I just finished this graphic novel a few mornings ago and felt like I needed to talk about it. It made me think, that is for sure; it also made me feel disgusted at the same time. This is a deranged story. It is also a story that gets inside you and does something to you as a human being.

The world is dying. After most of the city succumbed to the plague, Welton’s staying inside — permanently. But hiding in his claustrophobic basement room — the only place he knows is safe — exacts a gruesome price, and he becomes part of a collective that’s killing children. Infected with the plague himself, with no way to find the woman he loves, Welton takes refuge in apathy — until someone knocks on his door.

Ball Peen Hammer gives us a window into life in a half-deserted apartment building in a time of raw love, sacrifice, fear, and death.

It was one of those books that after reading it, you put the book down, say “Wow” and have to realize where you are. Ask me if I liked Ball Peen Hammer and I would emphatically say “no”, then ask me if I thought Ball Peen Hammer was good, and I would say it was powerful, engaging, and made me think for days. They put together a book with writing and art that is just amazing, yet I do not like it. The problem is that it is just too macabre for me personally, but the fact that the work can make me understand that it is brilliant is testament to its power. Reading on the Macmillian site it says Ball Peen Hammer is for 14 year olds and up, well let me say no fucking way would I let my 14 year old read this thing. We have sex, death, and despair at every corner. The fact that people are killing children to eek out a meager existance, pretty much trading water for killing is a tough one to lay on a 14 year old, in my opinion.

Rapp and O’Connor have this story that is really just a small pocket in a larger world that is beat up by a war and a crazy plague. That pocket though reads like you have a rich understanding of everything going on; it is robust with character and background. Even though we really do not know much of what is going on around these characters from the bigger sense, you are wrapped up in it. You can hate the characters for what they do, but also wonder what you might do in the same situation. The love story that the author throws at us is both tragic and hopeful all in one, they did a great job with Exley and Welton. Horlick was the only character that I thought was a bit overboard in both character and drawing. He had a bit too much of an animated scene from the drawing standpoint interacting with the melons and sometimes he felt too much like a cartoon character for this story. The Shady storyline that Horlick and his brother deal with was, um, just crazy. If you are into this sort of work, you really should not miss out on Ball Peen Hammer, just know what you are getting into.

Ball Peen Hammer is written by Adam Rapp; illustrated by George O’Connor and put out by First Second (Macmillian).

I love watching the Winter Olympics.   I’m not really a huge fan of figure skating, but I do love the esoteric sports such as biathlon, skeleton and curling.  Not to mention the winter sports have the greatest chance for spectacular crashes.  And of course you have one of my favorite sports:  Ice Hockey.  On the men’s side, you have pretty much a collection of NHL players from the US and Russia, slapping around teams from countries not as deep in NHL talent.  Slightly entertaining, but usually nothing that epic.  Well, nothing that will compare to the miracle on ice back in 1980.  (Those guys pretty much ruined olympic hockey for all time.)  But then there’s Women’s Ice Hockey.  No professionals, just a bunch of ladies duking it out for the love of the game.  Sure, there’s no checking allowed and the shots aren’t as powerful as their male counterparts’, but a lot of these players have crazy skills.  Which makes it all the more disappointing to say, it shouldn’t be in the Olympics.

The amount of blowouts and lack of competition in these games is shocking to me.  My first taste of Women’s Ice Hockey this year was Canada’s 18-0 dismantling of Slovakia.  Yikes.  They promptly followed that up with the destruction of the Swedish and Swiss teams, outscoring their 3 opponents 41-2.  The USA team has been equally egregious, outscoring their opponents 31-1.   I don’t find it surprising that China can’t keep up with the US, but considering this has been an Olympic sport since 1998, you think some countries could field some better competition, especially European and Scandinavian countries who have rich hockey traditions.   Also, I really have no idea why the Russian team is so horrible.

I say the IOC should have a long hard look at Women’s Ice Hockey as an Olympic sport.  Maybe give it one last chance in 2014 when girls who first strapped a pair of skates during the first year women took to the olympic ice, in 1998, will be of age to be olympians themselves.  If the rest of the world’s women can’t provide some decent competition by then, it’s obvious they aren’t going to and Women’s Ice Hockey in the Olympics should go the way of softball.

Today marks one year since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

So how are we doing? 

