Coming this summer...

Sorry about the pathetic lack of updates. It's one of my two or three seasonal super-busy times at work. That means lots of work during the day, some late hours, and then getting home and feeling sleepy. Indeed, too sleepy to blog.

For former KOers, Julie Parsons and her husband just had their first baby (Michael Joseph Pruski). I think he looks like Jim Parsons, but time will tell if that bears out. Speaking of Jim, he's in a new Carraba's ad. Keep your eyes peeled.

Uh, what else...?

There are some heated debates of no consequence going on over at Nanostalgia.com. I highly recommend you pop over there.

And, look, an iPod cover with the Superman logo! And I know a certain Superman fan who has a birthday coming up.

Yeah, really, I got nothing.

So Long, Hobbes



It's never fun to have to say good-bye to one of your own. Hobbes the ferret, a Loyal Leaguer and steadfast member of the Hop-a-Long Lounge (League Austin branch), has merged with the infinite.

Hobbes was a bright, fun, funny guy, and I'll miss the little sock. He was part of a duo, the aptly named Calvin & Hobbes, that saw Steanso through law school. He was also an excellent companion through Steanso's first years of practice.

Hobbes is survived by Steanso and Hopalong Cassidy.

For more about Hobbes, I recommend going to:

here

and

here

Via con dios, little buddy.

Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., August 28, 1963.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

Spider-Man to once again temporarily get new costume/ possibly be a clone

I haven't been following SPider-Man's "The Other" storyline. It looks like he came out the other side much redder and shinier. I haven't read teh story, but right now it's most famous for (a) a dozen cover variants, one of which was Spider-Ham, and (b) Iron man was going to give Spidey a new costume. Which pretty much meant it had to be red and yellow.


Spidey covers himself in reflective surfaces

May this costume last less time than the Super-Mullet, and may it spawn a thousand toys for Marvel.

The Weekend in Review

Howdy, Leaguers. And what a weekend it has been. Whoo. E.

Friday night we went to IHOP, and I can't recall much aside from that. I think I worked on an item I'll bring up in a bit that was for Nanostalgia.com.

Saturday was errands. We also went to go see "The Ringer" on the recommendation of my cousin who works with Special Ed kids in Pflugerville. Apparently some of the kids she knows from her work (I wasn't clear if they were her students or not) are in the movie in the background Special Olympics scenes.

Without going into a full review (which is now the realm of Nanostalgia.com), "The Ringer" is different from what was advertised. It's not an overly complicated movie, but it's certainly not what was advertised. I don't know how laugh-out-loud funny the movie is, but it also wasn't a syrupy-sweet after school special, either.

Uh, what else. We watched the Suns play the Cavs on TV. And, uhmmm..

Today I got up and headed down to Tempe to watch my buddy, Octavio, complete the PF Chang's Marathon. I have no idea what his time was, but he finished after some people and before a lot of other people. It was amazing to watch all of these crazy people crossing the finish line having had run 26 miles. We, uh... we walked like half a mile from the parking garage to the finish line to meet up with Octavio. Jamie kept saying things like "Oh, you have to mention that on The League." The only item I can recall is that I loaned my cell to some guy as he finished so he could call his wife. The guy had qualified for the Boston Marathon, which is pretty neat, but he made my phone sweaty.

Anyhoo, poor Octavio runs like 26 miles and the first face he sees is my ugly mug hooting and hollering. That's no reward.

I washed the dogs today, which is becoming a lot trickier with Lucy. She does not like the loud bathroom and being confined to the tub. She's bigger and stronger these days, so it's a lot of fun trying to do the job.

Hey, remember when The League wrote about the Star Wars Christmas album and Meco showed up in the comments section? That was weird, right?

I've been living in the comments section of "Return to Comics", and had recently shared my wisdom with Kurt, the guy who runs the joint. I had, in passing, mentioned a creator as a case in point as she had been in the comic web-o-sphere of late. The Beat had mentioned something I thought assisted an argument, and I used it.

