Kon-El, Clone of the Last Son of Krypton

Way to go, Einstein!

2008-05-16T12:07:15Z

I hardly ever post entries in LJ, but this caught my attention and I thought it was worthy of posting. One of the greatest minds in history, totally speaking my language on the topic of religion.

I know one of my LJ Friends is not going to like this because of what Einstein says about (his own people) the Jews, so I apologize in advance, "Lightning Rider". I post this way more for the religion comments than the comments on the Jews. Sorry, D.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080513/world/britain_religion_science_jews_einstein

Wow! Aside from the comments on the Jews, sounds like he's reading my mind. Right on, Einstein! Too bad you had to be dead for decades for this to come out.

Of course. How could I not know? ;)

2007-01-10T20:36:52Z

You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse		78%
Dr. Doom		75%
Lex Luthor		69%
Magneto		66%
Juggernaut		62%
Green Goblin		62%
Dark Phoenix		58%
Venom		56%
The Joker		54%
Mystique		54%
Mr. Freeze		54%
Kingpin		53%
Poison Ivy		45%
Catwoman		44%
Two-Face		30%
Riddler		25%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

I know this will shock everyone, but... LOL

2007-01-03T16:03:50Z

Well, everyone else seems to be doing it, so here are my resutls. No way, really? LOL!

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		80%
Supergirl		55%
Robin		55%
The Flash		55%
Hulk		50%
Green Lantern		50%
Wonder Woman		40%
Spider-Man		35%
Iron Man		35%
Batman		30%
Catwoman		15%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

R.I.P. Superboy/The Kid/Kon-El/Conner Kent

2006-04-18T14:03:49Z

I realize that, if you've read my Subject line, I've already Spoiled you. But hey, in case you have not yet read Infinite Crisis #6, there are spoilers in this post. The big surprise ending of IC #6 is that the version of Superboy who is a clone of Superman gave his life to save the entire freakin' multiverse!

As you can tell by my LJ call sign (Kon-El333) and my Yahoo ID (clonedkryptonian) and my picture icon, I was quite fond of him. He debuted in '93 in the wake of the Death of Superman and was one of the four "Pretenders to the Throne". But The Kid (as they called him back then) never claimed to be the original. He admitted freely he was a clone. His cocky, in-your-face attitude was very appealing to me. His style too. He wore a leather jacket, not a cape. He wore mirror shades. He was flippant and so very much NOT the uptight version of Superboy that had come before him (Superman when he was a boy). He was frequently under-estimated by villains, and he often made mistakes, but when it came down to it, his heart was always in the right place. After Superman's resurrection, The Kid agreed to take on the name Superboy and was assumed to be the Heir Apparent to the name Superman. Many possible future stories would show him bearing that name. (So much for that now.) Superman did have several touching scenes with The Kid after that, as they got to know each other better. Superboy was even "adopted" into Superman's family by being given the Kryptonian name Kon-El and being allowed to live with the Kents, under the name Conner Kent. He also had an excellent love/hate relationship with the 90s revision of the Legion of Super-Heroes, in an interesting contrast to how the original (young Kal-El) version had been a prominent member of the pre-Crisis LSH, and Kon spent some time living in the 31st century with them. Recently, his image had been updated to a jeans and black t-shirt with S-Shield look, a much-needed change since his original look was already dated when it came out. And he began seriously dating the latest Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) who is now quite a hottie but was kinda plain in her first few years of appearances and definitely not in his league. She worshipped him from afar with him oblivious for years (of real time, comics time who knows?) but later it was *he* who told *her* "I love you". In the very recent Titans Annual, the two of them lost their virginities to each other in a scene that was drawn in such a way as to not be too explicit for young readers but which leaves no doubt for adults.

When I opened the page showing him lying there dead, cradled in Cassie's arms, Superman's jaw dropped open and eyes wide in pain, I sat there in shock, because I really hadn't been expecting it. In retrospect, I should have. There had been quite a bit of build-up to it. Comments had been made by the "villains" about how he wasn't "the real Superboy", which a lot of his detractors, primarily those who had a fondness for the Superboy who was Clark Kent as a young man, also claimed. I should have figured out that this was meant to be a challenge. ;) That he would be proving himself before the end of the series. But I didn't figure it would be this big!

