Connexions

Yesterday before I left work I had a nice conversation (since all the patients had left and we might have been two of the few in the building on a Friday at almost 5 pm) with a nice young man who I would never see again because he was moving out of state. I'd seen him a only few times but had never gotten to exchange more than five words with him. In the 10 minutes we chatted, we talked about several things, including comics (I used to work at a comic book store back in the day), especially Marvel vs. Marvel movies (a sore point for both of us) and I told him my favourite comic book was Neil Gaiman's Sandman, despite recent accusations of sexual harassment towards the writer that have come out. He assured me that he himself had no toxic masculinity despite the testosterone he injects each day. The fact that he was comfortable and disclosed his trans status made me happy. That we could talk about it in an off-hand way meant things have progressed.

Don't get me wrong, I sometimes wonder if gender re-assignment is for everyone who seeks it, because trans and the many other forms of gender and sexual orientation are sort of trendy right now, and I say that as someone who is technically part of the community but tends to see herself as an ally because she hasn't dated since 1994 and it's not really all that important to her identity. But the fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter if I approve or not, that is a personal choice, and it was obviously part of his identity, I'm glad we had that talk because people need to be able to live their lives accepted for who they are.

We never know what aspirations, thoughts, dreams, or feelings people really have when we interact with them each day. We aren't all mind-readers or true empaths. But we can be empathetic to them when they tell us (or show us) how they feel about themselves, and what they strive for (so long as it's not something like serial killing or world genocide, but I try not to interact with the true monsters in the world, at least if I can recognise them).

I'm sure there are plenty of people who would have reacted badly and called him a monster, which simply is not true. I don't understand why people focus so much on hate when they can be kind. We all have dark parts in our personalities and our souls, [I certainly can be a complete and utter terrible person on bad days], but we should be kind to each other, listen to each other, and try to make things better for other people and the world in general, and for ten minutes out of my week I felt a connexion because someone felt comfortable enough to share a bit of their life with me.

The last time I felt that way was when a young man excitedly told me he had just found out was autistic. He was so happy about his diagnosis, and I understand now, though I didn't really then, though I was happy he was happy. I'm sure it made things make more sense, and that is a very special feeling.

Both of those situations were cases of people who shared something about themselves that sometimes receive quite a bit of stigma. And we need to be open to, even if it's only a momentary glimpse into another person's life, of how important that is, and we can bond over that sort of thing as easily as we bond over comic books.

Hmmm...

I'd also love to see a Ghost movie (or even better, series). Witchblade has been done as a series, but so far no film. Back when I was working at the comic store, I read a lot of those. And besides the question of superheroines, why has there been no Legion of Super-Heroes movie, at least that I know of?

PS My favourite comic of all time has got to be Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. I have all of the stories, most in comic book form, with I think the first three stories in graphic novels. I would love the giant omnibus volumes they have now. I would like to see it in film format, and there is one in the works, but it's been a protracted thing. I do like the series 'Lucifer', which is based on one of the characters.

I had a really nice time with the Call of Cthulhu game today

My character who was injured in a vampire attack last time was healed by a witch, one of the NPCs (non-player characters) is going nutsy cuckoo due to an ability to travel and manipulate other people's dreams, and one of Brenda's characters has crash landed in a plane in the rain forest with several other people and a mystery is afoot as to how they got there. Next week should be very interesting. We hadn't played for a couple of weeks, so it was nice to do so. And even though I'm not on the plane adventure, I don't mind watching what happens (I have a character who is visiting an injured family member, so when I play that out, Brenda's in the audience, but mostly we're both in the scene, so to speak, together. I am the more passive player, however, and that's something I haven't really worked on in the 23 years I've been playing this game, and I really need to do so.)

