Well, it’s not a big secret if you’re following me on Twitter, but for those of you who missed it, I shaved my head again.

2006 was the last time I shaved my head. I liked it like that so I don’t really have a good reason as to why I stopped and let it grow long. I think I just wanted to try and be a normal person for awhile. So much for that! For a short while I was maintaining it and getting my hair cut regularly, but eventually just gave that up and let it grow.

It had gotten pretty long over the years and I knew the time was coming to do something with it. I wanted to get a passport photo done and knew that I wasn’t going to keep the long hair forever. Besides that, I felt that it was time to return to what I considered my true self. The long hair was cool, but I always knew it was temporary. In my mind I was really a bald bandanna badass.

So, last week, right before Easter, my pony tail was cut off to be donated to people who make wigs for cancer patients. I wanted to make sure that I waited for my hair to be long enough to donate before I cut it all off. The asymmetrical mess that was left behind got clipped down as far as I could. It was like cutting through barbed wire with a kitchen knife. So, for the first time ever, I busted out the shaving cream and sliced it all right down to the skin. It’s been several days now so it’s starting to really grow back, but I will be keeping it at least down to peach-fuzz as often as possible.

The one thing that I can say about the difference between going from having long hair to having no hair is that the back of my neck feels really cold most of the time. I’ve got my bandanna keeping me warm up top but there is definitely something missing in the back. The other major difference is that I had to get rid of my awesome Go Nagai sideburns. I think bald guys with long sideburns look stupid, so they had to go. Hopefully my Koji Kabuto-esque burning justice didn’t go with them.

At any rate, bald Ninjatron is back. Commence with the quaking with fear!

Sayonara.

I have joined the new millennium and have started to use a BlackBerry.

It is green. It’s a GreenBerry.

Green wasn’t my idea. This is something of a hand me down. I’ve had it for awhile now and it worked fine as a phone, but now I’ve got it set up with e-mail, maps, games, Twitter, Yelp, and so on. I don’t want to become one of those tools who is always got their face buried in their BlackBerry, but it has become quite handy in recent weeks.

My favorite thing, though, is the simple “Memo Pad” application. Of course, I can use it to wright little notes to myself to remind me of things I need to get done, but I’ve mostly been using it to keep track of how insane I am. I created a list called “Secret Ideas” and whenever a strange thought occurs to me, I type it out so that I have it saved forever. Most of these thoughts are about monsters, robots, and weird characters. Some are very specific, others are quite vague, and the list has gotten quite large. Here are a select few the bizarre things I’ve come up with.

• Turkey robot
• Walrus God
• Garlic creature
• Skatebording pizza robot
• Robot space squid
• Ham super hero
• Kid in ghost costume piloting robot
• Doom Clown
• Octopus police
• Gorilla in Gorilla-mech
• Banana in Banana-mech
• Computer cake

Just think, these multi-million dollar gems could have been lost forever had I not been able to quickly jot them down on my BlackBerry. I don’t know how or why these ideas occur to me, but for whatever reason, they do. Now I can save them and do something with them.

This is a lot more fun than playing BrickBreaker or whatever.

In cleaning out a closet last week I had to pull out this cardboard box full of video game magazines from the early-to-mid 1990’s.

The box is packed to the brim with these magazines. It’s so incredibly heavy that it can barely be moved except by slowly pushing it along the floor. Lifting it would cause the bottom of the box to give out.

I didn’t really go though the contents very thoroughly but I know that there are mainly issues of Gamepro and Nintendo Power with a few assorted issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Die Hard Game Fan and others, covering the 18-bit era of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and moving towards the original Playstation and Nintendo 64.

When I was buying magazines like this regularly, I would end up spending maybe $20 a month on them. In retrospect, this was kind of foolish. That money could have added up to enough to buy more games. I guess one could justify it by using the magazine reviews to pick out which games were worth buying, but considering that most of the games I bought in those days were the big hits that were well known and guaranteed to be good, I don’t know if that excuse would hold up.

