Small but quality week this week.

( Spoilers and a somewhat disappointing lack of Paco con stick under the cut )

Who is Ryan Reynolds? More importantly, Justin Timberlake was seriously considered as Hal Jordan? Seriously? Well, he does come with his own background music.

I'm bringin' the Silver Age back, unh.

This Dinosaur Comics is great, especially the alt-text.

For the past month or so the New York Senate was stuck in a 31-31 stalemate with Republicans and Democrats both claiming power. This lead to scenes of Democrats and Republicans sitting on different halves of the chambers holding separate Senate sessions, each claiming to be the legitimate Senate. It was like a cross between the Babylonian Captivity of the 1300s and the Brady Bunch. On one hand watching grown-ups act like 4 year olds fighting over whose cupcake has more frosting can be fun (see this link for an inside look at how silly it got). On the other, believe it or not, the state government actually does stuff for people or at least it is supposed to. With the Senate deadlocked important bills were not debated, taxes were not collected, and New York suffered.

The only winner here? Meet Pedro Espada Jr. The Democrat flipped to vote with the Republicans to start this mess then unflipped to put the Democrats back in control. Why did he flip in the first place? He is under ethics investigations and most of the other Dems in the Senate were going to back a different Democrat to replace him. Why did he flip back? The Dems offered him leadership of the Senate.

To recap: a power grab by Republicans lead to pain for the people they were meant to serve when lead to a power grab by an ethical questionable Dem. And for what? There's no way Espada is getting re-elected in 2011...right? What can he hope to accomplish in 2 years with both sides hating his guts? Was it worth making his state a laughing stock?

GailSimone: @sterlinggates no, no, no. Thank YOU. Supergirl has been a consistant embarrassment and you turned that around completely!

eso_si_que: @GailSimone I kinda liked that last half of Kelly's run--around the point where Supergirl dropped a house on Power Boy. The rest...yeah.

GailSimone: @eso_si_que Anything Joe Kelly writes is gonna be great. I just meant that I've been waiting for Supergirl to really FEEL like Supergirl!

That's right, kids. I tweet; Gail Simone listens. I have her ear. You want something--cameo in Secret Six, the secret to how Wonder Woman's top stays on--let me know.

Actually, Gail Simone is just cool like that. One of my favorite parts of scans_daily was (sniffle) her popping in on occasion to comment on our comments on her work. She didn't pull an Anne Rice (perhaps a more current reference is "pull a Palin") and get into loud arguments with people who didn't like her work. She was perfectly civil with them too.

What I'm saying is follow her on Twitter and read Wonder Woman and Secret Six because she's good people and a great writer.

( Spoilers and bubs under the cut. Incidentally, Wonder Woman's top stays on because it is held up by straps using the same invisibility tech as her plane. )


Pick up update: 1.83

Total: 4.00

VoicePost 448K 2:15

(no transcription available)

Seriously, is there a count of the number of times something went in or out of a woman's mouth in "Drag Me to Hell?"

I totally forgot that Raini directed that movie until I noticed the similarities between the opening credits of "Drag Me to Hell" and the "Spiderman" movies.


Have you listened to Made of Fail's 17th episode yet? It's really good and I'm not just saying that because I edited it. If you want to hear three people geeking out about the new Star Trek movie and Star Trek in general, check it out.

Three months ago (wow, this really is late!) planetx wrote about how breath-taking the movie Ultraman Moebius and Ultraman Brothers was and how it and The Dark Knight were his new standards for superhero movies. That reminded me of the song "One Hundred Ten Million Memories," which, as you may recall, is a song about a man thinking back to his time as a boy, pretending he was Ultraman. While looking for a YouTube link to the song, I discovered a great version which not only provides a translation, but also a flash animation which really drives home just how bitter-sweet this song is.




A few months later--perhaps while pretending to be Ultraman--planetx broke his ankle. His very talented wife took their experiences in the hospital and turned it into an essay explaining why everyone, even those who love within their own gender, deserves a right to family. It is excellent.


