Now that's what I call a comic book fan...

Don't know if any of you read about this, but Dave Cockrum, the artist responsible for creating the second generation of X-Men including Nightcrawler and Colossus, died last weekend. A sad thing to read about a guy that had quite a big impact on all our childhoods, but amusing to picture how he left this world:

X-Men illustrator dies in Superman pajamas

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.

The 63-year-old overhauled the X-Men comic and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics in the 1970s. He helped turn the title into a publishing sensation and major film franchise.

Cockrum died in his favorite chair at his home in Belton, South Carolina, after a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife Paty Cockrum said Tuesday.

At Cockrum's request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property. A family friend said he will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.

Take that back to your fartorium...

A little glimpse of West Texas nostalgia for the Kool-Aid Gang. Mmmmm.

Great-a Scott-a!

To think I thought Heroes was moving a bit slow when it premiered. I was jazzed by the mention of the Alamo Drafthouse last night, although I guess Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News thought it was pretty cool, too. This guy puts on the annual Butt-Numb-A-Thon at the original Drafthouse in downtown Austin where you basically sit in the theater for 24 hours straight watching cult movies. I could think of a quite a few other things worse than sitting in a theater eating good food, drinking Shiner Bock, and watching movies for a day.

Anywho, I noticed the Drafthouse has expanded quite a bit with four locations in Austin, and even a couple of theaters in Houston. Maybe that would compel your dad to venture out for Casino Royale, Scootypuff. Nothing like an ice cold beer to spark some spontaneity!

Getting back in the saddle

"Welcome!"...
"You've got mail!"...

I'm finally home with the convenience of cable internet access, and it feels good. My dad still uses America Online with dial-up. I'd forgotten about the three little windows that come up on startup with the the icon of the computer connecting to the running AOL man, which then lights up the picture of the Earth to signify your connection to the World Wide Web. Needless to say, I couldn't even pull up my email in a timely fashion, let alone contribute to the blog this past week. At least I was able to pick out a nice modern laptop for him at Best Buy while I was home (which will probably last him a good year before it becomes obsolete). I can only hope he finds a speedier internet provider to match his new digs.

After 2500+ miles of driving, I've got a lot to comment about. Food, the crazy maze that Austin has become, Casino Royale, the great collapse of the Texas Longhorns...just some of the topics I need to get out of my head in the coming days. Unfortunately, my Accord decided it was time to protest the abuse of my recent trek by making some horrendous squeaky sounds from the left front end that sounds suspiciously like a busted ball joint when we pulled in to Silas and Maddy's for ice cream in Scootypuff's old stomping grounds in Kansas. I suspect I'll be spending most of tomorrow at the maintenance garage, so the blog world will have to wait a bit longer.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Did anyone check on Wild Willie in his fartorium? Hopefully, he didn't die enjoying the aromas of his personal bouquet.

Catching up on Heroes

Here's your chance: The Sci Fi Channel will air the first six episodes Wednesday, starting at 6 p.m. ET. The network also reruns new episodes Fridays at 7 p.m. ET.

Who is Shadow Man?

Some would say it is Scootypuff, Jr. after a week long "no-shave" routine. But in this case, i'm talking about tonight's episode of Heroes.

I (Scooty) caught the last 40 minutes of tonight, quite cool. But I (Scooty) have missed the last two episodes. Any insight as to who the Shadow man with the ballcap was?

The USA Today had an article on Hiro's rise to this roll. He graduated from Brown Univ. with degrees in Math and Computer Science, a minor in theater arts. He worked for Lucas ILM, specifically on The Perfect Storm, Pirates of Carribean, and Wild Willie's Favorite the Stars Wars prequels.

He has also been in a couple movies, and TV shows. Not bad for a guy with a Math and CS degree!!!

Does anyone by chance have the past Heroes shows recorded somehow, and want to send them to me? One of you computer geniuses must have DVR'd 0r TIVO'd, right?

The lengths I go to...

So as Scootypuff noticed this weekend, I still retain my Texas plates on my car. Keeping the registration up to date is easy--just send my fees in by mail, and they send me a sticker. Unfortunately, keeping my safety inspection up to date is another matter.

I'm currently sitting in a Jiffy Lube waiting to get my car inspected. So rather than enjoying my last day in Austin, I'm wasting an hour for this crap because I'm too stubborn to switch my plates over.

I'm an idiot...

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

If that isn't a kick in the teeth...

No pictures, videos, or other things to see.

Just a simple statement: after the Horns go down to Freeman and the apparent Kansas State powerhouse last week, K State drops this week's game to Kansas, of all teams. and here's a humdinger, Kansas finshes 6-5, to possibly qualify for a bowl. i was so digusted, i coulndn't watch to see how K State's record ended up, other than their shining moment of beating Texas last week. Pathetic.

It made me want to set the prarie on fire (as the fires can rage from time to time on the prarie).
Sorry to vent, this after watching Ohio St., Notre Dame, Florida, USC all do well today.

