Miraclo Miles

Baking the Big Apple Today Nick and I caught an early showing of the new monster flick, Cloverfield . Short reaction: It works. I won't rush right into spoiler material -- I'll warn you and put in a spacer before that. The fears going into the movie were that we were going to see a monster movie handled using the worst elements of The Blair Witch Project . Sure, we have the shakycam approach, as it's told via a videotape that, immediately prior to the shit hitting the fan, was documenting a going away party. Yes, there are moments when you'll wish the guy holding the camera would look left or look right instead of where he is. Yes, you'll find yourself marveling at the incredible battery and features this particular camera has. Still, it's done well. Will some suspension of disbelief be necessary? Of course. Will the entire story be laid out for the viewer, so that they know where the threat originated? No, but I appreciate that they don't dumb everything ...

Odds & Ends Quick notes. The Good Citizen programming has kicked in again, as I'm getting a strange satisfaction out of getting back into the post-holiday swing of paying each bill as it arrives. I'm such a dupe. I'd likely feel better about it if more of the money was going towards buying something rather than leasing something or otherwise paying for services. It's a treadmill that'll only end when I keel over and the moving belt drops me into a waiting grave. (Well, actually, a furnace as I'm going to be cremated, not buried.) We've been getting more info on next month's Crisis Heroclix set, so I've begun posting again on my clix blog . If the trend continues, not only will the Legion of Superheroes come out of this even better, but the original Teen Titans will be a compact, kick-ass theme team. At the risk of sounding like a social Conservative, I occasionally find myself coming away from mass media feeling disgusted on more than an ...

Comics Back at the start of October I started to look into switching comics services. By the 23rd I'd chosen a new service and placed my first order with Mail Order Comics . (Okay, not the most imaginative business name, but it certainly pegs their business.) So far, so good. The general, individual discount is 38%, though some items are discounted a little less while some are discounted as high as 75%. Obviously, all of that gets eaten into depending upon the shipping method and frequency chosen. Even at the worst (UPS, twice-monthly), though, my final discount remains well beyond 20% -- even more as I consider the state tax I'd be paying were I picking them up at a local store. I've gotten two shipments so far -- another one will presumably be sent next week. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle this 5-comics-day month, but since I didn't get a shipping notice this week apparently they're going to send the first three weeks worth of comics together. I...

Candidate Match-up Another poll to help find the sympatico candidate: Pick your candidate for 2008 . (Thanks to Tony Collett and Mark Gibson for the link.) 91% Mike Gravel 91% Dennis Kucinich 90% Chris Dodd 89% Barack Obama 88% John Edwards 85% Hillary Clinton 82% Joe Biden 78% Bill Richardson 39% Rudy Giuliani 24% John McCain 22% Ron Paul 20% Mike Huckabee 19% Tom Tancredo 17% Mitt Romney 10% Fred Thompson 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz I was surprised to see Mike Gravel at the top (equal correlation to Kucinich - who was no surprise as being up there - for me)... largely because I must confess I don't know that I was aware of him before. From the info on his site his campaign hasn't made inroads into Pennsylvania, and given how late we come in the Primary process I can hardly fault them for not spending some of their resources here.

Another Mid-Week Pause No one topic I want to focus on. Honestly, I don't know if I can. While feeling much better, whatever started to take me down by December 10th has taken me all this time to shake it, and I'm still not fully back. The drastically fragmented sleep has taken its toll; my memory and ability to concentrate are both in tatters. A little better each day, but the increments are tiny. The primary process was almost interesting in the interim between last Thursday's Iowa straw poll and the lead-in to yesterday's New Hampshire vote. I deliberately (and, as it turns out, wisely) skipped listening to the coverage on Tuesday. Who needed a day of repetitious grind followed by updates as percentages of the precincts reported in? Not, I. That said, I was a little disappointed to see that Obama didn't keep the predicted lead -- though it was only a loss by a gap of 2%. Oh, it isn't as if I'm a big Obama booster, but I believe I could get more e...

I don't handle change well Word of a personnel change at work -- at this stage just a two-week notice from a key employee, with no immediate replacement lined up despite that being a #1 priority -- hit me by the end of that first, partial week back following the holiday. No hard feelings, I cannot blame the person for deciding to take the offer. It's something more in a field he's interested in, and regardless of what the relative pay is (no business of mine) it's right near home for him, and especially with gas prices being what they are I can hardly fault someone for wanting to ditch a 30-ish mile each way commute that includes turnpike tolls. I dealt with that for years before finally moving us near work. Being able to ditch not only the expense and vehicular wear, but the sheer loss of time each week, well, as I've said, I'm not going to fault someone for the decision. Still, it's an extra level of complication awaiting me as I head back in towards M...

Shades To Come I don't want to be a Flying Dutchman. While out on my travels the Saturday before Christmas, looking (mostly in vain) for a few specific items to round out the gift list, and not yet realizing that I was as sick as I was, I found myself stopping in various stores in the area I'd never been in. Among the places was one I'd only first noticed perhaps a month earlier. It's a Comics & Collectibles spot... and for this entry I'm not going to name it because I will have less than glowing things to say about its prospects. I'll note that it takes its name from a '60s tv series that I enjoyed enough as a child for it to retain a nostalgic boost. As best I can tell he doesn't have a website for the store - the two links I found were a comment left on some obnoxiously goth myspace page seemingly by a well-meaning friend back in August, and a less than informative link concerning it being the site for a Magic: The Gathering event which eith...

Trying To Make the Best of It I'm going to try to keep that in mind as a personal theme for the new year. (We'll see how many minutes that lasts.) With school and work resuming tomorrow, getting us all back into the schedule the world demands of us could easily be the greatest immediate challenge. I've at least managed to avoid a post-dinner nap, though considering that I didn't get up for the day until around 2pm I likely don't deserve a medal for iron resolve. We saw in the first day of the new year with a turkey dinner -- with mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and asparagus -- which everyone had a hand in preparing. I did my part by prepping and sealing the turkey, which I set up and started before finally crashing a little after 5:30 this morning. As I get ready to officially call a wrap to the holiday stretch (not that the tree's going to be coming down until at least this weekend -- that could stay a happy night light in the living r...

Happy New Year! I don't know why I should expect that to be the case, but eventually the wishful declaration has to come true. Getting well would be a dandy start. Keeping it very low key this year, due largely due to my being sick forever. Abbygal and Crypt Leak had invited me again this year, but I wasn't up for the drive and didn't want to spread whatever this is around among friends. I'll be more than happy to share what's left of it with co-workers come Wednesday... I can't tell if the ability to concentrate is slowly returning or whether I've just gotten used to operating at this drastically reduced, sleep-deprived level. If I start mentioning anything about accepting Jesus or the like I would consider it an act of deepest friendship or at least compassion to kill me. Just try to keep it painless.