Monday: There's no-one to run cameras for the midday news! Seems to be turning into kind of a weekly thing, so I deal with it.
Tuesday: I wake up at 2am to news that Chris Benoit is dead, having hung out with him before and after a Smackdown in Nov. 2005, I was understandably upset.  Then I read an update outlining the double-murder suicide aspect of the story.  I'm utterly shocked, and now have to go to work, where I hope that I won't hear anything about it. Work passes slowly until the midday (again) when there's a freak thunderstorm, that causes a major power-hit three minutes before the newscast, taking out the teleprompter, weather computer, and someting else I can't remember.  After work I'm up until around 8pm, reading/watching the updates on the story.

Wednesday: Up again at 2am, barely awake enough to drive to work.  Everything seems to be going smoothly, then I get home, go to my favorite torrent site, and it's been hit by a major system crash - no new comics this week, go to sleep at 2pm.

Thursday: Work's fine, I hear mention of a major news meeting at 3pm as I'm leaving, laugh about our sister station's capital budget with the guys in engineering, and go home. Download a newsreader because outlook sucks for this type of thing, and go about my nautical way.  Call into work at 3:45-ish to ask what the meeting was about, and hear that corporate legal people are coming in on Monday, but "that doesn;t mean we're shutting the station down"  SUUUUUUUURE it doesn't.  Call the wife about a possible job lead.

I swear, if my luck keeps up, by this time next week I'll probably be dead from an errant meteorite.

Last night, the wife came home and I was watching the following video:

During which this conversation took place:

:40 (and paused) - Jenna: "What's that?"
Mike: "That is THE METAL, and coming up is the most metal moment in history"

:51 - Mike: *laughs maniacally*
Jenna:"I don't get it, it's just a guy in a suit."
Mike: "It's a GIANT MAN IN ARMOR DANCE-FIGHTING IN FLAMES! It's a Heavy Metal video boiled down to it's very essence."
Jenna:"It's just a guy in a suit."
Mike: *facepalm*

For neovenator:

In issue #3 of Avengers: The Initiative written by Massive Spidey-Fan/Über-Continuity Nerd Dan Slott, he's got the Initiative's Black Ops team go after Shocker, Boomerang, Hydro-Man, and Spider-Man (they're all having a convenient fight) so they can be de-powered by those nano-tech darts that recently showed up in She-Hulk. These S.P.I.N. Tech darts supposedly cost $500,000 each. Which brings up the question, why are they wasting them on two people who HAVE NO POWERS?

Boomerang and Shocker have always been tech-based villains, I'm shocked that Slott didn't remember that.

First he was shot, now The Falcon's cheating on him! Damn you Snap Wilson, Damn You To Hell for breaking Cap's heart!

So here's the second drawing to come off my new Wacom Intuos tablet. (LOVE IT!)  A girl takes a smoke break while preparing for her Sweet Sixteen birthday party. The leg came out a little wonky, I think. Overall though, I'm pretty OK with it as a first attempt in a while to get off my ass and draw something. Colored version:
 

Click on either to see them bigger. Any critiques or comments are more than welcome, and as a special bonus prize, if someone comments I'll give you the secret origin of the drawing!

Kurt Angle Released!

For those who don;t follow pro-wrestling,1996 Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle debuted for the WWF in January 1999, and proceed to tear shit up from day one.  He's got a history of working through some very serious injuries dating back top the 1996 Olymnpics, where he won the Gold with a fractured neck. He has been given time off in the past to heal up, but he always comes back too early and tries to hide the pain from co-workers.  Just last week he severely tore his groin in a match on a Sunday and tried to hide it from the trainers, road agents, and management so that he could work an advertised TV main event Tuesday night.

Stuck for an idea of how to lay out a page?

 Wally Wood's got you covered

I had seen an article on this, perhaps in Alex Toth's column in Alter Ego, a few months ago, and went searching for it online not three weeks ago.  I had misremembered it as Alex Toth's Panels that Never Miss, so I had to finally give up after a long Google search.

Anyway, this seems like an indispensible tool for storyboarding and comic book/strip artists.  I'm sure someone could even do an entire longform strip using those panels, though not in that exact order, and possibly be lauded by critics for their mastery of the comic form.

Apparently there's a small (that is, free) comic book convention this Sunday from 10am-4pm at the Eastland Suites in Urbana. I've always wondered about these free conventions, but I've never been close enough to one to go. It seems to be that the more you have to pay to get into a con, the better your chances of being able to meet an industry pro you'll have heard of.

I get the feeling this will be more of a comic dealer's convention, but maybe they'll have some of those kickass digest-sized comics DC used to put out. (They're my one continued weakness, despite not buying comics anymore)

jim_smith, will you be making the trip over?

Some suggested sequels to the internet darling Snakes on a Plane:

For the midwestern crowd: Snakes from Des Plaines
For western fans: Snakes on the Plains Drifter
The Spanish-American War prequel: Snakes on the (U.S.S.) Maine
The Revolutionary War prequel: Snakes on Tremaine
For the Trekkies/ers: Snakes on Trelane
The porn rip-off: A Snake is my Wang
The early 80s computer classic: Snakes on my Wang
The vampire movie: Stakes are a Pain
and finally, to wrap up the "Snakes" series: Snakes on the Wane

This was posted on chambana overnight, and it may just be the early hour, but I couldn't help but notice something rather funny

THE IMC is having a Rock Against Rape Concert (for Sexual Awareness Month) Ssturday, this weekend!

The lineup is:

Illini Contraband
Kayla Brown
Geisert 8 Band (coolest band from Peoria)
The Cockblocks
Cameo Turret

It starts at 8pm, and it's 5$.

THE IMC is: 218 W Main St, Urbana, IL --Located in the former Urbana Post Office in downtown Urbana next to Lincoln Square Mall. All shows are all ages.

The Cockblocks are playing at a Rock Against Rape concert? Didn't anyone else put two and two together?

I've got a bit of time before I call into work (ON MY VACATION [AGAIN]) I should also point out that I had a root canal earlier today, and the codiene is in full effect, so I'll regale you with some crap content.

We finally fixed up our bikes, put air in the tires, adjusted the seat, took them out for a test ride, etc.  I should mention that these are non-motorised bikes, not motorcycles.  It got me to thinking about my past experiences with the old two-wheelers.

I'm hard on my bikes, not by choice, but because I've got freaky leg strength.  I've had the right pedal and crank snap off two different bikes while I was pedaling (and trust me nothing will throw off your balance more than the loss of half the driving power of a vehicle), and the inner disc of an exercise bike shattered into many, many pieces as I rode.  I know what you're thinking, but in each and every case I had never stood to pedal the bike.  I was an odd kid/teen/young adult, whenever we had the weightlifting unit in gym class I always worked on my legs, I used to push cars around (both parallel to the wheel base and perpendicular to it) for fun.  I was able to squat around 750, but my right knee isn't in the shape it used to be in.  Anyway, that's all my drug addled can come up with right now.

While my sister's family was visiting, 3/5 of them decided to take a walk with my wife while the older two kids took to their homework while I watched íSabado Gigante!

My oldest niece was nice enough to point out that her American history textbook that prior to the Pilgrims settling in New England the most important thing to happen in North America was Jesus being born *bangs head against the wall repeatedly*

A year ago, Mr. Bush made many Americans feel safe, because they believed that he would be decisive and effective in an emergency. But Mr. Bush was apparently oblivious to the first major domestic emergency since 9/11. According to Newsweek, aides to Mr. Bush finally decided, days after Hurricane Katrina struck, that they had to show him a DVD of TV newscasts to get him to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

So the last time I did one of these I'd seen 67 movies in a given year, I know I've been to the theatre *much * less this year, so let's do this again.

1. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Free midnight screening!)
2. War of the Worlds
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
4. Batman Begins
5. Madagascar
6. Hitch
7. The Longest Yard
8. Fantastic Four
9. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
10. Monster in Law
11. Walk the Line
12. Dukes of Hazzard
13. March of the Penguins
14. Sin City
15. King Kong
16. Sky high
17. Bewitched
18. Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
19. The Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy
20. Just Like Heaven
21. Bad News Bears
22. Good Night. And Good Luck.

So wow, I really cut back this year, less than one movie every two weeks, as opposed to more than a movie a week in 2003. I'm not really even looking forward to anything next year (that I know of)

Probably the best thing from SNL this season:

http://www.youtube.com/?v=IggTu7kV7No

It's been almost two years since I started this livejournal up, and according to the details page almost five months since I last updated. To celebrate the new update, I present my new Default LJ icon, based on an Icelandic children's TV show character. Something which very few people will get, I'm sure, but seeing as how it's been picked up by Nickelodeon perhaps not.

Christmas is coming up and as usual making out a list is kind of tough because most of the stuff I want is:

A) Tech stuff I don't trust my parents/in-laws to get
B) Only available on specific websites (some outside of the country)
C) Things involving comic books from the 40s or comic creators from the 70s and 80s
D) Both A & B
E) Both B & C

So I asked for some tools that I thought would be nice to have (ooh, laser level), clothes (although I still have some stuff I bought earlier this year that I haven't worn yet), and some easier to find movies/games (Hopefully We love Katamari is easier to fin than the original). Also an entertainment center that goes by the name Flexo (although I'd prefer one built by my dad because I'm sure it'd be juuuust a bit better put together.)

What else?

I broke my 17 year non-vomiting streak. I'm not too happy about that because the streak and I were going to go out and celebrate its 21st birthday in a couple of years by getting really drunk and starting over, now it's a new beginning without the celebration. What really bummed me out was that Jenna picked it up an hour before we were going to go to a Halloween party she'd made (dyed a sweater, redid a skirt) a costume for. Thankfully she was able to wear the costume to work Monday to hand out treats to all the little WRI-guys and gals that came in with their parents.

I think that'll probably be it for now, but I promise to start updating more. (Who I'm promising, I have no idea. Most of the people who'll see this will be surprised I'm on their friends list)

While surfing around the interweb, I came across Jessica Simpson's video for her remake of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" from the upcoming "Dukes of Hazzard" movie. Expecting a trainwreck, I decided to watch it and wasn't let down.

The video starts out with Jessica driving the General Lee on a backlot.  Nine seconds in, the General stops and  She Opens The Door.

She Opens The Door.

She Opens The F**king Door! (with apologies to the Scotsman)

Who is the genius that directed this video?  How do you get one of the ONLY rules of the Dukes of Hazzard wrong?