damabupuk

tom035@sympatico.ca — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:20:13 GMT

My schedule has changed.

When I was reading meters, and when I was setting posts last summer, I was in bed by 10, and asleep pretty much seconds after that. But my schedule has changed since I went back to school. I just caught myself, as I climbed down the stairs after saying goodnight to Tara, sighing and relaxing and looking forward to the next hour or so. Because this has become my time. I'm not tired, I'm not wired from caffeine (maybe a bit!). It's just that this time of night, from around 10 to midnight, is when I do the things that I put off at other times of day. I'm not saying I couldn't do them earlier. I could, but Tara and Sage are around earlier, and if they're around then I want to be spending time with them. But right now they are tucked away safely in bed, their days are done and they're asleep. I don't want this to sound like I'm free of having to look after them, or anything like that, because that's not it at all. But they're finished with the day now. They've packed it in, got what they could get done done, and gone to sleep, perchance to dream. So now, after they're abed, I get down to doing things that could wait until it was just me.

I don't think it's making as much sense in type as it does in my head. My schedule has changed, I don't need quite as much sleep anymore, and I love having this time to myself.

I know what I said....

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:24:29 GMT

...but I've finished watching Buffy, and I didn't keep you up to speed. I apologize.

It rocked, pretty much the whole way through. Even the bits that I felt dragged while they were on TV (most of season 6) were really good when viewed as a whole. Damn good show.

But now I'm done that, and BSG is finished, and I'm up to date on Lost. I don't know what to do with all this time.

Ending

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:13:01 GMT

Finally, after seven years, today I threw out the business documents, receipts, and final general reminders of my comic store. I kept a couple of things: the business license, the first flyer we handed out, the original business proposal. But everything else is gone now. All I have left are the comics, and they're not going anywhere.

It feels pretty good.

Buffy-Watch 2009 Update

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:20:35 GMT

So, halfway through season 2 and now I remember why I loved this show: it never suffered those first season blues that something like Star Trek: TNG did. The actors nailed their characters right from the get go, and the writers crafted some great dialogue. At the midpoint of the second season (BIG SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO'S EVER THINKING OF WATCHING THE SHOW) Angel is likely the best villain on TV. I'd say maybe Scorpius from Farscape, or John Simm's version of The Master from Doctor Who come close, but not quite. Anyway, it's ridiculously enjoyable at the moment, so much so that I've fallen behind in my reading for school. I'm off now to read the life of Margery Kemp, a 14th century mystic, for my medieval literature class. Margery's no Buffy, but she was apparently a bit of a wild thing in the 1300s.

My resolution...

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:56:54 GMT

So, I've made a new year's resolution, just a few days late. I'm going to watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer from start to finish again. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm kind of concerned at how dated the show might look, considering the revolutions in computer animation since it started (12 years ago!).

tom035@sympatico.ca — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:49:50 GMT

I realized I haven't posted here since October, so I thought I ought to. I'm keeping busy with school, which actually starts again today and I'm quite excited. Christmas was excellent, as always, and Tara and I actually managed to go to a New Year's Eve party and not argue. Wonders will never cease. Hope everyone had at least a decent holiday, if not a downright amazing one.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:55:24 GMT

With the U.S. election so very very close, I just wanted to say something to all the Canadians who read this journal who voted for Stephen Harper:

Fuck you, you fucking idiots.

Uh-oh

tom035@sympatico.ca — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:44:22 GMT

Today I had to drop my car off at the garage. That's not the real uh-oh, though. I had to walk home afterwards, which is probably a 4 or 5 kilometer walk, not a short hike. When I got about three quarters of the way home, I realized how long it's been since I've walked for a living. My legs were actually sore. That's the first time I've noticed since I quit the meter reading job.

For those who don't read my university blog, I got my first essay back today, and I got an A on it. I'm quite happy about that.

Yet Another Blog!

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:00:20 GMT

I Went Back To University

Writer's Block: What You'd Accomplish if Success Was Guaranteed

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:51:54 GMT

Knowing beforehand that you wouldn't fail, what would you attempt to do?

Submitted By tightjeanzz

View other answers

I would write a titanic, 2-disc, space rock, concept album based on Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles". Or maybe "The Doom Patrol". Or maybe "Flex Mentallo".