Now, the funny thing is, I'm not as bothered by his death as some of my friends are by the deaths of their favourites (one of whom told me she was sorry I had now "joined their club" so to speak).

First of all, his death was a really good death, unlike say Spoiler or the Blue Beetle (although I did love how much respect there was in how the Beetle's death was written, poor Beetle died failing to get much-needed info to the hero community). Kon died saving the entire multiverse! He made a HUGE difference! I do just hope that they take his killer down really bloody hard. (Ironically, his killer thinks of himself as the "real Superboy" but is no more "real" (ie. young Superman) than Kon was.)

Second, the poor guy wasn't being used in any regular titles anymore anyway. His own book was cancelled. Young Justice (which I just LOVED him in) was cancelled. He did join the Teen Titans but even resigned from that group! Even the current revision of the Legion has no connection to him. Other than occasional appearances in the Superman titles, he wasn't appearing anywhere anymore. At least with him dying he made a difference and won't be forgotten. And no writer can "ruin" him now either. ;)

Word has it that the current Robin, Tim Drake, Kon's very close friend, is attempting to clone Kon again to "bring him back". I hope that doesn't happen. Comic book deaths are usually pretty transitory, but I hope they let Kon rest in peace for a while, at least.

Goodbye, old friend. Thank you for the inspiration and the fun your stories brought to my life.

Y the Last Man

2005-08-15T20:38:21Z

Much thanks to adrienne_j for loaning me piles of graphic novels after peppermenthe was done with 'em. Having so many that I was unable to read (lacking the early ones, so not wanting to read the later ones before reading the earlier ones, you get the idea) made me all the more ravenous for the ones I could.

I had the first 5 graphic novel collections of Y the Last Man, and wow I was really blown away by this amazing story! It is literally about a guy named Yorick who is the last man left on Earth after a plague (or something) blows away all mammals with a penis at once. The suddenness of the plague sure left me wondering if this was mystical in some way, as they have been hinting.

Took me a long time to figure out why the "Y" and the name beginning with Y. It's for the Y chromosome, duh. I'm a little slow sometimes I guess.

Anyway, what a good read this story is. It's post-apocalyptic and gritty and erotic (tho very rarely does anyone have sex) and thought-provoking. Sure enough, the lack of men in the world has made it no less dangerous, in fact it's way more brutal, which seems way realistic to me. Women can talk all they want about being "sisters" but that's all talk. And yeah when there are suddenly no more men to impress or to blame, I'm not surprised at all that they'd turn on each other, not just all hug and talk about their feelings.

I couldn't put it down. I can't imagine what it must've been like to wait a month in between each of these installments. Yikes!

So, thanks, A!

Back to School at the YoungBlood Foundation Part 2

2005-08-15T14:57:22Z

As promised, the Returning Cast of NPC Team Members!

Poonan Prakash, codename Jammer

Though born in India, Poonan sounds and acts like an Australian and is proud to bring his rather subtle power of receiving and interfering with radio frequencies (and, more recently, sound waves) to the Team. Poonan is very outgoing. His best friend for years has been teammate Brendan McCarthy, codename Shock. He used to date teammate Althea Jones, but they broke up just before prom. His prom date was Adriana Hasafa, daughter of Enforcers member Intrepid, and they are still dating today, several months later. Poonan is something of a paranormal supremacist, which is interesting given his rather subtle powers.

Douglas Kalooli, codename Moonwalker

The only Australian aborigine on the team, Douglas joined at the same time as Will and Althea. His power is a defensive one. He can reflect most attacks back upon the attacker. However, he is definitely better known for his deep study of aboriginal magic and traditions, which he learned at the knee of his great-grandfather, who has been described as “older than the Earth”. Douglas is a quiet guy and has never been known to date anyone at the school. He has never mentioned his plans after graduation.

So, experienced TYB players are no doubt asking, what the heck happened to Torri, Brendan and Helen? And what about the Melissa trial?

Stayed tuned!

