Sufficiently Advanced Technology

For Later Reference

2010-07-14T19:35:00.002-04:00

I didn't write this, I don't take credit for it, I don't know who originally wrote it, I found it on a forum somewhere.

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

to get any real sense of where it should be, gotta look back to about 2000 before the previous recession, because there was never really a full recovery of that shit.

it can safely be called 64%.

because the BLS never bothers to cite exactly how it calculates it's numbers or the bases unless you dig like a motherfucker, i am forced to derive the bases.

from the above link citing 58.5% participation for June (P), and the 153.7 million total labor force size (L), it's possible to get the base (B) which they are using.
B = L/P, resulting in B = 262.735 million.

now assuming the 64% participation rate, this means that the adjusted L should be 168.15 million (quite a bit larger than the 153.7 which is being cited, 14.45 million to be exact)

so, U3 is "unemployment, but not underemployment, not distressed workers, etc.", it's basically safe to go ahead and say "these are the people who have absolutely no work at all and are fucked", and that number for June is 9.5%, or 14.6 million people who are currently fucked.

U6 includes the zombie workers who used to have actual jobs but now work at walmart or flip burgers. that number for June is 16.5% or 25.36 million.

what happens when we toss in those missing 14.45 million people?

U3 becomes 17.3%
U6 becomes 23.7%

if you dont like the 64%, you can fiddle with the averages however you want to, but the simple fact is that "participation rate" has never fallen this fast since 1948, has never seen 4 years of dropping and has never seen this rate of dropping.

attribute it to whatever you want to, but the simple fact is everything is fucked, its not getting better

Two Android App Reviews

2010-06-16T22:49:00.003-04:00

Touiteur

I was on the hunt for a new Twitter client when the official one stopped serving me notifications. (To that end, I am a little unhappy at the news that the official Twitter app will be baked into Android 2.2, presumably with no way to uninstall it, just like you can't uninstall the Facebook app). I installed Touiteur because the name amused me, but I ended up liking it enough to pay for the pro version.

What I like: You can set a person's tweets to show up against whatever color background you want, making it easy to breeze through the timeline at high speed without missing tweets by the people you actually know in real life. Composing tweets is done via an editor that pulls down from a bar at the top of the screen, so you can write a tweet no matter where you are in the app. The interface in general is highly polished and a joy to look at.

What I don't like: Today I had to reinstall Touiteur because it decided that I wanted to see 20 copies of the most recent tweet in the timeline. This may have something to do with the fact that an update was just pushed out today? Touiteur also has to be set to use the supported APIs for retweeting instead of the old method; by default it will just copy a tweet and stick "RT" in front of it. You can't tap directly on links in Touiteur, either. You tap on the entire tweet, then tap Links from the pop-down menu, then the link you wanted. I guess this problem could be solved by making the text a little bigger, which I wouldn't mind, but it doesn't seem to give me the option.

So it's a little rough around the edges, but really the worst thing I can say about it is it takes me, on average, three tries to spell the name right.

Handcent SMS

People kept telling me I should install Handcent, so I did. And then I uninstalled it 20 minutes later.

What I like: Uh... it did not crash once in the short time I used it?

What I don't like: It doesn't really offer anything over the built-in SMS client except for the ugly Mac-inspired "speech bubble" layout. In fact, the whole thing looks like an iPhone app, which wouldn't be so bad except it completely breaks Android UI conventions.

So it's an ugly, ugly app, but worst of all it has no reason to exist. This review's a little short because, like I said, I only used Handcent for about 20 minutes.

I'll probably do more of these. Look for reviews of Swype and Dolphin Browser HD soon-ish (no promises).

I have to be to court for jury duty in less than five hours

2010-06-01T03:08:00.002-04:00

[3:04 AM] Me: my eyes are super-irritated from i dont even know what
[3:04 AM] Me: but i'm too lazy to go up and look at them in a mirror
[3:04 AM] Me: so i just used my phone to take a picture of my eye
[3:05 AM] AzraelNewtype: ...
[3:06 AM] Me: and now i'm tweeting the picture i just took
[3:06 AM] Me: i love technology

Trying to decide whether to buy a Nexus One outright at $530 or sign a two-year contract and pay just $180 up front

2010-04-04T03:04:00.002-04:00

PROS:

Saves $130 in the long run
No contract
Smaller phone bill every month ($60 vs $80)

CONS:

$530 is a LOT to spend up front for a phone
That's basically all I got

This Is It: The Absolute Dumbest Blog Comment About Healthcare Reform

2010-03-22T22:32:00.003-04:00

I've read some borderline-insane word salads against the healthcare reform bill, but this is the internet. That shit doesn't faze me anymore. But this comment is special, because I cannot for the life of me understand how a person intelligent enough to string these words together could look at what he had written and not feel profoundly ashamed of himself.

It comes from, of all places, the not-normally-political Lifehacker:

Forget about the "healthcare bill". Everyone please take a look at the process that passed it. Does any of this smell like a dictatorship to you? Consider that if you did not like "Bush's War" you did not have to participate in it. But now I am compelled to buy an insurance product? What next? Poor folks can't buy cars so now we ALL have to buy cars?

I don't even know where to begin. I must have missed the option in TurboTax to get back the portion of my taxes they spent on the war.

Just so we're clear:

Imperialist military adventures? -- NOT A DICTATORSHIP

Trying to get more people insured? -- BASICALLY HITLER

And I don't understand at all the point he's trying to make with the car thing.

I'll tell you what you can do with those potatoes, Part Deux

2010-03-04T19:10:00.001-05:00

Russets this time. Take one (or more likely three or four) and cut it in half lengthwise. Take each half and turn it so the cut side is facing up, then slice it into thirds lengthwise, producing three "Western Fry" wedges. But you're not going to stop there: cut them in half.

When all the potatoes are cut, dump them in your largst mixing bowl and toss with olive oil. (And it doesn't take much. 1-1/2 tsp per potato is plenty; just enough to make the potatoes shiny.) Sprinkle on LOTS of kosher salt (always more than you think you need when salting potatoes) and a decent amount of black pepper and whatever else you think is appropriate (OLD BAY) and toss again.

(Oh yeah, you should have been preheating your oven to 350°F while you did all that.)

Dump out the potatoes in a single layer onto a baking sheet and cook for about 15 minutes, then flip them and cook another 15.

Serve with ketchup. Yes, ketchup. Don't ever let anyone tell you ketchup is low-class. It has its uses. For one, it's the only appropriate condiment for fries, except for (sometimes) malt vinegar.

Alternatively, I guess they're good enough to eat plain.

Me, talking about the experience of calling my bank to have THREE non-sufficient funds fines reversed shortly after the new year

2010-02-28T20:27:00.004-05:00

[At the time I was between temp assignments, and the amount of the fines added up to about a third of the last paycheck I would receive for a (then) unknown amount of time.]

It was actually one of the more humiliating experiences of my life, having to literally beg these people for my money back.

(To anybody curious, they refunded 2 of the 3 fines.)

Snippet

2010-02-20T07:13:00.005-05:00

[A Snippet is just a bit of interesting text I copied from elsewhere on the internet, often the Something Awful forums. I do not claim to be the original author, but I usually failed to write down any attribution whatsoever. If you see something you wrote, post a comment and I will credit you.]

"i just don't understand who all the people losing their jobs and health insurance are if not any of these people

like when a conservative demagogue proudly boasts we have the best health system in the world, shouldn't these people at least pause to think about some close friend or family member who has been completely screwed by the system (even if they themselves haven't) before cheering wildly in agreement"

What I made for dinner

2010-02-18T21:53:00.002-05:00

First I roughly chopped the last good onion I had in the cupboard. I say "roughly" because I still don't know how to cut an onion such that I end up with pieces that are all nearly the same size. Then I sweat the onion in half a stick of melted butter for a few minutes, then whisked in 3tbsp of flour to construct a pretty basic bechamel sauce with 3 cups of milk.

I cooked an entire pound of elbow macaroni even though half would've been enough, and I didn't stir them enough so a bunch stuck to the bottom of the pot, which, despite being the largest pot I own, was not large enough to prevent boil-overs.

