Checking in
May. 14th, 2010 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishtar79It’s been pointed out to me that I’ve disappeared off the face of the Internet for an usual length of time, even for me. I do plan on doing a real post one of these days, not to mention catch up with all of you, but in meantime, some quick notes;
-Regardless of what you may have seen in the news, Greece is neither a)on fire b)on the brink of civil war. Yes, the economy’s in the shithole and yes, there are plenty of protests, but considering the number of worried enquiries from friends abroad I’ve had over the last few weeks, the media might be blowing stuff up a tad out of proportion.
-Funny story, actually, but the worst day of protests, I managed to be in arguably the worst possible place. I wanted to drop by my Uni for something, unaware that the building was closed for the day. As I got off the metro in the central Athens, I got a lungful of tear gas (sufficiently dissipated to walk around, but my nose and throat still stung like a motherfucker). Considering it business as usual, I took some side alleys in an effort to avoid main streets and some fires I saw burning in the distance. It’s only when I reached my Uni building that it became clear that the event was probably cancelled. The clues leading to that brilliant deduction were:
a)The congregation firetrucks assorted emergency services in front of the building.
b)The ladder leading into the building right next to the Uni with various firemen climbing it.
c)The fact that said building was ON FIRE.
So, after debating for all of two seconds getting nearer to confirm that my building was, indeed, closed (I decided against that after the I noticed the ‘GTFO, you crazy bitch!’ glares the firemen were throwing me), and walked instead the ten minute distance into the old area around the Parthenon, were tourists were walking around oblivious and all was business as usual. Gotta love Athens.
-In other news I quit smoking. Again. I don’t know why people say quitting is hard, I’ve done it like five times.
Har har. No but seriously, this had better be the last time. I’m on day three with withdrawal jitters kicking my ass: I’m lethargic, cranky and sort of artificially hungry, but I’m grinding my teeth and trying to stay hydrated. I know the drill: the physical withdrawal shall soon pass, and then it will come ‘climbing up the walls and being a massive bitch to everyone’, which is always a good time for all those involved.
-After realizing that I can get comic books the same way I get foreign TV shows, I went a little crazy catching up with my first ever fandom, the X-MEN. In the ‘reading about thirty years worth of canon’ way. I have about a billion thoughts on the subject, but before I share them, I should check whether any of you even read Marvel comics (and if you do, any recs for fics/sites/communities would be appreciated).
-Regardless of what you may have seen in the news, Greece is neither a)on fire b)on the brink of civil war. Yes, the economy’s in the shithole and yes, there are plenty of protests, but considering the number of worried enquiries from friends abroad I’ve had over the last few weeks, the media might be blowing stuff up a tad out of proportion.
-Funny story, actually, but the worst day of protests, I managed to be in arguably the worst possible place. I wanted to drop by my Uni for something, unaware that the building was closed for the day. As I got off the metro in the central Athens, I got a lungful of tear gas (sufficiently dissipated to walk around, but my nose and throat still stung like a motherfucker). Considering it business as usual, I took some side alleys in an effort to avoid main streets and some fires I saw burning in the distance. It’s only when I reached my Uni building that it became clear that the event was probably cancelled. The clues leading to that brilliant deduction were:
a)The congregation firetrucks assorted emergency services in front of the building.
b)The ladder leading into the building right next to the Uni with various firemen climbing it.
c)The fact that said building was ON FIRE.
So, after debating for all of two seconds getting nearer to confirm that my building was, indeed, closed (I decided against that after the I noticed the ‘GTFO, you crazy bitch!’ glares the firemen were throwing me), and walked instead the ten minute distance into the old area around the Parthenon, were tourists were walking around oblivious and all was business as usual. Gotta love Athens.
-In other news I quit smoking. Again. I don’t know why people say quitting is hard, I’ve done it like five times.
Har har. No but seriously, this had better be the last time. I’m on day three with withdrawal jitters kicking my ass: I’m lethargic, cranky and sort of artificially hungry, but I’m grinding my teeth and trying to stay hydrated. I know the drill: the physical withdrawal shall soon pass, and then it will come ‘climbing up the walls and being a massive bitch to everyone’, which is always a good time for all those involved.
-After realizing that I can get comic books the same way I get foreign TV shows, I went a little crazy catching up with my first ever fandom, the X-MEN. In the ‘reading about thirty years worth of canon’ way. I have about a billion thoughts on the subject, but before I share them, I should check whether any of you even read Marvel comics (and if you do, any recs for fics/sites/communities would be appreciated).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 04:36 pm (UTC)And Tourists apparently are oblivious no matter where they are...must be a tourist thing? Noticed this in NYC too.
Where did you read the X-men? They are available online now? (More motivation to just trash my comic collection or set them out for free on the street tomorrow during the stoop sales...)I read the things up to 2001, and then read Whedon's arc (which was surprisingly better than his attempt to do Buffy as a comic series, not sure why that is - I'm guessing maybe because X-Men didn't start as a tv series first?)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 07:26 pm (UTC)I downloaded the X-MEN from torrent files. If you're interested, tell me and I'll send you the links and recommend a comic reader software. It's great, I got all X-MEN from the late seventies onwards, as well as all other X-titles.
And yes, Joss' run in Astonishing was sheer genius. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a comic book so much. He's a fanboy of the X-MEN too, and it shows-some of the references he drops are obscure.