Pumpkin Seeds: The Week that Was Edition

1. No matter your individual schedule, NaNoWriMo marches on, with or without you. Despite Comic Book Wednesday stealing a night of writing from me, I'm still in the mix. In a deep hole, yes, but in the mix. Yesterday's unexpected day off as the kids' day care decided to celebrate Veteran's Day at the last minute, helped as I pounded out 1,355 words for the zombies' first appearance while the kids napped! 2. NaNoWriMo Word Count, Day 11: 7,881 (-10,456) 3. The new boss announced on Tuesday that, as of next Friday, she'll be the old boss, heading back to…

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Review: Superman/Batman #8-13

I reserved judgement on this until it was complete, hoping there'd be a little more to it than than fanboy pandering, but alas, it is what it is. Credit Jeph Loeb for giving the people what they want, I guess. From his lazy, summer-blockbuster plotting and scripting, to Michael Turner's incredibly overrated artwork, this story arc bored me senseless. Another Supergirl. Whoopee! I imagine there's bigger plans for her in the near future but this overblown introduction certainly doesn't have me anticipating them. Never has Superman been more annoying, or Batman so predictable, and their navel-gazing narration was frequently trite…

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My Top 5 Comic Book Titles

(ongoing series only) 1. Gotham Central - I'm a big fan of strong characterization and tight plotting, and this Batman-themed take on the classic police procedural, a la Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Street, features some of the strongest writing in comics. Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka are terrific, and Michael Lark's gritty artwork matches them note for note. He'll be sorely missed but I'm hopeful that DC will tap a replacement with similar sensibilities. 2. Teen Titans - I fully expected this series to take an immediate downhill turn for the worse after the thrill-ride of…

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Guy’s Top 5 Comics of 2004

(ongoing series only) 1. Gotham Central - I'm a big fan of strong characterization and tight plotting, and this Batman-themed take on the classic police procedural, a la Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Street, features some of the strongest writing in comics. Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka are terrific, and Michael Lark's gritty artwork matches them note for note. He'll be sorely missed but I'm hopeful that DC will tap a replacement with similar sensibilities. 2. Teen Titans - I fully expected this series to take an immediate downhill turn for the worse after the thrill-ride of…

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BABE IN THE WOODS: Four

Thursday, October 31, 2013: Mt. Pleasant, NY, USA The Mayor of Mt. Pleasant, NY, Jacob Harrison, could trace his family’s lineage back to the original Wampanoag tribes of Massachusetts Bay, all the way to within one generation of Chief Metacom and the vicious slaughter of his people by the immigrant Puritans. Looking around at the gathering of various levels of law enforcement – local, state and federal – that had invaded his sleepy little town, their pale white faces reflecting the morning sun, he felt a fleeting wave of revulsion at his place in the world. As if he’d somehow…

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One 37-cent stamp, and five minutes of your time, and you might make a difference. The Honorable David M. Walker Comptroller General of the United States U.S. General Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548 Dear Mr. Walker: I am writing as a registered voter and a taxpaying citizen of the United States, to request that you launch a public and fully-transparent investigation into the increasing allegations of massive and wide-spread election fraud perpetrated against the American voting public on Tuesday, November 2nd. The right to vote, and the right to have that vote properly counted, is perhaps…

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NaNoWriMo, Dean, Kerry and the WFP

Old man winter has arrived on a mission, kicking in the door and pistol-whipping me into submission. Was it really 70 degrees here on Sunday!?!

Yesterday was the start of Week 2 of NaNoWriMo and while I have officially surpassed my output from last year’s prolonged 2.5 month attempt, I’m also 7,663 words in the hole as of Day 8! I am right on schedule with what’s referred to as the Week 2 Wall, though – that time where a little thing called “PLOT” is supposed to kick in. Figure I can introduce two more characters, and develop some more of the overall backstory, before I have to figure out where it’s all going.

Howard Dean as head of the DNC? Like his primary campaign, on the surface it sounds like a much-needed change. Until you remember that he’s a craven opportunist, a little bit more outspoken than most Democrats but at his core, not fundamentally different.

Meanwhile, John Kerry seems to think he has some political capital of his own to spend and is fired up to get back in the Senate and get his hands dirty: “Sometimes God tests you,” Kerry told the crowd at H20, a restaurant on the Potomac waterfront, according to an aide. “I’m a fighter, and I’ve come back before.” Um, John, dude, God didn’t test you, he punk’d you! And a good portion of the 55 million that voted for you, mainly voted against Bush. Another significant portion will be jumping on the Hilary bandwagon shortly. Ask Al and Joe. You’re done.

Does anyone really believe that blanket insults directed towards Middle America are the most effective way to make them see the error of their ways? That there really are 56 million complete idiots across this country, that had no idea what they were voting for? Like a good portion of Kerry’s supporters didn’t do some similar weighing of their values and choose to compromise for their perception of the lesser of two evils?

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