(this is) the journal of jacob

Old-timers like me can remember back to the dark ages of 1990, when Ivan Reitman's Kindergarten Cop came out.  The posters for Kindergarten Cop featured star Arnold Schwarzenegger enduring the enthusiastic attention of a bunch of five-year-olds.  The joke was clear: the Terminator can travel through time and walk through explosions, but a bunch of five-year-olds was a little too much for him.

Then something strange happened: a few weeks into the run of Kindergarten Cop, the posters suddenly changed -- the "overwhelmed" Arnold became the "beaming" Arnold.  I remember clearly, I was living in New York, and all through the subways the Kindergarten Cop posters suddenly went from funny to not-funny.  Arnold overwhelmed by children is funny, Arnold proudly hoisting kids is not.

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http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=516

Back to the world.

It's weird coming home for the holidays. When I am around people I haven't seen in years, I behave the way I was back then. And so do they. I'm not sure why I do it. Maybe it's easier to just fall into old habits then take the risk that you might not like the new versions of each other? Or maybe it's just easier to not make the effort. I've grown and changed a lot in the past few years, but when I'm back in Halifax, it's hard not to act like the old me, and it's unnerving as fuck. So I come home less and less often. I like the new Joey more. I look better naked now, for instance. I don't know how that happened. Maybe nobody looks good naked until they leave their home town. Or anyway maybe it's hard to believe you look good naked until you get away. Maybe it gets easier to believe once you go somewhere new and you get to be who you are, instead of who you had to be in order to get by where you were.

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Peace on Earth, good will to humanity.

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christmas music

aids wolf - pressing graphite

http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=515

Seasons Greetings from all of us here A Softer World. We've had quite the year, haven't we? It's been a bit of a roller coaster. But there were peaks as well as valleys. For every unwanted pregnancy there was a fortuitous tumble down the stairs, and for every human trafficking police sting operation there was an incompetent handling of the evidence! Another year has come and gone, and neither of us have ruined our lives yet. We hope you're full of high proof cheer

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The week between Christmas and New Year's is traditionally the lowest-traffic week of the year for my site, and I'm gonna be out of town anyway, so I thought I might try something a little different this year. Here's a teaser for my idea:



I've already got the basic idea for the story and will hopefully start working on it before we drive down to Maryland (one advantage of driving down is I can actually bring my big Cintiq with me) for the holiday. Of course, going over my outline and idea list, this might end up being MORE work than the usual QC strips >.<

So uh I no promises yet I guess, but hopefully I won't puss out and will actually get this done.

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Here's an hour-long, enjoyably digressive podcast I did with Ken Plume.

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As you can see, iTunes favors informality -- the "I'm"s outnumber the "I am"s 6 to 1.  Click to enlarge.

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What does the Monarch want?  The Monarch wants what the Monarch has always wanted: he wants to "win" in his arching battle against Dr. Venture.  Never mind that Dr. Venture barely seems to know that the Monarch exists, and gives no thought at all as to his motives or reasoning.  For that matter, never mind that the Monarch hasn't really thought through what it means to "win" against Dr. Venture, or what he'll do after he's "won."  The Monarch wants so badly to "win" against Dr. Venture that he makes a poorly-thought-out alliance with a fellow villain who actually wears a bathing cap with devil-horns on it.  "Faustian bargain" is evidently not a phrase with which the Monarch is familiar.
 

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http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=513

It is the time of year when I get very excited about upcoming movies. Sherlock Holmes is the top of my list, because a) I really enjoyed Snatch by Guy Ritchie, and b) I am queer as a glass doorknob for that delightful Robert Downey Jr.

Also, I am actually a bit excited about seeing Avatar, which was not the case after I first saw the trailers. But the more I hear about it, the more interested I get. It's not first on the list, but it's on there. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?

(Also, A Single Man is so good, and you should see it if you can.)

The beguiling in Toronto now has signed copies of the new book, and the old book, and Overqualified, if you live in Toronto and were hoping to get someone a signed book!

http://www.beguiling.com/2009/12/now-in-stock-softer-world-volume-2.html

(It is also, of course, available to order online here.)