Standing On Boxes

Thought I would update the firmware on my PSP (No, not to 2.0 – that isn’t out yet for the US). But I kept getting the error:

“The download failed. A connection to the server could not be established. (80431068)”

Searching the Internet… no apparent solution. Just a bunch of remarks doubting the sanity of anyone wanting to upgrade the firmware so home brew apps stop working. Typical.

Figured it out myself… turned off the “Power Save Settings” – “Auto Sleep” and “WLAN Power Save” — one of those must have been affecting the wireless network in the PSP.

All okay now… it’s upgraded to 1.52. And V2.0 (with the built in web browser (that doesn’t require hacking a game) ) should be out any day now)

Gas at the corner Wiegels is now $2.67/gal for premium. (Knoxville, TN) Not the cheapest in town but anywhere that sells it for less… I wouldn’t trust that stuff in my car.

Of course, my mechanic thinks I’m crazy for trusting gas from a Weigels (He has his reasons) but I figure they have enough turnover that I should be okay. As long as I don’t fill up on a day they are filling their tanks.

Approximately 1/5 of my comic books are in those clear thick plastic bags that was a popular cheap way of protecting comic books in the 80s. Some even have a heavy cardboard insert so they don’t get bent. I couldn’t afford to do that to all of them back then. I’m sure somewhere on the internet I can find some vacuum sealable ziplock bag that is the modern equivalent.

The books themselves were in a couple boxes. The things copier paper comes in. 11x17x9. At some point I found a plastic equivalent (designed for storing hanging file folders so it has a ‘lip’) and replaced one box with that. I need to replace the others. So I went looking at Walmart…

Tons of plastic storage containers… but not the thing I wanted. I eventually settled for 4 containers ($4 each) that were designed for the same purpose but are a bit smaller. I’ll probably need to buy a couple more.

Update: Okay. they actually fit… but the containers are just barely tall/wide enough for a standard comic book. The bigger books have to go in the older/larger container.

The Erotic Adventures of Buffy and Evil Willow

After a very long hiatus… Anne-Lise (writer) and Fox (artist) have surfaced again with their amusing web-comic.

Warning!

Note: This stuff is not hosted in the US. So if you are looking at it from there – don’t call Hilary or Little Bush if it offends you. They can’t do anything about it.

Personally? I find it amusing. It’s adult humor folks!

For a five year period, more or less, I collected comic books. Certainly not as an investment. This was in the mid-to-late 80′s. Back when most of the Marvel and DC titles cost less than a dollar.

When I was in NH a week ago… I rescued a couple boxes of them from a damp basement. Some of them have that musty attic/basement smell to them but they are still readable. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is really the point.

So, what do I see?

I remembered buying my favorite titles – Daredevil, Spiderman, and Captain America. (Yes, I was primarily a Marvel Universe kind of person). But I’d forgotten about a lot of the others… Alpha Flight (Sort of a Canadian X-Men-like title), Power Pack (kids with super powers who weren’t really mutants), A large collection of “Marvel Team-Ups”, “What If’s”

I’m sure there must be another box somewhere… could have sworn I had another Spiderman title (Web of, Amazing, and Team-up). — Oh — “Peter Parker” I have a few X-men titles – before they became BIG business for Marvel – “X-Factor”, “X-men”, “Classic X-men”, “New Mutants” and a bunch of mutant 4-6 issue titles (Does anyone remember “Beauty and the Beast” (Dazzler+The Beast) or the Wolverine-Kitty Pride stories?)

My Daredevil collection includes the Frank Miller years… I even have his Elektra series (I think there was only two – not counting her appearances in Daredevil).

I also have his Batman series (Dark Knight and Year One) – but if it hadn’t been him I don’t think I would have bothered…

Note: I don’t think I bought very many of the glossy “Graphic Novel” format comics. So Batman, Elektra, etc. are all newstand copies. (though some are on glossy paper)

I even have a few where I bought entire series at a small con (Ithicacon?) – Ms. Marvel, Super Girl…

Not sure how I ended up with a large collection of “Ambush Bug” and “Blue Beetle” comics…

I also bought the occasional non-Marvel/DC title – “Evangeline” anyone?

