ChrisTalbot.com

It's been a quiet week at the blog because I've been disconnected entirely from the Internet. I spent the last week up at a cottage on Rice Lake (north of Cobourg) with Jacquie and her family. However, I kept some quick notes on what went on all through the week. I'll post them here later, but for now, I think I can sum up the vacation like this: Fishing, campfires, barbecued food, mountaing biking, walking, boating and drinking.

It's good to be back home again. The place reeks of cat shit, though. Ick.

Odd as it is, I've always been attracted to fantasy roleplaying games. That is, roleplaying games set in a fantasy world. Dungeons & Dragons, Palladium Fantasy and others stock my shelves, and although they are far outnumbered by the varied science-fiction games I own, it's the medieval-style fantasy games that I play the most.

Why is this odd? I mean, most roleplaying gamers are into medieval fantasy games. I guess the biggest difference is that most of those gamers also indulge in fantasy novels by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore and the slew of others that exist out there. I've never really been into fantasy novels (as is probably obvious from my pathetic attempt at generating examples of genre authors off the top of my head). I have a few on my shelf, and I've read a fair number, but I just don't really like them that much. For the most part, they end up being almost as formulaic as Harlequin romance novels, and you can usually guess the ending before you even sink your teeth into the meat of the story. Worse, most of them tend to be rip-offs of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. While ripping off literary works is fine for a roleplaying game, as it's done all the time to give people ideas for running their own adventures and creating their own settings, retelling the same story again and again for fifty years (and counting) in novel form gets a tad dull. And I never liked LOTR in the first place, so I sure as hell don't want to read a veritable shitload of rip-off books.

Somehow, though, I end up being attracted to interactive fantasy settings by way of roleplaying games. I've conducted and participated in more D&D sessions than I could count. Compare that to any of the various sci-fi games on my shelf (Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020 -- heck, even Star Wars), and many of those games have barely been touched. Some have never been run. However, I'll admit that I enjoy reading sci-fi novels and can pick out favourites if asked (William Gibson's Neuromancer springs immediately to mind, as does Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep).

I don't think there's much of a point to this post. Just rambling while waiting for one last interview to come in on my last day of work before vacation.

It seems that Paramount and DreamWorks will indeed be making a Transformers live-action film. It has a summer 2006 expected release. Bah!

Again, I must announce my love for Film Threat. Take a peek at what writer Eric Campos has to say about Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Completely Insane. ... I ask ya, how many bloggers can spell "Schwarzenegger" on their first try? Just me, man. Just me. ;)

I really understand this guy's pain. ... A stable operating system, my ass!

Thanks for sending this link to me, Logan. :)

While I do like my job, I'm feeling somewhat burnt out and I'm really looking forward to my vacation next week. Tomorrow is my last day of working for a whole week, and then I'll be free to chill out and pry myself away from the masses of technology that I'm surrounded by.

I don't know if I'll post again before my vacation, and if not, I won't be posting again until after it's over. That's how serious I am about disconnecting from the techie lifstyle for awhile. I can already imagine the ridiculous amount of spam that'll be in my inbox when I return. ;)

I love Film Threat. I really do. They find the most obscure and interesting films to write about ... like The Gamers. Very cool ... er ... nerdilicious?

This rumour is interesting. Basically, it's rumoured that DreamWorks will announce at the San Diego Comic Con that they're doing a live-action movie version of Transformers. If it turns out to be true ... well, I honestly don't know how I feel about this. It's probably best to leave them Autobots and Decepticons alone.

The BBC has a great (albeit short) interview with Sam Raimi about Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.

Since Rawl has started hounding me via his blog about choosing my five worst (i.e. most embarrassing) CDs, here we go. These are in no particular order:

1. Creed: My Own Prison
Sadly, I must admit I own this CD, and I actually kind of dug the music for short while. And then I started listening to the lyrics. Damn Christian rock bands. How dare they infiltrate modern demon music and sing about their god?

2. Noluno
This self-titled EP is just utter gothic crap. I guess I should be happy I didn't pay money for it. I got it when I was reviewing CDs for Extreme Magazine.

3. The Rembrandts: LP
Don't ask, man. Just don't ask. This dates back to when I used to watch television ... and ... Friends. Not a happy time of my life.

4. Culture Club: Colour By Numbers
I have to admit I paid about twenty bucks for this CD in a lame attempt to connect to the music of my childhood. Every once in awhile, I'll throw it in. But dammit, what was wrong with Boy George? Heheh.