I browned a pound of ground beef in my poorly-seasoned cast iron skillet. I'm still scraping bits of burnt beef off it.

When the bechamel was ready I stirred in most of a 12oz block of shitty mass-market cheddar and seasoned it with spices that were in that cabinet when we moved in 21 years ago.

In the end I realized that I had put a lot of work in, and dirtied a lot of pots and pans, to make something damn close to Hamburger Helper.

Games that offer commentary on the player isn't exactly a new concept

2010-02-13T01:33:00.003-05:00

Earthbound has this house you can buy, near where you start the game. It costs way more money than you could reasonably accumulate by such an early point in the game, and the only way to make enough money to buy it is by doing a ridiculous amount of grinding.

But what's in the house once you finally buy it? NOTHING. Nothing of value, anyway. The house, with its exorbitant pricetag, is there to punk you out for being an obsessive nerd.

I love that.

The failure of American civilization as evidenced by Facebook fandom

2010-02-12T15:34:00.003-05:00

The page Single Payer Health Care has 453 fans.

The page I redo high fives if they weren't good enough the first time has 1,949,791 fans.

Two posts in one day?! Unheard of!

2010-02-08T00:40:00.003-05:00

It's not merely the fact that Sarah Palin wrote notes on her hand for her keynote speech at the Tea Party conference that makes her stupid. It's the fact that the notes are things like "Tax Cuts" and "Lift American Spirits."

Because evidently she needs to be reminded what she stands for.

Also the existence of a splinter group of lower-class tea partiers protesting the exorbitant ticket prices amuses the shit out of me. Wasn't this group founded for the express purpose of protesting FOR the right of big insurance firms to keep ripping them (and us) off?

So it's okay when Kaiser-Permanente does it but not when Sarah Palin does it?

For your consideration

2010-02-07T21:17:00.002-05:00

Had a (friendly) argument with my buddy Jeph last night. We started out talking about the relationship between art and artist but somehow drifted to talking about the rights of consumers.

The money shot IMO (talking about stores that check your bags against your receipt as you exit):

[1:14 AM] Me: stopping you to rifle through your shit for the express purpose of determining whether you stole something??? how foolish of me to feel like i'm being treated like a thief in this situation

The correct way to cook chicken breast

2010-01-25T21:32:00.001-05:00

Preheat your oven to 400°F with your cast iron skillet inside. Once the oven is fully preheated, remove the skillet to the cooktop over medium-high heat while you prep the chicken breasts. Sprinkle the breasts liberally with a 3:2 mixture of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. (You should grind the pepper just before you need it so that you don't have to touch your pepper grinder with a hand that recently touched raw meat. Sanitation!)

By this point your skillet is probably so hot, smoke's coming off it. Pour in a generous amount of canola oil (or corn, peanut, safflower, anything with a high smoke point), say 3Tbsp. Add the chicken to the pan cook for four minutes on this side, and kinda push 'em around with your tongs a bit during the first thirty seconds so they don't stick. After four minutes, flip the breasts and cook another four minutes, again moving the meat so it doesn't stick. (If your skillet has a better season on it than mine does, that bit may not be necessary.) Once four minutes has passed, move the whole pan into the 400° oven and leave it for approximately ten minutes.

After ten minutes, retrieve your chicken from the oven and use a thermometer to check the temperature of one of the pieces. You're looking for between 155° and 160°.

How to serve a perfectly-cooked chicken breast: I sliced mine in nice thick slices, on a bias, and I fanned them out on a plate around a little pile of stir-fry veggies I found in the freezer. (If you want to be less of a slob, replace the stir-fry veggies with a little salad.) And I used the oil I cooked the chicken in to make a vinaigrette with dijon mustard and drizzled that over the chicken.

The Correct Biscuits

2009-12-26T22:42:00.002-05:00

The guy who gave me this recipe told me, "These are the correct biscuits." I'm inclined to agree. I made these for Christmas breakfast and everybody seemed to like them.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
crushed cloves, to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)
oregano, to taste (the same)
3 cloves garlic, minced (optional, I left this out and the biscuits were still great)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup butter (that's one stick)
1 cup buttermilk

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

In the largest mixing bowl you have, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, cloves and oregano and whisk thoroughly to combine. (Alternatively you can sift these together or dump them in a food processor and pulse two times.) Add in three quarters of the cheese (and the garlic if you so choose) and whisk to distribute it.

Cut the butter into 8-9 pieces and add to the bowl. Using your fingertips, mash the butter into the flour until the texture resembles coarse meal (in other words, until it looks like this). Make a well in the middle of the mass of flour and pour the buttermilk into it, then use a floured spatula or your hands to distribute it into the dough, being careful not to overwork the dough or the biscuits will be tough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop and fold it over on itself 5 or 6 times, again being careful not to overwork the dough. Roll or (if, like me, you don't feel like washing a rolling pin) pat the dough until it's about one inch thick. Use a floured two-inch pastry cutter to punch as many biscuits as possible out of this mass and move them to an oiled sheetpan so that the biscuits just touch. Roll out the leftover dough and punch out as many more biscuits as you can; you should be able to get 9 or 10.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the tops of the biscuits. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

PROTIPS

I ground the cloves in this knockoff version of a Magic Bullet blender I got for Christmas a couple years ago. Grinding spices is about all it's good for.

When in doubt, go heavy on the cheese.

I'll tell you what you can do with those potatoes

2009-12-16T00:56:00.001-05:00

They're red potatoes, right? Take three of 'em if they're small, two if they're bigger. Cube them up. And use a good, sharp knife, will ya? Nothing more frustrating (and dangerous) than cutting potatoes with a dull knife.

Simmer them potato pieces in salted water for about 10 minutes. While that's simmering, cut up a yellow onion. I know you don't know how to cut no onion, just do it like this. Easy. Set that aside and chop some parsley using that "rock the knife back-and-forth through the pile of parsley" technique like you saw Meryl Streep do in that movie. Set that aside too.

Check the potatoes. They shouldn't feel all the way cooked yet. If the pieces mash easily, you blew it; pour on some milk or cream or buttermilk, mash with a fork and call it mashed potatoes.

If you didn't blow it, drain the potatoes. (Well, I guess you should drain them regardless; you know what I mean.) Melt 2tbsp of butter in your best skillet over medium-high heat. When the air smells nutty from the browning butter, dump in the potatoes and keep moving. After a minute or so, dump on the onion. At this point you ought to add some salt and pepper and other seasonings. Whatever you think might taste good; there are no rules! I like paprika, personally.

When the onions are soft and fragrant and starting to brown, it's done. Should take about 5 minutes. Top with sour cream and the parsley you cut up earlier. Serve alongside a steak or any other meaty man-food, or, hell, add in some crumbled bacon or sausage, serve with eggs and call it breakfast. Other possible alterations: add garlic; use a red instead of yellow onion; or season with Old Bay, my go-to potato seasoning.

Serves two, or one if you're a fatshit like me.

New Comics: 10/21–11/04/09

2009-10-31T07:17:00.002-04:00

10/21

DC
Air #14
Ex Machina #46
Final Crisis Aftermath Dance #6

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #10 $3.39
Invincible Iron Man #19 Regular Salvador Larroca Cover
Spider-Woman Vol 4 #2

10/28

DC
Ambush Bug Year None #7
Detective Comics #858 Regular JH Williams III Cover

MARVEL
New Avengers #58

OTHER
Ignition City #5 Wrap Cvr

11/04

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #32 Regular Phil Jimenez Cover
Captain America Reborn #4 Regular Bryan Hitch Cover
Immortal Weapons #4
Strange Tales Vol 5 #3

New Comics: 09/30–10/14/09

2009-10-08T15:19:00.004-04:00

I don't know why I even keep writing these. I guess for when I finally can afford to pick up comics again.

09/30

MARVEL
Secret Warriors #8

OTHER
Terry Moores Echo #15

10/07

DC
Batman And Robin #5 Regular Frank Quitely Cover $2.54

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #31 Regular Phil Jimenez Cover $2.09
Criminal The Sinners #1 $2.45
Strange Tales Vol 5 #2 Regular Peter Bagge Green Hulk Cover $4.24

10/14

MARVEL
Uncanny X-Men #516

Hrmm. My pull for these three weeks adds up to fewer books than I buy some single weeks. And with the possible exception of SECRET WARRIORS (which I've only read the first 3 issues of and thought was okay but which everybody else says is the second coming of Comics Jesus) not a single one of these is not a top-tier book in my opinion.