What the hell, all three.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:41:12 GMT

My first day, in 15 years, of being a student. And I loved it. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:16:45 GMT

A guy I work with said something funny. He said what the U.S. needs is to get a president who's first speech, perhaps even his inaugural one, starts with "People of the world, I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. We're bringing everyone home, and we're going to deal with our country now." What do you suppose it would take?

The End of the World

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:07:44 GMT

We're having yet another thunder storm. The second one today, in fact. The thing about the end of the world is that at least it's looking spectacular. Kind of fitting for the culture that's bringing about the apocalypse.

That said, I start school in just a few short weeks. Excited. I resolve to update my journal a lot more once I'm in school. I figure I'll be spending an ungodly amount of time in front of the computer anyway.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:21:26 GMT

Rest in peace, my friend.

Jay Russell

Jay Russell's Jimi Hendrix

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:51:59 GMT

Holy crap! It's May.

The left ball thing turned out to be my body adjusting to the hardships of physical labour. The upside is I look really good in a tight t-shirt now!

And today I accomplished something that makes me proud. I taught myself, and officially added to my set list, the theme song from Fraggle Rock.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:24:12 GMT

Somehow, over the course of the last couple of days, I've managed to hurt my left testicle.

At least, I hope I managed to hurt it. I'd hate to think it just started hurting all by itself.

The Rumour Is True. I Quit My Job.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:07:43 GMT

Yep. The Thursday before Easter, I got into it with my supervisor in the morning. Doesn't really matter what about. I spent the day realizing that this company would never treat me any better than it currently is. So I called up the regional manager that afternoon, and gave my notice.

I'll mention here that I had Tara's full blessing. Having not talked to her first would have resulted in death.

I've applied to go back to school at McMaster in the fall. I'd forgotten what waiting for the university acceptance/rejection letter was like. It's unpleasant. I've got a few jobs in the pipeline, ones that should get us through until the student loan kicks in. Ugh.

Just wanna mention my comic book blog again, called Giant Box of Comics. It's just me talking about comics and stuff. Not news, not always current comics, but just comics in general. If that's your bag, I'd love for you to check it out.

(I despise self-promotion. This is the main reason that my business failed!)

I read Tom Strong v.4 today. It contains Alan Moore's penultimate Tom Strong tale, and it was stunning. A tale of a parallel time line and how it intersects with the familiar Tom Strong/ABC universe. Brilliant. Moore has consistently finished off the ABC series (or at least his runs on them) remarkably well. Top Ten, Promethea, and now Tom Strong. He does return for the final issue, Tom's perspective on Promethea's apocalypse, but this last story in volume 4 seems to me to be the story Moore was building up to. I'm shy 2 issues of Tomorrow Stories, but I wonder if he'll manage the same kind of brilliant ending for the characters in that?

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:23:47 GMT

Yet another day off sick. Damned weekend. Started feeling it on Friday afternoon, thankfully after we'd returned from the ROM, but the whole weekend, and now into the week, I've felt craptastic. I suppose it's to be expected, a combination of burnout from this horrible winter, and going swimming in a public pool during the March break. What was I thinking?

And from the minutia you don't care about file: I thought I had broken the remote for the Wii last night, as I bounced it off our cat's head while attempting a backhand in tennis. I wouldn't work all last night after that, but this morning I checked it, and it seems to be okay. I love how modern technology will generally fix itself somehow if you turn it off and leave it for a few hours.

I'm reading Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe right now. It's a kind of primer for the layman on string theory, and it's quite good. I watched the documentary based on it, and it was very flashy, but the book is definitely quite a bit more advanced and deeper than what they went into on the show. Trouble is, I can't quite help but wonder how outdated it is, as it was written 8 years ago. I guess once I've muddled through this one, I'll have to read his sequel.

Tom was on the radio

tom035@sympatico.ca — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:15:54 GMT

I ought really to have posted it beforehand, but what ya gonna do?

Today at about five to five eastern time, a great friend of mine named Becky, who has a radio show on Concordia's radio station called "Charts and Crafts", played Don't Walk On The Grass. On the radio. I am so happy.

