Back from the Dead

Lately DC Comics has been bringing everybody back from the dead, usually after killing them off a short time before, though lately they've gotten into this irritating habit of bringing back people who have been gone for years and no one was upset about it. Take Jason Todd for instance. He was killed of in the 90's after readers voted for him to die. Why bring back someone like that? Granted, now he's older, but that doesn't mean he's any better. Same goes for Stephanie Brown, A.K.A Spoiler A.K.A. Robin, who died during a giant gang war that she started. I didn't like her then and I don't really like her now as Batgirl. Who said I wanted that annoying girl to come back from the dead? Bringing Batman back, fine, I'm more than OK with that, but Stephanie? No. We didn't need that boomerang dude back either, send him back. Maybe they' just got too excited with the whole black rings thing they've got going on and now they just want to bring back every dead hero they can think of. Not OK, DC, not OK.

You didn't tell me you could write like that

I'm a fan of Dave Barry and an almost fan of John Connolly. It's safe to say I'm a fan of Dave Barry, because I've been reading his work since middle school and I really like it. He's one of the funniest writers I've ever found and his stuff is great and I've read tons of it. John Connolly I can't say I'm a true fan of, I think, because I've only read one and a half of his books and I don't think that counts when he's written six or seven of them or something. See? I don't even know how many books he's written. What kind of a fan does that make me? Anyway, what I've read I've really liked so I'm likely to read more and become a real fan, not the one and a half book "I'm casually interested" fan. But the thing that I found interesting today while I was busy reading John Connolly's book, The Gates, is that it really isn't much like his other book I read, The Book of Lost Things. They're both really good and I really like them both, but while The Gates is funny the majority of the time and is intended to be, The Book of Lost Things was largely serious and made you think deep thoughts in a great way. I loved that about it. Now, Dave Barry writes hilarious things all the time and that's why I've always loved his work. But after September 11 he wrote an article about it that was very serious and was some of his best work I've ever read. So both authors have proved they can write both very good serious material and very good humorous material. So I was wondering to myself as I was laughing at Connolly's book describing the demon of stale biscuits and crackers, which is better: to read something serious by an author that's very good and then read something equally good by them that's very funny and be pleasantly surprised at how good they are at being funny when you didn't know they could be or the other way around. Maybe one isn't better than the other, but I wonder. Which is more fun or more satisfying as a reader? Either one has an impact on you because you weren't expecting it, but it's an interesting thought because other authors I've read, Tolkien for instance, only wrote one particular kind of thing so you have no idea just how funny Tolkien could really be or if C.S. Lewis could write science fiction. Maybe they couldn't and that's why they didn't, I don't know. But there's something about an author giving you that happy surprise with their work that I really like. Obviously both Barry and Connolly have proved they're capable of writing whatever they like but naturally chose one or the other for certain reasons. Dave Barry happens to like writing humor, so he does. I have no idea why Connolly writes what he does because I haven't actually joined the "I'm a fan" club yet, but when the bandwagon drives by again I'll jump on. So, I'll just leave this fun thought to be chewed on for now, since I'm not too worried about finding an answer. I just like contemplating it. Good to be pleasantly surprised, whatever the case.

Never Forget

There seems to be this poetic mantra people have for 9/11, either "never forget" or "always remember" or some variation on the two. There are editorials saying it's time to move on, heal, forget, whatever. Well, maybe they've moved on, but the rest of us are having a little trouble. It's hard to say what it is that makes it so hard to let go of 9/11: maybe it's the fact that we're still fighting in the middle east, or because it took so long to build the memorial or just the simple fact that it was civilians that paid the price this time. Whatever it is, we're not letting go any time soon. And as for "never forget" how could I? I remember perfectly where I was and what I was doing when I found out about the WTC, as does everyone else. Psychology calls it a flashbulb memory. Beyond that, my whole world got turned on its head and suddenly words like "terrorist" got shoved into the everyday vernacular. I'd never heard of terrorists and I couldn't have found Afghanistan on a map. And, however it may sound, all this wrecked my childhood. My childhood, adulthood, all of the above. I was fourteen when this mess started, so it's safe to say I really grew up with all of this and it's a lousy way to pave the way to adulthood. At least people know how police officers and firefighters have always been the selfless heroic people that they are, but thanks to 9/11 they proved it in an incredible way. Innocent people died that day because some crazy loons from a country I'd never heard of wanted to prove some sort of point about capitalism or something. As if flying planes into buildings is going to make people sympathize with you. My life continues to be made miserable and difficult, people die, and everything is a mess because of this one act by a small group of horrible people who seemed to think that just because they were willing to die thousands more should have to as well. They never did anything to offend these Jihadists and neither did I. So, they can take their precious cause and shove it. Fact is, I'm not interested. You don't murder innocents and wreck my life and expect me to sympathize with anything, I don't care what it is. So, I'm still angry. Thanks for the offer, but I won't move on, I won't forget, I won't let it go. I don't care if that makes me petty or anything else. As far as I'm concerned, terrorism is one of the highest forms of cowardice and I'm not letting it go. What I will do is remember the courage, sacrifice, and lives lost because of all this. I'll never forget that.

