The Nail

Wow, am I tired? I just spent the last hour or so passed out at the computer. I thin I crashed from the Red Bull I had before leaving work. These things can happen when one works for 13 hours on little sleep. It also didn't help matters that I felt sick all day. Even right now, my body's insides are giving me problems.

I found out shortly before passing out, that a friend of mine had an injury at work. He is a floor-layer and had a nail shoot into his eye. Let me repeat that: A NAIL SHOT INTO HIS EYE! It was almost nonchalant how his wife told me. Granted, it was via the instant messenger service on Facebook. Still, reading the text it was like o big deal. Still, he is okay, and can probably return to work on Friday. Needless to say, he is one of the luckiest and unluckiest people I know. Unlucky in that he had a nail in his eye, but lucky in that it was an eighth of an inch away from where he could lose his sight. He was wearing safety glasses at the time. It could be that the nail ricocheted off whatever and shot up between the glasses and face. It was a crazy, short story regardless.

In standard Wednesday fashion, I wanted to kill half the people that came into work today. Maybe not kill, but maim could be more accurate. I was being driven insane because the CD player at work refuses to function. I got to listen to two and a half songs before it crapped out on me today. The silence was so nerve racking, that I thought it had to be 5PM, but when I looked at the clock it was only 2:30PM. Even chronology was fucking with me. I wound up creating a temporary solution. I listened to my iPod in one ear as I did some work, just to have that little bit of music to break up the silence and monotony.

Now, I should get to bed. My body is turning against me. It allowed me a bit of a reprieve to type this whole thing out. It wants to keep my promises as best as possible.

Sometimes naps aren't great

I am not feeling good.

I spent the whole day feeling like crap from exhaustion. I decided it was a good idea to only get around 4 hours of sleep. I justified this with the heartfelt reasoning that I would take a nap after work to recharge my batteries. It turns out that sort of happened.

The whole day at work consisted trying to keep my self busy, or I would fall victim to narcolepsy. I got plenty of work done. I just didn't do anything that I was really planning on for the day. To start, I handled my usual transfers to the other store and a DC Comics order, but then I worked on an independent comic book order.

There is one, major comic book distributor in the industry, Diamond. They have the exclusive contract to distribute the 4 major publishers: DC Comics, Marvel, Image and Dark Horse. There are also plenty of independent comic companies that just solicit through Diamond. What I went through today was our major independent, smaller press distributor, Haven.

Haven used to be called Cold Cut. When Cold Cut folded, Haven purchased the warehouse and all and incorporated a whole new inventory system. The problem with dealing with Haven is the limited number of stuff I actually want to carry from them. Most of the stuff is also carried by Diamond, but Haven tends to keep more of it on hand.

For the better part of 4 hours, I had Haven's catalog on the computer while I took quick walks around the store to see if we needed any of the items. It was a lot of walking. Figure I needed to see what Haven had in stock, then I needed to remember if we carried it. The final part was legging it to see if we needed it. There is only a few companies that really get much attention from me through Haven. The main one being Slave Labor Graphics, for the Johny The Homicidal Maniac and Squee comics. The unfortunate thing is that they didn't have the ones in stock that we needed. Also, they don't carry any of the Lenore comics. My guess is since Lenore is getting reprinted by Titan Books, they can't carry the old issues of the comic.

The main comics I think I ordered were some Simpsons and Sonic the Hedgehog ones. Yes, Sonic comics sell really well for us. You would be surprised at how many we actually go through every month. I think more kids read the comic than play the video games.

The rest of the day was talking with my co-worker about Dragon Age: Origins and unpacking some shipments. It was midway through the comic shipment that I made a comment that I knew it was a day day when I didn't want to deal with comics anymore today. I pushed through. It also doesn't help that Diamond likes to screw up shipments on a weekly basis. We were missing a handful of things ordered and was instead shipped stuff we didn't order. Granted, the stuff shipped was probably valued more than the stuff ordered, but I knew the stuff I had ordered will sell.

When I finally got home, I made myself a sandwich, and eventually took a nap. It wasn't a comfortable nap considering I kept periodically waking up shivering a bit. I slept off and on for close to 4 hours. I even skipped dinner. Probably not the best move. I woke up with a pain in my stomach and a trip to the bathroom. It wasn't pleasant to say the least.

