What I Did On My Thanksgiving Vacation Part 1

For the past few years my parents and sister's family have been engaging in a new Thanksgiving tradition: The Holiday Vacation.

They always invite me, but so far I've never been able to go with them for various reasons. I was either working, didn't have a job, had no money or my personal astrologist advised me against traveling.

This year though the stars lined up and I could actually go, so I accompanied my family to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for Thanksgiving.

It's been a long time since I've been on a real vacation, and a very, very long time since I've taken any kind of trip with my parents. Not since high school in fact. And I've never been on any extended trip with my sister's family. I was a little curious as to how many days it would take before I decided to fly home by myself.

It's not that I'm antisocial you understand, but I live alone. In a house by myself. Just me. I'm used to peace and quiet. To suddenly be thrust into a cabin with six other humans like I was on some half-baked reality show would be a big adjustment for me. 

We would be staying in what everyone kept referring to as a "cabin" for five days. A cabin. In the woods. Seven people. In a cabin. In a remote area. For five days. Seven. Did I mention there would be seven of us living in this cabin? For five days?

After driving for six or seven hours we arrived in the kudzu-choked environs of Gatlinburg. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the "cabin" was actually a house. A fairly large house to boot. 

I was assuming we'd be staying in a small wooden shack in the middle of the woods, far from civilized living. I brought a book and a sketchpad, thinking there'd be nothing to do in this remote location. Imagine my surprise when I found out the house had cable TV and WiFi! Although it did have an old school "picture tube" non-HD television set. Roughing it indeed!

There were even two bathrooms, which was a godsend. Seven bathrooms would have been nicer, but that's probably not realistic.

Here's the view from the second floor of the house, looking out over the living room and out the large bank of windows into the forest beyond.

And here's the reverse view, from the living room looking up at the second floor. I ended up sleeping on a bed in a small alcove visible in the upper right in this photo.

A shot of the house's vaulted wood-paneled ceiling. Hey, I'd hate to have to dust that thing, eh? Amirite ladies? Eh?

That's my nephew François in the green shirt, watching the primitive non-HD television machine. That's my brother-in-law at the right. François brought his laptop with him and rarely looked up from it the entire week.

We took two cars to the house, so when I first arrived I found my sister's family was already there. My nephew Alphonse was upstairs playing Playstation 2 games (again, how deliciously primitive!) and proudly wearing a cardboard Burger King crown. Alphonse is 14 years old, by the way. I vowed I would get a photo of him in his stylish crown before the week was over. Alas, this is as close as I got.

Here's a view from the deck, looking out at the neighbor's house. We could monitor their activities quite well from this vantage point. You can't see it but just to the left was a hot tub on our deck. Roughing it!

No, I did not get into the hot tub. I wasn't expecting such an amenity and didn't bring any swim trunks.

Here's a shot of some of the neighboring homes, hundreds of feet above us. Pretty much every home I could see was either hundreds of feet above or below. There's no such thing as level ground in this neighborhood!  

How many houses can you spot in this photo? Hint: There are at least five. You wont be able to spot them; I could only see them at nighttime when their lights were on.

Here's the road above our "yard." Our house was about halfway up a mountain, accessible only by an incredibly steep, curving and narrow road. Think of the steepest, curviest and narrowest road you can imagine, and then double or triple that.

At certain points on the road you could look down and see nothing but an abyss plunging downward for hundreds, possibly thousands of feet. It would not surprise me if there are 1950s model cars full of dessicated skeletons at the bottoms of some of those ravines.

There were very few guardrails along the road. My suspicion is that they install rails on an "as-needed" basis. Wherever some unfortunate soul flew off the road, that's where the Tennessee Department Of Transportation decided a guardrail was necessary.

I have to wonder why anyone ever looked at this mountain and thought, "Say, this would be a perfect place to construct luxury housing!" Sure it's a scenic location, but it ain't exactly easy to live there.

