Allison sent this to me and it is just the cutest short film I’ve seen in a few weeks, so I thought I would share it with you, too. Because you’re awesome.

(Cuts from a Washington Post article, without comment) ‘War’ On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the “war on terror,” as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

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Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration’s lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

SHhhhhh! New Things Wrong With Me, because I am still testing things. I swear by the time this thing launches I will have a lot of pre-posts, won’t I? huh. Anyway go ejoy!

So the more comics I write the more I realize there are some basic truths I live by when working on comics. So I thought about it and then I decided, “Hey! Free blogging topic!” so I wrote some of it down.

I BELIEVE…

… in the 9 panel grid. A lot of artists I have met recently don’t, but in my brain every page I write is written for Keith Giffen to draw. I can’t help it. There is something soothing about a 9 panel grid when done right, to my head. It isn’t an “every page should be 9 panels” thing but I would like the option far more than I seem to get it.

… that webcomics are comics, too. The delivery system is not the medium.

… that the best comics I can create are the ones where the artist leaves my script behind to interpret it rather than cleave simply to it. That when true collaboration happens the pages I eventually see are not just what I’ve written but something more. Truly comics. Not just art, not just words but an honest merging of the two.
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So Marianne of the Land of the Overly Heated decided to do a big post that introduced her to her readers. You know the sort of thing: “Hi, my name is Marianne, I’m too short to make pie.” “HI MARIANNE!” and so on. But I thought that maybe I should do that, too, just to get all the correct and proper information out there. So the following is a list of things, all of which are true, that sound give you a quick crash course in me:

* I am 33 years old.

* I live in NY and have lived in NY all of my life, except for a small interlude in Boston.

* I have one cat, named MacKenzie.

* I write, but not for a living. I have a day job.

* I will, if not very careful, spend all my money on books.

* I once licked a cat who wouldn’t stop licking me, to teach it a lesson. This did not end well for either myself or the cat.
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(via TPM) Remarks By The President Welcoming Senior Staff And Cabinet Secretaries – 1/21/09

I will comment in italics. Just putting out bits of this but it is worth going to read all of it.

During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington. And that’s why I’m instituting a pay freeze on the salaries of my senior White House staff. Some of the people in this room will be affected by the pay freeze, and I want you to know that I appreciate your willingness to agree to it, recognizing that it’s what’s required of you at this moment.

No it isn’t perfect, but it is nice ot see him taking a step. If more companies took steps like that with CEOs they could afford to save more jobs overall.

As I often said during the campaign, we need to make the White House the people’s house. And we need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave.
So today we are taking a major step towards fulfilling this campaign promise. The executive order on ethics I will sign shortly represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today, lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration, you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during the previous two years. When you leave government, you will not be able to lobby my administration for as long as I am President. And there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration, as well.

Some serious, hard written, lobbyist rules. They’re interesting as hell and the sort of thing that make you wonder why this is the first time anyone has put them into effect.

The directives I am giving my administration today on how to interpret the Freedom of Information Act will do just that. For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but those who seek to make it known.

To be sure, issues like personal privacy and national security must be treated with the care they demand. But
the mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it. The Freedom of Information Act is perhaps the most powerful instrument we have for making our government honest and transparent, and of holding it accountable. And I expect members of my administration not simply to live up to the letter but also the spirit of this law.

I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness. Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution.

Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

Well it’s about fucking time, isn’t it? Now sure, you can be all paranoid and say he is saying this stuff because it makes it eaiser to hide the real crap if he seems to be all transparent but … well after a while you start to stretch. Ya know?

And then at the end they swear in the Senior Staff. I include it for the laugh:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Am I doing this again?
THE PRESIDENT: For the senior staff.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: For the senior staff, all right.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. A number of Cabinet members have already –
THE VICE PRESIDENT: My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts. (Laughter.) Okay, no, I — this is the list. Do you have a copy of the oath? Which senior staff are we doing?
THE PRESIDENT: A whole bunch of senior staff.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Okay. All of the senior staff –
THE PRESIDENT: Rise.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — please rise. I will say “aye,” and then you repeat your name.
THE PRESIDENT: Marvin, button up your coat. (Laughter.)

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Add that to his moves toward Gitmo today and I’d say he’s had one fuck of a Day One, wouldn’t you?

(via Koco 5) JONES, Okla. — A squirrel caught fire, sparking a blaze Wednesday morning that resulted in the evacuation of an elementary school in Jones, fire officials said.
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A. Flaming. Squirrel.

