Time...never enough

Yes, like so many others, I've been lax about updating the blog. It seems with Facebook's immediacy, that it's tough to maintain the blog. It's been a hectic summer and even though I don't "work" during the summer (I take it off from teaching college Biology), it seems like summer is already over...which it is as in just a couple of weeks, my classes resume. That's part of the busy-ness that's tying me up. Some of the classes are using new textbooks and that's always a challenge in re-tooling the existing lectures to fit into the new text and redoing the powerpoint lectures to match up with the text. Plus, the lectures are updated every semester. Biology, and oddly enough, especially for my Evolution class, things are changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. Further compounding...

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On Writing

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} I remember a while ago, my uncle and I were discussing a project that I was thinking about writing. It was one of those ideas that had a seed to build on but in thinking about it more in depth, I realized that it really wasn’t much of a story. It was just a scene. He suggested that I do it since I was “such a good writer”. Compliments aside, it struck me as...

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Summer's Here!

Summer's here! For me, summer begins when I give my last final and post all the grades. It feels like freedom that will last until late August. Last time I mentioned about the convention season and discussed the potential for C2E2. I seem to be in agreement with most people that the show was a bit disappointing and as with most of those same people, that was probably due to unrealistic expectations. Don’t get me wrong, it was a really good show. Some people had some set up problems but I wasn’t aware of any of that at the time. The venue was great, the attendance actually was pretty good (the reported number is around 27,000) and the vibe of the show was centered around comics. There’s advantages and disadvantages for being at the McCormick Center as opposed to the Rosemont and all...

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Conventions aren't all the same

If you notice all the coverage and announcements, you can tell what time of the year it is---no, not baseball season but rather convention season. It seems every week there is another convention to announce exclusive news from the various sites. If you’re a creator who attends a lot of conventions, the gauntlet has already started. Coming up next week is the new kid on the block, C2E2. For years, Chicago was the con, second only to San Diego in attendance but for many, had more alluring aspects. San Diego had the city and the trade show associated with it, but Chicago was the con that professionals loved to attend. Of course, then the con moved and soon after was taken over by Wizard and well, things have never been the same since. The organizers of C2E2 have picked up on this. They...

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Working Through Life

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} A lot of people talk about what a bad year 2009 was. For me, it wasn't a bad year...not a good year...it just was. I've certainly had worst and of course, better. But one thing that becomes apparent as you get older is how much everything blends in together. When I look back at my "career", I can't really look at it in terms...

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Onto 2010

2009 was a bad year for a lot of people. For me, another year, not necessarily good or bad, but generally okay. I think 2010 will be a better year for most people, including myself, I hope. I mean, one always wants things to get better. It looks to be a year of catchup. Deadworld: Slaughterhouse which was scheduled to come out last year as a mini-series, has just been released as a hardcover. Outside of a few printing snafus which are not major, the book looks really nice. Sami did such a fantastic job with the art that it overwhelms any printing deficiencies. It should be in comic shops any day now. The schedule of Deadworld books coming from IDW has been figured out and the first one up is the Deadworld Classic which is a compendium...

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On the Holiday Movies

I usually don’t do reviews in my blog although I had discussed some of the comic movies previously. But two films out now seem to have been adopted by the comics community even if they are not derived from comics---although I found it ironic that Sherlock Holmes was promoted as being “based on the graphic novel” when it actually wasn’t. How’s that for spinning things in the opposite direction from a few years ago? Now, it’s a plus to be based on a graphic novel/comic. I used to be an avid Sherlock Holmes reader. I read all the original stories and probably over 100 pastiches and “source” books regarding Holmes. Although I still maintain my interest in Sherlockian lore, I don’t have the same passion for it that I once did. But I am still a fan. In fact, when my wife and I went to London,...

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