Anyhoo, I thought I was writing about the Sony Reader and the future of electronic comics. Things haven't really degenerated into anything all that crazy, but, nonetheless, The League was quite surprised to get someone who is actually mentioned pop up. (Where was the dude who made Aliens v. Predator? That guy I would have given the business...). The creator I'd mentioned suddenly popped up in the comments like an HOUR after I'd put up the initial post.

Read here.

Because The League doesn't really expect for you to click on the link and follow the whole deal, it went sort of like this...


The League: Boy, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast!

Jim D: It jumped up a notch!

The League: It did, didn't it?

RHPT: Yeah, I stabbed a man in the heart!

The League: I saw that! RHPT killed a guy! Did you throw a trident?

RHPT: Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident!

The League: RHPT, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. You should find yourself a safehouse or a relative close by. Lay low for a while, because you're probably wanted for murder.

Ughh... I already know I will probably nerd-out over this show.

I was such a sucker for the first two Blade movies (although the 3rd one wasn't my favorite). I'm not even one of these guys who likes to dress in all black and thinks vampires are super cool. I just liked the Blade movies a heck of a lot. Well, again, maybe not the third one.

Blade TV series.

...had Steanso been bit by a radioactive spider...

Suns lose to Nuggets in triple overtime at Denver.

139-137.

Carmelo Anthony scored 43 points, I think. That guy can play, even after taking a boot to the head.

It's hard to be pissed about a loss when your team scores 137 points.

Sometimes real-life imitates comics

Such was the fate of Captain Jackson of Jackson, Michigan.

Read the article here.

I'm curious how much of the story was crafted to sound like a comic-read, and how much of it just naturally evolved in the research for the article. The whole thing sounds like a Daniel Clowes written superhero story.

But there's something so post-Watchmen about the whole thing, so very, very revealing about people through the events of the whole incident.

And do these not sound like a few panels from DKR?

Some locals said they were relieved to know Captain Jackson's true identity. Laurie Searing, 45, paused from her downtown shopping this week to question Captain Jackson's authority.
"I would like to be his nemesis," she said. "His clothes should be more loose-fitting. He's a self-appointed superhero. I don't think you should do that."

His nemesis? Although badly dressed, Cap was raising money for charities. He was helping grannies across the street. But his pants were too tight?

As odd a fixture as The League believes Captain Jackson might have been on the streets of Jackson, MI, The League is fairly sure there were worse things Captain Jackson could have been doing than trying to inspire people with acts of kindness and generosity.

We all talk a good game, but when it comes down to it, it drives us crazy to see someone actually try to do something unusual, even if its helping out others.

Of interest perhaps only to The League, this all has a familiar ring to it. Dark Knight Returns? Watchmen? JSA? Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew? All contained heroes being disgraced and forced into retirement, usually because the heroes were eventually revealed to actually be human.

We at The League of Melbotis can can only sit idly by. Life imitates comics.

Also, it should be noted that Michigan is now down a superhero.

Ahem. Jill. Ahem.

Look, all I'm saying is "Captain Kalamazoo" has a certain ring to it.

See Captain Jackson's own website here.

Story originally found at The Beat.

For movies about folks who decide to become unlikely superheroes, see

George Washington

Blankman

Condorman

Mystery Men

No post tonight.

Here's a link to Nanostalgia.com, The League's joint-venture with Jim D., RHPT, Steanso and a host of other media-minded morons.

Also, what will surely be a future "Toys That Should Not Be", I have a special announcement that Denise will appreciate.

Someone is going to make Gwar action figures.

That's going to be a fun item for under the Christmas tree.

Vince Young opts out of public university education, decides to be rich

This should come as a surprise to approximately no one. Vince Young has announced his intention to submit his name for the NFL draft. Following in a long line of successful UT dropouts, including Michael Dell, Robert Rodriguez and Walter Cronkite, UT Football's own Vincent Young has decided to forego his senior year at The University of Texas at Austin to make some serious bank.

Read more about all of this here.

Speculation is running wild as to which team will grab Young and in what round. Of course, these guys are as reliable as a Central Texas seven day weather forecast, and most recently spent a week predicting USC would stomp UT at the Rose Bowl.

