Harold the HUGGER!!!

I was hugged today.  It was by a young lady in a bear suit.
So I suppose it would be Hannah the HUGGER, but that doesn't have the same ring to it.
Say it out loud: Har-old the HUG-GER!

I was waiting at a stoplight on my bicycle, minding my own business, when all of the sudden it was Guerilla Warfare with cuteness.  There was a great blur of brown fur, like an adorable wraith, appearing out of nowhere, and dive-tackling me with hugs.  All soft and fluffy, it was horrible.  I was almost knocked off my bike.  I barely managed to escape being mauled by a 5 ft. Snuggle Bear with sanity intact.  Quite embarrassing actually. 
Then it tried to get me to buy some trinkets from a massive garage sale.

Great, now everyone will know I was attacked by the mythic Cuddle Beast of Coon Rapids in broad daylight.  Yet another encounter with a little known Minnesota Monster with poor marketing skills.  This is like the time I had a tea party with a Bigfoot in my neighbor's tree fort.  He was out door-to-door selling magazines for a fundraiser.
Usually nobody believes me, but this time I have photographic evidence.

WTF!? Google needs to fix this.

OK.  I love google, and their Blogger stuff. 
But I literally tried the "Next Blog" button on the top of the page 50 times.
I got (http://alpha-beta-tricks.blogspot.com/) 24 times, (http://www.indirelease.com/) 17 times,  and 9 other sites in between.  Seriously, WHAT THE HELL GOOGLE!?!?

I would very much like to scan through various blogs to see what's out there, and instead I get stuck in stupid loops of the same 2-3 blogs going on over and over.  I even went to other computers, tried starting the blog search from various bloggers' pages, and the same sites still repeat.  It is VERY annoying.  Especially when the 2 listed above don't have a "Next Blog" button on them.
This is a specific issue I have had many times, and it is really something that needs to be remedied.
Come on Google, this problem needs to be fixed, and I actually think out of all the bazillions of brilliant employees at your disposal, at least a handful could fix it with ease.

Also, the updated blog editor needs a spellchecker.

A Couple Ceiling Shots and Night Pics

More crappy old pics.

Drugs. Another Old Illustration

Here's a piece I made about a kid wacked out of his head on drugs.
From around 2002.

Heroes:Season 4-Orientation/Jump, Push, Fall

The new season of Heroes has begun.  It's not quite what I was hoping for.
I'll try and keep this shorter than all the other Heroes posts.

Angela Petrelli is still a manipulator.  Quickly becoming a second, maybe even third rate one at that.

The carnival folk- A bunch of people with powers in a travelling carnival?  Sounds an awful lot like HBO's series Carnivale.  Which is an awesome series.  Well, there seems to be the Leader Samuel who can move earth(telekinesis possibly) and control tattoos when placed in skin of both himself or others.  Maybe it's a metals or minerals control?  A girl that is a form of psychic, and is assisted with the tattoos to show others what she is seeing.  There is also an old fellow that can send a person through time, no telling if he has the same abilities as Hiro.  Hiro had the potential to send things/people away without needing to go as well, as shown when Arthur Petrelli took his power.  And lastly, there's Darth Faux-hawk himself-Ray Parks.  Big suprise, he uses kung fu type stuff.  Oh, and super speed.  They want to be family, and find others to adopt into the group.  Specifically Hiro, Claire, Peter, and Sylar.  They also want to retrieve a compass Danko has stashed in a lockbox in a bank.  Danko has placed great importance on it, even though it was never previously mentioned.  And it only appears to work when a powered individual touches it.

Hiro and Ando have started a call for a hero business, and their first client is saving a cat.  Hiro is still having problems with his abilities, such as nose bleeds, and him becoming frozen in time while other things remain in motion.  He ends up going back in time accidentally and changing the past to help Ando and Hiro's sister get together, with the aid/interference of Samuel, who was sent back by the old time manipulator from the carnival.  For some reason a spilled blue slurpy will cause a budding love to fizzle.  Stupid. 
Hiro also lets Ando know he is dying, and wants to help as many people as possible before he goes.
And a neat side note, I think I spotted Hiro's armor from the past in one of the hallways in his office building.

