Miraclo Miles

If "Free" is trademarked, what then does it mean? The comics news site Newsarama sent me an email this afternoon for a site offering free downloads of books and magazines on a variety of subects, including indy comics and graphic novels, called WOWIO . So far it sounded good, but when I looked into the account process their "simple" process begins with "prove your identity, tell us a little bit about yourself,..." The methods they have to this oh-so-essential task? Well, if one has an email address from a domain ending in .edu, .gov or .mil, that's good enough. If not, then it's either a credit card or a scan of any government- or college-issued identification. Oh, but don't worry, they only use it to verify that you are who you say you are, then they destroy this information. Oh, have I just become monstrously cynical, or are you with me in looking at a "free", advertiser-driven site, this identity verification process and their ple...

So fell the five Just a quick, last speck of vacation weekend post. Thanksgiving went well -- all the food prep went well and we, amazingly, blew through all of it over the course of three days. No leftovers survived that to be incorporated into other dishes. As ever, I end up confused as to where much of the time went, as many things didn't get done and it wasn't because I was catching up on sleep. Some lessons learned to apply to any future time off, which I may or may not go on about at some point -- preferably after I've followed my own advice. I did get in some reading along the way, but more casual television watching than should have been the case. I was on target to get back on a proper (well, practical ) sleep schedule last night, but I woke up around 1am this morning having refluxed up into my sinuses. The pain and the built-in smell from that lasts, so it was 7 or so this morning before I was able to get that clear enough to sleep again, so my Sund...

Once More, With Feeling A Buffy, the Vampire Slayer video post. Sure, as if anyone was calling for this. I came across this online and decided that I wanted to have a tidy link to it since I don't have that season on DVD. So, it's the complete musical episode from the 6th season, appropriately if coincidentally enough in 6 parts. It's important to keep in mind that to the best of my knowledge most of the cast makes no claim to being able to sing. Anthony Head (Giles) is one exception, as he's had some stage singing background, I know, even starring in a stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show sometime back in the day. As you listen to the vocally uneven results keep in mind how "off" Alyson Hannigan (Willow) must have been if she was given almost a complete pass from having to sing. This was a fun gimmick which was used to peak advantage, advancing the plot of the series considerably as many of the secrets each character had been holding insid...

Mix Tape 11/23/06 Tammy 's done a few of these, usually for someone specific, but I'm doing this one for myself. These are all songs I've found myself listening to, at one time or other, back to back several times in a row. I'll kick it off with the theme song from the latest Bond Film, Casino Royale , " You Know My Name " which continues to grow on me. Then I'll go for one of the most underrated musicians operating out there today -- Ben Folds . Ignore the video and just listen to the song. " Best Imitation of Myself " A bit of fun pop from a band that may as well have been cursed for all they were taken for and the way the principle members ended up, it's Badfinger . On to something just as pop but far, far more recent, it's Fountains of Wayne and " Mexican Wine ." (No, I will not link to " Stacey's Mom ") Just to emphasize that I'm an old fart I'll reach back for one from The Monkees . One of...

It's Thanksgiving! Surprise! Didn't you wonder why the house smells so good today? (If it doesn't, then go with the "My house has no nose!" joke...) (I've removed some of the formatting for this entry because Blogger keeps giving me a "Not Found" error when I click on "More?" Apologies for having this take up so much of the page scroll.) We appear to be on target for dinner in the middle of the day, right at noon, leaving ample time for relaxed seconds, thirds and whatever naps as might be required along the way. I have an errand or two in the morning, but then I expect to be in until at least Friday after that. The morning's going to be busy enough, so now that I'm still awake, all the prep that's to be made for the moment's been made, and the turkey's cooking, I thought I'd get this posted. Yes, this year it's a T-Day just for the nuclear family, so no traveling and/or relatives to deal with for us. R-E-L-A-X ...

