Thursday, June 21, 2007

TRANSFORMERS + ROBOSAURUS = AWESOME

****INSERT WAILING GUITAR HERE*****

WHERE WILL YOU BE ON JULY 2nd WHEN THE GREATEST EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY UNFOLDS ON SOUTH LAMAR?

That's right... for one night only, ROBOSAURUS + Transformers = SO MUCH AWESOME I WILL BLEED OUT OF MY EYES

For details, look here



If all you see in the spot above is a blank spot, its because your eyes are not programmed to handle all the radness

I'm not sure I want to live in a world where I've by-passed an opportunity to see Robosaurus. Throw in a Michael Bay movie featuring OPTIMUS @#$%ing PRIME, and I think it's no exaggeration to say that this will be the best thing that could ever happen, ever. Like, ever. So...

JULY 2ND, JOIN THE LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS AT THE ALAMO SOUTH LAMAR for

ROBOSAURUS + TRANSFORMERS = AWESOME

Yeah, I've already got tickets! Do you...? Can you really afford NOT to see Robosaurus (and Transformers?)

EDITORIAL ADDENDUM: We will be attending the 7:00 show! It seems the Alamo was aware of the onslaught of folks who would want to see Robosaurus, plus Transformers. Anyhow, we're doing the 7:00 show so I can go to work the next day with as much time between me and Robosaurus as possible.

It seems a number of you are also down for the awesomeness, so I will be posting soon in regards to a potential meet-up.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Superman/ Doomsday Trailer,German Krypton, Drama Chipmunk



I like how the voiceover narrator basically breathlessly tells us:

"More bad ass and less of a wuss than you tend to think of him! It's Superman gettin' killed and that makes him extreme!"

You kind of get the feeling the marketing person who wrote the copy more or less didn't like Superman to begin with. Awesomely, the Supermullet remains intact.

I am very nervous about this flick.

Mostly because it can never be as good as German Fanboy Krypton. Also featuring a Supermullet. The planet may be exploding, but at least those Kryptonian trains are running on time.



but can anything rival the awesomeness of... Drama Chipmunk?

It's Gonna Blow

I wasn't really paying attention to the TV while I was doing other things, but AMC will be running the much panned volcano film "Dante's Peak" from about ten years ago. Apparently the guys in production who are tasked with making promo spots have a pretty good grasp as to the quality of some of AMC's movie choices.

In big white letters on a lime green screen were the words "IT'S GONNA BLOW".

Indeed.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

More Batman


Der Batpod

More interesting stuff coming out from the new Batman flick. Looks like how the last film's Batmobile was ostensibly a car, this must be a Batman moped.

Also, I just remembered that Maggie Gyllenhaal is in the upcoming film. I know Gyllenhaal is one of those polarizing forces for dudes... She's just not everybody's cup of tea. But I come down on the pro-Maggie side of the fence.

Viva la Gyllenhaal. And the Batpod.

Monday, June 18, 2007

New Batsuit


Click on picture for higher resolution/ bigger image. You can read the text.

Thanks to Randy and others who sent me this pic.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The League Surfs with the Alien

Saturday I wound up going to see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

I might also add that due to logistical reasons, this was the first time in months I've been to a movie anywhere by the Alamo, and while the crowd was really good, it just isn't the same going to a movie when I can't drink a beer and eat a pizza.

Anyhow, the past few years have seen superhero movies which have defied all previous expectations, merging special effects, well crafted stories and respect for the source material to bring terrific entertainment to the screen. In no way should you make the mistake of believeing FF: RotSS, is to be included among these films.

FF: RotSS is a bit of a throwback to 80's era comic adaptations wherein the source material was briefly glanced at, and a few production designers who may have done their homework slipped in a bit or two from the original comics, but otherwise, the movie was pretty clearly not taken terribly seriously as producers cashed in and tried to keep a straight face when reporters asked them about what drew them to the material.

In this movie, any memory of Sue Storm as a brilliant scientist is swept under the rug as she's offered the task of Reed's girlfriend/ administrative assistant, while mostly whining a lot about a fancy wedding (oh, you girls and your romantic notions!). Sue is one of my favorite Marvel characters, and its disappointing to see her reimagined as an "E! Network" watching girl who has defined herself by her relationship with Mr. Fantastic. Reed is unable to remember he's about to get married, the Thing is... uncharacteristically happy throughout the film, and Johnny comes to some sort of nebulous conclusion about not being a jerk. I think.

