Only a single Christmas card finished this year.

Well, I am sad to say I only finished a single card this year.  Although there are like 30 sketched out and half finished ones for next year.
So enjoy:

Josh News Updates

Hello any readers seeing this.
Quick updates:
1.  Here's a fun pic I took at the local Panera bread.  It's a mini snowman with food for a face.  First snowday here in Minnesota was a big one. 

2.  I've been working a ton at the hospital, and haven't had a whole lot of extra time.  

3.  What extra time there has been, I've been using to work on a novella/novel project for Nanowrimo.(http://www.nanowrimo.org/)  But even that is getting behind.  As of now I have just over 18000 words.  May not make the monthly word count of 50,000.  Oh well.

3.5.  While this may come off as terrible for the Nano project, I've also been working on the scripts or the next big Slugwheel comic project with Nick over at http://www.slugwheel.com/.  It's been a while, but we are working on a bunch of mini comics as filler for the site in the meantime.

4.  In between all this fun stuff I have been preparing for this year's Christmas/Holiday cards.  There is a single one in particular that I am super excited about.  I began working on it last year and couldn't get some of it to look right with it's perspective and textures. But if I can get it to work, it will be completely amazing.  That said, the digital will be less amazing than the planned printed card, which involves sliding panels and a fold out section.  Oh man!  SOOOOOO excited!!!

5.  I would like to thank whoever is still reading this blog.  I haven't been posting nearly as much as I should be.  So, dear readers,
     Thank you.

A Long Night (How I Know Winter Is Near...)

Last night was a long night.  A.  Very.  Long.  Night.
What little sleep came to me is due to a noctunal visitor.  Mr. Cricket is the harbinger of sleeplessness in my house.  He was out there all night chirping his little heart away through a bullhorn directly through my window.  Every year his arrival announces the begining of fall...  and the war with crickets. 
With winter swiftly approaching, I need to find some way of battling these noisy bastards.

This single evil visitor must have been a scout.  It always begins with one.  Soon they'll be taking over the entire house.  Last year one of my roomies had Tasha the Husky, aka Secret Agent Doogie Schnauzer, the Cricket-Slayer.  Well, at least the cricket eater.  The new roomie has a large chocolate lab, but he just looks longingly at them and cries a little.  Not a very good gaurd/attack dog.  He isn't going to be much of a help.
More updates to come.
Here is the culprit.  If you happen to see this particular cricket, eliminate with extreme prejudice.

I love this tree.

Just a quick post to let people know I'm not actually dead.  Yet.
Oh, and I love this tree.  If I ever move, it's coming with.

And on a completely unrelated note, here's 2 more pictures.  One is a staircase by my friend's apartment, the other is a strange empty lot by his appartment.  Just thought they were interesting.

Altered Esthetics/Lutefisk Sushi D

Hey everybody, sorry again that posting has been...  rare.  I still have a ton of stuff on deck, but i lost a bunch of blogger drafts due to unknown blogger system failures.  As in, they disappeared, AGAIN. 

Anyway, tonight I'll be attending/showing a comic I made with http://www.nicholasstraight.blogspot.com/ at the Altered Esthetics/Lutefisk Sushi show. 
http://cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushi/index.html
http://www.alteredesthetics.com/

Here's the first interior page-
It can also be found at our comic specific blog- http://www.slugwheel.com/

A note here: The sketch Nick is handing me is from one of the comics we started before this, and then will work on now that this one is done.  There is also some script from that project as an Easter egg on the next page.  A little teaser of what's to come.

Best Birthday Gift I've Given Someone: A God Complex

It was recently one of my friend's birthday and I was struggling with what to give her for a gift.  After much deliberation I decided to put some old skills to the test, and make something so amazing, all future birthdays would seem paltry in comparision.  What could be that awesome?  Then it dawned on me...

What I was thinking was, what better way to make someone feel good about being old than giving them the ability to play god and make(or destroy) things!?!  After years of research compressed into just a few weeks, I took my knowledge of genetic manipulation and some prehistoric DNA projects I had lying around the laboratory (desk drawer) and made it into a creator pill.  Something that has the capacity to grow an entire living creature by dropping it in some water.   

