Busy week.

Well, I've been pretty busy this past week. I've been doing a bunch of cleaning around my apartment, mostly in my bathroom and some other places. We had a food day at work on Thursday, and I pigged out a bit. Friday night, I taped some new "Doctor Who" episodes. I've been re-reading a book I hadn't looked at in a while: Charismatic Chaos, by John F. MacArthur, Jr. It has some interesting insights about the peril of using one's experiences instead of Scripture to define truth and one's faith.

Today, I kept myself busy. I did the laundry, got my hair cut, visited the bank, and taped the new episode of "The Batman." After lunch, I vacuumed most of the apartment and played some video games on my SNES. I also watched a few more episodes on my "X-Men: Evolution" DVD. I also talked to Harry on the phone, and he was pretty busy with his own cleaning.

Stuff on the weekend.

Well, I had another alien dream this morning: this time, I was with a team of commandos, and we were trying to escape from a mutated xenomorph (those creatures from the Alien movies). Our guns didn't seem to work well on it, probably because we were only packing regular machine guns. We headed into a room, and I closed the door. One of the commandos was straggling a bit, but he got inside the door after I closed it. The xenomorph tried to open the door, and I pulled it closed with all my might. I could feel it tugging at the door and was worried it might break the door down to get to us.....

In the real world, not much has been going on. My friend Harry is out of town with Liz to attend the wedding of one of Liz's cousins. I've been watching a DVD I got a month or so ago from one of the seasons of "X-Men: Evolution." Like the live-action movies, there is the emphasis on the frustrations and challenges Xavier's students face when people learn of their superhuman abilities. I also did the laundry, visited the bank, and paid a visit to the nearby mall. I found a couple of places selling calendars for next year already. I also visited a store that was already decorated for Halloween. It had lots of fake cobwebs, masks, costumes, and various other decorations for upcoming holiday. There was even a half-man prop that was crawling around on the floor (it looked like it was pulling itself along with its arms since it didn't have any visible legs). Later, I thinking of playing either "Monopoly" on my SNES or else "LEGO Star Wars" on my PS2.

Stuff in general, complaints about recent Spidey comics.

Well, I haven't had an exciting of a week in my real life, but some of my dreams lately have been interesting:

A few nights ago, I dreamed I was in something that seemed like a movie (but real): A bunch of Asian guys had one guy murdered and framed another Asian guy for it. I was on the side of the framed guy, because somehow I knew he had been set up. We were running around this skyscraper, assassins on our tail. I found this security station in the building and knew that it had video of the murder. I wasn't sure when or where it happened in the building, but I knew the framed guy would know.....

In a dream I had the other night, I was lying in bed resting. Someone was in bed with me (in a nonsexual way) talking to me about something I can't remember now. I noticed a spider descending on a line onto that person and worried the person would kill the spider once they noticed it crawling on them. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the spider getting squashed, then opened them and found the spider was crawling around on me. The person with me was silent, and I kept still while the spider crawled around on my face, even closing my eyes and mouth so it wouldn't step in them.....

Today, I was alone in my apartment most of the time. My roommate was working at their office, and my friend Harry hadn't called about doing anything together. I did the laundry, vacuumed my bedroom, and even taped the new animated version of the Fantastic Four. I also paid a credit card bill, got the mail, got change at the bank, and walked out to Target to finish off a gift card I had gotten on my birthday. In Target, I didn't find the Spider-Man construction kit I was looking for (Marvel Tech Heroes, the red and blue version of Spidey), but I did get some plain folders to help me sort out some paperwork I have in bags in my closet. I swung by a Dairy Queen on the way home and got a medium-sized Blizzard to cool me off (it was in the mid- to upper-80s here today). I also did some reading and rested for a bit.

Speaking of reading, I was looking at some Spidey comics I found in Target while wandering around. One of the comics was about Spidey joining the Avengers (probably written and drawn in 2005). The comic had this big battle on some prison island where a bunch of convicts escaped with the help of a few supervillains. To my disgust, Spider-Man got tossed into a crowd of these escaped convicts, unmasked, and had the crap beaten out of him. Fortunately, some of the Avengers came along and helped him out, but he didn't put his mask back on during the fight. This really bothered me, because that would have been top priority for me in that situation (assuming the mask wasn't shredded or used for toilet paper immediately after it was removed). It also reminded me how bent out of shape I am about what comic book writers have been doing to Spider-Man these past three or four years:

Consider this: tons of people in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series know what Spider-Man looks like without his mask, several of whom even know his real name--the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Nick Fury, the X-Men, Eddie Brock (before he became Venom, I might add), the Fantastic Four, etc. I have the first 36 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, and I think about 20 people in those issues either learn Spidey's secret identity or at least see him unmasked at some point.

