and I woke up with a swollen up face. It appears a spider decided to bite me on the ear while I was working in the den on Tuesday and my face responded by freaking out. The swelling started at my ear, went across my face, down my neck and into my shoulder and chest area.
With all of these things, you're presented with a choice... do you go to urgent care or the ER. Because if you choose incorrectly you just wasted a crap ton of money. We decided to go to the ER because it sounded like cellulitis which can get bad in a hurry. Several hours of answering the same questions 6,000,000,000 times and wanting to kick several nurses in the ass, I left full of steroids and a prescription for antibiotics.
That was my day, how is your's going?
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Farewell to the Thunderbolts
One of my favorite comics is undergoing a transformation in a month or two. The Thunderbolts will be changing it's name to Dark Avengers with issue #175. Sales have been falling off as of late and this is an attempt by the Marvel brass to spark sales by slapping the Avengers name on there. Nothing is forever though, I imagine the Thunderbolts name will come back at some point or they'll start with a new number 1 after this series gets cancelled.
The Thunderbolts first appeared in 1997. Most of the Marvel heroes were dead following the Onslaught event and the Thunderbolts appeared to fill the void. They got a lot of hype in Wizard if I remember correctly but honestly, they seemed like your fairly run of the mill 90s looking team. I really paid them no mind at first as I didn't find them to be a very interesting concept. But then this happened at the end of issue 1:
That's right! The Thunderbolts were really the Masters of Evil posing as good guys. I don't recall what Baron Zemo's endgame was anymore but the twist took everyone by surprise. The book took everyone by surprise and those first couple of issues were really hard to find because the print run was fairly low. It took me maybe 3-4 months to track down those first 5 or 6 issues. But I did it and I loved this book. As the series progressed the Masters slowly took to being heroes and eventually had a falling out with Baron Zemo. Hawkeye finds his way onto the team and the Thunderbolts are off to redeem themselves.
Redemption is the key to the Thunderbolts. Super villains join the team and try to make amends for their past crimes. Even when Norman Osborn was head of the program, there were still characters seeking their redemption on the team.
The book has had it's ups and downs over the years. Probably about a 50/50 split on good times vs. bad times. But you have to give this book a ton of credit. The Thunderbolts carried a series for 174 issues in an era where new character ideas really struggle to sell comics.
As I said earlier. I don't see this as goodbye. Things tend to be circular in comics. The Thunderbolts name will probably make a return in the next 3-5 years. I just thought I'd take a brief walk down memory lane.
Monday, May 28, 2012
An Ode to Old Time Radio
Several years ago my then fiance Kelly told me about a podcast called the Horror. The Horror was a show that replayed old radio horror programming. The programming varied as you could get anything from the 1930s into the 1980s. The programs varied in quality but it was a fascinating look into a long past time. And of course, you develop your favorites of the various shows and I expanded out into other genres. I've surprisingly wandered into the Western genre which has never been a favorite of mine.
Anyways. I figured I would use this post to cover some of my favorite old time radio programs.
CBS Mystery Radio Theater: This is perhaps my favorite of all of the old time radio shows. It came about in the 70s when radio dramas were making a bit of a comeback. This ran from 1974-1982. I like this show because it has the mentality of shows from the 40s and 50s but it has more modern technology so the show is executed a little better. I've actually decided to try and listen to all 1399 episodes of this series. I'm currently at episode 142. Long way to go.
The Shadow: Orson Welles stars as the Shadow in the series for the first year or so of the show. Let's just say, he was awesome in the role. He created this sinister vibe and you truly understood why he was this fearsome figure. This show predates Superman by about a year. The Shadow is considered to be a pulp hero not a super hero. Most episodes involve his sinister laugh and the bad guy dying in some horrible way while the Shadow doesn't do much of anything. The format does change here and there but the bad guy dies about 8/10 times on this show. His replacement wasn't as good honestly. I would just listen to the Orson Welles episodes.
Inner Sanctum Mystery: This is your typical horror/mystery show. You have a host, Raymond Edward Johnson, who introduces the stories and pops in around commercials for some ghoulish banter. There's also a woman that represents Lipton Iced Tea, the sponsor, and she often joins in the banter with Raymond. Honestly, the stories can be a little boring and predictable but the hosts always provide for an entertaining time.
