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The Seven-Sealed Comic Book: The Book of Revelation in the Graphic Novel Kingdom Come

Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 13, 2012 - Pages 215-233

Kingdom Come by Alex Ross, plotter and artist, and writer Mark Waid, appeared first as a comic book mini-series of four issues in 1996. It was soon published in a single volume format as a graphic novel.[1]  The action is frequently captioned by quotes from the Book of Revelation (sometimes slightly altered from the King James Version), and it appears that the story of battling superheroes culminating in a nuclear Armageddon must be an adaptation of the biblical Apocalypse. But it turns out that Revelation, though it provides a subtext[2]  in the sense of a sounding board to lend gravity and depth to the adventure, is more of a superstructure than a substructure. Writer Mark Waid recalls: “I was desperately looking for a hook… and I just stumbled across the Bible.”[3]

Waid[4] says the Book of Revelation

…is whatever you want to make of it. It’s the most broadly interpretive book in literature. And as I read it, I would come across a verse here, a verse there that reflected the stuff that we were going to put in the story. The rule was that the story came first and any highlights or elucidations Revelation could give us were a bonus. If there was something in the Bible that I could crib and voucher for, well, so much the better.

Artist and co-plotter Ross[5]  confesses that Waid

didn’t use the entire Book of Revelation; he just used some imagery to basically make you think of the story in larger terms than it really has. Somebody came up to me at a convention and told me he was very surprised by how I—or we, or Mark—had followed Revelation so closely up until this certain point at the end[6]  and then went off and skewed it a different way. And I thought, “We actually followed it that far? You gotta be kidding me!” We didn’t know what the @#$% we were doing.

Yet the use of scripture turns out to be far from merely ornamental. In what follows I hope to perform a “superstructural” analysis on the graphic novel. Richard Harland defines superstructuralism as “a vision that inverts our ordinary base-and-superstructure models and sees what we used to think of as superstructural as having priority over what we used to think of as basic.”[7]

Insofar as the passages from Revelation did seem to fit in after the fact, we also have a striking and spontaneous parallel with the ancient apocalyptic method of pesher (“puzzle solution”) interpretation, whereby proof-texts were sought from ancient scriptures and ripped out of context as if to document and to justify, via prophecy, certain events in the life of the sect, whether early Christianity or the Dead Sea Scrolls community.[8]

Son of Man and Superman

The text of Kingdom Come makes explicit that it is a depiction of the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John, starring super-heroes in the roles of the various angels and demons. The premise is a clever, even brilliant, one. In effect, Ross and Waid have adopted the fundamentalist manner of interpreting the text that is so well known from Hal Lindsey[9]  and his less successful paperback prophet colleagues, namely that Armageddon will play itself out with helicopter gunships and nuclear missiles, and that the ancient seer, obviously unfamiliar with modern technology, represented these strange realities in the forms, intelligible to him albeit still fantastic, of hydras, chimaeras, and dragons. Only in DC’s Kingdom Come, what the Seer of Patmos witnessed must have been flying superheroes and villains, throwing buildings and cars at each other and surging through sea and air in a manner impossible for mere mortals.

graphic from kingdom come

The main personae of the cosmic drama are clear. But keep in mind: for the sake of narrative intrigue, Waid and Ross have split some major actantial roles[10]  between several characters. The reader must combine them together to see who, in the graphic novel, corresponds to what, in the Bible.

First, it is clear that Superman is the returning Christ. It is well-known that the initial depiction of Superman hoisting the boards on his holodeck farm presents him as Christ carrying the cross.[11]  Superman has been gone from the earthly scene for ten years, having left in despair and disgust when the earthlings turned away from him and his Christlike way of peace. But as things get worse and the apocalyptic clouds gather, he parts the sky and returns with his heavenly hosts: Power Woman, Wonder Woman, the Ray, Red Robin, Green Lantern, Flash, and Hawkman. (Flash is called a “guardian angel” on page 41, Hawkman “a savior” on page 42.)

The advent of this new Justice League turns out to have been predicted in Revelation 8:2-3: “And I saw the seven angels which stand before God… and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer… and the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar… and the seven angels prepared themselves to sound” (p. 59). The eighth is Red Robin, the grown-up version of Dick Grayson, Batman’s first Robin apprentice. Lacking super powers he does not descend from the sky with the others, but simultaneously infiltrates the control room of the villains and disables them. The Justice League goes on to apprehend and to confine the many nihilistic super-beings who are victimizing humanity.

Waid and Ross nicely deconstruct the New Testament Apocalypse by splitting the Christ role into two characters, Superman and Captain Marvel. They are essentially the same character, certainly the same actant, anyway. Captain Marvel embodies the hypostatic union of divine and human natures, like Jesus does. Superman points this out during a momentary respite in their battle when he admits that, as an alien, he is neither properly a god nor a man, but that Billy Batson is both (p. 182). And in this case the first coming happens after the second (“Second Coming of Superman,” p. 68), since Captain Marvel gives his life to save the others only during Armageddon itself. Here we have a close parallel to the Jewish doctrine of two messiahs. Some believed that Messiah ben-Joseph, a warrior from the northern tribes, must die in battle to atone for Israel’s sins and to pave the way for the ultimate victory of Messiah ben-David, the scion of the house of Judah. Captain Marvel would be the Messiah ben-Joseph, while Superman would be the victorious Messiah ben-David.

Hawkman, taking the form of the “Hawk God” Horus, hence the Egyptian costume he sports from a previous graphic novel Zero Hour (1994),[12]  corresponds to the mighty eagle flying through the heavens in Revelation 8:13, “Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth.’”

Wonder Woman, it seems to me, takes the role of Michael the Angel Prince, who leads the battle against the Satanic Dragon and his angelic hosts in Revelation 12:7. It is she, not the reluctant, pacifistic Superman, who leads the final battle against the rampaging hellions escaping from Superman’s Gulag (see below).

In all apocalypses (Daniel, Revelation, 1, 2, and 3 Enoch, 4 Ezra, etc.) we find a seer who is supposed to be the recipient of these visions, though in every case it is a fiction. Each apocalypse, like Kingdom Come, is not, as it purports to be, a simple record of visions. Rather, an apocalypse is a complex literary tapestry drawing upon previous sacred texts. So the seer is not so much the author as the narrator, the latter being a character on the edge of the narrative or perhaps even the protagonist of it. In Revelation, the seer is John, a prophet and evangelist, perhaps to be identified with John the son of Zebedee. His counterpart in Kingdom Come is twofold. First the seer role is taken by Wesley Dodds, the aging, retired superhero, the Sandman. Not only did the Sandman put people to sleep with his gas gun, he also (in the later issues created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby)[13]  sent premonitory dreams of doom to trouble the sleep of the guilty whom he would soon be pursuing. What sense, therefore, it makes for old Wesley Dodds to be having wracking deathbed visions of the end of the world, soon on its way!

But, like the disciples of Jesus who stubbornly refused to accept the news of his resurrection, old Wesley’s pastor, Reverend McCay, will have none of it. Yes, the ancients may have dreamed dreams and seen visions, but who can take such things seriously in the modern day? He is like the oh-so-sophisticated pastor in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet (The Word), who is quick with an eloquent word of comfort but shorthanded when it comes to daring to believe God for miracles.[14]  But Pastor McCay, leader of an urban Evangelical Covenant congregation, starts to take what seemed Wesley’s senile dementia seriously once the burden of prophecy passes over to him in the wake of Wesley’s death.

Every seer in an apocalypse, ancient or modern, is guided by an “interpreting angel” who knows every inch of the unseen world like the back of his hand. In 4 Ezra, the scribe is accompanied by the revealing angel Uriel (Oriel). John of Patmos is guided by various angelic commentators. The Shepherd, or angel of Repentance, is Hermas’ guide in The Shepherd of Hermas. In Dante’s Divine Comedy this role is taken by Virgil. Again, Ebenezer Scrooge is the seer and is guided by three interpreting angels during his visionary journey. George Bailey has the interpreting angel Clarence to show the way and to make sense of the odd things he witnesses. The seer sees something important but does not quite know what to make of the marvels he is seeing. The angel explains things to him, often rather impatiently, as if the mortal should have been able to understand things quite well by himself. In Kingdom Come it will come as no surprise to learn that the ghostly superhero the Spectre plays this role. Pastor McCay and the Spectre also play the role of the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11: “And I will give power unto my two witnesses…” “We must both witness the events that will lead to Armageddon” (p. 15).

Building the Perfect Beast

What would an apocalypse be without an antichrist or two? Revelation has a pair of them: the Beast and the False Prophet. Kingdom Come has at least three. “Yugoslavian”[15]  dictator Von Bach wears a cross tattooed on his chest—actually the cross is unadorned flesh with the rest of him tattooed in black around it—and heads up a terror organization called “the Götterdämmerung Reich” (Empire of the Twilight of the Gods). Von Bach is like the Beast from the abyss, the ancient Leviathan, who rules over the earth in Revelation 13:1-10.

The Goth “hero” called 666 obviously embodies the Mark of the Beast (Rev. 13:17), the number of his name, for which Revela¬tion had Emperor Nero in mind: Neron Kaisar works out to 666.

The ram-horned Magog is reminiscent of Revelation 13:11’s second Beast, Behemoth the Land Leviathan,[16]  who also functions as the False Prophet. Magog is a name mentioned in Revelation 20:7-8:

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will emerge to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like sand on the seashore.

