joshsgeekartblog

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A group of rough looking boys walked past me today and all I heard of their conversation was “he’s got that anxiety disorder bro so I went with him so he’d be more comfortable” and it made me realise the world isn’t all that bad

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New artbook in the works

Tons of sketchbooks to comb through for my new figureative artbook, Life Studied Vol.2

The first volume of my figure art collection sold out, so we're making a second volume. It'll be 200 pages of my favorite figurative artwork! I hope you'll check it out. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mikehawthorne/life-studied-vol-a-200-page-collection-of-figure-drawings?ref=6xagdn

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Here’s to 2023, a year of as many little courageous kindnesses as possible. ♥️

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I built this Lego Captain America!

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https://twitter.com/coff33detective/status/1271463582312673281

“make yourselves impossible to ignore. 10,000 signatures on twitter is a lot but 10 unique personal emails is enough to derail an entire council session.”

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I don't know what the thing with the Constitution is about. But, I've always been more interested in physical media because, like Samidemonster says, you don't own digital but rather just lease or rent it.

Physical media is essential & why I just made an emergency run to the bookstore to buy a copy of The Constitution

“Knowledge is power, stories are power— own them so they can’t take them away from you.”

If you’re online you have probably seen the discourse surrounding the disappearance of The Constitution of The United States Of America from The White House’s official website. Who knows why this is, or if this is a permanent decision, but this is an abrupt reminder that physical media is so important, especially now more than ever.

First off, I would like to report that I found The Constitution on the National Archives government website. This is a great resource I just discovered, bookmark this:

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27#toc-amendment-xiv

The Constitution will never truly be deleted, but it behooves us to question why this page has been seemingly removed from a government website. Knowledge is power, and if this was a malicious decision, then they are trying to make access to important documents about our rights and our history less accessible.

Physical media has been proving to be more important and at risk in recent years. I began to see the importance of physical media when streaming services began to delete entire TV shows and movies off the face of the planet. We saw this with Willow on Disney+ and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies on Paramount+, two shows with fantastic queer representation taken from us forever. I would have gladly purchased physical copies if they were available but they never were; so now we say goodbye to art that will never see the light of day again.

As an avid comic collector, I have always valued physical media and have spent the last five years building up my library full of both books and comic books. It was unfortunate to learn, a few years back, that when buying digital media through streaming sites—you don’t own what you buy. You’re leasing instead of owning the movies, shows, books, and music you buy though companies like Amazon. This means, at any given point, your media can be taken away from you, but not if you own your media, physically. Knowledge is power, stories are power— own them so they can’t take them away from you.

After learning about The Constitution of the United States of America disappearing from an accessible government website, I realized that now, more than ever, I needed to own a copy myself. I ran to a bookstore near me and purchased a pocket copy. Admittedly, I’m not as knowledgeable as I’d like to be when it comes to The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I learned about them in history class growing up, but being atypical, school wasn’t always made for me and I didn’t absorb as much as I wish I had. With the state of the country, I see the importance of knowing and understanding these fundamental documents that dictate my rights.

In addition to my personal library of books and comic books, I plan on building up my collection of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and CDs. I recommend you do the same for your favorite pieces of media. A personal goal of mine is to limit consumption and not buy unnecessary things, but this falls in its own category. Knowledge is power, don’t let them take that away from you. Question things, own physical media, and while you're at it, get a library card.

*My goal is not to spread misinformation—The White House’s page containing The Constitution Of The United States of America being removed can be due to a number of reasons, there is no way to currently know if it was mal-intent or a simple technical error. Keep asking questions, practice critical thinking, and keep yourself educated. We got this.

-Sami (SamiDeMonster on Substack)

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Friendly's Vienna Mocha Chunk Coffee

Friendly's Vienna Mocha Chunk coffee tastes great! That is all.

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Oscars 2025

They're apparently talking about whether to cancel the Oscars. I'd say, just reschedule. As far off as they need to. They don't have to cancel it all together.

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Dec 4: Remember that time we learned Clark Kent totally peeked at all his Christmas presents with his X-Ray vision? (Justice League, “Comfort and Joy”)

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"Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!" - Clark Griswold

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Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice

BATMAN!

My little Keatonverse variant cover for issue 152 of Batman, celebrating the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

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1980's Captain America Vol.1 #250 cover by John Byrne, Joe Rubinstein & Irv Watanabe.

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Please don’t pirate books at least while the author is alive. I’ll make an exception for actual billionaires and wildly expensive textbooks you cannot afford yet need to complete your studies. I can’t make an exception for assholes, because we’re all considered assholes by someone.  I don’t know how many people realise how many writers who created successful, beloved stories and characters still die poor while other people get rich off the same work. I don’t think people realise that in the UK the current average yearly earnings for an author has nosedived over the last fifteen years to £10,500. That obviously is forcing people to quit writing. It increasingly means writing is a job for people who’ve inherited money or have wealthy spouses who can support them. I don’t know if people realise that in general, writers are poor and getting poorer. I’m sorry, but if you think widespread sense of entitlement to free books has nothing to do with that … you’re just wrong. 

I say I don’t think people realise - the truth is I hope they don’t, because the alternative is that they don’t care. That’s certainly the impression I’ve got from Twitter, where a truly horrifying number of people are arguing that copyright on  all books should expire after thirty years, and you should be able to acquire books for  free after that. This … would not just mean that everyone gets free books. It would mean if you write a book at 30, not only do you lose any royalties from it at 60, but Disney can take it, make a franchise out of it, Scrooge McDuck it up in a pool of money while you starve because writers don’t get workplace pensions.

Some threads on the unintended (?) consequences of this. I can’t go over it all again. John Brownlow NK Jemisin Michael Marshall Smith Me Marina Lostetter Kari Dru and others William Gibson and others

There are plenty of others. It’s not that this actual idea will actually happen, but I do think it reinforces the idea that it’s not only okay, but sometimes actually virtuous to search for ways to enjoy writers’ work without paying for it. Like it’s somehow a step towards a better world. Not just at the reader end, to be fair, at the employer end too. And I do see a lot of people here too who are all about supporting workers unless the workers are writers in which case fuck’em. 

Like. If you want to radically change society in such a way that mass-media conglomerates don’t exist and so can’t exploit us and we’re supported to make art in some other way than fine. But can you start the revolution with actual rich people please, not ask us to live right now, in the society we’ve got, without the money we need to survive it. Finally, a plea: I really, really, do not want to debate this. This whole thing genuinely makes me feel tense and shaky and sick. If you’ve got to disagree - unfollow me, block me, vagueblog somewhere I can’t see it. The Twitter version of this already has me feeling like I’ve been kicked in the gut. I didn’t want to write this post. I just felt I wasn’t going to have any peace until I did.

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Be happy. It drives people crazy.