20 year old head scar

Today, December 11th, is the twentieth anniversary of my brain surgery. I won't bore you with details of what was wrong with me, but it was life changing none the less.

I marked the tenth anniversary of this event by completely flipping out & finding religion, which I found to be of little use, so I put it back where I found it.

I'm better equipped for the twenty year mark. I like my job rather than hating the one I had. I have an admittedly messy house, rather than a rented third of a triplex. Most importantly I have Sarah, instead of nothing at all.

It could also just be that I'm more on the grown up side of the Playing Grown Up/Actually Grown Up Scale. Whatever it is, I don't need to make any radical life changing decisions based on an arbitrary life event that happened twenty years ago, no matter how monumental it was.

So, this time, rather than latch on to a religious doctrine that was holy incompatible with my life as it was (and is now), I got a hair cut and spent a little extra on a hair product I really like rather than buying the cheap shit. I'll probably feel a lot better about that decision when year 30 comes (although I will probably be missing my hair at that point).

Vroom

Our new car:



As our best friends said when they saw it, "It's like a squished version of your old car, only brown"


Revel in it's fuel efficient glory. Now I just need to get used to driving a stick again.

Keep your psuedopods crossed

A car might have been found. 1990 Honda Civic 4 door wagon. It seems to be in good shape, but I'm taking it to my mechanic in an hour or so to have him take a look at it. More info soon

More info: NOW!

We are the proud owners of the car mentioned above. Photos and more tomorrow.

New Glasses

Finally:



Now if I could just find a new (to us) car. Anybody got a good used Honda they'd care to part with for around 2 grand?

The Big Reveal

And now, what you've all bee waiting anxiously for since yesterday (except for my sister, who called and asked due to her lack of desire to wait). The Big Reveal:










It's good, really.













Is the suspense getting to you yet?














Ok, enough fraking around, I can only keep this up for so long.

Sadimac has been offered (and has accepted) a position at BLB01 in the Rose Room, which is no easy feat, as it's borderline impossible to get hired straight into a section position. She's given notice at Old Job, and will start in two weeks time. I'm really proud of her, the process was hard on her, but she weathered it like a champ. It's going to mean a much less stressful life for her (and by extension me), and a safe, functional place to work.

Everyone join me in applauding my beloved, as she moves on to a better thing.

I love you Sadimac.

So ends an era, or Dubya killed my comics

In another couple of months, I'll be canceling my comic box.

The plan is to let the current Serenity series run down, then shutter the box and just wait for the much more cost effective (especially with BLB discount) trade paprbacks to come out. I'll also be selling about 90% of my collection, as everything I care about I have in TPB, so I can go back and read them again and again with out damaging the issues.

For DC and Marvel, this is pretty much goodbye. I'll pick up trades of anything by Joss Whedon they publish, but that's about it. There are several Dark Horse titles I will be picking up TPBs for (Buffy, Serenity, Hellboy, Star Wars: Legacy, Usagi Yojimbo, etc), so my relationship with and enjoyment of them will continue. The smaller companies are a mixed bag, and will probably only have the odd Whedon on my shelf from now on.

It's sad, but with the cost of living these days, somethings have to go by the wayside. I blame the president.

That's right, I blame George W. Bush. If we weren't at war, and taking every step necessary to raise the price of oil through the roof, I could afford to spend 20 odd dollars a month on my comics. I also wouldn't need to sell of my old ones to help make ends meet. Chances are that I'd get more for them under, say, a Gore administration that would have placed more value on education than murdering scary off-white people for their oil, and for Dubya's handlers' ideas about how they could rebuild a nation better than FDR did (which they obviously can't).

That was completely off topic, but a nice stress release. Goodbye little comic box, I'll miss you.

Weirdness, Death, and Change.

So, E. Gary Gygax died on Tuesday, which was the beginning of the oddness.

Gary Gygax was, for those that don't know, was one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons. He built the platform that my imagination has been using as a spring board since the 80's, and while he hasn't worked on D&D in quite some time, he was still the grandfather that all RPG players and designers paid respect too. I shall miss his presence, regret the fact that I never got to meet him, and always remember him fondly.

My father used to joke that I was putting his kids through college. In a way I suppose I did, me and a million other starry eyed little geeks out there who loved to get away from reality a few hours at a time.

Goodbye Gary. We'll miss you.

In other news, my work schedule has changed. I no longer work until 10 on Fridays, and 11 on Saturdays. I'm opening both days now, which requires a whole new sleep schedule, learning a new bus schedule, and so on. It's worth it though. More time awake at home, and only one night a week of making arrangements to feed the cat.

The crazy was provided by some of the customers at BLB01 in the last couple of days. Some examples:

• A woman approached me at the info station and said she had just finished Three Cups of Tea, and said she was looking for something inspiring. Now, I haven't read the book, and am not likely to. It's not my cup of tea, if you will excuse the pun. She kept grilling me though, expecting me to magically pull a book title out of my ass based on no information. When I tried to pawn her off on the Red Room info desk, at which point she got snappy, and said "You don't read much do you?" I resisted saying "I do ma'am, just not the boring shit that you read", and pointed her in the direction of Eat, Pray, Love, and helped the next customer.

• The guy who bought $47 dollars worth of books with $2 bills

• The nearly falling over drunk guy asking for books in Spanish

• The woman who put what looked to be a sack of garbage in the bag check

• The two guys who came in to sell books that came in the wrong door, opted for an escort instead of going around, and when I did escort them, thought it was a good idea to leave a box right in front of the elevator doors so they could go back for it

• And of course, the woman who when given directions to the elevator, said "What the hell is a mezzanine?"