Comic Splat (6)

Detective Comics #861 - A dueling issue featuring Batman and Batgirl! Of course the Batman is a story taken from the past but why do you have to bring him into the fold at all? Let go of the Bat!

Captain America Reborn 6 of 6 - Kind of a let down to be honest. No twist, no nothing, and an extra issue for that? Disappointing and why wasn't this in the Captain America continuum?

Marvelous Land of Oz 3 of 8 - Great art

New Avengers #61 - Thank god this is going away in a couple of months. 61 issues and really nothing exciting has happened it has simply served as filler between the big Marvel events. Can the Hood go away and can we get some universe spanning kick ass story lines? Please!

X-Force #23 - Necrosha bore...ughhh why do these books exist...they are awful!

X-men Legacy #232 - Wake me up when the X-world makes me care again...

Howard Zinn - Rest in Peace

As a student of history (well sort of...I did take a year's worth of American History in High School as an AP course), I found this course to be one of the highlights of my educational experiences! The importance of the class was that it actually made me think...yes frightful to think that occurred in High School (Farewell to Arms and Calculus also served that role). The class also brought forth ideas that were foreign to most developing students and that was the crap that most textbooks spewed wasn't always the truth...there were differing opinions (shocking!). Obviously history is written by the winners. But Zinn was classic in that he often wrote from a different viewpoint (A People's History of the United States). Some people chided him for "revisionist" history (i.e. Columbus discovered America but he also was a mass murderer who brought European diseases to the New World and only sought to destroy the native cultures...). Columbus Day celebrations have kind of dwindled over the years. The value of Zinn at least to me was that there is always another side. That side might not add a lot to the story but it is important to realize the side exists. That is why Zinn was important to me...in High School he delighted us because of his scandalous views of history. It was such a different feel from the ra ra BS most students get when studying American history. He served as a good foil. This quote sums it up nicely,

"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."
— Changing Minds, One at a Time by Howard Zinn, Published in the March 2005 issue of The Progressive.

Haiku Wednesday

Super Bowl

Best teams - Head to Head

Rarely lives up to the hype

All about the Ads!

Clive Cussler - Treasure of Khan

Interesting to note that this co-written book reverted back to having Dirk and Al as the main characters versus Dirk's children. Wonder if sales of the previous book, Black Wind, which if I remembered correctly was more about his kids, didn't sell all that well? And then with this most recent book they seemed thrown in at the last minute so that readers didn't completely forget about them? A later book has been published so will have to see how that book goes. I am interested to see if Dirk and Al ever just vanish (?), you know that finale when they go down with the ship to save the Earth but there were never any bodies found...it is going to happen...probably when Clive stops writing.

Anyway decent Dirk novel. Still a great character...too bad the movie translations haven't been better. As the title suggests this has to do with a madman trying to bring back the glory days of the Mongol Empire. Using money from the sale of items found in Khan's tomb, they try to corner the world's oil market (ominous music played here). Needless to say Pitt saves the day.

Did find one error in the novel though...during the talks about injecting water into ground and causing earthquakes he mentions that this occurred near Rocky Flats (near Boulder, CO) when injecting contaminated water into the earth...well this actually occurred at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which is closer to Denver. Talking about a small world I just discovered that Clive's car collection is practically in my backyard. When it reopens for the summer I will have to take a tour!

Rox Talk

Back in March 2009 I posted an article on runs scored per inning. In the post I simply graphed total runs scored per inning. In this post I have updated it to include 2009 and compared the 2009 season historically. While updating the data I realized that although plotting total runs score was OK it wasn't totally accurate because the 9th inning isn't equal. So this time around I simply divided the runs score by the total number of innings. This provided a rate of scoring which I then plotted. See below.

The solid line is scoring rate at home and the dotted line is the rate on the road. Amazing that the Rox score almost twice has many runs at home in the first inning as they do away from home. As noted in the earlier post there is a definite dip in scoring in the second inning. My only guess is that generally the second inning is usually the bottom of the line up and just isn't a productive inning. You see another uptick in the 4th and the 7th/8th. Interesting to see the road rate is flatter. There is a definite home field advantage. Next up I plotted the Home versus Away ratio. The purple line are the Rox and the black line is the opposition. If there wasn't a home advantage both of these lines should be around one but as you can see the Rox have traditionally played better at home. The individual dots show the ratio from the 2009 season. The Rox were monsters at home in the third inning and pretty ho hum in the later innings.

I love graphs! Baseball graphs especially.

