2003-07-23|2:36 p.m.
Neopets.com is fun! There�s this one land that you can find a king and tell him a joke in hopes that it will make him laugh. Sometimes, if I am lucky, I am successful at doing so. Look at what gets a chuckle out of this dude:
King Skarl listens as you tell your joke...
Q: When do Bruces explore The Lost Desert?
A: When they're wearing a funky t-shirt!
Well looky there... You got a chuckle out of him.
King Skarl Says:
*heh* That was a pretty good joke. I give it a 603 out of 1000.
Here, have a little something from my kitchen. I hope you like it.
King Skarl hands you:
This video is promoting a full, independent, bipartisan investigation that investigate Bush's statements and hold Bush and his administration accountable for all fabrications. If you�re interested, which I think everyone should be, you can sign the petition supporting the investigation.
What an incredible past few days. The Comic-Con brought so much fun I was unable to experience it all. Unfortunately, I didn�t get to see Blam, as I wanted to. It was completely my fault, because I forgot to bring his cell phone number with me and tried unsuccessfully wandering around the huge convention trying to find someone who looked like the person I had only seen in photos.
But I did get to meet some new artists, Souther Salazar , in particular. His art is amazingly beautiful and I suggest you check it out. Plus, he�s just a really nice guy. I saw him later buying a pretzel from the same cart I was and we chatted a short bit. What struck me the most about him was his kindness. I noticed him whisper to the cart attendant that someone had spilled a drink all down the front of the cart. It was a kind, unassuming gesture of thoughtfulness, the type that makes me like someone instantly. He also has a girlfriend named Saelee Oh, I should say, that also makes rather beautiful art. They talk about each other with the sweetest praise. It both makes me smile and my heart ache. Other�s love is striking and, sadly, embittering, only because of my own na�ve and impatient longing for the same.
I also got to hang out a lot with Jessie (and her friends), A�s friend, who is this amazing, young, Canadian comic artist who was there at the convention to get exposure. For being only 18, she was getting a lot of attention from the different companies. It was good to see. Plus, she�s damn cute and easily likeable and a great porn shop companion. Apparently, San Diego has much more smut than where she lives in Canada, and we all had a bunch of fun looking at nudie mags, sex toys, and leather get ups. I even managed to finally buy another pair (the others where somehow lost) of fishnets for under three bucks at the Hustler shop, which made me happy.
Speaking of fishnets, there were a few girls there at the convention walking around in full body fishnets. It was quite the sight.
And lastly, A got to make his documentary on the dumbrella online comic guys. It is still unfinished, but I think it turned (and will turn) out really well. Their fans will certainly like it.
The last night they were here in San Diego we got to hang out with them up in one of their hotel rooms and drink, talk, and watch as they churned out hilarious and impressive art. Actually, A ended up making really good friends with Sam Brown, of expolodingdog.com, which is really cool. And I am pretty certain that we�ll see them all again. They�re a great bunch.
Oh, and Jeff Rowland, of wigu.com, drew me as a Wigu character! And Sam Brown even drew me my very own explodingdog picture. How cool is that?! If I am ambitious enough, I might actually scan them and put them on here.
All that beautiful and clever artwork is inspiring me into making another episode of my sock puppet show, which is not clever or beautiful, but still creative (in that it is created) and provides some fun to its completion.
Today, I learned that �corporations are currently turning over 30 percent less of their profits to the taxman than they did 20 years ago,� according to Arianna Huffington. And really, it shouldn�t be at all surprising. It�s not at all a contract, this �trickle down� stimulus plan. These major corporations have no real incentive to give back to their workers (which are probably not even Americans and rather belong to the exploited workforce of developing nations) or the taxpayers that fronted the costs of their rather gargantuan subsidies. The result is the cutbacks of programs that actually help the people in a way that the unlikely arrival of the benefits of �trickle down� economics could ever hope to match. And that is a rather optimistic, and perhaps injudicious, statement. I honestly believe that these subsides are the result of cronyism, pat-my-back-and-I�ll-pat-yours.
And what is about to happen because of it? This:
As a result, the AmeriCorps program Teach For America - an organization that recruits top college graduates and trains them to serve as teachers in underprivileged communities - is slated to have its entire budget eliminated. Since Teach For Americas inception in 1990, 1.2 million young people have been taught by over 9,000 members. Our generation, our schools and our communities have been sacrificed to big business, big money and big betrayals. Congress will convene to consider funding for AmeriCorps including Teach For America at the end of this week. Time is not on our side. Please join me in signing a petition urging Congress and the President to restore funding to Teach For America: www.deanforamerica.com/teachforamerica.
Somewhere on the petition I said this:
�What we need today is to advance past those who would place big business before the concerns of the average American. �Trickle down� economic plans, reminiscent of the Reagan years, failed the average American before and can only fail us again. Instead, we need to get back to the traditions that have long made us who we are�a people who belong to a community. Service programs like AmeriCorps, which include such valuable programs as Teach for America, bring America�s youth to the forefront of the issues that concern us all�education, poverty, unemployment, elder care, affordable housing�and provides them the guided opportunity to give back to a world that they are just entering. Very simply, a twenty-two year old AmeriCorps member from California can tutor underprivileged school children in New York and see and do, first-hand, what it means to be part of a community of people than learn and better themselves�together. And if that alone does not convince you, the numbers should. Since 1994, more than 250,000 men and women have served in AmeriCorps, providing needed assistance to millions of Americans. No �trickle down� stimulus package has ever, or will, do that. It would be in the gravest of errors to abandon programs like AmeriCorps and Teach for America when we need them the most.�
A boss at my work: Why should I care about a program like AmeriCorps or Teach for America?
Me: Because, besides it being a community enriching program that helps the less-privileged, at the very pragmatic level for you it means that there are fewer people jobless, uneducated, and starving in the streets bothering you.
A boss at my work: You�d be surprised at what I can ignore.
Me: You being a twenty-something, white, male, who just made a statement like that, I doubt it.