about to leave for boston to go to new jersey

So recently a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of Venture Bros. I watched all two seasons on DVD and had to own them both. They’re soooo funny.

How funny are they?

They are so funny that I’ll be dressing up as a Monarch Henchmen for the San Diego Comiccon. But that is a different post. This post is to point you in the direction of the Venture Bros Amazing Shirt of the Week Club. 13 + 1 free shirt for $250 (that turns out to be  $17.86 for all 14 shirts, plus free shipping). So go sign up:

Over at his blog, The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has posted some advice for attending and enjoying the San Diego International Comic Convention. Part of it struck home with me:

Don’t be shy about asking people who are dressed up in costumes to pose for pictures; such attention is frequently why they’re there. Plus you may get the honor of addressing a grown man as “Lord Vader.” 

When I was at NYCC I frequently took pictures of people dressed up in costumes. For me, it was one of the coolest things about the show. Now I just have to get the nerve up to get my picture taken with “Lord Vader”.

Heidi of the Beat had something to say on the most recent Sim exploits, and this caught my eye:

As near as I can make out, Sim wanted the whole thing to be published, but Tundis didn’t because he felt it would make Sim look bad. This and Sim’s rejection of some of his most faithful readers, like Margaret Fisher, have caused much discussion and confusion.

Who is this Fisher chick that she speaks of? And if she is a Cerebite, where can I get her number?

I guess it is hard to get my “real” name, as I don’t really post it on the internets nor does anyone else say it online at all.

Heh.

So on Friday night a friend picked me up to go to the 7:30 pm Red Sox vs Brewers game. It had been raining on and off for most of the afternoon, and weather.com showed some pretty hard rain headed our way. I wasn’t hopeful that the game would be played, but we had to show up just in case.

We were a bit late, not that it mattered as the game was on a rain delay. We met up with a couple other folks coming to game with my friend (as he had 5 tickets total), and we went out for dinner while we waited for the rain delay to be over.

But things being how they are in baseball, the game was postponed about 2 hours after the supposed start of said game. Whatever, we were in the middle of eating dinner when one of the guys got a text message telling us that, and the waiter also told us the next time he stopped by to freshen our drinks.

Thank goodness it was a Friday game and it was only postponed to Saturday night at 8:30 pm. If it were a weekday, going to a night game would have made work “fun” the next day. Saturday night was a much better night – low to mid 60s, warm breeze, and dry.

We drove into the city and parked at the Prudential Center, which was only a half mile away or so, not that bad of a walk. While we waited for the other three guys to show up, we stood in Yawkey way and had an italian sausage with green peppers and onions: pretty tasty. Soon enough we made our way in, and while the other three guys went to get their overpriced “beer”, we found our seats. And what great seats they were! Just on the third base line, we were in the second section up from the Brewer’s bench, but in the first row, so all we had in front of us was a low metal railing. You can see from my poorly photoshopped picture, what the “view” from my seat was:

The seats were a bit tight together, but seeing as how we only had the rail in front of us, I had plenty of leg room and an excellent view. As long as people weren’t walking by us. It seemed at the end of every ending people were walking in front of us to get to the concession stands. But it didn’t last that long, and it was interesting to see the people walk by in their different Red Sox stuff.

The game was a lot of fun – I so prefer watching baseball in person then on teevee. On teevee it just becomes a snooze fest waiting for the next pitch, the next hit. At the game there was other stuff going on to distract me long enough not to get bored. And it was always exciting when a foul ball went into the stands. We only had one come anywhere close to us – about two rows back in the next section over from us, and it was funny watching guys spill their beer all over themselves to catch it. Me, I just didn’t want to be hit in the face with any balls. Talk about painful.

The ticket was just as expensive as a Patriots ticket, but it seemed easier to come by then Pats tickets. Especially Pats tickets that could be considered to be this good – almost on the 50 yard line right on the visitor’s bench side in the lower 100 section. Heck, those Pats tickets would prolly cost about $50 extra then what was paid for these tickets. That and my friend got five tickets together. Five! Incredible, trying to get five Pats tickets together is hard. And expensive.

So it was a fun time, and a great game: as there were some home runs (batted right over the big green monster!), and the lead switched from the Sox to the Brewers and back again. I’d definitely go see another Sox game,  just as I would go see another Bruins game. I’m not super huge fans of either team, but watching them live in their venue makes for great entertainment.

So I posted this to the Cerebus Yahoo!Group this a couple weeks ago:

So I was going through my Cerebus biweekly issues for Church & State and stumbled upon something. . .interesting and wanted to see if anyone else had this also. For the biweekly entitled “Cerebus Church & State” #13 it reprints issue #63. For Cerebus Church & State #14, the outside cover / inside cover is for issue #64, but the inside is of issue #63 right down to Aardvark Comment. I think I just happen to get a misprint of the issue, and am wondering how common it is. . .or does anyone have a Cerebus: C & S #14 with the correct insides?

This topic sounded familar so I searched the archives (via google, gmail and other third party application) but couldn’t find any reference to it on the group at least. . .

Now if Cerebus: C & S #14 with the insides of #64 does exist, then my collection isn’t complete. . .ohhh, the horror! ;P

But I haven’t gotten a response as of yet. Perhaps posting here will.

