Another confirmation: Peter Parker is a nerd

I was watching an episode of the old Spiderman cartoon, the one from the early 90s, and he had a great line.

He's fighting Scorpion in a nuclear plant, and JJ Jamison is there with him. Scorpion hits some control to pull out the rods away from the reactor, and Spiderman, while dodging Scorpion's tail, is explaining to Jamison what will happen if Scorpion succeeds.

Jamison: What do you know about stuff like this?

Spiderman: [pointing at himself] Hey, who do I look like? The Tick?

This is not only a hilarious line, but since The Tick was not a Marvel character at the time, this means that Peter either read Tick comic books or was watching the cartoon. However, this episode aired in Nov of 1994, and the first Tick cartoon aired in Sept of 1994, so it is even more likely that Peter was referencing the comic book. Prior to the Tick cartoon, only major comic book nerds even knew The Tick existed.

So more proof that Peter is hugely nerdy. :) Like we needed more, but hey...

Current mood: geeky

I. Am. BATMAN!

I had a seriously cool dream last night. Unfortunately, I cannot recall many of the exact details, just an overview, though there are a few memorable scenes in my head.

One of my favorite games of all time is Batman: Arkham Asylum. I have only dabbled a tiny bit in Arkham City, and hope to play it more some day, but the first one was just amazing. 

Anyhoo, last night, I dreamed I was Bruce Wayne, and there was a serious problem. The Penguin had been planning for a loooong time, had somehow figured out that I was Batman, and had infiltrated my whole infrastructure. Meaning, that he had discovered the Batcave, and had also either created or discovered some kind of zombie virus. People infected with it either acted as normal shamblers or if they were already superhuman, the Penguin was able to mind control them. Anyone who was affected by the virus were easily identifiable because their eyes were completely white. 

I don't remember how it all started, but as Bruce, I realized that I was completely locked out of all my Batman gadgets, suits, vehicles, and everything because the Penguin had sent zombie agents into the Batcave. What's more, this represented a serious threat to so many people that the Joker joined my side to fight with me. In my dream, he became a character you could fight with against the zombies and other villains facing us down. 

Because I had no Batman suit to wear, then one scratch from a zombie meant I would be infected, and that would be the end. There was definitely a horror element to it - nothing like child zombies, where you don't want to kill 'em because there might be a cure, but if they break skin, you are dead meat. I think when I played as the Joker a bit (and he had long claws on the end of his fingers - not sure why or how), I had to kill a few kids, but as Bruce, I never did. 

One zombie was a superhuman - he was like Luke Cage/Power Man (almost impervious skin and super strength) from Marvel, though he was white and didn't have a superhero suit. He seemed to be a Boss fight several times, and as Bruce, I tried to kill him outright several times. One time, I tried an iron spike right to his chest, and it simply bent. I dodged out of the way before he could hit me, but I knew I needed to come up with a way to take him down.

Somehow I knew I needed a way to launch a projectile at him at high velocity. I ran into a room and found a fellow superhero tied up, but not zombified yet. I released him and I saw a flashing message saying, "Green Arrow UNLOCKED!" (LOL! Love the video game dreams...)

Problem was, he had some of his arrows, but no bow. It had gotten lost or hidden somewhere, and so the next part of the game/dream was finding it. I think the dream ended before we got that far, but I somehow knew that Green Arrow could take out that guy once he had his bow. 

I never really saw the Penguin, though I also somehow knew he was behind it all.

All in all, what I recall of this dream was all the fighting and flipping around just like in the game, with the added fear element of avoiding even a scratch from any of the zombies - not so hard from the shamblers, but from the superhumans? Hoo boy, that was tough - I basically had to avoid them until I way to take them out in one hit. I think there were more than just the one I explicitly recall, but like all dreams, many of the specifics faded as the morning wore on. 

I even woke up briefly in the middle of the dream, thinking, This is so awesome! I am totally going to blog it.

You're welcome.

Current mood: superheroic

Life Update Novella

Holy cow, a lot of stuff has gone down.

The beach: we went, we had fun! Except for the fact that I applied sun screen once and didn't the rest of the day. I used to be a redhead to some degree (when I had hair), and so my skin suffered. While I'm glad I didn't get 2nd degree burns, I still have some redness three weeks later. Thems were some serious sunburns. Thank heavens for aloe - slathered it on twice a day for two weeks.

The kids: Jenny decided not to go to Albuquerque and Arizona for 2 weeks, but rather to meet her sister halfway between here and Alb. When she started having some cramping and such, I decided that I would take the kids rather than her juuuust to be safe, pregnancy-wise. They are safely home and have already Skyped with us a few times. :) Jackson really misses his cousins!

The game days: Sadly, because she didn't go, I didn't get to do my extra game day(s). :(

The trip: But her cousin that she hasn't seen in 14 years contacted her and told her that he would be in Dallas last weekend, so she decided to go, and ended up being gone for a week anyhow, just not out of state. I was working so much, I didn't get to do any game days, though I *did* get a couple of other guys whose families were out of town over at my place for dinner and a game of Carcassonne and Knights & Cities of Catan (best expansion set for a game ever - if you like Catan, get that expansion). She just got home late last night.

I am looking forward to finally getting some time at home without any visitors! Time to enjoy being with my family in our new space. 

Though it won't last for long...

The business trip: My work is sending me to Ottawa for some training on an application we'll be using, last week of August. I might need to check with some of my Canadian folks to see if they are in the vicinity and want to get together...

The books: Since I was driving 7 hours in a car with no cruise control or CD player (it has a tape deck!) through barren areas of Texas with virtually no cell phone signal, I borrowed my brother's audible.com account so I could listen to some audio books on my trip back from dropping off the kids. 

I began with Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman. Neil is really, truly excellent - some of his stories are just Good, but most of his stuff is in the Amazing category. This was the latter - I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

But most of the rest of the books my brother has are spy novels, or perhaps I should say counter-terrorism novels. I've always enjoyed a good Tom Clancy novel, but I haven't touched one in a while. Well, my brother really likes Daniel Silva, who wrote (is writing/will continue to write) the Gabriel Allon novels. Gabriel Allon is an Israeli counter-terrorism agent, and the detail is fascinating - it's sometimes hard to tell where the history ends and the fiction begins. I love reading about (well, listening to) a non-USA perspective with this kind of story. Cool stuff. Highly recommended.

Current mood:  covert