Jefferson Wolfe is MisterCellaneous

I also found this ...

2009-12-28T20:27:00.000-05:00

Another old favorite from my early teenage years ..

I am not a Twit; Neither am I Tweeting

2009-12-28T20:25:00.001-05:00

I have noticed my blog posts follow a trend of being short. Still, I refuse to start using Twitter.

Look what I found ...

2009-12-27T20:22:00.001-05:00

He he he he he he he.

New links! New links!

2009-12-27T17:27:00.001-05:00

I added some new links to the links page. Here's a brief rundown:

1. WAKY 103.5 FM: Simply my favorite Louisville radio station. Classic rock with a classic radio station feel. They DJs make me feel like they are talking to me, and not purveyors of corporate crap. Plus, they play songs a few tracks deep into an album, meaning you get to hear things you don't on other stations. They stream online, too.

2. The Grand Comic Database: Worth checking out, although it doesn't look like a finished project. It reminds me of Baseball-Reference.com, in that the site is compiling a list of all the comics ever published. Here's how they put it: The Grand Comic-Book Database Project (GCD) is a volunteer project with the goal of documenting and indexing all comics for the free use of scholars, historians, researchers, and fans. I don't have a membership yet, but I may well sign on.

3. Smithsonian Folkways: Looking for some great recordings to peruse and download? There's music, spoken word, sound effects, animal sounds and all kinds of other stuff from all over the world. I'd say, however, their primary focus is folk music, and there's a lot of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly-type music for your pleasure. Here's how they say it: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound.

Serial cereal blogging

2009-12-26T19:54:00.004-05:00

Today, it was Frosted Mini Wheats.
Last week, I had CoCo Wheats several times.
I have had a persistent desire for good grits lately, though.

Blogging: No editor, fewer revisions

2009-12-26T11:59:00.005-05:00

I just had to post something about my last post. I stand by the ideas behind it, but it shows that the immediacy of the Internet may not always be good for clarity of execution.

As I re-read the post, I discovered that I had left out a sentence that should have been present, and I broke the paragraphs up incorrectly. Or, at least, I broke them up in a way that's not as clear for the reader as I intended.

Here it is again, with the changes in italics:

Every now and then, I finish eating and the waitress brings me a credit card bill to sign with a pen from another restaurant.
Signing a bill in one restaurant with a pen from another always makes me laugh a little bit.
(New paragraph) However, if I owned a restaurant, I sure as heck would not want to be advertising somebody else in my own eatery.
What would I do? For what it's worth, here is my contribution to restaurant marketing.
Firstly, I'd confiscate all the pens I could find from other restaurants.
Secondly, I'd buy a whole bunch of cheap promotional pens with my restaurant's name and address on them. (Eliminate a paragraph break.) I'd make sure every customer had one of these pens to sign his credit card receipt.
On a side-note, I'd also encourage patrons to keep the pens in hopes they would use them to sign their bills at other restaurants.

There. Isn't that better? Amazing what looking at something after a couple days will do for you.

Negative advertising

2009-12-24T12:20:00.003-05:00

Every now and then, I finish eating and the waitress brings me a credit card bill to sign and hands me a pen from another restaurant.
While it always makes me laugh a little bit, if I owned a restaurant, I sure as heck would not want to be advertising somebody else's place.
Firstly, I'd take away all her pens.
Secondly, I'd buy a whole bunch of cheap promotional pens with my restaurant's name and address on them.
I'd make sure every customer had one of these pens to sign his credit card receipt. I'd also encourage patrons to keep the pens and use them to sign their bills at other restaurants.

Groo-vy (but a little late)

2009-12-23T21:51:00.005-05:00

The second issue of the new Groo series is out, but I just found a prequel at MySpace Dark Horse Presents. I should have never stopped linking to those issues, doggone it.
(For some reason that link is going to the current issues of DHP, so you'll have to look for issue 28, which was last month's installment, to find the Groo story. Sorry. It's still worth it.)
Here's a preview of the first couple of pages of issue 2.

25th Anniversary Usagi stuff!

2009-12-12T20:15:00.000-05:00

Aren't these cool? They are statues of the Usagi Yojimbo characters. From Roku Toys.
They are awfully expensive, at $89 apiece and $399 for the set.
Here's the PR material:
Star Wars Master Sculptor, Tony McVey sculpted these highly detailed polystone statues in time to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of Usagi Yojimbo. This eagerly anticipated line of statues is sure to delight fans of all ages.
Unfortunately, they were delayed and won't start shipping until January:
Yes, we know it's a drag and we're very, very sorry for the delay. Due to unforeseen manufacturing circumstances, the release of the "Usagi Yojimbo - Series One" collection will be delayed until January, 2010.
Here are some more preview images.
If the statues cost too much for you, go buy some of the comics. "Usagi" is one of my favorite comic books.
Also in celebration of the 25th anniversary, Stan Sakai wrote a fully painted a new graphic novel, called "Yokai." Yours for a little less than $11 on Amazon.com. Here's some preview art.

