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There's a file on me, and it's a mile long
And they say that they've got all of the proof
That I'm just another case of arrested development
And just another wasted youth

They say that I'm in need of some radical discipline
And they say I've gotta face the truth
That I'm just another case of arrested development
And just another wasted youth

They say I'm wild and reckless
I should be acting my age
I'm an impressionable child
In a tumultuous world
And they say I'm at a difficult stage

But it seems to me to the contrary
Of all the crap they're gonna put on the page
That a wasted youth is better by far
Than a wise and productive old age.
-- Meat Loaf, "Everything Louder Then Everything Else", Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell 

No comics today, but i've got a big plan to put a serious dent into or maybe even kill off the backlog by the start of the new year. No November visitation stats either, but I'll hit those in a future visit. 

As we hit the Christmas season and the accompanying end of the year, it's natural to examine one's situation. Mine could be better. My health limits me from a lot and causes some serious worried about my future, especially given that precisely what's going on and why isn't understood. It's scary. And I could live to 100 and probably still miss my mother. Anyone who would think less of me for that probably wasn't as blessed as I was to have as special a person for a mother as I did. Knowing I will see her again is a great source of strength for me. 

But my situation, as unpleasant as it can be at times, does not define me. I choose the person that I want to be. I choose to be a generally good person who tries to do the right thing. I'm under no illusions of perfection, but I try. There are those who don't, for whatever reason. There are those who try to give the appearnce that they do, but don't. They can be told apart from people like me because they will immediately classify any criticism as untrue and solely the delusion of the criticizer because they earnestly believe in their own perfection. I do not. I'm more than willing to change if fault can be demonstrated to me. 

And I am hoping that no one takes what I said above as simple sniping at anyone that I've had a past with online... this goes way beyond that. You meet all types of people online and offline, in any kind of environment. And I'm not classifying any specific person into any specific group in this space. 

While I don't care for my situation of the past few years, I am confident of who I am. I'm Dave Hines, known to some as Boffo97. I'm a Christian. I don't talk about that side of my life on here much because I've not wanted to come off as preachy, but it's very important to me. Does it make me "holier" or anything else compared to someone else? No. God wants everyone to accept the gift of Salvation. Nothing I did under my own power enabled my own salvation. I'm an avid fan of WWE and the St. Louis Rams (even in this dismal season). I absolutely love karaoke, but am not in practice on it as much as I used to be. I consider myself to be a very strong candidate for weirdest person alive. I've always had the ability to make people laugh, and I've treasured that. 

And no matter how much life beats on me at times, I will be right here, still standing defiantly. Alone if need be, but with whoever will stand with me. 

Because I'm Dave Hines. 

And I happen to think Dave Hines is a pretty cool guy, worth standing by. 

Your milage may vary. 

Before we start the festivities today, as a football fan, I'd like to offer my condolences to fans of the Washington Redskins, as well as the family and friends of their Pro Bowl Free Safety Sean Taylor, who passed away last night. Taylor, 24, returned to his Miami home while being injured and unable to play the past two weeks. Sometime Sunday night or Monday morning, he confronted an intruder or intruders in the home who shot him in the inner leg, severing his femoral artery and causing major blood loss. Emergency surgeries were performed, but he passed without regaining consciousness. 

According to comments made by his father, Taylor was a Christian. I'm betting right now there will be a push to elect him to the Pro Bowl as a final posthumous honor. 

From the honorable to the dishonorable, and actually staying in Miami, a disciplinary hearing began yesterday on over fifty charges of ethics breaches made against Jack Thompson. Thompson is a lawyer who has, in the past, crusaded against Howard Stern and 2 Live Crew, and ran a rather preposterous political campaign once against Janet Reno. In recent years, he has concentrated more on efforts to blame various tragedies on video games, and do everything he can to block their sale. Take Two is a favorite topic of his. 

Now on the surface, the viewpoint he espouses is a legitimate one. Children should not be playing games that are inappropriate for their maturity level. The tools are there to help parents determine this. The problem though is not with the industry or the ratings system. The problem is with a parent who buys a game rated for mature audiences and ignores that rating, thinking that a video game is, by its nature, automatically for kids. If a parent allows a 12 year old to play Grand Theft Auto and the 12 year old emulates it, obviously that 12 year old should not have been playing the game. But you don't remove the game from market so no one can play it. You question why the parent was negligent, and if necessary, bring Child Protective Services into the matter. So Jack's viewpoints in the hands of a rational person could be tolerated and discussed. 

Jack Thompson will always blame games. Any infomation that seems to support his cause is magnified and it's never even considered that it could be untrue. Any information that shows his cause false is ignored. And worse yet, his behavior essentially is on par with any standard Internet troll I've seen. On one gaming news site, he has over 60 different logins to evade bans. This kind of behavior from an older person who is both a lawyer and a father is frightening. 

The deeper you dig on Jack Thompson, the uglier the behavior is. I don't know whether or not he'll be able to escape a full disbarment over this. But that's definitely what he deserves. 

Anyway, I have some more comic reviews for you kind folk. Here's August 8th, 2007: 

DC: 

Batman #667: CHECK IT. Batman and Robin go to a privately owned Carribean island for a gathering of the International Club of Heroes, a group of similarly themed heroes to Batman from many different nations. An eccentric billionaire tried to gather them together as a regular group once, and it lasted about a half hour. But they still get together on special occassions. But you know this wouldn't be a Batman story unless something's amiss... 

Batman Confidential #8: CHECK IT. The origin of the Joker continues, as we also get the origin of the Bat-Computer, or as Alfred insists it needs a better name than that, it is now called Dupin. Dupin? It seems like just yesterday I was reviewing a comic where Batman was frustrated by a criminal hitting targets at random. Hey! That was yesterday! Bruce also pursues a woman named Lorna in this story, but she has no magnetic powers. No one reading this will get that reference. This story is an interesting read, but this part seemed to tread a bit of water. 

Black Adam: The Dark Age #1: CHECK IT. Much as I hate spoiling endings in these reviews, this one got spoiled in early issues of Countdown. Adam ends up in Gotham and is so distraught that he just hands Mary Marvel his powers, and implies that Billy changed his magic word to "sorry". I guess this is how we get there. We start with a huge manhunt being on for Teth-Adam. He goes to some pretty extreme lengths to avoid it and get into Kahndaq and to the tomb of his brother and wife. But what does he want with remains? 

Countdown #38: MUST READ.

Karate Kid: Oracle is indeed busy. Calculator has launched a huge virus attack on the world, causing her to have to fight him and coordinate a lot of heroes into damage control. The attack even draws the attention of the Monitors. But she ignores his demands for his data and smacks him around digitally and calls him an amateur. Ha ha. Karate Kid tells her that he's dying. 

Mary Marvel: As she's talking to Zatanna, there's a disturbance in the water beside the cruise ship. Slig of the Deep Six hops aboard and says that his brothers in the Deep Six have been killed and starts converting humans to fish people as a defense. Mary somehow uses magic to blind him, and Slig dissolves a portion of Mary's shirt, exposing Mary cleavage. Go Slig! Zatanna is yelling at Mary to calm down, but she punches him for this. She's possibly still weirded out over the demon made of stillborn babies. I know I am. The New God killer shows up and kills Slig. Interestingly, his beam goes right through Mary, causing no harm whatsoever. He leaves, and that just leaves the weird things Slig turned people into. Mary just concentrates and lightning comes out of her body and turns them back into people... naked people. Zatanna is worried now. 

Piper & Trickster: Question and Batwoman want the duo's confession for killing Bart Allen. When they say they didn't do it, Question says to convince her. Trickster then takes out a pair of puppets and launches into an impromptu puppet show talking about how innocent they are. AWESOME. Piper is horrified. Batwoman is unamused. Question is convinced that they're innocent, because they're too stupid to be murderers. "Trust me, those two idiots couldn't kill time." Trickster officially rules and gets the MUST READ for this book by himself. 

Jimmy Olsen: Mr. Action tries out for the Teen Titans. Robin is nonplussed, but attacks him anyway. But because Robin held back and didn't threaten his life, Jimmy's powers don't activate. D'oh. 

Monitors: They note that Oracle stopped Calculator's virus, but that they can't find either Monitor Bob, Monitor Bob's party or Ray Palmer. 

Apokolips: Darkseid is so upset about the Deep Six dying that he knocks over his Heroclix. 

Dupin: Dupin? 

All of this (except Dupin) and History of the Multiverse Chapter 12 wraps up the history with Evil Monitor getting more support for his killing ways, so Monitor Bob bails. 

Green Arrow: Year One #3: CHECK IT. Look at those nice men here to rescue Ollie, greeting them with their friendly bullets. He can respond with some friendly arrows. They have a fight. Arrow wins. Particle Man. Ollie investigates where the plane lands and discovers the island he's on is a major heroin production facility. Would it be awful to try to point out which flower makes what goes in Speedy's arm later? Probably. Ollie also has a showdown with the "friend" who got him into this mess. 

Green Lantern #22: MUST READ. Hal's trapped on Qward against Parallax and a bunch of Sinestro Corpsmen when a party of Green Lanterns come to his rescue. Because he needed a plot complication, it's the same ones who hate him because he "killed" them when he was Parallax. But they stick by their fellow GL. In the meantime, Superboy-Prime is looking at Earth with evil intentions, and the Cyborg Superman is promising to serve the Anti-Monitor in exchange for one thing: to be killed afterwards. Jack T. Chance sets a new record here for dying after being resurrected in a comic (about 10 issues or so) as the GL party escapes Parallax and the Sinestro Corpsmen and look for John and Guy. 

JLA Classified #41: BURN IT. The Kid Amazo storyline, which I had such high hopes for, limps into the finish line. Kid Amazo visits professor Ivo to find out that while Amazo is his father, Ivo's daughter is his mother... and that would be.... his girlfriend Sara! Wha huh? Wait... what? So was Amazo anatomically correct and make it with this girl or something? This was dumb. And the way Kid Amazo is defeated fails to logical scrutiny as well. This one should have been left on the To Do list. 

Outsiders: Five of a Kind #2 - Katana and Shazam: CHECK IT. There's trouble inside Katana's magical sword. Captain Marvel, with his enhanced power taking over the role of Shazam, senses it too, but he can't leave the Rock of Eternity. Katana decides the best way to handle it is to enter the sword herself. The way to do that is to die at the hand of the sword, so she commits seppuku. She futzes around in the sword for a bit before it turns out this wasn't the best idea. Batman ends up using this to determine who he wants as his mystical base on his Outsiders team between Katana and Marvel. Not to spoil anything, but I bet he picks the one that can *leave the Rock of Eternity* on a prolonged basis. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Girl #11: CHECK IT. Carnage has captured Peter and May's baby brother Ben, but seems to be rather schizophrenic about the whole matter, with one voice being his typically sociopathic self and one voice begging the other not to hurt anyone. Meanwhile, May has to find Carnage while being sought by SHIELD and its super powered team. Can Peter escape? Can May figure out who is inside Carnage and why? 

Fantastic Five #3: CHECK IT. Doom can gloat. Gloat, gloat, gloat. He's good at that, you know. While he does that, it allows the members of the F5 (not Brock Lesnar's finisher) he hasn't captured to regroup and make their counterattack.But even a seeming victory will result in a surprise being revealed.... and an awful choice. 

New Avengers #33: CHECK IT. After recent issues of finding out Elektra was replaced by a Skrull and having Spider-Woman walk away from the team with the corpse (seemingly to take it to Tony Stark), paranoia is high amongst the team that one of them is secretly a Skrull and they're all at each other's throats. If that weren't enough, continuity is actually being pesky, and Hot Naked Female Ultron is rampaging (though this team isn't going after her... ? Him? It? Dupin? Also, when heroes aren't fighting each other, there's villains, and some of them are trying to sell off Deathlok to each other. I actually had to check Wikipedia on this because I thought there was a continuity gaffe with Fantastic Four, where Deathlok was no longer a cyborg. I found out there's been four Deathloks. The one here is the first, Luther Manning. The one in FF is the third, Michael Collins. 

New Avengers/Transformers #2: CHECK IT. The Avengers want to kill kill kill the Autobots, until Dr. Doom saves the day (?) with magic buttons that override the magic angry wave and make everyone feel better. After this, a lot of people introduce themselves, and in the big dome, Spider-Man heckles the Decepticons. Still, no one remembers he met them all before in Transformers #3. At the end, the true writer of the series I mentioned last issue of this shows up to save the day. 

Punisher War Journal #10: PASS IT. Well, Frank finally decided to stop sitting around tied to a post while wearing the faux Captain America uniform. And it wasn't him that killed the innocent girl, it was a hate machine that the racists built which put hate into his head that *made* him do it. Uh... huh. Anyway, G.W. Bridge is the real hero of this story arc. Move along, nothing to see here. 

Next time, we hit August 15th, 2007... and the man... the myth... the legend.... but not the Dupin (Dupin?)... and no, it's not me. Be sure to tune back for that. 

Weird, I quote Carry On My Wayward Son last time, and then last night, I unlock the song on Guitar Hero II. 

Looking forward to RAW tonight. That whole SaveUs campaign may have been drawn out for a long time, but it was very well done. Jericho got a response last night worthy of a main eventer. My question is would he have gotten that over if he hadn't left the company? It does show that he was correct in *not* going to TNA. 

Not much else to say right now, but I do have comic reviews to get to, so let's get right into it with August 1st, 2007: 

DC: 

Action Comics #853: CHECK IT. As the story opens, every primate in the Metropolis Zoo is dead by what seems to be Kryptonite poisoning. The answer becomes immediately obvious as a Kryptonite monkey breaks the Kryptonite Man out of prison. Elsewhere, Jimmy reflects that his new superhero career as Mr. Action is tougher than it seems. Among his strange abilities, he knows who all the Robins were/are (explaining an early plot inconsistency I griped about in Countdown), he knows who Wonder Woman is, and he knows where seven of Lex Luthor's hidden labs are. But when he thinks about Superman, an image of Lois & Clark come to mind. Ha! When Clark hears about the Kryptonite Man, he leaves Jimmy to search and Jimmy does the same. Mr. Action finds the villain first and gets captured, breaking his signal watch. Superman finds the Kryptonite Man anyway. But in the closet where Jimmy is stowed, he begins constructing a new signal apparatus (with his hands behind his back, that's a nice trick). Who will his signal reach? 

All New Atom #14: MUST READ. This one started solidly in CHECK IT territory and then veered toward awesome halfway through. Although Ryan welcoming Jason Todd, Donna Troy and Monitor Bob to the "City on the Edge of My Dog's (Butt)" was pretty funny. Here we get an alternate take on the start of the search for Ray Palmer, as we visit the home of the giant floating heads with weird verb tenses, and then find out Ray is in "Have In". Where we go awesome is a guest shot by Ted Kord. It's a minor spoiler to say no permanent consequences come of this issue, because everyone saw that coming anyway, but it's still cool. I also loved the message given for Booster and the League. Our heroes get a message of their own. Two lines of the book. Ryan: "Jetpack Hitler. Reality has finally jumped the shark." and Ted: "Well, all right. If anyone sees Max Lord? That %@$# is mine." 

Black Canary #3: CHECK IT. Merlyn and The League of Assassins have grabbed Sin and Dinah is *pissed*. How pissed? She's threatening cops and even gives Ollie a martial arts throw when he says he "won't let her go off half cocked." Dinah ends up saving her evil ex's life from Merlyn and using him as bait to draw her out. When Merlyn reminds her that he's beaten Green Arrow, she reminds him that she has too. In the meantime, Green Arrow has been in contact with Oracle, who has found a cargo ship bound for Hong Kong that day. We end with just about the most obvious cliffhanger I've ever seen in a comic book. 

Countdown #39: CHECK IT.

Karate Kid: Val and Una visit Oracle. They decide the best way to do so is break in at night. Val smashes through all of Oracle's fancy hardware even though she tries telling him she wants to be left alone. She knows about him, but she's busy. Call back and they can have an appointment. Sound advice, why didn't they at least *try* this? Finally Val breaks through the last of the barriers. Oracle says she really doesn't have time to help because she's battling a security breach and protecting the identities of every hero on Earth from being stolen. Oops. 

Piper & Trickster: Penguin provides the duo with food and wine. But it's a trap (get out of my blog, Ackbar!) because the Suicide Squad (represented by Deadshot, Captain Boomerang Jr., Plastique and Bronze Tiger) are there to grab them. The duo manage to escape through Penguin's restaurant and bolt in the confusion. Piper manages to play a tune cloaking them in invisibility which throws the Suicide Squad off, but they end up confronted by The Question and Batwoman. 

Donna Troy & Jason Todd: Donna, Jason, Ryan Choi & Monitor Bob are travelling through a weird sub-quantum space when Monitor Bob says he thinks they're being watched. That's literally all they do this week. 

Jimmy Olsen: Mr. Action stops a mugger with elastic powers, and gets a kiss from the victim for his efforts. He ponders which super team he should join and decides on the Teen Titans, totally missing the mugger sneaking away. 

Holly Robinson (but not THAT Holly Robinson): Harley tells Holly she's lucky to get an audience with Athena. Holly tells Harley she's gone from being a suckup to the Joker to a suckup to Athena. Harley says Holly was just a suckup to Catwoman. Girls! Neutral corners! Or lingerie! I forget which. Holly relates her concerns to Athena over the woman with a child rejected last issue. Athena says taking women with children would tax her resources, and recommends a self esteem class, so that Holly can see the benefits to her philosophy. Holly is dubious, but agrees. 

All this and History of the Multiverse, Chapter Eleven reveals just why the Monitors are so worked up. 

Detective Comics #835: CHECK IT. Being held in the general population of Arkham Asylum without access to his fear gas, the Scarecrow is assumed powerless, both by the Asylum and by his fellow inmates. He makes his escape via a method not thought of and begins a campaign of incitement of terror through randomness, anyone at anytime can be a victim and nobody's safe. Can Batman stop him if there's no pattern? 

Justice Society of America #8: MUST READ. This is an issue so heavily focussed on Liberty Belle that it could have been an issue of JSA Classified. It also represents a very personal validation for Damage. I like both characters, but I'm not overboard a fan of either. I really liked this story though. The current Liberty Belle is Jessie Chambers, the daughter of former JSA Members Johnny Quick and the original Liberty Belle. Jessie herself was known as Jessie Quick before losing her speed. Her father (and she was a daddy's girl) was obsessed with pushing that potential in his daughter. She ended up seeing her mother's powers, and thus her mother as worthless. Now, she faces the villain she gave up her speed powers against, and it happens to be the same villain that scarred Damage's face, forcing him to wear a mask. Can they defeat him? Interesting note: According to page #1 of this issue, all previous issues of Justice Society have taken one day each in story time, as the entire seven previous issues have happened in a week. 

Metal Men #1: PASS IT. I just don't know what to make of this. The Metal Men are favorites of mine, but these just don't feel like the Metal Men. Duncan Rouleau is not my favorite artist. His work here is a lot better than on the Black Alice Helmet of Fate Special (which admittedly some people really liked his work on), but the portraying the Metal Men as looking like 1950s or so robots just doesn't do much for me in 2007 and knowing they're, essentially, shapeshifters. Why would they choose to look like that? Plus, the writing has us jumping about from time period to time period and involving time travel as well, plus we have magic and a machine group entity. It just seemed a bit much to be throwing at us. I did like the introduction of the character Helen as the put upon girlfriend so gaga in love for Will Magnus that she puts up with how incredibly absent-minded she is. I could grow to appreciate Copper, the new (and 2nd female Metal Man unless you go really old school and count Nameless). I don't know though. Not an impressive effort here. 

Nightwing #135: PASS IT. Nightwing doesn't actually make an appearance here. It's all Dick Grayson, captured for at least two days by the Vigilante, tied to a chair until he spills why he's with these criminals from his past again. Of course, he's not really with them, so he can't give any answers. All in all,  it feels like we're reading a few issues of just commercial for how tough Vigilante is. Of course, it doesn't spoil the story itself to spill a detail I've learned via the fact that this review is so late. This story never finishes up in the pages of Nightwing at all. If we want closure on the story, we have to read Vigilante #1. 

Outsiders: Five of a Kind #1 - Nightwing and Boomerang: PASS IT. In a vacumn, it's a decent enough story, but sometimes comics don't happen in a vacumn. First off, much as I don't like spoiling endings with these reviews, it was spoiled as far back as July 18th with All-Flash #1 that Captain Boomerang, Jr. would be part of the new Suicide Squad. I can see why they did that, but it's ignoring the fact that Owen is not his father. George "Digger" Harkness was an utter sociopath. He was fun in Suicide Squad because he cared about nothing and nobody but himself, so you loved to hate him. Owen sought out Tim Drake's forgiveness for the incident that killed both their fathers. He helped Supergirl through a rough patch and seemed to genuinely care about her, despite getting the shaft in return. Secondly, it does seem the whole "sins of the father" thing came up way too quick for Owen in this story when he had proved himself and was in good standing. Lastly, I thought a big part of Infinite Crisis was to take Batman out of "manipulative jerk" mode and humanize him again. He was a complete and utter manipulative jerk here. When desires of other books trump good storylines, this is what you come up with. 

Supergirl #20: CHECK IT. Amazons Attack crossover as Supergirl finally gets that her pathetically stupid "lets down Air Force One and kidnap the President so we can force him to talk to the Amazonian Queen" was pathetically stupid. After reviewing some scenes from that book, Supergirl heads to Washington, DC to fight some Amazons there and is damaged by an arrow she thus deduces is magic. A man there is less than amused by her presence as his wife was on Air Force One and for all he knows, she was the one casualty. Will he help Supergirl? Or kill her? 

Marvel: 

Fantastic Four #548: CHECK IT. The Frightful Four have Sue captured on Titan and think they've killed Reed, Ben, Johnny, T'Challa and Ororo by booby-trapping (Not a word, Ackbar!) their space cruiser to make an earth-shattering kaboom. But T'Challa suspected it was a trap (No, Ackbar.), so they tested it first and found that it was. Our heroes then show up in the backup space cruiser and the rest of the issue is basically a fight scene. It's a pretyt good fight scene, but a fight scene nonetheless. 

New Avengers Illuminati #4: MUST READ. First off, the cover here is awesome, featuring in the typical poses of the Illuminati, the women who love them: Lilandra (Xavier), Susan Richards (Reed), Clea (Dr. Strange), Medusa (Black Bolt) and Madame Masque (whom Iron Man apparently once slept with). Strange revealing that Clea has left him to rule the Dark Dimension leads to a patently hilarious conversation between the group over women. However, the main thrust of the issue is about Noh-Varr, a Kree who has declared war on Earth, and the group's attempts to get him to become Captain Marvel's successor instead. Too many lines of the book to mention, especially in the first part. 

New Warriors #3: CHECK IT. The two officers checking out the New Warriors make the discovery that no body was recovered for Night Thrasher only a scrap of uniform. Meanwhile, the New Warriors continue to train, using the villain Arcade's old Murderworld as a Danger Room after some conversion. Sofia tells Jubilee no (and in a couple of panels seems to be staring directly at Jubilee's chest). The New Warriors also respond to Tony Stark's offer of "Amnesty If You Join Us" from last issue by spray painting "Stark's Hopeless Initiative Empowers Losers & Dorks". It's just so immature, it's worth a chuckle. The supposedly late Night Thrasher's brother (who is supposedly handicapped now) says that after his brother's supposed death, he got a call demanding money. He refused, but money was withdrawn anyway, and only he and his brother knew the codes. Jubilee gets a visit from her most famous friend (and he didn't even appear on the cover!) And the officers find what they were looking for. 

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #4: CHECK IT. As we wrap up this mini, the calvalry arrives in more ways than one. Reed Richards returns from checking out other planets the H'Mojen have colonized and Spider-Man vomits up the entire race of the Impossible Man (which is no mean trick). However, in their own way, the Poppupians could be just as big a threat as the H'Mojen. Can our heroes find a way to save Earth from both threats? 

Thor #2: CHECK IT. Now that Thor's back, he needs a crib, so he re-establishes Asgard. But you can't just establish Asgard in the middle of somebody's cornfield. The way this all gets resolved is great, but I can't give it a higher grade because nothing more happens than this. 

World War Hulk #3: CHECK IT. General Ross has a plan! Bullets! When they don't work, more bullets! When they don't work... aw, you see where I'm going with it. It doesn't work. Shooting Hulk doesn't even work while Dr. Strange is talking to him in his head mystically, but Hulk smashes his hands (how?) for trying. The President appeals to Sentry, who ignores them. In the meantime, Hulk (AND HIS POSSE!) decide they have to play GOTTA CATCH EM ALL with the Marvel heroes and then battle them once they do. Rick Jones is trying to talk sense to the nobody that will listen all issue. But Dr. Strange has a special plan.... 

Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man. 
Though my mind could think, I still was a mad man. 

And if I claim to be a wise man, then it surely means that I don't know. 

If you pay attention to such things, and happen to see entries missing or altered, don't mind it, just doing a little housekeeping. I've always been of the mind that this is a living blog, and putting things the way they should be is much more important than preserving everything forever in amber. I know I've made mistakes, they don't need to be here forever. 

Been having a lot of fun lately with the latest patch for World of Warcraft, 2.3. The biggest two changes in it were two things designed to help characters below level 60 level faster. Between level 20-60, the amount of experience needed to level went down by 15% per level. Between 30-60, the amount of experience granted by quests has gone up. These two improvements actually have some synergy with each other, since you are doing more rewarding quests towards a lower experience point requirement to level. 

So Sapsinger, Kelra, Morsh and Iridiscia can all take advantage of both improvements. Flamebeard, Humansbane, Stormwindspy and Traitor benefit only from the level XP decrease. Kalrena, Muucau and Ilp need to level some more before taking advantage of either improvement. Boffo is already at maximum level. And, I do find it cool that I got someone to maximum under the old system. 

As well, a new town full of quests helps out the late 30s-early 40s range for questing, which didn't help Iridiscia or Kelra, but Sapsinger is getting right into the right area. Plus many quests which formerly targeted elites and were thus group quests have had those elites turned into non-elites, making them solo quests, which has really helped with the number of quests available. 

If anyone out there is following my Pokemon exploits, you might be interested to know that it suddenly has become a lot more possible for DarkHelm and I to "catch them all". Certain Pokemon were flat out unavailable to obtain in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. These were the Starters and the Legendaries of Generations 1-3. Some of these were easy to get through alternate means. DarkHelm and I got Fire Red and Leaf Green which got us the Generation 1 Starters (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander and the Pokemon they evolve to) as well as a copy of Pokemon Emerald for each of us (which covered Generation 3). Some were going to be problematic. There is no Generation 2 game playable on the DS, so the only way to get those starters is to complete the Pokedex in Emerald, which would get you one of the three starters. Also, a few of the Legendaries are ones that we would have had to go to some event in the past. 

Now, there is a Global Trade System in the game, but as I may have mentioned before, you can only use it to trade for a Pokemon if you've unlocked it in your Pokedex first. We've found a way to unlock all of these Legendaries and Gen 2 Starters in the Pokedex. The only Legendaries that are still locked are the ones still not officially announced in America, Darkrai, Shaymin and Arceus. (BTW, no, this really isn't some game trick. We basically found someone who traded versions of these to us. No, we're not willing to do the same.) As of right now, without these three, there are 490 different Pokemon in the game. I have encountered 462 and have owned 453 of those. 

I caught the tail end of "White Christmas" tonight. They were singing the song. It occurred to me that I've had 33 Christmases. I don't remember all of them, but as far as I know, precisely zero of them were the least bit "white". 

Though I'm not completely a humbug. I did hang up my stocking Wednesday night. This is my *original* stocking. My name was sewn into it when I was a baby by my late greatgrandmother. This thing is an heirloom as far as I'm concerned. 

Anyway, with no further ado, and long overdue, I present Comic Reviews for July 25th, 2007: 

DC: 

All Star Batman and Robin #6: CHECK IT. This series continues to be a car wreck, but it's one of those car wrecks you really can't turn away from. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) is on the cover, but she's not the main attraction here. Black Canary is the one getting herself involved in Batman's life (and having no compunctions against taking money from the criminals she beats up to help her friends pay rent, comparing herself to Robin Hood). The GD Batman, meanwhile, is up to his usual tricks. Amongst other things, he kicks in the windshield of a "rotten" cop, urging him to "Eat glass, lawman!" The GD Batman is not well. 

Batman #666: CHECK IT. But just barely above a PASS IT. Because of the number of the issue, we take a trip to the future where Bruce's son Damian is now Batman, and the only other familiar character is police commissioner Barbara Gordon. Our villain is another Batman who is apparently the son of Satan (uh... huh) who has plans to usher in the apocalpyse but still seems to have human vulnerabilities. Potential gives it a CHECK IT, but pushing too much into a single normal sized issue hurt it. 

Blue Beetle #17: MUST READ. Eleven words: "Are you going to fight the giant naked bad man now?" How can you go wrong with an opening like that? Jaime matches up against former Firestorm villain Typhoon in this issue, causing him to have to worry about having to save the innocent civilians in a town. Unfortunately, the only building safe enough to act as a shelter is a new hotel and the snooty manager won't let them in. I actually laughed out loud at the solution Jaime pulled off to this dilemma. The ending here is also very good. Plus, the fact that we're actually namechecking Ted Kord regularly as an important influence to Jaime is very nice in this book as well. 

Countdown #40: CHECK IT.

Donna Troy & Jason Todd: With Ryan Choi and Monitor Bob, they're checking the subatomic "Palmerverse" for Ray Palmer. They are surrounded by natives who are offended by Ryan's Atom costume and attack. When Jason threatens one of them to "make [his] nose bleed out the back of [his] skull", the aliens become friendly and say he was looking for powerful magic to undo the doom that had befallen him, and that there was a realm beyond that where all things were possible. 

Jimmy Olsen: Lois investigates a Mr. Action sighting. She comments that all the good names must have been taken. Jimmy shows up late saying he had to stop for film, but Lois remembers that he had recently gone digital. 

Mary Marvel: Mary sneaks aboard a cruise ship where Zatanna is performing. When a guy is heckling Zatanna, Mary thinks of dumping him overboard, Zatanna senses the "major anger" and resolves to get to Mary quick. On a personal note, both up to this point, and in the future to now, they've given very little good reason why the formerly pure as snow Mary is going *this* evil. 

Holly Robinson (but not that Holly Robinson... RIP Major Spoilers :( ): Holly is very disturbed when she sees Harley refuse to take a woman for the shelter simply because the woman has a child. Harley's only explanation is that that's Athena's rule. Holly says she'll talk to her about it. 

Apokolips: While reviewing Parademons, Darkseid seems introspective. Desaad gets out of dodge. He comments that he wishes his sons would be as obedient as the Parademons. The concubine with Darkdseid comments on this, and gets zapped with the Omega Effect for her troubles. Desaad comes back and Darkseid orders that his next concubine have her vocal cords removed. In the meantime, someone in red and white armor is spying on the proceedings, noting that there's nothing out of the ordinary pointing to Darkseid being behind Lightray's murder. 

Piper & Trickster: The duo have gone to the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge for help. He very reluctantly agrees to put them up for one night in his wine cellar to maintain plausible deniability. But overhearing their whole conversation is Oracle, who routes it to The Question. 

All of this and History of the Multiverse Chapter Ten talks about the nature of the new Multiverse. Monitor Bob is the Monitor of New Earth, and of the 52 Monitors, each is a Monitor of one of the Earths... I'm calling that the Monitor who keeps pushing for killing everyone is the Monitor of Earth-3 and is thus evil. 

Green Arrow: Year One #2: MUST READ. Thrown overboard and left for dead by his friend Hackett last issue, millionaire alcoholic wastrel Oliver Queen washes ashore on a seemingly deserted island with no food or water except for what he can salvage and begins his personal redemption. In addition to staying alive, he has to worry about more and more signs that something very very wrong happened on this island, and when he spots a plane, it might not be rescue they have in mind. 

Green Lantern Corps #14: MUST READ. This storyline continues its excellent run. The main storyline here is Soranik Natu is on her planet, trying to calm things down because in her efforts to get people to accept her as a Green Lantern after Sinestro, a few people want her to be a new Sinestro. And wouldn't you know it, the old Sinestro shows up. But is his plan to win? And what could that mean? And readers of a certain famous Alan Moore Green Lantern story that I'll go into when I talk about the next issue of this might be intrigued to note that the Corps has amongst its new recruits a Daxamite named Sodam Yat. I'm sure he won't be important... especially in the next issue: The Battle of Mogo! 

JSA Classified #28: CHECK IT. Spotlight on Jakeem Thunder as he investigates a question Superman's looked into before (and other heroes I'm sure), "Why can't we be everywhere at once?" At first, it seems like a good idea to rebuild homes for people who have lost theirs, but once he becomes a free wish service, everybody wants something. 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #32: CHECK IT. Close to a PASS IT for an exposition heavy issue. We keep almost all our focus on Winath where Star Boy, Sun Boy and Mekt Ranzz have been met at the Ranzz farm on Winath by Tenzil Kem, special UP investigator, currently searching for Cosmic Boy, as the UP suspects him of the war crime of destroying the Dominator homeworld. That discussion quickly gets tabled as its discovered that the farm seems deserted. When they come across a Validus grafitti underground, Mekt freaks. Apparently, in this reboot, Validus is a mythical lightning god, and Mekt used to belong to his cult. Looking for him on Korbal and being followed by his siblings led to all three of them getting their powers. My favorite bit is that Tenzil Kem is trapped in a wheat silo, buried under the wheat and left for dead. I'm sure that will work. There's a bit of a twist at the end. 

Superman #665: CHECK IT. Basically, what we have here is the Secret Origin of Jimmy Olsen. Because YOU demanded it. Well, someone did. I know it wasn't me. Anyway, he brought himself to Perry White's attention, first by selling left over papers from his paper route on the street corner, then helping around the loading dock to get a leg up on his three routes. When Perry asks Clark to check on it, Clark finds out Jimmy has seven routes, and is paid in cash... and lives in the building. Jimmy runs for it, but Clark tracks him down as Superman and convinces him to talk to Perry and Clark, who find out he was on the run after mobsters gunned down the neighbor who was watching him over accounting books that could incriminate them. Interesting enough if you like Jimmy. 

Teen Titans #49: PASS IT. First off, nothing that deals with this disgusting business of interning women who happen to have connections to the Amazons is going to earn a higher grade than this, but this was close to a CHECK IT besides that point. For one, Ravager was repeatedly pointing out just how stupid the United States was the first time they did something like this and that they're even stupider to do it again in DC continuity, even pointing out to the female camp head that she should be interned since these women's only crime was being a woman. Secondly, even though I don't like to spoil endings... let's just say there's a reason Superman's cool. That said, this book does contain an Army Major firing at an unarmed woman without giving her any kind of warning when the woman is doing nothing more than escaping. Also the brilliant Amazons decide the best way to help the women is to attack the train they are on until it jumps the tracks. Brilliant! 

Wonder Woman #11: CHECK IT. We're still crossing over from Amazons Attack here. Just like in issue #4 of that, Diana offers to let Hippolyta kill her or cancel the whole war, and Superman cancels the offer. He says she needs to get magic bee antidote from Themyscira for Nemesis. I think Wal-Mart has that on sale. Or does he just need magic adrenaline? In the meantime, other heroes try to cancel the launch of the nuclear missiles at Themyscira only to be thwarted when the owners of the room forgot to pay its non-melting bill. When the missile materializes with Themyscira in the realm of the Gods, Diana tries to stop it only to discover it has snakes instead of wiring. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? Who can she ask for help? And will they want to help? 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Man #542: MUST READ. Spidey and Kingpin in final battle over Kingpin's ordering of the hit that ended up hurting Aunt May. But after Spidey dances around him for a while, he tells Kingpin that he knows why Kingpin's confused. Because Spider-Man's not here to kill Kingpin. Peter Parker takes off the mask and says "I am." And it's on like neckbone! Will Peter kill Kingpin? For as much as external continuity ruined this story, I applauded the way this issue handled it. 

Fantastic Five #2: CHECK IT. This issue starts on a classic Fantastic Four riff. Some schism within the team has left them divided, but when a crisis hits (in this case, Dr. Doom re-emerging with the Power Cosmic), the argument is forgotten and our heroes band together again like nothing happened. For the most part, the issue is a massive a fight scene, but it is broken up a bit by plot developments, and some flashbacks as Ben is trying to get out of the trap Doom left him last issue. A recent issue of Amazing Spider-Girl confirmed that, indeed, this is within that same continuity. 

Mighty Avengers #4: CHECK IT. We're still fighting Hot Naked Female Ultron (which is making a mess of continuity since we have 4 issues now where Tony is "dead" where he's clearly alive in other stories). The writing in this book includes occassional "passing thought" balloons along with dialogue, thoughts which really don't advance the story, but thoughts you or I might have in passing. I don't know if I like it or not. The characters are also quite potty mouthed for a comic (all symbol-ed out, of course). Tony's robot reveals how Ultron is controlling the weather, so that gets neutralized... so Ultron reveals... plan B. 

Sensational Spider-Man #39: CHECK IT. As Madame Webb holds a seance for Peter to get in touch with Aunt May's spirit (even though she's not dead), cancer-stricken Eddie Brock (who's hallucinating and hearing Venom, who is urging him to kill Aunt May) has donned a replica of his old costume and killed a nurse, and is preparing to follow through on his hallucination/former symbiont's advice. Can Peter stop him in time? 

Spider-Man Fairy Tales #3: CHECK IT. This time, we're hitting Japanese fairy tales (I think). Izumi is a boy raised by his aunt and uncle after his parents were killed by demons 13 years ago. The demons force the family to lock the gate of the fence outside their house every night. One night, Izumi goes out to kill the demons, but leaves the gate open. He fails miserably, and the demon injects him with his venom, leaves him to be transformed into one of them, kills his uncle and kidnaps his aunt. Can he save his aunt, and thus save himself from being transformed into one of the demons? 

Next time, I hope is fairly soon and I can continue catching up. 

No comic reviews for today, but I have a lot of other stuff on tap. 

First, since this is the first blog of the month, I have to cover the blog visitation stats for the last month. Again excluding my home county, my blog got 102 visits for the month of October. For a 31 day month as October obviously is, that averages out to 3.29 hits per day. That's a notable decrease, but again, I didn't post much. The interesting thing to me is just how varied the activity was. At least 24 states came for at least 1 visit each, and foreign visitors included those from Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Indonesia, Argentina, Croatia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Hungary. 

I actually have a theory on what's causing all that. I post sporadically on the very busy official World of Warcraft forums and my signature on the forums has a link to my WoW Realm page. Maybe a lot of these foreign visitors are following it to the page and then from there coming out to the main page. 

Speaking of WoW, that allows me to segue into another bit of news. I mentioned before that WoW was bringing in paid name change services. That's gone to all realms and I have taken advantage of it. From here on in, my (currently) level 47 female Human Paladin is known as Kelra. (you can hit the link for more details on the name). Her former name was no longer appropriate, so I took advantage of the service to move on with a new one. 

Next week, the long awaited 2.3 patch is scheduled to come in. Among a lot of other improvement, it's supposed to make leveling characters below level 60 significantly easier. so Kelra, as well as Iridiscia, Sapsinger and the rest might be able to join Boffo in the upper level reaches. 

Sutton actually gave me an idea of what I wanted to look at in this entry. The Wal-Mart $5 DVD bin (formerly known as the $5.50 bin) has actually been a pretty wonderful thing. Sure, there's a lot of crap in it, but I've managed to get a lot of treasure out of it as well. 

* Airplane II: The Sequel: Now the creators of the original movie had nothing to do with this and refuse to even see it, but it's still a quality spoof movie with a lot of laughs. And it's worth seeing on DVD to get the jokes that get butchered by TV editing. That said, it's not for mixed company. 

* The Batman-Superman Movie: Originally a 5 part story arc on Superman: The Animated Series (I believe), this Batman and Superman team up against the Joker and Lex Luthor has a ton of classic moments. You will love Harley Quinn and Mercy Graves beating the snot out of each other as Joker and Lex calmly talk at one point. A definite must for any fan of the DC Animated Universe. 

* Batman: The Movie (1966): Clearly the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed. The version I got came with commentary by Adam West and Burt Ward that will just have you laughing throughout the entire movie. Parts of this were filmed not that far from where I live too. 

* Booker T : The Early Years/Superstars of Yesteryear: A two disc set, each disc is an hour. Basically scraping for what little wrestling there is out there that Vince McMahon doesn't own. The Booker T set is mainly GWF stuff. The Superstars of Yesteryear is a hodgepodge of random. There's a Curt Hennig vs Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA Title match. There's Ted DiBiase & Steve Williams vs. the Freebirds match that is clearly cut off after a 2 count is sold to us as the end of the match. The lowlight is an interview that goes "What was it like working with Eddie Gilbert?" "Oh yeah, Eddie's great. Please come to my wrestling school and museum. Please? PLEASE?!" 

* Cactus Jack: The Early Years/Steve Austin: The Early Years: Same concept and makers as the last set. A lot of the matches on the Cactus set are talked about in his book Have A Nice Day. I'm guessing they're from WCCW. The Austin set I'm guessing is also from WCCW. A couple of interesting notes there: Austin made his pro debut jobbing out to "The Punisher" (this match is included), who would later become The Undertaker, and a lot of Austin's feud with Chris Adams is included. Adams trained Austin and Austin ended up marrying Adams' ex wife. This is why Austin's kids have British accents (she's British, like Adams). 

* Dudley Do-Right: You know, the funny thing was, I really didn't like this one in the theaters. Didn't think it was as funny as George of the Jungle (which it would be comparable to being a cartoon based movie with the same star). But after I got the DVD figuring why not for that price, it really grew on me. I also think it ironic that Snidely Whiplash and Dr. Octopus are the same actor. 

* Escape from L.A.: Haven't watched the DVD yet, but I've seen it on Sci Fi channel a few times... fun movie. 

* Fairly Odd-Parents: Channel Chasers; School's Out: The Musical; Superhero Spectacular: (Each a separate $5.50 DVD) If any of you out there were fans of Animaniacs and its style of writing, then I can't recommend the Fairly Odd-Parents highly enough. It has that same style of inserting a lot of jokes that only adults would get but they fly right over the radar of kids. Channel Chasers is a TV movie where Timmy wishes he could enter TV, and his evil babysitter Vicky gets ahold of one of the remotes that lets him do that. School's Out is another one where Timmy has to foil a plot by the Pixies (voiced by Ben Stein in speech but oddly by Method Man and Redman in song) to deprive him of his fairies and essentially take over the world. Superhero Spectacular is a collection of superhero themed episodes. Jay Leno as "The Crimson Chin" and Adam West as the TV actor who formerly portrayed "Catman" are notable guest stars. 

* Hot Shots!: I once got Hot Shots! out of this bin but it was replaced by a two pack of it and its sequel for $10 and I gave the original away. You really can't get the sequel elsewhere anymore. Done by the guys who worked with the Zucker brothers, just without the Zuckers themselves, this Top Gun based spoof is very funny stuff. 

* The Karate Kid: Haven't seen the DVD yet, but then again, who hasn't seen this movie? 

* Major League II: Suffers a bit from "plot reset syndrome" as I call it (despite all the success achieved in the first movie, by the time of the 2nd movie or by the middle of it, the characters find themselves completely down and out again), but still an enjoyable movie. Eventually I'll get the first one to go with this. 

* Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Laugh if you must. One of my cousins was a big fan of the show. When this movie came out, I volunteered to take him to it if his parents didn't want to. They took me up on the offer, but I got a friend along with us. Packed theater. I threatened the kids that if they didn't behave, I was going to tie them up and make them watch Steel Magnolias. A guy in front of me thought that was funny and suggested Fried Green Tomatoes as well. Line of the movie: "...I'm a frog." 

* The Muppets Take Manhattan: Can't go wrong with the Muppets. This isn't the best Muppet movie, but it's far from the worst too. 

* Total Recall: Interesting little sci fi movie. Pleasant enough diversion for $5.50. 

* WWE: Shawn Michaels: Boyhood Dream: A Colliseum Home Video re-release. It seems like the idea was to do a video on a top superstar for a near yearly chunk. This covers Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XII to Royal Rumble 1997. As such, it has a lot of matches that I don't have elsewhere (though that may change if I ever get the From The Vault set or the upcoming Shawn set). Longtime fans will get a laugh as the video ends with narrator Michaels Hayes urging us that Shawn needs our support more than ever as he continues as WWE Champion, given that he would "lose his smile" very shortly after this (the airdate of that was my 24th birthday as a matter of fact). 

* WWE: The Undertaker: He Buries Them Alive: Same kind of concept of the "yearly chunk on a top star" on this Colliseum re-release, though a much shorter duration. This covers The Undertaker between Summerslam (vs. fake Undertaker) and Survivor Series (vs. Yokozuna in a casket match with Chuck Norris as enforcer ref) of 1994 and throws in some background on the Royal Rumble match with Yokozuna to set the whole story up, as well as a RAW match with Kwang (my only video appearance of Kwang), what seems to be a Superstars of Wrestling match with Jim Neidhart and a TV Taping dark match with Jerry Lawler that was also a casket match. I can only figure they were in Memphis. It actually fits in very nicely with the Undertaker 3 disc set Tombstone since that has the Royal Rumble 1994 match with Yokozuna where 10 heels interfere, then jumps straight to Wrestlemania XII vs Diesel in 1996, so there's no overlap, and it actually finishes off the hanging plot point. 

So yeah, don't eschew the "bargain" bin. You might just find a buried treasure. And I even left off stuff that I paid full price for and then found in the bin later, like A Knight's Tale and Not Another Teen Movie. 

Anyway, hopefully I'll have some comic reviewery for you next time. 

Not too much going on so far today. In Pokemon, I'm currently pursuing the strategy of converting my trading assets into Pikachus and then trading the Pikachus. Never underestimate the trading power of a Pikachu. I've seen two phenomenal trades with them. I've traded a level 18 Pikachu just captured from the Trophy Garden for a Shiny Level 100 Garchomp (not that shiny Garchomps look all that different from regular ones). DarkHelm traded a level 3 Pikachu he imported from Fire Red for a Shiny Level 100 Charizard (the shiny Charizards are cool. They're black.) 

With RAW on tonight, I am glad that Candice Michelle is not hurt more seriously than she was. With the way she went down, I was worried that was a definite neck or head injury. A collarbone injury is actually a stroke of luck here. 

With that out of the way, let's move on to some Comic Reviewery. We were up to July 18th, 2007: 

DC: 

Action Comics #852: CHECK IT. Because the readers DEMANDED a pulse pounding crossover of the scene from Countdown where Jimmy designs costumes and Lois urges him not to quit his day job. They also demanded the origin of Jimmy's signal watch. Plus, the Kryptonite Man requesting to be allowed to continue to do scientific work (that was a lot of inifinitives) is about all that happens here.) 

All Flash #1: MUST READ. Wally's back and he's not at all happy about what happened to Bart as one might expect. It turns out that Bart was killed shortly before Wally and his family reappeared and just when the flashbacks stop and the story begins, Wally has just located Inertia, Bart's evil clone from the future who was the main lynchpin in the plot. How will Wally react to his cousin's killer... with his cousin's face? This issue also scores bonus points for the title name out of the annals of DC publishing history. 

Amazons Attack #4: PASS IT. As the issue opens, Diana has just offered her mother the ultimatum that if she really wants to continue with all this killing, her mother will have to kill her. She exposes her throat to her mother's sword. Superman decides to fly in and carry Diana off instead. Jerk. In the meantime, Wonder Girl and Supergirl are carrying out their brilliant plan of last issue: to force down Air Force One and take the President to Hippolyta (Wonder Woman's mother) so they can "discuss peace". Of course, neither side calls the war off in the middle of this idiocy, so despite Superman speechifying, it fails to turn out well. In the midst of all this, someone who was supposed to be dead turns up annoyingly not so. What saves this from BURN IT is that there's nothing about putting innocent women in concentration camps in here. 

Birds of Prey #108: MUST HAVE. After some exposition finishing off the Secret Six's story, it's time to settle this thing between Spy Smasher and Oracle. When she arrives back at the tower, Barbara is waiting for her wearing a Batgirl T-shirt and challenging her to a duel for control of her operation. When Spy Smasher tries to refuse, Manhunter shocks her in the legs and Huntress takes her guns to even things up... and it's on. When the narration reads "Spy Smasher? Meet Batgirl." If you don't cheer a bit inside, you're not a comics fan. Also features every single operative that has ever assisted the Birds of Prey (excluding for obvious reasons the late, great Ted Kord) in another moment that will have you cheering. This is Gail Simone's last issue on the title, and she will be missed. 