The "No Bullshit" Pizza Philosophy

2009-09-22T13:48:00.001-04:00

Pizza is CRUST plus RED SAUCE plus CHEESE plus no more than THREE of the following:

Pepperoni
Sausage
Ham
Bacon
Bell Pepper
Onion
Mushroom

AND THAT'S IT. No buffalo chicken, no ranch dressing, no anchovies, no pineapples, no squid ink, no truffles, NO BULLSHIT.

That is all.

New Comics: 09/16/09 & 09/26/09

2009-09-18T13:40:00.002-04:00

09/16/09

DC
Air #13
Batman And Robin #4 Regular Frank Quitely Cover
Ex Machina #45
Wednesday Comics #11

MARVEL
Captain America Reborn #3 Regular Bryan Hitch Cover
Dark Avengers #9
Invincible Iron Man #18

OTHER
Sword #19

09/23/09

DC
Detective Comics #857
Wednesday Comics #12

MARVEL
Immortal Weapons #3
New Avengers #57 Regular Stuart Immonen Cover
Spider-Woman Vol 4 #1 Alex Maleev Cover
Uncanny X-Men #515

OTHER
No Hero #7

A message to no one in particular

2009-09-18T13:34:00.002-04:00

If I found myself being called a racist enough times that I felt the need to mention it specifically as a turn-off, I would think long and hard about my beliefs, and not rush to assume it's the whole rest of society that has the problem.

New Comics: 09/02/09 & 09/09/09

2009-09-05T14:07:00.002-04:00

09/02

DC
Sweet Tooth #1
Wednesday Comics #9
Young Liars #18

MARVEL
Immortal Weapons #2
Incognito #6
Invincible Iron Man #17 (Dark Reign Tie-In)
Strange Tales Vol 5 #1

09/09

DC
Wednesday Comics #10

MARVEL
Dark Avengers Uncanny X-Men Exodus #1
Kick-Ass #7

Diet & Exercise: 08/31/09

2009-08-31T05:57:00.005-04:00

I will edit this throughout the day with my food intake and exercise routine. Dunno how long I plan to keep this up. Maybe til I'm not fat anymore???

Trying to figure out how to link others to my Daily Plate account so I don't have to keep two written records of my eating.

BREAKFAST

Roasted in-shell peanuts (3 servings: 480 cal/36g fat/21g carbs/21g protein)
Large eggs (2: 140 cal/9g fat/2g carbs/12g protein)
Butter (1 tbsp: 100 cal/11g fat)
Instant oatmeal (100 cal/2g fat/19g carbs/4g protein)
2% milk (122 cal/5g fat/11g carbs/8g protein)
Honey (60 cal/17g carbs)

LUNCH

Turkey breast (2 servings: 120 cal/1g fat/8g carbs/18g protein)
Hoagie roll (200 cal/2g fat/37g carbs/6g protein)
Spicy brown mustard (2 tsp: 10 cal)
White grapes (30: 102 cal/27g carbs)

DINNER

Chunk light tuna in water (1 can: 110 cal/2g fat/26g protein)
Dill relish
Spicy brown mustard (1 tsp: 5 cal)
Granny Smith apple (80 cal/22g carbs)
Hard-boiled eggs (3: 210 cal/14g fat/3g carbs/18g protein)

WORKOUT (10 A.M.)

Warm up: 10 minutes on elliptical machine (~150 cal burned)
Squats: 5x50 lbs, 5x60 lbs, 5x70 lbs, 5x80 lbs, 5x90lbs
Benchpress: 5x75 lbs, 5x85 lbs, 5x95 lbs, 5x105 lbs, 5x115 lbs
Pull-ups: machine-assisted, 4@160 lbs assistance, 4@150 lbs assistance
Cool down: 12 minutes on elliptical machine (~190 cal burned)

NOTES

4 a.m.: Couldn't sleep anymore b/c I've got brain problems. Starving so I ate peanuts.
6 a.m.: The average person isn't even awake yet and I've already eaten 150% of my RDA of sodium. Peanuts for breakfast: not the smartest idea I've ever had.
Honey and cinnamon make instant oatmeal edible.
11 a.m.: I do squats in a hack machine b/c I'm afraid to try a real barbell squat. One day, one day. My posted weights don't account for the sled as I have no idea what it weighs.

New Comics: 08/19/09 & 08/26/09

2009-08-23T22:43:00.003-04:00

08/19

DC
Air #12 $2.54
Ex Machina #44
Wednesday Comics #7

OTHER
Doktor Sleepless #13

08/26

DC
Batman And Robin #3
Detective Comics #856
Wednesday Comics #8

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #8
New Avengers #56
Spin Angels #1

New Comics: 08/12/09

2009-08-08T10:17:00.001-04:00

DC
Wednesday Comics #6

MARVEL
Scourge Of The Gods The Fall #2
Uncanny X-Men #514

Seven Pounds

2009-08-08T09:19:00.002-04:00

[Spoilers within, as always.]

I watched Seven Pounds while catching up on last year's fare. I was having trouble finding much bad to say about the movie, at least compared to the general population of movie reviewers (Metacritic score: 36). It's competently directed, expertly acted, and meticulously edited to reveal just the right amount of story to build and maintain viewer interest. I'm making it sound like the movie came off an assembly line. More on that later, I suppose.

Will Smith stars as a former aeronautics engineer who caused a car crash that killed seven people. (By the way, I love that texting while driving was the cause of the accident that precipitated the events of the movie.) He resolves to atone by killing himself after saving the lives of one person for each he killed. (His suicide is part of the plan to save two of these people, played by Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson, who get his heart and corneas respectively.) Smith impersonates his brother, an IRS agent, to gain access to information on candidates for his "gifts" (his word).

But here's what I don't get: the man was rich. Or at least very comfortable. He had a home on the beach, a vintage sports car, had just bought his fiance a giant diamond ring on the night of the accident. He could have done far more good for far more people by giving away his money to Habitat for Humanity, or Doctors Without Borders, or any number of charities. I guess a movie about a man who saves the lives of potentially thousands of strangers isn't as marketable as a movie about a man who saves the lives of Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson.

Your moment of cynicism: I would like to see a sequel that's all about the Latina mother and her kids getting kicked out of Smith's beach house when it turns out she can't afford the property taxes.

Seven Pounds reaches new heights of manipulative sentimentality. It is so perfectly formulated to tug just the right heartstrings, and that, I think, is some kind of achievement, even if it doesn't necessarily make for great art.

Hell House

2009-08-01T17:52:00.001-04:00

Very good for what it is but with documentaries like this, and also with Jesus Camp, my inner Angry Atheist craves a more judgmental, less objective approach.

As a haunted house, the eponymous Hell House is too ridiculous to be scary. The real frightening thing about it is--as I had to keep reminding myself--these folk would literally send us back to the Dark Ages.

Consider a scene in which a young woman is drugged and raped at a party, and in her trauma* commits suicide. Consider the next scene, in which that young woman is burning in hell. Consider that nothing is said of what happens to her rapist. Consider the kind of message this sends to other women.

Now consider that this is what the mainstream of religious America really believes.

A man in charge of the production explains that the point of this vignette is to show the consequences of bad choices. Evidently you can choose to be raped, or at least put yourself in a position where it's your own fault if you get raped.

The bit with the dying gay man is doubly regressive because it implies not only "AIDS is God's punishment for gays" but also "real men don't love other men."

I still don't quite understand the point of the domestic violence vignette. Sure, spousal battery is wrong, but so is, in the Hell House view, being a self-actualized woman. And the wife in question was committing adultery, which I'm pretty sure is punishable by death in the Old Testament.

I'm bothered somewhat that the only voice of dissent in the movie is a gaggle of slack-jawed teenagers with, dare I say, less understanding of their beliefs than the puritanical Christians. And that despite being made in 2001 the whole movie seems to be covered in a film grain effect.