The End of all Things

Well, I decided a while ago that I would do this when everything was done, so here I am a week after the fact finally getting down to it.
Last week I graduated college with my very own bachelor's degree and I think I should make a tally of things like I did after my huge entomology project. It puts things in perspective nicely and I like that. So, it is as follows:
I graduated precisely six years and one month from the day I arrived on Rexburg to start college.
All told, I completed 12 semesters, and about 4 1/2 years of actual time in school and 150 credits. -_-'
I lived in three apartments and one house and had a total of roughly 45 roommates, including people I lived with more than once, they got counted twice. :P
I slipped on the ice and fell about four or five times, a feat in and of itself, considering most people did it more often or broke bones in the process.
It has been twenty years since I started my education, beginning with preschool.
I have now attended six schools in two states and have endured temperatures ranging from -20 degrees to 116 degrees. I have endured rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms, floods, snowstorms, blizzards, ice, and mud. I've been sunburned and walked through knee-deep snow and had ice form on my eyelashes and my legs go numb from cold.
I have had the best roommates and some less than the best.
I have had the best professors and the best college experience I could have had.
I have learned many, many things, but I think the most important is this: everything happens for a reason and it will work out alright in the end.

So farewell childhood I'm now off to explore the real world and kick it in the face.

Oh, you don't say

I was looking at the calendar yesterday and came to an interesting realization: school ends next Friday. I don't know when or how this happened, I know it didn't ask my permission to close the gap so quickly like this. After all, if school ends next week that means that graduation is a week after that and after that, I'm done. If that's not a scary thought, nothing is.
Uh-oh. That's all I've got to say about that.

Trade offs

Colds have a way of making you realize how you prioritize things. For instance, I first decided I'd rather be coughing than have the sore throat, persisted to think I'd rather have the cough over the stuffy/runny nose, but now I found myself ranking all three of them according to which is more tolerable. I decided that first comes cough, then stuffy/runny nose, then sore throat. Since the sore throat causes constant, horrible pain, it had to go after not being able to smell or taste. Even though those two make me pretty unhappy as it is. I happen to like food a lot, and now I just don't care what I eat because I can't tell what it is anyway. Coughing is usually so straightforward: you cough until you've expelled the gunk clogging your lungs, then you go on your way. Simple. So, can I trade in my stuffy/runny nose for just a cough, please? I've been tolerating this nonsense for a week now, give me a break here. And if I could get a medicine that actually alleviates my symptoms, that would be really nice too.

Smallville

I am a huge fan of Superman, he's my favorite superhero and quite frankly I've been in love with him since I was nine years old. So, of course, when Smallville started I was really excited about it. With someone like Tom Welling playing Clark Kent how could you not like it? So I happily and faithfully followed the show for years until I went to college and didn't have a tv anymore. When I did get a chance to watch it again I was very unhappy about what they had done with the story, bringing in characters that shouldn't be there, creating a storyline that was miles from feasible, things like that. So, I gave up on it. When I heard they had done the series finale I thought that it was worth a shot. Maybe they had done something really good to make up for the fact that the Justice League wasn't supposed to exist yet and yet they put it in there anyway. I found the episode online, settled down, and started to watch Tom Welling for about an hour and a half. I have to admit, they outdid themselves this time. I knew the previous seasons were terrible, but somehow I thought that the series finale would be something spectacular. Why wouldn't it be? Clark Kent is supposed to become Superman, that should be epic! And yet, instead I got something cheap, corny, and insultingly bad. The plotline was so ridiculous it put the others to shame. Clark and Lois married? What's that about? It was bad enough they introduced her into the story too early. The effects were so bad it looked like some cheap SyFy show. Worse, at times, especially Darkseid. And the music, oh, the music was so bad it almost hurt to listen to. They went through the effort to put Clark in the Superman suit by the end, of course, but never bothered showing him completely while he was wearing it. Just some vague shots of his torso here and there. The whole episode was an embarrassment to Superman and all the people who made the Smallville series. How do they expect to generate interest in Superman when they shovel crap like this at us? This is why I stopped watching Smallville in the first place: if you have any notion of what the storyline is supposed to be, the whole thing is a travesty and quickly becomes unbearable. My favorite thing to say while watching the finale was "someone got paid to write this?" So, we can add horrible dialogue to the rest of their shortcomings and blatant mistakes. The sad things is, they put effort into this, and I must say, it does take some serious effort to screw up my favorite superhero this badly. Wake up, people, and give us something decent. So, here's to having your hopes and expectations trampled on. Well done.