ChrisTalbot.com

"Side projects" has been a phrase I've been throwing around a lot in my casual speech lately. I guess I feel cool by saying it, like I'm some kind of important guy who's about to break into stardom or some such B.S. The truth is I do these side projects in the hopes of keeping my name out in circles other than the technology industry and just for the fun of it. However, a lot of the projects I'm involved aren't full-time jobs for anybody, so I can get pretty confused about what's going on at times.

So here are things I've been involved in over the last several months and kind of where I stand with each of them:

Mysterious DVD Review Site: Ooo ... mysterious, eh? I've written here and there about how Tom and I are working on a DVD review site focusing on news and reviews of independent, obscure, bizarre and cult films on DVD. Well, the site is going ahead fairly well, but we haven't stuck up a placer page or officially announced it. For now, I'm still keeping tight-lipped about the site on my blog. Tom and I are hoping to actually launch it sometime in the spring, and it might actually be a timeline we can hold to. The construction of the site is almost done (although we'll be updating manually, as neither of us have any clue about building or maintaining a backend posting system -- eventually we'll figure it out, though). However, we haven't exactly filled it with oodles of content yet, so it looks pretty bare for a DVD review site. Can't launch like that ... but soon.

Game-Over.net: Not a clue where I stand here. The last thing I wrote never appeared on the site. If it sucked and wasn't worth the space on their servers, nobody told me. I guess my involvement is kind of on hiatus until I hear otherwise. Oh well. Click here for GO.

N-Advanced.com: The pair that started N-Advanced are in the process of selling it and launching Advanced-Gamer.com, which is a video game site that covers all platforms (PC and console). In theory, I'll do some work for them once the new site is up and running, but I don't know when that will be. So yeah, another of my projects has more or less hit a wall. Click here for N-Advanced and here for Advanced-Gamer.

FlamesRising.com: This is one project I don't think I've mentioned. I've chatted with the editor via email and Yahoo! Messenger, and I'm supposed to be doing a couple of book reviews and pen-and-paper roleplaying game reviews. Frankly, in this case, I'm just a lazy fucktard. I've been reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower series from the beginning in the hopes of being able to read all the way right through as the last two books get published this year (assuming King meets his deadlines). With that in mind, I haven't even looked at the books I promised to review. Sorry about that, Matt. ... Shit. Now I feel bad (as I should). I'd better get going on my work for them and stop dicking around. Definitely click here for FR.

CanadianGamer.ca: Really, it's Mohamed at CG that spawned this blog. After my stint at Total Gamer, Mohamed was one of the first guys I contacted about doing some video game reviewing/reporting. Well, I got an email from him today. After several months of being on hiatus, CG is getting back on its feet. The site has a great name, and I'm hoping I'll be able to contribute in the coming months. You can't call yourself Canadian if you don't CLICK HERE.

It's been a slow blogging week. I just haven't felt like spouting meaningless drivel to my not-so-adoring public (that's right -- I know y'all hate me). ;)

I'm getting psyched for our movie night. It's going to be damn fun. :D

Ya gotta love it. I no sooner change this site's tagline to basically "all things geek" that I start drifting away from geeky things. I probably should've just left well enough alone and not changed the tagline. Or maybe I should just get rid of the tagline. Or maybe I should just go back to geeky things ... like this:

Four more days until Stuck In Suburbia Movie Night #1: Invasion From Outer Space. I believe we're going to have a bit of a crowd. It must have been the attraction of watching Plan 9 From Outer Space. That's the only thing I can think of. Well, either that or a group movie night is something our friends have been craving, and we just happen to be providing the good stuff. I have to start figuring out the best way to rearrange the furniture so everyone can see the television.

At the end of the day, I wanted to read something that challenged the norm. Well, I got thinking about Christopher Hitchens, seeing as he constantly challenges ... well, everything. I went looking for one of my favourite interviews on the Net and found it. I haven't read this in a long time, and I'm pretty damned sure it was Tom who first pointed this interview out to me. Most definitely read Christopher Hitchens On Mother Teresa (Interview) by Matt Cherry.

One of these days, I must read Hitchens' The Missionary Position.

Just a quick summary of the weekend: Saturday afternoon/evening was spent at Tom's and Ann's place. Tom and I worked a bit more on our soon-to-launch DVD review site and then we had dinner. Other than that, it was kind of a dull weekend. Jacquie and I hit the Pickering Flea Market on Sunday morning, which turned out to be a mistake. Jacquie fell in love with some chihuahua puppy there, and she really wanted him, but we just don't have the money for a pup right now (especially when the price tag is $750). Taxes are due this week, after all. Oh well. There will be other puppies.

