Banner doesn't live here anymore...

This blog will be a tad embarrassing of me as it is exposing that I am in my 30s and I still watch cartoons and probably will until I am dead in the dirt and then I will get out of my grave to see what new cartoons have been released.

Besides cartoons, I am also a huge comic book fan and one of my favorite heroes when I was growing up was the Hulk. The story of Hulk is that radiation scientist Robert Bruce Banner was caught in an gamma radiation explosion when saving teenager Rick Jones. Instead of burning him to a crisp, Banner seemed fine until he he became angry or agitated (in the beginning, it could also be triggered by the moon) when he would become the Hulk, a gigantic creature of near limitless strength, durability and invulnerability. He had limited intelligence, making him easily angered and the more angered he was, the stronger he became. Even though he was considered a superhero, due to his quick to punch attitude, he often found himself battling heroes along with villains.

With Hulk's popularity came cartoons, some I found loveable (like the 1982 Hulk cartoon), some I found damn dark (the 1996 Hulk cartoon) and some I found bizarre (the original 1966 cartoon).

 

The 1982 Incredible Hulk show, my personal favorite

These days, the Hulk can be found on the following shows, "Avengers Assemble" and "Hulk and the Agents of S.m.a.s.h." and while they are good enough shows, personally I liked AA precursor, "Avengers; Earth's Mightiest Heroes" a lot better because I think there is something odd about how these shows portray the green goliath. Neither show feature Hulk's alter-ego, Bruce Banner. To me, there is no Hulk without Bruce Banner and vice versa. In fact, there was an brief period where the two were separated but couldn't live without being one entity who just changed into the other every so often. The shows of today though show that Hulk is Hulk 24/7, 365, and to me, it makes the show kinda boring. Banner brought a complexity to the character, he didn't want to be the Hulk but he knew that being the Hulk had its uses. However, in the new shows, He's always Hulk and the easiest way to solve problems was to smash things. Not even the 82 show worked like that and that show featured some goofy storylines and Banner, after Hulking out, always returning to normal with clothes intact.

Though the Hulk is in fact an excellent super hero, and one of my personal favorite heroes, I feel like the more recent cartoons are leaving out what some would could call his best side, his more human side, his Banner side.

The mother of all questions, Answered...

Unlike my last few posts, this one is pretty serious because it involves questions I've been asked for the past 3+ years; "Why is it taking me so long to finish college?"and "How much debt have you put yourself in trying to finish school?" . Everyone or at least everyone reading this, I'm about to give a hopefully reasonable answer so grab something to drink and begin reading...

I began attending Sinclair Community College in 2003, without a real plan of what degree to strive for. Most of my fellow high school graduates were attending Sinclair so it seemed like the best thing to do. I'm sure I spent most of my first fall quarter hitting on women, unsuccessfully. My favorite class at the time was "the freshmen experience", a class for incoming freshmen that was so easy, you could sleep throughout the class and receive an A and ironically, I got a C. Throughout my 3 original years at Sinclair, I took classes that looked  interesting but didn't go really go towards my major, even though my major was liberal arts. I guess classes like "art of horror films" and "tennis" would've just destroyed my academic standing. Well, one day, in my advanced English class, someone from Wright State University came and talked with my class about the advantages one would have at Wright State when finished at Sinclair. This interested me and after speaking with a classmate who happened to be at the event told me I didn't have to finish Sinclair to attend Wright State, that sealed the deal for me.

Like my first time at Sinclair, My first few years at Wright State were me not taking things seriously while being happy that I was not living at home anymore (How I miss those days). While spending most of those times were spent  gaming and hitting on girls, unsuccessfully, I still wasn't serious about school. In fall quarter 2008, the class I was in, linguistics, had a visitor from the English Department who talked about the TESOL program, which would allow students to go overseas and teach English to children. I honestly liked this idea and after receiving more info on the program, I decided that the program what I wanted to do. The following fall quarter, 2009, I was able to take an advanced writing class and I was really influenced by both the class and the teacher. It almost felt like my teacher could bring the best out of students, me included, and I decided I wanted to do that along the TESOL program.

So, in answering one question, part of reason why I am still in school is because I didn't know what I truly wanted to major in, English/Creative Writing, until 2009. The other reason is because, as a close friend of mine has said, "Life happens".

