Whiny Mandala

So I have this Mandala Of The Day calendar I got in January in a New Agey bookstore, and it's pretty cool. Bits of wisdom, much of it from the 10,000 Songs of Milarepa (I think it's called) and a nice color mandala for each day of the workweek, plus a version you can color yourself for the weekend. A mandala is a kind of prayer circle, literally...a design that you color in as a meditative exercise, thinking about what you want to have happen, what you want to accomplish, while you're doing it. Then, it's suggested you destroy the mandala to release the magic of it. I'm not religious, but more a "it can't hurt" kind of guy, so I do these now and then. Much of the wisdom, being Buddhist, is a little too focused on faith rather than reflective and personal self-improvement for me, but it doesn't bother me. However, last Thursday's was a doozy: "In my mother's belly, I rolled my golden eye." What the fuck? I know there's a metaphor I'm missing, perhaps equating golden with blessed, pure and innocent, like any other baby, but I can't help but think of a golden-eyed monster about to burst outta there.

Unexceptional but enjoyable weekend. Got a 6.1MP Kodak camera from Buy.com for a great deal. As ADD mentioned in an email, it's like many computer accessories in that you can't really use it right away, but once I charged the batteries I was able to snap a couple shots. I just don't understand many of the buttons on it yet, so I'll have to study the manual a lot tonight.

Received some nice stuff in the mail, including the Robert Goodin minicomics reviewed over at Comic Book Galaxy, the latest The Comics Journal Special (on Manga), Johnny Ryan's MARVEL SUPER PAGES (which I bought) and a comic and short dvd of CGI films from Moronic Entertainment. Haven't read the comic yet, but the dvd, BAD KIDS VOL. 1, didn't really work for me OR my kids. Well, I should say the first one, "The Rockthrower", didn't work, as we didn't watch the other two. The concept is there's a "Bad Kid Zoo" to capture and incarcerate bad kids for various offenses, and we see the subjects of the other two films, "Bug Girl" (she kills 'em) and, I think, "Fireboy" (plays with matches) already captured as the Rockthrower is led into the zoo. We've already seen him take inordinate pleasure in throwing rocks through people's windows--he even dances a painfully slow jig before he throws. The press release says this is for all-ages, and it's not going to scare them or anything, but it really didn't quite work as all-ages fare for me. The message is...okay. I mean, obviously no parent wants their kid destroying property, playing with fire, or being cruel to living creatures, but a strange, magical, unmanned place that traps and imprisons them indefinitely seems like a disturbing way to get the point across. More disturbing is the background CGI imagery, which in its textures and the rotating, repetitive camera work is a little too druggy, and the electronic music and sound effects are similary slow and eerie. The character designs are fine, and it's not bad animation, though. I'm not much interested in this effort, but I found it professional enough I'd like to see their next offering. I'll read and review the comic soon.

Got off my ass and wrote pages 10 and 11 of IRREGULAR JOE #3, leaving 12-16 and 21-22 left to do. Got way too into downloading music the past week or two, having found an apparently legal site offering 10 cents a track, with those nagging under-a-minute songs free (think of all the intros and skits from hiphop albums). I realize this is less than the artists deserve, yes.