Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life...

So, I'm working again, which is reeking havoc on the toddlers schedule, she hates getting to daycare too early b/c the kiddos have to all play in the gym till 8 and the big kids are scary.  So from past posts, sporadic as they were, I mentioned that I have type 2 diabetes.  Well, just got more good news with my latest lab work, I have low testosterone, a vitamin D deficiency, my uric acid is too high, and my cholestorol was bad.  Yippee, more meds!  So, in addition to all this, I met with a diabetes educator and got put on a 2000 calorie/day diet as well as limiting my self to 17 carb units a day (a unit is 15 grams), the weight loss program has me on an appetite suppressant (another pill) plus weekly b12 shots.  So in addition to tracking everything on paper, I'm going to try to keep up with some stuff here, I know its not tech, but I hope you'll all support me through this.  So day 1, starting weight 263 pounds, BMI 42, average blood sugar 190.

Speaking of blood sugar, I got a free new meter, which is nice, it logs it all and then you can upload it to your pc or you Mac, thats right they support Mac, awesomesauce!  So we'll see how it goes, the lancet that came with it is far less painful than the one that came with my accucheck, but I dont like loading a needle everytime.

Wish me luck, I have two beautiful ladies to take care of and I need to stick around.

How secure is your password

This past week, this article flew by in a whir and was almost missed.  I'm a loyal macrumors reader, but sometimes I just breeze past the More MacRumors stories sidebar.  But this should have been bigger news.  Blizzard, producer of the worlds largest MMO, World of Warcraft, and owner of the Diablo and Starcraft franchise, so when they report that they've been hacked, its big news, well it is to me.  I try to be secure, so secure in fact that some of my passwords are 50 alpha-numeric characters long.  In addion to that, I use a program that I find invaluable, 1Password, it works for Windows and Mac and saves all your passwords and all you have to remember is 1 password (see what they did there).  It also has a password generator, and the really cool thing you can save your password list to your dropbox account and have access to it everywhere.  They also have and iOS app, which comes in handy if your passwords are too long to remember.  I think what scares me the most about the whole Blizzard thing, is that they offer a free app on Android and iOS, the Mobile Authenticator, which is very similar to the RSA security fobs most businesses use.  It generates a random number every 30 seconds or so, and if you have one tied to your account you cant login unless you know the code.  What's worse is WoW players (like me) get a lot of spam, and it all looks legit, they are trying hard to get your authenticator codes, to hack your account sell your stuff and use you as a gold farmer.  I know everyone hears this all the time, if you get an email from someone, whether you know them or not, DO NOT just start clicking on links all willy nilly.  I'm sure the surprised cat is cute, but do you really want to chance it?  And no, you did not do something unbeleiveable in a video on facebook or twitter, again DO NOT click on these links.  I will not fix your computer because you were stupid.  Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, even in real life as well as virtual, a free tablet is never a free tablet...

Lastly, want to know how quick your password can be cracked, check out this little doozey of a website, kinda cool.

Playing Catch Up

So given my penchant for irregualar posting, I feel some catching up is in order.  Last time I came to you dear readers was with my Dallas Comic-Con experience.  Well San Diego Comic-Con was last weekend, and no I didn't go, but I did hear about some cool stuff, Image Comics/Skybound/Robert Kirkman is doing a Zombie obstacle course, and when you complete it you get an exclusive Walking Dead #100, only available at the con.  If you know me, you know my love of TWD, its such an amazing story, the comics are incredible and really pull you in like no other book out there currently.  The TV show is also amazing, albeit the seasons are too short, but who thought we'd have a zombie TV show on in prime time?

Other than all that, just been trying to find a job, who knew how hard this was going to be, at this point i'd take my chances as a fry cook, in-between all that I've been sucked back into the world of Magic: The Gathering, a fun, yet addictive card game that I played way back in college (wish I hadn't sold all my cards).  The nice part about the game is it is social and I've made a lot of new acquaintances playing.

Got back to the Rock last weekend, it was nice, didn't do a whole lot, mostly time with family, did get to eat lunch with my 3 friends in Searcy, mmmm Mi Pueblito....and I got to see The Dark Knight Rises, oh my god, what a great movie.  To steal a quote from a friend, this is on par with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they are not 3 separate movies, but one long epic, meant to be seen back to back.

