Things that College Students Do

1) Try to just walk into my office. It's weird. The light is on, there are no study lounges on my floor, but every once in a while, they start just pulling on my door and trying to get in. The door is always locked because I use the main door to the office suite, not the door in my office that empties to the hallway. My door isn't really marked except for a number, but... I guess I mostly get creeped out at what they might be doing in there if they found the door open.

2) Talk loudly on their cell phones about @#$% that doesn't matter. Which, yeah, no kidding... But, Leaguers, I work in a library. You understood how a library worked when you were in school, no? Apparently, that particular people skill went away with the invention of the iPhone with its goofy cable microphone dealy-o. Which they all hold to their faces and shout at the mouthpiece. Also, that makes you look stupid. Which is just slightly better than wearing the blue-ttoth earpiece and looking like a maniac walking down the street yammering to yourself.

3) Make liberal use of the public bathrooms. I was a little confused when informed we had an employees bathroom tucked away around the corner. But more than once, I've entered the public bathroom to find people bathing in the sink/ using the bathroom as if it were in their apartment.

4) Not press the button at the crosswalk so that when the light changes, the indicator says "walk" and you get the right of way. I don't think this should be a part of primary education, along with "how do you exit a bus", but how does one reach college age and make it into the top 10% of their class and not understand how buttons or cross walks work?

5) For some reason, Asian female students always travel in pairs. Always. Just an observation. But somehow these pairs don't hit the button at the crosswalk between the two of them, either.

6) Not seem to know how to order a cup of coffee. The menu is up there, where its been the ten minutes we've been standing in line, sir.

7) Dress up the first week of school in all their new clothes they got for Christmas, and then its back to sweats.

8) Get the hell out of your way when you step off the elevator with any conviction.

9) Either they don't check the weather before they leave, or they take seasonally inappropriate dress as some sign of machismo. Even if its 32 degrees outside, there's always some dudes running around in nothing but shorts and t-shirts. It kind of makes it seem that given ample evidence, these young minds still cannot make an appropriate decision and makes you believe they really DO need their mother to dress them.

10) Stand around talking, loitering in odd places, having lengthy, important conversations, using $0.25 words they just learned in class having the sorts of discussions that, once they're actually working for a living, that they will never have again. That's actually fine. Someone's gotta do it.

special bonus item for Valentine's Day: I see a LOT of dudes walking a half-step behind some young lady, talking entirely too much, sort of following around a co-ed (often who are out of their league) who seems like she's only half-listening. These poor dudes seem to believe that as long as their mouths keep running, the girl may not like them, but she can't get away. And maybe, just maybe, they'll wear her down. And they will find love... *sigh...*

Off to TAMU

On Wednesday I am off to Texas A&M University for a few glorious days of symposiuming (I made that word up. If you use it, you owe me a dime.). As you may guess, the symposium is work related, so I will need to be on my best behavior.

I hope to catch up with some College Station-bound work buddies while I'm there, and I guess I'm going to a couple of dinners sponsored by the event. Which should be... rocking?

I haven't been to a conference in a while, especially not one so laser-focused on my current work. Should be fun, says I.

When I disappear mid-week from blogging, you'll know why.

Jon & Kate Plus 8

There's this show on basic cable about this couple who had twins already, then went on fertility treatments to have another kid and wound up with six more, for a total of eight.

My fascination with the show is somewhat morbid, as I sort of wonder not if, but when the show is going to fall apart because the titular Jon will finally decide he has had it with his wife and runs off to Tahiti with a dancer named "Tanqueray".

Initially, I think Jamie believed I was being a jerk about the whole thing, but upon further inspection, she too learned that "Kate" has decided the show is her public platform for slowly eating away at the poor dude's soul. One certainly gets the feeling Jon is used to his wife's humiliating treatment, but... seriously, Leaguers. It's pretty frikkin' rough. And while they've saddled themselves with 8 kids, were Jon to seek a legal conclusion to their marriage, he'd have hundreds of hours of video to turn to as Exhibit A as to why a divorce is a pretty good idea. No court in the land would be on her side.

On a cute TLC show about the trials of an oversized family, one shouldn't wonder if you're crossing a line from "sassy" to "emotionally abusive". Because, seriously, if that were Jon talking that way to Kate, people would be up in arms.

