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Bruce With a Wang!: Have great memories of sitting with friends reading each others comic books and trading. A real rite of passage.

I've mentioned this a few times before, but...

1963, visiting California and my cousin brings a comic from some company that didn't get distributed in Oklahoma. "Marvel"? The final issue of a weird-fantasy comic that had a superhero cover story. Unusual tale about a high school nerd who gets super-powers, and uses them not for heroics but for personal gain, with tragic karmic results. Changed my whole idea of what comics could be!

Yeah, Amazing Fantasy #15 starring the first appearance of Spider-Man was right there in my hands in near-mint condition.

Asked cousin if I could keep it (I had just gotten the collecting bug) and he said no. Sad-face.

Years later at a family reunion, I told cousin about this. He didn't remember it, but he said, "Yeah, I probably threw it out the next day."

Heh. All in color for a dime.

me: And when I use the YouTube downloader program...

Mike Hammer: What do you use?

Strangely enough, "YouTube Downloader."

Annoying in installation because they have "accept/decline" choices that look like you're agreeing to standard usage rules when you're actually agreeing to, like Yahoo toolbars, but once installed, works great for YT, Vimeo, many other sources (including many that - ahem - I don't want).

Pay-for version has a few enhancements I've never felt I needed. They've just added ads showing on the latest upgrade of the free version, but, well, good for the authors yay capitalism, and still free for me.

Christopher Taylor: Not even really comparable at any level.

At any level? Not at aaaany level? Aw, c'mon! It made the point about passing the "title" around. Sorta. Didn't it?

Yeah, those years by Simonson (wasn't it) were great. I quit collecting comics not long after that, about the time Marvel crushed the independents... and our new twins started getting expensive.

Mike Hammer: Next time you are pissed about how slow your internet connection seems to be running, just think about all of the hugely stupid video that is eating up bandwidth.

I always download videos rather than watch them "live." I can watch them repeatedly, or back up a bit if necessary, with the "cost" of just one download. Hate it when I can only watch something streaming.

Of course, since I come from the days of limited memory and 300-baud dialup modems, I am still byte-conservative. Bandwidth is going to keep getting faster & cheaper, I suppose, where streaming will matter less, but I'll probably always download.

Two other advantages of downloading.

If a vid gets yanked from the net, I've still got mine.

And when I use the YouTube downloader program, it doesn't register on my "what you watched" account the way it does when I go to YouTube with a browser. A small victory for privacy, but a victory.

@votermom: I personally find idea of She-Hero characters insulting. She-Thor? Why not Frigg, or someone rlse who is actually female in the original panthron?

Aw, don't worry about it. In past years, the Thor power has been passed to an e.t., and for a while Thor was a frog. This is temporary. Just like death, in comics.

Spider-Woman was a pretty good character. Not a riff on Spider-Man but a whole different thing. They do these (e.g. She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Lady ManThing - I made that one up I think) partly to make sure they can keep active ownership of all the names. IIRC, DC owns the TM on "superhero" and Marvel has "super-hero," or maybe the other way around. Or, I'm making that up, too.

My comic book reading was a long time ago, but I follow the trade enough to know the SJWs and commies dominate right now, like so much else in the unentertainment media. I'd like to believe when the pendulum swings back, it will do so swiftly; Superman and Captain America will be back in full power eventually, for truth, justice, and the American Way. They are more powerful than the writers who would corrupt them.

This is the new Ace of Spades blog. All art posts, all the time.

Morning, Glories! Rain has moved in and won't stop 'til after Monday and I've got a bad roof leak. Freezing is only going to make it worse, too. Oh, joy.

Well, the cold held off until after Thanksgiving, so one more thing for which to be thankful.

The Grace I wrote for the family feast, posted last night on the ONT, just for repeating myself's sake:
http://bit.ly/Grace-2015-Thnksgvng

Late feeding the pets, and trying to head back down to The City to see family some more. Good times.

