Wikipedia currently has an article that uses italics to serve as the mildest warning for one of the most unsafe experiments I've ever seen:

[The Leidenfrost effect] has also been used in some dangerous demonstrations, such as dipping a wet finger in molten lead... without injury to the demonstrator.

For many, many years, I was an avid comic-book purchaser. But for a number of reasons, I gave it up cold turkey; I stopped buying comics in a weekly format about four or five years ago. (I still buy a number of graphic novels, but even then I've mostly been limiting myself to those that have ultra-snazzy "Absolute"-style oversized hardcovers, since I have so little free time; I figure, if it's good enough to put in an oversized slipcase, it's probably worth my (meager) time and money.)

However, DC Comics, often an innovator, came up with an idea recently that is exciting enough that I actually wanted to buy an actual non-trade-paperback comic book again. The project is Wednesday Comics, and . . . well, here's the pitch, from Newsarama:

[Each issue of Wednesday Comics] is 14 inches wide by 20 inches tall, so it's big. That's the front page – so when you open it, it gets 28 inches wide, so it's an enormous page. So for 12 weeks, that “cover” will be an installment of the Brian Azzarello/Eduardo Risso Batman story. Page 2 will be Sgt. Rock, and so on. So essentially, it's 12 big-ass pages. Each story takes up one whole page, with no staples. It'll be just like the Sunday funnies you read as a kid.

Okay; so, it's a weekly huge-ass comic series, with big-name creators (Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred, Joe Kubert, Amanda Conner, Kyle Baker, Jimmy Palmiotti, etc.) each tackling DC heroes in a stand-alone serial format with one "story page" per issue per feature. In short, something like this has never been done before.

I'm sold.

Now, the only problem I have is... how do I get it?

See, I don't want to start buying this series off the stand, only to have to miss an issue and get screwed half-way through.

Unfortunately, at least among the two comic shops I checked with for Free Comic Day today, I'm not at all confident the comic industry wants my business.

The first comic shop would only start up a subscription service if I wanted a minimum of 10 books a month. When I called the second comic shop, the person I spoke with indicated that I might be able to stop in and pick up the issues in a file (although he seemed reluctant to start a file with one comic, and indicated that I'd need to stop in every other week or so or else risk the file being closed . . . despite the fact that the comic shop is about 30 minutes away). Alternatively, he indicated I could subscribe, which might involve prepayment, a minimum of $10 a month, etc. When I got to the store, though (about 30 minutes later), the clerk I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about. He gave me a sheet with a bunch of titles listed (one of which was Wednesday Comics), asked me to check the titles I wanted (I checked the singular title), and then he wrote my name and phone number on the sheet. There was no request for payment information, no information about terms or my obligations or anything like that. "You want a new comic series? Scribble what you want on this piece of bark, and I'll hand it to this ostrich. Then come back in two months and hope for the best."

I am, suffice it to say, not filled with confidence.

Comic shops have no idea how to handle a person wanting to come in and purchase one title, as often as it comes out, for as long as the customer wants it. They only know how to handle the weekly omnivores, who come in every seven days and pick up their stack from their files or shelves; or the browsers, who pick up random issues or trade paperbacks as the fancy strikes them.

Each issue of Wednesday Comics is $3.99. This comic is not out yet; orders can still be placed and adjusted, so it is not "out of print." (In other words, I'm not trying to scam the system by trying to get a hot comic that's already sold out in preorders.) I am willing to spend full price. I am willing to prepay, by the month or for the entire series, if a store wanted. (I am not willing to go to a comic store every week for this one issue, since my time is worth more than that, and it just seems wasteful. Besides, at least one of the comic shops I checked didn't want to start a file for me unless I added nine other titles.)

In other words, I am a guaranteed customer, worth $16 a month for three months -- or $48 all at once -- if someone would only take my money and guarantee my product.

Why is the comic industry in trouble? This is one reason. DC has created a new comic book of strong interest to non-comic buyers, and the brick-and-mortar industry has no idea how to deliver the product to those buyers.