I just hope things feel better in the morning. I have a long ass day and could really use something positive.

Jibber Jabber and Making Comics

I found out today that a few of my friends have started blogs. This is interesting. I will expand on that at a later date.

I also found out today that the Champs Sports closed in my mall. Another huge corporate store has just uprooted from a already festering wound that is Granite Run Mall. My boss raided them this afternoon to get some of the their fixtures. Granted he did pay for them, he just paid $10 for the equivalent of something that should retail for hundreds of dollars. I am just glad I didn't have to move any of it. Oh, and apparently, there are some other big stores closing in my mall by the end of the month. This makes me unhappy.

The day was rather slow throughout. My mom wound up not having work because a transformer (not a Go-Bot) blew-up near her work. The area reverted to Amish country. Since she works in a doctor's office, the people that were already in needed to use their cell phones to contact the patients to not come in. The blackout also effected my coworker tonight, but not much. He's rich and has a generator, which is probably run by shoveling in the hopes and dreams of the poor.

I'm trying to think of something interesting. It's tougher then you think. I have no idea how people write works of fiction having to develop a whole world and characters to fill it. They I remember that most of the either found a formula or made a pact with some deity.

Well, I have been doing this whole blog a day thing for two weeks, so that's sort of a landmark, right? I'll take my words in any way. What sucks is that I am usually raring to write at the exact moment that I can't.

I am reading a book called Making Comics by Scott McCloud. I've read a couple of his other books, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. The best part is that they are presented in a comic book format.

I first read Understanding Comics years ago, when I was in high school. It is a great book to do exactly as the title suggests. It presents a whole philosophy about comics and the importance of the medium. It was later hat I discovered Reinventing Comics at my college library. I would always search for whatever comic book stuff the La Salle Library held. It turns out quite a bit considering they have one of the largest collections of Vietnam War era related material, like Punisher and The 'Nam comic books. I found the second one a pretty tough read from what I remember. It discusses bringing the the printed medium into the digital age. Personally, I have an affinity and appreciation of the the whole tangible aspect of comics. Hell, even the smell of old comics is borderline euphoric.

This third book, Making Comics, is a different undertaking. It doesn't have quite the appeal for me. Granted, I like the content and presentation, but it is not written for someone like me. It is written for the artist. The whole thing provides guidelines and help for how to structure a comic on the actual page, or screen for that matter, to get a comic to properly flow for the reader. The whole point to for the reader to convey what the artist is trying to explain or describe. Since, I have no aspirations on being a comic book artist, it's not really clicking with me.

I started to read it because: 1) I already owned it, and 2) I am supposed to write a comic for a friend of mine. Okay, I am supposed to write a bunch of things for various people, but have been willfully neglecting them.

I'll go into that crap later. I should head to bed and crash from the caffeine rush.

P.S.: I think I own all The 'Nam comics. I just haven't read any of them yet.

Hero's Journey

It's tough to come up with an idea when you don't really do anything.

I took a trip to the book store yesterday after the last post. I haven't been there in a while, and I just like book stores. I even used to work in one. Now, I mean I worked in an actual book store that sold James Patterson and Harry Potter books. I currently work in a comic book store that sells comic books of Batman, Spider-Man and various other characters. The book store I used to work in was a Waldenbooks, which was the mall equivalent of a Borders (Waldenbooks eventually switched its' name to Borders Express). It was in the mall I work in now, and for a time I worked at both Waldenbooks and the comic book store. There is no book store in the mall now, which is annoying when people ask me where it is since it hasn't been there since last spring.

Still, the book store I went to is a Barnes & Noble. I only went with the intention of using up a $25 gift card I found in my bedroom. I have all sorts of crazy shit in my bedroom (and not even that kind of stuff you sick person). Still, my only actual pre-thought purchase was a video game magazine. That would only be $10, so I needed to find something that was at least $15. I have a nagging urge to use a gift card in one fell swoop, so that I don't have to worry about it again. A gift card with change left over on it is ridiculous.

My friend was recently in a mural arts book, so I went looking for that. With my mind being a sieve for that sort of information, I forgot the actual title. Chances are the chain book stores wouldn't carry something like that without a special order for it. The search got me to look in the arts section. Nothing really stood out for me, even in the how to draw section. It was then a trip to Science Fiction/Fantasy.

