Various Links

Treatment for Peanut Allergies offers hope.

Yet another article about Asperger's syndrome that describes me too well.

Will Comic-Con Leave San Diego?

Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders... let's see, I've suffered from... 7, 6, 5, 1, and *ahem* 2.

Good Advice.

Ponyo: A Role Model For Kids With Autism?

FAA suspends pair after kids radio pilots at JFK. Sounds like an overreaction, as the child was clearly carefully monitored, and everyone was paying attention.

The Stupidest Conversion Story Ever. The result of a thread about Lutherans, the mitten story emerges.

A Sunday Review

Well, with the con two weekends ago, the blogger updates I felt I needed to make last weekend, and being actually on this road right now, this is a stress-filled Sunday Review. I'll mention that, since the Olympics, we've gotten Netflix back again after a LONG hiatus due to financial woes, so my Battlestar Galactica reviews will start up where I left off watching them almost a year ago.

TV this week:

• Battlestar Galactica: "Resurrection Ship: Part 1" - I only vaguely remember the original Battlestar storyline involving the Pegasus, so except for the apparance of the ship in the last episode, I didn't know what was going to happen in this storyline. I don't think it's even close to the same, anyway. Cain is nasty, and I'm not sure what to make of Starbuck's promotion and apparent willingness to devote herself to Cain. Ah, it's good to have Netflix back again!


• Dinner Impossible: "Boxed In: Terminal Trouble" - Robert has to put together a dinner at a shipyard, but all the ingredients are in boxcars strewn across the place, and he has no real kitchen. He managed the job nicely, despite some setbacks and annoyances. As usual. Good fun.
• Dinner Impossible: "Dorm Food Doom" - Robert must make a fancy dinner for college students using only food found in their dorms. Without the frats, this mission would have been a complete bust. The "food" he found in the regular dorms was barely even edible for the most part, and certainly not something to make a meal out of. The food found in the fraternity houses saved him. The faulty fryer was an adventure, and I like how the repairman was put to work once it was clear he couldn't leave for the duration.
• Dinner Impossible: "Ironman Obstacles" - Three different kitchens, each with the theme of one of the parts of the Ironman. I didn't think he'd have much trouble with this one, except for the on-site ovens. He always has trouble with the on-site ovens, and this event was no exception. When will they learn that they have to provide Robert with back-up on-site kitchen equipment?
• Dinner Impossible: "Destroyer Disaster" - The Captain ordered 5 dishes, so Robert tried to overdo it like usual. I knew that would bite him on this particular mission, just because of the way the Captain presented it. This one was a disaster from start to finish. I was very surprised when they finished the first mission successfully. He didn't succeed on the second mission thanks to the "blue" requirement. But I would still love to have tried some of those dishes.


• Numb3rs: "Growin' Up" - A really depressing story about a really sick man and four of his victims, who were children when he hurt them, but grew up into something else entirely. Very, very depressing. The subplots helped pull the whole thing up, and they didn't dwell too intensely on the bad, but it worked.
• Numb3rs: "Cause + Effect" - If this is the final episode, I can accept it. I won't love it, but I can definitely accept this as the end of the series with the successful way they tied up everything and yet set up the future. Wow. To have the final episode follow Don's stolen gun also worked as a plot point, highlighting the failures of the justice system.


• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Emmitt Smith" - I really wish he could have tracked more of his family. It was a little disturbing to see the history of his family laid out like that, all the brutality. While he may have found what he was looking for, I just kept thinking "I wish..." during the episode.
• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Lisa Kudrow" - Wow, Lisa found a big story back there. It was wonderful that the guy was still alive and she was able to talk with both him and a woman who had known her great-grandmother and was witness to the atrocity. With the Salem Witch trials in the first episode, slavery and rape in the second, and Nazi atrocities in this one, I wonder what the next will bring?


• MonsterQuest - This series is apparently over, with the last episode airing on the 24th. It was a series plagued by poor science and over-opinionated experts, but it attempted to keep an open mind and give people the benefit of the doubt. I enjoyed it for what it was, but wasn't overly impressed by it. I'm not sure if I care that it's been cancelled. It would be nice if there was a show on the air that covered cryptozoology well, but MonsterQuest wasn't it. But it was a good start.


• Ghost Hunters: "Alcatraz Live Event" - Hate the format. I don't mind Josh at all, in his snarky glory, but the live events are not my cuppa, and the folks always look so uncomfortable sitting around a set. Fortunately, the investigation itself was recorded. I've found the live Hallowe'en events to be mostly unwatchable. Ghost hunting is a really boring thing in real time (which is one reason I would never make it as a ghost hunter, I'd fall asleep). I do like Josh's comments on how Steve and Tango should take their act on the road and just do comedy. That's why they do the Academy show, I'm sure. To get more of Steve and Tango on TV. Their Willy Wonka dicussion during the investigation was simply marvelous, and the follow-up during the live discussion was amusing (and slightly mean). I wasn't convinced by the evidence, but it was pretty cool. I liked their cake.
• Ghost Hunters: "Fort Ticonderoga" - No Grant? This location is in upstate New York, an old fort that has multiple hauntings from the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Neat historical place. The bright flash was definitely cool, particularly that it was seen by others. I really want to come up with other explanations for everything seen.
• Ghost Hunters: "Shamrock Spirits" - First location is Paddy Reilly's Pub in New York City. I was amused that they were greeted by a song. Haunted by Gene Hackman... who isn't dead... and a spirit who rides an exercise bike. They did some good debunking in this one. The second location was Harriet Beecher Stowe's house in Hartford, Connecticut. No Jay on this one. The stories are strong, involving multiple deaths in the house and even seances held at the place. They did a little debunking, particularly the beard thing. The empty house sound wasn't at all impressive, although her idea that it was checkers was a neat one. Houses make really bizarre sounds. Every house I've been in is noisy, particularly at night.
• Ghost Hunters: "Phantoms of Jersey" - The first location is the Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, New Jersey. YAY! Another lighthouse! More height for Steve to be scared of. And they got a good storm to add to the atmosphere. Not much discovered there, but it was a neat place for an investigation. The second location is the Stephen Crane House in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I'm not sure what to think about that place. Not as much history, the stories aren't that good. Nothing really impressive there.