NFL Head-to-Head (Another Weak Week)

2009-12-12T10:58:00.002-05:00

It's underdog week! We are picking underdogs this week:

Dave:
Bengals over Vikings
Panthers over Patriots
Bonus Pick: Navy beats Army

Me:
Chargers over Cowboys
Bears over Packers
Bonus Pick: Mangini keeps his job another week.

Browns beat Steelers (Random thoughts about last night's game)

2009-12-11T20:06:00.004-05:00

Been a while since we could say that, eh?
I went to bed with the Browns winning 3-0, figuring it would be all downhill from there. I assumed the Steelers would pancake the obviously inferior team from Cleveland.
I remember thinking, as the kick that put them ahead 3-0 went through the uprights, "Is this the first time all year they have held a lead?"
I wish I had stayed up to watch the rest.
Brady Quinn didn't look all that good, only passing for 90 yards, but the defense looked a lot better than the offense.
If the Browns had played like that more often, Eric Mangini might have a job at the end of the season. Maybe if they finish like that, he still will.
Josh Cribbs may be the best player the Browns have had since they returned. Maybe he's the best since Bernie Kosar retired.

OK, I have been VERY Lax about this lately ...

2009-12-11T20:05:00.002-05:00

.. also very busy.

But, that's no excuse!

Gilbert Hernandez rides again!

2009-11-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

If you like Gilbert Hernandez of "Love and Rockets" fame, you might be interested in this preview of his latest work, called "Troublemakers."

Is someone trying to tell me something?

2009-11-24T20:52:00.001-05:00

I just read a book about Gary Burbank, and another about baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker.
Both books dwelled on how they were aggressively hard working about the jobs; single-mindedly pursuing excellence in their chosen fields.
It made me feel like a slacker.

Interesting online comic

2009-11-23T19:50:00.001-05:00

I found this through Scott McCloud's blog, but since I you may not have seen it, i thought I'd link to it here.
It's an adaptation by Rebecca Dart of an old murder ballad into a comic book form. (For the record: I have a CD on which Pete Seeger sings the song, called "Banks of the Ohio.")

Beck-oning Glenn Beck

2009-11-21T13:17:00.005-05:00

Is anyone else as sick of Glenn Beck's inflammatory alarmist rhetoric as I am?
If you are, you'll probably enjoy this.
It's supposed to be a parody, but I can hardly tell the difference between this eight minute clip and the real show.
In fact, the parody probably had more thought put into it than Beck's show does.

NFL Head-to-Head (Weak Five)

2009-11-21T13:02:00.002-05:00

Dave (last week 1-3)
Browns over Lions (Final Score: 6 to 3 - Browns break the film covering the opponent's 45 yard line)
Broncos over Chargers
Jets over Patriots
Iggles over Bears
Bonus Pick:
Buckeyes beat Wolverines
Bonus Pick 2:
Twilight: New Moon is most over-hyped movie of the year

Me (last week 3-1):
San Diego beats Denver (The Broncos still suck, even without John Elway.)
New England over the New York Jets (Belichick still sucks even if he wins.)
Indianapolis beats Baltimore (Art Modell will always suck.)
Detroit over Cleveland (The Browns just suck.)
Bonus pick: Eric Mangini will be fired if the Browns lose to the Lions. How long after that loss, say the day after or the season after, is another question.

Applies in Stereo

2009-11-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

A video from a perennial favorite of mine .. the Apples in Stereo.

Serial cereal blogging

2009-11-19T18:07:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, there is a decided shortage of Eggo Waffles in your grocery freezer. Here's why!

For those of you who don't want to click ...
Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.

But, for those of you who are food conspiracy theorists, here's another thing to consider.

The short version:
But ConsumerAffairs.com has confirmed the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) in September found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Eggo Buttermilk Waffles made at the Atlanta plant. Health officials took the sample during a routine inspection of the facility.

Fantastic Four: Fantastic again? (We'll see ...)

