I don't plan to do an essay related to the topic, but I did want to start off by noting how pleased I was to see KRANG (!!!) this morning on the latest episode of the new TMNT cartoon. Granted, they didn't call him by name, and he's got this weird muzzle on that looks like a cross between a serial killer restraint mask (does anyone know what that's actually called?) and Professor X's Cerebro helmet, which makes sense because he was imprisoned when he first appeared on the show (before he escaped and started dealing out the pain), and he's got this weird purple scar over one eye, but I know Krang when I see Krang and that, my friends, was Krang -- back at last. And to tell you the truth, I like this new and improved Krang better than the old one. Before he just whined and burped and crap, and that body of his was ridiculous, but now he comes across as a legitimate threat. And admittedly, while it's pretty hard to improve upon Krang's look, he really does look better with the scar (if not the helmet), and he's drawn in this way that's more sleek, more vicious. And his new voice? Tremble when you hear it. You don't stand a chance, turtles.

Other than that, the episode was pretty stupid, and not in the good way that the old TMNT eps were because this new show takes itself too seriously (with the exception of Michaelangelo, whose character is just retarded for no reason -- like a horrible standup comic and impressionist with ADHD to the third power -- I think it's supposed to be funny but it's just dumb). For instance: this episode had the turtles learning the history of the Utroms, the alien race to which Krang belongs, via a device that hooked up to their brains so that they experienced the past in a VR type experience. But naturally they couldn't interact with anything, and if they tried objects just passed through them. So far, so good. Meanwhile, Baxter Stockman -- who has been reduced to a head inside a 12" robot spider (wtf?) -- infiltrated the Utrom complex, where the turtles were in stasis for their VR journey, and modified the machine, such that suddenly everything in the VR world became real, and the turtles could interact with everything, and vice versa. At the time, the turtles had been observing 11th century Japan (where the Utroms crash-landed), and when THE SHREDDER (yes, now he's some kind of immortal demon or something; I don't know; a few weeks ago Leonardo decapitated him and he just picked up his head and walked away) was attacking the Utron "base". So the episode ended with the turtles facing off against the Shredder and the Foot, once again. Think about that, for a moment.

Okay. I'm fine with the machine rendering the history in 3D, since the projection was supposedly recreated from the memories of the Utroms (apparently they're immortal too, or maybe they just have really long lifespans), and the VR setup works for me, but the problem comes when Baxter sabotages the machine and suddenly the turtles (or the background; whatever) solidify -- and, moreover, when the Shredder orders his minions to attack them. THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN AND SHOULDN'T BE PART OF THE UTROM DATABANK. I could see, maybe, the turtles being able to collide with objects, but still being unable to move them or change their course, but anything else would require the history to be a live reenactment instead of a VR playback, with a realtime simulation of the Shredder (and every other character in the past) performing their actions on the fly, etc. Not only does that, however, go against their explicit statement that this was a "recording" taken from the memories of the Utroms, but it also assumes determinism up to a point, because theoretically if Shredder, Krang, et al. are essentially acting and thinking in realtime they should be able to act differently -- but they don't; everything happens just as it did in the past. Until the turtles solidify in the "past", for then things happen differently -- Shredder reacts, etc. Sigh.

I could've kept going, but I'm tired of that subject now, and I didn't mean to write as much about it as I did (I hope the above made sense, though?)...suffice it to say that I wasn't very pleased with that episode, but I sure love the new Krang. I'm gonna draw him soon. 🙂

So I went to Dollar Tree today, and what a haul! I picked up Stephen King's "On Writing" -- about which I've heard good things, and it's definitely worth a buck -- and "Totally Amazing Mummies", one of those Golden Books children's books with a bunch of photos, info, and bad jokes pertaining to a particular subject. And mummies are cool enough, but how was I supposed to resist a book which has one on the cover with a speech bubble saying, "I don't feel a day over 2,000"??? I stood on tiptoes to pull that sucker down. Also bought a box of non-toxic, asbestos free jumbo crayons, to be included in various photos that I take for the site (a crayon that has to advertise its lack of asbestos is pretty scary, indeed), and a couple of toys, one of which is definitely getting a review. Stay tuned...

Also, Dawn wrote a brief response to my last post, as well as a number of really nice things about me, in a recent post entitled "Go Wes". I think I've about spent myself for this post -- I've written too much as it is, and I'd like to save some writing energy to work some more on my current short story project later tonight -- but I definitely wanted to mention that. Soon I'll write a more substantial reply to that post, which I anticipate will go in another direction, and which I suspect will include excerpts from a recent AIM conversation of mine (which I had initially planned to post in its entirety, but now I don't think I'll do so). Oh, and Jim has added his thoughts to the religious discussion with his own response to Dawn's "Veiled in Flesh", entitled "What If?.........". I found it a little hard to follow, and I'm not sure how much it adds to the discussion -- Jim begins and ends in places that don't seem to follow from the preceding arguments (if we attempt to understand his post as a reply to Dawn's), so I'm not quite sure how to go about responding to it -- but the paragraph that begins with, "The difference between the first Adam and the second Adam..." is relevant.

And thank you, Meighan, for the lovely gift. 🙂 Those zombies will rue the day they met Wes, I'll tell you what.

P.S. Wanna e-mail me? Click mah name below. Simple and clean.