Hello
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Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
Relic Radio Podcasts!!
I love listening to old-time radio. "Dimension X", "X Minus One", "Suspense" and "The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre" to name but just a few.
If you are on iTunes, you can find a very good provider of old-time radio shows in Relic Radio. If you are not on iTunes you can enjoy the website.
Every time I think I've just watched or read some new and innovative Science-Fiction I eventually come across an old-time radio show that did it first. And usually better.
The same goes for modern-day, first-world problems (be they social, political or environmental). I know I'm an old codger before my time because I say things like: "I betcha they didn't have to worry about that in the old days". Then, once more, I'll come across an old-time radio show (from the 70s, 60s, 50s and sometimes earlier) and realize "Wow, they had that problem back then too!"
At any rate, go enjoy some old-time radio. Not only are they entertaining, but you'll soon realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
Classic Canadian Animated Sci-Fi!
There are a lot of reasons to love the animation studio known as Nelvana. If you love comic books, animation and Sci-Fi then you must check them out.
When I was growing up in the 70's, Nelvana put out a lot of amazing cartoons.
A Cosmic Christmas (1977)
The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978)
Intergalactic Thanksgiving (1979)
Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979)
It is a crying shame that you can only enjoy these classics on YouTube under some really painfully low video quality. Having said that; thank God for YouTube so we can still enjoy these classics! I've put in all the links. Enjoy them all.
They also produced the animated sequence for the 1978 Star Wars Christmas Special. Boba Fett makes his first appearance in this cartoon.
And last but not least I'd like to mention the little-known Canadian Sci-Fi classic. Rock and Rule from 1983. (Wikipedia page).
This film was Nelvana's first theatrical release. Warning: I'm about to rave like a drooling fan-boy about this movie.
To my 10-year-old self, this film totally rocked. To the adult I am today, this film still rocks. It's loud and beautiful! A simple story told very well. It comes accompanied by great music you'll want on your mp3 player! And the animation was startling. You can't take your eyes off it, even today.
You won't believe the talent they lined up for the songs in this movie. Just read the names on the poster above. I have a co-worker, she's in her 20's. I read her the names and she had no idea who any of them were. She's never even heard of Blondie!
Kids today! What is the world coming to? (Statements like this that make me certain I was born to be a codger.)
I've linked to the original Canadian version. The quality isn't great but it's still pretty good. Thanks to a company called Unearthed Films you can still get this movie from Amazon. (I've linked to the American Amazon site so you can enjoy what people have to say about the movie in the reviews.)
I watched these cartoons when I was very young. The fact that I've never forgotten them is a testament to the impact they had on me. The style of animation was like nothing I had ever seen before. They really didn't feel like cartoons for kids; even though some of them were. And with a few exceptions, we really don't see anything like them anymore. You can see some of this early Nelvana style in their later and more well-known offerings. Namely Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO and Ewoks from 1985.
As you probably guessed, I've only just recently rediscovered this movie on YouTube. I stayed up late just to watch it. I just wanted to share my excitement with you all. I wonder how old my son has to be before I can show it to him?
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
Harry Kremer's Mom!
As a kid, I bought comics from Harry Kremer.
As a kid, I also bought comics from Harry Kremer's mom.
Everybody who knows about Now and Then Books knows about Harry Kremer. He died in 2002. The store closed in 2007. Last time I visited Kitchener I drove passed the corner of Queen and Charles Streets. There was a clothing store there instead of a window full of comics and it broke my heart to see it.
For those of you who don't know about Now and Then Books you can read all about it here and here and here and here. As a kid I never realized what an impact that store had on comics and the people who collected them. I thought that every town had a store just like Now and Then.
I discovered Now and Then Books when I was about 13 years old. I would hop on my bike and cross town from Pioneer Park to downtown Kitchener (4.85 miles/7.81 km). I would sometimes do this on a daily basis. I didn't realize that new comics didn't come every day.
I once bought a She-Hulk graphic novel (about $8.00 plus taxes) completely with small change. Based on what people had to say about Harry, he probably didn't mind so much. Google his name and the store. You'll find lots of people who have something nice to say about Harry Kremer.
