E: Elongated Man

E 

is for Elongated Man. Yes...you read that right...Elongated....Man.

Ralph Dibney, the Stretchable Sleuth, fought crime under, perhaps, the worst superhero name out there....The Elongated Man.

Partially created by D.C. Comics editor Julius Schwartz, it's said that Schwartz didn't realize that the company owned the rights to the name Plastic Man (having bought the old Quality line that previously owned the name) or he would have never used the name "Elongated Man". I tend to believe that story. EM was created as a supporting character for The Flash and wound up getting backup stories in the Fastest Man Alive's book. He and his wife, Sue, would travel the country in a convertible, looking for odd mysteries to solve.

Just how does one go about becoming a silly putty superhero? Well, in Dibney's case, he was always fascinated with the Indian rubber men he had seen at carnivals and wanted to emulate their contortion skills. Why....I have no idea.

Anyway...

Doing some research, he found that they all drank a juice extracted from the root of a plant found in the Yucatan...the gingo plant. They used the plant to make an elixir called Gingold. Figuring out a way to make his own, he drank it with incredible results. He found he could stretch his body in a way more extreme manner then the 'rubber men' he had seen at the carnivals. Later on, his origin was amended to include that he had a "meta gene" that interacted with the Gingold, giving him his spectacular results.

Sounds plausible to me...

Known for twitching his nose when he 'smelled' a mystery (it was his trademark), Ralph was a skilled detective, but usually took a backseat to Batman because.....well...he's Batman!  it's also said that he was one of the first Silver Age heroes to reveal his identity to the public and marry his love interest. Regardless, though, Ralph was a pretty popular character, just saddled with a cornball name.

One of the reasons, I think, that Dibney was such a popular character was that many of his stories featured not only him..., but his wife as well. Sue Dibney was Ralph's anchor and kept him grounded in a world where they knew people who could fly, create objects with power rings, or breathe underwater. The pair were very reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man films. They had that sort of repartee that a lot of couples, married or not, could identify with.

D.C. decided to kill Sue Dibney in the Identity Crisis series, leaving Ralph a husk of a man.....the happy go lucky, joke cracking, Elongated Man was gone.

Ralph reappeared in the maxi-series 52, looking for a way to bring Sue back from the dead. At the end of the series, Ralph finally figures out something that many of his friends had been telling him....Sue wasn't coming back. 

Finally resigned to his fate, Ralph comes across a 'wish granting' gun (hey, I didn't make it up) and wishes to be reunited with his wife....even in death. Thus brings the end to the Elongated Man, but was the birth of Ralph and Sue Dibney....Ghost Detectives.

I wonder if they've ever come across Doctor Occult? I'll have to look that one up. Hmmm...

Check back tomorrow as we fly high with a real cool cat.

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During the month of April, for the sake of trying to keep my posts brief,  I'm going to be putting my Healthy Writers Club entries on hiatus. 

Never fear, all you health nuts, I'll be resuming my HWC posts the first Friday in May and I'm going to have some interesting news to share.

Stay tuned!

The Healthy Writer's Club

I mentioned, on Wednesday, that I had some pretty cool news regarding my health/fitness journey. It's a journey I've been struggling a bit lot with lately....not really sure why except to say I've been pretty lacking in the motivation department.

As with a lot of areas of life and like a lot of us, I tend to run hot and cold with things. One day I'll really be into it...the next....meh. This, though....this really grabbed my attention and speaks to the core of why many of us struggle with weight loss and getting fit.

It's about eating right.

Or...

It's about eating, right?

In either case, I think the answer is a resounding 'Yes!'.

When I was younger I wouldn't have much of a problem eating what I wanted and in whatever quantities I wanted. I also had a younger metabolism backing me up.

That 'young guy metabolism' has headed south, so now it's not just about exercising.....it's about how much and what, exactly, I put into my body. I've never been one to "diet" and have always been of the "eat what I want and just work it off" mindset.

My wife, who is always looking for new ways for us to get healthy, sent me a link for a website called Hungry For Change. It's all about the poisons we're literally putting into our bodies and what they're doing to us. It's a pretty powerful documentary which you can watch from the website (you have to register) or, if you have Netflix Streaming, you can watch it HERE.

Last Sunday we watched it and it really impressed me, for two reasons. The first was that the people giving the information had all been there. Most of them were chronically overweight or had other ailments that forced them to look to alternatives to help, in some cases, save their lives. They weren't "models" or "fitness gurus" or folks who were blessed with that 'young person's metabolism' trying to sell you something. They had been there and had done that.

Experience is a great teacher.