5. Corey Hart
Narrowly beating out Corey Hart: The Singles for a place on this list, I think this self-titled comeback album is more embarrassing than the singles collection. Why? Well, like with Culture Club, I think trying to somehow make a connection to the music of my childhood isn't all bad (although it is embarrassing, I guess). However, when you buy the comeback album of a pop artist you listened to when you were eight years old, there's a problem. I should seek therapy ... but I really liked Black Cloud Rain. *cry*

The Big-Ass Bonus Albums
I could've filled this list with Weird Al Yankovic CDs. I own a few, including Dare To Be Stupid, Greatest Hits, Bad Hair Day and UHF. It would've been a pretty crappy list if I'd had all of my Weird Al discs, which I can honestly say I no longer listen to, on that list ... but I think they deserved dishonourable mention.

Are you happy now, Rawl? :P

According to the Atari beta-testing community site, the company is now taking applications from people who would like to be a beta tester on Scrabble Online. Sure, it ain't no EverQuest II or World of WarCraft, but how the hell can you hate Scrabble?

Here is a vampire movie I must see.

While it's on my mind, here's one of my favourite sayings/quotes. I can rarely remember it word for word, but Logan reminded me about it the other day and I checked it today.

"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

There is another version of it, which is slightly different but is essentially the same thing.

"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

I had no idea that Bobby Fischer, the chess whiz kid (although no longer a kid -- now a whiz senior citizen) was a fugitive on the run from the U.S. Check this article out at The Toronto Star's Website.

I took a trip to Wyldstar in the 'shwa with Logan yesterday. I managed to get a few more D&D miniatures, including a couple of more orcs. Now I've got a total of three orc minis. I've almost got enough for a full encounter. ;)
 
I also picked up The Punisher #9 and Superman/Batman #11. Logan pointed out my hypocrisy when he saw me pick up the latter. I recently swore not to buy any more crossover books, and Logan, smart guy that he is, pointed out that Superman/Batman is indeed a crossover title. ... Shit. Okay, so I lied. I happen to be enjoying that title, and so I guess I'll have to accept that I technically am still buying one crossover book. ... No more, though. Pinky swear.

I discovered this earlier today. It's kind of cool for White Wolf that it's been able to sell the movie rights to Vampire: The Requiem ... before the game has even been released, no less. But it bothers me that the rights to the old World of Darkness games were never picked up. I think a Vampire: The Masquerade or Werewolf: The Apocalypse movie would've kicked ass.

Lately I have been diving into books head-first and reading as many of them as I can. I think it started with my renewed interest in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, but after I managed to finish the first couple of novels in that sometimes-good and sometimes-dreadful series, I craved something different.
 
While I can hardly be classed as an illiterate fool, as I read pretty much constantly for nine hours a day (although much of what I read is hardly enticing nor overly academic), I haven't been a strong book reader over the last few years. My preference has been the written word in magazines and the various (and often poorly-written) text found on that which we call the World Wide Web.
 
As I mentioned a week or two back, I recently finished reading John Robins' The Incomplete Anglers, a fascinating tale of canoeing and fishing in the wilds of Algonquin Park during the early Twentieth Century. After arriving at the end of that story, I opened up another book that I had been intending on reading for a little while -- Stephen King's On Writing. When the latter first appeared on store shelves about four years ago, I was quite skeptical about it. I mean, it's Stephen-Fucking-King. While occasionally entertaining, I find his style of writing frustrating almost as much as I find it entertaining. Generally, I think Stephen King novels are good for an easy, entertaining read, and I don't really put the man on a literary pedestal.
 
However, I decided to pick up a copy of On Writing on a lark about a month or so back, and I finally got around to reading it in the last ten days or so. I finished it sometime at the tale end of last week. The first third of the book was interesting, as it was kind of an autobiographical look at King's life. The second third of the book was merely okay, as he delved into the basics of writing. The last third sucked -- it's just that simple. Aside from droning on and on and fucking on about the guy who ran him over while he was walking along the side of a road with his head buried in a book, he doesn't really offer any insight into the craft itself. Rather, he shits on a lot of things that the upper crust of literariness (I think I'm down to making up words at this point) believe are very important. Y'know, like completely ridiculous notions like ... theme. Theme isn't important, according to King. Moron.
 