This would be my work desktop, but people think I'm odd enough without Hitler on my screen. Instead I have Wonder Woman being fierce as fuck. Incidentally, Wonder Woman falcon punched a nuclear missile in her last issue. I repeat: WONDER WOMAN FALCON PUNCHED A NUCLEAR MISSILE. Yeassh!

Your move, Rex the Wonder Dog.

Who watches the Watchateers?

Happy belated Mother's Day!






ETA: Strike that. Axe-wieldin' Wondy is my home desktop. The work desktop is a picture of Zoe Keating rocking out.

In elementary school, I was taught that you always use "comma and" at the end of a list with very few exceptions. I would and do write "Sora, Donald, and Goofy" if I were writing about those three characters. Apparently, there is a school of grammar out there that says one shouldn't put a comma between the last two items in a list; they would write "Sora, Donald and Goofy." That bugs me. Look at the following sentence without the ending comma:

Sora, Donald and Goofy are looking for Heartless.

Is someone telling Sora what Donald and Goofy are doing or is someone telling a third party about Sora, Donald, and Goofy? Sure, 90% of the time context will sort this issue out, but why cause hassles in the other 10%?

Ending commas: use you some.

This post bought to you by several moments of confusion reading an e-mail at work.



Pick up catch up: .85

Total: 2.17

I found a mistake in my New York Times crossword puzzle a day calendar today. The clue for 9 down was "Ancient capital of Laconia." Easy enough for nerds like me. One problem though--there were only 6 blocks. How could I fit "SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" in 6 blocks?




I feel compelled to comment on this whole H1N1/swine flu thing, perhaps because I'm a big shot scientist with the CDC.... Okay, I'm just a secretary/research assistant.... And strictly speaking I'm a contractor, not a CDC employee.... And I work for the part of the CDC that deals in workplace safety and health, but that's more relevant than you might think. NIOSH (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) has been working on possible flu pandemics for years now. After all, what are workplaces but little boxes within a big one and a hot spots for disease? Well not exactly, but a pandemic can have all sorts of effects on the workplace, so we've been getting the "what to do in case of a pandemic" lecture/e-mails for years now. Plus, everyone in the CDC (contractors included) is getting the daily update/advice e-mail.

What is the CDC telling its employees about the virus? Sorry to be boring (perhaps even more so than usual), but we are hearing the same things as everyone else. That's because it is the best advice there is. Don't panic. Take normal flu prevention steps. Wash your hands often. If you feel like you might be coming down with something, stay home. Don't panic. Even if you get it, so far H1N1 seems to be as lethal as your typical seasonal flu. Unless you are elderly, a baby, or have some sort of pre-existing immune disorder, you're odds are good.

(All of that is just Devin and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the CDC. Here is a website with their opinions and advice.)


Some links and stuff:

-Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal on politics.
-I'd tried that.
-If scans_daily has taught be anything, its that this is backwards.
-I have to finish Final Fantasy XII one day.

-Level up, Barack.

-Alan Moore reading Rorscach's journal. I won't sleep for weeks.

-The Yu-gi-oh! the Abridged Series set to the Watchmen trailer. Little Kuriboh is so great at making mini AMVs. I really need to download that song.

-Finally, I swear I have nothing to do with this. My tailor is much better than theirs. Better than seven of theirs. That's what his belt says anyway.

Made of Fail episode 16, aka the MacBeth of podcasts,is up. Everyone associated with it had some sort of computer implosion within two weeks of recording it. Kevin, the usual host and editor had major internet connectivity issues so I was called in to co-host with Dayna and to edit it. It was supposed to be a 15 minute thing to touch on a few points and to apologize for/gloat about episode 15 which was released on April 1, but it exploded into a full length episode. I'm very happy with it and I think you will be as well. You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll think about Hal Jordan in rainbow leg warmers and do both at the same time.

Rachel Maddow tries out for the Daily Show. Teabagging? Seriously, conservatives?

This metaquote reminded me to watch "Seven Samurai" which I got from NetFlix like three months ago. It's a fantastic movie.

My favorite parts from the metaquote?

