Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog Archive December 2006

Diamond screws over the West Coast yet again. Last week it was most of the DC books not delivered to the West. Next week it's Civil War. Can't we break up the Diamond monopoly? Oh yeah... that's been tried.

The Bad Astronomer celebrates New Year by completely confusing the issue. Ok, I admit I followed most of his explanation. But it's still a bit much.

Augie tells us that mileage estimates are about to be calculated using realworld scenarios, instead of ideal scenarios. This is a good thing, as more realistic numbers will lead to better understanding of fuel consumption by the average driver. I can dream.

Here's a good rant about children reading, and how reading is perceived as they grow older. It's not enough to teach children to love reading, we need to teach them that it's cool to read too. I was lucky... I grew up in a family that loves books and both my parents read to me. There was never any negative comments about reading, and I could always weedle a book out of my dad if I tried hard enough.

Labels: Astronomy, Diamond, Links

Usually this time of year I do a long and complicated retrospective of the comics I read over the last year, giving my readers a list of my favorites from the past year. Now... I'm not sure that anyone gives a flying fish about what I think anyway... and add in that I'm tired and not in the mood to write about good comics, and I begin to wonder if the end-of-the-year wrap up is worth doing. Still, tradition is tradition. I just won't make it as complicated as in the past. I'm going to flip through a list of comic books that came out in 2006 and come up with some that I remember well enough and enjoyed. I don't think I actually did this last year, so there may be a bit of crossing back into 2005, but I'll try to keep it mostly 2006.

The "Most Ambitious Project" award I'm giving to 52, which somehow managed to stay on time for 34 weeks, and managed to be fairly entertaining as well.
The "Best Book I Almost Missed" award goes to DMZ. I bought the first issue, but somehow missed future issues... until Brian Wood sent me the first collection and several of the single issues after it. I read the books, enjoyed them, and it's now on my pull list.
"Favorite Manga" award goes to Hikaru No Go. This storyline is the only reason I subscribed to Shonen Jump, and I'm also buying the collections as they come out. There is nothing at all like this story in American comics, and there really ought to be!
"Best Collection" hands down goes to the Castle Waiting Hardcover, which was beautiful, comprehensive, and upgradable. Anyone who hasn't tried this series should pick up this hardcover for a reasonably priced introduction to a book with great art and a lovely meandering story.

Honorable Mention: Adventures In Oz. If I was as big an Oz fan as I am a Castle Waiting fan, this might have gone the other way around.

"Best Superhero Team" goes to the Justice Society... but only because they brought back Ma Hunkel. And the book rocks as long as she's there. Period.
The "I Wish I Was Still On Their Comp List" goes to Boom Studios! who probably took me off the list due to my slowness in posting reviews. However, all their zombie books were surprisingly good, as was Hero Squared, Planetary Brigrade, and, yes, even Jeremiah Harm. If you haven't checked out their books, give 'em a shot. I'm partial to the superhero books, but the whole line I sampled was excellent.
The "Delays Just About Killed Me" award goes to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, which was an excellent revamp that had me incredibly excited... but then the delays started and my heart just about broke with each new delay announcement. To finish the job was the announcement that Kurt was leaving the book after only a scant handful of issues. Although he's leaving the book in Tad Williams' capable hands, it still made for a bittersweet year of Aquaman.
"Best New Character" introduced in a superhero book this year would be Soranik Natu, the unwilling Green Lantern from Korugar. Ok, so she technically first appeared last year, but I didn't do any awards last year and she hadn't developed into such a cool character yet.
The "I Really Wish It Came Out More Often" is a tie between Dorothy and Age of Bronze. Both are excellent books put out by people who care deeply about the subject matter. Both books show the love, sheer joy, and heart the creators put into them. And both are worth reading just for that. And both books I wish could come out more often, but I do understand why they don't.
"Strongest Rebirth" award goes to Abadazad, which returned in a partly prose form that works really well for the series. I can honestly say I'm very much looking forward to future volumes.
The "Still Going Strong" award goes to AiT/Planet Lar, who put out a number of great books this year, including Shatter, Continuity, Rock Bottom, and my personal favorite of the bunch, Seven Sons.
The "It Will Be Missed" award is owned by Solo, which was a great idea that I thought was well executed and definitely well received... but apparently the sales couldn't justify it and it was canceled.

Other books that deserve mention but may not get individual awards include Justice League Unlimited, Birds of Prey, Noble Causes, PS238, Usagi Yojimbo, Local, Powers, Nodwick, Justice, True Story Swear to God, Mouse Guard, Action Philosophers, and Tony Loco.

Next up, later tonight: The year's best book. I'll post it after I've had dinner but before the New Year hits Seattle.

Labels: 52, Abadazad, Age of Bronze, AiT/Planet Lar, Aquaman, Best Comic Book, Boom Studios, Castle Waiting, DMZ, Dorothy, Hikaru No Go, JSA, Red Tornado Ma Hunkel, Solo, Wizard of Oz

In Doctor Who Magazine #377 (cover date 3 Jan 2007), on page 51, in the 2006 Season Survey, under "Greatest Contribution", there is a quote from my husband, Eric Gjovaag!

Yes, we filled out the survey and sent it across the pond to England. And Eric got quoted!

What did he say?

"The Greatest Contribution?" asked Eric Gjovaag Washington, in the USA, "I considered David Tennant, Russell T Davies, and even Paul Kasey for all the creatures he's played. But I finally picked Billie Piper for showing everyone just how important the role of the companion is, how much the companion can contribute, and for being so good at it. Billie, in all your future roles, I'll be looking out for you."

Labels: Doctor Who, Eric

Hubby-Eric and I had a little mishap with the VCR a week or so ago, in which it ate his tape of Jeopardy. Eric really enjoys watching Jeopardy, but is generally at work when it's on, so he tapes it, watches it, then tapes over it. Well, the tape he was using got old enough, and the VCR tired enough of it, that it got all chewed up and devoured, and hubby-Eric missed a week of Jeopardy (because we also had to get the rest of the tape out of the VCR). He grumbled that maybe it is time for us to get TiVo.

Flash forward to just before Christmas when our good friend Jen visited and bought us pizza (thank you again, Jen!). We had a merry little night, and I noticed a coupon on the pizza box for TiVo. Normally I wouldn't look twice, but we'd talked about it, so I showed the coupon to Eric, and we popped on-line to look at the deal.

It wasn't bad. For the price of a very nice quality VCR we'd get a TiVo box, wireless adapter, and three years of service. There was one problem, but it isn't unsurmountable (more on that in a second). So we did a bit more research, slept on it, counted up Christmas money... and went for the deal. We don't watch a lot of TV, but we like having flexibility on when we watch what we do watch, and the VCR is getting a bit tired of helping us, so a TiVo makes sense for us.

There are a couple of issues I have with our new little TiVo friend.

First... to install the thing you need a landline phone. We do not have a landline any longer. We went to cell phones and haven't missed the landline at all until now. The installation instructions say you can go to someone else's home to set that up, but you still must have a landline for the initial installation. That's annoying.

The other issue is setting up the wireless. Basically, I really hope I'm up to the task. I have my router filtering by MAC address at the moment, so I hope the wireless adapter has a MAC address I can use.

Anyway, I'm blogging about this mostly in the hopes that somebody out there has some links to TiVo support sites and such so I can learn how to get the most out of the little thing. Any advice? Any thoughts? Anyone even reading right now, or is everyone off on holiday?

Labels: Jeopardy, TiVo

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #83.

Worst Comic Book Medicine of 2006.

Well, I'd try to write more, but I've been very busy today, and I'm tired now.

Labels: Comic Book Urban Legends, Links, Oogaboo

Roombas Go Caroling.

Top Ten Astronomy Images of 2006.

Teapot Synchronicity, simple, yet satisfying. Via Boing Boing.

100 Things We Didn't Know Last Year.

I admit that despite reading tons of blogs for my Blogshares playing, I haven't found many that I really want to share with my readers. I have come across one that I found fascinating, though, called Generation Watch. I think my fascination stems from how the generations are defined on this site. I don't really agree with the site on much of its philosophy, but I found it to be a good read.

I'm going to relax a bit for awhile, and return to "regular" blogging next year.

Labels: Astronomy, Blogshares, Links

Early this morning, hubby-Eric took the car out to the shop to get the windstorm damaged fixed up. We have a rental now for the next week or so. Because Eric's been shifting furniture (and all the stuff on the furniture) to get his Oz room fixed up, we've got room in the garage to put the car again.

Hubby-Eric and I went on a post-Boxing Day shopping trip today. Our first stop was the British Pantry, a local speciality shop featuring lots of goodness from across the pond. I'm afraid Bully got me pining for some good British stuff. We got Jelly Babies, Lemon Curd, a couple of Christmas Crackers and a half dozen Custard Pies. We were hoping to find a chocolate orange, since the grocery stores around here seem to have stopped selling them, but they didn't have any. Oh well.

