Tuesday, July 31, 2007

First Comic Book

The question was brought up in the Big Monkey Podcast of what was your first comic book. I dont entirely remember.


The one that I most remember was a hard cover book of a bunch of old silver age stuff. It was on good paper and in full color.There were about 6 or 7 issues in it. All I do remember was that it contained issue 123 of The Flash: The Flash of Two Worlds.
It was a magical experience picking up this issue and got me fully engrosed into comics. I traded it away a few years later for one bone-headed reason on another.
I got it at this used book store that i used to clean up in. When they closed I got around 100 of the Doctor Who target novelisations, which really gave a boost to my collection, which is nearly complete. While it is possible that I may have read some of the Jim Lee X-men or Spawn first, this trade was the first thing that made me love them.
What was your first comic?

Seizures


So as some may have heard Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure yesterday and fell 5 feet, injuring himself and causing him to end up in the hospital. While I find Justice Roberts to be a repugnant bastard who is setting back the rights of Americans by decades, having a seizure is no laughing matter. For many years growing up I would have, once every couple of years a feveral seizure. What this means is that basically if my internal temperature got hot enough my body would reboot itself.
Unfortunately this rebooting would be accompanied by shaking and sometimes screaming. Once this happened to me in middle school in the middle of class. When I woke up, there were firefighters there and I got taken to the hospital. The doctors never found out why I was having them, and my pediatrician believed that I would just outgrow them. I did but it took until either 7th grade or 9th grade for this to happen (I don't remember having a seizure in 9th grade but my mom does.)
Luckily I have not had one since, but when ever I feel a temperature coming on, I always make sure to pop some tylanol and go home and have a lie-down. The time in 7th grade was the only time when i had a seizure not at home in my bed and, if I the reason I haven't had a seizure in 10 years is simply luck, I don't want to endanger myself or scare anyone around me again.

So, in conclusion, Justice Roberts, i despise you from the core of my being, but I know what you are going through and I wish you a speedy recovery and hope that you never have another seizure.

For more information of what happened to Chief Justice Roberts look to this New York Times article
For more information of Seizures check the Wikipedia article
These were the type of Seizures that I was having. I had them from when I was very young and none of the drugs ever worked.

[edit ( 8-31-07) It was pointed out by my mother and sisters that what I had aren't actually called Feveral Seizures but are, in point of fact called Feberal seizures. The More you know...]

Yay I get to go home!!


So after 7ish months in DC, I am heading back to the bay for a weekend in 3 weeks.
I will be home for the 18th and the 19th of August. I will finally be able to get a bunch of my stuff,, as I will be bringing all three suitcases and coming back with all of them full.

Anyway , I will be back in the bay, so give me a call when I get there if you want to hang out.

ta
-yonatan

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Random Stuff on a Sunday

So this morning I was, for some reason watching Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group.

A couple of observations:

The one woman in the MTP lineup defiantly seemed like she was the odd wo-man out. Especially in the discussion of the ridiculousness of the fashion critic of the Washington Post complaining that Hillary Clinton wore a blouse that revealed some cleavage. I mean really...she is a woman...women have breasts... and the "cleft created by the partial exposure of a woman's breasts" is called cleavage... It is hardly a new concept.


But in any case, she really did seem put upon by all of the men.

Secondly, the reason that congress has low approval ratings is not so because they are being to forceful in their conflict with Generalissimo Bush, as the pundit class would have us believe. But it is because they not being forceful enough. We did not elect them to congress to serve as Yes-Men and Yes-Women to a king. We elected them to fight the president. Sigh....

Thirdly, why does John McLaughlin feel the need to scream every single question? We can hear you if you just talk. It's like he feels the need to scream so that we can be heard or something.

Anywho...

Was going to have some fun playing Ultimate Frizbee on the Mall this afternoon. However, on the first day out in over a week that I didnt bring my umbrella, it begins to rain. So now I'm sitting aroun watching X-Files. Later howeverI am going to watch Arsenic and Old Lace. It is a really fun movie, and everyone should watch it.

Yes ever you

Something awesome for Sunday

insp_captkirk

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Shabbat Shalom everyone

Something peaceful for Shabbat.

DSCN1783

Oh and let me just say, welcome to those of you still coming in from the ISB. Because of the linkage, I got over 200 visitors from ISB alone, for a total of 243 hits, which is round 3 times more than any amount I had received before. I just hop that you will stick around and have a good time. Oh and please comment.
Thanks, and Shabbat Shalom
-yonatan

Friday, July 27, 2007

Friday Night Fights: Round 5

Mr. Chandler.
Would you like to tell Mr. Constantine anything?
You would?
OK

Ladies and Gentlemen...
Once again...
It is time for
FRIDAY
NIGHT
FIGHTS


Ouch...Good shot sir


From Hellblazer 214

The Dark Knight Teaser Trailer

this...plus new Doctor Who comics... plus more single day hits than ever before....sigh...today is a good day

Doctor Who!!! in Comics!!!! YAY!!!!!

Doctor Who comics...from IDW

dont know when it is coming out...but yay!!!!!