If you buy one of these homes, you get a house and a driveway. That's it. At the home in which we were staying the "yard" was actually a forest floor that sloped away at a 45º angle. The lot contained absolutely no usable land whatsoever.

And god forbid it should ever snow in the area. Even a light dusting would trap you at the top or bottom of the mountain. They're nice homes to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there.

While I was out front taking these photos I heard a voice from above. It was one of the neighbors a hundred feet above me. He called down to warn me that earlier that morning he'd seen a bear nosing around on the front porch of our house. Gulp! As I looked around I noticed that everyone's trash barrels were kept inside large steel mesh cages.

The day after we arrived my sister, brother-in-law and I decided to visit Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Smoky Mountains. I tried to get my nephews Alphonse and François to go with us, but they couldn't pull their attention away from their electronic teats and stayed home. Kids today! Ah well, it's their loss.

We passed a multitude of spectacular scenery as we made our way up the winding mountain road.

I thought the road leading up to our vacation house was curvy, but the road leading to Clingmans Dome was even worse. Switchbacks, hairpin curves (quite literally), corkscrews... it was something to see. 

We were using a GPS device and at one point it just gave up, refusing to even try to display the road, leaving the onscreen car floating in a formless green void.

I'm from an extremely flat land where even a ten foot high mound is considered a hill, so vistas like these were completely foreign to me.

The temperature in Tennessee during Thanksgiving week was a balmy 60 - 70 degrees. Thanks, global warming! But as we continued climbing higher and higher up the mountain we started seeing snow at the side of the road.

After about an hour of driving we finally reached the Clingmans Dome trail. Here's a shot of the parking lot, complete with large snow bank. I took this photo mere seconds before a snowball fight broke out between the subjects in the background.

Boulders! Look at those boulders in the background! That's another thing we don't have where I'm from. I live in a 100% boulder free area.

The temperature was a bit cooler at this altitude, probably in the 50s.

Here are some shots from the Clingmans Dome parking lot. Note that we're actually higher than the large, flat  cloud bank at the left!

Here's a shot of the trail leading up to the Clingmans Dome Observation Post. That's the paved trail just above the ranger's hat. If you look closely at the left you may be able to glimpse some tiny people on the trail in the distance.

Eventually we began walking up the trail to the Observation Post. After about 5 minutes I started breathing much harder than normal. After 10 minutes I honestly felt like I was going to die. I had to sit down on a convenient boulder and rest for a minute.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Sure, the trail was steep, but it wasn't that steep. I walk all the time back home; every morning before work in fact. I walk a lot. I thought I was in decent shape, but the fact that I was gasping like a fish out of water seemed to indicate otherwise. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. My sister and brother in law were wheezing like bellows as well.

Then it finally hit me-- of course we were all gasping and wheezing! We were over a mile up the side of a mountain! Clingman's Dome is over 6,600 feet high. No wonder I was having trouble breathing-- there wasn't any air up there!

Another view of a cloud bank below us, which is definitely not something you see often outside of an airplane.

After much wheezing and struggling, we finally reached the Observation Post located at the top of Clingmans Dome, in all its Googie-design glory.

The Observation Post is accessible by a long curving ramp, seen here at the bottom of the frame. The ramp was an unexpectedly dangerous affair as it was covered in a smooth sheet of ice.

A view of the treacherous ramp and the clouds below.

Here's the spectacular view from the Observation Post at the top of Clingmans Dome. I guess all the gasping and crawling was worth it.

While catching my breath at the top of the mountain I had a morbid thought. The thin air at this altitude definitely makes climbing the trail a strenuous affair. So what would happen if anyone ever had a heart attack while climbing it? It took us at least an hour to drive up the mountain road. An ambulance might take a little less time, but not much. Then you'd have at least an hour drive back down to get to the hospital. It's unlikely you'd survive a two hour trip to the ER. 

Most likely they'd have to call in an emergency helicopter. Still, to anyone climbing the trail, my advice is to simply avoid having a heart attack in the first place.

