A Rush and a Push...

I haven't posted in a couple weeks. Not that I haven't been busy, but its just been more of the same. I thought about posting about Sen. Barack Obama's speech last week, but what can I say that hasn't been said already? It was amazing and he inspires me. I'll take hope over fear any day of the week.

I posted the fourth issue of my fan fiction project last weekend. I'm still having a blast with it and those who comment on it generally have only positive things to say. I'm finally at the part where I can stop rearranging the house and start making the title my own.







Antony and I recorded the second episode of X-Addiction on Sunday and it's currently available for download. We clocked in a little over two hours, but we crammed in a ton of content. All killer, no filler. It's a monthly show, so I don't feel too bad about it running long. The regular Comic Addiction Podcast keeps trucking along every week. We've got some potential guests lined up to interview so that should be fun. I'm still cranking out about three or four reviews a week as well as editing other writers' work, so I'm keeping busy with the site.

Old Man has a show on Saturday at the Rudyard Kipling. I'm looking forward to that, but I wonder how it'll sound. The Rud had its PA stolen last month. I'm not sure if it has been replaced or not, so I'm going in this a little in the dark. I figured they'd let us know if we had to provide our own.

I'm still addicted to Team Fortress 2. I couldn't wait for the updates on the XBox version (due out by the end of the year), so I started playing it on my laptop. It's not as smooth (due to limitations of my computer) and I'd rather use a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard, but it's still a blast. You can have a game with twice as many people on the PC version, so it gets pretty crazy.

I Follow Where My Mind Goes

Apparently, podcasting once a week for The Comic Addiction isn't enough. Fellow editor and X-Men junkie, Antony Ellis and I have started a monthly spin-off podcast called X-Addiction. We get together over Skype and discuss the previous month's worth of X-Men related comic books. The first episode went fairly smoothly and has met with enthusiasm by a few of our regular listeners.

The guys that run the Uncanny X-Cast podcast seemed a little miffed at first. I guess having two of their most loyal, longtime listeners, who have been extremely active on the message board, decide to take on an endeavor that could be perceived as direct competition might be little unsettling. Antony and I felt that we reached the limit of what we could do as X-Men fans through the Uncanny X-Cast and felt that X-Addiction was a natural progression for us. Also, Editor-in-Chief Chris Partin and I had been talking about new ways to expand the regular podcast and this seemed like a perfect outgrowth.

We chose the end of July to launch since it coincides with the new status quo for the X-Books. The team moved out the San Francisco and this was reflected in Uncanny X-Men #500 and Astonishing X-Men #25. Also, X-Factor starts its first storyline since that team moved to Detroit with issue #33. This makes it a good month for new readers to take a look at the X-Books, so it was a nice fit.

Sticking to a monthly schedule may be a problem. I have a feeling there will be a push for us to go twice a month after a while. I'm having a ton of fun podcasting for both shows, but I don't want to burn out. I'll worry about that when it happens.