Comics reviews!!! (plus a book)

What I bought and what I thought 7/25

Cable & Deadpool 43:

Ah Cable & Deadpool, how I love thee so. Especially now that Cable is no longer in the book for a while due to his rather inconvenient death last month. However if Marvel can publish Captain America while Captain America is dead, there is nothing wrong with publishing this title. After all, 1/2 of the team is still around and the title has gone Cable-less for months before. So anyway, issue 41, the continuing adventures of Deadpool and Agent Bob of Hydra. Thrill to Cyclops asking Deadpool for help, be amazed by the fact that a Marvel title acknowledges that Wolverine kills people, and be shocked by the awesome might of the PENETRATOR!!!
All in all a great issue of my favorite Marvel title.


out of 5 Jason Todds






Teen Titans 49:

OK, first of all, is it just me or does the last panel look very familiar, especially how Kid Devil is drawn. Moving on from there though, I really wish that Amazons Attack would end so that this title and other would just get on with their normal storylines. This issue doesn't really move much forward, except we do see Wonder-Girl and Robin finally kiss again. Heh maybe all that Tim needs is a girlfriend who cant be killed, since he has seen basically everyone close to him murdered in the last two years or so.

Overall, the issue kind of felt like it has been treading water, but then again so has all of Amazons Attacks.



out of 5 Jason Todds





Blue Beetle 17:

In a word perfect. In two words... well I don't really have two words but I would like to give so highlights "...This part is never in the movies", "I like you kid. You actually tried to talk to me first", "Heh.. you got the dark in you boy", "Why? Because if he kept talking I was going to kill him. thats especially when it's wrong-- -- when it would feel good"and finally, Corporate Ninja-Batman shows up.






out of 5 Jason Todds




Countdown 40:

Wow Jimmy Olsen's costume suddenly got a lot better in one issue. "remove my next concubine's vocal cords"... hang on ...wait a minute...this issue is actually....good? Can it be... maybe it is because giffen is back doing breakdowns, and that gelled the entire team. I dont know all I do know is that for the first time, an issue of countdown actually makes me want to read the next issue. I couldnt tell the first time I read it, since i just skimmed. But on a second reading...it is actually readable. One thing though... I am really sick of hearing the word Crisis.





out of 5 Jason Todds





Wonder Woman 11:

Why did I buy this issue. I really don't know. Though I must say it is better than previous issues of Amazons Attack, and has some nice character moments.





out of 5 Jason Todds





Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5:

Sigh... for the first time I don't get the Paul Lee cover. Mostly because the Paul Lee
cover wasn't in my pull pile and was bagged and boarded. All in all a good breather issue. Cant wait for the next arc to begin, no so much because of faith, since i only really encountered her on Angel, but more becasue Brian K. Vaughn is writing.





out of 5 Jason Todds





Hellblazer 234:

Sigh... I love this title. Everyone should be reading it. Manco's art is amazing and Dingle's writing is defiantly putting him up in the list of best Hellblazer writers. I will save the 5 Todd for the finale, since I don't want to give out too many 6 out of 5 reviews.









out of 5 Jason Todds.





Un-men preview (from Hellblazer 234):

Interesting...I may get the first issue


out of 5 Jason Todds





Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes: 32

First of all let me just say that the art on this issue is amazing. All in all this is a good issue of Legion( I just realized I am calling things "good" a lot today.) Am loving the re-introduction of Tenzil Kem as I really enjoyed the character in both the Re-boot era and in the 5 year later era.

As I was saying in the store on Wednesday, Bedard seems to be writing the Legion in a way that shows that these people are those who should command respect. There is a power and a scale to the Legion again that was sorely missed over the last three years or so. Whether or not this will continue to the point where the Legion are, once again the Justice League of the Future and not Titans who are pretending to be, as it sometimes seems on this run and, truth be told in the original run. There are just a couple of problems that I had with this issue. First of all his Mekt looks a bit strange, or more accurately his facial hair looks strange. In addition, what with the Fatal 5 showing up the Brave and the Bold over the last two months, they cant go too far from the basic template with as the re-introduce the fatal 5 here. Oh and is it just me, or is Star-boy (left) being played by Isaiah Washington in this issue (or if not Washington, who is that, the face looks very familiar.











out of 5 Jason Todds




Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:


And at last, some 10 years after the first book was released in the states, the saga comes to a close. The Harry Potter saga has been a fun one to read and watch as the characters change. All in all this book is a return to form after a rather disappointing last couple of books. Books 7 touches on all of the points we have seen before and closes off many of the character arc. I would have liked to see more downtime between the chapter 26 and the finale, so as to better connect Harry and Ginny. But i will just have to dream I suppose. I find it very interesting that the finale was written back when she was writing the first book and it makes one wonder how much was changed in her plan between then and now, especially vis a vie that popularity of the books.
In the end, everyone got their chance to shine. There was just one problem that I had with the book, which was this: Rouling was trying out a new technique for her scenes shifts. Normally if the perspective or the characters changed, there would be a paragraph break, or at least something to show that things had changed. However, throughout the book, scenes shifted in the middle of paragraphs, with nothing coming before or after to show that the scene had changed. This was especially noticeable in the scene at Dumbledores grave, where I didn't notice that things had changed until two sentences in. Now I may well try to get my hands on all of the books and re-read them. Also, now that I no longer have to worry about other mendiums destroying my reading pleasure of the books, I may finally sit down and watch the movies. I haven't watched them before now mostly because I wanted to keep my images of Harry and is crew completely free of the movie cast, so I could decide what they looked like based on the descriptions only. However all of the books would have to be the British editions, since that is where my copy of 7 comes from and I wouldn't want to have a collection of different version. Plus the text in the first two is slightly different between British and American versions.

out of 5 Jason Todds (with one extra for such a good return to form for the ending.