I'm open for speculation as long as everyone adds the caveat that they are pretty much making stuff up and have no idea what will happen in the several months before the draft.

Congrats to Vince. Those maroons didn't give you the Heisman, but you beat two Heisman winners, didn't you? There's gotta be a trophy for that, too.

Oh, yeah. It looks like this.

SUNS BEAT SPURS (and The League was there!!!)

Last night The League abandoned League HQ to travel to the recently renamed "US Airways Center". The contest: Your Phoenix Suns v. The Mighty San Antonio Spurs.

Tickets were provided courtesy Judy and Dick McBride via Santa.

Look, I love the Spurs. I started watching them in earnest around 1996 or so after abandoing the post-Championship Houston Rockets. I used to enjoy pretty much everybody but Vinnie Del Negro. I was a fan of David Robinson and Avery Johnson, and with the rest of the rotating cast they were a fun team to watch. And then, all of a sudden, they started winning Championship games.

Jamie and I moved out here to the Valley of the Sun, and initially I wouldn't watch The Suns. I was always scrambling up and down the dial for Spurs and Rockets games, but despite the popularity of the Spurs, they just didn't show many Spurs games out here. I watched a few Suns games, but wasn't too engaged. However, I'd really gotten to miss watching basketball in the evening as had become my habit in Austin once they launched Fox Sports Southwest.

I wasn't a Mavs fan. I can't stand Dirk Nowitzki (whiny prima donna) but I liked Nash, so once The Suns got Nash, I tuned in. Now that's a committment as every single game played is shown on one channel or another out here. SOme games, like the game on Friday night, was shown on two channels.

This season has been weird as only Nash and the highly underrated Shawn Marion are left in this season's line-up (Stoudemire is returning from surgery in February). But Mike D'Antoni is a heck of a coach, and he took a bunch of second and third stringers from other teams this year and has made them #1 in the Pacific Division.

Anyway, when you have tickets to see the Suns v. Spurs, it's hard to go wrong.

We stopped off at Majerle's before the game, then headed over to US Airways Center a little early. I wanted to go see the Paseo where they do the local pre, mid and post-game broadacasts, as well as the new "Jungle", which is sort of a mini Chuck E. Cheese's for kids up on the second level.

I'm not sure if it's because they're the current reigning champs, or some sort of Southwestern solidarity, but there were a heck of a lot of Spurs fans in attendance. Including the couple sitting next to us. Who weren't very friendly and didn't take kindly to a snip I took at Fabricio Oberto (who shares a name with a delicious brand of beef jerky).

Anyhoo, it was good and bad. We had to be on our best behavior with so many in Spurs fans in attendance, and as I'm a Spurs fan, too, I wasn't as inclined to spend the game on my feet screaming obscenities at the opposing team. Early on, Spurs looked like they were coming out strong against the Suns, but the Suns quickly caught up, and the Spurs never took the lead again despite a 4th quarter surge.

Manu Ginobili is a great player, but he's very frustrating to watch play live. I don't think the Suns have really forgiven him for falling over on Leandro Barbosa and effectively taking him out for the season with a knee injury. Everytime he hit the court, he was boo'd by Suns fans. Not that it really seemed to distract him. Once you decide a guy is a shady player, you start to notice a lot of little things he does that are kind of, goofy. Apparently the refs noticed it too, and by the 4th quarter the refs quit calling fouls on anyone around Manu. Which, of course, drove him insane. Anyway, Pop took him out and it wasn't an issue.

It wasn't a great game for either team. Both teams were playing beyond what I would describe as "competitively", and seemed kind of like they were out to beat each other up a little as much as score points. Except for Duncan. Duncan was just being Duncan.

We had a great time, and I walked out with an official Phoenix Suns Gorilla (that's our mascot. A gorilla. I have no idea why.) Jamie got a nice cap.

Will the Suns make the play-offs? Absolutely. Once Grant, Barbosa and Stoudemire come back, we're going to be better than #1 in our division. We're going to be fighting for a top slot in our conference.