Revelation here borrows lore from Ezekiel 38:2, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahve, “Behold, I am your enemy, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws,”’” etc. “Gog” is the same name as that of Gyges,[17]  king of Lydia, also the name of one of the monstrous hundred-handed giant offspring of Uranos in Hesiod’s Theogony,[18]  whom he imprisoned underground, the prototype for the fallen angels of the Bible. Gog is depicted in Ezekiel as a sea dragon, whom God hooks like a fish (cf. his similar treatment of mighty Leviathan in Job 41:1-2ff.). Like Isaiah, who compares Egypt with the primordial sea monster Rahab (Isaiah 30:7; 51:9-11), Ezekiel uses the metaphor of the ancient monster-foe of Yahve to describe a looming foe of his people, in his case, the barbarian Scythians or Cimmerians. “Magog” just means “Land of Gog,” though Ezekiel almost treats it as a personal name in its own right. Revelation certainly does.

In later centuries Gog and Magog were imagined as twin abominations, and it was believed that Alexander the Great had imprisoned them both. In Kingdom Come, only Magog appears. Each of the Kingdom Come creators eventually authored (Ross with Geoff Johns) his own sequel to Kingdom Come. Each featured the other shoe dropping, providing a Gog character.

For Waid, Gog is Minister William, a man who had once founded a Church of Superman but then turned against him once his embarrassed idol confessed it was his departure from the scene that allowed the nuclear destruction of Kansas to happen in the first place. William was then given powers, as well as a seven-sealed scroll (Rev. 5:1ff)[19]  detailing the story of the Kansas holocaust, by a council of godlike beings who planned to send him back in time to prevent the Kansas tragedy, but instead he uses these abilities to take vengeance on Superman.[20]  He looks almost exactly like Magog from Kingdom Come and seems almost like an attempt to bring that character back. (This is a particularly clear case of two characters participating in the same actantial role.)

Ross’s[21]  Gog, on the other hand, is twofold. At first, a super-powered man, William Matthews, calling himself Gog—again, looking almost identical to the armored Magog of Kingdom Come—appears, killing other characters, mostly villains themselves, who claim to be gods or demigods. In this he seeks to eliminate would-be rivals of his own god, an alien being surviving from an earlier dynasty of gods, apparently co-eval with the Olympians and Asgardians, whose relics he has discovered in a buried tomb in Africa. Matthews is roughly equivalent to Mark Waid’s Minister William, the former having been in Africa as a missionary, but the back story is much different, and he does not embark on the same anti-Superman vendetta; this because this Matthews is located on a parallel earth (Part Two, p. 98).

At any rate, his deity, a purple-skinned giant clad in golden body armor and a purple tunic and wearing a helmet with horns circling his face like a crescent moon, eventually emerges and destroys Matthews, explaining to the Justice Society and the Kingdom Come Superman, who is visiting this earth(!), that Matthews was overwhelmed by the knowledge and power imparted to him—much as Waid’s Minister William had been—and had become a loose cannon. He had taken the name of his god, who is now revealed as the real Gog. Despite initial blessings, Gog eventually demands obsequious worship, which the Justice Society heroes refuse to give, whereupon they manage to defeat and exile him. This provides a striking parable of Humanistic post-religiosity, though at least one of the heroes, Doctor Midnite, is a devout Roman Catholic and another, Hawkman, worships the Egyptian gods.

That Kingdom Come’s Magog is supposed to be the Antichrist to Superman’s Christ is evident from the facts that they are depicted with the same face—Ross used the same model, Frank Kasy, for both—and that the two are rivals for the role of protector of Metropolis. Thus, Magog killed the Joker when Superman would have brought the villain to trial for the umpteenth time, and the people approved, having had their fill of the Joker and his crimes. The fan rumor that Magog is supposed to be the grown-up clone of Superman, Kon-el,[22]  makes the identification of Magog as the Antichrist all the more striking. (Kon-el was introduced in The Reign of the Supermen (also called The Return of Superman),[23]  the sequel to The Death of Superman,[24]  when scientists sought to replace the fallen hero with a cloned duplicate. He emerged from the cloning chamber early and became the new Superboy.)

There are two climactic events in Kingdom Come. The first is the destruction of Kansas in the wake of Magog’s ill-advised assault on the aging and out-of-gas super-villain the Parasite, who is able to absorb energy from anyone he touches, duplicating their super-powers. As Captain Atom seized him, the Parasite turned the hero’s power against him, penetrating the latter’s containment suit, whereupon he exploded. This disaster is like one of the end-time plagues that strafe the earth in Revelation. Scripture had foretold it, albeit not in so many words:

And there followed hail and fire mingled with blood… and the third part of the trees was burnt up… and all green grass was burnt up! [Rev. 8:7] And he opened the bottomless pit… and the sun and the air were darkened! [Rev. 9:2] Fear God—and give glory to him—for the hour of his judgment is come! [Rev. 14:7]. (p. 26)

A television commentator informs us of the truly apocalyptic scope of the disaster:

Early reports indicate immediate casualties numbering close to a million as the dying [Captain] Atom’s radioactive energy swept hundreds of kilometers… rendering the entire state of Kansas—as well as parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri—an irradiated wasteland. Though Magog’s comrades have since prevented further spread of the nuclear blight, the total loss of America’s breadbasket—the sterilization of its agrarian culture—has thrown world economy into near-collapse in the face of global famine.” (p. 38)

The same Revelation passage is quoted again with explicit reference to Kansas. Then: “The destruction of Kansas was truly the beginning of the end” (p. 49). And the end finally arrives some months later after Superman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League imprison thousands of the nihilistic hero/villains in a gigantic prison, the Gulag, on the devastated plains of Kansas.

The second climax is the very Battle of Armageddon. This one issues in an atomic holocaust too, only it is imposed from outside by the United Nations. Lex Luthor sends the brainwashed Captain Marvel to breach the walls of the Gulag: “Babylon falls, [Rev. 14:8; 18:2], Norman!” freeing its already rioting prisoners: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints!” [Rev. 13:7] (p. 14). Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the UN, a man named Wyrmwood, fearing that the violence of the super hero factions will soon spill over to destroy the earth and the human race, dispatches a super nuclear weapon against them. “There fell a great star from heaven, burning as if it were a lamp… [Rev. 8:11] And I heard an Angel… saying with a loud voice… woe, woe, WOE to the inhabiters of the Earth” [Rev. 8:13] (pp. 12-13).

The Justice League descends from Green Lantern’s orbiting Emerald City: “And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” [Rev. 4:3] (p. 88) to battle the escapees, and soon Batman’s own league of younger superheroes, children or grandchildren of the original heroes of the Justice League, joins the fray, apparently fighting both the escapees and the Justice League.

Captain Marvel and Superman face off, trading earth-shaking punches until Captain Marvel hits upon the expedient of uttering “Shazam!” again and again (six times), each time invoking the magic lightning bolt that transforms Billy Batson into Earth’s Mightiest Mortal and back. Superman, who is vulnerable to magic, is staggered by the thunderstrikes but finally manages to clasp Batson’s mouth and to hold it shut during the tiny interval before he can say the magic word and regain his godlike powers. Superman reasons with him and gets his old ally to come to his senses. He urges him not to interfere as Superman attempts to deflect the descending nuke. He releases Batson, who then transforms but yanks Superman aside and launches himself into the sky instead. With a last triple-shout of “Shazam!” he ignites the bomb in the upper atmosphere, sacrificing himself for Superman and the rest. But only a few of the combatants survive.

All this took place that the scripture might be fulfilled which says: “and he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth… and when he had cried… seven thunders uttered their voices.” [Rev. 10:3] (p. 111).

Interim Ethics

The central point of Kingdom Come is the moral dilemma it frames. How can the righteous defeat the wicked without becoming the wicked? Superman refuses to use deadly force against the amoral hellion heroes, while Wonder Woman despises him as a weakling for these scruples. What other way is there to deal with these maniacs? Unless you want to keep your hands clean and pure—and let the wicked win! What is the solution? It is a nuclear strike from without, aimed at them by the mere humans. After that everything resolves, though there is a tricky moment or two.

What we have here is the logic of apocalyptic pacifism, namely that the righteous can afford to keep their hands pure from evil precisely because they can expect that God will intervene from without to destroy the wicked. Of course, as long as the righteous stick to their non-guns, they can count on becoming martyrs, which is what they expect anyway, since God has this nasty habit of not intervening when you need him to. But it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other: if you get your deliverance in heaven instead of on earth, who’s complaining?

So Superman is the Christ who will not kill. Magog is the Antichrist because he will kill. But it is not that simple. Let me appeal to an old Henry Kuttner story, “A Cross of Centuries.”[25]  In it the White Christ, ruler of a millennial paradise in the far future, is about to renew his youth with a swim in something like the Lazarus Pit familiar from Batman comics. He has lived and reigned so long he can barely remember the details of the great struggle in which he once overcame the Red Christ, the Antichrist, to establish universal peace. But as he steps into the life-renewing waters and they begin to work their wonder, he suddenly for a moment remembers something he had forgotten for many centuries: he himself had been the Red Christ! Such are the ironies and the realities of history, communicated by mythology.

