How I feel today...

Not enough sleep this week, and in 30 minutes I'm off to Comic Con...not exactly a place that is conducive to sleep. I guess that's what Rosarito Beach is for afterwards...

Comic Con Frustration

It's nearly time for the massive San Diego Comic Con again. I think I've gone 7 out of the last nine years. It's undergone a massive change just in that amount of time, and thats just the convention center, let alone how it's treated by outsiders.

I'm finally beginning to really look forward to it. But it sucks that the panel I most desperately want to see, the Paramount presentation, is on Thursday, at 2pm I think. Summer school ends Thursday. At 1pm. There is no physical way that I can get from Walnut to the San Diego Convention Center without violating the laws of the road (or physics perhaps). Not only will JJ Abrahms be there to talk about (almost certainly) Project Cloverfield and Star Trek, but Neil Gaiman will be there to talk about Beowulf. I freakin' teach Beowulf, I need to see this! And there will be a screening of Beowulf on Wednesday night! ARGH!!!

So I'm really frustrated. The stuff I most desperately want to see is simply impossible. I hope that the rest of the weekend will make up for the disappointment.

Chillin' like a villian...

Ethan Haas/1-18-08

Just a quick thought about this...turns out that the majority of the Ethan Haas sites were flat out fakes, but oh boy, did the majority of people believe them. Apparently only a few were real and connected with that freaky movie trailer without a title in front of Transformers. The Slusho site is real, as is 1-18-08. Plus the trailer located at apple.com.

Rumors were everything from a Voltron movie (WTF? B,BQ!) to a Godzilla revisit to a Cthulhu movie. Turns out, none of it true, per se. It apparently will take some cues from Lovecraft, but it won't be a Cthulhu movie. It'll be shot Handi-cam style, much as Blair Witch was. And it'll apparently be some kind of giant monster movie. So if true, the still as yet untitled "Cloverfield Project" will be a sort of Gozilla/Cthulhu/Blair Witch hybrid.

Add in J.J. Abrahms involvement and it seems like it could be a hell of a cool movie. Possibly something that Joe Six-Pack in Podunck, Middle America won't get; after all, it's not Fantastic Four or the latest Generic Black Steretype Comedy. But it sure sounds cool to me.

The biggest drawbacks? One, JJ will talk about it at the San Diego Comic Con (according to rumor) and I won't be there in time. And two? My first child is due a week before the movie...

Woohoo!

First, Ratatouille. Very cute movie. Not as laugh out loud funny as perhaps past Pixar projects have been, but a quality film.

Second, I took first! Games Workshop has had painting competitions the last three months in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the White Dwarf magazine. The first month was for 40K and I entered a converted chaplain into the single category and came in second behind a potential Demon Winner. Second month was Lord of the Rings and I didn't enter. This past month was Warhammer Fantasy. Now, I don't really play WFB, but I do have a number of miniatures. So I finished off the Games Day Black Orc and last Monday, began a Brettonian Pegasus Knight.

I dropped them off on Saturday about 1:30 with the promise from the new redshirt that I'll get a call if either of them place. No call. So I wake up Sunday morning thinking I must have gotten edged out by some other models or the subtlety of the work (especially the Orc's armor) must have not been noticed in favor of something more eye-catching.

So on the way to my parent's house for my niece's second birthday we stop by and I ask the redshirt for my "guys." He asks me if that's all I want. I'm confused, thinking maybe he's trying to upsell me something. I say no, just my models. He asks if I'm sure and I just look confused by this point. He's now rustling through the desk and I gather that I've placed in at least one category.

Nope, turns out the Pegasus Knight, started last Monday (and no work on Tuesday) took third place in the Large Model category and the Black Orc took first in the Single Model category.

So woohoo! I've now taken a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd. Is a Demon in my future? Probably not, let's be honest. But now I have proof that I can paint and paint well.

Pictures hopefully later today.

Rest in peace, Nancy and Daniel Benoit

I am still in shock, not quite two days later, about the news of what Chris Benoit did. What drives a man, or woman for that matter, to not only kill their spouse, themselves, but also their young children? There are any number of stories in the news about this so-called familicide and it's just unfathomable.

I'm also of a split-mind about him; does he retain any of my respect for what he did professionally? Does his last few hours invalidate the previous 40 years of his life?

I don't know. I don't have any answers. I'm just still stunned and shocked by it all.

Chris Benoit, Rest In Peace

I just spent the last few hours sitting on the couch with Amanda watching the Chris Benoit tribute show. My head hurts, my eyes are red and I'm confused as hell.

I tuned in thinking it would be the continuation of the horrible Vince McMahon fake death storyline. I change the channel to find that Chris Benoit is dead, along with his wife and young son. I was stunned.

While he was never one of my favorite characters, he was always someone I had immense respect for. He clearly was one of the most intense workers out there and clearly one of the most technically savvy. He may not have been good on the stick, but in the ring, he brought out the best in himself and whoever he was working with.

The worst part about watching those shows is watching these big tough guys, these guys that beat the hell out of each other for a living, these guys that play a$$holes and tough bastards, crying and unable to hold it together on camera.

Now I'm reading news that it may have been a double murder/suicide. I desperately hope this isn't true. I just cannot fathom it at all...