Miraclo Miles

Maybe if I'd had these to waggle at the screen ...I'd have been able to take the SOTU speech. Yes, it's Hindu finger puppets of Brama, Ganesh, Garuda and Kali. As I mentioned to Crypt Leak (who came across them) it's clear that either the person who buys them will be accursed, or that'll become the premise of the first new comedy from the CW network this fall. Of course, you could buy that and the punching nun puppet and have them battle it out to decide which religion you should be subscribing to. Then again, I see that Shiva's pushing ciggies , which is perhaps why there wasn't a fifth finger puppet in that first set. Take it outside, Shiva! No wonder Shiva's skin's turning blue. If you don't mind pitting five sexually frustrated women against four ancient gods (man, the CW isn't going to lack for new programming, is it?) you can send the nun quintet out to do battle. Where's your savior now, ladies? Whatever else you choose to d...

I couldn't do it As with most of Bush's State of the Union addresses I knew I wouldn't be able to stomach the words, the smirking and the nauseating applause from the current, ruling lords of darkness. I'll take it in in text form later, and I know I'm going to be deluged with dissections of the speech by mid-morning tomorrow anyway. Instead, I did some cleaning around here. A much, much better choice.

et tu, Arlen? The last vestiges of the balanced and reasonable man he once was now apparently gone - eroded by the very nature of the company he's kept within his party -- Senator Arlen Specter has sponsored a measure as part of the PATRIOT Act bill current before Congress that would allow authorities to haul demonstrators at any "special event of national significance" away on felony charges if they are caught inside or attempting to get inside one of the increasingly broad "security perimeters." Expanding the powers granted to the Secret Service and law enforcement, this provision will * Allow those who've been caught breaching restricted areas to be arrested even if the VIPs being "protected" have already left the area . * Double the maximum sentence of those arrested from six months to a year * Extend protections previously afforded to VIPs to an increasingly large sweep of events -- essentially granting the event itse...

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday [Heroclix] The previous post still has some odd elemtns when viewed with Internet Explorer. At first it wouldn't show the bullets, and once I fixed that it's interpreting I'm using Mozilla Firefox, though, and I've reached the point where I'm not going to worry about how it looks to IE users. A slow, late start to the day. A large pot of chicken noodle soup completed, selection of some clix extras to take with me, then off to a trading session. All in all, it worked out well. Trades netted me several pieces I was missing: vet Ultimates Cyclops . Two targets, 8 Range, 4 Damage with Energy Explosion . Two opening clicks of Running Shot make him a dynamic piece, too. The Ultimate X-Men team ability also helps his Attack Values in some cases, as the player can make a choice during the game, selecting either a particular opposing piece or team symbol; against that piece or members of that team, he'll get a +1 to his Attack Value, which mean...

On a Saturday Domestic odds and ends. The boring items du jour . Aside from some food shopping, making dinner, and handling a little email, Friday night passed without note. That leaves figuring out my clix want list and choosing extras to take with me for trade for sometime tonight, I suppose. The trading session 's set roughly for noon tomorrow, but I'll likely be aiming for slightly before that. So far today I've: Taken care of an errand to the post office before it closed at noon. Some more email, Gotten checks written out for every bill on the main menu, dropping all but one of them (I want to send that via a different class on Monday) into the chute at the post office during a second pass. That covers everything due through Feb 13th, I believe. Balanced the checking account including the latest online info. Took the first step towards setting that account up to allow me to pay all the usual bills online. Prepped dinner (chicken) and started that g...

Trade-Offs & Today's Biggie [Heroclix, game mechanics, dial design, trading] All Heroclix items in this post, as indicated above. Today's sneak peek is Rita Farr , whose vaguely pornographic superheroine name is Elasti-Girl . She's part of the seven piece Giants collectors' set they're unveiling one piece at a time on consecutive Fridays. They've been counting down from 7, and Rita's #4, the middle of this Brobdingnagian sandwich. The thing that struck me first was that they've decided to give her the Outsiders Team Ability /symbol. The game mechanic is one the average player is still getting used to, both because not many released characters have it and wild card pieces can't copy it. Given to a giant -- someone who can see over the heads of other players and pieces of debris -- the ability to keep an opposing piece from having any of its stats raised through any means makes her a potentially valuable asset, and something to make her 76 points ...