After finishing On Writing and vowing to ignore much of the advice contained within, I moved on to two other books I'd recently acquired. One was the next collection in the Cerebus comic book series. High Society, which I finished reading yesterday, was very enjoyable, and I've been thinking of placing an order for Church & State and Church & State II as soon as possible. 'Nuff said, as Stan "The Man" Lee would say.
 
The other book I started reading, and which I polished off barely twenty minutes ago, was Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson. Although I found the book in the Chapters humour section, I'm inclined to believe it didn't really belong there. While funny at times, the book is rather biting. Ferguson's goal seemed to be to challenge Canadians' perceptions of themselves and their country, and I do believe it worked. If you get a chance, it's worth reading. It talks about the Canadian history that you don't find in high school textbooks.
 
Now I'm going to do a bit of "light" reading over the next couple of weeks. Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur has been sitting on my shelf since my days in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and it's about time I gave it a read.
 
So if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do.

It's been a busy few days, so I haven't had a lot of time to be a-bloggin' on this here site. I know Rawlio is anxiously waiting for me to fulfill the challenge that he posted on his Website (basically, name the five worst CDs in my collection -- I think it's meant to imply most embarrassing CDs, so I'll eliminate the bad Russian chamber music collection and any other poor classical, jazz or blues collection right off the bat). Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to take up the gauntlet.

Good news today for PC gamers of the world. Doom 3 has officially gone gold and it'll be in stores around the first week of August. Sweeeeeeet. I'm not even sure my friggin' computer will be able to run the damn thing, though, but here's hopin'. After all these years, I think it'll be pretty fuckin' cool to delve into the world of Doom again.

Twilight: 2000 from Game Designers' Workshop is the featured freebie ebook at DriveThruRPG.com this week. ... Since I was a kid in the Eighties, I don't remember much about the Cold War and the fear of nuclear war, but considering how many post-apocalyptic roleplaying games there are, the tension must've been pretty high.

For more information on Zombies!!!, check this out.

It was a rather busy weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Metro Toronto Zoo for a few hours. And then on Sunday I played downtown Toronto tour guide along Queen West and up Yonge Street. Aside from the Molson Indy, downtown was being kept busy by an outdoors art show at Nathan Philips Square and a Celebrate Toronto festival that seemed to block traffic every two or three blocks on Yonge.

I was starting to lose my patience after we covered Queen West. I'm sure I was not the best company walking up Yonge Street.

On the plus side, though, I managed to get a starter kit of D&D Miniatures and some survival horror board game called Zombies!!! I took a look at the minis but I haven't opened up Zombies!!! (yes, the exclamation points are part of the name -- all three of 'em) yet.

Cartoon Action Hour seems like a neat idea for a roleplaying game. It's hardly original, though, as Steve Jackson Games has published Toon since the 1980s. Still, a game that focuses on re-creating 1980s era action cartoons is A-okay with me. ;)

This article from the Toronto Star is a quick read about people who have decided to scam the Nigerian scammers. It's short, though, so I wouldn't exactly call it a heavily researched article (it is the Star, after all).

Over the past four or five years, I've gone back and forth between having a smooth face and a bearded one. For one day, I even had a Ron Jeremy moustache, but I'll not dwell on that memory for any longer than I have to. However, recently I've let my beard grow to the point that I could grab hold with my hands and yank. I was aiming for the hippy look, and I was thinking about experimenting to see how long my beard could actually grow.

Jacquie has been whining about the length of my beard for two or three weeks now, but I wasn't quite ready to give up on my experiment. I changed my mind this morning and shaved it right down to an Indiana Jones-ish stubble. I'm reminded of the first time I grew my beard in and then shaved it completely off. I looked into the mirror and barely recognized my own face. That's what happened this morning, as well.

Comments to yesterday's post about the upcoming release of the TV show ALF on DVD seem to indicate my acquaintances are not too fond of the furry alien from Melmac. Or perhaps that is an understatement. ;)

As someone who continuously claims to be a non-watcher of television, some of the things I talk about watching probably lead what few readers I have to believe I'm full of it, and that I am indeed a television addict. In a way, it's true -- but not really. I don't like watching most television programmes, and the few that I do catch are watched when they're released on DVD (or in the past, on VHS). I've recently been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD, and I'm just about to finish up the fourth season. I've been borrowing the complete seasons from my brother one or two at a time. Ditto Babylon 5, which I utterly detested years ago when the pilot aired and which turned out to be not a half-bad show (although I can't comment on the last season, as I haven't seen it). Add Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to that list of borrowed and watched on DVD, as well. I'm still working my way through Buffy, though, but I don't think I'll bother going any further than the end of the first season of Angel. Frankly, it just wasn't very good.

