Tilting at Pinwheels

Concert Time!

2011-03-21T09:25:00.009-05:00

Last week, I made it to yet another concert. Wednesday night Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves made down here. I was pretty excited since he is either in the Northeast or touring in Europe. He swung through Dallas on the way to SXSW in Austin.

The concert was at a tiny venue called the Loft (it is in the same complex were I saw the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert last year), and there were I would guess between 100-200 people there. It was kind of a weird concert, let me put it into these terms

It would have been like if Dream Theater and The Dead Kennedys were opening up for James Brown. That is how different the three styles were between the bands.

First up was Lite, a prog rock band from Japan. Which I called in my head when I first saw them. Japan seems to embrace a lot of different music genres. They were on their 51st gig in a row, and they still brought the energy. They were really good , and all of their songs were instrumentals. The drummer was just insane, and a lot of times he was doing some head banging even when he was doing nothing else. They had a keyboard that had some pieces programmed into it for some songs. Other times the rhythm guitarist would play the keyboard. Good hard rocking music.

Next up we have Mike Watt & the Missing Men. Mike Watt is a punk rock legend. I wasn't sure who he was really, but then I remembered him from the Minutemen. Really I am awful recalling member's names in bands. It was funny when Mike Watt first walked in all I saw was a man in his 50s with a cane and knee brace and two minutes later he is up on stage getting rid for his set.

It was interesting that the drummer from Lite and the Missing Men shared a drum kit. The latter drummer just removed some of the pieces for a smaller kit, and then he went to town. It was a classic punk line-up of guitar, bass, and drums. It was also the part were I don't think I;ve heard the f-word said more during a shorter period of time. There was a short I believe in Mike's microphone and he kept getting shocked by it. Every time it happened he dropped an f-bomb, in addition to the ones that came naturally in the songs. Afterward I went to shake Mike Watt's hand and tell him how much I enjoyed it, and we shared a black guy hug. Pretty cool actually.

Finally, we got to the main attraction with Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves. They are really good, and can rock it. Eli has a lot of charisma on stage, and knows how to work the crowd. I did feel bad for him in that he broke a string on both of the guitars he brought, and they are such a small operation he didn't have any roadies to fix either of them. He did try to fix one offstage at one point but couldn't do it. He came back and apologized. They were still really good. I loved the drummer of the True Loves as well, he always had this big ol' smile on his face. Seemed to be having a really good time.

It was a high energy concert all around, and I enjoyed all three acts. I wouldn't mind seeing any of them again.

No I got them all cut!

2011-02-21T12:02:00.002-06:00

Last week, I finally got my hair cut after a little bit over two months. It is still weird for me that Marion, my stylist for about 25 years no longer cuts it. Even after 3 years or so later. I just thought it was silly for me to pay those prices to get my hair cut, and drive about an hour out of my way to do so. On the other hand, it also made me leery to have anyone else cut my hair. Which explains the one time I went over 4 months, and that was definitely the shaggiest I ever looked. I did go though, as I finally know what I want for the most part, and they keep notes. Before I would just tell Marion to cut it short, and let her go to work. No muss, no fuss, and I would be in and out in fifteen minutes.

The young lady who cut my hair this time I actually liked in that she actually taught me some things. At one point she was asked me if I wanted it "square or round." I asked her what she was talking about, and she told me the back of my hair. I let her know that I had never been asked that question before. Apparently a square look is a men's look. Some men want a rounded back, but it is considered more feminine. I really didn't care, because I never look back there. She cut it square since mine was pretty naturally square, and it looks cleaner that way and will grow out better.

I explained that a lot of the terms used and such are foreign to me with my previous years with Marion. She said she tries to teach her clients what to ask for, and to use the terms the hairstylist will use. That way everyone is on the same page when the cutting goes down. Just for when her clients move, or if she ends up moving away.

I like the was my hair ended up, and I asked her to take a lot off the top, and by gum she did. I was shocked how much she took, but I like it. Now I can wait two more months.

A Snow Day?

2011-02-09T11:23:00.003-06:00

I don't know if you heard about the weather we had in the Dallas area last week or not...
Anyway, I actually made to work everyday except Friday. I freely admit I can't drive on the bad roads. In my neck of the woods we had a nice 2-3 inch layer of ice on the road. Also, driving a standard makes it worse, so hard to accelerate without spinning out. I go to work Tues-Thurs though, but when the icy roads got a nice 6 inch later of snow on top of it. I decided I really didn't need to be out on the roads. The weather really is an abnormality for us here. The meterologists say it is some of the coldest weather in 30 years or so. I can never remember it being this cold for this long. Yes even in just a four day stretch.

Then of course by 2PM Saturday it was 90% melted away. The amazing thing is that at my boss' house there was still a lot of ice on his front porch as of yesterday afternoon.

I went to a Super Bowl part Sunday, but really reeled in my drinking. Having done it a million times before, but I decided I didn't want to be hungover at work on Monday. When are we going to move the Super Bowl to Saturday?

As I write this we got more sleet and snow today. After being told of a "light dusting" We need to define those terms I think. So not that mound of ice on boss' porch has some sleet sitting on top of it. Awesome

Surrounding chauffeured

2011-01-31T11:26:00.003-06:00

A quick hit I think. First, about a week ago I went to a bar called The Pub in McKinney, TX. I thought it was a pretty generic name, and made jokes like I drink The Beer, and later eat some of The Food. It was a pretty cool joint though. Me and my friends were seated at the bar, and for my lunch I had some shepherd's pie, actually made with lamb. It was pretty good if a bit on the salty side. What made this place for me though was this: they make their own pork rinds in house. They come out warm in a bog ol' brown paper bag. Get some of the Chulo hot sauce in a bowl, and dip the pork rinds in there. Oh, my goodness. The would start popping and cracking, and they tasted just terrific. I told one of my friends they were like Rice Krispies for adults. What made me laugh was about an hour later the group to my right got some pork rinds as well, and one the guys told his friends they were like Rice Krispies as well.

Catching up

2011-01-19T11:04:00.003-06:00

This past Friday I caught up with some friends I haven't see a looong time. My friend Little Mike had his birthday the day before, and he was going to Trinity Hall Friday afternoon to celebrate. Let's knock Trinity Hall down to begin with. I had never been there before, but it was a really cool Irish pub with a decent selection of beers on tap, and whole slew in bottles (or cans). I didn't have any of the food, but everyone who tried it said it was pretty decent food, especially for bar food.

I had two Carlsbergs myself at first. Then I tried the Kilkenny Cream Ale, which was really good. It is a nitrogenated beer, made by makers of Guinness. I give it a hearty endorsement.

Besides that it was really fun to catch up with some of those guys and gals. I've only seen Mike, Roda, and Ann about 2 times in the last 4 years. Me, Mike, and two other guys joked that the four white guys were the first ones there and on time as per usual. Some of the people I hadn't seen it 6+ years: Sean, Rodney, Sun, Tammy, Duc, other Mike (sometimes Mexican Mike, our nicknames are sometimes very direct), Winnie, Ella May, and Betty. Plus, there are always new people I've never met before. Like Sun's boyfriend Don.

It was really a trip to see Duc again after all of this time. He was perhaps one of the most wheels off, crazy assed dudes I know. In the intervening years he got married, has two kids, has a job as an office manager, and he quit smoking. Wow, for some a lot has changed.

A good night, truly

Struggling for a title

2011-01-14T09:05:00.002-06:00

New Year's: Well my New Year's Eve was pretty failed as my plans got canceled at about 9PM. by that point I just said "Screw it" and decided to not do anything. I still had people trying to get me to go over to their house or drive up to Winstar (a casino). Instead I just sat in front of the TV and watched a marathon of Lockup on MSNBC. I did at least stay up to midnight. I haven't before.

Karma: As some of you may or may not know I used to do volunteer work for the Hero Initiative. Well since there hasn't been a show near me that they have been at I haven't really done anything to support them lately. Well this year I decided to actually join them with a membership. I looked at the options and plunked down that money for the Bronze membership. 29 bucks, no problem. Just a few hours later I got an e-mail from the guy who runs the charity saying he was bumping me up to the Silver membership. Which I thought was very kind of him, and totally unnecessary. If you are a comic fan at all, I would highly recommend supporting them in some way. A donation, and they put out several books a year that are really fun. Like a collection of all of the Stan's Soapbox from I think 1968-1980.

Strapping on the feedbag.

2010-12-30T09:50:00.003-06:00

Under No Management: We've had a a few local restaurants close down. The first was the closest Jack In the Box which I was kind of shocked closed. I figured if it would close it would have been 2 years ago during all of the construction going on. It made it nearly impossible to get there, once that was done I figured it would be okay. Nope, it was all boarded up.

Next, one we lost was Lenny's Sub Shop. I didn't go there a whole lot, but I did like their version of the philly cheesesteak, as they had this really good spicy relish they put on it. This place actually lasted longer than I thought it would, because it was never busy there.

Finally, Andrea's Pizza closed. This one hurts the most. It was a local mom and pop place and when I did get a pizza it was usually theirs. They had such an awesome thick crust pizza that was just a little sweet. Definitely not the cardboard variety. It was really good pizza at a decent price. Plus, I hate to see little local shops like this close to the chains.

Christmas eating: A little Christmas info. Here is what my step-mom made for three people:

a nearly 12lb turkey
mashed potatoes
stuffing
gravy
green beans
carrots (did I mention this was for three people?)
creamed peas
2(!) Jello Salads - which I don't usually eat. Nor did I this time.
plus for dessert, also for three people. Cheesecake with strawberry sauce
Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Pie

There was so much food, my step mom bought some containers just for me to take leftovers home. Plus, I took a whole pumpkin pie.

Milling About

2010-12-06T10:28:00.002-06:00

Saturday, my friend Jake had his annual party at his house. Jake is the guy who runs the comic book shop I go to, and we get along great. It is one of the few parties that I am guaranteed to get wasted at, as Jake and his girlfriend are kind enough to let me sleep over. Anyways, pretty much the who point of this post was watching this one guy hit on this one girl, and the crap he was saying.

He was saying stuff like this:
"That movie had some of the best cinematography I have ever seen."
"My favorite composer is doing the score of that movie."
"I like that scarf on you, it makes you look like an aviator."

I just wanted to jump up and tell him, "Dude, you are so full of sh*t!" I didn't though. I held my tongue. I was pretty proud of myself. A few years ago I probably would have ripped him.

Other highlights:
A dude picking up an acoustic guitar and doing a very neat version of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again". I thought it was funny.
Talking to a kid who used to play college football at Utah State. He quit fairly early, because even at rinky-dink Utah State it was "no longer a game. It was a career."

The absolute lowlight was when I finally left Sunday morning. Apparently it was the day of the White Rock Lake marathon. I drove around for 45 minutes before I finally found a way out, and escaped. I tried north first, and then west. I knew east would be no good as that was the direction of White Rock Lake. I finally got headed south, and kept going south, while constantly looking to the west, and seeing I was still hemmed in. I finally made it to a highway and got home. It was not a fun drive. A fun night though.

The Right Decision

2010-11-17T14:02:00.004-06:00

Pretty much all season long, and especially since Wade Phillips has been fired the talk around DFW is not if, or when, but which Super Bowl winning coach should the Cowboys hire to replace him. Sure Jason Garrett won his first game, but nothign would make the populace happier than getting John Gruden or Bill Cowher. Maybe even Brian Billick. It is something I've been thinking about as well. The question is, is it worth it?

The short is answer in the history of the NFL (Super Bowl era at least) is no.

We can delve into the longer answer. Basically only Bill Parcells and Mike Holmgren really got close. Winning one with one team, and they both took another team to championship. Two others lost the big game, and then went on to win (Dick Vermeil, and Don Shula). Vince Lombardi won at Green Bay and never did much with the Redskins. Hank Stram won at Kansas City and then only posted 7 wins as the head coach at New Orleans. So basically just don't go too crazy about signing that big name coach with a Super Bowl win under his belt. It hasn't worked yet, but then again maybe they are due.

World Series...who? Me?

2010-11-03T14:17:00.007-05:00

Well boys and girls I actually got to go see Game 5 of the World Series on Monday. How did I get to go? Well, back during Game 1 me and some buddies were watching the game, and the they asked me then if I wanted go in with some tickets with them. I had just gotten four new tires, an alignment, and brake pads installed on my car, so spending almost $500 for a World Series ticket wasn't in the cards for me. I regretfully declined. Monday rolls around and my boss, who had bought a ticket wasn't feeling well. About 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon he just asks,"If I don't go to the game, do you want my ticket? It's already paid for." Of course I would, so that is how I got to go. Or as I said at the time, "I just fell ass backwards into a ticket."

The actual game? I don't know what I can really say about it. It was an awesome experience. Charlie Pride sang the national anthem, with fireworks and a fly over. I don't care how old you are, the fly over is cool. Another really neat thing was having the the upper part of the stadium chant "Texas!" and the bottom part "Rangers!" and it sounded great in the stadium, and people have told me it sounded like an international soccer game on the TV.

Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum both pitched great games. Lee had one bad inning, and according to Benjie Molina it was because Lee didn't want to pitch around Renteria to get to Rowand who could barely get on the field. Lincecum was just phenomenal. One of my friends just looked at me as the Rangers went down in short order, and I said,"Yeah, Lincecum is still good."

I had a whole slew of Giants' fans in front and to the right of me. They weren't annoying or anything, and were pretty cool. One even shook my hand and wished me good luck during the ninth. The Rangers lost of course, and the fans around me all just got in a group hug and jumped up and down. In the end it was a great season, and the Rangers overachieved this season. I do realize it is possible this was a once in a lifetime possibility, so I just wanted to enjoy the moment. There are no guarantees in sports, and especially baseball. The Rangers may never get back in my lifetime, and I am so glad I got to go.

P.S. I am now 0-3 at post-season games.

P.P.S. A picture from my other blog where you can see me at the game. That blog gets updated more often as it is less text intensive.

Concert 2 and 3?

2010-10-27T09:02:00.002-05:00

Just a few short days after the Sharon Jones concert I went to another concert. This time it was with a group of about 10 people, a much bigger venue (the Superpages center by Fair Park), and a much more well known act: Rush. My biggest complaint it just that we were really far away, but then again closer tickets would have cost an arm and a leg.

The concert was basically broken up into three parts, and had video interludes through out. The first part was just an opening set with song from the past, some newer stuff, and a song or two from an upcoming album. The second part was the main reason I was there. They did the entire Moving Pictures album, and that was awesome. Song which include Tom Sawyer, Limelight, and YYZ. I loved it, it was great. The third part started off with Neal Peart's drum solo. That was worth the price of admission alone. It too was broken into three parts: a rock solo, then he played on an electronic drum set that was programmed with different sound effects and such, and the final part was a jazz solo. They also played the song 2112 in it entirety, all 20+ minutes.

Then I started running out of steam on the guys. They played quite a bit more after that, and it was over 3 hours or so. That is more than I can really take of any one band. I had had a enough really. Last thing on the concert: musically the guys sounded great and I really liked it, the problem was that Geddy Lee was having a hard time hitting those high notes on some of the older songs,a nd he tried to over compensate by screaming. That made his voice warble quite a bit.

3rd Concert? Well not quite. A few days after the Rush concert the original lineup of Guided By Voices was playing in downtown Dallas. After two trips to downtown in just a few days, I couldn't get my dander up to make a third one. Especially having to work the next day. I kind of regret not going, as after the concert there was an after party with the band. Plus, I missed Tim DeLaughter (lead singer of the Polyphonic Spree) getting kicked out. Oh well.

It's Just Banter

2010-10-25T14:37:00.002-05:00

This is a local radio guy who Zach Galifianakis'd Zach Galifianakis. He said he wasn't sure if he was going to go this way with the interview, until when he first met him he hit his head on the overhead mike. Then he decided to just go for it. Good stuff.

First Concert (of the year)

2010-10-14T12:33:00.012-05:00

#1: I believe it was three weeks ago that on a spur of the moment decision I went to the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert. I didn't even know they were playing until the night before, and made my decision to go about 2 hours before showtime. I called one friend who I thought would be interested, but he was unable to go due to a prior commitment. No worries, I'm not afraid to fly solo. The show was at the Palladium Showroom. The Palladium has two different places for shows: the Ballroom and the Showroom. This one was at the Palladium Showroom which is the smaller of the two.

The show was supposed to "start" at 7:30. Now I'm not naïve enough to actually think the concert will start then, but I do expect the doors to be open. They weren't, and the doors to the place are down a long 4 foot wide tunnel surrounded by brick walls. Brick walls that had been taking the Texas sun all day. It was almost a 30 minute wait to get inside and the heat was brutal.

The actual concert though was absolutely fantastic. The opening act was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were a great band that seems to cross several genres in their music, and Grace Potter is quite the honey. They were throwing down an unusual look. Grace was wearing a Tina Turner like outfit, and the Nocturnals looked like a '70s garage band.

Now I had never seen a picture of Binky Griptite of the Dap-Kings, but once I saw this dude come out in a maroon suit with a fedora cocked on the side of his head, I knew exactly who it was. I was right. The Dap-Kings sang a few songs by themselves before Sharon Jones came out.

Binky played up to the crowd a bit with,"You know I've been in Texas for two days now, and I ain't heard no one say 'yee-ha', so how is everyone out here tonight?" With the crowd giving a resounding "YEE-HA!" Including me.

Once Sharon Jones did come out the energy just amped up. She is just so enthusiastic. I told one of my friends that I hope to have her energy when I am her age, but I don't even have that level now. During a couple of different songs she brought people up on the stage with her. I was literally 3 feet from the stage, and it was electric. Smaller venues like that really do it for me.

PS Within 5 seconds of Sharon Jones appearing on the stage I could smell the weed.

so long...

2010-09-13T14:35:00.006-05:00

Well, over the Labor Day Weekend, my former boss, Kazy passed away. I still don't think I have fully processed it yet. He was found in the store laying on the counch after 11 AM last Tuesday, which meant they employees were working there for over and hour before they discovered the body. They went looking for him, because he hadn't called them yet, and they were concerned.

So, there was a bunch of madness on Tuesday. That evening I was fielding phone calls, texts, and messages on Facebook while trying to draft a team in Fantasy Football.

We always had a volatile relationship. Seeing as how my tenure at the store didn't end well (I ended up being fired). I did work there for 12 years though including the entirety of my 20s and I always loved and respected the man. So, I felt I should at least pay my last respect by going to his funeral.

One at the funeral it was packed, and I was running a bit behind. I did meet an old co-worker there, and everyone else was to nervous (scared?) to walk by everyone to sit in the overflow seating, so I led that group over there. The actual ceremony was unlike one I have been to before. The minister only said a few words, while butchering all of the Japanese names, and then opened up the podium for some eulogies. We got 4 pretty solid ones from people who knew Kazy from different times or interests.

Afterwards there was the social gathering in the back which was another surreal time for me. Sure, it was sad, but it was also neat seeing a bunch of people I hadn't seen in literally years. Old co-workers, customers, and friends. I felt like I was running for office I shook so many hands and hugged so many people. I was surprised that his daughter seemed to be handling it better than his son. He was understandably pretty out of it.

Anyways, rest in peace Kazy. You definitely deserve it.

If it feels good, do it.

2010-08-30T14:41:00.006-05:00

Call me: I've been contemplating getting a phone for a couple of months now for two main reasons. 1. I want one with a keyboard for texting. 2. The battery life on my current phone has gone to crap. I usually get my new phones directly from AT&T's website. So, my plan of action on Friday was this: find a phone with a keyboard (duh), and one that was free*. After perusing my options I decided on the Palm Pixi Plus. It got stellar reviews, but the main complaint is that the battery life seems a little low, but I think I can live with that. The keyboard was the main thing. When I placed the order I got huge notice saying there are no deliveries on weekends or holidays, so imagine my surprise when I got home Saturday and it was already in. Score one for me!

*Free after you sign a 2 year commitment, but that is no biggie for me. I wasn't planning on leaving anyways.

Gatekeeper: As I have mentioned before, I work out of my boss' house. This school year his neighborhood has decided to keep the gates to the neighborhood closed. And man is that screwing some people up.

First, they made this decision then end of last school year, and the the first day they kept the gates closed? The first day summer vacation. Good one. Then last week I was going to eat lunch, and as I left two cars drove by expecting to cut through and one lady just stood there staring at the gate and keeping me from turning into the street. When I cam back from lunch, another lady almost took the gate all, and came to a screeching halt when she didn't realize the gate would be closed.

The thought that occurred to me this week is school busing. I don't know where they go now to pick the kids up. Last year I would drive by three different locations in the neighborhood that had pick-ups for the kids, and now I wonder were they go, or if their parents are forced to drop them off at school now. Hmmm.

Thank you: I got a nice compliment from my roommate a week or so ago. I do enjoy watching a lot of the cooking "reality" shows: Hell's Kitchen, Iron Chef America, and Top Chef. I don't watch them every week, but if I catch them on I will watch them. anyways, my roommate told me,"You know these people make all of these sauces, and foams, stuff. But you make food I would actually eat."

Legion Sketchbook #34

2010-08-15T08:59:00.003-05:00

Ah, the great Tellus appears this time. Tellus was drawn by Nate Bramble. I think his cartoony style fit Tellus perfectly.

This is actually the last of my Legion sketches for now. There is a show in just two weeks, so hopefully I will get some more done then. If not, I have some other things in store.

Sports Edition

2010-08-10T13:57:00.003-05:00

Dateline Arlignton: Well last week the auction of the Rangers finally came off, and in the end I didn't care who ended up owning them as long as Tom Hicks didn't any more. In the end the Ryan/Greenberg group won the auction after like 15 hours from Mark Cuban and his team. Remember the important part: no more Tom Hicks. After losing his shirt in so many other ventures I am just glad to see him go. I got tired of hearing how good the concession sales were at the end of the year, but merchandising was down at the end of the season address. The fans don't care; we want to know what you are going to do to make the team better. This new group has already talked about it. The day after the auction Greenberg was on the radio talking about how they are going to really go after Cliff Lee (oh thank you). Resigning Josh Hamilton, etc. With Hicks as owner, for the past several seasons, the payroll was always going to be the same as the year before or lower. The Rangers are a top 5 market team with a bottom 5 market salary. All you need to know about Tom Hicks as an owner of a sports franchise is this: Hicks also owns the Dallas Stars, and he said the worst thing that happened to them was they won the Stanley Cup. What a penny-pinching jerk.

One thing that did bother me about the auction was afterwards Mark Cuban said he did what he came there to do. Didn't he go there to win the franchise? He didn't, and if he did what he planned to do what was that? To drive up the price of the franchise? For what purpose? Some accuse him of driving up the price since he actually own some of the Rangers' debt. Yet, he owns such a small portion he spent more on his lawyers on this than what he will make from the owning the debt. I just wonder what it was.

A final thing about the sale that worries me is GM John Daniels. There is a clause in his contract that allows him to leave if the Rangers change ownership. A bunch of people think he might bolt to the Mets the team of his childhood. Hell for the Mark Teixeira trade alone he should get like 10 years of immunity.

Quick bonus: Congratulations to the great Norm Hitzges, who today is celebrating his 35th year of doing sports radio in Dallas. He has hosted numerous shows, worked for ESPN, and has worked for just about every pro team in the are outside of the Dallas Stars. That is a good long while, a true icon around here.

Happy Anniversary

2010-08-04T09:19:00.002-05:00

Happy Anniversary, Nolan!!!

UFO Spotting

2010-07-15T10:08:00.002-05:00

Last week 2 friends of mine, Steve and his cousin Paul, came up to Dallas to visit for the weekend. Friday night he hung out with me and another friend of our, Sam. Saturday was going to be family day. After some negotiations for dinner (we agreed not eat eat dinner together) we finally decided to meet at the Flying Saucer. If someone wanted me to take them to the best place to drink beer it would be the Flying Saucer. They probably have a couple of hundred different beers available. It is the only place I know of in Dallas that has Newcastle on tap.

About 10 minutes after I arrived the power was knocked out for about 30 seconds due to the very unseasonable July thunderstorm. I was of course the first one there, even though I was the furthest away. Driving in the rain. During rush hour. It was great to see the guys again even if we are pretty lame now. Every discussion begins:
"What have you been up to?"
"Work. How about you?"
"Work."

We had a pretty good time for a couple of hours. The Steve and Paul decided they were ready to go to the topless bar. Which, there reason for going, amused me. Together they blamed another cousin who wasn't there as being the one who really wanted to go. When Paul went to the restroom Steve said it was actually Paul who was pushing to go. When Steve went, Paul said it was Steve. Now, I have nothing against those places, and I have been known to go to them before. But, I knew the one they were going to was a skank bar, plus I didn't relish the thought of driving back to my place about an hour a way after we were done with wet roads and drunk drivers. Not to mention the cost of going to one of those places. So, men and Sam went to another, more upscale bar, BJs to finally get some eat and chit-chat at bit more. Sam wouldn't have been able to go to the topless bars anyways since he forgot his wallet and would not have been able to get in.

A pretty fun Friday night to catch up with some good friends.

Legion Sketch #33

2010-07-11T08:45:00.003-05:00

In this edition:

We get the lovable, hugable Gates. This was done at the last show I went to in January, by Brock Rizy. A nifty little sketch I think.

Minister Singh

2010-06-24T14:23:00.005-05:00

Mallrats: The other day I was at the Dallas mall, Northpark Mall for the first time in about 5 years or so (I was killing time waiting for my comic book shop to open). You can't walk into the place without feeling like money is just being sucked right out of your wallet. It doesn't have security guards inside, they have Dallas police officers there. I did like the idea of getting my car washed while doing some shopping if I so desired, I didn't desire. Sometimes they have a piano player there. It isn't the biggest mall around, but it has to have the highest ratio of jewelery stores of the Metroplex. I counted 13 myself.

The shop that actually got me to go inside? The toy store that had both a Batman and Superman plastic statue. It was a neat place that even had some of the old original Star Wars in a glass case along the back wall.