2009-11-17T20:34:00.002-05:00

Here's an article about the new creative team on Fantastic Four.
It seems like every new team is heralded as the greatest since maybe John Byrne, and they all kind of talk like they are going to try to bring to the book what Byrne did, normally without mentioning him by name.
They talk about focusing on the characters a family, and packing in lots of adventure -- exactly what made Byrne's run on FF so special.
Some creative teams succeed to varying degrees, but none fully. No one ever seems to capture whatever that feeling was that Byrne had that made me keep coming back and back and back for more.
Walter Simonson was really good, but he focused too much on adventure and not enough on character.
Mark Waid generally seemed pretty good, but sometimes his FF acted a little out of character.
Byrne once said when he was writing and drawing FF, the characters pretty much wrote themselves. His is the modern version of the FF that I compare all other to since, they are all lacking something.
He left the book in the late 1980s, and probably will never come back. If he did, who knows if would have the same magic as before?
Only Lee and Kirby did FF better than Byrne, and they created the doggone team. Theirs will always been the original and greatest. They did all their titles better than anyone.
I just keep hoping the new guys can capture some of the fun and excitement I remember from Byrne's run on FF.
Sometimes I sit around and wonder: If I sat around and re-read every Lee-Kirby and/or John Byrne issue of FF, and really worked at it, could I write a passable Fantastic Four?
It would probably come down to doing what other writers and artists say they are going to do: focus on the characters and a sense of adventure.
Easier said than done.

I just realized ...

2009-11-15T22:00:00.003-05:00

... that cup cake is a term that refers to a small piece of cake in a cup.
I have only been eating cupcakes all my life, and I never broke the word down like that before.
It's what I have heard people call a "BFO:" a Blinding Flash of the Obvious.

NFL Head-To-Head (Weak Four)

2009-11-14T19:43:00.002-05:00

OK, sorry, but I skipped weak three because I wasn't home. Here's this week's picks:

Dave:
Browns over Ravens
Colts over Patriots
Broncos over Redskins
Falcons beat Panthers

Bonus Pick:
Dayton Flyers beat Drake

Jeff:
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati (even though I have Cedric Benson on my fantasy team.)
Dallas over Green Bay
Kansas City over Oakland (This week's "Who cares?" Bowl.)
Indianapolis over New England (Peyton for MVP. Oops. Peyton for second, 'cause Drew Brees is better.)

9 from 2005

2009-11-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

For those of you who may have seen and enjoyed the movie "9," here is the You Tube version of the original short film by Shane Acker released in 2005 as a student project. Tim Burton saw the film and was so impressed by its artistic vision that he went on to produce the recent film of the same name.
I don't know that I want to do a full-on movie review of the feature-length version, but I will say this: It's a movie that fits in well with "The Matrix," "The 13th Floor," "Dark City," and "Terminator."
The difference is, this one's computer animated. Beautifully computer animated. It's so good, it's just fun to look at, even if you don't like the story.
Anyway, here's the original.

Why don't the Cleveland Browns ...

2009-10-31T20:26:00.004-04:00

... hire a head coach and/or general manager away from the Steelers? The Steelers are the best team in the AFC North, and they are arguably the best team in the AFC. You don't get to the Super Bowl unless you beat the Steelers. And, the Browns are guaranteed to play them at least two, and probably three, times every year.
Russ Grimm was with the Steelers for many years. There's probably a few guys on the staff right now who have head coaching ability. Heck, Dick LeBeau was the Cincinnati Bengals head coach for a few years (although he may not like to be reminded of it.).
Instad, we get two consecutive coach/GM hires which, when you really look at it, are almost the same thing.
Why fire Romeo Crennel only to hire Eric Mangini? Trading one Belichick/Parcells defensive coach for another.
Why fire Phil Savage to hire George Kokinis? They both come from the Baltimore Ravens front office.
It seems to me, if the Browns were going to do what they did, they might as well have given a nod to stability for another year.
I still think they should have hired Marty Schottenheimer, but given their 1-6 start, anybody would have been better than the guys they did hire.

(And, by the way, did anybody else notice that Savage recently said the current regime "ruined" both quarterbacks he left them? I doubt Brady Quinn would even bring any kind of draft pick in a trade after all this.)

NFL Head-to-Head (Weak Two)

2009-10-31T13:23:00.003-04:00

OK, here we go again, my pics vs. Dave's pics. Straight up, no point spreads or anything. Four picks a week.

Dave: (3-1 last week, but I have no idea if Troy beat Piqua or not.)
Browns over Bears
Packers over Vikings
Broncos over Ravens
Texans over Bills
Bonus Pick:
No Bengals are arrested over their Bye Week

Me: (3-1 last week, with two typos.)
Indianapolis beats San Francisco (Big surprise)
San Diego over Oakland (Another shock)
Minnesota over Green Bay (Favre winning in Lambeau did not used to be cause for a headline.)
Tennessee over Jacksonville (They gotta win eventually.)