As we drove into Redmond we noticed that a lot of cars had snow on them. As we headed to our next stop we found out why. Lots of the Redmond/Bellevue area had snow on the ground, and even on the streets in some places. It wasn't a driving hazard, but it was a little surprising. At least I thought it was.

In Bellevue we went to Uwajimaya. I had to step over a pile of snow to get into the store, which amused me. Neither of us had ever been to Seattle's premier Japanese grocery before, and I think we still haven't. We need to go to the downtown store. The Bellevue store was great, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel like the Uwajimaya experience that everyone talks about. In any case, our goal was to get some unusual flavors of Pocky. They didn't have the ones I was curious about, but we got some "Men's Pocky" (bittersweet dark chocolate), Melon Pocky, and a dark chocolate Mousse Pocky.

It was an interesting way to start the day. We went to two international shops, both of which featured a lot of great tea. It's actually a bit of a shame I don't drink much tea, because I could have picked up some fantastic flavors while we were out.

While we were at Uwajimaya, I also looked for some Bento box stuff, but found nothing. I saw "adult" Bento boxes, but not the cute kids' stuff I've seen on-line. When we go to the downtown store I'll look a little harder.

After our international experience, we headed out to Staples to get a postal scale (hubby-Eric is going to put much of his Green Lantern collection on eBay soon). It looks like the scale we got will double for a kitchen scale, which is great... because my little sister got me a wonderful low-capacity kitchen scale for Christmas that is pocket-sized and can do most of the weighing I'll need, but it only measures up to 16 ounces. Now I've got one that will measure up to 5 pounds if I need it.

We then hit Home Depot for a few pieces of needed hardware for hubby-Eric's Oz room. By this time we were feeling tired and stressed from the driving and the people and the snow and everything, so we went home to relax. Here's a picture of some of the stuff we got:

We plan on opening the Christmas crackers tonight for dessert.

Ah... Christmas. I've been completely devoid of the Christmas spirit this year. Even the holiday itself didn't trigger it. I partially blame the windstorm, which effectively canceled our one party we were going to have at our house. We rescheduled it for Twelfth Night, which means I'll be decorating for Christmas sometime next year. *sigh* There are worse possibilities in life.

I did get some very nice presents. My niece gave me a plastic basketball from the one dollar store. I don't think she knows it, but I plan on taking it swimming with me next time I go to the pool. There's a basket in the therapy pool, and I think it would be terribly amusing for me to play with it in the water. I also got a very nice measuring tape and a big hardcover about modern comic book masters. Got some reading to do. I also got a pair of handknitted Norwegian wool socks. Ah... warm feet. Let's see... I also got more bottles of sparkling cider than I care to think about... some money and gift cards... the aforementioned pocket kitchen scale... another penguin to sit on the telly... And a Yoga deck. Another sister got a Yoga deck at the same time, and we considered playing against each other, until the sister that gave the deck explained that they weren't a CCG. I'm sure I got other gifts, but they integrated into my life so well I've already forgotten them.

But enough about me. How's your holiday going?

And, in case I'm too boring for you, have a Kodak moment:

Labels: British Pantry, Bully, Christmas Presents, Pocky, Uwajimaya, Weather, YouTube

I'm not going to link to all Bully's posts about London. Just go read the whole frickin' blog already.

Labels: Bully, Links

Hope everyone had a good holiday. I'm tuckered out from family and new Doctor Who.

Labels: Christmas, Doctor Who

Can't update to New Blogger. I guess one of my blogs is too big. Hmmm, wonder which one...?

Labels: blogger

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #110 (November 1946) - The Monster and the Mermaid!

Captain Zeb Jones exhibits a mermaid to make some money, but rivals Gooch and Harms aren't happy that he's taking away their business.

After Zeb Jones sees a fake sea-elephant on display, he decides to create his own attraction: A mermaid! The exhibit draws a lot of attention, including that of Aquaman. It also angers the guys exhibiting the sea-elephant, as it takes away their business. They decide to kidnap the mermaid, but unluckily for them, Aquaman is nearby and rescues her. The mermaid is actually Zeb's daughter in disguise, and Aquaman recommends stopping the fake mermaid show. Then Aquaman goes after the kidnappers.

This is another instance of Aquaman going on land in disguise. He wears a trenchcoat and hat. His thoughts as he enters the mermaid show are interesting: "I've explored every ocean on Earth and never have I seen a mermaid!" That seems to indicate that in the Golden Age Aquaman's world, Tritonis and its mer-people don't exist. And yet... when did Lori Lemaris first appear?

Finny Friends Report: When the mermaid is trapped under an old wreck, Aquaman summons fish to help him pull it off of her.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman isn't knocked out or captured in this one.

Quotefile: Zeb, on seeing the sea-elephant, "Arrghh... It's a stuffed whale with a fake elephant's head fitted on! A fraud! And fools pay good money to see it! Wonder much they'd give to look at a critter worth seein' -- like a mermaid..?"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

I'm going to start the upgrade sometime tomorrow morning, after I've posted my Ripples Through Time and before I head out for family events. I will simply not plan on posting again until Christmas evening at the soonest. I figure, it's a holiday. I might get bored without blogger, but I've got ComicSpace I can update, my LiveJournal, my Wordpress test blog, and heck, I even have a MySpace that could use an update this century. And there is always Blogshares to entertain me.

Now, let's just hope I get a spot tomorrow, as Blogger has been limiting the number of upgrades happening at any one time.

Labels: blogger

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #109 (October 1946) - The Waters of the World!

Doctor Roamer's Aquatic Museum has genuine water from oceans and lakes around the world, while a writer has a theory about an underwater gold mine, and then Aquaman gets involved.

Aquaman rescues a drowning man, who turns out to be a chemist and oceanologist. The man was writing a book about the oceans, and had reached a chapter where he theorized that all the gold in seawater came from one single immense gold mine. If you had samples of water from around the world, you might be able to locate the mine. In a fun coincidence, Doctor Roamer's Aquatic Museum, which has genuine water from around the world, sails into port. Aquaman sets up a trap to get the man's manuscript back from the thieves by becoming part of Roamer's aquarium and letting the thugs know that he's also looking for the gold mine. It works. And, incidently, Aquaman figures out where the gold mine would be... five miles underwater.

Another reference to Aquaman's abilities, this time using the word "telepathical": "The man who has swum the seven seas speaks in the strange telepathical language of the fish." Is this the first time it's referred to as telepathy?

Finny Friends Report: A flying fish knocks the gun out of a thug's hand as he's about to shoot Aquaman.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman tips over the thugs boat, and as it is tipping an "unexpected wave" brings the boat down on Aquaman's head and knocks him out. Yes, he managed to knock himself out.

Quotefile: Doctor Roamer, "*sigh* I'd need only one more exhibit to make my aquarium complete -- Aquaman! *sigh* However, I'm afraid that will never be!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Hmmm. I don't know if I want to switch. I don't know what will happen to my Aquaman page if I switch. Do I lose the ability to publish via FTP in the new Blogger? Is there any point to switching? I happen to like the "old" Blogger. Yeah, it has problems, but any system does. Why switch to a new set of unfamiliar problems?

I'm going to have to ponder this one.

Update: Blogger help is absolutely useless on this. I can't find any page that definitively states whether or not New Blogger will support FTP publishing. There's an implication that it will, but no outright statement. And considering that a few months ago they said it wouldn't work, I'm less than pleased to have no answer.

I'm also seeing that some folks upgrading are having the upgrade take, literally, days. I don't know. I like posting once a day. If I didn't have access to my blog for over a full day I'd get annoyed. I mean, heck, I managed to post during the power outage, didn't I?

I've also seen a couple of comments/statements that Blogger is going to try to get everyone over to the New Blogger within a few weeks. Good luck to them. I find myself less than pleased with the whole nuisance. But then, what should I expect from a free service?

Update: I've found three independent references to new Blogger working with FTP published blogs (I just won't get all the functionality, which is fine, I don't want all the functions). I suppose three unofficial sources is good enough to make up for the lack of an official pronouncement. Now I just need to talk to my main co-blogger and make sure he updates. I'll do the update overnight so it has time to work, and I'll post a Ripples post before starting the update so I've got some fun content. I don't know how long they'll take to upgrade seven blogs, so I don't know how long I'll be away from blogging... Maybe I'll start the upgrade tomorrow morning before I take off for all my Christmas adventures. Maybe I'll wait until they force me to upgrade. Decisions, decisions...

And, special note to Elayne: I've taken myself off admin on your blog so my upgrade won't affect your blog at all. Feel free to boot me from the blog membership entirely if you'd like. I don't think you need my help anymore. Unless New Blogger is worse than advertised.