The importance of fighting losing battles Some , at least. In the flurry of activity to petition representatives to take a stand against the Alito nomination ( Tony Collett 's been noting most of them) I've found myself stating many of the same points to various politicians. I rarely ever just sign one of those petitions and send it unless it's clear that I'm just to be a signatory to a simple statement. Most of the modern e-campaigns involve sites that generate individual emails targeted at each of a list of senators and representatives. I generally have some quibbles with the wording, and even in the rare occasions where I don't, I don't want to simply be part of a wave of boilerplate poli-spam. If a single email is going to come through solely in my name I want it to be mine. When sending a message to a short list of senators (including a couple of Republicans) concerning an Alito filibuster , this is what I sent: I understand that the filibuster is not a...

Clixety Clix Clix Clix Despite having essentially written the post between three emails to various people this weekend, I never did get a clix post up on the site. I mentioned to two of my correspondents that I'd be adding one this weekend, which was the closest thing to a guarantee I wouldn't be doing one. That's the way things work in me. That predictable process is likely the source of most of my problems, but I'm not going to deal with that after 1am on a work night. This, instead, is a quickly edited-together post on Heroclix . So, if you found yourself wondering if you were missing out on something by sleeping, you can at least know that whatever you were missing, it wasn't happening on this site. Taking most recent first, Monday they announced an upcoming freebie, a Wolverine who'll be given out at comics shops on May 6th, the next Free Comic Book Day . With what struck me initially as a fairly, playable dial, this 57 pt Wolverine comes with the X-Men t...

Englehart in your future -- via the past I was pleased to find in today's email a note Steve Englehart had sent out to those who'd been in contact with him along the way. In it he wrote a little about projects he's been working on which are coming out this year, so I thought I'd pass some of the info along. Steve's asked not to be quoted directly, as it wasn't a press release, but has said I can talk about any of it in my own words. I don't know that I'm up to rewriting something from Steve Englehart, but I'll take a stab at some of it. The focus of the note, and something I hadn't heard about before, is Black Rider . (I'm including a couple of 1950s-era covers in the mix for reference and color. Click on them for larger views.) This is scheduled as a one-shot, and is part of some Western-theme that Marvel's going to be running in June. Steve mentions solicitations in the next few weeks, but since comics shops are placing orders now fo...

Score one for the Vatican I've found myself, once more, with too little energy & time to make the rounds and even comment on comments on this site. Still, when Tammy passed along something I'd missed from the middle of last week, I thought I'd take a moment to note that even the Vatican recognizes that "Intelligent Design" is not science . The Roman Catholic Church embarassed itself suffificiently in such matters centuries ago, and as backwards as they may be in many social matters they are anxious to demonstrate that they're no longer looking to walk the same path that had them sic the Inquisition on Galileo for pointing out that both the Bible and Ptolemy were wrong about the Earth being the center of the known universe. Of course Fiorenzo Fachini, in statements approved by the Vatican, ultimately brings matters back into their theistic sphere by writing "In a vision that goes beyond the empirical horizon, we can say that we aren't men by c...

It started... in Indy ? Okay, so I'm well behind the curve here, seeing as how the group announced itself back on August 24th, when their spokesman/leader Doktor DiscorD ™ (so... how exactly do you pronounce that "DiscorD", Dok?) announced the debut of a group of costumed crimefighters in the city of Indianapolis: "The Justice Society of Justice ™...offering twice the JUSTICE as the leading competitors!" He goes into it more directly on his MySpace page Pictured up top are Mr. Silent , Doktor DiscorD and Doom Bunny. Okay, so - of course - on most levels it's a goof . Still, they're having fun, and so far it seems that they're not doing any harm... though I don't know what positive things to think about a group headed by someone who lists among his personal heroes Rorschach and Kid Miracleman (aka Kid Marvelman ). Look through his pages and you'll see references to fellow heroes, many of whom sound as if they were characters cut from Mystery...

Objects of Power via USPS! Special thanks to Tammy & Highlander for sending me some custom pogs - T-Spheres for Mr. Terrific and a Power Battery for Green Lantern - for use in Heroclix games. H had written about them back on the 8th , so there's no point in my explaining them again. A pleasant surprise in today's mail. There are some more Heroclix bits I want to touch on, but I'll either do that later tonight or tomorrow. I wanted to make this one a post unto itself.