On another topic, I downloaded and installed the Saga of Ryzom public beta last night. It's expected to launch sometime in the summer, so I'll at least have a couple of months to check it out before it becomes pay-to-play. ;)

I just had to post this. It's the ultimate in geekiness and hot roddery. Check out the DeLorean on eBay. Let's go back to the future, Marty.

Of course, I learned about this from eChannelLine's Friday File column from today.

Poor Rawlio has been getting a few pieces of hate mail regarding his blog over the past couple of months. He forwarded the newest one on to me. To paraphrase, it went something like: "You suck. Your blog is the most boring one ever. Do the world a favour and take it down, you egomaniac." Again, that's a paraphrase, not an exact quote. I don't think I've received any hate mail yet. Either that or I think they're spam and delete them without reading them. I'm sure having comments also helps keep the hate mail numbers in my inbox down. People can just flame me through comments (I do read them).

After being off sick for two work days in a row, Jacquie is back at the grind today. Good thing, too. I figured I'd have to resort to putting a lock on the door to keep her out of my office. She's obsessed with playing Mahjong on the computer right now, and she wanted to play while she was supposed to be resting. She's even taken my laptop to bed a couple of nights with her recently so she could play.

Over the last couple of years, life has shown me that spontaneity dies with age -- and I'm not talking geriatrics here, I'm talking your twenties. It wasn't that many years ago that I could drop everything on a dime and meet Rawlio for a couple of pints at King Richard's. These days, we're more frugal and spend most of our time at Just Desserts drinking coffee, but we're not dropping everything to meet up in half an hour any more. For the most part, if we don't at least talk about getting together that morning or even the day before, I'll be unable to be there.

This, of course, is something I'm not necessarily thrilled with, as it means I'm losing the edginess I had in my early twenties. For good or for bad, responsibility finally caught up to spontaneity.

Although I've had confirmed people for going on a week, I made the movie night official today. For friends around on May 1st, feel free to drop by any time after 7:00 p.m. Here are the rest of the details:

What: Stuck In Suburbia Movie Night #1 -- Invasion From Outer Space
Where: My place
When: Saturday, May 1st
What time: Any time after 7:00 p.m., with the first movie starting at 8:00.
Why: Why the hell not? Drinks, movies and good company -- what more do you need? (While we'll have some beverages kickin' around, you may want to BYOB, but we'll supply some munchies.)

What movies are being shown for the Invasion From Outer Space theme night?

8:00 -- Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959): Generally considered the worst movie ever made, Ed Wood's tale of aliens trying to take over the world by creating a legion of zombies is a classic of bad sci-fi cinema. Roughly 80 minutes in length.

9:30 -- Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988): We'll follow up Ed Wood's "masterpiece" with this movie from Stephen Chiodo about alien clowns terrorizing a small American town. Roughly 90 minutes in length.

Hopefully everything will go well, but I'm guessing the movies won't necessarily start right on time. If you are thinking of coming out, do me a favour and RSVP to me.

While I have a lot of fond memories from my childhood, there's only so much I'm willing to pay for nostalgia. Take, for example, the Transformers DVD boxed sets. For a series that only ran four seasons and one feature film, it would cost upwards of $350 for the whole thing. Season One alone runs $80 at Amazon.ca, and there were only sixteen episodes in the first season. Spending all that cash on a show that may not even hold up well over time is a bit much for me.

Or, How I Learned to Love and Then Hate The Society for Creative Anachronism

Author's Note: Here it is, the final part. Make sure to read parts one and two before reading this.

As I started to put more effort into my job and spent more time hanging out with Jacquie and not as much time at meetings and events, I fell out of the "cool kids' clique," as I'll call it. Of course, those in the canton would always say how non-cliquey they were, but it really wasn't true. It was just a big clique. Those not in it found themselves either going off to other cantons to play the game, dropping out of the SCA entirely or just hovering at the fringes because they had nowhere else to go (the SCA is notorious for attracting misfits and losers of all kinds). Things may have changed now, but I wouldn't bet on it either way.

At meetings, I'd often get the cold shoulder, and I was actually starting to truly despise a few people at the canton. Events were no longer fun, and since Jacquie loved to drive, I was able to drink more at the few events we attended. In fact, I was getting to be a bit of a lush at events, probably in some kind of psychosomatic bullshit way of keeping all the freaks away from me (the more drunk and obnoxious I was, the less likely they would bother me). After all, I think I had decided I hated about ninety percent of SCAdians at this point. I know it's mean of me to say that, but it is true.

