The year in review....

Well sitting here listening to Led Zeppelin, the year is almost gone, and a new one about to start.  I never make resolutions for the new year, I just can't be bothered, it means I really have to work towards something.

This year saw some firsts for me:  I have published 3 works, Desperation and Conquest, Books 1 and 2 of the Triumvirate Chronicles, and Genesis, an entry into the Anthology of the Guardians Series. I had hoped to have one more piece out, but it didn't happen.  I finally went to my first conventions, Con Bravo, FanExpo and Genrecon and got to meet a lot of really nice people.  I am getting in the groove for taking stuff to the next level for my writing come 2015.  But with the writing have essentially come 3 websites:  this one, my blog, my author page, Alexander Dundass and of course, my newest site, launched just a day or so ago, The Dundass Reviews.  I have goals and aspirations for 2015, but they will remain unspoken for now as I collect myself for the onslaught.

The year 2014 was interesting indeed.  We saw the disappearance of an entire plane in theory, in the Indian Ocean, with no trace whatsoever.  Of course the conspiracy freaks came of the woodwork for sure; not only to mention that CNN had so much coverage, they had to be behind it all (just kidding, maybe).  Then a few months later, another plane was shot down over Ukraine during their little dispute (recall that Putin invaded Ukraine, using the Olympics as a means of distracting everyone), and at the writing of this, a third plane has gone missing in South East Asia, no signs of it at all.  Just what in the hell is happening to these planes.  This year saw an election in Ontario that resulted in the most crooked government of all time in Canada (in my opinion, there might've been one on BC years ago, or Quebec, who the hell knows).  This government has been under investigation for the cancelling of gas plants, dismantling the education system in Ontario, starting with the universities, where strong research that has happened at many fine institutions, is now in threat of closing because of lack of funding.  Of course who can forget the smack in the face to CNN this year when it was reported that as soon as the details of the shooter in Parliament Hill were broadcast on Canadian TVs, we went back to regular programming without spending 26 hours out of 24 hours in a day like CNN always does, and the reporters shit their pants on this one.  And this was am American station reporting this one.  Seems we get right to the facts here and move on.

In the entertainment world, the release of the latest Star Wars trailer, telling us nothing at all, was happily received, especially with the claymore-like sith light saber that went viral, but what was more hilarious, was the fact a lot of people were upset over a black storm trooper.  Like what the fuck people, get a fucking life.  The funniest thing of the year was the so-called Sony hacking (done by that genius in North Korea, Kim Jong Un) that initially resulted in the movie, The Interview initially not being released because of North Korea.  To get back at North Korea, many theatres were going to play Team America, but that was cancelled to.  Of course North Korea claimed they were responsible, but who wouldn't.  Then when all hope had faded that this piece of shit movie would be released, it was released and still a piece of shit.  But this story has its apparent victims because some douchebag bought $65o tickets to scalp to its premier, but then for half the price this movie could be viewed online and is now out his money (Link to news story).

We did lose some notable and famous celebrities.  On Dec 22 we lost the great Joe Cocker, whose rendition of With a Little Help from my Friends to this day stills ends chills up my spine.  The absolute rawness he had that day was spectacular and it became a legendary performance of Woodstock. Joan Rivers finally passed away, shutting up that big mouth for all time down here on Earth.  Glen A Larson, responsible for shows from my childhood, like Battlestar Galactica passed away (man that show was ahead of its time back in the day).  Jack Bruce, famous for being 1/3 of the band Cream is no longer with us, yet another big loss in the music industry.  The actor who played Jaws in 2 of the James Bond is no more, and these just name a few that are no longer with us.  Check out CNN for a comprehensive list.

But alas, 2014 is coming to an end really fast, and much has happened to me this year as well as others around me.  It is time to just tell the year to fuck off and let's start once and make 2015 a better year, and for those of us who did end it bad, it will be good with a little help from our friends.....

So, do you self publish or do you try to get it on with a publiser?

Now that I have my big computer issues solved for now (I had a power outage on Boxing Day that finished corrupting my hard drive, and my fish demanded I fix it immediately so we can get back to playing Led Zeppelin) I can do a bit of blogging.

