"He's sort of like Captain Ahab and I'm the whale."

I'm breaking my personal rule here and putting up a second post with a political bent (I don't like to get into politics too much because it's such a personal issue that you wind up offending or putting off someone), but I thought I'd repeat this quote by Karl Rove from The O'Reilly Factor, noting in all fairness that I'm doing so totally out of context and accompanying it with a picture of Karl Rove's humongous head.

For those curious, Ahab is Rep. John Conyers, while Rove is the aforementioned whale whose name I'm loathe to mention to avoid making a crude joke, thus losing my all-ages blog rating.

Thoughts at the Moment

Well, I pre-ordered a copy of the third printing of the Spider-Man comic book with US President Obama on the cover. I already have a copy of the 2nd printing, so I'm not sure if springing for another version (even if the cover is slightly different) is okay or just kind of dumb. Still, in the event I win the contest I've entered for a copy of the first printing, I suppose it'll be good to have all three. I'm just hoping there isn't a fourth, since I'd probably wind up buying that too, because, as we've well established here, I'm a dope when it comes to these things.

On a semi-related topic, how neat was it for Obama to tell the Citibank folks to cram it with walnuts when they wanted to buy a 50 million dollar private jet. Good show. It hasn't completely sunk in that Bush is no longer the President of the United States, but it's starting to. And now that the US is finally in good hands I can start worrying/caring about my own domestic politics, something I've neglected while the global superpower forty minutes from where I live was going all bowling ball-ish.

On another semi-related topic, I read the seventh and final issue of DC Comics big crossover series Final Crisis last night. And I'll probably be reading it again soon since I have no idea what actually happened there.

This issue I understood better, and while it's contents are slighter and less all-encompassing than Final Crisis, I still enjoyed it a great deal since I quite like the featured villain, the Parasite. He's one of those B-level villains, that's too important to kill off for good, but not important enough to, you know, take over the world or cause any serious trouble. I have an affinity for those middle-of-the-road folks, and in this case it's coupled with a great visual. Nice that they did some work with his characterization as well, since he's often neglected in that area.

Declarative Jack Sez:

Aw Cripes...

They just brought back friggin' Ferecito on Saturday Night Live. I mean, the show started off fine, even with the somewhat dull political opening sketch (saved mainly by Darrell Hammond's terrific Dick Cheney and Kristen Wiig's general awesomeness), but any interest in seeing Rosario Dawson as the host was halted by seeing Fred Armisen trotting out that overused one-joke character I thought I'd seen the last of four years ago.

Meh. I'll still try to enjoy the show, but I don't get why they think that bit is still funny (or for that matter, why it ever was). And as I finish this, Armisen just showed up as a "hilarious" inner-city mailman. Cripes.

My Week in Review

My week's been going all right so far. Saw the dentist, my therapist, got together with the guys a couple of times and went out for a couple of good meals. Didn't manage to get a copy of that Spider-Man comic book with Barack Obama on the cover, but I put the cash down for a copy of the second printing, which is just as good (since I'm not planning on reselling it or anything).

Still, I did find a copy of the latest issue of Final Crisis, the comic that would've been all over the news had the Obama Spider-Man not come out. It probably would've gotten more attention too, I suppose, had DC Comics not publicized Batman's "death" months earlier at the end of the Batman RIP storyline (spoiler: turns out he didn't die at the end of that story). It is curious though that the story actually featuring Batman's death got next to no publicity, but considering how underwhelming the whole thing was -- and really, it's not like he won't "get better" at some point down the line -- it's just as well.

Still, seeing Superman cradling Batman's emaciated corpse makes me a...

My New Year

Although I'm only a week into the new year, I feel oddly like this year might be a good one. I find that particularly unusual as I'm not generally a "9" guy -- when it comes to years and months I have more success with "4"s, "5"s, and "8"s. But despite the severe back problems I've been afflicted with, I've already gotten a few outstanding items off my personal checklist and, in the process of improving a few things for the betterment of my back, have improved my overall quality of life. For instance, instead of using a converted side-table as a desk as I have for the last while, I found a desk at Ikea that is nicely economical size-wise and only cost me thirty bucks. Not only that but I have the old side table as a clutter-solver in place of the old desk chair I was piling stuff on. All things considered I'm feeling positive about the direction this year is headed in. Here's hoping that isn't a sign something horrible is going to happen to me in the not-to-distant future, and that my twisted lower vertebrates compensate for any dreadful eventualities.