I also saw an Original Soup Man stand there. This sign made me chuckle: "The Soup ThatMmade Seinfeld Famous" Sure thing buddy.

Father's Day: This year I think I finally got a winning present for my dad. It was a scanner that has a special tray to scan slides and film from a 35mm camera. My dad was pretty excited to get, even if he has "about 1000 slides" to scan now. I set it up for him, and scanned in the first two batches, and it looked really good. I figure it is a project he can work on and avoid the 100 degree heat.

A Movie: Monday I was flipping around and found a movie called The Night of the White Pants. I first turned it on to see Selma Blair, who is the quintessential girl next door type. I was watching it and my ears perked up when I heard one character say his band was playing at a club called the Double Wide. I thought, "Does this take place in Dallas?" Once they showed the place I knew it was. We get a decent amount of films and television filmed here, but unless it is a JFK movie very little actually has taken place in Dallas since the old TV show. It was a neat little movie, and I really like movies that take place over the course of about a 24 hour period. IE Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, and Suburbia.

Sports: A local sports radio guy has decided to give soccer a full seasons chance to capture his attention. He is a better than than me. He blog post is here.

Legion Sketch #32

2010-06-20T09:43:00.003-05:00

We're back again:

This is Timber Wolf as drawn by Paul Milligan. He did this for me at the last Wizard World Texas at the end on Sunday because he was so bored, and "man, I just want to draw something." Hey anyone who signs their initials in Interlac is okay by me.

Can I Keep My Jersey?

2010-06-15T12:08:00.008-05:00

I recently finished reading Paul Shirley’s Can I Keep My Jersey? It details 4 years in his life as a “basketball vagabond”. I enjoyed quite a bit for the most part. His writing has a very appealing quality. At points you really feel sorry for Paul. The endless travels in lesser leagues made me feel weary after reading about it. The horrible hotel rooms he stayed in doing an EA Sports basketball tour, and the room he had when he played in Russia with a bed that consisted of a mattress on the floor. It really is an emotional roller coaster.

One of my problems with the book though, is that a lot of the time he isn’t a sympathetic person. He recognizes that fact, but it doesn’t endear you to him either. It got tiresome reading about him trying not to laugh at his teammates who were religious. You may not have the same beliefs as them, but to constantly ridicule them behind their back was pretty uncool.

My biggest problem with him though, was his constant grousing of people not speaking English whenever he was playing in Europe. Apparently he did make some attempts to learn the language, but since there were a lot of obstacles in communication, it seems like he could have tried harder. When he was playing in Spain, he complained about how the Spaniards put canned tuna on everything. Well I sure as hell would have learned how to say “no tuna” in Catalan, but apparently he never did. By his third time in Europe when was playing in Russia and was still bellyaching about no English, I wanted to pull my hair out. Speaking of Russia, he also complained about how cold it was in the city he played in, Kazan. No crap dude, its Russia.

Not to totally rail on the guy. There were also plenty of times I felt bad for him. How he is literally unable to have a normal relationship with a woman. When he leads such a transient lifestyle were he is taking buses to play games in Mexico, and then he might get a 10 day contract in Chicago, followed by a couple of months in Europe it makes it impossible to start a stable relationship. You feel his pain when he laments meeting a girl that he is certain he could have had some sort of long term deal with.

I was excited for him when he went to the Bulls and they agree to a contract until the end of the season. I was also crushed when he got a season ending injury there before signing that contract. That was one more thing that was bothersome. He seemed to get injured a lot. Its hard to get a professional career on track if you are constantly sitting on the bench injured. He just never seemed to be injury free at any place of the decent places he played except for his time with the Suns. Of course he barely got to play with them at all, as he was at the very end of the bench.

Further, I liked how matter of fact he was about the people he played with (he didn’t like most of them), his coaches, the trainers, and I really liked his relationship with his agent. His agent, Keith Glass, was brutally honest with him, telling Paul from the beginning he may never get to the NBA. That was refreshingly honest.

It was certainly educational as well. Seeing how the tryouts worked in the NBA, and it was a lesson in how hard it was to make a team. The rules they have in the European basketball leagues. Like no more than 2

Americans per team, and they way the teams get around it. Fascinating reading. I do wonder if his openness about the NBA shut the door on his future there. It is possible, or maybe teams just weren’t that impressed with his brand of ball playing. He hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2005 season with the Phoenix Suns. Maybe they tired of his arrogance. I know I did. It was wearing me out about him talking about all of the “white trash” and such. I wanted to yell at him, “You are from Merdian, Kansas! You aren’t from some cultural mecca!”

The book is a stellar read. I highly recommend it for any sports fan. It has been often compared to Jim Bouton’s Ball Four.

Crumbling to dust

2010-06-10T09:14:00.003-05:00

With Nebraska bolting for the Big 10, and Colorado not waiting around to see what they rest of the conference does going to the Pac-10 it looks like the days of the Big 12 is numbered. It looks the rest of the south division sans Baylor will also join the Pac-10, making the first super conference. There are some people grousing about the loss of the conference, and I just don't feel it. It isn't like when the Southwest Conference folded. That had a lot more years of tradition, and it was the one I grew up with. That made me sad, this, not so much.

Another complaint I hear about is the loss of some rivalries. Well the formation of the Big 12 initially killed one of my favorite rivalries in college football. OU-Nebraska. The had legendary games until the Big 12 came about, and they no longer played each other every since they weren't in the same division. Speaking of the north division this new conference just seems to be replacing the north division with 8 teams from the Pac-10. That makes it such a much better conference that it was previously. Oregon, USC, and Cal is so much more appealing than Iowa State, Kansas State, and yes even Nebraska who hasn't been good in years. Where would you rather watch games at?

It will also let some of the B-list schools recruit better players. Like allow Texas Tech and Oklahoma State get some of the California players. And vice versa it lets Arizona State and Washington have a better chance at Texas players.

A question, now that the Big 10 is going to add nebraska are they now the Big 12? Will they stupidly keep the Big 10 name? Will they have to pick something besides the Big 12 if that is a trademarked name?

What happens to the teams left out? Where does Baylor go? Or Kansas? Etc.

I just heard on the radio that the acrimony towards Missouri was so bad when they made an overture to the Big 10, they were almost kicked out of the Big 12. They started it, but weren't able to finish it.

Wow, this stuff is happening fast and furious. It is fascinating.

All Fantasy, All of the Time

2010-05-18T12:16:00.003-05:00

The Faire: The past weekend I went to Scarborough Faire for the first time a few years. As per usual it was a ton of fun. They have some incredible food there (a lot of people really dig their turkey legs). I had a rogue sandwich (a brisket like sandwich), a spinach pocket (think creamed spinach inside a pastry) and of course the very traditional Renaissance fare: the root beer float. I also looking at all of the shops that have a ton of handcrafted items. What red-blooded American male wouldn't want to take a gander at the swords there?

I watched a couple of shows. The highlight being The One Flaming Idiot, who does a really funny show. He used to be part of the Flaming Idiots, a trio who left a few years back to take their show elsewhere. The other two left the show to pursue other employment. There was also Don Juan and Miguel. Which Don Juan had a walking cast, which he also had the last time I was there.

Which brings me to the part that is a little bit sad. I've been going to the Faire for about 20 years now, and there are so many of the people involved who are doing it then who are still there now. These people just travel around from festival to festival to put on their acts, and some of them are looking pretty haggard. Who knows how long they were performing before I even went there. Something these guys are looking pretty haggard now. I can't imagine it is very easy life to maintain. I can't imagine doing one of their acts several times a day on the weekend in full Renaissance gear in May in Texas. I was burning up wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Still it is a lot of fun. Some friends even bought some contraband alcohol there.

RPGing: Well for the first time in 8? 9? 10? years I am slinging dice again in a RPG (role-playing game). My all-time favorite was and always will be Champions, but my friend running the game wants something a little bit easier to play as he is getting his wife to start playing. So, for the first time in about 15 years or so I am actually playing Dungeons & Dragons. The 4th edition rules which is quite a bit different from the last time I played (which was second edition or so).

From what I have seen the changes are for the better. More hitpoints for the players is always good of course. Magic-users in general start out a lot more robust. They were fairly useless in the early levels and I am glad to see they have buffed them up. Also every class just gets a lot more utility which I like.

I also liked the program a friend of mine had to creat the characters. It had all of the texts, plus stuff from the magazines to aid in building you character. Pretty sweet.

Homeowners with

2010-04-27T11:03:00.004-05:00

Well, first things first. I'd like to ask everyone for their thoughts, prayers, or whatever for my cousin Rich. I just learned over the weekend that he has been diagnosed with lymphoma at the age of 41. The doctors are very hopeful that they are getting to it early enough.

My aunt was in town and I enjoyed listening to her and my dad talk as I always learn something new about my dad. Like, he belonged to 4-H when he was younger and actually had a cow that won the grand champion ribbon three years in a row until they were forced to sell her. I also learned that at one point in time Texas Industries had airplanes (little prop planes) that their employees with a pilot's license could rent.

I've mentioned it before and I will mention it again Marlo's House in Garland, TX is awesome. I absolutely love their food.

Finally ex-major leaguer and current Dallas radio personality, Mike Bacsik is an idiot. Although how long he remains in Dallas radio is to be determined

UPDATE: Mike Bacsik fired by Cumulus Media

Legion Sketch #31

2010-04-18T08:02:00.003-05:00

In this episode:

I will be honest and say that this is probably my favorite sketch I have. We have Shadow Lass, of course, painted by Evan Bryce. He is another member of Space-Gun Studios.
I just think this one is incredible.

And Boom Goes the Dynamite!

2010-04-15T14:17:00.003-05:00

Well Sunday was the implosion on Texas Stadium, the old home of the Dallas Cowboys. I am not one to get sentimental when it comes to most old buildings (well depends on how old they are). When they tore, are they still tearing down?, Reunion Arena it didn't really bother me that much, and I spent a lot more time there than I ever did Texas Stadium. Heck, I've only been to Texas Stadium 6 times ever, and 5 of those times was within the last 7-8 years. I think it bothers me more just because historically it is more significant.

You know 5 Super Bowl champions is one thing. I loved when Brent Musburger on the old NFL Today show would say, "You're looking live at Irving, TX and Texas Stadium" It was featured on the opening of the old Dallas TV show. I liked how Tex Schramm said the hole in the roof was so that God could watch the Dallas Cowboys. And I will admit it, I liked the fact that kind of talked pissed some people off.

My favorite memory from Texas Stadium? Showing up at 7:30AM for a noon kickoff game and tailgating (IE drinking) until 11:45. Sometime during the game we lost my friend's brother for quite some time. Oh and the Cowboys won against the Lions in one of the most boring games of all-time.

Finally, the answer is:
Ronny Gant, Cinco De Mayo, and George Strait.

The question:
What are Jerry Jone's best memories of Texas Stadium.

This deserves a WTF?

Would you like fries with that?

2010-04-09T10:01:00.002-05:00

A couple of food related topics.

Last week on the radio station I regularly listen to (1310 the Ticket), they had some huge burritos in there for lunch and there was one left over. They asked one host, Norm Hitzges, if he would eat one on Friday, it was Wednesday when they asked. He said maybe he would, and two of the hosts pledged $250 bucks each to his favorite charity. He then agreed to it. It wasn't just a three day old burrito, he ate. They left it out at room temperature until Norm ate it Friday. He ate it on the air, and said it still tasted really good. While he was eating it people called in donated more money, and he ended up raising over $3000 for the Austin Street Centre. It is a charity I have actually donated to before. Austin Street Centre is a homeless shelter than runs only on private donations. Very cool that a man can eat a three day old burrito and raise that much for charity. Monday, Norm said he never felt ill after wards.

In other food stuff kind of things. My roommate told me he was going to start eating more fish, even though he hates fish. I asked him why. "To lose weight," he replied. I told him maybe he shouldn't go to Whataburger up to 5, yes 5 times a week. We all know how to lose weight, its all about want to. I sure as heck can stand to drop some weight, but I haven't gotten to the point of wanting to make the effort.

Script quickly

2010-04-02T10:37:00.003-05:00

As you all know yesterday was April Fool's and that day always reminds me of my personal favorite prank. I love it because it totally fooled me, and I am usually pretty decent at sniffing them out. It was the early to mid '90s and the Dallas Mavericks were the worst team in the NBA. I was watching the local new station and in the normal newscast they had breaking news. The Dallas Mavericks had just traded for David Robinson. Holy cow! This was a complete game changer. The Mavs just got one of the dominant players in the NBA.

They sold it so perfectly too. It occurred so naturally in the news cast. No one gave it away. David Robinson was in on it to. They showed him giving an interview about the trade and how happy he was coming to the Mavericks. I was almost jumped up out of the recliner with joy. Then at the end of the interviews, Robinson turns to the camera and says, "April Fools!" I would have been mad if it hadn't worked so perfectly. I also think it worked so well, because you weren't inundated with practical jokes like you are now with so many on the web. Plus, it was so rare for a TV station to pull something like that. I found it hysterical.

