Random Access

Tuesday: Coda
After work, I came home to find a package waiting for me. I wasn’t expecting anything, so my curiosity was “ever so slightly” piqued. I picked up the box and looked at the handwriting: It was my father’s. “Curiouser and curiouser,” said little Alice…

I took the box into the apartment and opened it.

Inside, there were four (4) boxes of Butterscotch Krimpets!

I called Dad to thank him; he laughed and said that he sent them because I deserved a good surprise. We talked for a few more minutes; all’s well there.

I headed to Chris and Mary’s for a few games of ‘Clix with Chris. We both wanted to try out teams before Saturday’s tournament. 1000 points. Unrestricted. I tried a rough team, built around Phoenix the first game and a version of the Green Lantern Corps the second game. Chris brought out The Anti-Monitor, the new Sinestro and Psylocke, for both games. We played timed rounds; Chris won both of them on points. I picked up a few things, but still wasn’t entirely happy with the way I played either team. But, I didn’t want to just fall back on the Legion, because I want to be a fairly well-rounded player and not a one-trick pony. But, I still had fun. We may try to squeeze in another game later this week.

Olly olly oxen free!
Did you know that one of the collective nouns for “ox” is “a span of oxen?”
I didn’t until working on a crossword puzzle today.
I did, however, know that a collective of crows is called “a murder.”

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 17 June 2008
I was awake before the alarm went off this morning. Which set me up to be nominally coherent when it did go off… enough to turn it off and roll over for Anotherloverholeinyahead another 20 minutes of sleep. I had an odd dream that involved me being back in middle or upper school. And getting to school. And snow. And living in Baltimore. Odd combination.

I was in the office at 8:00. Nice, as the office hasn’t really started to hum yet. I have a meeting today from 2:00 to 3:30, allegedly. At this point, I’m of the opinion that I’ll be taking Defiant into the meeting to find novel and creative ways of staying awake. Focused? Well, we’ll see how good the meeting is at holding my attention.

Stray Toasters

• What’s ‘fair use’ in a blog?
• ‘Teach the Controversy’ t-shirt designs

  
  (click image for more information)

• I may wind up re-lobotomizing ‘Nine. The current installation of XP seems… to have issues.
• By way of BBC News: 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate
• Inventor of the Internet, Oscar winner and former Vice President Al Gore has thrown his weight support behind Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
• Building Your Perfect Wardrobe: Spring/Summer ’08
• After seeing LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman and Robin and LEGO Indiana Jones, I wouldn’t mind seeing a LEGO X-Men game. (And I won’t even mention that a LEGO Legion of Super-Heroes game would be an ‘automatic covet/buy…)

And, now, coffee cup in hand, it’s time to “…attack the day like birds of prey.”

Namaste.

The day has been pretty good. The highlight (at least so far) was heading to ‘s house with looneybin88 and JG to play a few games of Twilight Zone pinball at lunch. Other than that, it’s been a rather run-of-the-mill day in the neighborhood.
(…in the neighborhood…)
(…in the neigh-bor-hood.)

Not sure what trouble I plan on getting into this evening. Maybe a trip to Paragon City… or *gasp* even The Rogue Isles.

Stray Toasters

• 10 Awesome Shirts for Geeks
• From the world of golf: After 19 Extra Holes, Woods Captures His Third U.S. Open
• Stan Winston Dies
• By way of : Death of Spock Mash-up

• …which led me to: William Shatner or…

• Hulk vs. The Universe
• I’ve rediscovered Exiern



• How to improve your home wi-fi network
• was on a roll today: He told us about a video of a teenager kicking a cement wall… and the aftermath. As neither looneybin88 nor I had heard of this, let alone seen the video, he sent us a link to it. (Disclaimer: If you’re squeamish, you may just want to skip this one. Seriously.)

• Top Ten: Comics’ Bad Dads
• Wizard World Chicago…
• Wait… wait… wait. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2? And it may be a Civil Bore War storyline? Not sure how I feel about that.

