The Route of All Evil

We got a babysitter last night, and Sally and I went to Two Roads Brewery to sit down and have a few beers.  Wow, right?  It was pretty awesome.  Sally got a glass of their No Limits Hefeweizen, which we both like, and it came in a .6L glass that looked almost as tall as a half-yard.  I ordered a round of their Octoberfest, which tastes a lot like a spicier version of a brown ale and was good.  I also ordered a sampler of their winter seasonal, the Route of All Evil Black Ale.

Oh man, that one was terrific.  I liked it so much I ordered a glass.

Updated "About Us" Page

I've been meaining to update the About Us page all week, ever since Sally asked me to put her on as a Contributor to the blog.  That's finally done, but I'll spare you the trouble of clicking over to see what I wrote.  It's reprinted below, if you're interested.

And yes, I did use the format from the old-school Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe to format these bios.

Friday Mad Science: Over-Saturation and Polonium Poisoning

Word hit the street yesterday that Marvel is putting together a bunch of new TV series for Netflix, including the long-awaited small-screen adaptation of Daredevil (DD).  I'm assuming that this means they're gonna adapt my favorite comic series of all time, the Bendis/Maleev Daredevil because in addition to adapting DD, Marvel is also putting series featuring Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, all of whom are Bendis favorites from series that ran concurrently with (or shortly after) his DD run and occasionally appeared in each other's books.  Jessica Jones’ book Alias was supposed to be particularly good, so although I’ve never read it, that’s an adaptation that I’m looking forward to seeing.  Anyway, each of these series is gonna run thirteen episodes (i.e. the House of Cards formula), culminating in a mini-series that Marvel has called The Defenders.

Veteran's Day Letter

We had a bunch of snow days last year, and as a result, we missed some school days.  To compensate this year, Stratford, CT, cut down on the number of the holidays the kids have--which is fine, but one of the holidays that they cut was Veteran's Day.  Hence the need for the following letter.

***

To Whom It May Concern:

My children, Hannah and Emma, will not be in school on Monday, November 11th, because it is Veteran’s Day.  

It is little remembered these days, but Veteran’s Day actually began as Armistice Day, the holiday to celebrate the end of the Great War, later known as World War I.  World War I was arguably the most horrific and pointless war in human history, and its failed peace led--at least indirectly--to the Second World War and to many of the international boundary-related problems that humanity still faces today.  World War I also set the conditions for the Russian Revolution, which in turn led--again indirectly--to the Cold War.  These are the kinds of historical realities that I think my kids need to spend a day thinking about, and indeed, I suspect that this is at least a part of why the federal government declared the day a national holiday.

This Week’s Picks (NFL Week 10)

We were doing this segment regularly, but then I had to travel one week for work, and I forgot all about it while I was gone.  I didn’t even make picks in our office pool that week, so I had to come back the next week and pick SIX games instead of just three.  That was last week.  I went 2-4 and dropped to 11-16 on the season, out of a tie for first and into third place in our office pool.

What I’ve learned from this exercise is that picking against the spread is harder than it looks.  Bookies, as it happens, know what they’re doing.  No surprise there; I’m just acknowledging the obvious.

So.  Is there any good reason to read through these picks?  Maybe.  But I don’t that I’d bet money on them.  Take that for what it’s worth.

Wednesday Writing Update

If you're wondering where I've been all week, I'll tell you. I finally buckled down and finished the draft of "Sneakatara Boatman and the Priest of Loki".  I'm happy to have the draft done but feeling rather more neurotic than usual about whether or not it works.

I Fell This Morning

It happened right as I got on the bike. Stood up to pullout into traffic, put power to my pedals, dropped my chain, and bang.  Down I went.  Ugh!   The cab driver behind me stopped and stared. I felt like an idiot. Frankly, I was lucky the guy didn't run me down.

I was also lucky that it got cold this week. I was wearing jeans. As it is, I got a little scraped up, and my knee's a bit stiff, but it's no big deal. If I'd been in shorts, though, it would've been a whole different story. Yikes!

Lesson: Everybody falls.

Man, I hate that one. 

Shoot!  I'm almost done!

I wish I didn't have to work today, so I could finish writing this stupid story.  Been working on the damn thing for almost three months now.

Argh!

Weekend Update (11/4/2013)

Before we get started today, you might've noticed that the name of the blog has changed.  Sally asked me last week what I thought of the idea of her posting some recipes and other healthy living-type stuff here, and I told her that I thought it would be great.  I don't know how often she's gonna get to post, but I'm happy to share my space with her and look forward to seeing what she has to offer.

With that in mind, I'll be changing some stuff around in the next few weeks to make it less my blog and more our blog, but for the time being, she's at least got Editorial priviledges and can post if she feels the need.

***

Looking back, it was a pretty good weekend.  Busy for the most part, but that's how life is.  We had a lot of fun, too, and really, that's all I can ask.

We started Friday watching WWE Smackdown, and as much as I don't want to make this a blog about pro-wrestling, I've got to admit that Smackdown entertained.  The show started with John Cena cutting another of his promos, this time against the Real Americans, and for once, I thought he was pretty good.  But then Damien Sandow came out and started woofing, and in as much as I guess the WWE brass was trying to capitalize on the momentum from the match that he had with Cena last week, I personally didn't think it worked.  I mean, we already saw Cena beat the guy with literally one hand tied behind his back, so how much of a threat can Sandow really be at this point?  Sometimes, you get a moment, and if the moment is missed, it's gone, and it won't come back.  Take that for what it's

I Should Have Written This Morning

The girls are at a local Girl Scout camp right now, having had their first sleepover last night. The house is actually quiet right now--for once--because I have the place all to myself.  But instead of working, I'm sitting here reading comics and soaking up some down time.

True story: I spent $79 at the comic shop yesterday.  Hadn't been in a month, and my Pull List was two issues deep for several of the titles I'm reading.

I ask you, who can write when they've got four issues of Infinity and two issues of The Superior Spider-Man to catch up on?  Certainly not me. The temptation to just sign here and act like a lump has been entirely too great.

Friday Mad Science: Giving Myself a Deadline

I mentioned yesterday that I’m trying to put out a book some time next year.  That’s not supposed some huge secret, but in case you don’t follow the blog every day, yeah, it’s true, and it’s been a major focus for my writing lately.  The book is gonna be a set of fantasy short stories, tentatively titled “Tales for the Lair” or maybe “Tales from the City of Wanderhaven”.  I’m not quite sure, yet, but it'll be something like that.  I think.

I’ve wanted to do a project like this for years, but I realized that the time had finally come a little over a month ago.  Two things went into the realization.  First, I’ve known for a while that I’m a decent writer.  But I feel about my writing much the same way that I feel about being a triathlete.  I know that I’m better than the average Joe, but that doesn’t mean that I’m particularly close to being good enough to do it for a living.  That said, I feel like my writing has taken a big step forward this year.  The stuff I’ve given out recently has mostly gotten responses along the lines of, “Holy shit! I can’t believe how good this is,” and frankly, given how crowded the marketplace is for fiction, that’s where I think a writer needs to be in order to have even half a chance.  I’ve worked hard at becoming a better writer for a good, long while now, but it's also been important to try to be self-critical and to try to hold my work to the same high standards to which I hold other writers.  This year, I feel like I’m finally reaching an acceptable, marketable standard, and so I’m finally ready to give this publishing thing a try.

Sally's Jack o'Lantern

Friday Hair Metal: Right in Two

Not the most exciting video.  Sorry about that.  I like this song, though.