Bird Eve (updated) This finds me on the first of five days off. I automatically woke up just before 6am only to go back to sleep until just past 10. A muddle of dreams merging some ongoing personal anxieties with movie, novel and comics elements finally drove me back to the waking world. Since then the Thanksgiving prep's been under way, including cubing and toasting some more bread, cutting onions and celery and starting them on a slow saute' - all for the stuffing. Getting all the dishes done and the kitchen re-cleaned for the main prep tonight, too. I still have to go through the refrigerator and clear out some items so we have plenty of room for items that'll be in overnight, and then for short-term leftovers tomorrow. Crypt Leak and Abbygal are likely going full tilt over at their place today, as they're hosting Thanksgiving for their extended family on both sides. After surviving that the planned December 2nd get-together for four or five of us (still not sure i...

A Call Goes Out For... ... The Mighty Heroes ! You can thank (or blame) Tony Collett for inspiring this one by reminding me of fondly remembered cartoon from 1966. Hey, I was five years old, and Ralph Bakshi was already pushing a psychedelic experience on me. Running roughly 7 minutes each, they were stand-alone cartoons I hadn't seen in many years. Simple and formulaic, they're best viewed by pre-schoolers, the inebriated and/or through a heavy cheesecloth of nostalgia. Given the quality of these videos it sometimes looks as if it's being viewed through some kind of cloth, but, hey, free is free. What stuck with me most was both the opening theme and the klak-klak-klak percussion and organ music once each episode's bad guy was on the move or otherwise had the upper hand. Here, courtesy of some fellow fans I'm supposing, are two episodes. This first one is the first of the 21 episodes they produced: The Plastic Blaster . ...and then is episode 7: The Monsterizer...

Quintets A happy birthday - nearly belated - to D , who's finally caught up with those of us who hit the 45 mark earlier this year. Too much work to clear out some projects, mixed with a week that started with electrical problems in two vehicles, along with some sundry items kept me from going to Monday night's marquee and have left me drained and dizzy. However, as of getting out of work most of an hour ago I am off until next Monday. Five days. Since we had our Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws on Sunday (they'll be out of town by Thursday, down near the Grand Ol' Opry -- not someplace on my dream list of places to go) we'll he having a quiet Thanksgiving here at home. I have almost all of the shopping done for that -- rolls, which will need to be bought closer to mealtime, are all that remains to bought. Tomorrow night I'll be playing at a Supernova marquee, so I can get a Space map (well, I have the one that was on the back of the set poster in the ca...

Bond Begins Being signed up for two marquees in the coming week and still feeling too run down to concentrate and be at all competitive, I passed on hitting a new venue for a marquee tonight and instead went out to see Casino Royale . With a running time of 144 minutes and a PG-13 rating, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but I knew some of new Bond, Daniel Craig 's work - including 2004's Layer Cake , which is what brought him some international attention - and had caught the edge of an overwhelmingly positive buzz. I wasn't disappointed. With Casino Royale we get a new Bond, but moreover we get the first Bond, which is to say this is James Bond 007's first adventure. As it's set in the contemporary world we either have to make many amendments to the many Bond films done over the years or presume they've essentially been wiped out by a reset. The opening scene -- with flashbacks within it -- covers the specific, final acts of ascension to double-O stat...

(A Little) Overkill By Brick Mike T. dropped the paper off he had due for class last night and skipped the session, heading back in time to pick up the brick I'd pre-ordered through him (and the case his three clix-playing friends ordered through him) last night, so that was a pleasant surprise this morning. (Almost the only pleasant surprise of the day, as Friday has been bringing a workday worse than a Monday.) Since my case (see previous entry) left me with a complete set, this one was bought both to get me the receipt I needed to be able to send away for the cosmic Doom piece, but also in search of more alien generics and any potentially useful tradeables. Using the same format as before, here's the brick: Commons 001 - R Kree Warrior 1 002 - E Kree Captain 1 004 - R Skrull Infiltrator 1 005 - E Skrull Warrior 2 006 - V Skrull General 1 007 - R Shi'ar Warrior 1 011 - E Badoon Guard 2 012 - V Badoon Commander 1 015 - V Night Thrasher 2 017 - E Jubilee 2 020 - E Super Ape...

