Whine and Cheese

Scrounging for change to pay for something is not necessarily new to me. Growing up poor... then dirt poor... in Southeastern KY, I learned quickly to watch every penny when I went shopping. I knew that as I added items to the grocery cart to round up the prices, so I would never go over the amount of money I had. I actually got pretty good at it as a kid.

Nowadays, I admit that I don't have to do it for every day things. I have savings, I have a good salary, and I know I have enough money to pay for basics without worrying about going over. However, all of this hinges on my wallet being in my pocket.

I went out for a quick lunch today by myself. I got out of the car and was three steps away from the restaurant door when I almost instinctively patted my pocket, only to realize my wallet wasn't there. Earlier, I had pulled it out to get my credit card to make travel arrangements for an upcoming work trip. I'd not put it back into my pocket and had left the office without it.

While I was mad at myself, I was also relieved that I hadn't found out AFTER I ordered lunch. I pondered driving back to the office to get it, but I knew it would eat up my lunch time. I have a cup in my console full of change. I recently had cleaned it out, but left most of the quarters. I pulled out $5 worth of quarters and drove to Wendy's across the street and got a very cheap and not very healthy lunch to take back to work.

So the diet got wrecked today, but I was happy that change was there. I had long joked that I needed to stash a $20 bill in the car for emergencies. I did that today. The emergency $20 is now in place and hopefully there will never be a situation to require me to use it.

So I found out today via email that I won the office costume contest this year. This is my fourth win. I'm pretty happy with it, especially since I had some pretty stiff competition this year.


The Devil (2003), The Brownie (2008), The KY Jelly (2017),
and now The Emotional Support Satyr.
The stakes will be pretty high for next year, I think. Everyone will expect something bigger and better. At least I have a year to think of something.

I've been clearing the house of little projects that has been lingering for months. One of my errands that have been on the back-burner was getting a printed copy of my comic for my file to put with the original artwork. I was two issues behind, so the cost was not low, but it's a necessary evil.


Several folks have asked about getting printed copies of the comic. The only problem with that is that it is cost prohibitive.

However, I admit it looks great in a printed form.

Whenever I work on an issue of my comic book, I tend to fall into "hermit mode," a sort of self-imposed exile from social things while I draw, ink, or color pages. It's not necessarily intentional, but I tend not to seek anything social to do in the same window of time. I felt into hermit mode a couple of weeks back when I started concentrating on the next issue. Taking last Friday off, I had a three-day weekend to color comic pages. I finished coloring the interior pages last night.

After work today, I went for a run. Only two miles done, as my foot felt a bit wonky, so I didn't push it at all. No racing, just two miles at a regular pace. My time was horrible, I'm sure. After a couple of walking laps, I went home and then raked leaves for the next 90 minutes, so every extremity is worn out, along with my shoulders.

I'll sleep really sound tonight.

After eating, I decided to take a break from the comic book, which is hard considering how close I am to getting it done. Tonight was catching up on "American Horror Story: Cult" and LJ.

Luckily, I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow as I'm working from home. I don't take advantage of teleworking as much as I should. It's one of the nicer perks.

Friday at work was horrendous. It was like everyone wanted a piece of me that day... and got it. Acting for my director didn't help as most of the headaches was covering for her. Her job is hard and some folks that report to her (not me) make it harder for her than needs to be.

I slept in on Saturday. After mowing the yard, showering, and grabbing lunch, I spent most of the afternoon drawing on my comic book. Around 6 PM, I got my Halloween costume together and drove to northern Cincinnati for a Halloween party. I love the creativity of the gang who goes to this party. My diet was blown to pieces, but I admit I had a lot of fun doing it. And as usual, there was a photo booth:


KY Jelly, Anyone?
Yes, I went as a tube of KY Jelly. I sewed the costume myself, printed the labeling on tee-shirt transfers and put them on, and made the tube cap out of a child's police helmet, a popcorn bowl, a small soup bowl, and lots of hot glue.

The costume was great for various lines, like "Excuse me, while I squeeze through." Others made similar lines, which makes me think the costume was a success.