Afterthought: Has anyone who uses Haloscan's commenting upgraded to New Blogger yet? How's that work? No problems?

Labels: blogger

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #82.

Enjoy a wiki on The Birthday Paradox.

Giant Squid!

Labels: Birthday, Comic Book Urban Legends, Fish, Links

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #108 (September 1946) - The Stolen Light

A group of thieves turn off the light in a lighthouse that Aquaman is visiting, and set up a false light.

Aquaman apparently makes social visits to lighthouses, as he is visiting with the lighthouse keeper when the thugs attack and turn off the light. Aquaman doesn't figure out who the "light thieves" are until he tries to warn the ship they are attempting to crash. The folks on the ship shoot at him, and he learns that the ship is carrying Nazi war criminals to Europe for trial.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman calls Tusky the walrus, who frees Aquaman, then pretends to be Aquaman so his captors won't know he's escaped. Aquaman gathers phosphorescent fishes to light up the coastline so the prison ship won't crash, and uses whales to first herd the fish up to the surface, then to attack the spies holding the lighthouse keeper captive. Tusky protects the lighthouse keeper during the flood the whales cause.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is hit on the head by a rifle butt and tied up.

Quotefile: Aquaman, calling out in "walrus language", "NARHH! AGHGH!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time, Tusky

Yes, I'm finally part of the cool kid club! My ComicSpace page.

Speaking of cool, check out never-done.com. I'm intrigued.

Let's Kirbycise!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I'm so jealous of Bully. And he even had a good flight. Perhaps I could handle it if I went business class, but I sure couldn't afford it. Bully got lucky, as Heathrow is crowded now that many flights have been canceled due to freezing fog.

Four minutes of the new Doctor Who episode airing on Christmas:

The price of Chocolate. A ten-part story of how a single company "makes" chocolates that sell for far more than their value. I found the article riveting. Your mileage may vary. Via MeFi.

Aaron Williams let's us know that sometimes the angle makes all the difference when taking a picture.

LEGO squid launchers. For the first time ever I'm tempted to get Bionicle just to have a squid launcher. And they aren't just any old squid, either... they're hordes of vampiric sea squid!

Solstice.

Getting rid of microbes will help lose weight. To get rid of them? Lose weight. *sigh*

For the next power outage, I'm sorely tempted to invest in one of these. Enough to run space heater, fridge, freezer(?), and computers... it would keep us home and safe. And they apparently run under $1000. Of course, I don't know where I'm going to get that much money.

I've figured out how to turn my new cellphone into an MP3 player now. I can also access the web with it, but it's a clunky interface so I'll save that for emergencies. I also know how to put video on it, but watching video on that tiny screen seems a bit silly. All in all, it's a cool phone for what we paid for it ($0.00 + the calling plan I would have gotten anyway).

My parents have their power back! I guess we're having Christmas at their house after all! Last night's predicted storm was a bust... lots of rainfall but very little wind in our area. Another series of storms is coming through now, each predicted to be weaker than the previous. *whew* Merry Christmas, Seattle.

Labels: Astronomy, Bully, Cellphone, ComicSpace, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, LEGO, Links, Power Outage, Weather

500 Chickens on a sticky note.

Len Wein is Blogging.

Bully is off to London. I'm jealous, except for the flying part. I don't like flying.

Dave has a Christmas Card for all his readers. From Superman's brother, no less. Go check it out.

Augie has a rumor: Amazon.com plans to sell downloads of DRM-free MP3s! This would be a very good thing for people who want to be able to use music they download in whatever player they own.

Speaking of DRM, the BBC is thinking of releasing popular shows via the Azureus network, Zudeo. The shows will be DRM-crippled and only available through Zudeo... which makes them pretty much useless to me.

PlateWire is getting more coverage. I wonder how long it'll be before somebody sues them for defamation?

Canadian Women's Ski Jumpers are really peeved at the IOC and the international ski jumping officials who have decided that women can't compete in the sport in the 2010 Olympics. Even worse is one of the reasons given for the exclusion: "it's medically unfit for women to be ski jumpers, which is a great one that didn't go over well with everyone, that it's just too dangerous for women — even though you have women aerials, women skeleton, luge, bobsled."

Komodo Dragon Virgin Birth!

Well, the new windstorm still hasn't hit, but I'm worried about my parents who have been without power since Thursday. If the next storm complicates repairs, they won't have power on Christmas. Oh well, at least they aren't in Denver.

Labels: Bully, DRM, Links, Olympics, PlateWire, Weather

Another windstorm headed for Seattle.

Labels: Weather

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 11 and Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 12. Will Bully's tale have a happy ending? Read to find out.

Comics Bloggers mourn the loss of the Comic Weblog Updates Page. And then they find something new.

Image reports on The Wizard of Oz.

I like Scott Adams Donut Theory of the Universe.

Slashdot links to dangerous toys. Ok, now I'm feelin' the Christmas spirit.

Or maybe not.

Labels: Bully, Christmas, Links, Wizard of Oz

Yesterday's morning weigh-in showed that I've lost 55 pounds since I started my efforts on June 10th. I've made my Christmas goal!!!! And managed it even with poor eating during the power outage!

Now I'm going to try to lose at least ten more pounds by Emerald City Comicon. Folks who saw me last Spring should be impressed when they see me at the next one. I hope.

Labels: Emerald City Comicon, Health, Weight Loss

After getting home from the library, I played with the ringtones on my phone for awhile, since I couldn't log on and I really didn't feel up to any more cleaning. Oddly enough, I have no holiday spirit, so I don't even feel like decorating for Christmas. Especially since the party we were having was canceled due to the windstorm.

So I wandered through my mp3 library and found good songs to turn into ringtones. I came up with a few, which is all I really need. There are just a couple more folks who need ringtones on my contacts list, but since people rarely call me, it's not urgent.

I also figured out how to put Aquaman up as my wallpaper on my phone. Heh.

As I was testing my alarm sound ("Vindaloo" by Fat Les) I heard a motor start up in my front yard. Sounded like a chainsaw. So I opened the window shades and turned lights on. Another neighbor, one I haven't met yet. He wanted the firewood. NO PROBLEM. I had a sign out that says "Free Firewood, You Cut, You Haul" on the tree that fell on the car. He was taking us up on the offer. He asked if I wanted to keep any, and I said no thanks, he's welcome to the lot.

I was a little concerned about him cutting the tree in the dark (it was after 7 pm and full night) but he didn't seem worried. If he's willing to take the wood, I'm willing to let him.

Well, time for me to catch up on my 'nettin'. There's a big pile of sites I haven't visited in a few days.

Labels: Aquaman, Cellphone, Christmas, Weather

Still no internet. I drove up to the nearest library that has power and internet to get on-line. The three libraries closest to us don't have internet... the Bothell library still doesn't have power. Hubby-Eric and I have been cleaning up from the outage, but have amazingly little to worry about. We lost almost no food, and what was lost was stuff we were near throwing out anyway. The only exception is our ice cream, which may or may not still be good. We decided to try to eat it and find out. We also got the insurance claim in for the car, and have a dollar estimate. Much more than I expected, but let's hope it covers the repairs.

During the chaos, we also got our new phones. We have a deal for new phones every two years, and they were having a two-for-one on one of the best phones Verizon offers, so we snagged them. We ordered them right before the windstorm, and despite next-day FedEx (free shipping) we got them three days later. FedEx had a few difficulties making deliveries during the storm and aftermath.

My old phone was wonderful. It was a phone and an alarm clock and nothing else. The new phone (LG VX8300) has a camera, camcorder, MP3 player, bluetooth (which I still don't quite understand), custom ringtones, and a number of other features that I probably won't use. My only disappointment with it so far is that it doesn't have a quick alarm (pre-set number of minutes or hours) like my old phone, so I can't just set the alarm to go off in an hour, I have to program the alarm. It's actually annoying, because that was the one non-phone function I used regularly on my old phone. But I think the fact that my new phone has a camera will make up for it. Mostly.

I have been learning how to sync the new phone with my computer, and I'm very pleased that I can use a program called BitPim to create a calendar and upload it to the phone. The only reason I never used the calendar feature on my old phone was because it took me so long to type anything on the phone's keypad. But if I can create it on my computer then upload... well, that takes care of that issue.

So except for no tv and no internet, we're doing well. The water even heated up enough to do laundry and dishes. Yay.

Hopefully the 'net will be back on by the time I get home. Hey, I can dream.

Labels: Cellphone, Library, Power Outage, Weather

So we called up a neighbor this morning, who confirmed we have power at our house! Yay! So we packed up and went home. The heat was already on when we got in, and the house was comfortable, if not warm. We went around checking on things, plugging stuff back in, and resetting clocks. Then we checked the cable/internet. Nope. Nothing.

The good news is: We have power! The bad news is: We don't have internet access!

