Make A Wish

Local boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day. A sample:

On the Jumbotron, a video showed a Puget Sound Electric employee Jim Hutchinson trapped in the top of his bucket truck in front of PSE's Bellevue headquarters. Only Electron Boy could save him.

...

More than 250 PSE employees gathered outside the company's headquarters and cheered as Electron Boy freed the trapped worker. "It was so loud, people in office buildings were looking out the window," said Make-A-Wish communications director Jeannette Tarcha.

But Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy were still at large. Electron Boy got a tip that the evil duo were at the Space Needle, where they had disabled the elevator and trapped people on the observation deck. Racing back to Seattle, Electron Boy stepped out of the DeLorean to a cheering crowd of dozens of admirers, and confronted his nemesis.

...

UPDATE, video of the event:

Clippy Update

I love my Clip+, but to my immense surprise, I'm actually managing to bump up against the 2gb limit with all my random music and podcasts I've been putting on it. If I added audiobooks, I'd be in trouble space-wise! Good thing the memory is expandable with a microSD card, and good thing microSD cards are cheap enough that we'll be able to get one for each of us soon.

Since my last update, I've added a number of podcasts to my listening list, and I must say that listening to NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me in "fast" mode is one of the funniest things ever. I've also discovered that a podcast late at night, when I'm too restless to fall asleep, can keep me quiet and stop me from tossing and turning and keeping poor hubby-Eric awake as well.

Another "podcast" I enjoy in fast mode is the Rachel Maddow Show, audio only. I haven't found any other political podcasts that I can stand more than 5 minutes of, but Rachel has a nice soothing voice, even in a higher pitch at crazy fast speed.

Another use for the Clip+ I hadn't thought of originally is Audioblogging. I'm able to record on it, and now I have the technology to put MP3 recordings into a stream on this blog, so I can do it fairly easy. I may end up audioblogging a bit this summer during a couple of our planned trips, if they happen. I also have an audioblog planned sooner than that, but it'll depend on a lot of factors if that one occurs.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: "Gorillas In Our Midst!" - Interesting opening. The Spectre isn't someone you want after you. The main plot, with Detective Chimp, was fun. I'm afraid I don't see B'wana Beast and Vixen as much of a pair, though.
• Battlestar Galactica: "Scar" - Fighters that get better even if you destroy them. The Cylons are pretty scary creatures. Interesting how much Tigh insists that Sharon isn't a person, she's an it.
• Battlestar Galactica: "Sacrifice" - Ok, I really wasn't expecting the death in this one. In fact, I was depressed by it. I wonder how it'll affect Dee in the future? For that matter, how will it affect the President?
• Ghost Hunters: "Inn of the Dead" - The location is the Orleans Inn, in Orleans Massachusetts. Listening to the stories, a lot of them seem to be fairly debunkable (candles relighting, creepy basement). Admittedly, the crazy ladies and the apparitions aren't so easy to figure out, but people are strange, so things like that are hardly good proof. The flashlight test is always impressive, but again it relies on absolute trust of the people doing the test to be believable. And you have to be confident that the flashlight can't turn itself on and off. It's not particularly scientific. I liked how the SFChan cameramen show up and even talk in this one. I sometimes wonder what goes through the minds of the crew while watching TAPS do their stuff. A fun episode, but not enough to prove anything.
• Destination Truth: "Spirits of Easter Island; The Moa" - Sad to learn that this is the final episode. I really do enjoy this show. Easter Island and New Zealand in this one. I'd love to visit Easter Island someday, but seeing it on a show will have to do for now. One of their translators looks a little like Sergio Aragones. I love that they have a volcano quest to get the island to accept them. Nice weather for their investigation. One of the guys drops his equipment and rips off his shirt in terror thinking that something is crawling on him after they follow a light onto a beach. They find some neat reflections and sounds in a cave. And they nearly drown in the rain. The cave moans were cool, but not enough proof. Very neat place. And they lastly get to go to Southwest New Zealand to hunt for an extinct giant bird. Love that cryptozoology! Josh's multi-lingual GPS was a fun bit of snark, as was Ryder's sheep hunt. Fun Lord of the Rings references, as well. Josh's tendency to jump off cliffs was fun. I'm sure his crew was delighted. Pity they didn't find anything definitive, but the trip was wonderful.
• Doctor Who: "The Time of Angels" - I was on the edge of my seat watching this one, as I'd managed to avoid all spoilers about who appeared in this episode until the preview last week. So I was happy happy glee glee. Poor Eric, unfortunately, had an attack of the killer naps, and as the episode had a lot of quiet bits he actually fell asleep, poor guy. He'll watch it again. In the meantime, I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to next week and the second part. Whee!
• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Susan Saradon" - This one has a narrative. What happened to Susan's mysterious grandmother, who walked out on her family when her children were babies (after being married at 13). This is like the dream episode for this show. A mystery, plenty of journeys and such, and revelations all over.

