I was on campus making prints from negatives for almost 12 hours. It was horrible. In that time I only got six done! Plus, with two of them I really should have gone back and fixed them even more, but I just didn’t have patients for it.
   The above pic is a photo of a print I made (the real print doesn’t have the glare on her forehead, is in focus, and the color tones look better). This is my Aunt Laurie when she married my Uncle Tim two weeks ago. This photo is seconds before she walked down the isle. I made a print of this becuase we need to have one with a blurred motion. So I just loved how her hands are blurring from trying to cool her self off.

    [Click above photo to enlarge] Today, all the news is from MySpace. This time “Blade” actress, Jill Wagner, posts that Spike TV has canceled the TV show.

    Remember this from last week? I won “Xenosaga III” from Wizard. Well I got it this week in the mail but they sent a mess of other stuff too.
             -Wizard
             -Animie Insider
             -Toy Fair
             -Jonah Hex #1
             -Jonah Hex #2
             -Wildcats #0
             -Hero Squared #3
             -Exalted #4

    There was a massive job fair on campus Wednesday. The school’s career center bragged that its American University’s largest job fair because there were nearly 200 employers. Of course, for film and writing, there was no one for me to talk to, but there were FBI and CIA recruiters. The FBI people are the cluster at the top right of the above photo.
    I made my way to the FBI recruiters. Acting nonchalant, I walked and stood side by side to one of them. I waited a few seconds and then leaned toward him whispering, “So aliens exist right?”
    The guy pulled down his glasses, looking at me with his brow raised. So I said, “Comeon. Be straight with me. They exist right?”
    Keeping a stone expression on his face he says, “I can’t say right now. They’re watching.”
    I burst out laughing and then spent 45 minutes talking to the guy. I told him I’m a grad student working on a screenplay and that I had a bunch of questions about how FBI jurisdiction works and all that kind of stuff.
    It was actually a bunch of stuff I needed to know for rewriting “Summer Girl,” the novel I’m working on. The guy was super helpful and now I just need to give the Ocean City police chief a call to ask her some questions and I’ll be about ready to do some re-writing.

   Jon Favreau, director of the new “Iron Man” movie, posted the following on his MySpace blog:
   “It is true. Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. I am about as excited as I can be. I saw what he can do and he is extremely enthusiastic about playing Stark. I can say with absolute certainty that there is no better choice. The humor and emotional dimension he brings truly raises the bar on this project. Get ready.”
    So come February, Downey, the well known drug addict, but amazing actor, will portray Tony Stark, Marvel’s well known alcoholic. Between that and Tony Stark being a total dick, the roll shouldn’t be a stretch for Downey.

   We have three major projects in my photography class and the first one is due next Thursday. For it we have to have three prints (a print is a photo you print/develop from a negative).
    Since the semester started I’ve used 12 rolls of film, so I have a lot of photos to chose from for the assignment. I think some of mine are so good that I’ll even be able to use some for the second assignment.
    I’ve very excited because I now have all 12 rolls developed. I’m very sad because I still have to make 7 contact sheets and print my six prints (The pic above is actually of some of my contact sheets I already made).
    I know printing a print doesn’t sound like a big deal but it’s a bitch. It’s 100 times worse than developing a roll of film. See first you have to make several “test” version of the photo you want to print to try and figure out how long you want to expose the negative to light (The more light you use the darker it will be).
    Then after you have the right time for the overall photo you have to “burn” and “doge” which means over exposing and under exposing parts of your print so that some parts are darker and some parts are lighter.
    Burning and dodging is a pain in the ass. I can do it in a matter of seconds in Photoshop but doing it in the photo lab can take hours and hours and hours! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
    So needless to say, Saturday from noon till midnight I will be at the photo lab printing my six prints. I’m even worried that in twelve hours I won’t have enough time to do all of them.
    The one good side to all of this is that I officially have two more rolls  of film I have to do for the class. After that I’m allowed to switch to fancy digital cameras that the school is letting us use for free.
    Also, next week, we get to learn how to scan our negatives onto the computer. Once I learn that I’ll scan all my negatives and set up a gallery.

