Stu News and Photos

I love that the toughest thing for me this summer is to keep my front lawn from going brown. It's on a bit of a hill, so it's not getting enough water, which I can fix, but still, pretty excellent that my lawn is my big stress.

It could be worse.

Hope your summer is going well.

What do you do after an earthquake? You listen to the theme from Fish.

Fish.mp3

*if you don't see the player, go to my actual blog and click on the play button

There was a 5.8 earthquake not too far from here (about 35 air miles from our house, maybe closer) - we're fine, but it was, by far, the largest earthquake I've ever felt. The start was like many that we have here - a rumble, as though a very large truck has driven by the house. But then, unlike a truck drive-by, the rumbling continues, at about the same volume, and the vibrations get more intense. Most earthquakes out here in the South Bay are minor, so you get a little vibration, and that's it. The worst one, up until now, was one that felt as though a truck had accidentally backed into the house.

This one was a bit louder, but the vibrations were strong enough and far enough apart to make the waves perceptible. The floor actually rolls, as though your house is on the ocean.

Noe was the only other one home, and she got to her door jamb, which, while not needed, absolutely the sane procedure. I'm so happy that she knows what to do.

Anyway, it was not really scary, at least not until the height of the earthquake, when the anticipation begs the question, "Will this get worse?" - It didn't, so it was a fun little encounter with the tectonic plates that make up the crust of our planet.

I'll be watching the news, as the epicenter was in Chino, where I know some folks. I am hopeful that there was no real damage.

*update - doesn't seem to be any structural damage at the epicenter. Phones are under emergency breakdown at the moment, so I can't reach Nich or Leslie, but my assumption is that their fine. Haven't been able to reach Jim either - I'd be bummed if he heard it on the news first and had any worry before I could reach him.

**update - spoke to Leslie and Nich and both are fine - Nich was in a swimming pool, so he didn't even notice it. Leslie did, but she's lived her long enough where it's fun for her as well. Thanks for all the calls and emails - y'all are sweet as cherry pie.

Picked up this shirt at ComicCon - Pretty psyched about it.

Allow me to start with my feet. And with my calves. They're fine.

I mean, they're fine, considering how many times I walked around the San Diego Convention Center between Friday early afternoon and Saturday late afternoon. Lotta walkin'. And really, I feel good - was prepping for the walking during the past few weeks, so I really do feel ok. At the end of each day at ComicCon I felt tired, but no next-day aches or pains. And this morning, Sunday morning, as I sit in my lonely writer's garret and issue this report, I'm feeling terrific, although a bit spaced-out. It's early and I need my coffee ('cept I don't drink coffee, so I'm kinda screwed on that one - gotta let my grey matter tough it out until the awakening is complete).

Now, let us harken back to Friday morning: Loaded the car and got to the gas station at the corner of Artesia and Inglewood at about 8:40 or so. Drove down the I-5 - a little traffic, but nothing heavy-duty. Got to the convention center, which is kinda-sorta in the heart of San Diego County around 11 or so. Checked in, checked our bags (room wasn't ready, but we were *way* early, walked to the convention.

Got to registration and had a not-so quintessential setback. Turns out that even though Leslie was the registered Mattel rep and I was listed as "guest," they had my name and badge, but not hers. Fortunately the guy at our reg station was a Warcraft player, so there was zero tension. He was exceptionally polite, laughed at my jokes, and, after a bit of running around, trying different options, got Leslie her badge.

That was the last and only hiccough of the day.

From there, we did our thing, sometimes together, sometimes apart. We probably would have done the whole thing together, but she had to work, and she's a player now, so she had to really do stuff - leadership, morale, problem-solving, meet-and-greets, what-have-you. But we were together most of the time.

I spent a good portion of the first day rounding up the stuff on my must-have list - yeah, coulda got 'em through Amazon, but

A) I really enjoy the hunt and
B) ComicCon discounts!

Got almost everything on my 24-item list, and the stuff I didn't get is mostly out-of-print at the moment, so no biggie. And I got a bunch of great stuff and met some great folks along the way, so that was fun. And, because I knocked that out of the way, I was able to spend the rest of the con just walking the floor, looking at all the cool stuff.

Didn't bring a camera this time (aside from my iPhone) and was glad. No stress over protecting the camera, and there were *way* less costumed folks, and of those folks, way less interesting photographic subjects. The con seemed just as crowded as last year, but filled with far more regular fans and far less hardcore, "I'm so dedicated, I'm gonna walk around all day in a pleather Boba Fett costume" fans. Which was fine with me - made the show less distracting - gave me more of a chance to concentrate on the art.