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This week's movie was Up from Pixar. That opening alone is worth the view. A bittersweet montage that shows immediately that Pixar still has it. And the whole thing was a series of surprises that was both comfortably predictable and yet new and exciting. I admit that I was pretty close to crying a few times during the movie, but I enjoyed it overall. Wow.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released Apr 7th and 14th:

• JSA All-Stars #5 - Strange new character. It'll be fun to see this one play out.
• Demo V2 #3 - I'm curious as to how all those post-its got out on the street, and what it means.
• Doctor Who Classics Series 3 #2 - I found this issue really hard to read. It's a dense story with lots of little psychological bits. I want to read the whole thing in one sitting. Perhaps I should have got the collection when it was available.
• Brightest Day #0 - Aquaman and Mera together again, but Garth? I'm not entirely happy with the way this has played out, and I'm not entirely sure I know what to make of it now. At least there is some decent artwork in this.
• DMZ #52 - Still not entirely sure what has happened to NYC in this, but I have suspicions that it'll all be revealed soon enough.
• Powers #4 - Another strong issue, and no, I didn't read the letters page.

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My library book this week was Coyote Rising by Allen Steele. This is the second book in the series, continuing on from the almost cliffhanger ending of the first. In this book, the original set of settlers have to fight for the freedom that they originally left the earth for. I found the ending of the book to be a bit of synchronicity for this week due to the events in Iceland and Europe. I don't know how many books there are in this series, but I'm glad to find another strong science fiction series to read.

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

Just a Couple of Thoughts

Two things of note have happened in my life recently, neither particularly interesting, but because I haven't got anything else to write about, here's my thoughts...

First up is Second Life. I finally gave in to the urge to join and created an avatar. You start out on the web, where you enter a first name and get to pick from a selection of last names. I had a lot of strange choices, but for me it came down to the choice between "Luckstone" and "Ordinary". Well, "Tegan Ordinary" is a cool name, but "Tegan Luckstone" works better for me, so that's what I chose.

Then I attempted to log in. I downloaded the Viewer, and ran it, and constantly got an error. When I checked online for information on the error, it indicated that I had a firewall blocking the program. I checked, opened up some ports on the router and my firewall, and it still didn't work. Turns out I had another program running that blocks particular IPs based on a blacklist for spam sites, and Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life, are on the blacklist. I can't tell you why, but once I added Linden Labs to the white list (and closed the ports on the router and firewall, just to check) the thing ran and I was finally able to log in.

My conclusion? It's slow, clunky, and has great potential to be either incredibly boring or incredibly fun, depending on what you want to do. I wanted to attend a "meeting", so I just figured out enough to customize my Avatar enough to not look like everybody else but not totally stand out and how to move. I enjoy flying. When it works. It's slow, clunky, and redrawing takes forever on my computer that is getting near the end of it's expected lifespan. But I should make it to that meeting. If I can find the place it's happening at. Figuring out how to get from one place to another is the next trick.

Well, the other thing is even less exciting, if that's possible. I mowed the lawn with Moby the Mower. Eric then went around and trimmed with Whimpy the Weedwhacker, and it actually looked pretty nice (comparatively) once we were done. Eric's been watering the arborvitae regularly, despite the fact that the irrigation water seems to have been shut off again (wha??). And we appear to have a cat that likes using our shed for shelter, because the last two times I've come out into the yard I've seen it dash under the shed. There's about a foot or so of clearance under there, so it might be a good place for a cat to nap.

I plan to get a plum tree soon. I've got my name on a list at a local nursery for an Italian Prune tree that I hope to get planted before high summer. Like my little tomatoes, I don't know if I'll be able to keep it growing, but I'll certainly try.

And, speaking of my tomatoes, it looks like there is a sixth plant growing in the soil. Since I only put in five seeds, I'm not sure what's happening. I'll update if it actually grows into something.

What to Blog About?

I keep hearing bits of news that are reported elsewhere and I think, "I should blog that!" and then I promptly forget. For instance, do my Doctor Who fan friends know that Katy Manning will be appearing on the Sarah Jane Adventures? Are my comic book fan friends aware that there is going to be a Young Justice animated series that includes a strange version of Aqualad? But when I get to the point I want to blog about these little tidbits, I always forget. I guess I'm moving into another phase of blogging... the old forgetful blogger.

Long Time Since A Linkdump

I confess, it's an April Fools Joke, but I'd buy it.

