You Were Packing Your Car

Today I ran an early morning errand in downtown Tacoma and was contemplating the $5,000 damages our wood floors sustained during the Inauguration Day Flooding. More specifically, I was forcing myself to look at the bright side of things and contemplating what sort of wood color was going to replace the old and what sort of tile to put into the kitchen, which would've eventually led to fantastic imaginings of me redoing all the kitchen cupboards myself in a majestic show of Homeowner Ability (I'm almost to level 5!).

I heard the man first, talking about rough times in the economy and sighed to myself in agreement, then saw him. Older, balding and nicely dressed but wearing a bitter, tired face and packing a box stuffed with plaques, papers, a stapler and a small sepia globe into the back seat of his car. He was talking to someone who'd walked down with him, then wondered aloud how he'd thought everything wouldn't fit into his car.

And that was the saddest part--he'd imagined taking his entire life down the elevator and jamming it into his car and instead ended up looking at two tiny boxes, stuffed to the gills but not nearly enough evidence of the job he'd lost. The life.

What a terrible thing to be doing this early on a freezing Monday morning and I immediately felt guilty for stressing out about my floors when I can actually still afford to get them replaced. My floors won't fit in my car and for that, I'm glad.

Shayan's Law or: How'd You Like To Pay Out Of Pocket For All Your Doctors?

You want to know something that's really awesome? When I take Bug to his doctor visits regarding his Asperger's (high functioning autism), I only have to pay around $200 a visit. I'm lucky, because his autism is high functioning and the free programs via his school system plus work I'm able to do from home are enough to get him along every day and help him succeed.

There are families out there with children who have autism far more severe than Bug, who pay thousands a month for their treatment. Because Washington State does NOT require any insurance coverage for Autism Spectrum Disorder treatment. Which means all costs--the expensive doctors: the main doctor, the speech therapist, the behavioral therapist, play therapy and even medication, comes straight out of parent's already-tight pockets (Thanks economy!).

People have been forced to move out of their homes to be able to afford treatment for their children, which is absolutely monstrous. Treatment these kids thrive on, treatments that help them adjust and succeed in every day life are seen as 'optional', I've met doctors who give LESS of a damn about what they do because they think they won't get paid and some parents aren't able to get their kids the aid they need at all because of the cost.

Some very excellent and hard-working people have put together Shayan's Law, and passing it will mean insurance companies must cover ASD treatment in our state. This cause is a very near and dear one to my heart, as it directly affects not just my own family, but tons of other wonderful people across the state. If you guys could take ten minutes today to show your support for us, yourselves and other people you know, that'd be wonderful. I don't really do this kind of thing often, but it's extremely important this law gets passed and what better platform to turn to than you guys?

Thanks, all, we really appreciate it (and just to note, the phone script isn't mine).

Two Ways You Can Help

By Phone: Make nine brief calls to the Senate health care committee members' offices and read them the following script:

Hi. My name is _____________. I live in ______, and I want to ask you a favor. I have/know a (child/grandchild/godson with autism) or (am a teacher/ therapist of a child with autism), and I would like for you to vote yes!!! for Shayan's Law-Senate Bill 5203, when you hear it next Wed. Jan. 28th. Shayan's law provides medically necessary treatments for autism. Please vote 'yes' on this bill.

Karen Keiser, Chair: (360) 786-7664

Rosa Franklin, Vice Chair: (360) 786-7656

Randi Becker: (360) 786-7602

Cheryl Pflug: (360) 786-7608

Darlene Fairley: (360) 786-7662

Chris Marr: (360) 786-7610

Ed Murray: (360) 786-7628

Linda Evans Parlette: (360) 786-7622

Margarita Prentice: (360) 786-7616

If the Legislator or Legislative Aide asks for more information about the bill, refer him or her to Arzu Forough, Arzu@WashingtonAutismAdvocacy.org

In Person: Show your support by attending this important hearing, doors close at 7:45 a.m., Jan. 28th, in Hearing Room 4 at the J.A. Cherburg Building, State Capitol Campus - or, if you can't make it in person, ask someone to come in your place. Consider your friends, family, DOH employees, acquaintances who work on the capitol campus or neighbors who have asked "how can I help?" - here's a way they can: Ask them to spare an hour or two of their time to come and stand for your family.

