Mindblogling!

I wrote this little thing for my Alice and her cat comic over at CoatedinSugar but it was a decent enough post that I think I’ll post some of it here to since its blog-ish and a rant I have for awhile about Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

The post would look something like this:

DESTROY THEM!

Theres no real reason I choose this little beauty as the first one but I actually like this one. If you haven’t figured it out its a picture from Alice of Alice in Wonderland. I have not read this book yet but I can imagine its quite a read.

If you want to check it out heres a new trailer for the (monotone voice) new movie Disney is doing. … Who else but Tim Burton would be doing this movie? He’s weird and does some good movies sometimes but man some of his stuff is crap too. Why’s everyone go nuts for this guy? Like he’s the king of goth… eh…

I’m revising this post after watching that video again. I have no real big beef with Tim Burton but honestly I’m actually sick of the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp duo. I don’t know if I’m just sick of Johnny Depp, who I do like as an actor and like most of his movies, but I think I’m just sick of him getting all the big name parts in Burton movies. Sure the team works good together but man, how about a little freakin variety Burton?

The only thing I really look forward to of Burtons is a movie called “Nine” and heres the trailer.

I look forward to this because its actually original(as far as I know) and its not a remake or a rehash of some old story thats already been done. It doesn’t have Johnny Depp, it has Crispin Glover. Its directed by the guy that did WANTED, which I liked quite a bit. Maybe its the actionesque of the trailer but it looks good to me and I expect to be partially let down because trailers are deceiving but we shall see.

The main excuse I’ll use for saying I haven’t posted is because I’ve been setting up my comic site over at CoatedinSugar.com and been working at getting that place nailed down so all I have to do is just upload “comics.”

Personally I think its about as good as its going to get. There are only minor little theme tweaks to do anymore which I may or may not do. In the past I’ve run into that if I play with something to long I usually end up breaking it so I might just let it do and call it good.

This is a bit of the pretty great stuff you’ll see over there. Since I don’t have much up yet I don’t have much for examples but heres one.

Dear God!

Theres some other crap at CoatedinSugar.com you might find interesting but most likely not.

I gotta get back to other stuff now.

Just what was in my wallet.

I got to thinking today like usually happens once a day. What do you do with the resources you have on hand or have coming in? Prime example being money, so what do you do with your money? I’ve had this thought for awhile but never really gave much brain power to really thinking much about it because its just something I’m, personally, always aware about but I got to thinking about other people I know and how they handle said subject also.

Now I’m not going off and claiming I’m the best financial expert out there because obviously I’m not but I know I am or can be extremely cheap bastard who usually likes sitting on his giant mound of gold coins he has locked in a hidey hole under his bedroom. I have spent a fair amount on shit I don’t really need or use and when it comes christmas time I do ask for things I think I’d use and things I do want but I’ll be honest that I usually end up not using them as much as I think I would.

I do sometimes from time to time look at the crap other people buythough and see some of the stuff that I have laying around and some stuff some of my family has laying around and I wonder why. Why have it? Why keep it? I’m one of those guys that has the very strict opinion that if you haven’t touched it, used it, looked at it, wore it, read it in the past year it might be time to think about pitching it, unless of course you are actually a collector of side items. I collect books, or used to, so I am granted that luxury of having a lot of books around that I don’t read but want to, as long as I don’t go over board.

In my personal opinion I think everyone could use a de-cluttering every few years. The way I would go about this is take stuff you haven’t used for a year, throw it all into one area. After another 6 months to a year has passed and stull haven’t used it, pitch it. No questions, no excuses. You haven’t touched the stuff in 1.5 years why would you need it?

This was in my closet. Finally got a use for the damn thing now. Guess I'll put it back after this picture.

