Musings, Ruminations & Rants

New, Fresh, Blogness

2007-07-06T14:05:00.001-05:00

Putting This Blog out of its Misery

2007-06-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

Okay this is the last entry for the MMR. Lets face it this blog sucks. I've got no direction, its not like I have any regular commentary from readers, I've stopped tracking web traffic but I can't imagine its off the charts.

I checked my Technorati rating, I'm ranked 1,219,524.... I'm over a million blogs away from number one... OUCH! There are blogs that haven't been updated in half a year with more heat then this one. This blog is the equivalent of a fresh crap sandwich, sure its fresh but who cares, I'm not eating it anyway. Nobody is touching this blog, let along reading it. So I'm killing it.

I'll return to the blogsphere with something else more refined and focused in the near future. In the meantime read the Checksum Crusader and/or The Deuce of Davenport. Both are vastly different but excellent blogs to read.

Gonna bag us a Sasquatch

2007-06-29T08:42:00.000-05:00

I found this on CNN today, looks like researchers are going to focus a new Bigfoot hunt on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It'd been awhile since I'd seen any Bigfoot news, wouldn't it be wild if they got clear video of a Bigfoot. As much as I love these articles I don't believe Sasquatch exists, BUT what a mind blow it would be if these jokers came up with video of one of these things or better yet video and a body dead or alive.

bigfoot sasquatch Michigan research science

The Woolly Mammoth can now be cloned but should we?

2007-06-27T09:41:00.001-05:00

An interesting article from National Geographic that I found via Digg. Personally I think bringing back the Woolly Mammoth would be pretty cool. However resurrecting Neandertals is a different story, odds are this was a sentient species and bringing them back could bring up a good list of rights issues that we'd be best to avoid.

read more | digg story

Indiana Jones back again

2007-06-22T07:50:00.000-05:00

Here he is, Indiana Jones on the set of the fourth movie. This is the first new photo of Harrison Ford in his Indy gear. Even though some of my other favorite characters aren't returning in this latest chapter in the Indy series, I'm still pretty damn excited.

Technorati Tags:
Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Indy

Biggest Dollar Comic Bin EVER

2007-06-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

Something any comic book reader loves is a dollar box or bin, where any book in the box is just a dollar to purchase. When I was a kid these used to be the quarter bin, but inflation touches everything. Today I went to C-Mart in Landover, MD and spent a solid hour or so perusing the largest comic book dollar box ever. Actually this was 6 solid rows of long boxes full of comics from the 60's on to the early 2000's. There was a great selection of titles both from major publishers and independent companies. A great way to fill in some holes or to check out some series that you'd heard about OR a great way to get some comics cheap to introduce younger readers to medium.

It went about 50/50 on the amount of books that were bagged & boarded and those that were unprotected. The quality ranged from near mint to very good, with the protected books obviously being in better condition. From Casper to Elementals to Transformers to Superman to Femforce there was a little something for almost every reading taste. For me it was a fun way to spend a late Saturday morning. I picked up some issues of the Secret Wars limited series that I was missing, some of the mid 80's John Byrne Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight, and a few other things. Good Stuff!

Technorati Tags:
C-mart, comic books, cheap books, comics

Important News?

2007-06-09T00:52:00.000-05:00

Paris Hilton was called to court and returned to jail today, 24 hour, round the clock coverage of her movements throughout the day on all the major "news" networks!

Oh and by the way, Gen. Peter Pace is stepping down from his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The first space shuttle launch of the year went off successfully, and during the G8 conference participants are being criticized for not living up to the pledges made to fight diseases in Africa.

Paris psychological state is shaky she's being watched closely to make sure she doesn't hurt herself while imprisoned. Stay Tuned to all "news" networks for updates.

Comic Book Summer Event Overload

2007-06-07T22:29:00.000-05:00

Hollywood drops huge blockbuster films on the viewing public for summer consumption, its an annual tradition that we all gobble up. Whether you are into Zombies, Pirates, Superheroes, Ogres, or another damn Penguin movie... there is something in the theatres for everyone. The two major comic book publishers DC Comics & Marvel are getting into the habit of producing big, "history-making" summer mini-series that are marketed heavily and seem to impact all the major characters and titles of their respective houses.

Marvel will have multiple events occurring. The one receiving the most advertising hype would have to be World War Hulk, which I'm looking forward to on some level since I'm a die-hard Hulk fan. Seeing the Hulk get his revenge on all the folks responsible for launching his gamma irradiated butt into space should make for some cool stories. Marvel is going to handle World War Hulk the same way it handled the Civil War event last year. There will be the World War Hulk mini series book, that will coincide with a Frontline series that views the event from the point of view of two reporters following the story. There will also be World War Hulk mini series attached to other Hero groups like the X-Men. I'm also sure that every comic in the Marvel Super Hero universe proper will have some World War Hulk action. I can only pray that Marvel better with keeping on track with their scheduling and meet their deadlines so that this event doesn't stretch across an entire year like Civil War did.

The event series from Marvel that I'm more excited about is Conquest, which will be another superhero space opera continuing where Annihilation left off. I LOVED Annihilation, I came on board late, buying the the series all together over the Christmas break last year. I ate it up with a spoon. It was so much more satisfying then Civil War, and really developed characters that I've always enjoyed. Conquest looks to be delivering the same. Images I've seen include the Starlord really making a return... and the return of Rocket Raccoon YEAH BABY. Marvel has such a rich collection of cosmic and space characters, its great to see them getting such quality attention again. Also the new Nova series is on my must read list, so far that has been a great read. I'll write up a list of some of my other must read suggestions in a couple days.

I'm heading to San Diego to attend the big International Comic Con with my man Fred, having these series events always adds some extra electricity to the comic publisher panels and makes for some interesting occurrences. Civil War ended with a Spider-Man with a public identity, a dead Captain America, and government control over all super powered citizens of the USA. I'm not a fan of any of these changes, so I'm hoping to get some satisfaction in the form of one of my favorite Marvel characters kicking people around and possibly bring back the old status quo in the Marvel Universe.

First Photos of Mach 5 for Upcoming Speed Racer Film

2007-05-31T11:54:00.000-05:00

Here is it folks, straight from today's USA Today, the Mach 5! I gotta say they did a great job bringing this car to life. I don't know too much about the movie itself, but at least they got the car right. A very sweet ride.

Fatherly Knowledge

2007-05-29T19:34:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with the boy over the weekend and this afternoon. It had me thinking about the things I'd learned since he was born as I've spent the past year as new Dad. I know the cliches about how having a child can change you and how there is never enough time because it goes by so fast. I'm not getting that deep or philosophical. This is pretty surface level stuff. Here's a little list that I came up with of what I've learned and discovered.

1. Gerber Graduates and other toddler brand snacks are pretty damn good. Seriously the toddler brand cheese puffs could give Cheetos a run for their money. They are so crisp and they practically melt in your mouth. Some of the other puff flavors like veggie dip are great too. Asher is nice enough to share some puffs with his Dad now and then, because he thinks putting food in my mouth is funny. However, I've been tempted to buy a couple cans of those things to keep at the office for snacks.

2. Toy stores are fun again. I'd jump into a toy store now and then to check on a video game or for comic book geek toys, but other than that toy stores were a quick shop kind of hunter/gatherer experience. Now its fun to browse through the whole store(well almost the whole, the girls toy section is still off limits). So many of the old standbys have change in regards to kids toys. Fisher Price Little People have sure come along way since the '70s. When I was a kid they were wooden pegs with wooden or plastic heads. Now the little people have legs, arms and much more elaborate playsets including a pirate ship which was Asher's big weekend purchase.

3. Diapers are not a big deal. I wasn't really concerned, but some guys relayed how much they hated diaper changing and how terrible it was to me before the kid was born. I guess having a dog really desensitized me to dealing with poo. Dirty diapers no matter how foul, really don't bug me. I'm not exactly a man with a steel stomach, these guys who have a gag reflex during diaper changes are some supreme wimps.

4. Whole new world of tv and music. My inner child still has me watching cartoons on a daily basis, but my days of watching PBS kids programming are long gone. I didn't realize how many new programs were out there. Asher doesn't really watch tv, we keep it on in the background for music when there isn't an iPod or radio nearby. My top show that I think are the most interesting would have to be: Noddy, Wonder Pets, and Kipper.

Noddy is based off of some British kids stories from the 50's. So the characters styles are that of old toys but they are brought to life with computers. It's an odd mesh of styles that I find hard not to look at. Plus the beginning theme song is kinda catchy in a cheesy kind of way.

Wonder Pets and Kipper are both cute for different reasons. Kipper's quiet adventures remind me of the tone of some of the Winnie the Pooh stories I liked when I was a kid. Nothing too over top, or zany.

Sure I know about Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder or any number of kids programs and characters, but those three are some of the ones I've just caught on with this past year.

Which reminds me the "Goodnight Show" is on the Sprout Network as I write this, I hope haven't missed Kipper yet.

Memorial Day

2007-05-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

First off a big thank you to all those in armed forces serving night and day to protect our nation and our allies. A special thanks and prayers to the families of those who have given their lives in serving our country. I really hope that everyone at least takes one moment today to remember those who gave their life in military service or veterans who are no longer with us.

It was a three day weekend for me as it was for most folks this Memorial Day weekend. I wish I had an alternate work schedule like I did a decade ago. Having a 3 day weekend every other week is such a great thing to have. I'm so much more productive and recharged after 3 days off. I get enough time to decompress and get things done around the house. Trying to cram all that into 2 day is just a sucker's quest.

This weekend we got the backyard together for the little man. He's got a sandbox, a deck chair (with cupholder), a little pool, and plenty o' outdoor toys for pool and sandbox. We braved Lowes on this holiday weekend to get some new yard equipment and mulch. All in all the backyard is looking great, the patio is clean, the little guy's stuff is set up. It's fantastic.

I grilled up a couple of ribeyes (bought'm at Costco yesterday, they have some of the best steaks). I'm glad we didn't decide on heading to the beach or anything. The DC Metro area is so much nicer when half the populous leaves home for a little vacay. The roads are less crammed, lines are shorter at the stores, and the waits aren't that bad in restaurants. It so nice... too bad they don't all stay away more often.

Great Judgement Call of the Week

2007-05-14T23:17:00.000-05:00

Check out the link to read about these elementary school teacher who thought it'd be a good idea to scare the living crap out of 10 year olds as a vehicle to generate discussion about how they'd handle themselves if faced with a gunman attacking their school. This ham handed handling of the situation and poor judgment have me even more motivated to find a way to keep my kid out of public school.

Reading other articles tonight, it seems two of the teacher have been suspended. That's a good start to making this situation right.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18645623/

Mother's Day -- Mission Accomplished

2007-05-14T12:15:00.000-05:00

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
--Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Ah yes another Mother's Day has come and gone. I and the day ended with smiles for both my mom and my wife. This year I had my stuff together with Mother Day for the most part. I had gifts in mind from the get-go. Mothers day is not a day taken lightly in my family, its a MAJOR holiday. No last minute shopping at the mall that Sunday to hand her something later in the day. No way, that can lead to a very unpleasant day for all.

My gift idea was a locket, a tasteful piece of jewelry that the Lady can keep a few photos within. As I wandered from store to store and browsed online the vast majority of lockets are in the shape of hearts and seem to run to either extreme of the design. Either they are very plain to the point of being unimpressive as a gift or gaudy to the point of being unwearable. And again all of them were these damned heart shaped things. The Lady doesn't wear hearts around her neck, ain't her style... Through my browsing online I knew that there were a few oval shaped lockets out there, that matched my mental images of the perfect gift. I found one, because I'm a born and bred shopper 1st class. But I'm sure plenty of schmoes were buying these guady things for their wives and moms. Those jewelry cases are such a minefield of bad decisions waiting to be made.

I'm happy Mother's Day went well for our family this weekend, but man am I glad its over. These holiday's stress me out to no end. All I asked for this Father's Day is a card, that's it. Not that Father's Day is as huge a deal to begin with... but that's a topic for another day.

This ain't news

2007-04-19T14:02:00.000-05:00

As just about everyone with access to a computer, television, radio or newspaper knows by now Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News videos and photos of himself spouting his disturbing rants & posing with this weapons before going on his killing spree. Instead of simply reporting to the public that they received this from the twisted murderous f*ck and turning over copies to the police, they proceeded to pollute the airwaves showing the video to us all, printing his manifesto for us to read. This isn't news, and its not appropriate. Now the images are blanketing news outlets all over, I can't even open my Yahoo home page without a photo of that jackhole pointing a gun at me appearing on the screen. Real great, I'm sure that's helping in the healing for all the families involved.

I mean the video and manifesto weren't vital to the story in all honesty. We didn't need to add more evidence to confirm that this monster was beyond disturbed. What benefit was there to be had from giving air to his mad rants and ravings. Did it give deeper understanding, not really. It'd already been established from what was reported that this kid, felt somewhat wronged by his peers who were of higher income brackets. However his victims, were young and old, students and faculty, of all races that don't even match his perceived enemies that made his life hell. He was basically angry at the world and his history show a track record of mental instability. What more does showing his final video and writings accomplish, what information does it give us that we didn't have or needed to know.

NBC said it showed "restraint" by showing only 6 minutes of the video in hourly intervals on their 24 hour news network, MSNBC. Their response has been something to the tune, of the decision wasn't taken lightly and they think airing the materials would help the nation in trying to understand why this occurred. What a load of crap. They saw EXCLUSIVE, a big scope literally mailed to them and they wanted to get it out there. They just had the sense and forethought to know that maybe holding back a bit on getting it out there would be good damage control from the obvious fall out for air this crap. What they failed to realize that while they may limit how often its shown on their network, once it was released, every other news network big and small, local, national and international recorded and has started showing it on their networks providing the exact continuous loop of video that NBC said they wanted to avoid. It's disappointing how often the major news networks meet the expectations I have of them by continuing to let the public down preferring to go for sensationalism, tasteless, and cheap in their quest for ratings.

And the month is only half over...

2007-04-18T09:51:00.000-05:00

April 2007 has been a month full of tragedy and controversy. The shootings at the Virginia Tech campus, that resulted in over 30 deaths, was a horrific moment. As we come to know the names and faces of the victims, the impact of what has occurred becomes more vivid. As with any disaster, there are many who look back in time to see what could have been done to avoid this or looking for a direction to point blame. Should police responded in a different manner, were teachers' warnings about the shooters mental state not given serious enough consideration, etc. This is a time where the lives lost should be mourned respectfully. A different video game rating system or different gun laws wouldn't have done much of anything to change this situation. Pointing fingers with the benefit of the cliched 20/20 hindsight won't accomplish much and using this painful event as a opportunity for some interest groups to further their cause just seems opportunistic and wrong to me. Aside from that, like everyone else in the nation my heart goes out to all those effected by this terrible incident.

Earlier this month the airwaves and internet were clogged with news about Don Imus and his comments regarding the Rutger Womans Basketball team. As someone who is part black I didn't find the comments too terribly offensive on a racial level (don't get me wrong it was offensive, but Imus has said worse), however it seemed wholly disrespectful as a sexist insult to young women who hadn't done anything to anybody. These weren't attention grabbing celebrities or scum bag politicians making themselves targets for ridicule and insult. These were young women who despite the odds got into the final four of the NCAA tourney. What'd they do to merit an insult? Since it was an otherwise slow news week the media latched on to this throw away offbase comment, which of course whipped up Jackson and Sharpton who never miss an opportunity to get their mugs on TV. Ending up in what I consider the unfair firing of Don Imus for what only called for a month suspension at the most.

To clarify I'm not a fan of Don Imus, I don't find him entertaining and I don't understand the appeal of his show. From what I've seen of his show on MSNBC (since I couldn't tell you where it is on the radio dial here in DC) I really don't like the guy. Just seems like an old crank. BUT I am a fan of radio as whole, and I'm a strong supporter of free speech and I like radio that is edgy and tests the limits. I shudder to think if all talk radio was "safe". Yuck.