Back to School at the YoungBlood Foundation

2005-08-11T13:55:18Z

Let’s chat a little bit about the upcoming Team YoungBlood: Senior Year campaign that I will be running in the fall.

Man, talk about the shoe being on the other foot. At the beginning of the Team YoungBlood Try-Outs campaign, the PCs were the desperate wanna-be’s struggling to be the ones who got to be “on the Team”. Now, it’s they who will decide who gets to be the lucky candidate who joins their ranks.

The returning cast is as follows:

Will Barik, codename Iron Will (played by braz_king)

Will has been at the school a long time, and members of the 2006 Team fondly remember him as a little boy now all grown up. Since Will’s powers were mental defenses, most people thought of him as a normal person with no powers. Only the school’s telepaths could tell you different. He worked with the Gadgeteer students to be the pilot of their prototype battlesuit. He achieved Team membership in 2014 and was named Team Leader. He has since developed the power to focus his mental strength to increase his ability to achieve whatever result he is trying to accomplish, still a subtle power, but one Will uses to great effect. Will is currently dating his teammate, Althea Jones. He has been put forward by Psiforce as a strong candidate for Enforcers Inc. membership.

Althea Jones, codename Kestrel (played by adrienne_j)

As a young African-American girl from the projects in Chicago, Althea saw the U.S. government's program to artificially create super-beings as a way to escape the poverty and help her family get out of the ghetto. The metal wings they surgically attached to her back allow her to fly at amazing speeds and slash with a deadly cutting attack. Althea achieved Team membership in 2014 and was named Deputy Leader, but due to Will Barik’s absences/convalescences, she has had to fill his shoes rather often. Althea had a relationship with teammate, Poonan Prakash (codename Jammer), that ended with relatively little hard feelings and is currently dating her teammate, Will Barik. Althea has been hand-picked by her dream team, the American Eagles, to join them after graduation.

Katarina Eunan, codename Terraform (played by in_the_annex)

This innocent-seeming Swiss miss was one of the youngest students ever to join the Team. She was 14 in 2013 when she achieved Team membership. Only Phoebe Costello, codename Scream from the 2006-09 Team, started earlier, at age 13. Katarina has a connection to the magical plane of Elemental Earth. This gives her the ability to summon powerful Earth Elementals, whom she often gives pet names (like the gigantic Grendel), and to control the movement of volumes of earth. Katarina has also demonstrated an aptitude for magical rituals, especially those from the coven of witchesin England dedicated to Earth Magic. She has trained extensively with the coven to hone this talent. Katarina is not currently dating anyone. However, she recently discovered that she is very likely the reincarnation of Alisha, deceased lover of Maxmillian Conrad (once known as Dimice, the Ice Elemental, and many decades her senior). There has been a suggestion made by some that the reason she spends so much time with her close friend, Michelle, is because they are more than just friends. Katarina has not commented on any of these rumours. Katarina hopes to found her own super-team someday, possibly with financial backing from Maxmillian Conrad.

Coming soon! The returning cast NPCs and what's been up at the school lately! :)

Something new every day

2005-08-02T17:43:33Z

Seems like my 12-week-old son learns something new every day.

This weekend, we made the big change. We moved him out of the bassinet in our bedroom and into his own crib in his own room. I am not a big fan of kids-sleep-in-the-parents-room school of parenting, but I recognized the utility of having him nearby in the first few months of his life when my wife seemed to be getting up every 5 minutes to breastfeed him. But there was no question he was outgrowing that bassinet. He is more than double the weight he was at when we brought him home from the hospital.

The transition went great! I'm not sure if it went so well because (a) he has more room to stretch out in the crib, or (b) he likes the little "sleeping bag" thing we bought for him so he won't kick off his covers, or (c) he has just perfected the art of shoving his fist in his mouth to suck on it! Or, of course, a combo of all 3. :)

Now, watching the shoving-fist-in-mouth thing develop has been VERY interesting! Babies learn at a surprising rate. For weeks now, I've been suspecting he would be a thumb sucker, because he loves to suck on his fist when it's near his mouth. Recently, he's gained enough motor control to know he can actually DECIDE to put his fist in his mouth! LOL!