As for the question on my financial situation, I have this to say and I apologize if I come off as rude; I am the only person paying for my school, besides the government. If my financial woes were such a big deal for some, maybe they should help me out. It just angers me that I'm told and even chastised about the further and further debt I'm putting myself into with loans when no one is insisting to help me. Finishing school is a dream for me and if I have to drive myself into further debt to make it happen, then God Damn it, I'll do that! Sorry, I got carried away there.

Now, hopefully, this has answered a few questions and I hope I did not piss off too many people.

F*ck Black Friday and Thanksgiving day sales

This blog isn't going to be all that funny...well, there will some humor but this a serious subject matter. I'm used to Black Fridays where employees have to sacrifice their holiday time with  families to cater to the needs of masses who just want to catch great deals on Christmas presents. As someone who has worked through a couple of Black Fridays, I feel sorry for anyone who has to work through them, as people have, at times, become rabid animals over a new game system.

Black Friday Dayton Mall customers at 4 a.m.

This year, however, seems different. More capitalistic and soulless, if you will. Throughout the month of November, there have been commercials for black Friday sales starting the Wednesdays before or even the Thanksgiving (Thursday) of said sale day. This worries me for the following reasons with the first being what about the employees of said retail shops? Thanksgiving is a holiday where EVERYONE deserves rest and time with their family, including the employees. Employees are treated like literal crap, or worse, during "BF" so imagine how they'll be treated on the days before, including turkey day.  Second, Thanksgiving used to be about being thankful for what a person has but now it's about the hottest sales a store has. It's not being thankful for what you've got, it's being thankful for what you want, will get and then waiting for the updated of it 6-12 months. Third, the feeling of people devolving over  the years of "BF". Reports of people being shot, stabbed, trampled or whatever over a sale is just disgusting . It really makes me wonder what the bigwigs think when they hear a person was injured or even killed over a product of theirs. Possibly puts a smile to their faces.
In closing, Thanksgiving day and Black Friday sales are a show that capitalism is taking over our holidays. What's next, sales on Christmas day? Then those who work retail will never get a day off, splitting families further apart. These black friday commercials where everyone is smiling and happy are bunch of bullshit! It is chaos!
Fuck you, Black Friday!

Fanboying over the Fantasic Four; She-Hulk edition

Let it be known that I am a HUGE Fantastic Four fan. They are my favorite super hero team, yes, even over the X-Men. The group has always had great chemistry with each other, even in the early years when it seemed they could barely get along. For those who don't know, The Fantastic Four (or FF for short) are a group of heroes who received their powers when traveling to space to study cosmic rays. The team consists of;
- Reed Richards, leader of the team and resident big brain, given the name Mr.Fantastic, who has the ability to stretch and bend his body into any shape desired.
-Susan Storm (Richards),  given the name Invisible Woman, who has the ability to make herself  invisible and produce force fields and powerful fields of invisible psionic energy which she uses for a variety of offensive and defensive effects, making her the most powerful member of the team (thank you, wikipedia).
-Ben Grimm, given the name The Thing, known for his big rocky, inhuman appearance. Has super strength and durability. Loves to fight and saying the phrase "It's clobberin' time!". My avatar on twitter.
-Johnny Storm, given the name The Human Torch, has the ability to engulf his entire body in flames and is able to fly, absorb fire harmlessly into his own body, and can control any nearby fire by sheer force of will. (thanks again, Wikipedia).
Created in 1961 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the FF became icons of the comic industry with their adventures into unknown parts of the world and beyond, all while getting to know these four characters as they grew closer into a family (though Susan and Johnny are brother and sister and Susan would go on to marry Reed). Everyone loved these four characters and so it came as shock when in 1984, the group, except for Susan were transported to Battleworld, along with other Marvel heroes for the Secret Wars (I'm not going into it, just look it up). When the team returned, they had somehow changed.

