The following is a goes post from the most excellent Jeff Turner, who submitted this a while ago and I’m only now publishing it because I’m a big jerk.  Take it away, Jeffy!

-Joshua

You’re probably saying.  “Uhhh… That’s the same thing right?” There are some subtle differences that I will go over and then you can decide for yourself.

On the Job Training will, more often than not, involve structure.  Structure is one of the keys to on the job training.  It’s what allows managers to grade you amongst your peers.  If they know that you are given the same basic description and understanding of your job, compared to everyone else.

Depending on your career choice (or lack thereof) the topics that they go over may tend to be tedious and boring. It’s the instructor’s duty to make the curriculum as exciting and enjoyable as possible.  Most on the job training will consist of some explanation of the job to be performed. Perhaps a slideshow of some sort, showing about it. And if you’re lucky, a practical session.

“Tell me and I forget,

Show me and I remember,

Let me do and I understand”

- Confucius

 Learning on the Job is quite different. This will almost always involve you learning something that you’re passionate about. This goes a long way when it comes to the material’s retention. Learning things on your own without any immediate help allows you to struggle through things and learn more about the ‘why’ and less about the ‘how’. It is, at its core, unstructured with no direct goal in mind other than knowledge.

Learning on the job will probably trickle into your personal life as well, much as I’m writing this article in my spare time.  I’m a big proponent for learning on the job but it doesn’t work everywhere. For instance you should not learn safety in this way, anything that could potentially lead to an audit, or anything that could cause harm to yourself or others.

Now based on your learning style and also your willingness to learn a subject, you could fall into either category. By know you should know which learning style will suit you best. Those that have the capacity to learn on their own will benefit more by learning on their own just based on the reasons above. So figure out what works best for you. Because…

But I can’t be too hard on PMX since I have attended it for the last few years. In fact, it’s my first bona fide anime con so it has a small place in my heart. PMX ’09 was my first con outside SDCC so it was a very surreal moment.

PMX ’10 was disappointing on account of its poor location, so I was reluctant to go to PMX ’11 for this reason. Sure, PMX staff assured me that PMX had returned to its original location but I had mixed feelings about it.

However, I should tell you that PMX is more of a media related con so it focused almost exclusively on music and fashion from Asia, at which they succeeded. But it doesn’t really cater to someone like me, who’s more of an anime/manga guy so it can be jarring for some con goers. I find the location to be okay since it’s at LAX Hilton, which is a very nice hotel but can be bit confining at times.

My main issue with PMX is that it really lacks content outside music and fashion. But I should’ve been more aware of that and I feel like bit of a masochist for coming back to PMX so often. However, I would have skipped PMX ’11 but 2 factors that pushed me to keep attending are 1)my friend who wanted to explore more cons and 2) a pretty girl that had been clamoring for my presence.

Naturally, I couldn’t say no to a pretty girl so I elected to hit up PMX ’11, even if it cost me a good chunk of my bank account, due to high gas prices. It was truly wonderful to hang out with her which made my time at PMX way more worthwhile. She even applied my Joker makeup so we could pair up as Joker and Harley Quinn.

I honestly think if someone wants to go to PMX then they shouldn’t treat it as a con. Rather, they should treat it as more of a meet up or gathering. It is very hard to enjoy PMX unless you know people there. I should know this because I went to PMX ’09 without knowing anyone there so I was lost like a deer in headlights.

You don’t have to go to PMX to enhance your time at an anime con and, in fact I wouldn’t really recommend PMX to those whose are new to anime cons.

In my own personal opinion, Anime Expo and Anime Conji (based in San Diego and yes, I’m biased) are an excellent start for newcomers for those in Southern CA. Anime Expo is perhaps the most well known anime con in the entire world so everyone has heard of it. Anime Conji is the new con that popped up few years ago but is gaining the strong credibility because it operate as an actual con rather than a grandiose meet up/gathering that has plagued numerous others.

Am I too hard on PMX? Maybe, but having cut my teeth on a variety of others, I know what I want from the cons and PMX just didn’t do it for me.

So why am I writing this? Because I’m going to Anime Los Angeles soon so I feel that I need to write about my previous con to get it out of my system.

I would only recommend Pacific Media Expo for those whose are truly into music and fashion.

The famous pool deck. Everybody always goes there for the gatherings and photography sessions. It can be tad crowded but it’s more than bearable compared to the SDCC exhibition hall.