Looking in the SciFi/Fantasy section is a bit odd for me. Yes, I will go there every time I am in a book store. I may even buy something on occasion. I just don't remember the last time I actually read a book I bought from there. I have made attempts, mind you. I just don't really read them that often. I buy things with the full intentions of reading them, I just can't focus on actually completing it. The last 2 books I bought from that section were anthologies of critically acclaimed writers, Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock. Howard created Conan the Barbarian and Moorcock created Elric of Melniboné. They both created many other characters, but they are probably their most famous ones. Still, I haven't even finished the first store in the Howard anthology.

Perusing the new release section,. I noticed a WildCards novel. This is a series I would love to read, only it isn't in print. With a line of books about 14 titles long, you would thing they would keep the original selection of books in print, but nope. Someone hates that I want to actually read something. I didn't buy the new ones because I couldn't find any other WildCards books expect for the new one.

Other than the bargain section, the only other section I always check out is Mythology. Set right above poetry, it is only 2 shelves big. I always look there because I really want a Norse mythology book, but all that is ever there is Greek/Roman mythology books. There is the occasional Japanese or Celtic myths as well, but never any strictly Norse. Instead what I found there was Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey.

I haven't started reading it yet, but it is a series of conversations Campbell had with many different people throughout his career. Campbell is considered one of the premier experts on Mythology. I even found his book Hero with a Thousand Faces on my friends bookshelf later that night, which seemed like a sign. A simplified version of Campbell's theory is that there is one main pattern that surrounds the hero myth throughout every culture. He just seems like a guy I should be reading.

It's was a $30 book, and it looks like a textbook for school. I think it will be worth it though.

Afternoon wake-up

It's a pretty boring Saturday, so far. Granted, most Saturday's I don't see the light of day until dusk.

At the moment, I am listening to Respawn Radio. It is a video game podcast brought about by Achievement Hunter.com, which is a subdivision of Red Vs. Blue. That's a lot of information that most people just don't care about. I like it though. Like most podcasts out there, it has that underground feel. It's brought to you by guys that actually play these games they are talking about. They don't really hold back if something is terrible.

I was meaning to write some more last night after I came in from the bar. The problem arose when my computer was in the middle of installing updates. Instead, I watched the DVR. Before I left to go out, I recorded the last episode of Conan O'Brien hosting the Tonight Show. It was a great final episode. If you can, go find it and watch it on Hulu or something. Conan's farewell speech was well done and wholly emotional. I was glad to hear that he is getting of severance of 33 million and his crew is getting 12 million. I was worried about the people who worked for him. But, from the type of person he seems to be, I am sure that he would do whatever he could to help his people out. They will all be back in September somewhere. He is too good a commodity of pass up.

Well, the bar last night was definitely one of the more boring nights. I was even going to load the jukebox up wit crap I wanted to hear, but people beat me to it. The while the bar was fairly crowded,it wasn't the standard regulars. Apparently, one of the former regulars from when the bar had a previous name, had died. This was sort of a makeshift wake. Conversations were overheard consisting of what a good life the guy had. I didn't want to pry. It wasn't my place. Still, I made do trying to have a good time in a bad situation. It's at these points where I can be an asshole at the sake of amusement.

I didn't go overboard, and most of what I said was in jest. Still, I wanted to have a good time with the limited resources available. At one point, to lighten the boring mood, the bartender wanted to make myself and 2 friends a shot. The catch was that we each had to pick a liquor to mix. After a trip to the toilet, I walked into picking one. First thing that came to mind was amaretto. Little did I know that someone already pick Jeagermeister. Who the hell would pick Jeager as a mix in anything? The third selected a bubble-gum vodka. It was all mixed and cut with a cranberry juice. It actually wasn't too bad.

The one regret of the night was that there was no real eye-candy. I know. I am shallow. Still, I still like to see pretty things. The median age for the night was about 40 or so. Granted, I didn't feel old, but it sure as hell would have been better if some youth was involved.

Well, tonight I think I am going over a friend's place. Some sort of celebration about some birthday. I may take a trip to the book store first just to pretend that I can read. All I am really going to buy is a magazine.