A squirrel that was on fire. Now it turns out they think the squirrel touched two power lines and set fire to the world. It burned 5 acres. Flaming squirrel.

I see all these people I know who feel part of some “tribe” or whatever, and that’s fun, isn’t it? They’ve found their people. The people who create like them and think like they do and all work along similar lines. They build each other up and support each other and help one another in all sorts of ways.

I know a lot of these people.

I am, apparently, not one of them.

This is not a whiny thing or a woe is me deal. It honestly isn’t. Nor is it about how I am alone and a unique special snowflake in the forest or some shit. No, no, no and no again. I’m just noticing it. I have a different sensibility from most (but not all, no) of my creative friends. I have a different set of goals and way of working. I have a different path.

And it is a path that a lot of other people are on. Just most of those people I don’t know. And that can be frustrating, because we all want to hang out with people like us, who have the same general path and work the same way and can understand us. And I just don’t get that. Not yet. I will eventually.

Right now, some days, it can be frustrating. Because I have this group of great and cool people but on a certain level no matter what I do I will always be on the outside of it. Always. And all I can do is do what I do and know that it doesn’t matter to a large group of my peers and keep doing it, knowing that is it the right thing for me to do.

But most days it is what it is and that’s fine. It works. I’m the guy over there in the corner. And I don’t know if they care or not. I don’t ask. Because that isn’t the damned point. The point is that realistically?

I’d rather be outside doing my own dance than inside faking someone else’s.

And that still isn’t some bright and wonderful “Look at me I’m so special” type of thing. Naw. Just noticing the reality. Because at the real end of the day? What I do is awesome. And I do have friends with the same sensibility as me. We just tend to be quieter, or meaner, or something.

But how can I not be in love with the shit I do and the way I do it? I write two webcomics, I have books that are … I think very cool and a joy to write … I have FUN. Oh, I always have fun. I have more fun than you might know. Than you can ever guess. It’s true. I don’t have work calls that don’t contain large chunks of laughter and hysterical-ness. And do you know why?

Because I’m awesome.

So go read a webcomic or buy a book (all proceeds from sales of this book this month go to help SJ Tucker pay her medical bills) and wait for more awesome to come. Because this year there is a lot of awesome. Oh christ, if you only knew.

But you will.

Another new Things Wrong With Me is up. Still testing. So you get another entry. Enjoy it.

Only a few weeks to go uintil the cartoon goes live and never stops updating. But until then, random testing updates for your enjoyment.

And of course, we have a new President. A President what said that “we will restore science to its rightful place.” SCIENCE!

I was thinking of fairy tales the other day. Shared mythology and how we use it. All of that. I realized though that when I think about shared mythologies I don’t stop at … well a lot of the normal mythologies first. I stop at them a step removed. At pop culture from when I was a kid.

When I was a kid I didn’t get read a lot of the normal kids books, and I didn’t pick them up once I could read them myself. Dr. Seuss happened a bunch but after that it was on to Simak and Heinlein and whatnot. You grow up with a father who writes SF and see how you fare. So I never read Oz or Pan or the original Pooh or Alice and so on. I heard some fairly tale type stuff, Brother Grimm whatnot but that was all from TV.

My mythology was Birdman and Thundarr the Barbarian, The Galactic Trio and the Smurfs. That was what I was raised on, in terms of those things. Now as I got older I grew more and more interested in mythology and the whole children’s book idea and I read all of the classics. I just read them when I was 18. I’ve never seen Alice, except the cartoon, through the eyes of a small kid, I’ve only understood it as a much older kid. The same goes for all of them. Sure I knew the Oz movie but I never got the joy of Oz until much later.

And since then I have delved deep into various mythologies and fairy tales and belief systems. I love them and dig into them with relish. But at my core if I want to connect with someone else, and deliver a shared experience I will go to the pop culture of my youth first and big shared things second. Something gets lost? St. Anthony might be popular but for me it’s all about yelling:

Bobby! (bobby, obby, obby…) Cindy! (cindy, indy, indy…)

Like when they were lost in the Grand Canyon, ya know? I can’t let a friend go to Hawaii without cautioning them to never take a little cursed tiki statue. Just for a few quick Brady examples. The Bradys, man they were like the Greco-Roman Gods for me. They really were. Just this huge system of rules and interactions that wove myth out of itself.

So yeah. My myth is Superman, and Greg Brady and the Beav and Gilligan. It’s Muttley and Speed and Johnny Quest. That’s how I phrase my world and from there I integrate all of the other myths that those are echoes of. And somehow it makes sense in my head.

Now. Where did I leave Kitty Karry-All?