Continuity Issues

Our blog is incontinent.

Hang on; I don't think that's the right word for it. Like virtually every long-running work of fiction, this blog suffers from continuity issues. I'm not talking about why Alex suddenly looks like Robin Curtis instead of Kirstie Alley, or why the glove on my left hand suddenly leaped to my right hand as I was writing this sentence; no, I'm talking about why the "Posts by Topic" section of our sidebar has gradually grown so cluttered.

When we first started this blog, the idea was that people might go searching for new fandoms by genre or medium--comics, movies, fantasy, sci-fi, the works. Our plan was to tag all our posts with a finite number of broad labels that would serve both to keep our "Posts by Topic" section uncluttered and to minimize inconsistencies in tagging. This worked for a good long while... but then we started talking heavily about baseball and Mega Man and other subjects. "Sports" and "Video Games" no longer cut the mustard. We needed specifics.

Then there were the posts that defied our carefully planned system of categorization. All of a sudden we had "History," "Simulations," and "Visual Art." Still broad enough to fit the paradigm, but rare enough topics to make me wonder why we instated them in the first place. We might find some uses for them if we go back and update the tags on older posts, but who has the time to do that?

Compounding the problem is that Alex and I occasionally have differing mindsets on what qualifies for a particular tag. I've convinced myself that I'm the utmost authority on tags, naming conventions, and formatting for this blog--after all, the blog is half mine--which is precisely why we did not need a tag called "Alex's Nonsense." "Philosophy of Fandom" or "Off-Topic Discussion" would suffice, thankyouverymuch.

Since September, there have been 13 posts labeled as "Alex's Nonsense." He hasn't rubbed it in yet that the "Exhibits" tag I lovingly crafted back in August for my big Star Trek: The Exhibition recap was only used for those four posts, but he's bound to mention it eventually.

The more I look over the blog, the more inconsistencies, oddities, and dead-end ideas I see. For a short time, Alex labeled every uploaded image, regardless of content, as "abe.jpg" because it was easy to locate on his desktop. That's not the kind of consistency I thought we were going for here.

Many of our images are labeled with alternate text. Many are not. I dropped the ball on keeping up with that, mostly because it was a pain to go back and look at the picture to figure out what alternate text belonged with this abe.jpg. Perhaps the worst instance of dropping the ball is losing sight of the blog's namesake--really, when was the last time we Exfanded Your Horizons? We need another "Introduction to..." post, stat!

Actually, I'm not sure whether or not that last point counts. This blog has grown and changed in ways we never imagined it would, and these inconsistencies, oddities, and dead-end ideas are all part of the process. I'm naturally inclined to organize, streamline, and perfect everything I can, but that inclination doesn't necessarily fit the process by which we write this blog.

We're here to have fun, channel our enthusiasm, vent our frustrations, and generally get our thoughts out on virtual paper; keeping rigid systems in place has the potential to limit our creative output, or at least eat up the precious free time we should be spending on the geeky things we want to write about.

There may come a day where we go back and coordinate the old and the new, or where we finally agree on whether or not there should be a line space between the end of a paragraph and a photo. For now, I think I might be able to find it within myself to embrace the pathetic "Horror" tag that deserves way more attention than it's gotten. If entropy is the way of all things anyhow, we might as well let go of some of the little details and enjoy the gradual descent.

Nathaniel's New Year's Resolutions...

...For Alex.

You see, I returned home from partying with the Dallas Cowboys to discover that Alex had hijacked our blog--OUR BLOG--and written what was supposed to be a joint post of OUR geek resolutions for the New Year.

Well, he came up with resolutions for me, and I think it's about time I repaid the favor.

Except there's no way I could possibly top him.

So I guess I'll just need to dole out retribution instead.

I think it's about time Alex started doing some of the tough work around the blog. That's why he's going to resolve to start writing our Month in Revi--wait. He did that already.

Okay, then. Forget about new resolutions. Let's look back at the resolutions we made for 2009, and then I'll get my revenge by rubbing it in Alex's face how many more of my resolutions were kept than his. Allow me to recap:


Alex's resolutions:

- Buy less comics (single issues) > Success! The recession fixes everything.

- Buy fewer trade paperbacks (and stop buying the single issues as they come out, then buy the trade when that comes out) > Success! The recession fixes everything.

