Birdman checking in here and it’s been one week of the vacation more or less down and despite it being vacation, not a lot of downtime all things considered.

Been really busy here and doing alot of catch up with doctors and dentists and Native affairs but it’s been alright. Really been the first time in a long time that I’ve had a chance to really catch a breathe and kinda look around at what is going on around here in my life. However oddly enough, I am actually able to remember my dreams but the dreams have been safe to say, it’s been odd and strangely disturbing…not the sorta thing you share on a blog. I don’t know what else to say but it’s very strange to be back in the place into which I grew up. I know where things should be but yet I don’t at the same time and it’s all kinda new to me again. Its somewhere between nostaglia and a sense I can quite explain.
Even as I sit down stairs right now, I have the patio door open and just listening to the outside world of the country side and it’s full of sounds I don’t recognize and even ones that could be described as even scary…just heard a loud as hell crash and it sounded just off you know.

I suppose that kinda flows right into what I want to talk about next, been really thinking alot about the paranormal and all sorts of things that go bump in the night. Recently I got talking with a MUFON researcher and I am planning it for a TWIG show and really got to thinking about life in the universe so to speak and where we really sit in the grand scheme of things. As you can tell, I am watching the X Files and it’s really bringing up some old interesting feelings and old thoughts. I am really going to be going into this in some great detail later on… so for now I’ll leave this be

One of the best parts of being here is being able to play with my camera to full it’s fullest capacity and that means buying a new Lens, I scored a 70mm-300mm lens for my PenTax K110D and it’s bloody amazing! I actually have started using my Flickr account and while I’ll still do a vast majority of my pics on Facebook, I will add pics here for my blog followers.

Anyway, Likely gonna take off for the night and maybe tomorrow, I’ll do some more writing or at actually get to writing the treatment for the next audio drama.

Well this is day one of my vacation and I am not quite sure what to do with myself. I am sitting here on a unsecured wireless network which someone has allowed me access to..well kinda. However since I am merely using it for blogging and the occcassional XBOX Live download, then I don’t consider it not so bad.

So I finished exams on Friday morning and with that,l finished second year of Niagara College and now I await the trials of third year but that also means summer and a chance to unwind…well yes and no.
I am continuing on with THIS WEEK IN GEEK til I sign my new contract with my new company and that means all sorts of new stuff like Interviews, topics and round tables….so don’t worry TWIG is not dead.

As a matter of a fact, I have been thinking about a new audio drama in the vein of Wrong Guy, Wrong Time, and producing a trilogy of them so to speak, each spoofing a different genre. I am thinking about doing one that spoofs the horror movies that Pierce and I love so much. Kinda got the idea tonight and well while I am here, I might write a treatment and see what happens. It would be cool to see the ideas or Piledriving the shark continue on thru this vehicle and as such, it’ll help us work on our production skills and of course, acting and having fun. We’ll have to wait and see, hopefully have a draft ready in a week or so.

Anyway, So now that I am on vacation, I decided to bring my camera and take some pics however I made the mistake of playing with formats on my Pentax KD110 SLR and now I am having difficulty getting them converted to JPEG from PEF format….damn it. I am however am going to see if I am get them converted at a local photolab tomorrow as I don’t have Photoshop on my Windows Laptop yet….I knew I should have done that or maybe format this thing into a Windows XP machine…Vista SUCKS!

Gonna take off and watch a Discovery Movie, called SUPERCOMET and see what happens if a comet hit the Earth.

Will Blog more tomorrow and maybe have pics from Facebook and Flickr.

Also, please visit www.savepierce.org

Hey guys!

Well been a few days since I have blogged and gonna take it down a peg and just kind of relax. Today’s post is more just a wind down of the last few days and some thoughts from those few days.

Where do I even begin to start?
TWIG officially had it’s last radio broadcast on Friday on CRNC 90.1 FM, but we continue on the podcast till I sign on with my new company and see where that leads us. However I know that TWIG enabled us to do alot of cool stuff and will lead to cooler stuff in the summer as well.

Looking back on the last year and change, I know that it was an experience that I would not trade for anything in the world. I made alot of really cool friends thru it and some famous ones as well who became more then just a fandom, they became genuine friends in the long run. I think one of the best things that came out of TWIG was a sense of work ethic and pride whenever we attended press events as Media and we still continue to do so.
It was a labor of love for me and something that meant so much to me that I was willing to work insane long hours and travel from here to wherever I was needed. Building a professional studio was an accomplishment and something that meant so much in the end.