I was watching him try hard, on Saturday, to achieve his goal. Unfortunately for him, his aim was still bad. Instead of getting it in his mouth, I watched with amusement as the poor guy kept smacking himself in the forehead! LOL. (Naturally, I helped him move his fist down to his mouth.)

On Sunday, he was still smacking himself in the forehead, or sometimes when his aim was good, in the cheek. But each time, he would then slide his fist down, stick his tongue out to see if the fist was there yet (since it often wasn't) and then re-adjust until it WAS.

By Monday, he was having no trouble at all getting fist to mouth accurately every time! Occasionally, he even gets a finger or thumb in there too, instead of just a fist.

But what progress!

I know the non-parents out there are laughing themselves silly at what a big deal I'm making about something so simple, but there really is something to this: watching your kid, day by day, figuring out the world. The actions, sights, feelings, sounds and smells that we adults (and even small children) take for granted are all new and exciting to a baby.

And for me, it's been amazing watching my little guy set his first goal, work towards it and finally achieve it! :)

Big Birthday Surprise! (They got me good)

2005-06-27T19:15:21Z

Okay, now that was a surprise. Who knew? Well, everybody... except ME obviously. ;)

After feeling completely content with my birthday game on the 17th (my actual birthday) and the 19th (which was also Father's Day and the first time for me as a father), I felt completely at peace with my 40th birthday celebration. It had been a great weekend, so I was looking forward now to not having any big events. My wife told me her mom had gotten a promotional freebie dinner at Sharkey's in Oakville, a great little spot, in exchange for maybe doing our company Christmas party there. We'd done stuff like this before so I didn't think twice about it. My sister even called and asked to come over after the dinner. Heck, while I was parking the car, uniquecrash5 called my cell phone and asked what I was up to. I told him in detail, which must've made him chuckle a lot.

Man, was I surprised to turn the corner and find almost everyone from my family and friends there! It was a HUGE surprise party, just when I'd become complacent that nothing would happen. HOLY CRAP, they all got me good! :) I stood there in shock for a moment not able to process that this was even happening!

Both my sister's and crash's calls were fake, my sis's to make sure we were on our way and crash's to say he and hippybngstockng couldn't make it, which he carfully avoided telling me, once he knew I hadn't gotten to the surprise yet. (Well-done, sir, and hope everything's okay with your family, pal!)

So, it was a good one! They nailed me good. I never saw it coming. It was the greatest birthday party I probably ever had, and even better when I add in the birthday stuff I'd already had! :) My wife, apparently, arranged the whole thing way WAY in advance, not one to let the birth of our baby stand in the way. What an amazing job she did. I already thanked her profusely but I'll thank her now too, even tho she may never read this.

Anyway, thanks to all who made it out, and to those who meant to but couldn't. You got me good! :)

Big Birthday just passed and was a BLAST!

2005-06-20T14:50:22Z

Wow! I couldn't have asked for a much better birthday!

I did go into work for the morning, because one of my staff was in from out of town and wanted to make sure her training was completed before she left. While I was there, my sis-in-law, A.S., brought in a chocolate cake, and several co-workers got together to sing and eat cake.

At the noon hour, I went home and had a nice nap, then enjoyed an outing to Dairy Queen with wife and baby son. I hardly ever have DQ, so I told my wife this was the special thing I wanted to do with her and the boy for my birthday! My banana split was as decadent as always, and the company was superb (as never before, since it was the little guy's first trip to DQ)!

The evening brought the event I'd been looking forward to for weeks, ever since braz_king first offered to do it! Way back in the late 80s, I used to run/play in a super-hero game called the World Force. It was very simple super-hero fare because our taste hadn't gotten quite as refined as it is today. The only friend from that era that I still see and play with regularly is adrienne_j and we look back on that era with fondness (and not a little bit of embarassment at our goofiness back then). Anyway, in honour of my birthday, Braz offered to run a classic "Golden Age" game for me, and I immediately jumped at the chance.

