My rant about the airlines,

OK so I fly a lot for work and from I can tell they pay a fair price for those tickets. We all know about the bag fees, the pay to eat boxes, the cut back on anything remotely connected with "SERVICE". At this point the airlines are flying Greyhound buses and if that is what is going to be fine but don't sell me on the experience of the the journey, if that journey takes place on a Spartan plane without food and comfort. I am calling BULLSHIT.

I am talking to you here UNITED, you play Gershwin to make me feel like I am being whisked away on your plane into a wonderful experience, this is not the reality. I understand that the industry is in trouble but from what I can see, the airlines are taking it out on the customers vs real belt tightening. Do their CEO's take pay freezes or cuts in their "benefits", doubtful. But here we are paying for bags, WHO THE HELL TAKES A TRIP AND DOESN'T NEED A BAG. THAT IS THE SERVICE YOU GIVE!!!!

I blame the English "fluids plot" to blow up planes for the bags issue. Once the FAA regulated we couldn't easily carry our liquids on a plane in our carry-on bags, we started checking our bags in massive numbers. This put pressure on the baggage handlers because now they have, lets call it 1/3 as many bags as before. And if I know corporations they didn't want to pay for overtime and extra bag workers so they are pushing the mess onto the customers with "bag fees". one), in a hope to discourage people from checking bags that they don't have the man power to process, two) to create a new source of revenue, and three), maybe the bags not packed can save on the gas bill per flight by not having as much weight on the planes.

Any way you look at it the we are in the "Aluminum age" of air travel that is locked down, full of hidden or new fees, and offers limited service, I didn't even get into my hatred of the term "on-time departure". In summation if it weren't a federal regulation they would probably try to cut out all the flight attendants, works for Greyhound why not American, Delta, and the rest.

rant over.....

Am I the only one that sees this?

So I'm watching the Lady Gaga video "just dance" and I realize. This is the morning after to the Fiona Apple "criminal" video. The visual is full of the same influence and setting choices, the tones couldn't be more different but i'm sayen.... Am I the only one?

http://www.mtv.com/videos/fiona-apple/7925/criminal.jhtml#artist=1034

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Abk1jAONjw

Let me know..

Jake Parker, Inspiration

http://agent44.com/blog2/?p=672

AWESOME, I love what this guy is doing.  He spent everyday in "Ink-tober" doing a image a ink image each day, then he took them and made a book.  Awesome! On top of that everyone that bought one of his books he is dropping in another small original inked piece.  

ART DOESN'T NEED TO BE HARD OR INVOLVE LARGE PUBLISHING PLANS.  Find people that like your stuff, continue to do good work and you have a built a audience for years.

His site info:www.agent44.com/illustration/index.html

Annika 1 today

Our little Annika turned one today.  The pic is from the "little" days. She is everything and more than we expected and she has made me a much more in tuned human.  I look forward to blow out birthday parties in the future but today I just want to sit in the living room and play "books" with my girl.

Happy Birthday baby KIKI

Wow, Having kids really makes you lose your mind.

Sorry for lack of posts.  More to come.

I can't support spoiled brats!

I just deleted all 5 of my Kanye songs from iTunes.  

As a new father thinking about how I am going to raise my daughter I am going to start by supporting positivity and imaginative work and not those of a spoiled brat that clearly has ego issues.  

I know I am not Kanye's main demo and it won't hurt him one bit that I deleted about $4.99 worth of songs from my iTunes, but after years of watching him act like a child I am going to treat him like one and put him in the corner.

For the record I could give a crap about Taylor Swift but what Kanye did was asinine.

Enjoy your Henny man your show may almost over...

Sci-Fi / SyFy

Ok so I'm not the biggest Sci-fi channel fan these days but i have always appreciated that there IS a Sci-fi channel.  When I was a kid and this wasn't all that long ago, being a sci-fi fan was the cornerstone in your Nerd palace.  So when the Sci-Fi channel came out in the 90's I was a fan.  But this isn't the first change for the channel. There have been many changes over the years, do you remember that Harlan Ellison had a show, where he could rant about all things scholarly and nerdy.  Well Sci-Fi channel has changed again.  I just hope that they don't wash ALL the neediness out, in favor of some Smallville type teen hype network, we have enough.  Keep playing tremors and Dune, and scary animal du jour movies and while your at it, a Friday night Godzilla feature wouldn't be all that bad either.

Candid WEIRD AL with the Archers

Another nice guy the wife and I met at Botcon this year.  The voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen is in the background in this photo too.  Geekdom celebrity crossroads

Awesome treat

My wife and I were very fortunate to be in a position to spend some time this weekend with one of my favorite Creators and Directors, Guillermo del Toro .  He was a wonderful man and I very much enjoyed talking monsters, and the creative process with him.  Like the rest of us I cannot wait to see his vision for the Hobbit for now my Hellboy movies will have to do.  

So I watched the Watchmen

Visually I loved it, tonally i liked the dark vision of the end of the world with a slow pace. I am glad i waited for the hype to go down and view it with a clear head.  verdict I liked it, but i didn't worship the comic so I could be open to it as it was presented.

It might not have the been the second coming like people wanted it to be but i am worry at times in our jaded world,  will any movie ever be? but i am going to keep believing that THE HOBBIT is our next best hope.

Another long week ahead

One word BOTCON....maybe that isn't a word exactly.

  I am looking forward to seeing all my friends and see the excitement going on with Transformers.

My Life

I am working while everyone else gets to just sit back and enjoy the movie.

Ok can hope be restored?

After the Watchmen fizzle (good direction, blagh impact), I am thinking another childhood favorite can be born anew.  Star Trek is around the corner and I love every second of the trailers I have seen.  It just looks cool!

AKRON ZIPS going to the tourney

For what it is worth I went to the University of Akron, in Ohio, It is a large mostly commuter state school. 

One thing that Akron rarely sees is TV coverage on a national level, so I am very excited to see that the Zips are in the NCAA men's basketball tourney this year.  congrats on their MAC conference  win and good luck Thursday or Friday fellas.

Check out more of my art...

http://archermonster.deviantart.com/

Today was a good day....

I was cleaning my office today, I needed to purge some boxes and go through the pre-holiday pile of papers, comics, and toys.  As I was moving stuff around I stopped and really looked and some of the wonderful things I have around my office, the coolest being original GI Joe art from the 80's.  Seriously the best part of my job is being surrounded by parts of my childhood.  There is no way I would have imagined as a kid that the Storm shadow package art would be hanging in my office one day along side Destro, and Mindbender.....and that they would BE IN THE WAY  of me cleaning my office.  Anyway, I appreciate the place I am at, and that is a good day.

Guitar Hero 3: EASY ROCK GOD!

OK so I am like 4 years behind the times but Since Thanksgiving Jess and I have been playing GH3 for Wii.  Now let me say that we play for fun, so that means we play on EASY.  But after sporadic playing for a month (remember we have a newborn) we have finally beat all the levels.  

Now I don't care what anybody says when the final boss comes out and it's the Devil (Lou) and you have to play "the devil came down to Georgia" it is cool.  And even though it is on easy, beating the devil is very satisfying.  

So from here on out I can claim to be a "Easy Rock God" and Beer pong champion and no body can take that away! 

Annika Pictures

I haven't posted pics of Annika mostly because Jess has posted all the pics I would have, so if you haven't seen the kid yet here is a link.

Http://jessicabeagan.blogspot.com/

Inspiration process

Ok, so i've haven't been bloggen because i've been busy with holidays, and a new kid laying around. But i have a new project.  I am going to dissect my artistic inspirations.  I've been hit over the head a few times lately by art from my youth.  So I thought I would share...  Stay tuned

Super daddy to anchor

Well we were doing great for the first 4 days having Annika home and then I  caught a bug that has KNOCKED me out.  so between the kid and being sick i have fallen off the Blog scene, sorry folks.  You should see more very soon.

AA

Blurry image of the little girl

All she does is sleep...

Celebrity Rehab

Is it wrong to be addicted to Celebrity Rehab, a show about beating addictions?

CLOAK GUY 4

Transformer bed

So I stayed the night in the Hospital Weds night before the festivities started.  My sleeping option was upright in a chair or this.... The Nemschoff  (Awesome transforming bed).  Not the most comfortable thing but very intriguing  to see transforming furniture.

Mom and Dad

The Happy Parents

Baby pics will come soon....