One Month From Right Now...

... I hope that Vicki, Tammy and I (and maybe buddy Tim, if he can make it happen and remembers to get himself a ticket before they sell out) will be in Toronto at Lee's Palace, thrilling to the live magic of Magnolia Electric Company! This'll be the third such concert for Vicki and I, but Tammy will be a first-timer... and she's still not even convinced that she'll like it!

With the huge recent catalogue of songs for MEC to build a playlist from, I have no idea what to expect. But no matter what they offer up, I'm sure it'll be a fantastic evening. I can hardly wait.

Amazons Attack, Readers React!

Well, the war is over now, and all that remains is the crying.

And the bitching.

And the moaning.

And the gnashing of teeth.

And those aren't just my reactions, as it turns out!

This Blog @ Newsarama article links to a few locations where the mini-series is being discussed, in less-than-glowing terms. Among the most egregious sins perpetrated by the six issues of Amazons Attack, say I and others, are:

1. Many innocent people died, and yet no justice was served.


2. Despite it being a six-issue mini-series, the story didn't actually end within its pages ("It's not over yet," we're told, as though that's somehow a good thing)


3. The mystery villainess revealed to be behind it all came completely out of left field, with no explanation as to how she could've possibly overcome an actual goddess (Athena) in order to pull off what she did


4. No sane person, having picked up this series on spec in order to get a sense of "what comics are like" would ever, ever want to read another one!

And that's not even touching the many minor quibbles I have, like the fact that Batman's apparently clever enough to arrange to have a spell handy to take the sorceress Circe out of commission for an hour... and doesn't do anything during that hour to make sure she doesn't get back into the battle? Or that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are always meeting up, in private scenes, and referring to each other by their superhero identities instead of "Clark," "Bruce" or "Diana."

In the end, while I wouldn't call it the "most damaging, worst Wonder Woman story ever" (as one fan did), I'd certainly be willing to label it a steaming pile of crud. Five years hence, after DC has righted their ship and gotten it back on course, will we look back on Amazons Attack as the low point during the Dark Years? Or is there still worse to come? God, I hope it doesn't get any more artistically-bankrupt than this!

Her Special Skills Aren't Limited To Nursing

Today, as I was biking home from work, I got my first flat tire for my new (last Spring) bicycle. The front of the bike had started feeling sluggish, pulling me to one side, and when I stopped pedaling to give the tire a squeeze, sure enough it was flatsville. Since I was just past the halfway mark of the trip, I wasn't keen on the idea of having to walk the rest of the way, but then I remembered that I have a small air pump in my backpack, so I got off the bike and attempted to get enough air into the tube to limp home on.

While I struggled with that, in the nearly-30 degree heat, a car came toward me on the side street that I'd stopped on, and slowed as it got near me. I looked up and immediately recognized the license plate (before anything else): it was Vicki's car!

She'd started to worry when I wasn't home and had gone out looking for me! Now, it turned out that she'd confused the time I'd left work, thus thinking that I was long overdue getting home, when in reality I wasn't even late yet. But I was happy for the confusion, as I now had a car to put my bike in as well as a quick, air-conditioned ride home!

I've now put the front wheel of my old bike in place of the flat one, and will be riding that Frankenstein's monster to work tomorrow. Vicki's going to take my flat tire downtown with her and I'll find time tomorrow to get it into the shop for a tube replacement. Then it'll just be a matter of waiting until the next flat (they don't seem to come as far apart as they used to!)

So now we can add Roadside Assistance Expert to Vicki's growing list of part-time skills!

Super Series? More Like Sleeper Series!

Could the organizers of the "Super Series" that's underway right now (Canadian juniors vs Russian juniors in a commemorative 8-game series 35 years after the fabled 1972 meeting) possibly have imagined a worse outcome than what we've seen to date? With Game 5 only minutes away from completion, and Team Canada up 8-1 in that game and about to take a 5-0 lead in the series (meaning there's nothing left to decide except whether Russia will actually manage to win a game or not), it's not exactly living up to its billing.

On the other hand, as a Canadian, I suppose this is at least preferable to it being 5-0 the other way! And that's about the only silver lining I can find for it.

