After reading this blog posting about what comics appeal to different demographics, I got to thinking about what Kristin and I enjoy when buying/reading comics. I know that not a lot of my usual readers read comics, but I thought I'd take a look at how we spend our money anyways, if just for personal enjoyment.
First, there are some common comics that we both like to read. One of the biggest commonalities is the X-Men universe. I am an X-slut and purchase just about every X-Men comic that comes out (minus the retarded Jubilee series that will be starting soon). At the moment, I get almost 10 different X-titles a month including X-men, Astonishing X-Men, Excalibur, Wolverine, Cable/Deadpool, New X-Men: Academy, and a few others. Kristin and I both read most of these.
Thinking about it now, though, I wonder why I continue getting a lot of the X-titles. For the most part, the writing contained in many of them is just horrible (Chuck Austen being the main perpetrator, but Chris Claremont has been sucking it up too lately). Kristin still enjoys them for the most part, however, but I think that's because she has more of an attachment to some of the characters than I do.
We also like reading fantasy comics. I recently picked her up the first Tellos trade paperback from Image and she seems to be enjoying it. We'll probably also read the Dragonlance: Legend of Huma mini together once all of the issues come in. I might also try to pick up a full run of Sojourn now that Crossgen has gone under (driving the prices of their back issues way down). Fantasy seems to be a genre that transcends the genders, as many of you may have noticed from the swarms of women attending all of the LOTR movies.
The rest of the comics we differ on. I like to get some lesser known, grittier comics such as Fallen Angel and the Losers from DC, Patient Zero, Sword of Dracula, and the Walking Dead from Image, and Conan from Dark Horse, to name a few. I like the more mature nature of these titles as I don't feel like the writers are pulling any punches like I feel they do when writing mainstream titles.
Kristin has never really gotten into these titles, but instead has formed a love of manga. Over the summer she's read the first 9 volumes of Fushugi Yugi and I'm ordering Demon Ororon for her. She tends to lean towards the mystical manga titles, probably because of her love of fantasy.
As for superheroes outside of the X-men, she doesn't really get into any (although she loves Superman, just not the comics). I have some that I like to read, such as Batman, Superman, and The Outsiders, but most of the others (ie: Spider-Man, the Avengers, and most Marvel superheroes) just don't do it for me.
Hmmm.... all of the sudden I have no idea where I was going with this. Well, at least now you have an idea of what kinds of comics me and the gf like just in case you want to mail some to us... or something.
On a side note, you can't throw swords! I was talking about this topic with a coworker over the past few days while we discussed King Arthur. It seems like every movie that has a sword in it has to have someone throwing it. Have you ever tried to throw a sword? If you actually have, you'll know first hand that it just doesn't work. A sword is not weighted for throwing--it's weighted for easy handling when hacking and slashing.
If you were to try to throw a sword, it would be extremely hard to keep the point forward. A sword is weighted so that an equal amount of weight is in the hilt and in the blade so that if you were to balance the sword, at the point where the hilt meets the blade, on your fingertip, it should balance perfectly (Orlando Bloom does this in Pirates of the Caribbean, if you remember that scene). When thrown the densest portion of the sword is at the rear. This causes the sword blade to veer off as the densest portion of the sword makes its way towards the front of the flight path. Unless the sword was thrown absolutely straight, it would hit its target at an odd angle, most likely not an angle that would cause damage, and most definitely not an angle that would lodge the blade into someone's flesh.
So Hollywood, if you're listening, knock it off with all of the lame ass sword throwing. It just doesn't work.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Atari Lynx, Where are You?
While browsing one of my favorite 80's nostalgia sites today, I found one heck on an interesting commercial. It's an advertisement for the Atari Lynx...... you know, their failed handheld that got its ass whipped by the Gameboy (and to a lesser degree, the Game Gear). In the ad, a kid is playing some game where he shoots stuff as a robot. For some reason he's playing this game in front of a brick wall. Maybe ghetto kids were the target market for this unbelievably expensive gaming machine. Who knows?
Anyhow, as he's playing this game, there's a comment made about how real and authentic the sound is with the Lynx. While that comment is made you're treated to a bunch of neat whirs and blips. Awesome! When the camera pans back to the kid after showing a screenshot, you see the kid against the brick wall again, but this time with a bunch of bullet holes through his chest. He looks around confusedly and, if I intuit correctly, also appears happy. He has bullet holes in his chest and is happy. This was an advertisement for the Lynx in the 80's. Un-frickin-believable. "Buy a Lynx now! It's like taking 4 slugs to the chest, without the fuss of actual blood loss and death!"
I have an update on the comic book situation that stemmed from my great grandmother's estate auction. The buyer who was allowed to buy the comic books before the auction has graciously decided to sell what comics he still has back to my family for the price he paid for them. My mother contacted him last week, told him about the situation, and let him think about it. Today he sold the 30 some remaining books he had back to my mom for $60, the amount he paid for them. This is a good thing, but there are also a few other details that give me pause about all of this.
Harlan told me that he only sold 33 comics to the outside buyer, who we'll call George. George told my mother that he had already sold a bunch before being alerted to the situation. These were no doubt the real money books--the superhero books Harlan said were worth nothing. So how could George still have over 30 books left when he was only sold 33 and sold a bunch already? Something doesn't add up. I'd put my money on Harlan lying yet again to me.
Compounding this situation is an interesting interaction my grandmother has become aware of. Last week Harlan and George were both the Legion in Hayfield and George slipped Harlan $100 for getting him such a good deal on the comics. This fact is pretty damning evidence that Harlan was simply out to fuck me over and make some money on the side.
It's interesting what comics are left that George sold back to our family. Most of the comics were no-name cartoon character funny books, but there were two that deserve note. One early issue of Action Comics was included (very beat up) as well as a very early Daredevil (which is actually in decent condition). The first proves there was Superman books sold to George, which Harlan claimed there wasn't.
Even more damning evidence that Harlan is trying to screw over the family estate in favor of making himself a buck is the fact that on the final assessment sheet that detailed the sale of all of my great grandma's possessions, none of the money collected for the comic books is listed. For all we know he could have just told me that sold them for such a pittance to George. More likely George sold the money books for Harlan on the side. Harlan and George then each get a cut. The $100 that was given to Harlan at the bar should have gone on the assessment sheet as well since it was in payment (this might be a stretch, but it seems logical) for the comics. It wasn't there.
So what do I do now? I guess I live with what I have and move on. I'm happy that at least I was able to get some of my great grandmother's comics back into the family, but the fact that Harlan so viciously attacked me personally by abusing his power as the executor of the estate still remains. If I could, I would pummel his scraggly, wrinkled, old body to near death and leave him to live as a crippled waste of life. That's more than what he deserves.
Anyhow, as he's playing this game, there's a comment made about how real and authentic the sound is with the Lynx. While that comment is made you're treated to a bunch of neat whirs and blips. Awesome! When the camera pans back to the kid after showing a screenshot, you see the kid against the brick wall again, but this time with a bunch of bullet holes through his chest. He looks around confusedly and, if I intuit correctly, also appears happy. He has bullet holes in his chest and is happy. This was an advertisement for the Lynx in the 80's. Un-frickin-believable. "Buy a Lynx now! It's like taking 4 slugs to the chest, without the fuss of actual blood loss and death!"
I have an update on the comic book situation that stemmed from my great grandmother's estate auction. The buyer who was allowed to buy the comic books before the auction has graciously decided to sell what comics he still has back to my family for the price he paid for them. My mother contacted him last week, told him about the situation, and let him think about it. Today he sold the 30 some remaining books he had back to my mom for $60, the amount he paid for them. This is a good thing, but there are also a few other details that give me pause about all of this.
Harlan told me that he only sold 33 comics to the outside buyer, who we'll call George. George told my mother that he had already sold a bunch before being alerted to the situation. These were no doubt the real money books--the superhero books Harlan said were worth nothing. So how could George still have over 30 books left when he was only sold 33 and sold a bunch already? Something doesn't add up. I'd put my money on Harlan lying yet again to me.
Compounding this situation is an interesting interaction my grandmother has become aware of. Last week Harlan and George were both the Legion in Hayfield and George slipped Harlan $100 for getting him such a good deal on the comics. This fact is pretty damning evidence that Harlan was simply out to fuck me over and make some money on the side.