Need to go thru them… see what I’m missing…

A couple years worth of Iron Man (Tony Stark), a few “Hulks”, “Avengers”, “Dazzler”, the last “Ghost Rider”, a few different “Nick Fury” titles from the 60′s/70′s – and lots of limited edition/issue comics… that must have been around the time that whole thing started…

I should note that I have no idea what any of these characters have been up to in the last 15 years… for all I know some of the ones that died (Power Pack, Dazzler, etc) have their own titles again…

“Atari Force” anyone? It started out as a small pamphlet-size comic in Atari 2600 video games (I have a couple of those – but the games were lost a long time ago) and later became a 20 issue DC series.

Charles Dixon/Judith Hunt’s “Evangeline” (A nun with a gun… I’ve seen occasional rumors over the years that it might become a movie…)

“Aristocratic Extraterrestrial Time Traveling Thieves” – These are the kind of things that would now-a-days be web-comics.

Okay… it’s been over 15 years so I might have this wrong… it looks like I was buying a lot of the “Secret Wars” (Marvel) crossover issues (from around 87-88 ) of a number of titles I would not otherwise read. I am surprised I only have one “Thor” comic…

I’m not sure it’s any better (Or even makes sense now) but I’ve done some minor revisions of the prologue to “Perci” so it fits better with some things in another story (Don’t see it? Well, I know it’s there “;->”. ) I’ll probably tweak it some more once I actually write the next part.

I haven’t updated the version on TtH. I’ll do that when I add the next chapter. Whenever that actually happens. I don’t want to get too deep into this story with so many others in this series higher on the priority list.

Lots of ideas for lots of my fics but I can’t settle down and work on just one… not good — so nothing much done on any of them… and we’re half-way thru the month.

Not writers block so much as writer’s indecision.

I’ve moved links to a few fics or their main index pages around. I haven’t deleted anything. I’ve added a page for fics I don’t expect to get to for a while — the “Future Fic” page. And others will probably also move. Too many fics on my WiP page that haven’t been touched in a while.

But I haven’t abandoned anything. Just trying to simplify the look-n-feel of my fic index.

I was playing with my work Thinkpad… which had a dvd player in it (my iBook doesn’t)… it lets me make screen shots… not high quality but viewable. Finally found an episode — “A New Man” — (Season 4) where we get enough of a shot of Giles’ door so that you can see his mailbox. He’s in #4626, Apt. B. Still no idea about what street that is. A few websites use the street name where the Magic Box is… but that is obviously wrong.

In another Season 4 episode… we get to see the front of Xander’s parent’s house. A Street number is visible – but I couldn’t decide if the first number is a 5 or 6. I believe it’s a 5 but the screen shot was a bit blurry. But no street name – again – of course.

If I can find the room somewhere… I’ll start putting up screen shots of the assorted places that appear.

Oh… and according to one of the DVD extras for Season 4 – the library they use for the interior of the UC Sunnydale library is actually the UCLA library.

Had an idea this morning… made a decision…

My fic “Out” will definitely be the prequel to a Stargate crossover. The crossover itself will take place post-high school for Buffy, Willow, and the rest of the gang.

The goal of “Out” is to give a clear idea of who the Buffy characters are and their history in the two and a half years they have together before then, using the same basic premise. But with more interaction than I’d originally planned (At least one ‘episode’ of this story will include appearances by several SG characters… in a realistic manner – not hunting aliens)
But it still won’t be an episode-by-episode rehash of the series.

So it’ll still be an AU Buffyverse, set in the Stargate universe. Set post Season 5 for Stargate (The first part of ‘Out’ occurs approximately several months post Season 5 – So… the actual crossover would possibly be set in Season 9. Though I haven’t decided that for sure. I might just throw out everything after Season 5 or 6.)

I still have things to work out… like “What about Angel” and Faith, and the Mayor. And if this is still a B/W fic… how does THAT happen? Will it happen before or during the crossover?

The future crossover… it’ll be a while. Too many other fics to write/finish first. And, I need to bone up on my SG knowledge. I’m guessing next summer before I start working on it seriously.