- Never again buy bags and boards > Success! I've been to several comics shops with Alex this year, and I can personally vouch for the fact that he now steals these items.

- Organize my comics collection (this, I promise, will never happen) > Success! There's a nice box of comics that were disorganizing his shelf that will be given away any day now!

- Publish my graphic novel > Succ--oh. Guess we better leave it at that. Bad subject.

- Stop complaining about not understanding anything that's happening in the DC Universe > Success! Now he just makes up his own explanations.

- Watch the remaining Star Wars movies > Success! Alex has now seen A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, which are the only Star Wars movies that some fans will acknowledge at all.


Nathaniel's resolutions:

- Make a serious effort at finally, finally finishing my homebrew Super Mario World (which hasn't been in development as long as Duke Nukem Forever, but it's getting there) > Failure! I got two beta testers signed up... uh... last week. And I think I moved a Koopa Troopa a few inches to the left somewhere. So... progress?

- Release another level for either Jedi Knight II or III > Failure! I was way too busy working on my homebrew Super Mario World.

- Finish my in-progress Jetpack FAQ > Failure! I released an updated version in May and am halfway to the next update, but... it's still not finished. I was way too busy thinking up level ideas for Jedi Knight II and III.

- Walk away from the upcoming Star Trek movie without being upset in any way > Failure! Uhura ruined everything, including my ability to finish my Jetpack FAQ!

- Read enough comics to tackle Final Crisis and not be hopelessly confused > Failure! But at least I'm just about ready to go into Crisis on Multiple Earths. Writing about the new Star Trek movie got me sidetracked.

- Acquire a Wii and play through Mega Man 9 and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption > Fail--wait, no. This one's actually a success. Huh.

- Get Alex to watch the other Star Wars movies, a bit of Star Trek, and to witness some Mega Man > Failure! Alex claims he's watched my Mega Man videos on YouTube, but I have yet to see a post about them, so I think he's lying.


There you have it. As you can clearly see from the results of our New Year's resolutions for 2009, I... I...

...I could set the building on fire...

VERY WELL, Alex. You win THIS ROUND. But we shall have a REMATCH in ONE YEAR!

Here are the terms:


Nathaniel will:
- Make significant progress on his homebrew Super Mario World
- Release version 1.0 of his Jetpack FAQ
- Read through at least one of DC's Crisis series
- Read enough of the Marvel Ultimate Universe to do a full-blown Exfanding post on it
- Release YouTube videos of Mega Man 5 - 8
- Formally expose Alex to Star Trek
- Formally expose Alex to anime


Alex will:
- Lend Nathaniel all the issues of The Goon that he hasn't read
- Write a real post about Mega Man, and not some fluffy nonsense piece that simply has the words Mega and Man in it
- Learn how to do all the HTML wizardry Nathaniel does with the blog
- Play a video game with Nathaniel
- Play at least one session of Dungeons & Dragons with a group of people
- Join the Facebook Collective
- Open a llama ranch in Argentina


Let's just see who wins next time.

Alex's New Year's Resolutions...

...For Nathaniel.

Yep, you read that right. Since Nathaniel is busy partying with the Dallas Cowboys this New Year's Day (that, or working on side projects--I forget which one he said he was doing), I figured I should play the role of good blogging buddy and make some resolutions on his behalf.

And, boy, does he need to have some things resolutioned.

Um, resolved. Like, fer instance, he needs to read more Goon comics by Eric Powell. I mean, sure, I've been promising to lend him the last three volumes of the series since the summertime, but c'mon!

Show some initiative and just steal them from my home when everyone's asleep and/or partaking in the "wine tasting" tour of my neighborhood!

Jeez. What kind of comics fan are you, anyhow?

On that subject, you need to resolve to buy more of those expensive comic book character statues. I've seen your Dorky Lair, and it is utterly devoid of expensive comic book character statues. Rectify that in the New Year.

(And start with that one, right up there. Lookit that guy's helmet! You need to buy it!)

Oh! And that leads me to my next resolution for Nathaniel.

Be more vocal about hating things. That's what real comics fans do. Let's face it--you've been reading comics for just over a year now. I'd say the time is long overdue for you to join the vocal Internet minority of crazies out there.