Jacquie and I own the DVD set of Kindred: The Embraced, the short-lived TV show that aired in the mid-Nineties that was based on Vampire: The Masquerade, and now the first season of the circa-1970s Wonder Woman show starring Lynda Carter. I also own the two DVDs that make up the Dark Ages British mini-series and a bunch of anime titles, including Cowboy Bebop and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (both of which aired on TV).

Aside from the first few seasons of TNG, the whole series of Kindred and much of Wonder Woman, I've never really watched any of the aforementioned TV shows when they aired on TV. I've caught them all when they were released as DVD complete seasons boxed sets. I just can't stand staring at the TV for an hour to catch forty-five minutes of programming, give or take a few minutes. I loathe commercials, and I loathe most of the shows that are on TV. Formulaic plots, poor writing and terrible acting tend to turn me off most shows.

I have an especially strong loathing of sitcoms. Situational comedies just irk me, although they never used to during my formative years. That said, there are still a few sitcoms I can tolerate. One of them is ALF, which I'd probably say is favourite sitcom and one of my favourite television shows of all time. I don't know why, but it still holds my attention. I even bought The ALF Files, a DVD that was only released in Canada for some reason and that contains three hour-long special episodes of the show. For a long time, I thought that would be the only ALF on DVD I'd ever own.

Additionally, I think I could tolerate watching MASH again, and I've been toying with the idea of collecting the DVD boxed sets. I haven't quite made up my mind on that, though. After all, the show ran for eleven seasons. That's a lot of sets and a lot of money to pour into a show from my childhood.

I just had about had a heart attack. I'm shocked, bewildered and overjoyed. Check it out: ALF is coming to DVD.

Woo hoo!

Ken forwarded me the link to this article. It's actually not a bad read.

When you write for a living, writer's block isn't just bad, it's catastrophical. However, when the block hits me, all it means is I can't write creatively -- or at least not very well. I've had this block for a couple of weeks now, and it's starting to seriously piss me off. It's not really affecting the stuff I churn out on a daily basis for eChannelLine and ConnectIT, but I run a play-by-email Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle that requires me to be in top form. Unfortunately, the game is just dangling right now as I work through this block ... and hope that my players won't disappear on me.

d20 fans that read this might want to head over to DriveThruRPG this week. The free ebook of the week is Legends & Lairs: Sorcery & Steam from Fantasy Flight Games.

Although I hated and despised nearly everything about high school, it was during that period of time that I discovered strategy games and miniatures games. It was also during that time that I had to save pennies like crazy to indulge my interest in those games.

The original Supremacy set was $60 when I bought it, and each expansion set was about another $30 to $40. Expensive? Yeah, kind of. It was nothing like miniatures gaming, though.

The same guy that introduced me to Supremacy (I believe his name was Eric) also told me about a really cool fantasy football game called Blood Bowl. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to play Blood Bowl until late high school when I saved up the $80 necessary to buy the basic boxed set and plunked down the cash at Silver Snail in downtown Toronto.

Blood Bowl, made by Games Workshop, was my first miniatures game. I got into just before the dirty bastards at GW stopped distributing it in North America (it's a U.K.-based company). Still, I managed to get the basic box and the Death Zone expansion set (about $50) before it disappeared from store shelves everywhere. Steve joined in my lunacy, but trumped me by picking up a couple of expansion teams ($40 apiece, as I recall). For awhile, we were getting together fairly often to take to the fantasy football field and do battle with humans, orcs, elves and whatnot. Damn, but I wish I'd bought a skaver team when I had the chance.

Later, Steve, Logan and I all migrated to GW's Necromunda game (about $90 at the time). Another miniatures game, Necromunda was kind of a cyberpunk-ish gangland battle game that didn't use a board of any kind (most minis games are like this, actually, but Blood Bowl used a board -- something had to simulate a football field, right?). That obsession lasted a short while. I think the biggest problem I had with GW games was the paperwork involved. I just hated keeping track of everything that happened. It took away some of the fun.

Although I haven't played or bought a Games Workshop miniatures game in years, Logan is back playing them. He apparently hooked up with a group involved in Warhammer 40,000 (more generally known as Warhammer 40K).