Solutions At Hand Or: My Seven Things

I have a spectacular Day of the Flood post that I'm still working on, and have been groping for Non-Spoiler Posts to make in the inbetween time, and while this may not be comics or amusing Flooded House Stories, it's still extremely fascinating.

Because it's all about me.

Seriously though, I got tagged by this awesome guy and there's no earthly way I can deny him, so here we go!


Seven Things I Think You Don't Know


The rules are as follows:

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know that they have been tagged.

1. I absolutely cannot sing a note. At all. Even my children are reluctant for lullabies from me--it's why they get five books each night. My son's asked me to stop more than once.

2. I coached my daughter to say 'Obama' before 'Mom'. And was successful. (Only one person knows this story, so it counts!)

3. I do mean things to my roommates to cheer myself up or make myself laugh. Like, watch them spend half an hour unsuccessfully searching for something that I know the location of. Maybe me being an ass isn't news, though.

4. Every night I check on the kids while they're sleeping, at the same time and in the same manner. If I don't, I actually can't get to sleep. (Healthy!!)

5. I have a very difficult time asking for help. I know how to change my car's oil, a flat tire, brake pads, flush the system, replace any and all fluids, identify the 'clunkity-clunkity' noise ONLY because I refuse to have to call someone from the side of the highway for help. I am also pretty handy around the house for the same reason. Unless it floods, then I panic and stab recliners with a big, sharp knife (more on this in my next post).

6. I was thrown out of the entire Seattle public school system in my freshman year of high school and had to go to private school for the remaining three years. There was illegal contraband (bottle of vodka) in my locker and I got caught skipping class about eight gajillion times. Also, I was a dick, so the principal made an example out of me and sent me off to terrorize the Baptists.

I still don't blame her.

7. I eat peanut butter with dark chocolate chips sprinkled in like it's crack. I actually had a jar of it, premixed, in my car for 'emergencies'. Like, oh, traffic. You may have seen me on 1-5, waving a spoon threateningly at the car in front of me. And no, I'm not always smart enough to remember to keep a bottle of water in the car.

Which reminds me, I need to go buy myself another jar and bag of chocolate chips.


There! Wasn't that informative, fun and made me a thousand times more awesome?

I am tagging:

Everyone who wants to do it.

Only because I: 8. Don't like to ask people to do things for me. Which may just fall into 5.

If you do, though, I'd totally love to read it--leave a comment and lemme know.

The Many Adventures of Girl Dog Watermelon

We got our kids a dog, since our very large yard was terribly lonely. Bug's very wisely named her Girl Dog Watermelon (but it's just Watermelon for short). Within the first week living with us she took out all the other puppy competition by biting the eyes off every stuffed dog we owned.

Clearly she was born to be a member of the family.

And also:

Did you know it's a terrible idea to lose your internet card?

It is. All kinds of very terrible things happen, like you disappear off the face of the map: no blogging, no Twitter, no email or newsfeeds or comic book information or anything. When you're cheap, it's even worse, because your entire house gets ripped apart (and subsequently rearranged) in the attempts to find the damned thing because shelling out the cash for a brand new one that you only need because you're a dolt is physically painful.

But, because it was driving me absolutely mad, I was missing everyone terribly and getting ten minutes of free internet from the library was proving to be an impossible task, roughly three months or so later I've finally broken down and bought a brand new one, which means as soon as the return policy runs out I'll find the runaway. Which is virtually impossible, dammit, since I've looked everywhere but beneath the floor boards, but it'll still happen.

