seandc

So, here I am again, after a short break of... um... longer than I intended.

Haven't been up to much this last month out of the ordinary. The most noteworthy part of the week saw me finally living up to what people have thought for years - I took Wednesday off to get a wireless card and account for my computer - people have thought for years that I've had broadband, now I've found out that we can get it here without having to tear up all the wires in the house, I spent a few days thinking about it, then finally decided yes. I've got the card in and the various bits configured, but I haven't got the nod from the ISP yet, so I'll wait until their call before setting everything up.

"Well if I must, I must. Personally I'd rather be Meryl Streep, but then, wouldn't we all?" - The Real Ghostbusters

While the techie people were messing around with my machine, I killed time (since I was given a pick-up time of 3, and it was 9.40) at the movies and in Fremantle. I just had time to get in to the early screening of The Devil Wore Prada. I chose it just because I thought it would the least likely to be chockas with kids (it's school holidays here), but I enjoyed it - the reviews I've seen afterwards rave about Meryl Streep in this, and they're right. And yes, I did compare Runway to Just Shoot Me's Blush magazine - hey, the main characters even have similar (actress') birthdays!

Stepping out into the world again and suddenly realising that I'd left my sunglasses at home, I made my way to Fremantle (ah, the ease of having a direct bus route, and getting on the one after the one that was late). There's a bookstore on South Terrace I just can't seem to walk by without popping in - if I had any actual artistic talent I'd be doomed, this place has a large bay just of folio art books. Walked around a bit (I had thought of visiting the Army Museum, but I couldn't remember where it was), then found myself pointed down the arcade from High Street to the Post Office corner (I can't remember the name of it, or find the street directory).

I had thought just to browse in the windows at the model shop, but rounded the corner past the sweet shop, and saw a much sweeter sight. Comics. Shelves thereof. New comic shop, hooray! Called The Comic Box, I found out that they'd only opened three weeks ago. And much of what was on display were older comics, stuff that one can't find a lot of anymore. I managed not to go too nuts (just the right amount ;))...
( Cut for comic ramblings )

So, that was my new favourite store in Fremantle - I wandered a little bit more before working my way back to the circlebus, to get back to my computerstore pretty much on the dot of 3, to find the computer ready and waiting to go. Picked it up, did a big shop since I had to catch a cab anyway, and now all that's left is the waiting for the go-ahead to connect.

Friday of last week saw me taking my sweet time before going into the comic shop. I had a look in Empire, and almost got out without having to exercise my wallet... "Almost", I said. ;) I got to the DVD section, and what had just arrived that day (after being on back-order for five weeks I'm told) but the second season of Veronica Mars, which has been pushed from pillar to post, and then delayed for the football finals - yeah, I was done waiting for the show to start up again, I gave in after a minute and bought it. Long weekend viewing taken care of, marathon time!

Apart from that, the long weekend did give me a chance to see just how quickly the year's passing. I took a little walk to get a few supplies, which includes a short-cut through a small bush area (nice sense of being totally alone in there). In that patch at least, the first Christmas Trees are starting to flower - Mother Nature's beaten the City of Perth to start with the decorations this year!
( First decorations )

During this last week I got a packet of photos from Mum. A while back someone put an ad in the paper that they were going to visit the war cemeteries in France, and if anyone wanted him to visit a relative's grave to let him know. Mum wrote to him, and after being delayed in his trip, we got the photos he took of Great-Great-Uncle Maurice's grave in Doullens - some wide shots and some close-ups, with and without a little flag flying.

This weekend has seen a fire in the south-east of the city, smoke haze across these southern suburbs - luckily it was all blown away today, my eyes weren't looking forward to another day of burning. The late afternoon light was red enough to make it seem like the sun was shining through cordial - was less unsettling than the dirty yellow light before that though.( Red Sky )

So, that's most of the last month accounted for, apart from a couple of things I'll get to posting eventually.

So, today was the opening day here for X-Men 3 - The Last Stand, so here's a few things I thought of while watching it, running commentary style (yes, I had a notepad)...

In other words, I ramble on about stuff as it shows up, often connecting with their comic counterparts.


Oh, not a spoiler, but in case nobody else on all your FL mentions it: if you can, stay until the end of the credits. There's one last little scene at the end there. I'm sure the ushers must've thought me nuts, waiting there - I don't know about elsewhere, but around here everyone leaves as the credits start rolling - they start cleaning the cinemas while they're still rolling, since they expect everyone to be gone.

Anyhow, a good time was had by all (well, I assume everyone else had a good time, I did), and for much cheaper than normal too, since Cinema City is running with $9 tickets during the daytime. Haven't paid that little since me student days.

Next lot of random thoughts on the 1983 version of the Teen Titans coming up behind this cut:

( The New Teen Titans, Numbers 33, 34, 36, 37 )

Also I’ve recently managed to get my mitts on the miniseries Batman Adventures: The Lost Years (which ended to make way for the Gotham Adventures series), which tells the tale of how the Toon-verse Dick shed the Robin persona and journeyed the world training up to become Nightwing, and where he got various bits and pieces of his costume design from. While he’s gone for two years, we also see how Batman figures out who this “Batgirl” is, and a young fan inveigles his way into becoming the new Robin…

So, time for something resembling an actual update.

Not much has really been happening this week. We had a fire drill on Tuesday (cue people making personal calls in while nobody's inside), it proved so popular even the galahs decided to join us in the park! Well, they flew into the big tree we were hiding in the shade of - many thanks to the people who arrange these things for days when the mercury approaches the old century.

Got all the journals returned from binding put to rights, onto the catalogue and onto their shelves (ok, so they do look neater), and have been putting more stuff in boxes (while watching other things from the sidelines as people assume we have the same resources of one of the big universities).

Even did a spell on the switchboard, and ended up not so much pissed (although I did get a bit snippy beforehand, normally I'm in "MAGNETO SMASH!" mood) as just tired. Some of this time's classics were someone Who thought all the schools got all the same calculators from the same place, and someone who seemed to think that I'd obviously read the entire Curriculum and knew where the list of compulsory books were. A list would be nifty if it existed, but the things I've skimmed aren't that cut-and-dried.

I've caved in and ordered the Real Ghostbusters DVDs (and a couple of soundtracks for I impulse-shop) from Amazon. According to the order-page, it looks like they might even get here in the week that I'm on leave. I have *got* to stop editing the "Recommendations" page for my Amazon
account... it's almost as addictive as the Random Pairing Generator!

I picked up a trio of old Tales of the Teen Titans issues this week. Issues 46, 46 and 48 from late 1984, taking place right after (as in, next issue) the death of Terra in "The Judas Contract". The issues concern HIVE taking over Atlantis, and the Titans versus Recombatants, and included the scene once posted to scans_daily of Dick at Terry's stag night (the infamously classy affair), Gar getting a bit tired of the bad guys getting away with everything while the good guys have to hold back (among other things), and signs of Raven's increasing Dark Phoenix tendencies.