Bloggin' on the MTA

The last remnants of August, clung to in desperation. Note to self: Happy Birthday, Paul.

The bus was already packed at my stop- the second one. I hated this V-train once, but I love it now; since everyone else in Queens still hates it, it's always empty. For a ten-minute delay, I’m guaranteed a seat.

I have to go to bed earlier. Six hours just doesn’t cut it anymore. I get caught up in looking up information on the internet or watching YouTube- or reading. Poor Joe can’t understand why Jen & I love to read so much. Maybe it's much harder for him than it was for us. I’m currently reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. It's an alternate timeline sci-fi story, specifically asking what would have happened if the Axis had won World War II. It brillaintly focuses on common people and the social situations they life in, showing what an American's life would be like in a Japan-occupied U.S. I've always held P. K. Dick in low esteem based on the lack of development of the brilliant ideas in his short stories, but his novels are fantastic.

I have to get off (or on) my ass & start writing again- really writing, at least two hours a day. I know the love-hate relationship writers have with actually writing is common, but that knowledge is not going to get me anywhere. It’s just that I come home too exhausted to really think, & I want to spend time with Jen, Joe & Mandy... Well, like Captain Kirk said, when something is important you MAKE the time.

3-day weekend coming up, & I know they’re going to ask me to work Saturday. Maybe I'll give it to them. George is a great foreman, & they're so few & far between in this miserable business. He treats us with respect, & a guy like that I should help out. Besides, it's good OT money, & I still get two days off.

My hat's off to Michael De Kort, the guy who used YouTube to blow the whistle on Lockheed-Martin & how it was screwing over the Coast Guard. The only thing that is going to save this world is the ability of people to get their information out to the public. I can’t stand people who whine that some of the things people say on the internet aren’t true. Some of the things on the news aren’t true, for Christ's sake! Too much info in the public's hands is better than too little. To treat people as if they aren't smart enough to figure out the truth for themselves is the most elitest bullcrap I can think of. Come to think of it, Google & Microsoft should both burn in hell for helping China grind its people into the dirt.

Here’s my stop.

TTFN
-Tony

The Do Run Run Run, the Do Run Run

Pluto, god of Hades, woke up. He stretched. He contemplated brushing his teeth, but there was no one to impress, bar the Minions, and they should be trying to impress him, for Jupiter's sake. There were always the dead to play with, but they were as boring as a cheese sandwich on a hot day. He lay in bed, contemplating the cracks in the paint on the ceiling. He lifted his head as someone knocked urgently but reverently upon his door. "What?" he shouted. "What do you want?"

The door opened slowly. It was Nix, chief of the Minions. "Hey, Boss," Nix said, "We've got a problem."

"What?" Pluto demanded.

"It's the river Styx," Nix said, adjusting his nefarious uniform nervously. "It's not flowing anymore; it's about three-quarters low, and still falling!"

"What?" Pluto shouted. "It's that schmuck, Neptune! That overgrown plankton has been bitching that we've been leaching off of him for years!"

"Well, he is God of the seas, you know?" Nix said, and immediately regretted it.

"Get him on the screen," Pluto commanded, "I'll be right down!"

Five minutes later, Pluto was at his command station. The Minions kept their heads bent, trying to avoid his attention. "Come on, come on!" he shouted, as the sound of ringing echoed through the chamber.

"Mercury Online is down," Nix said, finally. "We can't get through. Phones and cable aren’t working either. It says your account is no longer valid."

"Great, just great," Pluto grumbled. "One convenient bill, my ass." He stormed out of his castle and walked through fields of the uncomplaining dead to the puddle Styx. He could see Charon stuck in the middle, his boat of fresh recruits run into the mud. "Brilliant, Charon, just brilliant," he muttered. "A+ for devotion to duty, D- for thinking." The ferryman waved at Pluto franticly. Pluto smiled, waved back, turned around, and returned to his fortress. The road was paved with the heads of the damned.

"Having trouble?" one of them asked, an old man with a scraggly beard and one eye. Pluto ground out the other one with the heel of his boot and continued to his castle.

"Nix?" he asked, once inside. "Any mail? You know, comes in envelopes, written on paper?"

"Actually, something came in from Jupiter yesterday," Nix said.

"From Jupiter," Pluto said. "A letter from the big guy. Yesterday."

"Yeah," Nix said.

"And I wasn’t told about this because..."

"Well, Hydra accidentally spilled some coffee on it, and when we tried to dry it off over the coal pits of torture, it kind of got burned up."

"Great," Pluto said. "Just great. No idea what it said, right?"

"Well it's your mail, boss, and-"

"Shut up." Pluto cocked his head. "Hydra, huh? That's a pretty... wet sounding name." He headed towards the elevator. "I’m going back to bed, now. Anything else happens, just shoot me while I sleep. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" Nix said, snapping to attention.

"And Nix..." Pluto scowled at his head minion. "Brush your teeth tonight. Five demerits."

"Yes, sir," Nix replied, crestfallen. Pluto entered the elevator and press the button for his private apartment. As soon as the doors closed, the lights went out. Pluto pressed all the buttons. Nothing happened.

"Fine," he muttered. He curled up on the cold metal floor, and went to sleep.

TTFN
-Tony

Illustration Friday: Match

Joe & I make the perfect match. All I can say is that I’m proud to be his dad.

TTFN
-Tony

An Avant-Garde Film

Here is my latest opus: an Avant-Garde film, called, “An Avant Garde Film.”

Basically, it’s a faux art-film made with whatever toys were lying around the apartment at 2 am when I was stoked on Starbucks canned espressos. Enjoy!

TTFN
-Tony

Illustration Friday: Capture

This took a bit of thinking. First, I had the idea of a bunch of people capturing God, showing that we've made him in our own image instead of the other way around. But my parents needed ceiling fan put in, so I didn't have all weekend to work on something good.

Deciding to do something cheap, I chose to draw a human soul being captured. But how? It's a lot trickier than they make it look in the movies. Then it hit me; there's only one thing left that sucks people's will to live, and that's TV.

Don't believe me? Right now, there's something on called "Wife Swap." I don't get it. These guys actually have another woman come into their home and tell them how to live their lives- but they don't get to sleep with them. What are they, nuts?

TTFN
-Tony

Star Wars Fashion Questions

How come we've never seen anyone in a Star Wars movie wear a bow-tie? If they call Tie Fighters "Tie Fighters" because they're in the shape of bow-ties, then logically speaking, people should wear bow-ties- or else where did they get the name from?

For that matter, isn't it a little odd that a long time ago and in a galaxy far far away they used the Roman Alphabet- or at least an alphabet with the letters A, B, X, & Y, and in the same shape as ours…

…or am I just a geek with too much time on his hands?

TTFN
-Tony

Beyond Thunder-dumb?

OK, maybe as one of the goyim I just don't get it, but does anyone else out there not give a rat's ass if Mel Gibson is anti-semetic or not? I could understand all the fuss if he was an elected official, or if he had made these statements publicly instead of in a drunken ramble to a cop. Maybe it's just the Media, wanting to convince America that the opinion of celebrities matter. I just don't see that this idiot's point of view is worth mentioning on news programs daily for almost a week. Is it just me?

TTFN
-Tony