Antenna Man Ideas #1

BACKSTORY: [name] is a fat, lazy American who has his own business fixing people's TVs when they don't work. His business is slow and hardly anyone ever wants him, as he has to compete with other electronic repair companies. He has a run-down van with his logo on it (a buff man in the Antenna Man costume with a big smile, which has the slogan “Bad credit history? No problem!”). He is balding with dark hair and stubble.

PLOT: He is called on to help a clueless lady in her apartment when her TV starts to pick up no signal. She has a bad credit history so she is rejected by every other company. While there, he hears a teenage girl screaming on the very top. He proceeds up the stairs to the top, to find the door to the outside jammed shut. He rams down the door only to accidently knock the villain off the building and save the girl’s life. She claims he is heroic while he is confused and shocked by the situation. The mayor (or head of city) offers him the key to the city and claims he is a hero.

About a week later, he is at a petrol station and is just about to go in to pay for his fuel, when a robber rushes out and accidently runs into him and they both fall over, breaking the robber’s leg so he can’t get away. The owner of the petrol station then thanks him for saving his store. Eveyone then looks up to him and claim he is a true hero. (not sure about this part)

Side note about the credit history part, I had no idea what TV repairers look for (they probably don't look for anything), but this was just a filler. I need a reason as to why he must be called upon. Ignore the credit history parts if it makes it easier to understand.

INFO:

Name: [unknown] Farnsworth (last name is name of guy who invented the TV)
Age: 42

DOB: February 4 (first broadcast of colour TV), 1968

Location: New York City, USA
Occupation: self-employed, Antenna Man (TV repairman)
Family: N/A

My Comic Book Idea: "Antenna Man"

Hello world,

A couple of months ago I was on Wikipedia, "researching" all of the villains in Spider-Man. I must have gone through over 30 of them. It got me thinking of my own ideas, and one idea stood out the most. I wanted to design serious villains; their backstories, powers, and all. However, I also wanted to design a not-so-serious comic book superhero that I could joke around with. I realised that I could combine the two and make a serious comic book, but still have the basis of a fun, muck-around type of thing.

I came up with the concept of a fat guy dressed up in a ridiculous orange and teal silk suit with a TV arial on his head. With this idea I could still make the comic series as serious I wanted, but still hold on to the fact that it's all a bit of a joke.

I'm in the middle of creating the whole concept of the story, as well as character designs and such. I have about 5 villains in mind that I'd like to put to paper and such. The best part about it is that it's something you can be creative about but at the same time really enjoy it. I think the only issues I will face is the character design - I can picture them almost perfectly in my head, but when it comes to drawing them they never turn out the same. That will hold me back a lot.

I plan to post a lot of information for this idea on my blog. That way, all of you guys can see it and I'll know where it is each time I go looking for what I've already done. I can post pictures on here too, so each time I finish designing a character I can post it on here and hopefully you guys can tell me what you think, and what I should change/add.

I think I'll get to work on posting the key ideas I already have written down right after I post this, so stay tuned for that, folks.

Somewhere in the World

Hello world,

I haven't been blogging in a while so I thought that while something significant happened in my life I may as well blog about it before I forget it.

Last night (Friday, 21st Jan, 2011) I went to my first official concert (my auntie tells me a Wiggles concert when I was a tot doesn't count) - Altiyan Childs. Normally I don't like those "stars" that win reality TV shows, but I've taken a shine to Altiyan. Anyway, it was at the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre in Nowra (about an hour and a half drive from Moruya). Anyway, we got there (and by "we", I mean me, mum, and my auntie Carol), and we were all really excited - but I think mum and Carol were more excited. I didn't know what to expect.

While we were waiting in the lobby, mum persuaded me to buy a t-shirt for $20. It was a red one with his picture on it - one of the best concert t-shirts I've seen. Because Luke & Joel (X-Factor contestants like Altiyan that were knocked out) were the opening act, there was a stand for their t-shirts and CD that had 3 songs, and Carol felt sorry for the guy standing there because no one was buying anything.

There were stairs leading up to our door, and mum or Carol weren't too confident in climbing them. So, we decided to take the elevator on the opposite side of the building, only to find it led to the wrong door (surprise, surprise). Then as we were going back down these two girls said "How embarrassing" - that's MY line! So once we finally got to right elevator, we were waiting for about 15-20 minutes for the doors to open, and there was a woman with one of the promotional posters from the window. Carol wanted one, so she went downstairs to ask for one, and she had to persuade the clerk-guy to get her one. While she was gone, mum made a comment about how many old people there were there (we're talking almost every person there was over 50), then Carol made the same comment when she came back.