In other words, my best bet is probably to concede that the pamphlet (a somewhat derogatory term for single-issue comics) is dead and hope for the "trade paperback."

I'm sick of conventions that don't say where they are on their front page. If I've learned that an event I might enjoy will be at (say) FUBARCon, it shouldn't take me 10 clicks of browsing through the FUBARCon website to learn where this convention actually is (which is almost always the first determining factor of "Can I go?").

I'm deeply honored to have won first place in the Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies logo remix contest, for my Frank Gorshin: Swashbuckler entry. I'm especially honored because so many of the other entries were really, really good. (Thanks also to the comments in various spots from folks who liked my 7-Eleven and Loch Ness remixes.)

Hopefully I'll be able to offer my thoughts on the game within the next week or two; in the meantime, the limited-edition hardcover is down to 81 copies left for would-be fans who want something a bit more durable for their clashes in the clouds.

(This has been a good contest week for SMarsh, since I learned that I also won a blog contest for one of those expensive Watchmen movie books from Titan I was drooling over . . . I do believe this brings the number of contests I've won in the past 10 years or so up to two.)

As someone who spent nearly a decade working for and with a weekly subscription-model gaming website (that'd be Pyramid), I was intrigued by someone else giving it a go . . . especially when it's as big a name as Monte Cook.

His latest endeavor is Dungeonaday.com; despite the name, it's not really a dungeon a day, but rather one huge sprawling "megadungeon" (as they're known), with a dungeon room provided each day (or, more correctly, each week day).

( Clip detailed review )
So if you are a fan of sprawling megadungeons, and you want to see one that promises to be composed of nothing but the interesting bits, check out Dungeonaday.com. The first-level map is available for free access along with the first six rooms. The opportunity to join as a charter member -- including your biggest savings -- ends tomorrow, April 10.

I confess . . . I'm finding these logo remixes fun (and I've learned more about Photoshop in the past week than I have in years). Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled by either of these, but I also find it hard to mentally compete with the Frank Gorshin homage from last week.





Although fairly regional, I don't know how common 7-Elevens are outside my neck of the woods. (I don't think there are any here in Indiana.)



And I realized about midway through this logo that I was expecting my audience to recognize waves.

Anyway, usual disclaimers: The logo belongs to the masterminds behind Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. The other photos and logos belong to whoever I swiped them from. If you're intrigued, go check out the game yourself.

If one peruses video/computer game reviews, one frequent complaint is tied to game brevity: If a game only has four hours (or so) of gameplay, reviews will generally present that information as if it were a bad thing.

My question: Why?

This is an especially pointed question since one of my primary interest is in adventure games (of the old "point 'n' click" variety). I'm at a point in my life where I would rather spend $30 for a game that has 4-5 hours of enjoyable gameplay, than one that has 40-50 hours of gameplay (regardless of enjoyment). The odds of my finishing a 50-hour video game are darn-near zero, whereas I can play a five-hour game in one evening if the stars align correctly.

Obviously, it's difficult to compare apples and oranges; a strategy game with a lot of depth could provide hundreds of hours for the same cost as an adventure game that's only designed to be played once. (I've probably played the Marvel Trading Card Game for the PSP over 500 hours by now.) But I don't judge a movie poorly when it's only 100 minutes long, when -- for the same ticket price -- I could sit through a four-hour epic.

As a long-time fan of Chad Underkoffler, I was going to enter the Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies Logo Contest. This entails using their "original" logo in some new and creative fashion.

Unfortunately, while perusing my old records for inspiration, imagine my surprise when I discovered that this logo isn't so original after all!



But seriously, here's my entry to the aforementioned contest. If you're a fan of Chad's, or you believe (probably correctly) that an RPG entitled Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies deserves a look or seven, then check our the website.

(And, yes, the original logo is, in fact, the intellectual property of Evil Hat Productions. Used with permission, presumably, since it's their darn contest. Frank Gorshin didn't have anything to do with this; he's still dead, as far as I know, which is a darn shame. But it's a parody, so I'm pretty sure I'm covered. But if I'm found unconscious in my bed with a ticking box covered in question marks, it was probably Hush.)