The tech rumor mill is all abuzz regarding the new iphone, we all know its coming, and we all know we're going to buy it, but the question is, is this the new iphone?  I kinda hope so, I'm ready for something different, the 4 was a nice departure, but it still feels the same.

Reflections on Comic-Con

So, I went to my first official Comic Con, Dallas Comic Con was last weekend, and it was a surreal experience.  First let me forewarn you readers, this post will be dripping with fan boy rantings, and full of name drops.  That being said, the first rule of Conventions, wear comfy shoes.  A good friend of mine from back home came down for the weekend, not being a comic book fan, but a Star Wars nerd, I was confused as to why he would want to go to a comic book convention.  I realized it was more for the experience and of course to hang out with me (I mean who wouldn't want to hang out with me!).

The big draw for the con was of course Stan "The Man" Lee, who had to cut short his trip and was only available on Saturday, so they set him up special on Friday night, which I did not attend, although Stan has been an invaluable soldier in comic book creation, my goals were on a few other things.  Firstly, my two favorite people in the comic industry, who also happen to be Harding University graduates and from Little Rock, Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser were going to be there and they had a limited edition print that Mitch drew and Bettie colored.  Even cooler I found that it was limited to only 60 copies.  Those who don't know, the smaller the batch run, the more valuable these things are, but I don't care about that, I mean its original, and its limited, auto-buy.  Secondly, I had my three volumes of Batman by Neal Adams hardbacks that I wanted to get signed, which I did, and had them personalized to me, which I was informed made them less valuable, again, those are for me, no one else, so value be damned!  Oh wait, back to Mitch and Bettie, I had Mitch's first official series he did for Marvel, "Drax the Destroyer" 4 issues mini series, which I had him sign, along with Defenders #5 (the best so far, art wise), this was also a collaboration with Bettie, so I got her to sign as well.

Now let me go back a step here, so we got to the Irving Convention Center at 10 am, the show was supposed to open at 11, describing the line is hard, so lets just say it snaked its way from the door, up the stairs, down the stars, along the side of the building and then back to the street and then up the center of the stairs.  I really didn't pay a lot of attention to the time, but it was 1145 before we were inside.  another 75 minutes waiting for Neal Adams.  Then to learn that as I was heading to Kevin Conroy's line (he was the voice of Batman in the animated series in the '90's) only to learn it went all the way around the convention center and was capped, ok over to George Perez's line, oh wait its capped too.  Well lets check out the wares.  Tons of toys, books, comics, a booth selling knives and swords, no thats not dangerous...a booth selling custom leather work, including bracers, superhero masks, etc.  Costumes, yes, nerds do it right, from 7 year olds as Captain america, to a 60+ creepy Riddler (I swear he had free candy!).  We decided to grab some lunch and that took over an hour, then went to the panel room to get ready for Patrick Stewart, we got there an hour before and sat in on Neal Adams, who of course talked about how he was turned down by DC at first and wound up at Archie Comics, and was told all along that the industry would be dead in a year...Tons of stupid questions bounced off him and his son, but the best he answered with and get this he told us it was a lie.  "Who is your favorite character to draw?"  the truth is all of them, its just that much fun.  The lie, Batman, because he has a cape, and thats like drawing two people.  Honestly, I liked the lie!

Patrick Stewarts Panel, was packed, although not all the VIP seats were filled, so he made a comment about it and all of the sudden they were like you guys move on up... He told stories about his childhood growing up in England, and how he got started, and how he loved playing bad guys on stage.  About midway through, a question was pitched from the other side of the room, "Who was your favorite villain?"  Holy shit its John Delancie (Q from TNG).  He approaches the stage, and they have one of those moments, you know two old friends, give each other the handshake hug, and then start to reminisce.  So very cool!  Not one question about X-men, all about Star Trek and his Shakespearean works.  Fast forward, I leave a bit before its over to try one last time to get Perez, I have been lugging around the first six issues of the New 52 Superman for him and the lines not horrible, I am however at the very end.  told I will not make the cut today.  Fortunately one of my friends who works at the local shop is there and like 15th in line, tells me to give him my books and he'll get it for me.  That was awesome, thanks again Brad, you totally rock!

