It's Halloweekend. I could end my post now without mentioning Halloween at all! But I'll be back, this is just the first installment, so no promises.

And no, I'm not going to change my title later! It's hard enough the first time around.

This morning I dreamt a bunch of stuff. I yelled at a guy not to flip my brother, you know those assisted backflips? Yeah, one of those, because the ceiling was too low. I was also on a boat but has to get off to go to the lakeside adjacent hospital. And by getting off I mean jumping ship, and yes, some swimming was involved. I got back on land and everyone on the ship was waving and wouldn't stop saying bye, eventually some picture flashes were taken as well. Everyone from the boat was, as far as I could tell, members of an old choir I was a part of.

I prefer the dream I had a few nights ago, where I was just sitting across from this girl and I looked straight into her eyes (blue eyes, I knows what I likes), and very quickly I reached the point where decorum would call for me to turn away, I was very aware of reaching this point, the "staring point", but instead I made the conscious choice to keep our eyes locked.
Take that real world social interaction.

I mentioned the interview I was set to do Thursday, it went really well, a lot of interesting things were said, so I had no real reason to be as nervous as I was- now the real work starts, transcribing the recording, and arranging it for maximum effect and continuity. Aside from the few guiding questions I asked, this is where I'll have the most creative impact on the interview process, and I'm looking forward to doing it. Considering the goal is less informational and more promotional, I'm going to forward both the full transcript and the edited version to the guys it's about for the sake of any objections they may have- I imagine that's pretty standard practice, but how would I know? I guess I could interview someone about interviews...

There's an ad for an art gallery exhibit that looks awesome- it's a painting of Han Solo from the first Star Wars, holding up his blaster BUT while wearing the Adam West Bat-cowl. Clearly, this is something I have to check out- I clipped (meaning ripped) it out of the paper, and have it resting just behind my pillow so I don't forget about it. The exhibit runs until the end of November, and I didn't see a price, so good signs all a round.

Did you hear about the Toronto election results? Yeah, I thought you may have.

Dude, no time to get into that, I forgot to get back to this and now I have to go get ready for a Halloween party! And that means getting my non-existant costume ready!! The time crunch!!

It took forever for the site to accept my password for some reason, and my classic profile picture wouldn't load up, which is fine, I'll deal with that later if I must- but I'm signed up for the November Novel Writing challenge, pretty awesome, I know just what to write about. I'll have to do approximately 1667 words a day to complete it to their specifications, but that's not such a big deal for me. Pretty excited, glad I found the website.

Okay, that's good, gotta bounce, but I've gotta say I like the energy in this post, maybe it's just the urgency in my fingers, the lack of a unified topic, whatever, but it feels fun to me. Okay, fingers stopped, I'm gone.

Intrepid

I keep forgetting particular comics at the store... it's not really my fault, beyond my trusting the store to get my order right. I'll keep better track in the future.

MAN my wrists have been killing me lately- I did some chin-ups yesterday that maybe my body just plain didn't want to do. But my wrists have always been of some concern to me, so not a big deal.

I'm scheduled to meet up with a friend of mine Thursday evening to conduct an interview about a story he's getting published in November. I'm a little unsure of how to go about it. I keep thinking of that reporter who asks "Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Only to be reprimanded by KENT BROCKMAN to be professional and do his research.

It's difficult to prepare questions, because the next question follows from the previous answer, and I can't very well be anticipating every answer beforehand. Or maybe I should be? It's surprising how completely lost I am. It's a friend, I want to help him out, but I want to be professional here.

Most things I write have to just please me, and maybe the person that posts it up (whew, good thing that person is one and the same right here)- but this interview format adds another person to please, which is apparently an exponential increase in difficulty.

Ah it'll be fine, I'm making too much out of this.

I responded to a comment in what I thought was a reasonable manner, and then when the guy re-responded it was like he didn't understand what I'd written at all. At all! I know this is hardly a strange occurance on the internet, but it doesn't usually cross my path. Here I am sitting in front of it and I don't know how to respond. The best thing I can think of is simply

"Wow."

but I can see how that may be taken as insulting. What with it being insulting.

So I'm probably not going to say anything.

And John Cusack wept.

Trip Details besides what I choose to skip

Been home for a few hours now, and whatever the messages I may have (because even I will have accumulated a few by now) they can wait for a second.

