1. Phone pranks.

Last month, I started getting a lot of weirdo texts/calls. I was really confused and thought someone was fucking with me at first. The purple boxes are the kids who thought I texted them a picture of geese and the pink boxes are me. Then he texts me this: I sat there even more confused then someone else started texting me:

And a picture of my iPhone background because I learned how to do screencaps on it haha.

2. Social networking sites.
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr… I seriously don’t get the hype. I like hanging out and interacting with all of my friends IRL and I kind of hate the internet. I pretty much stopped using all social networking sites, aim and I’m not really a phone person either. I don’t understand how people spend hours of their life on those things. However I am kinda addicted to Gmail & Googletalk, it helps pass the time at work when I’m bored.

3. People who complain about being treated like shit.
I’m sick of people (mainly dumb girls) bitching about this because most of the time it’s their own fault. Everyone always wants to be the victim but the reason people treat you like shit is because you accept it. People walk all over you and do whatever they want to you because you have no respect for yourself or any integrity. You allow them to treat you however they want and other people see that and think it’s okay to treat you that way too. So the next time someone fucks you over, stand up for yourself instead of bitching on your blog about how much they suck and complaining to everyone to get pity. No one feels bad for the things you do to yourself.

4. People who say, “I don’t want drama.”
98% of the people who claim they don’t want drama are the ones that cause all of it. I don’t even understand why anyone would say that, who the fuck wants drama other than retards who like to stir shit up for no reason because they’re bored with their own lives? Any time I hear anyone say this, I automatically think they’re hypocrites.

So I was checking McJawn’s stats and saw that we got a hit from: http://www.blogher.com/no-cush-bush. Curious to see what that was about, I clicked on the link.

The anonymous blogger at McJawn is my unevolved hero for this commentary:

“HAHAHHAHAHA here you go girls, the product of your dreams… You know what else works? WEARING UNDERWEAR/PANTS THAT FIT. Ugh, I wonder how many women actually bought this, shit like this blows my mind. Check out their website: https://www.cuchini.com/. It has the worst graphics and color scheme and their main font is Comic Sans, very professional. The last time I saw someone use Comic Sans was sometime in the 90’s by a 12 year old.”

I actually like Comic Sans under the right circumstances, but that little dig made me laugh so hard that I nearly peed in my properly fitting, camel toe-less undies. Fortunately, I am not wearing a C-String, or that would have been really, really messy.

Comic Sans is the worst font I have ever come across. In middle school, girls would turn in their papers in pink or baby blue Comic Sans and get mad when the teacher refused to accept it. I was the only girl in my class that thought Comic Sans was dumb. WHAT THE FUCK? You’re turning in a paper, not making an AOL profile (which is the only acceptable place for Comic Sans to be used), dickhead. I was only 12 but even then I knew better. Yis said that’s because I was always meant to be a graphic designer… that or I appreciate typography and well made typefaces.

As a Sophomore graphic design major in college, I had to design my own hand drawn typeface. Creating your own typeface is hard, especially good ones. Do you know how hard it is to draw/design a serif typeface with a pencil, ink and a brush??

Comic Sans is a casual script typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by the Microsoft Corporation. It is classified as a casual, non-connecting script, and was designed to imitate comic book lettering, for use in informal documents. The typeface has been supplied with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in the Windows Plus Pack. Comic Sans is used in both print and webcomics as a substitute for hand-lettering, although many comic artists prefer to use custom-designed computer fonts instead.

He also designed Trebuchet, which I also hate.

Microsoft designer Vincent Connare says that he began work on Comic Sans in October of 1994. Connare had already created a number of child-oriented fonts for various applications, so when he saw a beta version of Microsoft Bob that used Times New Roman in the word balloons of cartoon characters, he decided to create a new face based on the lettering style of comic books he had in his office, specifically The Dark Knight Returns (lettered by John Costanza) and Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons).

I don’t care what anyone says, Comic Sans would look stupid as a comic font.

