Play ball!
Today was Opening Day in Major League Baseball. That is, if you don’t count the game that took place last night in Washington D.C. between the Nationals and the Braves or the two games that happened last week in Japan between The A’s and the Red Sox.
Those two games counted as regular season games. Go figure.
The Red Sox then came back to the land of the Big BX and played the Dodgers this past weekend in Los Angeles in a “spring training” exhibition game in the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of 115,300 fans. The last time I sat in the Coliseum to watch a Raiders game there was only about 45,000 people there and a good many of them for Browns fans.
When I got off work I turned on the Orioles game on my XM Radio. They were beating the Rays 2 – 0. By the time I got home, the Orioles were losing 6 – 2. Good to see that O’s are back in true Oriole form.
They haven’t racked up 10 losing seasons in a row by accident. Could this year make eleven? Only time will tell.
Superman copyright split in two
The big news in the world of comic books is that Time Warner is no longer the sole owner to Superman. The heirs of Jerome Siegel, one of Superman’s co-creators is now entitled to claim a share of Superman. Siegel along with fellow Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster sold the rights to Superman 70 years ago for $130.
It’s worth substantially more now.
Siegel’s widow Joanne Siegel and daughter Laura Siegel Larson now own half of Superman. Which half they actually own is not known. They are also due compensation for all use of Superman going back to 1999. That includes revenue from the recent $200 million “Superman Returns”.
I don’t think anyone should own the intellectual property rights to something created in the 1930’s. Superman should have gone into the public domain a long, long time ago. With that said, if anyone is going to have ownership to something created so long ago, it might as well be the creators. Or in this case, the people related to at least one of the creators.
Hopefully this will pave the way for William Shakespeare’s relatives to finally get what is owed to them.
Green Lantern #29 may be the worst comic book I have ever read
Every once in a while I read a comic book that is so bad, so poorly written, I want to swear off funny books for the rest of my life. GREEN LANTERN #29 is one of those books.
Much of the story takes place while Hal Jordon is in the United States Air Force. It was obvious from reading this that writer Geoff Johns knows absolutely nothing about the Air Force or the military in general. It’s also clear he didn’t feel like doing even some basic research to make up for any lack of knowledge.
I don’t get that. If I was going to write about something I didn’t know anything about, I would try to learn as much as I could about the subject.
I spent close to 10 years in the Air Force and a good majority of that time was spent working on aircraft. Many of the gaffs in this book were just simply ridiculous. Most of them could have been avoided by simply doing a quick Google search.
Hal Jordon enlists in the Air Force on the day of his 18th birthday and then becomes a pilot. It doesn’t work that way. Enlisted people don’t become pilots. Someone who wants to become an Air Force pilot must first graduate college with a 4-year degree and then receive a commission to become an officer. Officers do not enlist. Only enlisted people enlist.
Major Stone is said to have more Silver Stars then the American flag. That means he has at least 51 Silver Stars. The Silver Star is the third highest military decoration awarded for valor. The most Silver Stars ever awarded to any one man was to General Douglas MacArthur. He earned a whopping 7. That would mean Major Stone was awarded at least seven times as many Silver Stars as General MacArthur, a five-star general that served in World War One, World War Two, and the Korea conflict. Even though Major Stone has earned 51 Silver Stars, he still somehow cannot get promoted to lieutenant colonel.
That’s just silly.
If a Marine threatens to kill a woman unless she leaves a bar with him to go have sex, other Marines wont just passively sit still and watch it happen. They certainly wont gang up and attack someone that defends the woman from her attacker. Threatening to kill a women unless she has sex with you is actually a big no-no, even in the Marine Corp.
They’re United States Marines, not Klingons.
I could go on and on with more examples of just how badly this book was written. What’s the point? Just because you personally don’t have the life experiences connected to a topic doesn’t mean you can’t still create credible stories. If you don’t personally know about something, seek the assistance of people that do. If you are going to write about a Air Force fighter pilot, maybe talk to a real life fighter pilot. If you’ve never seen an actual bar fight, talk to someone who has. Run your ideas past them first.
At least spend a couple of minutes on Wikipedia.
Cameron Stewart, artist for THE OTHER SIDE, the Vertigo miniseries about the Viet Nam conflict took the time to actually travel to Viet Nam and tour the countryside. He wanted to make sure he gave the book the right look. If Cameron Stewart can go to Viet Nam to do research for a comic book, Geoff Johns should be able to take a few minutes to read the Wikipedia entry for the F-16.
