[  Mood: Happy ]
Man….so much has happened since the middle of June.

Star Trek…..Oh, god…Enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

Filmation Classics. I got the old Superman, Justice League, Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkman, Teen Titans, and Atom Filmation cartoons from 1967 on DVD for Birthdays and Xmas’s. Ahhhh…such fond memories. Now all I need are the Aquaman and Superboy episodes…..

Batman:Brave and the Bold. I am really loving this cartoon. My geek membership is secure.

Smallville-Absolute Justice….Total Geekdom.

Green Lantern:First Flight. Only one of the best cartoon films EVER!!!

Watchmen. Saw it on Imax up in Minneapolis once (which was a bit of a disappointment), in the theater 4 times, and went up to Minneapolis a second to time to see the directors cut. The only movie I’ve ever bought a ticket to more than twice. AND own the directors cut DVD as well as the Black Freighters supplement. So you might say wifey and I enjoyed it.

Dark Knight. Joker stole the show….BAZINGA!!! Even without Katie Holmes.

Terminator. Good movie…actually better than I expected. After the last one I had no real urge to see it, but wifey is a big enough fan of Bale that I didn’t fuss too much about seeing it. Glad I did.

Transformers II. What the hell??

[  Mood: Evil ]
Wifey got me a new computer for V-day. Wooo-hoo!!! No wireless modem. Boo-hoo. Dealer will get on in by today Woo-hoo!! They didn’t come in. boo-hoo. Next week for sure. ooookay.

Oh well….sooner or later…..

[  Mood: Embarrased ]
[ Currently: watching it snow ]
Don’t know if anyone remembers me… I have been without a computer since June 17th…hopefully will have a new machine soon….hopefully….hooooooopefullllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

[  Mood: Embarrased ]
Wow….April since my last post. June since I disappeared. I do that every so often. I just have to go cold turkey from the WWebWorks. This time just took longer…mainly because I got nasty little computer virus. About the time I wanted to come back to see what was going on in geekdom, my computer was running so slowly it wasn’t worth booting it up. And like Kaos said… Summer months are my busy months. In a lot of ways, it was just easier to check my email and go about my business…gaining me an extra hour a day!! whoo-hoo!!!

When wifey and I got back from our N. Dakota/Colorado trip (which was a blast, though my folks were WORE OUT when we got back) I set about debugging my rig. Worked with it for a HELL of a long time…no joy. Ended up reformatting the Hard Drive. And to be extra careful, I got a new copy of Norton’s Anti_virus(2009) for superb protection…except my copy of XP was so old Norton’s couldn’t be installed until I’d upgraded with Service Pack 2. <sigh> So I downloaded SP2 and, in my idiocy, ended up with SP3 as well, including Explorer 7..yada yada yada. Great…now install Norton’s…and it still won’t work…obviously infected again. And all my surfing consisted of was how to disinfect my computer and catching up on the newspaper comics I’d missed. Now it’s personal.

Let me tell ya…if any of you ever get a virus you can’t get rid of, or any problems with Windows XP, go to www.theeldergeek.com. Those guys got me vaccinated and cleaned up where Norton’s AND Mcafee’s, including their online "taking control of my computer" system, couldn’t. They gave me the tools, and the knowledge, to do it myself. Computer is now virus free. Still slower than hell…especially with EBay…so I suppose I still have to pull the bastich apart and clean the dust elephants out of it.

So anyway…that’s the short story of why I haven’t been around. I’ll dribble the longer versions out over the rest of the winter.

God, I’m glad to be back.

[  Mood: Sick ]
[ Currently: Hacking my lungs out thru a sore throat ]
I want thum thoup.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Reveling in being missed by the 12 inch snowstorm ]
Just a few passing thoughts upon finishing Superman:Sunday Classics 1939-1943

–The Golden Age was so innocent
–There is something to the terseness of the Sunday serials.

Victim Hurry! Before the burning fuse harms him.
Superman That’s why I’m here!

You don’t need a lot of dialog…it’s all right there.

–I actually start to see why DC had a problem with Fawcett & Capt. Marvel. Superman was doing the whole "moving so fast that no one can see him in plain sight" thing that I remember so well about Cap and his magic lightning

–The whole "going to extremes to keep Lois from learning my secret identity" that was rather ridiculous in the 60s and early 70s really worked in the 40s. You can tell it was fresh, and a concern a new superhero would have, as opposed to the convention it became later.

–It was very interesting to watch the evolution of Superman’s ability to fly. The early strips had him bounding around like a bunny, while toward end of the book(sometime in 1943) he was doing stunts with airplanes. He was still supposedly jumping around, but the feats he was performing were pretty gravity-defying without flight capability.

–It was also interesting to see Superman gradually morph artistically toward the
"Curt Swan-ish" superhero I grew up with.

–I giggled when I saw Perry White identified by name for the first time.

–I got a rush of pride when the stories turned more toward the WW II efforts.

