The Advocate

... The dumpster fire (Trumpster fire?) fueled on bullshit and bigotry by Darth Cheeto, AKA The Orange Menace, AKA Spray-Tan Hitler, AKA Twitterer in Chief, AKA ROTUS, AKA Apocalypse Now, AKA Donald Drumpf. How, might you ask? How can I possibly tear myself away from the litany of news feeds  (or, in the words of Republicans "fake news," AKA "alternative facts," AKA lies) showcasing #45's brick-shitting and eye-gouging stupidity?  I watch hilarious videos, of course! So, for your distracting pleasure in-between bouts of social justice, activism, and maybe even a little subversion, I give you my choicest selections: Trust me, the Russian Mafia Story just makes you want to cry tears of collegiate joy -- even if you were a "non-traditional" student like myself! It also makes so much sense when you think about college kids, Russia, and White people Whitepeopling. (Which I am told is, indeed, a verb, so fuck you.) This video is probably the

Subtitle: fighting back against the fascist, ego-maniacal, corrupt, lying, bigoted, fecal-fueled dumpster-fire that is, unfortunately   regrettably   depressingly   confusingly   infuriatingly  disgustingly our new President of these United (for how long, who knows?) States of America. As such, here's my starter's guide *PART ONE* to fighting back against this shitstorm with all the paper-towels at your disposal. 1. Follow and support organizations doing the front-line work of exposing the destruction being wrought and who are actively fighting back. Start  with local organizations in your communities FIRST! In my locale of the Bay Area, for instance, we've got...  Jobs with Justice SF , East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and Bay Rising , 350 Bay Area , Alliance of South Asians Taking Action , Arab Resource and Organizing Center , Asian Pacific Environmental Network , AFT 2121 , CAIR SF Bay Area , California Faculty Association , Causa Justa Just Cause , C

I guess I must be feeling juxtapositionally dichotomous since this is my 2nd post putting up a versus! Anyways, this time the question is: who played it better? Which song wins out between... BOMBERMAN 64 and SPIDERMAN!? You'll notice that both franchises use the exact same melody! They use the same arrangement, same catchy grooves, and basically are the same song (aside from the lyrics.) Of course, the Spiderman theme song wins out for being first on the scene. It was released in 1967 for the cartoon show! It was composed by 2 random dudes from New York and has been endlessly parodied since. BUT! Here's the thing, the Spiderman theme song was replaced in my cultural collective by the Bomberman 64 commercial during the 1997 holiday season. And it stayed there. Forever. I remember watching this commercial almost everyday back in '97, as it was basically on constant repeat. As for the game itself -- well, it was good but not great . I enjoyed the creative

I've recently been obsessively playing DragonQuest I, II, and III, through Google Play while, simultaneously, playing Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VI. All on my smartphone, a Google Nexus 6P purchased direct from Google but using T-Mobile's network. Now, if you've never played any of these before -- then this post is probably going to bore the fuck out of you and hold absolutely no interest at all, so you might want to leave unless you enjoy (possible) spoilers, in-depth game discussions about games you've never played, and super-technical blah-blah. For those of you that have  played these games. 1) Good for you! 2) Let's talk about why FF is so much more popular in North America than DQ. Seriously. Both were groundbreaking games! Both featured revolutionary job systems, character design, battle design, artwork, etc. They are the definitive JRPGs (Japanese Role-Playing Games) we all know and love. They feature turn-based battles, mult

Been a minute since my last post. Got caught up in the grind, as we all do from time to time. Forgot about the take back, clap back, but it's a long weekend and some things have not yet arrived, so here we find ourselves. There are times when I've got that itch, that restlessness, that skin-crawling tingle. The feeling that keeps me up at night doing chores no one has any business doing at 4 AM. The feeling that keeps me up listening to another Bon Iver album, sweating in my boxer-briefs, typing into the cyber-ether. My proverbial shout from the mountaintops to the bottom of the sea. I hope you don't mind this divergence into something a little more personal. There are times when my fingers must. When they have to. Have to type. Have to spin words like spiders must spin webs, like electronic daemons must crawl the interweb, trawling cyberspace until the end of time. Soon, I'm going to be a father. I am going to have a little girl. It could happen at any time. She

So, my latest collection has FINALLY arrived for your reading pleasure! Available in Kindle, NOOK, Apple ibook, and other ebook formats, as well as traditional softcover from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Ingram. This collection has been a loooooong time in the making -- a lot of writing, editing, rewriting, reediting, scrapping, emotional upheavals, existential crises, and cash-strapped budgeting. But, after almost eight years of hard work, it's done. (Seriously, I could give GRRM a run for his money when it comes to the wait between books.) I certainly could never have done it without the support of my wife, my brother, and a lot of inspirational artists I know in real life as well as not in real life, including/especially Melanie Matranga who contributed the cartoon artwork for this collection. I also owe a big thanks to Amber, and all of the Dog Ear Publishing team who helped me turn this collection into the electronically as well as physically bound reality before y

Okay, so a lot has already been written about how Pokemon Go has literally taken the world by storm, whether it's going to save our souls or destroy mankind as we know it. But, nonetheless, here's my two cents. Spend them how you will! First of all, I can't seem to find any goddamn Pokemon! I've been trying at the mall, at my office, at the supermarket, at the park, along the freeway, down sketchy alleyways in the dead dark of night wearing black leather. (Well, that escalated quickly.) But nope, I haven't found any. I'm still level 2 for crying out loud! Meanwhile, some people have already beaten the game! And here I am, can't even get a PokeStop or a Gym to respond to me half the time. Why? ...Why? WHY??? I blame my spoiled Gameboy-playing ass. I'm used to handhelds where I don't need decent WiFi or an LTE connection to catch some Pikachu. I'm not used to having to micromanage a battery pack, a GPS, and handheld camera to snag a Ratt