WordPress 2.5 released
The newest version of everyone’s favorite blogging platform is now available as a free download. I told myself I wasn’t going to upgrade anymore until I was certain it was bug free. For some reason this morning I felt like living life on the edge and decided to spice things up by doing the upgrade.
So far, so good.
They actually changed much of the interface. The look is totally different. The dashboard used to be a sloppy, confusing place. Now it is much more streamlined. Everything seems to be set up in a much more user-friendly manor. Of course you wont ever see this unless you are a WordPress user. The actual blog looks the same. The actual blog acts the same. At least from what I can tell so far.
It appears that the ability to embed YouTube videos is built right into the platform, making the use of third-party plugins unnecessary. With prior WordPress versions, you would have to post in the non-visual editor mode to post a YouTube video. Otherwise the WYSIWYG editor would botch the YouTube formating. I wont know for certain until I try to embed a video, but it looks like I should be able to do it.
If you are a WordPress user and you are wondering about doing the 2.5 upgrade, by all means do it.
Jim Boeheim is the greatest college basketball coach of all time
There’s a reason Syracuse men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim is my favorite. I used to think it was because I once saw him at the Wegmans grocery store when I lived in the Syracuse area. Any coach that shops at the same place for bread and milk as me is tops in my book. He just always struck me as being good people.
Videos like this only reaffirm my opinion.
This video was from two years ago following a game against Cincinnati in the Big East tournament. I was on YouTube looking for something else (no, not midget porn) when I happened to stumble on this.
Cool looking B-52 photo
I stumbled upon this photo while looking for a photo of something else. Isn’t it great? It was taken flying over Edwards Air Force Base on December 2, 2004. Click on the photo to see a much larger version. I grew up near Edwards Air Force base and I love the B-52.
(Photo: chamorrobible.org)
Texas snake vodka
A rattlesnake rancher in the fine state of Texas that goes by the name of Bayou Bob has been placed under arrest for selling bottles of vodka that included a baby rattlesnake floating in each bottle. Though he remembered to give himself a dumb name, he forgot to get a state liquor license.
He claimed the concoction was an “ancient Asian elixir.”
He might be right. When I was young, dumb, and in the Air Force, the first time I went to Korea I had to drink a shot of something called SnakeJu. It came from a large bottle of Soju, a very potent Korean version of vodka that had a dead snake floating in it.
To be honest, I forgot all about this chapter in my life. Don’t get me wrong. I remember going to Korea. I was somehow able to block out the memory of drinking a shot of snakeju. Until now.
If Chelsea Clinton has a problem with the question, she only has her father to blame
Chelsea Clinton was asked a question she didn’t like. While visiting Butler University speaking to students about her mother, student Evan Strange asked for her opinion “on the criticism of her mother that how she handled the Lewinsky scandal might be a sign of weakness and she might not be a strong enough candidate to be president.”
I don’t really understand the question, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with Monica Lewinsky.
Chelsea responded with:
Wow, you’re the first person actually that’s ever asked me that question in the, I don’t know maybe, 70 college campuses I’ve now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business.
When I first watched the video, I agreed with her. It was a private matter and it really was nobody’s business. The problem with that is that Bill Clinton made it our business. We all got dragged into the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. He could have made this whole problem go away before it ever happened. He could have simply paid Paula Jones the $850,000 that he eventually ended up paying her anyway. If he would have done that in the beginning, he could have avoided being deposed under oath by Jones’ attorney. He wouldn’t have felt the need to lie about his relationship with Lewinsky.
It’s too bad that out of 70 college visits, nobody asked Chelsea Clinton that question before. They should have. I guarantee people have wondered about it. Evan Strange had the guts to ask it. Good for him.
The fun never ends with the Herald-Mail Forum
I blogged a little yesterday about my troubles with the Herald-Mail message board. Mostly I told people to go to Steve Likes to Curse and read Steve Shives’ excellent breakdown on what went down.
I emailed the Herald-Mail website administrator explaining what happened. I’ve yet to get a response. My suspension was removed yesterday. I only knew this because I read about it in the comment section of Steve Likes to Curse. If they were going to remove my 2-day suspension, they ought to at least tell me. What good is announcing it on a message board I was led to believe I was suspended from?
When I went back to the message board, I found the following post from the moderator:
After careful consideration of all the factors involved, and rereading the initial post and the subsequent replies. I have reconsidered my original judgement [sic].
