K-Squared Ramblings

Dear George,

Or, Why I’m Not Buying the Star Wars Limited Edition DVDs

Now, keep in mind that I grew up with Star Wars. It was the key fandom of my childhood. I don’t remember discovering Star Wars because I did so before I could really form long-term memories. I started reading the novels when Heir to the Empire came out, and the Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi comics. I was thrilled to see the special editions in theaters after nearly 15 years, even though some of the changes, like Greedo firing first and the way that you restored the Jabba scene,* didn’t make sense.

And while I’ve lost some interest over time—the novels and comics have gotten so complex that I wouldn’t have time to keep up with them if I wanted to, and the prequels were less engaging than the original series—I stayed on board for the entire prequel trilogy. Grumbling at times, but enjoying them nonetheless.

When you announced that only the special editions would be available on videotape, I was disappointed, because I liked both versions. When you announced that the films would be changed again for the DVDs, I was disappointed for the same reason. But I bought the DVDs, and (mostly) enjoyed them.

So when you announced that the original versions of the original trilogy would be available on DVD, I was thrilled! Read the rest of this entry »

Naming Zatara

I flipped through Teen Titans #39, which introduces the new Zatara. He’s apparently Zatanna’s cousin, which makes him the original Zatara’s nephew (appropriate for a cartoon character).

OK, that makes sense. He’s got a connection to the original, he’s got a right to the name, he’s got a legacy of magic, DC gets to keep the trademark going, etc.

But wait a minute. Like the original, Zatara’s his last name. Zatanna, however, is her first name. (Though I have to question the wisdom in naming your daughter “Zatanna Zatara,” “Zachary Zatara” isn’t much better. I wonder if they ever get together and perform with ZZ Top?)

We have two related characters, one male, one female. The teenage boy goes by his last name, and the grown woman goes by her first name.

Figures.

C is for Coffee

NPR’s Morning Edition ran a story on finding the perfect balance of caffeine. Apparently as little as 100mg—typical for a 6-ounce cup of coffee—is enough to give most people a lift. Depending on tolerance, anxiety and jitters start showing up as early as 200mg.

And yes, a cup of plain coffee has more caffeine than a shot of espresso.

The story was followed by one looking at why children have so much more energy than their elders. One of the biologists they interviewed was Michael Rose, an evolutionary biologist at UCI. I actually took a class from him once, on an evolutionary approach to explain the aging process. His take on it is that youthful energy is all about exploring the world and filling up your brain. Once you’re an adult, you don’t need to explore as much. It also means you take fewer risks, increasing your odds of survival.

I Voted for Kodos

No comment on the candidate, since I don’t live in the city, just… is anyone else reminded of these guys?

Image from The Duff Brewery. Incidentally, while looking for a page on “Citizen Kang,” I discovered that “I Voted for Kodos” is also the name of a band.

Pirates ’n’ Prada

Wow, they’ll take anyone in that crew!

Somehow, I’m not convinced!

The following movies were not harmed in the making of this blog post: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Beerfest, The Devil Wears Prada, and Barnyard.

DC Catches up on Fallen Angel

All right! DC has announced that they will be releasing a second collection of Peter David and David Lopez’ Fallen Angel!

The creator-owned series lasted for 20 issues at DC before low sales finally did it in. After the cancellation, IDW approached Peter David and offered the series a new home at their company. With new artist J.K. Woodward, it’s gone on to sell quite well at IDW.

Previously, DC had only reprinted issues #1-6 in TPB form as Fallen Angel vol.1. Interestingly, they re-issued it last month to coincide with the first collection from IDW, Fallen Angel: To Serve in Heaven.

Presumably one or both books sold well enough that DC has decided it’s worth reprinting the rest of the series. According to DC’s website, volume two will go on sale in January, and will collect issues #7-12. That includes the 5-part “Down to Earth,” introducing Black Mariah, and the flashback of Lee and Juris’ first meeting in New Orleans.

Shut the Truck Up?

This license plate brought to you by the department of “how did they get that approved?”

I mean, it’s not even in pig latin!

No, it’s not a manipulated photo. I really saw this car on the freeway a few days ago.

Comic Thought of the Day

Adam Strange started out as an archaeologist. Which means he probably had a PhD. Which means, on Earth, his proper form of address would be Dr. Strange.

Eat here—we have no taste!

I’m not sure what annoys me more about this ad: the fact that the joke is tasteless (which is an oddly appropriate phrase, considering it’s about food), or the fact that it’s equating something they serve (the mustard) with urine.

“Come here, our mustard tastes like piss!” Yeah, that’s encouraging.

Spotted on September 10.

Atlantis home

Space Shuttle Atlantis has landed safely. *whew!* I’m getting more nervous about shuttle missions lately. In part, it’s the greater focus on all the things that could go wrong. In part, it’s the realization that you know, the shuttle fleet really is aging.

But mostly, I think it’s the fear that, given reactions to the Columbia disaster, our nation may be only one disaster away from writing off space—or at least humans in space—entirely.

Speaking of Atlantis, the Bad Astronomy posted a fantastic photo by Thierry Legault of the shuttle and the International Space Station passing in front of the sun!

Eye Gouging

Here’s another example of randomly-generated spam somehow being appropriate:

This morning I received an image-based stock spam. The sender’s name was listed as “eye gouging.” Yes, spam does sometimes make you want to gouge out your eyes (or perhaps the spammer’s). May I recommend the Grammar Spork™ (NSFW: language) for such cases?

Yarrr!

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Ye might be findin one o’ these blasts from the past to yer likin’:

• Pirate Ships o’ San Diego
• Voyage o’ th’FyreFawkes
• Pumpkin Arrt
• Pirates Dinner Adventure
• Parrrty Weapon

Thar be more pirate postings if ye wants them.

