email me: chris@chris-karath.com
Key: NSFW=Not safe for work
December 2006
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Sunday December 31, 2006 3:05:28 PM #
Action Figures
» I finally found JLU Vigilante last week. Even my JLU-likin', comic-readin' friends wondered why I got Vigilante, but pictures are worth a thousand words. (That and how entertained I was by the quirkiness in the amount of screen-time a Medieval Knight and Cowboy duo got on a Superhero cartoon, Fantastic!)
Think of the above as an end of the year Watchtower New Years Eve party, where Shining Knight and Vigilante aren't quite fitting in. (And if anyone is feeling particularly clever, go ahead and take a stab at captioning the above exchange in the comments.)
Sunday December 31, 2006 1:35:55 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» Happy New Year's Eve!
Let's Go Surfing
» Battlestar Galactica, Direct to DVD Movie.. Frakkin' great news. (Oh, and there's a suprising amount of negative talk about the 3rd season going on over at Slashdot. While I agree that the first two seasons were stronger, still there's little comparison between BSG and anything else like it on TV. Expectations haven't gotten unrealistic I think. It's still very very good.)
There are also plans for an XBox 360 Online Battlestar Galactica video game. Button mashin frakkin' great.
And also, also a Battlestar Galactica Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game has just been announced. If it has a frakkin' 69d6 in the rules then I'll buy it ;)
» PureText is at 2.0. I've mentioned it before, but it's a must for anyone who does graphic design and routinely pulls text from various documents. PureText, is a tray icon that once clicked, removes all formating of the text on your clipboard. Removing the formating first will allow the text to take on the formating of the text box you copy it into later. This cuts down on introducing unwanted fonts to your documets as well as saving you the step of highlighting new text and applying formating. It's a very small useful program.
via freewaregenius.com
» Very well designed Color Corection Freeware. Very professional and powerful individual or batch processor. Shows you before and after images as it processes the files. Also let's you see all the changes before it saves copies or overwrites the originals. Good stuff if you have alot of pictures to color correct. (Direct Download from author.)
via freewaregenius.com
» Neat Wii T-Shirt, $25..
via Gizmodo
» It's 2006 but DVD ownership just now surpassed VCR ownership. However, I'm guessing quite a few people still use both, as the VCR in my experience seems to still be the recording medium of choice for swapping shows with friends.
» A bunch of Still and Streaming Video Cameras across Manhattan, New York. Interesting. I watched for awhile and saw no web swinger, and not even a single quinjet.
» Girls with Robots. A couple images are 1950's-Bettie-Page-Type-NSFW. It's in spanish or something, and I have no idea what the text says.
» Are you a geek, nerd or dork?. Nothing really at the link but this quote definition of the three was interesting:
Geeks are those that have technical aptitude,
nerds are bright but socially awkward,
and dorks are just inept excuses for protoplasm.
» The Beat as a brief snippet and picture: FF2 Silver Surfer, Eyes or No Eyes?. I'm on the pro-Eyes side of this ish.
» A friend of mine thinks robot pets are the future of pet companionship. What's your opinion?
» The World as I see it by Albert Einstein. Interesting Essay.
"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.
» Commentary on the fan trend to primarily refer to superheroes by their first names. ie: Superman=Clark, Batman=Bruce. If you ask me, it's just a byproduct of how much more soap-operaish comics are these days. With one-issue stories stretched over 3, 4 or 6 issues, there's alot more talky-talky going on then there used to be. You begin to relate to the characters more as people and less as caped-wonders swooping in unleashing the caped wonder with fanciful names. That's what I think anyway.
» KneelBeforeBlog has photos of the Iron Spider-man and 2099 Spider-man along with 5 other Spider-mans. Thwiptastic.
Saturday December 30, 2006 11:19:48 PM #
» Played around with changing my blog's look.
Let's Go Surfing
» Roundtable discussion of Superman from Newsarama. Interesting.
Saturday December 30, 2006 11:50:54 AM #
» Foreign commercial featuring Batgirl, Catwoman and Wonderwoman costume changes. According to those on digg the translation of the tagline is: "Women know that a change of clothes makes us powerful"
Let's Go Surfing
» Saddam Hanged. CNN putting the "1937-2006" date range in that graphic seems odd to me. I don't know why, it just looks visually strange. Perhaps it's become synonymous with unexpected death in my mind and it looks strange to see it under someone's name that had death marked on their calendar.
