Tales of the Geeky Vixen

Umm, yeah. I just discovered this trailer, and I'm officially excited about October 9. It incorporates 3 things I adore: roller derby, Drew Barrymore, and the ass-kicking Zoe Bell. If I could skate, I'd totally be a roller derby girl. I may get brave one of these days and try it out. :) In the meantime, I'll be watching and re-watching this trailer.

I have been reluctant to get into Green Lantern. I just have. Mostly b/c I'm not a fan of superheroes in space, and GL books always seem so wordy with their "Lantern of sector blah blah blah...". But Mr. GV loves them so much, and I have been errant in my duties as a good geeky wife to read GL. If I'm being honest, I'm behind on a lot of books. I'm working on it.

Which brings me to my point. Last week I read Blackest Night 0. Oh, wow. If you haven't read it, go right now and find a copy. Black Hand has to be one of the creepiest mofos in the DCU. Geoff Johns writes a damn good story, so much so that I would read a comic about Toucan Sam if he wrote it.

On to this week. Two BN titles shipped this week: Blackest Night #1 and Tales of the Corps #1. No spoilers here, just to say that something happens in BN #1 that almost rivals Walking Dead #48 as a shocker. In Tales we get a few good stories. My favorite is Johns' story about Saint Walker. It's heartwrenching, beautiful, and almost brought me to tears.

Mr. GV, you tried to tell me. You owe me an "I told you so."

But wait, there are more comics to review this week! I'll pick one from last week, and one from this week.

First, from DC last week is Paul Dini and Guillem March's Gotham City Sirens. This one is an easy subscribe for me. I'm a huge fan of Harley and Ivy, and Selina has grown to be a really cool character. This story is all girl power, but there's enough cheesecake to keep the fellas interested. I have to admit, I like Harley in her schoolgirl outfit, but I'm ready to see her all harlequinned up in subsequent issues. I think it's definitely worth a test drive.

Second up is a launch title from my pals at Dark Horse: Creepy. Horror comics fans will recognize Uncle Creepy from the old 60s comics, but the stories are all new. Eric Powell (such a crush of mine) drew the cover and even got a letter published on the "Dear Uncle Creepy" page. I totally bought the comic for the cover, and b/c I can't resist a Dark Horse #1, but the stories are wickedly good. I can't decide which one is my favorite. It's a tie between the story about the "Hell Hound Blues" record and the dastardly fat farm. The stories are a welcome addition to any horrorphile's collection.

That's it for the moment. As I catch up on my stash, I'll post more reviews. We're going to see Harry Potter this weekend, so I'm sure there'll be some words on that.

Take care, gentle readers!

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Now playing: Parry Gripp - The Girl At The Video Game Store
via FoxyTunes

As any good geek is wont to do, I went to a small local convention last weekend. While there, I got to meet Charles Vess. If you're not familiar with his work, see Stardust. That, however, is not my reason for mentioning the con. Actually, let me go back a few months.

If you're an avid reader (and, really, why shouldn't you be?), you'll recall that Mr. GV and I met a local writer named Jeremy Massie. Super super nice guy, and I enjoyed talking with him. We wished him the best of luck at the time, and after reading the issue of The Deadbeat he gave us, looked forward to some time reading the rest of the series. Fast forward to last weekend. Jeremy was there with copies of his book, and we stopped to talk with him. Again, I can't stress enough the coolness of this guy. We talked for a few minutes, I picked up a copy of The Deadbeat, and even got my picture made with the Deadbeat himself. In the midst of our conversation, Jeremy was working on a sketch. (I won't reveal any details, just that it is an idea for an upcoming book.) As we talked, he said, "Hey, if I finish this before you leave, it's yours." (Like I said, cool guy.)

So on to the review. Mr. GV read The Deadbeat first, and his reaction piqued my interest enough to at least start it. Wow. It's more than I expected, especially for what is essentially a 4-issue series. I devoured the whole book in one sitting. Yes, it's that good. The story centers around the Deadbeat, a superhero who spends more time at the local watering hole than actually being a hero, and the return of his estranged daughter. Really, that's all I'm going to tell you, because it's your civic duty to pick up this book. It's funny, heartwarming, and bittersweet, with some pretty cool action to boot. I'm a fan of indie books, and the style usually associated with such books, so Massie's art is right up my alley. He does a lot with black and white, but it's simple enough not to detract from the story. And what a story. From start to finish the story keeps you engaged and wondering what's going to happen next. Not to mention what happens in the last few pages. Excuse me, I need some tissue. *Sniff sniff* Massie's very good with the whole father-daughter thing.

Long story short, go. buy. this. book. Make this guy famous, because he totally deserves it.

The schizophrenic look of the blog has settled a bit, I think. I just couldn't find anything I liked. I think this one is good for a while. I liked the segmented layout of the gray and pink layout, but I didn't like anything else. So here's how it's going to look for a while, at least until I can figure out how to make my own.

