Everything Ends

So recently, I have come to a conclusion: I really dislike DC Comics New 52.

I don't care for the changes in the costumes.  The lines and such that have been added to most of the heroes are reminiscent of the plethora of belts that were given to heroes and villains in the 80s and 90s.

I don't like the stories.  They aren't grabbing me like they used to.

And it really bothers me that DC got rid of so much of their history.  I know that some of these complaints may echo the feelings of others after the Crisis in 1985.  Then, they rebooted most of the heroes, got rid of a few, and moved on.  But I had been reading the old comics of and on before that, and I enjoyed the new stuff which eventually shifted back tot he old stuff again.  Kind of.

So, I've stopped collecting.

If there is another big change, I may look into it, but I'll read the reviews before I decide.

I am continuing with some of the hardback stuff.  I just got Batman: Earth One, and really enjoyed it, and I've preordered the second volume of Superman: Earth One.  Some might say that I'm contradicting myself because of the added lines in the costumes in these books, but the lines are seams and such that show up with the higher detail of the art.

Jennifer is curious to see what I'll do with the extra time now that I used to put into reading comics.  It's a good question.  Maybe, I'll get back into painting miniatures; I haven't really done much of that since the move.

Truly a Rum Weekend

So, the acceleration of social gatherings for the summer truly kicked in this weekend.

Friday evening, Jennifer and I met a group of friends at Forbidden Island in Alameda.  We ended up being there until a little after midnight.  I drove, and so got to enjoy only a small portion of the drinks.  We did share around a Virgin Sacrifice (flaming bowl for 6 with sprinkled cinnamon), and had a grand old time.  One of the couples said they were having an open house on Sunday for their new home in San Mateo, so that gave us something to do Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, I went for a bike ride, and then we headed out to the Sorrells for their annual Tiki Party.  Jennifer drove for that one, but since our hosts backed down their drink portions to match recipes from mixes, so no one overdid.  There were lots of people there from all around, and it was really great to see some of those we only see at the parties because they live so far away.

Sunday, Jennifer and I decided on going for a ride, and we planned to go to T-Rex for brunch.  We were out a little early, and thought we would ride out and hit brunch on the way back.  Then we remembered that way out at the end of our ride is the Boilerhouse Restaurant in Richmond.  So we had brunch there with bottomless mimosas.  The nice long ride burned off the alcohol and a lot of the food, so we were all set for the open house.

At the open house we met a lot of new people, and will likely see them again as some live close by, and others have invited us to events.

I'm going to need more rest if my social calendar keeps filling up.

Apatite and Appetite

So, yesterday was a day to visit the dentist.  I worked through lunch, and left the office early.  I drove to BART near home, rode into San Francisco, and walked to Washington Square Park Dental.  We started going there about a year ago when they had a 2 for 1 Groupon.  They use a great x-ray machine that is handheld, USB connected to a computer, and doses you with about 1/5 of the amount of radiation as the typical x-ray machine.  The doctors and hygienists are fun and friendly, and we've really enjoyed it.  Plus it provides for an afternoon/evening in the city.

Our dentist recommended an amazing restaurant for us when we told him we were looking for someplace to eat.  He said to go to Don Pisto's at Union and Grant.

He suggested we try the pork chop, but we ended up with a seafood evening.  The food is designed to be shared, and we did.  I had the salmon sashimi and Jennifer had the prawns ceviche of which we shared one piece each.  Then for our main course we had lobster burritos.  They provided  us with a lobster cut down the middle, and bowls of butter, rice, beans, and red sauce.  We each had one burrito with half a tail, and tonight we're having claws.

And if you go, either make a reservation, or be there at 5:30 when they open.  It filled up fast!  And this was Tuesday.

Oh, I almost forgot.  For a drink we had their margaritas which are made with agave wine (fermented, not distilled).  So amazingly fresh.

The Mundane and A Celebration

So, it’s been a couple weeks, but not a lot has been going on. Work and such.

This last weekend was great as I celebrated my birthday with my wife and friends.

I got to work a half day after a 15 hour workday on Wednesday. Upon arriving home, Jennifer had presents for me to open and an incredible made from scratch chocolate cake that she was just finishing icing. We put Theo cocoa nibs on top or added excellence.

Jennifer and I then drove into the city, and after parking in our secret location, we had a beer at Kennedy’s (I’d link to it, but they’ve apparently got some malware associated with their fav.ico). Then we met John and Steve at E Tutti Qua.

That night we went to the Kabuki to the “The Dark Knight Rises”, and finished the evening at Local Edition. Again, the two best things about the Kabuki are that you can drink in the theater and they have reserved seating. Local Edition was louder than the first time we had gone. Apparently it’s been discovered. The drink of choice? The Laphroaig Project. (And I just found the recipe.)

