Yahoo! Elected Officials, Issues, and Media.

Cool tool for finding all things political, I even found voting records.

"Learn to strike between the beats." --Keith Pascal

"There is timing in the Void... Timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord." --Musashi (Book of Five Rings)

SimonsNewMedia: Web writing and art||Simon Harris [Crescent].

Nice piece of visual writing. Breathtaking. Tech meets art.

Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, founder of Aikido, passed away on April 26th, 1969, making today the 37th anniversary of his passing.

"When acting in a time of order, one should act with propriety. When acting in a time of confusion, one should adapt to circumstances." --Hung Ying-ming

"Well I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." --Johnny Cash



Nice mix of old and contemporary music from the Man in Black. They don't make 'em like him anymore. Thoughtful, evocative, dark, soul cutting. His music is poetry and Folsom Prison is my favorite piece.

"This is the fastest idea-to-tool cycle in the history of the planet." --Seth Godin

"Victory belongs to the most persevering." --Napoleon Bonaparte

"Please pass the ketchup, I think it's going to rain." --Daffy Duck

Need to get to work on my second issue of Calliope Nerve however thought I'd just make mention of a few things since I haven't posted much lately.

Tags in the bottom of my posts are the new workaround I found for adding del.icio.us tagging/linking to my site. Much better than Technorati in my opinion. I'm discontinuing my link only blog Link Kick and now all my links will be stored at del.icio.us. Social bookmarking is cool. :)

Spent some time playing around with Firefox and added everything from a del.icio.us button to figuring out how to add user created extensions and hacking BLOGGER. Neat stuff. I enjoy this geek-nerd-stuff. Figuring it out makes me feel almost smart.

My friend Scott Marshall from Canada was kind enough to send me a book about technical writing and a CD about how to color comics in Photoshop. Thanks again Scott! If you haven't you need to be reading his Entropia Comics.

Scott is a member of the APA Centauri like myself as is Don Fields. Don just recently posted some art from his upcoming book Space Age Ashtray.

So far today I took my son to lunch at Burger King and took Jake to get his hair cut, got my three girls off to school, balanced the check book, watched the first episode of Paranoia Agent (which I didn't like), watched an episode of Ghost in the Shell/Stand Alone Complex: 2nd GIG, checked my email at work, got gas for the mower, changed the RSS feeds in G-mail and put money in the kids bank accounts. It's been a little busy. :) I like it that way.

More later....

"FIXED forms can never bring freedom (fluidity). This type of DEAD training is not an adequate response to the ever-changing moment in combat. This ever-changing moment must be met newly, freshly, for the moment is always new." --Bruce Lee

"If I read a book that cost me $20 and I get one good idea, I’ve gotten one of the greatest bargains of all time." -–Tom Peters

"The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read." –-Jim Rohn

Rahul Gupta: Tagging in Google's adopted baby

Book: The Business Startup Checklist and Planning Guide: "Read the book that Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson calls 'Mandatory reading for entrepreneurs.'

If you are one of the 58% of Americans who have considered starting a business, but have been held back by fear, funding concerns or the lack of a business plan or idea, this book is for you."

Submit article - article submission to Self SEO: "Self SEO is the perfect opportunity to share your knowledge with others and get some more promotion for your website or services. If you have quality content, we will gladly publish it along with an info box about you and a link to your website. "

Comic Book Resources - Comic Book News, Reviews and Commentary - Updated Daily!: "freeware authors mostly seem to keep their programs tight and low-maintenance, which doesn't necessarily mean limited. Some free programs are better than commercial competitors, particularly among Windows utilities where freeware versions... "

"Poets will never be the highest-paid writers in the world. Instead, poetry will go on cutting a hand-made path through the mass-market insanity. For me, anyway, that path is the one that leads to the Chapel of the Grail." --Jeanette Winterson

"Self-defense is all about surviving a situation where there is a very real risk of physical harm. This requires first-hand knowledge of techniques you can use to defend yourself without thinking." --Terry Lyon

I love BLOGGER, it crashed again and lost nearly an entire post even though I had been saving as I went along.

Another good article on Doctor Who: Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "According to Davies, the skill of bringing back a classic character is deciding which elements to retain and which ones to update for a contemporary audience."