The whole thing has the production value of a late 90's TV movie, with some upped CGI. That said, a lot of Reed's stretching looks... not good. And Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm is hammy enough that one expects a trombone after each line to blurt out a "wahhh-waaahhhhhhh". Plus, man, that makeup sucks. If we can have a CGI Surfer, why not a CGI Thing?

The threats in this film are double as Victor Von Doom returns from the dead and... I dunno. That guy is nowhere close to the Von Doom of the comics, although the script does play toward Doom's tendency to always try to tilt the game in his favor. But this Von Doom is like a smarmy Owen Wilson character more than an Eastern European monarch hellbent on worldwide domination.

For being mostly a well mimed CGI effect (thank Pan's Labyrinth's Doug Jones) The Silver Surfer seems to be partaking in a completely different, far less stupid movie. Based loosely on the original FF comics featuring Galactus and the Surfer, the Surfer arrives ahead of Galactus as his herald, preparing Earth for his master's arrival. The Surfer seemingly believes he has no choice in the matter, and goes numbly about his tasks until confronted by the FF.

From here, things sort of go downhill for the FF as the bravery of their task from the 2/3rd points in the movie mostly seems to consist of breaking the Silver Surfer out of jail and then getting their butts handed to them by Doom. The actual presence of Galactus and mode of defeating the planet eater from the comics (which didn't leave the FF acting like slack jawed yokels, but Reed figuring out how to freak Galactus out by threatening existence if Galactus didn't back off) isn't invoked. Instead, it's a bit more abstract, and nebulous. It works, but it means that at no pint in the movie do the FF actually succeed at anything they attempt aside from running away. They just don't seem all that competent. And the final plan when Johny Storm does leap into action actually contradicts everything we thought we knew about the problems we believed he was having with his powers.

The producers also decided that of all the things in the FF comics to scrap, the one thing which just wouldn't work was Galactus' physical appearance. So, he's a cloud. Which is very Star Trek Next Generation, but not very satisfying. The movies are already horribly devoid of the Kirby styling which defined the comics for decades, so it would have been nice to see our guy, who has one of the most stylized appearances in comicdom... but, no... we get a sort of silhouette glimpse of his helmet.

BTW, I also think Ultimate Galactus blows. Bugs? Come on, man...

The movie is full of cute/dumb moments, meant to play to the same crowd who really likes Rob Schneider movies and who roared at the trailer for "Daddy Day Care 2: Daddy Day Camp" (Eddie Murphy was apparently too busy for this sequel, so cue Cuba Gooding "My Career is Over" Jr.). You can almost imagine the story session in which the writers thought NOTHING would advance the story like a dance sequence featuring Reed "stretch-o" Richards. It's funny 'cause he's strechy and stuff.

Oh, and the product placement... including a "It's got a hemi!" joke during some awkward Dodge product placement.

I really didn't have high hopes for this movie, and it still stunk. Weirdly, the portions featuring The Silver Surfer operate on a whole different level that, had the rest of the movie shown that sort of care, might have made for an enjoyable film.

This, however, is not that movie.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

A SUPER FATHER'S DAY




You will travel far, my little Kal-El.

But we will never leave you, even in the face of our deaths. The richness of our lives will be yours. All that I have, all that I have learned, everything I feel, all of this and more I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine.
The son becomes the father, the father becomes the son.

This is all that I can send you, Kal-El.


-Jor-El
Superman: The Movie


Happy Father's Day to the Admiral, my very own Jor-El and Jonathan Kent all wrapped up in one. You're a great dad, and a great sport for putting up with my shenanigans all these years. My hat's off to you.

I know raising me wasn't always easy.

Happy Father's Day. We'll chat on the phone, I'm sure.


Pat bought a new camera last week. I was leaving work and found him playing around with his camera and taking a picture or two of my car. Anyway, this is my car in daylight. In the parking lot where the Arby's once proudly stood on Guadalupe, just south of campus.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

More Bankston in the News

It's late and I have to go to bed, but it appears that KB continues to be in the news. And so much for Google's easy policy regarding requesting that your image be taken down... they're now collecting driver's license information in order to have your pic removed.