» Indiana Jones and the Temple of "He's Pretty Old Now" to begin filming in 2007. It will be interesting to see how they pull this off.
» Saw these photos on Flickr. 17 Die-cast Batmobiles and 11 Marvel Legend Iron-Mans
» ComicLife, OSX Mac comic book making software.
Friday December 29, 2006 6:37:21 PM #
Action Figures
» Picked-up some Hasbro Marvel Legends Wave 1 figures today (photos below). Specifically I got, Hercules, Banshee and Emma Frost. I passed on X3 Beast, Planet Hulk and Ultimate Iron Man.
Below are various comparison photos taken with older figures.
Hasbro Marvel Legends Wave 1 - The new packaging is very nice. Also a plus, NO metal twist ties, the figures used some stretchy rubber ties that were very easy to cut.
Emma Frost, Hercules, Banshee
Thor and Hercules
Hercules is a very nice figure. The paint application is a little sparse, but overall a nice addition to the Marvel Legends Line-up.
Captain America, Hercules and Wonderman (and Yellow Jacket)
Captain America and Hercules
Emma Frost and Psylocke
Emma Frost, even moreso than with most female Marvel Legends figures, leaves little to be desired. A fact that is pointed out strongly in her contrast with the fantastic Greg Horn packaging art.
Professor X and Emma Frost
Phoenix and Emma Frost
Emma Frost and Storm
Banshee and Storm
Banshee could have benefited from a plastic sculpted cape in my opinion but otherwise he is a decent sculpt (more in scale with older legends thatn the slimmer smaller headed figures of the last few waves.)
Banshee and Black Canary
Wednesday December 27, 2006 10:54:11 PM #
» A co-worker sent me this fantastic internal Kodak corporate film. Starts dry but hang in there, if you've ever been subjected to a corporate rah rah video you'll apprreciate the honest fun in this one.
Wednesday December 27, 2006 10:21:52 PM #
Action Figures
I've seen a fair amount of talk on the internet about whether Galactus will be in the FF2 movie, My real interest, is will we get a proper Watcher. Now that would be some good cinema.
Loki and Destroyer (Honestly I didn't know who he was, I just thought he looked cool and then had to look him up on the web)
Thor's a big figure, you've got to play a little with the perspective to make Destroyer look imposing in this match-up.
Brotherhood of Evil.... Freedom Force.
This is the real bonus feature of Avalanche, those bristles on the bottom of his rock base, are great for scrubbing the tub.
I have no idea....
...but if you can think of dialog for this scene, post it in the comments.
S-S-S-Something from the Forum - My Grand Rapids Area Toy Report from this evening.
Wednesday December 27, 2006 6:48:10 AM #
» The proper and Official Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Movie Trailer is up. To quote Johnny, "oh, that is cool." Good Superheroy stuff there.
» Go over to Action Figure Insider and watch the first Youtube of a Classic 70s Super-8 Star Wars Action Figure Christmas. Good Stuff, I remember getting alot of that stuff on a Christmas morning too.
» More NECA including a full length view of the David Bowie Labyrinth and Quentin Tarintino Action figures.
S-S-S-Something from the Forum - My Grand Rapids Area Toy Report from last night.
» So, I've got this deal with my Laptop, the only way the Wireless card will work is if I manage to "Blue Screen of Death" it into a restart. Thought it my be an IRQ conflict or something (Belkin WiFI PC Card), but even after disabling just about everything on the laptop... still the driver won't communicate with the card without "crashing" first. No idea what it's deal is. Very odd and somewhat annoying.
Tuesday December 26, 2006 11:23:10 PM #
» I was in Japanese Anime Import Store: Wizzywig, in Ann Arbor today. I came across these stuffed baby Marvels. Baby Wolverine is just brilliant. He was $23 so I passed on it, but the toy was nice enough that I thought twice about it just out of sheer novelty. (There was also a Captain America, not pictured.)
Tuesday December 26, 2006 3:54:35 AM #
» Someone has put up a dark blurry Youtube copy of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Movie Trailer. The wedding scene looks right out of the comics. I can't imagine this will be up long. Here's hoping they release the proper trailer soon.
Monday December 25, 2006 12:15:34 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
Merry ChristmasLater in Life at the School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X taught Rudolph how to focus his Nose so bright that it became deadly! |
S-S-S-Something from the Forum - Any thoughts on New Comic Thursdays Does it throw off your week? Do you prefer it?