One of the things that comes to mind is basically do you self publish, or do you try to get it on with a publisher.  With the conventions I've gone to I've had time to chat with other self published authors, as well as my other friends around the country.  I think for the most part, we've reached a stage in publishing where the big publishing houses are going to have to bite the bullet and start looking at more authors.

Traditionally, when I started writing years ago, to even submit anything you had to go through and agent, and that was tough to even get an agent interested in your stuff.  Not to mention that there were many crooked agents who pretty much stole your money.  That in itself is reason enough why I didn't bother publishing until this past year and just writing and editing like crazy.

For me, self publishing, whether ebooks or print, takes a bit longer to get recognized, but hey many famous people take a lot of time to do that.  But with self publishing, I have full control over versions that are up, creating the ebooks (which I can tell you, in some cases, is a really big pain in the ass).  Art is another thing, I have full control over what I want to do with art, and yes art is a good way to attract readers, as often I've bought books based on the art alone, the Pelbar Cycle being a good example.  Now depending on whether your choice of self publishing is advertizing on other sites (personally I feel you are better to do it yourself, which I will go into in another moment or two), you can control the prices pretty good.  Many of the big book stores such as Amazon and Kobo are easy to set up on for ebooks, but of course this past year issues have cropped up that have for the most part, increased the cost of not only print books at these sites, but also the ebooks as well.  Personally, I find it ludicrous to have an ebook priced over $10, and I don't give a shit if you are Stephen King, no ebook is worth over $10.  But now they are being pushed higher and higher.  Often now the only advantage of an ebook is that you can carry many of them on your reader at once.  Now with the publisher I use, I am forced to price my hard backs at close to $40 so I can make a measly $3 if it is bough on Amazon (by the way, fuck you Amazon).  The only reason it is advertized on Amazon as a hard cover is because I get two spots on there, one for hard cover and one for soft cover.

Now on the flip side, there is the publishing industry, the traditional way of going about it.  I met an author at Genrecon who did get in with a publisher and he wasn't very happy about it.  His beef was that he got stuck with a mediocre artist, was given no choice on that matter, and the artist didn't really do a very good job.  The publisher also didn't do a very good job of promoting him either.  Then of course, there are publishers that still insist on submissions being on paper, mailed via snail mail, and you having to provide self-addressed stamped envelopes.  I see that and I just run.  C'mon, surely you all can get an email address and take electronic submissions.  Probably explains why GRRM uses Dos to write instead of something well beyond the technology of the Roman Empire he is stuck in.

The publishing industry is also trying to put a stigma on self publishing; basically saying garbage is only being put out there.  Well guess what, I am finding far more to read out there in the land of independent  and self published authors than with any of the traditional publishers.  And most of the authors are far more talented than some of the bigger authors out there.

In the end, I do prefer self publishing, because of the control I currently have over my stuff.  Perhaps in the future, if my stuff does really take off, I might have to change my ways, but for now, this works well.  But a final note for anyone out there who is working self publishing for the first time:  be wary of any self publisher or cheap publisher and/or agent that asks for money up front.  Do your research and see if there are any complaints against them.  As other authors.  In the end, you decide, but just be wary.

Anthology of the Gurdians: Huntercats - Sneak Preview

Well with it being Christmas Eve, here is a small sneak peak at Hutnercats, or one of the stories contained within this book.  Without further adieu, here it is lads and lasses.

The coldness of space enveloped the tiny ship as it coasted through the void of the solar system with the trinary star located at its center. Behind it in fast pursuit were three other vessels, intent on destroying it. The pilot pointed the triangular ship towards a blue green planet in the distance, cork screwing through space as lasers lit up the vacuum where his craft had been moments before. The pursuers changed course, attempting to keep up, but their bulky, elongated hulls were just not fast enough.