The real subject of this post is Harry's mother. The tragedy of it is that I don't know too much about her. I don't even know her name. She sat at the front desk cash register and sold thousands of comics to probably just as many high school-aged boys. She had gray curly hair and wore glasses. I remember her wearing scarfs or high collars a lot. I can't remember which; my memory fails me.
She also had a thick accent. As you browsed the bins, you could occasionally hear her call "HAR-ree!" (You can hear her voice in your head right now, can't you?)
If anyone knows her name or when she died, please let me know. This post is dedicated to my childhood memories of her.
Thanks for all the comics Mrs. Kremer.
Have a great day.
Hello
The Comic Reader file versions are ready for:
Metropolis Yearbook #1
Metropolis Yearbook #2
Metropolis Yearbook #3
and
Metropolis Volume #1
You can find them all here.
Have a nice day.
Hello
Download the Metropolis Yearbook #3 here.
The CBZ version will be available soon.
Overdosing on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Good things can be bad things if taken in excess.
I learned this recently from re-watching all the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. All 178 of them. It took me about two years. That might sound like a relaxed schedule, but that is one ST:TNG every 4 days.
Watching so much ST:TNG is not good for you; especially if you like Star Trek and you want to continue liking Star Trek. When you watch so much Star Trek close together you begin to notice certain things.
1) There seems far too many omnipotent or near-omnipotent alien species in the universe; Q, the Douwd, Nagilum, the Traveler, and those big space jellyfish from pilot, just to name a few.
The Enterprise is always running into super-powerful aliens. How many can one universe hold? And for beings so powerful they never seem to know about each other.
2) Holodecks seem to cause more trouble than they are worth.
The safeties on that sucker get compromised a lot! For goodness sake! Never turn on your holodeck if you happen to be crossing some weird celestial phenomena. You could lose control of your ship or do something totally wacky like create a new life form. Both of which might kill you during the glitch.
Even Chief O'Brien makes fun of how many times the holodeck malfunctioned in a conversation with Worf in season four of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
3) Their technology is far too advanced.
Does that sound weird? Think about it. There's nothing they can't do. Between the transporter and the replicator and the limitless times they combine the two, they can do anything. Watch the episodes and you'll notice that they keep coming up with stuff to limit their limitless technology for the sake of the episode's plot line. This planet has a field where we can't use transporters. We can't replicate that thingy because it's made of some special material.
Despite these minor annoyances I still enjoy watching Star Trek. I'll probably watch them all over again in a few year so my son and daughter can get hooked.
In some respects my "minor annoyances" made me glad about the J.J. Abrams "reboot". It seemed like a perfect opportunity to start fresh and not "paint themselves into a corner" with too much super-technology... Hmmm. Let's see there is "Scotty's super-long-distance-transporter" and the "Khan death-reversing-super-blood-serum". (Sigh.)
PS: I've started re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
Have a great day.
Hello
The Metropolis Yearbook #3 was supposed to be out already. Sorry about that. I hope to put it out in the next two weeks... I hope.
The reason I haven't released it yet gives me a reason to talk about Linux; which I have wanted to do on this blog for some time.
I currently have no working computers. (I'm creating this post on my ipad.) Here's what happened. I was ready to take the plunge. I was ready to cast off Windows operating systems forever in favour of Linux. I was sick to death of viruses and hijackers posing as really interesting freeware.
In defense of Windows. I grew up on Windows and one of the things I always liked about it was the community of home developers. Whatever type of software you wanted there was always someone out there somewhere who was programming what you needed and offered it to the world as freeware. Very commendable.
Nowadays, downloading freeware is a sure way to harm your computer, unless you know how to discern trustworthy sources.
My wife was totally behind the switch to Linux. She's on maternity leave and she was willing to take on a new learning curve provided she could "do all the things she could in Windows". No problem.
I spent some time researching which distro I wanted to use. I had it down to Linux Minut, Zorin and LXLE. I thought about Ubuntu; why not use the originator? But I wanted more of a "out of the box" ready to run distro. Mint proved to cumbersome. Zorin and LXLE rocked all my boxes; all of which were not state of the art. One of the boxes is more than six years old. I chose Zorin because I thought it was kinder in its presentation to former Windows users.