But the Spurs are going to be the team to beat as long as they retain their current line-up.

Oh, and the half-time entertainment was hip-hop violist Miri Ben-Ari. That was really odd, but still a lot of fun. Much more so than the "Showstoppers Live!" Casino Entertainment we saw last year.

Rosebowl Cont'd...


How can we cheer up the USC Trojans after their miserable defeat at the hands of the Mighty Longhorns of the University of Texas?

With SONG AND DANCE.

Thanks to RHPT for the link.

Also, from Reed-o...

Up is down, black is white...

COMIC NERDS, AHOY!!!!

So, you may say to yourself: How does The League spend a week off from work?

Leaguers, the answer isn't pretty, but it is simple.

The League spent last week inventorying our vast and growing comic collection.

The reason for this are two-fold:

a) We can have a record for insurance purposes
b) We can also use the nifty database at ComicPriceGuide.com to SELL our comics.

Now, the key word here is, of course, SELL. The League swore once upon a star that we would never, ever sell our comics. And then one day, not so very long ago, The League sat back, took a breath and realized that the closet we use to store our comics is full. Now, when we put comics in their neat little nylon baggies with the acid free backing board, we get a good look at what's there. But we also only do this about once every 5-7 months. This means twice a year we get a harsh reminder that we have a lot of comics we really don't think we need anymore.

The Inventory:

Now here's the deal. I'm not done. I haven't yet got everything in the database, and I haven't got 95% of my trade collections in there.

I figure I'm 90-95% done with the actual comic books, at least knowing what I have, but I need to re-org some stuff. Why is Ultimates in with some fo my indie stuff? I don't know. I put it there a few years ago and it never moved.

Here's the numbers

long boxes: 14
short boxes: 9
long boxes, empty and waiting to be filled: 1
Uncanny X-Men: 172 issues (roughly 14 years worth)
Batman: 118 issues
JLA: 111 issues
Detective Comics: 109 issues
Action Comics: 82 issues
JSA: 80 issues
DC Comics: 3356
Marvel Comics: 1056
Total Number of comics: 4723


EVERYTHING MUST GO

The game plan now is three fold:

a) sell a lot of comics to my store so I can get "store credit". This would essentially enable me to trade old comics for new comics. Now, I've been told that with the volume of comics I'm talking about trading, these guys will probably only want to allow me to use credit on 1/2 of each purchase, but I figure that ain't all bad. They're still running a business, and I'm still trying milk that store credit as far as it will go.

b) What they don't want (I gave my store manager a spreadsheet of Marvel stuff I'm unloading. ComicPriceGuide.com exports to Excel, handily enough) I will try to sell on ComicPriceGuide.com

c) I will also talk to my insurance agent about adding my comic collection to my home insurance. If our house goes up in flames, I'm gonna be out a lot of comics/ a lot of money.

The nice aspect of all of this is that I can move into a bit more of a cyclical pattern with comics. I can still get new comics, but I can off-set the cost of the new stuff by unloading old stuff. Honestly, the way they collect everything into trades these days, I'd just as soon have the collections as the floppy comics. If I can get money enough from selling the comics to buy the collection, groovy.

Anyway, I'm getting rid of my Amazing Spider-Man stuff, I think. That feels like a major, major step. I really need to find that stuff in collections soon if I'm going to unload it. I've apparently got some odd, key issues that are worth a lot of dough to someone else. I just want the dough.

Some final thoughts on all this

The whole thing has a really strange feeling to it. I've had some of these comics since I was in middle or even elementary school. But I also know I only look at them when I open the boxes. There's no real good reason to hang onto them.

Comics pop out at me as being from certain phases in my life. Invisibles? Shade? First years of undergrad. My issues of X-men around 210? Early middle-school. JLA? End of undergrad. Spider-Man: Death of Kraven? Roadtrip across the U.S. when I was 11 or so.