Well, I'm doing what I can to uphold my Lenten vows (which, as you may recall, centered around veganism). So how'm I doing?

Eh. So-so.

Day 1 -- Ash Wednesday was a fasting day, so I didn't eat much of anything. For my first snack I had one Gardenburger Black Bean Chipotle patty (vegan!). For dinner we had pasta and red spaghetti sauce (vegan!). For my last snack I had some popcorn, with some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray... which contains sweet cream butter. Dang. (I don't know why I forgot to check the ingredients until it was too late; I even checked the Season-All I put on the popcorn.)

Day 2 -- Crispix and soy milk (vegan!). Apple (vegan!). Veggie stir fry and Ramen noodles sans seasoning packet (vegan!).

Day 3 -- Cheerios and soy milk (vegan!). Leftover stir fry and pasta (vegan!). Apple (vegan!). Black Bean Chipotle burgers with french fries. The last meal would've been totally vegan, except the barbecue sauce I used had honey (the nature of which is, I guess, a matter of some controversy in the vegan community).

So, to sum up: It's really hard being vegan.

Lent is coming up in a few days, and this year I'll be going a bit "hardcore" in my ol' sacrificial garb. I'm giving up the usual sweets (which I tend to define fairly broadly), but I've also decided to go vegan for the duration. It certainly gets me contemplative, and maybe I'll lose a bit of weight.

I've gone vegan in the past during Lent, but last time was . . . well, I won't say "disaster," but it was rough. (Basically, I forgot that Lent fell during the GAMA Trade Show, so I found myself in Vegas living out of a hotel and trying desperately to eat vegan on the road. Low point? That'd be the $12 buffet where I was able to eat the breadsticks and marinara sauce, and nothing else.)

The missus supports me on this, but she certainly isn't joining me . . . which means I'll be on my own for most of my meals.

So I'm putting out a call to the usual suspects (i.e. "you," dear readers) for any recommendations for vegan fare, including recipes or other ideas.

Some notes:

• I don't have a lot of time. Ideally recipes would call for 15-30 minutes of prep time; shorter is great (obviously). I can do longer, but, if so, then . . .
  
• It's good if there are leftovers. I don't mind making big batches of stuff and eating off it for a number of days.
  
• I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. Thus many Indian dishes -- popular among vegans -- are probably too hot for me. I love Mexican food, but I'm the wuss for whom Taco Bell's "Mild" sauce was made.
  
• I need to balance convenience and health. Since a secondary goal for me is to eat healthier and maybe lose some weight, I'd rather not load up on heavily processed vegetarian frozen food (although some -- like soy crumbles -- can be useful to accent an existing dish). Besides . . .
  
• We're cheap. Sure, I might be able to buy vegan T.V. dinners for $5 a serving, but that's way too expensive for our household. Ours is a gamer-based economy.

Some ideas I have already:

• Spaghetti and marinara sauce -- Regular jar of cheese-free Prego, maybe some extra tomatoes, and pasta.
  
• Vegan soup -- Take a couple of cans of regular vegetarian vegetable soup, a bag of frozen veggies, and any other fresh veggies I like (and are on sale), and dump 'em in a slow cooker at the beginning of the day. (I think I have a good vegan split-pea soup recipe around here, but that'll take some time to dig up, and it's involved enough that it's a weekend cooking project.)
  
• Loaded baked potatoes -- Caramelized garlic and onions, broccoli, vegan spread.
  
• Chips and salsa Sans that yummy, yummy cheese.
  
• Cereal and soy milk</b> This is probably my default "I came up with no better ways to keep myself nourished today" idea.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Quoting CNN.com's front page:

Lawmakers said they had resolved the differences between the House and Senate versions of a $789 economic stimulus bill...

I don't think that's going to help very much...