Read here

BTW, this blog is published on a Google product, and if you e-mail me, it'll come to GMail. If they ever decide to merge with Time Warner, we will know the Eye of Sauron is upon us.

Thanks to Amy, Pat and/ or Jeff for the link.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I have a new car


Buenos noches, little Forester. May Howdy Honda's used car department find you a rad new home where you will be loved.

I picked up the Element tonight. It's blue, as I mentioned, but the color is NOT actually described as ATOMIC blue, it is described as Arctic blue or some such... I think that Atomic thing is left over from a different model.

If in Austin and buying a Honda, let me mention that Howdy Honda not only has a great name for a dealership, they had great customer service. When at Howdy, ask for Helen Frink, super car salesperson. We like Helen.

Apparently Howdy Honda was selling a lot of cars today as the financing people were way backed up and it took a while for us to get in the car and get going. Oddly, Jeff and Keora were also there, and I think Keora was picking up a Honda Fit. I do think they were getting the car, because Jeff had that face on he gets when he's about to spend money. I saw this face many times, including when we co-signed a lease in 1996.

Anyhow, the rest of the night was documented pretty well by Jason. Go here.

I was going to call the car "Ted" in honor of slain Superhero, Ted "The Blue Beetle" Kord. But I'm not sure. Is this what Ted would have wanted? And then there's the whole fact that it's not a blue VW... I dunno. The Forester was usually The Krypton Kruiser. I need to find some other alliterative moniker or at least something which speaks about the car.

My first car (a maroon/ red '83 Honda Accord) went by The Badger, as it was dangerous when cornered. My next car, a '92 Eclipse, was called "Hero", for pulling my fat out of the fire and out of reverence for the horse of pulp hero, The Phantom.

So, we'll see. It'll come to me.

Randy's Kid

Randy's kid! Look at her go, Leaguers!



See, Randy, I'm happy to post a pic of your kid. I find it curious you let her drool all over you, but when I asked, you got all upset.

I can't properly type Esme's name as it's a lot of work to add the tilde dealy. But that's her.

Monday, June 11, 2007

For the geeks...

Monty Python + Trek = Awesome

Another pretty good weekend.

Friday night Jamie and I stayed in, are buffalo wings and watched "The Life Aquatic", which I'd never seen. It's definitely a Wes Anderson movie, and its certainly charming, but its a bit of a mess. At some point Anderson is going to need to move beyond the trick of having his characters deliver dialog in a flat and practiced manner, including non-sequiters regarding the unfortunate fate of various pets. What worked very well in his faux-Glass household somehow didn't work quite as well on the high seas.

Also, watched the first half of Superman III, which, if it did not feature Annette O'Toole, would be somewhere near the same level of unwatchability as Superman IV. Director Richard Lester clearly believes Superman can't be taken seriously as even an action film, and so heaps on slapschtick, beginning with the credits. Superman can be fun, but poor Richard Pryor is asked to play to the kiddies instead of his built in audience, and its just a poor, poor decision. You kind of feel bad for the guy.

Saturday we continued with Car Hunt 2007. The whole thing wound up with me picking out a Honda Element and taking on a car payment. Yes, the Honda Element is the boxy SUV/ mini-van. But it matches my needs, it fits my bulky frame, I can get the dogs into it with no problem, and it sort of looks like a Transformer.

Yes, it is blue. I pick it up Tuesday night.

Saturday night we headed to Pat's for his birthday party. Chatted with Amy C. and Billy Jo quite a bit. Billy made a great cake with peanut butter frosting, which sounds gross, but is actually really good. Also met Pat's mysterious brother. Jamie was droopy, so we headed home a bit early. And then i stayed up until 3:00 AM watching the 1994 film "Richie Rich" starring MacCaulay(sp?) Culkin. It wasn't a good movie, and it sadly lacked the robot maid, Irona, from the cartoon, but Butler Cadbury totally hooked up with Gloria's mom. So that was weird.

Sunday we returned to Threadgill's for breakfast and to meet cousin Sue, mom and Uncle Donald. Always good to see Uncle Donald, but I think I committed to visiting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with him next summer. That's fine. It's been 13 years since I've been up there.

Sunday night we met up with Carla Beth and her husband, David. They moved into a house down near Riverside and Congress, and its one heck of a place. I think if they keep the house as is, David could go totally Miami Vice villain, but he's going to need some Chinese jackets and a lot more swords on the walls. And henchmen.

