Month: March 2002

Another thing I hate, being treated differently because of my age. It’s not normally an issue, but I am a lot younger than I am usually taken for. Tonight it was an issue though, the phrase “your too young to understand” was used and I really hate that. It’s just not needed.

Headed out earlier in the day to meet up with some folks from work for a St. Paddy’s Day day out and it was good. We met up, had a quick Pizza Hut then ended up spending the rest of the days in BRB’s in Chinatown. All in all it was quite good, although better for some who left with phone numbers 😉

In other news is something easier or less difficult to comes to terms with once you actually tell someone? I’ve heard many a times that it is, but I am not so sure.

I did get home to find my flatmate home a day earlier than I expected which is always good I guess. Good thing I had finished most of the cleaning and tidying before going out.

Warren Ellis thing is on Thursday night and Chris Claremont is doing a signing on Saturday. Damn that’s gonna cost me a pretty penny.

*sigh*

I will be in work on time in the morning.

So this afternoon I watched the two movies I had planned to watch last night and I enjoyed both. Finally saw Swordfish and it wasn’t actually bad, it was alot better than I had expected and I quite liked the ending. Overall slightly better than the usual action fluff. Then followed Sexy Beast which for something that was suppose to be a comedy I didn’t find funny. It was ok, nothing really new to it’s name tho.

The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Oh and just for the record I bought and read the first two Black Panther tpb recently after they came highly recommended over at the WEF. I enjoyed them both, in fact I went out and bought the second one either the day or the day after I finished the first one. I will buy the next one that comes out. I don’t give a fuck that the lead character is black, I buy for stories…

There have been two follow ups to Peter David’s open letter (both found here) and that’s gonna get interesting.

One thing however really bothered me. In the letter by Christopher Priest (author of Black Panther), he says “The fact is, not enough people have the same warm spot in their heart for BLACK PANTHER as they do for SPIDER-MAN, or THOR. That’s just the way it is. I’m black, and I did not have the warm spot for PANTHER“. Now call me naive if you wish but I really don’t see what race has to do with a comic character or me buying said comic. I don’t understand it either.

I’ve bought a lot of comics, my collection stands over 300 graphic novels at this point. I don’t ever remember race of the author or the lead character or a supporting character affecting my choices in anyway. In fact for most of the comics I read I have no idea what colour the author is, the same for books. In the FAQ on Priest’s Black Panther site, he does mention he is the only black mainstream comic book author (to the best of his knowledge). I am pretty surprised at that, it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. What difference does it make? The only time I’ve ever been surprised by a picture of an author I read was of Denny O’Neil (Batman, Azrael) as he was damn old (that’s not really much related but I’ll throw it in anyway). Why would anyone care what an author looks like?

Blade was one of the most successful comic to movie transitions, it has a sequel due out shortly and a second sequel on the cards. Balde is black in the comics and the movie. The upcoming Daredevil has cast Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, a character who happens to be white in the comic and there has been little if any reaction to that other than the thought that he is perfect for the part (which I personally think he is).

I don’t get it. I really don’t.

Provos The Ira and Sinn Fein by Peter Taylor is a fascinating book that I am reading at the moment based on the history of the IRA and it’s relationship with Sinn Fein. It’s very well written and very informative.

So a somewhat change of plans for this evening. I had rented a couple of movies to watch but as I was about to get some dinner I got a text from a friend asking if I felt like meeting up, and I did 🙂

So headed into town, had a quick (but nice) dinner at Pizza Hut and spent a couple of hours hanging out in the Trocadero arcade and playing some games. It’s been quite a while since I’ve played arcade games but we had fun and just messed around for a bit. Also headed onto Dodgems, I can’t remember the last time I did that and it was a blast.

Anyways it was a really good night. That’s kinda been a trend this week which is good. 🙂 🙂

To touch back briefly on a post from last night. Peter David’s open letter (here) has garnished a whole load of responses, it’s one of ComicCon’s biggest threads in a while, it’s doing a lot of stuff on the Bendis Board, on the WEF, on Usenet and on AOL boards. Most of the responses are positive, in fact very positive. There are a few cynics and the usual argumentative types, but the general response has been a whole lot of respect for Peter David and for his work and his involvement in his work. He’s prepared to basically get paid nothing for the book if Marvel back off the price increase and actually promote the book. “I’m willing to put my money, rather than the fans’ money, where my mouth is.

I did use to read Captain Marvel in singles, I only stopped as I missed a lot of issues when I moved to London and felt that TPB would do. I’ve already mailed my comic shop to update my order with this and indeed with 3 other Peter David titles. Judging from the reaction to the post, I don’t believe I’m the only person who has done this. In fact it seems to be the case that a lot of people are going to go out and support Peter’s work. He has always been described as a “fan favourite”, I’m hoping that this will prove to Marvel that he really is. I’m also wondering if DC is gonna jump on the ball with this, they publish 2 Peter David titles, so maybe some big promo on them would be a nice show of support…and possibly far more importantly a shot at their distinguished competition.

Peter has always been one of my favourite authors, from his Star Trek or Babylon 5 novels to his original novels and his long history of comic work. I’ve always had alot of respect for his work, reading his posts in his newsgroup and other places for a couple of years has given me alot of respect for him and this has just increased that way more. I’m looking forward to reading alot more from Peter over the years to come.

BBC pays staff to sample world of work ‘outside’ (via MetaFilter)
BBC employees are being given the opportunity to work in their ideal job outside the corporation for six months as part of a scheme to bring new ideas back to the broadcaster.
*sigh* oh I wish. One of the companies that I would love to go and work for is owned by the company that I work for now. Maybe someday something like this will happen.

Ali G prank recording breaks into BT help line
Ah it does bring back callcentre days 🙂

No idea where to put links and stuff. I liked the dropdowns on the last one, but they were IE only and that’s a very bad thing.