slow down wireless

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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