» Wednesday 12/27/06 at Noon, Discovery channel is running Inside Story Steve Jobs and the creation of the Apple iPod.
Let's Go Surfing
» Quite a nice children's book Nothing for Christmas, illustrations by Dean Trippe. The whole story is posted.
» It was a Dark and Snowy Night, The Santa Claus Story. Sortof along the lines of an E! True Hollywood Story sortof thing...
Sunday December 24, 2006 6:32:32 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» As I type this CNN is doing a special on their iReport. The concept is fine, CNN taking advantage of youtube-style coverage to get free video for their broadcasts. The interesting thing is how they are getting lost in the concept. "Look how neat this footage is, it's a riot going on somehere in Europe right now, fantastic". That's a paraphrase but not much of one. I thought the news devolving into pundits taking two sides to every happening was bad enough, now it seems that 2007 and 2008 will be the years of taking the news and combining them with Americas' Funniest Home Videos
While I'm typing the above, CNN just ran the clip of Jon Stewart, from the Daily Show, making fun of their iReport efforts. They took Jon Stewarts mocking of them and turned it into an advert for the program. Incredible.
» Wii on the BIG Screen.
Sunday December 24, 2006 2:19:32 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» I've installed an opensource Forum application on my site. (This having your-own real wesite thing is fun.)
I haven't prettied it up yet, but you can go to the Forum and see the new discussions, all one of them or you can browse the forum categories all three of them.
Let's Go Surfing
» Just downloaded CDisplay which is program for reading .cbz and .cbr comic files. That sounds fancy and I thought it was until I read this article that explained that a .cbz or .cbr is simply a Renamed Zip or Rar file with sequentially named Jpegs in it.
I downloaded the program and it looks like a very useful way of building slideshows very very quickly.
1. Number all your Digital Photos 001.jpg, 002.jpg, 003.jpg, etc.
2. Right click in a folder to create a new zip file.
3. Drag your photos onto the Zip file to add them
4. Rename your Zip File: SlideShowName.cbz (change the extension to cbz)
After that you've got a full screen slideshow that you can scroll through with your mouse when viewing with CDisplay.
» Use your Webcam as a Motion detector security camera.
» Games with Pen and Paper Fictionary, 1000 Blank Cards, Other Foot
via Metafilter
» Wii friendly Start Page/Portal. Lot's of Wii freindly links and games.
» Free Wii Media Center. Stream Media, browse files, look at pictures, etc from you PC or Mac on your Wii. According to some comments, the functionality is largely streaming Flash tricks, but still seems neat to me.
Saturday December 23, 2006 10:28:29 PM #
» Hey if you're here you've found my blog's new home on Chris-Karath.com (don't forget the "-"). Spiffy isn't it? My name is in the url and everything.
Anyway, I can do all sorts of fun stuff in this new location, dynamic stuff (as opposed to all the static stuff in the old place). For right now, things are going to stay pretty static though. I am playing around with a moveable type version of this blog, but I haven't convinced myself to switch over to that yet, I kindof still like typing in my text editor.
Anyway, if you link to me, update your links to:
Chris-Karath.com or link straight to the blog entrance at Chris-Karath.com/blog/bloghome.html
Saturday December 23, 2006 2:30:25 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» I've been using Google Reader to collect and Read RSS feeds for a couple months now. Generally I star/flag items to read or blog about later. Looking in my "Star" folder today I noticed 450 items, seriously that's too much to go through, but I don't want to throw them out either, so I'm starting "scrap" page postings.
These Scrap pages will periodically be posted as a way of cleaning out my reader without me losing the posts for later. I'm exporting them as text (no pictures) and then converting the "plain text links" back into links. Throwing the text into a "Scrap" template and posting them from the main blog for my future reference and your possible enjoyment.
The first post is large, it contains 2.5 months worth of unlooked-at-crap. Future posts should be smaller.
Without further ado: Blog Scrap October thru December 23, 2006
Let's Go Surfing
» It's an interesting time in electronics where the remotes are becoming bigger than the devices they control
» Speaking of remotes, here's a Clapper, with remote, sort of defeats the the main idea of the Clapper doesn't it?
» The guy who made Sin City is going to make Madman. Not sure how Allred's distinct style will translate to the big screen but I am interested in the idea.