Tracy is on a revenge kick, offing anyone related to the group that caused her harm.  She goes after Bennett, and Danko saves him.  Noah offers Danko a 'free pass' that he refuses.  Tracy meets up with Noah, he then offers to help her, thinking he hasn't helped "a single on of you(superpeople)".  Obviously he must have forgotten about the numerous times he helped Claire.  And then that time he helped Ted and Matt get out of Primatech.  Or all the other times he helped.
He has the Haitian wipe Danko's memories of Tracy.  She arrives at Danko's place in time to see him not remember, then get sliced to hell by Edgar, the canrnival speedster.  Who was looking for the magical compass.
Where the hell was the Haitian last season?  On a damn vacatian?  If Bennett could get ahold of him in that short amount of time, taking Sylar down should have been no problem.  Stupid Heroes writers.

Claire is now in college.  She is rooming with a Too-Good-At-Everything girl that dominates everyone at a frat party in a grand moment of product placement.  I am sick of Guitar Hero everywhere.  If you want to play in a band, learn a real instrument.  It takes a little longer, but it sound better.  Miss I-Can't-Die also meets a dark haired girl that not only recognizes her as the survivor of a murder case, but may secretly be obsessed with Claire's living through it.
Goody-good commits suicide and the other girl gets Claire to investigate the possibility of it being a murder with her.  They talk about the Jump/Push/Fall hypothesis.  Each scenario would have a distinct distance away from the building.  Dark hair wants to borrow a corpse from a morgue and Claire just does it herself when she thinks nobody is around.  Yeah, fat chance.  Dark hair sees it.  Another shocker there, and Claire realizes it was a suicide.  Lame.

Nathan/Sylar/Nath-lar/Sy-than is having issues with himself.  Angela is an F-ing idiot.  She worked for the Company.  The company tried wiping Adam/Kensei's mind.  He got better, why would it work on Sylar?  He will heal and be himself again.  Unless he WANTS to be Nathan.  He can certainly do a hell of a lot more with the kind of political weight Nathan can throw around.  I still think things are heading to a very similar future to the 5 years gone. 

On the mental planes, Parkman is being perpetually harassed by the ghost of Sylar past after he vowed to stop using his powers.  Is this sort of like Usutu hanging around in his brainpan???  Like Parkman's versions of a shoulder angel and shoulder devil! (I can hear the tiny versions of them talking to Matt-"Do this!"  "No, do that!"...and so on.)  Couldn't he use his ability on himself to rid this pest?  Or is it his undermind attempting to push him until he begins using his powers again?  I think that might be it, because not using the abilities would be akin to walking around with one of your main senses being cut off.  How long can you continue to ignore the urge to use the gift given? 

Peter is back to his old broody, lame self.  Sure, I work for a hospital myself.  I understand the drive to help as many people as possible.  But only so many can be saved.  He claims he is trying to do some good to counteract all the bad "they've" done.  His family and the company.  Did he and Nathan blow up New York?  No.  Score 1 good guys.  Did Peter stop a super virus from decimating the populus?  Yes.  Score 2. points.  He also caught Sylar from becoming President Worf.  That's 3. 
Whatever, he thinks he needs to be faster to save more lives.  It leads coworkers to believe he is setting up accidents to become a hero.  So he ends up helping Bennett to go get the magic compass just so he can get Edgar's speed.  It goes well and they get the compass, Peter gets a new ability, and everything is hunky dory.  Until Edgar stabs Bennett later and gets the compass.  Peter helps Bennett, and goes on to help others.  Then Bennett sort of has a not-date with Tracy in the hospital.

Here is another a ridiculous issue.  Why the hell would Peter not have taken Sylar's power in the last season?  That would enable him to begin collecting other abilities as well(without killing them-essentially returning his old power, we already know Sylar can take powers that way).  He has already had it and can push the "hunger" away.  Besides Peter began a wall like a Bizarro version of Sylar's season 1 wall.  A collection of saved lives.  It would really make sense for him to take the ability to right as much as he can.  Very interesting developement and it could have major story potential.  Come to think of it, if he wants speed, why doesn't he just get in touch with Hiro.  Then he'll have as much time as he needs.  Literally infinite time.  If there's a mistake, oh, just go back a little and fix it.
I would also like to know how long will Peter avoid Nathan?  He wasn't in the room when Angela, Noah, and Matt did the work on Sylar, so does he know?  If not, all he has to do is touch him to absorb an ability that isn't flight to realize what happened.

Hopefully the writer's will get better as I am expecting more of this show.

The Potato Fairy/Spud Gnome Strikes Again!

Not once, but TWICE, I have visited by this kindly gift giving entity.

What an odd occurance.
Very odd indeed.


The little creeper has returned to bestow a whole batch of gifts upon my vehicle.
OK, that's a little harsh, they aren't a creeper, just a little sneaky.   I did receive a small amount of delicious treats.  So I am greatful of their generosity.

