of it to mount on the wall. Cut outs of tractors and other farm related shapes for hanging on walls. Stuff like that. They were, of course, all either stained a nice color or hand painted. She evolved that into some really cool 3D creations of ducks and swans made with layers of wood and then hand carved, sanded and shaped to be the form desired. Her grand creation at that time was a huge swan that made it into a magazine or two. We'd spend our weekends traveling from Craft Show to Craft Show setting up and taking down and spending the day showing her creations. Back then the shows were very picky and the items had to be hand made BY THE ARTIST showing the items. Some people did their craft on site and customized items where others like my mom just made the items at home and showed/sold them at the show. The point is EVERYONE hand made their items. Over the years the wood working type of craft slowed in popularity and mom hung up her craft side business for a while. She didn't give up completely. She just took a break for a few years. Now she makes unique gourd art by growing, harvesting, drying, cutting and carving, hand staining and painting her own Gourds.

So that's why I feel I'm qualified to comment on the current state of the annual craft show and festival. Most of them are becoming CRAP compared to what they once were.

Gone are the days where booths were reasonable in their fees.

Gone are the days where the festival planners actually required their vendors to hand craft or make their wares.

Gone are the days of submitting photo samples of your craft for review and acceptance.

Today any John or Jane Doe can order a shit load of pre-printed wash cloths and set up a booth at the festival. Today people can go to Wal-Mart and bulk purchase goofy face mass produced flower pots, slap some paint on them and call them "crafts". Today people can bulk order mass produced art and sell it as if it were their own. Today people can purchase just about anything they want at Wal-Mart and show up at a "craft" show and sell it. That's not a craft show, thats called a Flea Market.

I still go to local festivals but I'm starting to be selective of the ones that I visit. I like the environment and the opportunity to hit the local business booths and see what goods and services I might be missing out on. I'm just annoyed that so little effort is put into the vendor selection process these days. I'm annoyed when I hear how much some festivals think of themselves based on their "booth fee" or even worse, the ones that want a cut of your business done that day on top of a booth fee.

Festivals don't cost half as much as they lead you to believe. I'm sure there are expenses involved and I'm sure someone can come scream at me with balance sheets to prove to me its expensive but there are some things I know for sure. They use local boy scout and/or explorer post for parking the cars (FREE). They use public parks or areas that aren't in use anyway (FREE). Most non-food vendors don't require Power. Most established festivals already have set dates annually so advertising is just a matter of reminding people and can be traded for booth space with businesses that can advertise for the festival (local paper, local sign companies, etc..) (Equal BARTER). Radio Stations can also trade for advertising mentions and the opportunity to set up and broadcast/sponsor the festival.

What then is the $100-$250+ per booth space fee going for? Such high booth fees make it that much harder for an honest hand crafting vendor to justify attending the festival. That and they risk being put next to Billy Bob and his collection of bulk ordered NASCAR collector plates, hats and jackets or placed across from the lady selling fuzzy photo frames she got on discount at Wal-Mart last thursday. Its hard to compete when the Flea Market crowd is dragging overall price expectations down with their booths of crap.

The list of festivals I'll actually spend my time on is getting shorter and shorter every year and today I added another one to the list. There are still some good vendors that show up at this festival but I'm tired of wading through the sea of crap to maybe find a booth worth stopping at. Festivals use to take me a good 1/2 day to walk through and experience. Today I think it took me all of 30-45 minutes to see the entire festival.

Good Bye Snellville Days, its been fun these past 10 years I've lived here but you've gone down hill every year for the past 3 or 4 years. I'm done giving you part of my Saturday and getting nothing of value in return. Let me know if you get your act together.

A Video Game Pin? Seriously??

Looks like the Cub Scouts have given up. They now offer a Belt Loop Award for Playing Video Games. Are they NUTS?!?! What genius came up with this idea? The ENTIRE concept of Scouting is to get off your ass and get out in Nature and explore, learn, and experience new things OUTSIDE.

What's next? A Belt Loop or Merit Badge for Watching TV? I wonder what the requirements of that one would be?

Requirements for Sit On Your Ass and Watch TV

Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts may complete requirements in a family, den, pack, school, or community environment. Tiger Cubs must work with their parents or adult partners. Parents and partners do not earn loops or pins.

Belt Loop

Complete these three requirements:

1. Explain why it is important to have a rating system for TV Shows. Check your TV Shows to be sure they are right for your age (most probably aren't but that's ok, all your friends watch them too).
2. With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and Sitting On Your Ass Watching TV. Do your best to follow this schedule.
3. Learn to Sit On Your Ass and Watch TV with a show that is approved by your parent, guardian, teacher, or is really popular at school so you don't fall behind the social curve.