The other thing that impressed me was that they weren't selling anything. They were laying the information out there and you could use it (or ignore it) as you saw fit. It wasn't 'preachy', it was just plain, matter of fact, talk based on common sense and research.

Honestly, it really opened my eyes to just what, exactly, I've been putting into my body. I'm, usually, very skeptical of these sorts of things but what they were saying made an awful lot of sense.

That night, after watching, we went and bought a juicer and have been stocking up on fruits and veggies.

The first concoction we tried was from the recipe book (included)....an apple, carrot, celery mix.

I know it looks a bit....odd, but it was really good. Oranges from a juicer is awesome, I just have to say. We also tried a few other recipes, adding things like cilantro, kale, and parsley  A word of warning, though, a little of those goes a long way taste-wise  We did a tomato, carrot, celery mix and threw in some kale...and it wound up being too much. It had an "earthy" taste, as my wife described it, but I thought it tasted like grass.

What? You've never eaten grass before?

Anyway, we decided to try a 'mini-detox' type of thing this past Wednesday where we'd just drink water (a LOT of water) and juice a bunch of stuff. The documentary talks about trying to do this every so often to clean the system out of heavy metals (mercury) and such that stick with us in the processed foods we eat. We wound up 'amending' the 'fast' just a bit....having some salad, fruit, and gluten free cheese to get us over the rough patches but, all in all, we did pretty well. We plan on doing another next week.

Trust me when I say I've never been the 'hippie' type, but a lot of the things this documentary was saying made a lot of sense. It really opened my eyes to a lot of things and gave a lot of food for thought....no pun intended....o.k, it was intended, but still....

The most important thing, though, was that it helped in motivating me and getting my mind right. A healthy mindset is the first and most important step in the road to getting fit, in my view.

If you get the time/inclination, give this a watch and see if it doesn't change (or start to change) your view on processed food, eating, and nutrition.

I know it did mine.

This has been a post (obviously) for The Healthy Writer's Club, hosted by Shallee McArthur.

Any health/fitness goals in your future? If so, how are you doing with them? Ever tried juicing?

Have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

Random Ramblings

What does the picture above have to do with this post? Nothing,I just like it :)

I really enjoyed Monday's blog hop and want to thank Alex J. Cavanaugh, again, for hosting. It was a great time and I was reminded of a lot of movies that I hadn't thought of for a long time.

You guys had some great top ten lists, for sure.

I'd also like to thank all of you who stopped by and commented. I apologize if I didn't get back to everyone and, if I didn't make it to your list, please don't be offended...I gave it the old college try (because I went to an old college).

Anyway, not much going on today and I'll probably keep things brief after Monday's festivities so here goes...

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I mentioned on Friday about Google Reader going the way of the dodo on July 1st and that I was looking into some alternatives. I checked a few out and a couple of them looked decent, but had a limit on how many blogs you could follow...which wouldn't work for me. Another wanted you to pay and the other wasn't taking any new accounts.

So, I decided to give one of the best of the free readers (in my opinion) a shot.

I've been using Feedly for about four or five days and have had pretty good results. It's pretty user friendly and imports all your subscriptions with just a few clicks. After some finagling, I managed to get it looking like the Google Reader template (if that's what you're going for), but you could also configure it a few other ways, too.

 If you're a Chrome user, it also has a little, handy dandy, extension for your convenience.

Now, I'm not married to this reader (my wife wouldn't like that) so if you know of something that works better and is free, please let me know!

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In other "news", I saw this on Google Plus (see, you should be using it!) and thought it was pretty cool. It also ties in with Monday's blog hop as a lot of people had Star Wars (or sequels) in their top ten.

The cast of the Star Wars films, spanning the six episodes. I don't think I've seen the kid who played young Annakin since he did the film.

Small gripe here, besides them including Jar Jar ahem, but I think Lucas should be sitting on the other side by Fischer, Ford, and Hamill. I mean, that's where it all started so it only makes sense.

Right?

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On Friday's I've been trying to do a post for The Healthy Writer's Club, which I think is a fantastic idea and want to stay on board with. Last Friday, though, I purposely excluded doing an entry because I hadn't really done anything of note and didn't want to post excuses as to why I hadn't done anything of note.

This Friday, though, I'll have something pretty cool to talk about relating to THWC so tune in then for the skinny....figuratively speaking, of course :)

Google Plus....the 'New' Facebook? / The Healthy Writer's Club

With Facebook seemingly facing a new privacy issue at each turn, it's no wonder that people would begin looking for new social media alternatives....and that's where Google Plus comes in.