According to Comic Book Resources, Chris Claremont is writing a new out-of-continuity X-Men series set after 1991's X-Men Volume 2 #3 (Claremont's last issue of his old run).

(Fans of the X-Men remember, of course, that that X-Men #1-3 was the storyline where . . . um . . . I think there was an asteroid thing? Something about Magneto dying? Wasn't there a Soviet subplot?)

Gee, a writer who's been barely a blip on the public radar for almost two decades, making an out-of-continuity book doing a basically extended "What If?" picking up after events from last millennium? How can this idea fail?!

Being proficient with keyboard shortcuts, I am many times more efficient than those who mouse-click through life. (Whenever I was new in an office job, people were always amazed that I could accomplish a task that took them 5-10 minutes in, literally, 30 seconds. "How did you manage to select those paragraphs, delete them, paste them to the bottom of the page, and replace all instances of 'ConGlobCo' with 'GlobConCo,' all while I'm standing here?! It would've taken me all afternoon to do that!")

This is especially true because I'm a big fan of program/file-launcher LaunchBar.

One unusual side effect of this, though -- combined with an 85 wpm typing speed -- is that, when I miss a shortcut or hit the wrong key, things tend to go very haywire, very quickly.

"Argh! Suddenly I'm trying to open a new document, open a bluetooth connection, play a strange song in iTunes, tab to another program, and enter hibernate mode! I have completely confused my computer in 8 seconds!"

Sam! Knock knock!

Me: Who's there?

Sam! A pineapple! [Sam! laughs uproariously.]

* * *

Sam! Knock knock!

Me: Who's there?

Sam! Chicken nuggets! [Sam! laughs uproariously.]

* * *

[Repeat for every noun Sam! can think of]

* * *

Still, he's funnier than any Eddie Murphy movie made in the past 10 years.

The first rule of Fight Village is, you do not talk about Fight Village.

The second rule of Fight Village is, you do not talk about Fight Village.

Third rule of Fight Village: By hook or by crook, we will get information.

Fourth rule: Only two numbers to a fight.

Fifth rule: Every citizen has a choice.

Sixth rule: No shirt, no shoes; you know the ruling about axes, swords, chisels, that sort of thing.

Seventh rule: Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself.

And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first night at Fight Village, you will be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered.

Be seeing you!

The missus and I drove 15 hours yesterday from Indianapolis to Dallas, visiting her family here and then going on to Austin.

We've had some long car trips before, but this one was by far the easiest 12-hour-or-more car trip we've ever done. It was truly trivial. Part of the reason is that we rented a car -- a Toyota Corolla -- that was quite enjoyable. But by far I place the #1 reason for its ease (for me, as the driver) was the fact that we listen to a bunch of Big Finish audios on the drive down (the first time we've gotten to listen to a batch of them). Normally audiobooks put me to sleep as a driver (NPR is a bit better for me), but these were truly spectacular. We were listening to Doctor Who audios, and the fact that they're full-cast dramas makes all the difference. Really, it was like being able to "watch" five movies while driving.

Big Finish makes a number of original audio stories for a number of licenses (plus some original stuff, too), so even if Doctor Who isn't your thing there might be something that is. (My wife quite enjoyed the Stargate SG-1 audios she listened to by them.) Just be aware that some of their productions are full-cast; some are straight one-person readings (such as the Companion Chronicles), which would be much closer to audiobooks; and some are "one-and-a-half cast"... in other words, there's one primary reader, and then a secondary reader, plus sound effects and audio. But I suspect even the reading-only ones are likely to be more enjoyable (to me) than most audiobooks; since they're usually only one CD -- instead of the five to 10 of an audiobook -- they need to be a much tighter, quickly paced story.

As a final note -- especially for U.S. fans -- I would point out that Big Finish started selling downloads of many of their audios about a year ago. This makes them much cheaper than before; what had been a $20 CD (plus shipping) is about $10-13 (no shipping) as a download. (Mind you, I prefer to buy the CDs... and the fact that the pound has fallen so hard against the dollar in recent months has made buying them quite reasonable for me.) In addition, I note that they've been offering the first part of the four-part stories for $0.99 as downloads, so you can try them out fairly cheaply.

