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He has taken possession of the Papa-san, challenging all those who would offer contest.

Marmalade Update

I managed to get Marmalade into the vet's this morning. The good news is that he doesn't have Parvo or feline leukemia. The bad news is that his teeth are rotting in his gums, and tomorrow morning he has to have surgery to remove most of them.

It's expensive, but the vet was kind enough to cut me a deal by shaving off around four hundred dollars from the bill, doing her bit to help this guy. I went to the vet's after work to check on him, and apparently he's been the star there all day. He is so very, very gentle, and so good as they worked on him.

The assistant brought him out to me wrapped in a towel after his bath, and I didn't recognize him at first. He was clean! Most of his matts were gone, and his coat just looked gorgeous after a shampoo and comb. So he's there tonight, surgery tomorrow morning, and maybe a night on the IVs before he can come home.

The vet thinks he's around ten, which is a few years off my estimation. So, hopefully, he'll have a few good years. Once those teeth are out, his pain will be lessened, and I just pray things work out for him.

So wherever you are tomorrow morning, please say a prayer for this little hero as he undergoes surgery. Me? I'll be eating my intestines with worry, because that's what fools and fathers do.

Marmalade Asleep

Last night was cold and wet, and Marmalade--as usual--was sitting on my front step, hunched over and shivering. So we decided it was time. I picked him up and brought him inside.

He's out on the sundeck now, probably having the deepest sleep he's had in months. We've managed to clean his eyes a bit and cut out some of the bigger matts in his fur. I had dreaded he would go feral at that, but he doesn't--he merps a bit, but that's it. He's off to the vets this week to get his shots, but he's still going to have to be in solitary for at least three weeks before he can hang with Julius. And I was so wondering what to do with my CBC cheque...:>.

Now that I've spent time with him (he just purrs and purrs when you scratch under his neck), I can see he's around five or so. He's seen a few battles (scar on his nose, chunk taken out of his ear), but what really sticks out is how gentle he is. He's been through hell, living on the streets since spring (as far as I know). And now? He's sleeping, and sleeping deep.

Vulcan Ninja wanted to change his name to something more dignified (she's fond of 'Simon', from Tad William' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, since Simon was a redhead and a lost soul), but I think Marmalade is a more cozy fit.

To be honest, Marmalade deserves nothing but cozy from here on in.

Early Delivery, and Congrats

As I sit here working on the final entry in my much acclaimed, much discussed and much ignored BEST FIVE GAMES OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS, I've had two things on my mind.

First, congratulations to Graeme Burk--my editor on Enlightenment, and a good friend--on his getting commissioned to write Doctor Who: The Wilderness Years for Mad Norwegian Press. I've been privileged to see Graeme's proposal, and he's set himself quite a task: to give a thorough overview of Doctor Who stories that appeared from when the show was canceled back in 1989 until it's re-emergence three years ago. He's going to be looking at things like the novels, comedy specials and audios, with interviews with a large number of the writers/producers. It's a mammoth undertaking, but if anyone can do this, it's Graeme. I look forward to reading it, and of making sure he gets enough alcoholic rejuvantors along the way.

(Mad Norwegian does some top class Who material, as well. I'm currently reading About Time Volume 2, and it's Who geek nirvana. Tons of info, tons of snark, and an enjoyable read to boot.)

The other thing? This song, which has been running through my head for two days now, and will be this week's Aural Caffeine. I love this song, even if the video makes me feel....kinda funny.

Who Fan Screams, Then Passes Out

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! (thud!)

Orange Cats

Sigh.

I'm in the middle of trying to rehabilitate a stray cat in my neighbourhood, a quest that saw me crouched down in my p.j.s at two in the morning, trying to let a cat trust humans again.

I'll try and get a picture of him the next time he comes around. He's this battered old orange cat, his fur hanging in matts off his side, scars across his face, and eyes that really need to see a warm facecloth. Whatever stellar human had him before tied two choking collars on him--collars that probably were fine for a kitten, but were now cutting deep into his throat. We were able to cut them both off, but he wasn't too happy about being held.

We've been feeding him for a little over a month now. He adores Fancy Feast Beef, but looks at us in disgust if we offer him Fancy Feast Chicken. Our routine is that he arrives, we put out a plate, he cleans it up, then sits on our porch for a few hours. Julius sits on the other side of the door, and the two of them take in the night together.

We've tried to let him inside, but he's very nervous about that. When I try to pet him, he flinches at my hand, but seems very surprised when I just scritch his ears. Then he closes his eyes, meows this scratchy, gargling meow, and bats his head against my leg. The plan is to coax him inside, and we've made progress. Awhile ago, if we even came to the door, he ran.