I'm way behind: Comic Book Legends Revealed #227: Carmine vs Nick, Superman vs Flash, and Carmine vs Ploog. Comic Book Legends Revealed #228: asking permision, Flash #123, altered British covers. Comic Book Legends Revealed #229: Panic #1, Teen Titans blue, and Marvels. Comic Book Legends Revealed #230: Interracial Kiss, Mojo Jojo, and Super Spider-Man. Comic Book Legends Revealed #231: Secret Wars in Brazil, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Lee Falk. Whew... way more have been published, I'll link to each of them as I read them...

Darryl Cunningham deals with suicides. And the last chapter of Psychiatric Tales examines his own life.

Thanks to this article, I've started using 750 Words each day to force myself to write for a few minutes. I do a freewrite (non-stop writing of whatever is in your head, even if it's just "I can't think of anything to write), and it usually takes me less than 15 minutes.

Jury Nullification: Agree with it or not, you should know what it is and why it's important.

THIS is why I don't want anyone to have remote access to my car, at all.

The simple rule for text messaging (and cell phone use): If you're in a situation where you'd excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, you should also excuse yourself before reaching for your phone. Otherwise, go ahead without asking. Either way, don't play with your phone longer than you'd stay in the bathroom.

Muslim Scholar issues Fatwa against Terrorism. This sort of responsible behavior should be celebrated.

How to tell when Yeast goes Bad.

Pugs for the in-laws: Pug Confusion, Wrinkling?, Pug and Pie.

LOLCat Theology: Basement Cat knows your Fear, Offerings to Basement Cat, Basement Cat is immune to Zombies, Basement Cat's Soft Spot, Evil Escapes, Transforming into Basement Cat, Washing Basement Cat, Bring Light Bulbs.

AudioBlogging?

If this works, you should be able to see a little flash audio player above this note, and you should be able to click on the play option to play a little clip of me talking at you. The code used is the Standalone version of the WordPress Audio Player plugin, and I used Audiograbber to capture and encode my voice.

Whether or not you like this little experiment of mine, please let me know.

The Dollar Tomato, Part III

To my surprise, the last two seeds have also sprouted in my One Dollar Tomato Kit. All five seeds managed to produce sprouts!

I thought you might like a view with something else in the picture to give some real context, so here's an image that shows you the height these little suckers have managed to achieve:


The directions say to transplant the tomatoes into bigger pots when they reach 3 inches. Other sources online have also pointed out that the second set of leaves need to be in place before transplanting. The point is still moot at the moment, because the sprouts are only 1 1/2 inches tall. But they popped up amazingly fast, once they started to sprout. For the record, I planted the seeds on March 31st.

So, I haven't yet killed them, I think they are getting enough but not too much water, and plenty of sunlight. I'm a little worried by their color, but I don't know anything about what the color ought to be, so I'm just going to let them grow and hope for the best. Hubby-Eric and I got three pots and potting soil for the first three sprouts, and I'll walk down and get another two pots one of these days. It's still a guess if they will get big enough to transplant, and if they do how long they'll survive after that. I wish I had a tiny watering can for growing them on the windowsill, though! More on them as they grow. Stay tuned...

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: "Chill of the Night!" - I like the Zatanna opening. But the rest of it is considerably more intense. Not that the outcome was ever really in doubt.
• Battlestar Galactica: "Black Market" - Too many fracking flashbacks! This is a Lee-centric episode, all about Lee's past and current relationships. I think the solution Lee comes up with is the best for the fleet, despite the President's dismay.
• Doctor Who: "Victory of the Daleks" - I was not looking forward to this episode, because I'm a bit tired of Daleks. I was happily surprised. No, it wasn't perfect. No show is, but it was nice. And I had apparently done a better job at avoiding spoilers than I realized, because the "next week" preview was a complete surprise to me. And get rid of the stupid bow tie already!
• Ghost Hunters: "Ghosts in the Attic" - First up is a private home with a long time ghost infestation that the family just lived with until it got violent in the recent past. The stories don't lend themselves to debunking. I appreciated that Grant explained sleep paralysis to the client, along with their emphasis on taking control. Whatever ghosts are, they shouldn't be in charge of a person's house. Second place is a bar in New Jersey with a long history. They casually mention that Steve and Tango are off working on Ghost Hunters Academy. The flashlight trick... well, without examing the flashlight, I can't tell how that could happen. That's where you have to trust the team, or the show is not at all believable. No skeptic will ever trust the team, so that evidence is simply no good, regardless of how true it actually is.
• Destination Truth: "Ghost of Petra; The Lizard Man" - Oh yeah, Petra! One of my favorite places I'll probably never visit! I love the stories, and I wish the team had given us a little more scenes of the whole city in normal light, but that's not their style. Audio evidence, but nothing totally convincing. From Petra to Southern Swamp, the team next goes after the lizard man of South Carolina. This one has been investigated by MonsterQuest, so I already had an idea of what they were going to find. I swear, they must ask for the worst rental car on the lot. It was fun to see the entire town show up and have a Lizard Man party with the crew. Josh came to the right conclusion, it appeared. I liked how some of the folks warn the crew against going into the swamp because of snakes and such, but not the lizard man.

