Sincerely, John Hughes

I miss John Hughes. I know I'm not alone here.

I've been replaying Morrowind recently. I just finished a bunch of different faction quests, and then ran through the main storyline. Since everything in the main game is basically done, I installed the two expansion packs. Had to do some fiddling to get Tribunal working, but once that was done, I decided to install Bloodmoon at the same time.

Did you know that installing Bloodmoon will erase your save games? I didn't.

The new Trek film is the best sci-fi movie I've seen in ages. And, quite possibly, ever. Seriously, when you're a die hard Trek fan and the biggest thing you can come up with is "The guy playing Sulu should have a deeper voice," it's a good sign. ;)

Go see it. Do it now. I'll wait.

I finally got around to seeing Wolverine tonight. I walked in expecting the worst, but it wasn't. It wasn't the best film ever, but it wasn't as bad as X3 was.

( Behold my spoiler filled rantings )

Now, to just wait until Thursday, when the local theater is showing a prime-time advance screening of Star Trek.

At Jon Stewart, live in concert. I did snap a picture, buy my phone's shitty camera basically makes it look like we went to see the Human Torch do a standup routine, and it got lost somewhere between my phone and my computer.

But yes. Jon Stewart. Bwaha!

When I got home this evening, there was a message on my answering machine from my friend Dee. She was calling to tell Carol and I that my friend Curt had committed suicide.

It feels really weird typing that. But not as weird as you'd think. I'd always had the sneaking suspicion that one day it would come to this. He was always moody, and had talked about it more than once, but never in an overly serious manner. Not to me, at least. One of my friends just told me that he'd talked about it in much more serious terms at different points.

Curt and I met some time ago. 2002-3 range. We were both working at SANM on the weekend overnight shift, where all the newcomers get stuck. He started bringing me to break with his crowd. Andrew, Chris, Bart, Nate. Those guys helped make a shit job and horrible hours really bearable. One by one, though, we all moved on. Shift changes, promotions, new jobs.

Once Curt left Sanmina, we didn't see each other much. Every few months we'd catch up. He loved his new job, and talked about life in general in much more upbeat terms. He'd even gone back to school. The last time I talked to him, he seemed happier than I ever remember hearing him. Dee said much the same.

But that's all done now. Done and gone. We never did manage to get together for a coffee, our conflicting schedules made it hard. Should have found the time.

I really wish he'd reached out to me. I wish I'd known.

Good bye, Curt. You brought light into some really dark days. I'll miss you.

Sergei Larenkov. He reshot a series of WWII era photographs with the same perspectives, and faded the two images together. There is nothing that isn't amazing about these photographs.

George Bush isn't the president anymore.

Let me say that again. It bears repeating.

George Bush.

Isn't.

The President.

Anymore.

I think, in fact, that I'm happier about that than I am about anything else. I like Barack Obama. The more I learned about him, the more I saw how closely his political views mirror my own. He's the first presidential candidate that actually spoke to us like we were grown ups, and were capable of understanding that the issues of our country were complicated, and were intertwined, and were not able to be simply corrected. But, in all honesty, I'm more excited about the fact that Bush is gone. I mean, there were other times where Bush wasn't executing the office of president. When he underwent surgery and was anesthetized, he had formally relinquished the powers and duties of the office, but that was only temporary. And the authority went to Cheney, so it's not like that made things better.

George Bush isn't the president anymore. SQUEEEEE!

Wow. Just, wow. I know that Star Trek: DS9 got to be really good. Most of my friends consider it to be the best of all the Treks from a dramatic standpoint, and a lot of the middle series stuff I did see was really good, but I didn't get to see it regularly, and it was highly serialized, more than any of the other series were, so I didn't really follow it even when I did watch it. I finally decided to pick up the DVD sets, since Barnes & Noble is having its "buy two get one free" DVD sale.

I'd forgotten just how twitchy the pilot episode was. I'm watching it right now, and there's a large portion in the middle of it where Avery Brooks is talking to the beings that live inside the wormhole, explaining the nature of linear time to beings that don't understand it. Oh, it just goes on and on. Now he's explaining how he can use past experiences to project the results of his actions when he doesn't know the future. First, of course, he had to explain the nature of past and present and future to them. Was the rest of the first season this weird and bad, and I just didn't realize it because I was in 7th grade and loved Star Trek? I certainly hope not, though I have my doubts. I mean, the first season of Next Generation was pretty bad.

The Jem'Hadar show up at the end of season two, right? I can't wait. ;)

I'm pretty sure this Last Airbender thread on IMDB wins the internet this week.

I'm missing two issues that I need. The new Thor series #7, and Fables #55. If anyone's willing to part with them, or willing to look for them at their local shop, I'd be much obliged. I can't find them on any online shopping site that I have any experience with, and I hate trying out new ones. Never know what kind of crap will show up at my door.

They just had a live-action Rickroll during the Macy's Parade. I'm not sure if I should laugh or weep.

UPDATE
Video, in case you missed it.

I've been working at my company for a long time now. Eight years, almost. Long enough to know just about everyone that's been there for any length of time. Normally this is a good thing, but then layoffs happen.

Today I watched about forty friends lose their jobs.

George Carlin died yesterday. I'm rapidly running out of heroes.

"I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd. See? Hey, why do you think they call him Porky?" - GC

A few years ago, Bo Diddly was scheduled to play at Magic City, but the show got canceled because of health reasons. I always hoped that he'd find his way back here soon. He was really getting up there, and I there was less of a chance every day of him making it back. He died today, at 79.

Slow Wave is the greatest webcomic I've ever seen. It's not really a webcomic, though. It's a four-panel representation of random people's dreams.

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, and one of the titles I grabbed over at Centerfield was one called Atomic Robo. When I picked it up, though, I thought the title was Atomic Hobo.

There totally needs to be an Atomic Hobo comic. I'd buy every single issue.