One of the bigger timesinks the last month was so nerdy that I can barely bring myself to type it out:

I organized digital files.

Which I didn’t find insane until I spoke to some friends. And realized that discluding my music and personal photos and video, I have about 100 gigs of data. Papers from high school, backups of various projects, art, pdf-ed articles. It’s an embarrassing amount of data. And it took me weeks to move it into a file structure that remotely resembled something logical.

The worst part is that I actually believed all of this was somewhat normal. I struggled with the file structure for a long time, knowing this was a project I needed to do. I searched online, read everything I could about how to organize trees, about how other people saved their data. And I was confused why I couldn’t find more information, more details.

Turns out that most people don’t save copies of their life like I have.

It took the better part of the month to shift things around, delete duplicates and generally clean house. This project has loomed over my head for over a year and now that it’s complete and I theoretically can find anything I’ve ever had, I can’t believe how much more relaxed I am.

I also can’t believe I typed that sentence.

But when you want to know about the paper I wrote on the Renaissance some 18 years ago (or the raw jpg from the 224 frame of my Howl animation or the letter I wrote you in college and sent you [printed on some sweet dot matrix printer] or the first digital picture I ever took*), let me know. I ought to be able to find it more easily now.

* Even better, here it is.

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I just realized (found out) that Bai Ling plays the sister of the bad guy in The Crow.

Crap.*

* And I say this as I don’t like the woman but she was hot. In that movie. 14 years ago.**

** I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.

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Thanks to Eric’s comment about the mummy on the cover of GI Joe 49, I realized I had to spend 5 minutes saying a little something about Serpentor: he might just be the dumbest character ever. And, for me, was the moment GI Joe jumped the shark.

Firstly: Serpentor is a clone using the DNA of the greatest warriors in history. And he just happens to have a costume that looks like a giant cobra. This is stupid. Even my naive 10 year old self knew this was stupid.

Here is a guide: when you have badass ninjas like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (and even Firefly), why the hell would a kid want to play with this toy?

I knew that he was introduced during the GI Joe movie (though the Wiki page says it was a 5-part TV show); what I didn’t know was that this was the beginning of the second season of the show. That’s pretty soon to have run out of ideas and have to resort to such an absurd character.

I mean, really. Do me a favor and gaze upon Serpentor once more; he IS the Emperor of Cobra, afterall:

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Nerd alert!

I still read comics, as I have for most of my life. I know the first issue I bought (Web of Spider-man 13), but this was a natural course — my parents and grandparents had bought random issues for me for years, from the spinner racks in grocery stores. (See Stars Wars [I still love this cover], random cartoon issues and even a random issue from my father’s childhood.)

But I stopped buying as regularly a while ago, driven away by rising costs and frustration over how DC comics was marketing their books. I had quit reading cold before, back when I went to college; that time lasted about 3 years. This time it is likely I won’t go back to buying issues, opting for other ways to read issues. (I’ve been especially drawn to the DC Showcase phonebooks — cheap, easy and fun).

Ok, so what?

So I limit my comic nerdiness on here because I know almost no one who follows stories like I do. That’s ok: I’m posting these thoughts and links because I think there is a passing chance you’ll be amused if you have a passing interest or fondness for comics.

Want to hear someone rail against the latest Marvel crossover, Secret Invasion? (This is about #6, which is arguably the funniest review.) Done. In fact, check out parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. If you want to read all the review in order. (Bonus: a review of the new Marvel cross-over, Dark Reign. I’m throwing it to you as I love the reference to “super-hero board-room” genre. It’s totally Bendis and totally true. I’ll go one farther even — Bendis writes groups of people, usually heroes, sitting around talking. That’s his thing. His cross-overs are generally board-rooms, but I would say that his regular issues are more water-cooler.)

Or would you rather read a review of DC’s latest crossover? (I’m biased here, I love what Morrison has done with this series throughout; this might be my favorite comic in years.) I mean, where else can you read a review that says:

And yet: a certain energy still erupts.

