Saturday, January 17, 2009

An Update For Those Who Read

My feet finally feel a little bit more like feet rather than 2 blocks of ice. The weather has been warm latley, still below ten degrees, but warmer than it could be, so I thought I might risk wearing my Converse again. I put on my woolen socks, and put a second pair over the top of them, but the soles of the Connies are just too thin I guess, because my feet froze as I walked back from the movies to the office. I guess I won't be wearing them again till April.
I don't really have anything of note to say. Life continues. Last week I had a bout of depression which lasted a couple of days. We get paid on Fridays, that is, every second friday. I hate being paid fortnightly. But anyway, I was hoping that with last weeks paycheck I would be significantly closer to being able to buy my Mac Powerbook I've been dreaming of, but with taxes and rent taken out of it, over half my pay was gone, and my dream of actually earning enough to pay back Dad and buy a Powerbook just seemed out of reach. It's not just the loss of owning a cool computer, but the fact that if I want to use the internet, even if it's something that takes five minutes, I have to take an hour or more out of my day. And then my internet usage is limited in what I can do. I have to travel into the office, which is an hour round trip if I come in, jump on the net for the few minutes the shuttle waits, then head home. If I want to take longer, then I have to wait an hour for the next shuttle which will be an hour, so it adds up to 2 hours. Plus the computers they've given us to use only have Explorer on them, no Office programs or Word, so I can't even open a document attached. Plus they seem to have almost no virtual memory, so if you try to look at some pages, it just comes up with error messages and shuts down. It can be frustrating. So along with the loss of my Mac also went my dreams of actually using the internet to a fuller extent, no uploading photos, no checking the movie times before I leave the house, no easily updating whenever the urge takes me. It bummed me out.
But then I read a book about comics. And even though I don't really think the book did what the cover said, it was nice to share some time with someone who loves comics. He even mentioned Strontium Dog in a list of 100 things he loved about comics (some e-mail exercise that went round a few years ago apparently). And so I started to draw again, or actually I think write, though writing comics for me involves drawing, but drawing isn't writing. One of the problems one faces with comics is that there isn't a language yet to use to discuss them, one has to use terms from art or cinema or literature, which can be adequete, but don't neccasarily cover the synthesis of words and picture that is comics. (But whos says comics have to have words? Good point, but it still writing, it still telling a story or making a point or something. Or do random images make a comic? Hmm, something to ponder.) I hadn't done any writing since before I left, so it felt really good to do some, and it was on a story that had stalled on me ages ago, something I hadn't worked on for a long long time, and now I've finished it and started the the epilouge, which is also a prolouge, a connecting part of the story, a transference of focus.
And I watched Speed Racer again.
I love Speed Racer, and reccomend it to everyone even though I doubt a handful of people will actually appreciate it.
Actaully there was more going on than just the possible loss of the computer, but that was the catalyst, the thing which lowered my defences as it were, or maybe it was the straw which broke etc., either way, this time last week sucked, but I'm better now.
But really, who wants to know about that? I don't want to tell you because I don't want anyone who'd be inclined to worry to worry. But now that's it all over, except for the actuial time I have here, you can know, but it is in the past, so no longer a concern. One adjusts.
Have I told you how much I'm loving my job? The tips have dried up, I'm lucky if I get over $10 for a run down and back to Denver. But the drive can be really good. When we have a full moon up, those night drives are positivley awesome. The landscape is lit up before you, the mountains are visible, everything is clear, it truly is beautiful, wonderful. And there's something really enjoyable about cruising. I was afraid coming over here that this job might ruin driving for me, that I would be sick of it, but that hasn't happened. As I've gotten used to the roads and the van, I can just enjoy the drive now, and I do. It's what I like about skating as well, just that cruising feeling. I don't really care about jumps or tricks, just miles of smooth pavement is all I really want when I go skating.
I've also made peace with the fact that I probably won't go skiing. I realised I just don't care. It's cold out there, I don't want to spend the money, and it just seems pointless and not what I want out of a recreation. I feel better now that I've come to this realisation.
I've also started the third Stephanie Meyer book, Eclipse. The Talsiman took me a longtime to finish, because I just didn't care, I'd already read it and it just didn't seem as engaing as the first time. But then I read that comic book in less then two days and I knew I had finish it off, so I plowed through it and am now really enjoying Eclipse.
What else? I saw Gran Torino last week and really liked it. I saw Definace today and also thought it was pretty good. I need to investigate if Dark Knight is being screened in Denver again so I can see it with Imax scenes in it. Also hopefully will be able to see a 3D horror film on the same day, but as I said, need to investigate that. Cancelling my plans on going to NY ComicCon, but will investigate other ComicCon options for future.

2 comments:

Stu&Ju - not to be out done by Rachel said...

OK So I thought I'd respond. This will mean you now have 3 comments in total. I would like to offer a suggestion for the comic dilemma which you describe. Is it writing or drawing. I kind of agree with you. My first thought was you could call it driting or wrawing. This second one I like because it is a little difficult to say. But then why not make up a new word. Since this blog is so well read, it might only be a week or two before the new word is out there in common usage. Maybe the drawing/writing combination of story making for comics could be called skartickling. What do you think? I'll put it into the urban dictionary.
It's good to hear you're alive. Talk soon. Did that phone message work?

Jess said...

I saw The Wrestler a few days ago. It was really good. I reckon Mickey Rourke deserves an award, but I haven't seen what he's up against. I also want to see Milk, Doubt, The Class, Rev Road.. and maybe Gran Torino but not sure. There's a lot of good films out at the moment! Amazing.

Anyway, don't bother replying to this because I'll probably forget to check. But I thought you'd appreciate another comment.