Look at this page Vincent Connare made to try and justify his dumb font:

Comic Sans was NOT designed as a typeface but as a solution to a problem with the often overlooked part of a computer program’s interface, the typeface used to communicate the message.

There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I designed Comic Sans. The inspiration came at the shock of seeing Times New Roman used in an inappropriate way.

The designers and engineers at Microsoft spent lots of time drawing and coding the interface for MS Bob with comic characters but didn’t bother to use a cartoon or comic font. I thought that was wrong and started to look at two comic books I happened to have in my office. I had been working with the Creative Writer team in the Consumer division at the same time supplying them with fonts for Kids software, things like fonts looking like Pizza, monsters and ones with snow. There was a need for these fun fonts at Microsoft at the time.

I started with the font drawing software Macromedia Fontographer, trying to make the capitals in a similar form as the lettering used in DC, Marvel and all other company’s comic books. The Dark Knight Returns a Batman book was one of the books I referenced often. I took care not to copy the letters but looked at varying shapes in different styles. Also most samples only used capital letters so I had little reference for them. I printed it out so that the weight was about the weight of the Marvel and DC books. I looked at the varying letterforms that each book had since all the letters vary because they are manually written.

I used Fontographer’s drawing path tool and used rounded corners and drew the letters over and over again in the program until I got the shape I wanted.

I made a quick version for MS Bob and had to call the font Times New Roman for them to test the font. The problem was the software was finished and they had all the dialog boxes and balloons space out for the metrics of Times New Roman. My font was larger than Times New Roman and it would have to match the metrics of the program for them to use it , so they couldn’t use the font at that time.

I finished the font by adding a lowercase and it was eventually picked up by another application, MS Movie Maker a similar application using cartoon characters. The original working name was Comic Book but this was a silly name and it was later changed to Comic Sans since most of the letters were of the San serif style. Some of the simple forms such as the Capital I has serifs to distinguish it form the lowercase L.

Comic Sans was shown with other fonts to Program Managers at Microsoft and was then included in the Windows 95 Plus Pack that was a supplemental product to Windows 95. Later a Project Manager decided to include Comic Sans into the list of system fonts for the OEM versions of Windows 95. This was after I included basic support for Greek and Cyrillic. Finally it was added with Trebuchet, Webdings and Verdana as additional fonts to the Windows System fonts for the original Internet Explorer.

Now it is part of the Microsoft Windows system fonts.

Why?

Because it’s sometimes better than Times New Roman, that’s why.

Or at least Apple thinks so. Comic Sans is the default font in Apple’s iCards on the web when it was first released.

Chalk or Cheese?

Obviously, someone was salty about: Ban Comic Sans. I didn’t have anything against this dude till I read that. ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Comic Sans from Sam and Anita on Vimeo.

This is Ban Comic Sans’ manifesto:

There are bad types and good types, and the whole science and art of typography begins after the first category has been set aside. - Beatrice Warde
We believe in the sanctity of typography and that the traditions and established standards of this craft should be upheld throughout all time. From Gutenberg’s letterpress to the digital age, type in all forms is sacred and indispensable. Type is a voice; its very qualities and characteristics communicate to readers a meaning beyond mere syntax. Early type designing and setting was so laborious that it is a blasphemy to the history of the craft that any fool can sit down at their personal computer and design their own typeface. Technological advances have transformed typography into a tawdry triviality. The patriarchs of this profession were highly educated men. However, today the widespread heretical uses of this medium prove that even the uneducated have opportunities to desecrate this art form; therefore, destroying the historical integrity of typography.
Like the tone of a spoken voice, the characteristics of a typeface convey meaning. The design of the typeface is, in itself, its voice. Often this voice speaks louder than the text itself. Thus when designing a “Do Not Enter” sign the use of a heavy-stroked, attention-commanding font such as Impact or Arial Black is appropriate. Typesetting such a message in Comic Sans would be ludicrous. Though this is sort of misuse is frequent, it is unjustified. Clearly, Comic Sans as a voice conveys silliness, childish naivete, irreverence, and is far too casual for such a purpose. It is analogous to showing up for a black tie event in a clown costume. We are summoning forth the proletariat around the globe to aid us in this revolution. We call on the common man to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance. We believe in the gospel message “ban comic sans.” It shall be salvation to all who are literate. By banding together to eradicate this font from the face of the earth we strive to ensure that future generations will be liberated from this epidemic and never suffer this scourge that is the plague of our time.

