Enter Sandman
Bought a compilation of Sandman last night from Powerbooks GB4, and lent it K8. You see, K8 hadn't really been immersed in Sandman lore... and now I've inflicted upon her readings of "Three Septembers and a January" (Emperor Norton I's story), and "Thermidor" (Orpheus and Robspierre).

Hopefully, after this she will be interested in reading the remaining TPBs.
Comic Screams
It just occured to me that there are a variety of comic book screams. They include:

AAAAAAAAAGGH!
AAAAAIIIEEEEE!
NOOOOOOOOO!

Any more?
Primal Scream
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Whew. Feel much better. Kinda funny how these cheap therapeutic tricks help.
Physics, Optics, Predestination, and Free Will

"When light goes through optical systems, it finds the path of least time, taking short cuts in glass and water, where light travels slower, and longer paths through air... "

It's a bit mystifying to know that light can do this unerringly. Because in order to do this, light already needs to know its ultimate destination before beginning its travel path. Any minor corrections along the way results in a path that does NOT take the path of least time. So the beam of light could be considered to be predestined to get to a particular destination.

However, it turns out it's not really a principle of "Least Time" given that light sometimes takes a path that takes longer than the most efficient path. Rather, it's a principle of extremes.

Is this a reflection of free will? We are destined for the same place, but we have a choice... the longer road or the faster road? Or are free will and predestination merely aspects of the same phenomenon... one that we cannot comprehend?

Or am I just stressing about nonsense?
Ron Marz, Green Lantern, and Everything
An interesting interview concerning the entire tenure of Ron Marz on Green Lantern... Emerald Twilight... and lotsa other stuff here.

For the record, while I really hated what Hal had become during the course of the series... I thought that it was exceptionally cool that he took out so many other Lanterns and even Sinestro during his breakdown.

None of this detracts from my liking Kyle Rayner's Green Lantern, who may not have had a great mask but did use the ring in far more creative ways than Hal did. I especially liked the "Slamtrack" bit which knocked out Mongul.
Guerilla Writing: Fading Suns - How the Wolfgirl Lost Her Eye
On my workdesk, there is a picture of a young girl. Her hair is unkempt, her teeth are uneven, and her lips are curved in a half-sad smile. Her eyes used to stare out at me, wild and challenging, as I endured each day as a Guild Reeve.

Not anymore. A single drop of aqua ignata half-blinded her feral visage.

Her name was Elisha Drummo. Youngest daughter of my best friend's sister. Unlike the rest of her staunchly Orthodox brood, she had fallen in with a heretical religion whose symbol was a winking wolf. She was a Zuranist, full of tricks and pranks and humorously counter-canon comments delivered with a conspiratorial wink.

Perhaps the quirky & iconoclastic nature of the religion attracted her to it. Or perhaps, she'd found kindred spirits in the leaders of the sect on Aylon. Or perhaps, she'd really been granted a vision as she'd so often claimed after sufficient inebriation at our monthly guild get-togethers, prompting her family to hush her proclamations and leave early.

The Guild did its best to take care of the family, to protect it from the fanatic obsessions of the Avesti to cleanse the universe of heresy. But they found out. And her family burned with her.

The Guild, outraged but unable to take direct action, took steps to weaken the Avesti's hold on Aylon. Engineers unearthed proscribed technologies that allowed them to spy on and track all Aylon-bound Avesti. Charioteers reported cargo and personnel movements, delaying them when necessary. Scravers helped acquire and sabotage critical shipments through well-timed accidents. Aylon Reeves delivered petition after petition for sanctions against the Church sect, based on intelligence and the resulting scandals. The Muster conscripted potentially detrmental Avesti witnesses and sent them to the frontlines on Stigmata.

It did not go unnoticed. Avesti retaliation was swift and typically unsophisticated. We fought back twice as fiercely, thrice as secretly. Unable to substantiate any of the accusations, an overzealous Avesti threatened me with immolation in my office. Unfortunately for him, his badly maintained gear malfunctioned and burned him alive. A drop of aqua ignata splatter caught the eye of my wolfgirl's picture, burning and wrinkling it slightly. Such a tragedy.

Finally, success. The Aylon Zuranist movement was spared the more cruel attentions of the Avesti by the Archbishop, who declared it a minor heretical deviation from standard Orthodox practice. It would be resolved by a special team of Orthodox and Eskatonic priests seeking to convert these poor, lost souls.

Now, Elisha's picture greets me every morning, a one-eyed wolfgirl winking at me like Old Zuran himself.
New Week
A packed week this coming week. Hope I survive it.

Aside from work and work, I've got a computer at my parents' home to fix... Christmas shopping, paying off bills, planning and prepping for a X-mas party, and prepping for a game to run...

But I hope that everyone else gets some respite from the pressure of the season. Merry X-mas y'all!