• Visited LA.
• Got back in to Magic: The Gathering.
• Purchased the Dungeon & Dragons 4th Edition books.
• Got serious about playing guitar and keyboard by following a video course.
• Watched a billion movies and hours of TV.
• Learned about several Korean pop groups via Corin.
• Spent too much money on repairing the Van.
• Lost some weight.
• Played a lot of Wii.
• Read a lot of comics.
• Got an HDTV.
• Imported all my LJ posts.
• Played hours of Warcraft.

To the untrained eye it’s not a whole lot, but believe me when I say I was busy.

Los Angeles

The trip to Los Angeles was a lot of fun. I saw friends and family that I haven’t seen in over seven years. Seems like just a few months or so, but it was seven years. It was great to have dinner with my parents and my brother. It was also sad, because I realized California is no longer my home. No one lives in my old neighborhood of Silverlake and everyone has grown up lives of their own. The city felt so big and lonely without a home base like the old lake house. My parents and brother live an hour north of LA. So I was in and out of LA over five days. I was happy to see my friends and family. I missed them dearly, but I’m convinced more than ever that I’ve moved on from LA. It’s true, you can’t go home again. I look forward to more frequent visits, preferably with less hectic itineraries.

Magic: The Gathering

It’s nice to be back into games again. I’m completing a project I started a long time ago. I have a large collection of Magic: The Gathering cards. In case you don’t know, they’re released in sets, generally 3 per year, and have a limited number of cards per set. In the game you can have up to 4 of any card in your deck, so collecting a full set (including the multiples) can be tough. I don’t think I have a single complete set, but I decided a while back to put the cards in binders according to set, leaving space for the multiples. I wanted to treat it like more of a collection than just a game. I have several thousand cards to go through, but once I’m done it will be trivial with future sets and I’ll be able to find cards in a matter of seconds. My future magic purchases are going to be much more frugal. On eBay you can buy most a set for under $50. I figure I can spare $150 a year to stay current on Magic. I can buy the rare cards as needed for the decks I build.

Comics

Tomorrow is new comic day for me. My DCBS order comes in and boy is it a whopper. I think 20-25 comics! I have like 16 on my pull list, but with Blackest Night and some of the arcs concluding in one shots, I have a pretty big stack this month. If you buy more than 10 comics a month, you really should be using DCBS. I still love to go to shop and I buy stuff, but the monthlies I get all come via DCBS. I’m power reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps to get to Blackest Night, but I’m enjoying the Sinestro Corps War so much that I’m now taking my time. X-Men has been great and I think Old Man Logan finally finishes.

I’m ashamed that it took so long for me to post something, but I just haven’t had it in me. I’ll see if I can do it again tomorrow and try to get the ball rolling again.

Some New Issues

• Dark Wolverine #75
• Dark Avengers * Uncanny X-men: Utopia
• Dead of Night: Werewolf by Night #2
• Blackest Night #1
• Superman: World of New Krypton #5

Some Back Issues

• The Uncanny X-Men #323
• The Uncanny X-Men #343
• The Uncanny X-Men #419
• The Uncanny X-Men #420
• The Uncanny X-Men #423
• The Uncanny X-Men #425
• The Uncanny X-Men #434
• The Uncanny X-Men #459
• The Uncanny X-Men #461
• The Uncanny X-Men #463
• The Uncanny X-Men #464
• The Uncanny X-Men #465
• Excalibur #78 (LOL Douglok!)
• Excalibur #79
• Excalibur #90
• Power Pack #1 (Better than Near Mint!)
• Power Pack #3
• Critters #6
• Critters #11
• Anne Rice’s The Queen of the Damned #1
• Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour #1

All the Uncanny X-Men were half cover price and the rest were in the quarter bin. Erin and I crawled through the two boxes they had and kept making jokes about how many Nomad comics were in them. Were we Nomad fans, we could’ve probably had a complete run. We’ve pledged that we’ll do a quarter bin run on all the Half Priced Books stores in Austin. Sounds like fun to me.

I really wanted more X-Men Vol. 2 issues. X-Men Vol.2 is now called X-Men: Legacy. It’s the continuation of the 1991 Jim Lee series. Basically at this point in the X-Men mythos there were more leading mutants in the Uncanny X-Men comic than they could fit into the ongoing stories. Then they took advantage of Jim Lee’s popularity and let him head the team on for a new title that would follow Cyclops’ team. It started at issue 1 (the 90s were big on first issues) and has gone through several name changes. At issue 114 it became New X-Men (don’t get me started), at 157 it went back to X-Men, and at 208 it became X-Men: Legacy. I have about half of the run so far. I can’t wait to get them all.

I meant the take a look at that squealing wheel, but it I figured I’d rather do it tomorrow on the off chance that it takes more than the afternoon to fix. I’m sure it’s a broken spring or clip for the brake shoe. We shall see.