    This Amanda. She is hot (for some reason my other photos from my cell are blurry so this is the best I had).
    Whenever I’m on campus on Thursdays I have a break from 2p.m. till 5:30p.m. Today I spent most of that in the photo lab working on our first major project that is due next week but from 4 till 5:30 I chilled in the big lounge where I normally chill.
    So as I was “chilling” today this girl came over and sat down across from me. She was talking on the phone and fighting with her boyfriend. I could tell she was upset. He apparently was ditching her for dinner and going to something for the “row team.”
Being the pimp I am I said to her, “Yeah, you should just dump him. He’s obviously gay if he’d rather be hanging out with a bunch of guys than a hotty like you.”
     She must have found me charming because we spent an hour hanging out and got dinner from the cafeteria. I learned that she’s 21 and a junior and has been dating the guy for six months. After we hung out she asked for my number. Still being Pimp-Daddy-King, I told her “I would give you my number but to be honest I’ve broken up soooooo many couples that I’ve learned its best to not give it out to beautiful girls who are dating assholes. MAYBE I can give you my screen name or email or something, but I really don’t think a phone number is best until you break up with your boyfriend.”
     She was very excited to get my AIM screen name and used her cell phone to add it to her buddy list right away. …NOW I just need her to break up with her boyfriend, but we all know that girls like this NEVER do that.

    This thing is really called a “Geek-a-Cycle.” I think it’s the stupidest thing in the world. I mean if you want to exercise, THEN get off your butt and do it. I’m sure people will buy this thing and just never use it like most exercise equipment that people buy.
    Of course Sarah thinks this is the greatest thing ever. She told me she wants it. Of course I’m not about to spend the $350 on it so I can give it to her for her birthday, though I spent almost that last year as a gift.

Duh, Wednesdays and Thursdays are my days on campus. I’m on a brief break between classes and just figured I should post this since I got two emails about the blog being quiet. I’ll get home tonight around 10p.m. so if I’m not too tired I’ll post new stuff then.

    The Scott McCloud Clan has posted the first Winterview. This is an interview conducted by McCloud’s youngest daughter Winter and filmed/edited by his oldest daughter Sky.
    The McCloud girls are holding the Winterviews with various comic book creators that the meet across the country on their 50-state-tour.
    This first one is with Raina Telgemeier (of "Smile" and "Babysitters Club" fame) and Dave Roman (associate editor at Nickelodeon and creator of "Astronaut Elementary" and "Agnes Quill").  There isn’t too much to be gained about comics from it, but its nice to watch to just how cute of a couple the two cartoonist are.

     Wizard (the magazine publisher and convention coordinators) is launching a new film festival that they plan to make an annual event. The actual competition will happen at Wizard World Texas and winners will be screened at Wizard World Lost Angeles.
     There are four categories; dramas 5 minutes and under, comedies 5 minutes and under, dramas 60 minutes and under, and comedies 60 minutes or under.
     I’m 96.7 percent sure I’m going to submit “Hundred Dollar Bill” into the 5 minute drama category. I just need to talk to Kevin and I’m waiting to hear back on an email I sent Wizard.
     There aren’t any crazy prizes or anything for this festival. Actually there is only one prize. The best of the four finalists will receive a “Best in Fest” award at Wizard World Texas. Then next spring at Wizard World Los Angeles, the winner gets an 8ft table for free at the show (One of the questions I emailed was if Wizard World pays for transportation and lodging in L.A.).

    It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t interested in the DVD format war. I know I’m a geek but this is a HUGE deal. You see back in the 80’s there was VHS and Betamax. Betamax was a better quality but more expensive. So the country was split with some companies backing one version and some backing the other. Eventually VHS won the battle, but it slowed the progression of the medium and made things more expensive for us normal people.
    Right now, all the major studios are backing either Blu-Ray-DVD or HD-DVD. Even the Playstation 3 (blu-ray) and Xbox 360 (hd) are picking sides. For us consumers, things were NOT looking good.
    Until now.
    Just last week, a British media technology company put a patent out for technology that allows blu-ray and HD format to be put on the same DVD. It works by putting a thin-multilayer on the DVD which cost about 9 cents a disc (current DVD’s cost 5 to 6 cents a disc). This week, New Medium Enterprises announced that they were the ones to put out that patent and that the technology does in deed work.
    "Current technologies to create multiple layer disks mostly don’t work. We’ve created a technology for mass production of multiple layers that does not suffer from the well known problem of low yields," said NME Chief Technology Officer Eugene Levich in a press release.
     A low yield means that many DVDs coming off the manufacturing lines are not working and have to be discarded.
     So anyway I’m super excited because if this is all for real then the DVD format war could be over. It wouldn’t matter which format studios backed because they would produce one DVD that would work for both.
     Of course, I believe that the next step after blu-ray/hd-dvds is a more advanced version of Video-on-Demand. I think it will reach a point where all TV shows and movies are kept online in a database. Then when you buy a movie/TV show you are allowed permanent access to that show and can watch it streaming off the web from any TV, computer, or portable device.
     With regular TV networks, instead of shows JUST airing at 8p.m. time slot, they will instead be posted/published on the web at 8p.m. and can be watched at anyone’s connivance.

