Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas, here are some holiday pictures from Indiana:

snow is snow

It snowed quite well last night and this morning. I went to work into this morning at two thirty. It was all good until I decide to drive into work. On the way to work I ran into freezing rain. As was driving my windshield froze over. It took about thirty seconds to freeze over my windshield. It was if I hadn't just cleared off my windshield at all. They say the storm was a blizzard. I hope they get the roads cleared up soon. Otherwise it's a day in for Allison and I.

a working man

I started work this week for UPS. I got my uniform on Wednesday and then they asked me to start work on the preload on Thursday. The preload is not the job I was hired to do, but it is work and if they decide to keep me after the holiday season then that is the job I'll be doing. It's an interesting job, I have to be there early in the morning, around three. The job is simple, you load the trucks. The packages come with the truck names and then a number so you know where to put the package in the truck.

On Friday I started my Driver Helper job. On this job I wear my uniform and get to help deliver packages.

This job was a lot of fun. I ran around downtown Bloomington for about six hours. Most of the places I went were business, but we did drop off a couple packages to residential. I would have had more fun if I had slept the night before. My body is still trying to adjust my new morning routine. I've been use to the getting up at about nine and watching Let's Make a Deal at ten.

Then going to Barnes and Noble or the library to use the internet. So I didn't get any sleep on Thursday night and I worked the two jobs for UPS that day. I wasn't really tired till the end of the shift. Then I came home and slept for over twelve hours. I don't think I've ever slept that long in my life, but after twenty-eight hours of being awake I needed it. I'm a working man again and it feel good. Okay my feet and legs are sore, but a good sore.

fifteen random facts

15. I have been married for over a year now to the most beautiful woman ever.

14. I love eating hamburger well actually cheeseburgers.

13. Allison thinks I can cook because I have been making dinner lately. I really can't cook.

12. My hair is way to long, even after my hair cut yesterday. The top is super long and the sides are super short.

11. I spend way to much time thinking about doing thing than actually doing things.

10. I grew up drinking pepsi but prefer coke now, mainly because they give out coke points. This reminds me of when I was a kid and you could get Kool-aid point and get cool prizes. So I drink coke for the prizes now.

09. Allison doesn't like socks, but I prefer to wear them all the time; even in the summer.

08. Allison's and my favorite show to watch together is How I met Your Mother, but we almost never watch it live.

07. I hate being out of work, but I can't remember what it's like going to work every morning either.

06. Allison's favorite color is Green, I enjoy that color too.

05. My biggest dream is be captain of a spaceship someday.

04. I did not try KFC till I was 18 years old. Still won't try their Double Down Sandwich.

03. I like flash based games way to much.

02. I like it when Allison is at work, because that means I can watch TV and not feel bad that I'm wasting our time watching TV. Although I don't think watching TV is a waste of time.

01. I can't whistle and neither can Allison, our children are doomed.

the building of the SEARS TOWER

wordless wednesday

many days have past

I haven't blogged in months. The main reason was I had no internet at home and I didn't feel like writing blogs at the library or Barnes and Nobles. I feel like both of these reasons are just poor excuses. I'm here at a library on a Friday night writing a blog, sure it's the library Allison works at, but it is still a library. The main reason I haven't written in so long is I have had no good news in such a long time. I didn't want to write about not having a job or my job search. These things both just took so much out of me.

Well the job hunt is on hold for a couple of months. I just got a job at UPS! I'm going to be a seasonal driver helper. I don't get to drive the truck, but I help the drivers on their routes. It's an on call kind of job, so I only work if they call me and need me. This means I don't have a lot of work this month, but a lot more after Thanksgiving. If I'm lucky after Christmas they might hire me as a full part-time employee. I would have set hours and after a year I could get benefits. I'm hoping that comes through, because I don't know if I could find another job in January.

On the home front Allison and I are doing well. I've taken a more domestic role. I make dinner more often and try to clean the house. I still do all the laundry just no little rugrats to hang out with when I do it. I miss that a lot. I loved seeing my nieces and nephews when I did my laundry. It made doing laundry an event to look forwards to every week or two.