As others around me that had started about the same time as yours truly found their niches and were tossing aside the rest of their lives in favour of the SCA, I started realizing what kind of effect the cult mentality of the SCA had on people. And I didn't fucking like it.

I stopped going to meetings. I went to fewer events. I stopped traveling distances to get to events, and by the end, anything outside of the Toronto area was not something I wanted to go to. I didn't want to become like those others.

By the time Rawl came back from his eight months of university, I'd about had it with the whole SCA organization, but especially those immediately local to me. I just didn't enjoy it any more. As a last-ditch effort to find a niche and track down that enjoyment I first had upon joining the SCA, I took on a baronial role as the chronicler (newsletter editor). When I took the role on, it was already a couple of months behind in its issues, and the state of the newsletter's financials and organization was quite poor. A month or so after I took on that position, I became editor of my own magazine and realized I wasn't going to have time for the chronicler position or the SCA itself any more.

It's too bad I had to resign from the chronicler's position the way I did. It was even more behind after I left than it was when I took it on. And it sucks, because the baroness at the time is, in my opinion, one of the coolest people I ever met during my time in the SCA (well, y'know, after Jacquie, of course *grin*).

Upon my resignation, I quickly dropped out of sight with little more than a peep, telling only a few people that I had no intention of returning again. In essence, the persona I created, an Englishman named Crispinus Spellar, was dead. I was awarded my Awards of Arms posthumously (something I found quite funny). It was accepted on my behalf by a friend -- someone who I was later to have a bit of a falling out with.

To this day, I haven't seen my AoA scroll. It's not something I'm too worried about, though. I'm sure it's still in the possession of that friend, or maybe it's been destroyed or handed to someone else for safekeeping. Not a clue.

Every once in awhile, I get the idea that maybe I should give the SCA another chance -- resurrect Crispinus Spellar, as it were, for another go-around with the organization. However, all of the bitterness I had when I left still lingers, even a year-and-a-half after my swan song. I just don't know if I'll ever put myself through that again.

Author's Final Note: Although I blame much of my frustration with the SCA on the many and varied people who play in it and the organization itself, that's not entirely fair. While the SCA has a number of problems, the most important probably being the constant internal bickering and political in-fighting I was exposed to, my own changing life and outlook on what I thought was important was as much to blame for my departure from the SCA as the organization itself. While I don't plan on returning to the organization, I will admit to missing some key individuals that I befriended while I was hanging out there. Unfortunately, it's true that as you make more and more friends within the SCA, you start to lose touch with friends who are not part of the group or have left it behind. On the rare occasion I speak to someone from the SCA, it has become increasingly difficult to find any common ground for conversations, as the only thing they're generally able to have a discourse on is the SCA ... and I'm too far out of it to do anything but listen (and I frankly don't even care enough to do that any more).

Or, How I Learned to Love and Then Hate The Society for Creative Anachronism

Author's Note: Make sure to read Part One before reading this.

As I said in the first part of this story, I joined the SCA mostly out of boredom and an interest in the Middle Ages. For the first several months, I really enjoyed what I was doing, who I was meeting and the things I was becoming involved in.

However, as the old saying goes, the honeymoon came to an end. Before long, I had become a part of Ardchreag (the Scarborough/Pickering canton -- I might as well name it; it's easy to find out what it's called since you know the location) and was soon going to events at least once or twice a month. When the chatelaine (the person in charge of greeting people new to the SCA -- and basically propagandizing the organization) moved out of his position and into the role as the new seneschal of the group, he took my enthusiasm to mean I would make a good officer. While I certainly have the organizational skills to take on a role like that, hindsight shows me I probably should've just let it go by. I'm pretty sure it was the first mistake I made that led to my eventual departure from the SCA.

By the time I became the chatelaine, I was regularly attending events -- sometimes with Kim or other friends and other times with just SCA buddies. Unfortunately, as I learned more and more about the organization on all levels (from the corporate body on down to the local cantons), I started to get a taste of the politics and soon started doing exactly what happens to so many other people in the organization. Frankly, I started seeing the SCA as important, almost as if it was "real" and the real world was "fake." Bad idea, but it's a form of escapism that is very common in the organization.

Also by this time, I was working steadily again and no longer freelancing, so I was becoming quite busy during days, evenings and weekends. If it wasn't work taking up my life, it was the SCA. Sad, eh?