Carla made some amazingly good pizzas from scratch and we sort of hung out in the kitchen. It's sort of remarkable, because I haven't seen much of Carla after she moved briefly to Kentucky and we relocated to Arizona, but some folks you've known so long you just sort of pick up where you left off.

Anyhow, Xander made no appearance as he'd already been put to bed for the night when we showed up. We'll catch up with that dude later.

A grand weekend, all in all.

Sometimes I reflect upon how much more full our weeks are here than in Arizona and I'm a bit stunned.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

I'm healthy again

RANDY SPREADS HIS GENOME ABOUT WITH NO REGARD TO THE SAFETY OF OTHERS

In case you didn't know, Loyal Leaguer, Randy, and his lovely wife, The Mysterious M, have had a baby.

Congratulate Randy. He is 50% of the face of a new generation.


THE INTERWEB IS WATCHING


I can only assume that Technorati, etc... are to blame for why so many people are finding The League in reference to themselves. I had another person find me.

Here. Read the comments.

I don't know who posted the original bit about Dave Ramsey, but you've helped to make the world a little smaller.



TOTALLY LAME


Blogging about blogging is totally lame. But...

As much as I understand WHY visitors to the site may wish to remain anonymous, I'm not a big fan of anonymous posts to the comments. In a perfect vacuum, I suppose it shouldn't matter who you're speaking to, but that's just not reality.

Without exception, I like and respect the folks I consider to be Loyal Leaguers. And I think you'll find that even in the most heated debate, I tend to try to pick my words carefully when I'm talking with someone I consider a pal, no matter how far on the other end of an ideological spectrum. That's just common courtesy. Also, if I know with whom I'm speaking, I always have the option of taking the conversation off the blog and into an e-mail conversation.

But I also don't really want to block out the random folks who roll by. If they want to drop a comment, that's okay.

I'm a bit baffled by the recent exchange which took place in one of the posts. Not that someone disagreed with me, because that's par for the course, and I'm cool with that. I just had no idea with whom I was speaking, and that's a bit odd. Obviously this person became upset with me, but I also sort of felt like this person hadn't been around for some of the more colorful debates which have occurred here at The League.

At some point when someone is posting anonymously and failing to identify themselves, you don't necessarily feel as if you've got to put on the same "we're all friends here", game show host face. There are certainly times when i know exactly who "anonymous" is, but I choose to behave with some bizarre gentleman's agreement that I will not reveal the identity of "anonymous". In this case, I don't mind as much, but it does make debate a bit difficult at times as part and parcel of this gentleman's agreement is that one not reveal the identity, even when certain revealing examples could be relevant. But, as I tend to like these folks... I mostly play along.

But the truly anonymous posters...

In no small part, truly anonymous posters are a bit like a person who has crashed a party and then decides to pick a fight with the host. It's a bit baffling to me when a poster such as the one from this week's debate takes umbrage and declares I'm standing on a soapbox. While I'm writing on my personal blog.

In this instance, I sort of think that "anonymous" wasn't anyone I know. At this point I recognize the writing of most Loyal Leaguers, and, moreover, most of you know me well enough to know what my opinions are and where I'm going to draw lines and how I'm going to debate. I'm still not sure what "academic" debate this guy was trying to have, but he didn't get it, I guess.

What was most downright hilarious was the insistence that Anonymous was so busy, so pre-occupied with higher minds than my own that he didn't have time to actually debate with me. But he had time to keep coming back. And surf sites mostly dedicated to nonsense, while leaving lengthy comments.

Anonymous, I salute you.



Tori Amos and school children...

This is incredibly sweet. And with all you Leaguers dropping kids onto the face of Mother Earth, I thought I'd share a moment of brightness and hope that makes me think kids aren't just small, stinky, stupid people...

Skip to the 4:00 countdown mark

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

SICK!

dang it! I'm sick!

I noticed when I got up, I didn't feel terribly well, but due to Jamie's jimmy leg and Matt Mangum in the guest room, I wound up sleeping on the couch last night. Being a little extra groggy after a night of couch sleeping didn't seem like a big deal, and so my plan included a Starbucks Double Shot while en route to work.

I still couldn't shake the general feeling of fatigue after arriving and trying to get some work done. I went and grabbed a coffee, and then got cranking, but during my 10:00 phone conference, I began drooping. By the time we were fifteen minutes into the call, I felt a bit like I was hearing things through glass and I just wanted to put my head down.

