Multi-parter coming up.

Part 1: Cairo, GA
I reached Tallahassee on Tuesday. The drive to Cairo took half an hour longer than expected (Damn you, bad-directions-Enterprise-car-rental) and spent most of the day working. Wednesday. Work. Thursday we went to Crystal Seafood for some much needed dead animals and I ate like a king. A very hungry king. Alligator tails. Lobster tails. Shrimp. Baked potatoes. Hushpuppies. Cheese grits. Corn-on-the-cob. A very hungry king indeed! And to top it all I spent the rest of the day at the bar of my hotel where they were having karaoke night. Small town (Pop. 9,239) bars are fun! Everyone knows everyone else. Except you! And you spend all night making new friends.

The journey back was interesting. I was on four flights! Tallahassee - Orlando, Orlando - Greenville, Greenville - Cincinnati, Cincinnati - Madison. Sadly, only on the Tallahassee - Orlando leg did I have any company in the plane - C! I got home at 10:30 in the night. Said hi to Katie who was staying over at Ms. Non Sequitur's and plopped into a deep slumber in bed.

Part 2: Six pubs. No idea how we got there.
Saturday. Me, Ms Non Sequitur, Katie - go! Stadium Bar? Church Key, Paul's Club, Piano Bar, Paradise, Madisons.

Part 3: A surfeit of Y.
Sunday was spent lazily. I got Katie and Ms. Non Sequitur hooked on Y: The Last Man. New converts to the graphic novel club! Ice cream at Micheal's for dinner!

Part 4: Bonus Monday!
It began nice and lazy with phone calls to desh. And a lot of Chuzzle. (Warning: Do not click on that last link unless you want to be horribly addicted. I dream of Chuzzles and it is not funny!)

Then it was me and Ms. Non Sequitur. Lunch at Noodles. 28 Weeks Later at the Orpheum. Half-price Margaritas at Frida's. Knocking on Cousin Qs door! (There's a story here ;) Renting Little Miss Sunshine. Becks, where Cousin Q and BF N joined us. Becks has the most awesome jukebox ever. I just walk over and there are free credits in there! I love drunk jukebox patrons!!

Well, I finished Epileptic. I had to take a break halfway through as it was just too difficult to digest in one sitting.

In other news, people have been getting engaged and married left, right and center. I'm still single though.

I tried to read Pop Gun War but I'm just not in the mood for such fantastic stuff right now.

And I'm looking forward to New Years in Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas baby!

Well, I couldn't really recover any of my data from that hard drive. It's a pretty brick now. I did get a new one a week before Thanksgiving. It's working out just great. I had inadvertent backups of most of my important stuff. Like when I had burnt CDs during trips when I needed a copy of photos my friends had snapped. I lost all my music but that's replaceable.

I didn't go anywhere special for Thanksgiving this year. Did get a great Thanksgiving dinner at my boss's place though. Of course that heavy dinner made me sleep right through the Black Friday sale. I awoke at 11 am after all the really fancy stuff was out of discount. Ah well, there's next year I suppose.

I'm currently reading Epileptic after i-me-moi's recommendation.

Snow is back in Madison after an unseasonably warm week. It's bitterly cold again. I've been traveling like crazy this week. Phoenix on Wednesday and Thursday and Detroit on Saturday. I don't want to travel again for a while.

I just finished watching another brilliant episode of The Shield. This is how a police drama should be. Not like CSI and Law and Order. It's just so much more realistic.

Also, it's been pointed out to me that I pronounce my W's like V's i.e. with my upper teeth touching my lower lips instead of using rounded lips. Which is odd 'cause I learnt 'em right. Heck, I even got the prize for phonetics when I was in kindergarten (or Nursery as we say back in India.) (Also, stupid Firefox underlined learnt as a spelling error. Turns out, it's learned in American English and learnt in British English.)

So Vik book tagged me. And I wuv being tagged! Onward!

1. One book that changed your life?
Got to say The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Yes, it's preachy and long and filled with sociopathic protagonatists. Doesn't matter because the core idea, the one that gets to you once you look past the tedious three page descriptions and the one-dimensional characters is still pretty powerful and it's one we weren't really exposed to as kids growing up in socialist India in the '80s. Capitalism.

2. One book you have read more than once?
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Because let's face it, I hate growing old. And everytime I read that book it makes me feel like I'm reading it for the first time like in did in fourth grade.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
I'm going to cheat here and choose the Collected Works of William Shakespeare. That's a fairly large and diverse set of fiction and spans humor (The Taming of the Shrew), tragedy (Othello), and gratuitous sex (Venus and Adonis). What more does a guy need? Besides the language being all funky means it's going to be a bloody struggle to read so I won't be able to finish it in a hurry even if I wanted.