So, hello internet! I got a lot of really nice emails (thank you so much) that I'll be replying to throughout the week and expect to get comments on a bunch of your older posts as I start working my way through. I hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, and now my new internet card is attached to a keyring finder beeper thing.

The technical name clearly escapes me at the moment.

So, tell me what's been going on! What have I missed, how were your holidays, what's new and fantastic that replaces out the old and terrible? All sorts of things, please save me from months of catching up.

And hello!

Some Things Always Make Me Feel Better

pity this busy monster,manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victime(death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
--electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange;lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh

and tress,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if-listen;there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go


-e.e. cummings


'plays with the bigness of his littleness' is going to be my phrase for the week.

Books That Look Good (or not) And Other Cool Stuff

You all may have noticed my suspicious lack of presence in The Stop (and maybe moreso online), The Stop's lack of Friday will be status quo until Bug's schedule settles in and everything smooths back out again here, but never fear, I'm back up and running online as of this morning after a really nice impromptu vacation at Whidbey Island. Bossman has apparently rapidly replaced me with another assistant, who may or may not be me in disguise (ignore how she is far too petite and how there's now way I can Slaveen myself into her skin). You all should be very nice to her, because she's awesome.

But if you love her too much, I'll have to hunt each and every one of you down and make you suffer. Just a note.

Moving on!

Angel: After The Fall #12: Well. Gunn certainly is in it, isn't he? This book marks the year-ish anniversary of this book and sometimes I've found myself sliding into the "Why can't I quit you" cliche. The plot's been really slow going--there was a lot of explanation and ground to be made up thanks to us starting with Angel and the Scattered Crew straight in LA. The art's been difficult to maneuver. The character voices are on, though, and they've been on throughout the whole thing.

I think Brian Lynch has to spend a lot of time condensing and slimming the plot a bit and direct the focus of the book a bit better from issue to issue to make just a little more actually happen in each book. After twelve issues, I really don't feel like anything huge has happened except the reveal that Gunn is a vampire, Angel is human (both of which were really early on in the series) and them finally meeting up in the last issue. I know there was that big Lord of the District battle (Waaaaaarriors, come out to plaaaaaaay) but I really didn't give a damn about what the outcome was, other than us finding out about Angel.

Another problem I'm having, and possibly the biggest reason this story is having a hard time sticking in my memory, is that the art is just that off-putting for me. Blast.

Recommendation: All that said, I'm still grabbing it. I love my Dark, Broody Forehead Man. And I'm still saving up for that Puppet. Don't think I've forgotten.


Buffy #18: Fray! Fraaaay. Fray. Fray. Fray. Hey, it's Fray guys. Fray and all her awesome awesomeness! Fray whose hair is completely wicked. Fray. I wish the title was Fray the Vampire Slayer. Even just temporarily for this storyline.

Oh, and that blonde chick what's-her-face. Oh, and that horse girl thing with the completely-obvious-but-still-funny-neigh-neigh-jokes.

Fraaaaaaaay. (Fray).

I'm really pleased Joss is involving Fray, for more than just how wicked much I love Fray. He's addressing the, 'uh, I thought Buffy empowered all potential slayers everywhere and solved the Final Evil Crisis, what the shit is this Fray comic saying about that?' issue. Can I get a yay?

What's that? 'Fray'?

Recommendation: Fray.


Detective Comics #848: This cover is really slick. Totally not a R.I.P. tie-in, but it's Dini, man, so who cares? The story steams up as Hush's master plan leads Batman to save a child from Scarecrow.

I'm really enjoying this--it's Hush, who is fantastic, and it's story development about Hush, which is also fantastic.

Go Team Detective Comics!

Recommendation: On it! Go!









Secret Six #1: Oh, happy goddamn day, it's almost here! I shouldn't even have to pimp this, what the hell people, you're unconvinced? Villains being awesome? Nicola Scott! Gail Simone! Original Simone Character! WHEE. That 'whee' is not sardonic at all, as are almost all my other ones. If you're unconvinced, check out the preview that Newsarama has up. Be convinced and snag it.