• Destination Truth: "Ghosts of Masada; The Leprechaun" - Man I love that image in the opening of the waterfall that goes upward due to the wind. Ahem. Happy to see this show and Josh's snarky sense of humor again. The snark in the tourist area of Jerusalem was great (Last Supper dinner placemats?). The stop for a dip in the Dead Sea to the Monkees Theme Song was absolutely wonderful. Their first location, Masada, was just incredible to me. The location is fantastic visually. As usual, I really really wish they gave us more daytime imagery of the location. They never go around the locations enough in the daylight. But the stuff they caught, particularly the strange figure on the wall, were interesting. Now, the figure was seen with the FLIR camera, so I'm not convinced it wasn't some sort of artefacting, but it was cool. I want to see more of it and in frame-by-frame detail. The drums, and the fact that it could have been anyone in the desert, was neat to hear. Can you imagine being completely alone in the desert and hearing drums? The second location was in Ireland to hunt for Leprechauns. The idea is that it's an unknown or misidentified animal, since sightings continue to happen. Definitely a job for cryptozoology. And they did some very strange investigating. The journey underground, in which Rider nearly was killed by a flood when her light gave out, was a bit scary. They found bones of chickens and sheep, and cows triggered their motion sensors. And apparently spent a lot of research time in a pub. Right.
• Destination Truth: "Ghosts of the Great Wall; Israeli Mermaid" - Visiting the Great Wall, the "Wild Wall" part, is a bit of a coup for the team. I liked the cameraman's happiness at filming in the Forbidden City. The strange foods in the Beijing market were a neat bit of Joshsnark. When they actually reach the section of the wall they have to do a bunch of climbing (which made for a literal cliff-hanger when Rider slips). I can see why people are hurt and killed up there. It looks like just a genuinely dangerous place. Josh mentions that the wall looks improbable in that place, and the short of the wall clinging to the ridges was great. I appreciated the look into the old guardhouses, since I've seen many pictures and video of the Wall, but never a guardhouse before. Rex following a ghost over a wall and nearly down a sheer drop was exciting... and another literal cliff-hanger. The second location is a lovely cryptozoological story, chasing a mermaid with a $1 million bounty on her head. They get to use their diving abilities on this one. They didn't find a mermaid, but they apparently found something big and unusual. Pity they couldn't get better footage, but a two-day investigation is never enough.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released March 3rd, 10th and 17th:

• JSA All-Stars #4 - Poor Stargirl. And why would anyone trust Johnny Sorrow?
• Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 - Ug. Why did I bother? I really didn't like this mini, and this ending in particular (the unnecessary death of a minor character irritated rather than upset me, due to the poor way it was presented). Just not good.
• Incredibles #6 - I hate mind control stories. So freakin' confusing.
• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four #2 - And... everything starts to pull together into one coherant plot again. Wow. Really interested in seeing how this one ends!
• Demo Vol 2 #2 - I was right to be scared of this issue. In its stark simplicity, it was in fact worse than I imagined.
• True Story, Swear to God #12 - Wow. WOWoWOW. I love this book. And this is a great issue. It tells how Lily and Tom get married at the Magical Kingdom, and yes, it made me cry. I've been reading about Tom's problems with his drawing online, and trying to give him virtual hugs, so seeing this book in my hands was a great moment, even without all the fantastic work inside.


• Justice League: Rise and Fall Special #1 - Right. Green Arrow over the edge. Ok. Grim and Gritty, just the thing Brightest Day was going to end? I don't know, but I'm not caring.
• Super Friends #25 - An Olympics issue! Yay! And Aquaman is so cute I just wanna hug him! The plot broadcast itself, but I'm sure kids'll love it nonetheless.
• DMZ #51 - Matty's done the worst, and now he's living the worst. The whole thing with the nuke, and how the media is being manipulated, is a strong side-story to Matty's self-pity.
• Powers #3 - Um, yikes? Nicely done, Bendis, nicely done. For that matter, Oeming is pretty dang incredible on the artwork on this one, as well.


• Brave and the Bold #32 - Wow. Great story! This is Aquaman, quietly saving the world while everyone else has no idea. The framing sequence wasn't bad, either, with the sailor trying to prove his story. Art and colors are particularly wonderful.
• Green Lantern Corps #46 - Tholian Web was a good idea! I'm not buying that Xanshi could become a Black Lantern, as there has never been any indication that it was a living planet like Mogo before it was destroyed. Overall, still not impressed.

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My library book this week was The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh. This story concerns a family that lives in a big old British house in a classic village who have a strange secret. I can't remember who recommended this one, but I enjoyed it a lot. The secret is revealed early on, but I'll hide it anyway as it's fun to discover for yourself. The family has issues, and many of them revolve around being a traditional English family. I can't really say a lot more about it if I want to keep the secret, but I'll say there was lots of fun, a couple of decent twists, and a satisfying ending that left it open to sequels (apparently this is a five book series). Worth checking out. I put the next book in the series on hold at the library, so maybe I'll be reading that soon.

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Agatha Christie this week was Destination Unknown from 1954, also published as So Many Steps to Death. This isn't a mystery, it's a thriller with some mysteries in it. So figuring it out wasn't much of a victory for me. The plot is about scientists who are vanishing, presumably across the Iron Curtain, and a woman who is suicidal. This one just left me wanting. Definitely not her best story.

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Fortean Times #258, March 2010. Voodoo doll Michael Jackson along with a reference to Illuminati makes for a silly cover. The story it was a cover for was just as silly. If you want to believe that a secret worldwide conspiracy controls media, you are welcome to it. And the thought that Lady Gaga is the conspiracy's number one tool... well, whatever.