However one of the things that I am most proud of was helping and seeing that our contribution was helping improve the lives of others and then working with the Rock around the Clock radioathon at Niagara College for the Welland Hope Center. The most rewarding things are the things you do for others and that is what made TWIG so much fun.
We helped each other and in turn, we all became Family, Steve,Dave, Pierce and our interns and even those we don’t have contact with anymore

We came, we saw…we kicked it’s ass and it’s not over yet…..

On a side note, I finally went to the Landmark Forum with a Craig from and Andy Walker from and it was actually pretty beneficial. It’s hard to describe Landmark, in a sense it’s a new way to see things in your life and help you accomplish whatever you wish. It’s a personal development course and I think it’ll really help me reach the goals I want to. I am really looking forward to it and seeing where I can take myself. As one of the course things says
It’s all about creating new possibilities and I believe that’s what it can do. The possibility I created for myself is to get back into martial arts shape and I am hoping to accomplish that via doing all the right things for my health and my body.So we’ll see what I can do with a new outlook on life and perspective.
In essence, Landmark feels like the Matrix…all about freeing your mind and letting go of all that holds you back.
Very Morpheus like

So with exams and the summer looming on the horizon, it’s a world of new choices and possibilities….I mean I wonder what I will see and what I will do this summer. It’s exciting, standing on the cusp of doing something really exciting and new adventures with friends

Time to live free and die hard…

More later on…

Well some bad news got dropped on us a few days ago, My best friend Pierce is facing a crisis and potentially might have to leave the country and Niagara College, all because of paperwork.

I can’t allow this to happen.

It’s because of some BS involving getting some paperwork for residency pushed thru and well one of the things I love to do is fight and this is a chance to do save my best friend and fight the Government and get them to do the right thing.I’ve spent the last few days getting ideas together from fund raising to even going out and advocating on his behalf.
Today we visited some MPP’s and MP offices to get some answers and actually got pointed in the right direction and so that’s very promising.
Also working on gathering letters of support from the College and other community leaders. It’s all coming together nicely and I think if it all works out the way I want it to, it’ll be okay.

The first prong of this plan is get the local levels of government involved and become apart of the process and make sure letters are written and phone calls are made and going thru the proper diplomatic channels. However if that does not work, I do plan on taking a trip to Ottawa and making it as public as possible and even getting some favors called in. I do plan on starting a website and video blogging the whole thing and getting the new media community from twitter.com and a few other heavy weights in the new media world to help us.

If anyone deserves to finish college and make it in this industry, it’s Pierce, this kid has worked harder then most and above all is passionately committed to the work. As such, it’s an inspiration to go as hard as I can to make sure that what we started together, gets finished together.
This kid means alot to me, he’s my best friend, my business partner but above all he’s an inspiration to do better in school and that giving a damn about your work makes it all the more worthwhile. I talked with his Mom today and I think she feels better knowing that all of us at TWIG and his other friends are willing to take the stand and fight so that they all stay together and Pierce finishes school.

In short, I’m not going to let the government take away my best friend…it won’t happen and I don’t care how many doors I have to knock down to do so, but as I said to Steve Saylor

We started this together
and we’ll finish together.

I hope I can count on you, my Internet friends and TWIG listeners and those that care to help us pull together and hopefully Save Pierce if it becomes necessary to fund raise for him
If you’ve got some ideas, I’d love to hear them, either post them here or email
mikejdodd@gmail.com

In a bit of Inspirational lyrics that sum up it up in my mind
Stan Bush’s The Touch

You never bend, you never break, you seem to know
just what it takes. You’re a fighter
It’s in the blood, it’s in the will, it’s in the mighty
hands of steel. When you’re standin your ground.
And you never *give in* when you’re back’s to the wall
gonna fight till the end and you’re taking it all.

Well guys
Here is the audio drama, I have been working on with Pierce and several others.
I call it a mixture of Die Hard but with a dork.
It’s 13:30 in length and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Comments totally welcome

Wrong Guy, Wrong Time, An Audio drama

It’s unusual for me to have a quiet moment or even a few quiet moments but its late and I am waiting on things to pick up again but for the time being, I have my thoughts and a thunderstorm outside and a dark room.

Its nice to have this bit of a time to reflect on the last little while and actually process what has happened. I have been thinking alot about the future and where that is going to take to me and what I’ll do to get there. It’s a funny sort of thing but I think for this post, I’ll steer away from the career stuff and concentrate more on the emotional side of myself and myself in general, the true me.