Gunsmoke: I had started listening to the Lone Ranger due to the upcoming movie and Gunsmoke was always something that I had been curious about. I instantly loved this series. It was like graduating from the Lone Ranger to Gunsmoke. With the Lone Ranger no one is ever really hurt and you know everything will be okay by the end of the episode. With Gunsmoke, people die, it's tense, it's gritty and you feel the struggle of the characters. This is just a well acted series. William Conrad stars as Matt Dillion and he does a great job. If you try one Western, listen to this.
Price of Fear: This is a BBC Radio series that stars horror icon Vincent Price as himself. Each episode is a horror story that involves Price and the people around him. Price is mostly just a narrator and witness to horrible events that happen to people around him. The show is always well acted of course and the stories can be pretty fun. I might try to track down the entire series at some point and give it the CBS Radio Mystery Theater treatment.
There you have it, some of my favorite old time radio series. Most of these sites have archive sites or can be found on iTunes via various podcasts. Check them out, you won't regret it.
Anyways. I figured I would use this post to cover some of my favorite old time radio programs.
CBS Mystery Radio Theater: This is perhaps my favorite of all of the old time radio shows. It came about in the 70s when radio dramas were making a bit of a comeback. This ran from 1974-1982. I like this show because it has the mentality of shows from the 40s and 50s but it has more modern technology so the show is executed a little better. I've actually decided to try and listen to all 1399 episodes of this series. I'm currently at episode 142. Long way to go.
The Shadow: Orson Welles stars as the Shadow in the series for the first year or so of the show. Let's just say, he was awesome in the role. He created this sinister vibe and you truly understood why he was this fearsome figure. This show predates Superman by about a year. The Shadow is considered to be a pulp hero not a super hero. Most episodes involve his sinister laugh and the bad guy dying in some horrible way while the Shadow doesn't do much of anything. The format does change here and there but the bad guy dies about 8/10 times on this show. His replacement wasn't as good honestly. I would just listen to the Orson Welles episodes.
Inner Sanctum Mystery: This is your typical horror/mystery show. You have a host, Raymond Edward Johnson, who introduces the stories and pops in around commercials for some ghoulish banter. There's also a woman that represents Lipton Iced Tea, the sponsor, and she often joins in the banter with Raymond. Honestly, the stories can be a little boring and predictable but the hosts always provide for an entertaining time.
Gunsmoke: I had started listening to the Lone Ranger due to the upcoming movie and Gunsmoke was always something that I had been curious about. I instantly loved this series. It was like graduating from the Lone Ranger to Gunsmoke. With the Lone Ranger no one is ever really hurt and you know everything will be okay by the end of the episode. With Gunsmoke, people die, it's tense, it's gritty and you feel the struggle of the characters. This is just a well acted series. William Conrad stars as Matt Dillion and he does a great job. If you try one Western, listen to this.
Price of Fear: This is a BBC Radio series that stars horror icon Vincent Price as himself. Each episode is a horror story that involves Price and the people around him. Price is mostly just a narrator and witness to horrible events that happen to people around him. The show is always well acted of course and the stories can be pretty fun. I might try to track down the entire series at some point and give it the CBS Radio Mystery Theater treatment.
There you have it, some of my favorite old time radio series. Most of these sites have archive sites or can be found on iTunes via various podcasts. Check them out, you won't regret it.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Inspiration
The basement has been that project that I've just never got around too. The plan has always been for that to become a secondary entertainment room. A place where I can go and watch wrestling, anime, etc. and not subject Kelly to something she might not be as interested in. And, sometimes you need to head off and do your own thing when you're married.
So there has been a few phases to this. I was doing a nautical theme for awhile but I hadn't really added a ton to it past some pictures. Then today I had a sudden inspiration and the basement has started to take off.
My dad bought my a tin Batman sign and I decided to hang it up in the basement this afternoon. I put it up and it suddenly brought the room to life for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the room. Kelly and I went to Half Price books and I added a Captain America and Incredible Hulk sign to the mix. No Iron Man, which I'm disappointed in. We checked some other places but I didn't find the Iron Man one I wanted. I did come across one for Spider-Man and one for the Silver Surfer. I plan to add those eventually but they can wait.
The tin signs are really cool. They are retro and feature the character as they appeared in the late 60s/early 70s. The signs even look a little beat up and aged to add to the effect. They're pretty cool to look out and I'll be able to eventually have Cap, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk to represent the Avengers. I'll add other heroes as I can find them but that was my inspiration at the moment.
I moved the furniture around a bit to prepare for when I have a tv down there. We're getting an old one tomorrow and hopefully it will be a good start. I'm looking forward to getting back into watching Smoky Mountain Wrestling when we get a tv and dvd player set up down there.
