I broke my promise of not watching any more new movies and watched the new version of Frankenstein. I must say it’s visually stunning. The sets are beautiful, and you can see Del Toro's hand behind every prop and background. There are a few amazing special effects, including the early prototype abominations Frankenstein makes before building his final monster.

However, story wise it's a mess. The plot swings between soap opera and superhero modes. The creature looks like something out of Marvel, complete with superpowers. And the rest of the characters are all cartoony, with motivations that make no sense. Characters switch from loving to hating each other and back for no reason other than the plot needing it right there.

The main point of the story is changed from a cautionary tale about playing god into a dysfunctional family drama. Victor Frankenstein was abused by his father, so now he is abusive to his creation. Del Toro said he did that to give the story some Latin American flavor, but I think he dropped too much telenovela into it. Did Frankenstein really need a love triangle?

There are so many plot holes that the script seems to have been made by stitching together parts from many dead drafts.

When Victor and Elizabeth meet for the first time, she seems to dislike him for no reason and gives him an unprovoked anti-war speech. There is a later scene where he is involved in the war, but that hasn’t happened yet at this point, so she has no reason to associate him with war. It makes me wonder if those scenes were originally meant to be in a different order. Sloppy editing or sloppy writing?

After that, their relationship shifts to attraction, then back to rejection, with no logical transition.

Another plot hole: there is a character who pays for the equipment and provides the body parts. It’s later revealed he has a terminal disease and wants a new life in the monster’s body. But this is only revealed at the last moment. When the body is already finished and about to be revived, he demands “Put me in that body.” How did he think that was going to work? Was Victor supposed to improvise a brain transplant procedure in the few minutes they had before the storm hit? It makes absolutely no sense.

The creature is supposed to be the good guy. He is sentient and capable of articulate speech, but for some reason he reverts to a roaring, murderous monster and kills a bunch of innocent sailors just to justify a violent fight scene.

As in the novel, it ends with Victor Frankenstein hunting the creature across many miles. The problem is that in this version the creature wants to die and is chasing Victor, begging him to end his life. So who is chasing who here? They both want to meet each other, so why is there a chase at all? How do two people who want the same thing end up somehow chasing each other all the way to the North Pole? It’s really confusing.

I still recommend watching it for the beautiful cinematography and strange imagery. The sets are gorgeous, especially the laboratory where the monster is created. Just don’t expect the story to make much sense.

I keep hearing people say that AI is going to fizzle out and compare it to the dot-com bubble back in 2000. But that's a flawed analogy. When the dot-com bubble busted, the internet didn't disappear.

The dot-com crash was more of a Darwinian extinction event than a pop. When the fad started, everyone (including me) registered a dot-com domain expecting to become rich overnight. Many didn’t have a real plan; they thought it was as easy as putting up a web page and watching the money roll in. Naturally, most of them failed... but that doesn’t mean the concept of online commerce failed. The companies that survived, like Amazon and Google, became huge and pretty much rule the world now.

The same thing is going to happen with AI. Right now, a bunch of businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and investing billions into AI without much of a plan. There will be a natural purge, and many will crash and burn. But when things settle down, the ones that survive will become AI powerhouses. AI itself is not going anywhere.

I understand how terrified we all are about some of the consequences of artificial intelligence, but we live in the world that is, not the world we wish it was. A thing can’t be un-invented. We have to adapt to the new world it brings.

For good or for bad, Pandora’s box is open.

It’s been almost a year since I last posted any art or updated my comic. So, what happened?
As some of you may know, I had a really complicated situation in Miami after losing my job at Amazon, compounded by the rising cost of everything and the worsening conditions in the apartment building where I lived.

I eventually managed to move to another town. I found a new place I can afford, but of course, that means it needs a lot of work (and it’s probably haunted) I also found a new job.

Then things went off track. The job wasn’t what I expected, it involved unpleasant conditions I’d rather not expand on. So, I’m currently looking for another job.

Despite everything, I’m doing much better here than I was down there. People are generally much nicer and polite (and can understand English!) around these parts. You can drive without being stuck in traffic from sunrise to sunset. And it’s not unbearably hot and humid for the whole year, only about half of it.

However, I’m still getting older fast. I don’t have the same energy or enthusiasm that once drove me to draw. I have trouble concentrating. I have a million ideas in my head, but when I get home, I can’t focus enough to put them on paper.

So that’s basically where I’m at. Every day I tell myself I’m going to draw something… and then I end up playing some old game and going to bed.

As a matter of fact, I should be drawing now, but instead, I’m writing this shit.

So, today is the last day Windows 10 will be supported by Microsoft. No more security updates.