It’s not often that I get a chance to look at self and maybe find something new. I think that is something important to note, I have worked so hard and for so long, I don’t really know myself as much as I used to.

I think one of the things I need to do is find myself and actually take time to do that again and refocus on whats important and not just career, school or my relationships….I need to find where I want to be and who I want to be.

I want to imagine myself somewhere with a cool breeze and surrounded by nature and yet having access to technology…..I want to see clear skies and green grass and nothing around me for miles…there is something very appealing about all that. Weather its the solace that i desire or a change of scenary, i’m not really sure. I just know that I want to be able to sleep and now that when I open my eyes, it’s quiet and serene.

I think next year when I am finished college, I might take a weekend by myself up north or maybe go out west and just kinda see what’s out there.

I want to write more but I am tired…and I want to watch the thunderstorm

http://www.41q.com/type.41q?p=13577867

a test i did for fun

Well, just walked in the door from Toronto and I had the following email in my Inbox. This comes from both the University and the Newspaper itself.

I firmly believe that this is a win against what we set out to do battle with.

Glad that our actions were felt and our voices heard. Very glad to be on the front lines of this.

Now onto the next battleground and I am glad to fought along so many of you.

Here are the letters from the University and the Newspaper.

I am working on getting a copy of the published article in a PDF

Comments and discussion, welcome!

To: The Editor

The Newspaper

I am writing concerning a recent article in The Newspaper, entitled “10 Reasons it’s not OK to be fat”. This article was highly inappropriate and is in stark contrast to the University’s deeply held values of equity and tolerance. At the University of Toronto, we strive to be an

equitable and inclusive community, rich with diversity, protecting the human rights of all persons, and based upon understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of every person.

The leadership of this University has an unwavering commitment to providing a positive experience for all students. The article was demeaning and marginalized a specific group of people on the basis of their physical characteristics. We strongly urge The Newspaper to apologize to its readers and to refrain from articles of this nature in the future.

Angela Hildyard

Vice-President, Human Resources & Equity.

Editor’s Response

Just as Jonathan Swift did not actually consider eating children a ‘modest proposal’, Sasha Baron Cohen was not realistically proposing to “throw the jews down the well”; similarly, the newspaper does not actually believe fat people “ruin moments”.

The newspaper does not intend to put itself in such esteemed comedic company but what we do have in common with the aforementioned satirists is that our message has been misunderstood.

It seems an inherent risk in running satire is that it be misconstrued as something sincere, and this fate has unfortunately fall up the newspaper’s weekly satirical column, ‘the jock talk’. In a twist of misunderstood meaning, the body image obsessed persona created by the author of ‘the jock talk’ has bloggers accusing the newspaper of exalting the exact prejudice we have been mocking all year.

Two weeks ago, the column contained a crassly titled list “10 Reasons Why It’s Not OK to be Fat”. In pushing the envelope too far, we realize that the column became indistinguishable from the bigotry we were intending to satirize. We thank everyone who wrote in to let us know how tasteless this was and apologize to anyone who was offended.

So I was asked to send in a few Interview questions to the staff at the Newspaper at the University of Toronto and I actually got a response.

I am however far from thrilled with the responses to my questions. I also asked my fellow bloggers and podcasters to come up with questions and some of them were ignored and then I got the following response AFTER I did the email interview

“The last four questions? I agreed to answer your questions.

“How do WE frighten YOU?” Come on Mike. That’s a waste of my time and it weakens your interview.”

Joe

So yes I am glad that MY questions were answered but less then thrilled that the readers weren’t even dignified with a response. You’d think that we would get a response and I am quite sad

Sure,maybe I should have had the last question in there but oh well, I’m not an expert and I don’t proclaim to be. So now, we have a weak response at best with no real details and so I am hoping that we can perhaps pursue this more aggressively and get some answers and I encourage all of you to email Joe at the Newspaper @

thenewspaper@gmail.com

Let’s get some real answers and lets keep up the pressure there and eventually it’ll be my hope that we can speak to the author. I want to give people and us at the Fat o sphere a voice and an ability to have a voice in the media, I hope that I have done my job and that I served us well.

