Urban jungle

Photo taken with Instagram

Waffles

Photo taken with Instagram

Mini DD

Photo taken with Instagram

No Puffin

Photo taken with Instagram

Arrested Development: Chicken Dance

And now, a compilation of chicken dances from one of my favorite TV comedies, Arrested Development:

"Dark Knight" coffee

Love Batman. Check. Love coffee. Check. Love puns. Oh yeah!

Check out more entries at The Warehouse.

Batman on evil...

Photo taken with Instagram

Congratulations Darth Vader

I've enjoyed pretty much all of the How It Should Have Ended videos, but this one seemed particularly appropriate with the recent Blu-ray release of the Star Wars series:

Super MBTA World

Thanks to Universal Hub who shared this bit of video game art from Circle Cat Games:

Halt Mutants!

X-Men: First Class recently came out on DVD/Blu-Ray, and while I have really enjoyed all the X-Men movies to hit the big screen (with the exception of X3), I would love to see the X-men take on a Sentinel in a future film.

They're kind of like a more violent version of the Kool-Aid man.

Anyone who grew up watching X-Men: The Animated Series in the 90's will not only immediately have the theme song stuck in their head (see video below), but remember these giant mutant-hunting robots as the first opponent the team faced in the first episode. Oh yea, and here's a 20-year-old spoiler for you, but team member Morph doesn't quite make it out of the skirmish alive...but don't worry, he returns to life in a later season, as X-Men are prone to do in the comics.

Speaking of dead mutants, one of my favorite stories that feature the Sentinels is Days of Future Past, a two-part story set in a dystopian future where the majority of mutants and super-heroes have been eradicated and the survivors are held in an internment camp. Check out this great cover from Uncanny X-Men #142:

In the meantime, Hasbro is making this comic-accurate repaint available at BigBadToystore.com in November 2011. The Sentinel toy collectible stands at 16 inches and is priced at $59.99, basically tugging at the heartstrings (and wallets) of X-Men fans all-around.

Photo: Desk friends

Photo taken with instagram.

Photo: Obnoxiously Red

Photo taken with instragram.

Recent experiences and musings on social media

Is it really the second Friday of September already? The first full week of the month brought Boston plenty of cool weather and rain, so while I'm sure many of the new students and residents may be regretting their recent move, there's at least a relatively warm weekend and pleasant weather to look forward to.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share a some random tidbits on some  of the apps and programs I've been using as of late, all of which include an aspect of social media:

• Announcing Blogger App for iOS - This was just announced on Thursday, September 8, and I coincidentally searched for a Blogger app Friday morning without reading the article. While this blog provides a great medium to practice and hone my writing skills, I'm hoping the mobile app will aid in capturing ideas that are sparked during my commute or on the go. I've only used it for about 10-15 minutes, but so far so good.
• I love Google and all, but have still yet to embrace Google+. From what I can see, it at least has given friends who have abandoned Facebook an outlet to share updates to a more select group of people, though FB is desperately updating their functionality to do the same. I think it will be interesting to see where both sites wind up by the end of 2011.
• Grooveshark has been a great addition to my bookmarks for mixing up the available music I have at my work computer. I'm playing with Spotify on my home computer as well and both have been great legal ways to check out new albums and artists. Digging Andrew Bird's album Noble Beast, Hillsong Live's God is Able, as well as made a killer 80's pop playlist that is my love letter to Magic106.7.
• Instagram has been a nice outlet for times where I want to quickly capture a moment in time...and by "moment", I usually mean "food". I'm still uploading a backlog of past Instagram photos and hopefully will be sharing some more recent ones soon. I barely take pictures at events and would much rather catch up with a friend or get to know a new person, and while no means do I consider this art, I've always enjoyed photos as a way to relive and remember a fond memory. Happy Friday

I would love to hear any of your thoughts or experiences with the apps and programs above. Please consider dropping me a line in the Comments section or by email.

Photo: Glouchester, MA

Photo taken with instragram.

Comics Alliance: Post-It Note Video Game Art

That's one menacing Bowser

Comics Alliance: Post-It Note Art Destroys Productivity With Awesome 8-Bit Recreations

Absolutely brilliant! The author of the article does make a great point though by asking what one does with a black post-it note...

Goodbye summer!

Labor Day weekend is upon us, and for many this means the end of summer. Summer dresses, cargo shorts, and flip flops - thank you for keeping us cool in these past few months.  While it is a time for goodbyes, with friends moving out of Boston and onto new locations for work and school, it is also a time for new beginnings.

Juneau, Alaska

Even though I didn't hit the beach at all this summer, I will fondly remember the natural beauty we were surrounded by on our cruise to Alaska. It was also a great time to catch up on some some fiction and relax.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Super-villain redesigns

I stumbled across this article from Comics Alliance yesterday showcasing the wonderful comic art of Kris Anka. I was particularly struck by some of the amazing redesigns he gave to some of Marvel's classic villains. Here are a few of my favorites:

Thanos

First up is Thanos, who I was introduced to pretty early on in my exposure to comics, specifically in the 1991 limited series The Infinity Gauntlet. In short, Thanos obtains a weapon that allows him to kill half the universe (yes, not just Earth, the whole freakin' UNIVERSE) and all of the heroes have to team up to stop him...and pretty much die trying.

Remember guys, he's big-boned ok?

Seeing as how Thanos is all in love with Death, I'm glad no one's done a Goth redesign

Anka had this to say about the design:

"this is my attempt to un-cornify thanos. i love the character from a concept view, but i always felt he was just plagued by his costume and treatment so he was never fully realized as a huge cosmic threat as he should be.

i brought in the hood motif to try to tie him more visually with death"

Galactus

Ah yes, Galactus, Devourer of Worlds! Not only does his redesign give a nice modern look to the cosmic bad boy, his look is functional as well:

"My basic idea is that he is sort of a void of power. Make him a more visual representation of the “abstract” concept. The hole in his chest is where he eats planets. Afterwards his body physically becomes whatever main element of that planet was. So if he eats a star, his body becomes fire."

No one rocks the purple like the G-man

This would fit right into an anime series, maybe one called "Evangelion"

Kang the Conqueror

Last up is Kang the Conqueror. A foe of the Avengers, Kang is basically bored of living in a utopian future and needs to get his war on. If only he just watched a copy of Fight Club, he would avoid having some of the most confusing/frustrating stories:

Kang doing his best impression of the caterpillar from "Alice in Wonderland"

Nothing says "the future" like glowing Tron-lines

Check out more of Kris Anka's awesome art over at his personal blog sockdrawer.