This is the end of an era for me. I have been using Windows since it came in a bunch of floppies. I used Windows 3.1. I remember when 95 came around, it was really groundbreaking. Then 98, XP (my all-time favorite) I was a faithful user of Windows for a long time, but Microsoft kept getting worse and worse, not only in product quality but in general policies. I won't be installing Windows 11. It's an awful operating system.

I have been using Linux for a while, and I have been reducing my use of Windows as I find better Linux-based alternatives to all the software I used in Windows. There are still a couple of Windows programs I use, so I will keep them on a separate hard drive to run without an internet connection until I complete the transition.

I could go into the technical details of my reasons for abandoning the Windows platform, but this video here can explain it much better than I could. Give it a watch if you are interested, and give the guy a like if you agree with his reasons.

https://youtu.be/4PyxWPuIUyk?si=fqLGp4iKo1woN-ss

( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

One god will fall.
Another will rise from the sands.

A man is trying to get rid of a large four-post bed he no longer wants. He’s left it out in front of his house and posted a “curb alert” notice on Facebook.

I’ve been looking for some wooden parts for a project, and two of the bedposts would be perfect for what I need. I could easily drive by, grab the posts, and leave the rest.

But here’s the problem: if I only take the two posts, the bed will be incomplete, and no one else will want what’s left. I’d get what I need, but I’d be leaving behind a useless, incomplete bed, which ruins the guy’s plans to have it removed from his property.

I could take the whole thing, but then I’d be stuck with a bunch of wood I don’t need, and I’d have to figure out how to dispose of it myself.

So what’s the morally right thing to do?

1- Take the two posts I need. They’re technically junk lying on the road, the rest isn’t my problem.

2- Take the whole bed, as the original owner intended, and then deal with getting rid of the leftover parts myself.

Let's analyze the options:

Option 1: Pick up only the two posts

Pros:

I get exactly what I need. The owner abandoned it; the rest is not my responsibility.

Cons:

I'm potentially ruining the usability of the bed for someone else.
I'm indirectly sabotaging the owner's attempt to get rid of the whole bed.

Option 2: Take the whole bed

Pros:

Honor the owner’s intent: getting rid of the whole bed.

Cons:

Now I'm stuck with the task of disposing of the rest of the wood.
I'm still destroying a bed someone else could use.

Both 1 and 2 destroy the bed. But the bed had already served its purpose for the original owner and has now been discarded.

Option 3 would be to do nothing and leave the bed there; someone who really needs it could pick it up. But there is no guarantee. Maybe nobody wants the bed, it remains there for weeks, it's ruined by sun and rain, and ends up trashed. And I lost the opportunity to use those two posts.

What would be your solution?

This last Saturday I took my wife to a convention in Jacksonville and she saw a large number of people in fursuits. I had no idea there were so many furries in the area. I wasn't there myself, I left my wife at the entrance and picked her up later, so she told me most of the people were Anime fans and furries. This is our first convention since we moved to North Florida, down in the Southern part you barely see any furry costumes at cons.

Was anyone here there?

First, I want to wish a late Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, to all of you.

I haven’t been very active online because I have been very busy. I finally moved out of Miami. It’s something I wanted to do for a very long time, but could not do because of circumstances out of my control.

Moving and starting again in a different town is hard, especially when you have lived in the same town for more than 30 years, or an entire lifetime in my wife’s case. But in recent years we watched the city turn into an unrecognizable dump. We had a chance to move and we took it.

The adventure involved driving 350 miles with 8 cats in the car while my brother drove a truck with the rest of our belongings.

We are still unpacking and our new place needs a lot of work, but we are trying to start a new life.

( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Be happy anyway. Pause whatever you do and say a silent "thanks".

I firmly believe in nothing. You may wonder, who am I thanking today? It matters not, life is a wonderful gift, whether you think it was given by your God or by a series of natural coincidences. It's an incredible gift and you should be grateful to have it.
Do you know how incredibly huge this universe is? And so far we have only found life in this little corner of the galactic ghetto. Life is the rarest privilege. We are a microscopic speck in the middle of an endless dead void where the scarcest of all treasures seems to be concentrated. That makes you and me special.

Even if your life sucks, even if things are not going well for you, even if you think you don't have a life, as I often do… there is always something to be grateful for.

No matter what side you are on, what party, what tribe, what gang, what cult, put aside petty bickering for one day and feel grateful.

I hope you enjoy time with your loved ones, share meaningful moments, and find joy in the traditions that matter to you. Wishing you a warm and peaceful day.