Quotes of the Day
Today’s gems both came at lunchtime and qualify as “Unintentional Porn Overheard While Playing Pinball”

1. looneybin88 was on the machine… and doing quite well. He made a play that resulted in playing with three pinballs on the table. (You have no idea how many permutations that last sentence went through before I came up with something that wasn’t porn-tastic.) Someone commented on his making a good play and the rest of the conversation went down the proverbial chute:
   

   Me: Sun. Dog. Ass. (My usual ‘shorthand’ for “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too…”)
   looneybin88: What can I say? I got skills!
   : You have skills… with a dog’s ass? I’m calling animal control.

   At that point, all three balls left the field of play as looneybin88 doubled-over, red-faced and laughing.

2. All of us had a horrible third game… except JG. When he was coming to the table to play his second ball, he looked at our scores and said:
   

   Huh, all I have to do is beat myself.

   The rest of us looked at each other… and broke out in raucous laughter. JG, to his credit, stoically kept playing.

And now, to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Sunday – 15 June 2008
Happy Father’s Day

This morning started lazily. SaraRules made sauteed spaghetti and coffee for breakfast. (By the way: Drew, I did get the recipe.) Rachel hung out through breakfast and then went out for a hike. Next up: Hygiene rituals and a spot of laundry.

I’ll be heading west again in a couple of hours. It has been a good (though brief) trip – it was nice to see SaraRules and some of the places that she has talked about for the past few weeks. I’m going to try and get back out here sometime next month, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

A couple of shots from the front porch of the condo:

(click for larger versions)

Stray Toasters

• Last night, we watched Across the Universe again. We’ve been trying to see this for a couple of months. I love the arrangements of the songs… and I had forgotten how much I liked the arrangement of Let It Be. And the visuals are great, as well. If you have somehow not seen this movie, I strongly recommend renting it. Soon.
• Congrats to and Team Chalk-o-Licious for winning “Best of Festival” at this year’s Chalk Art Festival.
• The Things That Carried Him – This is a story that I first heard about on RadioWest a few months ago. It tells the story of a U.S. soldier’s final journey – the journey home to be buried. It’s a pretty amazing story. Hearing the interview with the author, Chris Jones, made me look forward to getting that issue of Esquire.
• This American Hero Wins Machinima Contest
• By way of BBC News: The United States of Advertising
• What the iPhone 3G Is Still Missing
• I’m not going to get my entry for “Superman: Man of Style” done in time to submit it to Project: Rooftop… but I’m going to keep working on it. Because I can. And because it’s been pretty fun.
• William Katt: The Hero Guest Stars on Heroes

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

SaraRules and I headed into Aspen this afternoon.  We went to the Aspen Music Festival and School campus.  From there, it was into town to the Aspen Art Museum and to wander around; it reminded me a bit of Park City – a decent place to visit, but I don’t think I could live in either place. Next, we headed to the Aspen Music Festival concert grounds.  And then… back to Snowmass Village.  Jiggety-jig.

All that and pictures, too.

Stray Toasters

• Sock Monkey Named for Obama Criticized as Racist
• 3G iPhone coverage from…
  • Gizmodo
  • Engadget
• Shakespeare… in manga form: Much ado about manga.
• Sweet Christmas!

Zoom!

Saturday – 14 June 2008
It’s clear and sunny out; hopefully, it will be a little warmer than yesterday.

This day started with a good morning ping from , not a bad way to start the day. He pointed me in the direction of this article from John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. I don’t suppose that I should have read the NPR article, Obama’s VP Search: Avoiding Party’s Past Mistakes, because about the time I hit the third sentence in the section entitled “Handicapping the VP Short List,” I was done. “Gracious exit…!?” My ass. That exit was to “gracious” as Utah’s Black population is to the state total population. (Translation: “Not very.”)

