Time: 4 am PST. Location: My apartment Outside Temp (weather channel): 60 degrees Apt temp (based on discomfort level): 90. Inability to sleep? Guaran-damn-teed. So, guess what? I'm awake. Pdx (Portland, OR) finally cracks 90 degrees, first time all summer. In response, my apartment is surrounded my still unmoving air, which means the apt sits with only fans to help move it around. This wouldn't be so bad, but the 2 that I have are concentrated in the middle of the dinning living room to keep the slumbering 16 year old from burning up and catching fire. (cue Beavis) Writing this week, has been minimal minus scribbling down a few notes. The reading from has been slightly more productive, but not by much. Spent a bit more time just hanging with the nephew before we send him back east on Thursday. Reading Churchill, left him in the year 1934. Hitler's Chancellor or freshly appointed. Probably pick that back up this week. Reading Salvatore's Orc King, mostly after work. Reading now after all the events in the last 2 books in Transitions and the first book in the Neverwinter arc, I realize that this is Salvatore/Drizzt's most depressig book. Not because we start to see the mortality of Drizzt and his Companions, since (and I could be wrong) at least 3 of them have been "dead" once before and Wulfgar came back from the Abyss. More interestlngly it's the fact that Drizzt's small journal entries , for lack of a better description, dwell mostly on the loss of old friends and the struggle to retain hope. Perhaps showing the aging of it's creator, or the simple fact that as time goes on and things change, even our closest friends may not be able to join you on the entire journey. What did work this week was my comic book run on Friday: The Winners: Detective Comics #881 wraps up Snyder's arc starring James Gordon (Jim) and his return to Gotham. The best endcap to the Batman titles pre DCnU. Touches on the past, but lets you nod your head to Dick Grayson's run as Batman. The other two batbooks I read: Batman & Robin 26 and Batman 773 were a bit flat, although the artist , GREG TOCCHINI, on Batman and Robin was stellar. Ultimate Fallout over takes Fear Itself. By the end of fallout six, I was really jazzed to see what the new Ultimate Spiderman and universe will look like post Peter Parker kicking it. Fear Itself feels like it's still simmering , waiting to boil. Seems like an odd perspective since their are 7 "villians" running around with giant hammers of the gods smashing shit, but I keep hearing about the events in the tie in books being more enjoyable. However, 2 more issues might up the ante enough to call it a solid impact miniseries. Transfomers #23, the Chaos story which is overtaking Transformers for the rest of 2011, could become thee Transformers event. For longtime fans, it was a series that was telling more interesting stories in the comics that have been put out by IDW, but this could truly move the characters beyond their earth , Cybertron focus and push them in a new direction. I've rambled too long. Until next time...Snarky for Prez!

Final thoughts on finished readings and a bit of Snarky

Where to begin? Maybe the fact that I've been up since 2:44 am (I think) for no damn good reason. Wanted to give you some thoughts, I only seem to ever get to posting on insomnia nights/mornings (7 am now).

On the reading front, I finished Robin Fox's Alexander the Great biography. What started off as a fairly interesting piece, but bogged down in the end. The author's goal is to impress upon the reader what is part of legend and what may be reasoned as fact, but it's done during the entire length of the book and by the end weighs down any impression of what Alexander had accomplished at the point in human history.
   The text might have been better suited to be turned into 2 parts: Alexander the Legend and Alexander the Man since we are so far removed from that time and the sources the author used have are  in dispute on some level. This book, I wouldn't recommend to someone just starting to learn about Alexander as I was, but someone who has read a different biography or two prior.

The more enjoyable text ended up being the old reliable Weiss & Hickman's Dragonlance: Chronicles omnibus since despite it's massive size as a single volume was  fast paced and full of more memorable moments than I remembered.

What am I reading now? On the Kindle, Churchill's The Gathering Storm , which already feels less of a burden than Alexander was , and more accessible since I grew up studying world war 2 , outside of school, since my grandfathers served in the war.

By the bedside, another old friend, R.A. Salvatore's The Orc King book is being reread for the first time a couple years. I may end up getting a Kindle version to replace my paperback since I realized recently how much they shrank and thinned the text size. Earlier books , the text was a bit larger and lettering a bit bolder which made it relaxing to read. This book feels like they tried to cram in more onto the page.

Lastly, "The Tao of Snarky" comic. Rattled of 3 pages, 1000+ quota for a future scene in issue 3. Outline is still hand written, but these were typed on the PC. I ended up shrinking down a jail scene from it's original 3-4 page length on an older draft, down to 2 pages, but used it to highlight what I intended it do all along. Scribbled out some notes on future events and ties that will play beyond this issue and larger story arc of the series.  Still pleased with the progress for today,all before 8 am PST.