It's interesting what comics are left that George sold back to our family. Most of the comics were no-name cartoon character funny books, but there were two that deserve note. One early issue of Action Comics was included (very beat up) as well as a very early Daredevil (which is actually in decent condition). The first proves there was Superman books sold to George, which Harlan claimed there wasn't.
Even more damning evidence that Harlan is trying to screw over the family estate in favor of making himself a buck is the fact that on the final assessment sheet that detailed the sale of all of my great grandma's possessions, none of the money collected for the comic books is listed. For all we know he could have just told me that sold them for such a pittance to George. More likely George sold the money books for Harlan on the side. Harlan and George then each get a cut. The $100 that was given to Harlan at the bar should have gone on the assessment sheet as well since it was in payment (this might be a stretch, but it seems logical) for the comics. It wasn't there.
So what do I do now? I guess I live with what I have and move on. I'm happy that at least I was able to get some of my great grandmother's comics back into the family, but the fact that Harlan so viciously attacked me personally by abusing his power as the executor of the estate still remains. If I could, I would pummel his scraggly, wrinkled, old body to near death and leave him to live as a crippled waste of life. That's more than what he deserves.
Monday, July 12, 2004
Rick Gebhardt vs. Best Buy
So, apparently Best Buy doesn't like it that some of their customers are "taking advantage" of them. Here's the story. I really don't feel sorry for Best Buy at all. The way they treat their customers they deserve to be cheated over and over again. I've had more stuff break on me that I've bought there than anywhere else. I'm starting to wonder if they possess some curse or something. It's gotten to the point that I will never buy anything major there without buying into their extended warranty because it is almost a guarantee that it's going to break. Let's look at what I've had break on me that I bought at Best Buy:
Now that I've gotten my personal beef with Best Buy out of the way, let's look at this article in all of its ridiculousness. The main quote that I have a beef with is this (the author is talking about unprofitable or "bad" customers):
I can see how it would be annoying to have someone constantly bothering your sales staff just for the sake of finding out information, but knocking people for only buying during sales? Why have sales then? I am one of those people who usually only buy things when they're on sale or if I absolutely need them. Maybe marketing should work on making other items more appealing than just the sale items. If they did maybe people like myself might grab more impulse buys when buying sale items.
This next quote is priceless and drags my view of Best Buy even further through the mud:
Why would you ever admit that you have hired a consultant that refers to some customers as "demon customers". So, customers that seek out bargains and participate in sales, thus diminishing the amount of money you suck from their pocketbooks, are evil because they aren't freely throwing money your way. Smart shoppers for Best Buy are nothing more than the enemy. Amazing.
Now when I think of demon customers, I guess I don't automatically think of bargain shoppers. I would probably think of a moderately sized dragon wearing khakis and a flannel shirt with his wife in tow. They would look around for the best deal, calmly asking questions of the workers. Upon finding what they needed, Bartlby (it's as good a name as any for a dragon wearing flannel) and his wife would check out. When asked for payment, Bartlby would simply flambé the cashier and walk out of the store. Now that would be something for Best Buy to be pissed about, not customers who like to shop smartly.
King Arthur--the movie that could have been. This is yet another film that's stuck in the category of "so close to being good". You could easily chalk that up to it being a Bruckheimer film, but I don't want to say it was ALL his fault. I left the theater with a very strong sense of ambivalence after sitting through what is supposed to be the definitive retelling of Arthur and his knights.
My biggest gripe with the movie is that it was basically a very hollow version of Braveheart. The battle scenes were decent, but the lack of blood and actual, gritty violence made it feel like it was a bunch of elementary kids playing knights and Saxons during recess. The acting was ok, but there were some cheeseball moments. Keira Knightley played the exact same role she has in every other movie she's been in. Seriously, she is the same basic person as she was in Pirates, but this time her boobs are deflated. Really, what happened to her boobs for this movie? They pretty much disappeared.
With the passing of King Arthur, I'm still waiting for there to be a truly kick ass movie this summer. Van Helsing, Day After Tomorrow, Chronicles of Riddick, and whatever else has come out this summer that I've suffered through just hasn't cut it. Riddick was entertaining, although very, very shallow. Maybe I, Robot will be good...... whoa, I can't believe I thought that, it's so going to suck. Maybe Collateral or Alexander will be good. Let's hope so.
- First, there's my family's computer from way back in the day. It was a Pentium 100 mhz or something like that. The motherboard fried on it so they replaced it only to have that motherboard fry the first time we turned it on. They then fried another on their own and finally gave us a new computer. We were without a computer for 2 months when they said it would take a week to fix it tops. My dad was forced to do all of the farms accounting and taxes in a week because Best Buy didn't give a crap about getting our computer back.
- When I was on vacation in California a few years ago my digital camera broke. It just up and died. I took it to a local Best Buy and they said they could mail it in to get fixed and have it back to me in a couple weeks. I explained that I was on vacation, but they didn't care. The person helping me even had the gall to tell me to just buy another camera and then return it when I got home. I asked about the restocking fee and he told me that it was a small price to pay. I went and bitched to another manager and eventually got them to exchange my camera for another one.
- I've had 4 MP3 players break on me. First my 64 mb Rio died so I exchanged it for another Rio. That one then quickly died so I traded up for a Nomad 128 mb player which soon broke. I then spent a little more cash and bought an Archos 5 GB player. That lasted almost two years until it broke. I now have a Lyra 40 GB jukebox. Let's hope it lasts a while.
- I used to have a lot of mp3's on cds so I bought a discman that also played mp3 cds. It broke unbelievably fast. I think it was 2 weeks. I took it back and got my money back on that one. Didn't even bother with an exchange.
Now that I've gotten my personal beef with Best Buy out of the way, let's look at this article in all of its ridiculousness. The main quote that I have a beef with is this (the author is talking about unprofitable or "bad" customers):
Like a customer who ties up a sales worker but never buys anything, or who buys only during big sales.
I can see how it would be annoying to have someone constantly bothering your sales staff just for the sake of finding out information, but knocking people for only buying during sales? Why have sales then? I am one of those people who usually only buy things when they're on sale or if I absolutely need them. Maybe marketing should work on making other items more appealing than just the sale items. If they did maybe people like myself might grab more impulse buys when buying sale items.
This next quote is priceless and drags my view of Best Buy even further through the mud:
Larry Selden calls them "demon customers."
Mr. Selden, a consultant who works for Best Buy, co-wrote Angel Customers & Demon Customers.
Why would you ever admit that you have hired a consultant that refers to some customers as "demon customers". So, customers that seek out bargains and participate in sales, thus diminishing the amount of money you suck from their pocketbooks, are evil because they aren't freely throwing money your way. Smart shoppers for Best Buy are nothing more than the enemy. Amazing.
Now when I think of demon customers, I guess I don't automatically think of bargain shoppers. I would probably think of a moderately sized dragon wearing khakis and a flannel shirt with his wife in tow. They would look around for the best deal, calmly asking questions of the workers. Upon finding what they needed, Bartlby (it's as good a name as any for a dragon wearing flannel) and his wife would check out. When asked for payment, Bartlby would simply flambé the cashier and walk out of the store. Now that would be something for Best Buy to be pissed about, not customers who like to shop smartly.
King Arthur--the movie that could have been. This is yet another film that's stuck in the category of "so close to being good". You could easily chalk that up to it being a Bruckheimer film, but I don't want to say it was ALL his fault. I left the theater with a very strong sense of ambivalence after sitting through what is supposed to be the definitive retelling of Arthur and his knights.
My biggest gripe with the movie is that it was basically a very hollow version of Braveheart. The battle scenes were decent, but the lack of blood and actual, gritty violence made it feel like it was a bunch of elementary kids playing knights and Saxons during recess. The acting was ok, but there were some cheeseball moments. Keira Knightley played the exact same role she has in every other movie she's been in. Seriously, she is the same basic person as she was in Pirates, but this time her boobs are deflated. Really, what happened to her boobs for this movie? They pretty much disappeared.
