Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Redux's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, October 20th, 2007
2:27 pm	New Gods. Lightray and Metron. Just because they rock. Also, I wanted to practice coloring and faces some more. I might do Orion next. Maybe Highfather. Definitely Big Bear. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
9:08 am	#1-The three ghosts of Batman. Ever since Grant Morrison began his run on Batman, there's been this story arc thats run undearneath several of his stories, which is called, informally, the Three Ghosts of Batman. So far, this story has been simply fascinating. It begins in his Batman and Son storyline, when the story opens with The Joker presumably having killed Batman. He's holding someone dressed as Batman, atop a roof, after beating him blood with a crowbar or something. After a moment, however, the guy sits up and pulls ou a gun, then proceeds to shoot the Joker in the face, point blanbk, nearly killing him. The real Batman arrives too late to stop the shooting, but the Joker survives anyway. A few pages later, it's revealed that the guy in the Batman suit who shot the Joker was an ex-cop who took it upon himself to "clean up the city". This could have been the end of the story, but Morrison had other plans. The Batman and Son story continues and we meet Batmans son, Damian. After this story ends, we get an interlude in which Batman visits the Joker, who has had plastic surgery to reconstruct his face after the shooting. Once this is out of the way, we get to the first issues that focus on this Ghosts storyline. The next story involves a strange arrangement the police have with the prostitutes of Gotham, in which the hookers are occasionally required to please someone for the cops, so he doesn't go berserk. The prostitutes are unhappy with this arrangement because this guy has, apparently, killed a few of them. After some conversation, Batman decides to investigate. He heads to an old gym, or something, nad finds a number of dead bodies rotting in the facility. After looking around, he finally comes face to face with his quarry, who is, apparently, another cop. The guy is wearing a batman mask of sorts, which looks similar to Banes mask. a Batman shirt, and Batman gloves. He's also built like Bane, and has been, acording to Batman, using both Venom and Hugo Strange's monster serum. After a short fight that ends badly, an injured Batman escapes to a downtown penthouse that is, presumably, the same one used n the Denny Oneil/Neal Adams era of the character. He's seriously injured from his fight with the giant cop Batman, and Alfred pumps him full of painkillers. While he's out of it, he has a dream, in which he seems Damian, whose hair is brushed up like devils horns, standing in front of three Batmen. He says: "Father, the third ghost in the worst of them all." The three Batmen are the gun wielding cop, the Bane creature, and another, in the shadows, wearing a cape with pointed shoulders and ears that come up like horns, or like the more curved ears of the 1939 Batman. Bruce awakens, and speaks with Alfred and Robin about the dream and what happened to him. Robin decides to go after the giant Bane-Batman while Bruce recovers. Bruce asks Alfred if he recalls something called The Black Casebook. It was where Batman and Robin stored the records of their more unusual adventures. Time travel, U.F.O.s, and other unexplained things.. Essentially, Batmans version of the X-Files. He tells of one case in particular, in which he encountered three versions of himself one night. A killer Batman with a gun, a bestial Batman on strength enhancing drugs, and a Batman who sold his soul to the devil and destroyed Gotham. Eventually, we cut to more action, in which Batman joins Robin in the fight against the giant cop Batman. After some creative tactics, they win, and Batman tries to get the second ghost, (from hereone we will refer to these Batmen as the ghosts of Batman) to tell him who the third man is, the demon batman. But before he gets anywhere, the cops arrive and drive Batman off. The second ghost is never seen again. Batman has a meeting with comissioner Gordon, who knows nothing, but says something is happening in the GCPD, and that a wall of silence has grown up in his absense. He says the second ghost has simply vanished, as if he never existed. Here's where the story takes a VERY unexpected twist, in Batman #666. The story jumps 25 years in the future, and we get a clever two page spread called The Legend of the Batman, echoing the original Legend of the Batman spread that appeared in Batman #1 back in 1940, explaining the origins of a NEW Batman-Damian! Apparently Bruce dies at some point, and Damian takes up the mantle of the Batman. In the future of gotham, Barbara gordon is comissioner, and Batman is wanted for murder by the police. Barbara holds some grudge against Damian, but it never tells what. Damian is tracking a villain of some unspecified variety, who we learn, after some exposition, is the third ghost, the demoon Batman, who has been killing rogues in a pentacle pattern, which points to Hotel Bethlehem. We soon cut to the hotel, and find ourselvs facing a strange Batman with a flamethrower, spouting some social darwinist garbage, commanding various new rogues who exist in this future. Anyhow, Batman raids the