Black Canary #2: CHECK IT. Dinah's ex husband has helped find a private school that will take Sin, but it turns out it's all a plot (IT'S A TRAP! </ackbar>) by Merlyn and the League of Assassins. The League just wants "the next Shiva" back since neither Talia Al Ghul or Cassandra Cain (formerly the most recent Batgirl) have been ideal leaders. Merlyn is just obsessed with hurting Green Arrow. Will they succeed in capturing Sin? 

Brave and the Bold #5: MUST READ. This series is pretty fun. This issue, it's Batman and The Legion of Super Heroes. We even get a helpful continuity note that it takes place before the JLA/JSA crossover The Lightning Saga: This is important because the Legion in this issue is the Legion currently depicted in Supergirl & The Legion of Super-Heroes, rather than the Pre-Crisis-esque Legion depicted in that crossover. They've separated him from Tharok, This issue is largely a pretty fun romp of Batman running loose on 30th Century Earth despite all the advantages the Legion would hold over him there. Also, Supergirl is having fun on Rann with Hal Jordan and Adam Strange, having discovered that her powers are supercharged under Rann's triple sun. 

Checkmate #16: CHECK IT. A bit of fan service for this issue. We find out the reasoning as to why Mr. Terrific and Sasha got together, and it's actually a pretty genius reason. Plus, we have some continuity as you might reason that certain recent events in Birds of Prey would be very interesting to one member over in Checkmate, and indeed we get a reunion of two best friends that would make any old JLI fan happy. I'm still waiting for the reunion once Guy Gardner is permanently assigned to Earth, but that's a subject for a different review. In addition, Checkmate gets a new bishop that makes Sasha very unhappy, and there could be even more trouble on the horizon. 

Countdown #41: CHECK IT. Trickster and Piper: Finding themselves falling from the sky, Trickster luckily managed to grab a bag with their stuff in it on the way out. Piper uses his flute to slow their descent enough to survive. Unfortunately for them, they find themselves in Gotham City. Trickster says to calm down, he knows a guy who can help them. 

Jimmy Olsen: Jimmy designs a costume and wears it to work under his suit. Unfortunately for him, the AC is broken. 

Mary Marvel: Mary ponders that she was violent and that she needs a mentor. Someone looks on at her in a black gem. Filler page. 

Donna Troy and Jason Todd: Donna decides to thank the new Atom for coming with them. Jason Todd decides to call the Monitor Bob. 

Holly Robinson: As the girls at the shelter view TV updates on the war, a protest group forms. Harley decides to go reason with them. Can you spot the fundamental problem with the last sentence? 

Karate Kid: As the pre-Crisis-esque Legion are going home after The Lightning Saga, Triplicate Girl comes back out of the Future Portal and tells Karate Kid that Brainy said he couldn't go back home... and that she's actually just one of Triplicate Girls' selves. Call her Una. Call me Ishmael. 

All this, plus History of the Multiverse Chapter Nine covers 52 in 4 pages. 

Justice League of America #11: CHECK IT. Red Arrow and Vixen are trapped in a collapsed building. Ordinarily, it would be mere child's play for Vixen to shift to having an elephant's strength and get out, but what secret has Vixen been hiding? And how will they get out? 

Robin #164: CHECK IT. Dodge is back, and he's still carrying a grudge against Robin, feeling like Robin stopped him from some grand and glorious destiny of heroism. So he's putting together a squad of villains to take Robin out. As well, Tim gets an invitation to join the tennis team. 

Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil #4: CHECK IT. It's up to Billy to save Mary and the world from both Sivana and Mr. Mind as this new origin mini wraps up. The whole particulars are a little hard to follow, but it's still an enjoyable read. Quote of the book: "Mary - - please stop climbing on the seven deadly enemies of man. Thank you." Some complained about this series being political, but other than having a character who happened to be in a political position (attorney general) turn out to be evil, I just don't see it. By that logic, Shakespeare is political. 

Superman/Batman #38: CHECK IT. As Superman continues to experience bizarre fears, the Scarecrow seems to be responsible, but who could be boosting his abilities to the point where he can affect Superman? Plus Batman tracks down a case involving a Luthor device that uses Kryptonian technology and a villain who can defeat Croc. And the two cases seem connected. 

Marvel: 

Avengers: The Initiative #4: CHECK IT. As we start off, Hardball is stealing a cartridge of the power robbing nanites known as SPINTech and handing it over to a man promising to eliminate his financial problems. Cloud 9 and Justice go to MVP's house and find... MVP! But then the alert for the Hulk comes in. Will the Initiative be content with just working crowd control? 

Captain America #28: CHECK IT. A lot of jumping about this issue as we check in on everybody. Red Skull's forces are up to no good. The Winter Bucky wants to find them and still wants to kill Tony. Falcon, Sharon and Nick Fury want to find the Winter Bucky. And Tony gets a letter with some last wishes of Steve Rogers. They make him not a happy Tony. The issue felt a little exposition heavy, but still decent. 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #22: CHECK IT. The final battle between Ero and Spider-Man. Can Spider-Man and Flash stop Ero from using either of them to reproduce millions of evil spider babies? Would you believe... Betty Brant to the rescue? You have to love the way the villain is defeated here. And next issue... Spidey vs. JJ?! Quote of the book: "Lady, you are one twisted sister, you know that? I admit, on occassion, I've found that attractive in a woman. Yes, Felicia, wherever you are, I mean you." 

The Order #1: CHECK IT. The whole idea behind the Initiative was that each state would gets its own superhero team. (Does Rhode Island really need a whole team? Especially with so many other states with their own teams in close proximity?) The Order is California's team. A guy who isn't Evil Tony Stark but played one on TV is the leader. A cybernetic looking Pepper Potts is Marvel's ripoff of Oracle. You also get to see Tony Stark make one of the most hypocritical decisions ever. 

Yes, again. 

World War Hulk #2: CHECK IT. Hulk Smash! Hulk has a posse. She-Hulk tries to reason with Hulk. Hulk Smash! It's Sentry. No, it's Puny Richards! Hulk Sma-... Invisible Woman tries to reason with Hulk. Hulk Smash! Sentry pout. Rick Jones tries to reason with Hulk. Now some Ross guy who has no bias on the Hulk matter will take over. Decent stuff if you don't mind prolonged fight scenes. Quote of the book: Invisible Woman: "You... you don't have to do this. I know you, Bruce... you're not a -- monster!" Hulk (smashing Mr. Fantastic): "I know. He is." 

When next we hit comic reviews, we'll be finishing up July... and I know that's exactly what you're thinking about right now. 

No comic reviews yet for now. I hope to have some for a later stand alone entry tonight so I can start making some positive progress against my backlog. Plus, does anyone read these big long entries? 

In any event, I may have not been completely clear with a thought reading over yesterday's entry. The odd thing about a section called "Paying The Price" on the Ladder Match DVD is that it's done by Benoit. And knowing what we know now... just seems a little... spooky is all. Maybe I'm just morbid. 

The time spent updating my Wrestling Match Database got me thinking as to what exactly I'd like to have if I had the know-how as to how to put a project like this together. Let me preface this whole pitch by saying... I don't. Or at least it doesn't seem like I have software that makes it possible. OpenOffice.org has a Database as part of its suite of applications, but it doesn't seem adaptible in the way I want. 

The first thing I would need to do is take the work I have so far and use it to compile a list of wrestlers that I have matches of. This is quite do-able, but it's made a slightly bigger deal by the idea that wrestlers tend to use multiple names throughout their career. For example, the first match on the Ladder Match DVD is Jake Roberts vs. Big Daddy Ritter. I recognized instantly that Roberts would be the same wrestler that would be later known as Jake "The Snake" Roberts, but even though I knew The Junkyard Dog's real name to be Sylvester Ritter, having not watched the DVD yet (I'm drowning in Sliders!), I didn't make the connection that Big Daddy was the Dog. 

For purposes of this list, I would list people by the primary name under which I have matches by them under, and include aliases. Aliases will include tag teams in which the tag team had a unit name instead of "Wrestler X & Wrestler Y". Already, off the top of my head, I can see this could lead to some interesting things on the list. 

• Even though Kevin Nash is far more popular now for wrestling under his own name than Diesel or any other persona, I do not own any matches where he wrestled as Kevin Nash (given that I own no TNA, have little WCW except for those who came from WCW to WWE and made it big, and don't own an NWO DVD, this isn't surprising). On the other hand, I have 2 Diesel matches on DVD, so he'd be listed as Diesel.
• Similarly, even though the late Brian Adams is more famous for wrestling under his real name, I only have one match where he wrestled as Brian Adams on DVD. Therefore, he would be listed as Crush, with aliases of Demolition (with Smash) and Kronik (as Brian Adams, with Bryan Clarke).
• Matt Hardy would be listed as himself, but with aliases including The Hardy Boyz (with Jeff Hardy) and The New Brood (with Jeff Hardy). If I ever get a Hardy Boyz DVD, I could end up with a Jynx Brothers with Jeff alias too.

Once I have this wrestler list, it makes a nice convenient drop down list for a field "Wrestler Name" for the Match Database itself. Ideally, the "form" for each match would have 30 fields for wrestler names (fortunately, I do not have any of the 60 man World War III Events WCW ran, but could easily alter the form if I did), with two of the 30 fields being mandatory. Each field should be equal in importance. Whether I'm discussing a John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels match on April 1st, 2007, or a Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena match on April 1st, 2007, if the two men only had one match on that day, I must be talking about the same match. And it's just as much as John Cena match as it is a Shawn Michaels match and vice versa. It needs to come up in any queries for either. And the 30 Man Royal Rumbles are a match for any participant involved, whether you were thrown out in 8 seconds or won. I'm still deciding whether billed to appear and failing to do so should mean be counted as participation. In the case of the 2004 Royal Rumble, that gives it 31 participants (In storyline terms, Mick Foley attacked Test backstage and was assigned his Rumble spot by Steve Austin so that he could get at Randy Orton). 

Next would come the date, this is an obvious entry. 

Next would come the stipulation for the match, and anyone who has ever played Extreme Warfare Revenge could see the ease of a dropdown box here for most cases. 

Next would come stipulation notes, for odd cases such as the following: 

• In the previously mentioned Jake Roberts - Big Daddy Ritter match, not only was a title on the line in this historic ladder match, but cash as well.
• On the McMahon DVD, there's a match of Steve Austin vs. Vince and Shane McMahon that's not just a ladder match, but a handicap ladder match for control of the WWE. Longtime fans will remember it as the one where someone raised and lowered the briefcase so the McMahons could steal a win (but no one remembers that it was clearly implied that it was the Big Boss Man who did it).
• On the first episode of RAW when it redebuted on the USA Network, Edge & Matt Hardy had a ladder match for Edge's Money In The Bank title shot. The loser had to leave RAW. This match is also on the Ladder Match DVD.

Finally, I would note on which DVD(s) I had the match on. Possibly this would be done via, say, 5 pulldown lists. Right now, the most I have any match on is 3 DVDs, but planning for the future never hurts. 

Now, this might be a lot of nerd work, but when it was done, it really wouldn't be much maintenance at all to keep up... probably 20-30 minutes of work for each DVD I got... and that's the big 3 disc sets and estimating conservatively. 

What's the point? It'd be fun to make various queries of it. Which wrestler do I have the most matches of? Offhand, I'd say it's probably one of the big two that I have three disc collector's sets of, either Hulk Hogan or the Undertaker. Which combination of wrestlers do I have represented in the largest number of different matches? I can think of 3 combinations that I know I have 3 times each off hand: RVD-Sabu, The Undertaker-Kane and The Undertaker-Hulk Hogan. I may be missing some. Which title do I have the most matches for? Probably the WWE Title, especially since I have a whole DVD set for it, but I do have an awful lot of matches for the Intercontinental Title. The fun thing will be just entering the queries in and getting these answers instantly instead of finding out the hard way. 

But like I said, I don't really know how to do that, so I'm stuck with what I do know, and what's there is fun. Hope you guys enjoy it too. 

Here I go. Here I go again on my own. 

It's a pretty massive site update today by my standards. Not only is today a fairly sizable entry (including the return of Comic Reviews!), but I have an update on the Barebones Pokemon Pearl Roster, and the Wrestling Match Database. The Pokemon Roster update was at least partially motivated by new swag as detailed below, but the Wrestling Match Database *was* 100% accurate until just a few days ago, and now is again. I almost went an entire year without updating here. I need new wrestling DVDs more often. 

But first, we never did cover Google Analytics stats for September, and we'd better handle that before it's time to deal with the stats for October. 

30 Days Hath September, and in those 30 days, outside my home county accounted for 146 visits. This averages out to 4.87 visits per day. Not too bad. In addition, BoffoBlog was read in at least 26 states, and was read by foreign friends in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Hungary, the Philippines, India, Russia, Indonesia, Denmark, Venezuela, Greece, the Netherlands, Singapore, Poland, Germany and Austria. This again leaves me with 5 out of 6 of the world's continents with Africa being the odd man out. What's up Africa? I always return YOUR phone calls. 

I've actually got some new swag worth covering here: 

• Pokemon Emerald is part of the reason my Pearl Roster needed such updatery, particularly now that I can get and have gotten the 3rd generation starters. I haven't overly explored this or Leaf Green as much as I have Pearl yet. I will eventually because I would like some of the Legendaries. At this point, I have less than 100 Pokemon left to see out of 493 total in Pearl. A number of those will be rather difficult because they're "Event" Legendaries. To get them, I would have to go to some Pokemon event either in the past (and typically with a Game Boy Advance rather than a DS) or in Japan. The latter is only slightly more possible than the former for me at this point. I need Hiro to help me. I bet he plays Pokemon. As an attractive side bonus, trading Pokemon with my girlfriend's kids is apparently racking me up brownie points. Me, I was just thinking help out a fellow gamer.
• Escape From L.A.: Coming from Wal-Mart's $5 bin, I thought this was a pretty cool pickup. I bet Sutton's envious at least.
• The Karate Kid: Special Edition: I've seen it a ton, but having it, especially a special edition, and especially out of the $5 bin was nice.
• WWE The Ladder Match: This is what caused the need for updatery on my Wrestling Match Database. 3 Discs, 9 Hours. Even though getting NEW Chris Benoit matches and even a segment called "Paying the Price" will be a little odd. There are some nice additions to my collection on here, such as the Trip-Rock match that was said to make both men's careers.... or the Taker-Jeff Hardy match that turned Taker face.
• Sliders: Seasons 1 & 2: The price for this one was way too good to pass up... $20! Especially since when I got home, DarkHelm expressed the exact same thought I had, that those were the two good seasons of the show (Before Arturo is killed in season 3 and Wade leaves the show before season 4).

• A Pony Keg: Once every half an hour, you can put down this pony keg and everyone in the area can get free brew from it (only one at a time, but you can drink it and get a new one). Reports are already frequent that raids have gotten ruined because someone dropped one of these and everyone got drunk.
• Beer Goggles: These goggles are guaranteed to make everyone look more attractive. The only problem is that it's by the standards of the person you redeem prize tickets with. Therefore, for the Alliance, regardless of your own race and gender, the goggles make everyone look like male Gnomes. For the Horde, they make everyone look like female Orcs (which makes quests you take from children creepy).
• Brewfest Ram: In my opinion, the grand prize of the festival was a special Ram mount (go Rams!) Submit enough tickets (and it was a hefty 600, as opposed to 50 for the Keg or 100 for the Goggles) and you would get a Stamp. The Stamp would start a quest to go turn in the Stamp itself to an NPC who you could then buy Rams from for the normal mount price. What made it special was that normally only dwarves or those who had a reputation level of Exalted with Dwarves (a difficult process for the Alliance and an impossible one for the Horde) could get Rams.

All of my toons got the Pony Keg, Beer Goggles and Wolpertinger. In addition, all of my toons level 40 and above (in other words, those who could ride mounts) got the Brewfest Ram. Boffo, being my only toon above level 60 also got the Swift Brewfest Ram. DarkHelm had some adventures with this himself he might tell you about in his space. 

In minor news, you might see a bit of a change coming up for one of my toons soon. WoW has announced a paid name change service for a nominal charge. It isn't offered on either realm I play on yet, but I may take them up on the deal. 

In any event, in the interest of catching up because I'm way behind, here's some hot comic review-y goodness, this time setting the Wayback Machine to July 11, 2007: 

DC: 

Batman Confidential #7: MUST READ. First part of the new Lovers & Madmen arc, covering the new origin of the Joker. Originally, this series was supposed to be shorter, then it was expanded, I guess to expand this arc. There's a lot of fan service here, and a good story. It's hard to expose specific details without spoiling too much, but keep your eyes open for the Batman Begins Batmobile and a certain cute chick studying to become a doctor. Cute chicks studying to become doctors are hot. 

Countdown #42: CHECK IT. Piper and Trickster: They come to, and Multiplex and Deadshot are proclaiming they're under arrest for the murder of Bart Allen. Oh, and they're cuffed together. They pull too hard and they get shocked. Too much shock, it could kill them. In desperation, Trickster pulls a trick tooth out of his mouth that's actually a bomb and the two charge out the door. Two bad they're on a plane. Oops. 

Mary Marvel: Mary sees explosions going off in Gotham and the Riddler. Riddler quickly tells her he didn't do it, and and a trail of suspicious looking mud seems to aid his case. Whoops, it's not mud. It's clay as in Clayface. Mary makes a magic vortex to suck him up into space. She wonders if that was too much, then figures it was just clay and he'll eventually come down. Riddler advises her to seek a mentor or anger management. 

Holly Robinson: In the Athena Women's Shelter, Holly's run into Harley Quinn, preferring to go by her real name of Harleen Quinzel. She proclaims to be cured and the assistant director for the shelter, but she's still jumping around at random and talking like a ditz. 

Jason Todd & Donna Troy: Jason, Donna and their pet Monitor go visit Ivy Town and recruit Ryan Choi. They're going to search a subatomic universe for Ray Palmer that he humbly named the Palmerverse. I name it the Boffoverse. 

Karate Kid: Karate Kid tries to talk to Batman in Gotham saying it was an honor to fight him. Batman totally brushes him off saying he wouldn't win a rematch. What a jerk. (I'd use a different word in a less family friendly blog.) 

Jimmy Olsen: Jimmy tries drawing some costume designs to go with his super powers. Lois sees them and urges him to keep his day job. That's not a joke, it's what happens. 

All this and History of the Multiverse Part Chapter 8 covers Infinite Crisis in 4 pages instead of 7 issues. 

Green Arrow - Year One #1: MUST READ. Oliver Queen is an irresponsible alcoholic. He's so rich that he's living from thrill to thrill without a care in the world. Along with him on this journey is his friend Hackett, who keeps him alive while he's doing this. But Ollie makes two decisious that will change his life forever.... 

Green Lantern #21:MUST HAVE. This whole Sinestro Corps War is already showing signs of being the comic even Countdown only wishes it was. Pure epicness. Here, while the Green Lanterns are still reeling from the Sinestro Corps' attack, the Guardians are squabbling amongst themselves about the Prophecy of Blackest Night. Ganthet and his mate Sayd urge Hal Jordan to be the leader of the Green Lanterns they know he can be, but he doesn't want to be. And what surprises does Parallax (in Kyle's body) have for Hal, John and Guy? 

JLA Classified #40: PASS IT. The Kid Amazo arc continues. Wonder Woman defends her choice of telling Frank's girlfrriend his secret on the basis that they couldn't play God with her life. Flash responds that he doesn't remember voting on it. Batman says it was a good call. Frank overhears all this and proceeds to rampage throughout the issue. I had such high hopes for this arc, but this is DUMB. Not playing God means you don't get involved. And what did they think would happen?And the benefit of severe lateness on this lets me know it gets even worse. 

Justice Society of America #7: CHECK IT. Our main story features the introduction of Nate Heywood to the team with a costume long time readers of DC will find familiar. Let's just say this whole plot of Vandal Savage's to kill families didn't really work well. And all comics work great with some good old fashioned Nazi tossing (literally)! Plus, Superman goes and visits Starman to try to make him talk sense after the recent Legion crossover. It fails miserably, but that's what makes it fun. 

Shadowpact #15: CHECK IT. Dr. Gotham's floating a school bus in the middle of Chicago as a way of getting the Shadowpact to pay attention to him, so you know he has some plan up his sleeve. But does he know that Blue Devil was replaced by Zauriel? Also, Blue Devil's lawyer tries to get him out of his "selling his soul" contract. 

Superman Confidential #5: CHECK IT. Superman has discovered a new type of radiation that seems to weaken and kill him in this story set in the past. Bet you know what it is. It seems to be centered around a crimelord's casino. When Lois Lane interviews the crimelord, he claims to be possessed by an alien spirit from Superman's home planet that could answer Superman's questions about the planet if he just briefly exposes himself to the rock. But Lex Luthor is interested in the situation as well. 

Superman #664: CHECK IT. As Arion continues to try to get rid of Superman in fear of his prophecy that Superman would unwittingly destroy humanity, Superman also finds himself set upon by the Prankster and Squad K, a governmental squadron dedicated to a worst case anti-Superman solution. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Girl #10: CHECK IT. Carnage is running amok, yet seems a lot more split personalitied than we're used to seeing him. May gets roped into helping SHIELD and its goons, both the powered and non powered kind, in catching him, but they can be less than helpful. But why is Carnage interested in people from May's school? It probably has nothing to do with the school election, but that's approaching fast too. And things get even worse at home for May. 

Fantastic Five #1: CHECK IT. It should be worth noting that this series seems to come from a future continuity that I'm unfamiliar with. It may or may not be the same continuity as Spider-Girl. In any event, Franklin Richards has joined the main team as Psi Lord, hence the name change. In addition, Johnny Storm has married a Skrull named Lyla, and they have a child named Torus. Ben is divorced and has two kids named Alyce (who can coat her body with energy, fly and blast the energy) and Jake (who turns into a Thing like creature). As well, a former protege of Dr. Doom's named Kristoff is with them. In this opening issue, Dr. Doom has escaped whatever captivity he was in, and has regrained the Power Cosmic (always bad news). Can this team stop him? 

New Avengers #32: CHECK IT. Having discovered that what was apparently Elektra was a Skrull, the team is transporting its corpse back from Japan, while dealing with the minor problem of "How do we know that all of us aren't Skrulls?" On the way back, they actually hit some pesky continuity from Mighty Avengers.... and one person ends up walking away from the team! 

Punisher War Journal #9: PASS IT. This story arc is turning largely into "Frank sits tied to a pole." although we finally see him DO something wearing the Punisher-Captain America get up... that is, AFTER he apparently kills an innocent woman in an attempt to infiltrate the racists. Fun. 

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #20: MUST HAVE. You know how I'm totally biased towards this series. Well, this was the last issue that writer Sean McKeever did for it before jumping over to DC with an exclusive contract. The series is supposed to continue under writer Terry Moore, but we're at 3 months and counting and nothing yet. Anyway, in this issue, all "three" of the main characters, Peter, Spider-Man and Mary Jane have issues with someone pushing them to have a deeper relationship than what they feel. Gwen wants to get back together with Peter. Firestar wants to get more involved with Spider-Man. And MJ overhears Harry say he loves her. How will they handle this? What do THEY feel? 

See you next time! 

"It was like being in the Wizard of Oz, and it was all black and white, and as soon as I opened the... door, it was color. 'Wow! This is the way it should be!" - Chris Jericho - WWE Monday Night War. 

I've probably referenced that quote before. It's one I like a lot. But it's never been more apropos. It's been simply wonderful with Tammy, just being able to hang out and really care about each other and knowing we each care about each other back. And I forgot last time how she really likes comics as well. In fact, I clued her into my little comics reading trick, which she really likes. It enables us to discuss more current events in comics. She's currently reading through Civil War, which could be a test for any relationship. In other news, I've introduced her to Booster Gold, and I think I've found another booster for Booster. This only stands to reason, since Booster is teh awesome, as Skeets confirms in the already classic issue #1. 

It could lead me, with my reputation for somewhat controversial articles in my own defense, to go absolutely hog wild now that I don't have to worry about offending anyone anymore. But I have a better idea. Here lies a new start. I've got an awesome girlfriend. The friends I have now are true friends that care about me. I'm moving on from here, happy. 

Those who have betrayed me during all of this, I'm sure they'll never admit it, some never publicly, and some never to themselves. Those in the latter category will feel quite strongly that I'm the one in the wrong and there's absolutely nothing I can say to convince them otherwise, but what does it matter anymore? 

I'm not going to be reading their blogs or any blogs they post into, whether as a contributing editor or via comments. If that means I can't read a friend's blog, then the friend is simply going to have to make a decision as to whose readership and input they value more (and hopefully actually does so, and not just hides behind the tired and repeatedly responded to "It's my blog and I can do what I want" argument.) If such a decision goes against me, c'est la vie. I personally feel they're losing out on a great reader then. 