Well life keeps moving fast. Soon I'll be eating turkey in Iowa, I hope to have more thoughts by then written in my blog. Maybe I'll have my short story I'm working on done by then. Hope all is well with everyone.

a long time

I've been away from the internet for a long time. At least I have been only using it to update my ED comic and search for jobs. The job search has not been moving forward very quickly. I've been applying for tons of jobs with not a lot of call backs. I know these things take time and in Bloomington it can take even longer. Allison and I are loving it here. Bloomington is a lot of fun. I feels like a vacation for me. I can't wait to find work so that our home feels like home and not a vacation spot. Every morning I still feel like I'm going to wake up in Boise and I'll be able to go see my family and go to work, but it's not a dream. I hope all is well. I'm going back to work. As in job hunting.

wordless wednesday

bring in the office

I assume most people know that I an odd person. I love offices. I've always thought they were a fascinating place. I wonder what it happening in all these different offices. This intrigue is almost as large as my love of spaceships. I've always enjoyed offices, but in recent years I've found new ways to love them. The first would be the show The Office. I love this show. I love watching crazy people working in an office. Yet, I feel this show is more real than any other TV show. The main reason is the fact that it all takes place in an office. You really never have time to hang out with your friends like in all the other shows on TV. Like Friends, they just meet in the middle of the day to hang out all the time. That's so not real. Okay the office is not real either, but it builds on stereotypes that you would find in an office environment.

The second fetish I have with offices is my comic, Ed the business Warrior. I love that comic. I've been working on it for five years now. It hasn't been a straight everyday or even every months in the past. Ed is a character I keep coming back too. He's a big guy smashing computers. I know it's very Office Space with how they destroy the printer, but I've developed it so much further than that. I've started to build new characters for Ed to interact with. The comic is growing to be more than just Ed smashing things to a developed character.

The last thing that I'm embracing for my office nerd is the game Office Hero on my ipod touch. It's so fun. You just go around doing boring tasks to build up your character so they can do awesomer tasks. It's easily one of my new favorite games. It's just like every other flash game, but this one is awesome because it's in an office.

I'm an office nerd. I'm so an office nerd that I'm even trying to get a job in an office as an administrative assistant. Than I can answer phones and file papers all day. It'll be like I've got a real job, well it will be. I might even wear a tie to work everyday! I know my tie collection finally going to good use. I can't wait.

wordless wednesday

lame things

I've talked before about how I'm addicted to lame TV shows and I just can't stop watching them because they suck me in so well. That's not where the lameness ends. I am also addicted to horrible flash games. Games that bring nothing but wasted time. Wasted time that I could be spend on drawing comics, watching crap TV, or even reading a comic or book. These games are so horrible too. One of my favorites is Tap Fish, the whole game is you look at these aquarium you have and feed your fish. You can also sell your fish to make money and buy new fish. So everyday for at least thirty minutes to an hour I'm cleaning fish tanks and selling fish. Why do I keep playing this game? I don't really know. I just get addicted to things that are not that much fun and play them till they are dead to me. Well more like my soul is dead to these games.

A new game I just started to play is Office Hero. It's like Farmville I'm told, but in an office. I go around and tap on different machines like computers, phones, filing cabinets to do jobs. This is a sick habit! I spend eight hours at work doing this everyday, why do I want to do it at home too? Even while I'm doing this blog I'm tapping away at my virtual office trying to make money and rep points. I'm so addicted I can't even stop for five minutes to write this blog.

The real person I should blame for this is Allison. She gave me my ipod touch, the majority of these time wasting games I play are on the ipod touch. It's all Allison's fault for giving me an awesome time waster gift. She may be the best wife ever, but she the reason I'm addicted to flash games that have no reward and tons of time wasting on them. Oh yes Allison is to blame.

wordless wednesday

nyc 2000 story

In the winter of 2000, after Christmas to exact, but before 2001 I was in New York City visiting my sister Sally. I'm not sure how many days into the trip I was in, but it wasn't my first couple day there. I had decide to go up to Midtown by myself so Sally could get something done. I had been there already, but I wanted to go again. So I took the subway from Queens where Sally lived into the city. Everything was going okay, then I ventured off the main tourist section of midtown. Now I didn't go to the nice side off midtown where Broadway is, no I went the other way. I end up in the porn district. Mind you while I was in midtown I was actually looking for the coolest comic shop in all the land, Midtown Comics.




