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Just a few camera phone shots I took on my way down here. Golly, I'm sensitive and tortured, yet artistic and possessing an individualistic streak and eye for natural beauty.

Enjoy my spur-of-the-moment snaps (and pretending that I'm an artist).

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So my birthday is Monday, and in order to celebrate, the family took me out of town on vacation. Turns out we're sunning ourselves in St. George, and it's wicked sweet. Check out the swanky sweet digs we scored! The pictures are a little dark, because the lighting's all modernist and moody. It's awesome.

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Welcome to the All-Star Tribute, in which we bring attention to the most exemplary members of the comic book community!


Click above to start your article-relevant music!

Everyone's dreamed of being something they're not. Ugly people dream of being attractive, shy people dream of being popular and short people... well, short people dream of being tall. For some, this is just a flighty dream that they'll probably never attain. For one Wilbur Day, however, it became a career path.


Created in 1964 during the reign of dear Uncle Stan, Stilt-Man first appeared in Daredevil #8 with the superpower of having hydraulic legs that make him tall. It seems that Daredevil should look for work outside of the Hell's Kitchen area of New York. A few blocks north and he might get some of Spider-Man's awesome rogue gallery. Instead, he got rogue gallery consisting of upwards of twenty criminals, three of which you've actually heard of. Anyway, in Daredevil #8, an armored courier helicopter (which is much safer than an armored van, if your bank is in Marvel universe New York) is flying along the skyline when something... tall happens.


To his credit, Stilt-Man gets an A for creativity. The guys in the helicopter sure seem surprised by the robbery. Then again, they also believe he's floating in the air and apparently didn't notice his legs, but hey, whatever.

Needless to say, in front of such paltry amateurs as this, Stilt-Man is a genius. The robbery goes off successfully.


Sure, he's foiled by Daredevil a couple days later when Daredevil manages to find his giant hydraulic legs (which is kind of embarrassing 'cause DD's blind and all). After stealing a shrink ray to try and kill Daredevil with, Stilt-Man himself is accidentally shrunken so small that he pops out of existence. This confuses Daredevil (who wisely concludes that everything must go somewhere, so Stilt-Man must still be alive), but he quickly gets over it to go back to whining about how much it sucks not to be able to bang his secretary.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much where Stilt-Man peaks. He appears normal sized a few months later and tries to augment his armor with Adamantium, but he still doesn't get any better at being evil. At his peak, he gets his armor stolen, gets it back, makes it better, then gets beaten up by Spider-Man. Some villains get all the breaks.

Nowadays, Stilt-Man has been relinquished to being an absolute C-list villain. Even guys like The Owl and The Purple Man get more play than he does. You know your reputation is bad when a parody cover for a Spider-Man one-shot comes off as menacing as you are.


The best part? Wilbur Day, the guy inside the Stilt-Man suit, apparently has a PhD. Good work, Dr. Day. Keep living the dream.

In the spirit of helpfulness, I've made a small list of ways that Stilt-Man could be a more effective villain:

Ways To Improve Stilt-Man:

- Put an attractive girl in the suit. Maybe everyone will be too busy checking out the girl that she can make a convenient escape.

- Quit being tall all the time. Yes, it's good for making an escape, but you're not exactly sneaking around with the Stilt-Man suit on.

- Alternately, make yourself even taller. You're encased inside armor, maybe you could get so tall that you end up in space and Daredevil suffocates to death in the lack of atmosphere. Hey, it's a thought.

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My Institutional Review Board proposal for my Senior Project has been approved.

We're a go!

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... and fire in the sky?

So that mountain fire down by Draper? Particularly nasty. Besides giving me horrible sinus problems all day, it nearly burned down the entire mountain, stunk up the entire valley and made the freeway foggy with ash and smoke.

Here's the view from my car, not too far away.

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=w=

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I sorta miss the '90's.

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"Doesn't hurt to put a donkey show in a flashback."

- E. Elias Merhige
Director, 'Suspect Zero'
(said during the audio commentary of 'Suspect Zero')

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She may have put the Miss in 'misdemeanor' when she stole the beans from Lima, but she's now been spotted at a Canadian train station.

You're mine now, Sandiego!

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Spotted outside of the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con.

I'd hire this guy in an instant. And probably even be his sidekick for a day.

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You know how, in fiction, there's occasionally a novel or short story that features some sort of gentleman's club where people get together and sit by a fire and tell gruesome, strange or eerie tales?

No? You're probably not a big reading nerd, I guess.

But anyway, so a club where people get together, dressed all sorts of nicely, partake in some spirits, and tell disturbing stories. Why does this not exist? I mean really, in these troubled times, is there no market for a little spooky fun?

If anyone in the valley wants in on this, we can totally do it.

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So Richard and Kaiti are out of town. I figured, it's only gentlemanly to get them a welcome home gift. So I found this.



It's a pencil drawing of Brad Pitt circa 'Legends of the Fall'. It's eerily beautiful, no? Also, Brad's showin' a little nipple, so it's also kinda classy. The perfect thing for them to hang above their bed, I'd say.

I found it in my grandma's garage. I asked if I could take it, and she said sure... she was just going to give it to the Salvation Army. Well, I'm fairly confident they don't need it, but Richard and Kaiti do as a house-warming present.

Welcome home, you two!

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Congratulations, Spencer and Marque. I wish you only the best in your marriage.

It was great to see some old friends (and reconnect with them), and I know the proverbial apple of my literal eye Amy was delighted to be able to put faces to names.

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