Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What I try to do during my spare time...

There's nothing wrong with having a little 'me time' now and again, it's just that me time is usually I don't get that much.  I'm not complaining of such, the me time I sacrifice goes directly to my family and I love every minute of it, it's just that the little me time I try to take on I can't get my mind wrapped up to all that I want to do.  One of those things is drawing, well, sketching is what I like to call it.  It's not the text book form of the word, but that's what I've been calling my visual art work for however long I've been doing it.  I love drawing in comic book style art and well, to get good at it no doubt takes time and to keep consistent at it after you're good takes longer if you want to crank out stuff on a regular basis.  That was well good and all as a younger version of me that had nothing but time to waste but now, time is such a precious commodity that what I can do I try to maximize on it.




I was working on this last sketch for the past 3 weeks, give or take.  On and off for about 20 minutes at a time.  Normally since I consider myself an amatur, I see as this should've took me about an hour and a half (well, probably another 45 more after adding in color) to present a finished product.  This being one of my signature characters that I've created back in 1996.  A character I named Marksman, is supposed to be like part Batman, part Iron Man, part a whole bunch of other elements, but that means going into the story line more.  








I was really into illustration back then prior to when I started playing bass and writing lyrics.  I wanted to try to get something started with story line and all.  The basic premise of it was that this guy was head of some type of weapons and arms manufacturer that was contracted by the government to make some kind of super armor for black ops solders in their missions.  When terrorists had wind of the super armor, they were plotting to use it for their own vendetta to cause chaos.  The owner of the arms manufacturer then used himself as a test guinea pig for the armor, the plans were destroyed and the only existing suit is what he and he alone can use because it was they were assigned to their users based off of their DNA.  Thus, he started wearing it and became a sentential for his company providing protection and being leased by the government for extreme missions and such.







All in all, I expanded the story line with lots of twists and turns and had planned about 75 issues for the hero and even 6 special double issues that were annuals and followed up the storyline for the next year.  It was pretty awesome, and the only bad thing about all this is I lost the storywork for all of those issues.  It was about a decade ago and I was devistated.  I still have all of the original art for the concepts of all the important characters involved in the 75 issues (which I'm lucky to have kept.)  I've even tried to recreate the story line but I know that it wouldn't have had the same intensity as when it was first penned.  But I do plan on resurecting the title and making some of it.  But as for now, I'll continue sketching and producing fine art like this...





Hope you enjoy the creative process and the fine work of it all.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...


Oh, and BTW, Happy Thanksgiving and have a safe and happy holiday season...  Just in case I fail to post prior to my Year in Review message...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Death to Radio Disney (and others like it)

Just a heads up for those whom stumble upon this...

I started writing this post a little over a year or so ago (around September of '09) due to all of the bubblegum pop crap I was cursed to hear while babysitting a friend of mine's daughter. (Wow, September of '09, that was a long time passed.) She was an excellent play date companion for my two older boys, but since the kid moved on and my angst for aural injustice was quenched. But I started to think how come I never posted it until now. I still dislike it (the music not the kid.) And in fact since I began writing the bulk of the post; I've seem to have found more offenders to add on. I'll try not to amend most of my feelings but I do want to add on to my argument to us parents (yes, believe it or not as immature as I act, I do have parental duties to my boys) we shouldn't be dumbed down to subject ourselves to this. We should demand respect back to our ears and put on something more structured; like the sound of a live lobster squealing as you drop it into a vat of boiling water. Hell, that sounds a whole lot better that the stuff I'm going to report on. (Which reminds me, why did I put myself through all this torture?!?)

One more thing, I tried not to edit my original thoughts on this too much to keep to my emotions which I still stand on in this matter the same as when I first scripted it.

I like music, 'nuff said. Actually let me rephrase to say that I like GOOD MUSIC. The kind of stuff that either moves you to be with your girl (or guy depending on your preference), start a riot, or just vent over the BS that is well, anything. Music has to be in my opinion raw and to the grit of the subject matter that it's trying to impose. But there's some that fall so far from that bar that it's nowhere to be found. That music in my opinion is the bubblegum-pop tripe that is outfitted by Radio Disney and all other imitators of the sort. (More on the imitators later.)

