Zibblog

Delta Tao Software has finally release the non-beta version of Eric’s Ultimate Solitaire X. It is possibly the greatest solitaire game ever and the program that first got my mother using a computer regularly. What’s great is that it plays well on virtually any Mac (my mom is currently playing it on my Pismo version Powerbook that I got in something like late 2000/early 2001).

I don’t do a lot of comic book posts because I like my blog to be kind of relevant to most of my readers, so I hope that even people that don’t read comic books will find this interesting. The rest of you might just want to click the links.

Back when I started reading comics regularly enough to get into the history of the different publishers (back then, pretty much DC and Marvel with some random Dark Horse books thrown in for good measure). For DC, it was the era that was Post Crisis and around the same time as Legends. To put this into some kind of context, it was an era where creators were trying to make books more relevant to the times. For somebody like Superman, this meant restarting the comic book with an updated origin and a hip haircut. Longtime readers of the book were simply told that many Superman stories simply didn’t happen or happened in different ways that would be filled in later (this sort of thing falls under the umbrella of what is considered a “retcon” or “retroactive continuity”). For example, in the updated comic book reality, Superman’s powers come about from his being a kind of solar battery. It took most of his youth to store up enough energy to give him powers like flight, so there was never a Superboy. For me, none of this really mattered since I never read many of the stories that were now considered to have never really happened. On a kind of side note, there was recently an in depth article about the history of Superman and all of the different changes in his origin that was really interesting.

What people who don’t read comic books regularly might not realize is that with a few exceptions, the status quo is simply maintained across all of the major comics. People like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne simply don’t age. There are various exceptions, e.g. Peter Parker getting married to Mary Jane, Clark Kent marrying Lois Lane, 3 different Robins, etc., but by and large, everything stays the same and nobody ages. I thought about all of this recently in reading a column by Erik Larsen about this fact. His opinion is that there is always a new generation starting to read these stories and should they get stuck with characters like the son of Superman or should they get to experience the originals or some variation thereof. On a side note, Erik is the only person to write a long running title (Savage Dragon) that occurs in realtime so one year of issues covers one year of calendar time. Personally, I had never thought about the responsibility to preserve characters like Batman for the next generation.

Thanks for all of the well wishes from everybody. It’s cool to see that people are still reading the zibblog after some long gaps between posts.

For anyone wanting more information, it’s an 1100 ft condo with a garage. At some point, there will be some pictures posted of the condition before I move in. Sometime in December, there will probably also be a housewarming/xmas party complete with geeky xmas tree and fiberoptic wreath (yeah, I still have the fiberoptic wreath). That way everyone can see the condition of the place before my dad and I put in hardwood floors and redo the kitchen. :)

My offer has been accepted. I’m really happy and queasy at the same time. It’s near Cuesta and Foothill Expy in Los Altos and only about 2.5 miles by surface streets from Leslie’s house.

I’m less than 14 hours from having my first ever offer on a home accepted or rejected. The thought is both kind of cool and scares the crap out of me.