Morning funny

2007-04-04T09:38:00.000-05:00

courtesy of The Perry Bible Fellowship

No longer a Newborn, but not yet a Man (Gushing Dad Alert)

2007-04-03T20:55:00.000-05:00

The MMR kinda had a little "spring break" there for a few weeks. Sorry about the pause in entries. The Little Man had his first birthday last Tuesday, and the weekend before we had a big party for the kid. It was quite an undertaking and preparations took up quite a bit of time since it also meant my in-laws coming into to town to stay with us for a couple weeks. As the title warns, this a gush parent entry. I can't help it our little guy turned 1 last week, so I gotta blog about it. If this isn't your bag, check out the archives.

The Little Man's party was a big success. Everyone had a great time. We had a Noah's Ark theme for the party. This included an Ark cake put together from Fancy Cakes by Leslie . My Dad put together a great spread of food and snacks while the Lady's Mom painted a large backdrop based off the invitations to folks to take photos in front of. Almost everyone invited came which was really cool.

After this birthday it just seems that the Little Man knows he's not considered a newborn anymore. He's crawling around now and standing up more often on his own. I had to even lower is crib last weekend since he was being so precocious. Its so amazing to see this little kid now, who looks more like a little boy and less like a baby. Especially considering the tiny 6lbs wrinkly premature newborn he was just a year ago. I'm beginning to understand what people mean about time flying. Its sad to see we're losing our little baby, but at the same time I'm so proud of his accomplishments as he grows and I'm enjoying him more then ever now that he can really play. He throws a ball, he interacts with folks more then ever now, and he's talking more each day which is hilarious to me. I miss the little baby, but I love and enjoy the little boy that is taking his place.

I just want good phone service

2007-03-07T14:07:00.001-05:00

For better or worse, I'm currently a Sprint user. At the time having Sprint was the only way to do free calling to the Lady and other family members since they all used Sprint. I'm watching these commercials that Sprint is airing lately touting television programming, music videos, music and ringtone downloads, all kinds of crap. Which is great I guess. I have ZERO interest in using my phone as a device to watch television or listen to music. I guess that's why I'm not psyched about the Apple iPhone, the device holds no attraction to me.

All I want out of my cellphone is the ability to make a call anywhere I want. I hate not being able to make a call while in many Metro stations whenever I'm going downtown for work or play. I hate having to wait until I reach Grosvenor station before I can make even a quick call before diving into the subway tunnels again.

Losing my cell on road trips when we are navigating the Appalachians of MD or West Va. also sucks. Oh sure we can get the craptacular ANALOG ROAM when in the mountains or when visiting my in-laws in Arkansas. But that costs extra and the service quality stinks on ice. Hell, we often lose service while talking on the cell phone when on the ground level of our house or even in our grocery store down the street. I'd never be one of these people who give up a land line in place of cell phone service, at least not in this house or with Sprint as a provider.

I don't care if it means more towers in people's backyards, I want more coverage. Give me stronger signals!

MMR - YouTube Find o' the Day

2007-02-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

I put in about 12 hours yesterday and I'm coming to end of another full day, after this busy weekend. I'm burning out, so I decided to go to one of the ultimate time-waster sites and found this little gem. Hell, it's funny to me. Don't judge me harshly.

So very busy. I'm a busy, BUSY man

2007-02-27T14:34:00.000-05:00

WHOA after this past weekend, I need another weekend to recover.

Saturday was the BIG day, we kicked the day off waking up around 7AM so that I could get a haircut. From their we took the kid to his class at the Little Gym. This was his 3rd/4th class I can't remember. It's a morning class and the morning isn't always his strongest time of day to perform (like father, like son). But he did his forward flips and played. He enjoyed himself for the most part, I could tell he was ready for a nap by the time we were done.

After a quick breakfast we got home to allow the little guy to that nap in. We wanted him well rested for his 10 month photo session that we needed to get done today. After taking he took the longest nap possible we got him together and down to the Picture People in Bethesda, for his photo session. This kid isn't shy about the camera, we've been taking him to get his photos done every month since he was born. So he knows the routine. During these photo sessions my job is to basically be a total idiot trying to get him to smile or laugh for the camera or at the very least keep his spirits up so we don't have any tears. Fortunately the place wasn't busy that day, so we were able to get in and out of their in about 20 minutes, BACK on the ROoooooad.

From there we went into DC to my Grandma's house for our little cousin's first birthday. She's a month older then our Little man almost to the day. Grandma has a nice little row house, but I emphasize "little". That place was packed with people for this birthday party. I was happy we weren't too late, everyone had a good time. She got great gifts of clothes and toys. There was cake and ice cream... but we couldn't get too relaxed. NOPE, it was time to move again.

We said our goodbyes and headed north to Frederick, MD. We were having dinner with a friend of ours at a Japanese restaurant near her house. Since she was on her own that night we didn't want her driving too far on her own. The food at this place, Matsutake Japanese Restaurant of Frederick, wasn't bad. But wow the prices were pretty far out. I've eaten my fair share of Japanese cuisine in restaurants around Rockville and Columbia, but I never thought the most expensive one I'd go to would be in Frederick, MD of all places. I'm talking about a 5-8 dollar difference in prices from what I've gotten at comparable places in my area. After visiting at her place after dinner, we enjoyed a Starbucks recharge and headed home around 10pm, waaaaay past the Little Man's bedtime.

Sunday he and his mother got to do some serious napping. I on the other hand did stuff around the house, messed around the garage. Basically keeping to indoor activities, since we had more of that damn snow. At least is just a snow event and not ice.

Oh and the Oscars blew. Booooring, looong and most of the movies I couldn't of cared less about.

Random thoughts from my President's Day holiday

2007-02-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

I had the day off today for President's Day, and though it was a good day nothing really gelled for an anecdote. So just random thoughts.

- Why doesn't Barnes & Noble have terminals available for customers to look up the location and availability of books & other media? I understand the human interaction factor that comes from the customer service desks in the store. But damn it that just isn't efficient. The boy and I just need to find one book, but we don't know the author. There is only one customer service dude at the desk this afternoon. It's already been almost a half hour and we still haven't found this book, or even talked to a customer service guy yet. In this digital age where customers are often more then comfortable enough looking books up on a terminal, Barnes & Nobles should offer this service. Hell, even the neighborhood library offers up that ability and the local B&N is larger then most of the libraries around here. We're outta here, Little Man, we'll just order the book off of Amazon.

- How does Target always know NOT to stock the video game that I've made up my mind on purchasing? Guess I'll just order it off of Amazon...

- The new location of Beyond Comics at Lakeforest Mall is great. Much more elbow room, the only space I don't appreciate is all the empty space on the new titles shelves. How is it that this store has a terrible record of having the new titles on the shelves that I'm interested in, sometimes on the shipping date? I can run up the Frederick location and they are always stocked. I'm going to just start ordering them off of Amaz... oh wait they don't sell comics, well there is some online solution I'm sure. Better then trekking to Frederick.

- Having another day with the kid is great. Between taking care of him, the dogs and trying to get laundry and dinner together I'm pooped.

Okay so the Snow came this time... or Punxsutawney Phil can Take a Flying Leap

2007-02-17T23:52:00.000-05:00

Snow, ice, sleet, and rain is that what the worthless furball in PA thinks an early spring is supposed to include? Here in Gaithersburg, MD we got a decent about of all of it. Now those readers unfamiliar with winter weather such as this let me explain. Snow on its own in my opinion is easy to deal with. Its easy enough to shovel the crap out of the way, even if its a blizzard I can deal with it. But when you have a couple inches of snow that is then soaked down with sleet and frozen rain you end up with something that resembles glacial concrete. I mean this stuff is unplowable, impossible to shovel and a pain in the ass.

Last night in our neighborhood a crew came through to bust this stuff up. I welcomed them with a combination of emotions. I was happy to see these guys armed with blades, shovels and a front-end loader ready to chip our neighborhood out of this slice of late winter hell. I wasn't happy that they chose to start this work at 2AM. Since they were practically working under my boy's bedroom we had him sleeping in our bed until the crew was done.

I finally took advantage of the above freezing temperatures today and chipped away our driveway and front walk. After about an hour and half of chipping & shoveling I'm able to see concrete and asphalt again.

Most of the days I work outside of my office either at home or at my folks place while my kid is taken care of my mom. The timing of this storm was perfect because both me and the kid are suffering from a cold. With neither of us feeling well and our neighborhood looking like an icey wasteland we stayed home. The Lady had to go into work since her office had only a delayed opening. So I was left alone with the Little Man for two days. This was the first time I'd had to take care of the kid on my own, in addition to fitting in working and trying to get over a cold. It turned out to be quite doable and a lot of fun. Me and the boy get along very well, we had a good time. He plays well on his own and stuck to his nap schedule so getting in some work over the past couple days was a piece of cake. It was fun having the one on one time with him, not something I get too often. I especially got cheated out on it earlier in his first year with the hours my previous job had me working.

Overall, it was a week of inconvenience and frustration in regards to the weather and my health. But I have some good memories to show for it with the couple of days I had with my boy.

Real Men of Genius

2007-02-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

It's sites like this that remind me why the web is so great. Listed here for your listening pleasure, an extensive collection of audio files of the Anheuser-Busch Real Men of Genius radio commercials: http://arc.diis.net/cache/page/budlight.html?story=budlight

Big Snow No Show

2007-02-02T14:51:00.000-05:00

No big shocker, but the snow that had everyone whipped up here in the DC Metro area pulled a major no show. Now in all fairness this wasn't forecasted to be a big snow storm, we're only talking about an inch of snow followed by frozen rain. But it was enough to whip our local newstations into full Storm coverage. Each news cast lead with the Weather guy/gal giving us the low down on this blob of moisture inching its way northward towards DC & Maryland. Winter weather advisories were set to start a 9AM yesterday morning. This was it people, two rush hours were due to impacted by this wintry mix. School Superintendents, the salt and snow plow guys and the man on the street were all interviewed to see how prepared they were for the pending wintry doom. But of course the advisories kept getting pushed back until they were cancelled all together. And the most we got was some rain last night which froze a little.

The general rule around here is, if the weather guys see a storm coming far in the future there are pretty fair odds it wouldn't be a big deal,if it doesn't fizzle out first before even hitting our area. The big storms are the ones that come out of no where and surprise everyone. That's the shoe I'm waiting to drop. Still waiting for the mid February -early March blizzard of 2007.

(edit) Right after posting this I looked out the window to see it snowing like gangbusters. Now who knows how long it will last or if it will stick... but I don't remember this being in the forecast for this morning...

Gaming Fun with Dr. Oracle

2007-01-26T15:42:00.000-05:00

Holy crap its Friday already. After this week of working, I'm one tired dude. I've been putting in some serious hours these past few weeks. Trying to get this project together for work. And even though I'll probably put in a few hours of work this weekend in addition to getting housework done. I hope to have some quality time with the family and with my gaming systems. Oh yes, I do enjoy the video games especially after a week like this. I'm still riding high off of the influx of new titles I got for Christmas. On the portable front I've steadily been working my way through Final Fantasy III on the Nintendo DS. I've long been a fan of these Japanese RPG's while FF III doesn't offer much in the way of innovation its a solid game and the graphics have been updated to show of what the DS is capable of. In the GBA slot of my DS I keep either Final Fantasy Tactics or A collection of boardgames loaded.

On the PSP I've been into Sims 2, which is surprisingly different from the computer game of the same name. Its a much more story driven game, instead of focusing solely on life goals. I don't usually enjoy these console ports of the Sims games, but the Sims 2 on the PSP is actually a lot of fun. Others may disagree, and I can understand why it might not be for everyone especially if they were expecting something more like the PC version. I'm digging it though.

My biggest non-portable game distraction is my Xbox 360 that I picked up earlier this month. I haven't had a chance to play it as much as I've wanted. Every game I've gotten so far has been incredibly fun. Ultimate Alliance and Saints Row are the two games I've logged the most time with. Saints Row is a total rip of the GTA series, but who cares. They did a quality job of duplicating what is cool about GTA and improved on a lot of the things that bug me about GTA. Saints Row is a great way to relieve some steam.

Marvel's Ultimate Alliance on the other hand speaks to the console RPG lover and comic book fanboy in me. With over 20 playable Marvel superheroes in a game the spans most of their comic book universe... it's just too much fun. The graphics are so much better then on the orginal Xbox, a lot of fun. I've worked my way a little over half way through the entire storyline if they walkthroughs online are accurate. But even after finishing the game there is so much other stuff to explore. Replay value is high on all of these 360 games when you factor in online play, updates that are available from the online marketplace, and just by the depth of some of these games. I'm enjoying the Xbox 360 a great deal, it actually exceeds my expectations. Screw the Playstation 3, I'm getting exceedingly tired of Sony and they way they execute their product launches, the inept way they support their products once on the market, and various other blunders. The Wii looks fun, but all that flailing around isn't my style of gaming.

YouTube Friday - Entry 1 - Orville Redenbacher returns from the dead... to sell popcorn

2007-01-26T13:23:00.000-05:00

Wow this commercial creeps me out. Orville Redenbacher was a great pitchman for his products when he was alive. And I found the previous ad campaign of using an old commercial with the new popcorn jars laid in with computers to be charming. But this current campaign featuring an unholy abomination of CGI scares the hell out of me.

American Idol invading my Morning News

2007-01-16T22:10:00.000-05:00

Ah it's a January, a year begins anew. Cold winter weather is coming back and with it comes the premiere of a new season of American friggin Idol. I have never caught on with this show, I've never liked any of the "stars" that have been produced by this show...Idol winners, hosts, or otherwise. The show just makes me cringe. Unfortunately I'm a regular watcher of the Fox Morning News here in the DC Metro. I'm sure it's the same formula for the other Fox outlets around the nation, when a new ratings booster show premieres on the station the morning news becomes a total propaganda machine for the said show.

Fox 5 was already winding up with their American Idol shill machine. With numerous segments and teases Tuesday morning related to "Idol". From canned interviews with Paula Abdul to a tour of the American Idol online headquarters website. I can only guess this will be followed with another round of some local Idol competition paired with weekly recaps of the show that aired the night previous. I've come to the conclusion I can't deal with it this year. So I'm going to be testing the local morning news waters, to see where else I can get my traffic & weather together news paired with local feel good relatables. Sorry Lark, Tony, and the rest of the Fox 5 Morning News gang, this viewer is moving on to Idol free waters.

Little Man Update

2007-01-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

Asher is over 9 months old now. And folks ask about him often, so I thought I'd give an update here. He's a smart little guy whose vocabulary is growing. Now he's calling both Mama and Dada when he wants one of us, he also knows the word dance... which he says when he's dancing, of course, and he knows the word "cat" which he says whenever he sees his grandparents cats. As for understanding other words he knows how to respond when we ask him if he's hungry or wants a bottle. He is also learning the meaning of the word "no", though he's not always happy with it.

Even though he's not crawling yet, the kid is making progress with learning how to stand... so maybe he'll just skip the crawling step.

I've enjoyed watching this little guy grow these past months, its hard to believe we are only a couple months away from his first birthday. When they say time flies they aren't kidding.

If anyone has any questions about Asher. I could go on and on here. But I'll limit myself to a brief entry.

Madcap Players: 6th Annual Winter Carnival of New Works

2007-01-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

H Street Playhouse
1365 H Street NE, Washington, DC
January 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27, 2007 at 8:00 PM
January 21 and 28, 2007 at 2:00 PM

For anyone with a love of theatre who lives in DC or will be visiting the city this last half of January should check out this presentation of new works by the Madcap Players.

Hell, as far as I'm concerned the one play that you must see is The Lullabies of Farewell, by friend/little brother, Gary. Stay for the other ones as well, I'm sure they are worth the time and money.

Happy Birthday Elvis

2007-01-08T23:39:00.000-05:00

Today Elvis Presley, the man destined to be the King of Rock n' Roll, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Yeah I find Elvis to be a great source of entertainment and amusement. I enjoy his music at times I'll admit and I also find anecdotes about him and details about his life to be equally entertaining and amusing.

