We should not mourn the passing of a child molester just because he wrote some cool songs twenty-five to thirty years ago. 

It was a very busy day today.

6.00AM: Got up
6.30AM: Drove to California Building.
6.45AM: Collected 12 tables.
7.05AM: Dropped off tables at Stake Center.
7.40AM: Returned home to find wife and daughter awake.
8.30AM: Put daughter down for nap and grabbed one too.
10.30AM: Daughter woke from nap. Breakfast for daughter.
11.00AM: Set off for River Legacy Park.
11.15AM: Signed in for Privet Removal project to help out local Eagle Scout.
12.30AM: Signed out.
1.00PM: Called for help to pick up tables later in the day.
1.10PM: Put daughter down for second nap.
1.15PM: Got wife lunch at Wendy's.
1.30PM: Left to go help brother move his stuff into new place.
2.00PM: Got lunch at Taco Bueno.
2.05PM: Arrived at brother's new place.
3.20PM: After finishing getting truck unloaded, left to go pick up wife and daughter.
3.40PM: Picked up wife and daughter to go shopping.
4.00PM: Shopped at Sam's.
4.30PM. Shopped at Lowe's.
5.00PM: Shopped at Texas Thrift.
5.15PM: Shopped at Big Lots.
6.00PM: Ate dinner at Bravo. (italian, pricey, really good)
7.15PM: Left to go pick up key for California Building.
7.30PM: Picked up key.
8.00PM: Arrived at Stake Center to pick up tables.
8.15PM: Arrived at California Building to drop off tables.
8.30PM: Arrived at home, put daughter to bed.
8.45PM: Left to go pick up some things at Wal-Mart.
9.00PM: Arrived Wal-Mart.
9.30PM: Checked out at Wal-Mart.
9.45PM: Got dessert at Whataburger.
10.00PM: Arrived home and put away stuff out of car.
10.15PM: Took bath.
10.45PM: Downloaded pictures from camera, folded laundry.
11.30PM: Went to get gas before Sabbath started.
12.10AM: Finished writing blog for the day.

It has been a long time since I last posted. I am a writer and a storyteller and I don't seem to be doing either. That needs to change.

  I am running through my friends list and it is very frustrating.  I have set up my friends list to list the 20 most recent entries.  But just about every entry is warren_ellis . Now I like Warren as a writer.  Most of his stuff is fantastic, but his blogging is haphazard at best.  Mostly just junk entries because he has to write something or go crazy.  To think that a few months ago he stated that he was going to post less to LiveJournal.  I can't imagine what it was like before. 
  Since my life does not revolve around what Warren has to say, he is definitely going to have to get the boot from my read list.  And if Warren for some reason has cause to read this (doubtful); chill out, compose an entry and maybe learn how to talk without resorting to cursing. 

  So, I am reading a couple blogs here on LiveJournal and up pops an ad.  Just one of many many ads that pop up for movies and books and whatever weird things I have put on my interests lists.  But, this movie is called Hamlet 2.  I'm thinking, what?!  So, IMBD.  This is worse than I thought.  I think this hurts my brain worse than Space Chimps.

      First off, I want to thank Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. for making a superhero movie that I could take my wife to see and that she would also really enjoy. 

This is a great movie.  For me, I loved Iron Man as a kid.  I had an origin issue that I read and reread until it fell apart.  When I got older, the books just were not interesting (90's).  Nowadays Iron Man has a lot more going on than he ever did back then, but I have given up on reading books (too expensive).  But this movie is a very accessible adaptation.  I was very pleased that the origin was intact and that armor felt real. 

Most disconcerting was watching the Dude murdering people and laying waste to a city street.  Gotta love Jeff Bridges. 

  So, I have been looking over the latest story-lines of Marvel, some of which I only became aware of because of drderanged and his posts; here,here and here.  But my exploits on comicvine.com have shed more light on the story.  What I basically took from this was Marvel trying to get an idea from its readers whether they wanted more realistic characters and stories or the more traditional melodrama that most of us are familiar with.  As I have concluded, grim, gritty and realistic won out.  By no means was this about stopping the dangerous slug-fests, those still happen in droves and civilians still die all over the place.  This was about demographics and pandering to violent teens. 
  For an example of the measured grimness factor, here is Robbie Baldwin formerly of the New Warriors known as Speedball.  Speedball was a fun character who overcame his physical and emotional tensions with humor and flippancy.  Below are a few of his incarnations of his powers and costume. 