What we are seeing in the ethics of Superman, which seem to be the intended ethics of Kingdom Come, is a case study of what Albert Schweitzer[26]  called interim ethics. Schweitzer sought to explain and to justify the radical, even seemingly fanatical admonitions of Jesus to give all one’s possessions to the poor, to turn the other cheek, to not resist the bully and the thief.

None of that behavior makes any sense in the workaday world, where the social and personal consequences (e.g., providing for and protecting one’s family) make it reprehensible and irresponsible. But all of it is seen to be eminently wise in light of the soon-coming end of the age. To refuse to defend oneself from violence and theft make sense as martyrdom if one thereby gains a place in an eschatological paradise that is about to appear. To give away property and savings makes sense if there is to be no worldly future for which, like the industrious ant of Aesop, to provide. What good is money on the eve of the end? It is of value only to provide for the abject poor whom one may prevent from starving in the brief interval before the end. It is not only a time when one can afford to be absolutely and perfectly righteous, but also a time in which one is well advised to repent and to show the fruits thereof by performing as many good deeds as one can in the time remaining! During the heyday of the Cargo Cults in Melanesia, prophets summoned believers in the imminent advent of Christ (or the ancestors, etc.) to slaughter all their pigs in a great “messianic banquet,” since only those without faith would hold resources back as an ace in the hole.[27]

Such an ethic partakes of the liminality defined by Victor W. Turner.[28]  The transitional rites of growth and maturation in traditional societies allowed for what would ordinarily be shunned as aberrant behavior, particularly sexually. During the interval of the puberty rite, for instance, homosexual contact may be practiced, where it would within the parameters of defined social status and role—either adolescence or maturity on either side of the liminal window—be outlawed.[29]  This is how tomorrow’s groom may get away with attending a bachelor party with prostitutes and strippers tonight: it is liminal behavior. On Schweitzer’s reading, Jesus’ radical demands were occasioned and made reasonable by the interim period in and for which they were stipulated. They suspended mundane moral standards not in the direction of licentiousness but rather in that of super-morality. Jesus would never have enjoined such deeds if he thought the world would continue on indefinitely.

Many today reject Schweitzer’s apocalyptic reading of Jesus, preferring the picture of Jesus as a rootless, possessions-renouncing Cynic sage.[30]  Cynics, too, urged their hearers to slough off money, employment, family ties, and the right to fight back. All these, they said, represented burden¬some, arbitrary inventions of human society which only complicate life and hinder virtue. Whatever may have been the case with the historical Jesus, it seems the sayings enshrining this ethos were preserved and propagated by a select clique of “itinerant radicals,” apostles, prophets, charismatics and missionaries[31]  who were often confused with non-Christian Cynics. These daring people perforce existed on the margins of society,[32]  as they had completely opted out of the prevalent codes of honor and shame.[33]  Turning the other cheek, not responding in kind to affronts to one’s honor, meant seeking the approval of God at the cost of the approval of one’s puzzled peers. This is another variety of liminality, only it involves social marginality, living on the edge of society, rather than on the cusp of the millennial kingdom, which was a temporal liminality.

Well, Revelation obviously displays the rudiments of an apocalyptic ethical liminality: the faithful are threatened with eternal torture (Rev. 14:9-11) if they receive the commerce stamp of the Beast (Rev. 13:16-18). There is no room for compromise. One will pay the price of beheading by the Beast if one refuses (Rev. 20:4) or of eternal fire from God if one gives in. It is a matter of absolute purity, of total non-cooperation with the Powers of Evil.

Much the same decision was made by Judas the Gaulonite/Galilean and his followers, who refused to take the mark of the Beast by paying Roman taxes. They thought doing so meant affirming Caesar as Lord, and this they would not do. They loved not their lives unto the death, and when, decades later, their successors were besieged by Roman troops at Masada, they chose to make an immediate exit to the kingdom of heaven. The need for total purity meant they could no longer live on this earth. Theirs was an apocalyptic ethic.

Other Jews and Christians took a position that allowed for life in the midst of a fallen age. “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world” (1 Cor. 5:9-10). Interim ethics zealots felt compelled to go out of the world to avoid contamination by sin. But had not Elisha given the Syrian general Naaman permission to accompany his master into Rimmon’s heathen temple, as he must if he were to retain his position (2 Kgs. 5:18)? Had not Uriel told Ezra how the world could not be purified of sinners till the end of the world lest the righteous perish with them, so entangled are they in this world (4 Ezra 7:62-70)? And did not Matthew make the same point in his parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matt. 13:24-30)? And does not Mark 12:13-17 take an accomodationist position over against that of the Zealot refuseniks, by reasoning that, if “unclean” pagan coins cannot be rendered to God in the temple, no compromise can be entailed in rendering them to Caesar who minted them? This is the wisdom of those who want to safeguard righteousness while living in a world inevitably shared with sinners.

The Rabbis[34]  understood that pacifism and “bleeding heart” mercy toward criminals was not appropriate while this fallen age endured. As long as the evil impulse led people to sin, which it would till the Kingdom came, then the righteous dare not be in too much of a hurry to eradicate the evil tendency in themselves. For that, too, they must wait for the advent of the Kingdom of God. Until then, the evil impulse is a necessary evil. It is cruel to condemn criminals to death, even to jail, but if we are too “pure” for that, too full of the milk of human kindness, we will be the ones to blame when the felons steal or kill again. If we are too pure to respond to invaders with force, it is we who will be to blame for the slaughter of our innocents. If everyone embraced the celibacy of the angels now, and became free of animal lust, there would be no future generations. Of course, the celibate Encratites of the first few centuries did welcome the soon-coming end and, quite consistently, foreswore procreation.

This wisdom is what Ross and Waid’s Superman refuses to understand. Superman and the Justice League have no business being the martyrs who “love not their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11) and are thus “led like sheep to the slaughter” (Psalm 44:22). No, they are the angels of God who must square off with Satan and his demons (Rev. 12:7). Wonder Woman understands that. “Divine” intervention does indeed fall from the sky, in the form of the Bomb, but it does not rescue the righteous; it makes their fate one with the wicked. Satan wins Armageddon if Michael and his hosts refuse to fight. The interim ethic is not for Superman, though he stubbornly clings to it.

Twilight of the Übermensch

As Alex Ross originally planned Kingdom Come, it was to have been called “The End of the Heroic Age,” and that theme still dominates the work despite the title change. After the United Nations bombs all the superhumans, drawing no distinction between the heroes who are trying to protect common humanity and the villains who endanger and threaten them, Pastor McCay convinces a wrathful Superman, who thinks he is the only survivor, not to collapse the UN building on his betrayers. Instead he ought to renounce the elevated position of a superhero and live among his mortal charges as one of them, a domesticated workhorse at their behest. Later (in The Kingdom) we see him in civilian clothes working with laborers in bridge construction. The superheroes are finally forbidden even to wear their costumes, these at last abandoned to the status of nostalgia schlock in a theme restaurant, “Planet Krypton”. Some buffoon of a waiter wears Green Lantern’s costume, while the godlike Green Lantern himself now sits as one more ineffective politician among fellow windbags in the do-nothing United Nations. This is indeed the end of the heroic age. Does Alex Ross imagine this to be a good thing? On one level, this denouement comports well with the last scene in the Book of Revelation: the New Jerusalem, equivalent to the Justice League headquarters on Green Lantern’s space-borne city New Oa, comes down out of the sky, and henceforth “the dwelling of God is with men” (Rev. 21:3, though this passage is not explicitly quoted). Waid has anticipated the same thing with an early quotation of a Gospel beatitude: “According to the word of God, the meek would someday inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

How are we to understand this conclusion? It invites a Nietzschean reading. After all, the tigers have been defanged and the dragons made lapdogs for their inferiors. The cringing slave-horde of Lilliputians has finally worn them down. And we can tell they have worn them down, because the superhumans themselves have internalized the slave creed. They seem to think it better that they serve the common herd as beasts of burden in whatever tasks the mortals find non-threatening. Greatness always makes the weak, the slaves, the mediocre (“the meek”) feel threatened, whereupon they proceed to enslave the great, provided the latter allow them to do it. What we are seeing may be interpreted as a Politically Correct opposition to the very notion of heroism, a renunciation of heroic greatness so as to lower standards, to cancel the possibility of superior achievement so that no one feels like a failure even if one is a failure. Kingdom Come in the end seems to consider heroism as elitism and a threat to the quotidian of mediocrity. It advocates a kind of Socialistic “redistribution of virtue” in which everyone gets an equal but equally thin slice of the shrinking pie.

This stance comports with the graphic novel’s liberal ethos, discussed just above, and with its apparent opposition to capital punishment. This creed promotes and embodies the confusion of Commissioner Gordon,[35]  who thinks that to kill the Joker is to make Batman no different from the Joker. To kill Saddam Hussein is no better than Saddam’s own killings. Nietzsche would say such a leveling of standards functions to absolve everyone of responsibility. I won’t blame you if you don’t blame me.