For some people (like those pictured above), ALA ’12 represents their first con and it was wonderful to see how much fun they were having. They were just having a blast running around the con, checking out all of the sights and generally having an awesome timee which is what con is all about and it adds a lot to the ambiance to see people that passionate. As seasoned veteran, I have always enjoy the reaction of first timers.

There are several gatherings that occurred at ALA ’12. My friend attended over 17 which seemed insane compared to the paltry few I was able to check out but I had fun  with my new friends from ALA ’12.

There are so many stunningly beautiful cosplayers at ALA ’12 its ridiculous, tasty eye candy for the whole weekend. I felt most fortunate to hang out with them for the weekend because beautiful cosplayers + awesome con = WIN!

I’m posing with a Shizuo (of Durarara!) cosplayer here while I’m the one with colorful gun. I just met her that morning, but we hung out a lot.

The youtube legends, Pokemon men! They now have evolved into…. Megamen!

Here’s the video of them in action at Anime Expo ’11. Beware though- it may ruin your childhood memories.

I actually interacted with Pokemon men few times and they have nothing but been friendly and cool to me. It was awesome that they were so willing to make the effort to interact with all of the attendees.

As much as I like ALA ’12, it can be bit intimidating for those whose are not affiliated with the cosplay community. To have fun at con like this, one has to network a lot in cosplay community, which is precisely what I did so I was able to meet quite few memorable individuals.

Still though, if it’s your first time even despite the overwhelming nature of the con you’ll probably still have an amazing time.

To show how important networking is at these events, I ended up hanging out in friend’s room when out of nowhere a bunch of industry insiders entered the room to have drink with us. I got their contact information so I can hopefully ask them to hook me up in the future!

Honestly, I had an amazing time at ALA ’12, even if I don’t do any typical con related stuff except for the dance and dealers room.

I honestly cannot recommend Anime Los Angeles high enough if you’re passionate about anime and looking for a way to indulge that for a weekend it should not be missed!

The following is another guest post from the most excellent Casey Dawson, one of my Packrat Peeps!

A villain to his homeworld of Korugar and the Universe itself, or is he a powerful hero that has gone astray? Many people would agree that Sinestro is a powerful enemy to the Green Lantern Corps on his own, but when he creates his own Sinestro Corps he is something much scarier. At least, Sinestro has the potential to create something much more sinister. Who are we to decide that Sinestro is really a villain?

If you are recently getting into the Green lantern comic book series, there are a few things that you should know.

1. Sinesto was a Green Lantern, then he decided that he didn’t like the way that the Guardians of Oa were running the place. He was killed by Hal Jordan and cast into the Central Power Battery. He then Escaped to craft the yellow energy of fear into a weapon against the Guardians.
2. The Guardians, when the war of light was beginning, were forced to rewrite the Book of Oa changing the rules of the Green Lantern ring so that the rings have the ability to kill, and thus granting Sinestro success in his goals.
3. All colors of lanterns were gathered for a fight against a new threat to all life, the Black Lantern Corps. For a short time, a White Lantern was created until all of the Black Lantern foes were defeated.
4. A new threat emerged, a Guardian from stories past, Krona, seeking vengeance on his breathren, captured the emotional entites and placed them in his fellow guardians. It was Sinestro and Jordan that brought the fight to Krona. Sinestro was recruited into the Green Lantern Corps once again, and Hal Jordan was kicked out for killing a Krona with his ring.

While many Green Lanterns are freaked out that Sinestro is once again part of their Corps, I have many hopes that the rings know what is going on and that the Green Lanterns need Sinestro for this new threat, the Guardians of Oa.

Many people that I have talked to that are avid readers of Green Lantern share the same dislike of the Guardians of Oa that I maintain. The Guardians are cold, always planning, and think themselves superior. They have had one ore two shining moments in my eyes, but that hardly makes up for the treachery they have commited. Sinestro has that same veiw of the guardians that others I have talked to have, and he has always loved the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardains failed with the creation of the Manhunters, and since they are unable to control the Lantern Corps, like dogs on a leash, they now wish to create a third army to replace the Corps.

In the Latest issues of Green Lantern Sinestro has Deputized Hal Jordan, a power we had only seen from the Guardian Ganthet, into the Corps once again, and are fighting against,oh my…the Sinestro Corps. The Sinestro Corps has failed to protect the Korugarians, and have enslaved them against the orders of Sinestro. Sinestro continues to prove his extensive knowledge of the Green Lantern powers as he teaches Jordan another new trick with the rings capabilities. After much fighting, Jordan and Sinestro are captured by the Sinestro Corps and tossed into different holding cells, where Sinestro takes his impressive feat of creating one ring, and multiplies that into making rings for all of the captured Korugarians in the holding cell with him.