Heroes” is a hit, according to the numbers of the season premier. It did 8.8(share)/13(rating). Then it combined with “Deal or No Deal” (8.2/13) and “Studio 60” (7.5/12) gave NBC the win for the night. It has been a lonnnnnnng time since NBC won a night with scripted dramas.
I think “Heroes” and “Studio 60” are by far the best new shows of the season (Though I still haven’t seen “Ugly Betty” yet). I’m so glad that NBC pulled them from Thursdays and decided to have them run on Mondays. Monday is by far my new favorite night on TV.

     F U CW! Hahahhahahahahahahahahhaha! This is what you jerk executives get. You cancel “7^th Heaven.” You give the show a series finale. You renew “Everwood” but THEN at the last minute before Upfronts, you announce that you changed your mind and scratched “Everwood” so you could afford to bring back “7^th Heaven.”  Hahahhahahahahha. Us “Everwood” fans get the last laugh! Your stupid Camdems only pulled 2.9/5 in thier season premier. Those numbers are 23 percent off from the show’s premier last year and 46 percent off its season finale! Hahahahahahahaha

    This is a really bad book and you should not waste your money on it. I mean just skimming it in the book store I should have known it was going to be total crap, but I wanted to have a little faith in David and gave it a try.
   The biggest problem is that there is no order to the book. Most writing books start with smaller concepts and build on those. David wrote his like a stream of conscious where it just keeps shifting into the next subject without any real connection. The book has chapters, but you only know that from the table of contents. You could never tell by reading it.
    The second problem with the book is that David has nothing important to say. Every concept he talks about is done very lightly and better covered by other writers. At one point David it admits this saying, “Scott McCloud has written about matters such as these at far greater length, and with far more expertise, than I could hope to achieve.”
    Everything David writes about is a diet-version. At one point he talks about the traditional three act structure. He does his best to explain plot points and pacing, but it’s a generic point of view that can easily be found on numerous websites. It would have been nice if David elaborated or added his own view/twist to these types of things. Instead, if you want to know about plotting, structure, or pacing you’re better off reading anyone of Syd Field’s screen writing books.
    I love the part where David talks about character arcs. He tries to explain how characters need to grow from the beginning of their journey till the end of their journey. He also makes a comment about mentor figures being popular, but doesn’t really spend time explaining archetypes. It was so frustrating to read because he was clearly talking about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, but he did a hack job of explaining it. If you want to really know about this stuff than you are better off reading Campbell’s "Hero with a Thousand Faces" or Christopher Voight’s "The Writer’s Journey."
   Another odd thing David does is constantly makes pop culture references. I understand the need to reference well known material to make your points, but he over does it. There are times when he says “Look at Pirates of the Caribbean where they did blah blah blah..” when it would have been better if he had taken the time and elaborated more.
    “Writing for Comics with Peter David” is too watered down for anyone over the age of ten to read or gain from. Do not waste your time buying it or even skimming it for free when in a bookstore.

 
   Everwood lives! Sorta… ok not really. BUT Greg Berlanti, one of the show’s creators, is now heading ABC’s "Brothers & Sisters" and he just let it slip that Dr. Andy, Treat Williams, will be comming to the new show. He’s going to be a love interest for the newly widowed Sally Field. Right now Williams is only on board for one episode, but that could easily be extended. Also comming to the show is the very hot Emily Van Camp who will play Patricia Wettig’s daughter.

Oh my god. How funny is the cover to this month’s "Cracked?" Thanks Jim Smash for pointing it out!

