The Letters Keep Coming

Another episode of "Fringe", more letters in the sky. Only two in this week's episode, though, which is disappointing.

Pleasant Surprise

Quite some time ago, before the Internet and before I had a subscription to Nintendo Power, whenever a game would come out I would have no knowledge of it doing so until I would see it in an ad. These ads would always be placed in order to get you out there (or have your parents get out there) and get the freaking game. The first time it happened was with "Kirby's Dream Land" for the original Game Boy, which became the first game I ever bought with my very own money.

Several years later, I was reading a magazine days before my birthday, and was delighted to see that Kirby's Dream Land 2 had come out! Indeed, several Kirby games had come out in the interim, but for some reason I didn't take any notice of them at the time. With Kirby's Dream Land 2, however, I went from having no knowledge of this thing existing to wanting it more than anything in the world. Unfortunately, this was the last time I would feel this... or so I thought.

More Kirby games came out, and I bought most of them, but having a subscription to Nintendo Power and, later, the Internet allowed a quick burst of excitement which simmered with the long wait involved each time. There were no longer any surprises in life. At least, no good surprises. Everything is now heralded months before it comes out, as if it was a king leaving a foreign battleground. By the time the king has finally arrived at his castle, everyone is sort of unexcited. Thus is life. You get hit with girlfriends dumping you and surprise expenses, but never any fun surprises. And then, salvation!

Or, at least, an e-mail. I went into my Hotmail account and saw that Nintendo had sent me a message with the subject line: "What's super, tuff, and pink all over?"

I have not picked up a gaming magazine in months, or more than perused a gaming website for just as long. So I had no idea what to think when I saw that subject line, thinking maybe there was some Kirby thing on the Wii Virtual Console. I opened up the e-mail, however...

Kirby Super-Star Ultra. For the Nintendo DS. Release date: September 22nd.

There are some good surprises left in the world, it seems. You just have to know where not to look.

More Letters in the Sky

Well, another episode of "Fringe" was on earlier in the week, so you know what that means? More floating letters! Yes, I've decided to post pictures of all the floating letters from every episode. I like them, you see. I like them a lot.

Backlog

I have a backlog of entertainment-related things to work through. Unlike other backlogs, this one is remarkably pleasant. What do I have to do, you ask? I shall tell you, as it fills a blog post and makes me feel better for posting more than once a week.

Books:
Second Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
Foundation's Edge (Isaac Asimov)
20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill)
The Collected Words of Edgar Allen Poe
The Last Days of Krypton (Kevin J. Anderson)

Comic Books:
Those ones I bought like, two weeks ago and posted about. Still haven't read any of them.

Movies:
Prey
Grizzly Park
Next Avengers

Video Games:
Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS)
Finishing a bunch of minor objectives for a bunch of games

This is going to take a bit of time.

Letters in the Sky

So I decided to watch that new "Fringe" show. It shows some promise. I especially liked the cow and the bits where the show was like, "Look! SUPERPOWERS AND CYBORGS!" Fantastic. What I liked most, though, was the floating letters. They were magnificent. Hey, you know what? I shall post all of them here! You poor, poor people. I guess spoiler alert, too, maybe:

My oh my, how I enjoy those letters in the sky.

Foxy Lateness

It's been a week and I still haven't read any of those comics, nor have I done anything particularly blog-worthy. Soon, though, so hold out! For now, in lieu of putting up a comic strip panel, I bring you something else. I briefly played "Lord of the Rings Online", and at one point I saw the greatest thing:The reason I post this is because it represents one of my favorite moments from the Lord of the Rings. At some point after Bilbo Baggins leaves the Shire and before his nephew Frodo does the same, Frodo, Sam, and either Merry or Pippin are traveling and sleep under a tree. At this point, a random fox shows up and thinks about how odd it is to find a trio of hobbits to be sleeping under a tree. At no other point in the book does JRR Tolkien express this sort of whimsy, this random sentient animal.

