Letters to Myself

Bought a copy of Essential Daredevil v1 the other day at Borders. If you're unfamiliar with what they mean by "Essential," it's a black-and-white reproduction of the first 25 issues for pretty cheap. Black and white actually works pretty well for Daredevil, which has a slight hint of noir about it, what with him growing up in Hell's Kitchen, his dad the murdered boxer, Kingpin and all that. A guy in red tights doesn't quite fit, but he does in black and white.

Anyhoo, took it home and that night started reading. Got maybe ten pages into it when *pop* the cover separated at the spine. Cheap, cheap glue. Oh, and for the record: not printed in China or Mexico. Canada. Surprised me too. They can make beer but not glue, it seems. Grr. I could've taken it back, but they didn't have another copy. So instead I took it to work, where one of my helpful coworkers (hi Rita!) provided me with a brush and glue made according to an ancient library recipe. Yes, librarians make our own glue: the secret ingredient comes from patrons with overdue fines. Some gland, I think. Twenty-four hours later and ta dah! good as new!

I do love my day job.

Posted by jon at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last week I decided to stop reading political blogs. To make it count, I just went ahead and deleted the entire bookmark folder. Click, click, aah. Freedom.

I started reading political blogs right around the time the Iraq War started (so, what? six years ago?). Over time the bookmark folder grew and grew. The other day I realized two things: 1) there were an awful lot of them, and 2) that meant I was spending an awful lot of time reading about things that were only going to make me mad. I mean, c'mon. I already know Bush is a crappy, crappy president and I'm going to vote for Obama. The rest is just, well, chatter.

Yes, there are going to be people out there you don't agree with. Stupid people, saying things that are wrong wrong wrong out on the Internet. Fine. That happens in real life too. Let them think and say their stupid things. I'm taking a vacation.

I might start reading again after the November elections, but for now I think I'm going to give my blood pressure a rest. No need to return to your homes; please continue your daily routine.

Posted by jon at 09:39 PM | Permalink

A pretty good weekend, for the most part. My folks came over Saturday, which is always nice. I had to work Saturday, of course, but Ian and Lisa had a lovely time with them. On the downside, Ian managed to damage my printer. He turned away from the ABC Zoo Game on the computer, flipped down the printer door, reached in and pulled out, well, something that wasn't supposed to come out. A long piece of plastic that looked like it might be involved in wrangling the paper. It doesn't look torn, fortunately, but I haven't tried to reattach it yet. I might give Ian a shot at it. Never too early to learn how to fix your mistakes.

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Finals are pending, which means there'll be a week of people sitting around the joint but wanting nothing to do with us. They'll just be hunched over laptops or books, cramming knowledge into their brains, and more power to 'em. Then it's about two weeks of nuthin'. I'm thinking I'll squeeze some vacation time in there somewhere.

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Spoilers don't actively bother me, I have to say. I'm not the kind of guy who reads the last page of the book he's reading in case he dies before the end, mind you. It's just an annoyance if there's a twist of some kind that's the whole point of the story.

I remember once in grad school, Lisa and I were watching The Shawshank Redemption with a couple friends of ours. During one particularly suspenseful scene, one of them turned to me and asked, "Does he manage to escape?"

So I told her.

Her immediate response was to indignantly reply, "Why did you tell me that?" Well, because she asked. True, reading a review is not the same thing as asking how does it end, but a review is designed to tell you about the movie/book/whatnot, and it's often hard to talk about why something is good or bad without describing it in some detail.

On the other hand, saying the equivalent of "Wow! I can't believe Vader is Luke's father!" as you pass the people waiting to go into the movie is just asking for trouble.

Reading: Killswitch, the last in the Shepard trilogy.

Posted by jon at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Caught the 10am showing of The Dark Knight. Yeah, I did. You can do that when you get the day off because you have to work Saturday. That was...wow. Damn impressive, that Heath Ledger. I was also amused they filmed much of it in Chicago. I know, New Yorkers all claim NYC is supposed to be Gotham, but to me it's Chicago. The first Batman stories I read in an ancient collection (Batman from the '30s to the '70s) had him fighting mobsters. And when I was seven, mobsters in the '30s = Chicago. Blame Al Capone.

We did also plan to see Mamma Mia! so Lisa could get her hunky Englishman fix, but we totally needed to decompress afterwards. So that'll be saved for later.

Posted by jon at 02:45 PM | Permalink

Another exciting evening here in libraryland.

Ha! I'm just kidding.

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Sent out a wave of submissions yesterday, with the last one dropped in the mail this morning.

Soon I anticipate a wave of rejections, because, well, y'know.

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Our birdfeeder is being rapidly depleted, thanks to a chipmunk's dedication to his craft: cheek stuffing. Lisa thinks there must be a family of them out there, but I've never seen more than one at a time. I prefer to think of a single chipmunk, a lesser cousin to Alvin, Theodore, and the other one whose name I can never remember, forced to get by in the wilds of suburbia, possibly reselling the excess seed he steals to the pigeon mob to pay for his dance lessons.

Reading: Breakaway, by Joel Shepherd

Posted by jon at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I must admit, I haven't been following the Sanders saga that closely; honestly, I haven't paid much attention to him since he stopped doing that show with Jeffrey Tambor. I think the decision to go into racial humor is a bit risky, and this part with his website seems so '90s pre-Internet bubble. Maybe it's supposed to be retro-edgy.

Reading: Breakaway Crossover, by Joel Shepard. Hey, Toby liked it! And so did Lisa, my mom, and my brother.

Posted by jon at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday Night Fights: Doctor Strange emotes!

Subsitute "KHAAAAANNN!!!" and it's actually a decent Kirk impression.

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Went out to have Italian food for dinner. Ian sat next to me. Note to self: do not wear white shirt when sitting next to a toddler who likes to use his hands to eat his manicotti with marinara sauce. Ah, the things you learn.

Posted by jon at 08:28 PM | Permalink

From BeaucoupKevin. Backstory, for those who don't know it but want it for some reason.

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Also, for those of you who hadn't heard, David Moles won this year's Sturgeon Award. Sweet!

Posted by jon at 03:15 PM | Permalink

You know you're the parent of a toddler when your spouse discovers that her eyeglasses case has been filled with Cheerios.

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Hope everyone had a good holiday, what with celebrating the birth of our nation by blowing up part of it. We spent most of our Fourth in the emergency room.

No, I didn't blow off a finger. Thanks for asking. False alarm for the most part.

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For those of you wondering when I would be working on my Snoopy and the Red Baron imitation, it has been scheduled: Saturday, July 26th at 1:30 pm. Please make a note of it. Pictures after the fact, obviously.

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We're currently experiencing some thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening (Galileo! Galileo!), so I'm closing for now.

Reading: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.

Posted by jon at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Regular Friday Night Fights, hosted by Bahlactus have been postponed (he's probably out blowing up planets to celebrate the Fourth). Nevertheless: fight fight fight!

Violence: American style.

Sorry I've not been posting. This week slipped by, and my holiday's been spectacularly crappy so far. Bah!

Posted by jon at 10:00 PM | Permalink