Another thing that turned me off Games Workshop games was the official rules that required you to paint your miniatures. I'll let you in on a little secret: I despise painting miniatures. It's not fun. I want to play a game, not be a modeler.

So a few years ago, when WizKids arrived on the post-collectible card game scene with the first collectible miniatures game with fully-painted minis, I signed on. Steve, Sean and I bought Mage Knight during the first couple of expansions (Rebellion and Lancers, as I recall), and I've got a box full of a couple hundred minis to prove I was an MK geek. Unfortunately, the constant release of new expansions put a downer on my Mage Knight obsession, and I stopped playing. I still have the minis, though.

A couple of years later, WizKids got the licence to do a game similar to Mage Knight, but using Marvel Comics characters. This time, it was The Law and yours truly that was buying miniatures. HeroClix was quite fun. It was simpler than Mage Knight and was filled with easily identifiable characters -- Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Daredevil, Blade, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, etc. I really only bought into HeroClix during the Infinities set (the first of the Marvel sets). Unfortunately, The Law and I live far enough apart that we found it difficult to get together to play. I stopped buying. I think The Law has picked up a booster pack or two of the first DC HeroClix set, but that's about it. With the addition of the Free Comic Book Day special Spider-Man HeroClix figure, I've been starting to think about getting into the game again ... but probably more as a collector than as a gamer. The minis are pretty frickin' cool, after all.

During my time working on Total Gamer, WizKids public relations sent me a starter kit of MechWarrior: Dark Age, but aside from opening the box and looking at the minis, I've never done anything with it. The box and minis are collecting dust in my storage room.

That is basically my life as a miniatures gamer. It's not much of one, and I've changed my obsession every few months to every couple of years. I've taken long breaks from miniatures gaming, but I always come back eventually ... but usually obsessed about an entirely different game.

WizKids will soon be releasing a game called Pirates of the Spanish Main, which seems to be a naval fleet miniatures battle game set during the Age of Pirates. I'm not really sure what to think of it yet, but it's something I'm seriously consider checking into. It calls to me. ;)

Looking at what I most enjoy when it comes to playing games, I'd consider myself as much, if not moreso, a strategy gamer than a roleplaying gamer. There's little I find more exciting in games than sitting around a table with four or five friends and then going head-to-head in a strategical simulation.

My favourite strategy board game during my teenage years was called Supremacy: The Game of the Superpowers, which launched in the late 1980s and won a number of awards from the likes of Omni Magazine. At its core, the game was a cold war simulation that allowed things to escalate to whatever level the players felt like taking it ... and how much money the players were willing to invest in expansions. When I first encountered the game in my Grade 9 year, the guy who introduced me to it had blown about $200 on the expansions available at that time -- and I believe only about half of what eventually became available had actually been released.

Unfortunately, for it to be really good, Supremacy requires five or six players. Anything less than that and there's just not enough interaction. The game loses a lot of what makes it good.

I used to get friends together in high school to play the game, and we'd take all day and then some to play out a full six-player game. Halfway through, a couple of people would be either bored and give up or been eliminated, but those of us who hung on to the end would end up ruling entire portions of the world before attempting to crush our enemies. It could get quite tense. However, when Tim played, the end-game usually came down to the two of us. I'd own half the world and he's own the other. Rather than buckle down for another full day of play, we'd usually just sign a peace treaty and be done with it. To this day, I don't think I've ever seen a Supremacy game through to completion (i.e. only one person left standing).

I've probably made myself sound like a pretty good strategist. However, that's far from the truth. Tim, Steve and the others we used to play with weren't really top strategists, nor was I. When against guys who live for this stuff, all of us would fall to their strategies and tactics.

When I buy books, I'm sometimes a bit slow when it comes to the actual reading of them. For instance, I bought The Incomplete Anglers by John Robins last September, and I only finally picked it up about five or six weeks ago. Seeing as I had several magazines and other things on the go, I read it fairly slowly and only finally finished it yesterday morning.

Published in 1943, the book revolves around a fishing/canoeing trip in Algonquin Park taken by Robins and his brother Tom. Although it's often a serious tale of two anglers enjoying the Park and the trout fishing, it's also quite humourous, in that the two make one mistake after another and end up having the adventure of their lives. It's well worth reading if you like fish stories (heheh) and can track down a copy of this (stores around Algonquin Park have it).

