I weighed myself yesterday and the scale placed me at a whopping 122 pounds! Which isn't very whopping at all, but I was pleased that it was so close to my "goal" weight of below 120. C'mon, Wes, you're almost there!

I have "goal" in quotes, by the way, because it's not a serious goal -- I'll definitely raise an eyebrow if my weight rises above 130, but anything below that is fine with me. Weighing less than 120 pounds, however, would amuse me greatly.

In other news, I took my blood pressure at the machine at Giant yesterday. I don't quite remember all of the readings, but apparently I have either a crazy high resting heart rate or a crazy low one. Not that I was necessarily "at rest" or relaxed, as the way that thing squeezed my arm unnerved me considerably. "Relax! Oh, by the way, I'm going to squeeze the bloody pulp out of your arm and you may faint. But never mind that -- relax!"

Making matters worse, there were signs posted around the machine that specifically stated that children should not be using it without supervision -- yet three children had been jumping around and screaming and pressing random buttons on it while their mother spoke with the pharmacist and did not watch them at all. I fucking hate to see things like that. And then, when she finally took them away, the guy in front of me just sat down, stuck his arm in the machine... and waited with this idiotic grin on his face as if the machine were going to magically start itself. After about half a minute, he looked back at me and was like, "It's broken," and I'm like, "No, you fucking moron, you need to read the goddamned instructions posted right on the fucking machine." I ended up having to read them aloud to him. It's not so much that I minded doing it -- or that it was any trouble for me to do it -- but hell! If you can't read, you should be somewhere learning how to read instead of using the stupid free blood pressure machine at the local supermarket. I'm not so sure I was actually more relaxed when I did it the second time and got the crazy low reading, but I was watching the meter thing and found myself more/less trying to manipulate my heart rate to make it more acceptable. I think I ended up holding my breath.

Anyway, considering how stupidity affects me -- and how frequently I encounter it, whether it involves other people in person or flipping awful songs I've overheard or ridiculous things I encounter online -- my heart is probably perpetually racing. Perhaps someday I will have a heart attack and finally be able to relax.

I hope y'all are doing well!

Some folks might recall that -- ages ago, when I was experimenting with digitally coloring scanned drawings -- I drew a rather cutesy version of Cyber Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters and posted it to the blog. I loves me some Cyber Shredder!

Anyway, with Toy Fair 2009 taking place last weekend and NECA displaying its upcoming Shredder figure -- which, don't get me wrong, looks great for a "first appearance" comic Shredder -- I got kind of nostalgic for my favorite incarnation of the Turtles' armored nemesis. So I recolored a scan from TMNT Vol. 1, Issue #57 to come up with this (click for a larger version of the pic sans the Tournament Fighters background):

That is the toy I would like to see.

Still, even if it's not my Shredder, I'm looking forward to its release. NECA's upcoming Chun-Li figure, however, kinda scares me. (Not that that will necessarily stop me from getting it, but... yeah.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290291878753

Personally, I like mine better. Mine even have articulation. And didn't cost in the neighborhood of $90 after shipping. So w00t.

"EXTERMINATE!"

BBC News: Octuplets mum wanted huge family

Shit like this makes me furious. Admittedly, I tend to look down upon the decision to have children in general -- if you really think about it, the decision is ultimately a selfish one (well, unless one is having a child to serve as a donor for a sick sibling, but that has its own share of ethical issues) -- but this is really disgusting. To put it bluntly, those children came into the world because their mother was a crazy and insecure bitch who needed to be undergoing intensive therapy instead of prenatal care. "Boo-hoo, I'm lonely and need human connection... so I guess I will acquire it by having a buncha embryos implanted and giving birth to a hugga buncha babies! YAY!"

Now, hopefully those kids will have wonderful lives and will never be prompted to dwell upon that reality... but if things don't turn out so well and they actually do end up with not only shitty lives, but also the knowledge that those shitty lives began because their mother fucked up and was fucked up (here, in the psychological sense)? I can't even begin to imagine how angry they'll feel.

Oh, wait, I totally can. Not that this makes me especially unique -- to a certain extent, I think that most people begin to pick up on this when they're teenagers, but fail to accumulate the complexity of thought and/or misfortune required to pursue that inkling in depth and detail -- but... yes.

Instead of tucking 14 children in at night, that woman should be tucked into a straitjacket and thrown into a padded cell.