» Kirbycise, it's a Super workout. Please, please won't someone make fan videos along this theme, oh internets here my request and make it so.
» First Look at the Silver Surfer from the next Fantastic Four Movie. Might need some heavy duty cables to suspend that disbelief.
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» Drawergeeks presents: Santa Claus and alot more at this website/illustrator weekly jam session. Nice Drawings. (They gots superhero ones too, like this Fantastic Four jam.)
» Go look at Katie Can Draw's Pop-up Yoda greeting card
» David Bowie, Labyrinth, action figure.
» Inappropriat Wii Mii touching video (sfw)
» Megatron Patent. More than meets the eye.
» This guy has made pillows of all his Mac OSX Dock icons.
» Postit-note sun visor. Put some postit-notes in your car today!
» Compute with your feet with these $70 USB footpetal control pads.
» Alex Ross painting of Cheney and Bush making out.
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» You've heard of mounting a USB drive? This USB drive must be from Russia because it mounts you.
» Wow, USB powered Pole Dancer, what more can be said? (SFW)
Monday December 18, 2006 12:02:15 AM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» Watched An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder this weekend. A little different format than the first one. This one was truer to the actual experience of going to one of Smiths appearances. While not as tightly presented as the multiple venue edited together DVD of Evening 1 (This one was two DVDs, one featuring an appearance in Toronto and the other an appearance in London.) It was still very entertaining. My favorite segment, probably the Dora the Explorer and Law and Order segment. Besides being funny there's probably something to the whole "I'm lazy, I like to just be entertained." concept in that story. Good Stuff, if you're a Smith Fan, watch. If you are a more casual fan, get An Evening with Kevin Smith Vol. 1 first.
» Watched Meet the Press today. It's uncomfortable that I found myself actually agreeing with Newt Gingrich during a large portion of his interview. Of course, then he snaps me out of that, saying some incredibly crazy stuff on governmental control of dissent and hate speech. Sure noone is in favor of hate speech but having the government say what you can and cannot say? It's fundemental that we defend the speech of people we disagree with. You don't attack the speech of those with stupid ideas, you work toward educating the citizenry to the point where stupid ideas don't have an audience.
Thomas Freedman was also a guest on MTP. He made some really interesting points. The one that sticks with me the most, is his analysis that the factions in Iraq want Justice (which seemed like a polite way of saying revenge, to me) more than they want democracy, and that as long as "Justice" was priority one and democracy priority two, Bush's experiment in forcing democracy (my words, not his) on this region might continue to have incredible opposition.
» "Killing is Wrong" - Trent the Uncatchable.
» Of course there's lots of things that are wrong in the world. It's very difficult to stop all wrong, and I'm not sure we should. Sometimes there are "lesser of evils" situations.
» Colin Powell was on Face the Nation. Remember when he was as popular as Barak Obama?
» Some people don't see the point of a blog, they wonder, "Why put all that personal information out there?" Best to keep all that information to oneself and not put it out there where others could get ahold of it and use it against you. However, where would the internet be if people didn't put information out there? (But, really, there's not much personal information on this blog. And certainly not much depth to the topics touched on, still it does seem to be too much for some.)
» When you're a kid you're taught to share, but as people get older they seem to do less and less of that. We've traded Libraries for Amazon and Napster for iTunes.
Videos
» Time-Lapse movie (7hours == 20 seconds) of a cat sleeping in the sun.
» New flying Dragonfly toy coming soon from the same people that make those White RoboSapien Robots and Dinosaurs that are in all the toy stores. Looks neat.
» Sith and Silly
» CNN has become a joke.
» Zefrank on Gift Giving.
» U2 "Window in the Skies".
» Updated look for Archie. Never understood the Archie interest thing. I blind-stare-blink at it in the same way that I do episodes of the Family Guy.
» Top 20 Film Nude Scenes of 2006. I'm not familiar at all with this site, but it seems every year this particular guy's list shows up on all the major link sites. So here it is. NSFW.
via Digg
» $9 Mac OSX software, converts videos to make them playback on the Wii. Page has some general info about Wii video too. Also, here's another page with Quicktime settings that supposedly work for the Wii.
» A Roundup of 5 various Mac/Pc Commercial parodies. You've probably seen most of these, but here's several in one place.
» War on Terror, The Board Game. Looks fun.
» Supposedly a Recipe for authentic Taco Bell Tacos. Seems like alot of trouble for something so cheap. Now Qudoba that would be a recipe that would be more interesting.