I guess it depends on who you ask.  According to the president and his economic advisers, things are looking better.   GDP is up and the number of jobs the economy is losing is going down.  On the other side of the coin, consumers are still not spending money and unemployment is still 10%.  So what’s the real deal?

I don’t think there is one.

There’s no possible way economists are going to be able to reach a conclusion on this.  For every left leaning economist who claims that the stimulus was more about consumer confidence and the fact that the people needed to know that the government was going to be there to help out, you’ll have another economist point out that Obama and his team’s argument that “it could have been worse”, holds no water as it tries to prove the negative.

How do you all feel about the government’s $787B stab in the dark?

So you are stuck on a island in the Pacific with a dvd and lcd monitor that work on solar power.  You have your choice of  being able to watch White Collar from USA network or Leverage from TNT.  First off we have the new contender White Collar.

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay.)

When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He’ll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can’t be found on the right side of the law.

The plus of White Collar is that you have Matt Bomer of Chuckfame that does a real good job at the con artist roll.  Plus let us not forget that we have Tiffani Thiessen.  The stories are interesting, and the mid season cliff hanger was great.  I think the problem was that they wrapped up too much of that cliff hanger too quickly.  I would have liked to seen it drawn out a bit more.  We know a bit too much in my head.  Still a great show though and I look forward to see how the conflict between the two FBI agents works out.  You do also have Natalie Morales who I loved in The Middleman.

TNT set Tuesday nights on fire this past winter with the first season of this thrilling, fast-paced drama series starring Oscar® winner Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People). This summer, the gang is back with more elaborate scams designed to exact revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize people. Hutton stars as Nate Ford, a former insurance investigator determined to bring down the kind of corrupt bigwigs whose neglect led to the death of his son. His highly skilled team includes Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman – Coupling), a grifter who uses her acting skills to corner her marks; Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane – TNT’s Into the West), a “retrieval specialist” with bone-crunching fighting skills; Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge – Friday Night Lights), a gadget and technology wizard who keeps the team connected and informed; and Parker (Beth Riesgraf – Alvin and the Chipmunks), a slightly off-center thief adept at repelling off buildings or squeezing into tight places. Together, the team puts their energy, quick minds and keen intellects toward securing justice for society’s underdogs.

LEVERAGE, which is executive-produced by Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian movies), has scored big in its first season, ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 show in its timeslot.

Leverage has a lot more action and one of my favorite characters in Alec Hardison played by Aldis Hodge who you may remember as Voodoo from Friday Night Lights.  Parker played by Beth Riesgraf also does a kick ass job at the gymnastic thief.  Eliot Spencer cracks head with humor and Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) does that mastermind, leader role well.  I could leave Sophie Devereaux’s character and we could also let the Nate Ford is an alcoholic fade to the back a bit.  They overdo that a bit. 

So what does everyone think?  Which would you choose?  I say Leverage.

I found this via Lou Anders Blog and decided I want to chat a quick second about it.  I really wish we had an area for favorite youtube videos as this would be one of them.  While females may be gaming more now than ever, it is mostly on those flash based puzzle type games as the majority.  I know that my mother and wife both play puzzle type games until they can’t see the screen anymore, but what I wanted to talk about is the hardcore female gamer.  Well watch the video first and then let us talk.

Ok, so you get it now right?  What am I talking about?  Well I have some more theories on female gaming so listen up.  Yes casual gaming which includes a bunch of those flash games on the web, a ton of DS games, and the introduction of the Wii have really charged up those female gaming numbers.  The reason the male hard core gamers still feel in the minority?  Women are not playing those hardcore games.  Yes, you can make an exception for World of Warcraft, but really the numbers are still highly in favor of the male in that game.  So what does that mean?  Well female gamers are a bit of a rare thing in the hardcore gaming arena so they are treated differently, which is probably why some women flock to those games.  I remember playing Everquest and true females were treated like gold.  Anyway now I am getting a bit off topic.  Why do I think there are so many male players in the gaming world?

You heard the reasons in the video and I agree with them, but I wanted to add some things that might not have been touched on.  Males are notorious for the impulse electronic and gaming buy.  Even the female gaming friends that I have do not usually go buy games or new gaming systems on impulse.  That leads to males playing more games because well, they own more games and game systems.  This leads itself to the status of gaming.  Can you be a male that does not own (insert sports game here) during the sport season if you follow the real sport itself?  No, your friends will laugh at you and make fun of you.  Well at least the ones I know will.