Gone was the Thing, who decided to stay on Battleworld after discovering he could control his transformations from Thing to Ben Grimm on the planet. Now there was Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk. Cousin to the Incredible Hulk, she has strength, durability and stamina close to his and great lawyer skills. I don't know what the audiences initial thoughts were when this happened in 1984 but when I first saw it, in 1990, long after she left the FF, I hated it. I thought there was no way the Thing could be replaced by a girl, let alone a female version of the Hulk. But I was 8, in that '"girls sucks" era in my life and also in the stage where I mostly looked at comic books, not read them. When I began actually reading comics, years later, I actually picked up a few issues of the FF when "Shulkie" (her team nick name) was in the group and surprisingly, I didn't hate them. I think a couple things helped; one being the art and stories of John Byrne, who quickly became my favorite comic book artist. The other thing being that the more I read back issues featuring She Hulk, the more the team felt balanced. With the original line up, the team was great but Susan Storm was mostly know as "the girl" in the group. With Shulkie, the group was now equal and more fun, especially since the strength of the team was a woman. From 1984-1987 (I think), She Hulk battled along side the FF until she decided to rejoin The Marvel team the Avengers, while the Thing rejoined the FF.
Today, I have most of the FF issues with She-Hulk, including some very important issues and not only did her time make me more of a Fantastic Four fan but it made the "Shulkie" one of my favorite super heroes, period.

Outgrowing "Adult Swim"...

This is not a goodbye to "Adult Swim", because there are still some shows on it I watch, but an opinion of how I feel the program block has De-evolved . Granted, Adult Swim was never the most intelligent program block but the shows weren't in your face with how unintelligent most of the shows have become.

I was around when AS premiered in 2001, on Cartoon Network, and was floored by the shows it produced. With it's cursing, adult themes and situations, and surrealness, the block had me hooked and with the exception of Aqua Teens Hunger Force, the shows were parodies of older Hanna Barbera shows and it was visible that the creators  were fans of Hanna Barbera's output of old school action. I didn't know whether or not these shows were just jokes or recurring series but was excited when the shows were on again the next night and I have been a fan of the block since, until recently...

Lately, or at least around 2009, the shows I loved, like Space Ghost; Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021 and the Brak Show were long gone. Now come shows like Tim & Eric, Metalocalypse, Superjail, Loiter Squad and the Eric Andre Show that pretty much are either loud, violent, nonsensical and sometimes uncomfortable to watch. Aqua Teens is still around but has fell to the level of what is wrong with AS shows. Another show I enjoyed until recently, Robot Chicken, is now just nothing but mostly toys being used for rape and child abuse jokes.

I'm not saying that AS needs to change its ways because I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'm simply stating that their type of programing is not my style anymore. I'll still watch a few shows on the block but the type of audience their aiming for these days has to have dwindled from college aged kids to sophomore high school students. That or I really am just getting old.

Shows I still watch on Adult Swim; Venture Brothers, Black Dynamite, The Boondocks, and Eagleheart.

P.S. Ironically, most of the shows I listed as the most juvenile are live action shows. Weird for a supposedly all cartoon network.

Why I am not a Naruto fan...

I know it has been forever since I've posted a blog but life happens, along with a lot of procrastination, but now I'm posting a new blog that is a quasi-continuation of the previous blog, "Ninja Obsession". 

As mentioned in the previous blog, I am obsessed with almost anything that is of authentic Japanese Ninjitsu but there is an exception, one that has a huge following in Japan and in the States. If the title didn't tip you off, it's Naruto, an ninja based anime and manga about the adventures of a few students of a ninja academy. The students, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, learn ninjitsu while competing with and helping each other and even saving the world. Sounds right up my alley, doesn't it? Well, again, as the title says, I am not a big fan of this series. 

 My reason for this are the following; I feel that Naruto is just not written well. Most of the characters are either not written well enough to care about or just plain annoying, Especially Naruto himself, who is brash and annoying. All I ever hear from him is just "I want to be the best, I want to be the best ninja" and it gets old after episode 7. Yes, he saves the world from supernatural villains, some from Asian mythology, but he goes about in the way of "Hey, I already know I can beat you but we'll prolong it for several episodes or an entire movie". Maybe, if Naruto used a bit more teamwork (in the episodes I've watched it's always about him) and if Naruto weren't so loud, maybe I would be into it more.
The more interesting characters; Jiraiya, a perverted teacher, Sasuke, a main character who flip flops between rivaling with Naruto and wanting to kill him, and Rock Lee, ninja/ kung-fu student.