In the dirty district as I'll be calling it now I ended up at a street corner with this African American. Actually he probably was born in Africa because he had a crazy accent I can't even try to explain. The guy looked at me and must have thought I was sixteen. He started to talk to me and asked, "Hey you like to smoke?" I was like no I'm good.
He than responded with, "You need a fake ID to buy smokes man."
I said, No I'm good, I'm old enough to buy smoke.
He then sized me up some more and said, "You like women? You need ID to get into these nude shows."
I responded with, "No I'm good I've got a girlfriend at home." We banter a while about naked women and how I really don't need a fake ID that won't work to see naked women. He doesn't like my answers, and starts to yell at me. He was yelling, "This man gay! This man is so gay he no like women!" He kept yelling this at the top of his lungs. My face went red from being embarrassed by the this guy calling me gay at the top of his lungs in the middle of the street. I couldn't wait to run away across the street. When the light finally turned I walk very fast across the street and didn't look back. It was very scary to be yelled at in the middle of the street for not wanting to buy fake IDs.

That was the story I told in the story story night story slam. I didn't when first place with the story, but I thought it was good enough. People were laughing pretty hard when they heard this story.

wordless wednesday

story story night july 2010

Tonight after a long day at work Allison and I went to Story Story Night at the Linen Building. The story theme for this month was Stories on the Road, stories about travel. We listen to three stories by featured artist and then the program breaks for about twenty minutes for an intermission. During the intermission you can put your name into a drawing to go up on stage for the second half of story story night. It's totally random and no one knows who is going to go up. I put my name in without telling Allison tonight. I figured it's the last one we can go to before we leave and I have an okay story to tell. The intermission ends and the host gets up on stage. My stomach is up in my throat almost waiting to see if I get to go. They pull out the first name. The host looks at it for awhile. To me it felt like two minutes, but it was probably only a few seconds. Then she goes on to talk about what the story slam is. It's a five minute story that you can tell without any notes. It's you and a microphone in front of a packed building. A little scary. They're were at least 150 people there. There was standing room only for a lot of people. After she tells the rules She looks at the paper for a little longer. My heart is racing. There's no way they're going to call me. A ton of people put their names in the hat. Then she say, "Michael McLean." Allison looks at me like what? You put your name in and didn't tell me. I get on stage and stumble through the first minute of my story, but I did it. I got up in front of room of strangers and told my story. It might not have been the best story, but it wasn't the worse. Allison said people were laughing all the way through, but my heart is all I could hear. It was loud as I stood in front of those people. As you might know I am not a public speaker. I get flustered easy and leave out tons of details. It was amazing to actually do it though. The story I told was my New York story about the crazy guy trying to sell me a fake ID. It was good, just not my best telling of it.

runners paradise

As I've talked about before Allison and I have started running. We are on week four of our running. We haven't been so great with week two and three thought. We ran three times in those two weeks. That's half of what we're suppose to run. So we only completed two weeks in our couch to 5k program. Today we started back on our regular schedule for week three. We only missed one week, not to bad.

The run was awesome. We were actually doing it. I was feeling really good about myself and what I was doing. I really never have been a runner despite my father telling me the McLean's have running in their DNA. Okay he never said it like that, but he did say we were runners. Most of my siblings were in track in high school, I just never seemed to care about running. I rather be flipping burgers and making money during high school. So I'm feeling really awesome about myself and then during our finally 3 minute jog rep I tripped. I took a great fall like Humpty Dumpty. I had run just over two minutes in the last rep and was looking for a completion of the todays workout. So I didn't finish the run. My left hand is really tore up. I had to cut skin away and wash it out. It looked nasty. My left knee was tore up a little, but not as bad. That cleaned up really easy. So let's check out my battle wounds preclean up.