It's been a pleasant weekend. A was away at a conference and YKWIA and I spent a lot of time together, watching episodes of 'Hart of Dixie' and talking about all sorts of things, including comics. We both used to work for the same comic book store, but I had no idea just how encyclopaedic his knowledge was of the Marvel Universe. No wonder he's always complaining about how the movies mess with the canon. For someone who has read comics all his life but is not a comic geek at all, he knows lots of details, and remembers many of the covers of his youth. I now know a lot more about mutants, Inhumans, Eternals, and Celestials than I used to, as well as Kree, Skrulls, and other alien races. :) But it was fun to learn about. I came to comics late. I read a couple when I was in my teens (Star Wars and The Amazing Spider-Man), but I didn't really read or collect much until I was working for the store and was in charge of ordering, so I saw the full catalogue. I started with The X-Files (I was a really big fan of the show at the time) and then discovered Sandman, which is still my favourite title, although it's not really a 'superhero' comic. I'm glad Neil Gaiman has been working on the prequel. I've got the first two issues, but I'm missing the third--I haven't had a chance to pick it up with how tight things have been of late. Comics have gotten more expensive than when I was working at the store in the 90s. It's over $5 for those comics, and I had been getting both variant covers. Granted, the Sandman prequel isn't monthly, so it's not really a terrible expense, but there's been other bills to pay and things like food and gas to get, so no, I can't really afford to collect much in the way of comics these days.

Okay, I have to get up early tomorrow and run an important errand before work. Good night.

Stan Lee on the importance of comics and graphic novels during Banned Books Week and beyond

I really liked the movie

X-Men: Days of Future Past. It did a good job of tying together the two time periods in the movie franchise, and while it was not entirely true to the canon of the comics, it seemed to be fairly consistent within that of the films. And it included little tidbits, like Peter (Quicksilver) mentioning that his mom knew a man once who could manipulate metal (the fact that he is Eric's son I only know from YKWIA, who read a lot of the X-Men comics, whereas I've read very few, despite working in a comic store for a year--there were just so many titles to keep up with for the books). They did an excellent job of recreating 1973. YKWIA asked me which power I would like the best if I could have it. I have to go with Mystique's--the ability to appear like anyone you wanted. Also, according to the comics (if I remember what YKWIA said), Mystique doesn't age like ordinary people. She may have been alive at the turn of the 20th century or even earlier (I know, that doesn't match the young Raven growing up with Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, but I gather that was a departure from the books. All in all, her power's pretty cool. YKWIA, on the other hand, would be perfectly suited for Xavier's power, as he has both the intelligence to use it well and the will to control it.

So I've been home for a little while putting the Elder Scrolls Anthology on my computer (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind (including Tribunal and Bloodmoon), Oblivion, and Skyrim, all included in one package). I loved Daggerfall years ago, and had played a little of Morrowind, but it's been awhile and it took me a little while to get back into the swing of things, literally, as I forgot some of the essential controls and apparently didn't read the manual as closely as I should have. But it's all good now. Right now I'm downloading Skyrim, which requires a Steam account, and listening to the radio. I think I'm going to put up my feet for awhile since it's taking awhile to download. But it's been a nice long weekend. Tomorrow I have to try to balance work and a friend's appointments, and I have to get up very early, so I'll turn in soon. Good night.

I walked into a comic store for the first time in about 15 years

all because of Neil Gaiman and his new Sandman prequel. It came with two covers. I prefer the one on the left, actually. But yes, I sprang for both. The next one is due out in December.

Sandman is what got me collecting comic books as an adult--it was totally different from the comics I'd read as a kid (primarily Star Wars and Spider-Man. With its literary and historical allusions, interesting plots, and the intriguing Endless, I was hooked. I was very sad when it ended, although I kept up with The Dreaming for quite some time afterwards. I'm glad to see a new story, the story before the story, back. Hopefully it was worth the wait.

I went into the store (Collectibles, Etc.) and the smell hit me, the scent of comic books, and I felt instant nostalgia. I worked at a comic store for a year (The Comic Interlude, back under the former owner) in 1996, doing the ordering, databases, reserve files, and generally helping keep it running. There were times YKWIA and I were there till 4:30 in the morning working on backstock and re-arranging things. It was actually great experience in that I did a lot of things that I later did in the library--work with vendors, catalogue, order items for customers, etc. It actually helped me get my present job. :) I'm looking forward to reading the comic book.

Interesting

As someone who used to work in a comic shop, I found the following interesting:

DC Comics Arrive on Kindle and iBookstore

What's surprising about this particular digital transition is that unlike other entertainment media, digital comic books don't seem to be undercutting physical sales. Physical comic book sales remained steady over the past year, even managing a slight 12% increase. It's possible that long-time comic book readers are sticking with physical editions, while the 197% digital increase is coming from new readers unfamiliar with brick-and-mortar comic shops. Regardless, the figures are promising enough while DC has little to lose in the venture, and if new readers are introduced to some good comics along the way, all the better.