Quick note for those of you in the SLC metro area: The Utah Foster Care Foundation Chalk Art Festival continues today. Go down and cheer on/vote for and Team Chalk-O-Licious. Here’s their work-in-progress:

(click for ‘s (quick) post about this piece)

SaraRules and I are going to head into Aspen in a little while. That should be fun and interesting.

Stray Toasters

• From NPR: Songs for Dad: Father’s Day Jazz
• Men in Black is still fun – and funny – movie.
• By way of Wired: Coolest Movie Metamorphoses – From Wolf-Man to Hulk
• USA Today has a poll asking how readers would feel about an Obama/Powell or McCain/Powell ticket.
• I skipped “Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day” – not for lack of ideas, I just couldn’t get into it.
• Worthplaying.com takes a look at LEGO Batman

Quote of the Day
“Football (soccer) is like chess, only without the dice.” – Lukas Podolski

Up out.

13 June 2008
Greetings from Snowmass Village.

As it had been almost three weeks since I’d seen SaraRules, I decided that a trip was in order. I had originally planned on taking the train out here, but Amtrak apparently decided that this was the weekend to do track maintenance. So, no go. *blah* We looked at other methods of getting me here: Airplane. Bus. ICBM. We finally settled on me coming out next week. Okay, to say that “we” settled on it, isn’t exactly right. We said that it seemed as though it would be next week before I would be out here. In the back of my head, I was calculating the mileage and planning to just hop in the car and drive it. And that’s exactly what I did. Hello, surprise visit. The hard part, as usual, would be making sure that I – or anyone else who knew what I was planning – didn’t tip my hand.

Fortunately, as most of my work for the past few weeks has been training-related (i.e.: LOTS of reading) – and since books are rather portable – I was able to parlay that into working on the road. The drive out here was rather nice, despite a few construction zones in both Utah and Colorado.

I have driven through Colorado twice before – when I moved to Utah and again a couple of years ago – but, both of those trips were east-to-west. And, both of those trips were along I-70, so I’m… familiar… with the road. But, I noticed things heading eastbound that I hadn’t seen before. And, I also stopped in a different part of Grand Junction than usual.

Before last night, I had never seen more of Glenwood Springs than what you get from I-70. That’s a shame. The part of it that I drove through last night seemed nice… for a small town. And, from what SaraRules has told me, the cost of living here is still a little higher than SLC, but not quite as bad as in Aspen.

The drive into Snowmass Village wasn’t bad. Until I got “to” the condo complex where AMFS is lodging SaraRules for the summer. Apparently they don’t believe in putting street signs in locations where you can see them easily, especially at night. I drove right past the entrance. I continued all the way up to Snowmass Village Town Center, which I knew to be too far. *sigh* Turn around and drive back towards Aspen. Fortunately, I was able to see the sign for SaraRules’ complex this time. Turned in, found the building, parked.

The look of surprise on SaraRules’ face – a combination of “I’m glad to see you” and “What are YOU… doing HERE… NOW?!” – was worth the drive. We unpacked the car and I got to relax. I also met her roommate, Rachel. The condo itself is nice: 2BR/2BA, nice kitchen and living/dining areas. It’s roughly the size of my apartment, maybe a little bigger. And one of the owners has a thing for bears. Pictures. Figures. I am almost at the point of wondering if she’s a shaman and it’s her spirit guide.

Today’s biggest hurdle was getting Defiant (in Windows mode) to recognize that there really was a wireless connection, so I could connect to work’s network and do some morning housekeeping. In OSX mode, it found it immediately. A few button-pushes later and I was in like Flynn.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with MarknTyme a little while ago; there have apparently been a couple of teen phone pr0n incidents in his school system.
• 3 Smart Things About Music
• The Onion has news about the new WoW sequel: World of World of Warcraft
• Adoption system seen failing kids from minorities
• A question to those of you who use laptop/notebook computers: If/when you connect to a secondary monitor, how do you configure your setup? For example, I use Defiant‘s monitor as my primary monitor, whereas uses his laptop’s screen as his secondary. What do you do?
• Egypt bans 92-year-old’s marriage
• 
• I still have no idea who I want to use in next weekend’s ‘Clix tourney… although I still think that Phoenix would be fun as a power piece.