With the passing of King Arthur, I'm still waiting for there to be a truly kick ass movie this summer. Van Helsing, Day After Tomorrow, Chronicles of Riddick, and whatever else has come out this summer that I've suffered through just hasn't cut it. Riddick was entertaining, although very, very shallow. Maybe I, Robot will be good...... whoa, I can't believe I thought that, it's so going to suck. Maybe Collateral or Alexander will be good. Let's hope so.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Cell Phone Elitism
I've never been a fan of cell phones in general. If they are used in a decent manner, then I don't have so much of a problem with them, but more often than not people are complete boobs when it comes operating their cell phones.
In college at St. John's it seemed like cell phones were used as a tool to separate the "elite" people from the common college attendee. You need to understand that most of the people attending our private, moderately expensive, Catholic university were born and bred to be exclusive. Most everyone went to private high schools, often some of Minnesota's elite. I, coming from a small public school in the middle of nowhere, was in for quite the shock when I arrived at college.
Everyone had the coolest stuff, and I'm talking just about everyone. There weren't many of us that didn't have totally awesome stuff in our dorms. N64's and nice TV's and brand new computers and Playstations and sweet mountain bikes and other such things were in abundance. The only thing I could lay claim to was having a pretty decent computer and knowing how to actually use it. You wouldn't believe how many kids had a hard time operating their computers.
At one point I wholeheartedly exploited some of my dormmates' computer idiocy. One of the better pranks I pulled caused the prankee to continually restart his computer, call tech support, and then leave his computer in frustration to use the lab computers. What's really funny is that it's such a simply prank to pull. Right after the computer starts up, I hid the mouse cursor on the side of the screen and took a screen shot of the desktop. I then set that screenshot as the background of the computer. Next I took the Windows taskbar and shrank it all the way down to the bottom of the screen so that you could not click on it. After that I took all of the icons on the desktop and moved them into a folder on the hard drive.
When the computer is then booted up, it looks like the icons and taskbar are still there because of the screen shot that is now acting as the background. It was beyond funny watching him click on the icons and taskbar knowing that they really weren't there. The sheer amount of explicatives that were elicited from this prank were worth it alone.
The only thing that was somewhat nerve wracking about this prank was not laughing my ass off while I tried to "help" him get his computer up and running. I actually chuckled a few times and had to cover it up by saying that I heard someone yelling something funny from the hall.
A little while after he managed to baffle tech support with his problem and left, I "fixed" his computer. For being such a nice guy he bought me supper. Only after the semester was over did I tell him the prank I pulled on him. Needless to say there was much cursing directed at me.
Now that I have enlightened you with a wonderful prank to try on your friends, I want to get back to cell phones. Everyone that had a cell phone at college used it as a tool to show that they were better than other people around them. No matter what the social situation was that a cell phone toting student was in, it was paramount that their cell phone be answered if it was ringing. It was as if the world would end if somehow the person that was calling was redirected to *gasp* voicemail. I've had more than a few completely head-scratching moments where I've witnessed students answering or using their phones at the most inopportune times:
* In the middle of class while my professor was giving a lecture one student heard his phone go off and answered it in the middle of class. Now this wasn't some huge lecture class. No, it was a 20 student, upper division philosophy class. Not only did this student answer the phone but he talked on it for about 45 seconds before he even thought to get up and leave the classroom.
* I was in the middle of a conversation with a classmate and her phone went off. She immediately answered it while I was in mid sentence and started talking away. I actually turned and left before she hung up and tried to talk to me again.
* On the bus that transports students from SJU to CSB one student called another that was standing right outside at the bus stop. Two minutes later she got off the bus and continued her conversation in person. Why not wait 2 minutes and forego the use of the cell?
Anyhow, I detest cell phones, but a cell phone was the cheapest way to keep in contact with my parents while I was in college because our long distance rates were atrocious. As time went on AT&T ended up selling off all of their towers in the area of Hayfield, MN where I live so I couldn't use my phone without it being in roam. Since I was locked into a two year contract I couldn't get out until yesterday. I am now free of my cell phone and I can't be happier! I'm going to enjoy slowly roasting my phone over the fire.
In college at St. John's it seemed like cell phones were used as a tool to separate the "elite" people from the common college attendee. You need to understand that most of the people attending our private, moderately expensive, Catholic university were born and bred to be exclusive. Most everyone went to private high schools, often some of Minnesota's elite. I, coming from a small public school in the middle of nowhere, was in for quite the shock when I arrived at college.
Everyone had the coolest stuff, and I'm talking just about everyone. There weren't many of us that didn't have totally awesome stuff in our dorms. N64's and nice TV's and brand new computers and Playstations and sweet mountain bikes and other such things were in abundance. The only thing I could lay claim to was having a pretty decent computer and knowing how to actually use it. You wouldn't believe how many kids had a hard time operating their computers.
At one point I wholeheartedly exploited some of my dormmates' computer idiocy. One of the better pranks I pulled caused the prankee to continually restart his computer, call tech support, and then leave his computer in frustration to use the lab computers. What's really funny is that it's such a simply prank to pull. Right after the computer starts up, I hid the mouse cursor on the side of the screen and took a screen shot of the desktop. I then set that screenshot as the background of the computer. Next I took the Windows taskbar and shrank it all the way down to the bottom of the screen so that you could not click on it. After that I took all of the icons on the desktop and moved them into a folder on the hard drive.
When the computer is then booted up, it looks like the icons and taskbar are still there because of the screen shot that is now acting as the background. It was beyond funny watching him click on the icons and taskbar knowing that they really weren't there. The sheer amount of explicatives that were elicited from this prank were worth it alone.
The only thing that was somewhat nerve wracking about this prank was not laughing my ass off while I tried to "help" him get his computer up and running. I actually chuckled a few times and had to cover it up by saying that I heard someone yelling something funny from the hall.
A little while after he managed to baffle tech support with his problem and left, I "fixed" his computer. For being such a nice guy he bought me supper. Only after the semester was over did I tell him the prank I pulled on him. Needless to say there was much cursing directed at me.
Now that I have enlightened you with a wonderful prank to try on your friends, I want to get back to cell phones. Everyone that had a cell phone at college used it as a tool to show that they were better than other people around them. No matter what the social situation was that a cell phone toting student was in, it was paramount that their cell phone be answered if it was ringing. It was as if the world would end if somehow the person that was calling was redirected to *gasp* voicemail. I've had more than a few completely head-scratching moments where I've witnessed students answering or using their phones at the most inopportune times:
* In the middle of class while my professor was giving a lecture one student heard his phone go off and answered it in the middle of class. Now this wasn't some huge lecture class. No, it was a 20 student, upper division philosophy class. Not only did this student answer the phone but he talked on it for about 45 seconds before he even thought to get up and leave the classroom.
* I was in the middle of a conversation with a classmate and her phone went off. She immediately answered it while I was in mid sentence and started talking away. I actually turned and left before she hung up and tried to talk to me again.
* On the bus that transports students from SJU to CSB one student called another that was standing right outside at the bus stop. Two minutes later she got off the bus and continued her conversation in person. Why not wait 2 minutes and forego the use of the cell?
Anyhow, I detest cell phones, but a cell phone was the cheapest way to keep in contact with my parents while I was in college because our long distance rates were atrocious. As time went on AT&T ended up selling off all of their towers in the area of Hayfield, MN where I live so I couldn't use my phone without it being in roam. Since I was locked into a two year contract I couldn't get out until yesterday. I am now free of my cell phone and I can't be happier! I'm going to enjoy slowly roasting my phone over the fire.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Is Being Gay So Wrong?
Last night my pastor came over to talk with Kristin and myself about religion. You see, I'm Lutheran (Missouri Synod) and she's Catholic. This has often lead to some interesting debates and since we both have many questions about the other's religion, we've often tried to experience each style of church. Talking with my pastor only seemed a natural extension of this. I was also very curious to talk with my pastor about some topics that are heavy on my mind as well, or that might need some clarifying.
Kristin and I do agree on a lot religiously, but it's usually the small details that we argue over. We both are Christians. We both believe in consubstantiation. We believe in the message of tolerance, love, peace, and forgiveness that Jesus taught. We believe that Jesus was God. None of these "big" details are ever in question. It's all the "little" details that do cause trouble, though.