People who do stupid things really irritate me. For example, throwing things at people in the backyard from the roofdeck, spitting beer/continually pouring beer and throwing cans of open beer off the roof=angry beer soaked Sally. Don’t fucking throw beer on me and my friends when we didn’t do shit to you. I threw my shit inside, ran up to the roofdeck and got in this kid’s face and told him off. The kid apologized and everything was fine until this dumb cunt who was rolling her eyes at me opened her mouth and said, “Who cares? It’ll wash off.” I turned around and yelled, “FUCK YOU. NO ONE WAS FUCKING TALKING TO YOU SO SHUT THE FUCK UP BITCH. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” She was like who the fuck are you? I live here! HAHAHAHA I was about to get in birthday girl’s face when Kevin pulled me to the side and goes, “Eh… that’s my roommate, it’s her birthday and this is her party, just leave it alone.” I let it go out of respect.

What’s the golden rule again? Treat others how you want to be treated? or something along those lines… I’m sure if complete strangers were throwing shit and pouring beer all over her and her friends unprovoked, she would’ve been like oh it’s okay, nbd, beer washes out! If I acted like that, I’d expect to get a beer dumped on my head and get kicked in the face.

As I finish yelling at her, their angry neighbor pops her head out of her window and tells everyone to shut up because her daughter was trying to sleep. Kevin and I apologized and tried to get everyone off the roofdeck and this fucking asshole yells, “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? You say we’re being loud but you’re the loudest one here,” to the neighbor. At that point I couldn’t handle being surrounded by so many douchebags at once and went inside because the urge to punch everyone in the face was becoming too much.

When I went downstairs, I was telling everyone how much of a cunt the girl that lived there was and no one seemed to even like her and her one friend apologized for her. Everyone left and came over to our place. That girl ended up coming over and Grace was trying to be nice to her and she was still being a bitch and immediately left when she realized no one liked her. And that kid kept apologizing to me, which I found pretty hilarious.

Yis and I were talking about my anger management issues and I explained that while lately I am easily angered, when I do go at someone or yell at them, it’s warranted. I’m not just picking fights with people, it’s usually because people do dumb shit to set me off. Had those dumbasses not thrown shit off the roof, I wouldn’t have been angry at all. Then I explained how some people just need to get their ass beat to realize they did something wrong and he agreed but said that it doesn’t have to be me who beats them up and that I’m too vengeful. HAHA that’s probably true, I should invest in a punching bag… but I don’t think that would really make me any less vindictive.

Brendan from Valencia posted this:

Tonight at the Bamboozle Road Show I witnessed the worst case of police brutality I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure of the exact story of what happened, all I know is that I walked downstairs and was ready to leave the venue only to see Chris V being pushed back into the venue (from the alley) by 3 cops with billy clubs. They were screaming and pushing him to the ground, threw him down onto a glass bottle that he hit his head on, split it open. He was bleeding everywhere and they still continued to beat him with clubs. They would not stop, even when he was compliant. Everyone was screaming for them to stop, I just could not stop yelling, I was so angry. I wanted so bad to have us all go over and pull them off of him, but no one could or we’d be next. Finally they stopped and dragged him outside after a pint of blood left his head and was all over the stage of the TLA. After everything was calmed down a bit, I saw my good friend Ian Planet being shoved inside, slammed into a brick wall, his cell phone thrown across the room and his face shoved onto the concrete floor all because he wanted to go outside and finish his job. The same happened to T-Fair right out back as well. (read the full blog here)