I love TV. I love it even better when it and comics overlap, but for some reason I was a tad disappointed in last night’s premier of “Heroes.” The episode was re-edited from the version I saw earlier this summer. In what I saw, the pilot was a 2-episode premier-event, NBC didn’t like that so they re-edited the show so that the first two episodes could stand alone. So if for some reason, this week’s episode didn’t click with you, just hang on for one more week. I promise it gets better.
Then, to hold you over until the second episode airs, NBC has launched an online comic taking place in the “Heroes” universe. Even cooler is the fact that it was drawn by Michael Turner. More artwork and “Heroes/Comics” stuff can be found at 9th Wonders.

     “One Tree Hill” kicks off its fourth season this week. Although I’m not a fan of the show (I just tape it and then fast foreword through like 80 percent of the episodes), one of the cool things they have done is that instead of having the kids be in high school and going to college in real-time, they split their senior year in half. So the fourth season is the second half of the characters senior year.
     Mark Schwahn, the shows creator, recently said this about a 5th season to Kristin from E!:

     "I do have a contingency plan for a fifth season. I think the ratings will be good this season, and I hope we’re asked back. If we are, I’m game to stay for at least one more year. I would like to do something that’s never been done with any teen-based show before. It’s sort of unprecedented. If they grant us a fifth season, I want to skip college entirely. The kids [actors] are in their 20s, you know, they’re 22 and 23, all the stuff that we’ve done is sort of college-esque in terms of the sort of advanced, accelerated behavior of our kids, so my idea is to skip ahead and fill in the blanks in flashback in season five. Nobody’s ever done it. And what’s cool is, like, if you drop in on Peyton, who’s running her own record label or whatever, what happened?! At the end of the premiere, who’s she going home to, first of all? And if she goes home alone, what happened and why isn’t she with Lucas or Jake or whoever? So, I’m definitely game to stay with show if they let us and do it at least one more year."

     The “Lost Experience” game has ended. It was an “alternate reality game” that ABC used to keep hard core fans interested during the summer. It started last May and players found hidden messages and codes from websites, voice mail, TV ads, and newspaper adds.
     There were no winning prizes, but the experience offered clues that explained some of the island’s many secrets.
    Comic book fans may remember Rachel Blake, the game’s protagonist, busted into a “Lost” panel and accused the producers of being part of a deep conspiracy.
    The biggest reveal I saw from the game were in the two final videos released to the web. The penultimate video explains the meaning of the numbers while the very last one reveals that Rachel Blake’s father is Alvar Hanso.

 
    “The Boondocks” one of the greatest comic strips of all time, has been on hiatus since last February. New strips were supposed to start running next week but Aaron McGruder, the strips creator, just announced that the hiatus will last indefinitely.
    For anyone un-cultured enough to have read the strip before, its about a black family living in the suburbs that cracks on everything from politics, racism, BET, and about everything in-between. I have the first two collected volumes and the first season of the cartoon that ran last year on Cartoon Network.
    In a press release, McGruder says that he plans to start doing the strips again but isn’t ready yet. He says that he focusing a lot of energy on the second season of the TV show and has other comic ventures he wants to finish before returning to the daily comic strip.
    "It’s my understanding, in the communications with Aaron and his agent, that the biggest problem is finding the right time to make a decision," said Lee Salem, president of the “Boondocks” strip distributor told the AP. "He’s not ready to do that at this point. I don’t know the answer to (the comic’s future)."
    I’m all about McGruder giving attention to the TV show, but I’m really sad the new strips have been put on hold.

[Dad in the hospital in August, the last time he had pneumonia]
     So Dad was released from the hospital yesterday (Saturday) morning. Last night he had a 103 degrees fever and mom had to take him back to the hospital. He was having severe camping which normally causes him to go septic. Late last night/early this morning, Dad was released again.
     About ten minutes mom called to tell me that Dad is once again back in the hospital, this time for pneumonia. The pneumonia was either a strain he’s had that has been dormant and because he’s been sick it’s been able to go full force or it’s a strain he caught while in the hospital.
    Mom had just heard back from the doctors about Dad’s x-rays when she called me. She said they were checking him in but didn’t know anything else. So right now I don’t know how serve the pneumonia is or which lung it’s in.
    Normally it wouldn’t matter which lung he has pneumonia in, but since he just punctured one of them a few days ago, it could make a huge difference.
    So right now I get to play the ‘waiting game’ where I have no power or control of what is going on and I just merely wait to hear how dad is doing.

A Hispanic man climbing the tree outside my window. I have no idea why. He was up there for about thirty minutes and it sorta freaked me out.