Oh well. I'm going to survive easy, but I just want to make sure that nobody misses me while I'm away. We popped back down to the in-laws' house to get on-line and return some borrowed stuff. After I post this, I won't be able to post again until our cable returns. Could be two hours from now, could be two days, could even be two weeks (though I really doubt that).

Until then, here's the links I gathered this morning. Enjoy!

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 10.

The Perils of Colleen final part.

Bully's Ten of a Kind, logos that evoke the spirit of The Spirit.

Greg Hatcher also endured the Seattle windstorm.

Labels: Bully, Links, Power Outage, Weather

Just got back down to Seattle from visiting our house in Bothell and grabbing some more supplies. I also chatted extensively with three neighbors who are staying despite the persistence of cold. I told all three that they could take any and all firewood stacked up around our house if they need it. We tried to use our wood-burning stove, the smoke filled the room. We need to have it checked before we use it again.

All three neighbors were happy with the suggestion that they take my firewood, and I kind of half hope all the wood will be gone by the time we check in again. Especially since two of the neighbors helped us mightily with the tree in our yard. For that help, they can have all the wood they can burn. And I have a feeling we're going to have to take down at least one more tree, if not two, before we get around to fixing the stove. So it's not like we need the firewood.

I also got promises from the neighbors to watch our house. They would have anyway, but now they know my name and face. So I think everything will be alright. I feel a lot better about the whole thing knowing the neighbors are watching. And it's funny how, in all the years I've been at that house, I know so few of my neighbors. But now I've met three of them in one day, and I'm not even staying at my house right now!

Not much else to say. I'm exhausted. I've got a bunch of stuff to do now, some of it even fun, so I'm going to sign out for the night at get to it.

Labels: Power Outage, Weather

I'm currently at the in-laws as there is still no power in Bothell. How do I know this? The Seattle Times once again didn't print an edition this morning... and their printing facilities are in Bothell. I'm not looking forward to cleaning out the refrigerator when I get home.

Local news reports say that over 1 million people in Western Washington lost power. King and Island counties were the hardest hit, with everyone in Island county losing power. Bothell, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore were hit very hard in King County. Annoyingly, the Snohomish county side of Bothell had power last night, but the King County side was still in the dark. I've been keeping an eye on my power company's website in the hopes that they'll report when they plan on restoring power to our area.

Time for some pictures:

The trunk of the car is damaged enough that we can't open it, but the lights seem to be ok and the car drives fine. Getting the tree out of the driveway required some assistance from a wonderful neighbor (THANK YOU!) who helped pivot it onto the lawn and off the street and driveway. We've already contacted the insurance about the car, I think we may have to contact them about the food in our fridge (apparently, most insurance companies will cover up to a reasonable amount for food that spoils due to power outages, so I'll be checking that later). All told, I think we're in pretty good shape. It was scary, but we didn't get hurt and insurance should cover most of the problems we've got.

Thank goodness for the in-laws! Being warm last night was a blessing.

Labels: Power Outage, Weather

I didn't sleep much last night. The wind was howling most of the night, and various sounds, including the deep "vooom" of transformers blowing, kept me awake. At one point I heard a thump and the tinkle of broken glass. It sounded like it was right outside our bedroom window. I tried to not panic and just listened. Eventually, towards morning, I fell asleep.

My phone alarm went off at 5 am, waking Eric for his school day. He got up in the dark, as there was definitely no power in the house, and hunted down the wind-up radio. We both listened until they finally covered school closures. Northshore - closed. Eric wasn't going to work today.

Next up was a quick look outside to see what had made the glass-breaking noise last night. It was still very dark, but the flashlight showed us a tree in the driveway, and a slightly closer inspection revealed that the trunk of the car had been hit by the tree. It was too cold and too dark to spend much time out there, but it looked like the damage wasn't too bad. We went back in and back to bed.

Several hours later, I got up and got dressed. I grabbed my camera and went out to get some shots of the damage to the car.

It was a bit worse than we realized.

After a cold breakfast we went on a short walk around the neighborhood to check out the damage. It appears that we were the only folks with a tree down in our immediate area, but there were lots of branches on the road and sidewalks, and roofs and yards and anything else that tree branches could land on. Most were small, a couple were bigger. We didn't see any obvious damage.

Went home, listened to the radio. The storm hit the area hard, and over 1 million people were without power. The hardest hit area, according to the news, was the Bothell/Kenmore area. Us. Right here. The storm was supposed to go a bit further North. It didn't.

I'll write more and post some pictures later. At the moment, our house is still without power and we're at the in-laws enjoying heat and internet and TV.

Here's the links I was gonna post this morning:

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 9.

Heidi does detective work.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #81.

New Animated Star Trek series? Cool.

Labels: Bully, Comic Book Urban Legends, Links, Power Outage, Star Trek, Weather

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #107 (August 1946) - 'Ware Water!

Because of the uranium he was exposed to in his last case, Aquaman cannot touch water for 48 hours, and Black Jack decides to take advantage of the situation.

The story starts out with a doctor refusing to treat a gunshot wound because the patient refuses to allow the doctor to report the wound to the police. As the doctor is escorting the man to the door, Aquaman enters. The gunshot victim listens in to the case (no medical privacy here!) and learns that Aquaman can't touch water for forty-eight hours. He immediately goes to Black Jack with the information (still clutching his arm where he was shot). That's the last we see of gunshot wound guy.

Aquaman has to avoid water, so Black Jack floods a factory in order to steal the payroll. Aquaman has to save the workers and avoid being shot by Black Jack without touching the water. He doesn't catch Black Jack, though. And so Black Jack sets a trap for him on a yacht. Aquaman manages to win, then takes off for a desert for the remainder of the time he needs to avoid water.

I think this story pretty much establishes beyond any doubt that the Golden Age Aquaman had no one-hour limit.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman isn't in the water, so no fish can help him.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Nope, not in this tale.

Quotefile: Sign in final panel, "Sandy Desert No rainfall in ten years! Absolutely no water in fifteen miles!"

Bonus: I found a 60-year-old typo: Aquaman says, "I can't follow him. And even if I could, it's getting to dark to find him."

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Black Jack, Ripples Through Time

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #106 (July 1946) - The Ghost Ship!

A shrewd scientist figures out a way to mine uranium on the ocean floor, but some pirates decide to hijack the load.

This is a fairly straightforward tale. A scientist and his crew are mining for uranium, successfully, on the sea floor. Somehow, a ship of crooked gamblers finds out about the mining effort and decides to hijack the ore. Aquaman arrives just as the action starts and saves the miners. Then he goes after the gamblers, who know enough to wear lead-lined clothing around radioactive materials, but don't know that it glows (thus leading Aquaman to them) or that it messed with their navigation system.

The title comes from the fact that the ship has a ghostly glow once it's loaded with the uranium ore. The miners aren't wearing any obvious protective clothing, but the gamblers put on lead-lined goggles and clothes that don't cover their faces or hands. Methinks all of these guys are likely to have troubles in the future.

Finny Friends Report: Fish tell Aquaman about the radioactive sea floor.

Captured/Knocked Out report: One of the crooked gamblers hits Aquaman as he's investigating the miners' dome. They trap Aquaman inside the dome with the doomed miners.

Quotefile: Butch, to his crew, "We're going to hijack a load of uranium!" Generic thug, in response, "Uranium? What's that boss?"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Heavy, heavy rain (and I had to walk down to the post office to mail something today) and just now I started seeing lightning and hearing thunder... and we've had a couple of strong gusts of wind. If I don't post again tonight, it's because the power is out.

ooop, lights just flickered...

Labels: Power Outage, Weather

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 7. What will Bully do with all his money gone?!?? And, up early (for me): Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 8.

Superhero Costume contest winners.

Heidi is angry at Diamond, again.

Thanks to Blogshares, I've found a comic book blog that I had not noticed until now. I found this entry to be fascinating, part for the history and part for me learning that Jonah Hex met Mormons (I was raised Mormon).

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mallard Fillmore strip actually slightly funny due to related events.

America's health care system is screwed up beyond belief.

Labels: Bully, Diamond, Links

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #105 (June 1946) - The Impossible Voyage!

Gordon attempts to cross the Atlantic in his sailboat, The Rainbow, and Aquaman gets involved near the end of the voyage and learns that everything is not as it seems.

The beginning starts with Badger and Gordon having a fight, and wagering a hundred pounds that Gordon cannot sail his boat single-handed to the States. The fight and wager are apparently well-publicized, because even Aquaman knows about it when he sees the ship a week out from its destination. Of course, this is where some of the oddness comes in. Why did Badger wait until Gordon was only a week away from the US to try to take him out? And how on earth could Badger have caught up in his tiny launch? Did he fly to the US then attack from land? But if Gordon was still a week from land... oh, my head hurts.