Traditionally Catholics and Protestants both oppose homosexuality and the practice of having women priests/pastors and women as deacons/elders. While being brought up in the strongly conservative environment of the Missouri Synod church I also, of course, came to believe these things as true. As I've grown, experienced the world, examined more of the human experience, and learned I come to see that maybe I don't wholeheartedly believe in these things anymore. Last night helped to rekindle many of the lines of reasoning that I had let fall by the wayside since I graduated college. I am now in an environment where I am not expected to question everything all the time like I was in college in our philosophy program. I am somewhat ashamed for letting my mental stimulation lag, but I hope last night is a stepping stone to reawakening a lazy part of my mind.
The main topic that was focused on last night, after talking about the general church things, was homosexuality. This has become a very tender area of discussion for Kristin and myself. She is a strong advocate for the homosexual/bisexual community and does not see their practices as being something wrong. I, on the other hand, have always thought that homosexuality is something wrong--something that shouldn't be practiced. Growing up I never questioned why I believed that, but because of Kristin and the college environment I have been forced to, and I am thankful that I was.
I was always taught that the Bible said homosexuality was wrong so there was no question, it should never be practiced. Now, after doing some research, it seems like the Bible isn't so clear cut about what it says. Sure, there's a few passages that appear to directly address homosexuality, but each of the verses have been translated in many different ways, how are we to know what is the correct translation. Over the years in the passing down of the Bible, who's to say exactly which translation is the definitive version. In some cases there is no way to directly translate a word in one language to an equivalent word in another language. A word that's close, but not exactly meaning the same thing, has to be used. I often think of the example of the Eskimos who have a myriad of words for snow and we have one. It would be very hard, if not impossible, to translate each word for snow into a different conceptual word in our language.
There has also been the argument that homosexuality isn't natural. It's an aberration. If it's such an aberration, then why does is proliferate in some species of animals as well? If it goes against what is "natural" then why does nature practice it? In my studies of sociobiology at college, which I could talk on end about but won't, there were many examples enumerated for the subsistence of homosexuality in nature ranging from genetics to providing a positive benefit for evolution through group selection. So is homosexuality really all that unnatural?
I've also been told that homosexuality is wrong because no life can be created from a homosexual union. I've always found this the weakest argument against homosexuality simply because then marriages or unions between infertile people or with a woman past menopause are wrong because no life can come from it.
In looking at the topic right now, I'm not completely sure exactly how I stand. I still have a hard time seeing homosexuality as something that is perfectly acceptable, but I also can't seem to find a concrete reason to think it's wrong. I by no means am trying to say that I dislike or will disassociate myself from homosexual people, but at the moment I am not sure I can actively condone what they are doing either. It's confusing. My feelings have definitely been quite conflicting as of late, especially when reading the thoughts of someone who is openly gay (I hope none of this offended you Lily) and seeing things through the eyes of someone living the lifestyle I've always been taught to disregard as simply being wrong. I've been taught to see it as wrong no matter what, but now I have a hard time justifying that notion. I really can't find a truly justifiable reason to say that homosexuality is wrong. This is a tough spot to be at mentally because, for once, I don't have a strong opinion in one direction on something. It's also tough religiously because it kind of, well, really conflicts with what my church believes.
On a completely different note, I finished reading Kafka's Metamorphosis the other day. I'm now trying to figure out what exactly was the point of the whole story. Is he trying to tell us that if you ever wake up as a bug, kill yourself quick so that your family can move on? Is it somehow metaphorical for saying that we are sometimes burdens to others and don't realize it? What was the reason for the transformation? Why did it happen? Obviously Kafka didn't think that the answers to these last two questions were essential at all. I just didn't take much away from this story. Enlighten me if I'm completely missing something here.
Kristin and I do agree on a lot religiously, but it's usually the small details that we argue over. We both are Christians. We both believe in consubstantiation. We believe in the message of tolerance, love, peace, and forgiveness that Jesus taught. We believe that Jesus was God. None of these "big" details are ever in question. It's all the "little" details that do cause trouble, though.
Traditionally Catholics and Protestants both oppose homosexuality and the practice of having women priests/pastors and women as deacons/elders. While being brought up in the strongly conservative environment of the Missouri Synod church I also, of course, came to believe these things as true. As I've grown, experienced the world, examined more of the human experience, and learned I come to see that maybe I don't wholeheartedly believe in these things anymore. Last night helped to rekindle many of the lines of reasoning that I had let fall by the wayside since I graduated college. I am now in an environment where I am not expected to question everything all the time like I was in college in our philosophy program. I am somewhat ashamed for letting my mental stimulation lag, but I hope last night is a stepping stone to reawakening a lazy part of my mind.
The main topic that was focused on last night, after talking about the general church things, was homosexuality. This has become a very tender area of discussion for Kristin and myself. She is a strong advocate for the homosexual/bisexual community and does not see their practices as being something wrong. I, on the other hand, have always thought that homosexuality is something wrong--something that shouldn't be practiced. Growing up I never questioned why I believed that, but because of Kristin and the college environment I have been forced to, and I am thankful that I was.
I was always taught that the Bible said homosexuality was wrong so there was no question, it should never be practiced. Now, after doing some research, it seems like the Bible isn't so clear cut about what it says. Sure, there's a few passages that appear to directly address homosexuality, but each of the verses have been translated in many different ways, how are we to know what is the correct translation. Over the years in the passing down of the Bible, who's to say exactly which translation is the definitive version. In some cases there is no way to directly translate a word in one language to an equivalent word in another language. A word that's close, but not exactly meaning the same thing, has to be used. I often think of the example of the Eskimos who have a myriad of words for snow and we have one. It would be very hard, if not impossible, to translate each word for snow into a different conceptual word in our language.
There has also been the argument that homosexuality isn't natural. It's an aberration. If it's such an aberration, then why does is proliferate in some species of animals as well? If it goes against what is "natural" then why does nature practice it? In my studies of sociobiology at college, which I could talk on end about but won't, there were many examples enumerated for the subsistence of homosexuality in nature ranging from genetics to providing a positive benefit for evolution through group selection. So is homosexuality really all that unnatural?
I've also been told that homosexuality is wrong because no life can be created from a homosexual union. I've always found this the weakest argument against homosexuality simply because then marriages or unions between infertile people or with a woman past menopause are wrong because no life can come from it.
In looking at the topic right now, I'm not completely sure exactly how I stand. I still have a hard time seeing homosexuality as something that is perfectly acceptable, but I also can't seem to find a concrete reason to think it's wrong. I by no means am trying to say that I dislike or will disassociate myself from homosexual people, but at the moment I am not sure I can actively condone what they are doing either. It's confusing. My feelings have definitely been quite conflicting as of late, especially when reading the thoughts of someone who is openly gay (I hope none of this offended you Lily) and seeing things through the eyes of someone living the lifestyle I've always been taught to disregard as simply being wrong. I've been taught to see it as wrong no matter what, but now I have a hard time justifying that notion. I really can't find a truly justifiable reason to say that homosexuality is wrong. This is a tough spot to be at mentally because, for once, I don't have a strong opinion in one direction on something. It's also tough religiously because it kind of, well, really conflicts with what my church believes.
On a completely different note, I finished reading Kafka's Metamorphosis the other day. I'm now trying to figure out what exactly was the point of the whole story. Is he trying to tell us that if you ever wake up as a bug, kill yourself quick so that your family can move on? Is it somehow metaphorical for saying that we are sometimes burdens to others and don't realize it? What was the reason for the transformation? Why did it happen? Obviously Kafka didn't think that the answers to these last two questions were essential at all. I just didn't take much away from this story. Enlighten me if I'm completely missing something here.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
A Belated Happy 4th
Well, since I took Friday, Monday, and the weekend off, I have a lot of updating to do, don't I? It was nice having a solid four day weekend and I enjoyed every last minute of it! Thursday night Kristin and I headed up to St. Cloud for the weekend so she could see her family, which she hadn't seen a whole lot of since she's been living with me in Rochester for the summer.