We call him Marmalade, because all orange cats need names like that. Just like they need warm blankets and a roof over their heads, and someone to love them.

TOP FIVE GAMES OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS: NUMBER TWO

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic


Back when I was a kid, I was obsessed with Star Wars. I had it all--most of the Marvel comics, the lunchbox, the calendars, the 'action figures', a giant TIE fighter (which I felt guilty for having, since I felt I supported the Empire), any magazine that even mentioned the film series, and very well read copies of the Brian Daley Han Solo novels and Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Oh, and I even had a pair of brown corduroys with a TIE fighter on the back pocket. Like I said, I was fucking obsessed.

So when the games started appearing, I grabbed them--and was often very disappointed. Of them all, I only really enjoyed Super Empire Strikes Back, and that was because in the final battle with Darth Vader, you actually had to employ Force philosophy to beat him. The rest just made me feel a little hollow, and as I reflected on it, cheated.

So I was a little dubious when I heard about KOTOR. Still, I bought it...and ended up playing the finest Star Wars game ever made.

The joy of this game is that it delivered what none of the others ever had: that ever elusive Star Wars feeling. Wisely moving away from the tired conflicts of anyone called Skywalker, KOTOR placed itself deeply into the series' past, while still maintaining all the cool stuff: lightsabres, amazing ships, and that great sense of exploration and fun. The story itself was good, with enough surprises and twists to keep even jaded old men in suspense.

I adored this game. But as all awesome things come to an end, the sequel wasn't done by Bioware (shout out for a great Canadian gaming company), and if rumours are true, KOTOR II was rushed out the door before it was ready. That seemed to kill the series, which is truly sad. While Star Wars Battlefront does a decent job of capturing the action of the series, it doesn't recreate the feel the way KOTOR did.

Let's just hope the rumours that Bioware is doing a KOTOR MMO are true. No, let's get down in our brown Star Wars corduroys and pray.

THE TOP FIVE GAMES OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS: NUMBER THREE

The Legend of Zelda series

I did try.

I did sit down and try to select just which Zelda game I enjoyed the most over the last five years. Was it Ocarina of Time, which I returned to on the Gamecube? Perhaps it was the cartoony goofiness of Wind Waker? The Gameboy version of Link To The Past? Or...and so on. And so I just said they were all just awesome.

I think another reason is that these games are part of our marriage, in that Zelda was the first game Vulcan Ninja played on her own, after years of watching me play from the couch. Tired of my inability to do a spin attack and/or solve the infamous dungeon puzzles, she took the controls away and began playing herself. She's played through three games on her own over the last five years, and is currently engrossed in the Phantom Hourglass on the DS. Over twenty years of marriage, there has always been a Zelda game being played/talked about/waited for.

Sure, the games are all very similar: Zelda gets kidnapped/turned to stone/forgets to return her library book, and it's up to poor, long suffering Link to make things right. Yet the developers always change it just enough to make it new while still being comfortingly familiar. Like Moorcock's Eternal Champion, there must be several incarnations of the Link hero, all doomed to rescue their own Zeldas, be they pirates or princesses, each one working out their console karma.

But no--we don't dress up as Link and Zelda. That would be...distressing.

Facials and Bare Bums--It's TORCHWOOD Episode 2!

Oh my stars and garters.

I sat down last night and watched 'Day One', the second episode of Torchwood. And I just stared.

To be fair, I didn't think it was that bad. Sure, I never expected to see bare asses while a man and woman have sex in a bathroom in any televised Doctor Who spin-off, or what looked like a blowjob facial (okay, it was sexual energy showering the young woman's face, but...wait, isn't that the same thing?) And while a lesbian love scene may have been a wish among Who fans over the years, actually getting one with a lead character--in a prison cell, no less--makes me well, stare.

nothing sexual here, nossir

I still have questions about Jack's version of Torchwood (Are they only the five of them? Where did Jack get all the alien gear? How did he take over the Torchwood name and maintain the Galaxy level security status? Doesn't he know that Gwen was actually the maid from The Unquiet Dead?)

So we get through another episode without the CBC pulling it from our screens and giving us a documentary on Maritime knitting circles again. Although if the CBC warnings get any longer, Captain Jack might borrow them for a few minutes.

If It's Thor's Day, It Must Be...

..time for more aural caffeine.

Vulcan Ninja loves the lead singer, and has plans for him if ever they meet.

