Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Five Things

So I decided that from time to time I'll pop in here and make a list of five things. Top fives, bottom fives, random fives, five this and five that. Without further ado I give you:

Five things I did while at work today.

1. I had a coworker sneak up on me and run a long piece of wire through one of my earrings. I decided to leave it there and when people asked me what it was I told them I had been captured, tagged and released so that I could be tracked and monitored in my natural habitat. If they didn't walk away after that I may or may not have then asked if they wanted to mate with me so that it could be studied by the scientific community. Strangely enough no one wanted to mate with me which is weird because I'm obviously very good looking. I mean I'm just wretchedly attractive. It's almost sickening really.

2. I had lunch. There was chicken involved. I can't really go into it because of unresolved legal issues.

3. I wondered if women "shake off" after they're finished pumping gas or if it's just a guy thing that we have to learn to go with that whole peeing standing up thing and then gets transferred over to the gas pump. I'll have to remember to ask someone because I really really want to know.

4. Walked up to a small group of people who were engaged in a conversation, listened silently for a few minutes and when there was a quiet place in the convo said, "I hear a lot of talking and none of it is about my cock. Not a single word. Let's work on that for tomorrow." Then I walked away.

5. Cruised around Amazon.com for something like two and a half hours. I, uh, don't really take a lot of pride in my job anymore plus I have everything so ridiculously organized that some days I have exactly shit all to do for the overwhelming majority of the day.

There you have it, the very first edition of Five Things. One day you'll tell your grandkids that you were there when it all started. Of course you'll be talking about something else but still...

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I am geek, hear me roar

So yesterday I finally found a decent comic shop. Not only was the selection top notch but it pleased my OCD in delicious ways by being organized to within an inch of its life PLUS the owner was playing Hank Williams on the store's radio. Browsing for comics (that's right, comics. I will not say "graphic novels" the way some people do because they are ashamed to read comics.) while listening to Your Cheating Heart is a truly sublime experience. Now then, on to the loot and the thanks. I picked up:

The Walking Dead collections 3, 4 and 5. Thanks to Taco for introducing me to this and buying the first two collections for me. It's damn good even if it did steal ideas right out of my mind somehow. I suspect the polar bears.

The Authority collections 1 and 2. Thanks to Noq for suggesting this awesome title. Not many people try for a new take on the superhero genre (at least not many try and succeed) but this is a touchdown all the way.

The Dreaming collection 1. Picked it up because the majority of the writing is done by Caitlin R. Kiernan who is one of my favorite novelists. Thanks to Peter Straub and Neil Gaiman for blurbing her first novel and making me buy it years ago.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born. When the DT novels ended I thought I had seen the last of the adventures of the gunslinger. Thankfully that was not the case. Hile Roland of Gilead, son of Steven, protector of the White, line of Eld. Hile Gunslinger.

I also ordered/preordered:

The Eternals collection by Neil Gaiman which is his take on Jack Kirby's iconic work (though is there any work by Kirby that isn't iconic?). Normally I hate this kind of thing but Gaiman isn't the type to take something like this on lightly and I know he has a mountain of respect for Kirby and his work so my hopes are very high indeed.

Mage: The Hero Defined. Matt Wagner created two of the very best comic characters of all time, Grendel and Mage. Not many people can claim to have created one thing as important and influential as these and he did it twice. Anyway, this is the second big collection of Mage and I've been trying to get it in hardback and finally have. Now here's hoping that the third and final act will come sooner than the second did.

Tag collection. This is a story by Keith Giffen about a game of tag involving zombies. Giffen. Zombie tag. Are you kidding me? How can a person not buy this?

So yeah, I'm not back into collecting monthly titles and such with great vigor but once again I finally have a place where I can keep my ear to the ground about the occasional things that I have to have. Yay me.