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Notes of a Fanboy

batman.jpgI went to see the 12:01 a.m. screening of the new Batman movie, and … whoa. I’m really torn about saying this, because I love the superheroes with actual superpowers, but this is probably the best “superhero” movie ever made. The acting throughout was stellar — there wasn’t so much as an eyebrow out of place — but the writing, the dialogue, all the rest of it was incredibly good too.

Oscars: Yes, Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar for the chilling, deadly Joker he created. But Michael Caine deserves an Oscar too, for his supporting role. Aaron Eckhart deserves at least a nomination.

Sitting in the theater and looking around at the audience, I didn’t see another person my age in the room. I don’t know whether they had all grown up and left Batman behind, or maybe were just at home in bed at this unreasonable hour. And all the young people sitting around me — how did they come to know and like the Batman? Was it the movies? The hype about THIS movie? The graphic novels?

It’s amazing the stuff you can find inside yourself: At one point I actually looked around and sniffed with disdain at that audience of 20-somethings. None of these people were REAL fans like me, whose life has encompassed most of Batman’s 69-year history, and who has been a reader of comic books since I learned how. 

Get it? I felt SUPERIOR for a moment. Because I’m a better comic book fan.  

Argh.

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Letter to An Administrator

letter-writer.jpgYou may be aware that PZ Myers has come to the attention of the Catholic League (“For Religious and Civil Rights”), for lightheartedly offering to “desecrate” a communion wafer, if someone would send him one.

The shriekers are out in force, apparently, and Dr. Myers has asked for a pushback from the secular community. I encourage every good-hearted person of intelligence to pitch in.

Here’s my effort, a letter to the President of the University of Minnesota: 

President Robert H. Bruininks

202 Morrill Hall

100 Church Street S.E.

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, MN 55455

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Sauron II: Cheated Dogs

Once more onto the soapbox, dear friends:

sauron-2.jpgI had a friend who had 40 sled dogs. And oh boy, did they ever LOVE pulling those sleds! You could see it in how eager they were to get in harness. They leaped, they wriggled, they screamed to get into harness and start pulling.

I took my own two dogs out for hikes – off leash – in true wilds twice a day, in the woods, along mountain trails, along creeks, and on remote dirt roads.

One summer I started taking one of his sled dogs, my favorite, with us. At first, Walter was afraid of everything on the walks. He shied away from a creek barely a foot wide, and finally crossed it by jumping over it about four feet in the air. He didn’t even know it was water – it was several days before I could get him to drink from the creek. When he finally dipped his muzzle into it, then put a foot into it, he splashed and ran in it like it was the most exciting thing he’d ever seen.

Continue reading “Sauron II: Cheated Dogs”

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The Eye of Sauron Looks Down and Sees … Dogs

trick-dog.jpgOkay, that’s it.

I just read a story in the Washington Post about a new CBS TV show, “Greatest American Dog.”

Look, to begin with, I don’t like “reality” TV. I don’t watch it. But I’m okay with it if a bunch of idiots want to go out on national TV and eat cow anuses or climb out on narrow beams above pits of broken glass, all for the remote chance of winning money. Not only do I think they’re more than welcome to do that, I know they don’t even have to care about my opinion. I’m fine with it, seriously. For all I care, as long as they’re adults, and they’re freely choosing to do those stupid things, they can all wind up in wheelchairs. Yeah, it would hurt me to see something like that happen to a fellow human being, but tragedies happen every day and I don’t think I have any right to interfere in other people’s private decisions. Heck, I’m the guy who thinks suicide should be legal. And at least they get a chance at the money, unlike all those people who have crippling injuries while skateboarding or riding motorcycles.

Continue reading “The Eye of Sauron Looks Down and Sees … Dogs”

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Carl Buell Rocks. That is all.

titanotylopus_abc.jpgSome pretty neat news (and I hope I have all the details right):

Good friend and paleontological illustrator Carl Buell will have art on ABC Evening News with Charles Gibson on Friday night, July 4th, 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The news piece has something to do with American expatriots, and will somehow weave in the fact that the recent diaspora is not the first. It happened as far back as the Oligocene, as long as 33 million years ago, with camels. Originated in North America, moved elsewhere; died out here, succeeded there.

Five of Carl’s paintings of camel ancestors will be featured.

The one shown here is Titanotylopus.

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Queries Away!

ghostbusters.jpgToday I got 20 queries all prepped for mailing tomorrow. I’m doing publishers initially, will focus on agents later in the week.

I took a year off from work and wrote two books, one a children’s book, the other this book on atheism, with the working title “Blue Collar Atheist.”

Anyone who’s read my various blog incarnations over the years has probably read some of my essays; the atheism book is about half those, half new stuff, with cool chapter titles like “Batman Almighty,” “The Wellspring of the Gods,” “Sucking Up to the Virgin Mary,” “The Evidence of True Things,” “Hello Mr. Death” and “The Headwaters of Reality.” More obvious titles are “Why Beliefs Matter,” “Good Without Gods,” “On Being An Unbeliever,” and “Saying Goodbye to Gods.”

If I had to describe the basic idea of the book in one sentence, it would be “You don’t have to be a highly-educated intellectual to free yourself from religion.”

And IF IF IF the thing sells, you might get to read it in, oh, a year or so.

Argh. Should’ve started five years ago. 

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Thank You Jesus for RSS

rss.jpgI just yesterday finally bit the bullet and learned how RSS works. Damn! Why didn’t somebody TELL me!?

Now I have all my favorite sites in a Bloglines feed. I click on ONE link in the morning to check everything, rather than a dozen or more, and I can skip the sites with no recent updates. Wonderful!

If I get really daring, I’m thinking of trying out those incandescent indoor light thingies. I hate it that I have to stop work when the sun goes down, and the torches are just so smoky.

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A Sunny Optimist, Darkly, on Planet Earth

optimist.jpgFor a guy who gets nervous when he has to call in to work and tell somebody he’s going to be five minutes late, I have a hard time even imagining what it’s like for a doctor to tell a patient he has cancer.

And yet they do. And I doubt they sugar-coat it. After Sen. Ted Kennedy’s recent diagnosis, I’d bet Kennedy and his family heard it in blunt terms that same day. A doctor came right out and said “You have a large tumor in your brain.”

If I was the patient, I know some part of me — the wishful part that wouldn’t want it to be true — would desperately NOT want to hear it.

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And Now a Word from Our Sponsor:

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Stuff I Do:

Freelance Writing & Copy Writing

Professional Proofing and Editing 

Brochure/Flyer Design & Printing

I’ve worked as a freelance writer and magazine editor since 1985, as well as a newspaper copyeditor for the past 8 years. I also design brochures, flyers, menus, all sorts of printed matter for businesses and invididuals.

Visit my EditorQuick site for further info and contact details, or shoot me an E-MAIL if you’re in the market for good, fast Editing, Writing or Design.

I’m looking for work.

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