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

Insta-Haiku

a hot summer day
ice cream trucks circle the streets
hunting next victim

MP3 Players, Podcasts, and Walking

I'm trying out the "new" editor in Blogger, so if the formatting looks odd, let me know.

Now that I have an MP3 player, I can go mobile with my music. In addition, my computer is getting slower and slower due to the demands of software updates, and now I can play music on the player while working on the computer without having the music "hang" every few minutes. Nice, right? But there's more advantages to having an MP3 player that I hadn't thought through. We originally got these for use in the cars, and Eric has had me put a pile of his audiobooks onto his Clip+ and is listening to them on his commute. I haven't had a chance to mess with my Clip+ in my car yet, except to test that the USB power adapter for the car works with the speakers (so I know I can listen to mine in my car). I've mainly been using mine to listen to music while moving around the house doing my daily chores and such.

And then I remembered some podcasts that have been recommended to me. Now, I need to state right up front that I am a visual learner. Podcasts hold little interest for me in general because I don't learn well from hearing something. When people talk about "in one ear and out the other" they are talking about me. If you write it down I can remember it, but telling me something is next to useless. So, I've generally avoided podcasts. There hasn't been any good reason for me to go to the trouble of downloading something and listening to it on my computer while I'm doing something else. I won't hear a word of it. Music at least has a soothing background effect on me, but podcasts... I'd get nothing out of them. The only way I could possibly listen to a podcast and get anything from it is if I'm not doing anything else that fully occupies my mind. Like, oh say, walking.

Hey, says I, that's a thought.

So I downloaded a couple of podcasts and set out yesterday with my old headphones and my Clip+ and tried to go for a nice walk. Didn't work. The old headphones are so low quality that every car that went by drowned out the sound of the podcast. In addition, I'm having minor knee issues and couldn't go as far as I wanted to walk. So I came home slightly discouraged, but decided to try again today using the earbuds that came with the Clip+ (that I keep wanting to call "Clippy" for some reason). Today... today it worked. I walked 3 and a half miles and listened to two long podcasts. I used the "speed" function on the Clip+ that allows you to listen to audiobooks or podcasts faster (but with a higher pitch) so I could get through both. But I had a surprisingly good time and even felt like I'd learned something. Fortunately, my knee was ok today (although now that I'm resting it's beginning to hurt again, *sigh*). I hope to go out and do another walk tomorrow.

So here's where I'm going to get a little odd. I guess I'm new to podcasts. Before now, I've had three set up in my iTunes that I listened to whenever I felt like it, which wasn't very often. Now I've found a few more, and I'm interested in other good ones. I prefer shorter podcasts to long ones, but I'd like to hear (in the comments) what podcasts you listen to, and what you think of them. And in return, I'm going to list the ones I've found.

One more thing. I don't particularly like iTunes, and I didn't see any obvious way to link it to my Clip+, so I downloaded a program called MediaMonkey and have already trained it to download several podcasts and sync them with my Clip+, and download an Oz podcast and link it to Eric's Clip+. I'm still a very new user with MM, but I'm liking it so far.

So here's "my" podcasts (the links are to the podcast feeds, not the podcast websites):

• Stuff You Missed in History Class. This one was suggested to me by my sister, and I listened to almost all of the old episodes while playing solitaire on my computer because I found it so interesting. I eventually stopped listening, but now I've got them on my Clip+ to catch up again.
• Pipeline Comic Book Podcast. What can I say? I like Augie's style, and have enjoyed his insight into comics. He may not be the best out there, but he's easy to listen to even when I disagree with him, and he keeps 'em short.
• BBC History Magazine. I love the magazine when I can get my hands on it, and so this was a no brainer to listen to once I discovered it. It's long, but it's only once a month.
• The President's Weekly Radio Address. It's a good thing to know what's going on at the top of the political food chain. It's only once a week.
• The Royal Podcast of Oz. Ok, I haven't listened to it at all yet, but the most recent episode as of this writing is an interview with my husband, so I have to include it. In addition, this is the one I've got set up to sync with hubby-Eric's Clip+.