General Canes, formerly General John Zabin, cursed as a shot finally found its mark, shaking him in his chair and setting off alarms indicating an impending hull breach in the engine compartment. His normally short black hair, now shoulder length, jumped in front of his eyes. He cleared his hair, and averted his dark eyes down to the console under his hands. He cursed again; his pursuers had damaged the navigation controls as well. He quickly switched over to manual and set course for the planet in front of him.  Smoke filled the cockpit as the environmental controls shorted out.

“Smiley, prepare for crash landing, we’re going in and we’re going in hard!” he yelled to the compartment behind the cockpit. A large cat with huge ten inch sabres pointing downwards from its mouth pushed itself between the wall and a strap.

“All set Canes,” he replied mentally through their immortal bond.

Canes pulled back on the yoke as they entered the atmosphere of the planet, the nose of the craft changing from black to cherry red from the heat of the gases as the ship dove into the atmosphere. Canes was doing the best he could to control it, but his angle of descent was still a bit too steep, and he saw some of the heat shielding fly off of the tip of one of the wings.  Canes gritted his teeth and adjusted the descent angle; the ship coming a bit more under control.

Canes and his sabre-toothed cat had come to this star system based on intel that had shown a large number of enemy vessels belonging to the Pruchocks, in orbit about the planet and both had jumped to be the ones to do the reconnaissance as he felt that maybe a softer approach would work better this time.  The problem was that Canes just hadn’t expected to be attacked upon immediately entering the system; this meant something big was happening here for the number of Pruchocks present. 

The vessel shook under him again as more heat shielding flew away from the damaged wing. Canes adjusted his course ever so slightly, the shaking subsiding once again. He looked over at his scanner and spotted a formation of fighters trying to intercept him from the planetary surface. This is just getting better and better, Canes thought as he applied the rudders and drove his craft harder, heading towards a large forest. Off in the distance he could see a temple, but matters at hand left him little time to wonder about it right at this minute.

With the skill of a fine pilot, Canes finally levelled out over the jungle, cruising just above the tree tops. The ship shuddered again, sparks bursting forth from the flight console, setting fire to his clothing. The vessel dipped down and brushed the upper branches of the canopy.

“Damn it!” Canes yelled as he patted out the flames lapping away at his chest and groin, the ship’s engines whining in protest over the damage caused by his pursuers.  Losing power, his craft dropped down, brushing the tree tops again, but no matter how much fight Canes put into it, the vessel had given all it had to give. It finally dove sharply into the ground, ploughing into the trees, uprooting them in a cloud of dirt and foliage.

Canes stared through the shattered view port, blood trickling down into his eyes where some glass from the broken canopy had blown inwards upon crashing. “You OK back there Smiley?” asked Canes.

I am OK, just a bit shaken up. We best get out of here before they come around.

“I agree,” replied Canes, unfastening his safety harness and getting out of the pilot’s chair. He turned around and went to the back of the ship, Smiley joining him at his side as he rooted through the survival gear for what he would need. Packing food, water and general survival items, Canes and Smiley exited the ship and turned to look back at it.

“Well this thing isn’t flying again,” replied Canes calmly, taking in the fact that they had landed at the edge of a pond that was hidden by the forest from the air. “We better hide this thing; give them less of our technology.” Canes stared at the vessel and it slowly rose a little bit from the ground. Before long it was floating through the air and presently was hovering over the middle of the pond. Sweat was now beading up on his head as he let it go and it fell with a huge splash and sank below the surface of the water; ripples across the surface the only sign the shuttle had been dumped in there.

“C’mon, let’s go they’re coming. Take point and I’ll follow. I can actually feel them, they’re pretty hot and bothered that we’re here.  Must be something big going on around here.”

You got it Canes, replied Smiley, taking up point and slipping into the forest without a sound.

Preacher looked up at Vruta, his dark penetrating eyes taking in her form. He stood just under her chin, around six feet in height, his dark hair grown out so that it fell over his shoulders and down his back.