By 11:15 I was pretty sure I was getting sick, and by 11:45 I was headed home feeling feverish and awful.

Anyhow, I feel not great. Hopefully better tomorrow.

Off to go lay very still.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Monday, June 04, 2007

Adventures of Superman DVD's on Sale!

Never in the history of man has there been greater news. Well, that's not really true at all, but this is good news.

Amazon has all the George Reeves DVD's on sale! HALF OFF!!! (Come on, Randy... you're having a baby. You have plenty of time to watch these episodes!)

Anyway, here's the story from the Superman Homepage.

Bankston in the News

My former roommate, KB, has made the news.

Here's the article.

Well done, KB.

Honestly, I think that's the first time I've seen him in a baseball hat.

Time and Time Again...

So back when I didn't feel like blogging for a few days, I asked for Loyal Leaguers to submit questions. And one Loyal Leaguer asked the following super-related question:

If you could go back in time and convince yourself not to become a fan of Superman, would you? Why or why not? If not, what would you go back in time to tell yourself, and to what year would you go?


Aside from how Superman has made me sort of poor... I can't think of a compelling argument for why I would convince myself not to become a fan of the Man of Steel. My Superfandom has sort of served as a funnel to contain a lot of my smaller tics and obsessive tendencies that I am absolutely certain would have manifested in other ways. And as I honestly believe that the ideas behind Superman are kind of neat, if not merely benign, I'm not sure if I can form a compelling argument as to why I wouldn't be a Superman fan.



I think my Superman fandom sort of forms out of this perfect storm of how Superman intersects at so many of my areas of interest. There's film, TV, comics, pop-culture history, a passing interest in mid-20th Century sci-fi, somewhat more substantive history (as in the context of Superman's genesis and how subsequent portrayals have reflected the attitudes of the time, as well as corporate culture). Add in my love of mentally categorizing things, date-stamping items, cataloging, etc... (I've often thought I should get a master's in Library and Information Science). As well as the sheer vastness of not just the DCU, but 70 years of Superman media... There are literally over a thousand Superman comics I'll never own, maybe thousands of stories I'll never read. Whole television programs I may never have a chance to see (every episode of Smallville, Lois and Clark, the Adventures of Superboy, the many iterations of Super Friends and the various Superman cartoons that have hit the air...)

So, yeah, there's sort of an endless realm of discovery within the character and franchise, brand, what-have-you.

And in some ways I almost think I need Superman to occupy the portion of my brain that enjoys worrying about those sorts of things. As I said before, I am pretty sure if it weren't Superman, it would be something else such as airplanes or cars, sports or music or something.



The source of the Superfandom has a few crucial moments, and I have no idea where the cut-off would be. Would it be The Admiral taking me to see the first movie when I was a little kid? When I saw the second movie? The third? Watching SuperFriends? Tying on handmade capes received as gifts from my grandmother and playing SuperFriends in our basement when I was three or four? (I always got to be Batman or I pitched a fit. The Superman thing came along later).

Would it be when I saw Superman: The Movie on TV one night (the first time I'd seen it in years) when I was 14 and was blown away by how genuinely good it really was? Would it be when I saw internet bulletin boards for the first time in college and was reading Superman forums? When Bruce Timm and Paul Dini launched the Superman animated series? When I crossed the line from picking up the occasional Superman comic in college to picking up the full line? When I started reading up on some of the randomness of the Superman comics in order to make sense of Big Blue, sometime around 2000? When I hung that enormous Alex Ross poster in our living room in our first house and poor Jamie had just seen the tip of the iceberg?

Like any other memory, the idea of erasing some part of your mental make-up can be a bit horrifying. Who would I be if not for the Man of Steel? Much different? I've no idea, but like any icon from our youth, it's difficult to imagine what we'd be if it were stripped away.



Perhaps at the root of the question may be the possibility of whether or not I think I would be a more successful person, a kinder person a more decent person if I were not a Superman fan. I don't think so. Do I think Superman has made me more successful, kinder, more decent...? I can say that surely my interest in the character was based at least in part upon a representation of what I felt reflected my ideals, especially once I no longer found myself as interested in some of the more extreme elements in comicdom. Whether Superman reinforced those ideals or not..? maybe you could ask Jamie. There's nothing mystical there. I just happen to think we tend to seek out those things which have a ring of the familiar.

