You heard the man.

I’m moving.

In about every way a man can move.

First, some background.

Last week, I got a lovely package in the mail.

It was a petition signed by 16,718 of my loyal readers, asking me to please resume blogging.

Okay.

That’s entirely not true.

But I did get an email from One Reader asking me when I was going to start talking about Batman and girls who play guitar again.

The answer is, “As soon as I can.”

Right now I’m neck deep in boxes of my belongings as I prepare to move to another city in another state. Moving isn’t fun, but the end result will be well worth it. My new apartment building looks like it came straight from the set of Three’s Company in 1977. I love it.

(Come and knock on my door. I’ll be waiting for you.)

So that’s what I’ve been doing. And my computer’s the next thing to be boxed up, so you’ll hear even less out of me, if that’s possible, until I get everything set up and settled in the new place, which should be sometime in early June.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on some top secret writing projects that shall remain top secret until such time that they no longer have to remain top secret.

And I’ve still been cranking out comic book reviews for my good friend Bill Ramey over at Batman on Film.

You can read my recent Detective Comics reviews here and my recent Batman Confidential reviews here, and then you can click here to read my review of Batman #676, which I did this weekend as a favor/fill-in for Bill until he can take over his regular reviews of that particular title with #677 which, coincidentally, comes out this week.

And then!

And then!

I’m going to move the site off of WordPress entirely, for a list of reasons as long as Jeff Goldblum.

You’ll always be able to find me at johnbierly.com, which currently points right back to here but will point to the new site once I figure out where to put it, how to make it, and all kinds of other things that I don’t know the first thing about.

But we’ll figure it out.

Okay.

Time to pull the plug on my computer and put it in a box. I’ve missed you guys this month, and thanks again to all of you who’ve written to check on me.

I’ll still have email at work.

And.

I’ll see you soon.

Whammy!

I was awakened this morning by the earthquake.

From the Associated Press:

5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois; also felt in Indiana

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) — A 5.4 earthquake early Friday rocked people awake as far away as Indiana, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a large Midwest temblor.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

“It shook our house where it woke me up,” said David Behm of Philo, 10 miles south of Champaign. “Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It’s not like California.”

The quake also shook tall buildings in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of the epicenter.

Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle in Evansville said there were no immediate reports of damage.

And that’s really all I’ve got to say about that. I honestly thought it was a malfunction of my neighbor’s washing machine making my wall shake a little.

Carry on.

Being a victim of identity theft has become an unfortunate rite of passage for many people in this crazy digital age, and I just earned my merit badge.

On Friday, I bought a couple of burgers and a Coke at Rally’s. I used my debit card.

When I got home and sat down to record the amount in Quicken, I realized I’d left the receipt at work. So I hopped online to check my bank balance.

There was the charge for the burger.

But there was another charge made that afternoon. A $1 pre-authorization by Yahoo Wallet.

Huh?

So I called Yahoo Wallet, and was told that the charge was made because I’d just signed up for their services, which include easy, one-stop checkout for thousands of online merchants.

Only I hadn’t done that.

She looked up the transaction by my debit card number and told me that the account had been registered with my name, my address and my debit card number, including the three-digit security code on the back of the card.

Only I hadn’t done that.

And of course they couldn’t tell me who (as in an email address) set up the account, because that’s confidential information, even though the jackass who set up the account was using MY confidential information.

Charming.

She gave me an email address to send a complaint to.

Charming.

So now I’m waiting several business days to hear a response from that.

Maybe.

So then I called my bank, and had them kill my debit card. The person who set up this account hadn’t purchased anything yet, but they were definitely getting ready to go on a shopping spree. Such thieves typically use other people’s credit cards to buy things like digital downloads that don’t require anything being shipped. That’s where they get you.

And then I had to go down to the bank in person so that they could give me temporary online access so that I’ll be able to monitor my account from home.

I’ll get the replacement debit card in 7-10 business days.

Then I visited the Federal Trade Commission’s website and followed the steps.

I had to freeze my credit.

But I was able to view my credit report for free from the big three credit agencies, and there was no suspicious activity.

You should really do this, by the way.:

Free Annual Credit Report 

You’re able to request your full credit report once every year from each of the big three.

Please, please do this. It will cost you nothing, and it could save you everything.

And then I filled out a huge report on the FTC’s website, and I expect to be contacted by someone from the FTC next week.

So I’ve got lots of paperwork and frustrations to look forward to over the next few weeks, but at least they didn’t get anything.

Pfffft.

Oh, well.

I’d like to give a special thank-you to the Rallyburgers that indirectly rescued me from being cleaned out.