The smuggling angle wasn't too bad, but it left the story with no one to root for but Aquaman. Sure, Aquaman is a hero and all, but it's nice when he helps good people instead of just beating up thugs and smugglers.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman has starfish and octopuses fight to distract Gordon while he removes the jewels. He replaces them with electric eels that shock Gordon, Badger, and nameless thug when Aquaman reveals he knows all.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Once again, Aquaman is never captured or knocked out in this story. It seems to have become much less common.

Quotefile: Gordon, "I shall set out to win your bally money this moment!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #104 (May 1946) - Four Fish to Fetch!

Aquaman mediates in a dispute over a captured fish, which leads him to hunt for four more fish in the name of science.

I must admit, this one is kind of creepy. Aquaman uses fish to round up four fish which are definitely dead. And the reason for getting those fish is to prove that there are enough of them to start fishing for in large quantities. This Aquaman really doesn't seem to mind the circle of life, but it is a bit strange to see him using fish to capture fish.

And then there's the dirty joke he plays on the frustrated fisherman. Admittedly, the guy hit the professor on the head and stole the fish Aquaman had been hunting, but still... take him to jail if you must. Don't promise him a big catch then leave him to figure out where you stuck his hook. Sheesh, Aquaman.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman gets a luminescent deep sea fish to help him with light in a deep water cave. He battles two sea monsters for the fish he's after. Later, he watches an octopus chase a shark chasing a fish that's chasing one of the banded fish he's hunting. He throws a lobster at the octopus, which releases ink and Aquaman catches the banded fish in the confusion. The third fish hides among sea anemones, but Aquaman herds fish that eat anemones in among them and they flee, revealing the fish. A gull takes a fish, and Aquaman gets flying fish to knock the banded fish away from it. And when the other fisherman steals the professor's and Aquaman's catch, Aquaman has a bunch of large fish hold his boat steady in the water.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is never captured or knocked out in this tale.

Quotefile: Aquaman to fisherman, "Thanks! Just for being so honest... I'll see that you get a big catch!" Aquaman hooks the fisherman's hook into the bottom of his own boat, "There! That'll teach you not to steal other people's fish!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 6.

The Perils of Colleen, Epilogue, sort of.

DC solicits for March books are up already at Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Comics Continuum, IGN, ComicList, and The Official DC Site.

I've been unable to join ComicSpace. My confirmation e-mail never arrived at my excite e-mail address. When I tried to contact support and tell them I had a problem, I never got a response. And no, it didn't go into my bulk mail folder. I checked. I'm not a noob.

A pug for the in-laws.

I won't be doing a Ripples Through Time today. I fell earlier today and I'm in such pain that I can't concentrate, even on something as simple as a Golden Age story. I didn't do one yesterday because I needed a break. I kind of wish I'd done it anyway now.

Labels: Bully, ComicSpace, DC Comics, Links, Previews, Pug

I was waiting for this to show up. As soon as I saw the scene I thought, "Polite Scott is gonna comment on that one."

Johnny B's NFL Picks.

Bully's Ten of a Kind.

The Perils of Colleen Part 5.

Find out if you are Tone Deaf.

Labels: Bully, Johnny B, Links

And I'm a sinner...

I'm still playing Blogshares as I mentioned a bit ago, and I have some observations to make.

First off, to set you up, I'm earning "chips" in the game by reporting dead blogs. A dead blog is a blog that hasn't been updated for at least six months. I'm using the "random blog" function to find blogs, and then visiting each blog to see when it was last updated. If it's not dead, I try to put it into a category (an "industry" for game purposes). These are my observations from that random sample of Blogshares indexed blogs (I've looked at well over 1000 blogs now, and I'm just getting started).

There are tons of blogs with only one entry. Started, then abandoned in one fell swoop. These aren't dead blogs so much as stillborn blogs.
If a blogger gets past that first entry, they usually go for a few weeks up to about four months. Lots of blogs I find dead after three or four months of posts.
If the blogger makes it past four months, the odds are good that the blog is still alive. There are many exceptions, of course.
I hate HATE Microsoft live spaces. They often don't have an easy way to tell when the blog was last updated, and most of them have so much extra garbage the pages are hard to navigate. And they all load slowly.
I can't read the dates on any Persian blogs.
I can read the dates on almost any non-Persian blog.
Many people go to great lengths to make a cool-looking blog, then abandon it after a few months. Some of the best designs I've seen were those "3-4 months of posts then dead" blogs.
Many people have no sense of design at all, and make completely unreadable blogs.
Coming across a live blog after tons of dead blogs is like finding a fresh chocolate bar in a sea of stale candy corn. Ah... bliss.
Blogspot blogs are usually the easiest to tell the last update on. The dates tend to be in a standard format despite language, and the site tends to load fast.
Blogspot Beta blogs load slow and are annoying.
Even dead blogs are sometimes interesting. Nothing so interesting I want to link to it, but sometimes I run across a blog I'll read despite its stale content.
Videoblogs freak me out. I guess I have trouble imagining wanting to put myself on video for the whole world to see.
Profanity is common on dead blogs, slightly less common on live ones.
Even though I can't read dates on Persian blogs, I still keep looking at them, apparently hoping that the next one will be the exception and I'll suddenly understand Farsi.
"Normal" bloggers update their blogs a few times a month. I have great respect for the ranks of insane bloggers who update daily or at least multiple times a week.
If you get a 403 "Forbidden" error when going to a blog, always try again. Virtually every time I've gotten that error my second attempt got me to the blog.
Most of Blogshares indexed dead blogs seem to date from the summer of 2004.
A lot of people do not seem to realize that the whole world can read their posts. Either that, or they simply don't care.
Most people cannot spell.
If a blogger can spell, and has a profile, they are virtually always older than 30.
Profile pages are really useful on live blogs. Blogshares tries for demographic information on all blogs: gender, language, and location. A good profile will show all three.
There are a surprisingly large number of blogs named "my blog" or some variation of such.
Alternating Caps (LiKe ThIs) is annoying, but can be tolerated in small amounts. Blogs that have all text in alternating caps are unreadable, and the bloggers are morons.
The year 1385 is the current year on Persian blogs, so if I can spot a year and it's 1384 or before, it's older than six months. Ha!
Most first blog entries are either "Hi!" or "Test". These are also the last blog entries on many blogs.

Labels: blogger, Blogshares

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

Adventure #103 (April 1946) - Footsteps in the Ocean!

Aquaman finds giant footprints on the ocean floor and a challenge for battle from a sea giant, but his suspicion leads him to discover the truth.

Finally done with the More Fun issues, I've moved into the Adventure Comics. Aquaman was a stalwart in Adventure Comics for 15 years, from this story until 1961. He never made the cover, but he appeared in the vast majority of issues, only missing a few appearances, including the time the Shining Knight replaced him on alternate issues for a year. This run consists of 171 stories and included the change of Aquaman's uniform from yellow gloves to green, the introduction of Topo and Aqualad, and Aquaman's new Silver Age origin.

This is a two-part story. First we get the mystery of the footprints, which we quickly learn were hoaxed (by the 3rd page), then the mystery of the coral sign, which is answered by Chang. This is the first story to talk about the end of WWII, as Chang's duty is to return the treasures of China from the safekeeping they were put in during the war. After the hook of the giant footprints, it's a pretty straightforward tale.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman asks his finny friends if they've seen a giant, and when they say they haven't, he sticks around and learns he was hoaxed. After freeing Chang, he summons a group of swordfish and octopus who battle the badguys, dig out the treasure, and get Chang back to the mainland.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is never captured or knocked out in this story.

Quotefile: Challenge of the Sea Giant: "Aquaman, I defy you! I dare you to follow my tracks 1,000 miles to the deepest sunken valleys of the Indian Ocean! There we'll battle for the supremacy of the seas."

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Mark Evanier reports that Marty Nodell has passed away. He's the creator of my favorite comic character, Green Lantern. I especially like Marty's original version, Alan Scott, from the Golden Age of comics. I got to meet him briefly at the San Diego Commic-Con in 2001, and Laura got his autograph, complete with a green lantern, as the very first page in my sketchbook the year before. What a guy.

Labels: Green Lantern, Memorial, Post By Eric

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 5.

Verizon can't do math. They don't seem to understand that 2/1000ths of a cent is different from 2/1000ths of a dollar.

The Official Doctor Who Website has an advent calendar with some very cool prizes.

Labels: Bully, Doctor Who, Links

As a kid, I read this great book called Alanna: The First Adventure, and loved it deeply. Much later, I learned that the author, Tamora Pierce, is writing comic books now. Greg shares a fantastic story about how Pierce is still connecting with young women.

Apparently, all the cool kids are joining ComicSpace. I need another social networking site like I need another hole in my head, but I think I'll join up anyway.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #80.

Colleen Doran is posting about what she's learned in the publishing biz: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, with more to come.

