Monday, September 20, 2004

Beethoven Day

Not a lot to update on this part of my post. Nobody guessed the reference, although Mr. Baggee got the closest (Good luck with your Air Force interview, btw.) I must say that I’m sorry, because almost doesn’t count here.

“Cats on Mars” is the name of a song on one of the “Cowboy Bebop” OST’s. One of the best aspects of the series was it’s music, so I’m paying tribute to that, yeah. The scores have not changed, they still are…

Current High Scores
Shinmaru: 3 Points
Semjaza Azazel: 2 Points
Ben, JC Baggee, Solo Tremaine,
Sara, Nerdsy, Mimmi, Arcadia: 1 Point

You aren‘t going to let Shinmaru be in the lead for very long, are you?

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Ben revealed to me that the library he works at contains several comic books and graphic novels. It’s not an extensive collection, mind you, but I’m sure it has a few quality titles in it. He asked me what titles I recommend, so that is what the bulk of this post is being devoted to.

Here are the graphic novels or comic collections that I recommend. There are a lot of older comics I’d like for you to read, but I can’t remember what archived collections they belong to. Pretty much if there is a comic from 1974 being reprinted, it’s being reprinted for a reason and you should read it. A lot of the Uncanny X-Men reprints are really entertaining, especially those dealing with the classic “Phoenix Saga.”

• Marvels (Marvel)


• The Dark Knight Returns (DC)


• Ultimates Volumes 1 and 2 (Marvel)


• Fantastic Four: Imaginauts (Marvel)


• Superman: Red Son (DC)


• Formerly Known as the Justice League (DC)


• Ultimate Spider-Man Volumes 1-9 (Marvel)


• Kingdom Come (DC)

• Ultimate X-Men Volume 1 [Everything else is garbage] (Marvel)


• The Flash: Blitz (DC)


• Teen Titans: A Kid’s Game (DC)


• Empire (DC)


• Spider-Man: Happy Birthday (Marvel)


• Batman: Hush Volumes 1 and 2 (DC)


• Fantastic Four: Authoritative Action (Marvel)


• Batman: The Death of Robin (DC)


• Justice League Adventures (DC)


• The Kingdom (DC)


• Spider-Man: Blue (Marvel)

These should be available at most Barnes and Noble bookstores, in addition to any other place that sells comic books. Definitely check these things out, since I’m a nerd and know what I’m talking about for once.

In other news, “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” is one of the greatest films ever made. It isn't very often that I have such a good time at the cinema; the sole exception being the rare comic book movie that doesn't make me want to kill the director. Anyone and everyone should go see this movie. Stop reading this post and go see the movie, I won't mind, really.

Also, I had to pay for yet another speeding ticket today. Perhaps the system varies from state to state (and presumably, from country to country) but getting a speeding ticket in California is a rather big deal.

If you receive three tickets in a set amount of time you have your license suspended for a year, which would pretty much ruin my life at this point. Also, it raises my insurance by 15% for every speeding ticket I receive; gee, I'm sure you can imagine how happy I've been to receive two tickets in the past year or so.

It's not that I drive very fast, but on the rare occasions that I do go over the speed limit it always seems as if there is a police officer nearby. Is it just my destiny to be caught red-handed every time I break the law? Perhaps, but you would think that after the first time I'd learn my lesson.

So I drove down to the courthouse today. Not my courthouse, mind you, but one in the city of Pomona, which is about 30 miles away. After struggling to find a spot (and refusing to pay six dollars to park in the regular area) I made my way into the enormous municipal court building. In my entire life I think I've stepped foot inside of a court three times, and one of those was the Supreme Court in Washington DC. Instantly I became very intimidated by the place. Not only is it enormous, but they do not make it clear which room on which floor belongs to which part of the court. Fortunately traffic court was on the bottom floor so I didn't have to search for long. Had it been on the 12th floor or something chances are I would still be trying to find my way now, six hours later.

I went to window A to pay my bill, where they pointed me outside, and the place I really needed to go in order to pay for my ticket. It was a simple cashier’s desk connected to the courthouse, but for some reason or another it needed to be accessed from outside. From they looked through my paperwork, typed something onto the keyboard and gave me a slip of paper. “You can take this inside to have them process,” the woman at the counter said with a smile I smiled back, and felt a new feeling of empowerment with my small slip of paper. Life would once again be good, because I have my slip of paper!

While text messaging James via my phone, I worked my way through security for the second time. They demanded that I put my phone in the X-Ray machine, and as a result the radiation from it caused my phone to shut off. It took it s few moments to recover, so I struggled to take care of that while I made my merry way back to window A.

The interesting things about courthouses is that they are the great equalizer. No matter what walk of life you come from: regardless of race, gender, wealth or even religion everyone goes to the same court to pay their speeding tickets. I was impressed by the diversity of people paying for their tickets that day, and I thought it was pretty interesting that the majority of people paying for their tickets were women. Maybe they are worse drivers than men? Who knows? All I know is that I’m right there with them, paying $300 because I decided to go over 80 miles per hour on the freeway.

So the moral of this story is: DON’T DRIVE FAST! It costs an awful lot of money and going to court is a pain.
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