I look forward to the day when we all find out Jon fled on a very special episode of "Kate Plus 8 (minus Jon and his Income)".

But I will watch the spin-off series "Jon and Tanqueray Minus a Vas Deferens Flee to a Non-Extradition Nation".

Comic Fodder Column

...is up.

Miss Melbotis

As good a company as I find Lucy and Jeff, its tough to replace Mel's editorializing and personality. While generally in an excellent mood, he also wasn't afraid to let you know what he was thinking. I think I need that to keep me in line.

Anyway, its been well over a month now, but you find you still miss him in small ways all the time.

laaaaaazy weekend

I've been sort of tired since, oh... New Years. So this weekend I vowed to take it terribly easy. And let me tell you, Leaguers... when you set your sites on not doing anything, its not always as easy to achieve as you'd think. Somehow doing something always seems to crop up.

But after my pre-planned busy Saturday morning, I think I more or less achieved my goal of not doing a whole lot. Including an accidental nap when I saw down with Lucy to read some comics. Sure, I tidied some and worked on my taxes (my portion is usually just entering my W2 info), but today was sort of a day of epic puttering.

We did watch two different movies this weekend. "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" and "Dark Knight". "Harold and Kumar" was pretty much what you'd expect if you saw the first movie, and "Dark Knight" holds up stunningly well on a third viewing. In fact, some of the dialog regarding the final conclusions drawn by Batman and Gordon made significantly more sense this time around (even though I basically caught the gist of it the first two times). I think the difference is that I didn't feel like I'd just walked off a horrendously turbulent jet ride when they reach that point in the film this time around.

I think I'm still a little bitter that Dark Knight didn't wind up with more awards-show attention, but whatever.

Anyway, I'm off to putter even more.

Volunteering at AFB

Okie dokie...

I went to the Austin Food Bank this morning, and aside from getting a little schwetty, the work was really very pleasant. We listened to music, chatted a bit, and it was pretty low pressure.

Our little crew first bagged 160 packages of food that had some specific destination, then we sorted huge, huge crates of canned fruit into smaller boxes for distribution. if you can count to 30, then you would do well at the Austin food Bank.

I am going to go ahead and put this out there:

If you would like to maybe volunteer with The League, e-mail me, and I will get us a group sign up. I can't promise you a specific date but it would probably be in two or three weeks, and probably in the morning from 9-12 down south near us.

So e-mail me if you're interested. If you would rather do the afternoon, let me know. We can be flexible.

Presidential Language

It seems that President Obama did the narration for the audio versions of his own books, which makes complete sense.

What makes it interesting is when the President starts quoting other people. Other people who might have more of a, shall we say, common manner of speech than what we normally associate with the leader of the free world.

Needless to say, our more sensitive Leaguers will want to bypass this link. So, Judy, do not click here.

Peabo Ruins it For Everyone.

You know, Peabo, when I ask for people to indulge their dreams of avarice, saying you would spend your $20 million taking a "trip to one of the poorest orphanages in Mexico or Central America, spend a week there to see what its like for those kids" sort of makes me regret my "Skybox for UT football games" reponse.

Screw you and your forcing me to have a moment of introspection.

Confessions of a Shop-a-Holic

Here's a movie that already seems like a relic from a by-gone era of about six months ago.


Ha ha ha... remember when people had money?

600,000 people lost their jobs last month. Suddenly some bobble-head taking up a job so she can bankroll her shoe fetish instead of someone feeding their three kids doesn't seem so adorable.

Also... stop it. We don't need third generation photocopies of "The Devil Wears Prada" meets "Sex in the City" for tweens. Just... stop it.

Anyone using the phrase "holic" always reminds me of this Onion article.

Money

Jamie recently took a look at our expenses versus my take-home. We're doing okay, but it does do quite a bit to slow you down in your tracks.

I guess the part that's tough is figuring out how much I can actually spend on comics per month. I mean, what's food and shelter, right...? But I am going to have to curtail some expenditures, and comics are the obvious luxury item.

Sigh.

I need to figure out how I can get comp copies that reviewers receive. So, I guess look forward to The League's transformation into an all-comic reviews site heavy with advertising. Not really.

But that trip to Hawaii seems incredibly far off at this point.

We may have to sell Jeff the Cat.

Achewood

I found this strip well suited to my tastes.