Strangedays covers the Norway light show that later turned out to be a failed rocket test. The headlines were ok this month. I liked the coverage of the zombie-walkers: a two-page spread with mostly photos. An update on the "fat killers" story from the previous issue says the story was proven false, which is very nice. Homer's "sardonic grin" is explained as a Joker gas-like effect of hemlock water dropwort. There was a good bit on the extremely poor track record of mediums in actually being useful to police. Phil Plait is mentioned and quoted from his blog in a short piece on Saturn's monster ring. Science has an article on the effects of extreme cold on the human body. Ghostwatch has a bit about the effect a haunting can have on real estate. There is a two-pager article on Phineas Gage and how the photo of him was discovered thanks to online sleuthing. The Archaeology section had an early map and a couple of other pieces. Classical Corner is about Feminism and Lesbianism in the ancient world.

Another article covers a series of pranks and myths circulating around China, including a myth about a Swedish town populated only by women. There's also a piece on the parakeets of London. Konspiracy Korner is all about the fear of Communism on the far-Right, and how it's been going on for a very long time. The UFO files is about the British Ministry of Defense closing their UFO files, along with a cold case that was convincingly proven as a mirage after 50 years, based on primary sources. The A-Z of UFO theories continues and includes sleep paralysis, lucid dreams, and pollution. Some good stuff there. Blasts From the Past is about Spring-Heeled Jack in Australia. A three-pager talks about Philip K Dick's theories, which he apparently shared freely with the FBI. Random Dictionary is about bleeding and sweating statues, icons, and paintings. A researcher revisits the phenomenom of alien abduction, and finds some problems with previous studies. And more time is devoted to the Large Hadron Collider.

The reviews are as great as usual. I'm particularly amused to see both a 0 score and a 1 score for particularly awful-sounding books. The movie Avatar got a 6, while The Road got a 7. I still have no intention of seeing The Road (the book was bad enough) while I very much enjoyed Avatar. And the letters were good, too, as usual. Lots of good stuff. I do love this magazine. The next issue has already arrived, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to read it, much less review it.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

CameraPhone Zen

I Wanted To Write...

...a long post about a news item I spotted, and I started to write when I realized that I didn't really know all the facts and that the news article was extremely misleading and implied stuff that wasn't actually stated. Then I read some more articles on the same subject and realized that pretty much all of them were missing key facts. Even though I read twenty articles (slight exaggeration), I didn't have enough facts for an informed opinion.

I spent the two longest quarters of my college career in the journalism department, and not one of those articles would have earned better than a D in any of the classes I took. I do not consider myself to be an expert in journalism, but I know bad writing when I see it.

So I'm not going to write about the subject, since I really don't have enough facts and it would be silly to speculate on this particular topic. I pretty much want to dump all news media in operation right now. None of them are up to standard. They are more about earning profits from advertising than good journalism.

And Now for a Unicorn Chaser

Explanation of the term "Unicorn Chaser" here (yes, I do consider politics to be that disgusting). If anyone knows where this image originated, please let me know so I can link to the source. Thanks.

Health Care Reform

I'm mildly surprised at the amount of dis-information about the bill that just passed and was signed by the President. First: it's the Senate bill, not the reconciliation bill, so yes, it's law. Second: Congress is still trying to pass the reconciliation, and if it passes I'm sure you will hear about it. Third: A number of things will come into effect within the next sixth months. Here's a few of them:

• Adult children can stay in their parents' basem-, er, stay on their parents' policy until they turn 27.
• The prescription medicine "donut hole" has been closed, and should make prescriptions more affordable for seniors. Oh please let this one work!
• Small businesses that pay for their employees' health insurance are entitled to a tax credit up to 50% of what they pay, which will go back to 2009, so it should help small businesses a LOT.
• Rescissions, the act of dumping patients when they get sick, has been banned. If you get sick, you cannot lose your insurance.
• All insurers must post their balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments. So you know where the money is actually going.

Is it perfect? Heck no. Is it better than what we've got? Remains to be seen. Yes, there is a mandate to purchase insurance that will come into effect in a couple of years, but it has no teeth AND tax credits are being provided to help folks who can't afford it. And if we can get a public option into the mix in a future law, then it won't even hurt as much.

So, to sum up: Yes, Health Care Reform is now law. It was passed despite the Republicans refusing to help and screaming loud lies about it, just like they did with Medicare when it was first proposed and passed. I suspect in ten years you will have Republicans trying to claim credit for it while secretly trying to destroy it, just like they do with Medicare nowadays. Whatever. Let's just hope it works. You know, Republicans insisted that Medicare would never work, just like they insist this won't work. That gives me a lot of hope.

Now That's Done...

Time to get back to writing my con report. I feel surprisingly refreshed after a few days of troubleshooting templates. Ok, I didn't want to do it and was very grumpy about it when I started, but I do seem to be designed to be happiest when I'm figuring out a problem. I really should have been a computer developer and not a writer. *sigh*

Well, THAT was Anticlimactic

After all that work on Elayne's blog, which I'm pretty happy with, and all the work it took to convert this blog, I thought the Aquaman blog (which is embedded in the Aquaman Page) would be the hardest of all. Instead, it was the easiest. In some ways it was even easier than converting Eric's Wonderful Blog of Oz and Teacher Blog (although, to be honest, both of those were a snap).

But if I hadn't done Elayne's blog first, I would have had a lot of trouble with it, just as if I hadn't done this blog before Elayne's, I would have had more trouble converting hers. I learned a bit more CSS and a lot more XML along the way. Fun stuff!

And so, it's done. All posts should be accessible on all the pages I actively participate in. Nothing should be hidden by a deliberate bug. And hopefully Google won't decide to radically alter the design again and force me to play catch-up.

HA!

Go look at Elayne's Blog and let me know if you see any errors there. I just finished downgrading her classic template to a layout format. And it only took... well, all day yesterday and most of the day today. Good thing I'm between contracts.

Next up: The Aquaman Page, which has an embedded blog.

Skipping the Sunday Review

I'm going to skip writing my Sunday review again, because I'm tired and haven't actually written any review-type things this week.

Ready to Make the Change

I'm about to start making changes, so the blog may look a little odd over the next couple of hours.