    If you take the grosses of the number one films for the past three weeks, they still don’t add up to the $28.1 million that “Jackass: Number Two” pulled in. I guess this answers the ever burning question,: “Yes, America likes to watch Johnny Knoxville drink horse semen.”
    I mean, come on, it’s Jackass! What fan didn’t want to go see this in the theater? The only reason I didn’t go see it was because this is the kind of movie you need to see with someone. That way a day later you can be like “Oh my gawd! Remember when Johnny Knoxville drank the horse semen?” Since Sarah & Kevin didn’t want to go with me to see it, I’m holding off until I find someone.
(Read on …)

    I finished reading Scott McCloud’s “Making Comics.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with the comic-academia, McCloud first proved himself an analytical genius with his first book “Understanding Comics,” way back in 1993. In it, he broke down comics and gave his definition of the medium, as well as how it works. His next book, “Reinventing Comics” hit the shelves in 2000. In it he analyzed things like, the industry, the format, and digital comics.
    With “Making Comics,” his thickest book to date, he does exactly as the title describes, he explains how to make comics. He focuses on things like layouts, how to draw, how to letter, how to tell a story, and a billion other things.
     For anyone interested in the field, this newest book is another must read, and although the content is valuable, its McCloud’s tone and storytelling abilities that make it stand out. I mean let’s be honest, this is a text book. This is something you would read for a class or for a homework assignment. But the way McCloud handles it, it doesn’t feel like homework. It feels like a personal discussion with an old friend about a medium you both love.
     My favorite chapter of the book was the first part which talks about layouts, pacing, framing, and things along those lines. I probably liked it the best because I’m working on “DAD!” my documentary graphic novel and it’s exactly the kind of help/input I need.
    The chapter that I found the least interesting was the part where McCloud talks about drawing. He talks about form, drawing tools, and all that stuff.  It’s very well done and anyone interested in drawing should read what he has to say. I just didn’t connect with it because I’m not an artist (by artist, I mean a person who draws or paints) and never will be one.
    After each chapter, McCloud has added notes and exercises. In a sense it’s a tad weird that he included the “notes” sections in the book because they almost feel like “special features” you would find on a DVD. If anything, these note sections, make the book even more text-book-(but in a goodway)-like and the perfect thing for a college course or someone trying to teach themselves how to make comics.
   There isn’t much else I or anyone else can say about “Making Comics” other than you should have already bought it and if you haven’t then get off your butt and go get it.
   Even cooler, if you’re a McCloud fan, is that he and his McCloud-Clan are doing a 50-state-tour over the nex year! (The Tour Blog) He’ll be doing D.C. and MD on Oct. 14th. I’m definitely going to see him at SPX and then at his book signing at Politics & Prose. I’ve even tried emailing McCloud to see if he would be willing to do an interview with me at the bookstore, like the one I did with Brad Meltzer, but he’s not responded. Of course I can’t blame him for not responding. He’s a comic-genius busy doing a state to state tour and I’m just one of many fans.

    Remember this post? Well the Monstera Deliciosa finally ripened and the scales have fallen off. As you can see in the big pic, the scales literally peel themselves and then fall. They reveal a white flesh that is very similar to corn on the cob, but when you pull out the “kernels” they are long and tooth like.   Texture wise they are like a banana but flavor wise they taste more like a pineapple but not citrusy. I don’t really like it that much but Sarah thinks it’s really good.

    Bean, Sarah’s cat, was sitting at my window today starring at two squirrels fighting. The fighting quickly turned into an hour-long session of rodent-love-making (I had no idea squirrel-sex was so loud). This forced me to sit Bean down and give him “The Talk.” Now I’m worried that when Sarah gets home from work, she’ll be pissed at me for explaining the birds-n-the-bees to her cat.

It took me a bit of time, but I finally got the full Q&A from my Brad Meltzer interview typed up. The interview took place at Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. and it was recorded so that everything you read is verbatim (except for stupid typos and lack of commas).

From Meltzer’s website:

"Brad Meltzer is the best-selling author of The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, and his newest novel, The Book of Fate. He’s also the writer of the Justice League and the co-creator of the TV show, Jack & Bobby."

I should have a full article based on this interview, the book, and two events I went to with him by next week. The Q&A is after the break.

