>> 
For your amusement, my recent comics purchases include:

• Astonishing X-Men #1 by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and John Cassaday. A lot better than I'd worried it was going to be; Whedon's cut out a lot of the campier elements of his writing and seems to really have the character dynamic post-Morrison nailed (unlike the writers of all the other X-Men books, who are doing their best to pretend that the complicated reshuffling and redefinition of the interpersonal relationships which Morrison spent so much time on never happened). And the art is fan-fucking-tastic, but we knew that would happen. I do wish they weren't back in stupid-looking costumes, but I am happy that I'm getting a reasonably entertaining and intelligent book in which to follow these characters, who I'm still desperately in love with, and I will probably remain so all my life. (I'm participating in a good Barbelith thread about this issue at the moment.)
  
  
• District X #1 by David Hine and David Yardin. This is one of the many new X-Men books launched as part of the "Reload" event; I was curious about it because it had an at-least-intriguing concept (Bishop, a former X-Man who's also a mutant cop from the future -- yeah, I know -- ends up assigned to the all-human police force of District X, the New York City mutant slum) and a creative team that I'd never read anything by. It turned out pretty all right, actually, and I think I'll stick around for a couple of issues and see what develops; it's already doing an interesting slow-build thing that I appreciate (Bishop doesn't even turn up until the last page).
  
  
• Human Target #10 by Peter Milligan and Cliff Chiang. The series is about Christopher Chance, a man who impersonates other people -- generally those in mortal danger -- for money. Along the line, however, he's gone insane, had his face permanently changed into that of somebody else, and come across other assorted complications. It's generally fun stuff, but I'm not positive about how attached to it I am; Pete Milligan can be one of the greatest writers around (see Enigma) but he tends to play up his corny pulp sensibilities a bit too often in this title. And there's only so many issues that the "Guess which character is Christopher Chance this time!" game can stay fun through. But when it's good, it's very good.
  
  
• Seaguy #1 by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart. Predictably, it's fantastic, but that's because it's by Grant Morrison. It's the story of a man in a wetsuit who wants to be a superhero in a world where all of the superheroes have retired. Because nothing's wrong anymore. Nothing at all. Oh, and he has a flying tuna friend named Chubby Da Choona who is, apparently, from Brooklyn. Cameron Stewart's art in this impressed the hell out of me, and the whole book is funny and sweet and surprising and just really, really good. Pick it up.

So, yeah, there you have it. I also bought the Essential X-Men Vol. 5 trade, which had the usual combination of "Wow, this is cheesy-great" and "Wow, this is so bad I can't actually finish the issue" moments.

I'm thinking it was a big mistake to ever give up on comics as a career path, but then, I'm thinking a lot of things these days.

>> Just FYI, I finally donated to John Kerry's campaign today. And I feel pretty good about it.

Also, you really need to read this, and sign the attached petition: Rush Limbaugh is being paid with your tax dollars to broadcast pro-torture commentary on Armed Forces Radio. Get him out of there.

>> That "old site feature" is pretty much ready to go -- World In Motion, the linkslog, has returned. I thought about doing one of those fancy in-line things in the style of Kottke, but decided against it; in fact, I haven't tried to incorporate it into this blog at all. I've decided World In Motion exists largely as a categorized, searchable braindump for things I find interesting and want to keep on hand for the future; you're welcome to peruse it from time to time and see if there's anything that interests you. If I've got a lot to say about a link, it'll turn up here on this blog; if I'd just like to bookmark it for myself and maybe bring it to the attention of a few curious passers-by, I'll put it up there.

So yes, it's mainly for me (to satisfy the microcontent itch I've been wanting to scratch), but you might enjoy it too -- take a look and see what I've catalogued so far.

>> Well, I beat Link's Awakening today. I'd say I was proud of myself, but since it involved not leaving the house for almost 48 hours and eating tons of junk food and not hearing another human voice yesterday (and cheating a lot with the GameFAQ guides), I really don't think I am.

What makes it worse is that my friend Ben brought over his GameCube on Saturday and gave us a little demo of The Wind Waker. Then he made us watch the trailer for the next Zelda game at Nintendo's website (I can't find it again, but it looked amazing.) So now I'm feeling like I have to have a GameCube. Now. But I know that's a terrible idea, for a thousand reasons.

Here's the thing: In every way that counts, I'm still a teenager. I'm not happy about it, but I'm even less happy about the prospect of not being one. Every time I think about it, it puts me in one of those self-loathing moods that result in awful blog posts, and nobody wants that. So that may be the last you'll hear about it for a while, but it needs to be said that grappling with this is the single most important thing in my life right now. I'm a fucking adolescent, and it's a hell of a lot of fun, but it's not the kind of thing that earns respect from others. Or, as time wears on, even affection. Even I'm getting a little tired of myself.

And 48 hours of video gaming didn't help one bit.

>> Oh my God, I just found my old original black-and-white Game Boy, and it still works. And Tetris and Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening were right next to it. Oh my God. I will never do anything else ever again.

>> Coming soon: The return of an extinct site feature. Don't get overexcited, but it'll be fun to have it around. I think. Until I get sick of it again.

>> Three of my outstanding criteria for entertainment while hanging out here in Florida are --

• Does it involve dinosaurs?
• Does it involve alligators?
• Does it involve sharks?

-- with the idea that any good entertainment should encompass at least one of those things. So imagine my joy at finding these two headlines next to each other at CNN.com today: Penn scientist discovers new dinosaur and Boy fends off alligator attack with swift punch.

>> Still don't have anything terribly interesting to say. I've bought some CDs, visited a former high-school teacher, been to the beach a few times, etc. etc. When (if) I get tired of being one giant id, I'm sure you'll see some more interesting material here. But until that day...

If you want sparkling wit, go get the new Morrissey album. I did. (And man, do I love "The First Of The Gang To Die.")

>> Happy history day, everybody. Between this and what's already gone down in San Francisco, I think the exact opposite of what the Christian Right has predicted is going to happen: America's going to see lovely, normal people who are desperately in love with each other finally get the thing they've always wanted. I strongly suspect that's going to do more for gay rights in this country than a thousand court cases and "activist judges."

Let's hope so, anyway, because these marriages are still going to end up being challenged by the Massachusetts government when the amendment comes before the public in 2006.

On Monday, Massachusetts becomes the first state to make it legal for same-sex couples to marry. It follows a highly controversial decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, striking down the heterosexuals-only restriction in the state's marriage law.

"To have the highest court in the state affirm your right to be a family was wonderful, and it just gave you courage," said Marcia Hams, who camped out in front of Cambridge City Hall on Sunday with her bride-to-be, Susan Shepherd, to be the first in line to apply for a marriage license.

Some cities and towns in the Bay State, including Cambridge, decided to open their licensing offices Sunday night so they could begin handing out same-sex marriage applications after midnight, when they become legal.

Oh, and another thing:

In New York, the largest neighboring state, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sent Romney a letter Friday, saying that in his opinion, marriages of same-sex couples from New York conducted in Massachusetts would be legally recognized in the Empire State, even though New York does not allow same-sex marriages.

Thanks, Eliot. And this is why I'm probably going to end up living in New York instead of Florida: Because even though I love it, and even though it's the most gorgeous state in the Union, Florida is still a pig-ignorant bigoted backwater. Sigh.

>> My Little Ponies in the style of the Justice League. As you do. Via Lying In The Gutters.

And I posted this on Barbelith, but not here: this guy's X-Men custom action figures are some of the coolest things I've ever seen. Yes, I'm a dork, but that doesn't change anything about their being awesome.

>> So, I'm here in Florida, where I will likely remain until mid-August. So far I have: been sent on an absurdly long dinosaur-themed birthday-celebrating scavenger hunt; eaten Carrabba's twice in two days; found a Twilight Singers EP (Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair) that I'd been looking for for a while; and watched the director's work cut of Alien3 from the obnoxiously overlarge Quadrilogy box-set I got at Christmas. I've even largely unpacked, too. All of these things were moderately to extremely fulfilling. And now I think I'm gonna go grab some Checkers for dinner.

You'll have to excuse me, whenever I come back to the suburbs I switch over to my lizard brain for a few days. Must be all the damn lizards around here.

>> Metafilter thread on Movable Type going to a pay model -- half of them are freaking out. You know what? When the regular-user (non-developer) version of MT gets released, I think I'm gonna go ahead and shell out my $69 for it. I've got six blogs on my site right now, but three are essentially dead, and Movable Type's been serving me well for almost two years now -- plus, I never did donate to them. I reeeeaallly need those anti-comments-spam features, too.

Bottom line: we live in a capitalist society, and the people who make software this good deserve to get paid for it, in my humble opinion. If you don't want to pay the cash, just stick with your old version. (And if it's so goddamn easy to make your own weblogging software, then fuckin' do it and spare us your whining.)

>> Well, I graduated from college. (W00t?) And now I'm packing. I hate packing so much. Soooooo much... it... it... the... it... the... flames... flames... flames... on the side of my face... breathing... breathless... heaving breaths...

So you know what's going on. Again: leaving for Florida Friday afternoon. Likelihood of substantive posts before then: Low, and contingent on my getting everything to the post office and into the suitcases in time. GOD I DO NOT WANT TO BE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW BLAAAAHHH.

>> Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey. Pure. Comedy. Gold.

>> Excellent denunciation of Joe Lieberman for his fucking moronic comments on the Abu Ghraib scandal. Via Atrios. The best bit:

The next time he gets up and drones on about the soul-corroding aspects of Grand Theft Auto III, you can say, yes, Joe, tell it to the prisoners of Abu Ghraib. Or if you want to get meta-ironic with him, you can say in a lugubrious baritone, with deeply furrowed brow, "Grand Theft Auto III contains deeply disturbing images of violence, yes, but I cannot help but say that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, have never apologized for bringing their disturbing images of violence to our television screens."

If you live in Connecticut, I urge you to do your part to find an actual Democrat who will run in the Senate primary in 2006. I also urge you to forgive me for the really god-awful attempt at a pun in this post's title.

>> The Cure tour this summer ("Curiosa 2004") will be a mini-festival, with Interpol, The Rapture, Mogwai, and others supporting. Second date? Tampa, FL. I knew there was a reason I was going home for the summer...

>> To clean up a lot of loose ends:

For starters, you may have already seen the news on his blog, but if you haven't, I just need to go on record as saying that Josh and I have broken up. The good news is, we managed to do it on very good terms, and are remaining friends (really, we are, it's not a cliche). But romantically, we just weren't working anymore, and eventually we had to acknowledge that. And that's probably all you're gonna get from me on the subject here.

For the next few days, posts are gonna be thin on the ground here -- my parents got in today, which monopolized my entire afternoon/evening/night, and it's just gonna keep going like that until they leave on Wednesday (for the record, I graduate on Tuesday). Then I've got to pack and get ready to leave for Florida on Friday -- that's another thing I haven't mentioned here; I'm going home to Florida for the summer.

I've got a lot to say about what's happening to me right now, but I don't have the time to say it. Hopefully it won't go unrecorded, but who knows?

>> Ugh. I have a take-home final due in four hours (must be e-mailed to the prof by midnight) and I just can't bring myself to do it. It's not difficult -- just two 600-word essays on fairly simple topics -- but it just seems like such a pain in the ass.

This is pretty much my last chance to procrastinate in my entire college career; maybe I'm just subconsciously milking it for all it's worth. Well, no, my fiction-workshop portfolio is my last chance to procrastinate -- I have to re-write two short stories for that, and it's due at noon on Monday. So I figure one tomorrow night and one Sunday night? Even though my parents will be in town and I won't be getting home until midnight or so both nights? Sounds reasonable, right?

>> This Rolling Stone feature on Loretta Lynn honestly makes the woman sound too amazing to truly exist. Read it now. (And go get the album, for lo, it is good.)

>> Look: Donald Rumsfeld doesn't need to resign. Donald Rumsfeld needs to be fired, and he needs to be fired by President Bush. What happened at Abu Ghraib, and what may have happened elsewhere in Iraq and around the world in other American military prisons, is Donald Rumsfeld's direct responsibility: Not simply because he's the overseer of the U.S. military in the executive branch, but because the "no rules, just right" mentality we've been espousing since the start of our response to September 11th is his idea. He's the one pushing for no Geneva Convention responsibility, no courts of law, no oversight over military conduct. He should have known that in that kind of environment, this sort of thing was going to happen.

President Bush should have known, too. I don't believe for one second that this is the sort of thing he wants to have happening in the American military's name. But if that's so, then why hasn't he taken action? He's seen the cancer; why isn't he cutting it out? This is his responsibility too: He chose his staff, he knew the policies they advocated, and it's his duty to correct their mistakes. He is the commander in chief of this country: It's time he commanded his people to shape up their act. He needs to fire Donald Rumsfeld, and ideally, he needs to apologize for the cruelty and insanity of U.S. military policy. If there's one thing this whole incident proves, it's that the U.S.A. is not inherently morally superior to the rest of the world. Give us a darkened room and hearts full of anger and we'll get up to the same sick shit that any other person will. That's why the lights are always supposed to be on: that's why the Geneva Convention, and other structures of conduct and oversight, exist. Anyone who advocates for their avoidance or repeal (i.e. Donald Rumsfeld) is somebody with the strong desire to hurt people and get away with it. Is that really so hard to understand?