*And with goading by a Grim Reaper with the voice of a giggly teenage girl, who reminds the young woman of her history of molestation. I found this incredibly disgusting in the sheer backwards-ness of its morality.

New Comics: 08/05/09

2009-07-31T21:08:00.002-04:00

DC
Wednesday Comics #5

MARVEL
Captain America Reborn #2
Invincible Iron Man #16
Luke Cage Noir #1

OTHER
Irredeemable #5
Terry Moores Echo #14

New Comics: 07/29/09

2009-07-24T17:52:00.002-04:00

Third week in a row I won't be picking up because I'm officially poor now. Have a list anyway.

DC
Detective Comics #855
Wednesday Comics #4

MARVEL
New Avengers #55

OTHER
Ignition City #4

Good stuff. Too bad it's gonna be a couple months before I get to read any of it.

Kindlegate

2009-07-18T01:01:00.002-04:00

Forgive me in advance for not including in this post even a single link to corroborate anything I'm about to say. All of it is, to the best of my knowledge, true, I'm simply too lazy to retrieve all the links. Besides, if you're coming to me for reasoned, well-researched editorializing, you're way dumber than I am for writing all this crap knowing full well nobody's reading it.

Today Amazon.com pulled from their Kindle ebook store an edition of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four after it turned out they had not in fact secured the right to sell it. They also remotely deleted the ebook off the Kindles of those who had purchased it and issued them full refunds.

Problem solved, right?

Well, not exactly, because the internet is all abuzz about the, well, Orwellian implications of this remote-delete feature of the Kindle, the existence of which Amazon customers are alerted to when first signing up for Kindle, and reminded of each time they purchase a book. There is another edition of the book available in the Kindle store, so the most this snafu really amounts to is a momentary inconvenience. But because the book happened to be by George Orwell, allegations of digital-age book-burning are flying. Apparently refunding the customer for his purchase and telling him he must purchase it again if he really wants it is tantamount to literally pulling the book from libraries.

I don't understand the impulse to compare every little digital action to something that goes on in the "real" world in order to make it seem eviler. In an actual argument over this scandal I participated in, somebody suggested the forced refund to be like "a store representative breaking into your house, taking something you bought, and leaving a refund" [his exact words]. Bear in mind these are the same kinds people who would bite your head off for daring to suggest that piracy is in any way like stealing. I guess the takeaway lesson is that it's only wrong when the big guy does it?

It was suggested to me that at least some of the outrage is due to concerns over ownership of the Kindle hardware and resistance to the idea of Amazon retaining control over the data contained on it. From my own experience this represents probably less than a quarter of the actual discussion being had on the subject, but it is, I admit, a valid concern, though not one I particularly share. Opponents of DRM are completely free to create an open-source ebook reader and see how far they get with it. My guess would be, about as far as the OpenMoko has gotten to posing a threat to the iPhone (an especially apt comparison given that Apple retains about equal control over their phone as Amazon does over their ebook reader).

New Comics: 07/22/09

2009-07-16T14:26:00.002-04:00

DC
Wednesday Comics #3

MARVEL
Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #600
Immortal Weapons #1

OTHER
Phonogram 2 Singles Club #4

Amazing Spider-Man #600 is only on the list to remind me to flip through a copy in the store; I probably won't buy it but Matt Fraction has a story in it.

New Comics 07/15/09

2009-07-09T14:36:00.003-04:00

DC
Air #11
Fables #1 Peter & Max Preview
Wednesday Comics #2
Young Liars #17

MARVEL
Beta Ray Bill Godhunter #2
Captain America Vol 5 #601
Dark Avengers #7
Incognito #5

OTHER
Rasl #5

After that light week last week, fuuuuuuuuuuuuck

But hey, new RASL already! And of course Wednesday Comics! Comics are fun again!

I've been neglecting the hell out of this blog. I've always been very monosyllabic so hit me on Twitter instead.

New Comics: 07/08/09

2009-07-02T18:20:00.003-04:00

DC
Wednesday Comics #1

OTHER
Good The Bad And The Ugly #1
No Hero #6

If not for Wednesday Comics I wouldn't bother picking these up til the 15th.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is a big MAYBE. Do I love Clint SO MUCH that I'm willing to read a middling comic sequel to one of his movies?

New Comics: 07/01/09

2009-06-25T22:33:00.003-04:00

DC
Batman And Robin #2
Greek Street #1

MARVEL
Captain America Reborn #1
Invincible Iron Man #15
Scourge Of The Gods The Fall #1
Uncanny X-Men #513

OTHER
Irredeemable #4
Sword #18
Tales Designed To Thrizzle Vol 1 HC
Terry Moores Echo #13

Total: More than twice what I want to spend on comics per week, and that's not counting the Thrizzle hardcover.

If I were smart I'd stop picking up THE SWORD. It's not a good comic. I just figure it's probably ending in seven more issues so I might as well stick around. I think you'd call this "throwing good money after bad."

And I'm giving IRREDEEMABLE one more issue to go someplace that interests me before I drop it like it's hot. Hot garbage, that is.

New Comics: 06/24/09

2009-06-18T13:49:00.003-04:00

DC
Detective Comics #854

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #30
Dark Avengers #6
Dark Avengers Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #15
Immortal Iron Fist #27
New Avengers #54
Uncanny X-Men #512
Ythaq No Escape #3

Total after discount: $FUCK.ME

Books from the above list I'd cut if I were absolutely forcing myself not to spend more than $15: Astonishing X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Detective, and I'd wait for a light week to buy Ythaq since I haven't read 1-2 yet anyway.

New Comics: 06/17/09

2009-06-11T13:32:00.003-04:00

DC
Air #10
Ex Machina #43
Young Liars #16

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #600
Incognito #4
Invincible Iron Man #14

OTHER
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #11
Phonogram 2 Singles Club #3

Total after discount: $21.96, *WAY* high but there's really no chaff I can cut here. Solid books, all.

EDIT: I somehow left two books off when I put this list together.

New Comics: 06/10/09

2009-06-05T10:54:00.003-04:00

MARVEL
Uncanny X-Men #511

OTHER
Anna Mercury 2 #1
Doktor Sleepless #12
Unknown #2

Total: $11.97

I think I had a point when I started writing this but it turned into an aimless rant

2009-06-01T05:31:00.004-04:00

Elections in the EU are coming up, and at a time like this I get to wishing I lived in a place like Sweden, where evidently legalizing peer-to-peer filesharing is the absolute most imporant issue.

But then I remember that no, it's not the most important issue, in a country where you can still go to prison for denying the holocaust, or wanting to buy alcohol at reasonable prices in a non-government-run liquor store. Nerds just think that it is, for the same reason, say, that the Wikipedia article on civil wars in general is shorter than the article on the comic book miniseries Civil War.

Wikigroaning is played out but I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and how it's symptomatic of a sort of decline of "nerd" culture*. I can remember a time when being considered a nerd indicated intelligence (if not necessarily strong social skills) and passion in a fairly diverse range of fields. Was this ever the case, or did I just grow up? It seems today's nerds trade the intelligence for undeserved self-importance, and the passion for borderline autism.

They trade mindless consumption of American Idol for mindless consumption of Star Trek. This should not be worn as a point of pride.

And before the one person who reads this calls me out on playing too cool for school, I completely realize I fall way too far into the latter category. I frequently spend whole hours reading TV Tropes, a website that's nothing but examples of pointless pop culture minutiae. I know I'm writing this as much out of self-loathing as anything.

*I should probably cut my hands off to atone for writing this sentence.

New Comics: 06/03/09

2009-05-30T04:51:00.003-04:00

DC
Batman And Robin #1

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #5
Universal War One Revelations #3

OTHER
Irredeemable #3

Total after discount: $13.57

Metagroaning

2009-05-25T03:31:00.002-04:00

I was having a conversation yesterday about the new Star Trek movie. At the time of this writing it has a score of 83 on Metacritic, putting it among the greatest movies* ever made. I haven't seen it yet, but seriously?

I got to think that the problem with sites like Metacritic is that they don't distinguish between a reviewer who says, in effect, "I'm giving this movie a perfect score because I was placidly entertained for its entire running time" and a reviewer who says, "I'm giving this movie a perfect score because it legitimately stands with the best movies ever made." I have to suspect most reviewers operate in the former mode.