Saturday, Jennifer, John, and I went tasting at St. George Spirits in Alameda. When we hit the island, I played “The Ballad of Hangar One” for Jennifer and John. They have a bourbon blend (Breaking and Entering Bourbon) they’ve made from bourbon distilleries all over Kentucky. The tasting room has been remodeled again, and it’s gorgeous. Plus we got dog tags for tasting. Then we had lunch at Picante in Berkeley where we all entirely too much food, and finally went tasting again at Takara Sake. John used a gift certificate we’d given him for his birthday last year, and I got a bottle of sparkling sake that I look forward to trying the next time we bring sushi home.

Then we went back to our place, and had more cake, and after John went home, Jennifer and I took a nap.
The future is hazy as to when I’ll be heading to Santa Cruz for the next excavation, but it will probably start in the middle of August.

Why Did We Move?

So, I successfully rode my back to and from work yesterday, arriving safely home a sweaty mess.

Why?

Well, first of all, I’m still getting back into bicycling shape.  I lost some of my stamina after the accident and then having my bike stolen.  Things are getting better though.

Second of all, there’s this whole reason why living near the water is awesome.  Large bodies of water act as temperature buffers for the air around them.

It was in the mid-90s when I left Walnut Creek yesterday.  The BART car I chose to ride on had no air conditioning.  And it was about 75 degrees when I got off the train in Oakland.

A difference of 20 degrees is quite a shock when you step directly from one to another.

I have to say, I love my home.

Safe at Home

The ride home went just fine today.

I will repeat tomorrow.

Halfway There

So, it’s a new week, and after a little trip to Lodi for work yesterday, I decided I’d ride my bike for the rest of this week.

It even seemed auspicious when driving home yesterday the freeway sign said that Tuesday (today) was a “Spare the Air” day.

So, I’m here at work after two bike jaunts separated by a BART ride.

Now I just need supportive thoughts (and a safer route than last time) to get me home.

Pizza Cupcakes

So, Monday I came across this photo article.

I told Jennifer about it, and she said we just had to try it.  So we made it, and tonight, I made it again.
We went to Trader Joe’s and got their ready-made pizza dough and sauce, some hot Italian sausage, mushrooms, olives, and mozzarella cheese.

When we got home, we browned the sausage and mushrooms, and mixed them with the pizza sauce and added some of the grated cheese into the mix.

Then we cut the dough into circles, and after rubbing the muffin tin with grape seed oil, we packed the meet and sauce into the dough.


The olives are for Jennifer.  Then we added cheese on top, and cooked at 425 F.

After 15 minutes, they are gorgeous, and delicious.



They come out of the tins surprisingly easy.

Comics are Still Gay

So at the beginning of the month, I posted this article on the hype of homosexuals in comics all because of making Alan Scott the new version of the original Green Lantern gay.

Today, I read this article from Comics Alliance.  I'm proud of myself for naming as many as I did in the DC Universe, but I totally flaked on DC's peripheral titles.

Midnighter and Apollo?  Totally blanked on.  But they were originally created as a homosexual spoof on Batman and Superman.

And I didn't even think of the gay characters in Sandman or The Invisibles.

Still, it just goes to show that making Alan Scott gay was simply pandering.

iTunes Top 25

So this evening I was reading this article on Gizmodo, and I just had to look at my top 25 tracks on iTunes with the number of plays.

1. Static-X – Ostegolation – 18
2. James M. Venable – Going Away Party (Clerks 2) – 17
3. The Devil’s Song – Marcy’s Playground – 17
4. My Chemical Romance – It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Deathwish – 17
5. The Bloodhound Gang – No Hard Feelings – 16
6. Jason Mewes – Jay’s Chant (Clerks) – 16
7. Good Charlotte – Complicated – 16
8. Jonathon Coulton – IKEA – 16
9. Wings – Baby’s Request – 16
10. Billy Idol – Plastic Jesus – 15
11. Breaking Benjamin – Polyamorous – 15
12. Breaking Benjamin – Firefly – 15
13. Def Leppard – 10538 Overture – 15
14. Good Charlotte – Boys and Girls – 15
15. Jeremy Irons – Be Prepared (Lion King) – 15
16. Jim Sturgess – I’ve Just Seen a Face (Across the Universe) – 15
17. Joe Satriani – Raspberry Jam Delta-V – 15
18. Jonathon Coulton – Code Monkey – 15
19. The Offspring – She’s Got Issues – 15
20. The Pointer Sisters – Be There (Beverly Hills Cop II) – 15
21. The Pussycat Dolls – Lights, Camera, Action – 15
22. Sum 41 – Fat Lip – 15
23. Van Halen – Get Up – 15
24. 30 Seconds to Mars – Oblivion – 15
25. The All-American Rejects – Real World – 14

And this all works out pretty well except that #25 times with a bunch of other songs with 14 plays but gets this spot because of alphabetical sorting by artist.