» How to Make Cream Soda. I haven't tried this but it sounds good.
» Bill Gates says you should buy and rip CDs. Says DRM no good.
» Binaural Head shaped microphone, captures sound like you were there.
» Danny Fingeroth interview with Bendis at Newsarama. Worth the click just for the interesting photo of Bendis.
» Men's Rules. This was on Digg and the server it was on was dugg into oblivion. Someone retrieved it off of Googles' Cache. And it is reprinted below. (This not an endorsement of all of these points {heck I don't even watch sports} but still it's amusing in that internet-forward sort-of way. Enjoy.)
Saturday December 16, 2006 4:50:31 PM #
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I've only watched a handful of the Ben 10 episodes, The concept is great. Basically it's Shazam meets Dial H for Hero. |
 Please don't hotlink this image. Share this link instead. Thanks! |
I'd watch more of Ben 10, but the show is a targeted a little younger and not as all ages as Justice League Unlimited. That's really the only reason it hasn't become part of my viewing habits because it's a great character, and nice show otherwise. Which is why I thought it was worth representation on my shelf of plastic heroes.
Let's Go Surfing
» Blue Screen of Death on the Starship Enterprise Large Animated GIF.
Tuesday December 12, 2006 12:49:19 AM #
Thoughts on Comics
» Took a moment to jump forward in my comic stack and read a few current books for a change.
Read newuniversal #1, Warren Ellis' take-on/reimagining of Marvel's 'New Universe'. Not bad, but really not much of a story yet. It's all set-up so far, introduce a bunch of the key characters, establish a few points of alternate history on their different Earth (McCartney was shot, not Lennon and the Chinese seem to be doing very well.) There are a few character moments but no real plot so far. I'll stay with the book awhile out of fondness for the the old concept, but I haven't exactly been blown away with this first issue. This one is definently being written for the trade, which seems a mistake to me, since I think the majority audience interested in picking this up would tend toward being a monthly reader. Oh well. Nice Art and it's got that Comic-As-A-Movie quality to it. Go Read, but moderate your expectations.
Also read, Welcome to Tranquility #1. World War II Superheroes in a retirement town. Normally, I like Gail Simone's stuff, but this book didn't grab me at all, I found myself starting to skip panels here and there just to get through it. There might be a small market of Social Workers and Retirement Home employees that would enjoy this book, but I'm not sure there's enough of those into comics to support this title. Like newuniversal, Tranquility spends a fair amount of time setting-up it's universe in this first issue, unlike newuniversal however Tranquillity gets on with abit of story right off the bat, but like I said it just doesn't grab me. I'll pass.
Let's Go Surfing
» Photoshop tutorial vido on Underwater effects. Neat tricks. (some stuff on this site NSFW)
Monday December 11, 2006 6:55:26 PM #
» DC Comics Previews Solicitations for March 2007 Picks:
BATMAN #664 • DETECTIVE COMICS #829-830 • CATWOMAN #65 • NIGHTWING #130 - Why is Nightwing still in New York, *sigh* • ROBIN #160 - Although the write-up for this seriously makes me reconsider having it on my list • ACTION COMICS #848 • SUPERMAN #662 • SUPERGIRL #15 - Read my Robin comment and then Ditto here • SUPERMAN/BATMAN #34 - Metal Men • 52: WEEKS 44-47 • HELMET OF FATE: BLACK ALICE #1 • THE ACTION HEROES ARCHIVES VOL. 2 HC - 384 pages and Pricey at $75 • THE ALL-NEW ATOM #9 • AQUAMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS #50 - New writer starts, might be time to drop this one • BIRDS OF PREY #104 - Secret Six • BLUE BEETLE #13 • THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #2 - Mark Waid, George Perez, GL= Hal Jordan, definently • FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #34 - Dwayne McDuffie • THE FLASH: FASTEST MAN ALIVE #10 - Bart's a cop now too? c'mon • GREEN ARROW #72 • CONNOR HAWKE: DRAGON'S BLOOD #5 • GREEN LANTERN CORPS #10 • GREEN LANTERN #18 - New Star Sapphire, apparently the new costume is on loan from the Top Cow universe • HAWKGIRL #62 - Really WTF • ION #12 • JLA CLASSIFIED #36 • JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7 - New Team Headquarters • JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #4 • MANHUNTER #29 • MARTIAN MANHUNTER #8 • MYSTERY IN SPACE #7 • OUTSIDERS #46 - With a proper looking Black Lightning • THE SPIRIT #4 • SHOWCASE PRESENTS: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL. 1 TP • SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #28 • TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #6 • TEEN TITANS #45 • WONDER WOMAN #5 • WONDER WOMAN #6 • WILDSTORM FINE ARTS: SPOTLIGHT ON J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
DC Direct. Two Waves of action figures
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JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA SERIES 1 ACTION FIGURES: Superman (6.75"), Black Lightning (6.625"), Black Canary (6.5"), Vixen (6.5"), Red Arrow (6.625"). Will get everyone but the Superman. Kindof Bummed about not getting a more traditional Black Lightning. Indifferent about the Red Arrow.