After work Corin and I went to the sporting goods store and bought a recumbent exercise bike. This thing is awesome. You get a great work out, raise your pulse rate, and all while reclining so you don’t put stress on your back. I’ve started walking again and I think I’ll add 30 minutes on the bike on top of that. Funny little side story: while we were emptying the box of all the bike parts we noticed a little red box at the bottom. It turned out to be a half-full pack of Xiong Shi cigarettes. From the other side of the world, some poor Chinese working stiff lost his smokes in our box. I can imagine him saying “Oh no! My smokes! What fuck!?!”

In preparation for DC’s Blackest Night event, I’m reading all the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps issues starting with Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps: Recharge. I realized that the reason I love the Green Lantern mythos so much is that it’s a superhero take on the Jedi mythos. I haven’t read any GL from before Rebirth, but this post Rebirth stuff is fantastic. Really good.

Here comes the weekend. Time to clear out some of those To Do list items!

In honor of Corin passing a test at work and today being new comic day, we went out for dinner at Dimassi’s and then to Austin Books. I picked up the new Action Comics and X-Infernus, another short box, and a pack of backing boards. So once we got home, guess what I did? Yup, bagged all those mothers. Now I’m done with the bagging and watching Criminal Minds while flipping around online. I downloaded a torrent called Marvel Major Event Chronology and I’m thinking of starting on that. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a collection of all the issues in all the major Marvel events. I figure if I get through all that, I’ll be pretty well versed in Marvel history. But, oh man is that a lot of comics to read.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting here. Every time I log in to Wordpress, I face an empty post window and I try to think of some brainy and interesting thing to say and…I draw a blank. So instead, I’ll just post about my boring shit and maybe in the process something cool will come out of all this. Also I need to take more pictures, I have an awesome camera and its totally going to waste.

Health

At some point in the last month, Corin and I decided to return to a vegan lifestyle. Before I would have said it was for political and animal rights related reasons. However, now I’d have to say I’m doing it for my health. When I was in LA, I weighed in at about 180 pounds and was losing weight. I was vegan and pretty well adjusted to the routine. Once we moved to Texas, social circumstances and other issues led us off the vegan diet and into a pretty unregulated diet of fast food and junk food. Over the six years I’ve lived here, I’ve put on 100 pounds. There have been times in the last year where I tried to take up exercise and regulate my diet to leaner dinners and less fast food, but I could never get the balance right. This last month I had to finally admit that I have a problem. I cannot control my eating when I give myself free reign. It’s like being an alcoholic and trying to limit your drinking; it doesn’t work. But I can’t quit eating altogether. I have to eat something. Somehow the vegan way simplifies things for me. It makes the supermarket much smaller and forces me to be more creative. At least dinner is more interesting. So far so good, I’ve gone down a few pounds, but the biggest success has been that my digestion problems have all gone away. No more intestinal pain. I’m sure the weight will come off slowly and exercising will be necessary to get fit, but at least this is a healthy start.

Holidays

Christmas and New Years has come and gone. I have to say 2008 was a resounding success. I wish I’d prepared more financially for both the gift buying and the bills that would still have to be paid during December and January, but that should all be easier next year once we are out of credit card debt. Christmas consisted of us opening the presents my parents sent us in the morning and opening presents with Corin’s family at her sister’s house. The hightlight of my parent’s gifts was a custom ghost hunting kit that consisted of a matching pair of low electro-magnetic field detectors, flashlights (mag-light type and head mounted), a non contact digital thermometer (reads the temperature of surfaces and areas at a distance), a digital voice recorder (for electronic voice phenomena), a laser pointer, and a book on basic paranormal research. We are giddy with the possibilities. Later at Erin’s I got a cool Batman glass, a version 5 Tomagotchi (yup they’re back), a gift certificate to Austin Books, a SWEET Guy Gardner figure and some exotic foods from Australia and the UK. Josh sent us Wii games. Corin got the Lego Star Wars Complete Saga and I got No More Heroes. Thanks everyone!

Geek Tech

With some of the Christmas money I got an R4 Nintendo DS cart. It’s basically a homebrew/backup software mod cart that features a Micro SD port. I got a 2GB Mico SD card and since the NDS backups are around 20-40MB, you can fit tons of games on one card. I also tracked down SNES. NES, SMS and Geneis emulators. They don’t play ALL ROMs, but they play enough of the good ones. It’s a lot of fun. Now I can play multiplayer games without having to buy another copy of the game. I have to look into the stuff available for the Wii.

Comics

I’ve been reading all the usual stuff. Everything has been pretty good, but X-Men: Legacy has been a bit slow. I’ve set up a pull-list of DCBService and I get my first shipment at the end of the month. I end up saving $10-20 a month and I also don’t have to drive up north so many times a month. I’ll still go the Austin Books to check out mini series, one shots and comics I’ve never read before. At least now regular series don’t cost so much. I’m really looking forward to the conclusion of Final Crisis and the coming Blackest Night. It’s a great time to be a comic fan.