Wow, this week flew by! (Not that that's a bad thing.) It's hot outside, and work is over (if you're on the east coast), so stay inside and game. That's right XBox Live fans, it's time for another live 1 vs 100 tonight at 10 p.m. ET. I've only played one night of extended play this week, so I'll be anxious to see how that affects my chances to be the One or in the mob. I'll laugh if I get in right away.

My high score is no more. SwimRef has passed me at this point by about 2 million, and that's totally fine with me. I'm not sure how the next season is going to go, but the schedule for Extended Play has gotten ridiculous. I'm a girl who loves her trivia, but after being passed (due in part to SwimRef's sick skills and to the fact that Canadians get more extended play) and having to answer duplicate questions from the night before, I decided to take a break. Am I sad about not having the highest lifetime score? Nah. I can still keep up with the best of them. I've waded through a pile of nasty messages, party invites and friend requests, and I've made some friends along the way (big shoutout to my friends to the north: mutant dog 123, stilladream, and SwimRef--you guys rock!). I was surprised when I logged into Live via PC to find that I still have a minor bit of celebrity going. I'm still getting a few friend requests here and there.

The good news is that 1 vs 100 is fun. I had a blast getting on Monday night and getting in a party with a bunch of my friends. I'm hoping to do that again tonight. Honestly, though, I have mixed feelings about the beta ending. Sure, it's fun, but there's way too much out there if you want to defend a lifetime score title. Plus, I'm looking forward to getting back to some Halo!

Speaking of games, I had to write a Rock and Roll Jeopardy! game for work. We played it today, and it was pretty successful. A few bugs to work out if we play it again, but all in all people had fun. Pair that with karaoke, and it made for a nice afternoon.

Update from last post: no invite to be the One or in the Mob of 100. Outrage abounds! :)

There's another live session tomorrow night, so I'm hopeful, but not getting my hopes up. The biggest thing is that it was all guys tonight and some of them were duuuuuuuuuumb. If it's true what XBL has been saying, and they choose based on stats from Extended Play, I'm shocked. I know I'm not the only meganerd with boobs. (And yes, I think I should have been the girl or should be the girl tomorrow night.)

I just think it would make the constant messaging from the toolbags on XBox Live who tell me I have no life or call me the C word (Geeky Vixen smash!) or threaten to rip my face off (ummm, yeah, that one's real) worth it, ya know? Not that I'm Pollyanna and my feelings are hurt, but it's just irritating. Grinds my gears, to quote Peter Griffin.

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a huge nerd. I read for fun, and I actually like learning new things. I also have an affinity for trivia. There's enough useless knowledge rattling around in my head that it's impossible for me to remember important things, like when to buy milk and just where I left my keys. It's part of my charm (to me, anyway) that my friends and relatives have for years refused to play any kind of trivia game with me. It's simply not fair. I can't help it I remember things like whose mother invented Liquid Paper (Mike Nesmith of the Monkees). And the truth is, I don't always win.

Needless to say when XBox Live announced they were doing a live game show based on the TV show 1 vs. 100, I was stoked. The beta started June 1, and I have played every session. Most of them have been Extended Play sessions, which means everyone's in the mob, and you answer general trivia questions rather than having a One, a mob, and a crowd.

The game play is fun, and the live sessions have been entertaining. I've been in the crowd for both of them so far. I learned that playing Extended Play increased your chances to be the One. So began my quest.

It started out so innocently. I played a couple of Extended Play sessions and in some, like the video game and E3-themed one, I didn't do so well. Others I would finish in the Top 10. Then SneakCMD came into my life. One of the stats you can check is your lifetime score, and I started to notice that mine and Sneak's were pretty close. I'd be lying if I said that didn't bother me, so I at every stat break I checked my lifetime score. Finally one night I passed him, but only briefly, and then Wednesday night a magical thing happened. On the last question of the night I passed his high score and became the lifetime leader. Funny thing happens when you do that. I started getting message after message: friend requests, party invites, chat invites, and voice and text messages. Some messages were pretty cool. Some were not so cool (and those got reported to Live). I even got a message from SneakCMD himself warning me of the pitfalls of being the high score. (BTW, he's very cool and even congratulated me on taking the lead and saying I was going to get to keep it since he wouldn't be on last night.)

Last night I started out the round in the lead, and from joining the room to the first stat break I was constantly receiving messages. Again, they were the mix of nice to just plain hateful and wrong, and I was amazed at how many people thought I was going to join their party and give them answers. Last night was a pretty good night. My highest finish was 2nd, and I'm good with that. After the game play was over I had broken 4 million points on a lifetime score, and over 100 messages in my inbox. I spent a good hour going through all of them and I'm still amazed at the effrontery of some people. At some point I would like to post some here (no names involved) just to have a record of them.

As I type I'm gearing up to play the Live game, and I've got my fingers crossed I'll be the One, or at least in the mob. As one message I got said last night "if you don't get to be the 1 get a lawyer". LOL

Take care, gentle readers. :)