One other funny thing I noticed... I'm a quitter. I would pick up a series, read it for a while, miss a single issues, buy another two issues, miss an issue, buy one more, and then quit reading the series. I see a rough pattern like this with a LOT of comics. I try to remember why I quit reading the series, and only some series can I remember making the conscious decision that I was DONE with that series (I can't even recall quitting reading Uncanny X-Men, but I did quit several year ago).

Anyhoo, that's what I've been up to.

UT WINS THE ROSE BOWL!!!!!

Shit. We just won the @#$%ing Rose Bowl. I can't @#$%ing believe it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the live long day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
You can not get away.
Do not think you can escape them
At night or early in the morn-
The Eyes of Texas are upon you
'Till Gabriel blows his horn.

Wow. I will never, ever forget this one.

Oh, and one more time!

Texas Fight, Texas Fight, And it's goodbye to A&M.
Texas Fight, Texas Fight, And we'll put over one more win.
Texas Fight, Texas Fight, For it's Texas that we love best.
Hail, Hail, The gang's all here, And it's good-bye to all the rest!

Yea Orange! Yea White!
Yea Longhorns! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Texas Fight! Texas Fight, Yea Texas Fight!
Texas Fight! Texas Fight, Yea Texas Fight!

Screw you ESPN for spending all week talking like USC had this game in the bag. Wait, we're getting a Wheaties box! Heck, yeah!

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peabo.... Dan... I hate you bastards for having tickets and getting to be there.

Golly, what a game. I almost threw-up on that last drive.

Wuff.

GO HORNS!!!

Oh, and I am naming my first born child Vincent Young Steans. Yes, I am. Or maybe my dog.

You Are Pecan Pie Soda

Sweet, but totally nuts

What Jones Holiday Soda Are You?

Wow. After the coverage today... Wow.

***morning update****

My intitial inclination was just to remove my quick post from last night before bedtime.

Well, as we all know by now, it was NOT 12 miners who survived the mining accident in West Virginia. It was 1 miner of the 13 who survived.

I was, like everyone else, elated upon hearing that 12 of the miners had survived and were just awaiting evacuation.

There are a lot of dangerous jobs that we take for granted, people who crawl into holes miles into the planet to bring back the resources we need to make this planet run. When you work in an office with an elevator and the biggest problem in your day is that nobody started the coffee, it's hard to imagine that day-after-day, exactly these kinds of threats hang over so many people's heads. Each time these people head off to work, it's a risk, and you know these guys don't earn any CEO wages.

Anyway, The League's thoughts are in West Virginia this morning.

ROLLERGIRLS ROLLS AWAY WITH THE LEAGUE'S HEART

The League has a new favorite show. A&E's Rollergirls.

Remember when A&E was the channel that showed orchestras and Yo-Yo Ma talking about what sort of string he used? Yeah, I didn't watch that, either.

But I am going to watch Rollergirls.

Featuring a wide array of Austin slackers who have found their calling as the stars of Texas Roller Derby, the show follows the adventures of several women as they prepare for a week's match. (curiously, there's a completely different league under the name "Texas Rollergirls". Go figure.)

After suffering through "Real World: Austin" (aka Real World: two square blocks of downtown Austin) it was fun to see people actually walking around town near familiar landmarks and being the sort of 20 and 30-something slackers the town is crawling with (cough... STEANSO... cough).

One odd bit about Austin that you certainly don't find in Phoenix is that Austinites tend to find completely useless past-times in which they strive to overachieve. Be it the Spam toss at Spam-o-rama, or building a massive kite for kite fest or becoming champion of a disc golf league, folks in Austin tend to get easily distracted (The League was a black belt in TKD in Austin. Yeah, seriously.). This distraction may include forming two completely different all-girl roller derby leagues.

In Phoenix you pretty much play golf and put TV's in your SUV.




Anyhoo, I'm in for the next few episodes. I used to watch Rollerderby on cable in the 90's, so it's fun to see both the games and the goings-on behind the scenes.

You know, once again, this post seems most appropriate for Nanostalgia.com. Ah, well. Too late.

Retrocrush.com presents the 100 Most Annoying Things of 2005

The League is deeply jealous of Retrocrush's list.