Bentcorner used the term “Negro” and not the other “N-word”, for the record.
After researching the term “Negro”, it does not appear to have the same connotation that the other “N-word” has. While his post may or may not have had anything to do with the nature of the thread is not being considered. It did not take the post off-topic (anymore than what anyone else has ever done).
Bentcorner has my sincerest apologies for my hasty decision and is hereby reinstated.
The moderator had to research the word Negro to learn that it didn’t have the same connotation as the N-word? This is the same person that thought removing all the letters except the letter “N” was a good way of making the word not racially offensive. There’s only one word in the English language that has the same connotation as the N-word.
It’s the N-word.
As soon as I found out that my suspension had been lifted, I began deleting all my posts from the Herald-Mail message forum. The reason? I don’t appreciate how the moderator is able to edit posts. He drastically altered my comment. He made it appear I wrote something all together different then what I really wrote. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?
If he truly thought my comment was racially offensive, he should have just deleted it. He didn’t do that.
I’m once again suspended from the Herald-Mail forum. This time it’s for a year. I can’t log back on again until March 25, 2009. The reason? I don’t know. Once again, I wasn’t informed of the reason. It can’t be for anything I’ve posted because I haven’t posted anything since my initial suspension. I’ve only been deleting my posts.
There is no rule against that.
Click here to see a screen capture showing that I was suspended for a year.
Turns out being labeled a racist is not as fun as you might think
I was suspended from my local newspaper’s message forum yesterday for posting a comment they deeded to be “racially offensive“.
I’d like to explain what actually happened, but I’m still too pissed off to put it all into words. Luckily for me, fellow Hagerstown blogger Steve Shives of Steve Likes To Curse already blogged about it. He does a much better job then I ever could describing what actually happened.
I’m not even going to try. Go read Steve’s blog post and let me know if you have any questions.
marvel_b0y is no more
I read on the Internets that marvel_b0y — the low level Marvel Comics staffer and anonymous whistle blower type blogger — is no more. His account on LiveJournal is history.
They killed marvel_b0y. The bastards.
First they killed Black Goliath. Then they killed Captain America. Now they’ve killed marvel_b0y.
Who’s next?
I enjoyed reading his posts about what goes on in the bowels of Marvel Comics. Not only were they interesting, it was obvious the muckety mucks at Marvel were not too happy with his posts. Marvel lawyers sent marvel_b0y a cease and desist letter on letterhead decorated with goofy looking Marvel superheroes. If the goal of a cease and desist letter is to intimidate, I’m not sure including the likeness of Iron Man or Captain America is a good idea. Iron Man has become a dick and Captain America is dead.
My hope is that marvel_b0y will return. Normally when Marvel Comics kills someone off, it doesn’t last very long.
Someone needs to send X-Force a case of Visine
Why do the members of the newly formed X-Force team have red eyes? Do they all have nasty eye infections that even mutant healing factor can’t scratch a dent in? I’ve read the first two books in the new X-Force series and I’ve enjoyed them. I just don’t understand the red eyes. None of the team members have red eyes in any of the other books they appear in.
I didn’t see any ads for Visine, so it’s not another example of crass Marvel Comics product placement.
Protesting against the Iraq war is a waste of time
I’m not really sure why people are still protesting the Iraq war. I think it clear that this point the Bush administration doesn’t care what we think about their war. When Vice-President Dick Cheney was asked about recent polls that show two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, “So?”
They don’t care.
I think protesting a group or an entity that incorporates constant public polling — such as the Bush administration — is a complete waste of time. They already know what people think.
The status of the 2008 Pittsburgh Comicon
It’s been about five days since Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book retailer Michael George was convicted of murdering Barbara George, his first wife. Not only was he convicted of first degree murder for killing the mother of his two children, he was convicted of insurance fraud and obtaining money from an insurance agency under false pretenses.
The insurance fraud stems from the fact that Michael George made the murder appear t be a robbery and he fraudulently reported the loss of multiple high-value comic books to his insurance company. His insurance company paid him $13,000 to compensate him from the loss of these comics. The comics the jury decided he never owned.
Wont he now have to pay that money back?
Then there’s the matter of the $125,000 Michael George collected on Barbara’s life insurance policy. Since the jury ruled that Michael killed Barbara, wont he have to pay that money back too? Convicted murderers aren’t normally allowed to collect on the life insurance policy of their victims. And when I say normally, I of course mean never.