I ended up going on a trip to the states this weekend, there wasn't really any good reason not to go and I did need to adventure.

Ah yes. Just before leaving I got a cell phone call. I spend so much energy working on not needing anyone, it's really amazing how fast one can build up an expectation only to have it thoroughly quashed, even when you should really know better by now. The call was my dad, from the house (I was in the driveway) letting me know we'd be driving my brother to the subway, so make room.

I drove the latter half of the trip, across the border and through the forbidden zone that is Michigan. I shouldn't be surprised but it was really quite lovely out- the dense foliage you see.

My dad, brother and I were making the trip for a friends 40th birthday in Clawson, Michigan. While it was nice (and I ended up being loaned a copy of that P90X exercise series which is a pretty sweet deal) there wasn't a whole lot to do. The ages of everyone else around were either 15 years older or 15 years younger than us. That's quite a gap.

It was arranged that we'd spend our nights at a campground 40 minutes away. A weirdly long distance. But also, calling it a campground is misleading, it was more like a cottage. Or just a really really nice house surrounded by a lot of trees. Or whatever you call a place where if there are a few more co-eds around you get murdered in your sleep because you're in a slasher flic.

On the saturday we visited Warp 9 comics and the Wunderground magic shop. They were on the same block, and I wouldn't have seen the comic store without the magic shop. I felt bad visiting and being unable to buy anything- my last trip to the states taught me that the debit system down there isn't compatible with my bank card, so I was cashless.

The comic guy didn't say anything, but the magic store owner was friendly, he showed us a couple of tricks (you get told how it's done with the purchase...). I volunteered my brother for a trick, I didn't feel like playing the fool that day... I learned my lesson years ago.

But kudos to Wunderground for reaching the 40 years in business mark. Of all the magic shops I've been in, that was the first.

Ah, I love that joke. Or at least I use it a bunch.

Then because of course! we went to a Barnes and Noble in the adjacent town of Royal Oak. I did some browsing, there are a few books I want to check out when I've got an opening.

There was something weird about the town I couldn't put my finger on until we were leaving the bookstore. Any train tracks up here at home will usually have some high fencing around it that's, what, almost 2 meters? Something like that. But in Royal Oak the fence was waist high, picket style. (Okay, I should clarify- I say picket style as in "picket fence" but I only really mean that height. The actual fence outside the tracks were made of black iron bars, the kind you'd find surrounding a hedge or something.) The height and the tracks proximity to everything inside the town- it was like a train set or toy town or something.

That night I ended up watching the second half of the Bill Murray Stripes film, which I've never actually seen before. I mean the second half, I've seen the first half bunches of times. It was fun.

Then I decided to watch the end of 50 First Dates and that made me sad.

So channel surfing- has its pros and cons.

Didn't drive as much on the way back, basically from just past London to home. The traffic got terrible outside of Toronto- how is there no traffic anywhere ever except for Toronto?

Real Entertaing Dovie. I mean movie.

Why is Dave doing so many bits on the Nobel prize? Good top ten list though. I mean beyond the fact that this is an old episode- I hope it's old anyway. Pretend it was brand new, that they were doing the Nobel Prize stuff right now- this show would still have a disproportionate amount of Nobel prize material. Maybe it's just me.

I don't usually watch Letterman, I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it this evening.

I was feeling pretty alone over the weekend, but I got some really nice messages yesterday, which was a nice and very welcome surprise.

I've stopped trying to fix my sleep schedule, at least for now of course- I've been placing too much energy into that with no pay off. Sent off my resume, during the depths of this morning when I should have been asleep, for a cool little freelance gig. And I plan to do something similar this morning to come.

Went to see the movie RED this evening. It's funny, after watching Scott Pilgrim, which was so completely Canadian, filmed in Toronto as Toronto, to go back to a movie that has Chicago in it, as portrayed by Toronto. It stood out a lot to me.

But I greatly enjoyed the movie- it's refreshing to see a story celebrating experience over youth, and even the "young girl" that Bruce Willis' character falls for is still visibly older than you may have otherwise expected (like if this was a Woody Allen film... have I even watched any Woody Allen? I should get on that)- while still being gorgeous and adorable of course.

Probably it will become less and less 'refreshing' as movies marketed to the Baby Boomers continue to skew up agewise to keep up with them.