P.S. On a awesome side note someone at Hastings screwed up. When I went into the store today to pick up Mystery Society, one of the best new comics out there I found Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour on the self for sale. Not a big deal except it doesn't come out for another week. Someone accidentally put it on the self when they were not suppose too. I was so happy, now I've read the entire series and go see the movie in August without trouble. Thank you Hasting Employees for being stupidly awesome. Sincerely, Michael.

wordless wednesday

driving across the valley

Life is moving so fast. We're leaving for Bloomington in a month! It can't be so soon, but it is. This last weekend we went down to Utah to visit our many different families that live all across the valley. Went to the zoo and saw the baby elephant and the monkeys. If you know me I love the monkeys. My sister and her kids were there for that. It was a good time. We also went to Ikea in Salt Lake, because Allison has never been to one and wanted to go. Ikea, now that is a store. They have rooms all set up to show you how you can build you house or studio apartment so it's cooler. The one problem with Ikea is it goes on for ever. Half way through I was thinking I need to take a nap, and there's beds right there to do it. I was half tempted to just flop down on one of there show rooms to enjoy a little nap. I had already gotten a good amount of sun that day, so my body was ready to fall down into a sun coma. Luckily I didn't get so much sun as to get a burn. Ikea was good, we bought a twenty dollar coffee table and some chocolates. I do enjoy good chocolates. Then on Saturday we drove up the valley to see Allison's grandparents. It was a pretty good weekend. Lots of driving, but still good.

wordless wednesday

update on the life and times of michael mclean

Life has been full of craziness lately. Well mostly just working tons of hours and sleeping very little. On the plus side Allison and I have finally started jogging. That took a lot longer to get started then I thought it would. We found a great running program on Cool Runnings, I know like the movie. So it's this program for couch potatoes like me to train to run a 5k in nine weeks. Day one down. So hopefully in nine weeks I'll be able to run a 5k. My legs are totally sore but it's only the first day.

On a plus side I've been running my webcomic for seventeen posts! I know it's pretty cool to think that the I've got seventeen posts up for my comic up. Ed the Business Warrior comic is going strong with a ton of comics still to go. The comic is strong and awesome.

Life is good. Today is my eighth months anniversary with Allison too. I know not a huge anniversary, but still important to me. It's awesome to think that I've been married for eight months. Life is excellent. Even with long hours at work, life is good because my wife is excellent.

a-team friday

On Friday I went to see the best 80's TV show turn movie of our generation. That's right I went out with the boys and saw the A-Team. The film was awesome! It was like the 80's TV show but way better. Tons and tons of explosions. It was probably one of the best action films I've ever seen based on a TV show. They used the prefect formula to do this movie. Take all the greatness of the A-Team like crazy stunts and take out the lame things like no killing people. They get the bad guys, but they also kick tons of bad guy butt on the way. I loved the film and think everyone should go out and see the awesomeness that is the A-Team.

loving from the past

I hate when ads get you. I watch a lot of Hulu and the past several months they have been giving me one ad more than others. It's Sun Chips. They keep saying that they are made from the sun, which makes me really want them. They also make me think about Superman. Superman is powered by the sun and if Sun Chips are from the sun than if he eats Sun Chips he'll be super charged. Kind of like in All- Star Superman when he got supercharged by flying into the sun. Sun Chips what a crazy idea. So I haven't eaten Sun Chips since I was a teenager. I remember back then that my friends told me Sun Chips would cause bad things to my digestive system. Total lies but it was a good reason to stop eating them. Since I don't eat a lot of chips anyway it was no big deal until Hulu messed with my head. So now I've been obsessed about Sun Chips, Allison can totally back me up here. She's seen me buy two big bags and eat them every time I go to Subway or Blimpies. What I'm trying to say is that advertising works on me. I've always known it worked on me. I've told people that I love good TV ads. The nation wide ads not local. I don't remember a single good local ad. Sun Chips you've got me hooked again. All to your made by the sun ad campaign. I bow to your superior knowledge.

it's zoo time

Allison and I went to the Zoo today. It was fun. The Boise Zoo isn't as big as I remember it and a few exhibits are closed, but they did have lions, tigers, and leopards. I like the big cats. I wish they would have had cheetahs. They are my favorite of the big cats. Anything that can run 60 miles an hour is awesome in my book. So we had a ton of fun walking around and seeing all the animals. The best was the lion. When we got up to the lion enclosure the male lion was totally trying to roar. It was pretty cool. It might have just been a cough or something, but it was pretty awesome.

just hanging out in a shell

why yes we are at the zoo

what's that in the back ground

that is very close, maybe a little to close

The zoo was a fun little adventure. It's was one we had wanted to do since last summer and I'm glad we finally were able to make.

mccall year two

Memorial Day is a special holiday for me. Memorial Day was the first trip I took with Allison before we were married. We drove two hours to McCall. It was a warm sunny day. The weather was amazing. What made it even more special was the fact that was the day we first said I love you to each other. We'd been officially dating for almost month by then and almost two months of "hanging out," which was almost dating, but without the kissing. This year we wanted to remember the great time we had last year. We wanted to recapture those memories we had that day and make new ones for this holiday. To McCall we went. It didn't matter that it rained almost the whole time we were there. It was still a great day.

On our way to McCall, stopped to take a picture.

The beach isn't looking so friendly right now.

The hood should help with the rain.

I'm not sure I want to be here with the rain.

Oh no, it's still raining.

Even with all the rain we still had a great time. We ate lunch at a fancy restaurant that felt like someone's dining room. We walked around the beach a little bit when the rain was super light and didn't bother us. We didn't stay as long as we did last year, but it was long enough to get a few memories. Like I said before it was a great day.

an odd beginning

Life has many beginning and ends. They can be huge like the birth of a child or small like trying mint chocolate ice cream instead of chocolate ice cream. A beginning I've have experinced over the years is Arby's. Arby's was the first job I ever had. In recent months Arby's has come to mean something so much more than a first job. At first it was just odd, but now there's no denying it. Arby's is a strong part of my married life. When Allison and started dating she bought a bike. On the day she bought the bike I decide to ride my bike down to see her, but did not tell her what I was coming over. I ended up seeing her on the green belt. I had been riding for about an hour by then. She wanted to ride her bike, because she had just started riding when I found her. We rode all over the green belt. Then we got kind of hungry and decide to get something to eat. Being near fairview ave we decide on Arby's. We weren't offically dating yet, but it was our first bike ride together. I remember walking our bikes for part of the fairview part because the rode was so busy. When we got to Arby's, Allison was so scared her bike might get stolen that we had to sit next to a window were we could see them. I had locked them up, but that wasn't enough for her.

On our wedding day we were hungry before heading to the temple. We also had a couple hours to spare till our marriage. So we went to the only place that would be right for our last meal together as singles, Arby's. Since then we go to Arby's every once and awhile, but to me it'll always be our last meal together. So order a Beef 'n Cheddar for me next time you head there.

good at something normal

Another week is gone. Time just flies by now. I can't believe the weekend is almost over too. I've never had this problem before. I remember weekends going on for ever and now they're so short. This week was an interesting one. I started volunteering at the Garden City Library. The one where Allison works. I never see my wife so I decide that I needed to do something about that and this seemed like a great way to do it. She's at work and I get to help her library out. It's not hard work by any means, it's just shelfing books and movies. It reminds me of working for the budget office. There I sort contracts and other documents. My life has been a long career of sorting. I'm really good at it. It's really weird to think you're good at something that really shouldn't be that hard for anyone to do. I've always loved sorting too. It started with my comic collection. I love sorting my comics as a kid. I would take my small collection and resort it all the time. Like in High Fidelity (the movie) I would change my approach to how I sorted my collection, but how I acquired my collection though. It's usually alphabetical by comic name, but now I do it more by character than title of comic. So Amazing Spider-Man is in the S's for Spider-Man. It's a little odd, but perfect for me. Wow this story is just going everywhere today. This week I helped at Allison's library and it was fun. I got to hang with her, maybe not talk, but be around my beautiful bride. I can't ask for more than that. I love just being with her.


On a side note don't forget about ED the Business Warrior. A new comic will come out on Tuesday, but Sunday will have the first special sauce. So go check out some awesome special sauce at http://minidovecomics.wordpress.com.

the comic is up

Today starts the regular release of Ed the business warrior. This webcomic should be twice a week. That is the plan for right now. I have about a month and a half ready to go thanks to Zuda stopping their competition. The first one went up early this morning before I went to work. I don't know if I'll keep it a Monday comic or change it to a Tuesday Thursday comic which I would actually prefer to do. I just like those days. They always have something special going on in Taco joints, like Taco Tuesday or something.

Well I hope you all enjoy the comic. I know the first one didn't have Ed in it, but I promise you the next one will have Ed. So go check out the comic and promo comic on the page.