4. One book that made you cry?
It's going to be bad for my tough bastard rep if I let on but what the heck, maybe the ladies will appreciate the fact that I have a sensitive side (Yeah! Right!) It was A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. That last part when Catherine is in the hospital and Henry prays.

5. One book that made you laugh?
Ah! One? Just one? My life revolves around books that make me laugh and asking me to choose one is like asking me to which one of my thirty seven illegitimate children should live. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur, Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (ok, not one book but who cares?), The Farside by Gary Larson (again, who cares?), The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams and I just realized that this list won't stop unless I tell it to. Stop.

6. One book you wish had been written?
A critically acclaimed bestseller in comic book format. Frankly that one breakthrough graphic novel that makes the everyman give this medium more that just a second look. There have been great graphic novels written already but none have yet broken into the mainstream and frankly it's the mainstreams great loss. I guess I look forward to the day when a freshman can enroll for Comics 101 just as he or she can for Art 101 or Literature 101 today.

7. One book you wish had never been written?
Honestly? Any religious literature. Because I'm sick of watching the bastards twist, manipulate and misquote it to fuel their fires of bigotry, hatred and ignorance.

8. One book you are currently reading?
I just finished reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and The Book of Bunny Suicides and Return of the Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley. Scott McCloud's book is a serious examination of the comic book medium as a form of communication. I'd say it's recommended reading for anyone who's in the communications industry (Hint! hint! Vikster!) And the Andy Riley books are sick sick tomes upon reading and enjoying which you get a first class ticket straight to Hell. I have mine and I hope to see lots of you there too. (So far, it looks like Hell will be a lot more fun and interesting place than Heaven seeing as how all the people I know and love already seem to be sinning like there's no tomorrow.)

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Holy crap! This list is big. An awful lot of crap by James Joyce. People say he's really good. This book of short stories by Ernest Hemingway that's been sitting on my shelf for almost 3 years now. So much non-fiction that I feel almost ashamed: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, Design Patterns by Erich Gamma et. al., Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley (been sitting on my shelf for years too.) In short there's this huge work of glorious human achievement out there that I have been too lazy, bored and ADHDed to read. It'll get better. I hope.

10. Tag five people.
That's easy. I-me-moi, Saket, M. Valjean, Thë Là¢ke¥ and /<0usik. Update: Also tagging DivSu who I caught up with after a long time yesterday!

Wow! That was a long long time without an update. I've been busy but that's no excuse as I've been busy before but always updated this blog!

Anyway, I've been reading. I discovered a branch of the library pretty darn close to where I work. To celebrate I read Runaways Vol. 1 and 2 and Ex Machina Vol. 1, 2 and 3 by Brian K. Vaughn and illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Tony Harris respectively. Mr. Vaughn writes a great story and his books are always based on a brilliant premise. I've raved about Y: The Last Man before which is about the last surviving man on an earth where the entire male species dies suddenly and violently. Runaways traces the fates of the children of a group of supervillians who after having discovered what their parents do for a living run away. Ex Machina is about a superhero who prevents the plane from crashing into the second tower on 9/11, and goes on to run for mayor of New York to better serve his city.

I've been listening. I discovered Franz Ferdinand. Their eponymous first album is fantastic but their second effort, You Could Have It So Much Better, isn't as good. Also listened to a bit of Katie Melua who's ok. I guess she needs to grow up a bit.

I drove up to Detroit and Kalamazoo. I had my first sailing lesson and bruised my shin!

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

The Eisner awards for this year are out and they were good. Nice to see Grant Morrison winning for Seven Soldiers and All-Star Superman! I just wish Superman Returns had been based on All-Star Superman instead of the older movies.

Do you know who Jim Woodring is?

He's crazy. He makes comics. He has a blog. If you ever get your hands on a Jim Woodring comic, be afraid, be very afraid.

It will swallow you whole.

A surfeit of reading. That's what's happened in the last couple of days. I have read more than 15 graphic novels! Let's begin shall we:

The Golem's Mighty Swing: Set in America in the 1920's, this stark black and white piece is the story of a Jewish baseball team that tours smalltown USA. As a gimmick, they decide to include a 'golem' on the team - the sole black player. Things go awry. Read the excerpt. (Click on "Search inside this book" under the picture.)

Love and Rockets: Created by the Hernandez brothers, Gilbert and Jaime, Love and Rockets is a series of about 15 graphic novels originally published over a span of a decade. Jaime writes about Locas (crazy women!) and Gilbert writes about Palomar - a fictional village in Central America. I could go on but it's easier to link to one of them on Amazon and let you read an excerpt yourself. (Click on "Search inside this book" under the picture.)