Vruta was a Pruchock, known as Huntercats to a few select humans. They were normally the enemy of  humans, but Preacher and Vruta had a history, one that was leading him down a path that veered away from the other Guardians, and his human loyalties. He reached up and scratched Vruta behind her tan colored ears and then placed his hand on the side of her face, staring into her green, feline eyes as she towered over him. Her entire form was covered in a light tan fur, her prehensile tail sticking out behind her, curling up at the affection Preacher was showing. She lowered her paw-like hands down and hugged Preacher, returning his affection, shifting from foot to foot in her digitigrade stance, the two lovers reunited after  months apart.

“I’m happy you sent me a communiqué Vruta, but what is it all about? I didn’t understand what you were asking of me,” inquired Preacher, still in Vruta’s arms. “And what is this place all about?”

I will answer the first question, then show you the second, replied Vruta in her heavily accented Standard as Preacher was still not a master of the Pruchock language. Vruta motioned to Preacher and they started walking out of the room and down a hallway. As you are aware, Turtron escaped the vile clutches of Canes around the time you found me, but he had help. Much like you came after me when I was in a mating rut, Canes’ treatment of Turtron forced him into a rut as well. And it would’ve been lethal to him if not for a human woman.

Preacher sighed.  “Go on, I can tell there is more, and your aura has changed a lot since our last meeting. Why is that?”

You have so many questions, follow me and we will talk. A young Lieutenant, named Larissa, aided Turtron and helped him get over his rut by mating with him, much as we did. What neither of us realized at the time was the consequences to myself and Turtron.

“You mean us mating and having forbidden love? Is that what’s happening here? I risked myself to come here and talk to you about that, when it was understood what we had?  Vruta, I am risking my life even coming here.”

No, there is more my dear Preacher. When you saved me, you passed your abilities on to me, like you I am now immortal and have your powers. And as I told you, I was pregnant by you, no doubt allowed by the nanites flowing through both of our bodies.

Preacher stopped in mid pace, putting his hand on Vruta’s arm. “I never thought that would happen. If any of my friends find out and trace it back to me...”

That’ll not happen. Our children are safe in my pouch now, twins to be exact. Not a normal thing, but then my pregnancy is anything but normal.  Follow quickly, we’re almost at our destination. Turtron also came back infected as an immortal, a victim of Canes’ blood, blood Canes used to heal Turtron when he was wounded during his torture session. But one reasont I called you here for was for this. Vruta pointed into a room that they had arrived at. In many ways, prophecy is being fulfilled by our peoples together, prophecies that have many of our kind worried. Look inside, the upper elite know of what is going on here.

Society Today

I have had a few days to reflect on may things recently, in part through my meditation, in part via sleeping, writing or reading (yes I multitask, except in meditation as that defeats the purpose), and I have come to realize just how fucked up society is.  It never used to be this fucked up; so where did it all go wrong?  That is hard to say, but let's examine it some.

Rome, heralded as one of the ultimate civilizations of all time, certainly had its share of troubles.  Sex was always rampant and never far away, with anything goes, the army was used to keep everything in check, and as far as they were concerned, they had it right to the point of beating down everyone in their path that disagreed with them.  And bonus was, if you didn't like the person in power, just kill him and make room for the next one.  Hell, it's even coming out Nero wasn't as bad as he was supposed to be, much like Richard the III.  I have often wondered how much of an impact Christianity had on the fall of the Roman Empire.  Perhaps it is time to write a paper on it.  But either way, Rome used its military quite effectively, to the point that if the Tenth Legion was coming, the enemy were pissing in their pants.  And let's not forget the Colosseum, excellent way to rid yourself of your enemies. 

So is it any wonder we see things like the killing of the school children in a school over in Pakistan.  We see here the same mentality:  you don't agree with what we believe, then we're going to force it on you, and then kill you.  Nice to see that big super powers cannot deal with what essentially are a group of nomads living on ideals from 2000 years ago.  But then again, has the Western World really evolved from those ideals at all?

I have often said that Western civilization reached its peak in the 1920s, and that we are in slow decline, but once again, when things didn't meet up with Western standards, off the US goes and into war, to correct it, thus forcing their ideals down someone's throat.  And I'm not talking recent wars, but more along the lines of the Vietnam War.  I once saw a Monty Python skit that described the spread of communism very well involving tooth rot.  But essentially the Vietnam war was pretty much a war to make sure that Asia in that area, remained closer to the values of the US, and to prevent the spread of communism.  And they lost once again, in part to a superior force in terms of tactics, but inferior to some degree in technology.  The saddest part of this war is that its veterans were never welcomed home properly, rather they were spit upon and despised by many.