While we were up there I managed to put in a round of frisbee golf with Vu at Riverside. We would have went to Calgary, but they neutered that course last year, taking it from an 18 hole course down to a 12 hole course. The six holes they took out were also the six most enjoyable holes to golf on. As it was, I got showed up pretty bad by Vu. It was pretty apparent I hadn't been out in a while (and that I use an approach disc as my driver). Seeing Vu again and shooting some disc golf was really refreshing. I missed hitting the courses up there.
While at Kristin's house I also took plenty of time to relax and read a few TPB's that I've been meaning to for a little bit now. I first read Batman: The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale. It was a pretty interesting look at Batman's encounters with the gangsters and first meeting of Two-Face, but the whole thing felt extremely padded. There was a definite lack of dialogue on each page. It would have been pretty easy to condense this book from the 350+ pages it was down to around 250 or less. As it is, though, I found it interesting and I'll hopefully pick up the sequel, Dark Victory, sometime soon.
Along with The Long Halloween, I also read Inhumans by Jae Lee and Paul Jenkins. As I started reading this book, I felt like it was jumping around and not really going anywhere, but about a fourth of the way in things started tying together and I found myself hooked. This is one of the best Marvel TPB's I've read in a long time. That may not be saying much since most of the Marvel comics I've read recently have not been so good, but really this TPB was a marvelous read. Lee's art is stunning, as usual, and by the time the story draws to a close Jenkins manages to create a tale that pulls at the heart of what it is to be a leader. Never has the campy phrase, "With great power comes great responsibility" rang more true than in how Black Bolt leads his people.
Since I mentioned Spider-Man's trademark phrase I might as well give my thoughts on the movie. Frankly, I thought there were way too many eyeball rolling moments, but if I were to ignore them, it was an enjoyable film. The fight scenes between Spider-Man and Doc Ock were simply amazing and Molina playing Doc Ock was perfect casting. These two things are what kept this movie from completely failing. Maguire and Dunst cannot act... at... all. There were so many terribly played out scenes between the two where they did nothing more than look at each other and eek out a word every few seconds or so. Most of the time I wanted to punch Maguire in the face because I hated his portrayal of Peter Parker. I know almost every critic and every person that went to see this movie loved it, but I'll stand firmly in the minority and say that it wasn't nearly as good as all the hype said it would be.
Now for the fourth I was back here at home. My family, grandma Meyer, and Kristin went to Rochester for the fireworks. They were very good, like every other time we've went, except for the grand finale. For some reason there must have been something wrong because the finale was broken up into about 4 mini-finales. Every other year the grand finale would end with a whole bunch of loud, flashy banger fireworks. When the finale initially ended this year there were no bangers. It just ended after a long volley of red, white, and blue sunbursts. I chalked it up to the people in charge just doing something a little different this year.
As is rarely the case, I was wrong. As we started putting our chairs back in their travel bags another mini-finale went off. It was funny to watch everyone as they were putting things away or walking towards their car suddenly stop whatever they were doing to stare up into the sky at the new batch of aerial explosions. Once they were over there was another round of applause as we continued to put our stuff away and head towards my grandma's van. As we were crossing the street there was another volley of fireworks. Now I started to suspect something must have not went right with the show. Later as we were driving away there was yet another dosage of fireworks, this one being the last.
It was interesting to have all of these little fireworks displays, but I would much rather have preferred having one uber-finale instead of the screwed up little finales they had this year. It was still a great fourth of July, however, and I enjoyed spending the evening with my family watching things explode.
While we were up there I managed to put in a round of frisbee golf with Vu at Riverside. We would have went to Calgary, but they neutered that course last year, taking it from an 18 hole course down to a 12 hole course. The six holes they took out were also the six most enjoyable holes to golf on. As it was, I got showed up pretty bad by Vu. It was pretty apparent I hadn't been out in a while (and that I use an approach disc as my driver). Seeing Vu again and shooting some disc golf was really refreshing. I missed hitting the courses up there.
While at Kristin's house I also took plenty of time to relax and read a few TPB's that I've been meaning to for a little bit now. I first read Batman: The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale. It was a pretty interesting look at Batman's encounters with the gangsters and first meeting of Two-Face, but the whole thing felt extremely padded. There was a definite lack of dialogue on each page. It would have been pretty easy to condense this book from the 350+ pages it was down to around 250 or less. As it is, though, I found it interesting and I'll hopefully pick up the sequel, Dark Victory, sometime soon.
Along with The Long Halloween, I also read Inhumans by Jae Lee and Paul Jenkins. As I started reading this book, I felt like it was jumping around and not really going anywhere, but about a fourth of the way in things started tying together and I found myself hooked. This is one of the best Marvel TPB's I've read in a long time. That may not be saying much since most of the Marvel comics I've read recently have not been so good, but really this TPB was a marvelous read. Lee's art is stunning, as usual, and by the time the story draws to a close Jenkins manages to create a tale that pulls at the heart of what it is to be a leader. Never has the campy phrase, "With great power comes great responsibility" rang more true than in how Black Bolt leads his people.
Since I mentioned Spider-Man's trademark phrase I might as well give my thoughts on the movie. Frankly, I thought there were way too many eyeball rolling moments, but if I were to ignore them, it was an enjoyable film. The fight scenes between Spider-Man and Doc Ock were simply amazing and Molina playing Doc Ock was perfect casting. These two things are what kept this movie from completely failing. Maguire and Dunst cannot act... at... all. There were so many terribly played out scenes between the two where they did nothing more than look at each other and eek out a word every few seconds or so. Most of the time I wanted to punch Maguire in the face because I hated his portrayal of Peter Parker. I know almost every critic and every person that went to see this movie loved it, but I'll stand firmly in the minority and say that it wasn't nearly as good as all the hype said it would be.
Now for the fourth I was back here at home. My family, grandma Meyer, and Kristin went to Rochester for the fireworks. They were very good, like every other time we've went, except for the grand finale. For some reason there must have been something wrong because the finale was broken up into about 4 mini-finales. Every other year the grand finale would end with a whole bunch of loud, flashy banger fireworks. When the finale initially ended this year there were no bangers. It just ended after a long volley of red, white, and blue sunbursts. I chalked it up to the people in charge just doing something a little different this year.
As is rarely the case, I was wrong. As we started putting our chairs back in their travel bags another mini-finale went off. It was funny to watch everyone as they were putting things away or walking towards their car suddenly stop whatever they were doing to stare up into the sky at the new batch of aerial explosions. Once they were over there was another round of applause as we continued to put our stuff away and head towards my grandma's van. As we were crossing the street there was another volley of fireworks. Now I started to suspect something must have not went right with the show. Later as we were driving away there was yet another dosage of fireworks, this one being the last.
It was interesting to have all of these little fireworks displays, but I would much rather have preferred having one uber-finale instead of the screwed up little finales they had this year. It was still a great fourth of July, however, and I enjoyed spending the evening with my family watching things explode.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
I Want Free Comics!
Now that I managed to vent out many (well, maybe not many, but at least a few) of my frustrations about the auction of my great grandmother's estate, I want to forget about it for a little bit and focus on more happy topics, like Free Comic Book Day!
Yep, Saturday, July 3rd is free comic book day. Stop by a local retailer and grab a couple of free comics. While you're there, pick up a graphic novel or a few comics to support your local comic book store. I'll probably try to pick up a couple of graphic novels that I've been wanting to read, like Batman: Dark Victory or The Final Night, to show some support for the local comic industry, even if I'm not the biggest fan of the St. Cloud comic shop. The owner is kind of a prick, but having a comic shop, owned by a jerk, to go to when you miss an issue is better than no shop at all.
On another positive note, I was finally able to have my first movie night of the summer! It was a pretty small crowd with it being only Caleb, Kristin, and myself, but it was an enjoyable time nonetheless. Chris was supposed to come over, but apparently he "forgot" that I told him we were starting the movie at 7. He instead called at 8:30 wondering when we were going to start. I reminded him that we started at 7 and we were already halfway through Pitch Black. He sounded disappointed that we didn't wait, but we can't always sit around and wait on his schedule.