Speaking of art, I was having trouble coming up with ideas as to what to bring back for Noelle, until I remembered that one of her favorite things is Noelle, so I hit up a couple of up-and-coming comic book artists to do sketches of her based on the photograph I keep in my wallet. So even if the other stuff I got her falls to the floor, those sketches should make her smile.

Nich was also tough, as he's not into reading, comic books or any other material. He does it when he has to, and he's in honors language arts, and he gets a consistent A there, so I leave it alone - who am I to judge another's passions? However, I am somewhat familiar with what moves him, and I found a lone heavy metal booth selling out-of-the-way CDs, so I got the staff at the booth to name their desert island discs and bought some of those.

The con itself was extremely well run, and other than the flood of humanity, was perfect. The vendors were cool, the art was as exceptional as ever, there was a giant, floating, inflatable Pikachu, a ten foot tall sculpture of BartMan, a nicely-done lego sculpture of Indiana Jones (complete with crystal skull), and much more.

The vibe was really excellent. Not exactly Grateful Dead excellent, but for a con, folks were extremely polite and supportive and happy. A nice vibe. My kind of vibe.

I didn't go to any of the panels and I didn't meet any celebrities, so I don't know any secret, cool stuff about Heroes or The Cleveland Show. I did see Mal from Firefly, who was on the floor, surrounded by fans and digital cameras. The fans seemed happy - Mal seemed a nice guy.

Lastly, Leslie and I had dinner Friday night with a bunch of her staff and some marketing folks. Really great bunch of people, very funny, jovial, and excited about their work. And it was truly wonderful to hear them glow about Leslie - she inspires them and makes them feel valued. I'm damned proud of her.

Ok ladies and germs, I'm done. Gonna go do nothing for a bit, then clean the kitchen, then more nothing. Hope you all have a great time doin' whatever it is you're doin'.

This is me at 10am - please go easy on the hair jokes.

Both of my favorite MLB teams are at (or near the top) of their divisions. As July is winding down, I am rooting hard - It's gonna be an exciting August!!

I won't be bringing a camera, as we're only there for about two days, and the main comics hall is *huge* - like Central Park huge. But I do have a list of stuff that some folks have asked for me to investigate. Anyone else have any specific/non-specific requests? No autographs, but I will hunt up books/comics/action figures/whatever for you. Let me know in comments.

Meanwhile, have a great time with yourselves this weekend, and let me tell you that I am currently listening to the them from the NBC Mystery Movie (Internet radio is a wonderful thing).

What I saw outside of Carl's Jr. was a T-Rex by Campagna Motor Cars. Pretty sweet.

For those who worried, when I was playing with my iPhone in the car, I was parked at a fast-food drive-thru. So I was safe. Or at least part of me was safe. My arteries were about to be assaulted, but that's for another post. Meanwhile, don't worry, when I'm driving, I'm focused on the task at hand.

Heaven... I'm in Heaven...
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak...

Sorry, it's just that I've had my iPhone for a few days now and it's becoming more and more useful. Sure, it's a phone. And sure, it syncs up with my Mac, so it has my current contacts in it. And sure, it syncs to my calendar, so if I'm away from my desk, I still don't miss any appointments.

Lots of phones can do that.

But yesterday, I was driving, listening to the radio, and a song came on that I recognized from my youth, from my teen-age years. Except it was just a haunting memory, with no real information: I couldn't remember the name of the band. And I'm a music guy, and that kind of stuff is important to me.

iPhone to the rescue.

I pulled out my iPhone, tapped the button to launch the newly installed Shazam application, and held it up to the speakers. After about 10 seconds, the phone vibrated, letting me know it had found the song for me (turned out the band was Haircut 100, who had a minor career in the early 80s). No fuss, no muss, no need to memorize lyrics until I could use Google, just turn on Shazam and let it do its thing. It even gave me links to download the song to my iPhone from the iTunes store. Oh, and did I mention that I installed the application on my iPhone with two clicks, and that it was free?

Heaven... I'm in Heaven...
and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak...

A while ago, years ago, Leslie picked out a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix (used) for herself. Nich and I went with her, and he helped her decide - incredibly cute to watch a 10 year-old take notes on different car features and discuss them with his mother. And he was pretty sharp about it, really helped us make a decision (well, it was Leslie's decision, but she asked for my opinion).

Anyway, I was at the casino last night (I was earning my comic book money) and I got a call from her that she needed help. Turned out that the ignition was doing something odd - she could remove the key and the car would turn off, except the transmission indicator would remain lit.

