My Favorite Watch

The most favorite watch I ever had was given to me by a Ford Motor Company executive. I was working in car sales at the time, and he had snuck past many other salesmen and was looking at a King Ranch edition F-150 that was sitting on the showroom floor. I presented the vehicle to him, and explained it’s many features and functions. He told me that if he were to buy a truck, he would want a 4x4 model and not a 4x2, which is what the truck we were looking at was. I explained to him that most people think they need a 4x4, when in truth they do not, because it rarely snows in our area to where a 4x2 would not be able to make it through. Also, the 4x2 had a limited slip axle, and a weighted bed should be enough to pull it through if the snow got too deep. At this point, he introduced himself as a Ford executive, told me he liked my presentation, and presented me with a watch that had the Ford logo on it’s face. I wore the watch proudly throughout the rest of my days as a salesman.

If you are in need of a good watch, check out some of these seiko watches. This site has a great collection, and they offer free second day shipping.

Booster Gold #18

I would like to take a moment to review the latest issue of my favorite, currently running comic book, Booster Gold. For those of you who don't know, Booster is a time traveler from the 25th century who travels the time stream and "fixes" time glitches, much in the same way Sam Beckett did in the popular televising series "Quantum Leap". Booster is aided in his mission by a small flying 25 century robot named Skeets, the Time Master Rip Hunter, and his sister Michelle Carter.



Issue # 18 finds Booster enlisting the aid of a younger version of himself to track down a mysterious time bandit who is stealing the same version of an ancient Egyptian knife in different time periods. Younger Booster goes after the bandit, who has timenapped his sister, while older Booster travels to ancient Egypt to discover the origins of the knife.

Once in ancient Egypt, Booster discovers the knife is being used in a ritual to bring the dead Pharaoh Kha Ef Reh back to life. Magic is being drained from a scarab and placed into the knife, only Booster recognizes it as the Blue Beetle Scarab, so he must stop the ritual or the Blue Beetle will never exist.

Meanwhile, younger Booster tracks down the time bandit and foils his plans, then joins older Booster in Egypt, where they put things right. Michelle was shown a vision of her death, and she is pretty shook up by it.

All in all, it was a good issue. Some minor plot lines were left dangling, but they should be solved in the next issue. If you are a comic book fan and you aren't reading this series, you are missing out.

Best use of a Gorilla in a Comic Book

Something about putting a gorilla in a comic book just seems to make it better.



"Great gorillas Batman! The Gorilla boss has broken his chains! Hey! What's our bat lines attached to?"



In todays episode, the character of Doc Strange will be played by Rod Blagojevich.



After winning big in poker, the gorilla realized he was naked and he bought some new clothes, shown in this next cover.



Even though he is good at poker, he still has no fashion sense.



He may be a good dancer, but what's that yellow liquid he's standing in? Gross!

Deathstroke the Terminator

Today we are going to take a closer look at DC Comics character, Deathstroke the Terminator most specifically the annual #3 that goes by the same name. When he first appeared in the early eighties, he was simply known as the Terminator. I assume the name was changed to avoid confusion with the movie of the same name.

Deathstroke the Terminator is actually a Vietnam veteran named Slade Wilson. He volunteered to test an experimental truth serum for the army, and the serum gave him enhanced strength and super reflexes. It also drove him a bit insane. He was originally a villain who fought the Teen Titans, then he became a hero who was awarded his own series, then he became a villain again sometime after the year 2000. He looks a bit like Uncle Sam, but with only one eye. The ancient Egyptian god Horus had only one eye, as did the later Norse god Odin.



I've posted this cover before, sometime last year when I first started this blog. The date for it is 1994. On the cover you can see a smoking WTC standing in front of a setting sun.



On the bar code, you can see the dates 1941 and 2001, with a 6 on both sides of them. Anyone familiar with bar codes knows that the sixes to the right of the center are symbolized by two thin lines. Two thin lines are also at the beginning, the center, and the end. The reason for these lines is supposedly so the scanner knows when to stop. If you take the two thin center lines and give them a value of 6, then you get 6, 1941, 6, 2001, 6. 1941 was the year Pearl Harbor was bombed, and of course our generation's Pearl Harbor occurred in 2001. Three sixes is the biblical mark of the beast.

There is no more pictures of the WTC after the cover, but it is an interesting story nonetheless.



500 years in the future, Deathstroke is on the trail of a post human race called the Genetix. The Genetix are genetically enhanced humans. The Genetix are immortal, but so is Deathstroke. He is eventually captured by the Genetix and crucified, then burned to death.

Here I think the author is trying to warn us about the danger of genetics programs. In Germany during WWII, the Nazis euthanized thousands of mentally handicapped people in the name of their pure Aryan race. Genetics is an evil science that has always led to genocide.




Deathstroke is killed, then resurrected. He then researches the files on the Genetix. In this next panel, the "terrorist wars of 08" are referenced.



Slade eventually finds surviving humans living in an underground city. He leads them out of the city to wage war on the Genetix, a war he eventually wins. The humans and genetix then pledge to work together to rebuild the world.

And that is what is inside Deathstroke the Terminator Annual #3. Very interesting indeed.

Best Uses of Baseball in a Comic Book

Spring is now within two weeks, and soon we will be having cookouts while knocking down a few brews and listening to baseball on the radio. There is no conspiracy or good synchs in this post(more of that will be coming soon), just comic books and baseball.



The Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, the great Babe Ruth himself. Legend has it he was more than a man, but less than a god. His bat is said to have been carved from a tree that grew on the side of Mount Olympus itself. Sadly, the great Bambino succumbed to cancer in 1948.



"I'd like to sign Bumstead to a big contract, but he just has to big a mouth."



"Strike One!"



"Strike Two"



"Strike Three, you're out!" and so am I.

Iraq Pull Out Plan

I’m not happy with it, but at least it sets a solid date for withdraw from Iraq. By August 31 of next year the force will have dropped from 138000 to 50000, and by 2011 the remaining troops will leave.

How much of a difference would it make if we pulled them all out right now? What magical things are going to happen in the next two years that makes 2011 a better year for ending this fiasco than 2009?

I don’t like the way it was announced. The plan was announced on a Friday. Studies show that people pay less attention to the news on Friday, because they are preparing for the weekend. It was also announced in front of a military audience. There isn’t much chance of having an angry protester asking why it isn’t ending this month at a venue of this nature. Soldiers are not allowed to criticize the president, it’s a military regulation. The remaining 50,000 troops are still going to be carrying out counter insurgency operations, so why say that combat missions are going to end Aug. 31 2010? Changing the name of a combat battalion to a “counter insurgency” battalion is just word play and it is meaningless.

This is the type of media manipulation and word games I would have expected from the former president. We were supposed to have change, but I guess it was just change, but the change seems to be nickels and dimes. I am still willing to give the new president a chance, but this was a bad move in my opinion.