I had two weeks and three computers to convert. Again; no problem. That should have been more than enough time.
Problem number one: YUMI. Yumi is "Your Universal Multiboot Installer". It's great. I loaded a single usb thumb drive with six different distros with this program. I was able to try them all out without having to recreate usb iso images all the time.
My problem was that I used YUMI to install Zorin to the hard drive. When I did that Zorin seemed buggy. It stalled a lot. Sometimes the OS even froze. I tried diagnosing it but in the end I gave up and tried LXLE instead. That's when I finally got around to reading the YUMI webpage where it said "Installing Linux from the YUMI created USB Drive to a Hard Drive is not officially supported".
Darn. I should have installed it using Universal USB Installer. It's the same as YUMI, but it can only do one OS at a time. I was so far into install LXLE that I didn't bother going back to Zorin. It wasn't Zorin's fault. It was mine.
I installed LXLE on all three computers. I had all three computers ready to run in just a few hours. I had XBMC installed on the living room box. And all the stuff I like installed on the two computers in the office. Then...
Problem number two: I couldn't successfully network them all together. I worked on them for days. Don't ask me what went wrong. Yes, I followed all the directions mentioned on the hundreds of website dealing with Ubuntu based distro networking problems. I will fully admit that someone with more computer knowledge than me could have solved the problem. I'm no slouch mind you, but I know I have my limitations.
By the end of the two weeks I was burnt out. I needed my computers working again and I had no more time to spend on it. I went dejectedly back to Windows.
Someday, I do plan to make that switch to Linux. It's been a long time coming. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. Mint, Zorin and LXLE will all still be high on my list of distros. I recommend you have a peek at them.
Let me make one final point about Linux. IT'S BEAUTIFUL! The install is quick and clean. It looks so good on big screens and small monitors. The OS runs smooth on old and new computers no problem. Boot and shutdown times are quick. Tons of great programs all for free. I didn't have to install drivers or extra programs. It was all there and ready to go in under a 20 minute install. And best of all it's virus-free, worry-free computing. Don't let me mislead you, there is such a thing as Linux virus. But it's totally manageable. Google it and you'll see what I mean. Start here.
PS: It's been a few days and I only have Windows installed on 2 computers. That's just Windows the OS. I don't have any drivers, antivirus programs, office programs or web browsers installed yet (not MS, the ones I like to use).
PPS: Yes, I have heard of Macs. I have nothing against them, but if I had the money for a Mac I wouldn't be holding on to a six year old computer now would I?
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
A Nice Treat for a Kid with Allergies - Mini Banana Muffins
So here I go again diverting from my usual topic of comics and Sci-Fi. Sorry. I felt like I really had to share this.
Max has some allergies. Not a lot, but he can't have eggs, milk, apples or strawberries. That doesn't sound like much be it can be very hard to find food he likes without at least one of these.
For example: he loves loved President's Choice Organic Cereal bars. He can no longer have them.
We used to make him these cute little banana muffins. But we had to stop because there was egg in the recipe. (I got the recipe from my friend Carmel) I really liked these muffins because we controlled what went into them. I really loved that they used maple syrup to sweeten them instead of sugar.
I found a way to modify the recipe so Max could still eat them. In fact, they came out even better than normal. The magic substitute: dessert tofu!
I use Sunrise Dessert tofu. It comes in a variety of flavours including plain. I've tried it with their banana flavour and the maple carmel flavour. The former just adds to the banana flavour of the muffins. The latter is good too but the muffins comes out the slightest bit sweeter.
You can see for yourself that it's a pretty healthy ingredient list. You can try mixing the ratios of all-purpose and whole wheat flours. I use margarine because Max and my wife can eat dairy, but you could use butter if you prefer.