I set about searching for examples of movies unfairly lumped together with similar Metacritic scores. For instance, according to Metacritic, Ratatouille (96) is as good a movie as Dr. Strangelove (96), and a better movie than Schindler's List (93).

I have decided to call this game metagroaning, a nod to wikigroaning, the game whose idea I shamelessly stole. The idea behind wikigroaning is to compare the length of two Wikipedia articles, one of general importance and one of importance only to the kind of people who have nothing better to do than edit Wikipedia. The latter will often be longer.

I will be posting further examples of metagroaning to my Twitter. Follow me or search for hashtag #metagroan.

*Notice that I'm trying very hard not to invoke the ridiculous "movies versus films" argument here.

New Comics: 05/28/09

2009-05-21T16:41:00.002-04:00

MARVEL
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #14
Immortal Iron Fist #26
New Avengers #53

OTHER
Ignition City #3
Sword #17

Total after discount: $13.56.

Books I probably would pick up if I weren't forcing myself to spend less on comics: Gotham Gazette Batman Alive #1, Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #27.

Non-comic news: I will have a picture of me in my tux up possibly tomorrow. This will serve as a "before" picture.

Calendar for the near future

2009-05-20T02:37:00.001-04:00

May 22: St. Vincent w/ Lo Moda @ Black Cat [possibly]
May 25: Wale w/ UCB @ Sonar
Jun 3: Wale w/ UCB @ 9:30 Club [yes, again]
Jun 14: Maps and Atlases w/ Fang Island et al @ Sonar
Jun 19: Elizabeth & The Catapult @ The Red and The Black
Jun 21: Camera Obscura w/ Anni Rossi @ 9:30 Club
Jun 27: Femi Kuti and The Positive Force @ 9:30 Club
Jul 3: FFHH @ Sonar [Jeph, you reading this?]
Aug 8: Clutch w/ Baroness @ Sonar

Subject to change.

New Comics: 05/20/09

2009-05-14T18:28:00.003-04:00

DC
Air #9
Ex Machina #42

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #50
Uncanny X-Men #510
Ythaq No Escape #2

Decided against picking up THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #23 as I'm trying to keep my weekly pull at or not much over $15 (the above should come to $15.16 after my discount).

A Pattern

2009-05-10T23:04:00.001-04:00

I've noticed a pattern of people who have worked on the Linux operating system or associated projects (filesystems, etc.) being utterly crazy. Consider the following:

Richard M. Stallman: Lives in his office because he refuses to have a house or apartment. Eats things he picked off his feet.
Eric S. Raymond: Racist. Homophobe. Thinks HIV doesn't cause AIDS.
Hans Reiser: Murdered his wife.

By way of comparison, the craziest thing Bill Gates ever did is open a jar of mosquitoes at a conference, to call attention to the scourge of malaria.

New Comics: 05/13/09

2009-05-07T21:11:00.002-04:00

DC
Unwritten #1
Young Liars #15

OTHER
Man With No Name #10
Terry Moores Echo #12

Life is full of this kind of shit

2009-05-07T09:29:00.002-04:00

Wale finally rescheduled his Baltimore show!

BUT!

Now it's on a Monday, so my friend who turned me on to Wale (and really hiphop in general outside of crap like Del and Aesop Rock) in the first place probably can't go.

Bits

2009-05-05T20:27:00.002-04:00

I finally got to home-cook my favorite meal tonight: Swedish meatballs. Was delicious. Am especially proud of how the gravy turned out.
Somebody made an IRL Cosmic Treadmill.
Pictures for Sad Children is one of my favorite webcomics and today's is especially good.
I didn't even know this was a thing that existed.

Trip Report: Pepsi Throwback

2009-05-01T23:02:00.001-04:00

First sip impressions:

It almost tastes flat, and there's an aftertaste not unlike Diet Pepsi.
But it's also less syrupy, less sludgy than regular Pepsi.

Later:

Changed my mind. That taste isn't "flat." It's just milder, not aggressively sweet like Pepsi sweetend with high-fructose corn syrup.
I haven't drunk half the 20oz bottle yet but I can see what people mean when they say drinks sweetened with sugar go down differently, in a way that makes you not want to drink so much.

Go get yourself some, I guess. Good luck finding it though.

New Comics 05/06/09

2009-04-30T16:52:00.002-04:00

MARVEL
Invincible Iron Man #13
Universal War One Revelations #2

OTHER
Irredeemable #2

Still don't have Irredeemable #1 though.

New Comics: 04/29/09

2009-04-23T20:58:00.003-04:00

DC
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #26

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #4
Uncanny X-Men #509

OTHER
Phonogram 2 Singles Club #2
Rasl #4

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY, RASL

Notes on Boston Legal, Season Four

2009-04-19T00:15:00.003-04:00

(These first few are regarding episodes 402-5)

[7:48 PM] Me: maaaaaaaaan this show gets heavy sometimes

[7:59 PM] Me: no jerry dont drink that beer with a straw

[8:22 PM] Me: i wonder if the fact that we've literally never seen this lawyer before until the episode where denny fires her for being fat is a joke on how frequently the cast changes
[8:23 PM] Me: would've been funny having her in the opening credits

(Regarding episode 406)

[8:29 PM] Me: maaaaaaaan after that last episode was so good, this one is like a fuckin family guy episode
[8:29 PM] Me: lol this woman is in love with a power transformer how zany
[8:30 PM] Me: denny sure doesnt have a very good grasp of the law for a lawyer!
[8:35 PM] Me: ok the part where he's playing Saints Row is funny

[9:18 PM] Me: Didnt somebody kill Gracie Jane like in season 2

[11:47 PM] Me: i dont believe Denny Crane would use a Razr
[11:47 PM] Me: i have become the worst kind of fan
[11:48 PM] AzraelNewtype: ^^^^

[12:14 AM] Me: I dont normally get down like this but I think I would probably fuck Bethany the midget lawyer

New Comics: 04/16/09

2009-04-16T15:00:00.003-04:00

DC
Detective Comics #853
Ex Machina #41

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #29
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #13
Immortal Iron Fist #25
Kick-Ass #6
New Avengers #52

OTHER
Ignition City #2
No Hero #5

Will still be cheaper than this week, by virtue of the fact that I picked up the new Wondermark hardcover, and advise all of you to do the same.

I hate making jokes nobody else gets

2009-04-12T23:48:00.003-04:00

My sister and her fiance were over for Easter dinner. After we ate, we sat around watching a documentary on the Learning Channel about a woman with giant legs (called, oddly enough, The Woman with Giant Legs). The eponymous giant-legged woman showed a picture from her youth, when her legs were merely pretty big, next to her normal-legged mother for comparison. Both were photographed from about mid-thigh down.

I said: "Her mom is the nanny from the Muppet Babies cartoon?"

Nobody laughed. Except me.

New Comics: 04/15/09

2009-04-09T18:09:00.004-04:00

DC
Air #8

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #49
Incognito #3
Uncanny X-Men #508

OTHER
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #9

BOOKS FROM LAST WEEK I STILL NEED
Irredeemable #1

BOOKS I'LL GET LATER IF THEY GET GOOD REVIEWS
Secret Invasion Aftermath Beta Ray Bill Green Of Eden #1
Wolverine Noir #1

BOOKS I'LL GET WHEN I CAN FIND THEM CHEAP
Trinity #46

BOOKS I'LL READ BUT NOT BUY IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN
Walking Dead #60

BOOKS WHERE IT WOULD BE FUNNY IF ALL THE PAGES WERE BLANK
Essential Dazzler Vol 2

Flash: Rebirth

2009-04-09T10:56:00.001-04:00

(By Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver)

I guess I can't say this was a bad comic, but I find Flash continuity to be so tedious as to make it impossible to care.

I also don't like how, if you want to convey action in a Flash comic, you just cover the page in lightning. Ethan Van Sciver is a good artist but this book turned out so ugly.

