5/16/2014 - Head Trip

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Sometimes I have a thought about writing and so I rant about it, and then sometimes I get enough of those rants together and they become something like my The Story – Power Balance piece found at fav.me/d4e8m96 . I can generally tell I've got a good one when I start obsessing over it and I realize there is enough for a piece; that's when I get stuck going back to writing the piece in my head during every single free moment that I have. I realize all sorts of other addendum insights along the way, anything in my head even tangentially related to the idea gets seen in its new light and probed for additional ideas. In actually writing the piece I find that more bits of the puzzle emerge, some while adding examples or others just trying to make my thoughts fit to a concrete world. And when the piece is written I can know that I've internalized the idea, so that the things I've written become a part of my writing and my ideology. This is the reason I write pieces like this, not just to stop the obsessive thinking but to codify what I learn within my writing DNA. Do I like this piece? I like the breadth of examples I use and some of the paragraphs by themselves, but all together they really do feel like ten or so mini-rants on a loose theme stuck together without much care. The piece feels messy, re-reading it now I can tell that a new reader would get lost. What did I learn? That I learn by writing, but what comes out of me while I'm learning may not be fit for others' consumption.

This week it's part one of High War's chapter 12! Teal smiles and laughs! I mean it, that actually happens! And it turns out that when you tell someone they're doing it wrong, they might have a valid response! Next week, who knows!



Head Trip
by Amanda “Shinga” Bussell

Home: headtrip.keenspot.com/
First: headtrip.keenspot.com/d/200603…

Pointing out the dumb things other people do can make one a popular person on the Internet. It's certainly not a new trend, news media has been the megaphone of doing this forever, but in the modern age it can be done at a global level, with a speed unmatched by the past, and also everyone has that megaphone. One problem with lashing out at the self-perceived “idiocy” of others is that it becomes far too easy to say something idiotic yourself; anyone can stake out what they thought was the high ground only to discover on further reflection that the other side was on a mountain of their own. But this can lead to a survival of the fittest situation, where those who have picked the better sides more often will survive to see continued attention. The next challenge comes upon realizing that what you thought was stupid, others may somehow like – because different people have different opinions after all – and that is where most of these idiot pointers pause. They retreat, protecting their core interests and ideology, but in so doing they often lose the anger that made them interesting. Consider this webcomic, which started with an abortion joke, thrived on punching movie directors when it was popular to do so, but has since mellowed out to a “true fiction” journal with the occasional pop culture insight or pure fantasy story to liven things up. Our protagonist and the crazy one is short and red-haired and not always a stereotype, with the quick wit necessary to point out people's mistakes the moment they speak them and just hot-tempered enough that you never know whether the response will be a wry glare or a gun pointed at your head. Her sister and the normal one was the average straight man to their comedy duo and used to have boy problems but is now happily married with a kid, while the rest of her family is large and strange and very geek friendly. Every now and again the comic switches to the adventures of two street level superheroes known as Emokid and Chemokid, in a world of heroes where drama takes center stage, until somebody gets shot and it's back to the journal comic. The art started quite good and with full color, has gotten even better with time, though sometimes the artist gets experimental. The artist also sometimes goes on hiatus for a bit, but generally an explanation is offered.

Why you should read this: Pretty people with opinions, what more could you want? The dark adventures of Emo and Chemo are worth it all by themselves.

Why you shouldn't read this: The comic is full of pop culture commentary that doesn't exactly stay relevant, so you shouldn't (read the archives) unless you want to remember that dumb or tragic news story from years ago you had forgotten about. If you don't like dark humor, because this comic is full of it.

Other cool stuff: I don't know about most people but I like this style of archive, where you can see every update and when the comic went strong or faltered. The Cast page simply links to a few out-of-date pages done in honor of the 100th strip … and then everything else, like the FAQ and the Fan Art, appears to be missing.
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