Essential Mobile Travel Accessories 2017

We just returned from a trip to Portugal from Los Angeles. This involved a number of flights, in this case 4 legs. Each plane was very different in the way they dealt with entertainment. The first flight, each seat had a screen right in front of your eyeballs. All you had to do was plug-in earphones and everything was fine. There was a good choice of movies and TV shows, my plan was to break up the 10 hour flight into a movie watching binge plus a few shows. I expected most planes to be the same, on the way back I was thrown a curveball. 

This plane each seat did not have a screen. Instead there is a holder/cradle for your phone or tablet. You download an app where you access their library. Now you are responsible for placement, choice and power. There was a power plug between the seats that you can barely access without creating a shriek by some old lady. There was no USB plug so you must provide your own power source. So overall I found the process somewhat annoying. Being what it may, if you want to watch 8 hours of entertainment you need a power source. I should have brought the octopus power plug. I was hesitant because I thought it would draw scrutiny at check points being it’s kind of wiry looking. It would have been a good traveling addition. It allows charging of most plug endings. I was saved by using a lipstick style power charger.

Every room we stayed in had WIFI. We watched our usual Netflix shows regularly. What would have been nice is bringing a Google Chromecast device. We watched shows on a tablet propped up on a backpack, with a Chromecast we could have watched on a bigger set. 

So here is your Essential Mobile Travel Accessories kit for 2017. 

• cellphone/tablet

• power charger

• phone charging cord

• headphones

• power cord octopus

• chromecast

• lipstick back-up power source

• USB power plug

• European convertor

• Book (analog back-up)

I would suggest keeping all of these things in a small bag in your carry-on. Remember to grab all of these when leaving your room during final inspection. 

I'm sick and tired of seeing the letter "T" in the headline

I’m a hold out, I still read a newspaper. The headlines dominate your first glance giving you a hint of the features and tone of the day. For a long time, every morning has been dominated by Trump in the headlines.

Nine months ago Donald Trump won the election. Since then, almost every headline includes his name. You see that capital “T” and you don’t have to read any further, you know what’s coming. This is not an accident, he wants everyone to say his name out loud and like it. The problem is we don’t like it as a whole, or should I say “hole”. 

Donald J started running for president about 25 years before the election. I always wondered what his game was but I knew he was up to something. He put his name everywhere. Trump hotels, Trump suits, Trump ties, Trump TV show, Trump kids, Trump steaks, Trump Casinos on and on. It kind of reminds me of a promotion for a company named “Beatrice” a number of years ago. I had never heard the company name before, suddenly all channels were filled with their praise. Beatrice made everything, food, tires, furniture, vacuums, electric guitars, blenders, appliances, nuts and bolts. At the end of every commercial would be a hesitation then…”Beatrice’. This went on for a few weeks, then I opened the newspaper. “Beatrice Company Sold for $20 Gazillion dollars”. We were introduced to this entity, bombarded, then informed they sold for a bundle. This reminds me of Trump’s rise to world fame. I hate to admit it, but I believe he is the most famous person in the world. I didn’t say most popular, but this entity has placed his name on everything making him public interest number one…with a “T”.

I don’t know if the public realizes how tactically we were fooled. He has always reminded me of the bully on the school yard. Every school has one. A little bigger than the other kids, richer, spoiled, self-centered with a giant mouth that spews nicknames for girls with braces or kids with handicaps. I grew up with one exactly like him, by coincidence his father was a well-known Republican politician. 

What I find annoying is having conversations where you complain to a friend about hearing and seeing too much Trump. Sometimes the answer is don’t read or watch. The problem is when I go the places I find enjoyable they are often already labeled Trump, I have to make that “T” identification before moving on. So I must think of him first, before not thinking about him and changing direction. It was easy with the Kardashian’s. I’m not their demographic so they won’t invade my space. When they were on TV I could easily turn the channel and watch something else. Now the world is the Trump channel, it’s “T” on your dial. Hold on what’s a dial? 

He craps on a gold toilet…in his plane. I can’t un-know this. I would be fine not being privy to this information. “Toilet” even starts with a “T”. This is the same toilet that I believe this man aspires our country to resemble. What really bums me out is that I wake up wondering what part of America he wants to take away. Healthcare? Equality? National Security? Neighbors? He’s in my opening headline before I even see the paper. I am honestly sick of this, it’s like listening to the same song over and over. I don’t like this song and the only way not to listen is to go camping without any cell service. 

Unless he quits or Mueller throws him in jail, we will have a few years more of this negative based American life. His overwhelming supply of ridiculous makes me want to put on an orange helmet and slam my head against the wall. The truth is fake, what’s fake is the truth. He distorts reality and claims injustice while thrusting forward with his prejudiced barrage. If he gets bounced, Mike Pence takes over which may be worse. He understands government and has his fundamentalist agenda to implement. He’s not popular with voters, sketches the truth and always looks like he needs to make a doodie.

