Lateshift versus the World

04:58 / 07.04.08

Contacted while fixing tea (Earl Grey), and it's another request to talk to someone's SO and explain how they need attention and reaffirmation, and all the things I really do not need to be telling anyone. I may stick my nose everywhere it doesn't belong, but I'm washing my hands of it all tonight. By next week, surely they'll be glad of that, even if now it appears I'm merely an unhelpful asshole.

Wasn't I supposed to be working? Ack! Maybe tomorrow.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

05:10 / 07.04.08

I'd meant to actually write, but I feel wholly hypothetical today.

Work -- being back at work -- made me a little grumpy today. Nothing a shower won't clear away...

23:54 / 07.04.08

Is it too early? Or is it later than it seems... dun dun dun...?

I'm insanely moodswingy today, but currently it's upswing and smiles (and graham crackers).

00:05 / 08.04.08

Hey Decadent! How's things? Good as it seems?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:15 / 08.04.08

I'm around for another fifteen minutes, then I'm off to write in a cafe with one of my people. Minions. Followers. Astro-cavemen. Then it's back to the apartment to (a) do the dishes and (b) prepare the massive heaps of laundry for a trip to the laundromat in the morning.

00:18 / 08.04.08

Hey Papers! Minions you say? Do tell...

00:23 / 08.04.08

Can I borrow some minions? Can they type?

00:42 / 08.04.08

You don't want minions, Deca, you want Typing Gnomes.

00:53 / 08.04.08

Probably. Or a whisky.

I am undecided.

How're you, then, LN?

00:55 / 08.04.08

Oh, you mean a gnome-de-plume.

Hi Liger!

00:59 / 08.04.08

Hey there.

I'm okay. Nothing much going on here.

How are things with youse guys?

01:06 / 08.04.08

An anthology I thought was abandoned and forgotten has been brushed off for release. They're not paying me twice, but, well, it's always nice to have another publication out in the bookshops.

Other than that, it's been a weirdly full day of nothing; fielding phonecalls and e-mails from the emotionally distraught and highly excited, by turn, trying to not laugh at inappropriate moments or give terrible advice intentionally.

And, hi, Keggers.

Finally! I was sure you were ignoring me. "What did I do?" I wondered. >Keanu in Speed voice< "What..did...I...Do?>\Keanu in Speed voice<

01:13 / 08.04.08

Ignore you? That's, as the ungrammatical kids are saying, unpossible.

I think I'm going to change my phone number and tell no one. Except, I'd need an emergency line, like a batphone or something.

01:20 / 08.04.08

Get a lot of calls from the comissioner do you?

01:22 / 08.04.08

Why are you talking to so many emotionally distraught folks, Deca?

Have you taken a part time job at a call center?

01:25 / 08.04.08

Arkham's, anyway.

I swear to... can you believe someone's actually putting up with the fact their fiance is having them sleep on the floor because the bed isn't big enough? I'm not saying the guy should sacrifice his comfort for her, Leo-freezing-in-Titanic-style... because I loathe that movie. I am saying, y'know, if you're engaged, you can find a way to fit on the bed together. Or, both sleep on the floor.

01:28 / 08.04.08

Or get a bigger bed.

Personally, I think she should just ditch the fiance, but that's just me being cynical and unromantic.

01:29 / 08.04.08

LN, I apparently have no sensible, functional, together friends. Not that I'm the picture of perfect lifestyle, but...

What I've never understood is what people think I can actually do for them, other than listen semi-patiently and try to dissuade from the most horrible options. You think they'd find a less bitter person to divulge to.

(The above is, of course, an unfair picture of people who generally are okeh and functional, everybody goes through rough patches, et cet. It's mostly my innate suspicion I should be doing something to help that weighs me down, I suppose. Other people hear/read things and don't really feel responsibility.)

01:34 / 08.04.08

*waves*

I just spent 90 minutes on a podcast talking with someone from the US Justice Department talking about the Superman court decision. Correcting him on history.

I think I am now the biggest dork in a 1000 mile radius.

01:35 / 08.04.08

I dunno, my ex is a lazy coward who won't get a job, one night he called me at 4:00 in the morning to ask me if I'll take care of his dog should he get evicted. This came right on the heels of my cat's death, so I was emotionally vulnerable.

I couldn't take the dog (landlord says no), and I was tore up over it for DAYS. I hate it when people try to lay burdens on me that they really need to shoulder for themselves.

01:37 / 08.04.08

Hey there SR.

What Superman court case?

01:37 / 08.04.08

Dork or no, you just totally made my barbe-day with that. Well, that and the joke earlier about punch lines, anyway.

How'd that one come by you, Solitaire?

01:41 / 08.04.08

I thought that was Keggers?

Or am I thinking about the wrong joke?

01:43 / 08.04.08

Oh. It was.

Yay, Keggers. Thanks and tanks and other phrases of admiration and appreciation.

01:45 / 08.04.08

So what's all this talk about Superman going to court?

01:50 / 08.04.08

There's a suit of the copyright, and whether the heirs of the creators deserve anything - or if they do, how much - for the creation of Superman and the core mythos. The family of at least one of the two creators won, recently, and I believe now it's down to negotiating what they won and what it means. Do they get a cut of just the comics, or is it underpants and motion picture money, too.

01:53 / 08.04.08

The family of Jerry Siegel regained copyright to the first Superman story.

And I know way too much of the history behind it, the first lawsuit in 1947, the second lawsuit in 1967, the settlement in 1976 and so on and so on....

I think it's a great thing, and the family should get as much money as they can over it. Superman generates billions of dollars, more than enough for the family of the creator to get a nice house and a trust out of it.

01:55 / 08.04.08

How'd that one come by you, Solitaire?

I've become the comics history expert for the message board for the podcast and they asked me to join the discussion. All my years of dorkiness and reading fanzines can finally be put to use.

Right on!

Very cool.

So when do we get Solitaire Rose's Guide to Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Comic Book history (but were afraid to ask.)?

02:05 / 08.04.08

I'm slowly putting it together in my blog...and on the Comic Geek Speak board, they are pushing me to do a lot more of my "personal histories". My next topics are:

-The black and white boom of the 80's and how it nearly killed comics!
-Revealed at last: The comics code didn't affect comic book sales at all!
-First Comics...the only company ever formed to fail in order to further a lawsuit.
-Stan Lee: Not such a bastard after all