Dinner conversation

Thanksgiving will be my first visit with the family since a brief stop on July 4th. A lot of has gone down on the national stage since that time. Obama had an overwhelming victory in the general election after a tough, rigorous campaign. The stock market has crashed hard, banks have gone belly up, and the economy looks rough for the near future. Passage of Proposition 8 caused an uproar and protests in almost every state in the country. There's no shortage of fodder for discussion. While you might think the election of Obama would be cause for celebration, there are some pretty hardcore conservatives in the family.

Why would any black American support the political party that has been all-but-hostile to their vote? The one not interested in expanding healthcare for everyone or helping get families out of poverty? The one that botched the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and led us into a costly, poorly managed war?

Well as many gays discovered on Nov. 5th, many blacks are socially conservative. The church's prominence in the black community is unavoidable. It's the number one way to get a message out there. So it comes as little surprise (although disappointing) that anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-contraception views are common, despite the very real problems of teenage pregnancy, STDs, and a general lack of safe-sex practices.

But our church isn't particularly political and ministers rarely bring up gays, abortion, or birth control. Most of these views come from the Focus on the Family radio program, which one female relative listens to every day (last I heard). In 2000 she said George W. Bush was a "good, Christian man" even while he refused to pardon a mentally challenged man on death row and called a reporter a "grade-A asshole". They even convinced her to support the Bush tax cuts, even though she's nowhere near the income level that would benefit from them.

So conversation at the Thanksgiving table should be interesting. Will we all deftly avoid the topic of politics? Will someone bitch that the first black president openly supports pro-gay legislation? Some of us are skilled at avoiding touchy subjects, others of us say what's on our minds without thinking. Others love to incite an argument. How much yelling will take place? How much will I laugh at the destroyed reputation of conservative golden-boy Georgie and the collapse of the GOP?

I'll be back next week with the 411. In the meantime, how does your family handle political discussions? Do you avoid the subject? If not, is there a lot of agreement or a lot of arguing?

Boobs, Glutes, Pecs, and Quads

The picture above is Seth, the new final boss in Street Fighter IV. Besides being not entirely human (what's the deal with the vortex?), Seth's muscular body looks ridiculous. Somehow the artists discovered (invented, if you will) a new muscle in the middle of the chest.

Video games take a lot of (deserved) flak for the plethora of unrealistically proportioned female characters. The list of culprits is a mile long: Ivy and Taki from the Soul Calibur series, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series, Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters, and the entire female cast of Dead or Alive just to name a few. I've always found the appeal of these buxom beauties a little baffling. At some point doesn't the ample bosoms and super-small waists become more distracting than alluring? I think the fanboy preference of Aerith from Final Fantasy VII over Tifa wasn't just her tragic sacrifice, but that she looked like a girl they might actually meet somewhere.

But for all the griping about these absurd femme fatales, little to nothing is ever said about their overly muscular male counterparts. Compared to its contemporaries, Street Fighter's female combatants are fairly tame. Sure the idea of fighting in a swimsuit and combat boots is outlandish, but the bodies (mostly) resemble those of real women. The fellas on the other hand look like they've been seeing Bane's doctor. The character art makes this especially clear. The musculature on display there can only be seen on the dehydrated torsos of body builders in the thick of competition. Skintight clothing does nothing to inhibit the prominence of muscles either.

Translating the Street Fighter cast to high-definition has only exasperated the problem. The male cast members look more freakishly roided up than ever. There's also an issue with their facial animations, but that's for another post entirely. Looking at the screenshots, it looks like the team attempted to take the cartoonish and slightly exaggerated look of the character art and translate the look into 3D. The end result is some goofy looking fighters.

Of course, as a Street Fighter fanatic, I'll be there on day one to pick it up regardless. Going back to SFIV's almost-naked final boss, Seth (pretty bland name there) boasts the same type of over-the-top powers that Gill did in SFIII. What happened to the days of Bison and Sagat, when the final boss had abilities closer to the rest of the roster? Why not rely on smart computer AI to make the final battle tough instead of overpowered guys in speedos?

Having said all that, I can't wait for February 19th, 2009 to play with all the buxom and steroid-pumped fighters. Now where's my Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix?

Portrait of a Canine

It's been awhile since my last artistic post, so now's as good of a time as any. Bert, MacBoy's lovable beagle, is my subject this time. Here's the drawing:
And here's the original:

First of all, I really should pick a lighter dog next time. Bert's dark spots are a pain to shade in. I think it resembles him well enough, but the texture of his fur is lost. I also wish I could draw the border of his fur just below the collar and the window pane behind it without the bold line there. I think I'll try out cross-hatching with my next drawing. And since every loves a cute dog picture here's another one of Bert.

Until next time.

Winner? That One.

After 21 months of out-campaigning, out-organizing, and out-debating his opponents, Barack Obama won the presidency. He even managed to turn NC blue, something that hasn't been done since 1976 and set a record for percentage of the popular vote won by a Dem. Amazing.

For icing on the cake, "Godless" Kay Hagan ousted Elizabeth Dole's worthless ass from office.

The only downside is the passage of Proposition 8 in California, eliminating gay marriage there. A pretty big setback that's already caused a lot of infighting in the LGBT community.