That was one of the main reasons I started using G-Plus. I was concerned over Facebook's weekly 'privacy tweaks' and the fact that they tracked your browsing habits even when you weren't on your FB page. If I didn't have friends and family so reluctant to try something besides it, I would have cancelled my Facebook account years ago. For me, Google Plus wound up being the best alternative.

In my view, Google Plus is kind of like Twitter on steroids. <Flex!>

You can post a sentence, a paragraph, or even longer. There was a time where I was posting things I would consider "blog worthy" (meaning length-wise) on G-Plus, on a fairly regular basis.

It also allows posting links, pictures and videos. Anything you could post on Facebook, you can post on G-Plus and without all the little annoyances, such as "game spam". Google Plus has games, but all the requests, etc., are relegated to the "games" page and not your main "feed" or "stream".

The concept of "friending" is also easier and makes organizing a snap. Set up a circle, put who you want in there, and only they can see your posts as long as you post to that circle. You can also post "public" for the world (or, in this case, the cyber world) to see or to all your circles at once.

One of the best features is that someone can follow you without you having to follow them back and vice versa. Of course, if you don't want to follow someone who doesn't follow you, the Uncircle Uncirclers extension (for Chrome) can let you know who's not following you back...if it matters that much to you.

The "trick" to using G-Plus, if there is such a thing, is that you should use it as you use Twitter. Sure, pimp your stuff, but also take the time to interact with the people who follow you. That, needless to say, is the "social" aspect of social media. It's not just all about your book, your blog, or your writing. If you don't have time to comment on a post, the "+1" feature lets them know that, at least, you were there. I still look for the nonexistent "+1" button when I see other people's comments on blogs...

There are also a few handy Chrome extensions that can make your G-Plus experience all the easier.

Circle Count gives you more information than you probably want to know about your circles, who follows you, who has shared you in a circle, how many +1s you get, what's your best day and time to post, etc. It's extremely handy if you're interested in all the numbers.

Do Share gives you the ability to write a post, save it, and put it up at a later date and time...even if you're not there.

Facebook Disconnect stops Facebook, as well as third party sites, from tracking your browsing habits. As an added precaution, I log out after any of my rare visits to FB Land.

There's a ton more to G-Plus and, for the sake of brevity, I'm only scratching the surface here. For my money, Google Plus is every bit as viable as Facebook (more so, in my opinion) as a great social media platform.

If you find yourself over on G-Plus, drop by and say hi.

Friday usually means another installment of The Healthy Writer's Club where we post about fitness, eating healthy, working out, etc., from a writer's point of view. Unfortunately I don't have much to report on this week. If anything, I feel as if I took a few steps back as I haven't even been keeping up to date over at MyFitnessPal.

While I'm not discouraged, I'm a bit disappointed in myself and my total lack of motivation. Just this very evening, though, my wife sent me a link to something that really got her energized about eating better and developing some healthier habits. After I watch it, I'll post what I thought about it.


Are you on Google Plus?

If so, how do you think it compares to Facebook?

If you're not on G-Plus, why not?

How are any fitness goals you have coming along?

With that, I'll wish you all a great Friday and an even better weekend.

Time Circuits On....Flux Capacitor...Fluxing...

You're up before dawn on a Saturday when the doorbell rings. You haven't brewed your coffee so you wonder if you imagined the sound. Plonking the half-filled carafe in the sink, you go to the front door and cautiously swing it open. No one there. As you cast your eyes to the ground, you see a parcel addressed to you ... from you.

You scoop it up and haul it inside, sensing something legitimate despite the extreme oddness of the situation. Carefully, you pry it open. Inside is a shoebox -- sent from ten years in the future -- and it's filled with items you have sent yourself.

What's in it?

This is the premise for The Back from the Future bloghop going on today...all day! Brought to you by Suze over at Subliminal Coffee, M. Pax, and Nicki Elson at Not-So-Deep Thoughts, it looks to be a lot of fun. What are you waiting for? Hop around...check out some new blogs...see what the future might have in store for them!

This could be heavy, Doc.

When I opened the shoe box  I would have sworn it was just some sort of stunt. Yeah, I signed up for the blog hop and figured it'd be a lot of laughs. I never expected something like this, though. I mean, how on earth did they get my address?

The more I began going through the box, the more I got the eerie feeling that this wasn't a hoax. I mean, first of all the name brand of the shoe was "J.Biebers". I shook my head thinking it couldn't be. I mean if someone was going to pull a gag, you would think they could do better than "J.Biebers". A chill ran down my spine.

This was the real deal.

Inside I found a very worn, used, copy of a book called "The T.E.M.P" Agency", with my name as the author. The cover featured a ruggedly handsome man in a hat and trench coat, a deep cut in his chest revealing blinking lights and fiber optic cables, as he stood in front of a gypsy woman protectively.