Comic Continuum has images from "Justice", the Smallville episode which will feature the return of Aquaman to the show. Also, there's news on a new "Serenity" comic mini-series. Good stuff a-coming.

Speaking of Firefly, there's going to be a Firefly MMORPG.

When Work > Reward, then comes burnout.

I want this book. Since I plan on moving to Ubuntu, or at least learning how it works very soon.

Oops. Ha ha.

Labels: Comic Book Urban Legends, Firefly, Smallville, Ubuntu

These are mini-capsules: about one sentence per book with whether or not I recommend the book.

6 December 2006

Tony Loco #1: Hey, I've already reviewed this one! It's good, so try it. Recommended.

52 Week Thirty-One: "Human Resources": Ok, now we know what Lobo is up against. Nifty. Mildly Recommended.

Detective Comics #826: "Slayride": Oh dear. "Sanity Claus" makes this one for me. Probably the best Joker story I've read. Recommended.

Justice Society of America #1: "The Next Age Chapter 1": Maxine Hunkel... referring to Wicked repeatedly. I like her already. But she'll never live up to Ma's legacy. Never. Mildly Recommended.

Justice League Unlimited #28: "Season's Beatings Justice League": This book is so consistently good, I kind of wish everyone was reading it. Recommended.

Ha, caught up again!

Labels: 52, Detective, JLU, JSA, Reviews, Tony Loco

I didn't get these books until late, then didn't finish reading them all until Wednesday morning anyway. So it doesn't feel like I'm posting reviews late... And this week I only got five books, so those reviews should be up soon, too.

These are mini-capsules: about one sentence per book with whether or not I recommend the book.

29 November 2006

52 Week Thirty: "Dark Knight Down": Eh, not interested in Batman. Boring. Neutral.

Green Lantern #15: "Wanted: Hal Jordan Chapter Two": Wow, this book is annoying. Not Recommended.

Batman #659: "Grotesk Part 1": I sort of liked it despite myself. Mildly Recommended.

Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage #1: Bor-ing. Not Recommended.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #46: "Crown of Thorns": I liked this one from beginning to end... I liked the framing, I liked the flashback... I just liked it. Recommended.

Ion #8: "Princess of Alytt": Still unimpressed... except for that final page. That's got my interest. Neutral.

True Story, Swear to God (Image) #2: This is the not the best ever issue of this title, but in my opinion it's very close. HIGHLY recommended.

Powers #21: Ok, that's intense. Recommended.

Castle Waiting Vol II #3: Another delightful issue, this one focusing on the family of Henry. Since we know almost nothing about Henry, this is a lot of fun. Recommended.

Labels: 52, Aquaman, Batman, Castle Waiting, Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, Ion, Powers, True Story STG

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #107 (January 1946) - Blackie, Come Home!

Ark's son, Blackie, is frightened of Aquaman and runs away on a very long journey across the United States.

The final Aquaman in More Fun Comics! All the superhero features in More Fun moved to Adventure Comics after this one, and More Fun became an all-humor magazine. For Aquaman's last More Fun, he goes and visits Ark the Seal, who helped on a few previous adventures and was Aquaman's first recurring ally. We learn that Ark has retired to a safe island in "Northern Waters" and is raising a family. His son, however, thinks humans are dangerous, and runs away from Aquaman.

Blackie must move really fast. First he is chased by a polar bear, which Aquaman stops. Then he swims up the St Lawrence River, and to Lake Ontario. Then Niagara Falls. Yes, Blackie goes over the falls in a barrel and gets to be on the front page. Then he goes through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and bothers a fisherman in Lake Michigan. He escapes Aquaman and goes overland in a fish truck to the Mississippi, where he interrupts a singing act on a showboat. In a single text box he goes down the Mississippi, "into the Gulf of Mexico, up the Rio Grande and overland again to Great Salt Lake," where Aquaman finally catches up to him.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman runs into his old friend Ark, and chats with him. When Blackie runs away, Aquaman follows him. First he protects him from a polar bear. Then he runs into another seal who points the way Blackie has gone. He throws a very large fish into a fisherman's boat to protect Blackie from being killed for stealing the fisherman's other catches. Lastly, he throws Blackie himself at a poacher, before returning Blackie to Ark for some punishment.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman isn't captured or knocked out in this one.

Quotefile: Ark, "RK! RK!* (*Seal language meaning, 'Well, if it isn't Aquaman! Sure is a small world!')" ... Polar Bear, "RRRRRR...* (*Translation: 'Lunch-Time! Here's a blue-plate special')"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ark, Ripples Through Time

Hmmm, this one hits a little close to home.

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 4.

Liquid water found on Mars. Maybe.

Whole body lifts. When you lose weight too fast (due to gastric bypass surgery), you sometimes need to get that extra skin tucked away. Thankfully, I'm not losing weight that fast and I'm exercising as I go, so I'm not having this particular problem. Another reason for me to avoid the surgery. *shudder*

A moment of silence for James Kim, who left his family to find help after seven days of freezing and starvation. I doubt that he felt he had a choice.

Labels: Astronomy, Bully, Links, Memorial, Weight Loss

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #106 (November 1945) - The Liar Who Told The Truth!

Captain Ligh enjoys his tall tales, until the Five-Fathom Fisherman's club insists he prove his adventures to become a member.

Captain Ligh's first tale is about wrestling an octopus and tying it into a knot. His second one is the classic "tiger by the tail" story, only with a shark. Those are just the two we get to see, but apparently he tells stories about catching deep-water fish, because that's what the club members want him to do, and they give him only ten days to do it. By incredible luck, he manages the feat on the first day! But Aquaman steals the fish, because it will explode in a few minutes due to lack of pressure. Eventually Aquaman makes it right, on the last day of the test.

To solve Ligh's problem, Aquaman goes looking for a deep-water fish that can handle low pressures, but gets attacked by a gang of nasty fish who don't respect his dominion over the sea. We get two solid pages of deep-sea action with Aquaman, with dark and moody coloring, with the bright exception of Aquaman himself. Eventually, Aquaman finds some plastic powder and uses it to "glue" an oyster shell on the fish, protecting it for a journey to the surface so Ligh can join the club.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman rescues the fish that Ligh hooks from the low pressure of the surface. He's later chased by the same fish and its friends, who don't have "respect for royalty". He sends turtles after them, but the turtles are too slow. He gets giant jellyfish to sting them, but a few escape. So he gets his octopus friends to create a cloud so he can escape. Later, Aquaman captures the same fish and puts it on Ligh's hook.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is not captured or knocked out in this story, although he is chased by a gang of fish for awhile.

Quotefile: Aquaman, upon being attacked by a gang of fish, "Hey, back up! Don't you know that I'm ruler of the sea?"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

In Journalista, Dirk Deppey misrepresents my opinion on the word "minx". I didn't "take issue" with it. I was simply confused and asking for clarification. Oh well. I can't expect him to have read all my other comments on the subject. I am actually closer to Dirk's opinion of "who cares" than he realizes. I just didn't understand why there wasn't more of an outcry, since the word (in my mind) clearly had negative connotations. Now I know why there isn't an outcry. The meaning I thought the word had is apparently not what most people think. That's the problem with words. Definitions, and connotations, change over the years. A girl with her head stuck in old books is likely to get a bit confused when words don't mean what they think she means.

Bully's Fantastic Christmas Part 3.

The Beat covers the Annie Award Nominations.

Cheyenne Wright, who draws Arcane Times, got married November 1st. And he's finally put up wedding photos and afterparty photos of his Day of the Dead wedding. Girl Genius fans will note the appearance of Phil and Kaja Foglio.

FoxTrot going Sunday only. Since I stopped reading newspapers regularly, my comic strip reading has declined a lot. I don't think I've actually read FoxTrot in months.

Downloading comics. Legally. Via Boing Boing.

Inverted Jenny vote stamp turns out to be a fake.

Scary Mary. Best. Remix. Trailer. Ever.

And lastly: 01001001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101011 01101001 01100101 00101110

Labels: Binary, Bully, Cheyenne Wright, Downloading Comics, FoxTrot, Girl Genius, Journalista, Links, Webcomics

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #105 (September 1945) - Be-Kind-To-Whales Week!

Aquaman interrupts an argument on a ship, and is informed by the captain that the professor who chartered his ship is working for whalers.

This is a bit of a scattershot type of story, with a series of adventures that are tied together very lightly by the overall theme of "save the whales". Very odd that the folks trying to save the whales are whalers who want to increase the number of whales and protect their harvest. Captain Trawler doesn't want to help the professor when he learns that he works for whalers because, as he says, "I was a whaler years ago, in the North Atlantic and Pacific... and I saw what happened to the critters. Almost killed off, they was, by greedy men... I gave it up... swore I'd never harpoon another whale."