I also tried a couple of political podcasts that were not very good, so I'm not going to link to them. There are a whole bunch of podcasts on HowStuffWorks.com that I have the links for, but haven't had time to listen to yet, including Stuff You Should Know, BrainStuff, Stuff from the Science Lab, Stuff Mom Never Told You, and TechStuff. I also have the link to NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me but again, haven't listened to it yet.

So, what do you listen to?

The Dollar Tomato, Part II

An update on my One Dollar Tomato plant... I've noticed a second one popping up over the last couple of days and it finally burst through yesterday. But this morning I got a bigger surprise when I checked on the pot. A third plant has started to grow!

Well, this is getting exciting. Three of the five seeds are growing. And I seem to have not overwatered them yet, so my notorious ability to kill house plants hasn't impacted them yet. Will they last long enough to transplant to a bigger pot? Will they grow actual tomatoes? Or will I manage to accidentally kill them? Stay tuned.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Ghost Hunters: "Touched by Evil" - The Southern Mansion in Cape May, New Jersey. Interesting enough place, with good stories. But the evidence was limited. You can't trust a door that seems to be closing on its own unless you can prove the door never moves without human intervention. And the "Shave and a Haircut" echo sounded just like an echo in the room to me, not a definitive answer like they seemed to think. Not impressed, sorry.
• Destination Truth: "The Jersey Devil; The Yeren" - The Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens, featuring a Ghost Hunters team member... heh. They claim the Jersey Devil is older than Bigfoot, but there are Native American stories of Bigfoot going back hundreds of years before Europeans came over, so I think they are a bit off on that one. Josh is just as snarky about American airports as international airports. Kris: "You guys are crazy. I don't have to worry about anything eating me at my work!" And she hunts ghosts normally. As expected, they found nothing of value for the hunt, although a couple of odd sightings add to the mystery. They next visit China to hunt the Yeren. Gabe is acupuntured in a scary-looking hospital, and they play at badly-dubbed movies on a boat. And this gem: "Nobody's better at almost finding monsters than us!" Then Josh lets off fireworks in the middle of the street... ok. Running around in a dangerous forest in the middle of the night had to result in injury, and it was predictable that someone would fall. A pretty fun episode all told.
• Battlestar Galactica: "Resurrection Ship: Part 2" - Wow. This show just gets more intense as it goes along. This episode deals with Admiral Cain, and not at all the way I was expecting. This show is just cool.
• Battlestar Galactica: "Epiphanies" - Last episode on this disc, and it's another big one. The president finally is dying, and decides to take care of a last few problems. I found this one distressing to watch. I like Laura, for many reasons, and the flashbacks show a little more of what she is and what she needs. Balthar is a really sick guy in so many different ways.
• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Brooke Shields" - Not sure what to think of this one. Brooke herself isn't bad, but the whole seach isn't all that interesting. Family feuds and deaths make for some drama, but it's hard to feel much for her when she checks out the royal side of his ancestry. It wasn't horrible, but I'm looking forward to the next one in three weeks.
• Dinner Impossible: "Balloon Blowup" - Robert doesn't have any idea what sort of mission he'll have before going shopping, because balloons are bringing him mission parameters. Not easy, and he has the usual equipment problems PLUS a sous chef that is not used to mission impossibilities.
• Ghost Hunters: "Haunted Reform School" - A neat building in California, but as usual there just wasn't much there to see. It sounds like a very creepy and extremely dangerous place to be wandering around at night. The floor that started to collapse under Grant was spooky in a non-paranormal way.
• Destination Truth: "Haunted Mining Town; The Taniwha" - A desert in Chile to visit a couple of ghost towns originally used for mining, complete with a special guest from a show I don't watch. I like how they found the towns (using paragliders over the desert). Ghosthunting in a ghost town's cemetary is really freaky. Those open graves were very disturbing. The thermal image at the school seems to me to be a living person, so I'm not sure what to think of it. After ghost hunting, the team goes cryptozoological in New Zealand to find a sea serpent. I'm not sure white water river rafting is the best way to look for dangerous water beasts. For that matter, scuba diving at night seems a little dangerous as well.
• Doctor Who: "The Beast Below" - Hrm. Um. Hrm. Well. Um. Er. It's a show. Not sure what else to say. The awful bow tie is still there. Pity.