Breaking News: Captain America? Still Dead!

This just in:

Six months later, more or less, the good Captain is still counted among the non-living. His monthly comic book, deftly written by Ed Brubaker, has continued to impress and astound fans far and wide in the months since Cap's untimely demise, despite the lack of a title character!

Stay tuned for more breaking news, as it happens...

It's A Hard Life (Being A Cat)

First, you've got the whole pecking order thing to worry about (who gets to sit on the top of the heap, and who has to console herself with the first rung down?)

Then there's the paparazzi, always snapping photos of you - like this one! - while you're minding your own business.

Really, it's a wonder these cats ever get anything done!

September's Here But February Still Seems So Far Away

I was just reading an article about Lost cast additions for Season Four, and it really sunk in, maybe for the first time, that the show's not coming back until February! As in, five whole months from now! Of course, once the show does return, it's for 16 consecutive new episodes, no re-runs allowed! But still, five whole months from now...

It's going to be a long wait.

As Labour Day Weekends Go, This Was A Pretty Fine One

It's not every year that you get a Labour Day weekend which features three solid days of really nice weather, but we were treated to one this time around. Even the forecast for the next several days looks lovely, as the kids return to school and we working stiffs drag our post-summer butts back into the office. I know that summer still offically has another two and a half weeks left according to the calendar, but that first Tuesday in September - tomorrow - always feels like the real finale.

And of course all of the preceding is really just augering the start of the new TV season, as well as the wind down of another baseball session leading up to the post-season. And hey, that means the start of the NHL season is only about a month away! Come October, we'll have all four major sports in North America either wrapping up or underway, making it a cornucopia of stuff to watch for the true sports freak.

I'm Starting To Really Hate Browsers

When I first started using the Internet in anything beyond a "playful" manner, I had a fair bit of allegiance to Netscape. I'm not even sure why that was - now - although I think it was something of a thumbing-my-nose at Microsoft and Internet Explorer. After awhile, I started using both, with Netscape being my browser of choice at home, and IE at work.

About a year or two ago, though, after upgrading Netscape once again because I was constantly being reminded to do so, I (also, once again) had all of my bookmarks (or favourites) wiped out in the process! This had happened once before with Netscape, and I'd assumed I'd done something wrong (like clicked "OK" to "Do you want to lose all of your favourites?") When it happened yet again, and I knew I'd not "asked for it", I finally lost my patience with that browser.

In the meantime, I'd found I was getting less and less joy from Microsoft's browser and its tendency to help me in all the wrong ways! IE would seem to block the pop ups I wanted (like when I'm blogging and request to add a URL) and then let the really annoying ones through (like when several new windows would be opened simply because I followed a link).

So into this vacuum strolled Mozilla's Firefox. I'd heard good things about it from lots of folks, and so I gave it a try. I liked the Tab framework - and noticed IE copied it not long after - and was slowly starting to use it more and more. For example, I always write my blog entries in Firefox now, whether they be at home or at work.

And then this morning I had the experience of watching my PC lock up during shutdown, causing me to power it off and back on again. Upon powering it back up, to make sure everything was cool, I went to check that the Internet was working... and discovered that all of my bookmarks - in fact all of my browser settings, right down to the Firefox home page - had disappeared! I could barely believe my eyes!

I've always consoled myself, whenever I lose bookmarks/favourites, that at least I get the value of having a good clean-up of old links that way. But this was just plain annoying, especially since I'd only been using it for about a year now! And when I went looking to see how I'd go about exporting my list of bookmarks, for the next time this happened, there didn't even appear to be that option in Firefox! (Admittedly, I didn't look all that hard.) Import, sure... they want you bringing your links over from IE or Netscape. But not so much on the export option. I'm sure I'll get over this - I always do! - but at the moment I'm more-than-a-little down on browsers!

BoilBoy - The 5 Weeks After (Final) Photo

Wrapping up the enormously-popular series of Boil Boy photos, you can see that the site has healed very nicely under the care of Nurse Vicki. It doesn't even require a bandage - let alone packing! - anymore, and the only thing I have to worry about now is keeping that raw patch of skin out of the sun, since it's not very rich in melatonin just yet (and thus, quite unprotected from sunburn). Or, I could lather up with SPF-50, I guess!