These were not nearly as good as the ones from when I was a child.  I recall being able to drop a single one of these into a glass of water and, if you were lucky, 30 seconds later the foam beast that sprouted from the glass wouldn't be large enough to devour you.  Unlucky people got things like an Argentinosaurus, which would grow large enough in that 30 seconds to destroy their house, some vehicles, and their neighbor's shed, or a very disoriented Velociraptor trying to devour their intestinal tract.  A few incidents caused us to rethink these wonderful magic-pet-maker-pills.  

I mean, insurance doesn't cover extinct 100+ ton Sauropods crushing your house in an attempt to nibble at the leaves of tall trees.  Doctors don't believe you when you say, "A Compsognathus bit me."  Nor did my 5th grade teacher buy it when I announced a Triceratops ate my Baking Soda Volcano. 

With that thought, these new pills are created with safety in mind.  There is a governer gene placed on their growth.  A maximum height of 3 inches.  The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex isn't nearly as threatening when it's only 2 inches tall.  It's actually kind of cute.  In fact, I'm waiting on a patents/copyrights for "Teacup Tyrannosaurs", along with "Itty Bitty Brachiosaur", and a set called "Tiny Terrarium of Terror", which includes small Plesiosaurs, Icthyosaurs, and a handful of Parasaurolophuses.  

In the end, I essentially wrote her a prescription for a God Complex with a full bottle of either potential Cretaceous Era disaster or Jurrasic Era joy.  One that she may get refilled at leisure.  Hopefully nobody dies this time.

So, I've just started watching Finge

I started watching Fringe recently, and discovered the fact that Walter Bishop may be a future version of myself. Very disconcerting to know. Just kidding, although he deserves his own "Alternate Realty" show or something. Walter 24-7 in Alpha Earth 8's prime time television spot!!!

Anyway, I made a small screencapture comic based on what I believe the Watcher/Observer guy is really all about. By like episode 6 or so he seems to be the ultimate creeper, and following Olivia Dunham around all over the place. For some reason this is all I can think of...

Update as to what I've been up to

My best friend(http://www.nicholasstraight.blogspot.com/) and I have made a comic!  It's for the Lutefisk Sushi Volume D show in August.  http://cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushi/index.html   I've also started a site for the comic book works we have made and will make in the future.
http://www.slugwheel.com/

I believe a CONGRATULATIONS is in order...

(November11-2009, 3:20pm) An ultrasound of my food baby.  This is the first announcement I have made, spread the word!  The anticipation is sooooo great right now, it's damn exciting!

***

(November 11-2009, 3:27pm)  It's a 1lb. 3oz. beautiful baby BURRITO!!!  I shall call him Barbacoa Barsody.  Ah, the sweet memories I will have of this momentous occasion...  The birth of my firstborn child.  He definitely has my cilantro lime rice.  Although he has his mother's foil wrapping for sure!

***

 
(November 11-2009, 3:31pm)  TRAGEDY!!!  Unfortunate circumstances have ruined my family to be.  Insatiable hunger has overcome my paternal instincts.  This is a loss that will cause me great sorrow for the next couple of food-coma induced hours.  (*the sound of intense sobbing*) (Not from the child perishing, but from a horrible overfilled stomach pain)

***

(Note that this is a post that I forgot about.  It originally supposed to be a 3 parter.  One that I started in 2008 with the first draft.  I was going to have it be 3 separate posts spaced apart to match an actual pregnancy, but that might be forgotten by readers, or not make sense to people stumbling by the post.  Well, time moved on and each newer draft got much shorter, and I forgot about it over and over.  Then I re-found the original draft and went to get the Ultrasound done in Nov. 09.  And once again I got busy and forgot about it.  So here is the super condensed version, in one post as 3 parts.)

The New Mortal Kombat "Trailer"

It's been a while since I've been overexcited about a quick post for blogger, but I saw the pseudo-trailer for a potential new Mortal Kombat movie yesterday morning.  I am actually very intrigued.  So here goes my 15 minute break at work...

Here's a link-

http://kotaku.com/5558339/if-this-is-the-next-mortal-kombat-movie-sign-us-up

An impressive quality for a "fake" trailer, I'd have to say people may be seeing this some time in the near future. Decently high production value- the "trailer" by Kevin Tancharoen has some very good ideas throughout, although poor dialogue, assumably to please fans. ("Find Shang Tsung and finish him.")  By the looks of it, this potential Mortal Kombat would be a mix of the Dark Knight and Dexter.