• Celtics stun Lakers to move to brink of title
• Leonardo DiCaprio as Captain America…? I don’t know. I wouldn’t be upset if they went with an unknown here, to be honest.
• Internet addiction nominated for entry in the Manual of Mental Disorders
• Hmm, maybe Gary Gygax was “a little” older than he let on…
• For :

Two cups of coffee into the game, I can make like Tom Sawyer and get “…right on to the friction of the day.”

Namaste.

Derek read the article in my earlier post about teens sending naked pics of themselves via their cellphones and had this to say:

(3:07) cell phone porn…. wtf did you expect people
(3:07) the phone has a camera on it
(3:07) not to mention the internet

(3:09) and if the kids were smart, they would do it on their nintendo wii, because they only need 1 hand to operate that 🙂

I don’t think that there’s anything that I could even attempt to add to that… other than to say “Quote of the Day.”

Thursday – 12 June 2008
So far the day goes well. That’s always a good thing.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, I was unbelievably lazy. I’d planned to do some straightening around the apartment. Nope. Didn’t happen. I think that the closest I came was putting the Sentinel in the case behind Phoenix… and then deciding that I liked the way Phoenix looked alone on the shelf better.

I did play City of Heroes, though. Not only did I play, I tacked two-and-a-half levels onto Kurigari. I hooked up with a good team and we ran through a few missions in The Hollows. It’s still a crappy zone for ground-pounders, but at least I’m less than two levels away from Superspeed. (Hover and Flight just don’t fit this character, so I’m not using them.)

I also watched Justice League Unlimited and ST: DS9, along with a couple of episodes of L&O: SVU. Decent episodes of each show: “Chaos at Earth’s Core,” “Emissary, Part II” and… I don’t remember which SVU episodes.

One thing that’s not a win: I’m remembering why I don’t watch G4’s Attack of the Show with any regularity. I keep comparing it – unfavorably – to The Screen Savers. TSS was a good show, you got tech news and info… with a little levity thrown in on the side. But the humour was smart and witty. AotS… just seems to go for the quick/cheap laugh or thrill and throw in something technical for fun or as an afterthought. Or maybe I’m no longer part of their core demographic.

> Play >
Coffee is a wonderful thing.
Coffee cake would be a nice addition… but I don’t have any.

Stray Toasters

• I have a doughnut. It’s not coffee cake, but beggars should not choosers be.
• Dinosaur
• By way of Indexed:



• Thanks to for pointing out Religulous. I’m interested in seeing this.
• Teens sending nekkid pics of themselves on cell phones! Oh, my! We never saw this coming, did we? Not in a million years. Apparently, Utah news sources are jumping on the bandwagon. Let’s hope that this doesn’t go over the same way as “the emo epidemic” did.
• …of course, then there’s this: Health group denounces Incredible Hulk for smoking
  Because, Heaven knows that kids would never see anyone smoking out on the street or anywhere else in everyday life. Flaming idiotsticks.
• 
• I’m spoiled. I had to change out a workstation’s power supply… with a manual screwdriver rather than a drill/driver.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Man in court over comedy TV show
• Trial halted over judge’s website

The show must go on.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 11 June 2008

That’s representative of today’s weather in Salt Lake City. The forecast says that we should even break 60°F. Considering that Monday’s high was 80°F, I’m not overly enthused. I shouldn’t complain too much: SaraRules said that there was snow in Aspen this morning.

The morning has been relatively uneventful. So far.

Last night’s Scion game was fun. No one died. Correction: “No one from our group died.” A few otherwise-innocent bystanders? Well… um… oops.