Sinestro has made a great counterpart to Green Lantern, always forcing them to push the boundaries of what’s possible when wielding the ring.

Based on everything we’ve seen leading up to and including Sinestro’s rebellion, what do you think of the character?

Alright, I know I already posted this at the official Packrat site, but I had a great time shooting this episode and since I forgot to post episodes 6….and 7, I wanted to make sure this one was up here for your viewing pleasure.

Alright, I don’t know what I was expecting.  I guess it was because I had such a great time playing with X-Men: Legends in the original Xbox and PS2 days that I figured this would be a nice follow-up.  Granted, The Marvel Ultimate Alliance games were great in their own right, but having something purely X-Men focused was an exciting prospect for me.  Not to mention, my love for flashy, cartoony graphics is well-documented and anytime I can have candy-coated mutants running around whooping’ ass I get positive elated.  Unfortunately universal consensus seems to point to the fact that the game only looks like ass and does very little to no whoopin’ as I’d hoped.  NZGamer said it was ‘Rougher than Logan’s chin stubble.’ Ouch.

I…Is that a combover?

This is just a shame and a half.  Marvel’s Ultimate X-Men universe is just heating up for me and it woulda been great to see a game released in tandem that did it justice.  I’d even be ok with some light adventuring a’ la Ultimate Spider-Man from PS2, but such a thing was not meant to be I suppose.

Am I the only one disappointed here or were a bunch of you expecting something better as well?

The following is a guest post from Shawna of CatDeerDog Photography.  Be sure to check it out, especially if you’re in need of a photographer in the Columbus area!

I’m just gonna come on out and say it. My favorite superhero is Superman…always and forever since I was a little girl gleefully watching Christopher Reeves soar through the air to crying my eyes out along with Superman when Supergirl died in Crisis of Infinite Earths to when not so long ago I again cried while watching Superman Returns. Not because it was terrible movie (Hey, I enjoyed it!) or because he almost dies. Nope, this time I shed tears of nostalgia and joy at a very crucial moment of the film. It is the first moment in the film where you hear the theme song start up and see Clark Kent dash out onto the street and rip open his shirt to fly off and save the world. THAT is classic movie magic, people!

I’m so crazy about him I’d carve into a tree a heart encircling “Shawna + Kal-El 4Ever”. Yep, I’m that girl.

So, this is the point where some of the comic book aficionados (and even some non-comic book lovers) groan because really, can’t I think of anyone better than Superman? Sure, back in the 1930s, he was pretty gruff and more ruthless in how he treated his villainous adversaries, but as writers have portrayed the character over the years, he’s usually a boring, one-dimensional muscle-man with ridiculous superpowers because of some crazy magic comic book formula of alien heritage and our yellow sun. *Yawn* And then I would reply, “Ya know what, let me rephrase that. My favorite superhero is Clark Kent.”

Allow me to explain.

In my eyes, Clark Kent is who Kal-El really is…a good-hearted farm boy from Kansas who just so happens to come from another planet and is gifted with incredible powers. Superman is Clark Kent’s creation…an identity manifested to use his powers for the greater good of humanity. Superman is but a small fraction of this character’s persona, but Clark Kent is someone a lot of comic books don’t dwell on so much because he isn’t perceived as being nearly exciting as his alter ego beating down bad guys. But to me, the story of farm boy Kent is the heart of the character and why I faithfully watched the entire series of Smallville, even through all the teen-angst drama and skillfully timed emo pop love songs.

I am drawn to origin the stories of any comic book character and truly believe that that’s the good stuff of any great hero. Watching Clark Kent grow up in the Smallville series and learning to cope with the extent of his powers, how to use them to help others and the moral dilemmas of the actions he chose is insanely fascinating and real. Aside from the superpowers, don’t we all face tough personal decisions and moral conflicts in our own lives? How can anyone not relate and empathize with this guy?

My love for Clark Kent/Superman/Kal-El…pick a name, it doesn’t matter…My love for him is because of his heart and desire to help those around him and the planet upon which he was graciously given a chance to live. And he struggles with the decisions he takes upon himself to make…day in and out, and sometimes he loses hope and faith in humanity and himself. Usually after some solitude, he marches forward to fight another day for a world who has come to depend on him. I think a lot of readers don’t pick up on this moral struggle within the character or it’s just not properly portrayed in the comics. I don’t know. Maybe they just see him as kind of an emotional wuss who always does the right thing. That’s understandable, but I urge you, dear reader, to dig deeper and find the good stuff of any hero you adore and get to know him or her better.

