Gah!

I didn't realize that if I upgraded Blogger's layout (which I needed to do if I wanted the Twitter feed back), that I'd have to re-do all the work I did yesterday. Crap. If I'd known, I would have just upgraded yesterday & done it in this format from the start. Ugh.

Also, I hate the way it looks, and I'm not sure I'll be able to sort the blogs into categories. I preferred being able to mess with the HTML. I'm not exactly a high-powered web coder, but I had enough knowledge to get what I wanted. Thank, Blogger. Thanks a lot.

The Return of the Sidebar, Part I

I'm not done yet, but I've been in front of this computer for too long, and I'm starting to get frustrated. I'm hoping to finish restoring the sidebar tomorrow (possibly in lieu of a post).

Democratic Process

Up until this year, I have always been registered as an independent, even though I vote Democratic. (I'm more liberal than they are, but candidates who reflect my positions aren't going to get elected.) When the Washington State caucus came around, I decided that turn-out would be important & changed my registration.

And when the primary election came around, I got an email saying that nobody had filed for the position of Democratic precinct committee officer, and people who wanted the position should write their names in & ask their friends to do the same. So I wrote my name down & asked Teena to do the same. I have no real experience, but I figured, if I won it with two votes, the party needs all the help it can get.

I just got a phone message saying that the person who got more votes than me (apparently he got 3) doesn't feel he can do the job. So I need to call them back & figure out if it's something I can do.

Holy crap.

80 Posts a Year

383. Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones. Jones writes some great young adult books.
     
384. Tag by Keith Giffen, Kody Chamberlain, Chee, & Andy Kuhn. Not your typical zombie story. (Checked out of the library.)
     
385. The Middleman, vol. 2: The Second Volume Inevitability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Les McClaine. More silliness. (Library.)
     
386. The Umbrella Academy, vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba. I'd heard good things about this online, but I was disappointed. It's not bad, but it doesn't live up to the hype. The story is somewhat muddled, most often, I think, by the writer assuming we have the same information he does even though that info doesn't appear on the page. Fantastic art, though. (Library.)
     
387. She-Hulk, vol. 6: Jaded by Peter David & Shawn Moll. I may need to pick up further volumes of this. It's pretty good. (Library.)
     
388. Hero Squared, vol. 2: Another Fine Mess by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, & Joe Abraham. Fun superhero comic. (Library.)
     
389. Astro City: The Dark Age, 1: Brothers and Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson. The latest volume in a fantastic series. I can't wait for the second half of the story to begin.
     
390. The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon. Chabon's Sherlock Holmes novel.
     
391. The Eternals, vol. 1 by Jack Kirby. I am very happy that more & more of Kirby's work is being collected. This is great stuff, possibly Kirby's last great work.
     
392. Runaways: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon & Michael Ryan. I'm not sure Whedon quite got the characters' voices down, but still enjoyable.

By the way, the 23rd will mark the 5 year anniversary of this blog, and this is my 400th post. Not exactly burning up the internet with my posting, but I'm still at it after 5 years, which is something. Now to go take a look at templates to see if there's something that catches my eye.

Edited to add: Crap. I intended to revamp my sidebar, but because I was too hasty in changing my template, I'm going to end up having to recreate the entire thing. Whee!

Well, I'm not going to do it at the moment. Look for the sidebar to return in the near future.

Not Too Many Books This Week

375. Essex County, vol. 1: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire. Very good. (Checked out of the library.)
     
376. The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard by Eddie Campbell & Dan Best. I enjoyed this quite a bit, but don't have anything to say about it.
     
377. Millennium by Steve Englehart, Joe Staton, & Ian Gibson. I had fond memories of this cross-over, so I ordered the collection when it showed up in "Previews." It doesn't live up to my recollections. There were too many crossover issues (which aren't collected here), and too much of the story happens in them for this to make much sense on its own. I found it reasonably entertaining (although Englehart's attempt at cosmic wisdom is laughable), but unless you're deep into superheroes, I cannot recommend this book.
     
378. Suicide Squad: From the Ashes by John Ostrander & Javier Pina. Sometimes you can go home again. I loved Ostrander's Suicide Squad when it ran in the late-80's to the early 90's, and this collection of the new mini-series is just as good as the original. Now if only DC would collect the old comics.
     
379. Edgar Allan Poe's Haunt of Horror by Richard Corben & Rich Margopoulos. Adaptations of several of Poe's poems & a couple of his stories. (Library.)
     
380. DMZ, vol. 5: The Hidden War by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli, et al. The latest collection in this excellent series.
     
381. Superman: Last Son by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, & Adam Kubert. (Library.)
     
382. The Complete Copybook Tales by J. Torres & Jim Levins. Pretty good semi-autobiographical stories. My biggest complaint is that early in the book, Torres overdoes it with 80's pop culture references.

You didn't think I'd actually post last Monday, did you?

Yeah, I'm lazy. And since it's late I'm just going to post about books rather than cover movies or video games.

366. Journey, The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, vol. 1 by William Messner-Loebs. One of the great comics of the 80's is back finally back in print. Set in 1810 or thenabouts, this is the story of a frontiersman in the Northwest Territories. Adventure, frontier life, & the occasional fantastic element. Great stuff, with humor & wit. I especially like Jemmy Acorn.
     
367. Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua Cotter. This is well done, but I'm just not the audience for this comic, which has a young person's cynicism that's best summed up as "Life sucks. Ha ha, just kidding. No, seriously, it sucks." (Checked out of the library.)
     
368. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Fear Machine by Jaime Delano, et al. DC/Vertigo is finally collecting more of Delano's run on this title. It's not quite as good as I remember it being, but I think part of that is due to some atrocious coloring. Seriously, the color art is often just plain ugly.
     
369. Dave Stewart's Walk In by Jeff Parker & Ashish Padlekar. I don't know how much Stewart (of the Eurythmics) actually contributed to this, but I've enjoyed Parker's other comics, and this didn't disappoint. Not great, but entertaining enough.
     
370. Marvel Adventures Iron Man, vol. 3: Hero by Design by Fred Van Lente, Graham Nolan, & Scott Koblish. I say this a lot about the Marvel Adventures books, but these are seriously some fun comics. These are the kinds of superhero comics that I remember reading when I was a kid, the kind that got me hooked on comics. Optimistic, entertaining, fun.
     
371. Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walter Simonson, vol. 2. I shouldn't begrudge Marvel for trying to make money, but this collection only contains 5 issues, and one of them is a fill-in that only contains a couple of pages by the guy whose name is on the cover, the guy whose reputation is the whole reason for this particular series of reprints.
     
372. The Sandman Presents The Dead Boy Detectives in The Secret of Immortality by Ed Brubaker & Bryan Talbot. That's quite a mouthful of a title.
     
373. The Foundation by John Rozum & Chee. Pretty good thriller. I've enjoyed Rozum's work in the past, and am glad to see him working in comics again.
     
374. Showcase Presents Batman & the Outsiders, vol. 1 by Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo. Not great, by any means, but entertaining enough. I love the "Showcase Presents" and "Essentials" series from DC & Marvel, respectively. Cheap comics reprints are always welcome.