Ah, the Web! The ever-evolving nature of online communications and business will reportedly result in the demise of this site:
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/10/25/yahoo-360-killed-who-sa…

I'll probably transfer this blog to my MySpace page: myspace.com/gened5. More details to come.

In other news, the casting for the Justice League movie continues. Let's hope that the youth of the actors is balanced by good writing and some faithfulness to the best comic book and animated incarnations of that superhero team. Have a good weekend!

On Saturday, 20 October 2007, Janice and I attended a charity pancake breakfast offered by the Rotary Club of Needham at a local elementary school. After that, we drove to meet her folks, who were visiting for the weekend.

We then went with Janice's parents, her sister Melinda, and Melinda's family to the Southwick Zoo (see photo above). Fortunately, the clouds cleared up and the unseasonably warm weather continued. It was nice to spend time with my brother-in-law Gary T.L. and with my precocious niece Amanda and happy nephew Joshua.

I have mixed feelings about zoos. On the one hand, they provide opportunities for children to see animals from all over the world firsthand and for adults to appreciate conservation efforts. On the other, zoos tend to focus on large, cute mammals at the expense of habitat preservation and valuing creatures in the wild, where most belong. Circuses have the additional problem of properly caring for animals while traveling and performing. Still, the petting zoo (of domestic animals), walk-through deer park, and food vendors make Southwick a good place to spend an afternoon with the family.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Firefly's, one of our favorite barbeque restaurants. In the spirit of hanging out with fellow superhero fans Gary and Joshua this weekend, Janice and I have caught several episodes of the classic Superman: the Animated Series, Batman: the Animated Series, and Justice League on Toon Disney. As much as I enjoy Legion of Superheroes, The Batman, and Smallville, the current adaptations from DC Comics aren't quite as stylish or well-written. Janice and I also enjoyed the two Scary Godmother Halloween cartoons.

Speaking of metahuman vigilantes, as fellow bloggers Steve M.R. and Cecil R.W. have noted, there are a number of "What superhero are you?" quizzes online. My results were Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman — no surprises there. I still plan to blog about recent comic books and graphic novels in the near future, but I've fallen behind again in reading.

On Sunday, after playing City of Heroes online, I drove up to Lexington, Massachusetts, where I met Thomas K.Y. Unfortunately, Beruk A. and Ken G. had other plans. Thomas and I had a late lunch at Mifune, a Chinese/Japanese restaurant in Arlington, Mass., before settling in to watch some videos on his new 40-inch widescreen LCD television.

The direct-to-DVD Superman: Doomsday was decent, with more graphic fight scenes than in most mainstream U.S. animation. The voice casting/acting was a bit shaky, but I thought the condensation of the comic book storylines mostly worked well. We also viewed the latest episodes of Smallville and the fantasy Avatar: the Last Airbender (which I would compare favorably to the Timm/Dini cartoons mentioned above) on Thomas' DVR.

Of course, for most local sports fans, this past week has been as good as they could hope for, with the New England Patriots continuing their winning streak against the Miami Dolphins and the Boston Red Sox entering the World Series for the second time in four years, not to mention the Head of the Charles. I'm not a huge sports fan, but the excitement among co-workers and neighbors is hard to ignore.

Speaking of enthusiasm, I have been closely following the new television season. Here are more good sources for genre news:
–IGN.com
–Mania.com (formerly Cinescape)
–Dark Horizons
–ComingSoon.net
–SciFi Wire
–Zap2it
–SyFy Portal
–SFTV Lists

We had a gathering of copy editors across my employer's units yesterday afternoon. I thought the meeting went well, partly because my team won a Jeopardy-style trivia contest. However, we did have to deal with a heavy workload of online stories to edit once we got back to our desks.

Meanwhile, on Tuesdays, "the Broken Chains," the current Player Character party (Yb-4a) in my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Halmed Desert" Arabian fantasy campaign, has been dealing with some growing pains after the role-player turnover of the past month. I hope that the gamers will be able to find common goals and have fun without worrying too much about rules or combat. Time will tell.

The Thursday night D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Holy Steel" team is taking a break while Byron V.O./"Ibrahim" is in China for work (as Thomas will soon also be), but Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and I have more customization to do of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil module for the higher-level P.C.s. Bwah, ha, ha!

This coming weekend, I have the first of a few adult Halloween parties to attend. Enjoy the autumn!

Friends, thank you for the birthday wishes. I've received numerous e-cards, and Janice gave me some henley shirts, Volume 2 of the Loony Tunes Golden Collection on DVD, and a chocolate cake! In the coming year, I look forward to celebrating the 40th birthdays of several friends in my cohort, although I don't know how many I'll be able to travel to.

On Saturday, 13 October 2007, we decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Salem, Massachusetts, for the afternoon. Since we moved to New England about eight years ago, I've only been there twice: first with college chum Corbin A.Y. and then with Janice about four years ago. However, neither visit was as close to Halloween as this one.

The crisp autumn air was offset by a strong sun as we wandered through a street festival and various shops. Although I'm as big a fan of All Hallows' Eve celebrations as anyone, we should remember the religious zealotry, mass hysteria, and introverted small-town affairs that led to the deaths of 19 colonists.

The juxtaposition of the 400-year-old cemetery and the simple memorial to those killed in the infamous witch hunt with noisy food vendors right outside the cemetery gates and gaudy modern "museums" of witchcraft, piracy, and monsters has to be seen to be believed. Still, we enjoyed the carnival atmosphere (similar to New Orleans at Mardi Gras) and readily joined the tourist crowds thronging Salem.

Among the New Age and souvenir shops, we were pleased to find some good book stores, including Cornerstone Books and Harrison's Comics & Collectibles. For history buffs, there's also the Peabody Essex Museum, the House of the Seven Gables, the sailing ship Friendship, and a few antique and art galleries. We browsed through a neogothic art show.

We had lunch at the New England Soup Factory and dessert at A&J King Artisan Bakery. On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Fuddrucker's, whose hamburgers I fondly remember from college in Upstate New York. On Sunday, between rejoining David I.S. and friends online for City of Heroes and running errands, we had lunch at Stone Hearth Pizza, another new upscale restaurant in Needham, Mass.

Although I won't be hosting the annual costumed session for the local role-playing group this year, I've been invited to a few Halloween parties and look forward to dressing up. As I saw in a documentary last year, the holiday has evolved from a pagan harvest festival to a solemn religious commemoration to a secular event for children to an occasion for adult Saturnalia-style parties.

On my birthday itself, I received telephone calls from my family, and Janice cooked spinach fettuccini and meatballs. Earlier today, I met fellow SUNY-Binghamton alumnus Cliff Y. for the first time since his wife Eliza had given birth to their son Timmy several months ago. We ate lunch at Curry Leaf, an Indian buffet near where we work.

This coming weekend, some of my in-laws will be visiting eastern Massachusetts, and we'll either visit the Southwick Zoo or the New England Aquarium, depending on the weather.

Congratulations to former Vice President Al Gore and to the international climate commission for winning a Nobel Prize. As fellow blogger Steve M.R. has noted, Gore's efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of human-induced climate change have distinguished him among U.S. politicians, despite the fact that George W. Bush won the White House in a court ruling.

While we may debate the causes and extent of damage to the environment, I hope that Americans and people around the world can rally to protect our fragile planet. I also support calling the killings of numerous Armenians in the early 20th century genocide, but it's unfortunate that the proposed resolution in Congress has damaged our relations with Turkey. As much as I would like idealistic leaders such as Jimmy Carter or Gore to be in office, I expect the current presidential candidates to be more pragmatic. I only hope that they will be able to provide both leadership and unity.

In unrelated news, more casting announcements for the Star Trek movie reboot and Marvel Comics' unveiling of a new costume and supersoldier to be Captain America have kept fanboys busy online. Speaking of fellow bloggers, here are some links to those of friends:

The Velvet Edge (Tim M.B. about gaming and life)
Author Paul B. (Cecil R.W.'s genre fiction)
Distracted by Shadows (Thomas K.Y. about gaming and other interests)
Showbits.net (Ken G. about genre entertainment)
Tech_Space (Angela G.'s science news)

Have a good weekend!

I had originally intended to blog about recent comic books, but that will have to wait until I've got more time and have caught up in reading them. My thoughts are with friends with sick family members, including Brian D.H. and April O'C., and I've offered condolences to fellow blogger Steve M.R. regarding his grandfather. Speaking of illness, with Monica S. out sick yesterday and Michele L.D'F. still in Italy, CW's copy desk has been busy, especially in the face of some construction in our office (see image above) as the online group continues to expand.

Last Saturday, 6 October 2007, Janice and I finally went to the renovated and enlarged "Natick Collection." The shopping mall is nice, but we'll be unlikely to shop at most of the upscale stores. We also took advantage of Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Bowl!" We also had an expensive but tasty dessert at Finale. Closer to home, we're fortunate to have a Trader Joe's within walking distance. While we do most of our grocery shopping at Sudbury Farms or Stop & Shop, Trader Joe's is good for healthy snacks and seasonal items.

As September's warmth has given way to more seasonably cool, damp weather, I've caught up on local newspapers, including the Boston Phoenix, the Cambridge Weekly Dig, the Improper Bostonian, and Stuff at Night. The Phoenix and Dig are progressive alternatives to The Boston Globe and Herald, similar to New York's Village Voice or Washington D.C.'s City Paper. The Improper and Stuff are aimed at young urban sophisticates, which I'm not, but they're occasionally entertaining or informative.

I pick up the free Boston Now during the workweek. In addition to my Yahoo and Google RSS feeds, I read the Sunday Globe, but I miss the reading The New York Times in print.

While I know that I've blogged quite a bit lately about genre television, now that we're a few weeks into the new season, I can report my impressions more fully.

The revived Doctor Who's third-series finale was well-done, not so much because of the plot, but because of the acting and a few choice revelations about the time traveler's friends and foes. My favorite recent episode was "The Weeping Angels," but unlike some of the British tabloids, I liked most of this season. Spin-off Torchwood has also been decent.

Supernatural comedies Reaper and Pushing Daisies have both been stylish and amusing, with the slacker spy on Chuck not far behind. Of these, I've found the surreal Pushing Daisies to be more sweet than twee. As for more dramatic shows, Heroes is still working to juggle converging plot threads, but I appreciate the connections to the Star Trek franchise. Time-travel program Journeyman has also been solid.

Speaking of Trek, in addition to various Web sites' eager speculation about the Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indiana Jones [4] and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Justice League movies, J.J. Abrams' plan to reboot the space opera franchise has fans cautiously optimistic. Here's a good link to a list of the best "quest films:" http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/22/quest.films/index.html

I'm dropping Bionic Woman and Moonlight, mainly to free up time to watch shows I've recorded while gaming. Smallville may not be far behind, and I'm still waiting for the "Worf factor" (when actors from a parent show move to the spin-off, improving it; an allusion to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) on Stargate: Atlantis.

Next time: Comic books, gaming, and more…