What am I talking about? The older folks are still focused on money while the burgeoning generation only cares about spending that money.

You say Taylor Lautner will be in a new picture? In a theatre near me? Swell!

A man approached me and my brothers outside the movies with a detailed story asking for money. It's sad that I can't just trust that he's telling the truth, or that he can't get proper help somewhere else.

Eh that's enough. Maybe I'll eat some more twizzlers. No promises.

When would talking about The Kite Runner have been topical? Is it now?

During the summer a friend of mine was all about 'The Kite Runner'. In that when I was talking about books his response was "have you read The Kite Runner?"

At his insistence I put it on hold at the library and now I have it and now I've read it. It's 476 pages and I read about 350 of those pages last night, but don't be too impressed, I couldn't fall asleep and the print is really big.

I knew right off the bat that I would be going into it with a lot of bias- this must have been an Oprah book pick, and if not it was still highly favoured with that crowd. If you see a lot of people reading it on a subway, that's a bad sign right there. So the book is far too popular for me to enjoy. Because if everyone likes someting, then I obviously have to be against it. I'm lucky I still breathe. What else is working against the book?

I guess the only other thing is it's Afghanistan setting- it's an entirely alien world to me, and one that has been discussed in only the most negative terms for well beyond the last decade. In fact from a western perspective it's probably had bad P.R. since the Russians were in control, and that makes this a negative timeline stretching back to before I was born.

Okay, I'm back- had a friend over for hangouts, lunch and then... nap time. AUGH don't look at me!

Anyways-

Right, the book.

I've already prefaced with my prejudices, real or imagined, so be sure to factor that into whatever I say next for accuracies sake. My shot pulls a little to the left.

The story follows a wealthy Afghanistan boy from Kabul as he makes one bad decision after another (chiefly in a bid to impress his withdrawn and disapproving father)until he's grown into a haunted man living in america. An old friend of the family knows how bad he feels and uses that to guilt him into travelling into Afghanistan to find a boy who will otherwise most likely die. But the main character doesn't exactly blend in- he needs a fake beard for one thing. Basically there's no way this isn't a suicide mission- it sure would have been nice if he called his wife or wrote a letter or SOMETHING so she'd know why he died if he never came back. That part really bugged me.

But at least he ended up nearly beaten to death so he could get a scar like his childhood friend. It's a passing of the torch! It's literary!

Although there are some callbacks in the story, there are some heinous exceptions to tha callback formula. What do I mean by this? The best (I mean worst of course) example is when the protagonist refers to a look in a guys eyes as that of "the lamb". Then the story immediately cuts away to this eponymous lamb, a random sacrifice the protagonist had witnessed at some point earlier in his life. It was a written version of a Family Guy moment. Maypbe that's a plus for you? Not me. To me it was just a clumsy insertion and then explanation of a metaphor.

In general the book could have been an example of pedestal narration, the narrator/protagonist even became a writer when he grew up, that's a staple of those stories (at least as far as I'm concerned)- but his friend/servant is gone before the half way mark of the book, he isn't actively impacting the story from that point. Yes, I acknowledge his memory impacts the protagonists actions but I still assert there's a difference.

The best thing about the book is how it instructs through story- because it takes place from the 1970's to 2000's we get to hear about the monarchy getting booted out, replaced by a Russian government, with the Taliban coming into power in the middle 90's, and the re-establishment of a relatively legitimate government in uh 2002?
But you can get history from any of a number of sources. History books and wikipedia for two. So that in itself isn't a reason to read the book.

And it wouldn't end! There were several perfectly good end points to the novel, which would change the kind of novel I was reading. Redemption? Oh, wait, then he made some new mistake... Tragedy? Oh, hey, he pulled through...

It just fizzles out- it's trying to do the 'life goes on- this isn't a storybook, it just is' ending but man that's a tough sell. And of course I'm in love with the alpha example of doing that ending right- The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck (had to prove to myself I remembered his name)

Ah I'm sorry I wasn't blown away by this book society- maybe next worldwide phenomenon, eh? Maybe the Girl Playing With Fire books, right? They're swedish, I'm swedish, that makes sense, right? Right?

What's up Doc?

Old Looney Toons on the television when I got up, I can't tell you how much I enjoy Daffy Duck. I copied a line of his as my facebook status then tried to pick out a good follow up from Bugs Bunny but he spoke too fast and everything he said was funny because of the context of the last comment on the last comment which was built up on the situation- it didn't make for a pithy statement.