New Shoe Goofin'

2009-04-06T20:26:00.003-04:00

My new shoes came today. They look like this:

They're green. And awesome. Much better than most of the shoes I've had in the past ten or so years. Black, gray, beige, colors that don't stand out and work to draw attention away from me.

A quote

2009-04-06T01:41:00.001-04:00

From Neil Strauss, in his recent book Emergency, chronicling his attempts to see the world through the eyes of survivalists (Context: he'd just crashed a motorcycle):

My lower body was a red skid mark oozing blood. I was turning out to be a shitty survivalist.

In the last month I'd bought guns, started riding motorcycles, and signed up for flying lessons. In my quest for safety, I was undertaking the most dangerous things I'd ever done in my life. The chances of being injured in a terrorist attack or civil unrest were far slimmer than the chances of killing myself in a motorcycle or shooting accident.

Survivalism, I realized, is not about staying alive. It's about choosing how you die.

Twitter

2009-04-06T00:34:00.002-04:00

This post may as well be titled "Social networks I've joined because my friends won't shut the fuck up about them."

But seriously. I'm getting a Twitter. I have one thing I intend to use it for: I'm going to post my current weight, every time I weigh myself (so, every time I go to the gym, or 2-3 times a week). I'll also post the pounds lost/gained (hopefully lost!) between the start of this experiment and each weigh-in.

This is of course part of an ongoing diet/exercise/fashion/general self-improvement regime.

I don't expect to be made fun of per se, but I can certainly deal with knowing somebody's grossed out by the fact that I weigh (as of about a week ago) 330lbs. You know why? Because nobody's more disgusted by my weight than I am. You're not going to get to me by pointing out something I can plainly see every time I look in a mirror.

I'm probably not the first person to do this so don't come interviewing me if I turn out to be like a Twitter Diet™ Success Story™.

New Comics: 04/08/09

2009-04-02T15:25:00.003-04:00

DC
Young Liars #14

MARVEL
Daredevil Noir #1
Ythaq No Escape #1

OTHER
Ignition City #1
Sword #16
Terry Moores Echo #11

And I still need IRREDEEMABLE #1 because my shop either didn't get any copies or sold them out incredibly quickly.

The closest thing to a proper superhero comic on my pull for next week is Daredevil Noir. Make of that what you will.

Your Daily Outrage

2009-03-28T15:37:00.005-04:00

It's hard to even find the words for this, so I'll let Radley Balko summarize: "Police officer won’t let man continue on to hospital after pulling him over for expired plates, despite the fact that his mother had stopped breathing, and the hospital was less than a mile away. She died in the car."

Excuse the all-caps but I feel that the words by themselves don't properly convey the anger they should inspire: A COP WILLFULLY IGNORED A MEDICAL EMERGENCY TO WRITE A TICKET FOR AN EXPIRED LICENSE PLATE, AND A WOMAN DIED AS A RESULT.

The cop should be charged for Vernice Ables's death. That's all there is to it. I'm not a legal scholar so I don't know what the appropriate charge is called (involuntary manslaughter maybe), but surely he's guilty of it? As it is, we'll be lucky if he's kicked off the police force.

This incident is but one in a horrifying stack of examples of ways that by "just doing their job," law enforcement has the power to create misery in the lives of those they are sworn to protect and serve.

Cases like this give me pause when it comes time to teach my children how to deal with law enforcement. Can I teach my kids to trust cops? I don't feel like I can.

Finally, a quandary. It this a mitigating factor?:

Ables knows his mother probably would have died that night. Doctors at the hospital told him that.

I think that it is not. The cop's utter lack of basic humanity still played a role in this poor woman's death.

New Comics: 04/01/09

2009-03-26T15:58:00.002-04:00

DC
Flash Rebirth #1
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #25

MARVEL
Invincible Iron Man #12
Universal War One Revelations #1

OTHER
Irredeemable #1

New Comics: 03/25/09

2009-03-19T15:35:00.002-04:00

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #48
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #12
Immortal Iron Fist #24
New Avengers #51

Light week. May also pick up Showcase Presents: Ambush Bug at some point in the future.

New Comics: 03/18/09

2009-03-13T01:49:00.002-04:00

DC
Air #7

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #3
Scourge Of The Gods #3
Spider-Man Noir #4
Uncanny X-Men #507

AIR #7 is only a buck. I am so gullible that I'm probably going to pick up all the dollar singles Vertigo is putting out, and then get hooked on at least half of them and not read them in trade like I should.

My current pull list

2009-03-06T04:37:00.003-05:00

I didn't have a list on hand of what comics I buy every month, so I wrote one. Here it is:

DC [4]
Batman
Detective Comics
The Brave and the Bold
Justice Society of America

MARVEL [13]
Astonishing X-Men
Captain America
Dark Avengers
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Immortal Iron Fist
The Invincible Iron Man
New Avengers
Newuniversal
Newuniversal: Shockfront
~~Scourge of the Gods~~
~~Spider-Man Noir~~
Uncanny X-Men
~~X-Men Noir~~

VERTIGO/WILDSTORM [4]
Air
Desolation Jones
Ex Machina
Young Liars

ICON [2]
Criminal
Incognito

OTHER [9]
Casanova
Doktor Sleepless
Echo
Fell
The Man with No Name
No Hero
Phonogram: The Singles Club
RASL
The Sword

Something to note: comic titles in bold haven't shipped new issues in yonks but aren't technically canceled, and I'll probably buy them when they eventually resume, so they're listed. And titles with a strikethrough end their run in one more issue.

There are several more comics that I read but don't buy on their ship date or pay cover price for. These books I grab when I can pick them up on sale, usually for a buck an issue. They are:

Runaways
Simon Dark
The Spirit
Trinity

Noteworthy facts about this pull list:

I buy about three times as much Marvel as DC. This is the opposite of how it was when I got into superhero comics. I have always liked DC's stable of heroes more than Marvel's but Marvel just has better writers telling better stories right now. If I had put this list together while FINAL CRISIS was still going on it would be a little less skewed.
About half of my pull is non-superhero comics (or comics that at least don't feature superheroes in the traditional sense, like EX MACHINA). I don't think there's any intrinsic problem with liking superhero comics, but this fact makes me feel pretty good.
For a guy who claims not to like Warren Ellis, I read kind of a lot of his books (seven).
I read a lot of comics in monthly single issues that I should be reading in trade collections, for a few reasons. (1.) Comics like the French Soleil books or Marvel's Noir stuff are eventually collected in really gorgeous hardcovers. (2) Those books almost always end up costing less than buying the monthlies, and you get it in a format you can display better and is more conducive to re-readings.

New Comics: 03/11/09

2009-03-05T16:48:00.002-05:00

DC
Ex Machina Special #4
Young Liars #13

MARVEL
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #11
Immortal Iron Fist #23
Invincible Iron Man #11
X-Men Noir #4

OTHER
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #8

Complaint box

2009-03-01T22:05:00.001-05:00

Self-checkout is the worst thing to happen to retail. Oh, it's not so bad if there's no line and you're only buying two items, and paying with credit, but...

I went to the nearest supermarket a few hours ago for a couple bottles of Gatorade. Only the self-checkout was open and the line to use one of the four terminals would span the length of one of the store's aisles. I forgot to mention, it was snowing today, and Maryland loses its collective shit at the first sign of snowfall. But the store should have been prepared for this and had extra checkouts (the kind staffed by human beings) open. And they did eventually open one--as I was walking out of the store.

And to add insult to injury, the self-checkout terminal's bill accepter kept sptting out my $20 so I had to pay with my bank card. This can't happen with a living person operating a real cash register.

New Comics: 03/04/09

2009-02-26T15:41:00.004-05:00

OTHER
No Hero #4 Wrap Cvr
Terry Moores Echo #10

That's it. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What I am wondering right now

2009-02-25T14:56:00.001-05:00

Why couldn't Ryan Frederick have killed this cop instead?

New Comics: 02/25/09

2009-02-19T17:44:00.003-05:00

DC
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #24

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #47
New Avengers #50
Scourge Of The Gods #2
Ythaq Forsaken World #3

OTHER
Sword #15

New Comics: 02/18/09

2009-02-12T18:51:00.003-05:00

DC
Brave And The Bold Vol 3 #22

MARVEL
Dark Avengers #2 Regular Mike Deodato Jr Cover
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #10
Spider-Man Noir #3 Variant Dennis Calero Cover
Uncanny X-Men #506

That's it.