Looking down from the Observation Post at the forest far below. Note the snow on the ground.

As the caption says, that's either Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge off in the misty (or would that be smoky?) distance. You know, this view reminds me of something, but I can't quite remember what...

Oh yeah, now I remember. "Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum, and villainy. We must be cautious."

More amazing views from the Observation Post.

Here's a shot of people gingerly tiptoeing up the icy ramp, trying not to fall and slide all the way back down the trail to the parking lot.

That's me proving I was there.

Here we are walking back down the trail. We thought the walk back down would be much easier, but oddly enough it wasn't. 

Oh sure, it wasn't as hard as walking up, but on the way down you had to constantly "put on the brakes" so to speak, lest you get going too fast and topple over the side of a cliff, so by the time we got back to the parking lot our calves were killing us.

Haw! Christmas came early for me as I just found my brand new cuss word for 2013! I think I'll try it out right now. "Get out of my way, you stupid hotards!"

Here I am doing a pretty darn good job of blocking out the Smoky Mountains with my giant head.

Coming up in What I Did On My Thanksgiving Vacation Part 2: Another trail, and a near disaster as I almost topple off a cliff!

It's A Festivus Miracle!

Amidst the hustle and bustle of this time of year, it's so easy to overlook the real reason for the season.

Festivus isn't just about gazing in awe at the bare aluminum pole standing in the living room, free of distracting tinsel. It's not just about telling everyone how much they've disappointed you over the past year during the Airing of Grievances, or attempting to pin the head of the household during the Feats of Strength.

It's about togetherness and sharing a nice meatloaf with friends and family.

Happy Festivus, everyone! Hope you have a true Festivus Miracle this year!

I Think NASA's Lost Its Damn Mind

This week NASA unveiled its new Z-1 prototype spacesuit, to generally universal hooting and mocking. And no wonder! Do you notice anything slightly familiar about it? Somebody at NASA must be a big Pixar fan. 

I'm guessing the leader of this project must screwed around on Facebook for the past several months, never paying much attention to what his team was doing. Once he did finally wander down to the lab for the big spacesuit unveiling he no doubt did a spit take, cursed loudly and hoped his superiors didn't have kids or had never seen any Toy Story movies.

Seriously, this is what my tax dollars are paying for? A space suit patterned after that of a cartoon character? I will grant you that there may be a finite number of ways in which to design a spacesuit, and some similarity to the one Buzz wears was inevitable. But did they really have to trim the thing in fluorescent green? The only thing missing is the pop out wings on the back, unless that's what's inside the large backpack apparatus.

Oh well. I guess they could have used a worse inspiration...

TARDIS Remodling Project

Today on Design On A Dime: Doctor Who: Our first look at the brand new TARDIS interior, which, based on the Doctor's Dickensian attire, will debut sometime during the upcoming Christmas Special.

I like it! It's got a nice retro feel to it, recalling the hexagonal TARDIS console from the early days of the show.

I always liked the Tenth Doctor's "coral themed" TARDIS interior quite a bit, what with its steampunk look, vast domed ceiling and cobbled together appearance. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the Eleventh Doctor's current interior though. It looks like a tin-plated disco dance floor to me. I can't figure it out either-- there's all kinds of levels and the walls go off every which way-- I can never quite tell what I'm looking at. It was just a jumbled mess to my eyes.

This new interior looks like they've simplified things quite a bit, which I think is a good thing. Remember KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) whenever you're designing something and you won't go wrong.

Looking forward to seeing the new interior in action!

Santa Claus, The Yeti And The Really Bad Decision: Behind The Scenes

Now that my 2012 Christmas Card Slash Book is finally finished, I thought I'd post a behind the scenes look at how I made it for the three or four people out there who may be interested in long-winded explanations of mildly interesting topics.

Here we see my sketch for the cover next to the finished product. I went into much more detail than normal on this sketch for some reason. Usually my sketches are way simpler and, well, more sketchy.

I guess spending more time on the sketch paid off, as the final cover is pretty darn close.