Males are usually more competitive in all things so this leads us to play more of the hardcore games.  This also touches on gambling.  When was the last time you heard of female gamers betting on a game?  I might decide that I am better than my friend at Tekken 6 and a wager is born.  This leads to working harder at those games and probably buying more games to be competitive at.  That leads to us always wanting to have the newest and greatest.  Yeah so what if I can beat you at Tekken 3 we are on version 6 now and I have to be able to beat you at that.  Plus if we are talking the sex sells angle how many games have sexy dudes in the main role?  Not many unless a female gamer thinks a space marine with all sorts of body armor on is sexy.

I think I just rambled my way through this piece, but I loved the video so much I felt I had to speak on it.  Hardcore gaming is still a mans world, but hopefully that changes in the future because female games are sexy, it is just the nature of the beast of the male thought process.  Ok, maybe not all males, but definitely this one.

As I sit down with my second can of ice cold Pepsi Throwback a few things come to mind.  First I am a self professed Coca-Cola fan if we are just talking straight cola flavored drinks.  On the other hand, when we talk about Pepsi I think any Pepsi cola type product with a splash of something fruity usually is a big hit in my book.  Some of my favorite Pepsi drinks include the ill fated Pepsi Blue and Pepsi Summer Mix.  Pepsi had released a few limited edition sodas as part of the “Refresh Everything” campaign.

As part of the company’s “Refresh Everything” campaign, Pepsi is reinvigorating its beverage lineup with the introduction of three new products. Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, all sweetened with natural sugar, will be hitting the beverage aisle this March and April.

First off where the heck is my Pepsi Natural?  I did not see that in the store I would not mind tasting some of that as well, but this review is about Pepsi Throwback so I do not want to get sidetracked too much.  So the big deal of Pepsi Throwback is that it is NOT sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), but rather “natural sugar”.  What is natural sugar you ask?  From Pepsi it is a blend of cane sugar and beet sugar.

The selling point of Pepsi Throwback is that key phrase, “natural sugar.”  Just what is that? When Pepsi was asked about this, they noted that the Throwbacks  are “sweetened with natural sugar, a blend of cane sugar and beet sugar.”  Something about beet sugar just rubs me the wrong way, it makes my face cringe up, and it seems that the experts all agree that cane sugar is superior for baking, but I do not know if that translates into soda as well.

So anyway how did this stuff taste.  I felt that Pepsi Throwback has a bit more cola taste to it than regular Pepsi.  It actually felt less syrupy (which it should I guess) and had a more refreshing aftertaste in my mouth.  After drinking a can, I did not have the soda taste in my mouth which normally accompanies cola drinks.  I will say this though, the first can was not as good as the cans after it, I want to say it took me a minute to get used to the difference of the taste rather than there being anything wrong with can number uno.  I think I was expecting the same taste as Pepsi regular version, which it is definitely not.  It also seems less harsh and I want to say less acidic as well.  I might be psychosomatically caught up in the hype machine, but I do not think so, this Pepsi Throwback is superior to regular Pepsi.  I think the problem of why this is not the regular formula  is that it is also probably more costly to produce and they realize that they can not really charge more for it.  I think I was hearing 8 weeks or something along those lines as the limited time of the drink.  For all the people complaining about the Throwback logo and design, I actually like it.  It conveys a new take on the Pepsi retro styling.

Hopefully SocialFocused can get some gold in the coffers so that I can be your soda tasting expert.  We can only hope.  As it stands though Pepsi Throwback is a step above regular Pepsi.  I am a soda connoisseur and I approve this message

CEO of Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Jonathan Schwartz looks to be the first Fortune 200 executive to quit his job via Twitter.  The leaving part is not a huge surprise since Oracle had announced plans to acquire the company and Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle is not a big fan of Schwartz.  I think the interesting part is obviously the way he left.  Is this going to be the new way to leave a job?  Wednesday night he took to Twitter and created a haiku that told the world he was quitting.

Financial crisis
Stalled too many customers
CEO no more.

Have any of you used Twitter to leave a job?  Do you think we will see more of this from big executives?  Is Twitter really the way to go?

