Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Because I just had to comment on this...

I just had the best unintentional lulz of the evening. Funnier than an escapade someone had at work today.

To begin, let me give you all some backstory. Alberta has a history of electing the same party into a majority in the provincial government for stretches of 30-40 years at a time. The Progressive Conservatives are the latest recipients of this voter goodwill, coming up on 40 years.

Anyway, in the last election that mattered (namely, the leadership election for the PCs), the candidate who won was Ed Stelmach - he beat out the two other guys running as the compromise candidate (all the people who lost the first ballot backed him) as Albertans weren't willing to elect the ultra-pro oil or the ultra-right winger almost-separatist. To be honest, I joined the party JUST to be able to vote in that election (they sold memberships AT THE DOOR) and DID vote for Stelmach - as he was preferable to the other guys.

So Stelmach hasn't had the most effective premiership - he's been very wishy washy, and inherited a bad economy through no fault of his own. But the real problem is he continued the previous government's approach of "throw all our oil money at any project under the sun that wants it", and now that it's dried up due to the economy... well. The idiot went and promised NO NEW TAXES, AFTER the province started doing all its deficit spending. When we already have among the lowest in the country. And he went and abolished healthcare premiums - while we had money when he did it, it was a stupid move and as a result there's 2 billion less in the treasury.

And now, the government is making a whole TON of very unpopular cuts due to their lavish spending, and the deficit is ballooning, well on its way to 10 billion. The fact we've had an incompetent government since the oil money started rolling in is coming home to roost, as they didn't save anything.

Anyway, he's got a leadership review coming up. Being one who lacks charisma, and having made a LOT of questionable decisions (I swear, I'm half-convinced the government's TRYING to break our healthcare system so they can privatize it to save money), he's not going to get a lot of support. The party lost a byelection to the right wing nutso party in a safe riding, and a LOT of people don't like him now.

So tonight, being on the mailing list for the party and all, I get the following email from "Ed Stelmach":

Hello Michael,

Welcome to the first Message from Premier Ed.
This is a new way to reach out to those who are curious about what our government is doing and why we are doing it.
In subsequent messages you will hear directly from me on issues that are on the minds of regular Albertans. At the bottom of these emails, including this one, there will be a link which you can click to take your name off our list. You can resubscribe or unsubscribe as many times as you wish.
Also coming out this week is a new web-based newsletter from the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, containing interesting articles and other information about our party. Look for it soon in your email inbox.
In the past, we would communicate with the public through phone calls, advertising and direct mail. Today, the internet provides us with much faster, simpler and cheaper ways of getting our message out. We will not abandon the old ways but we are offering this and other new ones to reach as many people as possible.
Times have changed quickly. A mere decade ago, there was no Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or YouTube. Google is not much older. Yet many Albertans regularly use these sites to get information and stay in touch with their friends, relatives and colleagues. I have already set up a Facebook supporter page and a Twitter account and now I hope you will read these emails from me so we can stay in touch.
Kindest regards,
Ed Stelmach
Premier of Alberta
The fact that he's sending this out NOW, 2 weeks away from a leadership review within his party that he's going to score horribly low in (which will make him a lame duck if he doesn't step down as leader) is an indicator of one thing:

He's boned.

Time to renew my PC membership so I can vote in the only election that matters.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Revenge, and One More Thing

BT Toons - Dark Fission IV
DeviantArt - Traang | Mouseking | Valkyrie

Well, what's to say this week? Not much in particular, aside from a comic plug.

Revenge of the Fallen is now out on Bluray, and it is gorgeous. THIS is what I bought a Bluray drive for, in complete seriousness. The movie looks freakin' gorgeous. I have yet to watch the special features, but I gotta say - the movie is a spectacular show - especially the battle scene in the forest between Prime, Megatron, Starscream and Grindor.

Oh - and "one more thing" - I also got the third generation 64 GB iPod Touch. Been wanting a new one ever since I filled up the 16 gigs on my first generation one. And now that I started filling up the space altogether with JUST music, I especially wanted a new one. But the main thing holding me back was what I would want engraved on it if I ordered online (seriously. I'm not kidding.) Then, when I went to Best Buy to get ROTF, I noticed that they were actually cheaper in-store than online (given Apple apparently includes the shipping cost in their online store price, thus allowing "free shipping"). So I splurged and picked it up on the spot.

Overall, the new iPod Touches are VERY nice. Having physical volume buttons is neat, and I like how the headphones now ship with a builtin mic (though hopefully some third party products do this soon now). Also, the new processor makes one HELL of a difference when web browsing - pages load up noticeably faster.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Pushing Down Staircases: Masterpiece Edition

BT Toons - Dark Fission II | III

Apologies I've been neglecting this lately - I've got stuff to post about, but I've been busy.

Anyway, as for stuff from the last few weeks:

24 Hour Comic Challenge
This was very fun! Drew a 24 page comic in 24 hours - was a great oppurtunity to get to use pen and paper. Special Thanks to Jay at Happy Harbor and everyone who brought in food for my fellow cartoonists. And it's a pity that about 10 or so dropped out. But there were about 25 to start, so it was a good crowd.

Anyway, the comic I drew is in the BT Toons continuity - and more importantly, is CANON. It takes place sometime prior to the current storyline, and hints at a few things to come/reveals a couple spoilers. Except none of you are gonna get to see this book for a year or so, in all likelyhood :P

However, I DID get my pages back from the 12 hour I did in the spring. So expect to see those put up at some point as filler. I'm going to guess they'll go up next April during finals, to give myself a break. Said comic is NONcanon and I don't know if it fits into any of my established canons for that matter.

Pop Culture Fair
Meanwhile, I went to the biannual Pop Culture Fair on the weekend. Was a very fun shindig - got a few good and awesome deals on toys (which I'll save for a future blog post). Best part though was meeting up with other Edmonton Transformers fans, which only happens at major local events like these (Cybertron.ca has been a GREAT resource for the E-Town Super Friends). Probably spent almost an hour just standing around talking Transformers.

And then later in the day Racerguy76 reported that he'd found MP Skywarp (Hasbro Edition) at retail. Which surprisingly was the FIRST sighting of the figure in Canada - not only did we beat the US like with the Insecticons/Perceptor, but we beat the rest of the country, which never happens! Long story short, I now have a beautiful Hasbro MP Skywarp on my desk. And I implore any Canadian TFans who don't own the mold (or who own Starscream or Thundercracker) to pick it up, as it is only $60 CAD. Which is a PHENOMENAL price,
considering I was expecting it to cost closer to 80 bucks. These aren't going to last long.

And so, some pictures of everyone's favorite pusher of others down stairs:






Monday, October 05, 2009

Ramjetting a new storyline

BT Toons - Dark Fission I
Sourcebook - Page 6 | Page 7

Well, another comic update. So begins my latest storyline, on which I did not get any of the initial preparation I wanted to get done done. I have an idea where it's going, but it's malleable right now.

And the kinda bigger priority is coming up with my 24-hour challenge comic idea. I want to do something in-canon, that fits in before this story. It will have spoilers of stuff that will be revealed later in this one (but which are irrelevant due to the fact that they don't come into play for a while).

Meanwhile, ogle over my most elaborate TF custom to date - everyone's favorite liar Starscream clone, TFA Ramjet! He came out very well - although sadly the gearing for transformation no longer works properly.

I also have no intention of transforming him due to fears of paint scrapage.