ROUND 2… Ding. Ding.

The assault begins.
Thanks to certain key elements falling into place and a little financial backing/contribution from my dad, I have finally begun a second full-fledged assault on Marvel Comics. Thanks to the return of Marvel Comics Presents and with certain maturations in my writing with all my various comic book work thus far, I think I am extremely prepared for a second run at Marvel.

Here recently, I added a new poster to my Spider-Man bathroom. (Yes I have a bathroom totally decorated in Spider-Man. Come by and use it. Admission is free but it costs $5.00 to get out.) With my most recent submission, I’ve used one of the characters that you see here. One down. All the rest of the characters left to go…

Acupuncture is a jab well done.

FANTASY FOOTBALL: I’m a big football fan. Baseball, basketball, soccer, I could really care less. But pro football is my favorite. When your team is winning, then things are really good. When they are losing, it is tough to stay motivated. This is probably why I haven’t mentioned football as my New York Giants were stinking up the place for the first two weeks of the season. But we have had some impressive games here lately and it looks like they are righting the ship. I dare even mention the word “playoffs.”
However, I got involved in a fantasy football league with some guys at work. Nothing makes you pay attention to the NFL more than a fantasy team. Suddenly I’m tracking stats on teams that I never would have cared about regardless. It gives us a lot to talk about on Monday (and even throughout the week).
And right now, the Adair Arsenal is sitting at 3 and 3. (I should mention that 4 out of the six teams all hold a 3 and 3 record.) While I am currently in third place (ties are broken by total points scored), I am poised to take over the #2 spot in the league next week. We are about a quarter of the way through our season and I’m hoping my team will hold up. God bless Peyton Manning!

LAST ONE STANDING: The Discovery Channel is showing a new series called Last One Standing. (New episodes air on Thursdays at 8:00 CT.) If you want to see the ultimate in athletic competition, this is a bad ass reality show. They have only aired two episodes thus far but the series looks to be very promising.
I highly recommend watching this TV show. The first week was Kalopaolo wrestling in Brazil and the week after that was Zulu stick fighting in South Africa. Check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.

More soon.

I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.

An Irish legend tells of Jack, a thief who uses a cross to trap the Devil. Jack was getting chased by some villagers whom he had stolen from when he met the Devil. It was time for him to die.
However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods. (The Devil could take on any shape he wanted.) Later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet... only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers and so he was trapped.
Jack only let the Devil go when he agrees to never take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven. However, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so Jack was barred from Hell as well.
Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as “Jack of the Lantern” or Jack O’ Lantern.
On All Hallow's Eve, the Irish hollowed out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Jack of the Lantern away. These were the original Jack O' Lanterns. In the 1800's a couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America. The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out.
So they used pumpkins for Jack O' Lanterns.

Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

It has been close to two weeks since my last blog. Seems like I never have enough hours in the day. I’m trying to keep cool in the face of adversity as I try to continuously juggle work, writing, the family, the house and all the other stresses of modern life.
Here we are in October. Amy and I took some time and decorated the house for Halloween. I can’t help but think that Christmas—also known as Stressmas—is right around the corner. Even beginning to think about gifts and such ties my stomach in knots. It’s not that I am opposed to giving gifts. I gift with the best of ‘em, baby! It is just that the paychecks are a little slender this year and that makes it difficult.
While I should not be complaining about my hours, I am working six days at work as the result of a firing. It sucks that they had to let one of our guys go (he has no one to blame but himself) but it secures my hours during a season where hours can get pretty scarce. Still, I have kids to feed.
Of course, I am still trying to write a considerable amount as I am currently between assignments. Ugg. Just not enough hours in the day. Which is partially why my Blog and my MySpace page are so neglected.
My darling daughter Lauren turned 4 on the second! And I have Alex’s birthday, Amy’s birthday, and Jason’s birthday all stacked up in the next five weeks. As a result, I’m off to the blood bank to pay for presents. Or maybe the sperm bank. I hear they pay money hand over fist!