I went a walking today with the chief purpose of hitting up the library, grabbing some fruit juice, fresh air, and some sunlight (Vitamin D activation has been on my mind lately- I've also been drinking, relatively speaking, a lot of chocolate milk of late) I passed a dentist office that had Tom and Jerry playing inside and I stopped to wonder why it is that I like most Looney Toons but HATE Tom and Jerry.

The chief difference I can think of is that Tom and Jerry don't speak, and just spend their days commiting violence upon each other. Whereas Bugs and co are all about the wordplay, especially malapropisms, and I'll say conversations with the audience beyond the fourth wall (not neccesarily in the form of speech, but in winks to the camera, and of course any small sign with "Help!" emblazoned on it)

But there's still a mean streak to the Looney characters that I do enjoy, at least when I compare to the sickly sweetness of Casper and that group (which I also saw a bit of today). Maybe Casper is supposed to skew younger, like that generations Barney or something.

But everything in degrees- even if it's the protagonist doing it to a so called "bad guy" they can go too far, especially if the antagonist is too sympathetic, and then I just get frustrated by the whole thing- the best example being my reaction to a fair number of Animaniacs cartoons where the main characters will torment Dr. Scratchn'sniff for no reason- the doctor is even trying to help them out, even if it is perhaps a misguided attempt at help.

Of course I cite this example even though one of my favourite gags of all time comes from it: "How do you feel?" "With my hands."

Actually that's the truncated version, the whole thing is even better. "How do you feel?" "I feel my shirt." "No, no, no, that's what you are touching.. how do you FEEL?"

And that'll keep going for a while.

While I'm on the subject and it was just on in the background here: Scooby Doo. I know a lot of people who LOVE the thing- but it's basically the most boring show I can think of. If there was any way I could get the clues along the way, get some suspects and whatnot, and solve the mystery for every show, then it'd be the best thing around, I'd be nuts for it- but it isn't until the last few minutes of the show that it's even acknowledged that it's an old man in a costume that's been chasing them around. I believe the've been better about that in recent series, lampshading the fact that it's someone in a costume the whole time, but the "gang" is still terrified the whole way through and the audience still aren't given the necessary clues to suss the whole thing out.

Hmm, maybe that's enough cartoon talk... oh but I had a thought on the commentary of 'Itchy and Scratchy'... though now that I think about, with clips from a 20+ year old show you could probably make a case for it saying just about anything at this point. Not that that's too different from most fields of study. Unless it's Hitler studies (hey I'm making a reference to a book, howdyalikethat?).

What a weird post

Last Saturday I was walking along at nearing 4am and I passed this older guy waiting for a bus. He said good morning to me- it was awesome.

Not only that, but the leaves are beginning to turn, how about that?

Wouldn't that be something if I was only just noticing that now? No, they've long since turned. They are dead leaves, like their fathers before them.

I was supposed to go to an improv show this evening, but I messed up the timing, and with only 40 minutes to get there, well, lateness was going to happen. Next week is another chance.

YES THESE ARE THE STORIES PEOPLE!

Instead of me talking about Batman or about the physiology book I just finished (which was also technically about Batman) I will just draw a quick picture right now on the back of this reciept of me sitting with the pie that I had four minutes ago before I ate it:




I'm not going to lie. Mine can at times be an odd sense of humour. And no, I don't actually have a mask like that. The pie was real though. Though I couldn't figure out whether it was cherry or blueberry. I'm calling it grape. As a compromise.



And I do get to laugh at jokes in between when everyone else laughs at the movies. Some things just tickle me is all.

Man, I've been self conscious of my nostrils lately. That's a new one. Ah well, I keep em clean, and a guys gotta breathe SOMEwhere.

...

You know what? Pretty nice day out. Did you hear about those miners? Yeah, me neither.

I'm pretty sure it's Aztek because that isn't actually a real word

Seem to have successfully tired myself out- I'd be in bed even now (just shy of ten pm) but for Castle- tonights episode has them investigating a steampunk society, and the commercial promises SEVERAL Back to the Future references!

So that's happening.