The animated Justice League episode “A Better World”[36]  would seem outrageously silly if we were not already so thoroughly imbued with the dogmatic liberalism of DC Comics, where mass murderers like the Joker have no trouble escaping or being released from Arkham Asylum or Belle Reve Prison every few issues. The whole premise of the cartoon is that all it takes is Superman deciding the world (another world parallel to ours) has had enough of Lex Luthor—and hadn’t it?—and executing him. But what happens? That world is plunged into a totalitarian regime run by the former heroes. But that is a natural progression only in the tear-clouded eyes of those who see no difference between the state’s right to exercise force on the one hand and fascism on the other. And how revealingly ironic it is that at the close of the very same episode Luthor (in our world), now pardoned by the government, inaugurates a plotline whereby he will become President of the United States! Shouldn’t Superman have eliminated him when he had the chance? If you could go back in time and eliminate Hitler before he came to power…?

The End of the End

The alteration of Alex Ross’s proposed title for his eschatological epic from “The End of the Heroic Age” to Kingdom Come offers a ray of hope that perhaps the reign of the superheroes is not over. The original title signaled a terminus; the new one denotes the beginning of something new. In the original graphic novel that new order, as we have seen, was one of lowest common denominator democratism, a leveling of the field to make the world safe for mediocrity. But in both the sequels, one each by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, the superheroes return. In Waid’s The Kingdom, the now-civilian Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman suit up again once the infant son of Superman and Wonder Woman (and Batman’s Godson) is snatched away by Gog, Waid’s successor to Magog.

In Ross’s sequel, a Justice Society of America story arc collected as Thy Kingdom Come, Superman and the rest remain out of uniform for good, but Superman continues to live incognito for another thousand years, aging very slowly, and the story ends with him looking “up in the sky!” where he beholds the Legion of Super-Heroes (a DC Comics future-era super-group created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in 1958) flying like a flock of super-powered geese through the skies of a Metropolis that now fits Fritz Lang’s description. Among their brilliantly costumed forms are Superboy (presumably the clone Kon-el) and Supergirl, both of whom had departed a dreary twenty-first century to time-travel into this brighter future. A brief anticipation of this scene, without the aged Superman watching the skies, appeared already in Kingdom Come as an example of how various heroes had abandoned twenty-first century earth to its misery and sought refuge elsewhere and elsewhen. But the scene inevitably raised the question whether the (positive) outcome of Thy Kingdom Come was not fixed in advance. How could Armageddon be a real threat if the world would still be standing in the thirtieth century? Was Ross already hinting that eventually a new heroic age would dawn? May we be so fortunate.

[1] Mark Waid and Alex Ross, Kingdom Come (NY: DC Comics, 1997). Page numbers are cited from the single-volume collection. All italics stood thus in the original.

[2] Michael Riffaterre, Fictional Truth. Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990). “[T]here is an unconscious of the text that works like the human unconscious. This unconscious of the text is represented by the symbolism of the subtext and by the intertext this symbolism mobilizes” (p. xvii).

[3] Quoted in Brian Saner Lamken, ed., The Kingdom Come Companion. Comicology Volume One. (Ardmore, PA: Harbor Press, 1998) p. 10.

[4] Ibid, p. 128.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Presumably the end of the novel, not the end of Revelation.

[7] Richard Harland, Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. New Accents (NY and London: Routledge, 1988), p. 9.

[8] Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp. 38-45.

[9] Hal Lindsey with C.C. Carlson, The Late Great Planet Earth (NY: Bantam Books, 1976), e.g., Chapter 12, “World War III,” pp. 135-157.

[10] Ronald Schleifer, A.J. Greimas and the Nature of Meaning: Linguistics, Semiotics and Discourse Theory. Critics of the Twentieth Century (London & Sydney: Croom Helm, 1987), pp. 87-118. Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale. Trans. Laurence Scott. American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series, Volume 9 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2nd ed, 1990): “one may say that the number of [narrative] functions is extremely small, whereas the number of personages is extremely large. This explains the two-fold quality of a tale: its amazing multiformity, picturesqueness, and color, and on the other hand, its no less striking uniformity, its repetition” (pp. 20-21).

[11]Kingdom Come Companion, p. 19.

[12] Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Frank Fosco, Ken Branch, Zero Hour (NY: DC Comics, 1994).

[13] Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Sandman (NY: DC Comics, 2009).

[14] “Since seminary, I have been more philosopher than priest.” Kingdom Come, p. 121.

[15] Probably a Croatian, given Croatian Nazi sympathies in World War Two.

[16] Michael Moorcock, The Land Leviathan (NY: DAW Books, 1982).

[17] “Gyges may be related to Ogyges, a mythical Attic king… The name Ogyges became synonymous with ‘primaeval’; the ‘primal water’ of Styx ([Theogony] 805) is ‘hydor ogygion,’” Richard S. Caldwell (translator and commentator), Hesiod’s Theogony. Focus Classical Library (Newburyport: Focus Information Group, 1987), p. 37. Here one is reminded of Yahve’s battle with Yamm, the personified primordial waters, and in light of Ezekiel 38:2, one must wonder if “hydor ogygion” came to mean “primordial hydra or sea dragon.”

[18] Hesiod, Theogony, pp. 149-153.

[19] Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway, Ariel Olivetti, Brian Apthorp, Matt Haley, Mark Pajarillo, Frank Quitely, Barry Kitson, and Mike Zeck, The Kingdom (NY: DC Comics, 1999), p. 20. The seals bear the insignia of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern, the Grim Reaper (the Spectre?), a cross, and something else hard to make out.

[20] At one point, when the time-traveling Gog kidnaps the infant son of Superman and Wonder Woman, he declares, “As I am Gog… so shall you be my Magog” (p. 66, appropriately!). Thus, it is implied, the Magog of Kingdom Come would have turned out to be the very son of Superman and Wonder Woman! This is brilliant, but Waid seems to have forgotten all about it by the end of The Kingdom when he reveals the baby to have grown up to be some sort of superhero like his parents.

[21] Based on Ross’s plot outline, the story of Gog appears in Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Fernando Pasarin, Thy Kingdom Come. Part One (NY: DC Comics, 2008), Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Fernando Pasarin, and Jerry Ordway, Thy Kingdom Come. Part Two (NY: DC Comics, 2008); Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Nathan Massengill, Jerry Ordway, and Bob Wiacek, Thy Kingdom Come. Part Three (NY: DC Comics, 2008).

[22] “Mark Waid Interview.” Kingdom Come Companion, p. 226.

[23] The original story arc extending through Action Comics #s 687-691, Superman: The Man of Steel #s 22-26, Superman #s 78-82, and Adventures of Superman #s 500-505 was collectively dubbed “The Reign of the Supermen,” while the one-volume collection was The Return of Superman by Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, John Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Jackson Guice, Brett Breeding, Doug Hazlewood, Dennis Janke, Denis Rodier, Gerard Jones, M.D. Bright, and Romeo Tanghal (NY: DC Comics, 1993).

[24] Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern, Jon Bogdanove, Tom Grummett, Jackson Guice, Brett Breeding, Rick Burchett, Doug Hazlewood, Dennis Janke, and Denis Rodier, The Death of Superman (NY: DC Comics, 1993).

[25] Henry Kuttner, “A Cross of Centuries.” Star Science Fiction Stories, #4 (November 1958).

[26] Albert Schweitzer, The Mystery of the Kingdom of God: The Secret of Jesus’ Messiahship and Passion, trans. Walter Lowrie (NY: Schocken Books, 1964), pp. 96-99, 103.

[27] Peter Worsley, The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of “Cargo” Cults in Melanesia (NY: Schocken Books, 2nd ed., 1968), pp. 52-53, 84, 95, 103, 107, 111, 115, 116-117, 135, 139, 151, 155, 214

[28] Victor W. Turner, “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage.” William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt, eds., Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (NY: Harper & Row, 3rd ed., 1972), pp. 338-347.

[29] vArnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage. Trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960) catalogues various instances of ritual “sin”: including homosexuality, pederasty, bestiality, and incest (pp. 169-174), but he does not yet explain them in terms of liminality.

[30] Francis Gerald Downing, Cynics and Christian Origins (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000); Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994); John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco: Harper One, 1990).

[31] Gerd Theissen, “The Wandering Radicals: Light Shed by the Sociology of Literature on the Early Transmission of Jesus Sayings” in Theissen, Social Reality of the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics and the World of the New Testament. Trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), pp. 33-59; Theissen, Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity. Trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), Chapter II, “The Role of the Wandering Charismatics,” pp. 8-16.

[32] Stevan L. Davies, The Revolt of the Widows: The Social World of the Apocryphal Acts (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980), p. 36: “However asocial, the apostle is moral in the sense of disapproving such deeds as theft, murder, adultery, and revenge. He does not oppose moral order but social structure. Implicitly, the more continent, enduring, and free from social obligations an individual is, the more moral he will be.”

[33] Bruce J. Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), Chapter 2, “Honor and Shame: Pivotal Values of the First-Century Mediterranean World,” pp. 25-50.

[34] Solomon Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (NY: Macmillan, 1910), pp. 266-267, 290.

[35] Joseph Loeb and Jim Lee, Hush (NY: DC Comics, 2002-2003; one-volume compilation 2009), no pagination.

[36] “A Better World,” Justice League Season Two (Burbank: Warner Home Video, 226), Episode 11, “A Better World Part 1;” Episode 12, “A Better World Part 2.”


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Gluten Free Treats to Make Date Night Special

Looking for gluten free treats? These sweet recipes will help make any occasion special. We love our simple at-home date nights. Sure, we’re at home together a lot. Working at life. And projects. And parenting. It’s easy to get caught up in those things and forget to enjoy each other’s company. So we purposefully set aside time (almost) each […]

Weekly Date Night: You Can Make It Happen!

