When you walk, through a storm...

I’ve been taking part in a discussion on a forum about the portrayal of female superheroes in comics. The original post linked to this particular article, and the general consensus seems to have been that this is just someone who is being politically correct and has never read a comic before in their life. Comics have always been this way, its how we like them and we shouldn’t change them just because of some PC crap.

I personally think that’s not a fair response. Now, being a red blooded male, I’ll admit to liking female superheroes dressed in those skin tight outfits. I hated the run of Wonder Woman before the whole reboot because they changed her outfit from the usual outfit to a jacket and trousers, Wonder Woman has always had that recognisable look and I didn’t want it to change. However, I think there has been a growing trend of drawing these female characters in a titillating way just to draw in an audience. I don’t think its hard to tell that comic books has been a bit of a struggling art form as late, where they’re not as popular as they once were and I feel like this is scene as an easy go-to to try and pull in readers.

Now fair enough, I can understand that, and sometimes I enjoy it. What I don’t enjoy is when it seems to be at the sacrifice of a good story because in the end, what makes me read comics is the story and seeing how the characters evolve and deal with difficult situations. I think Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Catwoman are two examples where story has been sacrificed in favour of titillating the audience. The way Starfire has been portrayed is horrendous and I really don’t like the change to Catwoman. I loved Selina Kyle before the new 52. Her own series was great, seeing her relationship with Bruce develop was wonderful to see and then the run of Gotham City Sirens was fantastic. So of course I was ecstatic to see Catwoman having her own series in the new 52 and I got the first issue eagerly and what do I see? Depending on your viewpoint, she essentially rapes Batman. She doesn’t seem to be the fiercely independent and strong woman anymore. She looks more like a scared girl and I don’t like it.

So I agree somewhat with the original article. Now it’s not true in all cases, as usual this is a generalisation but I do get the feeling that when you see these characters being drawn like this, the story tends to be lacking. Whether the art draws away from the story, or just that the story isn’t good in the first place, I’m not sure, but it feels lacking.

But the impression I got from the discussion I was following was kind of different from the original link posted. The writer’s personal opinion was that the art detracts from the story. But now people are screaming about it’s the PC brigade trying to censor things and I think that’s a different issue. They claim that male superheroes are treated no differently than their female counterparts. Well I’m sorry everyone but you’re way wrong. It’s obvious to me that female superheroes are drawn very differently to male superheroes. That doesn’t mean that people are wrong for liking the way the female superheroes are drawn, that should be your choice, but to then claim that both are being treated equally is just ignorant in my opinion.

So I just felt the original issue actually had two discussions within it really and instead of ranting there, I decided to rant here instead.

I stole this from earthstarmoon. Any sort of meme that involves music usually steals my attention because god dammit, I love music.

( Music Meme )

So I've been following the Giant Bomb coverage of E3 this past week and I think one of the (many) funny things to come from it is the idea that the song Power by Kanye West goes with every trailer. Two trailers were released this E3 using that song and it's been a joke that the song has been stuck in everyone's head. The Giant Bomb community took it upon itself to test the theory that the song goes with every trailer. I've selected a few of my personal favourites here.

Original thread http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion/30/no-one-trailer-should-have-all-this-power/501231/?

This is one of the original trailers








And my personal favourite



EDIT: Ok, I just found this one and because I like Giant Bomb so much, this has to be a favourite too.

So for the longest time, I had been thinking about what to do with my hair. Basically, I love my long hair. It was something that I enjoyed having. However, thanks to genetics, I was blessed with a receding hairline that has only been getting worse, and the fact my hair was getting more annoying to deal with. It was knotting up more than ever despite doing all I could to stop it. And also the side of my head, the hair would grow to a certain point and would stop growing, leaving me with a weird mad scientist look that I've been keeping in check by trimming.

I know that most people who end up with receding hairlines find that a very short haircut is the best solution. It's something I thought about on and off and chatted with Megan and my Mum about in passing. The response was usually something like. "No! Your beautiful long hair!". However, this week I've been considering it seriously all week and finally this morning I took the plunge. I basically have a short cut all over now and I don't know if its the best look for me, but I feel a lot better now, which I think is important. And most of the comments I've got on it have been pretty positive. So bye bye to long hair. I know have super short hair.