Why do I hate on Radio Disney, why the hell not. It's crap. It's crap beyond crap. It's the type of crap that if dog crap was able to walk, that it would be the crap that dog crap would step on by accident. Oh yes, that bad; and it's not to say that I'm closed minded. I like all kinds of music from rock to country to rap (especially old school rap) to oldies to classical to even some bluegrass. But the vile act of ear rape that is Radio Disney is beyond help. It's that bad, and I would stand for it. I despise Radio Disney and it's clones with the fiery passion of a thousand George Foreman grills. It should be banished from all existence, and here are some reasons why.

I like to draw your attention to public radio menace number 1: Miley Cyrus. This, has to be the worst solo offender of aural carnage since Roseanne sang the National Anthem back in the 90's. This death siren which is the offspring of country star of the late 80's/early 90's Billy Ray Cyrus leads us to the belief that talent really does skip a generation. It's bland Mickey Mouse (no pun intended) messages of the trials of being a tween and being hip to the standards of a John Hughes movie of what cool kids are presented in an ear splitting yelp that we can only wish that dogs could hear. I rather put a Skil Saw to my inner ear than listen to the crap that is being sung by what could possibly be the fourth Chippette from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Public radio menace number 2: The Jonas Brothers. They say that celebrity deaths always come in threes. Apparently this trio killed all of our perceptions of what good music and celebrity stardom can provide. It's like if they dressed a bunch of whiny little tarts in oxford dress shirts and pleated khakis, gave them a couple of Les Pauls and told them to pretend to play while the producer dubbed over their PA system with people that can actually play their instruments. Essentially it's this generations Milli Vanilli but crappier. And trust me, I tried to find something nice to say about them, but there's nothing and I mean nothing but pure unadulterated lame that is emitted from these prepubescent dorks.

Pubilc radio menace number 3: ANYTHING FROM THE KIDZ BOP KIDS!!! What in the record producers right mind would think that this was a good idea. Don't they know that just because they can attempt to sing already ear-splitting pop songs in an even more annoying vocal concession is just like putting the Chipmunks balls (if they had any) into a blender on frappe. And I know that this is the second Chipmunk reference in this post but they were the kids crap of the eighties and this is the kids crap of this decade. (Heck, while we're at it, outside of The Christmas Song from the 60's, we'll throw in the original old school Chipmunks as well.) Why must we suffer from this form of inhumane cruelty by having our kids blast this from their Hello Kitty boomboxes in their room and tyrade in what they call dancing is beyond my realm of understanding. Why is this being put up with, who the hell knows. But I know that I'm done with that.

And this is just the top three offenders. I haven't even cashed into the High School Musical songs or Kelly Clarkson music or any of that crap. I tread not to because I would like to keep my sanity after writing this post. And that's just Disney I'm talking about here. Hell, Nickelodeon is doing this now too since I started writing this post and forgotten about it about a year back. They have Miranda Cosgrove (who doesn't really sound that bad but it's the content matter that counts on this one), Big Time Rush (their N'Sync's to Disney's Jonas Bros. being their Backstreet Boys), and any other child actor they have in their arsenal that could remotely carry a melodic tune if I so dare would call it that. This is just the peak of the iceberg of buffalo dung that is Radio Disney (and others like it), and I want out. It's mind-numbing, brain-draining, sub par manufactured crap that is being forced fed to our youth because we use it as a babysitter instead of teaching them some good music, or hell, even spending time with our kids. Now there's a novel concept. Doubt that's gonna happen to our youth anytime soon, but hey, it's just a thought...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s. If you didn't realize it by now, my afterthoughts were written in this font style outside of the couple of sentences about Nickelodeon's bandwagon of a fail they could (and would) call vocalists. I kept those as is because that was indeed a continuation of my original thought.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

WTF PEOPLE!?! Tech support

I can't really complain about this, since I've been on both sides of the tech support chain. Trust me it's a fickle mistress for those that call and those who receive. And I would like to bring up the different genres of both the helper and the helped that makes up the majority of such. Wha, you thought that this was a going to be a serious post?!? Listen, just cause I've taken a little time off between posts and I've been on a serious kick for most of my recent posts, so I decided to just let this one rip. I've been long overdue for a WTF PEOPLE!?! for a good while now. So let's get'r dun and have some fun on this one...

