Just Closed

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Sound The Trumpets!

RING THE BELLS!

BRING ON THE DANCING GIRLS!

SEND IN THE GIRAFFE!

Another Blog by Another Geek celebrates its one year of existence. That's right folks, one year as a drop of tap water in this vast ocean we call the internet.

Yes, tap water. Not exactly bad, not exactly good. It just is what it is.

So, how does one celebrate such a momentous occasion?

By getting the Hell out of Dodge.

That's right folks. This may be the last post on this here blog. Okay, second-to-last.

I'm moving.

I decided to take at least a test run at running a daily blog over at my sister blog, LiveJournal. Currently I've only been using it to post my little bits of fanfiction, but I figure I'll take a shot.

The reasons are six of one, half-dozen of the other, but it basically amounts to this: The few little things that I want to do on this blog, technicality-wise, are things that LJ can do and Blogger can't (at least within my limited techno capacity). So I thought I'd take a swing next door to see if the grass is greener, or if it's the same color, just patchy in different spots.

I'll be losing access to the HTML code of my blog, which means no more StatCounter and no more Hunter License. It may also mean a shortening of my links over on the sidebar, I'll get that figured out today when I start cleaning up over there.

In exchange, I'll be getting three things I've wanted from my blog for a while:

- Access to my avatars. Now that I know what the hell I'm doing with them, I wanna try them out, see if it's worth the hassle.

- No more big long "spoiler" gaps. Over at LJ I can take anything that people may not want to read and collapse them into a single phrase, to be clicked or not to be clicked. It may also come in handy for people who don't want to read my long, involved Transformers reviews. In both cases, I tend to keep writing other blog stuff after I'm done with those postings, so this way people won't have to scan past stuff they don't want to read to get to the stuff they do want.

- And, most important (although a rare occurrence with the amount of people reading this thing), the comments section on LJ has more of a message board feel than Blogger. If someone posts a comment, and I or someone else wishes to respond to it, that response is created as a separate thread. The initial commenter/commentor/whatever will get an email saying that someone has responded, and they can come back and read it and/or respond in kind.

It gives the comments section a much more conversational feel that the Blogger comments board is currently missing.

So... that's about it. There will be one more post here, put up at about the same time that I make my first post on LJ, just to let anyone who passes by know what's going on without them having to read all this dribble. May have more if Blogger decides that idle bloggers should be deleted, I don't know exactly how that works.

There will be a link over on the LJ page back here for anyone who wants to read the archives or get a look at the Links page.

And, hell, if I decide that it's not worth the hassle, then I may very well come back here. Right now it's just an experiment, and I don't necessarily feel like double-posting.

So, with that, I bid you a fond adieu, and I'll see you over on kanedax.livejournal.com later today or tomorrow. If you go over there before I make my final post here, you might very well see some funky stuff going on (I'm still trying to decide on a layout), but it should be all settled by the end of the day.

Nerd TV

So it's the time of year when the networks come out and try to get advertisers by the neck. I'm talking, of course, about the new fall schedule.

And, as your intrepid, um, blogger, likes to do when they're released, I skimmed through the new shows, looking for names that I recognize from old shows and movies that I'm a fan of. And also actors that I give a shit about.

So far, nothing too great, but there's a few potentials:

Benny & Joon... ummm... Jayne... are in a new drama together: Groundhogs Day, but with a murder framing involved.

Pyro's in a show about three high school kids framed for a terrorist bombing.

Josh Lyman, Chandler Bing, and the real Jack Torrance are in a drama about the behind-the-scenes workings of a TV variety show.

and Dr. Ian Malcolm is a cop who sees dead people.

No new Buffy sightings so far, beyond Miss Hannigan's show returning next season, but Fox and CW still need to announce.

Tomorrow: potentially big news in the blog.

Good Ol' Fashioned Baseball

You gotta hand it to Russ Springer.

The man's got balls the size of Barry Bonds' head.

Big Ol' Bonds walks up to the plate in Houston, and I'm assuming that the coach told Springer, a relief pitcher for the Astros, to walk him.

As pitchers are wont to do to Steroid Boy.

Allegedly.

Mr. Springer says "Hell, Bonds gets a free pass?

"He gets it my way."

First pitch sails behind Bonds' back.

Mr. Springer gets a warning from the ump.

Think that's the end?

Not bloody likely.

Pitch 2: Low and inside. Bonds has to skip out of the way.