It shows Jax(Michael Jai White) and Sonya(Jeri Ryan), police agents of some type in Deacon City, giving information to a shadowed prisoner in a police station interrogation room. 
The first information is on a man with a genetic aberration giving him scales and a taste for flesh- code named Reptile.  I believe if they grunged him up a bit more and had him living in the sewers or a forest area it would be a bit more interesting.  But he looks to be handled well enough so far.  A bit more work could make him a movie villain that is not forgotten. 
What doesn't make sense for him is Jax says his eyes were formed "inside out".  What the hell does that mean?  How would he even see?

Anyway, next up is a failed Physician that experiments first on patients, then on himself in the form of body modifications.  He even gives himself 10 inch retractable blades in his forearms.   
He is code named Baraka.  This is a character I believe needs much more work.  He doesn't look monstrous or alien enough.  He's still too human.  And the dreads look ridiculous, they could possibly pass if he was the character Kabal mixed in, but I would think as Baraka, he would have a shaved head with short nails or spikes all over his skull.  The blades would also need to be seriously anchored in.  The way they look, they could be ripped off without a problem.  I also think he should not be wearing slacks and a white shirt, and a button down over it.  If he went to all the trouble of changing his face and arms, he would probably be wearing something a little more durable or closer to his persona.  Maybe a torn apart leather jacket and army fatigue pants with combat boots.

Johnny Cage is mentioned as well.  He is portrayed as an ex action-movie star working undercover with the police.  Baraka fights and kills him.  While a nice addition to the movie, he could be slightly better cast.  It is fairly humorous to think this is how he could be: a hotshot moviestar that overestimates his fighting abilities, then gets his ass handed to himself in a real fight.  The Baraka versus Cage fight scene needs more work.  It looks completely absurd, it needs more "real" fighting.  HEL-LOOOOO!!! WHERE IS THE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER???   No one is going to do a backflip standing a foot from their opponent.  Baraka even moves on all fours at one point! 

They also have a still shot of Shang Tsung as a potential criminal mastermind, attempting to create a tournament for the worlds greatest killers, assassins, and fighters.  I believe he could be an unbelieveably amazing character if he stole the faces off people to be the "shapeshifter" he is known as in the games.  A man that learns about a person- their mannerisms, their habits, various traits, speech patterns, and fighting styles, etc- and after defeating them in battle he would steal their identity and become them.  Skinning them and using their faces as his own, he would literally take over their lives. 

Turns out Scorpion is the prisoner Jax and Sonya are giving the intel to.  Not that the yellow shirt was a dead giveaway.  He is said to be the greatest assassin known.  Then there is then a quick flashback to him assassinating a man with a small spear through the neck and the man is yanked backwards off his feet. (a note here, I really like the blood falling into the wineglass shot- it is a wonderful shot) 
Sonya and Jax are trying to get him to enter this underground tournament to kill off Shang Tsung, Baraka, and Reptile, and whomever else he may encounter, to make Deacon City safer.  Scorpion tells them he could leave their custody whenever he pleases.  The cuffs he has fall off and he asks them why he would help.  They give him a photo of Sub-Zero (YES!!! My favorite character, as the screen capture above shows, and I think they made him look quite awesome.)  Scorpion says he is dead, but Sonya says Scorpion had actually killed Sub-Zero's brother as the photo is from the day before.  The great assassin gets up to leave and Jax gives the "Finish Him" line (ugh.), and Scorpion turns to reply and has completely white eyes.  Which looks cool but leads me to ask the question, "If they are making this a gritty and realistic take, as spending all the time explaining Reptile and Baraka, why leave the impossible eyes?" 
There should be some supernatural elements left in.  That was part of the appeal of the original Mortal Kombat, which I still believe to be either an homage to, or blatant ripoff of, Big Trouble in Little China.  (One of my favoritest movies EVER!)  Big Trouble in Little China shows how a great balance of real and supernatural can be handled well(excepting the orange beast-thing).

This "trailer" by Kevin Tancharoen has some very good ideas throughout, although poor dialogue, assumably to please fans. ("Find Shang Tsung and finish him.") By the looks of it, this potential Mortal Kombat would be a mix of the Dark Knight and Dexter. If they do end up making this, I feel it COULD work, it just needs more thought.  More character developement.  Another thing would be that this would work better as a television series.  Like an HBO or Showtime series.  That would give it 12 to 16 hours of runtime, so they wouldn't try and shove tons of crap into 2 hours. 