DC's solit reads: Because you demanded it! The Secret Six are back in an all-new ongoing series that promises to deliver some of the darkest, most twisted action-adventure the DC Universe has seen since...well, the last time the Secret Six got together! Writer extraordinaire Gail Simone (BIRDS OF PREY) is reunited with BIRDS penciller Nicola Scott to chronicle the adventures of the Six, and you will not believe what they have in store. Join Catman, Scandal, Deadshot, Ragdoll, and ?? as they prepare for an adventure that will take them through a gauntlet across the seediest parts of the DC Universe, and will ultimately pit them against a foe more monstrous and murderous than any they've had to face!

Recommendation: Snaaaaag it, dammit, how is this not totally fantastic? Well, it IS.




Also up this week, but doesn't get a semi-paragraph due to School Starting and House Invasion:

Green Lantern #34: Woot. Seriously, woot. I think I could claw myself out of my skin in anticipation of actually getting to the Great Big Storyline We All Want.

Dynamo 5 #16: My favorite teenaged super-team, hands down. Suck it, McKeever, and thanks for ruining the Teen Titans! /bitter.

Noble Causes #36: I'm also still kind of bitter over the self-cancellation of Noble Causes. I love that Jay Faerber knows when what he's writing doesn't have the same heart it used to, but dammit, I wish it had the same heart it used to. I'm going to miss these guys when they're gone, like woah.

Fringe #1: I heard that the premiere episode wasn't that great, and I'm pretty iffy about non-Whedon comic books that tie into television shows, but that Chuck one wasn't too terrible. I'll give this a decent flip-through and see.

Manhunter #34: It's Manhunter. 'Nuff said.

Nightwing #148: How did this not warrant a full picture? Well, it's a 'R.I.P.' tie-in, and while the issue was good, I was annoyed by the lack of actual tie-in. Isn't Nightwing in an asylum somewheres? Lord. Tomasi, though, yay.

Tank Girl Visions of Booga #4: Tank Girl is so bad ass. I loves me some Tank Girl.

Titans #4: This is clearly an 'or not'. I've restrained mentioning it for like, an issue, so let me take this time again to remind you all what utter crap it is. Someone, tweet when the hell zone for all things Titans is over.



Things That Warrant a Geeked Special Mention:

I Kill Giants #2 is out today, of which you should most definitely be grabbing for yourselves. You'll all be sorry if you don't. 'Nuff said.

Grok Issue #2: Secret Origins from my friends over at Alert Nerd hit the virtual shelves today as well. This is a really well put together geek webzine that's still in its infancy. Not that you can actually tell it's in its infancy, thanks to a few overachievers who do what they love to do and do it damned well. With articles such as I Was a Teenage Letterhack and The Facebook Newsfeed for Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, as well as others exploring the whys and hows of their geeky origins, finding the extraordinary in the everyday and a tale that involves Star Power and Issues 10-14, you won't find a miss.

Issue 1 can be found here. Give both a read and then head over to to give these guys some props. (the kids still give those, yes? Shut it, Webster, they do NOW.)



Also:

Yeah. That's right. Suck it, haters.

You may all look forward to a Very Special Geeked 90210 Post.

Starting . . . now.

Stir Crazy

Stop complaining, Dick and let Batman be Fabulous.

It's official: I'm going completely stir-crazy without a car. I have no car. Noooo car. None. No driving for me. No freedom of the open road. No road rage.

Sob.

Instead of sulking, I am going to do several things this week, and to keep myself honest, I'll post my list.

• finish up those three sample articles for freelance submission portfolio
• firm up proposal and those eight sample pages and email them to artist in potentia
• pad resume. like woah.
• betray The Stop and hit LCS tonight
• work on that Stephanie Meyer Analysis
• write 15,000 words in that story you've been ignoring in favor of Twitter

So there. Keep me honest, internets.