Gary Gygax

tom035@sympatico.ca — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:31:33 GMT

Gary Gygax passed away

I can't really express the influence on my life of the games that Mr. Gygax championed. When I discovered role playing games in grade 7, I joined the small, generally poorly regarded gaming club we had at school (where we were completely unallowed to play D&D, 'cause it was SATANIC!), and met a group of people who became my family. I still see them every week, and they are some of the best, brightest, and most creative and stimulating people I know. We don't necessarily play that many games any more, but the relationships we created through the medium of role-playing have lasted, and will last, the rest of our lives. Thank you, Mr. Gygax, for everything you did directly for the gaming industry, and indirectly, for my life.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:01:50 GMT

Y'know, waste of time that it really may be, I've spent much of my time online today mucking about with Facebook. It's kind of like Reality TV for the web, isn't it? Anyway, I found a group for my high school, specifically my high school in the 90's. I swear, there's people on there that I would have bet money couldn't even turn on a computer when I was in high school with them.

Finally, new music

tom035@sympatico.ca — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:39:06 GMT

I've finally got some new music up on my myspace page. Thanks to Jenn Ryan, who recorded, produced, engineered, and generally made me sound good. The two new songs, Don't Walk on the Grass and Feelin' Fine, are what my music is sounding like these days. Mostly.

My new Blog

tom035@sympatico.ca — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:40:42 GMT

I'm going to be starting up a comic book blog here. All comics, all the time.

Anyone got any useful suggestions on blogging? I want it to be more of an information site than a diary, like this one.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:06:24 GMT

I came to Steve Gerber's writing through a Vegas showgirl and her dancing ostrich. I kid you not. The story "Piss on Earth" in the vertigo Winter's Edge anthology introduced me to Nevada the dancer and her ostrich, and when the series came out, I picked it up, and found out that the genesis of the series had come in an issue of the late 70's comic "Howard the Duck".

Wasn't that that crappy movie from the 80's, you may ask, and yes, yes it was. It was a crappy movie. But, intrigued as I was, I searched out the 16th issue of Howard the Duck, one in which Mr. Gerber ruminates on the creative process and his cross-country move. It was, in a word, revelatory.

Now, I'd been reading the "big names" for a few years. There was little that Grant Morrison, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman wrote that I didn't voraciously devour. I prided myself on being a literary comic fan, not doting on artists, but on writers (though I've since revised that pompous practice). I was stunned to have found this wonderful dissertation and never have heard of the writer. Dutifully, I tracked down every issue of Howard with his name in the writer's credit (even the terribly expensive 1st appearance of KISS in a comic book), and read them. And it was brilliant. A vibrant and witty slice of the 1970's in the USA. A satire of the ideas and ideals sweeping through the nation in the wake of the hippy generation, a more cynical, yet every bit as optimistic, lense through which to read the culture. It was wonderful.

Unlike those other names I talked about earlier, I did not immediately go out and find all of Mr. Gerber's works right away and read them. But when I did come across one, it was always picked up and read and enjoyed. More recently, on and excursion into the 1970's Marvel output, I focussed on his work, his Defenders, Man-Thing, Tales of the Zombie, in the excellent Marvel Essentials series, and again I was blown away by his work.

Just yesterday (Saturday), I was in a comic store, rummaging through their $2 bins for copies of "Superman presents The Phantom Zone" and "Omega the Unknown", I found the two issues of "Creatures on the Loose" that he scripted, and the first installment of the Shanna the She-Devil story that was serialized in Marvel Fanfare. I came home, entered them into my database and read them. Then, while surfing the net last hight, I found out that he had died a week earlier.

I won't go all weepy, and say it was like losing a friend or anything, because it wasn't. I only knew him through his words, and most of them things he wrote 30 years ago. But for talent, passionate talent, like that to be lost to us is terrible. It is useless to sit and wonder what he might have produced with another 10 years, but I do it anyway. I'm glad that I still have so much of his work to find and to read, but the sad bit is that when I have tracked it all down (and I'm a little obsessive, so I will), that'll be it.

I pulled out my Howard the Duck collection today. I think it's time to read them again, and pay my own little tribute to a guy who wrote comics like no one else did before, or has since. Thank you, Mr. Gerber. Your presence will be missed.

tom035@sympatico.ca — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:41:58 GMT

R.I.P. Steve Gerber