And so you can see what I’m talking about, a picture of the two biweekly issues by each other (click for a zoom in of the top):

If you if an issue #14 with the correct issue “inside”, then let me know.

It happens once a year this time.

Happy Birthday Dave!

What a bunch of idiots. I saw this on the blog “Regret the Error“:

 Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error.

The Patriots had this to say in response:

On Feb. 2, 2008, the Boston Herald reported that a member of the New England Patriots’ video staff taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.

Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots’ owners, players, employees and fans for our error.

I have this to say to the Boston Herald: Your crappy little “newspaper” that is more of a tabloid can kiss my Patriot’s fan ass. Everyone who hated the Patriots jumped on board the spy gate “scandel”, which you just had to keep going with that whole walkthru tape BS. You cause some distraction for the team before the big game, and you smeared the name of the team in the mud.

I never brought your tabloid before, and now I will definately never buy it. Ever. Fuck you, you fucking fucks.

Well, Dave responded back pretty quickly:

So did I get a simple yes or no answer to my question? No. He now wants me to say I don’t think he is a neither a misogynist nor a sexist.

Hello Dave,

After reading your last fax, the question then becomes: do you think I am one of your supporters Dave?

Don’t even think of all the Cerebus and Sim items that I’ve collected over the years, as most of it was brought 2^nd hand (if I could’ve brought it straight from Aardvark Vanaheim, then I would have as I would’ve rather given my money to you via AV then to an ex-fan), so that makes me a collector. Think about the time, effort and money I’ve dedicated to promoting not only Cerebus, but to seeing that your ideas, your thoughts are propagated on the internet. A part of the CerebusFangirl website is where I post any of your essays that I can scan in and put online. I offer no commentary on them, for that isn’t my place, I offer the essays for all to read and think about. (sidenote: As long as Tundis is okay with it, I’ll posts the Sim / Brown / Tundis dialogue also – I just want to get his okay first – on that same page.)

Do you think I am one of your largest supporters?

When I got the first fax, the “form letter”, I was a bit shocked. Do you honestly think I would go to all the trouble of creating the CerebusFangirl website, the Cerebus Wiki, doing all the work on scanning the notebooks, etc, if I thought you were as Bad, as evil, of a person as your loyal opposition likes to make you out to be?

As one of your known “fans”, I’ve been labeled many things by many people, from Heidi McDonald and Gail Simone to anonymous people who have blogs. Any time I see information that is incorrect (and I have the time), I’ll correct them. I don’t sugar coat it, I tell the truth as far as I know it (for example, someone stated that “Sometime around the writing of Jaka’s Story he had a relationship end traumatically, which would account for the change in tone.” ).  I don’t have time to respond to all the idiots on the internet ~ their numbers are as vast as the universe is large ~ but I try to respond to the most egregious ones. And to paraphrase Viktor Davis, there isn’t any arguing with emotion.

If you think the only people that will sign the petition having read the Sim / Brown / Tundis dialogue are those three people you mentioned in your fax, of which I’m not one, then you must not think of me as a supporter, but I wanted to ask you, rather then put words in your mouth.

You know I don’t agree with 100% of everything that you believe in. But I don’t believe you are Bad. I don’t believe you are evil. I believe that you are a good, decent and honorable Man. I rather have the petition say that: I believe Dave Sim is a good, decent and honorable Man. To me, that is what a Dave Sim supporter is: someone who believes Dave Sim is a good, decent and honorable Man. That is why I do all the work, put in all the hours of my time, and the money to run the websites. That is why I work on the archives, and why I want the Cerebus story and the Dave Sim legacy to live on after your passing.

So am I Dave Sim supporter? I think I am. Do I work as endlessly as others (Hi Rick!) on defending you against all the “Dave Sim is Evil” camp goers? No. As I said before, there is only so much time in the day, and so many headaches I can endure.

So please tell me if you think I’m a supporter or not. It would appear that you want nothing to do with people that don’t support you, that is your choice. Please let me know where you stand.

 
Take care,

Margaret

PS: Just for the record, I also think that Jeff Tundis is one of your largest supporters. The “Sim / Brown / Tundis” dialogue? It was another example of an hour of my life better spent working on the Cerebus Wiki or scanning in more of your essays for the website. Jeff Tundis has to be one of your biggest supporters. During the “100 Hours Tour” he defended your against pretty much the entire Tartsville forum single handedly. He has worked untold hours on his own websites ArtofDaveSim.com and CerebusTheAardvark.com, and also on the Aardvark Vanaheim websites: glamourpusscomic.com and CerebusArt.com. Along with the eBay auctions he ran, and all the multimedia work he has done with the videos taken for Cerebus Live! and the other SPACE “Dave Sim Podcast” video. The man would take a (metaphorical) grenade for you, and the two of you aren’t talking because of some “hair splitting”. If you ask him if he thinks “Dave Sim is a good, decent and honorable man”? He would probably say Yes (though I don’t want to put words in his mouth, so you’d have to ask him). I hereby apologize to Tundis for not “standing up” for him and voicing to you my thoughts in the matter before this time.

PPS: In the event you don’t think I’m a supporter, and you rather not talk to me again, then I want to thank you now for all the work you’ve done on Cerebus, for all that you taught me though your work, your words and your actions, and I wish you continuing success in your endeavors.