As you can see from the above screenshot, I'm not the only person who liked that bit. Also, you can play as a chicken sometimes.

Fifty-Cent Bin Excursion

Thursday was a good day. I won't go into details about why, but it was. I liked Thursday. I had class, and halfway through my classes I thought, "You know, I think I'll go to that convient comic book shop that's a brisk walk away from here."

So I did.

The only problem was that I only had five dollars to spend. Conventional wisdom tells me to buy a one-shot, maybe an issue of Spider-Man Family or that Spider-Man Summer Special thing. Both, however, cost a penny under five dollars as do all one-shots. So I start looking at the monthly things, and everything has a little banner on it and I don't really want to put up with some cross-over right now. Trades are right out, as are most back-issues. Then, however, salvation!

Or, at least eight or nine boxes of back-issues priced at fifty cents a pop. With glee, I began to kneel down and look through them, hoping to find a hidden treasure in what would most assuredly be a lot of dreck, most of it from the nineties. One of the very first books I saw was this one:A silver-age style DC book featuring Robby Reed and the Martian Manhunter? Magnificent. Perhaps not as bizarrely magnificent as the next book:
They don't look like any Seven Soldiers of Victory I've ever seen, but I'm willing to give them a chance. I can't wait to find out how these guys got teamed-up. It's sure to be quite a tale. The next three are pretty self-explanatory. I think. A reprint of an issue of "Swamp Thing":

Something trying to be funny. We'll see if it succeeds or not:And an issue of "Hitman" which you can read more about here:

They actually had several issues of "Hitman", but I only bought the one because the others were all part of a larger multi-part story. These next three are things I've been idly curious about for the longest time, and despite hearing repeatedly that they're terrible, I bought them anyway because they look like they could be fun:It's a mini-series where they put the Avengers and other Marvel heroes into a Dungeons and Dragons-type setting. When I saw they had the entire mini-series in the fifty-cent bin, my heart skipped a beat. When I saw they had several copies of each issue, I became somewhat wary, but I still wasn't to pass this up.

When I started looking through the bins, there was some rules I had in mind. If I saw any Aquaman, Firestorm, or Resurrection Man in there, I was going to buy them even if it meant putting something else back. Any old Howard the Duck, too, and while they had every issue of the somewhat recent MAX series in there, which they had no old Howard the Duck. Anything that looked somewhat fun would remain in my mind, especially comics from the eighties. Rambling rules aside, there was one thing I thought I had no chance of finding, but I did:
"ROM: Spaceknight". Magnificent. In any case, I shall be continuing this practice of going through fifty cent bins and looking for treasure. Who knows what my searches may weild? I'll also be reviewing a lot of these, including the Avataars thing.

Heck, especially the Avataars thing.

Volcano Taco!

I totally blew that, didn't I? Two weeks, no posts. I also have no readers, so it sort of matches up. After two weeks of pretty much doing nothing but work and school (and actually feeling a lot better since I wasn't at home, which is something I will elaborate upon only if asked), I spent the day at home. However, this post is not about that. One of my excursions involved a run to Taco Bell, and it was inexplicably busy. This gave me plenty of time to look around, and at one point I looked up and saw this:
A volcano taco, I thought to myself? A volcano taco? So awestruck was I that I sent my friend a text message, and he reacted with bewilderment. Well, I knew I had to have this mysterious Volcano Taco, though I could tell from its redness and name that it was bound to be a bit spicy. I ordered my meal, and my Volcano Taco, and went home to consume my bounty, but not before taking more pictures of it:
It certainly is a red taco, isn't it? I'm not sure, but I think the red shell might have a bit of flavoring in it. That may have been psychosomatic, though. In any case, I took a few bites and was sort of let down because there was no spiciness to be had. Then, however, salvation!

Or, at least, an especially spicy sauce of some sort. A nice little way for Taco Bell to mix things up a bit, I thought. Coming soon: more adventures!