DC: Work On The Small Stuff First

There's lots of talk these days about how DC Comics is on the ropes, both commercially - Marvel has been kicking their ass in terms of sales for quite awhile - and creatively - Countdown is floundering compared to its predecessor, 52; many of the company's biggest line-ups have been chronically late to an outright embarrassing degree; and the recent announcement of yet another Crisis series, this one misleadingly titled Final Crisis, was for the most part met with equal measures of disgust and indifference.

I think this current rut will really only end with the removal of Dan DiDio from his position as Executive Editor. But I can see some other things that DC could do that are less political and more directed at winning the fans back. I call them "small stuff" but that doesn't mean I think they're easy. Just that they're not universe-spanning events or things warranting big, high-profile announcements.

1) Get some consistency within your own continuity. I'm not looking for lock-step strangleholds between all titles, but the DCU should feel like it's actually one universe! The company's actually made a few small strides in this area recently, with Amazons Attack! being reflected in Teen Titans, for example. But I'm looking for the less overt uses, where it's not emblazoned across the covers. Marvel in the 60s and 70s was incredible at this, where some offhand remark made by a character in one book would reflect an incident occurring somewhere else, and remind you that they're all playing in the same sandbox. This sort of atmosphere also sends the message, loud and clear, that there's an overall plan at work... not tying writers' hands, but simply tying the various storylines together in a loose fashion.

2) On titles where the writer or artist has a reputation for lateness, let them get well ahead before you start publishing their run. I'm sure there are financial implications to this that I'm glossing over, but we're talking about saving your franchise here! You know who the tardy ones are - it always seems to be the same people! - so simply make it perfectly clear when they pick up the assignment that you're going to queue up several issue before soliciting the first one. I suspect you've done this with the (still unofficial) Neal Adams Batman story, but Neal's only the most extreme case. It certainly seems like the Kubert brothers have fallen into this pattern, and Jim Lee's meltdown on the most recent WildC.A.T.s series - after one issue! - should've been the final straw.

3) Get your core DCU books in working order and use them to gauge the popularity of other superhero titles, instead of starting series up just to cancel them. Your focus over the next couple years should be on Action, Batman, Brave and the Bold, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Teen Titans, Superman, Wonder Woman, and if you must, some sort of weekly title. That's a dozen different places to focus your best talent, and maybe even that's too many. But look at how the competition has methodically addressed their core competencies, with the latest announcement being the addition of Millar and Bryan Hitch to Fantastic Four. If each of your franchise titles was somewhere between really good and awesome, then you could begin to grow the line based on what talent you have available and who's proven popular as spin-off characters.

4) Stop doing E-V-E-N-T-S and start doing good comic stories (again). Implied in that is that you stop chasing away the best writers. You've already driven away Alan Moore, probably forever, and apparently you recently turned down Neil Gaiman's idea of doing a new Sandman mini-series... What are you, mentally retarded? These are the guys who know how to tell compelling tales that'll have your characters being talked about long after you're dead! Those ships have already sailed, but before the next set leaves your port, it's time to get your eyes back on the prize. If you can't at least tell a good story every issue, what's the point?

It's unlikely that we'll see any of these changes anytime soon, but at least I got them off my chest. Now I can go back to reading the latest drek that's coming out of DiDio's hands.

One Month To The First Blogiversary

That's right, one month from today will mark the first anniversary of this blog! On the one hand, it's hard to believe it's been almost a year already, but on the other hand, it seems like I've been doing this forever! I'm still averaging more than 100 posts per month, despite a drop-off through most of the second half (indicating just how high my rate was early on!)

I don't know yet what I'll do to mark the occasion but I'll see if I can come up with something. Work, and writing elsewhere, are both keeping me pretty busy at the moment, though, so I can't make any promises.