I bought my first lawn mower when I moved in my house in 2001. It's just like the one I grew up using, a 20" gas-powered mower. It's done a great job for all these years, but last week while I was mowing it seemed to be giving me a near-death rattle. The motor wasn't running as smoothly and it seemed to struggle quite a bit.

Since then, I've been looking online at different mowers. I have been wanting to try something different, so I've been spying the electric lawn mowers. Buying gas for the old mower is a pain, so I'd like to see about avoid it. Battery-powered ones have their ups and downs, mostly linked to battery life. Corded ones have their drawbacks as well, as many folks have told me about running over the electric cord.

On the way home from work today, I stopped at Home Depot to look at the furry eye candy... er, to comparison shop for mowers. They didn't have much in the way of electric mowers. The only model in stock was battery-powered and expensive. However, just next to it was something that caught my eye, something I'd not seen for a long time.

A manual reel mower.

The design is a bit fancier than the mowers I remember, but it principles are very much the same. I've never used one. My dad had one, but it literally sat outside in a corner of the yard, like a prop or a decorative item. The blades and wheels on it had long rusted in place, so it was completely non-functional.

So, on a lark, I bought one. It's far cheaper than the powered mowers and the online reviews are actually very positive. It's must quieter than powered models and, while it requires a bit more effort by me, it should be good for a cardio workout. For my 1/4 acre yard, which is 1/3 wooded, it may be an effective stop-gap while I continue a search for the electric mower. I put it together tonight after my chest/back workout.

I'm very eager to try it out tomorrow after work.

I've always enjoyed the Giffen-era "Legion of Super-Heroes" from back in the 1980s. I loved the artwork. It was the era when I started reading the Legion, learning about how each Legionnaire had to have one unique power to belong, sometimes with heroes only having one power.

Sometimes the heroes had some pretty weak powers. Duo Damsel was one of those, having the ability to split into two identical selves, each having no other power. While in reality, it would be a very cool and practical power, being able to get so much more done. In the comic book world, it hardly put her at Superman levels. Still she was a favorite of mine.

One of my favorite quotes was from Duo Damsel.

"The best part of the LSH is how heroes with relatively weak powers can combine to become highly effective."

I enjoyed how a hero with a single power could be useful in certain circumstances. So for fun, in the comments, tell me your power and your "kid, boy, girl..." code-name. Remember, you have to have a power no one in the Legion has to be eligible to be Legionnaire.

Mine would be "Replay Lad," who had the power of psychometry, allowing him to see past events when he touched objects or people. And of course, he could fly using the Legion flight ring.

This week has been a busy one and an irritating one, the latter part due mainly to my own actions.

Tuesday night, I finally took the plunge and updated my iPhone operating software to the latest version. I often hold off doing the updates because they sometimes have issues and I'd rather wait and let others try it first. So after finally caving in to the update, I found that my iPhone no longer would be recognized by iTunes on my desktop.

Checking the software status on iTunes, I found it was the most recent version. According to a web search, I needed to update my Mac mini's operating software. So I downloaded the updated overnight, as it took over three hours. The next morning, I did the install of the OS X "El Capitan" system. It warned me that Photoshop and Microsoft Office wouldn't work, but I had hit go already. Insert "D'OH!"

The install was taking a while, so I went to work and dreaded what I'd encounter on my arrival home in the afternoon. And my fears were correct. While my iPhone will now sync to the updated iTunes, my Photoshop CS will no longer work, the system stating that the new operating system will not run Power PC programs. I tried to updated a few utilities to see if it would work, but no dice. I thought about buying a new version of Photoshop CS, but the last version on CD was CS6 and it costs $1200. Newer versions are now by online subscription, at a minimum of $9.99/month.

I debated on what to do next. I have relied on Photoshop to color my comic and other cartoons, but I'm not sure a subscription is worth the price, considering the limited reasons I use it. One option was to downgrade the operating software back to an earlier version to continue using my old Photoshop, but it would only be a stop-gap measure as I'll have to replace them both at some point once the software was no longer supported on any platform.

I've purchased Manga Studios 5 from Amazon and it should arrive tomorrow. From what I've seen, it seems to be able to do whatever I need, including reading old PSD files and creating new ones if necessary, as well as permitting a few new tricks. I'm hopeful. aceofspace and other friends have suggested alternate programs that might help, so I'll be looking into those in case the Manga software isn't going to work for me.