Pitch Black was a lot better the second time around. I had watched it when it first came out on dvd a couple of years back and didn't think it was all that great. I must not have been in the mood for it back then because this time I enjoyed the flick immensely. It was moody, well shot, and had Vin Diesel putting on his best acting performance. It's too bad he hasn't matched it since. The only other movies he's done that I've even remotely enjoyed have been Chronicles of Riddick (because the action was cool--the story sucked) and Saving Private Ryan (and Diesel had a small role in that one). XXX and The Fast and the Furious were utterly terrible and I can't believe that they were as popular as they are. Goes to show you how dumb the average moviegoer is.
While I'm talking about stupid moviegoers, I'll be one of the many millions seeing Spider-Man 2 this weekend. I'm not expecting much since I hated the first one, but I am hoping the special effects are pretty sweet, especially considering the assload of money they threw into this film. From what I've seen in the trailers, it doesn't look all that great. Spider-Man still looks extremely fake, but maybe it'll look better on the big screen.
Yep, Saturday, July 3rd is free comic book day. Stop by a local retailer and grab a couple of free comics. While you're there, pick up a graphic novel or a few comics to support your local comic book store. I'll probably try to pick up a couple of graphic novels that I've been wanting to read, like Batman: Dark Victory or The Final Night, to show some support for the local comic industry, even if I'm not the biggest fan of the St. Cloud comic shop. The owner is kind of a prick, but having a comic shop, owned by a jerk, to go to when you miss an issue is better than no shop at all.
On another positive note, I was finally able to have my first movie night of the summer! It was a pretty small crowd with it being only Caleb, Kristin, and myself, but it was an enjoyable time nonetheless. Chris was supposed to come over, but apparently he "forgot" that I told him we were starting the movie at 7. He instead called at 8:30 wondering when we were going to start. I reminded him that we started at 7 and we were already halfway through Pitch Black. He sounded disappointed that we didn't wait, but we can't always sit around and wait on his schedule.
Pitch Black was a lot better the second time around. I had watched it when it first came out on dvd a couple of years back and didn't think it was all that great. I must not have been in the mood for it back then because this time I enjoyed the flick immensely. It was moody, well shot, and had Vin Diesel putting on his best acting performance. It's too bad he hasn't matched it since. The only other movies he's done that I've even remotely enjoyed have been Chronicles of Riddick (because the action was cool--the story sucked) and Saving Private Ryan (and Diesel had a small role in that one). XXX and The Fast and the Furious were utterly terrible and I can't believe that they were as popular as they are. Goes to show you how dumb the average moviegoer is.
While I'm talking about stupid moviegoers, I'll be one of the many millions seeing Spider-Man 2 this weekend. I'm not expecting much since I hated the first one, but I am hoping the special effects are pretty sweet, especially considering the assload of money they threw into this film. From what I've seen in the trailers, it doesn't look all that great. Spider-Man still looks extremely fake, but maybe it'll look better on the big screen.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Never Trust a Buck
There are terrible people out there in the world. Usually when you think about who classifies as a terrible person, you think of truly evil people like Saddam or O.J. Simpson or Bin Laden. It turns out that there are truly evil people all around us and it's taken me 23 years and the death of my great grandmother to find this out. In fact, the evil people I talk of are even related to me. It's unfortunate, but it has taught me that you can't always trust people. I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but because of these evil people, I am now a little less open to doing that, which is sad, but after dealing with these people I can't help but feel this way.
As many of you know, my great grandmother passed away about a month ago. It was hard for me since I have a hard time dealing with death in general and with it also being a family member. I was finally getting over it, but then came the preparations for the auction of her estate. Harlan Buck was assigned to handle the process. It should be pointed out that his wife, Joann, was the daughter of my great grandmother and the sister of my grandma Meyer.
It was thought that Harlan would be impartial and treat everyone fairly. He claimed that everything would be handled consistently to keep from having the family members fight. He completely and totally lied. This waste of life used his position to screw our side of the family and benefit his. Apparently he doesn't possess a heart or a conscience (and neither does Joann). Let's examine exactly what he did to bring me to this conclusion. It's an interesting tale.
My great grandmother had stored away some comic books from when my grandma was little in her upstairs. When I'd go visit her, especially when I was younger, she would tell me about them and I could never wait to read them. The thing was, she had them packed away in a box somewhere upstairs and because she was not in the best of health, it was extremely hard for her to get to them. Often my mom would tell me to play with some toys or do something else instead of bothering great grandma Ziemer about the comics. That was often enough to get me to forget about them for the time being.
Just because I would forget about them in the short term I would often think about them after we left and every time we came over. She would always tell me that I'd get to see them someday and, in her later days, told me and grandma that when she was gone she'd like for me to finally have them. I had so many memories attached to those comics even though I had never seen them. When she finally passed away, I clung to those memories (and a blanket that she had crocheted for me) for comfort.
Now comes the time to divide up her belongings and prepare the auction. Harlan deems it necessary to put everything on the auction to avoid fighting between the family members over who might have received more valuable items than the other. If someone wanted something of great grandma's, they would have to buy it. That seemed somewhat extreme, but at least it was a fair plan... in theory. The execution left a lot to be desired.
I was saddened that I would have to buy something that my great grandma actually wanted me to have, but I really didn't have much of a choice. I was prepared to throw down a chunk of cash to get them because they were how I wanted to remember her. A few days before the auction my mother told me that Harlan and Joann had sold a chunk of the comics to one of their friends. At this, I became furious. I was also told that they were sold for $2 each. Now I was even more angry. These were golden age comics from the 1940's and 1950's. Two dollars each was an unbelievably cheap price to sell them for.
What made matters even worse is that there were three types of comics that great grandma had--romance, western, and superhero. It turns out that the buyer took all of the superhero ones because he told Harlan they weren't valuable. It might have also helped that the buyer was one of Harlan's friends. Either way, he got the most valuable comics for dirt cheap and the family wasn't even given a chance to buy them. I was heartbroken.
I later called up Joann to figure out why this was done. I really wanted to find out why this happened. Why did they break the rules that Harlan had set up for dealing with great grandma's possessions? What could have driven them to do this? Upon calling Joann told me that she didn't think I wanted them. What I actually told her and my grandma is that the ones without the covers and the ones that were excessively beat up weren't really worth much. Apparently, to her ears, that sounded like, "Rick doesn't want these so I should sell them to my friends." Which, of course, she did, being the dirty, back-stabbing bitch that she is.
I explained myself to her and how my statement in no way told her to sell them before the auction, but she refused to talk to me like a human being. She spoke condescendingly to me telling me that I was simply causing her trouble and she didn't want to deal with it. Apparently my emotional stress meant nothing to her. She told me she didn't want to talk about it on the phone so I agreed that we could then talk about it in the morning before the auction. I was trying to be polite to accommodate her, but she adamantly told me she would NOT deal with this at all. That's so nice of her to care, isn't it?
I was not about to let this drop because I was being treated completely unfairly and some of my memories were just sold away to some dealer who, by the way, has already sold most of the comics for a pretty hefty profit. In the morning I decided I'd try to talk to Joann and Harlan about it and maybe see if I could get the comics that were left at the same price. It seems like that would only be fair, right? If one person could buy them before the auction for $2 a piece, why couldn't I as well? That would seem logical...
...Unless you were a money whore like Harlan. Joann avoided me like the plague that morning and I wasn't going to work overly hard to talk to her since she didn't want to speak with me. Instead I went to Harlan. He was the one in charge after all, so he should be able to rectify this. Upon asking why he sold them, his reply was, "I thought it was a good deal." A good deal? A good deal for who? Not for you, you dumb old prick. Your buyer (and friend) got the deal. If all you cared about was the money, you sure didn't get much and, by extension, neither did great grandma's heirs.
I then propositioned Harlan to buy the remainder comics for the same price he sold the others at. He said absolutely not. The superhero books he sold, he was told by the buyer, weren't worth any real money and $2 was a good price. Of course the buyer is going to tell you they aren't worth much!! I asked why I couldn't buy them for $2 each and he said because the westerns and romance comics were worth more. I asked what superhero comics he sold then, since they weren't worth much money.
His response: "Umm... some Superman and other superheroes like that."
My response: "Did you know that Superman comics from the 40's and 50's are probably some of the most valuable of the entire lot that great grandma had?"
His response: "Oh wait, come to think of it maybe there weren't any Superman comics."
My inner monologue: "BULLSHIT!"