So I called a car-pro buddy of mine who came over and looked at it. Turns out that it's fixable by her pressing a button as she takes the key out, so the battery won't drain. But it started our conversation about a new car, which we started over a year ago.

We had the conversation again this morning, and she's decided that she doesn't want to drive her Grand Prix into the dirt. So at the end of this month, on the last day, at the last hour, we're going to go to a Toyota dealer and negotiate to buy a Prius. If I'm lucky, I can get the monthly payments down below $500 a month (over 48 months), but it depends on what they have in stock. We may end up driving one off the lot that is cheaper, but with fewer options - It'll be Leslie's car, and she doesn't give a tinker's cuss about options.

I'll be spending the next few weeks studying the Prius and the options and the pricing, in order to negotiate the best deal I can. Meanwhile, I'm excited that Leslie will be in a new car, as I'll feel safer about her being on the road with something new. I know she's a grown woman and incredibly capable, but I still worry. And that piece of crap that she currently drives always has me nervous. Sometimes it sucks to care about someone. But just the tiniest bit.

Thimbelle mentioned something about me being a correspondent, and while I don't exactly know what she means by that, it gave me the idea that I should write more about the things that interest me.

Today I am interested in writing about my iPhone, which is the tool that is enabling me to compose this blog entry.

The iPhone is a tiny computer, a mini-Macintosh. It has a CPU, a monitor, a keyboard, and most of the essential software that I use throughout the day. It has a fully functioning web browser (Safari), although it doesn't run Flash - I can forgive that on a phone. It syncs with my calendar and my address book and my bookmarks. It plays music and movies (it's an iPod). It's an ebook reader, it reports the weather and the status of my portfolio. Oh yeah, and it's also a phone, with fabulous clarity.

For the total cost, it's about the same as a bunch of other phones on the market, except it stands head and shoulders above any of the competition. I highly recommend getting one.

Wow - ok, so it turned out that the culprit was my email program, Microsoft's Entourage. After much frustration at only getting half my mail, I took a major step this morning - I switched to Apple's email application, Mail. The switch, the setting up, the importing of my Entourage mail, etc. went extremely smoothly - flawlessly. And now I get all my mail. So you can now use stumark@verizon.net when you want to send me mail.

Thank you all for your patience during this interesting time. Sorry if it was a pain in the butt.

How did your weekend unfold?

I had a great weekend, a perfect weekend - great time with Leslie, reveling in each other, laughing, walking, holding hands, doing chores. A grand weekend, one for the books.

Feel free to share my blog with others - I'm not about the whole privacy thing (for the most part) and would always dig more readers, so I can get into some new material - my readers, all two of you, really feed me ideas.

Random thought for Sully - all the great rock bands had a monster bass player. The almost-great bands had some great musicians, but mediocre bass players. I was listening to a Who record the other day and John Entwistle just *owned* the bass, played it like it had said something about his sister.

Random thought for Melissa - What are your favorite comic books?

Random thought for Thimbelle - teenagers.

My Verizon mail is still messed up - I'm only getting about half the mail that goes to that address - So, until further notice, would you please send correspondance to stumark@earthlink.net - I'd really appreciate it.

Hope you all had a peaceful Saturday.

Welcome to the inaugural post from my brand new iPhone!

It is far better than I imagined - it's a mini computer, just like on Star Trek.

While I can blog from the iPhone, the keyboard isn't overly conducive to thumb-typing, so I don't anticipate long posts to be generated from it.

As for the phone as a whole, there is just no comparison to my old Windows-based phone. The iPhone does everything with such elegance. Upon first blush, I couldn't be happier.

So the question before the court is, will I go ahead and fulfill my fantasy of getting an iPhone? Many pros and cons, and while I do need a mobile phone (especially with 2 teenagers and a wife to work for), I am nervous about buying a touch-screen device, as I don't have the steadiest hands on the planet. On the other hand, I'll be able to blog from the iPhone, so that's kinda cool. If it had copy/paste, then I could do my GNMParents work from my phone, and that would be awesome.

...thinking, thinking, thinking...

Again with the email issues - yes, you're tired of these posts - I hear ya. Still, be a pall and comment on this post - Try it logged in, if you have some sort of account, as well as logged out, as an anonymous comment. Say what you will, be creative, make suggestions, confront me with criticism.

Oh, and have a great day.

Please click on this link and stumark@verizon.net - I'm trying a new test in order to prove to verizon that the problem is on their end. Thank you!!

From an Associated Press article:

Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA official maintains.

Read the rest here. Then call your Congressional representatives and demand hearings - Vice-President Cheney clearly violated his oath of office.

