KJToo

Happy Birthday to Laura, who is babysitting her sister’s kids today (and most every Friday), and will probably not read this until it’s no longer her birthday anymore.

Laura’s first trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula happened around her birthday in 1994. Laura was on the verge of graduating from Bowling Green State University (Go Falcons!) at the time, while I was paying matriculation fees to Michigan Technological University (Go Huskies!) and living with my parents in Toivola.

While Laura was staying with us, there was a huge, nasty blizzard. Such an occurrence in the U.P. is not at all uncommon for mid-March, but I think it caught the girl from Ohio by surprise.

My mother made a cake for Laura’s birthday in 1994, and by the eighteenth of March the following year I’d been living in northeast Ohio for several months. Tonight, I’ll celebrate Laura’s birthday with her for the twelfth time. I’ve heard that it may snow.

Posted March 18, 2005 Comments(1)

At the monthly meeting of the Cleveland-area NaNoWriMo group this past Thursday, I began working on the first of seven short stories I plan to write over the next seven months. These stories will tell the origins of eight superheroes I created in City of Heroes. Here’s a quick rundown of the stories:

• March - Cardelion: The Gladiator’s Tale. Max Barstow is a former television star attempting to reinvent himself as a costumed hero, despite a mountain of legal difficulties.
• April - QR7: The Android’s Tale is the story of an android whose origins are shrouded in mystery. A covert organization wants to find out who built the crimefighting automaton, who controls him now, and whether he can be recruited for sinister purposes.
• May - Dr. Garabiton: The Scientist’s Tale. Experimental physicist Patrick Nguyen finds himself thrown into a brutal conflict with CHAOS Factor, the supercriminal group responsible for the death of friend and mentor. When the mild-mannered scientist dons the Gravitas Mark IV battlesuit, gravity itself is bent to his whim.
• June - Karyx & Karykeion: The Tale of the Twins. Gifted with strange abilities to both heal and harm, Alexandra and Daniel Cahill kept their mutant powers a secret from the world, until a fateful car accident changed their lives forever.
• July - Conflagrante: Phoenix Reborn. An arsonist falls into his own trap and is reborn as a costumed crimefighter, but who is pulling his strings, and what will happen if his past is ever revealed?
• August - Kim Mak: Temporary Hero. Sometimes the difference between a hero and a villain is simply the outcome of a bet. When a world-renowned assassin loses a “friendly” wager with one of her peers, she must battle the forces of evil for a year.
• September - Major Dorque: The Old Soldier’s Tale. Major Jeffrey “Torque” Abrams served his country honorably for most of his adult life. Now, unable to adjust to being a civilian, Maj. Abrams has decided to come out of retirement to assist in the battle against those who would prey upon the weak, the helpless and the downtrodden. But someone at the Office of Hero Registration has a chip on their shoulder, and now the old soldier fights for his dignity against the most implacable of foes… bureaucracy.

Posted March 15, 2005 Comments(2)

I caught up on the three most recent episodes (16, 17 and 18) of LOST last night. Unfortunately, there’s so much stuff on the TiVo right now (much of it owing to Laura’s vacation) that episode 15 — which I had not yet watched — was overwritten by CSI: NY or somesuch.

Potential spoilers follow.
Read more »

Posted March 9, 2005 Comments(0)

My head hurts and I don’t feel much like elaborating on the events of this past weekend, so I’ll do a quick summary:

• Laura returned late last night to a still-standing house and a still-living, (relatively) mentally-intact husband. Rosie and Gil are still very much alive, and none of their little bones have been harvested as components for an ill-conceived pulsed plasma thruster.
• I had planned to clean Laura’s car inside and out while she was gone, but settled for washing just the outside. Thus, the corpse of the moth remains visible through the rear window.
• Also not accomplished: replacing the dryer exhaust hose.
• I should also point out that the correct spelling is “Shaun,” not “Shawn.” So, Shaun of the Dead. Enjoyable flick.
• I watched the season premiere of Deadwood on HBO last night. Ah, Al Swearengen. Good to see you again.
• I was dismayed to learn that there are only three episodes of Carnivàle remaining in the current season. So much has happened in just the past two episodes it feels like Daniel Knauf is building to something huge. On a side note: I used to think of tarring and feathering as being humiliating without physically endangering the (for want of a better word) recipient. After watching Jonesy get tarred and feathered last night (and assuming the process was accurately portrayed), my viewpoint has changed considerably.

Posted March 7, 2005 Comments(3)

“I have a friend who gets thrown in the slammer sometimes. She always wants me to bring her animal crackers. She loves ‘em!”

—Little Old Lady behind me in line at the Post Office

Posted March 5, 2005 Comments(0)