Below I've pasted in one of the more amusing stories, I think. It's not a sugar coated story and does show some of the darker sides of the King... but I find it an interesting and at some points entertaining read. Listeners of the Don and Mike show should be familiar with the Story of Hamburger James, as its usually read on air during one of the Elvis birthday/death day shows or even at Christmas time for whatever reason. Forgive me for the length of this copied text, I found it at http://brew-masters.com/node/452:

One afternoon my mom pulls up in a beautiful Continental with a guy who's a perfect stranger to me. I come out of the boarding school, and my mom's sitting in the front seat with the guy whom she introduces as our new daddy, Vernon, and the three of us are ushered into the backseat. Well, we leave from the school and drive to the mansion, to Graceland. All of a sudden here's this big, beautiful house. The very first thing that I notice is all these bodyguards-these guys walking around with big guns under their arms.

Inside, I walked down a mirrored hallway, down these steps, and I found it amazing that these big gold records were everywhere. Elvis was standing over by the record player, listening to records. He walks across the room, and I know the first time I meet this guy, he's different. He really rattled me by picking me up and saying, "These are my little brothers. That's just the way I'm going to treat them." Here's this guy, bigger than life, 19 years older than me, and he takes us into his family.

The next morning I went outside and there he was. But there were cats, dogs, ponies, scooters, bicycles, tricycles, swing sets. Three of everything. He had his employees go to the store and buy all these toys and bring them back. And he broke a habit of sleeping all day to watch my face light up when I saw everything.

I felt very much at home when I was at Graceland. We lived with Vernon in a house next door, and when Elvis was home I would go over and see him. Elvis loved to throw the football. I'd go out on pass patterns, and we'd do that for hours and hours in the backyard. One evening he decided he wanted to mend fences. We went out with a hammer and nails, and he put about 10 nails in one board, just like a kid.

When I was 17, I was getting into drugs, and Elvis figured he could help straighten me up. He wanted me to go to work with him as his personal aide, but he knew I would have a difficult time convincing my mother to let me go on the road. So he told her that I would have a private tutor, I would be in church every morning, all these different things.

My first trip was Washington, D.C. We were sitting on the plane, he's on the aisle, and I'm right beside him. Elvis just looked at me and goes, "I'm the teacher," with that big grin on his face. "I'm going to teach you everything you need to know, and by the way, what you see and hear on the road, you don't say nothing about at home, okay?"

We got to the hotel, and we were there five minutes, and all these girls were there. All these guys have got these girls waiting! None of the wives were ever allowed to go on the road with us, and that was one of the reasons why. Elvis looks at me and says, "There are two girls that I've dated that are going to be here, Joyce and Janice." He's a married man, and he's got not only one girl, he's got two girls!

That was the night that Elvis initiated me into what was called the Memphis Mafia by calling me at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and asking me to find a cheeseburger in downtown Washington. It was December of '70, freezing weather. When he said he wanted cheeseburgers, I said, "Where do I get them?" and he said, "That's your responsibility. Find out." I called the bellman; the bellman didn't know. So I literally get out in the streets of D.C. and find a place. And I put the cheeseburgers inside my coat and run all the way back to the hotel, get upstairs, go in the room and one of the girls was in there. I pulled the hamburgers out, handed them to Elvis, and he said, "I don't want them. I was just checking you out, to see if you could do it."

Eventually I took care of him when we were traveling. I did everything. I made sure all the meals were taken care of. I took care of his wardrobe and jewelry, taped up the windows so the sun couldn't get in, set up the room and carried the kit that contained all his medication. When he would come offstage, it was my responsibility to get a towel around his neck, a glass of water in his hand, a coat on his back. Then to get him in a car and make sure those vents weren't blowing on him. Usually in the car it was mostly just him and me in the backseat, with someone driving us.

Girls were always available. Always. It was just a matter of picking which ones he wanted. And he wanted one every night. He had to have somebody in bed with him. I don't think sex was even involved lots of the time. He hated to be alone. If there wasn't a girl there, I'd sometimes sleep at the foot of the bed.

When Elvis wanted a girl, someone would go find him one. We called it trolling. Elvis would look around and say, "It's time to go trolling," and we knew what that meant. Somebody had to go downstairs and select four or five girls for him to look over. I introduced him to a lot of girls, and members of the entourage introduced him to some. It was usually me, because I knew his taste -- tall, clean girls.

In one of the Vegas hotels they'd gather together in a lounge area and sit around on sofas and wait. When Elvis wanted somebody to go trolling, I'd go down and look them over and pick out four or five. I just told them that Elvis wanted to meet them and asked if they'd like to come up to his suite. It was all pretty cool, but everybody knew what was up.

There was a whole routine. While I was gone, Elvis would get out stuff to talk to them about. He carried books on astrology and numerology and that kind of thing with him so he could make conversation with the girls. Anyway, I'd take them up, and there he'd be. All smiles and very gracious. Elvis would make women feel wonderful. They'd sit around in the suite for a while, and Elvis would look them over while he talked to them. Then he'd let me know which one he wanted to stay. When the visit wore down, I'd escort the others to the door, and the one that was chosen would stay behind.

Then I'd instruct her, tell her what Elvis liked and didn't like. I'd tell her that if things worked out in a way she decided she wanted to stay the night -- and I knew they'd already decided, or they wouldn't be there -- that there might be some things she would want to know. I told them Elvis always liked to eat in bed, so I'd set a sort of table on the bed. I'd tell them Elvis always ate and slept in pajamas and that I'd left some of his pajama tops in the bathroom, just for them. And I'd tell them Elvis insisted everybody around him be very clean, so they might want to take a shower before they put on the pajamas.

I told them they could order anything they wanted to eat, but Elvis hated the smell of fish, so get whatever they wanted, but stay away from fish. I told them they should brush their teeth after they ate, that Elvis always did that, and that I put a new toothbrush in the bathroom for them. I'd always take a big batch of toothbrushes on the road with us, a big, double handful. I told them Elvis loved to have his back and shoulders rubbed. That was about it. I'd serve them, then I'd leave.

Priscilla would fly into Vegas on weekends. They would stay in the four- bedroom presidential suite on the 30th floor of their hotel. I'd have to take Priscilla's dresses out of the suite when she was away and write down where each dress was hung and its color because she wanted them kept in a certain order. I'd move them back when she was about to come in. Priscilla knew what was going on, but she couldn't prove it, and so she had to ignore it. But if she came back the next week and those dresses were messed up, ooh, wow! It was bad!

"The kit" went everywhere with Elvis, and I was the guy designated to take care of it. If he went out for a drive, that meant I brought the kit. It had all kinds of uppers-Dexedrine, Black Beauties. Then you've got the Class -- A Percodan, Demerol, codeine. There were barbiturates -- Tuinal, Seconal, Nembutal, Carbital. Toward the end there was liquid Demerol. Needles. Plus he had money inside the kit -- 10 grand in a wallet-makeup, a driver's license and a lot of jewelry.

Elvis started taking prescribed drugs from his mother while he was a young man. Antidepressants and uppers. She was depressed, always overweight and taking diet pills, and he just got them from her pill cabinet. Later, he'd justify it by saying, "I need it." See, for every bit of drugs or whatever he took, there was always a reason. "I need this because I sprained my back," or "I need this because I've got to rest tonight." His daddy confronted him about it. He'd always just say, "I know what I'm doing. Use and abuse are two different things."

A lot of big-money performers think it's sort of fun to have a lot of servants hanging around all the time. There was a guy that ended up working for Elvis, helping me, but he didn't have much of a job. Mainly, he went for stuff like hamburgers. We all called him Hamburger James.

Well, I'm in Elvis's suite one day, and he yells out to me from his bathroom that somebody had been in his kit. He said some things were missing, some money and some pictures. Well, we all ran all over the place, and the only person we couldn't find was Hamburger James.

Elvis was more than mad. He was in a wild rage. And it spread to everybody. See, Elvis also had some pictures in the kit. I didn't look at them. I think they were pictures of Priscilla. Hamburger James took some of them too. So Elvis was hot. Man, was he hot. And everybody's running around looking for Hamburger James. And somebody says, "I'll bet he's at the airport."

We were in Las Vegas at the time. Elvis screams, "Get the car," and we race out of the hotel and pile into a couple of cars. There were six or seven of us, and we're driving like crazy because somebody found out that a plane is supposed to leave for Memphis in a few minutes.

We come screeching up to the airport, and everybody piles out. Several people were wearing guns in shoulder holsters, and they hadn't put their coats on. Elvis is right there with us. Everybody is running to all the different . counters and jumping up and down to look over the heads of the crowd, trying to find Hamburger James. Everybody in the place is freaking out. Women are grabbing their kids and hugging them while all these guys with guns run all over the place. Remember, this was Las Vegas in 1974. Stars like Elvis are protected in places like Las Vegas. Anyway, it all happened pretty fast.

Finally somebody runs up and says he found out the plane for Memphis is leaving the gate, so we all run like mad to get up there. The guys are all pounding on the glass, and Elvis runs up to the girl at the gate desk and starts yelling, "Stop that plane! Stop that plane!" She ignores him for a second or two, and then she starts to get a little hysterical and screams, "I can't, I can't!" Then Elvis pulls out a police badge, one of the bunch that he had been given over the years, and flashes it at her and yells, "I'm a federal officer. I said stop that plane!" Then she sees it's Elvis, and she goes all buttery and starts kind of whimpering something like, "Oh, oh, oh, it's youuuuu. It's youuuu. Can I have your autograph? Ohhhh, Elvis." And he's yelling, "Stop that plane! I'm a federal officer, I tell you, and I want that plane stopped right now!" And she's looking at him sort of funny, and he's looking at her both mad and confused and kind of flattered all at once.

I never did understand why, but the plane stopped and pulled back up to the gate. They opened the door, and Elvis's bodyguards ran down the aisles and there, in the back, was old Hamburger James, all huddled down and hiding. They dragged him right up the aisle, off the plane and out of the airport. He was wailing and crying and trying to get away. Some of the guys are punching him once in a while to try to get him to be quiet. I'm sure he thought they were going to take him out in the desert somewhere and dig him a grave.

We race back to the hotel, and Elvis's people drag Hamburger James into the elevator, up to Elvis's suite and throw him down on the couch. Elvis walks up, and the crowd of people kind of parts. Hamburger James is sobbing like crazy and scared to death. Elvis walks up in front of him. And then leans down and picks up a big, heavy coffee table. He doesn't say anything. He's dead quiet. I'm thinking, oh, he's going to murder him! He's going to smash him in the head with that table. How are we ever going to talk our way out of this?

But Elvis puts the table down to one side. Then he walks up to Hamburger James, and he looks at him real cold and quiet. Then Elvis reaches over while Hamburger James is looking straight at him, scared to death, and slaps him twice. Like in the movies. A slap, and then a backhand. Pow! Then pow! again.

Then the most amazing thing happened. Hamburger James got a funny look on his face and wilted like a baby. He cried and cried. Like his heart was broken. He said he was sorry he stole, and he would give it all back, and he knew that he had done something that he couldn't ever be forgiven for.

Elvis looked at him for a minute. And then he broke down and started crying too. He just sobbed and sobbed. He went down on his knees in front of Hamburger James and said he was sorry. He kept saying to him, "Why didn't you let me know if you needed money? Why didn't you let me know if you wanted to go back to Memphis? I would have given you money. You didn't have to steal from me." They cried and cried like that for a long time, and Elvis kept telling Hamburger James that he didn't have to leave, that he could keep his job and everything. But Hamburger James wanted to go, so Elvis gave him a few weeks' salary and somebody took him back to the airport. Elvis wanted to be a tough guy, but he couldn't, really. He always seemed to care. He seemed to care about people, and his acts of generosity toward complete strangers were something else. I can remember children in wheelchairs coming backstage before a concert and Elvis being so visibly moved and shaken. We would really wonder if he was going to be able to sing.

What people don't understand is that Elvis was suffering a lot toward the end. Some of the people closest to him had, he felt, let him down and hurt him terribly. He had the trouble between Priscilla and him, the trouble with other girlfriends, a book was written by some of his bodyguards, and some things were said about his drug use and other problems. That hurt him. And drugs. Drugs were everywhere. In the latter part of his life they started taking complete control.

He couldn't think or act straight anymore.

When he'd fall out of bed in the morning, there was a handful of uppers and he'd chase it down with coffee. I'd have to order three breakfasts because he'd get so out of it on those uppers, he'd be rattling and talking, and the food would get cold. About halfway into the meal I'd have to have another one sitting over there ready. He'd get wired like that, and they'd give him Valium or something like that later in the day to take the edge off. Then just before he went onstage, the doctors would give him uppers. Then when he came off the stage, they'd give him something to calm him down, and then they'd give him something else to go to sleep.

Sometimes Elvis would get so out of it that during a meal he would be sitting there and he'd be nodding off, and you'd always have to watch him because he'd get a piece of hamburger meat hung in his throat. On more than one occasion, I had to go in while he was choking in bed and reach down his throat and pull stuff out. Pound on his chest. And it was sad, you know. I mean, this guy's 19 years older than me, and I'm holding him up, and I'd put my arms around him. "You okay, boss? You sure? Drink some water." He was just like a little bitty kid.

His health was practically ruined by his life-style. Elvis had real bad eating habits. Everybody was always trying to get him to lose weight, but they had to be careful about making suggestions, or he'd get mad. So they'd do it sort of indirectly, like making sure he'd be within earshot when they'd say something to somebody else, like, "I had a friend who lost a lot of weight eating yogurt." So maybe later Elvis would start eating yogurt. He'd get those little containers of yogurt with fruit, but it didn't work because he'd eat maybe 20 of them at a time, and he kept on doing whatever else he was doing too. The same thing happened with peaches. He got on a peach craze, and he'd eat peaches all day and all night. I'd find the pits everywhere. Sometimes he'd just throw them on the floor.

He got to be about 250 lbs. It had gotten to where we would have to take giant spools of Saran Wrap, giant ones, and wrap him to hold his stomach in. Which made it almost impossible for him to breathe. In the latter part of his life, he was not really hitting many notes.

He was just mouthing them, going through the motions.

On his last night alive I had just gotten off the phone with my girlfriend, Robyn. Throughout the years she would encourage me to give up drugs, and she said that, when she hung up the phone, she was going to pray that something would happen to turn my life around. Then I went upstairs and sat down on the bed with Elvis. He pulled the reading glasses down over his nose -- he wore the kind that look like they are cut in half -- and he flipped the side of his glasses in his mouth. He really looked kind of cool to me 'cause his sideburns hadn't been dyed yet, and he had gray in them. He was pretty mellowed out. He did seem to be very, very tired, not physically but emotionally spent.

As we sat and talked for a while, he handed me a piece of paper, the outline of the book written by his ex-bodyguards. It talked about his drug use. He asked me two questions. He said, "What's Lisa Marie going to think about this?" and I didn't have much of an answer. I just said, "Well, she's your daughter. I'm sure she'll love you." And then he asked me about the fans. "What're the fans going to think about this?" and without even thinking, I was able to say, "Well, they love you no matter what."

We talked for a little while, and I told him about the conversation with Robyn. How I was going to get off drugs, you know, get my life straightened up, that type of thing. I could tell he wanted his medication, his sleeping pills, pretty soon.

I use the word medication because if you say the word drugs, people think crack and heroin, which he never used. I'd brought up a package of medication, pills that were just to the right of the steps (to the bedroom) in a cabinet. There were packages in there that Elvis called the attack packs because that's what he wanted them to do, "attack" him, knock him out.

We're sitting there and talking, and I'm telling him about Robyn and the advice she'd been giving me over the years. Elvis had met her and he liked her, thought she was a nice kid. "I really think she's giving you good advice, Rick," he told me. "I think she's somebody that really cares."

He talked for a while longer. A tour was starting the next day, and he was not excited about it at all. When I was leaving, Elvis told me, "I don't want to be bothered, I don't want to be disturbed." To anybody that worked with Elvis, you knew that meant one of two things. He may be wanting to spend time with his girlfriend, Ginger. Or he wanted to sleep. But he let me know he didn't want to be disturbed, and with Elvis, that was a firm command.

Many times I have seen Elvis get so out of it that he'd go in the bathroom and be sitting on the head, and he'd fall forward. I have had to go pick him up when that would happen. Many times. And that's my theory on the death of Elvis. See, that shag carpet's thick. Big, thick stuff. That night when he fell forward, being so overweight and out of it, he couldn't lift himself. And he smothered in the rug.

If I'd gone back up there, I may have found him. But I was abusing drugs too . . . I think it'd be safe to say I had enough Demerol going through me right then to sedate Whitehaven (a Memphis suburb). So instead, I went back to my own room and shot up.

I just pretty much went numb from then on out. As for my stepfather, when Elvis died, that was pretty much the end of our relationship. I was quickly asked to leave the mansion-"We don't need you anymore," is what Vernon said. He said he'd give me two weeks' notice.

I had been making about $300 a week but hadn't saved anything. I tried to get a job, worked briefly as a waiter, but nobody seemed to relish looking at my resume. When Elvis died, it was over for me. I had a little car that he had given me, and I went over to a couple of my buddies' house, slept on their floor and thought of ways of ending it.

With the encouragement of Robyn Moye, his long-suffering girlfriend -- and now his wife -- Stanley emerged from his depression in October 1977, after a visit to an interdenominational church in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. "Everything in my life changed," he says. "It was like a tremendous weight was lifted off me." Now a Baptist minister, he spends much of his time talking to youth groups about the dangers of drugs and dreams of one day establishing a youth drug-treatment center in Elvis's name. "Someone once said that the three words that had been heard all over the civilized world were Jesus, Elvis and Coca-Cola," he says. "When you stop and think about using that fame for something good, well, then there's a good ending. I think he would have liked that."

First post for 2007

2007-01-07T02:35:00.000-05:00

Where the hell have you been? Are you going to post blog any time soon? Man, I really miss reading your blog, when are you coming back. These are the questions I'd expect to receive in my e-mail or on the street... if anyone read this thing. No one really seems to care, but I'm back to write to my silent readership.

I've had a bad run with tendinitis in my left wrist, specifically DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis. It often makes typing difficult especially at the end of the day when I've worked and been holding my kid throughout the evening. I've been dealing with it for the past couple of months and gotten a routine together that makes it easier to handle. Hence my entry today in the ol' blog.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus or whatever other holiday is celebrated by different groups this time of year. My little family and I took a road trip out to Arkansas to spend the Christmas week with my wife's family. This was the first time a lot of her side of the family got a chance to meet the Little Man. We had a good time out there, I would've had an even better time if I didn't have to work through my time there, but I've only been at this gig for a few months I don't have the vacation racked up yet. No biggie, I'm just glad I have the flexibility to work remote.

On the drive to Arkansas we made a stop at a heavenly place. From outward appearances just driving buy the place would appear to be just another gas station in the Lexington, KY area. But inside their station shop was something special. The place is called Doughdaddy's, and inside you will find some of the best, freshly baked, bakery caliber doughnuts you will ever taste. Now I'll be honest, I rarely come across a doughnut that I don't like, but I have different levels of appreciation for the variety of doughnuts out there and these are among the best I've tasted. Quite a happy little discovery at was is basically the half way point of our roadtrip... of course we stopped there on the way back.

The Little Man had a great first Christmas. He enjoyed looking at all the decorations, he enjoyed tearing open presents. Watching him experience the holiday was so much fun for the Lady and I. However dealing with all the twisty ties that they use to keep these new toys in their boxes wasn't fun. When did toy companies start restraining their products in their packaging with so many twisty ties??? Was there some sort of agreement made between the twisty tie companies and toy makers to keep twisty ties in business. I guess with the advent of drawstring trash bags, twisty tie manufacturers needed to find a new market for their product and they sure found it with toy makers.

I got some great gifts, but the one gift I didn't appreciate was the vicious case of bronchitis that I picked up during the visit. Lady got it even worse and we are both still dealing with. During this past three day work week, I never set foot in the office instead working from home. Quite a pathetic figure, in pajamas and robe hunched over my laptop typing away.

I have loads more to talk about. Comic book reviews, some video game and movie reviews as well in addition to more stream of conscious stuff like this entry. However its very late, or early depending on your point of view and I'm in great need of sleep.

Mini Weekend Rant

2006-11-19T01:15:00.000-05:00

This Saturday my little family decided to brave Tysons Corner Mall and do a little Christmas shopping. Even though "Black Friday" isn't until after Thanksgiving, the holiday rush is already on. The take no prisoners attitude is already the rule of engagement when entering the mall parking lots. This isn't an entry about our afternoon of shopping. Honestly it wasn't that bad despite the crowds. We bought a few gifts, I got a few ideas for things for the Lady and Little Man, all in all it was a good day.

Before we went to the mall, we stopped by the Starbucks to get a caffeine charge as some pre-game prep. I went in while the wife and kid waited in the car. Ordering the coffee was easy enough, we didn't want anything fancy. Just a couple large coffees...pardon me "venti" coffees...ech I still hate saying venti. So now with coffees in hand I turn to the prep station for cream and sugar. It's busy in the joint so I expect a wait. I hang back not wanting to totally breathe down the neck of the couple getting their coffee together. Since they are a couple they decide to basically dominate the station. I take this in stride... until they start sipping their coffee.

"Ugh great, not tasters," I think to myself.

The husband dumps a little of his coffee out into the trash and adds more cream & a dash of sugar, then proceeds to taste again... confirming my dread. It only gets worse when his wife does the same. They continue to do this dump and add, until they are satisfied. They didn't take as long as most tasters, but by the fact they were both doing this routine holding up the entire dance that keeps Starbucks moving just irritated me. I don't understand how any adult older then 20 doesn't know how they take their own coffee. Seriously, it's not that difficult of a formula. It's easy enough to judge the color of your coffee for creamer and how many packets of the sweetener of choice. I know how both the wife and I take our coffees, can have those coffees done in less then a minute and I'm outta that place. It's far from rocket science. Even with the range of strength that offer variations in taste, one's standard "formula" is usually acceptable despite strength of the brew.

On the weekends these tasters are more prevalent, and it's to be expected. The weekend is when everyone is out and about, so regular coffee drinkers have to deal with these casual java drinkers. Tasters really steam me when encountered early in the morning on a work day. When there is only a small window of time for me to grab coffee and get us all to work on time.

I can only hope some of these tasters read this blog. Make some coffee at home, work out that mix of sugar and cream before going out into the world.

MRR Comic Review - Fantastic Four: The End #1

2006-11-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've done a comic book review, but that doesn't mean the good Doctor hasn't been reading the funny books. One book that I read this week motivated me to dust off my reviewer hat. As a kid Marvel's "What if..." books were often fun for me to read. For those not familiar with the format, the book would often take situations like "What if Conan lived in Modern Times" or What if Captain America hadn't been Frozen after WW2" and presented a one issue story based on this alternative reality. I loved see these glimpses into stories that could have been or might be. And in away that's what Marvel has succeeded in giving us with their line of "The End" limited series. I thoroughly in enjoy Peter David & Dale Keown's Hulk: The End, and now Alan Davis has got me already locked into The End story for Marvel's first family.

The story is set a few decades into the future, where Earth has acheived a Utopian-level of society thanks to the inventions of Reed Richards. Humanity is now a spacefaring race that is finalizing its entry into the galactic community. In this issue we witness the final battle between Dr. Doom and the FF, get a glimpse of the Avengers of this future which includes Johnny Storm as one of the veteran members. We also get up to speed on the tragedies and joys that effected the team, which in this issue is anything but a team. Each member is off involved in their own interests and lives very much seperate from each other. This includes Sue and Reed, who are still married, but are not exactly together.

Alan Davis is a favorite artist and writer of mine. I enjoyed is work on Excalibur and Kilraven, seeing his vision of the future Marvel universe is a treat. Having a writer who has understanding of pacing and the ability to give us just enough information so that we are comfortable and up to speed in this new setting is refreshing. Though there are many talented writers in the biz. Not all of them have perfected the art of giving just enough detail, they often err on one side or the other.

This is an excellent read for any fan of Marvel superheroes and specifically the Fantastic Four. Great story so far and superb artwork from one of the best in the field.

Technorati Tags:
Marvel Comics, Alan Davis, Fantastic Four, comic books, comics, superheros, The Avengers, Human Torch, The Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman

Palladium Books still hanging on... still needing help

2006-10-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

Awhile back, I'm not digging into the archives to figure out when, I wrote an entry on how Palladium Books, my favorite role-playing game publisher was having major financial woes. The company is doing much better according to the forum entries by Kevin Siembieda, the founder & President of Palladium. But they are far from out of the woods. According to Kevin they've received a great amount of support in the form of purchases and donations from fans worldwide, however they are running into the problem on not have the cash to print enough books both new and reprints of core titles to supply the book traders. Basically they don't have the money to make money yet.

So I'm throwing this out there to any current or past fan of Palladium great games, from the old Robotech and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game or the current epic scaled Rifts or Palladium Fantasy games. Show some support either morally or financially to the company. This one of the few major, none corporate game companies left out there. It'd be a shame to see this company die or be sold to a corporation as has happened to many great game companies and their licenses through the years.

http://www.palladiumbooks.com/

Technorati Tags:
Palladium Books, role-playing games, rpg, Palladium, bankruptcy, Rifts, Robotech, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Mechanoids, donations, Kevin Siembieda

Carvel Ice Cream

2006-10-18T18:32:00.000-05:00

My bro,The Code Monkey Master, had me thinking about local commercials from our childhood with his post from last night. The ones that came to mind as memorable and amusing would have to be the Carvel Ice Cream ads from the 70's and early 80's. Any kid who grew up in the Northeast-Mid Atlantic region knows about Carvel ice cream. I have a couple of the commercials posted below. Highlights include seeing how many different theme cakes Tom Carvel could get out of one mold. Fudgie the Whale's mold could be turned a different way and decorated to look like Santa Claus for instance.. oh great fun. And that Tom Carvel, truly enforcing the idea that a company's best pitchman is always the owner...

Technorati Tags:
Carvel, ice cream, Cookiepuss, Tom Carvel, 80's, 70's, commercials, Fudgie

Fall Festivals... tis the season

2006-10-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

Autumn is by far my favorite season out of the four. The weather is perfect in my opinion, a nice little chill to the air but not too cold. Watching the leaves change as the trees prep for the winter, makes the landscape so colorful and more interesting to the eye. Between my birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving so of my fav holidays happen in the autumn as well.

However, what I look forward to the most during this time of year are the Fall Festivals. Over the weekend, we went up to Thurmont, MD for the annual Colorfest. Basically the whole town is decidated to this arts & crafts fair. There are so many vendors and visitors it's hard to convey just how big this event is with mere words. Now I know arts & crafts fairs aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I dig them. I like seeing other people's creations, I'm big on holiday decorations and I usually find one or two new things to add to our collections, and the big thing I love about these fairs is the FOOD.

Oh man the food is great... from the breakfast sandwiches served in the morning, to the pit beef sandwiches that you can eat in the evening. The Colorfest is the best fair for food, because of its size you can find everything there. My top favorites are the smoked turkey drumsticks which only a few vendors sell, the demand for these increases every year but that doesn't deter me & the Lady for getting ours every time. Of the snack foods, fresh kettle corn is a unique feature of this fair. Specifically the booth that makes kettle corn in a traditional copper kettle, not a new school stainless steel kettle, it makes a difference. Those who don't agree, don't know their kettle corn.

I went kind of light this year on the fair food, sticking to my guns and just having my choice favorites. I passed the deep fried candy bars, funnel cakes, caramel apples, apple dumplings, fresh cut french fries, and pulled pork sandwiches. I declined the fresh lemonade and strawberry smoothies. So many temptations and so little time... can't wait until next year.

Technorati Tags:
autumn, Colorfest, Thurmont, Maryland, Catoctin, funnel cake, food, fairs, arts, crafts, festivals, fall

FDA Is Set To Approve Milk, Meat From Clones

2006-10-17T09:06:00.000-05:00

Alright, clones in the news. The FDA is on its way to approving the use of cloned livestock for food purposes. Meaning everything from our steaks & chops to coffee creamer could come from cloned animals in the near future. Personally I don't get the creeps from this kind of thing. If there is a particular cow that is known to produce a great roast or steak, then lets clone that thing as often as we can so I can have that great steak more often. These animals are a food product, if we can guarantee a greater amount of quality control I'm all in favor of it.

With cloned meat close to getting the seal of approval, makes me wonder how long before we see kill free meat on our store shelfs.

Technorati Tags:
FDA, food, clones, science, health, meat, dairy

Antique Cars and Candy Bars

2006-10-11T00:09:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, the beginning of the 3-day Columbus Day weekend, Lady, her folks and I went up to Hershey, PA for the Antique Auto Club of America's annual Eastern Fall Meet. We left Little man with my folks the night before we left, since we were leaving at the crack of dawn to get to PA at the beginning of the events for the day.

My father-in-law is a Corvair enthuisiast, and an overall fan of classic cars. Tagged onto this event was a huge flea market that the women were initially excited about... however it turned out that my suspicions were correct and the flea market was all centered on car parts, car services, and car collectibles. They were quite disappointed. I however wasn't disappointed at all, I had some quality people watching at this event, lots of funny old guys to make fun of. I also enjoyed looking at the cars and I enjoyed my fair food combo of lemonade and fresh funnel cake.

This event was obviously setup by guys without any female input, the dealers were under no obligation to open their tables at any particular time. There was no obvious system or numbering code to the different dealers so using the program that was given to you to find a particular dealer was excercise in futility. We finally found the numbering system which was composed of little baseball card sized pieces of paper taped to the ground. The papers had some cryptic set of numbers and letters and really didn't give us much clue as to which direction to head. Even some of the vendors didn't know what way to point us in.

After we had enough of wandering through auto parts dealers on this cold PA morning we decided to drive through the town of Hershey and then visit the Chocolate World facility run by Hershey. Of course we raided the Chocolate World store buying a wide variety of chocolates, cakes, and other goodies.

Technorati Tags:
chocolate, Hershey, cars, classics, antiques, in-laws, Pennsylvania

Halloween Costumes for Kids... kids have it made nowadays

2006-10-02T21:58:00.000-05:00

It's Little Man's first Halloween, not that he cares, so Lady and I have been looking at costumes for him online and in stores. The level of quality and materials in these costumes just amazed me. I especially mean some of the ones I saw at Target. Retailers have really upped the ante in regards to store bought children's costumes. I remember as I was a little kid in the late 70's when Halloween rolled around, you went to Toys R' Us and there were stacks of boxes costumes mainly consisting of a plastic or nylon shirt & pants with a plastic mask that strapped on your head with a white rubber string. The string was held on to the mask with two staples, one on each side of the mask. The costume sometimes looked like the character you were supposed to be dressed as... or sometimes it had a picture of the person you were supposed to be. The Casper the Friendly Ghost costume my brother wore for example had Casper's image and logo across the chest of his little costume.

Nowadays the Spider-Man and superman store bought costumes are made with cloth fabric that are actually padded to make a kid look like he has muscles. And the prices for these costumes aren't bad at all. Little Man has a monkey costume that we bought him and Lady might buy another for photographs.

Having a kid definitely makes these holidays fun again. Halloween has always been a day I've enjoyed. We have a good amount of children in the neighborhood, so we like to decorate for them and pass out decent candy. This year will be even more fun now that we have our little guy.

Technorati Tags:
Halloween, costumes, children, Casper, masks, Target

Mac Rumors and Other Tidbits

2006-09-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Word from macosrumors.com is that we'll be seeing newly updated Macbook Pro notebook systems on Sept. 25th, this upcoming Monday. Very sweet deal! I was hoping to Core 2 Duo MacBooks's would be coming along soon. I've been hoping to buy one to help me with my job and my projects outside of work. The idea of being able to run Windows and OS X on one machine has me drooling. There wasn't anyway I was buying a new system until the processors were updated. I knew the Core 2 wasn't too far off, so I was patient.

Other news that's related to me wanting to run both environments on one machine, both BootCamp and Parallels are preping to be updated. Parallels plans to offer CD and DVD burning capability, new security features, and 3d graphics support for OpenGL and Direct X.

Very sweet

Technorati Tags: MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo, Apple, Parallels, Boot Camp

Sunday Morning at Dunkin' Donuts

2006-09-17T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ah well this was a pretty good weekend. We got a lot done around the house and still managed to fit in some fun and family time in the mix. Sunday we woke up still pretty worn out from our marathon of house cleaning all day Saturday. So we decided to go out for a little breakfast. We decided on the Dunkin' Donuts up in Olney, MD for a quick breakfast samich and coffee.

I've been digging Dunkin Donuts lately, the company has really stepped up in refreshing their brand over the past 5 years or so. The attention given to remodelling the stores is noticeable, the coffee has improved greatly, and the offerings outside of their doughnuts has also improved. The Lady and I walk in to the joint with Little Man in tow. Not much of a line, and three cashiers on duty, this place really looked to be on the ball.

The set-up was standard, there was counter with the three cash registers, and one of those expandable line dividers to seperate the line of folks waiting from those folks making their orders. Pretty standard, same set-up found in banks, bookstores and fast food joints throughout the nation. However it must be a tough concept for doughnut eating Olney residents. We line up at the what is clearly the beginning of the queue... behind the little divider. More folks enter the restuarant, instead of lining up behind us, the get right up behind one of the people ordering as the cash register, basically cutting in front of us and showing total disregard for the suggested queue area. Lady informs them where the line is squashing any notion that they are ordering ahead of us.

After we sit down to eat, we notice that folks continue to ignore the queue area instead deciding as a group that lining up right up behind people at the counter is a better idea despite the fact that it boxes the poor people in who are trying to get away from the counter with hot coffee and breakfast, the crowd also starts to block the only doorway making entering and exiting considerablly difficult. PLUS since they are all deciding to crowd as a blobby, chaotic line group instead of organized in the true queue area, none of them can see the donuts or the menu on the wall above the cashiers. We just watched, dumbfounded by the stupidity of this Sunday morning crowd. Maybe folks are just mentally challenged until they get that morning rush of sugar and caffeine.

Adding to the confusion and inconvenience of moving around this little doughnut shop. A couple of the employees decided that the peak of the Sunday morning brunch crunch was the perfect time to sweep and mop the floors. I'm happy that these employees are into keeping their establishment clean and sanitary, but mopping down the floors during one of the busiest times of the week just seems to be a bit idiotic. It was quite an orchestra of disfunction and disorder. Made for an entertaining breakfast.

Technorati Tags: Olney, Dunkin' Donuts, breakfast, crowd, stupidity

Hands on: iTunes 7

2006-09-15T07:04:00.000-05:00

The new iPod and iTunes store offerings have been well documented in the news and tech blogs, so I won't add to the search engine noise and relist the products. Overall they make sense to announce together, focusing on the music and video entertainment. Hopefully Apple will update their MacBook line quietly like they did their iMac and Mac Mini products.

Being the iPod devotee that I am, I promptly downloaded iTunes 7 following announcements on Tuesday afternoon, along with the iPod software update. I love the new view options and the automatic cover art download feature. I also like the way they've put iPod file management and sync preferences more towards as main screen tabs up front once you've got an iPod docked to your computer instead of buried in a file menu.

The new look of the iTunes GUI is also pretty slick and well done. The most attractive the app has ever been in my opinion.

I'm also very happy about the new gapless play feature that Apple has FINALLY included in iTunes.

I haven't had any problems with the installation of iTunes or the iPod software upgrade. I have read about people with freeze up issues, but that seems to be the case whenever there is an update. I've also heard some original 5G iPod owners, like myself, who are bitter that the search feature isn't possible on our iPods like it is for the new 5G iPod. I'm happy with new game offerings and the alphabetical browsing feature. I think its a little nutz for people think they'll continue to get all the new features. There has to be some incentive for folks to buy the latest iPods.

Apple Annoucements today

2006-09-12T09:52:00.000-05:00

Uncle Steve is rolling out some new merch from Apple today. Most folks are expecting expanded video offerings via the iTunes store with updated iPods to accompany this expansion, just in time for the holiday season. I'm guessing that since the iTunes store is down for an update today, that's not too much of a stretch.

I'm hoping we see the notebooks line updated with the Core Duo 2 processors. A new desktop cpu ystem in-between the mac mini and pro desktops ala the old Cube design would be a fun product addition.

We'll soon see what's in store for us Mac and iPod fanatics.

The Doctor is In

2006-09-11T22:07:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, I'm back. Just back from a week in mostly sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Overall a great vacation, that I was in dire need of. The past year with job layoffs, new jobs, a new baby, and all that goes with those events put quite a few grey hairs on my head.

However after my break, I feel refreshed. I'm happy to in my new job, which continues to be all that I'd hoped for. Our son continues to learn new things, it so much fun for the Lady and I to watch him advance as he grows. He did fantastically in his first airplane trips. He practically slept through the flight home. I'm glad my sister was along with us on both flights there and back, we had a lot of stuff to haul around and the extra pair of hands made it easier. Little man enjoyed his pool and beach time, just relaxing on his towel or along with one of his parents or grandparents. He got to take a dip in the ocean...which didn't go over too well. He much preferred the pool, once he adjusted to how cool the water was.

On this trip The Code Monkey's main squeeze, the Philly Girl came along with us. She seemed pretty cool. It was nice to finally meet this chick and get to know her a bit.

It was sad to see the vacation end. A week really isn't enough. I love this country but our employment laws regarding personal leave for family matters and US companies vacation offerings are deplorable. I just finally started relaxing toward the end of this vacation, I really needed another week to get a good break. At least my new job gets me back up to 3 weeks a year... better then the pitiful 2 weeks I had from my last gig.

C3PO's Star Wars cereal commercial

2006-08-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

Ya know...I never got a chance to taste C3PO's cereal. We lived in Europe at the time, and I don't know if they sold these at the commissary on base. Probably sucked, what would a droid know about making a good cereal.

The Doc's Tuesday Night in Town

2006-08-16T21:37:00.000-05:00

This week I'm not really working. It's kind of a week off, chill down period before I start my new job. Yeah I've got a new gig back in the world of government contracting. Which I'm personally thrilled about. I haven't gone into it in the blog, but basically the past year in my old job was a hellish, hectic ball of stress that I don't care to repeat. The new company is great and , I'm already doing some part-time work with them leading up to my official full-time start.

So with my Tuesday basically open and free, I spent the day with my son and my Mom. After a morning at the dentist getting a couple cavities taken care of, I hung out at my folks place with enjoying Mom and The Kid's company.

That evening I hit the metro and headed downtown to meet the Code Monkey and his crew at the Big Hunt. Now it's common knowledge to readers of this blog, I'm a married, family man whose evening consist of having dinner with the fam after work, catching up on work, and spending time with Lady and The Kid before they drift off to sleep. Heading into the city to meet up with the guys at a bar isn't my usual evening, but hey a curve ball is thrown into my routine everyone in awhile.

While I'd walked past the Big Hunt many times in my days of working in the city of a variety of design assignments, I'd never ventured in. The inside is much of what I expected to be. The decor makes the place look like the bastard cousin of that Rain Forest cafe restaurant chain. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, it gives the place a unique flavor, it's just the best description I can up with. The wings were simply delicious. They didn't stray from the basic buffalo wing formula, which in my opinion is a good thing. I wasn't in the mood to taste yet another reinvention of the hot wing, I got a solid traditional wing experience at this place.

The Code Monkey also introduced me to Strongbow, a hard cider import from England. Excellent stuff, I'm not a huge beer fan so having something like this on the tap moved this bar up several notches for me. Loved it so much, this afternoon I bought a six pack of this stuff at the gourment wine/beer shop down the road from me.

Though hanging out at the Big Hunt with the fellas was a great way to spend an evening, it wasn't the reason I'd come down on the Metro. The goal of this evening was to attend an acoustical Foo Fighters concert at Constitution Hall with Frank Black as the opener. The one drawback of the Constitution Hall location is that it lacks a convenient metro stop close by. So it's always a bit of a hike. Not that I mind a good walk, but when time is of the essence having the subway handy would be nice.

We got there a little late and missed most of Frank Black's set. Of course the guy only played for a half hour if the 8:00pm start time was adhered to. We only heard maybe two or three songs. One of them being a personal fav Pixies tune, Wave of Mutilation. Eh, disappointing to say the least. The Foo Fighters quickly erased any of those feelings.

I attended the Foo Fighters last DC performance at the 9:30 club last year, and that was just a great rock show. The FF didn't disappoint this show either, they surpassed any expectations I came in ther with. The band was expanded for this almost unplugged format. A keyboard/accordian player, precussionist, Pat Smear on guitar and Petra Haden on violin beefed up the usual four man group for this show.

I can't wait for the DVD of this show or some bootlegs to turn up. Because I refuse to accept that I'll never hear these versions of some of my favorite FF songs. There are almost too many stand-outs to list. Petra Haden sang and incredible version of Floaty, from the first album (further hunting found she also performs this song on a jazz album she's done with Bill Frissell). Other songs that stood out, included Walking After You, Razor, My Hero, and Virginia Moon (Dave & Petra duet). Just an incredible show, but also fun. Dave kept it light and fun, talking to the audience often. It's readily apparent that he enjoys playing in his hometown area. Damn it, they better make a Live Acoustic tour album...

After a metro ride that seemed like an eternity I drove home and drifted off to sleep after tending to the dogs. I had a great night with my bro.

Old School Handhelds - Emulated

2006-08-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone who remembers being a kid in the late 70's and to mid 80's (like me for instance) will remember playing some of these handheld electronic games. The guys who run this site have emulated many of the popular handheld games for play on your PC.

Pretty cool, I'd been meaning to post this for awhile.

http://www.handheld.remakes.org/gamesindex.php

The Black Guide to Georgetown

2006-08-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

A classic from Thursday's DC City Paper, inspired by 2nd District Commander Solberg's advice to residents to report black people out in Georgetown at night as supicious since it is "unusual" to see black folks in Georgetown.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/2006/cover0804.html

Mel

2006-08-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

Mel, Mel, Mel. The media is all a buzz about him. DUI, trying to evade arrest, anti-semetic remarks made by Mr. Gibson, special treatment by police, etc. The list goes on and on.

But I'm not blogging about that. This ain't CNN.

I was just astounded by this dude's booking photo. No wonder he's been such a success in Hollywood. It's impossible for this guy to take a bad photograph. Booking photos for celebs are usually a horror show. Not for Mel. He's looking up at the camera with a slight grin. Take away the LA County Sheriff's Dept. photo credit and you'd think this was a still from a new movie.

4 Month check up... and more shots

2006-07-26T15:17:00.001-05:00

I had to take the Kid in to the doc today for his 4th month check up. We had a good morning together for the most part. Lady left early for work and would meet up with us later at the office. The two of us took a little snoozer before getting ready to go. He was a little cranky because he didn't get to finish watching his TV show...the Kid loves his television despite our efforts, so I gave into it a bit this morning. Hey I had it on PBS, he was watching educational TV...don't judge me.

Once we got to the office for our appointment, he was back to form in a great mood. After he had a quick second breakfast he was in an even better mood basically showing off and flirting with the nurses and his doctor. He was having a great morning! His weight and height were right on track, everything else going as it should.

And if the appointment ended there, he would've have gone on having a great day. Alas, that wasn't to be. No on the 4th month visit there are immunization shots to contend with. 3 of them!

After the third shot he was bawling and Lady was on the verge of tears. It was a heartbreaker. I feel bad, because there is no way to warn the kid. He doesn't understand when you tell him to get ready for a shot or to prepare for a little pain. It catches him totally off guard and is some of the worst pain he's felt in his short life. One moment he's laughing and smiling sitting in the safety of his Mom's lap and the next thing he knows a stranger is jabbing him with needles while we sit there and watch. Just a horrible scenario. But we all got through it... only to have to repeat this again in 2 months...

SDCC Coverage Online

2006-07-20T20:24:00.000-05:00

Just because ya can't make it to the San Diego Comic-Con doesn't mean you have to be completely in the dark about it. The show is big enough that it gets plenty of coverage online. Here are the places I'm going for SDCC updates:

Comics Continuum
Newsarama
G4TV
Publisher's Weekly: The Beat
Rebelscum.com

I'm already bummed that I'm not there. Cool news that I've read so far; Frank Cho is going to be the first artist on a new Avengers series for Marvel Comics. Cho is an artist/writer who I'm always happy to see succeed. He's a local guy who grew up in Maryland and went to U of MD, College Park just a year or so before I went there. Very talented artist and funny guy, known by most for his Liberty Meadows daily comic strip. I met the guy once in Orlando, FL pretty cool dude.

San Diego Comic Con 2006 - Officially Opens

2006-07-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

Today marks the first day of the San Diego Comic-Con. This convention is the convention of the year. It's become an important place for Hollywood to introduce fans to upcoming sci-fi, horror and comic related flicks and its benefits from some of the best comic industry and retailer participation out of any of the conventions in the USA.

Now I'd love to tell you that I'm typing this from food court outside the convention floor... but alas, no. I'm typing this from my office in Gaithersburg, MD like I always do. My plan is to go to the convention next year. Not just as a fanboy, but also as a creator. After a year or so of writing I've finally come up with a script I'm happy with and I've started drawing. My whole plan is to have a serialized strip hosted online. I've taken the time to break my script up so that it will work for that format.

"Holy crap, a whole year to write this thing?" is probably what your thinking. All can say is, I've got a demanding day job and a family. Cut me some slack. Plus writing isn't something that comes that easily for me, at least for writing fiction. I've gotten better though, at least in my opinion.

Either way I'm looking forward to and planning on going out to San Diego next year. Both for the convention and to see friends I haven't had a chance to see in a really long time. Hopefully if we plan it right I can bring the whole family along with me. Though they won't want to go the show, I'm sure they could find other things to do.

Thank God for Local News

2006-07-19T13:55:00.000-05:00

Whew, I dodged a bullet this week man. Evidentally we have a bit of a heat wave going on here in the DC Metro area. Thankfully I was watching my morning news and kept an ear to my radio throughout the day so they could remind me that it was so friggin hot outside. Other useful tips to drink cold water and to stay out of the heat if I didn't need to be in it, were valuable beyond words. I would've been lost without such insightful and timely tidbits. I mean I could been wandering around out there in the heat without any clue as to how to deal with it, wondering why I was so uncomfortable and thirsty.

To those who say that the news networks have gotten away from providing an information service for the public in their pursuit of ratings, really should've watched and listened to the local news outlets this week. Anchors and weather men alike consistently reminded me it was hot outside and helped me deal with that. There were really on top of their game. And even though they probably don't read this blog, I want to extend a big thank you, THANK YOU. Maybe a reader will pass it on.

I'm going to get another glass of water, that's what WTOP suggests at least.

Slingbox beta software for Mac OS X

2006-07-15T00:49:00.000-05:00

Ah very cool news this week. Slingmedia has released a limited private beta of Slingbox software for the Mac. I've loved the idea of the Slingbox since I'd first heard of it. Being able to watch your TV and whatever DVR, VHS or DVD player hooked up to from anywhere in the world via the Internet just sounds cool to me. Even being able to access my TIVO box on the 1st floor from the 3rd floor of my house or during lunch while at work sounds like a great concept. But not having a Mac compatible interface was the big stumbling block for me. Once this Mac software is out of beta, I'll seriously consider making this purchase.

If you aren't familiar with the Slingbox, check it out. Their website can do a better job describing what it does than I can.

http://www.slingmedia.com/us/slingbox/

Referee Smackdown

2006-07-13T13:24:00.000-05:00

This is a hilarious video. Finally a ref that has some real control of the match. (Warning, the music is a little loud in this video)

read more | digg story

Cruel Summer

2006-07-11T16:49:00.000-05:00

Damn I hate summer. Specifically I hate summer here in the DC area. But in general I'm not a fan of the season. Such a nasty, hot, uncomfortable time of year. I especially hate this year, because I'm in a job that requires a tie, slacks and a long sleeve shirt. After five years of being able to wear a t-shirt and shorts while working from home with my A/C blasting away it's a tough adjustment. Frig'n dress code.

The big problem is that I sweat. I've always been this way, no matter what my weight is or how in shape I am. I sweat. My morning shower is basically ruined by the time I walk to my car and wait for the A/C to kick in half way to work. It sucks. I walk into the office half the time looking like I ran the entire way with sweat around my collar and down my back. Just a horrible scene, not cool at all.

To make matters worse, this company with the dress code has got me in a office with horrible air circulation. It's like a sauna in here. I sit here making my own gravy all day like a roast slow cooking in a crockpot. It's gross.

I can't wait until the fall. Where I have more control of my comfort level and I can function at a peak level again. The NFL is starting up training camps...first sign that fall is getting closer and closer.

Falling debris from Boston tunnel kills woman

2006-07-11T15:52:00.001-05:00

I used to go up to Boston a few times a year with my old job. During those trips I had to take these tunnels to and from Logan Airport. I was never comfortable under there in the Big Dig, and I'm not one that gets weirded out by tunnels or bridges. I'm not surprised this happened, the Big Dig project was totally mismanaged. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear of other disasters resulting from this mess of a project.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12370512/

Superman Returns - MRR Movie Minute

2006-07-11T10:25:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to see Superman Returns. Again the three of us went during the "Reel Moms" early showing for parents with infants. I had high hopes going in to see the film. The Superman movies, specifically the first two movies, are up there as some of my long time favorites from childhood on through to adulthood. After my painful disappointment resulting from the new Star Wars movies, another movie franchise I loved as a kid, I was very wary about getting excited about a new Superman movie. The more I read about what they were doing with this film the more I liked sounds of it. Bryan Singer is a good director choice. He did a decent job of bringing the X-Men to the big screen and The Usual Suspects is a film I'll watch anytime I come across it.

I enjoyed the film a great deal. In many ways it felt like a continuation of the Christopher Reeve Superman films, which is what Singer wanted to accomplish. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was great, his latest criminal scheme falls right in place with the characters past crimes in the previous movies. There were a couple things about the story I'm not completely on board with, but for the most part I dug the film.

Some of the great touches included, the CG Marlon Brando at the beginning of the film when Luthor starts the crystal control panel in the Fortress of Solitude. That really brought this movie into the fold of the original franchise. Including Jack Larson, the actor who played Jimmy Olsen in the old Superman TV show from the 50's, as a bartender where Clark and Jimmy hang out was a cool cameo. I'm sure it's no big surprise I watched reruns of that show religiously after school everday as a little kid.

I don't want to get into the story too much, because it hasn't been out long and I don't want to give out any spoilers. Suffice to say, I thought the movie was great overall. A great revival and continuation of the franchise that was started in 1978 with Richard Donner's film.

And if you disagree, feel free to share your opinion and I'll tell you why your wrong.

Day 2 of Lady being Sick

2006-07-07T22:39:00.000-05:00

It's never fun when your spouse is sick. That's a given. I'm just finishing the second day of my wife being sick. She's got a terrible bout of food poisoning, it's just awful. She's really going through a lot of discomfort, and I feel really bad that I can't do anything for her besides keep her on a regular schedule with Tylenol to keep her fever down, provide the beverages, and do the occasional backrubs. Unfortunately it's just one of those deals that has to run it's course. Yesterday was really scary when her fever went up to about 104. I would've taken her to the hospital if she'd been able to go. Fortunately we were able to break that fever and get it down to a less scary level. The Doc prescribed an antibiotic that I picked up yesterday after waiting for a frick'n hour in CVS. I swear I get the most solid Nintendo DS playing time waiting for prescriptions to be filled. No lie, I once played a whole game of Madden '05 waiting for a prescription...crazy.

Lady has been keeping her activity level low, and eating what I fix for her. Dinners for her has consisted of soups and Saltines. Nothing too exciting. Figuring out my meals has been the true adventure. Yesterday I ate leftovers, an easy go to. Today however was another matter. After a long day at work my culinary imagination wasn't too sharp. I was just staring at that fridge stymied. All I could come up with was bacon and eggs. I would've just had a big bowl of cereal if we had any milk. Whenever I'm at a loss on what to eat, breakfast foods appear to be my comfort zone of reliability. Dinner wasn't exactly magical, but it was hot and tasted alright. Thank God, we had eggs.

Well it's Friday night... being the wild and crazy guy I am. I'll probably draw or play a game on the computer... woo hoo, somebody stop me.

Long Weekend

2006-07-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

Ah man, today was my first day back to work after a four-day weekend. Since we had the 4th off I decided to take the 3rd as a vacay day. I'm glad I did, even though we didn't end up taking a trip anywhere I needed to spend the quality time with the family. The three of us hadn't had much time together other than the two days we get on the weekend. Having over half a week together was good for all of us. During that time we ventured up to the King of Prussia mall in the Philly 'burbs, it's the biggest mall on the Eastern seaboard and definitely worth the trip. Little man was bothered by the heat, so we didn't get to explore as much as we'd like. But we saw enough to warrant another trip up there soon.

Over the weekend we actually got a movie in as well. On Saturday mornings the theatre does a "baby friendly" showing of a recent release. This weekend it happened to be "Click" with Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken. Not a bad flick, it seemed a little conflicted in what kind of movie it wanted to be, not my favorite Sandler movie by far, but not bad. Some of the subject matter in the movie of wrestling with a career and still finding time with the family, being creatively stifled at work, along with some of the other topics kind of hit a little close to home. I'll be damned if that movie didn't make me mist up a few times, some of those scenes were brutally sad, not to mention I've been an easy emotional target lately. It's very uncharacteristic for me to waste any emotion on a movie. Ah well, so I teared up big deal. Wanna make something of it? Huh, well do ya? Yeah...didn't think so...

The boy has been growing leaps and bounds, every week he gets more fun. His smile just cracks me up. I actually look forward to waking him up in the mornings, because he always flashes that toothless grin when he wakes up and sees me there. He's getting better at copying faces that I make with him and he's getting more into being read to and song to.

Word has it the in-laws are coming in a few weeks. Suffice to say the house isn't ready for houseguests...so I can easily see what the weekends hold for me this month. I'm glad I got to enjoy the holiday a bit over the long weekend, that'll make it a little easier while I'm working away these upcoming weekends.

Spider-Man 3 Trailer Out Today

2006-06-27T15:30:00.000-05:00

Oh man oh man...already watched it 3 times. This movie looks like a fanboy's dream. Just a teaser trailer... but it shows plenty to look forward to.

A Happy First Father's Day

2006-06-20T00:18:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty good first Father's Day weekend. Saturday I had an good morning with the boy while Lady was out. Then the three of us just hung out for the day watching movies. On Sunday, we all woke up early...around 6AM. After the first bottle of formula for the day, the 3 of us went up 270 to the Waffle House near Urbana. I'd initially planned to make waffles with my new waffle iron, but since we were awake we decided to having breakfast out. It was a good move since we didn't have to deal with any of the morning holiday breakfast crowds.

In addition to a new waffle iron, I received a custom made gnome for my garden. I happen to dig gnomes. I'm a little choosy on the sculpt quality and paint jobs. This gnome exceeds all my qualifications, really excellent work and materials. I like him too much to even put him the yard. I definitely wouldn't risk him being in my front yard.

What's the deal with me and gnomes? I really loved the Gnomes book by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet when I was a kid. I checked that book out of the library so often they should've just given it to me. Always found them to be neat little knick knacks.

After spending the morning with my little family, I met up with my Dad to go the Yankees/Nationals game at RFK along with my bro, who happened to be supplying the tickets as a Father's Day treat for us. It wasn't the most action-packed game, but it was great weather, we had excellent seats, and the Nats beat the Yankees. Defeating the Yankees was especially sweet since about half of the attendees seemed to be New Yorkers and Yankees fans. To witness the wind being taken out of their sails in the bottom of 9th when Ryan Zimmerman hit a homer over the wall with a man on base to steal the victory from NY. Awesome ending for a fun day, couldn't have been scripted better.

The rest of the evening was spent with all of us having dinner at the folks place. A great day with family, which is exactly how I wanted my Father's Day to be. The only thing I'd change is I would've put on some sunscreen before going to the game. I got a little too much sun sitting out there. After attending plenty of summer concert festivals there when I was younger, I should've known better.

Howard is the Latest Maryland County to Ban Smoking in Bars and Restaurants

2006-06-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

The pasttime of squashing the rights of Maryland smokers and business owners continues as Howard County government sets into motion a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. I'm not a smoker, never have been nor do I intend to be. I don't even particularly like the smell of cigarettes, but I hate the idea of government dictating to owners of private businesses that they can't allow smoking in their restaurants or bars. Such descisions should be left to the individual business owner and subsequently the public can decide where they want to eat.

This anti-smoking crusade is based on tissue paper thin evidence of health risks caused by secondhand smoke. The rights of business owners and smokers are being trampled under this rolling crusade. These sorts of bans and regulations aren't what this country is supposed to be about, just angers me.

What the hell is wrong with people?

2006-06-06T11:11:00.000-05:00

Okay short story, my little familia and I went out for dinner at the Golden Bull restaurant in our town. It's just a restaurant with a solid salad bar, we had a coupon in our Entertainment Book which made it a good lazy Monday dinner option. After putting in our order for crabcakes and steaks, Lady decides to hit the salad bar while I take my shift watching the Boy as he sleeps in his little carrier.

Lady comes back with a salad, skillfully arranged on her plate to offer her a good variety without mixing incompatible flavors. Upon sitting down she leaned in and told me not to use the apple butter. Automatically I asked, why did someone put their finger in it? Evidently a guy took the spoon and daintly took a taste from the bowl of apple butter then proceeded to put the spoon back into the bowl. UGH!

He followed up this act with the statement: "I didn't want to do that, but I didn't want any if I didn't know what it was"...Like that is an excuse.

I was aghast and pretty pissed, because I happen to dig the apple butter. But I was angry on another level because it was another example a person just not knowing how to act in society. Whatta jerk. I had plenty more to say about him last night while in the restaurant, so I've kind of run out of steam since it's the next day.

The rest of the meal was alright, decent prime rib that I didn't have to cook.

Browsing the headlines...

2006-06-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

Senate to Tackle Gay Marriage Ban By LAURIE KELLMAN, AP

Saw this in the post today, such a waste of time. There is no reason this should even brought up for discussion. Very transparent pandering to the religious right. I'm pretty consistently against these sweeping Federal mandates on issues that should be decided state to state. Personally I could careless one way or another on the actual issue it doesn't effect me in the slightest. On another level with the Defense of Marriage Act already in place this exercise seems very redundant as Sen. Joe Biden has pointed out. After reading through the act I agree with him, that Act covers everything this amendment is supposed to accomplish. With so many other issues that require discussion, going over covered ground is something I find irksome. A constitutional amendment of exclusion just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Moreno Keeps D.C. On a Winning Roll
United 1, Revolution 0 By Dan Steinberg

DC United is the best team in the Washington Area. These guys sound incredible. If only I could muster up some interest in soccer. Hmm yeah, that ain't happening. The Wizards and Redskins have been more respectable at least.

Mac Civ 4 shipping soon, trailer released
by Alan Rose, Joystiq

Cool, I've got it on the PC already but I'm glad they are continuing to port this series to the Mac. Civ 4 is a lot of fun. If you've played any of the other Civilization games, you know the basic premise.

2006-06-02T15:50:00.000-05:00

Ghost Rider Trailer

I'm a big fan of Ghost Rider, both the 70's version and the 90's version. This movie version looks like a blend of the two. This is one where I don't even care if the story sucks, watching Ghost Rider on the big screen should be cool.

Ah memories of useless plastic

2006-05-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

In the 80's the G.I. Joe line of toys was 2nd to none. Hasbro did an awesome job with this series. Out of the air vehicles created for the line, the Cobra Rattler was my favorite until the Cobra Raven was brought onto the scene. Check out the commericial, you can't deny it, that thing kicked ass.

End of Another Fine Season of Television -- Thank God

2006-05-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

As we enter the summer time, we are seeing the wind down of the television season as we're treated to intense season finale commercials, cliffhanger endings, tear jerking series ending episodes, and at reality show winners being decided..basically more of the same crap that we sit through every year.

I'm not into any primetime network show enough to care that much. The television is on while I'm doing things around the house in the evening, so I'm not out of the loop on what happened on ER last night or how they tied up the Will & Grace series. I even had the television on long enough to know the guests that ass Leno had for his line-up on the Tonight Show. I'm well over any disappointment about television offerings, I've found my entertainment deeper in the cable channels or on other media.

I do have one hope at the end of this season. One wish... That with the end of new programming, with exception of a some more reality television I'm sure. I wish, I pray, I hope that NBC stops running those damn "talk radio" commericials where a 3 or 4 jabbering morons are yukking it up about what's on NBC tonight, in a scripted "casual and witty" kind of fashion. I've hated those commericials since they started last fall and I despise them now. I don't even listen to the radio that often, but I still end up catching these radio spots when I do. Jeez the first time I heard them I wanted to tear my ears off and throw them out the window, preferably at the ad genius who came up with this concept.

Historical Sounds in MP3 Format (Excellent)

2006-05-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

I found this via Digg. I love these kinds of sites. I'm glad someone has taken the interest to bring these digitized copies of historical figures speaking and other sounds out for us all to listen too.

Great historical speaks and sounds in MP3 Format (include Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein,Robert Frost, etc)

read more | digg story

Tech News Round-Up

2006-05-16T15:08:00.000-05:00

New Apple MacBooks

Over the few days there've been a few new tech items that have had me excited. First on that list is easily the new Apple Macbook and the processor speed upgrades for the Apple Macbook Pros. The new Macbook sports a 13.3 inch widescreen, with configurations that all but eliminate the G4 based 12 inch Powerbook and iBooks from Apple's line up thus completing the Intel conversion of Apple's notebook offerings. The new Macbooks are immediately avialable via the Apple store with delivery times of only a few days...not to shabby for a new system offering.

I'll probably get one of these Macbooks one day. For my pro-machine I prefer spending my money on a solid tower system that I can upgrade and keep around for awhile to make the most of my investment. These Macbooks look like a good deal for a consumer level Mac and should make it affordable for me to have a portable Mac. I can't wait to see what the new Mac Pro desktop systems are going to look like. I like the improvements they've made on their systems so far with this migration to the Intel architecture. Hopefully the pro desktops won't disappoint.

Wii Takes the Show at E3

It seems unanimous after reading the wrap-ups and reports from the E3 Electronic Entertainment show, that Nintendo with it's upcoming Wii console and popular DS handheld gaming system have impressed everyone with their presentation and gaming offerings. Hell, even the VP's of Sony and Microsoft are both talking up the Wii as a 2nd system to buy along with their consoles. I've never been that much of a Nintendo fan, owning a DS for the past year and a half has definitely changed my mind on that. From what I've heard about the Wii I'm intrigued, it might be the first Nintendo console I buy.

Sony's Playstation 3 has me unimpressed for the most part. Forcing users to swallow a 500 to 600 dollar price tag, to buy a Blu-ray disc player wrapped into a game console is kind of a shakey proposition. The HD DVD wars aren't even over yet, there's no guarantee that Blu-Ray is going to be the format of choice. With Sony's past history in format wars, they aren't a horse I'm willing to bet on (anyone remember Betamax?).

Blu-ray drive aside, what is the PS3 really offering? Higher definition football, boxing and shooting games? These are the same games we've been playing for awhile now. Despite the tech advances on the guts of the box, there aren't any innovative games being touted from the Sony camp. Sure they'll have the umpteenth GTA game, but esstentially it's the same game we've played since GTA3. That's where Nintendo is grabbing people's attention both with the DS and with the Wii. They are the one company trying to grab new gamers, attempting to attract untapped markets, and trying to give us something truely new, while at the same time improving on our old favorites. Maybe Sony has something up its sleeve for their titles, whatever it is they're keeping it a secret so far.

Baby Gushing

2006-05-12T00:09:00.000-05:00

Man alive, I can't believe the kid has been with us for over a month now. Slowly but surely he's growing, he's passed the 7lb mark and he's already grown a half an inch taller. I'm digging being a Dad and I can tell the Lady is loving being our guy's mom. He's really becoming more aware of his surroundings, which of course makes him more fun. Last weekend we had our first voluntary smile when we was hanging out on the couch between his mom and me. As we were singing to him, he looked back and forth at both us and smiled. That moment made my weekend. We were singing old Motown tunes, the Supremes I think. I know the words to those songs like the back of my hand so they are fun to sing to him.

Our dogs have been adjusting to having the little one in the house pretty well. Jasper has really been great, he watches over the kid if we leave him in his cradle or seat. Bailey doesn't mind the new addtion, but she doesn't like having to share "her" time with anyone else. I think after a month or so now she's getting into the new routine.

