I love, love, LOVE Diesel Sweeties and heartily endorse all its related merchandise and think you should read a new installment of it every weekday. It’s always sharp, always funny, always poking fun at goofy things that are near and dear to me, and I like robots, so what’s not to love? Today’s strip is the kind that goes right to my heart — comic-book jokes that lovingly acknowledge what dorks we are! I’m getting moist.
Month: November 2004
Hipboot Chicks
I don’t have any problem with superheroes wearing outfits that are a little garish or impractical for the real world. In fact, I think I prefer them that way. They jive pretty well with the internal logic of the medium, so I don’t quibble too much about them and just enjoy them for their flair.
But then there are the ladies with the hip boots. Now, if Seven of Nine is willing to defend the use of high heels for a character then I’m willing to let that detail slide, but I don’t get the hip boots. Maybe you have to be a straight guy with some degree of appreciation for female strippers (because the basic appeal isn’t entirely lost on me), but for a crime-fighter it’s still a look that’s less “I’m gonna kick your ass” and more “I’m gonna lick your ass.’
Of course, female superheroes have long been dressed for titillation rather than intimidation, so maybe the thigh boot is just a sensible enough way to protect one’s legs from cold and abrasions when one is already dressed in a thong. I’ve never been in a fight or scaled the side of a building in a bathing suit, so I can only guess. Is it possible that Emma Frost is more sensible than we give her credit for being?
Life of Leisure
After having blood drawn this afternoon, I walked up to Grand Central to catch a train back to scenic Astoria. It was raining, so at first I assumed it was the weather and all the umbrellas that made the sidewalk on 42nd Street such a nightmare. Strolling into the station itself, I thought it might be nice to stop into the food market downstairs and pick up a nice cheese at Murray’s, but the crowds were out of freaking control! I was barely into the Great Hall when I realized that if I didn’t get out of there right away, I’d be forced to strangle someone. Huge crowds! People wandering aimlessly, cluelessly! What was up? It was a few yards closer to the subway escalator before it dawned on me: it was the afternoon before Thanksgiving, and I was in a major rail station!
It had completely slipped my mind. We’re laying low this year, so the holiday hasn’t really been on my mind. Also, after two weeks of unemployment (I like the Bohemian ring to “unemployment,” even though I’ve got piles of freelance work underway), I’ve already lost all sense of what day it is (or what time of day, usually). I had no idea I’d lost my sense of time so completely, so quickly.
Adapting to life in a home office is always a big adjustment, especially after such a long period of regular 9-to-5 drudgery. It’s a lovely adjustment, I assure you, but a big one nonetheless. The first week passes in a bit of a narcoleptic haze where every time my attention wanders I wind up taking a nap. I squeeze work in to the waking hours here and there, with a marked tendency to be most productive at night. That settles down before long (once I get back in the habit of getting enough sleep each night), but I end up sleeping late, starting to be productive in the afternoon, and plugging away into the wee hours (excepting time for social engagements here and there). It works well for me, but throws me out of sync with most of the rest of the world. In time, I’ll force a little more discipline into my schedule, but that’s still a ways off.
While I adapt, though, let me assure you that I love having no regulare job again. I may change my mind about that eventually, but for now it’s just the right thing.
Tonight!