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REACTIVATED! SERIES 3: SUPER FRIENDS ACTION FIGURES: Superman (6.3"), Wonder Woman (6"), The Flash (6.3") and Batman (6.3"). Two Superman's in one month, hmm. Not really interested in any of these figures as they are all been there done that. Very "square" yet classic version of Wonder Woman though.
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Four Adam Hughes Posters featuing: SUPERGIRL, ZATANNA, CATWOMAN, and POWERGIRL. None for me, but I bet they're going to sell a powerful amount of the POWERGIRL posters.
» Funny GAP Commercial, I can see why they never ran this. Would probably be problematic if some customers decided to reenact this instore.
Monday December 11, 2006 12:57:21 PM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» Officially decided to drop What about Brian from my viewing habits. (Actually only skimmed the last two episodes anyway.) They overhauled that show right into oblivion for me. The first season was good and I'd reccomend that on DVD still.
» Watched the first two episodes of TBS's My Boys and thought it was a cute show. It has Sex in the City's narratation style but not it's risqueness. Like Sex the main character is a writer who talks over the episode, except on My Boys she's a female sports writer based in Chicago. (so they visually show Wriggly Field a couple times an episode and we get lots of Sports metaphors)
PJ the female Sports Writer has a large group of guy friends and one female friend. One of the guys is also a fellow sports writer and is her "pursued" (poorly and frankly somewhat unbelieveably, although not unrealistically) love-interest. The format is: half-hour relationship-exploring comedy-drama that has continuity from episode to episode. Locations include walking through downtown chicago, Wriggly Field: Press Box and Locker room, a local Bar, and the main character's apartment which is sports themed with a poker table in place of a dining table. My main criticism is that the show is a little heavy on non-sensical sports metaphors, I'm guessing they will lessen that with time if the show continues. Good, cute, light show. Watch it Tuesday night's on TBS or catch-up with the first two full 30 min episodes online.
» PS3 and Wii fake ad parodying the Mac/PC commercials. Looks like this has been out for awhile, but it's new to me. Funny.
Monday December 11, 2006 10:39:37 AM #
» Not new but there was a guy on a board that was curious how these two figures compared.
Sunday December 10, 2006 8:53:25 PM #
Action Figures
» Added an older figure to my collection today. The Brotherhood is growing. Yeah, It's the Juggernaut, Bitch!. (Thanks Jake.)
Random Non-Sequiters
» I bought something from Toys R Us online a week ago. I've been getting daily email ads from them ever since. Today they raised it to two emails a day. I'd be happy to get an email from them once a week (or maybe 5 a month if something big is happening) but twice a day? Who needs that kindof spam? I was going to send them a short email to that effect, but they have no visible easily discoverable email address. They do have a 1-800 number, which they reccomend you call, and I did. I made about 10 selections thru the voicemail maze, and then was promptly put on indefinite hold with no human contact whatsoever. Affter listening to a Christmas version of the Toys R Us Jingle a half dozen times I hung up.
Yeah, a silly amount of effort I suppose to register a minor complaint, but I do like to pretend that somewhere in large corporations there's another *person* on the other end of the transaction. Mostly of course, as in this case, it's just interaction with an inhuman bureaucratic system and it's unlikely for a comment made to even have chance of registering individually let alone in aggregate, but again sometimes I like to pretend that isn't the case. Anyway, they did have a link where you can opt out entirely from their emails so I did that.
And don't take the above as too much of a system complaint. I'm well aware that the inhuman bureaucratic system process way of doing business is what keeps prices so nice and low. Most people don't care for the interaction and the system left under it's own will, in a case like this, optimizes toward the masses. Say La'vee (sp).