I have decided to have fun with it. Being I am a cartoonist, so I think of goofy stories. Life after the nuke follows the life of Tronk, the obvious leader of the new cave world. He tweets his thoughts using a rock tablet. This format is fairly fast to produce now that I have created a template. Animating as fast as the news cycle was almost impossible…almost. I believe that Tronk can keep up with Trump as long as he’s in office. I look forward to changing the cartoon’s direction. 

Understanding a Neanderthal

Developing the “Tronk & Bonka” cartoon was an interesting exercise. Watching a whiteboard explanation gave me my idea for Tronk’s communication method. If WWIII happens, Twitter won’t exist, except in Tronk’s mind. He’ll use his tablet to speak his mind WiFi signal or not. Being that he is a Neanderthal, he has a limited vocabulary, kind of like another orange haired caveman that I can think of. He uses a “pictionary” style method to express his anger and general civic disappointment. 

So each episode has a sequence. First, an opening where the bomb drops and civilization has been reduced to rubble. The meat of the story has Tronk sounding drawing his rage, followed by Bonka bonking him on his head with a stick for being such a goon. This is followed by his second thought which usually doesn’t fix the problem. He is a true caveman.

I went on a bike ride with the intent to figure out a Tronk language. A mixture of identification, understanding with a hint of emoji. One of my first thought for a gag was about his thoughts on global warming. Global was pretty easy, draw a globe. Warming a flame. I disagree, a picture of a bull taking a dump. Oh boy, this type of activity is why I got suspended from Catholic School. 

It took a nuclear bomb for Tronk to find out that words matter. Now words really don’t matter so cryptic cave drawings are right up Tronk’s alley. Some messages are deep some are basic. I will try to keep up with whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com 

The idea is to inform the public about “Cheeto’s” dealings from a Neanderthal point of view.

What do you do in a MancaveMancave?

If you put some thought into it, you can create a space to use for multiple purposes. It is an office, storage, a shop and a theater. For entertainment, physically, all the pieces are there… but how do you control two sets and two monitors? 

What do you play before the game? I have created a website that will interact with your MancaveMancave creation. My design incorporates  televisions and computer screens to create and view.  Using a combination  of cable TV and Google Chromecast you can watch a live game on one screen and Chromecast MancaveMancave “Excellent video” on the other. I am constantly adding to the collection. Content is based on popularity mainly covering sports, music and comedy. 

From a technical perspective, a converted garage can offer a number of different video combinations. How you control them is up to you. In my setup, the 55” on the beam is connected to a cable box and a Roku. The 40” UHD smart TV is connected via ethernet to the modem. Live TV is played through a Spectrum app. Watching the same game on both sets is tough, the smart TV lags about :20 seconds playing through the app. 

My HDMI choices are HDTV, Chromecast and Roku. Watching TV these days revolves around Trump and everything else. If you don’t want to hear politics and your team is not playing, MancavMancave.com is your destination for caveman style entertainment. 

On the home page are original Tronk & Bonka cartoons. In the “Excellent Videos” section is a collection of favorite movies collected from YouTube.

• boxing 

• basketball 

• Bugatti

• wingsuits 

• music 

• The Blue Man group 

• rap 

• Ray Bradbury

• home repair tricks 

• car hacks 

• dessert recipes 

• rap battles 

• football 

• baseball 

• comedy 

• animation 

• car racing and more. 

In the attached graphic you will see the layout for my two car garage turned cave. A manual door is used to allow for more inside storage shelf storage. Entry is through the sliding door, the garage door can be cracked for more circulation. 4 people can hang out comfortably, one at the desk, one on the couch, two in the chairs. 

The mini-fridge in the corner holds the cold stuff. Generally I play the same game on both sets. I am finding myself putting two games on, even three using my computer browser.  

Overall, after using this design for a few years, I still like it. No problems whatsoever. An electric door would be great, but I need the storage space. To keep smelly stuff out of the cave you need to build or buy a shed.  That is another discussion.

Ooog the caveman

Building my mancave was what inspired me to create the website MancaveMancave.com. I thought about developing a mascot and realized that my character Oooog the caveman was perfect. I originally drew him a long time ago. I was a character in a movie made for a bakery called, “Life without Bread”. I was Oooog the caveman, I ate sandwiches made of rocks because there were no rolls. 

Today we have a troglodyte in office, an orange-haired caveman that has no humility, empathy or insight anywhere past his own butt hole. Tronk has Trump-like hair and a very limited attention span. Any resemblance to the real character is completely coincidental. 