Before we get started, my email is still buggered to Brahman and back, so please send any old/new correspondence to stumark@earthlink.net - The management thanks you kindly.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I just finished reading my 2nd book by Alan Moore, V For Vendetta. This follows on the heels of my reading of Watchmen. I realize I'm incredibly late to the party on these works, but they are tremendous, exciting works of art.

For those who don't know Alan Moore, he writes, among other things, graphic novels. Except these two read like regular novels. In fact, Time magazine put out a list of the top 100 novels of all time and Watchmen made the cut. I would agree, although V For Vendetta was equally good, just a different form. I highly recommend both, and for those who aren't into super-hero type stuff, get V For Vendetta and prepare yourself for a wonderful ride. It's taut, thrilling, at times so astonishing that you'll put the book down for a moment just to catch your breath.

And while I'm making recommendations in the graphic novel medium, let me point out the wonderful 30 Days Of Night. It's a horror tale, but a brilliant one, told in the modern era, a thriller to the last page. Very scary stuff.

I'll probably read a few palette-cleansers next, but after that, I'm not sure what I'll dig into. I may finish the series Y: The Last Man. Been meaning to get to the rest of those.

Next art review: The opening of The B-CAM - LACMA's newest building, dedicated solely to modern art.

As it is mid-season for professional baseball in America, I thought I'd share my opinion on the standings - Red Sox only 2 and a half games back of the front-running Devil Rays, and 6 games over the third place Yankees, so good stuff in the American League. In the National League, the Mets aren't doing that well, despite what their 4 and a half game deficit would have you believe. The Mets have some history in come-from-behind second-half-of-the-season runs, so I'm holding out hope. But they just don't seem to be gelling the way they should. They've got a solid team, but they don't seem perfectly connected on the field. Not just Reyes' error on Sunday, but all of them aren't working together to the top of their capabilities.

Anyway, I've never played the game, so what do I know...?

I'm a big fan of America. Always have been.

I use the word 'fan' the same way I use it if someone asked if I rooted for the Boston Red Sox - I'm a fan.

Now, being a fan doesn't mean you are necessarily blind. A fan of a baseball team, a true fan, will admit to their team's weaknesses. It's how we help the team - that's our job, as fans, to help the team. And if the team's star right-fielder isn't doing well, a true fan will admit that maybe they should bench him for a while, give him time to get his priorities straight, give him time to decide if he wants to give 100% for the team.

So when I say I'm a fan of America, I am a true fan. I believe in our country, in the concept of our country so strongly that I am comfortable in seeing our weaknesses.

And so, on this, our Nation's birthday, I call for all of us, community members, civic leaders, government officials, et al., to take a step back and truly evaluate our team, and to then step up to the microphone and speak candidly about our weaknesses. I ask this with the deepest of humility, with the utmost respect for America. And I ask this because it's high time we did it. It's high time our President stepped up and admitted that we have made mistakes. It's high time our Congressional leaders 'fessed up to all of our nation's past, not just the highlights. Because, while our team is great, we can do better.

I set up a forward email address for my verizon account, as I discovered that all the earthlink mail was being accepted by my verizon account - so now if you email my verizon account, it will reach me. Sorry for the trouble.

stumark@verizon.net

I am tired. Being a stay-at-home parent is energy-sapping, at least part of the time. For me, today was non-stop, concluding with a marathon grocery run, as the kids will be with us for 5 days in a row. Oh, and the cat pooped on Noelle's bed, so a blanket and sheets had to get washed. There was other stuff, but that was regular housewife stuff (bills, phone calls, cleaning, fixing, organizing, etc.).

Now, whether the house catches on fire or the dog steals the car, I am taking a break.

First, my verizon email is still wacky - if you want to send me email, please send it to stumark@earthlink.net - I've got FIOS at home, so I don't want to give up my verizon account just because of the email snafu.

Second, if you visit my site (rather than read it through email or whatever), you'll see my Twitter updates on the right hand side. If you are a Twitterer, please leave me a comment with your Twitter feed. My Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/stumark

Third, anything you'd like to hear about?

Fourth, I hope you're having a great day - you deserve it.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Stride Gum found out that a guy named Matt was keeping a travelogue on a website, to keep his family up to date, while he bummed around. He did this goofy dance, for fun, at each place he visited. Stride thought it was a great idea, so they paid for him to travel wherever he wanted, so that his girlfriend could shoot video of Matt doing the crazy dance in all their destinations. I find the video not just funny and sweet and heart-warming, I also see it as a perfect example of the big-picture concept of the internet - to bring our big blue marble into perspective. Tell me if you can get through the entire video without getting a little misty-eyed.

tip of the hat to BoingBoing