InkBlot's Inkernet

New out from Neil Gaiman is the Graveyard Book.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family. . . .

It’s likely in the Young Adult section, which is an odd nomenclature to me.  When I was young, I was reading both YA and Adult books all the time and I didn’t see much difference.  I’d like to say, “well, except the covers were sillier,” except I read Fantasy and Sci-Fi.  The covers are always silly.  Except here.  Neil apparantly knows the nifty people when it comes to book covers and interior art.

Not only should you be able to find this book in your local bookstores, but he’s also touring the country and giving live readings from the book.  These are being recorded and collected at one of his websites, mousecircus.com.  So, give it a whirl.

from: mousecircus.com

I felt he did a pretty decent job, all around.  Over on something called MTV’s Splash Page (by way of the Superman Homepage) is an article about reboot the Superman movie franchise by ignoring Superman Returns.

I’m not nearly as critical of this movie as I should be, and it’s largely due to how happy I was simply to see a partly decent Superman movie after so long.  I’m very much a fan, and I’ll admit to bias here and now.  The movie, however, was far from perfect.  Even now, as I watch it, I often simply skip to the plane rescue (with some of the general crime fighting that follows after) then forward again to final action scenes, catching the Daily Planet globe and lifting the Kyrptonian island into space.

MTV spoke to Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Brad Meltzer for their thoughts, and the general consensus was pretty spot on.

Continue Reading »

After far too much time, in an on-again-off-again relationship with City of Heroes, my original character, Hero14, has finally reached ’50′. This is the highest level for this game, and unlocks an ‘Epic Archtype’ called the Kheldians.

I’ve been playing one for a few days, and just got one it to lvl 6. It’s an interesting type for the game, combing different “forms” to let you play multiple concepts in a single character. So far, it’s not too bad except for the lack of customization in the alternate forms. I’ve got my own hero I can tailor to my liking, and now at lvl 6 I have a floating squid form. Yay.

On the opposite side of the game, City of Villains, the most recent game update introduced Villain Epic Archtypes, or VEATS. On the whole, these special archetypes look much more interesting to me, as it’s expanding on one of the core mythologies of the game. The Kheldians, frankly, always struck me as cobbled together tack-ons. You could excise them from the game entirely, and the overall story arc wouldn’t suffer.

Plus, I still don’t forgive them for that horrible ending to the original CoH comic books. Interesting characters, interesting stories, then all of the sudden: Look, Bob’s a Kheldian! Read all about ‘em at our website. And oh, we’re canceling the free comic now.

The recent update has helped whet my appetite for the game. I’ve even learned to accept the arbitrary economy forced on the game through their auction house system. Mostly, because I’ve now learned how easy it is to exploit it. For example:

• Salvage sells for the same price to NPC vendors. Rates are something like 250 for Common, 1000 for Uncommon and 5000 for Rare. Some of this same salvage regularly sells for much less at Auction. Focus on the Uncommon.
• The latest issue allows you to “combine” three Inspirations into one of any other type. Despite this, a “Large” Damage Inspiration still goes for around 3000 at Auction, while a “Lagre” Resurection goes for around 150,000. Do the math.

With mild effort, any character can keep themselves in enough cash to keep up to date in regular enhancements, without having to touch Inventions until much later in the game. And since the lvl 25 invention enhancements pale next to lvl 25 SOs, this isn’t a bad thing. Still, it feels too much like weekly grocery shopping to keep my characters in beer and skittles.

Plus, I saw a blurb on their new loading screens that “The game was not made more difficult for Invention Enhancements”. So, uh, this Enhancement Diversification was just for fun? Really?

Sometimes I feel like I’m in an abusive relationship. I don’t want to enjoy CoH, but I do. At least, until an alternative ever comes out.

I’m usually slow about these things, so I’m sure you’ve probably seen this elsewhere.  Match It For Pratchett is a grassroots effort to raise support and awareness for Alzheimer’s Research.  The site itself does not collect money, instead it directs people to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust in the UK.  Why the UK?  Because the site was started in honor of top UK author Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s this last year.

Terry Pratchett recently donated $1 million (£500,000) himself, with the comments, “I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along. Say it will be soon – there’s nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation. In most cases, alongside the sufferer you will find a spouse suffering as much. It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”
If, like me, someone in your family suffers from Alzheimer’s…or even if you don’t know anyone who suffers this horrible disease now, I encourage you strongly to take action.  The Alzheimer’s research trust is in the UK.  Here in the US you can also check our the Alzheimer’s Association. Whether you realize it now or not, you’ll be helping someone you love.

Much of my daily reading on the interweb comes from news aggregators.  I particularly like those with a sense of humor, such as Fark.  That sense of humor, however, doesn’t mean that the news isn’t serious.  Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s tragic.  Sometimes it’s important, sometimes it’s personal.

The other day, this story floated across the wire.  It described Charles Whiting, who lost his wife in 2005 to cancer and emphysema.  One thing that comforted him was the voice mail greeting his wife had recorded with their Verizon phone service some years earlier.  The message remained long after she was gone, and Charles would call it daily to hear her voice once more.

Recently, system upgrades replaced the equipment which provided Whiting’s voice mail service, and the greeting was lost.  Calls to Verizon informed him the previous greeting recordings were lost for good.  It was sad, and a reminder that the world is always changing and someday the things we rely on most will inevitably disappear.

At least, that’s what I thought when I saw it.  Today, a follow-up article showed up on the AP wire.  From the article: Company spokesman John Bonomo said Tuesday that a contractor found the recording and restored it to the new voicemail system.

“I’m glad they rescued it,” Whiting said. “I’m very happy.”

Another reminder: There’s always some good in everyone’s heart.  Let it out whenever you can.