hotel, fights off the rogues, and then has a battle royale with the third ghost. The third ghost reveals that he has, indeed, sold his soult o the devil, and can apparently walk on water. Despite this, Damian kills him by impaling him on a large metal spire, and reveals that he himself sold his soul when he was fourteen, ine xchange for Gothams survival. After the cops arrive, Damian tells them the end of the world is cancelled, until he says so, and the story ends. Thats the summary. Whew. Where to begin? I LOVE this storyline, but to say that its "meaning" is obscure is an understatement. If theres an exact point to it, I'm not sure what it is, so I'll approach it as nothing but a great story with lots of mystery and symbolism. The biblical references are many, as are the references to horror films, Batman history, and so on. Damian is obvious, the semi-evil son of batman and Talia Al Ghul, daughter of the Demons Head, Ra's Al Ghul. He kills, he's spoiled, he's twisted, and he hates Robin. As for the ghosts, the identity of the third is never revealed. Bu the first two were cops, and that may give some hint as to the identity of the third one. Both of the first two ghosts appeared quickly, were beaten, and then simply vanished, as if they were never there at all, as if they were nothing more than apparitions; ghosts. Each one represents something specific to Batman. The significane of a killer Batman using a gun is obvious, given Batmans vow never to kill and his hatred of firearms. The second is also obvious, in the Batman himself once used Venom and nearly fell to it, as well as the fear of failure and inadequeacy from Bane breaking him. The third? He sold his soult o the devil and destroyed the city he loved. Each represents something Batman hates and fears, something different for each one, but also something the same for each one: Batman not living up to the task he's chosen. Each ghost has taken a dark path in response to the inability to perform as Batman. One uses a gun, the other uses drugs, and the third sells his soul to the devil. All three are killers. All three represent a Batman who has failed and turned away from the purer path of the Batman we know and love. AS Batman says in the story, he saw them as cautionary tales of what he might become. Two of them have overt "demonic" characteristics. The third one is obvious, while the Bane one has a small demon head motiff around the eyes of his mask. Damian, in the dream about the ghosts, has his hair done up like horns, and he is, after all, the grandson of the Demons Head, Ra's Al Ghul. The first two also can be seen as representitive Batmans fears about the corrupt GCPD, and the ocnversation with Gordon implies that, in the absence of Batman and Jim, the GCPD has become more corrupt than before. The third story REALLY gets in to overt symbolism, as it takes a trip to a waht-if future where continuity is unimportant and Morrison can do whatever he wants. Hotel Bethlehem, the pentagram, and the talk of selling souls to the devil abound. The demon Batman uses fire, burning Gotham, as it were. But this story also adds another level to the story: Damian himself sold his soul to SAVE Gotham, he kills, AND he openly admits that he would enver be as good as Batman or Nightwing, so he resorted to placing traps everywhere in the city. A fourth Ghost? Also representing Batmans fears? The fears and doubts and anger he expressed in Batman and son, and seeing what kind of person his son was thanks to being raised by the Assasins? The three ghosts are symbols for Batmans fears about himself, and this fourth ghost of sorts, fears about his son. Adding to this, We see in the Legend of the Batman flashback, that Damian saw Bruce die before his eyes on night in Gotham, just as Batmans parents died before him. More fears? It also seems noteworthy that Barabara hates Damian, blaming him for the death of a friend, but no more information is given. Does she blame Damian for the death of his own father? Or is this referring to something else entirely? Yet another element added to this storyline is Damian referring to the third ghost as having terrorized his father years ago, perhaps implying that we will see more of the three ghosts storyline set in the present. No mention is made of the other two ghosts. Did Damian not find it important? He surely knew given that he referred to the third ghost. Perhaps the issue of the other two was finally resovled, leaving only the third at large? Other notable bits and pieces: through the whole Batman and Son and three ghosts storyline, there is a running romance between Bruce and a woman named Jezebel. Antoher "demonic" reference, when Batman is beaten up and nearly killed by the second ghost, the hooker who helps him says: "You're in way over your devil ears." There is also something of a dualistic, yin and yang aspect to Damian and the third ghost, both killers, both versions of Batman, and both having sold their souls, but one for good, and one for evil. At first, I disliked Batman #666, but now, reading it in context with the other stories, I LOVE it! But this story seems far from over, and I imagine Morrison is going to make some more allusions to it in his upcoming Demons Head saga. I really hope he concludes this three ghosts storyline, as it has SO much potential. 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Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
