Apollo 11 Trailer

I just heard about this: a new documentary about Apollo 11, created from 70mm footage of the original event. The few shots in the trailer look absolutely spectacular, and I cannot wait to see the entire spectacle. 

Dad at 18

Today Dad would have turned 77 years old, had he not died back in November. I still miss him, and I still haven't processed the sudden loss.

Here's Dad at 18, back in 1960. Hope you're soaring, Dad. 

Dad and Granddad

Here's a nice shot of Dad and Granddad from 1959. In Dauphin, Manitoba? You can really see the father-son resemblance here. 

Inappropriate Absurd Selfie

Sometime in 2016...

"Look, Sylvia, I'm in the Batcan."
"Why are you taking a picture of yourself in Steve's bathroom?"
"Bat-room, actually."
"...Never mind, I'm sorry I asked. As usual." 

My Old ATCO Cubicle

Oh, how I miss my cubicle. I hate open office plans, and I always will. So wrongheaded. 

Pete's Big 5-0

By all rights, Sylvia and I should be over at Mike's place helping celebrate Pete's 50th birthday. Unfortunately, we've been battling a water/electricity problem all day (turns out the two don't mix). But we're there in spirit, and I hope Pete is doing exactly what he's doing in the photo above right now. 

DC Editor for a Day

Let's say, for some insane reason, DC Comics decided to give me editorial control over their line of comic book titles, but only to the extent that I could create a slate of comics based strictly on existing characters.  

Well, I'd create the line that I would want to read, without regard for sales viability. Here's what it would look like, imagining that each title has an incredible creative team: 

 

Superman Books

Action Comics (anthology led by Superman, just the way it started back in 1938)

DC Comics Presents (Superman team-up stories)

Lana Lang (Lana Lang, on-again off-again girlfriend of Clark Kent, goes on archeological adventures from Qurac to Skartaris to Atlantis) 

Lex Luthor (diabolical tales of Lex Luthor's infamies great and small) 

Lois Lane: Woman of Steel (Lois Lane's adventures as a brave, bold reporter) 

Man of Tomorrow (Superman's adventures with the adult Legion of Super-Heroes)

Man of Steel (Superman's adventures as a radical 

The Private Life of Clark Kent (Clark Kent's day-to-day adventures in journalism, dating, grocery shopping, etc.) 

Supergirl (stories of Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin) 

Superman (Superman's main title, with his biggest adventures)

Young Clark Kent (Clark Kent's life in Smallville, as his powers were developing; frequently crosses over with Legion of Super-Heroes, below)

Batman Books

Batgirl (the adventures of congresswoman Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl, in Washington, DC)

Batman (Batman's main title, two-fisted street crime adventures) 

The Brave and the Bold (Batman team-up stories) 

Legends of the Dark Knight (Batman stories told from the perspective of his villains) 

Detective Comics (anthology led by Batman, just the way it started; detective stories) 

Team Books

Birds of Prey (Batgirl, Black Canary, Huntress, and Hawk and Dove fight street-level crime) 

Blackhawks! (a squad of pilots from around the world fly into danger wherever they can find it!) 

Doom Patrol (DP members from all incarnations of the team gather to fight the weirdest threats ever) 

Freedom Fighters (the heroes of Earth X have freed their world from tyranny, only to be stranded in ours!) 

Gorilla Soldiers (Congorilla, Detective Chimp, Beppo the Super Monkey, Angel and the Ape, and xx versus their arch-rivals the Ultra-Humanite, Gorilla Grodd, Titano the Super-Ape, and Monsieur Mallah and the Brain.)  

The Haunted Tank (ghostly adventures in World War II) 

Justice League of America (DC's greatest heroes team up to face the biggest threats) 

Justice Society of America (the greatest heroes of the 1930s and 40s fight the Nazis and other fascists and mad scientists) 

Legion of Substitute Heroes (good-hearted Legion rejects try to do the right thing despite their shortcomings) 

Legion of Super-Heroes (dozens of super-powered teenagers of the 31st century explore the galaxy and combat interstellar evil)

Secret Society of Super-Villains (super-villains work in secret, hatching sinister conspiracies to rule the world--but can they avoid killing each other?) 