So where exactly does this leave the Pittsburgh Comicon?
The show is owned by Michael and Renee George. How will all this effect the show? Will the insurance companies that paid large sums of money to Michael George under fraudulent terms now move to seize assets belonging to him? Wouldn’t the Pittsburgh Comicon be one of those assets?
I’ve been checking out the Pittsburgh Comicon website every day since the verdicts were handed down. Everything looks the same. Not one mention of the fact that the show’s co-promoter has been convicted of murdering the mother of his children and is now facing a mandatory life in prison. Further more, prosecutors in the case claimed that Michael George killed his first wife so that he could start a new life with his mistress, the woman he is married to now.
She is the show’s other co-promoter.
It seems to me all this would require some sort of statement from the show. Not only is Michael’s name still featured on the Pittsburgh Comicon website, so is his photo.
There’s already talk among some comic book creators about boycotting the show on the grounds that it is supporting a man convicted of murder.
Last month I was contacted by Patrick Thomas, the Marketing Director of the Pittsburgh Comicon. He assured me that no matter what happened in Michael George’s trial, the 2008 Pittsburgh Comicon would be going on as planned and that nothing would prevent that. I don’t know Patrick, but I know people that do. I’ve been assured that when he says something, you can bank on it.
Mount St. Mary made the NCAA tournament?
Nearby Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team will play Coppin State — also from Maryland — tonight in a pre-NCAA men’s basketball tournament game in Dayton, Ohio. The two schools are located only about 50 miles from each other. Why go all the way to Dayton to play? If you’ve never been to Dayton, your lucky. It’s a poor man’s Cleveland, only not as fancy or pretentious.
The winning team then goes on this Friday to play the #1 ranked team in the nation, the North Carolina Tar Heels. It gets better; The game will be played in Raleigh, North Carolina.
I wonder who the crowd will be rooting for.
I was listening to the Dan Patrick show yesterday and he was asking callers where some of the so-called “mid-major schools” were located. When he asked about Mount St. Mary, it never even occurred to me that it was the same Mount St. Mary located in nearby Emmitsburg. I wouldn’t even call them a mid-major. It’s a small Catholic school located north of Thurmont where I used to work. I would sometimes listen to games on the radio when I was work.
It was either that or country music.
Michael George found GUILTY of murdering his wife
Pittsburgh Comicon organizer and comic book shop owner Michael George was found guilty of murdering his wife Barbara George in 1990 in the back room of their comic book shop. The jury found him not only guilty of first-degree murder, but insurance fraud.
I’m really kind of surprised by this. I’ve been following the case from the day the news broke that he had been arrested. As I’ve blogged earlier, Micheal used to own the comic book shop in nearby Scotland, PA. It’s located in the Chambersburg Mall and it’s where I buy my comics every week.
As more and more came out about the case, I was certain he was guilty.
I then read how his two daughter testified for him.
They were familiar with all the evidence, yet they still firmly believed in their father’s innocence. Who was I to question that? They knew about all the womanizing — and attempted womanizing — while he was married to their mother and all of the other sorted details that came out about their father. They still thought he was innocent of the murder of their mother.
All of the evidence against Michael George was circumstantial. That’s not to say someone cannot be found guilty with only circumstantial evidence. It happens all the time. This just seemed so surreal in the fact that it happened 17 years ago. No new evidence had come up.
Golfers are not athletes
Not that there was ever really any doubt.
Michael George comic book store murder trial: daughters testify in his defense
The Tribune Democrat and the Detroit Free Press report on the ongoing Michael George murder trial. Tracie George and Michelle George, daughters of murder victim Barbara George and murder defendant Michael George testified in his defense Wednesday. Tracie — who was four at the time — testified that she remembers her father sleeping on her grandmother’s couch the day of the murder. Though she doesn’t remember the actual time, she remembers that it was dark outside.
Both daughters also testified that their father took them from Pennsylvania to Michigan once a year to visit their mother’s grave and to visit their grandmother, aunts and uncles. Michelle George testified that they all say a prayer each time they visit their mother’s grave, and that Michael George gets emotional at these yearly visits.