Aztek the Ultimate Man was a series done in '96 by Mark Millar and Grant Morrison. I've already gone on and on about Morrison, but Millar is a new name here. He's actually had several commercial successes while I haven't heard of any Morrison works outside of comics. Millar is responsible for Kick-Ass (I loved the movie, though the film version went through a considerable change from his comic series), he created the comic series Wanted (I think that's what it's called) that became the film with Angelina Jolie, and the upcoming film Red is also one of his properties. With Bruce Willis! Now that's impressive.

I'm not as big a fan though. His work is serviceable, but is generally really cynical, dark, and a little off. For example, one of his most famous lines is from Marvel's The Ultimates where Captain America yells at a guy he's fighting "DO YOU THINK THIS 'A' ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE?!?" And yeah, okay, that was pretty hilarious at the time, but hardly something ol' Cap would say. In fact in the main Captain America book (pretty sure that was where this was) the writer, probably Ed Brubaker, told a tale of Captain America in France to express admiration for the people. The writer/Brubaker didn't have to do that, but it was nice and pretty clearly in response to the Ultimates thing.

Aztek is a little too neatly wrapped up together. He goes a few issues before officially getting that name- because who calls themself, well, any super hero sobriquet? All too often it's revealing of the kind of vanity those guys are dealing with. That's why I prefer the stories where Superman doesn't have any suit then gets named Superman by the press. THEn throws up the giant 'S' on the shirt.

He has to create an entire identity, find a place to live; it's an origin story that attempts to start at the very beginning, but they don't go far enough. Once they establish what they want to be their 'status quo' the don't want to let it go.

The status quo itself is a job as a doctor. Aztek takes over this guys identity when he dies, and he was JUST about to accept a new job at the hospital. For some reason no one knew what the guy was going to look like, so cue Aztek to fill in the gaps. And fortunately he's got healing powers or something. And fortunately no one ever checked in on him to see if he was competently following hospital procedures.

What I would have liked to have seen was how all this would have inevitably fallen apart. But because the creators were so enamoured of the doctoring quo they called in the restorative powers of a deus ex machina.

In the end, it's a clever series that lampshades and avoids several cliches of the genre, but in its self satisfaction it falls into other traps.

But the important thing is that I've read it, because it's one of those books that are highly favoured in the community- now I'm cool. Ah, it was a pretty good book.

Biology class. Books.

Got nine of those Batman books at the library today- but I'd already gotten the "How to be Batman" book, so the joke has failed.

Got to be wide awake and fully absorbed in reading that "How to be Batman" book, it's by a neuroscienist and kinesiologist out in Victoria B.C., read almost half of it last night/this morning. My sleep schedule is pretty messed up right now, I'm thinking my reading then may have been the equivalent of spending lunch to dinner time on a book. I'm still a couple chapters away from the section looking on the effects of such a nocturnal existence. Either way, I'm trying to fix it back up. Going out for social engagements at 8pm as the earliest isn't helping.

And the birthday party tonight doesn't start until 10.

Anyway, the book is very interesting, the first part brings me back to high school biology, which is a great refresher if nothing else. ATP- adenosine triphosphate as the most basic energy our bodies use- man that takes me back.

The book managed to illustrate something about diabetes that had always confused me- from everything that I'd understood, I didn't really get how it was any different from how the body normally acts after, say, physical activity. And both of my parents were diagnosed with diabetes, so I should really be up on this.

It turns out my problem was pretty simple to address: I didn't realize there was a catabolic hormone that acts in balance with the anabolic insulin. So while there is less insulin processing blood sugar into stored reserves, there is no such decrease in the numbers of insulin catabolic counterpart (yeah, I forget its name) that is constantly using blood sugar. THAT explains the corresponding need to continually consume regulatory fuels.

Sheesh, one little piece of the puzzle and it would have gotten it years ago.

It's like when my brother is explaining the story for Kingdom Hearts (videogame)- to be fair it's a storyline that the creator intentionally left plot holes in, so he could sit back, watch his fans try to figure it out, and then fix some of them in the next installment while creating many more inconsistancies. Quite a racket.

Anyways, he'll explain something to me, I'll be confused, he'll say something that sounds crazier, and I'll go, frustrated "whoah wait wait. so is blah blah blah, blah blah bla?" and he'll go "Yes."

So then why didn't you just say "blah blah"

"Oh, yeah, that's a really good way to explain it."

Obviously in the actual conversation we didn't say 'blah' over and over.