Well maybe I was a little bitter.

Word in the Butterfly

2010-03-31T14:00:00.003-05:00

Cooking: I got an immersion blender for my birthday this month, and I used that last week to make some split pea soup. I just had a general idea on how to make it, so I was kind of winging it. My real problem was how much liquid to use. I kept adding more as I was cooking it. Then I went a bit crazy with the blender and didn't have any chunks of peas in it (I added some carrots and ham after the blending and cooked it longer). The taste I actually liked a lot, but instead of soup it was more of a pea paste. Whenever I reheated it, I dilute it with some water, and that really made it more appetizing. Otherwise it looked like I was eating baby vomit or something. I am excited to blend more stuff up, and it is a lot easier to clean than a regular blender.

Gaming: In my video game playing life. I haven't gotten EA NCAA College Football in a number of years, but I did get the 2010 version. Playing it in HD, the graphics are incredibly awesome. I've played it and after a play I was thinking to myself, "Man, that looked like a facemask." Sure enough the flag comes out. That is pretty cool. The recruiting in the game is pretty in depth. You have different pitches to give the recruits, you get limited time each week to call them, there is off season recruiting as well. I swear sometimes I spend more time recruiting than playing the actual game.

You to can institute change: I asked a manger at my local Kroger's a couple of weeks go why they only have a couple of bottles of Red Hook ESB on the shelf for the pick sic, six pack, and never full six packs of the beer. Well just last week they now carry six packs, I would like to think that I made some small impact locally. If only to get me inebriated.

Legion Sketch #30

2010-03-28T08:44:00.005-05:00

We get the older Star Boy this time by Jake Ekiss. He is part of a group of young local artists (Space-Gun Studios) that I think could do some great things. I always though this version of Star Boys costume would be a pain in the butt, but I think Jake did a great job on it. This was done at the last Wizard World Texas show.

Stance Limit

2010-03-24T09:26:00.002-05:00

Work stuff: I don't talk about my work much, but this time I am. Today I had one of those problems that I hate, in that I really am powerless to solve it besides just making phone calls. Plus, there are just so many layers to it. It goes like this:
1. A sales rep thinks they are missing a shoe.
2. They call their home office.
3. The home office calls me.
4. I have to find the original order and then call the company I ordered the item from.
5. They find the order, track it, and then give me the info.
6. I then call the company's home office.
7. They then call the rep.

That is the basics some times there are more layers (IE. my boss gets the call and then he gives me the info, and I give it all back to him). Today's though was a huge cluster that I finally deduced that the company I order the hoes from never got the order, which was good because I also discovered that our customer ordered half of the shoes to go to the wrong sales rep. I think I could have spent those 2 hours doing something more productive. It was a total beating.

Other stuff: I talked to a cousin I haven't talked to in a few months. I was shocked to discover that her father (my uncle, natch) has throat cancer. My cousin quit her job to take care of him for the past 2 months (she is a nurse). Now that he has gotten a little bit better, she has gone back to work. If that wasn't bad enough for her, the day she got back home her boyfriend broke up with her. On top of that they still lease and apartment together which makes the whole thing super-weird.

NCAA Basketball: Just a quick shout out, and a hearty congratulations to the Baylor Men's basketball team for making the sweet sixteen. I never thought that program would survive after the scandal back in 2003. What a turn around by head coach Scott Drew.

Legion Sketch #29

2010-03-21T08:37:00.003-05:00

In this edition:

Lightning Lad by the Great Rob Osborne (he likes it when I call him that). I first met him at a party at Wizard World Texas a few years ago, and he is just one of those people you meet in life you just hit it off with. I've had the pleasure of chatting with him and his wife a number of times since then. This sketch was done at CAPE (RIP, sniff), which was a huge Free Comic Book Day event in Dallas, about two years ago.

A staple for a nutritious breakfast

2010-03-10T16:39:00.003-06:00

This past weekend I went to the great city of Austin, TX. One, to go the the STAPLE comic book convention which focuses on the independent comics. Two, just to get away for the weekend. It had been over 2 1/2 years since the last time I left the DFW area, and that was great. The were supposed to be a group of us going, but it ended up being just me and my friend who runs the comic book shop I go to (even his girlfriend bailed less than a week to go). Quick tangent it was going to cost more to change my room from a queen to two double beds than the hotel room would cost (we got around it by someone sleeping on the recliner).

I was running behind myself and when I showed up my friend, Jake, wanted to drop off some packages at the post office. The first one had no power so then we had to go to another one. After a few more delays we ended up leaving about an hour or more later than I had wanted to leave. A mandatory stop on a road trip to Austin is to stop either on the way there or the way back in West, Texas at Czech Stop to get some kolaches and other pastries there. They are awesome, we stopped on the way down. I had a very nutritious lunch of cream cheese kolaches and pecan rolls.

The hour delay really killed us once we hit Austin as the Friday afternoon traffic was in full effect, and Austin has grown so quickly they only have one major highway to handle it. We drove past one Ramada Inn and I told my friend, "I bet that is our hotel."
"No, man, the exit didn't Koenig on it anywhere." Which was the flaw in the directions I had, they said to exit Koenig,but the exit sign does have that name on there, it is FM 2222. Well we had to drive almost all the way through Austin at 15 MPH before I convinced my friend I was right. Eventually we made it back to hotel.

We both had a friend or two living in Austin, and what was really great was one of Jake's friends (John)lived about two miles away from the hotel. We went out that night to quite a few bars. The last one I remember (I wasn't driving) was Barflies when we pulled into the parking lot to begin with we were waved off by three police cars. We parked around the corner and went in anyways. We ended up crashing at John's house. I was lucky and got the couch. Jake slept on a hardwood floor.

Saturday, we had what was essentially brunch at a place called Ruby's BBQ. I had a brisket and sausage sandwich with slaw on it, with some home fries. It was awesome. I loved when I placed my order: The guy asked if I wanted creamy or vinegary slaw on my sandwich, and I told him creamy. He looked at me, nodded, and said "You bet you do."

Then we went to STAPLE for a few hours and it was a lot of fun. I will probably go into more details on the at the Captain Comics Board. I will say meeting Guy Davis was a pure highlight. There is also more and more female creators out there, and Monica Gallagher takes the prize for hottest person there. Oh my goodness. I bought something from her for that alone. The weirdest moment was when someone told me that "Travis" is one of his favorite names. He even mentioned how weird it was to say that to me.

We went out again that night. I was happy that my friend Larry came out with us as well, having only seen him once before in the past 15 years or so. We ended up at one club, and we were told that it was the CD release for a group. We were outside were they had the stage and the DJ ended up being one of Public Enemy's DJs which perked my ears up. He was spinning some tunes, and I was looking around and noticed there were a lot of lesbians there. It ended up being, I guess, a lesbian hip-hop duo, God-dess and She. To tell the truth, they were pretty good. I really liked what they did. God-dess was rapping and Jake asked me if the She was going to be the "hype woman" of the group. Of course I didn't know. Man, could she sing, she was great. She sang one song acapella. Later she sang one of my favorites: Michael Jackson's PYT.

I took easy that night, as I didn't want to drive home hungover, as I have done that many times before from Austin and it sucked. The rest of the night was uneventful. We left later than I wanted to Sunday as well, and I drove in the rain all the way back.

Ticket Stock

2010-02-18T11:16:00.003-06:00

Last weekend my favorite radio station hosted their annual Ticket Stock, sometimes Ticketstock. I wasn't able to go, but what I love about it is that it is free to the fans. No admission price to get in, and no cost to get autographs from any of the celebrities that show up. They are mostly local sports stars. Like the Cowboys Tashard Choice, the Rangers David Murphy, etc. They also bring in some pretty big time guests as well. Like this year they brought Barry Sanders. He was so committed to getting here when his flight got canceled out of the city he was in (I believe Detroit). He drove himself to another city to catch a flight to Dallas, what a guy!. Now Barry Sanders' autograph was free as well, but there were a limited number of tickets that you did have to wait in line for.

The other fun part of this event is that almost all of the show hosts do a little concert together. They are collectively called the Time Wasters, and you get a nice mix of original songs, song parodies, and straight covers. Really cool, and can be really wheels off. Their backing band is one of the hosts' own band who learns all of the songs they are doing fairly quickly.

I did get to hear parts of it live on the radio. I enjoyed them trying to get Barry Sanders to admit he was better than Emmitt Smith. He refused, especially since he was in Dallas. Tashard Choice has everyone convinced for a few seconds he had just been traded to St. Louis. Good times. I hope to go next year.

From Home

2010-02-16T17:02:00.003-06:00

Well, by brother was in town for about a week, to visit, and it was his birthday. I was originally going to meet him, his girlfriend, and a couple of other friends Thursday night, but that got nixed when we got record breaking snow here. So, we weren't able to get together until Friday night, his actual birthday. We all went to dinner with my dad and step-mom. We ate at the terrific Marlo's House which is a Mennonite restaurant. I am amazed at how quickly the sole cook back there gets food out on just a 4 burner stove. The food there is excellent.

Saturday is were things took a turn for the worst. Here a group of six of us went to the French restaurant Bonnie Ruth's. Now I don't mind if there is long dinner that grows organically from conversation and what not. This was not one of those times. This was three hours just wasted. A little rest give from time to time for waitstaff is to order an ice tea w/o lemon, and see how well they pay attention.. This time it came with the lemon, a little warning.
The highlights:

I never, ever got any water
Well over an hour to get our appetizer
Over an hour for my brother's girlfriend to get her glass of wine
A friend dropped his fork before we got our entrees. We got tired of waiting for the waiter to bring a new one once the meal did arrive we got our own.
They ran out of creme brulee. Which they were going to give one free to my brother, nothing offered to replace it.
We were offered free champagne cocktails for our trouble. We never got them.
THIS JUST IN: The bastards double charged my card. I just found this out like 5 minutes ago.

My brother and his girlfriend spent Saturday night at another friend's house, so we could get together easily on Sunday. We ate breakfast at the Original Pancake House (it was awesome), and then we went and saw The Wolfman. Which was awful, one of the worst movies I have payed for in a long time. Boring, cliched, etc, etc.

Monday was the last night I would see my brother before he went back to California. It was a nother family dinner at Babes Chicken House. I had never been before, but had heard rave reviews of it. Those were well deserved. You don't get a menu really. The waitress gives you a list of the 6 or 7 entrees they have available. You order your entree, and then every side dish they have is brought to your table family style and is all-you-can eat. I had the (very well reviewed) fried chicken, and I gotta say it was the best restaurant fried chicken I have ever had. Once you are done you can take your leftover entree home, but you can't take any of the sides. I still got away with the leftover biscuits.

Well, it was good to see my brother, I hope I can visit him again soon. It has been to long since I have been to San Fran.

Wasting Time

2010-02-10T12:26:00.002-06:00

Just a few notes. I hope everyone enjoyed to Super Bowl. I know I did. I watched the game at a friends house. Won 25 bucks, drank too much (didn't drive), and ate too little (just a kid sized bowl of chili). I wanted the Colts to win, but it wasn't like I was pissed of the the Saints won. I do get tired of trying to be guilted into rooting for them because of Katrina. You watch enough sports and you learn everyone has a sad story. That is half of the Olympics and a third of College Game Day.

A bit of sad news. For everyone planning to come to Dallas for the NBA All-Star game, it grieves me to report that there are no more Lamborghinis available to rent.

A story that really made my blood boil

Alpaca Breeders

2010-01-22T12:15:00.005-06:00

The other day, my boss gave me a very nice compliment,"Travis, I don't day this often enough, but I never have to tell you anything twice. You always take care of whatever I need immediately. I don't have to follow up with you." Which was very flattering. There is a reason I work this way though, at every job I have had. I am a master procrastinator. If I don't take care of my work as soon as I can I will slough off and I may just wait a day or two to take care of what I need to. I simply can't wait or it won't get done. When I was in high school I would always be "sick" the day before a research paper was do. I would then do all of my research and and writing the day I missed. I wait till the day before my inspection runs out on my car before I get that taken care of. That explains that.

A quick Dallas Cowboys note. Wade Phillips was given a contract extension this week, and I have heard a more than a few people on the radio claim what a great job he has done here. Even going so far as to malign what Bill Parcells did for the team.
"Look at Wade's record, it is better than Bill Parcells'"
"Bill Parcells didn't win a playoff game."

Now I am no great fan of Tuna, BUT does no one remember the team that Bill Parcells took over? They had three straight 5-11 seasons. He had Quincy Carter for his QB (an NFL career rating of 71.7), and he still made it to the playoffs that year. He also had Troy Hambrick (who?) as his number 1 rusher, and Terry Glenn as the lead receiver (754 yds for the year). Parcells built up the team, and he was the one who convinced Jerry Jones to keep Tony Romo. So let's give Parcells a little credit shall we?

Legion Sketch #28

2010-01-17T08:19:00.003-06:00

This time we got:

We got a Sun Boy pic by Tom Morgan. He was a very entertaining guy to listen to at the convention I met him at. He did quite abit of work for the Big Two in the '80s & '90s and just kind of disappeared from the comic book scene. He said he was getting calls all the time from artists friends saying that they could get him work on a book if he needed it. He didn't, he had moved on to a career doing storyboards for films, tv, and commercials.