But in a smaller sense, we see this in individuals too.  The Korean Air Lines brat as I will call her, threw a big hissy fit over the fact she was served nuts in a bag, rather than on a plate and made an entire plane turn around and go back to get rid of the Steward.  This is much like a Roman Emperor who wants everything, but then in the end is killed.  And in this case, everyone turned against her and now she is the equivalent of an assassinated Emperor. 

Even in my day to day, I see people who push their views down others' throats, whether it be over policies, points of view or just lack of listening.  And even resort, behind your back, to push their view.  I can respect someone's view, even when disagreeing with them, but when you become a dumbass, that's where I draw the line.

So when I look at society today, I realize we really haven't evolved at all since the days of the Roman Empire and perhaps earlier.  Many people believe in Atlantis in part because it was a society that didn't suffer from such things.  As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, I certainly don't remember seeing stuff like this happening, but then I was more oblivious to it. I don't think having a war to exterminate others because they don't like your points of view is ultimately going to work, quite simply because it never worked for anyone else.  Until society decides to evolve beyond the principles of the past, we shouldn't expect any different from anyone, should we.  And for that to happen, someone, somewhere must take the first step.  But for now, as people are calling for vengeance, perhaps we need to return to the ways of the Romans:  forget vengeance, just wipe them all out like Rome did with Carthage.  I mean, what have you got to lose, this world is still the world of the Romans in many ways.

Not sure we've gotten beyond the third from the right yet......

What things were like when I was a kid...

As we approach Christmas here, I thought I would take some of you youngin's back to what it was like when I was a kind.  Some of you older folk out there will remember some of this.

Snow, we has a shit ton of snow.  It was common that come January or February, we would have snow that was up to the telephone wires, a good 20 feet or so, stacked up along side the road as sniw banks.  Not to mention that the temperature often reached around -17 deg C or lower (we measured in deg F back then) and we bundled up really good.  Making snow forts was no problem, all you needed was a good shovel.  Yup, no building walls up.

School, we had the strap if you were a bad little motherfucker.  Yes, we had whatever the hell punishment that fell under.  And it was a deterrent let me tell you.  Hell, watching your grade 7 teacher throw people into the wall and smashing their heads together kept us in line, not to mention the deafening yelling that went with it.  We failed things, something that taught us we had to get our shit together and we were allowed to fail, hell they took pleasure in it, right on up until the point you showed up in their class next year (happened to a few friends of mine).

On the playground we were allowed to play full contact foot ball, red rover, whatever the hell we wanted until we drew blood, then it became a true sport.  Nothing was too far unless it was a fist fight, which was rare cause of the strap.

Lawn darts, that was a big one we played after school and on weekends, and not the shitty ones we have now.  No, my lawn darts were weighted darts with very sharp points.  The best part of them, is they were weapons, and it separated out the dumb ones from the smart ones very quickly.  Yeah it just did, did it well enough that it is now banned.

The final thing is that we had no political correctness.  None at all.  No one at that time really gave a flying fuck what you said.  It was simply just said.  You went about your business and no one said a word.  And for that matter, it was Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays.

Well that being said, I will leave you this little bit about Christmas, via our friends Matt Parker and Trey Stone:

An introspective to Anthology of the Guardians

Anthology of the Guardians is the second series I am working on, with some new entries in it coming up in the new year.  A closer look at the Anthology of the Guardians is below:

Anthology of the Guardians came out because as I was writing Triumvirate, I began to ask many questions, including were the immortals natural, or part of an experiment, if they were an experiment, what events deep in the past brought about their creation?  And what was the galaxy truly like and why in the time frame of Triumvirate does it seem there are only humans in the galaxy and no other life forms?