I drew the Yeti as silhouettes on the cover because I wanted to save their big reveal for the inside.

You'll note that the title in the sketch is a bit different than the final one. I went through many, many titles before finally setting on one. Originally it was going to be called Santa Vs. The Yeti, but that seemed kind of meh to me, plus last year's card was called The Space Dweebs Vs. Space Santa, so I didn't want to use another "versus" title so soon.

After much list making and gnashing of teeth I eventually went with a title that had a The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe vibe (yikes, did I just say "vibe?").  At the last minute I changed "questionable" to "really bad." Why? I dunno, it just sounded better.

The title was created in InDesign because it's easier to handle text there than in Photoshop, plus I don't think it can set text on a curve like InDesign can.

Lastly, the cover elements like the header, price and the gold strip at the left? They're all reused from last year's book. Hey, if it ain't broke, why waste time recreating them, emirate?

Next up was the title page. Nothing much to say about it, it's just a two color line drawing. The title's reused from the cover of course, just recolored. 

That's a pretty rough sketch there, and indicative of how they usually look.

Here's a very early sketch I did to try and nail down the look of Santa and his Elves. They changed quite a bit from this first sorry attempt, thank goodness. That's Santa's Domed Complex below, which looks pretty much exactly like the final version.

Here's the model sheet I made of Santa and an Elf. I made this as a visual aid to help me draw them consistently from page to page, then promptly forgot about it and didn't find it again until the project was over. Typical.

Here's Page one, which coincidentally was the first page I worked on. When I make these cards I never draw them in order. I jump around, generally saving the harder layouts for last. Also, the longer you work on a project the better you get at drawing the characters, so the latter pages will inevitably look better than the first ones. By jumping around like this, all my pages have an overall mediocrity (heh).

We're getting right into the story here on the first page; no establishing shots of the North Pole for me! That's probably why this page is so wordy-- I had a lot of stuff to set up.

The Santataur card I did two years ago prominently featured Santa and his Elves, so I wanted to distance myself from that story and make this one look as different as possible, lest it feel like a rehash.

In the Santataur card, Santa wore his traditional red garb and lived in the typical storybook workshop. So I decided to go the opposite direction this time. This version of Santa wears a sleek racing-style jacket emblazoned with his initial and he now lives and works in a slick, high-tech environment filled with the latest in technology.

The Elves also wear similar uniforms to Santa's. The uniforms are all color coded: Santa gets to wear red because he's the boss. The Head Elf, Decapitator-Of-Foes, wears green. The rest of the (lower ranking) Elves all wear blue.

It's hard to see the computer readouts on the wall, so here's a closeup detail of them. I kind of based them on Tony Stark's heads up displays from the Iron Man and Avengers movies. They're not just gobbledegook either; I tried to make most of them actually mean something.

That's Prancer the Reindeer's image (see how old he looks?) and his vital signs at the top. Apparently he was born in 1665. I tried drawing a reindeer from memory, but quickly realized I needed to google them to see what the hell they really look like. You think you know until you sit down to draw one. 

That's an overhead map of Santa's Domed North Pole Complex underneath. It's tough to see, but the legend next to it reads:

• Main Complex (that's the large central dome. I guess that contains the living quarters)
• Hydroponics (apparently the Complex grows its own food?)
• Manufacturing (where the toys are made)
• Support (generators, heating, sewage and the like)
• Proposed (that's the dotted circle, indicating that it's not yet constructed)

Note that the map is labeled "Phase 1." Is Santa planning on branching out someday?

I drew the readouts in InDesign because it's a vector program and better suited for drawing liney, geometric things like this. Once they were drawn I imported them into Photoshop, and then used the "distort" feature to put them in perspective with the wall. 

Prancer was drawn in Photoshop of course. I added scan lines over him to help sell the idea that you're looking at a monitor and not a picture on the wall.