A very special offer

2010-01-14T11:50:00.002-06:00

I am just about done going inside my bank to get anything done. I do 90% of mine banking on-line, and the only time I go in a branch is when I have a paper check to deposit. Now whenever I go inside someone is trying to give me the hard sell to open a new account, take out a loan, or spend some kind of money there.

Like earlier this week I was in there, and some guy working there told me that I and a select few customers have chosen to earn 1.5% on any new saving account we open up with a minimum of $25,000. All I could think was, "Yeah select few, the select few who are stupid enough to walk inside." I told him that no I couldn't really that right now. I wanted to add that he sees what my deposits are each week, and why would he think I have an extra twenty-five grand laying around.

So, yeah, if they don't ease off I may try the ATM deposits.

Decade of Dross

2010-01-07T10:57:00.008-06:00

Well, my friend Rob tagged me in one of them blog meme type things. It is a “best of decade” thing that hopefully I can squeeze 3 or so categories out of. From Ami Angelwing’s original blog post:

It's the "of the decade" meme! Basically come up with 3 categories and who you think wins that category! Be creative!

Like what I mean isn't just "best comic book of the decade"... like "best moustache of an comic creator of the decade" or whatever.. it can be serious (best Asian male film character of the decade) or not or whatever.. it doesn't have to be about comics, or games or whatever.. it can be about nething (worst hair of a world leader, weirdest food trend... etc etc)

and tag 3-5 other ppl! And then they come up with 3 categories.. etc :] The main part is to be creative!

Be creative? That isn’t my specialty, but lets see what we can do…

Best Piece of Radio Audio of the Decade: Just go and listen to this piece of audio. The thing to remember is that this was a radio host interviewing the Dallas Chief of Police. Oh, what must have been going through his head!? I have heard this well over a hundred times and it makes me laugh every single time.

Best Sporting Event of the Decade: This decade was the second time I went to the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament. The first round is four games with quite a bit of time between the first two and second two games. Between those games two friends and I were drinking at the bar in the arena. One of my friends hits on a girl there and, she offers to give us the seats of some of her family who have already left. We ended up watching the games that evening on about the 15^th row. A little bit better that our seats on the last row in the arena.

Best Website of the Decade: The Captain Comics message board. One of the most civil places on the web were we discuss so much more than just comic books. I have even had the pleasure of meeting a few of the people on there.

Best Comic Book Memory that has Nothing to do with Comic Books of the Decade: I don’t believe I have ever told this story on the web before. Okay, so it is the first year of Wizard World Texas in Arlington, TX (I wanna say 2003). I am volunteering at the Hero Initiative booth (still called ACTOR back then). One of the guests of honor is George Perez and he is also donating some of his time to sign comics at our booth for donations. I meet him Friday and that was very, very cool.

Saturday night a friend of mine who was their peddling his comic with some other friends was having a party at his house, and I went to that of course. We almost pulled an all-nighter, and I ended up with a solid 2 hours of sleep. I went to the con that day very tired and very hungover. I sat in the back of the booth feeling sorry for myself waiting until the time I had to go back on duty. At one point George shows up ad he looks miserable too. It turns out he had gotten mild food poisoning the night before and also felt like ass. He just wanted a place to hang out before he met more of the fans, so George Perez and I just sat in the back of the booth commiserating with each other for about an hour. That’s right kids I had just about every fan boy’s wet dream as I had a one-on-one with George Perez. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I know it had little to do with comic books

That is it that is my list. Who to tag? I reckon Howard, Jeff, and Mike. I would tag P-Cat as well but I don’t know if his serious sports blog would be up for a meme. If you are go for it as well.

PS I am trying to see how many places I can out that picture of me and George Perez. This is either 4 or 5 sites. This picture was taken a few years later though.

My Christmas Vacation

2009-12-29T16:36:00.003-06:00

If you recall last week was Christmas. My original plan was to go to my dad's house Christmas Eve drive back home, and go back Christmas morning. Well it started snowing Christmas Eve, and it was pretty treacherous just driving to my dad's house. On one overpass a guy decided driving 15mph in the middle lane wasn;t good enough for me so he jumped into the left had lane and drive 15mph there. He almost got rear ended, and the truck swerved in front of me and ended up the right hand lane because of the ice. Everyone was okay though.

So, I did end up spending Christmas Eve at my dad's house, and I was worried where I would sleep. Well my dad got a new camping trailer and I ended up sleeping in it. The trailer has a gas trailer, and I ended up turning it down, because it got so hot in there. The main problem was the wind, it would blow so hard and shake the trailer until about 4AM.

It was pretty cool having a White Christmas. It was the first one in Dallas since 1926, and only the second one I have experienced in my life.

Christmas Day was uneventful for the most part. I spent a few hours at a neighbor's house from my old neighborhood. Such a big differnce between their house and my dad's. So many kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids there. Back at my dad's there were just four of us. After we ate Christmas dinner though, we were just sitting there, all four of us, literally staring at the wall. With the same music from like 10 hours earlier playing. The snow had cleared up by this time, so I got out of there. I can understand leaving the TV off when everyone is talking and visiting, but when no one is saying anything to each other lets turn the thing on.

A good Christmas though. I enjoyed it.

Something to do

2009-12-22T08:53:00.003-06:00

Well last week I was off for vacation, and I took another staycation, and lived like a hermit in my house. My enjoyment was lessened though, my roommate having training all week, so he was at home doing a class on-line. I am getting a bit stir crazy though being in Dallas all of the time. Next year I definitely want to get out of here. I haven't left the D/FW metroplex in 2 1/2 years, and I haven't left the state of Texas in 5 1/2 years. I already have tentative plans to attend STAPLE in Austin, TX in March. It is a one day comic book convention, but I hope to make a weekend of it down there, as I love Austin.

For Christmas, my step-brother is arriving tomorrow, and it should be just a small gathering at my dad's house with just four of us. My brother and his girlfriend aren't able to make it this year. I hope I can make time to visit some of my friends from the old neighborhood.

I hope everyone else has a good Christmas. Eat all ya want, you only live once.

Legion Sketch #27

2009-12-20T09:08:00.003-06:00

Ah in this edition we get Blok as drawn buy Mike Hankins who does a funny little web comic called Dorm Dorks. I liked that he had some fun with it.

Legion Sketch #26

2009-12-13T08:58:00.002-06:00

A very sexy Lightning Lass by Eric "ebas" Basaldua. Done at the the Dallas Comic-con or whatever they were calling it in '08.

Sporty Sports

2009-12-10T11:48:00.003-06:00

A little sports post today. First the Texas Rangers basically let Marlon Byrd go when he declined their arbitration offer. Through a trade with the Red Sox they have replaced his bat (not his position) with Mike Lowell. Fine, whatever I just let it go. My ears do perk up though when one of the hosts on the radio is going on and on about how Mike Lowell can't possibly replace the production that Marlon Byrd gave Texas. I just had to look it up.

Avg.
Byrd: .283
Lowell: .290

HR
Byrd: 20
Lowell: 17

RBI:
Byrd: 89
Lowel: 75

OBP:
Byrd: .329
Lowell: .337

OPS+
Byrd: 106 (!)
Lowell 106 (!)

SO:
Byrd: 98
Lowell: 61

I mean they are almost exactly the same player and Lowell did that in 27 less games. The only major factor in the trade is Mike Lowell is 4 years older.

Another thing I want to give a hearty congratulations to the SMU Mustangs who have finally reached a bowl game for the first time in 25 years. Head coach June Jones did what no other coach has been able to do, and he did it in his second season.

I always felt that SMU was wrongly given the death penalty way back when, not so much as they didn't deserve it per se, but all of the other school who have been proven to have committed worse infractions didn't. It is greatly believed that the NCAA won't ever impose it again, after seeing how crippling it is to a school. If you remember they got a one year penalty, but had to cancel the next year as well as they couldn't get enough players to the school to field a competitive team.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T10:49:00.003-06:00

Well I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I know I did, not let me run down what we had for our meal. Let me stress this was for 4 people only:

Turkey
Dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Tossed Salad
Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower
Creamed Peas w/pearl onions
Steamed Green Beans and Carrots (which were from my dad's garden)
Wheat Rolls
Sweet Potatoes
2 Types of Jello salad. (Have I mentioned this was for 4 people?)
2 Pumpkin Pies
Chocolate Mousse
Carrot Cake
Wine
Gravy, can't forget the gravy
Cranberry sauce

I didn't even know there were 2 pumpkin pies until they gave me half of one when I left, and my step-mom said she had another. It was good though...

Concert A-Go-Go

2009-11-11T09:23:00.004-06:00

Geez, has been two weeks already? Anyways, I went to the Wolfmother concert two weeks ago. They were playing at the House of Blues in downtown Dallas. They has two bands opening up for them. thenewno2 who I had never heard of, and the Heartless Bastards who, not only had I actually heard of, but I liked. I was stoked to see them. Well I was told, that we (that being me and my friends were going to meet a a bar first), so no opening act. I was a bit disappointed, but the Filmore was a pretty cool bar to hang out at.

Well, we did make it to the House of Blues in time to catch the last 4 or 5 songs of the Heartless Bastards. My faith in them was totally rewarded. They were awesome, and my friends pretty much acquiesced that it was a mistake to miss their entire set. A couple of my friends enjoyed them so much they bought CDs and t-shirts. I was still sober enough not to buy a t-shirt there. We did miss all of thenewno2.

Then it was time for Wolfmother to take the stage. Watching them, and hearing them play is what I imagine it would have been like to see some of the great bands of the '70s. It is a no frills concert with just hard rocking music. I love that the bass player (or was it the rhythm guitarist?) is also the keyboardist. When it is time for some keyboard, he just flings his instrument around to his back and jams on the keyboard for a bit. Both bands that we saw really seemed to be into it, and seemed to be having a great time. I think that was helped by it being the first night of their American tour. It was just a great night, with pure rock and roll music.

I did find out a few things about thenewno2. They are led by the Beatles great George Harrison's son Dhani. I was wondering were they got there name from. First, I thought it may have to do with defecation. Then, maybe it was a self deprecating name in that they are the new number 2, and not number 1. Finally, I thought it may have something to do with the cult TV show The Prisoner. Yeah, it is the TV thing. Last thing, the next day my roommate (who bailed on going at the last moment) asked if I knew any of Woflmother's songs. I replied, "Well they have put out two albums, and I own both of them, so yeah I knew a few."

Clearing the clutter

2009-11-04T09:32:00.004-06:00

Well, I have been doing quite a bit of house sitting the past few weeks. With another bout this upcoming weekend as a friend and his wife go to Austin for the Texas Longhorns game. The only thing that happened of real significance was at my dad's place. The problem is that whenever you move something around his computer it seems like the whole set-up moves because his wires are all tangled up together. My last day there, on a Sunday, I spent about an hour untangling them, and try to clean it up.

First off, I found two lengths of wire that were not attached to anything at either end. Puzzling. Next, there was about 10-12 feet of phone line winding through the entire mess. It was plugged into a phone jack at one end of the room, but nothing around the computer. To make it all a little bit neater, I used garbage bag ties so there wasn't so much loose wires everywhere. It was all a little bit tighter. Obviously, it is still a lot of wires running around everywhere, but it is better. Please note that picture is NOT from my dad's house.

In other news of me. I have been consistently busy at work for over a week for the first time in months. Which has been great, because when it is too slow the day just crawls by. Also I have been given new responsibilities, so I have more to do in general. It has been good.

I made a mostly seamless upgrade to Windows 7 yesterday. Many thanks to my friend Dave who worked at Microsoft for a great deal on the upgrade. This version of Windows was actually very good and finding new drivers for some of the hardware on my computer once I got hooked up to the net. It took me directly to the Sound Blaster site for the driver for my sound card. Plus, it automatically installed the driver for my wireless network card. Sweet, since I had lost the installation disc.

Legion Sketch #25

2009-11-01T08:34:00.002-06:00

We finally close out Wizard World Texas 2007 with:

We have Andy Kuhn's rendering of Karate Kid. What I like about this was this was done late on the last day of the con, and he still seemed to really get into it. A nicely done sketch.

Another thing I don't get.

2009-09-29T13:39:00.003-05:00

Okay, here is something I do not get. I am an unmarried man, with no girlfriend or kids running around. As I get older, understandably, more and more of my friends do have family obligations and such. Yet, they always tell me to call them when I want to do something. That seems flawed to me. This is a conversation I had with my friend Victor when we finally went out earlier this month after spending months trying to get together.

Him, "Give me a call when you want to go out again."

Me, "You should call me when you want to go out. You have a wife, you have a son, you work about 30 more hours a week than I do, and now you are back in school."

I have had versions of that talk with numerous friends of mine. The put the onus on me though to call them. I am always free. Pretty much always available. Another thing I told Victor, "Dude you can call me to go do something any time, and I will be ready in fifteen minutes or less." The main reason I don't call my attached friends is after a while you get tired of getting shot down. Hell, some of these guys are losers who never wanted to do anything when they were single. Eventually, I do learn my lesson and just quit calling people.