By the time I had spent a year in the SCA, I was starting to become a little bitter about the organization. I'd accomplished nothing as chatelaine, as at least one person kept telling me how unimportant the role was, and I had basically become the guy who showed up at events, wandered around drinking beer and chatting with the group of friends I had made upon first entering the canton and not really making any new friends. The politics of the organization were becoming somewhat unbearable, Kim and I had broken up, I started dating Jacquie, I was hating my job and Rawl was back in town (although only for a short while, since he disappeared again to the University of Windsor a month or so after coming back to Canada).

Things had changed considerably, and I was becoming jaded and bitter about the SCA. It might seem petty to people, but when you understand the cult mentality of the SCA, it makes sense. Once you're in, you're part of the family. You either get more involved or you will probably end up getting shunned. If you don't make it your life and forego most everything else outside of the organization, then you're not committed enough and you start falling out of the cliques. I'm sure my bitterness and growing annoyance at everything around me wasn't helping, either. The death of a friend in the SCA also contributed to some my moods, I'm sure.

In the fall after my first year, I left my job and took a new, much cooler job. Anyway, I started to enjoy life again, and with my job being more fun than a lot of my hobbies, I was doing less and less in the SCA. At some point, I gave up the chatelaine position and started trying to get involved in other ways. Unfortunately, none of those ways seemed to keep me intrigued in the SCA as a whole, and I was probably causing more damage to the group than helping it.

Or, How I Learned to Love and Then Hate The Society for Creative Anachronism

Author's Note: The following account tells the tale of a two-year period of my life -- a period of time that contained many changes and challenges for me. I'm going to gloss over a few details, including names of people, places, companies and organizations, because I quite frankly expect this story to raise the hackles of a few people and I'd rather not provoke them any more than necessary.

The Middle Ages had fascinated me since I was a child. Brave kings, chivalrous knights, tales of legend and, of course, fantasy and legendary literature all played huge roles in my life and still continue to do so. I suppose if you were to go back to the root of my interest in The Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that can best be summed up by its own tag line of re-creating the Middle Ages the way they should have been, you would end up talking about the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and then moving into my very short fascination with live-action fantasy roleplaying games (one NERO training event as a teenager and I'd had enough of that crap).

However, my tale really begins a few years ago. I had left a job that I had grown to despise to strike out on my own as a freelance writer. In addition to that, I had also been hanging out in a Pickering establishment called King Richard's Pub four to five nights a week with guys I knew in high school. Rawl, Brad (I wasn't really friends with Brad in high school -- I had met him, but mostly knew him by reputation) and I had become regulars at the pub. You know what I'm talking about. We were the types that were known by name by all of the wait staff, and we'd often have our beers served to us upon entering the pub.

At the time, I had also been going with my girlfriend at the time for a couple of years. This was still quite some time before we had our problems and ended our relationship, so we were more-or-less happy. Anyway, Rawl and Kim basically made up all of my evenings and weekends, and all of that came to a halt in the summer right before I joined the SCA. Rawl quit a job that he hated and moved to Taiwan to teach English for a year, while Kim headed out to the west end of the city to go to university.

With Rawl completely gone and Kim gone five days of the week (with us seeing each other only on weekends) and yours truly working for himself and having plenty of spare time, I had to find additional ways to amuse myself. It was through the music of a SCAdian that I discovered The Society for Creative Anachronism, and that's how I hooked up with the Scarborough/Pickering SCA group (called a canton). I emailed the seneschal (kind of the president of a canton) and another person in the group, and I was pretty soon attending regular weekly meetings (as I recall, they were on Mondays, but I would have to verify that).

What I found upon arriving at my first meeting was a friendly but small group of people that had known each other for quite some time. However, they were all eager to accept me into the group and get me started on learning the customs of the SCA. Of course, at the time, my main interest was in research and just generally learning about the Middle Ages and not necessarily in the day-long or weekend-long events SCA groups are always holding (SCA events are like giant costume parties).

After each meeting, several group members would always migrate to the Route 66 restaurant/bar in Scarborough, and we'd hang out there for hours mostly drinking beer and talking.

So that's how I spent much of the next several months -- going to meetings and then to the bar afterwards, making friends in the SCA, going to events and dragging other friends of mine out to see what went on. When you first join the SCA, it's intoxicating. Events are quite immersive, and there's always something going on. It's easy to get hooked, and the SCA can, will and does end up monopolizing your time.

Since I re-launched this site as a Blogger-driven blog in November, I've had the same tag line under the title of this page: Proving once again that everybody is an idiot on the Web.