Would you like to have a weekly date night with the love of your life?  Even if you’re already married?  And have kids? You can!   You don’t have to make extravagant plans, hire a babysitter or leave your house.  Those things are good (and you should do them every now and then), but don’t […]

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Natasha DeBoard

has been a member since Dec 2008 and goes by natashadeboard.

I'm a beginner who appreciates the beauty in every day life and am learning to capture it. My biggest inspiration is my husband and my two nieces and nephew.

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The Weekend Begins

18 Jan 200936 views

18 Jan 200933 views

18 Jan 200952 views
In "Frenzy"

17 Jan 200928 views

We're Almost There

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In "Transportation"

The Beauty in Simplicity

16 Jan 2009118 views, 1 favorite, 4 comments
In "Zen"

Mans Best Friend

14 Jan 200927 views

Lunch at The Park

14 Jan 200928 views

Real Life Snow Globe

14 Jan 200970 views, 3 comments
In "Great Outdoors"

14 Jan 200944 views
In "Reflections"

Through The Window 2 7/365

7 Jan 200965 views, 1 comment

5 Jan 200939 views

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Room with a View

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The view from my room, warped by my neglect of the exposed film

Jamaica, 2006

Taken with the Holga

In the Jamaican Holga photo essay.

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Submitted to Out of Place
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    Amazing shot. Really wonderful.

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    beautiful photo!!like it

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    Nicely done, so alive!!

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    Great shot!

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    nice composition...bellissima

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ISCM World Music Days

Con Spirito included in British Section’s official selection

The British Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music included Jonathan Pitkin’s Con Spirito, for piano and disklavier, in their official selection for the programme of the ISCM World Music Days in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2014.

The World Music Days is one of the most important annual festivals of contemporary music worldwide.


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Japanese food style

Introduce Japanese food and food recipes. Sushi, Ramen, Tempura, Karaage. You can easily cook them at your home.

Japanese food weekly vol 7

投稿日：2014/05/24 更新日：

Alice on Wednesday

On May 23, I strayed into the labyrinth in Osaka.Strangely, it was the time when it was comfortable.The variety store which featured the theme of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on May 23 opened in Osaka.When you enter the store, you are already Alice.
refer to Alice on Wednesday

May 23 2014

Hit product in 7-Eleven

Popcorn sold in Seven-Eleven has caught on.It is out of stock even if I go to any shop.Caramel taste and cheese taste seem to be sold.They seem to be very yummy.I want(≧∀≦*).Please eat looking for it if you come to Japan.
refer to 7-Eleven Japan

May 22 2014

Osaka New Hankyu hotel

‘Osaka New Hankyu hotel’ is a long-established leading hotel in Osaka.The Japanese food restaurant of ‘Osaka New Hankyu hotel’ has good.The sherbet that the cafe in the hotel is interesting is sold.It is Surfing Seal sherbet.It is cool and I hesitate to eating it.
suffing seal
refer to Osaka New Hankyu hotel

Jun 1 2014

Japanese food weekly vol47

Halal certificate Kobe beef The Kobe beef which gain the Halal certification is sold in Kobe.The Kob …

Japanese food weekly vol25

Drift ice curry It is the curry which expressed white drift ice floating and blue of the Sea of Okho …

Japanese food weekly vol66

Shaun the Sheep cafe in Osaka, Minamisennba Anime is a culture that Japan boasts to the world.The Ja …

Japanese food restaurant info22

Doro-yaki Nanpu Himeji station I like the okonomiyaki and the yakisoba and the takoyaki.I have ate t …

Japanese food restaurant info13

Soba Douka Soba is made from buckwheat flour, binding agent and water.Therefore, the taste of the so …

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Jiangsu Dongjian Hi-Tech Materials Co., Ltd.
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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Thursday Challenge_ Dark

On a
Dark October night, a fun night under a full moon, on a street corner tasting the nightlife in a smallish town.

To see more Thursday Challenges on dark, click on the link

George said...

Julie, you did a good job of capturing 'dark' in all three photos.
Thanks for your comment on my site.

Mojo said...

You don't get too many sidewalk shows in my town. Which is too bad, because I really enjoy them. This reminds me of a summer night I spent in Buffalo many years ago... Except for the full moon part that is.

gina said...

great shots.

Dianne said...

fantastic aura in your photos, it's like being there!

lisaschaos said...

Looks like a fun night with a great moon and great entertainment!

Amanda said...

love them all but especially the lunar it is awesome!

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Wednesday, 31 March 2010

A lovely family friend of ours is retiring tomorrow,it's always difficult working out what to do for a man's card and I just couldn't find a stamp that I felt suited him (might have if I'd thought about it a bit sooner)

This is what I came up with. I used the lovely My Minds Eye, Quite Contrary papers again. The dog die cut was cut in white cardstock using a quickutz die, I coloured and shaded him using my Copic Ciao pens. The stamped image is again "Autumn Max" by Pink gem designs but I have played around with it cutting a hat for him out of felt and adding detail with Copics and replacing his conker with a hiking stick (a cocktail stick coloured brown) The ball was a flat backed
pearl which I coloured again using a red copic. The garland was made using a quickutz diamond die, cutting enough out in different shades of paper to stamp with the greeting. I folded the diamonds in half and glued them over a length of craft wire. I shaped this to fit the card and attached it around the paper before securing it to the card blank.
I think this card should suit my chicken keeping,dog walking friend! lol Thought I'd enter it for the Papertake weekly challenge which has an open theme this week and Crafty Creations open challenge this week and the Allsorts Challenge where you have to recycle something as I have "altered" my cocktail stick.
Thanks for stopping by today,
Happy crafting,
Julie x

Monday, 29 March 2010

Happy Birthday Karen !

Hi there! It's the lovely Karen at Scrapbook Sisters' birthday today,thought I'd show you the card that I sent her,nearly did a boo boo the other week when I made it as I almost posted it on here then. Glad I didn't!

Looking at the Basic Grey Challenge I realised it would qualify as an entry for Week 16. The theme for this was Tutti Frutti and as my lovely image by Pink Gem designs is called Apple Mimi and the papers are Basic Grey it couldn't have worked better! The papers are really scrummie,and are called Green at Heart I just couldn't resist buying them and have used three of the papers from the range on this card matting them onto bright pink cardstock.the lovely spotty buttons are by Papermania and the flowers are by Prima.I stamped my image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad and coloured Mimi with Copic Ciaos.
Hope That you've had a really lovely birthday Karen and haven't had to work too hard today.
Thanks all for stopping by,
Julie x

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Double Challenge.

Hope you've had a good weekend so far and that you remembered to alter your clocks last night.
It is going to be nice not to have to close the curtains so early tonight!

Thought I'd combine a couple of challenges with this card today,firstly the Copic colour challenge where this weeks colours were;Olive,Blue Violet and Walnut. I used my Gorguss girl again for this sketch,I love the fact that her tights look best with colours you wouldn't normally think of putting together,in fact they are my favourite thing to colour! I'm sure that they still had some of this lovely stamp for sale when I popped into Scrapbook Sisters yesterday if you want to get your hands on it.
I carried on the line of the stamp with a black fine liner pen and stamped my greeting on it.
The other challenge that I'm entering this card for is the CPS 160 sketch. the sketch had a circular greeting and I chose to sit my Gorjuss girl in this position instead. The paper I've used was an off cut from my last weeks Scrapbooking class,have no idea who the papers were by but they were so lovely that I even managed to do 2 layouts in class. Most unheard of!
See you tomorrow when I can show you the card I made for the lovely Karen at Scrapbook Sisters who's birthday it is then. Hope you have a lovely day tomorrow Karen!
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Mojo Monday

And she's back in the room lol ! Not wanting to let the grass grow I thought I'd get straight back in the saddle and do the Mojo Monday card sketch. What a lovely simple sketch it is too.

The tulip stamps were bought for me so many years ago that I really have no idea who it's by, it was part of a set that included lots of other flower stamps,really must dig them out and use them. Easter Wishes was my freebie stamp received when I bought another Easter Image from Pink Gem Designs.
Hope you like it,
Thanks for dropping by,
Julie x

Try,try again!

Well,here's the latest update,my laptop's still out of use but I have been given a little lesson on my daughter's so can now post my photos again,
So here is my most recent of missed card challenges,this one should have been for the Sweet Stop Sketch challenge that finished last night.

My lovely Gorguss girl was a mothers day present, which I coloured with my copics (what else?)

Apart from having to follow the sketch,the challenge was to include something fuzzy.
For this part of the challenge I used a Sizzix die through my cuttlebug to cut out two flowers from felt which I mounted onto my card using a fuzzy brad! I put a dot of glossy accents onto each flower to highlight them.
I hope to actually be able to post some challenges in advance of their closing date some time soon lol!
Thanks for stopping by,
catch you later,
Julie x

Friday, 26 March 2010

I'm not a happy bunnie,looks like I'm going to miss out on some more challenges! On the plus side though I've a few cards to share with you once the laptop's up to speed! Not sure how to download my photos onto this computer so will keep them till I'm back on mine. Please call back to check on me,
Bye for now,
Julie x

Thursday, 25 March 2010

I'm Back!