And now I'm right into On Writing by Stephen King. This is a book that came out in 2000 and I've resisted the urge to pick it up. However, I bought it a few weeks back and have ventured into it. It's partly an autobiography and partly a book on writing (as the title suggests), but it's odd to take advice from someone like King. Although he's done quite well, I wouldn't ever suggest he's a great writer. Still, he makes a number of valid points, but reading between the lines makes me believe he really doesn't know how he writes -- he just does it. I think he's managed to churn out his forty-odd books more by incredible luck and persistence than anything else.

The coolest thing I picked up at one of the three comic book shops I visited on Saturday (aka Free Comic Book Day) was a special HeroClix figure of Spider-Man released on FCBD to coincide with opening weekend of Spider-Man 2. I haven't played HeroClix in quite awhile now, nor have I bought any figures since the original Marvel set ... although I keep thinking about grabbing DC and Indie HeroClix starter sets. Not sure why ... aside from the nifty full-colour figures. Maybe I just really want Batman and Hellboy figures. ;)

Aside from the Spidey HeroClix mini, I also got the Dungeons & Dragons comic book released as a promo for FCBD. I didn't mentally record who was responsible for writing or drawing it, but if they're professionals in the comic book business, may they never work again. There was a bit of a novelty factor to the book that I found unable to resist, but the writing, story and art were all crap. I suppose the Tokyopop manga preview book I picked up was somewhat better, but I wasn't really able to figure out any of the stories, as they were simply cut and pasted from the middle of other Tokyopop manga books into this preview edition. I think I may have seen a title or two that caught my eye, though ... even without being able to understand exactly what was going on.

I picked up Punisher #8 and Wolverine/Punisher #4. The former was good, and I think the IRA story is going to work out just fine. The latter was only purchased because I have the previous three issues. One more issue to go, and then the Wolverine/Punisher mini-series is all over. Good. No more team-up or crossover books after this. Pinky swear.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Additionally, I took in a matinee of Spider-Man 2 yesterday. Overall, I liked it, but it didn't quite have the gripping story that the first movie had. I'm also not sure I like Sam Raimi killing off villains. Sure, Norman Osborn had to die so Harry could take up his role, presumably in Spider-Man 3, but Doc Ock should at least have the opportunity of being a recurring villain. He shouldn't be dead at the bottom of a harbour. On the plus side, I picked up on a hint that maybe the Lizard would come into play in the next film. Maybe I'm reading too much into Curt Connors' multiple appearances in Spidey 2, but I think he's a safe bet to go with as the villain in Spidey 3 (as is Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin -- I figure Raimi will be unable to resist forming supervillain team-ups).

It's less than twenty-four hours before the comic book stores open up for Free Comic Book Day. I'm planning on going over to Wyldstar sometime early tomorrow to check things out and see what's up for grabs. As far as I know, Wizards of the Coast will have a Dungeons & Dragons comic book, and there will be some of the standard fare, as well. Y'know, things like Spider-Man, Star Wars and a shitload of superhero books from all of the major publishers.

After reading the first five issues, I think I'm going to drop Transformers: Generation One from my reading list. It's just not capturing my interest. As it stands now, I think that basically means my regular titles are Conan, The Punisher, Superman/Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tales of the TMNT and G.I. Joe: Reloaded (although I must admit I wasn't impressed with Reloaded #4 -- oh well, not every issue can be dynamite, but I think the ease at which the Joes got out of their current predicament was pretty lame).

Perhaps I should concentrate on reading graphic novels or series collections instead of trying to find more on-going series to read. I have been thinking about checking out some of Marvel's Essential series, after all, and I've really enjoyed what I've read of Cerebus so far (haven't started reading High Society yet, but I will soon).

Just because I like to point the Friday File out, here's another one for ya.

Canada Day was a smashing success. We had several people over for drinks and barbecue, as well as a quick trip down to the lake to see what was going on. By the end of the day, my feet were beat and I slept soundly last night (a rarity these days).

There hasn't much else going on this week. Pre-July 1st, I was quite busy at work, and I've been shirking my hobbies. However, I did get to Wyldstar last weekend; I just haven't had time to post about my comic buys (the new TMNT, G.I. Joe: Reloaded and Conan), which I'll probably write about some time this week. Additionally, I ordered a couple of books from Amazon, one of which was the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer for D&D, and the other book being the next chapter in the Cerebus series, Cerebus: High Society.