After picking up a couple of friends who needed rides, and getting some amazing presents (thanks again, everyone!) and oo-ing and ahh-ing over the nice chocolate cake that peppermenthe had made for me, I got to reprise my role as ArchAngel, Adrienne came back to her old favourite Nightwitch and even uniquecrash5 returned to his roots as pre-insanity The Artist. Tho they weren't around in the Golden Age, troy_duffy and peppermenthe joined us anyway, taking over two of R.S.'s old characters, Thunderbolt and Shadowmaker!

Braz did a great job! He started by giving a scene for each player introducing each character in their regular lives of their secret identities (yes, everyone had one back then... nowadays no one seems to, everyone is a professional hero). Troy even had to do some fast footwork to protect his secret identity! The story was simple yet presented us with a dilemma, and the opponents were difficult to defeat yet never left us with a sense of being overwhelmed. Everyone's full range of powers and skills (and problems!) seemed to come into use in the course of the story, giving each player a nice chance to enjoy the character. Adrienne and Crash definitely showed they hadn't forgotten how to play their original characters, and Troy and Peppermenthe very much took the characters they'd taken and made them their own! Indeed, Peppermenthe seemed, in many ways, born to play Shadowmaker, and we were amazed at how much the character said about its old player, R.S., who happened to also be Peppermenthe's ex-bf!

One aspect of my former character ArchAngel that I thought might be challenging to portray was that, when I had invented him in high school, ArchAngel got his powers from the Keepers of Cosmic Order, and his arch-enemy The Sorceress for hers from the Masters of Greater Darkness, and I wrote it as a standard four-colour Good versus Evil struggle. In more recent years, I wanted to give the Cosmic Order/Greater Darkness a greyer, more complex concept, so I re-defined their conflict as the struggle between science and magic (Agents of the Keepers being psionic and Servants of the Masters being mages, this worked out). I explained that ArchAngel and the Sorceress made it look like a Good versus Evil thing because of how good and evil they were, respectively, but that no one should expect future Agents to be automatically good nor Servants to be automatically evil.

For Braz, the challenge was to present ArchAngel's bosses as interested in the promotion of science while still allowing ArchAngel to keep his Golden Age innocence that they wanted him to "Do Good". I thought he did a fantastic job! There was no question to us, as players, that the Keepers thought the menace approaching Earth might not be a bad thing, given it would likely mean an increase in Earth tech, in spite of how it would enslave the populace! LOL! ArchAngel had always characterized the Keepers as cryptic. Maybe they weren't so cryptic as he thought. :) Maybe he just didn't always understand how their messages to him about improving Earth's tech related to fighting injustice! LOL! Overall, I had a great time with how Braz handled this and the chance it gave me to re-visit this aspect of the character, keeping his innocence intact while still acknowledging the continuity as we today know it to be.

Overall, I really need to thank Braz, Adrienne, Troy, Crash and Peppermenthe for an awesome time! They were all above and beyond, and I can't imagine my birthday being much better than it was! If any of you are reading this (and since you're all on my Friends list, I assume you will at some point), I want you to know how much I appreciated last Friday night and how touched I was and how lucky I feel to have friends like each of you! You are all amazing and wonderful in your own unique ways, never ever forget that!

Thanks to all my family and friends for an awesome birthday and a pretty good first Father's Day as a dad to boot. :)

Down with Unions!

2005-04-11T18:15:42Z

With so many of my car-less Torontonian friends be-moaning the just-averted TTC strike, let me say how evil I consider unions to be. Yes there was once a time when they were necessary, but now they are just as evil if not moreso than the evil they were organized to fight.

May they go down in flames! (Sh-yeah right. Like the establishment they claim to fight against, they are firmly in place and will be next to impossible to oust now.)

Big birthday coming up

2005-04-01T19:54:19Z

It's coming up to that time for me again. One of the big "Oh" birthdays. (You know, "the big Two-Oh", "the big Three-Oh", etc.) No, you notice I am not mentioning which one it is. ;)

I don't mind hitting the age. What I mind is that I suspect it won't mean much. Again.

The last time I hit a Big Oh birthday, it passed almost completely unnoticed. Mind you, the mid-90s were the acknowledged "Absolute Worst Time In My Life", especially 1993. *shiver* I still hate to think about those days. Really. My life, in terms of family, job, finances, friends and lovers was at its worst back then, so it didn't strike me as odd that almost no one wanted to recognize my Big Oh.