I'll post pictures when I get more completed on my room.
So there has been a few phases to this. I was doing a nautical theme for awhile but I hadn't really added a ton to it past some pictures. Then today I had a sudden inspiration and the basement has started to take off.
My dad bought my a tin Batman sign and I decided to hang it up in the basement this afternoon. I put it up and it suddenly brought the room to life for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the room. Kelly and I went to Half Price books and I added a Captain America and Incredible Hulk sign to the mix. No Iron Man, which I'm disappointed in. We checked some other places but I didn't find the Iron Man one I wanted. I did come across one for Spider-Man and one for the Silver Surfer. I plan to add those eventually but they can wait.
The tin signs are really cool. They are retro and feature the character as they appeared in the late 60s/early 70s. The signs even look a little beat up and aged to add to the effect. They're pretty cool to look out and I'll be able to eventually have Cap, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk to represent the Avengers. I'll add other heroes as I can find them but that was my inspiration at the moment.
I moved the furniture around a bit to prepare for when I have a tv down there. We're getting an old one tomorrow and hopefully it will be a good start. I'm looking forward to getting back into watching Smoky Mountain Wrestling when we get a tv and dvd player set up down there.
I'll post pictures when I get more completed on my room.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Q&A Time
If you had the chance to redo high school, knowing what you know now, how would you redo it?
This was a question that my friend Dan answered on his Xanga page a couple of weeks ago and it's kind of been churning around in my brain off and on since. I figured, why not make a blog post out of it.
To me, that's a hard question to answer truthfully. I don't really dwell on my high school years very much these days as I'm too busy just living. But my memories tend to be mostly fond. I was fairly popular as high school progressed and I got decent grades. I don't feel like those years were extremely wasted in hindsight. I mean, we all honestly waste our youth, it's just part of the ignorance of being young. You'll always shoulda woulda coulda yourself about your younger years.
I guess if I had to go back and pull out regrets. I regret getting burned out on drawing in Art class. I feel I had some skills that could have been shaped into something and I really let that slip away. I get the itch from time to time and I just don't have the same proficiency with a pencil like I did when I was a teenager. I wish I could go back and convince myself to continue.
Past that, the bad things that happened all made me who I am today. Girls not liking me or giving me a chance made my wife that much more special to me. I didn't do anything super stupid that I had to live with forever. And I cemented friendships with people like Justin, Adam, Natalie, Dan, Dave, Graydon, Abby and Woody that still preserve today.
This was a question that my friend Dan answered on his Xanga page a couple of weeks ago and it's kind of been churning around in my brain off and on since. I figured, why not make a blog post out of it.
To me, that's a hard question to answer truthfully. I don't really dwell on my high school years very much these days as I'm too busy just living. But my memories tend to be mostly fond. I was fairly popular as high school progressed and I got decent grades. I don't feel like those years were extremely wasted in hindsight. I mean, we all honestly waste our youth, it's just part of the ignorance of being young. You'll always shoulda woulda coulda yourself about your younger years.
I guess if I had to go back and pull out regrets. I regret getting burned out on drawing in Art class. I feel I had some skills that could have been shaped into something and I really let that slip away. I get the itch from time to time and I just don't have the same proficiency with a pencil like I did when I was a teenager. I wish I could go back and convince myself to continue.
Past that, the bad things that happened all made me who I am today. Girls not liking me or giving me a chance made my wife that much more special to me. I didn't do anything super stupid that I had to live with forever. And I cemented friendships with people like Justin, Adam, Natalie, Dan, Dave, Graydon, Abby and Woody that still preserve today.
New site look...
I updated the look of the site and
Mighty Marvel Reading Project
Adventures in Columbus Dining
I wanted to get away from generic looking sites like everything else on Blogger. I think all three look a lot slicker and hope it helps the growth of my blogs. I haven't mentioned Columbus Dining before. That's a blog where Kelly and I review local Columbus, OH restaurants. So check them out and follow if you would like.
Mighty Marvel Reading Project
Adventures in Columbus Dining
I wanted to get away from generic looking sites like everything else on Blogger. I think all three look a lot slicker and hope it helps the growth of my blogs. I haven't mentioned Columbus Dining before. That's a blog where Kelly and I review local Columbus, OH restaurants. So check them out and follow if you would like.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
The Nike Fuel Band and Me...