As for my beloved, a great place to start would be with Superman: Peace on Earth.

Merry Christmas, all!

And thank you, Superman, for your relentless battle for truth, justice and the American way.

Before we get started, I realize that I appear to be in the habit of making dick jokes lately. However, this is different. This is a scientific examination of what exactly would happen if some of our favorite characters from comic books took a straight shot to the pills. Granted, some of you may have already seen some of these in Marvel vs. Capcom, but I’m trying to be professional here. For instance, what exactly would happen if I gave a brutal blow to the balls of…

5. Scott Summers While Mind-Melded with Professor X or Jean Gray

Jean Gray and Professor Xavier are both powerful telepaths. However, let’s start with the professor. The good professor has been wheelchair bound ever since Magneto speared him through the back in their original parting of ways. Now, if we go by the movie version of how Charles is depicted in X-Men: First Class, then we know that he tells Moira he can’t feel his legs. Assuming he has limited or no feeling whatsoever beneath the inflicted wound, if I popped Scott Summers in pills with a croquet mallet would Xavier feel it if he were telekenetically linked to Xavier?

ALRIGHT FINE, I just wanted to kick Cyclops in the balls, OK?

Now let’s look at Jean. A telepath and most know that she also contains within her the god-like Phoenix. However, so far as we can tell she only has lady parts. I’m not positive if human female anotomy translates to her Phoenix form, but let’s assume that it does- would Jean, for the first time in her life feel the exquisite pain of a testicular rupture or would she just be completely unphazed?

4. Doctor Octopus

Alright, on to a bad guy who probably deserves a gnad-smashing. Dr. Octopus, the classic Spider-Man villain is known for having robotic tentacles that he can control with his mind. A glance at the Marvel wiki reveals they are:

• Controlled by the good doctor telepathically
• 6 feet in length retracted but can extend up to 24 feet in length
• Each capable of moving at speeds of up to 90MPH with the force of a jackhammer

You already see where this is going.

If you’ve ever seen a Disney movie, then you know that the natural reaction to a crotch shot is to shoot your hands to the affected area while comically crossing your eyes and falling over slowly for dramatic effect.

Now, assuming Hollywood accurately portrays this type of pain, what would happen to Otto the second the pain signal worked its way from his testicles to his brain? Well I’ll tell you what- 4 jackhammers reactively slamming into his crotch to ‘protect’ him. However, in that state of immediate pain, what would be the odds of stopping 4 stereoscopic metal arms precisely at their (presumably) 90MPH speed before also slamming into his crotch? I’m guessing pretty slim, but alas, the research still needs doing.

3. Nightcrawler

Aw, poor Kurt. One of my favorites but there’s still science to be done so let’s get on with the hypothesizing shall we?

Kurt Wagner, A.K.A. Nightcrawler is a skilled medic, pilot, and also Catholic priest who’s primary power is the gift of teleportation. It’s portrayed in comics with a ‘Bamph!’ sound as the air rushes to fill the space that Kurt’s body just occupied, leaving behind the smell of brimstone.

So…smells like douche, I guess?

However, when it comes to Kurt’s teleportation, it requires a lot of concentration for it to work properly. By his own admission, in both the comics and X-Men 2, if not properly focused Kurt could accidentally bamf into a solid object like a table or a wall, thus joining his molecules with that of the object, potentially killing him immediately if his lungs are replaced with a goosefeather duvet.

I’ll tell you what- let me give you a right-cross to the baby maker and IMMEDIATELY after I do that I’d like you to run this tire course.

Knees up, lady!

If you think that’s hard, imagine trying to displace your entire molecular structure across the room. After a shot like that my guess is that Nightcrawler would bamph out of instinct, at which point I’m betting there’s a pretty good chance that Kurt could potentially bamph into a nearby streetlight and that would be the end of everyone’s favorite teleporter. So, to recap, my hypothesis is surprise shot to the nuts = instant death as far as Kurt’s concerned.

2. Darwin

Darwin’s mutant ability is that his body adapts instantly to any situation to prevent him from harm. An example would be when Darwin had to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk and his reactive evolution immediately teleported him miles away from the fight rather than allow him to succumb to the towering green monster’s brutality.

Sissy.