Saving Up For Future Therapy One Penny At A Time

Children are very funny creatures.

Both of mine are still quite young (5 and 1, for those keeping track), and the oldest, Bug, is showing an excellent imagination in things that May Or May Not Be Real.

This suits our family atmosphere fairly perfectly, we love monsters and creepy of all shapes and sizes and are pleased to see this carry onto our children.

He likes to make up monster stories at bedtime and is constantly curious about why their mothers let them run about at night. I have attempted to explain that monsters just prefer to sleep during the day, but he remains unconvinced this is the case.

In Bug Land, there are dozens of monster children running about at midnight with their monster Mamas hot on their trail, eager to put them into time-out. (As a note to other parents out there, I highly recommend My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck.)

Cut to yesterday at roughly noon.

A high-pitched scream breaks into my serene Google Reader check and interrupts baby Lyn Hippo's studious lunchtime nom-nomming (comparable to a massacre of epic proportions). I hear the sliding glass door slam determinedly closed and Bug announce, with no small amount of panic, that they're going to get inside and get us. He proceeds to lock the back door, put the bar down and close the curtains.

I half-expect him to run to the sewing machine to craft black-out curtains or run to the kitchen and arm himself.

I'm trying not to snicker, because I am horrible and haven't ever heard such a panicked, high-toned scream from my son. He's yanking me to the back door, pulling the curtain aside a mere half an inch to stab at the glass in a frantic manner. When I attempt to open the door, he dives for the couch and crawls up to safety, nearly hyperventilating and informing me once more they're going to get in.

The look I get from him makes it clear that in the afterlife, he is going to be blaming me.

"What's going to get in, Bug? I don't see anything."

"The slug, Mama. The SLUG."

". . . what slug?"

His mother's death-inviting blindness trumps fear, and he scrambles off the couch and grabs my hand tightly, braving the potential slaughter and pulling me towards the grass.

"THIS slug," he says, pointing into the grass before climbing up for safety.

The Slug

Bug's never really shown a fear of other bugs/insects/creepy crawlies before, so I frowned down at the slug in question, hefting him higher on my hip as I tried to figure out if this breed had mutated teeth or, perhaps, was brandishing a weapon of some sort. Perhaps it had stolen his Capri Sun and was mocking him with the straw.

". . . it's just a slug, buddy," I told him ruefully, patting his back and heading back to the patio after placing the threat level at Oscar.

"Mom," Bug insisted, expression clear in his belief that he was being raised by That Teenage Girl in the horror movies. You know, the one still wearing her heels in the forest and keeps looking over her shoulder. "Like Slither. It starts with one."

In Bug Land:

=

And, because I am that parent, I give him a solemn look and reply, "You're right. It does."


Never let it be said my children won't be prepared for the invasion.

Various Rumblings

“What we’re doing coming out of ‘Final Crisis’, and I’ll say this here, and I’ll say this everywhere is that we’re locking our characters down. We’re going with a good interpretation, and we’re staying with it. That’s why you don’t see Aquaman right now, because we want it to be clear what it is, who he is and what he’s all about.”

-Dan Didio, DC Nation Panel at Toronto Fan Expo

The entire article is pretty interesting, with some topics coming up that the fans needed addressed on at least some small level. And it got addressed on a level a bit bigger than small and after not hearing from Didio for a few weeks now, to hear him come out of Fan Expo with some strong statements regarding how characters are being handled is really nice.

Here's another bit, when a fan asked why DC was constantly second to Marvel in sales:

Didio took the question as an opportunity to address what he thought was one of his company’s problems over the past few years, which in his words was “My problem with us is that we reboot the characters too much."

“What happens is that if a character doesn’t work, we go, ‘We got a brand new direction to put him in! We’re moving him into something new! We’re going to try something brand new and different! We’re going to throw everything out and start over again!’ We make that mistake, but what that does is, it alienates fans.