The elusive Dairy Queen Red, White, and Blue Stars and Stripes Starkiss frozen confection. Well maybe not all that elusive as it seems the Food Network show Unwrapped showcased them recently, to which my mother replied “Wouldn’t they make a good dessert for the 4th of July?”. Well I guess they would, too bad all of the Dairy Queen’s are over 20 minutes away from us. She would not be deterred though and we made the trip yesterday to a Dairy Queen freezer for the limited time treats. See, it seems that you can not buy these anywhere else and at the prices they charge I can see why. As of 2009 4th of July Holiday they at $7.50 for a box of 6, which I guess is not the worst considering what you can pay for stuff at the ice-cream truck. It seems they do have the regular flavors all year round as well so no real worries on finding the Starkiss if you have a DQ out your way.

The vegan community finds these a real big deal as the PETA blog has given these little tasty treats the thumbs up. What I did notice on the wrapper of the limited edition Stars and Stripes version is that is says it may contain trace amount of milk protein. From what some Dairy Queen people are saying, the only reason it says that is that it is made in the same factory as some of the other Dairy Queen products, which is why they have to put that disclaimer on the wrapper. Either way this is not going to really concern most of the people consuming the product, but anytime you can make those vegans happy I guess it is a plus.

Let us talk about the actual product now . . . it is a three colored bar on a stick that is made to taste like cherry, watermelon, and blue-raspberry. You can see from the picture it is in the shape of a star, which gives this fun treat the name of Starkiss. The flavoring of the three colored variety is ok, with the cherry portion being my favorite, watermelon second and blue-raspberry bringing up the rear. I think in a treat like this, more natural tasting flavors would have been better to compliment the cherry, but none of the flavors was bad. I was surprised since I did not look at the box before I took a bite, that the white color was not lemon though. Watermelon and Blue-raspberry do make me think of summer, so that vibe of the treat is covered regardless. Really though the texture is why this treat is such a winner, it gives you a very good impression of ice-cream because it is creamy without having milk and rich without going overboard. It is also pretty low in calories so dare I say it could be used as a treat while on a diet? That is where the rich part of the Starkiss does well in satisfying a craving. I am going to go on some second hand information here as I did not get to watch Unwrapped where they covered this, but it seems that they can accomplish this by infusing air into the treat. Think of a real good italian ice that has been infused with air to make it creamy tasting. Sounds good huh, well that is what we are talking about with the Starkiss. Big props to Marc Summers by the way who is the host of Unwrapped and used to hold it down in my childhood with Double Dare. My kids thought the Starkiss tasted like fruit flavored ice-cream, so I guess that is as good a compliment as you can get from my two boys.

So the Starkiss is a hit in my book and it seems I will be loading up on the cherry varity next time I hit the DQ with the kids. If you want the Stars and Stripes version though you better hurry. You should check out the Dairy Queen freezer, I was surprised at what else they had for take home, but make sure if you have the coin, you do not leave without a box of Starkiss.

_{Note: I could not find a picture of the Starkiss on the web, so photo credit goes to me for taking a picture on our kitchen counter}

I was going to start this out as a Top 10 list, but screw it I needed a bit more room to include all the sodas that I enjoy in the summer or have enjoyed in summer past. Let us get this straight from the get go, these are MY top summer sodas, yeah I want to hear about what you think, but no pissing on Pepsi Blue cause that soda was awesome. Nah I kid feel free to say what you want about my soda list, just remember in my mind you will always be wrong. They are not in any particular order, but I will say that Pepsi Blue and Dr. Pepper Red Fusion probably top the list.

Pepsi Blue

My favorite soda, refreshing and an awesome glow in the dark weird blue color. It has a pretty unique taste so I do not know how to really describe it. The sucker that I am though I still have two cases of this stuff and will drink a can during special occasions like champagne. Usually it is for something pretty special though, like when I got married, or the birth of the kids, that sort of thing. It is like a carbonated freezy pop or something, and I always loved the blue freezy pops.

Mountain Dew Code Red

Really a replacement for the now defunct Dr. Pepper Red Fusion which I will talk about below, but it is always nice to know that you can still find one of your favorite sodas without having to look all that far. I like a red drink that does not taste like cough syrup. The only thing I would say is that I might like a little more carbonation on this one.

Dr Pepper Red Fusion

Second Favorite Soda ever, it is a shame but I almost forget what it tastes like. How about I just say it tastes like awesome. Really though I think I remember it have a great level of carbonation with a Dr. Pepper and cherry sort of taste. Much better than the rest of those Dr. Pepper conconctions. Berries and Creme? Could not even tell the damn difference.