Supernova: The (Almost) Collectible Case! It's my day of plastic gluttony for this set. The brick I'd thought I'd have this morning was delayed, as mentioned in the previous entry, but the case finally arrived in the driving rain a bit after 7pm. Some oddness, as you'll see, but I'm very happy with the results. I'm out on my feet, finally eating dinner while typing this (yeah, that explains the condition of this keyboard), so pardon any lack of finesse beyond my usual lack. Tonight I'll try to get more than 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Using a list format that's handy. Commons 001 - R Kree Warrior 3 002 - E Kree Captain 3 003 - V Kree Colonel 2 004 - R Skrull Infiltrator 3 005 - E Skrull Warrior 3 006 - V Skrull General 2 007 - R Shi'ar Warrior 2 008 - E Shi'ar Borderer 3 009 - V Shi'ar Admiral 2 010 - R Badoon Warrior 3 011 - E Badoon Guard 3 012 - V Badoon Commander 2 013 - R Night Thrasher 3 014 - E Night Thrasher 3 015 - V Night Thras...

Kalu Kalay, No Brick Today Problems with one or more distributors, I'm guessing, have resulted in some regions expecting their Supernova today. Grant was hit by that up in Chicago, so his trip out yesterday netted him nothing, and while my immediate area is supplied an area 40-60 miles away is expecting them today; that's where my pre-paid brick is coming in. Mike T. has a class after work tonight, and the shop closes at 8, so it's almost certain he's not going to be able to pick it up until Friday evening... which means I won't see that until Monday. However, my case is on a local FedEx truck and is set to be delivered to home sometime today. Hopefully mine will be one of the good ones -- one like the past two I've gotten, where the breakdown of number of figures per rarity level was highly predictable, and they truly were "collectible cases." Some of the horror tales coming along so far are suggesting screw-ups that are making the imbalances of Armo...

Supernova : Opening day taste Despite the bulk orders I'd placed arriving tomorrow, I bought four boosters at a local shop while out for lunch this afternoon. It's my U.S. heritage of conspicuous consumption on display. I'm reasonably pleased so far. All bases and figures match up, no broken flight stands, though one card was mildly bent and another had a tear a quarter of the way through it. (The latter's a first for me, and hopefully not something I'll be seeing more of.) Early horror stories concerning bricks and cases have been running rampant, and those are among the complaints out there. Among the alien generics - pieces I'm hoping to be able to build useful forces out of - I was pleased: Kree Colonel V Badoon R & V Skrull V Which add to the Skrull R, Badoon R and Kree V I came home with from the pre-release to get me off to a good start out of a combined 6 boosters. As noted back on the 28th, two of the generics I brought home from the pre-release ...

Time fo' a whuppin! Yes, today's Supernova's release day and I might even get out to pick up a few boosters despite tomorrow being the day brick and then case are scheduled to come to me, but for the moment I have nothing to say about it aside from noting ugly rumors about collation inside some of the cases. So! Because I'm sick of seeing the same entry on this site, and Crypt Leak sent me this entertaining link from not merely a film but something of a franchise I was unaware of, I'm posting this. From 1976, and nearly 8 minutes long, it's Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) in a long fight scene from The Human Tornado . Low budget, blaxsploitation goodness! Hand me my pimp cane, woman! I'll be back to tedious posts on the new Heroclix set soon enough, I'm sure. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll have something better to report than the mostly ugly rumors from some other case buyers about crappy collation this time around, with wildy imbalanced cases. Tags : Th...

Sell Out! Well, with slightly under five days until it officially hits the stores Wizkids has announced that their Supernova expansion has sold out . Here's the text of the press release from their site, minus the final two paragraphs that are just legal statements and boasting for the company: MARVEL HEROCLIX: SUPERNOVA EXPANSION SELLS OUT November 10, 2006 (SEATTLE) — WizKids Inc. announced today that the entire U.S. print run of Marvel™ HeroClix®: Supernova has sold out from its warehouse. The ninth Marvel HeroClix expansion releases worldwide November 15, 2006, and has been eagerly anticipated by fans and retailers alike. “The buzz on Supernova building up to, and then as a result of, the Prerelease on October 28 has been spectacular,” said Joe Hauck, EVP of Sales, Marketing and Product Development at WizKids®. “This news is particularly exciting because it represents an increase in sales from our previous Marvel expansion, Sinister. Our authorized hobby game distributors are ...