See that row of blue lights above the screen? My plan was to have shafts of light shining down out of them. It worked perfectly in my head, but I could not for the life of me get them to look right in reality. After screwing with them for way too long I realized they were never going to work and reluctantly dropped the idea.

Hey, don't go anywhere! There's lots more to see after the jump!

Frosty The Snow Demon

This is the scene across the street from my friend KW Monster's house.

Let's see, they've got a tasteful Christmas wreath on the door, Santa lights on the front walk, an inflatable snowman, and the terrifying specter of an 18 foot tall Hell Baron menacing the house in the background.

I'm just praying that's not a kid's room behind the shadow's head. I can just imagine Lil' Johnny shivering in his bed, the covers pulled over his head to block out the nightmarish image of a giant demon with slavering fangs leering at him from his window.

One More Way The World's Going Straight To Hell

Last weekend I did the smart thing and ordered all my Xmas gifts online. No running from store to crowded store for me when I can shop in the comfort of my own home and have the gifts hand delivered by a guy in brown shorts!

My packages arrived yesterday and as usual were swaddled inside several feet of protective bubble wrap. But there's a sinister new development in the world of online shopping. I'm speaking of... unpoppable bubble wrap!

You can poke and squeeze and smash this new breed of wrap from now until St. Swithin's Day and not a single bubble will come anywhere near popping. Unlike old school fun wrap that burst with a satisfying pop, when you squeeze one of these bubbles the air just oozes into its neighboring compartment. When you let go in bitter frustration, it flows right back to its original position.

All I have to say is why?

What sick and twisted Retired To Argentina Nazi War Criminal Bastard thought this would be a good idea? What else did he invent? Unexpectedly Collapsing Crutches? Aluminum Foil Underwear? Intermittent Brakes?

I'll bet you anything this horrible new bubble wrap is somehow cheaper than the old kind. Some corporate budget committee probably found that this new version is .002¢ cheaper per square foot than the regular kind and immediately adopted it in order to save a few bucks and inflate the CEO's golden parachute.

Sigh... just one more way the universe is going straight to hell.

Good News, Everyone!

At last, our long national nightmare is over. Today marks the very last time that anyone currently alive will ever have to live through another one of these "triple digit" dates. 

Unless you plan on living to be well over one hundred years old, you'll never have to hear Sue from Accounting sending out a companywide email saying, "Everybody, today's 5/5/5!" Never again will you have to suffer through Brad in Sales shouting, "Hey, it's 10/10/10! That won't happen again for a hundred years! Party time!"

Of course by alerting you to the fact that this is the last time any of us will ever see one of these dates, I've inadvertently pointed it out. For that I am truly sorry and I apologize. Excuse me while I go and punish myself severely.

Christmas Card 2012: Santa Claus, The Yeti And The Really Bad Decision

At long last, my 2012 Christmas card slash book is finished! Like every year, it was touch and go there for a while and I wasn't sure whether it would be done in time for Christmas. Every page took way longer to draw than I expected, I went on vacation in the middle of working on it, and my computer conveniently broke down when I was about 95% done. I think the Universe is trying to tell me something. Anyway, enjoy this year's card slash book!

 This layout was my first ever attempt at doing a double page spread. I was very excited about the prospect and worked really hard on the story so that this page would naturally line up at the center of the book.

 Here's the double page spread broken in half so you can better see the detail.

As always I started thinking and fretting about the 2012 Xmas card as soon as I finished the 2011 one. And as always I was working on it right down to the wire. I even started early this year, in October, but the Universe just didn't care.

I wasn't even sure I was going to do a card this year, in part due to the fact that I no longer had access to the awesome printer where I used to work-- the amazing high tech printer that could fold and staple the books automatically. That business folded last Christmas and the printer was sold to Philistines that can never properly appreciate its awesomeness as I did. So I knew if I made a card this year I'd have to *gasp* pay to have it printed. In the end I decided to go for it anyway and worry about that bridge when I came to it.

Originally this year's card was going to feature Coconut Monkey, a character I drew a few years back. I always thought he had potential and wanted to use him in something. I fiddled around with that notion for several months, but just couldn't seem to come up with a coherent plot.