As good a tag line as it is, I don't know that I'm necessarily writing a blog that does that. (I mean, I'm a bloody idiot like every other blogger, but I don't think that's really the focus of the site.)

So I'm retiring the tag in favour of a new one. Take a gander up top.

Just got back from having coffee/tea with Rawl (as always, coffee for me, tea for Rawl -- yes, I'll keep repeating that every time). He and Tara seem like they'd be up for the movie nights as long as they're around and available. I think people seem fine with May 1st for the first one, too.

On the drive home (wired with caffeine, just in case you were wondering), I came up with the name for the movie nights, too. Heheh. I should be in marketing. I always want to slap names on things to make them official. So here's the pitch:

Mainstream movies as far as the eye can see? Blockbusters and Rogers Videos encroaching on your territory? Not a Suspect Video or Queen Street Video in your rental area? Tired of the latest Hollywood mega-hits? You may be an independent-minded individual, but you're outside of the city. Welcome to the ... Stuck In Suburbia Movie Night ... showing the best and worst of independent, B-movie, underground and cult films.

Tee hee! Okay, maybe I shouldn't be in marketing. I'm not good at "selling" people on things. Anyway, any friends/acquaintances that are reading this and think they might be in the area on May 1st (or on future dates) and wouldn't mind watching some bizarre films at my home should let me know. I'll be sending out invites pretty soon with details, but I'll also post them here, as well. I'm just trying to firm up the first night's films and then I'll post what's going on here.

Jacquie has been successfully talked into this regular movie night thing. She's basically stepped aside to let me handle everything, and I didn't even hear any complaints about the first one being an Ed Wood movie night. So I'm thinking I'll show Plan 9 From Outer Space (gotta love the classics, eh?) and either Glen Or Glenda or the Tim Burton film Ed Wood. The second choice depends on what I can dig up.

Although the idea was to do this bi-weekly, I think I'll make it twice a month. That way, it won't constrain us to a set schedule and we move it around as we see fit.

I'm stealing the idea of an "alternative" regular movie night from Mariko McDonald (also see her blog here). Her Den of Sin movie nights seem like a lot of fun, with each weekly showing being a theme of some alternative/underground/cult/bizarre movie mix. Of course, I never would've come across her Den of Sin movie night if she hadn't started writing the column for FilmThreat (I love that site).

Now I'm talking Jacquie into letting me do something like the Den of Sin movie night at our place, but it'll probably be bi-weekly. Still, I'd like to keep the idea of theme nights that stick to non-mainstream movies. However, Jacquie's a mainstream movie type of person, so I'll probably find myself compromising a bit on that. ... But still, my mind is already planning the "Ed Wood-athon" and the "All Brains Must Be Eaten Zombie Movie Bash." Not to mention that I need to get my hands on some Russ Meyer films. Hmm...

I've thought about naming the movie night after the DVD Website Tom and I are working on (we're still not quite ready to release the name or launch the site -- but we're getting close), but I'll have to check with my partner in crime to see if he's cool with it.

Death is too good a punishment for spammers, adware creators and other creepy-crawlies of the Internet. Something more along the lines of tar-and-feathering or yanking out their toenails one by one with a rusty pair of pliers is a little more appropriate.

And now, the final reviews from my purchases on Sunday:

G.I. Joe: Cobra Reborn: This "rebooting" or "reloading" of the G.I. Joe story (essentially, restarting it from scratch with a new comic book series updated for today) kicks off with the origin story of Cobra Commander. The long story short is: Go buy this comic. It's a damn fine read. While weaving a tale of one cubicle worker made mad by the system into the formation of the Cobra terrorist organization, you'll at times feel sorry for the Commander and at others hate him for the civilian deaths he causes. It's an excellent start to the G.I. Joe: Reloaded series. Cobra Commander, Baroness, Destro, Zoltan and even Major Bludd all make appearances.

G.I. Joe Reborn: With Cobra now out in the open and launching one attack after another against U.S. targets, the head honchos in the military create a secret operatives group called (duh!) G.I. Joe. Taking the best of the best, giving them codenames and modifying their records to show they no longer exist, the typical cast of Joes is here -- Duke, Lady Jaye, Scarlett, Rock And Roll, etc. While not as strong as Cobra Reborn, this title is still an excellent read with some good artwork. The ending is a cliffhanger that leads directly into...

G.I. Joe: Reloaded #1: The Joes and Cobra go head-to-head for the first time, with a couple guys infiltrating the Cobra organization while others prepare for an assault on one Cobra installation. Snake Eyes had been popping up in the Reborn books, and now he seems to have chosen a side in the brewing war between the special ops and the terrorists. As the first issue in the series, it's quite good. My main complaint is that if you don't read the Reborn books, little will make sense at first (again, that cliffhanger thing between Reborn and Reloaded).