Some of my own ideas for this:
1) If Jax and Sonya are there, would Stryker show up in full SWAT gear as a fighter?  Maybe an overly violent SWAT member that kills too many people.
2) The Sub-Zero thing.  Would Scorpion be protecting the brother like the story from MK2 or would he still be a rival clan member attempting to eliminate the competition?  Would they be wearing traditional, but slightly altered, ninja garb?
3) Liu Kang and Kung Lao- I believe they should be monks.  Like orange, maroon, and brown fighting monk robes, with shaved heads and all.  Possibly even working in tandem in fights.  Kung Lao could have a bladed hat, but it would have to be adapted into a more realistic one. 
4) If Scorpion is a wraith with white eyes, Raiden could be Kang and Lao's god.  A forgotten Deity or some such, perhaps only appearing in dream or a vision sequence.
5) Where is Kano.  He would be an easy adaptation.  Man with bionic eye.  Simple.  He could also be a mercenary of another combatant, hired as bodyguard, or to kill off other contestants before the tournament. 

Oh, my break is almost over, sorry about any typos.
Twelve year old Josh is squirming around in my mind, excited with any more information on this as possible.  Both good and bad. 

Sometimes I have an epic nightlife...

I was just bored... and had an extra moustache.

Mother's Day 2010

Hey reader's.  Sorry it's been a while.  I've run into many recent problems in life.  Housing issues, car problems, and most current- horrible sick time. 
Well, to keep the blog going I am posting my current Mother's Day card which should be titled "Thanks For Not Murdering Us".  As my two closest brother's and I probably should've been.  The fact we didn't get heinously murdered by our Mother is a testament to her patience and tolerance.  Surely reaching beyond the normal motherly limits.  Far, far beyond.  So here is a big giant: THANKS, I LOVE YOU MOM!

I've been MIA for a while...

My apologies to readers who've been wondering where the hell I've been.  Part of it is a whole lot of crap, all saved up and dropped on me at one time.  Another part is that I've been working on a comic with my best friend Nick (http://www.nicholasstraight.blogspot.com/) for an Altered Esthetics show.

Since I don't have much to add, I scanned in this doodle I made a couple years ago in a spiral notebook.  It is done with a few felt tip pens and a couple highlighter markers.  Pretty much a lobster obeying it's cephalopod master.

Absolutely Furious

I just got the urge to finish some blog drafts today, but when I logged in something was amiss.

In my drafts saved section of blog posts to edit, while all of them were listed, the 2 closest to finished were completely GONE.  Massive amounts of text and images, that just needed a single reread and a tap to the  "Publish Post" button to be finished, were MISSING. 
I am SOOOOOO ANGRY RIGHT NOW!!!
WTF?!?!?!

How can the other 15 partial drafts that are garbage be all there and the 2 newest saved, nearest to complete drafts, be 100% empty.  Google needs to be kicked in the nuts for this.  A bunch of peice of crap drafts could've been lost, but NOOOOO, it had to be the 2 I put days of effort into.

I want to break something.

Heroes: The Wall

     In this latest episode we get another black and white past flashback of Mr. Noah Bennett.  How come he is hogging all the flashbacks???  Now that I think about it shouldn't all the Hiro in old Japan scenes been in black and white?  They were technically part of Adam Munroe and Hiro's pasts???
     Anyhow, Samuel has his Mirror Memory Shower guy reveal Noah's memories to Claire.  They show he had a wife and potential child that were killed by a special with telekinesis.  He gets on the revenge job, and tracks one of the other specials down.  For some reason Noah assumes there is a secret club or something where all the special people know each other.  If Mr. Bennett is smart enough to track one of these people down, one could hypothesize he would guess they may not know each other.  Uhhh... I have blue eyes, but that doesn't mean I know every other person with them.  Duh.
     Some crap goes down, Bennett accidentally kills the guy and flees.  Later Mr. Thompson shows up to give him a job.  Then even later Thompson tells him to be more careful.  Explains that there are too many accidents and mishaps.  These are PEOPLE they are dealing with, not all monsters.  There is also the setup of Noah and Sandra(2nd wife) as Thompson tells him he needs to live as well as work.  A forced normalcy.
     Another flashback, this one more recent where Noah tells Gretchen she has to help him or she'll have to deal with the Haitian, and with the recent devastation there he is probably very pissed and will be extra cruel.
     Claire leaves and Samuel thinks he is all smartypants with her.  She tells Samuel that nothing has changed and she will still side with her father.  She goes to Noah in a trailer and Samuel buries them.  To help her learn stuff, like how to watch her father die by burying the trailer under tons of ground.  It's not like he hasn't been dead before.  Obviously Claire can fix it once they are out. 
     I have a feeling Molly may reappear or some of the other specials will help get her out.  Eli the Xeroxing man didn't seem to happy about the occurrence, perhaps he'll have a change of heart.  Then again, he didn't care so much when he was shooting his friends.  Or when is Tracy going to show up?  With some sweet backup- maybe Claude the invisible jerkface is still following him around secretly?   

