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Bought my next 2 comics. ü
They are back-issues but what the heck. I really like this cartoons/comics. The mini-series (6-issues) already ended last February. Lucky me I was able to find a store that still sells them (and a 50% price drop at that!).
I got the first issue and the second issue. I am not in the hunt for issue 0.
Today, I bring you VOLTRON
 
Issue #1                         Issue #2
This is nice.
I hope I can complete the series.
I forgot to add, Pen and me watched TROY last night. It was supposed to be a premiere night tickets but alas, it became premiere seat tickets. No complains though ü. The only complain I have is that the movie wasn’t much that good. I mean, with all the movies nowadays (LOTR, Matrix, Spiderman, etc..), it seems that TROY didn’t pass that standards. CGI was not that bad but definitely it doesn’t come close to LOTR. Characters are lousy and were not developed thoroughly. Fight scenes aren’t that spectacular either. It’s a good movie but definitely not an awesome one.
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I would like to share a review of my latest fascination… I’ll write my own if I find time.
SUPERMAN #204
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Pencils by: Jim Lee
Inks by: Scott Williams
Colors by: Alex Sinclair
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:
You should know that Superman is the greatest hero of all time … PERIOD! Don’t like it? Tough snickers … it’s a fact!
He’s such the icon that for years DC Comics was afraid to put any serious talent on the books because they were afraid of how much they’d want to shake things up to “fix” the low-selling titles. As time went on, the books sold less and less, until Superman became a parody of himself. Nobody took him seriously, and nobody respected him. DC learned a little something about power creators and low-selling titles with their Batman experiment, and now they’ve finally managed to grow a pair and test those results on Superman! But can even these powerhouse creators save Superman from years of lost readers?
THIS ISSUE …
This issue apparently picks up one-year after the events of the last issue (#203), and tells of two men with a crisis of faith. The first is a priest (Father Leone), and the other is Superman; both unsure if their contributions are enough to save humanity.
Father Leone listens to Superman’s confessions, as he retells the tragic events of the past year, which the reader totally missed out on. Apparently, there was something called The Vanishing, in which one-million people completely vanished from the planet while Superman was on other business across the universe … most likely lured away by whomever was behind The Vanishing, but I’m sure we’ll get to that later on. Superman returned home after the events were said and done, unable to save anyone! Unable to save even his wife!
Now it’s a year later, and Superman is a little darker, unable to escape his greatest loss, and questioning his role in life.
As you probably already know, DC gave Jim Lee this project after he successfully saved Batman from the Bat-grave! There are no words to describe Lee’s work on Superman, other than “OUTSTANDING”! The art is simply spectacular! This is what Superman deserves, and kudos to DC for finally figuring it out! I know for years they were scared to put anyone with any real talent on these books because Superman was such a valuable property and they didn’t want to shake it up too much. So they just left him with good (read: not great) creators who would keep Superman in the lap of mediocrity and never breaking out of status-quo.
“Status-quo,” in case you didn’t know, is comic book talk for “Quarter Bin”!
So the art is wonderful … yes. Now what about the story?
Azzarello is a GREAT writer, and this is a GREAT story, but it’s much slower than what Loeb did on Batman … or even what he’s doing in Superman/Batman.
It might be unfair to measure one writer against another who has nothing to do with the project, but let’s face facts, this entire arc is going to be measured against HUSH from beginning to end, simply because it’s considered to be DC’s follow-up to that arc. This story will either cement DC (and Jim Lee) as the returning champion, or relegate them to one hit wonders.
Now that I’ve said my peace, let’s talk about Azzarello’s work on Superman!
While I do think this is a slower story than Loeb’s (just had to get that last jab in there), I will concede that this is only the first issue, and I can see that Azzarello is setting the stage for bigger things to come. I seriously recommend you run out and grab this book, if you can still find it, because this arc will be the one to watch in 2004! Azzarello’s a great writer, and I can’t wait to see how this story turns out! I’ll just have to have faith that he’ll pick up speed as we get further into things!
But having faith is, after all, what this story is all about.
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Think you know everything about me? Take the “How Well Do You Know AJ?” quiz I created on Tickle and see how you score.
Here’s my first question:
1. What’s my sign?
* Aries
* Libra
* Leo
* Capricorn
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Pen went spending galore this day. She’s catching up with her reimbursement receipts which is due next week. She must produce 4k worth of “thesis material” things. Supplies, books, binding and photocopying services, internet cards - much about anything which you can somehow connect with her thesis. I was fortunate enough to be included in her spending activity.
The first first: I (actually it’s Pen’s money) finally bought the C++ book that I’ve been eyeing eversince I have read a part of it. The first in this case is that it comes with 2 cds. I actually bought my first boxed software CD (which comes with the book). To tell you the truth, I am very hesitant to buy the book because of those 2 included cds. I repeatedly told myself that I only want the book and not the cds - I can easily download them. I have scourged many bookstores looking for that same book without the cds. But alas, that’s the way they are sold. There’s no turning back this afternoon. I am convinced that the only way I can own the book is if I buy the whole package. Lucky me I have an angel to pay for this expense (it’s waaay too costly for me I assure you). So there, I am a proud owner of a SAMS Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days. Don’t laugh with the in 21 Days phrase. Believe me, you can’t learn C++ in just 21 Days. The thing that made me buy this book is it’s way of presenting the ideas. Reader friendly. Easy to understand. And it will serve more as a resource for me rather than wholly teaching me C++.