Academics Pin

Earn the Sit On Your Ass and Watch TV belt loop and complete five of the following requirements:

1. With your parents, create a plan to watch a TV show that is right for your age group
2. Compare two TV Shows (for example, Spongebob Squarepants, iCarly, Ben 10 and so on). Explain some of the differences between the two. List good reasons to watch the show
3. Gather and prepare snacks and beverages for consumption while sitting on your ass watching TV
4. Teach an adult or a friend how to sit on their ass and watch a TV Show
5. List at least five tips that would help someone who was watching a TV Show keep from spilling their snacks in the Sofa Cushions
6. Sit on your ass and watch a TV Show with a friend for one hour
7. Watch a TV Show that mentions math, science, or physical education at least once in the show (NOTE: The actors don't have to actually do any of the listed topics, just mention them).
8. Choose a TV Show DVD Season Set you might like to purchase. Compare the price for it at three different stores. Decide which store has the best deal. In your decision, be sure to consider things like the distance to the store and availability of close parking to prevent too much walking
9. With an adult's supervision, hook up a DVR so you can have lots of TV Shows archived to sit on your ass and watch later

I mean seriously? Is this what Scouting has become?

Being a Dad changes you

Becoming a Dad was one of the greatest events in my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. No matter how ornery my son gets, no matter how angry he makes me sometimes, no matter what or how much of my stuff he destroys in a moment of little boy "opps" or "its a project!", no matter anything. He's the best thing ever.

But....

I've noticed that becoming a Dad has changed me. I guess it was inevitable but I didn't think it would be this noticeable to myself. Every Dad's view of the world changes when suddenly they have a son or daughter to begin looking after and protecting. Things in movies and TV that used to not bother me, bug the shit out of me now.

I'm not talking about a TV show that says FUCK! alot. I don't give a shit about that. My son knows what "adult words" are and he knows not to use them. I'm sure he is secretly excited and looking forward to the day when he grows up and can use them around me without getting in trouble. Just as I'm sure he uses select versions of them when its just him and his buddies, just like we all did when we were young. Any parent that doesn't think their child curses when its just their friends around is deluding themselves. Kids cuss, it's just part of growing up. Learning when and where its appropriate is also a part of growing up. No, shows that curse and use crude humor don't bother me. I actually prefer shows that have people acting like real live instead of shows that try to sugar coat family life like nobody ever curses. Its not really shows that bug me. Its some of the content and topics.

I find myself uneasy when the show deals with the death or crime against children or deals with the loss of a child (even if the death is part of the past storyline).

I love Stargate SG-1. If you've seen my arm you'd know just how much I love Stargate. I think my first indication of "change" came when I was re-watching Episode 106 - Cold Lazarus. There is a flashback scene where O'Neil remembers the accidental death of his son. (Charlie found Jack's gun and was playing with it with awful results.)

• We see Jack run toward Sara who is sitting on the steps to the house. He embraces and kisses her.
• 
  
• JACK: How was your day?
• SARA: Fine...oh, look what came home from school today.
• *She reaches down and grabs Charlie's school pictures
• JACK: Ah...is Charlie about ready?
• SARA: Yeah, he was running around her a few minutes ago...
• *A loud Bang is heard...the gunshot. Jack and Sara turn to look at the bedroom window.
• SARA (yells): Charlie!

That gunshot made my blood run ice cold. It still does today.

That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Having a child changes your perspective. What once didn't bother you suddenly hits home.

I have to say I didn't see that coming. Still wouldn't trade it for the world.

Downward is more like it

I had the opportunity to go to my Nephew's Basketball game the other day. He played really well and is having a good time with it. Unfortunately its with the "Upward" program that is sweeping through all the churches around here. Soccer and Basketball "leagues" that seem to focus more on having the kids memorize bible verses than actually teach them the sport they came to learn and play. This game they were playing another Upward team that hadn't won a single game and were still trying to figure out how to play as a team. Apparently the "Refs" (preachers) decided before the game that since the other team was sucking so bad they wouldn't keep score for this game. In addition to this stupidity the "refs" also decided to call penalties and fouls against the better (my nephew's) team and blatantly ignore the other team and their obvious fouls. One kid on the other team stops dribbling mid-court, holds the ball a moment, and the starts dribbling again. An obvious double-dribble violation and both "refs", who were looking right at him, ignore the foul and let play continue. A few moments later they call a traveling foul on my nephew's team when a kid is going for a lay-up. He did not travel, period.

What the hell is this pathetic excuse of a program teaching these kids? If you are weak and lacking in skills the refs will always bend the rules for you so your inner child doesn't get its teeny tiny widdle heart hurt? What a load of horse shit! These kids aren't learning anything about the real game of basketball. They are learning bad habits and that when they need improvement the refs will punish the other team to help them.

The "refs" should be ashamed of themselves and either ref the game according to the official rules or stay in the stands and out of the ref buisiness. From what I've heard talking to many parents this is a trend with the Upward program making it pretty much useless for any real experience and lessons.