“Our biggest mistake is that we don’t continue and build on…what we should be doing is let it sit for a while and then come back with a good strong story with what’s going on. That’s what Geoff [Johns] does. That’s Geoff’s secret weapon. He doesn’t throw it all out and start all over. He builds on what’s existed and makes it better…We get too worried about the minutia…all we should be doing is telling great stories with our characters.

And he's exactly right when he says 'all we should be doing is telling great stories with our characters'. It's precisely right and it is why I like Geoff Johns so much.

So, here's big hopes that we're going to be seeing some follow through in the next year on all the great big story lines coming out of DC--and not just Final Crisis. Seeing DC recognize the great characters they already have and attempt to cut out the shenanigans in favor of stronger writing is exactly what the franchise needs, if you ask me. (Not that, of course, anyone officially did.)

And this, kids, is how you properly quote an article. When things get a nice, thorough read, we can see exactly what Dan was talking about!! It's amazing what a little intelligence can get you.

As for Aquaman . . .

All the ladies love him. He took this as proof for Hal.

Moving on, to another panel coverage article, this time from the Fan Expo DC: A Guide To Your Universe.

Didio confirmed there is not one but two weekly series in the works to follow “Trinity,” that James Robinson is working on a “Justice Society of America” project and that Matt Sturges will be penning a villain centric series that will be announced soon.

What what? What? A villain-centric series? Oh? Yes? Will that give us two villain series for me to read?

Yes, yes it will.

Awesome.

While Trinity has definitely been picking up, the idea of two weekly series terrifies me. But I'm going to be a sucker and go for it, I know I will. There is no hope for me here.

The panel also delved deeply into the Flashes, into how there could be room for all of them and more words regarding Bart's status. Personally, if they handle Bart like he should've been handled from the beginning and fix him, I'll be so very happy. I like all the Flashes, why does there need to be just one(twothree)?

And onto the movies . . .

This concept of banking on fewer, bigger movies from Warner is a great, great idea. Finally, they're saying what smart fans have been saying for years. Darker DC movies is a concept I'm happy to see emerge. I have approximately a little over half a blackened soul, so I quite enjoy Really Dark Things. They don't tend to lose me (brain cells, woot) and I find it a bit more stimulating than the average popcorn flick.

Perhaps I can get an eventual villain-centric movie out of this deal! . . . hm, does Watchmen count?

Regarding the presently nebulous state of the Superman film franchise, Robinov said, "['Superman Returns]’ didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had 'Superman' worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all."

-CBR, via Wall Street Journal

Okay, I liked the damn film. Shut up. But this makes perfect sense to me--it didn't set up Superman as anything more than an interesting personal drama with one bad-ass villain. Yes, shut up, I liked Lex too. But really, hopefully this relaunch goes right into the meat without giving us the bones. We've seen the bones, we want meat! And real meat, please to not turn Superman into an emo kid. Take it from Nolan, there is a brilliant way to utilize dark moods. There is also a very, very terrible way to do it--in other words, don't emulate Smallville.

Pointless picture. I know, but it's funny. Cows eating chickens!

Maybe Kal-El conflicts?

I really wish we could get a Superman/Batman film now, but that's going to have to wait at least four or more years now. Which is the suckage, but at least Warner is attempting to take control of their movies. They want darker and grim, to combat Marvel's set of movies that, while owning serious notes, are definitely not deep thinker films.

It's a smart move--there's merit to both film aspects, as sales for both Iron Man and The Dark Knight evidence. And Warner shouldn't attempt to go head-to-head with Marvel, I'm glad that they see there's no point in pitting their stories. There's no point to it, it's the same thing with the comic book companies.

They each have a niche, and of course the popcorn is going to be more popular, but there's a place for both. (Note to self: think of a metaphor that compliments 'Marvel Popcorn'). Going from Marvel's lead in developing strong character movies and then blending them together in a team movie is smart, and dancing to the left to darken it all up is even smarter. They are sure to release their movies in the same summers, and by tweaking their tone, Warner's making sure that fans will want to see both without feeling like they've been inundated with the same concepts.