Here's the recipe for the all-together-not-wholly-egregious, allergy-friendly mini-banana muffins for kids and dads and moms:
Dry
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cinnamon
1/4 tsp of salt
Wet
1 and 1/4 cup ripe bananas (about 2 or 3 bananas)
1/3 cup of maple syrup
2 tblsp of melted margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg of dessert tofu
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix all the wet ingredients together. (I drain the water out of the dessert tofu but not completely. It's OK to let some into the mix.)
- Mix all the dry ingredients together.
- Combine the wet and dry.
- Spoon the batter into your mini-muffin tin. Careful how much. These things puff up large. (Spray them with non-stick spray if necessary. I do.)
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. (Leave them a touch longer if you like a slight crispiness to the outside. I do.)
- Let them cool.
I don't know how long to leave them in the oven if you are doing full sized muffins.
Good luck.
Enjoy.
UPDATE (9/7/14): After you combine the wet and dry ingredients, let is sit for about an hour in the fridge. The muffins come out less spongy; if you like them that way. I don't know yet what happens if you leave it for longer. I'm tempted to see what happens if you leave it over night.
Hello
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Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
I forgot to post it!!
You'll notice that the release date on this chapter is April 4th. I finished it but completely forgot to post it.
No one should be surprised. My wife and I are still not getting enough sleep. Our little baby girl is a screecher! She screeches! A lot. And very, very loudly!
But we found out why! She has acid reflux. I didn't even know babies could get that! It means that eating is a difficult and painful because of stomach acid damage to her esophagus. The doctor put her on some form of "Baby Zantac".
She should be better soon.
Chapter 42 is ready too! I'll post it in a few days. After that I'll be working on Metropolis Yearbook #3
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
This chapter is very, very late.
Chapter 39 came out in January, 2014. This chapter is released in late March.
Sorry.
The short answer is that I have two kids now; a toddler named Max and a brand new baby girl named Zoey. If you're a parent then that's all that need be said.
But let me go on anyway. My wife and I are all alone out here in British Columbia, Canada. Our closest family is four provinces away. We're still trying to stabilize our schedule. I'm happy to report that Zoey is sometimes letting us get a whole 6 hours of sleep at night. Sometimes.
I'm also working a lot more now that my wife is home on maternity leave.
I don't thing I'm going to be able to keep up my release schedule of two chapters a month. I might get back up to that closer to the end of the year but not now.
I hope you can bare with me. I hope that the introduction of Tuck E. Rogers will whet your appetite for more Metropolis. By the way; Tucky is a homage to one of my favourite golden-age science-fiction heroes. Can you guess which one?
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a great day.
Hello
(If you have been enjoying the Metropolis comic strip, then I hope you will consider helping me promote it. Please click here to find out how you can help. I would really appreciate it. Thank you.)
The following is the introduction to Metropolis Volume 1
On the Metropolis blog I talk a lot about why I stopped collecting comic books as a kid. Today I want to talk a little about what brought me back; comic strips.
One day I was feeling nostalgic about comic books as I was surfing the web. I stumbled upon a website that hosted one month’s worth of over 60 different newspaper strips (http://www.oregonlive.com/comics-kingdom/index.ssf). That day, I read strips until my eyes hurt.
The strips that I started to follow were, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Phantom. I was completely re-engaged with all the things I loved about comic books. And comic strips didn’t have any of the things that drove me away from comic books. They were free. They were fun. They had a sense of drama and humour. There were no endless crossovers.
However, there was a downside. I could only read them a few panels at a time. Then I had to wait a day to read the next part (or wait an entire week as in the case of Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant). This can get a little irritating. So I started to read comic strips the way most people watch TV shows nowadays; wait for a few episodes to pile up then watch them all at once. I imagine a lot of people do the same.
That’s why I’ve created Metropolis Volume 1. You don’t have to wait for the two strips per month that I am able to produce. Here is a conveniently packaged bundle of chapters that you can read on your favourite e-reading device. I should warn you now though… I don’t expect to get around to making Volume 2 until around early 2015.
Enjoy Volume 1 and have a great day.
João
Hi
I've finally figured out how to make a Comic Reader file. Not that making one is very difficult, but figuring out how to properly tag one is.