Update: 10:36pm - It is done. Well, there are a few tweaks I need to make, but mostly it's in the layout format. It is rough around the edges, but I've got four other blogs to convert, so I'm going to worry about smoothing it out later. If you see any major format problems, please let me know (and mention what browser and OS you are using, thanks).

Blogging About Blogger is a Sin

And I'm a sinner. Still working on downgrading this blog to the layouts format, and finding, slowly, answers to most of my questions. I'm going to go technical to record some of the problems so when I get to Elayne's page I can remember what I did...

0) I set up a dummy blog and imported my classic template into it in order to have a safe sandbox to play in. Google has made it impossible to test edit any other way.

1) Start with the shape of your page. The widgets or gadgets or whatever they are calling them this week are immaterial until you have the layout of page itself fixed up. To do this, you can find a similar layout and switch to it, then strip away everything that doesn't fit. This is the most difficult step, but not the most annoying.

2) Gadgets store the information you really need in a database on Google. This means that you have no access to the code you insert into a gadget unless you go through the rigamarole of opening each gadget individually. This is the most annoying part of downgrading. You cannot simply edit the code within the HTML, it's not stored there.

3) Some prepackaged gadgets don't allow you to format the information in them. This sucks. It makes it very hard to duplicate the look I have on my sidebars. Apparently it's the cool thing to hardcode formats now. I spit on developers who do that with stuff they intend to share. Gadgets would be "cool" if they were more customizable. As it is, many of them are simply unusable.

4) If you want a custom header, you have to delete the default header. You cannot edit it. It will revert back to whatever you edited it from. This is not just annoying, this is maddening. It would have been nice to have a warning on it, or even in the documentation, that it isn't possible to edit it.

4a) You can only delete the worthless default header by deleting it in the HTML editing area. You cannot delete it from the drag 'n' drop window.

5) Download the HTML repeatedly while editing. If you hit a step that destroys your work, you can upload a working copy. Trust me, you will hit a step that destroys your work.

6) If your previous template worked on IE and everything, don't assume it will still work. Test on IE, Opera, and Firefox. If it works on Opera and Firefox, it's a non-compliance bug in IE. Curse Microsoft for their non-compliant browser, and then try to fix it. There are numerous hacks to work around Microsoft's unwillingness to be compliant with browser standards. They are ugly, but having your page display oddly in IE is a poor choice.

7) The good old "conditional tags" from the classic templates have been replaced by poorly documented If/Else statements within widgets. This is annoying, but not impossible. The format for these statements is simply enough. It must be right after the b:includable tag, and be in the format b:if cond='statement' where "statement" is the condition. To make a widget show up only on the main page, the statement is data:blog.pageType == "index". To make it show up on everything except the main page, you change "==" to "!=" like so: data:blog.pageType != "index". The other pageTypes are "archive" and "item".

8) There must be a good tutorial on XML templates somewhere, but I haven't found one that doesn't assume knowledge I don't have. Annoying. Frustrating. Maddening.

Oh well, back to work. I hope this helps when I start to dissect Elayne's template.

Update: Ah, I remember the problem I had before. Because each bit of code is saved in a database, you can't just create a dummy blog and transfer everything over. ARGH!!!!

Blogger: Auto Pagination

Hi all. As I was going through my archives to try to find a couple of things to help me write my con reports, I noticed that a WHOLE BUNCH of my posts were no longer showing up, and nothing I did would make them show. I eventually hunted down the information in the edit window, but it appears that those posts are no longer available to readers unless they know the exact URL of the post page.

Why?

Because Google has introduced a bug (which they call a feature) to Blogspot blogs. This bug, called "Auto Pagination", limits the amount of data that will display on a page. The data is limited at the source and cannot be worked around. For all Blogspot users that have a "layout" version, this isn't a real problem. Those blogs have an "older posts" link at the bottom of the page which leads to the posts that don't show. But for those of us on classic templates, like this blog, it's a real problem. Because Google never bothered to figure out how to give us an "older posts" link, those posts are simply no longer available!

In short, Google is being evil to all Blogspot users who are still using Classic Templates. The workaround is to downgrade our templates to the sucky "layout" version. This wouldn't be a problem if I hadn't heavily customized my template, but because I did, I will lose ALL formatting if I make the change and have to start over from scratch. There is no conversion tool, and Google has not offered any help. I will have to learn a completely different tagging system, and will probably not be able to get my blog back to this format (which I'm very happy with) even if I do manage to learn their layout garbage.

So I have this choice: either downgrade my blog from classic template to "layout" format, or have a large number of my posts become lost.

Gee, thanks Google.

There really isn't a choice. I don't have the energy for it, but I'm going to start working on the problem as soon as I can muster any strength. The "layout" format is supposedly easier to edit once you've got your blog in it, but I dread converting six blogs (including Elayne's) into it from their heavily customized state. I don't want to learn another tagging system. I just want my freaking blog to WORK. Times like this I really consider just converting over to a Wordpress blog hosted on my own domain. I don't like that solution, either, but at least I'd be in control.

So if you notice any strange format errors on this blog over the next month or so, you know why. Or if this blog suddenly moves to a Wordpress blog hosted over on gjovaag.com, you'll also know why...

Pain

I overdid it. Way overdid it. So much that I have apparently triggered the worst fibro attack I've had in months. Unlike my usual weather-induced attacks, this seems to be stressed-induced. I've been going full-bore for so long that it's caught up with me. It actually hurts to type.

So that means the rest of my con report is going to be late.

Emerald City Comicon Report 2010 - Part II

If you attended the con, be sure to fill out the survey posted at the official website. As usual, I requested Nick Cardy and Ramona Fradon as guests.

Right, where was I? Oh yeah, wandering Artist Alley, away from Angela the Engineer (whose comic has just been added to my RSS reader, yay!). I would love to have a GPS track of my wanderings, as I sometimes turned around on a dime and headed off in another direction. Maybe someday I'll get myself a GPS that works inside and can do the job for me. That would be a fun thing to see after the fact. Anyway, we went to Troll Pete Abrams and then hit that back "corner" of the alley that was a little out of the way. In there we met Bob the Angry Flower, Eduardo Nuñez, Ryan Cody, and Ben Thompson. I really like Ben Thompson's t-shirt in this Troll image.