In the explosive Absolutepunk thread about the incident, a member of Mercy Mercedes offers his perspective:

Our(mercymercedes) van was parked behind the tla in an alley in which we were informed to do. 3bike cops roll up and give us tickets for being parked there, the same place we were instructed to park. The only way out of the narrow alley was to back out our van and trailer. We were in the process of loading gear after the show when the cops come back a second time. I am in the driver seat backing up the rig just as the cops asked. Then I hear a loud popping noise. I ran over a water bottle in the street that I obviously didn’t know was there. The water splashed over the the bike cop. At the time I had to hold the laughter in because it was priceless. these cops just gave us like 4 unecessary tickets and were very rude at doing so. The cop then approaches my window with his soaked clear-leansed bike-cop oakleys in hand and says “do you know how to f*cking drive?” I replied yessir I’m doing exactly what u asked. He then turnes to the other officer and says “write him another ticket and impound their van and trailer.”

Word of this gets to Trevor aka T-fair, WTKs tour manager. Being the new “baby band” on this tour, T-fair has showed us the ropes and taught us a lot about how these bigger tours work. Already appreciative of him, he came to our aid to work things out with cops for us. He tried to work things out in a calmly manner, when the cops just start threatning him. Trevor calmly says “what are you gonna do I haven’t done anything.” And of coarce I saw the whole thing and never once did do anything threatning to the cops. They then throw him up against our van pretty hard. Then Chris V. WTKs merch guy walks out to see his friend and TM jacked up on our van for nothin. The cops start pushing every one to get back in the venue. And by pushing I mean really ruffing everyone. Chris V is a suuuuper nice dude just so u guys know that. By now everyone is screaming. The cops are cursing at all of us. One cop throws chris v in the venue and shuts the door. Then the doors opens back up. Still at this point and any point in the night no one has threatend a police officer. The officer that slammed the door on everyone runs in saying word for word, “come here you mother f*cker!!” He ran inside with metal baton in hand swinging. After this I heard more than I saw because of the situation. But my bandmates in mercy saw all of this and said that chris v never tried to fight the cop or resist arrest, but the cops repeatedly beat him with the metal rod.

http://www.buzznet.com/musicnews/bamboozle-roadshow-beatdown-j4026721/

Philadelphia cops are at it again. Does this sound familiar, does Pointless Fest ring a bell??

Asshole cops like the one picture above give all the other Philadelphia cops a bad name. I’ve dealt with plenty of cops while living in Philadelphia and ran into some cool cops. When I was living on 12th and Kater, we threw some insane parties and we only had one bad run-in with the police. Most of the time they just made everyone go home and said we could have a few people over later.

One time they arrested a friend of mine for drinking outside, slammed him against a car and broke his phone in half… completely unnecessary. They arrested his friend for standing up for him and asking why they were unnecessarily abusing him. AND they stole a box of our liquor and our tap

Can you believe only a few months ago, we were hanging out with the police on Broad Street and celebrating:

Lately, all I’ve been hearing are how cops are abusing their “power” and harassing people. What the fuck? Aren’t they supposed to serve and protect?? The only people they seem to be serving or protecting are each other. That video José posted is disgusting. What justice is being served here? You’d think cops would have more important things to do than beat on touring bands and power tripping up and down South Street.

This is the Philadelphia Police Department’s mission statement:

he mission of the Philadelphia Police Department is to fight crime and the fear of crime, including terrorism, by working with our partners to enforce the laws, apprehend offenders, prevent crime from occurring, and improve the quality of life for all Philadelphians.

Really? And who’s protecting us from the cops who are committing crimes against innocent citizens?? This bullshit needs to come to an end NOW. I wish I had filmed the asshole cop who was harassing me, I would’ve sent it out to every media outlet and made that cop’s life a living hell. This is what needs to happen to the cops in that video and every asshole cop out there. Circulate the video, don’t let them victimize more innocent people. Bad press will force something to be done and hopefully the IAB will clean house, here’s wishing…