Aquaman doesn't seem very sympathetic, but in the end he protects the professor and lets him gather data to protect the whales. But first he has to save whales from orcas, swordfish, and whalers himself. Plus an iceberg gets involved. Just to make things even more odd.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman gets octopuses to plug the holes in the ship while the crew repairs it. Aquaman saves whales from killer whales and a swordfish. Then he has whales push the whalers' boat to a patrol ship.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is never captured or knocked out in this tale.

Quotefile: Aquaman, to killer whale, "You with the teeth... lay off." and "My, what a job a dentist would have with you."

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Mark Evanier links to ICQ's Christmas Cards.

We Like the Moon! Scott Adams on moon colonization. The Bad Astronomer also chimes in.

Hiro Nakamura Gift Guide? I would think he wants a sword.

Bully's Fantastic Christmas: Part 1. Part 2. Watch Bully's Site for the remainder.

So I told hubby-Eric that I scored well on an on-line INS citizenship test... and his response was, "Must have been an easy test." Gee, thanks hubby. I got 95%. What did you get? Via The Modulator.

Diane Duane reports on the citizen as journalist. Get yer camera phones ready.

New York City bans transfats in restaurants. In addition, any restaurants that have nutritional information are required to post calorie counts on their menus, so customers will see them at the moment of sale. Personally, and speaking from experience, I think they would have been better off (and made it much more useful) just requiring all restaurants to provide full nutritional information, instead of banning a substance.

James Kim's family has been found. But Kim himself left the car two days ago to try to find help.

Labels: Astronomy, Bully, Christmas, Diane Duane, Links, Weight Loss

I finally hit the big Five-Oh. In weight loss. Today's morning weigh-in shows that I've lost 50 pounds since I started my efforts on June 10th. FIFTY FREAKIN' POUNDS. Eat that, obesity!

Labels: Weight Loss

I was mildly stunned to see Elayne defending the use of the word "minx" as the name of the new DC comic book line aimed at girls. Then Elayne explained in this comment why she wasn't offended.... and now I'm even more surprised.

For as long as I can remember, the term "minx" was a nicer way of saying "slut". It's a term for a loose woman, or a girl who sleeps around a lot. Once I sat down and thought about it, I figure the difference between "minx" and "slut" is that you actually like the person you call a "minx", although there is disapproval of how she acts in the term itself.

However, according to Elayne, the term "minx" means "female scamp." I've never known that connotation, unless the scampiness being referred to was in bed. The word has always had sexual overtones, and is always negative.

Now, it can't be a generational thing, as I believe Elayne is slightly older than I am, and the focus group that DC claims to have talked to is presumably younger. So is it a regional thing? What does the term mean to you? When you heard that DC was going to name a comic book line "Minx", what was the first thing you thought of? Am I nuts? Am I the only one who thought that DC was publishing a line of books about women sleeping around a lot when they heard the name? Yeah, the term is nicer than "slut", but only just. Or is it just me?

Labels: Vocabulary

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #104 (July 1945) - The Great Goldfish Bowl!

A message in a bottle brings word of a lost goldfish, with a young boy's happiness riding on whether or not Aquaman can find it.

This is a pretty straightforward tale. Ronald, recently orphaned, loses his pet goldfish. His current guardian, Spencer, wants to keep control of Ronald because Ronald is due to inherit a huge fortune. So Spencer contacts Aquaman to find the goldfish, which managed to get into the river. In the meantime, Spencer's cousin Wilbur wants to protect Ronald from Spencer's money-grubbing and is trying to get custody. So Spencer has to impress the court that he's serious about making Ronald happy. Aquaman isn't inclined to go goldfish hunting, so Spencer offers a huge reward to the charity of Aquaman's choice.

The catch is that Spencer doesn't have the money for the reward (and can't use Ronald's money, even if he gets custody), so he wants the fish to stay lost. So naturally he hires thugs to take out Aquaman. Like that ever works.

Finny Friends Report: A fish gives Aquaman the message in the bottle that kicks off the adventure. Aquaman chats with some fish to find out if the goldfish was seen. Aquaman fights off a couple of large fish, rescuing the school of fish the goldfish is part of. He feeds the fish larvae to bring them back after they've scattered. Then he gets some large, angry-looking turtles to scare Spencer's thugs.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is caught in a net, but the thugs get too close and he battles his way out.

Quotefile: Narration, "With strange gifts, possessed by him alone, Aquaman is able to communicate with the creatures of the sea!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Bully's Ten of a Kind.

The Seattle PI covers the opening of the Fantagraphics Store. I was stuck by this passage, about some titles being "explicitly sexual -- the new store has a curtained-off section just for such material." Um, that would be half the store, right? (I kid, I kid... mostly)

The Beat on Minx Links. I still don't like the name, and find it mildly insulting, but whatever. I'm not the target audience, I guess.

Oz and Ends points us to Escher's Relativity in LEGO.

Snopes tells how Canadian children should write to Santa.

BNL Gets It. This is how you promote your music in this new paradigm.

The Bad Astronomer attempts to get to the bottom of the kerfluffle about "An Inconvenient Truth", and it's not as simple as it first looked.

How to tell if your cell phone is bugged. I'm not sure why anyone would want to listen to me anyway. I'm pretty boring.

Playground equipment tough enough for any kids.

Labels: Astronomy, Bully, DRM, LEGO, Links, Wizard of Oz

No "Ripples Through Time" today, I'm feeling a bit waterlogged. I don't want to burn out on the reviews, so I'm willing to take a break every once in awhile.

Instead, I went and got my hair cut today (Thanks Carol!) and went for a nice walk. Now I'm busily playing Blogshares. I haven't read all of this week's comics, and that's ok. I need the break every once in awhile.

My first experience with Blogshares was a few years ago when I had that absolutely horrible sunburn. I couldn't sleep, and I needed something besides TV to occupy my mind. So I started playing Blogshares and went completely nuts with the game, all the way to making the top ten and earning a free year of Premium service. I mostly played with the "idea" market, which was new at the time, and became an in-game billionaire.

Coming back to it seriously for the first time in over two years, I want to play a more standard game. So I've been playing with shares, and trying to help clean up the database by reporting dead blogs and putting live blogs into categories. There's now incentive in the game to help with the database. You earn chips, which can be redeemed for raffle tickets, "chances" and other fun stuff. I've been playing my chips for chances, which is an in-game lottery that has some nifty prizes.

To find dead blogs, I use the "Links" option on the navigation bar, then find the "Random Blogs" link, and visit each blog I get. There are a lot of dead blogs (for Blogshares purposes, a dead blog is any blog that hasn't been updated in 6 months). I'm finding a lot of blogs that have one or two entries after they were created, and nothing after that. It makes me wonder why the folks bothered at all. But then... at least they made the effort. They started. But it's strange, like walking through an on-line graveyard.

And it's fun, too. I'm seeing the strangest blogs, very different from what I hit in my normal browsing. That's part of the strength of the game. There's so much there, and you can have a bit of fun while you are at it. Not that it's for everyone. But I'm enjoying myself.

Labels: Blogshares

Lea Hernandez tries to not weigh in on the poorly named "Minx" line from DC. Can't anyone name a line for women/girls some name that doesn't have negative connotations?

Johnny B's NFL Picks.

FilkerTom is thinking about destroying model cities.

Bothell Lost. Oh well.

Labels: Bothell, FilkerTom, Johnny B, Lea Hernandez, Links

Happy Birthday Elayne.

Just FYI for anyone living in the North Seattle/Kenmore/Bothell area, my local comic shop, Corner Comics just massively increased the amount of Manga she's carrying. No, I'm not getting anything for blogging this. Just wanted to let people know. And I'm curious to see how well it sells, as she's been hesitant to carry titles that regular customers weren't ordering.

My thanks to everyone who clicked on my Blogshares and QuackTrack links to help me out in my on-line game. I got some "chips" in the game, which allowed me to get some other cool stuff. All virtual stuff, but I'm enjoying myself.

Speaking of enjoying, the local high school team, Bothell High School, is playing in the state championship for football tonight. Earlier this year, the Cougars set a state record, and tied a national record, for most overtimes in a high school playoff game.

The First-Christmas/Holiday-Card-Of-The-Season award goes to Baboon Books. One of these years I really ought to send out Christmas cards.

Here's a summary of Seattle's November.

The Incident on Niihau Island. Another story from DI.

Need a dose of Cute, and Cute Overload just isn't cutting it? Try The Cutest.info, and vote for the cutest if you feel like it. I'm kind of partial to The Funniest.info, but it's often NSFW.

Labels: Birthday, Blogshares, Bothell, Christmas, Elayne, Links, Weather

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #103 (May 1945) - The Professor Goes to School!

Aquaman corrects a fish expert on land about where chaetodon triangulum lives, setting the professor off on an ocean adventure to confirm Aquaman's report.