Let's Go Surfing
» Like Marvel Action Figure pictures? head over to KneelBeforeBlog and check out Franklin's Christmas Adventure.
» Carrot-Top is Weird and apparently he's been working out. Strangest celebrity pic you'll see all day at that link.
Sunday December 10, 2006 12:05:31 AM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» Martin Nodell died Saturday morning. He was the creator of the original Golden Age Green Lantern (As well as co-creator of the Pillsbury Doughboy). The Silver Age Green Lantern was my introduction to the character, but of course the Silver Age version would never have been if not for Mr. Nodell's Golden Age creation. He was 91. The emerald flame of the Green Lantern character shall continue to burn, far far into the future, as good a memorial as any, I think.
» Finally stained my speaker stands. Pics at right. I rambled on about these a little bit at the end of last month. The angle makes it look abit out of scale, but the base is pretty much the same size as the top.
» Like half the comic-blogosphere I just created a Comicspace account. It's Myspace for comics people. At the moment there isn't much to do there other than upload a picture, fill-out a brief text only section, collect "friends" and do messaging. Basically, it is the barest amount of functionality required to call itself a Myspace clone. It will be interesting to see if they come up with anything comic specific to make it worthwhile. They're certainly going to have to open up the personalization abit.
Let's Go Surfing
» Really weird "bullet-time" inspired stop motion Coke comerical. Give it a looksee it's kindof creepy.
» YouTube now let's you record directly to their site with one step. Not sure when I'd ever use this, but I can imagine this new ease of use will probably increase the number of video diary's available on the site.
» Picture of Smallville's Justice League doing the walk-all-in-a-line-with-a-big-explosion-of-fire-behind-them-thing. (and a second pic)
Friday December 8, 2006 1:34:34 PM #
» Always one more thing. Always something more. Everything else, just a blur. That is life they'd say. I'd say differently, if I thought the alternative could be contemplated. But that ain't what's on tv, and for what I'd say to make any sense, you'd already agree, most of the way, anyway, cause they're ain't hairpin curves on this highway, so here we are, one more thing, always something more, everything else is just a blur.
Friday December 8, 2006 12:29:31 AM #
» 1993 AT&T "You Will" Future Prediction Ads. Not as glamorous or as ubiquitous as they make it out to be but pretty accurate.
Let's Go Surfing
» Cute, yet disturbing holiday computer screensaver featuring An Oven and some Gingerbread men from KatieCanDraw.
» STFU Stein
via
» NBC currently has all 11 episodes of Heroes online. If you haven't seen this show yet. Set yourself aside 8 1/2 hours and get to watching these.
» Charlie Brown Peanuts characters done as Marvel Superheroes with a few DC ones too. 3 Pages (1, 2, 3) Cool Stuff.
» Nice Custom Wood Laptop Stand/Riser.
» USB Powered Heated Foot Slippers For computing on those cold nights.
» Minature Japanese Living Room with working 1.5" TV. Neat gadget, desktop thing.
» Arby's Fast Food Self-Service Kiosk. Would you like curly fries with that, Tap Yes or No.
» Green Lantern Sublimation T-Shirt. Different. (There's a Superman one too.) I'm not trendy enough to pull off either of these.
Thursday December 7, 2006 8:48:03 PM #
Action Figures
Another big week for action figures DC Direct Crisis Wave: Batman, Huntress, Dr. Light and (3) Weaponers of Qward. Marvel Legends Face-off Wolverine/Sabretooth (Variant) and Iron Man/Mandarin. Marvel Legends Wasp (Red.) Also I completed the Build-A-Figure Onslaught.
Weaponers of Qward - I really like these figures... Army figures are fun to display.
Weaponers of Qward vs. Hal.
Sinestro and Weaponers of Qward
Effigy and Weaponers of Qward
Batman and Huntress - I like this more acrobatic 80's physique Batman, but he may be a little tall.
Huntress and Huntress - Two very different character interpretations.
Powergirl and Huntress - These figures work well together, I think.
Earth 2 Robin and Huntress
Batman and Robin
Batman and Batman
Superman and Batman
Dr. Light and Dr. Light - She has some pearlesant paint... looks very good in person.
Captain Atom and Dr. Light
1st Appearance Wolverine and Sabretooth - Everybody Scream!
