This week, I visit Quincy

Apparently, Quincy wasn't looking for company.

I'm jumping on a jetplane and headed for Quincy, Massachusetts for a conference.  One I am not running, which is a relief.  It turns out Massachusetts is very far away from Texas, so basically all I am doing tomorrow is sitting on airplanes (my second favorite activity) and sitting at the airport (my FIRST favorite activity).

I can only pray someone in my row has a baby with colic or I get sat with the a guy really, really hitting on a girl as occurred during my flight back from Lubbock a while back (awwwkward).

Don't give me suggestions for the Boston area.  I'm just going to the conference and then coming home.  I'm not renting a car, and I'm not going to explore Quincy while I'm there.  Apparently the cab ride alone is setting the tax payers of Texas back more than I can believe, so I'm already more than a little out of sorts about this whole trip.

The Q thinks I need to just stay cool.

I'm sure it will be fine, I'm just ready to not be partaking in any events at the moment.  But the change of scenery will be nice, one supposes.  And I bet they still wear those fancy tri-corner hats in the Boston metro-area.

The deal lasts through Friday, so we'll be back on schedule as of Friday night or Saturday.  I dunno.

I wish I was just going to Boston like I thought when I signed up for this garfunkling conference.

Still no post Tuesday (with Audrey Totter)

Ms. Audrey Totter is here to see you through the rest of your work day.

No Post Tuesday with Marie Windsor

No post again. I got pre-occupied.

Here's Marie Windsor to keep you company as you carry on in your Tuesday.

The buttons were the white hot commodity of the conference, thank you

I only have one more day of this garfunkling conference.

If you had any doubt, the buttons were the white hot commodity of TCDL2012.

I am lord of the button-press

I think people are just desperate for anything fun during these conferences, and so why not the pink button that has nothing to do with anything?

And it totally worked, by the way.  I handed out my last button at 5:00 PM on the dot.

Also, if you want to find yourself in a waking dream, I recommend looking out upon the crowd as you're starting your presentation to see your parents ambling into the back of the auditorium.

Oh, hell yes.  The Admiral and KareBear took me up on my suggestion to come down and see me.  So, I think I'd just said "Hi, I'm Ryan Steans" when I gazed out across the half-empty room, and there they were, like a slow-moving apparition in need of a seat.  I quickly introduced them, they received one of the most earnest rounds of applause of the day, and I went on with my presentation.  Totally crazy.

Afterward, they got to meet my boss and some of my friends and co-workers, and off they went, disappearing into the mid-day sun as quickly as they had arrived.

They were the second most talked about thing after the buttons.

I'm hitting the sack.  I've been going since 6:00 AM.

But I'm having a lot of fun, even if its work.  And I suspect that's sort of where you want to wind up.

I'm outta here for a few days

So, I have one of those jobs where when people ask what I do, the answer doesn't always make sense.  Some days I'm standing up training folks how to use software, some days I'm presenting in front of a room full of library directors, some days I am learning how to make a button (like the kind you wear pinned to your shirt), some days I wander around looking for ink cartridges because nobody on 3rd ordered them when we asked a month ago, some days I am writing plans for domination of digital libraries, and some days I organize and run conferences at which I am a presenter.

Starting Wednesday, I'm running a conference.

No Post Friday - Clara Bow into the weekend

No post tonight. Ms. Clara Bow is here to see you through your Friday.  I'm going to do some reading.

and one more, because Diane Keaton does not own the ladies-in-neckties thing

Blog hiatus: The Dug is coming (and K)

The Dug is scheduled to arrive this evening, and this will seriously cut into Signal Watch time.

We're thrilled to have Dug with us, and very happy K had a change of plans and can make it out, too.

But of the many faces of Douglas, which will appear?

Ann Miller Sez: Time Out For Rhythm (No Post Thursday)

Sorry, y'all. I was reading and doing other things.

Now for a game I like to play called:  What Are You Doing There, Ann Miller?

Are you entering a saloon with no walls from an infinite void?  Or leaving the saloon of existential dread?  What do you hope to find?  Or what are you trying to leave behind?  The ground seems ashen and dreadful, but you seem lively and full of hope and promise.

What are you doing there, Ann Miller?

Here's Ann Miller tapping at 1 Billion Taps Per Second in "Time Out For Rhythm".



And Jamie says "you don't move your arms when you tap". Ann Miller and I say "P-shaw!"

No Post Wednesday

I did not post last night as I was doing other things.

Below is an image of Miss Louise Brooks in the 1930s after she'd returned from Europe.  She's burned bridges before departing, and in coming home found her star had faded in the US.  And, of course, the bob she'd made so famous had gone out of style.

Brooks would play her final role in a schlocky early John Wayne film in 1938.

I know it was not in her mind when the photo was taken, but I like the resolute stubbornness I read in the expression.  She's back, and she's still not going to take any guff from these swine.

found at the Brooksie tumblr

Pretty Good Weekend

editor's note:  If you have not yet read about my Charity Walk For Kidneys, please click here.

This weekend was pretty ideal.

Friday I went out to see my brother's band, The Mono Ensemble, play at Austin institution (of sorts), The Carousel Lounge.  Jamie could not come out, but I met Jason's friends from work and hung out with Reed's sister, Heather, whom I've known since middle school.

Here's me dancing to the sounds of The Mono E with the lead singer's wife, Stephanie, and Anna, a band-buddy.

Yes, that is me in the "John Carter of Mars" t-shirt biting my lip as I get down  on the dancefloor.
I am exactly as cool at age 37 as I was at age 13.

Saturday we threw open the doors here at League HQ and had a steady stream of folks from 2:00 PM until midnight.  Burgers were grilled, sausage was charred, old friends met new friends, parents came by, employees came by, Vespers were made and MikeR consumed the bottle of Ghostface Killah Ale which I had purchased for him.

Also, Jamie made an amazing raspberry chocolate cake, which is probably my favorite kind of cake (with only German Chocolate and Carrot Cake in any other kind of contention).

Today I rose late, watched too much River Monsters on Animal Planet, and then The Admiral came by and we solved a problem which had long plagued us.  About 4-5 years ago the lights in both closets in our bedroom went out.  I figured it was an electrical issue and as you could basically see into the closets, was not compelled to fix the problem because:  money.

The Admiral and I looked into it, and... no.  Both fixtures were LED fixtures with transformers that had died.  We removed them and replaced them with incadescents, and...  lights.

This evening we had pizza and watched Mad Men with Matt and Nicole.  It was a particularly good episode, I thought.

And nothing obvious went wrong all weekend long.  Not a bad deal for my birthday weekend.

Today I am 37.

"Home" by LCD Soundsystem

Home
Home
Home
Home
Home
Home
Take me home

Just do it right
Make it perfect and real
Because it's everything
No everything was never the deal

So grab your things and stumble into the night
So we can shut the door
Oh, shut the door on terrible times

Yeah, do it right
And head again into space
So you can carry on
And carry on, and fall all over the place

This is the trick, forget a terrible year
That we can break the laws
Until it gets weird

And this is what you waited for
But under lights, we're all unsure
So tell me
What would make you feel better?

As night has such a local ring
And love and rock are pick-up things
And you know it
Yeah, you know it
Yeah, you know

Take

Forget your past
This is your last chance now
And we can break the rules
Like nothing will last

You might forget
Forget the sound of a voice
Still you should not forget
Yeah, don't forget
The things that we laughed about

And after rolling on the floor
And thankfully, a few make sure that you get home
And you stay home
And you better

'Cause you're afraid of what you need
Yeah, you're afraid of what you need
If you weren't, yeah you weren't
Then I don't know what we'd talk about

Yeah no one ever knows what you're talking about
So i guess you're already there
No one opens up when you scream and shout
But it's time to make a couple things clear

If you're afraid of what you need
If you're afraid of what you need
Look around you, you're surrounded
It won't get any better

Until the night

No Post Tonight - Yo Soy En Dallas

I'm in Dallas for work related reasons, staying a bit down the road from Medieval Times.  I've not been to Medieval Times since the 1980's, and, because I like doing things that take a lot of explaining later to Jamie, I was going to take myself there for dinner tonight.  But its closed until Thursday.  Its also $70.  That seems a bit steep for a staged fight and a bad chicken dinner.