They have The Muppets, but it is a Reality TV show

( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

Hannibal was indisputably one of the greatest generals of the ancient world. He is also considered a great strategist by those who think taking elephants on a mountaineering trip makes strategic sense.

But I keep running into people online who consider Hannibal a great hero because they see him as some kind of “underdog” fighting against greater odds, or even as some kind of freedom fighter who defied the Roman Empire. I don’t know where that idea comes from (Netflix perhaps?) but it’s not true.

First of all, Hannibal never fought the Roman Empire because there was no such thing. Rome was a Republic at the time of the Punic Wars; the Empire would not exist for at least 150 more years. Though the Romans had started expanding a little by that time, their territory was mostly concentrated in Italy.

Carthage, on the other hand, was the greatest military and economic superpower of the time. They controlled sea trade, had at least twice as much territory as Rome, and were expanding fast, which is the reason they started the war in the first place. They were the aggressors who went out of their way and attacked a country on the other side of the sea.

I’m not saying Rome was totally innocent; there were complicated politics involved, it was two countries fighting for the control of the Mediterranean Sea. However, the Romans were defending their homeland, and Hannibal was a foreign invader, many miles away from his own.

While the Romans were fierce warriors, their expertise was in land combat. The Carthaginians had centuries of experience in sea warfare. Their navy was the greatest of the time. The Romans didn’t even have warships; they built their first by reverse-engineering a wrecked one from Carthage. Carthage also had elephants, which were the equivalent of tanks at the time.

And who started this war in the first place? You’re never going to guess… Hannibal did! The Second Punic War started when he attacked Saguntum, a Roman ally. Then he went all the way to Italy, invaded, and occupied its northern territories for years, causing so much terror that Romans used his name as the equivalent of the bogeyman to scare their children. Even today, the phrase “Hannibal at the gates” is used to symbolize impending doom.

During the first part of the war, Rome suffered such losses that the country was on the verge of collapse. It is estimated that at least 300,000 Romans died at the hands of Hannibal’s troops. Between 50,000 and 70,000 were killed in a single day in the Battle of Cannae. At least 10,000 were taken prisoners and sold as slaves by the great Hannibal.

The Romans were in such a desperate state they had to convert every possible piece of metal into weapons; citizens gave away their jewelry and silverware, public buildings and temples were stripped of metal, and even the statues of the gods were melted.

So where do people get this idea of Hannibal being some kind of heroic figure? If someone was the “underdog” in that war, it was the Romans, who had to improvise and adapt fast to overcome a technologically and economically superior enemy.

Eventually, the Romans won thanks to a little bald guy named Scipio who learned Hannibal’s tactics and beat him at his own game. The rest is history.

Just to mention, some writings by Julius Caesar, which were considered lost of history, will soon be recovered thanks to a combination of modern technology and everyone’s bogyman, AI.

That’s all.

Enjoy the rest of his month!

( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

We all know cats can be weird, but sometimes they do things that make you question reality.

15 years ago we found two abandoned tiny kittens. They lived a normal life for their species so when the female stopped eating and walking, we assumed it was her time to die naturally. Since she is very fat, her health was worse than her brother who kept himself in good shape and remained active and alert. So, we arranged for her to be comfortable, we set a bed and gave her special soft food.

Her brother came and laid down next to her. We found it cute that he was giving his sick sister company. But then, after a couple of days, he made a loud mew and dropped dead.

We have no idea what happened, he looked perfectly fine despite his old age. But the weirdest part is after that, she got up and started walking again. It's been a few weeks now and she is eating normally and seems to have recovered from whatever she had. She is still old and slow, but the improvement is remarkable. It's like he took her place.

Another weird thing, I have also noticed cats have some kind of communication among themselves because sometimes one knows he has information he has no way of knowing unless he got it from another cat.

In this case, the cat who died was the only one who ever learned to fetch when he was younger. He would bring back a straw or a toy to me to throw and he would catch it and run back with it. but as he grew, he lost interest in playing. We have a new kitten who came last year, who never saw him fetch and had no way to learn the trick.

After the old one died, this little one spontaneously grabbed the toy and brought it to me, I threw it and she brought it back. Now she plays fetch, without anyone teaching her.

Last week my original mother was hit by a car and was injured in her shoulder and knee. She lives in another country, so I don't have a way to visit her in person. I helped with what I could and the rest of the family also contributed from different countries (we are kind of like a global plague)
Yesterday she finally had surgery and she is in stable condition now, on the way to recovery.

Things seem to be getting better, but this has added a lot of stress on top of what I already had.

I want to thank the furry community members who supported me during these times.

I love you all!

( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

I have many stories in my mind but little time to draw.
So I was thinking, what if I put them in a format different than my usual comics?

