Kirk blAug

Earlier this week I came across this comic from The Oatmeal . It is worth looking at. Go ahead and read it , then come back. I will wait. Okay, back? Good. I thought it did a pretty good job of describing one reason that piracy is growing, so I shared the link on Facebook and Google+ with the following comment: This is why piracy exists. The studios continue to drag their feet at offering competitive or reasonable methods to acquire the media. The studios are just as guilty of the loss incurred by the artist if not more so than the customer who pirates. The artist is also responsible for finding a reliable distributor who is not going to make it difficult for customers to acquire the content. Piracy happens because it has the competitive advantage, not monetarily, but by ease of access. Then later that same night I came across Andy Inatko's blog post commenting on the comic . I thought he had made a few good points in his commentary. His post is also worth the read and I suggest

I have been wanting to see this film since I first heard about it. I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock, so I was very interested to see what the artists interviewed and followed in The Other F Word had to say about parenting. The documentary finds several veteran punk rockers and asks them questions about the hardships of touring with their quasi-famous punk bands while trying to raise kids at the same time. At first the film is pretty depressing. It depicts the punkers as absent fathers who are out doing shows which they do not really have very much passion for anymore. One of them admits that they might as well be blowing up balloon animals, implying that they are nothing more than cheap entertainment bought and sold by the same types of corporations that some of them set out to rebel against. In one part of the movie, Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, takes his kid to the playground and clears the whole place out. He jokes on screen about how all you need to do to get the park to y

This scene in How The Grinch Stole Christmas has always bugged me. I can not figure out how the Grinch ended up with a three dimensional suit by cutting one two dimensional piece of cloth. I remember back to one of the first times that I watched the show thinking, "What?!? But... that just does not work!" Perhaps back in 1966 kids were not so intuitive with things like this. Maybe they really thought that a tailor could take a piece of cloth such as this and make something that would cover both back and front of a body. Perhaps the Grinch cut another piece for the hat and coat off camera. I do not know what Chuck Jones and Ted Geisel were thinking, but it still bugs me every time I see it.

The Evolution of Dad is by no means a new a documentary about the rise of stay at-home dads. But still very relevant. It follows the stories of different men who are the primary caregivers for their children. It takes a look at the struggles of fathers looking to take care of children. It addresses some of the social stigma, the reasons, and the responsibilities that male primary caregivers incur. As a stay at-home dad, it hit home for me in an informative and inspiring way, but I think it would be enjoyable for anyone. I encourage anyone interested in the reality stay at-home dads to check it out. http://evolutionofdad.com