Ramblefest Returns

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear right off the bat: I have nothing much to say really…I just need to get a lot of stuff off my chest and I figured this was the eaisest route to take. So, without further ado, let’s just start rambling on about everything that’s been going on in my life lately.

First off…I’m finally preparing to quit my job so that I can return to studying full-time. At least for a little while. Honestly this not only terrifies me to a great extent (mostly because I’m afraid that I won’t be able to handle studying again and I’ll actually miss the job!) but also makes me uneasy about life in general right now. It’s gotten to the point where I’m unsure of almost everything and second-guess even the most mundane decisions. Just imagine taking more than 5 minutes to decide what kind of shampoo to buy and you get a fair idea of my thought processes these days.

One of my most beloved cats — Icey — died of cancer two days ago. I actually took it a lot harder than I thought I would. No, that doesn’t mean weeping or whatnot…just an intense feeling of sadness and a need to be alone for a while. Of course the latter bit isn’t even THAT big a problem. Thanks to the insane timing of the job and my worrying need to sleep for longer and longer periods of time, I have little or no social life anymore anyway. And with said habits, I have very little to talk about as it is so I prefer to keep to myself as I hate to be a bore. (Yeah, yeah…I’m boring you with the violin music right now…deal with it! My blog, my rules!) Unfortunately that seems to lead to more troubles as the few people I did talk to seem to think I’m ignoring them on purpose and well…it’s a vicious cycle.

I just finished Mad Men Season 2. (I know…I’m jumping through topics faster than Palin trying to convince the world of her sincerity to Roe v Wade) Excellent series and I adore each and every single character. I mean, who saw the Pete-Peggy revelation coming? I thought that considering a whole season’s worth of storylines, that would just be swept under…but it really stood out. Very well done. Of course, that’s nothing compared to what happened an episode earlier with Joan. (I’m purposely being vague here…don’t wanna give away any spoilers) That scene was heart-breaking. Especially considering that it happened to someone with the strength and resolve of Joan. Scenes like that keep me coming back to this show…truly brilliant writing and cinematography. Kind of worried that Reiner will leave the show…I think he’s vital to the series brilliance…but we’ll see.

I have just gotten into Boyce Avenue. Now the band’s original stuff is bland, Lifehouse-lite crap. But their acoustic covers are excellent. Especially worth hearing are their covers of Rihanna’s Disturbia and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Excellent stuff and don’t be turned off by the poppy origins. Very, very good. Available on both itunes and youtube, btw.

I am, as of today, exactly 2 months behind on my comics reading. Kind of sad, I know. But hopefully I will catch up in the coming weeks. I’ve just been so busy with books and old trades/singles that I’ve had no time to read the new stuff. Hell…I just finished Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #2 last night so you can well imagine how long it could take for me to catch up at this point. But I’m working on it. Although, honestly, I’m sorely tempted to go trade-only. I’ve dropped a large number of books I used to read so I think I can manage it now. (Cost was always the concern previously).

Btw…as much as the allusions to a divine power annoy me…I am loving the new season of Eli Stone. Very well-written, funny and keeps me on my toes. Good stuff…definitely recommended.

That’s it for now…expect more rambles shortly. This is the mode I have shifted to for now since its more comfortable. Oh…and fret not…Butt-Shots will return soon. Not in the same format…but they will. Instead of weekly books…now I shall focus on random comics I read and happen to find Butt-Shots in. I think that shall make it much more interesting, don’t you?

A Meme!

It’s too hot to come up with new blog posts so I asked Kalinara to help me out! She (in cooperation with Ami Angelwings) has started a new interviewing meme with five questions…which I will now attempt to answer.

I haven’t done any meme except the lolcatz thing so cut me some slack here!

1. If you could be roommates with one superhero, who wouldn’t you choose and why?

Hmm…I would have to go with Spider-Man. I don’t think I could handle being around someone who is constantly crying and who is so bad with rent! (I don’t have a rich father like Harry Osborn

2. If you could pretend one comic book storyline never happened, which would you pick?

Ah…so many options…so hard to choose. But since I can pick anything…I would go with Crisis on Infinite Earths. I love that mini to death, but if it hadn’t happened there would be no Identity Crisis to lead into Infinite Crisis which would mean there would be no Countdown and (Thank God!) no potential really crappy upcoming crisis (Final Crisis I’ve heard its going to be called…yeah right) Basically I’m killing off everything that is killing off DC right now with one fell swoop. Yay me!