I can't wait for the next one in the series. I think I'll add this one to my regular reading list.

There really should be more long weekends. This is the first time in awhile that I've felt rested after a weekend and ready to get back to work. Usually, the day after a weekend (usually Monday, obviously), I crawl out of bed around 7:45, get ready for work, make my way downstairs, start checking my email, read my daily comics, procrastinate by surfing the Web and then buckle down later in the morning.

I still get my work done, because my slow morning means I have to bust my ass in the afternoon. Still, they're typically not fun days. Today, after a four-day long weekend, I'm ready to go right away. Bring it on, world!

Jacquie and I took in viewings of Jersey Girl and Walking Tall today, seeing as we both had the day off. Both were good movies. I was delighted that Jersey Girl wasn't a total chick flick and that Kevin Smith did indeed manage to slip in one Star Wars reference ("Punch it, Chewie!"). Overall, a good movie from Smith and definitely worth seeing. As for Walking Tall, it was good but not great. It's inspired by a true story but not actually based on said true story, so I was somewhat disappointed with the narrow plot. There were some good action scenes, but not a hell of a lot more.

Comic book talk again:

Transformers: Generation One #1, #2 and #3: I picked up the first three issues in what is the second volume of this title. I still haven't decided whether I like Dreamwave's books. I wasn't all that impressed with TMNT #5, and the new on-going Transformers: Generation One series isn't starting out in any coherent way. Some of it is interesting, but the storytelling is a little too shoddy for my liking. I'm frankly having a difficult time following it. The four issues I picked up of the first volume a couple of years ago were much better. Of course, I'll admit that the story arc in the first volume, with Grimlock tossing aside his Autobot loyalties and joining the Decepticons, was enough to keep me interested. Still, with a bit of work, the new TF: G1 comic could be alright.

Comic book reading continues...

The Punisher: The End: This is the first The End comic book from Marvel I've picked up. I know there's one The End series running right now about Wolverine, and now that I think I know what the books are about (essentially, how a Marvel character finally dies), I'm tempted to go back and start picking the Wolvie books up. But in this one, it's The Punisher's turn up on the chopping block. It's sometime in the future, and all of the fears of the Cold War are realized. The bombs are dropping, and The Punisher ends up as one of the last survivors in Sing-Sing Prison. I won't say any more about the story itself, but I will say that the comic is a creepy but interesting read as Frank Castle makes his way to New York City for the last time. The price tag of $7.25 is a bit steep, but I think it's worth it for the story and the artwork, which is done in a style to suggest a decaying civilization on the verge of its own extinction. For those who can swing the $7.25 on one comic book, it's a tale worth checking out.

So I bought a total of nine comic books yesterday. So far, I've read two:

Alpha Flight #2: Somebody, anybody, please claw out my eyes. While AF #2 wasn't nearly as awful as the first issue, it's so obvious that the writer isn't taking anything about this comic seriously that it's damned insulting. I think the cover art of this one says it all: Sasquatch is standing there, smacking his head with the palm of his hand and a little speech bubble has the word "D'oh!" scrawled inside it. Still, I'd at least like to find out what happened to the original Alpha Flight team, so I'll keep stickin' it out for another four issues. (Yes, that means four more months of complaining about this title.)

Superman/ThunderCats #1: "You just gotta have one stupid comic." That's basically what the guy at Wyldstar said to me yesterday when he pointed out this book. I decided he's right -- I have my fair share of stupid comics, after all. However, when the "stupid" comic is a better read than a regular series (see above), then you have to be worried. Overall, not much story but kind of amusing for what it was. Can you go wrong with a comic book that features the Last Son of Krypton tangling with a pissed-off Lion-O and his Sword of Omens? ... I didn't think so. ;)

Today was a fairly good day. I hung out with Sean most of the afternoon. We hit Wyldstar in the 'shwa, with Sean buying some RPG books and me picking up a shitload of comic books. Today was Wyldstar's buy-two-like-items-get-one-like-item-free sale. I'll go into exactly which comics I bought a bit later once I've had a chance to start reading them; and I'll do my own personal reviews of them, too. ;)

Come join the ranks of the undead. If you want to be a blood-sucking leach, click here.

Yes, I'm bored today. :P

I want to eat your brains. Click here.