Then suddenly around August a completely different idea popped into my head-- one in which Santa finds his reindeer are too old to pull his sleigh and replaces them with Yeti, with predictably disastrous results. I realized the Coconut Monkey plot was going nowhere, so why not shelve it and use the Santa/Yeti idea instead? So that's what I did.

Santa and his elves figured prominently in my 2010 Xmas card, so I wanted to distance myself from that story as much as possible this year. To that end, this version of Santa doesn't live in a traditional Swiss architecture toy workshop, but in a slick, high tech domed city. He and his elves have also dispensed with the usual Christmassy garb and wear more modern, color coded uniforms. And lastly, this Santa has dumped his portly mate and is now married to a younger, shapelier Mrs. Claus.

I had a general idea of the plot, but hadn't really nailed down all the specifics before I started drawing pages. That's a dangerous way to work, but I think it turned out OK in the end. Leaving things sort of open-ended allowed me to add story elements as they came to me. For example, New Mrs. Claus wasn't in the original outline. She popped into my head about a fourth of the way into the project. Bringing her into the story helped explain why Santa would make such a bone-headed decision about the Yeti (not to mention giving me an excuse to draw boobs!). The Domed City came in fairly late as well, as did the Yeti's secret ice ray powers that cover the world. So there's something to be said for making it up as you go along!

Like last year, I didn't draw the pages in order. This was intentional, as it's normal for you to get better at drawing your characters as time goes by. I didn't want the later pages to look better than the early ones, so by jumping around they all have a uniform mediocrity (heh).

The computer readouts in Santa's situation room were inspired by Tony Stark's head's up displays in the Iron Man movies. If you look closely they're not just random infographics, most of them actually mean something. It was fun coming up with the readouts, especially on the final page.

The pages of the Yeti running amok in the city were very difficult for me to draw. I bet I sketched out some of those pages at least fifty times. I'm still not completely happy with a couple of them. There comes a point though where you just have to stop working on a project or you'll be tinkering with it the rest of your life.

I need to rethink these books slash cards. Every year they seem to get a little more complicated and become more and more ambitious. For example:

• 2008 card: 4 pages (but only 2 contained artwork), 2 characters

• 2009 book: 12 pages, 2 characters 

• 2010 book: 16 pages, 5 characters
  
• 2011 book: 16 pages, 5 main characters plus several background characters

• 2012 book: 16 pages, 8 main characters plus numerous background characters

See? They just keep escalating and getting more complex each year. If I do a book next year I think it's gonna have ONE character in it, sitting and talking for 16 pages.

Bosses From The Eighth Circle Of Hell: The Interview

Throughout my career I've prided myself on working hard, performing what's asked of me to the best of my ability and being an all-around good employee. I've also done my best to get along with my various bosses. 

Alas, sometimes that's just not possible. Sometimes you end up with a Boss From The Eighth Circle Of Hell.

Back in the 1990s I worked at a marketing agency for a rather colorful Boss.

When I first interviewed for the job, the Boss and the Co-Boss— let's call them Chad and Jeremy— took me to a local restaurant for a lunch interview.

We were shown to our table and sat down. I handed Chad, the Boss, my resume and he and Jeremy, the Co-Boss, looked it over. They mumbled and nodded to one another and apparently liked what they read. So far so good.

But then the mood at the table changed. Suddenly the Boss looked nervously around and said, "Um... we're pretty well known around town and some of our competitors may be here in this restaurant. We don't want them overhearing our secret business and trying to poach you away from us. So don't call us by our real names. Call us Carl and James." 

I laughed, but then to my horror realized that he wasn't joking. He was deadly serious. I looked to the Co-Boss for comfort, hoping to see some reason in his eyes, but he was serious about it as well. They really wanted me to use code names when I addressed them. I looked around to see if I might be able to spot a hidden camera filming the incident, but no such luck.