On a lighter note

I found this somewhat amusing....

A few of Supergirl’s everyday problems that you and I don’t have to worry about

A great cause

TEDGlobal 2011: Social media game aims to end extremism

Mr Bakhit, who comes from Jordan, was a student at the US University of Minnesota when the 9/11 attacks took place. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by four men because he was an Arab....

Instead of feeling bitter, Mr Bakhit decided to engage in an education campaign.

"I realised that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple - 'We are not all terrorists'," he told the BBC.

Armed with a not-so-magic carpet, he began telling Aladdin-style stories in local schools.

"One day a child asked me if there was an Arab superman and I realised that there wasn't," he said.

So began his comic-book project which aimed to create a range of positive Arab role-models, including a female James Bond and a Jordanian special agent who fights extremists.

Well, Twitter didn't let me down for news

Have you seen this?

Traumatic brain injuries in illustrated literature: experience from a series of over 700 head injuries in the Asterix comic books

[Acta Neurochir (2011) 153:1351–1355, DOI 10.1007/s00701-011-0993-6]

For more, check out Why Study Brain Injuries in a Comic Book?

Thanks to @PFAnderson for letting me know about this.

Wonder Woman! [You have to have watched the series to really get the voice modulation right on that one]

Makeover for Wonder Woman at 69

In the reimagining of her story, Wonder Woman, instead of growing up on Paradise Island with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her Amazon sisters, is smuggled out as a baby when unknown forces destroy her home and slaughter its inhabitants.

Mr. Straczynski, who created the television show “Babylon 5” and wrote the screenplay for “Changeling” in 2008, starring Angelina Jolie, said in an e-mail message that he wanted to address “the wardrobe issue” as soon as he took the job.

“She’s been locked into pretty much the exact same outfit since her debut in 1941,” Mr. Straczynski wrote. “If you’re going to make a statement about bringing Wonder Woman into the 21st century, you need to be bold and you need to make it visual. I wanted to toughen her up, and give her a modern sensibility.”

He added, “What woman only wears only one outfit for 60-plus years?”

[Image of Wonder Woman © by DC Comics]

Okay, let me just say, I kind of like the new outfit. I'm not so sure of the slaughter of the Amazons; it seems like everyone's got to have a horribly angsty backstory these days, and Diana actually represented the superhero (or in this case superheroine) with a relatively happy family life as opposed to being placed into a spaceship and shot to another world because your entire planet was being destroyed (Superman, who nevertheless, managed to be found and had a relatively normal upbringing) or having your parents killed in a horrible mugging gone bad (Batman, who always had enough angst for everyone else). But I've liked Michael Straczynski's other work, so I'm willing to give it a go.

Still, it really is hard to run and fight in a bustier (although the lovely Lynda Carter perfected that). And it looks like all the weapons/protections are still there.

I have to admit I'm intrigued. I am reasonably sure that YKWIA will be horrified, especially over the demise of the Amazons; he hates change. Together we ran a comic store for a friend back in the 90s, so we both have experience with the business. I've always been a DC girl rather than a Marvel one (although I've never collected Wonder Woman--I was more into Sandman and Legion of Superheroes). I may have to stop by my nearby comic shop and ask Tony to reserve this issue for me, if for no other reason than the history of it.)

Now, some humour

Spider-Man foils comic book thief in Australia

"We had about 40 people dressed up as their favourite superheroes to celebrate International Free Comic Day, so he [the thief] didn't have much of a choice but to hand the X-Men Omnibus back after a little bit of a scuffle," Mr Baulderstone told the Adelaide Advertiser.

He said a group of Jedi knights blocked the door to prevent the thief from escaping, as The Flash looked on.

"I've had a look at the security footage and it shows Spiderman running down the corridor of the shop, grabbing this guy, hauling him off," said the 45-year-old.

"It was a bit serious at the time, but now we're looking back laughing at what greeted police when they arrived."

I can so imagine this going down in the comic store I used to work in. :)

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days

My cable was turned off a little before payday. But now everything's square. So I'd like to catch up...