Now the thing that gets me most, being the cheap bastard I am, is what people do spend their money on. I’m no exception but people seem to buy a lot of novelty stuff. I don’t have a lot of resources coming in so I don’t spend really anything on myself anymore because what I do have is in my eyes already allocated for something more important then ’stuff.’ In these times of economic down turn though its still amazing to me to see all the cars parked in dine in restaurants that have rising bills. The family and I have ate out and generally it costs around $40 for a full meal plus tip. Now, just mentally dissect what that $40 bought you compared to what you can buy at a grocery store with that amount. Sure you don’t get the pleasure of going out but with the same token its like going out for a night of drinking and buying drinks when you could save god knows how much by just inviting people over and buying your own booze. I haven’t been drinking lately but they weren’t cheap for a watered down morgan/coke, which was my specialty, back then.

No I didn't play whatever game this picture is from. The game I played is MUCH cooler then whatever the hell is going on here...

The big thing I’ve wasted money on was actually an online game that I used to play and actually I have an post I plan on written about the huge life and soul sucking that game does to lives or at least to people with a slightly addictive personality. I think I paid like $15 a month for it and when you look at it like that you think, “yeah sure, its only McD’s a couple times a month I can swing cutting 2 McD trips out.” What you don’t figure is the hours and hour and hours you spend on there and all for what point because when it gets down to end game, theres nothing there to actually do. Sure, $15 a month isn’t overall that much, but when you can plug years of your life away into it and when the game becomes outdated and the servers are shutdown you have absolutely nothing to show for the time and money spent but memories of a, basically, fictitious life.

This same idea can just be applied to all aspects of all resources coming into your household. I’m just saying take a step back and go third personal on yourself. Look at what you spend your resources on. Are what you are doing now going to be making your life better in the long run? Do you, or anyone really, need are the stuff you have?

Think for a bit about the pioneers and the pilgrims of the day when Americas were being explored. People for the longest time got by with not tv, no computers, no driving around all night loking for something to do. They had their instruments, livestock and families to occupy their time, not to mention hunting and fishing and just being outdoors and doing handsy things.

Now your probably saying well thats all great talk and big ideas coming from the guy writing this from his computer onto a blog on the internet that no one even reads. Well all I got to say to that is the fuck if I’m giving up my computer and my internet! Nah, actually I would if the world would too. I really don’t think I’d miss computers all that much. They do leave a lot of convenience but they’ve taken a lot from society too. Also I’m actually posting this and anything else I write just because its something on my mind and I want to have a clear mind when I goto bed so I don’t have troubled and stressed dreams about weird stuff like grinding axes and chasing cars or being in a store when two rival ninja gangs come in and cause trouble then I have to join a ninja gang to infiltrate the rival to get bck what is mine and win the girl but being woke up half way because I just don’t sleep that well enough to stay asleep.

…. So yeah, just think about it.

Back in my early twenties I never really embraced the side of the person that I’ve basically turned into now. I almost fought it because I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that person but I always knew I had a little geek in me. I never really realized how much until about 4 some years ago.

So about 4 years ago when I realized what I was becoming I started to question myself… Was I a nerd or was I a geek? Because, internally, I knew the words meant different things. To the laymen geek and nerd are interchangeable but I believe to those of us that truly are on the inside of that know that there is a difference. I’ve been called nerd, geek and dork. I choose to leave dork out because I feel a “dork” is a nerdy/geeky joker. IE; dorky jokes.

Anyways, I used to consider myself more of a geek then anything. Why? I’m not exactly sure why but I felt the nerd class wasn’t for me. I felt they dealt in computers and went to conventions and had clubs they went to. I didn’t feel geeks did that. As the years went on I put the thought in the back of my mind for later ponderence. Its always been there though… What am I, a geek or a nerd?

Over the years times have changed since I was in high school and high school years and labels have been forgotten and less cared about. Its more or less accepted to be a geek or nerd these days and in some cases its even “in” to be one. Not because of but since this has happened and I’ve become there are a lot more of “us” out there I’ve more embraced that side. So that question came up again a few months ago, am I more of a geek or a nerd?

