Yesterday was spent in hours of catch-up, following weeks at conventions, trips, and the like.

Following a much-needed haircut, I continued my expedition with a shopping excursion with one of the goals being replacing broken hardware -- and another goal being to catch up on recent comics-associated projects: Stardust and The Simpsons Movie. The films were dissimilar, except for the fact that, come to think of it, both were satisfying action-adventure features with comedic moments. I'll certainly buy both when they land on DVD -- I hope in time for Christmas. The audience for each was relatively small; in fact, the guy at the ticket booth asked me if I needed open captioning for the Simpsons feature, and it was apparently some sort of catch-up for the hearing-impared. If anyone in the audience had requested open captioning, it would have been shown that way. In any case, the audience at both features was obviously pleased at what they saw; I was.

On the other hand, no other audience member in the Simpsons feature stayed through the credits -- which means they missed the closing gag. Moral: Always stay through the credits, folks.

Regarding the hardware: I was in the midst of trying to replace two items. A thunderstorm had taken out a bottom-of-the-line VCR, and it should have been simple enough to find a replacement. But I couldn't find what had been all over the place not long ago: a bottom-of-the-line VCR. I was already prepared for the fact that I might not be able to find one that had two of the most basic features I look for: LP speed and a control that manually adjusts the tracking. What I wasn't prepared for was that none of the bottom-of-the-line VCRs I could find had a built-in tuner. Who'd have thunk it?

And replacing a deceased printer for my Windows 98 computer? Not as easy as I'd hoped.

I ended up with a not-so-bottom-of-the-line Panasonic VCR-DVD-recorder DRM-EZ37V for the VCR. (I remember when a DVD recorder was a rarity in the universe.) And an HP Officejet 5610xi for the printer (with hopes Brent can help me figure out how to hook it up; it already warns that all its stupendous features may not be operational "for all operating systems").

Geez. People wonder why so many today are always buying the latest thing. Well, sometimes it's because you can't find some minor component of the older thing that worked just fine, thanks, until a bolt broke. What if you had to buy a new car because the tire on your old one blew out?