I then decided to brave the horrors of the media area again, so Lisa and I started to walk over there, past the concessions. In the middle of concessions we spotted the Doctor and a Dalek and I had to Troll them. I gave the Doctor's mother the "You've Been Trolled!" card.

I mentioned in yesterday's report what happened when I met with Leonard Nimoy's rep, who explained that part of the agreement they had with the convention was that there would be NO candid shots of Nimoy at all. The con staff had their hands absolutely full trying to prevent people from getting those shots, despite the signs posted everywhere stating the policy. After my depressing conversation with the rep, I headed down to see if I could get a shot of Wil Wheaton in his jersey for Carolyn. As you have seen, I got the shot. I called out to Wil to ask him to turn around so "I can get a picture of you in that jersey for my Canadian friend!" You can see his resigned reaction. I wasn't the only person standing there. Another half-dozen got pictures of him at the same time.

At this point, Lisa and I lost each other for a short time. I wandered by and met Keith Knight before finding Lisa near Kurt Busiek's table, which was our designated meeting spot for the con. We decided it was lunchtime, and pushed through the crowds, stopping at the Fantagraphics booth to Troll Gilbert Hernandez.

Lunch was chicken sandwiches (thank you Mom!) and bananas. We enjoyed our high-class parking garage meal while Lisa started reading her Linear Algebra book, which she then carried with her for the rest of the convention and read any time she stopped for more than 10 seconds. I ditched the Aquaman Hoodie because it was so warm on the con floor, and left evil twin reading her homework in the car and went back up to the floor to try to get some more images. It was time for my annual picture of Greg's Middle School Students.


An aside... Greg has requested fan help in keeping the program these kids are in alive. I donated a little on the last day, and I'll mention it again when I get to that point in my adventures. But This is a program worth saving, so if you have a little to spare, consider sending it their way.

About this time I decided to try to get a pic of James Robinson with Torvald. I'd already walked by his table earlier, when I Trolled Keith Knight, so I headed back there. The table had Keith Knight on the right, near a support column, next to Danielle Corsetto, who had a crowd much of the time I was there. Then James Robinson's table, then Kevin Maguire sat drawing mostly alone, with fans coming up to visit him every few minutes. Barry Kitson was at the end of the row. The DC Panel with Robinson had just ended, so I figured if I waited long enough, he would show up. What no one realized is that he hadn't had lunch, and decided to take a long break. So I Trolled Gavin, the Emerald City ComiCon staff member who was assigned to that section of the floor. And I Trolled Kevin Maguire, who did some Aquaman covers and whom I had talked with the last time he was in town. Barry Kitson was Trolled last year. I people-watched while standing in wait. And standing. And standing. Evil twin wandered by, then away again. People lined up behind me, then gave up and left. I persisted, mostly because it was a pretty good place to watch people from and because I was extremely tired. If I'd realized ahead of time the problems it would cause my feet, I may have given up standing as well, but I stayed until Robinson finally showed up an hour later and Trolled him. Then I Trolled Danielle, whose line had kept getting longer and longer as I waited for Robinson.

Barely able to walk now, I wandered with Evil Twin around the convention. We saw an awesome orange Aquaman shirt, and Lisa said that if I had that on she wouldn't have to worry about finding me now that I wasn't wearing the hoodie anymore. At this point, I was wearing my Best Ever Aquaman Panel t-shirt. We stopped by to see Kurt again, and he pointed out my shirt to Len Wein, who agreed that it was the best Aquaman panel, and that was hands down the best killer shark he'd ever seen.

As an aside, I did hit the ECCC Booth to get an Owly T-shirt based on the awesome Owly in Seattle drawing that I actually use as a desktop image whenever con season rolls around. But the pink ladies design was a massive turn-off for me. On the website it didn't look so bad, but in person I realized that I wouldn't be caught dead in it. So I got an XL Child's size, which was in a better color. I don't know how much I'll wear it, though, because it's VERY tight on me. Even if I lose a lot more weight it'll still be pretty tight.


Moving on, I Trolled Renee Witterstaetter, but never did manage to Troll Mark Texeira next to her. I had a chance on Sunday, but he was drawing and it wasn't a good time to interrupt. I'd already Trolled Michael Golden in 2007. I also stopped by John Aegard's table and giggled a bit and Trolled him. I need to buy some of his pamphlets, but I'm not sure what to do with them. Certainly put one in my car, I guess. Probably the pirate one.

We visited and Trolled Susan Tardif and Rich Ellis of Periscope Studio and Evil Twin picked up Cat Walk (a preview) by Susan Tardif and Mike Cassella. We then met Stephen JB Jones (designer on Batman: Brave and the Bold) and Trolled him with some difficulty. Then we visited and Trolled Jeff Ellis at the Cloudscape Comics table. I'm going to say now that for the first time ever at this con I ran into a person who was genuinely afraid of Torvald, like little-hubby-Eric was so long ago. In fact, I ran into two people who were frightened, though one overcame it long enough to be Trolled. This isn't a surprise to me, as Torvald can be a little creepy in person. But there is a reason I try to ask nicely before I hand over the troll. I don't mean to scare people!

Right... moving on, we wandered a bit more and found the Boom! Kids booth so I could get a Muppet Show special comic with Miss Piggy in front of the Space Needle. The artist for the cover was Amy Mebberson and I got my book signed and Trolled her as well. She was drawing the COOLEST little cards, each with a muppet on them, for $10 a pop. While I watched she drew a fantastic Animal. Lisa noticed that she had business cards with art on them, and I snagged a fourth Doctor one. I spotted an art card with a muppet version of Death on it (as seen in this blog entry). Then Evil Twin Lisa and I started talking about the Doctor as a muppet. Amy looked up long enough to say, "stop giving me good ideas!" and then got back to drawing. If I should see her at a future con, I think I may have to indulge in an art card. Amusingly, hubby-Eric thought so too, because when I told him about her art he expected me to pull one out to show him. D'oh! Missed opportunity!