–I couldn’t help but hear Bud Colliers’ voice in my head everytime Superman spoke. Bud Collier was the voice of Superman on radio and in the Filmation Superman cartoons

–I was surprised at the lack of romantic interest, and how refreshing THAT was, between Lois and Superman.

–It’s also kind of amazing how many different shapes and color schemes Superman’s chest shield when thru.

All in all, I felt like I was in a time machine, at the same time going back to the Great Depression, AND back to when I was just a kid when Johnson and Nixon were presidents. A hell of a ride.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
A buddy of mine called me up the other day, asked me if I could give him a hand.

"No problem", says I.

Turns out he had a domed barn built. 200 ft. long and about 30 feet high in the middle. We were going to pull the canvas roof over the top.

First time I’ve ever done such a thing. And I was surprised at how much manual labor was involved. The framework and rafters were all up, "all" we had to do was drag the canvas up and over. The roof was in 2 section, each 100 feet long, and probably about that wide. And there were seven of us on the end of ropes. Somehow, your’s truly ended up having to pull two ropes. How’d the rookie end up with two ropes to pull? I think rookies ALWAYS end up with two ropes to pull. It sucks to be big.

Anyway….1…2…3PULL!! And we’re making like mules. It went pretty well for a bit, then we started getting lopsided…one side was higher up than the other. So one side would hold still while the other side would pull…guess who doesn’t get a break. That right, the guy in the center, especially if he’s got two ropes. Da bastiches. So, of course, I delibrately take the center for the second half of the roof…a point of pride thing. Or stupidity…I haven’t quite figured that out yet.

All said and done, it was an fun day. It’s fun to help friends, and it’s neat to see new technology at work. My hands have got some pretty good rope burns on them (even thru the gloves), but during this time of year, it’s nice to be out in the almost-spring air with a bunch of the guys, and the hands will be alright tomorrow. Once the roof was up and over, they didn’t need me anymore…so I look forward to getting the grand tour when it’s finished.

But I still don’t know why we couldn’t have used pulleys and a tractor to pull the damn thing up with.

[  Mood: Shocked ]
Ok…who’s turn was it to remind me about Daylight Savings Time??

Damn, I hate the time change. I don’t care whether we use Daylight or Standard, but keep it there. Hell, we’re only on Standard for 4 months now as it is….lets just keep it on Daylight and be done with it.

I thought the cows looked surprised when I fed them this morning…I was feeding them an hour early!!

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Loafing ]
I wonder how the world would have changed if things had gone differently.

RevolutionSF Newsblast Archives: Tom Cruise Movie Screws Up X-Men Movie
Revolution News
© Joe Crowe

Dougray Scott, who is playing Wolverine in the X-Men movie, might have to drop out. He is a bad guy role in Mission Impossible 2. He’s due on the X-set by October 18, but he’s behind in filming because he missed a few days with a shoulder injury.

If the scheduling can’t be worked out by the end of the week, Wolverine will be recast.

Dougray’s choice is a superhero icon, or some dude who Tom Cruise beats up. Which will he choose. I wonder.

Jim Cavaziel, who washed out of playing Cyclops, had this to say from his campsite outside the set of the X-movie:

"This is my big chance! I’ve been growing my fingernails just for this part! I’ve got a lot of hair! Listen: ‘Grrrr, bub! I’m Canadian, eh! Snikt, bub!"

Just think….Dougray Scott would have been Van Helsing, and in the Prestige, and on Broadway, and in the Fountain.

And Hugh Jackman would have been in….huh.

On the other hand, Jim Cavaziel’s career has flourished.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
I was watching Discovery Channel/Science Channel/NGC/some other science channel last night, and they were discussing creating dinosaurs from chickens.

What a fascinating concept. Reverse engineering chickens (actually,they think that emus would work better)so that they will regrow tales, feathers revert to scales, wings separate out into fingers, and teeth growing in their beaks. Just by turning on and off certain gene sequences, and adding certain hormones at the proper times. Thru experimentation, they were able to make chicken fetus’ tails up to 15 vertebre long, from the norm of 5, and teeth!!

Aside from the whole problem of having microraptors or velociraptors running around loose, I’m in favor of doing this. I just think that would be awesome. Can we make the scales different colors? How big can we make them grow? And who knows, maybe raptor steaks will be the new pork!! (We’ll still need cows to feed the raptors, so I’m not worried.)

If we find enough DNA, I think we should clone wooly mammoths, and sabertooth cats, and anything else prehistoric we can find. It’s tough to get me out of a zoo now, but if there were a giant sloth on display, I’d go every week!

Now we have fairly long strands of Neandertal DNA. If we cloned that, would that be comparable to cloning homo sapien? I don’t know, but I think, with a fairly reasonable chance of success, we should try. Call me a any kind of bad name you want, but we should see what kind of creature Neathertal really was.

Now, I’m not saying we should populate Yellowstone Part with mammoths or anything like that. But I would dearly love to see one.