Zee?

I had a much nicer weekend than I thought I would.

Saturday night was originally planned as a time for me to sulk and watch "Bartleby." Instead, I was rescued from torpor by vicfitz82, who took me in and fed me delicious chili.
Mmmm. Chili.
Also watched "The Incredibles", which was interesting. However much I like comic books and individual characters, I really don't approve of superheroes in the abstract. I suppose it's the idea of having some kind of power or talent for...well, for free. Being randomly gifted with laser vision or the ability to fly or a ring that does anything you want. It's like cheating, almost. You don't really have to work for it (all right, this may be dependent on the comic universe, but that's usually to build up strength, not to achieve the power in the first place), and there's nothing anyone else can do to achieve that level of power.
On the other hand, an everyday super-thing like the ability to draw or to invent rocket-boots is something that you really do have to work at, and something that everyone has the potential to do. Thus, there is hope for the rest of us poor shnooks. I'm certain that if I had the time, resources, energy, and motivation to, I could invent rocket-boots, but I simply don't feel like devoting several years of mental energy specifically to achieving this. Most people do not, which is why you won't find Rocket Jordans on sale at the mall.
Needless to say, I highly approve of Batman. You go, ordinary human who happens to be both extremely rich and deeply psychotic. Break that glass ceiling. Adamantium ceiling. Whatever.
(Discussion question: Where do you draw the line between talent and superpower? Is there a comparison between Stephen Hawking and Professor X? Carl Johnson and the Flash? Wolverine and someone who just doesn't bleed all over the tile if they cut themselves shaving? What about intense powers of creativity? Why isn't there Bach-man?)

Sunday was also nice. I hung out with Kathryn and watched "Invader Zim." I've got the Volume 1 DVD set, but unfortunately I've lost the second disc. I'm certain it's at home somewhere.
Reminded me of something I was fairly proud of. In 11th grade, we had a very zealous Spanish teacher. He was incredibly enthusiastic about the rich texture of Hispanic culture; since this was 11th grade, we took advantage of this by derailing vocab sessions in order to ask him to tell us stories about brujas or his mom or Pancho Villa or Quetazalcoatl or whatever else we could think of. Astoundingly, this worked well for vocab sessions, because he liked to tell his stories in Spanish.
One of the big assignments we had was to do a paper on a Hispanic artist and how their culture influenced their work. Half the class chose Jennifer Lopez or some pop star, and the other half chose either Diego Rivera or Frida Kahlo. (Way to be original there guys!) Since I don't listen to pop, and since the only thing I know by Rivera is the nifty industrial mural in the Detroit Institute of Art (it's a whole freaking room and I could stare at it for days), I decided to be cool and counterculture and go with Jhonen Vasquez.
Unfortunately, there isn't a lot that you can say, canonically speaking, about Vasquez's contribution to Hispanic culture in general. Goth culture, yes. But besides the names of Pepito and Señor Diablo in JtHM and GIR's strange obsession with tacos...
I therefore completely BSed it. I said that Zim was a reaction to the way that Mexican immigrant workers were portrayed as "illegal aliens", that GIR was a play on the old "silly lazy Mexican sidekick" stereotypes, that Pepito and Señor Diablo having Hispanic names and Bunny being portrayed as a WASPy housewife was a reaction to some kind of negative stereotype about Catholics and folklore, and that Squee...OK, I can't remember what I said about Squee. Or Nny.
But it was a solid, well-BSed paper. And I got a 94%, and I was very proud.
I gotta dig up my old JtHM comics. I've got all of them somewhere, plus the anthology, plus all the Squee comics and even "I Feel Sick."

I'm going to sit on "From the Gods" for a while. It's still a concept and not a story, and I don't feel like I can really write it out yet. I haven't got anything in my head for it besides a vague idea. I suppose it'll come to me eventually. When it does, I shall be ready.
I've got a new story to work on, though, and that's good, because I have most of it set up in my head. I'm currently working out the ending with different colored highlighters. Time travel is fun, but it's very difficult to keep track of which version of which character is where at what time and how they feel about it.

Also, got a couple small non-angry rants stewing about A) gender roles and the weirdness that is family and B) imaginary friends. Will post them in a while.

Oooh, guess what? nyghtshayde wrote a poem for me. For meee!
It's makin' me blush every time I read it.