Stray Toasters

• called me this morning to relate the following story: She heard someone (on the radio, I believe) singing a song called If You Could Hie to Kolob…to the tune of the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies. I was intrigued by this. I looked up the lyrics and hummed the theme to myself. It worked. Beautifully, at that.
• If you’re unfamiliar with “Kolob,” click here for more information.
• Thanks to for pointing out the following t-shirt/bumper sticker:

  

• I took some… creative license… with a couple of HALO 3 screenshots a few months ago, but neglected to post them:

  
  (click images for larger size)

• Time travel back to 1000 A.D. : Survival Tips
• Loonybin88 sent me a link to this:

• My friend Jonni has posted a new song on his MySpace page: End of Alone. Check it out.

Namaste.

Today is Kris’ birthday. I called her this morning… but didn’t get an answer. I tried again this afternoon with much better success.

After work, I headed home to change clothes and have a bite to eat.

Next up: Scion… for the first time in nearly two months.

Workout
Today’s workout wasn’t too bad… considering that it’s been a week since I was last in the gym.

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus, high-to-low): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 95 lbs, 2 sets @ 110 lbs
• Bent-over Rows (barbell): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 55 lbs, 2 sets at 70 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps – 1 set with 40 lb dumbbell, 1 set with 45 lb plate
• Lateral Raises (with forward extensions x3): 3 sets/4 reps – 2 sets @ 15 lbs, 1 set @ 8 lbs
• Push-ups: 1 set/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 175.6 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Terence Stamp talks Valkyrie and Superman II
• …which reminds me: General Zod – 2008 Presidential Candidate

  

• Best and Worst-Dressed in Sci-Fi
• “Genuine Leather”



• How… HOW… in the Nine Hells do you manage to hit yourself in the head with a nail gun?!
• Edo Period-style Pac-Man fan art
• Giger-esque furniture from old motorbikes

Namaste.

Monday – 09 June 2008
Here comes the work week.

I can’t complain about the weather, though.

It’s supposed to get up to the upper 70s. I can deal with that… especially since SaraRules just told me that it’s cold enough in Aspen that she had to wear a sweater this morning. In June. That just ain’t right.

I played a little CoH last night. I may switch over to CoV in the next day or two and show Mr. Dhoruba some love. Speaking of whom, I need to get a screenshot of his updated look… as well as a shot of my new Hero-side character, Kurigari.

This morning, I apparently woke up long enough to turn off the alarm… and roll back over. I don’t really , remember it, though. I was up about twenty minutes later, though. It didn’t take too long to kick the morning into gear. And the frozen mocha didn’t hurt, either.

Stray Toasters

• WWDC.
• SaraRules and kind of bonded over a common… um… “lack of bonding” experience.
• Have you ever listened to Space Oddity with only one channel (right or left)? Try it sometime.
• I have started trying a couple of new layouts of items in one of the display cases:

  

  I know that this leaves a lot of empty space on that shelf, but I really like the way it accents the figure. The only better thing that I could imagine would be to have an LED in/on the figure, similar to the McFarlane HALO3 Cortana figure. I also wish that I had about a half-inch more height to work with – Galactus would look nice behind Jean.

• New rocket car spotted in Silver Lake
  (Why does this many me want to hum the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?)
• My coworker Robert came over a little while ago to ask me if I had seen Stuff White People Like. I told him that I had and that I found it amusing.
• I find this particularly apt, especially given many Utah drivers’ aversion to roundabouts:



• Okay… this is a little uncanny (and weird): Without any input/coercion from me, a dialogue clip from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just played on iTunes.
• Joshua Ellingson Fine Art & Illustration

Whee!!!!

Namaste.

Before I forget (again): Happy Hatching Day to !

The move went much faster than expected. I think that we were done with the lifting/shuttling in just over thirty minutes. We even got to use Forearm Forklift straps; different, but not bad. Nizlee’s folks fixed us a nice lunch in return for the elbow grease, which was very nice of them.

I had some time to kill before heading to Chris and Mary’s, so I thought I’d go by and play with the kids, since I was nearby. I called to see if she was at home; she wasn’t but said that I was welcome to stop by. And that’s exactly what I did. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen them. The biggest noticeable difference is that the fur on Presto’s lower back is developing more of an orange tint. But they’re all still very cute.