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This week's movie was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both of us wanted to see this movie, but neither of us were expecting much from it after the panning it got when it came out. To our surprise, it was just a standard Indiana Jones adventure. Amusing at times, silly at others, with a fantastic and somewhat outlandish premise. We enjoyed it. I'm not really sure why it got such terrible reviews, unless people were expecting Harrison Ford to be twenty years younger or something.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic book shipment that arrived this week, of books originally released March 17th, 24th, and 31st:

• Doctor Who Ongoing #9 - Martha comes to the comic, and the artwork improves slightly. But there's still an annoying overall arc.
• Doctor Who Classics Series 3 #1 - And enter Frobisher! I don't know that I've ever read his first tale before, but I'm amused by it and glad to see him show up. All Hail Frobisher! All Hail the Big Talking Bird!


• Green Lantern #52 - Eh. Amusing cover, otherwise a miss.
• Power Girl #10 - This book gets better with every issue. I find the casual jokes to be wondeful, just kind of funny drive-bys. More books like this one, please.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold #15 - The funniest opening three pages in comic book history. Or at least since the Sugar and Spike opening. The rest was ok, but nothing special. But those opening three pages... wow. Worth the price of admission.
• Tiny Titans #26 - Green. Very green. Needs more Aqualad.
• Northlanders #26 - Two more issues of this, and I'm not sure how they are going to survive this winter.
• Incredibles #7 - Finally all explained. With a good set up for future tales. Not bad stuff. Poor Dash.
• Oz/Wonderland Chronicles: Prelude to Evil #1 - I have no idea what this series is about, or even if we've got all the issues, because of the slow pace it is being released at combined with the various mini-series and one-shots. However, each issue tends to be good. Someday I'd like to sit down with the whole thing and figure it out.
• PS238 #43 - I love this book. I really love this book. More like this, please! Want to see how this storyline ends.


• Blackest Night #8 - Those last few pages almost make this eternal event tolerable. Except... where's Garth?
• Justice Society of America #37 - Want alternate timeline story to end.
• Justice League of America #43 - Little bit of Aquaman, but not enough to make me happy. Multiverse, though, that might be promising.
• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four #3 - Coming up on the end game after what, five years? I'm curious to see how it pans out, but enjoying the ride enough that I may actually be sorry when it ends. Each new iteration of the boys is fascinating to see, as they step towards being true villains without seeming to see that they are doing the exact same thing they despise Silver Agent for.
• Legendary Talespinnders #2 - Shades of Neverending Story in here, but with more anchors. I'm not sure what we'll be seeing as this moves along, but it's not a bad start. How many issues is this, again?
• Usagi Yojimbo #127 - Another consistently good book, with consistently cool stories. Always worth picking up, even if you aren't familiar with the book. This is a perfect one-shot, so go out and get it if you haven't read any Usagi and want to try it out.

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My library book this week was Mennyms in the Wilderness by Sylvia Waugh. With the prospect of their home being torn down, the Mennyms move to the country. Lots of little problems in this one, lots of fun stuff, a handful of twists, and a regular human dealing with the Mennyms and their secrets. It's a nice story worth a read if you enjoyed the first book.

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

Deep Thought

My hovercraft is full of eels.

The Dollar Tomato

A couple of weekends ago hubby-Eric and I went over the mountains to visit friends and family. My evil twin Lisa took me out to Target on an impulsive shopping trip while we were there, and among the handful of objects I got, I bought a little tomato seed set from the $1 bins. The set includes a tiny pot, a plug of sod, and a little bag of seeds. It's from a company called Buzzy Seeds. The seeds claim to be Moneymaker Tomatoes, Lycopersicon esculentum. I figured that for $1 I had nothing to lose, and might even get something out of it.

As soon as I got home, I followed the instructions and planted the seeds, then put the pot up in the sunniest window of our house. I've been watering it regularly and trying to "keep the soil moist" as the instructions indicate. Today when I checked I noticed that one of the seeds has apparently decided to sprout, and I now have a tiny tomato plant wearing a crown of dirt.

My track record with plants is VERY poor. I tend to overwater them, and usually end up killing them with overattention. I don't have any idea if this little guy will get to the 3 inches tall at which point I'm supposed to transplant it, but I'm just tickled that the thing has sprouted at all. In fact, just seeing it grow that much seems to have made the $1 investment worth it, to me. Imagine how much happier I'll be if I can actually start a garden someday.

More Toys!

The rest of our Amazon order came today, and our little tiny MP3 players have now got "skins" that make Eric's look green and mine look blue. And we have adapters to charge them through the wall or (worst case) in the car. And a little speaker system that actually doesn't sound too bad if you aren't an audiophile. It folds up and works with the car adapter so I can listen to my MP3 player in my car. (The only way I can use my car's speakers with my MP3 player is to either get a new stereo system (too expensive) or invest in an FM transmitter for my MP3 player. I may eventually go with that, but the cheapo speakers will do for now.)