Portland, Oregon

A nice relaxing long weekend in Portland. It was the first time it actually rained while we were there...not that it was unexpected as it always rains there but the last few times we were there it never rained! Flew in on Thursday, stopped by Excalibur Comics (on Hawthorne...have to spread the comic book money around the globe!), then on to Hotel Lucia. A boutique hotel that has tiny but spacious red painted wall rooms. They have a good bed with a feather comfortable. It is a relaxing place to spend your nights. Jaunted off immediately to Powell's, the world's greatest bookstore, and spent about an hour exploring the stacks. I have found it best to do Powell's in small doses otherwise it just become overwhelming. If you are looking for a book this place is it. After being amazed and wishing I was a speed reader we journeyed to Deschutes Brewery. A new place with a great atmosphere and some awesome brews. Living in Denver you are certainly spoiled by the great beer here but had to admit Portland has a whole lot better beer. Fell in love with the Arctic Blastonator Weizen Bock. Went back two separate times to enjoy that beer. And in a rare instance the brewery's food was on par with its beer!

In an effort to follow Adam and the Man vs Food crowd we hit the Stepping Stone Cafe where we shared a "mancake" HUGE. Next morning we did Voodoo Doughnuts. We had to wait! After the mancake we did a wine tour visiting Aramenta, Erath, and Argyle. Nothing against the good people of the Willamette Valley but honestly the almighty grape truly just fell into their lap. I mean 20 years ago this same land was just harvesting fruit and nuts barely squeaking by and now even the most basic winery is able to charge $20 for just ho-hum wine. To be at the right place and time...Just so you know the 2006 pinot noir was a whole lot better than the 2007 version. After tasting wines all day we definitely needed some more beer so off to the Bridgeport Brewery. Their IPA was my favorite until Dogfish 90 minute came along. Even so having it fresh is well worth it.

On Saturday, as mentioned, we had Voodoo Doughnuts then did some walking around the City. Stopped at the PDX Contemporary Art museum. There were two small exhibits featuring:

John Mann (maps and stuff)

Megan Murphy (glass, mirror photos?)

Later that evening saw Up in the Air. A real depressing movie. Last year in Portland we saw Slumdog Millionaire which was depressing except it ended with hope...Up in the Air...not so much. Really no redeeming factor other than be thankful you have a job. Clooney did a wonderful job...I bet he will win Best Actor this year. On our last day it rained most of the day. We relaxed did some window shopping and relaxed. Also did some soul searching and came home ready to hit it again. One can never say too much about the importance of a good Vacation!

Comic Splat (4)

Joe the Barbarian #1 - A new Grant Morrison written mini-series on the Vertigo label. Only a buck for the first issue. Looks like a good story...

Captain America #602 - How many Captain America's are there? Looks like it is time to clean house.

Dark Avengers #13 - I hate the Sentry as a character. Why has this character taken on such a large role. Is he simply around to be the McGuffin for Bendis' seven year run. I mean come on a superhero named Bob, the Void, and a superhero who's power is to make everyone forget that he existed? Ughhh..

Uncanny X-men #520 - The X-men just seem to be old...why is Magneto back? Does anyone care anymore...why do you continue to reincarnate these characters?

Haiku Wednesday

Snow Sports

Enjoy the snow and ice

Let us ski, board, sled, or skate
Stop global warming

Risky Business

You know every so often you should say what the f@%k, it brings you opportunity, it brings you success...but I digress (but at least I don't have an algebra mid term tomorrow and I am definitely not being chased by Guido the Killer Pimp).

Every so often you should just watch those old movies...could a movie like this even hope to be made today? Probably not but the 80s had a lot of those "good" movies. This one was made in 1983 and featured:

Tom Cruise - before he was a whack job...

Tangerine Dream - great sound track

Kind of Risky "Ferris" movie

Comic Splat (4)

Psylocke #3 - Great art...now just need to close up some distance plot point which no one really remembers.

Black Widow #3 - She gets her own series starting this Spring...movie tie in!

Invincible Iron Man #22 - Dr Strange "The World needs it Iron Man!" Great line...

Daytrippers #2 - Kind of creepy, what happened in Issue #1...

39 Circles

Today marks my 14,245th day on this traveling spaceship we call Earth, at least in this iteration. That is about 2% of recorded history since 0 AD. Makes you seem kind of small but on the other hand your bits of atoms that form molecules that form proteins that form nerve cells that form electrical impulses and that eventually form the conscienceness and thus the ability to comprehend and write down the fact you've been around for 14,000 plus days shows that you might be considered small but in reality you're pretty spectacular collecting of star stuff in this big universe!