In one of the early drafts of Triumvirate, the antagonist was originally a mortal, while Savage was one of the last remaining immortals left alive after a purge that saw the death of many of his kind.  But as time moved on in the drafts, I re-examined the story and saw that too many had been like this:  an invasion from an external foe and someone special was there to stop it.  I took it to the next notch and made the antagonist and his closest advisers exiled immortals, and with that, the Anthology of the Guardians series was born. To this date, only short stories and novellas have been written, but some novels are planned once the Triumvirate Chronicles gets off of my plate.

One of the big pushes for new technology of course is war, most of our modern conveniences we have, such as blue ray players, GPS, cellular phones all came from some sort of military research.  So why not make the origin of this particular generation of Guardians be a war, and that they are created to save humanity.  Now where I perhaps move off in a different direction relative to most authors in this "let's create the ultimate beings" to beat back the enemy, I have chosen not only upstanding citizens for the research, but also individuals who happen to be murderers, rapists; basically the dregs of civilization.

It is through the Anthology of the Guardians that the reader gets to explore a galaxy full of many different civilizations and lifeforms.  And it is this story that gives some of the background to some of my characters in the Triumvirate Chronicles, while others are dealt with in an as of unnamed project looking at the Grand Galactic Empire. 

My books are currently on sale at Lulu and at my Digital Store!!

 

The introspective on my writing....in time for the sale!!!

Well as it is Christmas, if you are wanting to get that really happy person, who is so fucking happy you want to just smack that smile from their face, then may I suggest my dark writings.  Here is the introspective about the Triumvirate Chronicles:

So just what is this book series about???  Well it is best said that it is the end of the story.  I know that kind of sounds like the first 3 Star Wars movies where Lucas gave us the end and had us wondering for close to 20 years what happened to turn Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader and why were the Jedi killed?

Well with respect to this book series, I started at the end because it was where it brought all the key characters together.  And it really wasn't until I was part way through writing that I realized it was the culmination of many stories from the past.

The Triumvirate Chronicles starts during a war that has been ongoing for just over a century.  The Hegemony are invaders from another galaxy who are being manipulated by ancient immortals that were exiled from our galaxy 70 000 years ago.  Standing in their way in one small part of our galaxy is the Territories of the Twenty, an alliance of several worlds, that despite their inferior technology, has survived, in good part because of another immortal, William Savage, who commands part of the their fleet. 

The galaxy portrayed throughout the Triumvirate Chronicles is that of a gritty human dominated one where at the foundation laid for a larger alliance against in the galaxy to stand up to the Hegemony.  But unlike Anthology of the Guardians, the answer to why is this galaxy dominated by humans is not entirely clear, and it isn't until later in the series that the genocide brought down by the immortals against non-humans in the galaxy is truly revealed in not only its true extent, but also the abuses by the immortals sworn to uphold justice.

This series examines through the eyes of many of the immortals the age old question:  does absolute power corrupt absolutely?  There is no true black and white answer for this, but certainly many of the immortals over their long lifetimes all fall from grace at one point or another, and through abuse of their powers, the effects are far flung.  Often there is nothing more separating the  good guys from the bad guys other than their uniforms.  Where many works of fiction would take immortals and imbue them with a god-like essence that they can do no wrong, other than maybe suffer some arrogance, I let my immortals keep their human failings and show how they deal with it. 

Overall I have tried to succeed in writing something a bit different, something more realistic not only in the science behind things, but also in attitudes and perhaps in all this, capture the danger of absolute power given to wrong people even though they may fight on the side of the good guys (and of course that in itself is all subjective). At the same time, in writing the end, it made it much easier to go back and write how this ending all came about.  So I hope that you the reader will take a chance to hop aboard this train shall we say, and see where it goes.

On sale now at my Digital Store or at Lulu!!

Cosplayers and Conventions: The vendors versus the players

Perhaps I am really stepping into it here, but oh well, not the first time.  During the past 6 months I've seen a lot of vendors take to the internet complaining about how shitty sales are at the cons, where not so long ago, you were guaranteed to make your table and then some.  I have seen this myself in the cons I was at this year.