Reading the CBR article proves I sometimes have the sense of humor of a twelve year-old boy thanks to me snickering at the phrase 'tent-poles releases'. Unfortunate phrasing meets an immature brain.

As for the Ollie prison flick? Yum. I am looking forward eye-molesting to some sexy, muscled arms in the theater. Oh, uh, on a not-shallow level, the discussion in this article is heartening and both worrying, but writers/producers/et cetera tend to summarize things differently for a non-comic-geek crowd, so consider my fingers crossed for that being the case of a few comments throughout.

"But Batman is about his equipment and is about his theatricality and about his detective skills. And Green Arrow is a guy who’s really just the sort of MacGyver type,” Marks said. “In his hand, anything can be a weapon.”

This is completely true, and my twelve year-old chops surface again, this time with my imagination running with Batman's theatricality. Batman, you old drama queen you.



Another note, in these movie lines: Wonder Woman has some information up on IMDB, as we all know. The current writer is Matthew Jennison, whose only other movie credit is Beerfest. I'm really hoping this is just old bullshit and not . . . true. Um, pssssst, Warner? This is probably not the way to go.
Anyone have any solid information on this one for me?


Wired has an awesome article up on comic book tattoos, with some great pictures for you all to enjoy.

And courtesy Technogreek, AppleGeeks has this to say on the subject of Moody Character Films:

-AppleGeeks Lite #346

GameTrailer has some more game clips of the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, including Joker's fatality. Neeeeeat.



I'll say it again. Neeeeeeeat.

And to end this post on the best note possible, here's a follow up on the Convention Harassment Issue, Girl Wonder has done an awesome thing and organized the Convention Anti-Harassment Project. Take part. Let them know that gathering their forces together so quickly and getting this off the ground is an awesome, inspiring thing.

Good job, ladies!

Kirby Krackle Debuts!!

So, I've been really excited about this project from the moment my very awesome and very talented friends, Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens told me about it. I've been waiting very, very patiently for it to launch so I can pimp it out like nobody's business.

And lucky for my exploding patience, Kirby Krackle has gone live with their debut song, One Of The Guys. They're calling it Geek Rock and I'm in love with not just the fantastic songs they're putting out--lucky me, I've gotten to hear a few of the ones that aren't finished yet, and let me tell you, they just keep getting better and better--but as well the entire concept of Geek Rock and having music that isn't just rock-worthy, but totally serves to the geek crowd.

Built off their mutual long-lasting love for comic books and music, Kirby Krackle is going to put Geek Rock on the map. When Kyle and Jim combine their insane talents, we end up completely lucking out--these lyrics are so solid, so geek chic I can't get over it, with music that takes it right to the next level and makes Kirby Krackle more than just a novelty listen, but something you're going to want to put on your iPod and hear throughout the day.

Kyle puts the history of how this awesomeness came to be on his blog, so I'll just excerpt from his blog:

Fast forward to Winter of 2008 when COMIC STOP co-owner Jim Demonakos and I sat down to flesh the idea out and to see how it would really work, if at all. Maybe there was a reason it hadn’t been tried before? At first I found it really hard to wrap my brain around a completely different way of writing, but it seems that in the last few months we’ve hit our stride. Jim and I are so excited to be writing and recording songs about a subject we’ve loved our whole lives, and if you’re a fan of comics, movies, and games we know you’ll love these songs as well. It’s bizarre that it’s an almost completely untapped corner of music and if it’s true when they say they say write what you know, then between Jim and I we know A LOT of geeky shit.

Jim and Kyle are in the middle of recording an EP that you can look forward to seeing at the end of the year. So head over to their MySpace and give One Of The Guys a listen. Four listens, dammit, and then be sure to tell them how awesome they are, then please to pimp them out on your own blogs.

(And oh my God, Kyle and Jim, you totally need to sneak peek a few lyrics or whatnots to taunt them).