So, yeah, do call me, AND I will call you (maybe).

Who has been worse?

2009-09-22T09:55:00.003-05:00

After the debacle on Sunday all of the rage around Dallas is who to put the blame on. Tony Romo or the Dallas defense? I spread it over both of them pretty evenly myself. What worries me more though is the defense. Not just this early in the season, but how they ended last season.

24-33 loss to Baltimore and surrendering 265 yards rushing. Two rushing TDs of 77 and 82 yards.
6-44 loss to Philly. Even taking out the two fumbles returned for touchdowns the defense gave up 30 points
34-21 win on Tampa Bay. They still gave up 450 yards of total offense with no sacks and no turnovers.
31-33 loss to the Giants. Another 427 yards of offense including 330 passing from Eli Manning. With another game of no sacks and no turnovers. If the defense had made one stop the Cowboys would have overcome Romo's 3 interceptions.

This is with Wade Phillips taking over the defense. If the defense doesn't get good fast the Cowboys are just going to be in a shootout each game.

Legion Sketchbook #24

2009-09-20T08:34:00.003-05:00

This time:

We are still at Wizard World Texas 2007, and we also get our second appearance of Wildfire in the sketch book. This time he was drawn by Angel Medina. Perhaps best known for his run on Spawn. I really enjoyed listening to him talk, and hearing some of his thoughts on comic books.

My favorite line (to someone else at the table),"Are you impressed with my skill?"
"Yes."
"Then why doesn't it get me laid more?"
Pretty close to that anyways.

I do find it interesting that on the sketches that are pencils only the paper looks yellowed. Oh well.

slow down wireless

2009-09-18T10:03:00.002-05:00

It is just going to be a bunch of random stuff this time.

Lots of sadness: In the past week or so, the dog I left with my parents when I first moved out (no pets in the apartment), Samson passed away. He was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease last November.

My great-aunt Julia passed away on Labor Day, but I didn't find out about the funeral until the night before. Really wished I could have made it. One of my favorite relatives to visit with at family reunions.

Also, my current roommate's father passed away last week, and I was honored to be his pallbearer on Monday.

Auction news: Does anyone want to bid on Jack Ruby's leg shackles? One of the weirdest and creepiest items I have ever seen offered up. I still love Heritage though. If you are ever in Dallas, I would highly recommend trying to get in there and look around. They have some very cool stuff there.

The Rangers: I think the season is pretty much over. They are 6 games back of the Angels for the division and 6 1/2 from Boston for the wild card. They had perhaps their worst series ever at home by only scoring one run in three games against Oakland. Wow, just wow.

I was also pissed about the local media wondering why people weren't going to the games this week. Well, it was after the weekend, it has been raining all week (today is the first time it hasn't rained since last Friday), school has started, uncertainty about ownership and direction, and the Rangers made absolutely no moves to help their team when every other team they are in the race against did. Plus everyone hates the Ranger owner Tom Hicks. Personally for me, I enjoy going to the games, but that drive back is a beating. I hate driving back.

Legion Sketch #23

2009-09-13T08:38:00.002-05:00

In this edition:

This is Dream Girl of course as drawn by Thom Zahler who does a very neat little comic called Love and Capes. I really like his style, and I don't know if it comes through here, but he did put in some cool silver coloring on the costume. This is also from Wizard World Texas 2007, where I definitely got the most sketches done at one time.

Legion Sketch #22

2009-09-06T08:48:00.003-05:00

We finish out the Fatal Five:

This rounds out the Fatal Five from Wizard World Texas 2007. This was actually done by one of the other Hero Initiative volunteers: Hector Avila. A very cool, menacing Validus. He filled the page up so much part of the left hand side got cut off on the scan.

A Future?

2009-09-03T11:22:00.002-05:00

Well, for the first time sine the early to mid '90s it feels like the Texas Rangers finally have a future to look forward to. Even more so than those teams, this team has more younger players who can hopefully contribute for a longer period of time. Of course it is entirely they will never win anything, but it looks like they will be in the hunt for a little while.

The most electrifying prospect is pitcher Neftali Feliz who has taken the role of a middle reliever right now. His stuff is just awesome right now. He has a nasty slider, and changeup to accompany his 97 mph fastball.I would love to see him become a starter at some point (next season maybe?). Last time he pitched he lowered his ERA to 0.46.

Last night it was great to see Julio Borbon and Elvis Andrus bat 1-2 in the lineup (Andrus was second due to Michael Young's injury), the same slot they batted in last year when both were in AA ball in Frisco. With the continuing maturation of Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton it looks like the Rangers are going to have a good young hitting for a while.

The other young pitchers also seem to be adjusting to the major leagues pretty well too. Usually the Rangers call up their young pitchers to replace other injured pitchers, and they usually get shelled a few times. Then we never see them again. This year with Holland, Nippert, and Hunter they don't seem to be afraid of big league hitting. If the workhorse Millwood can remain healthy and if they do move Feliz to the starting rotation I think the Rangers have their starters for next season, and it won't matter if Brandon McCarthy is healthy or not (I am going to bet not though).

So yeah there is some hope for the present and the future

Legion Sketch #21

2009-08-23T08:06:00.002-05:00

Continuing the Fatal Five:

This is of course Tharok. I figured he would be the biggest pain in the butt to draw because of the robotic half of the character. I think the artist, Hal Saville, did a nice job of with it. At Wizard World that year he was really trying to promote his subscription site, the sketches just became part of the promotion.

Serial Cereal Reviews: Active Lifestyle

2009-08-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

I haven't done one of these in a while, but then again there really hasn't been any cereal I felt like talking about. Finally I have tried a new cereal, Active Lifestyle which is Kroger's version of Special K. Now I know Special K (and by default Active Lifestyle) is marketed for women, but taste is taste and Active Lifestyle tastes pretty damn good. For a flake style cereal it holds up pretty well in the milk, and doesn't get mushy too fast. If you like Special K, you will probably like this one too.

3.5 out of 5 bowls. Short and sweet

Appear Relevant

2009-08-05T15:15:00.005-05:00

So, last Friday afternoon I am at home from work noodling around in City of Heroes and drinking a beer. There is a knock at the door, and it is my neighbor. She asks if I will be around for a little while, and I tell her I should be. See, she sold her couch, chair, and ottoman to some dude, and wants some help moving it. It took all of my willpower to not just respond,"Well I guess he should have brought more people." Instead, "Sure."

Later she calls me, and I go out to help. who did the guy bring? Some, how to put this delicately, older gentleman (late 50s probably). Naturally, the couch is upstairs. By the way the it is a couch with a hide-a-bed so it is one heavy sucker. We do everything we can to lighten the load, and my neighbor goes to her neighbor on the other side to bring him in.

We finally get the couch moved to the stairs, and it is hot upstairs. When we tilt the couch to go down the stairs the bed falls out. We get some wire to tie the bed down. I don't know what the AC is set at, 85 maybe, it is scorching up there. The other neighbor, Hasshan, I feel real bad for him. He is wearing black slack, a long sleeve black dress shirt and a tie. He was at home for lunch from work. After much finagling, since couches never go down stairs easily, we get the damn thing down. I am exhausted, and so is Hasshan who needs to get back to work. Everyone else is nice and gets out fo our way so we can carry the couch by ourselves out to the dudes truck. Now I am getting pissed and we do little more than drag it across the yard.

Here is the kicker: The guy buying the couch? Didn't help at ALL! He just stood outside talking to my neighbor the entire time. Oh man was I mad. We are moving furniture he bought, and this sorry motherfucker doesn't even help! All he did was help load into his truck at the very end when Hasshan left to go back to work. It wasn't like he couldn't help, he was this real cut dude too. Looks like he works out all the time. What a jerk

Tigers 2 Rangers 5

2009-07-28T10:01:00.002-05:00

Well, last night I went to my first Texas Rangers game in years. Last night was a reminder of why I should go more often. The Ballpark in Arlington, even with that horrible name, is a really great looking park. The weather was absolutely fantastic, it was in the upper 70s by the time of the first pitch because it had been raining all day. Welcome relief from the usual 100 degree weather we have been having. The weather cooperated for the game as well. It started raining a bit in the 8th inning, but held off enough to finish the game (around 2 1/2 hours).

The seats we had were on the home run porch in the all you can eat section. I won't break down what I ate, but they damn near rolled me home. Not surprisingly the crowd was sparse at the game. Weeknight, rainy (could have been rained out), playing the Tigers. Not a recipe to bring them in.

My observation watching the Ranger pitcher, Tommy Hunter, during the first three innings: They either hit the ball to the wall, or it doesn't leave the infield. The game got off to a rough start when Curtis Granderson hit a home run on the second pitch of the game. The Rangers tied it up in the 5th, and put the game away in the 6th. The game was also a reminder of how Michael Young is the most under appreciated athlete in the Dallas area. He went 3-4 last night with an RBI to raise his average to .322. He is just Steady Eddy though. Every year he averages .300 with 200 hits. Always a good, but not flashy fielder. He has moved from second the short, and now short to third effortlessly.

All in all I really enjoyed myself even if I did eat a bit too much.

Legion Sketch #20

2009-07-19T18:17:00.004-05:00

For this edition:

As I continue the Fatal Five from Wizard Word Texas 2007, this time it is the Persuader as rendered by Juan Carlos Ramos. I think he did an excellent job, and very cool with the colored pencils.

Credit Union Underground

2009-06-30T11:13:00.003-05:00

I heard of this car chase on the radio, and kind of paid attention when I actually knew where the chase was taking place. I later found out it ended right in the neighborhood I grew up in. When I finally watched it I was like, "Hey I went to that day care! There's Dairy Queen." CRASH!!!!
The bad guy was hurt pretty bad, the truck driver seems to be okay. The bad news for him is that was his second accident in two days.

Moving in stereo: In other news. My old stereo has been broken for years. The only reason I haven't chunked it yet is that it has 6 CDs in it. I was debating to either get it fixed or just rebuy the CDs. The first few I looked at I could get real cheap, one I found for a penny. Then came the doozy. One of the CDs I could not find for less than $35.00 (as high as $60.00). Apparently it has become a collector's item. I am gonna try and see if I can get the damn things out myself.

Legion Sketch #19

2009-06-28T17:39:00.004-05:00

In this edition:

As mentioned previously, at Wizard World Texas 2007 my goal was to get the Fatal Five done. This time we get the Emerald Empress drawn by Brent Schoonover (who did the art on my buddy, David Hopkins' comic Astronaut Dad. This con was the first one were I saw the artists taking using digital cameras to take pics of all of the sketched they did. As one guy told me at the time: "I am getting more done this weekend than I do in a normal month."

An anniversary

2009-06-23T10:48:00.001-05:00

This month marks the 20^th year anniversary of my introduction to the world of the BBS. For those of you not in the know, back before the internet burst on the scene there were these things calls BBSs (bulletin board system), and they were run by the system operator (Sysop). Basically, the sysop would have a dedicated phone line and run the BBS software on his computer, and people would use their modems to dial in. Once on, it was basically like a message board that one person at a time could read (unless it was one of the BBS’s with multiple lines). Some of them also had games you could play. I also played in a lot of RPGs on them. People would run AD&D adventures and such. Like the internet now, a lot of time wasters.

The reason BBSs mean so much to me is that through them I formed my best, most long lasting friendships. I even ran my own board for a few years: Schizophrenic’s Paradise which was mainly for me and my friends to play games like Global Wars (a Risk rip-off), and keep in touch with the ones who had gone off to college in Austin.

I wanted to give some shout-outs to some of my old friends from back in the day. Those that I can remember anyways.

The ones I still know:
Galth Ractus – My brother!
Eric the Red – Keep on keepin’ on
Avshar – We work together, so of course I see him a ton.
Lancer – Good to hear from you again, man.
Craven Raven – Good to see you again.
Vector – Congrats!
Larry – Sorry dude, I can’t remember what name you used.

The Rest:
Erik the Blue – It was great hanging out at your apartment. Especially, for a teenage punk like I was
Grandmaster – I loved playing the RPGs on Runestone.
Horseman – Hope you are doing well, Jason
Enchantress
Thunderkorr – What up, Chad
Quasar Pendragon – The last Eric.
Bullwinkle
King Arthur
Crayon
Black Dragon
Akasha
Slice of Australia – One of the funniest people, ever. A master of ANSI animation. You were on of the best, Daniel
Satin Knight
Scooter Rider
Pern couple – I remember their board, but not the names they went by.
Headhunter
The Flying Chicken – Wrote some of the best mods for the WWIV software, and then just disappeared.
Bluenose – I always like you and your old man.
Fox Fire – Probably the only person funnier than Slice of Australia
Tauran Knight – Is KCE still around? I bought my 28.8 modem from him, when that was top of the line.
Old Goat – It was fun playing tennis.
Vernor
Fido Dido – Tamara, you really put me in a pickle that one time. Outside of that you were a pretty cool chick.
Freddy Krueger – The one Fido Dido got me in trouble with, kinda. We ironed everything out.
Zed Le Elf – Ron, sure had fun hanging out those too few times.
Yasmin Stargazer – I truly hope you found some peace in your life.