I see now that that these magazines did do for me though, and that was to introduce me to the concept of a video game culture. It was cool as a gamer back then to know things that others didn’t, to have your own language, to find out what was going on in Japan, and to be on top of what was new and what was yet to come. Buying a game magazine was like buying a ticket into that still burgeoning culture. Reading each new issue was like taking the next step into an ever expanding world. That meant a lot to me at the time.

Nowadays most gamers would get their info from the Internet, and magazines like this aren’t as important or popular as they once were. I suppose it’s just as well. When I first got the internet at home, video game sites were the first web pages I visited. And I suppose shortly after that is when I stopped buying game magazines monthly.

Even though I was cleaning out a closet, I just couldn’t see myself getting rid of this box. Too many memories. These magazines are a relic of a nearly forgotten age. I doubt they’d ever be worth any money, but as cultural artifacts they still might have some value. It’s funny to think of video games, often thought of as being the new kid on the block of technology and entertainment, having this ancient history to it, but here we are.

Seeing this box not only brings to mind how times have changed, but also how I’ve changed. Back then I just had to know about all the newest stuff, but the last time I visited a video game website to check up on the latest news was weeks ago. Despite all the advancements in technology, the game industry these days just isn’t as compelling to me now. I don’t play as much and when I do buy new games, it’s usually after the price lowers. Perhaps I pine for a return towards the games of my youth. But, when it’s all said and done, I’m just mostly going to be interested in the really good ones, just like back in the old days.

Sayonara.

As if it were destiny that I continue to become more like my hero, Doctor Doom, my desk now looks like this:

 Yes, there are 6 screens. Hardcore! Let’s look at them in order.

First is the 21 inch monitor hooked up to the computer I do most of my art on. I watch video and Blu Rays on it too. It also has a TV card so I can watch regular cable TV. Hey look, Conan is on!

Below that is my Wacom Cintiq 12WSX. I’ve had it for about 2 years now. It’s been a life changer. I’ve got a work-in-progress going there but you can’t really see it. Suspenseful!

Then there is my laptop, an 18.4 inch Acer which I’ve also had for about 2 years. It’s still pretty awesome escept for the fact that it still runs Windows Vista. I don’t usually set it up on the desk like this. Here it’s playing Spore.

Then there’s my regular everyday surfing computer, which has 2 monitors. The one on the left was just sort of found somewhere and given to me. I have it turned on its side because that’s the only way it’ll fit with everything else on the desk. I’ve got an old Wacom Graphire hooked up there. I put my Twitter on so I could read my own tweets because I think I’m pretty funny.

Lastly is another computer, because 3 computers was just not enough. Actually, no. It’s from work. They asked me to take it home to test out a few things and see what it could do. I won’t be keeping it here forever. It’s got a brand new Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch hooked up. In fact, 10 of those arrived at the studio this week! Oh yeah, something big is going on!

Will talk more about this exciting development later.

Sayonara.

So, enough about stuff I haven’t watched yet. This is what I have been watching!

I remember when Batman Beyond was first announced. The fans were pretty skeptical, but when the show debuted it was clear that the crew responsible had the magic touch, because it was something special.

I had seen several episodes back when they were first on the air and on the ancient technology of VHS, and my thoughts on the Return of the Joker movie are well known, but this recently released complete DVD box set is the first time I had seen all the episodes all in a row. After spending some really significant time with the show, it’s even more apparent how truly great it was. The concept could have gone so badly, but the stories, the writing, the acting, and the art direction were excellent. The show is so fresh, unique, and unpredictable while still being Batman.

And it’s surprising how this is so not a kids’ show this wound up being, what with all the fighting, scariness, teen angst, and icky kissing scenes. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. But the whole idea was to make a new Batman show with more kid-appeal, and it wound up skewing even older..

Also, the music kind of rocked.

It’s kind of weird to think that a show that takes place in the future and was so progressive at the time is now more than 10 years old. In the worldof cartoons, that’s old! There are actually kids out there who haven’t seen it or even heard of it! Shame. But I’m glad that the character of Terry McGinnis has stuck around, making other animated appearances and even migrating over to the comics. I hope he shows up in Batman: The Brave and the Bold somehow. That would be shway.

Sayonara.