Part of this post was inspired by reading a post on a Cosplayer's facebook and I want to maybe try and put some sense behind it, from both sides.  The author of the article shared was going on about how Cosplayers are ruining conventions for vendors because their sales have gone down.  I too saw this amongst the veterans of the cons I was at.  Here is the thing for me:  we are in tougher financial times, so maybe we need to lower our expectations on sales, but then again, neither should a vendor have to shell out $3000 for table, travel, lodge, food and so on and only make $300 over a four day convention in a major city.  That is bad for the convention all the way around.

I appreciate that the Cosplayers put a lot of time, effort and money into their costumes as they all go way beyond even a fancy halloween costume, but the problem lies in when you go walk around the aisles of vendors, which are often too narrow, people crowd around you and you essentially cause a traffic jam in the aisle.  Potential buyers come around, see the traffic jam, and say fuck it, and move on, all potential sales for those vendors in the aisles now gone as they usually don't come back.  I had the experience of a Cosplayer take up residence across from my booth for 30 minutes, who wouldn't move their ass, and caused such a traffic jam, I had no one at my booth during that time.  How many potential sales did I lose during that time?

As much as the cons are both vendors and Cosplayers, Cosplayers, listen up.  You want to stop being blamed for vendors losing sales, then instead of taking up valuable space in the vendor's area in your costume, you can do 1 of 2 things:  either don't wear your costume when in the vendor's area, or better yet, if you get stuck in front of a booth and are blocking people from getting to vendors, chip in and help the vendor sell for a little bit.  The vendor will be grateful and may just give you something for your troubles.

Keep in mind, it is also the responsibility of the people running the convention to make sure the aisles are wide enough to handle this kind of traffic, that they keep rates reasonable for vendors, and to maybe encourage some of you to go pick a booth you like and help sell stuff.  Rather than work against each other, work together, it is far better.  Some of you may think this is very simplistic, but sometimes it is simplicity that wins the day.

Wish I had a pic there, but nah, not today, so I will leave you with a random video:

You have to be shitting me....and South Park always got it right

So I am willing to bet that if you were to go look at celebrities, there are a lot of assholes.  Over the years, a show near and dear to my heart, cause me and my good friends all watched it together writing up our Master's theses, hell I even put stuff from this show in my defense, was South Park.

There have been a few really good ones during the show; everyone remembers the John Travolta episode and would he please come out of the closet.  I was rolling in the aisles. and despite that Mr. Saturday Night Fever, Vinny Barbarino says he's not gay, well we will leave that with his medichlorians I think.

Of course, the episode where Cartman becomes Hitler and everyone is watching the Passion of the Christ, we see Mel Gibson at his finest.  Many thought, no way he's this crackerjack, but it was only a few years later that we found out South Park was right once again:  Mel Gibson is fucking looney tunes, but then you had to be to make Lethal Weapon 4.\

The one I want to look at it, is good old Number 2, weighing in at close to a 100 courics, was Bono himself.  You see, we all knew he was arrogant, demanding first world countries give up a ton of money to help third world countries, while in these first world countries, people are still starving and homeless and so on, yet he himself lived high on the hog, the money from his tours often being the income for an entire third world country he was trying to help.  He really is a piece of shit as far as I am concerned.  Hell I would pay good money to go to a U2 concert just to start the stadium booing when he goes on his tirade.  His band mates even time him and I'm sure that they are embarrassed by this. 

What is truly mind boggling is this:  Rolling Stone on U2's latest album
I mean what the fuck here, I deleted this piece of shit (came in at 30 courics) from all of my iTunes on all of my devices.  I want to know where the class action lawsuit against this flagrant spam is? I mean everything else ends up in a fucking lawsuit these days, why not this one?????

I personally think that GQ got it right with this article on who are the 30 least influential in 2014.
For once someone got it right.

Yup they got it right.

The news today, or lack of actually reporting the news...

What the hell is up with modern media of late?  Have they forgotten what news actually is?  I used to blame it entirely on the fact that it was a slow news day, but of the past few weeks, if that is the case, then there is simply no news.  Let me show you what I mean.