The webcomic website is http://minidovecomics.wordpress.com

~ Michael

losing my love

It's not often you wake up and realize you are losing one of your loves. A love you always told yourself you would never give up on. Yet as I grow older I notice I am losing my love for certain things. Things I never thought I would stop caring so deeply for. Even as I write this blog, I'm thinking about all the other things I could be doing instead of sitting infront of this computer. I don't want to hate my computer, but at the same time I feel like I spend to much time with it. I use my computer as a TV more than a computer these days. My love of surfing the net is dying. My love of just using a computer as a computer is dying. I still love TV and my computer is the easiest way for me to get show, but other than that I can pass. I think it comes from having to stare at a computer screen all day at work. I've never had a job were I had to stare at a computer screen all day and not be able to do something awesome on the computer. Now the computer makes me think about work and counting money. I hate counting money and I hate using my once loved machine to do it. I'm trying to regain my love of the computer but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

In response to my disdain my wife has given me the perfect mix of computer not computer. For my birthday she bought me an Ipod touch. It's perfect for me. It's a small little screen that doesn't feel like a computer at all. The best part is that it can go anywhere with me. It has little games that I love to play, books to read, and music I love to listen too. My Ipod touch is so amazing. It's like having a little computer at my finger tips. I can go check out new music on the web or play a silly computer game on it. Having it be web based is the best. The main thing I love about the Ipod touch is the web. I love the web, it has so many awesome things to check it out.

I use to be unseparable from my computer. Now I can do without it. I rather be reading a comic (my first true love) or even reading a real book. I wonder what I'll be sick of next. I really hope it's no comics.

On a side note I'm going to start a webcomic tomorrow. Since I haven't heard back from Zuda and it's been eight weeks I feel the need to put this comic out. Plus Zuda has stop doing the competition I entered so I feel no need to wait any longer on the comic. I'll have the address and everything up tomorrow. Till tomorrow.

job vs career

Lately I have been feeling really odd at work. I just feel like I don't really belong there. I'm working as hard as I can, but I don't feel like I'm satisfied with my job. I know it's just a temporary job till I move back to Indiana, but at the same time I'm scared that maybe this is all there is. I go into work, I work my eight hours and come home. I love being home. I love being with my wife. I just wish I enjoyed what I did for a living. I have no clue if I'll ever enjoy what I do for a living either. I feel like I still haven't figured out what I'm suppose to do with my life. I would like to go and get my master's degree, but in what? I keep on thinking about getting my MBA, but do I really want a business degree? I don't think I do. I want to start working on a career, but the only thing I'm ever excited to do is draw comics. I went to design school and graduated, but I hated working for people. When it comes to design it's just so hard. They always want something a certain way but they never tell you or worse they just want crap built. That was the hardest thing is the world for me. I wanted to design cool things and they did not want anything creative. They wanted bland works. Works that involve no imagination or thought.

I was actually looking at this art school to get my master's in a couple weeks ago. I would have loved to go and receive this fine arts degree for comic design. The only problem is that once I'm out what do I do with it? Try to support a family on Indy Comics? I have no desire to work on superheroes and my art style doesn't really support that design. If I was single I would probably jump at it, but with a family to think about there's no way I would do it.

So my problem is I have no clue what to do with my life. I know, I've never known what to do with my life. I want to find a job I love and can turn into a career. That way I can grow and feel like I'm doing something with my life. I know there has to be some type of job that'll inspire me. I just have to find it.

Plus I sort of found out about Zuda this weekend too. Zuda has decide to no longer hold the monthly competition to find new comics. This means my comic I submitted six weeks ago probably won't see light of day on their website. This sucks a lot too. I was really hoping to have the opportunity to present my comic to whole new audience and maybe get paid a little for it. If anything this news is really getting me down and wondering what should I do with my life.