Mountain Dew Live Wire

Orange soda with caffeine, it sure is a winning summer combination. The taste may be a little strong for some in the orange department, and it sure gets the engine started with the level of caffeine. This is a good one for when I am making a long drive during the summer or need to stay up late sitting on the beach. Also good when we travel to Hilton Head and I just can not get rolling in the morning.

Mountain Dew Voltage

Closest thing to Pepsi Blue I can find, but Mountain Dew messed it all up and added ginseng. Nothing says wack teenager sitting at the World of Warcraft keyboard like ginseng. It is totally unnecesary in this drink. I do like blue raspberry though as I soda so it fills in like a hooker would for a wife. Exciting but just not that same comforting taste.

Coca-Cola Vanilla

I love vanilla soda in the summer, I used to just add vanilla extract to my Coca-Cola then this came out. How this was phased out I just dont know, it was much better than the vanilla variety of Pepsi and one would think that vanilla coke would be universally loved. Like most of my other favorite summer drinks, it is no longer on the shelf in the US.

Pepsi Lime

Lime has such a better taste than lemon with regular cola I think. This was one of those cases where Pepsi just did a better job than Coke with producing the lime variety of its cola.

Pepsi Summer Mix

Ever mix Pepsi with orange soda while at a fountain dispenser at a fast food joint? Well say hello to Pepsi Summer Mix. A tropical mix with cola, and I enjoy it. See how I said enjoy, when it is no longer made? That is because I got smart this time, I horded like 10 cases of the stuff.

Sunkist Orange Soda

Too many family picnics and bbqs along with my dad dragging us to his company picnics to not mention this. Probably one of the first sodas i was allowed to drink cause it had no caffeine. Sunkist had one of the best tasting orange sodas overtaking crush in my opinion. This is like an icon of a soda can as well.

IBC Root Beer
One of my favorite root beers, I could also say Stewarts here as well, but I think IBC actually has a bit more of that bite that the competitors talk about. Also IBC is served at Chili’s and I used to rock that place in the summer. The only problem was it was almost as expensive as having a beer to keep ordering them.

Stewarts Orange Cream
I love anything orange cream, I used to try and mix orange juice and milk when I was younger. Guess what its not the same. Also tastes like the Bryers ice cream that had orange sherbert ont he one side and vanilla ice cream on the other. It is a soda though that is more of a dessert treat than a real soda. Smoother than a regular orange soda

Crush Grape Soda
Has a bit more carbination than some of the other grape sodas. One thing I noticed I like is higher levels of carbonation most of the time if I have my choice with a standard flavor.

A&W Cream Soda

Cream Soda is just so smooth, it has the aftertaste you are chasing. While there are other Cream Sodas that may taste as good, once again this was the one that made its way to the picnics in the summer so it wins on nostalga factor alone.

So there you have it, my favorite summer sodas. Do you think I left any out? Let me know in the comments section.

I put on my brown fedora hat take out the whip and take a trip to target to purchase a HD radio and Ipod player and I see a berry cola. We all know that I am on the hunt to find a replacement to my favorite soda Pepsi Blue and this Ultra Violet looks appealing. I purchase a bottle instead of a case, because it has the evil tag of diet on the label. I crack the bottle on the way to the car and now I must speak on the experience.

Initially I felt like I had found it, the holy grail of the Pepsi Blue drinker, it was good, and then it kicked me in the teeth with the diet aftertaste. UltraViolet is a “Zero Calorie Dew” that has a flavor that marketing calls Mixed Berry, but you forget all about that after the initial taste wears off and mister diet aftertaste reigns like a king in your mouth. Really the aftertaste on this drink is so much more forceful than your regular cola drink, at least to me. It could be though that I was so amped from the initial taste that the taste of disappointment was also factored into the aftertaste. That is what we get with a aspartame though. The actual taste of mixed berry is good though, not too heavy and the carbonation was about right as well. I do not mind there being a diet version of this soda, but at the same time we should have the regular sugar induced version to lead the way in taste.

While we were close to finding a Pepsi Blue replacement it really does not matter much as this flavor was going to be short lived anyway. It was listed as a 12 week limited time flavor.

Can we start another Pepsi Blue campaign?