3. Could Ace the Batdog take Power Girl’s cat?

Never! From what I remember of Ace he was something of a pansy while Power Girl’s kitty (what was her name??!) was a little hellcat! From personal experience I always choose the hellcat over the pansy dog.

4. If you could assign any hero theme music, what would you choose?

Probably Revolution by Aimee Allen for Wonder Girl. Just in the hope that she’ll listen to the lyrics and realise how far she’s fallen.

5. Hammers or screwdrivers?

Hammers…easier to defend yourself with one of those than with a screwdriver

–

And here’s the meme! If you want in, just comment!
—

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (They probably won’t be the same ones you see above!)

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Well…that was fun. Hopefully the heat will die down enough for me to do an actual post soon. Damn it’s hot.

A Post of Things To Come…

I was supposed to have a post done today but sleep got in the way (damn you sleep!!) and instead I shall just present a rough outline of what you can expect from this blog over the next couple of days.

First off, a lot less TV! I will probably have posts on seasons 1-3 of The Office (US edition!) and I do plan on doing a regular ’round-up’ for The 4400, and season 4 of Entourage (probably a moratorium for Studio 60 too once it finishes in 4 weeks) but apart from that there will be no more talk of TV. Instead, I shall be doing a bit more cat-blogging (you have been warned!!) and I shall most likely do something I’ve wanted to do since I started this blog: A Legion of Super-Heroes Week!! Basically that entire week will focus on my favourite LSH storylines, what I think about the current books, my favourite characters and probably a review of the new animated series and various other Legion junk I find around the web. This will probably be starting soon…and who knows…based on how much I have to say it could exceed a week.

I also plan on doing some more posts on Death (there’s a finally being made…squee!!) and various books I am currently in the process of reading. Now the bad news, unfortunately I just don’t have the time to regularly blog anymore. I have started studying again and the job and the broken pieces of my social life all need some time and blogging must take a back seat to all of them. I will probably continue in a semi-daily capacity (I’m thinking a post every 2-3 days would work) but I don’t see myself maintaining the daily grind for that much longer (despite how much fun it has been).

I think that’s it for now. Hopefully the new fall pilots will get leaked soon and I can finally decide what I will be definitely watching…but otherwise, meh.

Anyway…hopefully tomorrow I’ll return with something more substantial.

Geoff Johns ruined Wonder Girl!

Now that I’m actually writing this down, I actually feel kind of scared, because I’ve been talking about this post for so long that at this point anything less than excellent would be a letdown, right? Unfortunately, I don’t do excellent…I do passable and so you will have to settle for that and hope that it works.

Stupid teeth

I went to the dentist today…and got a root canal. My mouth is now horribly sore and that is making me very cranky. Add to that the fact that I’m still seething over the VMars cancellation and well…I’m not a very pleasant person to be around today. So…in interests of fairness, I’m putting off the post I was intending to writing today…A Brand-Spanking New Buttshots! Yep…I have finally reached an adequate amount of self-loathing to return to the scene of my greatest hate/pride.

Also…will be starting up on the season finales this week…Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, House, American Idol, and probably The Office in about 2 weeks once I catch up to it. Also want to do a post on Avatar: The Last Airbender because it is awesome and I just finished season 2 and now can’t wait to see season 3 (although it has been delayed for like 6 months so when it shows up is anyone’s guess.) Finally, may or may not do a post on my current Anime viewing – Towards the Terra because I still haven’t decieded on whether I will watch it in one sitting once it’s complete or episode by episode on a weekly basis.

