Look! Up in the sky!

As promised in yesterday's entry, in honor of the premiere of Superman Returns, an all-Superman addendum to yesterday's comic section...

So where to start...? The Blue Tights Network seems (to me) to be the same sort of "grass-roots" (in the sense that it's totally not), fan-based marketing device -- similar to the Browncoats for Serenity, last fall. Not that this is a bad model to imitate... But it does seem an imitation (from what I've seen).

Then (in case you've been under a rock) there's the various trailers for the movie, courtesy of the fine folks at Quicktime.

A wonderful cross-section of reviews (though if ever a movie was in the "review-proof" category...) as always at Rotten Tomatoes. (73% positive when I was there.)

And then lest you think I'm only talking about the movie, I felt I should share this article, courtesy of SQ, which was amusing. But not as amusing as this site, which questions (through use of old comic covers) exactly whether Superman's nice reputation is deserved...

So enjoy. Chuckle. Go see the movie (I'm sure it will need support, what with it being a small indie, with no marketing...)

And I'll be back at some point to talk about something else...

My life is a Steve Gutenberg film...

"Film?" Did Steve Gutenberg make "films?" Maybe "movie" is more accurate.

That's certainly what it felt like last week when I found myself at the Institute for Police Sciences... a.k.a. the DC Police Academy as part of my new job. For those of you who I haven't explained it to yet, I'm working on a contract that deals with an IT system for the DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. Specifically, I'm dealing with the Metropolitan Police Dept (MPD). I know, you're thrilled. And no, I can't do anything about your parking tickets...

I'm likewise quite certain there was other stuff that happened last week that merited comment, but it all drains away so quickly. Lack of sleep'll do that...

Now I know I promised a posting about comics, but I have a couple other things that came up in the meantime (don't they always...) My new officemate shared this article with me on a new machine that cures migraines. I must admit I'm interested even if it resembles the Flowbee.

This is an interesting part of the CBS news site, where they have someone else scanning the blogosphere for interesting tidbits...

Okay, and now on with at least part one of our promised comic book section...

First a couple of very cool blogs on the topic, including Comics 101, League of Melbotis, and Comic Critique, which provides some excellent reviews.

I don't know if MLW's pictures came out, but last Thursday we went to a lecture (with the Huge's) that the Smithsonian Associates gave entitled, Superman on the Couch (yes, based on a book of the same name). Quite interesting and I got to hear from some creators I'd grown up reading.

And I think that's about all the time I have tonight. Tune in next time (hopefully tomorrow) for our all Superman edition (in honor of the movie's premiere).

He's almost back...

Finally, a trailer that gives a minor amount of info on the plot... (Watch or not as your choose).

I have a lot to post, but spent most of my blogging time this weekend trying to fix the template (to no avail). More soon.

More bears, the small Huge Wedding, and the Non-free-thinking

So... as promised, various things to update y'all about...

But first, right after I made the post about the cat scaring the bear in West Milford, CNN posted a video interview which they appropriated from NJ News Channel 12 (who incorrectly stated they were broadcasting from "Milford" -- shame on you NJ News Channel 12...). Then, as if that wasn't enough, I came across this story thru fark.com, that shows that bears are using hammocks up in Highland Lakes, which is a town or two North-Northwest of West Milford, where my good pal, Mr. Township Manager & his lovely family live. (If I were you, I'd get a cat, Rich...)

Now then, it seems that the wording in my aforementioned earlier post got a number of readers (two, anyway) confused. When I said I'd have word on "the Huge wedding," I did not mean that the wedding I had attended was huge. (Far from it, there were probably 70-80 people there.) No, I meant (and clearly did not articulate well) that this was the wedding of the Insidious Mr. Huge and Bride of Huge, semi-frequent commenters to this very blog...

So, the wedding was outdoors, the weather was beautiful (imagine if it had been THIS weekend, ick...), and it was nice to see many an old friend. Even my former invisible, "not dead yet" best man put in an appearance, much to the (pleasant) shock of most of us West Milford ex-pats... I was a tiny bit disappointed that the forecasted emotional scenes/fisticuffs/pie fights did not materialize (if only because of my strong tendency for schadenfreude), simply because we'd been hearing about the likelihood of this happening for a year or so. So in that regard, anticlimatic, but I'm sure in the end, that was for the best. And the cigars seemed to be a surprise hit. So, that's the (small) Huge wedding, in a nutshell.

A lot of people (both at the wedding, and just in passing), have been inquiring about how the new job is going. That's a tricky one to answer. My reaction is usually...

Which may have you asking why. (Or may not. You might not care a wit. I really have no idea. This a computer screen I'm typing at here...) It could be a lot of things. Could be that I'd been out of work for so long. Could be that I'm lazy. Could be that I got spoiled at CPI by the way things were (or sometimes were not) done there. Or it just might be that there are some management/morale/respect issues that are starting to become clear. We'll see...

I'll have been here a full month by the end of this week (four week already, so do your own math), and I plan to sit down with at least one of the powers that be and see what they think of my progress and maybe give them some feedback. So I'm sure I'll update you on that next time.

Okay, I think that's about it from these parts for now. Next time: Comics!

Minor changes abound

Some alert and/or frequent visitors should notice I changed some stuff around. Modified the color-scheme (long-hand, there had to be a better way to do that), added some links to the fine folks at Purehero.com, and ordered up the link section a bit (which I'll likely be adding to shortly).

Nothing super important, but since the blog is entering a new phase, I figured I change things up a bit. Feel free to let me know which look you prefer.

West Milford...

...where the men are real men, the women are real women, and the cats can scare a bear up a tree...

I'm sure many of y'all have seen this one already, since it was picked up by major media outlets, but I figured I'd share. (That's my hometown, don'tcha know...) Detailed account from the Star Ledger.

(An actual post with you know, update info, and the scoop on the Huge Wedding, coming soon...)