I went into this year's WrestleMania expecting I'd enjoy just two matches: the Intercontinental Championship ladder match (won, I'm pleased, to say, by Daniel Bryan) and Triple H versus Sting. At least, I thought I wanted to see the crown prince of WWE take on the dark avenger of WCW. Turns out I was wrong: that wasn't what I wanted to see. ( Read more... )

My girls are endlessly creative.

Yesterday, LJ gave her personal universe an extreme makeover... and I do mean "extreme"... for an upcoming story (that you'll read when I finally catch up with my novelisations). Tonight, stareyednight filmed a commercial for a national chain of video game/pop culture stores. And she was in costume! Not one, but six of her ( Read more... )

They slept over for her birthday and when they left, wearing the "BFF" bracelets she'd bought for them, LJ believed everything was great between her and her two buddies. But on the following Monday, back at school, those friends said they wanted to play with some other girls - a duo who don't like LJ and aren't shy about showing it. The same thing ( Read more... )

"When Hal Jordan decided to take all of the Green Lantern powers for himself, he all but destroyed the Guardians of the Universe. Ganthet, the last of their number, used the Guardians' energy to create one final ring. With the last of his resources, he travelled to Earth and bestowed the ring upon Kyle Rayner, then promptly disappeared after only ( Read more... )

"We love watching people grow, change, struggle. Good people, bad people, we don't care - we want to see it, man. And we need entertainment and we need it now. And when you watch wrestling, that's what you get. Now, don't get me wrong: a lot of wrestling? Sucks. But when it's good, it's fucking great. Wrestling is melodrama, wrestling is mythology ( Read more... )

The line wasn't very long, though it wouldn't have mattered to me had I joined a queue of hundreds. Events like that day just didn't happen in my city back in the mid-1990s. So you didn't question miracles, you just took a 50-minute train ride from your home town and stood in the rain in order to be part of them ( Read more... )

There are toys you think you'll never own because they don't exist, but then they do, and there are toys you think you'll never own because you've never been able to find them. The toys that, be it as a child or as an adult, eluded you. For all the luck I (and my parents, and my grandmother) had hunting down those hard-to-find figures (I'll never ( Read more... )

It started with a croissant, freshly baked, from the little gourmet shop across the road.

That's how it started today, at least. It was preceded by Celebration #1 (a Chinatown banquet, with chosen family, followed by dessert at the Hello Kitty! Cafe) and Celebration #2 (sushi, with grandparents, followed by home-made cupcakes in the townhouse), ( Read more... )

There truly is no better feeling, after a crappy week, than sitting down on LJ's floor to play a game of super heroes ( Read more... )

If you like comics, you owe it to yourself to check out Edison Rex. Honestly, it's one of the best archetypal superhero comics I've read. Admittedly I'm a sucker for that sort of thing - Alan Moore's Supreme, Austin Grossman's Soon I Will be Invincible - but Rex is just a great comic, top to bottom. And, as of this morning, I owe it a debt of ( Read more... )