(As I type this, though, I note that their website seems to be having a problem displaying prices in dollars. If you do become a Big Finish fan, you'll note that their website is the "height" of 1998 web technology.)

I got a hankering for homemade french fries today, but I didn't want to waste all the oil that goes with fully loading the deep fryer. So I tried to come up with a compromise and attempted cooking up french fries today in a pan on the stove. Surprisingly, they turned out near-perfect (as far as my tastes go). Here, then, is what I did:

Pan-Fried French Fries

1. Clean and french-fry-cut potatoes as desired. (Don't wash them once you've cut them... there's no need to wash off the yummy starch-juice.)
   
2. Put pile of cut potatoes on a microwave-safe plate and microwave on high for five minutes.
   
3. While fries are microwaving, heat oil in pan over medium heat. I would guess 1-2 cups of oil... enough that the fries are mostly but not entirely submerged. (I used canola oil.)
   
4. Once fries are done microwaving, cook fries in batches in pan. (I cooked the two pounds or so of potatoes in two batches, replenishing the oil a bit more between the batches.)
   
5. Stir potatoes fairly often as they cook. (I stirred them with the slotted spoon I would eventually pull them out with.) I think each batch took about 10 minutes, but "until they look done and tasty" is a good -- if obvious -- guideline. Remember that the microwave did the heavy lifting of cooking, so the frying is mostly to get them golden.
   
6. Immediately transfer potatoes to a paper-towel lined plate; use paper towel on top to absorb more oil.
   
7. Season as desired, let cool, and enjoy!

There's not much magical here... perhaps the biggest revelatory tip is microwaving the fries before cooking them (which is a tip that works great with a deep fryer as well). But I hadn't cooked fries in a pan before, and I couldn't find a satisfactory recipe online, so I'm recording what I learned here.

Oh, and as a personal tip, be careful when you stir the potatoes lest you splash hot oil upon yourself. Trust me on this!

In our household we have two cell phones, but they're communal; we just swap them around as needed between us. We have one primary cell phone number we hand out, and another we use primarily when we both need a cell.

Just now I was about to try to call the missus at the store to ask her a question. So I look at the table where we keep the phones and ask myself, "Now, which of these two cell phones sitting here do I want to use to call her?"

And then reality sinks in.

I actually found about something in the real world that isn't on Wikipedia.

Sure, I come across such anomalies all the time, but the fact remains that Wikipedia contains a staggering amount of information. (Heck, even your mother is on Wikipedia.)

(Did you know that there's a Wikipedia entry for those clichés such as "X is the new Y" or "Got X?" or "What would X do?" They're called snowclones.)

Where was I? Oh, right. I came across this lack-of-entry because someone on Freecycle was offering two Collector's Encyclopedias on [X]. (I'm not mentioning the specific item yet, to heighten suspense.) I believed that, if [X] is a collectible enough type of item to spawn two collector's encyclopedias, they must be pretty darn popular (even if I've never heard of them); surely someone who has collected [X] with the same passion of collectors of Hummel figurines or Beanie Babies would have posted an entry. But no. In fact, the phrase "[X] only appears (so far) three times in Wikipedia, and I think only two of those three refer to the item in question.

And the collectible that Wikipedia hasn't heard of is [drum roll] "wall pockets."

What is a wall pocket? According to this link, it's a "receptacle for flowers or other decorative items, that is fastened onto a wall." And there are at least two books on the topic.

I find it amazing how much Wikipedia has grown in 10 years that I find the lack of a topic noteworthy. Yay, Wikipedia!

I just got this e-mail from Best Buy:




I feel scared...

"Look, Mr. Marsh, we have only your best interests at heart. And all's I'm sayin' is, it would be most malfortunate were some unforeseen fate cause you to regret having declined to protect the memories of your family. Do we have an understanding?"