8:00 - the doors finally opened! I was awaiting to see how terrible our view would be - seeing how we were literally in the back row - and I was shocked; they were actually really good. We were in the centre of the row so we had a clear view of the stage, and surprisingly we weren't that far away from the stage. I could clearly see who was who. Carol insisted I brought the binoculars I won from year nine's Japanese raffle (thanks Cusack!), which helped.

So, Luke & Joel were on first, and they sung about 6 songs, and they were a lot better than I expected. There was then an intermission, where Luke & Joel went down to the lobby to sign autographs and get pictures taken and such. Carol and I waited in line - which took us about 10 minutes to realise the second line was for the canteen), and in front of us were these two kids - I assume they were brother and sister. According to Carol, the girl was 7 (she looked at least 13) and the guy was 13. The guy stank like B.O. and was obsessed with cricket. The girl was pretty cool. She was disappointed that her phone wasn't working, so she couldn't get a photo of her and L&J on Facebook (keep in mind she is supposed to be 7 and that she has a phone and Facebook). So, heroically, I ran to the stage-place-thingy to get mum's keys so I could get my iPod Touch so she could take a photo with it and I'd send it to her. Sadly, there was no time and I ran back to see Altiyan come on stage (Carol stayed and met them and got a signed CD which I now have).

Not much to say here - Altiyan came on stage introducing himself with U2's "Beautiful Day". He then played a load of songs. In one of them he asked four people to come on stage with him (all women of course) - one was a cute girl I saw before the show; one was a shy, semi-overweight woman (who ended up going back off-stage anyway); one was a woman we were sure was a part of the production who had the same shirt as me (and the whole time she was trying to hug, kiss, and seduce Altiyan); and another one who had nothing special about her. After that, someone threw underwear on the stage. It took a few minutes for Altiyan to realise they were there - then he picked them up with a semi-confused/disgusted look and hung them on one of the guitars.

In between songs, he would often say things like "I love you, thank you.", "Can I sing a song? Is that alright with you?", and "People don't like me talking, so I'll just sing." - and he would introduce songs with the title - for example, before he sung Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory", he said "It'll take a blaze of glory to bring me down...".

*takes a breath*

He was up to his, about, 13th song I think it was, and he said it was his last song. I was disappointed at that point because he hadn't sung Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer", and when that was over he left the stage, but some lights were still on. At that point, everyone started chanting his name and stomping on the ground (so much that my chair felt like it was about to fall off the wall), and then the keyboardist came on and everyone cheered, then stopped because they realised it wasn't Altiyan. THEN Altiyan came back on stage and sung "Lady in Red". THEN the whole band came back on and performed Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" - WHAT A FINISH!!

Just like L&J, he came to the lobby to sign stuff and such (after about 20 minutes of making us wait). I tried getting photos of him on both my iPod and mum's camera, but failed. Mum and Carol cut in line, but mum bailed, so it was just Carol left. She got a signed CD for mum, even though she said she paid for two. So, Carol met both Altiyan and L&J.

We then dropped Carol home and we went back to Nana's to sleep, and left at 7:15 the next morning. Got home at around 10:30-11:00.

So, as far as my first concert goes, it was AWESOME!! I've now uploaded his album to my laptop and haven't looked back since.

Drama + Party + Trading Cards = My Life

Don't really feel like blogging today, so I'll keep this one short and simple.

Yesterday/today I was at my friend Bridgette's house for a random party. We ended up staying up until early hours of the morning, until I got sick of the shrill squeals of giddy females, so I went to sleep on the couch upstairs. It was a really good party. A lot of interesting things happened and certain, ahem, things were exposed.

Then at 10:30, Jed and I went over to Simon Arthur's house to go over your term one drama-by-correspondence work. I have to say it looks interesting. We were there until about 1:30-ish.

And best of all, I got more trading cards in the mail today! Ahhh, life....

Post Time Fail

I noticed a couple of days ago that the time of my blog posts are wrong - it seems to be set in American time (no idea what timezone that is) - so if you're reading my blog then just be aware that the post time is usually a day behind (e.g. this will be posted on Jan 18, 2011, but it will say it was posted on Jan 17).