     Sylar and Peter in Sylar's mind meet up and attempt to escape the nightmare.  Peter slowly convinces Sylar he is actually in a nightmare, not in real life.  Time is all messed up here, they are living out years in the span of hours.  Sylar starts to realize he is responsible for his own humanity and choices, and gets Peter a 9th Wonders comic.  What I don't get is why the hell did they not read it?  Surely Peter should know it was/is made by a precognitive and usually has useful information. 
     Well with each progression in Sylar's thoughts they get closer to escape.  First he decides he wants to help Peter, then they find the wall.  Then he wants to get out and the wall starts to break.  They break out and are back in the now.  On the way out of the house, a bunch of the duplicating guys show up.  Seriously?  Like he stands a chance against Sylar and Peter who is sporting telepathy.  I would like to see what the nightmare of Eli would be.  Maybe a world of him being overrun by his own duplicates ruling himself? 
     If Peter gets Eli's ability, does all Peter's duplicates have Peter's power also?  Or even better-Sylar gettnig the duplication power?  How many Sylars could there be???   Interesting...   ...and why hasn't Sylar and Peter traded powers yet?  Come on Heroes writers, at some point this has to happen.  Perhaps Sylar already got Peter's empathy, Peter just needs to reset his old abillity by taking Sylar's, or having Sylar fix it.
    
     So the cracked Earth is definitely a possibility with all these specials around Samuel.  Could he possibly rip Central Park out and create a Heroes universe version of Asteroid M from X-men?  I mean if the good guys have the Haitian, Parkman, Ando and Peter/Sylar combo, how is Samuel supposed to keep going?  Ando cranks up the good guys and they obliterate the bad guys.  No problem.  But as it goes in the Heroes world, fights are too lame, and not enough awesome.
     I have a small hope that Samson Gray kills Samuel, and becomes the major baddie for next year.  That would eventually lead to an end battle fought on both the physical and mental planes.  Highly doubtful, but would rock my socks anyway. 
     I would so would as a thinktank guy for the show for free.  I wonder if I'd get highered???

    -Hey, where is Hiro right now???  Why doesn't he just teleport in and take Samuel away?  If he has control over the flow of time, theoretically he could slow it for Samuel and torture/gather info to go rescue the lost Charlie.  Or as I previously suggested, go to the time when she was sent away and find out where whe went.
     I'm still pissed that he is such a Deus Ex Machina, showing up and fixing things just in time.  Will this time be like season 1, shows up and stabs someone???

Blah.  I quit for now.  Hopefully the finale is good.

Heroes: The Art of Deception

Another super, almost late, post.

Mr. Bennett and his ladyfriend are out and about in an attempt to take Samuel down, through violence if necessary.  Claire is not pleased and gets involved.  Samuel tricks everyone and has the Duplicator guy out shooting his own people making them believe it was Mr. Bennett.  Not very nice, but that is how manipulators like Samuel operate.  Sacrifice anyone that may be a threat. 
I was hoping that Doyle, the puppeteer, would've listened to Claire saying that her father didn't do it.  Like HEL-LO!  Would they think a person of Bennett's caliber would be such a crappy shot with a gun???
Lydia ends up dying even though Claire could've donated some blood.  Stupid people, uglk.
Then Noah's ladypal Lauren calls in Tracy Strauss.  Perhaps they will recruit more lost Heroes?