The long weekend has been quiet so far. I just kind of hung out at home and at my parents' place yesterday. This morning, I popped in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back while Jacquie was tutoring, and I've also been working on some roleplaying game stuff.

I guess I don't have much to say. The rest of my weekend includes a dinner gathering tonight, a trip to Wyldstar with Sean tomorrow and then a trip out to the west end to drop Sean off at home.

I just learned that Stephen King is expected to finish and release the last two books in The Dark Tower series this year. Considering he's been working on this series since the mid-1970s, it'll be quite an accomplishment for the sixth and seventh books to finally come out. I guess I'd better get my ass in gear and read Wolves of the Calla before the next two hit the shelves.

Wow. We'll finally actually learn what the hell the series is really all about after all these years.

The long weekend will be here in a few more hours, and although I don't celebrate Easter myself, there will be one Easter gathering I'll be attending this weekend. Saturday night will be spent at Jacquie's parents' house. My parents and my brother will also be there, as will quite a few members from Jacquie's family. It sounds like there will be at least a dozen or more people there.

Other than that, I'm not sure what the plans are for the weekend. I'll probably hang around and do nothing, although I should probably work on some reviews of games and DVDs for various Websites I'm involved with. Maybe I'll do some reviewing tomorrow or on Monday (assuming that I do indeed get the day off).

I think Wyldstar in Oshawa is having a sale on Sunday (an odd day, considering it's a statutory holiday), so there is a possibility I'll drop by and see what I can pick up.

Wow. This was one of those nights that I just didn't want to end. A whole bunch of us (Rawl, Steve, J.J., Logan and even Danny Bisharat, who I haven't seen since high school) ended up at Just Desserts tonight. Topics ranged far and wide, from politics to video games, from comic books to cartoons, from generic nonsense and practical jokes to sitcoms we grew up with. It was a good night, although I'm pretty sure we were far louder than those sitting around us would've preferred. Of course, we're regulars at Just Desserts, so I think we get away with a lot. ;)

Now I'm all hyped up on coffee. I lost track of how many cups of java I drank -- definitely more than six. I have a feeling I won't be sleeping for awhile, so I'm here blogging and doing some other stuff online.

The more I see online of Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG, the more I think it might be worthwhile to buy the game when it ships. The screenshots are lookin' purty shweet, and I'm really diggin' the settings Blizzard has been showing on the game's site. Again, purty shweet shtuff (er ... stuff).

Also, according to Blizzard, the game will run on low-end and high-end machines without any serious problems. That's good, as I'm getting quite miffed at EverQuest these days. Ever since the DirectX 9.0 upgrade, the game runs like shit on my system ... and looks even worse. Well, the new night sky with the twinkling stars and the moon looks really good, but I think I'd rather not have something so pointless than put up with the constant DX9 graphic and performance issues I've been having.

Unfortunately, it'll probably takes months for SOE's EQ developers to fix everything. *cry*

Despite Jacquie bugging me to come to bed at around 10:30 last night, I opted to stay up to watch The Poseidon Adventure on DVD. I hadn't seen the movie in years, and I just recently picked up a copy of it for my very own. I'm pretty sure The Poseidon Adventure was the first disaster movie I ever saw when I was a kid, and I'm also pretty damned sure it's the reason I have a fear of drowning (and hence, it's the reason I never became much of a swimmer).

I had forgotten much of what happened in the movie, except that I knew for sure Gene Hackman's character died turning a steam valve hanging above flaming water (I can only imagine the flame must've been coming from spilled oil).

All in all, a fun time was had by all (the "all" being just me, of course).

Continuing my comic book obsession, I dug up my copy of the Batman: A Death In The Family trade paperback last night and read through it. It's still one of my favourite Batman stories. It has everything -- The Joker, lethal laughing gas, Superman, the death of a Boy Wonder and a heck of a lot of fighting between Bats, the BW and The Joker's hired goons (oh yeah, and terrorists, too).

Of course, the script and artwork isn't nearly up to the comic book standards of today, but that's part of its charm.

The worst thing about digging it up is possibly the cover price. Back in 1988 when the TPB first came out (and when I bought it), the cover price was $4.95 for the collected four issues covering the story arc. Ah, the good, ol' days when comic books were affordable by a twelve-year-old. These days, one issue goes for roughly $4.25, and collections of four issues tend to have price tags of at least $15. No wonder so many kids don't read comic books anymore. It's too damned expensive.

If I had a wish, I'd wish that was funny. Then you'd be laughing, damn you all!

Another trip to Wyldstar yesterday.