The pint of the article, based on a comedian’s tweet is that many people might be embarrassed by the songs in their top 25 plays.

I’m not really embarrassed, more intrigued by which ones made it.

Strangely enough, “Be Prepared”, will actually go up in the list because I heard it on my iPod about half an hour ago.

Also another odd thought, is that I “discovered” Breaking Benjamin from the song “Firefly” when I was looking for the title song (by Joss Whedon) for the TV show “Firefly”.
---
And one additional odd discovery is that I have never tagged “Firefly" before.
Of that, I am embarrassed.  Or possibly ashamed.

Whoosh

So I woke up this morning full of hope.  At 7 AM the weather listed the wind as “Still”.  Cool.

So I read my comics, and some of my news, had cinnamon toast, and then got ready for a ride.

By then the weather had it up to 9 mph.  By the time I got to the trail, it was back up into the teens.

So I decided I would turn around at Golden Gate Fields.  However, when I got there, I couldn’t deny myself the thrill of a speedy downhill, so I worked my way to the top and back of the parking lot, enjoyed the zoom downhill, and then slogged back home with the strong crosswind.

I ended with 10.2 miles today, so I ‘m just short of 35 miles for the weekend.  Maybe next weekend, I can make it to Craneway.

Walk, Run, Bike

So I’ve been on crutches many times in my life. (Relax, I’m fine.)

The first time was when I was 7, when I got a fracture in my lower leg from an accident involving a lawn aerator.

Then it seemed for the next few years of elementary school, I was suffering from an bacterial inflammation (if memory serves) in my hip joints that would alternate, and I’d be on crutches because it hurt so much to walk.

I was fine until after high school when on a trip to Germany and Austria with the local youth orchestra I jumped down some stairs, fell, and tore a ligament in my left ankle.

The same thing would happen later in college but to my right ankle.

It was when it happened in college, that I really began to miss walking on my own.  And running.  And bicycling.  Probably what made me miss it the most was that I was away from home with no one to care for me except my roommate and an ex-girlfriend who I got back together with because of her taking care of me.

This week, my job in Lodi finished a day early, and so Friday when I got home, I changed clothes and went for a bike ride.  If it wasn't been for the crosswind in the teens, I probably could have gone further, but I only made it to what Jennifer and I call Costco Point.  That’s about 15 miles round trip.  Today I did 19 miles stopping just before the Richmond shoreline park trail.  Same crosswind.

When I got home, my expense check was in, and I was too tired to get on my bike again and head to the bank.  So I rested, had lunch, and then walked along the Emeryville path to the bank. 

On the way back, I remembered a psychology class I had been taking for general education.  One of the questions we asked in it was “what is something people take for granted every day.”  I was on crutches at the time after the fall, and I said, “Walking.”

On the job site, I walk every day.  I walk around checking the perimeter.  I walk back and forth from task to task, checking on the other geologists, engineers, and/or scientists to make sure they are on track, on task, on schedule.  I should really track some day how much walking around I do during the day.

Tomorrow, I’m going for another ride to see if I can make it to Craneway Pavilion.  No matter how windy it is, and no matter how far I end of riding, I know I’ll enjoy it.

Pick a Color

So, when you were a kid, what color was dirt?  Brown, right?  and you used your Crayola brown crayon to color it.
Now let many years pass.
You’ve been through college.  You've worked for nearly a decade and a half.  And at work, you use the Munsell Soil Color Chart when describing the color of soil in boring logs.
Okay, maybe you don’t, but I do.
Oh yeah, that’s something else you learn in school; it’s soil not dirt.  People get all kinds of upset about that.
Now, the purpose of the Munsell is to allow anyone who should be looking at your soil descriptions in the future, will know that the soil was about the color of the chip on a specific page at the designated grid location.
So, today with my trusty, nearly-$300 book of colors, I’m describing soil.  Many were dark grayish brown.  A few were dark yellowish brown.  But a good quarter of them were…

BROWN.

To sum up: 9 years of college, 14 years of work experience, and I’m officially describing the soil as brown.
But I am getting paid to do it, so I guess that’s all right.

Not Much to Say

I've been busy lately with work, travelling for work, bike thefts, and stuff and sundry.  I couldn't not write about this though.

Today my Grandmother passed away.

Read my Mom's post.

Maybe I'll be able to say more later.