Pitch 3: High and inside. Bonds turns to take the impact, and the ball hits the handle of his bat.

Foul ball. Two balls, one strike.

Pitch 4: Inside pitch.

Pitch 5: Bonds gets plunked and takes his base.

The ump stands up, tosses Springer, along with Houston's manager, Phil Garner.

As he walks to the showers, the Houston crowd gives Springer a standing ovation.

...

Baseball used to be a sport for tough men. Back when the DH was unheard of, and pitchers pitched complete games with incredible regularity, beanballs would be tossed out of venegance, hatred, or pure spite on a regular basis, and bench-clearing brawls meant something.

The rules have made it a hitter's game, and now the pitcher doesn't even get the opportunity to accidentally plunk a guy before he hits the locker room, let along intentionally.

You gotta hand it to Russ Springer. He played it the old-fashioned way, even if he gets a fine for it.

Hmmm.... Wii...

So I just read an article about the new Smash Brothers game coming out for the Wii (I think). Sounds like it should be a really fun game, what with all the new characters they're adding into the mix.

They're bringing in Pit. Friggin Kid Icarus, the black sheep of the Nintendo family! As some of you may or may not remember, when I handed in my pairing list a few months back, KI was one of my 25. Should be fun to see him finally brought out of the 8-bit universe.

Well, unless you're counting Captain N. That Kid sucked-icus.

Beyond that, they're adding Wario, Metaknight from Kirby, and are also bumping up the feminine factor by giving us a battlesuitless Samus Aran. I have a feeling adding a blonde in a tight body suit will probably help sales a little bit.

Everyone's all pumped because Solid Snake is going to be in the game, too. Me, not so much. I was never a big fan of the Metal Gear series, so it doesn't do anything for me one way or the other. It does open the door for plenty of other third-party crossover in the future. Smash Brothers Brawl 2 featuring Mega Man? Cloud? The Prince? We can only cross our fingers.

The most interesting part for me, personally? Well, beyond Pit?

The Nintendogs make an appearance.

Weird.

Nothing too much new to talk about beyond that. Super Mario comes out today for the DS, but I'm content to wait to get it used. Too many other things occupying my time and money right now.

Finally, The Rock Has Come Back!

Ummm... okay, so maybe he's not technically The Rock. I don't know if he has a nickname. And I know the 93X guys called Lohse The Rock, cuz he looks like him.

And, well, he's not technically coming back as much as arriving for the first time, but...

"Finally, has come!"

...

Screw you.

Liriano's finally in the rotation.

Too Much Nerd

So, if someone posts a comment on a blog, and the word verification code sparks your brain into nerd thoughts...

that's a bad thing, right?

I just posted a comment on someone's blog entry, and the verification was such:

tfnukess

TF Nukess.

A female transformer named Nukess? Possibly a bomber or a rocket launcher?

That would be sweet.

She'd be like a shellbot like Chromia, but without the huge wings.

Unless someone wants to go the "bulky female" route.

Hey, they did it with Overdrive.

Note how I don't say "It worked for Overdrive," a male character that the American translators decided to make female, because "we need more girls!"

Actually, Nukess could be a damn good name for a female Seeker.

See, yeah, that's my brain functioning on a Monday after a weekend with far from enough sleep.

I had another weekend where I had so much nothing planned, and in the end it turned out to be quite a bit more than expected.

Between Mom's Day shopping, Mom's Day itself, a wedding and reception of which I was the last one to leave (except for the DJ and cleaning crew), and my total inability to put down the controller while playing Kingdom Hearts II...

Well, you can understand why I didn't get to that desperately-needed Fem Slash story.

So this week I have a get-together with a friend tonight, an audition tomorrow, and two nights of rehearsal.

This weekend, though... seriously... I have a slight chance of getting to it.

Motivation?

The second part of the Pairing List has yet to be posted.

No one's posted a story since April 25th.

Someone needs to get out there and kick some ass.

Take some names.

I might have to be that man.

Do I write Lionel Luthor and Mr. Tumnus?

Or do I go for Ethan Rayne & Emmett Brown?

Or do I, dear sweet merciful God, take a shot at fem slash?

Comic Ramblings

I wanted to talk bout something I don't get to very often in this blog.