Films

I’ve watched a ton of movies (most of them the fun trashy kind). My latest favorite is Repo! The Genetic Opera. It’s a musical starring Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy), Paris Hilton, Paul Sorvino and several lesser known actors. The plot is that the human race was on the brink of extinction when a company called GeneCo comes out with cutom grown organs to replace the failing organs in sick people. The world rejoyces and humanity is pulled back from the cliff. However salvation comes with a price and those that are unable to keep up with their payments will eventually face the repo man. He’s a legalized assasin that reposseses the unpaid organs, killing the client in the process. Hey, they new the job was dangerous when they took it. The story unfolds around the owner of GeneCo, his heirs, a girl named Shilo and of course the repo man himself. Really good musical, with comic book style story telling and a sense of humor. Bill Mosley (of horror movie fame) plays one of the spoiled heirs and offers most of the comic relief. If you like sci-fi or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, give Repo! a try.

One of my favorite parts of this film is when the synthetic kryptonite causes Superman to lose his confidence, doubt his own self-worth, and become selfish. He goes on a drunken bender and even trys to rape Lois! Okay, maybe he just  man handles her. Anyway, I love seeing superheroes dealing with human faults. I think Superman III kicked off this love.

If you haven’t seen it in a while, give it a go.

“Both keys…AT THE SAME TIME?!?” – Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) in Superman III

I’ve also noticed a disturbing trend in both DC and Marvel’s story arc release styles. Both companies have decide to start story arcs in there basic titles (namely Superman and X-Men Legacy) with a one shot. This means that issue 680 of Superman ends an arc and issue 681 picks up at part two of the new Superman: New Krypton! To make matters worse, part 3 is in Adventure Comics Special featuring The Guardian. By the way, part three is actually a continuation of a story from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #1. Issue 682 of Superman features part five. On the Marvel side, the new X-Men Legacy arc started with a one shot called X-Men Original Sin and was part one of the arc. The next issue of X-Men Legacy was part 2. So if you just pulled X-Men Legacy, you miss the first part of the arc! I mean come on, the current run of X-Men is hard enough to understand as it’s written. It doesn’t need to have parts missing on top of that.

Like a sucker, I’ll keep buy this stuff as long as the stories are good. Just please, give us a break for a few months and cool off on the event stuff!

This sounds like an optimal solution. I can still get my weekly comic shop visit fix and support the local economy, but still save a grip of cash. Cash that can be spent on indy comics or comics I would have otherwise passed up. So yeah, I’ll problably end up spending more money, but at least it would be on comics.

If anyone knows of a good site to get back issues for cheap let me know. So far eBay and Half Price Books seem to be the best solution.

I’m still behind on X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, but only by a few issues. Later on this week and next week I’ll be getting The Death of the New Gods 1-8 (I heard this was tied in to Final Crisis), Kingdom Come 1-4 (JSA is in the middle of the Thy Kingdom Come arc), and JLA/Avengers 1-4 (this was cheap and is one of the best crossovers ever) in the mail. Ebay has some great deals.

Get a load of all the titles I’m collecting (titles with an * are limited series):

DC

• All-Star Superman*
• Ambush Bug: Year None*
• Batman
• Batman: Gotham After Midnight*
• Booster Gold (why aren’t you reading this?!?)
• Detective Comics
• Final Crisis*
• Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge*
• Final Crisis: Revelations*
• JLA
• JSA
• The Spirit
• Superman
• Teen Titans: Year One*

Marvel

• New Avengers
• Secret Invasion*
• Secret Invasion: Frontline*
• Uncanny X-Men
• Wolverine
• X-Men

So, not counting the limited series comics, I’m collecting 11 titles. That’s roughly $33 a month. Not too bad. But damn you big two! Why so many one shots and limited series? I can’t say no. But I draw the line at Secret Invasion: Captain Britain and MI 13. That’s just stupid.

Shadowpact follows a team of magically powered superheroes and their adventures in the D.C. Universe. They generally fight obscure magic users and gods that threaten the Earth, but their exploits always seem to go unnoticed. The team is made up of Blue Devil, Enchantress, Nightmaster, Nightshade, Ragman, and (my favorite) Detective Chimp. The group was formed to defeat the Spectre when he went on a rampage to destroy all magic in the universe. Little did the team realize that what seemed like a spur of the moment decision was actually fated. It is told that there have been many magical groups through history all calling themselves Shadowpact. In every incarnation the group has championed lost causes and was doomed to fail.

The team dynamic is really interesting and they tend to solve mysteries and problems with the same kind of logic that the reader himself might use. Its refreshing to read a comic where I never have to ask “why don’t they just use that attack they used on that other demon?” because they always mention it before I do. Detective Chimp has some of the best lines. When someone calls him Bobo in reference to his circus days, he replies “You can call me Detective Chimp; Bobo was my slave name”.

The whole run is only 25 comics, so its pretty easy to catch up and the story is a real page turner. Issues 1-19 have been collected in 3 trades. Check it out!

EDIT: I guess this is it. I’m so sad! But if these are the only 25 issues of Shadowpact, then I’m fine with that. They ended it well and the series is an instant classic. DC’s Reign in Hell mini-series will feature Shadowpact characters, so maybe there will be a second volume after that. I’m not holding my breath.