WEDNESDAY
• Ben Templesmith (@Templesmith)
“Hello LA. You make me sad with all the fake boobs. Wish ladies would have more self esteem & guys would appreciate non cartoony breasts.”
Ben Templesmith is an artist from Australia. He’s a very talented and entertaining guy.

• MC Chris (@_MCChris)
“thanks guys! sucks to be alone on ur birthday n becuse of u guys I’m never alone. and mc lars is here. we’re watching muppets from space:)”
I love this guy’s music, and this guy loves his fans. He’s one of my favorite follows, week in and week out.

• Tim Fitzgerald (@LifeofFitz)
“One of my favorites from the Matt Walters on-air roast: You are to local talk radio what Tiger Woods is to marriage.”
Tim Fitzgerald owns the K-State sports magazine, “Powercat Illustrated.” I worked with him when I was in athletic media relations at Kansas State. Matt Walters was also a friend of mine during my K-State days.

THURSDAY
• Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone)
“Working on my 66 nova ss- got it up to 640 horses. it is insane but the power moves a mans soul , like a great woman can.”
Stallone tries to be deep, but mostly comes off as a guy trying to be deep. Still, he’s a fun follow.

My alma mater, Kansas State, scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to beat UCLA, 30-22, and North Dakota State, from just a couple of hours down the road, shocked Kansas, 6-3, in Lawrence.

I actually got to watch the K-State game; ABC was showing the Michigan-UConn game since Minnesota is in its Big Ten region, but thankfully ESPN2 stepped up and had the Wildcats. So not only did I get to watch K-State, I got to watch K-State in HD. It was a great afternoon, although as always I miss actually being at the games.

Great game to watch, but a note to all high school and junior college quarterbacks: There’s a job for you at Kansas State. Please call them and get recruited.

The post-game commentary for the Michigan game was hilarious, though. All you heard from ESPN was how huge a win that was for the Michigan program. Actually, no, that shows how pathetic Michigan is right now, when a win over Connecticut is considered a potential turning point for your program when you’re supposed to be competing for national titles. It just shows how far over the cliff they’ve fallen in the last few years.

Probably will take a break from football today and look forward to Boise State/Virginia Tech tomorrow night. That should be an excellent game.

I would’ve toughed it out with the USC/Hawaii game, but I just couldn’t do it. I quit on it at halftime and went to bed. As much fun as Hawaii’s offense is to watch, their defense was absolutely useless last night and they had no chance to get back into the game. USC wasn’t terribly impressive (despite Bob Davies’ ridiculous gushing over them); Hawaii was just that completely incapable of tackling anybody.

The Minnesota game was a joke. The Gophers dominated that game early and should’ve blown Middle Tennessee out of the stadium, but a second missed field goal in the second quarter deflated them and MTU actually held a lead at one point. That game easily could’ve ended up 31-17 and made it seem like Minnesota controlled it, but the Gophers were lucky to escape. It wasn’t a fun game to watch, and I’m glad Mel and I took a one-episode “True Blood” break in the middle.

Going to get some more football in tonight after everyone is in bed. I’m glad the games are back…

Kansas State vs UCLA on Saturday; there are still about a thousand tickets left, according to the alma mater. I wish I was closer to Manhattan so I could go. I haven’t seen a K-State football game live since the 2001 Cotton Bowl, which sucks – I miss football Saturdays in Manhattan so much…

So I’m skipping a week. It’ll hopefully be back on Sunday. Damn your dirty, evil soul, MarsEdit.

First, this silly little image is going to be a handout at Bemidji’s Women’s Expo; this will have a little fun-size bag of M&Ms stapled to it and it’ll be handed out at a presentation given by a couple of BSU staff members. There’s nothing to this, but it’s the first “design” assignment I’ve had at work in I have no idea how long, so I jumped at the chance to do it. I’d change some things if I had to do this again, but isn’t that always the case?

Second, I wrote this story about a lecture coming up on campus in September; a guy who spent 17 years at the Navy’s NCIS lab in San Diego as a forensic chemist is coming to speak during a meeting of the American Chemical Society’s local section. I liked the lead a lot.

Charlton Comic Guide (6.8 MB PDF)

Saturday, I finally got a chance to hit the theater to catch “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” and I absolutely loved it. Visuals, music, everything; it was a wonderful movie. I’d definitely go see it in the theaters again, and it’s a Day One buy on BluRay, for sure. Pay no heed to those reviewers who say “nobody over 30 will get it” or “nobody under 20 will get it,” for they are morons. I’m 38 and I can tell you without hesitation I thought it was fantastic, and Daughter the First is 12 and has already gone twice.

We’ve gone through some pretty good movies on DVD at home, too – even though we suffered through the absolutely horrid horror movie “Shallow Ground” on Sunday night, which didn’t make a shred of sense and had one of the stupidest endings you can possibly imagine for a low-budget bad horror movie, which is saying something.

