11.29.2006

Orion the Hunter



















With the northern hemisphere spinning into Winter, my constellation is rising in the east. Orion the Hunter is a magical constellation for me. Since my birthday is in January I feel this is my guardian. The stars within the constellation are a fascinating combination. Starting with Betelguese in the upper left, to Bellatrix down to Rigel, and on toe Seiph. The belt starts with Alnitak, to Alnilam, and followed by Mintaka. It is amazing to me the amount of arabic named stars still remain. Finishing with the Orion Nebula has the sword in the belt is just fantastic

11.24.2006

This Week in Comics

The best comic in the industry right now. Whedon and Cassady continue to weave their magic on our favorite X-heroes. A bold new direction for my main man, Cyclops. We shall see if he remains this way. The emma conundrum plays out and a whooping cliff hanger to boot. Hope the finale is has good has the first 18 issues!










FINALLY, Bendis reveals where he is going with all this clone stuff. Goodness if you have kept up with my previous post you'll understand my frustration and relief. 6 issues into the clone thing and we finally have a clue. Love the Spider-Girl...too bad she can't stay around...it will be interesting to see how Bendis rids the world of the many clones. Interesting to also see what final thump Bendis pulls when this story arc is finished. Have to admit I've enjoyed the Bagley run but will be glad to see some new art.

11.21.2006

Baseball Thoughts

In an article this weekend in the NYTimes by Alan Schwarz's Keeping Score he presents an interesting look at what is average. For my fantasy league I thought this might come in handy. If I can find players somewhat better than average I might have a hook? We'll see...

11.19.2006

Bond...James Bond

Bond's 21st outting, Casino Royale, was a fantastic reboot of the beloved character. I am not a Bond expert but I have enjoyed all his films since my first movie going experience with "For Your Eyes Only". I often remember when Bond was the Sunday night movie of the week. I pleaded with my parents to be able to watch the whole film but they would always send me to bed. I ended up sneaking into the hallway to try and catch the whole film! Anyway having grown up with the Roger Moore version I always think of Bond this way. I think for the most part he was the most in between Bond. Not quite as savy as Sean Connery but certainly better than the Bonds that came after. With the arrival of Pierce Brosnan I thought the perfect Bond had been found. But with the new Bond film and Daniel Craig I am a believer that he is truly the best Bond since Connery. Seeing him portray the character really makes Brosnan's take a mere caricature of the Bond mythos. The outlandishness of the Brosnan films are really evident with this stripped down version. More character, more heart, more Bond. As the saying goes "every man wants to be Bond, and every female wants Bond." I give the movie 5 optic blasts. A great film and a great Bond girl too in Vesper. Although not your typical outlandishly beautiful Bond girl she does seem more real and thus a great role

11.13.2006

Morimoto - Iron Chef

In Philadelphia for a couple of days and decided to treat myself to some exquisite dining. Morimoto's is the Iron Chef's first owned restaurant. I sat at the sushi bar and watched the chefs create all kinds of interesting items. Decided to be boring for the most part but started the evening with a Hazelnut Ale with some tempura shrimp sushi rolls followed by some soft crab sushi rolls. Yes call me a whimp no real raw seafood for me! After this I had a bowl of his chicken ramen soup and topped the evening off with some fuji apple dessert thingeee...yum yum good

11.11.2006

This Week in Comics

Continues to be a good read. As with any DC comic book I just didn't grow up in the DC world so some of the intricacies are just plain lost on me. The mythology of the JLA is a bit unknown to me. I did read the Grant Morrison JLA and it was simple enough to get into but Metzer's is a bit over my head right now.










Ahhhh Batman...a character I so wish had good storylines and great action but alas nothing from Morrison so far. I mean Batman having a son is an interesting twist but the boy is so unlike Batman that trying to juxtapose the two is just not doing much for me. Especially since at the end of this issue it appears his son has moved on. So let me get this straight...he discovers a son, he hands out for an issue or two, and boom he's gone (?). Guess its nice to have it part of the mythos but come on to me it's pretty huge that there is a heir!






History repeats itself?#@#!* I thought the horrendous "Clone Saga" in the original marvel universe was bad enough but I guess we can state that the ultimate universe has its own saga. I was really looking forward to this story line but must admit it hasn't done it for me. As mentioned previously 100 was fluff and this issue is even more fluff! Come on Bendis stop dragging us along. Give us some meat something to grow on. I can only hope that with issue 102 we get somewhere with this...please?

11.09.2006

Wired's Very Short Stories

In this month's Wired is a section on Six Word Stories. Fascinating read based on Hemingway's six word gem "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn". Much like the Haiku it is surprisingly exciting. Here are some of my favorites:










Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth. - Vernor Vinge
It cost too much staying human. - Bruce Sterling
I'm dead. I've missed your Kiss...? - Neil Gaiman
The baby's blood type? Human, mostly. - Orson Scott Card
Time machine reaches future!!! ...nobody there... - Harry Harrison
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tick. - Neal Stephenson

Good stuff!

11.08.2006

Sanity Returns

Well the American public has restored my faith in them (sort of...). While politics really don't affect me on a personal level I do think that how the world views us is important and frankly it has been embarrassing these past 6 years. To think we could have really made a real difference in the world after 2001 only to see egos and old scores to be settled. Let's hope the new Congress doesn't try to settle any scores and instead work towards some constructive ideals in domestic issues and come up with some real solutions in the Middle East. I think we need to repair our name in the world.