As a reward for losing 20+ lbs. thus far this year, I splurged a bit and bought a Nike Fuel Band as a reward for all of my hardwork. The Fuel Band is a relatively new gadget. What it is is a fancy pedometer. It counts your steps and your calories but the important thing is... it converts all of this into Nike Fuel Points.
You set your goal daily for how many Fuel Points you want to earn. 2000 for a fairly regular day and 3000 for a day where you'll be exercising. You can go nutty and have higher goals but I doubt I'll be doing that. The idea behind this is to hit your goal as many days as possible. So it's an hour before bed and you're 500 points short, you better do some exercise and get those last few points you need.
I got this Thursday night and couldn't hit my goal of 3000 because I just didn't have the time. Friday, I went to work and pretty easily hit 3000 and beyond. For the weekend, I decided to drop my goal to 2000 because I would be less active. Family came in on Saturday and I was pretty inactive so 4 pm rolled in and I only had 650 pts. So I got up and walked for about 35 minutes and bumped that total up to about 1600 points. I met my goal for the day. Today, we did our normal thing and I was sitting at 1550 at close to 7 pm. I walked for about 20 minutes and got to my 2000 point goal.
It connects via USB to your PC and uploads your stats to a website so you can see an hour by hour breakdown of your activity and how far you've walked, etc. It will even compare your activity by day over a longer period of time.
I'm pleased with it so far. It got me to workout a total of 55 minutes that I wouldn't have on a different weekend. It's giving my a tangible goal to hit on a daily basis and I think that's good for me. I'll be bumping it back up to 3000 for the work week. We'll see how it goes as time progresses.
I might post a video review of this later on. I haven't decided one way or the other though.
You set your goal daily for how many Fuel Points you want to earn. 2000 for a fairly regular day and 3000 for a day where you'll be exercising. You can go nutty and have higher goals but I doubt I'll be doing that. The idea behind this is to hit your goal as many days as possible. So it's an hour before bed and you're 500 points short, you better do some exercise and get those last few points you need.
I got this Thursday night and couldn't hit my goal of 3000 because I just didn't have the time. Friday, I went to work and pretty easily hit 3000 and beyond. For the weekend, I decided to drop my goal to 2000 because I would be less active. Family came in on Saturday and I was pretty inactive so 4 pm rolled in and I only had 650 pts. So I got up and walked for about 35 minutes and bumped that total up to about 1600 points. I met my goal for the day. Today, we did our normal thing and I was sitting at 1550 at close to 7 pm. I walked for about 20 minutes and got to my 2000 point goal.
It connects via USB to your PC and uploads your stats to a website so you can see an hour by hour breakdown of your activity and how far you've walked, etc. It will even compare your activity by day over a longer period of time.
I'm pleased with it so far. It got me to workout a total of 55 minutes that I wouldn't have on a different weekend. It's giving my a tangible goal to hit on a daily basis and I think that's good for me. I'll be bumping it back up to 3000 for the work week. We'll see how it goes as time progresses.
I might post a video review of this later on. I haven't decided one way or the other though.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
5/15 is on the way...
Which means Diablo III awesomeness is only essentially a day away. I downloaded the client last week so all I have to do is hit install when the game goes live on Tuesday and the long awaited Diablo III will be mine. Cue evil laugh there.
In the meantime, Kelly and I bought Kingdoms of Amalur. I've enjoyed it a lot in the 5 hours I'ved played so far. It's kind of what I wanted Fable III to be when it came out. It controls like Fable and has the greatest complexities of Dragon Age tacked on. So far the world seems well developed and there are a lot of side quests to pick up. The class system is a lot different. You have skill trees in might, sorcery and finesse. You add points to these as you level, you can mix and match however you want. Based on how many points you invest in those skills will effect which classes you can be as the game progresses. I'm a little worried about sub-optimal builds but other people have said they haven't had issues. So we'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, Kelly and I bought Kingdoms of Amalur. I've enjoyed it a lot in the 5 hours I'ved played so far. It's kind of what I wanted Fable III to be when it came out. It controls like Fable and has the greatest complexities of Dragon Age tacked on. So far the world seems well developed and there are a lot of side quests to pick up. The class system is a lot different. You have skill trees in might, sorcery and finesse. You add points to these as you level, you can mix and match however you want. Based on how many points you invest in those skills will effect which classes you can be as the game progresses. I'm a little worried about sub-optimal builds but other people have said they haven't had issues. So we'll see how it goes.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
I want my MTV...
