Category: Uncategorized

Time Out

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I try to keep my ZONE posts geared to fun stuff [movies, television, novels, comic books, art, etc.]. For this post, I’m going to make an exception and write briefly about something out of the norm.

On Friday evening, one of my students who plays on our high school football team suffered a terrible injury. His neck was broken while making a tackle. He was rushed to the hospital and surgery started late that evening and went into the early hours of the next day. His mother, little brother and a couple of close friends were joined by the head football coach, the head and assistant basketball coaches, our athletic trainer, our principal and me. As the minutes slowly ticked off and the surgery continued, his older brother [he’s going to college out of town], a few more close friends and a former football coach arrived. At about 1:30AM, a doctor came out and said that surgery was going well, that all signs were good and they’d be operating for another hour or so. After surgery, the student was admitted to the hospital.

This morning all signs continue to be good. The student has full use of his arms and legs. He still has a ways to go to be fully healed, but the worst should be over.

The reason that I wanted to post about this is that sometimes we forget about what’s really important in life. We also forget about how quickly events can change, sometimes forever. It shouldn’t take a catastrophic accident to remind us of what’s important… to let those we care about know it… to appreciate the blessings that we have.

Maybe it can be something as simple as a blog post.

What’s the Worst That Can Happen?

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“What’s the worst that can happen?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’ll create a black hole that will devour our planet.”Does that sound like bad science fiction? It’s not.

Scientists disagree about what will happen when the world’s largest atom-smasher fires up for the first time. Most think that it’s perfectly safe and may give an indication of what conditions were present at the time the universe was created. A few men of science, however, believe that the process will create tiny black holes that will grow increasingly larger as they consume the Earth. These men even tried to get a court order to stop the experiment from going forward!

A tip of the brainiac covering to Jeff Parker for the original link.

Weather Report Anyone?

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It’s good that I didn’t bet that things would be back to normal tomorrow. Compare the map from 11am in the post below and the one above from 5pm and you can see the problem. Tropical Storm Fay is hardly moving. Who would have thought that this blog would turn into a weather report? Yeesh.


Word at 2pm was that schools would open tomorrow. Teachers, administrators and support staff would arrive on time and prepare for the students who’d come in one hour later. At 6pm a new notice came through. School tomorrow was cancelled due to flooding, winds and above average rain everywhere.

I still think that tomorrow I’ll go in and get some work done. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t plan so far ahead. If we’ve learned only one thing with this weather it’s that projections, predictions and plans seldom work out.

Fay Decided to Stay

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On Monday we received word that the Daytona Beach area was in the direct path of Tropical Storm Fay. At that time, it was projected that Fay would come across the state at tropical storm strength, hit our area at about 2am Wednesday morning and then head out to sea.

Tuesday morning I went in to work to assist in running a special needs shelter. Schools and many businesses closed in anticipation of the high winds and rain. Tropical Storm Fay changed paths. Because of the storm shift our area didn’t get near the winds or rain predicted. Our shelter closed down at 2:30pm and we were sent home. Those who had come for shelter had the option to go to another shelter.

It was then projected that Fay would cut across the state, head out to sea and then double back slamming into our area at about 8am Wednesday. But that’s not what happened. Instead Fay slowed down and didn’t move for hours. She just kept dumping rain and wind. News reports came in from areas south of us that homes were being flooded, streets washed out and that people should not go out unless absolutely necessary. The local news warned to be careful of snakes and alligators that could be in newly flooded areas. Schools and many businesses opted to close down for Thursday. At 10pm Wednesday evening, I received a call that we might have to go back and open up the shelter at midnight. Fortunately, the call never came [which means the current shelters were able to handle the people in need].

So here it is 11:50 on Thursday morning. The prediction is that Tropical Storm Fay will be out of our area by Friday morning. If that’s the case then things will pretty much back to normal tomorrow. Since Fay has yet to follow her projected path and timeline, I’m not betting on it.

Fay Just Teased Us… So Far

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The diagram above shows the projected path that tropical storm Fay is expected to follow for the next few days. How accurate it is, is hard to say. Fay was supposed to come through the Daytona Beach area starting tonight and hit hardest around 2am. Before that ever happened she shifted and headed out towards sea. As you can see now, Fay is projected to double back and land further up the coast. We’ll find out tonight if schools will be in session tomorrow. We’re still supposed to have high winds and rain through Wednesday.

Oh, if you’re wondering how the day at the shelter went, it was pretty uneventful. We opened on time at 10am. Usually, when we open a shelter, there are bunches of people waiting to get in. Not today. The first person didn’t arrive until almost eleven. At 12:30, only six people had come in. At 2:30pm we were closed down and people who still wanted shelter were sent to a new location. So the end result was no injuries, no property damage and only one story. [One of the people who came to the shelter ended up getting arrested. When the man signed in, a Deputy ran his name and it turned out he was wanted on an outstanding warrant.] My guess, is the man won’t be worried about shelter for a while.

Fay is Gonna Smack Us

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Four years ago three hurricanes struck the Daytona Beach area in just over a month’s time. Try calculating the odds of that. For each of the hurricanes I spent time working at a special needs shelter. The stories I can tell. On a personal level, although we were left without power during each storm [and once for a five day stretch] no one in the family was hurt and property damage was minor.

Tomorrow morning I’ll go in to work at another special needs shelter. You see we’re directly in the path of Tropical Storm Fay. I’m planning to be there for at least two days [hopefully the shelter won’t be needed longer]. If we’re lucky, no one will be injured, property damage will be nil and I’ll come out with a good story or two.