I’ve figured out several ways to get Willow to Colorado… Buffy might be a bit more difficult (Close the Hellmouth? Another Hellmouth in Denver/Colorado Spring? Faith takes over the Hellmouth? And what about Buffy’s family? And Xander? And Gils? I haven’t thought of an original idea here yet… I’ve read a lot of fics that involve Buffy or Willow moving to Colorado… even one where Joyce and Dawn move there… and I hate copying someone else’s idea… but there is plenty of time )

For those who live in cities with good public transportation, on college campuses, or with their parents… or are just plain rich like the business analysts and reporters who claim the price of gas doesn’t matter because the economy is still going gangbusters…

(Yes, in the United States. I do know that other parts of the world already pay an arm and several legs for their distilled hydrocarbons. And think we’re pathetic wimps for grousing over a measly $2.60/gal. for gas)

Guess what…another 12 cent increase in the price of regular (can’t see the price of premium from the road) TODAY – some time between 8am and 7pm (not even a day since the last increase.)

Aren’t you glad the rest of us are doing our public duty to keep the oil companies in business?

Does the White House even care? I suspect they don’t. They all came from the oil industry and probably are still getting paid kickbacks by Big Oil to pretend things are good… too bad for the little guys who voted them into office. And since Bush can’t run again… why WOULD he care.

But I’m thinking it’s time to start voting those Congress-critters that are letting the White House get away with such things out of office

$3/gal gas here we come… I’m just glad I put gas in the buggy last night… saved me a buck.

Why yes, Mister Oil Company Executive, I’m sure a 15 cent increase in gas overnight isn’t price gouging… Every American is willing to do their patriotic duty and help you pay for that vacation home you’re building in Aruba by buying your distilled hydrocarbons…

Yes, the price of gas went UP last night… how’d you guess?

Must be those $64/barrel oil futures…

Just spent the last 11 days “out there” – put 2400 miles on my car… and a HUGE dent in my checking account…

The trip “out” was as close to perfect as possible… clear skies, dry roads…

The trip back… was 400 miles longer… and it rained 50% of the time (once I got on I84 West in NY (and then onto I81 South in Scranton) it seemed to rain most of the time until I hit the last third of I81 in VA.

Got my hands on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this past week… not a bad story. Better than a couple of the other books. Things I liked, things I didn’t. I’ve created a separate page for my comments in deference for those who aren’t into spoilers…

It’s here… now with spiffy commentability

No… I have no plans to say much about my vacation…

the family parts turned out pretty much as I expected, including the visit to the old homestead in NH (Lots of ex-related stress there – and expensive – we’re putting it up for sale this fall and, as the person with money (If my ex had money to maintain it… it wouldn’t be going up for sale), I get to pay for a large portion of the pre-sales prep work (Since I live 1000 miles away and can’t be there to pitch in with the manual labor thing….). It’s fair but I don’t have unlimited cash flow… so I hope it sells before Christmas (When my spare cash runs out…)

Anyway… overnighting it at the Motel 6 in Nashua, NH (as planned – I expected to be too tired to drive any further after the long trip to NH from northern NY and the stress inducing visit to the cabin (see above))

Motel 6… finding it was a serious pain… Route 3, Exit 5-W (Exit 5 splits in multiple parts AFTER you take it… ) and then left at the first light (You can see the sign from Rt 3 (different prices on the sign depending on which direction you see it from) but not once you get off the highway…) on the same side of the highway (it’s on the southbound side of 3)… if that makes sense… I found it eventually…

This Motel 6 looks like a redone Days Inn or similar place… much better quality than the one I always stay in mid-trip (and where I’ll be staying tomorrow night.)

I can even see my car from my room window on the 2nd floor (Yes, assorted people (daughter) do find my tendency to park where I can see my car at restaurants or hotels to be highly amusing…).

I think I’ve filled my quota of “Stupid driving maneuvers” on the NY to NH portion of the return trip. Urgh! (We won’t discuss it… it was a simple error judging available time and distance when passing several cars pulling campers. No accident, no one hurt, but I felt stupid afterward for cutting things so close. But not as gray hair inducing as the “almost” speeding ticket incident earlier on the trip TO NY. )

Whoops… looks like I ended up with the bagels after we did the T/car swap…