Just finished issue one of Calliope Nerve, will get it printed up tonight and send copies to Mark Stickert for the APA and to the contributors. Not sure if I'll promote it quite yet as I have enough material to easily put together issue two, so I can save myself some mailing cost by mailing them together. For issue two I even have a piece by the great P.R. Primeau. In fact, I have several published poets who I'll be running in both issues. This project is really fun but it's hard work! Editing is time consuming and even a microzine like this takes several hours to put together.

And for future reference, a link about one of my all time favorite comic book villains The Hobgoblin: Comics Should Be Good: My first comics: "I also found and bought all the issues back to #238, the first appearance of the Hobgoblin. Issues #238-289 form one of the epic stories in comic book history, even though later writers dropped the ball with the Hobgoblin."

Michael let me teach Aikido last night. Great class, in my opinion, I'm still a little sore. :) Mixed up the regular Aikido techniques with Jute Keen Do, Karate, weapons disarming, Jiu-Jitsu, punching/kicking drills, and Jo and sword techniques. It pays to be well rounded, to understand your opponent. Synching my breathing with perfoming my techniques has not only made me a better martial artist but it helps to clear the mind.

Mike is thinking about buying The 7 Most Effective Combat Techniques. I do have to agree with the author's statement that you only need a handful of techniques to defend yourself. They must be ingrained in you, you must react without thinking.

I've been focusing on not only my breathing but on my inner energy when I do my katas, warm ups, and the like. I swear sometimes I feel chi in my finger tips. It has a static electricity kind of feeling. I move my hands as if there is an invisible ball between them--something about the focus is magical.

At work we were talking about a DM, who retired, that everyone had thought was a cheap skate. He only had two suits, he drove beat up cars, and lived in a mobile home. No one could figure out why he didn't "enjoy" his money. Now Mr. District Manager is traveling the world with his wife and is in the middle of a two year trip. It's all about self discipline. Good for him. These are the types of people I want to roll model myself after. Now when I buy that important, gotta have item, I first think about how much is in savings, how much did I put in the 401K, how much did I put in the kid's savings, etc. Obviously, sometimes that important thing isn't so special when you look at it from that perspective.

Seems Christopher Eccleston has left the role of Doctor Who. What a shame. He's brilliant. But the real reason, I'm writing this is I wonder will Rose be the next Time Lord? Ahh, yes and the Daleks return next week on Sci-Fi. They are already talking about season two.

Please someone let Billie Piper know that I'm in love with her. I hope Mrs. Black doesn't mind. (Though not so strangely enough the two of them do look a lot alike.)

String cheese does not consititue a meal...but try telling my son Jacob that. :)

"To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will." --Sugar Ray Robinson

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." --Mother Teresa

We've already established I'd love to own a comic book store. My wife would love to own a used book store. Though she doesn't always realize it, her and I are much alike. At all of the used book stores here in town, there is a general lack of science fiction and fantasy books and the few I have found are overpriced yet there is no shortage of romance novels, etc. Do sci-fi fans hold on to their books? Or maybe, are there less of us? Hmm...Inquiring minds want to know.

The place where I buy my comics has a great selection and decent customer service however if they miss one of my comics from my pull list again, I'll hurt someone. I only read about five titles regularly right now (two of which are bimonthly) yet in the past six months they've shorted me at least five times. Now mistakes are one thing but that's just down right inefficient.

I've been teaching my kids how to save money. (Can you say delayed gratification?) They've done really well. My oldest daughter Kayla has saved the most money in her class. (Her class has a fourth grade savings club sponsored by my kid's bank.) I'm so proud of her. In fact I said to her, "Now doesn't it feel great to be the best at something!" Indeed it is. Everyone needs a pat-on-the-back sometimes.

As I continue working on my net-worth-Increase goal, I have to keep reminding myself not to get too bothered with some of the people I know. It's hard not to be a little bit envious when they talk about their vacations, cars, homes, even the stocks they're buying. I have no idea how much debt any of them has. I may not be wealthy but everything I own is paid for and I have so little debt my credit score is a big-fat-zero. I have to remember--in time, all good things will come. (Ahh...delayed gratification again.)

Part of this whole process is also gaining a new vision of success and knowing that I am worthy of it. A lack of self worth will defeat you at every turn. Self confidence even affects money matters.

