salad and rolls

Family holidays are usually a pretty unenjoyable experience for me. My family takes their dinners seriously. Or at least the men do. They spend countless hours trying to create the perfect cedar plank salmon, or deep fried turkey, or honey roasted ham. Once the food is put out, everyone swarms over the dishes like a swarm of locusts, devouring and destroying anything edible in sight. Once this unholy sight is finished, the air is filled with words of compliment to whoever cooked the main course for the event. These words never come from my mouth.

I'm the only vegetarian in my family. I'm what the books refer to as an "ovo-lacto" vegatarian, which means that the only food I consume that comes from animals is eggs and dairy. No beef. No Pork. No Poultry. No Fish. Being of the vegetarian persuasion, my typical holiday meal consists of a salad, some rolls, and some canned corn that someone threw in for color. I don't complain about this, because it's obviously my own choice, no better is holding a gun to my head and screaming at me to put the turkey leg down, I decided to not eat meat. The part that bothers me, however, is that after ten years of not eating meat, my entire family still thinks its funny to make jokes about it.

"You want extra ham, right?" "Do you want to taste test the salmon? I know how much you like it." A very small sample of what my family finds humorous. The first year or two, I just shrugged it off and chalked it up to ignorance. After that, it's made holidays the least favorite time of year for me. This year, I decided that I'm done with family gatherings that focus on food. From now on, my new holiday tradition is to stay home and cook for myself.

Comic Books are a community

The comic book community is a very large, very obsessive one. It is comprised of millions of readers who buy their personal favorite books every week and pour over each panel as if it were a priceless paint hanging in the Louvre, or an original manuscript of the Iliad. These readers then take their opinions of the books and share them with as many fellow readers as they can. There are countless message boards and websites online where these fans can gather together and discuss thei favorite and least favorite characters, arcs, artists, writers, pencilers, colorists, editors, marketing directors, interns, or whatever else they feel like picking apart in a given issue. Many comic fans have now also turned to podcasting to get their opinions out there. Some of the bigger podcasts getting many thousands of downloads per episode. The Mecca of the comic book community is the many conventions that are hosted throughout the year in different parts of the country which give fans access to their favorite creators, special panels with privleged information about upcoming storylines, and the ability to see work from smaller press companies that may not be availible in the comic specialty shops.

The common thread between the fans of comic books is the appreciation for the different elements of each book; the story, the characters, and the art. These things are also what causes the most tension between memebers of the community. With anything, people have their own preferences about what they like in a comic. Some like art to be very realistic, called phot-reference, others like a very cartoon-like type of drawing. There is a camp of fans that like painted art, and those who prefer digital coloring. There are the same divides with writing styles, page layouts, even types of paper that the comics are written on.

Like all the other comic fans, I have my own preferences as to each aspect of the books as well, but ultimately I just love reading them. I have been collecting for almost thirteen years, and have well over five hundred issues. I enjoy being part of a community where the common bond is one that offers such a variety. There is a comic out there for almost any genre that can be thought of, and the people that read them respresent such a wide range of age, ethnicity, status, and belief that it really is a way of crossing many social barriers, and in just twenty-two pages per issue.

playlist

Wallet

Current Contents:

Drivers License
Expired Drivers License
Buckle Primo card (just over half filled)
Borders Rewards card
$5 Starbucks gift card
Everett Public Library card
Costco membership card
Traxx member card (go-kart racing)
Voters registration card
Health insurance card
Debit Card
QFC Advantage card
Haggen C.A.R.D.
Alberstons Preferred Card
Blockbuster membership card
Hollywood Video membership card
EVCC student identification card
Starbucks iTunes pick of the week card (Neko Case)
Spy Comics and Cards business card
Sprint Premier discount card

My wallet contains a variety of items, many of which are membership cards to multiple stores of the same business type, like grocery store discount cards. My typical behavior is to just go to whatever store is the most convenient to obtain the items I need. If I'm across the street from an Albertson's and I need some flour, I'm much more likely to go to Albertson's than across town to Safeway. My parents are the type of people that have loyalties to specific grocery stores, fast food restaurants, and clothing outfitters, but I''ve developed an attitude of fulfilled needs, not preference.

If someone else were to look at the contents of my wallet, they would probably think that I'm very organized. I have all of the cards of like type (grocery store cards, for instance) in the same pocket. I would probably come across as a person who likes to spend money on overpriced things, based on the Starbucks card and the Buckle punchcard. The clothes at buckle aren't in the price range of most college students, so the person inspecting my wallet would probably assume that I have a steady source of income, more than just a part time job somewhere. I may come across as someone likely to sign up for any type of discount card that I get offered. The Borders card, the library card, and the comics business card would probably do a proficient job of relating that I enjoy reading, whether it be novels or comic books.

In examining my wallet, a person would not be able to know that the reason I have membership cards to three different grocery stores is because, in the past four years, I have each of those stores be the closest store to me, whether it's when I lived in Everett, Portland, or Lake Stevens. They wouldn't know that I have a comic store business card because I was at a comic book convention this past weekend and I have a interest in creating a comic book someday. Other than the names of family members on my insurance card, there would be no way to know about Thanksgiving dinners with my mom's family, or keg-based birthday parties with my dad's family. Looking at my license, nobody would guess that I've never had a car that stayed running more than six months, no matter how perfect the condition of the vehicle when it breaks down (I had a Kia Sephia that would just shut the engine off while going down the road, even though two mechanics from different garages swore the car was in perfect shape.)

There's a lot that you can learn about someone by looking at their personal belongings, but there is always more to them than discount cards, or pictures. There isn't a card that will tell you a person's favorite flavor of Jell-O, or what James Bond portrayal they prefer. (Lime and Sean Connery) Perhaps I should put this post in my wallet in case I ever lose it, or it gets stolen.

Test blog

This is what it sounds like when i talk into the microphone.