I’m no legal expert*, but I have to believe this testimony was persuasive. This case is built solely on circumstantial evidence. There is no physical evidence. This case relies solely on the testimony of what people remember nearly 20 years ago. In a case like this, I imagine having the daughters of the victim testify for their father is highly persuasive. If there was any doubt that their father murdered their mother, I have to believe Tracie and Michelle would not have testified. If there was any doubt in their minds, they would not have come to their father’s defense. Both girls know of the sordid details of their father’s womanizing and all around improper behavior while married to their mother. They none the less have come to their father’s defense.
If I was on the jury, that’s all I would need to hear.
* In full disclosure, I did use to watch L.A. Law.
Superhero movie to be filmed in Hagerstown
I saw this on the Herald-Mail website:
The producers of an independent movie project are preparing to film in Hagerstown this weekend and have been scouting locations.
“We’ve been looking at parking decks, alleys, offices and also a downstairs bar,” film producer Kirk Twyman said in a prepared release.
The movie is “set in present times, in a world where superheroes and villains are commonplace,” Twyman said in the release.
The movie – to be filmed Friday, Saturday and Sunday – is about two brothers who come into contact with a superhero who has mistaken them for criminals. There is a battle where the superhero is killed, Twyman said.
Twyman said the movie project has been lining up extras and is holding a casting and networking event Friday at Ava’s Lounge from 7 to 10 p.m.
Twyman said the movie project also will be a pilot that will be submitted to networks. The budget for the project hasn’t been announced.
Additional filming will take place after shooting in Hagerstown is completed. About 30 cast and crew are involved in the filming in Hagerstown.
The movie is called ‘Accidental Villain’. The last movie to be filmed here in Hagerstown, Gods and Generals, was an absolute bomb of a movie. And when I say it was filmed here in Hagerstown, I mean that the old Lowe’s building was converted into a movie sound stage and many if not all of the interior scenes were filmed from inside the Lowe’s building.
Paul Pope in the Wall Street Journal
Make sure to check out the print article too.
Iraq war will cost United States $12 billion per month
The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.
This helps put some prospective on John McCain’s view that we will be in Iraq for the next 100 years. It’s starting to add up to some real money.
The book is called The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict and it’s on Amazon for $15.61.
Oklahoma State representative compares homosexuality to toe cancer
Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern evidently didn’t know someone had an audio recorder going when she was telling about 50 of her constitutes exactly what she thought about gay people. Damn you modern technology!
I don’t know what is more unsettling. The crap this nut job is spewing or the fact that nobody in the audience is openly laughing at her.
According to her, gay people are taking over the world. They’ve already taken over the Maryland cities of Takoma Park and Kensington. That certainly explains this photo of the Kensington city council.
She claims that she is not gay bashing. That’s funny, because it certainly sounds like she is. [www.pamshouseblend.com]
My new computer
I pulled the trigger yesterday and bought a new computer. My old one has been acting up lately. It would lockup and force me to do reboot it by removing the electrical power. I tried re-imaging the hard drive with the restore disc. I even stripped it down to it’s most basic components. I took out the video card, each stick of RAM — one at a time of course — the sound card, and the extra hard drive. I even tried re-imaging the other hard drive with the restore disc. Nothing worked. It would still lock up. The CPU time would routinely show close to 100%.
I decided to go with HP. My notebook computer is an HP and I’ve never had a problem with it. I also wanted one that didn’t come with a monitor. I recently bought a 22 inch wide screen monitor and I want to go on using it. Out of all the retailers that sold HP desktops without the monitor, Wal-Mart was the best choice. It’s a HP Pavilion a6313w. I think it’s a model made specifically for Wal-Mart. It has a “w” at the end of the model number and there was a shortcut on the desktop to have my digital images printed at Wal-Mart.
- Processor Type: Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core
- Hard Drive Size: 640 GB
- System RAM: 2048 MB
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
I would have purchased a new computer with Windows XP instead of Vista if that option was available to me. Vista is different then XP. I’m not sure if I like it or not. I guess I just have to get used to it. Maybe I’ll buy a book.
Is the New York City Comic Con antisemitic?
Reed Exhibitions, organizers for the New York City Comic Con decided to move the dates of this year’s convention to the middle of April. For the past two years, the convention was held in the month of February. When I first heard of the date switch, I assumed that they wanted to muscle out the Pittsburgh Comicon which holds its event during the same time frame.
Now I’m not too sure.
As it turns out, the 2008 New York City Comic Con takes place April 18 – 20, the very same weekend as Passover.
Why would Reed Exhibitions change the date to correspond with one of the most important holidays for Jewish people? Do they not want them to attend?
