Visit the kelpforest....

So, Angus has decided, on a few viewings of reruns (seen fairly often in this household because my father recently became a fan), that he's soured a bit on Avatar: The Last Airbender because he didn't care for the ending.* Turns out that at 12, he's a total Zutara shipper. He decided to come up with his own solution. After viewing a few Kaput & Zosky episodes on YouTube (to jog his memory - it hasn't been aired in some time), he announced his latest comic book project is an ATLA/Kaput and Zosky crossover.

(Kaput & Zosky being another Nicktoons animation no longer being aired - a French import by way of Canada, I believe - about two bloody-minded bean-shaped aliens who go from planet to planet attempting to conquer them, usually being abysmal failures at it. It has a very simple, stylized art style, which I very much like, but it's very different from ATLA.)

( Spoilers? But who's watching anymore... )

I had no idea the park I grew up going to and that I now take my kids to - a few blocks down the street from me - had been immortalized in a Zippy the Pinhead comic strip. Ten years ago, even. I used to read Zippy all the time in college, not so much lately...

Zippy - Hunting in Huntington Beach

Found at Waymarking. The poster there refers to them as a semi-circle and a saddle, but we always thought of them as the "Swiss Cheese" and the "Tent."

( Avalon and a friend from a couple of years ago... )

Hee. Read now, as this thread will disappear after a time.

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/sinfestfeed/564712.html?nc=17

I think I enjoyed the comments more than the strip. I need to read Sinfest more; I always miss it or forget about the feed on my FL...suppose I should add it to my Google Reader instead (but then I'd miss those comments).

So last week, Angus and I stopped by Big Lots to pick up a couple of plastic bins. On the way out he caught sight of a bin full of $3 DVDs and I relented and allowed him to pick one out, pending parental approval. He picked out a one containing some Garfield cartoons; not the series, but three half-hour shows that I think must have been primetime specials. I rolled my eyes a bit but said he could have it.

Now, I used to like Garfield the strip, it was actually funny when it first started. I even bought the first book; Garfield was huge and fat and obnoxious, and Jon had an actual job as a cartoonist. It got dumb about the time Jon's roommate Lyman disappeared and Garfield started walking on his hind legs; everything became round and cute, even Garfield himself, who wasn't supposed to be. I stopped paying much attention to it decades ago, but a few months ago, Angus brought home the same book, given him to the school librarian because it was beginning to fall apart.

Anyway the kids love, love, love this thing. Avalon has watched it four times in the last couple of days. The one special "Garfield's Nine Lives" is interesting because it's a bunch of different shorts, some done with different animators and art styles. Two of them appear very Disnyesque; "Dianna's Piano" doesn't seem like it had anything to do with Garfield at all, being all pastels and colored pencils and a long-haired female white cat, the other "Lab Animal" looked a lot like Dragon's Lair, which, now that I think about it, came out about the same time this was originally aired (I didn't recognize any of the animators in the credits - but a lot of people are alumni of Disney). Another,"In the Garden" with a sing-song narrator describing Chloe and the orange kitten in an endless childhood fairyland, resembles someone's psychdelic LSD drug trip, complete with rainbow mushrooms, and disturbing floating balloon faces. Of course, that short happens to be Avalon's favorite one. One of the other specials, with Garfield playing a film noir detective (Sam "Spayed") had music vocals by Lou Rawls.*

(edit (8/16/2011): Aha! Here's a playlist with all of the shorts! In The Garden, the weird one, is #3.)

Huh. Well, I guess it's bearable every once in a while.

------------
While searching for a video of the Garden bit (which I could NOT find), so I could show you just how weird it was, I found it was based on a book - which I vaguely remember but didn't read - but reviews said it was a series of stories (not comics) and more oriented for adults. Also that it (the show) was nominated for an Emmy, but was beat out by the Garfield detective special mentioned above. Must not have been a lot of choices that year.

Well, I don't know why I allowed myself to get sucked into Code Geass: Lalouche of the Rebellion,as I try to avoid series based on political intrigue and masked antiheroes. Not to mention mecha, although I don't mind them. It finally finished last night. I think you could tell how it had to end, as it was leading inevitably in that direction. God, how depressing. ( Spoiler )

I also finished Watchmen earlier this week; someone in my book group had warned me it was not a fast read despite being a graphic novel, and he was certainly right. Most of the chapters have several pages of regular text in the form of news articles, describing character backgrounds. It's a pretty intense story, and it didn't really have a happy ending either.