Did I Fall Asleep?

I got some more tattoo work done today.
The artist had an iPad he’s started using for reference images and colors.  We pulled up the post I did after I decided on the color.  And then I pulled up the one with the baby rocket on the cover.
And then, he got to work.
He used some lidocaine on the work he was doing, and it was mostly numb for the second hour.  I got kind of meditative, and zoned out for a bit of the work.
I’m very happy with how it’s going.  I’ll be going back in August for a longer session for the rocket exhaust and the shading of space.

Comics are Gay

So, yeah, let’s look at this.

DC Comics has made Alan Scott (now only of Earth-2) gay.  The legacy of Alan Scott is that he was the original Green Lantern written around the time of World War II.  I haven’t read the Earth-2 books yet, but I’m sure I’ll learn how it differs from the old pre-Crisis Earth-2.

But my problem with this is that there have been gay characters scattered around DC Comics for a long time.  I can remember when they revamped Superman in 1986 that the police commissioner of Metropolis was a Lesbian.  A stereotypical skinny lesbian with short hair and dark eyebrows, but she just was.  It wasn’t a big deal.

Then there was Alan Scott’s son Obsidian, who was openly gay.

Renee Montoya, a female cop from Gotham City who ended up taking over being the Question is gay.  And so is the recently introduced Batwoman.  Then there’s the lesbian couple of Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass in the Legion of Super-Heroes.

And okay, so I’ve named one gay man and several gay woman, but I’m sure there are other characters out there. (Oh, yeah, the villain turned hero Pied Piper was gay.)

This all just seems like pandering.

Happy Geek Pride Day

So, I vaguely remember reading about this earlier this week, but it must have stayed in the back of my mind, because today I wore my Darth Vader hoodie complete with black Levi's and my black boots.

Plus I have to say that it’s pretty cool that  I’m familiar with all three special dates.

On May 25, 1977, the original Star Wars (A New Hope) opened.  I remember going to see it (not on that day, but soon after it opened).  I remember going with my parents to the theater in Walnut Creek.  It was the first time I’d ever waited in line (that I remember) for a movie.  I was really too young and had sensible parents so I never waited in line all day for the sequels.  I did however wait all day for the three prequels.  At this point, I’m not sure what that says about me.

My dad introduced me to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy back when I was in high school.  He came home one day with the original trilogy, and I burned through them pretty quickly.  And I thoroughly enjoyed the fourth book (So Long and Thanks For All the Fish), and was slightly disappointed by the end of the fifth.  I have the bible-ish tome that collects all five, and used to read it every year.

But then I found a new obsession.

Early in my time with the marching band in college I met a saxophone player (no not this one, a different one).  I was expounding on the wonders of Douglas Adams, and he told me about Terry Pratchett, who early on in his Discworld career was considered the Douglas Adams of fantasy.  Pratchett quickly grew beyond that title, and made himself a name (and a knight) for showing us the master writer that he is.  Now I read the entire Discworld series every couple of years as well as reading every new book when they come out.

A Rose By Any Other Name

So, no I can’t explain why, but I can do this:

Mrs. Seidman:  I heard about your engagement through a mutual friend.  It was a knife that tore through me, and I even found out the date.  For a a while I brooded, but eventually, I wished you happiness and joy.  Many years later, I saw pictures of the wedding. While it hurt to see them, I saw that you were beautiful and happy.  The strangest thing that I experienced was the closest I’ll probably ever get to falling into a parallel world as I could almost see myself in those pictures.

Mrs. Baerman:  I went to your wedding and was happy for you.  I had thought my feeling gone, but later I, and others who went through similar events that summer commiserated.  I had always hoped you would be happy.

Mrs. Thomas:  This was a surreal event for me.  It was the death of a dream.  But I wished you the best, and all has been well.

Mrs. Scherr:  Yours came out of the blue for me.  I had known you were gone.  My feelings had swung on a giant pendulum for years.  I was stuck for a while, but When I let go, I felt a release.  I wanted you to be happy, but I always wondered if it were ever truly possible.  Now, I can only hope that it is.

To all of you, I wish you joy and happiness.  I love you all.

The Name Game

So it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since you’ve dated someone.

It doesn’t matter how long it’d been since you saw them last.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been married.

There is an emotional impact when you learn that a ex has gotten married.

Back in the Saddle

So, eight days after my accident, I went on my first bicycle ride.

Yesterday when I got home, Jennifer and I ran a couple errands.

We crossed Ashby.  No big deal.

We went to Bay Street to return something for Jennifer, and we had dinner to celebrate.

There was no pain, and I only got nervous the first time a car passed me.

I’ll probably go for a ride on Saturday, and then try biking to work again next week.