Live everyday to its fullest!

Haiku Wednesday

Cowboys

Symbols of Old West
Country's romantic figures
Give me hat and spurs

Greg Rucka - Whiteout: Melt

Follow up to the original Whiteout. Liked the first one...but wasn't all that enamored with this one. I think it is because the thought of having another murder on the ice just seemed a bit far fetched. The first go around...OK but to think it would happen again? Love the character (and by the way Kate Beckinsale ain't her...) and think expanding her beyond the ice would be interesting...maybe not so much in a comic but definitely a novel. Much like his Queen and Country series. Maybe they could both meet up for an assignment? Hmmm maybe not.

Rox Talk

Today I was just going to briefly mention that the purple cat, Andres Gallaraga did not receive the minimum of 5% of votes last week and will be removed from future consideration. I don't think we thought he would receive a whole lot of support and in some respects I think a player first loves to play the game, second would love Hall of Fame consideration, and finally is incredible lucky to make it into the Hall. Two out of three marks a great career, thanks for the memories. He was an outstanding player and a great Rox! To see how he fit with other nominees this website shows a great graphic. Next year might finally show some insight on the Coors Field effect and how future Rox might fare to the rest of the baseball world. Larry Walker will be on the ballot and I would think he definitely has a chance.

In other Rox news, Jerry Schemmel was announced as the next voice of the Rox. An exciting voice who will fit in well with the team. Can't wait to hear his home run call!

And finally the story of the day (or non-story perhaps) was the announcement from Mark McGwire that he knowingly took steroids during his career. From the storyline that will never die, we once again will hear from sport's world the impact of steroids on the game. From a fan's perspective what can one say? When Manny tested this year you had to shake your head because a policy was in place. Back in McGwire's time there was no policy...was it cheating? Every generation will have its baseball era. I will be saddled with the knowledge of my heroes probably being steroid users. It saddens me to think that a game would cause players to abuse their body just for the ego stroking but then again I don't have the opportunity to make millions of dollars. Given the temptation of setting up my family for generations to come perhaps justifying steroid use might become simpler. In time others will come out and history will be finally written on the era. Some questions will remain, records will be scorned, and a new generation will come along. I think we should respect McGwire's desire to set the record straight. Perhaps it will gain him some support, perhaps it will backfire on him. But he did have the courage to make things right. I will still remember the night he hit the line drive over left field to claim the record. It was a good time to be a baseball fan. Too bad it will always be tainted with steroids...

Douglas Coupland - Generation A

Coupland's 12th (English) novel is set in the not too distant future. The world no longer has bees and the basis of the novel is that five unrelated (or perhaps are related...) people suddenly get stung. As with all of Coupland's books his characters are unbelievable and memorable. Of any author alive today, Coupland is the absolute best (at least who I read) in developing characters that are "out there" and yet you feel as a reader that you know someone like that or you relate to their idiosyncrasies.

His book starts out with the usual bang and yet just as you start to get the characters and start feeling for the conclusion the book gets lost. To me once the 5 bee people join up, the action should really get going and yet the book gets stuck with these stories from each of the 5 individuals. The stories are fun but they don't do much to progress whatever it is that Coupland is trying to get across. Furthermore they bring in a scientist and he tells his story. In the end the story gets bogged down in saying our future is screwed because the industrial complex drive for profits will overlook biological disasters like the loss of bees. Too bad the ending didn't do a better job of getting this across.

And a little aside...in one of the stories an email is dropped by Coupland (SMcQ23667bot@hotmail.com). I emailed a quick email saying "Loved the book...bees rock" My response from Craig McQueen (read the book) was,

"Buzz buzz.
Bees.
Never forget."

There you have it...

Song Memory - Oxygene Part 2

A song I hadn't heard in a long long time. Growing up I made several pilgrimage to the Alabama Space and Rocket Center. Twice I went to Space Camp there and basically lived at the museum. Key highlight back then was to see one of the Shuttle IMAX films. Back in the 80s there were basically two movies...The Dream is Alive and Hail Columbia. I have probably seen each of these films like ten times. Awesome display of the IMAX technology especially the surround sound. The scene was always the same, quiet display of the space shuttle, a sound of bird going by, then a gentle rumble of the main engine start, followed by the kick in your pants start of the two solid rocket boosters. Your seat would tremble, your heart would be in your throat, and you felt like you were riding the fire to the stars. It was always an awesome experience. Anyway the reason the song matters is that when you would enter the IMAX theater they always had this song in the loop. Futuristic sounding (funny that the song was made in the late 70s) and instrumental, so whenever I hear the song it takes me back to 5th or 6th grade. Used to have the album on cassette then never brothered to upgrade to CD then decide to grab it off of iTunes. Great stuff!

