Smells Like Irony

One day I came back from one of the Greater Victoria parks, Thetis Lake. I had been doing a lot of running around and was sweaty and I could tell that I smelled pretty ripe.  Shortly after I entered my apartment I was in the bathroom I could hear music playing from someone else’s room. The song being played went “Ooo oooo that smell, can’t you smell that smell!” Apparently even electronic devices didn’t like the way that I smelled that particular day!

Alcohol and Irony

Just a short but amusing piece this time:

I was having a conversation in the Fernwood area in Victoria one day with someone and we were discussing the dangers of excessive drinking.  As we were talking about that, a few teenage girls came up to us and asked us for directions to the nearest liquor store. Sigh!

Dog on Walk Calls it Quits

Once while still a kid I was looking after the neighbour’s dog.  I wanted to take it for a walk while running an errand but for some reason I decided not to bother with the leash.  The dog didn’t seem to walk to go very far (though exercise was never a problem for her; she would run in circles around her yard all day) but she followed. We made it a few blocks and she was increasingly reluctant so I looked back to make sure she was still following me. Only she took the look as her cue that we could return home now and she took off.  I tried to get her to stop but she would have none of that. Finally we got back to her place (she a little before me).  Having learned my lesson I put her on the leash and we proceeded on the originally scheduled walk.

Joker: Superhero Comic or Not

Back in the 1970s, probably in Regina but maybe in Lethbridge I was at someone’s place and they offered to let me look at comics. I asked if there were any superhero comics and they said no.  I looked through them and… well, sin the most literal sense they were right. However, there was a super-villain comic, The Joker who actually had his own series in the 1970s.  And he was fighting a hero in that issue (the Creeper).  So I ended up reading that one. I did find it odd though that the owner didn’t consider the Joker to be a superhero title, apparently because it focused on the villain.  As for the series, it’s not spectacular, and it’s odd that a series came out with a non-lethal Joker at a time when the Joker started to become more lethal in Batman-featured titles. Still, it’s a fun little series that might have lasted a few more years had it not gotten caught in the so-called DC Implosion.

My First Experiences with Earth-2

Note: this refers to the traditional DC Comics version and to a much lesser degree the current one, not the TV show of the same name.

One of the reasons why DC abandoned its parallel Earth model back in the 1980s was they felt it was too confusing.  I admit I was a bit confused at first, when I was 6 in 1977.  I think at first when I read about the Earth-2 heroes the Justice Society (Earth-2 was the world the 1940s hereoes lived at the time) I thought it was the same characters in different costumes, or something like that; regardless I didn’t get it at first.  And then there were backups with the Earth-2 Green Lantern in the Green Lantern comic at the time and I misread “The Original Green Lantern in Chains” as “The Original reen Lantern Change” and thought the old version was becoming the new.  But then I read a Justice League comic teaming the Justice League and Justice Society comic and I finally understood the concept of parallel Earths and never had trouble since understanding the concept; ! I think I was 7 at the time.  Of course, once I understood what parallel Earths were, grasping Earth-3, Earth-S, Earth-X etc. wasn’t that difficult; it was just a case of figuring out the nature of the heroes of that Earth.

Since then DC has changed their history multiple times, removed parallel Earths, brought them back, created new worlds also called Earth-2 (one a reworked Earth-3, another pretty close to the old one, and now a radically different one only loosely based on the old Earth-2).  Frequent history changes and parallel Earths that do and don’t exist according to current policy and keep changing the nature when they do exist? That's much less confusing than the old parallel Earth model!

Swimming Pool Marathon

This month the various recreation centres including swimming pools have a $25 pass that allows unlimited access during this month (except of course for when things aren’t available; e.g. as an adult I can’t be in the Crystal Pool during the teen swim period).

There were a number of places I wanted to check out but I never seemed to get around to some of them. So last Tuesday I bought a daypass. Then I went to the swimming pool at Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre in Colwood for half an hour. Then I had lunch at the McDonald’s across from Uptown Shopping Centre and from there when to Panaroma Recreation Centre in North Saanich for about 45 minutes. I jogged to McTavish Park & Ride and took a bus to the Saanich Commonwealth Pool, where I spent 2 ½ hours (it has the nicest facilities, including a wave pool, a decent water slide, and a lot of different diving boards).

I was feeling pretty tired after that but I decided to continue on anyway. My next stop was Gordon Head Recreation Centre, and I saw a deer on the north end of Shelbourne along the way (there’s some greenery between lanes of traffic and the deer was in that greenery. I only stayed at Gordon Head about half an hour. Then I went home and had dinner, then went to Oak Bay Recreation Centre. Normally I’d spend quite a bit of time there but I was meeting  friend so only had half an hour.

Finally made it home, tired but feeling pleased at the workout, particurarrly the Commonwealth Pool workout.