12:49 am	Sketch Journal #1 ( Sketch journal entry ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
4:17 am	It doesnt feel good to go ten fucking hours without food. That was one of the longest, uninterrupted FF12 sessions so far. I got lots of awesome stuff, but I didn't stop to eat. o_O ( FF12 stuff. ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
10:15 am	I need a pizza dammit. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 22nd, 2004
10:56 am	After reading some various political things online, one thing still eludes me. I've noticed that a small number of people, such as Andrew Sullivan, are reluctant to support Kerry for one main reason: they fear that he will not pursue DEmocracy in Iraq. This makes them reluctant to vote for him. But I really have to wonder why. I don't desire any malice towards those in Iraq, but it seems to me that with the economy in the situation it is, civili liberties under attack, church and state seperation in danger, the religious right having an icnreasingly dangerous say in social policies, how badly the war has gone, the inability to capture Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda, the continual outsourcing that's making decent jobs totally unavailable, the massive deficit, the attack and rollback on environmental protections, and so on and so on, that we have a LOT more problems, both worldwide and statside, that I think should take precent over whether democracy is acheived in Iraq any time soon. I don't wish for them to live in a terrible situation, but I think this is one of those situations where we should worry about our own problems at home, and international problems that are more pressing, before we worry about this. In any case, I STILL have yet to be convinced that Iraq will be transformed into a "democracy". If and when it happens, I think there's a good chance that some people will be in for a surprise, as the democracy Iraq will have is not going to resemble US democracy. Islamic attitudes towards women, gays, religious freedom, etc. will still remain for many, many years to come. I think some of these people naively asume that, given the choice, one election or two will transform Iraq into an America style capitalistic consumer society. That's not going to happen. Those people have their own culture and beliefs that they won't want to give up. Even ina DEmocracy, they're likely to hold on to them, and I would guess that many of the old attitudes that some people would see as anti democratic are going to linger for at least a few generations. Further, even if Kerry is not commited to acheiving Democracy in Iraq, there is no gurantee that Bush will be capable of this goal anyway. Iraq is supposed to have an election in Jan. I'm curious to see how this will go, and what type of people will be elected, and if the election will be fair at all. Given the current situation in Iraq, it seems that there are a million things that could go wrong with it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 30th, 2004
5:50 pm	Ah, the power is back on, im meeting with financial aid tommorow, I get new groceries tommorow after cleaning the fridge, which I'll have my mom come helpness with. At least some things are beginning to look up. ^^ I need to clean the carness. Everything else is in order. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
3:11 pm	http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040921-105148-8854r.htm x___________________________x These are some of the conditions of the debate between Kerry and GWB. Undecided people can't be in the audience fo teh third debate to field questions, only identified bush and keery supporters, because unidentifieds, supposedly, "as one Bush insider put it, was that undecided voters historically tend ultimately to favor the challenger. That would tend to skew the questions to Mr. Kerry's advantage. The Bush campaign figured undecideds would be especially suspect in the superheated wartime atmosphere of this election. " Also, to make sure the people don't pose as undecideds and ask surprise questions...."Just to make sure the president will not be ambushed in the town hall debate by Bush-haters posing as something else, the Baker team wrung this concession from the Kerry side: All audience questions will have to be submitted in advance, in writing, to the moderator. The moderator will choose which written questions to ask, call on the writer to stand and ask the candidate directly. If the questioner tries to pull a fast one by ad libbing, the moderator is obligated to cut off the questioner's microphone. " Additionally, no answer to a question from anyone can be over 2 mins long, which supposedly keeps kerry from "grandstanding' and from giving long winded answers. IE detailed asnwers fo susbtance rather than soundbytes. If this is not a shamelessley rigged debate, nothing is, and it's rigged in the open. Everything about it seems designed to make sure that no one asks the wrong kind of question. Also, in at least the first two debates, no candidate is allowed to ask the other a question directly about ANYTHING. They are totally just hand holding GWB through all this, making it impossible for him to lose. They know that it wouldn't even take a minute for kerry to trip him up and get GWB in that glazed, vacat mode that he goes into when caught off guard. As someone essentially put it, theyre treating GWB like some innocent little kid from the boondocks. I guess they need to defend naive, simple, humble GWB from big mean bully John kerry. Theyre trying to make it so it's impossible for Kerry to win or make any headway. (Comment on this)
