Anon Strikes Back

I just spent the last half and hour or so watching Twitter go crazy over Anon's response to the take down of Megaupload (currently trending under "the internet strikes back" at the time of this posting).

The call to arms went out earlier:


Here's the thing- this will probably prove to be counterproductive to yesterday's massive protests. Still, it feels damn good to watch the people hell bent on dismantling the greatest platform for free speech mankind has ever known get a little cyber cider in their eyes courtesy of Anonymous.

In case you were wondering? Some of the rat fucks behind PIPA are already running scared.

New Comic

I give you, Get your censor on

SOPA/PIPA

The problems with SOPA and PIPA are numerous, but they condense to one unavoidable point: Both pieces of legislation give sweeping censorship powers to corporations. This will not only increase self censorship- it will stifle future innovation and creativity by making the internet a riskier place to start new businesses, which in turn will lead to fewer and more cautious investors. This is actually what corporations like the MPAA and RIAA want. This isn't really about piracy because these bills don't really have chance at stopping piracy. This is about shutting down competition.

One of the founders of Veoh details how Universal Music (UMG) through a completely groundless lawsuit abused the DMCA and ultimately forced him to sell the start-up off in a fire sale.

Today Ars Technica is contributing to the fight against these two extremely dangerous pieces of legislation by arming the populace with loads of information.

Artists (you know, the "content generators" that SOPA and PIPA are going to murder the internet to allegedly protect) say that the bills would do far more harm than good.

Google has a take action page.

In case you're still unclear:


Alright, here's a song:


Finally, somethings never change (language warning):



Contact your Congress people.

Update: A host of webcomics are participating in the blackout strike.

Why I Love This Town

BPD were arresting a gentleman for- honestly- what the fuck ever because it's Baltimore. The interesting thing is that while they were cuffing the suspect a random dude attacks one of the arresting officers. The funny thing is that exact freaking thing happened in the very first episode of The Wire. I tell you, this town.

What I'm Currently Reading (and some other stuff)

Hope you had a fun and happy solstice and that 2012 proves better than 2011.

Since the DC reboot two things have happened. Thing the first is that my local comic shop closed. Lame. Thing the second is that I decided to just have the three (soon to be five) monthlies that I'm reading delivered. Thank you, Comix Zone. In case you were wondering? Getting comics in the mail is so very awesome.

Currently reading:
Wonder Woman
Batwoman
Super Girl

Will start reading this month:
Birds of Prey
Justice League

I am also using the hell out of my Crunchyroll subscription. No, I am still not watching Naruto. I am, however, watching Battle Girls Time Paradox which is kind of like someone was watching a lot of Koihime Musou and thought "Hey, why don't we do this with feudal Japan instead of just ripping off classic Chinese literature?". It's not as fun as Kiohime, but it's good. I just finished Murder Princess, which probably benefits from being 6 episodes long considering that it's fairly consistently meh. The animation isn't terrible, but it's not particularly good either. The plot is fairly predictable. The characters are unremarkable standard anime types. And while I will never stop wishing that Funimation would offer subs as readily available as their dubbed work, the voice acting in Murder Princess is acceptable. (Or maybe I mean that I wish Netflix offered subtitle options for more of it's instant selection?) It's pretty heavy on the romantic two girl friendship, which is something. I guess. So, Murder Princess: Come for the intriguing concept of a near death experience causing a princess to swap bodies with a bounty hunter (of monsters) and then convincing that bounty hunter to avenge her father's death and protect the kingdom, realize that the A-plot is pretty meh, then end up staying for the les yay (which is intense enough to practically be the B-plot). If you like that sort of thing.

I've been dragging my feet on finishing Geroge R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons because I have been informed that the end will make me want to punch Mr. Martin. More so than usual.

I finally finished Planetary. It took longer than I expected because something happened in the second volume that crawled inside of me and murdered something precious. That is not a complaint; it means that story was resonating with me. Still, it took me a while to get through that. Though I am pleased to say that volumes 3 and 4 resurrected that precious thing. The art is beautiful and the story is nothing short of amazing and ridiculously fun. Seriously, guys. Planetary is totally on my favorites list.

I have also been running around the land of Skyrim killing the ever loving fuck out Dragons and just about anything else that I come across. It is sweet.

On Comics

Credentials are in order, I suppose. I started off reading Spider Man back when I was a not quite so wee tyke. I dropped Spidey (and the rest of my Marvel reading) with the clone saga. I stopped reading comics for a number of years, but started picking up trade paperbacks some years back. I returned to monthlies (DC) three months before they announced the reboot.

Come September, I'll be picking up...well, I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll keep reading comics. I guess September will begin a chronicle of a lapse comic nerd trying to cope with the DCU reboot. To kick things off, we should start with my current pull list:

-Batgirl
-Birds of Prey
-Secret Six
-Wonder Woman
-Batman Inc
-Power Girl
-Zatanna
-Detective Comics

Anyone keeping track can see several problems coming down the pike in September already.

That said, TPB's that I'm catching up on:
-Powers
-Planetary
-Hellboy
-Fables
-100 Bullets
-Sandman
-Wonder Woman (selected)
-the occasional impulse buy

Well, Hello There.

Here's the deal: I have been sorely disabused of all my illusions. I am tired and I am done. The only legitimate action in an illegitimate system is subversion. Take that for what you will. So no politics.

I've suspected that I would write this post for some time, but I put it off because maybe- just maybe- I'd manage to rekindle some of old idealism. Well, I've finally accepted that my idealism isn't just in tatters, it's dead.

This isn't about Democrats or Republicans or the President or congress. It's about the system as a whole. I honestly believe that if voting worked it would be illegal. Participating in the system only legitimizes the illegitimate so I'm no longer participating.

The statists will forever argue over which set of rules they should impose from the top down to make people better. The rest of us are just along for the ride for as much of boot we're willing to allow on our necks. So I'm going to write about something important. I'm going to write about stories.

Stories have amazing power. We mythologize our history- turn it into stories- in order to construct a narrative about the world and our place as human beings and as a society in that world. We invent stories to tell ourselves in order to analyze the world and our place in it.

But stories don't just help us examine ourselves, our society, and our world- they also shape those things. We create heroes we want to emulate. We imagine great feats and then dare to reach for them. The greatest stories aren't the stories of who we were, but rather of who we wish to become. So I'm going to write about stories.

Who knows? One day something may occur that's so gobsmackingly stupid that my only recourse in restoring my sanity is to scream impotently into the endless electronic static of the internet. If you like words and occasionally how I toss them together I'll be writing about stories here and working on some short fiction here.

Also, you know, the occasional random video or link. You'll note the link list has been...edited.

Golden.

I love heading over to Pravda's English site and scanning headlines because more often than not you will find a thing of great beauty. Today's big winners?

Birth of twins: Devil's will or double joy?

And

Magic rituals lead to ecological disaster.

Awesome.