Wednesday, 10 December 1997:
I Can See Clearly Now, My Brain Is Gone
It seems these days that if I miss an entry in this journal, it's usually on a Tuesday.
Yesterday I went over to the eye clinic and picked up my new contact lenses. They're the same prescription as the old one, but the doc said the old lenses (they're soft, and I've had the actual, physical lenses for over two years) are probably wearing out. The new ones do work better, especially in my left eye, which is pretty poor.
Now my last "life maintenance" task for the winter is to get a new driver's license, since my current one expires next month.
I had lunch yesterday with my friend Charlie. He's the one who recruited me for Epic (actually, I persuaded him to recruit me, since at the time I was leaving grad school, was dating a local woman, and wanted therefore to stay in town). We met back in grad school, and have been good friends ever since.
Charlie has moved away from programming and into sales and more high-level company politics, so we have a very different view of the company, so our (rare) talks these days are always interesting. Needless to say, he spends a lot of time on the road (he and his SO went to China for a weekend on frequent flier miles, not long ago) which is not a job I'd want.
Yesterday evening I went to dinner with Karen (I almost said "my other friend, Karen" there!), who's just returned from visiting her family out east. I taped this past week's Prairie Home Companion radio episode for her, since Frank McCourt was a guest. McCourt is the author of the best-selling book Angela's Ashes, and was a teacher of Karen's in high school.
I didn't feel too good when I woke up this morning. I had some pretty disturbing dreams last night, which probably didn't help, but I did feel genuinely ill. I did finally straggle in to work, but I nearly didn't go in. A little cat therapy and my shower probably helped. If I don't feel better tomorrow, I will probably stay home. It's best to nip these things in the bud early.
There haven't been a whole lot of excellent comic books coming out over the last few weeks. I am rather enjoying JLA: Year One, although Barry Kitson's art doesn't really rock my world. Today I picked up Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torments, which is a nice story featuring Marvel Comics' Master of the Mystic Arts, with solid writing by Roger Stern (whose run on Doc Strange is among my favorites) and lovely artwork by Mike Mignola. It's a hardcover, but a nice package.
I was also thumbing through the paperback collections at the comics shop, and noticed that Marvel has been very haphazardly reprinting Frank Miller's first run on Daredevil. I don't think they've reprinted the meat of his run, although much of his later work with the Daredevil and Elektra characters has been reprinted. This is rather annoying to me; I missed it the first time out, and would like to pick up the whole shebang in a nice package.
Actually, two others of note: The new Iron Man series is off to a good start; it's written by Kurt Busiek, who does Astro City, and it's more than just a Marvel-trademarked slugfest. Good art, too, which is rare on Marvel titles these days. Also, the new Alex Ross project, Uncle Sam, from DC, is a very unusual comic - focusing on the living embodiment of America, who is not doing so well these days. Ross' lovely painted art is always worth the price of admission.
I'm borrowing some music from a friend at work. I listened to Paula Cole's Harbinger, which I don't think is as good as This Fire. I started listening to an album by Victoria Williams and decided I don't much care for it, so I turned to NPR instead. I'll give it another try tomorrow. I've also got albums by World Party and Joni Mitchell to try.
Oh, and did I mention picking up the album by Dr. Didg the other day? It's by the didgeridoo half of Outback, a band of which I was a big fan. Both their albums are quite good, as is this new one.
For those of you interested in the Iowan septuplets, The ONION ("America's Finest News Source") wrote a wonderful satire of the whole thing. The ONION's sense of humor is to wacky and warped, I just love it!
Michael Rawdon
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