(Read on …)

Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort is always fun to quote. In his blog he writes:

“Here’s the thing: the characters are invulnerable. I’m not talking about super-powers here; I’m talking about the ability to survive bad stories and bad times and to live on and prosper again. The primary Marvel characters have been around for four decades at this point, and have been translated into animated cartoons, movies, television shows and more toys than you could ever hope to collect. They’ve become immortal, and a part of the pop culture landscape.”

Wait there’s more:

“Think of the worst mistakes you can come up with from years gone by: Professor X dead? Fixed. The Human Torch married? Fixed. Spider-Man a clone? Fixed. And then think about all of the stuff you’re worried about that’s happening today–do you truly believe that it’s any more difficult to repair or redeem any of it than what we’ve seen in the past? I sure don’t.”

     Basically what he’s saying is that everything going on in comics now, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who gets killed. It doesn’t matter that Spider-Man revealed his identity. NONE OF IT MATERS because at some point in the future it will be fixed or changed.
    If what we are reading doesn’t matter, this makes me wonder, why bother reading comics?
    I think it’s for the ride. I think it’s because we want to read stories and be entertained by them. Though in comics it does make it frustrating knowing that the “now” doesn’t matter, but comics are an odd medium. You don’t have TV characters last for forty years, (well maybe on soaps but they are just as bad as comics with changes and fixes).
    How boring would a TV show get if it lasted for four decades? I love “Grey’s Anatomy” but the show could never last 40 years. The producers and writers would run out of stories to tell with the main characters or the main characters would be thrown away and new cast would come on board. At that point it wouldn’t be the same show anymore. I mean look at "ER" compared to what it used to be. It’s a totally different show, except for the setting.
    There are changes and fixes in comics because you need that up and down feel for drama. But in the long run, all characters return to their natural form, only to be changed again down the line. So whether you are pissed about Clor(cloned Thor) or whatever, just suck it up and know that given enough time, all will be changed again. 

I chipped a tooth tonight. It’s my second chipped tooth this year. The last time was in March. It hurts reallllllllllly bad. I need four root canals, probably five now, but I can’t afford it. Even with dental insurance we are talking several thousands of dollars. I’m getting really worried and don’t know what to do. The longer I wait, the worse my teeth get, but if I can’t afford it, I can’t afford it. AHHHHHH.

The real TV season battle has happened! Last night was the season premier of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “C.S.I.” It was a HUGE event. Think Red Sox vs Yankees, for you sports people.
“Grey’s” kicked butt. It did 15.7/23, while “CSI” did 13.5/20. ((first number is share while second number is ratting. Its really hard to explain to non-TV people so just know “Grey’s” did better or if you want real numbers, “Grey’s” did 25.4 million viewers while “CSI” had 22.5 million.))
CSI has ruled Thursdays since moving there in 2001, mid-way through its first season. More than that, Gil Grissom’s forensic gang has ruled prime time as TV’s most watched scripted show since the 2002-03 TV year. So this is HUGE that Grey’s beat it last night.
Up against Grey’s Anatomy, CSI saw its audience shrink 22 percent from last fall’s premiere. (Grey’s Anatomy, by comparison, was up 32 percent.) CSI got beat in total viewers, it got beat in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, and it got beat in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic. According to ABC, the defeats were the first for CSI in five years, excluding a handful of times it lost out to supersized finales, à la the 2004 Friends farewell.

    I won a contest from Wizard Magazine. They were offering a free copy of “Xenosaga III,” (a game I want but didn’t want to spend money on), if someone could connect the game with the TV show “Eureka” in six steps.
    Using IMBD.com I said, “Assitant Scott is voiced by actor Brian Chase. Brian Chase was on an episode of "House." Salli Richardson was on an episode of "House." Salli Richardson is Allison Blake on "Eureka".”
    I was the first one to answer it, so I’m getting the game!

   I’m pretty sure I’m done watching Saturday Night Live. Shady stuff is going on.
   In a press release, NBC announced their new cast. Already gone were Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch, but surprises included fat man Horatio Sanz, Chris Parnell, and Finess Mitchell getting the boots too. Sanz and Parnell have been cast members for eight seasons while Mitchell has been one for three years.
    NBC said that every departure was mutual. Yet less than a month ago Sanz told NY Times, “I definitely enjoy the job and would like to stick with it," Sanz said. "It’s fun, and there will be a lot of change, which could be a little exciting. I have no intention of leaving the show."
   Sounds like Sanz was being really mislead by someone.
    With Fey leaving, five year-member Seth Myers will be taking over as co-anchor for Weekend update with Amy Poehler, who I can’t stand.
     The full returning cast is:  Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig.