Matt finally pulls a Nightmare Man move and pushes Sylar into his own nightmare.  An entire world to himself.  Why would Parkman resort to this, he could've just helped him.  Or Sylar could've done it to himself as he is in proximity to Parkman and could take the ability. 
Parkman was then stopped midway through walling Sylar up like an old Poe story.
Peter shows up and gets Parkman's ability then goes into Sylar's mind to find him.  Parkman may need to jump in to help them both out of it. 
I would expect the Nightmare segments to be done more horrifically.  Where's the sweet creepiness?  I want more from these "fights". 
Besides if Sylar does come back to the good side, papa Gray can come back and have a sweet battle.  Samson Gray should already have the healing power in stasis because of proximity to Sylar, if their powers are in fact the same.

Heroes: Pass/Fail

Why am I still posting these???  Ugh, the show is getting worse... 

Hiro is in the hospital getting seen for his tumor while unconscious.  In this state he is undergoing what I can only describe as the typical hero's battle with the underworld/afterlife.  In this "struggle" he is on trial for putting himself before the time and space continuum. 
The defense is Kensei/Adam Munroe and the trial is judged by Hiro's father.  While doing good for many, and somehow helping tons of people, it is apparently considered "selfish" to save one person while letting Sylar live.  How does that make sense, because of all the other times he didn't kill Sylar.  Even after stabbing him with a sword in season 1.  He pleads not guilty, and eventually changes his plea, and gets magically healed by his mother's ghost.  Ludicrous.  Sylar killed without Hiro, so Hiro not doing anything then PRESERVED Sylar's timeline with the exception of getting Charlie's ability. 
Then the healing?  Come on, while he can be a good character, some of these people gotta go.

Samuel is trying to get his old lady friend to like him again.  She doesn't go for it, so he sends her on his way, and very maturely destroys a town.  How grown up of you Samuel.

Over in college land Claire is pushing Gretchen away from herself personally.  Sylar shows up and tricks Claire into thinking he has abducted Gretchen.  Then attempts to get some information from Claire through his new touchy feely power.  She stabs him in the eye, and runs away.  Then goes back to her apartment to untie Gretchen(who is a very cliched Sylar in disguise).  They hide in a closet and have a heart to heart.  Claire realizes she's a friggin idiot for letting a single aspect of herself rule her life and decides she wants some Gretchen love.  Sylar gets the idea he may need to lose his power to become more normal. 
He then lets Claire know that he didn't abduct Gretchen and is on his merry way after watching Claire come out of a closet to go come out of a closet in the cafeteria with Gretchen.  Nice.
What happened to the vengeance quest???

He then is out to find Parkman and have baby touch and go possibly stop his abilities.  Lame- In posts a long time ago I suggested that Parkman team up with baby Parkman to wipe Sylar's powers.
http://joshuabarsody.blogspot.com/2009/04/quick-pre-heroes-post.html  and
http://joshuabarsody.blogspot.com/2009/04/heroes-i-am-sylar.html

Oh, and where did Tracy go?  Or Molly?  She's been left without any familial support for a long time, both surrogate fathers have forgotten about her.  Or any of the other people that just fall off the Heroes world, they all just disappear.  Underwater breather, Claude, Luke, or Samson- where are they???  Why isn't Samson looking for a way out of his cancer?  He would be a hell of a villain for the many good guys to fight.  Epic is what is the potential.  Maybe he already has the healing, Sylar can get them without killing, so perhaps he already has it and it's just not activated???

I would also like to see Peter and Sylar work as a team.  Or Sylar absorbing Peter's ability and becoming an empath- feeling so much would make him an overly emo leader, but with the capacity to do something about it.  I mentioned this a long time ago as well.  There is also stupid Peter not taking Sylar's ability, and all subabilities problem still.  WTF Heroes writers???

I can't believe I'm still doing these...

Heroes: Close to You

More late Heroes postings.  Yay...  not really.

In this latest episode Hiro and Ando go and save Mohinder from a Mental Institution of some sort.  They kind of wind up in the Institute then all escaping.  In the end they teleport away... and show up in Noah's apartment.  Wow, big surprise.

Samuel and the Xerox man go off to find the girl Samuel likes.  They get her away from Noah and Matt who are attempting to get info.  They track her to an empty field, the carnival teleported away or something.
Noah is also sort of told to rebuild his relationship with Claire by Lauren.