an invincible wednesday

I love Wednesdays. I have loved Wednesdays for a very long time. When I was on my mission, Wednesday was my preparation day or p-day. It was the only day we were allowed to do things for ourselves. Most of the time it meant letting your companion do something you might not really enjoy. like go play basketball for three of the six precious hours you got. It may have not been the best time, but at least you weren't wearing a suit. Which is sad to think, because I love suits. My love of Wednesdays goes much further than the p-day. Before my mission and a little bit during my mission Wednesdays meant comic book day. I love comic books. They are what I love to read the most. Wednesday is always a good day if I can make it to the comic shop. Well today I made it to the comic shop. Two amazing titles were there, Invincible by Robert Kirkman and Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction. By far the best two comics on the market in my opinion. Getting both in one day is like watching a bull in a china shop. That would be amazing to watch all that china be destroyed. I would have to say both comics surpass what I was excepting today. Iron Man was amazing. It had the 3.99 price tag, but it was worth it. It might have been a double size comic, it sure felt like it, so pretty much you were getting way more than usually for what some comics cost normally. That's not even the best part. The best part is they are finally starting the reboot. I know they had one only 25 issues ago when Fraction started his run, but it's totally worth it. The new suit, the mind wipe finally being over, plus no more running from Osborn. That was like fifteen issues or something. It was good, but long. Now we're back to Tony Stark being Iron Man and just in time for movie number two. This comic is a great starting point if you've never read Iron Man before too. Which would almost be me. I've only read Fraction's run and Warren Ellis' run on Iron Man. So maybe 40 comics? I've read more Flash in the past year than I've ever read Iron Man. I always disliked Iron Man, mainly because one of my elementary school buddies thought he was the best superhero ever. I always felt Spiderman was, that was until I started reading Invincible, which came out today too. Invincible just had it's reboot of sorts, not really a reboot, but more an easy jumping on comic for new readers last month with Invincible Special 1 and today Invincible 71 come out. Both were amazing comics, probably the best comic on the market. No it is the best comic you buy. There's my plug for Invincible by Robert Kirkman. Buy it or be an idiot, because if you are not reading it you are an idiot. (Sorry honey, but it's true) So today is the best day ever as my wife would say.

Justice League Review

Justice League International: Volume 1 by Keith Giffen


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In middle school they would give a recuse after lunch. It was a half-hour break to run around. There was no playground equipment so you could play basketball in the gym or run around in the field outside. Not a lot to do. I took advantage of another option. I would go to the library after lunch and read old donated comics. My middle school had a large box of comics to read and one of my favorites to read was Justice League by Keith Giffen.

It's been ten years since I first read these comics. I've gone from being a Jr. High kid whole couldn't talk to girls to a married man. In that time these comics have aged fifteen years. Reading these books was like going back in time. The only difference is that these comics are still excellent. They hold up over the years. The jokes are still amazing and characterization is dead on. The art is to die for. Kevin Maguire style is one of the best there is. The ability to draw emotion like he does is outstanding. His style still looks fresh after all these years.

The story inside the comic is amazing. The opening page with Guy Gardner think about running the league himself. When Batman punches guy in the noise to lay him flat on the ground. The story moves itself in a way that is before it's time. This is where we get to see the best buddy comedy team-up come together; Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. If you want comedy and action this is the comic for you! Nothing else will do. I give this comic my full approval. Superheroes have never been so amazing.

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adam on the moon

A couple months ago my wife and I went to the movies and saw a great little independent film. While there I saw a preview of another independent film that looked really good. It was about this person with asperger's syndrome. He found love plus he wore a spacesuit for a little while in the preview. How can you not love a man in a spacesuit, they rock. I forgot about the film after watching Away We go in the theater (another amazing film). A couple months go by and I'm think about space and spaceships, which I do quite often, and realized there was a movie I had wanted to see with a guy in a spacesuit. Well as time goes by my mind loses lots of information. I couldn't remember what the name of the film was and looking up spacesuit in google was no help at all.


Then one day at the Garden City Library (where my wife works) I saw something familiar. It was a guy in a spacesuit. I looked at it and it was a new independent film and I though hey this is the film I wanted to see. I checked it out and was so excited for my wife to get home to watch this film with me. When she got home we popped Moon into my xbox to watch it. That's when I realized my mistake. Moon was not the love movie I was hoping for. I was scared that this film would suck because well it's on the moon. Plus I had not heard of it. A scifi movie can really suck if you haven't heard about it. A scifi movie can suck if it's a blockbuster (Yeah, Avatar you sucked! Not one originally idea in all of Avatar. They stole from a crappy 90's cartoon Ferngully. That's the real Avatar movie.). We go into the film with no hopes for it. We came out of the film and thought damn that's good. Yes the film Moon was hundred times better than Avatar. Almost anything is better than Avatar. Moon was a great film, it had only one real actor in it, which made it even more amazing. It was like a one man show. I recommend it to anyone who loves scifi films.