He then said $5 was his final offer and he could do this because he was responsible for the estate and what he said goes. After that he turned his back to me and wouldn't allow me to say another word. I then went to look at the remainder of the comics to possibly pick some out, still being pissed at how I was being treated. While I was looking through them, Harlan came over to me and told me now to wait until the auction. His justification: You'll probably get the whole lot for cheap--less than $5 a piece. What he was really thinking: "Shit, he's going to buy them for this price. I must not have asked enough."
Flash forward to the actual auction. They started auctioning off the comics... individually instead of by lot. I thought they might go for maybe $5-$10 a piece because most were only in Good or Good+ condition at best, but the first round the high bid was $37.50 per issue. Well damn, it looked like I wasn't going to get any. How could I pay that much money for them? I did eventually get a few and a box of comics where most of them were missing the covers, but it cost me a good chunk of cash to do it.
What made it even worse is that Harlan stared me down as the bidding was taking place. I could tell he was gloating over how managed to screw me over. That dirty old fuck managed to desecrate some of my fondest memories of my great grandmother. Instead of the comics being given to me like great grandma wanted, a couple of comic dealers ended up with them and already a bunch have been resold.
I know this has been a lot to read and is a lot more than I usually post, but I wanted to get the full story out. In one fell swoop, Harlan and Joann Buck, from Hayfield, MN (in case anyone knows them and wants to tell them what terrible people they are), managed to take some of the fondest memories of my great grandmother and turn them into grotesque monstrosities of hate--a hate I possess for Joann and Harlan. A hate that I won't let go. They destroyed something close to my heart and it's brought me more than enough tears. Sure, someone may say that it's only comics books, but that's not all it is, it's a memento of my passed on relative. They're not comics so much as they are pieces of someone with which I can keep from forgetting her.
Along with my heartbreak comes a good share of hate. This is an emotion that I rarely have. Sure, people piss me off at times, but it would take a lot to get me to hate someone. The way Joann and Harlan treated me, though, easily aroused my hate. I passionately hate them through and through. If I were ever to wish a terrible and painful calamity upon anyone, it would be them. I wish them the absolute worst in life. They're not good enough for the air they breath.
In the end, the worst part of this whole situation is it can't be undone. The comics are gone, probably resold already (some for sure already are). With each one goes a small piece of my great grandma and it hurts.
As many of you know, my great grandmother passed away about a month ago. It was hard for me since I have a hard time dealing with death in general and with it also being a family member. I was finally getting over it, but then came the preparations for the auction of her estate. Harlan Buck was assigned to handle the process. It should be pointed out that his wife, Joann, was the daughter of my great grandmother and the sister of my grandma Meyer.
It was thought that Harlan would be impartial and treat everyone fairly. He claimed that everything would be handled consistently to keep from having the family members fight. He completely and totally lied. This waste of life used his position to screw our side of the family and benefit his. Apparently he doesn't possess a heart or a conscience (and neither does Joann). Let's examine exactly what he did to bring me to this conclusion. It's an interesting tale.
My great grandmother had stored away some comic books from when my grandma was little in her upstairs. When I'd go visit her, especially when I was younger, she would tell me about them and I could never wait to read them. The thing was, she had them packed away in a box somewhere upstairs and because she was not in the best of health, it was extremely hard for her to get to them. Often my mom would tell me to play with some toys or do something else instead of bothering great grandma Ziemer about the comics. That was often enough to get me to forget about them for the time being.
Just because I would forget about them in the short term I would often think about them after we left and every time we came over. She would always tell me that I'd get to see them someday and, in her later days, told me and grandma that when she was gone she'd like for me to finally have them. I had so many memories attached to those comics even though I had never seen them. When she finally passed away, I clung to those memories (and a blanket that she had crocheted for me) for comfort.
Now comes the time to divide up her belongings and prepare the auction. Harlan deems it necessary to put everything on the auction to avoid fighting between the family members over who might have received more valuable items than the other. If someone wanted something of great grandma's, they would have to buy it. That seemed somewhat extreme, but at least it was a fair plan... in theory. The execution left a lot to be desired.
I was saddened that I would have to buy something that my great grandma actually wanted me to have, but I really didn't have much of a choice. I was prepared to throw down a chunk of cash to get them because they were how I wanted to remember her. A few days before the auction my mother told me that Harlan and Joann had sold a chunk of the comics to one of their friends. At this, I became furious. I was also told that they were sold for $2 each. Now I was even more angry. These were golden age comics from the 1940's and 1950's. Two dollars each was an unbelievably cheap price to sell them for.
What made matters even worse is that there were three types of comics that great grandma had--romance, western, and superhero. It turns out that the buyer took all of the superhero ones because he told Harlan they weren't valuable. It might have also helped that the buyer was one of Harlan's friends. Either way, he got the most valuable comics for dirt cheap and the family wasn't even given a chance to buy them. I was heartbroken.
I later called up Joann to figure out why this was done. I really wanted to find out why this happened. Why did they break the rules that Harlan had set up for dealing with great grandma's possessions? What could have driven them to do this? Upon calling Joann told me that she didn't think I wanted them. What I actually told her and my grandma is that the ones without the covers and the ones that were excessively beat up weren't really worth much. Apparently, to her ears, that sounded like, "Rick doesn't want these so I should sell them to my friends." Which, of course, she did, being the dirty, back-stabbing bitch that she is.
I explained myself to her and how my statement in no way told her to sell them before the auction, but she refused to talk to me like a human being. She spoke condescendingly to me telling me that I was simply causing her trouble and she didn't want to deal with it. Apparently my emotional stress meant nothing to her. She told me she didn't want to talk about it on the phone so I agreed that we could then talk about it in the morning before the auction. I was trying to be polite to accommodate her, but she adamantly told me she would NOT deal with this at all. That's so nice of her to care, isn't it?
I was not about to let this drop because I was being treated completely unfairly and some of my memories were just sold away to some dealer who, by the way, has already sold most of the comics for a pretty hefty profit. In the morning I decided I'd try to talk to Joann and Harlan about it and maybe see if I could get the comics that were left at the same price. It seems like that would only be fair, right? If one person could buy them before the auction for $2 a piece, why couldn't I as well? That would seem logical...
...Unless you were a money whore like Harlan. Joann avoided me like the plague that morning and I wasn't going to work overly hard to talk to her since she didn't want to speak with me. Instead I went to Harlan. He was the one in charge after all, so he should be able to rectify this. Upon asking why he sold them, his reply was, "I thought it was a good deal." A good deal? A good deal for who? Not for you, you dumb old prick. Your buyer (and friend) got the deal. If all you cared about was the money, you sure didn't get much and, by extension, neither did great grandma's heirs.
I then propositioned Harlan to buy the remainder comics for the same price he sold the others at. He said absolutely not. The superhero books he sold, he was told by the buyer, weren't worth any real money and $2 was a good price. Of course the buyer is going to tell you they aren't worth much!! I asked why I couldn't buy them for $2 each and he said because the westerns and romance comics were worth more. I asked what superhero comics he sold then, since they weren't worth much money.
His response: "Umm... some Superman and other superheroes like that."
My response: "Did you know that Superman comics from the 40's and 50's are probably some of the most valuable of the entire lot that great grandma had?"
His response: "Oh wait, come to think of it maybe there weren't any Superman comics."
My inner monologue: "BULLSHIT!"
He then said $5 was his final offer and he could do this because he was responsible for the estate and what he said goes. After that he turned his back to me and wouldn't allow me to say another word. I then went to look at the remainder of the comics to possibly pick some out, still being pissed at how I was being treated. While I was looking through them, Harlan came over to me and told me now to wait until the auction. His justification: You'll probably get the whole lot for cheap--less than $5 a piece. What he was really thinking: "Shit, he's going to buy them for this price. I must not have asked enough."
Flash forward to the actual auction. They started auctioning off the comics... individually instead of by lot. I thought they might go for maybe $5-$10 a piece because most were only in Good or Good+ condition at best, but the first round the high bid was $37.50 per issue. Well damn, it looked like I wasn't going to get any. How could I pay that much money for them? I did eventually get a few and a box of comics where most of them were missing the covers, but it cost me a good chunk of cash to do it.
