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With the slow news cycle, we've been doing some much needed maintenance around Stately Beat Manor -- trimming unread email lists, pruning RSS feeds, and so on. We've also been pondering our commenting system. We've recently put a few posters on "time out" because they were basically rude, insulting brigands, and we don't like their kind. Biting wit and a droll put-down is fine. Name calling and invective is not. Frankly, we're always amazed when we go out and meet all the smart, talented people who read the Beat daily -- we'd love to get some of those folks to comment more but it might require a complete overhaul of the commenting system. Also, it's always been our observation that the better the modding, the better the commenting, and we don't have the time it probably requires.

Can you believe The Beat is on the move AGAIN? It's true! This time...it's a WEDDING.

I have had numerous reports recently that my RSS feed isn't working. This is due to improperly setting up Feedburner, as far as...

Traditional post-San Diego activity: Waiting for the new Ikea Catalog! The EXPEDIT -- building block of civilization and hoarding everywhere -- is now reduced.

We are working. We are reading up on all the Nerdmageddon posts and douchebag rallies and everything, and working on a con report which hopefully will be up Friday morning. Can't be done sooner, alas. Tomorrow is another travel day. Today, more meetings. We honestly don't think anyone gave a flying frak about Comic-Con by, oh about 4 pm Monday morning. Indeed the entertainment press has already moved on as everyone licks their wounds and starts fretting about getting a hotel room for NEXT year's con. Meanwhile, we've been looking at produce, and the fun piñatas that adorn them. Los Angeles: a world apart.

Okay, we're on the ground and ready to get Preview Night and there are some press events already going on, notably this: We had flight delays and other unpleasant stuff like a server meltdown that near about gave us a heart attack yesterday but it's all over now and the real suffering can begin. Oh, we kid. There was a South Park marathon on Comedy Central that made the flight very bearable, including the classic World of Warcraft episode, the Logan's Run episode and one about sex education where Kyle...oh we can't say but we know you remember. We haven't had time to take the temperature of the town, but let's just say San Diego couldn't be more eager to welcome Comic-Con! There were e-signs up at BAGGAGE CLAIM for crying out loud. The signs at the trolley stop have been made over in Klingon. Signs, banners, parties, breakfast specials...the red carpet hasn't been rolled out, it's been shot out of a t-shirt cannon over the whole city.

I'd like to introduce the improved Events page! Now you can just go to our all purpose Events Page and see what's coming up! It's a little barebones now, but eventually it will have the week's events listed. You can also see the three upcoming events in the sidebar. (Sorry about that dingbat -- still trying to fix it.) As very observant readers may have noticed, I've been struggling with events for a while -- they were way too NYC-centric to be really useful, but this way, events can be quickly added and a database maintained. I'll still be doing some spotlight posts, as well, but this is, hopefully, a useful resource. So keep those events coming!

The expected tsunami of San Diego news is well under way, and we'll start our annual mega posting tomorrow. In the meantime apologies for the erratic Beat posting schedule of late due to conflicting deadlines on a variety of fronts; juggling all this stuff seems to take as much time as getting it accomplished. Despite all the problems, I hope you can stick with me. Of course, I'll be in San Diego to report on as much of it as one human possibly can -- we'll have a few stringers and correspondents on the scene as well and hopefully we can dig a little into the behind the scenes of the hype and hoopla.

We're back from our little working vacation, but sadly, we're more tired than ever! How does that happen? The Beat feels relaxed for about five seconds upon returning home, but then. the stress of catching up on everything we missed erases all progress. Plus, there is so much to see. Within five minutes of alighting at Penn Station we had already seen TWO men wearing eye bandages!

Housekeeping notes: • The OLD Beat is up at a new URL: whenmonkeysattack.com. Believe it or not we're still trying to get all the old...

This blog has been getting around lately -- links on Boing Boing, Reddit, Digg, Kottke, and so on -- with a corresponding increase in commenting. Without wanting to play Dean Wormer here, I am scrutinizing the comments a bit more closely, and personal attacks, trolling and general asshatery will not be tolerated. I will PARTICULARLY not tolerate jerkishness in obituary threads because they are often read by family members and believe me, you'll thank me later. ... And to all you lurkers out there, feel free to bust out if you are so moved.

I was saddened to learn this morning that frequent Beat poster Lewis "Alan" Coil died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 55.

I never met Alan in real life, and certainly he had his disagreements with many people on the internet, but he was a constant presence here and at many other sites, and obviously passionate about comics and participating in the discussion. Alan was a ubiquitous internet presence in the tradition of the great letterhacks.

On Peter David's site, Alan's friend Paul Shiple wrote: