Ooooohweeeeeeeeeeee!tromptromptromp

Comments (2)

I miss them already...

Hubby | Email | Homepage | 03.23.03 - 12:40 pm

You mean the mimmoths' were not supposed to be there?

haha~ i thought that they were put there on purpose.

Jango | 03.24.03 - 3:48 am

tromptromptrompOoooohweeeeeeeeeeee!

Supergirl #80: Such a hollow ending. Painful. And way too quick. Is it something about Peter David that editors keep killing his stories? Maybe he just always plans stories to be too long? I'm not sure. Re-reading some Silver Age Aquaman, I saw a comment in the letter column complaining about the length of Steve Skeates first Aquaman tale ("The Mera Quest"). Oh well, definitely a sad ending to a pretty good run.

Crossovers #3: Heh heh, the "Weisinger Effect", heh heh. This book is just getting better and better as we get to know the characters. The crossovers in this issue were perfect and funny. And leave a lot of story to be told... I can't wait! And I still want to know what's up with the dog.

tromptrompOoooohweeeeeeeeeeee!

Ok, got the new anti-pachydermal software. The instructions are pretty odd, though, and it might take some time to get this thing fully installed. And there's still no guarantee that it will take care of the blog. Of course, I haven't seen any mimmoths on any other blogs, so it's clear the infestation must be coming from my machine, right?

You should see the pictures that came with these instructions. Hopefully the mimmoths won't eat any of the directions...

Step One
Shut off your computer, shut it all down,
then restart quite quickly, and take off that frown.

Step Two
Stop any programs that started themselves:
They'll screw up your system like mean little elves.

Step Three
Insert the disc that came with this book,
it should start itself with nary a look.

Step Three A
( If it did not start
You must start it by yourself
Sunflower in May.)

Step Four
The program is running, the screen shows the news.
Select what you need to get rid of your blues.

Step Five
This step is important, you must heed it with vim!
If you ignore it, your computer will dim!

Step Six
Now that you've done that, you should listen for Whos,
and if you shoud hear one, go back to Step Two.

Step Seven
If you are confused, it won't bother you now,
just hit the OK button if you know how.

Step Eight
The program will run! The program will clean!
The program will give you an elephant-free machine!

Step Nine
Restart your computer then check for the pests.
They'll all be gone, on this our promise rests!

Yup, this installation is gonna take awhile. I still haven't figured out step five... and I'm not sure what to make of mean little elves. I guess someone at this company had one too many run-ins with real-player...

Green Arrow #22: It's a one-shot. Not too bad, either. I'm not sure why Ollie would want to go back to his roots like that, but you do what you must.

Power Company #14: If you do good with the wrong motive, is it still good? The people they saved won't quibble, I'm sure. But for the members of Power Company itself, things are going to be harder. I really love this book.

Nick Mag Presents: Spring 2003 (Featuring SpongeBob Squarepants): Hey, I bought this originally for the three pages of Ramona Fradon artwork on the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy story. But there are a lot of other great comic strips by lots of great artists. There's a wonderful SpongeBob through the ages tribute to many great strips, including Little Nemo in Slumberland, Terry and the Pirates, and Peanuts. There is a page of strips by James Kolchalka. Overall, a nice package.

It's happening. I just turned on the TV, and CNN is reporting that the "Shock and Awe" campaign is now on, and showed images of Baghdad being bombed. The CNN journalists have been expelled, and CNN keeps going to British news to get actual coverage. Salam hasn't updated his blog, I hope he and his family are safe.

I guess the best thing to do right now is pray to whatever supreme being you feel like praying to that innocents will be spared.

JLA Scary Monsters #1 (Of 6): Not a bad start, but I wonder when this story actually takes place, as Aquaman is listed as "on leave". Is that referring to his current status as exile?

JSA The Unholy Three #2 (of 2): I quite liked the two-page spread of the JSA from this universe. Even knowing that Aquaman was never in the JSA, I kept hoping for a reference. Ah well. It was good. Nice and solid.

A good attempt to debunk myths on both sides of the war issue is at Spinsanity. This article not only addresses some of the problems with Bush's argument for war, it also tackles the peace-protesters propoganda. An interesting read for anyone. Thanks again to the tireless Mark Evanier for the link.

From the reports on CNN, I think more people are currently being injured in protests against the war than in the war itself.

I should get back to comics, since that reality is more pleasant than watching CNN...

Truth #5: Finally. Something. I can't say what, it would give it away, but this issue is marginally better than any of the others since the first issue.

Birds of Prey #53: Hmmm, not worse than the last few issues, but not a lot better. I get the impression that Hernandez was being given conflicting directions from editorial on what they wanted on this book, so a whole lot of nothing has resulted. I'm not impressed.

Smallville #1: Not bad for a TV-tie-in. The story is derivative, we've already done the invisible person on the show. And the show itself does a lot with family relations, so that's nothing new either. The art is ok, but not super. Overall, this is just average.

Still to review: Scary Monsters, Unholy Three, Power Company, Green Arrow, Supergirl, and Crossovers.

A fairly clever fellow has changed some old propaganda posters to fit the times, as seen on Newsarama. The full set of posters is also available online. I laughed at a few of them, but if you are a president Bush supporter, I suggest you don't bother visiting.

For another viewpoint on the war, please check out Where is Raed?, a blogger from Baghdad. I trust this guy's reports more than I trust CNN or any other American newscast. Here's some excerpts from an earlier rant on the coming war:

No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is, and if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying "come on bomb us" it is the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship talking.

The entities that call themselves "the international community" should have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should have thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really meant, should have looked at reports about weapons and human rights abuses a long time before having them thrown in their faces as excuses for war five minutes before midnight.

Do support democracy in Iraq. But don't equate it with war. What will happen is something that could/should have been avoided. Don't expect me to wear a [I heart bush] t-shirt. Support democracy in Iraq not by bombing us to hell and then trying to build it up again (well that is going to happen any way) not by sending human shields (let's be real the war is going to happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), but by keeping an eye on what will happen after the war.

It also sounds like the people of Baghdad were expecting a major operation to start as soon as the deadline passed, and were surprised to wake up and find the city still standing around them.

Comments (1)

Just wanted to say that I like the blog, and love the "Where is Raed ?" link. Very informative stuff.

Rob | Email | Homepage | 03.20.03 - 5:09 pm

I have deja vu from twelve years ago. What else is there to say? Cross yer fingers and hope for the best, I guess.

So I gather that the deadline has come and gone. I didn't feel like watching the networks attempting to manufacture news, so I turned off the TV as soon as it became apparent we weren't going in right at the turn of the hour.

Got our comics today, and turned in our order form for Mar/May comics. It was a big list this week, nine books. I haven't read any yet, but I will later tonight, I'm sure.

The Firefighter Calendar came today. I need to show it to my little sister, she would like the views. Ahem. I put the calendar up in the kitchen to remind hubby-Eric and I about fire safety. Really. Honest.

I got asked today what a mimmoth was, so I'll explain. They are from that wonderful and fun comic book, Girl Genius, which everyone should read if they like humor and steampunk mixed. The world of Girl Genius (look, different link!) is populated by mad scientists (called Sparks) who wage wars with rather destructive creations called clanks. Some Sparks use their genius to create ... other things. Mimmoths are apparently the result of one such experiment, and now have joined mice in the environmental niche of "pest". Now, how they moved over from a fictional world to infest my blog, I'm not sure...

Comments (1)

Fire safety my foot. If a fire were to break out, all I'd have to do is show you the calendar and your drool would put it out...

Hubby | Email | Homepage | 03.20.03 - 8:21 am

I don't think it's haloscan's fault at all... no, I think that the mimmoths are eating all the comments. Heh.

In any case I'm thinking of getting rid of the comment function, since Haloscan keeps taking forever to load. Or at least find a different comment system that doesn't crash so often. It's not like I get that many comments any way.

So, I'm looking for some good anti-pachydermal software. Anyone got any suggestions? I was thinking of trying Horton's system...

I said I was doing a blog about Aquaman, didn't I? The newest solicits for DC comics are up at Comic Book Resources, and Aquaman has three items of note. The first is issue #7 of the ongoing series. I happen to really like this cover:

To me is speaks of a swashbuckling tale of pirates (undead pirates) on the mighty Rhine river... well, the image with the preview text says that, actually. But the cover is the coolest one I've seen from this artist yet. Oddly enough, the art team of Guichet and Propst aren't on the interior art of this issue, either. Just the cover for issues #6 and 7. Hmmm...

I'm still fascinated by the conflict that Veitch has introduced in Aquaman. The need to free Atlantis seems to be outweighed by the desires of the Lady of the Secret Sea, and that's got to annoy Arthur. I wonder how it will continue to build?

But, as much as I like the skeleton pirates battling Aquaman, I'm really happy to see the Aquaman Action Figure. Take a look, and you might understand why I'm so stoked about this one:

Don't understand? This is the new Aquaman, complete with water hand, but he's wearing what appears to be a nicely updated orange shirt. It looks good to me!

Last item of note is the Super Friends Aquaman Maquette, which we knew was going to be on the list soon. I won't bother with the image, you can see it on my website if you care to visit it.

On one of my mailing lists, there has been a small and thankfully not too heated discussion about the impending war with Iraq. One gent kept saying he doesn't care what they think, we should go into Iraq and kick Saddam's butt. To which another fellow replied:

Depends who "they" is. The "they's" think we're the they, so they feel justified in getting rid of us. We.

It was an attempt to point out to the original gentleman that there is more than one way to look at a problem, and that we may not have the complete story. The statement, though, jumped out at me another way, and I quoted for the list Rudyard Kipling's poem "We and They".

As an aside: It's interesting to look at Kipling's poetry. He was somewhat imperialistic at times, but he's more often misquoted and misunderstood. His sarcasm was mostly directed at his own people. And while he wasn't totally against war, he certainly wasn't for it. He lost his only son in WWI. And much of what he wrote was a warning against trading in freedom for security, as in The Old Issue.

In any case, the original gentleman didn't get it. He has no empathy for anyone who doesn't think the same way he does. Rather than look at the problem from the point of view of the entire world, he looks at it like an American would, just from the viewpoint of 9-11 and what the world has become to us. Such willful ignorance frightens me, but sadly it no longer surprises me. I don't think this gentleman can be cured, either. It took three ghosts for Dickens to give Scrooge some empathy, I doubt a mailing list can wake up this guy.

It worries me that people who are against the war are being called "anti-American" and "terrorist supporters" and other such propaganda. None of it is true, but it's being spouted so often to the beat of the war drums that it drowns out the honest responses. Worse, some of the anti-war folk are doing the same thing, grabbing the worst examples of pro-war people and painting everyone with the same brush. While I have told you of the gentleman on one of my mailing lists who supports the war blindly, he is hardly a good example of an educated pro-war citizen. He's just an ignoramus spouting off every chance he gets.

One of the readers of this blog wrote to me in e-mail, and we had a great discussion as to why I'm anti-war and why he's pro-war. At the end, we found we didn't have a piece of common ground. Either you believe Iraq is a serious threat and a source of terrorists, or you don't. Either you believe that a war will actually improve the lives of the Iraqi people, or you don't. Eventually we had to agree to disagree, because the conversation was going in circles.

That's it for the war for now, unless we invade tonight. Next blog: Aquaman! Unless the mimmoths eat my preview pictures...

I watched Bush's speech on CNN with hubby-Eric while eating dinner. Bush made himself look good, the first time I actually felt he had any presidential presence. He made his arguments well, and spoke cleanly and crisply. If I agreed with the premise of his argument, that Iraq is a serious threat and will continue to be a threat in the near future, perhaps I would even be able to support the war.

I don't agree. I have seen no evidence, much less proof, of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam. In fact, the only link I've seen is that video in which Osama called for the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam. Yeah, lots of love between the two of them, I'm sure. Yet Bush is implying that taking on Iraq is also taking on al Qaeda. I don't see the link, nor do I agree that Iraq will be a threat to us in a year, or five years, or even a decade, if we don't take action.

Still... Bush said it correctly. He called on the Iraqi military to give up peacefullly, even promised that they won't get slaughtered if they do. He promised the Iraqi people freedom from Saddam. He didn't demand complete surrender, just exile for Saddam and his sons.

So I guess it's time to sit back and pray that not too many innocents will die in the coming battles, whatever form those battles may take. And maybe hope without hope that there will be no war... whether it be because Saddam gives himself up, or Bush doesn't strike, or the Iraqi soldiers surrender.

Ok, there's a gross story coming up, so don't read it if you are about to eat. You've been warned.

When I was a kid, we had the same meal every Sunday night. Consistent and wonderful. Pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy. The mashed potatoes were made from real potatoes, peeled by us kids. In fact, it was a bit of a contest to see who could get out of the job of peeling.

I didn't really mind peeling much, until one event changed completely the way I looked at potatoes. I had been chosen to peel, and there was no getting around it. I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, can't remember the exact year. The bag of potatoes was sitting inside the back door, where it had been since we got it. It was maybe half empty. When I reached into the bag, I felt something wrong. I thought a potatoes must have split or something, or gotten smashed.

I pulled the "smashed" potato out of the bag, and looked at it. It took a few seconds to register what I was looking at, and then I started screaming. I wanted to throw the thing away from me, but I didn't want any of the maggots in the house. Yup, maggots. Two of the potatoes in that bag were completely infested with the things.

I can't remember what happened next. Memories sometimes are mercifully erased by time. I do know, for sure, that I didn't have to peel potatoes for quite some time after that, and when I did peel them I made somebody else get them out of the bag for me.

Which brings me to today. Hubby-Eric wants potatoes for dinner. It's St Patrick's Day, and that seems an appropriate enough dinner. But our potatoes are in a bag, and for the first time since we got them, that memory is haunting me. I can't bring myself to put my hand in the bag. So I'm going to dump all the potatoes into the sink and then leave the ones we don't eat in a bowl. If I find any unwanted critters, though, you may just hear my screams from where ever you happen to be...

So the other night when I was trying to sleep, instead of the sheep normally wandering the field, there was a herd of mimmoths. They are small, they can't jump over any fences, so they were wandering around pointlessly which makes them really hard to count. Hubby-Eric suggested grabbing them and marking them with numbers, but do you know how hard it is to catch a mimmoth in a dream?

And my hubby also was telling me about some sort of prank pulled by the BBC on April 1st (which is coming up soon, beware), in which they showed a documentary of Italians harvesting spaghetti from spaghetti trees. Immediately, I thought of mimmoths getting into the spaghetti harvest, which led to my hubby's odd comment earlier.

How many mimmoths does it take to change a lightbulb? Hey, they weren't made for changing lightbulbs! What do you think this is, some kind of joke?

While blogspot itself seems to have slowed to a slug-powered crawl since Google toook over, Haloscan has started losing various comments (including many I hadn't yet archived). At some point, I may just move my whole blog over to my website, though I hope that won't be necessary, as it's easier to maintain with the main thing being here and the archives being over on my site...

Why did the mimmoth cross the road? He was hitching a ride on the chicken.