Sorry for the really crappy picture, but this is what the speakers look like with my little blue Clip+ connected. I also put the wall and car chargers in the picture so you can see what they look like. The speakers came with a USB power connection, and they work with the car adapter, like I said above. It's not the best solution, but it's cheaper than either a good FM Transmitter or a new car stereo.


Now that I've had a couple of days to play with the Clip+, I'm very impressed with it. It does what it is supposed to do: plays music. It doesn't mess around with a camera or extra doodads I don't need, it just plays MP3 files: either in order or randomly. The only extra thing it has is a microphone, so I can record thoughts while on the go with it. Oh, and it's got an FM receiver, but it's very low powered and doesn't even get our local stations in, which I kind of expected. As you can see from the picture above, it's tiny. It's very light, and clips solidly onto clothing. I don't much like the earbuds that came with it, so I've been using old classic headphones I got a long time ago for a Walkman.

And with the little fold out speakers I can now annoy hubby-Eric with my music.

We got this particular one after Eric did a bunch of research to find an MP3 player that would work with his Mac and my Dell, that was cheap but not poorly made, and that we could use in our cars. Unfortunately, his Mac and his Sansa Clip+ do not work together. His computer is *just* old enough that it cannot communicate with the Clip+ (apparently because his Mac doesn't have a Pentium chip?). This means that for him to enjoy his MP3 player right now, I have to put stuff on it with my Dell. This was a big disappointment for Eric and makes replacing his ancient Mac much more a priority for us.

But I'm happy with it, and plan on getting some use out of it until the non-removable batteries won't hold a charge and it's time to get the next generation of MP3 player.

Should You Buy An iPad?

Via Elayne, who also has a terrible video up that may traumatize Mac fans.

Hugo Nominees Are Out

The Hugo Award nominations have been announced. Here's the ones that jumped out at me, either because a friend is involved, or because I've actually read/seen the work, or both (Please note: this is NOT the full list of nominations, follow the link above to get that):

Best Novelette

• "Eros, Philia, Agape", Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
• "The Island", Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
• "It Takes Two", Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three)
• "One of Our Bastards is Missing", Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three)
• "Overtime", Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
• "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast", Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

This one is of interest to me because of Doctor Who writer, and old friend, Paul Cornell getting a nom. I haven't actually read any of the works, though. I'm rooting for Paul on the basis of his previous works and the fact that he wrote me into a Doctor Who novel as a little Dutch dressmaker.

Best Graphic Story

• Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
• Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
• Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
• Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

This one has me rooting for two different nominations. As you can see, Paul got another nomination, and Girl Genius has been nominated again this year after their win last year. In this category, however, I've read both Paul's effort and Girl Genius. For purely personal preference, I'd go with Girl Genius. The only reason I wouldn't vote for Paul is because I'm really sick of vampires, and despite Paul handling the Marvel Universe characters with great skill and producing a wonderful comic book... it had vampires in it. It's almost a relief to me that I'm not voting for real.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
• District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
• Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
• Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
• Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

I've still only seen Avatar. District 9, Star Trek, and Up are all in the Netflix queue, though.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
• Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
• FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Well, I've seen all three Doctor Who stories, but neither of the others. I would pick "The Next Doctor", with "Water of Mars" a close second despite the fatal flaws in the plot. "Planet of the Dead" would be a close third.

Best Editor, Long Form

• Lou Anders
• Ginjer Buchanan
• Liz Gorinsky
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden
• Juliet Ulman

This category should be entirely based on the works produced by the editors, but I'm afraid my choice is Lou, because he's an old friend and part of the Special K crowd like Paul.

Yeah, definitely a good thing I'm not voting.

Check out the whole list of nominees at The Hugo Awards Website. And feel free to criticize my choices, or give your own stories of who should get a Hugo this year. But not Torvald, he's already got one:

Got a New Toy

I may be... quiet... for awhile because I got a new toy.

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Who Do You Think You Are?: "Matthew Broderick" - The various bits of past Broderick digs up are terrible but fascinating. An ancestor who died in the Civil War, another who was a medic in WWI. His grandmother was an orphan, something he had never known. The search for his great-great-grandfather's grave was a neat little aside to the story. The research and care that went into those records that made it possible to find the grave despite missing information was amazing.
• Dinner Impossible: "Pirate Peril" - Robert gets a semi relaxing mission with a bunch of pirates. The requirements aren't too stringent, and he has a staff that mostly works out, even if they are a tad annoying. And for once he doesn't seem to have any equipment problems.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: "The Super-Batman of Planet X" - Opening with Metal Men, then a team-up with Green Arrow in space. I've never been a big fan of DC space adventures, so it doesn't start out well. The twist was good, and the ending was classic. But not my favorite.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: "The Power of Shazam!" - Starro teaser. When will that plot happen? This appearance of Captain Marvel wasn't what I expected, with some nice twists along the way. I didn't like Billy's voice. It was grating and too earnest, not the kind of voice that would become a radio star. Good episode, though.
• Doctor Who: "The Eleventh Hour" - Hmmm, quite a ride! The opening was wild. This Doctor appears to have a few timing issues. I like how Amy is so well-known in her town, and the consequences of that for the Doctor. I enjoyed the ride, but I'm going to be a little picky about one aspect of the new season: that stupid bow tie. I despise bow ties. The sooner that thing is gone, the better.