So I've started by making Comic Reader files of the Metropolis Yearbooks (available here). They are available in .PDF format and .CBZ format. Most e-readers will open .PDF files. Some even open .CBZ files.
Maybe some of you don't know that you can enjoy copies of comic books electronically now. Well, yes you can. Old and new comics alike. If you are looking for a good Comic Reader program, look here. I read comics on my ipad with an app called ComicBookLover. You can also get a Comic Reader for the Wii (here); but you need to have Homebrew installed on your Wii. I also recommend Calibre. It's an entire e-book (not just comics) management system that will connect to a lot of different e-readers. It connects to my Kobo no problem.
I also need to mention a wonderful program called Comic Tagger. This is the program I used to create tags for my Comic Reader versions of Metropolis. It's a cinch to use. So if you have a lot of e-comics in your collection or if you make your own e-comics, you should check Comic Tagger out.
Tags are the little bits of information about the comic embedded into the Comic Reader file. They help identify your comic for search and sorting purposes. In much the same way that music files have tags containing artist, singer and album information.
So check out the program and if you use it, be kind and click the guy's donate button. He should get a little money for all his hard work on such a good program. I did.
A while ago I promised to release Metropolis as a Comic Book Reader file. I'm happy to say that it will happen soon. How soon? I don't know. It's hard to schedule with a toddler and brand new baby in the house. I'm thinking it will definitely happen before summer 2014... Possibly sooner.
Sorry there hasn't been a new chapter of Metropolis yet. My wife and I are still working out our lives with the new baby.
Have a great day.
Hello
NOTE: This chapter has been ready for a while, but I'm only getting around to posting now because...
BORN January 22 at 4:11 am
My new daughter Zoey! (10 lbs 5.5 oz)
On with the show...
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Download the F.Y.O.C version here.
I'm Trying to Pass the Bechdel Test (as a good example for my kids).
(How appropriate to broach this topic near the birth of my daughter.)
When I first created Metropolis I erroneously thought that I could make the characters genderless. I consider myself a feminist and I thought (erroneously) that I could avoid gender issues in my story. Within the first few chapters it was obvious that it was all too easy to impose the male gender on the characters. Eg's top hat is a dead giveaway.
Frankly, I don't know of any good science-fiction that adequately conveys a true genderless society. I know a few stories about genderless societies, but they are always in relation to or told by a gendered main character. The only examples I can think of right now are that episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation called "The Outcast" and a book called "The Breeds of Man" by F.M. Busby. Are we even capable of envisioning what a genderless society might be like? If anyone can give me a better example of a story involving a true genderless society, please let me know.
So once I accepted that the characters in Metropolis had a gender, I was suddenly faced with the problem that my comic strip was a world of men. I didn't want that. I want to set a good example for my son and my daughter. I also didn't want my strip to fail the Bechdel Test. I immediately created the character of Tepper in Chapter 7.
Since then I have struggled to involve more female characters into the overall arch of the Metropolis storyline. It's been tough. I only get 8 pages a chapter, so there's not a lot of room. Regardless, I publicly apologize for not passing the Bechdel Test sooner.
The second female character to appear in Metropolis is the White Queen of Sarnia in Chapter 30. Bechdel Test requirement #1 is met.
A third female character is introduced in Chapter 34. Ms. Teschmacher, the executive assistant to the city of Metropolis. However, to date she has not spoken a word. That will be rectified. She's going to be a really fun character.
Chapter 39 introduces our fourth female; whom you will discover is named Tuck E. Rogers.
Four women, 39 chapters and so far they've never spoken a single word to each other. I'm happy to say that Chapter 40 will meet the second and third requirement of the Bechdel Test and officially passing it.
I hope you're enjoying the story.
Have a great day.
PS: A Note about the Bechdel Test.
I don't consider the Bechdel Test to be the "be-all and end-all" of literary analysis. However, I do consider it a good rule of thumb for the type of stories I would like to create. You can't apply the Bechdel Test fairly to a significant amount of literature from the past. But shouldn't it be the base line minimum for most of the stories we're creating today?
PSS: On a similar topic, please enjoy this video of Joss Whedon.