Sorry, Hanukka Harry... ...but Wal-Mart's reviving Bill O'Reilly's petty crusade , so it'll be no more "Happy Holidays!" this year, but instead they'll be pushing "Merry Christmas!" , and the decorations department will be changed to "The Christmas Shop." So, if you want to have a little fun, swing by a Wal-Mart and see if the greeter says "Merry Christmas!" If so, and you didn't want to shop there anyway, try to look disgusted and pretend you're Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah's Witness or someone else for whom it isn't appropriate. Seriously, it's no big deal to me either way. I enjoy a happy, secular Christmas and never begrudge anyone else having their religious observation. After all, the Christians hijacked the holiday anyway . I'm much more interested in the tone of the holiday greetings. Happiness and good cheer transcend all national, ethnic and religious boundaries, and like any fine people who decid...

Charting a minor course on the Sea of Gray A gray, rainy Wednesday. I'm hoping it stays peaceful, but as ever there's always a great deal that can go sour. I find myself in the usual mid-week rush to get within the protective embrace of the coming weekend. Anything I have to say so far on the election will be found over on my other blog . Interesting times, even if so far I'm not commenting on a great deal of it. We're mostly left with possibilities for '07, when the new congress is sworn in; for the moment the task is to figure out who's going to be on the team and what the priorities are. Back onto trivial matters, we're one week from Supernova 's release. Wizkids has kept the official info for most of the set out of their directory, despite it being all out there for people to know since the pre-release on October 28th. While I saw many of the pieces and played with and against a handful of them, I'm still avoiding photos and info. Next week, as I...

Election Blip I tend to avoid election night coverage, figuring I've done my part by voting, and watching reporters and pundits chew on the same gristly bits over and over, frequently with low percentages having reported in is both a waste of time and simply irritating. The landscape to come will be laid out tomorrow -- barring any ultra-close races that will have to be closely counted. That perhaps Pennsylvania's biggest embarrassment - Rick Santorum - was finally ousted is a great note for me to take off into the night. A seemingly calm and gracious Ranting Rick gave his concession speech earlier this evening. That Joe Sestak is currently running well ahead of incumbent Curt Weldon is also heartening, but much could change as the remaining results roll in, so I'll try to keep from counting chickens. I have to note that when we went to vote, around 2:30 this afternoon, we were very disappointed not only by the absence of any strong turnout at the moment, but as they were...

Two Days 'til Tuesday I know I've shifted what little political blogging I do (less and less it seems) over to a different blog , but with elections less than two days away this should classify as pop culture. As Tammy , Mark & Tony have all taken a shot at this, I figured I'd do the same: I surprised myself by pulling a 100% (one of the musician questions was a guess), so I'm apparently good to go. I'll keep any other political commentary today over on my other blog. Tags : vote

Whitebread Chutzpah Yes, more You Tube. The product-in-process is terrible, but I have to admire his nerve, determination, and/or sheer devotion to himself and belief in his talents. Tags : Average Homeboy

Somebody's going to Hell for this I'll feel guilty about it tomorrow. Well, since I went this far, I'll add this one. It could have been worse. I could have posted these December 25th.

Somebody's Uncles Two weeks 'til the release of Supernova, and I decided to dip into a trio of pieces because they're modestly interesting (to me, at least) and I saw them all at last week's pre-release anyway: The Super-Apes! Okay, in a nutshell: Communist scientist reads about how the Fantastic Four gained their powers from exposure to cosmic rays while flying into space in an under-shielded spaceship. So, figuring more is better (thinking like a Capitalist, comrade?) he created a ship that was virtually transparent to cosmic rays. Not trusting people, he trained a babboon, an orangutan and a gorilla to run ship operations. Then, he and his banana- and orange-fueled crew took off into space, and history that only a small portion of the world remembers was born. Seth is to be commended not only for working these into the mix, and for doing mostly interesting things with their dials, but for working it in within the REV structure. They did make a substantial error, thou...