In less than three weeks, my parents will be relocating with my twelve year old niece to the other side of the state. After months of trying to sell their place here, they can finally start living in what was once my grandparents place. I have no problem with this move and am happy to see the place being kept in the family. One thing that has been on my mind in regards to the move is what my niece will think of this change. When I was her age, I loved spending time there. In my mind, there was so much freedom and things to do there, be it swimming or just exploring in the woods. Staying outside was the only place to be and the days of summer went by incredibly fast. Does a twelve year old girl think the same as a twelve year old boy? Will she have as much fun there as I did years ago? I suspect that the answer might be no, but I will have a more definite answer by next month.
On Sunday night, the teams on the Amazing Race were in Osaka, Japan and I envied them. I may not have visited that exact city when I was in Japan last year, but many of things that they experienced were familiar to me. For example, both the vending machines and the taxicabs were things that I saw all of the time when I was there. One might argue that those are things that can be found in any large city, but for me there were a unique part of the Japanese landscape that I cannot fully describe.
I started to watch what for me is a new anime series called FLCL. It is unlike any anime series that I have seen in the past and I love it because of that fact. Yes, there is a teenage boy protagonist with girl issues. Yes, there are robots that are unlike anything in reality. Yes, there are sequences where the characters eyes transform into spinning circles. All of those elements firmly belong to the world of anime, but the mix seems stranger in this series.
I knew that it was going to happen, but I still find it a little sad so early in the season. Warm temperatures and steady rain have washed away any snow that was on the ground. Yes, I know that there are still two months left in winter so there is plenty of time left for new snow to fall, but the sudden transformation of the landscape makes it seem sad to me. The holidays are truly over.
When the infamous Rob Liefeld made his debut on the comic book scene, I was rapidly moving away from mainstream books and to a degree the industry as a whole. So in what I can only describe as an impulse purchase, I bid and won an auction for a lot of about two dozen X-Force books that showcase his early work for Marvel. Having read just a few of the issues, I can say that I am not impressed with his style. Everything feels rushed, incomplete, too aggressive and not very strong in terms of storytelling. About the only redeeming factor is seeing the first appearance of Cable as a character in the mutant mythology of Marvel.
Travel has been on mind and I have yet to decide on a final destination for this year’s trip. The three frontrunners are Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. Roughly speaking all three countries are in the same part of the world and each of them would give me a different view of Europe than what I have seen in the past. What I mean to say is that I want to see some place that has a long history and is not overly modern. Once again any of those places would meet that requirement. Yes, I know that that might be a slight to Russia and the Ukraine, but I suspect that in many cases it is true. Plus as far as I know none of them use the Euro as currency so my weak American dollar would go farther than the rest of Europe.
Recently Mile High Comics had a special sale where they offered ten dollars worth of free comics to anyone who entered a certain code on their order form. Usually I read the sale emails and then delete them, but that did not happen this time. After some careful selection I placed some Stuart Immonen era Adventures of Superman books and Bierbaum era Legion books into my online shopping cart. Then with the cold weather ushering in the New Year, I had some great reading by the Christmas tree these past couple of night.
I was aware of the fact that the Pre-Crisis Superman had had a mermaid for a girlfriend, so I eager to see what said character would be like in a more modern era. Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen granted my wish in one of my chosen sale books from Mile High. One could say that the love triangle of Lana, Lois and Superman had been merely shifted to include Lori, Lois and Superman, but this time around it was a little more serious. This was when Lois had broken off the engagement to Clark/Superman and there was some doubt as to what was going to happen next in the book. Would this new Post-Crisis Lori fill the hole in Clark’s heart or was it merely misdirection?
A small amount of mold was discovered at the window sills of my place last night. I had a feeling that had happened because the windows were sweating so much from the contrast of the heat inside versus the cold outside. After doing some research, I found out that I was right and that the problem can be corrected with a small amount of preventative maintenance. Part of me is relieved that there is nothing wrong with my place, but at the same time, I was not pleased to see the mold in the first place.
The predicted Arctic blast of cold has arrived here, but I don't mind. I have no real reason to leave the house today and suffer said extreme cold, because there are plenty of things for me to do inside. For example, I need to sift through some boxes in the office. Up until yesterday they had been sitting almost forgotten in the second bedroom. Now, however, they have been moved to make way for a queen size bed being given to us by my parents. The reason for them giving it to us is that they do not want to take it with them when move to the other part of the state. So it is a win win situation for both of parties involved. They have less to move and our second bedroom gets furnished.
In keeping with my plan for this year, I did a solid amount of reading yesterday. After a few weeks of neglect, I dove back into the second volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman. As I had been warned, the tone of this book is much more dark than the first, but that has not lessened my enjoyment. I hope to have the book completed by Saturday so that I can start something new from my pile of unread books.
The sun has been in the sky for an hour and I've been awake for thirty minutes more than that time. My plan for the day is to relax, read and possibly exercise. With gusts of wind in excess of forty miles per hour today, staying inside sounds like a good option to me. Hello, January. Hello, New Year.