The second first: To tell you the truth, this is the highlight of my day… I (again, it’s Pen’s money) bought my first ever comics. Superman #204 - drawn by the uber famous Jim Lee. Yes, I am now an official comics collector. With this first comics, who knows where will this lead. Eversince I read Batman Hush (also by Jim Lee), I got hooked with his style/rendition of Batman & Superman. Magnificent would be an understatement. Spectacular would not fill my admiration. It’s a wow of the highest level. Yeah, that much feeling of awe in me. Superman storylines continue to fascinate me. I was never contented with the downloaded comics I have. I realized this when I am re-reading some comics that have profound stories. I have to get hold of them, or at least the new releases. And with this new line of Superman, penned by Jim Lee, I convinced myself that it’s now or never. I have to start buying somewhere (”sometime“, if you want to be grammatically correct). Yes it’s costly but the high I get from just holding the comics trigger some undescribable excitement. It’s a childhood want that is fullfilled today.
The third first: I went to dinner with Pen’s whole family plus Ruth. There was her dad, mom, brother Eins & Eins’ gf Ruth. I have met them all before but it’s a first that we ate as one big group/family. And it was not at all planned. Initially only Pen, her mom and myself would go spending galore. Pen’s dad arrived and the two were surprised. We then went to Natl bookstore to finish the day’s errand. Later, Eins would text and would like to meet us (he’s with Ruth already). We all re-grouped at Goodwill bookstore and prepared for home. And before we called it a day, we just have to eat somewhere as some of us are already starving. Next thing we know is that we are already on our way to Don Henrico’s. So there.
Three firsts in just one day. Am I lucky or what?
I am very happy today to say the least.
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Eversince a kid, I wanted to be like Superman - well who doesn’t? I renewed my admiration to the blue-guy when Smallville started gaining an audience. It gave me an understanding of the life of the soon-to-be Man of Steel. But unlike most of the fans, I didn’t confine my research of Superman to Smallville. Eventually, I started downloading (recent) comics of Superman, Batman, Xmen, etc. and continued browsing the net for other informations.
| I just finished reading Kingdom Come Series last weekend. It’s an Elseworld comics - a world where they let the superheroes grow old (they refers to the authors). In this series, Superman is a grampa looking dude retired from saving the world from disasters. Artist Alex Ross drew a very good rendition of the “old” Superman. |  |
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The story calls for a somewhat despaired Superman that’s why the image is like that. On the image on the left, you can see that his red “S” is surrounded by black background, that goes to show that he resent to be back from his hiatus (spoiler). The image is still drawn by Alex Ross and verify that Supe’s hair above his ear is already grayed/white. Superman grew old but still has his powers and that he is still considered the leader of the now defunct Justice League of America. |
It’s a good read comic book and you get to see Clark, Bruce and Dianna having a nice little meal and talking with each other.
I am now in the hunt of other good storyline regarding Superman. I have a queue at home as to what I will read next. There is the Batman & Superman World’s Finest Superheroes, Superman Rebirth, Superman for All Season, etc…. They are all superb and I am already getting the hang of reading memos/instructions/guides in the computer so why not comics?
Before I forget, the actor who will play Superman in the next movie is still up for grabs. Ever wondered how Tom Welling will look like if he takes over the role? Here are some artist’s rendition:
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Personally, I would not want Tom Welling to play the role. He’s still too young for that role and that let Smallville finish it’s run first.
((Just click on the pictures to see a larger version.))
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Taking a bath pag-uwi is always refreshing. Not only does it sanitize your body after a day’s work but also rejuvenate your nerves.
Yeah. Feel the soap sliding over your skin and the warm water cascading through you.
Just relax and let your hands wander over your squishy clean body. Shower if you can or just use the tabo to rinse youself. With all the heat in this country, the next best thing to soaking in a tub is showering/taking a bath.
And you know what’s better? After taking a bath, just lie down on your bed and get your electric fan in a steady position and aim it to you. Feel the air as it flows through you.
And you know what’s better than that? Hmmmm…..
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Happy New Month People!
It’s a fresh new month and election day is coming.
Incidentally, the first of May is also my mom’s bday. Happy Birthday Ma! Even though I bet she will not be able to read this.
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Remember my entry about my dying Barracuda drive? It’s in here if want to look it up again.
It gave me a hard time recovering Pen’s partitioned drive. Windows Explorer can’t recognize the drive anymore - Unformatted Drive daw. The partitioned drive contains her thesis and class records and some other stuffs she collected through the years. I searched the net and found this nifty little program that retrieves lost files due to failed hard disk.
I recommend GetDataBack. Galeng!
I was able to salvage Pen’s files. Everything! It even saw the deleted folders and files (of course, they are already unrecoverable, parang may mark lang na may file sa cluster na yun dati).
Now, her files are safely in my other drive and burned in a cd. Whew!
I never lost hope in recovering those files. 500mb din yun. Sayang yung mga naipon na files ni Pen kung mapupunta lang sa wala.
So there. If you encounter the same problem as I have, just download and use GetDataBack!
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