Last night my wife came home with another little indy film. This time it was called Adam. It was the original film we had been looking for. I must say the wait was worth it. The film was great. It was the kind of story that makes you want to go out and be a real person. This story bring up three important facts. One Moon was a great scifi movie. Two Adam was a great love story movie. Three Avatar is a huge rip off of other movies. See two of these movies and skip the last one, unless you like live action remakes of cartoon movies from the 90's.

itouch lego

Lego rescue aka Allison ironman
Originally uploaded by MichaelMcLean

I've been messing around with my Ipod touch since my wife gave it to me. I must say it's really awesome. I haven't figured everything out yet, but I like what I see. One of the interesting apps I downloaded for my Ipod was Lego Photo. It makes a cool mosaic of your picture with little Lego blocks. Above is a picture of my wife wearing an Ironman helmet at Target. It's pretty sweet. They look really cool the farer away you get from them. My wife is the best. Thanks honey

good reads review

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow is a wonderful graphic novel from The Center for Cartoon Studies. This historical comic is able to grab the reality of the Jim Crow South in a very realistic way. The art in this comic is able to highlight the reality of the time. It's not to cartoony to be seen as a fluff comic. Instead the tree tone color helps bring the comic alive.

I would recommend this beautiful comic to anyone who is interested in baseball history. The book show cases barnstorming base balling. A practice that is no longer used today. The end of the book also has a little glossary for things you might not have known. The little descriptions will help teach about many different aspects of the Jim Crow South.

Although this comic is geared more to a young audience it holds up for more grown people. I would say if you are interested at all about one of the greatest pitchers ever you should read this book.

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the stormtroopers will save us

Last night I wasn't really tired like most Sunday nights. I get in way to many naps before it's my bed time at 10 pm. This Sunday was no different. After doing my normal nightly routine I decide to read a little longer than normal. I figured that would help me sleep. I'm not so sure that was a good idea. I'm reading Death Troopers right now The book is really cool. It's about zombies on a star destroyer. It's two amazing topics thrown into one book, Star Wars and Zombies. After reading for awhile I finally got sleepy. That night I couldn't stop dreaming about Stormtroopers. It was really weird. I was commanding squads of different stormtroopers around a star destroyer. I commanded special ops stormtroopers at one point. They were in black armor instead of white. At times we would run into zombies and have to kill them. At one point it the night I woke Allison with my rambling about stormtroopers and zombies. Then every time we feel back to sleep for about ten to twenty minutes one of us would say something to wake the other one up. It was really strange. I didn't stop dreaming about the stormtroopers all night. When my alarm went off at five I was still trying to hunt the zombies down. It was a really strange night for me. I've got to thank Death Troopers for that one.

easter candy

Last night Allison and I went out looking for Easter Candy. Today being Easter we need to celebrate this holiday with Chocolate and jelly candies. We set out to Target, one of our favorite stores. You can buy anything at Target, well almost anything. You can’t buy a working starship, but maybe someday. That will be an awesome day. You would never guess what happened when we got there. They were almost out of all their Easter candy! As most people know I hate most holidays, so this is not a big deal to me, but my wife wanted some. We searched those shelves like treasure hunters. The selves were quite empty. We were able to find one, only one chocolate Easter bunny. The prize was of great. The search for jelly beans came up a disappointment. After looking in the Easter section and all over the store we couldn’t find any jelly beans. No jelly beans at all. I never thought I would see a day when Target didn’t have any jelly beans the day before Easter. It’s really weird that they would run out. I remember when I would go the day after Easter to stores to buy the left over candy for half price. This year it looks like Target won’t have any. It’s a sad day, a very sad day. On a plus note I did get an Iron Man bobble head. He’s hanging out in the living room now. He’s my man, protecting my living room. I might go back and get the Captain American one too. He’s pretty cool looking too. Too bad they didn’t have the Flash that would have been awesome. I think tomorrow I’ll try at Walgreens or RiteAid for some Easter Candy.

Of mice and Cats

Yeah more Ed conversation comics! Could life get any better? Probably, I mean if you base your life and how great it would be with a comic then you need some help. Still no word from Zuda about my comic, but it's only been about a week and a half and they said it could take up to eight, so I need to be a little more patient. Well off to work.