I would also hope these people (the ones who betrayed me) simply do not read my blog. If they insist on doing so, what they're saying is that I'm such a great writer, they can't stop. If they try to say that I'm horrible and they're laughing at me, then they're pretty much saying some awful things about the types of people they are and the quality of their own lives in my opinion. 

For some of these people, it could be possible to rebuild the friendship. However, at this point, I feel I did everything I could before things got this bad with no help from you. So the impetus for fixing things is entirely on you. I don't expect takers. Others, the bridge is completely burnt anyway. 

In any event, my piece is said. To everyone that falls under the category I talked about here, fault aside, I'm sorry it had to end up like this. I hope you can have as high a quality a life as possible. Now that my piece is said, it's finally time to concentrate on the real happiness I have now. 

No comics reviews today. I owe that and a monthly stats for September for next time. But it wasn't really appropriate for the entry for this one. 

Beware, I live! 

You know, I admit I did have ulterior motives for making this page into a blog, and ones that came to naught at that. But I really do like what's come of it. What I have here is something that has all the advantages of a blog, but all the advantages of a homepage as well. A regular homepage is fairly static. On the other hand, a regular blog is the other extreme, nothing good can be saved. Something like my Wrestling Match Database in a normal blog would just have faded down into obscurity in old entries unless the date was remembered. And even then, the possibility of update would be slim (and yes, the Database IS still current despite the long time since updating. I just haven't gotten any new wrestling DVDs lately.) 

What has been updated is the Boffo's World of Warcraft Realm. Since I'm now on a widescreen monitor, and thus a widescreen resolution (1280x800), the character pages all needed to be reformatted. So now, all 12 of my toons have had new shots taken at the new resolution and the shot is shown slightly bigger as well. Also, each character's link to their official WoW profiles on the Blizzard service The Armory has been fixed to the new address. As well, each character has a link to their unofficial profile at the site WoWDigger.com (a WoW help site which stands in defiance of in game gold selling), and a link to the full size screen shot. Check out the stupid helmet that my Night Elf Hunter Iridiscia is wearing. 

Been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XII lately. Very interesting game. It has one of the most interesting combat systems I've ever seen once you get into the game a bit. It actually hands you bits and pieces of it at a time. And I certainly would never do fun things in it with my Action Replay Max. 

Let's try to catch up with comic reviews... which I need to do more than once every 11 days... 

Expecially if I'm backed up as far as July 4th, 2007... 

DC: 

Action Comics #851: MUST READ. We finally continue with the whole storyline of Zod and his fellow Kryptonian criminals having escaped from the Phantom Zone and exiled Clark into it. There, Clark encounters Mon-El who is again known to have met Clark in his teens, and exiled to the Phantom Zone by Clark then to save his life (after a brief post Crisis retcon in which Mon-El was actually active as the 20th century hero Valor for a short time). In another retcon, there's a metal base in the Phantom Zone in which things become real, hence explaining how Zod and Ursa could have a baby. Mon-El provides more exposition, then it's time for Superman to board the prison and fight the Kryptonian prisoner Dev-Em, in order to gain access to a ship to return to Earth. Mon-El helps him at the last minute, risking death due to the lead poisoning which necessitated his banishment in the first place and Superman Returns, stealing the X-Men's director... or was that something else? Anyway, while Chris is showing Zod that he's been corrupted with pesky morals now, Superman has the balls to go visit THE person who would have the most anti-Kryptonian weaponry on Earth... and that person has a surprise for him. However, we don't get a conclusion to this until Action Comics #11, which as of today still is not out. 

All Star Superman #8: CHECK IT. Superman's stuck on the Bizarro homeworld, which is much less a typical world, and more a body about to sink into an alternate dimension, and his only comrade of any intelligence is Zibarro. Zibarro is a one in five billion "smart" Bizarro who doesn't share his race's backwards thinking. Worse yet, as the Bizarro homeworld sinks further and further into this backwards dimension, the sunlight becomes more and more red. Can Superman rally an understandably not too stable Zibarro and a few thousand rock stupid Bizarros to find a way to get back home? 

All New Atom #13: CHECK IT. It turns out the taxi cab driver who has been giving Ryan all the anagram clues has been former Ray Palmer villain Chronos. Turns out that despite their earlier differences, Chronos feels Palmer is one of the good guys, and the only one who really ever cared whether he lived or died, but that he wanted to avoid Jean Loring at all costs (who is now hosting Eclipso). So he helps Ryan check out the place Ray was hanging out in during the Sword of the Atom book, and it turns out there's two factions warring there now, one of which thinks Ray Palmer was a demon, and the other thinks Ray Palmer was a god. Plus... I don't think I'll ever be able to look at circus peanuts the same way again. 

Black Canary #1: CHECK IT. As we open this miniseries, two things become immediately apparent. The prime two themes are going to be that we're going to find out what happens with Sin, the girl Canary brought home from Shiva's camp in Birds of Prey, and just what Canary's response to Green Arrow popping the question was. We get a hilarious flashback to the first Justice League case where the two worked alone, and Arrow foolishly reveals that he was a big fan of Canary in the Justice Society, and he loved the fishnets, leading THIS Canary to horrifyingly reveal that he ogled her mother. We also see Sin get picked on in a fast food playground area and her open a can in result. Finally, a guy named Craig Windrow shows up. Craig was apparently Dinah's husband for 9 months back in college, making him the luckiest man alive. Kill him, my DC Universe doppelganger! But cue Admiral Ackbar, because IT'S A TRAP! 

Countdown #43: MUST READ. Some people won't agree her, but the funeral of Bart Allen, which was the main attraction here, really resonated with me. It also stopped most of this issue from being a couple pages on this storyline and a couple pages on that storyline. I'm still not thrilled with the death itself, but the fact that they are making it mean something and not just forgetting about it at least mitigates it. But on the other hand, it's not just a sales stunt either. Great moments include Trickster and Piper sneaking into the funeral and being targeted by Multiplex and Deadshot afterwards, and Wonder Girl promising that the people who killed her little brother would pay. Bart gives his own video taped speech that he had apparently recorded after being shot early in the Titans run... he bittersweerly mentions Conner. 

In other events, Monarch shows Forerunner he has lots of cool toys, and Holly Robinson meets a new friend at Athena's shelter... Harleen Quinzel. If you don't realize who this is, I prescribe remedial Batman: The Animated Series. Also, Donna Troy, Jason Todd and the Monitor watch the funeral and decide to go off and search for Ray Palmer. 

All this, and History of the Multiverse, Chapter Seven covers all the way from after Crisis on Infinite Earths to the Countdown to Infinite Crisis in 4 pages. I think they skipped a few things. 

Detective Comics #834: MUST HAVE. Bruce's lingering distrust of Zatanna from the mindwipe revealed in Identity Crisis has led him to order her not to use her magic, and they've both been captured by the Joker. He's been placed into a chair that electrifies him if he struggles and she's had her throat slashed so she can't cast spells and thrown into a chamber full of water. Can Batman get them both out of this situation and stop the Joker from murdering any other people from behind the identity of the famous stage magician he's already murdered? Can Bruce ever get over his mistrust of Zatanna? Who can stay mad at a girl in fishnets? This one was an excellent two parter, folks. 

Nightwing #134: CHECK IT. Part 2 of the 321 Days arc. We learn more about the period of Dick's life where he was chafing under Bruce's increased control and wanted independence, and the people he ran into during this time. He's run into them again, and is cautious to make sure they don't attempt to use him again. In the meantime, there's a new Vigilante that seems to be gunning after them (which isn't Nightwing's way), and he has no idea who it is. Better than the vampire arc, but still really slow. Close to a PASS IT if not for the interesting flashbacky stuff. 

Outsiders #49: CHECK IT. The final part to the Check-Out arc. Batman's now entered the fray and told the Checkmate/Outsiders ship that Nightwing, the Black Queen and Captain Boomerang are being held in North Korea. Waller thinks that Mr. Terrific just exceeded authorization and is about to lose his job, but he reminds her he never authorized anyone to enter North Korea. They simply temporarily deputized the Outsiders, and are failing to cancel that deputization. So it's a desperate rescue mission. And the Outsiders will never be the same again. 

Supergirl #19: CHECK IT. It's the obligatory "a creator is leaving the book, so let's wrap up all the storylines so that the new guy can start fresh" issue we've all seen before. Dark Angel (Donna Troy's Earth-7 counterpart who was secretly the Anti-Monitor's version of Harbinger and who has been testing Supergirl by putting her through all this weird stuff) has apparently reincarnated Pariah (who died at the hands of Alexander Luthor just prior to Infinite Crisis). Supergirl makes me laugh by threatening to hurt him unless he talks like normal people. He tells her she has found the third option between betraying her father or killing Clark, hope. After his death and rebirth, Pariah can also now conveniently show someone a major turning point in their life, past or future. Now that she knows what could happen, it's up to Supergirl to break the chain of events. And she starts by wrapping up a bunch of these old plotlines. Grace wanting one shot to get even with her is funny. But the biggest obstacle is whether Kara can make amends with Clark. 

Marvel: 

Civil War: Fallen Son #5: Iron Man: CHECK IT. If these books are supposed to be the Five Stages of Grief, then this one would be Acceptance, and again, there is a fit. After Tony's classic eulogy of "Um, it wasn't supposed to be this way." leaves everyone in tears and *truly* sorry for ever doubting his sincerity, The Falcon gives a better one. Hank Pym thinks it's a truly appropriate time to whisper to his ex about whether Iron Man and Ms. Marvel are doing it. Falcon even works in a brief mention of those who would get arrested for coming. Spider-Man thinks they should have gone anyway. Tony actually has an appropriate plan for the final resting place of Cap, and privately gives a better eulogy.I wonder just when Marvel is going to confront the fact that Iron Man has become a villain? 

New Avengers-Transformers #1: PASS IT. This one's kind of an odd duck. By the characters involved, it seems to take place during the pre-Civil War New Avengers period for Marvel, but Generation 1 (perhaps mid to late timeframe) for Transformers. One would think that this one was made to cash in on the movie's success, so they'd want to use the movie era Transformers. Of course, no mention is made of the fact that Spider-Man MET the Transformers in the old Transformers #3 of Marvel, because I guess that never happened now. It gets a PASS IT because, for some reason, the Decepticons are using an "aggression ray" on the heroes, but it's really only making Captain America act like a jerk. Plus there's gratuitous standing around and talking about when Iron Man is going to get there. Therefore, despite Stuart Moore getting the credit, I can only conclude that Iron Man actually wrote the issue. Nice try on fooling us there, Tony. 

New Warriors #2: CHECK IT. The issue starts with people watching news reports telling us how cool the New Warriors are. Wolverine sees something and tells the New Avengers not to wait up, because he has to do a cameo in ANOTHER book. Tony Stark decides to show how smart he is by doing something stupid and offers the New Warriors amnesty if they join the Initiative. Sofia thinks the New Warriors idea is crazy and wants no part of it. She makes me chuckle by dropping the bit "What, 'Save the waitress, save the world'?" Night Thrasher gives her a lozenge thing and says it's her future. She later uses it, and out pops an old friend, and a clue as to what piqued Logan's interest. By the by, the artist on this book likes large chests on women. I never realized the old friend just referenced was that stacked. 

Thor #1: CHECK IT. For me, this one was really close to a PASS IT, but others could like it more. In Limbo (can Thor get any lower? *rimshot*), he meets the Billy Batson to his Captain Marvel, Donald Blake who tells him it's up to man if the gods exist (uh huh), so Thor's time is not yet over unless he decides so. But if he does, there'll be doom and ruin and such. He doesn't decide so, and so he comes back, and Donald Blake reappears on Earth, checking into a hotel in Nowheresville. That's the issue. Next issue, Thor fights boredom, I guess. Or a tourist trap. Legionnaire's Disease? 

I do have a reason why I need to catch up with these, and why I can't just move on with recent ones. You will see. See you next time! 

But it was long ago and far away,
Oh God, it feels so very far,
and if life is just a highway,
then the soul is just a car.
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.
- Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are - Meat Loaf 

Consulting the old mental calendar, it's going to be a year and a half since my mother passed on this next Thursday. It really doesn't feel like that long ago. I can still remember so much about her. I miss her quite a bit. I'm probably going to be 70 years old and still miss her. You learn to live with it, but it doesn't mean you stop missing the person. And I absolutely know she is in a better place and that I will see her again someday. 

In the meantime, it's occurred to me just how many major memories I have taking place around either even year anniversaries or year and a half anniversaries of this time of year... in other words, stuff that happened in either September or (ugh), March. 

Thirteen years ago, September 1994, I was just settling in at Point Loma as a new student. I was coming in with a lot of baggage, and what really helped me take off there was the realization that so did everyone. There was no such thing as the perfect baggage-less student. I've had more than my fair share to put up with, but some people had it worse than me too. Beyond that, those issues didn't define me. I did. And the show was just beginning. 

Twelve and a half years ago, March 1995, I realize that I was becoming better. And I was grateful for that. I wanted to give something back. So I run for ASB Activities. I figure I'm a creative guy, and Activities is a good outlet for that. I never did get an exact result on the votes, but I'm fairly sure I got killed. The person I ran against was eminently qualified for the job. Very smart, very experienced. And she had been there the previous couple of years. People knew her. Frankly, in hindsight, even though losing sucked, the right choice was made. I wasn't ready. (As a personal note, a couple years later when I did win, she told me that she voted for me. I felt really honored by that.) Oddly enough, for the remainder of that week, there was a chapel speaker brought in to talk to us about creativity. Given that this had been the focus of my campaign, I literally looked up and quietly asked "Why do you torment me, Lord?" He was there Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday, as a little demonstration of his musical talent, he decided to make an impromptu medley. He asked for three hymns. He got two, "Amazing Grace" and another standard I can't remember right now. I decide to be difficult. I raise my hand and give him "As The Deer". A hymn we do that is significantly different sounding than the other two. And he knew instantly what I was doing too, because he replies "You mean this one?" and plays out the first line of the chorus at like 4x normal speed to confirm it. But he manages the impromptu medley. 

Friday, he wants to do another impromptu medley. Only this time, he wants five notes that he will confine his medley to. I raise my hand again. He calls on me. He deserves what he gets. The first four kind of meander up and down the scale. The last one is probably a good 4 octaves lower. The first time I give it, I'm drowned out by cheering. He asks me to repeat it. He then states "That's not even on the map!" and tells me that he *can* hurt me, as he's from the Bronx (making me possibly the only person ever to be threatened in the middle of Chapel). He then asks what my name is anyway. I was told later that nearly the entire Chapel went up going "Dave! Dave!" at random intervals around it. "What is this? Norm on 'Cheers'?!" I definitely had made my name known. The class I had after chapel that day was Problem Solving. We were covering Bar Codes and how they worked. The teacher pointed out how they couldn't ascertain Chapel attendance without bar codes. Me: "They'd know I was there..." 

Eleven and a half years ago, March 1996, I run for my second attempt at ASB Activities, this time against 3 opponents. I'm eliminated before the runoff. If that's not bad enough, I sustain an injury to my foot that is diagnosed as a sprain to the top of the foot. It's so painful it actually forces me onto crutches to get around in the days immediately following the election, but only for a couple of days. I was so afraid that people might think I was faking it in some kind of pity stunt for votes. I still remember one night I had finished eating (I typically ate alone in the cafeteria simply because it's what I did at home), got up, and realized there was really no easy way to get a tray back to the tray return area on crutches. So I'm standing there, looking at the tray, looking at the return area, looking at the tray, over and over trying to figure something out. Eventually one of the girls whom I had served with on Junior Class Council the preceding year takes some pity on me and helps me. Otherwise, I might still be there. 

Ten and a half years ago, March 1997. I'm under no illusions whatsoever that I can actually win one of these rassem frassem ASB elections. After all, I already lost two of the things. Last time, I didn't even make the runoffs. But there is something that's helpful to know about me. If something I do fails, it won't be because I didn't try. I will do everything within my power to make it work, so I can look in the mirror and know that I did. So for my speech, I go out and I basically talk about how I've run out of gratitude for what Point Loma has done for me. And I kept running because I wanted to know I did everything I could. And when you're under no delusions at all that you can actually win the thing, you can be remarkably free of anxiety. 

Except I did win. 

This is the one time I got results. I did lose the initial ballot (I ran against 2 other people this time) by 7 votes. However, the system requires a majority of votes. Therefore, a runoff was necessary. Eliminating the last place candidate, I won the recall election by 69 votes. My best guess is that the last place candidate and I split the upperclassmen vote, whereas the younger second place candidate got the lowerclassmen vote. Once the vote was no longer split, if that was the case, my voting base had an advantage given that upperclassmen were more likely to vote. 

Ten years ago, September 2007. First Week Activities have wrapped up and we're starting into the year fullboar. There are a lot of pleasant memories I take out of this year. There are were a lot of things that should not have happened as well. I might go more into that someday in this space. 

Nine and a half years ago, March 1998. Finishing up my term in office with ASB, what started as a hobby becomes my next big student activity. I become the great big opinion columnist for the school paper. Many of my columns are still archived on this page and I urge those so inclined to check them out. I completely stand by the work I did therein and received many more compliments than otherwise on them, from faculty as well as students. 

Three and a half years ago, March 2004. My best friend returns to town, though unfortunately not for the best circumstances by any means. This will be the first time we've lived in close proximity to each other in just over a decade. We throw together a trip to Disneyland (and would hit California Adventure a month later since there was a free ticket deal for that). It unfortunately ends up being the last big trip thing I was ever able to do with my mom. It was a very fun trip that she enjoyed very much. 

So that's my walk down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed it. If not, here's the refund of the entertainment money you spent here. 

Anyway, I've got some time left. How about another catch up week of comic reviews? 

Here's June 27, 2007: 

DC: 

Amazons Attack #3: BURN IT. This one gets a BURN IT because there are stupid plot elements, and then there are stupid and OFFENSIVE plot elements, but I'll get to that in a second. First the TV whines about attacks in Washington, Vandenberg (Yay! Kill my DC Universe Doppelganger!) and Kansas. Then Hippolyta comes on TV and says her goal WAS to get Diana free from her unjust confinement (in really tiny geometrical shapes with no restrooms). But now she wants the complete and total surrender of the United States. The other Amazons realize their leader has gone completely bonkers but don't do anything about it. The President, tooling about in Air Force one, decides to do something STUPID. Somehow he thinks it'll be a good idea for the country to arrest and detain any woman who's had any contact with Amazons in, essentially concentration camps. Yeah, wanna talk to some Japanese Americans about how wrong that is and how little it helps? To trump this, Supergirl and Wonder Girl have a much less offensive, but still pretty stupid idea to close out the issue. Blatant stupidity and offensive earns a BURN IT from me. 

Blue Beetle #16: CHECK IT. Eclipso is back from the sun and trying to kill a baby belonging to one of The Posse, a gang of people with super powers (though on the side of good, at least nominally) that Jaime has run into before. Traci 13, a teenage magician (who apparently has some history in the DC Universe) shows up to help, and later recruits Jaime. Paco drives. Turns out Eclipso's trying to get a new host body and wants the baby for that. Through a complicated setup, Paco has to be the champion for the baby against Eclipso's champion, and she chooses the secret fantasy monster within Jaime... and, hilarity erupts. You will laugh at this scene Plus, it turns out this was a little personal for Traci, as she was briefly raised by two people wronged by Eclipso's current host. 

Countdown #44: CHECK IT. Even though I try just to summarize these issues and not spoil too much, it's hard to do that with Countdown because each plot thread only gets a few pages. C'est la vie. 

Mary Marvel: Mary makes it to the Rock of Eternity and comes across Billy, who plugs the Trials of Shazam miniseries at her. He was a bit concerned with how harsh she was fighting the demon made out of stillborn babies (without taking into account that she might have been a bit freaked out because *she was fighting a demon made out of stillborn babies*. I'd be a little concerned myself.) and tells her she made a mistake taking Adam's power and maybe she was meant to lose her powers. She flies off angry, and I sort of can't blame her. 

Forerunner: Monarch (whoever he is, see previous week) introduces himself and tells Forerunner that the Monitors have been lying to her. She agrees to listen, but says she'll kill him if he's the one lying. 

Jimmy Olsen: Jimmy decides to start fights with street gangs in Suicide Slum to test his powers. Brilliant idea! They remain dormant when he's punched, but when another gang member grabs him, he shoots off a ton spikes. 

Holly Robinson: Holly is led to a woman's shelter by a woman in a toga with an owl. Readers of Wonder Woman might recognize her. Or viewers of Clash of the Titans. 

Piper and Trickster: In case you've lived in a cave, Bart Allen has died, and these two are on the lam. They debate going to the JLA but decide to go underground till this blows over. Voices in the background talk about how the two will "lead them to the others" 

All this, plus History of the Multiverse, Chapter Six. We're up to Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special: MUST HAVE. If you're in the slightest a Green Lantern fan, or even a DC fan in general, get this book, this is epic. The Green Lantern Corps is just beginning to learn of the yellow rings seeking bearers throughout the universe when the Sinestro Corps makes its move. We learn just what does Hank Henshaw know of the 52. And just about the worst thing that could happen to the Green Lantern Corps happens. And a certain someone breaks free. On top of all this, you'll never believe who's running the Sinestro Corps. Get this issue. 

JSA Classified #27: CHECK IT. Wildcat continues his quest to save Sportsmaster from his gambling problem and his supervillain career, trying to convince Sportsmaster to hang it up while he can, but Sportsmaster can't resist the lure of one more shot on both and now the people he's into have kidnapped Ma Hunkel. Interesting plotlines with both how it ties into the life of Ted's father, how he got into gambling with the mob and how it led to Ted's mother's murder, as well as how Ted had to convince fellow boxers it was time to retire as well. 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #31: CHECK IT. With Mon-El "dead" and the Dominator homeworld "destroyed", the Legion election results are in, and by massive write in vote, the winner is... Supergirl! And she's got a massive crisis off the bat. Cosmic Boy is missing, and special UP investigator Tenzil Kem (why does that name sound familiar? Maybe if I have a snack it will come to me.) wants to question him on war crimes charges. Plus, without Cos' calming influence, the Legionaires, Mekt's Wanderer's and Sun Boy's Terror Firma are all at each other's throat. Plus, it's always good to ask if Brainy can be trusted completely. 

Superman-Batman #37: CHECK IT. Killer Croc steals something Kryptonian from Lex Luthor, and then passes it off to something that seems to be bigger and badder than even him. Can Batman find Croc? And just what was stolen? 

Teen Titans #48: BURN IT. It hurts me to give this title this, because I usually genuinely like it. But this month's issue is heavily influenced by the really stupid and offensive decision noted above by the DC Universe US Government to employ concentration camps (here called internment camps, a euphemism that was used in World War II as well) against completely innocent women who just happen to have some affiliation with the Amazons. Supergirl even points out that one of her friends suffered a broken leg for resisting being arrested. Rather than even discuss this unspeakable measure, the US Troops demand the surrender of Wonder Girl and Supergirl (who have also affiliated with Amazons) and in fact fire first. Seriously, what is this nonsense? The Titans then go and attack Wonder Girl and Supergirl for attacking back (as they've leapt straight to attacking non powered people with full force). What's worse, is that such a thing should lead a fairly big rift between the two girls and the rest of the team, but things are just fine when they next see each other (as I know from these reviews being so late). 

Wonder Woman #10: CHECK IT. Ah, freedom from stupid ideas like putting innocent women in concentration camps. You know, sometime between Suicide Squad and now, DC Universe me must have given Nemesis a personality transplant. Perhaps that's why DC is trying to kill him. Stupid doppelganger. In any event, Wonder Woman's not really believing that whole "Circe is dead" theory, as she learns her plan was to launch a nuke at Themyscira. Nemesis (after being tossed at Hippolyta and getting a chance to imitate her) tricks the Amazons into giving him "the secret weapon", then unlocks the box he receives with the key he got from Hippolyta to reveal... magic hornets which sting him to near death. Obviously, my arch-enemy didn't give him any brains. Now Diana's pissed that her mom tried to kill her boyfriend... or rather... involuntarily gave her boyfriend the means to nearly kill himself, but that's less dramatic. Line of the book: (Wonder Woman has dropped Nemesis onto Black Canary, whom he was previously flirting with, while they were flying in) Batman: "I know I shouldn't find that amusing, but I do." Of course, as a viewer of Justice League, I still think Bruce and Diana were made for each other. 