(click images for larger versions)

On to Chris and Mary’s to watch Diary of the Dead. It was a George Romero film, so of course there was a bit of commentary… but it was also a pretty good movie, too. It got a little campy for a couple of scenes near the end, but it did wrap up nicely.

Stray Toasters

• “I’m Samuel. Hello.”
• I picked up a pass to a sneak preview of The Incredible Hulk after the tournament yesterday. The screening is Monday night… at 7:00. I was actually looking forward to going… but then I remembered that I am going out to dinner with SaraRules’ family tomorrow evening.

  

  Oh, well. I’ll catch the movie when it releases. So, if anyone is interested in a free pass to the movie, let me know.

• I should play City tonight.
• Or Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
• Or go old school and play MechCommander, which I just got back from Chris.
• This is a cool picture of Wonder Woman.
• X2: X-Men United is on FX. I like this movie. And its predecessor. X3… not so much.

And with that… I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.

Saturday – 07 June 2008
Today is my mother’s birthday.

It is also Prince’s birthday.

I called Mom to wish her a happy birthday.
I did not call Prince.

Despite waking up late, it was a good day. There was another ‘Clix tournament at Far West today; I picked up Chris on the way to the store. I decided to try a different team, as I don’t want to become a one-trick pony with the Legion. I went with the Doom Patrol:

• The Chief
• Mento (yes, I received a lot of jibes referring to him as “The Fresh-Maker”)
• Rita Farr and
• Red Arrow

I know… I know… Red Arrow is not – nor has he been – a member of DP, but he filled a slot that I needed for long-range attacks.

As Fate would have it… I drew Chris as my first round opponent. Before the match even started, I was ready to chalk it up as an automatic loss. And, boy, was I right. He obliterated me. I think that I damaged one of his characters. Maybe.

Second round, I played a guy named Frank. He had a three-person team of X-related people:

• Archangel
• Emma Frost
• Jean Grey (Age of Apocalypse)

I won this game… on points. Frank played a defensive game and I was able to effectively set up a pincer offense. I lost The Chief in the gambit, but I was able to take out Emma and Jean (and was working on Archangel) before time was called.

Third round: Sean. He played with a mixed force:

• Accomplished Perfect Physician
• The Leader
• Unus the Untouchable

This was a good game. I kept trying to hit Physician, but his damned Super Senses let him keep dodging the attacks. Rita didn’t get close enough to do any damage. The Chief and Mento…? Well, let’s just say that they aren’t exactly damage cannons. In the end, I lost the team to attrition.

So, I was 1 – 2 for the day. On the up side, I won the “Fellowship” (think “Sportsmanship/Good Conduct/etc”) award, for which I got a Stardust figure. Stardust… Herald of Galactus. Nice! And… Chris was the big winner of the day. His prize: A spot in the HeroClix 2008 World Champioship at GenCon… with a first round bye. VERY nice!

There’s another tournament in a couple of weeks. 1,000 points… per player. Unrestricted, which means that if it’s EVER been a figure, it’s usuable. Ostensibly, this means that I could field both Galactus AND Phoenix. Of course, that would be ALL that I could field. And they would be targets. Big targets. Colossal targets, in fact.

After the tourney was over, Sean and Frank wanted to play some more, so Chris and I took them on. 400 points per player. We fielded a mixed team, as did Frank and Sean. We wound up taking out Frank’s part of their team and shortly thereafter – with most of their heavy-hitters gone – Sean conceded the game.

I stopped at Jitterbug to have a bite to eat. Uriah was there and we, along with the other folks in the shop, sat around and gabbed for a while.

From there, it was off to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ family. They were watching Amazon Women on the Moon when I got there. I had not seen it before, so they played a couple of scenes – featuring David Allen Grier as Don “No Soul” Simmons. I cracked up. Check ’em out:

…and…

Next up: Breakfast.