I shook my head...."It can't be, I thought....I...haven't...finished this yet." 

On the inside cover, in my handwriting, were the words "The first of many!"

Slowly, I turned the book around to the back cover and saw a black and white picture of me staring back at myself with a smirk. My eyes widened and I could tell that it was the same face I stared at in the mirror every morning....just with a few more wrinkles. My hair still cut short and cropped as it is today.

"Well...at least I still have my hair." I said to myself, my fingers running through my short cropped, receding follicles.

The more I rifled through the box, the stranger it got.

I found a pair of  front row tickets to a concert. The headliner, strangely enough, had the same name as my nephew. There was also an invitation to my sister's wedding, dated just a couple of years from today. "Whew! At least mom and dad can quit worrying." I thought as I stared in awe at the artifacts, obviously from the future. 

The biggest shock, though, was when I looked at the only picture in the box. It was me and my wife, posed with two sets of twins. Two boys and two girls. It made sense as my mom and my wife's mom were both fraternal twins.

"I better start saving some money...." I thought.

The very last thing I pulled out of the box. The thing that filled me with the most hope. An envelope.

Inside the envelope was a piece of paper with these words, written in my crappy handwriting....

And that was it. 

No stock tips....no clue on who wins the next ten World Series or Super Bowls...nothing. The way I figure it, though,is that 'future' me knew how lazy 'present day' me is and, if my life got any easier, I'd probably give up writing for laying on the beach or something. Either that, or 'future me' might have thought too much info could punch a hole in the space-time continuum the size of Belgium. Who knows?

Anyway, it was like Doc Brown always told me...o.k, he didn't actually tell me....but, in the movies he told Marty....

"Your future is whatever you make it....so make it a good one."

And that's just what I did....or will do...or....well, you get the idea.

(A big "Thank You" to Suze, Mary, and Nicki for hosting this fun hop)

The Healthy Writers Club

Since it's Friday, it also means it's time for a 'getting healthy' update and The Healthy Writers Club.

Shalle McArthur hosts the club each week and we come together to discuss all those fun (can you hear the sarcasm?) topics such as losing weight, getting in shape, eating right, etc.

Unfortunately, this week isn't much of an improvement over last. I did, though, manage to work out once this week as well as go for a couple of brisk walks with the wife.

I haven't been keeping up much with MyFitnessPal, but try to pop in to encourage my fellow fitness enthusiasts. On the flip side, I'm not really eating a lot or even badly....but I know I should still, at least, be confirming it with some sort of calorie measures.

While I'm still nowhere near where I should be, I'm getting closer. Hopefully, I'll have a better report next Friday.

How about you?

What might 'future you' send back to 'present you'?

In shape? Getting there or just thinking about it?

Here's hoping you all have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

CassaStorm Cover Reveal/Healthy Writer's Club

It's always nice to be able to help out a fellow blogger, especially when they have a brand new book coming out. This isn't just any blogger, though.

Today, we're talking about the Wizard of the Written Word, the Grand Poo-Bah of Grammar, the Sultan of Synonyms, the Duke of the Dictionary....the one and only, the Ninja Captain.....

Alex J. Cavanaugh! <cue applause and fanfare!>

Alex's new book, CassaStorm comes out on September 17th and I'm honored to do a small part in helping him spread the word.

So, without further ado....I give you a sneak peek at the cover for....

CassaStorm

CassaStorm by Alex J. Cavanaugh
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, his only struggles are occasional rogue pirate raids and endless government bureaucracies. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, shaking Bassan to the core and threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could be on its way back. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

Release date: September 17, 2013
Science Fiction - Space Opera/Adventure
Print ISBN 9781939844002
E-book ISBN 9781939844019


Big time congrats to Alex on his upcoming release. The cover looks downright amazing and I'm sure it's going to be a huge success.

Alex is a heck of a guy and always there to lend support, advice, or to remind you to turn off your word verification on your comments.  Not that he had to do that for me, or anything.....ahem

Anyway, here's wishing Mr. Cavanaugh much success and best wishes, all around!

The Healthy Writer's Club

Friday also means another update for the ongoing saga that is, The Healthy Writer's Club.

Hosted by Shallee McArthur, it's a weekly roundup that lets us writers/bloggers, discuss what healthy choices we're making regarding diet, exercise, and fitness.....or what choices we should be making. While blogging and writing is hard work, to be sure, it doesn't really burn all that many calories or help tone the muscles. Getting out of the chair is just the first step....

This week, I actually dusted off the old weight machine and got in a good workout. Only once, mind you, but it's something more than I had been doing.

