Jamie Wakefield

"Alternate routes" will continue shortly. We now pause for a brief rant and some advice. So, I just got my hands on "Ultimates" volume three. I LOVED Mark Millar's Ultimates volume one and two. So... just... Oh my God... so GOOD! I was very excited to find Ultimates volume three. I opened it up to see that Jeff Lobe (intentionally misspelled) was the writer. "Well, this will be crap" I thought. And I was right. Considering all the success "Jeff" has had, I think he can take a little bashing and I'm sorry for saying such things about another human being. Honestly, how does this guy get work? How does he continue working? I can't name a single story this guy has ever written that I enjoyed in thirty years of comic reading. Look, this is the guy who wrote "Commando" and "Teen-Wolf." I frikkin hate this guy's writing, and yet not only does he continue to have success writing comics (and by success I mean never actu

Usually we fly Delta or Continental. These guys are located in the “old” airport. As Madrid has grown over the years they have added an expansion wing that is ten minutes down the road but very modern. Sorry, let’s go back to Delta and Continental. Every time we have flown them the plane is full. The plane leaves at about eleven in the morning. We arrive at nine a.m. and there is a line of two hundred people waiting to board and two (TWO!) people dealing with arrivals. “Where did all these people come from? My God, if only we had known months in advance that customers would fill up the plane! All these people must have bought their tickets yesterday! If only we had known we could have put more people on to receive and process them!” Idiots. Every time. Despite arriving two hours ahead of schedule, we always barely make it through security and barely make it onto our plane in time. After our last trip on Delta, we swore not to fly an American carrier again. There just HAS to be a better

It all happened so fast. I was in the rectory; this priest came in and the next thing I know… Wait, that’s a whole other story. It all happened so fast. I was in Madrid, then I was home, and two days later I was in Madrid again. It was awesome. We are planning on having some work done on my house this spring. We spoke to three different contractors before finally settling on “The Kid.” The first was an older guy who didn’t do email, didn’t know a thing about computers, didn’t know drafting, but had a good reputation. He had some good ideas but put us off in a couple of ways. “I can’t picture what you’re describing for this room; can you draw it out for us?” We give him a pencil and a sheet of paper. He makes a rough sketch that illustrates what he means. We get the idea but we might as well have handed him construction paper and crayons his drawing is so bad. We’re going to be having work done in four rooms. All while we’re in Madrid. We are going to need to see what he is proposing be

Transcribing notes this week. It is going to take me forever to get these done. They're coming out well though. Here's one I think you'll like from Quito. (This is first draft, it will be revised a dozen times before I submit it for publication.) We wander around for a bit and Wendy reads from the guidebook about some historic buildings, but nothing really noteworthy. It starts to rain, like it has every day in the afternoon since we’ve been here, so we make our way inside to a food court. Now, this is interesting. It’s three stories in a square with multiple restaurants and one large gift shop. In the center of this little enclosed plaza is a four tiered fountain with all four tiers covered in roses. We make our way to the third floor to a nice looking restaurant and ask the hostess if we can have a table just for drinks. “Oh yes, no problem.” As she leads us to a table she tells us “You should know we’re having a special offer where if you order a bottle of this specific

As requested. Army magic was a variant that the old "Team Quarterstaff" invented years ago and I published an article about it in Scrye. Army Magic: A Multi-Player Variant By Jamie C. Wakefield Axelrod Gunnarson glared out over his barbarous and supernatural army. The foul smelling Karplusan Yeti’s; the Sengir Vampires flying high above; the myriad wizards, clerics and monsters that made up his forces. How the Angels and the Elves held out for so long against him was vexing and inconceivable. He had long ago crushed Palladia-Mors and his Goblins and Dragons. Soon after that, he had defeated the nigh unstoppable Lord of Tresserhorn and his army of Merfolk, Doppelgangers, and Zombies. But still Asmira and her Angels resisted him. If only he could lure them away from her accused Castle, he would have them! But as long as she and her followers remained behind the mystic walls there was little his army could do. For now he would have to wait, and plan. There are many variations fo

There is a thing going around Facebook right now which is a note called "25 random things about me." Everyone fills it out and you get to learn more about your friends and former classmates. I've enjoyed reading other peopls's notes and finally did one of my own. It garnered a good response so I thought I would post it here for those people who don't use Facebook or aren't one of my friends on that site. For those of you who have already read this, sorry. I'm transcribing over four hundred notes from South America this week and really need to get them done so I don't have time to do an original update. And the add image button isn't working either... Life hasn't changed much. Still doing private Spanish lessons with Montse, have a dentists appointment at four today (yay) and hoping to get a run in. Wendy has a new intern here for two months so we're back to three beautiful professional women at the end of the house while I sit here in my co

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2007. Oprah book club selection. Garbage. A couple disclaimers. I have a feeling this review will garner the same type of response I used to get when I reviewed Green when a new Magic set came out. Some people will get pissed at me for expressing an opinion. Don’t. It’s just my opinion. Relax. I’m going to insult the book, not you. The other disclaimer is, I am going to tell you major portions of the book and even talk about the ending. If you want to believe the hype and read this book, don’t read this. Or go read the book (takes about 3 hours) and come back. That said – It is set in a post apocalyptic Earth. Either the effects of a nuclear war or a meteor hitting the Earth because everything is covered in ash and dust. So, it’s either a nuclear winter or simulates one. The planet hasn’t seen the sun in years. All the animals have been killed. Crops do not grow. The only thing to eat is canned goods, or other people. Most of th

UFC : Just watched Brock Lesnar vs Heath Herring again. Brock Lesnar is ENORMOUS. Heath Herring is 230 lbs and looked like a child next to him. Imagine Rich Franklin fighting Diego Sanchez. Sanchez is probably the better fighter by a small margin, but there’s just no way in hell he is going to beat a guy who outweighs him by that much. The days of heavyweights weighing 230 lbs (Cro Cop, Randy Couture) and being competitive are over. There is no way in hell a guy 230 lbs and a little flabby can beat a guy who weighs 285 lbs and is solid muscle. Sure, he can if their skill set is vastly different, (Fedor) but if they are even close in skill level, the bigger guy wins every time. Cain Valasquez is 245 lbs and an up and coming prospect. Undefeated in six fights. TKO in the first round in five of them. He has some flab around the middle. I suggest he cut down to 205. The future belongs to Lesnar, Carwin and guys like them. The guys who have wrestling pedigrees, hands the size of small plan