Do you want the good news or the bad news? Well the good news is that my laptop is almost sorted, the bad news is I've lost the photo of the card that I'd made for a challenge for today. Can't take another either as it's already posted lol!

So just because I can't wait to get back into the swing of posting,here's the other patchwork card I made at the weekend, think I should call it "Pretty Maids all in a row". Couldn't make my mind up whether the pansies should all be the same or not so decided on almost but not quite! Can't wait to get back into entering the sketch challenges but unfortunately have some work commitments I need to do first.
Hope to catch you later today,
till then,take care,
Julie x

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

A bit of trouble !

I'm so not happy! am having a bit of trouble with my lap top at the moment so I'm unable to post the resent cards I've made :( I've made one for a challenge too so hoping it's fixed before the Thursday entry deadline!Fingers crossed I'll be posting photos soon,
thanks for stopping by anyway,Julie x

Saturday, 20 March 2010

I thought I'd lost the knack today, I cut lots of squares in 2 different sizes using a Cuttlebug die,kept laying them out but for some reason I just couldn't make a card from them. Then after a little more re-arranging I remembered a technique I'd seen where you give the squares dimension so out came a foam mat and I ran the rounded lid of my pen firmly around the wrong side of the scalloped edges and the squares popped up. I placed a square foam pad in the middle of each,mock stitched around the squares and placed them around the edges of my card.

I stamped the Papermania pansies on a square of card and coloured them with toning Copics,inked around the edges and placed it in the centre of my card. I've made another card using the smaller squares that I cut,might share it with you later in the week. The lovely papers are again Jack and Jill, Quite Contrary by My minds Eye.
Hope you like it,
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Friday, 19 March 2010

Just a quick post,have made a quick entry for the Sweet Stop challenge

Was a nice sketch to follow just used up a few off cuts of paper, stamped and the lovely pansy image from a set by Papermania and coloured it using Copic Ciao marker pens. Thanks for stopping by,
enjoy your weekend,

Julie x

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Scrapbooking Class

As you might know,once a fortnight I attend a scrapbooking class at Scrapbook Sisters,last weeks layout was made using Magenta's Gypsy collection papers,the Layouts prepared as examples were stunning! odd papers,certainly not my cup of tea but recovered by the expert use of them,Julie had excelled herself.I however struggled a bit with this one,wasn't paying proper attention and cut my papers a bit wrong.

Here is my layout,not as good as the examples but passable me thinks!

I did however find the papers much easier to use in my card making. See you with some cards soon hopefully.
Thanks for stopping by,
catch up soon,Julie

Monday, 15 March 2010

Challenge 31 Judy's Sketch

I know I said I'd be too busy to craft this week but the Sugar Bowl challenge just has to be done,

Who can resist a little colouring of a Gorguss Girl! I certainly can't anyway. The challenge had to include some stars,I struggled a bit with this as I just had to use the beautiful new range of papers that came in at Scrapbook Sisters by Basic Grey called Green at Heart.I'm sure you know what it's like when you just HAVE to use that scrummie piece of paper that keeps calling from the drawer! Anyway,I managed the task eventually,took a bit of searching but it was worth it in the end.
Hope you've all had a good Monday,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Sunday, 14 March 2010

Happy Mothers Day

I hope that all you Mum's out there have had a lovely day,I've been really spoilt!
My youngest daughter attends the regular Kid's Classes at Scrapbook Sisters and this was the project that they made at her most recent class.

Another crafter in the family, aren't I a lucky girlie! Love you lots too Amy!

I was also lucky enough to receive some crafting goodies and be treated out to coffee by my eldest.
Catch up later in the week when hopefully I've had chance to play with some of my new goodies.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Saturday, 13 March 2010

Double Challenge

After my unsuccessful day yesterday I thought I'd start early with my posting today. I'm entering this card for this weeks Copic colour challenge and also this months Pink Gem sketch challenge.

The lovely papers are double sided and you'll definitely see some more cards from me using them,they are from a new range of papers in at Scrapbook Sisters by My Minds Eye and are called Jack and Jill,Quite Contrary. I love the quality of My minds Eye and I especially love the way the edge strip has the very usable strip showing the reverse of the paper.
The lovely little chap holding his flag is actually Autumn Max by Pink Gem Designs but I took away his conker and made him hold the flag instead. He doesn't seem to mind,lol. It doesn't show too well in the photo but I've taken a tip from Karen at S.S. and popped the circular greeting by rubbing around the centre using an embossing tool over a foam pad.(in my case I used the rounded edge of my glue runner) Will invest in a large headed embossing tool when they come in next!
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Friday, 12 March 2010

What a day!

I've had what I can only describe as a challenging day today,one of those days where everything seems to be against you. Still,I thought,I'll do a little challenge and found this sketch to follow but guess what, today is in fact Friday,not Thursday like I thought it was lol!

So here is the entry for the challenge that closed on Thursday evening,obviously not entered with it being Friday! As I said WHAT A DAY! I so love this cute image, it's called
Milly with chickens,and is by Pink Gems designs,as is the Easter greeting. She was so lovely to colour with my lovely Copic pens!
Tomorrow's a new day and hopefully a much better one than today so will stop my ramblings and hope that you'll call back and catch me then.
Till then,take care,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Thursday, 11 March 2010

Sketch Saturday

Twice in one evening,making up for the lack of posts in the week! Not really,it was just that I happened to take a quick look at this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge and noticed it was nearly identical to the card I'd made for Mum.

So before I tidied away my stash for the day I thought I'd make another quick card using some other off cuts from Wednesday's class. Luckily I'd already coloured in another pot of pansies that also happened to tone with the papers.
Hope you like it,
Julie x
What a busy week it's been so far,not much time for crafting till my fortnightly scrapbooking class last night
This week we used a range of papers by Magenta called the Gypsy collection.

Have used some of the leftovers to make a card ready for my Mum's Birthday later in the month.She loves flowers so when I saw a range of stamps by Papermania called Traditional Pansies I couldn't resist them,there are several different images and script too in the collection. I coloured them using Copic pens and cut them out using Revolution circle dies and Nestability scalloped circles. MUM was cut using the Quickutz moxi alphabet.I think she'll will love it.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Monday, 8 March 2010

I've posted a couple of cards recently that have were made using leftovers of the rather scrummie Crate Paper from a class project a while ago. Scrapbooking doesn't always come easily to me but there was just something about these papers that for once the page just flowed.

I loved the shaped paper,It was so lovely to work with. I ran my blade around the sides and inserted the centre panel then cut out some flowers from one of the other papers and arranged them around the photo.

I know that journaling is needed on layouts but I always feel that my scrawl should be hidden so I made a little slit along the lines of colours and made a tag first of acetate then another slightly shorter which I wrote my journaling on. I then cut out one of the birds from the paper and stuck him to the acetate and added my journaling tag so that it looked like it was held in the bird's feet. I then slid this between the layers of paper and added 3d glaze to the birds tail which helped to "pop" the colours. Karen and Julie of Scrapbook Sisters always come up with some beautiful layouts and sketches for us to follow, scrapbooking might not always come easy to me but the classes are always fun. I wonder what this Wednesday's class will hold, will share with you later. Thanks for stopping by this evening,
catch up later in the week,
Julie x

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Lovely Clouds

Out for a little Blog Hop today I picked up this little Digi Image by Pink Gem, I liked the effect I got colouring the clouds in using my lovely Copics, just a few brushes with the cool grey and a wipe across with the blender and they look all puffy! I believe Scrapbook Sisters have just had another delivery of the Copic Ciao pens this week, must see if I can add to my collection before they sell out again, I'm sure there must be some colours that I haven't got.

The Lovely little buttons are by papermania, The papers are the Pink Parfait,forever friends collection and my most favourite flowery paper is Crate paper I believe. Hope you like it,
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Friday, 5 March 2010

Whilst tidying away my stash after making the Sugar Bowl Challenge card the other evening, I found myself with die cut left overs which just happened to tone with a lovely little girl I'd been playing around colouring a while ago. Quick card I thought and here is what I came up with.

My cute little card blank was cut using my scalloped Nestability die,the ribbon and buttons from the bottom of my craft tote,a quick tap round the edges with a chalk eye,job done! All I need now is some little envelopes to put these cutie cards into. Must try my hand at envelope making!
Hope you all have a great weekend,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Thursday, 4 March 2010

How lovely it's been to see the sunshine today,looks like Spring is round the corner. It can't come too soon for me! Thought I'd share another of my easy cards for men tonight,same style as the black and white cards I made last month but this time I didn't put a frame around the aperture.

I cut the letters out using a sizzix alphabet through my Cuttlebug cutting two shades of each letter and gluing them together, offsetting them to form a shadow effect. I then glued these to a thin strip of acetate and attached this across the aperture.

I found some clear holographic peel offs amongst my stash and shaped the greeting around the centre. I think that the spotty paper is probably "Crate Paper" and the paper I used for the inside of the card was Bo bunny.I know I've done this style before but it's so easy to do and perfect for a boy.
Hope to see you tomorrow,
thanks for stopping by,
Julie x

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

The Sugar Bowl

Doing a bit of blog hopping this evening I came across another sketch challenge and being a bit of a Sugar Nellie fan I just had to enter this one! The theme is "Shabby Chic though I must admit that I hadn't realised this until I read it back through after making the card. I'm really hoping that this can class as Shabby Chic but if it doesn't that's another lesson I've learnt,"Always read instructions thoroughly!"