I went back to the media area for one last look. The crowds weren't so bad for a moment, and Erin Gray was completely alone. So I wandered up and asked if I could take a Troll picture. She explained that she was charging $10, and her keeper chimed in to say it was for charity, so I agreed. Actually, I would've agreed even if it wasn't for charity, because $10 is a reasonable amount to charge for a photo op. And Erin Gray was one of my childhood heroes as Colonel Wilma Deering on Buck Rogers. And she continues to fight the good fight with charity work against domestic violence, so she's still my hero. If each of the media guests were only charging $10 for a photo, I might have been able to Troll more of them. *sigh*

Another wander brought me back to the Periscope Studio area, where I Trolled Jeremy Barlow. I was feeling a little down and out, but managed to Troll Brian Azzarello, who was talking with a very high class woman, dressed as snazzily as I've ever seen anyone dressed at a convention. This turned out to be Heidi MacDonald, who I had to Troll.

In the meantime, Evil Twin Lisa found some cool buttons (including an Einstein button) for herself and a friend, and debated getting a book from the Wasted Talent table. She lamented that she couldn't find a Newton button, because a friend shares Newton's birthday. When we happened by the table that was selling the science buttons I asked if he had Newton. He said he was sure of it, and started digging until he found one for Lisa. For my effort, Lisa bought me a couple of new buttons to add to my con bag. Then we learned that the buttons were drawn by Angela the Engineer, so Lisa finally decided to purchase the anthology that Angela had contributed to (since the Wasted Talent book isn't out yet). We went back to Angela's table to buy it.

I'm sure I'm leaving lots of stuff out...

I finally had enough at about 5 pm, with an hour of con left to go. I was invited to a dinner, but I would have to take a bus back since Lisa had the car. And one of these years I'm going to have to attend the masquerade somehow. Maybe I'll have to figure out a way to take the bus, or actually stay at a local hotel instead of the next town over.

On the way out I Trolled an Ewok, who was posing for other photos. Then Lisa and I headed to Hotel Mom&Dad for a home-cooked meal. Lisa surprised me, as well. She left to grab some snacks for us and bought that bright orange Aquaman T-shirt for me, which I wore the second day of the convention.


At some point I talked with Brad Guigar at the Halfpixel booth who saw the Troll and said, "Now I know I'm at the Emerald City ComiCon!"... Dave Kellett drew me a pug sketch, which was one of only two sketches I got at the con... The crowds were so insane that we didn't actually get to many booths on the media side of the con... The last Stan Lee signing was apparently moved to another room, giving those of us left a chance to move around... Lisa and I had trouble finding Heidi and James, but we did find the HERO Initiative booth eventually... There was a very long line for Geoff Johns all weekend... I missed Joe Quesada entirely... I missed out on a lot of chances to get really good costume pictures on Saturday. I should've been more bold, because there were some truly awesome costumes around... Tally for the day: 32 Troll pictures, 31 of them with people for a total of 35 people Trolled, and one sketch.

Ok, that's it for Saturday's reports. Next up: Solo Sunday at the con!

Emerald City Comicon reports: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: part I, part II, part III, part IV, 2007: part I, part II, part III, part IV
2008: part I, part II, part III, part IV, 2009: part I, part II, part III, part IV, 2010: part I
All my blogged con reports and San Diego 2000.

Emerald City Comicon Report 2010 - Part I

I can't believe it's actually been eight years. Eight years since that first show at the stadium, bigger than the ComiCard shows, but not yet giant. Seven years since I met Kurt Busiek and many others at the second year of ECCC. In year three I missed the first day of the con, the only day of ECCC I've missed so far. I started bringing Torvald in 2006, and also wrote a four part convention report. Three years ago, I trolled many people and wrote another four part convention report. Two years ago I continued to Troll people and wrote yet another four part convention report. Last year I Trolled Battlestar actors and Bacon, and yes, wrote another four part convention report. Wow. Eight years.

This year I took Torvald the Troll again, and the pictures are up on his site. Anyone who has been Trolled and wants a larger size of their image, please contact the troll at Torvald at Gjovaag com. The more recent the picture, the sooner I'll be able to find it. I do not have originals for some of the oldest images, sorry.

As I still live three hours away from Seattle, I did the over-the-mountains and through-the-woods trip to Hotel Mom&Dad again this year. I came over on Friday and rested up from the trip so that Saturday wouldn't be too hard. Sadly, a bit of bad news on Wednesday had taken me down emotionally, so it was extremely difficult to get into con-mode this year. In addition, my husband did not attend this year, so I was solo on Sunday at the con. Add in problems my evil twin is having in one of her classes that turned her into a truly grumpy evil twin on Saturday, and I wasn't at my best for the first day of the convention. I only broke down once, but it was fortunately in front of Suzanne and Karin, and they helped cheer me up a bit.

Anyway, Lisa and I headed out with plenty of time to spare and made it easily to the convention center. Parking was a breeze, but Lisa noticed a spot that she could've parked in that she missed. I promised myself that I'd get that spot on Sunday. The walk into the center was easy, and we quickly got up to the holding pen for fans. The convention staff learned from last year and directed people to different spots if they were pre-paid, buying tickets, or exhibitors. It all worked out. Those of us with our lovely badges were put into one of the conference rooms until the show floor opened, allowing free access for the dealers to get in without having to pass by the lines. All said, much better than the first day of last year.

Once the doors opened, the main problem for Lisa and I was staying together long enough before someone stepped between us. Lisa was often blocked off by a stormtrooper or fanboy while I zipped along. Luckily, I was wearing my Aquaman hoodie for the first couple of hours, and the bright orange made me easy to find.

I found Stan Lee's rep quickly, and he was very negative about the Troll. To be fair, he was also being buffeted by about a zillion eager fans, so it wasn't easy for him to stop and talk for a second. As it turned out, I never even saw Stan Lee during the con. Not even from a distance. So, no Torvald pic. I believe I could have done it, but the odds and my mental state were against me.