12:42 pm	And I'm still wihtout power, and I'm now broke, as my bank account somehow went from $30 to $0 in one hour even though I only spent $16.......but I had to, because I was starving. x____x I'm serioulsy considering moving to a another nearby apartment complex. This isn't the first time that just a few buildings in that complex have been without power while the others have had it. I can't live like that, and if I did move, I would make it clear that it's over the power issue. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 29th, 2004
11:14 pm	-sigh- still no fucking power. This is just too much, I can't bear it. Why isn't it fixed yet? I can't live like this....... Im on an audio computer at the school, which feels sooooooo akward. The other comps are either being worked on or you cant get on them cause of the lack of a new login.......... There are two working graphic design one in another room, but they're being used. x_x ah well (2 Comments |Comment on this)
11:43 am	I still don't have power. My apartment is so hot that I really fear the fluffaboos might die from it. But it's okay, because we have to be "patient" with the electric company. Be patient as everyone one else in your apartment complex has power and gets on with their fucking lives. Pateitn while your future slips away because you can't enroll for your next quarter of school because you have to do a fafsa online and can't do it here. Now that I cant get that done im going to owe the school $3000+ and will most likely get expelled when I can't pay it right away. I'll miss my last quarter and who knows what effects that will have. My entire last two years of life a waste because of a few fucking days of a cunt sucking filthy redneck southron right wing hurricane and the pwoer companys ignorant incompotence and total inability to ever get anything fixed in a timely manner as they pat themselves on the back for restoring the most power at once, leaving people like me to wait til sunday to get their power back. Current Mood: crushed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:04 am	Ah, nothing like ebay. ^o^ If the mail actually works, which is hihgly unclear right now as the mail ran 5 hours late today, I have lots of ebay wings to expect. So many mainly because the mail has been backed up and they're going to end up coming all at once. All gi joe stuff. -Terrordrome. -4 Vipers. -2 Techno Vipers. -Televiper. -Phantom x-19 stealth. -Buzz Boar. -Adder. -Hydro Sled. -Imp. -Jet pack. -Maggot. -Sea Ray. -Thunder Machine. -HAVOC. -Sea Ray. -Persuader. -Eliminator. -Night Force Psyche Out. -Wolf. -RPV. -Road Toad. -Coastal Defender. -Desrt Foxness. -Warthog. I think that's about it for now. ^^;;; I'm watching a few other items. I'm just glad this stuff is so dirt cheap on ebay. And thinking about this is a distraction from teh hurricane. Oddly enough, I dont have any real moeny problems from the stormness, everything is pretty mcuh normal EXCEPT the being without power part, which really has nothing to do with me anyway. (Comment on this)
12:59 am	I am spending the nightness at the schoola, in one of the 24 hour computer labs. ^^ I went home earlier, tried to sleepness, couldn't, only slept a few hours and woke up hot, sweaty, etc. and came here after getting water from walgreens, only to find that the gi joe, battle force 2000 auction of all bf2000 things I wanted I had lost. ;-; Another win for the hurricane. Ah wellness. I feel just, ick, frmo sleeping in the hot darkness and feeling icky and depressed in general over all this. At least I'm here, with lights, ac, and comps. I might make some gi joe pixelarts or somethingness. Current Mood: depressed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 28th, 2004
8:36 pm	Back at the school, as there is STILL no power at the apartment. This is too much. Four buildings. It would take them so little to fix that. But they don't. I can't believe they haven't fixed it yet. I want to write a lot, but I feel so down and out and worn out and transient and bad over all this that I just can't. I really hope they fix it later tonight. I can't stand to be without power, because I can't stand heat and I can't stand darkness. At least I finally got foodness. ^^ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:55 pm	Meme thingee I tookness from another journalla. ^_^ DO IT Would you... () go out with me? () give me your number? () have sex with me? () kiss me? () watch a movie with me...even a really sappy one? () take me/let me take you out to dinner? () drive me somewhere/anywhere? () take a shower with me? () be my bf/gf? () have a fling with me? () listen to me if I called you crying, even if you were out with all of your friends? () buy me a drink if I didn't have money? () take me home for the night? () let me sleep in your bed? () sing car karaoke w/ me? () sit in the doctors office with me because I didn't want to go alone? () re-post this for me to answer your questions? () let me give you a piggyback ride? () come pick me up at 3 am because my car ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere? Current Mood: hungry (3 Comments |Comment on this)