Hope I Die Before I Become A Bitter Old Bastard

I don't fear getting old. What worries me is the process of change, especially within one's self.

For instance, at 42, I am not the man I was at 22. To be honest, I don't think I was even a 'man' then--I was still very much a boy, albeit a boy without a set bedtime. When I re-read old journals, it's both comforting and sad to see how much I've changed--some of the qualities I used to have faded (rightly) with age, while others have only become more firmly ensconsed.

But what worries me are the changes you don't notice. This came to mind today as I was waiting behind an elderly couple in a store.

The man was in his eighties, with his wife not far behind. He was making a purchase, and was all sweetness and light to the woman behind the counter. The perfect gentleman. His wife, on the other hand, was skittish, and kept moving around the store, touching everything she could, picking up and reading any pamphlet she could find. She finally found something she wanted, and squirrelled back to her husband to have him purchase it.

He became flustered. Gone was the radiant gentleman--now he was just this furious old codger. He turned to the shop assistant, who was processing his order on his credit card. "I'll pay CASH for this!" he barked, referring to the geegaw his wife had dropped in front of him. He just spat the word like it was a dart.

Off his wife went, touching everything once again.

As he was slowly counting the coin for the thingamabob, his wife spoke to the shop assistant.

"VIVIAN!" he barked. "DO YOU MIND?"

"What?" she snarked. "Have you lost count?"

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO SIT IN THE CAR?"

The pure venom between them should have come with a blast shield. And I thought: have they always been this way? Did they start out in love, and over the years of getting older together, is this what it comes to? Bitching and being miserable in your final years? And if so, how fucking miserable is that?

It just depressed me. So many people lose their loved ones, it's so rare these days for couples to enter their eighties together, with both of them healthy, both of them still aware, that to see this just made me want to bitchslap both of them. What process brought them to this point? How you could speak to anyone that way just floored me, let alone your wife. And yet, to see him, he looked like your stereotypical old gentleman, off to feed the squirrels in the park. But he was a fucking Nazi. And she just poured the gas to feed his rage.

It depressed me. Who knows? Maybe they deserve each other. It just got me thinking about getting older, and I prayed I didn't turn out to be as toxic and hateful as these two.

Sigh.

So I came home and looked at this and felt a bit better. Hopefully you will, too.

Why This World Is Occasionally Awesome

From the Belfast Telegraph, an interesting story on another reason why you should drink in Ireland.

The 'full of beans' line made me snort coffee.

They're Baaaaaack

Yeah, I tried to stay away, but damn it! The need to talk comics is just too strong....

Blue Beetle #19



I blame Chris over at his superb blog. He keeps recommending books that I end up trying, and then end up loving. And so that brings us to Blue Beetle.

I have no idea what's going on, and I like that. I remember reading comics back in the Seventies, and when you picked up a book back then, you never had any idea what was going on. Back then, editors and writers didn't require you to know all the backstory, because you would be told all you need to know to enjoy the story there and then. And so it is here--even though I'm still a newbie, I still found this book very, very entertaining.

Blue Beetle successfully visits the archetype of the 'teenage hero' with all the lightness and wit that Spider-Man used to have back before the franchise became, well, a franchise. The idea of a teenager having a suit that constantly chirps at him is something I find amusing, partly because it feels like it belongs more in a Japanese manga and partly because I wish my clothes could hold conversations with me, especially about Japanese manga.

Writers John Rogers and the apparently immortal Keith Giffen bring just the right touch to this, and David Baldeon's art is bright and fresh. And the book even has a laugh out loud line in it: as the team is fighting Giganta (a giant woman, thus the name), Peacemaker shouts out this advice:

'Don't stare. Your mind fixates. Next thing you're cruising some real weird chat rooms.'

Worth your money.



Buffy The Vampire Slayer #7

Ummm...not to nitpick, but Eliza Dushku isn't that busty, is she? Now the whole book is ruined for me, because it's no longer believable. Once you break that suspension of disbelief, you know, there's no getting it back.

I've mentioned before that I'm all about Faith, so I don't have much to complain about here. Brian K. Vaughn's story of Faith going to England to wipe out an evil aristocratic Slayer who likes to kill members of the lower class features a fairly impressive battle between Faith and two stone gargoyles. Or maybe it's not that impressive, but it did a) have Faith in a cleavage revealing dress and b)have two stone gargoyles with glowing red eyes, which I still think is pretty cool. I'm easy that way--brunettes in revealing clothes and glowing eyes o'evil, and I'm content.