After Civil War, Robbie is overcome with guilt (he has seen much worse than what happened in the Civil War prelude) and his powers are altered.  Now his powers are ramped up by pain.  He changes his costume to a bondage freak nightmare, as seen below.  He now goes by Penance and is a part of the Thunderbolts. 

This is not the only character that this happened to.  Many other characters that were originally designed for a more humorous approach have also suffered.  Below is Slapstick, a character intended only for unrealistic and silly stories. 
Before Civil War:

After Civil War:

I agree that the old melodrama is a bit stale, but I do not think messing with where Marvel came from is the nest idea either.  Marvel really needs to leave the past in the past and move forward. 

  So, lately I have been looking at the world of comics again.  It started with me looking up a cover for one of my favorite books from a few years back, Lazarus Five.  I found this nifty site, Comicvine.com. I was able to find the cover and then started looking into some of the events of the past few years and my favorite characters.  I was surprised to see that Hulk laid waste to the majority of the Marvel universe that past few months.    Now there is a new Hulk.  This Hulk is a fiery red.  I was intrigued.  I kinda want to get back into reading Hulk again.  I have read that there is some contention about the Hulk changing to another color.  But one of the things that I realized after looking at the promo images is that that the Hulk is iconic no matter what color he is.  Now some of that is the talent of McGuinness, as he had worked on the Hulk for a couple of issues before the first run ended and again during his run on Deadpool.  I am glad that you can look at these images and know that this is the Hulk.  As one of the most defining aspects of the Hulk is his anger, this new color scheme really is becoming for the character. 
  I am really tempted to go pick up this new Hulk and give it a read.  Unfortunately, a lot of the other things that I was reading has really left a bad taste in my mouth.  Marvel seems to have forgotten that their characters are supposed to be heroes as a general rule.  Now I will admit that I have not been reading, but this Illuminati storyline really makes me wonder if Marvel even knows what heroism really means. 
 

New places to find wembler.

GaiaOnline.com.
I enjoy this site.  It is sorta set up as a role playing environment with avatar dress up. Silly but fun.  Just don't get caught up in the elitism.  It is very involved.

wembler.spreadshirt.com
This is not new, but there are now t-shirts there actually designed by me.  I think I am getting in the swing of making a cool t-shirt.  Check it out, I'm a sell out. 

  In true wembler fashion, I have created a new community.  newgovernance will be an open forum for discussing governmental reforms, implementation and whatever thoughts people have about fixing what needs fixing.  Please keep it clean and no direct attacks.  Thanks.

  So, I have been thinking.  I watch the world go by and it occurs to me that this whole process is broken.  I live in an environment with what is considered a really good government and stable economy.  But, people around me still treat each other terribly and poverty consumes hard workers.  So, what is wrong?  I think the problem is that we have assumed that what is happening now is good enough.  I think there is a notion that the rest of the world needs to get caught up with where we are before we move forward.  But, that will be a unpleasant realization for everyone.  What we have still sucks.  Just being better than totalitarianism and anarchism does not cut it. 
  I guess the biggest thing that I am saying is that we have blown it.  We have spent however long to achieve a point where we can say, "See, we aren't just killing each other any more."  Well, some of us can say that.  Certainly not enough of us can say that yet. 
  I am suggesting to the world that we need to take action.  Those of us that can vote and pay taxes still need to do those things, but we need to take the extra step because the governments that we already have are just more of the same.  We need to develop a replacement.  I want to hear from anyone with an idea. 

  I will admit that for me to say a movie is good is a rarity.  Friday I went to see The Prestige.  This movie is really good.  I liked everything about it.  The actors were stupendous.  The direction and timing were right on.  Lighting and choreography were amazing to look at.  This is just an overall great movie. 
  For those that care.  It's PG-13 mostly for viscious behavior between the two leads.  Language and sexuality are not an issue.

  I was thinking this morning about superheroes.   I guess not really superheroes but perhaps superhumans.  We have this deep seated desire for superhuman achievement.  We create characters in various mediums with abilities far beyond the possibility of mortal man. 
 