Stray Toasters

• By way of MarknTyme: AA-12: World’s Deadliest Shotgun
• By way of : Indian school names monkey god chairman

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda

After work, I came home for a bit, read today’s four-color haul and then went to Borders to do some drawing. I’ve decided that I am entering Project: Rooftop‘s latest contest – “Superman: Man of Style,” in which the challenge is to reimagine Superman’s costume. I think that I have a decent idea with good reasons for the changes to the iconic costume. After settling on what I wanted to do, I tried some preliminary sketches. (And the fact that I haven’t really drawn anything in months really shows…) The deadline is 15 June 2008, so I do have some time to get things worked out. I hit a bit of a wall, so I switched gears and decided to work on the new piece I started last week. Progress was made.

Back home. I installed the light in the second display case. The two cases look good. I do think that I’ll be rearranging what is on the shelves though.

Four-Color Coverage
It’s been forever since I’ve done one of these, but it was a light week – I only picked up five books – and today’s haul was pretty good. So, on with the show!

• Avengers/Invaders #2 (of 12) – The Invaders, Marvel Comics’ WWII-era supergroup, have wound up in New York City of 2008. Having left the 40s in the middle of an attack on a Nazi stronghold, they aren’t sure what to make of their new surroundings… even to the point of thinking that everyone around them is a Skrull. I mean Nazi. On the other side of the coin, the Avengers have to find a way to subdue the Invaders and minimize their contact with the world of 2008, so that they don’t corrupt the timestream. Piece of cake, right? Riiiight.
• Justice Society of America #16 – I can’t say enough good things about this book. At the end of Issue #15, we were introduced to Gog. The being who gave Magog his power. A self-proclaimed god who was cast out of the Third World. What’s he doing here on Earth? Why does he know Earth-22’s (Kingdom Come) Superman? And what did he do to Damage?
• Secret Invasion #3 (of 8 ) – Skrulls. Everywhere. A couple of new reveals. And… who’s that guy with the eyepatch?
• Supergirl #30 – This version Supergirl has been… an uneven book during it’s fairly short span. Homicidal pawn of Darkseid. Rebellious teen. Super-smart heroine, out to save the world…. literally. DC has said that they are going to more fully integrate the book with the Superman corner of the DCU. They took a giant step in that direction with this issue. Kara, still feeling out of place, tries to find some answers and figure out what to do now that the baby she was sent to Earth to protect is now almost twice as old as she is. And she even has a bonding moment with a certain Dark Knight. I was on the fence about this book recently; it will be interesting to give it a few issues to see if it’s back on track or if this was only a momentary flicker of hope.
• Trinity #1 – When Diana Prince, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne get together (in their civilian identities, no less) to compare notes about having variations of the same dream, it’s a pretty good indication that something is afoot. In their dreams, a powerful entity is trying to break free from some form of captivity. Sorceress Morgaine LeFey is also aware of the power… and wants it for herself. Kurt Busiek (Astro City) and company have kicked of DC’s newest weekly series nicely. I’m not sure if I’m up for yet another weekly, but I may give it a few weeks to see how it shapes up.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with the parental units today; all’s well in their respective parts of the seaboard.
• I neglected to mention something that I saw on Sunday at Borders: There was a woman, curled up in a chair in the cafe. Her cell phone rang; she answered it. When I looked up, there was a man standing outside the cafe window; he was on his phone. For a few moments, their conversations were synced to the point that you would have thought that they were talking to each other.
• There was a lone box of Mutations and Monsters ‘Clix in Dr. Volt’s today. I couldn’t just leave it there. I’m glad that I didn’t. In it was a rare figure: Omega Red
• I checked out a couple of movie trailers on Apple.com. Has anyone heard anything about City of Ember? I was intrigued by its trailer. I also saw the trailer for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This looks like it could be fun.
• Burn Notice. On USA. I’ve only seen a few episodes, but I’m enjoying it.
• WWDC. Monday.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.