I wish I'd had longer than a week to spend at home. I try to get as much time with him on the weekends and when I get home from work. Holding him lets some of the stresses of work melt away, even if he's being fussy and crying, which isn't too often really.

Help Save Palladium Books!

2006-05-09T17:23:00.000-05:00

Palladium has long been a publisher of a very rich roleplaying universe. While many gamers might have dismissed their combat system or some of their rules, no one could deny that this was a company that excelled in presenting imaginative "playgrounds" for paper and pencil role playing gamers.

For a variety of reasons Palladium is having extreme money woes, from a variety of ventures that didn't pan out and apparent legal conflicts.

If you ever played their games or enjoyed any of their products, throw a few sheckles their way...

http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=57048

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY - This Saturday: May 6th, 2006

2006-05-04T15:03:00.000-05:00

If you even have a fleeting interest in comic books, once was a reader, would like to be a regular comic reader again, or you want to introduce your kids to comics. This is the perfect weekend to do so. Comic shops and publishers across the country are participating in Free Comic Book Day this Saturday. Many shops are having other special events to correspond with the day.

Check out the link in the title to see what comics are being offered for free and to use the comic shop locator to find a participating shop near you.

For superhero action this is a great time for new readers to jump on whether you are interested in DC or Marvel comics. I'll give my review of the first issue of Marvel's Civil War limited series very soon.

Headline Scan and Uninformed Commentary

2006-05-03T00:47:00.000-05:00

Is this Magic?
David Blaine is doing another one of his stunts or illusions or whatever in NYC. This time the guy is going to spend 7 days in an aquarium. Here is an article from the BBC. I'm tired of this dude, how many times are we going to have to hear about him spending a certain amount of time somewhere without food or water. Its the same stunt over and over again, except this time it's underwater or in ice or behind glass. Who gives. As you can tell my tone, I don't care. I just don't find this impressive... let's really see something new from this guy, instead of a rehash of the same stunt.

Still 99 Cents Baby!
Apple has secured agreements with four of the major music labels keeping the 99 cent price per song on the ol' iTunes Music store. Good news to hear. Man I was dreading the idea of the rumoured more complex pricing schemes. 99 cents I can deal with. Though honestly... it's been awhile since I've bought any new music.

Day Without Immigrants
Editorials a plenty regarding the rallies yesterday in various cities acrossed the country. The day should've been called Day Without Illegal Aliens. I just find the rallies audacious. I don't discount the contribution of immigrants to this country, anyone with half a brain realizes that's what makes this nation strong. These rallies aren't about immigrant rights, legal immigrants to this country are guaranteed the rights of any other citizen. Illegal aliens, non-residents, criminals who have gone around the law to live and work in this country aren't owed anything, and to demand extended rights and legitamcy is just ridiculous to me. Wow yeah, pretty tough calling these hard working people criminals, doesn't make it less true. That's what a person who breaks the law is, regardless of the reasoning or motivation behind breaking the law. Just because a person made it through and has successfully lived and worked here illegally for many years, they shouldn't be rewarded for dodging the law with citizenship or legal work status. I that is counter productive to securing our borders. These amnesty programs just give more motivation to cross our borders illegally. A fundamental requirement for any nation is securing of its borders. Having some control over who crosses in and out of the country. Unknown people with unknown agendas, no matter how benign they may be, crossing our borders uninhibited is just intolerable.

This isn't an issue of race as many leaders and supporters of the "immigrant" movement would have you think to distract you from the real issues at hand. If we had a influx of illegal Scandanavians coming in through via Canada and then making demands I'd have the same feelings. Anyway... too much time spent on that topic.

Its late, almost time for a late night feeding with the little one.

Planet Hulk - Brief Review

2006-04-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

With all that's been going on in my life lately I have actually been able to find some time to read comics. One comic that I've really come to look forward to getting in the mail is the Incredible Hulk. Anyone who knows my reading habits knows that the Hulk is one of my favorite characters in comic books. When his title is fortunate enough to have a talented writer assigned to it the characters Bruce Banner and The Hulk really get a chance to shine. My love for the title and character really started after issue 300 when a savage, out of control Hulk is banished from Earth by Doctor Strange to the Crossroads dimension after an all out battle with a who's who of the early 80's Marvel superhero. From this dimension the Hulk and a small band of other dimensional partners explore different dimensions until the Hulk eventually finds his way back home to Earth. These stories were a great change and the different settings really gave a fresheness to the book.

The current "Planet Hulk" storyline that has just really gotten underway this spring reminds me a great deal of "The Crossroads" storyline except with much more of a science fiction bent. The storytelling and artwork are consistently solid. The pace set by the writer offers a great deal of story progression in each issue. A welcome change in this age where writers more often have a much slower pace that seems more suited for the writing of a larger tradepaper back instead of a monthly book.

In a nutshell, the Hulk has been jettisoned off to another planet after he assisted SHEILD in disarming a killer satellite orbiting Earth. The SHEILD leadership and some of the heavies in the Marvel superhero crowd thought it was best to take advantage of the opportunity of having the Hulk offplanet...and decided to keep that way by double-crossing him and changing the course of the spacecraft he was on. Now Hulk finds himself on a planet ruled by the alien equivalent of the Roman Empire, where he has been sold into slavery to serve as a gladiator for the entertainment of the rulers and paying rabble.

It's the best book Marvel is putting out now. Even if you aren't a Hulk fan, this book is undeniably great. A classic tale in the making. Each story offers a twist as the Hulk makes his way in this new world, carving out a new life for himself. How he operates in the systems set in place on this planet offers some great story potential. The new characters we are introduced to are also strong, with their own continuing developements. I've actually re-read each of the Planet Hulk stories a couple times, they are that good. I haven't re-read a comic book in years.

It's Fiction... Not Fact... It's a story for entertainment

2006-04-29T00:45:00.000-05:00

Holy crap, I am sick to death of hearing about Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code book. I swear you can't get away from some kind of news about this guy or his story. The guy is getting sued for and cleared of plagarism, numerous Christian organizations Catholic and Protestant alike are denouncing the book, and numerous news magazine shows and cable specials are exploring the possiblities raised in the book regarding Mary Magdalene and Jesus' relationship. The books is still selling like hotcakes and a movie is coming out very soon so Da Vinci Code hype is reaching a fevered pitch.

But what annoys me is the way a lot of people are treating Mr. Brown's novel, like it's a textbook. Its fiction wrapped up in theories regarding Christ that have been around for decades, and honestly the story is just okay. I've read the story and found it to be patronizing and simplistic often mediocre. It was okay, not great. Definitely not worth all the energy its generated.

It just amazes me how people are using this novel as their main source of information to become an IFE in Christian history. If you want to know what an IFE is e-mail me, despite my current level of venom I still want to keep the air of this blog from going blue. I also don't find the book worthy of the attention real Christian journalist and historian are giving it. Maybe once the DVD of the movie comes out the hype will finally die down.

I'm not giving a link to the book or movie. Use Google or visit your local used book store.

Google Calendar - Me Like

2006-04-18T11:37:00.000-05:00

Google continues to grow with another service in beta, the Google Calendar. Initially, I wasn't even motivated to check it out, there are a lot of calendar services out there already. But so far Google's is one of the better ones. It offers iCalendar support for Mac users, like me. The interface is great, very smooth for an Internet app. Offering invitations via the calendar saves me from having to jump over to Evite to make online invitations.

All in all it's not bad. Google has been hit or miss with their expanding range of services. The only thing that has me leary of using Google Calendar, is that it stores another batch of information about my life on their servers. Already my blog, some of my e-mail, my search history are being collected by them...now they can track my life events in my calendar... eh. I'm not that paranoid, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Bob Ross Lives --- On YouTube

2006-04-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

If you couldn't tell already, I love YouTube. It's everything Google Video isn't. I also loved watching Bob Ross on PBS. Some folks have posted some of his segments on YouTube.

Slowly getting back into the routine

2006-04-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

Asher at Home
Originally uploaded by lloydpier1.

The kid has been doing great at home. Aside from one or two nights where he wasn't quite ready for bed, he's been a very quiet sleeper.

I'm back at work this week after spending a little over a week at home with him and the Lady. I'm digging the father gig, changing the diapers and late night feedings are fine by me. Fortunately the first couple of days at work haven't been too brutal so I'm not totally drained by work when I get home.

This blog will be getting on track again as well. I have plenty that I'm storing up rants against and comic book reviews a plenty.

Adventures in Fatherhood

2006-04-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days since I'd had a chance to sit, let alone sit in front of the computer. Our son is officially a whole week old and still doing great. Yesterday was his first visit to the pediatrician, everything checked out alright with him. Basically he's in perfect health inspite of his being born weeks ahead of schedule.

The major challenges for the week are, catching up on rest somewhere in the day. After our week in the hospital, recovery rest at home has been much needed but tough to find. Lady is healing nicely, but she is exhausted. Recovering from major surgery and adjusting to the feeding needs of a newborn is a bad combo for resting and taking it easy. Fortunately I'm able to stay at home through this week. One of the other challenges is figuring out what to do with his nursery, we have the basic decorative pieces but are still stymied by what to actually paint the room. It'll all get figured out.

My head is finally adjusted to the fact that I'm a father now. The shock resulting from the suddeness of his arrival into this world and the major concern over the wife going through the c-section has subsided. He's a fantastic kid, very bright and alert for someone who sleeps through over 85% of the day. And just cute...one of the few times you'll see the word cute in this blog, but when describing my newborn son, its fitting. The kid is adorable, you've all the seen the photos, you know it to be true. I haven't had as much time as I would've liked with him. I'm often running around doing one thing or another. I think things have settled down to a point that I should get some more time with him these upcoming days... maybe... somehow I think I just jinxed myself by saying my days are settling down a bit.

BIG NEWS - I'm a Poppa!

2006-03-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

Here is my son, little Asher Lloyd, ladies and gentlemen! Isn't he marvelous? Weighing in at 6lbs 1oz. and 19.5 inches long, he's a good sized bundle for coming on the scene a month early. Asher surprised both the Lady and I with by arriving this Monday, March 27th at 8:37PM. I would've blogged this sooner, but I was unexpectedly busy this week (HA, that's an understatement!). Both mom and child are doing very well. Lady is recovering nicely all things considered, she's ready to leave the hospital that's for sure. Both of them will be released tomorrow morning from the looks of it.

This next month is going to involve a lot of scrambling to catch up with Asher's timeline, since he is well ahead of us evidently. I'll give more details in another entry. I just wanted to get this event on the record this week!

Wooohoooo!

New Bigfoot Video - Ely, Minnesota

2006-03-21T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is video from January of this year taken by Richard Sade. You can find more information at the Cryptomundo website.

Good News for M$: Sony Delays PS3 until November

2006-03-20T23:40:00.000-05:00

If M$ can get their Xbox 360 supply issues together they have plenty of time to reach their market share goals before November, even with Playstation 3 coming out as the new system for the 2006 holiday season, I still see Microsoft's Xbox 360 still being the hot item for the holidays again this year. They'll have a year to bring more "must" have games, and establish more of a foothold with gamers, basically putting Sony in the position M$ was in back when they released the original Xbox in a field dominated over a couple years earlier by the PS2.

The Xbox 360 is really a great looking product. From what little I've played on it in stores everything about the machine is very well thought out and well designed. Somewhere down the road I see that probably being my next game machine. Since I don't have HD televisions or any real high end sound system for my entertainment area. I won't reap the most benefit from the console, I'm not in a big rush to get one. The PS2 and Xbox do fine by me still.

Aside from timing, Sony's current track record with their electronic entertainment devices might work to the benefit of M$. Sony has really fumbled with the PSP. It's a beautiful device and I playing games on mine. But I have a long wish list for the device. Top of that being, I wish there were more must have games or exclusive games. Every month I'm shocked by the waves of great and often exclusive games for my Nintendo DS, which often cost 10-15 dollars less then new PSP games. I'm also completely dumbfounded by the prices for UMD movies.

For some brief background on me, I have a graduate degree in marketing and a good portion of my career has been spent in corporate marketing departments...so I have some grasp on the processes and reasoning behind pricing and judging perceived value of a product by prospective customers. What were they smoking in the Sony boardroom when they came up with the pricing scheme for UMD movies? I was in the Electronic Boutique with my Dad this weekend, we couldn't believe the prices on these UMDs, $19.99 thru $29.99 for a movie will display at a lower quality then a DVD and is playable on only one device. I mean I can't even watch these movies on a TV if I wanted to since the PSP doesn't have video-out. I've just decided to rip movies and tv shows from my own discs and watch them on my iPod if I wish to carry entertainment with me. Basically because its easier to get content on the iPod and the thing has more memory than a 1GB SD card, which is a real shame since the PSP screen is beautiful and I love watching the few used UMD movies I have on it.

I could go on for a long while ranting against Sony. But I won't. I'll just cut this here.

Baby Class

2006-03-15T00:41:00.000-05:00

This Saturday Lady and I went the first part of a two part child care class offered up by Holy Cross hospital. Basically the RN teaching the class gives us all the basics we need to know in regards to caring for our babies.

I must be doing a lot more prep and reading then some of these other Dads, I felt like a lot of this stuff was just a review of what I knew already. I did learn a few new things and a review is always good. But some of the questions asked my a couple of the dads just had me floored. One guy took the cake when he actually needed the word "swaddle" defined for him. He wasn't familiar with the term evidently. How does this dude get through the Christmas season in this country without hearing the word swaddle at least once??

After the class and lunch, the Lady and I went in seperate directions. She went off to a bridal shower for a friend of ours getting married this summer and I hung out with the folks at their place. It'd been awhile since I'd dropped by and I needed to pick up the baby seat for the car.

Its getting closer and closer to the baby's arrival, its quite a mix of feelings... I'm really excited about being a Dad, no doubt. But at the same time those feelings are tempered with concern about just getting our little family through the delivery process. We've got a great doctor and Holy Cross is an excellent facility, I keep that in mind so I try to not worry too much. But there are days when its a little tough to let the facts squelch unreasoning emotion.

It's ALIVE

2006-03-09T15:05:00.000-05:00

General Electric P807A
Originally uploaded by lloydpier1.

I was up last night fiddling around with my old General Electric P807A transistor radio. The thing is over 40 years old, and hasn't worked in ages. But since I'd taken it down to throw out or donate, I decided to crack it open and see if it could be fixed. Sure enough, a half hour later and a fresh battery the thing is pulling down AM signals like a champ! The speaker still sounds great as well.

This used to be "my" radio when I was a kid. Dad gave me the thing when I was just a little guy. I've always been a radio fan and this was my first radio.

It's not the most styling piece of electronics, I mean it is a GE product. But the performance is solid, once again.

Slightly Delayed - Weekend roundup

2006-03-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

Friday I actually finished up work a little before 7pm, which is a nice change of pace. Lately I haven't been leaving until 8 or later on Fridays.

After having a dinner at home watching the Family Guy Stewie movie DVD, it was a relatively quiet evening. The Lady is having some back pains because of the kid, she's almost 8 1/2 months pregnant so she's getting considerably less comfortable.

Saturday was a big buying day for baby. The folks joined us at Great Beginnings in Gaithersburg where we ordered his nursery furniture. Also as a nice bonus we found an excellent stroller for him on sale. More and more baby stuff is making it's way into the house. I've actually started ripping some CD's for him onto my iPod.

I'm coming down with some sort of bug, I basically slept for the rest of Saturday after we came home. Then I powered through Sunday getting a lot of stuff done around the house, but over doing it at the same time resulting in me calling in sick on Monday. Monday involved more sleeping and finally feeling a little better. Well enough to visit the open house of the pediatrician we'll be using for the kid.

Today I still feel like crap warmed over, but at least I made it into the office.

They're keeping me later then I want to be here, yet again tonight.

"Real Life" Simpsons

2006-03-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

I found this via Cnet's news.com blogs this morning. A video of the Simpons opening redone with live actors. Pretty well done.

Are You Normal

2006-03-01T17:23:00.000-05:00

These are my results:

Your Normalcy Quotient is: 53 out of 100.