Sunday, my friend says we need to get there earlier, but today won't be as crowded as Saturday, as they never are.  So we get up and have a great breakfast at the Old West Cafe, 2 eggs, 2 bacon, hash browns, and some toast, they do it up right!  We roll out, 45 minutes later we're at the convention center, maybe 100th in line.  90 minutes till doors open.  Got a few shots of some great costumes, a great Batgirl, a mini Batgirl (she had to be 5 or 6), Maverick, Goose, and Iceman, a little girl as Indiana Jones (it was too cute!), Master Chief from Halo, Bane from the new Batman movie, a family of Superman, Supergirl, Green Lantern and the daughter was also Supergirl.  My one goal for Sunday was to get Kevin Conroy to sign my Batman the Animated Series Boxed Set.  I went immediately to the line to queue.  So, the ruling here is first is VIP then Priority, then General Admission.  We are told that the first hour will be only VIP and Priority, my thought is 11-12 right...well 1230 rolls and then we are told the line is capped and he has a hard stop at 330 to catch a flight.  the 3 people in front of me start raising all kinds of hell, and genuinely so, we could have been up there waiting, but they held us all back.  They claim if they get though all that that then they will let us through.  The Red-shirted nerd with a little power leaves and the orange shirt guy was like you 4 go on, no promises, but I'll let you through.  fast forward 2 hours and we are through, I'm standing in front of the man who no one will recognize in a photo, but the minute you hear his voice its like, holy shit your batman!  He signs my stuff, even stops for a photo, and I'm done.  Wow, that was incredible, and to the soldier in front of me, good luck on your deployment, and thank you for being such a hard ass to the line nazi and getting us through!  I also found out that Mitch's print of 60 sold out mid day saturday, which is awesome!

So that was my experience for Stan Lee presents Dallas Comic Con, lots of line standing, great people watching, and overall a fun weekend!  Next time, I'm going VIP, 30 minutes early and line cuts sound good to me!

Live long and prosper.

Schools Out (Almost)!

Doesn't quite ring as big as I can remember in my younger years, that last day, no books, throwing out all the garbage from your locker, expelling all that knowledge as you push that door to the summer wide open and hit the bricks for home.  At least I rode my bike, I lived close, and it was fun.  Now, I ponder, I really need to find a part time gig, something to allow me some walking around money, I don't need to get rich, just be able to spend my own money.  Not working has really made me realize that all that time I was told it was "our" money, well it really was, and it still is.

There are a few things on my to do list for the summer, first I need to get this bunion removed from my foot, that is supposedly going to put me out of commission for at least 2-4 weeks (driving at least).  Second, I have a lot of reading that I want to do, number one on  the list is "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, and yes I have a real hardback book, I know theres something about reading the biography of Steve Jobs on my iPad, but I have the book and I'll read the book.  The second book, a bit more niche is "The Walking Dead, The Rise of the Governor" - by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, those who read the comics will know who The Governor is, and no its not AH-nold.  Beyond that, I just want to survive my first Texas summer and spend time with the Toddler.  On the Toddler, we are still fighting the I don't want to eat anything thats not brown and fried, and still trying to potty train.

Not much else at the moment, will try to update more often.

Good Friday

So it's almost here, Easter, for those of you who are good catholics, it means next friday you can eat red meat!  But seriously, it is Easter, and we all know thats when we celebrate the reanimation of zombie Jesus with chocolate bunnies and deviled eggs (seriously whose idea was that?).  For those of us who are parents its another excuse to get your child more toys/games/etc.  In our case, I made the mistake of showing the wee one the Dora the Explorer Microphone, not fully thinking of the ramifications of my actions (no remember pre children, my favorite thing was buying the most annoyingly loud toy for any of my friends kids).  All through Target she's pressing the button and singing along..."Come on vamanos, everybody lets go!  Come on, let's get to it.  I know that we can do it."  Which mind you is cute there first two or three times, but after 10 minutes of various songs, I wanted to put it back, and we all know how hard that can be once they have it in their hands.  So, its been hiding out since we got home last weekend, and I really don't know what to do, I need to explore it to see if there's a volume control, but I fear there isn't one.  What do you do in these situations?