Survived the holiday feast and family. Sixteen folks and all enjoyed it. Despite ourselves. Much merriment.

Thanks for all your work, Maetenloch!

Thought I'd share the grace I wrote and which our Daughter delivered:

♥

Our Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this life,
with all its joys and challenges.

Thank you for this great country,
with all its joys and challenges.

Thank you for family,
with all its joys and challenges.
[many chuckles and said-along-withs -whew!]

Thank you for those who stand
in valiant defense of faith and freedom.

Thank you for this wonderful feast,
and thanks to those who helped prepare it.

[to which Daughter added the Usual Blessing]

Bless O Lord this food to our use
and us to thy service.
Keep us ever mindful of the needs of others.

Amen.

♥

Now, I need a long winter's nap.

Stay awesome, Morons. That line about defense of faith and freedom includes you.

Toasts have been toasted. Family photos have been photographed. Turkey is cooked, dishes are heading for the buffet, smells are magnificent. About to dine.

With so much to be thankful for, I also appreciate the digital house Ace provides for us. Thanks, Ace, and thank God for the great fellowship of the Moron horde.

A glorious Thanksgiving morning to alla y'all. The rains have held off, the temp is 65°F, and relatives down in The City are preparing a feast that can't be beat. With three kinds of pie.

And by Mom's decree, politix is off the table! (We'll see.)

Oh, well, just as I started typing, the rain started, but it's just a gentle drizzle so far. About 5pm temps should start to plunge, with heavier rain. That's what I'll be driving home in. Tomorrow we may get "ice pellets" (what we used to call "sleet").

I'm thankful to be here at all, so the rest follows.

A comment I couldn't get to in time last night.

Toast with a hole cut in the middle and an egg fried in it, our kids really liked those. We called 'em UFOs.

Good night, Gracies!

Oh, hey. Vic posted news in the morning thread. And I need food. Looks like I'll be leaving this thread in utterly capable hands. By which I mean the usual gang of Morons & 'ettes, o'course.

torquewrench:
::: types :::
::: deletes :::
Sticking with the King James version.

Um. Yeah, me too. Never thought Psalm 23 needed padding.

Morning, Glories! I seem to have totally missed the morning thread again. A little extra sleep was worth it.

Attended the neighbors' daughter's funeral yesterday morning. I was raised in the old Episcopal church, all stained glass and heavy organ music. This was a modern place with no stained glass, rock equipment on stage (thankfully not used), and I don't remember seeing a crucifix.

Lot of casual cowboy attire, and there's me in coat and tie. Was afraid I'd be mistaken for an usher. The laid-back plain-speaking preacher and service was okay. Again, though, not the kind of ceremony in which I was raised. No "hymns," but modern-ish songs. "Amazing Grace" was on the program, but it was some unrecognizable country-pop variant.

I didn't know the deceased, really. I was surprised to learn she was a great-grandmother, and a year younger than me! I'm still waiting for a grandbaby. The family filled five wide rows of seats. "Miss Vicki" was apparently deeply Christian. Preacher said she probably had "every translation" of the Bible. Heard Psalm 23 from her favorite, the "enhanced" Bible; that was... interesting. She was active in children's ministry which must be wonderful.

Altogether a good life nicely honored.

Oh yeah. Tip o' the ol' topper to Maet for another fine post. I noticed Ace was stealing from you today!

Been a day. Now for a night.

Good night, Gracies!

Speaking of being written out of shows reminds me of

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
TV Tropes
http://bit.ly/1SgEv7u

And, swapping actors in a role mid-stream always seemed disturbing. We're supposed to believe Samantha just wiggled her nose and altered her husband's person?

Prince Charles was once a genius and talented artist. Alas, anthropogenic global climate chaos destroyed this fine young man's abilities and left him the wretched casualty we know today.

Global worming - is there anything it can't do!

Well, I'll be!

At least I didn't say furst.

#280 - that was "still-i.m.a.g.e" of course. Sheesh, Pixy!