Back to work today, but it was a really good day (for being at work) since I listened to a whole ton of podcasts and before I knew it the day was all done! Probably the most interesting one was an episode of NPR's This American Life about a bunch of prison inmates who put on a production of Hamlet. Mostly I'm a CBC podcasty kind of guy, but lately I been branching out to NPR for a little variety- I also really like Pop Culture Happy Hour, which is all about nerding out.
And I couldn't wait to get home to check out Wookiee the Chew, especially fitting because of our Winnie the Pooh outing earlier this week. That from another geeky podcast, the name of which I forget. I'll have to show this one to Pallas when I get home, since she loves Pooh Bear and she loves animated Star Wars stuff, Star Wars Gangsta Rap being her current favorite cartoon. I kind of wonder what sort of twisted version of Star Wars she's building in her head, since I haven't shown her the actual movies yet. She just really really loves Boba Fett (she always makes me Boba Fett tea, it's bountylicious!) and I think she will be devastated to learn that not only is he not the main character, when he does finally show up about an hour into the second movie, he's a bad guy. Who meets a stupidly silly end in the first hour of the third movie. She'll have to learn the truth some day. As Hamlet might say,

I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind

This might not be totally appropriate but since it's entirely innocent, I'm gonna blog it anyways. Where else can I preserve these memories?
So I'm on the potty today, and Pallas opens the door and announces, " daddy has a penis!" and then in a sweet little voice asks, " May I come in?" That's how Michelle has been teaching her to ask, and she is so good at copying inflections and tones that she sounded so grownup it was hilarious.
This is better than what she used to do, barge in and say, "Dat's Daddy's vagina!"
It's not a vagina I would kind of gruffly say. Than I would hear from the kitchen, "Tell her what it's really called!"
I suppose I could just learn to lock the door when I'm doing my business.

We were finally able to take Pallas to her very first movie today, Winnie the Pooh. She loved it, and cried at the end. Not because it has a sad ending, but because she wanted "more dat movie" and we had to tell her you only get to watch it once. We also brought Naia, for reasons of logistics. Logistics, obviously, being very important when you have two little ones. Originally we were gonna drop Naia off at a friend's and take Pallas by herself. Our friend's schedule dictated that we would have had to go to a 1:00 or 2:00 show, which, logistically, was less than ideal because Pallas would miss her nap and who wants to have a grumpy child at a movie theater? Then again, with two children, the chances of having an unsatisfied theatre-goer more than doubles, it like, hundredifies. So we chose a 5 PM showing, figuring the theatre would be mostly empty and we were right, there was another couple of kids and we all agreed to just not sweat it if anyone cried. So success! For the most part.
The movie itself was alright. Now, I understand that I am not the target audience of such a film- my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter is. BUt even so I had pretty high expectations- only because I really enjoyed The Tigger Movie, which I thought was clever and had a good story with good action and even some rich emotional content. Srsly! I'm being serious. So I assumed this movie would be on the same level, and though it was totally fine and Pallas liked it, I was surprised there wasn't more to it- the Quest for the Tail and the introduction of a perfectly acceptable, if imaginary, antagonist made me think there would be. More to it, I mean. Oh well. You don't really wanna go the whole Spike Jonze route either, though imagine if the Backson had been the manifestation of a debilitating illness afflicting Christopher Robin in the real word, just like all the Pooh Bears and Tiggers are stuffed animals in his real life . . . anyways. Pallas liked it!

So. Wicked. MIchelle loved it and that was the main thing. And I didn't mind it- some funny parts. The sets were pretty good, the singing was . . . Broadwayey, but impressive in its way. Yeah. I loved Elphaba. The flying monkeys were a bit of a letdown, as I suppose all non-actual monkeys have to be. You know who did a really wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptation? Marvel Comics! Eric Shanower did the writing chores and the great Skottie Young arted it. Here are some of the covers he did for it. It won some Eisner Awards, which are handed out every year at SDCC. Hey, isn't SDCC going on right this minute?? Why yes! In fact you could go see Skottie Young at table 4601.
I actually finally gave in and joined Twitter today, just so I could follow pretty much anyone who's at SDCC. The second hand highlights of Day 1- Dave Filoni promised ScubaTroopers in Season 4 of Clone Wars! There's a Game of Thrones pedicab with the Iron Throne for the seat! Someone said 7000 people were unable to get seats for the Game of Thrones panel??