Cassidy

is no longer at our house as she's gone home to Jason after a few days at the cousin-dog house.

I shall miss her enthusiasm at my appearance each time I descend the stairs.

Ae-rrr-oooooooooo

Bloom County Collected!

Comic publishing company IDW, who made their bones with horror comic "30 Days of Night" has scored a major win, by grabbing the license to reprint the entire run of Berkely Breathed's comic series "Bloom County" in its entirety.

Heidi talks about it here.

It's hard to gauge what an impact the series had on me as a kid, and how much Breathed's absurdist viewpoint impacted how I understood the world beyond Pencewood Drive as I was growing up. I routinely had to check the paper, watch the news or check with my parents as to who certain figures were that appeared in the strip as political or pop culture figures (I wasn't entire sure who Tip O'Neill or Jeane Kirkpatrick might be, for example). Nor was the a-political Steans-Clan much of a place where such figures would have otherwise come up in conversation. This was, of course, all pre-useful-internet.

The political aspect was just a percentage of what one could expect. In order to get Breathed's take to work, he filled his world with rock bands featuring tubas, penguins, and tongue-playing cats. An ex-UT frat boy named, appropriately, Steve Dallas (Breathed introduced the character in a strip in the Daily Texan while attending UT). A personal computer that talked back. A divorcee and his son with a working anxiety closet. And a curious lot of commentary about smoking. The cast was not averse to piloting a wheelchair as they role-played Star Trek. And the ever-wise-for-his-age Milo Bloom. Most of it worked. Not all of it did. But a strip or two later the comic was back to cruising speed.

Bloom County was the comic strip that bridged the period when I sort of lost interest in "Garfield" or "Hi & Lois" and found my interest in even Beetle Bailey dwindling. It was just as I was getting into "The Far Side", but probably pre-dated "Calvin and Hobbes" and others. And as simply brilliant as Gary Larson could be in a single panel, or as much as Watterson could turn from chaotic hilarity in one panel to wistful walks in the meadow the next, Breathed built a world of characters with distinct personality, voices, viewpoints and was able to take on any and all topics from "Knight Rider" to Televangelists to why kids listen to metal instead of Billy Joel.



I'm also a particular fan of Breathed's cartooning style, which would barely survive in the strip sizes of today (think about how blocky strips like "Foxtrot" have become so that the images are legible. Of course, Bloom County was never exactly Prince Valiant, either.). Contemporary to Guisewhite's "Cathy", and her stock five poses, and two faces, Breathed's characters had hair, held deeply descriptive body language in their poses and expressions, and existed in a fish-eyed, detailed environment on Sundays or when Breathed needed room to play. Character design was specific and meaningful. And characters leaned, sprawled across and interacted with their environment.

One of my treasured collections is still the "Complete Calvin and Hobbes". I'm slowly building up a run of the Complete Peanuts. And one day hope to obtain the mammoth Complete Far Side collection as well. But that bookshelf would never feel complete without Bloom County as the main attraction, and the opportunity to flip open the pages and re-visit the residents of that creaky, improbably constructed boardinghouse.

Here's a set of strips that are kind of interesting in light of recent events.

I'm not sure I'd point to Achewood as a direct heir to Bloom County, but the large cast of (animal) characters with separate view points, and who do not have to have their lives invaded by Mary Worth is something of a genetic line, I think. Many compared "Bloom County" to Trudeau's "Doonesbury", and there were some similarities as Doonesbury took on political humor, and occasionally featured non-human players. Both addressed issues in the news beyond the political, but Trudeau's satire was a sort of generational thing, aimed pretty squarely at himself and his peers (as I saw it), where one didn't know what one would expect from Bloom County from week to week, be it Star Trek gags, an attempt to stop Steve's smoking, Opus' engagement to Lola Granola...

The comic is not to everyone's taste (I don't think The Admiral ever cracked a smile at the strip), and these days it reads as a time capsule of the day's headlines, anxieties, fads, phobias and cynicisms that younger readers may not entirely recall or understand. Do they even know the weight of a phrase like "Jim and Tammy"? Or why we thought introducing Bill the Cat to sell merchandise to the masses (as originally presented by Milo) would be hilarious?

If a collection of Bloom County is possible, then perhaps the follow up series of Outland and Opus? And maybe the UT strip, Academia Waltz? Who knows?

Anyhow, I'm pretty excited.