On his way to a war bonds rally in Gotham, Aquaman stops off at Professor Kenyon's lecture on Butterfly Fish, aka chaetodon triangulum. Kenyon insists the species he is talking about only exist in Madagascar, but Aquaman says they live near Samoa as well. However, Kenyon has never heard of Aquaman (although the other people at the lecture have). Still, because the existence of the fish in Samoa will demolish Kenyon's theory, he charters a boat to the islands to find out for himself.

First mention of Gotham in an Aquaman story, although that could easily be the nickname and not the DCU city. We'll pretend it's the DCU city... Aquaman goes in disguise so he won't be mobbed by autograph seekers. His disguise is a green trenchcoat and sunglasses... Aquaman is a big success at the war bonds rally... Aquaman rescues Kenyon from drowning in a hurricane, which is only fair since Aquaman's words sent the poor guy into the hurricane in the first place... To rescue the ship, which is taking on water, Aquaman puts crude oil on the surface of the ocean, calming the waters enough for the crew to make repairs. We won't talk about the possible environmental impact of Aquaman opening an oil field on the sea bottom... In a comic book twist of fate, Kenyon's ship anchors near another ship crewed by pearl poachers. They think Kenyon's ship is a rival gang of pearl thieves, and decide to take them out... Aquaman and Kenyon team up to take down Hurricane Hinks' Pearl Poaching gang... Kenyon seems surprised by Aquaman freeing the chaetodon triangulum after showing them to the professor. Apparently he really does know nothing about Aquaman.

Finny Friends Report: Aquaman notices fish diving to deeper, calm waters and realizes there is a storm above. To save Kenyon's ship, he has a narwhal drill a hole in the ocean floor to release oil. Shortly after he gets large fish or dolphins to pull the ship to harbor. When Aquaman cannot open the bathysphere, he gets a giant starfish to pry it open for him. And lastly, he captures some chaetodon triangulum for Kenyon.

Captured/Knocked Out report: Aquaman is not capture or knocked out in this tale.

Quotefile: Aquaman, to drowning professor, "You picked a bad time to go swimming, pal!" ... Professor Kenyon in bathysphere, "That octopus staring at me makes me nervous! I wish he'd go away!" Octopus, staring at Kenyon, "? ? ?" ... Aquaman, in a flurry of pure oxygen and bad puns, "Looks like you gust wrong, Hurricane!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

I'm reading every Aquaman solo adventure in publication order, one per day. After I read each story I'm going to post the cover/splash page and a few thoughts on the story.

More Fun #102 (March 1945) - Silent Sounds!

Aquaman feels a strange vibration under the ocean, and tracks it to its source: A project on ultrasonic waves.

The real fun of this tale is the "ferrocrystallizing" illustrations. The iron atoms are drawn as happy little spheres holding hands, until the vibrations make them grab their... um... heads and let go of their neighbors. Thus weakening the iron enough for Aquaman to escape. Yay science!

The bad guys are both named "Rocky". Later in the story they distinguish between each other by calling each other "Big Rocky" and "Little Rocky". Reminds me of three guys in college who had the same name who distinguished themselves by adding the prefixes "Wee", "Not-so-wee", and "Frigging Huge".

Aquaman sets up his own type of vibrations by throwing the flywheel of the boat's motor off balance. That shakes the ship enough to break the ultrasonic wave generator and take down the baddies.

The Rockies end up in prison togs breaking rocks, while Aquaman finds a distant Northern island for the scientists to work on. There are seals there, but Aquaman wants the seals to leave the island because of hunters, so it all works out in the end.

Finny Friends Report: No help from sea life in this issue, but we get a cool lesson with cute little iron atoms.

Captured/Knocked Out report: One of the doctors tries to throw a gun to Aquaman during the fight, and knocked Aquaman out instead.

Quotefile: Little Rocky, "Hey - Dis ship is jitterbuggin'!"

Have you read this story? What do you think?

Labels: Aquaman, Ripples Through Time

Yup, I'm playing Blogshares again. I seem to get back into it every few months and just play around for awhile. I find it amusing. Anyway, if you click on that link or on this QuackTrack link, I "earn" some stuff in the game. You, on the other hand, get taken to other websites. Your mileage may vary.

The snow is mostly gone, at least from the streets. However, there is still snow on the ground, and no rain predicted for a few days... fingers are crossed that we don't get any nasty weather for the weekend. Also: at the moment, I still haven't gotten this week's comics due to both weather and UPS/Diamond mix-ups. Which means I still haven't read the latest Aquaman. Which means I'm in a bit of a foul mood. UPDATE (2:20pm): Ah... Got Aquaman now. Much better.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #79.

Fantagraphics store opening makes the Seattle Times.

I've been asked to cover some of the current Comic Book News. Ok. Right.

Wizard Fires Senior Vice-President/Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum. I don't read Wizard anymore, and haven't for a few years because the quality got too low for even my low expectations. So I'm not surprised, nor am I impressed.
DC's Minx Line. I haven't seen much about the books themselves, and until I see some art and a bit more about the stories, I'm not all that intrigued by them. As for the act of creating a line "just for girls", well, at least they are acknowledging that there is a market there, and giving a little effort to tapping it. I seriously think that this Wonder Woman pitch could also accomplish the same task, but DC doesn't listen to me.

Anything I missed that people actually want to hear my opinion on?

Labels: Blogshares, Comic Book Urban Legends, Links, Weather

Yes, it's that time again... time for "Things in Previews That Look Interesting But I Can't Afford To Get (with a list of things I am getting just for contrast)". I'm going to start with the bulk of the book, and then come back and cover the "big four" at the end. Please remember, I'm listing what looks interesting. My actual purchase list is going to be much smaller. The numbers after each title are usually the page number in Previews Magazine, so you can follow along at home.

Covers aren't anything special. Nothing of note on the Splash Page for me. Let's jump to the regular comics section. Nothing that jumps out at me from the Featured Items, so into the publishers listings I flip.

AiT/Planet Lar (208) is resoliciting six excellent books. True Story, Swear to God, Colonia, and Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, each with two volumes available. Go, buy them all. Seriously.

And guys, if you have a girlfriend who doesn't read comics and you want the PERFECT introduction to comics for here? True Story, Swear to God: Chances Are... Get it. Give it. You won't regrest it.

I'm almost completely uninterested in the book, but the Pirates vs Ninjas T-Shirt (216) is actually tempting, from Antarctic Press. I mean, it's just COOL. If I had a spare $20, I'd definitely get it.

There's a new(?) publisher, Do Gooder Press publishing the wonderful and highly recommended PS238. I don't even have to look at the solicit to know I'm going to buy it, and I think anyone reading this ought to buy it too.

Evil Twin Comics (274) is putting out another issue of Action Philosophers. Looking forward to it.

Another issue of Castle Waiting (274) is coming out from Fantagraphics.

I'm REALLY looking forward to the next volume of Abadazad from Hyperion Books. The first two were excellent. The switch to mostly prose worked for the story, and I'm eager to read more.

IDW Publishing has another issue of Fallen Angel (295).

I'm looking forward to Illusive Productions (298) two books coming in February. Dorothy #8 and Tony Loco #2. The first issue of Tony Loco probably came out this week to stores that weren't snowed in. And Dorothy is just... well, it's Dorothy. If you haven't tried it by now, you're missing out.

My friend David will be getting Phantom from Moonstone Books (306). He also is hoping for a Doc Savage and The Spider on-going. If anyone who works at Moonstone is reading this, put down his votes.

I'm also looking forward to Amelia Rules! #17 (318) from Renaissance Press. It's been too long since the last issue.

Flipping... Flipping... Another ad for the new DC Heroclix (Origins). I hope there's a new Aquaman, and if so, I hope I can get it cheap enough. I wish I had someone handy willing to play Heroclix with me, but I'm so lousy at that type of game nobody really wants to play with me. I loved Sportsclix too.

Flipping back to the front of the book...

Dark Horse... hmmm, I think I may be dropping Conan now. It's good, but not as good as it's been. No Usagi this month? *sigh*

Mostly the usual from DC Comics. Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #49 of course. Another issue of Justice. The rest of the usual stuff. The Mini-Mates are resolicited, including Aquaman and Ocean Master.

Image Comics gives us Noble Causes and True Story, Swear to God.

I'm not sure what I'm getting from Marvel Comics, and I don't really care much.

And there it is... all of Previews. I'm finally all the way through. Huzzah. So that's it for this month's "Things in Previews That Look Interesting But I Can't Afford To Get (with a list of things I am getting just for contrast)". Comments? Questions? Did I miss any really cool books that you know about and would like to point out? Do you disagree with something I wrote, and want to correct me? There's the comments, right below. Post something. And, yes, I accept review copies. I'm willing to give almost anything a try.

Labels: Previews