But we’re not talking about the Hulk here, we’re talking about me. While I work out regularly, I’m in no way capable of dishing out the force of a jackhammer or probably even a regular hammer.

DEFINITELY this one, though…probably.

So how do Darwin’s balls react to my foot slamming directly into them? Considering it’s often purely a protective reation to harm, my best guess is that his balls immediately harden to only as much protection is as necessary to prevent harm, which, considering I’ve got the kicking power of snorting a pixie stick, would probably be some super-hard polymer that would end up breaking my foot. However, they might also turn into spiked maces to teach me a lesson.

Regardless of how Darwin’s twig and berries take care of themselves, one thing is clear- he’d be super pissed almost immediately and then I myself would be in danger of getting busted in the coin purse.

1. The Vision

The Vision is an alien/android hybrid trained in hand-to-hand combat by Captain America. According to Wikipedia, “The Vision is described as being “…every inch a human being—except that all of his bodily organs are constructed of synthetic materials.”

There’s a sex toy joke in here but I’m too classy to make it so here is a kitten

In addition to being entirely synthetic, his abilities include superhuman strength, speed, agility, and most importantly, the ability to on-the-fly modify his density. Up to this point we’ve only discussed regular people with special gifts and how they react to the shame of a dick punch or kick. This time we’re talking about an android.

Come at me, bro.

Much like Darwin, my guess is that this experiment won’t end well for me. Based on the fact that The Vision would more than likely see my feeble kick coming before I could even start my leg in motion, he would immediately change his density, allowing my kick to pass right through him, leaving me stunned and shameful on the ground.

What comic book characters’ junk have you been daydreaming about? I mean, other people do that, right? And don’t say Mr. Fantastic- too easy and I expect better of you, Internet!

The following is a guest post from Jeff Turner.  In addition to being outrageously handsome, he’s also a bonafide code monkey who will be contributing more programmy goodness in the future!

My name is Jeff Turner.  I’ve been a .net developer for over the last 5 years. This is actually how I have come to know Josh.  He sat right across from me. But it was years before our relationship blossomed into the gorgeous flower as I know it today. All it took was a podcast to get things started. I like to call it the mullet script. Corporate business up front and party in the back. The party was mostly something in tech news, sometimes the daily woot.com product, possibly a video game or movie review. I like to think that geekspodcast.com never would have been started if it weren’t for those 2 crazy kids with a microphone.

So… Why am I here? I’ve got some crazy ideas floating in my head that I have learned over my lifetime. Most recently is the cost of one line of code. Others include .net, JAVA, Android, Arduino, microcontrollers, electronics, Scrum, and Agile methodologies. I would love to get these down somewhere. Sure I could use Facebook but there are too many non-geeks that require me to explain everything. Google+… I’m sure there will be an upcoming article about that. I wish I could say everything I wanted in less than 140 characters on Twitter but alas, I cannot..  There are so many other paces I could write technical articles but GeeksPodcast seemed like the best place.  So let’s get started shall we?

This article is going to be based on a 14^th century proverb (For want of a nail).

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

Having been in the software business for over the last five years, I’m as guilty as anyone for using the term “It’s just one line of code”.  From a developer’s point of view that is most likely the case.  One line of code, that’s all it will take to make all of your troubles go away.  But over the years I have started to realize the error in using that line.

There is a hidden cost with every line of code that is written.  First there is the cost of writing it.  Then there is the cost to test it. Also there is a cost if it doesn’t fix the initial problem or even creates a new one.  There is a cost associated with documenting it, training it, and even supporting it.  There is even a small cost with having the debugger have to step through it and even any other developer to have to scroll past it.

Now, if you’re a programmer you can start to see the other side of the table here.  Saying that it will just be one line of code can be misleading to other business groups. Most likely Sales, Project managers, and Testers.  They hear one line of code and think it’s equal to writing a sentence for a paper.  But the biggest difference between writing software and writing a paper is the absolute certainty that you won’t have to constantly modify the paper over its lifetime.

So from now on I will never reply with “It’s just one line of code” and start using something else like, “It’s a small change with minimal risk”.  This will most certainly cover you, if anything were to go wrong.  Minimal risk still implies that there is some order of risk, no matter how small that may be.  Because in the end, every line of code that is written has the potential to not work as intended.

“For want of a line of code and the enhancement was lost.
For want of an enhancement the date was missed.
For want of a date and the project was lost.
For want of a project and the customer was lost.
For want of a customer and the revenue was lost.
For want of the revenue and the company was lost.
And all for the want of a single line of code.”