(I'm going to get a Gourry wig for when I want to indulge, which was half the reason I wanted long hair anyway :P)

From New Haircut

From New Haircut

Just watched The Daily Show, and all I can say is that I'm completely sickened that the bill about tax cuts is the one being pushed through, yet the bill that's supposed to help the first responders who are now suffering from illness because of their actions on September 11th, 2001, is being filibustered. Seriously? That's how their priorities are?

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload) 5 songs you love that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

dqbunny gave me G. Hmm? I wonder why? :P

( 'Get Fighted' by Alexisonfire )

( 'Get To Da Choppa' by Austrian Death Machine )

( 'Gracious' by Fightstar )

( 'Giving Up On Love' by The Ataris )

( 'Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)' by Green Day )

...that the sountrack to the Scott Pilgrim game is frigging AWESOME!!!



0:36 when in kicks in. *drools*









It looks like the soundtrack is officially out on the 24th August. I think I've been sweet enough that my darling wife will be kind enough to get it for me :P

So thanks to dqbunny and secondlina, I have a nice brand new LJ layout which I really love a lot. It's kind of funny that I got it updated considering how little I use this thing. But I guess I've always felt like I've never had anything interesting to say. And whenever I did have anything interesting to say, it usually involved dqbunny and she would post about it and basically I have a small fraction of those following her following me. So it ends up reaching essentially the same audience. More really when you think about it. But since the layout's been updated, I feel like I should say more.

Recently I picked up DeathSpank for the PS3. It's a fun little hack and slash style action RPG. You can tell a lot has been put into the story and it's trying to be pretty humorous. However, I've not particularly laughed all that much to the dialogue and I've found myself agreeing with a lot of critics in that the voice actor for DeathSpank himself is a little annoying. I find myself actually skipping the voiced dialogue and just read the text quickly. The gameplay itself is very addicting. You're doing stuff all the time, you're levelling up fairly regularly (I believe the cap is 20). You're collecting items all the time and due to the limited size of your inventory, you actually grind old armour and weapons you no longer need on a fairly regular basis. So it hooks you in the fact you feel like you're always progressing. It can also be fairly difficult until you start realising you need to actually use your block and that you can't just rush in and mash the face buttons repeatedly. I'm close to the end now and I've probably put in about 7-8 hours so far. I'm definitely enjoying it even though I'm not fond of the dialogue.

dqbunny actually picked up the second game I played recently. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a side scrolling beat em up in the same vein as Streets of Rage or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game. The Streets of Rage comparison is probably more apt as you have a kind of special power and can call for help with the use of the R1 and L1 buttons. There's also an RPG element in that you gain experience as you beat people up and gain levels, giving you access to new moves while also become stronger. I've only played the first two levels and already even on the easier difficulty, the game is fairly brutal. You get beat up fairly easily and it's rare for me to get through a level without losing at least two lives and you only have three. Luckily the game isn't over if you lose all three lives. You just have to start again from the beginning of the level which you died on. I love the look of it though, as it gives a real 8/16-bit feel and the soundtrack is pretty cool too. I can see playing with four people all together being a whole lot of fun.

As for personally how I'm doing. In all honesty, I don't think it's going great. I'm finding the PhD a real struggle in terms of motivation. A lot of it is down to self doubt I have in myself. It's just been nothing but a constant feeling of failure, more so because I'm not sure my undergraduate degree helped cater towards the PhD. The department I'm based at are all mainly observational astrophysicist, whereas I'm more theoretical. That requires me to do a lot of work with computer code to produce theoretical models. The problem is that I really feel like I don't understand the code I'm working with very well. I feel like I don't understand a lot of what I'm supposed to know. It doesn't help when I'm told by some that the project I'm working on was originally supposed to be for a postdoc position, but it was refused because it was too hard. So why I've been given it as only a postgrad, I'm not sure. There have times when I've wondered if I should just give it up. I'm already past three years which is when they want you to have completed everything. I'm not being funded any more. I'm just so lucky my parents put up with me living at home because if I wasn't, I would be in real trouble. The thing is. I'm not sure if I'm just too stupid, or I'm too stubborn but I just refuse to give up. I feel like I've spent all this time already, I want to get a PhD out of it. Finding the motivation is just so hard and I'm so scared that it's just going to be a complete failure. gullwhacker gave dqbunny a link to PhD Comic to show me. We both think I'm the infinite orbit.