I figured I’d look into this. Visit some places and do a little reading(is that the ipitime of nerd to do a search on what a nerd is?), of course my first stop is at Wikipedias nerd article. I went there to originally compare the differences between nerd, geek and see what it had to saw about dork. Well I got exactly what I was looking for at the nerd article. I suggest you take a read on it, but I’ll steal the text I’m talking about. The following is from Wikipedias Nerd article on the differences between nerd and geek.

“Pundits and observers dispute the relationship of the terms nerd and geek to one another. Some view the geek as a less technically skilled nerd. Some factions maintain that nerds have both technical skills and social competence, whereas geeks display technical skills while socially incompetent; others hold an exactly reversed view, with geek serving as the socially competent counterpart of the socially incompetent nerd, and call themselves geeks with pride (compare Geekcorps, an organization that sends people with technical skills to developing countries to assist in computer infrastructure development). Another view is that geeks lack both social competency and technical skills. Arguably, a nerd is a more self-controlled sort of person, while a geek can be something of a loose cannonor at least more awkward in an obstructive way than a nerd.
Some regional differences may exist in the use of the words nerd and geek. Some claim that on the North American west coast the population prefers the term geek to nerd, while the North American east coast prefers the word nerd to geek (see Ellen Spertus’s page on The Sexiest Geek Alive).
The term “nerd” is broader in its significance than “geek”, defining a person’s entire way of life. A nerd has the tendency to pursue intellectual gratification at the expense of social or physical gratification. A geek, on the other hand, simply has an interest in a particular subject. This subject could be intellectual, such as the arts, theatre, classical music, technology, or mathematics, or it could be something less generally “useful”, such as movies, television, video games, anime, or even sports. Such a person may be perfectly well-rounded, merely showing a preference for his desired subject of interest. A nerd, on the other hand, is by definition not well-rounded. Thus the term “geek” should not generally be used or taken as an insult, while “nerd” might be in some cases (but certainly not all).
Similar terms exist which are always insulting; dork, dweeb, goon, and doofus are a few examples. Anorak is a similar British term. These terms imply the lack of social skill suggested by the term “nerd”, but imply none of the mitigating intellectual factors.
The word “nerd” refers to a person of “above-average intelligence” whose interests (often in science and mathematics) are not shared by mainstream society. By contrast, a “geek” is essentially a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination. A good example of this is found in an episode of the television show, “Married with Children.” The protagonist Al Bundy complains about wearing glasses, saying he’ll look like a nerd. His friend, Jefferson Darcy responds, “No Al you won’t be a nerd. You’re too dumb to be a nerd”
Thus a “nerd” is primarily marked as having a high intelligence and is not necessarily more fascinated with one subject any more so than another. A “geek”, however, is obsessively fascinated with particular subjects, but is not necessarily attributed an above average intelligence. Thus a “geek” has the compulsion and drive to learn vast quantities of knowledge about a particular field such as computers, or Star Trek trivia, without high intelligence being assumed. Some also hold that the reverse is true, geeks being those with high intelligence, and nerds being those who obsess over obscure subjects. More than likely, the main confusion between the terms comes from their common association with specific areas of knowledge that seem to require a high level intelligence (for example, mathematics and science). Thus a “geek” who was obsessed by the pursuit of mathematical or scientific knowledge, might also be classified as a “nerd” as society considers such pursuits to be intellectual in nature and as requiring high intelligence.”
Now.. I’ve also noticed a trend of things using the term geek, such as Geek Squad and Rent-a-Geek. I don’t want to assosciate myself with such corporate terminology as that, especially Geek Squad, double especially since they sold out to Best Buy and WAY overcharge for the simplest things like installing a hard drive or even “PC tune-ups.” I don’t believe in that BS.
So taking all of these things into consideration and my own questioning coming up again I would like to hereby announce that I feel I am, in fact a nerd. I prefer the term also for several reasons, one being someone calls me nerd and thinks nerds are hot and another reason nerd just sounds cooler then geek because geek just sounds.. awkward.
So I just thought I would share that revelation with anyone willing to read it. I wish you all a good day/night and that you live long and prosper.