Showing posts with label Ray Bradbury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ray Bradbury. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Comic-Con, Day 3

Saturday, July 25

Happy Birthday to me! This was a good day, heck it was my b-day...and boy was it a good one.















































This was a pretty good day, with some fun panels, some more free stuff, and many cool people to boot (like the guys from Mythbusters in the picture)

So first things first, we got there in the morning and just enjoyed the exhibition hall. We wandered around to see what we hadn't yet, we played Lego Rockband (yes there is a Lego Rockband coming out this Holiday season!! and yes we got to play it) and got free Lego Rockband lanyards and T-Shirts for playing, and we just had a good time. I had already spent all my money so I didn't have to worry about that little portion of CC, so the free stuff was calling my name.

12-1pm Comic Strip Syndication
This was a fun little panel where we got to see Stephan Pastis, Richard Thompson (Cul De Sac), and Keith Knight (The K Chronicles). They talked about issues in newspapers right now, comic strip syndication, and answered questions from the audience. This one wasn't as packed as Pastis' spotlight, but it was still interesting for me (although I don't think Amanda enjoyed this one).














2:15-3:15pm DC: Green Lantern: Blackest Night
This was a really cool panel. Featuring Geoff Johns (current writer of Green Lantern), Pat Gleason (who's currently working on Green Lantern Corps), and others. For those who don't know, Blackest Night is here is a brief synopsis: "Throughout the decades, death has plagued the DC Universe and taken the lives of heroes and villains alike. But to what end? As the War of Light rages on, the prophecy of the Blackest Night descends upon us, with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps at the center of it all...The dead rise across the DC Universe, bringing terror and darkness with them. What are the Black Lanterns? What do they want? Will Earth's greatest heroes survive long enough to find out – or will they join the Black Lantern Corps?"
So basically, any dead character in the DC Universe right now can come back as a Black Lantern and the story should be really interesting. Anywho, I'm following the story issue by issue; and
that's the first time I have ever done that (I usually just read the final story after it comes out in HC or TPB form) but this one is worth it.

Oh, one more thing...Whilst in the panel, Geoff Johns had the crowd stand up (mind you this room seats 2,000 and while not 100% full, it was more than 75% full) and he swore us to the Green Lantern Oath!! How awesome! Plus, a room full of some 1,500 people who all knew the oath was pretty cool too, oh my what a nerd I am.













3:30-4:30 Spotlight on Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury, need I say more? The only disappointing thing about this panel was that his assistant guy kept talking and talking, geez, we were there to see Bradbury not that schmuck. His biographer was also there, and he knew that so he kept the focus on Bradbury. Anywho, now that I've vented, the panel was great. It was just fun to hear him speak and hear his passion for life and hear where some of his ideas came from. Oh yeah, earlier in the day when we were wandering around sight-seeing, we saw Bradbury being wheeled through one part of the convention center right next to us!! That's what one of the pictures below is (thanks Amanda for spotting him go right past us).


























That was the last panel we went to on Saturday, and we just enjoyed the venue a bit more. While there, we also got a signed picture of George Lazenby (actor who played James Bond for one film) and that was awesome though I didn't think to take a picture of him.

After we left Comic-Con, we went out to eat for my b-day dinner. We chose Outback Steak House (always awesome!) and here are the pics from that, one is of a side that I got which was amazing (it was crab stuffed shrimp and I liked it more than my steak!):


Monday, July 13, 2009

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Grand Master Editions) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bradbury did it again with this amazing dark fantasy mystery book. I thought that Fahrenheit 451 was my favorite book he wrote, until I was about 30 pages into this one. The prose is beautiful and this will definitely be an oft read book in my collection.
View all my reviews >>

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Book Tag

Now here is a tag worth doing, one based on books!! Enjoy! (I got this from my friend from ward's blog).

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned:
I'll have to go do a quick count.....and it came in currently at 425 (with an estimated 30 books in storage...)

2. Last Book I Bought
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

3. Last Book I Read
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (a good book on marketing and making a unique and remarkable product).

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me

1. Homeland by R.A. Salvatore (this was the book that got me into the Fantasy Fiction genre and Salvatore remains my favorite author to this day, thank you Salvatore for countless hours and hours of enjoyment)

2. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (This one makes the list because it was the first novel that I read in sixth grade. Before that I read the Goosebumps series which was the series to read when I was young and that's why they're here as an honorary mention. My influential sixth grade teacher found I had a sophomore in High School reading level and encouraged me to read something at my level, thus Jurassic Park. The same was my favorite movie at the time and is still a timeless movie. The movie, on VHS, is still the best and most memorable present I have ever received from my Grandpa and Grandma Fiet. One last side note, thank you Nicole for using a sharpie on the book to block out all the foul words for this sixth grade reader. Thanks Crichton, RIP).

3. Scriptures. Those are a given and they are definitely the most influential on me as a person and are a continual guide to my life.

4. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I think I read this in 8th ? grade and I include it because it was one of the only required reading books throughout my education that I enjoyed. I have heard more than one author say that they didn't enjoy reading in middle/high school because they either give you stupid books, or books that you aren't ready for yet. Apart from this book, everything I read in school that I enjoyed, I chose myself. Plus, Bradbury has become one of my latest favorite authors as I discover more and more of his genius as a writer. He truly is a literary genius and an artist of words)

5. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (My first enjoyable classic. Need I say more? Dumas is a brilliant writer and I discovered him in my first semester of college. Dumas has since inspired me to break out of my Fantasy/Sci-Fi shell and read other types of writing and other classics).

Now I'm supposed to tag....do it if you enjoyed it...