UPDATE:
And of course Giant Bomb put up a Quick Look of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I don't really get their negativity though. What they call weird with the game references, I find pretty fun and nostalgic. I've also never heard of Scott Pilgrim before until I saw trailers of the movie, which I am really interested in seeing, because again, I love the video game references (1ups, reversals, enemies exploding into coins like in No More Heroes along with the lightsabres). I also don't find Michael Cera that annoying. I find him to be a fairly funny actor who I guess plays characters I find myself easily relating to.

So I took part in a protest yesterday outside Anfield, the stadium for Liverpool F.C.. The owners had decided that the manager's time was up and despite stating mutual consent, effectively sacked him and has left the club in a pretty sorry state. A number of us were of course angry and so a protest was planned. We chanted, we marched, we held up banners. We explained to the media why we were there and why we were so upset...and an American flag was burned.

My first thought when I saw this happen? I didn't like it. I didn't like the message that I felt it was sending. I had thoughts of Muslim extremists in the Middle East declaring their hatred for the U.S.. I thought about my wife being upset by what happened.

After a couple of hours, we were finally dispersed by the police and I headed home. I told Megan what happened immediately when she asked me how it went. I pretty much knew what her reaction would be. Afterwards my Dad had thought the same and thought about me not telling her. But I told her she had to know, because I was sure she would find out eventually.

So there I was, kind of stuck in the middle with my American wife on one side and a club that I've loved and adored for as long as I can remember. Of course Megan wins easily, but I can't help but look at what was done closer, and maybe explain to those who might read this who are Americans, why what happened happened.

The current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett are Americans and I won't go into details about all the lying and the mess they've put the club I love in. I've joined a union and spent a lot of time fighting (most likely futilely) to get them out of there. I believe that the burning of the American flag was done with two things in mind. The first was that it was aimed solely towards the owners. I honestly don't believe they burned the flag in a way to show general hatred towards all Americans. A manger who has given a lot of us wonderful times has been sacked unfairly and those supporters who burned that flag wanted to get back at them. The second reason was publicity. If what I read is right, I believe that what has happened has been seen in America and has caused a lot of outrage. They say something like there's no such thing as bad publicity. A lot of people know what we did now, a lot more than would normally happen at any protest I've attended.

Does it make what happened right? No, I don't think so. Even if I wasn't married to an American, that action wouldn't have sat right with me. However, can I see why it was done? Yes, I do. I suppose some of you might ask how I would feel if the reverse occured, and the St George, or Union Jack was burned. I personally wouldn't care. I think a lot of people in Liverpool wouldn't care. Culturally we're not as patriotic as those in the U.S., and especially in Liverpool, we feel very different to the rest of England and the U.K.. I've always joked with Megan when I say that I'm not English, I'm Scouse. But in a sense it's true. I'm more proud of being from Liverpool than I am from England, or the U.K.

Anyway. I just felt like I had to write about it, and I guess I'm interested to see what you guys think.

That time of year again. I'd explain things, but I think I've done it enough. If you're not sure what's going on, read the below text and also check back in my journal for posts around the 15th April a few years back. I've usually posted something each time. JFT96. YNWA.

Heroes: April 15 1989

It started like any other morning. A bright crisp spring morning, the beauty of the Snake Pass in the Peak District was breathtaking, as we travelled to the FA Cup semi-final being held at Hillsborough, Sheffield between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Little did we know that the coming day would forever change our lives and the game we loved. After an uneventful journey, we arrived at the ground at about 2pm as we had done the previous year, at the same venue against the same team. Only this year things were different, outside the Leppings Lane it was absolute chaos.

The year before the police had appeared organised with a cordon checking tickets at the end of the road. This year things seemed to have gone badly wrong, with one or two mounted policemen in the middle of a massed motionless crowd. It was the sight no football fan wanted to see outside a ground: non-existent queues, no obvious police presence and no stewards. I had been in these situations many times before outside the Kop during the 70s prior to all-ticket games, and outside many away grounds - most notably Wolves in 1976 and of course Wembley, especially against Everton in 1986.