Apparently, the current writers of Spidey's mainline continuity decided it wasn't in Spidey's best interests to have a secret identity, so they recently wrote a story in the new "Civil War" series about him publicly unmasking at a press conference put together by Tony "Iron Man" Stark. This is all tied in with the Superhero Registration Act that's going on in the Marvel universe right now. And guess what? Now, all these supervillains are going after Peter Parker, his loved ones, and even the school Parker was teaching at.

Granted, I know they're just trying to write these comics in a style to make them more "realistic." But come on, Marvel! Spider-Man has to have a secret identity, because in the comics (a) law enforcement agencies constantly regard him with suspicion, (b) his rogues gallery is full of killers (like Carnage and Morlun) and sick geniuses (like the original Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus) who have no qualms about hurting people to get to him, and (c) most of the people in Parker's inner circle (unlike the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four) don't have superpowers or cool gadgets to protect themselves with. *takes a breath* I'm done venting for now. I just had to get that off my chest.

The weekend, 9/11 thoughts, and some funny stuff.

This weekend: I finally got Zathura on DVD. I had ordered it online through this discount service over a month ago, and it took over three times as long as normal for me to get what I ordered. I posted a message to the seller to let him/them know that I had finally received it, since I had posted a complaint about not having gotten it after three weeks (about twice as long as I normally wait for stuff I order). Speaking of movies, Harry, Liz, and I went to see The Covenant on Saturday night. It was much better than Crank had been a week ago, and Harry and I got our tickets for free (Harry bought Liz's for her) because of the points we had on our theater cards. Yesterday, I started watching my video copy of Independence Day (starring Will Smith and Bill Pullman).

Today is the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon (for those of you who either (a) don't have a TV, (b) don't live in the U.S.A. or (c) have a bad memory when it comes to significant dates). I remember where I was when I first heard the news: I was at my original desk at my job shortly after I was hired there. My boss came over and told me about a plane hitting the Trade Center, but I didn't learn until later that it was a commercial passenger plane that had hit the building. I remember hearing a plane flying over my apartment a day or two later and worrying that it was a plane headed for a building in my city. Ever since the attacks, I have found myself increasing suspicious of foreigners, especially when I learned of the treachery of certain nations East of the Atlantic Ocean in the early weeks of Operation: Iraqi Freedom. On an intellectual level, I know that not all foreigners are terrorists seeking to destroy America. Emotionally, however, I still worry that people I see who don't dress like average Americans or whom I hear speaking in languages other than English are seeking to hurt the U.S.A. (and possibly me or people I know personally).

On a much lighter note, Debby and Tony were at it again today. This time, I copied some of the stuff I overheard them saying to each other so I could post it here. Enjoy!

Tony: "But you’re not wearing pants."
Debby: "That’s even better!"
*************
Tony: "You’re done talking? I’ll take that, too."
**********
Tony: "I got you blocked."
Debby: "What? How?"
Tony: "I got you in my spam mail."
*********
Debby: "Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you."
Tony: "I’m not offended, it’s not just my name."

War & the end of the world dream.

I had a disturbing dream about fighting and the end of the world this morning: I entered a large room like a cafeteria. A group of people by tables to my left stood up and began shooting at me with machine guns. I disarmed a few of them by hand, then created apple-sized grenades out of thin air. I tossed the grenades at them, using telekinesis to make sure the grenades reached their targets. The grenades cut down most of my enemies, and I left the room. Outside, I flew through the air (Superman-style) and entered a second-story window. I found myself in another large room with a huge global map on the floor. People appeared by various nations and began shooting machine guns and firing missiles at me. This time, I used my telekinesis to redirect their fire back at them. Soon, all my enemies were gone. A pair of infamous military leaders dove into the ocean that was the floor between the nations, and I created a depth charge. I dropped the charge into the water after them, then moved to another part of the floor, walking on the water. I noticed a small whirlpool sucking in the ocean, then a small fortification (a set of walls about ten feet tall) in the center of the room. On the other side of the fort, I find myself compelled to write a message on some blue carpet: "The end of all things has come, and yet nothing is assumed."