My Futurepig comic has been going for a few decades. But my newest Brina comic could be done differently.

Instead of the traditional panels where I need to draw the same characters over and over, I could try other things, like arranging the text of the dialogue around one single image of the characters. Maybe something closer to an illustrated book, with images on one side and a block of dialogue on the other.

I'm exploring possibilities.

What do you think?


Any other ideas?


¯\_( •́ (oo) •̀ )_/¯

A lot of things have happened recently. My mother-in-law died. I lost my job at Amazon, after working 6 years there. I'm trying to survive doing deliveries, but that doesn't pay much and gas is expensive, so I need to be driving around 12 or more hours a day. That doesn't leave much time to draw.

I wanted to draw something for Valentine's Day but couldn't finish it in time.

Some other things have happened that resulted in a total lack of the mood I need to draw anything.

And above all, I'm getting old.

I'm starting to suspect the story arc I had in mind for my comic will not be complete during my natural life. ( x (oo) x )

Maybe I should set up some kind of bot that posts a farewell picture if my page is not accessed for some time. ( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Alleged ways to get rich fast have been around since money itself was invented.

A few years ago, there was a lot of hype about selling t-shirts on Amazon. YouTube was flooded with videos of people who claimed to be making hundreds and even thousands of dollars a month by uploading simple designs and selling them as t-shirts. Some of them weren’t even artists; their t-shirts had just text, like a funny quote or something relevant to current events and trends. I have made t-shirts with my art since on-demand services existed, mostly for my use and as gifts for friends.

I gave the Amazon system a try and nothing sold. I assumed it’s because I’m not a known artist (though neither were those claiming to be making a fortune with their MsPaint designs) and perhaps because I’m out of touch with what’s popular or trendy.

Now, the new hype is “low content books”. There are books you can self-publish with the Amazon service, mostly coloring or activity books, which don’t require being a good writer to make. Some say they are doing it using AI or free clipart found on the Internet, so they practically put together a book in no time, sit back and watch the money roll in.

Search for it on YouTube and you'll be flooded with videos of people claiming to be making five or six figures with it while putting a minimum of effort. As I said, it sounds too good to be true. I don’t doubt there is a market for coloring books, but these people make it look like it’s the new Gold Rush.

Two more things make me even more suspicious. These videos have lots of very positive comments, all thanking the creator and even saying they tried their method and it works. We all know anything posted on the Internet will generate at least some drama and arguments, but the comment sections of these videos look suspiciously sanitized. Those are either fake or heavily moderated comments.

The other thing is… if this no-effort way to make money was really true, why would those people be sharing their secret? Wouldn’t they be creating lots of competition for their own business, even ruining their gig by saturating the marker?

So the cynic in me tells me the real money maker here is somewhere else. Either these people are clickbaiting others to sell their tutorials on how to start your own coloring book empire, or Amazon itself is paying them to advertise their services.

Here are examples of those videos

So, what's your opinion of the “low content book” fad?
Have you created and sold a coloring book?
What do you think of all this?

P.S. I have enough inked pictures in my pile of unfinished projects to put together a so-called coloring book right now. But this whole thing smells fishy to me
( ･ั (oo) ･ั )

I'm sorry I haven't been very active lately.
I don't want to whine about my personal problems, let's just say I'm not doing well.
Let's hope this year brings better things for me and every one of you.
( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

A totally meaningless milestone, since I don't have any consistency in the frequency or length of my comic episodes, and I have made several side stories outside of the main page count.
But still, this is the page number 100 and I wanted to make a good one.

In this one, we see some of my character's backstory. It took me a very long to finish this one, not only because it has a little more dialogue than average, but because work schedules and some problems at home have not left me with lots of time to draw.

As usual, some of my story is based on real events but changed to fit the science fiction settings. I struggled with balancing the serious topic of war's reality without making it preachy. It may be a little darker than my usual story, but I tried to end it in a humorous tone.

I hope you like it.

https://futurepig.com/fut100.html

Well, I can, with difficulty. The problem is for some reason, the text on this page is ridiculously tiny. As I get older my eyesight gets worse and nowadays, to use this site I need to put my face so close to the screen that I rub it with my nose.

I know there are ways to make your browse display bigger fonts and/or adjust the resolution of your screen. I ALREADY do that and it works for everything else EXCEPT Furafinity. This is the only site that keeps showing me tiny letters I have to struggle to read.

If I adjust my browser to show bigger letters, I can read Furafitiny.. but then THE WHOLE REST OF THE INTERNET SHOWS IN RIDICULOUSLY HUGE LETTERS, and all page designs look out of proportion.