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This week's comic book related review is Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett. This is an incredible hardcover history book, a bargain at its $25 list price. Boilerplate (and a few other creations) are artfully woven into the real history of the world to make a wonderful alternate history book that is worth having both for the actual facts it presents as well as the fiction of Boilerplate's existence. In addition, the ending even leaves the story open for a sequel of some sort. I found myself wanting to read more on the events described in the book, even if they don't actually have Boilerplate, and that's a good thing. I only wish there was a good bibliography, but with the internet that's becoming less of an essential. Especially in a well crafted book like this where any investigation of a primary source will reveal the fiction. I'd like to note that the Oz bits in Chapter Two were met with amusement by the Oz fans when I presented the book as "Show and Tell" at an Oz party last weekend.

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This week's movie was Slumdog Millionaire. A young contestant must justify knowing the answers on a quiz show to a policeman convinced he cheated. I didn't expect the story to jump around as much as it did. Particularly at the beginning, I had a difficult time getting into the movie because I couldn't figure out what was happening. I also couldn't read the poorly placed "subtitles" that were too often nearly the same color as their background. I got the gist of the movie, but I missed quite a bit because of the bad design. I suspect I could have read them in the theater, but at home on our decent-sized TV it was difficult. Despite that, it was a pretty good flick. I'm not sure why it's considered "feel-good", after what happens to the brother, but I guess that final dance scene makes up for a lot, right? Not my favorite movie ever, but it was a fun Saturday night film.

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My library book this week was Coyote by Allen Steele. This is an old-school tale of interstellar travel and colonization, with an added twist of political intrigue starting the tale. We get three different periods, starting with the time right around the launch of the ship that will take 250 years to get to Coyote, a moon of a gas giant 46 light years away from Earth. The second period is just as the ship has left the Solar system, and the final time we see is the years just after the ship reaches Coyote. All in all, a strong science fiction story, if a little disjointed. I found it good, but not everyone will like the jumping around of the tale. I liked it enough to seek out the sequel, but then I need to know what happens after the cliffhanger ending.

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Agatha Christie this week was Spider's Web, a play from 1954 novelized by Charles Osborne. A woman prone to making up stories ends up with a murder in her home. Better than the last work, which isn't saying much. The first chapter alone made for a lovely opening act, with just the right amount of humor. It's a good story, and I'm ready for more as soon as interlibrary loan finds them for me.

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

Bad Easter Humor

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Ether!
Ether who?
Ether Bunny!

Knock Knock!
*sigh* Who's there?
Cargo!
Cargo who?
Cargo, "Beep Beep!" and run over Ether Bunny!

Knock Knock!
*rolls eyes* Who's there?
BOO!
*sigh* Boo who?
Aw, don't cry! Ether Bunny is ok!

Yardwork

Well, we got out and did some today. We mowed the yard with Moby the Mower then whacked away some weeds with Wimpy the Weedwhacker. Then Eric did the hard job of digging three holes for three of our dozen arborvitae, which we have now started to plant. We also figured out where we can get grass seed for the yard, and discovered that the irrigation water is now on. I need to keep mowing the yard every weekend to try and keep the thing under control. Pictures? Oh, I'll take some later.

Photoshop is Your Friend

Barack Obama Looking at Awesome Things.

Warning

On most days, you should trust the internet about as far as you can throw an elephant. On this day, you should not trust the internet at ALL. Anything you read online today must be taken with a large grain of salt, and then confirmed by multiple sources on a different day, before you even consider the possibility that it may be true.

A good April Fool joke will be plausible but not hurtful, amusing but believable, and easy to confirm as false (I usually include a link to an "April Fool!" page). But many pranksters don't follow the "rules", so just don't believe anything until it's been confirmed on another day by a reliable source.

For an ongoing list of the best jokes, check out April Fools' Day On The Web. And for the April Fool haters, yeah, whatever. It's important to be silly on occasion, so I support being amused by today, even if you don't participate. If you get grumpy about it, people just think you fell for a prank and are bitter about it.