Piratify yer blog!

Terrorism in Comics

I wasn’t going to post anything about the five-year anniversary of 9/11 because I didn’t feel like I could add anything that hasn’t already been said. But a discussion at Comics Should Be Good reminded me of a mailing list post I made five years ago, on September 17, 2001, on the subject of terrorism in comics. After rereading it, I’ve decided it’s worth reposting: Read the rest of this entry »

Mary Shelley’s Bride of Frankenstein

I’ve been working my way through the classic Universal Frankenstein movies, some of which I’m sure I’ve seen before, and some of which I’m sure I haven’t. Of course, they get filtered through having read the book at least three times and having watched Young Frankenstein many times.

Last weekend I watched Bride of Frankenstein. It’s a good movie, but the framing sequence bugs me. In it, Lord Byron is telling Mary Shelley how much he enjoyed her tale of horror, and proceeds to revisit the high points in the 1935 version of “Previously, in Frankenstein…” Unfortunately, just about everything he mentions wasn’t in her book! (Neither the 1818 or 1831 versions.) He then bemoans that it should have ended so abruptly, at which point she says something like, “Ended? That wasn’t the end at all!” and proceeds to tell Percy Shelley and Lord Byron the tale of, well, the next movie.

All this, despite the fact that the movies clearly take place in the 20th century, though they at least went to the effort to dress Byron and the Shelleys in period costumes.

On one hand, it’s a nifty conceit, made somehow more appropriate by casting the same actress, Elsa Lanchester, as both Mary Shelley and the Bride.

On the other hand, it’s emblematic of Hollywood’s mixed demand and contempt for original source material and its authors. This is the industry that brought us both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, trading on the author’s name as a claim of authenticity while still taking things in their own direction. (To be fair, both movies made efforts to include aspects of the original stories that are usually left out. And MSF followed quite well until about 5 minutes before the end, at which point it took a 90° turn and flew off into another movie entirely.)

Neil Gaiman says it best in his short story, “The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories” (in Smoke and Mirrors):

She managed a pitying look, of the kind that only people who know that books are, at best, properties on which films can be loosely based, can bestow on the rest of us.

Swimming in Christmas Trees

The Macy’s in the Laguna Hills Mall has a small storefront for seasonal products. In the lead-up to Christmas it’s full of decorations, ornaments, wrapping paper, and such. During the summer, it was swimwear. (I’m not sure what they use it for in winter.)

I walked by today, and they seem to be in transition:

The mismatch was so odd that it didn’t even hit me until several minutes later that this was the earliest example of holiday creep I’ve ever seen.

Getting Sociable

I finally got around to setting up convenient links to a couple of social bookmarking sites. At first I resisted the idea, figuring regular users probably have bookmarklets or extensions that take care of it. But social networking sites have casual users, too, and posting a few small icons is a subtler form of self-promotion than putting up a giant banner that says, “Hey! Submit this #$!@ story to ____ now!”

I ended up using Sociable, a plugin for WordPress that already knows the right link formats for several dozen such sites.

Of course, since Sociable provides links for so many sites, the obvious question becomes: Which sites do I include? I don’t want to post all 25—that would just be a jumble of icons, hardly usable (never mind aesthetic!)

I settled on five to start with:

• del.icio.us is my online bookmark service of choice. I still manage a lot of bookmarks locally, but this lets me share a set between multiple browsers at home and work.
• Digg seems to be the leading service for actually sharing and discussing links these days.
• Fark wasn’t on my list at first, but then I realized that I make funny/weird posts here all the time. Some of them would fit right in.
• Reddit is new to me, but it popped up a couple of times when I went looking through sites that I read.
• Yahoo MyWeb I mainly added out of name recognition.

What social bookmarking sites (if any) do you use?

Back to Basics: Phish by Phone

I just spotted a rather disturbing phishing message in (of all places) our abuse contact mailbox:

Subject: Fraud Prevention Measures

Dear customer!

Due to high fraud activity we constantly increasing security level both for online banking and card transactions. In order to update our records you are required to call MBNA Card Service number at 1-800-[removed] and update information on your MBNA card.

This is free of charge and would not affect any transactions with your card. Please note this is necessary to provide highest security level for all transactions with your card.

No HTML tricks. No links to fraudulent websites. Just a phone number.

I can only assume this is a response to high-profile inclusion of antiphishing features in Internet Explorer 7 and in Firefox 2. If there’s no website, there’s nothing for a web browser to check.

And of course by not using sneaky technical tricks in the message, it’s harder for tools like ClamAV, spam filters, or mail clients to detect.

Incidentally, does anyone else find it ironic that one of the most common phishing techniques is to exploit people’s fear of being phished?

Further reading: Anti-Phishing Working Group.

Joke Spam

I’ve noticed a new subset of blog spam over the past few months: Jokes. Instead of just filling the comment with links to the spamvertized site, it’ll either leave the the link in the author URL field, or toss a couple links in at the end, but the bulk of the comment will actually be a joke.

Generally they tend to be story-type jokes, the kind you’ll find on, say, Jumbo Joke. This is probably an effort to build up enough comedic content to overwhelm the presence of links to a porn or pillz site. A similar technique had a brief heyday maybe a year ago in email spam, though I haven’t seem many of them lately.

It’s still spam—there’s no way I’m letting those comments and links onto the site—and Spam Karma still catches them. Still, it at least makes the spamtraps a little more interesting than the endless morass of links and keywords.

On another note, I’ve been seeing a lot more email spam targeting the abuse contacts lately. I don’t know what they think they’re accomplishing, since the people reading abuse@wherever are most likely to report them and least likely to buy from them. I mean, “Greetings Abuse!!!” doesn’t seem an effective way to begin a sales pitch.