1. Mt. Fuji was formed when Toshiro Mifune piled up all the bodies of his enemies.
16. If you see a video tape of Toshiro Mifune angry, you will die in seven days (note -- you are safe to watch movies that have Toshiro Mifune, he was only ACTING like he was angry).
33. Technically, Toshiro Mifune does not cut anything -- reality simply gives way to his sword.
40. Toshiro Mifune has only three settings: drunk, disapprove, dismember.

Living fossil plant! I want one.

Summer Glau typically does nothing for me, but this picture from this photoset...hurm. Love the lighting.

I'd watch it and Alan Moore would kill me seven days later.

Greg Rucka + Cully Hamner= awesomeness. Can't wait 'til June.



Pick up catch up: .54

Total: 1.32

I'm finally caught up on my comics. Here's what I read in the past two months, mostly over this weekend, with a few comments here and there.

( Spoilers and aliens in red under the cut )

Comedian: Yo, check this out: black guys drive a car like this.
[Leans back, as though his elbow were on the windowsill]
Do, do, ch. Do-be-do, do-be-do-be-do.
Yeah, but white guys, see, they drive a car like this.
[Hunches forward, talks nasally]
Dee-da-dee, a-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee.
[Audience howls with laughter]
Homer: Ah ha ha, it's true, it's true! We're so lame!
-The Simpsons, "Homer and Apu"


About six months ago I came across an amazing blog and decided that I needed to tell everyone I could about it. I then forgot about it/got too busy to do it and eventually stopped checking it. Today, I rediscovered Stuff White People Do and I think we will all be the better for it.

Stuff White People Do is the blog I dreamed of at the end of this post about my objections to Stuff White People Like. "Like," for those of you who don't feel like clicking either of the last two links, is basically an internet version of the above comedy bit which the Simpsons parodied 14 years ago only it leaves out the Black people. It is funny in the same meta way, that is you laugh at the person telling the joke who thinks it is still funny and you laugh at the people laughing at the joke. You do this if just to keep from thinking about the living fossils rolling around all of our skulls and crying.

"Do" is what "Like" should be. It is insightful. It is interactive. And hey! It's actually funny. "The smug jackass observer who knows he's better than those he is critiquing" bit is a hard one to pull off (just ask Stephen Colbert) and way above the skills of the "Like" writer, Christian Lander. If Lander had taken the "guy who knows he is a part of the problem, but wants to take a few steps back and better himself" route of the "Do" guy, maybe the "Like" writer's blog would be better. Everybody likes an underdog, especially one who betters himself. Unfortunately, "Like" hit the scene first and tapped into a pulse (to mix metaphors). I can give Lander credit for that, but, the fact of the matter is "Stuff Like People Do" is just a better blog for examining the social ills and hidden rules of this society and having a good laugh as well.

I've mentioned Radiolab before. Radiolab is a show about science on NPR... Don't you run away! It's really interesting, and not just to self-confessed geeks like me. The two hosts are engaging and have great back and forths. Using their skill in storytelling, including absolutely incredible editing, the hosts can make subjects that make the heads of full-fledged scientists spin understandable without talking down to their audience.

"War of the Worlds" is a great starting point. The show was taped live so you don't get as many of the cool editing devices, but you get a good sense of who the hosts are and how the show works and a new perspective on the mass hysteria surrounding Orson Welles' 1938 radio play. My personal favorite shows, along with "War of the Worlds," are "Emergence" and "Diagnosis", but they are all worth a listen.

The reason I felt the strong urge to pimp Radiolab is that I just discovered a show which technically isn't Radiolab, but was produced and hosted by the main producer and host of it so it feels like Radiolab. It is all about Wagner's Ring Cycle and it is phenomenal. Whether you're a Ring addict or an opera hater it is worth a listen. I learned things about "Leb Wohl," the reason I became a fan of James Morris and went to see him in Dayton, that I never even considered. I nearly broke down in tears at work listening to the description of Brunnhilde and Wotan's love and the explanation of how Wagner conveyed it through his ever evolving motifs. Besides, the show is called "The Ring and I." How can you resist that?

Incidentally, that's not the first time I've had tears in my eyes at work. The first and only other was the first time I heard the song "Half a Heart." I'm such a wimp sometimes.