I also learned about the bones osteoblasts, osteocytes, and osteoclasts- um, lets see, I guess I'll call them cells for now. The way I understand it is the 'blasts are what build up a bone, the clasts are what break down a bone (essentially both sides of the necessary balance- like the ana-bone to the others cata-bone) with the osteocytes serving as the more solid structure everything would revolve around.

I'm actually less sure about the osteocytes, in fact I had to re-look up what it was called, because they weren't talked about in much detail in the book. More focus was definitely on the 'blasts and 'clasts.

One interesting thing to note was that apparently researchers have found an interesting trend wherein the bones in athletes that have been toughened up by their individual sports in particular areas, say stronger pressure resistance in a runners femur, will be correspondingly weaker in other areas. A theory is that the body may have a net bone density/mass and if some bones get tougher it's by using materials that other bones would have otherwise used.

I'm not sure I hold to that, assuming the athletes are consuming a correspondingly higher diet for the materials needed for their bones (and muscles and everything)- the materials are there!

More likely the weaker bone mass was found in the more specialized athletes that just neglect other areas, perhaps they train those areas in such a way as to overtrain and those bones don't get the necessary recovery time to build up. It seems incredible that athletes who know how to train, who have trainers, wouldn't REALLY know how to train, would make that kind of mistake... but I'm not talking about people that train for overall fitness, I'm talking about people who train TO WIN and that's regardless of the cost.

Anyway, just a quick theory.

The Schauerroman

Not too long ago I was on the Toronto Public Library website browsing through various Batman comics at my disposal. I went hold happy, so once again I have a slew of comics on their way to me. I pointed out how funny it would be if I also ordered this one "How to Become Batman" (or some title along those lines) along with the huge Batman order in itself, the librarians'd think I was nuts.

So I ordered it too.

In front of me now is Batman: Gothic, a tome written by Grant Morrison with art by Klaus Janson.

I was originally expecting it to be what it turns out is a separate book, Batman: The Cult, a Jim Starlin penned (just learned that) story of a brainwashed Batman featuring the second Robin, Jason Todd in what I've heard as one of his breakout appearances. For Todd, those are few and far between, so I was sorry at my mistake, but Batman: Gothic is still a very interesting book.

A word on the books pedigree- Grant Morrison is one of my favourite comic writers; chiefly for his fourth wall shattering Animal Man, his revitalizing take on the Justice League (which has yet to be equalled, with the noted exception of Mark Waid and Joe Kelly who managed to maintain the style with aplomb before the series degenerated to what it is today), and his exalted work on Batman with his current run on the title collected as Batman And Son, Batman: The Black Glove, Batman: RIP, Batman and Robin and some collections that aren't even collections yet, but they'll be around shortly, a series that, as I'm sure I've said before, does the impossible and legitimizes all aspects of Batman's career (even ESPECIALLY the campy 50's and 60's Batman stuff) while also playing with its comic book reality (more of that 4th wall breaking) chiefly through the Joker as a combination Oracle and Jester that's aware that as long as it's Batman's comic, Batman will surely win out.

Yes, I'm a fan.

As for Klaus Janson, he's best known as the inker on Frank Miller's Daredevil work and of course The Dark Knight Returns, but it's a relatively rare thing to see him as the sole artist (not to forget the colourist Steve Buccellato. or at least, not to forget him entirely. Sorry dude.)

Gothic was originally published as Legends of the Dark Knight #6-10, not really that important of a point, except Legends was for many a fan favourite book, and it just so happens one of my earliest comics was Legends of the Dark Knight #3 if I've got that right, so there's a bit of nostalgia on that front. As ever.

The book reveals plenty of my own inadequacies, using lines of verse that I'm unfamiliar with or just flat don't know. I wish Morrison included a bibliography with this book, that'd be sweet.

Ah I just got a killer craving for shepherds pie. Anyways.

The introduction by F. Paul Wilson leaves me pretty cold. He wants to be poetic, he wants to be literary (citing "The Castle of Otranto", "The Monk", "Mysteries of Udolpho", "Frankenstein", and "Faust", I've, unfortunatly, only read "Frankenstein", so maybe I should be grateful with the possible source of Morrison's references in the book itself? I'd rather be sure before I jumped into any extra 18th century reading), but he ends up sounding more like what's that guys name...uuuh that guy everyone hates... ahhhh help me out internet: OOOH yeah Glenn Beck. Man that was hard, where's my TAB?
I am indebted to him for this new term though: the 'schuerroman'. Even if his italicizing of the word made it near impossible to see how it was spelled.