Now that I think about it, I believe the Potato Fairy may actually be a Spud Gnome.  Could a tiny woodland sprite heft the weight of a sack of taters?  Probably not.  Gnomes are very hardy little buggers and could easily carry large amounts of vegetable goodness.  Perhaps it was a being of close relation to the Garden Gnome, a creature that works the soil, one that lives to help plants grow.  Some kind of ground dweller helping out the growth of the land and distributing some of the spoils to those that care.  Either that, or it was a small squadron of Potato Fairies, each hauling a single spud through the air to the intended destination- my car. 
Nah!  I think it's gotta be a gnome.

Another Old Project.

This is an old acrylic painting I made in 2000-2001.  It's Samson of biblical lore, and I cropped the image down, shaving off the sides.  I just didn't like it as a whole, and could do FAR better now.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

WARNING! There is a spoiler I marked for people that want to play the game.

The story of the game is essentially Batman brings the Joker to Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's penitentury/mental institution, to place him into custody. During the transfer into the facilities the Joker manages to escape and becomes the captor of everyone inside. Batman is trapped with all the inmates, including both the fun loony-goon nobodies and a handful of major baddies from Batman's main rogues gallery that the Joker has released from their holding cells. It's now your(Batman's) job to bring order out of the chaos Joker has unleashed.

The main quest is a series of things the Joker wants you to accomplish, and the substories/trials is comprised of tons (literally a couple hundred) of the Riddler's challenges.

The atmosphere and scenery of this game is very gothic, reminiscent of eerie old horror stories. Arkham Asylum itself, the land and achitecture, should be considered a character, and it's dark history is narrated by the voice of Arkham's founder, Amadeus Arkham. These wonderful bits are found carved on stone tablets hidden throughout the island, lending to an immersion into a very dark place indeed. The difference in areas is quite amazing. From crumbling old subterranean tunnels to the lush vegetation in the botony building. Each area of the compound is unique. You may find yourself wandering around just to look at things left lying around.
I love the fact that while a majority of the villains from the comics and cartoons are absent, there are references strewn throughout the game of most the denizens that once inhabited these halls. A few I notable ones were Vote Dent posters, Catwoman's claws in a display case, and my personal favorite Batman villain, Mr. Freeze's frosted over containment cell.

I am roughly 75% done with the game, and it flows quite well.
So, far the first boss encounter has been the best. It deserves an award for how well it was written. *SPOILER ALERT*. It starts with a dead Jim Gordon in a hallway, and Batman telling Oracle he will get the man who did it. You end up going into the Arkham morgue with a bunch of doors left open, and overlapping ghostly voices telling you that you shouldn't be there.
So heading back through the only door in the room, you end up in the same place you just walked out of. This time there are 3 bodybags squirming on tables and freezer doors flapping openg and closed. Upon opening them you discover that two are Batmans mother and father. The third is the Scarecrow. A flash and You find yourself in an Arkham hallway. Things are definitely not right in this hallway. Papers start blowing by. Trashcans begin appearing. Rain begins coming down.
The hallway is slowly transforming into an alleyway. Specifically the alley that Bruce Wayne watched his parents die in as you come upon that memory. There is another shift, and you are now that young Bruce Wayne reliving the scene. A little farther on you go leave the dead parents and enter a door.
Once through everything goes crazy. You find yourself in a strange mental landscape. A massive Scarecrow is surrounded by floating chunks of buildings in this odd realm. He is searching for you with searchlight eyes and where his gaze is are beams of searing light burning the area. If you are seen you die. You have to sneak around and find a way out of this insane land.
*SPOILER END*

This is the type of Batman game someone should have made years ago.
It's not always about just running bat-guns ablazin' into a room bataranging anything that moves. There are plenty of times you HAVE to take your time and think of ways to catch and knock out guards without alerting everyone else. There is a need for a level of stealth and trickery. So this isn't just an action game as it adds enough strategy to not put off casual gamers like myself.
It's dark, broody, and 100% about being a detective. A great story with entertaining commentary throughout by the Joker making fun of you and many of his low level henchman over the Arkham loudspeakers.
You finally get to feel like you ARE Batman. Sneaking around in the shadows, using crazy gadgets, striking fear into the hearts of crazies, and punching them in the face while they are peeing their pants.

A Few Sky Pics

Here's a few dusk time sky pics.

An Illustration

Here's another old illustration.  It's the internal of a door's locking mechanism. I like pulling things apart to see the inner workings.  Mechanical devices, not electronics.  Electronics are much less interesting visually.