Also, currently valiantly trying to read Dubliners by James Joyce.

Seeing as how I seek to convert more and more people to the church of comic books, here's an excellent list by J.D. of Graphic Novels for People Who Hate Comics.

As I note in the comments, the only significant omission is Will Eisner.

Alan Moore is a genius. I've read a lot of graphic novels. And I've read a lot of books. And even if I consider and critique all of what I've read at once, the conclusion remains the same, Alan Moore is a genius.

If you get a chance you should read everything he's written. It's not so much that Alan Moore plots and writes a good story. It's that he plots and writes a superlative story and then makes it all seem so easy. Neil Gaiman creates a magical place in the The Sandman. Warren Ellis fleshes out some plausible yet terrifying science fiction in Transmetropolitan. Grant Morrison moves us to tears in We3. And yet, Alan Moore finesses them all, in everything he writes.

Some of what he writes is difficult reading. His prose is profuse and calculated. Not a word is used unnecessarily. But he brings out the best in the artist illustrating the story. I've yet to see a badly drawn Alan Moore story.

So what's the tragic bit in all this? He's retired.

And what have I been reading?

Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven. Classic science fiction from the Seventies which stills reads good today. And adds great new words to my vocubalary like tasp and rishathra!

My regular quota of comics which hasn't contained anything good for a while. I did buy Superman Chronicles which is surprisingly good for a comic book made in the 1930's, but which I haven't had the patience to finish reading.

And what have I been watching?

Finding Neverland and Final Solution. The latter has been one harrowing ordeal to watch. It was banned in India for a while, but the ban was lifted in October 2004. Indians should watch this. (But be prepared to lose your lunch.)

New post for no rhyme or reason.

In other news, I am greatly gladdened by the fact that Aeryn Sun is alive and did not indeed die as I had feared. But the fate of Zhaan who brought Sun back from near death is still uncertain. Hopefully she won't die either.

Haven't heard from Rommie, Dylan or Tyr lately, nor from Xander or Willow. Hope they're all okay.

Also, Steve Rogers was freed from illegal imprisonment by Janet Pym. Clint Barton was able to free himself, and Tony Stark was able to save himself from an assassination attempt. These guys will bounce back.

(Bonus points to readers who can tell what I'm talking about.)

Weekend reading.



The Essential Wolverine, Vol. 1 and Black Widow. Both essentially forgettable. I only picked them up from the library because they were there.

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Watchmen by written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. I've written about this graphic novel before, but you can never shower too much praise on it. Every time I read this, I discover something new that I missed the first time around. The only analogies I can draw are to good wine: subtle, layered, complex.

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The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry. If one has to use a single word to describe any cook book written by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine, than the word has to be 'complete'. This book is no exception, and contains an almost encyclopedic collection of recipes for chicken, turkey, quail, duck and other poultry. What appeals to the engineer in me is how scientific their approach is. Each chapter is about one particular preparation method. Roasting, broiling, sautéing, frying, even chicken curry, is given the treatment. My mom taught me how to make chicken curry. This book explained what each step does to the chicken and why it's needed. Recommended.

(And yes, in case you haven't noticed over the last few posts, I'm a food voyeur)

Three graphic novels read last weekend.



Invincible is a relatively new comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley. I read the first 13 issues collected in graphics novel format as Invincible: The Ultimate Collection (Volume 1). Invincible is about what it would be like to grow up as Superman's son. Essentially a well-written combination of science-fiction and the O.C.

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Then I read three volumes of The Walking Dead also written by Kirkman (Illustrated in horrific pen and ink by Charlie Adlard.) This is a zombie book, which opens suspiciously like 28 Days Later. Pretty quick however we see that this book is about a lot more than just zombies. It's one of the most plausible portrayals about how people would actually act during a world-wide catastrophe. This book has bigotry, sexual politics, mania, and everything else that makes us human.

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And finally, I read a book which quickly finds itself in the list of the greatest graphic novels ever written, right up there with Persepolis and The Watchmen. The Tale of One Bad Rat, written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot. The story of a young girl with a pet rat, on the run, that will break your heart and give you hope. The art, lush and beautiful, illustrates Mr. Talbot's mastery of all the literary devices of modern graphic novel, quite a few of which he invented himself, in his earlier work The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. (Hat tip to Warren Ellis for introducing me to Bryan Talbot.)

After a brave attempt at some real blogging, I'm back to gimmicks.

Things that annoyed me today:
1. The weight of my backpack after I stuff it with my laptop and a couple of books. What's more annoying than the weight itself is that it reminds me that I'm all out of shape. How will me dream of becoming a super fearsome avenging detective ninja ever come true if I keep this up?