I'm not sure who all the papers are by but some Crate Paper and the rest are off cuts from my overflowing drawer.
Thanks for dropping by to take a look,
hope you call by again soon,
Julie x

Monday, 1 March 2010

White Rabbits

Thought I'd share my layout from my scrapbooking class last Wednesday.I'm hopeless at photographing pages though,any advice on the best way of doing it would be gratefully recieved as I think I might have to give up on posting pages and stick to cards.

The papers are lovely,I've some great leftovers that will be great for card making.They are by Making memories and the range of papers is called Flutter.

Can't believe we're in May already,where does the time go!I'll post some cards using the rest of the range some other day.
Thanks for stopping by,
Julie x


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Yes, we’ve arrived at that time of the year once again!
Saturday next, May 28, sees the final Cubs, Kittens, Pumas and Cougars School of Excellence for the current season.

As is traditional, all players will be awarded with their Completion Certificates and the all-important goodie bags at the end of their normal sessions!

20160514 Cubs 3278 01 small
20160514 YCubs 3260 01 small
20160514 Cougars 1
20160514 Cougars 2
We have to wrap up the season just as the sun comes out!


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Wednesday, 30 September 2009

Italy 2009 Award Winning Holiday Destination

The Italian Tourist Board has announced that "Italy is once again a winner in the preferences of British tourists this year. Italy was already awarded first place in the Conde’ Nast Traveller Travel Awards 2009 as “Favourite country in the world” last month. Now Italy has won top place at the prestigious Sunday Times Travel Magazine Travel Awards 2009 in the category “Favourite European Country for a longer holiday”, with Greece and Spain in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. “Food! Fashion! Culture! Scenery! In truth this was a runaway victory for la bella donna. With its mix of the best sights, smells…and designer bags” “you know there is a holiday for everyone in Italy”, this was the fitting comment of the magazine."

Just Sardinia offers Sardinia & Italy Combination Holidays to visit to one of Italy’s famous cities, Rome or Florence for sightseeing, Venice for a romantic break, or Pisa to visit the leaning Tower or Milan for shopping, en route to or from a a relaxing beach holiday on the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia. Just Sardinia can arrange both accommodation in mainland Italy with any day arrival and departure and any length of stay (subject to availability) and can either recommend a hotel or book one of your choice. Call 01202 484858 or visit

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

The Flag of Sardinia and Tenore Sardinian Restaurant

The Sardinian flag as adopted in its present form only 10 years ago. It features a thin red cross on a white background — with the severed head of a Moor displayed in each of the quarterings.
These days the Moors face right and they each have a bandage around their forehead, rather like a do-rag. Before 1999, however, the heads faced left and the bandage covered their eyes —because what the flag symbolises is the defeat and execution of Moorish kings after the reconquest of the island in the 11th century.
Tenore Sardinian Restaurant in Barnsbury Road London N1 display the flag of Sardinia proudly, with two whopping ones draped over the front window and another flying inside over the bar. Sardinian brothers Alessandro and Dario Mele, who have worked in London restaurants for 10 years, opened Tenore earlier this year with, as chef, Roberto Tonzanu, formerly of Passione, where he worked alongside Geraldo Contaldo.
They aim to deliver a full 'taste of Sardinia', if that’s what you fancy, but it’s not compulsory. There is a dual menu, offering mainstream Italian dishes before the Sardinian specials, as well as a long list of pizzas from the wood-fired oven, ranging from a Margherita at £6.80 to assorted versions made with buffalo mozzarella at £10.75. Tenore offers an intriguing list of Sardinian wines, many based on unfamiliar grapes. The house wines come from the Cantina di Dorgali on the east coast of the island and are good value at £13.75 a bottle, £3.75 a glass — the rich red “cannonau” being in fact what is called garnacha in Spain grenache in France.

Click here to read the review in the London Evening Standard.

For holidays on the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia contact the specialists Just Sardinia Tel 01202 484858.

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Just Sardinia 2010 Now on Sale!

With increasing requests and bookings for 2010, Just Sardinia now have a number of hotels, villas and apartments now on sale - some with excellent early booking offers. These include:

Cala di Falco Villas - Book early for school holidays to avoid disappointment!

Villa L’Arco Private villa with pool in the Galluran countryside

#Hotel Cala di Falco Cannigione, north east

*Hotel La Coluccia north east

Allocation on Arrival (Le Dune Resort, Hotel Capo d'Orso, Hotel Cala di Falco, Resort Valle dell'Erica, Hotel Toreruja and Hotel Marinedda)

* Book before 31st March for 10% discount

+ Early Booking offer full board for half board price

#Free child places availablePlease ask us for details of other great early booking offers!

So dont delay, call 01202 484858 or email us at or book online at today for your first choice of accommodation and a wonderful holidays to look forward to next summer!

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Sardinia for Late Summer Sunshine

September is a great time to visit the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia - the water is warm from the long hot summer, the beaches are less crowded, the countryside is becoming green again and the price of accommodation has dropped significantly to make it an ideal late summer holiday destination…

Just Sardinia has:

    Cala di Falco Villas from £699 per villa
    Villa Ulivo from £999 per villa (sleeping up to 8)
    Villa L’Arco from £599

    Book a great half term holiday in Alghero with a selection of good value apartments with pools, opposite the beach and walking distance of town.

    Treat yourself to a relaxing long weekend or short break at the charming Villa las Tronas Hotel & Spa with spectacular sea views and excellent restaurant.

    September and October are lovely months to see more of this beautiful and diverse island. Book a Southern Spectacular tour and sample the stunning coast and the dramatic countryside.

    This is ‘the’ time of year to explore the island by bike. See more of the coast and countryside and sample family run accommodation and local cuisine.

    How about a city break in the island’s capital city of Cagliari. Stay in the contemporary T Hotel and visit the nearby interesting shops, cafés bars, restaurants, theatre, museums, historic old town and port.

    Don’t forget this international event taking place at Cala di Lepre Park Hotel & Spa between the 2nd and 4th October.

Contact Just Sardinia 01202 484858 or visit with online booking, customer reviews, film footage of the island and accommodations plus the popular ‘Huw’s view’ with our personal opinion about each property giving customers quality, value and service from the Sardinia specialists.

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

Fascinating Sardinian Orchids

"Orchid hunting can be arduous in many places but in the mountains of Sardinia 'Ophrys' orchids grow like roadside weeds! When they bloom in April you can spot them from a moving car. Close up, the lower lip, or labellum, of these diminutive orchids bears an uncanny resemblance to a female bee as viewed from behind. This pseudobee, which is some Orphrys species come complete with fake fur and what appear to be elbows and folded iridescent wings, look as through she has her head buried in a green flower formed by the actual flower's sepals. To reinforce the deception, the orchid gives off a scent that has been shown to closely match the pheromones of the female bee.

On the island of Sardinia, the flowers of mirror orchids perfectly mimic the reflection of blue ski on a female wasp's wings. Male wasps, beguiled by the flower's sight and scent, are lured into service carrying pollen from plant to plant." Click here for picture.

Excerpts from National Geographic Magazine Sept 2009 entitled Sneaky Orchids by Michael Pollan.

Monday, 7 September 2009

JUST SARDINIA - Late Availablity

September is a great time to visit the wonderful Italian Island of Sardinia, the water is warm, from the long hot summer and swimming in the sea is great, the main August season is over and all the flora and fauna is coming back to life, on top of all this the prices of the accommodations have dropped significantly, so all in all its a great time to visit the Island
Just Sardinia has some great offers in September Including the very popular Cala Di Falco Villas from £699 for 1 week on the 26th of September and Villa L'arco this Saturday at £799 for the villa, Exclusive to Just Sardinia, this private villa is set in large gardens with its own swimming pool, located in the heart of the Galluran countryside in the north of Sardinia.

Other offers include 20% discount at the Hotel Pelicano and Free child places at the Resort Tanka Village

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Strictly Sardinia

Strictly Sardinia... Are you interested in Salsa Dancing? This October Just Sardinia are offering an International Salsa Event with 3 days of dancing and fun and 23 Latin dance workshops on the beautiful island of Sardinia. Professional dance teachers will hold the courses which are designed for beginners who want to start to learn Salsa and other Latin dances as well as experts who would like to hone their skills.

Experience Sardinian cuisine and hospitality in one of the most fascinating islands in the Mediterranean:
Join the Salsa team in Sardinia at Resort Dune Village for a great fun weekend of Dancing, ideal for a special birthday party or group holiday. With prices from £200pp it’s also great value for money.
Join us for an unforgettable Salsa experience ...Join us for an extraordinary weekend in Sardinia!

For more information or to book, call Bianca on 01202 489043 or email

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Villa L'arco Sardinia - on sale now for 2010

Villa L’arco on sale for 2010. private villa set in large gardens with its own swimming pool, located in the heart of the Galluran countryside in the north of Sardinia. With price from £499 for the Villa in represents great Value for Money.

Villa L’Arco is a popular private villa set in a secluded rural position with swimming pool, balcony, terrace and veranda to relax and enjoy the views.