At work, Debby and Tony were at it again. Among the things they said were:

Debby (to Tony): "What are you laughing about?"
Tony (after slamming stuff down on Debby's desk): "You slammed stuff down on my desk and made my CD skip."

For whatever reason, I'm blanking on the funnier stuff they said today. Tony made some comment about girls having told him about stuff being too big. Later, he stopped talking, and Debby tried to get him to talk again. She got angry at him at one point, calling him a jerk and demanding he be nicer to her. I may have to jot down the funny comments before I leave work next week so I remember them for this blog.....

Back to work, dinner.

Well, today I went back to work. It felt like a Monday, even though it was Tuesday. We had three people out this morning, but one of them made it in around lunch. Tony was sick, so I didn't get to observe him and Debby's verbal sparring. I was really busy in the afternoon with my work stuff, but I managed to get out the door on time.

My folks called me at the end of my shift and offered to take me out to dinner. I accepted, and we ate at an Old Chicago near my apartment. It was a nice time, though I felt a little out of it after my busy afternoon at work. I was also trying to figure out "whodunit" in the "Star Trek: the Next Generation" book I've been reading this week, which was eating up a lot of my mental resources. I suspect I have read this one (Nightshade) before, but I'm not 100% sure.

The weekend so far.

Well, this was a good weekend for me being alone. I played LEGO Star Wars on Friday night. I fought against General Grievous in Free Play as Darth Vader, which was pretty cool. I bought Grievous at Dexter's Diner (an in-between setting) and played as him on a few levels. His attacks are amazing to see, with four lightsabers spinning and slashing at once. When his lightsabers are turned off, he goes from having four arms to two arms and looks like a LEGO skeleton guy with a cape. I also used my wealth of LEGO studs to buy some clone characters at the Diner and even one of those bug-aliens (Genosians?) from Episode II.

Besides playing video games, I watched some movies. Harry and I went to see Crank on Saturday. I was kinda disappointed by the rampant swearing and a vulgar public love scene between the main character and his blonde girlfriend in an Asian community involving a mail box. There was a fair amount of gore as well, though the chases in the movie were quite exciting. On the bright side, this movie gave me enough points on my theater card to see the next movie free. I also finished watching my DVD of I, Robot and started watching a DVD I bought at work called Resident Evil. I had seen it on cable before, but I learned later than some scenes had been cut from the cable version of the movie (example--Alice's battle with the zombie dogs). I'll probably finish watching it tomorrow.

Today, I bought some stuff. I bought one of those enormous sandwich combos at Burger King for breakfast this morning. Later, I went to the mall to try to find a new jacket to replace the one I broke the zipper on. Sadly, none of the stores at the mall had what I wanted at the price I was looking for. Happily, I paid a visit to a Shopko up the hill from the mall and found a cool jacket with the exact features I sought. This new jacket was probably cheaper than my original jacket, being that it was on sale for 25% off. Tomorrow, I'll probably do some reading and the laundry.

Excited about the weekend.

Well, not too much has been going on this week. I finished The Chronicles of Narnia a few days ago, a book I had been reading on and off all year. I drank a fair amount of Mountain Dew at work due to me not getting to bed as soon as I had intended to many times this week. My coworker, Tony, got the "LEGO Star Wars" video game recently and played it yesterday. He had several questions for me, since I have the game myself and have played it a lot the last few months. I managed to answer most of them, and I became even more psyched about this three-day weekend....

Yes, I have Labor Day (U.S.A.) off of work. My roommate is out of town tonight, tomorrow, and at least half of Sunday, leaving me alone in the apartment. This means that if I want to stay up late tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well to play "LEGO Star Wars", then I can without fear of waking my roommate (who goes to bed much earlier than I do on Friday and Saturday nights). I also plan to see a movie with Harry, who called me earlier today on my cell phone so we could decide which movie we wanted to see on Saturday. I have a project/potential story idea that has been brewing in my head since early August that I'm eager to write/type up so that I can free my imagination to work on other things. I also want to edit more of my digital pics from last weekend's zoo trip, maybe post another one or two in this blog. By Monday, I will probably try to relax a little between laundry and whatever else I find to do that day.