Pr3++yG33kyTh1ng

CokeRewards progress - 224/850 - "Ouch! My bladder!"

Wednesday I had a surprising revelation.
The meal replacement bar I had for lunch contained an ingredient called "fish gelatin". Now, I've seen some fish. I've seen live fish and dead fish. I've seen sick fish and healthy fish. Hell, I've seen red fish and I've seen blue fish.
I have never seen one single fish that made me think, "You know what that little guy would be good for? Gelatin!"
What kind of intellectual leap did these health food manufacturers make to decide that "fish gelatin" is the perfect ingredient to wedge between Artificial Color and Sucralose?
"Our test market indicated that people wish we'd put fish gelatin in these. Back to the lab!"
Nowhere on the package does it reference anything but "Vanilla Cream Flavor" and "23 Essential Vitamins". I guess it is too much for me to want to see, "Now with Fish Gelatin!" or "* - 'Other Natural and Artificial Flavors' May Consist of Fish Gelatin."
Either way, I've had stranger lunches, I guess.

The awesome thing that happened was when Shana decided the way to inspire our daughter Gwynyth to read more (and enthusiasticly) is to supply her with comic books!
Holy crap! Why didn't I think of that?
I read a lot. Two or three books at a time, mostly fiction but I tend to have a few technical PDFs I'm digging through at any given time. And lots of game books. The rules aren't going to break themselves, people.
Gwynyth loves the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. They make comic books about those characters now!
We took her to a comic book store after I got off work and hunted through the stacks for kid appropriate material. That wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be, but we ended up with some Jubilee, Shadow Cat and Storm mini-series that were geared for a younger audience.
Already Gwynyth has picked up the word "assassin", so I would classify the experiment a success.
I was hoping to share some of the comics that I had considered most impactful when I was a younger comic book reader.
Most of those titles are gone or re-worked into thin plots stretched thinner over scantily clad female characters. Such is progress, I guess, but more likely just what adolescent boys will buy.
Of course, I took the opportunity to pick up the latest summer comics for myself . . . you know . . . while we were there . . .
I was hoping for more progress on the Marvel Civil War series, but this week was only an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.
I also picked up the latest issue of '52' from DC.
Here is the run down on that series:
You know how Marvel had the big explosion and the Super Human Registration Act thing?
DC also had a massive event, but it was on a global scale. And Super Boy died.
After the dust settled, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (the DC A-List) stop hero-ing.
And they don't come back for a year, in comic book time.
While this year passes, DC puts out a comic called '52' , released once per week. The series tagline is: a world without Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman—but not a world without heroes. What does the DC universe do without the super-powered safety net?
At the same time, the comics for all the major missing heroes are still being printed as part of the "One Year Later" series. Let me tell you, Aquaman is cooler than ever now.
Now that I've geeked all over the page, here is an explanation for anyone still reading:
I know almost no one reading has an active interest in the state of affairs in either the Marvel or DC universe. Very few people of legal age to drink do.
However, if you did manage to muscle your way this far, past all the geeky crap, I'd like to know why. Aside from the fact that I'm very pretty, do you kind of wonder about this stuff?
For me, comic book super heroes were a pretty major part of my childhood. And college-hood.
Lately my trips to the comic book store have been like getting in touch with old friends from way back and finding out how things are going - the good and the bad - and kind of by extension remembering the younger, less bitter geek that was me.
And sometimes, when work really, really sucks, I miss that little guy. And I wonder what he would have thought of me.
Aside from, "I'm intimidated by that guy's stunning good looks! Quick! I have to make a smart-assed comment to compensate!"