The local village of Bassacutena is worth visiting for Café Antico, the ‘Pink’ bar, small supermarket, greengrocer and butcher. Car hire is essential for getting to the beach, for visiting the larger towns of Arzachena, Santa Teresa and Palau (all approx 20 minutes drive) and exploring the local area. Winding country lanes lead to the villa and previous guests have commented that “the villa is in the middle of nowhere yet in the middle of everywhere”. Offering peace and tranquillity, with home comforts, the villa is well equipped to suit those wishing to get away from it all.

Just Sardinia are offering Villas L'arco from £499 for the Villa up to 6 sharing (price based on the 1st May 2010) Book now to secure your preferred dates


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Sunday, November 03, 2013

Client Certificate Authentication Issues with Apache and OS X Mavericks

Found some good tutorials online but took a few days of troubleshooting for me to figure out why they were not working.  Still don't understand SSL and cryptography as much as I would like to.  Posting this incase anyone else runs into similar issues.

The 3 tutorials I found via googling were:

  • Apache
  • Nginx
I will recap the commands here for additional info on how it works read either of those.

# Create the CA Key and Certificate for signing Client Certs
openssl req -config ./openssl.cnf -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyform PEM -keyout ca.key -x509 -days 3650 -extensions certauth -outform PEM -out ca.cer
# Create the Server Key, CSR, and Certificate
openssl genrsa -out server.key 2048

openssl req -config ./openssl.cnf -new -key server.key -out server.req

# We're self signing our own server cert here. This is a no-no in production.
openssl x509 -req -in server.req -CA ca.cer -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 100 -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions server -days 365 -outform PEM -out server.cer
rm server.req

 # Create the Client Key and CSR I made a client.cnf file for attributes to match the client
openssl genrsa -out client.key 2048
openssl req -config ./client.cnf -new -key client.key -out client.req

# Sign the client certificate with our CA cert. Unlike signing our own server cert, this is what we want to do.
openssl x509 -req -in client.req -CA ca.cer -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 101 -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions client -days 365 -outform PEM -out client.cer
openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey client.key -in client.cer -out client.p12
rm client.key client.cer client.req
This is where I ran into problems with some of the tutorials. Testing with CURL to connect to NGINX worked based on the tutorial at worked.

curl -v -s -k --key client.key --cert client.cert

But connecting following the first apache tutorial did not and the second one needed some additional steps.

There seems to be 2 reasons why:
  • OS X Mavericks hacked up CURL to not work with client certificates -
  • CURL prefers certificates to be combined in PEM format with Data Bags included -

# Install CURL via Homebrew (assuems you have brew installed and up to date) openssl is not required but the OS X version is old
brew install openssl curl

# Convert the certificate to pkcs12 and back to pem
openssl pkcs12 -in client.p12 -out client.pem -clcerts

Here is the apache config
SSLCACertificateFile /var/www/conf/ssl.crt/ca.crt
    SSLVerifyClient require
    SSLVerifyDepth 10

Now I can connect with (NOTE: do not use the built in curl)
/usr/local/Cellar/curl/7.33.0/bin/curl -v -s -k --key client.pem --cert client.pem

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

OS X Maverick pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: pip==1.1

Kept getting the following issue with PIP and easy_install
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/pip", line 5, in
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/", line 2603, in
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/", line 666, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/", line 565, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: pip==1.1
Ran the following to fix it:
sudo python
sudo easy_install -U pip

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Django Admin Filter OR queries

Django admin in 1.4+ support the query parameter __in for filtering on multiple values of the same field.  Adding this to the admin took some work but is possible, I am not sure if this is the best way to do it but it does work.

Here is a snippet of my file

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Securing LAMP for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

This is a summary of this post

Setup non root user

useradd -G sudo YOUNONROOTUSER
sudo -i
Install LAMP, Security and other useful stuff
sudo apt-get install lamp-server^ ufw denyhosts fail2ban psad rkhunter chkrootkit nmap logwatch libdate-manip-perl apparmor apparmor-profiles tiger htop libxml2 libxml2-dev libxml2-utils libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dev libapache-mod-security -y
Setup UFW
sudo ufw enable
ufw status verbose
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw allow http
Secure shared mem (requires reboot)
echo 'tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,noexec,nosuid 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
Disallow root ssh logins (can also change SSH PORT)
sed -i 's/PermitRootLogin yes/PermitRootLogin no/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sed -i 's/Port 22/Port 2222/g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart
Limit su command to users that have sudo
sudo dpkg-statoverride --update --add root sudo 4750 /bin/su
Harden network with sysctl settings.  This is what my /etc/sysctl.conf file ends up looking like with no comments
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv6.conf.all.accept_source_route = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians = 1
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses = 1
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.send_redirects = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 2048
net.ipv4.tcp_synack_retries = 2
net.ipv4.tcp_syn_retries = 5
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all = 1
sudo sysctl -p
Prevent IP Spoofing
# The "order" line is only used by old versions of the C library.
order bing,hosts
nospoof on
multi on
Secure PHP (assumes that exec, system, shell_exec, passthru are not already there)

sed -i 's/expose_php = On/expose_php = Off/g' /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
sed '/^disable_functions/ s/$/,exec,system,shell_exec,passthru/' /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini > /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
Secure Apache
sed -i 's/ServerTokens OS/ServerTokens Prod/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/security
sed -i 's/ServerSignature On/ServerSignature Off/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/security
echo 'Header unset ETag' >> /etc/apache2/conf.d/security
echo 'FileETag None' >> /etc/apache2/conf.d/security
a2enmod headers
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Update fail2ban
sed -s 'action = %(action_)s/action = %(action_mwl)s/g' s//etc/fail2ban/jail.conf

Monday, February 25, 2013

Vagrant on Cygwin

Not fully tested taken from memory and history so if anything is missing please comment.

Taken mostly from a good post here Assumes you have latest cygwin and virtualbox installed.

Cygwin need svn and bash Install other deps
svn --force export /bin/
chmod +x /bin/apt-cyg
apt-cyg install make ruby curl git bsdtar ssh

Get Vagrant 1.1.0 dev from git (once this is stable then this step is not needed).
git clone
cd vagrant

Update pull request for cygwin fix from here
curl | git am

Install gem so deps are install then rake install to update to dev version with patches applied
gem install vagrant
rake install

export VBOX_USER_HOME=`pwd`/.VirtualBox/

Add symlink to VBoxManage
ln '/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/Oracle/VirtualBox/VBoxManage.exe' /usr/local/bin/VBoxManage

Use vagrant
vagrant box add lucid32
vagrant init lucid32
vagrant up

You May get an error when starting up. This is because the Virtual box guest additions need to be installed so the directory can be mounted
vagrant ssh
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-addition


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High School Computing

RI Teachers Trained in 2016 and 2017:

How does the transition to Code.org affect me?

AP CS Principles (9-12)

URI is a Code.org Regional Partner and the designated provider of Code.org Professional Learning Programs in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

AP CS Principles (CSP) introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world. It is meant to be an inviting introduction to computer science for a wide, diverse, population of students.

Through this partnership, URI provides free materials, free professional development, and the possibility of teacher stipends for Code.org's CS Principles program to teachers in grades 9-12 who wish to teach computer science in their classes.

For more information on URI's AP CS Principles trainings, contact urics.k12@gmail.com


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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Recycled Peacock bottle and gift box set

Dear friends

am back after a long time,a quick post to share another painted bottle with all of you....

Decoupage and glass colors
I have used Glass colors and decoupage on the bottle. The peacock design is on both sides of the bottle. I have used water based glass colors by Hobby ideas in  blue and green on the bottle and a teeny- tiny bit of glitter around the decoupaged image. Used two coats of varnish to seal the colors and the image. The gorgeous papers are from Mesmerising India collection by Divya Thallap available with Craftslane. The bottle is a recycled liquor bottle and the box a coffee mug pack. The box is also decoupaged using same collection and I have distressed the edges by using metallic acrylic colors in metallic blue/green shades.

Decoupage and glass colors

Decoupage and glass colors
The top of the box and two sides have been stencilled using homemade texture paste and fancy Feathers stencil and then painted in blue/ green and a little bit of gold dust powder. This is how it looks with the lights  ...................

Decoupage and glass colors
This gift set is for a dear friend with some more goodies already packed in the recycled box!!

linking to blue/greens.

Please do leave your comments. I would love to read what you say and I would love to visit your blog too !!

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Saturday, February 17, 2007

Men, Computers & Sex

What do men have in common with computers?

Women feel that there are lots of simillarities between men and computers because they have to turn them on to get their attention, big power surges knock them out for the rest of the day and as soon as a woman commits to one, she realizes that if she'd waited a little longer, she could have obtained a better model.

Why is architecture better than sex?

Because although it can take several years to achieve a full erection, once it's up, it'll probably stay up for a century or more.

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

This IS NOT underwear!

Next up for Victoria Secret...fishnet, sock-like, panties that look like a headband!

I was so excited to get my home birthing kit in the mail....I had visions of aromatherapy goodies, candles...and other home birth goodies. Darn you imagination!

Watch with me as we discover what other awesome things come in your home birthing kit!
I really am so excited to have my baby at home...and now I feel officially prepared! ha ha ha

If you want to know where to get a Home Birthing Kit...this is where I got mine, at the obedient instruction of my midwife, Sherry.

watch my "what you get to have your baby at home" kit....ha ha ha...and sneek peeks of my little people!

fishnet fancy pants....kandee

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