Suicide Squad (super-villains and anti-heroes reluctantly work together under threat of government sanction, performing secret missions so dangerous that not everyone comes back alive)

Suicide Squad Secret Missions (Suicide Squad anthology)  

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (anthology series about the non-Terran Green Lanterns) 

Titans (generations of sidekicks work together to prove themselves) 

The Other Heroes

Animal Man

Aquaman

The Atoms (scientists Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi explore the microverse) 

Black Canary

Black Lightning

Blue Beetle

Captain Atom

Elongated Man (back to the original concept, the Nick and Nora Charles of the superhero world; lighthearted mysteries of the jet set) 

Fury of Firestorm (Ron Raymond and Martin Stein take back the Firestorm matrix - but they're not happy about it!) 

Flash Legacy (anthology of stories of the fastest men and women alive, from World War II to the far future) 

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

Hawks (the adventures of Katar and Shayera Hol, police officers of Thanagar) 

Hellblazer

Red Tornado

Shazam! and the Marvel Family

Swamp Thing
Vixen and Bronze Tiger (solo adventures of the Suicide Squad team-mates) 

Wonder Woman

Zatanna

A pretty solid selection of titles--at least from my selfish perspective. 

Stone Faced Bunny

A few years ago, Mom and Dad picked up this stone bunny (along with three baby stone bunnies) at a roadside art stand in British Columbia. I joked that it would make a good weapon to defend oneself against home invaders, with the added bonus that if you bashed a miscreant just the right way, the bunny might wind up with blood on its mouth, like a predator. 

Morbid, yes. And certainly violence should always be the very last resort, used only when imminently threatened with death. 

The Ledge

Full Red Crushed

Colors by Beck

Until recently, I only knew Beck through "Loser," which he released in...good heavens, 1993. I really didn't like "Loser," and so I dismissed Beck. I even though perhaps he'd been a one-hit wonder, when I thought of him at all.

A couple of years ago Sean mentioned that he really liked Beck, so I've been more open to his stuff. I quite like the song posted above, Colors, which I find really fun and catchy. 

All the Colours of Flin Flon

Maybe not all the colours. It's the Flin Flon Station Museum! Shot on an overcast day back in 2009. 

In the Green Room

This photo reminds me of nothing so much as the trash compactor scene in Star Wars. 

Sean's Feat of Strength

Here is Sean pretending to smash a vintage Commodore 1702 monitor, perhaps one of the finest monitors of its era. We sure got a lot of use out of it over the dozen or so years of its lifetime. 

The Unnamed Sorceress

Here is the last of the HeroForge characters I designed a couple of months back and recently painted. This poor woman has, as of yet, no name or backstory. I only know that she's some kind of sorceress with a "fire and ice" theme; she's shooting ice out of one hand, and a flaming arrow from the other. She'll work for Dungeons & Dragons or Villains & Vigilantes somehow. 

A Sinister Gunslinger

I created a gunslinger in HeroForge and painted him. Note the black hands, head, and chest. This fellow is supposed to be a scary faceless legend, but I haven't yet come up with a cool name for him. He's destined for Villains & Vigilantes at some point...but as hero or villain? 

Music Made the Shows Go Round

In my estimation, anyway. 

Flow

Here is Flow, an assassin I designed for the Villains & Vigilantes roleplaying game. Flow possesses heightened strength and a range of chemical abilities, shapeshifting, and plasticity. Her mottled appearance is supposed to suggest her body is shifting between different chemical elements, such as, in this case, copper and silver. 

Painted Deathbot

Here's another painted miniature from Civilization V, a killer death robot available only in the late stage of the game. This one turned out a bit better than the longbowman. 

Resting Longbowman

Here's an out-of-focus English longbowman, shoddily painted. Oof. Painting things is so hard at this small scale. Look at all those missed spots.

This miniature came with the special edition of Civilization V; it's metal, and quite hefty. 

Lodge Warrior

Trapezoids I

A Disturbing Image

Basile's Peephole

Basile's Pizza in Leduc has the largest door peephole I've ever seen. 

Undercover Avenue

Something strange happened on the way home from work this afternoon: along my straightforward drive from Stantec Tower to Terra Losa, I drove past five unmarked police cars with their lights running in the act of pulling over other drivers. Even stranger, they were about evenly spaced at one-fifth intervals along my commute, the first just past Stantec Tower and the last just before my final turn into our condo complex. The vehicles pulled over were two mid-size cars, two pickup trucks, and a box truck.

Were they speeding? Was EPS conducting some kind of spot check along my route? Questions, questions...