I searched the New York Comic Con website for an explanation as to why they changed the event to take place during Passover. I couldn’t find it. That’s not to say it’s not there. I just couldn’t find it. I did find something that was supposedly written by someone representing Reed Exhibitions by searching Google. It’s a comment on a LiveJournal post about this controversy:
Needless to say, I’m none too happy about the Passover situation either, so let’s get that out of the way right off the bat – we are really sorry about this and certainly intended no disrespect towards anyone. The unfortunate reality is that these were the dates we were given at the Javits Center. Javits is unlike most places in that the demand for the space far outstrips the availability, so customers, such as NYCC, are left with little to no choice as to what dates we are given. To that point, I’ll announce here first that the show will be moving back to February next year – because we want to be in February? Not really. Quite simply, these are the only dates we can get next year.
So it’s not Reed Exhibitions’ fault. It’s the Javits Center’s fault.
It’s more then possible that this has nothing to do with antisemitism, but just plain old fashioned incompetence. This is the same group that massively over-sold tickets to the inaugural event in 2006. Not only were there reports of people having to wait in line for hours to get into the event — including some comic book professionals — there were reports that many who purchased their tickets months ahead of time and traveled to New York were not allowed in and were turned away. I remember listening to Greg Topalianone, one of the event’s organizers speaking on a podcast. Not only did he blame the Javits Center for not giving them more floor space, he blamed people that purchased 3-day passes for actually attending all three days.
They had no idea people would do that.
I doubt they are antisemitic. I think they are just incompetent enough to schedule an event in New York City during Passover.
I guess God needed a Dungeon Master
Gary Gygax, the man that created the original fantasy roll-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has passed away. He was 69 years old.
Gygax, along with Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. It was the very first roll-playing game. I played it in high school and then later on in the Air Force. I used to love it. There was just something about the multi-sided dice, the lead figures, the graph paper, and the books and charts that appealed to the geek in me.
He will be missed.
American Idol contestant used to be a gay stripper
American Idol contestant David Hernandez is trying to entertain audiences with his singing. It seems he has some experience entertaining audiences, just not with his voice. The Associated Press is reporting that he once entertained audiences by removing his clothes. So says manager Gordy Bryan of Dick’s Cabaret, a male strip club in Phoenix. According to Bryn, the the 24-year-old finalist appeared fully nude and even performed lap dances for the club’s “mostly male” clientele.
According to Bryan, David Hernandez was pretty good at being a gay stripper. Bryan said, “He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here.”
I guess if you are going to be a gay stripper, you had better be good at it, especially if you are dancing at Dick’s Cabaret.
I’m not sure how this will effect his position on American Idol. I think they’ve kicked people off the show for less. Then again, it’s not like he did anything illegal.
99 Luftballons v 2.0
When I was a kid, I once built a scale model of a German tank. It was 1/35 scale and made from plastic. This one is 1/1 scale and made entirely of balloons. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
Those Germans have come a long way. I can’t help but think that Erwin Rommel would be really pissed. More then just a little embarrassed, and very pissed.
Font swipe?
I saw this image today over at Zuda Comics, the DC Comics web comic website. I thought I recognized the font that was used in the title. I spent an hour or so yesterday looking through fonts over at dafont.com and this font looked familiar.
It’s a font called Bleeding Cowboy and its created by Last Soundtrack. The font is labeled on the dafont website as being free for personal use. On the Last Soundtrack website, it states that fonts are for personal use only.
For the commercial usage, a “donation” is required.
I’m not sure what the policy is on fonts. Its not like this is a generic Arial or Verdana font. This font used in the title is extremely stylized. It possesses a unique artistic style. It would seem to me that the font’s artist should at least be credited when it is used to create more art, especially when that art is used for a commercial project. Over at the Zuda Comics website, credit for the title page is given to Jill Allyn Stafford.
Maybe Jill Allyn Stafford and Last Soundtrack are one in the same.
Update: (8 March 2008) Jill Stafford did the art on the title pages for Bayou (the first piece being on page 4 of the story), but she did not choose the font, nor did she do the lettering/numbering.
Rendition
Title: Rendition
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Omar Metwally, Yigal Naor, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin
Director: Gavin Hood
Screenwriter: Kelley Sane
This movie did very poorly at the box office. It deals with the controversial practice of kidnapping people suspected of being terrorists and shuttling them off to other countries where they will be questioned and tortured by members of that country’s intelligence service. When I say “controversial”, I of course mean that its bat-shit illegal and we shouldn’t be doing it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- I don’t know if we will ever win the war on terror, but I do know that we wont win it by torturing people.