I have been looking around at the settings here and I can't find a way to keep my classic theme, but with letters that don't look like the droppings of constipated ants.
And ideas?

I haven't been around for a while because an unfortunate family situation has taken all my time for this whole week and it will take some time for things to go back to less-abnormal.
I have a comic almost finished, but with all the crap going on I barely have time to be at home.
I'll be back soon
Love you all
( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )

In recent days, I have been asked by at least three different people if it’s true Miami is sinking into the sea. I’m not sure if it’s a new meme or poorly worded news reports, but I keep hearing it.

In case anyone cares, nope. I’m not drowning.

Flooded streets are common here after heaving rains and hurricanes. Areas of South Florida are reclaimed swamp land so drainage is not very good. There are some logistic problems there that were in the news and could have been misinterpreted. But that’s a temporary situation. It’s also rainwater, not the sea rising, and some of the most flood-prone areas are miles inland.

After hurricanes, sometimes coastal areas get flooded by sea. I have posted pictures and videos of boats in the middle of the streets. But this is not a permanent thing and goes away after a few days.

Those temporary flood situations are a different thing than the city going underwater because of the sea rising or the land sinking.

I have lived here for more than 30 years, within walking distance of the ocean. I have a few favorite spots I visit where you can see the level of the water on stone walls and other features, and there has not been any noticeable rising in these decades.

Of course, I’m not a climate scientist and I don’t have precise instruments. If someone tells me the sea level, in general, has gone up a couple of inches over these years, I have no way to confirm or deny that.

But the kind of flooding these people are talking about, with streets permanently under sea level, that’s utter bullshit. At least for the moment.

I suspect the title of my previous journal made people think it was a joke, thought it was actually about a serious situation. So here is an update anyways...

As I mentioned before, a relative of my wife died recently and left a bunch of cats in her apartment. She was a hoarder of all kinds of things, including rescued strays. It took my wife and me four months to clear up all the junk that filled her apartment and find a home for her many cats.

We had until this Thursday to empty the apartment because the new owner was taking over, but there were still two cats remaining there. We were afraid when the deadline came, the authorities would be sent to collect the cats, which would be euthanized because the county pounds are overcrowded with abandoned pets.

We had been catching all the others and taken to the vet to be spayed or neutered and to remove fleas and worms from them, but the last one was totally feral and would not come out of hiding. When I tried to grab him he gave me a nasty bite and a few scratches.

Eventually, a volunteer from a humanitarian organization lend us a cage to trap him. We took him to the vet and he was taken to a new home. Apparently, he is adapting well to the new place.

It has been a hectic week, but at least all the cats were saved.

I hate to make these kinds of journals, but I'm trying everything I can. Long story short, I'm looking for anyone living in South Florida, preferably close to Miami, who could adopt a cat or two.

Long story, my wife's cousin died some time ago. She was a hoarder and lived with many animals in an apartment full of junk. We have spent the last 4 months cleaning her apartment, throwing garbage, and donating whatever was salvageable. But now it comes to what to do with her many cats. She had a few and while we were cleaning around one of them gave birth to 3 more.

We already had six cats in our apartment, which is too many for this small space, we have taken two of the babies and two adult ones. It's a nightmare. Some of them fight with the new ones. Also, because of their territorial instinct some of them don't use the litter box but shit in hard-to-find places. I can't take care of all these. I work 10 hours a day plus 2 hours driving. I live with my wife, who is disabled and losing her eyesight, and her mother who has dementia. My life was already a shit show without all these animals on top.

We need to have the other apartment empty by this week. There are still three cats there, one of which is almost feral and not used to people. We spayed them except for the one we can't catch, which we are going to try to take this Monday.

Miami's animal shelters are full and they are euthanizing any animals they receive. We already tried a few humanitarian organizations with no luck. So far we were only able to find a home for one of the little ones. As fucked as the situation is, I don't want these animals to die. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Can anyone explain to me why the Chinese Lunar Year is relevant all of the sudden now?
I have been around for a long time and rarely heard of it, and never saw it posted anywhere except for some decoration at my favorite Chinese buffet. I didn’t ever hear it mentioned by friends of Chinese ancestry.

Now apparently it is at the same level as Christmas in importance.

Everywhere I look there is some “Lunar Year” shit. Online businesses have “Lunar Year” banners on their pages and some even announce delays in deliveries caused by this holiday. My workplace is full of Lunar Year decorations and even big screens everywhere with slideshows on the topic, even in the bathrooms there are posters explaining how to celebrate the damn thing, including recommendations to dress in red…. WTF?

Did these people send us a second virus? ( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )