Monday, August 29, 2016

DC Comics Presents 6 7 8 9

Sorry for letting this slide... Actually have had two reading sessions since I posted on this last. First up - Issue 6.



I actually remember this one from when I was a kid and I liked the opening way that Green Lantern gave the ring to Clark Kent (similar to the cover) and then "Superman" arrives on the scene. :-)

I had forgotten all about Star Sapphire being Carol Ferris. That was interesting. :-) It was interesting as well how Superman was subdued by the people that would become the bad guys for...

Issue 7 -



Not a story I remembered from my youth, nor was issue 8 -



Actually I think this is one I had to pick up recently. I wasn't a Swamp Thing fan growing up, other than the movie, and I didn't even know who Solomon Grundy was until I started playing the iPad Game Injustice: Gods Among Us. This was an interesting story, but one that had no continuity with anything else I remember from the time.

And lastly, Issue 9, which I did have as a kid, but for the life of me I could NOT remember the story, even when I started reading. :-) This was a typical Four Color Adventure of the time - not really light hearted, but again a 'villain of the month' was discovered and then thwarted. Nothing of epic scale, but a good representation of the times.




Next issue is one I DO remember as a kid! Sargent Rock and Easy Company AND it involves Time Travel!


Thursday, August 25, 2016

HAM update

Just a quick update while my tech fixes my phone... :-)

I haven't posted about the next issues, but it's NOT forgotten. I actually haven't read in several days because of other busyness.

Vanessa and I went to the Huntsville Hamfest last weekend and we bought a couple of mobile units. We went with TYT brand because the HT's we've been using are the ones from her volunteer work and we've been VERY pleased with them! The 7800 is a 50watt mobile that has channels A & B for monitoring two frequencies at once, just like the HT's! This was a VERY important feature for Vanessa, so we went with that.

I installed mine Monday night but it was so late no one was on for me to test it with. I solved that on the way to work the next morning and have been chatting between buildings and on the way home from work all week long now. :-)

Oh - the antenna system... Vanessa did NOT want me drilling a hole in the roof, plus a four foot antenna might rub on the carport entry (and parking garages, etc.) so we opted for something else. The Diamond dealer showed me a 'stick on' mount that will work on the back glass, but the vendor we bought from didn't have it at the show. Add to that the more Vanessa thought about it the less happy she was with something 'sticking' on the glass, so we opted for the Diamond trunk mount. It mounts to the trunk of a car and the antenna moves with the trunk. Well, we don't have trunks, but the same mount works PERFECTLY on the hood!

The antenna itself is a Diamond 770 dual band. Mounted on the side of the hood I've been able to talk to repeaters MANY miles away, even on low power, and I'm hearing traffic from people I've never been able to pick up with the HT's. I even spoke to a guy in a helicopter in Osceola, Arkansas the other day! And that was on simplex, not via repeater!

I'm proud of being able to install this stuff myself. I've gone through life thinking it was too hard and above my skill set, and I regret not being able to help our boys when they hooked up radios and such. I won't point fingers and place blame publicly, but it IS a regret I now have and I endeavor to NOT let ignorance of a particular thing stop me!

That being said, I've been scared to mount Vanessa's siren in her truck, thus it's waited for MONTHS. Well that, and her radio, are planned for installation tonight! That should get her up to speed on her volunteer work and set us up for storm chasing & weather spotting - things that we are BOTH interested in pursuing!

Well I've rambled enough... If you hear a CQ from Kilo Michael Four Uniform X-Ray Victor, be sure to answer. :-)

Jimmy - KM4UXV
Vanessa - KM4UXW

One last thing... We bought from the booth, but they do mail order as well. Here's the link - tell J.T. that Jimmy sent you...

http://hamworldinc.com




Thursday, August 18, 2016

Issues 4 & 5

Howdy! Had a computer crash last night, so didn't get to post my reading. I went back to DC Comics Presents. Read issue 4, which I have two copies of. One of them is an original DC and the other is a Whitman reprint. It's it less than stellar condition, but the whole Whitman thing brings back memories to me...

I remember going to the mall in Jackson with my mom and we would go in Woolworth. They would often have comic books for 10 cents each and they were branded Whitman. These were limited run reprints and were always considered 'cheap' copies. Now they are actually more valuable than the originals. :-)

Anyway - issue 4 was Metal Men and I don't remember the story at all. Issue 5 was Aquaman and I KNOW I didn't read it as a kid because it was a missing issue I only found a couple of months ago. It had a Lori Lemaris storyline, which also brought back memories.

The main thing I noticed, though, is at the end it started something that I remember from other issues in this series - a teaser for the next issue! The last panel had Superman flying back to Metropolis for a press conference of sorts. This DIRECTLY leads into issue 6 with Green Lantern, which IS one I bought as a kid!

These pics are from the web - not actual pics of my issues...

 

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

DC Comics Presents

Hello, gentle reader. I just finished reading (re-reading, after MANY years) issues 1, 2 & 3 of DC Comics Presents from 1978.

You might remember that recently I obtained issue #26, which finished off my FULL RUN of all 97 regular issues and four Annuals. It was fun obtaining them all and now I'm glad to be reading them!

When I first starting looking to finish out my series run, I found the DC Comics Presents Show (podcast) and quickly became a fan. The host, Russell Bragg, gives a review of each episode and he is up to almost issue 50. I enjoy hearing the story synopsis each time as it brings back memories, but even that was over shadowed by actually READING and experiencing the stories as they were meant to be experienced.

His show can be found at https://braggaboutcomics.com - tell him I sent you!

Now, off to bed, with issue 4 coming up when I'm not so sleepy. :-)





Saturday, August 13, 2016

12 of 12 - August 2016

Hello! I remembered yesterday morning that it was the 12th, so I decided to pull up something that used to be 'a thing' (heck, it still may be, just maybe I don't do it anymore).

It's called Twelve of Twelve - every month on the 12th you take 12 pictures. You do it EACH month and then you can look back on your pictures for that month. Since each month the 12th will be on a different day of the week, you're not likely to have the same things pictured month to month.

I posted the first couple on Facebook and Twitter as I took them, but it was much later in the day before I took number 3. Finally took a few more - not quite 12 though. :-)

If you decide to do a 12 of 12, let me know! Link to it in a comment!



The stone in the pic above is outside where my office used to be. I assume it was a corner stone or marker for the FIRST college in Dyersburg, and I assume that's why it's called College Street.


The East wall of my office - the two in the middle were a wonderful Christmas present from our son Kyle. I found the Force Awakens one day and picked it up and Vanessa found Return to round out the original trilogy!


Before heading to the dance, we went to Pig N Out in Halls to eat. Here's the love of my life and my supper mate. :-)


This is during the first break. She had been dancing - I had been picking.


Here she is with our friend Lisa.


The guitar I played last night. Had a GREAT time picking/playing/singing with this thing!


Went to a table with some friends and said, "can I get a picture of this table?" They said, "sure!" and smiled real big. Then I took a picture of the table. :-)


Then I took a picture of my friends. :-)


Vanessa driving home after the dance.


Tried to get a pic of her boots on the pedals - that's a flashlight hanging from the gear shift.


Her satellite radio ALWAYS stays on country...


Last one of the night. I was awake, but barely. 











Thursday, August 11, 2016

Gaming with Tibble

I received this email recently, and I had to go back into my memory to figure out what it was...

Oh yeah - it's a way to save a record of games that you play for a little deeper board gaming social networking. I remember adding a few games then losing interest, but it seems that data is saved! It was interesting seeing my 'games' listed -



Brought back some memories for sure, and tells me that it was just over two years ago that I introduced the addiction that is X-Wing to my buddy Mark. You're welcome. :-)



Anyway - here's the email, with the link...

Subject: Putting Tibble back in the box, and up in the attic

Hello friendly Tibbler!

Brian and I (Mike) put Tibble on the App Store over 2 years ago. We were amazed and heartened by the response of so many of you who used it. More than 2200 plays were lovingly recorded, most of those in the first year.

Unfortunately life got in the way. Well, jobs actually. That meant that we never developed Tibble any further. Fun fact - we made one small release on the App Store a couple of weeks after the initial launch but never needed to put another bug fix release out. We're proud of that. We think.

2 and a bit years later and not a lot of people are still using Tibble, it is no longer on the App Store, and so it is with some thoughtful reflection that we have turned Tibble off. 

Since the Tibble server is no longer available you won't be able to use the app on your phone any more, so you may as well delete it if you haven't already. That said we've saved your play recordings, and game photos, as follows:

Your play recordings are visible on the following Google Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZCPLJz011rPKxIckQH-PErOvG-PL39ZSKbYWG6eWjA0/edit?usp=sharing

This spreadsheet is visible to the world, but we're not broadcasting the link beyond you - the people who recorded plays. However if you'd like us to remove your plays from the sheet please just reply to this email to let me know.

Your photos are accessible via the web address in the 'Play Image' column of the spreadsheet above. Again, these are publicly viewable but the addresses are not being broadcast. And again, if you would like us to delete your photos please just email me and I'll be happy to do so.

We'll leave the spreadsheet and photos up for a year and then will delete them all in August 2017.

And with that it's time for one last roll of the dice, one last exchange of wood for brick, and one last placing of the meeples. We've totted up VPs and the winner is ... all of you. *shucks*

Thanks all!

Mike and Brian - Tibblers-in-Chief



Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Gencon

Just a quick word to say HAVE FUN to all my friends and family that will be at Gencon this year. I will NOT get to make it, but just had a 'commentversasion' with my buddy John about NEXT year and playing Car Wars in person. :-)

On a musical note, I played bass guitar in Halls last Friday night and not this Friday but the next, for two to three weeks, I'll be playing lead guitar. Looking forward to that!