If I figure out how to change the timezone I'll let you know.

Matilda Loves Me

Hello word,

Not much to report today. I just finished watching Matilda that I watched the first half of yesterday. I was eager to finish it after I looked up some mistakes in the movie, so I wanted to pick them out for myself. Nonetheless, it's a great movie (especially because I used to watch it as a kid).

I'm heading off to a party-thing at Bridgette Ferrier's house tonight; that should be good :-)

And that is all.

Bright Lights

Hello world,

Another update on life from me. Last night I went to Bell's Carnival in Bateman's Bay with two awesome guys - Jed Reed and Brad Timms. Were there from 7 'till 9:30 I think it was. We've been doing it for about 4 or 5 years now (maybe more?) every year - except when it was raining in 2009 so we had pizza and saw Yes Man instead. Every year there we always buy a bag of fairy floss, so when I went to get mine I was given a free additional bag because it was a real stingy piece inside the bag. I also got what they laughably call waffles and cream, which was nothing but a rolled up waffle cone with sour cream (Jed and Brad said it was normal cream, but there was nothing normal about it). Then, just before we went home, a drunk girl came up to us and asked if we had seem someone called Cody Hawkins - so on the way home Brad tried to Facebook her, but had no luck.

While we were at Brad's we always saw a bit of Family Guy season nine - arguably the funniest Family Guy has been since season six. We also say Family Guy's "It's a Trap!", which is their 3rd installment in their Star Wars spin-offs. It was pretty good; better than Blue Harvest anyways *shudders*. I also saw some of "The Ringer", until I fell asleep after feeling sick due to too much fairy floss consumption.

Anyway, that was all yesterday. Today I got a haircut that makes me look like [insert washed up celebrity with short hair here], and I'm about to have homemade pizza for dinner - yummo!

That's just about it for me today.

Google Maps Has Failed Me

Hello world,

So, the other day I was on Google Maps looking around Tasmania to see how it's changed (as I normally do), and I tried to visit my old school. I was on the bird's eye-view on the map, and it wouldn't let me scroll down onto the area where it was. "Fair enough", I though, so I went to the nearest street, zoomed in, and tried to "drive" there. But, it wouldn't let me go any further. So I tried the other side - and it still wouldn't let me. I wondered why, but then after a few seconds I decided to give up (give up, not quit - only quitters quit).

I was watching TV with mum that same day and I told her about it - she mentioned that it might be to prevent pedophiles finding where the school is (this makes sense, because it wasn't even listed on the map), and I told her I also couldn't find my old vacation care centre on there either - so I told her she was right. She advised I searched for another school to see if I could access it.

The next day, I took a trip up the hill in Murray Street towards Moruya Public School. I had full access to it. I could see classrooms and the blacktop and all. So, I have come to 3 conclusions: Moruya isn't important enough to secure the safety of the school kids here; my old school was demolished/exploded; or Google Maps fails. I'll leave it up to you, kind reader, to decide.

Explaining the Background

Oh, by the way, you will notice the background for this blog is a blue sky with clouds. Most of you already know that my favourite weather is a clear blue sky - but the clouds are just there so it actually looks like a sky and not just a blue background - also makes it look like I've gone to more effort!

You can read about all of my blue sky bantering on Tumblr (link below in the other post).

Welcome to the World of Jake

Hello world,

I now have a blog! ...What? Oh yes, I already know I have a Tumblr account, 2 other Blogger accounts, a Formspring account, 2 Wordpress accounts, and a Thoughts account - but this one is different. On this one I'm going to write whatever I like - not just emotions or anything strictly related to sites I'm hooked up with - I'll post the events of my day, if I feel like posting a story I'll do that here, maybe on the off chance I'll do a video game review, perhaps even post some of my artwork - who knows!

So basically, that's what you can expect to see here. Not very interesting, I know. But for any of those who want to know more about me or just want another way to stalk me, here I am.

You can also follow me on Facebook:
http://facebook.com/jakeactraynor

On Twitter:
http://twitter.com/jakeactraynor

On Tumblr:
http://arcandum.tumblr.com

And if I ever get around do using it, on YouTube:
http://youtube.com/user/jakesonlineworld

So, let the online escapades begin!