Rapid Fire or What I Learned the Week I Blew Up My Blog and My Internet Went Down

Seeing as how the main scribe of these pages is feeling under the weather this weekend and I have been negligent in my posting duties, allow me to offer a few things I have learned in the past week after having erased the map of my own blog and taken a week's hiatus from writing.

1. V for Vendetta is a horrific disappointment and just serves to further underscore how overrated Allan Moore truly is. I mean, really, what has this guy done to earn such admiration in the comics world? I have never understood the out-and-out gushing about Watchmen. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I enjoyed, but it is based on characters that he didn't create and who he already knew resonated with literary audiences. I mean, really, how much of a stretch is it to think that fanboys might enjoy it if you throw Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in with Quartermain and The Invisible Man? No chance at all. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the comic-book equivalent of a Puff Daddy song circa 1997. And V for Vendetta? Don't even get me fucking started. That thing is so convoluted it doesn't even know what it believes. It never gets around to explaining why Guy Fawkes is so worthy of admiration, because frankly the historical figure isn't. Blowing up things for blowing-up's sake is romantic only to comic book fans who have never seen kids with their legs blown off in the streets screaming. If you're going to blow something up you better have a damn good understanding of the collateral damage and be able to explain why the target is still worth exploding anyway. Like on The West Wing.

2. A good bar in Bundang is "Monkey Beach." Another is "Posse." The Irish bar close to the station...not so much. I have a colleague who heartily endorsed the cheap booze at "Monkey Beach" in between episodes of hoarking up his dinner outside of Yangjae subway station. I wish this sort of thing was more infrequent when I am in this country.

3. I was again reminded what a fickle whore technology is when both my television and internet cut out the same week and I was forced to miss a K-1 and a Pride fight card. I am fortune's fool. That was in a Shakespeare play. I don't know which one; go buy yourself a concordance, asshole.

4. Infinite Jest is really fucking long. I know because I've been reading it for about three months now (including this last week when I had neither a TV nor the internet) and I am still only 3/4s of the way through it. It goes better when you do big chunks of it at a time, though, I've found. And when I get done with it I'll be able to say I've...read all of Infinite Jest. Sigh.

5. I hate my job. Hate my job, hate my job, hate my job, job, job. Again, like Allan Moore, this is something I already knew and was reminded of.

6. I learned that I can, actually, still sleep about 18 hours a day if I'm hung over and don't drink any caffeine. This was a talent I thought I'd lost at some point in college.

So, there you go, the collected amalgamation of the wisdom I've gained over the past week. Sometimes I wonder how I used to do an entry a day at all.