I am certain I forgot a ton of people, but it had been a long time. Thanks to everyone for all of the good times! Catch all of ya’ll on the flipside.

AEIOU and sometimes Y

2009-06-11T11:00:00.003-05:00

Stormy Weather: Last night and most of today we have been having some hellacious weather. Tornado sirens going off early. Me and my roommate thought we saw a fire starting from some lightning, when we drove over there we discovered it wasn't. It was just a few optical illusions fooling us. On the drive back to the house the rain was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe 10 feet in front of you.
This morning we had rolling thunder for about three hours. I love the sound of rolling thunder. It cleared up for about an hour or two, but have since had more storms come through. Wow it was awesome.

The picture to the right is by Justin Terveen who took it yesterday.

Creee-peeee: So, Friday night I am at Kotta Sushi drinking a beer at the bar. At one point this couple gets there and we chat for a bit. After a while the dude's wife leaves to go to the restroom, and this happens.
"Yeah, we just got married in May," the dude.
"Congratulations," I reply.
"Hey, when my wife comes back, tell her how gorgeous she looks."
"Uh, that's okay. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that."
"No, no. It's fine," he says.
"No, no. It isn't."
It was just so weird, and creepy having some guy I just met telling me to tell his wife how good looking she is. Especially someone who is a newlywed. Ew.

Well, excuse me: One thing that bothers me the most is when customers who owe the company I work for get mad. Well, this morning I one of those customers called me directly and irate that I had told one of his employees they were on credit hold. All I told him in response was, "What am I supposed to tell them, then?"
That seemed to piss him off even more, he said I had a bad attitude and wated to talk to my boss. When I told him that my boss would call him back in a few minutes he complains again, and again I told him, "What should I tell them?" The he said I had a real non-chalant attitude. I said the same thing again, but I wanted to say,"Well, this attitude is a defensive mechanism to keep me from telling you, To go fuck yourself." Which, it really, really is. I have been known to go off on customers before, so I was trying ahrd to keep myself in check.
My boss did smooth things over later, of course everyone's opinion here is if he paid in a timely matter it wouldn't ever have to come up.

Legion Sketch #18

2009-06-07T07:51:00.003-05:00

My objective for Wizard World Texas 2007 was to get the Fatal Five done. So, we start off with Mano by Billy Tan. The question is, did I succeed in my goal?

Strapping on the feedbag

2009-06-01T14:50:00.004-05:00

Last Friday I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Dallas, and that is Sushi Yama. Itis only the second time I have been there in about 2 1/2 years. Their sushi is only average, were they really shine is on the rest of the Japanese cuisine. I don't think there is another Japanese joint out there does it better in terms of taste and price.

For this first time in a long time I are katsu curry, and age dashi tofu. As I looked at the menu I was really wanting some omu rice, nabeyaki udon, and so many others. I have really missed that place. After revisting it, I will really try to get out there more often.

It was also my first time to eat in Dallas since they city government implemented the smoking ban in all bars. Sushi Yama is next to two bars. As a non-smoker what bothers me more? Having to walk through the throng of all of the smokers outside lighting up, or not going inside the smoked filled bar to begin with?

I also enjoyed that two spots over from my car there were three dudes playing dice on the parking lot.

House Sitting Part 539

2009-05-27T13:56:00.003-05:00

Memorial Day Weekend I was house sitting for my dad again as he and Jenny went on vacation. It made for one the most boring Memorial Day weekends of all-time. My dad does not have cable or anything like that, so it is just over the air TV, but it is in HD so that is a bonus. I also brought my computer over, so I could have its full capabilities (including gaming) while I was there.

While there I did discover a new channel in the area. Channel 31, I never knew it existed until then. I did enjoy the HD channel of 31-3 which is Cool TV. Which shows some music videos and a lot of songs from concert DVDs pretty cool for the most part. They haven't gotten all of the kinks worked out yet as some videos are on for maybe 30 seconds before it just stops and goes to another video. A nice changeup and some relief from the boredom.

I did have desperation TV early Monday afternoon, and watched some Maury. I really enjoy the scrapping of the bottom of the barrel with all of the paternity tests that were going on. Totally trashy television.

In other news, I was saddened Monday to learn of the death of Jay Bennett. The tremendously talented multi-instrumentalist formerly of Wilco. Arguably the force that steered Wilco from being Uncle Tupelo Jr to finding their own voice and musical direction and becoming one of the best bands in the past 10+ years. Lucas Hilbert has a very nice post over here. 45 is just way too young.

Reunions

2009-05-21T08:50:00.002-05:00

Part 1, or why I love the internet: In the past year or so I have been reunited with about 4 friends of mine through the internet. 3 of them used to be in my regular role-playing group, and another was a guy I used to work with. It has been really cool chatting with these guys again.

At least two of them have found me over at Captain Comics, which is the message board where I use my real full name. The original reason I used my real name there I have always said, was because if I lambasted someone's work, I at least wanted to have the balls to use my real name, and not hid behind an alias. The secondary effect is that it has allowed friends of mine to find me online. So cheers to "teh internetz"

Part 2: Two Saturdays ago, one of my good friends, also my old roommate had his wedding reception (about 5 months after he eloped). This were I got to see two of the guys from above show up, and a few other friends of mine. Some of these guys I haven't seen in 10 or more years. Most of them it had been 3 years or more since I had seen them. It was fun just to socialize with all of them again, no matter how briefly it was.

Some didn't look like they had changed at all, others had changed...a lot. A real nice evening.

Legion Sketch #17

2009-05-10T07:35:00.003-05:00

In this edition we have:

This is Dawnstar of course, as illustrated by Kristian Donaldson, perhaps best know for his work on the Brian Woods' series Supermarket. I dig this one a lot, and Kristian is a really nice guy. He is almost the personification of the typical artist though.

Soup for you!

2009-05-07T11:36:00.004-05:00

Over at Rob's blog, he did a post on who he gives a free pass to. Those who could piss in his soup, and he would have seconds from, or something like that,. Actually, it is people who have entertained you so much, they get a pass on their lesser works. Here are mine:

Quentin Tarantino: I loved Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, so much I will pretty much watch anything he does. I even watched the episode of All-American Girl he guest starred in.

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant: Simply for their previous work in Led Zeppelin. I liked the Coverdale/Page album, and when Jimmy Page was playing with the Black Crowes. Also, Plant's CD with Allison Krauss was great. John Paul Jones gets a lot less press (or none at all), but if I knew what he was up to I would check that out as well.

Geoff Johns: I don't think anyone does pure superhero fare better than Johns right now. I wanted to hate his run on Flash, and I loved it. I went into Green Lantern: Rebirth with great skepticism and he won me over. His run on the two Justice Society of America series' is some of the best comics of the past decade. All of that is so great I can forgive his Avengers.

Ed Brubaker: At one point he was writing my enitre pull list from Marvel: Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Criminal. Only his leaving Iron Fist changed that.

Serial Cereal Reviews: Cocoa Puffs Combo

2009-04-30T09:39:00.004-05:00

Today we get a surprise guest. I didn't know Cocoa Puffs Combo existed until I opened up the box, and thought to myself, "What the hell are these white things in here?" Apparently, these are vanilla flavored puffs. My one worry was that one of the flavors would overpower the flavor of the other. No worries here as they are really well balanced. It is nice for a change of pace cereal. Although normal Cocoa Puffs is a change of pace cereal for me since I hardly ever buy it.

It doesn't kill you on the calories either at 150 a serving. Which is less than a lot of the "healthy" cereals. It just doesn't have as many of the vitamins you are looking for, but hell take a multi-vitamin and you will be fine I would think. Don't ask me though, I'm eating Cocoa Puffs Combos.

I give it a very respectable 3.5 out of 5 bowls

A little less hyperbole, please.

2009-04-27T09:07:00.003-05:00

Last week, the Rangers and their fans got to see pitcher Derek Holland enter the game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The next day I was listening to the local sports radio station. Holy cow, they damn near put him in the hall of fame.

What one show host said, "I have not felt this good about a Ranger pitcher in years. " Holland's line for the night:

IP: 2 1/3 H: 3 R: 0 ER: 0 BB: 0 SO: 2 ERA: 0.00

A nice outing I reckon. Another host said of Holland,"He should be inserted in the starting rotation immediately!" Wow, seems to be jumping the gun a but there. Well let's check out Derek Holland's stats for the season:

IP: 2 1/3 H: 3 R: 0 ER: 0 BB: 0 SO: 2 ERA: 0.00

Hmmm, well, okay. I don't think I want to stick someone in the starting rotation who has only pitched once this season. Lets get him some more outings. Finally, another host said this, "Derek Holland will be the number 2 pitcher in the rotation by the end of season." Incredible, well maybe he has done a lot in his major league career. I wonder what his major league stats are:

IP: 2 1/3 H: 3 R: 0 ER: 0 BB: 0 SO: 2 ERA: 0.00

Okay, stop just stop. It was his first ever major league appearance. Come on, please. Give him a few more outings.

Another fun thing that happened at that game was the new Ranger pitcher Darren O'Day made into the game. The Rangers had just signed him off of waivers from the Mets. He was entering his cab from the airport when the Rangers tied the game up in the 9th. He entered the game, but they didn't have a jersey for him, so he had to wear Kason Gabbard's old uni. How bush league!

Friday, 2B Ian Kinsler was on the radio and they were asking him about O'Day's coming into the game. He said Vernon Wells looked into the bullpen and aksed him who the sidearm pitcher was, and he replied he didn't have any idea. When he did enter the game, the team came out to the mound and shook his hand. The catcher had to ask him what kind of pitches he threw. Pretty funny I thought.

Legion Sketch #16

2009-04-19T08:01:00.003-05:00

In this edition we have:

This is Polar Boy as you can see. This has been illustrated by the great Captain America artist Steve Epting.Enjoy!

Gallup Study Finds

2009-04-15T12:10:00.003-05:00

So, what does it take to get me to watch the Master's Sunday?

Be at my dad's house
Being there he has no cable or satellite.
The only other real choice was the Cavalier-Celtic basketball game, and the Cavs were beating brains in o the Celtics by 30 points.

Outside of actually watching golf not much else happened on Easter. I switched Good Friday off for Monday at my boss' request, and I always say yes. The reason is if it is even remotely slow on Friday I am going to go home early anyways. It was, and I did.

Every time I have a day off like Monday I make all of these plans in my head of what I am going to do. As usual I did nothing. I barely even left the house.

Serial Cereal Reviews: Wheat Chex

2009-04-08T09:57:00.004-05:00

This time I go back and try what I have always considered the red-headed stepchild of the Chex line. Growing up this was my absolute least favorite of the cereals. I would finally eat this after I had burned through the corn and rice flavors. I recently went back and revisited this most despised of flavors.

After eating a box of this. I have to rethink everything. This is actually a pretty tasty cereal. The wheat flavor really distinguishes itself from all of the corn and rice cereal you normally get. Like the rest of the Chex line it stays pretty crunchy in the milk. I may not put it ahead of the other Chex cereal, but it has definetely closed the gap.

Nutritionally it is pretty good compared to rest of the brand. One serving will give you 40 more calories than corn or rice, BUT it the wheat gives you 80% of iron and 100% of the folic whereas you get 50% of both from rice and corn. The one that is a slightly better nutritional value is Mulit-Bran Chex which I have never seen at any of my local grocery stores.

I am going to surprise myself and give this cereal 4 out of5 bowls. I really dig it.

Legion Sketch #15

2009-04-05T07:41:00.005-05:00

Having some fun this time:

This is Bouncing Boy of course. This one was drawn by Jake Ewing who runs the comic shop I go to, Awesome Comics. This was done at a con, and Jake was getting pretty bored there selling his own self-published comics. This is one of those sketches you get when someone is bored. Hat-Trick is me, and I did bring a bottle of Crown Royal up there. The Crown helped with some of the boredom as well.

Thunderheist

2009-04-03T09:39:00.003-05:00

A couple of thoughts while watching the NCAA tournament:

Who does Dick Enberg think he is fooling? He was completely grey in the '80s, and now he has brownish color hair.
Something I heard on the radio before the Michigan State-Louisville game, "You guys are in for a treat today, because you won't see more animated coaches on the sidelines than Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino." The day I watch any sporting event to see the coaches on the sideline is the day I give you permission to put me out of my misery.
Am I the only person who roots for Xavier, because it reminds me of the X-Men?
I did absolutely no research on my brackets this year, picked only the higher seeds, and I am currently in third.

In other "sporting" news: I qualified for the PGA tour in Tiger Woods Golf. Wait, what?

The car: I am still having problems with my car, and I am getting so frustrated. I won't go into the long boring details, but it is really killing me. I am happy that Goodyear hasn't charged me a dime for the last three times I have taken it in.