2. The fact that I can't read From Hell. I have the time. I have the book. It seems interesting enough. But I can't get myself to read it. Just like anything by James Joyce, it's an incredibly hard read. This isn't good news. I might end up adding this book to my list of books which I began but couldn't finish. That list already includes Ulysses, 1984 and The Doors of Perception. Cheer up Mr. Moore, you seem to be in excellent company.

3. The fact that I don't seem to enjoy music anymore. Any music. Ten minutes is the most I can do, before I look for the stop button.

4. Stupidity. And stupidity coupled with stubbornness.

5. Impatience. My own.

6. There's more but see item 5.

Anyway, having got all that out of the way, I'm happy to note that I finished reading Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson yesterday. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Transmet is a comic chronicling the life and works of Spider Jerusalem, your friendly neighborhood paranoid foul-mouthed freshly-bald investigative journalist who works for The Word, a newspaper publishing in a future that is unlikely yet familiar. I want a bowel disruptor.

It's hard to write. And mostly when it's hard to write I simply rant, which while being simpler, is never as interesting, nor can be used to maintain a torrent of words and ideas. After all, how much can one person complain?

So it comes to this then, an unsteady ramble, almost forced, with no clear direction. No story to tell or idea to dissect.

After a quick trip to the library, I returned with large stack of graphic novels, including Alan Moore's classic Watchmen, and his recently-converted-into-a-movie-which-got-mixed-reviews From Hell. I've read Watchmen before, but it's a compelling read. (For those who don't know much about Alan Moore, he's a British writer who's recently announced his retirement from comic books, and who's written stuff like Swamp Thing, a compelling horror comic about a man who's killed in a swamp, only to wake up as a muck-encrusted monstrosity, and after finally coming to terms with his loss of humanity, finds out that he's not the man who died, but rather just a bunch of plants who have evolved into him, and gained his memories. Mr. Moore's other famous works include, the aforementioned Watchmen, probably the first and certainly one of the most disturbing studies in super-hero deconstructionism, examining how a world would be, if it really had men who could fly and masked vigilantes meting out rough justice, and the recently-also-converted-into-a-movie-but-the-movie-sucked The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) I skimmed through Watchmen, and couldn't find the patience to read From Hell. I suppose something must be wrong if I'm getting impatient with mere comic books.

Here I shall segue to what seems to be the problem with my mind lately. I seem to be on a short fuse of sorts. Not in terms of temper but rather in terms of attention. I seem to be suffering from a sudden bout of attention deficit disorder, wherein I can't stick to a train of thought long enough to follow it to its logical conclusion. Rather, I simply wander all over. And I suppose having easy access to the internet simply aggravates this problem.

Most of my time these days seems to be spent at sites like Slashdot, or Ananova, reading about the next nerdy (or quirky) news item. I should probably just bite the bullet, and install a RDF aggregator. Then again, that's probably courting further loss in productivity. I can't believe I'm saying this so early in my career, but I seem to be suffering from work addiction, and these are just the withdrawal symptoms.

I shall end with more recommendations from off my reading list (most from my former reading list):

1. Supreme Power: Another superhero deconstructionist tale, only this one is still going on, and new issues come out every month. It's by J. Michael Straczynski, for whom comics are a second job, his first one being a writer/producer of television and film. A preview of Supreme power #1: http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazines/wizard/WZ20030815-sp_1.cfm

2. Preacher: A weird, violent, and iconoclastic tale about a Texas preacher who loses his faith and gets to play host to an entity as powerful as God, his ex-girlfriend who's now a hitman, and his new best friend, an Irish vampire. After he finds out that the Devil is dead, and God has abandoned Heaven, the preacher goes out to find and confront God and make Him pay for His actions.

3. Ghost World: This has nothing to do with ghosts. It's an immensely funny story about a pair of teenage girls, who decide to wreak havoc with the lives of people around them by playing practical jokes. This became an excellent movie starring Thora Birch.

Nothing more to say. It's bloody 3am and I need the sleep.

Dumbing down. Their doing it to the newspapers. Television is already a victim. Radio died a lifetime ago. The Internet will be next. They'll come one day, soon, with their scalpels. Full frontal lobotomy. What a way to go.

Why do I have to suffer a world of idiots?

These are strange days. I hope I'm old before I die. (Thank you Robbie Williams, you manipulative thief of a singer)

On a side note:
Why is good literature always about despair, hurt, loneliness, pain, cruelty, torture, defeat, animus and such else? Modern good literature in particular. Why do people have to die, fall ill, break, kill, rape, vomit and choke to get us all a good read? What happened to stories about happiness and honour? Heroism? Love even? I guess I need a change in library.