Marvel: 

Fantastic Four #547: CHECK IT. The Fantastic Four is having all sorts of problems. On one hand, Reed has intercepted an alien message indicating a vast invasion fleet is coming to Earth. On another, the Frightful Four are all attacking Sue on Titan where he left her. And just for fun, a new ally is having some lingering resentment towards T'Challa over the fact T'Challa was Anti-Reg in the Civil War and is still against the Act. Quotes of the issue remain too numerous to count in this book. 

Spider-Man Fairy Tales #2: CHECK IT. Where the first issue of this series was a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood, this is an idealized story of Kwaku Anansi, the African Spider-God, who is sent on a quest by his uncle, who tells him that with great power comes great responsibility. If you missed it, don't worry, they'll say the line, again and again and again. 

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #3: CHECK IT. Reed, in space, finds more and more grim (not Ben) details on the H'Mojen invaders. Meanwhile, Susan figures out the invaders are also targeting the base of the High Evolutionary. Flying there, he's not there, but they receive a piece of equipment from his Animal Men. Spidey can't figure it out, so who can they turn to? One clue... who would be tempted with the lie that Reed couldn't figure it out? Also, what kind of cliffhanger is one of the cast hurling? 

Here we are, another new month, and even though there wasn't much posted, it's time for visit statistics for the month of August: 

Deducting visits from my home county, I had 103 visits for the month. With 31 days in August, that works out to 3.32 visits per day. Way down, but like I said, I didn't post much. I did get visits from at least 15 states, and our foreign friends visiting this blog in August included visitors from Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, Norway, the Czech Republic and Taiwan. 

In news, I've gotten a hand-me-down widescreen monitor that was an upgrade for me. It's flatscreen so it takes up a lot less desktop real estate. It's forced my desktop resolution to 1280x800, so things are actually a lot smaller. A lot of websites really aren't very well equipped for widescreen resolutions. To my surprise, this one handled it just fine, so a Barry Horowitz-esque self-pat on the back for me. Basically, the way I designed it in the first place was with a table where the left hand menu column got so many pixels (basically the same number of pixels as the BoffoBlog logo you see in the corner) and the right content column got everything else, no matter how many pixels "everything else" was. It's also fairly interesting to see which of my PC games can handle the desktop resolution and which ones can't. Surprisingly, EA Sports FIFA 07 could not. Maybe enhanced width was too much of an advantage in a soccer game? 

Just because I don't know if I ever said anything in here or not, my eponymous World of Warcraft character, the Human Warlock Boffo finally reached the maximum level of 70 in the game. It is fairly odd to defeat creatures and not earn experience anymore. It does have me concentrating on my alternate characters more. I do need to reupload all of my character pictures at the new resolution of my new monitor. 

I'm also trying out a free trial of City of Heroes. I don't know if it's a game I'd be interested in paying for, but it's a fun game to try. My character is named Disastro. Essentially, I made him as villanous looking as possible, and his gimmick is that he actually wants to be a villain. But no matter what he does, it turns out heroic. Not sure how possible RP will be, but it's a fun concept. 

Also, my Barebones Pokemon Roster has seen quite a bit of updatery. Basically, most of this is from getting Pokemon Leaf Green and importing a lot of Pokemon from that. But you will notice there's a lot more completeness in my visual Pokedex on that page. 

In any event, yes, I *do* still do comic reviews around here, and even though it's way late, I want to catch up, so here's the comic reviews from comics published June 20th, 2007. 

Now, new readers (particularly MySpacers) might not get the particularities of my comic reviews, so here's a really quick primer to get you started: 

• I rate comics on a five point scale, from BURN IT (worst), PASS IT, CHECK IT, MUST READ, MUST HAVE (best).
• I only rate the comics I've read, since, after all, those are the only comics that matter.

DC: 

Brave and the Bold #4: MUST READ. This series continues to be just a fun romp through the DC Universe as Supergirl is forced to team with Lobo in order to get to Rann to reunite with Hal Jordan. Lobo is just about the same Lobo as always and Supergirl absolutely loves him for it, but in the end, she gets the last laugh, as we also get a little more exposition as to what's going on. In the meantime, as we saw last issue, Batman was combined with the time displaced Tharok. Here, Blue Beetle is forced to use the Haruspex to send them and the rest of the time displaced Fatal Five back to the 31st Century. Guess who's waiting for them there? 

Checkmate #15: CHECK IT. Part 5 of the "CheckOut" crossover and it's really hit the fan now. Nightwing, Captain Boomerang and the Black Queen have all been captured. Fire is at Mademoiselle Marie's throat over her decision to temporarily withdraw. Back in the States, Amanda Waller seems to dragging her feet on the idea of a rescue operation, and Mr. Terrific is convinced it's because Boomerang has evidence that Waller has been up to her old tricks in organizing a Suicide Squad again. When the team gets the cooperation of the Chinese government, it turns out that the prisoners have already been moved by Egg Fu into North Korea. So Mr. Terrific finds someone not bound by Security Council protocols to get them out. Interestingly, with the events over in Flash, the Speed Force seems available for Captain Boomerang's use again. 

Countdown #45: CHECK IT. In Washington DC, the Forerunner continues to beat Jason Todd and Donna Troy (mainly the latter) until a Monitor shows up and tells her to stop. This severely disturbs the other Monitors. This also disturbs the Forerunner, who feels very distrusted, and tears off her pony tail as a result. This apparently prevents planetary transit. The Monitor tells Troy and Todd that they're leaving. Someone who looks like the old Armageddon 2001 villain Monarch looks very interested in Forerunner. Is it Captain Atom? Who knows? 

Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen expositions about how the New Gods are dying and consciously admits to himself he's been gaining strange powers. But he has no idea what is triggering them or making them disappear. 

Holly Robinson is thanked by the homeless man she saved from the rubble caused by whomever tore a building apart to murder Sleez last issue. She tells him he owes her zilch and that she's not a charity case. A shadowy figure says she's right, she doesn't need charity, she needs a home. 

And Karate Kid and Dream Girl are outside of their holding cells, looking down on Earth from the Justice League satellite with Dr. Mid-Nite and Starman. They resent being detained, but it's necessary, says Mid-Nite, since they can't reveal their purpose here. 

Plus History of the Multiverse Chapter Five 

Justice League of America #10: CHECK IT. The "Lightning Saga" shifts into it's slightly confusing but DC Universe changing end as the JLA and JSA find that they've been finding illusions and spread out to find the seven Pre-Crisis Legionnaires. They intend to stand at 7 important places holding special lighting rods. But as Batman and Hal Jordan see visions in familiar places, it's revealed that the "lightning lad" they bring back might not be the one everyone thinks. Who do they bring back? Is it who the Legion wanted? And which Legionnaires won't be going home? 

Robin #163: MUST READ. It's Father's Day, and since Bruce has adopted Tim after Jack Drake's murder, Tim wants to get him something to let him know he appreciates it. He settles on an engraved watch. Now he just has to get the watch back to the Manor in time to make dinner. However, the vigilante group known as the Jury are back and Tim's forced to deal with them. Can he make it home in time to make it a happy Father's Day? 

Shadowpact #14: CHECK IT. On the good side, we have a storyline dealing a plot thread overhanging from at least Justice League America (and making a pretty huge impact upon Teen Titans as well) that Blue Devil is a hero who has literally sold his soul to the Devil, and given that mismatch in concepts there, something should be done about it. On the bad side, the something we get turns out to be former JLA member Zauriel being ordered to kill him. As Zauriel is supposed to be an angel who has left Heaven but is still in the service of God, this makes sense. However, I've ranted in this space before Zauriel. Specifically, I've ranted about how the fact that DC can't mention Christ or fit him into a Christian mode creates problem. As the issue begins, Zauriel attempts to kill Blue Devil (who is literally a demon thanks to his deal) with his fist. This fight is stopped by the bartender telekinetically choking both combatants a la Darth Vader, who then says he could kill them both if he kept it up, and if they ever act up in there again, they're banned for a year. That just doesn't work. But I suppose if Zauriel instantly banished Blue Devil back to Hell irretrievably, it'd be a short story. In any event, these objections aside, knowing that a comic book isn't supposed to be theology (though it remains slightly irksome), when Zauriel explains his assignment, Blue Devil admits that Zauriel is entirely right. Zauriel is taken aback at this, and admits that if Blue Devil wants to fix the problem, then he doesn't have to kill him. So Blue Devil goes about doing that. In addition, Dr. Gotham prepares for an attack on the team. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Man #541: MUST READ. Peter is still, understandably, quite a bit miffed about Aunt May being shot, and he's just found out that the Kingpin was the one who gave the shooter the order. With Peter coming for a final confrontation (at least as final as the preceding Daredevil story would allow it to be), Kingpin bribes a guard to let all the prisoners into the courtyard as Peter arrives and to get him his clothes for the battle. Plus, with Aunt May fading and MJ's cash reserves dwindling (since Peter and MJ can't exactly use insurance for this), Peter and MJ try a long shot method to cure Aunt May. 

Captain America #27: CHECK IT. Part three of the "Death of a Dream" storyline. Tony announces that there will be no replacement Captain America, and that his costume and shield are to be considered retired. The Winter Bucky doesn't quite agree with this idea. He's casing the exhibit of the shield, but figures out that it has to be a fake if he sees so many ways to take it. Sharon Carter wants to shoot herself over being programmed to kill Captain America, but the programming won't let her do that, or tell anyone. The Falcon shows up with an assignment from Nick Fury to track and stop The Winter Bucky before he does something Winter Stupid. Winter Bucky finds the shield with an old familiar friend. Will he obtain to move on with his mission of killing Tony Stark? I sure hope so! 

Civil War: Fallen Son #4: Spider-Man: CHECK IT. The current theory about these Fallen Son stories is that they're meant to represent the Five Stages of Grief. According to Wikipedia, that would make the Wolverine story representative of denial, the Avengers story representative of anger, and the Hawkeye story representative of bargaining. Those all fit. Wolverine couldn't believe he was dead, so he snuck aboard the helicarrier to see the body for himself. Then in the Avengers story, he and Spider-Man were at each other's throats over this. In the Hawkeye story, Tony tries to convince Clint to become a new Captain America, only on his side. That would make this story depression. And in fact, after Spidey fights off Rhino, who just happened to be visiting his mother in the graveyard at the same time Spidey was visiting his Uncle Ben and Spidey's spider sense went off (shouldn't it only go off if there's a danger? Why would it go off if Rhino had no intent to attack?), Wolverine (who followed Peter after the 2nd issue) talks to him about depression. 

Sensational Spider-Man #38: CHECK IT. With Spider-Man back in a black costume, a cancer dessicated Eddie Brock feels like it's yet another personal affront, as we take a chance to recount his origin. It doesn't help that he's seeing the symbiont in his head and it's urging him to kill, especially when he recognizes Aunt May in the hospital. Plus, Peter asks Madame Webb for a favor. 

In any event, that's all for today. I'm hoping to check in soon with more comic reviews. Hopefully, by cranking out the reviews faster than the comics come out, I'll eventually catch up. 

It has been a while, I know. For those who have still been checking regularly, thanks for you patronage. All I can say is that outside of the Blizzcon/Disneyland trip, it's been a pretty horrible month for me, even if one of the things that dropped in the crapstorm had a very sudden and complete reversal. I actually tried putting together a bit of blogging a week ago last Monday, but it was coming out flatter than your favorite girl in a training bra joke. Still though, I'm going to take bits of that entry and salvage what I had. 

Basically, been dealing with a lot of depression. I'm not a depressed person by nature. It's not a chemical thing. It was event based. And we're not really anywhere near a nice park I could walk to and fly a kite for a while. There's nothing like the simple joy of flying a kite. I don't have a kite right now, but that's hardly important, is it? I have been busy in other areas though. Boffo's Realm of World of Warcraft is fixed, even if the banners aren't as neat and shiny as they were before, and I finally got my Blizzcon/Disneyland pictures online in a nicely labeled photo album for everyone to see. If you like them, be sure to also check out DarkHelm's BlizzCon pics. 

Still no full fledged comic reviews, but definitely find and read Booster Gold #1 if you're a comics fan. If you don't love it, you simply have no love for comics in your soul and that's all there is to it. Booster shows what a hero truly is. Superman might save you from a burning building, and that might be really cool for you, but he's still going to fly back to Lois Lane at the end of the day, having given nothing up. Booster makes a real sacrifice here. And the end of the issue preview page has some mind blowing glimpses into the future (and the past) as well. 

If you don't believe me, due to my blatant Booster bias (alliteration!), try hitting Major Spoilers (linked in previous entries). They loved it too. 

I actually had a brief (one song) return to karaoke Saturday night a couple weeks back. There was a place out of town I never had a way to check out before, but knew of. So this weekend, I and some friends did. I performed "True" by Spandau Ballet (if you don't know the song, it's now my MySpace music) and seemed to be well received (even though by my high karaoke standards, I was out of practice). I even seemed to be recognized by at least one person there who was overheard by DarkHelm to be gushing about "I know this guy! He has EMOTIONS!" That's what I'm remembered for from Carrow's. Emotions. 

How about some brief Netflix reviews: 

Stranger Than Fiction is odd, but really worthwhile. Will Ferrell has some very funny moments reacting with the narrator, and it's always nice seeing a movie that wraps up a story instead of setting up a sequel. 

Gridiron Gang appealed to me because I'm a sucker for sports movies. Rock is his likable self and very believable here. I do wish they had let more of the kids shine though. 

The Invincible Iron Man isn't AS good as Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2, but that might not be a fair comparison. It's quite watchable, though the villain Iron Man has turned into in the comics is always in the back of your mind. Plus, I'm rather unfamiliar with the Mandarin, so that hurt my ability to get into the story as much. 

I actually had rented the tape of the 1990 Royal Rumble before, but it is kind of cool to see the Rumbles in order to see the year to year storylines. Here, DiBiase, who bought the number 30 in '89, draws number 1 and sets the first talked about longevity record. I actually have this Rumble from Hogan's entrance on on the bonus disc on the Ultimate Hulk Hogan Anthology, but don't count incomplete matches for my database. It's there because it sets up Warrior-Hogan at Mania VI. 

We also got both discs of Harvey Birdman Vol. 2 and hit a number of episodes I had not previously seen. A lot of goofy stuff here, including Birdgirl's debut. 

Today, I'm watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Transformers: Beast Wars: Season 1, Disc 1 is coming. 

Let's finally finish up my phone's song list with 76-100, shall we? 

76. Ghost Riders in the Sky - Spiderbait

A rock version of the old folk standard used in the recent movie adaptatiaon of Ghost Rider. I liked the movie (brought to me by Netflix), I liked the song, so it's here. 

77. Come Sail Away - Styx

A classic favorite. It helps that during one slow night at karaoke, I did the Eric Cartman version of this song, horrifying the bartender, and causing the karaoke jockey to laugh hysterically throughout the whole thing, as I was doing it complete with Cartman's voice. 

78. Mr. Roboto - Styx

A song I've always liked. It's really too bad my old karaoke place didn't have it. 

79. Fat Lip - Sum 41

Very interesting song. I've done it at karaoke, though it is really meant more for two people than one. It's also in Guitar Hero. 

80. She's So High - Tal Bachman

A bit on the emo side, I admit. A big one if you ever have a crush on someone you don't feel worthy of. 

81. All The Things She Said - TATU

I first heard this song the way a lot of wrestling fans did: when WWE licensed it to be Victoria's theme music. Personally, I feel she lost a ton when she lost this music. Her current theme music seems to have very little to do with her character. Plus, who doesn't find the video to this song interesting? 

82 . Touch of Grey - The Grateful Dead

Touch of Grey is, from what I've heard, the first Grateful Dead song to have a video made for it, and the only one to have cracked the Billboard Top 10. It was also performed fairly frequently by other people at karaoke. It's a very catchy song. 

83. And We Danced - The Hooters

I actually first saw this song on Pop Up Video, and thought it was rather catchy in that unique 80's one hit wonder type way. So I went to karaoke and asked the karaoke jockey if he had it. He said no. In fact, he had never heard of it. A few minutes later, he called me back up. He did have it, did I still want to do it? I did. Afterwards, he announced "Dave Hines, doing songs we've never heard of before, and making them sound good!" 

84. The Impression That I Get - The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones

I told you ska shows up here again. Basically, just thought it was a pretty cool song. I have done it at karaoke, and pretty well, though it's not one of my standards. It makes you move a bit. 

85. I Wanna Be Sedated - The Offspring

A cover of the hit by The Ramones. Lots of guitar work in this one. Have The Rolling Stones killed. A fun one for karaoke, though a bit short. 

86. Every Breath You Take - The Police

One I'd love to do at karaoke, but apparently, good versions of this seemingly simple song are rare. Everyone ignores that the lyrics are rather stalkerish. 

87. Turning Japanese - The Vapors

Very catchy song, even though I have no idea what "Turning Japanese" means. I have heard it's a euphemism for turning gay, but that makes very little sense with the rest of the lyrics unless it's sung to a man in the first place. One of those you're nervous about doing at karaoke for fear of insulting Japanese people, even though the lyrics contain no insults to Japanese people. 

88. Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants

A song from the point of a view of a nightlight, singing about how he'd suck as a lighthouse and kill Jason and the Argonauts and such. Very odd song and that appeals to me. 

89. The Statue Got Me High - They Might Be Giants

Another TMBG song. There's quite a few of their songs I like, but of course, I'm not the biggest fan of them I know. Shout out to you, Brian Beevers, wherever you are. 

90. Don't Download This Song - Weird Al Yankovic

Is it okay if I upload it to my phone? Style parody of We Are The World and other charity anthem songs warns hapless listeners of ridiculous consequences if they download music. Which of course I never do. Go on to the next song. Now, where were we, Allison Mac- 

91. One More Minute - Weird Al Yankovic

Fun, fun, fun song to do at karaoke. One of Al's originals, and one of the songs requested by the Karaoke Jockey at Carrows when I let him pick my songs as I was leaving. The challenge is singing all these ridiculous lyrics of disgusting and painful things Al would rather do than spend one more minute with this person. Near the end is this inhaled shriek noise that if I nail, it just makes the whole song. 

92. Polkarama! - Weird Al Yankovic

The Polka medley from Weird Al's latest album, Straight Outta Lynwood. It includes songs like "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls, "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand and "Gold Digger" by Kanye West amongst others. Unfortunately, polka medleys will never be on karaoke discs due to rights issues, but they'd be fun. 

93. Smells Like Nirvana - Weird Al Yankovic

One of my biggest requests at karaoke, because, as I used to say, everyone else came there to sing. I came there to entertain. I put on a performance with headbanging, asking questions to people with appropriate lines of the song, "dying" at the end a la the video, and even gargling at the appropriate part. The KJ told me he only knew of one other person who ever did that. I did it from my first time with no encouragement, and he actually smiled when he saw me bring up the water. Of course you gargle. There's a gargling part in the song. 

94. Careless Whisper - Wham

I may have misfiled this. This may have been George Michael solo. In any even, it's a nice little slow song. Love lost, it's never going to be like this again, so just one more dance (and guys, we know what THAT means). Yes, I'm a pig. Deal. 

95. Corporate Ministry - WWE

This is Vince McMahon's No Chance In Hell theme remixed with The Undertaker's minor chords during the time when Vince's heel stable, The Corporation joined with The Undertaker's heel stable, The Ministry, to form The Corporate Ministry. Of course, no karaoke on wrestling themes unless they happen to be actual music outside WWE as well, and nothing here qualifies. 

96. It's All About The Money - WWE

This is "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase's classic theme music. A true testament to its power was shown by the classic moment when Ric Flair was feuding with the Spirit Squad, who said he had no friends, and Flair had legendary backup. When DiBiase's laugh hit and it went into this theme, the place erupted. This theme helped make a classic moment. For a while, I had a mod for World of Warcraft that allowed for custom music and either this theme or Shane McMahon's "Here Comes The Money" played whenever I was in Stormwind's Trade District in the game. 

97. Jive Soul Bro - WWE

Slick's classic theme music. One of the true tragedies of the WWE boxsets is losing this music. Seeing Slick groove his way down to the ring to Big Boss Man's menacing final theme music (which also replaced the classic "Hard Time" as well) looked wrong. This music was not only catchy but told you exactly who the character was. 

98. Real American - WWE

I've quoted this music's lyrics in this blog before. People can say what they want about Terry Bollea, the person. I will not. The man did something just a little out of his way to help me feel better after my mother passed away. He was under no obligation to do that. (For those who haven't heard the story, DarkHelm and his mother were on the same flight as Hogan from Chicago to LA on the day of Wrestlemania 22. DarkHelm's mother went up to first class and told him that my mother had passed away and that we were both big fans and asked him to sign an autograph for me, and he did. It helped me feel a lot better.) I intend to shake the man's hand and thank him if I ever get a chance for that. This music describes Hulk Hogan's character of the 80s perfectly though. It's a higher moral code. You resist wrong and fight for right simply because it's the right thing to do. You always have your friends' backs. Your personal convenience doesn't enter into it. There's a reason why Hogan's had to return to this music. It will always draw a big pop. 

99. Tell Me A Lie - WWE

"Before you walk away from me, I have one last demand! Tell me a lie, and say that you won't go!" This music was used once on WWE television, when Shawn Michaels was supposedly facing retirement. It was supposed to be his farewell tribute music. As to exactly when this was, I'm not sure. I want to say it was when he "lost his smile" (which was on my 24th birthday, btw) since I do remember bits of his entrance from Wrestlemania XII being in the video. But the song was so memorable that it made a WWE Anthology set of music released years later. 

100. One Out of Five - X-Play

From the recent musical episode, this is the song where Adam and Morgan start down in the dumps about how horrible their game was and become inspired to start rating everything again. Best song in the episode. All these songs are available for download from G4.com in case there's any X-Play fans out there. 

Well, that's it. That project completed. Hopefully I won't let this thing lie so fallow again. 

First some page management business. I am aware that the "buttons" for Boffo's Realm of World of Warcraft are broken. Apparently the site I use for that service has moved, so I simply need to make signatures (as they were originally intended) with the new site. I'll get around to that soon enough. (Fry: "That's not soon enough.") Shut up, Fry. 

On the homefront, we've picked up Madden 08 for the Wii. It does have a nice number of new features that were missing from the 07 version, such as online play and roster updates, ability to do things with your roster in mid-game, ability to save a game in mid-game, and things like that. Unfortunately, they also saw fit to take out a number of things from the 07 version. Gone is the ability to create players (outside of the Hall of Fame mode), teams, stadiums or fans. Gone is the pointer option where you could simply point the Wii-mote at a player you wanted to set into motion or assign a hot route to and select him that way. Gone is a lot of the force (rumble) feedback. The graphics are better, it is easier to do power moves, and it seems they added a lot of really cool animations. DarkHelm did a pretty awesome leap over a defender that had us laughing. It's a good pickup, but expect some disappointment, and don't expect a quantum leap forward in the series. 

Netflix has brought me Harvey Birdman, Volume 3, Disc 2, and the Royal Rumble Anthology, Disc 2: 1989. Harvey finishes up the series wacky as ever. Of particular highlight is Harvey retrying every case he ever had in less than a minute in the final episode. Nothing stands out as too memorable in the 1989 Rumble except for the Rumble match itself. We started with Ax and Smash of Demolition drawing numbers one and two, and going against each other. In this Rumble, while you might see established tag partners team up, most of the time, it really was every man for himself, with even heel and face lines totally thrown away, leading to very odd encounters like Bushwhacker Luke and Arn Anderson ganging up together on Hulk Hogan. The two biggest angles here were the Megapowers explosion being right on the cusp of happening, and the Rick Rude-Ultimate Warrior match was pretty much set to happen at Wrestlemania V after Rude attacked Warrior during a posedown contest here. Rude's victory at Mania would be a huge shock at the time. 

But either you already knew that, or didn't care. 

Now that I'm simulcasting my blog to MySpace, I notice that I have some beautiful, beautiful women on my MySpace. Most of them are taken, but still... go me! Especially since I know all of them. No random strangers for me. 

How about we continued with 51-75 of what's on my phone. I believe we left off with some of the best music on Earth, Meat Loaf... 

51. Seize The Night - Meat Loaf

A very operatic piece off Meat's Bat Out Of Hell III, clocking in at over 9 minutes. It's done by Jim Steinman, Meat's frequent co-collaborator, whom I've mentioned before. Oddly, Steinman re-uses his guitar riff from "Good Girls Go To Heaven (But Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" from Bat II here, but I suppose it's something only a hardcore fan would notice. Essentially, very enjoyable song for a fan, but not what I would introduce Meat Loaf to a new fan with. 

