How Do I Do It?

I am not going to say I am the coolest uncle in the world. I'll let you judge for yourself. Exhibit A:


The defense rests.

My nephew is turning three, and that is the minimum suggested age for the, in many ways, best of all toys. The Tonka Dump Truck. If you did not have one of these around as a child, I weep for you. This is a fantastic toy regardless of your sex or preference. Yes it can get that load of blocks to the new build-site in the hallway, but with a little imagination can be a snazzy yellow convertible for Barbie.

True story: as we walked through Wal-Mart with me holding this, a 4 year-old (or so) sitting in a cart while his mom picked out flip-flops stared at me for my entire approach. After I passed he made a sound of yearning. He, at that moment, wanted that Tonka truck more than anything in the world. Well tough, little man. Get yourself a better uncle! :-)

Premature Book Review: The Nymphos of Rocky Flats

Mario Acevedo's vampire Felix Gomez is a veteran who was turned into a vampire in Baghdad. This is the first in a series of several books featuring Gomez with apparently more provocative titles than text.

Oh, there are nymphomaniacs in Rocky Flats, but this is hardly a dirty book. Rocky Flats is a Department of Energy facility where something odd is going on. An unexplained incident effected several women doing a pre-demolition survey of an old building. Whatever it was caused extreme sexual urges, but it appears to be at least in part supernatural. Felix Gomez, now a private detective, has been hired to investigate, and finds his unlife to be threatened.

The book is not bad. It is an enjoyable read, but if you are not into new-fangled vampires, you will want to avoid this. There is a lot of vampire "science" and "vampires don't really need to" kind of stuff. Old school vampire fans will likely be offended. If you enjoy new-fangled vampires, sci-fi, fringe-y, X-Files kind of mysteries, give it a try.

Nerd Girl of Note #39

Here is one you might not know. A few clues:

• Raven from Teen Titans
  
• Illyana Rasputin from X-Men
  
• Barbara Gordon from The New Batman Adventures
  
• Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls
  
• Timmy Turner from Fairly Odd Parents

Got it yet? No?

It's Tara Strong! Duh?!?

Well, not "duh." She has done a ton of voice acting for cartoons and video games, as well as live action acting. You should see her IMDb credits. Ben 10, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Drawn Together, Chowder. The list goes on and on. She's probably been on your favorite recent cartoon and you didn't even know it. Now you know, and... Well, she wasn't on that. Though if they do a new cartoon after the movie, I can see her being in it.

Fiction's Finest Nerds #22

We go back to the spoof super well today with Adam Warren's Empowered.

As a young girl she dreamed of being a superheroine, then one day received a hypermembrane that gave her super powers!

Oh, and she can't wear anything under it (like, uh, underwear) or over it (like a cape) or it malfunctions. Plus, she has body issues. Besides that, she is not very good at being a superhero and typically is found trussed up like Robin in a Golden Age Batman comic. Also, as her hypermembrane deteriorates (which happens easily) she loses her powers in kind.

It's a bit of a T&A comic, though I've seen no nudity in it. It pokes a lot of fun at comics in general, but specifically where the female form and costume are concerned. For the most part it is a lot of fun. Little snippets of superhero parody, only a few pages long. Very Manga-y art, but not a Manga-y comic (too much).

See more at Deviant Art.

Updates, News, Welcomes

Hey, everyone!

Finally at the end of a four day weekend. Hope to get back to some normal blogging schedule soon. Thanks for your patience.

Welcome to all the new followers. As always, feel free to comment.

Two updates. First is little. The boss will be out for surgery. No idea how long. In his absence, I get to wear the big hat. Hopefully this will mean more time at my desk, pushing my co-workers to do my bidding (which sounds better, "henchmen" or "minions"?) - unfortunately that just isn't my style :-(

The big news is I got accepted into a graduate "program" (a certificate, rather than an M.A, though it is the intro to the M.A.). Professional Communication and Technical Writing. Did I mention this already?

Hopefully I'll crank out a movie post, and maybe a "Favorite Album" again shortly while deciding on a "Finest Nerd" and NGoN for this week. Until then, may the farce be with you :-)

Nerd Girl of Note #38

Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C., and a two episode stint on Mork & Mindy might be enough to get you some nerd cred. Raquel Welch is also an international movie star and sex symbol who has also done other nerd-friendly work.

1967's Fathom has Welch as a stunt parachutist who gets involved in some espionage a la the "Flint" or "Matt Helm" movies of the time. It is a comedic action/spy movie that is a good bit of retro fun. Next she appeared in 1967's Bedazzled, which featured her as Lillian Lust "the babe with the bust" - one of the Devil's Seven Deadly sins.

Most notably, to me, she stared in 1970's Myra Breckinridge, based on the infamous Gore Vidal novel. This was a role that could have been difficult on a career, as Welch would be playing a gay man who had sex change and rapes a young man with an... well "implement." Mae Westappears in the film, and apparently was quite beligerent to Welch, refusing to appear in scenes with her. An scenes with both were shot separately. West apparently said that no woman with any respect would play such a role. This is somewhat odd since there is some argument that West was a drag queen; most notably from John Wayne.

Her other nerd friendly credits are too numerous to name here. You can check her out on the IMDb for a full list.

Late, but Happy Canada Day!

To all my Canadian friends, Happy Canada Day. Arden and I celebrated briefly with faux poutine made with vegetarian gravy and cheddar cheese on the fries, and Michelob Ultra, as the grocery had no Canadian beer at all and Arden likes Mic Ultra. Molson Canadian is my favorite beer but is impossible to get in Fayetteville. We had one grocery and one bar that had it. The grocery stopped carrying it, and the bar burned down.

My first Canadian experience (of sorts) was seeing the Montreal Expos at Cincinnati. Tony Pérez was playing for Montreal, though he was a member of the famous Big Red Machine. We were a few rows behind the visitor dugout, and Pérez came out to sign autographs in the seventh inning stretch. I'm from Cinci, so I was a Cinci fan, but the Expos were now a close second.

Next as a kid, and this is a bit silly, a friend and I made a base or our Star Wars figures. This was during the Iranian hostage crisis and Canada had played some role we were impressed with (sorry, it is too late to look it up) so we called the base "Fort Canada."

Third, our oft-discussed trip to Toronto last year was one of my favorites. As of now, Toronto and Chicago are in a heated fight to be my favorite city. Sorry to hear the strikes messed up a lot of the celebrations in the Big Smoke this year.

That's all for now. Again, happy Canada Day!