  For a quick example, let us take Superman.  I will draw from the recent movie because this typifies more of what I am trying to get at.  Many people went to see this movie and enjoyed what they saw.  But aside from technical achievement, primarily in depicting Superman’s ability; the movie was not really any good.  Superman is even given the personality of a stalker and an idiot who can only solve his problems with his muscles.  But that’s all okay because he can fly and stop bullets with his eye. 

  So, what draws us to these abilities?  It is most assuredly not the men who possess them.  What draws us to the notion of being able to say to the mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move; such that nothing will be impossible to us? 

  There is a memory in us of being able to do exactly that.  To fly, to move mountains, to control vast energies in the creation of something.  To be pleased with our accomplishments and others to be well pleased with us.  We can achieve these things again.  This I know is true.  I even know how to get there.

  When I was younger I played a lot of games.  I got started in gaming with an introduction from my Dad.  He was an old school gamer.  He had these enormous hex maps and these little 1/4 inch square pieces of cardboard.  He would play by mail with other people and spend something like a year playing one game.  He was always receiving new games in the mail.  Everyone wants to be like their Dad a little bit.  This is like the one thing he did that was cool.  He would let me have games that he did not have any interest in.  Mostly the fantasy and monster battle games.  He was always more interested in historical and "what if" scenarios.  But, I was never very patient and I never read the instructions.  I played the game out in my head. In many ways it was not really a game.

  When I was older, my Dad took me to DallasCon.  Anyone old enough will remember that this was one of the few conventions that we had locally.  I was introduced to all sorts of gaming.  Table top miniatures, competitive board gaming, card games and lots more.  But it was here that I was introduced to role playing games.  This was very much like what I had been doing with my games at home.  Rules were not as important here, mostly created so that they could sell a rule book.  It was here that I had the most freedom to do as I pleased, to create worlds; and it was here that I spent most of my time playing.  I got into Palladium's role playing system.  Before you groan too loudly, we will only spend a short moment here.  Where I am going starts here.  In one of many many Palladium role playing games, there was a character class called Reformed Demon.  It was designed as a super powerful level one that actually got weaker as it increased in level.  The idea was that it was leaving its evil ways behind it and was becoming something closer to human.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I was a messed up kid, teenager and young adult.  This idea stuck with me.  Many other sources strengthened this notion. Deadpool, Incredible Hulk, Leon the Professional to name a few.  I wanted very desperately to be to a good man, but I had no idea how.

  All of this culminated in a character I created as Storyteller in a game of White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade.  The party was this extravagant group of Gangrel and I love to bend and break system to create a vibrant environment and story, so the characters had gotten quite powerful.  Introduce a character that was quite literally built as they encountered him, wembler.  He simply started out as just someone indescribably horrific, that you had to make skill checks to look at him.  Then I had the idea that he was a magically constructed vampire as an experiment by the Tremere protagonist that they were facing off against at the time.  I gave him every weakness and strength of every clan, including Sabbat.  He was able to learn every discipline.  He was a monster.  But as the story progressed, he was not the bad guy.  He actually assisted the party and cleaned up the mess they had gotten themselves into.  The campaign we were running wrapped up and we were looking to start a new one.  During my planning for the next campaign, I built more back story for wembler.  He was trying to build a group to try and save the world from Gehenna.  He was trying to find a way to save as many people as possible. 

  I wanted this very much.   Even though we never played through that campaign, I remembered what I wanted wembler to do.  I remembered what I wanted for wembler.  I remembered what I wanted.
 
  I want to help the world save itself.

  I sit staring at my keyboard. I have no idea how to start, so I start to ramble. I wonder what my friend who invited me to write here will think of this rather slow beginning. It had originally been my intention to start with a large bold statement. Yet, I could not think of anything and was putting off day after day this journal that i was actually very eager to produce. So, today I write, gibberish or not.


  I think of the changes that have occurred in my life in the past year. I had experienced great love and lost it. Found truth and my place in the universe. Left a life walking a dark path. Learning to walk the path to a better place.
  
  I want to be able to share what I have learned, so that when it comes time for you to get your butt kicked by life, it will be a little easier.