Speaking of great co-host rapport, intelligent discussions, and great editing Made of Fail episode 14 came out a few weeks back. It is the Watchmen episode and they really smacked it out of the park.

Also in the Watchmen vein: Rorschach's journal on a boring night and Saturday Morning Watchmen. The latter takes a lot of the darker, more "adult" moments of Watchmen and makes them kid friendly while a peppy 1980s-esque Saturday morning cartoon theme plays in the background. Absolutely astonishing. And hilarious.

...but my internet connection is mostly. Very annoying. That's a part of the reason I haven't posted much lately. The other reason is I'm crazy busy. Life is awesome. Busy and awesome.

I saw Timon of Athens at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company this weekend. It was the first Shakespeare play I saw at the CSC before reading it. Even without the memories of the annotations of the Folger Library or high school English teachers explaining the language, I was able to follow the play very well. Sure, Shakespeare is filled with "thees" and "forsoothes" and the like, but it's all modern English. Shakespeare and I could chat if Bill and Ted threw us in a room together. Chaucer and I would have some issues, while the venerable Beede and I some be reduced the rude hand gestures, but that's off the path. My point is one shouldn't be intimidated by Shakespeare. He just has a penance for flowery metaphors and dick jokes.

Timon is an odd play. The first half features the title character throwing money around and hugging everybody while the second features him throwing rocks at people while living in a hole in the ground. The latter felt more like a modern play with Shakespearian influence than the actual thing. In a sense it was, as the CSC, as is its wont, mixed in several modern elements while preserving the language (Timon in the first half dressed in modern suits and chatted on a cell phone, the "poet" and "painter" characters were portrayed as a newspaper columnist and a photographer, etc.). Yet it wasn't those elements that modernized it--it was the situation. The majority of the second half featured a man, naked sans his underwear, standing in a cave (portrayed as a hole in the middle of the stage by the CSC) which happens to contain a seemingly endless supply of gold, shouting vicious insults at passersby including two prostitutes, three thieves, and a man who calls himself a friend, but spends the majority of the play essentially calling Timon a dumbass. That's not Shakespeare. That's something from the Theater of the Absurd. It was all very strange, but enjoyable.


Here are some things I've came across on the internet, but haven't had a chance to blab about:

-Sporno: because sports are kinda gay.
-This is kinda true. The dark side of Twitter.
-Give Randy Milholland some money. He's funny and stuff.
-I started using Facebook a few days before they changed the format, so watching the reaction has been amusing.
-I do that with Final Fantasy music at work sometimes. *Sigh*

prevaricate: to deviate from the truth

echt: authentic and typical

fetid: having a heavy, offensive smell

verdant: unexperienced; green in tint or color

wan: pallid; languid

pariah: outcast

subjugate: conquer; subdue

silverfish: small wingless insects that often eat clothes and paper

platitude: a trite remark

exasperate: to excite the anger of

I wound up waking up in the middle of the night last night and watching two episodes of CSI: Miami. Today I've found myself wanting to slip on sunglasses and say a cheesy line followed by Robert Plant shouting. I know. I know. I'm part of the problem. The show is just too damn fun though. It's like a modern day "The Master."

I'm really missing the instantdavidcaruso.com website. It was just a picture of David Caruso with his sunglasses half-on. If you clicked on the picture, you'd hear the Plant stinger and the picture would change to Caruso with shades on. I really needed that today to cap off my brillant banter.

Speaking of being sucked into things, the girl turned me into an America's Next Top Model fan. Hot, half-naked women running around trying their best to look sexy? Twist my arm. Plus, the show is so mockable.

More suckage! I'm on Facebook. This was a combination of friends bugging me for months, this Talk of the Nation segment, and an amazing Watchmen parody--Watchmen as told by Facebook feed (big ass spoilers ahoy!).

More Watchmen stuff! This looks 'shopped. The Rack is a webcomic which is hit or miss. These two Watchmen updates are hits.

Dolphins! Sliding dolphins! Pink dolphins!

Finally, the most bizarre Final Fantasy commercial I've ever seen:



Doesn't that make you want to buy the game?... Yeah...