 
    This is a new high-tech wheel chair from Japan. It’s a “smart” wheel chair that has a 360-degrees camera system. Its electric and the perfect thing for dad because it stops the user from colliding with any objects, including people. It also reads pulse, blood pressure, and other stuff. Then, when the rider needs medical attention, it calls 911. It also monitors postures for the same thing. Even cooler is the fact that the chair is controlled by gesture! All you have to do is point and the chair takes you to wherever you want to go.
    Since we are talking about Dad I should say he’s doing much better. As of now there is no sign of infection. He’s just in a lot of pain because they couldn’t give him any more medicine than what he is already on. Plus they said the type of pain is different from the normal kind.

I’m back. Expect updates later today.

    It’s always something with my father. I just saw him when I was home for Uncle Tim’s wedding, but he’s already back in the hospital. The gist of it is that dad blacked out when in the kitchen. He fell on a knife that went in very deep and punctured his right lung. They operated and removed the knife, but now he’s in ICU and the big fear is an infection.
    A funny thing is that when in the ambulance, when he was half delirious, Dad asked if anyone had a camera so they could take a photo of the knife sticking out of his chest. He tried to explain to them it’s because I was making a documentary comic book, but he was so out of it that he didn’t make any sense and the paramedics thought he was crazy.
    So anyway, pretty nervous and upset. We are just doing the waiting-game where we wait to find out if his body will heal or give out on him.

   Sarah took me to the store to buy medicine (I have a severe sinus infection). Well I mean I’m already on antibiotics, but I wanted some Nyquil and juice. While at MOMs (an organic grocery store) we saw this crazy fruit called, Monstera Deliciosa! It was so insane looking I had to buy it.
    As you can see, the fuit is long and green like a cucumber but has scales.  According to the directions that it came with, it is from Mexico and Guatemala.
    To eat it, you place the fruit upside down in a jar and leave it alone. Eventually the fruit peels itself by shedding its scales. Once the scales fall off, there is supposedly white pieces of fruit that taste like a mix between a banana and a pineapple.
   Sarah and I are excited to watch it ripen and to taste it. I’ll post more photos once the crazy scales start shedding.

Tori Spelling is doing an episode of “Smallville.” She’s going to play a reporter working with Chloe at the Danily Planet.  Fitting for her, she’s going to be a gossip columnist. Even better is she’s going to be the freak-of-the-week and have the power to turn herself into water!
Updated from Ausiello:
   I tracked down exec producer Al Gough inside the CW soiree to get more details on the camptastic casting coup. (Warning: major spoilers coming.) "It’ll be our first episode back in January, and she’ll be kind of our villain of the week," he reveals. "She’ll be exposing the very big secrets that will be driving the second half of the season, and I can’t tell you any of them. Zero." (Did you really think I’d let him off that easy?) "OK, I’ll tell you one snippet," he continues. "Episode 11, which is our second episode back in January, is going to be called "Justice," and it’ll basically be our first look at the Justice League. We’re gonna have Green Arrow, Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman, played by Alan Rickman, who is coming back. That’s gonna be our first Justice League episode." And where exactly is Wonder Woman? "Ask Joel Silver," Gough grumbles. "He’s the producer; he controls the movie rights. We’d do a whole Wonder Woman series if we had Wonder Woman, but Joss Whedon is writing the movie, so we can’t have her." Damn, damn, damn!

    Uncle Tim and (Aunt) Laurie’s wedding was really nice. The ceremony was held at 5:30 at the Blue Ox in Ocean City and the reception was immediately afterwards.
     The ceremony was a family-only-event and was very simple. Actually it was awesome! We didn’t have to listen to a full mass or long boring stuff. We just got there, sat down, and BAM the wedding happened.  

(Read on …)

    NY Times Best Selling Author Brad Meltzer has made history by being the first writer to top the NY list and Diamond Comic Distributors top 100 at the same time.
    “The Book of Fate” is tearing things up in book stories while “Justice League of America” is kicking Civil War’s ass in comic book stores.
    I really enjoyed “The Book of Fate” but I’m holding off on JLofA until it hits graphic novel form. Also, I should have my Brad Meltzer interview transcribed by the end of the week.