I know exactly when it happens too – over halfway through the issue, with Evil Mary Marvel literally thrusting her leather-clad crotch into Freddy Freeman’s face, then Talky Tawny descending from the sky in a steam-powered jetpack, dressed in slacks and a checkered jacket while declaring things like “This is the quantum blunderbuss we confiscated from Professor Sivana’s son,” while an evil tiger-person in a Thundercats-style leotard waves a metal club and rides in on a giant mutant dog. This follows a ground war in the middle of a ruined city with human and animal superheroes and their capes and hoods and horns and tails and quivers of arrows riding motorcycles and jeeps while the sky fills with Supergirl and a Green Lantern and robots and things.

Even if you don’t know the sorted history of the Marvel family or why any of this might possibly matter, the sheer madness of a bunch of disparate elements swirled up like this is so overwhelming; it shows Morrison at his best.

Ok, ok.

Fine, you aren’t into current cross-over reviews. But can you at least dig the reminiscing about awesome covers to the GI Joe comic? Yes. You can.

And if you can’t, Keren wanted me to share this picture of an anteater with you.

Wow. I didn’t expect to just have a giant post about other people’s recent comic reviews, but so be it.

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15 years on in my life and i am still sample spotting.

Messiah’s “There Is No Law” samples the intro from U2’s show at Red Rocks. It’s on the DVD, but not the LP. “Ladies and gentlemen…you’re all part of history.” Only took 15 years to hear it — and about 1 minute to confirm. I know I am probably the only person in the world who cares, but I won’t lie about the thrill that still happens when I can do this.

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On Caltrain, the 5.14pm bullet from the city.

Behind me, 2 separate conversations (one person to person, the other person to phone) about the new android/gphone g1 that went live today.

neeeeeerrrrrrdddddddddssssss!
(say it in your best ogre voice)

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• I didn’t realize initially that it was the Michael Phelp-ics, but I’m pretty burned out now. We watched some at the beach, but the Olympics have never been my thing. I do wish I’d followed the soccer a bit more though.
• Mike and I went to Daly City last night to pick up a new dresser and nightstand for me off of craigs list. Oh man. I had measured the car to make sure the dresser would fit in the backseat. Check. However, I made the fatal flaw that I’m sure everyone does at some point — I didn’t check to make sure the dresser would fit through the car door. The result? We look like idiots to these people, who send us up the street to the dollar store to buy string to tie the trunk to the dresser. We evenually get it all together after much amateur fumbling and I drive the 45 miles down the 280 sweating the entire time, convinced the string will break and something bad will happen. Nothing does and we make it home just fine. I have a dresser for the first time since moving to the west coast.
• This morning it occurred to me that the “Batman R.I.P.” (which I know Ben is reading, at least) by Morrison currently running in the Batman comic is a lot like the “Hush” storyline by Loeb from several years ago. Except that Loeb went low-brow and Morrison is hitting the high-brow notes. Also, “Final Crisis” is very, very good. I’m burned out on DC still, but if you have basic (or nerd-basic) knowledge of DC, “Final Crisis” should tickle you in strange places. Of course, if I say Mister Miracle, Seven Soldiers, Barry Allen and 4th World and you have a blank stare, you’ll need to hit up Wikipedia to fully appreciate it. (Also, bringing back Barry Allen is the single worst idea DC could do. I’d like to say it doesn’t actually raise my blood pressure, but it does. I am a nerd.)
• This post by the Portman’s bf, titled “In Which We Request You Not Tongue Our Balls” might be enough for me to wish the couple well. As much as I love the Portman, I’m not sure I can offer more than this post does. Yes, I may no longer be the perfect match for Natalie. The nerd in me is crying.
• Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is out. It’s David Brynes and Brian Eno’s first collab in 30-some years, the first since “My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.” I need to listen to this one some more before I decide if I’m buying it or not.
• We were on vacation for Imperial Fleet Week this year. Looks like we didn’t miss a ton.
  
• And yes, I’m doing well. I haven’t fallen off of any cliffs, though I’m staying up too late, eating too late (last night dinner was at midnight) and generally driving myself to exhaustion. Debate may begin if this is a healthy coping mechanism.

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