Things Have Been Super

We're sitting in the kitchen. I'm cooking, Catlin and Lana are just sitting. Trevor's there, too. We're discussing the new Superman movie, and Catlin says "I'm not very good about these things, but is kryptonite real?" In that moment, judging from the frozen looks on our faces, time has stopped. The task of cutting my tomato is forgotten. The gravity of this situation is such that there's not even room for laughter here. Just a wall of incredulity smashing itself against a wall of innocent naivete. More than any other moment I could describe, this captures the essence of Catlin.

But the idea of Superman has been floating around a lot this week, and I can't even really remember what started it. It probably came about in the way these phases usually come. I was probably surfing the IntarWeb and came upon something about comics or Christopher Reeve. Or maybe I just had an urge for it . . . but I went and got the original Superman movie and the newest incarnation, Superman Returns. In order to put the newer film in true perspective, I decided to watch them back-to-back. Man, it was so cool seeing the original film again. I haven't seen it since I was little, watching it with my Dad. It's a little bit cheesy from today's perspective (and the whole turning back time thing made me cringe), but it's undeniably a great flick. Christopher Reeve (RIP) was definitely a great choice, he brings a lot of charisma to the character and his portrayal of Clark Kent is equally well-done.

Against that historical tapestry, I have to say I was very impressed with Superman Returns. Being that it was directed by Bryan Singer, it's easy to understand why I was somewhat reminded of the first X-men movie. But only in the fact that he loves to establish characters. There's plenty of action, but you get to really know what each character is like, and that's something I really appreciate. And I LOVED how many homages and subtle allusions they made to the original film. I'm sure if you haven't seen the original movie in awhile a lot of them would just fly over your head, but watch them back-to-back sometime and you'll literally giggle about how many tiny things they borrowed, like the fact that Lois can't spell, or the direct quote lift about traveling on airplanes after Superman saves the day.

Well, anyway, since that day (which was sometime last weekend, maybe Sunday), I've been re-engrossed into the world of comics. I've spent hours reading backstories on comic book characters like Superman and Spiderman and Batman and their enemies. I even downl- er, borrowed copies of some other comic book movies I hadn't seen or hadn't seen in awhile, such as Spiderman 2 (which I have to say was complete shit). I also can't wait for the release of The Dark Knight.

I have a few other entertaining stories for you that I'm happy to share before regaling you with the boring story of how my week went.

Cockatoos are extremely entertaining birds. They scare the fuck out of me a lot, what with their banshee screeches as they woosh around campus, but last Saturday as I was coming back from the gym, I saw a group of three or four of them just standing around on the lawn watching another one try and pop a balloon. It was hilarious, especially since the balloon seemed to be getting the best of him. It got to the point where he was hopping up and down on it in frustration. The rest of them just eyed the situation with what might have been curiosity and what might have been indifference. I don't know, I'm not a bird.

I was at Safeway last weekend food shopping. It was a fairly burly trip, and I remembered to bring my "Environmentally Friendly" woven green bag with me. Apparently all the major grocers in Australia have this campaign to try and get people to stop using plastic bags. They ask you to instead use their re-usable and sturdy green woven bags. For these, they ask you to shell out $1/piece. This is really stupid. If you really care about getting people to switch over, you'll make them pay the premium for the plastic bags. Truthfully, they're corporations; it's probably not something they actually wanna do. But they have to.

Anyway, like a good little boy, I brought it along with me on this trip. As soon as I walked into the Safeway, it set off the alarm. Great. No one seemed to take any notice though, so I just continued on and did my shopping. On the way out there was only one checkout line open because it was about 9 at night, so not many customers. The lady was about, oh, I dunno. 28? 29? Somewhere around there. She said hello; I said hello. I started putting my groceries on the conveyor belt. As she started to put things into plastic bags I remembered I had the EnviroBag of Doom, and I presented it. She put it at the end of her station and the alarm promptly went off. After confirming that it was indeed the bag and not me trying to steal a Snickers out in my pocket, she said sarcastically "Well, looks like we'll have to call security."