52. The Monster Is Loose - Meat Loaf

The first single off of Bat III. I believe Meat actually mentioned on a VH-1 show he was on that an MLB player is using the song as his coming up to bat music. It'd make good wrestling intro music if it was remixed to cut down the intro some. 

53. Love Hurts - Nazareth

We are officially out of the Meat Loaf. Is everyone still here? Count your fingers and toes. Anyway, sometimes you're just in a weird and cynical mood. This is a good song for that. Or one of these days I'll karaoke it for Valentine's Day, that evil evil day that insists on being the day after my birthday, even though I have patiently explained many times that my birthday is far more important. 

54. True Faith (Shep Pettibone Mix) - New Order

Just a catchy song I like. Plus I think I saw it one time used in association with Highlander or something, so now I always think of sword fights when I hear it. 

55. Beds Are Burning - Novaspace

Novaspace is cool. They've done quite a few remixes of 80s stuff into electronica. Here, it's a faster tempo version of the Midnight Oil one hit wonder. 

56. Time After Time - Novaspace

And here, the Cyndi Lauper song. Yes, this means I have two versions of this song, neither is the original, and both are very different. Perhaps this is the song played for the party that was held because Lana's boyfriend Whitney died. 

57. I Don't Wanna Stop - Ozzy Osbourne

The theme song for WWE Judgment Day 2007 and the first song announced for the Madden 08 soundtrack (and frankly, the only one that's any GOOD.) This song rocks. As an irritating side note, one lyric in the song goes "Too many religions, but only one god. I don't need another savior..." The words "but only one god" were censored out of Madden 08. How much do you want to bet there would be no censoring of terms like "There is no God" or "God is dead" or referencing a Goddess or multiple gods or something like that? Feh. 

58. Alive - P.O.D.

This one's an oddity. It's a Christian rock song. Listening to the lyrics will make that clear, but the way I first came across it is that WWE used it as part of a promo package to hype The Rock's upcoming return a few years back when he was an active wrestler returning from injury. Cool song, cool lyrics, I like it. 

59. Let My Love Open The Door - Pete Townshend

There seems to be two versions of this song out there now. One is happy and upbeat, and the one I'm more familiar with. The other is very slow, almost acoustic. This is the latter. The former is almost impossible to find anymore. But I like both, so it's all good. 

60. Against All Odds - Phil Collins

I like the song, whether it's Phil or Mariah singing it. 

61. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins

A song I've always liked.... I've always been very strong into the concept of justice. People who do bad things should eventually pay a price for what they've done. Period. I've also never been a fan of hot muggy nights. So on nights like that... I can feel a message in the song. 

62. Just Like A Pill - Pink

This is a song I first heard of by someone doing it at karaoke. I liked it, and knew a nurse who was being... never mind. 

63. Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison

If you don't know the story behind this one, band vocalist Bret Michaels was on the road and called his girlfriend. He heard a man's voice in the background, and taking his feelings of betrayal, he wrote this song. I had heard of it, but never really got to appreciate it until, again, someone at karaoke did it a lot. What Michaels was going through was pretty universal. 

64. I Was Born To Love You - Queen

This one's an odd story. I had actually never heard of it until purchasing the Nintendo DS rhythm game Elite Beat Agents. A cover of this song is round 4 or so, as the story involves the Agents time traveling to help Leonardo da Vinci woo Mona Lisa so she would model for his painting. 

65. Creep - Radiohead

A fun one to do at karaoke to freak the norms, especially near Valentine's Day. I have done this one, but in family friendly establishments, I have to be careful to do the editing of f-bombs myself if the karaoke track is the unedited version. Plus, with my aforementioned tendency to fall hard and view a girl as a perfect princess, there have been times I've honestly felt like this. 

66. Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers

This song really first attracted me by its video, with the concept of computer generated images of the band running around in a really intricate video game. For me doing it at karaoke, it helped that it's a song that no one else would ever think to do. The Karaoke Jockey who used to run things at Carrow's apparently liked it, since during his last couple of nights there, I let him pick my songs, and this is one he picked. 

67. Take On Me - Reel Big Fish

This Ska cover of a-Ha's hit was the title track of the Trey Parker and Matt Stone spoof film BASEketball. I really enjoyed the original song, I have liked some ska (another ska song makes this list in fact), and I really liked the film, so here you go. 

68. Save Me - Remy Zero

There have been so many "I first heard it on Smallville" songs on this list, could I really go without Smallville's theme song? It is, in fact, a fully fleshed out song. No, I don't want Tom Welling to save me. I want Allison Mack to save me. And then I can save her. And then I'll save her again. And then... what are you people still doing here? Go on to the next song! I SAID GO O.... 

69. Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers

Ahem. Anyway, I have a story here on this song. One night, the Freshman Girls' dorm at Point Loma was having Karaoke in their Upper Lounge. I went, of course. The song selection was somewhat limited, but I found things to do, including this song. If you've heard this song, you know near the end of this song, there's a really high note. I don't always hit it, but that night, I absolutely nailed it. A guy at the karaoke just shook his head, took out his wallet, took out a dollar, and threw it at my feet. I tried to give it back after the performance, but he insisted I keep it. I know, for most people, their story behind this song is the scene from Ghost. 

70. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

There's another Point Loma story here. I believe it was right around the time of my first ASB election (can YOU guess which of my MySpace buddies crushed me unmercifully and left me for dead? If so, you get a cookie!) Anyway, we had a young man at school that year who was an absolute virtuoso on the piano, and we had a piano set up in the school cafeteria for some reason. He took it upon himself to provide us all some dinner music, and he finally hit something outside church music... this song. Our table picked up the vocals. And when we hit into the part where there was a lead and a background (starting with "Baby, baby, I'd get down on my knees for you..."), without planning it, the rest of the table dropped into the background singer role, leaving me as the lead. So here I was, singing a solo for the entire cafeteria. Good thing crowds have never frightened me. 

71. Suteki Da Ne - Rikki

AKA "The theme from Final Fantasy X". Basically, without spoiling TOO much in a game that's nearly 6 years old, Yuna has had all her beliefs shattered, and the party is on the run. They're hiding out, and Yuna has made the curious decision to stand in a pool and ponder all this. Tidus goes to comfort her, and they drop to a cutscene where they kiss and such, despite this not really being the best idea, and a more guitar-y version of the theme plays, this time with Japanese words. This is that theme. I liked it, and what better music to walk around to than the FFX theme? 

72. In Time - Robbie Robb

You've never heard of this, but you have. We've all seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. If so, you remember when they briefly wind up in the future, meeting the "Future Dudes" (the ones who actually gave Rufus his assignment to help them) and unknowingly see first hand the huge impact they'll have on society. A song plays softly in the background. This song. The lyrics basically talk about how everything will be better in the future. 

73. Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell (w/ Michael Jackson)

If you didn't realize I love the 80s, we really haven't met. You're reading the guy who not only DJed during the 80s Skate Night he ran as Activities Director, but was brought back in that capacity by later Activities Directors. In any event, this is just a bizarre fun song. Plus, as an added bonus, we get Rockwell, who we've never heard of before, being able to score a guest appearance by Michael Jackson, megastart at the time, on his song. Odd. 

74. Walk This Way - Run DMC (feat. Aerosmith)

This song was really a landmark. It helped break rap into the mainstream, it helped crossovers between rap and rock, and it helped Aerosmith make a comeback. I actually prefer this one to the original just for the oddness of the concept, and have done this one at karaoke, making the changes from Run DMC style to Steven Tyler style myself. Though to really do it accurately, I'd need two people at least. 

75. Wild Thing - Sam Kinison

"Oh, we’ve all had some kind of wild thing that went through our lives and made it hell. 
‘Cause everybody’s had one – you, me – NOBODY likes to lose! 
And you know she’s out there, laughing at you – 
I don’t care if it was last week or the 3rd grade! 
Someone broke your heart!" 
If you think I could resist that, you don't know me well. And face it, he was right. We all HAVE felt like that. 

In any event, we finish up with 76-100 next time. 

You know, late at night, it becomes easy to forget which spelling of a name is Bryan Adams, the Canadian singer who sung songs like "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", "Summer of '69", and "Heaven" (and who according to the South Park movie, the Canadian government has apologized for many times), and which spelling is Brian Adams, pro wrestler from Hawaii who passed on yesterday. 

I followed Brian Adams' career from when he first showed up as the new guy in Demolition. Through no fault of his, it was the jump of the shark for the team, but you could hardly blame him that he wasn't Ax and that Ax had health issues. I have his Wrestlemania match as Kona Crush vs. Doink, or as Scott Keith put it, the "There are far too many bright colors here" match. He would later get smushed by Yokozuna, and rather than blame the guy who did it, blame announcer Randy Savage for not helping and join Yokozuna. Because this makes sense. 

A jail stint would change the character of Adams' gimmicks, as he would settle into the role of "punk just barely on this side of the law" for pretty much the rest of his career. That role would lead him to be a part of the original Nation of Domination with Farrooq and Savio Vega, and then when that broke apart, to found the Disciples of Apocalypse. 

Adams jumped to WCW right around the time of the Bret Hart screwjob, and quickly entered the hugely bloated NWO. Near the end of the angle, he found himself as part of the NWO "B-Team", the lesser members who simply didn't matter as much. Near the end of WCW's run, he found success by teaming up with Brian Clarke, the former Adam Bomb and Wrath, as the tag team Kronik. Together, they'd hold WCW Tag Team gold. After WCW's dissolution, Kronik was brought in during the Invasion angle to challenge The Undertaker and Kane for the WCW Tag Team Titles at Unforgiven 2001. After the match, it was reportedly suggested that Kronik be demoted to WWE's developmental territory for some work, and they got offended and quit. 

One of the sadder things about this is the Wrestlefest angle. WWF Wrestlefest was an arcade game that claimed a huge number of my quarters back in high school. It had 12 characters in it. And now, of those 12, Demolition's Crush, Earthquake, Mr. Perfect, Big Boss Man and Road Warrior Hawk are all now dead. Once either Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, Ted DiBiase, Demolition's Smash or Road Warrior Animal pass on, fully half the wrestlers in this game will no longer be around. 

My Brian Adams matches: 

• Crush & Smash lost to Tenryu & Kitao, Wrestlemania VII, 03/24/91
• Crush lost to Doink the Clown, Wrestlemania IX, 04/04/93
• Crush lost to "Macho Man" Randy Savage in a Falls Count Anywhere Match, Wrestlemania X, 03/20/94
• Brian Adams & Brian Clark lost to The Undertaker & Kane, who retain their WCW Tag Team Titles, WWE Unforgiven 2001, 09/23/01

In any event, on the slim possibility that anyone was offended by the name typo in the last entry, I apologize. It has been corrected. 

How about a bit more song love? 

26. Iris - The Goo Goo Dolls

The main track to City of Angels, the song's lyrics are very evocative to the plot of that movie. The chorus makes it hard to do at karaoke though. 

27. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

Another song I was introduced to through Smallville. It was used when Clark was playing football against his father's wishes. This played while he suited up... alone. People protested because the song isn't a "rah rah football song", but I feel they missed the point. It wasn't used there for that. Clark was more alone at that point than he had ever been. It's a song I'd use for wrestling entrance music, just to freak the norms. If I can find a new karaoke place, I hope they have it. 

28. Paradise City - Guns N' Roses

HUGE crowd pleaser at karaoke. And there was that time I got that really cute blonde on stage joining me on the choruses, but that may be a story for another time. This song is long, it will test your range, it is fast, and it will wipe you out. But if you can pull it off, you will be that crowd's hero. 

29. Patience - Guns N' Roses

I was introduced to this one by others doing it karaoke. Of course, my typical response to "patience" is "yeah, yeah, yeah, how long will THAT take?" since I have not yet gotten it through my head that "Tae Kwon Leep" is not a set of instructions to live one's life by. I'm silly like that. In any case, cool song. 

30. Sweet Child of Mine (techno remix) - Guns N' Roses

You may not believe it from an old weirdo like me, but when I fall for a girl, I fall hard. So long as it doesn't require a complete sacrifice of my self respect to do so, her happiness is absolutely paramount. She's my princess. So the lyrics about hating to see any pain on her face and all that... I can grok that. Possibly a dangerous habit of mine, I know, but there it is. 

31. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N' Roses

This was the other song I did that first night at Carrow's. It's not an overly challenging song to sing, but not many people try it, so it's a crowd pleaser. I also sang it the night I lost my girlfriend. Every bit of pain, anger, loss, all that went into the song... and for me, that night it became an anthem of "Congratulations. You threw away the best thing you'll ever have. Welcome to the jungle..." I've never performed that song so well before or since. 

32. Don't You Want Me Baby - The Human League

A very catchy little song that I would love to do at karaoke sometime, but just need to find a female who knows the song. Perhaps I need to look amongst waitresses in cocktail bars. 

33. Living In America - James Brown

The song I regret not doing for karaoke. I've crossed color lines on many an occassion. The hardest working man in show biz certainly knew how to sing before he left us, and I love this selection introduced in Rocky IV. 

34. Crimson & Clover - Joan Jett

Jett is covering Tommy James & The Shondells here, but I prefer her version's guitar work. I have done karaoke to this version. It helps that, if you've listened to the song, there's a part where the phrase "Crimson and clover, over and over" is repeatedly sung while the voice goes in and out, and I can do that with my voice. 

35. I Love Rock & Roll - Joan Jett

I could have freaked everyone out and put the Britney Spears cover on here instead, but while that one's interesting, I prefer the original. While I haven't karaoked it directly, I have karaoked the Weird Al parody, "I Love Rocky Road" (which I ironically don't. I don't like nuts). 

36. Hurt - Johnny Cash

Another song I was introduced to by Smallville. Lex Luthor is drugged up and straitjacketed in an asylum as this plays. It was a very haunting melody so I was interested. I would love to karaoke it sometime. If you ever get a chance, check out the video for this, it will absolutely creep you out. Cash is basically showing all these awards he's gotten, and all this nice stuff he's gotten, and the Johnny Cash freaking Museum... and saying it all means absolutely nothing. And it ended up being his last single before his death. DarkHelm is a huge Trent Reznor fan, who Cash is covering here, so he loves this song in all forms, except maybe that oh so wrong Muppet version. 

37. Simple & Clean - Kingdom Hearts
38. Sanctuary - Kingdom Hearts II

The themes to the two Kingdom Hearts games are catchy (I know, I'm using that word a lot) and fun. They both really evoke the game. 

39. I Am Murloc - L70ETC

I've lost most of you here. L70ETC stands for Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, a band who sings about things related to World of Warcraft. The video for this song played a few times while we were in lines at Blizzcon and I liked it, so here it is. Though there is Aquaman torture. You can YouTube the video. 

40. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

I admit it, I first heard this song with the Viking Kittens flash. It'd be a great song for a Guitar Hero game. Its only problem for that and for karaoke (which I've done it at) is that it's actually pretty short. Though it rocks enough that one of the special features on the School of Rock DVD is the recorded beg that the cast sent to Led Zeppelin to get to use this song, as Zeppelin typically turns down such requests. 

41. Working for the Weekend - Loverboy

Great 80s piece that became the big thing to play on the radio on Friday at 5PM. Just evokes huge weekend plans after a busy week of drudgery. Of course, that's when such things mattered (and believe, I really wish they still did.) 

42. Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd

"'Cause I'm as free as a bird now.... and this bird you cannot change!" Words to live by. I've always dealt with a peculiar problem in my existence... there's a lot of people who really like me with the way I am. Every once in a while, I hit upon someone who simply despises me for no other reason than me being me. This person will typically attempt to punish me for said "reason"... or try to change me. But good luck on that. Eventually on Guitar Hero II, we'll unlock this one. I think DarkHelm's hand is shaking just thinking about it. 

43. Against All Odds - Mariah Carey

Hey! Stop laughing again! I like the song, and it will show up again. 

44. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

Catchy tune. I like the video too. 

45. U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer

One of my *frequent* requests at karaoke. Why? Because my philosophy of karaoke was that everyone else was there to sing. I was there to entertain. I did the Hammer dancing. Being a large white man doing this, the place LIT UP. I was beloved by the masses, I tell you. It's also a handy song to have on the phone because Kung Pow taught me you need to have funky music playing as you beat someone up. 

46. Alive - Meat Loaf

If you didn't think we'd make a stop at Meat Loaf... hi, I'm Dave. Have we met? This one's off his newest CD, basically he's done all this stuff, but he's still alive. 

47. Bat Out Of Hell (live) - Meat Loaf

The title track to his first album that mattered (or here, a live performance of same). It's been described by Jim Steinman as the ultimate motorcycle song. I have done it at karaoke, but I reserved it for slow nights given that it clocked in at over 9 minutes. It wasn't fair to other people to consistently do a song that measured in at more than 3 of their songs. 

48. Heaven Can Wait (live) - Meat Loaf

If I were asked to sing at a wedding, Heaven Can Wait would be the song I'd sing. I'd also figure that I'd get Drew Barrymore out of the deal somehow. But I digress. I'd have to make a quick change on a lyric of "All the gods come down to sing for me" to make it less polytheistic, but that's no problem. Essentially the whole point of the song is that now that he's found this love, Heaven can wait for a little while because this is so great. 

49. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meat Loaf

The song that introduced me to Meat. See, kids, back in the early 90s, MTV actually did silly things like, I don't know, PLAY VIDEOS. And they played this one. And I realized it was very different from anything else out there, but a good different. Different enough that I got the Bat Out Of Hell II album and eventually sought out the original as well. Then I was hooked. And yes, if you listen to the lyrics, "That" which he won't do for love is defined... actually several Thats are. I have done this at karaoke once. Someone hopped up to volunteer to do the female part at the end. 

50. It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Meat Loaf (w/ Marion Raven)

Technically a cover since Meat's long time collaborator Jim Steinman gave this song to Celine Dion first. When I first heard Dion's version, I remember thinking "This sounds so much like Meat Loaf, but it's a girl." and then finding out there was a reason for that. I would love to do this one at karaoke, but really despair for finding a female who would know the part. 

In any event, 51-75 next time. The fact that we only got to I in Meat Loaf should give you some idea of where we're starting. 

First off, a little business. Comic reviews: Still not here. My head isn't quite in the right place yet, though the happiness that is Trickster's glorious puppet show is certainly helping. I indeed also am still working on the vacation photo album. 

As well, starting with this entry, this blog is going to be simulcast into my thus far fallow MySpace blog. We'll see how that goes. If anything becomes problematic with it, it'll stop, but who knows, it might help drum up new business. In the meantime, hi new readers! 

If you were going to stranded on a desert island, what HUNDRED songs would you bring? I know, it sounds like one of those forum topics designed to start a "get to know you thread" brought to a ridiculous extreme, but for me, it had a real world point. My cell phone has just one port on it for charging and data and such. This week, I'm expecting an adapter to arrive in the mail for that port to connect it to standard headphones. With that piece, I'll be able to use my phone as a standard MP3 player. It's a pretty huge upgrade over my old MP3 player (64 megabyte), but with the way the phone's software was designed, I can store only 1 playlist of MP3s, and the playlist can only be 100 songs long. Now granted, I could fill up the entire 2 gigabyte card and futz around with the playlists manually inside the phone, but that's way too much hassle at 100 songs per playlist each time I want to define a new one. 

So I've added 100 songs. When I don't like them anymore, I'll take the ones I don't like off the phone and replace them. In the meantime, what I have could make a fun blog post. 

Since no one is going to read 100 songs plus comments, I'll break it up a little. Songs are listed only in order of artist here. 

1. I Ran (So Far Away) - A Flock of Seagulls

This is a song I always kind of like but didn't grow to truly love until I picked up an 80s CD during college. (Those of you I knew in college should remember my infamous 80s love.) It was while playing this song that some of my dorm mates knocked on my door. They were requesting that I turn the music UP. It was a perfect song to fit the mood for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and now I'm rocking out to it all over again on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s, a recent pick-up by DarkHelm. 

2. Take On Me - a-Ha

This one I think I loved back from its original release. The slick comic inspired video is still a joy to watch and remembered even today, even the subject of a Family Guy gag, not too long back. This is always a fun song to do at karaoke due to the challenge to my range that the chorus presents. When all the factors are in my favor, I actually can hit it... barely. The first night I went to the local Carrow's karaoke they used to have here, I did this song and one other on this list due to the counterpoint to the barrage of country being done that night. 

3. Don't Answer Me - The Alan Parsons Project

This is a fairly recent song I've grown to like. The sound is a really nice throwback to the 50s with roots to the 80s, and the lyrics to the song as a whole were just something that, at the time, I wish I could have had somebody hear. The video was presented as a 1950s comic book. And yes, it is very different than Take On Me's. 

4. Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm

This is, as everyone should know, a cover of Michael Jackson's song. Karaoke introduced me to this version, and it's very fun to do myself. It's a challenge to my range, and great when I manage to hit it. It is in the original Karaoke Revolution when I bust that one out. Are you okay, Annie? 

5. Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi

Hey, stop laughing! Bon Jovi makes a few check ins on this list. Prayer is arguably his biggest hit, and one I wish I could do in karaoke. The "Whoa-oh! Livin' on a prayer!" in the choruses kills me in practices. It'd definitely be a crowd pleaser. 

6. Prayer '94 - Bon Jovi

Take Livin' On A Prayer, make it a lot slower and more emphasis on hopelessness in the verses and slight hope in the chorus and you have Prayer '94. Same words and everything. It's an interesting retake on the song. I'd love this one to be available to do at karaoke. 

7. Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi

This is a song where, when you perform it, your attitude is "I am the toughest man alive... I'm a musician." Very fun song. I believe it was in the Young Guns soundtrack, but of course some of the lyrics (such as about riding a steel horse, or having a loaded six string on his back) don't work with cowboys, at least not in the literal sense. For my method acting way of karaoke, it helps that I *indeed* have seen a million faces, and rocked them all. And that was *just* Point Loma. 

8. You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi

Very popular request for me at karaoke. Take every girl that ever screwed you over, let that snarl come out on your lip and just *run* with it, baby. And if you're a girl, and guys have screwed you over... Hi, I'm Dave, what are you doing tonight? 

9. More Than A Feeling - Boston

I don't pretend to know exactly what's going on in the lyrics to this song, but the guitar work is absolutely classic. It just talks to you in parts. Another one I can actually play now in Guitar Hero. I see my Mary Ann walking away. At least I still have Ginger. 

10. Hands To Heaven - Breathe

I'm willing to bet more of you haven't heard of this one than have. The basic plot here: Guy (singer) is dancing with girl and has to leave girl tomorrow and is really sad about and wants to pray that they'll see each other again sometime (hence the title)... but in the meantime in the chorus, they can get to play mattress mambo. I know... I should be ashamed of myself, and I will be. Eventually. Nice, pretty song though. 

11. I Will Survive - Cake

The group you probably know better for "Never There" or "Daria" covered Gloria Gaynor's disco classic in their own unique way. Oh, how I would love to do this at karaoke, though I'd probably have to edit out an F-bomb on the fly. 

12. My Heart Will Go On (And On) (techno remix) - Celine Dion

I'm a sucker for techno remixes, and yes, I do have some selections, and even a couple of CDs from Ms. Dion already. One night, bored, I even did the original version here at karaoke, dropping it into my octave. I got told it was... different. 

13. I've Got You Babe - Cher (w/ Beavis & Butthead)

Does it still count as a cover if one of the artists is the original? This form of the song is actually the first form of the song I heard it in. And it's still funny. 

14. Heaven - DJ Sammy
15. Heaven (Candlelight Remix) - DJ Sammy

Again, I'm a sucker for techno remixes, and here, a young lady named DJ Sammy is remixing Bryan Adams' song Heaven. The Candlelight Remix is... putting it back into a pace roughly equivalent to the original, rendering the whole thing mostly pointless! I'm a sucker for that too. Plus I really like the song, in all its forms. 

16. A View To A Kill - Duran Duran

The title song to the James Bond movie of the same name, though possibly more famous than the film. Duran Duran did some catchy stuff. 

17. Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran

Another catchy song by this group. And this is another one I liked doing at karaoke from time to time. 

18. Toy Soldiers - Eminem

This song really caught my attention, since Eminem sampled a really obscure 80s song I thought no one knew except me for this one (Toy Soldiers by Martika). Plus, the whole message of "Hey, all these rap wars are extremely stupid!" is a good one and demonstrates a lot of unexpected maturity on Eminem's part. As well, particularly in the first few lines, I could really empathize with the idea of loyalty to friends and comrades. Of course... that does require mutuality to really work... 