Yet Another Ramblefest…

Well…this has been a pretty barren month for this blog. I promise more entries and then I disappear…it’s like 2006 all over again! Sorry, no apologies or excuses this time around. I had work, I was trying to give my dead-as-a-doornail social life a much needed kiss-of-life and I was finally getting around to re-reading some old books/comics that have been on the “To Read” pile for longer than Grey’s Anatomy has been sucking ass. This post will be a kind of catch-all…dealing with everything in the past 2-3 weeks with hopes (::fingers crossed::) that I can manage some kind of semi-regular schedule for this here blog. Otherwise it may just be time to fade away from the internut. So…

Politics: Move along to the TV review portion anyone who is not a) from Pakistan or b) interested in global politics. Now, I don’t think I need to reiterate in detail that the country is currently undergoing what can politely be called a “silent revolution” only not so silent and more of a civil war than a revolution but whatever. For those of you who have living under a rock…the Prez decided to suspend the Chief Justice who decided he wasn’t going to take that sitting down and allied with loads of political parties who were already against the military regime to try to foster some goodwill for the judiciary and maybe drive Musharraf out of power. It was actually going pretty well for the past couple of weeks until the guy went to Karachi. First off, as anyone who does not live in Karachi will tell you…that city is insane. It’s people seem to have no concept of moderation (ok, to be fair the real problem is that Karachi has the largest ‘downtrodden’ population in the entire country…and who would fight blindly for any cause that comes along than someone who has nothing to lose?) But anyway…while this may sound crass…as I write this there are already 30 confirmed dead who are lying in the streets while there are apparently dozens injured. I would post pictures but even I’m not that insensitive. If you want ‘em go google them. I’ll wait. Happy now? Ok…getting to the point. I think its become fairly obvious to anyone with even half-a-brain that the country is definitely at a crossroads now more than ever. On the one hand, the CJP can take this horrible situation and turn it around to show that he was in the right (which can work…but I have doubts since several people I know who were his staunch supporters are now suddenly turning against him for going to Karachi and instigating the whole thing. It didn’t really help that the TV news people showed shots of him sitting in an air conditioned airport waiting room alongside people dying in the streets in his name) For this to work he would have to show that the government has more than a little hand in this ‘war’ and its all been part of a plot to discredit him.

On the other hand…Chaudhry can just say that he gives up and politely head off into the sunset, admitting defeat but gaining the public’s support. I don’t really see this happening. If the past few weeks have taught us anything, its that the whole situation has become bigger than him now and no matter what he does he’s trapped. Nothing short of resignation can pull him out now…and he’s not going to admit defeat that easily. See, all politicians (and that is what Chaudhry has become now…make no mistake) are Machiavellian by nature. They believe that a few lives sacrficied judiciously are worth getting what they need and want: power. And admitting defeat at this point will mean that he admits Musharraf is right…and I don’t think any lawyer/opposition party/the general public will let him get away with that at this point. People may be angry at him right now for seemingly causing the deaths by his presence alone, but they’ll be even more angry if it is perceived that he is giving up after people basically died trying to keep his message alive. It’s a vicious circle and I don’t know where it’s going but the end result of either of the two above-stated possibilties is the same; we’re fucked. The nation is already teetering on civil war between provinces…this is the kind of spark that can push it completely over. I guess the old curse is true: “May you live in interesting times.”

Wherein I ramble…

Sorry for disappearing off the face of the blogosphere but my new job timings have been insane. I don’t have nearly the amount of time required to blog regularly and I barely have time to do stuff I can blog about. Anyhoo…I’ve been meaning to comment on the difficulty inherent in comic organising. Yeah, yeah…I can see most of you yawning already, but it’s been really bothering me since I recently had to move my comics to a separate shelf-system to keep them clean from dust (I live in Pakistan…very few places there is no dust…we focus on minimising…not eradicating) So, I’ve been wondering…how do you guys organise the ‘minor’ parts of your collections? I mean I store the major portions of my collection (spider-man, x-men, thor, captain america and superman) in separate piles/longboxes of their own…because they can support that. But I only have about 3 issues of the ’80s Blue Beetle series and I think 1 issue of Hawkworld. So where would I put those? It’s been bothering me for two days and has left my new (vastly improved and bigger) room completely cluttered with these misc comics as I try to find places for them. I mean, I want to know where they are so they can’t be arbitrarily placed anywhere…yet at the same time I want to have them placed in positions where they won’t take up one longbox for 1 issue. Help Me!!