You need to get on the Newsarama boards as soon as possible (with some ridiculous handle like I Am Odin's Beard 1984) and start yelling at creators for creating things.

Speaking of beards, it's well past time for you to shave a Bat Symbol on the right cheek and a Superman shield on the left cheek. (And, just so's I'm clear on this, we're talking the face here, people.) Most rabid fanboys would kill for facial hair like that!

And speaking of Grizzly Adams, this is the year when you finally go back in time and kill Grizzly Adams. You invented that look. Not him. And he should pay for that. Just look at that guy! How pompous can he get?! Walking around with a bear all over the place, thinking he's so cool.

There's just no learnin' some people.

Speaking of learnin'...this is the year in which you resolve to make Alex learn how to do all that fancy HTML wizardry you're always doing on the blog. Sure, it looks like black magic, but how else is a guy gonna make snow fall on a blog?

And, finally, this is the year in which you resolve to buy your best buddy Alex a near mint copy of Daredevil, issue one.

Lots of work to do, Flashman. Lots of work to do.

And, with that bit of nonsense out of the way, we here at Exfanding Your Horizons want to wish you all the Happiest New Year ever! Here's to a better 2010!

Tag, you're... not it at all.

Before I even begin, I need to pause and reflect on how to label this post. Though we occasionally write about music, the majority of our focus has been on visual media--comics and sci-fi movies and video games and whatnot--and the standardized tags we use reflect that. For the sake of posterity, here are all the tags we've used as of this very moment:

Action-Adventure
Alex's Nonsense
Anime and Manga
Books
Card and Board Games
Collectables
Collecting
Comics
Contests
Conventions
Costumes
Demystifying Fandoms
Election 2008
Exfanding Your Horizons
Exhibits
Fan Projects
Fantasy
Food
General Information
Guest Posts
History
Holidays
Humor
Internet
Monsters
Month in Review
Movies
Music
Obituaries
Off-Topic Discussion
Philosophy of Fandom
Politics
Puzzles and Mystery
Reviews
Roleplaying
Sci-Fi
Simulations
Sports
Stories of Fandom
Technology
Television
Video Games
Waiting for Wednesday
World Languages
Year in Review

Most of the categories are intentionally broad--my original hope was to keep the list of tags to a manageable size so that readers might actually be inclined to sift through our archives by topic. Also, there have been plenty of posts that could have had more specific labels than just "Books" or "Music," but seriously, how often were we going to write about anything horror-related?

Obviously this was before I figured out that Alex loves Halloween and vampires and zombie comics. Suddenly, the "Monsters" tag just isn't cutting it anymore.

Digging deeper, though: I'm something of a perfectionist, and if I'm going to get specific about my labeling, I want to have a tag that will stand the test of time. I don't want to have to turn around every few days to overhaul my tags because I suddenly fancy "Anime" and "Manga," respectively, instead of the combined "Anime and Manga."

And then there are times when Alex and I have two different interpretations of what a particular label means. Heck, I don't think either of us knows when to add the "Demystifying Fandoms" tag. We usually either introduce or discuss--I'll bet we confuse people more often than we demystify anything. What possible use do we have for this odd label?

Maybe I'll tag this post with "Demystifying Fandoms" and see if Alex does anything about it.

Hey, now there's an idea. Make, like, a "Bacon" tag, or something totally random that in no way, shape, or form applies to the post in question, and have that tag be some kind of code for something entirely different. For example, "Bacon" could be our tag for something we can't figure out how to classify.

Ooh, I like that.

I wonder if I can tag our tags with tags? If so, I'm totally hanging some "Bacon" off of "Demystifying Fandoms."

Just how important is properly tagging these posts? Well, this was supposed to be a discussion of the Third Eye Blind concert I just saw. When I discovered we had no tags specifically for music genres, I launched into a tangent about tagging. Therefore, I must think tagging is pretty important.

Or else I really just didn't feel like writing about the concert just yet.

I dunno--what should we do about the tags? Try to keep them down to a nice, short-ish list, like we've been doing? Classify everything a little more specifically? Be really specific and make "Madame Xanadu" and "Virsona" tags? (Honestly, we should at least do that for Mega Man and The Goon.)

Ideas, anyone?