Biking Is Fun-damental

This was the first five-biking-day week that I've had since... June? May? I don't even know how long it's been! A combination of great weather, good health and no weird happenings planned after work allowed me to bike every day this week, and I loved it! And I'm happy to report that I've suffered no ill effects, which I was actually quite worried about. During my five weeks off, when I was averaging two long rides per week, I was having a fair number of cramps and episodes of tightness in my legs, which lead me to believe I was completely losing any tone in those legs of mine. But this week was easy-peasy, as the kids say today. ;-)

Things That Make Me Love My Job

Today, the head of our Human Resources department stopped by to show me the 'swag' that she was planning to give out at our booth in an upcoming Career Fair. She said that she wanted the "geek reaction" and I was one of the candidates to give it.

What she showed me was a hand-held electric fan which, once the blades got going at full speed, would display pre-programmed text through the use of some clever software and LED lights. Not only would the text appear, but it could also rotate around the circle of the fan, fade in and fade out, and other tricks. There were three sets of text, each limited to 9 characters or less, and she wanted to know what I thought we might use for the text. (And with a solemn tone, she informed me that she and her co-workers in HR had determined that "a blank counts as one of the 9 characters if you use one"...)

As soon as I started ooh'ing and ahh'ing at the fan's light show, my fellow geeks began to be drawn to my cube like moths to a newly-lit flame! First a couple, then a few more, and before long there was a throng of my brethren congregated outside my tiny area, all witnessing this display of unparalleled coolness and asking questions like, "So will current employees be getting one of these?" ("No.") and "Can I program the words myself?" ("No... and you're not getting one anyway!").

It's moments like that which remind me of just how techy an environment I work in. I'm surrounded by geeks! And I love it!

Is Writing All I Do Now?

I just spent the last hour finishing up a draft proposal on the new, more clearly-defined Customer Proxy position that we're thinking we need at work, following Agile 2007. I've been working on it for a couple days now, but my boss, the VP, made an excellent suggestion today that perhaps I should include a "Day in the Life" sample of what the role would entail. I hadn't even considered that as a means of painting a clearer picture, but loved it as soon as he said it (and not in a sycophant-like way!)

So that's what I just finished writing, in a very story-like manner! It certainly wasn't in the style that I'd write here, but it was still a tale, nonetheless! And as I finished it, I couldn't help but think, "Holy crap, I'm doing a lot of writing these days! If I keep this recent pace up, someday I might actually get good at it!"

Bow Down Before The All-About-Me's

I've recently started to really notice just how many people are so wrapped up in themselves and their own affairs that everyone else places a distant third. These are the people on cell phones in public places, talking in a voice loud enough to be heard forty feet away, oblivious to the fact that no one around them wants to hear about their cheating boyfriend or what bar they're going to after work.

They're the drivers who you naturally leave room for in front of your car when traffic slows to a crawl in front of where they're waiting to come out of a parking lot or driveway, and then as you follow them along for a ways you notice that not only do they never return the favour to anyone else, but they'll cut off anyone they can in their mad dash to change lanes so they can get a few feet further along. If the possibility presents itself, you can lay money down that they'll move into the lane that's about to end, zoom by as many cars as possible, and then expect to be let back into the lane they just abandoned, having hurtled past a dozen or more cars that had got there before them. They also can't resist the temptation to run red lights, or be expected to stay out of the intersection even when there's nowhere for them to go as the light turns red (so what if they're blocking traffic the other way)?

They're the ones who never look behind them as they enter or exit a building, perfectly content to have the door slam in the face of anyone behind them, no matter how many packages that person might be carrying. They also wouldn't dream of holding an elevator door for anyone, no matter how many times it might've been done for them.

They'll be there, sitting a row back of you, or maybe two rows in front of you, and have somehow confused the movie theatre with their own living room, as they talk through the film at a volume that'd be appropriate if they actually needed to be heard by the folks all the way at the rear of the theatre.

They can be counted on to use the handicap parking locations if one's available, or just make their own spots by leaving their cars wherever seems the most convenient to them. They also just might dump whatever trash has built up in their car out onto the ground, right there in the parking lot, because finding a garbage container would never occur to them.

They're the result of God-awful parenting practices.

They're the bane of my existence.

They're the All-About-Me's.

And I hate them.

With a passion.

How To Kill A Buzz

In the month and a half since I first got interested in Cloverfield, the mysterious unnamed monster movie whose trailer was so intriguing when it burst upon movie theatre screens and then the Internet, the following deft moves have been made to retain my attention:

Nothing.