As many of you know, I like comics. Back in my heyday (middle school, high school, college) I would put down $10-20 on comics on a weekly basis. I know that, compared to others, that's not an huge amount, but it was a thing. I loved the various X-Men series, and I also tended to latch on to any major "event" comics that came and went. Joe Maduiera was close to royalty for me.

Nowadays, between rent/mortgages, toy budgets, and just overall confusion resulting from storyline changes, artistic directions, etc, I've limited my comic reading to maybe 2 or 3 comics a month, mostly one-shots and miniseries, along with as many trade paperbacks as I can get my hands on at the local library. I still like to keep up, though, see what I'm missing.

Which is probably the reason why I picked up the two books I picked up yesterday, and I'm sorely tempted to keep up with them. They're both introductions to "events", both of which seem just too intruiging to pass up.

First off is DC's 52, the followup to the Infinite Crisis mini/maxiseries. For the past year or so, DC's been hyping Infinite Crisis, and while most would agree that the series paid off in the end, it's also fairly common knowledge that it was one of the most frustrating company crossovers in the history of company crossovers. It started with four four-issue miniseries, then a Infinite Crisis mini-series with tie-ins to every book in the DC universe. Fortunately, anyone reading the IC series itself (which I did) had a fairly decent idea of what was occurring without having to pick up any other comics, but it did leave the full-scale collectors beating their heads and their wallets.

If anyone wants to know the summary of Infinite Crisis, here's the wikipedia link. Massive, since it has links to entries that chronicle the four miniseries, as well as a chart of who lived, who died, who changed as a result of the Crisis.

The main repercussion of IC is a time leap in all DC comics (Vertigo not included). Every comic now takes place starting 1 year after IC. That may not seem like a lot, but if you consider that maybe a year's worth of comics in our clock equals, oh, 2 weeks of DC time, it's a big deal. New directions, new heroes, new villains, and, in many cases, new continuities (Infinite Crisis created a new Earth. Read the wiki, it might help).

52 #1 is the first of 52 weekly comics to be released in the next year that should, in real time, explain what happened to get the DC universe to the point it is in now. Every issue covers one week of the DC universe, and promises to discuss not only the big five (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern) but as many others as they can get in.

Issue number 1, for instance, focuses on Elongated Man, Booster Gold, Steel, Black Adam, Renee Montoya, and The Question. The only view of any of the big guys comes in one frame, as Booster accidentally knocks into Clark Kent, giving him a bloody nose (Superman was depowered in IC. Read the wiki!).

I'm really interested in keeping up with this series. at $2.50 a pop, it's not a HUGE monetary commitment, but if I eventually decide it's not worth the money, I'm still going to try to keep up on the wiki and on the 52 website, which is written in the style of a news service site. It's a nice setup.

The other comic I bought is a lot less confusing, but hopefully can live up to the potential that it's promising.

Civil War #1 is the first issue of Marvel's company-wide cross-over. It starts out with the New Warriors, who are currently a group of superheroes on a TV reality show, coming across a supervillain hideout. Seeing a ratings bonanza, the Warriors jump into action without calling for any necessary big guns. The fight spills into the outskirts of a school, where supervillain Nitro ignites himself, resulting in the death of most of the Warriors and hundreds of innocent bystanders, mostly children.

In the resulting aftermath, the government takes action. Calling for an end to costumed vigilantism, they call for a superhero registration act. This act would require all superheroes to be registered as federal employees, complete with proper training, proper salaries, proper health benefits. All superheroes who refuse to file would be subject to the same laws and punishments as all other US citizens for their actions. No more beating people up, no more destruction of property, no more flying around without proper air clearence, no more firing weapons without a permit. Screw up, and you're going to jail, just like the rest of us.

If you're powerful enough to be considered a human weapon of mass destruction, well, some worse things might happen.

Along with this new law, public sentiment for super-powers begins to turn. In the most extreme case of the issue, Johnny Storm (Human Torch of the Fantastic Four) is knocked unconscious and beaten up by a mob outside of a night club.

In the face of these new events, super-heroes are split into two camps. The side in favor of superhero regulation include such names as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Hank Pym, while those opposed include Captain America, Namor, and Dr. Strange. As the series progresses, most of the heroes in the Marvel universe will take sides, and hero vs. hero slugfests are sure to follow.

How this will affect the Marvel Universe is still up in the air. When Marvel promises huge changes through these crossovers, they usually don't deliver, so I'm holding my breath. But the series has me hooked already, so I'll be keeping up with it.