Basically everyone has heard of the bildungsroman, but this was a new one on me. Wilson tells me "it's a German term for the gothic novel (literally, a "shudder-novel")".

Hoping to flesh out the information I turned to my old friend dictionary.com, but there was no result. It was answers.com which said "the german term for a gothic novel or horror story, literally a "shudder-novel""

So basically the exact same thing. I didn't think there'd be much to add, but I was hoping for something. I didn't do the wikipedia thing what with that article being in german and everything.

Oh, you wanted to know how this book was? Pretty good, a few too many mobsters that could have either been dropped from the story or else fleshed out for the purposes of a mystery. Morrison also pulls the old "and after that thing happened in the past we decided to celebrate by going to the movies..."

Oh, so THAT'S what happened to Bruce Wayne immediately before his parents were killed!

Writers tend to lay claim to the time just before the Wayne family goes out to the movies to try and add that extra significance to their story when it isn't needed and sticks in the mind when everyone else is fighting for that same percieved bit of historical significance.

Janson does some great stuff with the cityscape and capes using an excellent roughness, but there are times when his anatomy is weird (the perils of having been done originally in a monthly book format- well, I think it was monthly at the time) and certain characters, again the mobsters, could have been designed with a better eye towards delineating one from the other so we could keep them straight. But again, that's also on Morrison to give the mobsters a memorable part to play.

And they really should have shown us HOW Batman got out of that one trap at the end, like a little Bat-knife or something. Ah well.

So good news: those comics I'm getting from the library- I'll probably talk about them here!

Isn't that great?!?

...

Don't everybody thank me at once. (Han Solo)

A vicious cycle of reading what I wrote

Words written here are in ink, not pencil.

That's an idea from 'the social network' movie, actually it was just a throwaway line but it stayed with me because it's a lesson I've always adhered to as something of a natural instinct. I'm always very careful to do my best to only write here (or anywhere really) what effects me, what reflects on me.

For example: the word "write"- I texted it to someone today (there was context, I don't just randomly text words to people) and it looked so wrong to me. I basically forgot how to spell "write". I'm a writER. That's one of the few things I'll acknowledge being after a few hums and haws.

Therefore, pretty embarrassing to me. Not really a big deal, but then it's not my job to make myself look like a huge idiot, is it? (of course if no one else is going to do it...)

So if I wanted to talk about someone else, I'm, at the most generous, restricted to the most abstract generalities.

generous/generalities- oh yes, I noticed that/ Is it sloppy to leave those words together in that line? Not a big deal.

Went to see 'the social network' with some friends, most of whom I haven't seen in a while or longer, then we chilled out at a Firkin where I had some fish and chips.

Got an out of the blue text that I'm uuumm interested in.

Now I feel sick, potentially the worst kind of sick, when your throat is just a little bit slower to respond and you have a touch of fever, a touch of headache- the point where you can say "noo I'm not. definitely not sick." before you usually get sick.

I often do well to get better at this point, get a good night rest and back in action. We'll see.

"back in action"- what am I doing there? That's a kind of stock cultural phrase, probably a leftover from WW II where being in action was the good thing to be.

I seem to write a fair amount that would be incomprehensible to someone without the correct cultural framework to understand it with. Though I'm sure I know people that are far worse than me. Or better, depending on your point of view.

To clarify "worse than me"- at writing something incomprehensible to people without the proper framework. I wanted to be clear. Don't worry, it'll pass.

my head.. you know I'm messed up when I go to do my evening teeth cleaning and just forget to floss. "doop do- time to do the exact same thing I do every evening- well how do you like that? I seem to have skipped several steps for no apparent reason."

It's a small thing, but it happened, and I tend to be more deliberate than that.

For example, two "paragraphs" (more like four lines ago, hardly paragraphs) I didn't capitalize my first word. Why the discrepancy? Just felt like it. Perhaps it was an attempt, given the lines content, to further simulate the immediacy of a natural thought process/thought speech? That would make sense.

Man, I bet you wish I'd stop pointing out things I wrote immediately after I wrote them as if I had something to prove.

You know what? I'm in bed now. That's happening.