“Tronk” is what happens “after the nuke”. He is the landlord for his mountain of high-rise cave dwellings. Tronk has a female involved in his life. She is a combination of his ex-wife Ivana, daughter Ivanka and newest wife Melania. Together they make the mono-brow, club swinging bombshell named, Bonka. Electricity hasn’t been invented yet so Trunk sketches his tweets on a large screen slate then waits for Bonka’s approval. The way he is going, he will have many headaches before he gets a nod or a smile. 

I designed Tronk to be different from Ooog. They are cave neighbors but have nothing in common. 

Tronk wants to build a wall to keep out invaders from the south. Oooog wants more company. Tronk wants to drill for oil, Oooog hopes to invent solar panels. 

Does anyone care that the Chargers play in LA?

I have two TV’s in my mancave which will allow me to watch both the Rams and the Chargers at the same time. That’s assuming there isn’t a black out for some reason. It’s pretty weird having two teams after having no professional football for 20 years. I am a Ram fan going way back, I had a blue and white helmet as a kid. For the moment, that is the official Ram helmet now. We’ll see when the new stadium is built in 2 years. 

In the 80’s and 90’s we had the Rams and Raiders. Those were fun days. I’d have the guys over to watch football most every Sunday. Often I’d drive to Culver City to get a bunch of Tito’s Tacos, then Toluca Market for old-fashioned donuts. for dessert. Add an ice cold beer, soda or milk shake and you had your fill. Sounds kind of unbalanced food chain wise. We were kids, if I ate that now I’d blow a gasket. 

So now finally a deal has been made, the new stadium is under construction in my city of Inglewood. When it opens both the Rams and the Chargers will call it home. That will be a little weird, kind of like the Lakers and Clippers at Staples Center. Somehow when you go to a Clipper game, there is no purple and gold anywhere and vice versa. People generally don’t wear Clipper jerseys to Laker games either. The Giants and Jets do it, it should work here.The new stadium will have a giant scoreboard that encircles the whole field. My guess a lot of the branding will be digital. The rest will be field paint but he best branding will be winning. Los Angeles is loaded when it comes to sports teams. I’m wondering how the Chargers will attract new fans with so much allegiance competition in the city. There are the Rams, Chargers, Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Sparks, Galaxy plus USC and UCLA. That’s a lot of jerseys to keep in the closet. 

At the moment the Dodgers are playing some amazing baseball, I’m not quite ready to take on football as an interest. Heck, with all this Lonzo Ball talk, basketball is even in the news. Going back to football, I am hoping that the Rams will pick it up a little. Last year they sucked. Goff got nothing done and Gurley went nowhere…plus Fischer got canned. This added up to 4 wins, whooppee. 5 wins would be an improvement. I still can’t get over Goff not knowing that the sun sets in the west. Kind of Jethro Bodine-like.They actually have some good receivers, I worry about the defensive backfield as well as the lack of Aaron Donald. 

The Chargers will be interesting. For now they are playing in Carson on a soccer field. All I know about the Chargers is that Phillip Rivers is a great losing quarterback. The poor guy will throw for 500 yards and lose by 3 in the last second. He reminds me of Archie Manning, great player on a bad team.

  

Am I more interested in watching the Chargers because they moved 100 miles north? Doesn’t change much for me. Tickets to games cost a lot of money. A good mancave with two big screens sets you up as good as a sports bar with a more accessible restroom. I’ll watch multiple games one way or the other, if the Chargers are playing I’ll watch…as long as the Rams aren’t on.

Raccoons can show up to eat your salmon cat food

Part of my MancaveMancave scheme was to make a place for my two cats to live. We have a one story 3 bedroom house with a separate garage. The cats don’t come in the house but can access the mancave through a cat door. 

We live in the city but there are still critters. I made a mistake back a few years ago, I didn’t realize how much raccoons like salmon flavored cat food. You could see the smell like a fish fog wafting out the cat door. In the middle of the night I heard an intruder, a raccoon the size of a small dog made it’s way into the living room. In seconds I found myself half-naked swinging a mop trying to coax that hairball out the back door. After that invasion you would think I would remember to skip buying salmon cat food. That was 3 years ago.

The other day I entered the mancave in the morning. I forgot, I bought salmon cat food again. I had a gravity feeder filled with yummy, smelly raccoon chow. They had entered through the cat door and had a party after washing their hands in the water dish. I came up with a plan, keep the food in a cooler at night so they won’t come back. Wrong. They came back but were frustrated by the cooler. They left bite marks in the plastic but couldn’t get in.

Logic has taken over. I found a 15-pound plastic container on Amazon that I keep in the pantry to hold the extra food. At night I bring the  gravity feeder in the house. Now, no problem. 

The lesson here is for people that have a mancave with a cat door. Don’t buy salmon cat food, open the bag and leave it within smell distance of a raccoon.