Vacation Wonder Post Day 2

Vacation Wonder Post Day 1

Oh. Yeah. I have a Blog. I should maintain it.

I have a feeling posting is going to be light for, like, the next two weeks.  I got stuff going on.

"All good things, all good things" as Olaf might say.

Conference at work went well.  My presentation actually had attendees, which I appreciated (this has not always been the case).  And I'm wrapping up the week before taking off for a while.  And, of course, need to drop in and check on the Nephew tomorrow afternoon.  Make sure I wake him up and see to it his sleep schedule gets thrown.

Starting this weekend, Jamie and I are taking a vacation for our anniversary.  A long overdue vacation.  So, please, as I beg every time I take a vacation - do not break into my house and take my things.  

I am actually somehow more pale and likely to melt than our friend here

It does mean I have no idea when I'll be posting again for, like, almost two weeks between work and this trip.  I expect that somehow you'll muddle on without me.

In the meantime, you kids have a good time.  Take care of yourselves.  And check out Gerry's newish/ relaunched blog here at:  Strange Orphan Boxes

Gerry is wise.  He will be worth reading.

Still busy. So, more Quick Draw McGraw.

I'm Busy for a Couple of Days

So, in the meantime, here is Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey.

Your Questions Posed and Answered: What Can I Do For You?

It's been a pretty good start back to blogging.  It's been a lot of fun for me, so I hope both of you reading this site are enjoying my triumphant return.

So, are there any questions I can answer?  Solve any burning mysteries for anyone?  Anyone have any suggestions or requests before we get much further along?

in this scenario, you shall be the Luthors and Mss Tessmachers, and I shall be the all-knowing space-head

Just drop your questions in the comment section!

Keep it clean, and keep it friendly.  We'll see what we can't do to answer that which is posed to us.

And, don't worry about the topic.  I guess.  You know what this blog is about, so... consider that before asking me anything about astronomy or baking.

Blog Stats - Some Stuff of Interest (to me)

Ostensibly, this is a blog that covers pop culture, especially movies, comics and Superman.  But the posts that get the most traffic aren't always on these topics.  Frankly, I never know what's going to suddenly get a spike, especially if I just post on whatever moves me that day.

Here are the top 5 posts, by traffic, from the two blogs I've kept.  And my speculation as to who is still clicking on that link all these years later.


Top 5 Blog Posts (by traffic) of All Time:  Signal Watch (as of 12:30 AM, 1/4/2015)

1. 8765 - The Giant Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg:  High school kids with a paper to write
2. 5168 - Today is the 60th Birthday of Christopher Reeve:  People who think they might miss Christopher Reeve's 60th birthday
3. 4411 - I'm Headed for Waco, also (Some) Lawyers are Pigs:  Baptists with legal problems
4. 4296 - Nuvigil Radio Ad: Pitching a world in which nobody ever heard of coffee: Insomniacs with radios
5. 4255 - DC's Take on Supergirl with DCNu/ Relaunch/ New 52:  Nobody at DC

Coming Back From Outer Space

Hey, y'all.

Hope everyone is doing as okay as can be.

So, as some of you know, while I ceased formal blogging at this URL, I never really left the internet.  I kind of decamped to tumblr, twitter, facebook and whatnot.  But, I'll be honest with you.  It ain't never really been all that much fun.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

...to return

This site is on indefinite hiatus.

We will return.  Keep your eyes on the sky.

Last Days of Krypton

Well, we haven't quite closed up shop yet.

When I came back to blogging after about 6 months of non-blogging, this site struggled a bit to find its footing, but eventually it found its place in the firmament.  Whereas I believe League of Melbotis was a much more personal journal, at The Signal Watch we've tended to stick to pop-culture review a bit more than just enthusiastic boosterism, and even at that, we stuck to a few topics more solidly than we'd done in the prior incarnation.  Superman.  DC.  Noir film.  Mainstream sci-fi franchises.  You tell me.  I don't know why you humans keep showing up.

I've appreciated that I do feel comfortable posting personal items here as well.  I think the ability to share some of my life here in Austin helped to contextualize where I'm coming from, and - sometimes I find the elliptical manner some web writers feel compelled to discuss their personal lives a gap in the reading.

a spot of housekeeping - we're wrapping it up for a while here pretty soon

On Thursday evening at Midnight, and again on Saturday afternoon next week, I'm going to see Man of Steel.  For several months I've had it in mind that on the heels of the release of this movie, I'd go on an indefinite hiatus with this blog.

That's still the plan.  

Come next weekend, I'll do a post of two on thoughts about the movie, and maybe a quick adios and then we're out.  I think I'm keeping up with the social media aspect, but we'll see.

When we come back, I'm not exactly sure what form that'll take.  Same blog.  New blog.  I dunno.  It's going to be a while, so we'll worry about it then.

If you need anything covered between now and next weekend, speak now or forever hold your peace.

No Post Friday - Wonder Woman stands in

PEW PEW PEW!!!  PING PING PING!!!!

one of you once mentioned how much you loved this cover.  Here you go!

Gone to Big D For a Few Days

Tonight I went and saw Enter the Dragon at the Alamo Ritz with Juan, CousinSue, Amy and Jason.  if you're never seen this Bruce Lee vehicle...  I am not sure I can help you other than to recommend you check it out as soon as possible.

I'm not the world's biggest Bruce Lee fan, and maybe that's a mistake.  I dig what that guy is up to, and he is absolutely fascinating to watch.  I still don't think American film has seen his like since, and even in imports, I'm not sure the guys I used to watch in college quite captured the athleticism and intensity of Lee.  Well, maybe Jet Li.

Tomorrow I am headed off for Dallas for a few days for work.

this trip will be tragically short on Victoria Principal

No Post Today

Sadly, I've no pearls of wisdom to bestow upon you.

Just...  nothing really going on.  Did some reading.  Watched more of the North America documentary.  Exercised.  And, of course, watched the news.

Let's all wish the best for those in the Oklahoma City area, particularly Moore.  I'm heartbroken to hear of the deaths reported from the scene.

Possibly Otherwise Occupied

It's May, and that means I'm once again helping to run the conference my organization throws every year.

Really, tomorrow is sort of a Board of Directors meeting prior to the conference, and then from Tuesday morning until Wednesday night, I'm going to be participating in all sorts of conference malarkey.  This year I don't present (by choice), and I'm mostly lurking, hoping to actually enjoy the show.

It's a libraries conference, and you KNOW these people are going to want to party.

they're gonna get crazy and talk @#$% about the Dewey Decimal System

The reason I post here is:  I'm going to be out of commission for a few days.

You guys are on your own.  Try not to leave the place too much of a mess.

I think Google has more or less broken my blog

I tried to be a good Google citizen and update my blog to use the new features integrated with Google+.

It's not working out.

I am not sure you guys can see my comments right now, and I'm pretty sure only people with Google accounts can comment - if you can jump through the hoops to make it happen.  Only after "checking out" the new Google Comments did I realize Blogger (a Google product) will not let me back out of their awesome new commenting system.

Sigh.

I use Blogger because, for ten years, it's been really simple, really easy and for the past 5-6 years, its been rock solid.  I use Google stuff all the time, and never have a problem.

Until today.

I'll keep working on the problem, but this is where I'm at.

Comments are borked until further notice.

Basically, it looks like Google is trying to find a use for Google+ and Blogger in this age where, in theory, nobody blogs anymore.  So they found a way to make them work together, except that it doesn't work.  It also generates so many cookies that it took me, literally, ten tries to figure out if I'd "allowed" all the right cookies.

In short - this is why there's a guy all developers make fun of that can "talk to people", but he's the person who looks at stuff like this and says "guys, this is totally not working.  We need to make this make some sort of sense to actual human beings before we roll this out".  That did not happen here.  This is what I call "success by the developer's standard".

Whoa. Yeah. I should post or something.

So.

I don't really have time for this.

Jamie went out of town this weekend, and I was supposed to be working on The Fortress of Nerditude (aka: my office) as Phase I of a sort of re-do the house plan.  I'm boxing up a whole lot of action figures in order to get rid of them, and I'm kind of mentally having to say good-bye to the past fifteen years' worth of hobby, in a way.  It's not that the office won't remain Super with a capital S, it's that the downstairs living room is going to get de-Supered to a great degree.  My call, not Jamie's.

I wanted to (a) kind of move on from the days when DC Comics was pretty much all I had going on in my life and (b) there's some really fragile and expensive stuff right inside the doorway, and over the years, I've just cringed everytime someone has passed the front door with everything from a ladder to a backpack.

Thursday night I was up til 2:00 AM watching the news about Boston.

Friday I was the guy who could barely work as he kept his eye on the news, waiting to see what would happen, and I was home again when Suspect #2 was captured.  Then Juan came over with a pizza, we watched a documentary and then Drive (2011) as Juan missed it in the theater.

Saturday I worked on my office, walked the dogs, etc...  and then Juan (apparently my girlfriend when Jamie is out of town) and I went to see CarlaBeth in a show she had put together for a local multi-arts festival called FuseBox.  It was a sort of sketch program entitled Failure, and was about the concept of "failure".  Apparently, from concept to performance was about a week, but it included songs, dance, sketches, monologues, games and a cake.

Pretty good.

Today I have done nothing but watch about 1/2 of Police Academy on basic cable (I really don't even like that movie, but...) and work on my office.

I slept really late into Saturday.  I was exhausted, and I have to believe part of that was partially due to news fatigue.  It seems the folks in West are coping as well as can be expected and Texans are doing a good job of donating and reaching out to our neighbors.  I sent a guy from work to donate blood on Friday, but I'm waiting to see if there's a second round needed.  I never really know what to do in these emergency situations, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for opportunity in the coming weeks.

Honestly, I am glad the Boston PD was able to capture Suspect #2.  Already it seemed like Facebook and the mainstream media had turned into places for pundits and amateur pundits to roll out their personal axes and grinders to ascribe motive they couldn't possibly actually know.  Not only will we see the American Justice System (something I firmly believe in - warts and all) play out, but we'll get some legitimate information at some point from the FBI.

Sure, everyone will spin that information to suit their needs and agenda, and we can count on Alex Jones refusing to believe any of it and likely believing the suspects were framed (it's what he does- and if anything Jones does surprises you at this point, I cannot help you).

Here's to next week being a better week.  I have to go clean the house before Jamie gets home.

Taking a night - blast in West, Texas

Man, this week.

As you may have heard, there has been an explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, a town Texans are familiar with as its on the I-35 corridor between Austin and Dallas, and home to the locally famous Czech Stop (we have a long history of Czech communities in Texas).

As of now, reports are coming in that there are over one-hundred injured and possibly dozens dead.

Red Cross and emergency crews are headed to West from all over.  Twitter-pal Ruiz mentioned he knows his workplace sent crews to the scene.

This was a terrible accident, and not the insanity of the Boston bombings, but it's damaged a huge part of a town here in Texas.  Obviously.

We're going to take a pass on blogging further tonight.

10th Anniversary - You Humans Weigh In

Hi, y'all!  As the 10th Anniversary of this blog approaches, I asked for folks to send in comments about the site.  

On March 30th, 2003, I posted the first missive to The League of Melbotis blog.  I think that post was seen by upwards of three people, including me.  But soon, that number grew!  We now have maybe eight to ten readers!

Over the years we've had a wide range of folks at the site.  Many of have stuck around, most have not.  It's the way of the world.  

What I did not expect, and something I don't think bloggers with audiences in the thousands can appreciate, is that this whole blogging thing can be personal.  It's great to get web-lebrity status, but I've found a lot of joy over the years in having a small audience that I feel like I've gotten to know in comments, over social media, and, occasionally, in person.  I genuinely consider you friends, even if I don't know what you look like or what you like to eat.  

I think Jamie is still working on her post, so we may not be done.  If you other humans want to weigh in, please feel free to send something my way via email or carrier pigeon.

Stuart Ward of Kansas chimed in with:

I can’t remember when I first started reading your blog. I would guess some time in 2010. I read the first few articles because I thought the ‘Signal Watch’ title was clever, and also because I like Krypto (and all he represents, ie the slightly goofier/more colorful/more fun/Silver Agey side of Superman).

Lo Content Mode for a Few Days

Today I go to the airport and pick up a candidate for the open position of: my boss.

From Thursday afternoon until Saturday evening, I'm kind of responsible for this person.  Tomorrow I pick them up and take them to the hotel.  Then it's dinner with the Search Committee.  All day on Friday it's interviews.  Saturday, I'm "showing them Austin" with the intention of selling them on Austin.  Hoo-boy.  

I hope they like comic shops and record stores, 'cause that's what they're gonna see.

It's a weird task to be given, but we do things old skool and with the prissy formality of a Dowager Countess in Higher Ed, and especially in libraries.  Thus, I establish who I am to this person by acting as their footman for three days.  

Really, I kind of consider it to be a test of the person's street smarts to make it to the hotel on day 1, but that's just me.

The proximity to the boss and this much time with a person who doesn't know me is, I would think, a whole lotta me.  And I can barely stand being with me for more than a couple of hours, so I can only imagine how this is gonna go for this poor person.  Also, I use a lot of swears when I drive, so the idea of driving this person around all Saturday is sort of chilling.

Anyway, I kind of have to go to ground for a bit.  Y'all take care.  I'll be around as I'm able.