The Toronto Sun today for headlines, out of the 5 possible that first come up on my page, 2 are on sports (for those that know me, don’t ever get me going on sports, as they are used as a means to distract the populace from the real shit going on out there, and I’m sure modern politicians would say they created this, forgetting this is what the Romans used to do), one is about the Ferguson cop, one is about the new Mayor of Toronto’s team, and the final one about something called Nannyville.   It is the last one that irks me the most cause it uses up one of the free views you can have on the Toronto Sun for the month.  I read this last one, I can’t even find a story in there other than it was a bunch of whining.  If this wasn’t a veteran reporter, I’d bet you this guy would never get a job.  Of course go down the page, and you find that the next 6 stories, 4 are of sports and 2 are of something about some supposed celebrities (at the bottom of the page is the big story about Mel B having a girlfriend, who the fuck cares, it’s not like she’s going to be in your house giving you a sex show with this girlfriend, not that you want to see Mel B naked).  There are other Toronto newspapers, but they aren’t any better really, the Toronto Star being no more than a glorified gossip rag, leaving the Globe and Mail to pick up the pieces.

CNN is fun, because they don’t hide what they’re doing.  The amount of time they spent on the missing Malaysian Plane while Obama was doing his thing out of the scene was hilarious.  They were taking up hours of media time, especially on TV, moving around Tony Bourdain’s new show such that I have no idea where it is on anymore.  All for a missing plane.  The fun part I found was that during the tragic shooting up in Ottawa, a US newspaper ran an article, saying how things were so much different in Canadian media.  The big point of the story was how the media interrupted shows on TV, but for only as long as it took to report, do a live update, and then off the TV and back to the regularly scheduled programming.  If that were CNN, fuck they would run for 9 months on this.  I blame part of it on Ronald Regan and who he would do a press conference for hours at a time.  The Gipper just loved being on TV (many of you will probably do not know of the Spitting Image TV show of the 80s where Ronny almost started a nuclear war by ordering a pizza).  Just to be fair, the big stories shown on CNN at 5:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, is one about 4000 flight delays, a really newsworthy piece, but right below is an article about racism and Star Wars, all about, god forbid, the black storm trooper.  As one blogger and fellow writer I read has stated about the new Star Wars trailer, guess they’re not using clones.  And of course, look at the editor’s choices – Ferguson, Football Player dies, Chernobyl (WTF?), FIFA corruption (get used to it, all sports are crooked), Muscle Village, Janay Rice (Who the Fuck is this, and yes Fuck gets capitalized here), the black Storm Trooper (cause we all know Star Wars is real, people get a life!!) and CNN Heroes (not even going to open that one, just can’t do it, nope, too much ammo).  How many of those are useful?  Ferguson, yes, given all the stuff that went down, Chernobyl (must be talking about the Bermuda Triangle gate over it, oh wait that is the book I’m reading, sorry).  Once again more useless news.  I wonder how Emperor Palpatine dealt with racism?  I’d say we ask, but once again, get a life people.

This is why I tune into the Australian News.  They tend to get things right, with the Australian flavor that goes with it, and don’t forget, they live in the future.  With stories such as reporting that People Magazine killed off Kirk Douglas, the stupidest headline ever concerning Australia’s royalty, the Irwins, the best free stuff on the internet, something about Freddie Prinz Jr., a hotel you can stay at for $9200 per night off the coast of England, the black storm trooper (this is going to be a meme), Mel B is a lesbian, and of course, what celebrity just got naked.  The neighbors from hell story, yeah worth it. 

So are we going to see a return to actual news stories in the media?  Not likely.  Our world leaders want to keep us all distracted from what is going on out there.  Only you, and I mean you, can prevent this.  Time to turn off CNN, time to let your rabbit shit, piss and shred those newspapers.  Get rid of your internet newspapers.  Why waste money when you will never get the truth.

As for the black storm trooper, apparently people are up in arms over the fact that the storm troopers are not clones anymore.  Well what do you expect, there is fifty years at least between Star Wars 2 and 7, get a life people.

And of course, because I can....