I'm No Da Vinci

I skipped going to work today to sleep in and the only real thing I had to do was go get some RAM for my great aunt's computer. So as I was sitting at home after all of that waiting for my girlfriend to get home from work, I picked through my comic books and decided to whip out the old pencil and paper and see what I could do.

I used to draw quite often, but as I began writing more, I stopped drawing and did other things. So I picked up the issue of the "Invincible Iron Man." If you read my review of the recent movie, you might understand the recent fascination with the character.

Anyway, I started off real well, but then I got to the legs and I decided to erase it and save it before I made it a disaster. So here is the original and what I ended up drawing.

Christine Everheart: You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?
Tony Stark: Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint.

Irony of Dying on Your Birthday

I am sitting in a cluttered office, pilled to the rafters with booklets filled with tiny pieces of sticky-backed paper. No, not a sticker factory, but my fathers Stamp and collectibles business. What am I doing here? Procrastinating of course. In all honesty I am helping him create an inventory of his stock so that he can put it on his website.

I just scan the object and save them onto an external hard drive which as of last week, only seven days of work, became half full. Time to lower the resolution and start over... I know. Exciting.
As I sit here and wait for the scans I did this morning to finish moving to the external hard drive, I was thinking about the idea of a birthday.

A day of celebration in honor of the day you were born. Seems simple, by why is it that parents these days just don't get them. My parents have double duty, because my twin brother and I obviously share the same day. My mother struggles to come up with things to get for us, as I am older know and my hobbies and interests no longer make sense to her.

My birthday is nearing a month over now and it is funny how little interest there is one year after my 21st. The last big birthday I had was for my 21st, some friends and I got together and tailgated before an Oakland A's game, then sat in a outfield luxury box.

But before that, and much like this year, the day passes by with a celebration and apathy from my parents, chalking up getting a simple gift to, "You didn't ask for anything." How I see it is simple. I am 22 and my rent and utilities are paid for by my parents. My jobs can't afford them yet. I don't ask for anything because, what I need, they give me.

I thought I was being selfish for even wanting to go out to dinner. That was until my brother stepped on the face of being polite and in the midst of moving into a brand-new, four-room, single bedroom apartment, asked for his birthday gift.

When my mom got home from helping him move into his new apartment she asked me, "What would you like for your birthday?" I simply shoved off the question. A few minutes later it dawned on me that my brother probably asked for something and got it ... warranting the question from my mother.

I went downstairs and asked my mother, "What did (Brother's name) want for his birthday?"
He is currently basking in the glory of 48 flat-panel inches of high-definition television. Since then I have been looking for things that I "want" for my birthday and to this very moment can't think of anything that I couldn't buy for myself.

I don't know, maybe I just want fair compensation. My older sister totals her car and gets a new one. My brother causes an accident that leaves his SUV totaled then gets the truck he has "always wanted." I would just like fair compensation.

I drive a 13 year old car with 90k miles on it that runs like it has 590k on it. I don't want a damn TV, I just want my parents to see that on the balance scale of sibling fairness, my amount has flown off the other side from the wait of the others.

This is a selfish rant, discard if you have made it this far.
"Irony of Dying on Your Birthday" by Senses Fail off of Let It Enfold You.