Legion Sketch #14

2009-03-29T08:23:00.004-05:00

In this edition:

This would be Star Boy of course. This one rendered by one of the nicest guys I have met in comics: Tone Rodriguez. Something I will miss the most about the cancellation of Wizard World Texas is talking to Tone every year. He is just a fun guy to chat up. Anyways, I think this is just a great looking sketch.

Serial Cereal Reviews: Special K Cinnamon Pecan

2009-03-25T08:38:00.003-05:00

Another new cereal in the Special K line, and this one gets it right. I am not a huge pecan fan, but in this cereal it works great. The nuttiness and the cinnamon really compliment each other well. It really does taste great. Whatever problems I had with the blueberry flavor, I have none of those here. Like the weird textures the blueberry flakes had.

Nutritionally it is comparable to all of the other flavors. I really liked this one 4 1/2 bowls out of 5

Is it possible?

2009-03-24T09:46:00.002-05:00

Is it possible to fall in love with a food? I just may have. About a month ago one a whim I bought a jar of jalapeno stuffed olives by Mezzetta. Oh. My. Goodness. These are just so awesome, I think I peed myself a little. They do have some heat to them obviously, but you get that balanced with the brininess of the pickling with olive. Hot? Yes. Too hot? Maybe for some, but not for me. When I make a salad these days, I put three olives only on it. Two reasons why, I don't want to burn myself out on them, and they are like 6 bucks a jar at the grocery store. Yikes. If you like spicy food, highly recommended.

Another note, on the car I got. The service engine soon light came on, and I took it to get fixed. The friend I bought it from offered to split the bill with me. "I never would have sold it to you if I had known there was a problem." I've known the guy almost 20 years, so I trust him. Imagine my dismay though when two days later the light comes on again. I wasn't really mad, just frustrated. My friend was mad though.

I took it back to the shop, AND the mechanic actually admitted he made a mistake. There was a small hose he didn't secure properly when he fixed it, and it got a hole. He fixed it up for free, and I should be good to go now.

Legion Sketch #13

2009-03-22T09:09:00.004-05:00

This edition we have:

It is Invisible Kid by John Lucas. I first remember his art when he did a Desperadoes one-shot way back when. This was sketch was done at Wizard World Texas in either 2003 or 2004. My guess is 2003, as I don't think I had any done in 2004. I do remember I was late getting back to the Hero Initiative booth (still ACTOR at that time though). This Invisible Kid looks like he can take a punch though, what a jaw!

Top of the Morning!

2009-03-17T08:58:00.003-05:00

Well today is St. Patrick's day. Another holiday that seems to be an excuse for everybody to go out and get wasted. I never need a special occasion, so I don't usually celebrate this one. Plus, I am more "responsible" now, and I really enjoy going to work not hung over. The beer I do have at my house doesn't seem to really get into the spirit of the holiday. Is Dos Equis an Irish beer?

Why do you get pinched for not wearing green today?

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were at an Irish restaurant, Black Finn, and the were serving Kegs and Eggs beginning at 8AM.

Lame joke for the day: What do you call a diseased Irishman who goes to jail? A leper-con!

Finally, in honor of the day I decided knock out some of Ulysses. Right, Rob? Rob?

Legion Sketch #12

2009-03-15T09:00:00.002-05:00

A quick head sketch this time:

This is Chameleon Boy done by Josh Blaylock. Best known now as the guy who runs Devil's Due Publishing. At one time though he actually had time to produce some art. I think the smirk is what really sells this one.

Just some stuff.

2009-03-11T11:28:00.005-05:00

Okay, so about 2 weeks ago or so a friend of mine asks me if I would be interested in buying his Pathfinder. I was kind of interested, but I knew the cost would be pretty high as it is only 2 years old, and its gas mileage would be about the same or worse than my little truck. Well, two days later I get a text from my old roommate if I would want to buy his old car. What are the chances of two people asking me to buy their vehicle two days apart? Pretty damn slim I imagine. My old roommate's care is seven years newer than my truck, so I worked out a deal for it.
Friday night I am at my Dad's house telling him about how weird it was being offered two cars two days apart. He tells me,"I was going to call you to see if you wanted to buy your mom's old car." Apparently the guy who "bought" it hasn't made a payment since December, so my dad was going repossess it. Seriously, three cars out there in the span of 2 weeks?

I recently started reading a book called, Acrobat by Gonzalo Lira. I'm not too far into it yet, but something is already bothering me: the names. Too many of the names sound fake to me, like they are made up names. Now you usually have a couple of unusual names when you read a book, but this has too many already and I'm barely 40 pages in.

Some of them so far:
Duncan Idaho - ugh. Sounds like the name of a drive time DJ.
Ljubica Greene - pronounced You-vit-za. The book tells us so.
Monika Summers - If this was a movie it wouldn't bother me, but this is the printed page and Monika is spelled with a "k" and that bothers me
Nicholas Denton - Nicholas Dent would have been perfect. Nicholas Denton sounds fake.
Amalia
Christopher Farnham
Roy Livre
Bart Michaelus

After a long string of excellent books, I guess a clunker is expected.

Are you kidding me?

2009-03-02T08:51:00.002-06:00

Imagine my shock when I read this headline today:

Feds give AIG $30 billion more - Los Angeles Times

I don't believe it! After they not only lost all of that money in the first place. They then piss away all of the money they already recieved from the government. Now they have the balls to go back looking for more, and the government gives it to them. It really makes me want to vomit. I have something I want to say that words simply can't convey.

Johnny?

Thank you.

Legion Sketch #11

2009-03-01T08:22:00.003-06:00

Welcome back! Let's take a look at this installment's sketch:

White Witch obviously lends herself to a black and white drawing. This was done by Chris Medellin who some may remember for the Batman vs. Predator sketch. When I last talked to Chris (last year), he said he is getting more response for his writing than his art. The fact he is getting any kind of positive response is great. I don't know what spell she is about to cast, but she looks pretty serious about it.

Legion Sketch #10

2009-02-22T07:27:00.003-06:00

One of my personal faves:

Good ol' Chlorophyll Kid, one of the Subs. Unfortunately, I can't remember who did this (notice he signed his initials in Interlac). His name is either Mike or Micah, and he is usually at the local comic shows doing caricatures. He also used to draw the comic strip at the college I went to. As you can tell he was really into it, really fun.

Why thank you.

2009-02-18T16:56:00.003-06:00

Just a quick shout out to the Legion Omnicom site for linking to me for my Legion sketchbook. He runs a great site over there that is awesome for any Legion of Super-heroes fan. Like me.

Thanks a lot for the linkage.

Line Official Site

2009-02-17T11:39:00.002-06:00

I was messing with my computer on Sunday updating some drivers, and had my motherboard box out on my bed. My roommate walks by and asks if I got a new motherboard.

"No," I explain,"I keep all of the software and manuals for all of my hardware in that box. That way whenever I have to reinstall Windows, or mess around with my computer I have everything I need in one place."

"That is such a good idea. I never would have though of it," he replies

"Wait, are you being serious or sarcastic?"

"Serious, I am always scrambling around looking for my software. That is genius."

"Oh, thanks."

Legion Sketch #9

2009-02-15T08:36:00.003-06:00

Anyone want some Wildfire?

This piece was done by Cal Slayton, who I always thought had a very good cartoony style. I always thought he would be perfect on an all-ages comic, his style would be perfect. I remember that he was really impressed with getting the Kirby-dots on this.

As you can see it is hard for me to get a good scan, on the scanner because of the spine. I'm gonna have to do something about that. What I just don't know.

Just saying, "Hello"

2009-02-12T14:57:00.002-06:00

Last week I called a friend/ex-coworker who I have not talked to in pretty much exactly one year.

I give him a call on his cell phone number, and "This is Todd blah blah of the IRS."
Me,"Uh, what?"
"This is the Internal Revenue Service"
"Uh, well then I definitely have the wrong number." Click.

I finally track my friend down at his current job (thank goodness I remember where he works), and we agree to meet Saturday. He says he will call me between 8 and 8:30AM to firm up a time. Saturday morning passes, and nothing. Never calls, I finally give him a ring that afternoon, and still no answer, but I leave a message. Sunday, still nothing, and I leave another message. Monday morning still nothing. I was actually getting kind of worried, 2 1/2 days and now word. He finally called me Monday afternoon, "Oh sorry I was out of town." That was it.

Serial Cereal Reviews: Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch

2009-02-11T16:57:00.002-06:00

This time I revisit an old favorite: Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch. It has probably been about 10 years since I last had this cereal, and I loved it then. I have just neglected the whole line this past decade. Well I had a coupon and they were on sale: sold! I crack open the box and it smells like I remember it. I pour myself a bowl and bite into it. Hmmm, something seems off. What is it? Not much of a peanut butter taste. I remember it having a much stonger taste before. I was really disappointed in this cereal. Doens't taste as good, and doesn't seem as crunchy as before. Which sucks for a Cap'n Crunch cereal.

Nutritionally? Well it is a kid's cereal so don't expect much. Except I compared it to some other cereals I had around. Even the adult, healthy variety. Cap'n Crunch stacked up pretty well. In most cases had less calories (although more from fat), and was equal in some of the vitamins and minerals. A few it completely fails at though. That was surprsing to me.

Still a disappointing experience, and maybe it is from nostalgia I can only give it 2 out of 5 bowls.
For those of you who really want to try it, and can't find it, you can buy it here on eBay. I guess people do sale everything there.

Legion Sketch #8

2009-02-08T08:59:00.005-06:00

This time we have Laurel Kent?!?

This sketch was done by Mark Murphy. I dunno why I picked Laurel kent for this one, I've always liked her "uniform" though which is nothing more that really Superman's cape covering up most of her body. Too bad she was killed off when DC tried to shoehorn the Legion in the Invasion! mini-series.

On the other hand if you didn't read Mark Murphy's Tiki Joe Mysteries last year you did yourself a great disservice. It is such a great visual to see meen in suits wearing tiki masks. Check it out!

Other blog

2009-02-06T18:07:00.002-06:00

For the two people who read this blog. I have another blog that has a lot less text. It is a Tumblr blog. I hope to do different articles? posts? something there than I do here. Whatever the hell it is that I do here.

Its is: Trapped In a Tumblr

Serial Cereal Reviews: Special K Blueberry

2009-02-04T17:44:00.002-06:00

Let's jump right in today. Kellogg's has rolled out a bunch of new flavors for Special K lately, and the newest seems to be Blueberry flavor. I love berries: blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, frankenberries. They are all great. I like Special K, even if the texture has always been a little weird to me. This is a completely average cereal though. Nothing really bad, and nothing really great. The blueberry flavor is not little dried pieces of blueberry like you would normally get, but blueberry flakes instead.

Nutritionally it looks like all of the varieties are pretty much the same.

2 1/2 bowls. Like I said average.

25 Random facts about me...blah, blah, blah

2009-02-02T18:55:00.003-06:00

You all know this list, and here is mine:

1. I was an altar boy.
2. I am a very competitive person. I just hide it really well when I lose.
3. I've had the hands of a sixty year old since I was in kindergarten.
4. I love to dive around and listen to music. That was almost half the fun I had when I would drive to visit my family in Iowa. Stop for gas and switch out the CDs in my player.
5. I was the first person I knew with internet access.
6. Around 2002 I went through a green phase. I wore green almost everyday, and I would only write in green ink. It was pointed out to me before I ever noticed I was doing it.
7. I haven't eaten fried chicken since summer of 2001 .
8. One of the best compliments I ever got was when a friend of mine told me that if he ever got on Who Wants be a Millionaire? I would be his phone-a-friend.
9. I am fascinated how people get into their careers as I have never known what I wanted to do.
10. That being said I have enjoyed every job I have had.
11. I lived with my uncle most of one summer and worked on his farm.
12. There is an old saying, "Never trust some one who has never spent a night in jail." You can trust me.
13. I never minded mowing the lawn.
14. I once drove 4 hours with a 105 temperature, and then had to be taken to the emergency room when I got to my destination.
15. In my senior year of high school I helped my Computer Science teacher from my junior year teach her first period class.
16. I once beat a friend of mine 23 games in a row in one on one basketball.
17. I didn't realize how fast I had grown, until one day I looked straight down and got dizzy. It looked so high up.
18. I credit my dad with my desire to try new things and my sense of humor.
19. I credit my mom with my love of cooking and reading.
20. I share my birthday with a grandmother and my friend John.
21. I liked hunting and fishing, but I quit both once I had to start paying for the licenses.
22. It has been over 3 months since I got my haircut.
23. In that vein I didn't need to start shaving regularly until my 30s
24. I have never tried a cigarette even once.
25. It is so hard for me to explain what I will and will not eat onions in, and if they have to be cooked or not in a dish it is just easier for me to say I don't like 'em. For the record though if I will eat them 99% of the time they need to be cooked.

----------------
Now playing: One Day As A Lion - Last Letter
via FoxyTunes

Legion Sketch #7

2009-02-01T07:31:00.002-06:00

This time:

This is Mon-El by Kerry Gammill. I have always loved his comic book work it is just a classic work. He draws one of the best Superman as far as I am concerned. This picture of Mon-El looks regal to me. This is my friend Eric's favorite sketch I believe.