That's right, nothing.

Despite there being rumours that something new would be released or announced around the start of August, that time came and went with naught but the picture of sagebrush tumbling down the empty streets to the sounds of crickets chirping. Considering that the film's release date has famously been pegged as January 18, 2008, a mere four and a half months from now, can there really be no material available that could be 'leaked' in order to keep the flames of interest fanned? Or is the film that's being shot simply so bad that those involved have realized they aren't going to have the movie they thought they were? (And yes, those are fighting words. Sometimes that's the only way to get a response out of a sluggish opponent.)

I remain hopeful that whatever it is turns out to be something cool. But I'm also getting a bit bored with the silence.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Ever since returning from vacation, my sleep patterns have sucked. About half of the time, I wake up around 4:00 or 5:00 am and start thinking about work issues. This morning I tossed and turned for an hour before finally getting up just before 6:00 and powering up the laptop. Yesterday, as I was sitting at my desk in my tiny little cubicle re-reading a book on Agile Project Management, I almost fell asleep sitting up! This, after five weeks during which I was getting to sleep as much as I wanted, including taking naps during the day!

I suspect my brain is just overloaded at the moment, since even by my standards, these aren't normal events. Between all of the changes that we're trying to make at work, the notion of actually trying to write a book for real, the fact that Tammy's in the process of moving away from home - really away from home - for the first time, writing for three different blogs, and not having the waking hours to process it all... I'm just fried. Expect to read about me as the guy who sleep-walked his way onto the local news one of these days!

The Trouble With Tammy

Our industrious young twenty year old made the big move to Toronto this past weekend, and to say that things didn't go smoothly would be... an understatement of mythic proportion.

Her day started around 7:00 am or so, and not too long after that she discovered that the rental truck she'd reserved wasn't going to be available locally, after all. They directed her to a location about an hour's drive away, with no explanation given. When she and her moving buddies arrived there - after borrowing one of our cars to make the trip - the clerk informed them that she'd just given away their truck away to someone else! And so back they came, in search of a moving truck!

Anyway, I'll leave the fullness of the experience for Tammy to report, since I'm sure we only heard a tip of the iceberg in terms of details. I'll just conclude my description with the fact that the move-in apparently finished around 3:00 in the morning on Sunday, and now she's being harassed by the building manager because they were too noisy and allegedly damaged something in the process. I suspect she'll be calling this the Move From Hell. And she won't be exaggerating much.

Writers Write

A mere week or so after first mentioning my idea of writing an Agile book, I've produced about four thousand words for said project. It's been enjoyable so far, although I'm doing a lot of re-writing as I go along! So in that sense, it's going more slowly than I would've expected.

Here's a brief excerpt from what I've written so far (which is of course likely to change before I'm finished with it, based on how things are going):

"Even though I’ve only read about it, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the best way to “go Agile” is to have the people at the bottom of the Org Chart be the ones who decide they want to do it. And that reminds me of an old Steve Martin joke, which goes something like:

“Want to know how to make a million dollars? That’s easy!

Step One: Get a million dollars.

Step Two: …”

In other words, if you’re in a company that’s gone Agile as the result of a Grass Roots Movement, this book is probably of limited use to you. You may still need some help – although you may in fact be doing just fine! – but in all likelihood my problems won’t be your problems. The reason I say this is: many of the challenges we faced came about because Agile was being driven down from the top.

From what I’ve read, when Agile adoption starts up from the bottom (organizationally-speaking), it more naturally seems to start slowly, and build some momentum in that corner of the company or this one, and before too long management types are noticing improvements in those corners and are curious to find out more. In other words, the first impression is, “Agile good!” Maybe that’s just a myth, but regardless, it sure sounds like a smoother transition than what I experienced! So, if, as Steve Martin would say, you have the option of just going out and getting a million dollars - or having Agile slowly brought into your company by the coders and testers – take the money and run! By which I mean, consider yourself lucky and make the most of it."

Depending on the demand for it (!), I may post other snippets in the future, as things continue to progress. So start those cards and letters coming... ;-)