Beyond that, we finally saw “Jennifer’s Body,” and neither Mel nor I can understand the hate for that movie; we both really liked it. It’s exactly what it was advertised to be – a schlocky, cheesy horror movie. But it was a schlocky, cheesy horror movie that was well-shot, well-acted and had some fun dialogue. I’m not sure what people were expecting out of this; we got exactly what we paid for, and we loved it.

Last night, we watched “Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s roller derby movie with Ellen Paige, and we both really liked it too even though we couldn’t really put our fingers on exactly why we liked it. It was just a different twist on the “find your place in the world” story you see in movies relatively frequently, and in the words of one of the sidebar characters from the film, “Why do you think I wouldn’t enjoy hot chicks in fishnets beating the crap out of each other?” Fun movie, great soundtrack, fun to look at. Definitely worth a rental.

We also saw Justin Timberlake’s “Alpha Dog,” and there really isn’t much to say about that movie; it just wasn’t very good. The pacing was screwed up, it wasn’t edited well, the key conflict in the plot was left completely unresolved, and it waffled back and forth in style between narrative and fake documentary to the point that neither aspect really worked, and they gave away the ending to the movie halfway through. It was bizarre; definite missed potential here, because this could’ve been a much better movie in the hands of more skilled filmmakers.

That taps out our movie supply for now. I think we’re going to watch “Susperia” on Netflix tonight, which I’m excited about. I’ve seen this classic horror movie a few times, but not for several years. Can’t wait to watch it again…

Sunday
Rick Remender (@Remender)
“I don’t say it enough, but you’re all terrible monsters. Nature made many sad mistakes in each of you. Down with nature!”
Rick Remender is a writer; I haven’t been following him long, a week or two maybe, but he’s very entertaining.

Monday
Scottie Young (@skottieyoung)
“My taste in art is like cooking. Many people do it well but the ones that take risks and add big bold flavor keep me coming back for more.”
Skottie Young is a comic book artist.

Nathan Cosby (@NateCosboom)
“33rd year anniversary of the Government feeding us the lie that Elvis is “dead.” Give it up, Government! I had lunch with him last week.”
Nathan is an editor at Marvel Comics.

Laura Samnee (@LauraSamnee)
“Is there some sort of minimum amount of cologne rule for car salesmen?  It smells like a middle school dance in here.”
Laura is the wife of comic book artist Chris Samnee; Chris is currently drawing the hell out of Thor: The Mighty Avenger.

Wednesday
Gail Simone (@GailSimone)
Gail is a writer; she and I had a brief exchange on Wednesday about this Dr. Laura situation regarding a certain very bad word. It went like this:
Gail: “I love all the apologists for Dr. Laura, trying to say, “She has a point.” Let me help. No, she doesn’t.”
Me: “Of course she does; the double-standard surrounding that particular word is absurd. If it’s bad, it’s bad. If it’s OK, it’s OK.”
Me: “It can’t be simultaneously egregious and a badge of honor.”
Gail: “Did you read the entire transcript, including what she said before and after?”
Gail: “It can’t? OF COURSE IT CAN. That’s the myth of the value neutral viewpoint, that one opinion, the viewer’s, is the baseline.”
Me: “No; she may full-well be a nutjob. Not the point, really; double standard surrounding that word is an issue regardless.”
Gail: “Read the transcript. Be informed.”
Me: “Fair enough; I will do this. Will report back if my opinion changes. ”
Me, later: “Read transcript; thought about this more; came up with a morally-equivalent situation…”
“…that for some reason never occurred to me previously. I can now see the argument for “OK for us, bad for you” even though…”
“…I think the world would still be a better place if that word would just disappear altogether.”

I really enjoyed this; she made me think, and I came up with answers to a situation that I hadn’t come up with on my own previous to this. And, hey, I had a conversation with Gail Simone. So, thanks, Gail.

Friday
Brandon Jerwa (@jerwa)
“There’s an otherwise-tiny young woman here wearing a gray top over her EXTREMELY pregnant belly. She looks like the Death Star.”
Brandon Jerwa is a writer, and we share a common hometown.

Tommy Patterson (@TommyFPatterson)
“If I were a whore that could cast spells I’d use Ho-cus Poke-us exclusively.”
Tommy Patterson is an artist. This is one of the frequent laugh-out-loud moments I get as a result of following him.

Tim Fitzgerald (@LifeofFitz)
“@WhitlockJason Just to be clear, when I get liquored up and kiss my male employees on the neck IT IS in the sexual way. Giddy up.”
Tim Fitzgerald is the editor of Powercat Illustrated, a fan magazine covering Kansas State University sports. I worked with him during my days in the K-State athletic department.