So I was interviewed by two grown men using fake names because they were worried about corporate espionage— in a town with a population of barely 50,000.

That should have been a BIG red flag to me. If I'd have had any sense I'd have excused myself and left the restaurant right then and there, but I didn't, mostly because I needed a job and also because they'd driven me to the restaurant and my car was back at their super secret headquarters. But it made me uneasy.

Turns out I was right. I liked the work that I did at the agency, but the "code name" incident was just the first drop in a big sloshing, leaking bucket of insanity that the Boss carried around with him all day.

Out Of Context Star Trek Moment

I've been an avid Star Trek fan for many decades, but even I have to admit that certain episodes could get a little silly now and then, especially when viewed out of context.

So sit back and enjoy this Out Of Context Star Trek Moment!

Apparently what we're looking at here is Captain Kirk starring in the lead role of the Enterprise's annual Thanksgiving Day Musical Pageant.

"It's a won, wonderful day, yes a won, wonderful day, it's a won, wonderful day to be alive!"

Of all the captains in the various Trek series, Kirk is the only one who regularly hugged himself.

The Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 8: Made To Suffer

Well, here we are at the dreaded mid-season finale. No more Walking Dead until sometime in February, as AMC jealously doles out the episodes and tries to stretch them out as long as possible. Remember when networks would produce a season of 24 episodes and air them all once a week until they were done? I miss those days.

There've been a couple of slight missteps (who or what is buried in Carol's grave?) but so far this season continues to be a vast improvement over last. Nothing seems padded this season; things have moved along at breakneck speed. We've had some truly shocking deaths and new character introductions and the show has deviated just enough from the comic to keep me guessing. Let's hope they keep up this streak for a long time to come.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

• It's Tyreese! Everyone's favorite hammer-weilding ex football player. Tyreese was a big part of the comic book for quite a long time, so it's nice to see him finally pop up on the show. I was just talking about him a couple of weeks ago too, wondering if, when and how they might introduce him.

I'm assuming the young black woman in Tyreese's group is his daughter Julie, and the white guy is her boyfriend Chris, both also featured in the comic.

• A few weeks ago when T-Dog died, Oscar the Friendly Inmate rose up to take his place. Many internet wags criticized the show, saying that the writers can only handle one male black character at a time. I rolled my eyes and dismissed such claims as nothing more than fan wankery. But then this week Tyreese appears and a few minutes later Oscar bites the dust. I hate to say it, but perhaps there's something to this theory after all?

By the way, did anyone NOT think Oscar was going to die in the Woodbury raid? He might as well have been wearing a bright red shirt over his prison coveralls.

• Axel trying to hit on the 17 year old Beth ("Interesting!") was just wrong, wrong, wrong. I have a feeling they're gonna need to keep a close eye on him.

On the other hand, it was hilarious when he thought Carol was a lesbian just because she had short hair.

• Carl has rapidly gone from a nuisance and annoyance to one of the most valuable and rational members of the team. He single-handedly saved Tyreese and his group, gave them a cell in which to stay, then locked them up until it could be determined if they were trustworthy or not. Not bad for a ten year old kid.

• Kudos to Tyreese for realizing Carl saved his group's lives and actually thanking him, in an effort to show they could be trusted. Let's hope Tyreese sticks around for quite a while.

• Rick decides that the best time to have another cuckoo flashback is during the raid on Woodbury, as he hallucinates Shane coming toward him. Nice touch that they actually got John Bernthal to come back for the five second scene. But what the heck was up with his Wolverine hair?

• When Daryl said, "I'll catch up to you," did anyone in the audience NOT think he would end up getting captured?

• Glenn calmly ripping up a zombie in order to use its bones as a shiv? Not a guy you want to mess with!

• So I guess Michonne was a little peeved that the Governor sent a hunting party after her a couple weeks ago and decided to sit calmly in his apartment until he returned and then kill him? Chick knows how to hold a grudge.