Tony Collett 's blog's tipped me off to something that at first I didn't think I was going to like. The artwork's of a style I don't generally go for (and, moreover, strikes me as much more evocative of the '70s than the '80s they're waxing nostalgic for), and the premise immediately struck me as too heavily derivative of a circa 1981 television show ... ...but there's something about the pitch for Truth, Justin and the American Way that swayed me. Once you go to the pitch site be sure to click on the flash animation window posted on the 19th, where they've set up a tv show styled opening sequence, complete with theme song... or just click here if you're that lazy... but go over to their site afterwards anyway. I was sufficiently impressed by the effort and the obvious warmth shown by the people involved that I'm adding this 5-issue miniseries from Image , set to debut in March, to my comics order. I just don't do that much any ...

Google holds the line AOL, Yahoo and MSN all folded like cheap lawn chairs under a 400 lb man, but so far Google is resisting the Justice Department's subpeona to turn over records of its users search data . [ Additions: Thanks to Tony Collett I see that the Electronic Frontier Foundation had already commented on this sometime yesterday. They make some comments that indicate that Google will continue to be a prime target so long as they continue to do what they've been doing all along -- collect, concentrate and organize information. Their piece also has led me to bookmark some information about Tor , which is a piece of anonymizing software intended to protect a user's identity while surfing the web. I'll take a look at that later.] The motion filed by the Justice Department seeks a court order to turn over “a multi-stage random sample of one million URL’s” from Google’s database, and a computer file with “the text of each search string entered onto Google’s sear...

Fashionably Late Okay, so De-Lurking Week was last week, but am I supposed to care? No slave to fashion nor the petty dictates of others I! So, the idea here is that even if you normally just silently breeze through, have no comment to make nor on-topic thoughts you want to share, still step out of the shadows long enough to leave an "I was here!" variety comment. It's that simple. If you have a blog, hey, give yourself a plug! Of course, even if you do stop by and comment regularly, adding your name to this comment thread would be appreciated, too. (This is posting #850, btw.)

Spaced! In part because it beats dealing with many things in daily life I've found myself becoming interested again in various developments in astronomy and space tech today. Over on Dwight Williams blog yesterday (though I didn't see it until this morning) he noted several pieces involving the discovery and speculation surrounding a "superbubble" of hydrogen erupting roughly 23,000 light years from Earth, out on another spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. (Artist's conception up top.) The other links Dwight points out in his post take that information and run in interesting directions with it, including speculations on the importance of such an event in the evolution of life here on Earth. Also yesterday, Alibi pointed out the New Horizons mission, one of the many space missions which are either in progress or - as in this case - literally on the launchpad. (The next launch window is Thursday afternoon.) This will be another of those missions where the gap o...

Well, it's hardly the disbanding of the Justice League, but... I see that Fathers 4 Justice (an organization I briefly noted back in June of '04 ) has decided to officially cease operations . The organization was formed three years ago to bring attention to the plight of fathers who had been denied access to their children by the courts for various reasons. Their tactics were to dress up as superheroes and pull publicity stunts - generally of the climbing a building and unfurling a banner type. As one can easily imagine, while some - perhaps even many - of the fathers involved were the subject of some degree of unfair discrimination by the courts, some others were simply bad eggs who the courts were well-justified in blocking from their children. People who probably became even worse once they put on a costume. Despite having expelled 30 members last year due to their extremist stances the organization still found itself tarred by the reports that fringe members planned to abd...

Prelude to recalculation I wrote a post earlier this week - a whiny update - and it remains a draft, best never to be published. Between correspondence and blogging I'd momentarily forgotten that a personal journal still has a place in the universe, and not everything is best aired. While the financial matters we were pursuing have moved ahead, this week has reinforced the view that at least as far as my relationship with the universe is concerned that to smile with confidence is to guarantee a kick in the teeth. Presume almost anything, and the object of presumption will move, change, vanish or prove to be something other than it seemed. Grasp victory and the rules of the game will change. Win a prize and find out that it's not what it appeared to be. My universe continues to make science of superstition. I should stop fighting, embrace the lessons experience should be teaching and learn the new math.

