Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, but first I need more coffee.

Year: 2006 (Page 2 of 7)

It was

Yesterday’s elections made me think of this passage below. Some saw it as a victory. Some saw it as a disaster. I remain hopeful that it will restore balance and accountability.

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

–A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Dickens should never be forced off on children in school except for a Christmas Carol. I was forced to read Great Expectations in the 7th grade. I read about the first 8 chapters skipped the next sixty and read the last few then read the Cliff Notes. In the 11th grade I was forced to read A Tale of Two Cities. I managed to read past the opening passage, but thankfully they showed us the movie in class.

It was only last year that I read Oliver Twist and enjoyed it. I saw an adaptation of Great Expectations and it was pretty good. I think South Park’s version of GE was brilliant. So what if it had robot monkeys.

Enough of this digression. What will happen now that Democrats have regained the House remains to be seen.

Ronny, Mickey, and Me

This picture was taken in 1987. When I was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, I went to the BX and there in the lobby was full sized cutout photo of Ronald Reagan. And they were taking pictures of you with it for 5 bucks. It was taken after Labor Day because I was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt I’d bought at Disney World in Sept.. I was 23 when this pic was taken.

Ronny, Mickey, and Me

Children of the Corn

I just finished reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and so far I’ve learned American’s are indeed Children of the Corn, Carbon-13 based life-forms, or walking corn chips. Maize has a special ability to absorb more carbon-13 isotope than other plants. Corn pervades our entire food chain from the high fructose corn syrup in our soft drinks to our corn-fed hamburgers.

Because of Corn’s ability to metabolize Carbon-13 it leaves an unmistakeable, mass-spectrometer fingerprint over our entire food chain in the US. Anyway, read the book. I will continue to remain an omnivore, though the book certainly explains why some people go vegan.

Just watched this talk given by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. His farm and philosophy were covered extensively in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Comic Books

I have a traditional view of comic books. Comic books are for kids. And are a good way to get them to read. I read comic books when I was a kid and I grew out of them. I have expressed this opinion on numerous occasions and I get dirty looks from adult readers of comic books. Then they ask me what I read? I’d say DC comics. And they would say “Oh, well that explains everything.” I get the same response from Christians who ask me what I was raised as when I tell them I’m no longer a Christian. I’d say I was raised Catholic and they would invariably respond “Oh, well that explains everything.” Other than annoying me it explains nothing and all it does is reinforce my opinion of both groups.

I’ll save my comments about religion for another blog entry, so back to comics. I lived to read the Sunday comics in the newspaper. I’d read them everyday in the newspaper. I’d get newspapers from my grandmother and aunt who had comics that weren’t in our local newspaper. I watched Saturday morning cartoons when they were only on Saturday. I still watch animated cartoons. My current favorites are SpongeBob and Angry Beavers.

So why don’t I still read comic books then? I outgrew them. I think that response is what annoys the adult comic book fans. I have an exception rule. There are certain genres and kinds of foods I don’t like, but I’ll make an exception if they are really good. I have read a few X-Men compilations. I’ll watch a horror film if it’s really good. I’ll eat chocolate cake or ham if it’s really good as well as Tex Mex. Yeah, I’m a snob when it comes to certain things. I’ll watch mysteries and westerns but not read them. I’ll read the ocasional mystery. I’ll even watch comic books that were turned into movies.

There are just some things I won’t invest too much effort or time in. I don’t expect comic book fans to like other genres or medias. So it bothers me when they say I haven’t read the right comic. That may be true, but I’m not interested. So what prompted me to write this blog entry?

I read an article on the Christian Science Monitor website about graphic novels. Graphic novels are book length comic books. And how it was getting tweens to read more. Tweens are pre-teen children 8-12. And you know what, that is the perfect demographic for comic books. That’s when I read them. It was about the sixth grade when I discovered book science fiction and started my transition to the books.

It’s not about what to read or what format to read. It’s about reading. It’s getting kids to read. So there.
Tweens curl up with graphic novels.

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