I knew the futility of getting into a crowd and trying to get to a turnstile! You panic, you sweat, you struggle to breathe and just as you get to within touching distance of the entrance you are sure to hit by a sway that takes you back to where you started. So I decided to go and get something to eat from a nearby shop and wait for the police to get their act together.

By 2.30pm it became obvious the situation wasn't going to get any better. So I reluctantly entered the crowd. It must be emphasised these were Liverpool fans with tickets, the touts I talked to that day were struggling, business was as they say "on the floor" compared to the same lucrative match the year before. This was not a ticketless crowd trying to bunk in or force the authorities to open the gates, this was a good-humoured crowd who deserved proper organisation, who wanted it, who were demanding it. Alas it was not forthcoming!

After ten to fifteen minutes of movement, invariably sideways and getting no nearer to the turnstiles, I saw fans climbing onto the turnstiles screaming at the police inside the ground to do something. Nothing happened. By 2.55pm, a sway took me to within inches of the turnstile. This was it; I was in, relief, emotion, I could hear the teams coming out onto the pitch, the roar of the crowd, another few agonising steps and I had made it.

Once inside, I was met by a jovial group of policemen, I told them in no uncertain terms that somebody was going to die outside the ground unless they did something quickly. They had to open the gates, I pleaded. I wasn't the only one. Most people, who staggered through the turnstiles due to sheer exhaustion, were also telling the police to get their act together. The common consensus was that they had to do something otherwise there would be a fatality or serious injuries outside the ground.

Either side of the Leppings Lane end were stairs into the side sections (which we now know were nearly empty). The gaping black hole of the Leppings Lane tunnel lead directly into the middle of the already packed terracing. No-one could have imagined the consequences of heading into that tunnel. The simple solution to such congestion would have been for club stewards and/or police to block off the central tunnel and funnel fans to the side sections. I had a ticket for the North stand so I went left but if I had had a ticket for the terraces I would have certainly gone into that tunnel.

Once inside I think I saw Liverpool hit the bar as I certainly know the game had already started before I found my seat. After a couple more minutes, a fan appeared on the pitch. He seemed unsteady on his feet, nobody had the faintest idea of what was happening and then more and more people spilled out onto the pitch.

The referee took the players off. I didn't think trouble, I immediately thought overcrowding. The Leppings Lane had been uncomfortable the year before and was well known in football circles for being a crap end. More and more people started to fill the pitch and Forest fans began to sing "You Scouse bastards" thinking that this was indeed a pitch invasion.

It soon became obvious that something more serious was happening but still the enormity of the tragedy could not have been imagined. After 20 minutes or so, an ambulance appeared at the opposite end of Leppings Lane and drove along the edge of the pitch. Around about the same time the police inexplicably set up a cordon across the halfway line. About 50 or so policemen stood there throughout the duration as the tragedy unfolded, making jovial smalltalk and passing the time of day. Presumably some of these people would have had first-aid skills but were under orders to stay on the halfway line. I know this because at 3.30pm I went onto the pitch and asked them why they were standing there and what was happening. It soon became obvious as the injured, dying and deceased were carried on the advertising hoardings, the vivid image we now know so well.

Most people on the pitch that day were bewildered, feeling either hopeless, confused or inadequate. I saw heroes that day and the majority were not in uniform. The real heroes that day were the ordinary Liverpool fans who seemed to take control of the operation, taking casualties to the opposite end of the pitch and laying the fans in the penalty area, in front of the Hillsborough Kop.

As the Liverpool fans tried to revive lifeless bodies, I felt totally inadequate. I tried to convince myself that these people had simply lost consciousness but in my heart of hearts I think I knew they were dead. The line of police looked on. Some people refused to give up pumping chests of complete strangers or maybe loved ones, giving the kiss of life to fellow Liverpool fans as the line of the police looked on.

The heroes of April 15 1989 were the ordinary Liverpool fans. Whoever you were; I salute you, your role in the tragedy unbelievably tarnished by the gutter press cover-up the following week.

That day, that night, that week, that year, that decade, I was inconsolable. But I was also proud to be a Liverpudlian. I had witnessed the selflessness, courage and dignity you afforded the dead and dying before they were handed over to the authorities. 96 RIP.

© Peter Hooton 2004