As for Leonard Nimoy... well, I'll just jump out of order for a moment. I managed to find and talk with his rep later in the day, and he was very clear that I needed to pay $60 for any picture with Nimoy, period. I did not have that much money in my con budget for one picture, so I did not get a Nimoy pic. I did, however, get to see Nimoy several times from a distance. No, I never got to meet him. Right when we got in, the crowds were so insane I didn't get very close at first. In fact, I had to get out of the media area because I started having a crowd-induced panic attack.

Lisa and I wandered a little to get the lay of the land... or rather pushed through the dense crowds trying to keep together and yet still make progress, and ran across the Girl Genius Booth, where Cheyenne and Alice were settling in. Cheyenne, I am happy to say, looked very much alive though distressingly pale. He suggested I start the day's trolling with the Hugo Award for Girl Genius, and I took his suggestion quite seriously.

After Trolling Hugo, we continued to wander until we found Kurt Busiek, and Trolled Len Wein who was sitting next to him. I'm still stunned that Len wasn't beseiged by fans the entire con. C'mon, it's freakin' Len Wein! This is one of the first times I was disgusted that there weren't crowds around a creator.

Lisa and I then wandered down Artist Alley to figure out where everybody was located. I spotted Jill Thompson, but she was still setting up. So we moved on. We stopped by and said hello to Greg Hatcher and his students. We both checked out a lot of books and artwork, but weren't buying yet. Eventually I got up the nerve to take out my camera again, and the next victim was Dan Wickline, writer on Grimm Fairy Tales. Then I went back to Troll Jill Thompson, Scary Godmother.


I first met Jill at San Diego 2000 when I went to commission a couple of sketches from Mark Crilley. It was great to finally see her for her, and not while hunting for somebody else! We've made watching Scary Godmother a regular Hallowe'en tradition.

Next up we headed to the Periscope Studio part of the alley, looking for old friends. I've met most of the gang at one time or another, and Jeff Parker both drew the illustration on my business card and wrote me into a story as a dual race of aliens. This weekend when I chatted with him about it and told him how hard it was to find the book, he teased me about it, saying that I couldn't find it because it had that unfamiliar "Marvel" in the corner of the cover instead of "DC". The first order of business was to take another Troll picture of Colleen Coover to replace the not-terribly-flattering image of her from a few years ago. She was happy to pose, and this image turned out great.

The real goal of visiting Periscope was to meet Erika Moen and let her know that hubby-Eric really enjoyed Dar and read it in one sitting. I got a picture of Erika and Matt with Torvald. Evil Twin Lisa got an unexpected compliment when I said that Lisa wasn't likely to enjoy Dar, and Erika gasped and asked if Lisa was under 18. Nah, she just likes her entertainment PG.


We wandered into the next aisle where we met Angela Melick, who, as it turns out, is an engineer. Just like evil twin Lisa wants to become. Working in a very similar field, even. And writing a webcomic about her adventures. Lisa was impressed by Angela's professionalism, and delighted about the upcoming book. She walked away gushing about Angela and wishing that she could have that book right now. I'm going to stop here, and jump forward to Saturday night. Lisa needed to study a little more of her Linear Algebra, but the instant we got home she popped open her computer and started reading Angela's webcomic Wasted Talent. And giggling. For the first time since I'd arrived on Friday, Lisa outright laughed in real joy. For that alone I feel a great deal of affection for the webcomic and the creator who made it. Go, take a look.

There's a lot more, but I'm tired and ready to stop for the day. So that's it for the moment. More coming soon.

Emerald City Comicon reports: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006: part I, part II, part III, part IV, 2007: part I, part II, part III, part IV
2008: part I, part II, part III, part IV, 2009: part I, part II, part III, part IV.
All my blogged con reports and San Diego 2000.

Con Report Coming...

...but not yet. I spent the day driving home, and had to stop many times to rest due to massive fatigue. Add in the confused state of my mind from the bad news we got right before the con and I'm just not ready to write yet. I have to pull apart my emotions and let the fun back in for awhile, then I'll be able to write.

For the Record...

No, I did not Troll either Stan Lee or Leonard Nimoy. The closest I got to getting Nimoy's picture was just before I snapped a pic of Wil Wheaton in the Canada Jersey, when I aimed my camera down the row:

This Post Is For Carolyn Ibis

Rain

I braved the passes today to reach Seattle. I'm all set for the Emerald City ComiCon, which you will no doubt be reading about on this blog over the next few days as I write up my adventures.

I have no super-modern tech, so I won't be tweeting or blogging from the show itself. I'll try to write something once I'm home Saturday and Sunday, but no promises. It all depends on how wiped I am.

Good thing I'm not headed back until Monday. The drive out here was wet and a little dicey at the height of the passes where the storm was hitting nice and fierce. Not as bad as a real winter storm, but enough to make driving next to semis a little scary. Oddly, as I look out the front window of my parents' house, the sky is completely clear. Talk about odd weather!

If you want to see me at the con... I'll be wearing an Aquaman T-shirt and carrying a Troll. The rest may change without notice. I plan on wearing my Aquaman Hoodie (me in the Hoodie with an Emmy) for a little while, but how long I wear it depends on how warm it is in the convention hall.

Sorry About the Negativity

Just got kicked in the face, still trying to figure out what to do now. I really thought we were on the right track. Here's some links...

Avatar = Oz

Raptor Devours Cheerleader. Yum.

The Doctor and I by John Barrowman.

LOLCat Theology: Basement Cat Walks Among Us, And has Good Balance, And Comes For Your Soul, But Doesn't Like Your Haircut.

Deep Thought

When everything seems to have been resolved, and your problems finally seem to be fading away, and life is beginning to look up... that's when you need to brace yourself for a kick in the face.

Thoughts

It was so beautiful here today that when my little sister posted the word "snow" referring to Seattle I thought she was joking.

Daylight Saving Time begins in the middle of Emerald City Comicon. I may need a lot of help getting up Sunday morning.