And another thing. How can you believe, even for a moment, that this sort of crime is not as bad as what Saddam Hussein did to his people? That's the argument a lot of warbloggers seem to be making -- "You know, Saddam was doing this all the time, and we've only done it a little, and besides the people getting it deserved it."

Well for one thing, the people getting it didn't deserve it. Very few people on Earth deserve treatment like that, and as much as a lot of people would like to believe otherwise, the simple fact of someone's being in a prison in Iraq doesn't make them a terrorist. Abu Ghraib was largely composed of "security detainees" (i.e. people believed to pose a threat to the coalition), but that's an extraordinarily broad classification -- they weren't all violent resisters or armed insurgents. Some of those prisoners could've been picked up in the marketplace for jacking a melon, for God's sake. Do you think it's OK to rape somebody who picks your pocket? Honestly, is it just the fact that they're Arabs that makes you think "In prison = terrorist"?

I don't mean to imply that most warbloggers are happy that people were treated this way. Of course they're not. Who could be? But it just boggles my mind that people think there's any defense for this kind of behavior, any defense whatsoever. It's not less evil than what Saddam Hussein did. It's just as evil, perhaps more evil -- because not only is it a despicable act, it's a despicable act that violates trust. We went over there to offer the Iraqi people a better life, right? And we asked them to trust that we would provide that. This behavior, and the ongoing lack of basic structures of order and resource management, are the clearest message you could possibly send: We have failed to offer you a better life.

The whole "Saddam did it worse" angle just makes me want to spit -- as does the righteous moralizing that implies that "the left" didn't care about Saddam Hussein's crimes. I saw one warblog that made the "We didn't hear you complaining when Saddam did it" argument. Putting aside the fact that before about September 2002 (when the President started asking people to follow him on his little vision-quest) I didn't see that person complaining on their blog either, that's the most obnoxious statement you could possibly make. Do you honestly believe that "the left" all secretly looked at Saddam Hussein as some kind of hero? If so, let me put it in the plainest terms I possibly can: Saddam Hussein was a sick motherfucker who murdered innocent people and he absolutely deserved to be yanked out of power and imprisoned for the rest of his natural life. Bang. Done. The reason "the left" opposed the war in Iraq was not because we didn't think Saddam Hussein should be deposed. (OK, yes, there are crazy fucking wingnuts on the left who didn't think the man should be toppled, but generally not because they were fans of his -- it's because their view of America's isolationism demanded otherwise).

If President Bush had made his case for war on the back of Saddam Hussein's human-rights abuses, and not on openly suspect "he's gonna give nukes to terrorists" logic; and if he'd made it clear that the U.S. policy could never allow for similar abuses (if you're paying attention, that means he would've established a clear policy of supporting the Geneva Convention and fair imprisonment guidelines); and if he'd outlined a clear plan for creating a stable post-war Iraqi government, while being at all sensitive to the idea that a military strike and occupation in the Middle East was bound to incite terrorist acts; then I would have backed him on the war. I'm willing to bet that the rest of the international community would have too. Instead, the president allowed Donald Rumsfeld to wage a foolishly-planned military action that conducted itself in a manner absolutely and despicably unworthy of the American name. For that, Rumsfeld must be fired, and the President must apologize.

Failing that, he should just keep on doin' what he's doin', and let us vote his sorry ass out of office. I'm not going to kid you, I was never going to vote for President Bush this year: putting the question of his foreign policy aside completely, his every action on domestic issues is blatantly offensive to me. If he'd fire Rumsfeld and apologize for the way the U.S. has behaved over the last two years, however, I could, perhaps for the first time, respect him. (Apologizing for U.S. abuses does not equal "letting the terrorists win," if you're wondering.) But it wouldn't change the facts of what's happened: his administration has failed Iraq, and it's failed the good name of the United States; and it needs to be dismantled and punished. Now.

(And just as a minor policy footnote -- I wholeheartedly endorse the idea of both tearing Abu Ghraib down and disbanding the military unit responsible for these abuses; I think that's some extraordinarily smart symbolic language to use, and should be done immediately.)

>> Write a pornographic story starring Harry Knowles and the characters from THE X-FILES and win all nine seasons on DVD. Ummm... it's wrong that I really, really, really might try to win this, right?

>> You know what? A cute and uplifiting doggie story is really what I needed right now, at this moment. Boy, is it ever.

(Thanks for the link, Lia.)

>> Kerry In A Landslide? -- a Washington Monthly article that claims, after analyzing patterns of support for incumbents and challengers in previous second-term elections, that the historical precedent of this election is on Kerry's side to a much stronger degree than anyone might expect.

Sounds nice, but I'm not buying it yet, simply because of Bush's X-factor: the guy's vulnerable on every single major issue, yet millions of people around the country support him on his personal aura alone. John Kerry has not yet sold those people on the profound deficiencies of the Bush administration, nor has he offered them a personality they're willing to spend the next four years with. And as absolutely retarded as that is in a country where you'd hope people would vote with their brains, it's a tremendous political reality. Kerry's a fairly chilly fish at the moment, and he's gonna get colder day by day; has anybody heard anything significant out of his campaign in the last two months? They're getting smear-attacked with ridiculous bullshit (the "did he or didn't he?" medal/ribbon debate) and all they're doing is putting their arms up to stop the slaps. Why not offer the right cross -- "So where are your pay stubs, President Bush? How about the written report on your grounding? Y'know, just wondering..."

>> Does anybody know of a store in NYC that allows you to test the Shure earphones that everybody's talking about? My iPod needs new headphones and I might splash out on a little graduation present for myself.

>> I'm pretty pleased with myself today, since it turned out that I did, indeed, request tickets to the right graduation ceremony (there's one ceremony for my school, the College of Arts & Sciences, and one for the entire university, and I'm skipping the latter one because my parents will already be gone and nothing interesting happens at it anyway). And the tickets are right here in my hot li'l hand, so that's one less thing my parents can yell at me about.

Now I've got nothing to do today -- classes are over and I just have two more assignments to finish by the end of the week, which shouldn't be all that hard. What to do, what to do?

Oh, and today is unofficially Mozilla Day here at DYFL -- I fired it up to check Gmail this morning and have just been using it ever since. Turns out it's not bad, but it's just not as pretty as Safari. It renders my site almost exactly the way I want it to, though, which is nice. (Just a reminder, this site looks best in Safari and Mozilla. On a Mac. So for all four of you who can read it that way, you should.)

And if you're wondering why you don't have my Gmail address yet, don't -- I'm still using the address here at doyoufeelloved.com as my primary e-mail; Gmail's largely a back-up. (I also hope to keep it spam-free, so I'm gonna guard it pretty carefully).

>> U2 fans take note -- U2 have been in Portugal doing the photo shoot for their album, and Bono's been telling fans there that the first single will hit in September and the album (still untitled) in October. We'd been disregarding those dates until now, but the fact that the album's artwork is being worked on is an excellent sign... Not an excellent sign: Bono's terrible new "hair." Yowza. And what's with all the crushed-velvet clothing? I'm gonna assume it's Corbijn overdosing on photographic texture and not a new "rock granddad" image...

>> Wooooosh. Finished my final paper for NYU today, just in the nick of time (I ran into my professor in the street, where he'd just collected the papers in his box). Big sigh of relief.

Of course, I've still got a dozen other things to be uptight about; the sighs that signal their succesful completion will be staggered out over the next couple of weeks. Ugh.

And because somebody out there likes me, I've got a Gmail account. Woo-hoo! (Of course, I have to log in using Firefox, which I normally don't touch -- I'm a Safari man -- but the Gmail peepz say Safari support should come soon, so.)

>> Oh my God, this is the best thing to ever happen in New York City: Pac-Manhattan. Click it. You won't regret it. (Via Kottke)

>> Can't talk. Tremendous paper to write by Monday. Probably won't be able to do it.

In the meantime, you can read Warren Ellis' first issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four (the new re-telling of the team's origin) for free. It's not bad.

(And speaking of comics, I found Season Of Mists in the cover that I wanted at Barnes & Noble today, while buying books for this paper, so now the only TPB I still need to finish off Sandman is The Doll's House. W00t.)

(I also put up another iMix. I wasn't going to hype this one, but since it doesn't show up when you click "All iMixes By This User," I've got to link it SOMEwhere... The system for handling these is still very, very weird and should probably be beefed up in the future.)