I was talking to my real estate tycoon friend NAME DELETED DUE TO NOSY NO GOODS yesterday and asked him, "So, how's that new venture going?" I was referring to the piece of property he has just paid for that he was telling me about last week. His reply, "Oh, the sign business is going great!" Sign business? What? Evidently, old NAME DELETED DUE TO NOSY NO GOODS has purchased some type of turn key sign business for his wife. I am impressed. He's always trying something and from what I understand is usually successful.

If you're trying to learn more about finances, I suggest watching Suze Orman on CNBC. She had a great show on mutual funds last week. I've also been reading everything I can get my hands on from my stock statements to the magazines Fidelity sends in the mail.

CBR has another good article on Bill Willingham.

All right, I better go for now. This new four day schedule I'm on (four twelve hour days) is working out great. Need to assemble Calliope Nerve and start mailing it out. As for my vision with it, I want it to be the most provocative under ground poetry zine out there.

A few short words from yet another script brewing in my mind.

"Not magic boy.
War."

Ha ha ha...not much there but those words keep pounding through my head.

Cut n' Paste JavaScript RSS Feed

Emily Chang - eHub: Sound Transit: "A collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography. In the 'Book' section of the site, you can plan a sonic journey through various locations recorded around the world."

"You want to know why I feel so horrified? I've let my innocence die. You want to know why I can't be pacified? You made me bury something. I won't be sleeping tonight." -- Disturbed

I am Spartacus! Well not really but it seemed as good of title as any for a post. Need to hurry up and get this post written before the BLOGGER outage and while the house is quiet. (With four kids that doesn't happen often.)

I've wanted to say something about the movie V for Vendetta but haven't quite had the words. It's a solid movie that I enjoyed and Natalie Portman is as talented and beautiful as ever in it. But I guess if I did take the time to write a review (which I'm not very good at) the point of it would be adaptations are not the original work. So, when watching V I had to excuse many of the shortcoming realizing that the American public (perhaps even the world) could not absorb the original power and conviction of the graphic novel.

One of the best pieces of advice I was given professionally was, "Not every email deserves a response." There's a whole story behind this that I'll get to later but I must say it applies to your personal life as well. Keeping yourself above the mire or not even letting it show that it bothers you is far better than drowning in the mud.

It's funny as I think about my life. I really don't like demanding people yet I'm utterly demanding of myself.

I had this day dream of last night (or night dream in my case since I work mostly nights) of starting a Media Group. A company that could do anything from publishing books to comics to websites, fiction and non fiction both. I don't know what to do with this idea (isn't that always the case) but when I think about the possibilities it makes my heart pound with excitement. Here's a nice article that is somewhat related to those thoughts from Stephanie Chandler: Become an Infopreneur.

I'm wondering if anyone out there:

1) Sells comics in any form and what platform(s) you use -- i.e. eBay, conventions/shows, own a shop, etc.

2) How do you track your collection-- i.e. with a program (what program), with a homemade database, by hand, etc.

Commeau talks about so many cool things like comic books about scientists. Why can't I write like him?

I hated Grant Morrison's All Star Superman #3. (The first two issues were exceptional.) Even Frank Quietly's ultra-hot rendition of Lois Lane, didn't seem so hot. I'm telling you man, they may be comics but it's still all about the story.

More to say, however I'm getting error messages from BLOGGER so I better go. I'll leave you with the book I'm currently reading which is so unique I don't know that I can put it into words. And of course, since I loved it you know they had to go and cancel the comic series. I'd love to write something along these lines except throw a little more fantasy and sci-fi into the mix.

The blue version of this template is what I'd like to use as a basis for redoing this blog.

Amazon.com: Page You Made: Miserly Moms

Fall of Autumn - The War That Isn't: "Dig in America - the ills of the world have nothing to do with our actions. As long as we straighten up, fly right, and listen to the spin from self appointed vanguards of Christianity, we've got nothing to fear. God will surely smite them all for their loose morals, and reward us with health and wealth.

After all, it is all about the jazz. "

"How you spend your time defines who you are." --Oprah Winfrey

The Comic Pimp Returns. : "I'm going to show and introduce you to a whole new generation of super hot hungry new comic retailers out there who are putting their own stamp on the world of comic retail."

And just maybe this can me too someday.