Let me start with the funnier of the two. The people that call in for help or even worse brave enough to meet with the diabolical supernerds to help them with whatever. Oh how I can so poke fun at this. Recently a coworker had shown me this site, The Oatmeal, it opened my eyes to what I wanted to WTF about for a good while. And the sad thing is, most of this stuff is right on point. It's almost like it seems that to the tech support person on the receiving end's brain is imploding in front of their client with their queries. Most of which are reasonable because they either are 1) sincerely too daft to perform such tasks themselves without any help or 2) to lazy to RTFM!!! That's the good kind of customers. Need some help and can normally be coached to do the right thing or at least figure out where they can research where to do the right thing. Than they're the ones that wants you to not only wants you to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but out of my ass and their asses as well. The ones that think that we (the technical support help community) are magical techno-genies that within a blink of an eye not only fix their issue but make their computer faster, turn into a transformer, and cure cancer while making sure their email will never stop working; ever! The kind of people that knows that such and such are impossible but we try and tell them time and time again that no those files can not perform that action or no it does not double as a cup holder. And then there are also the ones that think they know everything (like me at times and yes I'm playing the humility card here) and totally get owned by the one that is helping them either by proving that it was something done that was their fault or using the prescribed methods of troubleshooting after they failed to RTFM and it worked. Those kind are a special breed...

I mean I could go on and on about the side on the phone needing help; but alas, we to as the tech supporters have our own idioms that makes us flawed. Oh and in case you haven't figured it out by now, I do tech support as a nine to five; but I don't let it try to drag me into the stereotypical realm of other technical support reps that I've experienced (or at least I try to rise above that for my own right.) They are the condescending ones that try to talk as if you're tree and a haff years old wishing that you just follow their script to do this, this, this, and not that to end as quickly as possible. Those guys are epic wastes of space and they can kiss my Sasquatch-hairy ass for all I care. (Seriously I could go for a mani-pedi-glutious maxi if there was such a thing. But that's probably TMI.) Than they're those who just read off of a friggin' script, and I mean it's so bad that my seven-year-old did a better job at our church's Christmas concert last year making it more believable than these tools did over the phones. Also the outsourcing, dear Lord the outsourcing. Hence why people (like me) try to fix it ourselves most of the time unless we know we have no choice and it needs to be done on their end, my ISP for example when they were experiencing droppage of connection. I'm so friggin' done with calling Abu-Dabi that I'm ready to go out to the junction box and clear the issue my own damn self the next time it happens. But then there are those that honest, earnestly do care about their client's issues (like me, not really tooting my own horn but I do at my nine to five.) They go the extra mile to make sure that the clients truly understood what happened and even help them to be more proactive on the whatever it was about. And it's sad to say that in the industry in a whole, that's a minority. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it doesn't happen enough. Oh, and I almost forgot about bot-techs. They're the worst. I don't want some stupid bot telling me what's wrong even after I'd RTFM and it's still not working. The bot isn't going to fix the problem. I rather have all bots eliminated and replaced by a pop-up to the help article that I'm at that will answer my question. Or at least make the bots more human like and type out snarky comments like 'is your son/daughter here to help you' or 'it seems to me that it's a PIBKAC error.' That'll at least give me a chuckle or something rather than a "WTF is that BS?!?"

If we improve our techs supporting our clients, than we won't have as many people knowing that their computer is not a Deloran and trying to find the flux capacitor and suping up their power source to 1.21 gigawatts will fix the issue. But then again, the flip side of things is that those clients that can't seem to find the Any Key will keep nerds like me employed for a long, long time. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...