J.R. is a tremendous fan of The Red Knight

Alas, it was not meant to be.

I have a book to read and other stuff to do.  I'm taking the evening off.

Here is Ms. Louise Brooks, busily being iconic:

also:

Mit Koala for some reason

Hope Your Easter is Going Well

every holiday is made better with the power of Elvira

Howdy, y'all!

I hope your Easter (or, if you're not celebrating Easter, your Sunday) is going well.

I doubt I'll get to post tonight, so I wanted to tag in and wish everyone a good end of the weekend, a lovely Monday, and all that jazz.

We met up with Jason and Amy at Amy's recently adopted church in Central Austin.  My folks came down, as did CousinSue and her daughter, Ciara.   Quite a nice church, Central Presbyterian.  I was impressed.

From there we headed north to my folks' place and met up with some longtime family friends as well as Matt & Nicole. The KareBear put out an enormous spread that could have fed a small army, but we did it justice, I think.  They've also installed a water feature in their backyard that I found kind of mind-blowing.  Basically, not having a small creek in the backyard was not going to suit The Admiral, and so, now he's got one.

All in all, a lovely day.

Yesterday I finally broke down and made the switch to propane.  I am now the proud owner of a Weber 210 Spirit.  My summer grilling is looking like it will not be the char-cooked mess of the last few years.

Anyhow, off to the store I go to get some meat to throw on the grill this evening.  Wish me luck on the Maiden Voyage of the Spirit 210!

No post today, either

I dunno.  My back hurts because I did crunches wrong.  I had a pretty nice dinner out with pals this evening, and think I'll be having another nice dinner out with pals on Thursday.

I'm almost done with Warlord of Mars, and think I'll finish that instead of blogging.

You're on your own.

here's Bacall reminding you that she's Bacall

Jump for Joy (no post tonight)

all right

You guys take some time off.  Go out and get some sun.  And, of course, jump for joy.

Signal Watch Post No. 1000

Can you believe it?  1000 posts.

I am sure all five of you readers out there cannot believe it, either.  Heck, some of you may have read upwards of 6-7% of what I've written here.

While he doesn't comment, I've come to learn that my most avid reader may actually be The Admiral (my dad).  Go figure.  The man doesn't care about comics, Superman, John Carter, Myrna Loy, or most of the rest of my content (well, maybe Cyd Charisse), but he still checks in every day to see what The Boy is doing.

Thanks, Pop!

As of 3/13/2012 at 11:30 PM:

• 998 posts (I'm pre-writing this to publish in a couple of days)
• 2487 comments
• 9538 tweets
• lord knows how many Facebook messages and comments (you're welcome, Zuckerberg, you and your $%#@ing IPO)
• 136,363 total hits
• My number one post -  "I'm Headed for Waco, also Some Lawyers are Pigs"  has over 4200 hits.  Between getting hits because of the cute pig pictures, and as people find Austin's "anti-some-lawyers I've-dressed-as-a-pig guy" interesting, the post continues to get emailed around a bit
• The second most favored post - "The Giant Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg", I assume high school students keep Googling the phrase when reading their Spark Notes (4000 hits and climbing)
• My top five topics are:  
• Movies (207)
• Comics (185)
• Superman (147)
• DCU (141)
• Reviews (115)
• My "About" page has received 483 views
• By far the most popular thing I've placed on Tumblr. has been the Batman themed "sound advice" post with 1387 notes after 4 weeks
• Since starting this blog I have thought about the following dames this many times
• Gloria Grahame:  3428
• Cyd Charisse:  3267
• Nichelle Nichols: 5299 
• Myrna Loy:  4823
• Lynda Carter:  3212
• Flo from the Progressive commercials - ubiquitous.  She's in an ad somewhere right now, you cannot avoid her.
• Christina Hendricks: 34,943
• Jamie Steans: 3,789,221,071
• Apollonia: 3
• I have made this much money from doing this:  $0

It seems like just yesterday that I was relaunching this foolish blogging enterprise after 4 months on ice.  At the time, I was excited about watching production on a Green Lantern feature film and the direction of DC Comics.  Oh, how young and foolish we all were.

That was less than two years ago.

As these things go, at some point it will be interesting to go back and read the subtext and be able to chart what was going on outside of reading comics, watching movies, etc... at the time.  At this blog I talk far less about my day-to-day than I did at League of Melbotis, Volume 1, but I'll likely still know.

If you'd told me two years ago that I'd see the wholesale rebooting of the DCU and a gradual but certain reduction in my interest in understanding and reading ALL the comics, I'd have burned you for a witch.  But here we are.  The truth is, I don't really feel that most of what's out there is for me anymore.  It was bound to happen sooner or later, I suppose.

We plan to keep doing this at least until December 31, 2012, so we hope the both of you will stick with us.

Happy 1000 posts to me here at League of Melbotis, Volume 2:  The Signal Watch

I appreciate all of you who read the site, follow the tumblr., follow the tweets, follow facebook...  however you participate, vocal or silent...  you guys make this fun.  A 1000 thank-you's on the day of our 1000th post!

Now let's see who feels like celebrating.

that'll work

Getting Better (The Superman Way!) and John Carter, maybe

First of all:  Antibiotics are amazing.  I know its hep to turn to your charm bracelets, magnets or supplements or whatever...  but give me some industrially composited FDA approved mystery pills any day.

WHOOOOOOO

I'm not back at 100%, but I am getting better.

This illness has taught me to respect my body as the delicate piece of machinery it is, and so I pledge to take better care of myself.  I will only treat myself as Superman would treat his own SUPER SELF, in the spirit of Truth, Justice and the American Way!

drinkin' on the back 40 with the old man while the ladies wait on the porch... CHECK

Sick Day 4 - I'm Not Dead Yet

I wish it were my robot double dealing with all this BS cold

Well, yesterday was the part of being sick where you just sit and sweat and try to understand what other people are saying to you and answer in monosyllabic grunts or head movements.  Which meant I had a crazy, sweaty night in which I dreamed I was an astronaut in the 1960's.  Or I think it was the 1960's, because we came down in a capsule.  Anyway, I had a swank, swank pad at the top of a hotel, which seems right.

Fever dreams are the absolute best dreams.

All I have to say today is:  Thank Jebus for antibiotics.

I did manage to go to the doctor yesterday since I'd been running a fever for a couple of days straight.  I am now enantiboticked, and today I feel much, much better, which is an upgrade from "you know, being dead sounds not half bad right now".

Through all this, Jamie has been an absolute hero.  She's not complained once about my hacking, sneezing or various methods for discharging the seeming endless globs that my body is making.  She's fed me.  Brought me glass after glass of water and ginger ale.  She's checked on me at night.  Nor has she complained when I watched Superman III.  She's been a trooper, and I appreciate it.

I'm probably dying (Sick Day 2)

Oh, woe is me.  I have a cold.  No allergies.  Not a hoax or imaginary tale.  I'm just wrestling with a low-grade fever and too much phlegm.

Anyway, I'm going to take it easy.  You guys rest up, too, and hopefully with a bit of soup and some rest, I'll be back up and running soon.  Right now I just hope I didn't give Jamie this bug.

I am sort of sick from allergies (or so I hope)

Well, our little nature walk yesterday has meant I am now suffering from particularly nasty allergies.  I'm not even sure what I'm allergic to, but the great thing is that Austin has so many allergy-producing things in the air at any given time, you don't really need to know.

I may be having cedar issues.  Or oak.  I know I'm crazy allergic to oak (which is why I have two in my yard.  Because I am a GENIUS).

all of these symptoms for me

Anyway, I feel lowly.   I left work around 12:30 today, took some Benadryl and slept for about 4 hours. And I still feel like 5 miles of bad road.  So I'm just going to lay here for a bit if that's cool with you.

I am really afraid this isn't allergies.  I rarely fall ill, and I'm not good at just being sick.  Anyway, I'm going to just hold still and make a call in the morning.

Update:  Tuesday at 10:50 AM - Nope.  I'm just straight up sick.  Wish Jamie luck, people.