Deep down i hope the big game is a rematch of Today's Ohio St vs Michigan game.

I guess that's one way to clear out the line...

Here's something that should get a gamer like Wander riled up. Apparently, there was a drive-by shooting in Lexington, KY involving the line of people camped outside of Best Buy to wait for the release of the Playstation 3.

Now I might understand a bottle rocket or something similar would have been funny, but shooting BB guns is quite a different matter. Luckily, most guys that would camp outside of an electronics store to be able to say they were first to get their hands on the latest gaming console from Sony probably wear glasses. As modern eyewear is typically made out of shatterproof polycarbonate these days, I'd hope no one's eye got shot out.

On a different note, the Nintendo Wii is set to be released, as well. Honestly, I'm actually a bit more excited about this game console with it's new controller. Check out the trailer for a Wii game below:

If you ever fancied yourself as a 'toon...

I had to make a double take on this picture I found on reddit. It looks like something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but is actually a real room at a hotel in Berlin painted to look like a cartoon. I wonder what this would do to a baby's development if you painted a nursery like this?

So long and thanks for all the fish...

Try and Google the term "the answer to life the universe and everything" and see what you get.

Or just click on this link.

Uhhh...I'm almost tempted to boycott Fox now.

I had heard a rumor about this O.J. Simpson book awhile back, but couldn't believe it had any credibility. Guess I was wrong:

In a stunning announcement, FOX TV says it plans to interview the 59-year-old former football star and actor about "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, for which he was acquitted in a criminal trial. (In a 1997 civil case, Simpson was found liable for the two deaths.)

The two-part, "unrestricted" interview, to be conducted by book publisher Judith Regan and called O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened, will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, says FOX, the Associated Press reports.

Where did this year go?

Hard to believe it's already November. Popular Science just put out their end-of-year list of Top Innovations for 2006. The top prize for engineering went to the "Water Cube" swimming venue for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that's still under construction. Apparently, this structure that looks like it's made out of bubbles has no conventional beams, columns, or cables to bear the weight of the building. And the entire thing is covered in a material that's only 8/1000 inches thick!


There's also a new bridge that literally runs over the Grand Canyon with a glass floor so you can look down and try your best not to pee in your pants. Be sure to wear your brown pants when you walk over this thing.

And I said, "Geez, you gotta a big p*ssy! Geez, you gotta a big p*ssy"!"

OK. This borders on not suitable to the standards of my blog, but I guess I'm just in the mood for this kind of humor. Below is the biggest vagina on Earth...literally:

The number one gadget should have been whatever he uses for sex protection...

IGN.com put out there Top 10 list of James Bond gadgets. I can't really argue with number one and two. The Aston-Martin DB5 will always be the quintessential Bond car, and you all know my love for the Lotus Esprit, even if its submarine abilities were a bit preposterous.

But no Thunderball pocket breather?! C'mon!

I think this Red Sox - Yankees rivalry is getting a bit out of hand...

So I posted awhile back about Daisuke Matsuzaka and the almost mythical gyroball. Well, it looks like the Boston Red Sox won the bidding war at $51.1 million. 51 MILLION DOLLARS! The entire team salary for Wander's Colorado Rockies doesn't even add up to that amount of dough. I'm not sure what shocks me more--the obscene amount of dollars involved in this deal or the fact that George Steinbrenner actually got outbid.

To make this story even more astounding, if I understand this right, all that money goes back to his old team in Japan, the Seibu Lions. Why? Because that was just the cost to get the rights to talk to him, and negotiate a contract. This doesn't even include his actual salary, which is sure to be somewhere between stratospheric and low orbit. Heck, he's not even guaranteed to sign on to play Major League Baseball yet!

And you wonder why people think the money in professional sports has gotten just a wee bit insane. Maybe salary caps aren't such a bad thing. Then again, maybe this gyroball really is that cool.

I guess this is why they ask you to remain quiet around the panda exhibit at the zoo...

More reason to make out?

A natural pain killer in your spit?

Natural-born painkiller found in human saliva

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say.

The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug.

When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 gram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 grams of morphine.

The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points.

Modern Art

When I say modern art, I am not referring to Yves Klein, Monochrom Blue (IKB 181), 1956 as seen on the left. Rather I am referring to the previous post and comment by Wander within that post.

I find it interesting and exciting that technology has taken us into a different place in terms of art. Photography, film, and animation have come a long way in just the last few years, and it has done so in a way that even I can get into the mix.

Art in this context is using different medium to express thoughts or emotions, and technology has allowed me to do that. I have never really done well expressing myself with poetry or with drawings. On the other hand, I do feel like I can make a video or take a photograph, and then manipulate it in a way that allows me to get a point across - even if that point is just for me. I guess that would prove true of even this blog ... most of the time my posts are just to prove a point to myself.

I think this is the saddest thing I've seen...today, at least.