We're going to Wicked tonight. I'm half excited and half not excited, which I guess should cancel each other out to make me completely neutral on the subject. Here's the thing- I really liked Gregory maguire's book, the language was rich and it was a cool idea, the Wicked Witch of the West's life story. But the direction he went in was perhaps a little bit- okay a lottle bit- not where I would have taken it. And then the two sequels were not my cup of tea at all.
On top of that, I'm not sure if I've ever really mentioned it, but Broadway music is at the top of my list, the very very top, of types of music I cannot handle. However Michelle came with me to Slipknot and System of a Down (twice!) so I definitely owe her that one, and without a single complaint either.
On the plus side, though, who doesn't love a beautiful green-skinned woman? Plus there's flying monkeys! Flying monkeys!
In other news, San Diego Comic Con starts tonight, Preview Night. Can't believe it's been a year since we went already. Well, this year I can't go, but in a vicarious sense, I'm already there. I'll be checking blogs and Flickr photostreams and maybe even Twitter feeds all weekend. Here's one to start with, and please let me know if you have any.

Back from yet another week of work. As always, there were many ninja attacks, zombie apocalypses and alien invasions, but we dealt with them all. Plus I saw a squirrel.
Anyways. Remember how Jon Favreau was going to direct the Princess of Mars movie but decided to do Iron Man instead? That worked out pretty good, especially since they went ahead and made John Carter of Mars without him.
Remember how Peter Jackson was going to direct The Hobbit but then Guillermo del Toro was going to but then Peter Jackson did anyways? This past week has seen a bunch of official photos of the Dwarves! Pallas's favorite is Sneezy.

So we went to the Chapters Harry Potter party tonight it was really fun. Pallas enjoyed it, though she really didn't know what was going on. She got some candy and was sorted into Slytherin House, and waited for the Hogwarts Express and was even thrown into Azkaban! Stupefying. Also she sat in the Teacup of . . . uh, Horcruxes? Oh yeah and I got A Dance of Dragons. Sweet! Michelle got a cookbook, which doesn't sound that exciting but they are like comic books to her. If there was a San Diego Cooking Con she would want to go!

I had every intention of rereading all seven Harry Potter books before the movie came out, but plainly that's not gonna happen. Although I guess we can wait a year or two before we see it right Michelle? Tomorrow night at all the Chapters stores they're having a sort of release party or whatnot, I think we will bring Pallas, she doesn't know who Harry Potter is but I'm sure there will be people dressed up and that's always fun. Plus A Dance With Dragons is finally finally out today, so we'll have to pick it up right?
THis weekend another movie opens, and actually I am far more excited for it- Winnie the Pooh. We decided this would be Pallas' first movie we would take her to see at the theater. She just loves Pooh Bear. I let her watch the trailer, and she's started imitating Tigger when he comes on and does his Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo! She does it pretty good. And she says "Oh bother" when Pooh says it. My own first movie ever was Star Wars, of course, and life has never quite been the same for me.

I haven't posted about work much lately, mostly because work is the last thing I really want to think about. Here's some photos though:





Lately I've been spending most of my time actually doing my own job, driving Kress truck. So not too much exciting stories, just listening to a lot of music and podcasts. Which suits me fine. I had one night on pumps a couple of weeks ago which was a good reminder (not that I need one) that I made the right move to bid off of that job.

Been catching up on some reading.
John Scalzi recently released a reboot of the H Beam Piper classic, Little Fuzzy. I love that old book, must have read it three or four times. So when Scalzi, whose other books I love, got the nod to tackle the reboot, well that'd be like if JJ Abrams or someone got to reboot Star Trek. His version is called Fuzzy Nation. My girls got me the book for Father's Day (along with China Mieville's newest, Embassytown) and I read it in two days. You should read it- but first you should read Little Fuzzy. It's charming and fun but also has a great twist at the end, which Scalzi wisely incorporates but doesn't use as a twist.
I tried and tried to figure out the identity of the Red Hulk, and fastidiously avoided spoilers on the net, but in the end I was defeated by trickery. Well, if they hadn't employed a bit of the tricksy stuff it would've been too easy, and the tricks were perfectly legit tricks within the Marvel Universe, so I guess. But I wonder how many 8 year-olds got it.
Full disclosure: I've never smoked crack or even been idly tempted to try it. But I heard Christopher Shulgan on a DNTO podcast talk about his misadventures with crack while his newborn son was ... new. So I had to read his book, Superdad. Wow. Crazy. Here's a guy who's a year older than me, grew up in a small Canadian town then moved to a city. New dad. Pretty much exactly the same demographic. It would be easy to say the only difference between us is he has a problem with drugs and I don't. But what I found so interesting about the book is it's also a fairly deep examination of his concepts of manhood and fatherhood- ie, in his eyes, the two are mutually exclusive. While I was reading I thought "well his dad must have been a nightmare and that's how we have such different ideas here" and then it turns out he named his son after his dad since his dad is the greatest man he knows. Okay so,we also have that in common- my dad also is the greatest man I know. Well, I thought, obviously he didn't read nearly enough superhero comics or watch enough Star Wars when he was a kid, because if he did, then he would have had good role models to teach him how a man should be. Turns out he blames Harrison Ford for all his problems! Wow, did I see Han Solo and Indy differently than he did. Well, he worked it out and wrote the book, but I won't spoil it for you- this whole post has been spoiler free! Because real men don't ruin things for others.