Also on the life front, I was watching Lost the other day (Juliet=most awesome character ever!) and I started thinking about the food situation. Now, apparently food gets delivered by Dharma every couple of months and they have loads of fruit and apparently an inexhaustible supple of Boars…but couldn’t the Others starve the Losties off the beach? They have (I think) superior numbers…and I’m sure they could intercept the Dharma offerings…and kill off the fruit trees and the boars. So…why don’t they do it? The pregnancy thing (as far as they’re concerned) was probably resolved by Claire and they don’t know that Sun’s pregnant yet…so why are the keeping the ‘evil’ people around anyway? It’s pretty confusing and is really, really making me look forward to next week’s episode when (in Lost time) the fight between the two groups should take place on some level.

Continuing the theme, I was reading the He-Man Movie comic adaptation today (yeah, I got it in a three-pack I bought for a Rom issue…) and it was the most godawful writing I’ve ever seen. Now presumably the comic is based off the movie and I haven’t really seen the movie (and after reading the comic, don’t really want to) so anyone who has both read the comic and watched the movie know how faithful the comic was? Or hell, how stupid the actual movie was? It was truly mind-numbingly awful.

Finally, I’m trying to start a regular blogging thing again…not guaranteeing anything but I want to try to actually complete the 30 days=30 posts thing that I tried to accomplish but couldn’t complete in the final 3 days (damn April Fool’s Day!!) But anyway…will probably be reviewing Drive soon and maybe the No Man’s Land novelisation by Greg Rucka (short review: Much better than the comic) 

Apology

I just thought I’d explain to those waiting for the next Butt-Shots exactly why it has been so delayed. I know…I said no more explanations for missed deadlines a while back. But I figured this was a good chance to explain exactly how I work out my posts and why it’s so hard for me to maintain a regular schedule.

I work at a newspaper as a sub-editor currently. I sit in front of the PC for anywhere from 5 to 7 hours daily. Sometimes 7 days a week…sometimes less. But it’s a pretty time-consuming job. I work from 6 PM – 12 AM on most nights…sometimes its stretches over into 1 AM or even later. I tend to get home anywhere from 12:30 to 1:30. Then I eat dinner (why don’t I eat at work? It’s too expensive and I hate the stuff they get delivered. I’d much rather just wait) I then tend to check up on movies, tv shows, downloads, etc… And I go to sleep anywhere from 3 AM to 6 AM. Obviously after that I find it hard to wakeup before 11 AM at the earliest but I do try.

Anyway, the six to seven hours before I have to go to work are devoted to waking up, running errands, preparing the day’s song playlist (I need good songs to get me through the day!!) and these days…talking to friends and catching up each other’s lives. I write these posts at work. I don’t have access to a particularly good internet connection so forgive me for not posting more images. Most images on this site had been edited and uploaded at home and then input into posts at work. Which brings me to Butt-Shots. One post of that, on average, requires anywhere from 1-2 hours of searching and editing time for the pictures. Then approximately 1 hour for the actual post. I just haven’t been able to maintain that kind of time for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully I’ll have some time soon…but until then I shall be sporadically posting whatever enters my mind in the format that has been established for the last 4-5 posts. Also…I fell off the one-month wagon with only 2 days to go!! That totally sucks…but I am going to try my hardest to regain the month in a couple of months when I switch jobs.

Now…where does that leave the status of this blog? I’ll still be reviewing tv shows and soon movies. I’ll try to review more music. And I shall definitely try to review more comics…only now it shall on an issue-by-issue basis. Short posts, each focusing on a single issue. I may have multiple posts in a day this way, but I shall atleast have some reviews on the site that ostensibly started off as a comic review site.

Butt-Shots Tomorrow…I Promise!!

I have a lot of work today (damned news-heavy Saturday) and have zero time to do any blogging…much less the intensive work required for a Butt-Shot post. If I have time tonight I’ll post a review…but no Butt-Shots until tomorrow I’m afraid. This week was very heavy btw…some obvious…some not so much. Will try to fit in as much as possible!

I’m taking a break

No excuses…nothing today. I’m just taking a post-birthday break. Will be back tomorrow with something substantial.