Letters to Holly

Friday, July 29

So ... Yeah

The sidekick is a walking bruise. As he plays at walking faster and longer, he falls a lot. He comes home from daycare with new bruises daily. I fret that we'll get a call from social services.

As the school year approaches, we have to redo the household budget and plan for interrupted nights. He's able to sleep through the night again, but there are times he rouses and chirps before going under again. We're trying to encourage this ability, and we're able to distinguish noises to determine when he really needs attention.

I had one of those weeks that delivers a series of stomach punches. There wasn't one thing that alone was so distressing, but the number of them left me dazed and unsettled. Matters have stabilized as the week's progressed, and I'm again left confused if I handled each haymaker properly with my default, maddening patience or if I could have defrayed some frustrations by going volcanic. That option becomes so very tempting, if for no other reason than its novelty. It doesn't help that I too carefully pick my battles. Ultimately I pick no battles. I'm left then unsure what I'm more frustrated by: the situation or my reaction to it.

Picture of the Day
I cook angry!

Wednesday, July 27

Publicity Tour

Out of the blue, the local Lions Club contacted Chez Debacles to ask if I would speak to them at their next monthly dinner. They saw my article in the paper and were apparently curious enough about making comics and comics in general that I seemed like a good idea for a dinner speaker.

(Aside of Insecurity: I suspect they desperately needed a speaker. The dinner is next week.)

I was told to prepare to speak for 15-20 minutes and hold a QnA session afterward. Easy enough. I'll talk about comics in general and their current pop-culture dominance. As I expect an older audiences, I'll toss in references to mid-century Superman radio dramas and Scrooge McDuck comics.Also, Captain America for the 'contemporary relevance' points.

This is certainly nothing that I expected in the wake of the article. But if I'm to be Local Comic Book Guy, this I can do. My Manager, Your Sister is giddy. We're working on names for this publicity tour. Like the Superlative Hyperbole Tour. Or the Inflated Sense of Importance Tour.

Picture of the Day
Super Macho Road Trip!


Tuesday, July 26

Cheat To Win

no mic for me yet. i've got a test and presentation Friday so I probably won't be able to join you this week yet. but i'll find you. i'm stuck in new orleans rescuing the purple power thing ontop of the roof with snipers on every other roof. yes, i'm stuck at mission #2.
I had to use online walkthroughs just this weekend to get me past a monster you'll encounter in a month or so. I like the guides found on this site.

EDIT: I played an Infamous2 demo at Best Buy to kill lunch, and it seemed to be the mission you're in. Aim low and blast the balconies and towers. The folks will fall and die. Also, those snipers fire once and then cower. You might have luck charging at them and wailing away with the tuning fork.

Don't worry about a mic for now. Let me figure out how to chat first.

A daylong rain kept me out of the garden. No taters yet. Someone Twittered my Bossk Office, and it went kinda huge yesterday. And a lot of those visitors went to the Doom Blog.

Yesterday was Your Sister's last full day at home with the sidekick, and she's got the sadness. Looks now like she'll have just one week to prepare as many as four distinct classes. More sadness.

Picture of the Day
Annie Lennox in her solo career prime.

I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'.


Monday, July 25

Melting, Melting.

The twin influences of home ownership dignity and property values demanded that I mow the lawn this weekend despite temperatures ranging into the millions. It was murder. I know I lost weight by the gallon. I had to take the weed-eater to the garden again, and, had the plants been further apart, I would have used the lawnmower. I hope to yank up potatoes today and ready the soil for planting more squash. The first batch of vines was pretty much a failure.

Instead of taking, say, a 13-year-old neighbor to see Captain America, I took Your Sister. We loved it. Loved it. It's a fun adventure film with great one-liners. I wrote about it in the new Bossk Office. It made me want to see Thor immediately. Next year looks to be huge for comic movies. Our babysitter is the sister to my movie-buddy, and I let her know I could take him within a few weeks if he needed a ride.

I stopped in at the local comic store and talked to the store owner about our newspaper page. He's gotten some business out of it and sold some of my books.

I've started shopping for PS3 mics and figuring out how to activate the chat option. I think it's done through the PS Home feature. It seems to be a mild version of Second Life. You can find me as heygregory on the PS servers. Currently I play around 11 pm as Your Sister begins her mysterious nighttime rituals. I'm probably 2 hours away from finishing Infamous2. I'm playing as a hero, and I'll immediately restart it as a villain so I can target street performers.

Picture of the Day
A photo from this weekend's Comicon.