We’re told in the movie that the practice began under Bill Clinton. I don’t know if this is true or not and I’m too lazy to go look it up on Wikipedia.
A chemical engineer of Egyptian descent (Omar Metwally) is returning home to the United States from a conference in South Africa when he is kidnapped by members of the CIA at the airport and shuttled off to a generic middle-eastern country in Northern Africa. Records show that he received a phone call from a known terrorist. He claims to not know anything about this phone call. He is then subjected to a massive amount of torture. He is waterboarded and he is electrocuted. A young and every green CIA analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal) is there to observe the torture sessions. He shows obvious discomfort in witnessing the torture sessions.
While this goes on in the generic middle-eastern country, his very pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) tries desperately to find out where her husband is. Records show he got on the plane in South Africa, but that he didn’t get off in the United States. She even found a duty free credit card purchase he made on the plane.
There was a lot of things I liked about this movie, but there were also a lot of things I didn’t like. I enjoyed the parallel story going on about the generic middle-eastern country’s security chief and his daughter. This story had almost absolutely nothing to do with the actual rendition, but it was a much better story. It also included something of a twist. I thought the ending was weak. The character played by Jake Gyllenhaal springs the chemical engineer from his dungeon and smuggles him out of the country. He tells him not to speak to anyone until he gets back to the United States. What good would this really do? He was picked up the last time he entered the United States. Why wouldn’t they just pick him up again? This didn’t solve anything.
New Iron Man movie trailer
I watched this trailer to the upcoming Iron Man movie over at Doomsday Thingy. If the finished movie turns out to be only half as good as the trailer, it will still be a must see movie. It looks great.
When I first heard that Robert Downey Jr. was playing Tony Stark, I wasn’t too happy with the idea. Obviously I was wrong.
The trailer also features a certain Black Sabbath song. I hope it finds its way into the movie. You know what I hope doesn’t find its way into the movie? Stan Lee. I’m tired of seeing his decrepit old mug in every comic book movie. It just looks silly to have a 97 year old man playing the part of a mailman or a security guard.
Fujicolor to close Maryland facility
Fujicolor Processing has announced that they will be closing their Williamsport, Maryland plant on March 12. The Williamsport facility processes film for Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and other retail stores that operate in the Northeast. The facility currently has around 125 employees who will now be out a job.
I used to work at the Williamsport facility. In fact, it’s the reason I am living here in Maryland. I was hired as a repair technician shortly after leaving the Air Force. I didn’t know anything about photofinishing equipment. They were looking for ex-military people with an electronics background. When operators had a problem with their photofinishing equipment, they would call for a service tech. One of us would show up with our tools and try to get the problem fixed as soon as possible.
It could get very hectic at times. It was very much a high-production environment. It wasn’t the greatest job I ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. The photofinishing equipment broke down constantly. Most of the problems were mechanical in nature. Very rarely did a piece of photofinishing equipment have something wrong with it that had to do with it’s electronics.
It wasn’t all bad. That’s were I met my wife Sheri. She operated a machine called a splicer that constantly broke down. I found myself looking forward to when her splicer acting up. She would sit and talk to me while I worked on it. Once I got it working again, I would hang around just to make sure it was working. That of course was just an excuse to talk to her.
You would not believe how perverted people can be. Seeing many of the pictures developed from the film people turned into their local Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club for 2-day processing gave me a clear understanding of just how nasty some people can be. Take it from me, if a guy is going to take photos of himself with a long stemmed rose inserted in this rectum, chances are he’s not going to go for the one-hour film processing. He’s going to drop his order in the box and come back in two days.
I guess I’m not surprised the facility is being shut down. Who uses film cameras?
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Rick: Hayami: Ryan, so far I’ve seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. Then you haven't been doing e...
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Hayami: Ryan, so far I've seen no evidence that Handley was sexually attracted to real children. There're quite a few otaku who are more attracted to anime characters than to real people. There're quite a few erotic anime/manga/games fans who are attr...
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Music I Am Listening To
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- Kucinich caves on health care reform. Will now vote for the non-public option health care reform bill. http://bit.ly/9t4gNI
- Peter Graves has died - http://bit.ly/blfTde #cnn
- Courage? Really? http://is.gd/axTwj
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