A Public Service Announcement

2009-02-09T09:12:00.002-05:00

If you wouldn't fuck the "fat" Jessica Simpson, congratulations: you're gay!

That is really all that needs to be said on the subject.

New Comics: 02/11/09

2009-02-05T23:31:00.003-05:00

DC
Batman #686 Regular Alex Ross Cover
Young Liars #12

MARVEL
Incognito #1 2nd Ptg Sean Phillips Variant Cover
Incognito #2
Patsy Walker Hellcat #5

New Comics: 02/04/08

2009-01-29T15:58:00.003-05:00

DC
Final Crisis Legion Of Three Worlds #3 Cover A Character Cover

MARVEL
Immortal Iron Fist #22
Invincible Iron Man #10
X-Men Noir #3 Variant Dennis Calero Cover

OTHER
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #7
Terry Moores Echo #9

And I am waiting for reviews of, or otherwise picking up at a later date, the following:
Mighty #1
Trinity #36
Secret Warriors #1
War Of Kings Darkhawk #1

New Comics: 01/28/09

2009-01-24T00:24:00.003-05:00

DC
Final Crisis #7 Cover A Character Cover
Final Crisis Revelations #5 Cover A Character Cover
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #23

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #46 Regular Steve Epting Cover
New Avengers #49
Scourge Of The Gods #1 Regular Aleksa Gajic Cover

JSA is a FACES OF EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL tie-in so maybe I won't buy it. Definitely not buying Batman for this reason.

Excited for Scourge of the Gods. All of this French/Soleil stuff that Marvel has been translating has been really excellent.

Hrmm...

2009-01-21T21:23:00.002-05:00

Click here.

This is the robots.txt file for whitehouse.gov as it looked during the Bush administration. For those of you who don't know, a robots.txt file basically tells search engines what parts of a website should not be indexed.

And here is what it looks like right now: http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt

Wishlist for upcoming comic sale

2009-01-18T22:55:00.001-05:00

For personal reference

God-Size Thor
Simon Dark #14
Simon Dark #15
Trinity #30
Trinity #31
Trinity #32
Trinity #33

New Comics: 01/21/09

2009-01-15T18:36:00.002-05:00

DC
Air #6
Brave And The Bold Vol 3 #21
Final Crisis Superman Beyond #2 Cover A Character JH Williams III Cover

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #28
Dark Avengers #1 Regular Mike Deodato Jr Cover
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #9
Spider-Man Noir #2 Regular Patrick Zircher Cover
Uncanny X-Men Annual Vol 2 #2
Ythaq Forsaken World #2

New Comics: 01/14/09

2009-01-08T15:47:00.002-05:00

DC
Final Crisis #6 Cover A Character Cover
Young Liars #11

And that's it. If not for Final Crisis I wouldn't bother making the drive to pick up two comics. Perhaps I'll finally get the Watchmen trade.

Bluray First Impressions

2009-01-08T08:37:00.001-05:00

The first Bluray movie I watched was Oldboy, and I was underwhelmed. Not by the film, which is one of my favorites, but by the picture quality which, while clearly being better than DVD, is not much better. This is probably less a fault of the medium and more a fault of there being no competitive pressure on the companies that localize Asian movies to do a good job of the transfer.
It's very cool how you can bring up a smaller version of the main menu without pausing the movie.
Switching to a commentary track automatically switched to the appropriate subtitle track. Subtitles are also nice and crisp.
The menus were somewhat frustrating to navigate with a PS3 controller at first. That's not really their fault; I don't feel like paying $25 to have yet another remote hanging around the house.

New Comics: 01/07/09

2009-01-02T20:32:00.002-05:00

DC
Detective Comics #852 (Faces Of Evil Tie-In)

MARVEL
Invincible Iron Man #9 (Dark Reign Tie-In)
Secret Invasion War Of Kings One Shot
X-Men Noir #2 Variant Dennis Calero Cover

OTHER
Sword #14
Anna Mercury #5 Wrap Cvr
Doktor Sleepless #11 Wrap Cvr
No Hero #3 Wrap Cvr

And possibly Black Lightning Year One.

Saints Row 2...

2008-12-28T22:59:00.001-05:00

...is a very fun, but very flawed game.

The Good

The story missions are more fun than those in GTA4, and are reminiscent of San Andreas (one of my absolute favorite games).
The side missions are plentiful but clearly labeled on the in-game map.
The handling of the vehicles is generally solid, more "arcadey" (as AzraelNewtype put it) than GTA4. This is another way in which SR2 is a more fitting sucessor to San Andreas than GTA4 is.
The entire game is playable cooperatively via the internet.
MID-MISSION CHECKPOINTS.
Does not have GTA4's friend and girlfriend nonsense.

The Bad

Using the shoulder triggers for melee combat is bad design.
There's no lock-on targeting for the firearms, something I'd considered to be essential in a GTA-like game and considered the GTAs that don't have it to be unplayable.
The Havok physics engine causes hilarious and occasionally game-breaking glitches, like the time running over a pedestrian caused all four of my tires to lift off the ground and the car could no longer move, or the time a motorcycle I fell off of embedded itself in the ground.
I've had to restart a couple other missions due to instances of bad programming/design not related to the use of the Havok physics engine. One time a character I had to kill to progress stopped taking damage, and another time an NPC I was escorting got stuck behind something and couldn't get out.
Shooting while driving is incredibly unintuitive and the game frequently expects you to be adept at it by sending waves of rival gangs to shoot up your ride.
The game is simply TOO HARD at times. Especially the side missions which in the later levels border on impossible even on the Normal difficulty setting.
Camera complaints: it's awful in general, there's no way to look to the sides while driving, and there's only one viewpoint while in a vehicle.

New Comics: 01/02/09

2008-12-27T01:30:00.002-05:00

Two days late, woo

DC
Batman #684 Regular Alex Ross Cover
Blue Beetle Vol 7 #34
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #22 Regular Alex Ross Cover

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #45 Regular Steve Epting Cover
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #8 Regular Clint Langley Cover
Incognito #1
Punisher War Journal Vol 2 #26

New Comics: 12/24/08

2008-12-18T14:19:00.001-05:00

DC
Batman #683 Regular Alex Ross Cover

MARVEL
Immortal Iron Fist #21
New Avengers #48
Patsy Walker Hellcat #4

Glorious small week!

If not for Batman and Iron Fist I probably would not bother to pick these up until the following week.

A message to Marvel

2008-12-13T19:30:00.003-05:00

Including the script as backmatter does not make it acceptable to charge $3.99 for a comic with only sixteen pages of story.

Note to Self

2008-12-12T15:25:00.001-05:00

Drop the following comics:

The Astounding Wolf-Man
Brit
Green Arrow and Black Canary
The Mice Templar
The Walking Dead

Comic Review: Green Arrow and Black Canary #15

2008-12-12T11:50:00.001-05:00

(Yes, it's been two months since I did one of these.)

Green Arrow and Black Canary #15. Andrew Kreisberg (w), Mike Norton and Josef Rubinstein (a). DC. $2.99.

I meant to drop Green Arrow and Black Canary after Judd Winick's run concluded. I forgot to, and found this, the first issue of Andrew Kreisberg's run, in my subscription box on Wednesday. I decided to give it a shot.

The Good: This issue ships off both Connor and Speedy. Speedy is going to London to live with Dodger, which I hope means she shows up a lot less.

I must interject my dislike for Speedy here, and those who take any opportunity to bemoan the treatment of women in comics can call me whatever names they like. Speedy is a completely redundant character who only serves as a device for shoehorning in dumb HIV-awareness messages. It's almost as if comics (or at least Green Arrow comics of the past five or so years) can't decide who they want reading them. Most Big Two cape comics are ostensibly targeted at manchildren like me, but then Kreisberg (or historically Winick) will write in a reminder to use condoms, or a mention of Speedy's T-cell count, in a way that could only be for the benefit of 13-16 year olds who haven't already heard it a million times.