• We finally got to see the zombie heads in the aquariums looking around and snapping their jaws. Maybe they were doing that the first time we saw them, but if so I sure couldn't see it.

• Michonne wins the "Bone Headed Move Of The Week" award. She's just found the Governor's secret man cave full of tanks containing "undead" zombie heads. Then she spots Penny and actually unchains her and removes the bag from her head. Then, and only then, does she seem surprised that Penny's a zombie! How the hell could she NOT realize this? Why else would you have a little girl bagged and chained in your house? At the very least you'd think she'd be able to smell Penny; I doubt she gives off the refreshing scent of baby powder. Bad writers! Bad!

• Interesting to see the Governor totally freak out and surrender in order to save Penny. He actually seemed almost sympathetic in that moment. TV Governor is definitely more subtle, nuanced and interesting than the cartoonish comic book Governor. The comic book version was so over the top and unappealing as to be laughable, but the TV Governor can actually be a complex character at times, leading you to wonder if he's really a bad guy after all, or just willing to do whatever it takes to protect his people. He's a lot like Rick in that respect.

• The Governor should consider himself lucky that all he lost in his battle with Michonne was an eye. Things played out much differently and much more horrifically in the comic, as the Gov lost many more parts.

• Andrea was mighty accepting of the Governor's explanation as to why he had a wall full of zombie heads in his man cave. His answer of "I look at them to remind myself of the horrors out there" was a lit-tle thin, if you ask me. If I was Andrea I'd have said, "Ah, of course, that makes perfect sense," and then causally whistled as I slowly backed out of the room and got the hell out of Woodbury.

She was even more accepting of the fact that he was keeping his undead daughter chained up in his room. The least she could have done was shudder a little as she realized she's been sleeping with this nut job. I suppose it's possible she does finally realize that he's Cuckoo For Cocopuffs, but knows that she can't just walk out without getting a bullet in her back, and is biding her time.

• At first I thought the Governor's "outing" of Merle seemed to come out of nowhere, but then I remembered that he lied and told the Gov that Michonne was dead. It's not nice to lie to the Governor.

• So the Dixon brothers are reunited at last. Believe it or not, this is the first time the two have ever been onscreen together in "reality." Daryl hallucinated a conversation between Merle and himself last season of course, but this is the first time the two have ever physically appeared together since the series started. Weird.

• Who was that holding a gun in the foreground as the crowd called for Merle and Daryl's deaths? It seemed too deliberately shot to be random. Most of the Woodbury residents seem to be unarmed. Was it Andrea? Is she going to save the Dixon boys?

• Some have suggested that the Governor is staging Merle's "arrest" so he can escape with Daryl and reveal the location of the prisoner. Um... the only thing wrong with that theory is the Governor already KNOWS the prison's location. He said so last week, when he chastised Merle for saying it couldn't be safely de-zombified.

• Obviously Daryl and Merle are going to escape, as they're not going to actually kill them off. But what next? Is Daryl going to bring Merle back to the prison? Will Rick let him in? Certainly not without locking him up in a cell. I get the feeling Daryl's going to have to make a choice between blood family and adopted family.

One Does Not Simply Walk Into Nashville...

Separated at birth? On a recent trip through Nashville I passed by what appeared to be Sauron's winter home, also known as the AT&T Tower (how appropriate!).

Sadly, Sauron did not appear to be at home (or at least wasn't yet awake), so I couldn't stop by to give him my regards. Ah well, maybe next time.

November Doodles

I have this journal (it's not a diary!) that contains calendar pages at the beginning of every month. I make my own calendars at home and have no need for the one in the journal, so I fill up each day's box with a doodle.

Enjoy the November doodles!

With all the recent news about Disney buying Star Wars dominating the media, I thought it high time I acknowledged the event in the form of journal doodles. So without further ado, here's this month's all-Star Wars doodles! Original Trilogy characters only please-- no Queen Amidala (who is apparently royalty but can also somehow be elected), whiny Anakin or (shudder) Jar Jar.

It's A Trap!