After that, I became very conscious of how other people's Big Oh's were recognized, especially since one of my closest friends hit his Big Oh mere months after mine, and it was celebrated by a big party with his family and friends all having a blast, organized by his wife.

That seemed to be the key. Every person I knew who hit a Big Oh was thrown a party by his/her S.O. I figured after I got married my Big Oh's were "insured" now forever. ;)

But right now, my wife has other stuff on her mind, and by the time my Big Oh comes around, our baby will be only one month old. I know I can't count on her to organize a proper recognition of my Big Oh, in fact she has admitted she'll probably not be in that state of mind to be party organizer woman.

I sure hope my good friends out there are listening.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!

2005-03-30T14:45:30Z

Wow! Last night was my first ever Kung Fu class! :)

I've never taken anything even remotely resembling a martial art in my life. Heck, I've never even been in a fight! (Always talked the other guy down, one way or another.) My main goal in seeking this out was not to kick people's asses, but to get exercise and discipline. Sure, being able to defend myself and my loved ones if it ever came to that wouldn't hurt either, but it's not like I live in a bad neighbourhood or something.

Anyway, I enrolled in the Canadian National School of Wushu Kung Fu last Thu after watching a class and being quite impressed. I am not taking Wushu (which is more performance-like). I enrolled in Wing Shun, which places more emphasis on health and economical motion. The Sifu has 36 years of experience in the martial arts and is a mere ten years older than me. He is a regular guy too, which I liked about him.

I was pretty excited last night. My wife thought I looked cute in my kung fu outfit *groan*. I had to stop by my parents' place on my way so my mom got a good chuckle and my dad bowed to me. :) (They didn't know I was taking kung fu.)

When I arrived, I had a chance to chat with a couple of the black belts who were closer to my age than the teenage boys I'd seen at Thu's class. They had some good advice for me, like don't try to do too much too fast, don't expect to be as flexible as the teens, just do what you can, that sort of stuff. Warm-up was conducted by a black belt who was a young Indian girl. There were only a few stretches I couldn't perform due to my shoulders and arms being bigger than the wiry boys around me. I remember thinking "if I wanted to be twisted into a pretzel by a sweet little Indian thing, I could've stayed home with my wife!" LOL! But overall, I was happy with my ability to keep up with the younger men.

In fact, once we get started, I found it was a really good workout, trying to duplicate all the forms. I was sweating pretty heavily after an hour (which was awesome!) and even tho I felt like I was making a lot of mistakes, one of the boys I was working out with asked if I had previous martial arts experience and was surprised that I didn't because for a first class ever I was doing pretty good. That made me feel a bit better.

Sifu gave me some moves to practice at home, which I intend to do. I need to get my body used to certain forms and positions, which currently don't come naturally to me.

There was no sparring today, which is fine by me. I didn't really join to fight people so much as to work out. Later on, I'll go to sparring sessions, once I get the moves down.

When I got home, my wife was pleased to hear how much I enjoyed myself and asked me a lot about what we did. I showed her my homework forms. She was asking about classes for kids, which they DO have (it's so cute to see these kids practicing, they're obviously having SUCH a great time).

My dreams last night were just filled with images of the class and the students and Sifu, not necessarily doing kung fu, just hanging out and stuff. Normally, after a night of heavy REM, I wake up all exhausted but not this morning. Obviously, it was not an anxiety dream, just extra energy in the creative part of my brain.

Anyway, I look forward to more classes and getting better, both in general fitness and in knowing the moves!

Being Dis-Empowered Sucks

2005-03-29T17:32:12Z

I can't believe how intrusive this was today.

I hold a meeting for my staff every Tuesday morning. This morning, my boss shows up and pulls the entire Sales Team in, and completely shanghais the agenda of the meeting. Yes, some good points were made, by both the sales staff and my team, but boy was I ever dis-empowered.

Sure, it's his company, but if he ever wants me to start giving him the results he wants, he needs to back off and let me do it myself, or I'll never earn the respect I need to make things happen. Plus, I know my team prefers my style of conducting meetings over his. Everyone in the company does.

There. I needed to vent that.