Making Comics by Scott McCloud

It's that lovely time of year when the university pays me to take Friday afternoons off, so I decided to take full advantage of the first afternoon off. I found out that it was the only Friday of the summer that I'm not blocked from going to Disneyland, so I invited my mom to go with me for the afternoon. We went to California Adventure. Most of the attractions had short waiting lines, and the weather was great. We walked through lots of areas that I hadn't really bothered checking out in the past. I really liked the giant waterfall above the water rapids ride because it seemed so real. We basically walked around every part of the park. I enjoyed rumbling across the bridges in the redwood trail area. I haven't been on a rope bridge in a long time! That night, Ric and I took it easy because we had a long day planned the next day. Ric fell asleep early, so I watched Papillon.

On Saturday morning, Ric went with Rob to a make-your-own-brew class in Long Beach. I think they learned some things, but found the waiting time a little bit boring. Ric left early and didn't get back until an hour before we had to get ready for our evening, so he took a nap. I spent the morning sleeping and the afternoon piddling around the house, putting things away, watching tv, doing some spot painting, dislodging part of the bathroom vanity from the wall and cabinet, and scraping glue off the tub where the glass shower doors used to be. We took off in the afternoon to pick up some money and food, and we drove out to the LA Zoo parking lot to meet my sister and take the shuttle to the Hollywood Bowl to see The Cure. The band played for over three hours! And even still, there were so many songs we wanted to hear that we didn't. Our highlights were From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea and The Kiss. They played a lot of hits and plenty of songs from all of their albums across the years, as well as a few songs that will be on their new album. The band is definitely a little bit older, and it seems like we were one of the earlier dates on the tour, because it could have been a little bit tighter, and we were missing the presence of the keyboards (this tour is called the Four Tour because they are touring without a keyboardist). Even still, their music is amazing and a Cure show is always worth the money. We drove home in a record 35 minutes, by the way. That's from LA by the 134 to Whittier. OH yeah.

On Sunday we went to church, yet again to be rocked by our pastor, who is really telling it like it is these days. Afterwards, we were going to have a good free (gift cards!) meal at Outback Steakhouse with the Andersons, but when we got there we found out it doesn't open until 2pm. What kind of restaurant doesn't cater to the Sunday church crowd? Crazy! So we caravaned to the Elephant Bar and spent a couple of hours there. In the afternoon I shopped online for bathroom items for the renovations Ric is doing, with no luck (but better luck was had today at lunch). Then I drove over to Cyndi's and we went out to the Block for a movie screening. Last time I went I saw Kung Fu Panda. This time I saw Alien Trespass. Let's just say you can't win them all. I've never seen so many people leave the theater during a free movie. When I went home, Ric was making popcorn, so I buckled and made cookies, and we watched Arrested Development together for a few hours.

Up this week: much-needed grocery shopping, the in-laws come home from Scotland, movie night, a dinner with the Andersons, and hopefully a trip to the cheap theater as well.

abc7.com: Cause of Universal Studios fire unknown; fire consumed back lot soundstage 6/02/08

The fire started on New York Street and rapidly burned building facades and spread to Courthouse Square, which was featured in "Back to the Future".

The building that housed the King Kong exhibit was a total loss.

Wow, this is pretty crazy. I always loved the King Kong attraction. I'm glad I got to go on it last summer. Hopefully the Back to the Future sets are salvageable as it was always cool to see them. Another article said the clock tower was pretty badly damaged. It could have been a lot worse as far as injuries go, but this is a pretty heavy blow to Universal. So long, Kong. We'll miss you and your banana breath.

The first stage of the move is complete. Since I can't move into my new place until the 6th and I had to be out of my place on the 31st I had to move my stuff into a storage unit. Thanks to the help of Phil we were able to get that done on Saturday. Most of Sunday was spent cleaning. Being the last roommate in the apartment and having to clean up everything really, really sucks. I'm just glad it's over. Moving stuff from storage to the apartment shouldn't be that bad at all since we'll have a couple extra people and my stuff is nice and organized. Also, there won't be any cleaning involved. I hope you all had a good weekend!

The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail: The Misguided Quest to Destroy Your Faith by Becky Garrison