Friday, February 27, 2015

Breaking out the white

I recently realized the only time I wear t-shirts that are white is at Marscon. Normally I don't like white shirts as they get dirty easily but Marscon has become the exception. Here is a list of the shirts I wear exclusively (for the most part) there:

Bus shirt: As the Dementia Bus (named either the Whitehurst or the Blindwulf) was the popular way to get there in the late 00s, in 2008 we needed two of them and Sara was kind to drive the other one. Luke drew a pic of all 15 people who were on it that year and it was turned into a shirt that seems to get smaller every year but I still wear on the Thursday we head to Marscon.

The artist shirt: In 2008, probably the craziest and wildest Marscon (at least from the pictures from it; then again when a platoon of soldiers join the Saturday night party scene what else would you expect), the theme was Press Start to Continue. Luke drew every performer as a character from a video game and Bill turned that into a shirt which people could order. Every year Luke has continued that and every year, I order a shirt and Spreadshirt was kind enough to replace mine after the initial one had a printing error. This is the image from this year where the theme is Heroes, and Wizards and Fae, Oh my:


Note: Lindsay Smith drew it, Kyle Carrozza inked it and Luke Sienkowski colored it. I wear the current years and a couple past years shirts periodically during the weekend.

New this year is a white version of the shirt advertising the Marscon Dementia track.

On Saturday night dinner I wear a shirt my daughter got me with the phrase burp loading along with a status bar.

Late on Saturday, I wear the shirt with the logo of my radio show that Luke drew as me. That is the shirt I am wearing in my profile pic.

In the after con group pool gathering Sunday night, I use my white Worm Quartet "official nipple covering apparatus"

In the past I have worn my white Dementia Radio t shirt which for some reason I lost and was hoping would find when I moved but didn't and since 5 performers from a convention called Dementia 2001 will be there there might be a pic of people who were there and I need to find the white shirt from there to pack.

I even wear a few non white shirts there. Why do I wear so many in one weekend? The excitement of the weekend (and in the past the alcohol) causes me to sweat more than normal and I change shirts often for my (and others) comfort.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

I will never watch another "Super Bowl"

First of all, this is Ken Sherlock. My computer and account were not hacked.

Those who know me are aware of my knowledge of the game known as the Super Bowl. I can rattle off what team beat what other team, all the game MVPs mentioning the two players (Harvey Martin and Randy White) shared the honor in #12, most likely the score of the game, and something else most people don't know about it.

So why the title statement?  I am aware I think ... unlike others (pause intended). In my lifetime, the Super Bowl has changed from the championship match up of the American and National football league winners to the championship of the merged National Football League in 1970 played on a Sunday afternoon to a Sunday evening multimedia extravaganza event with celebrities having an on field presence choked to the brim with sponsorship causing people who don't care about the game to mock it or provide deliberate alternate programming.

I am not interested in the National Anthem which has been forever ruined by Whitney Houston on coke sounding like she had a vibrator between her legs causing others to try to make it from doing their "special" version of the song most annoyingly Chicago Blackhawks performer Jim Cornelison who has made a career out of over singing one fucking song and grandstanding by pointing at the flag. Thanks to the military presence that has occasionally been paid to show, the National Anthem has also become a recruitment tool as well.

I don't care about the momentum changing fucking halftime show and to be honest if Weird Al Yankovic was performing, I would not want it though I would probably watch a recording of it later. Commercials? No, no, no, NO! To be honest if there is a commercial I want to see, I can watch it later online.

To me that is what the Super Bowl has become and I don't want that any more. I only want to see the game between the AFC champion and the NFC champion to determine the league champion especially when both teams had the best regular season record in their conference.

I realized that I can watch the game without the pageantry, commercials, and bullshit that has lessened my enjoyment of the game. I have a DVR. After the coin toss, I can pause the game for about 25 minutes, take care of other things off line, then watch the game skipping the commercials which advertisers paid millions for the rights to display. When I have to pee, I pause and take my time. When it is halftime, I will pause the tv and spend about an hour doing something else. In the past I have played Rock Band, shoveled snow, or played a board game. The second half I will do the same thing and skip commercials.

From this moment forward, I will do my best to stop using the term Super Bowl or the roman numerals. That name was not used until #3 and coined after hearing a kid playing with a super ball. In the future I will watch the National Football League Championship Game.

Fictional numbers 43-99

After my computer died, I lost the list I was creating. I restarted that project a few weeks ago and decided today is the correct day to post this as many of these numbers apply to football players. As with the other two lists, if anyone knows of someone who should be included, let me know.

43 - As with many of the higher numbers there is no real important character that wore them though I would guess extras have worn most of them in many movies. In the movie Cars, the King wore #43 but since that car was based on former driver Richard Petty who is known as the king who drove car #43, I can't include it. Also won't include numbers worn by Barry Sanders (20), Dick Butkus (51), and Jerry Rice (80) as well as others who played inmates in Necessary Roughness as they wore the numbers they wore in the NFL.

44 - Forrest Gump, University of Alabama. His name is Forrest. Easily over the Bad News Bears player who was a Hank Aaron fan.

51 - Ricky Bobby - Colt Trickle- NASCAR - Both cars in their final races had that number and since both movies were similar, calling it a tie.

53 - Herbie - multiple racing venues - Can't believe it took me as long as it did to remember this. Far more significant than Greg Brady.

59 - Pirate Steve Cowan (Average Joe's) Played by the talented Alan Tudyk

61 - Bodanski - Florida Penitentiary Guards team (1974 Longest Yard movie) Played by hall of fame linebacker Ray Nitchke and since this character wore a different number than Nitchke's 66, I will count it.

66 - Todd Flanders - Springfield youth football - He would stand next to his brother Rod who wore number 6.

68 - Peter Griffin - New England Patriots - Shipoopi

69 - Eric Cartman - South Park cows

72 - Brock Sampson - State University - Former Bodyguard of Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture

73 - Sampson - Mean Machine (1974) When I saw the movie as a kid, I did not realize two things. The person who played him also played Jaws in James Bond movies and that he did not originally say that he broke his freaky neck.

78 - Andre Kimm - Texas State - Played by Sinbad one of the few linemen movie characters who was not an extra or a sidebar.

84 - Bobby Brady - New York Jets - Worn in the dream sequence where he caught a Joe Namath TD pass.

85 - Rod Tidwell - Arizona Cardinals - Show him the money!

86 - Chuck Hicks - Piston Cup - Won the title when Lightning McQueen helped the King cross the finish line. Sorry if that was a spoiler.

87 - Phill Elliott - North Dallas Bulls - Main character in dark movie about pro football played by Nick Nolte.

92 - Big Tony - Mean Machine (2005) - Saw The Longest Yard remake once and don't really remember him but there were 6 players specified in the movie and he was one of them.

94 - Anthony "Fridge" Johnson - Brantford High School - From the he remake of Jumanji.

95 - Lightning McQueen - Piston Cup - Won multiple titles before racing against the best in the world.

96 - Charlie Conway - Mighty Ducks - Quack

97 - Switkowski - Mean Machine (2005) - Same as 92

99 - Ricky Vaughn - Cleveland Indians - I really wished they did not make a sequel.