Comments welcome and encouraged

Anyway here it is

Here are my interview questions and the responses I got

And here are the questions that were IGNORED

#5 on your lists includes the statement- “you frighten children”. This struck me a poignant.

question: Why do WE frighten YOU so much?

question: Why would a writer assume that framing bigotry as satire exempts the things he/she writes from the larger system of societal power relations? I.e., saying ‘it was just a joke’ (which WILL be the author’s/paper’s response) does not make it ‘okay’. (In fact, humour often reinscribes relations of domination in much more powerful, insidious ways.)

question is: was this just filler? Is “outright offensive” the new “edgy”?

why they thought it was okay to publish a blatant example of hate speech. Ask them how they’d feel if those things were said about a group they belong to. Ask them how they think a fat U of T student would feel upon reading that. If they say it was a joke, ask them to explain why they think it’s funny.

Here are the actual questions from my email Interview.

Still I hope for an actual interview over the phone with the paper and the Author, but we’ll see what happens if we get the interview with Osprey media and some other outlets.

Q: What was the author trying to convey in his article?

A: From my perspective as a reader, the Jock Talk character had just spent a large amount of time reading an “800 page paperback with endless photos of the same ten guys lifting weights with no shirts on, flexing their muscles in various poses.” I believe that this inspired him to write the list. The character is rarely ever supposed to convey anything, besides showcasing what an ignorant dick he is about everything that isn’t the gym and himself.

Q: What was the humour that the audience was supposed to get from the article?

A: Out of the thousands of authors publishing work, he chose Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s Encyclopedia of Body-Building, and then he rated it five bicep curls out of five. For the second portion of the article he made fat jokes.

Q: Is the author aware of the amount of people that have been offended by his writing?

A: I’m not sure. You’d have to ask him.

Q: Given the nature of the article, and its response, is the author willing to offer a public apology and what steps will he make towards the “Fat-o-sphere” and the general public regarding the article?

A: Once again, I can’t really speak for him.

Q: What has the response been like to the article since it’s publication?

A: There is a blog or two online that have engaged in a dialogue about the second portion of the article. When someone comments online, that person usually writes us a letter as well. It has been really encouraging to know that so many people off-campus have taken an interest in the newspaper.

Q: Has the University said anything to the staff at the newspaper?

A: We received a letter to the editor from someone at the University.

Q: Are you aware that people are writing the newspaper’s advertisers in response to the article?

A: No.

Q: Will there be any action taken against the author in regards to the article?

A: Absolutely. As of right now, he is no longer allowed to write for the newspaper for the duration of this semester’s printing run.

Q: Does the newspaper stand behind the article and it’s statements made?

A: the newspaper stands behind all of its writers. The satire of Jock Talk has been the longest standing column this year and we have had a plethora of positive feedback regarding previous articles that he has done from people who are the target audience (UofT students and faculty). Articles such as “Guys Who Wear Under Armour Shirts” and “Are You Really Healthy” are a couple of favourites. The Jock Talk character is designed to be offensive; he is misogynistic, ignorant, and unintelligent. He calls himself a Jock and he doesn’t play any sports.

I received an email from Joe at The Newspaper and I got the full article as it was recommend to put things into context but still after reading it…still Not impressed

So here is the link to full article

http://www.birdmanofsteel.com/Mar24p8.pdf

As a result of all the attention paid to this by BigFatBlog and several other outlets and now potentially Something with Osprey Media and I am conducting an Interview tonight on the subject for my thoughts on the subject and the Fat o sphere. Also I am conducting a phone Interview with THE NEWS PAPER on Wednesday afternoon to address the article and I welcome comments and suggestions for the Interview and it would be great to have the Fat o Sphere involved and sitting in with me as it were.

There has been something very liberating about being on the forefront of this and being able to help get some answers and perhaps accomplish something important. I’ve only recently come into the Size Acceptance and the Fat O Sphere and so far, it has been very rewarding and to be apart of the process into which things can change, it’s awesome and it’s cool to see things happen.

So now that attention is being paid to this story and the bigotry that the article promotes and it’s amazing how well things have been responded to and it truly astounds me. The power of new media and blogs and now with the ability to take to the airwaves with TWIG and CRNC 90.1 FM and really put a call to action and I will do what I can what is within my power.

One of the reasons I got involved in the size acceptance movement because I knew I could not be alone in who I am and that there were others like me and that I wanted to direct my passion and energy to encouraging others to feel the same way about themselves.

I know that we have struck a blow and now it’s time to keep up the pressure and keep our resolve from the above article. We cannot falter and we cannot let this go and ultimately we must do what is right and have our voices heard….

So just remember to get the contact info from the previous entry and keep it up…

When I get the Interview done, I will post it on here for everyone to hear.

So please comment here and email your questions to mikejdodd@gmail.com

Together, all of our voices will be heard