5:49 pm	Still no powerness. IF this were in the winter, and it was cool and crisp and nice outside, I would baerly care and only be slightly bored, but it's not. It's still boiling and searing outside, and I just can't handle heat. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:59 am	I bought so many niceness things on sat. Lots of cheeses, chicken, fresh tomatoes, I was gonna make some caprese, pasta, shish tawook, have nice import cheeses, etc. But noooooooo. It's all fucking gone bad now because the power has been off. I opened the refrigerator and it smells like alchohol or something. Now I have to get all the groceries again. x_____x I'm starving now, but currently can't get food. I haven't taken a shower. I need to was clothesness. I need to cmoplete my fafsa but I can't do that without being in a place, after 6pm, with a phone, power, and internet. I'm soooooooooo hungry. I haven't taken my medication in a week or so because I keep fprgetting too. x_____x It's made me, not myself in some aspects. As has this hurricane. The heat I have to endure makes me delirious, drains my energy, etc. Why did my parents ever move to this disgusitng filthy state of ignorant cross eye rednekc southron sub human garbage, where its full of nothing but heat, humidity, and air so thick Im always out fo breath because I have allergies and breathing problems. I wish my ebay stuff would come. That terrordrome and x-19 are like, two weeks overdue. I payed the cars insurance but they enver sent me a bill so I had to find out frmo them directly how much it was. They said I didn't get a bill because the postal systerm is so clogged up right now and messed up frmo all the hurricanes. I'm sure this one won't help any. This is unreal. Supposedly this is a cycle that happens every 40 or so years and it might be like this for the next twe or three years. I can't handle that. I would have to move out of state. UIN DIONT FUCKING MOTHERFUCKING CARE WHAT ANY PIECE OF SHIT LOSERS SAY< HURRICANES ARE NOTN THE MOST HARMLESS OF DISASTERS< I FUCKING HATE ALL THESE PEOPLE TELLING EM I CANT MOVE BECAUSE OF SNOW OR EARTHQUAKES!!!!#$2t5iopjq2gjypwe Current Mood: hungry Current Music: none, but i wish it was the coldplay songness ;-; (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 25th, 2004
12:27 am	A survey about summerness. ^________^ When did this summer even begin and end? This past year has been a very hazy blur, for the most part. I don't know why, because I was very productiveness and have a LOT of finsihed projects and pieces of art to show for it, a growing gi joe collection, lots of writings, etc. But it seems like it's all happened in such a short period of time. x____x TEN Things You Did This Summer: 1. Learned Flash. 2. Got better with Illustrator. 3. Did lots of drawingness. 4. Cooked a lot of nice things I had never tried to make before and expanded my skills in that area a lot. ^o^ 5. Got back into toy buying/collecting. 6. Tried vietnamese food for the first time ever. ^o^ 7. Became more Star Trek obsessed than ever. 8. Kept going in schoolness. 9. Got more acqainted with Fireworks and Dreamweaver. 10. Got into making a lot of pixel art and vector art and generally expanded my creativity into other realms of design and expression. ^o^ NINE Favorite Bands or Musicians of The Summer: N/A, I didn't get into any "bands" this summer. I listened ot lots of songs and pieces of music, but didn't follow any one artist at all, much less 9. EIGHT Places You Ate At: 1. Bombay Masala. 2. Crazy Buffet. 3. Pho Quyen. 4. Jasmine Thai. 5. Barakas. 6. Macaroni Grill. 7. Viva La Frida. 8. Johhny Carinos. SEVEN Things that Annoyed You: 1. Allergies. x___x 2. Schoolness. 3. Having to pay $100 every month for medication. 4. Getting my license suspended and having to spend hours at the DMV to get it back. 5. Getting addicted to ebay. 6. Occasional creative droughts. 7. Ruining meals by doing something wrong in the preparation. SIX Things You Bought: 1. The Voyager dvd sets. 2. DS9 DVD sets. 3. Lots of art supplies. 4. GI Joes and Transformers and other toys. 5. Foodness. 6. Rabbit supplies. FIVE Things You Accomplished: 1. All my various projects and drawings and stuff. 2. Learning new programs and learning others better. ^o^ 3. Keeping things fairly clean most of the time. 4. Learning more in general. 5. Staging succeseful campaigns against Cobra and Decepticons. FOUR Movies You Saw: I rarely ever se new films so I own't even bother doing this part. THREE Things You Wish You Did: 1. Been more productive. 2. Learned a foreign language. 3. Learned more programs. TWO Rules You Broke: Next. ONE Thing You LOVED About This Summer: 1. The voerall level of productivity and creativity surpassed all past years of my life combined. Current Mood: wet from the shower Current Music: none (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 23rd, 2004
5:17 pm	Aaaaaah, a nice dinnerness of pasta. ^_________^ THe ay I usually make it, with pine nuts, feta, basil sauce, penne, and some spices, olive oil, etc. I don't have any pan bigio or buffallo mozarella though. x_X Ah wellness, I go to the store tommorow eveningla. ^o^ (6 Comments |Comment on this)
3:43 pm	New iconness. ^_______^ Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)