19. Without Me - Eminem

Really fun song I've done at karaoke, but it's a tough one, because it's pretty fast. The lyrics are patently ridiculous when analyzed. There are times when I've felt like "I've created a monster, 'cause no one wants to see Dave Hines no more, they want Boffo, I've chopped liver! If you wanna see Boffo, this is what I'll give ya..." The mood for karaokeing this one, is about 1 part anger, 1 part arrogance, 2 parts humor. 

20. Hero (dance mix) - Enrique Iglesias

Boy, alphabetical sorting causes paradigm shifting without a clutch, doesn't it? The dance remix is a fun one to karaoke to. I actually have a fun story. One night at karaoke, I did this song, and a bunch of 40 something old women really got into it. Next, I did Weird Al's "All About The Pentiums", and a group of teenage girls (and their boyfriends) peeking in from outside the bar really liked it. I remarked I was just hitting both sides of the target tonight. 

21. Run to the Sun (Nhimkar Voyager Killing Game Remix) - Erasure

Okay, take the song "Run to the Sun" off of Erasure's album I Say I Say I Say, remix it, and in soundbytes from the Star Trek: Voyager two parter "The Killing Game" (the one where the Hirogen take over the ship and put the brainwashed crew through holographic simulations to hunt them) and there you go. Favorite bit: Song: "It's not that I'm afraid... to face the light of day..." Tuvok: "What is it?" Song: "It's really just a case of self delusion..." 

22. Time After Time - Eva Cassidy

Cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" that I was introduced to through the series of Smallville, this acoustic version of the song played during the funeral for Whitney, Lana's jerk first boyfriend in the series. We were supposed to mourn him, but when he's a jerk who hung Clark in a cornfield in what became an iconic image for the show, it's hard to muster sympathy. Ha ha, die Whitney. Die. 

For our German friends, I was saying The Whitney, The. 

23. 1,000 Words - Final Fantasy X-2

During Chapter 3 of the game Final Fantasy X-2, main character Yuna gives a concert to help everyone calm down, and performs this song. Weird things happen. Very catchy song. 

24. When I Grow Up - Garbage

A song I got introduced to by other people doing it at karaoke. Obviously, it's one I can't do myself, but I really liked the song, and hence, it's on my phone now. 

25. Twilight Zone - Golden Earring

A really cool song that I wish was available at the local karaoke. Haven't we all had times we've wondered where are we to go now that we've gone too far? Nice angry song. 

Next time, 26-50. 

Wow, has it been that long? 

I suppose first, we need Google Analytics' usage statistics for July, since another month ended while I was gone. 

Taking out my home county per normal policy, we have 130 visits for the month, or an average of 4.19 visits per day. Ouch, a pretty steep drop off from last months' 9.47, but that's the way the ball bounces, especially when I don't update as much. 

Making up for the lack of pure quantity, we had a lot of diversity. At least 19 states were represented this month (at least 6 more than once). I say at least, because 16 hits from the US were not registering an exact location. Also, at least 9 countries were registered, with Portugal, The Phillipines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, Australia and Taiwan all stopping by, and one more unknown hit. So, I hit 4 out of 6 of the continents with people on them this month. It's fascinating to me at least. Just what could be drawing all our foreign friends to come visit little ol' me? 

I'm not sure American readers understand what I'm saying sometimes, so best of luck to you guys! 

In any event... what a vacation. I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. There was walking. LOTS of walking. It took its toll on not only my feet but my calves. Back in college when I was bicycling a lot, I had Popeye-like calves. They just stuck out. That isn't quite the case anymore. 

There are pictures. Lots of pictures. Some turned out really nice. Some a little blurry but still worth looking at. I'm still working on the titles and captions and such on a public photo album site. Be watching this space for the link when I'm done. In the meantime, to see some of what was there, be sure to hit DarkHelm's blog as he was posting live updates straight from his iPhone (or as I call it, his Precious Phone. It needs to be cast into the fires of Mount Doom.) 

I will be talking more about the trip later, probably when the pictures come out, but in the meantime, the swag: 

Goodie Bag: 

• Murloc Suit/Beta Key Code Card: The Beta Key worked well enough, so I will now be part of the beta test for most probably either Starcraft 2 or the new World of Warcraft expansion just announced: Wrath of the Lich King. However, while DarkHelm's Murloc Suit code worked fine, I followed all the instructions, and when I entered the final code into the game... nothing happened. I've had to deal with frustrating experiences like hold times of up to an hour on the phone and inept e-mail support people who don't actually read messages or write responses, but instead just scan for key phrases and cut and paste canned responses back, while those I did contact simply walked me through what I already did and then just gave up, but now I am in contact with someone who took my account info down and said he is investigating the issue and will e-mail me. For those not in the know, this is a code to give me a special suit to wear in the World of Warcraft game to make me look like a theme park version of a Murloc. DarkHelm is already getting asked where he got his, which is truly, truly sad.
• Starcraft 2 Magnet: A unit from the game called the Colossus
• World of Warcraft JINX Shirt (XL): In our case, meant quite literally. DarkHelm and I both got the shirt literally reading World of Warcraft. As with last year, they picked XL as a universal size. Luckily for me, I can wear XL as a T-shirt quite comfortably. Some Blizzcon attendees got a free chamois or something.
• Heroes of Azeroth Starter Deck: For the World of Warcraft TCG. It was marked not to open it because we could use it to play in a free tournament. Silly us, we played in another type of sealed deck tournament, as you'll read below.
• Mrglrglmrglmrrrlggg: Am I a nerd for looking that up to make sure I spelled it correctly? An exclusive WoW TCG Murloc card for Blizzcon attendees. A very powerful one too, as it generates allies every time it attacks. If you don't kill the allies, they can build up.
• 1 Booster Pack Heroes of Azeroth, WoW TCG: A very nice solution of what to use to keep the Murloc card from bending.
• World of Warcraft: The Board Game Epic Armor Set: Since neither DarkHelm nor I play the board game, nor are we likely to at a cost of $80 for the sucker, this is likely just be drawer bait.
• WoW Character Pane Magnet: Modeled after the character screen in WoW, the idea is you put a picture in it, put it on your fridge, and voila, it's like a character screen in WoW on your fridge.
• Blizzcon Mini Buttons: Includes Blizzard, Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft
• Blizzcon Coasters: With Space Marine, Blood Elf & Draenei, Murloc & Diablo
• World of Warcraft Button: Slightly larger than the mini buttons
• Coin: Blue, Heads: Lion logo, Text: Blizzcon 2007, Tails: Championship Gaming Series logo
• Blizzcon Temporary Tattoos
• Stick on Dealie with Blizzcon Logo For Dashboard or Something. I Have No Idea. I'm Not On Trial Here.
• Sanel Hand Sanitizer, 0.5 Fl Oz., w/ Blizzard Bottle Wrap and Hook on: Are dirty hands this much of a concern?
• Hearthstone Keychain: Actually picked up when one picks up the program and map (which I do NOT consider Goodie Bag swag) from the information booth. Just a small rock that resembles the stone the teleports you back to an inn in World of Warcraft. I worry about the string used to hold it onto the keychain, but the cellphone lanyard given out in 2005 is held by flimsier string and it's still on my keychain.
• Nvidia T-Shirt: Also not a Goodie Bag item, but here because it was free, and because there really wasn't much in the way of booth swag this time. Plus Nvidia scores points here for actually offering size choice.

• Wrath of the Lich King Shirt: Arthas' helmet to the lower left front, expansion logo on the back
• South Park Shirt: Boys and season 10 logo on front, boys' World of Warcraft toons on the back
• Blizzcon Art Shirt (3XL): Blizzcon logo to upper left front, Blizzcon art design (duh) on back. We picked this one up late, and XXL and XL were sold out. It was DarkHelm's idea to get it even though I had plenty of shirts already just because I remarked at breakfast on Day 2 I thought it looked cool.
• Blizzcon Hoodie: Embroidered Blizzcon logo to upper left front. We actually had to exchange this one because they gave us the wrong size and an XL sweatshirt doesn't work as well on me as an XL T-Shirt does.
• Mini-Murloc: DarkHelm and I each got one of these miniature Murlocs just as a little collectible. Mine is fishing, as in with a pole.
• Through The Dark Portal Starter Deck: We both got one just to help expand our collection.
• 3 booster packs each Heroes of Azeroth and Through The Dark Portal, World of Warcraft TCG: We entered a sealed deck format called the Gadgetzan Challenge. Top prize was a shot at some nice gear like iPods or even a Wii. How were we to know the tournament would run 8 hours? DarkHelm won like 2 or 3 packs. I won nothing. But we learned a lot about the game and had fun. Plus we rested our feet for Disneyland, which turned out to be vitally necessary.

• Alliance Shirt (XL): One of the things in the Goodie Bag was a coupon for $5 off either an Alliance, Horde or Burning Crusade shirt at the Jinx booth. While in line, DarkHelm got the idea that I should get an Alliance shirt (since I am primarily concentrated there) while he still considers himself mainly Horde, so he'd get that shirt. Just to weird people out, we wore those shirts at the same time on Day 2. Lo and behold, the guy gives us the shirts for $5 each. We didn't complain, but we think if the price was meant to be $5 each, Jinx would have printed THAT on the coupon, since that sounds better than $5 off. I hope the guy's not in too much trouble.
• Green Linen Shirt: This is one of Jinx's odder designs that I've had my eye on for a while. In the style of one of WoW's equipment descriptions, it proclaims that it is a Green Linen Shirt, that it's Cloth armor for the Chest slot, provides 3 Armor, and requires Level 5.
• Warlock Shirt: For each of the 9 classes in World of Warcraft, Jinx has a shirt with Blizzard's circular symbol for the class, surrounded by single color artwork of things representing the class. It's very interesting to look at, since you can look at it for a while and still find new things in the art. For DarkHelm, since he has two Hunters at level 70, the choice was obvious. He got the Hunter shirt. For me, with Boffo, my Human Warlock at level 69, and no one else really close (Morsh, my Orc Warrior is 50, and Iridiscia, my Night Elf Hunter, as well as my Human Paladin are both 45), I'm a Warlock.

• Judge Me By My Size T-Shirt: On the front of this shirt, in lettering that almost seems to form a downward pointing pyramid is Yoda's famous quote "Judge me by my size, do you?" On the back, you see Yoda from behind, wearing Mickey Mouse ears and eating a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar, encountering a height requirement for a Disneyland ride. Both DarkHelm and I picked up this shirt, but for him, no one's going to jump to any conclusions on the meaning. I fully anticipate I'll turn around and hear people go "Oh!" in this shirt.
• Jedi Academy T-Shirt: In 2004, DarkHelm and I went to Disneyland and things were going a lot better for me then. My mom was still around then, and she was on that trip with us. And I had money then. One of the coolest things we picked up on that trip was we each got this T-Shirt, reading Jedi Academy. Back then, all it was was a cool T-Shirt, and now it's this huge stage show and a great deal of merchandise. 2004 was a while back now, and the Jedi Academy T-Shirts have taken a bit of a beating. They're still quite wearable and quite cool, but they won't be around forever. So I picked up this one. Unlike the old one, which was all navy, this one is silver with navy sleeves. Also the sleeves are a little longer than normal. As well, the design is slightly different.
• Yoda and Mickey Jedi Action Figure Set: This one appealed to our sense of the weird. It's this little action figure set (though more for display than play really) of Yoda and Mickey Mouse dressed like Yoda and wielding a blue light saber. It funked me out so much that on "Honey I Shrunk The Audience", when the cast member was asking for questions and not getting any, I sorta half said "Why is Mickey a Jedi?" I either really underestimated the acoustics or her hearing because she repeated it and laughed.
• Yoda Lightsaber Keychain: Yeah, a little on the goofy side (though this was the place for that), but I picked up this lightsaber keychain that when you press a button, lights inside it flash on and off. Mine's green and green text on the hilt says Yoda. DarkHelm put his up on his car mirror (because that's an awesome place for flashing things!). His is blue.

And no, I have not forgotten about comic reviews. 

Patience, Daniel-san. 

No comic reviews today, but I may not get a chance to blog again before DarkHelm and I take off to Anaheim for the weekend, so I wanted to post. 

As to the Netflix movies, Invincible was really good. But I'm a definite sucker for sports movies, and football is a passion in particular. For those not in the know, it's based on the true story of Vince Papale. Papale took advantage of an unprecedented offer of an open tryout made by Dick Vermeil during his first year as an NFL Coach with the Philadelphia Eagles (the same Dick Vermeil who would later coach the St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV, increasing my interest here), and made the team, despite hugely long odds against success. I say based on his story because anybody the film says anything remotely negative about had to have their name changed for libel reasons, but still, really good movie. 

And, I really liked Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. What was changed from Donner's version really stands out, and it's very interesting. Of particular interest, there's a way in which the original ending (ie the one in this cut) even works out in continuity with the rest of the movies. If you don't get it, ask me and I'll tell you. 

Up next, Royal Rumble 1988 from the Royal Rumble collection and Ghost Rider, unless they surprise me and give me something from later in my queue. But neither should be here before we leave for the weekend anyway. 

I did get what I was expecting. Unfortunately, it was bad news, but not permanently so. Those in the place where the cool kids hang out know the score. 

Now, as to this weekend. First off, it does look like I could end up pushing my WoW character Boffo to level 69 before we go. Not quite the level 70 I had some hopes of getting him to, but considering there was never any significant effort to get him to 70, this is a nice consolation prize. The next character to be pushed may end up being my paladin as it makes a nice match with DarkHelm's gnome warrior Uyness. 

On Wednesday night, DarkHelm and I will pack up most of everything we need in the back of his SUV. 

Sometime on Thursday, DarkHelm will get off work early and pick me up. We learned last time that mere words cannot express how bad the Friday morning pickup line is for tickets, so this year, like last time, we have arrived the night before the Con, but we will arrive in time pick up our tickets on Thursday. (The ticket window is open until 9 PM on Thursday and last time, we couldn't get into town until 10 or 11 PM). On the way, there's a certain McDonald's my mother always stopped at when she was going that far south (whether to Disneyland or San Diego or what have you). We plan to stop there on the way there in her honor. It will be closed on the way back. We're giving ourselves a lot of leeway on time, since DarkHelm has an infamous talent for finding traffic that I mock him relentlessly about. After getting the tickets, we will probably just relax in the hotel room. 

On Friday, the convention opens at 10 and closes at 10. We will have a huge leg up, having gotten our tickets early, and skipping the Line That Ate Cleveland. This could enable us to get our pick of merchandise or get great seats for opening ceremonies or what have you. 

I should let you guys know at this point that there's a new 2 GB memory card in my phone. After I temporarily clear off my music for the trip, that will leave space for over EIGHT THOUSAND pictures at my phone's 1.3 megapixel camera's maximum resolution of 1280x1024. DarkHelm's iPhone has just over 2 GB left and might now have quite that much picture capacity with the iPhone's 2.0 megapixel camera, but it will still be pretty impressive. DarkHelm plans to be doing remote blog entries from his iPhone in his newly erased blog, so be watching that space. I'll have to wait until I get home, but everything I do of any quality will be going into an online photo album. But basically, I can be fairly liberal in what I can take pictures of. Expect many succubi. 

Saturday will be the second day of the con, and will be more of the same. It runs 10 to 10, but at about 7 or so is a closing concert that not all attendees are guaranteed access too, and, frankly, neither DarkHelm and I are too thrilled about anyway, so we were pencilling in checking out the Downtown Disney shopping district during that time. 

Sunday we check out of the hotel as Blizzcon will be over. Originally, the plan was to go home, but originally the plan was counting on there being partial day Disneyland tickets like there were last time. There weren't. So, rather than waste money buying 4 full tickets, why not get the same amount of time out of 2 tickets and get the whole Blizzcon we thought? One big thing I want to do here: Friday is going to be my late mother's birthday. Even though it's a couple of days late, she left behind an unfilled collectible spoon rack (7 spoons in 18 slots at the time of her death). When possible, I like to get a spoon to eventually fill that up. It may sound silly, but that's one of the little things I like to do to honor her. 

Disneyland is open from 8 AM to midnight on Sunday, but given that Cliff is driving, and I would not like to A. Crash, nor B. Die, it'll be up to him to determine just when we leave the Happiest Place On Earth behind to begin the long trip back to the Most Boring Place On Earth. 

After a brief stint of hibernation then, I'd see you all again on Monday. 

No comic reviews today, only minor updates. 

DarkHelm and I finally sold out and joined Netflix. For now, we're on the three disc a month plan. They tell us we should be expecting Invincible, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut and a third disc he's interested in by tomorrow. They're pretty fast. Of course, this could put a serious crimp in my idea of watching every DVD I had again... as well as my future DVD buying. Why should I buy when I can just get the DVD as part of this monthly fee, watch it and send it back on its way unless I really really like it? 

One notable absence from Netflix's library: Born to Controversy, the Roddy Piper set. 

Back on the subject of comics, I've been reading a new comics blog lately, and it's pretty awesome. It's called Major Spoilers. It's got very in-depth reviews of individual issues (complete with posted panels), as opposed to my more capsulized style. As well, they have begun a series called "Hero History" doing a biography on various members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which are all interesting reads. The only caveat to the site is, of course, the name. 

Finally, I read Mighty Avengers #4, and I'll have a full review when I catch up to the present. But in the meantime... 

*takes his wallet out and pays out an imaginary $5* 

Nope, you're not supposed to understand. 

Anyway, keep on trucking and always have fun. 

Took longer than I thought, but it's hard to get into a comic review writing mood sometimes. But on the bright side, it does seem like I am making forward progress on these. 

As well, sometimes it seems like it's hard coming up with stuff to say besides the project stuff, but I have an idea on that... even though it's kind of a project of its own too....  I'm still not sure whether I'll go with it or not. It could be interesting. It could be really controversial. It could be anywhere in between. 

I call the idea "The Position Papers". Basically, armed with a list of various issues facing the country today (I'm thinking cribbing the issue list from the game The Political Machine would supply a lot of them), lay out exactly what my opinion is and why on one issue per day. 

It'd be a dangerous prospect. Nobody's going to become red in the face angry with me for talking about comics, World of Warcraft or Pokemon. Talking about abortion, welfare or the war in Iraq, it can get heated. But again, the point here wouldn't be to say anyone else is wrong. Just to say this is what I believe and why, just as a way to get to know me a bit better. I should give heads up that if I do this, that the first piece I'd do would be on my religious beliefs, which is subject matter that I know makes some uncomfortable. 

Like I said, it's something I can see myself going either way on right now. Just giving you guys a heads up as to what may appear here in the near future. 

Anyway, I believe I owe you guys some past due comic reviews... 

June 13, 2007: 

DC: 

Batman Confidential #6: CHECK IT. Lex Luthor is hiding in the robot command bunker, ordering his robots to help with his takeover attempt with Batman slowly closing in (as we are updated by his henchman). Every countermeasure Lex orders employed proves ineffective (as Lex declares that he hates superheroes). But now that he's in, Batman needs a very clever plan to bring the robots down once and for all. My only reservation here is that I'm sure Dr. Doom's lawyer's want to talk to Lex about the end of his plan. In the next issue blurb, we find out why this series was extended from six to eight issues. In the next issue, a new arc begins, written by Heroes writer/producer Michael Green 

Countdown #46: CHECK IT. Jimmy Olsen tells Lois Lane about the strange dreams he's been having, then gets an anonymous tip to head to Suicide Slum if he wants details on what happened to Lightray. There, he finds Sleez, a denizen of Apokolips who Darkseid kicked out for being too evil and vile even for him, and whom we last saw trying to make Big Barda/Superman porn films (no, that's not a joke.) Sleez is interrupted by something that pulls off the roof, causing him to yell "It's him!" and telling Olsen to run as the building collapses some. It says "So begins the end." and zaps Sleez out of existence. Perhaps he merely forgot to pay his existence bill. 

Mary Marvel (revealing that she has the powers of Isis, in addition to Black Adam's), comes across a group of pregnant women singing songs around a piece of the Rock of Eternity (which was clearly established before as being totally reconstructed, but that was in the book where the Lords of Order and Chaos who gave Hawk and Dove powers were mysteriously resurrected, only to be killed again, which caused Hawk and Dove to lose their powers, which everyone ignored anyway, so that doesn't count) and they manage to summon a demon made out of stillborn babies, which is just plain wrong. Mary beats it up. 

The Rogues eat in a diner in full costume. Mirror Master acts like a total boor to the waitress, and the ultra liberal Pied Piper calls him an ignorant dirtbag over it. This starts a brawl that Captain Cold breaks up by freezing them both. He speechifies about how they need to get to work and Inertia thaws them (obviously, this takes place before Flash: TFMA #13) 

Jason Todd approaches Donna Troy in Washington DC (in the middle of the Amazon Attack) to say that he thinks a Monitor killed Duela Dent, and if they are similarly "not supposed to be there", they could be next. The Monitors decide to call in one of their agents, a Forerunner, which some readers have pointed out is fairly synonymous with Harbinger. As spoiled by the cover, she beats the crap out of them. 

All this, and History of the Multiverse, Chapter Four 

Green Arrow #75: MUST READ. The guy I thought was Dr. Psycho in the last issue is actually Natas, the guy who taught swordsmanship to Green Arrow during the one year gap. So it's him and Terminator against Green Arrow, Black Canary, Connor and Mia. Natas takes the kids, and Slade takes Dinah and Ollie. As well, it seems that one of Ollie's most trusted political associates is betraying him for political favor with the other party in this recall election. But you know that we have to have a happy ending for the last issue of the series! And of course, you have to have heard of the big thing at the end of this one... if not, it's on the cover. And if you really need help, you'll get it when I hit Black Canary's miniseries. 

Green Lantern Corps #13: MUST READ. With Guy Gardner framed for murder, the real culprit has revealed itself: Mogo! But wait, how could a PLANET stealthily murder anything? It's not actually Mogo himself, but a fungal infection that has taken over a part of Mogo, and unfortunately any Lanterns who have come to Mogo for counsel, including the Lantern who trained so many others, Kilowog. Can Guy Gardner, Isamot Kol, Vath Sarn, Mogo's partner Bzzd and Soranik Natu stop Kilowog and the infection before it takes over Mogo? The ending here reveals just why Mogo is so awesome. 

JLA Classified #39: PASS IT. I don't know... I really wanted to like this Kid Amazo story, but it's just not working out. The Justice League hypocritically refuses to aid Kid Amazo when Amazo attacks him for acting heroically on the basis that it might trigger a filial instinct and cause the kid to attack them... but Wonder Woman sees no problem with telling K.A.'s girlfriend his secret... at which point she ignores him for a while, and then not only dumps him, but angrily dumps him. At this point, why not turn evil because good are bigger jerks than evil? 

Justice #12: CHECK IT. Largely, this issue was mopping up: diverting the nuclear missiles (a rather important piece of mopping up, that), catching Braniac, retrieving Aquaman's son, curing Wonder Woman, and a few other issues. As a whole, I thought this series pushed a little fast when compared to Kingdom Come, which may be an unfair comparison. Still, an enjoyable read, and close to a MUST READ here. 

Superman-Batman #36: CHECK IT. The ad for the upcoming Metal Men mini continues (ain't I cynical?). Under the pretense of interview Bruce Wayne as Clark Kent, Superman grills Batman about the stolen OMAC gear. It turns out it wasn't quite what we saw during Infinite Crisis, this is wholly cybernetic, no human host required. Brainiac's obligatory insidious plot is to have Dr. Magnus (who is captured during an ill advised attempt to re-capture the Metal Men) re-formulate the OMAC virus so that Brainiac can make the entire human race into OMACs under his control. Can a wounded Batman arrive to help? Are the Metal Men really Brainiac's pawns? And why did Batman keep the OMAC tech all this time? 

Trials of Shazam #7: CHECK IT. Under normal circumstances, this issue would be an issue long fight scene between Freddy Freeman and a woman named Sabina De La Croix because she got to Hercules first and had Herc give her half of his strength. Herc shows a little smarts and only gives her the half so it's a contest between her and Freddy to see who gets it all. In order to break up the fight scene, we get Sabina's origin story. It's an interesting read, but an origin story for someone I've never heard of before this mini just isn't going to take this above a CHECK IT. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Girl #9: CHECK IT. SHIELD wants to run a top secret bio-weapon delivery codenamed "Specimen 297" (delivery for me?) through New York, guarded by four heroes: Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Killerwatt and Kaine. Kaine recruits Darkdevil, a demonic successor to Daredevil. In the meantime, a girl that May knows named Courtney is planning to go to the local Medical Center today to confront her boyfriend on why she hasn't called (any clues on why the idea "Medical Center" and "hasn't called" might go together, class? Bueller? Bueller?) May, following her (busybody!), comes across an attempted theft on Specimen 297 (why you gotta be stealing my mail, May?) But could this be the worst thing she could do? 