All of this because of my iPhone. Well, that's not necessarily fair. It was bound to happen eventually, I guess.

Odds and ends of the week thus far.

• After being off work for a week, Monday was a rough one. This time of year makes it hard to get out of bed with it being so cold. Even Maggie the Cat isn’t all energetic in the mornings any more.



• I watched a Netflix DVD last night called ”The Giant Behemoth. It was a 1959 monster movie about a radioactive dinosaur in England. It stars John Turner, who was the bearded hottie in “The Black Torment” I wrote about last week. He’s a bit younger in this one, with no beard or shirtless scenes, but it was good camp for a cheap movie. Some cool things about the movie was the special effects, which were primitive. The dinosaur didn’t breath fire, but would emit radioactive bursts that could roast a person, which happened quite a bit. And when the people of London were being evacuated, they must have used locals for background actors. A lot of the people in very tense dramatic moments could be seen nervously smirking or smiling and taking quick glances at the camera. In the scenes where they were running from the monsters, I was impressed to see these little old grannies really hoofing it.



• I finished the plotting of the next issue of my comic book last night. I just have to set up the panels and I will probably start drawing it tomorrow. Issue #16… wow…
.


• I have no NYE plans. My usual plans include attending the annual bash thrown by my softball buddy Thom and his hubby Jay, but this year they’re taking a break. They’ve even posted on FB that they have no plans themselves and have no idea what to do tonight. They just got back from a trip down South, so I’m sure they’ll be taking it easy anyway.



• I got my new ID badge at work today. My photo is very, VERY yellow. I look jaundiced. Nice that they used the DMV camera and that I’ll keep it for the next four years. Sigh… where is Photoshop when you needed it…

Happy Hump Day, all y’all!

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So before I packed up and headed south, I purchased a used DVD of "Black Christmas". I've written about this movie over and over again. I'm jokingly obsessed. I have no idea why, I just find the movie fascinating in odds ways.

Now I have the Blu-ray and a DVD copy already, this after I gave away another copy to a buddy, so why buy another? In my research online about the movie, I came across a nearly defunct website that listed some cool features on an earlier DVD release that strangely are missing from later DVD and Blu-Ray releases. So, I found a copy on Amazon Marketplace. It had been sitting at my post office while my mail was held during Christmas.

I got this DVD copy in the mail today and it's full of extras that are absent from the later releases -- good extras.


Black Christmas Movie Poster
Among the extras available are:

• Audio commentary by Director Bob Clark (he also directed "A Christmas Story" and "Porky's").
  
• Audio commentary by stars John Saxon and Keir Dullea.
  
• A "Revisited" Documentary.
  
• A Episode of a TV Series called "Dark Dreamers" staring John Saxon (not sure why this is on here, but okay... something more to watch)

What surprised me about the DVD is that there are even more extras as a DVD-ROM, yet the DVD doesn't even state this on the cover or the interior flier. I wouldn't have even known of them if I hadn't seen them on the aforementioned website.

The DVD-ROM includes a PDF press book for "Silent Night, Deadly Night," which was the original US release title; a PDF of their movie posters (the above pic is a portion of one of them); and (the best part) is a PDF of the original script, with crossed-out scene, hand-written pages, etc. It must have been a working script by the writers. It's nice to be able to read some of the lines that got a bit blurred in the movie. Even more fun was some of the cut scenes, which were actually pretty funny. This is probably one of the fun scenes in the movie, between Sergeant Nash and Barb (Margot Kidder) when she gets the best of the officer, using a word he's unfamiliar with.




Unlike most movies today, where they do whole "making of" documentaries to accompany a film, there is very little production documentation and photos I can find. It is rare that I delve so far into something like this. I have one more "piece" of the movie background to get. In my searches, I came across a paperback novelization of the film in 1976, released in Canada (where the movie was filmed), written from the screenplay. Supposedly, it contains extra scenes that are documented out, probably like the script I have. With the joys of the internet, I managed to find a used copy of a nearly 40-year-old paperback. It should be here next week.

I am such a geek. Seriously.