Sickness

Yeah, I’ve been in and out of bed quite a bit the last few days. I just have a terrible cold mixed with allergies that just refuses to subside. I have pretty much gotten rid of it except for a runny nose and some coughing finally, but it’s been a real pain in the but these last few days and is the main reason for the lack of any updates over the last few days. The much delayed first look at Arc should come a little later this week, so look for that.

I will try my best to also get this thing back up to date at an at least a couple times a week system. I have a few random blog posts about topics at hand that I want to post in the next few weeks anyhoo, so it shouldn’t be a problem barring any other illness

My next chapter of Mean Streets should be up soon, so look for it. This, also, should be updating a lot more regularly over the next few days.

Yeah, that’s all for now. Back a little later this week with more.

Arc really is coming

I should have more on my Arc comic project up some time next week. FYI, this page is now directly pointed to by my new comics project page: Evolution Comics. When I start posting news on the comic, it will lead directly to the comic specific posts. I am itching to show some of the great design sketches of Arc’s artist Jay Rainford-Nash, but you and I will both have to wait.

Arc should be ready by sometime in January 2008, when I will start shopping the title around to various publishers, both online and otherwise. If that should fail, I will market this puppy myself, by whatever means necessary. That is how much faith I have in this book. I set up to deal with themes not usually talked about in mainstream superhero comics, and that is what I plan to do.

What issues, you ask? Violence in school, teenage sexuality, authority gone bad, and the fall of Western civilization. Is that good enough for you?

More details coming soon, I promise.



In other news, Blockbuster surprised me by shipping one of my 3 movies a full 3 days before the estimated arrival time. A nice surprise, but wouldn’t accurate arrival times be an even better one?

Netflix vs Blockbuster

So, I’ve been a regular Netflix customer for some months. But just as a whim, I decided to give Blockbuster a try. They have a pretty decent free trial period, even if they now limit their $18 plan to only 5 in store rentals a month. Unfortunately both for me and any hope Netflix might have of keeping me a customer, I apparently have to wait until Monday to get any of my DVDs.

Now two of the DVDs I’m getting aren’t all that common, but even so, I have doubts that it should take 3 days for them to come. And unlike Netflix, they aren’t even smart enough to tell me that they aren’t coming from the area shipping center. Or worse, I suppose, and it actually takes that long to get the movies here. Gamefly is as fast as that, and they ship everything from California. I would hope Blockbuster has more than one shipping center.

On top of that, it seems that, at least when it comes to the rating of movies, Blockbuster fans are absolute idiots. Honestly, who thinks Armageddon is worth 4 stars? Or The Island 3 1/2 while Unforgiven only gets 3 1/2 stars. Are you telling me that The Island is as good and Armageddon is better than a classic like Unforgiven. Really? Really? Yeah, really.

Anyway, I have two more weeks of the trial period and I will keep my eye on how well they do in their shipment. After all, all the movies I have been putting on my list, including various TNA and more obscure wrestler programs, and the late, lamented The Crow: Stairway to Heaven are still not available at Netflix. Great show BTW. I love Brandon Lee as the Crow, but Mark Dacascos re-imagining of Eric Draven was near perfection.

Anyway, Blockbuster is already fighting a losing effort. We’ll see if they can pull out a victory in act 3.

6 Years Ago Today

I don’t really know what to say this September 11th that hasn’t almost certainly been said somewhere else, and most likely, better. I am not always the most eloquent human being when it comes to commemorations and memorials, but I do believe them to be universally important to Americans as a society. It may be horribly cliche, but it is also far too true: those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Another September 11 should not and cannot happen to this country.

I look at my seven year old daughter this morning. In 2001 she was nearly two, and I remember thinking about all the children that went to daycare on the lowest floors of the World Trade Center. Children who didn’t all escape from the towers. Children like my Hannah. Say what you will about the United States, and all its faults, both as a country and a military body, but the United States doesnt’t and never will seek out and destroy the children of its “enemies”. America does not kidnap hundreds of non-combatants and murder them in an attack, suicide or otherwise. These are the actions of monsters, of people who are pure evil. We should not even try to understand these actions; it would be like trying to understand the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany. No good reason exists for these actions and none ever will.

I think less emphasis on this day should be put towards the actions of our leadership, Republican or Democrat, or on the level of the country’s security six years later. We need to remember the approximately 3,000 who died six years ago in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. We need to remember the lesson that evil allowed to flourish will only perpetrate more evil.

But most of all we need to fight and pray that nothing like the attacks of September 11, 2001 ever occur in this great country again.

New story up! and more...

I have a new chapter of Epsilon up today, Chapter 9 to be exact. It is one of the best pieces of writing I have done in a while, so be sure to let a brother know what you think of it.

Arc, my new comic project is coming along quite nicely. I plan on having the first few previews up of it sometime in the near future as character designs are already nearly complete for the first issue.

I went out to a fun little dinner with my co-workers on the mid-shift on Saturday. We all went to Red Robin for a lovely little get together where we could shoot the shit unencumbered by the regular call-floor mentality. Would have been better if a certain supervisor who will remain nameless actually had shown up, but I digress...

And anyone who loves hamburgers should definitely check out the Whiskey River BBQ burger at Red Robin. Damn good stuff.

Labor Day was spent on my father and mother’s house in nearby Traer, where my wife, daughter, and I saw my brother for the first time since Easter. Not much of interest occured, although my brother and I had our usual debates on subjects ranging from politics to Star Wars. Fun time, and I hope for a longer visit come Christmas time.

I am working on a special story for the “fifth week” block at MP. As I am slowly rewriting the original Champion City novel, a ton of new characters are making their first appearance. Well, I am giving one of those characters a head start, so be prepared for the supernatural warrior Charon, coming your way on Halloween morning!

That is it for now. Everyone have a good day and such.