The Bad: Nothing else happens in this issue. If it had been an episode of a TV show, the stuff that happens in the present tense would fill maybe three minutes of screen time, and the rest of the issue is told in flashbacks that include a condensed retelling of Andy Diggle and Jock's Green Arrow Year One (a book I quite liked) and the latter arcs of Winick's Green Arrow and his GABC run. Oddly, the flashbacks hit most of the other milestones in Ollie's superhero career except the most important: his death. It's not mentioned at all. The time Connor got shot and almost died is recapped (even though it happened in this very book, fewer than ten issues ago), but not the time Ollie really did.

The Ugly: I really like Mike Norton, but he didn't turn in his best work in this issue. It's not bad per se, just sloppier than I've come to expect from him. On net, though, this is a good-looking bad comic.

New Comics: 12/17/08

2008-12-11T18:09:00.003-05:00

DC
Air #5
Ex Machina #40

MARVEL
Invincible Iron Man #8 Regular Salvador Larroca Cover
Mighty Avengers #20
Samurai Legend #4
Spider-Man Noir #1 Regular Patrick Zircher Cover
Uncanny X-Men #505 Regular Terry Dodson Cove

OTHER
Brit #11
Doktor Sleepless #10 Wrap Cvr
Walking Dead #56

Two books I meant to drop (no surprise which two) but otherwise this is a great week.

But... I thought the end of the year was supposed to be slow for comics? It's been about two months since the last time I picked up fewer than eight books a week.

Marvel has raised the price on two flagship books (NEW AVENGERS and DARK AVENGERS). More will probably follow. This is going to be the year I seriously cut back on the number of comics I buy. And it's not just the money (though I certainly feel slightly embarrassed telling people I spend about $100 a month on comic books); I often think about the number of "real" books I could have read in the time I spend reading comics in a year and wonder if that's not a better use of the time I want to spend reading.

New Comics: 12/10/08

2008-12-05T00:46:00.003-05:00

DC
Ambush Bug Year None #5
Detective Comics #851 Regular Guillem March Cover
Final Crisis #5 Cover A Character Cover
Final Crisis Revelations #4 Cover A Character Cover
Young Liars #10

MARVEL
Astonishing X-Men Ghost Boxes #2
Ythaq Forsaken World #1 Regular Adrien Floch Cover

OTHER
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #6
Terry Moores Echo #8

Ambush Bug, Final Crisis, Man with No Name and Echo in one week is the best birthday present I could ask for.

Digsby

2008-12-01T14:01:00.002-05:00

For several months I've been using Digsby as my instant messenger client. I thought it was pretty neat: it supports every IM protocol I use and can help me keep tabs on my MySpace and Facebook if I want it to. It's young software and has its share of problems (most annoyingly that you can't apply formatting to arbitrary portions of a message, like this). That the developers haven't even attempted to address this missing feature yet probably prompted a lot of people to go back to using Pidgin or Miranda, but I want to complain about something much more insidious.

I can't phrase it any better than this post from SomethingAwful's tech subforum:

"Also on the major-skeeze front, a recent digsby update apparently pushed distributed computing processing into the Digsby client. What this means is without telling you, Digsby silently uses your CPU cycles for non-profit or for-profit distributed computing research. Fortunately you can disable this by going into Help -> Support Digsby."

The relevant entry in this menu is "Help Digsby conduct research," and as you can see it is opt-out. This is sneaky as hell. I've already disabled it but the mere fact that this is being done, and with no notice given to users, is sneaky as hell and has me wanting to switch to another client.

But which client? Pidgin is a'ight but I really don't want to install GTK on this computer. I've never messed with Miranda.

New Comics: 12/04/08

2008-11-28T16:00:00.002-05:00

DC
Batman #682 Regular Alex Ross Cover
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #21 Regular Alex Ross Cover

MARVEL
Criminal 2 #7
Immortal Iron Fist #20
New Avengers #47
Secret Invasion #8 Regular Gabriele Dell Otto Cover

OTHER
Astounding Wolf-Man #10
Sword #13

Wow, this is a really good week.

Rapture Ready! (by Daniel Radosh)

2008-11-20T22:15:00.001-05:00

Subtitle Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture.

You need to read this book. Fascinating throughout, with equal parts understanding, gentle mocking, and (totally justified) outrage for the movers and shakers of American evangelical culture.

If you want to know a more than I feel like typing about what's in the book, here's an almost 50 minute-long interview with the author, Daniel Radosh, from The Lazlow Show on satellite radio. (Should that link go down, message me and I can rehost it.)

Also, three words: Christian pro wrestling.

Shopping list for comic shop sale

2008-11-20T17:03:00.000-05:00

UPDATED

All back issues $1.00

Booster Gold #11
Booster Gold #12
Booster Gold #13
Legion of Super-Heroes #41
Legion of Super-Heroes #42
Legion of Super-Heroes #43
Legion of Super-Heroes #44
Legion of Super-Heroes #45
Legion of Super-Heroes #46
Runaways (2005) #25
Runaways (2005) #26
Runaways (2005) #27
Runaways (2005) #28
Runaways (2005) #29
Runaways (2005) #30
Runaways (2008) #1
Runaways (2008) #2
Runaways (2008) #3
Simon Dark #12
Simon Dark #13
The Spirit #21
The Spirit #22
Trinity #18
Trinity #19
Trinity #20
Trinity #21
Trinity #22
Trinity #23
Trinity #24

Maybe not complete.

New Comics: 11/26/08

2008-11-20T14:38:00.002-05:00

DC
Batman #681
Blue Beetle Vol 7 #33
Justice Society Of America Kingdom Come Special The Kingdom #1

MARVEL
Captain America Vol 5 #44
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 #7
Thor Man Of War

OTHER
Brit #10
Man With No Name The Good The Bad And The Uglier #5
Walking Dead #55

New Comics: 11/19/08

2008-11-13T14:07:00.004-05:00

DC
Air #4
Ambush Bug Year None #4
Ex Machina #39
Justice Society Of America Kingdom Come Special Magog #1

MARVEL
Iron Man Director Of SHIELD #35
Punisher War Journal Vol 2 #25
Samurai Legend #3
Uncanny X-Men #504

New Comics: 11/12/08

2008-11-06T15:26:00.002-05:00

DC
Detective Comics #850
Green Arrow Black Canary #14
Justice Society Of America Kingdom Come Special Superman #1
Young Liars #9

OTHER
Anna Mercury #4
Brit #9
Mice Templar #6
Walking Dead #54

The best sentences I will read today

2008-11-03T03:25:00.003-05:00

And it's only 3:30 in the morning yet!

Via The Distributed Republic:

They asked me who I was voting for, and I told them that I wasn't voting, and they got indignant/evangelical on me. I then told them I'd prove to them how pointless voting was, and told them that I'd vote for their candidate for a mere $20. No takers. I'm trying to think of another, "most important thing you can do," that isn't worth $20.

Strange items on my Amazon wish list

2008-11-03T02:18:00.002-05:00

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters

Yeah.

Also I just ordered a couple (non-strange) books: Out by Natsuo Kirino and Rapture Ready! by Daniel Radosh.

Southland Tales...

2008-11-01T22:50:00.001-04:00

... is the worst movie of the 2000's so far.

New Comics: 11/05/08

2008-10-31T11:44:00.002-04:00

DC
Final Crisis Resist #1 Ryan Sook Cover
House Of Mystery Vol 2 #7
Justice Society Of America Vol 3 #20 Regular Alex Ross Cover

MARVEL
Invincible Iron Man #7
Punisher War Journal Vol 2 Annual #1

I may pass on two of these. Try to guess which!

POLYSICS!!!

2008-10-31T11:02:00.002-04:00

Incredibly fun live. Go seem them as soon as you have the chance.

This is what they sound like. If you dislike this, you dislike fun.

I witnessed all kinds of folk enjoying the hell out of this band; some of them were even more-or-less normal looking. A handful were young enough to make me feel really creepy for being into the same band as them. And of course there were a few hunched-over neckbeards whom I easily could have been one of if I hadn't kicked the anime habit back in, like, 10th grade. A couple Devo energy domes, too.

Pictures possibly forthcoming.