I'm fairly certain that at this point it will be a long road ahead for me as a Superman fan. I enjoy picking up vintage back-issues, enjoy reading up on Superman's many incarnations, track the movie franchises and look forward to the release of Superman material on home video. Jamie's been plenty patient with the whole thing and has nary batted an eye as whole sections of the house have been given over to Super-Memorabilia.

So, yeah, we'd probably be driving gold cars and living in a mansion now were it not for Superman. But, you know, we have our fun.

The funny thing is that I know I'm not alone. There's a Superman Museum in, of course, Metropolis, Illinois. The Superman Homepage is very well trafficked, and Superman through the Ages, the Supermanica Wiki is cool, and there are a slate of other encyclopedic-style web sites dedicated to the Man of Steel.

We are among you, and our numbers are legion.

This was a tough question. Hope you don't mind that I took so long to answer it.
Hey, Leaguers!

Busy weekend. These days I'm finding that the most tired I am going into work is on Monday mornings, which means I need to start taking it a little easier on Sundays.

Friday night Jamie and I headed to the Alamo South to see "Knocked Up", which was preceded by a reel of sex-ed clips from the 1960's and earlier, each creepier than the next. Mix in some Judd Apatow clips and deleted scenes from "40-Year Old Virgin" and it was a good show. It was also Matt Mangum's birthday, and so I bought him a beer at the show.

I liked "Knocked Up", for the record.

As some Leaguers know, the Krypton Kruiser has seen better days and we're now looking at trading her in. I'm a lot sad about the idea of giving up on my car, but I think Jamie and I are now at the point where we're throwing good money after bad with that car, and we'd actually save money by taking on a car loan and a 3 year warranty. No, seriously. That's the kind of money the damn car is costing me.

Jamie was supposed to be in the market for a new car two years ago, but she never bothered to look, so we're both looking at cars with a strong chance we'll both be in new cars by the end of the summer. I'm a Consumer Reports believer, so I'm only looking at cars with a minimum of a check mark (as in recommended), and looking a lot at fuel consumption and safety features.

Anyhoo, Saturday was mostly spent looking at cars and standing out on the pavement in the sun. There are a lot more options in the arena of the Forester (small SUV/ station wagon) than when I was looking seven years ago, and we have fairly good options within our price point. But I haven't come anywhere close to making a decision yet. It's not like when I got the Forester seven years ago and had been researching the heck out of that car for months before I walked into a dealership. I actually really still like the Foresters, and it has the head room and safety features your League needs, but it's a little weird to think I'd be driving an updated model of the same car, putting me in the same auto from 2000 until past 2014.

Saturday night Nicole was sick, so we took Matt out on his lonesome for his brithday margarita and dinner. A tough trick as it was both the Republic of Texas biker rally weekend and Gay Pride weekend, which meant many restaurants were hopping both in town and out as restaurants on Manor (down near where Matt is living for the moment) seemed more packed than usual. We wound up at El Mercado, which was Omega Man empty, had some margaritas and then went back to Matt's to check in on Nicole.

My folks also needed to get into our house Saturday night as they'd been tubing the Blanco river, so we returned home and they were snugly asleep in the guest room.

Sunday we headed to Threadgill's for the Gospel Brunch (which is fun if you're in town on a Sunday), said our good-bye's to The Admiral and Karebear, and then Jason and I hit Barton Springs for a while with Kim Bloom. I am pale, hairy and chubby, which isn't really the demographic for the shirtless of Barton Springs, but I braved the sunshine, anyway.

Barton Springs hasn't changed much since I first visited prior to even moving to Austin in 1984. It's a great summer-time sort of place, with water at a constant 68 degrees, a nice lawn to throw down your towel, and you mostly don't need to worry about anybody stealing your stuff while you're swimming. Jamie was grabbing some much needed sleep, so I don't know if she's ready to take on the Springs once again.

Grabbed a sno-cone on my way out, then ran home and did the front yard.

Last night we got pounded by a fairly serious storm, and our program was interrupted by predictions of tornadoes. Last week marked the ten year mark since Jarrell was leveled by an F5 killing two dozen people, and the meteorologists around here still take this stuff very seriously.

Once the storm passed I got some comic reviews done, which meant I also stayed up too late.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.