It's been this way for almost two years now, and next Friday I'll be 38, which puts me closer and closer to 40 and further and further away from 30.  20 year reunion, yes I'm sure its sometime this summer, and yes I'll probably go to see everyone who didn't like me then, but now we're all Facebook friends.  See how many kids everyone has, see who's already going grey (this guy, but it blends well with the blonde).  I remember my 10 year, sorta, the first night was a drunken haze, the bbq the second day was a total blurry hangover.  And the dinner the last night was really nice down at the train station.  Queue Boyz II Men's its so hard to say goodbye (which every senior class from 92-95 used as their anthem), and scene.  But seriously there are a few people who I genuinely miss and will enjoy seeing.  Did I mention my birthday is next week?  Presents are not optional, please send cash or gift cards.

All Tapped Out

Good morning, as I sit here with my cup of Barista Prima House Blend, I was thinking, "self, you haven't posted on your blog in a while."  So here we go...

The Walking Dead - so did you watch season two?  I know I did, man what a ride, SPOILER ALERT, The show started off to me what seemed very slow, I thought the whole search for Sophia took a bit too long, but man the payoff was well, sad, but omg, when she came shambling out of the barn, I was like oh no, but then it turned to holy crap, I can't believe they did that!  The continued transformation of Shane was also a great journey.  Note to readers, if a friend comes back from a supply run alone, and then immediately shaves his head and has a dark look about him, don't trust him!  Throughout the comics and the TV show, I always felt Dale was the moral anchor of the group, his death hit me the hardest on the show, I felt it was too soon, I have been emotionally connected to his character ever since the first season when he was going to stay behind with Andrea, "You can't just come into someones life, make them care, and then just check out."  He was always the voice of reason, the voice that said we're still human, and we need to act like civilized people.  Oh yeah, and we're all infected and this is not a democracy!  And as per Chris Hardwick (@nerdist) Armless Zombies are the new spring style!

Comic Books - Not a lot to mention here, but Scott Snyder (@ssnyder1835) has just been killing on Batman.  Apparently without Bruces knowledge there is a secret society called The Court of Owls thats been ruling Gotham for what sounds like centuries.  The books are nothing short of the best read from a comic I've had since "Hush" or "Identity Crisis"  Both excellent reads and I highly recommend them, and they are available in beautifully collected "Absolute Editions".  You should totally buy them.  SPOILER ALERT, Nightwing (Dick Grayson) was selected to be groomed as a Talon, and by the by, Batman can hit you in exactly the right spot to knock out a specific tooth!  EPIC.  I don't know where this story is headed, but as long as Snyder stays on it, we're in for one hell of a ride!

Magic: The Gathering - Yes, I got back into it, I hadn't played since college, some friends back in Arkansas reignited my interest in this social card game.  I have to say I forgot how much fun it is, the thrill of cracking a pack and the hunt for rare cards.  The joy of opening a $3.99 pack of cards and pulling out a $60 card (good return on investment imho).  What I don't like is that I got back in during the middle of a cycle, so everyone else seems to have way better cards than me, so I tend to lose a lot.  The sets come out in Blocks, and each block contains three separate sets of cards (about 400-600 per block), plus each year they drop a Core Set, now you dont need every card, but you do want to try.  Currently Standard consists of Mirridon Block, Innistrad Block and 2012 Core set, I have Innistrad and core, but I don't have Mirridon, which sometimes puts me at a disadvantage, and I'm not about to drop $$$ on a set that will soon be phased out of Standard, which is October I believe.  Mind you I'm a very casual player and collector, some of these guys have way to much MTG committed to memory, kinda like those sports guys who know every roster and stat for high school/college/pro football/basketball.  I also listen to the guys over at MTGCast's weekly podcast Limited Resources, although they don't do a lot of standard, its informative and they occasionally talk about current strategies/cards, I love the draft talk and their judgements on what cards are worth drafting when they do a crack a pack.  Just found another one this week, not sure what they spend all their time on yet, but its called The Mana Pool.  My only complaint is that these are not on Stitcher, this app is so good, you take your favorite podcasts and then it will auto update each time you launch and boom there they are.  So much easier than having to check itunes all the time.

Well, thats all I have for now, Catch up on the walking dead on iTunes, or pre-order the Blu-Ray, go play some magic on Friday Nights, its fun and a great way to meet new people.  And go to your comic shops, I know digital is cool, but you cannot beat the experience of going to the store, finding something new, and just having those great geeky conversations about how Rob Liefeld can't draw feet, or that female superheroes must have major back problems from the heaving pendulous breasts.   Signing off, you have the con, get to the choppah, and remember, I'll be back!


Oh, crap, totally forgot about this, but this looks so cool....