Pleasantly surprised by a fun adventure story with great art.

I’m enjoying it [The Flash] a lot. I really wasn’t expecting to – I’m a Wally West fan myself, so Barry Allen’s return felt forced and unnecessary. Yes, the series was broken post-Infinite Crisis, but in the words of another Geoff Johns story, just because something’s broken doesn’t mean you throw it away.

Worse, Flash: Rebirth really annoyed me on a lot of levels. I was at the point where I figured if the new series was going to be like Rebirth, I wasn’t interested in reading it. Fortunately I gave it a chance, and was pleasantly surprised by a fun adventure story with great art.

On Reddit

After they defeated the Adversary, I completely lost interest in Fables.

Responding to a thread about which long-running comics you’ve stopped reading.

After they defeated the Adversary, I completely lost interest in Fables. I tried to keep going. I think I read another four issues or so, about to the point where someone released the Sealed Evil In A Can, and kept buying them for a few months after that. Once I realized I wasn’t reading it anymore, I dropped it entirely.

Continuity

I had a longer comment, but I think it all boils down to this:

  1. Long-term fans like to be reminded of the stories that got us hooked (our own personal “golden age.”)
  2. A lot of the writers, artists, and editors making comics started out as fans, especially since the 1980s.
  3. The industry does not want to lose readers. (Maybe they don’t know how to replace them with new readers, or don’t want to chance it, or maybe they’ve just prioritized keeping the current readership over bringing in new people.)

That said, some stories are a lot more accessible than others – even with the same character and the same writer. Geoff Johns’ Flash: Rebirth miniseries was steeped in 60 years of Flash mythology. His first story arc on the new ongoing pared it down and made a point of establishing everything you needed to know for that story as if it were just being introduced for the first time.

UCI Student Center: Then and Now

UC Irvine Student Center: Then and Now

Composite of two photos of the University of California, Irvine Student Center: One taken in 1997, the other in 2007.

The biggest difference (aside from the time of day) is that the Student Center itself was torn down and replaced with a new complex, which is why I focused on the center area for the cut-out. The Irvine Barclay Theatre, Administration Building and Student Services II, ring road, and the office building in the distance are all still there.

See also my write-up about taking the second photo.

Not a Rainbow

Feathery Not-a-Rainbow

An amazing circumhorizon arc that I saw last May. I had just crossed the street while walking to lunch when I looked up, saw it…and walked back to the office to get my camera!

It started out as just a couple of small segments, but as the clouds drifted into position it quickly grew, and at its strongest it was just long enough to fill the field of view on my camera. There were also a couple of fragments of a 22° circular halo visible at the time.

It looks like a sort of straightened-out rainbow, but it’s actually caused by ice crystals. If the right type of crystals cover the entire sky, this will actually stretch in a circle all the way around the sky, parallel to the horizon.

At times like this, I really wish I had a DSLR, but the point-and-shoot will do in a pinch.

Location: Irvine, California. May 14, 2010, 1:30pm