Franklin Richards: World Be Warned #1: MUST HAVE. Glorious, simply glorious. The art and the concept borrow more than a little from Calvin & Hobbes, so if you love that and love Marvel, you'll love this. The unique twist here is that instead of an average child with a stuffed tiger that may or may not come to life, the story is about a boy with superheroes for parents and a robotic companion named H.E.R.B.I.E. (which of course, everyone knows is animate and can talk and such). As such, Franklin has opportunities for mischief that Calvin never had, what with access to his father's lab and such. Then again, let's face it. If Calvin got ahold of an Ultimate Nullifier or a Cosmic Cube, we'd all be dead. 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #21: CHECK IT. Ero reveals her plan. She's a dark counterpart of Peter, only she's made entirely out of spiders and needs to breed. By putting an egg sac into Flash (ew!), thousands of babies will be born. At least it's not stillborn babies. Back at the Daily Bugle, Jameson makes a major decision. 

Quote of the book: "Give up? Do you have any idea how easy that would be for me? Do you? Giving up would be a blessing! To throw my hands up! To turn myself over to you guys! Rot in some jail cell or in the Negative Zone or wherever! The idea of 'giving up' sits in my brain like a cancer, twenty four/seven, just... just gnawing away at me! Maybe if I'd given up years ago, my aunt wouldn't have taken a bullet! My wife wouldn't be living in fear! Everyone I've ever loved has suffered because I wouldn't give up! Wouldn't give up helping cops or crime victims or innocent people! Wouldn't give up the good fight! God in Heaven... you talk to me about giving up? Captain America gave up. He wound up on a slab. What do you say to that?" "You're under arrest." "I give up. *slings away*" 

New Avengers #31: PASS IT. Remember what I said above about whole issue fight scenes? Yeah, that's basically what's going on here, combined with Wong reading some incantations at Dr. Strange. There is some interesting byplay with both Spider-Man and Ronin bringing the witty, but it again begs the question of just why black suited Spider-Man is witty in the first place, or even with the Avengers in Japan if the black suit is to symbolize his getting revenge for his aunt... is May still in danger? If so, why is he in Japan? The ending is very crucial here though. 

Punisher War Journal #8: CHECK IT. Like the last few issues, we've been going back and forth between "NOW" with Frank tied to a post by Hate-Monger about to be executed in his new Captain America-esque get up, and "THEN", when the bulk of the story telling gets place, which gets very old and somewhat confusing after a while. Since nothing is happening NOW, we'll go back to THEN. When will THEN be NOW? SOON. Anyway, George Washington Bridge, the oddly named SHIELD agent who goes after Frank is fired by Tony Stark for no discernible reason, but decides to keep going after Frank anyway. The guy Frank's travelling with just barely stops Frank's kill a stranger reflex when it comes to his girlfriend, the girl who took the photo of Hate-Monger. Frank designs his new costume. While Frank goes back undercover, the Nazis kidnap girlfriend because she was asking questions. Brave sir Guy Frank's Traveling With Bravely Runs Away. All in all, hopefully this time jumping will end soon. If I want time jumping, I'll pick up Booster Gold.... ah, I'll pick up Booster Gold anyway, who am I kidding? 

World War Hulk #1: CHECK IT. Prior to the Civil War, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt and Dr. Strange sent Hulk into space. He landed on a planet and did a whole Planet Hulk storyline. Apparently, according to him, those same four sent a bomb to Planet Hulk and blew up a million people, including the woman he loves, so now he's come back a little mad about that. Hulk first lands on the moon and beats the crap out of Black Bolt, which isn't supposed to be possible. He then broadcasts a message to New York introducing his posse (which he'll do a lot), and announcing that after he gives 24 hours for the city to evacuate, he intends to level it, then he wants Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Strange. 

Strange offers his comrades' assistance to Iron Man ("if you can avoid arresting them for a few hours") and magnanimous person that he is, Iron Man offers a full pardon to any unregistered heroes who help and turn themselves in afterwards. Ooh. Any deals that don't involve kissing your royal butt, Stark? You know, with the world in crisis and all? Tony and Reed attempt to recruit the Sentry, but he asks for a quick word. She-Hulk makes her return, with the S.P.I.N. Tech in her system having been neutralized (as confirmed by other titles). Sentry doesn't show up, so it's up to Iron Man in bulky combat suit to take him on, as he tells the other heroes to stay out of it (since the madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets). Go, Hulk! 

A big battle scene occurs, along with a statement from Tony admitting that it's true he launched Hulk off planet (not mentioning either way on the bomb thing though), and saying that he's launched a nanobot payload designed to suppress his powers but doesn't know how long it will work. 

Sadly, the fight takes them through Avengers tower, which collapses. Because that needed to be depicted in a comic, things crashing into building in Manhattan and said buildings collapsing. Maybe it's just me. Most Americans seem to think that never happened anymore anyway. 

In any event, only one gets up.... 

Just as a public service announcement, DarkHelm's blog is temporarily down because his former hosting service, Hostnuke, is utterly horrible. Hopefully, it will restart soon, and better than ever. 

Other than that, there's not too much going on right now. You guys can expect a jump in the Pokemon roster soon as DarkHelm and I have picked up the Game Boy Advance games Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green. After some work, we already have gotten it to where we were able to transfer female versions of the 1st generation starter Pokemon to our Diamond and Pearl games. Other interesting pickups here lately include the first Guitar Hero game for PS2 and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii. I've never been a big survival horror fan, but I've heard nothing but good things about RE4, so I might give it a shot. 

In World of Warcraft news, I have officially reached the point with my eponymous character where I cannot run out of "rested experience" (the state in which you gain more than normal experience for killing monsters because your character has rested in an inn) before I have reached level 70, the top level currently possible in the game. By the time I reached the previous top level, level 60, it was about 3 or 4 months after it was no longer the top level. So barring a much quicker than anticipated release of the next expansion, it looks like I will have a top level character in this game. 

After that, who knows? I could still develop Boffo, trying for things like my flying mount, or just trying to get my gear as epic as possible. Or I could then concentrate on my Night Elf Hunter, Iridiscia, back at level 45. My Human Paladin, at level 44, I am thinking I may re-spec back to Holy (the healing-focused specialization), wait for DarkHelm's gnome warrior to get closer to me in level again, and start teaming up with him again. We made a good team before. If no healing is required, I can wade in, and help deal damage. If healing is required, I can back out of the combat and start dropping healing spells. 

And no, I have not forgotten that I do do comic reviews around here. I know it's really late, but here are my thoughts on the comics I read that released on June 6th, 2007: 

DC: 

All New Atom #12: PASS IT. We briefly check in on the killer Atom wannabe that Ryan stranded at a teeny tiny size. He's still mad. Then Ryan gets a couple more anagram messages. Then he ends up fighting all of Ray's old villains with one notable exception. The whole issue really felt like it was just treading water to get to the next plot point. 

Birds of Prey #107: MUST READ. The whole Secret Six vs. Birds of Prey fight is broken up by the arrival of the Rocket Reds (who at least some of which seem now to be copying the design of Dmitri's Apokolips battlesuit, or it's an art error). Also, Ice is ALIVE, and she's manifesting a huge ice golem thing demanding to know who murdered her so she can murder them. When the Six and the Birds can't stop fighting long enough to answer her, she assumes the answer is "everyone here". In a great touch, Barbara, admitting it's mean, has Huntress talk Ice down with the question "You think Guy Gardner would want to see you like this?" (I would have at least tried asking about Fire first, but go for the heartstrings, I guess) and it works. Now that the Six know this is about kidnapping a girl, they want no part of it. Line of the book: "What, it was self defense. Guy obviously had a gun." "He didn't have a gun, Deadshot!" "Okay, so it was murder. Who cares?" Also, which Bird gets FIRED, and what is Barbara going to do about it? 

Countdown #47: CHECK IT. Jimmy Olsen has a dream where he gets put into the Source Wall. Holly Robinson arrives in Metropolis to see that she's the front page story of the Gotham Gazette with the headline "Cop Killer Still At Large". She destroys her cell phone because she doesn't think she can contact her friends. The Monitors debate whether to destroy a virus poised to infect the multiverse that apparently is in the form of Donna Troy, Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner. Trickster and Piper are bored with the Rogues party and talk about the fact that they're still with the Rogues when they had both reformed. The name of the Top doesn't come up. Black Adam rages at Mary about how hopeless everything is and repeatedly threatens to kill her. When she says she just wants her life back, he says "Shazam" and the lightning strikes. When the rubble is cleared, he's just an Egyptian guy again, and Mary is super hot in a black ensemble that almost pushes the book to MUST HAVE alone. Adam says he's given her all his power because he's tired of the burden. Now, you may recall that at the end of World War III, Adam lost his powers and Billy changed his word to something else. Well, Adam gives a sideways explanation of that by saying "If you see your brother, tell him I'm 'sorry'." Apparently, the word was "sorry". This has not sat well with comics fans. On the last page, Amazons Attack, as they are wont to do. Also, History of the Multiverse Chapter III 

Detective Comics #833: MUST READ. The death of a magician's assistant has Batman call Zatanna in on the case. Zatanna and the victim were actually old friends, and she mentioned the victim's name to Batman quite a few issues back when the magician in question was kidnapped to help some criminals rip off Penguin's lounge in a poker game (which is a nice touch building off of that story). We also get to see Bruce and Zatanna's (that is correct usage, remember that her legal name is Zatanna Zatara) first meeting, and it's a lot earlier than anyone would think. The problem here is that Bruce still hasn't forgiven her for the events revealed during Identity Crisis. So he's limiting her to "as little magic as possible" while they do things "my way". Will that decision haunt them as a deadly enemy returns? 

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13: CHECK IT. (note: I believe this issue actually released later, but wasn't sure when. It's placed here because dccomics.com says it was released here. I've switched to diamondcomics.com's shipping lists to determine actual dates from now on.) Well, typically I try to avoid spoiling everything in a book, but given this series finale's huge implications for All Flash #1 (and the upcoming Flash series), Countdown and Justice League of America, you already saw my rant. It's a tough book to rate. The whole structure, of a hero everyone always thought to be immature and irresponsible running in without hesitation to save the day KNOWING he will die, that's worth at least a MUST READ. The actual story play out, that's worth a CHECK IT. What the content means, specifically yet ANOTHER hero death, that's an easy PASS IT. So it all averages out to the rating seen above. 

Alas, poor Bart. I knew him, Horatio. 

Nightwing #133: PASS IT. I know Marv Wolfman is better than this. And with the excellent Annual, I know Nightwing is capable of better stories than this. At least we're out of that awful vampire yarn (I typed yawn by mistake... but that might have been my fingers offering editorial comment.) But now we're starting up a new story involving Nightwing stumbling upon high tech assassins who kill their own in case of capture. Wrapped up in this somehow is a woman who broke Dick's heart in the past (don't we have enough of those already?) And a minor DC character making a return here. This whole series just feels like it's treading water and collecting a paycheck. I don't know what it is. 

Outsiders #48 CHECK IT. The Outsiders/Checkmate operation has gone FUBAR as the Oolong island denizens have apparently been waiting for him. Thinker's attempted hack gets hacked itself and Checkmate has to ward off a cyber attack. In the field, all hell breaks loose as everything starts attacking the agents. Will they make it out? Will *everyone* make it out? 

Supergirl #18: PASS IT. Supergirl faces... Supergirl, like say a really idealized 1960s comics version of Supergirl. 60s Supergirl proceeds to tell modern Supergirl everything she's done wrong to convince her to just give up and let 1960s Supergirl take over the role of Supergirl, since she's more worthy of it. Real cop out ending here to explain a lot of the weirdness in this title. 

Superman #663: CHECK IT. Superman continues to contemplate the choice that Arion gave him as Lightray leads a contingent young New Gods to Earth on a field trip and they decide to play super hero. Their irresponsibility is a hidden object lesson from Arion, you see, about Superman himself. He's a little heavy handed, especially when he gets ahold of the man who's been impersonating him. But Superman also gets some good reasons to stay as well... 

Marvel: 

Avengers: The Initiative #3: CHECK IT. For the most part, this issue is about Komodo, a young heroine who had gotten her powers through "perfecting" Curt Connors' serum. She's one of the best trainees in the Initiative, and by the end, we see why... and the reason isn't pleasant. We also get introduced to S.P.I.N.Tech. These are new technology by the Initiative, bullets that cost $500,000 per, and if they shoot a super powered individual, they stop that person from using their powers, permanently. Since they should get to make these decisions and all. They've already done it to She Hulk, and they want to do it to Spider-Man. For bonus, we get to see the trainees spar against The Thing. 

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #4: MUST READ. "Miss Maximoff, kindly inform your associate that I am the absolute monarch and lord of Latveria, and if he addresses me again as 'Yo, Threepio,' 'Hey, Tin Man,' or 'Domo Arigato, Mister Roboto,' I will remove his head from his body." GENIUS. The Sutton crack continues here Ash, Dazzler and The Scarlet Witch reach Latveria and they try to convince Doom to let Ash see the Necromomicon. But Doom tells them that this isn't because of the Necronomicon (and I don't want to keep spelling that). This is extraterrestrial. So Ash gets locked in the dungeon. In the meantime, Doom doesn't hesitate to blame all of this on Reed Richards. Wanda breaks Ash out, and manages to get Ash to the library. Will the Necronomicon help? Will a classic Marvel line be murdered? And can Ash make things worse? 

New Warriors #1: CHECK IT. The issue focuses on two people. First, a former X-Man named Sofia (according to Wikipedia, formerly known as Wind Dancer) who lost her powers during House of M but still has dreams of her time as an X-Man. She is highly unsatisfied with her life as a waitress, except for a good looking guy named Barry who seems to be giving her the eye. One day, a homeless man she gives food to now and again says he was given $100 to give her a cell phone. The cell phone hacks into her MP3 player and gives her a pitch that there's something more than this. Later, Barry adds to this. She gets angry at this until her tells her that he's former X-Man Beak. 

The other person is a female member of the new Warrior who seems to have the powers of super strength, shrinking other people and webbing similar to Spider-Man's. She captures a villain and leaves a New Warriors graffiti mark. Tony Stark will love this. 

Spider Man Loves Mary Jane #19: MUST READ. At the standard get together between MJ, Harry, Liz and Flash, Flash keeps falling asleep. When teased about this, he storms out. MJ looks into this and it turns out Flash is actually working at the Bean. His dad has been laid off. MJ ends up telling her friends. I love how they respond. Also, Gwen and Peter are talking again... and so are Spidey and MJ. 

I'll try to have at least another week for you tomorrow. Gotta catch up, after all. 

You ever notice that when you really, really need something to come in the mail, it takes as slow as possible to get there? I really really need a certain piece of mail to arrive before my trip to Blizzcon and Disneyland (which takes place on the 2nd-5th of next month), preferably well before it. However, it *could* take as long as the 7th to arrive. And that's not even a guarantee, just it's late after that. Gah. 

Anyhoo, just wanted to say I have not forgotten about comic reviews with all the recent unpleasantness, since I know that's what keeps all the Boffoketeers coming back. I'll be catching up Real Soon Now (tm). 

By the way, folks, you might want to give a checkout to Dave's Barebones Pokemon Pearl Roster. Now that I've beaten the game (DarkHelm beat Pokemon Diamond not long after), it unlocked the ability to conceivably collect all the Pokemon ever made in the game (though not all of them are actually in the game. Some are in Pokemon Diamond, some will depend on playing some of the Game Boy Advance games and transferring them over). Therefore, I've started a color coded Pokedex to show just what I have and just what I need so you guys can bask in the awesomeness with me as I show you my Pokemans. The pride and joy of my collection, I have two "shiny" Pokemon. These alternate color Pokemon are really rare. As a bonus, both happen to be very powerful dragons, both are level 100, both have very nice movesets, and one just happens to be a Legendary Pokemon. Go check it out. I'll wait. 

I did want to talk about a certain subject that irks me at times tonight. And I will warn you that if anyone has not heard yet what happened to Bart Allen in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13 last month, it gets spoiled here, so you may want to skip this entry if you want to avoid spoilage. 

First off, a blurb on Newsarama about an upcoming Marvel story got my goat. It advertised that either Aunt May Parker, Mary Jane Watson or The Black Cat would be, and I quote here, "getting the Gwen Stacy treatment", and I further quote, "taking a dirt nap". 

Why? Why are comics still stuck in this rut? Gwen Stacy's death back in June 1973 (thanks Wikipedia, though I bet someone out there knew that one off hand), all the way back when I was a mere FOUR MONTHS OLD, was such a watershed event for comics that we still talk about it today. It was new. It was original. It meant something. And it had a point. 

When you talk about how you're going to make someone "take a dirt nap" AND compare it to Gwen Stacy, you're automatically saying you don't have a point, as well as demeaning Gwen Stacy's character (though certain factions of my readership might argue that Marvel's been doing that for years already.) 

Admittedly, cheap deaths are going to cause a sales spike for curiosity factor in the short term. In the long term, it's going to cause your universe to be a lot less fun to read. Right now, the Marvel universe is not very fun to read, and stuff like this is just going the wrong way. 

Marvel's got a very rich and glorious history here. It would honestly be a shame if they screw it up. 

On the other side of the fence, even as the total DC brat I was growing up, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't acknowledge what they're doing. After a mere 13 issues as the Flash, Bart Allen has been killed. Now, DC actually seems to be going somewhere with the plotline in Countdown (I've seen some call it the best plot line going in the semi-flailing series). But right now, one wonders if Young Justice has become the new JLI in terms of editorial wrath by DC. 

JLI scorecard: (leaving out members who were there for a relative cup of coffee, as well as legacy heroes like Batman and the Martian Manhunter) 

• Blue Beetle: Dead, shot in the head by Maxwell Lord
• Guy Gardner: Ended up getting dumb powers and look as Warrior, forgotten, recently repowered as a Green Lantern. Not quite so much a jerk anymore.
• Booster Gold: Faked his own death. Will have to appear to be a moron to protect the timeline.
• Rocket Red: Dead, sacrificed himself to defeat 3 OMACs to save his friends (thus, it's Batman's fault)
• Fire: Black King's Knight in Checkmate, retconned into murderess. Murdered Colonel Computron.
• Ice: Killed by The Overmaster. Apparently has gotten better in Birds of Prey.
• Captain Atom: Blasted into the WildStorm universe briefly, has now apparently become Monarch like he was supposed to before a reveal made DC make Hawk Monarch instead in a poorly conceived plan.

Young Justice scorecard: 

• Robin: Essentially untouchable due to backlash from Jason Todd's death.
• Superboy: Dead due to lawsuit destroying evil tower.
• Impulse: Killed.
• Wonder Girl: Alive, but having all sorts of fun these days.
• Secret: Turned into a regular, powerless human. Forgotten except for brief mention in Teen Titans.
• Arrowette: Retired due to traumatic event. Forgotten except for ancillary mentions in Teen Titans. Her niche in the DC Universe is now filled by Speedy.
• Empress: Totally forgotten after Young Justice.
• Slobo: Turned into a statue in the HQ of Young Justice One Million in the last issue of Young Justice.
• The Ray: Has joined the new Freedom Fighters.

Was his run on Flash struggling? Sure. But that doesn't mean you blame the character. Thirteen issues of being the Flash... that's barely more time than Stephanie Brown was Robin. 

The payoff here had better be a really super fantastic story. Even then, it might not be worth it. In a forum recently, I really didn't care about what someone was saying. I responded "My apathy has become so tangible that I think that I shall name it George. Hi, George!" Other posters, for some reason, (I credit lack of sleep) decided this was really funny and decided to run with it, and George took on a life of his own. Now, if I decide in a future forum post that I want to kill George, I can do this. George is mine. 

Comics, especially working for the big two companies, you don't have that luxury. Even past respect for your fellow creators, to some extent, Superman, Batman, Captain America and Spider-Man belong to all of us. It's like a big shared toybox. If you respect the toys, you're respecting everyone else. You put the toys back in the toybox good as new when you're through and the next person who wants to use them can. 

If you go killing characters willy nilly, if you go breaking the toys... let's say I write a DC story where I write the gruesome death of Snapper Carr, because I'm convinced it will spike sales. I've broken that toy. If some creator comes down the pike with just the most awesome story ever for Snapper Carr, they've either got to figure out some way to resurrect him, complicating and perhaps cheapening their story in the process, or even worse, they can't do the story at all. 

Comic companies, death isn't cool anymore. It's trite. If you want to sell books, write good stories. 

And if anyone ever seriously mentions "Gwen Stacy" and "dirt nap" in the same sentence again, please smack them in the head. 

You guys may have noticed a shorter download time going on here. That's because with 2007 being officially half over, I have archived this year's blogging's to a January through June 2007 archive file. You can, of course, always find that archive in the left side menu. 

With the passing of a new month, it's also stat time, courtesy Google Analytics. I'm a happy Dave because I have found out how to get statistics by state in the program. For the month of June, 228 visits came from 23 different states, plus an additional 39 Analytics couldn't quite track. As well, I had worldwide appeal from the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Malaysia, India, Denmark, Hong Kong and Argentina. No visit from Africa this month stops me from collecting the continents again. I guess my buddies in Côte d'Ivoire have forgotten about me. 

I wonder if I get hits from some of these places just because I mention them. 

Anyway, at a grand total of 284 visits for the month in a 30 day month, it works out to 9.46666... visitors per day. Woo! Moving on up! 

It's been tough bringing myself to be able to write anything in this blog over the past while. There's some stuff going on that's bothering me. Plus there's this whole Benoit thing. 

At this point, we know that unless the toxicology reports reveal that it was some weird ritual cult thing out of left field, that it was exactly what it looked like. We also know that it was a case where something went seriously, seriously wrong with Benoit's sanity. 

If this was a case where Benoit found his wife cheating on him and killed her in relative lucidity, I'd have a harder time having any sympathy, but as I said in my last blog entry, this is looking like a case of a very sudden and ultimately fatal mental illness. I'm not going the route of putting Benoit on a pedestal. Again, barring left field revelations here, he did kill his innocent wife and son, but not of his free will it seems. 

Drugs, including steroids, may or may not have played a role. I agreed with the WWE's press release, which I quoted in OO and the OO blog about how this wasn't an act of *rage* and how steroids couldn't be directly related to the cause of death, which was asphyxiation. Of course, this is being highly misquoted. On Vince McMahon's Today Show appearance, when he was asked about this, and he was trying to explain, the reporter kept interrupting him. 

And something Vince hit upon... unfortunately, this was not the first murder-suicide in the world, nor will it be the last. I note that it actually IS the first really violent crime on this level in pro wrestling. The only thing I can think of that even comes close is Bruiser Brody's murder, and as tragic as that was, my point is that the average fan is just not that cognizant of Puerto Rico wrestling. If it was Christian who did this, TNA wouldn't even be mentioned, it'd be "ex WWE wrestler Christian". Samoa Joe doing this might not even be news on the national level. Sting is about the only non WWE product that could really gather attention, and you know there'd be some news sources calling him WWE. 

There are two real vultures I can't stand in all this. 

1. The usual pro wrestling critics. Phil Mushnick is chief among them, but as I said last time, the media hates Vince McMahon. The ones that want to use this case to say "See, I told you so." 

2. Profiteers. "Benoit" currently returns an amazing number of searches on eBay. Amazon.com seems to have discontinued Benoit's DVD themselves, but a number of their affiliated retailers still sell it, and the price has jumped from anywhere between $79-$125. I have Backlash 2004 (with Benoit prominently on its cover design) and now consider that DVD unsellable. (I also have Royal Rumble 2004 and Wrestlemania XX, but the Rumble had John Cena on its cover and Mania XX had no wrestlers). 

Notice the common element there of USING the deaths for some kind of self advancement. 

The only thing I've heard of for a motive in all this is a doctor suggesting that murder suicides are typically the father and usually the product of so much depression that he believes the family "would be better off in Heaven". This seems to fit the facts. Whether or not that depression was drug induced , we don't know. We could never know. Even if a toxicology report comes back saying there were drugs doesn't mean he wouldn't have been THAT depressed anyway. Not all murder-suicides are. 

One of the things I owe to my mother was raising me with a belief that self harm was utterly abhorrent. I went through a lot of crap growing up. And I might not be here otherwise. Not all stories end so happily.