Return of the Jedi: Infinities #4: I certainly didn't see this ending coming. Still, it was a bit of a let-down. Overall, though, okay. The best of the Infinities series has to be A New Hope, though.

Superman/Batman #7: Issue #8 piqued my curiosity, so I backed up an issue. Too bad it wasn't very good. It just focused on Superboy and Robin, two characters I've never really liked. I think DC is collecting the first six issues in graphic novel format, so I can catch up with the series when that comes out (providing I'm not imagining this graphic novel).

Wolverine/Punisher #1: It's one thing if a Punisher villain is nicknamed Napoleon. It's another if he dresses the part. Aside from the lame villain that kicks off the story, the book wasn't half-bad. The story from here on out looks like it will revolve around the legendary criminal safe haven called Erewhon and an attempt by those hiding out in Erewhon to get back at The Punisher for putting them on the run in the first place. Wolverine shows up at the very end as what appears to be a hired hand protecting the bait for getting The Punisher to Erewhon. I was a little disappointed that the artist chose to use the old Punisher superhero outfit instead of the version found in the new Punisher MAX series.

The Punisher #4: The first panel almost made me put the book down. It seems the whole reason the CIA has trapped The Punisher is they want him to become an anti-terrorist terrorist ("Frank, how'd you like to kill Bin Laden?"). I'll leave the spoilers at that and move on. Things don't go quite as Micro and the CIA planned, and the mobsters from issues #1 to #3 will probably play a much bigger role in #5. Looking forward to it. I wish this title was bi-weekly right now. ;)

Logan, Jacquie and I took in a matinee showing of Hellboy yesterday. Although I wouldn't rank it among the best of the superhero flicks that have come out over the last few years, it was still a good, fun movie. It certainly was better than some of the superhero movies that have come out, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Hulk.

However, I think the screenwriter and director tried to cram just a bit too much into one movie. Scenes from two different graphic novels and from Hellboy: The Corpse were included, and I think there were a few things in the movie that wouldn't necessarily make sense to someone who hadn't read the first two Hellboy graphic novels.

Still, go see it if you like comic book movies. Ron Perlman kicks ass as Hellboy.

It must be haiku month or something. Check out the Hellboy Haiku Contest over at DarkHorse.com.

Hello. My name is Chris, and I'm a NetHack addict. It's been five minutes since my last game, and I'm thinking of skipping lunch today so I can go dungeon-delving some more. *sob* It's not fair. I'm getting hungry, but I really want to try to beat my high score. *cry*

Jacquie's out working and I've been sitting here for the past hour or so playing NetHack. Although this game has been around for twenty years or more, I only first heard about it a few months ago -- on WWdN and on GameSpy. I downloaded it a couple of days ago and started playing the Windows GUI version.

Ah, what the hell. One more game.

It's spring, it's Saturday and I'm going to see Hellboy today. How could life get any better? :)

Rawl's little haiku about Macs versus PCs took a few days to sink in before I suddenly became interested in finding out what the structure was for the minimalist Japanese poetic style (essentially three lines, each having designated syllable counts -- five/seven/five; at least, that's the most traditional, structured style). However, in my search, I discovered this site: SciFaiku.com

Amusing stuff.

Hopefully everyone had a good April Fool's Day. I heard about several good practical jokes but was thankfully not at the butt end of any of them. Some of my friends are teachers, and the practical jokes they played were at times pretty nasty. Of course, little is as mean as a teacher on a vengeance streak against his or her students. My teachers were almost all mean, nasty creatures. I'm pretty sure some of them weren't even human.

A conversation from MSN Messenger, with me as Scratch Fury (be the first to guess where that name comes from and win a three-geek salute) and my buddy-slash-boss Robert:

Robert says: The Law pointed out your new Web comic to me.
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: Heheh.
Robert says: If I might offer some constructive criticism...
Robert says: #1 sucks hard. :)
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: :D
Robert says: #2 is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: Heheh.
Robert says: I think I might make a catchphrase out of "Fuck you, I'm alternative."
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: < laugh >
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: I'm happy it was funny. :D
Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds says: Just don't forget my royalties if you use it as a catch phrase. ;)

Yes, folks, you may be a little shocked by what you see in my instant messenger conversations. While you probably revere me as one of the foremost writers of the 21st Century (and hell, you'd be right -- thanks, BTW), my IM vocabulary is mostly made up of "heheh" and emoticons. But as the catch phrase goes...

Fuck you. I'm alternative.

I love April Fool's Day. Make sure to go to your favourite sites (or my favourite sites, if you prefer) today to see what April Fool's Day practical jokes are in store for you.