They Change The Questions

Just when I think I have this state figured out...

Today is May 11th.

Tomorrow is May 12th.

Tomorrow they're forcasting snow.

Snow.

Snow.

Not Snow.

Snow!

So...

Here I am.

I didn't write yesterday because... ummm...

Do you really wanna know?

Brief summary: My abdomen has been hurting the last few days. I took yesterday off work to go to the doctor. He gave me something to fix it.

I won't get into details about what it involved, since you don't wanna hear, but I'll just say that I'm all cleaned out.

Let's continue...

Since I was at home for most of the afternoon, I'm sure I probably COULD have posted an update, but since most of the time was spent in front of the TV playing Kingdom Hearts II, there probably isn't a lot to say.

All I can say is that so far I'm doing a good job making my way through the game this second time through. In order to get the super-duper-secret ending you have to complete the game on Proud Mode (Hard difficulty) or complete Jiminy's Journal on the medium difficulty. I chose the latter option, which means I need to:

- Talk to everyone
- Get x points on every mini-game
- Find every map & every treasure chest

I might have to beat Sephiroth, too, which is quite possibly going to be a huge pain in the ass.

So far I've been doing well. I've been focusing on two things this time: the treasure chests (100% so far) and the Drives. Drives, for those who haven't played the game, are kinda "dual" attacks, where Sora combines with Goofy, Donald, or both to add certain attacks for a set amount of time. Drives, as well as Summons, can be levelled up like a regular character, with each levelling adding new techniques to both the Drive/Summons as well as Sora in regular mode.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize 1) how to level Drives properly and 2) how important the levelling was until far too late in the game. So I made sure levelling them was a priority this time around, and I've been doing well so far. I maxed out Valor Form before I received Wisdom Form, and maxed out my Summons before I picked up the second Summons (in both cases, you can only level up to a certain level until you recieve more Drives/Summons). I'll be maxing more after I recieve the other two Forms, Master and Final.

In other, less video-game-centric news, my small theatre group is attempting to get into the Fringe Festival this year. Fringe Festival is a 10-day theatre festival here in the Twin Cities, with a couple hundred shows being put about a dozen venues around the city.

My group is currently on the waiting list. In the top ten on the waiting list.

And we haven't moved at all in the past 3 weeks.

Come on, people, quit! We wanna be in the mix!

Quickie

A nice quote from an old ISB post (which I linked to a few days ago) in reference to Harry Potter:

"Wherever he goes, Harry Potter is constantly followed by death and mistrust. In short, his life sucks. But considering that his best friend, his best friend's dad, his boss, and Dr. Doom have never tried to kill him, it's still better than Peter Parker's."

How true.

Whattan Anniversary

Ever been reading a book when you suddenly realize that the date during which the book occurs is the same date as you're reading it? Maybe not the same year, most likely, unless you're reading sci-fi, but the calendar date?

How about reading a book when you suddenly realize that the date and time during which the book is occurs is almost the exact time that you're reading it?

For those of you who read Dark Tower, you'll get it. For those who haven't... well, here ya go:

On May 9th, 1977, at 8:25 am Eastern Standard Time, John "Jake" Chambers is pushed into the street by Jack Mort, hit by a car and is killed.

On May 9th, 1977, at 8:25 am Eastern Standard Time, John "Jake" Chambers is not hit by a car and does not die. The paradox slowly drives him insane until he is rescued by Roland and his ka-tet.

On May 9th, 2006, at 7:25 am Central Standard Time (8:25 Eastern), I was on the bus reading the chapter in which John "Jake" Chambers was supposed to get hit by a car, but doesn't.

What are the odds of that happening?

Failure

Okay, so that didn't work. I don't even think I had five hits on this thing.

Well, rehearsals have begun in earnest for Oz. I think. If your definition of "earnest" means "blocking starts tonight, and it's only two or three rehearsals a week, but, hell, at least it's the only show you're doing right now," then, yes, it's begun in earnest.

I bought a new Transformer on Sunday after wedding 1. Not much to write home about, except to say that Shortround has a cool alt-mode, freakishly long and poorly-built arms on an otherwise cool robot mode, and is apparently named after the kid from Temple of Doom.

Beyond that, there's really nothing new to report except that my body's been giving me problems in the last week or two. Trust me, you all don't want detail, but I'll just say that there's a good chance I'll be attending a doctor's office tomorrow.

Good times. Good times.