What made it even worse is that Harlan stared me down as the bidding was taking place. I could tell he was gloating over how managed to screw me over. That dirty old fuck managed to desecrate some of my fondest memories of my great grandmother. Instead of the comics being given to me like great grandma wanted, a couple of comic dealers ended up with them and already a bunch have been resold.
I know this has been a lot to read and is a lot more than I usually post, but I wanted to get the full story out. In one fell swoop, Harlan and Joann Buck, from Hayfield, MN (in case anyone knows them and wants to tell them what terrible people they are), managed to take some of the fondest memories of my great grandmother and turn them into grotesque monstrosities of hate--a hate I possess for Joann and Harlan. A hate that I won't let go. They destroyed something close to my heart and it's brought me more than enough tears. Sure, someone may say that it's only comics books, but that's not all it is, it's a memento of my passed on relative. They're not comics so much as they are pieces of someone with which I can keep from forgetting her.
Along with my heartbreak comes a good share of hate. This is an emotion that I rarely have. Sure, people piss me off at times, but it would take a lot to get me to hate someone. The way Joann and Harlan treated me, though, easily aroused my hate. I passionately hate them through and through. If I were ever to wish a terrible and painful calamity upon anyone, it would be them. I wish them the absolute worst in life. They're not good enough for the air they breath.
In the end, the worst part of this whole situation is it can't be undone. The comics are gone, probably resold already (some for sure already are). With each one goes a small piece of my great grandma and it hurts.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Poems About Speeding
Back after my sophomore year of college, I spent a lot of time in "the group", which consisted of myself, Chris Swanson, Sarah Taylor, and Caleb Buecksler. We did just about everything together during that summer, culminating in a crazy road trip we all took out to California. That summer was probably the most enjoyable summer I can remember. I could easily write a book on some of the crazy things we did during that summer, but the sad truth is I'm just too lazy to do it.
Anyhow, I found out recently that Sarah is spending the summer in Florida. While reading some of the email updates she sends out I got to thinking about that summer from so long ago, and about one event in particular. During that school year, Sarah had received a speeding ticket. Two of our high school teachers (who were married to each other), the Klagges, continually gave her crap about it. Over and over again, the Klagges would tease her about her mishap and continually recite to her that she needed to be a little more safe when driving. The Klagges would never drive so recklessly, especially since they had two young children. That's what they said, but then one day while reading the sheriff's report in the Hayfield paper it was revealed that Jen Klagge had received a speeding ticket last month.
Upon finding this out, I immediately informed Sarah and we knew that we had to find some way to stick it to Jen, especially since she tried to keep it secret from us (thank goodness for Sheriff reports). We had a few planning sessions to figure out what to do, but we just couldn't think of anything truly crazy to do. Instead, we finally decided to write her a poem and frame it. However, we also decided not to tell her it was from us or give it to her in person. We wanted her to have to guess who it was.
What's really amazing about the whole story isn't that we delivered it in secret one night, or that Chris and I double crossed Sarah with the help of the Klagges after the delivery of the poem, or that Jen knew it was from Sarah & me right away, or that we conned Sarah into believing that the Klagges *knew* it was from Chris and not us, or any of the other details, but instead it was the huge space of time it took us to come up with a 12 line or so poem.
We spent an entire night sitting around, brainstorming, and writing (and watching the Princess Bride). When the poem was finally finished and placed in its frame, I felt like we had really accomplished something. I also felt that we had really bonded as friends that night. We had been friends for a few years, but I had never felt like we were truly close friends, but over the course of this summer, and especially during that night of poetry writing, I finally felt like we had connected more so than in the past.
Thinking about this makes me miss her, and the rest of "the group", so much. I can remember having moments such as this with each member, and together as a group as well. I know that there will never be a summer that goes by that I won't remember the crazy things we did together as "the group" during our summer breaks away from school. Some things you simply can't forget.
Anyhow, I found out recently that Sarah is spending the summer in Florida. While reading some of the email updates she sends out I got to thinking about that summer from so long ago, and about one event in particular. During that school year, Sarah had received a speeding ticket. Two of our high school teachers (who were married to each other), the Klagges, continually gave her crap about it. Over and over again, the Klagges would tease her about her mishap and continually recite to her that she needed to be a little more safe when driving. The Klagges would never drive so recklessly, especially since they had two young children. That's what they said, but then one day while reading the sheriff's report in the Hayfield paper it was revealed that Jen Klagge had received a speeding ticket last month.
Upon finding this out, I immediately informed Sarah and we knew that we had to find some way to stick it to Jen, especially since she tried to keep it secret from us (thank goodness for Sheriff reports). We had a few planning sessions to figure out what to do, but we just couldn't think of anything truly crazy to do. Instead, we finally decided to write her a poem and frame it. However, we also decided not to tell her it was from us or give it to her in person. We wanted her to have to guess who it was.
What's really amazing about the whole story isn't that we delivered it in secret one night, or that Chris and I double crossed Sarah with the help of the Klagges after the delivery of the poem, or that Jen knew it was from Sarah & me right away, or that we conned Sarah into believing that the Klagges *knew* it was from Chris and not us, or any of the other details, but instead it was the huge space of time it took us to come up with a 12 line or so poem.
We spent an entire night sitting around, brainstorming, and writing (and watching the Princess Bride). When the poem was finally finished and placed in its frame, I felt like we had really accomplished something. I also felt that we had really bonded as friends that night. We had been friends for a few years, but I had never felt like we were truly close friends, but over the course of this summer, and especially during that night of poetry writing, I finally felt like we had connected more so than in the past.
Thinking about this makes me miss her, and the rest of "the group", so much. I can remember having moments such as this with each member, and together as a group as well. I know that there will never be a summer that goes by that I won't remember the crazy things we did together as "the group" during our summer breaks away from school. Some things you simply can't forget.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Crossgen's Demise
I'm probably the thousandth person to talk about this, but I find it somewhat sad. Crossgen comics is no longer with us. They've filed for bankruptcy and it looks like the amount of debt they have will make it impossible for them to come out of this. The saddest part about this deal is that I was just starting to finally get into Crossgen's comics.
I have runs of Negation, The First, The Path, and Crux, but I haven't started reading any of them because I've wanted to complete my runs first. I hate reading a series and then getting to a point where you're missing an issue and then you have to go track it down to continue the story. I'd much rather hold off on reading the series until I have the whole thing. Lately, though, I've started picking up Negation War in my previews orders. It was looking to be a good mini, and I was anxiously looking forward to reading it, but now it looks as if it won't even be completed. I'm always so frustrated when series are never completed. I need closure for my stories!
The only bright spot to this whole situation is that the prices for back issues of Crossgen titles might drop. As it is, most of the Crossgen titles are hard to find, and hard to find at cover price or less when they are available. For me I'd love to see the values drop, but for all of the other people who have been collecting these titles for their perceived future value it would be a big blow... but that wouldn't be all bad since I really dislike people who buy comics only to try to make a buck in the future. Buy comics to read and enjoy! That's the only reason I do. I suppose that's also the reason that most of my comics aren't worth a whole lot :-)
Ok, well, I'm off to a Rochester Honkers baseball game.
I have runs of Negation, The First, The Path, and Crux, but I haven't started reading any of them because I've wanted to complete my runs first. I hate reading a series and then getting to a point where you're missing an issue and then you have to go track it down to continue the story. I'd much rather hold off on reading the series until I have the whole thing. Lately, though, I've started picking up Negation War in my previews orders. It was looking to be a good mini, and I was anxiously looking forward to reading it, but now it looks as if it won't even be completed. I'm always so frustrated when series are never completed. I need closure for my stories!
The only bright spot to this whole situation is that the prices for back issues of Crossgen titles might drop. As it is, most of the Crossgen titles are hard to find, and hard to find at cover price or less when they are available. For me I'd love to see the values drop, but for all of the other people who have been collecting these titles for their perceived future value it would be a big blow... but that wouldn't be all bad since I really dislike people who buy comics only to try to make a buck in the future. Buy comics to read and enjoy! That's the only reason I do. I suppose that's also the reason that most of my comics aren't worth a whole lot :-)
Ok, well, I'm off to a Rochester Honkers baseball game.
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