Your quiz results make you a Wonderful Eccentric

You've earned the title of wonderful eccentric, and while you're not a wild, gun slinging maverick, you certainly like to follow your own way. Of course, you probably don't think of yourself as eccentric. As Einstein might say, "It's all relative."

Take this free personality test by Clicking Here>> or going to www.chatterbean.com/runormal/

So..um...when's the "FUN" start, Steve?

2006-03-01T09:26:00.000-05:00

Wow, am I glad I used my lunch break to drop of dry cleaning and grab a burger instead of watching the live blogging on the Apple Event yesterday. The event was billed as a limited, invitation only announcement on the Apple campus to introduce some fun new products. When I got back to my desk munching on my Five Guys burger & fries (small size on both mind you), I read through what was launched yesterday and I had to stifle a yawn.

The Mac Mini is alright, I'm glad they updated another of their consumer desktop line to the new platform. It's missing a few key things that'll make it a GREAT media center instead of a just an okay one. I haven't had much experience with the Front Row software, so I can't really vouch for how great an interface it is for a media center.

The other two offerings introduced yesterday are barely worth mentioning. The Apple Hi-Fi, isn't anything we haven't seen from other third-party peripheral vendors. Honestly the third-party guys have this solution answered pretty well and with more style then the Apple solution. I don't really see Apple moving too many of these things, but what do I know. Surely Steve Jobs has some incite that I don't... yeah... I'll believe it when I see it. The new iPod leather sleeves just have me stupdified. I'd love to see the research that went into deciding the $99 price point for a rather unsophisticated iPod case. This is another market that has long been satisfied by third-party companies. There are sleeves and cases of all varieties, colors and styles already available out there and most come under the $99 price. Hell, even the Kate Spade designer case retails for just $85.

It just seems very late in the game for Apple to be getting into the iPod perpheral business. The iPod has been around so long now that, third-party companies have established names for themselves in this industry. There just doesn't seem to be any advantage for Apple to start into this market now, their attention would be better spent elsewhere. Their initial offerings don't look that special to me, especially for the price they're asking. Despite the time Jobs says was put into designing both, I don't see it reflected in the final products.

Babies babies

2006-02-28T11:12:00.000-05:00

Early yesterday morning around 2AM my youngest cousin and his wife had their first child, Keziah. From the reports she's a cute and calm little baby girl. With our little guy due in another few weeks, this is just the year for newborns in our family.

The Lady and I did the maternity ward tour of Holy Cross hospital a couple weeks ago. The place is practically brand new so the whole set-up looked really nice and modern. Very impressive operation. We'll be taking some classes soon to prep us for the upcoming event.

We've finally settled on a theme for the nursery. The place is about stripped. I'll just need to move a few furniture pieces out of there. We'll have to wait on a some wall decoration samples before we can choose paint colors. In the meantime we'll take measurements and put the order in for the nursery furniture we've selected.

The house is just about finished in terms of reorganization which is a good feeling. I was up late last night so I puttered around the house and did a few things, that I'd been putting off. My sleep has been really odd lately, either I sleep like a log totally exhausted or I can't sleep at all. I didn't finally doze off until almost 2:45am last night. I'm not really focused enough at that hour to draw too much unfortunately, I got a little writing done last night though which was good. I usually play video games or watch TV. Last night I had the pleasure of enjoying Smokey and the Bandit for the umpteenth time on AMC... an American movie classic indeed.

Its Not a Clubhouse

2006-02-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know me or may not know me too well, I'm not a mean or unkind person. However, I'm not that sociable naturally, I do make an effort when at work to keep up a certain level of chit-chat when I'm not busy. I say "hi" or "Good morning, how was you weekend" to c0-workers in the hallway or in the kitchen. Carrying on enough chit-chat to keep people from thinking I'm a total office hermit.

But, when I'm taking a leak or attending to some paperwork in the men's restroom I don't need the witty patter. I've just always thought when in the men's room, nothing beyond a "hey, man" or "wassup" is necessary. It's not a clubhouse or a lockerroom, I'm not chilling out. I just need to unload my cargo and carry-on with my day.

Ususally the men's room is such an unsavory environment of smells and noises that I want to get out of there as soon as possible. The idea that I'm going to take a little extra time to discuss the previous weekend's game that I probably didn't watch with a guy in the men's room is just not ideal.

I don't know if I'm alone in these feelings. Judging by the amount of chatty guys I encounter that I'm in the minority.

New Batman 4 part Graphic Novel - Wired Magazine article

2006-02-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

I know the MRR blog has been kinda comic book heavy, but hey I dig the funny books. Check out this article from Wired magazine on the topic of new Batman limited series.

The Dark Knight Returns: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/pope.html

Comic Store Wars - Battlefield: Georgetown

2006-02-13T12:18:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was giving a run down of some of my preferred comic stores in the DC Metro/Maryland area. Well two of them it seems are getting wrapped up in a legal dispute.

Read this article from the current Washington City Paper, submitted to by my brother the Code Monkey: 'Big' Problems

Personally I think the legal action taken by Big Planet is baseless. I've been to both stores and I'm familiar with both logos. The couldn't be more different, there isn't any confusion possible by even the most casual of shopper. It gets back to sour grapes on Big Planet's end, they haven't been happy about any comic book shop residing in their part of Georgetown.

All I do know, from now on I won't bother visiting Big Planet at any of its locations. This new nonsense of attacking competing store helps make the decision that much easier for me. With a great shop like Big Monkey in Georgetown who needs to waste time at Big Planet. Big Planet may sells loads of great trade paperbacks, but honestly I don't see the need to pay full price for those books when I can buy them online at a considerable discount. So for my comics and toy fix I'll stick with Big Monkey, though I don't go down to that store too often, maybe I'll make the effort now to give them some additional support.

Other Links:
Big Planet Comics: http://www.bigplanetcomics.com/

Big Monkey Comics: http://www.bigmonkeycomics.com/

Big Monkey Blog: http://richmondstore.blogspot.com/

Friday evening

2006-02-11T01:59:00.000-05:00

Finally had a good Friday night. Things got finished up early enough at work for me so that I could enjoy an evening out with friends for dinner. Six of us, three couples, met at Tauraso's in Frederick. I like the restaurant alright, but I was more looking forward to the company. One of the couple's will be getting married this coming May, between that event and our upcoming new addition to the family there was plenty to talk about and plan for. Their wedding day should be an interesting one, since we'll witness both a Jewish ceremony and a Hindu ceremony. A fun and rare experience I'm sure it will be...we've been told not to expect the day to finish until at least midnight.

My friend John and I were hoping to get the Bananas Foster for dessert, basically just to get the flame show at out tableside. But that got nipped in the bud when the waitress gave us the news that they were out of bananas. They were actually out, couldn't believe it. Either the dessert is crazy popular, or they don't think anyone is going to want it so they don't keep the nanners in stock. Anyway the food was alright, believe it or not. I was hungry, but not really in the mood for anything in particular. A very rare day, since usually my meal choices are important decisions in my day, today I just didn't care.

I'm lying here in bed now watching Dr. Strangelove, I just happened acrossed it while flipping through the channels. My wife and both of the dogs are asleep, so I'm the only one stirring...which is often the case. I'm guessing in a couple of months here I'm going to have some late night company depending on the kid's sleep patterns.

Rumors-a-gogo: True Video iPod

2006-02-10T18:09:00.000-05:00

Wow the tech blogs & rumor sites are all a buzz this week about the possible Video iPod making a debut in April just in time for Apple's 30th anniversary.

I've already seen a couple different Photoshop artists interpretations of this thing. The idea of a touch screen control pad is a cool idea. A great way to maximize the screen space without straying from the original form of the iPod, which is the perfect size. There a lot of concerns about fingerprints, but honestly that's nothing a little screen protector film can't fix, as long as it doesn't effect the functioning of the touchscreen. They work great on PDA's why wouldn't they work on this thing.

Personally I'm not interested in buying one. I'm more than happy with my 5G iPod and I dig watching video on my PSP. I'm curious about the battery life on this video Ipod. With that kind of screen and more focus on the gadget being a video player, I would hope Apple would amp up the battery life somehow.

I also wonder if this would replace the 5G or simply become a higher priced option like the iPod Photo when it first came out.

Apple keeps it interesting, that's for sure.

Comic Book Entry: Here's Why I Don't Read Spider-Man

2006-02-09T15:58:00.000-05:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Marvel. I love the characters they've created over the years. It's a rich group of original concepts and personalities with endless potential for creative stories. And sometimes they actually do have creators that come up with some cool storylines for these characters. She-Hulk, The Thing, X-Factor and New Excalibur are four Marvel titles I'm loving right now.

But then I see an article on a new Spider-Man costume and a new direction for the webslinger and I get a case of painful deja vu. This feeling is then quickly followed up with an eye roll and me shaking my head. How many times does Marvel have to lean on this crutch with Spider-Man. The guy has had more costume changes then I can remember, its such a non-event since they never become permenant and usually there is a lame storyline attached for the reason behind the change. I haven't read any of the Spider-Man comics in a long while specifically for the reason that I just don't like what they do the with the character most of the time. If I read any of his stories they are the old ones from the 60's through the mid-80's that have been reprinted or that I have in my own collection.

This new costume, dubbed the Iron Spidey, is apparently an Iron Man inspired armor/costume. I was afraid this kind of crap would happen when Spider-Man was made a member of the Avengers. What doesn't help the case is this these new costumes always look like crap. There is only one Spidey redesign that I liked and that was his first, the Black/White costume from the Secret Wars mini-series. Now that costume had style, really slick. Personally I like it better then his red&blue original.

All of this is aside from the point. What I'm getting back to is, how many times is Marvel going to try to pump interest in Spidey with a new costume? What I'm even more curious about is, does this even work? Do sales jump every time Spidey changes his duds?

I guess it's just a let down for me. Mainstream comics are suffering from the same recycling of ideas that movies, video games and television are suffering from. I can excuse it when it's done in away that still provides some escapist entertainment, but from what I've read of this I couldn't be less interested. With Spider-Man as an Avenger they could've gone in so many other directions with his character, an underdog hero finally joining with the major league. Marvel is dropping the ball.

So far so good

2006-02-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

This has been a better than decent week. I'll actually go so far as to say it's been a good one. Tuesday was the anniversary of the day I proposed to my Lady, she brought home dinner from PF Changs and dessert from Cheesecake factory, so we had a great dinner that we didn't have to prepare.

Wednesday morning I got to see some pretty good ultrasound images of my son. They were done at one of those 3-D imaging places that can take an ultrasound and then computer enhance to provide a 3-D image. Last week the kid was facing the wrong way, but over the weekend he was evidentally very busy getting himself turned around the right way. He gave us some good looks at his face. I'll refrain from posting any images, my wife has got that covered. It won't be too much longer until he's here, April is coming closer and closer.

Super Bowl... meh... Brown and Bubbly..yech

2006-02-07T10:21:00.000-05:00

I really wasn't into the Super Bowl this year. I kinda half watched it while I was trying to catch up on chores around the house. So in-between sweeping and polishing my floor I caught the new Diet Pepsi commercials. Okay already a stupid concept from the beginning with Diet Pepsi being treated as a celebrity with an agent..so I went back to working on the floor. I looked up again briefly when I caught the tale end of the "song" and saw the web address for the ad campaign....Brownandbubbly.com? Are you kidding me? Some marketing jerk actually got paid for cola campaign with the tagline of "Brown and Bubbly." That is horrendous. Honestly it couldn't be a more accurate but unappetitizing tagline. When I think of brown and bubbly, a delicious cola beverage (which Diet Pepsi isn't) is the last thing that comes to mind. Actually the first thing that comes to mind is this experience .

Kudos to the ad group that got away with that one. I'm sure they are literally laughing all the way to the bank.

Top DC Metro Comic Shops

2006-01-28T01:48:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to spend some time in Georgetown on Wednesday. I was down there for a Photoshop conference, learning some new tricks on that application. During my lunch hour I ventured down Wisconsin Avenue to Big Monkey Comics, a comic book shop that was new to me. Now it's been awhile since I'd been in that part of DC, so they could've been around for awhile. I was very impressed with the shop and the staff. Wednesday is always a good test for a comic store since that is Diamond Distribution's delivery day to the shops or as I refer to it "New Comics Day."

Big Monkey Comics wasn't a huge store, but they managed to stock a lot of books and merch without making the store feel cramped. There was good conversation going on in the store that I actually joined in on. Anyone who knows me realizes that my joining strangers in an impromptu conversation is a rarity. But they actually had good, higher level topics of interest...better then the chit-chat going on in the stores I frequent in the suburbs. I think part of it results from the difference in city comic fans and suburban fans, which I'll maybe go into in another entry.

The wide selection and plentiful stock of comic books and merchandise really has Big Monkey up there as one of my new favorite comic book stores. I think I might actually drive down there just for that store. If I hook up with Wiscounsin Ave from River Road, I can get there pretty quickly without dealing with much of the traffic that can clog that area of town. Big Monkey also has and impressive web site, some of their comic community events I think are a great idea... something that is lacking in other shops in the area.

Georgetown is the mecca for the great comic shops of our area. Big Planet Comics has a store in that area as well. Big Planet Comics has a foreign and graphic novel selection that can't be beat. My main experience with them comes from their Bethesda, MD location. For what I remember of their Georgetown location, the selection of trade paperbacks and graphic novels is equally as impressive, even though the Bethesda store gives customers a little more elbow room.

Beyond Comics is my most frequented store in the area, and though its a strong store that has shown much improvement over the years its not my favorite for purely personal reasons. The Gaithersburg store has a very strong Manga selection, unfortunately most Manga isn't my preferred reading choice. I enjoy Japanese artwork and love anime, but Manga I don't feel offers me enough entertainment for the money. Often I'm not motivated to read Manga unless i see an anime that I really enjoy and want to read the original source material the anime was based upon. Of the two locations, Beyond Comic's Frederick, MD location would be my favorite because of the large selection of back issues and the well stocked shelves of new material. If I ever miss a new issue at the Gaithersburg shop I know I can find it in Frederick. Unfortunately, at these shops I don't find much of any comradery with the other customers or much with the shop staff with a few exceptions. Not like the instant "chemistry" experienced at the Big Monkey comic shop.

All three of these stores are really the top the shops in my opinion for a good comic store experience. If you have an interest in comics and live in the DC area you can't go wrong at any of them really.

Weekend of Excellent Breakfast

2006-01-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

I had every intention of making breakfast over the weekend. Its something I enjoy doing. But the weekend had other plans for me. So I thought why not take the opportunity to point out two of my favorite breakfast spots since I visited them both this weekend.

Saturday - Mountain View Diner - Frederick, Maryland

On Saturday, the wife and I had the opportunity to join another couple for breakfast at this great little diner. The Mountain View Diner doesn't look like anything special from its location on Route 40 in Frederick. It looks like any other local diner. However some of their breakfast offerings really set it apart. My personal favorite is their French Toast. Man alive is it delicious, thick slices of battered french bread, cooked to perfection. Crispy outside and warm and soft inside delicious. Plus the place serves, my personal favorite breakfast meat, Scrapple! Their bacon, and other egg dishes are great too. Mixed reviews at our table regarding the sausage links.

The other great thing about this place, despite having a steady flow of customers there is rarely much of a wait. I don't know if we are just lucky or if its always that way. So if you happen to be up in Frederick give them a try.

The Original Pancake House - Rockville & Bethesda, Maryland

Sunday morning I was awakened by my Mom & Dad, offering us an invite out to breakfast. Their pick was our traditional location, the Original Pancake House in Rockville, MD. This small chain of restaurants is really the best place to get pancakes. I happen to be a big fan of the pancake, so this is place is breakfast heaven to me. They have such a wider variety of pancakes it's unreal. The classic buttermilk pancakes are great, but I've been going with the healthier buckwheat pancakes more often then not. My Lady enjoys the wheat germ variety.

Despite the name of the restaurant they really excel at all kinds of breakfast dishes. Their omellettes are huge, fluffy and fantastic. Their crepes and waffles look devine. Both locations can build up quite a crowd of folks waiting to get in. However the wait has never been more than 20 minutes for us.

There are a couple other places that I enjoy. However I don't have the same perfect run of breakfasts that I've enjoyed at the two listed above. If you are a local or visiting the area. Look them up and give them a try.