There's also a nice comment from Willow about why men love Dawn, and at last someone acknowledges that Dawn--who is now a giant, with no other clothes to change into--must be smelling a little rank right now.

I'd still like this show to be back on television, but this will do. For now. And next month? Faith beats the hell out of Buffy. Oh yeah. Go Faith. Have you heard that Sarah Michelle Gellar is pronouncing her last name Gel-lar now? That at least deserves a noogie.



Fantastic Four #548

Again, I blame Chris. But he's right--this is some great old fashioned FF comics going on here. I gave up FF when JMS was writing it, and when those days seemed destined to never end, I gave up on classic FF altogether. So when Chris praised Dwayne McDuffie's run on the title, I thought I'd give it another look.

I'm glad I did. Sure, the inclusion of Black Panther and Storm as members while Reed and Sue go fix their marriage seemed to smack of marketing, but McDuffie understands just how cool Panther is, so all is right in the world. This story--which hinges on the Wizard rather creepily demanding a trussed up Sue Storm say he's more awesome than Reed--actually made me feel that a valuable icon in the Marvel Universe was in danger. Even though I know Sue isn't going to die at the hands of a third stringer like the Wizard, there was a moment when I didn't know that--and that was fun. And this issue's cliffhanger was also fun, especially for old farts like me who adored the FF back in the Seventies and Eighties.

But I still haven't seen the movies, and have no desire to. Am I hardcore or what?

Weekend Gaming Update

Three blessed days off. Imagine all the gaming I could cram in. As if.

Hopefully, if I can insult family members enough so they want me to leave, I can get some gaming done this weekend. My experience with Phantom Hourglass has been limited to just seeing the opening credits--Vulcan Ninja grabbed both it and the DS and that, as they say, was that. She's been curled up on the couch, tapping and laughing with Link ever since.

I have been playing through Paper Mario on the Wii, which has been much fun. The talk that finally Sin and Punishment is available through Virtual Console has had me scrabbling through my discs, trying to find the Nintendo WiFi install disc, which I made the mistake of putting somewhere safe. I've also been dragged into playing Runescape with my nephew, and dealing with his disgust that I don't have a level 46 character by now. (What do I do with my time?) And of course, it's Brewfest in WoW, and I'm under pressure to mine more with my corporation in EVE Online.

So, of course, with all that, I'll probably just play Tetris on my phone, pretending to listen when family members talk about buying new patio sets.

Torchwood: Well, That Episode Didn't Suck, Did It?

Back in the summer, I was in Toronto, sharing alcoholic beverages with my friends in the sad league we call being Who fans. I remember distinctly taking a sip of some flat Merlot, and asking:

"So... how is Torchwood?"

I was the only one among us who hadn't already seen all 13 episodes, courtesy of this new fangled Internet thing and/or friends with burning capabilities over in Blighty. So I was generally interested in what they had to say. For example, Graeme's word on anything Who-related is usually so golden I can light my house with it for weeks.

As the final 'd' consonant sound of Torchwood faded from my lips, they froze. Then, to a man, they leaned back their heads and howled. Then, as one, they ran and leapt out a nearby window. To this day, I haven't seen them since.

Okay, so they just froze. But Graeme looked at me, with sadness in his eyes.

"It's terrible," he said, as if pronouncing that my dreams were dead.

This show has quite a bit going against it among Who fans, which seems quite an achievement. I mean, after all, we used to make do with this:



..and didn't complain. At least, not this much.

So I came to this show tonight with a small two wheel cart of reservations. And guess what? It really wasn't that bad. I can see where it might veer off the tracks ( the open elevator shaft leading down into Torchwood, and the deaths it must cause with passerby plummetting down said elevator shaft, is quickly rushed over with typically snarky RTD verve), but I found myself being drawn in and entertained. I liked Eve Myles (last seen in The Unquiet Dead) as Gwen, and John Barrowman always lights up the screen in ways that make me wonder if I wouldn't go out for a drink with him if he asked.

So, I assume, everything goes to hell next week with horny aliens getting it on. That may be, but this first one? Not bad at all.

If This Is Thursday...

...then it must be time for some aural caffeine.

Going old school this week, but sometimes, the oldest is the bestest. And my apologies for saying 'old school'. Please forgive.

Embrace Your Addiction

Straight after work, I hobbled to the car and drove straight to Future Shop to buy this:


You may think that sad. That a man who can see '50' on a clear day would make this a priority. And to that I say:

I got the last one.

Lot of sad people in London, it seems.