I had no clue that Marche was pronounced "mar-shay." I've been calling him "Marsh" for some reason. That or Ramza.

I was actually looking for this and the Tactics commercial got caught in my net. Simple and Clean is the reason I started playing Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts is the reason I started playing the Final Fantasy games. I need to write about that some day.

I saw James Morris in Dayton on Thursday and he was phenomenal. James Morris, in case I didn't write about this before, is one of the best opera singers in the world. Due to his imposing size (he stands 6'5"), figure, and booming voice he makes an excellent and credible Wotan, king of the Norse gods in Wagner's ring cycle and it is the role he is best known for. Unfortunately, he didn't sing Leb Wohl, my favorite opera song and the reason I first heard of him, nor any Wagner. He did sing arias from other operas including one from Don Carlo, an aria he will sing again in Cincinnati when that opera comes to town. I have to look into tickets for that...

Not only did Morris perform well, he also told anecdotes and jokes between songs which he has probably told to dozens of audiences before, but were delivered in a way that it felt like an old friend telling you a familiar story. My favorite of these was Morris' explanation of why he, his pianist, and his page turner left the stage every few songs only to return a few moments later to begin another song.

"Some people ask me if it's to get a drink of water or something," he said. "But really, I just like the extra applause."

The audience chuckled. Someone in the front row started to clap. Morris gave a little gesture with his hand, indicating that he wanted more and the whole place burst into applause and laughter. It was a great moment.


I've been giving Dayton a little crap and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. Dayton is Cincinnati's Canada and must be mocked accordingly. That said, I can see why a world class singer came to that little patch of the Midwest. The Schuster Center in Dayton is a world class setting with astounding acoustics. I felt the vibrations from Morris' singing from thirty feet away as if he were standing right next to me. The architecture is modern without being brutal or odd.

It's not just the Schuster Center. Dayton, like Cincinnati, is making a serious effort to make its downtown a place where residents and tourists alike would want to spend an afternoon wandering and enjoying what the city has to offer. It worked for me.


New titles. Morris sang an aria from Verdi's version of MacBeth in which Banquo senses his impending doom and tells his son to be on his guard.

Title: Come dal ciel precipita
Subtitle: L'ombra piu sempre oscura
Friends' page title: Mille affannose immagini

Translation: See how the shades of night descend, The shadows grow deeper and darker, Thousands of frightful specter shapes. With a Kingdom Hearts lj name, I need some darkness and light in my title. For now anyway.


Off to watch Watchmen. Yes, Dayna, I finished the book 35 thousand seconds ago.

You know how I've been dropping hints about a "secret project"? Okay, I could have done a better job hyping it, but no matter! The day is here! Actually, the day was last night, but now I'm just being anal.

What am I blithering about? Back in December, Dayna threatened to go public with the pictures unless I agreed to edit the podcast that Kevin and she host, Made of Fail starting in June-ish. She also asked me to fill in for Kevin for a couple of episodes in the summer while he moves and gets settled in. Of course I said yes. In February, she asked if I could edit a "short" show later that month. Then, scans_daily was shut down and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and the "short" show turned into a full length episode with me not only editing, but guest hosting as well. scans_daily is how Dayna and I met and we both have very fond memories of it, so I made sense for me to put in my 2 cents.

The finished product is available here and I'm very proud of it. Kevin and Dayna are hilarious and insightful as usual and I... did a pretty good job with the editing. I'm particularly happy with the pre-opening and how I used music under Kevin's truck story around minute five. Dayna and I also had a fun discussion of comics we discovered via scans_daily and why Kara Zor-El shouldn't and now doesn't suck as a character.


Made of Fail: your fucking source of goddamn civility on this mother fucking internet. Also, cocks general nerdity. DNBADOTIC

The storm woke me up.

( Spoilers and turncoats under the cut )

Also, I wrote for fortycakes. fortycakes is a fanfic community based on the Superdictionary, a bizarre creation of the seventies featuring DC superheroes and villains defining words in a very stilted manner while acting them out. My story is based on this definition of hope. Yes, I can.