First, from Monday, there was the finale of 'Heroes'. I enjoyed it immensely; I'm glad we've gone through the introductory story arc now and I hope they can do some more character building over season two. I want to see where they go from here. Who is the man out there who is worse than the Boogeyman? Is there anyway for Peter or Nathan to have survived (everyone expects Peter will regenerate, but in the past, the brain had to be pretty much unobstructed. What about when it's atomised? Did Nathan go with Peter to the very end, or fly off once they were safely above the city? What exactly will happen with Sylar?) There were some questions answered, some posed. I'm really looking forward to the DVD collection, which among other things has the original pilot on it, apparently. It truly is a wonderful show, especially in how things intertwine in the best comic book fashion (I'm waiting for the 3D episode...didn't that wave hit several comic books back in the 80s or 90s? There are details that true comic afficianados probably catch that I don't, but even I know that Kirby Plaza was a reference to Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist, for example. Anyway, I really have loved the show and all the extras that you can find at NBC.com/Heroes, including web comics, full past episodes, Heroes 360, etc.

Okay, on to the next subject...bunnies. What is it about bunnies lately? I've had three hop out in front of my car in the last couple of weeks. Fortunately I haven't hit one, but I'm beginning to think Mother Nature is trying to tell me something.

Speaking of animals, work continues to coax a mother humpback whale and her calf back downriver from Sacramento to San Francisco bay. They've tried recordings of whales to lure them, recordings of predators to spur them on, clanging noises, herding with boats--the next step is to try fire hoses, something that's never been attempted before. Meanwhile, they're trying to make an antibiotic delivery system to inject the whales, both of whom have apparently been injured by boats.

We were visited at work today by Thumbelina, the World's Smallest Horse. She's not even knee high. She's a miniature horse, but she's also a dwarf, so she's much smaller than most miniatures. She was adorable. She travels in an air-conditioned motor home around the country to raise money for children's charities.

The last night of bunny madness I was driving home after that close call and discovered a car overturned with lots of police lights going on of all places Beaver Creek, which is a residential street near my home. That same night I went to call a friend to let him know I was home safely and that was when I discovered that I had no cable, for I have Vonage, which requires an active cable connexion. So I tried my cell phone and then rememberd I didn't have any minutes (mine is prepaid--it's worked pretty well for seven years; I average about $10 a month). So, I went over to the laundry room, which usually has a phone hooked up when the pool has water in it for 911 (but you can usually make regular calls). Mind you, it's 2 am or so. I fall down the stairs and hit my elbow on the brick wall of the building, then discover they've rigged the phone for 911 calls only. Sigh. So I finally got in my car and went to a nearby gas station and bought minutes for my phone, then came back home and made the call. I know, I'm a danger to myself, although not usually to others. But, there was one time I didn't call and actually slept through getting a friend from work and the alert went off and D and her husband were dispatched to check on me. I had low blood sugar and didn't wake up until they got Cerys barking by tapping at the window. I didn't want a repeat. D has a two-year old and I don't think she'd appreciate it. :)

Speaking of D, she and I are going to go shopping Monday after I get home from visiting my mom and grandmother. I have a gift card for some clothes and she's going to take me out. We get together so seldom; I think the last time was last year when we went swimming at the pool with her son. And we don't get to eat lunch together that much. I miss that. Our schedules are so harried; you should have seen us with our calendars out trying to find a time to get together.

What else? Well, there's the health issues, like the fact that I just went on Avandia and now there's a lot of concern over cardiovascular health due to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine and now an FDA study that backs it up--and opens up questions for how it was approved with such data in place. Now I have to call Dr Nesbitt and see what he thinks. He might put me on Actos instead--it's in the same family and hasn't been associated with those problems--yet (although it has been associated with heart failure). Sigh. Sometimes I think my meds are kind of a crap shoot.

The other medical thing I wanted to blog about was this:

Anger Erupts Over Insurance Company's IQ Test for Weight-Loss Surgery

As the article pointed out, it's not like we require an IQ test to give someone chemotherapy, or refuse to give heart bypass surgery to those who may not know how to do aftercare because they're deemed too stupid. This is ridiculous. It's just another way for insurance companies to try to maintain their bottom line, but it's also discrimnatory.

I think that's all for now. My computer has downloaded some updates and keeps trying to restart, and it's getting very late. Sorry again about the delay. And as always, thanks for reading my ramblings. Good night.