Final Hurricane Thought

She came and went and we got off relatively easy here just south of Boston. I always find it interesting how large scale climate events like this force us to show our hands of the type of person we are. Here are some "types" I've identified:


The super-prepared - these people have stocked up on water, batteries and gasoline generators if they did already own one. These are also the people who tend to shutter themselves into their houses and leave the news on TV to follow every inch of the hurricane's progress. These people are also likely to have CB or ham radios constantly dialed into the police band or neighborhood crime reports even when there isn't a natural disaster. These people own guns. Under non-emergency situations they may seem a bit crazy but they will survive the zombie apocalypse.

The casually cautious - these people will go out and feel compelled to at least do something to prepare. Maybe buy an extra pack of batteries. Maybe buy an extra box on donuts. I totally fall into this category. We care about what's going on but aren't so wrapped up in it to let it alarm us, for better or for worse. We'll even go so far as make light-hearted comments online while privately hoping a tree doesn't fall through the roof.


The non-chalant observer - these people are aware that something is happening but barely. They don't care about the news reports. These are the people who show up at the train station only to find a sign saying the trains aren't running despite numerous on-air and online warnings. The storm is more of a nuisance than anything else. These people might not own a flashlight at all.


The moron - these people are fully aware of what's coming but decide to take advantage of it and somehow make it work for them. These are the people who wander down to the beach to watch the tides and storm pull in. These people like to water ski behind pick-up trucks and flash TV news crews (NSFW).

Accept Your Gender Role

Hands off my comics!

It seems I forgot to post my strip last Sunday. Funny that it's kind of appropriate that the strip is about comics since I'm headed down to ComiCONN in Stamford, CT tomorrow morning. I'll be there all day unless of course hurricane Irene decides to show up a little early. If you're in the neighborhood come by and say hi!

2012 Election

Normally I would wait until Sunday to post this but in light of last night's Republican Presidential Debate...

The Apple generation

It's no secret I'm a big fan of Apple products. I'm amazed at the array of Apple products at our house. I know there are plenty of PC based fans out there but for my money, Apple is the way to go. Even after hearing about how Apple Powerbook batteries can be hacked to potentially explode.

Things I witnessed at Dunkin' Donuts

Pretty much every morning I grab an iced coffee from Dunkies and there's almost always an unusual experience.

This morning I held the door for a lady with a baby carriage and let her in front of me on line. She looked like she wasn't focusing on this plane of existence. She went up to the counter and ordered a large, iced caramel coffee with ten Splendas. TEN SPLENDAS!!! Now, I'm no doctor but that doesn't seem to be a good idea. Especially if she's breastfeeding. With all that sweetener I wonder if it comes out as ice cream.

My country is better than your country

No doubt there are a lot of things going wrong right now but I'm always amazed at how people snap at the notion of adopting the policies of another country or comparisons to them. Even more amazed when people say it with such disgust on TV, especially about some of our closer allies. "You don't want to be like Canada, do you?"

C-SPAN, the original reality TV network

I had to work from home today but one of the advantages to that is I can have the TV on in the background and listen to the news without clogging my bandwidth. I used to watch a lot of CNN and it still tends to be one of the first sites I go to when something goes down but more and more it's becoming unwatchable.

Occasionally I head over to Fox News to see how the world looks from a broken, backwards mirror smeared with grease (I listen to conservative radio on my drive in to work too). But even with my have-an-open-mind-and swap-perspectives cap on I find myself turning away. Then it happened. Like when you suddenly notice the quite geeky girl in the corner is actually kind of cute. I watched C-SPAN.

For those who don't know, C-SPAN is basically a security camera mounted on the wall at all sorts of different meetings, hearings, legislative sessions an...d...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. But to be honest, it's really refreshing to hear words come straight out of a politician's mouth without it being a sound bite or having some lunatic gaffawing at it. Plus it's completely in context. I even enjoy the odd/uncomfortably long pauses between speakers and how they all call each other "friends". They almost seem human. I especially liked when an expert on terrorism was talking about how to identify and deal with extremist groups in the states and in the background there was some guy who was clearly sent a link to a video of someone barfing on a poodle or something and was giggling.

In this light, government definitely isn't sexy or even divisive. It's just really, really deliberate and process driven and it's full of moments at work that a lot of us probably experience. Like that 2 o'clock felling. No wonder we see so many politicians nodding off during these sessions. And they have great caller feedback.

So, C-SPAN, welcome to my news feed. I look forward to many hours of unbiased inform...a..zzzzzzzzzzz.

Summer's Eve commercials

By now you've seen at least one of Summer's Eve's talking hand puppet vagina ads (a sentence I thought I'd never write...). If you haven't, there are three that represent a white woman, a black woman and a Latina woman. There's some controversy over some of the eye-rolling dialog and accents of the minority vaginas. But, of course, who gets left out again? Asians. And who knew? Do a Google image search for "Asian" and it's clear there are Asian vaginas all over the place! WTF Summer's Eve! I demand a ching-chongy, gong-ridden talking vagina to represent our Asian women! Well...on second thought, thanks for leaving us out of this one.

Victims of Canine Stereotype

People aren't the only ones subject to stereotype. What must it be like being a penguin with everyone wanting you to either dance or serve them food on a platter. How about the poor vegetarian mosquito? Please keep an open mind and remember that the next cute, fuzzy bunny rabbit you see may want to bite your face off.