Lydia is not happy with Samuel, and tries to do a call to Peter.  I think it would be sweet giving control of the Carnival to Peter, it would be in the best interests of all involved.  He's an empath and wants to help people, and they are a bunch that need to be helped.

Peter and Angela have dreams involving a terrible future of Emma's.  Peter goes to her place and smashes her cello.  She gets pissed and sends him away.

Blah blah blah.  Oh, yeah, Parkman is having bad feelings about not going after Sylar when he had the chance.  Lame-o.  He is always running.  Oh, can't use my power, can't help my friends, shut up Parkman.  Does he even remember his adoptive daughter Molly?  Loser.  Grow a sack and start DOING something.  He has a power to seriously mess with Sylar.  Think about it, he could get in Sylar's head, root around to find where he keeps the "sweet spot" that regenerates his body, then use Sylar's own telekinesis on Sylar to have him cut it out.  Easy peasy.  But nooooooo, he'll probably keep being a whiney baby.

Ugh.  I'm sick of these posts, too much potential that isn't being followed through.
I'm quitting for now.  Maybe the next post will be more enthusiastic. 
Maybe.

Heroes: Let it Bleed

Gabriel Gray goes back to the circus and realizes his Sylar is limp.  By not killing Samuel and becoming even more powerful, but he lets him live.  Then finds out through Miss Touchy McToucherpants that he is afraid of being alone.
Why doesn't Sylar use the truth hearing to get information from Samuel? Or just take the power of Samuel without killing him?  So many things could be done...
Also, I'm pissed about the Puppet Man getting whupped again.  That could be such an amazing fight.
He gets a tattoo of what he wants, and it turns out to be Claire.  Creepy.  So he heads off to stare in her window.

Claire is a whiny idiot again. "Oh, how could you lie to me dad? Did you forget what Sylar did to me?  He 'Bad-touched' me in the brain meat!"  He let you live stupid.  So she makes Noah leave the funeral for Nathan.  (Good call on that, eliminating Sylar's use of Nathan's face to gain political power)
She has some talks with Peter.  Peter goes off looking to be a hero and gets himself shot.  Then Claire reprimands him for not letting things go.  Dumbass, she's doing the same thing.
Peter get's Claire's exboyfriend's (West) flight ability and flies off at the end of the episode. 

Noah catches and interrogates the speedster for information.  He kind of befriends him and they make a hesitant deal to eliminate Samuel.  Edgar decides Noah is to violent, and doesn't want his family hurt or separated, so he abandones the plan.

That's about it for now.
Lame.

Heroes: The Fifth Stage

A quick post of the last episode before tonights new one.

Claire and Gretchen steal the magic compass from Noah and go to the circus.  Samuel uses deception to make Claire want to join.  In the end Samuel gets a man to fight him, but doesn't fight back, Claire steps in, and the man leaves.  Samuel has him killed later and the body dumped in a truck.

Noah has a odd encounter with a past almost-fling, but she had her memory wiped so she is hesitant to believe him.

The main portion is Peter going after Sylar to retreive Nathan.  He finally gets the Haitian's power to negate Sylar's abilities and put them on a level playing field.  He uses a nail gun and punches and harsh language to beat Sylar up, then tries to erase the "Sylar" parts out of Sylar.  Obviously Peter should know that healers cannot be mind wiped- a fact proven time and again, they always get better.
Anyway, Nathan comes out, and they try and bond on the rooftop where Peter walked on air.  Well Nathan in an act of retardedness tries to commit personality suicide by diving off the edge, but wouldn't his flight be a natural response to save him?  Well he smashes into a car below, after Peter and Nathan say their goodbyes, and heals and shifts back into Sylar, who waves to Peter and walks away.
HELLOOOOOOO people- Nathan's body is still in a containment unit and can easily be revived with a healthy dose of Claire blood, so we'll probably be seeing more Nathan.  There's also the potential for Sylar to take on Nathan's persona for his own personal gain.  More power for himself to do as he pleases.

Where did Parkman go to?  He looked to be on a determined mission, but as to what it was...  ???
I look forward to Parkman becoming a serious force to be reckoned with.  Another nightmare man, but perhaps for good. 

Whatever- I have to wait and see how things go.