Okay, not really.
I was thinking about the old Columbus Public Access channel a couple of days ago for whatever reason. I wasn't sure why it went off the air and Googled it. The city council cut the funding for whatever reason in the mid 2000s. This made me a little sad. There was nothing like being at someone's house at 11 on a Saturday night and catching the late night hijinks of the various guys.
For those of you from places without public access, this is how it works. You want to put the time and effort in, you can have your own show. This means that during the day it's a lot of religious programming and after about 11 it turns into the wild west of television. And by wild west I mean, anything short of penetration is fair game on a public access channel.
I got my start watching public access because they had wrestling on. I was in my mid teens and devoured anything wrestling related that came on television at the time. I watched lucha libre on the Spanish channel on Saturdays after WCW Saturday Night was over. And this was perfect, the IWA aired on Tuesday afternoons. Now granted, the IWA was probably the most rinky-dink promotion to ever exist. I mean, they worked from a venue where the ceiling was so low that the guys couldn't climb to the top rope. But it was wrestling so I watched it.
Eventually through the grapevine I heard about the late night programming. I think it was my friend Dan had become a fan of some of the later night guys. Fan might not be the right word. It was more trainwreck television than anything else.
I looked stuff up on Youtube and the various guys haven't aged well. Some of the stuff was oddly self important and shocking for the sake of shocking. I still have my fond memories but I think it's one of those you can't go home again moments.
I was thinking about the old Columbus Public Access channel a couple of days ago for whatever reason. I wasn't sure why it went off the air and Googled it. The city council cut the funding for whatever reason in the mid 2000s. This made me a little sad. There was nothing like being at someone's house at 11 on a Saturday night and catching the late night hijinks of the various guys.
For those of you from places without public access, this is how it works. You want to put the time and effort in, you can have your own show. This means that during the day it's a lot of religious programming and after about 11 it turns into the wild west of television. And by wild west I mean, anything short of penetration is fair game on a public access channel.
I got my start watching public access because they had wrestling on. I was in my mid teens and devoured anything wrestling related that came on television at the time. I watched lucha libre on the Spanish channel on Saturdays after WCW Saturday Night was over. And this was perfect, the IWA aired on Tuesday afternoons. Now granted, the IWA was probably the most rinky-dink promotion to ever exist. I mean, they worked from a venue where the ceiling was so low that the guys couldn't climb to the top rope. But it was wrestling so I watched it.
Eventually through the grapevine I heard about the late night programming. I think it was my friend Dan had become a fan of some of the later night guys. Fan might not be the right word. It was more trainwreck television than anything else.
I looked stuff up on Youtube and the various guys haven't aged well. Some of the stuff was oddly self important and shocking for the sake of shocking. I still have my fond memories but I think it's one of those you can't go home again moments.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Milestone
Today I weighed in at 268.4 today which means I've lost 20.4 lbs. since starting my exercise routine in January. As always, I could probably be doing better but I'm happy with where I'm at currently. 20 lbs. feels like a big deal. Kelly says that I should get some reward but I really have no idea what. I never really approached things that way. I guess I'll think about it over the weekend.
Kelly and I were talking about it earlier this week. My original goal was to get down to 200-210 lbs. but after seeing myself post 20 lbs., I think I might have some difficulties with that goal. I think I might have to settle more for something like 215-220. My body has changed greatly and I've slimmed down a ton so far. This is probably the smallest I've been since I was 20 and coming out of working at Camp for the first time. I weighed less at the peak of my warehouse days but my muscle mass was different due to the lifting and I looked bigger than I do now.
Kelly and I also are looking into buying Kingdoms of Amalur this weekend. It seems like a game we'd both enjoy so we're going in halfsies on it. If you haven't heard of the game, it was created by Curt Schilling's new game studio.
Kelly and I were talking about it earlier this week. My original goal was to get down to 200-210 lbs. but after seeing myself post 20 lbs., I think I might have some difficulties with that goal. I think I might have to settle more for something like 215-220. My body has changed greatly and I've slimmed down a ton so far. This is probably the smallest I've been since I was 20 and coming out of working at Camp for the first time. I weighed less at the peak of my warehouse days but my muscle mass was different due to the lifting and I looked bigger than I do now.
Kelly and I also are looking into buying Kingdoms of Amalur this weekend. It seems like a game we'd both enjoy so we're going in halfsies on it. If you haven't heard of the game, it was created by Curt Schilling's new game studio.
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