Wolverines - Brown costume is still the best.
Wolverine, Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike
Join the Brotherhood
Iron Man and Mandarin
90s Animated Iron Man a little bit smaller than Classic Iron Man
Giant Man and Wasp
Marvel Legends Build-a-figure group photo
(Galactus was unavailable to get his picture taken because he was buried too deeply in one of my display cases.)
Blackheart
Let's Go Surfing - With a few quick links
» Steven Colbert Interview at Harvard University One Hour Video. Pretty good.
» KAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHNNNNNNNN!.
» IKEA Houses, if your in the UK you can go IKEA 100% now.
Sunday December 3, 2006 6:42:48 AM #
Random Non-Sequiters
» Watched Superman II: the Donner Cut and Superman Returns Friday. Some SPOILER comments below:
Superman II: the Donner Cut - The biggest impression I'm left with having watched this is that the majority of "cheese" has been removed. The screen test scene inserts are fine, however the hotel scene played better in the "original version" of the movie, as far as I'm concerned. There were probably just as many scenes I liked removed from this movie as scenes I didn't like, It's kindof a wash really when it comes down to it. Worth having and watching if you are a comic geek, less so if you are not. Probably the highest budget "fan-re-cut" ever created. It's ok. (Oh and for those that care: The S-Shield scene is gone, but you get the spin the world backwards a second time now.)
Superman Returns - This is my third viewing of this film. I saw it on a standard theatre screen, imax and now the small screen. I really like this film, but I'm not sure it stands up very well to multiple viewings. During this third go through, it's noticible how much time these characters stand around thinking and "having" moments. I found alot of that suspenseful the first time, but on multiple viewings it just seems like the film is drawn out longer than it needs to be.
I found the effects dimished somewhat in the TV set scale. There's such detail in this film and such expansive horizons and sets that the big screen was really where this film dazzled. It's still good on TV but the theatre was really the place to see this one.
Also I may be dense, but I still don't understand the whole "Father becomes the son" thing, at least not in the context of this movie.
Probably a comment or two more when I have a chance to watch the extras and the director commentaries on the the films.
» I'm not a gamer-guy. Not very good at video games at all. A friend of mine got the Wii and last week I played Rayman: Raving Rabbids. That game is fun as all hell. Lot's of silly little mini-games that make you do all kinds of crazy things with that Wii controller, and those rabbits crack-me up. Good Stuff.
Let's Go Surfing
» Nice stand-alone flash app color-wheel calculator program, that even shows CMYK values.
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» "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn." Great quote from Seagate's CEO.
» Here's the Britney Spears pic being talked about. And more here. (You may have to click the "Skip this Ad" in the upper right corner.) They're Very NSFW.
» Dull first ever, business centric, Microsoft Vista Commercial. YouTube video at the link.
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» Here's a new twist. Play the classic vector Asteroids game from the 'asteroid's perspective'. Flash based game, at the link press the red "play"
» The creators talk about the upcoming Invincible Iron-man cartoon. Youtube video at the link. I'm sure if Ultimates 1 and 2 are any indication, this also will be crap. From what little I've seen, it already looks too "Manga-ish".
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» Nice Mono-pod for your digital camera. Take pictures of yourself or get a shot from way above your head.
» Wizard Magazine fired their Editor-in-Chief. So will it get better or *shutter* worse?
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» Jones Soda will be switching from high fructose corn syrup to pure cane sugar.
» Nice Wii Apartment Set-up. Video at the link or below:
» i.disk, nice simple graphical application that shows what folders are eating up all your disk space.
» Pocketable $127 Photo Printer approx 6"x4"x1" in Japan. Pics on paper in the club or on the go. Neat.
» Betcha you didn't smurf that they'd be smurfing a movie about the Smurfs. Betcha didn't think they'd be smurfing three of them, that they would be 3D CG or that they'd be calling them a "Lord of the Rings" type trillogy, but with Smurfs. Sounds Smurfy.
» In a single sponsor deal, NBC Nightly News will have only 1.5 min of comercials next week. (normally they have 7 min.)
» $50 "Laser Guided" USB Missle Launchers
» Co-creator of Venture Bros. likes to paint pictures of women in bras. SFW.
» Very nice Freeware Pocket PC Dice Rolling Program:Pocket Dice Master. Well written, looks nice too.
» Huge Panorama of Paris (the city not the socialite.) Click and then scroll sideways.