I said "Oh, yes. I'm very dangerous."

She said "I might have to pat you down. ... Just kidding," with a cheesy little smile. Holy o-face, Batman, I think she just hit on me. She wasn't like, hideous or anything, but it was just bizarre. I was like do I . . . do I tip her?

Toward the end of the process I naturally had to pay. As I often do, I used my credit card. She presents the receipt for me to sign saying "Ok, sign your life away." I do. She takes the receipt away and says, with a smile that's not quite insidious but not quite innocent "You're mine now." Not knowing what to say, I just quipped "I'm afraid my soul has already been sold, you'll have to get in line." Well. There really is a first for everything.

As far as the mundane goes, it's been a pretty good week. I actually attended all of my classes! Yeah! Alright! High five! On top of that, I'm pretty sure that I did a good job on my oral presentation in Japanese. I was kind of stressing about that, but it went just fine. I stumbled a bit, as I'm sure happens with everyone learning a new language, but I'm happy with it.

Actually, I should probably amend that "I went to all my classes" remark. I actually showed up for all my classes. But for one of them I showed up at the wrong time because, still, after 4 weeks, even with the help of a computer program, I cannot seem to fucking get my classes straight. Oh, well. I did the readings. I'll be fine. The point is, I made the effort. :) Also, I didn't go to my CCNA classes, but that's because I've decided not to enroll. I really can't afford it. That and I actually couldn't, because the idiot guy running it didn't get me the enrollment slip in time. That's ok, though. I have my CCNA 1 certification (which by itself isn't much), and so if I wish I can enroll in the others once I get back to the US.

The reason I can't afford it, by the way, is because I'm really not to sure when I'm going to be getting more money coming in. I finally got the situation with Hall Health taken care of, so the people at the International Programs and Exchanges Office can successfully get me enrolled for Fall quarter. At that point, I think my only option is to take out a short term loan and hope for the best. I've got about AUD$700 left. September rent is $598.50. I don't think I'm gonna make that, as I've got food and medication to buy before that. And apparently there's this big stupid ball thing that the college is hosting that I should probably go to if I wanna continue on this meeting people thing which is $65. The thought of getting a job occurred to me, and I actually tried applying for a work permit, but the website said something about not being able to confirm my enrollment . . . which is problematic. I guess I'll be heading over to the IPO here on Monday to try and clear that up so I can start getting some cash flow.

Ugh, but I really don't wanna just work some stupid retail job. The job I've got waiting for me over at Costco isn't bad because there's some skill involved and, if I care to take it, a more-than-decent chance for advancement. But that's probably what I'll have to do. Honestly, I think working in a movie theater would be really cool. Or a rental store. Think about it: free movies. But if I can get a job doing really basic IT stuff, that'd be awesome. It's unlikely, but that'd be awesome.

Before I leave you, I must recommend two VERY cool sites to you:

1. Last.fm - Anyone who loves music or just loves to g33k out over cool web tech, try this out. It falls into the social networking platform like MySpace, but is MUCH cooler. Basically, you download a little program, and as you listen to music it tells the site what you're listening to. Simple is that. From that, they can create all sorts of cool charts and bend your listening statistics around in cool ways. You can get your friends to join and then you can instantly see what everyone's been listening to lately. It'll even find people and groups for you to join based on the compatibility of your musical tastes. It's really quite impressive.
2. Dr. McNinja - This is just funny as fuck. It's a spoof web comic. I say spoof, because it's a clear parody/satire on the traditional dramatic stylings of comic books and it's really well done.
   

Aussie Doozie of the Day -
This is something I noticed when I was getting my prescriptions one day. I was waiting around, just wandering and looking at things the way you do when you really have nothing better to do when you're being made to wait but not long enough to go off and do something else. I found the condom section; they don't carry Trojan.