UFOs, Aliens & Big Foot

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According to an article, tests on hairs said to be from a Yeti in India have failed to link the strands with any known species! Boy, how many times have we heard something similar only to be let down later? The results end up being: it was a prank, the hairs/photos/sound recordings/etc. turned out to be an ape, a bear, a man in a funny suit.Arrrgh!

When I read articles like the one linked above I feel like Charlie Brown being coaxed by Lucy to come kick the football. Charlie Brown knows that every time he gives it a go, she yanks the ball away and he ends up falling down. He’s always left disappointed… yet he’s always willing to try it again. Every time I read one of these type articles [UFOs, big foot, aliens, paranormal events, etc.], I know that the football is going to be yanked away. I’ll end up disappointed…

Then before too long, like Charlie Brown, I’ll hear the call to give it another go…

3 Less Heroes

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Shelton Drum’s Heroes Convention is without a doubt one of the best comic book – media shows anywhere. Over the years longtime ZONErs have read about my adventures at Heroes Con meeting favorite artists, writers, as well as friends old and new. It was always a blast seeing who was going to add their work to my Stallone Theme Gallery or who was going to join the crowd for dinner or whose room would become “the spot” for the evening. And that’s not even taking into account the art auction, book signings, costumes, etc.
Most years the convention would be held on a date that worked for the entire Zablo family vacation. Other times my oldest son, Mike [who is into conventions] and I would share a room with John Beatty. Unfortunately this year the show is being held on a date that doesn’t work out for either plan.

Still, if YOU are able to attend the show, you should. I can guarantee you’ll have a great time. Even if Beatty, Mike and I aren’t there to add to the fun.

Costumes or Wardrobe?

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As we were waiting for MegaCon to officially start, we were surprised by the huge number of fans in costume. Men. women and children in all sizes and shapes were parading around in costumes adapted from characters in comics, cartoons, movies, video games, tv and perhaps outer space. At some point I noted that some of these folks weren’t in costume. My contention was that if they dressed this way daily, their attire would no longer be considered a costume, but instead wardrobe. Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, the remaining minutes until the show opened were spent debating whether or not an identified person was in costume or wardrobe.
I thought you might like to see some of the better costumes, so I took several photos. I was tempted to also take shots of folks that I felt were probably in wardrobe, but then thought better of it. So off we go with comments as needed… the photo above is dedicated to Judge Monty!

This photo cracks me up. You have a huge group of super heroes [and a couple of villains] just kind of hanging out and then this fella in the far left decides to dash across before the pictures were snapped. Maybe he was trying out for a place in their group since the Flash couldn’t make it. My guess is he wasn’t fast enough.

Here’s another group of heroes that I caught lounging around before heading out on the convention floor. The guy playing Nightwing must have Spidey-sense because he snapped into a pose without me saying I was going for a photo.

The guy in the photo above and the couple in the picture below may have something to do with the fact that I didn’t see anyone at the show who looked like a real Batman. Perhaps these three were in wardrobe and bumped him off!

The guy playing Ghost Rider was probably 6’6″ and looked more menacing in real life. Mr. Freeze was my favorite costume of the show. Look closely and you can see the glass head covering and the ice coming off his blaster. Indiana Jones made an appearance as well.

This is a photo of the design on a fan’s shirt. It’s done by the very popular artist, Alex Ross. I’d never seen the design before. Although I try to keep politics out of the ZONE [since I want to focus on fun stuff], you have to admit that the image quickly sums up the feelings of a lot of people in our country. Now back to more costumes…

Perhaps the guy in the middle is hoping for a try-out to join the Green Lantern Corps. Then again, maybe he’s a sidekick to the second Lantern.

Yeah, I know… Who Ya Gonna Call…

Three of the 300 showed up with a couple of their babes. Things were going well until, and I kid you not, a guy dressed up as Jesus was “attacked” by them for a photo op. Somehow I think the line, “Tonight we dine in Hell!” may come true for these “warriors.”

More on the show to come…

MegaCon is Coming!

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If you can make it to Orlando, March 7th through the 9th, you might want to check out MegaCon. There will be a bunch of media guests on hand signing autographs. A ton of artists will be there sketching and selling their originals. And there will be panels, gaming and much, much more.

If you can make it, swing by John Beatty’s table and say, “Hi.” I’ll be the guy not drawing.

Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find

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I‘m going to be heading off for a little R&R so you might not see me around here much in the next week or so. One of my stops will be the HEROES CONVENTION in Charlotte. It’s been part of the Zablo family vacation for years and this one should be the best ever. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Big Beatty, Jazz and Papa will hold down the fort while I’m gone.

Talk to you soon!

Megacon Report

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Wow! What a cool time I had yesterday at the Megacon Convention in Orlando, Florida. I was able to spend a lot of time with some friends and met some people whose work I really admire. MegaCon is a convention which features celebrities, comic artists, novelists, dealers and more…

Walter Koenig, who played Chekov in the original Star Trek series was there. When I was a kid Star Trek was THE show, so it was really cool getting to meet Mr. Koenig and to shake his hand.

One of my favorite writers was there, Steve Niles. I was first in line to meet him. [And if that sounds like a geeky thing to say, well, I was geeking out yesterday.] I was able to speak with Steve for a few minutes and get him to autograph both of his novels [more are coming!].

Eric Powell, the creator of The Goon, was there. I got him to autograph his new graphic novel and do a Stallone sketch for me [the sketch will appear in the SZ Gallery soon].

Many, many more artists were there from Adam Hughes to Frank Cho to Mike Zeck to… well you get the idea. I picked up several new pieces for the SZ Gallery which will appear in the near future.

After the show John Beatty, Mike Zeck, Rik Levins, Howard Shum, Brad VanCata, Mike [my son] and I all went out for some Chinese. It was a great capper to a great day. I’ll talk more about the show in future ZZone updates