I took my car to the shop to get the AC fixed before summer, today.

Torvald is getting excited about the con. I really hope I'm able to snap a pic with Stan Lee, but I'm not counting on it. Leonard Nimoy is also a hope... but not counting on that, either.

I need to finish my jigsaw puzzle before the guests come for the Wizard of Oz weekend party in June.

I got new batteries for my camera, and it's working better than it has in years now. Just in time for the con.

I have Torvald cards to give out to people who are Trolled. I won't be printing many of my awesome "business" cards, though. I don't hand many of those out and I still have a small supply from last year (if I can find them).

I got a fire/water-proof safe and put our important documents and my sketchbooks in it. I feel better already. Now I need to take them out to bring to the con.

I need more Chocolove.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Sarah Jessica Parker" - An ancestor who was a '49er and an ancestress who was accused of being a witch during the Salem hysteria. Not a bad start to this series in the United States. It actually made my husband kind of want to look into his family's past. My own family's past is constantly getting revealed thanks to the patient work of my sister. I can see that I'm really going to love this show.

I actually have a few more shows on the DVR to watch, but I'm still over-TVed from the Olympics, so I haven't been keeping up. I should have a little more in two weeks (don't expect a review next week, I'll be at the Con).

---

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released February 17th and 24th:

• Green Lantern #51 - A tiny bit more of Mera, and even Aquaman and Tempest. Nothing special, though. I'm looking forward to the end of this crossover.
• Green Lantern Corps #45 - Guy is raging, Mogo is deus ex machina, whatever.
• Power Girl #9 - I really am surprised at how much I'm enjoying this book. The subplots are fun, the cast is cool, and the enemies are amusing and yet still threatening. It's just a good book all around.
• Justice League of America #42 - A bit confusing, until I remembered that this is set after Blackest Night. Then I recalled a little of what happened in the last issue and I think I followed it from there.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 - A bit of a standard story, if one exists for this version of Batman. Aquaman fan-art in the letter column.
• Tiny Titans #25 - Not enough Aqualad. *sigh* Funny take on the Lantern Rings, though.
• Incredibles #5 - Yay! Edna!
• The Tick: New Series #2 - um. right. Maybe I'll stop mentioning this one, since it's only very mildly funny, and not really my thing.


• Blackest Night #7 - Not at all what I was expecting to see happen. Not even close. I would say "oops" but that just doesn't cover it. As for Mera... Lex? Eeeuuuwwww.
• Blackest Night: JSA #3 - Bittersweet, particularly Jesse's role. Hey, at least New York is safe...
• Justice Society of America #36 - Attack of the Nazi-wannabes? I don't much like the framing sequence, just for its implications.
• Northlanders #25 - Everything about this book is brutal. It's good, don't get me wrong, but very brutal.
• Marvelous Land of Oz #4 - The origin of the Wogglebug! I'd forgotten that was in this story. Funny stuff.
• Usagi Yojimbo #126 - Wow, perfect solution to an unhappy situation!

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My library book this week was Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson. I read Three Cups of Tea a couple of weeks ago, and immediately put this book in for a hold. It is both better written and slightly more compelling in many ways than the first book. True, the first book lays the groundwork for what we see in this one, but in this book there is a definite sense of how Greg empowers the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan to pull themselves back together and rebuild their world. There were plenty of moments that I found myself gasping or giggling at the sheer absurdity of the situation, and many many more where I wanted to rush in with a hammer and package of nails to help. And more than a few moments when I felt rage that the Taliban has been allowed to destroy a peaceful religion in the eyes of the rest of the world. One very different thing in this book from the last is how Greg learns to respect members of the US military who are genuinely concerned with helping pull Afghanistan out of despair by rebuilding instead of bombing and how he starts to work alongside them, though not ever with them directly, to push schools into highly dangerous areas that have asked for help. I won't pretend to understand Pakistan and Afghanistan, but these books have given me an insight into cultures and beliefs that I wish every American had. Highly recommended. Go on, get 'em and read 'em.

---

Agatha Christie this week was A Pocket Full of Rye from 1953. I put it in for inter-library loan, and the system decided to buy new copies, so I got to read a brand-new paperback. This mystery concerns a businessman poisoned in his office and found with a pocket full of rye. Miss Marple doesn't come into the story until 12 chapters have passed, but she immediately seizes on the nursery rhyme and eventually gets the entire thing figured out in detail. Aa usual, I didn't figure everything out, although I hit a couple of notes. I think the fact that the reader is always allowed to figure out a couple of the lesser mysteries is why Christie's writing is considered brilliant and not aggravating. Ah well, on to the next!

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist

Aqualad's Birthday

In honor of Leah, this is this year's Aqualad's Birthday Cake.

CameraPhone Zen

This Too Shall Pass

If you are one of the handful of people who haven't seen the new OK Go video, here it is:

Don't Press the F1 Key?

Microsoft has issued an advisory telling users of XP to NOT press the F1 key if prompted by a website, because that could run a nasty script. The exploit was revealed on Friday by a Polish researcher, and Microsoft hasn't had time to patch it yet.

A better solution, however, is to stop running Windows Internet Explorer and start running a more secure browser like Firefox. The best solution is to just not run Windows at all, of course. Maybe I'll switch to Linux eventually...

Donate to Help Cheyenne, Get Cool Wallpapers

The new Girl Genius Wallpapers are up, and the proceeds are going to help pay for Cheyenne Wright's hospital bills. Yes, I put in my little bit.

A Video Everyone Should Watch

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Make it Rain - Bank of America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Jon Stewart explains credit cards so even an idiot can understand why they are bad, and then goes into the predatory practices of the current banking industry.

Don't Use FedEx

If you are sending anything to me, don't use FedEx. After a week or two touring the country in a FedEx truck, they will dump off the package in an untrackable form at the USPS in Seattle, who might eventually deliver it a week or two later. If you have something to send to me, just go right to the US Postal Service or use UPS. But FedEx doesn't deliver here, so don't use them. Particularly if the package is something you want to track.

CameraPhone Zen