I'm still keeping track of my caloric progress via MyFitnessPal and it's been invaluable to me in regards to actually thinking about what I'm eating. It's a great tool, easy to use, and has a phone app, too! If you're looking for friends there, my name is mmeans68.

The more support, the better!

I hope you all have a great Friday and an even better weekend.

Potpourri for $500, Alex....

This week's been a fairly busy one, here at the Means Mansion. Out of town company has thrown off my schedule...and that's totally fine. It was nice to have my mom and sister down from the frozen wastes of Kentucky for some fun in the sun....even though it pretty much rained all day Thursday. We still hit all the places my sister wanted to see before they leave today...mainly, the beach and Disney World, which I mentioned on Wednesday.

(For anyone interested in more pics from the Disney trip, they can be found at my other blog....here.)

This, obviously, meant nothing much got done writing-wise. I was lucky to be able to crank out a few blog post in what little spare time I did have.

As far as some of my actual writing is going.....

When time permits, I'm still going back through The T.E.M.P Agency...rereading, researching,editing, and revising.

Not much progress on my Lucha Libre murder mystery project, besides random ideas here and there. I'm still looking to make it as "fair play" as possible without giving the whole thing away in the first few paragraphs. As I've said before, mystery writing is fun.....but challenging.

Bloghops!

Next week means a couple of fun bloghops that I'll be participating in. Elise Fallson, over at...ummm...Elise Fallson, is doing a hop with one of her writing pals to celebrate her one year anniversary traversing the blogosphere. "She Said What?" sounds like a lot of fun and congrats to Elise on her milestone.

Allison, over at Geek Banter, is hosting a "Level Up!" blogfest centering around a favorite game...regardless of whether it be board, card, video, computer, etc. This one sounds like a lot of fun and something right up my alley.

Links to both hops can be found on the right sidebar.

Friday also means it's time for another installment of The Healthy Writer's Club, hosted by Shallee McArthur.

Unfortunately, not much to report for this week. In fact, if anything, I'm pretty sure I was the antithesis of a "healthy writer". I haven't logged into my MyFitnessPal account since Sunday and have eaten fairly poorly. So, it looks like I've been "unhealthy" as well as "not writing". I feel like the Bizarro version of myself.

Me am so happy! (Bizarro speak for "Ugh!")

Nothing earth shattering, though. There's always next week and I can do nothing but improve after this one.

Right??

Oh, and as a side note, I've just noticed that this post makes my 25th for 2013, so far. That's one more than I wrote for all of 2012. A small accomplishment, but an accomplishment all the same.

Hope you all have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

Friday Five

It's Friday, so today I want you to name five books you'd want to have if you knew you were going to wind up on a desert island. Also, why would you choose said books?

My impromptu picks:

1. War and Peace. One book I've never even picked up, it's long, and I would be able to tell people that "Yes, I have read War and Peace." Provided I ever got off the island.

2. The Hobbit. I tried reading this one many moons ago when I was in high school. I wanted to read it because I had always considered it to be the pre-cursor to Dungeons and Dragons. Back then, I don't think I had quite the appreciation for Tolkien's work, or writing in general, for that matter. I wonder if I'd think different today?

3. A compilation of the Myth Series novels, by Robert Aspirin. Something I could read over and over again. The imagination and originality put into these books never gets old and the subtle humor is awesome.

4.  Any Sherlock Holmes book. Preferably a compilation of stories or, barring that, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Because....well.....Sherlock Holmes...

5. The Jon Carter of Mars series. You can never go wrong with old-school sci-fi.

The practical, 'be prepared' side of me would say How to Stay Alive in the Woods....but, then, that wouldn't be too much fun now, would it? ;)

Fridays (now) also mean a post for something I've just joined....

The Healthy Writer's Club, hosted by Shallee McArthur.

It's a way to highlight how, as writers,we're also trying to stay in good physical shape. As writers/bloggers, a lot of us spend a lot of time sitting on our rump roasts behind a computer. The HWC encourages us to mention a little of how we've been trying to lead a healthier lifestyle.

To be honest, I haven't made much progress in this area. My good intentions to get back to our home gym has, pretty much, fallen flat. It's never too late, though.

On a more positive note, though, I've been pretty active on MyFitnessPal. Keeping track of what I eat and counting my calories has really been an eye opening experience. Into how much I'm actually eating, as well as making me think more about just what it is I'm putting into my body. I'd recommend it to anyone as a great starting point on the road to getting fit.

My link is under the "Other Social Places" tab of this blog if you're looking for more pals.

I hope you all have a fit Friday and a fun, relaxing, weekend.