Wish me luck Today we sally forth to do battle! No time for details.

Chronicles Chris Miller 's sent the alert around today that he's finished the latest round of revisions on his Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe ! Chris adds: Version 4.1 is now complete, current and comprehensive (all sections) as of January 11, 2006! Including: * Section VI, "The Future," fully revised to incorporate additional hypertimelines and ALL THREE version of the Legion of Super-Heroes * Section VII, "Title Key, Acknowledgements, and Links," thoroughly updated to include many more sites (plus corrections for changed and defunct links) * Updates and additions throughout every section, including story information from SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS, the new SWAMP THING series, JSA:STRANGE ADVENTURES, the Charley Parker reveletions from HAWKMAN, the very latest events of INFINITE CRISIS, and much more! And, of course, ongoing tweaking will continue, to include new developments and correct errors. As ever, if anyone has any helpful thoughts or ...

That's Toy Biz! Thanks to Tony Collett for alerting me to a five-year deal signed (or at least announced) today between Marvel and Hasbro . My first reaction was that the dissolution of the deal with Toy Biz - one year ahead of time - would likely mean a drop in the quality of the average Marvel action figure. Hardly a stunning loss to me , but I was enjoying some of the figures in their Legends line and had from time to time eyed items in the Marvel Select line . Also, I don't recall the last time I saw something from Hasbro that wasn't, well, a crappy, cheaply-made toy. I have little confidence that Hasbro's going to produce work as nice as, say, the Black Panther figure shown here. However, there are two details that caught my attention: One: there's a line in the official statement (emphasis mine) Commencing in 2007, a wide range of toy and game categories - including action figures, role play and preschool toys, board games and puzzles - will be produced b...

39 Years Ago: A (Small) Bullet Deflected So, here's one that Crypt Leak came across, following up on a lead concerning a show pitched in the late 1960s built around Wonder Woman. Moreover, he found a clip (it's a RealPlayer one) that is essentially half of the four minute pilot of a pilot. Produced by Batman producer William Dozier as a spoof-heavy pitch for a series that would have apparently been so campy as to make that era's Batman seem relatively dramatic. Titled Wonder Woman: Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? it's a minor bullet we (for once!) dodged by being in this timeline. Ah, and please note that the would-be star of this show, Ellie Wood Walker - went on so such stellar roles as "Woman on freeway", "Mime #3", and who can forget her scene-stealing presence as "Adult Friend" in Shattered Spirits ? Next year's the 30th anniversary of this would-be media tragedy. Okay, " tragedy " is quite a bit strong, bu...

Big, hairy feet. Alka Seltzer. Visine. Adult Diapers optional, but suggested. At the Alamo Downtdown in Austin TX, yesterday they held a special event: The Hobbit Feast . Exective chef John Bullington has created a seven meal feast, one for each of the different hobbit mealtimes (1st breakfast, 2nd breakfast, elevensies, etc.), spread out over the twelve hours it takes to watch the entire middle earth trilogy. Interpreted from actual meals referenced in the books, the Hobbit Feast is the ultimate Lord of the Rings sensory experience. These seven meals accompany a screening of the three Lord of the Rings films, spaced with 30 minute breaks between them, including the credits. Okay, so this already happened, as it was a Saturday event, but maybe they'll do it again. I got very little sleep Saturday morning and ran out of time to swing by here and do any posting -- including bits of trivia such as this. I'd be a little afraid of the crowd that would show up for something like th...

My New Liason To the Senior Partners [categories: insurance company, duplicity] Back before the end of the year I wrote a little about difficulties with an insurance company regarding a disability policy for my wife that we've been paying into for nearly eight years (I underestimated earlier), which we had to make claims against in 2005 once it was clear she was going out on disability from work for an unspecified stretch. As I say, we were experiencing some problems . (At this juncture I have no intention of identifying the insurance company involved. There's no point in bringing that information into play in this forum. My expectation is that the struggle outlined here is not unique to a single insurance company anyway, and the function of this and subsequent, related posts is to reinforce my own recollections, keep my thoughts organized, and to perhaps help map the minefield for someone else who will later find himself dealing with a similar situation.) The following day (D...