Comic Splat (5)

New comic book feature...just a couple of lines to express my thoughts...a splat on the wall

Siege #1: Hard to believe that this all started back in Avengers Disassembled (7 years ago). Was it laid out or did it just happen...question I have is why did Bendis do House of M...how does it link into all of this. Can't wait to see Capt A

Cinderella #3: The Fables offshoot. Cinderella as a secret agent is fun.

Batman Confidential #40: Only reason I bought this was Sam Keith did the art...loved what he did for Wolverine way back in Marvel Comics Presents.

New Mutants #9: Thought this was a tie into Necrosha but it isn't. Not for sure why they were thrown into the crossover. It would seem to me that they are trying to rebuild the team to its original constituents...bottom line to me is that there are too many X-books!

Blackest Night - Wonder Woman #2: The only reason I got this series was the artist was a female. I was curious to see if a female artist would draw women in a typical male fashion...you know T & A. She does...

Haiku Wednesday

Dreams

Trust in your mind's eye
Project thoughts, be convincing
Believe it will be!

Starts with the first step
Live your days with confidence
Believe, see it bloom

Run Journal

Graphically that was my 2009 year of running. The vertical axis is minutes run in a week. I certainly aren't pounding the pavement but I did run 365 straight days that included at least 20 minutes of running. I average about 205 minutes a week so probably about 20 - 25 miles a week. Managed one half marathon but would have liked to run a 5K. Historically speaking I pretty much beat all my averages and for the most part run above my historical 90% upper limit. The real trick will be to keep it going in 2010...

Rox Talk

In the Anatomy of Every Start by Raphy on the baseball-reference blog he provides a table of data for every starter's pitch line. I hate tables so I graphed it. I did make one simplification so that I could graph it more easily. The simplification was that I performed a weighted average on the runs scored per third of an inning. In this way I got the graph below. The data shows the innings along the x-axis and the runs weighted average on the y-axis. Each circle then represents the number of starts. Of the 4,860 starts by MLB starters last year, 1,083 starters went exactly six innings! As you would expect the shorter the start the more runs on average were scored compared to the later innings. Interesting to see how average runs given up through 4 2/3 is pretty even and then nosedives to the 9th inning. My guess is this shows that when a pitcher has it, teams generally don't get to him and that when pitchers don't have it the early innings clearly show this. It is nice to see that 78% of the starts do last 5 innings or more. Also interesting to note that only 30% of the runs scored are done before the 5 inning.

As is my custom I look at the 2009 Rox starting pitching to see how they compared. The purple dots show the same information. Once again it is interesting to see the Rox data trend the same way after 6 innings. So in addition to the above information I also graphed innings pitched versus team winning percentage. Data suggests that for a team to have a 50/50 chance of winning it helps for the starter to go 6 innings. Purple data shows how the Rox compare.

And finally Raphy also supplied Game Score data. Once again I graphed it coming up with a win rate term which is simply wins divided by number of games. The graph has team win rate in blue and pitcher win rates in pink. Interesting to see that a Game Score of 50 will get the team to about a 50/50 chance of winning while a Game Score of 60 is required for the pitcher to get a 50/50 chance.

Lego Set 10188

Big lego, really BIG! Close to 4,000 pieces, it was a mammoth undertaking. The instruction manual was bound in a binder! Basically divided into 7 sub sections, the model took about a week to complete. The detail and the interconnectiveness that went into this model was amazing. Lots of little "gotchas". Truly an incredible design when finally all put together. The only real gripe is the big laser canon...it is very flimsy and always falls off! Don't know if Lego could ever top this model.

Left Over Pieces

Trinity

Trinity was a pretty good read. I like the interactions between DC's big three...Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. You read this and you basically understand the dynamic that these characters have in every other book in the DC universe. Got it at the Library (cool, graphic novels in a Library!). It is interesting the comparisons of DC and Marvel when it comes to iconic characters. DC has a pretty big trinity...a crime fighter, an alien, and Amazon. Marvel's pseudo big three would probably be Capt America, Thor, and Iron Man (ok and maybe Spiderman). Kind of a big difference and probably why DC and Marvel, while similar, have a much different storytelling perspective especially on themes. Anyway I digress...loved the book and art!