And the first disk of Six Feet Under. I had caught a few episodes of this when cable let us have the channel for free a while ago and had been intrigued. Not quite happy either, plenty dark, but a lot of black humor too. And I'm slightly amused that I'm familiar with a lot of the outdoor locations - the intersection where Dad gets hit by the bus is on the street where we often went out to lunch at our old office in downtown Long Beach. I'm having difficulty finding the time to watch it, as it's definitely not for the kids, but John doesn't want to watch it either. I have to wait until he's out in the garage for a few hours. Anyway...

Something cheery, now, please?

Huh? What happened to scans_daily? It's been one of more active communities I'm a member of...

"What the LL?"

Hey, my initials are LL! Do I get to be Superman's friend?

Gods, he looks like he needs a nap...

If Edward Gorey had done Trouble with Tribbles.

Oh dear, I think I've done meself an injury (gasp)...

( ...and the Enterprise goes to Camelot... )

Roomie's Teacher@Sea log: http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/2007/eubanks/pdf/eubanks_log5.pdf

After steaming all night (I could tell by the motion of the ship while in my bunk) we arrived this morning at Tanner Bank, about 60 miles southwest of Catalina Island. Up early and this time I got to snap the gangions with their baited hooks onto the line as it went out. When pulled it had the most sharks yet; mostly blues, although some were huge, more than 2 meters. It was pretty cloudy in the morning and I was thinking it wouldn't clear, but it finally did. Chilly and windy, and good-sized swell running.

Before the afternoon set, the crew took some time to catch rockfish - someone at the SWFSC is doing a rockfish genetic study. Apparently, they believe they've found a new species of vermilion rockfish; it looks almost identical to the coastal vermilion that lives in kelpbeds, however, this one is located offshore in much deeper water. They're tentatively calling it a "sunset rockfish" because its coloring is slightly more red-orange-yellow. While the second longline set for the day was being made, I helped measure all the fish before DNA samples were taken and then they were frozen.







I unsnapped for the second set, which again beat the record for the most sharks caught. Most of these were little baby blues; they looked like they had just been pupped.


Measuring and tagging a small blue shark.

The news has been full of ComiCon, opening today - I never realized it's such a big deal to the city of San Diego. VT emailed that she's indoctrinating her 1-year-old early - she and her husband are going Friday, and my boss told me awhile ago he was taking his son. Several people asked if I'd been yet - but no, I'd like to, but something always seems to come up. There's also some major youth soccer tournament with attendees from all over the world, and horse racing is happening at Del Mar, so traffic downtown is apparently horrible, and there isn't a hotel room to be had - I heard someone mention people were staying as far away as Riverside and commuting. Oh, and American Idol's only West Coast auditions are being held here this weekend, too. Locals are apparently not happy.


Chief Scientist enters data after dinner...

After dinner, I was reading Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell on the mess deck while simultaneously getting sucked into Gray's Anatomy (the Jordan has Dish Network), which I didn't plan to watch but it sucked me in. I don't usually watch it, but the main character was having some sort of near death/afterlife experience, which always fascinates me. Apparently, everyone else went to the crew lounge and watched Borat, but I guess I'll catch it later. I also must have been tireder than I thought, because before Gray's came on, I thought I was reading, but then I would open my eyes and find my nose about an inch from the book. I hope I wasn't snoring.

As for the book, I swore I would finish it before reading Harry Potter - it's been a little slow-moving and the author writes in the style of the time that the story takes place in - early 19th century. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially if putting it down and reading something else for awhile. This last volume of it is speeding up a bit, so maybe it'll be exciting yet. It turns out I wasn't the only one who brought HP, though. One of the NMFS biologists did as well; finished it within the first couple of days and loaned it to the biologist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They're both saying they both like it the best so far out of all seven. No, must be good and finish the other first, since it's my book groups pick for after I get back. Interestingly enough, I've had a couple of people inquire as to how it was, and they had been thinking of reading it too. I hadn't heard of it until my book group picked it, but I guess it was on the NYT bestseller list for awhile.

Finally gave up and went to sleep; oh, whatever possessed me to pick the top bunk? It's fine while I'm in bed, but getting in and out, I feel rather creaky. Especially when I wake up and have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night...

	DFG Block	Lat:	Long:	Mako	Blue	Pelagic Stingray
Morning set *:	872	32.782°N	119.263°W	2	8	0
Afternoon set :	871	32.707°N	119.04°W	1	13	0

*Blue and Mako satellite tagged

This was given to me by a friend in my book group...